Tag Archives: vegan pizza

2016/03/27-28 (N-M) Squirrel-Nuts ENT Markets

2016/03/27 (N) Squirrel Nuts

Jasper started trying to get my attention around 7:15 AM. He comes up close to my head on either side to get his head “scritched” and goes eyeball-to-eyeball with me from just a few inches away. I finally got up at 7:30 AM and Linda got up around the same time. She took her morning medications and returned to her seat bed while I tended to the cats’ food, water, and litter tray. Linda was hungry and wanted breakfast so I cut the grapefruit in half only to find out that she cannot have grapefruit while taking the steroids. No problem, it needed to be eaten and I can certainly eat an entire small grapefruit all by myself.

I did not feel like getting dressed right away to walk over to the office and get a couple of cups of free, but not very tasty, coffee so I ground up some of our beans and made a pot. I have not done that since we got to Jetty Park and it was nice to have our own, special coffee again. Once the coffee was brewed I plugged in the toaster and heated a couple of cinnamon raisin bagels for breakfast. Linda went back to sleep after breakfast while I lingered on the sofa, enjoying my coffee, working on my blog post drafts, and playing a few games. I eventually got a shower, got dressed, and took the trash to the dumpster.

The long range forecast was for afternoon high temperatures in the mid-80’s, plus or minus, with high humidity and rain chances. The TV weather people have been describing the current whether as “summer like” which simply confirms for me that Florida is not someplace I want to be in the summer. (Overnight low temperatures at home, however, are still dropping below freezing, so we are OK with where we are.) I am tired of listening to our air-conditioners but this was going to be a mostly stay-at-home day given the weather conditions, the fact that Linda is not up for going anywhere or doing anything, and that today is Easter Sunday and many businesses are closed, even in Cocoa Beach. At least the air-conditioners are keeping the humidity in the coach at a comfortable level, it’s the evaporator fan noise that is irritating.

A stay-at-home day is usually a good opportunity to upload some more posts to our blog and update the BCM page on our website. The posts for the last third of December 2015 still needed to be edited before uploading so I started working on them. I had just finished the ones for the 21st and 22nd when Linda wanted to go for a walk. We walked over to the dumpsters to throw away our daily bag of trash and then walked to Pat and Vickie’s site where we found them sitting outside in the shade but without any breeze. They decided to join us on our walk and we headed to the beach. There was a steady offshore breeze but the sun was hot so we headed back to the campground in search of shade and a breeze.

We found both on the other side of the street from our site. We got out our four folding chairs and set them up over there along with our little plastic folding table. Yes, we own an old Prevost, but in many other ways are RVing lives are simple. Vickie went back to their coach and returned with a beer (Leinenkugel’s Cranberry Ginger Shandy) and a bag of pretzels. At the same time I brought out pretzel nibblers, peanuts, and almonds along with water for Linda and a beer for me (Yuengling Traditional Lager).

The air temperature was in the lower 80’s with somewhat elevated humidity, but we sat in the shade with the cool, pleasant breeze enjoying our snacks and beverages. The squirrels here are used to people and one approached quite close to us looking for a handout. For whatever reason I decided to share the remaining peanuts with it, which immediately attracted a couple more squirrels. When I ran out I went inside and got more and washed off some grapes. When the squirrels started having a territorial dispute over the peanuts I decided to quit feeding them. About that same time we were all feeling a bit tired (relaxed?) and decided to go take naps. Naps are good; I like naps.

At 5 PM we walked over to the shipping channel to see if one of the Disney Cruise Line ships was departing. We got to watch The Disney Magic come all the way down the channel, led by the harbor pilot boat and followed by the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. As the Magic was just rounding the bend from its dock into the straight portion of the channel someone spotted a pair of dolphins swimming up the channel. We saw their dorsal fins but I was not able to get a photo of them. After the two cruise ships were clear of the channel we walked to the pier. Along the way the tugboat American Champion pulled in a barge with Scow 6 stenciled on the side. A small derrick boat then came in from the ocean and a little while later chugged back out again.

By 6:30 PM Linda was thinking about her next steroid pill, which she had to take after dinner, so we walked back to our coach. A can of Amy’s Chili with some Soup & Oyster Crackers made for a quick, easy, tasty meal along with some black grapes. After dinner I was able to tune in one of the PBS affiliates. We watched a documentary on Harry Gordon Selfridge and Selfridge’s Department Store in London, England. That was followed by an episode of Grantchester, another of the BBC Masterpiece Mystery series. We split an apple for a late night snack. At 10 PM we switched to CBS and watched an episode of Elementary followed by the evening news, during which Linda converted the living room captain’s chairs into her nighttime convalescence bed.

The only part of the news that interested yes was the weather as a significant front was draped from northeast to southwest and pushing east out of the Gulf of Mexico across central and northern Florida with heavy rain and lots of lightening. The TV weatherman said it would impact Orlando between midnight and 3 AM before finally moving out into the Atlantic Ocean. I figured that meant any impact on us wouldn’t start until at least 1 AM and peak between 3 and 4. Once I had a sense of the weather I turned off the lights in the front of the coach and retired to the bedroom for the evening. I did not feel like writing or playing games so I flipped channels for a while. I could not tune in either of the PBS affiliates, and nothing else caught my interest, so I turned off the TV and the lights and went to sleep.

2016/03/28 (M) ENT Markets

I was up at 7 AM and discovered that Linda had also just gotten up to take her morning steroids. I put on my robe, put away the clean dishes from last night, fed the cats, cleaned the litter tray, and made a pot of coffee. Once the coffee was brewed I toasted the last two cinnamon raisin bagels and we had those for breakfast. After breakfast Linda played word games and I finished up yesterday’s blog post draft.

After two days of steroids Linda’s voice and hearing were slightly improved, but not much, and she continues to be tired, even listless, and sleep off and on through the day. Today, however, she got dressed and settled in to work at her computer reconciling our charge receipts and bank balances.

We had decided that we would leave Jetty Park on Friday and were discussing where we might go next. We knew that Linda needed a follow up appointment with her ENT back home so I called to arrange that. We were surprised to find out that Linda’s ENT, Dr. Michael Seidman, was no longer at Henry Ford. I was able to get an appointment with a different ENT for late April, but in the course of doing that I found out that Dr. Seidman had moved his practice to Celebration, Florida. That’s the home of Disney World and is only about 50 miles from where we are camped!

By searching online we located the practice Dr. Seidman has joined, the Head and Neck Surgery Center of Florida (HNSCF), which is affiliated with Florida Hospital, a 7^th Day Adventist facility. I called and was informed that Tuesday, April 5 was the first day he would be seeing patients, so apparently his relocation was in-process. We got an appointment for 11 AM. The clinic asked me to contact HFHS and request a copy of Linda’s medical records which I decided to take care of later. For now our immediate concern was figuring out where we were going to be camped between now and then.

