Monthly Archives: April 2015

2015/04/26-30 (N-R) Routine Returns

2015/04/26 (N) Bentley

Turning the lights out at 11 PM last night meant I would be awake around 6 AM this morning and ready to get up, and that was the case. Linda was awake by 6:30 AM and we were up shortly thereafter. I was able to light the natural gas fireplace without difficulty. The only thing I can figure is that perhaps I did not have the Off/Pilot/On gas valve in the right position last night.

With the gas valve in the Off position gas cannot flow beyond the valve. In the Pilot position gas can only flow to the pilot flame assembly, and only while the knob is pushed in, until the flame has been lit long enough to cause the heat sensitive pilot valve to remain open at which point the knob can be released. I do not think gas can flow to the main burner tubes, however, until the knob is turned to the On position. There is also a Remote/Off/On switch that has to be in the Off position when lighting the pilot flame (with the built in spark igniter) and moved to the On position to allow the main burner tubes to receive gas. All I can figure is that I did not have the Off/Pilot/On valve turned to the On position. The Remote position is intended to be used with a wall mounted thermostat which we do not have. For us the firelogs are primarily decorative but are useful for taking the chill off of the early morning or late evening. We never have them on, however, unless we are in the living room or dining room where we can see them.

Linda fed the cats while I made coffee which we enjoyed in the living room by the firelogs. It was 33 degrees F outside this morning but in another week the morning temperatures should be such that we can sit on the rear deck and enjoy our morning brew out there. We finally both got dressed and Linda heated an Amy’s Breakfast Scramble and split it between us. We lingered a while longer in the living room and finally got to work on our various chores.

Linda’s focus was to continue cleaning the kitchen, off-loading food and kitchen supplies from the bus, and getting her domestic and professional domains back in order. She made a grocery list as the day went along. We would normally go to the Howell Farmers Market on Sunday morning, but the outdoor market does not start until next week.

I cleaned the cats’ litter tray, which seems to be my job at home but Linda’s job on the bus, and then got to work on revising the draft survey for the FMCA national education committee. While I was doing that I also started up a couple of our workstation computers, installed updates, and kept an eye on my e-mail and RVillage messages. I worked on the survey until dinner time, with a break for lunch, and had Linda proofread it before I uploaded it to my Dropbox and e-mailed the link to the committee. We have a telephone meeting at 3:30 PM EDT tomorrow and I wanted everyone to have a chance to look it over in advance of the meeting.

Linda made Farro with garlic, dried cranberries, almonds, and kale and cooked some fresh asparagus. A green salad and a glass of wine completed a very nice meal. Linda had a text message from her sister letting us know that her housemate, Linda, decided to have Bentley put down. He was the oldest of her three dogs, deaf and arthritic, and on medications that he would not take, and he had lost interest in food. We had both received a text message from Linda regarding our recent visit so I responded to that. We were sad that Bentley was gone, but glad that we got to see him one last time.

I turned my attention to editing photos for my April 10 blog post about out visit to Bandolier National Monument and Santa Fe, New Mexico but the batteries in my wireless mouse needed to be recharged so I plugged it in and called it quits for the night. Linda was watching the first episode of Wolf Hall (PBS) on her iPad so I finished reading the May-June 2015 issue of the Gypsy Journal and played a few rounds of my favorite games. Linda prepared some fresh berries for dessert and we enjoyed them to the glow of the firelogs before going to bed.

2015/04/27 (M) Caller #9

After coffee and cereal this morning I continued selecting and processing photos from our April 10 visit to Bandolier National Monument and Old Town Santa Fe. I ended up with 16 photos so I uploaded the post and put them in an image gallery at the end. After lunch I got all of my documents in order for my 3:30 PM (EDT) telephone meeting of the FMCA Education Committee. I chatted briefly with the committee chair to see if there were any surprises in store. I then worked on consolidating my draft blog posts for April 11 through 15 which included the time we spent in Norman, Oklahoma visiting with my uncle Bob and Aunt Helen, and four additional generations of relatives.

I exchanged e-mails with BCM Publisher Gary Hatt and Editor Dave Rush regarding my article on the redoing of the exterior of our coach. The article is 5,800 words with 71 photos and they would like to split it up and run it in installments over three or four issues. That will require me to go back through the article and identify the places where it can be split, making sure the photos track with the text, and write some additional bridge paragraphs to wrap up each installment and introduce the next one.

I dialed in to my FMCA meeting just before 3:30 PM. I was caller number nine (9) but I did not win anything. The meeting lasted almost 90 minutes. We discussed the survey we have been developing and approved a motion to pass it along to the Executive Board with the recommendation that it be sent to a random sample of the members both electronically and via USPS. I expect to receive minor corrections in the next 36 hours and get a final draft to the FMCA Executive Director on Wednesday so he can have it reviewed by an outside expert (Barry) at Membership Corporation of America (MCA). The FMCA executive board meets in a week so we will see what happens.

After the meeting I finished working on the April 11-16 consolidated post and uploaded it to our personal blog just in time for dinner which featured taco bowl salads. She started with refrigerated tortillas, draped them over ramekins, and baked them to create the shell. She reconstituted an ancho, red Hatch, and pequin chile and used them to season the pinto beans, mixed greens, tomatoes, onions, and olives that made up the filling. Franzia Fruity Red Sangria went nicely with the tacos. Later we had a fresh mixed fruit salad of blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. We relaxed for a while, reading and playing games, but were surprisingly tired and went to bed before 10 PM. Change happens, transition takes time.

2015/04/28 (T) And now … the rest of the summer

As sometimes happens when we go to bed early, we slept in this morning and did not get out of bed until after 8 AM. It is nice to be able to do that if we want to. Coffee and toast got the day started followed by reading, writing, and cat admiring. It was a beautiful, sunny morning albeit still on the chilly side. In other words, another day in the idyllic paradise we call retirement in the country.

We have both been busy since we got home last Friday, unloading the bus and putting things in their place in the house, visiting family, cleaning and stocking the kitchen, going through mail, and working on bills and accounting, both personal and organizational. And that was mostly Linda! I helped with some of that but was mostly focused on finishing a draft survey for the FMCA education committee, sending it out, and participating in a committee meeting by teleconference yesterday afternoon. I will have some minor additional work to do on the survey by the end of the day tomorrow, but with the meeting behind me I can now concentrate on all of the other things that need to be done. To paraphrase Paul Harvey “And now … the rest of the summer.”

One of the chores that is always there is laundry. Linda seems to take over this task when we are living in the bus, but it is definitely my job when we are at home. Ditto for cleaning the cat litter tray. To be fair, both the laundry room and liter tray are in the basement where my office and the ham radio shack are located, so I am down there a lot more than her. When we first return home after being away for an extended time there is a lot of laundry to do. Not that we don’t do it while we are away, we do, but I like to clean everything that we had with us. This is not a one day task, in part because we like to limit the number of loads of laundry we do on any given day so as not to overload the septic tanks, and in part because I just do not want to spend an entire day doing laundry.

My main focus this morning, however, was to revisit my article for Bus Conversion Magazine on the renovation of the exterior of our bus back in 2011/2012. It needs to be split into 3 or 4 installments and I would rather do that myself, making sure the photos track with the text. I started a load of laundry and then got to work, keeping an eye on e-mail and RVillage. I finished restructuring the article just before lunch, uploaded it to my BCM Dropbox folder, and e-mailed the editor and publisher. Linda reheated the Farro-cranberries-almonds dish for lunch and served it with black grapes.

I moved the first load of laundry to the dryer, put a second load of laundry in the washing machine, and started compiling my posts for April 16 through 20. I got an e-mail from Lou Petkus regarding the SKP Photographers BOF website. Lou started, and leads, the BOF and administers the website while I take care of the RVillage group and someone else takes care of the member database/roster. He found and installed a free system for displaying photo albums. He was setting it up so each BOF member had their own login and could upload their own photos and wanted me (and Linda) to try it out. I did, and found a number of issues which I documented for him. I like the idea, so I hope he can resolve the issues.

I folded and hung up the dried laundry and returned to my blog post which I uploaded, tagged, and published before going upstairs. It was a beautiful day and while Linda was outside on the rear deck reading four deer walked up the eastern boundary of our property. We were chatting back there when the doorbell rang, which is unusual for us. It was Aaron, one of the kids (teenager?) from the house to our immediate east. UPS had delivered our Amazon order to their house instead of ours even though it had my name and our address on the label.

Linda sautéed onions until they were partly caramelized, pan-fried tofu slices, and then added bar-b-que sauce. She served these in tortillas rather than on buns. She also sautéed fresh green beans. I opened a bottle of Barefoot Moscato and we each had a small glass with dinner.

After dinner I called Joe Cannarozzi, the mobile mechanic who has done the majority of the service work on our bus since we got it back to Michigan in 2010. As planned, he is now in upstate New York where he will be working well into the fall. He plans to be back this way the first week in November and we made plans to have him do the routine chassis maintenance at that time. I also discussed our interior renovation plans for the bus and got some tips from him about how to approach that work, especially the floor, as he has done several.

I noticed that I had a voice message from Gary at BCM. He had called earlier in the day after I had uploaded the new 4-part version of the Exterior Makeover article so I called him back and left him a message. Tag; you’re it.

2015/04/29 (W) Bus Lunch

We had a typical start to our day; coffee, breakfast, and iPads (news, weather, games, reading, and writing). Actually, that’s how most of our days in the bus also start, so the only real difference is where we are sitting and what we can see from that vantage point. I needed to order a refill on a prescription medication so I tried doing that on my iPad. No problem iPad-wise, but the Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) had switched the mail order prescription drug service from Medco/Express-Scripts to Catamaran Home Delivery effective January 1, 2015. Catamaran was already the third part administrator (TPA) but was now operating their own pharmacy. Even though I already had a Catamaran account I had to register for Home Delivery service. Once I did that I was supposed to be able to see any prescriptions that had transferred over. There weren’t any 🙁 That meant I needed a new prescription. I had a mid-morning appointment and did not want to spend time “holding for the next available representative” so I decided to take care of this task tomorrow.

Linda called last Friday and arranged to have our curbside trash pickup resume this week. Wednesday is trash pickup day, so the trashcan had to go out by the street this morning. (We don’t have curbs here, so I can’t say we took the can to the curb.) The last two years Alchin’s has come past our house around noon. While we figured that would probably be the case again this year we did not want to risk missing the truck, so Linda took it out early.

Linda is the treasurer of SLAARC, our local ham radio club based in South Lyon, Michigan. The club’s bank (First Merit) is there and she needed to make a deposit. I was headed that general direction so I took it with me. The deposit made, I headed on to Chuck Spera’s bus garage in Novi, MI. Chuck and Barbara have the same model Prevost bus that we do only one year newer and converted by Liberty, so fancier than ours. Like us, they spend a lot of time in it, and, like us, there are always projects to be done. Some of those, in turn, require some discussion.

I met Chuck at his shop at 10:15 AM and had a look at his turbo boost sensor intake manifold pressure hose. It appeared to be intact but old a frayed like mine was. The one on our bus failed on the drive out to Quartzsite, AZ in December 2014. Changing his hose would be more difficult than our as is chassis batteries are in the passenger-side engine bay and make access to that side of the engine much more difficult than in our bus. We have been using the same mobile mechanic for the last few years but he has found longer term employment and cut back on the mobile servicing of Prevost chassis. I indicated to Chuck that we really needed to find someone locally who is in business at an accessible location and plans to continue as such into the foreseeable future. He suggested that we take a drive to Johnie’s in Walled Lake, so that is what we did.

Denny was not there (Johnie was his dad) but I got to see the place and now know where it is. We drove back to the Panera in Novi for lunch and then back to Chuck’s shop which is nearby. By 2 PM we had not only solved all of the world’s problems we had made good progress on unraveling the mysteries of the universe. Wanting to leave something for the next conversation I headed for home leaving Chuck to ponder the mysteries of the bus, which are far more baffling than the mysteries of the universe.

I drove home on Grand River Avenue (GRA) to avoid WB I-96 and the I-96/US-23 interchange construction. I bought gas at the Wixom Meijer’s and found out 20 minutes later that I had paid way too much for it ($2.59/gal). The BP station in Brighton had regular for $2.29 and the Shell station closest to our house had it for $2.44. Bummer. I passed a First Merit Bank on the south side of GRA just west of Old US-23 in Brighton. Not right around the corner from our house, but a lot closer than South Lyon. There is also a Jeep dealership there. We are interested in getting a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited, we just don’t like the prices we are seeing.

Our Amazon shipment arrived with the two filter cartridges for the under sink housing in the bus and other things. Hopefully the delivery to the wrong address on Monday was a one-time thing. I had been trading phone messages with Gary at BCM and finally got through to him this time. I then curled up with the new B&H catalog which made it feel like Christmas in April.

Linda made a potato lentil ginger curry for dinner and it was very good. I had planned on revising the FMCA Education Survey and sending it out this evening but I was simply not in the humor to go back downstairs. I think my retirement motto is going to be “there is always tomorrow, and if not, it didn’t matter anyway.” Linda had to get up early tomorrow morning to beat the traffic headed into Detroit so we went to bed earlier than usual.

2015/04/30 (R) Steel

Linda set her alarm for 5:45 AM. The purpose of her alarm is to wake me up so I can wake her up. It worked as planned and she got up and got ready to go to the bakery while I went back to sleep.

I finally got up at 8:30 AM. I’ve been busy since we got home but also a bit tired and feeling the need to just unwind from our exciting winter out west. After breakfast I called the Internal Medicine clinic at the Henry Ford Health System Columbus Center in Novi to see if I could get my doctor’s nurse to get my doctor to write me a new prescription for my nasal spray. Naturally I never got to talk to the doctor or a nurse, but the youngish sounding lady who handled the phone call was very helpful, up to a point. She really wanted to schedule me for an appointment and was not quite piecing together that my prescription, which is for a maintenance drug, is only good for one year but my doctor only needs/wants to see me every other year. I don’t expect the new script to be a problem, but that fact that my MPSERS health care plan changed mail-order prescription providers as of January 1st may add a wrinkle. I’m not due for a physical until the fall but I will go sooner if needed to get my script. Which reminds me, I need to schedule my annual appointment with the dermatology PA.

I focused on making some last minute corrections to the FMCA education survey and shipped it off. I got an e-mail back from Diane Wolfe with some questions. She is not a member of the FMCA education committee but she and husband Brett did review and comment on it. The questions were interesting and answering them gave me a chance to explain some technicalities and cc: the FMCA Executive Director as they were as much for his benefit as hers.

I had several e-mails back and forth with Kate regarding productions at Meadowbrook Theater and an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), all of which sounded interesting. Our social life is less active at home than on the road so we welcome such opportunities.

I had a phone call from Mike at Rocket Steel Buildings following up on an inquiry I made. He sent me a brochure and a price. It was something but not exactly the quote I was looking for. I still need to follow up with SteelMaster Building Systems and get to work on drawings for the wood-framed basilica design.

I compiled my blog posts for April 21-25, 2015 after finding the one for the 24th. I had e-mailed it from my iPad but it never arrived. I e-mailed it again and it bounced back. The spam blocker even said it was from a white listed sender (me!) but rejected it anyway. Huh ??? I sent it a third time to two addresses, one of which was not attached to our domain, and it came through to both accounts, naturally. I guess this was one of the mysteries of the universe that Chuck and I left unsolved yesterday. Anyway, I finally got it, finished compiling my posts, and uploaded, tagged, and published it.

I also had several e-mails back and forth with Lou Petkus regarding the SKP Photographers BOF and website. Gary sent me a link to a document in his Dropbox with photos and audio files from an interview he did for a featured bus article that never got written. I agreed to take a look at it and see what I can do.

