Trials and Tribulations

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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