The RV Sabbatical Journal

Egg Problems

2012-01-30T06:58:00.000-06:00

I have a problem with hard boiled eggs (the ones that come from chickens, not the dear old folks who need Fox News to help them make sense of the world these days). Or would it be more accurate to say the eggs have a problem with me? Perhaps. But either way, this problem is really two problems. The first, correctly cooking the hard boiled egg. The second, peeling the shell from the hard boiled egg. And, to make this even more complicated... I wouldn't be surprised if the cooking problem is related to the peeling problem.

There are about as many formulas for cooking the perfect hard boiled egg as there are cooks. (Just look, they're scattered all over the internet... Google's 69th most popular search!!) I've tried many but just never quite found the one that works consistently for me. Sometimes the egg is overcooked and it's hard and rubbery. And often, if overcooked, there's this strange green-ish layer of some unknown substance around the yoke which recent research has indicated, that while unsightly and disgusting, is safe to eat. I think I've been mostly overcooking my eggs in the past.

But I have good news on the cooking front. I've found a system for boiling eggs to perfection.

Combine a little salt and vinegar with water in a large pot. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. (that's right... get the water boiling first.)
Add the eggs one at a time, being careful not to crack them. (I use a set of kitchen tongs to slip the eggs into the water, one at a time... gently)
Reduce the heat to a gentle boil, and cook for 15 minutes. (adjust for size of egg and elevation)
Once the eggs have cooked immediately remove them from the hot water and place into a container of ice water or cold, running water. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
Store in the refrigerator up to 1 week.

The biggest change from what I was doing in the past is placing the eggs in already boiling water, and continuing the boiling action going during the entire cooking time. It makes sense that "time at cooking temperature" is more precisely controlled with this method.

I once heard that hard-boiled eggs are a "negative food"... that is, your body burns more calories in peeling and digesting the egg than there are contained in the egg. I highly doubt that's true for most people but considering the extreme problem I have in peeling the hard boiled egg, it may well be the case for me. Nay, I dare say, for me, it's far more than a problem... it's an absolute inability... probably stemming from some congenital defect in my thumbs. Dar has proven it to me time and time again.

With the same batch of cooked eggs we both start peeling at the same moment. I shatter the shell... a few small shards yield, a glimmer of hope, I might get lucky with this one... but no, the process devolves into 10 minutes of increasingly smaller shell fragments being pried off with increasing difficulty and larger attached pieces of egg white. Heart pounding, sweating profusely, hands shaking with frustration, microscopic shell fragments scattered all over the counter, the wall, the floor, my result is a mottled scarred mis-shapen blob that more resembles a cratered moon of Uranus (or an AMC Pacer) than the glistening sleek smooth orb that Dar liberated from just two (two!!) shell halves 10 minutes earlier. She's a egg peeling superstar.

So, in the spirit of the egg (what came first?...), we've once again found harmony and balance. I cook. She peels. We're happy.

Jan 23 - Blogging Tank is Empty

2012-01-23T01:00:00.000-06:00

What I seem to have accomplished by promising weekly updates to this Journal is to reduce my writer's anxiety (deadline anxiety??) to just a few hours on Sunday... usually later on Sunday afternoon. I guess that's a good thing. But so little has happened this past week that even my heightened urgency has not helped me produce an entry tonight. My blogging tank is drained.

We're fine... the weather's been fine... and I'm sure I'll have more to report next week.

Jan 16 - Turds, Birds, and a few Words

2012-01-16T01:00:00.000-06:00

And now, for this week, something completely different...

If you're tuning in to get your usual dose of RV happy-blather, this might be a good time to step along to the next blog on your list. Instead, all I have to offer is a series of disjointed comments and observations... all of which were done during the Packers-Giants play-off game Sunday evening. Like I said above... something completely different.

The Giants just opened up scoring in this big play-off game with a field goal. The Packer defense held them to 3 points after a nice drive. OK... game on!

Names:
So many people in our culture are fixated on fruit-cake "celebrities", most of whom are not normal people, to say the least. Proof? Well, here's a list of celebrity baby names (and their celeb parent) that have recently been reported in the popular press:

Apple (Gwineth, of course)
Pilot Inspektor (Jason Lee... whoever that is)
Kal-El (Nic Cage) (Sounds like an airline, but it's not.)
Track / Trig (Tea Party Sweetheart Sara, of course)
Spec / Hud (John Mellencamp)
Jermajesty (Jermaine Jackson)
Sparrow (Nicole Richie) (I liked it more when I thought it was a girls name. That's right, it was hung on a boy. Brings to mind the song "A Boy Named Sue". Think he's in for a tough time of it.)
Bronx Mowgli (Ashlee Simpson??)

In our "it's all about ME" culture, I guess these are attempts to bestow unique, one of a kind, names on kids... so they'll get off on the right foot in life. "You're so special!"

But this guy, from a recent news article from Madison Wisconsin, beats 'em all. Not sure what motivated this, but it does surely provide evidence that, just perhaps, we should consider re-opening some of our shuttered mental institutions.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Authorities in southern Wisconsin are facing a tongue twister thanks to the arrest of Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop. The unusually named 30-year-old man was in jail Sunday in Madison. Police say he violated his bail conditions from a previous run-in with the law. Court records show that his name used to be Jeffrey Drew Wilschke. He legally changed it in October.

The Capital Times reports that Zopittybop-Bop-Bop was arrested last week after residents complained of excessive drinking and drug use near Reynolds Park in Madison. Authorities say he was arrested in another local park last April after police found a loaded handgun in his backpack. He’s tentatively charged with carrying a concealed knife, and possession of drug paraphernalia and marijuana.

Packers answered with a field goal... and then they exchanged TDs... game tied 10-10.

Candidates for President
A few years ago, during my days in corporate America, I had an old boss that used to use a phrase that pretty well sums up the way I feel about this year's crop of candidates for the office of president. I'm talking about the lot of them... both parties... anyone who could conceivably be on the ballot in November.

"No matter how much you polish and rub and shine a turd, what you end up with is still a turd. It might have a little slick sheen to it, but it's still a turd."

I'm truly offended that we'll have to choose between two of any of them. What a zoo. To call this a rigged system is an understatement.

What if they held an election and NO ONE voted??? Well, I will no longer vote for the brightest turd.

The Giants capitalized on a turnover with more points... but again, the defense held em to a field goal. Giants 13, Pack 10... two minutes left in the first half.

Pet Peeves
Is it possible that the poor economy is resulting in the poor condition of the fleet of shopping carts in grocery stores? I've noticed a rash of shopping carts lately that pull to one side, thump and squeak down the isles due to square, bent, or sticky wheels, hard to push, dirty. And why is the previous user's shopping list usually left in the bottom of the cart? The other day I used the wrong list and came home with the makings for a 7 layer cake.

WTF... hail mary pass results in a TD for the Giants just seconds before half time.... 20-10. Comon' Pack! Sheesh!

More Pet Peeves
Tables in restaurants... always have one leg shorter than the others... tippy... drinks spilling all over the place... Why? Can't restaurant tables have legs that can be easily adjusted? I'd really rather spin an adjustment ring instead of jamming a pile of folded napkins under the short leg. I mean... com'on, this has been going on for years... maybe forever.

The Packers managed a field goal in the third quarter... now 20-13 Giants. The Pack is certainly not in championship form. And the Giants are playing tough.

Whooping Cranes
We did find some rare Whooping Cranes a few miles north of our camp the other day. They were a long way off, and the photos we took were taken through a wire mesh fence (and not so good), but we were happy to see them regardless.

click on photo to enlarge

Giants score again... a field goal in the fourth quarter... now 23-13 Giants.

Giants score yet again... capitalizing on a Packer fumble... now 30-13 Giants.

Pack scores a TD! WhooHooo! Not much time left... Giants 30-20

Giants drive the nail in the coffin, scoring a TD with 2:36 remaining in the game... Giants 37-20.

Oh well...there's always next year!

Turds, Birds, and a few Words. That's it. OK, I'm done bitching. And remember, Dar, it's just a game.

Have a great week.

Jan 9 - Along the Coastal Bend of Texas

2012-01-09T01:00:00.000-06:00

St. Dominic Church, D'Hanis Texas 1853

"Howdy" from the Coastal Bend of Texas.

Well, we had a quiet first week to kick off 2012. After making the move from Hondo to Rockport we settled in for the long haul... three months in one spot... and caught up with our friends and acquaintances at our Winter home away from home. For whatever reason, the RV park seems busier and more congested with big rigs than our memories from the past few years. Don't know why.

It didn't take long for Dar to get fully involved in the medical world again. After a day to set up camp here at Sandollar, and another to finish up some paperwork and pick up her schedule at the hospital, she was back in nursing action on Wednesday... Thursday too. The good news is that there appears to be a little more staffing depth this year so she hopefully won't be pulling 80 hour weeks like last year... perhaps a little balance between work and leisure.

And I'm reluctantly falling into my domestic role to help fill the gap created in Dar's absence. That's right, dish-pan hands and all, I'm trying to develop a routine of sorts to keep my arch-enemies, procrastination and laziness, from creating an out-of-control build-up of unfinished chores. Things will just work smoother if I can stay on top of it all. I'm trying... I'm really trying.

Saturday, Dar and I drove up to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, about 35 miles north, to see how the endangered Whooping Cranes are faring with the deep desperate Texas drought. While some recent rain has helped, the "Whoopers" are struggling to find food... munching on second and third choices in the absence of their favorite blue crabs, which are a casualty of the drought. The managers of the Refuge prefer to let nature take it's course... to let the birds naturally seek out and find alternate food sources on their own... and will only dole out the Purina Crane-Chow if the situation becomes desperate.

Up in the Pacific Northwest, our Grandson Ryan accompanied his Pop and some friends to a Portland Winterhawks hockey game last week. They thoroughly enjoyed the outing. But because he, Ryan, has an indefinable way about him... a humble confidence... a magnetic charisma that draws people to him... especially people of the cheerleading persuasion... he was smothered with attention and had to escape out a side door before things got completely out of hand. Here's a photo from early in the evening that'll give you a sense of what he had to deal with. Poor guy.

Grandson Ryan with a few of his 'groupies".

And finally, I'm including a link to a short video produced by a friend of ours, Mike Fousie. Mike is a fulltimer RVer who is particularly talented with a camera. While volunteering along the Oregon coast this past summer he shot this video. I found it interesting... moving... and thought I'd post a link to it here. Hope you enjoy. Click here for Mike's video "Sacred Journeys".

Another update next Monday... or before if something comes up.

Jan 4 - New Blog Schedule

2012-01-04T11:37:00.001-06:00

I'm going to try something different this winter during our extended stay in Rockport. Most of you know I have a problem coming up with interesting additions to the Journal while sitting for extended periods of time... periods like the next three months. During these times, we don't get out exploring much, and both mind and body are often otherwise occupied. The mental energy involved with puffing-up the mundane... spinning a trip to Walmart into an excursion to the South Pole... takes a toll on me.

No more.

In an effort to reduce both boring posts and the time I put into trying to come up with those boring posts, I'm going to move to a more defined schedule for new posts to our RV Sabbatical Journal. During this January, February, and March, I will update the Journal one time per week, on Monday morning. Of course, if we do get out for some substantial exploring, or if something really noteworthy happens, I reserve the right to post a "special edition" at any time.

Now let's see how the old boy handles a weekly deadline.

Remember, Monday morning.

Jan 2 - Hope

2012-01-02T10:57:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Dar and I said good-bye to the SKP Lone Star Corral RV Park near Hondo TX, our home for the past 16 days, and made the drive down to Sandollar Resort near Rockport TX. Sandollar has been our winter home for the past few years. This will be our third year of spending three months here.

Like last year, Dar is going to put in a little time at the local hospital... exercising her RN nursing skills and making a little money to help offset the cost of health insurance. I've got a list of projects as long as my arm and will be brushing up on my domestic skills... cleaning, laundry, dishes, etc. in addition to my regular chores on the bus-house... washing, waxing, lubing, etc.

There are no New Years resolutions here... just hope. I hope we all remain healthy, vibrant, and active. I hope our travels and explorations come off safely and without serious problems. I hope we can add a few days on the travel/explore side of the ledger while reducing a few days on the sitting side. And I hope the US Congress... the lot of them... find a way to set petty politics aside and get this experiment in democracy back on track, for the benefit of ALL it's citizens and not just the top 1%.

I can hope. Can't I?

Dec 31 - Reflections on 2011

2011-12-31T23:30:00.000-06:00

Well, 2011 is now history and I, for one, am sad to see it go. The passage of another year, while inevitable, isn't something I look upon fondly. It simply reminds me that yet another year is gone, that I'll be one more numerical year older, that I'm one year closer to the end. Perhaps I'd feel better if, instead of celebrating the passage of another year, I try to celebrate a new day every morning.

In looking back, however, here are a few statistics from our 2011 fulltiming experience:

Dollars spent on camping/parking fees for the bus-house: $3,996

Average per day cost of camping/parking (all days): $10.95

Average per day cost of camping/parking (paid days): $16.58

Number of free nights: 124

Number of camping/parking locations: 34
   (normal 50 - 60)

Number of days per stop: 10.4
   (normal 6 - 7)

Miles driven with bus-house: 6,631
   (normal 8,000 to 10,000)

Diesel fuel for bus-house: $3,612
   average price: $3.86/gal
   mileage: 7.95mpg

We spent more time parked this year than since starting the fulltiming thing in 2007. That's why our average days per stop shot up to 10.4... and why our miles driven dropped to only 6,631. But after more than four years it's still good to know that the total dollars spent on diesel fuel and camping ($7,608) is still less than our annual real estate tax bill on our previous house in the suburbs of Chicago.

Dec 30 - San Antonio River Walk

2011-12-30T23:30:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Thursday, we drove into downtown San Antonio with the intention of re-visiting the famous San Antonio River Walk and surrounding area. We had visited here before... back in January of 2008. Despite my knee-jerk distaste for crowds and all-things "big city", we considered it one of the more memorable and enjoyable stops in Texas during that first year on the road. And now that almost 4 years have passed since that visit, and since we were camped so close (only 45 minutes away), and since our exploration muscles had started atrophying during the holidays and badly needed some exercise, and since we had nothing else on the agenda for this quiet Thursday between Christmas and New Years... we hopped in the car and made the run into the big city.

The air was cool, the skies bright and blue, and the traffic tolerable. Parking was easy to find but expensive... $15 for the day... posted as a "special event" price, which we didn't understand at first, but chalked it up to there being a lot of people around during the holiday break. And there were a lot of people milling about.

You'd think that professional explorers, especially ones who don't particularly like crowds and congestion, and ones that had a range of days this week to choose from for this excursion... you'd think they'd perhaps get online, check the calendar of events for downtown San Antonio, and pick the least congested day. But you'd be wrong... at least in this case... at least with this pair of intrepid explorers. Turns out we had stumbled into town on the very day of the Alamo Bowl (this year pitting Baylor against University of Washington) which was going to be played at the Alamo Dome right here, downtown, just a couple blocks away. Moving waves of green (Baylor) and purple (UWash) as the afternoon pre-game crowds flowed and surged down the banks of the San Antonio River Walk should have been a clue, but it took this pair of sports non-fanatics a little while to catch on.

Adjacent to the River Walk are the grounds of HemisFair, San Antonio's Worlds Fair back in 1968. Now called HemisFair Park, it also contains the Tower of the Americas, a 750' observation/restaurant tower built for the fair. After forfeiting a thin $10 bill each we were soon on the 72 second elevator ride to the top. Dar fought the urge to velcro herself to an interior wall and eventually, cautiously, inched her way to the windows on the observation deck to take in the 360 degree view of San Antonio. Never passing up an opportunity to overpay for liquid nourishment in touristy locations, we stopped in the lounge attached to the Chart House restaurant "up top", where we were relieved of two more thin $10 bills for as many beers, including tip.

Once back at ground level, a leisurely walk through HemisFair Park led us to La Villita Historic District, the original downtown of San Antonio. Well preserved and still in use today, it's the home of an active art community and various shops and galleries. The buildings date back to the early to mid 1800s, but the whole collection of twenty-some buildings and houses were still fresh and in good repair.

From there it's only a few steps to the River Walk, where we spent the rest of our day. The prime motivation for our visit today was to see the millions of Christmas lights, many of which are somehow carefully wrapped around the trunks and limbs of the huge Cypress trees that line the banks. The effort must be immense... wrapping strings of lights around limbs... even smaller limbs near the highest tree tops. It's not obvious to me how it's done as in many locations the use of "cherry-picker" bucket truck isn't possible due the river and narrow walkways. Do they send guys up into the trees with strings of lights in their teeth? Maybe I'll find out how it's done someday.

And yes, we did part with even more of our kid's inheritance when we had dinner along the River Walk while waiting for night to descend and all the lights to brighten. After dinner we booked passage on a tour boat, a half hour loop tour of the entire River Walk, and enjoyed the lights from that perspective as well.

An enjoyable day. More photos in our online photo album.

Dec 28 - We Found Utopia

2011-12-30T20:19:00.000-06:00

Dar, sportin' a new "do", in Utopia.

For all you seekers of perfection, those looking for the ideal place in this world, heaven on earth, Xanadu, Utopia... we've found it. At least that's what the sign says...

That's right, Utopia actually exists and it was right under our noses here in Texas all along. Who'da thunk it? We can now add it to the list of one-of-a-kind places we've been... like Paradise, Tightwad, and Google.

On Tuesday we took a relaxed drive into the Hill Country of Texas. Our camp near Hondo, right along US-90, runs along the southern edge of the Hill Country, so today's exploring was all north of camp, mostly along roads we've not taken before. Bandera, the self-proclaimed "cowboy capital of the world" was one of our destinations and we stopped there for lunch. We stayed in Bandera back in 2009... enjoyed Thanksgiving Dinner at the Pioneer RV Park. For a Tuesday, the town seemed busy... traffic, a crowd at the restaurant... busy.

Portions of our drive took us along the Medina and Sabinal Rivers. Recent rains are probably responsible for there being any water at all in these streams... the big Texas drought of 2010-2011 had pretty much dried them up before this. These rivers are unique in that beautiful big cypress trees line the riverbanks and shade the stream... a symbioic relationship that benefits both trees and stream wildlife alike.

On Thursday, the plan is to spend the day in San Antonio.

5 Years - A Home Base

2011-12-28T13:06:00.000-06:00

This is the fifth in a series of posts about our lifestyle as we near the 5 year mark, and some thoughts we're having about making changes as we move into the future.

On A Home Base
After almost 5 years of living in our 300 sq. ft. motorhome we're talking more and more about establishing a home base somewhere.

There's an old saying that we've commandeered that goes something like this: The warm peaceful feeling that accompanies going home is exceeded only by the great anticipation and freedom that accompanies leaving home. In other words, there's nothing like the feeling of coming home... unless it's the feeling of leaving again. For us, we enjoy "coming home", whether it's an extended stay in an RV park near our kids in Washington, parking on our RV pad while visiting the rest of our family in Wisconsin, or an extended Winter refuge down south. There's really something special about coming home that we look forward to... time to work on the bigger projects... a R&R break from traveling... more time to spend with the same people... perhaps put down some shallow roots... get into a mindless routine... a change. But, for true nomads, that "coming home" feeling starts to ebb after a while (hitch-itch?). For us, after a month or so, the feeling that it's time to hit the road again... to leave... overpowers the good feeling of coming home, being home. But we've learned to savor them both.

Someone said to me recently that, and I'm paraphrasing here, there's an excitement and anticipation that accompanies planning and executing a shorter trip... say a few weeks or a month or two... that isn't present when living as fulltime nomads and all your trips flow together in one long series. I hadn't thought about it that way before, but there's something in there that rings true with me.

Having established that we're really living two lifestyles (being "home", sitting in one place for an extended time versus traveling, exploring), and that the bus-house is really too big for exploring in a nimble efficient linear manner, having a home-base would provide some of the benefits of a fixed home (more space for living, storage, workshop, etc) while making it possible to downsize the RV to one more efficient, nimble, and appropriate for our preferred linear exploration mode. In other words, if done right, we'd get some of the bests of both worlds.

Having a home base also provides other benefits. It's a place, a retreat, a refuge, that you can always go to if necessary. If things go wacky or crazy, if illness strikes, if an accident puts your RV out of commission, you can retreat to your home base and regroup. Most fulltime RVers carry this burden with them as they go about their tenuous lives... bravely going forward, being out there, exploring and living... but always carrying the burden of a riskier lifestyle and the "what ifs" of unforeseen situations. A home base helps minimize that burden.

If we ultimately decide to establish this home base, it will NOT be a hunk of real estate in a traditional subdivision or a condominium. No, an important element of our ideal home base is that it be virtually maintenance free, worry free, and in an RV oriented community - don't want to worry about mowing the grass, trimming the shrubs, shoveling the snow, and what the neighbors are saying about the RV parked in the driveway. And being around like-minded people living similar lifestyles provide, in our experience, an enjoyable tight-knit community that watches out for one another.

