INDEX:
May 5, 2003 Tunica, Mississippi
April
25, 2003 Tunica Mississippi
April 1, 2003 Memphis, Tennessee
March 17, 2003 Slidell, Louisiana
March 4, 2003 Lafeyette, Louisiana
February 25, 2003 Abbeville, Louisiana
February 16, 2003 Houston, Texas
February 15, 2003 South Padre Island, Texas
February 9,
2003 Brownsville, TX
February 2, 2003 Matamoros,
Tampa, Mexico
January 22,
2003 Brownsville, TX
January 5,
2003 Corpus Christi, TX
January 2, 2003 Houston, TX
December 31, 2002
Marshall, TX
December 28, 2002
Chicago, IL
November
12, 2002 Carthage, Missouri
October 22, 2002 Carthage, Missouri
August 28, 2002 Carthage, Missouri
August 20, 2002 Santa Rosa, New
Mexico
August 9, 2002 Las Vegas, Nevada
July 27, 2002 Crescent City, California
July
22, 2002 Port Orford, OR
July
17, 2002 Portland, OR
July
10, 2002 LaPine, OR
June
22, 2002 Buffalo, WY
May 19, 2002
Hannibal, MO
Before the move: April 2, March 29, March 19, March 11
September 22, 2003 Independence, MO
Spent a great weekend in the Kansas City area. The Renaissance Fair was in
town, so we took in the sights. Then we had a barbeque with my sisters in Lawrence on
Sunday. Plans have changed again--we'll stay in the Midwest until after the holidays,
since I'll have a Kansas City meeting in January.
Susan, Cory and Samantha (a little girl whose mother DIDN'T want to
ride an elephant) mount up at the KC Renaissance Festival.
And no, I wasn't CHICKEN--but I had the camera! And isn't Susan
looking great? She's lost 70 pounds since the first of the year!
Sister Gwen in the dining room of her beautiful new house in
Lawrence.
The Lawrence, Kansas Aussie pack--from left, that's Zachary, Autumn,
Maddie and Sky Valentine. (There's nothing wrong with Autumn's eye--the camera just caught
her in a blink.)
September 6, 2003
Tinley Park, IL
Back in the Chicago area for a short
visit with family and friends before we head to the Southwest for the winter. We plan to
rendezvous in Tucson in October with some fellow RVers, one of whom happens to be Cory's
cousin. Haven't picked our route yet, but we'll go by way of the Kansas City area, since I
now have two sisters in that area!
September 3, 2003
Mackinack Bridge, MI
Today was a beautiful day to be driving through the Upper Peninsula. Traffic was
quiet...and so were my passengers.
Here's how the big bridge looked from inside the B.A.T.
The road was familiar, so my navigator went off duty.
Ever wondered how three dogs fit in the backseat of the B.A.T.? They
get a little cozy.
August 15, 2003
Sault Ste Marie, Michigan
Well, we've done it. For several years
now, we've spent several weeks each summer here in the Sault, shopping for a house that
would eventually be our home base when we're ready to stop traveling full-time. This
summer was no different...except that we finally found one. Much of July was spent
waiting to close, and August will be fully devoted to readying the house for occupancy by
a renter. We plan to rent the house until we're ready to make the transition from
full-time RVers to snowbirds, which we expect will be at least two to three years away. We
won't be spending winters here in the U.P. until our health or finances make it impossible
to escape!
So our plans to visit the eastern seaboard this summer
have been postponed. We've lots of time, after all.
The front view of our new home--the house faces south, the best
direction when the Canadian border is only a mile to the north.
The house sits on a double lot, so the yard is HUGE! This view is
taken from just inside the northeast corner of our back fence. The screenhouse is 14x14
inside, screened all around and glassed on every wall but the south (facing the sliding
patio door off the family room). It's also wired and has a light and ceiling fan. It will
be the perfect spot to host summer barbeques.
Primary requirement--there must be room for the 5er! As you can see,
we stayed quite comfortably in the front drive (after one of Cory's cousins came out and
added a 50amp plug outside the garage for us--until then, it was HOT without A/C.) The
silo-like structure to the right is the original Sault Ste. Marie water tower, constructed
in the 1860s, and behind the trailer you can just see the spire and roof of the Seventh
Day Adventist church, which owns the empty land to the east of our house.
The family room was our biggest project--the only wall that wasn't
wood paneled was papered...badly. We tried to strip and paint, but finally gave up and
paneled it with this striped wallboard. Turned out nicely...
The kitchen is very large. The electric range will eventually have to
be swapped out for gas, and we'd like to find a way to lighten the dark color of the
cabinets (without painting--they're oak), but the layout is convenient and there is plenty
of room for ALL Cory's appliances and gadgets. At the far right end is a closet that
contains the washer/dryer.
The dining room is small, but we've never had one before, so we love
it! At the left is a built-in computer hutch--handy for the high-tech cook!
The living room is large and well lighted. Note the built-in bookcase
near the hallway and the ceramic tiles at the entry.
The smallest of the three bedrooms took up a good bit of our rehab
time. The closet needed to be stripped of shelving, repainted, and a rod rehung. And these
built-in cabinets were looking a bit sad. This is the BEFORE...
And this is the AFTER!
June 16, 2003
Sycamore, Illinois
Oursemi-annual trip to "home
base" has been a busy one, so far. We've had lots of appointments to keep (doctor,
dentist, lab, service on the 5er, etc.) and, of course, lots of friends and family to
visit. Even though our stay has been a little longer than first planned, we're still
having trouble getting everything done. Tonight, we're hoping Shano will be able to
visit his aunt Jo and get a haircut...he's looking WAY too shaggy to take to the North
Woods!
We had Cory's nephews for a week, and naturally, we went to the water
park. Ask Cory how she enjoyed the ride!
May 17, 2003 Grain
Valley, Missouri
Our one-year anniversary of hitting the
road passed quietly and almost without notice. We were in the Kansas City area, visiting
with sister Susan as her work schedule permitted.
We remarked on the 15th that the anniversary was coming, then on the
19th that it had passed...and both agreed that it hardly feels like we've been traveling
for a full year.We're still having a great time, still looking forward to the next
destination, still making notes on the things we didn't see or do in every area so we can
see and do them "when we come back." And there are so many places we want to go
back to...
May 5, 2003 Tunica, Mississippi
Still hanging around Tunica. Our washer developed a problem, so we've had to sit tight
while a part order arrived. The Sears guy will be here tomorrow to replace the part, then
we're off.
Meanwhile, we are counting our blessings--we saw Jackson, Tennessee BEFORE the tornado
hit there last night! The same storm front nailed us with hail and winds heavy enough to
rock us in our sleep last night--Cory got up and retracted the TV antenna because she was
afraid it would be ripped off! Thank goodness, no funnels here. You know those things
arrive and ask, "Where's the trailer park?"!
April 25, 2003 Tunica Mississippi
We've been sitting in Tunica County,
Mississippi for a bit. While visiting Memphis with Lynn early this month, we dropped by
here one evening to visit the Grand Casino, which Cory's cousin Antoinette had told us
about. We had fun, so we decided to come back here and explore for a few days after Lynn
went home.