At about this time Vickie called to let me know they had decided to leave on Monday, April 4 and that we could have their site starting that day if we wanted. The trick was that we needed to go to the office together so she could cancel their reservation starting that day and I could immediately pick it up. That prompted me to meet her and Pat at the office where I signed up for site #303 for Monday and Tuesday evenings with departure on Wednesday, April 6.

We were already set to move to site #358 tomorrow at noon for three nights so I needed a site for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. The only sites that were big enough to accommodate our bus and available for all three nights were in the boondocking area by the shipping channel. I preferred that to having to move one or two extra times, and trying to squeeze into sites that were marginal in size, so Pat, Vickie, and I walked out to look at the available sites. I selected site #3 and went back in to complete the registration process. Vickie thought we would enjoy being parked with a view of the channel and Pat noted that the lack of trees was offset by a constant breeze. We would also be parked facing north, so we would not have the sun on our windshields. It came up later that we might have tried Sherwood Forest RV Park near Celebration, but at this point I did not want to move the bus very far prior to Linda’s appointment and risk having a problem which I would then have to deal with.

With all of the reservations taken care of I returned to our coach and explained the arrangements to Linda and then settled in at my computer to edit the blog posts for the last nine days of December 2015. Around 2 PM I called the Henry Ford Hospital West Bloomfield ENT clinic to request a copy of Linda’s medical records be faxed to the Head and Neck Surgery Center of Florida. I was transferred to the medical records department, where I was informed that they could not send records to a hospital or clinic based on a patient request and that the request would have to come directly from the receiving clinic. The medical records clerk provided me with a phone number for the clinic to use. We had exchanged a couple of e-mails with Sylvia at HNSCF so I replied to one of them with the relevant information.

Mid-afternoon Vickie called again to see if we wanted to ride to town with them. Linda was feeling up to it so we agreed to go. Our first stop was at the Sunseed Food CO-OP on N. Atlantic Avenue. We bought a few things that did not need refrigeration and Linda made note of their extensive selections of Amy’s frozen entrees and pizzas as well as the Coconut Bliss non-dairy ice cream. Out next stop was the small Coastal Produce market in downtown Cocoa Beach where Linda and Vickie bought some fresh produce. We stopped at Sunseed Food CO-OP again on the way back to the campground and stocked up on Amy’s frozen entrees, got a couple of pizzas, two pints of non-dairy ice cream, and some nutritional yeast. Vickie also bought some nutritional yeast as she had seen several recipes that called for it but was not familiar with it.

On the way back to Jetty Park Pat detoured through the western end of Port Canaveral on the south side of the shipping channel to show us the various dining options (restaurants, bars, and grills) located there. The Disney Cruise Line terminals are a bit farther west and on the other side of the channel but we did not drive over there as we had fresh and frozen food that needed to get into our refrigerators and freezers.

With the food put away I resumed editing my blog posts from late December and managed to finish the one for December 31st just as Linda was putting dinner on the table. I pushed the wrong button on the convection microwave oven and screwed up the sequence but the pizza still came out OK. The fact that she felt like fixing dinner at all was one of the first good signs we have had in two weeks regarding her health. Dinner wasn’t fancy, just a nice salad and vegan pizza, but it was tasty and it was nice to sit at the table and eat it.

After dinner we met up with Vickie and went for a long, slow walk. Linda got to see site #3 and thought it would be nice for three nights. We also walked the entire length of the paved sidewalk that meanders through the southern edge of the park property and saw lots of the feral cats that live here. The cats are fed by official volunteers and we spotted numerous plastic bowls at several locations with cats hanging about nearby. (My understanding is that feral cats and not “wild” cats; they are domestic cats that have returned to the wild.) When we eventually made it to the beach the ocean was just an hour past low tide so there was more beach exposed than we had yet seen. There were dark clouds visible from southwest to northwest moving slowly east so we walked north along the beach and the over the dunes to the concession building. Linda spotted the sun just setting and it was enormous and orange-red. We scurried up to the observation deck to get a better look and tried to take a few photos with our smartphones. They generally capture good images with proper exposure, but the correct exposure for sunsets and sunrises can be very tricky.

With the sun out of sight we walked back along the channel to the campground office where Vickie and I each got a cup of coffee. We then headed back towards our coach and finally went our separate ways at the fork in the road. We were back at our coach at 8 PM and turned on the TV to watch our Monday night CBS shows. Almost all of our TV viewing this winter has been CBS and PBS and we have been fortunate to be able to receive these signals almost everywhere. Linda decided to try sleeping in bed for the first time in a week. I watched the beginning of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert but turned the TV off at midnight and went to sleep.

2015/12/24 (R) Christmas Eve 2015

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Neither of us slept as well as we would have liked last night. The outside temperature only dropped into the upper 60’s with high humidity and the interior of the coach stayed a bit warmer than that. Linda woke up and read from 2:30 to 3:30 AM; at least that’s what she told me this morning as I was unaware of it at the time. We both got up at 8 AM and enjoyed our first cup of coffee while iPadding and listening to Christmas music CDs. We bought an apple strudel at Publix last night that appeared to be vegan and had some of it for breakfast with our second cup of coffee. It wasn’t great strudel, but it was still a treat. All-in-all it was not a bad way to start Christmas Eve day.

Williston Crossings RV Resort, and many of its residents and temporary guests, have been in the holiday spirit since we arrived here on the 1st of the month. Red and green laser “starlight” projectors are in widespread use at night and many sites have decorated their street light and/or RV with lights while some have put up more substantial decorations. Most notable, however, are the golf carts, many of which are decorated for the season. Most folks here wave as they pass whether driving their car or golf cart, riding a bike, or just walking, but based on our prior experience this is normal so I cannot say that folks are in a friendlier spirit than usual for the holiday. There is, however, a fair amount of “Merry Christmas” being passed around and I think it reflects the fact that most folks are glad to be here even with the record heat.

I had an unfinished chore list from yesterday but wasn’t really in the humor to work on those items on Christmas Eve and do not intend to work on them tomorrow either. One of the side gaskets I our entry door window came out again yesterday, however, so I will have to fix that again and do so soon, certainly before we leave for Arcadia.

Linda went for her solo morning walk at 10:15 AM and I settled in to work at my computer. I was determined to make headway with uploading blog posts but first I wanted to dispatch the article for Bus Conversion Magazine on the installation of the ITR Oasis Combi diesel-fueled hydronic heating system in Butch and Fonda Williams’ MCI MC-9 NJT.

Butch had made a number of good edits that filled in missing details so I incorporated all of them and rewrote a few sentences in my own voice. I then moved all of the photos for the print version of the article “in line” with the text and changed the format to 2-column. I even figured out how to get the text to wrap around the vertical photos to get a better idea of how many pages the article will take. I completed this work around 12:30 PM and uploaded it to the BCM proofreading folder in my Dropbox. I also updated my article status tracking spreadsheet and uploaded that to the Dropbox. I moved the files on my computer from the Out-For-Review folder to the Proofreading folder and mirrored that on the NAS. I then e-mailed BCM publisher Gary Hatt to let him know the article was there and ready for review.