At this point we're still talking and pondering the issue. We've taken no action beyond getting on the waiting list for membership in a number of SKP Coop Parks in the south and northwest. Being within an easy days drive of our kids and grandkids is one of the criteria we're considering, but also being a little further south and somewhat warmer is another. Being close to a good airport and good medical facilities are important too.

Timing? We're not rushing into anything. These thoughts are in the realm of short to medium term planning. Perhaps we'll make a move toward a home base in the next year or two.

<< Part 4 <<

>> Part 6>>

Dec 23 - Settled for the Holidays

2011-12-23T16:59:00.000-06:00

Today, we've been here at SKP Lone Star Corral for a week and we're feeling quite settled in for the holidays. People in this park, like most of the SKP system, are very friendly and inclusive. It's a good place to be if you can't be with family for Christmas.

We're really not doing much... lazing around, reading, making dinner, doing a few chores. Today Dar made some Christmas candy which will be our contribution to the Christmas Eve party over at the clubhouse, and I'm making a big pot of chili. Each night we're watching another from our list of traditional Christmas movies. And next week we're planning a day (and evening) in downtown San Antonio checking out all the lights and holiday decorations around the Riverwalk.

The initial plan to move down to Rockport on the 3rd of January has now changed. Instead, we're moving on January 1st. The park members who "own" the lot we're on are coming back on the 1st. It's their lot... they have the privilege to do so with 48 hours notice. We'd be able to move to another lot for the two or three days, but figure that since we're stowing things for a move anyway we might just as well just keep rolling and get to Rockport early.

During our stay along the Coastal Bend of Texas during the first three months of 2012, Dar is going back to work at a hospital in the area. Being an RN, keeping her skills up to date and having recent work experience is important to having the ability (and flexibility) to make a little income should it become necessary. The future looks so murky, Social Security so questionable, interest rates and returns on investments so lousy, European financial problems so dire, even the value of the future dollar so "iffy"... having an employable nurse in the old survival toolkit could come in handy.

And since I'm writing about uncertainty and the murky future, let me address the subject of health insurance - you know, "for the record". Being in our late 50's or early 60's, we're not eligible for Medicare... won't be for a few years... if there's anything left of it by the time we get there. So this is how we're handling our health insurance. I have an excellent health insurance plan as a retiree from my previous employer, Illinois Tool Works. My monthly contribution is very reasonable and hasn't increased in the past few years. Dar, on the other hand, is part of the mass of people in the open market for private health insurance. She has a high deductible HSA plan and has had no claims in recent history beyond the normal annual check-ups, lab tests, and such. But despite being healthy her premium has gone up more than 25% each of the past two years. (I'm fighting the urge to go on a rant here... about the wonderful medical care system we have in the USA... OK.. no rant. Maybe another time.)

Well, long story short, she found a new policy for something like 70% less. True, we're accepting a little more risk (higher deductible, etc.) but our real objective with this policy is to basically self-insure for all the small stuff while providing wealth protection in the event of more serious and costlier events. So we're keeping our fingers crossed that this will be a good solution for the next few years. Only time will tell.

On a more uplifting note... we'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

5 Years - Size... It Matters

2011-12-19T01:30:00.000-06:00

This is the fourth in a series of posts about our lifestyle as we near the 5 year mark, and some thoughts we're having about making changes as we move into the future.

On Size... It Matters
The earlier posts in this series addressed the topics of our travel pattern, family friends roots, and our preferred exploring mode. In this post I'd like to address the topic of our RV... also called "the camper" or the "bus-house" in most of my posts to the RV Sabbatical Journal.

We live fulltime in a "big rig" motorhome. Early in the process of investigating this lifestyle, prior to taking the plunge, most fulltimers we asked said the same thing: get the largest RV we could afford. They said we'd always covet more space and "big" would always be better in the resale market. And that's what we did... bought a 40 foot long 16 ton diesel motorhome.

For the most part, we've been happy with it. But over these 5 years we've developed a real love/hate thing about space. When we're sitting, for us about half the time, we like having it.... but when we're traveling and exploring, also about half the time, we've come to believe we may have too much. And it's not the space itself that's the problem. It's how space is expressed in a big-rig camper, through it's physical weight and size, that have caused us to ponder the issue.

So often, during days we're driving the bus-house from one spot to another, we see something "over there", or a sign referring to a lake and campground down a little gravel road, or some other natural attraction that we'd love to investigate along the way... but we don't do it. We don't do it because we can see the road isn't appropriate for a big rig, or we just don't know what other obstacles exist that we can't see... things like low branches, tight curves, dips and inflections in the road, no place to turn around. And when pulling a car, like we do, there's no backing unless we unhook first. So we just keep going and may make a note to check it out the next time we're through the area. The inability to go wherever, whenever, limits our spontaneity and the enjoyment of discovery.

During our first 5 years, we've observed all sorts of people in the RV community. Most, like us, live in a big-rig camper, sit in one place for extended periods, and explore with a smaller vehicle. These folks almost always use what we refer to as the "hub and spoke" exploring mode... driving out to see or do the activity of the day and returning to camp each night.

But we've also been intrigued by a few, including some folks we've run across from Europe and Australia, who do it differently... who live and explore in a much smaller rig. They're here to see the country. Their focus is exploration so they rarely sit in one place for more than a few days. They're packed light and efficiently. They don't tow anything. They can go almost anywhere, camp anywhere. And they're exploring as they travel... in a linear fashion. But what they don't have is space. Compromises and trade-offs.

Because we have only one camper and we don't have a home base of any kind, we're hauling around all our stuff all the time. Despite our best intentions, and best efforts, (and because we have a lot of space), we still have too much stuff that we almost never use, need, or even look at... or, at most, use just once in a blue moon. But it's our home, and that's the definition of a home: a place to store all your stuff.

But what if we could separate the two parts of our fulltime life? What if we had a big rig RV we use while sitting for extended periods of time, and another smaller rig for exploring?

One idea we've bounced around is getting a small pickup truck (Toyota Tacoma or equiv.) coupled with a light weight pop-up truck camper that we could pull behind the bus-house. We'd park the bus-house at a campground or RV park for an extended period of time (two weeks? a month?) and use the truck camper for extended multi-day explorations into the surrounding area. It's kind of a hybrid idea... a mixture of hub/spoke and linear exploring modes... some of the best of both worlds... with some of the negatives of both as well.

Another idea is to get an RV lot somewhere in the Northwest (close to our kids) and put a fifth wheel trailer on it. This would be our home base during those periods of time we're sitting... regrouping and resupplying for the next travel and exploring trip. In this case we'd also sell the bus-house and downsize to a much smaller exploration rig.

Still another idea, really a variation of the one above, is to have two RV lots... one in the Northwest near our kids and grandkids, and another in a more southern locale... perhaps Arizona or Texas. In this case we might keep the bus-house and just shuttle it twice each year between the southern and northwest locations. We'd still have a smaller rig for those linear exploring trips we'd do during the rest of the year.

In the past year or two we've gone out of our way to talk to folks exploring with small RVs, many who had a big rig in the past and decided to downsize... to a small Class C, even a Class B or a truck camper. And the common thing we're hearing from them is that they're happy they made the change... wished they had done it earlier... are thrilled with their ability to go anywhere... the ease of driving a smaller rig... and wouldn't think of going big again. In general, they're having a blast with the new phase of their nomadic lives. Of course, they're not living fulltime in the small rig... they universally have a home base of some kind... but they're out there enjoying the wandering life more than ever.

But wouldn't we go crazy living in a much smaller rig? First, we wouldn't be living in it in the same sense we're now living in the bus-house -- 24x7, 365 days each year. The travel and exploring excursions in the smaller rig would be for shorter periods of time... a few weeks, a month or two? And we believe we can live almost anywhere for a relatively short time. And whatever need for more space would, in theory, be satiated during times sitting at our home base.

The overall objective of making any change like this is to maximize the enjoyment we get from exploring North America, which, remember, is our primary reason for our mobile lifestyle. Even RV fulltimers can get in a rut. And there's certainly more than one way to skin this cat. Depending on individual preferences and interests, and our willingness to change, to try new things, we believe we can inject new energy and excitement into this old Sabbatical project of ours and keep it going for another 5 years.

Size does matter... and in this case, smaller can be better.

Hmmm...?

Where are the wheels??

<< Part 3 <<

>> Part 5 >>

Dec 18 - A Black Hole

2011-12-18T14:13:00.000-06:00

Hondo Texas is a mere 45 miles from downtown San Antonio which, to me, means it's not exactly a remote wilderness or frontier out-back. But when it comes to cell phone and internet coverage, a wilderness back-water it is. Verizon has a significant hole in their signal, centered about 5 miles west of Hondo along US-90... almost at the precise location of Lone Star Corral. We had better service in far more remote campsites... near Yosemite, Joshua Tree, even out in the desert north of Quartzsite.

I've been told that if I'd go outside, climb on top the bus-house, hold a metal coat-hanger up in the air with one hand and hold the phone in the other... I may be able to get a short call to go through. I might have to try that later.

The SKP Lone Star Corral park has it's own park-wide wifi service... which costs nothing. And, at least this year so far, we're getting exactly what we're paying... nothing. It worked fine during our stay last year. But so far this year, it's been very spotty... and mostly un-usable. They say they're having a problem with it, and are working on it, but up to this point... well, they're still working on it. I may be able to walk up to the clubhouse and use the wifi in the library... I've heard that's still working.

But the most interesting thing about this whole deal is its effect on me. I've got a bad case of disconnectedness. Don't want to eat, sleep, find myself staring off into space a lot. Oh boy... and we're supposed to be here until after the first of the year.

Will he survive? Stay tuned for our next episode and find out.

Dec 17 - Trail Ends in Hondo

2011-12-17T17:32:00.000-06:00

Our travels for 2011 ended, like last year, in Hondo Texas. We're at the Escapees Park -- Lone Star Corral -- for the Holidays and will be here, hopefully, until the 2nd or 3rd of January when we press on down to Rockport Texas. These Escapee Parks are membership parks, which means the lots all belong to members. When the members are not here they can opt to have their lot put in a rental pool for "guest" renters (like us), which helps offset their annual membership fees. There's also a "first in first out" rule for guests which only kicks in when all available lots are rented. This rule gives the longest visiting guests two days notice to vacate their rented lot if new guests are waiting for a site. Because there's a fairly long list of guests ahead of us, it's unlikely that we'll be affected. But there's always a chance... that we'll be evicted... on Christmas Eve. "Sorry... no room at the inn."

During the past two days we put a lot of miles behind us. On leaving Tucson, where we were delayed two days by heavy rain, our objective was to find warmer weather. So the big wheels were turning three days in a row... 216 miles on Wednesday (to Deming, NM), 350 miles on Thursday (to Marathon, TX), and 280 miles on Friday (to Hondo)... one of our more intense strings of travel days. That kind of extreme travel is not our preferred style, but after two months of exploring I think we were both looking for a "home" for the Holidays.

Long time readers of this journal may remember my feelings about El Paso. Unfortunately, it's a "big town" and for that reason alone it starts way down my list, near the bottom, of places where I'd like to be. And it just rubs me wrong that there's really no other option for transiting this corner of the world... squeezed into a 500 foot gap between lovely Mexico to the south and the Franklin Mountains to the north a traveler is shoulder to shoulder with cars, trucks, RVs, and trains... everyone wide eyed with terror at the thought that if anything went wrong... a blown tire... anything... the whole gap would plug up faster than a fat man's artery at a fried chicken eating contest, and traffic would back up in both directions until February. I can report that I saw absolutely nothing during this trip to improve El Paso's ranking on my list. Well, ok, to be fair... maybe the gray-brown haze that incessantly blankets the town was a little less brown than usual.

from foreground: road, railroad, border fence, river, and Juarez, El Paso's sister city in Mexico

We stopped Thursday night at the Marathon Motel and RV Park in Marathon Texas. We'd stayed here a few years ago, in late January of 2008, and experienced the lowest overnight temp ever during our Sabbatical: 6 degrees above zero. It didn't get nearly that cold this visit, but the words "possible freezing rain" in the forecast reduced our enthusiasm for staying longer and we headed east for a warmer Hondo on Friday.

I'm working hard on the next installment in my "5 year" series, so it should be up in another day or two. And if you haven't already seen it, please check out our Christmas Card by clicking on the tab above the journal.

Dec 14 - Across the Continental Divide

2011-12-14T20:59:00.000-06:00

Tonight, we're doing a quick overnight at the SKP Dream Catchers RV Park in Deming, NM. Today's drive from Tucson was enjoyable, even though it was all Interstate Highway... amazing what a little sun and blue sky can do for the traveling spirits. Transiting southern New Mexico, there are few alternatives to I-10... at least that we're willing to encounter with the big old bus-house.

The storms that held us back the last two days also dumped an inch or two of rain on southwestern New Mexico. And while you might think the desert would soak up the rain like a dry sponge... it doesn't. Between mountain ranges, we drove through broad flat areas that were plastered with warning signs about blowing dust and sand, zero visibility, and such. These dust storms must be a common occurrence around here based on the number and quality of the signs involved. But blowing sand wasn't a problem today as everything was soaked from the recent rains. Ditches and desert floor on either side of the road were full of standing water.. and the RV park tonight is very wet as well. Nearby mountains received up to two feet of snow from the storm too. New Mexico has been in drought though, like much of Texas, and most people welcome the rain... are still hoping for more.

The most notable event of the day was crossing the Continental Divide again... out there between Lordsburg and Deming. Unlike most of the mountainous West, where the Continental Divide follows distinct ridge lines and high mountain ranges, out here in southern New Mexico it's just a simple rise in an otherwise flat plain... if the sign wasn't there you'd never suspect it.

Oh, and one more thing: fuel prices. Gas is now under the $3.00 mark in both Arizona and New Mexico. I filled up the toad the other day in Tucson for $2.95. Unfortunately, diesel prices are almost a full dollar higher... that's right... almost a full dollar... the largest differential I can remember. We filled the bus-house today and felt lucky to find a station selling it for 3.87. I wonder how the differential is being justified. Based on the grimaces and frowns on the faces of so many drivers of big diesel pickup trucks these days... I guess I'm not the only one wondering what's going on.

Dec 13 - Desert Rain

2011-12-13T16:15:00.001-06:00

For an area that averages about 10" of rain per year, we're being treated to a significant portion of that total in the past two days -- might be almost 2" in some parts by the time it's over. Today, it's rained all day so far... with only a couple short periods where it's eased up some. The weather guys are being stressed to the limit with this system, as they actually have to write new reports and forecasts... and not just re-read what they said the day before... and the day before that... which is what they do most of the time in Southern Arizona.

I'm happy to report, however, that "they're" still saying this is will all abate by tomorrow morning, and, with any luck at all, I should be getting the launch authorization codes (the keys to the camper) from the Safety Director by mid-morning tomorrow.

Apart from the somewhat steep fare for staying here, we've really enjoyed our longer than expected stay here at Lazydays in Tucson. Because we're not big city people, it's good to have a place that's easy to get to, that's safe and secure, that you can call home when our travels bring us to this corner of the world. I'm sure we'll be back.

5 Years - Exploring Modes

2011-12-12T14:18:00.001-06:00

This is the third in a series of posts about our lifestyle as we near the 5 year mark, and some thoughts we're having about making changes as we move into the future.

On Exploring Modes
Those who live in RVs for extended periods of time fall into certain patterns or modes of existence. For some, the RV seems to become a purpose unto itself, and life becomes a series of rituals about the machinery, the systems, maximizing the comfort of living in a small space, and socializing with like-minded neighbors for extended periods of time. For others, the RV is just a tool that allows them to travel and explore... to go to and experience places on their own schedule... for any period of time they choose.

To set the tone of this post, allow me to state a few things first. Our definition of exploring is: to travel for the purpose of discovery. This could include experiencing new places, historic sites, museums, or unique geographies such as those offered by National or State Parks, National Monuments, etc; and recreational activities like hiking, biking, climbing, kayaking, sailing, etc; or even experiencing big cities and what they can offer. As long as you're outside your RV and seeking new things to discover, to learn about, to experience... you're exploring.

Second, about a year ago we identified two styles, or modes, of exploration that are used by RVers we've observed. One we've come to call "linear exploration mode", which is where you and your rig... together, are moving from place to place and exploring as you travel. The alternative is "hub and spoke exploration mode", which is where you park your RV at a point (the hub), and use another smaller vehicle to explore in large loops or "spokes"... out and back to the RV each day. I'm sure there are permutations of these two broad modes, but for the most part it's an either/or thing.

The exploring mode used is determined by personal preference, camping or parking location, as well as the capabilities of your RV. We've found it hard to really explore in linear mode with the bus-house as it's often just too big, too cumbersome, for where we'd like to go. We're usually towing our car when we travel and unless we know, in advance, or have a strong suspicion, that we'll be able to successfully get in, get parked, and get out again... we don't make the attempt. The common hazards, for us, include low hanging branches or low clearance objects, small narrow tight roads and parking areas, and dips or inflections in the road that can cause long low-hanging vehicles like the bus-house to drag it's rear overhang or high-center the whole vehicle. And, often the road is just not appropriate for a 40 foot long 16 ton vehicle with a car in tow.

And so, over the past 5 years, we've generally used the hub and spoke system of exploring. But the more we do it the more critical we are of it. Why?

The way we explore it's hard to really plan a day. The tendency is to pack more in than can be reasonably be accomplished. Because you're exploring you really don't know everything there is to see and do... and unexpected things pop up all the time. This isn't such a big issue if you're exploring a few short miles from camp... it's easy to come back the next day and continue. But if you're exploring 40 or 50 miles or more from camp, you'll have to commute back to camp and then back out again another day to accomplish your objective.

For example, let's say we plan to stop and see or do three different things during the course of a day, with the furthest being 50 miles away. Along the way we discover some new and unexpected things that cry out to be explored... and three stops turn into four or five. We alter our plans, do one of the unexpected things, and, as time passes during the day we find ourselves pushed by the clock, running out of time... bumping up against closing times, maybe even darkness. And then, to top off the day, we're faced with that 50+ mile drive back to camp... while tired and when what we really crave is a little relaxation and solitude to absorb and let the discoveries of the day flow over us.

On the other hand, in linear exploring mode you can be more spontaneous and flexible in your explorations. Having your "home" with you while exploring has other benefits. If you find the perfect spot to stop and have lunch... on a beach... a cliff-side park... a wayside along a swiftly flowing river... you can, since your home and your food supply is right there with you. In linear exploring mode the clock is secondary... doesn't have to matter at all. If you want to stop someplace for an hour or two... or all afternoon... or even overnight... you can. If you don't get as far as you expected that day, just find a place to overnight (much easier with a small rig) and continue on the next day. You can be much more relaxed and spontaneous... exploring while wandering with your home.

The most enjoyment we get from living fulltime in our RV is being able to travel, explore, and experience North America. In the future, we'd like to optimize those aspects of our life on wheels.

<< Part Two <<

>> Part Four >>

Dec 12 - Rain Delay

2011-12-12T09:56:00.000-06:00

This morning we're still parked at the Lazydays RV Park on the south side of Tucson, and it looks like we'll be here yet another two days. During the past week I've been keeping an eye on the forecast and it consistently looked like we'd have no problems getting out of here today, as we had planned. But, of course, that all changed yesterday afternoon when the weather folks started predicting the worst rain storm for Tucson since the end of the monsoon last fall... and the two day dousing was going to start today, covering most of Arizona and New Mexico.

This morning we made the decision to just hunker down and wait it out. Even if we made a run for it this morning and got ahead of the worst of today's rain, we'd probably have to sit for an extra day in Deming, which is predicted to be in the middle of it tomorrow. We don't have to be anywhere yet, so what's the rush? We're here, comfortable... and we'll just wait it out.

For anyone wondering why we allow a little rain to affect our plans... here's the short version: It makes a bloomin' mess of the the whole string of vehicles in our RV Sabbatical train... the bus-house, the car, and the two bikes behind the car... they're all caked with a slury of road grime, fine dust, and water after a day on wet highways. We usually don't have schedules or deadlines or commitments... so we'll often just let it rain, and travel when it's clear. Besides, there's so much more to see on a clear day.

My cold or flu bug, whatever it was, is nearly gone. Lasting only two or three days, at times it felt like a regular cold, and at other times it felt more like a severe allergy... fits of sneezing, watery eyes, nose, etc. By yesterday I was much improved and this morning I feel almost normal.

5 Years - Family Friends and Roots

2011-12-10T01:00:00.000-06:00

This is the second in a series of posts about our lifestyle as we near the 5 year mark, and some thoughts we're having about making changes as we move into the future.

On Family, Friends, and Roots
One of the things that fulltime RVers forfeit is roots. A few days ago a post by another blogger (Glen at To Simplify) got me pondering this. He wrote:

The lack of the kind of deep social intimacy that often typifies the mobile lifestyle is, after all, difficult to ignore, and while I have made great strides towards dealing with it, I still can't deny that it is one of the few (possibly the only) lingering rubs to living the way I do.
... the telephone, video chat, email, and this blog help to maintain some sense of community and connectedness, but I wonder if all of these methods combined even come close to duplicating the kind of friendships that only develop when one is "around" day after day after day. And as this quality of friendship may very well be an essential requirement for long term happiness, I find myself wondering exactly how much longer my desire to wander will sufficiently outweigh the need for this sort of regular connection.

