The Newest Adventures of Rod & Donna & Emma

Back in Texas (Again)

2009-11-19T18:19:00.004-06:00

Two days after leaving T & V's, we ended up in Amarillo, Texas. There were a few things we wanted to do in Amarillo: see the Cadillac Ranch, and do a little exploring.

The Cadillac Ranch, located along the south side of historic Route 66 (I-40), was built in 1974, brainchild of Stanley Marsh 3, the helium millionaire who owns the dusty wheat field where it stands. Marsh and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective, assembled used Cadillacs representing the "Golden Age" of American Automobiles (1949 through 1963). The ten graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west "at the same angle as the Cheops' pyramids." Bizarre stuff, for sure, and it's encouraged that you re-decorate (ie, spray paint) the cars! We found several half-full cans, and Donna caught me in the act of using one.

The path in

Weird, just weird!

Yellow spray can in hand

Donna's favorite?

Later that day, we headed off to Palo Duro State Park, several miles east of Amarillo. If you've ever been to Amarillo, it's a typical west Texas city. Windy, dusty, flat, sagebrush, and cotton fields. Did I say windy and dusty? On the drive over to Palo Duro, all you see are the flatlands...but after getting inside the park, you realize it's a huge canyon area! Trees, beautiful rock formations, streams, wildlife. Not at all what you expect in west Texas! We didn't stay here, but they do have RV sites.

Juniper in the canyon

Nice rock formations

This is the flatlands of Texas? Palo Duro SP

Donna's sister Cheryl has told us about a restaurant in Amarillo that they always go to during their travels: Big Texan Ranch Steak Ranch. Of course, we had to try it. They advertise a free 72 oz. steak...well, it's free if you can eat it, along with a baked potato, salad, five fried shrimp, and a dinner roll...in one hour. Many try, most fail. I didn't even think about it, and got the 8 oz version. By the way, if you try the "free" steak, and don't finish in one hour, it's $72...a buck an ounce!

I don't think so, podnuh!

From Amarillo, we headed east to McKinney, for a stay at MCD Innovations. We wanted to replace our front interior shades in the cockpit area. Country Coach had installed black drop down shades in this area, and, at night it looked like a cave up there. We spent a week at MCD, and they manufactured new shades for us that matched our interior. We are very happy with the change, and recommend them.

We left MCD on October 30, and headed south to Lake Whitney for a few days. We had always wanted to stay in this area, but ended up being disappointed. The campground wasn't that nice, and there was nothing, I mean nothing, to do in the area. And of course, our anniversary is Halloween, October 31. We ended up driving up to Fort Worth for our celebratory dinner (at Saltgrass). This anniversary was special: 40 YEARS! Wow, it's hard for us to fathom it's been that long! And I love Donna more each day!

While we were up in Fort Worth, we stopped at a Sams Club. They were setting up a NASCAR display when we came out, and we got to see the Cheerios car. Sorry, we're not NASCAR fans, so I can't name the driver. They fired up the car, and revved it up to about 10 grand - talk about LOUD. And I wonder why my hearing sucks!

On November 1, we moved down to Spring, TX, where we will stay until the end of the month. Donna has been catching up on her sewing and quilting, and I have been doing a bunch of maintenance stuff on the coach. I'm not a Michael Jackson fan, but Donna convinced me to go with her to see the tribute movie, This Is It. I'm still not a fan, but after watching the movie, I can appreciate the creative genius that he was.

We leave here on the 30th, heading down to Houston for some maintenance work on the coach. The hydraulic leak that we thought was fixed is still dripping. We are again excited to soon be on the move again. We'll be staying south and heading west.

I can't believe it, the blog is actually up-to-date!!

Kamp Katherine

2009-11-19T17:33:00.005-06:00

On August 14, we became Grandparents again! Katherine Dale came into the world courtesy of Todd and Victoria. We couldn't wait to see her in person! We left Idaho the day after Labor Day and headed for Colorado. After settling in at our RV park in Monument, we headed over to T & V's to see Baby Katherine. That Friday, our daughter, Jenna, and our two other granddaughters, Beatrice and Olivia, flew in from California to meet Katherine. It was great seeing our newest grandchild, and catching up with the other two!

Grandma meets Katherine

Katherine

Grandma in Heaven!

Todd and helpers feeding Katherine

Victoria, Bea, and Livie get serious

We had a few projects to complete while in Denver. The first, and foremost, was to get the electrical service for the motorhome installed at Todd and Victoria's. I started the project in 2008, but the bulk of the work had to be completed. After some trenching, drilling, digging, caulking, and electrical panel work, I finally finished. This project benefited both Todd and us: he got electrical power to his shed, and we got a hookup for our motorhome. As soon as it was finished, we moved the coach over from Monument.

Last summer we installed a shed on T & V's property. We placed it behind his existing shed - just kind of plopped it down. The ground was a little sloped, but we did what we could at the time. Nature being what it is, small cracks, leaks, and seepage occurred. Time to make it right. There is a pad next to the existing shed, which I expanded. We emptied out our shed, took it half apart, moved it onto the new pad reassembled it, and reloaded it. Whew!! We now feel that our remainding belongings are secure.

T & V had their home painted this summer. It turned out beautiful. They did not have their shed painted, so we volunteered to paint it to complete "the look". I did it in conjunction with the moving of our shed.

All projects complete, we needed to head out again, before winter weather set in. We got out just before the first snowstorm of the season, and headed south.

How We Spent Our Summer

2009-09-24T01:10:00.010-05:00

I've really gotten bad about posting. It's just that being retired means never having a spare moment! To those of you who are retired, you know what I mean. OK, that excuse is now used, and I'll have to dream up something else next time.

We arrived at our summer place in Blanchard, ID on May 28, a few days before Donna's birthday. The weather was nice, then cold, then nice, then rainy, etc. for a few weeks. We got our golf cart out of storage, and then it was golf time for me. I had a goal in mind...break 100, then break 90. Last season, on my last golf round at Stoneridge, I managed to hit 100. This year, I was determined. I decided that I needed help, as it's hard to see your own bad practices. I took several lessons, and gradually the scores dropped. I'm happy to say that "most" of the time, I'm now under 100. I managed to get to 95 this year. Without a couple of blowup holes each round, I'm confident I could be in the 80's. So I'll keep working on it! I now have an established handicap of 28.

We and several other couples formed a 4-wheeling club this year. We took several trips of varying durations in the surrounding countryside. On our first trip, we wanted the fresh air blowing on us, so I took the moon-roof panels off. BIG mistake. By the end of the run, we had about 1" of dust on everything inside the Jeep. Donna and I also took a couple of off-road trips by ourselves. We managed to rediscover a spot by a lake north of Usk, Washington, that we visited last summer. I lost the coordinates when our Garmin crashed, so we just kind of winged it. Just when we were about to give up looking for the spot, we happened upon it quite by chance.

Secret spot (N 48 28.582' W 117 21.619')

Secret Spot

Secret Spot

Hoodoo Mountain view of Stoneridge

A backroad somewhere in Washington/Idaho

Bob, Elyse, Donna, Terry, and Artie

We found our way down to Lake Ponderay

Lake Ponderay

On the 4th of July, we had a golf cart parade. It was great seeing all of the carts decorated up in patriotic colors. Next year the community will publicize it better, and the parade should make the local newspaper.

Emma is geared up for fun!

The cart lineup after the parade

The yellow-jackets were bad this year. They were around last year, but a simple swipe of your hand would send them packing. This year, they were aggressive. I got stung 3 times: twice on the golf course, and once while I was attaching the water hose to the coach. Donna got stung once while sitting outside in the shade. No warning, the sucker just dive-bombed and zapped her on the finger. We kind of got even though - I bought 2 yellow jacket traps. They work good, and I think by the end of summer the score was Yellow-Jackets 4, R&D 10,238. Towards the end of summer, our friend Ben discovered where they built nests: in the fenceposts marking our property corners. Had we only known earlier!

In August, we headed over to Oregon. Last February, my sister and her husband sold their home in Huntington Beach, CA, and moved to Oregon. They own property in Waldport, and are having a new home built there. We stayed in Florence for a few days, and got to see their home site. It's a great site, and it had been graded and prepped for foundations. We shared in their excitement, and are following the building as it progresses.

Jim & Yvonne's property

Oregon Beach near Jim & Yvonne's property

After our visit, we took the motorhome over to Coburg for it's annual service, and then headed up to Albany for a Country Coach rally. Things have changed significantly from last year. There were 350 coaches in attendance then; this year there were 147. We met up with several CC owners that we knew from previous rallies and service, including Norbert and Helena, friends from Germany! They travel in the US during the summer, then put their coach into storage, and fly back to Germany for the winter months.

I took up pickleball this summer. This is a relatively new sport, which is played on a modified tennis court. Instead of rackets, you use paddles, and instead of a tennis ball, you use a giant whiffle ball. It's a fun game, and you can really get a good cardio workout a lot of running. This sport is really big in Arizona with the snowbirds. We plan on playing this winter when we're down in Casa Grande.

Pickleball

For several years now I've been trying to get back to playing my guitar. You may recall that I did some restoring to it and bought a new case while in Nashville. This summer I actually took it out and did some playing. There are several people at Stoneridge who play, and I sat in on a couple of impromptu jam sessions. I can't remember some chords, but it slowly is coming back to me. While we were in Oregon, the "Stoneridge Boys" had a festival for the residents. I heard it was a lot of fun! I'll continue to practice, and hopefully will improve. Donna misses my strumming and humming...

We left Stoneridge the day after Labor Day, and headed for Colorado, where a new grandbaby was waiting!!

Emma Turns One!

2009-07-13T21:23:00.006-05:00

I'm a "bit" late on this post. I drafted it in July, but never published it...

Emma was born on July 1, 2008, in Livermore, California.

First meeting

On August 21, 2008, we met Emma for the first time. She was a mere 7 weeks old, and I don't think she was much over 1 pound in weight. We met at the breeder's home in Livermore, CA, to see if we there was a connection. While we knew that just seeing a puppy is enough for most people, we felt there had to be some kind of initial bond before we made a final decision. She was quite a little handful, and started out a little shy, but soon warmed up to us. When she flipped over on her back and stared at me, we knew she was the one!

Who you lookin' at?

Take me home soon OK?

I think this person should be my new Mom!

Having made the decision, we needed to wait until she was 12 weeks old before the breeder would release her. There are developmental things that need to occur in that time frame, including dog and people socializing.

On October 1, we picked her up. After spending a few hours with the breeder (Georgina - check her website at http://www.sapphireyorkies.com/) getting orientated, we headed out. We were staying with our daughter and her family in San Jose, so the trip home was quick and uneventful. Once we got there though, things changed! It had been years since we had had a puppy...they are a LOT of work! One thing about new puppies: you never know what's going to happen. They eat a piece of fuzz - they throw up. They swallow a leaf - they get the runs.

One of the feeding instructions that Georgina had given us was to take 1/4 cup of dry food and mix it with a tsp of canned food. Emma seemed interested, but would not eat, so I called Georgina and asked for some suggestions. She had neglected to tell us to soak the dry food in a little warm water, then mix in the canned. As sharp as those puppy teeth are, little Emma didn't have the jaw strength to chew the hard dry food. After we softened it up, she caught up on her meals quickly.

Last winter, in February, we were staying with friends in Benson, AZ. While there, we were referred to a vet in Tucson, who spayed, micro-chipped, and pulled her remaining baby teeth. That day was her worst day out of her young life, but the next day, she was amazingly back to normal.

We never thought we'd get through the demanding puppy stage with Emma. She turned into quite a wild child. People we met on our journey told us to wait until she was about 10 months old, and then she would settle down. Well, at least their Yorkies had! Gradually though, she did seem to mellow slightly. At one year, while definitely still a pup, she has matured quite a bit (she's almost 14 months now, and is still quite a handful!).

Guard duty

At our summer place at Stoneridge, in Blanchard, Idaho (http://www.stoneridgeidaho.com/), she is known throughout the Motor Coach Village, and she is getting recognized around other parts of the property now. She has been called the "town slut" by some, due to her submissiveness around dogs she is just meeting (she flops over on her back so they can get a good sniff). We are hoping she will get over this soon! Emma has lots of dog friends there, including Abby, Jaxson, Jake, Kate, Cobber, Sadie, Tucker, Yogi, Zoie, and "big" Sheila. By far though, her best friend is another Yorkie, also named Sheila. Sheila is about twice Emma's weight, but that doesn't matter. When we let them off-leash, they play crazy Yorkie games until they poop out. They would do this all day if we would let them.

Emma at 1 year

Emma now weighs somewhere between 5.4 and 5.7 pounds, well within the breed standard. Her black puppy hair is gradually changing to silver. She's one year old, and we're glad she's a part of our family!! Happy Birthday Emma!

Ketchup Time

2009-07-03T16:40:00.003-05:00

OK, where have we been, and what have we been up to?

After leaving Texas, we headed for our home park in Monument, Colorado. We planned to be in Colorado for about 5 weeks, before heading to our summer spot in Idaho. If you have followed our blog, every post about Colorado involved "cleaning out storage". This time was no different, and we were focused on the task at hand! When we began full-timing, virtually everything in our 3300 sq ft home put into a 15x45 storage unit. It was jammed full floor-to-ceiling. Last October, we managed to get rid of enough stuff so that we were able to move to a 10x24 unit. This time, we FINALLY managed to close out our paid storage unit! Our son and his wife graciously allowed us to construct a 8x12.5 storage shed on their property last October, and we began transitioning. After bombarding Craigslist, Castle Rock Task Force, and Goodwill for the past 2 years, we managed to downsize enough to get everything to our shed. Whew! We have not been able to enjoy much of Colorado for the past 2 years, as it was "work" every time we passed through. This October we'll finally see some friends on our way through!

We had one interesting week that I can recall on our last visit. We had put a set of Caphalon cookware on Craigslist, and Donna got a call on it. After about 2 minutes on the phone, she said, "I'm going to give the phone to my husband." She whispered to me "I can't understand a word this lady is saying!". Another 2 minutes went by while I listened and tried to respond. Eventually, after a few more phone calls, we arranged to meet for a possible deal. I swore to Donna that the lady was Asian, maybe Vietnamese. We had agreed to meet at Costco in Lone Tree, by the gas station. We arrived on schedule, and waited...and waited. Finally the phone rang, and they told us they didn't know where Costco was, but they were a a big mall, outside of
"Richards". I had no clue. They spelled it: D-I-L-L-A-R-D-S, and then said "Richards". Wow, again I was speechless, but we headed over there and found them. And, they were not Asian, they were Iranian! They were very apologetic about their lack of English skills. We all laughed. And they did buy the cookware!

The second interesting thing that happened occurred while we were donating some things at Goodwill in Castle Rock. As I was backing the Jeep up to the door, I saw who appeared to be Ed McCaffrey of Denver Bronco fame. I told Donna, and she got out and said hi to him. Turns out he was trying to donate a treadmill, but Goodwill wouldn't take it. I told him about "Play-It-Again-Sports", where he could consign or sell it outright. I asked him what he thought about the Broncos this next season, but he laughed and said we'll just have to see. He thanked us for the tip and headed off.

We had a great Mother's Day with Todd and Victoria - they took us out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse in Parker. Yummy steaks and good company!

We are excited to get back to Colorado in the fall - there will be a new granddaughter waiting for us there!

Towards the end of May, we decided it was time to head for Idaho. Last year we purchased an RV spot on a golf course in Blanchard, Idaho (check out http://www.stoneridgeidaho.com/ and click on sales, then Motor Coach Village). It's hard to believe we've been here 5 weeks already. I'm playing lots of golf, and Donna has been busy with many activities, although she hasn't done as much quilting as she'd like. That will probably change! We've also started playing Pickleball, which is quite popular as a winter sport in Arizona with RV'ers. I've played a few games, and find it fun and a good workout. We traded our golf cart in this year on one of the new street-legal golf carts that qualify for a tax-rebate as an electric car. It can go a whopping 25mph, quite fast for a golf cart.

We plan on doing some offroading in the Jeep in the coming weeks. August will be a busy month for us. We have some friends who will come up and visit us for a week or so. Then we will head over to Albany, OR for an RV rally, and afterwards will drop in and visit my sister and her husband, who are living in Florence, OR while they build their new home.

The weather is warming up, and the golf is good, so if you're in the area, drop on by! Please be patient with us, and the Internet and cell phone service here suck. Verizon will be putting in a tower on the property "by the end of summer", so things will improve significantly next year.

By the way, Emma turned 1 year old on July 1. Stay tuned for a special blog entry!!

Being Texans

2009-03-29T18:15:00.003-05:00

About 6 months before we began our full-timing, we got an address in Texas, through The Escapees RV Club. Early in 2007, we actually got to Texas, and got drivers licenses, car & RV registrations, insurance, and got registered to vote. That made us official, we were no longer Coloradans. This year, 2009, is the longest we've actually been in our state, thanks in no part to my driving mishap. After leaving the Denton area, where our coach was repaired, we headed south to Willis, which is about 50 miles north of Houston. The RV park where we are staying is on Lake Conroe. Very pretty, but it seems that there are a lot of permanent residents here, and there are absolutely no social activities. We signed up for a month, and have about 2 more weeks before we head out. Our plan is to move slowly towards Colorado, and get into Monument the 3rd week of April.

What were we doing in Willis? Hangin' out of course! Donna has been working on several quilt projects, and we've both been working on digitizing our vast assortment of cookbooks. This last item has been on our "to-do" list since we started full-timing in January of 2007. The end is finally in sight! Completing this project will allow us to get rid of a lot of cookbooks, freeing up cabinet space and weight.

We also drove over to Brenham, about 50 miles west of here, and took a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. The tour was so-so, but the tasting at the end was great! It's our newest favorite ice cream. So far on our journey the best ice cream was in Tillamook, OR. The cheese factory also makes excellent ice cream.

The weather here has been very changeable. A few weeks back it was sunny and warm, in the 80's, then it changed to overcast and muggy. Then fog. Then we had severe weather. Tornado warnings, high winds, and heavy rain. Then cold weather. Just the thing when living in an motor home! Hopefully, Spring has sprung. We think so, because allergies have kicked in big-time!

We also scouted out a park for our return here in November. We'll be a little further south, in the town of The Woodlands. The park is rated a triple-10, one of only 3 in the USA. We made reservations 2 weeks ago for the month of November, and there were only 4 spots left!

After leaving Lake Conroe, we headed north to Gainsville, TX. There is a small RV park at the Outlet Malls there, so we stayed a night. The last time we were in this area, the outlets were booming. Now, with the economy, about 1/2 of them are closed.

From there, we moved up to Amarillo. I had received a campaign (i.e. "recall") notice from Cummins, indicating that our Engine Control Module (ECM) needed to have upgraded programming. When I called them, they informed me that there were 2 additional campaigns that needed tending to. No worry, they had a electrical only site that we could use. As it turns out, this Cummins dealer doesn't work on motor homes too often, and they could not figure out access to the front of the engine, so the ECM programming was all that got done. We'll get those 2 items done up in Oregon this summer.

We moved north about 45 miles to Dumas, TX, where we thought we'd spend a night before our trek into Colorado. Unfortunately, Colorado has been socked in with a major Spring snow storm. So 1 night turned into 2 nights, and 2 into 3. The storm is moving out, so tomorrow we will move northeast about 180 miles to Raton, NM, and Monday will go up to Monument, CO. We're anxious to get back and see family and friends, and get our storage cleaned out for good!

Emma Turns 8 Months!

2009-03-08T12:43:00.009-05:00

On March 1, Emma was 8 months old. It's hard to believe, but we've had her for 5 months. When we got her, she was 2.25 pounds, and her legs were barely long enough to keep her tummy off the ground. She is now 5.1 pounds. Her baby coat was coal black, with brown eyebrows and feet. Now her head is a silvery, brown, black combination. The black on the majority of her body is changing slowly to silver, and her legs are now a light tan. She is looking more like an adult Yorkie every day.

Emma at 8 weeks (we adopted her at 12 weeks)

Emma at 8 months

Emma and bully stick

The one thing that hasn't changed is her energy level. Puppies have a lot of energy...a LOT! She keeps us hopping, that is for sure. We take her for walks several times a day. On her evening walk (here at the collision center), her new favorite game is moth chasing. Moths congregate under the fluorescent lights, get scorched, and fall to the ground, where they flop around until they get their bearings again. Emma loves to chase them. She is also proving to be quite a runner, so, like it or not, I am turning into a short distance jogger.

Emma "in the zone"

Emma doesn't eat people food, but she does love carrots. She has a ton of toys, and she uses all of them. One of her curious habits is to take her lambswool ball, and hold it in her mouth while lying flat on her tummy. It seems to put her into a trance, kind of a Zen thing. She loves the space of the motor home, and has her favorite haunts: keeping watch on top of the sofa tops the list. We are amazed at how she can walk on the narrow sill, then sit looking out the window, one hip on the sill, the other on the sofa.

Relaxing

On patrol

We are glad to have Emma as part of our family!

Tourists Without Cameras

2009-03-02T21:37:00.010-06:00

Since we are just hanging out waiting for our coach to be fixed, we decided to make the best of it by taking in some of the local sights. Unfortunately, Dallas/Fort Worth is a huge metropolis, and going to either involves 40-50 miles each way from where we are in Krum/Denton. We've done 3 "touristy" things in the past week and a half. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed at any of these places, so any pictures displayed were downloaded from the web.

King Tut's coffinette

On Tuesday last week, we drove down to the Dallas Museum of Art, and took in the King Tut exhibit. I think it was back in the 70's when we went to the King Tut exhibit back in Los Angeles. We vaguely remember seeing lots of gold, including KT's gold coffin. This time around, we found the exhibit completely different. The museum's description is as follows: "The Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition displays works of art from royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings from the late 18th Dynasty (14th century B.C.). The main themes of the exhibition are Egyptian ideas of the afterlife; divine kingship; the Egyptian gods, including Pharaoh Akhenaten’s worship of the Aten sun disc; ritual objects of splendor; and the luxurious lifestyle of the ruling class in ancient Egypt, which was perpetuated in funerary art in order to ensure that the dead person lived well forever. The key role played by royal women and the importance of the family to Egyptians are also featured." Yawn...OK, we saw a lot of neat bracelets, necklaces, chests and chairs, but no bling. All-in-all, it was an interesting day out, but didn't quite live up to our expectations.

Brings back memories of Helms Bakery!

Last Thursday, we took a trip down to Fort Worth, to take a tour at Mrs. Baird's Bakery. Mrs. Baird started selling bakery goods in 1908 to supplement her income after her husband passed away. The business grew into a large local bakery. The tour itself was interesting - talk about rules and security: no cell phones, no cameras, no jewelry (including rings), no shorts, no opened toed shoes. And, we had to don hairnets (I got 2, one for the hair on my head, and one for my goatee!). The tour brought back memories of my college days, when I would often work a graveyard shift at the Barbara Ann Bakery in Pasadena, CA. They were making honey wheat bread during our tour - at the rate of 2000 loaves an hour! An interesting fact we learned was that each loaf of bread goes through a metal detector, just to ensure that nothing but bread is in that loaf! After the tour, our guide brought in 5 loaves hot off the line, cut them up, buttered them, and gave us a chunk. Very tasty! We've been buying Mrs. Baird's since we've been in Texas - they sell a loaf with very thick slices, just perfect for French Toast! The Baird story is quite interesting, check it out at: http://www.mrsbairds.com/ourstory/meet.html

Fort Worth Bureau of Printing & Engraving

Today we journeyed back down to Fort Worth, this time to visit the US Bureau of Printing and Engraving. This is where money is printed! As you can imagine, this tour also involves very tight security. No cameras or cell phones allowed here, for obvious reasons. The Fort Worth facility is on of two in the US; the other is in Washington DC. We really enjoyed this tour, and saw millions of dollars...of course, just out of reach!! They told us that most of what they make is just to replace what is out in circulation already. It's actually a very complicated process, and is getting more-so, as the government tries to stay ahead of counterfeiters. The design of denominations over $1 are changed every 7 years. Right now, they are getting ready to roll out a new $100 bill, and they have giant drapes that are put in place at various workstations so that tours can't get a clue as to the new design. We found the security features embedded in each denomination to be quite interesting. The inking machines are capable of using 14 colors, 7 on each side, at the same time. Check out this website (http://www.moneyfactory.gov/) for details. And, believe it or not, no samples after this tour!!

Money money money

This week we're also thinking about taking in a tour at the original Dr. Pepper factory and the Texas Motor Speedway. Hopefully the coach will get done and we can go someplace a bit warmer!

Stuck!