Linda got back from her walk and made sandwiches for lunch with mock deli slices (vegan), Daiya non-dairy cheese slices, and lots of greens. We ate outside as the temperature in the coach was 89.something degrees F. She stayed outside in the shade and read but I went back inside to work on blog posts. I was not really uncomfortable, as I was not exerting myself physically, but knew we would have an uncomfortable night if we did not cool off the coach. When Linda came back inside we closed up the coach and turned on two of the three air-conditioners. I worked the rest of the afternoon on my blog, editing and then uploading seven posts covering September 1 through 7.

For dinner we had the leftover pizza from last night’s visit to Satchel’s. We managed to get six dinner meals out of our three visits which is 25% of our dinners for the first 24 days of December. At dinner last night we suggested to John that it might be nice to have a special campfire on Christmas Eve. He liked the idea and said he would check with Bob (the resort manager) and take care of it if he got the green light. Linda packed some wine and we walked down to the firepit at 6:30 PM.

Long before we got to the firepit we could see there was no fire. In fact, there wasn’t anyone there. We noticed golf carts at Jeff and Kathy’s site nearby, including John and Ali’s, so we walked over there. We found Ali, along with three other folks, but not John. It turned out that John was ill with some sort of gastrointestinal ailment and there was not going to be a special Christmas Eve fire. There were enough empty chairs for us to have a seat so we stuck around for a while to chat and enjoy a small glass of wine.

Kathy got a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite for her grandson Spencer and asked me if I would get it set up for him. I did this two years ago and agreed to try again. Spencer is arriving tomorrow afternoon with his family and Kathy was hoping to have the tablet set up so he can use it right away.

I got a pair of text messages from my long-time friend, J. C. Armbruster, wishing me a happy Christmas Eve and inquiring as to our whereabouts. I did not have my glasses or stylus with me so I deferred replying until we got back to our rig.

When we returned we found a large box sitting on our entry stepstool. Linda checked the label and it was definitely addressed to us. The office closed at 1 PM today and there wasn’t anything there for us when Linda checked around noon, so it must have arrived later. Someone in the office must have figured it was Christmas gifts and brought it to our site, which they do not normally do. Linda opened it enough to confirm that it was, indeed, gifts from Brendan, Shawna, and Madeline and then set it aside for tomorrow.

I replied to the text message from J. C. (which sounds a little bizarre on Christmas Eve). I then spent an hour trying to configure the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 without success. I thought the problem was Wi-Fi related as the tablet did not have any difficulty connecting to the resort Wi-Fi system and obtaining an IP address but it never opened a browser window where I could enter the username and password to get through the resort’s filter and out to the Internet.

I turned on the guest network on our WiFi Ranger without a password and tried connecting to that as the WFR was already logged in, but it still did not work. I tried creating a Samsung account but the screen just said “…processing” and the little icon just kept spinning. I also tried entering Spencer’s Gmail address and password(s) that Kathy gave me but the device could not connect to Google. It’s possible that the problem was simply an incorrect e-mail address and/or password but the error message I kept getting said the tablet could not establish a connection to the remote server. That sounded like an Internet access issue to me.

I also tried resetting the device to factory defaults but the instructions for doing that apparently assumed (required?) that the device had already been set up correctly and activated. I cleaned the screen and packed everything back into the box. I will return it to Kathy in the morning. Perhaps John will be feeling better and can get it to work.

When I picked up the screen cleaner it was wet. It was sitting on the desk under the air intake for the middle air-conditioner which is on the bottom of the cabinet. I shut that A-C off, moved the electronics and paper that were sitting there, and wiped up the small amount of water. Apparently the drain line for the drip pan is clogged so I will have to add that to my list of bus chores.

We were tired of listening to the air-conditioning but it was warm in the bedroom so I turned on the third A-C to cool it down. Before turning in for the night I turned the fan to a slower speed and tried adjusting the thermostat, as it had gotten rather chilly.

2015/12/23 (W) Satchel’s Trifecta

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We were up by 8 AM and sat around drinking our coffee until 9 AM. For breakfast we had fresh blueberries, bananas, oranges, and toast along with orange/grapefruit juice. I had apricot preserves on my toast. I like all kinds of fruit preserves, but apricot is my favorite.

We are here at Williston Crossings until the 28th but that means we only have five more days and are starting to think about leaving and what we have to do to be ready. Today’s chores potentially included:

Recharging the water softener;
Tightening the toilet paper holder in the bathroom;
Adjusting the pressure in the tires;
Removing and reinstalling the screen material for the entry door awning window.

It’s always something.

Fixing the toilet paper holder requires an Allen wrench which means I would have to get out my tool boxes. Fixing the screen requires a special tool for inserting the retaining rib, which I do not have, and thus requires a trip to the local ACE Hardware store. Adjusting tire pressures requires me to get out the air compressor and air hose, which is a nuisance. And recharging the water softener requires the installation of the plastic flow restriction tube in the pre-filter housing and the addition of table salt plus a couple of hours of fooling around with the whole setup. All of which suggests that I was probably not in the mood to do chores today.

On my personal “to do” list was uploading more blog posts, editing the ITR Oasis Combi Installation article for Bus Conversion Magazine, and uploading it to my BCM Dropbox folder for proofreading. Linda wanted to organize and store the music CDs we brought with us, and I wanted to get out the various accessories for my Sony a99v DSLT camera and get them working. Those things were under the bed.

I want to refill our fresh water tank as close to our departure as possible so even though we still had over 1/3rd of a tank (40+ gallons) we decided to take showers at the laundry/bathroom building which includes shower stalls. Linda walked down at 10:15 AM and I walked down at 10:40 AM when she got back.

The only bus chore I got done today was recharging the water softener, but that was an important one to get out of the way. I started at 11:15 AM by fitting the filter holder with the flow restrictor tube and partially filling it with 26 oz. of table salt. I connected a short hose to the output of the softener to direct the discharge water, ran a strong flow of water for 15 seconds to stir up and saturate the salt, and then reduced it to a trickle. I tested it for saltiness and it seemed salty so I let it run for 90 minutes.

We had baby carrot slices, orange pepper slices, and apple slices with hummus for lunch around 12:45 PM. At 1 PM I again ran a strong flow of water through the softener for 15 seconds and then returned it to a trickle for another 90 minutes. At the end of that time I ran a strong flow for 30 seconds and then let it trickle for one more hour. By 3:30 PM the discharge was no longer salty so I tested it and it indicated 1.5 grains per gallon, which is as low as I can usually get it. (Only once did I get it down to zero.) I probably let the water run longer than necessary but the only sure way to know the salt is used up is to remove the filter housing and check. A clear housing would make it much easier to do this, and I intend to get one.

In the time it took to recharge the water softener I uploaded 13 blog posts for August 19th through August 31st, 2015. That meant I had finally gained some small ground, having uploaded more posts (29) in December than I had written (22) up through yesterday. I also spent a few minutes going through Butch’s edits of the draft BCM article on the installation of an ITR Oasis Combi diesel-fired hydronic heating system in their MCI MC-9 NJT motorcoach and incorporating changes. I did not, however, have/take the time to move the photos inline with text and reformat it in two columns. I plan to do that tomorrow and then upload it to my BCM Dropbox folder for proofreading.