Dar and I, during the early and middle part of our lives together (while working, raising kids, etc.) moved around a lot as a result of my job and my ambition to do new things, to live in different parts of the country (a closet nomad even then?), and to be a corporate team player. As a result, we didn't put down deep roots anywhere. Sure, we have friends from those days we still stay in touch with, but there are no deep roots that can only come from being around and involved, day after day, for years and years.

I often ponder how having deep roots would have changed me. When observing and hanging out with those who have roots, I feel I've missed out on something. I feel a sense of loss for something I never had, at least since I left home and went to college. But, like many things in life, there are compromises. By being more nomadic I've grown in other ways... it's easy for me to introduce myself to new people, to make acquaintances, to inject myself into new situations, more flexible and adaptable to change. And perhaps my world-view is a bit more rounded?... my perspective a little more sharp? But then again... maybe not.

Some RV fulltimers will say that they make more friends and deeper friendships than they ever did while in their previous lifestyle. To some extent that may be true... you do meet and connect up with a bunch of people who happen to share some of the same interests. But in our experience those "friends" are what I'd often call passing acquaintances. We have a handful of, what I'd classify as, really good friends that we've made during our travels... and we cherish them and have a great time when we're together. But I wouldn't call what we have as deep roots, which to me, must involve a community in addition to great friendships.

If I had deep roots someplace, getting into this lifestyle would be tough. But since we don't, it was probably easier for us to fulltime, and to continue this nomadic wandering existence.

In a lot of ways, Dar and I, both of us, are a weird combination of introvert and extrovert... we like group activities, on our own terms, but many times... perhaps most of the time, we prefer solitude and doing our own thing. We don't belong to groups that regularly socialize, we don't travel in caravans with a string of other RVers, and we don't plan travels around rallies and social meet-ups. We, she and I, share a lot of interests (exploring, history, travel) and truly enjoy spending time and sharing discoveries we make with each other. It works for us.

How about family? For longer than we've been fulltiming, we have lived a long way from family. Trips to visit them tended to be short and sporadic. One of the real benefits of our current lifestyle is the ability to spend extended time with them... a month? two? even three? And we probably see them more now than we did before.

We will always make extended stays with family a part of our lifestyle, regardless of where or how we're living. Being close to family is important.

So, how do I summarize this point? For us, deep roots in a community is something we haven't had in a long time -- and probably won't for some time more, if ever. And we're OK with that -- for now. While I may long for it at times, it's really a trade-off for being nomadic, which we both crave even more at this point. That said, we do enjoy the friends and acquaintances we make along the way. And the key point here is that family is still our primary consideration and will be foremost in our minds when making plans for changes in the future.

<< Part 1 <<

>> Part 3 >>

Dec 9 - Down for a Day

2011-12-09T17:43:00.001-06:00

Yesterday afternoon, I was writing something on the PC, and... BAM... just like that, I knew I was coming down with some kind of bug. Remarkably, it was just that fast... felt fine one moment and feeling low the next. By bed time it was clear, even to Doctor Dar, that whatever I had it hit me bulls-eye dead center thereabouts the nasal passages.

After medicating up I was able to sleep OK... and I'm really thankful for that. I was up and about today... just not moving too fast or going too far. Was able to get my 2 mile power walk in... but there wasn't as much "power" in it as there usually is. I wrote and published a number of posts to the journal... one going back a few days about our visit to the Arizona State Capitol. Hope you'll catch it.

That's it for tonight. Think I'll retire early with my Kindle, an aspirin bottle, and about two fingers of Dr. Daniels Amber Restorative. Ta-ta...

Disappearing RV Dreams?

2011-12-09T10:03:00.001-06:00

I had a conversation recently with someone involved with the financing side of things in the RV world. When he heard that we were fulltimers he put his hands over his ears and said "No... don't say that word... don't tell me you're fulltiming!" What?

Apparently a number of large banks that still do loans on RVs made a decision about a year ago that they will no longer, under any circumstance, write loans to anyone who does not have a permanent physical address including a dwelling unit in which they reside (they apparently have even gone so far as to exclude the addresses of mail forwarding services, etc... they've also been known to visit the address and check it out). This person I talked with, who's acting as a representative of the banking institution, is bound by agreement to stop any loan transaction to anyone who, even inadvertently, mentions to him that they plan to fulltime in their new RV. They're that serious about it.

This is my understanding of the issue. RVs are regularly and easily repossessed when their owners fall behind or stop making payments altogether. In the past, by far most of the people who get into this kind of situation don't live in the RV in question... they have a house or apartment which is their primary residence With the sour economy there are increasing numbers of people who live in RVs... not because they want to, but because that's their only option after they loose their house, their job, or all of the above. In that case, the act of repossession is much more complicated and expensive for the lending institution... because they're repossessing the owners only and primary residence. Banks don't want to get involved in that can of worms, and have decided to just stop writing loans to fulltimers, or anyone who intends to fulltime.

I'm not sure of the extent of this policy... and perhaps it's different elsewhere in the country. Of course, being debt-free and owning your rig outright is a way to still keep the "dream" alive. But for some, it looks like yet another obstacle to enjoying a nomadic life on the road.

Dec 8 - Repair Vibrations

2011-12-08T12:31:00.001-06:00

We're back at Lazydays RV Park after having the slide repaired yesterday and the vibrations have pretty much stopped... I'm talking here about my vibrations.

Since the bracket on the slide broke I've been concerned (maybe consumed is a better word) by one thing... somebody's going to want to weld it back together. That doesn't sound so ominous... something to be consumed by. But it can be. You see, the electrical systems of a motorhome is a complicated thing. There are actually three completely independent systems: the 12 volt chassis system (like any car or truck, it's the alternator, battery, wiring that takes care of lights, electronics, etc.); the 12 volt "house" or coach system (everything 12 volt in the living area or coach part of the motorhome... lighting, inverter, furnace, electronic controls for refrigerator, etc.); and finally the 120 volt system that, when we're "plugged in" or running the generator, powers all the normal goodies (microwave oven, fridge, outlets, water heater, tv, etc) that most people are used to in a regular fixed-in-one-place house. It's all very complicated... wires and boxes and do-dads everywhere... and probably almost impossible to fix once something goes very wrong. Faced with troubleshooting a transient electrical problem in one of these units and the very real possibility of the repair bill exceeding the value of the camper, it's easy to understand why so many folks decide on the "Thelma and Louise" solution and just drive it off a cliff.

Welding on a motorhome chassis can be problematic. Welding, most welding, is done with electricity... lots of electricity. And when all that electricity is applied to the metal frame of the slide, it can find it's way to the frame of the bus-house... just like "the ankle bone's connected to the shin bone, the shin bone's connected to the knee bone... and to every electrical doo-jiggy because they're all, every last one of 'em, connected to the frame of the bus-house. Am I making my concern clear here? Are you seeing why I was vibrating with concern, just in anticipation of the repair.

I called one of my main contacts at Spartan Motors... the builder of our chassis. What he told me only increased my vibrations. For an absolutely safe welding event, it's necessary to disconnect all batteries as well as no less than 4 electronic control boxes (EECM, TECM, ABS brakes, and another controlling the gauges and dash controls). All of these things are located in hard to find, hard to see, and hard to get to places... of course. "Thanks Mike, I think I'll just go back to bed, pull the covers over my head, think happy thoughts, and wait for it all to be over." Maybe I'll wake up and find this was all a bad dream.

So, yesterday, Wednesday, we drove the bus-house over to Freedom RV, the highly recommended Newmar dealer and service shop here in Tucson. It's only a few blocks from Lazydays, but I felt like a condemned man being dragged 10 miles to execution. I had created a scenario in my head as to how this was going to go... RV repair shop attitude, request, demand, sneer, condescension, anger... it was all in there.

After parking, the "service advisor" comes out and we discuss the problem. No less than twice I state and reinforce that I want to talk with the tech who'll be actually working on the problem and that I don't want any welding being done without talking with me first. I was prepared to do all the "disconnects" myself if I had to... or to drive away un-repaired if they didn't want to do it my way. Vibrations.

They said it'd "be a little while before we'll get to it so have a seat in their lounge and we'll come and get you". OK. pace floor, get coffee... Dar ran to a nearby restaurant for some food... I wasn't leaving for anything. I found a newspaper and started reading... get my mind redirected for a while. We were expecting to be there most of the day, so Dar took off with the car to do some shopping. And there I sat.

A little over an hour later I walked back to find my "service advisor"... who was no where to be found. I didn't see the bus-house and no one else seemed to know anything either. A few minutes later I found Mr. "service advisor"... who informed me that it's all done! "What? All done?... I thought you were going to have me talk with the tech before doing anything?" Seething... we walked over to the bus-house. I looked at the repair... sure enough, there was a big new blob of weld that was now securing the rod bracket. "You welded on my motorhome after I asked you to NOT do so until I'd been involved?" He didn't say anything. The tech chimed in... we've never had a problem... not in 14 years.

My thoughts and emotions were flying... on the one hand, I was pissed off that someone could be so inconsiderate of a customer's request and the risks they were putting on us by just doing what they wanted... the way they wanted to do it. On the other hand, I was partially relieved it was mostly over (a lot like the way I felt after having a wisdom tooth pulled)... the bracket was reattached... the slide was working. The only thing yet to verify is that all the other components and electrical gear and ECM things were still OK. And once I checked those things out I was even more relieved and happy it was over. We lucked out on this repair, the way it looks.

Don't get me wrong. I still give Freedom RV a solid "F" for customer care, listening to my requests and then just doing what they wanted anyway. One of the downsides of RVing is having to deal with RV dealers and RV repair shops. Taken as a group their reputation is probably lower than the US Congress right now. When you do run across one that's solid, reputable, passionate about doing a good job, and treats customers like adults, you want to run through the RV park and shout out "they do exist... I found one..." Unfortunately, that won't be the case here.

As for me, I've stopped vibrating.

Below are photos of the "before"... the broken rod bracket, and the "after"... the re-welded bracket.

broken bracket... belongs attached to the beam above... where that elongated hole is.

repaired bracket... re-welded and re-painted black

Dec 6 - In Tucson for Repairs

2011-12-06T15:01:00.001-06:00

I'm hoping this isn't habit forming or becomes some weird new way-of-life... but we're sitting around this afternoon waiting, once again, for a service appointment. I talked with Newmar first thing this morning and they helped with information and the name of a good (or so they say) service shop in Tucson... who I called next and set up an appointment for Wednesday (tomorrow) morning. They claim to be slide-out experts and are specifically trained in Newmar slides. It sounds good but we'll wait to see how this all goes before there's a ringing endorsement from me.

Newmar said we could retract the problematic slide and it'd be OK to travel with it... but that it needs to be fixed pronto! So we folded everything up and made the 130 mile drive through Phoenix and through most of Tucson before landing at the LazyDays RV Park (the old Beaudry joint) out near Davis Monthan Air Force Base. We got in about 1pm and we're running a few errands this afternoon, and getting ready for an early departure tomorrow for repairs.

Here's a shot of the busted bracket. It's a might hard to make out, but that piece at the end of the threaded rod is supposed to be welded to the beam above it... where you see the oblong hole.

Dec 5 - Arizona State Capitol

2011-12-05T23:30:00.000-06:00

After dropping off the bus-house at Cummins Rocky Mountain in Avondale, we took the toad and made the 20 minute drive over to the Arizona State Capitol. The time had finally come to add Arizona to our list of visited Capitol buildings... I think this one will be our 20th.

If you've house-shopped recently I may be able to elicit some sympathy from you... how after you've seen 5 or 10 (or 15! or 20!!) they all start to look alike. OK, maybe not exactly alike, but they do seem to fall into groups... and it's very hard to distinguish between members of a group. The great ones may stand out, but the average, the ho-hum, the pedestrian, they all start to look alike. Anyone still with me??

Arizona is the last State admitted to the union among the lower 48 States... in 1912. This fact, among other things, led to the factual and oft heard statement during the Reagan presidency that the President (born in 1911) was "older than Arizona". OK, chuckle if you will, but it's occurred to me that, similarly, I'm older than both Alaska and Hawaii... as are many of the readers of this blog. Harrumph!

Prior to Arizona becoming a State, the Territorial Capital, alternated between Prescott and Tucson a few times before a compromise was reached and Phoenix, at that time just a small agricultural community, was officially made the Capital. Hmmm. Compromise? What a quaint old concept. If the polarized politicians of today had been involved, Arizona still wouldn't be a State and the Territorial Capital would still be floating back and forth between dried up towns in the desert. <end of political statement>

At any rate, the good folks of the Arizona Territory -- once Phoenix was selected -- went ahead and built a very nice but modest building as their Territorial Capitol and, with Statehood surely to follow, the State Capitol as well. That's the building that survived more than a century and still stands... looking much like it did shortly after it was built.

Today, it's the Arizona Capitol Museum. All of the functions of State Government have long ago been moved out of the building to newer, larger quarters in the immediate area. They generally did a good job of this... the House and Senate Chambers and offices are in two separate buildings that immediately flank the old State Capitol. Just out the back door of the old place, through a long attached hallway, is a 9 story Executive Branch Office Building.

But, alas, all is not well with even the newer buildings. According to Wikipedia:

"The Senate and House buildings, opened in 1960, have been deteriorating. The Senate in particular is prone to constant plumbing problems, and occasionally a broken pipe floods the entire building."

Thom's comment on the plumbing problem: Hmmm. A plumbing problem in the Senate Building? Imagine that? Somewhere in there is a really good joke... or two. Do you suppose this plumbing problem could be the result of the volume, the sheer mass, of er, ahh... excrement... being generated by these elected folks in their passionate battle to be re-elected as long as they all shall live?

Thom's comment on the flooding problem: Do you suppose we could somehow lock the doors when this happens and not let anybody out? Could go a long way to solving some of the State's money problems, including the plumbing problem noted in the paragraph above.

We joined a guided tour which pointed out the key functional and symbolic elements of the old building. By any State Capitol standard, it's a small place but nicely preserved, refurbished, and maintained as it was in about 1910. Arizona, being a state with perennial money problems, didn't build it overly ornate or with exotic materials (marble from Italy or any such thing as that). It's utilitarian, but comfortable and does in fact feel somewhat "Southwestern".

There's a humorous story about the figure of "Winged Victory" atop the dome, which actually functions as a weather vane... swinging around into the wind... whichever way it blows. A number of years ago some legislators felt it wasn't appropriate that "ol' Victory" would look away from them when the wind blew from the west. They felt she should always be looking at them, figuratively guiding them, always eye to eye. So they passed a resolution that the she be chained down... prevented from swiveling with the wind... always looking at them while they went about there business.

Well, as you'd expect and I'm happy to report, Winged Victory came out on top, victorious, with that whole sordid affair. She was subsequently set free and now happily spins with the wind again... just as most legislators spin in the political winds these days. The symbolism is so rich... ain't it wonderful?

The current Senate Building

Winged Victory... now free to rotate with the wind.

House Chamber in the Old Capitol

Dec 5 - Genny OK... Now Slide Woes

2011-12-05T19:22:00.001-06:00

Just a short note to update the journal tonight. We had an agreeable drive down US-60 from Wickenburg and arrived at Cummins Rocky Mountain in Avondale just a little after noon. They got us right in and checked out the genny this afternoon. The reason I wanted it looked at was the two unexplained genny shut-downs we've experienced in the past few weeks... apparently for fuel (or lack thereof??) reasons. I thought we'd try to catch any problems early, before things got worse. They gave it the once-over, ran it under load, put in a new fuel filter, and deemed it "up to specs and operating just fine". While they had the bus-house in the shop I also had them lube the chassis. Recent information informs us that it's especially important to make sure the drive-shaft on this model is fully lubed a couple times per year. Apart from severing a couple of C notes from our slush fund, it was a good stop... they were good people to work with... and we get a free night of camping out of the deal besides.

But as we were setting up for the night I was rolling out the big living room slide-out and just at the end of the cycle there was a big "bang", a "clunk", and a rattle. Hmmm. That's definitely NOT normal. I went outside to investigate and found a threaded rod (part of the slide-out mechanism) hanging from where a weld had broken. Ok then... another challenge. The slide was out and all appears OK with it... and I think we'll be able to retract the slide in the morning once I secure the rod. And you know a call to Newmar is in order in the AM too. I'm sure this means another stop somewhere tomorrow to fix that.

Oh, we did sneak down to the Arizona State Capitol while the bus-house was being worked on this afternoon. And that will be the subject of another post... in a day or two.

Dec 4 - Brrrr Arizona

2011-12-04T17:45:00.001-06:00

For all you folks who think it's easy to escape Winter by just heading south a few miles, consider this. We're about an hour northwest of Phoenix (yes, Arizona!) at an elevation of 2800 feet. The normal temps this time of year are 60's for a high and 40's for a low. Of course, "normal" or average temps are statistical deceptions, often, and it's prudent to use them with caution. Our high temp yesterday was 45f and the low this morning was 31f. Monday morning we should be in the 20s.

Yesterday, we had it all... sun, heavy clouds, rain, thunder, sleet, snow, and then more sun. So we huddled inside and I only got out for my two mile walk... between showers. Not what most people would expect... unless you're in, maybe, the Midwest??

This morning we ran into Wickenburg for breakfast and then explored around the town called Congress (as rough as it looks it's more popular with the public than the other one in Washington DC). From Congress, AZ-89 goes up the side of a mountain ridge to another small town named Yarnell. Although only 10 or 12 miles from our camp at North Ranch, Yarnell is 2000 feet higher. And, yes, there was some small remnants of yesterdays snowstorm still laying around in Yarnell.

Tomorrow, Monday, we're breaking camp and heading into the maw of the Phoenix megaplex. We're going to take advantage of a Cummins/Onan/Spartan Coachcare location down that way to primarily have our generator inspected and serviced. I may be over-sensitive about these things, but I'm just sensing that it (the generator) is not running as smoothly as it did in the past. Since we're so close, we might as well take advantage of the opportunity. The shop allows overnights and they have a few plug-ins to facilitate doing so... and we'll probably spend tomorrow night there before heading further south to Tucson and then Benson.

This afternoon we're listening to the loss-less Packers on the radio and I'm making a pasta dish of some kind tonight, both of which can only be called winners.

stay tuned for the next installment of my "5 years" series... in the next day or two.

5 Years - Our Travel Pattern

2011-12-03T12:50:00.001-06:00

We're coming up on 5 years living this way. By the strict definition of the American Full-Time Rv'ers Lifestyle and Information Federation (AFTeRLIFe) (no fixed home; live in a functioning RV 365 days per year), we are certified fulltime RVers. We've thoroughly enjoyed the lifestyle but have reached a point where we're pondering the future, questioning and critiquing how our current lifestyle has evolved -- what it's evolved into, and are considering changes we might make to enhance things a little in the future.

With all that setting the stage, I'll be writing a series of posts on topics relating to our lifestyle and future changes we're thinking about... in order to get them into the record.

On Our Travel Pattern:
Our fulltime RV lifestyle is NOT one of fulltime travel and I think our experience is typical of many who claim to be fulltimers. It's one thing to live in a little box on a fulltime basis; it's quite another to be on the move, traveling, all the time. As I look back over the last almost 5 years, there's a pattern that's developed in our case. In short, that pattern is a series of alternating periods... one traveling (or wandering, exploring), and the other sitting in one spot for an extended time, either visiting family or hiding out from winter.

Our periods of "sitting" are in Wisconsin (family) during the summer, in the Northwest (family) during either spring or fall, and Texas (or someplace warm, someplace south) during the core of winter. The time spent in this sitting mode has ranged from a month to three months, with the average being about two months.

Our periods of "travel" fill in the gaps between the periods of sitting and have ranged from two weeks to three months... but the average is about two months, maybe a little less.

So that's our pattern. Each year there are three sitting periods and three travel periods, with each period averaging two months. And that means, in summary, we're traveling about half the time and sitting about half the time.

OK, but what does this all mean? Why are you bringing this up?

I'm not sure... let's see where this goes in the next post.

>> Part 2 >>

Dec 1 -- Our "Friends" to the North?

2011-12-01T13:47:00.001-06:00

You call this friendship? We've always heard that Canadians are our best friends, internationally speaking. But are they really?

First, as reported here on this blog back in April of 2009, they're the ones responsible for the hoards of Canada Geese that terrorize and "fowl" much of the land-mass of the USA. It's clear my expose' of the time accomplished nothing as they've continued since, unabated, in this unfriendly behavior. Why just the other day I stepped in a pile...

And then, claiming they're not hardy enough for the cold and snow of Canadian winters... which I might add, they grew up with and, presumably, are acclimated to.... they swarm into the southern USA every November to "escape"... to find some warmth. What ever happened to the spirit of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon... the rough and tumble frontier toughness that we "softies" to the South always thought was in the blood of every true Canadian? Poor babies. Let's all get together and buy them some shawls for their little cold legs and some propane for their heaters. They invade the USA, plug up the highways, pack the WalMart parking lots... BLM land in the desert...any place they can camp for free... (you see, not only are they cold... they're cheap too... wouldn't friends spend some money and help out our feeble economy?)... and grumble until April when they can happily return to the mother country.