2009-02-21T22:08:00.005-06:00

Well, here we are...stuck in Lodi...no, just kidding, that was an old CCR song. We're in actually in Krum, TX, waiting on parts for our coach. Hopefully, they will be here on Wednesday, and repairs can begin. We are camped at the RV collision place - they have a water/electric hookup, so we are reasonably comfortable. Krum is about 45 miles north of Dallas, and it's a mite chilly and windy here. It will be down in the low 30's tonight, and was only in the low 50's today.

Way back when we lived in California, Donna and I worked at Southern California Edison. One of our friends from that time in our lives, Gayle, moved to Rhome, TX, which is only 30 miles or so from Krum. We got together with her and her hubby Pat last week, and went out to dinner at Babes, in Sanger. Babes is a chicken and catfish place, and the food is very good. It's served home style, with green beans, mashed potatoes, and corn. Mighty good eatin', although it's definitely NOT low-cal!!

While we are here, we plan to do some sightseeing. A couple of days ago, we went down to Fort Worth, and went to the Stockyards. It is in the historical part of town, and has some very interesting old buildings and museums. The streets are made of brick, which isn't fun to drive on, but it looks cool! At 11:30am and 4:00pm, they have a min-cattle drive, complete with longhorns.

Here come the longhorns!

Horny little devils!!

The Dallas Museum of History has the King Tut exhibit going, so we are going to do that this coming week. We also have a trip to Mrs. Bairds Bakery planned for Thursday. It should be interesting. They are a local bakery that's been around for a 100 years, growing from a 4-loaf oven in Mrs. Bairds home to a huge company (the bad news - the Bairds sold the company to a Mexican consortium a few years back). They make the famous "Texas Toast" bread. Each slice is about double that of a regular slice of bread. It should be an interesting tour - you have to get a reservation, and fill out waivers, etc. Stayed tuned for an update.

The Terrible Three's

2009-02-12T00:43:00.002-06:00

They (who are they, anyway?) say that bad things happen in three's. We just had our three. Each was progressively worse, and we hope that this will be the end of it, for a long time.

Thing 1. Donna lost her cell phone when we were in the Tucson area. It was a real mystery: she talked to her sister one afternoon, and a while later, we couldn't find it. We searched the car, inch by inch, the coach, also inch by inch, and our RV site. Nada. So we searched again, and then several more times. I tried calling her number, but it immediately went to voicemail. Hmmm. I checked Verizon online for usage. There wasn't any after the call to her sister. All we can figure is that she got out of the Jeep and it fell under a tire. We ran over it and it was crushed and no longer worked. I disabled the phone online, then called Verizon. Next day, she had a replacement. Very very strange.

Thing 2. After we left Benson, AZ, we went to El Paso and did some visiting. Then we headed for Kerrville, TX, with an overnight stay in Fort Stockton, TX. We stayed at a terrible park, but it was just for one night, so no big deal. When we got there, the temp was in the high 70's. That night a storm came in, and the temp dropped to mid-30's, with drizzly, cold, yucky weather. I went out to stow the hoses and electric, while Donna buttoned up the inside. She decided to empty the trash. As she came out of the rig, you guessed it, she slipped on the step, which had iced over. Yes, a repeat of November 2007, when she slipped at our son's home in Colorado. This time she has a couple of cracked ribs. They take a while to heal, but she knows the drill, and is doing pretty good.

Thing 3. This is the big one. We left Kerrville after a week, and headed over to Canyon Lake, where we had a week booked at a Coast to Coast park. This is the same park we stayed at our first winter in 2007. The park where ants got into the 5th wheel. The park where I hurt my wrist cutting the branches off the roof of the rig. I'm not sure why we came back here. Anyway, the road into the park is a narrow 2-lane road, with a narrower bridge over the Guadalupe River. About 50' after the bridge, the road takes a sharp, blind, 90 turn to the right (the lanes on this curve are a measured 10'). The coach is 8-1/2 feet wide. You get the picture. As we finished the crossing, and I began the turn, two cars came around the corner. I had 3 choices: 1) jam on the brakes (we were going 10mph) and hope that the car tailgating me didn't hit the Jeep; 2) hit one of them; or 3) try and cut the corner and avoid them. I chose the latter. Unfortunately, the last 15' of the coach decided not to cooperate with my plan, and ended up scraping the guard rail. We were sick - neither Donna or I have had an accident in at least 25 years. The insurance adjuster came out, inspected the damage, and later put a check in the mail. Now we are up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, and, the body shop has revised the amount - and it's 2-3 times the original estimate. Yow. The good news - other than our egos, no one was hurt. And it will take 4-6 weeks to get it done.

We also found out that the rally we were going to attend on Jekyll Island in Georgia in March was cancelled. So, we'll be hanging out in Texas for a while before heading back to Colorado.

Reunions

2009-01-24T22:14:00.002-06:00

Almost 2 years ago, I retired from Great Southwestern Construction. Yes, "work" is but a faint memory now. While the daily grind is behind me, I do miss the friends and camaraderie that went with working (and the $$$). Fortunately, I know where some of my former co-workers live! I contacted Sal, who lives and works in El Paso, Texas. Since we were headed that way, and it was the right distance for a layover, we made plans to have dinner with he and his wife Margie. As fate would have it, there were two additional project managers working in El Paso - Mickey and Vern. And the safety manager was also around. Wow, it was going to turn into a festive event!

We decided upon Mexican food (duh, easy choice!), and met up at 6:30pm at one of Sal's favorite places. Donna and I really enjoyed reminiscing with Sal, Vern, Kurt, and Mickey. One person had a change of heart, leaving for Albuquerque earlier in the day, so we didn't get to visit with him. I think it was a Keno thing. Maybe next time Jerry! After dinner, we headed over to Sal and Margie's for some excellent homemade cherry and pecan pies!

Saturday morning, Sal, Mickey and I met for an authentic Huevos Rancheros breakfast. Afterwards, Sal took us on a tour of two properties he fondly calls "Money Pits 1 & 2". Don't worry Sal, they'll be finished "soon".

Later in the day, Donna and I did a little sight-seeing in El Paso. Sal had told us several times not to cross over the border into Juarez. Evidently the drug-cartels are doing battle with each other and the Federales, and the crime level is up significantly.

Tomorrow we're heading northeast, back into New Mexico, to visit Carlsbad Caverns. After that, we'll head southeast back into Texas.

More Arizona

2009-01-24T20:52:00.006-06:00

I forgot to mention in the last post, that a benefit of staying at Beaudry RV in Tucson is citrus! Every site had some kind of citrus tree planted, and they told us to take as much as we wanted. We had a grapefruit tree on our site, but due to certain medications we take, we can't eat them. But, there were lemons and oranges galore! We hadn't had fresh squeezed OJ since we wintered in Florida last year. The ol' juicer got a workout, and we brought a bag to Leroy and Carol.

Upon arriving in Benson, we got settled in next to L & C, then headed off to a potluck. I know, it's tough, but someone has to do it! Also, Emma the Yorkie got to meet Daisy Mae the Chihuahua, L & C's new dog. They became fast friends, and played and walked together a lot.

"
Emma and Daisy Mae "sharing"

While there, L & C took us on a couple of excursions so that we could take in some of the southern Arizona beauty. One day, we took a leisurely drive down to Coronado National Monument, where we had picnic lunch and did some hiking and picture taking. From the summit, you can see far into Mexico. We also took a tour at Kartchner Caverns, just south of Benson. This cave was discovered back in the 1970's, but was kept a secret by it's discovers until the late 1980's, when it was sold to the State. They wanted to ensure that it remained in pristine condition. Extraordinary measures have been taken to preserve it. Unlike most caves we have visited, this cave is horizontal, staying close to the surface. Because of that, it's warm inside, with an average temperature inside of 70F and humidity in the 98-99% range. Sorry I don't have any pictures, as cameras of any kind are not allowed. We also visited a very quaint bookstore, miles from anywhere.

Coronado summit looking towards Mexico

Coronado summit looking east (Arizona)

Stay away from the banditos!

Manly men with their manly dogs!

While we were staying in Benson, Emma had a vet visit. As she was 6-1/2 months old, she was due to be spayed. We had been in contact with a Yorkie breeder in Tucson, who recommended a vet who specialized in small breeds. We met with him 2 days before surgery to make sure we were comfortable (we were!). The Friday surgery was a success - besides the spay, she had 4 baby teeth pulled, and got a microchip. Poor Emma was down and out the day of surgery, but the following day, was almost back to normal. By Sunday, there was no holding her back. So much for limited activities for a week. Now we have one more week to go before she can have a bath...as I am fond of saying: "you stinkah"!

Emma is growing up!

After 11 days, it was time to say goodbye to our friends. Texas is a-callin'!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-12T22:58:00.004-06:00

Leaving SoCal after for 11 days was pretty easy for us. We had great visits with family and friends, but were anxious to find warmer weather and new scenery. We took a leisurely drive from Huntington Beach to El Centro, where we stayed one night. We stayed at a very nice RV park, but found the town of El Centro to be less than desirable. It's doubtful that we'll stay there again.

We headed east on I-8 the next day, arriving in Winterhaven, CA, our home for the next week. Winterhaven is the last city in California before you cross the border into Yuma, Arizona. Our first year out, we had stayed 2 weeks in Yuma. This time, the Yuma resort was booked solid, which is why we opted for Winterhaven. The park is on the west side of town, so it was about a 10 mile ride to Yuma and all of it's amenities. We basically hung out for a week, going to the movies once (Marley and Me), and doing some shopping at Sam's Club (exciting, eh?). We did venture across the border into Algodones, Baja, did some window shopping, and had a nice lunch at a very local cafe.

Would you eat here? We did, and it was good!

Donna and I have a game called "check-out-the-casino". We find the local casinos, sign up for the Players Club, get whatever free gifts available, and try out the buffet if it looks good. Sometimes they give you $5 or $10 free play, which is perfect for us, since we aren't big gamblers. We did this at 2 casinos in the Yuma area. We took our free play money, worked the video poker machines, and walked out with $16. Since there wasn't a buffet, we went to In-N-Out and splurged!

By the way, the weather, while mostly sunny, remained cool in the high 50's and low 60's.

After a week, we headed further east, to Casa Grande, AZ. This town is a mecca for snowbirds looking to escape the snow in the northern states and Canada. We had another peaceful week, and even got to have lunch with some of our Country Coach friends, Tom and Lynne, who live in the Scottsdale area. We also took in another movie (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). It's rare we go to the movies, but twice in the same month? The weather was still cool, but the temperatures were getting close to "shorts" weather. Another week, time to move on!

Almost a year and a half ago, we purchased our motor home from Beaudry RV in Tucson. We didn't go to AZ, we actually ordered it at a rally in Redmond, OR. They had given us a certificate for 3 free nights at their RV Park, so we headed off to Tucson. We have never stayed in the Tucson area. Our impression is that Tucson is a very spread out city! Not highly populated, but spread out over many, many miles.

We managed to do one touristy thing - we visited the Biosphere2, north of town. This facility was built in the late 80's and early 90's. In 1991, several scientists were sealed in Biosphere2 for a couple of years. Our memories recalled that it was an experiment to see if man could create an environment and sustain themselves. Our memories were wrong. The purpose of the Biosphere2 was to study 5 distinct environments (biomes) to see how plants and animals behaved in controlled conditions. The scientists were sealed in to monitor and record the plant and animal behaviors. Our tour included a walk through the various environments, labs, and housing. The tour was fascinating, and we learned a lot. In case you're wondering, Biosphere1 is The Earth. The facility has had a few owners, and now the University of Arizona is the caretaker/operator. We are unclear as to the owner is, but they told us that the facility is up for sale. Experiments continue, and a new study is being launched to study the effects of VOC's (volatile organic compounds) on the environment. VOC's are things like paint fumes.

Our 3 night stint over at Beaudry, we headed east to Benson, AZ, where we are visiting with friends Leroy and Carol. We will be here about 2 weeks, before heading towards our home state of Texas.

Blogging Blues

2009-01-11T23:38:00.002-06:00

With the new year, I decided to change the format of our blog. It's easy to do: you just find a template you like, click on it, and you're done. One minor problem: the template I chose did not have coding to allow a "comments" section at the end of the post. I've spent 2 weeks trying to figure out where comments went, only to find that the coding wasn't there in the first place. So, another template change, and that's why there is a new, improved (?) look to our blog!

And I'll get us caught up in a few days...I know, you've heard that before...

A Surf City Chrismukkah

2008-12-31T20:21:00.000-06:00

Bolsa Chica Beach complete with pelicans

On December 15, we headed for Huntington Beach, where we would be for 11 days during the holidays. In 2007, we were on the East Coast, and checked into The Great Outdoors on Christmas Eve. Not this year! We decided that we would spend the holidays with family this year. My sister recommended Bolsa Chica State Beach, and, a few months back, we checked with ReserveAmerica to see if any sites were available. Amazingly, there were openings, but we could only get an 11 day stint, and our rig was backed up to PCH (Pacific Coast Highway). The sites there are narrow, and are really built for RV's up to 40', so we were tight! We actually backed up over the curb until the tag wheels hit so that we would fit and still be able to park the car in front of the coach. Our first neighbors were from Germany, and they told us to park our Jeep on their site. "You Americans have too many rules!" they joked.

A side note: back in the 50's and 60's, Bolsa Chica was known as "Tin Can Beach". From PCH to the water, the beach was covered in cans. I'm not sure when it got cleaned up, but it's beautiful now. There is still stuff (flotsam or jetsam?) on the beach, but now it's whatever the tide brings in, not out of control litter.

Emma testing out the sand

Emma got to experience her first time on sand at the beach. What a hoot! After about 10 seconds of walking gingerly, she took off running and didn't stop until she was tired. Running on the beach became a favorite pastime while we were there.

Go Emma!

As always, Donna's sister Cheryl and her husband John hosted a Hanukkah party for the family. Every year it gets larger, as more relatives, extended family, and friends show up. They had about 60 people this year. For us, it was great, as Todd and Victoria flew in from Colorado, and Josh, Jenna, Bea, and Olivia drove down from San Jose. T, V, J, J, B & O even took in Disneyland. My Dad even came to the party!

HB locals Gary and Jill came over to visit and see the coach. Gary was my boss when I was at Edison. It was great catching up on each other's families and finding out what was going on at Edison. We had a great Mexican dinner in Huntington Beach.

Jim, Yvonne (aka Marie) and Dad

My sister Yvonne (aka Marie) and her husband Jim had reservations at Bolsa Chica, and came into the park a few days after we got there. Jim is very recently retired (firefighter), and is settling into the retired life. We all told him it would take a few months to sink in. They hosted a Christmas Eve dinner attended by us, my Dad, and Jim's side of the family. Another great meal with great company! Jim and I also managed a bike ride down to the Huntington Beach pier. The weather during our stay can be described as rainy, windy (OK, very windy), and sunny, sometimes all on the same day!

Sunset at Bolsa Chica

Our reservation was through December 26, but the park hosts told us to get on the waiting list the day before, and maybe we could extend. When I signed up, I was second on the list. True to one of Murphy's Laws, on the 26th there was only one opening. We were forced to leave, and, after goodbyes to Yvonne and Jim, headed for El Centro, CA, for the night. It was time to head east to warmer climates!

Leaving Las Vegas

2008-12-13T00:20:00.000-06:00

We took the short 48 mile jog from Pahrump down to Las Vegas...the city where we got married so many years ago! Wow, it's really changed. As we drove down the Strip, the mega-hotels are adding on even higher towers. Amazing. It's getting to be a bit much, we think. And with economy, those casinos had better do real good!

We had a reservation at the Oasis RV Park on the south side of the strip. Back in 2000 or 2001, we stayed there in our little 24' travel trailer, and thought it was a great park. Like everything else, things have changed. It's a little older now, and unless you want to spend $50 a night (we don't), they put out in the back of the park, two rigs to a driveway. Yuck. Well we were there on one of our campground memberships, so it was about $11 a night. No ambiance, but the price was right.

Since we were to be there a week, we sent for our mail, which all goes to our Texas address. It comes to the local post office as "General Delivery". When we went to pick it up, there was a surprise for us - the post office we specified doesn't accept general delivery. Doh! Another lesson learned...call the post office before shipping. Our mail bounced around for about 4 days before it showed up at the only PO in Las Vegas that accepts general delivery.

We did a little casino hopping, and checked out The Palms, which is over near the Rio. Donna tells me that it's the "in" place, and the stars hang out there. Believe it or not, we didn't see anyone of any notoriety. It is a very nice place though.

In one of the tourist books that are everywhere, we found an ad for 1/2 price show tickets. We went to one of their locations, and found that there were discounts of up to 50% for selected shows. Donna really wanted to see Mama Mia, which was playing at the Mandalay Bay. The performance was sold out in the section we wanted (this was Friday). We thought we'd try back on Monday to see what was available then. While looking through the Sunday paper, Donna found a 2-4-1 coupon for Mama Mia, directly through the hotel. We zipped over to the box office, and got 2 tickets, center, row 13...not bad! I have to admit, the show was very good, in spite of all those ABBA songs that I tried to forget over the past few decades!

There was a big rodeo in town while we were there, and, again at the Mandalay Bay, there was a "Cowboy Marketplace". We thought it would be fun to wander around and check out boots, belts, hats, jewelry, and clothes...and tack...and horse trailers...and mega-trucks. We learned something - some of those big horse trailers are partitioned. There is the horse area, and the people area. The people areas have an interior that rivals many motor homes!! We had no idea.

Directly across I-15 from our resort is the Silverton Casino & Hotel. They were advertising 2-4-1 prices in all of their restaurants, so we thought we'd check out the place. Attached to the casino is a Bass Pro Shop. A very interesting combination! Upon entering the main door to the casino, you are confronted with a giant salt water aquarium. Lots of sharks and exotic fish swimming around. We quickly joined the Players Club, and headed off to the buffet for 1/2 price dining! After dinner, we toured Bass Pro, and then headed back to the casino for about an hour.

The weather was cold the entire week, with daytime temps in the 50's, and very breezy.

Now that we've been to Vegas again, we probably won't be back for quite a while. Maybe it's our lifestyle, but Tinseltown just seems to be getting, well, too gaudy. And the tourists seem to all be trying to impress each other.

We're spending 5 days back in Desert Hot Springs, California, before heading over to Huntington Beach for the holidays. After that, it will be 2009, and the adventure will continue!

A Terrible Time

2008-11-27T20:42:00.000-06:00

Donna and I hope this holiday finds you well and happy (and full)! We realize how fortunate we are to be living this lifestyle, while so many are struggling.

This year, Thanksgiving finds us in Pahrump, Nevada. Why here? We've been on the road for almost 2 years now, and I can't tell you how many people have told us to come here, and stay at Terrible's RV Resort. Pahrump is about 50 miles west of Las Vegas, at about 2700' elevation. We have to admit, this park is beautiful, and we have a lakeside site. The park is full right now, but we think it will thin out considerably on Sunday, when all the families head for home.

It's hard to believe that, a year ago, we were in Colorado at Todd and Victoria's. The day after Thanksgiving, we headed for Florida. We miss being with family today, but, in a few weeks, we'll all be together for a big celebration.

A Terrible Place

Looking across the lake at the Casino

Our view

Looking at the lake behind our site

We left Earp, CA, a day early, as heavy rain was predicted for Wednesday, our original travel day. We did encounter some rain on our journey, which ruined the wash job I had given the coach and the Jeep. We were at a park that did not allow washing, so it was a job done slowly with only a bucket, no hose. Now I have something to do here! And, I get to do it the same way, as this park does not allow washing. Before we left, we visited with some friends, Bob and Elyse, who live across the river in Parker, AZ. They are our neighbors up in Stoneridge, where we spend the summer. They have a fabulous place right on the Colorado River! It was great catching up with them.

When we were in Desert Hot Springs, I left out two activities that we did, and really enjoyed. Every Thursday night in Palm Springs there is a street fair, with vendors selling everything from food to jewelry to you-name-it. They close off about 10 blocks of the main drag (no pun intended). We had a great time, and, even better, managed to buy nothing! Also, on Saturdays, there is a giant flea market at the local community college. This was also a great time, but it was a bit toasty due to the hot weather.

Headin' South

2008-11-23T21:48:00.005-06:00

After whining about leaving wine country, we smiled as we arrived back in San Jose. Another visit with the grand-daughters and their parents! On previous visits, we have stayed south of San Jose in Morgan Hill. This time, we elected to be close in, and stayed in-town, less than 10 minutes away. We really enjoyed the visit, and even though it was only 3 days, it was over a weekend.

Bea and Emma

Olivia thinking about what a pain it is to pose for Grandpa

Time to get south! From San Jose, we made a power run to Banning, CA. We had reservations at a Coast to Coast park. From now on, we'll read the directions a little closer: we had missed the part about "steep, mountainous roads". This park was not actually in Banning (flat desert), but was off of Highway 243, about 10 miles south of Banning, on the road to Idlywild at 3800' altitude. The road was so steep, with hundred foot drop offs next to the road, that Donna had to keep her eyes closed much of the way. Once we got up there, it was a nice park, but not without problems. After finding a nice spot and settling in for the evening, we heard a clunk. It was the transfer switch taking us off of shore power and putting us in the inverting mode. Then, a minute later, switching us back, and then back...you get the picture. The next day, another camper said that the park had high voltage, so evidently our surge protector was doing its job. We had planned on staying here for a week, but left after one night. Needless to say, Donna went into the back for the ride down to the desert floor.

We ended up in Desert Hot Springs, and much warmer temperatures. The resort we stayed at had the main pool and spa fed by a natural hot springs. It was real nice swimming, and then soaking, in non-chlorinated water. It was a nice week to relax. Unfortunately, Donna felt a bug coming on. We had made plans to see some of our friends from Stoneridge (Bruce, Adair, and their dog Yogi). Donna didn't want to pass the bug to them, so Emma and I went over for a visit. She gave me a biscuit to give to Yogi (she had taken care of him several times last summer, and always had a treat for him). It was great seeing them, and we hope to get back there again before seeing them next summer.

Emma meets Yogi

Another week had passed quickly. Off to the local Flying J, where we met up with Donna's sister and her husband. We were heading out to Earp, CA, which is across the Colorado River from Parker, AZ. Our original plan had been to spend 2 weeks at this resort, so that we would have Thanksgiving together. Unfortunately, this resort has a closed door policy if you aren't a member of this park - it's closed to members only on holidays.

No problem, we're flexible - we'll be heading for Parumph, NV, Wednesday morning, and will have Thanksgiving there.

Wine Country

2008-11-05T21:09:00.006-06:00

Napa Valley

As we move southward, we thought it would be fun to re-visit California wine country. Back when we lived in California, we spent time up in the Napa area whenever we could...whatever excuse! Then we moved to Colorado...1300 miles is a bit far for a weekend in Napa. Back in the 1970's we came across a small winery that had just recently re-opened - V. Sattui. It became a favorite place, as they have a cheese/deli as part of their facility, and their wine is so good! Our kids often accompanied us there, and now as adults they go there whenever they can.

So here we are, back in wine country, in a small RV park in the heart of Napa. Today, we decided to try a new place. We headed to the north side of the valley, and took in Sterling Vineyards. Sterling has a bit different tour - you ride a gondola up to the facility, then take a self-guided tour, with several tasting stops. We liked the wines, but they let you taste the expensive stuff. Stuff we don't normally drink.

Back to Sattui, where things have also changed. No more "free" wine tasting, it now costs. Wine prices have also escalated. Ah, well, times have changed. We did purchase a couple of bottles to enjoy.

Castille di Amorosa Winery

A real Iron Maiden in the torture room

We also toured the winery Castello di Amorosa, which is showcased by an authentic Tuscan castle that took 15 years to build. Darryl (or Dario as he is now known) Sattui spent 15 years and $38 million to build this castle. It is truly remarkable. If you get the chance, take a tour of this place!

BR Cohn Winery

Odd sculptures outside the winery

The following day, we headed over to Sonoma. Many years ago, we had toured a cheese factory called Sonoma Cheese. It was still there, but they no longer make cheese on site. Progress, I guess. On to the next winery! We went out to the BR Cohn winery. I had read in a brochure that they also had olive trees, and made and sold olive oil and vinegars. The owner, Bruce Cohn, was and is the manager of the rock group The Doobie Brothers. Every summer, the Doobies perform at the vineyard for a charity event. We missed it by a couple of weeks. Since we were "wined" out, we sampled only the olive oils, vinegars, and dipping sauces. Yum!! A couple more bottles were purchased. With cupboard space at a premium, we'll just have to consume!!

39 And Counting

2008-11-01T17:13:00.004-05:00

Rod & Donna - 39th Anniversay

Another Halloween - another anniversary! A bit of history: to those of you who didn't already know - Donna and I were married on Halloween in Las Vegas in 1969. I was headed off to active duty in Texas (basic training and advanced training) in the California National Guard, and we had one weekend before I shipped out. Her parents, my parents, Donna's sister and husband, and her brother made the quick trip from the L.A. area to Vegas on a Friday morning.