A few days has turned into a few weeks. On day 4, while getting us hitched up to move
out, I stepped into a hole in the lawn and twisted my right ankle. (The hole was invisible
because the mower had cut all the grass to the same level.) It swelled so fast and hurt so
bad that I was sure something was broken, but the x-rays said not. I was on crutches for a
couple of days, then said "the he** with that." Limped around pitifully for a
week or so, wrapping and icing when home, but I'm now walking fine, with only a little
residual pain and swelling each day. However, I tried to drive again yesterday and that's
still too much for me. So we're just staying put for a while, until I'm healed. Cory's
been doing the driving for our daily running around, but she's not ready to take on the
driving with the rig behind us!
We're not grumbling, because we're in a fun spot. This is the gambling mecca of the
South and if Antoinette hadn't clued us in, we'd never even have known it was here. It's
about a half-hour south of Memphis, and there are 9 different, Vegas-style casino
complexes here, all on their own huge acreages, scattered along a 10-12 mile tangle of
nicely improved back-country roads. There's no town here, not even a bar or grocery store,
just cotton and soybean fields and an occasional gas station in between the Grand,
Bally's, the Horseshoe, Fitzgeralds, the Hollywood, Harrah's, Sam's Town, the Gold Strike,
and the Sheraton.
Naturally, we've had time to visit all nine, and we've discovered "comp
heaven." We've eaten out every night since we arrived, and we've yet to pay for a
meal. We just go play for a couple hours, then ask for a buffet ticket! So far, we know
we've eaten more than we've lost! The Hollywood serves whole Maine lobster on Friday
nights--between us, we ate six of them last Friday night, and we also walked away with
about $175 of the casino's money that evening. What a deal, huh? And we're staying at the
Hollywood's RV park, where we get full hookups (including phone at the site!) for only
$10/day. You can't beat that anywhere! It's a nice big pull-thru spot, with concrete pad
and a good size lawn, too. We get free use of the hotel pool/sauna/exercise room, and
there's a big fenced dog run here in the RV park. Unfortunately, the dogs have not yet
visited there. If you try to walk our kids one at a time, the ones left behind bark enough
to get us tossed out. Usually, I could take them all at once, but right now, I can't take
the chance of getting jerked off balance. And Cory can't handle them, either. But they
enjoy spending time on their leads with the nice grass.
There's a big music festival on Beale Street in Memphis the first weekend in May, and
we want to stay to attend. Then we'll head north toward Chicago...
April 5, 2003 Pigeon Forge,
Tennessee
Dollywood was fun, but frankly, also a bit disappointing. When we finally
figured it out, it had to have been 10+ years ago when we were last there, and things have
definitely changed. The arty little community we remembered has been replaced by a
neon-infested tourist strip along the new four-lane highway, complete with the same junk
t-shirt shops, tattoo parlors and fudge factories you can find in any tourist trap.
Dollywood itself was kicking off a Festival of Nations, so instead of great bluegrass and
Appalachian folk music, like we heard the last time we were there, there were Calypso
steel drum bands, Chinese acrobats and Russian dancers. Still great entertainment, just
not what we were looking forward to.
But we got to glimpse Dolly herself as she paraded through the grounds
(twice!), they still had the glassblowers and the blacksmiths, and you can still go
through every gift shop and booth without seeing Dolly merchandised. There is not one
poster or t-shirt bearing her picture, not one CD on sale. She's still promoting Tennessee
entertainment, crafts and culture, not herself.
I met Dolly once myself, a hundred years ago when I was a country DJ in
Montana. She headlined at the local State Fair and I introduced her. I remember standing
next to her backstage when we were introduced, looking down (have THAT picture in your
mind?), and saying like some backcountry dufus, "Dolly, I am your biggest fan."
She looked up (way up) and laughed, "Well now, girl, I believe you just might
be!"
April 1, 2003 Memphis, Tennessee
We actually had a bit of
cold weather in Kentucky last weekend and had to turn on the heaters to take off the
chill. We're in Tennessee now, and things have warmed up again. I'm figuring our warm
weather bragging rights are about finished for this season, since spring has officially
arrived.
Lynn drove down from Chicago on Sunday to join us for her spring break. The three of us
toured Graceland yesterday...and I must admit, I had more fun than I expected to. It was
interesting to see the 70s immortalized in a wealthy man's home--just like the rest of us,
he had shag rugs on floors and ceilings, with lots of wood paneling, gilt, velvet and fake
fur. It was like a time capsule...and rather surprising to realize that the King really
lived rather modestly, considering his stature. We heard and saw dozens of performances on
video and audio, and saw tons of memorabilia...we walked rooms and rooms of his gold and
platinum records, music awards, humanitarian awards and charity recognitions. We even got
to see the famous pink '56 El Dorado, as well as his Stutz Bearclaw limos and his private
jet, the Lisa Marie.
We're going on to Nashville today, then we'll be in the Knoxville area on Saturday for
the opening day of the season at Dollywood. Since the shows at the Opry are
only on Friday and Saturday nights and Lynn only has one weekend with us, we decided we'd
rather spend it in Pigeon Forge. We almost missed that, since Saturday will be the first
day of the season and Lynn has to be back driving her bus by Monday.
March 21, 2003 Meridian, Mississippi
We’re wending our way toward Bowling
Green, Kentucky, where we’ll meet up with our friend Lynn late this month. She drives
a school bus, so she’ll be on spring break. We plan to do a bit of traveling
together, probably hit Nashville and Memphis, then get her back to Kentucky so she can
drive back home.
March 17, 2003 Slidell, Louisiana
We stayed in Lafeyette until nearly mid-month, then made our way to the New Orleans area.
We stayed out of the city until after the Big Party, having had warnings that it really
isn't safe anymore during Mardi Gras. But we didn't miss all the action; we arrived just
in time for the St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's day parades! Yeah--more beads!
It's was stormy here--pleasant days, with temps in the high 70s, but we had 2-3
inches of rain most nights. Happily, our site had a concrete pad, so we were in no danger
of bogging down. But the dogs and I experienced Louisiana swamps first hand--there wasn't
a square inch of grass in the RV park that wasn't flooded and marshy! We made sure the
dogs got their heartworm shots, because the bugs were out. (Barney also got his teeth
cleaned. He still hasn't forgiven us.)
We figure we saw more parades in the month we were in Louisisana than we have in
the last 10 years…and we have about 20 pounds of beads to prove it. While we were in
the area, we did a swamp tour, visited an above-ground cemetery, and took a carriage tour
of the French Quarter. We drove the longest bridge over water in the world (23.5 miles)
and visited the Harrah’s casino in downtown New Orleans (had to—couldn’t
find anywhere else downtown to park the B.A.T.!). We ate muffaletto sandwiches in the
Central Grocery down in the open market, and had ettoufee and jambalaya on the second
floor patio of a restaurant overlooking Bourbon street. We saw street
performances—air brush artists, an escape artist, tap dancers, a Calypso acrobat
team…and of course, music. LOTS of music!
Here we are, touring the Honey
Island Swamp, off the West Pearl River. Our guide was a local fella who really knew these
bayous. The swamp was surprisingly beautiful, very quiet, with water that we were assured
is usually clear and black, but was muddy after all the recent rain.
Yes, we really saw alligators,
though they were so quiet in their early spring suspended animation that Cory is still
convinced they were plastic props put there for our benefit. We also saw Great Snowy
egrets, nutrirats (also known as water rabbits, they look like beavers with a rat tail),
lots of turtles and, of course, beautiful groves of cypress trees.
Here we are on a balcony
overlooking Bourbon Street. Note my plate, a Cajun sampler filled with jambalya, shrimp
ettoufee, and red beans and rice. Note Cory's plate--a burger and fries.