I managed to get more things off of the bus, including bedding, and did two more loads of laundry. I do not like to do more than two loads a day as it over taxes the septic system. Someone rang the front doorbell, the second time this week. This time it was Kaylie, Aaron’s sister, from next door. For the second time this week UPS delivered a package, correctly addressed to me, to the wrong address. I was concerned this would happen and Linda said I was a pessimist. Apparently we were both right.

I called the local UPS store but the only thing they could do was give me the national 800 customer service number. I am a pessimist (just ask Linda), so I was not looking forward to that experience, but I called and fought my through their voice menu system. It did not include an option for my situation (of course) and I finally just kept saying “agent” until the system gave up and connected me to a real person.

“Chelsea” was apologetic, even though she had not personally done anything wrong, because that’s what customer service people are trained to do. I think someone, somewhere, once upon a time figured out that apologizing diffuses customers who are upset. Well, it doesn’t. And assuring me that it “won’t happen again” is equally meaningless when it comes from a person who is not in a position within the organization to make such a statement. But Chelsea verified my name and address and the incorrect delivery address and said she took careful notes and would make sure they got to the right person. I hope so.

What is perhaps most frustrating is that UPS has a local distribution center in Howell, and I have the address, but it is not open to the public except for limited package pickup hours. In other words, the mistake is being made by a driver who is most likely operating out of that location, or by someone scheduling the routing, but there is no customer support person or facility manager that I can talk to, face-to-face, and resolve this at the point of origin of the problem. We buy a lot stuff now through Amazon Prime, and it all gets shipped via UPS, so having it delivered anywhere other than to our house is a problem.

Linda called at 4:30 PM to let me know she was leaving the bakery at 5 PM and heading to Kathi’s. They were going to have dinner at La Marsa in Farmington Hills and give the I-96 traffic a chance to subside before she finished the drive home. I had some of the leftover potato barley ginger curry for dinner and then called Phil Jarrel to remind him that we are still trying to figure out how to put up a bus barn and still want him to do the site prep and driveway. I then called Butch to see if he was able to locate the front brake drums for their MCI MC-9 NJT bus. He was, and already had the driver side front reassembled. I responded to a couple of e-mails and filled out an online RFQ for SteelMaster Building Systems and went to bed.

2015/04/21-25 (T-S) IN, MI, Home

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2015/04/21 (T) Back to Twelve Mile, IN

The outside air temperature dropped into the 30’s (F) last night and the air temperature in the coach fell to 60, so when I got up this morning I turned on the Aqua-Hot diesel-fired hydronic heating system to take the chill off. We eventually got up, got dressed, and walked across to Small Town Brew to get a couple of cups of coffee and chat with owner Lisa Paul and her friend/neighbor, Ashley, who helps her run the coffee shop. Both of them remembered both of us, which was nice.

It’s interesting sitting in a small town coffee shop, where everyone is a friend or relative, and just listening to the conversation. We are outsiders her, of course, strangers to most of the folks who drop in, but everyone is nice to us. Some are curious about who we are, and where we are from, but rarely ask why we are there, in this little coffee shop in this little town, surrounded by corn fields. Of course, we usually mention that we are friends of Butch and Fonda, so that probably answers whatever questions they may have had.

We eventually returned to our coach and had breakfast. We tried connecting our WiFiRanger to Butch and Fonda’s Wi-Fi router yesterday and it was able to connect and obtain an IP address but the data transfer rate was so slow that web pages would not load and e-mail would not download before timing out. I turned our Verizon Mi-Fi on and we had a very weak but usable signal, so I connected the WFR to the Mi-Fi and we were able to do the few things we needed to do online. We then went in the house to let Butch and Fonda know we were awake and see what they were up to.

Butch’s brother, John, and his nephew, Brock, showed up and helped Butch with the driver side front wheel assembly on Butch and Fonda’s MC-9 bus. The tire/wheel was off when we arrived yesterday and I learned that Butch is replacing the hub bearings and seals, installing an automatic slack adjuster for the brake, and replacing the brake pads. It looked like quite a job with some large, heavy parts, so I did my part by staying out of the way. I also took a few pictures at Butch’s suggestion. He does not want to write articles for Bus Conversion Magazine, but he has been interested in having me write articles about projects on his bus.

Linda spent some time working with Fonda’s new sewing machine that she got while they were in Quartzsite, Arizona. It is a little smaller than a regular sewing machine, only weighs 13 pounds, and only cost about $130. Linda gave her sewing machine to her sister many years ago but now that she is retired she is thinking that it might be nice to have one for mending tasks or projects, such as new privacy curtains for the bus.

Butch got a catalog recently from Crimp Supply in Royal Oak, Michigan, which is not at far from our house. I glanced through it last night and it contains a lot of specialized parts that would be useful to a ham radio hobbyist or someone converting a bus into a motorhome. I called and requested a catalog and had a nice chat with Debbie. She was willing to provide me with additional catalogs that I can give to members of GLCC and CCO at the Back-to-the-Bricks and/or Surplus & Salvage per allies in August and September respectively. She was also willing to show up in person and give a brief presentation on her company and hand out the catalogs. Cool.

Brock had to leave after which Butch and John decided to go to the shooting range along with a third guy whose name I did not get. I went along to see the range and watch what they were doing. Butch had home-brewed some shotgun shells for his Ruger revolver and wanted to test them. They caused the revolving chamber to jam so they will require some additional work. John had a new semi-automatic pistol and wanted to see how it handled. He also had ammunition he had loaded with bullets he had cast and wanted to test fire them.

I was offered the opportunity to shoot but declined. I have never handled a pistol and it would have been a waste of good ammunition. I did take a class in rifle marksmanship while I was at the University of Missouri – Columbia many years ago. I was in the Air Force R.O.T.C. Program at the time and thought I should know something about how to handle a firearm. Learning to handle a pistol correctly would have been more relevant, but I do not recall a course being offered for that. I bought a Ruger 10-22 rifle at that time, and I still have it. It’s a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle designed to look like an M-1 carbine and features a 10-round rotary clip that is flush to the bottom of the stock when inserted. I was only interested in shooting at paper targets so I added a scope to it. It is safely tucked away with a trigger lock on it, but I have not fired it in many, many years. I should probably bring it to Twelve Mile the next time we come down, let Butch inspect and clean it properly, and take it to the range just for grins and giggles.

John and the other guy went back to Logansport from the range. When Butch and I got back to the house he continued working on the driver side front wheel of their bus. I helped a little, but mostly by taking photographs for a possible future article. After putting tools and parts away we sat and relaxed for a while and then all of us went to Logansport for dinner at Pizza Hut. It was 8:45 PM by the time we got back so everyone said “good night” and turned in for the evening.

2015/04/22 (W) Chillin’ in Twelve Mile

Yesterday looked and felt more like winter than spring with gray, cloudy skies and blustery, cold winds. The temperature overnight dropped into the mid-30s but we were toasty warm under blankets with our electric heating pad turned on. I got up at 7:30 AM and turned on the thermostats. The temperature in the kitchen was reading 63 degrees F but the temperature by the dashboard was only 53. The Aqua-Hot has performed very well since I rebuilt the blower bearings and quickly brought the temperature in the coach up to 70 degrees F.

We put on our sweats and walked over to Small Town Brew for coffee and conversation with owner Lisa Paul and whomever else might be there. Three local guys were enjoying their morning brew when we arrived. They eventually left and were replaced by others. Most of the patrons seemed to be retired or semi-retired farmers. One fellow, Lee, chatted with us at length about a canvas covered hoop barn he put up. It was constructed using laminated wood hoops rather than steel, was 30′ wide by 70′ long and cost about $4,000 15 years ago, although I was not clear whether that included the 4-foot high poured concrete walls. He already owned concrete forms and the heavy equipment that one finds on farms, so he was able to do a lot of the work himself without renting equipment or hiring contractors. Still, it has to be the lowest cost way to create a structure for getting our bus out of the weather and out of sight. It is unknown, however, whether the Township and County would let us to put it up.

Butch left at 8:30 AM for medical appointments in Logansport and Fonda came over at 10:45 AM to gather up Linda for a girl’s day out. Linda wanted to go to McClure’s Apple Orchard on US-31 between IN-16 and US-24. Although it is very close to Twelve Mile Fonda had never been there. They were then headed to Peru. Although it is the same distance from Twelve Mile as Logansport and Rochester it is the city that Butch and Fonda visit the least. Peru’s claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of Cole Porter and Emmet Kelly and was the winter home of several circuses many, many years ago. I believe there is a circus museum there that Nick Russell wrote about in the Gypsy Journal.

With no bus project or social interactions I settled in to work on my blog and await everyone’s return. It started out sunny this morning but by 11 AM was thickly clouded over and looking wintery with blustery winds. The only bus project I had in mind to do today was to pull out the chassis batter tray, check the circuit breakers, disconnect the batteries, swap the upper 12 V pair with the lower 12 V pair and reconnect them. It was not something I wanted to do alone and I did not have to do it today, especially under cool, windy, overcast conditions, so I ended up not doing it.

Linda and Fonda eventually returned, having first gone to the Walmart in Logansport. Linda picked up some hummus and Snyder’s sourdough pretzels so we snacked on those for lunch. Linda then hung out with Fonda while I continued to work in blog posts. Butch finally returned from his medical appointments and busied himself with something. Whatever it was, he was not outside working on their bus and neither was I. I managed to get the post for April 1 – 3, 2015 uploaded to our blog.

Linda and Fonda developed a plan for dinner. Fonda made a nice salad and baked a loaf of par-baked bread that we got from Marilyn. Linda made black beans and rice and prepared a mix of fresh blueberries and strawberries for dessert. Linda and I each had a glass of Franzia Red Sangria. After taking all of dirty serving containers back to our coach we returned to the house to visit a bit longer and finally returned to our coach just after 9 PM. That left me enough time to pull together the posts for April 4 – 6 and upload it before turning in for the night.

2015/04/23 (R) Return to Michigan

I was awake at 6:30 AM and finally got up at 7 and put on my sweats. The Aqua-Hot was already on so I turned up the thermostats and turned on the engine pre-heat loop. I also turned on the Broan cube heater and pointed it into the cockpit as the temperature on the dashboard was only 50 degrees F. I walked over to Small Town Brew, got a cup of coffee, and said “so long for now” to owner Lisa Paul. Linda was still asleep when I got back so I fixed a couple slices of toast for my breakfast, turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi, and settled in to take care of a few e-mails. Linda finally got up and, as I suspected, had not slept well last night. She had some toast and orange juice but had no interest in coffee, a strong indicator of just how tired she was and not feeling completely well.

When she was done with the toaster I turned the cube heater off and turned the electric block heater on. The overnight low temperature was forecast to drop into the upper 20’s and starting the big Detroit Diesel at that temperature is hard on the engine so I wanted it nice and warm before I cranked it over.

Butch had an appointment with an ophthalmologist in Indianapolis around noon and had some other things to do down that way as long as they were there so he and Fonda planned to leave by 9 AM. He came to our bus just before 9 AM to let us know they were close to leaving and that he put an air hose out by the automotive bay so I could fill the front tires on the bus if needed. Based on the readings from our TireTraker TPMS, however, no adjustment was needed.

We planned to leave sometime after they did but not later than 10 AM. The main reason for not leaving sooner was to give us time to digest our breakfast, but the other reason was our relatively short drive today to Camp Turkeyville, an RV park on I-69 just north of I-94. This will be the first time I have been in Michigan, which I certainly consider home, since we left on November 30, 2014. Turkeyville is only 80 miles from our house, but we will have a full hookup site so we can dump our waste tanks tomorrow morning and not need to use them on the final short drive to the house.

We started getting ready to leave around 9:45 AM. I shut off the block heater, put Butch’s air hose away, and then took care of the chassis batteries, auxiliary air, and shorepower. The DD fired right up and I switched it to high idle while it built air pressure. As soon as the chassis was at ride height and the air dryer purged I pulled onto IN-16 pointing eastbound and pulled into the curb/parking lane. That was around 10 AM. I left the engine idling while Linda pulled the car up behind the bus. By the time we hooked up the car for towing, checked the lights, and pulled away it was closer to 10:20. I noted that the time was 10:30 AM EDT as we pulled onto US-31 N from IN-16 E.

Traffic was light and we had an easy run up US-31 to US-20 except for the 15-20 MPH crosswind from the WNW. I also had a very cold breeze blowing into the cockpit by my feet and had to turn the heat up to stay comfortable. We were an hour into our trip when I finally realized that I had not opened the air supply valve for the shutters on the two front house air-conditioner condensers which are installed in what is normally the spare tire bay. Those shutters are held open by a spring and held closed by air pressure. When they are open air can easily find its way into the cockpit. There is also a mechanical damper that is supposed to regulate fresh air flow to the cockpit, or cut it off completely, but the flexible actuator cable broke some time ago and the damper/cable are difficult to access so it has not been repaired. Either the cable broke with the damper in the closed position or I taped some sort of cover over the air inlet once upon a time because once I closed the shutters for the A-C compressors I no longer had cold air coming in by my feet.

Traffic was heavier on US-20 eastbound but it always is as it runs just south of South Bend and Elkhart, Indiana, and a bit north of Goshen. It is still a limited access highway until east of Elkhart, so it moved along up to that point. There was one stretch between there and Middlebury where major construction was taking place, but we got through that easily enough. After that it was a nice, rolling, 2-lane highway and we rolled along at 55 MPH except for the occasional town on intersection. We always enjoy driving through this part of Indiana.

We turned off of US-20 onto I-69 N, crossed into Michigan at 12:53 PM EDT, and pulled into the Michigan Welcome Center five minutes later. We only had 37 more miles to our destination but we both needed a short stretch break and I wanted to open the air valve for the A-C shutters, which is in the bay under the driver’s seat. We resumed our trip and exited I-69 at exit 42 around 1:45 PM, crossed over the highway, and traveled the 500 yards to the Camp Turkeyville entrance. We followed the long, wide, winding entrance road and stopped at the office where Linda got us registered. They put us in a 50A full hookup pull-through site with easy access that was long enough for us to leave the car hooked up for towing.

We went through our usual arrival routine and then Linda fixed a light lunch of French Country Vegetable Soup and a tofu hotdog on pita bread with mustard and relish. She also made a pot of coffee. We connected our WiFiRanger to the RV Park Wi-Fi system but did not seem to be able to move any data so we turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and connected the WFR to it.

Linda spent the afternoon reading a book on her iPad and I mostly worked on my blog post for April 7, 8, and 9. I had 14 photos for that post but inserted them into the post rather than put them in a WP image gallery. I logged into our personal WordPress site, installed WordPress 4.2, and then installed updates to plugins and themes. Once that was done I uploaded the blog post and uploaded/captioned/inserted the photos and generated the tags. I clicked the “Publish” button about 7:10 PM.

Linda put dinner on the table about 10 after I finished working. She made a nice tofu scramble, a dish that vaguely resembles scrambled eggs, and served it with toast and jam, a small glass of juice, and black seedless grapes.

I thought about working on my blog post for April 10th, as it is the last one for which I have photos, but I was too tired to get involved in that tonight. We pointed our front OTA TV towards Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, found the local CBS station, and watched a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory and whatever else was one. We caught some local weather and decided to enable the diesel burner on the Aqua-Hot, turn the thermostats on, and set the temperatures for 60 degrees F. The overnight low temperature was forecast to be 27 and it was already 29 when we went to bed. Welcome to Michigan in late April.