We got there Friday afternoon (on Halloween) and I headed to the county office to get our wedding license. After 5:00pm on Fridays weekend rates took over, and that was the difference between $8 and $15 for the license. Hey, remember it was 1969, when a dollar was worth 50 cents! I plucked up the $8, only to have the clerk tell me "holiday" rates applied. After mumbling something about Nevada recognizing Halloween as a real holiday, I was informed that it was Nevada's Admission Day. Ooops.

License in hand, we went scouting for a chapel...no problem there! We settled on The Courthouse Chapel, which I tried to get for Saturday, November 1. It was time for both of our parents to intervene (remember we were young, and it was 1969): "You guys aren't staying together in the same hotel room if you're not married!" That settled that, we got married on Friday night, Halloween!

So now you know the story!

Back to the present...since it was Friday, and our coach was in service, we asked the Customer Care people to suggest a place for us to have breakfast - a bagel place came highly recommended, so we headed downtown for a bite to eat. We did a little shopping, then went back to Country Coach. While waiting for our coach to come back, we got another recommendation for dinner - The Oregon Express restaurant. Dinner in an old railroad diner car sounded great!

Donna opted for scampi, and I had prime rib. We followed it up with a raspberry and vanilla chocolate cake dessert. Excellent choices! Thanks for the recommendation, Country Coach!!

Loco-Odo

2008-11-01T16:41:00.002-05:00

We had a couple of items to be done (again) at Country Coach. Besides the leaky AquaHot, our backup video display was still not working properly, and the replacement odometer still did not fix the problem with the engine monitor lights not working.

We pulled into our pre-assigned spot, noticing that there were only a few coaches in for service. Monday morning, we checked in, and the coach was off to service again. We were told that another round of layoffs had occurred - this time service lost 3 mechanical techs and one phone tech. The recession and it's affects on the RV industry are definitely being felt at CC. At least this is is privately held company - we've heard that Fleetwood and Monaco stock prices are really hurting.

Monday afternoon the techs brought our coach back, and reported that the leaky water in the AquaHot was a bad pressure relieve valve, which had failed due to a malfunction in the water pump. The pump was putting out 70 psi, not the 40 psi it is supposed to. The backup monitor still was not functioning to their satisfaction, so a new one was installed. And the infamous odometer was also not working correctly.

In our coach, the odometer (made by Medallion) is the brains of the coach. Everything that comes out of the coach's computer/engine control module runs through the odometer. We first had a problem a year ago in Florida. All of the engine gauges were working only intermittently. We sent the odo back to CC, it was "fixed", and returned to us. Then the gauges worked, but the dash information lights didn't. We sent the gauge back to CC when we got parked in Grants Pass. It was again "fixed" and sent back to us. The fix didn't work - still no dash information lights. So Country Coach stuck a new odo in. Problem solved? We thought so, as the information lights were working.

Thursday morning we headed north to Clackamus, to go to Westland Sales - our Splendide washer was taking 3 hours to run a cycle that should take 40 minutes. On the drive up, I noticed that I seemed to be going really fast - the odo showed the coach going 82 mph. But I was not passing anyone up - so were we all going that fast? I flipped the odo readout to digital, and saw that I was going 62 mph - but the needle was showing over 80 mph! I called CC service and let them know we would be back to see them.

The trip to Clackamus was quick - "someone" had worked on the coach's plumbing, and had left the hot water inlet to the washer closed. And that someone wasn't Donna or I. Anyway, we headed back to Camp Country Coach with a now-working washer. When we pulled in to CC and parked, we noticed the odo was showing 40 mph even though we were parked!

Friday morning the coach was back in service, and got another new odometer. Finally, all of the lights work, the digital and dial speeds match up, and the gauges all work!

The Oregon Trail

2008-11-01T16:30:00.002-05:00

Seems we know our way around Oregon now. The road back to Grants Pass from Elizabeth, CO was quick - one night in Wendover, UT/NV, and then back to our home, which was parked at Leroy and Carol's home. Due to a leaky water problem, we opted to head for Junction City, OR first thing Saturday morning. This was no problem except for one minor detail - before we left Colorado, we had requested our mail to be delivered to General Delivery, Grants Pass. It should have arrived Friday, but it didn't. And just about every post office in Oregon is closed on Saturday! We don't get our mail all that often, since we get almost everything electronically via the Internet. Unfortunately, our absentee ballots for TX were in the packet.

We couldn't chance it - I'd have to drive back down to Grants Pass on Monday after ensuring that the packet did indeed arrive (it did, and I did!).

We are getting very familiar with the road between Grants Pass and Junction City, almost to the point where I don't need our Garmin to get around. All's well, we found our way back to Camp Country Coach.

Colorado

2008-10-22T21:53:00.003-05:00

It was time once again for us to return to Colorado. Every 6 months, whether we like it or not, we go back: for family, friends, doctors, dentists and storage. OK, we got 4 out of 5 this visit. We love Colorado, and still call it home, even if our licences say Texas. This time around, we had set a goal: eliminate our storage. Storage costs are wasted money, and it's been almost 2 years now since we've been on the road.

Prior to getting back, we ordered an 8' x 10' shed from Costco. It was waiting for us at Todd and Victoria's when we arrived. I put it together, and we set out for our storage place in Castle Rock. We had rented a 15' x 45' unit when were selling our home, and, even after selling and donating, it was brim full from top to bottom when we left in January of 2007. Every trip back, we sell some stuff on craigslist, donate a whole bunch to local charities, and then still moan and groan about how much we have. This was to be the visit where it all went away, except for the small shed at Todd's. The usual stuff happened - we sold a bunch of stuff on craigslist, and donated a bunch more to the Castle Rock Task Force and Goodwill. But...it didn't all get done. We filled about 3/4 of the shed, but still had a bunch of stuff. Soooo, we downsized - down to a 10' x 24' storage unit. Progress!!

To all of our friends in Colorado, we apologize for not contacting any of you. The storage stuff was every day, for much of the day. In between that, doctor stuff. We were just too tired in the evening to even think about visiting.

Next time through, in April-May of 2009, we promise to do better about seeing all of you. This visit was restricted to seeing family (Todd and Victoria), and enjoying their hospitality. I think they were able to put up with our tired and grumpy moods, and we thank them again for allowing us to stay with them.

Emma update: she is growing, and the hair on her head is turning silver. And she is keeping us very, very busy!!

We're heading back to Oregon to pick up our coach. A quick trip back to Country Coach to repair a leaky AquaHot, and then we're heading south for the winter.

Meet Emma!

2008-10-02T01:20:00.004-05:00

One thing we never travel without is our camera. It records remarkable things! Except this trip...we left it in Grants Pass, Oregon, in our haste to head south and see our daughter, son-in-law, and our two grand-daughters. Luckily, our daughter had a camera to lend to us for the big day.

Hi - I don't know you, but I am EMMA!

October 1, 2008 couldn't come quick enough. Emma is 12 weeks old today, and is finally ready to be adopted by us. We arrived in Livermore promptly at 11:3oam, and Georgina escorted us out back to see Emma again. The last time we had seen her, she was only 8 weeks old.

Her development has progressed quite a bit since then. She was a little shy and nervous then, but now she is outgoing and lively. We spend quite a while in the pen with her - she warmed right up to us, as we had sent Georgina an old t-shirt that we both had worn - she knew our scents well!

We spent a lot of time with Georgina, going over question after question, and making sure we had answers for them all. The ride back to San Jose was fun, and Emma calmed down after a few miles. Upon arriving back at Jenna's, we relaxed and let Emma check things out. She found a mirror, and growled and barked at herself for quite a while.

Who is that puppy behind the glass?

I'll watch a while and see if that puppy moves...

We will have a challenge to potty train her...it will come in time. We even had some limited success today. After she ate her dinner, she pooped, pottied, and appeared ready for sleep. We put the old t-shirt in her crate with her bed, crossed our fingers, and put her in. Shortly thereafter, she barked and then pooped on the shirt. Oh boy...it's going to be a long night!!

I'm pooped!

Heading South (we hope)

2008-09-29T21:32:00.003-05:00

We left Country Coach on the morning of the 23rd (my birthday!), and headed south to Grants Pass, OR. Some longtime (25 years) friends have some property there with an RV pad for visitors. The ride down was uneventful, as we were keeping a close watch on the engine temperature. CC found that our fan motor had given up, and replaced it. Thankfully, the fix worked, the engine did not overheat at all, even on some steep grades.

We pulled in, got hooked up, and settled in. Our friends, Leroy and Carol, were in the process of loading up their motorcoach, as they were leaving the morning of the 24th, for an extended trip back to Branson, MO, and then back to their winter place in Benson, AZ. As they would be gone, he was planning to turn the water off, so I hastily filled our water tank. We all went out to dinner at a local buffet place, then settled in for the evening. I kept the rig on city water supply for the evening.

On the 24th, L & C finished up loading, turned off the water, and headed out. We switched on the water pump, and...the water lines did not fully pressurize. The ticking of the pump indicated a water leak somewhere. Sigh...we had just left service! I looked around the rig, and found 2 locations that had a slight water leak. After tightening them up, we flipped on the switch, and, unfortunately, same problem. Upon further investigation the next day, I located the problem - a connection or hose (not accessible) on our AquaHot heating system was leaking. Doh! When we return, I'll try and locate and fix the problem. Otherwise, we're back to CC AGAIN.

On Saturday the 27th, we headed south in the Jeep - destination: San Jose. Grandkids! And Emma!!

ABC

2008-09-22T17:50:00.004-05:00

All finished at Camp Country Coach! Our service time was 10 days - we're here on day 11 because we had some cabinetry work done offsite. Most of our items were completed. Once we light for a few weeks, I have to send our odometer cluster to Country Coach for reprogramming. In addition, the monitor for our backup camera didn't come in, so they will send that to us.

Bees. Our air horn was sounding like a goose with asthma, and Country Coach said they'd check it out. Upon removing the cover, they found a nest of bees had taken up residence.

Camp Country Coach will be a memory soon (well, until the next time!).

Tomorrow we're heading for Grants Pass, OR, to visit friends before they head for Arizona for the winter. And tomorrow is my birthday!!

Camp Country Coach

2008-09-17T15:03:00.003-05:00

After the rally, we headed 30 miles south to the Country Coach facility. It was time for our 1 year service. We had sent in our list of about 32 items, some of which were a carryover from our May visit.

After we left CC for Washington State last May, we experienced an overheating engine. When the temperature reaches 227, an audible alarm sounds in the coach (think of a turn indicator beeping on steroids). Immediately thereafter, the engine starts de-rating itself - what that means is it starts shutting down. The result is that the engine loses power. That is the nice thing about a big diesel engine - it protects itself! Since we were only going 500 miles, we decided that this item would be added to our list. At this time, they are thinking that a solenoid connected to the fan motor has failed. We've also had a problem with warning and instrument lights not working. That, we're told, is part of an odometer recall - our odometer cluster controls all of the lights and gauges, and will need a programming update.

Our service is supposed to take 2 weeks - we came in on the 8th, and will probably be here until the 22nd. A couple of days over, but not bad. While we are here, a cabinet company will be installing a new desk/credenza. We need more file storage, as well as a permanent place for the computer and printer. We had seen some of this company's work last year when we got our coach, and again this summer up in Blanchard. This will be a great addition to our coach!

One of the challenges of having service at the factory, is that they take your rig around 8:00am each morning and bring it back around 4:00pm. So you have no home all day. Last Monday, we headed up to a BLM campground called Alsea Falls. It's a great hiking place, at a little higher elevation. It was in the 80's in Junction City, but, only 20 miles NW, it was 53.

Alsea Falls

Donna exploring

Donna at the falls

Meet The Puppy

2008-09-10T01:20:00.005-05:00

We are so excited! A new puppy will be joining us in October. Once we decided to move forward with this decision, we had a daunting task - a name! Our first two dogs, Taffy and Sasha, got their names quickly. Had them in 15 minutes or so. Abbey's name was fate - the breeder had renamed the rescue dog "Abbey", which was the first name on Donna's list.

This time it was not easy. No lightning bolt. We started compiling names. We looked on the Internet, wrote down names we liked. We had a list of about 30, which seemed to grow and change constantly. Maybe when we met her something would hit us instantly. Of course, it didn't, but we narrowed the list down to 6 favorites. This was even difficult - we ended up writing our favorite four names on a paper, then compared them. There were 4 matches, and we added 2 that weren't on the original list. Finally, after living with the six, we both agreed that her name will be EMMA.

Yorkie pups are typically black with brown on their face and legs. As she matures, the black will lighten to silver, and the brown will also lighten up. Right now, her ears are taped to ensure that they heal upright.

Bonding with me

Bonding with Donna

Yeah, I'm cute!

So are you going to be my new Mom?

I'm big and mean...I think

Onward!

2008-09-09T22:52:00.002-05:00

Another August Sunset in Idaho

August was a mixed month as far as things go. The 1st would have been Abbey's 5th birthday, so the beginning of the month was sad for us. We spent some extra time remembering her and the joy she brought us. As the month progressed, we had some additional concrete work done on our lot at Stoneridge. Next season we won't have any major stuff to do...just some landscaping (at least that's the plan - stay tuned and we'll see how it unfolds).

I worked diligently with my new golf clubs. I had a goal to break 100 before we left. My last game was 100...doh! As close as you can get to breaking it without getting there. On the positive side, I think that 20 strokes lower than the start of the season was a pretty good accomplishment. I'll get-er done next year for sure. Donna pretty well wrapped up the two photo albums she put together for Todd & Jenna. This was a HUGE undertaking, organizing 30+ years of pictures. Her advice to those thinking about doing this is simply: do it as a high school graduation gift - you'll have a lot to do, but not as much as if you put it off until the kids are in their mid-30's! I have to commend her on completing this, it took a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of dusting off cobwebs to remember what happened, where, and when. Remember, virtually all of these pictures were taken before the age of digital cameras, where you get a time and date stamp on every picture!

There were several activities that took place during August. An "Omelette in a Bag" breakfast was held. Simply put, you place your omelette ingredients in a plastic bag, add a couple of scoops of beaten eggs, seal it up, and drop it in boiling water for 10 minutes...you get a perfectly cooked omelette! Add some cheese, salsa, and other goodies, and WOW! Mimosas and/or Bloody Mary's accompanied the food. This was a great social event, and got all the owners together. Thanks to Gordon, Sandi, Jim, and Ginger for putting this together.

Omelette in a bag

Fixins

There was also a "Divot Party" organized by one of the owners. Imagine 30 or so golf carts, each with 2 people, charging over the course, filling divots like crazy. It was hot, but fun, and the golf shop sprung for pizza afterwards. Good job Pat for this one!

The last major social event for us was the "1st Annual Bogie Lane Potluck". All of the owners on our street, plus a few invitees and crashers, got together at Bruce and Adair's for hamburgers, snacks (including my famous salsa), and dessert. This was the start of a great tradition we all agreed.

Bogie Laners

Nice company!

Sampling Rod's gringo and macho salsas

Donna's buddy Yogi (who just turned 14!)

All summer we watched as the swimming pool was being built at our clubhouse. Finally, a few days before we were scheduled to leave, the water was in, and so were we!! What started out as a few brave souls in the pool turned into a pool party by day's end.

Donna was the 2nd person in the new pool!

Goodbyes are tough, but we made the rounds saying farewell for the season to all of our new friends. Seeya next season!!

We had some very exciting events planned for August. We obtained permission from Country Coach to park our rig at their facility in Junction City for a week or so. First off, we had business in California!! Donna and I needed a "grandkids fix", so we headed south to San Jose in the Jeep. It was great to see Bea and Livey again (Jenna and Josh too!). We stayed at their home, so we got a good dose of grandkids. It's amazing how much energy 2-1/2 and 3-1/2 year olds have! On Saturday we went to the Ringling Brothers Circus in San Jose. Things have really changed since the last time we went to the circus! There were still clowns, elephants, lions, and tigers, but the presentation is getting more like Cirque du Soleil. It was lots of fun seeing the wonder in the grandkids eyes. We are amazed at the grandkids' communication skills. They now talk in sentences, not just single words. Time moves on!! (Check out http://www.jjbofamily.blogspot.com/ to follow their adventures).

Grandkid Fix!

Elephants!

A secondary, but very important part of our visit to California, was to visit a Yorkie breeder in Livermore. We were so lucky to meet Georgina several years ago. It was she who had a young Yorkie turned in to her as a rescue. It was she who named her Abbey - the same name that we had planned to name her. We called her after Abbey passed, and she consoled us and told us that time would help heal our pain. We decided that if we were to have another dog, we would adopt from her. She told us she had a female that we could adopt if we felt we were a match. This pup would be old enough for her to release in early October. Our visit was to meet this pup and see how we interacted with each other. There are two pups in the litter, a male and a female. The male was very outgoing, the female a bit reserved. After sitting with the mother and the 2 pups for a while, the female warmed up to us...and we connected - instant love! We spent a long time with the pup. We told Georgina we would like to adopt her. My next post will reveal MUCH more about our upcoming addition!

Baby Yorkie

It was time to head north again, back to our motorhome, and another new adventure. We were to attend our first Country Coach Rally, in Albany, Oregon. This was a 5-day event, dry-camping on the fairgrounds. Dry-camping means no electricity, no water, and no sewer. We actually had to use all of the motorhome functions, including the generator. They really are self-contained. There were seminars to attend, new motorhomes to look at, vendor booths, and people to meet! The breakfasts and dinners were catered affairs, along with a social hour. We met lots of new friends. It was so much fun, we decided to sign up for the spring event at Jekyll Island in Georgia in March of 2009. If you've been reading the blog for a while, you might remember we were there last March. We were originally only going to go as far east as Texas this winter...plans change! One of the most interesting things for Donna at this rally was her driving lesson. Yes, she drove a 45' Magna coach (and the instructor said she did great!)! Now I've got a backup driver - yeah!!

After the rally we headed south to Myrtle Creek, OR for a few days. While down there, we took a drive down to Grants Pass and saw Leroy and Carol. It was great seeing them again - we'll be meeting up with them later this winter in Arizona.

Now we are up at "Camp Country Coach" for our 1 year service. It's hard to believe, but we picked up the new coach last September! They anticipate we'll be here until September 15.

Things You Don't Get in Denver

2008-08-10T21:13:00.005-05:00

One of the nice things about being in a specific area for a long time, is that you get to indulge in local delicacies. One of our neighbors coordinated a fundraising effort for a local church, with proceeds going to a person confined to a wheel chair. So, we got fresh, Alaskan salmon at about $4.00/lb. We bought 2 fish which averaged 5.5 pounds. Yum!!

Today, a pickup truck came by, selling freshly picked huckleberries. If you've been to the Pacific Northwest, you probably have seen huckleberries. They resemble a blueberry, but are deep red in color. They taste very sweet! We split a 5 pound bag with our neighbor. I see huckleberry pancakes in the near future!

Linda, Bob, Patty, Jim, and Donna

Last Wednesday night, we went down to Coeur d'Alene with our neighbors for an evening "Jimmy Buffett" cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene. It has been hot here during the day, but cool (high 40's) at night. We decided to dress light, and the weather cooperated! It was 80 at 10:00 pm when the cruise ended. The company and the cruise were great!!

The Conga Line...

House on a rock!

Idaho

2008-07-13T17:09:00.014-05:00

After Abbey's passing, we re-evaluated our situation at Usk, WA. Our lot was at least 2 years out from being completed. Restrictions on rigs coming in were not being enforced. We felt very unsettled. While reading FMCA Magazine, Donna came across an ad for a motor home-only RV park in Blanchard ID. This park is located in a golf course community. After consulting our map book, we discovered that it was a mere 30 miles south of Usk. A road trip was in order!

We made the trip on a Monday, and stopped at the sales office to arrange a tour. WOW! The village has it's own lodge, pool and spa, and has concrete pads with utilities already installed. And, the purchase includes membership to the golf resort. We told them we'd think about it, and would come back down in a week or so. Bright and early Tuesday, we drove back down. Then again on Wednesday. On Thursday we came back with the rig. Made an offer. Done deal. We had relocated. We bought a golf cart, had a shed built, and settled in. Check out the resort's website at www.stoneridgeidaho.com.

Entrance to the Motor Coach Village

Front view looking thru greenbelt

View from the side showing the rig, golf cart & shed

Lake Sans Souci

We are approximately 40 minutes from either Spokane, WA or Coeur d'Alene, ID. Just far enough away to be away from traffic and big cities, but close enough to get there for errands. Also, each city has a Costco and a WalMart.

So far, the only drawback has been a lack of a good, consistent cell phone signal. This is Verizon territory, but coverage ends on the north and south sides of Blanchard. The owner of the resort, the community, as well as the emergency services people are lobbying hard for a new tower that will give us good coverage. We did take a Jeep trip up one of the local mountains that has a tower on it, so we saw 4 bars for a little while.

View of the resort from a nearby mountain

Since we now summer on a golf resort, I've been playing again. Poorly, but I'm working on it. I also decided to upgrade my clubs, which I got in the early 1980's. The new club technology should help me (at least that's what I've been told!). It's been fun hitting all the local golf shops and trying out clubs - their computers and lasers track your swing, and show you the results of each ball you hit. I finally settled on a complete "seniors" set from Adams Golf, so I now have no excuses! My first round with them did drop my score by 10 strokes - not bad for starters!

We've made lots of new friends, and Donna even has a quilter friend - I golfed with her husband, and he mentioned she was a quilter. They've started up a group that meets once a week.

I'll try and update the blog a little more diligently as we make little side trips in the area. We will be here until about the 3rd week in August, then will head to Albany, OR for a Country Coach rally.

Abbey - The Best Dog Ever

2008-06-06T16:10:00.007-05:00

Abbey in Florida for the winter of 2007-08

On Tuesday morning, May 27th, the unthinkable happened. Abbey, our Yorkie and constant companion since 2004, passed away suddenly. She had been in excellent health, had seen her vet in April when we were in Colorado, and had no known health issues.

The previous Friday night, she had trouble sleeping. Every 15 seconds or so, she would jump up, turn a half circle, then lie down again. No yelping or whining - she was just fidgety. As she had never displayed this type of behavior before, we took her to a local vet in Newport, WA, on Saturday. After a thorough examination, he could find nothing wrong. He gave us some medication for her in case she displayed further symptoms, and we went home. We had a dinner social at the clubhouse that evening. Donna went back to the rig early, as she didn't want to leave Abbey alone. Abbey lied on her, and her breathing seemed labored. About 11:00pm, we headed off to bed, and she seemed to be feeling better.

On Sunday and Monday, Abbey was back to her old self. No breathing problems, and her activity level was normal. The three of us went for a few walks, and she even went for a bike ride with me. Monday, during the night, she became restless again. She was not fidgety like the previous Friday night, but she just couldn't seem to get comfortable.

At about 7:45am, I took her out to the living room, and closed the bedroom door, so that Donna could sleep in a bit. She seemed OK, and lied in my lap resting. Suddenly, at 8:30am, she sat up, and wanted to be put down. I set her on the floor, she walked around for a few seconds, then yelped and collapsed. Donna rushed in as I picked her up - and then she was gone.

Over the next two days, we called our vet in Colorado, and Donna carefully went over all of the symptoms and behavior that Abbey had been displaying. Doctor Kathy then consulted references, and spoke to her husband, who used to be an EMT. The breathing problems, coupled with the discomfort, and the sudden seizure are consistent with a blood clot - first in the lungs, then moving to the brain. Rare in dogs, there is no way for a vet to diagnose this with any certainty, and no treatment could be prescribed even if a clot had been diagnosed.

Abbey was destined to be with us. After our Shih-Tzu, Sasha, passed in 2004, we began looking for another dog. I was traveling a lot with work, and Donna wanted a companion to keep her company while I was away. We had decided on a Yorkie, and began looking at breeders. In Colorado, the waiting list from a breeder was at least a year out. We found a website, http://www.ytca.org/ (Yorkshire Terrier Club of America), and began looking a breeders in other states. We had acquired our first 5th wheel, and had planned a month-long vacation that would take us through many of the western states and Canada. Donna began talking to a breeder in Livermore, CA, who also took in rescues. Donna had already decided that our new dog's name would be Abbey. The breeder mentioned that she had a young female, who had been brought to her by a family with 4 kids under the age of seven. She had renamed her Abbey. Donna knew at that instant that this was to be our dog. A few weeks later we visited the breeder, and saw this 11 month old, 3-1/2 pound puppy, running happily around in the breeders back yard. It was instant love!