It took this fellow just over five
minutes to escape from the straight jacket after being chained by audience members. He was
working the French Quarter.
Look fast--we passed rather
quickly during our carriage ride through the Quarter--but that's Marie Laveau's House of
Voodoo! We went back later on foot, but photos inside were strictly forbidden...under
penalty of voodoo curse!
From the balcony above, we went
down to the street for the joint Irish-Italian parade on Bourbon Street. Open
containers are perfectly legal on the streets of New Orleans, so long as they're not
glass. THAT could be dangerous!
This is St. Louis #3, one of the
famous above-ground cemetaries in New Orleans. The crypt in front is a family tomb (I saw
one with a date of 1780); to the left rear, you can see the four-tomb high wall-crypt that
runs the full perimeter of the graveyard. Because most of New Orleans is below sea level,
bodies couldn't be buried--they just floated to the surface in a month or so. So local
ordinances required an embalming process that lasted just long enough for a funeral. A
body placed in one of these tombs is "naturally cremated" within a year,
allowing the tombs to be reused by generation after generation.
We attended the St. Paddy's Day
parade in Slidell, where there was a twist. Not only do they throw green beads, but they
also throw cabbage, Brussel sprouts, onions, potatos and carrots! We caught enough to have
a nice Irish stew, as well as cabbage with our corned beef.
March 4, 2003 Lafeyette,
Louisiana
Even though we made our reservations in October, Betty was already booked for Mardi Gras
week, so on we travelled to Lafayette (pronounced LAFFee-ette by the natives).
A few notes on the local jargon—everyone called us
“baby”, including waitresses, cashiers, tour guides and gas station attendants.
At one restaurant, the young lady waiting on us failed to say it; I asked where she was
from—Arizona. That explained it! And in Louisiana, if someone "passes a set of
eyes at you," they've just given you SUCH a look! No one passed a set of eyes at us,
though...everyone was universally friendly. And the Mardi Gras spirit was everywhere. A
great place to celebrate our respective birthdays!
We saw five parades in
Lafeyette alone, and collected our share of Mardi Gras beads at every one. We weighted in
at 15 pounds of beads before we left town!
Costumes ranged from simple t-shirts
to fantastic getups.
This is a town that has
parading down to a fine art--the barricades stayed in place along the route all during the
week, setting aside the two center lanes of four lane streets, so that traffic could move
right up to the moment the parade arrived on each block.
Every
parking lot along the route became the site of tailgate parties, barbeques...and street
vendors, hawking toys and treats. They even sold beads, though why anyone would buy them
is a mystery!
Night
parades were even more fun, but harder to photograph! In Lafayette, the atmosphere was
family fun, not raucous debauchery. (Dang!)
We also
visited Vermillionville, an 1880s Acadian village where folk artists keep old skills
alive. This woman is weaving baskets from split cypress.
This Cajun
cook told us about being made to kneel on rice for hours in school for speaking
French--the only language she knew, but illegal on school grounds in Louisiana until 1965.
She fixed us the best "french toast" I ever tasted.
On our way
to New Orleans, we stopped in at Avery Island to tour the Tobasco factory, in operation
here by the McIlhenny family since Willim McIlhenny created the famous recipe in the
1870s. Yup, we got some!
February 25, 2003 Abbeville, Louisiana
We’re in Louisiana. Betty’s RV here in Abbeville is
living up to its billing—the friendliest park we’ve visited yet. Betty is
probably in her late 50s, about 5’2” tall, red-haired and rowdy, with a thick
Luziana accent…and when we met her, she was positively draped with what looked like
about 5 pounds of Mardi Gras necklaces.
When we pulled in, she walked out to
meet us carrying a wine glass, greeted me by name (correctly!) and told us we’d
arrived right at happy hour. The park is small and overcrowded this week with Mardi Gras
visitors, their trucks and rigs, so I had to do some pretty fancy backing up to get into
the site (Cory even had to go out and block traffic on the road outside the park for me).
But with Cory directing me, I did it, first try, with everybody in the park sitting on
Betty’s patio watching! Once we got unhitched, we walked over to the party.
That’s when they told us that the guy who pulled out of that spot Sunday morning took
nearly an hour to back into it last week…and his trailer was 6 feet shorter than
ours, and the big motorhome we had to serpentine around wasn’t there then. We
actually got a round of applause. That led to a round of storytelling that lasted nearly
an hour. We laughed, ate homemade chili and met everyone at once. We were told
Betty’s is a “bed-and-breakfast experience for RVers.” I’ve never
stayed in a B&B, but this place is another reason to love this lifestyle. What a hoot!
Betty was our
guide for our first crawfish boil--but once introduced, we found a lot more on our own.
Trust me, fresh boiled crawfish here in Acadiana bear NO resemblance to crawfish you may
have eaten anywhere else. Sweet, juicy, spicy and delicious! We miss 'em already!
February 16, 2003 Houston, Texas
Still on the way to Mardi Gras, we stopped for a few
nights outside of Houston. Hearing that there was a world championship barbeque cook-off
at the Astrodome, we headed into town for a day. Good eats and a carnival, too!
At the carnival in
Houston, Cory couldn't resist calling everyone she knew to gloat that we were enjoying
sunshine and 75 degree weather in February. That's the Astrodome behind her.
February 15, 2003 South Padre Island, Texas
Time to head for Luziana. We had scouted out Mustang
Island, a state park, on our last trip through Corpus Christi, so we spent one night
close enough to the Gulf to be lulled to sleep by the surf. Beautiful--and good cell
service, too! We'll be back.
Since we were so close, we also
had a second chance to visit South Padre Island. We shopped at the tourist dives, picking
up a selection of Hawaiian print shirts. We also saw some folks out windsurfing...and
lamented that we are no longer young enough (ok, maybe the truth is, we're no longer brave
enough) to try it.
A few years ago, Chicago
sponsored a very successful art event called "Cows on Parade." In our travels,
we seen lots of cities that have since done their own version--in South Padre Island, we
found porpoises!
Here's Cory at the
entrance to Jaws, one of the many beach-oriented shopping sites on the main drag on South
Padre Island. Told you it was a tourist area!
February 9, 2003 Brownsville, TX
Tuesday, we had our first Mexican dentist appointments. Now get
this--I had a cleaning and a checkup, Cory had a cleaning and a major filling replaced.
(The $250 filling she had done in Lake Tahoe last summer fell out months ago.) Total bill:
$65. For both of us. She's going back next week to get some more work done, including a
crown she's been putting off for about two years. Last figure she got from our dentist in
Bensenville was $700+. It's going to cost less than a third of that to get
everything done in Mexico. And after our appointment, we asked where we could catch the
bus to the bridge to cross back over to Brownsville, so we could avoid another taxi ride.
The receptionist didn't speak English well enough to understand our question, so she went
to get the dentist, who was born and educated in Texas. He said, "You don't need the
bus--I'll take you there myself." So, off we go to the border in his Lexus...with
instructions to call before we walk across the bridge next time and he'll pick us up, too!
We took the dogs for a run on the beach at Padre
Island, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Afterward, Murphy sacked out for about 7 hours
straight.
Wish the camera (or the camera operator) could have
captured the beautiful lilac shades of the sunset at Boca Chica, just 10 or 15 miles from
our campground in Brownsville. But you get the idea...