2015/04/24 (F) Touchdown

I awoke at 6:30 AM to an outside temperature of 27 degrees F. Our coach has several ways it can be heated if we are plugged into adequate electrical power, including three electric toe-kick heaters. I turned on the Aqua-Hot diesel burner and electric heating element last night before going to bed and left the living room and bathroom thermostats turned on with the temperature dialed back to just under 60 degrees. I also turned on the Broan cube heater, dialed back the thermostat, and set in on the step to blow into the cockpit.

I got up at 7:15 AM and put on my sweats. It was 60 degrees F on the kitchen counter, but the refrigerator adds some heat mid-coach. The thermometer on the dashboard read 53. I turned the thermostats up to 68 and turned on the Aqua-Hot engine preheat loop. I also turned on the front electric toe-kick heater. I made coffee and then turned on the electric block heater for the engine. I checked e-mail and monitored our amperage while I waited for the coach to warm up and for Linda to get up. We were drawing about 30 A on Leg 1 and 20 A on Leg 2. On a true “50 A” RV electrical service with a main circuit breaker that functions correctly we can safely draw 40 Amps on each leg, so our usage was not going to trip any breakers.

By 10 AM the temperature was up to 40 degrees, the sun was shining, and it’s was delightfully cozy in the rig. I got a call from Michele Henry at Phoenix Paint in response to an e-mail I sent her yesterday and talked to her for 15 minutes. We had planned on a 10:30 AM departure but by the time I connected the sewer hose, dumped the waste tanks, and put the hose away it was 10:45. We had the bus and car ready to travel by 11AM and pulled out of our site. We had to wait for a few minutes until someone moved a 5th wheel which they had temporarily parked in the middle of a two-way road while waiting to get into their site. We finally made our way out of Camp Turkeyville and pulled onto I-69 N at 11:13 AM.

We had an easy run to our house and our wheels “touched down” on our driveway at 12:45 PM. Even the dirt roads for the last two miles of our trip were in reasonably good shape, which made for a nicer homecoming. We opened the house, put the cats in their carriers, and took them inside. I got the bus plugged in and the air shut off while Linda put the batteries back in the water softener and sanitizer and turned the well pump on. I turned the gas back on for the kitchen and fireplace and then set all of the thermostats up to 65 degrees F. We unloaded a few things from the bus and then had lunch, after which I sent text messages to both of our children and to Chuck Spera to let them know we were home.

After lunch we unhooked the car from the bus and continued unloading the bus but did not get everything taken off. I was tired and took a long nap, only getting up when Linda told me it was time for dinner. We had a Daiya Mushroom and Garlic pizza. We have used Daiya vegan cheese for a while but did not know they made pizza products until we saw them at the Dierbergs Market in Edwardsville, Illinois. It had a thin, crispy, rice flour crust (gluten-free), lots of garlic and cheese (of course), and was very tasty. I wish we could buy them near our house.

After dinner I called Butch to let him know we made it home safe and without any new or reoccurring bus issues. He had reassembled the driver side steer wheel and discovered that the new brake drums he got from MCI some time ago are the wrong ones, so he is going to have to track down the correct ones next week.

2015/04/25 (S) Return to Regular

Do you remember when OTA TV stations used to break in to programs with special news bulletins or emergency alert tests? At the conclusion of such interruptions the announcer would say “we now return you to your regular programming.” Having spent most of 61 years living in stationary dwellings we still consider being back at our house to be the baseline for our regular lives. The last two years, however, we have spent half of the year, more or less, living in our converted motorcoach. That fact, combined with the fact that we moved to a new-to-us house just before we started our extended traveling, has altered our perception of what constitutes “regular.” All we know for sure is that living this dual lifestyle is our new normal and we like it.

Whether living at home or in the bus we have routines. Part of our “at home” routine is Saturday morning breakfast with our friends from the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC) and that is how we started our day. We took our usual route to South Lyon and were surprised by the extent of the construction work at the I-96 and US-23 interchange. We knew this interchange was scheduled to be rebuilt starting this year but as of March 1st, when Linda last drove through there, work had not started. A lot has happened since then, and from the look of things this is going to be a BIG project.

There were a LOT of people at breakfast, 24 by Linda’s count. It was good to see our friends and ease back into ham radio talk. The club president, Harvey Carter (AC8NO), had the personalized club jackets we ordered from Sunset Sportswear in South Lyon over the winter so we got those from him after we were all done eating. The jackets are dark blue with fleece lining and yellow embroidery that looks very sharp. The left breast says “South Lyon Area” on top and “Amateur Radio Club” underneath. On the right breast is our first name (in script) on top and our call sign underneath in block letters.

We stopped at Barnes and Noble on the way home to pick up a gift for grand-daughter Katie and found two books that we thought would interest her. One was on rocks and gems and the other was on snakes, both of which are interesting to Katie. Both are also an integral part of the desert southwest where we spent the winter.

When we got home I set about the tasks of moving various pieces of technology from the entrance foyer to my basement ham shack/office, reconnecting it to power and our network, and starting it up. I started up our Linux box but the video driver would not “catch” so I shut it down and restarted it in Windows 2000 Pro, updated the es|et nod32 anti-virus database, and installed three Microsoft updates. I checked e-mail on my primary laptop, responded to a couple, and then installed updates on all of the websites I manage. WordPress just released version 4.2 and each new release triggers a flurry of plug-in and theme updates.

Our daughter, Meghan, had arranged for us to come over mid-afternoon to visit and have dinner without the bother and fuss of fixing a big meal. Minn, the female cat, hid immediately but Inches, the male cat, hung around for a while. Grand-daughter Katie is working at Pizza House in Ann Arbor where he dad, Chris, has been the general manager for a long time, but she got off work and arrived just after us followed by Chris, who had run out to pick up dinner at Seva.

Our son, Brendan, daughter-in-law Shawna, and grand-daughter Madeline showed up a little later, and Inches promptly disappeared. Madeline is very sweet and interacts with her two kitties, Gus and Iggy, just fine but our cats, and Meghan’s/Chris’s cats, disappear whenever she comes to visit. They are just not used to the size, motions, and sounds of a 28 month old.

Seva is a vegetarian restaurant that has been a staple of the Ann Arbor restaurant scene for many years but recently moved out of downtown to a location on the far west side of Ann Arbor. While not just around the corner from Chris and Meghan’s house it is much closer, and easier to get to, than driving into downtown. Many of their menu items are vegan, or can be made vegan, and that is mostly what they ordered. We had a nice visit with excellent appetizers and main dishes, a dozen choices in all, and a nice Riesling wine from Washington State.

After appetizers we distributed the gifts we had picked up for everyone. Besides Katie’s books Madeline got a “Dr. Seuss” book about deserts and a t-shirt from Marilyn with a design on the front that changes color in the sunlight. Both of our children, who kept an eye on our house for us over the winter and took in our mail, got the following: A bottle of Red Chile Wine from St. Clair Winery in Deming, New Mexico; a bouquet of pequin chiles from Hatch Chile Sales in Hatch, New Mexico; a box of Prickly Pear Cactus jellied candies and a jar of Prickly Pear Cactus jelly from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona; a bag of Green Chile Pistachios from Eagle Ranch (Heart of the Desert) in Alamogordo, New Mexico; a two box set of olive oil and peach balsamic vinegar glaze from Queen Creek Olive Mill in Queen Creek, Arizona; and a non-stick grilling mat from the “Big Tent” RV Show in Quartzsite, Arizona. We appreciate what they do when we are away which would be more complicated for us without their assistance.

We enjoy looking for gifts that are unique to the areas we visit and tend to limit ourselves to items that are consumable so no one has to find room to store or display something, at least not for very long. We saw many wonderful art and craft objects this winter but they present a special challenge beyond simply getting them home. We are no longer collecting “things,” as we already cannot display or store the stuff we have, and our children are in somewhat the same situation (which is why we still have a lot of stuff instead of them having it).

Then there is the matter of taste. Both children have their own taste in art and have carefully arranged items for display on their walls and shelves. As much as we might like something, and think someone else might like it, buying art for other people is fraught with peril because there is an implied expectation that it will be displayed. If it is displayed but the recipient does do not like it then the gift is intrusive. If it is not displayed the giver is disappointed and potentially offended. Better to stay clear of all that by avoiding surprise gifts. The exception is if we know they are looking for something in particular and we come across one. In that case it is a simple matter to take a photo with one of our smartphones and message them to see if they want it, making it clear that “no” is an acceptable answer.

Madeline goes to bed at 8 PM so she left (with her parents) at 7 PM. Both Minn and Inches came out shortly thereafter to have a bite to eat and get the attention they had missed for the last four hours, We stuck around for another hour which gave us just enough time to get home before it got really dark. Brendan and Shawna had kept/used Linda’s Honda Civic all winter. They came in two cars and went home in one so that Linda could get the Civic back to our house. There is a chance that she will have to go into the bakery a day or two this week and I do not like be without transportation, especially when we have a lot going on.

We sat in the living room for an hour reading and relaxing with our favorite iPad apps/games but without the benefit of our natural gas fireplace logs. I lit them when we got home and they operated for about 60 seconds and then shut off and would not relight. I turned the pilot flame off and will deal with that tomorrow. I went to bed, read for a while longer, and then went to sleep.

20150416-20 (R-M) MO, IL, IN

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2015/04/16 (R) Carthage, MO to Edwardsville, IL

[Note: There are no photos for these posts.]

I was awakened from a light sleep this morning by a change in the sound of our auxiliary air compressor and the pneumatic systems on the bus. A valve that whines in a certain way as the system fills with air changed its tune and the compressor ran longer than it normally does and did not shut off. I got up, turned it off, turned it back on and it finally completed its cycle and shut off automatically. At that point I was up and wide awake so I got dressed. Linda was awake by that point too so I suggested that we just get an early start on today’s journey, and that is what we did. We pulled out of our site at the Coachlight RV Park at 7:30 AM and a few minutes later we were headed south on I-49. Less than a mile later we looped around the cloverleaf interchange onto I-44 headed east.

The sky was overcast and we ran in and out of fog and mist as we traveled up and down the rolling hills of southwest Missouri with spring in full bloom. The temperature was cool and the conditions made for easier driving than having a bright morning sun in my eyes. Traffic was light to moderate for the first 2/3rds of the trip, albeit heavier passing through Springfield and Rolla. About 200 miles into our trip we stopped at the Flying J at exit 226. I-44 was now six lanes and we were at the fringe of heavier urban traffic and encountered a center lane closure on a bridge which brought traffic to a halt. We patiently worked our way through that and a little farther along exited I-44 onto I-270 which became I-255 and took us across the mighty Mississippi River into Illinois, most of the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area to our north.

Once we crossed the river and traveled a few miles traffic thinned out but we bumped our way along as the road surface on this stretch of I-255 was very rough. We exited I-255 onto I-55N/I-70E and then stayed with I-55 when it split from I-70. It was a good thing, too, as I-70E was backed up all the way to the split with traffic stopped and a sign announcing long delays and advising motorists to seek an alternate route. A few more miles and we were at our exit for IL-143, crossed over the highway, did a 180 onto the service road, and drove the last mile to the entrance to the Red BaRn RendezVous RV Park just east of Edwardsville, Illinois.

The entrance to the RV Park was a bit narrow but wide enough that I was able to swing in off the service road. The interior gravel roads were also narrow, and I had to snake past the office, but they turned out to be just wide enough to accommodate an RV our size. The office was closed but there was a note on the door with our name and site number. The site had trees on either side that did not appear to be trimmed up high enough but it turned out that they were.

While not a destination park Red BaRn RendezVous is a nice little place in a location convenient to Edwardsville and Glen Carbon, Illinois, where Linda’s sister lives, and the Interstate highways that will get us to my sister’s house in 30 to 40 minutes. The office building has men’s and women’s restrooms with showers and a small but well equipped laundry. We had no commitments to visit anyone today and were in early enough that Linda gathered up the laundry and we carried it over to the laundry room.

Linda had some fresh blueberries that needed to be used so she made vegan blueberry pancakes for dinner. We do not have these very often but they are a real treat when we do. We were both tired and had headaches, unusual for me but not for Linda, and decided to drive into Edwardsville and find the Walmart. We wanted to buy a present for Lilly and it gave us a reason/place to stretch our legs. Back at the rig we located the OTA TV towers, oriented our front OTA TV antenna, and watched episodes of The Big Bang Theory while diddling on our iPads and computers. I hate to lose a block of potentially useful time but I was not up to working on photos and blog posts and diddling was the best I could manage.

The only “issue” we had with the bus today involved the behavior of the air system. There are three air pressure gauges in the cockpit—primary and secondary on the dashboard, and auxiliary to the side—corresponding to the three “systems” that operate the chassis (brakes and suspension), and accessories (belt tensioners, radiator shutters, air horns, step slides, and house components). The air from the main engine air compressor goes through a dryer that removes moisture and then goes to the primary, secondary, and auxiliary tanks. It sounds simple but it is a bit more complicated than that. I returned an earlier phone call from Butch and discussed this with him.

As best I understand it (and care to take time to explain it here) a valve, or set of valves, regulates where the compressed air goes and the top priority is the brakes. The primary tank/system supplies air to the rear brakes and the secondary tank/system provides air to the front brakes (or vice versa). Until the air requirements of the brake systems are satisfied air does not flow to the suspension or accessories. Once all of the systems are pressurized they are isolated from one another so that a failure of any component will not affect the other systems. It is a clever, fault-tolerant design that works well and has stood the test of time. The components are used on 18-wheelers, fire trucks, and all manner of heavy highway equipment, including commercial buses in passenger service.

When the system is working correctly this is what I normally see when driving. When the systems are fully pressurized the primary, secondary, and auxiliary air pressure gauges all read ~130 PSI. The primary and secondary gauges will stay at that pressure unless/until I apply the brakes. The auxiliary gauge, however, will drop over time due to small leaks somewhere that I have not been able to isolate. Once the pressure in any of the systems drops to about 90 PSI, which is almost always the auxiliary system, the main engine air compressor kicks in and brings the pressure in all of the systems back up to ~130 PSI.

What I saw for most of the drive today was different, and that is always a cause for concern and makes driving less enjoyable. All three gauges were showing a loss of pressure and the pressure in all three systems was the same. The compressor was still working and would kick in at ~90 PSI and bring all three back up to ~130 PSI, so that was good, but the behavior suggested that one or more isolation valves had “stuck” in a position that kept all three systems tied together, which was not good. Because of the larger volume of air being lost through the leak(s) in the auxiliary system it took a lot longer for the pressure to bleed down and it took longer for the compressor to bring it back up.

About four hours into our six hour trip we stopped for fuel at the Flying J Truck Stop at exit 226. When we resumed our travel I noticed that one of the gauges (primary or secondary, not sure which) was holding its pressure while the other one continued to drop along with the auxiliary gauge. An hour after that I noticed that both the primary and secondary gauges were holding pressure while the auxiliary gauge was cycling, and this behavior continued for the rest of the trip. Thus it appeared that whatever caused the abnormal behavior had self-corrected. My suspicion is that a stuck valve had gotten unstuck. Once we were parked and set up the auxiliary air compressor cycled on and off properly, confirming that the isolation valve(s) was(were) once again working correctly.

2015/04/17 (F) My Side

We were up between 7:00 and 7:30 AM, not because we had to be but because we were rested and awake. We had a quiet, relaxed morning enjoying our coffee and granola and using our iPads to check on the world (L) and work on yesterday’s blog post (me). We configured the bus to ensure the cats’ comfort while we were away and left at 10:30 AM to drive to my sister’s house in Bridgeton, Missouri. We stopped for fuel just short of her house and finally arrived around 11:30 AM.