Is that Tillamook cheese you're cutting?

Cuddling with Mom in Atlanta

Cuddling with me in Colorado

Donna often referred to Abbey as a person in a dog-suit. Although she couldn't talk, she could communicate to us very clearly what she wanted. Abbey was a cuddler - and a lap dog (unless it was hot!). She was also very social, and got along well with all people, all dogs, and even some cats. If you met her you knew - she had a personality that was better than many people! Abbey just couldn't figure out squirrels - those were on her list of things to bark at. She loved walks and bike rides with me.

Getting ready for a bike ride

It has been very difficult for us to accept Abbey's passing. She would have been 5 years old on August 1, and Yorkies typically live until around 15 years. She was with us before we made the decision to full-time RV, and was a big part of the reason we committed to this lifestyle. We celebrate her life every day, and relive the joy she brought to us. Rest well, our Abbey.

Service with a Smile

2008-06-06T15:30:00.003-05:00

We arrived at Country Coach in Junction City, quickly claiming spot #3 in their RV park (OK, it's a parking lot with hookups). Typically they are at a premium, but I had called ahead, and they reserved me a spot. We had forgotten how close they are to the local RR tracks. Because of the congested nature of the city, and the proximity of the tracks to the center of town, the engineers will blow their horns all the way through town. And it seems most of the trains travel through from late afternoon to about 7:00 am the next morning!

Country Coach worked through our list, leaving one big ticket item, the cracked windshield, until the second week. They sent us down to A-1 Glass in Eugene for the replacement. When the installers put the new glass in, they shook their heads and said there was a problem - the opening was not square. That, in turn, caused the glass to hit in 2 spots, which is why the glass got the stress cracks. We spent the night at A-1 (they had hookups), then A-1 drove the rig back to Country Coach with the new windshield temporarily glued in. After several meetings, CC discovered that there was a cross member in the front cap, which is fiberglass, that was about 1-1/2" too long. It protruded to the side of the end cap, pushing the whole assembly out of square. A hacksaw took care of it, and the cap squared up. Hopefully that is the end of that problem! Three windshields in 7 months is about 2 too many! All of our major items were resolved, including the windshield, the AquaHot electric heating element, awning problems, and the transfer switch buzzing. The transfer switch had been having problems for some time, causing the inverter to trip, or just buzzing so loudly that it was terribly annoying.

We spent 2 weeks at Country Coach, and most of our list was resolved. We have our 1 year appointment already set up for September, so whatever is left will be resolved at that time. During our stay, we met a lot of nice CC owners. Some we will see again at the Homecoming Rally in August, some hopefully on the road somewhere! Little Abbey met lots of dogs, including 2 Shih-Tzu's named Max and Jessie.

We needed to have Cummins check the settings on the engine, as it still didn't sound quite right, so on Monday, May 19, we headed over to Coburg. A tech had been lined up for us by CC, so we didn't have to wait long until work started. Of course, things happened, and the rig's computer ended up having to be completely reprogrammed. After that, we were off to Usk, WA, for the summer.

Of course, with all services now "complete", things immediately started happening again - a new list was born. The temperature gauge went wacky, reading hotter than normal. I called the tech at Cummins, who checked with Country Coach. Supposedly there is a recall on the gauges, and his updating the engine settings caused it to give erroneous data. Also, we heard audible beeping noises emanating from the dash area. Sounded like our turn indicator beeping like it was on steroids. Quite annoying, but we discovered that if we turned our heads just the right way, the sound would almost go away...

We arrived at Usk the following day, and settled in for what we thought would be a nice, quiet, relaxing summer.

Trials and Tribulations

2008-05-05T15:19:00.006-05:00

We left Colorado, and headed through windy Wyoming. The winds typically blow west to east, so I-80 was one big headwind. After a night stop in Rawlins (no water, still freezing up at night), we ended up at another park we had visited, Village of the Trees, in Declo, ID. Due to weather earlier in the week, our 2nd night's place in Utah was not open, so two short days were combined. Our third night was to be in the Boise area, before heading over into Bend, Oregon, to see some friends.

We stopped at a Flying J to fuel up before we got to our campground. Upon trying to leave, however, the rig would not start. It would turn over, but no workee! I called tech support, and they contacted Cummins in Boise. Several hours later, a mechanic showed up, hooked up the diagnostic computer, and said: "We'll have this figured out in a few minutes, and will get you back on the road in a few hours...uh, oh...!" I hated to hear that last comment. They put the rig on a lowboy truck, and hauled us 2 miles down the road. We noticed that a large wire was dangling down from the engine area. It was a 1/0 insulated wire that goes from the alternator to the batteries. A fastener had come loose, the wire dropped to the pavement, and after the insulation wore off, shorted out the engine control module (i.e. computer). Two days later we left Boise - and found out that they had programmed the new ECM incorrectly. The engine sounded terrible, we lost 2.5mpg in fuel economy, and the Jake brake and cruise control no longer worked. Not the best situation for traveling through mountains!

Uh, get out the blocks, we're bottoming out!

I was in the cab steering!

Flying J was happy to see us get out of the way!

Country Coach told us to get to their facility ASAP, so we passed on seeing our friends in Bend. Dave and Jeanie designed, market, and sell the RV game Rally-Ho. It's a fun game that combines RV knowledge with trivial pursuit. We're sorry we missed them, but will hook up sometime in the future.

We got to Junction City on Friday, and have settled into our spot, 500 feet from the railroad tracks. Ah, we forgot about that part! We've met several couples, and are enjoying the social hours after the rigs come back in from service. Tonight we're all going out for Cinco de Mayo. One of the ladies in the campground is a quilter, and she and Donna are at the local quilt shop having a quilt day today.

Happy Anniversary Jenna and Josh!!!

Happy Birthday Cheryl!!!

What? A Power Run?

2008-04-12T00:51:00.003-05:00

We left Paducah, KY, bright and early on Tuesday. Our plan was to be in Denver by Friday, so I had mapped out our route with stops at about 250 miles per day. We arrived at our first planned stop at 11:30am, decided it was way too early to stop, and kept going. The beauty of no reservations. We did some quick calculations, and decided that we could make Kansas City, MO, by about 2:30pm, which was more to our liking. Donna did a quick check of our membership campgrounds, and found that there was a new resort opening in the Spring of 2008. Perfect! I gave them a call, and got a reservation "up on the hill". Donna re-programmed the Garmin, and off we went. Arriving on the east side of KC, we got off and followed the GPS through some side streets, then up and down some hills, and ended up at the trashiest mobile home place we had ever seen. This was not matching up to the description in our park book. I called the park again, and after talking with the lady for a while, discovered that the phone number in the book was actually for a park in Indio, CA! We all had a good laugh, and I headed the rig as quickly as possible from where we were. No way would we stay at this place. Hey, it was only 2:30pm, plenty of time to find another place.

Donna consulted all of our campground books, and there just wasn't anything in the area ahead of us. What the heck, we thought, Topeka KS is only 80 more miles! Let's go for it! As we crossed over into Kansas City, KS, on I-70, signs began telling us that it turned into a toll road, and Mr. Garmin was telling me to get off - I have it programmed to keep us on alternate routes if tolls are involved. So we headed a little north, then paralleled I-70 all the way into Topeka. These by-ways were beautiful, peaceful, and a lot less-traveled than the interstate. We rejoined I-70 on the west side of Topeka. Ah, a campground ahead 20 more miles...

Because the hour was getting later, Donna called ahead and secured a reservation at the Mill Creek Campground in Paxico, KS. This is the kind of place we like: small, family-owned, full hookups, but quaint. We arrived at 6:30pm, the owner checked us in, and we wandered around a bit before relaxing for the evening. There was definitely some interesting stuff here! By the way, we traveled 512 miles on Tuesday...yikes.

Hillbilly RV

The ambiance of a family owned, small RV park!

Hubcap alley

Looking at our maps, we estimated that we were half-way to Denver. Traveling west through Kansas, we would hit the Mountain Time Zone, so we could definitely get back to Monument by mid-afternoon if we wanted to do another 500 miles. As we watched the weather on TV, we saw storms and tornadoes in Kansas, so we decided not to stick around. Bright and early, we headed west. When we hit the Colorado border, we both smiled. Back in our home-base state again. Arriving in Monument, we found one of the available "winter sites", and quickly got settled in. Most of the park is closed down, as they turn off the water to keep the pipes from freezing up. In a few weeks, the park will be bustling with activity, but for now, things are quiet.

Doctors, dentists, vets, etc. were in the picture for the next few days. We managed to sneak up to our favorite Italian place, Pasta Bella (www.pastabellaonline.com), in the Park Meadows area. The owners, John and Barbara, were there, and we had a nice visit while eating lunch. If you are in the area, try PB for lunch or dinner - it's on Chester, just north of County Line. We met John and Barb many years ago when we lived in Parker - they are from Lake Forest, CA, our old home town!

The next week or so, if it ever stops snowing, will involve us working at our storage location. We are going to downsize. Goodwill and the Task Force are getting lots of stuff. The major items we are posting on Craigslist. We'll get there, but it's a lot of work!! Every time we come through Colorado, this is our focus, but the longer we are on the road, the more we realize we don't need most of what we kept. We'll give you a deal on two sets of bedroom furniture...

Quilt City, USA

2008-04-11T00:57:00.009-05:00

Welcome to Quilt City

When we left Nashville, the entire area had been getting rain - lots and lots of it. Rivers were rising, and more rain was been predicted. We hadn't really noticed anything in Nashville, but once we got north on Interstate 24, high water was evident everywhere. Flood waters abounded, evidenced by trees submerged far from river banks. Luckily, the roads were all in good shape, and we arrived in Paducah, a mere 139 miles northwest, with no problem (except for rain!). We stayed at a Passport America park, which gave us 1/2 off their normal rate. While the park was no frills, they had a group of long, pull-through sites for over-nighters. The owner was very friendly, and invited us to come to a music jam that evening. He had a very interesting stringed instrument (I can't remember what it was called), that had strings like an auto-harp, but was played using a bow. We gave him a definite "maybe", but at the allotted time, it was raining cats and dogs, with high winds and thunder, so we passed.

Riverfront Wall

I'm not sure about this panel!

This panel looked 3-D in person

Attack of the Fords!

3-panel paddle wheel panorama

My personal favorite

We got into the RV park at lunch time, so after Donna made us great salads, we headed into town to see quilt stores and other interesting places. Donna had been to Paducah a few years back with some quilting friends, so she kinda knew the layout. Paducah was preparing for their annual quilt festival, and all the shops were busy stocking for the onslaught that would begin in late April. After visiting a few shops, we ended up at the National Quilt Museum. We were inside walking around in the gift shop, when a "lady-in-charge" pointed at me and said "NO PETS allowed...ah, can I pet your dog?" I smiled and told her "NO" as Abbey and I exited. After wandering around town for a while, we had a BBQ dinner at a small cafe, followed by some very, very good, homemade pie, then headed over to view the Ohio River and the painted wall. The river was definitely experiencing high water. A local told us that it wasn't expected to crest for another few days.

The paddle boat won't be leaving today!

The waiting area for the paddle boat

This was our last big stop before beginning the trek back to Colorado. What could possibly happen - we're only 1000 miles from Denver...stay tuned.

Music City, USA

2008-04-04T23:56:00.006-05:00

About a year ago, we went through the Nashville area, but stayed out of town at a quaint (think "trailer trash") RV park. It was a long drive into the city, so we really didn't get to do what we had hoped for. This time, we stayed in town, about 2 miles from Orpyland. When I made the reservation, they asked if we needed a site that would get satellite, so I told them we did. Of course, when we got there, our site was in the middle of some large trees, so no satellite. That's OK, we weren't here to watch TV!

We managed to get tickets to a taping of the Crook and Chase Show. We used to watch this show many years ago, and thought it wasn't around anymore. Turns out CMT dropped the show, but it was picked up by RFDTV. It was quite interesting to watch a taping, so if you get this channel, which is only on Direct or Dish satellite, watch for the show that originally aired on 3/27/08, and you might see us.

As we did in Savannah, we elected to take a guided tour of Nashville and the surrounding area. The campground recommended that we take a "Tommy Tour". Tommy is the only independent tour operator in the city. He is also a stand up comic...so we had a very fun time on this tour. If you ever are in Nashville, we highly recommend his 3 hour tour.

Martina McBride's estate

Alan Jackson's spread

Entrance to the Union Station Hotel

The hotel

Inside the Union Station

The ceiling in the lobby

The other big thing we wanted to do, was to attend the Grand Ole Opry. We went on a Saturday night, for the 6:30pm performance. The show is done in 3 segments. The middle segment is broadcast on TV. On this night, the headliners were Neil McCoy, Kelly Pixler (of American Idol fame), Vince Gill, and the Charlie Daniels Band. The show ended at 9:00pm sharp, and we were back at the RV park in about 15 minutes.

Right across from the Grand Ole Opry is the Opry Mills mall, which has a Gibson guitar store. It's the store where they make some acoustic guitars, as well as mandolins. I took my old L-50 acoustic in to show them, and they told me my investment in 1965 had appreciated by about 3000%! Whoo-hoo! I bought a restoration kit to clean up the metal parts, condition the fretboard, and polish the body. I also bought a new case, to replace the one that was falling apart. Needless to say, that guitar is looking real fine!! Now all I have to do is remember how to play it!

We came, we saw, we listened! Mission accomplished. Next stop, Paducah, KY.

Tornado-ville

2008-03-20T23:09:00.003-05:00

Wow, while we were at the Rally, Atlanta got hit with a tornado! They showed some pictures on local TV of windows blown out of hotels in the downtown area. Estimates for repairs were in the millions. Typically on the news you see rural towns flattened, but usually not big urban areas.

Today (Thursday I think) we left our campground on the south side of Atlanta, appropriately named Atlanta South RV Park, and headed into Atlanta to tour CNN. After parking, we headed across the street, only to find that CNN was not open for tours, due to tornado damage! OK, we thought, scrap that idea and head over to Coca Cola for a tour. The Garmin was put to the test, as street after street was barricaded off. The damage in the downtown area is extensive. Unfortunately, I left the camera back in the rig, so we couldn't record what we saw. After winding our way through the maze, and getting over to the Coca Cola Experience and the Aquarium, we decided not to go in. We are definitely not city-goers anymore - the traffic and volume of people was too much for us! We decided to head slightly north and check out a quilt shop on Donna's must-see list, and ended up in Murietta. It was worth the visit, and after a quick lunch, we headed over to see the Gone with the Wind Museum. Another money pit...we passed, and headed back to camp for a little R&R.

Tomorrow (Friday?) we will have dinner with some friends from my working days. This weekend, Donna's sister and hubby fly in to visit his mother, brother and his wife. We'll all meet up on Easter for a mini-reunion.

The Rally at Perry

2008-03-20T21:25:00.005-05:00

For 3 days before the rally, we were at a park in Unadilla, GA. Nothing to exciting there, except when I decided to leave the park and fill up the rig, hoping to save a few dollars on the rising diesel prices. I slowly drove out the front gate, past the office, and drove 1 mile to the station. Upon my return, I stopped at the entrance, but did not go inside to say "I'm back...". The golf-cart police took off after me with lights flashing and caught up with me right before I pulled back into our spot. He was trying to make a case for me bypassing the office to get a free spot. Like someone in a 43' motor home is going to sneak in anywhere!

We had early registration for the rally, which was 7:00am - noon. Of course, someone (I'm not say who!) was very anxious to get there, so, on Wednesday morning, we arrived at the Georgia State Fairgrounds about 6:40am. That put us about 20 rigs back from the entrance gate. By 7:30am we were parked and set up...and the sun was just coming up. The volunteers told us that electricity would be on at 1:00pm, but at about 7:45am, someone flicked the switch. We were ready! All of the RV exhibits would not be open until Friday; however, a motor home preview would open at 3:00pm on Thursday. Of course, we headed off to the Country Coach display promptly at 3:00pm, to see if anything new was out there. After seeing all of the new coaches, we were still very happy with our choice. We also looked at several other brands that we had missed at our last rally.

One fun thing at a rally is the evening entertainment. At our first rally, we only went to one show, and it was great. This time, we planned on going to most of the shows. Night one was an oldies group, the Vogues, who had several hits, including "You're the One". They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for vocal groups in 2001. For us, they were forgettable. They had to do a long medley of Beach Boy songs to fill in for their lack of recognizable songs. Night two was supposed to be Frankie Valli from the Four Seasons; however, he ended up in the hospital, and, on very short notice, the Rally got Bobby Vinton to sub. We can say we really enjoyed this show. Bobby has a venue in Branson, and he has a very Vegas-like performance. He recorded many "colorful" songs: Blue on Blue, Roses are Red, and Blue Velvet to name a few. Night three was themed prom-night, with a big band. All of the activities at the rally had us beat, so we passed on this night. We were very excited to see the Sunday night entertainer, who was Ricky Skaggs. We knew him as a country-western singer, but I guess we were stuck in the 90's. In the mid-90's Ricky turned to Bluegrass. We had met up with some friends, John and Pat, for the Vinton show, and again for this show. About 5 songs in, while I was dozing off, Donna turned to Pat and asked her how she liked the music. The response was "we don't play this kind of music in our home!". That sealed it: the four of us bailed out. Us and many others, I might add. I would think that the Rally organizers would try and maximize the entertainment to the largest segment of the rally-goers. Bluegrass doesn't fit into that category. Oh well, better luck next rally. They announced that the next rally will be in Albuquerque next April. We'll have to see if that fits into our plans.

The rally afforded us the opportunity to attend several seminars that we missed last time - if you recall we were looking at motor homes at that one! We learned much, and had a great time looking at all of the RV goodies for sale at the exhibit hall. Abbey really enjoyed the fairgrounds, and she really pulled me around on our walks. All in all, it was a great experience for all of us.

On Monday, we took one last walk through the exhibits, and then headed out to lunch with John and Pat, to say our goodbyes until the next time. We had met them while staying at our "home" in Livingston, TX. At that time, they told us they were heading over to another Escapees park in Summerdale, Alabama. A few days later we headed over there, and met up with them. We told them about our plans for the rally, and they decided to go. It's great how we meet people and click, and then we end up meeting up again as we continue our journey.

Peachy Keen

2008-03-06T21:23:00.009-06:00

After 2+ months in Florida, we headed north, to Georgia. Our first stop was at Blythe Island, where we stayed at a regional campground. It was nice and quiet, but heavily treed so we could not get satellite TV. The park did have cable, so we were able to keep up with local news. Abbey met a 14 week old Yorkie named Oliver, that was owned by one of the employees there. She couldn't quite figure out that it was a baby version of her. While setting up the rig, I noticed that there were a lot of gnats buzzing me. I kept swatting, only to realize that they were BITING gnats. There were also smaller versions - no-see-ums. We didn't encounter anything like this in Florida, just mosquitoes at dusk. These bugs loved me, and my arms got bitten up real quick. Donna got one or two bites, but I was the main target. The bites were very very itchy.

Our campground put us in proximity to Jekyll Island. Some people we met at the pool at TGO told us they go there every year on their way south for the winter, so we thought we'd check it out. Jekyll Island used to be a playground for the very wealthy. The Vanderbilts had a "cottage" here, as did the Goodyears. A group of wealthy investors bought the island, constructed a "clubhouse", and then built their cottages in the surrounding area. The clubhouse has now been converted to a five-star hotel, so you get the picture. Clubhouse = mega-hotel, and Cottage = mansion.

Ah, cottage life!

Another cottage

Churches too!

The next island to the north is St. Simon Island. We liked this island a lot more, as it's less remote feeling, and has more varied things to see. We stopped at the Visitor's Center and got some maps and tips from the volunteers. They suggested that we look for tree spirits. Supposedly there are 5 of them carved on trees on the island. We found 2. As we were searching for one, we stopped at a Farmers Market, where only 1 stand was operating. We asked the proprietor if she knew where the tree was, and she told us that it had been cut down...a small detail the visitors center forgot to pass that along to us!

Lighthouse on St. Simon

Is it an elusive tree spirit?

Yes!

Another?

Yes!

After 3 nights we headed north, this time to Skidaway Island, to stay at our first Georgia State Park. This park lies just south of Savannah. Like Blythe Island, this park is heavily wooded. The park rangers told us not to worry, as they too had cable TV. Well, it's kind of a cable system, but it's very old, with very poor reception. ABC is just fuzzy static with moving shadows. The audio plays the background music loud and the voices soft. And when commercials come on, the audio doubles in volume! There are gnats and no-see-ums here too. Lucky for me, they like Donna better than me here. Now she is enduring the itchy bites. These bugs have given us the heebie-geebies. We feel them even when they aren't on us.

We have spent 2 days exploring Savannah. For those of you who follow the Food Network, you probably recognize the name Paula Deen. She has a restaurant in Savannah called The Lady and Sons. We had decided a long time ago, that if we were in the Savannah area, we would eat at this restaurant. I did some investigating, and found that they don't take reservations by phone. You have to go there and wait in line to get a reservation. The host arrives at 9:30am and starts taking lunch reservations...we got there about 9:35am to find a line about 100' long. Donna got in line while I parked the Jeep. The line moved quickly, and we got a lunch reservation for 11:00am. Our instructions were to be back at the restaurant at 10:45am and wait across the street. At 11:00am, they started calling names, and we got in shortly thereafter. Tour bus parties got priority over those of us commoners. We felt that this was a very odd way to operate, but it seemed to work OK. Once inside, we took the elevator to the 3rd floor, and were seated. I had read that if you hadn't been there before, do the buffet, as you get a lot of choices. We checked it out, and went for it! Fried chicken, BBQ chicken, Swiss steak (pork), rice, mashed potatoes, gravy, collard greens, Lima beans, string beans, sweet potatoes, and black-eyed peas were heaped on my plate. Not the best food for watching your calorie or cholesterol intake, but mighty tasty for a one-time event.

Paula Deen's restaurant

We decided that to best see all of the historical sites of Savannah, we would leave the driving to someone else. We signed up for a 3-hour extended tour with one of the local tour companies. It was great, and we learned about the history of Georgia, as well as seeing all of the squares, churches, synagogues, and historic houses. We could not have accomplished this on our own, one person driving, and not knowing what we were looking at.

A couple of Victorians

Another historical house

Lazy Days

2008-03-01T23:02:00.003-06:00

OK, that's what many of you think retirement is...but I'm talking about a place. Over on the west coast of Florida, just east of Tampa, is the town of Seffner. It is home to the world's largest RV Dealer, Lazy Days. They sell everything from trailers to motorhomes, and have a huge inventory. To give you an idea of how much they sell, over 200 units were sold over one weekend! They also have an on site RV park, a Camping World, Cracker Barrel, and Flying J, all on the same complex. We stayed at the park for 3 days and 2 nights. They really cater to RV'ers there. You get a newspaper delivered to your site every morning, and they provide breakfast and lunch at their cafe. They also serve Starbucks coffee.

After we checked in, Donna was backing me into our site. She struck up a conversation with a gentleman who was watching the operation from a golf cart. Turns out he was a salesman for Lazy Days. As it was 12:45pm, and Donna asked him if they were still serving lunch. He told her they did right up to 1:00pm, so we quickly hurried over to the cafe. The food was, well, passable, but barely. After all, it is a "free" lunch. We got back to the park, and decided to go check out the Tampa Hard Rock Cafe/Casino. As usual, there was a ton of memorabilia to look at.

The next day, we headed off to breakfast, which was also just so-so. From there, we walked to the Country Coach motorhome area, and walked through all of the new coaches. As we were finishing, the salesman from the day before pulled up, and we began talking to him. Donna asked for a card, and then he asked us if we wanted to see their exclusive club (for those who purchased luxury motorhomes from Lazy Days). Of course we said yes, so he took us to the Coach Club, and got us a 1 day pass. If you buy a luxury coach from Lazy Days, you get into this club, which has it's own RV park, and it's own restaurant. Essentially, you stay there for free, and they give you gourmet meals. This treatment ensures that you will continue to purchase from them in the future. We were just a tad late for breakfast (made-to-order omelets, fresh fruit, etc.), but did go back for a very nice lunch and then a cocktail hour with appetizers. Makes you want to buy another coach (no, not really, but it's a nice perk for those who do!).

Abbey took us for a walk when we got back, and she managed to meet 2 little Yorkies. Shortly thereafter, nasty weather set in that included torrential rains, wind, and lightning. So much for socializing! Tornado warnings were issued for the county north of us, but none, thank goodness, materialized.