Friday night was the Taste of
Matamoros festival -- quite an experience. Leary about being in a border town after dark
alone, we carpooled to the border with a group from the campground. We walked across La
Puente Internacionale together, then crowded into a free bus to the school auditorium
where the event was held. For our $8 admission, the libations flowed...free Corona and
Coke, free food of all types (even sushi and Chinese), free music and dancing, from
scantily clad Hispanic sweet-young-thangs wearing white Stetsons emblazoned with the
stars-and-stripes, to folk dancers in all their traditional finery. The mariachi band was
expecially good, and while Cory found much of the food a bit too exotic for her tastes, I
enjoyed it all. We only stayed a few hours--somehow, loud music and crowds of people make
your head pound even more when most are speaking a language you don't understand. I think
one unconsciously listens harder...and consequently wears out faster!
February 2, 2003 Matamoros, Tampa, Mexico
Yesterday, we went into Matamoros for
the first time…it’s just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville. (We had planned
to go earlier, but I took a bad fall on a diesel spill at the gas station…really
messed up my back for a while, so we held off. Feeling much better now, though I’m a
little stiff today after all that walking yesterday.)
We had a great time. Went to the
open market, bought the requisite tourist stuff—a blanket, a pancho, some Mexican
silver earrings, and a backpack to carry it all back across the bridge. We also ate
churros from a street vendor. It’s a tube of deep fried pastry about the size of a
hot dog, served hot with filling piped into the hollow center. We couldn’t understand
the man when he tried to ask us what kind of filling we wanted, so he just picked one,
sweet and cinnamony, like a thin caramel. Delicicious.
The shop owners in the market
reminded us of walking past Sassy Sally’s, a notoriously hyped slot joint (now gone)
we used to visit in downtown Vegas. They come out on the street to grab you and do their
pitch: “Lady, come into my shop. No cost to look, lady. What you want, lady? Nice
necklace? Blanket? Good prices here, lady. Special prices just for you, lady. Don’t
walk away, lady!” In one shop, the aisles were so narrow that Cory couldn’t get
around the owner to get out again. He trapped her there, trying to sell her a $55 pancho,
“All handwoven by the Indians in (some unpronounceable Aztec-sounding name).”
The price dropped to $20 before she finally agreed and pulled a bill out of her
wallet. The guy, seeing her cash, said, “Give me $1.” Looking bewildered, she
did. “$20 my cost, lady—this is my commission.” What salesmanship, eh?
Cory at the market in Matamoros. Did you
know that the country we call Mexico is actually named the United Mexican States? So you
can't refer to "the States" here and expect them to know you mean the U.S.
Another view of the market. Cory bought a
backpack to bring home all our loot.
January
22, 2003 Brownsville, TX
We've been seriously enjoying being "winter
Texans"--that's what they call us snowbirds round here. We were in the Corpus Christi
area for about two weeks, but they were having a cold snap. Seriously, the news promos
last week went like this: "The three Ps--People, Plants and Pets--how to protect them
from the coming DEEP FREEZE! Details at 10..."
People were putting blankets over their
plants, they were setting up shelters for the homeless, there was a run on propane and
space heaters. After all, they were expecting night-time lows all the way down to 30
degrees!!! Sure, the daytime temps were in the 50s and 60s, but to these people, lows in
the thirties cause a panic!! I don't know what they'd do if they saw a snowflake!
Yes, the forecast said the nighttime low could reach 30
degrees--so the Fulton-Rockport locals were putting blankets over their shrubbery to
protect it!
Anyway, since it was SO cold, we headed even
further south. We arrived in Brownsville on Sunday. Yesterday, it was 76 degrees. Cory was
in cut-offs. They say we may see 80s before the end of the week. I knocked off a little early this afternoon and we took a
half-hour drive over to South Padre Island. Pretty much a typical beach resort town,
nowhere as attractive (to us) as North Padre—the most interesting part of the trip
was driving north on Highway 100 until the drifting sand covered too much of the road to
go any further. It was just like driving through drifting snow, but warmer. MUCH warmer!
At home in Brownsville, we rest in the shade of three varieties of palm
tree, with blooming magnolias flanking the street side of the 5er. And the park's
heated pool and sauna are just on the other side of the palms.
Before we left Rockport-Fulton, we drove out to Goose Island State Park,
where we found another Big Tree. This one is a coastal live oak.
When they're nearer to the water, the live oaks grow almost entirely
horizontally toward the land side. We thought they were bent by the Gulf winds, but
locals told us that it's actually the salt spray that they grow away from. These are on
the grounds at the Fulton Mansion, below.
The Fulton Mansion was built in the 1860s and, for the times, was truly
a magnificent home, complete with piped gas and indoor plumbing. Its basement was a
cistern used for fresh water storage and cooling for the whole house. Actually, it's still
pretty magnificent.
Pelicans on the old pier at Fulton Beach. We bought fresh caught jumbo
Gulf shrimp about a half mile from here for $5 a pound.
January 5, 2003 Corpus Christi, TX
Friday, we arrived in Rockport-Fulton, just about thirty
minutes north of Corpus Christi. Now, we don mean to make all of y'all up north jealous or
anathang...but it's 73 degrees and sunny in the daytime in these parts!
Today, we drove south through Corpus
Christi and out onto Padre Island and the national seashore there. We found a 63-mile long
stretch of RVer boondocking heaven. The beach is about 150 yards deep and hard packed, and
up along the dunes, for miles and miles, one finds every variety of trailer, fifth-wheel
and motorhome, from the little vans to the big diesel pushers, old rustbuckets to
brand-spankin' new $100K coaches. Everyone faces their rig to the Gulf, and about half sit
in the shade of their awnings reading or watching TV while they keep one eye on a fishing
pole resting in a six-foot length of PVC pipe right at the waterline.
There are no hookups and we have no
generator to run my computers, so we can't join them...this time. But I have my eye on a
Honda EU2000i that's supposed to run very quietly and weight only about 45 pounds...
Yup, it's Cory and the
B.A.T., on the beach of Padre Island, enjoying one of our first up-close-and-personal
encounters with the Gulf of Mexico! NOTE to friends and family up north: This shot is
taken January 5, 2003. Yes, JANUARY!
RVs go on for miles and
miles on Padre, one parked every few hundred feet, taking advantage of some of the mildest
weather and prettiest beach we've had the pleasure to visit.
January 2, 2003 Houston, TX
Happy in Houston...we had planned to pull out after only a single night
here in Space Center RV Park, but once it occurred to us that the place ISN'T named for
its spacious sites...duh, it's Houston! Since I'm still officially on vacation, we paid
for another night and headed for the Space Center.
I wasn't prepared for how moved I'd be when I saw
historic Mission Control. The first time I saw it, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor
of the multi-purpose room at Newman Elementary School, where about 300 of us were crowded
around one 18 inch black-and-white television to watch Mr. Glenn's flight. I was just as
awed this time.
Yes, that is THE red phone--the one used by so many
presidents to wish good luck and welcome home to our astronauts.
We weren't lucky enough to see any astronauts
training, but that's a full-size mockup of the shuttle, where most will log far more
hours than they ever do on the real thing.
Cory with a model of the Saturn rocket. We saw the
real thing on the grounds of the Space Center, but it was too dark to get a shot outside
by the time our tour reached it.
December 31, 2002 Marshall, TX
We escaped the north and headed for the Rio Grande on the 30th. New Year's Eve
was a long, gray, rainy day across Missouri, Arkansas and into Texas. We stopped for the
night in Marshall, where we had what might be a quintessential Texas experience.
We pulled into the campground about 4:30,
just as the rain was ending and the sun was starting to go down. After registering, I was
outside setting up when the campground owner came around carrying a small candle in a jar.