We were greeted by Patty and Maggie, her one remaining dog. We visited for an hour and then went to a Panera (St. Louis Bread Company) not far from her house for lunch. We returned to her house to continue our visit and await the arrival of Ryan, Amanda, and Lilly, who showed up a little after 3 PM. They would have come earlier but Ryan had a routine work-related physical on which his continued employment depended. To everyone’s relief he passed so everyone was relaxed. Lilly was initially surprised to see us but immediately gave us a big smile and went to Linda’s outstretched arms. Lilly is 27 months old and is a cheerful, happy child who interacts easily with whomever is around.

Ryan and Amanda were hungry so at 4:30 PM we headed to El Maguey Mexican Restaurant for dinner. We had taco salads with beans instead of animal protein and everyone seemed to like their food. It is Amanda and Ryan’s favorite Mexican restaurant. Amanda and Ryan headed home with Lilly and we drove back to Patty’s house to wrap up our visit while we waited for rush hour traffic to subside.

Brendan called and Linda got to “chat” with Madeline and then each of us took turns talking to him. He had received his offer letter from Eastern Michigan University and acknowledged it, so he will start his tenure track assistant professorship in the art history department in September. The discussions about initial course assignments, however, have already started. He also mentioned that Shawna’s application for tenure at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor is looking very positive. Both of those pieces of information were very good news for us.

We took our leave at 7:30 PM and got back to our coach just before darkness settled in. Having spent a long day enjoying the company of family we settled in to watch a few shows on the local PBS station’s Create sub-channel before turning in for the night.

2015/04/18 (S) LF-M-LH Day 1

Yesterday Linda (LF) talked to Marilyn (M) briefly as we (B & LF) were driving back to the rig from Patty’s house and they (LF & M) agreed that we (LF & B) would arrive at Linda H’s (LH) house around 11 AM tomorrow, which is now today. (Hopefully the LF and LH designations will help keep straight which Linda I am referring to. Most of the rest of this post is about today not yesterday.)

We were up this morning at 7 AM and had our usual coffee and granola. It’s a good thing we will be getting home soon because we only have one day’s supply left of LF’s homemade granola. It is so good that we have stopped buying commercial granolas because they do not have any taste by comparison.

After a suitably relaxing start to our day I continued plugging away at editing blog posts and selecting/processing photographs to go with them. I dealt with some e-mails and then we gathered up our stuff and headed to (LH’s) and Marilyn’s house in Glen Carbon, Illinois. Glen Carbon and Edwardsville flow together to form a contiguous urban area but they are distinct municipalities with Glen Carbon being to the south of Edwardsville.

We are camped just to the east edge of Edwardsville on the edge of a corn field. The RV park is conveniently located to I-55 and just 10 minutes from LH and M’s house so we were there by 11:15 AM. LH and M had purchased various fresh ingredients for a salad and after sitting and visiting for a while Marilyn assembled the salad. There was something going on at the house across the street that resulted in the wife calling the police and three cars/officers being dispatched to the scene. LH said the husband was himself involved in law enforcement so that added a certain tension to the whole situation as he almost certainly had firearms in the house.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting until Marilyn had to leave for a gala fundraiser for a school that her Congregation supports. We decided to continue visiting with LH and stay for dinner. LH had a bag of shredded vegan mozzarella “cheese” so we ordered a mushroom and onion no-cheese pizza from Imo’s and she ordered a medium supreme. I drove into town and picked up the pizzas. When I got back we added the vegan cheese to ours and heated it in the oven long enough to melt it. It was very good.

In recent times Imo’s was our favorite pizza (after the demise of the Luigi’s restaurants in the St. Louis area many years ago) but the last time we tried one without cheese it was not very satisfying. The crust is thin and crisps nicely, the way we like it, and the sauce is slightly sweet and used sparingly, the way we like it, but their normal cheese, a mozzarella and provolone mix, is (apparently) what pulls together the pie’s uniquely fabulous taste. While the vegan mozzarella was not an exact replacement it made for a very tasty meal, bringing both taste and texture to the pizza.

We needed to do some grocery shopping so we took our leave at 7:30 PM and drove to the Dierbergs supermarket in Edwardsville. There are three grocery stores at the intersection of IL-159 and Governors Parkway, but Dierbergs was the most likely to have what we were looking for. Our shopping done we headed east on Governors’ Parkway almost to I-55 and took the service road back to our RV park. We gave our cats the attention they were seeking while Linda (LF) settled in with her e-book and I worked on the blog post for our two-day visit to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. I also proofread the final draft of the March 2015 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine and sent back my corrections. I uploaded the blog post and then went to bed to work on the posts for yesterday and today.

2015/04/19 (N) LF-M-LH Day 2

Linda (LF) was up at 6:30 AM, earlier than usual, and I got up at 6:50 AM. Before I had a chance to start making our morning coffee she pulled up the weather and showed me the radar. Rain had been forecast to start just after midnight, and continue all day today and into tomorrow, but it appeared that it had not rained last night. The radar, however, indicated that the rain was on our southern doorstep. I needed to dump our holding tanks and refill our fresh water tank, so I took care of that while Linda made the coffee and updated her cost-of-camping spreadsheet.

The dump and fill process took me about an hour but we now have enough waste tank capacity and fresh water onboard to get us home with room to spare. Based on Linda’s data our average nightly cost to “camp” this winter has been about $8.75. Not bad. Our average daily cost for our winter in Florida was over $20 which we felt was a very reasonable cost for wintering there. We drove more miles this winter compared to last, almost double in fact, so we spent the money we saved on camping buying diesel fuel. Fortunately diesel fuel prices in the central and western states where much lower than the prices in the southeast last year. They were, in fact, the lowest prices we have seen in years so that was a nice break.

I updated my water usage spreadsheet while Linda got caught up on our personal accounting and bills. Cell phones and cellular data, in conjunction with the Internet and electronic banking, have fundamentally transformed the full-time and extended-time RVing experience in ways that no one could have imagined 15 years ago. I had an e-mail from Dropbox that Kate had joined a folder I had shared with her so I sent her a short e-mail updating her on our travel plans. I also had an e-mail with the final draft of the print version of the March 2015 issue of BCM and verified that the corrections I uploaded last night had been made to my article. I consolidated my blog posts for March 22 and 23 and finished editing them. I had just started looking at the unprocessed photos for those posts when it was time to pack up and head to Marilyn and Linda’s (LH) house for the day.

The weather was overcast and gloomy and the rains eventually came, a perfect day to stay inside and eat, talk, and play games. Marilyn has been making a real attempt at moving to a vegan diet so she prepared tomato soup and black bean burgers for lunch. We then put the leaf in the dining room table and got out the Mexican Train dominoes game. We brought hummus and Linda (LH) had made vegan guacamole so we enjoyed those with a few Fritos corn chips. We also had fresh grapes and toasted almonds to munch on and a couple of bowls of popcorn. We played 16 rounds of Mexican Train starting with the double 15 tile in the center and ending with the double “zero” (blank) in the center. It was evening by the time we finished and everyone enjoyed having a whole day to hang out with family and friends with nothing more important to do than play a game.

We left just before 8 PM and drove through Edwardsville to get back to the RV Park rather than get on the Interstates. There was very little on TV that interested us and we ended up watching an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. It was a very popular show in its day but is now very dated to the point of being almost silly.

Linda (LF) read and I selected/processed photos for my blog post about our visits to Ajo, Arizona on March 22nd and 23rd. I got the post and photos uploaded and then went to bed.

2015/04/20 (M) Edwardsville, IL to Twelve Mile, IN

Linda was up a little before 7 AM and I was up a little after. Today was a travel day, so we did not make coffee or have breakfast. We were not hungry anyway having had our fill of food, both good and junk, yesterday. We each had a cup of tea while we got our day started.

We started getting ready to leave around 9 AM and finally pulled out of the Red BaRn RendezVous RV Park at 9:50 AM. We had about 330 miles to travel to get from Edwardsville, Illinois to Twelve Mile, Indiana. Since the RV park is just off of I-55 we took I-55 north to I-72 near Springfield, followed that east to I-57 and then took that north to US-24. We followed US-24 east and moved from Central Daylight Time to Eastern Daylight Time sometime after we crossed into Indiana. US-24 joined up with US-35 to bypass Logansport, Indiana to its south and then split off to continue east towards Peru. We picked up US-31 just before Peru and took that north to IN-16 where we headed back west about five miles to Twelve Mile. It was 5 PM (EDT) when we arrived at Butch and Fonda Williams’ place. The bus ran well except for a couple of tattletale lights that started blinking briefly towards the end of the trip. The previous problem with the chassis air systems did not reoccur.

I checked the manual after we got parked and one of the lights was for a chassis battery voltage Hi/Low condition and the other was for the upper and lower 12 V strands of the chassis battery being out-of-balance. Both conditions, if true, might implicate the Vanner battery equalizer but the first diagnostic step will be to check the circuit breakers. The next step will be to check all of the battery connections, including the Vanner. One of the things on my To-Do list is to swap the upper and lower batteries as the “24V” gauge on the dashboard usually reads 29 V and the “12V” gauge usually reads 14 V or slightly less if I have the headlights turned on.

Butch and Fonda had to take his parents to medical appointments in Lafayette, Indiana today and got home just before we arrived. We did not realize they were there but that was OK; they knew we were coming and we have a nice level spot to park on concrete with a “50 A” electrical connection when we are here. (It’s a 240 VAC connection with a 50 A RV outlet but we can only draw about 30 amps on each leg.) Even though we left home on November 30, 2014 Twelve Mile feels like the place where our trip to the southwest U.S. began as we left from here in a caravan with Butch and Fonda on December 3rd.

We were settled in our spot and had our WiFiRanger connected to their Wi-Fi access point when Butch and Fonda either realized we were there, or that we were not going to knock on their door, and came over and knocked on ours instead. They came in our bus and we talked for over an hour at which point Butch needed to deal with a Facebook group admin issue. After they returned to the house Linda started preparing our dinner while I checked e-mail and then continued working on this blog post.

Linda sautéed onions, mushrooms, and garlic in a little olive oil and added torn spinach at the end. She cooked two baking potatoes in the microwave oven and served them with the sautéed vegetables as a topping along with some almond milk jalapeño pepper jack vegan cheese. A simple but satisfying dish on a cool, clammy evening. We also had some black grapes with the meal which were tasty and refreshing. We made two large cups of hot tea and took them to the house where we visited with Butch and Fonda some more. By 10 PM we were too tired to be good company so we returned to our coach and went to bed.

20150411-15 (S-W) NM, TX, OK, AR, MO

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[Note: There are no photos for the five days covered in this post.]

2015/04/11 (S) Relaxing Chores

We like to get up and go do things, but we also like not having to get up and do things. Today we got up when we were ready to. I used up the last four scoops of coffee beans from our first three pounds and opened the next/last three pounds; one each of Sweet Seattle Dreams, Cafe Europe, and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Each of these is a half regular, half decaffeinated custom blend that Jeff at Teeko’s Coffee and Tea in Howell, MI makes for us. Linda installed iOS 8.3 on her iPad while I made the coffee.

We had toast and jam for breakfast using some more of the English toasting bread we bought at Smith’s the other day. After breakfast Linda played several of her word games, including Words with Friends, online with Karen. I installed iOS 8.3 on my iPad and then worked on yesterday’s blog post and e-mailed it to myself. (It is still the easiest way for me to get it from my iPad to my laptop, which somehow just does not seem right.)

Mid-morning Linda started cleaning the coach. We have been in dusty environments for a lot of the winter, especially the last few weeks, and the coach needed a good vacuuming. We don’t vacuum as often as we would if we did not have the cats with us as the vacuum is rather loud and they are afraid of it. They do not like the vacuum cleaner at home either but they can get a lot farther away from it and have a lot more places to hide in the house than they do in the bus.

While Linda worked on the interior of the bus I got out the water softener, pre-filter, and hoses. I first connected everything so I could run water through the pre-filter to remove any sediment and then backwards through the softener to back flush the resin bed. I then connected the hoses in the normal forward flow direction and added 26 ounces of non-iodized table salt to the captive filter housing on the inlet side of the softener tank. I no longer use this housing for a filter. Its sole purpose is to hold salt for regenerating the softener. That way I do not have handle a wet filter while trying to keep it clean so I can reinstall it.

The regeneration procedure was the same ordeal it has been all winter, taking a few minutes of my time spread out over several hours. Most of that time I worked on blog posts and photos, but my work was interrupted every 20 to 30 minutes to attend to the softener. I did, however, manage to get the water coming out of the softener to finally test at 1.5 gpg TH. That should be enough softening capacity to get us home without having to regenerate the water softener again.

For dinner Linda made a barley, split pea, and lentil dish with sautéed vegetables and a hint of soy sauce. It was very tasty. We had the TV on the local PBS station and I finished my consolidated blog post and image gallery post for the week of the Escapade rally and uploaded them to our website/blog.

2015/04/12 (N) Edgewood, NM to Amarillo, TX

Today was a travel day and we normally skip breakfast and coffee on such days, but not today. I was up a little after 7 AM and we did not plan to leave until 9 AM so we had time to make, consume, and digest some coffee and toast. I turned off the electric heating element for the Aqua-Hot and turned on the diesel burner and engine pre-heat coolant circulating pump.

When we were done with breakfast we got the Dewalt air compressor out of the car and checked all of the tires on the bus and the toad. It turned out that all of the pressures were slightly higher than where I normally set them, due in part to our altitude of 6,700 feet ASL, and that was want I wanted. In driving from the Route 66 RV Park in Edgewood, New Mexico to the Overnite RV Park in Amarillo, Texas we will drop just over 3,000 feet in elevation. That, in turn, will cause the cold pressures in the tires to drop. The current cold pressures in the tires should be sufficient to allow for that, but I will check the TireTraker monitor in the morning to be sure.

By the time I finished checking the tires Linda had the interior ready for travel. We hooked up the car, set the car to be towed, switched on the bus chassis batteries and engine accessories air supply, checked the lights, turned off the Aqua-Hot burner and engine pre-heat coolant circulating pump, started the bus engine, and switched the Level Low system to drive mode. A few minutes later the chassis air system was fully pressurized and the coach suspension was at ride height. We exited our site easily, pulled out of the RV Park onto Historic Route 66 westbound, and a mile later made two right turns and accelerated onto I-40 eastbound.

Once we were underway Linda called the Overnight RV Park in Amarillo, Texas to make sure they had open sites. They did, but not many so she gave them our name to hold a pull-through site that would accommodate our bus with the car attached. Since we are just staying one night we do not plan to not unhook the car.

We knew from our maps and what we could not see to the east that we were done with the Rocky Mountains. We were now in the Great Plains and would be from here all the way through Oklahoma. Not that the terrain was flat; eastern New Mexico was rolling terrain, occasionally steep, with mesas. Not surprisingly the terrain did not change abruptly as we crossed into Texas, although the road surface and time zone did. For lack of a better, or more official, line of demarcation I consider the central time zone as the boundary of the middle-west.

While not as dramatic as the mountain west the Great Plains are a place where grasses and low brush dominate a natural landscape that is largely devoid of trees and that have a beauty all their own. The other thing we noticed as we moved east was the thickening cloud cover and occasional storm clouds and virga. Linda had checked the weather forecast so we knew there was a low, but non-zero, chance we would encounter rain while driving and/or after we got parked for the evening. We did, in fact, drive through a couple of miles of very light rain somewhere near the New Mexico / Texas border.

We only stopped once for a bathroom/stretch break and made very good time. The posted (maximum) speed limit for most of I-40 in both states is 75 MPH. Back east I typically limit my speed to 62 MPH or less if the speed limit is lower. What I have discovered out west is that the bus really likes to travel at 68 MPH turning just under 2,000 RPM and so do I, at least out here in the wide open spaces.