Farewell to TGO

2008-03-01T22:11:00.003-06:00

It seems like yesterday when we pulled into The Great Outdoors. Actually, it was Christmas Eve Day. We knew no one, hadn't a clue about what was where, and we barely got checked in before the offices closed for the holiday. We went to a pot luck on Christmas Day, and met some very nice people. And that was the start. During our time there:

We went on nature walks
We walked a whole lot
I rode my bike a lot
We explored the Orlando area
Abbey learned to ride in a basket on the bike
We bought fresh oranges for $7 a half bushel (that's about 50 oranges)
I took up golf again, after 11 years (thanks Tom!)
Donna joined the quilt group on site
We toured the Kennedy Space Center and had lunch with an astronaut
We saw a space shuttle launch
We made new friends
We tried to learn to deal with humidity
We tried to learn to block out "pool noise"
We saw a few movies
We ate a local delicacy - rock shrimp (tastes like lobster)
Abbey met every Yorkie in the park (Cody was her favorite, but Minnie & Mickey, or Samson & Delilia were right up there too)
We discovered new restaurants
We went to the Art Fair in Titusville
I went shrimping
Our motorhome's windshield got replaced, and the seal was redone twice after the initial install
Donna went shopping at quilt stores with new friends
I waxed the motorhome (BIG job!)
The price of diesel went up from $2.84 to $3.62
We rode on an airboat and saw big gators up close
We saw many exotic birds including sandhill cranes, great blue herons, and ibis
Donna saw her first armadillo
I got a never-to-be-repeated haircut at "The Bent Pole" barbershop

Two months went by so quickly...but we had a great time!!

Airboating

2008-02-28T14:14:00.005-06:00

The Crew: Tom & Roe, and Donna & Rod

One of the things I've always wanted to do is ride on an airboat. You know, those flat bottomed boats with the big airplane propellers on the back? Maybe this desire came from watching Flipper or Sea Hunt when I was a kid, I'm not sure. About 10 minutes from the Great Outdoors, there is a place to do just that. We made arrangements, and, with our friends Tom and Roe, went off to explore the local waterways.

Peaceful looking but there's gators on the banks!

While we were waiting for our boat to come in, another one was unloading...they were obviously race fans in town for the Daytona. They were also drunk and quite giddy. They made their way back to their car, and one of the guys asked his girl to flash him so he could take a picture...eewwwww! This woman was no spring chicken, but she dropped her top. Roe commented, "When you get older, your bra size changes from "perky" to a 36 'LONG'". Enough said, we all got a good laugh before the ride started.

View from one of the small channels we navigated

After donning our ear protection, Captain Dan took us out for a 1-1/2 hour ride. What is neat about airboats is that they don't need water. We traversed several times across land, taking a shortcut to the next part of the river. Since the boat isn't floating on water during the traverse, it is a wee bit bumpy on land. The boat reached speeds of 50mph on the straight-away waterways, which was fast enough to clear out the ole sinuses! We saw many turtles, alligators, and birds. I spotted the biggest gator of the day, at about 13 feet. Dan would cut the engine back and coast up to a gator (or gators) sunning on the bank. Sometimes they would sit there, not moving, but sometimes they would bolt for the water at the last second, splashing us as they headed for the water. Often we would see their heads and eyes as they floated in the channel. As we approached, they just sink out of sight. Interestingly, Dan told us their main source of food are fish and turtles. Turtles often sun on the same beach as gators. I guess turtles are not exceedingly smart amphibians!

Snaggletooth looks like he just had lunch!

Smile for the camera!

This was a great experience, and if you're ever down in Florida, we highly recommend trying it out!

Holy Space Shuttle, Batman!

2008-02-19T22:26:00.004-06:00

Kennedy Space Center

When we were in the Houston area, we visited the Johnson Space Center. Of course, The Great Outdoors is only a few miles from the Kennedy Space Center, where the launches and returns take place. Sooo, we had to visit this NASA center...Atlantis was going up!

Shuttle mock up

We purchased a two-day, up-close tour package, that included a walking tour at at the visitors center, lunch with an astronaut, and a bus tour. We spent day 1 visiting several exhibits, including the "launch experience". On this ride, you get to simulate a shuttle take-off. Because of Donna's healing broken rib, she opted to view the launch from a separate area. It was pretty realistic, lots of vibration and simulated g-force. After that, we headed off to lunch - our astronaut was Story Musgrave, one of the more famous astronauts, with 6 flights to his credit. Dr. Musgrave is also in the Astronauts Hall of Fame. Lunch was good, and after seeing a few more exhibits, we drove over to the Astronaut Museum and Hall of Fame.

Photo opp with Dr. Musgrave

Memorial for fallen astronauts

Two days later, we drove out to KSC for our up-close bus tour. This was to be a very special tour, as the Atlantis shuttle launch was scheduled for the following day. The tour was great, as we got within 1 mile of both launch pads. We could see Atlantis clearly from our vantage point. During a launch, the closest anyone can be to the pad is 2-1/2 miles. Any closer can be very hazardous to your health, up to, and including, death.

Assembly building. Note the huge doors on the left!

The next day, we witnessed the launch from a safe 5-6 miles. It was spectacular, to say the least! To get a good viewing spot, you have to be out there about 3 hours earlier than the scheduled time. All day NASA was worried that weather could cancel the flight - there cannot be any lightning within 20 miles. As late as 8 minutes before launch, there was a weather hold. But the clouds took a turn, and we got these great shots! While loud, the wind was blowing towards the shuttle, so it wasn't as earth-shaking as we had been told it was. But it was very spectacular, none the less!

Ignition!

Atlantis is off!

Hangin' Out

2008-02-03T22:50:00.000-06:00

Recent visitors to our site. There were 4 total

Well, we've been here in Titusville, Florida since December 24. We've definitely gone into the "relax-mode"! Here in the park, we've seen some stuff - a few nights ago, we were out walking (with a flashlight). I veered Donna out into the middle of the street when I saw a coiled snake right in the middle of a driveway. I'm not sure what it was, but it was definitely NOT a garden snake. She had no idea until I pointed it out to her. The tropical sunsets seem to be getting better as time passes. I'll have to brave the mosquitoes and get a shot or two before we leave. More and more big birds seem to be appearing. Everything from sandhill cranes to blue herons to storks. Throw in a few buzzards, and thousands of little birds that often blanket the sky, and you get the picture!

Abbey has met a lot of Yorkies here - they are as popular as the Shih-Tzu's. A little male named Cody lives aross the street from us. He's about the same size and color as Abbey, and they are fast friends, licking and herding each other around.

Abbey goes for a ride!

We've done some sightseeing and driving around in the Orlando area, and are getting a flavor of life here from the local TV channels. Crime in the Orlando area is violent and prevalent (the news is full of shootings, home invasions, and robberies). We took a trip to nearby Mt. Dora last week, and witnessed a couple of guys duking it out in the middle of an intersection! On the way back we saw almost the same thing! We won't be taking any side streets, or heading out after dark.

Monday 2/4, we are going to the Kennedy Space Center. We purchased tickets for "Lunch with an Astronaut", so we'll be taking in the Space Center and then having an interesting lunch. Our son Todd and daughter-in-law Victoria did this on their honeymoon, so we are looking forward to comparing notes. Also this week, a daytime launch of the Space Shuttle is planned. We will be driving out to the coast to see this event. It should be spectacular!

Looking across the Indian River towards the Space Center

Gulls checking out the view

We leave for the Tampa area on the 25th. Time is fleeting!!

Is it a bird, a plane, a log?

2008-01-09T21:28:00.000-06:00

Since we've been here, we've been told time and time again that there are alligators in the park. Until today, we hadn't seen one. Coming back from our walk, a gentleman driving by in a golf cart told us that there was a gator floating in the next lagoon over. "He's looking for the best spot to sun himself today", was the comment. We decided to investigate, and sure enough, saw a couple of eyes and a snout floating out in the pond. A little later, we grabbed the camera and went back, hopefully to see the creature (at a distance!). As we scouted the banks, Donna said, "Nope, all I see is a palm frond over there." But, as I looked closer, just to the right of the frond, there was a large gray shape on the bank. Yowser, we are glad that it was on the other side of the pond!

Don't let your dog swim here!

The real deal - all 6'-8' of it

Upon entering The Great Outdoors, there is a road sign that I have never seen before:

This sign almost says it all

Let's see: a sign that depicts big birds, alligators, deer, snakes, wild boar, turtles, and small birds with chicks. And it's missing something: an armadillo! Yes, here in Titusville, Florida, there are armadillos! Seems that they escaped the local zoo many years ago and nature took it's course. Every morning, we see holes in the lawn where the dillos have rooted during the night.

Sandhill cranes

I saw this pair of sandhill cranes during my bike ride the other day. Since TGO sits next to a wildlife preserve, and has animal sanctuaries on it, this is a pretty common sight. These birds are big, standing well over 3' high.

Shimmy, Shimmy, Cocoa Beach

2007-12-30T13:45:00.000-06:00

OK, so I plagiarized the title of a song from the late 50's...hey, at least I can still remember back that far!!

The path to Cocoa Beach

Cocoa Beach

We decided to take a drive down to Cocoa Beach and check out the beaches and attractions. After wandering in and out of a local beachwear place, we pulled into a city park, where we found a trail through some heavy trees and plants leading to the beach. The beach was pretty, but a recent bout with red tides had killed many fish...which had washed up on the beach at high tide. The smell of rotting fish was too much for us, so we turned around and headed down another path away from the beach. Later on the news we heard that the City was using jail prisoners to pick up and bury the dead fish. We came across a boardwalk leading through a semi-tropical rain forest. Not bad for not having a book of things to see and do in Cocoa Beach! I think the elevated boardwalk was to keep us from finding an unexpected alligator. It was a 1/4 mile loop right next to the beach, and we found it very interesting, to say the least.

The path

Twisty vines

A single bloom

A break in the thick canopy in the middle of the forest

An old oak

Berries of some kind

From there, we went to the most famous surf shop on the East Coast: Ron-Jon. You know it's a mega-store when the billboard advertisements say: Open 24 hours. It was a giant store, and we did a little shopping - I ended up with a new T-shirt, and Donna with a new sun-dress.

The Great Outdoors Resort

2007-12-30T12:27:00.000-06:00

Looking at our site from the pool area

Yup, the HD satellite is beamed in!!

Silly squirrel - find a real tree!

Early on Christmas Eve Day, we left New Smyrna Beach and headed the 26 remaining miles to Titusville. It was lucky we left when we did (around 10:00am), because we found out when we arrived that everything at The Great Outdoors closed up at noon! The last burning question we had about NSB was how do you pronounce "Smyrna"? Donna prefers "smerna", where I slang it up a bit saying "smearna". I guess in the big picture, who cares?

The further south we get, the less pine trees, and more palm trees, we see. Our site here for the next 2 months is right next to the pool. It's a nice site, but a little noisy due to the pool. People swim and soak up to 11:30pm at night, so we're having to adjust a bit. Also, it's a little weird seeing squirrels climbing palm trees!

On Christmas Day, we attended a potluck that was held at the onsite church. I had called about a week before to reserve a spot, and found that we were #99 and #100 to attend...the last 2 spots! We met 2 couples that we hit it off with, so we now have some new friends here. On New Year's Eve, we're going to attend another potluck.

The temperatures have been in the low 80's and humid...quite a change from our time in Colorado, where we could have anything from 70's to snow and cold, with humidity levels in the teens. New Year's Day is supposed to be quite a bit cooler - down to the high 50's. For right now, we're enjoying sitting out in the patio with the tropical breezes blowing.

Ouchy!

2007-12-22T20:51:00.000-06:00

Last month, while staying at our son's, I related that Donna had fallen when a portable step collapsed. She's been nursing a sore spot on her back, and it progressively has been getting better. Last night, she rolled over in her sleep and felt (or dreamed?) a sharp pain accompanied by a "pop". Today she was very sore, so we headed off to the local hospital to get it checked. Amazingly, for a visit to the emergency room, it only took us 1-1/2 hours. The X-rays did reveal one broken rib, so now we know what we're dealing with. The prognosis is good, but the doctor told her it will take another 4 weeks to heal. Luckily we will be in one place for two months!

Eastward Hoooooooo

2007-12-22T18:45:00.000-06:00

From Biloxi, we headed east, and ended up in Summerdale, Alabama, at the Escapees RV Park. We had heard that this was a great park, one of the Escapees best, from a couple we met while in Livingston. They told us they were heading that way, and would be spending some time there. We didn't get their names, and had no idea what type of RV they had, but hoped that we would see them again.

Leaving Mississippi, we were pleasantly surprised at the change in Alabama. Unlike the devastated and otherwise depressed areas we encountered there, Alabama seemed very nice - nicer roads, nicer towns, and friendlier people. Upon arriving in Summerdale, we walked around the park looking for familiar people, but didn't see anyone we knew. The next day, there was a knock on the door, and there were our new-old friends from Livingston. After proper introductions (Pat & John!), we spent some time talking, and hit it off. Turns out they were parked about 2 RV's away from us. We convinced them to meet up with us again at the Good Sam RV Rally in Perry, Georgia in March. After several days, we decided to head east, and get closer to our final winter destination.

Our next stop found us in De Funiak Springs, Florida, which is located in the Panhandle. The day's travel, while not long, was punctuated with off-and-on rain. When we got about 5 minutes from the park, the downpour began in earnest. Luckily, we had a pull-through site, and all I had to do in the rain was get the electricity and water hooked up. Pressing the satellite button inside, I found that trees were obstructing the dish, so I had to go out in the rain to get the cable plugged in. I turned the weather channel on, as the rain seemed to be getting worse. Very worse, as there were severe weather warnings for the area, including torrential rain, tornado warnings, and hail alerts. On top of that, I discovered a leak at the front of the rig, coming in through the driver's side window. So, armed with a dishcloth and bucket, I spent the next 2 hours bailing! The weather finally passed, and the next day was nice, with no after-effects of the storm.

Jacksonville was the next stop - after watching the weather patterns on the Panhandle, we decided to get to the coast. We stayed at Flamingo Lake RV Park on the north side of town. It was a nice park, and we loved that the weather was much warmer than out on the Panhandle.

Now we're heading South, as the road East has ended at the Atlantic! Our current location is New Smyrna Beach, Florida. We're enjoying the warm weather (70's), although the humidity is a bit higher that we're used to.

The park at New Smyrna Beach

A land yacht! Yes, they are RV'ing in their boat!!

Squirrels in palm tree territory?

We drove down to the beach yesterday, and found that they allow driving out on the sand. So the Jeep got it's first taste of sand.

Relaxing on the coast!

We are less than 50 miles from Titusville, where we will spend the next 2 months. On Monday, Christmas Eve Day, we'll head on in to The Great Outdoors.

Our Hard Rock Experience

2007-12-14T22:09:00.001-06:00

As we drove through what is left of the coast highway through Biloxi, there were many sad sights, and some surprises, as detailed in my previous post. Coming around a corner, there was a surprise - a Hard Rock Resort/Cafe/Casino appeared, brand spanking new! We thought this deserved further investigation (and we were hungry, and they advertised a buffet). We have been to a few Hard Rocks, but this complex was huge. We found out that they had reopened only a few months ago.

We asked a host how they had stored this stuff with Katrina coming, and he told us that they did not expect the hurricane to hit them, so they had not stored or removed anything. When Katrina turned towards Biloxi, they simply evacuated, so nothing was saved. The picture below is some of the stuff that was salvaged from the Gulf in the aftermath. We did see some things, like the Army uniform that Elvis wore, that had been recovered, cleaned, and redisplayed; but most of what we saw was new to the facility.

Memorabilia in the foreground, and a pic of the destroyed Hard Rock in the background

These montages are huge. We thought that they were made of fabric, but, upon closer inspection, found them to be made of woven newspaper! Can you figure out who the artists are?

Who are they?

And these four?

Newspaper!

One of Elton John's flamboyant costumes was quite impressive, as was a banner on display from Pink Floyd's movie "The Wall", and one of John Lennon's smoking jackets.

Not quite my style!

Banner from Pink Floyd's "The Wall"

John Lennon's smoking jacket

As the Hard Rock was getting ready for Christmas, their bakers had prepared two huge gingerbread houses. By huge, I mean 5-6 feet in height! To all of us amateur gingerbread house makers (T&V and R&D), these set the standard for the future!!

Now that's a gingerbread house!

This is the "small" one

This place was so impressive, and there was so much to see, that we came back a second time (the buffet was great both times, too!). Our next time through this area, we'll definitely stop here again.

Katrina vs Biloxi

2007-12-11T22:39:00.000-06:00

Shrimp boats behind the Hard Rock

We arrived in Biloxi, MS on Sunday, hoping to see most of the city and surrounding area back in commission. It became clear to us that the cleanup efforts from Hurricane Katrina are nowhere near complete. There are entire city blocks along the ocean front that are empty. Concrete parking lots with weeds. Some of the casino owners elected not to rebuild. A friend's daughter once worked at the Casino Magic here - but that casino is no more. It was obvious where the reconstruction went; big money gets big results. The Hard Rock Casino/Cafe was recently reopened (I'll have an another post for that), as did several other casinos.

We saw churches with the lower level stained glass blown out. Apartments and condos abandoned with their lower floors gone. Gas station signs, restaurant signs were evident, with no buildings to go with them. Amazingly, there were signs posted on beachfront parking lots indicating that luxury condos would be built. Uh, huh, try getting homeowners insurance on those!

Remains of a restaurant

We had planned on visiting the Jefferson Davis museum and library in Biloxi, to get a bit of Civil War history. Unfortunately, that historical place was mostly destroyed. They are planning to reopen sometime in 2008.

Out of the destruction we did see a rebirth of sorts. Dead oak trees are being removed down the center strip of the highway, but some of the stumps are being sculpted into works of art depicting coastal life.

Oak seahorse

Oak dolphins

Our campground was about 4 miles inland, and, while it had great reviews, we found it to be about 90% occupied by long term tenants. Two nights was enough for us, and we headed for Alabama.

Lucky Thursday

2007-12-08T20:58:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday was our last day in Livingston, TX. I took my Class B driving test at 10:45am, and passed! So now we are legal as far as Texas is concerned. We headed out about noon, eager to see new places. Both Garmin and our mapping software pointed us down highways that avoided freeways for the first part of our trip - quiet roads, but very bumpy! We arrived at Beaumont, TX and picked up I-10...it was worse! It is being renovated and repaved, so we had narrow lanes to navigate...and they were bumpy! Crossing into Louisiana, we hoped for the best, but the construction continued. Our exit was 44, and at about 43.75, the construction ended.

We've been staying in Kinder, LA, at a casino RV park, and have liked it a lot. Arriving here around 3:30pm, we got checked in and headed to the casino to check things out. I sat down at a video poker table (that I thought was a quarter machine), inserted a $20, and began playing. On the third hand, I hit $160, surprising Donna to no end! She had walked around a bit after I sat down, and couldn't quite believe it that I had done so well so quick. We usually only play about $20 between us, so this was a big deal! On Friday, I went back to the same machine, put in another $20, and won $52. Of course, today I did the same thing, and didn't win anything!

Tomorrow we're heading for Biloxi, MS. The last time I was there was 1998 for a job walk. No stress this time!

"Houston, we have a problem" (er, no we don't, I just always wanted to say that!)

2007-12-04T22:49:00.000-06:00

The tour starts here

We're getting itchy to hit the road again. The weather here has been nice, and 2 days ago, it got up into the high 70's, with the humidity level just a little higher! Yesterday it was much cooler, and today was supposed to be just about right! We decided it was time for a little diversion, so we headed down to Houston for the day. First stop - the Space Center! We got there about 10:50am, and found out that the 90 minute tram tour started at 11:00am! Good timing...the tour was excellent!

First stop on the tour - Mission Control!

This is the actual Mission Control used to put a man on the moon. All of those terminals are just that - TV sets that provided real-time data to the engineers. These are not computers - there are no keyboards. The computer feeding the data occupied a room a few floors down (and it's capacity was 300kb!). There are now 2 other mission control rooms with updated equipment, but this is the original one.

The Apollo Building

The building in the background houses a left-over, never used Apollo spacecraft. It had been built, but never was launched, as funding for the program ended. It sat on a field for 23 years (!) before funding was allocated to preserve it as an historical landmark. Amazingly, the building was build around it at a cost of $1.5M.

The Apollo inside the building, with all stages, is 332' long

I can't remember the exact numbers, but I think they said that, during takeoff, the first stage burned 1-1/2 tons of fuel per second - and the first stage lasts 50 seconds!!

Space Shuttle simulator

This dashboard is almost as complicated as our motorhome!

Livingston

2007-11-30T23:51:00.000-06:00

Finally, we are in our home park, where our legal residence is! Our main purpose in coming here was to get the coach and Jeep registered, and to have my driver's license upgraded. In Texas, if your motor home is over 26001 pounds empty, you have to have a Class B, non-commercial CDL license. Is that a contradiction in terms? Basically, it means I have to take a written and driving test.

The park office informed me that they had a copy of the drivers manual that I could read there or check out. So, while Donna took a nap, I went to the office to study. While I was reading, a couple came in to register. They looked real familiar to me, but I didn't make a connection. Later that afternoon, I told Donna that I remembered where we had seen them. On our way to Oregon to pick up the new coach, we had stopped at the Ambassador RV Park in Caldwell, ID. This couple was parked next to us - we actually shared a few bottles of wine and some stories! Donna and I headed over to their site, and we renewed our acquaintances. Small world! From Idaho, we had gone west, they had gone east (to Florida), and here we all were again in Texas.

Today I took and passed the written CDL test. They had an opening for the driving test, so we hurriedly closed the coach up and drove it to the test site. When the examiner walked out to the rig, she told me I couldn't take the driving test until we had it licensed, which was a different procedure that when we had our truck and 5th wheel. So, I've been postponed until next Thursday. The rest of the day we took the rig back and got re-set up. Feeling brave, we decided to go to the tax assessor and get the Jeep and coach registered. Gulp!! We had to pay
Texas sales tax on them, as both were bought out-of-state with no sales tax paid. The savings account took a hit, but at least we are legal now!

A Situation

2007-11-30T22:54:00.000-06:00

We left Thackerville, OK, anticipating a short drive (150 miles) to our next campground in Athens, TX. We picked a place that was 7 miles from where we were to have our auxiliary braking system installed, reasoning that, from there it was a mere 150 more miles to our home RV park in Livingston, TX. That would put us in to Livingston in the very early afternoon on Monday.

Upon arriving, we noticed it was a very small, brand new park. A guy in shorts and an old army jacket slowly made his way over to us. He instructed me to place our payment in an envelope and put it in the drop box, and then take any site we wanted. The park was empty except for his rig and one other. We picked a nice spot where the satellite wasn't blocked by trees and began to set up. As it was cold, Donna plugged in a portable heater to get things warmed up. She heard a pop, like a circuit breaker tripping, and noticed that the heater was off. I was outside getting the utilities hooked up. She asked me to come in and reset the breaker; however, when I opened the panel, no breakers were off. Hmmmmm. Then we noticed the power display said "inverting". Uh, oh, that means we were running off the batteries with no 120v power. I went and checked the breaker at the park panel, and it seemed to be OK. To be sure, we changed sites, ending up in another row. Same result = inverting. I fired up the generator - still inverting. This is not looking good!

I called tech support at Country Coach (remember, this is Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend). Surprisingly, a person answered. We did some diagnostics over the phone, and the tech came to the conclusion that our "transfer switch" wasn't functioning. That is the device that looks at your power options (120v shore power, 120v generator, or battery power 12v to 120v inverting), and picks the best source for your energy needs. Nothing we do can get us off of battery power. He advises me to take the rig to one of their authorized service facilities - of course, the nearest one is back in Dallas - 100 miles NW of our location. Needless to say, it was a long night. I had to start the coach up every 2 hours to keep the batteries charged.

Bright and early Monday morning, we arrive at M&G Engineering in Athens, and have the brake system installed. Now we are legal to tow our Jeep in any state, and we have the peace of mind knowing we can stop a lot better in an emergency situation. While the installation was in progress, I made a call to Buddy Gregg RV in Dallas. The service advisor said he would work us in as soon as we got there. We turn back north and head for Dallas to see what's up with our power.

At 12:30pm, we were 1 mile away from Buddy Gregg RV when I-635 came to a screeching halt. There was a big accident right at our off ramp. So 6 lanes of traffic had to merge into one lane and then exit the freeway. 1-3/4 hours later, we made it off, made a short jag, and arrived - a bit frazzled, but safe. We got checked in, ran a few errands, and went back to the dealer. I saw our rig being backed out of the bay - all done!?! Turns out there was a breaker coming out of the inverter that had tripped all 120v power. So it wasn't the transfer switch - it was something I could have done without driving 100 miles out of our way! And here it was 3:30pm, and us facing the prospect of finding an RV park in Dallas at rush hour. The service advisor at Buddy Gregg saw our frustration and offered us a site at their mini-RV park. He got an attaboy and some homemade cookies for taking care of us.