A free gift, he said, a sample from the place down the road where they make them.
"Smells real good when you light it up in the trailer," he offered. "Just a
little Happy New Year gift for you."
I thanked him, then asked,
"So..where's the party tonight?"
He answered, "No party." Then he
pulled his jacket aside to show the pistol holstered on his hip. "But you'll probably
hear this tonight. A bunch of us will be going across the way to shoot cats, cuz we don't
got no fireworks." Then he smiled and scooted away in his golf cart to deliver more
scented candles.
To my knowledge, that was the first place
we ever visited where the campground personnel were packing. And no, I DON'T think he was
pulling my leg!
We spent our evening quietly at home,
watching Dick Clark and catching up on the laundry.
December 28, 2002 Chicago, IL
We had three delightful Christmas celebrations...before Christmas, with
Cory's aunt, cousins and all their progeny in Chicago's south suburbs, on Christmas in
Three Lakes, Wisconsin with Cory's dad and brother, and after Christmas in Chicago with
her other brother and our godsons. It wasn't supposed to snow in Chicago that week, but
did. Happily, we found that we were quite comfortable in our Kountry Star at temperatures
down to 10 degrees at night. We did nothing special except to keep the furnace running,
and had no problems with freezing pipes or tanks. Did go through the propane at a pretty
good clip, though.
November 12, 2002 Carthage, Missouri
After all the activity of the late summer and early fall, we were really looking
forward to returning to Carthage in October and sitting still for a month or two. We were
far enough south, we reasoned, to be able to stay here without danger of freezing at least
through November…and if our luck held, through Christmas. From our previous visit, we
knew we could get a nice site with full amenities (including phone line) for a very
reasonable monthly rate, that we liked the area and its friendly residents, and that there
was still a lot here to explore (Carthage is officially in “Four States
Country”, with the Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma borders all within an hour’s
drive).
Week 1 went just as
planned—very quietly. No appointments, no visits, no running around. The weather was
rather cold and rainy, anyway, so we just enjoyed our cozy home, our satellite TV …
and, of course, I worked. Actually, we did do some running around—nearly daily visits
to Wally World for supplies as we took advantage of our first real opportunity to
reorganize the fifth wheel. After almost six months on the road, we finally have enough
experience to know that THAT thing taking up prime easy-to-reach cabinet real estate has
only been out of the cupboard once, while THOSE things that we use almost weekly are
stowed so high that the ladder has to come out or so low that someone has to hit their
hands and knees. We repacked almost every cabinet in the kitchen/dining area…and we
were mighty pleased with the results. One full box of “we still might need it
eventually” went into the basement storage compartment, as did another, half-full box
of “why did we ever think we’d want this?” The latter will be dropped off
with friends/family for storage at the first opportunity.
Week 2—OK, enough homebody
stuff. Each day after work, it was time to explore. We visited the George Washington
Carver National Monument, went to Joplin almost daily for shopping and dining, took
several drives through the countryside to Neosha, Diamond, Webb City and other neighboring
towns, just to enjoy the fall colors. On Friday, we headed to Lamar to visit Harry
Truman’s birthplace. Too late…already locked up by 4:30pm. So we went about 20
miles west to Prairie State Park, Missouri’s largest plot of natural-state prairie
land, host to buffalo, deer, coyotes, and what must be a hundred or more species of bird.
We caught a glimpse of all, even though it was dusk as we arrived and full dark as we
left. We made a note to come back earlier in the day, then went back to Lamar in search of
dinner. We stopped at a very unassuming, but apparently busy place in a strip mall just
inside town…and discovered a little piece of gustatory heaven! Friday night at
Evert’s BBQ is an all-you-can-eat barbeque buffet, serving ribs, pulled pork, beef
brisket, wings, and salad bar, plus trimmings. None of that overcooked meat dripping in
too-sweet sauce here—everything is seasoned and smoked, with a delightfully tangy
sauce available on the table if you really want it. The wings were the best I’ve ever
tasted, with a rich smoky flavor that I just couldn’t get enough of. Cory went back
for seconds and thirds on the baked beans, which she declared even better than her own.
Yes, we’d be back! The rest of the weekend was cold, rainy and miserable, so we
hibernated.
Week 3. Still raining. Early in the week, we inquired about my sister
Susan’s plans for Thanksgiving in Kansas City…after all, it’s only a few
hours drive from here. It’s a date! We’ll head up there and spend a few days
during the holiday weekend. Meanwhile, would we like company at OUR place? Sure! We talked
her into coming Thursday, so we could take her to Evert’s on Friday! And of course,
while we were there, we went back to Harry Truman’s birthplace. The winds were really
blowing as we arrived, just minutes before closing. But we got inside this time, and got a
few pictures as well.
Cory reads the historic
information outside the little house in Lamar. No, Harry's visage doesn't really float
over the roof...and there are no yellow letters on the grass, either!
Susan and MJ outside the
ACTUAL outhouse at Harry S. Truman's birthplace in Lamar, Missouri. Oh, please, DON'T
"show-me!"
October 22, 2002 Carthage, Missouri
Oh, my...I knew we hadn't updated for a while, but
we've actually come full circle since the last notation in this little travelogue!
Since Labor Day, we've been up
through Illinois (spent a week and took Cory's nephews to the Speedway in Rockford), spent
several days in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (while I worked), then went up to Sault Ste. Marie,
Michigan. We house-hunted in "the Soo" for three weeks and thought we had found
something, but it fell through. We headed down to Door County for a rendezvous with
friends, then came back through Illinois...and arrived back in Carthage last Sunday.
Between lots of work and lots of
family and friends to visit, updates have been a low priority. Apologies to those who rely
on this site for news. But we're hearty, healthy, happy to be sitting in one place for a
while...and still having the time of our lives.
August 28, 2002 Carthage, Missouri
From New Mexico, we made a relatively uneventful
several-day stop in Amarillo. We dined at the Big Texan Restaurant, a western-themed
tourist stop that will give you a 72-ounce steak dinner for FREE if you can eat the whole
thing within 60 minutes (we had ribs). We also visited the Palo Duro Canyon State
Park just 20 miles away--our first peek was a bit underwhelming after THE Canyon, but once
we drove down inside, it really was rather spectacular. There are a couple of very nice
campgrounds that merit a return visit.
After an overnight in Oklahoma
City, we arrived in Carthage, just a few miles down the road from Joplin and home to
the 2200-acre complex that houses the world-famous Precious Moments Chapel. That's right,
Samuel J. Butcher, creator of Precious Moments, built his own version of the Sistine
Chapel in order to give back to God and the community. It's a two-story  vaulted chapel with Precious Moments angels on the ceiling, stained
glass windows of Precious Moments characters portraying the 23rd Psalm along one side and
the Beatitudes on the other, 8-foot Philippine mahogany doors elaborately carved with
Precious Moments cherubs...and the walls are decorated by 12' high paintings depicting Old
Testament history and New Testament parables, all interpreted with Precious Moments
characters!
Is the chapel not your thing? Visit the Souper
Sam Precious Moments Buffet or the Precious Moments Studio where the 63-year-old divorced
Mr. Butcher still works designing new Precious Moments. You can select from thousands of
the finished bisque figurines--including many available exclusively here at the
Chapel site--in the Precious Moments Gift Shop. Or maybe you'd like to stroll through the
Precious Moments rock garden. You can get tickets to visit the Precious Moments Wedding
Island, or the Precious Moments Fountain of Angels light and sound show. With so much to
do here, maybe you want to extend your visit with a stay in the Precious Moments Best
Western Motel (pink brick!) or at the Precious Moments Cubby Bear RV Park!!