We arranged to go to Satchel’s with John and Ali for dinner this evening and meet them there at 5 PM. We left at 4 PM for the drive into Gainesville and stopped at the Walmart near the restaurant. Linda needed a rolling pin and pastry mat and found both. On the way back to our car we crossed paths with John and Ali in the parking lot. It’s just far enough into town from the RV resort that we all try to be efficient by making trips multi-purpose.

It was our third visit to Satchel’s since we arrived in Williston and probably our final one for this winter unless we decide to return to this area for a while in March. Ali does not care for Satchel’s pizza, specifically their sauce, but agreed to go anyway for our sake. We had the same meal we always get; small salad, medium hand-tossed pizza with Daiya non-dairy mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, onions, and sun-dried tomatoes, and a vegan oatmeal raisin cookie for dessert plus a ginger soda for me, made in-house.

For our money it is one of the three or four best pizzas we have ever had, vegan or not, and clearly the best vegan pizza we have ever tasted. We lingered and talked but eventually paid the bill and left. In our case we needed to stop at the Publix supermarket on the way back to Williston for an assortment of things Linda needed for our Christmas day meals.

It was almost 8 PM when we got home. We put the groceries away, turned on the TV, and watched several programs on PBS before going to bed.

2015/07/22 (W) Chucking Junk

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After our usual breakfast and coffee we sat for a while in the living room. This is part of our morning routine and I often use the time to finish up my blog post from the previous day but the last couple of weeks we have been busy and I have not always had time. We enjoyed the time until about 9 AM and then got serious about loading our “junk” into the Chuck It Junk Removal dump trailer.

Our bus refrigerator with the doors off in preparation for removing it from the coach.

Mara checked with Cummins Bridgeway and they told her to bring her motorhome in at 11 AM so she broke camp at 10 AM and backed out of the driveway at 10:15 AM. Cummins Bridgeway put several technicians and mechanics to work on her rig to re-install the genset, install new shock absorbers, and service the transmission (filter and fluid). She was out in a few hours and stopped at General RV to return the Camco refrigerator vent cover which did not fit her base on the roof.

The Chuck It Junk Removal dumpster trailer with some of our stuff in it.

We took a break from chucking junk and extracted the old refrigerator from its alcove in the bus, which was a 2-person job. I got some scraps of 1/2″ plywood to set in front of the elevated alcove base as I did not want to walk or slide the unit across the bus sub-floor, especially with the residual thinset mortar. First we had to walk it out a few inches which was hard because it only had 3/8″ clearance on each side. Once it was out far enough we were able to open the doors enough to remove all of the shelves and bins, which Linda took into the house and garage. I then disconnected the water and electric that ran up into the left (freezer) door at the bottom hinge corner for the ice/water dispenser and light. With those disconnected and pulled out of the bottom of the case we unscrewed the bottom and top hinges and removed the two doors. Linda collected all of the small loose parts as we went and put them in a plastic container as we knew we would have to reassemble the unit at some point.

The doors had 1/4″ walnut veneer plywood face panels and we wanted to salvage those to use with the new pull-out pantry. Normally you just remove the handle trim from the edge of the door and slide the panel out. The fridge door panel would not budge so we removed the trim from all four edges of the door. The panel had been stuck in place with strips of double-sided tape so we carefully peeled it loose. The freezer door had two smaller panels, above and below the ice/water dispenser, and they slide out easily after removing the handle trim. We carried the doors, trim, and panels to the garage and then walked the case completely out of the alcove.

The shelf I built for one of the storage bays on Mara’s Fleetwood Bounder.

I spent some time pondering what would be required to disassemble the refrigerator enough to get it out through the door of the bus but decided not to do anything until I had talked to Butch. Just before dinner I had a long chat with Chuck about the refrigerator swap and he reminded me that DTE Energy (the electric power utility for this region) will pick up old refrigerators and freezers and pay you $50 for them. Linda checked this out online and learned that they have to be plugged in and operating or they won’t take them, so we have a double incentive for getting it out in one, operating piece.

Our revised plan is still to get the case out in one functioning piece through the side window frame but it won’t be this weekend. The guy with the sunroom business in the building in front of Chuck’s shop is still in the process of moving to his new place and has trucks, cars, people, and junk all over the place making ingress/egress to Chuck’s shop difficult to impossible. The business is supposed to be gone by the end of the month so we will wait another week and plan for Saturday August 1st assuming I can get the window frame open. In the meantime I need to get back to work on the bus floor, so I will have to spend part of next week sanding and start installing the 1/4″ underlayment for the new vinyl tile.

Mara in our home kitchen with her wonderful pizza. This thing was truly good eats.

Mara and Linda made another pizza for dinner and it was every bit as good as the first one. Mara has been a wonderful house guest. We have left the house open to her and she has made herself comfortable in the kitchen and using the hall bathroom and laundry. It helps that Linda is not possessive about the kitchen. Whenever we have visitors who want to help in the kitchen Linda welcomes their participation. It’s been fun for both of them and they have each learned a few knew things and deepened their friendship.

2015/07/18 (S) RV Shopping

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Madeline was awake at 7 AM and Linda got her up shortly after that. I slept in until 8 AM. They had already eaten breakfast by then so I made coffee and had cinnamon raisin toast. Metropolitan Baking Company makes a very tasty cinnamon raisin bread. We all sat in the living room while Madeline played with various toys and I worked on finishing yesterday’s blog post.

Linda and Madeline left at 10 AM for the Howell Library. The plan was to let Madeline play in the children’s area, which has a lot interesting things to do for children her age. After selecting some books and DVDs to bring home they were headed to Meijer’s to do some grocery shopping.

I continued working on my iPad until Mara came in the house. We had a chat about blogging and I showed her the Feedly app on my iPad. She has attended workshops put on by The Geeks On Tour and has their training materials. I think Blogger is probably the right tool for her and Picasa is probably the right way to manage her photos. They are both Google products so they work well together and they are free to use. There are downsides to that, especially for professionals, but for most people it’s a great solution.

Mara and I left around 11:45 AM and drove to General RV in Wixom. This was my first visit to their new facility and it is nice. The parts department is larger and better stocked than the old one and is bright with natural light from large south and west facing windows. We were asked several times if we needed assistance but we were never pestered. They did not have any of the white Dicor self-leveling caulk we were looking for but one of the employees checked their stock and brought out six tubes. Mara bought four of them along with a new Norcold refrigerator roof vent cover, a small roll of Eternabond tape, and some concentrated RV wash/wax. I picked up eight brown circular adjustable air vents for the bus. The ones in there now are black but I think the brown will look better with the new floor tile. We won’t really know, however, until we install them.