We're a little ticked at Country Coach for not having us check the breaker before we drove 100 miles out of our way, but we're thankful that there wasn't a major problem. At $3.49 a gallon and 7.5 mpg, it was an expensive detour.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun(?)

2007-11-24T22:05:00.000-06:00

Wow! Six weeks in Colorado went by fast!
First, getting settled in at our son's home was fairly quick. But I did not get a major goal accomplished while there - the permanent electrical service didn't get done. Maybe I'm just getting old (hmmmm?), but my re-arranging the basement bins in the rig did the trick on my back. Sore back=no digging. So that project will become a spring chore (in April). The temporary service worked out fine, and at least the wire has been purchased for future installation.
Next, we celebrated our 38th anniversary (see the previous post).
Next, Todd and Victoria got married!! Wooo-hooo. We have a new daughter-in-law! Welcome to the family, the newest Mrs. Thalimer!!
T & V did all of the wedding planning and arrangements themselves, and they did a fantastic job. Family from both sides converged on Colorado. My Dad flew in with Donna's sister and husband, and Jenna and Josh (and Bea and Livey) flew in from San Jose. We all stayed at a hotel in Parker. Dad even learned how to play Euchre with Victoria's family.
The day of the wedding, I ducked into the groom's changing area to see Todd before the ceremony. He exclaimed, "I can't find my tie!" After I rechecked his garment bag, we realized it was nowhere to be found. So, I stripped off my tie (it was black and formal), and he was ready to go. Luckily, Eric, one of his groomsman, lived close by, and he went home and brought me a substitute tie.
The ceremony was beautiful, and the dinner afterwards was fabulous. Donna and I were tasked with picking them up the next day and getting them to the airport on time for their honeymoon flight to DisneyWorld. After that, it was house (and animal) sitting for a week. What did we do with all of that spare time? What do we do every time we come to Colorado? Work on reducing our storage. I put about 20 items on Craigslist. A bunch of it sold. Storage is shrinking, but we really needed to sell at least one of the bedroom sets so we could reduce the size (and cost) of our storage. We came close this time, but there are a lot of people who promise but don't come through. We're confident that more will sell in April.
Due to the slope on Todd's property, we had the front end of the rig up real high, necessitating the use of an additional portable step by the entry door. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Donna was exiting the rig to go into the house, and the step broke - it collapsed, and she fell down hard onto the step on her back and side. Her head hit the ground and she heard a crack before seeing stars. Luckily, her injuries were limited to a very sore back, some bruises, and a slight concussion. She's doing much better now, and we are all thankful that she is recovering OK.
The Colorado weather "almost" stayed perfect until we left. Two days before Thanksgiving, the weather was in the 70's. Then Wednesday came and it snowed. Thursday and it was nice (as was the dinner prepared by T & V!). Friday, our day of departure, it was foggy, drizzly, and snowy. A storm from the south meant we changed our route to head east out I-70, rather than south down I-25. We didn't want to risk going over Raton Pass, at the Colorado-New Mexico border, in a snowstorm. We didn't beat the storm - it followed us down I-70. The only benefit to our new route was that there were no mountains or passes to contend with. All I can say is: it's been cold, very cold. And to boot, we ran out of tank water at T & V's - it was too cold out to refill. So our primary source of heating (AquaHot) couldn't be used. Doh!
While Thanksgiving is still fresh on our minds, let's give a cheer for all the stupid drivers out there! We had an encounter with one today. I'm cruising along in the slow lane, doing about 60, and this idiot who was stopped on the right shoulder decided it was time to rejoin traffic. I was about 200 feet from him when he pulled into the slow lane, doing about 10mph. Luckily, there wasn't anyone in the fast lane, so I did a quick swerve, missing him by a few inches I think. Donna and I both thought "oh no-accident", but the sound of two airhorns and the shadow of a 43' bus must have brought the guy to his senses. Somehow we missed each other and we will both be telling this story for some time to come.
Tonight we're in Thackerville OK, about 5 miles north of Texas, and right off of I-35. Tomorrow we're heading down to Athens, TX, where we have an appointment Monday for the auxiliary brake installation for our tow vehicle. After that, we'll be at our "home" in Livingston for a week or two before heading off to Florida.

Halloween #38

2007-11-06T00:24:00.000-06:00

Happy 38th to us!

Celebrating at Maggiano's, downtown Denver.

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays - why? We got married in Las Vegas on Halloween in 1969. Why pick this day to marry? Well, in 1969, I joined the National Guard. I got my papers to go on active duty, and that weekend was the last one before I shipped out (to Ft. Bliss, TX). Donna and I, our parents, and her sister and husband drove to Vegas that Friday (Halloween). I rushed in to get our marriage license before the weekend rates went up, only to find that holiday rates were in effect. No, Nevada does not recognize Halloween as a holiday - coincidentally, October 31 is their admission day to the Union. So it cost me $10 instead of $5 for the license. Our plan was to get married on Saturday - but both of our parents insisted that we get married that night - they didn't want us spending the night in a hotel together unmarried! Remember, this was a long time ago!!
This year, since we are back in Colorado, we decided to go into Denver to eat at one of our favorite restaurants (Maggiano's). Instead of driving, we took the light rail in. What a treat - no parking hassles, no traffic to contend with. It dropped us off 2 blocks from the restaurant. We had a great meal and dessert. If you ever eat there, try the Nonni's pound cake with caramelized bananas and ice cream. After eating and window shopping, we headed back, where we waited at T & V's for the trick-or-treaters. Rural Elizabeth is quieter than Larkspur - the doorbell rang only once!

October in Colorado

2007-10-22T00:27:00.000-05:00

Cold & snowy

Our new ride!

Oh no, icicles on the new coach!!!

The weather for our first week here was great - until last night. It's been in the 70's, picture perfect - but Colorado weather changes - and fast! Yesterday in Elizabeth it was 78...then about 8:00pm Saturday night, the front hit. The wind picked up to 25+ mph, with gusts in the 30's. Todd has his own weather station on his property, so he can forecast just like the TV stations attempt to. He said Elizabeth was expected to get 4"-8" of snow - and we did. Aren't we supposed to be where it's warm now? OK, tomorrow will be in the 50's, and then we're back up into the 70's for the rest of the week.

Thursday I called a local hitch dealer and got parts on order for our tow set up. Later this week we'll get hardware, tow brakes, and lights installed on the Jeep, so when we make our get-away sometime after Thanksgiving, Donna and Abbey will be able to actually be in the coach with me. Todd, Donna, and I took the hard top off of the Jeep, in order to get the soft top out (Jeep installed them both together for shipping purposes). We actually did OK getting the hard top off and back on.

Victoria & Donna at the shower

Donna took Victoria to her wedding shower this morning - in the middle of the snowstorm. The Jeep did fine, but it was a little scary for Donna, as she usually isn't a snow driver. By the time the shower was over, the storm was too, so their drive back was a lot easier.

I have several projects to keep me busy while we're here: 1) put in a permanent 50amp RV service (I have a temporary installed right now); 2) make shelves in at least 3 cabinets; 3) clean out the shed here and get my "stuff" organized; 4) sell more "stuff" out of our storage in Castle Rock; and , 5) clean out the basement of the rig, removing anything we're not using, and adding things we think we need. We've sold some furniture from storage, which is giving us more room in our storage unit - it's still full, but at least it's not piled all the way to the ceiling any more! We have a goal to get into a smaller unit as soon as possible.

Is it a coincidence? We get back to Colorado, the Rockies win the NL pennant, and the Broncos break their losing streak. When we first moved to Colorado in 1996, the Rockies won their division, and the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls a few years later...we'll see, it would be nice to see the Rocks win the World Series, and we'd love to watch the Broncos in the Super Bowl (from our winter place in Florida!).

Back to Colorado (Again!)

2007-10-15T01:04:00.000-05:00

After all of my rantings about not having Donna drive behind the new rig, we ended up having her do just that. Costs to ship the truck back to Colorado, or to set it up as a tow vehicle, were just too high. Besides that, with our walkie-talkies, I was able to get instant feedback on my driving. Driving a big Class A motorhome isn't that hard once you get the hang of it - the hardest part is getting yourself centered in the lane. I found that my tendency was to drive the rig close to the right shoulder, rather than being centered. Donna was able to critique me, and I finally got it figured out.

Our travel plan was to drive about 200 miles a day. We ended up just east of Portland on our first day. The weather was drizzly, so we elected for a quick BBQ (steaks of course!) between showers, and an early sleep. The second day was gorgeous, as we drove through the picturesque Columbia Gorge.

There we are - stuck on I-84

Looking east at the parking lot

The second night we ended up in Pendleton, OR. Now, what could that city be named for? Hmmm, as a hint, we took the 3:00pm tour at a wool mill...it was a 20 minute tour, but very interesting. Pendleton is an interesting little town, and we'll take some time and explore the area next time through. So Day 3 we headed east on I-84, for a 200 mile jaunt to Caldwell, ID. We were on the road at 8:00am, and figured to be there by noon at the latest. WRONG. As we headed up a grade, the weather, which had be drizzly, turned very very foggy: 30mph foggy. Finally, after reaching the summit of some unnamed mountain, the fog began to lift, and we sped up again...only to stop after about a mile. And I mean stop. The whole interstate was closed eastbound - flashing signboards said "accident ahead". So we parked on the interstate for 2 hours. We finally got in to the Ambassador RV Park about 3:00pm. After a day like that, we opted to stay 2 nights. Besides, Donna had found a great quilt store that she just had to visit again!

Our next journey took us to a little town in SE Idaho called Declo, and a nice RV park, Village of the Trees. Again, we had stayed there on our trip out to Oregon. We met the owner, who was very nice, and remembered us from our last visit.

One of the interesting things about being on the road full time, is that you meet all kinds of interesting people. In addition, you tend to find "lost" friends from your past. If you've read earlier blogs, you might recall we met up with Leroy and Carol, friends from my days back at Southern California Edison. Turns out we had been "following" some other SCE friends, Roger and Ardelle, for several days during this period. We were even staying at the same RV parks...2-3 days apart. Weird! We almost caught up with them, but ended up staying about 2 days behind. When we began our journey last February, we almost crossed paths in Louisiana and Texas. Maybe this winter we'll catch them in Texas, where they winter.

From Declo, we headed east, and ended up in Evanston, WY. From there, we decided to do big travel day (280 miles), and get to our son's house back in Colorado.

Some interesting (at least to me) facts: 1) our Chevy pickup averaged over 28 mpg on the trip back, while the new motorhome averaged 7.5 mpg. The part that gets me is that the tank is so big, you don't have to fill that often - but when you do...yowser! I filled in Odgen, UT, and the next fill was in Cheyenne, WY. I could have gone all the way to Denver from Odgen.

Anyway, we are settled in at our son's now until Thanksgiving. I'm watching the drizzle turn over to snow...SNOW? This had better stop!

Whattaweek! (or two)

2007-09-30T19:24:00.000-05:00

Woodburn was OK...just OK. The park had changed a lot since the last time we were there in 2004. A lot of long term residents seemed to be there now, and there were snooty little cliques. No friendly people like we are used to. But, it WAS a very short walk to the Outlet Malls, and since there is no sales tax in OR, we contributed to the local economy.

At the sneak-peek
On Thursday the 20th, we departed south for Junction City, for the big swap over on Friday. There are 3 lots at Country Coach - 1 with 11 full-hookups, 1 with 8 partial hookups (water & electric), and the final lot with about 10 electric only hookups. Because we were doing a trade-in with a move out/in, we ended up in the last lot. The first 2 lots are reserved for service customers. After checking in, we asked if we could see our new home. Alas, it was still over in detailing. Around 5:00pm, they told us it was in, and we could sneak a peek if we wanted. We did, and can remember saying WOW a lot!

On Friday, we met briefly with our Country Coach Sales Rep, signed all the paperwork, then began our walk-through. As we are motorhome neophytes, it took all day. About 5:00pm, they drove it over and parked it next to our 5th wheel. Now the real fun would begin. We did some bedroom transferring, then called it day. Some of our full-time friends recently moved from a 5th wheel to a motor home - their experience: it took much longer than they anticipated. Comparing our experience, we can say the same. Although the motor home is 43', a full 7' longer than the 5th wheel, the storage space is less. We had planned on leaving Monday for our shakedown trip, but postponed until Wednesday so we could get more organized.

Bright and early early Wednesday, we pulled out and headed for Florence, OR, about 65 miles west. Donna drove our pickup and tailed me, watching my driving. This worked out quite well, as we talked on our walkie-talkies during the drive. She gave me great advice on my road positioning and handling, which helped with my confidence level.

Lake Woahink

We ended up at Woahink RV Resort, which backs to the Oregon Sand Dunes. If you get a chance to visit this area, it is spectactular. The sand dunes are huge, and go for 50 miles or so along the coast. We took a drive down to Coos Bay on Thursday, and really enjoyed the coast scenery. Friday, we hung out and Donna went to a local quilt store that had been recommended to her. And Friday, it started raining...ah, Oregon in the fall!

Dunes looking South

Dunes looking North

Dunes looking West

Moonscape!

Saturday, we packed it up and headed back to Junction City with our list of fix-its. We've found that there are spaces open on Saturday, but it fills up quickly on Sunday. Tomorrow, we will hang out while the coach gets worked on. Hopefully, our list won't take too long, as we need to begin our trek back to Colorado.

Behind Again

2007-09-17T01:31:00.000-05:00

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted since August 29! A lot has happened...here it is mid-September, and we are now are back in Oregon.

We had planned on spending 15 days in Colorado, but stretched it out so that I could visit the doctor one more time. We had our annual physicals, and both Donna and I passed with flying colors. However, I felt "something" coming on, so we elected to stay an extra day and get me checked out (some antibiotics fixed me right up!)

It was great seeing old friends at our home park. Eventually we hooked up with our friends Tom and Roe - we will be staying at the same park in Florida this winter. I took some time and visited my old work - had lunch with the boss and a former co-worker, and visited with everyone. Donna managed to get a quilt day in with her old quilt group, and had a great time. We even got some big-ticket items sold on www.craigslist.com

Of course the "call of the new rig" motivated us to hit the road again. We took our time coming back up, spending a few days in Wyoming, and a few more days in Idaho. We made some new friends in Caldwell, ID, and enjoyed talking and sipping wine in the evening. The next morning, we headed for Bend OR, where we thought we'd stay at Tumalo State Park. We were inside of the timeframe for online booking, but the park looked wide open. When we got there, however, we found that the park was very popular, and we couldn't get in. OK, things don't quiet down immediately after Labor Day. Grumbling, we headed down the road to La Pine, where we had stayed in July. The park is in our Coast to Coast network, so staying here is cheap, BUT...cell phone coverage sucks, Internet connections suck, and there are a zillion little flies to contend with. It's doubtful we'll be back there.

On our previous stay in Oregon, we met, by chance, Dave and Jeannie McKay, who developed the RV game Rally Ho! This game has just taken off, after several years in development. We met them at a restaurant McKay's Cottage, in Bend. The name is pure coincidence, as they are not affiliated with the restaurant. Anyway, we told them that if we got back in the area, we'd meet up at McKay's again for lunch. We did meet, and had a great long lunch. They invited us to stay at their home if we brought the new rig up to Bend. They are going through what we did last year - house for sale, hoping to full-time. We wish them success, both on their business venture, and getting the house sold!

We moved up to Woodburn, OR, for a week, to relax (?) and get the rig ready to turn in. We'll also do some sightseeing in the Portland area. Our current dilemma is getting our truck situation worked out. We are purchasing a new Jeep to tow behind the motor home. So, to get the truck home, we've either got to drive it (we are not going for this option - we want the new motor home to be a shared experience), tow it, or have it shipped back to Colorado. To tow it, I either have to find a rental unit that will tow a 3/4 ton truck, or buy the tow bar and hardware, then change (i.e., buy more hardware) the setup for the Jeep once we get back to Colorado. So once I talk to U-Haul, we'll crunch the numbers to see which option to go with.

Weather here has been cool, with intermittent rain. Yuck! We're hoping the weather will be perfect when we go down to Junction City on Thursday. We are very excited about seeing and taking ownership of the new motor home. We are not excited about moving - that will take a few days. Although we have much less to move that we did when the house sold, it's still a chore.

Da New Rig

2007-08-29T22:39:00.000-05:00

Since July, when we ordered the new coach, we have been anticipating getting back to Oregon to pick up the new rig. We've been too caught up in figuring out the logistics of moving from a 5th wheel to a motor home to worry too much about how construction has been moving along, but it was always on our mind. Fortunately, we asked Country Coach to take pictures as our rig was being built, and they have done a great job - they actually set up a web portal for our private viewing.

For the past week, the coach has been in paint...no photos were available during this time. Today we got a glimpse of what we'll soon be riding in.

Close to the beginning...

A 425HP Cummins Diesel - not quite ready.

Walls at last!

Out of the paint shop

Can I really drive this?

Power Run

2007-08-29T00:02:00.000-05:00

OK, I haven't written in a while. Retirees are busy! Actually, we decided to hang out at Skookums as long as we could, then get back to Colorado quickly. In retrospect, that wasn't a good strategy. A 400 mile day, followed by two 325 mile days, and a final drive of 125 miles put us back in Colorado. Driving like that, towing a 5th wheel, is physically draining (a sign of old age on my part).

Leaving Idaho through Coeur d'Alene, we ended up driving for two days through smoke. There were many wildfires burning in Montana, and the smoke was bad. We did put Coeur d'Alene on our list of places to revisit - it was beautiful there. We stopped briefly in Billings, MT, so that Donna could visit a quilt store that was on her list of must-sees. Our last night on the road was a stay in Cheyenne, WY, at Terry Bison RV park. This is a real working buffalo ranch with buffalo, horses, cattle, and several other animals. Our neighbor for the night told us that they sold bison meat at the RV store, and highly recommended them. We ended up buying several bison steaks.

The last day was quick and easy. When we arrived in Monument at our home park, we were delighted to find that "the best site in the park" was open. In all our time here, it has always been occupied, and the clerk told us that it had just been vacated. T & V came down in the afternoon for a visit. We are here until right after Labor Day. It's great to be back in a familiar area.

Canada, Eh?

2007-08-15T00:56:00.000-05:00

In Canada, looking south at the USA. The gate is the border!

Sunday we decided to head north to Canada. About 90 miles north of Usk is the Canadian town of Nelson. It is supposed to be a quaint town, lots of little shops, and very picturesque. We thought we'd take a leisurely drive up, have lunch, look around, then have a leisurely drive back to Usk.

The drive up to the border was very nice, and we saw some places we'll tour in the future. The local PUD has a dam upriver, and they give tours, so we'll definitely take that one. Electricity is cheap here - about 4 cents/KWH due to the hydro!!

Things changed drastically when we got to the border. As we crossed over into no-man's-land, we were next in line at Canadian customs. There was a white van in front of us. Hmmmm, doors open, engine off. OK, the border patrol was inside the van. A half hour later, I got out of our truck to ask the guards if I could turn around and head back. "Get back in your vehicle, sir, NOW!" was the reply. They then moved the van from the lane into a separate area. Hurray, we said, now we'll get through. Wrong. There were only 2 border guards at this station, and they had decided to empty out the van. There were 3 people in it, two very long-haired (dreadlocks) men, and one woman. One guard had to watch the occupants while the other opened suitcases. Finally, after about an hour, one of the guards returned to the line, which had grown to many vehicles. We should have turned around at that point, but we decided to head up to Nelson in spite of the delay. All right, I can go 100 here...no, that's kilometers per hour, not miles per hour.

We saw a lot of young hitchhikers between the border and Nelson, and some signs that said "Event Ahead". Finally we got to Nelson, and found a restaurant that was open. After eating a slightly different version of a burger, we started walking - not much open. On Sunday, in British Columbia, virtually all the stores were closed! We're outta here!

The trip back to the border was uneventful except for one thing: when I came around a corner, about 500 feet in front of us, a black bear was crossing the road. Donna grabbed the camera, but it was gone by the time we got close enough for a picture.

When we got back to the border, this time we had to wait about 20 minutes for the American border patrol. They checked our passports, had their dog sniff the truck (luckily we had left Abbey back in the fifth wheel), and asked us the usual questions. He also asked us if we had been to the drug event...OK, we asked, was that really what it was? Yes, he said. One of the questions he had asked us was if we were bringing back any drugs. He asked us using the slang name of the drug, and was quite amused at our blank stares. So that was our big adventure in another country. Shoulda stayed home!

Speaking of which...Thursday morning we are leaving our resort here and heading back towards Denver. We will arrive Sunday afternoon, and will be staying in Monument, at our Coast to Coast home park. We are excited to see family and friends, and visit some of our old haunts! Not as exciting will be going through storage to get chairs and a few other accessories that belong on the fifth wheel. When we return to Oregon in September to pick up the new rig, the fifth wheel will need to have all of it's original stuff with it.

In case you are wondering, the river our resort is next to is called the Pend O'reille. The actual pronounciation of that is Ponderay...go figure, French-Canadian influence I guess!

Yes, My Little Skookums

2007-08-11T14:21:00.000-05:00

Donna & Abbey on the lot

Our current set up at Skookum

We made it over the mountains, and through Spokane without incident, heading north to the tiny town of Usk, WA. Interesting, when you come out of the mountains east of Seattle, the countryside changes to flat with little trees. As you approach Spokane, you begin seeing trees and rolling hills again. As we moved north, more mountains appeared. Again, we were in beautiful country.

We got to Skookum Rendezvous , about 3 miles south of Usk, in the early afternoon. We had been invited here by some friends, Leroy and Clovie (not Leroy and Carol from Grants Pass!), to stay as their guest for a few days. After settling in, we wandered around the resort, talking to many friendly people. Our second day here, Donna attending a quilting session in the clubhouse. While she was quilting, I met with a sales rep, and learned about ownership here. Later in the day, Donna and I wandered around the park, looking at re-sale lots. We saw some possibilities, but decided to look at the new lots in the "to-be-built" phase. This area will have 2 man-made lakes, tennis and volleyball courts, a big meeting area, and will have curbs and gutters. The sales rep took us out and showed us the approximate areas where the lake and RV sites will be. After thinking about it, we decided to purchase a lot facing the lake! This area is tentatively scheduled to be finished next summer (2008), but we now can stay here on any open lots until such time as our lot is completed. Of course, everyone leaves in the September/October time frame, as this is not a winter place.

We are very excited that we will have a place to bring our new rig and just relax!

WA-WA (the State)

2007-08-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

After all that cheese and ice cream, we headed north again, this time to Washington. Our first stop was a C2C resort in Olympia. This place was really a RV resort where you purchase lots, with 17 sites set aside for RV camping sites. These sites were not in proximity to the pool or the other owners. Not bad though - heavily treed (so no satellite), ferns, all in all very picturesque. These sites again had no sewer. Lucky for us, the designer restrooms were close. I'm not kidding, these restrooms were nice! Tile, fancy faucets, and lots of hot water! We spent 2 nights here, and then headed north, as we had Seattle in mind.

Our next spot was in the town of Black Diamond, which we thought was a close suburb of Seattle. Wrong. We were about 45 miles out. This place, again a C2C resort, was not as nice as the last one. The resort is located on Lake Sawyer, and of course the picture you see of the resort shows the shoreline and docks. As it turns out, the campsites are not by the water, and the ones allotted to C2C members are small and don't have full hookups. A little disappointing, but at $8 a night the price wasn't bad! This was our one and only time here, as they have a size restriction of 40' (the new rig is 43').

We made it in to Seattle to go to Pike Place Market, one of our favorite spots. We were hoping to get some giant shrimp. When we were here 3 years ago, we got shrimp the size of steaks. One each was plenty for dinner. Alas, those shrimp are not available right now, so we'll have to try our next time through. We took a walk along the beachfront, and watched the Thunderbirds practicing for their air show the next day. Leaving the city, like coming in, was a zoo (it was Friday at rush hour). The freeway was not bad, but getting to it was. Gridlocked traffic on every street. I guess a big city is a big city, no matter where you are.

We're heading up to Usk, WA (about 40 miles north of Spokane, and 25 miles south of Canada) for several days. Some friends of ours, Leroy and Clovie, own several lots at this resort, and we will stay there as their guest.

Happy Birthday Abbey!

2007-08-02T00:10:00.000-05:00

Hurry up! I've got things to do!!

Abbey the "Aren't I cute?" Birthday Girl

Today Abbey is four years young. To celebrate, she got to do anything she wanted, and this is what happened: potty, eat treat, poop, eat treat, car ride/sleep in Mom's arms, potty, eat treat, sleep, check out new campsite, potty, eat treat, get pictures taken, and then eat dinner. Followed, of course, by: potty, eat treat, stake out bed for evening, and finally, sleep. I think she is planning to wake up about 1:00am and wake me up to take her out.