Linda had selected the Overnight RV Park in Amarillo for several reasons. For one, the name and description strongly suggested that this park was set up to accommodate overnight visitors passing through the area in their RVs and looking for a place to spend the night. For another, it was on the east edge of Amarillo, so we will not have to drive through town in the morning when we pull out. Finally, it was right across the street from a Pilot Truck Stop, so we did not have to make a separate stop for fuel.

We pulled of I-40 at exit 75 around 2:30 PM CDT and pulled in to the truck stop. The place was crowded with trucks but we got lucky and pulled in behind a semi that was done fueling and pulled out shortly thereafter. There was some confusion regarding the pump number so it took a bit longer than usual to top off the tank, but we were not pressed for time as our RV park for the night was right across the street. Linda settled the charge and we followed several tractor-trailers to the exit, back to the main road, and then turned north and drove the short distance up to the entrance to the RV Park. We turned in and stopped by the office where Linda got us registered. As is the case in most RV Parks we got a map of the campground with our site and entrance path marked, the login for the Wi-Fi, and the combination lock for the bathrooms. We also received information about where to go and what to do in the event of violent weather. Welcome to the Midwest and Tornado Alley.

Overnight RV Park is an older park with a lot of long-term residents, but it was not run down and had some nice, mature trees and plants. I was momentarily concerned about low overhanging branches and tight turns when we pulled in but the gravel interior roads were wide enough, and the trees trimmed enough, to make access to our assigned pull-through site very easy. I did, however, lift the tag axle to allow for the tighter turns.

We went through our normal arrival routine, got connected to the Internet, and started looking at our RV park options in the greater Oklahoma City area. We plan to stay two nights and take part of our one full day to visit my Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen who live in Norman just south of OKC. I had not contacted them, however, as our travel plans have been very fluid. Now that we were a day’s drive away I called to let them know we would be in the area. I was a bit surprised that Helen answered the phone and even more surprised to learn that Bob was in “rehab” although Helen did not say why. She did say that we could visit him so we arranged to go to their house on Tuesday morning at 10 AM, get the address/directions to the rehab facility, and possibly take Helen with us to go visit him.

I texted my sister and niece to let them know that Friday from lunchtime to dinnertime would work well for us and accommodate their availability. Linda texted our children to let them know we had landed safely in Amarillo and then texted Marilyn to share the same information. Marilyn called back a bit later and Linda filled in the details.

The RV Park options around OKC were limited, which seems to be typical of urban areas including St. Louis, Missouri. The options also seemed to be less than ideal based on reviews and expensive by our standards. In the end we decided to try the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in Norman. We sent a message via RVillage to someone who is currently there in a 42′ motorhome and inquired about the place. They wrote back and said it was fine but was near full, does not take reservations, and only has 30A electrical service. All of that was fine by us. The pluses are that it is only a few minutes from my Aunt and Uncle’s house and it is only $20 per night, so we are going to leave early tomorrow and see if we can snag a spot.

inda re-heated some leftovers for dinner, after which we went for a stroll around the RV park. We had just exited our coach and got into a conversation with our neighbors to the north. They were working on errands so after a good chat we left them to their work and went on our walk. Getting out and moving around in the cool, fresh air was just what we needed after a long day of sitting and driving and invigorated us enough to stay up until 9 PM.

2015/04/13 (M) Amarillo, TX to Norman, OK

The weather forecast did not favor travel during any particular part of the day; it was going to be rainy and windy regardless of when we left. Getting a spot at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds, however, might depend on getting there early. We targeted an 8 AM departure for our 4.5 hour, 270 mile trip. We were up at 7 AM and each had a cup of tea and a banana. We did not unhook the car last night, so all we had to do was run it through the towing procedure and it was ready to go. We pulled out of our site at 8:20 AM.

Our route today was I-40 east to I-35 south to US-77 south to East Robinson Street. All but the last 20 miles was on I-40 which mostly ran east to northeast. Winds were 15 – 20 MPH and gusty out of the northeast the whole way. That meant I almost always had a headwind component and often had a crosswind component. The headwind requires the engine to work harder so I set the cruise control at 64 MPH instead of the 68 MPH I ran most of yesterday. The crosswind component meant I had to actively work the steering and the lower speed made that more comfortable as well.

Most of the trip was through rural countryside with good road surface and light traffic. We encountered a few construction zones but there was no work being done due to the weather. As we approached the Oklahoma City metropolitan area traffic became much heavier, as expected, but the highways had more lanes and everything seemed to move along just fine. In particular I-40 and I-35 always had at least three lanes allowing me to stay in the center, away from entering traffic, and move to the left or right as needed for an exit ramp. The whole drive would have been easier without the rain and constant fiddling with windshield wipers, but I was always able to see well enough to maneuver safely, it was just more work and bit more stressful than normal. I seem to handle urban road systems OK; it’s just not my favorite thing to do.

The Cleveland County Fairgrounds was easy to find and easy to access. As soon as we pulled in we could see where the RVs were parked. I pulled up out of the way while Linda called the Fairgrounds office. She was told to go ahead a find a place to park and then register at the kiosk or in Building G. I pulled up into the gravel parking area that had the RVs backed along two sides, like an “L.” One leg of the L was paved and the other was grass/gravel. We noticed one empty site in the paved area so I pulled around in front of it (so no one else could take it) while we unhooked the car. (When camping in a no-reservations, first come, first served campground you have to stake your claim to an empty site.) Linda moved the car out of the way and then spotted the rear end of the bus while I repositioned it and then backed it into site #9. We have been towed out of two fairgrounds at the end of rallies where it rained so we were glad to get this paved site.

The sites here are all full hookup with 30 A electric and include usable Wi-Fi for $20/night. That is a much better deal than anything else we could find in the OKC area, and is also the closest place to where my aunt and uncle live, so it was a great find. We probably won’t use the fresh water or sewer connections and the 30 A service will be OK. Apparently there are also some 50 A sites but we did not need that much power and did not want to take the time to see if one of them was open. Given forecasted high temperatures that will barely reach 60 degrees F we will not need our air-conditioners. As for heat, we will use our Aqua-Hot in diesel-fired mode for domestic hot water and space heating, if needed.

Once we had the power connected and got settled in I made a pot of coffee while Linda made roll-up sandwiches for lunch. She then checked us in to the Fairgrounds on RVillage and made our reservation for the Red Barn Rendezvous RV Park near Edwardsville, Illinois starting on Thursday. We will be in the St. Louis, Missouri area for four or five nights visiting family before pushing on to Twelve Mile, Indiana. She then researched places to stay near Joplin and Springfield, Missouri for Wednesday evening.

While Linda was doing all of that I finished up yesterday’s blog post and started working on this one. I then logged-in to RVillage. There are three other RVillagers checked in to the CCFG so I posted to the home feed and to the park feed to see if I could make contact with any of them. One of them (Hollywood Bob) is also a member of the SKP Photographers BOF which Linda and I help run. (I am the owner/leader of the RVillage Group.) I sent him a friend request and then a personal message.

The rain let up not long after we arrived at the Fairgrounds but the wind continued, with gusts occasionally rocking the bus. The bus is fairly massive but also has a lot of surface area and sits on air springs. We do not have leveling jacks, so strong/gusty winds can, and do, rock the bus.

Hollywood Bob and his girlfriend Barb walked by so I went outside to chat with them briefly and we arranged to walk over to a local coffee shop at 8 AM tomorrow. I then spent the late afternoon and early evening editing the text for my March 13th blog post on our visit to the Sonoran Desert Museum west of Tucson and then worked on selecting photos for the post. Somewhere in there we took a break and went for walk around the Fairgrounds. It is not a large facility but has nice buildings and grounds.

Linda heated up the last of the barley and vegetable leftovers and steamed some halved Brussels sprouts and finished them with a White Peach Balsamic Vinegar Glaze from the Queen Creek Olive Mill near Arizona City, Arizona. Yum. After dinner we turned on the front TV and tuned in PBS to watch Antiques Roadshow. I finished selecting and processing photos for the March 13th post around 11:30 PM but did not upload it

2015/04/14 (T) Bob and Helen

I was up at 6:30 AM and uploaded my blog post for March 13th. We had spent that day at the Sonoran Desert Museum west of Tucson, Arizona and photographed the sunset from nearby Gates Pass. The post was brief (by my standards) but I put over 30 photos in an image gallery.

At 8 AM we walked over to Hollywood Bob and Barb’s rigs, met up with them, and then walked the short distance to the Dora Marie Bakery and Coffee Shop just across Porter Avenue from the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. We sat there conversing over coffee until 9:45 AM, mostly about RVs and RVing as that is generally the first and easiest conversation to have with new friends. I already knew from a brief chat with Bob yesterday that both of them are members of the Escapees RV Club and that Bob is a member of the SKP Photographers BOF. Bob is also a Freethinker and knew that we were as well from our RVillage Profile. We found out over coffee that they are both members of the WINs (Wandering Individuals Network) and LoWs (Loners on Wheels) which are independent groups for single RVers. As we were walking back to our rigs we agreed to get together for SKP happy hour at 4 PM.

Our main reason for being in Norman, Oklahoma was to visit my Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen. Uncle Bob earned a Ph.D. in micropaleontology over 60 years ago when Ph.Ds. were less common than they are now. He moved to Oklahoma after finishing his degree and did extensive work on the Arbuckle Mountains. A Google search on “Robert O. Fay” produced a lot of hits referencing his published work. He was attached to the University of Oklahoma at one time and that is what brought them to Norman.

Bob just turned 88. He and Helen have been married for 49 years but never had children. Helen had one son, Scott, from a previous marriage. Scott married Linda and they had two children, Tiffany and Philip. Scott passed away a while back but Linda still lives in Norman and teaches in OKC. Tiffany and Philip and their families also still live in Norman.

I last saw Bob and Helen four years ago on the drive back to Michigan from Livingston, Texas where I had picked up our Honda Element from Dennis and Carol Hill. Helen was having problems with her back at the time but Bob was as sharp as I remembered the last time I saw him 26 years earlier while returning from a trip out west with Brendan. All of our memories of that visit were a bit vague but my recollection is that Meghan and my sister, Patty, met us there so Patty must have driven Meghan to OKC from St. Louis, Missouri.

When I called on Sunday to let Bob and Helen know we would be in the area I talked to Helen and found out that my uncle was in a rehabilitation facility not far from the house but she did not say why. When we arrived at their house at 10 AM this morning we were greeted by Tiffany, Brandy (Philip’s wife), and Helen who was up walking around and sharp as ever. We visited briefly and then followed Tiffany and Helen over to the rehab facility.

Uncle Bob is in the facility recovering from a persistent pneumonia, which was treated with an antibiotic to which he was allergic, but he also has Parkinson’s. He is still coherent but the decline in both his physical and mental condition was striking. I was not shocked by that, however, and only briefly surprised by virtue of not being fully prepared. We had a conversation nonetheless, and Bob asked, and talked, about family and genealogy which became his research passion along with geology. Tiffany took a cell phone picture of Linda and me with Bob. She had to get back to work so she took Helen home while Linda and I stayed a bit longer to chat with my uncle.

Bob was tired, dozing on and off, and it was getting close to lunchtime. Staff also needed to check on Bob so we took our leave. Although we will be back this way in future years I had the strong sense that Uncle Bob is not going to improve going forward and this may be the last time I get to see him. It was not quite the meeting I had envisioned, but I was glad for what we had. My dad will be 90 in June and cannot travel very far from his home so I don’t see any way he and his brother will ever meet again. There is always a final everything but it is usually only clear in retrospect. Such is life.

Before Tiffany and Helen left Tiffany called her mom (Linda) to see if she could be available to get together after work this evening. Linda said she could rearrange some things with her brother and would love to meet for dinner. We discussed meeting at the house and going out to dinner from there.

Tiffany invited us to stop by her school, which is just down the street from the Fairgrounds, so we did that right after lunch, which consisted of a couple of tofu hotdogs wrapped up in soft tortillas with mustard and relish. Not WFPB but definitely vegan and definitely tasty. Tiffany gave us a tour of her school and we got to meet Cody, her significant other, who also works at the school. She had talked to her mom (Linda) and Helen and they decided that we would all be more comfortable and better able to converse at the house. We explained how we eat and Tiffany said she and Brandi (Philip’s wife) would take care of bringing in food and make sure there were items for us.

I spent most of the afternoon working on blog posts but took time out to check the pressures of the two front bus tires. I thought I would have to adjust all of them now that we have descended to 1,200 feet ASL, but the front tires were still close to one another and above the minimum required pressure, so I did not get out the compressor. By 3 PM I was feeling the need for a nap and snoozed for an hour.

We walked over to Barb and Hollywood Bob’s rigs at 4:30 PM. We were going to do SKP happy hour at 4 PM but we were not sure we could carry glasses of wine around the Fairgrounds so we went empty handed. The Farmers Market opened at 4 PM so Bob, Linda, and I walked over to check it out while Barb started preparing their dinner. They had to be at a dance event at 6 PM and we needed to be at Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen’s house around the same time.

Brandi has been Uncle Bob’s primary caregiver when he is at home and she brought him from the rehab facility to the house for the evening. There was a houseful of people with laughter and energy and it was nice to see Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen surrounded by so many people who obviously love them and care about them. Dinner was salad greens, vegetables, fresh fruit, sandwich fixings, and deserts and there was plenty for us to choose from. Here’s how the family fits together:

Bob is my father’s younger/only brother (by two years).
Helen had one son, Scott Pelton, from a previous marriage.
Scott married Linda and they had two children; Tiffany and Philip.
(Scott passed away some years ago.)
Tiffany has three girls (young ladies); Alexis, Brianna, and Caitlin.
Brianna has a son, Liam, who is Bob and Helen’s great-great-grandson.
Philip married Brandi and they have three children; Cassidy, Cheyenne, and Danika.

We stayed until almost 9:30 PM and had a great visit that ended with a discussion about Linda and her three grand-daughters coming to Michigan for a visit sometime. Tiffany texted me the cellphone photo she took of Linda, me, and Uncle Bob at the rehab facility this morning. Caitlin set up a camera and took photos of the entire group. When we got back to our rig I replied to text messages and provided our e-mail address and home phone number to Helen and Tiffany.

2015/04/15 (W) Norman, OK to Carthage, MO

There is always way more to do in any given area than there is time to do it, and the greater Oklahoma City area, including Norman, is no exception to that. But our presence here proved to be the catalyst for a large gathering of people to whom we are related by marriage through Helen, my only Aunt, and only by virtue of her being married to my only uncle, Bob. While it would have been nice to visit longer after last night’s gathering it would have been anti-climactic.

Through the serendipity that RVillage makes possible we also made the acquaintance of Barb and Hollywood Bob at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. As much as we would have liked to have coffee with them again this morning, we don’t usually have our morning coffee on travel days and wanted to be on the road by 9 AM.

Linda had been checking the weight restrictions on the roads in our home county and noted yesterday that they will be lifted on the 16th. That means we have a green light to return to our house whenever we want to. We already have plans to spend four nights near St. Louis, Missouri and visit family, and at least a couple of nights in Twelve Mile, Indiana visiting Butch and Fonda with whom we started this southwestern adventure on November 30th, 2014. We will spend our final night at the Camp Turkeyville RV Park so we can dump our holding tanks before arriving home.

All of which is to say we had over 600 miles to travel from Norman to St. Louis, which is two day trip for us, with a reservation at an RV Park in Edwardsville, Illinois starting Thursday afternoon and arrangements to visit with family on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Linda researched possible intermediate locations to split the distance roughly in half and found the Coachlight RV Park on I-49 one mile north of I-40 near Carthage, Missouri.