We drove to Lowe’s in Howell where I bought two pieces of 12″ x 18″ thin galvanized steel plate and three rolls of 3M double-sided tape suitable for outdoor use. The plan is to put one of these on the roof of Mara’s motorhome and possibly put the other on the roof of our bus to allow the use of the magnetic base cell phone antennas that came as part of the weBoost Drive 4G-X cellular booster systems. Once the steel sheets are affixed to the roof I will caulk around them. First, however, I will just set the sheets up there and see what sort of difference the system makes.

We stopped at O’Reilly’s auto parts store and Mara bought some 10, 15, and 20 Amp mini fuses. These fuses have a small LED that glows if the fuse opens. They were more expensive than the regular ones, but that is a very handy feature and I may stock up on these the next time I need to buy fuses.

Back at the house Linda informed me that when the storm blew in it pulled the sun umbrella out of the table on the deck. We put the glass top back in the table and re-installed the umbrella. This has happened a couple of times and we have been lucky that the glass top has not broken. Mara returned to her rig. She had left her patio awning out but it was not damaged.

Linda got Madeline up from her nap at 3 PM and read her a story about flying in an airplane. Madeline then played with her toys for a while. Around 4 PM Madeline wanted to bake a cake. Linda was planning on this anyway but it was nice that it was Madeline’s idea. They got busy in the kitchen and I sneaked off to my office for a while.

Madeline had dinner at 6 PM so I came up from my office while she ate. Meals are a social time and I was ready for a break anyway. After dinner Linda helped Madeline get cleaned up. I slipped back down to my office while they watched an Elmo DVD, but by 7 PM I was done working on the pantry design for the evening and went back upstairs. Linda was reading the airplane ride book (again), after which Madeline played (with) the organ after which they drew for a while and then played with the Play-Doh. Madeline is a busy girl.

I was just getting ready to go ask Mara what temperature to preheat the oven when she came to the house with an armful of ingredients for the pizza. She has a recipe for a wheat-free (gluten-free) pizza dough that she wanted us to try. It calls for cheese and eggs so to make it vegan Linda had her buy Daiya mozzarella shreds and gave her egg replacer to use. The other ingredients include almond meal, chickpea flour, golden flaxseed, onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt, olive oil (EVVO), and water.

It took another 25 minutes to get Madeline to bed but once Linda had her tucked in I opened a bottle of Nebiola wine from the St. Clair Winery in Deming, New Mexico. I often write that I am not a fan of red wines and continue to not like dry wines with lots of tannins. The Nebbiolo, however, is one of the nicest wines I think I have ever tried. That probably means it is too sweet for most red wine drinkers, but I did not find it to be sweet; I found it to be smooth and complex.

We ordered a couple of things from Amazon on Wednesday and they showed up yesterday. When I unboxed the Notier capacitive touch screen precision stylus I was surprised by what I found. It’s a 2-part housing that unscrews and the cover screws onto the other end of the bottom part, which is needed for comfort and balance. The stylus tip is small but has a 1/4 in clear plastic disc on the end. It was on sale for $11 and I decided right away I would not return it. Besides, I had not actually tried it yet. So I finally tried it while the pizza was cooking. It is an amazing little device! It is, indeed, very precise and works with a delicate touch so I will have to re-calibrate my “typing” style, but it just goes to show that you never know until you try.

I lost track of time but it was somewhere between 9:30 and 10 PM when the pizza was ready to eat. It was, however, worth the wait and might be the best vegan pizza I have ever had. The recipe is definitely a keeper. We each had a chocolate cupcake (with sprinkles) while we finished our wine. We then adjourned to the living room and talked until almost 11 PM. It was a very full day for all four of us and everyone was tired but satisfied. It’s nice having family and friends here.

2014/09/15 (M) Congratulations, You Have Gas

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As I reported in the blog post for this past Saturday a natural gas hookup crew was at our house in the early morning but it was the wrong crew (trench/plow) installing the wrong size gas line (1/2″ id). The correct crew (directional boring) showed up today around 9 AM and started boring the line for our neighbor’s yard across the street. I chatted with the crew briefly and they said we were next. They had placed a large role of the proper size gas line (1″ id) in our yard, so I knew they knew what they were doing.

Ed, who had stopped by on Friday and runs the hookup crew, was not sure whether they would hang the meter and connect the line at both ends today, but if not, tomorrow for sure. Their presence on site, however, meant that I would need to be in contact with three contractors fairly soon to follow up on arrangements to get them out here ASAP, and in the following order:

DCM Heating and Cooling, to disconnect the propane from the house and tie the new 2″ black iron pipe together with the pipe into the house and connect them to the consumer side of the gas meter. Also, to start up the new library and garage furnaces.
TOMTEK HVAC to convert the hot water base-board heating system to natural gas. Tom was going to check today with Weil-McLain on the parts needed for the conversion and let me know. Our own research suggested that a natural gas orifice plate was the only part needed, but a number of steps were involved in the installation and I doubt that W-M would sell me the part directly. (I did find it later online for $31 plus S&H, so I could buy it if I wanted to.)
Bratcher Electric; to convert the whole house generator, do the annual maintenance, and run the new service entrance cable for the garage panel.

Mike Bratcher was here a month ago to look at the job but had not gotten a price to us yet for the work. They have been slammed with repair jobs as a result of late summer storms. The generator is the least critical component at the moment as it is on its own propane tank, but we want to get it switched in a timely fashion so we can call AmeriGas and have both tanks removed at the same time.

(Ed told me later in the day that Consumer’s Energy requires us to be switched over to natural gas within 30 days of having gas to our meter. He also said that a recent Michigan law (last year) made it illegal to have multiple fuel sources to a house. Since the generator is on its own propane tank and that tank is not connected to, or provide propane to, the house or anything in the house, technically we would not have two different fuels going to the house even if we left it hooked up. Still, we are not looking to create a “situation” with Consumer’s Energy. Presumably the multi-fuel prohibition does not include electricity and wood.)

Keith showed up around 9 AM to cut the grass. I chatted with him briefly about cutting the new grass, which had gotten long enough in many spots that I thought it was probably time for the first cutting. I picked up some small tree branches that were scattered about the yard from recent storms, and warned him about the trench at the southeast corner of the house. I chatted with him some more as he was finishing up with the string trimmer. He said the grass was “April grass, not September grass.” The grass itself (internally) was very moist, not just the soil.

This is how Keith cuts over 4 acres of grass in a few hours.

Linda had reserved Doc Martin, Season 5, at the Howell Library and had an e-mail that it was available and needed to be picked up by the end of today or we would go to the end of the waiting list. She needed to be at the bakery by 11 AM so she left around 9:45 AM to be at the library when it opened at 10 AM. I would have gone to get it but I was “stuck” at the house as long as contractors were, or might be, working here. I also needed to be here to pay Keith when he finished cutting the grass.