Tillamook

2007-07-31T20:44:00.000-05:00

Mugging with a double scoop

Tillamook Cheese Factory

After our excellent campground in Lincoln City, we were reluctant to journey to a new camp, but something cheezy was calling us. We ended up in Tillamook, at Wilson River RV Park. This camp is on the Wilson River (duh!), and while picturesque, was close to the highway.

We headed over to the Tillamook factory for a tour and tasting on our second day here. The tour is self-guided, and very interesting. However, the tasting is great! Besides the usual cheese offered, Tillamook is famous for their ice cream. About 40 flavors were available. I had a double (almond-mocha and mint chocolate) and Donna had a single (marionberry pie). We both can attest, it is very, very good!!

The View (No, NOT the TV show)

2007-07-31T16:37:00.000-05:00

Site with river in background

Standing on the dock, looking at our rig

When we arrived Lincoln City, OR, we got a small surprise: "We have you in dry camping, as we're booked solid". Hmmm, I thought: "But we have a reservation, and no one said we would be dry camping when I made the reservation!" Donna started thumbing through Woodalls, thinking we needed to move on, but the park managers changed some other reservations around, and we ended up with a full hookup on the river! This view was, by far, our nicest since we started our journey. This park (Chinook Bend in Lincoln City) is about 4 miles from the coast, up a canyon. Because of the terrain, we did not have cell phone service or internet service. The steep canyon walls, heavily forested, also compromised our satellite signal. Woe is us, no high definition signal(everything else was OK). Minor trade-offs considering the serene setting.

The people across from us were party central (for the 70+ crowd). Every day, about 11:30am, people would show up, eat lunch, play cards, and gossip. About 5:00pm, the potluck casseroles would arrive. More cards and gossip. By 8:00pm, they were gone and probably in bed. Quite clique-ish, we weren't invited in.

Another interesting item about camping on a coastal river: as the tide changes, so does the flow of the river. There looked to be about a 3' rise and fall. This is a hot campground during salmon spawning time - there is a big board showning catches - averaging about 40 -45 pounds. We saw a lot of fishing, but no catching. August and September are supposed to be the big months for fishing.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Wherever We're Going

2007-07-26T22:45:00.000-05:00

Since we purchased a new motorhome, we thought it was prudent to go to the factory where they make them, and take a tour. So we left Prineville, OR and headed about 150 miles west, ending up in Coburg. We settled in yesterday afternoon, and then headed off this morning for a factory tour of Country Coach, over in Junction City. The tour was fabulous, only 8 of us total, so everyone got to ask questions. We were singled out as new "almost" owners, and we really got a lot of additional information on our coach. We had a phone conference with the factory rep to clarify a few issues and headed out to find a place for lunch.

Eventually we ended up at the same restaurant as everyone else on the tour (interesting coincidence, but it gets weirder!). After lunch, Donna called our customer rep, and asked if we could get some fabric swatches, and was told they'd be ready in about 45 minutes. To kill some time, we headed off to the local Camping World. This is where it gets really strange. We meandered around browsing, asked some questions, and then took one small item to checkout. Two people ahead of us in line was our friend from Grants Pass, Leroy!! Now, the odds of being at the same place, at the same time, with no prior knowledge must be a zillion to one!!

We had another great afternoon together, and then we all had dinner at the local truck stop (great food!). They were only here for the day, so this was a very chance meeting.

Where is Everyone???

2007-07-24T01:47:00.000-05:00

Feedback...we'd like a little! We think that there are many of you out there who read our blog, but where are the comments? You can make a comment anonymously, so don't feel intimidated. Remember, the blog is our connection to you! Thanks!!

The Rally

2007-07-23T01:16:00.000-05:00

Several months ago, we signed up to attend the Good Sam Rally in Redmond, OR. Having never been to a rally before, we opted to stay off-site, so that we could orient ourselves, and have some peace in the evenings.

So what is a rally? It's a giant RV show, with new rigs, accessories, RV goodies of all kinds, evening entertainment, as well as onsite camping if you want it. They are usually held at fairgrounds due to the logistics and magnitude of it all. It's also a place where RV'ers spend money!

Since we have been exploring switching to a Class A motorhome, it also provided us with instant access to almost every brand of motorhome on the market. Donna and I had lots of fun checking out all of the rigs. There were even a few $1.3 - 1.5M coaches to look at. In our opinion, they are too glitzy, so they don't appeal to us. We did take several rigs out for test drives, including: Beaver (Patriot Thunder), Mandalay (Mandalay), Monaco (Diplomate), and Country Coach (Inspire 360 Founders Edition). All of these rigs were at least 40'. We zeroed in on two, the Mandalay and the Country Coach. After much discussion, we decided that we would be continuing this lifestyle for quite a while. So, we are going to change our rig out!

Our final decision was based on two factors: 1) quality and reputation of the company, and 2) how we were treated. The Country Coach is, in our mind, far superior to anything else we saw. All of the people at Beaudry RV (Brian especially!) treated us with respect, patiently answered our questions, drove us around the rally in golfcarts, and made it an easy experience. Now, if we can just win the lotto...

You can check out the floor plan at:
http://www.countrycoach.com/model.cfm?brand=fnd&my=08
It's a 43' 4-slide rig (big, and yes, it's got a tag axle). We did not like any of the interior/exterior color combinations on display at the rally, so we factory ordered one. As this rig is a 2008 model year, and a limited edition to boot, the color and options we chose have not yet been built. We learned that our rig will be the first of this color combo. We are scheduled to take possession at the factory in Junction, OR, in mid-September.

We were wondering where we would head after the rally. Not anymore - we're driving about 180 miles over to the OR coast to take a factory tour! It should be an interesting camping experience, as CC has an attached RV park. Hmmm, a 5th wheel in there with the CC's. I'm sure we'll have some explaining to do!

By the way, next years rally will be in Georgia, in March. Fits right in with our winter plans, since we're scheduled to be in Florida in January and February. I'll have to think about going again, it costs us too much money!!!

Technology

2007-07-19T02:40:00.000-05:00

Cell phones: our link to the world. We need them, not only to communicate day-to-day calls with friends and relatives, but for business (such that retirees have). We rely on them to keep us in touch. Donna's failed the other day, for no apparent reason. Shortly after arriving in La Pine, she got a low battery beep. No problem, we put it on the 120v charger, and in a few hours, it was recharged. Hmmm, 2 hours later, it's beeping again (and she wasn't making any calls).

OK, we think, battery problem. We took the phone back to Costco, and they redirected us to a Verizon store. At Verizon, they told us that if we hadn't done a *228 lately (to update the the phone with the local towers, that the battery would drain while searching for towers. OK, so we hit *228, and went home to recharge. The beeping a few hours later told us this wasn't the solution. Back to the Verizon store: this time, upon re-examination, the battery was "puffy"; probably was overcharged on a car charger...so $40 later, we left with a new battery. After charging it, you guessed it - it went dead in a matter of hours. Back to the Verizon store the next day; this time they thought it was the phone, and gave us this great deal ($50 for a warranty replacement). Recharged the new battery, and...it again went dead.

Now Donna is not taking this well - her communication device hasn't worked in 4 days. She placed a call (on my phone) to the Verizon store and spoke to a supervisor. Turns out Verizon had a small problem - there is a new tower in La Pine that hasn't been activated yet. Depending upon the phone, certain Verizon phones in the area were tuning in to this tower and were having problems. They had a rash of calls about batteries going dead. She asked that we recharge it one more time, keeping it off in La Pine, then turning it on in Bend. If we could make calls and not have the battery go dead while in Bend, then that would validate the cell tower theory.

So we spent some time up in Bend, made some calls, and the phone stayed charged. Mystery solved, and Verizon credited our account for the $50. We needed a new battery anyway, so we were only out the $40. Since my phone is newer than Donna's, it did not exhibit this problem.

Sisters

2007-07-19T01:54:00.000-05:00

We headed north from Grants Pass a mere 173 miles to La Pine, OR. La Pine is a small town about 20 minutes south of Bend. This was to be our hang out for a week, prior to heading up to the Redmond area for the Good Sam Rally. The park we were in, Cascade Meadows, is a Coast to Coast resort, so we stayed cheap. It is amazing all of the rigs that ended up here waiting for the rally. There were even a few "Farkles" in their older rigs to keep us amused.

Outdoor quilt hangings

On Saturday the 14th, we headed up to Sisters, OR, to take in the annual Quilt Show. This is a mega-event that started years ago, and it changed Sisters from a very small fork-in-the-road to a very good sized town. We went to this show about 2 years ago, and were amazed this year at all of the changes since then. It had a start time of 9:30am, so we headed out early (it's about 40 miles from La Pine). About a mile from town, traffic slowed to a crawl, and it wasn't even 9:00 yet. After getting in and parked, we meandered around the town for several hours, and finally pooped out from the heat. When we left in early afternoon, the traffic was backed up for about 5 miles coming in, so we were happy we came early.

We pooped out anyway with temps in the 90's

If you are ever in Bend, try and eat breakfast or lunch at McKays Cottage. We discovered this place while driving along the Deschutes River. Great food, staff, and owners. And if you like dessert, try the White Chocolate Raspberry Bread Pudding. My oh my! They also make their own ice cream (they had blueberry), which looked great.

It is only 68 miles to our next campground, where we will be for another week. After that, well we haven't decided that yet!

Rice's RV Resort

2007-07-10T00:09:00.000-05:00

Rice's Woods

Our private RV site

A bit of history: Leroy and I used to work for Southern California Edison, at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. At the time, we were often on opposite sides of the fence on many issues, but we managed to form a friendship during off-work hours. Until February of 2007, we had not seen each other since about 1994, when he retired. They moved from Vista, CA to Grants Pass shortly thereafter. He built an replica of their Vista home on his property - the same except the rooms were all larger. We hooked up with he and his wife Carol in Benson, AZ last winter, and renewed our friendship.

We arrived in Grants Pass, OR around 7:30pm, after electing to bypass Redding, CA, where it was 105. I called Leroy when we were about 10 miles out, to confirm the GPS directions - turned out the GPS route was bogus, so we got new directions, and made it to our new temporary home. Moral (which we already had experienced): don't always trust the GPS.

Leroy was waiting at the bottom of his driveway, and directed us in. A quick backup, and we were hooked up. We were bushed after the long drive (450 miles), so after chatting with Leroy and Carol, we headed off to bed. I did come out and attempt to get the satellite up, and managed to get everything but high definition.

The next day (Sunday) Leroy took us into town to hit the local Walmart. After re-supplying, we headed back. The Rice's had planned a BBQ with some of their friends and neighbors, which turned out great. That evening, we headed off to their favorite eatery, JJ North's Buffet. We took separate vehicles, since they had to go to Medford to pick up their son Jeff and his girlfriend.

I fiddled with the satellite again, but failed to find the HD signal. I think that there were some trees or hills in the way. At least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it! Leroy and I spent many hours in the shade discussing Class A coaches. Donna and I called it "Class A 101". Leroy has years of practical RV experience, and his advice could prove to be invaluable.

During one of our morning walks, we saw what appeared to be a cherry tree. I asked Leroy about it, and he said "it was some kind of edible fruit". We took a stroll down there later that evening, and I plucked one for a sample. Yow! Pretty sour...turns out they were little plums, not ripe cherries! There is an abundance of blackberry (Marionberries are what some of the locals call them) bushes throughout this area, but we were about a month early.

On Monday, Donna and I headed out and did some errands, which included a trip to Costco, and a visit to an RV dealer in Grants Pass. We are very excited about attending the Good Sam Rally in Redmond! We started a game of Mexican Train that evening, which we finished on Wednesday evening.

Leroy and Carol also hosted a family BBQ on Wednesday, and we got to meet his 94 year old Mother, Anna, as well as his daughter Julie.

We had a great time at Rice's RV Resort, and were lucky enough to be invited back. Thanks to our hosts, Leroy and Carol - we'll see ya on the road!!

By the way, it's much cheaper to live in Oregon than California. For example: 1) diesel in Grants Pass is 30 cents a gallon cheaper than California; 2) Costco prices for the same 20 lb bag of potatoes: CA - $8.50, OR - $6.50. Also, Oregon gets an "A" for roads, California gets a "C-".

A Few More "Goods"

2007-07-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

I missed a few of the good things from California, as it was late when I posted last night:

Fourth of July with the grandkids. It's amazing to see the wonder and awe in those innocent faces. Our best 4th since our kids were small.
In & Out hamburgers. We hadn't had one in quite a while. We had a couple our first week there, and then laid off.
Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream. When we were kids, we used to go to Thrifty Drug store for a 5 cent scoop. This same ice cream is now sold in Rite-Aid Drugs now under the Thrifty label. It's one of my favorites, but we couldn't get it in Colorado. So, with availability, I'm in my second 1/2 gallon (eat your heart out Todd!).

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2007-07-09T01:46:00.000-05:00

The Good

Donna and Livie

It was so nice to be near our daughter, son-in-law, and the grandkids (Bea and Livie) for a whole month! And yes, the time flew by. None of us can believe that the month is gone. Seeing Josh's parents, Jim and Judy again was also great. Thanks for everyone's hospitality!!

The dryer is fixed. I tried contacting several appliance repair places, but no one worked on Splendide...it figures that RV washer/dryer combos are made in Italy, and normal appliance repair places don't even know about them. I ended up contacting the USA distributor, and found out that they had a customer service department. The rep actually walked me through trouble-shooting the problem over the course of several days. We determined it was a bad circuit board, as the dryer fan was not getting 120V. Even though the unit was out of warranty, they shipped me a new board (and for free!).

Donna and I drove down to SoCal the last weekend in June. She and her sisters Gail and Cheryl attended a great family reunion, and learned a lot about their heritage. When our travels take us to Canada, we'll make a stop in Winnipeg, so that Donna can see where family businesses and homes were. While she was at the reunion, Abbey and I went and visited my Dad, who will be 83 in September. We took a casual drive down to Dana Point, had lunch, and then took a walk along the beach. If you know my Dad, you know that he is a walker. I definitely got a good workout!!

Little Olivia took some real steps our last night visiting them! She'll be leaving the crawling phase soon, so Jenna and Josh will be dealing with two mobile kids! Beatrice is talking in sentences now, and amazes everyone with her "smarts". She had a great time swimming with Grandma.

Grandma & Bea

Beatrice & Olivia

Farmers markets - there was lots of fresh fruit and veggies just about everywhere. And it was cherry harvest time, so we got our fill!

Donna and I attended an RV show in Santa Clara 3 days ago. We were interested in seeing some Class A motor homes, as we had never experienced them since we began full-timing. It wasn't crowded, so the manufacturer rep and a salesman took us for a spin in one. I drove it about 10 miles - it's definitely different than towing a fifth wheel! When we returned to the parking lot, they had Donna drive it around the lot and park it. She sped around the lot at "idle speed", and did a great job parking it.

The kids and grand kids came down on Saturday morning to see us off. It was tough leaving after being so close for a month. We made some tentative plans for next summer to meet at Lake Tahoe for some camping (OK, RV'ing) and off-roading (Josh's hobby).

Yesterday (July 7), we left Morgan Hill, and headed north. Oregon here we come! We had planned to stop in Redding, about 260 miles north of Morgan Hill, and 180 miles from our destination, Grants Pass, OR. When we arrived about 2:30pm, it was 105. No way did we want to pull over, get set up for one night, and then have to pick up and head out again. I called our friends in Grants Pass, and asked if "Rices' RV Resort" had a vacancy for a one-day-early arrival. Fortunately, they did (there is only one RV site at this private resort), so we continued north.

The Bad

Wind...wind...wind. One of Morgan Hills greatest assets. If it was from the north, it was HOT. If it was blowing from the south, it was cooler. But it was always there.

On the return back to Morgan Hill from our SoCal visit, an RV caught fire up on the Grapevine near Gorman. Besides being completely destroyed, it started a brush fire. Five lanes of northbound traffic came to a stop, then we had a 2 mile/hour crawl from Magic Mountain to Gorman...2+ hours. We didn't get back until much later than planned.

Calfornia prices are high, for just about everything. Fuel, food, you name it, things are expensive there. An example: a container of Yoplait yogurt, that we pay about 50 cents for just about everywhere, was 99 cents in SoCal (here in Oregon, where we are now, they are 48 cents).

The Ugly

As we headed north from Redding, the drive was hot, but uneventful, until I made a routine pass around a slow truck. Actually, there were 3 trucks going around 50mph. We had been traveling with a couple of RV's one of which had passed said trucks. I signalled, changed lanes, passed the trucks, signalled, and got back over into the slow lane. How longs does that take? A minute; two max? After I got into the slow lane again, a female driver in a silver Mercedes proceeded to almost side swipe us, then pulled in front of us and jammed on her brakes. We are talking serious road rage - it was all I could do to avoid crashing into her (I almost wish I had). She got me down to about 35mph before stomping on it. I laid on the horn and the brakes, but she ignored these actions. It happened so fast we couldn't get her license plate number to report it to the CHP. Nothing like leaving California with a taste of road rage. Enough said.

Callie-4-nya

2007-06-13T01:03:00.000-05:00

Here we are in the Land of Arnold...and its windy. Every day so far, wind wind wind. And it's coming from the north - the same direction our awning faces. What that means is we can't put the awning out without risking the high winds ripping it. So we're basking in the warm sun. The RV Resort we're at is awesome. It's brand new, with concrete pads, paved roads, beautiful pool and spa, and cable TV (in addition to our satellite).

We've seen the kids and grandkids several times, and are amazed at how much Bea and Olivia have grown. Bea can now actually communicate with words and sentences, and Olivia is trying to do the same. Miss O was so nice to me, placing a wet finger in my mouth when I wasn't being diligent...now I've got a scratchy throat and runny nose! Grand kids are worth it though, so I'll suffer for a few days!

In San Jose, the fuel prices aren't what they were in Sacramento...the best price for diesel we've found is $3.03, so California ranks right up there with Colorado.

Now that we're landed for a month, Donna is getting into her quilting. I've got several projects on my list, including finding out what's wrong with the dryer, and cleaning the roof. Two fun projects. I'll also be turning a pen for Josh's birthday present. We've started walking several times a day, and will be exploring some local trails.

I'll get some updated pictures posted in the next day or so.

Westward Ho-oooooo

2007-06-06T16:15:00.000-05:00

Colorado is home, but those last 2 weeks were best described in a 4 letter word: WORK! Now, with doctors, dentists, eye doctors, and vetinarians behind us, not to mention the storage consolidation, we are heading west. Unfortunately, with all of our appointments and storage cleaning, we did not get to spend much time with friends. When we get back in August, hopefully we can remedy that! We did get some time with our son, Todd, and his fiance, Victoria, which was very nice.

The first day out we made it from Monument to Rawlins, WY. Usually, we try and get about 200-250 miles, but we wanted to spend an extra night in Reno, so we opted for a power run on day 2. We drove 473 miles, and ended up in Wells, NV, at a place that you wouldn't give a second glace at if you were driving by. Oh well, we were dog-tired, and, at $8/night, it was a place to sleep!

The 3rd night found us in Sparks, NV, which is right by Reno. We stayed at a classy, new, RV resort, that we will definitely go back to. Paved roads, concrete pads, and artificial turf (hey, it's the desert!). After two nights, we opted to leave and get over the Sierra's into Calfornia for a couple of reasons: 1) the drive into Morgan Hill would only be 100 miles, and 2) we wanted to check out the Sacramento Delta area.

The park we are at now on the Delta leaves something to be desired. Older, with a lot of rigs "in storage". Abandoned would better describe it. Yesterday (6/5), the winds became brutal in the afternoon and evening. Today it's much warmer and sunny, with just a light breeze. In the summer, this area is supposed to be very popular, but right now, we're finding it hard to see the draw.

Tomorrow (6/7), we're heading over to Morgan Hill, which is just south of San Jose. We have booked a month at a new RV and golf resort. And we'll see the grandkids, daughter, and son-in-law! Whoo-hoo!! Besides seeing family, we are excited to stay in one place for a whole month. During our stay, Donna will also attend a family reunion. We'll see her family down in Lakewood, and will also see my Dad, and maybe my sister.

Here's an interesting observation: so far, diesel prices have been the highest in Colorado ($3.05 - $3.15). In California, where we expected them to be high, we have found $2.89. Cheapest so far was in Michigan, where we used some bio-diesel (diesel with some soy oil mixed in) at $2.59.

A-Cute Situation (or two)

2007-05-25T01:35:00.000-05:00

Fast-melting spring snow!

Looking south from the campground - Pikes Peak in background.

We finally got back to the Denver area, a few days earlier than planned. My wrist was not getting better, and it was time to see a doctor. After settling in at our home park in Monument, I headed off to the doctor. "Hmmm", doctor #1 says, "looks like 'acute tendonitis'. Check with the ortho to make sure." So off we go, and after 3 x-rays, the preliminary diagnosis is confirmed. No broken bones, just some nasty little tears in a tube containing a tendon. So a cortisone shot and a wrist brace later, I'm feeling better about getting better. Of course, it will still take some time, but at least I know what's up.

Colorado is great, but, besides doctors, dentists, eye doctors, and vets, we're here for work. No, I'm staying retired - we're cleaning out our storage units. Prior to us moving out of our home, it snowed every weekend for over 9 weeks. Consequently, we did not pack our original unit very tightly. We ran out of space, and had to rent an additional unit. So we are here to repack, consolidate, eliminate, and vacate. We fought the snow all winter, and now, as we attempt to rework the storage, we are fighting the rain. Seems we no sooner get boxes and furniture out for sorting, and it starts raining. As Donna says, "three steps forward, two steps back." It's frustrating, but we'll get there.

Colorado weather...it still hasn't changed! Last night, well actually beginning yesterday afternoon, it started snowing! I had to put the awning it, as we didn't want it to collapse or tear from the weight of the snow. When we woke up this morning, there was about 4" of accumulation. Mind you, it only snowed up here at the top of Monument Hill where we are staying.

The park is filling up, as this weekend is the Memorial Day holiday. We'll see some familiar faces and reacquaint ourselves with friends. We've stopped in at my old workplace twice to say hi. It's still real busy, and there have been lots of changes since I left. It's nice to see everyone there, but I'm now out of the loop. Time marches on, and we're on a different path now.

We will be heading for California next, to see our daughter, son-in-law, and two grand-daughters, Beatrice and Olivia. We're planning on staying there a month, so we should really slow down the pace, and recover from all of this work!

A Snapping Good Time

2007-05-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

City of Winterset Campground

Hogback Covered Bridge

Yesterday and today we explored the famous "Bridges of Madison County". Out of the original 19 constructed, only 6 remain. Of these, several have been relocated from their original locations. All were originally build in the late 1800's, and have been restored. We also stopped by the home where John Wayne was born.

Iowa can fool you. We had always thought of Iowa as a state not to be vacationed in...well, because it couldn't be anything but flat farmlands. Not true - flat in some places, farms, in some places, but lots of hills and woodlands. Very beautiful.

As we meandered through dusty backroads in search of covered bridges, we happened upon a turtle slowly crossing a road. Donna thought that we should "save" it, by moving it out of harms way. So we stopped to a relocation. I immediately had my suspicions: nasty looking beak, long, sharp claws, and a jagged pointy tail. Plus the shell was moss and scum covered. As I reached to grab the sides of the shell, the little bugger hissed and jumped at me. Yep, my suspicions were confirmed, I was in a confrontation with a snapping turtle. Sorry, Donna, that amphibian will get to where it's going on its own, with no help from me.

We got back in the truck, and turned to look back...the turtle had turned around and was moving quite quickly back to where it came from. So I guess our stopping did get it moving.

Friday we are heading to Nebraska...where I know there are cornfields! We will be back in Denver earlier than originally planned. When we were in Hill Country in Texas, I injured my wrist, and it's not getting better. After a rainstorm, branches from the oak tree we were under had sagged and were on our roof. This provided a path for ants...so I was up there doing some trimming. As I squeezed the cutters and twisted the branch to break it, something popped. I've done that a thousand times, with no repercussions, but this time: OUCH!!

Since we had previously scheduled all of our doctor's appointments for this timeframe, I moved one up a week. So soon I will know what really happened, and what it will take to get it fixed.

I-80 Westbound

2007-05-08T23:00:00.002-05:00

We left Michigan and that cool weather behind yesterday (Monday). We traveled southwest around Lake Michigan and made it to Interstate 80. We continued west until we got to Utica, IN. We opted for an overnighter at Hickory Hollow Campground. Not much happening here, but the campground is appropriately named - there were hickory trees everywhere! The property next to the campground was being developed, so there were several downed trees. Of course, I snagged a limb for future use!