We did not take the time to buy an Oklahoma Turnpike pass and decided not to take I-44 northeast out of OKC. From the CCFG we headed west on Robinson Street back to US-77 north, merged onto I-35 north, and then exited onto I-240 east. Somewhere east of OKC I-240 ended and merged into I-40. As urban highways go it was an easy exit from the greater OKC area. We stopped at a rest area just before crossing the Oklahoma/Arkansas border and took a short lunch break, having vegan cold cut rollup sandwiches.

We continued east on I-40 to Fort Smith, Arkansas and then headed north on I-540, which has been re-signed I-49, through the Boston Mountains toward Fayetteville and Bentonville, the corporate home of Wal-Mart. I-49 did not continue all the way into Missouri and became US-77 as it passed through a narrow valley and small towns. A few miles into Missouri the road became I-49 again. We stayed with I-49 up to where it joins with I-44 east near Joplin, Missouri. About 10 miles later I-49/US-77 split off to the north and one mile later we exited, crossed over the Interstate, and pulled into the Coachlight RV Park.

The weather was overcast with occasional drizzle for the entire trip but it was a beautiful drive nonetheless. Eastern Oklahoma is green and rolling and northwest Arkansas adds small mountains to that topography. The bus ran well all day including the steepest grades.

The Coachlight RV Park is located behind the Coachlight RV Dealership with very easy access. Linda got us registered but then we had to wait quite a while for someone to move the motorhome in front of us. Again, we were given instructions on where to go and what to do in the event of extreme/violent weather. The Park is built into a north-facing slope with wide paved roads behind an RV dealership of the same same. The RV dealership was the emergency shelter. Most of the sites are pull-through except along the two outside edges. All of the sites are wide, long, and level gravel with full hookups including cable TV and Wi-Fi. The Park has its own well with a water softener so the water at the sites is very soft. The Park allows customers to wash their rigs so we got out the hose, spray nozzle, and long-handled soft brush and rinsed off the car and the bus as best we could.

We went for a walk around the Park to stretch our legs and stopped by the office to check out the meeting room. There is a small RV rally here and we got to see the meeting room which was very nice. For dinner Linda made a macaroni and mushroom dish with onions, garlic, and kale followed by red grapes. Very tasty. We watched a few TV shows and called it a day.

2015/04/10 (F) Bandolier Natl Mon and Santa Fe NM

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[Note: Photos from today are in an image gallery at the end of the post.]

Our sleep last night was interrupted by the receipt of e-mails on our phones (and iPads) informing us that our house had lost utility power and our whole house generator had started and was running. As we learned later from studying the event log (using our Kohler OnCue software) the power had flickered several times, causing the genset to start and then stop, until the power finally failed (or was disconnected by the utility company) and stayed off, causing the genset to start (and stay on) and the transfer switch to shift the house from the utility lines to the genset until the utility power was eventually/finally restored. This, of course, is exactly what the generator and transfer switch are designed to do and the reason we have them installed.

We got up around 7 AM, left around 7:45 AM, and were kept abreast of the generator’s status as we drove. We headed east on I-40 as far as Moriarty and then headed north on NM-41 towards Santa Fe. Just before reaching the southern edge of the greater Santa Fe area NM-41 merged into US-285 north. We continued on US-285 well north of Santa Fe and then headed west on NM-502 towards Los Alamos, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), before turning south on NM-4 towards Bandolier National Monument (BNM).

I visited BNM 26 years ago with our son but this was Linda’s first visit. BNM is remote but my recollection was that it was worth the drive and that proved to be the case. We had a couple of “conversations” with a female ranger (?) at the visitor center who had a rather annoying superior attitude, the first time in my 63 years that I have had a less that wonderful encounter with someone from the NPS, but we were there to see ruins and managed to get the information we were seeking.

LANL, the home of the atomic bomb and still the center for nuclear research in the U.S.A., is actually spread out over a vast, remote region northwest of Santa Fe. We saw a sign for a museum which we presume was in the town of Los Alamos, but did not check it out. Museums take a lot of time to see and usually involve an admission fee, which is all the more reason to spend the necessary time to tour them properly.

Albuquerque and Santa Fe have a least a dozen fabulous museums between them, maybe each, and we would need to spend 3 – 4 weeks camped somewhere between the two cities, or two weeks in one and two weeks in the other, to visit most of them and not be exhausted by the time we were done. We are actually making our way towards home and only spending a few days in the area to get a sense of the place and visit a few places. Full- and extended-time RVing are NOT full- or extended-time vacationing. If we approached what we are doing with the attitude that we had to see everything everywhere we went, and do so in the limited amount of time available, we would quickly be broke and exhausted. We plan to be back this way in the future and will have a better idea of what we want to see and do when we return.

We left BNM and returned to Santa Fe by reversing our route. We navigated to Old Town and found ourselves in heavy traffic on narrow streets looking for a place to park. Our tour guide map of the area showed public parking but we drove past those locations without seeing the referenced space. We did see several parking garages, but I had the ham radio antenna on the roof of the car and could not pull in. We finally spotted a parking space along a small park area at the northeast corner of Old Town and parked there at no charge. Almost all of the parking in Santa Fe involves parking meters or pay lots but we did not have any change with us, so if we had not spotted this parking space we would not have stopped to see Old Town.

We were glad, however, to find this parking spot as it was a short walk to Old Town which is a fairly compact/dense area. Our first stop was the Loretto Chapel with its famous spiral staircase. The staircase is a 23 foot high double helix that makes two 360 degree twists from the floor to the choir loft. It does not have a center column and was originally supported only at the top and bottom, although several “supports” have been added to stabilize it against the vibrations of modern vehicular traffic. The choir loft was originally accessed by ladders but when the church became the chapel for a girls’ school run by the Sisters of Loretto the ladders were not considered appropriate.

The story behind this staircase is that the Sister’s prayed a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, for a staircase to the choir loft. The chapel is small and any conventional staircase would have taken up too much space. A carpenter appeared not long after the novena and built the staircase using only simple hand tools. He did not give the sisters his name or ask for any compensation. He left without any indication of where he came from or where he was headed and was never seen or heard from again.

Given the mystery of this event, some came to believe that the carpenter was St. Joseph himself. Of more interest to architectural scholars is the engineering “mystery” of how the staircase was constructed. It was unclear from our visit whether the carpenter worked in secrecy, but whether he did or not the Sisters apparently did not make/keep any record of the details of the work. As originally constructed the staircase had an inside railing but no outside railing, which would certainly have lightened its visual and actual weight and made for a rather interesting climb. (The outside railing was added many years later but does not add anything structural to the staircase.) The treads and risers are all connected on the inside and outside edges so the staircase is a continuous spiral which is an inherently strong shape. Indeed the double helix shape of the staircase is the same shape as strands of DNA, discovered over 100 years after its construction. The more practical problem for me turned out to be the difficulty of photographing it as the chapel is small and dim but has very bright stained glass windows. BTW: the chapel is now privately owned and admission is $3 per person.

From the chapel we walked back to the central plaza. The north side of the plaza is the Palace of the Governors. Originally built in 1610-1612 it was the seat of Spanish government in this area. It was then the seat of Mexican government here and finally the government of the United States of America. It has the distinction of being the oldest, and longest continuously occupied, government/public building in the U.S.A., although it now houses a history museum. Also of interest is the covered sidewalk that runs the entire length of the building. It was packed from one end to the other with Native Americans selling their jewelry and other craft items. We read later that this has been going on for a very long time. In spite of all of the art galleries, jewelry stores, and boutiques in Old Town Santa Fe I would probably buy something from one of the Native sellers if I was in the market for these kinds of items.

We were not here to shop, however, and had not had lunch so having had a look at the place we put the address for the Thai Vegan restaurant in the GPS and headed south on Cerrillos Road (NM-14) in search of dinner. Thai Vegan was the top rated vegan restaurant in the Santa Fe area on Happy Cow. We arrived at 4:25 PM and discovered that they were closed from 3 – 5 PM. No problem; we just sat in the parking lot and waited. Vegan restaurants are not (yet) common and after two fairly long, active days of sightseeing Linda was looking forward to not cooking dinner tonight. The service was friendly and the food was OK; not the best vegan restaurant food we’ve ever had, but good enough. They make their own vegan “ice cream” and it was very good. I had coconut and Linda had green tea.

We were done with dinner by 6:15 PM and sunset was not until 7:30 PM so we drove home on NM-14, the Turquoise Trail, through Madrid and other small towns on the eastern foothills of the Sandia Mountains. It was a beautiful and fun drive and we got back to our coach almost exactly 12 hours from when we left this morning.

Most of the shops in Madrid were closed but the bars and restaurants were open. It is an old mining town that became a ghost town, got re-discovered in the 1970s, and became an artists’ colony. Many of the old mining shacks have been reclaimed and turned into homes. The town has a rough, funky appearance and we would like to return sometime during the day to check out the shops and galleries. But not on this trip. We have some long driving days ahead of us and would like to have a day to clean the coach, recharge the water softener, and relax. For Linda that means online word games and looking at her new Vegetarian Southwest cookbook. For me that means working on our website/blog.

: Entrance sign for Bandolier National Monument, the end of a 94 mile, 2-1/2 hour drive.

: A panoramic photo of the largest, most visible, and most excavated Kiva at BNM.

: The Ancient Puebloan culture that inhabited this valley built both on the valley floor foreground) and in the cliffs (behind).

: The rock in the canyon walls at BNM is relatively softer and porous making it a little eaiser to enlarge natural openings into usable size room.

: A vertical panorama looking into one of the narrow side canyons at BNM.

: Linda does not like ladders as a general rule but she was not going to miss out on seeing inside the cliff dwelling room.

: Looking back (south) towards the main Pueblo on the valley floor from the cliff dwelling trail.

: There was no information as to whether these openings were natural or man-made but either way the ancient inhabitants surely would have seen this as a face just as we do today.

: Visitors are allowed to climb up to this cliff room and go in. Linda came up the ladder far enough to have a good look.

: Linda on the cliff dwelling trail at BNM with her Tilley Hat, binoculars, and trail guide.

: The small, regularly spaced, holes were carved to support the ends of tree trunks used as roof beams. The darker patch was a pictograph that had been covered over but later discovered by archeologists.

: Much of Old Town Santa Fe looks like this. The appearance masks the very upscale (expensive) art and jewelry businesses that predominate Old Town.

: The famous spiral staircase in the Loretto Chapel, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

: A slightly closer view of the Loretto Chapel spiral staircase. The outside railing is not original and was added many years later.

: We were on and off Historic Route 66 near Albuquerque, but we ended up on the Santa Fe Trail in … Santa Fe, New Mexico.

: This wooden plaque explains about the Palace of the Governers, which is now a museum.

2015/04/07-09 (T-R) North by Northwest

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2015/04/07 (T) Space Nuts

Our friend and Alamogordo tour guide Bell Moore, points to her Gulf War service brick at the Alamogordo, NM Chamber of Commerce.

We have always been intrigued by outer space and the human desire to go there and learn about the universe so in that sense we probably qualify as “space nuts.” Indeed our first destination this morning, after picking up Bell at her house, was the New Mexico Space History Museum near the New Mexico State University Alamogordo campus at the northeast corner of town.

The museum sits on high ground at the base of much higher mountains and offered a commanding view of Alamogordo and the Tularosa Basin. The white sands of White Sands National Monument were clearly visible, including airborne gypsum sand blown into the air by the strong southwesterly winds. We examined the outside static displays which included remnants of a WWII German V-2 that was test-fired at the White Sands Proving Grounds after WWII, went off course, and crashed just southeast of the location of the present day museum. Alamogordo was much less developed then than it is now, but it was still very lucky that it did not land in a populated area.

Admission to the museum was $6 per person (senior rate) which was a fair price. We took the elevator to the 4th floor and then worked our way down using the ramps that connect the floors. As you might expect, the museum places special emphasis on the role of New Mexico in the development of missile technology and space flight, in particular Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Test Range (formerly White Sands Proving Grounds). The museum had an excellent collection of space and missile related artifacts with excellent explanatory signage. As with most good museums it would have taken a long day, or several shorter visits, to actually read everything.

A view towards Alamogordo from the outside display area at the New Mexico Space History Museum.

Even with the white gypsum sand blowing in the wind you can see great distances. It was thus odd to contemplate that the Trinity Site, which lies some 60 miles NW of the museum, might be visible from where we were standing. This is the place where the first nuclear bomb was exploded and the flash, followed by the mushroom cloud, must have been visible here in Alamogordo, and the sound surely must have been heard.

From the museum we headed north on US-54 towards Tularosa and stopped at the Eagle Ranch aka Heart of the Desert pistachio farm, processing facility, vineyard, and winery. We tasted a variety of pistachios and sampled five wines. Two of the wines appealed to us so we bought a couple of bottles of each. We also bought several bags of the green chile pistachio nut meats. We drove next door to check out McGinn’s Pistachio Farm and Winery and sampled more nuts, including some pecans. We only had a few minutes so we did not buy anything and headed back to Eagle Ranch for the 1:30 PM tour. The tour lasted 45 minutes and we gained some insight into how pistachios are pollinized, harvested, processed, and packaged. Pistachio trees are not pollinated by bees or insects but rather by the wind. Because of that pistachio plantations intersperse a mail (pollen producing) tree after every 8^th female (nut bearing) tree. The location of the male trees is offset in each subsequent row so the pollen as the maximum opportunity to find its way to all of the female trees.

The exhaust nozzle of a Saturn V rocket engine. It is more than wide enough for a person to stand up in it.

After the tour we finished the trip into Tularosa to have lunch at the Tulie Cafe. It turned out to be closed on Tuesdays, so we headed back to Casa de Suenos. Bell had a cheeseburger and we both had taco salads with beans instead of animal protein. Bell enjoyed her cheeseburger and the salads were good. The red and green salsas that came with the warm tortilla chips were excellent.

On the drive back we stopped at the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce where there is a display recognizing all of the military personnel from the Alamogordo area who served in Desert Storm. Each person has a brick with their name and rank at the time of their service. Bell showed us her brick and I photographed it and took a picture of her pointing to it. We then spent a little time in the small museum before driving Bell back to her house. Considering that she did not know us very well when we arrived on Wednesday she was a gracious tour guide and enthusiastic ambassador for her home town.

An Army tactical missile and launcher at the New Mexico Space History Museum.

Back at our coach Linda called the Route 66 RV Park in Edgewood, New Mexico to verify that they were open and had spaces available. The answers were ‘yes’ and ‘yes’ so that is where we are headed tomorrow. Linda checked the weather forecast and there is a high wind warning out starting tomorrow afternoon and running into the overnight hours. In light of that information we decided we would leave first thing in the morning and try to get to our destination before the winds really kicked up. With that in mind we went ahead and hooked up the car. I then dumped the holding tanks and cleaned the bus windshields while Linda did a small load of laundry.

Although not fancy, Desert Paradise RV Park was an excellent place to stay and we would certainly stay here again. It is right off the main highway, but tucked behind some commercial buildings and very quiet. It is convenient to Alamogordo, Holloman AFB, White Sands National Monument, the White Sands Missile Test Range, and destinations in the mountains to the east that we did not visit. The RV sites are large with easy access, the clubhouse facilities are very nice, and the Wi-Fi was the fastest and most solid we have experienced all winter.

2015/04/08 (W) Moving North and West

Today was a travel day for us which meant we skipped breakfast and coffee. We only had a little over 220 miles to travel and would normally have targeted a 9 AM departure time. The weather forecast, however, was for very strong and gusty winds with a high wind warning starting at noon for the area where we would be traveling. The jet stream was responsible for the wind, having dipped far south over North America and dropped in altitude. We got up a little after 7 AM and pulled out of our site at the Desert Paradise RV Park at 8:14 AM.

The remains of a WWII German V2 rocket that was test-fired at White Sands Proving Grounds just after the war ended.