And the latest... Just this week they've sent a huge bubble of frigid arctic air crashing into the southwestern USA. Now I don't know if our Canadian snowbird friends had any advance warning of this attack, but in looking around our camp, as we near our "high" temperature of the day of just 54f, I strangely see no Canadian license plates... not one. Hmmm. Could this just be another coincidence?

Shivering under my shawl in the middle of Arizona...

(Note to our Canadian friends and anyone who doesn't get it... This is an attempt, albeit a feeble one, at humor and to poke fun at some stereotypes we hear about during our travels, while trying to say it's suddenly turned cold here in the southwest. Please remain calm. We really do love you, eh?)

Nov 30 - On Coincidence

2011-11-30T11:54:00.001-06:00

We've had a couple of weird coincidences occur around here recently. Going back a couple weeks... Let me set the scene. We had just gotten settled at Camp Solitude in the desert near Quartzsite. Coincidentally, I had just finished reading Brian Gore's first novel "A Matter of Honor" on my Kindle. On the afternoon of the day in question I was on the internet... on Amazon, and was writing a short review of his book. While on the "write your review here" page, in the middle of composing the review, Dar spotted a truck and fifth wheel rolling into our corner of the desert and announced "incoming" (a habit we've gotten into, as watching people park big rigs is better entertainment than almost anything on commercial TV). So I glance out and see the rig slowly moving in... and said "Hey, I know that guy! That's Brian Gore... the guy who wrote the book I just finished... the review I'm writing right now!". Literally, as I'm writing about his book, he, the author, shows up and parks just a couple hundred yards away. How's that for a coincidence.

And then it happened again yesterday. Let me set the scene on this one. If you've read my recent posts you'll probably be aware that I suspected a couple of sensors on my PressurePro tire pressure monitoring system were causing a slow leak in the tires they were mated with. Because the problem seemed to be getting worse in recent weeks, I resolved to reach out to my PP dealer and see if they could remedy the situation once I got here to North Ranch... where we'd be for a week and I could actually get mail if they needed to send new sensors or parts or whatever.

So yesterday, our first full day here, I got on the computer and went to the website of my PP dealer... Pat and Mike McFall to get their phone number. (OK, pay attention, here's where the coincidence appears...) After punching the phone number into my phone, I happened to glance at their blog... and see that they live right here in North Ranch. During the winter this RV community is their home. They have a lot and house and a shop and their PP business, the whole shebang, right here just a few short blocks from where we're parked.

Call it Karma, or clean living, or luck, or whatever... it's wonderfully weird when things like this happen. The world, for a least a little while, seems smaller and more friendly.

So, the short version of the rest of the story is that Pat and Mike invited me over, solved my problem (those two sensors had slightly damaged rubber gaskets and the fix was to simply replace the gasket), and we visited for an hour or more. Two of the nicest people you'd want to have for your PP dealers... or even just as friends.

Despite my self-restriction on doing commercial endorsements for RV related products... let's just call this a little "plug". Comparing the almost 4 years we traveled without a tire pressure monitoring system, to the year or so we've traveled since... well, there's no comparison. There's a huge increase in peace of mind that comes from knowing what your tire pressures are while driving down the road. And that we'll be alerted to a low tire or a blow-out... especially on the car we're towing "four wheels down". I've personally talked with two people who have had a blow out with a tire on their towed car... didn't realize it... and kept driving. The result is generally thousands of dollars in damage to the car and a possible fire from continuing to drive at highways speeds with a flat tire. I consider a tire pressure monitoring system "peace of mind" insurance.

Nov 29 - Escapees North Ranch

2011-11-29T10:05:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we made the 110 mile drive from our Plomosa Road camp near Quartzsite to the Escapees North Ranch park between Wickenburg and Congress AZ. The drive was a good one... no incidents and light traffic. When traveling east we generally prefer a late start (about 11am yesterday) to minimize the glare and squinting that accompanies driving into the sun. At the very least, it's a good excuse for sleeping in.

I topped off the two tires I wrote about in the last post and confirmed that the problem with the slow leak in the toad's tire was due to the Pressure Pro sensor. When I swapped the suspect sensor with one on another wheel, the new tire developed the slow leak. Hmmm. You know I'll be talking with my Pressure Pro supplier about this today. I now highly suspect the same issue with the front tire on the bus-house. I'm running without the sensor on that tire for a while to see if the leak stops.

North Ranch is an interesting community. There are about 100 rental RV sites and hundreds more deeded lots. The deeded lots range in size up to a quarter acre, on many of which the owners have built large permanent homes. Even the smaller lots are similar in size to the largest RV park lots we've seen, and can comfortably accommodate a large RV or park model home, a storage building, patio area, landscaped yard, and a parking area. Could North Ranch figure into our plans for a southern home base? Hmmm.

Nov 27 - Last Day at Camp Solitude

2011-11-27T10:57:00.001-06:00

It's Sunday already, which means we've got to start packing up, stowing things, in preparation for moving tomorrow. Even if we wanted to stay longer (no argument from either of these two nomads), we're running a little low on some resources that require movement of the bus-house... things like fresh water and propane which are the two we'll run out of first. So since we've got to move anyway, and since we're still planning to be in Rockport by just after the first of the year, we're getting back on the road.

I've got two tires with slow leaks. The right rear tire on the toad has leaked since the day I had new tires put on last summer. It's very slow and it's been my denial of reality that's prevented me from having it fixed before this. But I added air just a couple weeks ago... even put in a little extra. But when I checked it yesterday, it was down to 26psi... a full 10 pounds from where it was. The other tire is the front right bus-house tire. Damage or a puncture isn't obvious, and I've examined it pretty closely. I'll get both pumped back to where I want them before we leave tomorrow. In the back of my mind I'm wondering if the pressure pro sensors have anything to do with this problem. They work by by-passing the dill valve that normally holds air in a tire, and have their own seal. If that seal isn't perfect I think it could account for what I'm experiencing. After getting the bus-house tire back to full pressure, I'm going to run without the sensor on that tire for a while and see if that makes a difference.

We ran into Q yesterday to restock on firewood. Our source (and new BFG - best firewood guy) is Alex, who runs a rock and mineral shop down close to the Post Office. We bought three big boxes for Thanksgiving Day, all of which was turned to ashes that day. Another three boxes was procured for our last two nights fires.

Toward the end of last nights campfire, well after sunset, we were entertained with the awesome desert night sky show. A fingernail moon, in close proximity to Venus, was chasing the sun and setting in the west. Clouds of stars in the Milky Way appear to combine into a single band of glowing gas stretching overhead from both horizons. High in the eastern sky was Jupiter. With our little spotting scope we could easily see bands of color on it, the largest planet in our solar system, as well as all 4 of it's largest moons.

All is still quiet here at Camp Solitude.

Nov 25 - The Nellie E Saloon

2011-11-26T00:30:00.000-06:00

Well here's hoping we didn't lose any readers during all the Black Friday consumerist shopping riots earlier today. I'm hearing about folks being pepper sprayed, shot, stabbed, and worse... by other "shoppers" who feel they need something bad enough to set aside normal civil behavior and bring out the heavy artillery to gain some kind of advantage. I mean, what are they thinking? Do they sit up the night before and plan this? Never having been to a shopping riot I guess I should give folks the benefit of the doubt... that perhaps the store is really at fault for whipping people into a frenzy and all. I don't remember Christmas shopping being at all like this when I was a kid.

For our excitement we headed out to the Nellie E Saloon for lunch. This isn't as easy as it sounds though. First you've got to drive north of Parker some 5 miles on the main highway, AZ-95, and try to find the intersection with the old rocky dirt road that leads to the bar, another 5 miles out in the desert. This being a holiday Friday and all, a lot of folks are off for a long weekend and were out in force with their 4-wheelers, ATV's, pickup trucks, and jeeps tearing up the desert and creating both a dust storm and a lot of traffic. It certainly wasn't a quiet lonely drive out into the desert.

The road is primitive and we were one of only a few out there with a car. There were a few places the road was probably more than the little Ford Focus was ever designed to be navigating, but after 20 or so minutes, we topped a hill and there, before our eyes, was what locals call The Desert Bar... the Nellie E Saloon.

You probably won't believe it when I claim there had to be six or eight hundred people gathered there, maybe more, enjoying the bright sunny afternoon, the eats and drinks, and a very good band -- The Happy Ending Band -- playing some of my favorite Rock and Roll music from the 60's and 70's. Finding a seat was tough, as you might imagine, but we scored two at one of the bars right after we ordered lunch.

There are no power lines running out to the bar. Instead, banks of solar panels on various roofs here and there provide the power to run the place, although I suspect that despite a strong Arizona sun there's not an abundance of power. Ice box refrigeration is dedicated to keeping beer cold, but there's no cheese for your burger... ever (a sign says). The menu is brief... hamburgers, hot dogs, chili, chili-burgers, or chili-dogs. Since they have so many people from California stopping in, they have added a veggie-burger... but my guess is it doesn't sell very well. Prices were reasonable: $3 for a burger, $3 for a diet beer, slightly more than $3 for some of the other concoctions.

There is a well on the property now. The owner, a fellow named Ken, used to have to haul water out from town in an old fire truck. But the truck is parked now and water isn't quite the precious resource it once was. I'm not sure what they do with waste water, but I'm hoping it gets hauled back to town and not dumped in the old mine.

Did I mention how good we thought the band was?

The saloon is built on various hills, piles of mining debris, and a deep scar (an old mining cut? a wash?) in the desert that combined give the place a multi-tiered, sculpted appearance. That lowest level, the scar (don't know what else to call it) is where the band was staged, as well as a good percentage of the customers. A long bridge soars overhead, connecting one parking area to the main upper bar area. All the structures, including two tall cooling towers, appear to be unplanned and built on a "seemed like a good idea at the time" basis. Perhaps best called "desert primitive"... it works... actually adds to the ambiance.

Given the choice between battling shoppers on Black Friday or scrambling over rocky roads, around swarms of ATVs, through clouds of dust, and a plugged air filter in the car, to find a happening place like the Nellie E Saloon... I'll opt for the saloon every time.

More photos from our afternoon can be seen at our online photo album.

Nov 24 - Thanksgiving Day Lunner

2011-11-25T00:30:00.000-06:00

A small sliced ham, potato rolls, green bean casserole, cranberries, hobo veggies, and pun'kin pie... a small feast in the desert. We invited neighbor Brian Gore over for the mid-afternoon Thanksgiving Day "lunner" and then sat around the campfire telling stories and solving world problems.

Had a great time.

Nov 23 - New Desert Geoglyph

2011-11-24T00:30:00.000-06:00

While chasing Patton's tanks the other day we got to talking about how slowly things change in the desert. Besides those 70 year old Sherman Tank tracks, there's the much older (500 years or more??) Bouse Fisherman Intaglio that we visited last year. And where do the US Air Force and the airlines of the world park their old, surplus, or unused planes? The desert of course. The dry arid environment minimizes the availability of water... one of the main elements of erosion, corrosion, population explosion, and the notion of distortion. And I can't emphasize enough the effect low population has on the enduring longevity of things out here.

I enjoy watching people riding by on their ATVs, 4-wheelers, or dirt bikes. At first, the silence of the desert is broken by the sound of a small engine, off in the distance,... then a bunch of small engines. Instinctively, I turn my head, home in on the sound, and see a rooster tail of dust... not unlike the Tasmanian Devil character in cartoons when I was a kid. But, alas, it's not a cartoon but a group of ATVers out enjoying the desert on an early winter afternoon. They're out to see the sights of the remote desert... which for all of them except the first guy, is a cloud of dust and dirt. After the first one drives past, the rest are usually caked with dirt and fitted with dust masks, respirators, and goggles. Boy, that looks like fun to me. I wonder how they decide who goes first. I mean, does the same "alpha" always lead the pack? Do they take turns? Hmmm.

Hiking in the desert is a different story. It's, as I read in someones blog a while back, "seeing the land with your feet". (What a great definition of hiking). It allows the explorer to not only see the desert landscape, but to hear it, to feel it, to smell it - and it does smell better than the exhaust of a Honda four-stroke. Sure, it might be tough to hike more than a few miles in a day but if the goal is to really experience the desert, it can't be beat.

During one of our hikes the other day we decided to create our own desert intaglio (or perhaps more accurately termed a geoglyph?). In some people's mind it might be defacing the desert... but com'on. It's made entirely of the materials available at the sight... just arranged differently. There's no spray paint or human-generated garbage involved... it's completely natural. And is anybody ranting about the guy who did the Bouse Fisherman? No... he/she/they are celebrated... not indicted. We thought it'd be fun to return whenever we're in the area, to check on it's status, to see how nature and time (and vandals) have changed it, to see how long it lasts. If Patton's tank tracks survived 70 years and the Bouse Fisherman hundreds of years, we will probably never know.

TD could stand for Thanksgiving Day... or it could mean "torrid desert"... or possibly something else.

If you visit, send us a photo.

Nov 22 - Chasing Patton's Tanks

2011-11-23T00:30:00.000-06:00

I generally wake up thereabouts 4 or 5 in the morning... don't think I'll explain why... just happens when you're in your 50s or 60s. When the sky is clear, as it's been almost every night we've been here at Camp Solitude, there, right there, through the window next to my head, is the constellation Orion, as bright and bold as I've ever seen him... his belt cinched tight, sword and shield ready for action, his companion Canis Major at his side, keeping a close watch on the not-to-be-trusted and altogether too close constellation Taurus (the bull). Occasionally, if you're very perceptive, and patient, Taurus starts moving furtively closer to our hero Orion... who, if you watch carefully, actually raises his sword and shield... urging the rogue bull back to it's place in the heavens.

Hey, it's better than counting sheep.

Yesterday, Tuesday (I think), Dar and I wandered off into the desert to the south, chasing General George Patton's tanks. We had known that Patton had a number of training bases all around this area back in 1942 and 1943... to prepare troops for the Africa Campaign during WWII. If you're going to fight in the desert, it'd probably make sense to train in a desert, right?.

So that was almost 70 years ago and it really never occurred to me that, aside from some camp ruins here and there, there'd be any visible evidence of all that activity. I mean... it was 70 years ago! But it turns out evidence does indeed remain... and it's all over the desert near our camp... as close as a mere hundred feet from our fire ring.

Last year, during our first visit to Camp Solitude, I saw and wondered about a set of tracks that angled past our camp. It wasn't that the tracks existed that got me curious... it was that they were a very consistent 9 feet wide... much wider than tracks made by jeeps or cars or pickup trucks, and wider than most of the largest trucks. Why were these tracks so wide? I wondered... and then we left on new explorations and I put the question aside.

But then this year, during my chat with author Brian Gore, he told me that those tracks were indeed made by Patton's tanks. He said that if you know what you're looking for, they're all over the desert around here. I also talked with a BLM ranger who confirmed what Brian said.

The desert is a place where things change very slowly. There are broad long areas of hard pan that appear almost like gravel parking areas, but they're totally natural and completely devoid of plants. What plant life that exists around here is confined closer to "washes" -- slightly lower areas that collect and channel water during the rains of the monsoon season. We're camped on one of those hard pan parking areas, and right next to a wash.

The surface of these hard pan areas is covered with very dark colored rocks... dark brown, bronze, almost black... some as big as your fist, but most smaller and embedded in the desert floor. Just below those dark rocks is a very light colored material... soil, sand, dust, whatever. Left undisturbed, nothing changes... for centuries. But have a bunch of young soldiers, high-spirited kids really, run a string of 30 ton tracked vehicles through it, compacting the desert floor, skidding as they turn, grinding away at the dark colored rocks on the surface and digging up the lighter colored soil beneath... well, now there's a track... and there's evidence that will last for many years. And that, apparently, is what we have running close to our fire pit, and what's threaded all throughout the surrounding desert.

Close examination of some tracks showed the telltale marks of steel against stone on the larger embedded rocks... the ones that were surely there then, and had been for probably thousands of years before that. The 70 years that have passed since those marks were made, those tracks laid down, those kids went off to war, is but a single breath in the geologic history of this rock we call earth.

Things change slowly here.

9 feet wide... what made this?

skidding turn of tracked vehicle

steel on stone

Nov 21 - Desert Mirages

2011-11-21T11:51:00.001-06:00

I'm having a problem believing that it's been 3 days since my last update to the Journal. The past few days have been like this: sleep in, satiate hungers and needs for caffeine, look for firewood (can't burn anything found in desert; can't find anyone selling it in Q; Harrumph!), explore locally, visit (found our buddies Fred and Lynne not far away; also writer Brian Gore), work on projects, monitor the power plant on our roof (solar panels), pop corks, toast the setting sun, climb in bed... repeat the next day.

There's something that attracts me to this spot at this time of year. While Q can become a swarm of RVs, flea markets, traffic, and activity in January, during this time of the year it's positively boring. (As I mentioned above... can't even find a bundle of firewood. Apparently the firewood vendors haven't shown up yet.) But, in this case, boring, for me, is the attraction. The solitude recharges my onboard batteries just as the sun is doing the same for the bus-house's.

Locals are saying it seems quieter and slower this year. Usually by this time there are signs of the buildup to all the January madness. But not, apparently, this year... or so they think. I suppose they could be right... or, like many of us old timers, they recall the "good old days" and memories of those glory days become exaggerated, larger than reality, and impossible to recapture.

We're thinking we may stay here through the holiday... have our own "Thanksgiving meal for two" right out here in our solar-powered rustic desert campsite. There are only 4 other campers visible in any direction, and two of those could be desert mirages.

Nov 17 - Into Arizona

2011-11-18T20:49:00.001-06:00

It took a little longer than usual to complete moving-morning chores... that, and perhaps sleeping in a little later than normal... but we finally got the bus-house rolling out of Black Rock Campground in Joshua Tree NP a little before 11am. Our objective today was Quartzsite, AZ, something less than 200 miles distant. At first I thought we'd circle around the top of the Park on the north and east sides (CA-62 to CA-177) and hit I-10 for the run into Arizona. But that changed to just running right down through the middle of the Park on Park Boulevard and Pinto Basin Road to the Cottonwood Spring area and out the south gate just a few miles from exit 168 on I-10. There are no size restrictions that I could find on that route and a ranger I asked didn't seem at all concerned.

While we did survive the drive just fine, thanks in part to the lack of other traffic, running down Pinto Basin Road was a challenge at times. The road is very narrow in places and the pavement had seen better days (like maybe in the 1960s), but we managed to get our eyes on the many square miles of back-country in this less-busy area of the NP. Back in September this part of the Park had 3 inches of rain in less than a day, a rare event apparently and the resulting crazy rush of flowing water washed out portions of the road and much of the Cottonwood Campground (which is still closed) near the south entrance. The Park Service scrambled to get the road operational again -- in some areas the repairs are only temporary. We were by far the biggest vehicle we saw all the way through the Park, an observation probably shared by most of those we passed along the way.

But once on I-10 (I know... "it's an Interstate... and you hate Interstates...") the rest of the day was smooth and uneventful. I was nursing our diesel supply... driving for maximum mpg... to avoid having to pay the penalty for buying fuel in the fine state of California. We coasted into Ehlenberg, AZ, right on the border, on fumes (never having run the beast totally dry, I don't know how low it can go before "sucking air") and put in 83 gallons (in a 100 gallon tank) at a net savings of about 35 cents per gallon... enough for 3 or 4 meals worth of groceries.

A half hour later we were at our favorite little spot in the desert just outside of Quartzsite... the same place we camped for a few days last fall. Quartzsite isn't everyone's "cup o'tea"... especially if they've been here during the big busy RV Show in January. But in November and December it's a different place in our experience. Our closest neighbor is maybe 500 yards away, and, as of tonight, we can see only three rigs total. We parked so our "picture window" windshield is pointing west... to savor those legendary desert sunsets. Today, Friday, afternoon temps were in the mid 70s after morning lows in the upper 40's. I think we can live with that for a few days.

Nov 15 - Joshua Tree National Park

2011-11-16T19:51:00.001-06:00

First off, as a follow up to the "bridge" post from a couple days ago, I went back and found some online photos of the thing from different perspectives and added them to that post. It might help... especially the photo of the wooden braces that had been added to keep the rickety old thing up on it's pilings. I also found a newspaper article from the "Desert Dispatch" from earlier this year that highlights the problem... but, in all honesty, for me it prompts more questions than provides answers.

Yesterday, Tuesday, we explored Joshua Tree National Park. The Park's namesake, the Joshua Tree, is a unique plant that is actually a variation of the Yucca (Yucca brevifolia) and only grows in the southwestern United States. At home between about 1,500 and 6,000 feet of elevation, the presence of Joshua Trees is a good indicator that you're in the Mojave Desert. They grow quickly from seeds... perhaps 3 inches per year in their early years. Once established the growth rate slows to just an inch per year. The tallest Joshua Trees are about 40 feet. If conditions are optimal, Joshua Trees can survive for over a thousand years, although these days with climate change and pollution as factors, the average age is much less.