Linda met with the folks at the bakery (where she was the Controller and Treasurer for the 10 years before she retired) on Friday regarding a major software conversion project that she is going to do for them and was finally feeling like we could afford a new range. She is a very good accountant/CPA and has always worked hard for what she earned, but has always been reluctant to spend money. We grew up in very different circumstances and that reluctance on her part has provided a good balance over the years as I tend to be less concerned about what things cost and more focused on making sure we have what we need and are getting good functionality and quality for what we spend. One component of my formal education and work experience was engineering, and that developed a certain way of thinking about things that has stayed with me ever since. Need is, of course, relative.

We had been deferring a decision about the new kitchen range but decided on Friday evening that, with the natural gas hookup imminent, we would get a new one rather than convert our old one. We decided on the model we wanted, a G.E. JGB870DEFWW, and knew the price, delivery time, and installation charge from Lowe’s. I also talked to Curt at D. R. Appliance, a local family owned appliance store, on Saturday and expected to hear back from him today with pricing and availability. That call came late morning and their price, while a little higher than Lowe’s, was close enough to be worth the possible end-of-week delivery and installation so I told them to go ahead and order it.

By 3:30 PM the gas line to our house was in the ground and the meter was mounted on the side of the house but a crew was still digging out by the street trying to clear access to the main line so the fuser could tie our line and our neighbor’s line into the 2” main line. My camera battery went dead while they were installing the meter so I grabbed a few shots on my cell phone while the camera battery recharged. Linda got home around this time and got to see some of the final steps in the process.

I followed the process closely all day and tried to get photos of most of the details, especially as they hung the meter, tied the line in, and pressure tested it. All was good, so they tapped the main line and we finally had gas in our branch line. They purged the line, reconnected it to the meter inlet, tested the meter and connections for leaks, and then verified gas availability to the outlet connection. At 5:30 PM they plugged the outlet, put the hang tags on, and handed me the door knocker tag that said “Congratulations, you have gas.”

We always seem to have interesting things in our yard.

Linda took a call from Bob at Country Squire Fireplace and Lighting regarding our quick disconnect for the Broil King outdoor grill. She indicated that I was busy with the gas crew and would call them back tomorrow.

Late last week we received an invitation to a political fund-raiser for Brian Robb, an incumbent councilman in Ypsilanti, Michigan. We do not live or vote there, but Brian is Kate de Fuccio’s significant other, and Kate is a former co-worker of mine and continues to be a very good friend of ours. I called DCM Heating & Cooling and left a message for Darryll that we had gas to the meter. We left around 6 PM and arrived at the Tower Inn Cafe around 7 PM. We made a donation to Brian’s campaign and Kate ordered a small vegan pizza for us. We visited for about an hour and then took our leave.

When we got home we relaxed in the living room thinking about how nice it will be to have our natural gas fire logs while we had some fresh strawberries and nectarines for dessert. I also had a mug of hot apple cider which put me in the mood to go to bed.

2014/04/01 (T) No April Fool

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Today marked the one year anniversary of Linda’s retirement from Metropolitan Baking Company where she was the controller/treasurer and HR person for 10+ years and the outside CPA for many years before that. She is still working for the bakery as a consultant, which was part of the reason for her return to Michigan in late February, but she has also been learning how to be retired over the course of the past twelve months.

Carriage Travel Club members. How to tow a 5th wheel RV in style!

This is now the 5th month in which I have been continuously away from “home” even though the number of days is less than 120 and will only be 126 to 129 days by the time we return to our house. That may be the longest I have ever been away from a fixed/permanent residence in my life. The only time that would come close to that was my first year in college when I lived in a dormitory for the school year. Even then, it was two semesters with a break in-between, and the semesters were only about 14 weeks in duration as best I recall.

Carriage Travel Club banners. They have ~70 rigs at WCRVR all week for a rally.

I was reading a post in Nick Russell’s Gypsy Journal blog the other day where he provided answers to FAQ’s he often gets from readers. One of them had to do with the definitions of “full-timer” and “extended-timer.” As Nick pointed out, there are no official definitions, but common sense (and usage) suggests that full-timers do not have a fixed dwelling to which they can return while extended-timers do, even if they are rarely or ever there. How much time do you have to spend in your RV (land- or water-based) to be an extended-timer? Again, there is no definition, but common sense (and usage) suggests that it is more than 3 – 6 weeks’ vacation usage and less than full time.

Since Linda retired one year ago today we have spent the following time traveling and living in our converted motorcoach:

59 days – (early Jun to early Aug). MI, IN, IL, IA, SD, WY, MT, ND, MN, WI, MI. Two rallies in Gillette, WY (FMCA and SKP) and a 2-week SKP HFH build in Sheridan, WY plus visits to national parks;
6 days – (mid Aug). Clio, MI GLCC/CCO Back to the Bricks rally;
10 days – (mid Sep) MI, IN, MI Twelve Mile, IN and GLAMARAMA13 rally in Goshen, IN;
12 days – (mid Oct). MI, OH, KY, TN, VA, WV, OH, MI. SKP Photographers BOF photo workshop/rally in Townsend, TN. GSMNP and camping with family in VA;
103 days – (Dec 19 – Mar 31). MI, OH, KY, TN, GA, FL. Mostly in north central Florida; our first season as snowbirds.

That’s 190 days; more than half of the last twelve months. We don’t have a numerical target, but our sense of how we want to blend RVing with living in a fixed house is to be in the RV for 6 – 8 months out of any given 12 month window but probably not gone for much longer than four months at a time. It won’t always happen that way, of course, but on average that seems like a comfortable balance to us at this time based on our limited experience and current circumstances.

While going back and forth to the laundry building I stopped and chatted with Jeff for a while. It appears they have developed a problem with the 12VDC house system in their motorhome. They noticed it the previous evening as a diming of their lights and then realized the refrigerator did not want to work, even on propane. I mentioned that we had just had a refrigerator problem and had stored our food in the refrigerator in the Activity Building kitchen while we got it sorted out. I suggested how he might go about isolating the problem but did not jump in to try to solve it as there was another guy there also giving advice. Too many cooks creates more problems than it solves.

We went to Satchel’s for an early dinner; our final opportunity to enjoy their excellent vegan pizza. In addition to John and Ali we were joined by Kevin, Sharon, Ian, and Pat. We had essentially the same pizza as before; hand-tossed thin crust with pesto base topped with mushrooms, onions, and sun-dried tomatoes. Instead of the Daiya non-dairy cheese, however, we had the cashew cheese. Instead of being shredded and evenly spread around the pizza it was in quarter-sized chunks like small mozzarella balls. It resulted in a different pizza, but it was just as good as the other pizzas we have had there. I also had the ginger pop. They make it in house from real, fresh ginger. The last time it was a bit weak, but today it was the best yet. The ginger was so strong that burned slightly. Exquisite.

Work continues at WCRVR on refurbishing the Pullman train cars.

The weather had been perfect all day so after we got back we sat around chatting with John and Ali and were joined by Jack and Silvia who were just finishing their evening walk. We had a small glass of Trader Joe’s Pinot Grigio. This is one of the wines Trader Joe’s sells for $2.99 a bottle. Our assessment was that you get about what you pay for, but in all fairness Pinot Grigio is a wine we normally drink with a meal, not as a before or after dinner drink. We were also having grapes for “dessert” and their sweetness probably made the wine seem dry by comparison. I do not care for dry wines, especially as a before or after dinner drink. We will try the rest of the bottle with a meal and see if our first impression was off base. We would love to find a $3 wine that we really like.