Until you travel, you just never know what wonders abound in this fascinating country of ours...
August 20, 2002 Santa Rosa, New
Mexico
I've
been working steadily for the past weeks, so online time has been devoted to billable work
rather than to the site here. But we've been busy offline, too, seeing some great...and
some not-so-great...sights.
First, the Canyon.
Fabulous! We spent five days in Williams, Arizona, at Railside RV Ranch, so-named because
the tracks for the historic Grand Canyon Railway run right next to the campground. We
heard its steam whistle four times daily (and a few clients heard it, too)! We spent the
afternoon and evening of two days in the park, driving ourselves around the east end the
first day, taking the shuttle through the west end the second. Twice, we saw the sunset in
the Canyon. Despite warnings from locals that "if you don't go down inside, it's just
a big hole in the ground," we were mighty impressed! Actually, we did think about
going down on muleback, but when we learned that one must either commit to several days
(who would watch the dogs?) or to spending 6 hours of a 7-hour daytrip on the back of the
mule (they warn you, no getting off for rest breaks of ANY kind), we decided the view from
the Rim would do quite nicely!
Cory and the
B.A.T. at Railside RV Ranch--all that red dirt came free with the site!
   
WIth a subject
like this, one can't help but take beautiful photos.
From Williams, we
moved on to New Mexico with an uneventful overnight in Gallup. We thought about spending
the business week in Albuquerque--for now, we've settled into a pattern of travel on the
weekends, stop for work. Albuquerque looked like such a beautiful town, with so much to
do, but that would have made a rather short travel day. Besides, while we were rolling
down the highway, we had seen a billboard advertising Santa Rosa just two-and-a-half hours
further: a State Park with water sports, scuba diving, fishing and boating, lots of
restaurants, shops and motels in town... sounded like a great resort area! We checked the
campground book quickly, and found there was a KOA with instant phones at the sites.
Great! Easy modem access for what promised to be a busy week and cheaper than anything in
Albuquerque to boot! So on to Santa Rosa we went.
What a mistake.
What the billboard
didn't say...what the campground book couldn't tell us...was that this little town was
almost totally dependant on tourists coming to the Santa Rosa Reservoir on the Pecos
River. And the area had been hit hard by extreme drought. Years and years of extreme
drought. The reservoir was dried up. Unfortunately, so was the town. Business after
business was boarded up, victim of too many years without water to draw the crowds.
The evening we
arrived, we drove out to the Santa Rosa Lake State Park. We saw no other traffic. The
facilities were large and modern, but the booth at the entrance was unattended, the huge
parking lot near the top of the dam was deserted and the nearby visitor's center was
closed. Driving across the dam in the truck, we couldn't see any water on either side. A
large sign on the main restrooms warned that the lake (whatever was left of it) was closed
to all recreational activity. We found two beautiful RV campgrounds; every site was level,
landscaped and spacious with water/electric hookups and a sheltered picnic table and fire
pit...and nearly every site was empty. We went down to the boat ramp...and found only a
dizzingly steep 100-yard concrete incline that ended well above the current water level.
Flood, hail,
tornado, blizzard--I've seen many disasters caused by Nature's overabundance. Staring down
that long, empty football field full of dry cement, I finally had some small understanding
of disaster by scarcity.
We spent a long
moment in silent mourning for a small American town. Just two days later, like so many
before us, we hitched up and left town ahead of schedule.
August
9, 2002 Las Vegas, Nevada
From the redwoods, we transitioned gently to Glitter City, going by way of Lake
Tahoe. We'd have stayed there longer if we weren't determined to get to the Grand Canyon
and then back to the Midwest by September. Deep, crystal blue water surrounded by
mountains...and casinos. It was a little piece of heaven. We had a ball.
The drive from Tahoe to Vegas took two days, through
some pretty desolate country. The dogs enjoyed it, though. Each morning, they ran through
the desert as far as their legs would carry them, then slept the deep sleep of the
innocent in the truck as we drove. Wish I'd had a camera when Murphy flushed a wiry
jackrabbit--the old girl was gaining on him as they flew past me and, if he hadn't found a
burrow at the precise moment he did, she'd have had him, too. She ran like she was a pup
again, but like all of us who forget our age and overdo, she paid for it later, poor girl.
She was moving a little slowly for a day or two after that quarter-mile sprint! Only later
did I think to thank our lucky stars that it wasn't a skunk she'd flushed!
In Vegas, we found a KOA with phone service at the
site, which means, of course, 24 hour web access! We've caught up on a lot of research,
visited with friends Carol and Dee, and eaten at some fine buffets (the Rio's Carnival
Buffet gets our vote for best variety and quality...12 cook stations). Naturally, we've
also done our bit to contribute to the local economy by participating in the region's
primary industry. We've been conservative, so we haven't lost much...but we haven't won
much, either. The day of the $1 blackjack table is all but gone in Las Vegas. We've found
only one in the past six days. Even $3 tables are rare now. But my, don't they have a wide
variety of penny and nickel slots! My favorite so far--Slot Poker, a nine-line slot
machine that plays like a nine-hand video poker machine. Great fun...and I won $30!
Downtown Vegas is no longer the sleazy, dirty place we
remembered. Fremont Street has been canopied and closed to motor traffic...it's now a
giant, three-block long glitter mall. We've spent a couple evenings just walking and
watching the huge light-and-sound show in the ceiling called the Fremont Experience. Count
on Vegas to make even a ceiling into an attraction. We wanted to get pictures, but the
batteries in my camera were dead. Next trip, I guess...
July
27, 2002 Crescent City, California
Sometimes, it can be very hard to write about what we've seen and done...even
for a writer. Take, for example, the redwoods.
No cathedral I've every seen inspired such awe. How
can I begin to describe the majesty, the beauty, the peace and the sense of history that
these old-growth forests of giants embody? Here's a hint for anyone who knows Cory and
me--we were so entranced, we took a hike. Yes, that's right. We HIKED into the forest to
have a closer look at Big Tree, the Cathedral Circle and dozens of other 300 foot tall,
1500+ year old living monuments. We smelled the musty, warm decay of the fallen redwoods,
and ran our hands across the soft ferns and mosses growing at the feet of the ancients. We
walked a gentle, shady trail occassionally dappled by sunbeams that persisted through the
high canopy. We ducked into living caverns, rested against falled logs taller than even
I...and we ran out of words long before we ran out of breath.
Back at the campsite, nestled amongst more redwoods,
we caught the tail-end of a documentary obviously intended to encourage tourism in the
area. I paid little attention to most of it, but the narrator closed with a poem
whose final lines stuck in my head. "Fall, O Traveler, to your knees. God stands
before you in these trees."
Indeed.
First
things first. The big surprise Penny Kelly had in mind for us last Thursday afternoon was
Columbia Gorge State Park. And it was truly something to see.
Just off Interstate 84 east of
Portland, perched on a high butte, is Vista House, an old stone construct (currently being
renovated) that provides a 360 degree view of the Columbia River Gorge. I know I keep
using the word “breathtaking,” but I can’t help it. I wish my photography
skills could do justice to that outlook high above the river. We gazed up and down the
gorge, with a view for miles in each direction.
Penny and her niece Krystal
joined Cory in front of Vista House.
The Gorge was gorgeous!