Driving through the forests of them makes me think they're a lot like fingerprints... no two are alike. The diversity of shapes, sizes, heights, and number of branches is dramatic. Their evergreen leaves are dagger shaped, stiff, with sharp serrated edges, and ending in a dagger-like point. They flower in the Spring, but not every year... and they only branch where they produce flowers. They do not produce growth rings like trees, which makes assigning an age to an individual difficult.

The other unique feature of Joshua Tree National Park is the abundance of unique rock formations known as inselbergs or monadnocks. Formed a hundred million years ago, or thereabouts, by molten magma rising into the upper levels of the earth's crust... like blobs in a lava lamp... and then cooling and solidifying prior to reaching the surface. Over many more years these underground formations were fractured and eroded by immense quantities of groundwater flowing down and around them. Then, as the land holding these features was worn down by further erosion or uplifted by other plate forces, they were exposed and weathered further into the shapes we see today. Some, alone in the desolation of the desert, appear as huge piles of jumbled boulders. Others, grouped together, form ridges that extend for miles. Their vertical faces are a favorite of rock climbers, many of who were out yesterday during our tour. In fact dozens and dozens of them who, somehow, don't have to work to keep themselves entertained. Sort of like us... gotta love it.

We drove down to Keys View overlook, peering down almost 5,000 feet, at Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley far below. At least we were told Palm Springs was down there... couldn't see it or verify it as the smog, fog, haze, and air debris was too much to see through. It was possible to see the ridge that marks the San Andreas Fault... the source of most of the ground tremors and earthquakes in California, the probable cause of much of the weirdness, and the likely reason Joshua Tree National Park will be ocean-front property one of these days.

Today we took a day off. Spent some time working on photos, writing, and looking ahead. We leave here tomorrow, Thursday, and are still not totally sure where we'll end up.

And Dar has more photos from our day in Joshua Tree National Park if you follow this link to our online albums.

Nov 14 - Sixteen Tons... What Do You Get

2011-11-14T19:29:00.001-06:00

This morning. Southbound on North 1st Ave in Barstow. We crossed the dry Mojave River and then started a twisting climb to a bridge that carries traffic over the very busy BNSF railroad tracks through the middle of town. That's when I saw the sign... a small one... but it got my attention: Bridge Weight Limit - two axle vehicles = 7 tons; three axle vehicles = 11 tons; four axles or more = 15 tons. WHAT????

The bus-house is a two axle vehicle and it weights a bit less than 16 tons all by itself. The toad, considered a separate vehicle was well under the restriction... but the bus-house! Sheesh. And we're only a thousand or so feet from turning onto the sagging span, which I can now see is all shored up underneath with what looked like puny little 2x4s. OH MAN... gotta act now!

There was only one opportunity to turn before I was past the point of a no-hassle return. If I went past that final intersecting street, which was now only 30 feet away, there were only three possible outcomes... and all three of them would have been more exciting than an "E" ticket ride at Disney or base jumping from top of the Glacier Point in Yosemite. Outcome 1: stop in the only lane of traffic prior to getting on the bridge (there's no shoulder or emergency lane at this point), save the bridge and who knows how many lives, and create a major Barstow scene complete with angry police, live radio news crews, hovering helicopters, screaming and honking motorists now stopped and going absolutely berserk, not to mention nowhere, and an onboard navigatress/safety director/spouse who would have quickly joined the raging mob in fashioning a noose for my neck. (Hey sweetie... you're the navigator... didn't you see this coming? No? OK, you're right...it's my fault... I should have done better... It'll never happen again... hey, why are you tying the end of that rope to the bridge beam?) If I had selected this outcome the result would have been fines, unhooking the toad and backing every car and the bus-house off the bridge approach, headlines, embarrassment, and likely divorce.

As bad as Outcome 1 would have been, Outcome 2 was far worse. In Outcome 2, I would have gritted my teeth, said a little prayer, and driven the 16 ton bus-house across the 7 ton bridge... and the whole shebang would have collapsed down onto the busy BNSF tracks below. With some luck, death would have been instantaneous. With less luck, I would have survived the crash but would have been hit seconds later by a screaming locomotive pulling the 9:20 high-ball to LA. With even less luck, I would have survived.

Outcome 3 is very close to Outcome 2, except that the bridge doesn't collapse and we make it safely to the other side with only my heart in my throat, sweat suddenly pouring off my face, and a brown mess in my shorts. There are all sorts of possible endings to this one that could still involve tickets, jail time, and, again, divorce.

You see, there was no good way out of this mess unless I take this one last turn, this final opportunity to prevent all the bad things mentioned above from becoming part of my lasting legacy. (I could hear it now: Did I ever tell you about old Grandpa Thom and the day he crushed the First Avenue Bridge in Barstow? Well, gather round kids... this is a good one...) It's amazing what can go through one's mind in just a few micro-moments at a critical time like this... similar to seeing your life pass completely before your eyes as you're dying. And, believe it or not, all these thoughts did actually go trough my mind in those few micro-seconds as we were approaching that last chance turn.

OK... we're now only 20 feet from the turn... and I make my decision. I smoothly apply the brakes and simultaneously flip on the right turn signal. The bus-house responds. Remember, I really don't know where this road goes... and I really don't care. The prime directive at this point is to defuse the bomb that was about to bring down the old 1st Ave Bridge. And then we're on that little side road... and what do you know... just a block down that road is a large open parking lot where I could smartly and quickly execute a 180 degree turn and head back toward the intersection, where I turned left, away from the bridge, and away from certain doom. And just think how many lives I probably saved today.

It took a little longer to get to our destination today, but there was absolutely no complaining to be heard.

I think that's all I'll say about that.
(the attached photos were pulled from the internet. Neither of us were thinking about photos at the time.)
==============

Tonight, we're safely dry-camped at the Black Rock Campground just inside the northwest corner of Joshua Tree National Park. A primitive campground by almost any standard, it was a two hour project to find a site for the big ol' bus-house... one with a little height clearance to keep the stiff and scratchy Joshua Trees from gouging our roof or sides... one that we could get half-way level on. It's times like this I REALLY crave a much smaller rig. After two hours of trying this and doing that, we're settled and happy again. As challenging as this dry-camping and boondocking thing gets sometimes we still prefer it to many of the RV parks out there. At least most of the time.

Nov 13 - Purple Haze to Barstow

2011-11-13T22:57:00.001-06:00

This morning, after good-byes from old friends and new neighbors at the SKP Park of the Sierras, we hooked up the toad and were rolling down the road by 10:30am. It's good to be back in the hunt for new sights and adventure.

As we rolled south toward Fresno it became clear that the air was not... clear, that is. You see, Fresno and most of the San Joaquin Valley are often saddled with some of the worst air quality in the nation.

(Purple haze all in my brain ... Lately things just don't seem the same...)

Prevailing winds from the Pacific are trapped in the valley by the high surrounding mountains. All the "stuff"... the yuk... from the super-populated, hyper-industrialized, super-agriculturized economy in the valley -- dust, exhaust, chemicals, bad-breath, cow-farts, irrigated humidity, and more that I don't even want to know about -- combine to form a nearly constant haze that's optimistically called fog by locals. Others call it smog... still others "the gas". Sometimes like today it's just a general haze. You can see the sun... sort of... but the super-bright dispersed harsh lighting bores in from every side and makes for almost painful viewing. We were moving in a south and southeasterly direction, directly into the solar maximum, for much of the morning... and the dull brightness made for a, shall we say, less than agreeable time.

(Actin' funny, but I don't know why...'Scuse me while I kiss the sky)

But once we cleared Bakersfield, made a turn to the east, and started climbing out of the valley, into the foothills, and into the Mojave Desert, things improved a lot. First, we were now heading east and the now-afternoon sun was behind us. Second, all that valley haze and smog was gone. The air cleared up and it was pleasant to see things more than a few blocks away.

The miles clicked off quickly as we passed the northern border of Edwards Air Force Base. And before long we were coming up on Barstow. Ah, Barstow... the point on old Route 66 where the road took a bend to the south, toward San Bernardino. Barstow...the place where we're "lot-docked" for the night, in a large parking lot belonging to the Idle Spurs Steak House -- where we also had a very tasty and enjoyable dinner tonight. We look at the deal like this: we traded a full hookup site at an RV park for a great steakhouse dinner. Who needs hookups? Not these two intrepid explorers.

Tomorrow we set our course toward Joshua Tree National Park... which will be 5th new National Park in the past few weeks. Not sure where we're staying yet... but if there's a good steak house with a big parking lot nearby... hmmm.

(apologies to Jimi Hendrix)

Nov 11 - Precipitation Pre-emps Perfection

2011-11-11T20:33:00.001-06:00

We've been back at the bus-house for two days now and we're slowly getting caught up with writing and the more than 500 photos taken during our trip to the two NPs (Kings Canyon and Sequoia) earlier this week. Dar has uploaded some photos of our trip into albums at our online photo collection and will have more up in the next day or so. I'm nearly up to date with journal posts but have one or two yet to complete. And in some cases, a post that was originally done without photos may have had a few photos added... so look back if you have the time.

Originally we had planned to leave SKP Park of the Sierras today, Friday. But we made the decision to delay that by a couple days for weather reasons. There's a storm system off the California coast that's bringing precipitation into this area and we'd really rather drag the toad around in dry weather to minimize the time I spend cleaning vehicles. Besides, what's the rush? Where do we have to be so urgently?

Besides all that, we have no clear destination in mind at this point. Certainly South would be a good idea but I also want to stay as far away as possible from the LA Metroplex hell-hole. Enough said about that lest I start hyperventilating. I'm thinking it may be time to visit the desert again, maybe somewhere around Yuma or Quartzsite.

The only time-critical destination we do have is to be back in Rockport, TX by just after the first of the year. Dar's going to do some RN-ing again at a nearby hospital and I have a number of delayed bus-house maintenance chores to get started on... not to mention getting started on the Great American Novel.

Between raindrops this afternoon, we took a good vigorous walk around the RV Park... and here, with all the hills... vigorous is what you get whether you want it or not. I also made a big pot of bean soup, which Dar thought needed a dash more salt.

And finally, on this Veterans Day, we'd like to salute both of our Dads and a few other family members who served the USA in the armed forces. I hope we, as a nation, can find a way to keep this experiment in democracy alive... to find a way to work together, compromise, and keep the needs and dreams of every citizen... all of our children and grand-children and future generations in mind as we debate the issues... and give lasting meaning to the sacrifices you made for all of us.

Nov 9 - Walking Among Giants

2011-11-09T23:00:00.000-06:00

Our last morning in the Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks. We thought we'd spend the morning walking among the giants... the Giant Sequoias in Grants Grove.

Click to enlarge

General Grant
First up was a visit to the General Grant tree... the undisputed second largest tree in the world.
As with General Sherman, the slightly larger first-place tree, General Grant is huge but hard to comprehend. Even comparing it to nearby mature and taller Sugar Pines -- themselves huge trees by any normal standard, the Grant Giant makes them appear as mere nursery stock and your mind tends to remove them from the scene.

Most of the trees in the Grove are not Sequoias, and only a very few are truly "giants". But as you walk the giants call out, grab your attention, their deep dark red bark illuminated like the only color object in a black and white photograph. They call out, you turn and look, and say "Wow" as your mind tries once again, unsuccessfully, to really comprehend the scale of size and age.

The Sounds of Silence
The morning was so clear and quiet, we decided to hike a few miles through the giants to experience the park from a different perspective... to experience Sequoias away from the touristy setting of the big signature trees and meet them in their undisturbed natural setting... more on their terms. The snow-covered trail was deserted... never saw another person during either of the two longer hikes today. There was virtually no breeze. The crunching of snow beneath our boots, the shooshing of fabric as legs and arms worked, the alternating in and out breathing... those were the only sounds from us. The forest had it's own set of sounds... snow captured on high evergreen bows melting and raining down... the occasional "snowball" thrown at us by one of the trees... a small snow-fed stream coursing over rocks in the ravine alongside the trail... the screech of a hawk off in the distance. We stop often, halting our own noise, and just listening to the sounds of the forest... and amazed at the natural ruckus that makes up all that silence.

Our first hike was to an overlook of Sequoia Lake. Along the path we visited the rare Dead Giant... the only standing dead Sequoia we saw during our three day visit. As I wrote yesterday, Sequoias are highly resistant to disease, insects, and fire -- the three things that often kill normal trees. Giant Sequoias die by falling over... having become too heavy for their shallow root system to support. So a standing dead Sequoia is very unusual. This one, the story goes, was vandalized many years ago... girdled... strangled for who knows what reason.

Big Stump Trail
The second hike of the morning was Big Stump Trail a mile or so south of Grant Grove Village. Here, we hiked a mile or so to a meadow, around which are the stump remains of a grove of Giant Sequoias that were chopped down in the late 1800's... like so many others. We circled the meadow and felt the presence to the big trees, more than 100 years gone, through the immense dark gray stumps that seemed to have gathered in groups. The wood of a Sequoia is stringy and brittle and not at all suitable for construction. They were cut down, some shattering into useless piles of scrap as they were crushed under their own weight when they hit the ground. The wood that was usable was commonly split into wooden shake shingles, or planters stakes, or match sticks, or even toothpicks.

from PBS... Mark Twain Tree on the way down in 1891

Just off the meadow was the stump of the Mark Twain Tree. The Mark Twain Tree was cut down in 1891 so that slabs of its 16-foot diameter trunk could be displayed in New York and London museums. A similar giant was felled so that a 30-foot tall section, hollowed out to create a two-story house, could be shown at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. There are some that believe the publicity from stunts like these actually helped the cause of saving the Giant Sequoias, as public sympathy became support for preservation.

Then, it was back to the bus-house and making preparations for leaving in the next few days.

The Mark Twain Stump

Nov 8 - Communing with General Sherman

2011-11-08T23:00:00.000-06:00

With a hearty hot egg breakfast onboard, a bag of crunchy gorp, a cup of hot coffee, a new set of cable-chains for the toad, and an OK from the Park Service that the road from Grants Grove to Wuksachi Village and the Lodgepole Visitors Center in Sequoia National Park is finally open, we were off on the days adventure... to explore the big trees, the largest living things on the planet, known as Giant Sequoias.

Since the recent snowfall prior to our arrival on Monday and until this morning, the only road that connects to two National Parks, known as Generals Highway, has been closed while they clear it of 6 or 8 inches of snow and ice. Warmer temps during the past day or two were helpful and hope turned to reality... and the road is now open. We somehow timed our visit to coincide with a string of three days of great weather.

It's common up here to have fog/clouds alternating with clear blue skies throughout the day. And today was not uncommon. Generally the about 25 mile drive down to Lodgepole was bright and clear, while the return trip later in the day was mostly cloudy... actually in the clouds... perhaps more accurately called fog.

General Sherman
The largest known living single stem tree on earth is a Giant Sequoia known as the General Sherman Tree. At 275 feet tall... it's not the tallest tree; with a diameter of 25 feet at the base... it's not the widest tree; and at an age of about 2,500 years... it's not the oldest tree. It's among the largest tree in every category, but with an internal volume of more than 52,000 cubic feet, it's claim to fame is that it's the tree with the greatest volume.

Giant Sequoias have at least one thing in common with people: they quickly grow to their full height early in their lives, and then spend the rest of their lives putting on weight and getting fat. They're so big, it's hard to appreciate their size... to really get your arms around them (both literally and figuratively). And trying to photograph one is always a challenge with usually disappointing results.

Giant Sequoias only grow here, on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in about 60 small groves that comprise only about 35,000 acres. At one time, in the late 1800s, they were being cut down and turned into shake shingles, match sticks, or toothpicks... as the wood of the Sequoia is fibrous and brittle and generally not suitable for construction. It could take a team of lumberjacks up to two weeks to cut one down. Before they were all cut down, a few key people, John Muir and others, began to take notice, helped others take notice and realize what was happening, and took steps that lead to the preservation of the remaining giants we see today.

John Muir noted that the Sequoia is as close to immortal as a living thing can get. They are highly resistant to disease, insects, and fire. Their soft bark can be up to three feet thick at the base. Growing fatter every year, the way they typically die is that they become too heavy to support themselves, and they topple over... they fall down. It's highly unusual to see a standing dead Sequoia. And once they fall, they're very slow to decay due to the high tannin content of the wood.

We love old trees. A couple years ago we hiked through deep snow to spend time with the Bristlecone Pines in Great Basin National Park. And now we've had time to commune with the Giant Sequoia. They have a way of putting things into perspective for us.

We made our traditional stop at the NP Lodge for a beer and it evolved into lunner. Wuksachi Lodge is a rather recent addition to Sequoia NP, replacing guest accommodations that had been centered about 5 miles south in the Giant Forest Lodge Historic District. But after many years of wrangling the Park Service decided in the 1990's that the whole lodge district had to go in order to save the natural elements of the Giant Forest.

Even though the road was open today, there were large icy patches that kept our speed down and nerves on edge... especially where just a few unguarded feet from the edge of the road is a sheer drop off of a thousand feet or more. On our return drive we came across a couple young women who had an accident that left their car in a ditch and against some rocks. After checking that they were OK, and checking cell phone service (there was none), we told them we'd proceed, alert the authorities as soon as we could, and get them some help. And that's exactly what we did... our good deed for the day.

We then huddled in front of the fireplace again at John Muir Lodge... and pondered the mysteries of life and wine.

Nov 7 - Kings Canyon - Another View

2011-11-08T00:30:00.000-06:00

With the bus-house safely parked at SKP Park of the Sierras, where we've been based for the past two weeks or so, we packed up the toad and headed toward Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. We planned to spend two nights in the John Muir Lodge in the Grants Grove area of Kings Canyon NP... our first foray away from the bus-house since our trip from Wisconsin to South Carolina this past April. We're beginning to realize that the expense and hassle associated with moving the bus-house is, at times, hard to justify, especially when the object of the exploration is remote and with few if any facilities for a huge camper. In this case, it wouldn't be possible for us to drive the bus-house through the Parks as a number of roads have 22 foot maximum length restrictions. Additionally, a recent snowfall has made tire chains mandatory on many of the roads throughout the Parks... and tire chains will never be put on this rig while we have it. It became clear that if we were going to add these two Parks to our list of visited National Parks, the only way to do it this year would be with the toad.

The drive was 90 miles, through Fresno on CA-41, then east on CA-180 to Grants Grove. From the 1800 foot elevation at Park of the Sierras we drop to just a couple hundred feet at Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, and then climb back to 6600 feet at Grants Grove. There are no roads that go east/west through this region as the highest and most rugged portion of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, including Mt. Whitney (14,494'), the highest point in the lower 48, is along the eastern edge of the Parks.

We arrived at Grants Grove about noon, did our usual Visitor Center thing, including the orientation video, checked into a room at the John Muir Lodge (winter deal... only $79 per night... almost half of what they go for during high season), grabbed a quick lunch, and then headed out and down into Kings Canyon just to the north of Grants Grove.

Once described by John Muir as even more spectacular than Yosemite Valley, Kings Canyon is certainly someplace anyone in awe of nature must visit. The road from Grants Grove descends more than 3000 feet to the valley floor. Many "turn-outs" on the way down provided stunning views... on this day illuminated by a low afternoon sun and bright blue skies. Once on the valley floor and alongside the flowing South Fork of the Kings River, you're at first in a "V" shaped canyon -- the signature of a canyon cut by flowing water. But further up-canyon, as you get toward the end of the road (literally called the "Roads End" area) the canyon takes on a "U" shape, with a wider flatter floor -- the distinctive shape of a canyon cut by flowing ice... glaciers, perhaps thousands of feet thick. This is the same process that cut Yosemite Canyon, about 70 miles to the northwest. Recent snowfall was being melted by relatively warm temps while we were there, so the streams and waterfalls were flowing nicely.

The entire trip into the canyon was about 35 miles each way. As referred to above, it's a dead end so the return trip provides the opposite view of that seen on the way in. We pretty much killed the afternoon along this stretch of road... and more time would have been nice. But days are short this time of the year, and even shorter in a deep canyon. So we bowed to the inevitable and returned to the Lodge before night fully arrived.

The Fireplace in the Lodge
Both nights during our stay at John Muir Lodge we warmed ourselves in front of the fireplace in the lodge. We met some interesting people, some of whom we could even communicate with in our native language. (Had some trouble with a foursome from near Paris, France). But the crackling glowing fire did more than our warm toes... the scent of glowing oak embers, the flickering illumination from low flames, the sounds... the pops and crackles that only a real fire emits... it warmed our spirits, it made us feel that we were really home despite never having been here before.