This morning we headed out at about 8:10am, a new record. Try as we may, 8:30am seems to be our earliest departure. We had targeted a campground west of Des Moines, IA, to spend a few nights while we took in the local sights. Upon arriving, the grounds looked nice, but the office was closed. We decided to find a site, and then register, but the owner appeared as we were starting up. Immediate bad vibes...and when she told us the rates, we opted to move on.

We ended up in Winterset, the birthplace of John Wayne. It's also home to a quilt shop that Donna really wants to see. The City runs an RV park, very reasonable, and very nice. We'll hang out here for three nights, and will take in the famous "Bridges of Madison County". So far, we've missed the bad weather that has moved through the Midwest. A City worker drove through the park this evening, and told us that they had gotten 6" of rain over the past 3 days. And we were complaining about being cold in Michigan!

Tulips

2007-05-05T14:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we drove up to Holland, MI, to see the tulips. There is a week-long festival that actually began Saturday...but to avoid the crowds, we went early, on Friday. Holland is an old town started by Dutch immigrants, and the town's culture reflects that fact. Besides tulips everywhere, there are wooden shoe stores, Delftware, and strange pastries with stranger names! What is Delfware, you ask? It's that dishware that is white, with blue designs or pictures of windmills, etc. glazed on it. Very cute, very pricey. We left with none of it, as we don't have the room or the decor for it.

We also took a drive 5 miles north from there to Veldheers Tulip Farm, just to make sure we saw enough! It's lucky we went Friday, as Saturday was cold and very windy. Locals told us tqat the weather for the festival is the best in several years. It was sunny while we were up there. The wind stayed with us on Sunday, and we packed up bright and early to start our trek back to Colorado.

One interesting observation (at least to us) about campers and RV'ers in Michigan: their idea of a good time is to sit around a campfire...all day, and late into the night. Marathon sessions...arms folded, alone or with others. They seemed to be obsessed with it. And the campfire wood magically never runs out! Maybe Donna and I have different ideas about this life. We are more into seeing what's out there, rather than watching the embers glow, and choke in the smoke! To us, full-timing doesn't mean sitting by the fire the majority of the time!

I did find a nice branch of maple, and turned a pen on Sunday...the first since we hit the road. The wind stayed with us on Sunday, so Monday bright and early we packed up to begin our trek back to Colorado. We're planning on one overnight stay in Illinois, followed by several days in Iowa - Donna has some mega-quilt stores in mind, as well as the famous bridges of Madison County.

Done

2007-05-03T22:22:00.000-05:00

The rig was returned to us Monday at the usual time: 2:15pm. Everything was finally complete, and we made the decision to head north. Our next campground was only 65 miles north, and free camping or not, we needed a change of scenery. The weather on Monday was iffy, with scattered T-storms and weather advisories. We decided to take our chances, so, by 2:30pm, we were on the road. It was a straight shot, IN Hwy 13 changed to MI Hwy 131, and, by 4:00pm, we were parked outside of Kalamazoo, MI. We went through some rain showers, but didn't see any movement in the clouds - there had been a tornado warning posted. That is one thing we don't want to tangle with!

We are now at the American Campground, northwest of Kalamazoo. Beautiful park, with two small lakes, and several pairs of geese with goslings. I scrounged some wood (maple I think) yesterday, and will attempt to turn a pen either tomorrow afternoon or Saturday. Lots of maple trees around here. We have found that it is noticeably cooler here than Indiana, even though we didn't travel that far. Seventy degrees feels more like sixty.

We're heading to the Tulip Festival tomorrow, so stay tuned for some flower pictures!

Not Done

2007-04-27T20:31:00.000-05:00

Well, Carriage worked diligently on our rig all week. Picked it up every morning at 7:00am, and brought it back at 2:15pm. Unfortunately, they need 2 more hours. One more big ticket item on the list (replacing the kitchen floor), and we also have to discuss a couple of items with them. The good news: we finally have an electric water heater that works!

Things to do in Indiana in the rain: 1) nothing; 2) go to the Amish "bulk food" stores. We decided to do the latter. We went to E&S Bulk Sales. Real interesting. A lot of the same stuff you see in "regular" stores, but also some local brands.

The weather has been terrible...rain, mud, more rain, and we are stuck here for the weekend. The good news is that it's supposed to be sunny and in the 70's this weekend. Tentatively, Monday we will be heading north...to Holland, MI.

Carriage RV Park

2007-04-26T12:25:00.000-05:00

Sunday we drove the 230 miles from Bloomington, IN up to Millersburg, IN. Quite a difference! From the booming college town of Bloomington of thousands, to the quiet Millersburg with a population of 200 in the middle of Amish country.

We are staying at the courtesy RV park located on the property at Carriage, Inc., the birthplace of our 5th wheel. When we arrived, there was a total of one more rig in the park (which has 20 sites). Last night (Wednesday), we were up to 6 rigs. Looking out today, it looks like it's going to be us and one other rig. We have new friends from Ontario Canada, and Michigan.

Monday night around 9:00pm, while watching TV, Donna said she smelled smoke, so we went outside to investigate. We had heard sirens earlier in the evening, sometime around 7:00pm. Outside, there was a lot of smoke, and we could see fire trucks and the glow of a fire off behind some of the buildings. I thought that one of the local residences had caught fire, but Donna was thinking that it was something at Carriage. She was right; the next day, we found out that the paint shop had burnt down.

We took the factory tour first thing Tuesday morning, and it was lucky that we did. All tours for the remainder of the week were cancelled because of the fire! Before we purchased our rig, we had come to the factory in October 2005 and taken the tour. At that time, we got to meander among several small buildings. There is now one huge building that encompasses the entire assembly process. We were very impressed with the changes.

As far as getting the rig serviced, they do not work on your rig at your site. Every morning around 7:00am, they pick it up, and haul it up to their service department; it's returned every afternoon between 2:00pm and 3:00pm. We've been getting up every day at 5:15am to accomodate the fact that we have to eat, then put in the slides, disconnect, etc. Once in a while getting up that early is OK, but every day? We're retired! Today is Thursday, and the list of things to get completed is dwindling. Maybe it will be done today, but we hope by tomorrow at the latest. There is not a lot to do in Millersburg, especially since it has been raining for 2 days!

Today we drove up to Elkhart, and went to the RV History Museum. The oldest "RV" in the museum is a wooden panel truck, which was hand-made in 1913. Unbeliveably, this rig was found intact in a barn in 1988. The engine actually started up, although it had been stored there for 40 years!! The number of old trailers from the 40's and 50's is quite impressive.

We were just told that there were "severe weather" bulletins issued for Elkart County tonight. Severe weather means T-storms and possible tornados. Great! The Millersburg Fire Department is right around the block, and we were told that they will come over here and warn us if we need to take shelter. We never seem to get away from excitement of some kind!

Hoosier Daddy (Burp City, here we come!)

2007-04-22T15:37:00.000-05:00

It took days and days to drive through Texas. Leaving Nashville, and heading north, we hit Kentucky, and then Indiana...wow - three states in 5 hours! We ended up just south of Bloomington, IN, home of Indiana University. The Hoosiers! Our RV park was called Cedar Ridge Camping Resort, and is located at Lake Monroe, the largest lake in Indiana. The park was new in 2005, so it was very nice! No trailer trash to look at.

We had to have our monthly pizza fix, so we went into Bloomington to a pizza place that opened in 1953. We figured if it had been around that long, it probably was good (it was). IU is a huge campus, 1600 + acres, and from driving around, it's a big party university (ie, "Honk and I'll drink" signs at the fraternity houses).

We took the next day to take a casual drive, almost up to Indianapolis, so that Donna could see a highly rated quilt shop. We returned via rural roads, and went through some picturesque towns: Beanblossom and Nashville. Yes, there is a Nashville, IN. We stopped outside of Beanblossom and had a picnic lunch next to a covered bridge that was built in 1880! The town of Nashville is a quaint artsy town, full of small shops. We meandered our way back to Bloomington, only to end up in Friday afternoon traffic. Yuck!

Yesterday (Saturday), we headed north of Bloomington to visit a local winery, Oliver Winery. We did some tasting, took the tour, and did some more tasting. We ended up buying 3 bottles. After that, we headed back into town to try a southern Indiana specialty: pork tenderloin sandwiches. They consist of thin sliced pork, which is pounded flat to about the size of a pancake. It's then breaded and fried, and served on a Kaiser roll. Since we don't each much fried food, these sandwiches, while very tasty, didn't settle well with either of us. At least we've tried them.

This morning, we headed up to Millersburg, IN, where our fifth wheel was made. They have an RV park behind the facility, and we are now settled in. Service opens at 7:30am tomorrow. We've heard that they actually do some work right at your site, which would be great. We'll find out tomorrow! Weather is now hovering around 80. Time for an adult beverage!

Nashville

2007-04-20T15:34:00.000-05:00

Nashville, home of country music, the Grand Ole Opry...and trailer trash. We got to our RV park, and it looked pretty good going in. When we got to our site, we noticed that, just a few rows back, were the "permanent residents". Most of them were in older rigs (you could tell by the moss growing on them); some even had window air conditioners installed. That, and the fact that they parked their work vehicles (dump trucks, tree trimming trucks, etc.) in the park.

We were in brand new sites, and the owner had tried to squeeze as many as possible into this area. I think 3 spots would have covered it, but they put in 5. When our fellow RV'ers pulled in, with everybodies slides out, we had maybe a foot of separation. OK, we won't be staying at the Timberline RV Park in Lebanon, TN again!! We had rain and cloudy weather for much of our stay here, but that beats the snow that Chicago and other places farther north were getting. At least we didn't have to contend with snow.

We headed into Nashville and visited the Opryland Hotel. We didn't catch a Grand Ole Opry show; we'll do that the next time through. The last time we were here, the Opryland Hotel was barely started. Let's just say it's huge (think hotels in Las Vegas), and very beautiful. We also explored some of the backroads surrounding Lebanon and Nashville.

The highlight of this week was our trip to The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, our 7th President. This home was originally constructed in the late 1700's, and due to fires, was rebuilt in the early 1800's. It is now completely restored, with about 95% of the original furniture. Even the wallpaper that had to be replaced is exactly as originally installed. The restorers contacted the original company who had made it. Amazingly, they found the exact patterns used, so they were able to reproduce them.

Since the weather is supposed to improve, we'll be heading north again. Monday we have an appointment to have the rig serviced at the factory.

From Red to Blue

2007-04-11T21:30:00.000-05:00

After several weeks in Texas (a "RED" state), we journeyed north and east, ending up in Hot Springs, Arkansas (a "BLUE" state). In case you are ever gaming and have presidential trivia as your topic, this is the boyhood town of Bill Clinton.

Two days ago, the weather turned gray, then rainy. Undaunted, we headed off to the old section of town to Hot Springs National Park. Some more trivia: it is both the smallest national park, and the only national park to be completely contained within the city limits of one town! Hot Springs main claim to fame is the very pure and very hot water (148F) that flows out of the mountain. In the late 1800's through the mid-1920's, several bath houses were built here to take advantage of the steamy waters. During that era, weathly people from all over the world traveled here to soak, relax, and revive. In those days, you actually needed a doctor's prescription to come to one of these spas! We took a guided tour through one of the restored spas - it was very interesting to find out what people went through back in those times.

The water is actually so pure, that NASA uses it to store moon rocks - no contamination. In the center of town, there is a place where you can bring jugs and take all the water you want. Local businesses sell empty plastic jugs at a killing to the tourists. I went back and filled several containers. It's very good!

Last night the rain and thunder were so loud, that Abbey kept us up pacing and panting. She finally settled down about 4:00am I think.

Due to the storms moving through Illinois and Indiana and the rest of the midwest, we decided to move east, not north, and hang out for another week before heading north to Indiana. Today we moved further east into Tennessee, and are staying at an RV park in Hornsby. The wind following that front gave us a great tail wind on our journey today, but was no fun once we got to our site. We had a little excitement getting to our site - the office is closed from about noon on, and we got here around 2:15pm. The instructions on the door said: "Find a place; we'll catch up to you". Great, except there weren't any maps. So we took off, logically, on the main road from the office. Hmmm, as we made the loop, we saw that we should have gone the other way. No problem, I'll back the rig up on that big field, straighten 'er out, and back in to that nice spot facing the lake. Good plan, except that the field was rain soaked. The "back-up" part went great, but the "go forward, up the slight hill" part didn't...sneaky mud. Another rig that came in right behind us did the same thing, so there were two of us stuck. The elusive manager showed up and got us both out. We got turned around, and parked on a high-ground site.

We're heading for Nashville tomorrow, where we'll hang out for about a week before heading north.

Becoming Texans

2007-04-08T15:37:00.002-05:00

When we arrrived in Livingston last Monday, the Escapees RV Club gave us a map that contained all of the places we needed to go to get our driver's licenses, vehicle registrations, etc. We planned to take care of those things on Tuesday.

The site we got was in the old section of the park, in "the trees". Beautiful setting, but no way the Dish satellite would work. I tried unsuccessfully for 4 hours to find the elusive satellites, but to no avail. I even moved the dish 4 times, finally admitting defeat (the mosquitos won), and we watched fuzzy, snowy TV (remember, it's NOT camping, it's RV'ing!). On Tuesday, we asked to be moved out of the trees into the newer section of the park, where a few spots had opened up.

Since we had to move the rig, we decided to begin the process of becoming legal Texans...so, Escapees map in hand (no Garmin, since we had a map!), headed off to the inspection station to get our VIN numbers verified on the truck and 5th wheel. Guess what? The map was soooo bad, we missed the inspection place by several miles. Of course, they didn't have the addresses on the map, only a dot, name, and phone number. I called and found I was 5 miles north of them...after finally getting there, we got the VIN numbers verified, got our paperwork completed, and headed back to the park to get set up again. This time it took less than a minute to get the satellite working.

On Wednesday, we completed the process, by getting plates, and applying for drivers licenses. You have to do these things in a specific order: 1) get VINs verified; 2) get plates; and 3) get Driver's Licenses. Of course, it didn't tell us that on "the map". So we did 1, then 3...and oops, that didn't work. We were redirected to item 2. Lucky for us, because you needed to show them your actual SSN card, which we didn't have with us. So we were off to the tax assessor to get our plates, only to find that we needed a picture of the weight sticker on the 5th wheel. Another trip back to the rig to collect all of our missing information. Finally, after getting our plates, we headed back to the DL place. If you have a current DL, you just have to take an eye exam, fill out an affidavit, and pay your fees. I mentioned to the lady at the counter that I had had Lasik eye surgery, and that one eye saw close, and the other far. She said that might be a problem. The problem was that the close vision test was with the right eye, and my left eye is my close eye. It took me 20 minutes to read that line...and I only got it after she told me the first 2 letters were all I needed to get. She noticed I was struggling, and turned away from me (on purpose I think), and kept herself busy not watching me. I saw my chance, and snuck my left eye over into the right side and read the correct numbers.

We found out later, after talking with other campers, that everyone thinks the map is really, really, bad.

Saturday, the weather turned ugly. Low to mid-30's, rainy and cold. Quite a change from the 70's we had been experiencing. Today is Easter, the rains have departed, but it is still cloudy, with temperatures in the low 50's. I played chef today, and cooked up a shrimp dish, with cupcakes for dessert. Not bad!

We will be leaving tomorrow, heading Northeast. It's two weeks from our appointment at Carraige, in Millersburg, IN, to get our warranty work done. Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

Lazy Daze

2007-03-31T18:56:00.000-05:00

Two weeks at one location gives you the opportunity to relax and really settle in to the area. We leave Monday for Livingston, about 260 miles east. Since today is our last Saturday here, we headed off to explore New Braunfels this morning.

Of course, we took the scenic route, and with the help of the GPS, got lost! We've found that it sometimes thinks the most direct route is down some residential streets that end in a dead-end. We did end up at Landa Park, which is one of the most beautiful parks we have ever been in. It's right on the Comal River, and there was an abundance of squirrels, swans, ducks, and geese to compliment the trees.

After that, we made a quick stop at Wal-Mart (the RV'ers place), and headed back to camp to enjoy the rest of the day. Today was the best day we have had in Texas, and maybe since we left Colorado. Temperatures were in the high 70's, as was the humidity, but a slight breeze made it perfect. We've been watching the Denver news channels, and see that they have gone back to winter, at least for a while.

Under the Oaks

2007-03-28T18:22:00.000-05:00

Bluebonnets in bloom everywhere!

The pond across from our campsite

Our Coast to Coast resort here in Sattler is great. It's situated in the oaks...and our rig is parked under a big oak. I haven't taken a picture yet, but I will. Being under the oak is great, as it provides shade on the roof. But there are pitfalls! Several small branches were touching the roof; no big deal so we thought. Of course, we were wrong: branches touching roofs are highways for critters! Specifically, ants...lots of them. They started showing up a few days ago on the ceiling in the bedroom. We had a rainy day, and the branches drooped more...so more paths. Pretty soon the little buggers were everywhere. I got out my trusty Klein pliers and did some tree trimming yesterday. Hehehe, no more paths, so we think (and hope!) they are thinning out inside.

I finally got Donna's recumbent bike fixed. Somehow the handlebars loosened up, and a simple tightening wasn't doing it. I had to take the whole fork assembly apart. Anyway, she's getting lessons (from me) on how to drive it. Totally different from a regular bike!

Interspersed in the oaks are cedar trees. I'm going to forage for some wood for pens...it's supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday, so maybe I'll head out after this is posted. We are definitely in the relaxed mode now. Either that, or I'll have another adult beverage...tough choice!

We are at this park until Monday, then we head for Livingston. After that, we head NE for Indiana. We'll be back in Colorado in May for doctor's appointments and to see family/friends.

LBJ

2007-03-28T18:01:00.000-05:00

For those of you old enough to remember the turbulent 60's, you will certainly remember Lyndon Baines Johnson, our 36th President. His Southern White House is located between Fredericksburg and Johnson City, here in Hill Country. We took a drive up there a few days back, and took the tour. Saw most of the grounds, the house where he was born, the family cemetery, and the stables. Interestingly, Lady Bird, who is still living, stays there most weekends, so the house itself is not open to tours. They slowed the bus down, told us to take pictures if we wanted, but we couldn't get out of the bus - the home is under the protection of the Secret Service.

Whut the Hill?

2007-03-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

Hill Country. We're finally here; the first time for me without being here for work. We arrived in Kyle early Sunday afternoon and got situated in our park. A quick look around the park, and we found genuine trailer-trash folk...you could tell by the green moss growing on the roofs of their "rigs". Well, no problem, we would be there only one night!!

Bright and early Monday morning, we drove the rig up to the dealer. When we purchased it almost a year ago, they installed a dishwasher. It leaked the first time we used it, and so we had to come back here at some point to get it fixed. They said "hopefully" it would be done in one day; we told them if not, "someone" would have to put us up in a hotel - this is our home we retorted.

We took off to run some errands and have some lunch, promising to return by the end of the work day. Lunch took us to The Salt Lick, a BBQ place in Driftwood, up in the hills SW of Austin. Great BBQ (thanks V!). This was our second time there; the first being when we bought our rig.

When we returned to the dealer, they had done the repairs, and tested the fix twice. We left happy and headed to Canyon Lakes. The ultimate outcome of the dishwasher is detailed in the post titled "Frustration(s)". Speaking of frustrations, I have a very poor Internet signal, and can't seem to get any pictures uploaded. Stay tuned...

Frustration(s)

2007-03-23T00:03:00.000-05:00

#1. On Monday, we took the rig in to get the dishwasher repaired. It had leaked the first time we used it last year, so it has been inoperable. The dealer fixed it, tested it twice, and we were all happy. Left the dealer in Kyle, TX, and headed up into Hill Country.

#2. Used the dishwasher today. It worked fine until the rinse cycle. Then it leaked...and leaked...and leaked. I spent about 3 hours removing carpeting from under the counters where the water had gone. We don't need no stinking mold! I called the dealer and gave him the bad news. I also told him to call Carriage and tell them that when we came in on April 23, they could remove the dishwasher, and put the oven back in. Enough is enough, 0 for 2 tells it all.

#3. While the dishwasher was running, I was writing volumes in the blog. When I stopped to bail water, we lost the Internet connection, and my writing was lost. As Homer Simpson says: "DOH"!!!

Mid-afternoon, we decided to leave for a while. Found a Costco AND a Sam's Club in San Antonio, and got some provisions. Thank goodness for the Garmin - I'm not sure how I navigated before I got it! Tomorrow we're heading over to Kerrville. I'll get the blog caught up tomorrow evening with the lost entries.

Travel Days

2007-03-18T23:07:00.000-05:00

Saturday, we left Alpine around 8:30am (seems no matter what time we get up, and how much we do the night before, we can't get on the road until 8:30am). Since Kyle, TX was 425 miles away, I looked for a place slightly past the half way point, which ended up being Junction, TX.

Now, when we are traveling because of a need to be somewhere, we try and economize. We stay hooked up to the truck, so less work hitting the road. We found this RV park in one of our memberships - the membership allows us to stay for 1/2 price - the price was $20, which meant a $10 night. Twelve RV sites, next to a hotel. Quaint is one way to put it. We actually had a great time - I BBQ'd some steaks, we washed the truck, called it an early night. Unbelievably, we left at 8:20am, so we beat our record.

So, we are now in Kyle, TX, about 15 miles south of Austin - this park is part of the same network, so it's costing us a whopping $12.50. This afternoon, we hit the local Wal-Mart to get some prescriptions filled, and drove down to Gruene, one of the many German towns in this area. We have a favorite restaurant there, the Grist Mill, where we wanted to have lunch. Unfortunately, there was a giant flea market in progress, and it was the last day of spring break. We decided to come back during the week.

Tomorrow we take the rig in, and hopefully will get it back tomorrow afternoon. If not, we'll have to hotel it for a night. We also plan on going to a great Texas BBQ place called the Salt Lick, in Driftwood. It's a dry county, so they encourage you to BYOB!

Into Texas

2007-03-18T22:39:00.000-05:00

We left Deming at about 8:30am, and headed down I-10. Got to El Paso, stopped at the Texas welcome center, and got lots of brochures and maps. Without consulting our calendar, we had decided to head south to the Big Bend area to hang out for a week or so, before heading to Kyle to have some warranty work done on our rig. We got reservations at a 5-star (per Woodalls) resort in Alpine, and were planning on staying for a week.

Upon arriving, we wondered who paid Woodalls for the rating. The pool they advertised was under construction, and, as far as being the "gateway to Big Bend"...turns out Big Bend was 105 miles away! And, the grass had the nastiest stickers you'll ever find!

We decided that we would stick it out...until Donna checked our calendar. Turns out the appointment I had set for the warranty work was on the 19th, not the 26th, as we had thought. Darn, we had to cut our time here short, as we were 425 miles from Austin. That gave us one whole day to explore the area. We'll have to take in Big Bend the next time we're in the area.

On Friday, we journeyed about 25 miles north, to Fort Davis, to see this historical monument. We spent several hours exploring the fort, which is being slowly restored. Originally built before the Civil War, it fell into disrepair during the conflict, and was later re-built. Afterwards, we found a local pizza place, and had some very good pizza!

Heading East

2007-03-18T22:19:00.000-05:00

Yuma was getting hot...mid to high 90's (Denver - your 60's and 70's were looking good to us!). So we decided to begin our trek east to become Texans. First stop, Deming, NM. We had stopped at a remote park on our journey south and west in early February, but this time through, we decided to stay at an Escapee's park that was in town. This was an old park on the east side of town.

The circus was in town, and pitched their giant tent adjacent to the park. We didn't go, as my clowning around was enough for Donna. Instead, the park had signs out for a "social hour" at 4:00pm, so we decided to go and meet some people. I brought an adult beverage with me, since it was "social hour". Turns out I had the only adult beverage...everyone else was drinking coffee or water. Geez...was my face red! It was a round table, with everyone introducing themselves and telling a brief story about themselves. When I proudly said we had been full timing for 1-1/2 months, that brought a chuckle to the crowd. We did meet some interesting people.

We spent 2 days here recuperating from the long drive from Yuma, then hit the road again.

We're Here...You're Not!

2007-03-18T21:57:00.000-05:00

Maybe (or maybe not) you've been wondering...why no new posts? As I've said before, being retired is such HARD work. Hmm, not buying that? Notice how Abbey has adapted? OK, actually, we've been "Internet challenged" for a few days. Remote areas, no signal. I can get satellite TV, but our Internet connection is through a Verizon wireless broadband card, and it just hasn't been able to get a signal. We've been places on the Verizon coverage map that weren't in red.

No more excuses, so the next few posts should catch things up.