Cory and Penny at the
overlook at Vista House. Thanks for playing tour guides, Kellys!
As we drove deeper into the park, up and
down over the narrow twisting road, we enjoyed the sights of the Oregon rainforest at its
richest. Yes, this is true rainforest, right down to the dozens of varieties of ferns that
carpet the forest floors. Tall, thick, lacy and lush, they look right at home under the
hemlocks, cedars, firs and pines. And the wildflowers—what a riot of color!
We’d have
counted that a very full afternoon, but Penny wasn’t through with us, nor was the
Gorge. Ultimately, we arrived at Multnomah Falls. This is the third highest waterfall in
the WORLD, nearly twice as high as my beloved Upper Falls of the Yellowstone. And we were
able to drive almost to its foot! The path that lets you walk in closer (close enough to
feel the spray, Penny says) was under construction and none of us were up to climbing the
many stairs of the alternative route, so we sat in the shade eating ice cream and watching
the falls for nearly an hour.
Multnomah Falls, east of Portland in Columbia Gorge State Park
We left Portland on Friday, headed for the
Pacific. If you’ve never
driven Highway 101 down the Oregon coastline, make a resolution now to do it. I’m
running out of superlatives, but this is some of the most beautiful country we’ve
ever seen.
We walked on the beach in Oceanside Friday
night, then drove up into the residential area. Yes, “up” is the right
word—the whole town is perched on a steep hillside and at times we weren’t sure
the B.A.T. would make it up the hill (that’s Big A** Truck, the seems-to-be-sticking
nickname for our F450). But the view from the top of that bluff was well worth the climb.
We stayed until sunset.
A view of Yaquin Point, off Highway 101
This crippled gull seemed to be a regular at the wayside near Yaquin
Point. His right foot is only a stump.
The sun was just setting--and the wind was really
blowing--when we arrived at the Oregon Dunes State Park.
Even the mundane is fascinating--we caught this view of
the dunes from the back parking lot of a Fred Myers discount store!
Another roadside view from Highway 101
You don't even have to try to find great scenery--we were caught in
traffic on 101 when an accident blocked the road, and this is what we enjoyed for twenty
minutes. (Respect these mountain roads!)
Saturday night, we went down on the
waterfront in Florence, to dine at a place called International C-Food Market. We were
right on the docks, overlooking the fishing fleet. I ordered a half-pound of clams steamed
in garlic, white wine and herbs as an appetizer, then a dinner platter with fresh-caught
halibut, salmon, scallops, shrimp, prawns, calamari and local Dungeness crab and oysters.
Cory ordered….pizza. When the steamer clams arrived, I talked her into tasting one.
Her eyes lit up and she wound up splitting them with me, then finishing the broth as a
soup! My platter came, swimming in an equally savory broth, with a half a crab on top. Her
pizza arrived burnt. When the waitress explained that their wood-burning pizza oven
wasn’t working and they were cooking pizza on the seafood grill, I thought, “NOW
she’ll change her order.” Nope. She had them bake another pizza. I shared my
platter—the crab in particular was sweet and tender, but everything was great.
Cory’s second pizza finally came…burnt, but with the blackest edges cut off. She
took it home. We’ll see on our next dining excursion whether she learned any lessons
from this experience…
July
17, Portland, Oregon
Well, I've been duly
chastised..."Come on, put out more info and LOTS OF PICTURES. I'm living vicariously
thru the two of you. Help me out here. It's like watching a serial. You can't wait for the
next installment." Don't know if we can meet expectations, but will try. And here I
was feeling so proud that my last update was only a week ago!
Portland is a beautiful
city. Sunday, my folks took us for dinner at a restaurant near Pill Hill with a panoramic
view overlooking the city...and rather excellent macadamian-encrusted salmon, as well! We
had a dessert called "hot lava cake"--a dark chocolate, ala-mode affair that
oozed hot fudge when you cut into the cake. It was as spectacular as the scenery.
We've been visiting
with friends Penny and John Kelly, Chicagoans who transplanted out here over two years
ago. They've been our willing tour guides, taking us Monday to the top of Mt. Tomah, a
local long-extinct volcano, and yesterday all the way to the coast for a seafood dinner in
Seaside, Oregon. Today, we're off to a secret site near Gresham--no hints except that
"it's beautiful." We'll report later...
We're falling in love
with Oregon. From the mountains, to the ocean (is there a song in there?), to the towering
Ponderosa pines of the high desert and the many still-active and extinct volcanic sites,
this state takes your breath at every turn. Yes, we'll try to take and post more pictures,
but for now, you'll have to trust me--we're spending too much time taking it all in to try
to take photos of it. This state deserves a lot more hype than it gets. Oh, and the locals
confirm--it's "Or-uh-gun", not "Or-eh-gone."
OK--by special
request--here's a portrait of my family taken this month while we were all together for
the first time in 20 years. Clockwise from top left, that's sister Gwen, a doctor of
pharmacy in Connecticutt, brother Jay, food/beverage manager of the year for a resort in
California, sister Susan, who manages teleconference staff scheduling in Kansas City,
father Harry and mother Mary, happily retired together in LaPine, Oregon.
July
10, LaPine, Oregon
We celebrated my folks 50th wedding anniversary on the
4th, with a wonderful party. The whole family (i.e., all my sisters and our brother) made
the pilgrimage to LaPine for the celebration. And I found the camera!
Cory, overlooking Crater Lake in the National
Park in Oregon, July 7, 2002
We caught 5 Coho salmon that had to go back
(wrong season) and 4 Chinook salmon that headed for the grill. On the good ship Sea
Pirate, out of Newport, Oregon, July 1
THIS is the rig...a 39' Newmar Kountry Star
fifth wheel pulled behind a crewcab Ford F450...altogether, this train is nearly 63 feet
long!
June
22, Buffalo, Wyoming
We're having a great time headed through the west.
Wednesday and Thursday nights, we were in Spearfish, South Dakota, doing the usual tourist
things...Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Deadwood. We could have spent a month or more in the
Black Hills, and probably will another time. But this trip, we have places to be, so we
pulled out yesterday. Thought we'd go as far as Cody, but when we started calling ahead
for a site mid-afternoon, we found most places ahead of us had already filled their
"big rig" sites for the weekend, so we stopped early.
We plan to drive through the Park today, then head on toward Pocatello.
Don't know how far we'll get, since Saturday traffic in Yellowstone in late June could be
moving pretty slow and, without reservations, we'll have to get well past the Park
to find a nice place to stay. Wherever we land tonight, we'll hope to stay a couple
nights.
How's life on the road?
Managing time is the biggest challenge. I don't think either one of us realized before how
even simple chores like running to the grocery store would take so much more time when you
don't know where anything is. And there are always so many things to do, from cleaning and
maintaining the rig to taking the dogs somewhere for a good run to seeing the local
sights. I still don't feel like I've really organized my office--it just hasn't become a
priority. Mostly, I work with my laptop right in my lap (imagine that!) in the recliner,
outside at the picnic table, or in the passenger seat while Cory takes the wheel.
Communication challenges also come up
more often than expected. My primary email account is set up to forward messages to my
wireless Motorola phone--I see the first 150 characters of each email so I know when to
connect and download new mail. This week, a message got "stuck." Between Tuesday
afternoon and yesterday at noon, I received the same message about 150 times (bless your
heart, Nancy H., I've seen your name a lot this week!)...and no other text messages got
through. No notifications of voicemail, no other email, nothing. I spent more than four
hours total on the phone with Verizon Wireless trying to resolve the problem, and that
doesn't count the 100-mile round trip I made to have my phone re-flashed (in vain). Still
don't know if it's fixed--we're in an analog service area right now and won't know until
we return to digital service, likely somewhere in Idaho.