Nov 7 - Quick Update from Kings Canyon

2011-11-07T23:39:00.000-06:00

It's 7:30pm, and I'm sitting in a rocking chair close to a fireplace in the lobby of the John Muir Lodge at Grants Grove in Kings Canyon National Park. Glowing embers and dancing flames are providing the entertainment along with a good dose of radiant heat tonight. It's wonderful... magical. Imagine... having long conversations with people we hadn't met before tonight... a very nice couple from Denver... and a foursome from near Paris, France. One of the wonderful things about lodges in many, maybe most of the National Parks, is that there's no damn TV on the premises... not in your room, not in the lobby, not anywhere. And not just no signal, or no cable, or satellite... no sir, there's no dang TV set at all. No old fashioned fat TV set with the big curvy screen... No modern flat-screen hanging on the wall... Nothing. Just a flat credenza with a coffee pot, ice bucket, telephone, a place to plop your bag... and that's it. So rather than sit in your room and stare at the blank walls and the ice bucket, people gravitate down to the lobby and gather around the fireplace... and, imagine this... talk. Why can't more motel/hotels be like this?? I'll tell you why... because most of the population wouldn't patronize a place with no TV! Arrgghh$@@%^I$$#@**^

Ok, settle down Thom... back to our day.

After knocking out a couple chores on the 90 mile way up here to Kings Canyon from Park Sierra, where we left the bus-house alone for the next two days... chores like procuring a set of cheap cable chains (tire chains) for the toad (to stay legal in the high Sierras in the Winter), we arrived at Grants Grove Village in Kings Canyon NP a little after noon. At 6600 feet, we're well above the snow-line here... there's about 6 inches on the ground. After getting our visitor center fix, checking in to our room at the lodge, and grabbing a quick bite to eat, we headed out (and down) on a 34 mile each way trip into the canyon.

John Muir once described Kings Canyon as even more spectacular than Yosemite. How can you not agree with a judgement like that from John Muir?? It was spectacular. Most of the afternoon we were just in dis-belief at our surroundings. Looking up, grinning, saying things like "Wow". Again, words fail and I'll just let the memories soak in.

Tomorrow, we're hoping the road from here to Sequoia National Park opens up. It's been closed for a few days due to snow... but they're working on it and we're hopeful. If it doesn't open tomorrow, we may have to take some of the trails around here and see what we can find to explore.

Up until about 3 weeks ago there was only weak and spotty cell phone coverage here. But then Verizon flipped the switch on a new cell tower just up the road and that's all changed. Strong voice, strong data, it's a wonderful thing. Unless you've got AT&T... then it's "no soup for you".

Took a bunch of photos today, but they're not ready yet and may not be until later in the week.

Nov 4 - Changing Weather

2011-11-04T18:32:00.001-05:00

I've written before about how perfect the weather has been the past few weeks. Sun, blue skies, few clouds, highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s. But after turning on the TV for the first time in over two weeks a couple nights ago, it looked like our lucky-streak was coming to an end... or, at least, a break.

It's only rain at our temporary home at Camp Sierra near Coarsegold. But we've seen snow on cars coming down from higher elevations. And some of the higher hilltops have a white-ish cast.

This is what a view toward Half Dome from Sentinel Dome looked like the past few days.

And this is what the same view looks like this afternoon... courtesy of a webcam near the top of Sentinel Dome.

Think I'll throw another log on the fire.

Oct 31 - High Hike on Halloween

2011-11-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

This morning, Monday, we headed back into Yosemite to explore a corner of the Park we hadn't yet seen. Our objective was Glacier Point, an overview on a rocky outcropping at the top of the south canyon wall, high above Yosemite Village. Our visit to the village the other day had us down at the bottom of the canyon all day while Glacier Point is at the top.

The weather was fantastic and air was clear. Yosemite is about 40 miles by 45 miles, and most of the roads are curvy and slow going. With stopping at turnouts for scenic overviews most casual explorers can't do much more than 20 miles in an hour. Except for some California drivers who seem to be late for work or have vehicles with accelerator pedals that seem to be stuck full-open, it takes time to get from one point in the park to another... but it's time well spent considering the terrific scenery. By the clock we spent two hours getting to Glacier Point. By the heart and mind, it was but a flash. "No... are we there already??"

I could try to describe the view from Glacier Point, but I won't. Using the same adjectives and superlatives over and over again doesn't make for good reading. And I fear a diminution of the experience... even when I read this again after time has fogged the images in my mind... from the overuse of words like wonderful, awesome, spectacular, and amazing. Yosemite Village on the valley floor is about 4000' of elevation. Glacier Point is 7200'. That difference alone gives maybe some sense of the drama and vistas. Let me generally recount what we saw... all rocky peaks and features on the north and east sides of the Park (Half Dome, etc.), the entire Village far below, the upper Merced River valley and Tenaya Creek valley, every waterfall on the north and east canyon walls (Yosemite, Nevada, Vernal, etc), more than a vertical mile of smooth white granite walls, domes, and peaks... some near the horizon and many miles outside the Park.

Not far from Glacier Point is Sentinel Dome, an 8100' granite dome peak with a trail right to the top. We could take a trail from the GP parking lot or from a trail head about a mile up the road... either one a little more than a mile one-way to the Dome. We choose the latter as it was more open to the surrounding scenery and the warm sun.

I'm not sure what the elevation change is but the hike did get our little hearts pumping a bit. Remember, we were over 8000 ft here too. The last tenth of a mile or so is up the side of the granite dome. At the top we had a terrific 360 degree view of the surrounding park, the valley below, and all the surrounding peaks (half dome, et. al.). I particularly liked the view toward the west, looking outward through the El Capitan gateway... a reverse view from the one everyone sees and captures from the tunnel viewpoint on their way into the valley.

Our walk back to the car was interrupted by a gang of California mule deer, 4 of them to be precise, who blocked our path and seemed to be looking for a hand-out. After a few moments of curiosity and eye-contact, no fear, no panic, they slowly continued their travels... and so did we.

There was enough time left in the day to stop again at Mariposa Grove, where we walked the mile or so to the Grizzly Giant and the California Tunnel Tree. The grove appears to be struggling a bit... not sure if it's disease or fire or remnants of previous attempts to manage the place... but there were large open areas, a bunch of downed trees, and some sickly looking trees. This may very well be the way a mature Sequoia grove looks and I'm just applying a cultural standard to a natural system. But it looked that way to me.

Now a comment about food. This morning we stopped at McDonald's for a quick breakfast. I was a little surprised by the price: two little breakfast sandwiches, one orange juice, and one small coffee... $9.56. A few weeks ago I was similarly shocked by the price of lunch at a Burgerville in Camas, WA., which was just shy of $20 for Dar, one grandson, and me. It seems to me "fast food" (which really isn't all that fast anymore) is certainly not low-cost food anymore.

On our way back to camp after the Yosemite excursion, we stopped at a very nice Raley's grocery store in Oakhurst. Not wanting to cook anything complicated after our long day, we were looking for a fresh pizza from their deli area... one we could pop in the oven and be chomping down within 15 min. or so. But we ran into an energetic and friendly young woman who was offering samples of the deli's prepared meals... the kind you pop in the oven and heat up. The samples hit the spot and we popped for a couple... a chicken tortilla casserole and a chicken penne alfredo with broccoli thing. Both were yummy and the price per meal for two of us was $5.00 -- that is, a piping hot entree that was at least as good as anything either of us could whip up, for 5 bucks -- half the price of that small breakfast at McD's! It's fresh, not frozen...no mess, no measuring, no preparation dishes, no hassle... just heat and eat. I'm having a hard time coming up with reasons this isn't an excellent idea. I think we'll be looking for similar eats as we travel in the future.

Oct 30 - Weekend Update

2011-10-30T22:32:00.001-05:00

This past Friday we got word that our number had come up and we'd snagged a real camp site here at Park Sierra. I'm talking a genuine, bonafide, double rectified, full hookup, level site with landscaping, privacy, friendly neighbors, and views of the surrounding valley. How does life get any better than this?

So we moved from our not-so-bad boondocking site, plugged in to ample 50amp power, and quickly settled in to the new surroundings. We've met our neighbors and figured out where our other buddies (Jimmy and Julianne; Fred and Lynne) are now residing relative to us in this crazy maze of twisted and interwoven roads, campsites, hills, and dales. It's a wonder to me how quickly a new place can become home.

During the past few days we not only didn't go into Yosemite (to avoid crowds), we never once even started the Toad... not even to run into town for bread or milk or gas or anything. I did get a workout riding the park's roads with my bike... can't remember when I've spend so much peddling time in low/low gear.

Now that the relaxed weekend is over, it's time to get back to the work of serious exploration again. Tomorrow, Monday, our intrepid explorers are off again, into Yosemite, and into some corner we've not yet experienced. Stay tuned for what they find...

Oct 27 - Yosemite National Park (day 1)

2011-10-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

Our first night in SKP Park Sierra's boondock area must have been good as I don't remember a thing. Total darkness and no neighbors (=no noise), combined with the tension-release after the high pressure drive of the day before, came together to produce one of the best sleep-nights in many days. For me it was close to 10 hours of shut-eye.

The rest of Wednesday we puttered around camp; I wrote some journal updates; Dar worked on photos. We ran into Oakhurst, a few miles north of here, to pick up some info for our Yosemite visits. We explored Park Sierra... enjoyed happy hour with friends.

This morning, Thursday, Julianne, Jimmy, Dar, and I piled into the Focus "exploration-mobile" and we were off on our first visit to Yosemite National Park. The focus of today's trip was Yosemite Valley.

I don't think it'd be interesting to give a blow-by-blow description of our day, and I think my inadequate descriptions would fail to inspire. So here are some random thoughts on our day:

* Exiting the tunnel, the valley opens up into the most spectacular view I've ever seen.

* Stunning; breath-taking!

click any photo to enlarge

* Climbers on the face of El Capitan?? Are they nuts? I'm so glad I don't have the passion for rock climbing.

* This must have really been something before the general population discovered it.

* Too many people... even on a Thursday in October.

* The Ahwahnee Hotel, the main lodge of the Park since the 1920s, is fittingly impressive and reflects it's awesome surroundings. Equally awesome was our $38 tab for two bowls of soup and two beers in the pub.

* Waterfalls everywhere. We hiked to the base of Bridalveil Falls and Lower Yosemite Falls. In the Fall, waterfalls in Yosemite often dry up completely from lack of precipitation. This year, due to some snowfall a couple weeks ago, the falls were lightly flowing.

* We must return in the Spring some year to see the falls at their best.

* We're told this place is a zoo in the Summer. It was surprisingly busy today.

* Shadows were growing long and light was quickly evaporating when we stopped briefly at Mariposa Grove. Sequoia Trees are so cool. The largest trees on earth. Some more than 3,000 years old. I feel so small.

We're going back to Yosemite, but not until Monday so we can avoid the heavy weekend crowds. It was a spectacular day.

Of course, more photos from our day can be seen by clicking here.

Journal Updates

2011-10-26T16:24:00.002-05:00

Things have been happening faster than I can write. So this morning I pumped out four updates that covered the past few days. If you're interested, you may have to hunt backwards to catch them all.

Thanks for checking in with us.

Oct 25 - Yosemite Here We Come

2011-10-26T00:52:00.000-05:00

186 miles - I-5 to US-99 to CA-41 to Coarsegold, CA

We've never been to Yosemite National Park, and, as of this writing, we still haven't. But we're a lot closer. Our objective for today was a safe move from Sacramento to the SKP park, Park Sierra, near Coarsegold, CA... just a few miles south of Yosemite. The roads were all busy, all the time, everywhere. Why does everyone here drive with the accelerator floored? Over the next few days we hope to make a few incursions into the National Park... and we're really looking forward to it.

The weather has been simply great since we arrived in California. No rain, few clouds, lots of sun. Generally, here at Coarsegold, we're expecting highs in the lower 70's and lows in the lower 50s. For the next 7 days I don't see much change.

With weather like this the members of the SKP park are staying put... and that means transients like us have to spend some time waiting for a full hookup site. Yes, we're in "boondocking" -- really just drycamping on a little hunk of land that wasn't big enough to turn into a member site when the park was built. It's really not bad at all and have discussed maybe even staying put right here for the week. The sun is keeping the batteries full, don't need additional heat at night, and we have a lot of exploring to do so we won't be spending much time at base camp anyway. Haven't turned on the TV for almost two weeks (and don't miss it at all).

In an interesting coincidence... a wonderful alignment of the stars and planets... we have, not two, but four! of our nomadic friends from the road that arrived here at Park Sierra today! We're looking forward to spending more time with Julianne and Jimmy, and Lynne and Fred over the next few days.

Oct 24 - California State Capitol

2011-10-25T00:54:00.000-05:00

Got started this morning at 9:00am. The general plan was to drive out to Woodland CA. the most distant point of our explorations today and finish with the State Capitol, the nearest point to camp.

For some time now, we've been toying with the idea of replacing the Toad (our Ford Focus) with a small pickup and small pop-up truck camper that would give us the capability to explore multiple days away from the bus-house, camp in more remote locations, and be more free and flexible. It's really a hybrid concept to use the bus-house as a mobile base camp and use the mini-camper for multiple day explorations. If we needed to, we could pop the top and camp anywhere away from the bus-house and not have to be concerned about time or the drive back to base camp each night. As I said, we've been thinking about it.

One of the requirements, as far as I'm concerned, for this to work is that we'd have a small truck (like a Toyota Tacoma) with a small, lightweight camper. It just so happens that two manufacturers of just that kind of camper are in the Sacramento area: Four Wheel Campers and All Terrain Campers. During the morning today, we visited each, met the owners and key people, and got a much better feel for their products. Four Wheel is the much larger business of the two and they had a good selection in their showroom for us to peruse, measure, and sit inside while we imagined actually living in one for a night... or a week?. There's really not much more to add at this point. We're still pondering the idea.

During the afternoon we drove downtown, found tha Capitol, and spent a few hours checking out the historic building. Built between 1861 and 1874, it's one of the oldest current statehouses in the USA. But all that remains of the original structure is the exterior edifice... the walls and columns. In the 1970s, it became clear that the building was crumbling and unsafe. Various proposals were discussed, including one to demolish the old structure and replace it with two modern office towers -- not unlike the disaster that happened in Tallahassee FL about the same time. But Californians, in a rare display of doing what's right, decided to rebuild the old structure.

There was little to guide the reconstruction... no original plans (burned up during the San Francisco Earthquake), just old photographs and things they found during the demolition like ornate ceilings hidden by replacement false ceilings. Tile floors were painstakingly documented, photographed, then taken apart... each tile carefully cleaned and cataloged... and eventually put back together again when the new interior was ready. Even the dome, which was being held up only by gravity as the ravages of time had deteriorated the mortar between the bricks, had to be taken down and reconstructed. The objective guiding the reconstruction was to return much of the interior to what it was about the turn of the century... the late 1800s or early 1900s. We were both impressed almost as much by the reconstruction efforts as we were by the original structure. Just magnificent.

It is still the working Capitol and seat of government, but, like most other states, many of the functions of government have been moved to nearby office buildings. What remains in this building is both legislative chambers, some offices for the the executive branch, and the State Capitol Museum.

While perusing the halls of this statehouse we struck up a conversation with an overworked and very tired looking state employee. After chatting for a few minutes we exchanged business cards -->

[dislaimer: not all events or people depicted in this post are true. Some are downright lies. Hey, lighten up... it's my blog!] Oh, and as usual, you can click on any photos for a larger image... or go to our online albums for more.

Oct 23 - Downhill to Sacramento

2011-10-24T00:47:00.000-05:00

210 miles - CA-44 to I-5 to Sacramento

Leaving our beloved Lassen National Park behind, we drove through the northwest entrance, turned left on CA-44, and headed toward Redding and I-5, about 45 miles down the road. And I do mean "down" the road, as we descended from the 5900 foot elevation of our camp at Lassen to Reddings elevation of a mere 500 feet... a drop of over a full mile. I didn't do the math but I'll bet we got great fuel mileage for those 45 miles.

The amount of traffic on I-5 is amazing... even on a Sunday morning. I know, I know... it's the main north-south road, and all that... but there are just too many people here for what this boy from Wisconsin could possibly consider a high quality life. Just my opinion. In the past I was in favor of some kind of forced relocation program. But I'm now of the opinion that it's better to keep as many of these people right here, piled on top of one another... and away from the few remaining remote and sparsely populated areas of this country that provide solitude to folks like us.

Today's plan was to set up camp at an RV park only three miles from the State Capitol Building in West Sacramento. I won't say much more about Capitol West RV and MH Park, except that there's nothing besides it's location to bring us back. At least we took full advantage of the full hookups to wash and dry a ton of laundry that's been accumulating over the past few weeks.

Oct 22 - Simple Walk around a Small Lake

2011-10-23T00:31:00.000-05:00

Can you think of anywhere you'd rather be?

More photos from our day near Manzanita Lake in Lassen National Park can be found [here].

Oct 21 - A Two Dip Cone

2011-10-22T00:40:00.000-05:00

First, the weather. Got down to 31 degrees early this morning and we were huddled under piles of blankets as even inside the bus-house we saw low 50's. I won the toss and got up to throw a log in the furnace, get coffee started, and start the genny. Still expecting mostly clear weather, lots of sun, and seasonably warm temps for the next few days.

Our house batteries are really in bad shape -- almost 5 years old and abused by us newbies before we knew what we were doing.. If we can make it to Rockport I'll replace them myself. IF not, or if I run into a great deal somewhere, we'll have it done along the way. Probably Rockport though.

After things warmed up a bit we started moving and getting ready for today's adventure... the hike to, and climb of, Cinder Cone. This is a volcanic feature that erupted in the middle 1600s spraying the area with an immense quantity of ash and cinders from deep in the earths mantle, and pushing out square miles of a thick viscous lave from it's base that oozed into a lake, hardened, and is mostly unchanged today.

In order to get there, we had to leave the park on the Northwest side, travel east through Old Station, hook a right on Hwy 44, and find Butte Lake Road which we take to the south and back into the northeast corner of the Park again... a distance of about 30 miles. It took a little doin' to find the road (are Butte Lake Campground and the Cinder Cone hike on the same road??? GPS Maggie Mae was not clear.) but once on the right road it's a 6 mile run on rough gravel to the Butte Lake area.

Side note: we passed through National Forest land on the way back into the park and passed a NFS campground (Butte Creek Campground) that looks good for future use... once we get a smaller exploratory rig.

Another side note: on our way out of the campground this morning, we got behind someone in a popup truck camper. I raced to get closer and thought it was a Four Wheel Camper... one of those I've been interested in. They turned into the Loomis Museum and we drove on... but Dar said, let's go back and talk with them. It didn't take more than a couple seconds and we did a 180, entered the parking lot just as they were getting out of their truck. I pulled closer and said... Would you mind if we asked you a few questions about your camper. Well, probably 20 minutes later we had a peek inside, and had learned more than what I was looking for, and some new friends. It's not a FWC, but an All Terrain Camper, built in Sacramento by people who used to work for FWC. Very similar. The reason he went with the ATC is he's tall, maybe 6'5", and wanted to sleep lengthwise (north-south) instead of crosswise (east-west). FWC had nothing capable of doing that so he went to ATC and found what he wanted. My estimate is that it's a 6.5 foot model on a mid-bed Toyota Tundra. It's basic but these two are doing exactly what I'm thinking would enhance our sabbatical experience in the future. They are Steve and Kathy from Bozeman MT. Since we're familiar with Bozeman (brother Bill works there) we had lots to talk about. They're originally from Stevens Point Wisconsin... look academic but we never got into discussing that. They are retired and still maintain a home in Bozeman. Not only did we enjoy meeting and talking with them in the parking lot, but we also ran into them on top of Cinder Cone later in the day.

Back to Butte Lake: Butte Lake has a campground (small campers and tents only please), a boat launch (no motors, small lake), day use picnic areas, and hiking trailheads. Our objective was to hike the Cinder Cone Trail... about a 3 mile round trip, but an elevation gain of about 900 feet. The trail is mostly through Pondy forest along the shore of Butte Lake and the Fantastic Lava Beds (that's their name... really). In the 1600s, a vent opened in the earth blowing ash and cinders high into the sky and extruding a thick viscous lava from the base of what's Cinder Cone today. That extruded lava cooled and became the lava beds... an amazing thing in their own right... appearing like huge piles of black glassy rock debris that was dumped there in huge piles recently by some mining operation. But it isn't... it's the frozen in place lava flow, appearing much like it did 300 years ago.

The walk was made more difficult by a thick layer of ash and cinders... much like walking in dry sand at the beach. The gentle upward grade as we moved through the forest toward Cinder Cone itself was manageable but slower than our normal pace. But then, we came to a clearing and Cinder Cone appeared... a several hundred foot high, steep sided, conical pile of small crushed cinders. The NPS created a path up the side of the cone, two persons wide and angling sharply upward at a just-barely-manageable slope for anyone but the most physically fit hardbody out there. It took us almost an hour just to climb the side of Cinder Cone. It was very slow going (but slow and steady wins the race) with many stops for water and rest. Leg muscles were rebelling and threatening to cramp up... but in the end we made it.