2014/03/20 (R) The Spring Equinox

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Winter officially yielded to spring today but we did not really notice. Today was another beautiful day here in north central Florida, just like yesterday and just as tomorrow was forecast to be. We hung around the RV resort and did quiet things.

We went to Satchel’s in Gainesville, Florida for dinner with John and Ali. Linda had leftover pizza from there after she returned from Michigan, but this was her first visit to the place. She agreed that it was uniquely charming. The service was excellent once again. We split part of a salad and ate half of a pizza, saving the leftovers for another meal. The pesto base pizza with Daiya vegan cheese, mushrooms, onions, and sun-dried tomatoes was excellent. The crust is the best I’ve had since we quit eating St. Louis style pizza from Imo’s, which is unfortunately not vegan. Their brownies are vegan and we split one for dessert; no leftovers for this item.

We drove separately from John and Ali as we both had shopping to do, but not the same kind. We stopped at Publix on our way back to Williston and stocked up on fresh fruits and greens. We put everything in the refrigerator when we got back and I noticed during the evening that the refrigerator compartment was a bit warmer than normal. Adjusting the thermostat was not having the desired effect.

Here are a few more photos from Satchel’s, all taken on my Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone and post-processed using Faststone Image Viewer software:

Rear parking lot art at Satchel’s in Gainesville, FL.

Ever wondered what to do with old CDs? Now you know.

Remember 3.5 inch floppy disks? Now they are wall art.

Part of the tile work at Satche”s in Gainesville, FL. Linda studying the bulletin board.

Yes, you can be seated here for your meal at Satchel’s in Gainesville, FL. It’s actually a difficult table to get.

Part of the front outdoor seating area at Satchel’s in Gainesville, FL.

2014/03/15 (S) The Ides Of March

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On Thursday I spent time on the RVillage website and doing e-mail related to the public launch that occurred on Wednesday. I also did some last minute housekeeping chores in preparation for Linda’s return from the great white frozen north.

The back parking lot at Satchel’s in Gainesville, FL.

At 4 PM John, Ali, and I went to Satchel’s in Gainesville, Florida for dinner. The word “funky” was probably invented to describe this place; it was unique, charming, and very bohemian. The service was excellent and the pizza was the best I have had at a restaurant since we went vegan in 2011. The crust was thin and cooked to a nice crisp. They had a pesto sauce option, a first for me, and a choice of three vegan cheeses! I selected the Daiya cheese because Linda has used it in her cooking and I knew it would melt well and taste good. Mushrooms, onions, and sun-dried tomatoes topped it off. The vegan pizza only came in a “medium” size, and it would have been pricey at $20 if it had not been so large. Two pieces made a meal and I took the other four slices back to the coach.

Satchel’s twin-engine fuselage. Most restaurants do not have one of these.

Satchel’s also makes their soda beverages from scratch. I had their ginger soda and it was outstanding. Made with real ginger, it reminded me very much of a “ginger beer” I had many years ago at an Ethiopian restaurant in Detroit, Michigan. I have wanted a repeat of that experience ever since but never found it until now. They also had a choice of two vegan cookies. I had the oatmeal raisin cookie. It was huge and very tasty. I saved half for Linda to have on the drive back from the airport.

The back entrance to the bar at Satchel’s in Gainesville, FL.

Linda sent a text message at 8:15 PM that they were shutting the doors on her plane and by 8:30 PM I was headed for the Orlando International Airport. The drive took two hours and I had just pulled into the cell phone parking lot when she called to let me know that she had just de-planed (15 minutes ahead of schedule). Ten minutes later she was in the car and we were headed back to Williston. We arrived back at the RV resort just after 12:30 AM (Friday).

The main bar entrance at Satchel’s in Gainesville FL.

We slept in Friday morning and when we finally arose decided to have an easy day and stick around the RV resort. The weather was picture perfect but I did not make any pictures. We went for a couple of walks, something we have both missed these last few weeks. We went to the fire pit that evening, as we usually do if we are here on a Friday or Saturday night. There was a big crowd initially, but it thinned out between 8 and 9 PM leaving us to chat with a core group of friends who tend to stick around.

Ali and John headed for the restraurant entrance at Satchel’s.

Saturday we stayed “local” as well. We did some grocery shopping at the local fruit and veggie stand and then went to the Winn-Dixie. W-D had several things on sale or BOGO, so we finally got our own W-D card. Up until now we have used the card of whoever was in line in front of or behind us. I spent much of the afternoon working on the roster and dues records for our FMCA Freethinkers chapter, of which I am the VP and Secretary. The positions do not take a lot time over the course of a year, but when they need my attention they can take up all or part of a day or two.

Now that Linda is back we are both eating better. She made a green bean quinoa salad and a lemony kale salad; both served cold and very refreshing on a lovely, slightly warm, late-winter evening.

John capturing some information about an upcoming live performance at Satchel’s.

With the change to Daylight Savings Time and the advancing season it does not get dark here until closer to 8 PM. The resort still has the fire pit scheduled from 6:30 – 10:00 PM, however, and there is a full group by 6:45 PM. We prefer our campfires in the dark and delayed going over for a while. We met a very charming couple from Quebec and another very nice couple with whom we shared mutual friends in Ed and Janet Roelle, the GLCC members who recommended Williston Crossings RV Resort to us in the first place.

By 8:00 PM the early arrivals start to leave the fire pit and a smaller group settled in for the duration of the evening. One of the friends we have made here, Meg, is getting ready to leave on Monday and head to Flint, Michigan to visit her grand-daughter who will be home from school on break. Meg stayed longer at the fire pit than usual and she and Ali spent time catching up with Linda. Meg got involved in rescuing dogs from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and taking them back to Canada for veterinary care and adoption. A whole network grew up around her and she was interviewed by CNN. One of the things we like about RVing is that everyone has a story, and some of them are very different from our own, and truly fascinating.

2014/02/18 (T) Micanopy (FL)

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Our neighbors at the RV resort recommended the Blue Highway in Micanopy as a place we might find a vegan pizza to our liking. They also suggested that they town was worth seeing. So after several quiet days at home we headed for Micanopy (Mick-ah-no-pee) to check it out and then get some pizza.

Micanopy is an antique town. That is to say, it is old, and most of the shops are antique businesses, with some local artist and artisan shops, and food. There is a museum, and an historic inn that is now a B&B. It was a beautiful afternoon and the place was mostly empty, allowing us to wander from shop to shop without having to fight crowds or weather. Apparently the place is very crowded at times. I have included photos from our visit in a gallery at the end of this post.

The Blue Highway turned out to be more than a pizzeria. A ma, who we think was the owner, suggested which of their pizzas could most easily, and successfully, be made vegan and we took one of his suggestions. We ordered a salad and a pizza and split both.