We're both looking forward to slowing the travel pace down
to a meander...staying in one area for several weeks at a time, doing day trips or very
short hops and getting to know where things are. That will come after my folks' 50th
anniversary celebration in Oregon on July 4. The week of July 1, I'm taking my first real
vacation (NO work at all) in about six years.
Meanwhile, we've started to think and
speak of this rig as "home." It's a nice feeling.
May 19, 2002
The last few weeks have been hellish...but
they're over and our new life has begun.
If you're looking to add stress
to your life, I highly recommend the process of liquidating your belongings in preparation
for moving from a 3-bedroom home into a 400-square-foot fifth wheel trailer. Our old buddy
Murphy was at our side every step of the way. Our garage sale was rained out and, by local
ordinance, we couldn't have another. The Salvation Army missed their appointment to pick
up 75 boxes of household goods we didn't need, and couldn't schedule another pickup until
our move day. The man who would "buy EVERYTHING" after our failed garage sale
wouldn't buy our sofa and loveseat and we had to have them hauled to the dump. The folks
who won our eBay auction for our 27-foot travel trailer didn't show up at the appointed
time and place to finish payment and take possession--the sale fell through and we are
faced with selling that unit long-distance. The last night in Bensenville, we were up all
night trying to find places for everything in the trailer; our best intentions to be
organized disintegrated as we simply stashed boxes in any available corner. People who
bought a bedroom set from us missed four appointments to pick it up and finally showed up
as we were pulling out of the driveway on the way to the closing for our (former) home. We
were so rattled, we forgot to put the TV antenna on the trailer down before we pulled out,
and caught it on a low-hanging branch on a residential street.
At the closing on Friday morning, we
learned that the lending bank had failed to send the required bank wire to fund the
buyer's mortgage, so the title company couldn't cut our check. We stopped at the Newmar
dealer to have the TV antenna repaired, then parked the whole long rig in a shopping mall
lot and waited for an extra three hours, hoping the check would arrive. At 2 pm, we
finally made the decision to hit the road and have it overnighted ahead of us to Kansas
City, our first destination. Twenty minutes later, the title company called. The check was
ready and they would FedEx it. As of late yesterday afternoon, it had not yet arrived in
KC.
But we woke up this morning in
Hannibal, Missouri, with a lovely view of the Mississippi. The dogs seem to be adjusting
to the ride in the trailer, and our new rig is drawing attention everywhere we stop. We'll
post pictures as soon as I figure out which box in which cabinet contains the digital
camera...
April 2,
2002
Finally got word on the truck...and it's not
good. Truck build date: April 22. Truck arrival date, May 10, just one week before we
close on the house. And after it arrives, we still need to take the cab-and-chassis to
Humboldt, Kansas, where B&W Custom Truck Beds
will add an Elite RV bed with their unique "turnover ball" fifth wheel hitch.
What turned a 45-60
day delivery into more than 100 days? When we ordered the F450 with the Lariat trim and
dual fuel tanks, the computer suggested that you can't have both. We picked the trim
package. The dealer suggested, “Let's send it in with both and see what
happens.” I suspect he forgot to see what happened, though I don't expect anyone will
ever admit that. When I called for an ETA in early March, the computer showed a
“materials hold” on the truck. To resolve it, the dealership needed my
authorization to drop the dual fuel tank option. Of course, they had that authorization
six weeks earlier. According the factory service representative, my order was received by
the factory on March 23, exactly 60 days after I placed it.
Moral of the
story—follow up, follow up, follow up. But at least we can plan now...
March 29,
2002
Woo-hoo! We accepted an offer on the
house last night--only 2.5% off list price, right where we expected to be, and
exactly two weeks after listing. Closing is scheduled for May 17. I plan to be on-site
with one of my favorite clients in Kansas the week of the 20th, so that works out
perfectly. Our first shakedown cruise will be close to home base, in friendly territory,
and within range of quick return to the dealers if any problems arise.
Time to start working
on the official "We're Moving" announcements...where is that truck???
March 19,
2002
Still no ETA on our Ford F(antastically
Huge)-450 truck, so I've contacted our Newmar dealer to push delivery of the 5er back
until at least April 15. Had hoped to drive to Kansas for the bed/hitch installation next
week during the local schools' spring break, but that now looks unlikely. So instead of
having school bus driver Cory's company, I'll probably be going alone.
The house officially
went on the market on the 15th. Meanwhile, I've decided I will add a toll-free J2 Communications number to the office armamentarium. So
phone/fax/voicemail connections will be:
Cell phone: 630-309-0499
My existing Verizon CDMA phone/voicemail service will go on the road. I'll be changing to
the National SingleRate service plan, which has no roaming or long distance charges on the
digital network. Of course, this number is also covered by voicemail for unanswered/
out-of-service calls, and is enabled for three-way calling for small conferences.
I took the old land-based office number (766-9446) off all
correspondence and identity materials months ago. However, it's still in a lot of address
books, so it will officially begin to die when the formal announcement goes out in
April/May. From then until Driveaway Day, it will be forwarded to my local J2 number,
where a message will tell callers to use the cell number instead.
Local Fax/VoiceMail
Number: 630-477-0299
J2 Communications saved me the cost of a fax machine when
I opened my home office in 1996, and this terrific unified messaging service has only
gotten better since then. For a modest monthly fee, J2 enables me to send faxes by email
and to receive faxes and voicemail messages at any email address. If I don't have
convenient email access, I just call a toll-free number to hear voicemail, email messages
and fax headers over the phone! (Faxes transmit as images, so only their headers
can be read to me. That's usually enough to determine their urgency.) Urgent faxes can be
immediately forwarded to any nearby fax number; non-urgent faxes wait until I have email
access.
As a J2 subscriber, I also have access to their conference call capability.
Online, in seconds, I can set-up a conference call with up to 8 participants. The service
is crystal clear, requires no advance scheduling, and is very affordable
($.10/minute/participant).
Toll-free Fax/VoiceMail
Number: TBD
Should have this number set up by the end of March. It will provide all the
services of my local J2 number, but calls will be toll-free for clients. I'll pay
$.10/minute for messages and transmissions.
March 11,
2002
Almost everything we own is for sale. That has a
rather unsettling affect on daily life.
We've narrowed the
field of real estate agents down to three, with a decision to be made this week. We have a
room full of boxes already packed for storage...and even more full of clutter destined for
The Big Garage Sale Part 1. Cory has been talking to a friend at work about selling her
beloved 2000 Grand Prix. The 1995 Sunnybrook 26FK travel trailer will go on the market as
soon as the weather settles into something like spring. The 1989 Dakota Sport pickup must
pass an EPA emissions test before we can sell it and the 1999 Durango can't go on the
market until the new truck arrives--it's our only tow vehicle.
Our 2002 Ford F450
cab-and-chassis was ordered on January 23, but no ETA yet. Meanwhile, the Elite RV bed
ordered from B&W Custom Truck Beds in Kansas is finished and ready to install. Our
2002 Newmar Kountry Star 39CKDA is also on order and expected to arrive near the end of
the month--if we can spare the time, we hope to go to the factory in Nappanee, Indiana to
watch its construction.
But empty boxes are
calling us... |
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