We took the US-54/US-70 Relief Route that bypasses most of Alamogordo just west of the city. The drive up US-54 through Carrizozo and on to Vaughn was scenic and uneventful, even with the occasional construction zone. We were traveling north to northeast so the winds out of the southwest were mostly on our tail and helped push us along. It also made for a much quieter ride than usual by reducing the net wind speed at our windshields.

Around 11 AM we picked up US-60/NM-285 in Vaughn and turned west. That is when we got the full brunt of the wind which seemed to be out of the west. Linda checked the weather for the area and it was showing sustained winds of 34 MPH out of WSW with gust higher. Driving the bus at 60 MPH into a 30+ MPH headwind is the same, in terms of wind resistance, as driving it 90 MPH through still air. The bus only has so much horsepower and was not able to sustain 70 MPH into this wind, not that I wanted to go that fast anyway. I found that both the bus and I did better if I left the transmission in 4th gear and set the cruise control at 55 MPH. Even with that configuration it was producing more power and higher exhaust gas temperatures than it would have without the headwind.

The view to the west from the 4th floor of the New Mexico Space History Museum. The “white sands” are visible on the horizon and blowing into the air.

NM-285 split from US-60 in Encino and headed northwest while US-60 headed southwest. Our northwesterly track meant we had a strong crosswind component and some headwind. We continued to climb and the terrain became more steeply rolling hills. I was able to travel 63 MPH through this stretch of the trip, which was fast enough, and maintain at least 55 MPH on the steeper hills by getting on the accelerator coming down to low points, staying on it up the other side, and dropping the transmission into 4th gear as the speed and RPMs started to drop.

When we reached Clines Corners and entered I-40 westbound we once again had the wind mostly in our face and I decided to run at 55 MPH in 4th gear. These were the strongest winds of the drive and had also become very gusty which, combined with Interstate highway traffic, made this the most challenging and stressful park of the trip.

Linda poses with the world’s largest pistachio. Note the wind-blown hair.

Most of the drive was also a gradual but steady climb which meant the engine was again usually producing more power than it does on level terrain. We were at an elevation of 4,341 feet ASL in Alamogordo but by the middle of the drive had topped out at over 7,200 feet ASL and never dropped below 6,000 feet ASL the rest of the trip. That, combined with the wind resistance, meant the engine ran a bit hotter than normal for most of the drive. Although the engine coolant temperature never rose above 195 degrees F the pyrometers indicated closer to 700 degrees F, climbing to 850 to 900 degrees F on steeper/longer grades and dropping to 300 degrees F (or less) on down slopes. The pyrometers normally run 500 to 550 degrees on level terrain. The turbo boost also ran a few PSI higher than it normally does on level terrain and often climbed above 12 (on the new gauge) and several times peaked at 15 on the steepest grades. I rarely see turbo boost readings on the new gauge above 15 and the maximum I have ever seen is 16-17.

Google Earth Pro indicated that we would encounter up and down grades on this route near 6.0% but an average of only 0.9% upgrade overall. There were many hills on NM-285 that were 4% and several that were probably 6%, but they were short climbs and the bus handled them well. Indeed, the coach ran very well all day including how it handled the wind. It was a lot of work for me, but it was doable.

We went on a free tour and bought wine and green chili seasoned pistachios at the Eagle Ranch

We took exit 187 off of I-40, looped back to the east on Old Route 66, and a mile later pulled into the Route 66 RV Park in Edgewood, New Mexico. As we entered the RV Park there was a sign with a phone number to call so Linda called it. The owners were away from the park but gave us directions on the phone to get into site # 12. The park is built on a north-facing slope with a sweeping view in that direction and all of the sites are cut from the hillside. Site #12 had full hookups with 50 A electric and easy pull through access. It was also very wide so we did not have to squeeze the bus in and could park our car next to the bus instead of behind it. The site was not perfectly level but it was close enough that we were able to level the coach using the built-in air-suspension leveling system.

The owners returned while I was hooking up the shorepower and Linda was arranging the interior. She got us registered and then we unhooked the car. With our arrival chores completed Linda sautéed onions, red bell peppers, and kale and heated up two Tofurkey brand vegan Italian sausages.

Route 66 RV Park has two Wi-Fi signals so I used the Wi-Fi Analyzer app on my smartphone to see how the 2.4 GHz band looked. As usual there were lots of signals trying to use Channel 6 (in the center of the band), and a few signals at lower Channels, but the park’s second access point was on Channel 11 all by itself, so I connected our WiFiRanger Mobile-Ti to the second access point. We then got our computers out, powered them up, and got them connected to the Internet.

A close up view of Bell’s Gulf War commemorative brick.

The wind continued to blow and the gusts increased in strength. We were both tired and had slight headaches, perhaps from the higher altitude, the stress of driving in the wind, the lack of our morning coffee, or some combination of the three. Whatever the cause we both drank some water and then took naps. When we finally got up Linda sautéed some fresh green beans and reheated the last of the seitan mock stroganoff and served them with quartered apples.

After dinner we experimented with different directions for our TV antennas and found one that captured a lot of stations, including the local PBS affiliate. Given the winds we appreciated the advantage of having OTA TV antennas that are contained in low profile, aerodynamic housings. We would not have been able to deploy a conventional crank-up antenna under these conditions.

The door of the early 18th century mission church in Old Town Albuquerque, NM.

I checked the fresh water tank gauge as Linda was doing the dishes and it was below the 1/3^rd level. I got the water softener and separate pre-filter out of the front bay and hooked everything together. Once I turned on the water I could see that the level in the tank was ~1/4. It took about 35 minutes to fill the tank and the water softener was depleted by the time it was full. That means I will have to regenerate the softener, a task I have come to dislike with our present equipment. Once the tank was full I disconnected everything and returned the equipment to the front bay. The low temperature for this evening is forecast to be 36 degrees F so I did not want to leave the water filters, softener, and hoses outside with water in them.

Linda read and watched TV while I processed photos from our drive to/from Bouse, AZ back on March 2nd. We drove through a very strong storm on that drive and captured a few interesting pictures. I looked at my draft blog posts for early March and decided to consolidate the posts for March 1 – 3. I got the compilation done but was too tired to upload it to WordPress, integrate the photos, and generate all of the tags, so I went to bed. The wind continued to blow and gust strongly but I eventually fell asleep to the gentle (sic?) rocking of the coach.

2015/04/09 (R) Albuquerque, New Mexico

The forecast low for last night here in Edgewood, New Mexico was 36 degrees F. The actual low turned out to be 28 degrees F, so I was glad that I disconnected the fresh water equipment last night and stowed it back in the front bay. Linda was up before me this morning and when I got up the temperature in the coach had only dropped to 66 degrees. We were very comfortable in our sweat pants/shirts but I turned on the electric heaters briefly to warm it up a few degrees. We have not used space heating in quite some time.

One of the many little seculded plazas in Old Town Albuquerque, NM.

I made a pot of coffee and it occurred to me that our mild headaches yesterday may also have been influenced by the lack of our usual morning brew. Not that we consume a lot of caffeine in the morning. I usually make 6 – 8 cups of coffee and it is always half decaffeinated beans, so we each get 1.5 – 2 cups of caffeinated coffee. Not a lot, really, but probably enough that our bodies don’t like it if we skip a day. Linda made oatmeal for breakfast, after which I uploaded my blog posts for March 1, 2, and 3 (2015).

Linda spent a little time looking at recommendations on RVillage for what to see and do in and around Albuquerque and Santa Fe and did some additional research online. We decided to head for “Old Town” Albuquerque by way of Historic Route 66. That turned out to be especially easy as our RV Park is on Old Route 66 which is Central Avenue in Albuquerque and runs right across the southern edge of Old Town.

One of the many very old doors in Old Town Albuquerque, NM. I think doors make interesting subjects for photographs.

We left Edgewood around 9:45 AM and drove the 20 miles to Albuquerque on Route 66 which is closely paralleled by I-40. Route 66 has lower speed limits than I-40, and once we hit Albuquerque we had a lot of stoplights, so it took about an hour to get to Old Town but we got a good look at that part of Albuquerque. Most of the available parking around Old Town is in pay lots and, not knowing anything about the area and what else might be available, we went into one of the first ones we came to. We also did not know how extensive the area was or how long it would take to see it so we paid for all day parking.

Our first stop was a plaza with public restrooms. The visitor information center was in the same plaza and a very nice lady helped us with maps, brochures, and advice based on personal experiences. Old Town dates from the early 1700’s. It features a lot of low, (faux) adobe style buildings, but very are historically old. Most of the shops sold art and jewelry but there were a few were T-shirt shops and places to eat.

An interesting fireplace under a Ramada in Old Town Albuquerque, NM

We went in one t-shirt shop and saw several things that we really liked. Just down the street we struck up a conversation with a Native American gentleman, David Ramirez, who had some wonderful paintings that were part of a large scale, long-term project he is working on. He was from the Chippewa Tribe in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor years ago to study art. We were very tempted to buy something but we were just at the beginning of our stroll through Old Town and did not want to carry merchandise, so we got his business card with his contact information and decided to ponder whether we wanted to make such a purchase.

From Old Town we continued west on Central Avenue looking for Coors Blvd. NW and then Atrisco Dr. NW and Western Ave. NW which finally brought us to Unser Blvd. NW and the entrance to the Petroglyphs National Monument Visitor Center. After checking in and stamping our NPS Passport we had to drive another two miles north on Unser Blvd. NW to an area of the Monument where there is a short loop road to stops at two parking lots and provides access to three hikes. One of the hikes involved a rough path that climbed a couple of hundred feet up a steep hill, but it was worth the effort. We took our time and saw lots of petroglyphs as well as sweeping views of the Albuquerque metropolitan area far below us to the east. Indeed, one of the trail markers informed us that we were exactly 5,280 feet above mean sea level.

Some pretty flowers along the trail at Petroglyph National Monument, NM.

A cactus in bloom along the trail at Petroglyph National Monument, NM.

From the Monument we worked our way east over the Rio Grande (river), north on 2nd Street to NM-556 (Roy Ave. NE) which crossed I-25 and became Tramway Road NE. Tramway took us east along the north edge of Albuquerque towards the Sandia Mountains and then turned south to run along their western base. Tramway eventually intersected I-40 which we got on going east for the 20 mile drive back to the Route 66 RV Park in Edgewood. Tramway is so named because of the cable car that operates from a base at the northeast corner and takes passengers up to the top of the Sandia Mountains. The tram was closed for service but we would not have gone anyway regardless of the price. Linda does not do Ferris wheels, ski lifts, and cable cars.

When we got back to our coach Linda reconstituted one of the dried Hatch chiles we bought at Hatch Chile Sales in Hatch, New Mexico and used it to season a southwestern style beans and rice dish. After dinner I worked with the consolidated draft blog posts for the days of the Escapade RV rally but did not have the time to select a few photos from the 3,000+ that I took during the event. We planned to leave early tomorrow for Santa Fe and Bandolier National Monument and I needed to get to bed.

2015/04/04-06 (S-M) Ancient Modern

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2015/04/04 (S) Gila Cliff Dwellings

We decided to visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument (GCDNM) today. It is only 94 miles from Deming but it is a 2.5 – 3.0 hour drive. From Deming we took US-180 to Silver City where we picked up NM-15. NM-15 is placarded as a “mountain road” and crosses the Continental Divide as it runs through the Gila Wilderness to the little town of Gila Hot Springs and then on to the GCDNM where it ends. It is marked in our road atlas as a scenic road and it was all that and more. The road itself was an adventure and afforded a range of experiences from dense forest to switchbacks and hairpin turns to distant views as it ran along mountain ridges. We took our time and enjoyed the ride, stopping to take a few pictures along the way

We crossed the Continental Divide twice today. This was the crossing on NM-15.

We eventually reached the GCDNM Visitor Center where we obtain more information about the Gila Wilderness area, the Monument, and the ancient cliff dwellings. The cliff dwellings are in a canyon about two miles from the Visitor Center. A road leads from the Visitor Center to a parking lot at the mouth of the canyon. A ranger gave us an interpretive trail guide and quick overview of what we would see and what would be required to see it. It turned that we were not in the Monument yet. We started up the trail by crossing over a small stream on a foot bridge and on the other side actually entered the Monument, which is only about 600 acres. The Monument, however, is surrounded by the vast and remote Gila Wilderness, so the Monument is there specifically to protect and manage access to the cliff dwellings.

The trail wound up the south side of the creek that runs through the canyon to a point beyond the cliff dwellings, which are all built into natural openings in the south-facing north wall of the canyon, before crossing to the north side of the creek. The trail was good, but fairly rugged; definitely not a place for wheelchairs or flip-flops. It also afforded some views of the cliff dwellings. Once on the other side of the creek the trail climbed steeply and was narrow with steep drop-offs at a few points. By the time we got to the first of eight compounds we felt like we had earned the right to see them.

There are three aspects to the Gila area with cooperative management.

The Gila cliff dwellings are very accessible once you get up to them allowing a close up look at these fascinating remnants of an ancient way of life. One of the things we learned is that the term Anasazi, which translates roughly as “ancient enemy” is no longer being used to describe the people and culture that inhabited this area until sometime around 1300 AD and built these dwellings. The accepted name is now Ancient Puebloans, which more clearly establishes the nature of how these people lived and maintains a connection to the Native Americans who still inhabit the southwest U.S. and northwest Mexico, many of whom claim direct descendancy from these ancient people. We enjoyed our visit to GCDNM and felt it was more than worth the drive.

Native American leader Geronimo and his people lived in this area.

NM-15 to GCDNM is a dead end road so some backtracking is necessary on the return trip. We like to see new things so south of Gila Hot Springs we took NM-35 through Mimbres, back across the Continental Divide, and down to San Lorenzo on NM-152 which we took back west towards Silver City. Much to our surprise we came upon one the Chino Copper Mine and pulled into a fenced public viewing area on the highway. Chino is still an active open pit (strip) mine and is an almost incomprehensively large whole in the ground. After trying to take a few photographs we continued on and took a small side road to Bayard and US-180 and returned to Deming.

We did not get back to the SKP Dreamcatcher RV Park in time for the start of happy hour at 4 PM but we did make it back in time to socialize a bit with folks before everyone went back to their rigs for dinner. We struck up a conversation with Rick and Mary who had just arrived today.

2015/04/05 (N) Deming to Alamogordo

An HDR image of some lovely green plants on the hike up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

We were up at 7 AM, and a light breakfast, straightened up the bus and took showers. I ran into Chris Baby in the men’s room (that’s his name). I met Chris at the recent Escapade at a couple of the Xscapers social events. He is one of the new generation of 20-somethings that is giving full-time RVing a serious try. I find it fascinating and refreshing to meet this new generation of RVers. We hooked up the car and used the restroom by the office one last time. Linda then called the Desert Paradise MH & RV Park in Alamogordo and they said there was plenty of space and we did not need a reservation. We visited briefly with fellow RVillage, Rick and Mary, whom we met at happy hour last night. They had checked our RVillage profile and discovered that we were also fellow Freethinkers. That would not have happened without RVillage.

I had been indicating in the last few posts that we were headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico from here, and we were actually planning on finding an RV Park closer to Santa Fe. We changed our minds and decided to visit a friend in Alamogordo, New Mexico and see the sights around there before heading to an RV Park about 20 miles east of Albuquerque. We had targeted an 11 AM departure but we were ready to go before that and pulled out around 10:45 AM.

The drive over I-10 east to I-25 north to US-70 was smooth and uneventful. US-70 going east from I-25, however, climbs steadily heading out of Las Cruces and then very steeply for several miles before topping out. It then drops steeply for many miles into the Tularosa Basin and through the White Sands Missile Test Range. Once down to the valley floor the road is level across the range running past White Sands National Monument, Holloman Air Force Base, and into Alamogordo, New Mexico.