Our plan for tomorrow is to go to the Publix supermarket in Gainesville to stock up on groceries for me and get Linda packed for her flight back to Michigan on Thursday morning.

Photo Gallery: Click on thumbnail images to open for viewing. Maximum dimension is 640 pixels.

2013_08_03 (Sat) Across The Northern Tier

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Today was a travel day, and an uneventful one at that (the best kind). Linda spent some time last evening and again this morning researching places for us to stay tonight somewhere between Ashland, Wisconsin and Iron Mountain, Michigan. The choices appeared thin; the Walmart in Ashland didn’t allow RVers to overnight due to a city ordinance, and there did not appear to be a Walmart anywhere in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. (I know, I know, that doesn’t seem possible. It turns out there is one in Ironwood, and probably others we haven’t discovered yet.) As our route eventually put us on US-2 we settled on a city RV park in Ironwood, Michigan, just over the border with Wisconsin on the north side of the highway. Based on available online information, this park appeared to have a variety of sites from “full hookup pull-thru” to “no hookup tent site.” (Note: Full hookup in this case meant 20A electric power, barely sufficient to recharge our house batteries, and run the refrigerator, and run the air compressor.) The sites were first-come-first-served; no way to make a reservation. And being a city park, there was no one to call for information on a Saturday, the city offices being closed. So we did something very unusual for us, we started driving with no guarantee that we would be able to get a site, much less one that our coach would fit in, or if the park was even still open.

We left the Forestedge Winery (very reluctantly) at 9:19 AM CDT and headed south down MN-64 towards Akeley where we picked up MN-34 heading northeast to Walker. MN-34 ends at MN-200 in Walker and we headed east on MN-200 from there. MN-200 appears on the map to run straight east-west, but in actuality it bends to the left and right, and goes up and down, through lovely forests and past bodies of water, large and small. The forests eventually gave way to shorter, scruffier growth and marshy areas that reminded us a great deal of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. MN-200 ended at US-2 and we merged on headed southeast to Duluth, Minnesota 52 miles away.

The roads were generally very good, with smooth, quiet surfaces, and we rolled along at 55 MPH except for the occasional idiot who seems unconcerned about pulling out in front of a 41,000 pound vehicle traveling fast enough to turn their sub-compact into a splotch on the highway. No, we didn’t hit anyone, but one of the things I do not like is having to suddenly get on the brakes. Buses do not stop quickly (in a short distance) when traveling at highway speeds. I know that–and I generally try to drive very, very defensively–but I have no control over what other motorists do, and I find in particular that it is not always possible to anticipate what a stupid/oblivious person might do next. One or my other pet bus peeves?; drivers who wait until the passing lane is about to run out and then decide to try to get around you. One &%$*(#! did that to me today and he ended up facing oncoming traffic. I am not going on the shoulder and risking putting a 41,000 pound bus in the ditch for someone that stupid. I did not encounter the most common peeve situation today, however, as it involves entrance ramps on limited access highways; people who don’t get up to speed and pay not attention to the traffic that is already on the highway and into which they are required to merge, i.e., get up to speed and blend in.

BTW: The weather today was almost perfect; blue skies with lots of white puffy clouds (enough to create plenty of shaded areas on the highway) and afternoon temperatures in the low 70’s.

Paul had told us to just stick with US-2 east and we would soon find ourselves in Wisconsin, and so it was. As you approach the northwest corner of Duluth MN-194 splits off to the left and US-2 goes to the right. Signs make it very, very clear that trucks are to use US-2 to get into, around, or through Duluth; they are NOT to get on MN-194. One of the interesting things about driving an motorhome that’s really a commercial bus, is there are times when you are not a truck (such as highway weigh scales), and other times when you are, such as any road situation that involves height, width, length, or weight restrictions. Toll roads are a toss up; some go only by axles, thus treating you like a commercial semi, while others have special fares for RVs and the things they tow. Also, if you have a Jake Brake (we don’t) local noise ordinances prohibiting their use apply to you the same as they do to commercial vehicles. If you don’t believe it, try using yours.

US-2 takes you to I-35 south of Duluth. From I-35 you travel a couple of miles north and onto the Bong bridge which takes you into Wisconsin, or 10th state. It’s a fairly high bridge, but an easy one to drive over (sorry Nick).

The drive on US-2 across northern Wisconsin was a bit tedious. The road is rough and noisy in a lot a places, and each town you go through seems to stretch out along the highway for miles and requires you to drive 30 or even 25 MPH. It will be nice to be back in Michigan where speed limits are almost universally ignored.

We arrived at the Wisconsin/Michigan border around 3:15 PM CDT, returning to our state of origin. As advertised, we found Curry Park right where it was supposed to be, and it was open for business and mostly empty. We spotted a pull-through site with good ingress and egress and made pulled in. It appeared to be an electric only site, so Linda filled out the form and put the required $15 in the envelope. Turned out that it was full-hookup site, which is $20 per night and the camp host came around later to collect the extra $5. Even though we only needed the electrical hookup, we were not about to move.

Our neighbors on either side appeared to be off doing whatever it is RVers do in the late afternoon, so we ran our generator for a while to at least bulk charge the house batteries before switching to shore power. Linda went for a walk around the park and I put the finishing touches on the blog posting for yesterday while keeping an eye on our batteries.

We have to be very thoughtful about how we use the coach and its various (electrical) systems when we only have a 20A electrical connection. Not cooking dinner avoids having to use power, so Linda (the smartphone/Google queen) found a well-reviewed restaurant in town that was a four block walk from the park on the same side of US-2, and had pizza on the menu; Federico’s MIKES. Winner. Well, maybe. Since we don’t eat dairy products we order our pizza withOUT cheese. That is guaranteed to get some strange looks and even questions, and the outcome is always a bit of a gamble. (We had a fabulous vegan pizza in the Black Hills of South Dakota back in June but we have had others that just were not very good.) The waitress took our order—16” thin crust, no cheese, with onions, mushrooms, olives (black and green), and pineapple—and a young man in the kitchen who obviously loved making pizza threw himself into the task. He even came out part way through our meal to see if we liked it. We did, and we told him so. We saved a few pieces for lunch on the road tomorrow as it will be another travel day for us, boxed it up, and walked back to the park.

Tomorrow we have another travel day, and then plan to stay put for a couple of nights before our final leg back to the house.

The Phase Place

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Tag Archives: vegan pizza

2016/03/27-28 (N-M) Squirrel-Nuts ENT Markets

2015/12/24 (R) Christmas Eve 2015

2015/12/23 (W) Satchel’s Trifecta

2015/07/22 (W) Chucking Junk

2015/07/18 (S) RV Shopping

2014/09/15 (M) Congratulations, You Have Gas

2014/04/01 (T) No April Fool

2014/03/20 (R) The Spring Equinox

2014/03/15 (S) The Ides Of March

2014/02/18 (T) Micanopy (FL)

2013_08_03 (Sat) Across The Northern Tier