Once up, we spent another hour at the top. There's a double rim... the higher outer rim is probably the older. The lower innner rim, perhaps the result of a secondary eruption??? Below the inner rim is an inverted cone crater that's quite deep (hard to estimate distances and measurements in this environment... at least for me)... a couple hundred feet???. There was a trail completely encircling the rim at the top, another around the lower rim, and there was a steep trail leading down to the bottom of the central crater. We did everything but the crater... which was steep and we didn't know how much longer to trust our legs. As noted earlier, we ran into Steve and Kathy from Bozeman on top... the only other hikers we saw up there (we did run into one other guy going up as we were going down... but that was it.)

The views from the top are spectacular. Right over there is Mt. Lassen dominating the backdrop. But all around are volcanic features that include all four types of volcanoes found on earth. We snapped a bunch of photos... dozens... maybe hundreds. But the photos really don't convey the feeling and grandeur of the place and the accomplishment of the hike. We felt light and exhilarated on the way down and back to the car. Energized. Pumped. A great day.

Note: we're camped at 5900 feet. The top of Cinder Cone is 6900. Once back at camp tonight, we both nixed the campfire, opting instead for a quick dinner and working on journals and photos the rest of the night.

Oct 20 - Wrong Restroom

2011-10-21T00:30:00.000-05:00

Needing a few supplies and an internet fix, we drove over to the nearby town of Shingletown today, a mere 17 miles to the west.

First stop was the library where I used their wifi i-connection to post an update or two on the blog, download email, send a few emails, and browse some used books (Dar).

Then, over to the cafe across the street for a late lunch/early dinner... some refer to it as "lunner". The cafe is run by a Mexican couple and it was fun trying to understand them and absorb the chaotic small town nature of things as the two of them were rushing around trying to hurriedly get a delivery order ready and out the door. We showed up just after their noon "crowd" and were the only customers at that point.

I asked to use the restroom and it turned into a major project. First off, we noticed a few signs as we entered that warned "Restrooms Only for Use by Customers". Well, I was a customer so I got the run-down... "Here, use these keys, go through that store room, unlock a door about half way down to hallway, restrooms in there... when done, lock things back up again, leave keys in door (??), find your way back to the dining room. I was so discombobulated and amused by the whole affair I ended up walking into the women's room by mistake, which I didn't know until the proprietress herself walks in on me and gives me hell, in a combination of Spanish and English, telling me I'm in the wrong room... I'm in the women's room... what's with these Americans?... can't they read...and on and on. We all had a good laugh at my expense, but I know exactly where I stood with her. We found the food excellent and generally enjoyed our visit. Took home enough leftover burritos for another meal.

Also stopped at grocery store/hardware store. This is such a great combination for a guy... I can pick up bread and milk at the same time I'm getting nails, tools, and bags of sack-crete. Grocery prices were about 30 or 40% higher than I'm used to. But this is rural N. Cal., and there are no options anywhere nearby at all. "Do I want the half gallon of milk?... that'll be $3.49... and thank you for shopping with us."

Once back at camp we got a campfire going and enjoyed it immensely until it got dark and cold. Last night it got down to 33 degrees... and expect about the same tonight. We've been using a combination of the propane bus-house furnace (noisy battery hog) and our portable buddy propane heater during the evening. But once it's bed-time, all heaters of any kind are turned off for safety's sake. I sleep better that way... I know the safety director does too. Without much wind and with the low 30's temps, our inside temp can be down to the upper 40's by morning. (Don't believe RV salespeople who tell you how well insulated these things are) Then it's rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to run around getting coffee going, firing up the genny, starting a heater. I usually volunteer but one of these days it'll be Dar's turn... she promises.

We'd use more solar power if we had more sunlight shining on the bus-house roof here at Lassen. Trees are another love/hate thing for us... we love them for atmosphere, the shade, the feeling of being in the forest, the wildlife they harbor, the fact that they block satellite TV signals so well. But they don't give our solar panels much to work with. Besides the already low sun this time of year, and the short days, when a tree shadow gets in the way it really downgrades the amount of power they produce. I like the whole concept of solar, but there's no way to ever get a positive return on your investment. You buy solar for the green "feel-good" of turning simple sunlight into electricity, and for the flexibility of not having to run a generator as much.

We decided to stay here until Sunday morning, really preferring this environment to that of an RV park. Tomorrow we're going to take in a longer hike... perhaps to Bumpass Hell or the Cinder Cone... we'll decide in the morning. Weather is supposed to hold out NICE until into next week.

Disconnected In Lassen

2011-10-20T14:25:00.000-05:00

We're still in Lassen National Park and will probably be here until Sunday. We're at Manzanita Lake Campground, about the only one open this time of year, just down the road from the northwest entrance to the Park. We have no cell phone and thus no internet connectivity at all at our campsite. We're drycamping (no hookups). With temps sinking to the low 30's by morning, we've been using the propane furnace and running the generator to make coffee and charge the house batteries. And we're surviving just fine. We really enjoy camping like this... even if it is a bit cold and challenging in the mornings.

I was hoping I could drive over to a visitor center and hook onto the internet. But the National Park Service hasn't quite found the motivation or the money to create a wifi hotspot at their visitor centers yet. And maybe their right. Maybe it's good to be disconnected once in a while... to concentrate on what the Park has to offer... to get out and move and soak in the sights, smells, vistas, chills, the history, the geology, and the texture of this unique landscape. I keep repeating this to myself... I keep trying to convince myself. Maybe it's good, but it's hard.

I'm still writing daily journal entries off line and will upload them when I'm able.

(sent from a library hotspot in the little town of Shingletown, CA where we picked up supplies today.)

Oct 19 - Survey Course of Lassen NP

2011-10-19T22:00:00.000-05:00

We just got back from exploring Lassen Park -- really an overview (or survey course) built around the main Hwy 89 Park road from the Northwest entrance to the Southwest entrance, where the main visitor center is located. It took us the better part of the day to do the 29 miles down and the same 29 miles back to our camp... stopping and exploring wherever we saw something of interest. Had a bright clear day, temps in the 60's... but you gotta remember, we are at some serious elevation here. Our camp is at 5900 ft., and the summit on the drive today is 8511.

Highlights of the day: learning about the geology of this place... it's reason for existing as a National Park in the first place. Here, there exists in one place a collection of all four of the different types of volcanoes as classified by geologists and vulcanologists. It's a very active geothermal spot on the planet Earth. The last significant eruption occurred in 1915 on Mt. Lassen. But there are historic remnants of many volcanic features that can be seen by tourning and hiking around the park. A fella by the name of BF Loomis was instrumental in making this a National Park, having taken the spectacular photographs of the 1914 eruptions of Mt. Lassen.

We did a short hike, really a walk, through the "devistated area" from the 1915 eruption, but mostly drove from pull-off to pull-off admiring the view, awing at the surrounding peaks, and reading and learning about the Park. At the southwest entrance, the Kohm Yah-Mah-Nee Visitor Center provides exhibits and films that bring it all together.

Returning to the northwest corner of the Park again, we stopped at the Loomis Museum and perused the exhibits there too. The museum building was built by RL Loomis to help educate the public. His historic home, just across the courtyard from the museum, is currently being used as a park office and ranger station.

Here are a few photos from our day. More can be found here.

Oct 18 - Mt. Shasta to Lassen NP

2011-10-19T00:06:00.000-05:00

101 miles; CA-89 to Lassen Volcanic National Park

Another great traveling day for our intrepid explorers. The weather has been cooperating and looks like it'll continue to do so for the rest of the week. Warm sunny days and crisp cold mornings.

With only a hundred miles on the docket for today we felt no urgency or rush to get anywhere. CA-89 is a good two lane road with abundant truck traffic as it's a shortcut between I-5 and Reno. Much of the route is through forest -- tall pines and scrub oak providing cover for deer and cattle, both of which we saw grazing right next to the road. Bright sunlit fall colors contrasting with the dark green of the pines added a sense of season that felt comforting.

Dar found that we'd be passing by Burney Falls State Park on the drive today. We're usually careful about stops like this when we're moving with the bus-house unless we know ahead of time that the park roads and parking lots are set up for big rigs. We had no idea what the setup was here, but felt like taking a chance to see the falls that Teddy Roosevelt described as the 8th wonder of the world. Only because there were so few parked cars I was able to make a tight "180" in their largest parking lot (which was still pretty small) and find an out-of-the-way spot to park, pointing outward. Luck was with us again today.

Burney Falls is fed by underground springs and, regardless of time of year or amount of precipitation, has a very consistent flow of water. There's a viewing platform at the top and a path leading to a few viewing spots at the bottom. There's something about falling water that catches my eye and puts me in a hypnotic trance... a little like watching a campfire, a sunset, wild surf, or a pretty girl. Simply enjoyable.

At Lassen we headed right over to Lake Manzanita campground. There are no RV hookups at any campground in the park and, this late in the year, the water is shut off too. We understood that this campground would be our best bet for finding a campsite where we'd fit. Like many of the National Park campgrounds we've seen, they were designed years ago for tent campers and small trailers. In the two campground loops that were open it took us a while to find one that would work. Most were too small, too unlevel, too many low hanging branches, or all of the above.

Don't get me wrong... we found a great site and have been enjoying the solitude. While I scrubbed bugs off the front end after setting up camp, Dar traipsed through the woods and came up with enough downed wood for a campfire. So in one day, today, I hit the trifecta... waterfall, campfire, and pretty girl... imagine that... all in the same day.

We're at 5900 feet elevation here. Our plan is to explore the park tomorrow and then decided if we'll add a day or more to our stay. As I said above, the weather is fine, so it's really a matter of what we'd like to do here.

Oh, and one more thing... we have NO cell phone or internet service at the campground. We'll post journal entries if/when we find a wifi hotspot. Otherwise, it'll wait until we're back in range.

Oct 17 - On the Slopes of Mt. Shasta

2011-10-17T21:56:00.000-05:00

204 miles; I-5 to Mt. Shasta, CA.

With all the paperwork cleared up, moving prep done, and toad hooked on, we were on the road by 10:30 this morning. Our 200 mile drive started with low clouds (high fog?) obscuring hilltops and ridges, but the sun started breaking things up well before noon and we had full sun the rest of the day.

We're at a rustic campground/"resort" on the shores of Lake Siskiyou just outside the little town of Mt. Shasta -- which is right on the flanks of the mountain by the same name. Both of us have a similar reaction to anything labeled "resort" ($pendy and touri$ty) but we thought we'd give it a go anyway considering it's perfect location right at the 200 mile point of our drive. We're thinking of this as an overnight stop but may decide to add on a day if the coin flips the right way in the morning. We'll see how that goes.

The campground is Lake Siskiyou Resort and Campground. Only a handful of campers are here and haven't seen a single soul of the staff or crew who, presumably, are around and running the place. Considering the time of year and the elevation (3300 ft.) (brrrr), the only thing we'll probably hear overnight tonight will be the distant drone of cycling RV furnaces.

When we do leave we're going over to explore Lassen Volcanic National Park, another in our effort to hit as many of the big National Parks in the USA as we possibly can by RV. We've been to about 20 to this point and there's a long way to go. The route southward through California presents an opportunity for us to pick up 5 more in the next few weeks.

In the "dumb things we've done" department I suppose I should report the following for the record. About half way through our trip south today we stopped for fuel. Pulling away from the pump islands I had to make a sharp turn. I try to take a careful look at the toad in the rear view mirror during turns like that... check tires, bikes, wheels turning, etc. During that turn I saw the front wheels weren't steering... they were locked straight ahead and in the turn, were being dragged sorta' sideways. Cars towed with all four wheels on the ground are supposed to have the steering free and unlocked... so the car can follow the motorhome and minimize tire wear. Alright... what happened?

I stopped the bus-house and we checked it out. Both Dar and I (we both check each other) missed an important part of the checklist... to verify that the front steering was unlocked and free turning... and the poor old toad was scrubbing a little extra rubber off it's new front tires during the past 100 miles. Hmmm. This time we were lucky and there's no apparent damage beyond the tire wear. But it will make us a little more vigilant in the future.

Best memory of the day: the views of stunning and snow capped Mt. Shasta. At 14,179 feet, it's the fifth highest mountain in California. Amazingly, it only misses the number 1 spot (Mt. Whitney 14,505') by a lousy 326 feet... and there are three other peaks that fill that gap.

Oct 15 - North Umpqua Wild and Scenic River Corridor

2011-10-15T22:44:00.002-05:00

The Umpqua River is one of the principle rivers of Oregon, draining a large area of southern Oregon and dumping into the Pacific Ocean at Reedsport. Today we explored a portion of the North Umpqua Wild and Scenic River Corridor from near Roseburg and stretching eastward about 40 miles. State Highway 138, the main highway between Roseburg and the north entrance to Crater Lake National Park, follows the North Umpqua through this area.

We did three different hikes today, the first to Deadline Falls, the second to Susan Creek Falls, and the third to Fall Creek Falls. Flashes of sunlight between clouds combined with the dark dense forest (and a bit of exertion thrown in) had us shedding layers to cool off... then adding layers to warm up... then shedding again, etc. all afternoon. Overall though, the day was perfect for short hikes like these.

The hike back to Fall Creek Falls was an ascending mile that took us through a narrow slit in a basalt rock wall, (we jokingly referred to as a "fat man filter"), through a valley strewn with boulders covered with a thick carpet of moss, a path wet and slippery in places, and only two sounds -- either flowing bubbling water or complete silence. Let me explain.

still able to slip through the "fat man filter"

Our path followed the creek upstream toward the falls. Near our starting point at the bottom, the sound of flowing water was obvious. And at the falls, near the top, we could easily hear and see water coming over the falls, gathering in a pool beneath it, and rushing off downhill. But in the middle of our almost mile hike in, the sound quit... nothing... total silence. We couldn't help but notice. What happened to the water? We were in a narrow canyon and couldn't see any obvious point where the creek could be diverted out of the canyon. I feel confident, considering the size of the narrow steep-walled and rugged canyon, that if water was flowing anywhere over the surface we'd be able to hear it.

We even walked off the path and into the dry creek bed where it was accessible. It was obvious that water had flowed here in some considerable volume in the not too distant past... like, probably this past Spring. But walking from one side of the bottom of the canyon to the other side, (it wasn't far... maybe less than 100 feet) there was no flowing water at that point.

The only plausible explanation we could come up with was that the creek had found a porous spot in the creek bed where the water could flow into an underground stream of sorts. Something along the lines of a natural culvert or drain tile, probably filled with rubble but porous enough to allow creek water to flow for some distance underground before re-emerging into the creek further down the hill.

There was no authority or ranger around to question about this, so we're left with what we saw and the hypothesis we came up with to explain it. It was the big mystery of the day.

More photos from our day are contained in an online album. Check them out if you have a chance.

Oct 13 -- An SKP Wildlife Sanctuary

2011-10-13T23:29:00.000-05:00

Sutherlin, OR

Today, I'm happy to report, we slept in... and then took it real easy the rest of the day. One of those days of solitude with no schedule, no appointments, no responsibilities, no worries. We did take an extensive walk around the park, walking almost every street and checking out every corner, in order to determine whether or not we're going to put our name on the list for a membership and a lot. No decision will be made for a while as there's more investigation to be done.

There's no shortage of wildlife around here though. Browsing deer (hanging around apple trees for the low hangers and falls), huge jack rabbits (that look like they'd eat the tires off your car overnight), quail of some kind, turkeys, and, we've been told by a reliable local source, an occasional mountain lion is spotted. Hmmm... maybe that's why there are fewer little dogs around than we see in most SKP parks.

And I forgot to mention yesterday that our new windshield survived the first drive with only a few minor bug gooshes. My main (irrational) concern was that we'd go around a corner, the bus-house chassis would twist, and the windshield would fall out and smash on the pavement below. Since that didn't happen my confidence that the job was done right is building.

deer-trimmed cedars

Oct 12 -- Back on the Road

2011-10-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

187 miles; I-205 to I-5 South; Sutherlin, OR

It was an uneventful, if not a little sad, departure from the Portland area and our Northwest family. Mostly cloudy skies but no rain so the toad was spared an additional coating of road grime. I'm always amazed at the amount of traffic on I-5, but come around once someone (Dar) explains again that this is the main artery between the congested la-la land to the south and the big cities of the Northwest. There's really no alternative for commercial traffic and folks trying to move quickly from point A to point B.

We've snagged a site at SKP Timber Valley until Sunday and plan to spend our time getting back into explorer-mode. Some procrastinated chores need to be done, some QT (solitude) for pondering the future, and a new route planned for the next leg of the journey.

Best memories from the day: Dealing with the mixed emotions of leaving family behind and the excitement of being back on the road; listening to the drone of the diesel motor and the whine of tires on the pavement; the dark green conifers contrasting with the muted yellows and reds of deciduous trees; soaking up the sun and warmth while enjoying, just the two of us, wine and snacks alfresco for the first time in many weeks.

Velcro

2011-10-11T10:59:00.001-05:00

As we prepare for our departure from the Portland area, it occurred to me that leaving family, grand-kids, good friends could be compared to separating two pieces of Velcro: a distressed ripping sensation of two joined pieces that, the first time you do it, you swear couldn't possibly be re-joined in the same way again. But in the same way we were amazed by our first experience with Velcro, their "hooks" and our "loops" will mate up again in a few short months.

It's a Love/Hate Thing

2011-10-04T13:02:00.001-05:00

NewsFlash: Apple introduces the latest version of the IPhone today

When it comes to love/hate relationships, for me, the best examples are in the realm of the devices that connect me to the internet. On the one hand, they are so damned amazing (how old is Vanna White?... less than a minute later I know she's 54 (Yes... 54!), her father was Puerto Rican, she grew up near Myrtle Beach, NC... all with the simple press of a few keys on my laptop while we're eating dinner and waiting for the 6pm news). But on the other hand, we consumers have to suffer through this period of discovery and "shake-out"... while manufacturers and the market try new things, new form factors, new technologies... some of which just aren't ready for prime time. We're all trying to figure out what works best and what will someday become the norm. Why do I have to wait 2 full stinkin' minutes for my laptop to boot up? What's with all these updates I have to wait for, it seems, almost every day? We've seen the market "sweet-spot" for PCs evolve from the bid clunky desktop to laptops, and now, to much smaller handheld devices known as tablets and smartphones. They're small, for sure, but they can't get much smaller, can they? Are they too small? Too big?

A couple years ago I had (actually still have... in a storage bin somewhere around here) a big 15" screen "laptop" that was on the outer-limits of portability. I craved something smaller, lighter, and, hopefully, something with a battery life greater than 58 minutes. People I talked to about this said I'd be foolish to give up the big wide bright screen for something smaller; that I'd probably develop carpal tunnel syndrome, spine degeneration, scurvy, and all sorts of other maladies from typing on anything smaller than standard keyboard.

Pshaw, I said. So I bought my current little Acer 1410 and never regretted it... 10.5 inch screen and all. It still takes more than two minutes to boot up but it only weighs a couple pounds and the battery lasts for an honest 6 hours. It's small, but not too small for me.

But here's one I've been struggling with for a long time. Smartphones. A couple years ago, as I was writing a journal update, I looked around and saw people walking around the campground with bent necks... looking like they've lost the muscle control to hold their heads up, normal like. It also appeared they were looking at something in the palm of their hand... as they aimlessly bounced and caromed off trees, the sides of cars and campers, and each other... like a pin balls. So I approached one of these people, got on my knees, looked upward... trying to make eye contact... to get their attention and find out about this phenomenon. This was my introduction to the smartphone.

Since that time, I've observed an increasing number of these things. It seems almost everyone has one today. But I've resisted. Sure, it'd be great to be able to check the weather while I'm walking around... or read other blogs, or check up on Vanna White, or get my emailed spam and forwards from people I never hear from otherwise. (You know who you are... click here) -- (thanks to Wandrin Lloyd for this link)

I said all that to say this... to finally get to the point of this post. I've been seriously considering getting a smartphone. I'm tired of the snickers and rolling eyes when people see my three year old flip-phone. And the comments: "What's that? The remote control for your awning?" or "Wow, I haven't seen one of those in years!" or "Does Verizon still support that?" I feel I'm being nudged, nay pushed and shoved, over to the dark side.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time with two smartphones... one an Apple IPhone, the other a similar Android powered device. Without a doubt, they were both slick little devices. However, after considerable thought and really analyzing how I'd use it... what'd I do with it, I decided to wait -- to NOT get one at this time. Here are the biggest reasons why:

1) Size: As a phone a smartphone is too big and too flat. As an internet device its too small and hard to read... aging eyes really appreciate a little more screen real-estate when perusing the internet. For me, this is a case of the worst of both worlds. My flip-phone is easy to live with, slips in any pocket or nook in the car, and magically opens up, unfolds, to curvaciously fill the space between my ear and my mouth. It's small when it should be and large when it should be.

2) Vulnerability/Durability: I've gotten in the habit of carrying my flip-phone in my pocket... any pocket. I often sit on it. It's dropped on concrete. It's abused and misused. But it still works and has worked for almost three years. Tough little bugger. I look at the exposed screens on smartphones and I cringe, wondering how they'd hold up to what I put a phone through... and how much it'd cost to replace when I break one in half. I'm told there are tough cases that you can put your smartphone into, but they make an already too big device even bigger.