The westernmost of the Gila Cliff Dwellings.

We did not have any difficulty finding the Desert Paradise MH & RV Park or getting in and parked. The park uses a self-registration process (Iron Ranger) for short-term guests and there was only one rig in the short-term area so we had our pick of sites. Linda took care of registering us while I connected the shore power and took care of the rest of our exterior/systems arrival routine.

The park has a conveniently located building with two bath/shower rooms, a laundry, and a central club house room with a kitchen in one corner, TV viewing area in another corner, and a library with sitting area in another corner. I happened to meet the park manager, Wes, while I was in the building and Linda obtained the Wi-Fi password from a women in the laundry. We connected our WiFiRanger to the Park’s “N” signal and it was solid and fast; as good, or better, than what we normally see with our Verizon Mi-Fi.

A panoramic photo of the open pit Chino Copper Mine near Silver City, New Mexico.

Although the drive from Deming to Alamogordo was short, both in terms of miles and time, it was hard on the bus and on us so we decided to stick around the coach and rest. That also gave me a chance to continue working on blog posts and related tasks. Before settling in to my work I called Butch and got Bell’s phone number and gave her a call. She was very excited that we were in town and we arranged to meet up with her tomorrow morning.

2015/04/06 (M) White Sands Natl Mon

Bell arrived at our campsite at 8 AM. We cleaned out the back seat of our Element and found space for a small cooler and three disc sleds. We gathered up our stuff, loaded it wherever it would fit, and headed to White Sands National Monument (WSNM) about 13 miles southwest of Alamogordo. The white sands are a unique natural phenomenon. The WSNM shares management responsibilities with the White Sands Missile Test Range. The Tularosa Basin is the birthplace of U.S. efforts and the first atomic bomb every exploded was detonated at the Trinity site on the north end of the test range. This part of New Mexico, with its Puebloan ruins and nuclear facilities is a place where ancient and modern meet and somehow coexist.

We drove the loop road through the dunes twice, stopping at different places to climb, photograph, and slide down on the disc sleds. The loop road is not paved but, rather, is plowed to keep it open. WSNM is interesting and different from most National Monuments in that visitors are encouraged to “play” on the dunes. There are many very large parking areas, picnic areas with sun shelters, a horse staging area, and places where the park rangers hold programs and lead walks. You can hike out into the dunes and you can even backpack/camp in them (after registering and getting a permit). This use is permitted because the sands are still being formed and constantly restoring their natural appearance as the move across the floor of the Tularosa Basin. They are a slow but powerful and persistent force of nature; unique and wonderful to experience.

Almost as amazing as the white sands are the things that manage to grow in them. The sands eventually obliterate everything in their path.

The Visitor Center was not open when we arrived so we stopped on our way out. We watched the film that was running, stamped our NPS Passport, and then wandered around the gift shop but did not buy anything. We then drove back towards town and pulled into the Visitor Processing Station for Holloman Air Force Base.

Bell retired from the U. S. Air Force after 20 years of service, so she has access privileges to Base and its facilities. There is a food court in the Base Exchange building and we ate lunch there. The commissary and other community facilities were also located in that area but we did not go in any of them. We went instead to the see the static display of aircraft that have been based at Holloman AFB over the years. Holloman is a Tactical Air Command (TAC) base, and the 49th fighter wing has flown many different jets over the years, including the McDonnell Aircraft F-4 ‘Phantom’ and F-15 ‘Eagle’, both of which my father helped design (structural engineer). More recently the YF-117 Stealth fighter was based here and the wing currently flies the F-22.

A panoramic photo of part of the White Sands National Monument. The loop road only goes through a small portion of the dunes.

Bell, and her husband Jim, were stationed at Holloman 17 years ago when they retired. The liked Alamogordo and decided to stay. They own/operate the local cab company (Dollar Cab) which provides transportation services locally and also travels as far as Albuquerque to get people to/from medical facilities and care providers. They also own Moore’s Auto, a used car sales and automotive service business that is now run mostly by their son.

We were back at our bus by 2 PM and arranged to pick Bell up tomorrow morning at 8:45 AM for another day of sight-seeing in and around Alamogordo. Being back mid-afternoon I had some notion that I would get a lot of work done on our blog but it was very warm in our coach as we had to leave the roof vents closed due to the strong winds. We were also both feeling a bit ‘off’ due to the heat and the larger-than-usual lunch we ate, so we turned on the air-conditioners and took naps.

Bell and Linda in front of an F-15 in the static display area at Holloman AFB.

When we got up an hour later we felt better and Linda started researching the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers park at Cochiti Lake north of Albuquerque. She downloaded and activated Google Earth Pro (GEP) and started looking at routes. One of the nice features in GEP, which is now free, is the ability to plot a route and get its elevation profile. We both got involved in looking at possible routes out of the Tularosa Basin (I already had GEP installed on my laptop) and discovered that the only way out that did not involve significant up and down grades was south to El Paso, Texas. We did not enjoy the drive through El Paso in December and it was the opposite direction from where we want to go. We had planned to take US-54 north to US-380 west to I-25 north to Albuquerque /Santa Fe but changed our mind when we saw that US-380 is not a designated truck route and has one section with a 10.8% grade (climbing) going west. Santa Fe is also above 7,000 feet so we started looking for RV park options near I-40 east of Albuquerque.

We had the leftover seitan mock stroganoff for dinner. Linda found a PBS station and we watched Antiques Roadshow. She went off to bed to read and I compiled another blog post and uploaded it before turning in.

2015/04/01-03 (W-F) The Land of Enchantment

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2015/04/01 (W) Hello New Mexico

We were awake at 6 AM, which is not unusual for a travel day, and were up by 6:30. I went in the house to use the bathroom and instead of beeping once the alarm started beeping continuously. I found the touch pad and was able to silence it but it left me wondering if I had disturbed Curtis or when the police were going to show up. Curtis was outside working by 7:00 AM and told me later that he did not hear the alarm and that it “just does that sometimes.” We did not have breakfast or coffee, which is typical for us on a travel day, and targeted an 8:30 AM departure. By the time we took showers, finished preparing the coach for travel, and visited with Curtis a little more we missed that target, but not by much.

We wanted to be out the gate before Curtis’s standing 9 AM RVillage team meeting. By 8:45 we had the bus turned around and lined up with gate and Linda pulled the car up behind it. At 8:50 we were hooking up the car when Curtis came over to open the gate, exchange final hugs, and go start his meeting. We were hooked up and finished our light check by 9:05 and pulled out. As soon as we were clear of the gate Linda texted Curtis while I lowered the tag axle tires and we were on our way. We made the slow trip through Arizona City on Sunland Gin Road up to I-10 and were headed east at 9:17 AM.

Desert flowers in bloom in Hatch, New Mexico.

I set the cruise control at 63 MPH and let the bus roll towards Tucson. Tucson is not a difficult metropolitan area to transit and soon enough we were on the other side. The speed limit on most of I-10 in Arizona is 75 MPH except through metropolitan areas and major interchanges. The bus was running well and as traffic thinned out I bumped the speed up to 65 MPH and then to 68 MPH, and occasionally ran at the speed limit when passing slower vehicles. At 63 MPH the engine turns ~1,800 RPM and I have long felt that the powertrain and chassis, not to mention the driver (me), are very comfortable at that set point. The fact that 65 MPH is often the maximum speed limit in much of the eastern half of the country probably contributed to that impression. What I discovered today was that traveling 68 MPH at 2,000 RPMs also suits the bus, and the driver, very well.

At 12:15 PM MST we crossed the border into New Mexico and entered Mountain Daylight Time, changing the time on my phone to 1:15 PM MDT. Twenty four miles into New Mexico we stopped for the first time at a Pilot Truck Stop and topped up our fuel tank, taking on 110 gallons of diesel fuel. It took less than an hour to complete the last 61 miles to exit 85 on the east side of Deming, New Mexico. From there we had 1,000 feet to the entrance of the Escapees Dreamcatcher RV Park and pulled in. Linda got us registered and navigated us to our site at 2:45 PM. The park was only about 15% occupied so parking was easy.

Linda checked us in to the Park on RVillage and I called Butch Williams to let him (and Fonda) know we were finally on the move. Curtis monitors his RVillage home feed closely, so we knew he would know we arrived safely. Looking ahead to tomorrow the weather forecast for this area was for sustained winds of 25 – 30 MPH with gusts of 40 – 50 MPH. Given that forecast we decided to stay tomorrow and head on to Albuquerque on Friday.

Sparky’s restaurant in Hatch, New Mexico. Funky facade and great food.

Escapees RV Parks and co-ops have a long standing tradition of 4 PM happy hour so we walked over to the club house/office at 4:15 and found seven folks sitting around a table with their beverages plus the couple that manages the office. We stayed for a half hour and then went back to our coach to have an early dinner having only had pretzel snacks while we were driving. Linda prepared a whole wheat linguine with a garlic, onion, and sun-dried tomato sauté and added vegan Italian sausage. It was excellent, as usual.

Our son had texted us while we were driving and said he would call us later. He received an e-mail a couple of days ago asking him to get in touch with the chair of the art history department at Eastern Michigan University. That call took place today and he was offered the assistant professorship for which he has been interviewing these last many weeks. We were obviously very excited, very pleased, and very proud.

2015/04/02 (R) A Day in Deming

Like many (most) places in the southwest there are lots of things to see/do in and around Deming, more around than in in this case. The main thing I knew about Deming is that the company that makes the Steer-Safe aftermarket steering stabilizer is located here. We had their product on our Itasca Sunrise motorhome and it made an enormous difference in the stability and tracking of the Chevy P-30 chassis. This chassis was notorious for poor ride quality and handling, no doubt exacerbated by the stupid way in which manufacturers used it to create much longer motorhomes than it was designed for with long overhangs behind the drive axle. Steer-Safe, Henderson’s Lineup, and Banks have, in particular, all made very good businesses out of correcting the deficiencies inherent in this chassis and powertrain (454 cu. in. Chevy big block V-8). We were obviously excited to find and buy our Prevost H3-40 Royale Coach bus conversion, but I was sorry to see the Itasca go as it handled well and had lots of power by the time we were done spending money on it.

Linda needed to do some grocery shopping and at happy hour yesterday was steered towards Peppers as having better/fresher produce than the Wal-Mart. She went to Peppers this morning but they did not have many of the things she was looking for so she went to Wal-Mart and said she liked it better. I guess we got spoiled having access to Albertson’s supermarkets for most of the winter. Linda called from the store to have me check quantities of ingredients on hand. She then decided to make her chickpea salad and use it as a filling for small roll ups to take to the potluck dinner this evening.

Another flower in bloom in Hatch, New Mexico.

After lunch we decided to visit the Luna Mimbres Museum in downtown Deming. You never know what you are going to find in small town museums but we were impressed with the breadth of the collection and the quality of the space and exhibits. Admission was by voluntary donation so we contributed something. Once we finished at the museum we drove around town just enough to get a feeling for the place which was nicer in some places and not so nice in others. In other words, pretty much what we see most places we go with the exception of places like Scottsdale or Lake Havasu City, Arizona where everything appears to be new and very upscale.

As we headed back towards the Escapees Dreamcatcher RV Park in the east end of town we decided to drive the extra 3.6 miles farther east to the St. Clair Winery’s Deming tasting room. We learned that the Lescombe family has been making wine for six generations starting in France and, for the last 30 + years, here in the Mimbres Valley Appellation of New Mexico. Their wines are made only from grapes from their own vineyards, with the main one being approximately 46 miles west of Deming.

The free tasting is normally two wines but we were the only customers there initial and Elly let us try small samples of several more, including their sweet and dry “tap” wine. For under $4 a bottle they will fill your empty bottles with their red and/or white tap wines; sweet, dry, or blended any way you want. The most unusual wines we tried were infused with red or white chili. Linda did not care for the white chili but we both liked the red chili. We are always looking for something that is unique to an area we visit and the red chili wine was what we have been waiting for so we got one for each of our kids and one for us. Since we got 10% off of six (6) or more bottles we also bought the Mimbres Red, the Nebiola, and the D. H. Lescombe Port.

We had intended to go to the 4 PM happy hour at the RV Park but Linda got busy researching where we might go tomorrow and what we might do there while I worked on another consolidated blog post. We did, however, remember to go to the potluck dinner where we met other park guests including three people who belonged to RVillage.

We went for a walk after dinner and then settled in for the evening. I worked on my consolidated blog post for Jan 27-31, 2015. While I was doing that we both started getting messages from our whole house generator. Linda checked the utility company map and we were in a small outage area do to “local equipment failure.” Before I went to bed I received several more messages indicating that the utility power had been restored, the transfer switch had switched power back onto the grid, and finally that the Genset had stopped. It was good to know that it was performing as intended; that’s why we had it installed.

Hatch Chile Sales in Hatch, New Mexico.

Temperatures back home have been warm enough that we are no longer concerned about water pipes freezing if we lose power. The concern now is the sump pump. As winter gives way to spring the sump pump runs every few minutes and a failure would be a disaster for our basement. In addition to the whole house generator we have a secondary sump pump piggybacked on the primary one and set up to run off of a 12VDC automotive battery.

Before going to bed we decided to stick around Deming for a few extra days and use it as a base to visit some sites in the area.

2015/04/03 (F) The Chile Capital of the World

After taking care of some morning chores we drove to Hatch, New Mexico. Several folks in town (museum, winery) and the RV Park told us that Hatch was THE chile capital of the world and was worth a visit.

We went north out of Deming on US-180 and then NE on NM-26 to Hatch. Our Rand McNally Road Atlas indicated that this entire trip was a scenic route. It was a relatively flat drive up a valley with low mountains on either side, and was certainly scenic enough although not in a dramatic, jaw-dropping sort of way.

The front (outdoor) area of Hatch Chile Sales in Hatch, New Mexico.

Hatch was a small, quaint place but busy with people and traffic. We had checked around and been advised that Hatch Chile Sales was the best place in town to shop for chiles, so we found it and purchased three different kinds. We go a bag of Ancho chiles, which are dried/smoked poblano peppers, and a bag of dried red Hatch chiles. We also bought bouquets of small hot pequin chiles, one for us and some as gifts. Again, this is one of those unique things that we are always looking for as gift items.

We were in Hatch at lunch time and there are several restaurants in town, but we decided to eat at Sparky’s based on the recommendation of several locals and some online reviews. Sparky’s is famous for their green chile cheeseburger although we obviously did not have that for lunch. There was a long line to order, but we waited patiently and studied the menu. We ordered a corn dish, spicy French fries, and chili infused lemonade. All of them were very good. There was also a singer / guitar player performing and we enjoyed his music while we ate.

We drove back to Deming by way of I-25 south, taking a short-cut through Las Cruces and back to the Dreamcatcher RV Park by way of I-10. It was a much longer drive than if we had gone back the way we came, but it allowed us to see that the cut-off through Las Cruces was NOT a good choice for the bus due to lots of road construction with lane closures and shifts. Even so, we made it back to the RV Park in time for some of the happy hour. We also decided to stick around for at least another day and do some more sight-seeing in the area.

The Phase Place

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Monthly Archives: April 2015

2015/04/26-30 (N-R) Routine Returns

2015/04/21-25 (T-S) IN, MI, Home

20150416-20 (R-M) MO, IL, IN

20150411-15 (S-W) NM, TX, OK, AR, MO

2015/04/10 (F) Bandolier Natl Mon and Santa Fe NM

2015/04/07-09 (T-R) North by Northwest

2015/04/04-06 (S-M) Ancient Modern

2015/04/01-03 (W-F) The Land of Enchantment