3) Cost: Hundreds of dollars for the phone, many hundreds more when I break it, and hundreds more every year for something called a data plan. Maybe it's just my price/value ratio that's out'a whack, but I have a hard time justifying the price for the way I'd use it. Price/Value?... a monthly jug of scotch or a data plan?? Hmmm.

4) Complexity: "Apps"... they've got a million of them. How much time would I spend trying to figure out which apps I need, which would be useful, how they work, what to do when they don't work, and on and on. And that's besides learning the smartphone itself, it's operating system, quirks, hidden features, and all that. I'm not getting any younger and I think using the time I have to take a better shot at really living life instead of figuring out how another dang device works is probably the better option for me.

5) Time: Closely associated the last point about complexity... do I really need a way to be connected every moment? Comon... I'm not a 911 dispatcher or a doctor on call. I don't need to be so immediately connected. Sure, it'd be nice at times... but not necessary.

6) Neck: I'm concerned that a smartphone would hasten the body deformation that naturally occurs as we age. I'm hunched over enough already, worn down by life, and don't need to hasten the process.

Now, if they ever come up with a smartphone that dispenses antacid tablets every time you check your investments... now that'd be useful. I do like technology and won't say I'll never get a smartphone. It's just not the right thing for me at this time.

(emailed to the blog from the old fashioned little Acer laptop)

Sep 30 - Portland Area

2011-09-30T15:14:00.000-05:00

It's been days since my last post and it's time to update the journal. We're still here in the Portland/Vancouver area visiting family and will be for about another week. Our main focus has been the two hombres (aka the Grandsons) but we're also trying to fit in some visits with friends from the old days. While here we get to attend birthday bashes and other extended-family events and get-togethers.

Then there are the occasional local explorations like the one last weekend where Grandson Ryan and I made an assault on Beacon Rock about a half hour up the Columbia River Gorge. This over 800 foot tall monolith is the hardened lava plug of an ancient volcanic vent... the rest of it eroded away long ago. Named Beacon Rock by the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery, it's a landmark of note that's hard for me to ignore. And by the way, both the 6 and 60 year old explorers completed the climb with energy to spare.

The weather is changing too, from the normal quiet dry and sunny period typical of August and September in the Northwest to a wetter colder pattern that portends the winter ahead. There are still some really nice days ahead yet this fall but the inevitable change has clearly begun. One need look no further than the parade of RVs leaving the RV park and nosing south as evidence.

We're still unsure of our path once we fall in line... just haven't taken the time to think much about that yet.

After a successful climb.

Better not mess with this gang!

Brief Kid-Watch Update

2011-09-23T16:18:00.002-05:00

We've been on the job now for over a week... full time too. These two little guys both wear us down and lift us up... at the same time. How is that possible? It's exhausting work but there's no where we'd rather be or anything we'd rather be doing.

Haven't had much "online" time, or time to write... opting instead for time with these two.

We think they're worth it.

New Specs for the Bus-House

2011-09-15T19:14:00.001-05:00

or.....

"I Can See Clearly Now"

Here's the scoop on our windshield. I had previously written about my crack problem and some valiant attempts to extend the windshield's life after it finally succumbed to a fifth rock impact during it's short life. But all my efforts subsequently failed. It was over. Time to throw in the towel. So officially... for the books, our average windshield life is 37,000 miles and just shy of 5 years. We saw a lot of the country through that glass during its time.

But you know how averages can leave one with an altered understanding of reality. And as we once again head down the road, in just a few weeks, I'll be extra vigilant and not a little fearful lest a rock-spewing gravel truck merges ahead of us... dramatically and quickly lowering that average. Oh no... say it ain't so Joe!

Out with the old...

With replacement inevitable, I called our insurance agent... who had me call the insurance company's claims office... who had me call the nationwide glass people they deal with... who collected the vital information and found an installer who would be doing the job. I was surprised to learn that the installer can and does change out big single pane motorhome windshields in the field. Imagine that? I'd always heard that it was necessary to drive the motorhome in to a shop, hours away, where a team of people with a fork truck were needed to do the work. Once again, listening to all the "experts", I was misinformed. (I really should do a separate post on this subject -- RV "experts" we've known. But it'll wait for another day.)

...and in with the new.

Sure enough, this afternoon, as arranged, a small box truck shows up with three eager installers and a big hunk of glass that was destined to be our new windshield. It's not necessary to describe, blow by blow, the full process. But after just an hour and a half, they were leaving and the bus-house had new specs.

How much does this 5 foot tall by 8-1/2 foot wide curved sheet of glass weigh? No specific weight was listed, but two of us picked up and carried the old one back to the truck without too much effort -- so, I'd estimate it weights somewhere around 100 to 150 pounds... less than I thought it would.

And "they" said it couldn't be done!

What did it cost? It didn't cost us anything thanks to glass breakage insurance and a declining deductable that had driven our portion to zero after four claimless years. But the quote to do the job was $2700 complete... about $2100 for the glass and $600 for installation. Now I'll wait and see what happens to my premium next year.

Roll On, Columbia...

2011-09-10T10:41:00.000-05:00

Well, we're here. Firmly "rv-parked" in Portland, just west of the airport on the north side of town... not far from the mighty Columbia River, and a little-longer-than-expected drive to our daughter, son-in-law, and grandkid's home, optimistically a little less than a half hour away.

We got in just after noon yesterday, Friday, after an incredibly scenic drive down the Columbia Gorge. We've done this drive dozens of times during our years living in the Northwest and it still seem fresh and new and full of new discoveries today. Due to high-pressure, heat (mid 90's for a few days), and some wild fires up in the mountains, visibility was a little restricted and the haze made photography less than ideal. But it's just spectacular regardless.

First order of business was to fill the diesel tank. After filling the side of a paper grocery store bag with cipherin' and stickin' my finger in the air for an estimate of wind speed and direction, I took a chance that we could make Portland with the fuel we had on board. Of course, all that figurin' was based on the promise from Newmar and Spartan that the tank actually holds 100 gallons and that all but a few gallons can be pumped into the engine and are actually usable. We normally look for fuel when we start burning into the last half of the tank, but the promise of saving a few bucks (and the challenge of the whole endeavor too) pushed me to roll the dice.

I won't drag this storyline out any further as it's really anticlimactic. We made it, of course, and still had something like 15 gallons on board when we reached the crazy-busy Loves Truckstop in Troutdale, OR. With a full tank (3.929/gallon), we're ready to sit for a month and enjoy family.

The kids? They've grown so! In some ways it seemed like we've only been gone a month or two. In other ways it was like we hadn't been here for 2 years. Reality is somewhere in the middle, but getting reacquainted and hugging and talking and hugging some more makes "today" the only really important time.

We all went out for pizza last night and had a grand time.

============

I've got some catching up and filling in to do, once again, with the Journal. I'm working on a couple posts about our drive over Lolo Pass to Orofino, and the trek into Eastern Washington and along the Wallula Gap. Photos will be included for no extra charge. Just gotta find the time...
T

Lolo Pass Road

2011-09-07T14:51:00.000-05:00

The day after Labor Day, Tuesday the 6th, we broke camp at Square Dance Center near Lolo, MT., and pointed the bus-house nose on a westerly and uphill course following US-12 toward the Idaho border. This is precisely the path taken by Lewis and Clark back in 1805, and a route we'd taken a few years ago -- albeit in the opposite direction. It's one of our favorite scenic drives so it's no wonder neither of us spent much time considering alternate routes over the mountains. This is the one we'll do now, again, and, hopefully, many more times in the future.

The skies were clear but visibility was hampered by smoke from a number of fires in the surrounding hills. Persistent high pressure and low winds prevent the yuck from moving much so the day wasn't a good one for photos. Dar managed but the results certainly weren't great.

I don't want to duplicate what I wrote after our previous trip through here (May 2008) so I'll just say we, once again, thoroughly enjoyed the day, stopping often at pull-outs and rest areas... even pulling out the chairs once for a longer break. I mean... we were clearly in no rush to be anywhere. Linear exploring at it's best.

We eventually made it to Orofino where we set up camp for a couple nights at Clearwater Crossing RV Park. Just luv "rushing" across the countryside like this!

Since my words are in short supply today, I'll pop in an extra photo or two. And more photos from our day can be seen in our online photo collection.

Fire!

2011-09-06T02:04:00.000-05:00

The topic of RV fires has been on my mind the past few months. You may remember that we have good friends who lost their motorhome to fire last September. This past June popular online bloggers Ed and Marilyn had a fire that totaled their 5th wheel as they were toting it through Missouri. Last winter, a number of RVers reported that someone's RV burned to the ground out in the desert around Quartzsite. And in the past few days, near Yosemite National Park, a motorhome caught fire, set the surrounding hillside on fire, and blackened thousands of acres.

A couple years ago we drove through a campground, just checking it out, and found a completely burnt out chassis of a 5th wheel, surrounded by yellow police tape, sitting on a campsite while neighboring campers carried on normally... a strange and eerie sight to say the least. We never heard more about that one.

While the chance of having a fire in any RV is probably small, it's certainly statistically greater than a fire in a fixed house. And fire is a much bigger concern with RVs due to their light construction, flammable and toxic materials, mobility (running gear, engine, fuels), and the dreaded propane refrigerator. Due to their relatively small size, once a fire gets going the entire unit can be involved quickly. If you're inside your RV when a fire starts there should be but one reaction... get out. Fighting the fire, I'm told, should be a distant secondary effort.

But some things bothered me as I pondered this subject. Probably half the time we spend inside our rig we're in bed (comon... get your mind back on the subject...). And if a fire happens while we're in bed (say, the refrigerator malfunctions in the middle of the night... like our friends in Rockport) what do we do? Since the bedroom and the bus-house door are on opposite ends of our 40' rig, the likelihood is that the fire will be blocking our normal exit path. Hmmm.

Escape Window: Well, first off, we've got that escape window back there in the bedroom... the one that says "Emergency Exit"... the one the RV dealer told us never to open because "it'll never seal properly again". When we took delivery of the bus-house, the safety director rejected that advice and we did open it a couple time to see how it worked (and, by the way, it sealed back up just fine). But we've never practiced actually exiting through that opening... and I see a number of things that could cause problems. First off... it's high off the ground... ours is 7 feet and the bedroom exit from many 5th wheels is higher yet. Do you have a fear of heights? Do you dive out head first? Turn around and back through it feet first? Isn't the hinged window going to be in the way, banging the back of your head, as you wriggle your way out? Do each of you fend for yourself, or do you somehow help each other out? Will you be able to solve these problems quickly in a panic situation? Unless you've practiced, you really don't know.

Last week, at Escapade, I attended the fire safety workshop presented by Mac McCoy... the RV Fire Guy. According to Mac, you've got maybe 20 seconds to get out of a burning RV before smoke, fumes, or flames will incapacitate you and you'll likely die. He's a strong proponent of actually practicing going through the escape window... so you'll know how it's done and what works best for you. Unfortunately, going through that window does require some bending, twisting, and other contortions of one's body, and that means a lot of people we see along the RVing path will not be capable, for one reason or another, of using this means of escape.

So, besides a fire drill to practice going out the escape window, what else can we do?

Smoke Alarms: Our 40 foot motorhome came with one smoke detector/alarm. It's located way up front near the door. It might wake us up... but it might not. So, in order to have some redundancy and to possibly buy a few more seconds of time in a real fire, I bought another, the best one I could find, and installed in on the ceiling of the bedroom. I check both of them for function every couple weeks.

Fire Extinguishers: The most common fire extinguishers out there are dry chemical types. The BC-type are usually filled with sodium bicarbonate, common baking soda, which works well but is messy (powder everywhere!). The ABC-type are filled with mono-ammonium phosphate... which is not only messy but the residue becomes highly corrosive and toxic when the chemical comes into contact with heat... fire. Users are cautioned to not use ABC-type units near electronics or other sensitive equipment nor should they be used around people (!!). Less common in the USA but very popular in Europe and the rest of the world are foam-type extinguishers, which are non-toxic, very effective, and the use of which creates virtually no additional mess.

The bus-house came delivered with one dry chemical (BC-type) extinguisher... and it, like the smoke alarm, is mounted right next to the front door, at the extreme opposite end of the camper from where we sleep... (with the fire-bomb fridge right in the middle). If the main reason for an extinguisher is to get you a few more moments of time to get out, wouldn't it be handy to have one in the bedroom??? where you spend so much time? It might buy you a few seconds while your trying to figure out that dang escape window.

Of course, a fire extinguisher can come in handy if you're right there when a small fire starts... say, in a pan on the cooktop. We've had a cooktop fire, not in the bus-house but in our fixed no-wheels home back in Washington a few years ago, and the experience taught us two things: first, always have a cover for the pan (or wok in our case) within easy reach when cooking so you can smother any fire while its still manageable. Second, dry chemical fire extinguishers, when used, will probably put out a small fire, but will make a tremendous mess throughout the rest of the house. There will be dry chemical residue in every nook, cranny, and crack in the entire house.

Something else to consider from Ed and Marilyn's blog... they found they didn't have enough fire extinguisher capability. Ed almost had the fire out when their one fire extinguisher emptied and quit. If they had another, who knows, they may have been able to save the rig. As it was, all they could do was wait and watch it burn.

So, with all that information rolling around in my head, we ordered up some more fire extinguishers... five of em to be exact... four of the the foam type and an additional dry chemical BC-type.

The new big foam extinguisher is now located where the original dry chemical unit was located by the front door. I moved the dry chemical extinguisher to the basement storage bay next to the front door... so it's accessible from the outside. That bay stays unlocked while we're traveling. The other matching dry chemical (BC-type) unit was mounted in the trunk of the car. Our intention is that the dry chemical units will be used only outside.

Three of the new extinguishers are the smaller disposable foam type. I have one mounted on a wall in the kitchen area (away from the cooktop) so it's easy to grab and use in seconds. The other two are back in the bedroom, one mounted on a wall near the escape window, visible and easily grabbed and used; and the other in a cabinet next to my side of the bed. I'm told that the foam-type extinguishers can be used to wet down oneself in order to buy a few extra seconds during an escape from a real fire... in the event you haven't already wet yourself enough.

A note of caution: in the past we had purchased a couple of the First Alert Tundra disposable type fire extinguishers... the red aerosol can type you see at Walmart or your local hardware store. However, after one of the units aged out beyond it's expiration date, I thought I'd use it, for practice, before tossing it out. But when I did so, it failed to operate at all. The propellant inside the can was either never there or had escaped somehow during it's life. If we had needed that unit for a real fire, it would have cost us precious seconds while we figured out it wasn't going to work at all. Consumer Reports rated them unacceptable for this same reason.

We're not experts on these things, but we feel better knowing we have a few more tools at our disposal than we did before... and that we're mentally more prepared in the event of a real fire.

No-Labor Labor Day

2011-09-05T13:53:00.001-05:00

We're camped at the Square Dance Center and Campground just a couple miles west of Lolo, MT. We stayed here back in May of 2008 during our eastward quest for the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery expedition. Despite the fact that neither Dar nor I are square dancers, they apparently feel we're OK people anyway and welcome us with open arms. It's one of the nicest campgrounds in the area and one we like because it's more like "camping" than "rv parking". We're "kicking back" and doing no labor whatsoever today... just reading, writing, playing with photos, or whatever else we feel like doing.

The campground is right on the banks of Lolo Creek, which flows down from Lolo Pass and the Bitterroot Mountains about 20 miles to the west. In 1804, the L&C boys established a camp they called Travelers Rest near here, and then followed Lolo Creek up and into the Bitterroots on their way west. I'd like to think they walked right through our campsite.

We're here for two nights, yielding to the Labor Day revelers and travelers who'll have to go back to work and school tomorrow. Once they're all safely back to their weekday lives on Tuesday, we'll break camp and head up US-12 and over Lolo Pass. That chunk of road, between here and Orofino, ID, is one of our favorites. It's only 150 miles but we'll probably take most of the day to let it entertain us.

The drive from Bozeman yesterday was also very entertaining. Heading west on I-90, as we neared Missoula, the mountains start to close in... pinching the road, railroad line, and the Clark Fork River together in a meandering twisting dance that was especially enjoyable on the bright blue almost wind-less day. The bus-house was humming smoothly... seemingly enjoying the drive as much as we were. We all agreed the Rocky Mountains are a spectacular and very attractive place.

Movin' On Down the Road

2011-09-04T00:24:00.000-05:00

This will be another quick update, as we're getting ready to hit the road again in the morning.

Approaching storm at Escapade in Gillette

We left Gillette on Friday morning about 9am. With Bozeman MT in our sights, and since it was looking like a good driving day, I thought we'd be able to complete the 380 miles with plenty of reserve energy left to enjoy dinner with my brother... a denizen of the fine city of Bozeman. We made good time and the drive was quite agreeable until we turned due west near Billings... and ran smack dab into a 30 - 40 mph gusty headwind. I had drawn the straw to drive this leg and by the time we made Bozeman, some three hours later... well, lets just say it was time to relax.

Update on the windshield crack I attempted to stop the other day: The cross-scoring of the crack with a glass cutter idea failed completely. As we drove against that strong headwind today we could see the crack growing as the big sheet of glass held back the almost 100 mph combined wind speed. At this point we're resigned to the inevitable new windshield and hope we can make it all the way to Portland, where we'll be parked for a month, before starting that project.

We've been at Sunrise Campground on the east side of Bozeman and had two very enjoyable dinners with my brother Bill. He's an Assistant Professor at Montana State and just kicked off the new semester a week ago... which means he's swamped. Despite it all, he made time for us both nights and we certainly appreciated his consideration and good conversation. We won't see him now until next summer back in Wisconsin. Thanks Bill... we thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

As I mentioned earlier, we're back on the road tomorrow, Sunday, and will probably alight somewhere near Missoula. Tune in tomorrow for another episode in the continuing adventures.

Escapade Update

2011-08-31T08:45:00.000-05:00

This micro-post is just to say we're doing well and all is OK. Since we paid good money to attend the Escapade rally we're committed to getting the most value possible from it... and that means going to as many seminars, workshops, and social things as we can fit in. But blogging takes a back seat.

Today, Wednesday, I'm planning to learn more about digital photography, ham radio, 12 volt systems in RVs, and will attend an informative session on the coal and oil industry of Northeastern Wyoming. And tonight, from 6 to 9pm, I'm a volunteer golf cart driver... shuttling people back and forth from their rigs to the central event center. I'll be able to knock another thing off my bucket list: working as a cab driver.

We're still planning to hit the road again on Friday, continuing our trek toward Portland.

Devils Tower

2011-08-28T11:46:00.000-05:00

Saturday, Dar and I drove up to Devils Tower National Monument. Neither of us have ever stopped here before despite being so close during a number of jaunts through the west while living in the midwest, so it was something we considered a "must see".

The drive took us east about 30 miles to Moorcraft, then north another 30 miles on US-14 to Devils Tower Junction. The Monument's gate is a few miles further and then a short climb to the Visitor Center parking area.

It is an impressive thing. Formed thousands of feet below ground level many millions of years ago when a mass of volcanic lava forced it's way upward and into surrounding sedimentary rocks. The betting is it never made it to the surface... just a relatively small intrusion that didn't have the force necessary to bubble to the surface and grow into a full fledged volcano. It's made up of a rock called phonolite... a mixture of volcanic basalt and feldspar. Phonolite is very hard, much like granite. During the process of cooling the material shrinks and vertical cracks develop, which eventually join other vertical cracks, leaving tall multi-sided columns that give the monolith it's distinctive "clawed" look.

And speaking of "clawed"... many Native Americans consider this place sacred. One of their legends involved the earth saving some young girls from a bear by uplifting this column of rock, with the young girls on top, high into the sky and well above the bears reach. The bear clawed the sides of the tower but was never able to reach the top. Indians commonly refer to the tower as the Bears Den, the Bear's Lair, or Bear's Lodge.

Over eons of time, the surrounding softer rock eroded away leaving the much harder phonolite monolith standing tall above the current surrounding ground level. Rising more than 1,200 feet from the surrounding terrain, it tops out at about 5,100 feet above sea level. The top is more rounded than flat and covers an area of about 1.5 acres.

Look closely... two climbers on the tower. It's also easy to see the columnar nature of the rock.
(click to enlarge)

No, we didn't get to the top. But others did. We saw dozens of people scaling all sides of the thing and a few people standing at the top. Dar and I are pretty much in agreement on this point: we are not interested in technical rock climbing at all. Many years ago I did "climb" Mt. Hood in Oregon, but it's a relatively easy feat -- not technical at all -- compared to scaling the shear sides of something like Devils Tower.

We stopped and chatted with a ranger in the Visitor Center before heading off on a hike around the Tower... a relatively easy 1.3 mile ashpalt paved path. The tower is surrounded by a boulder field... the "droppings" of millions of years of erosion as the tower sheds large chunks of itself. When I expressed concern about the stability of the rock on the tower and the danger to climbers, the ranger said the last large chunk that fell was 3 years ago... and the Forest Service brought it down intentionally when they deemed it a hazard. It's good to know somebody's looking out for those nutty climbers... and the hikers on the path below.

It was a great day for photography too. Check out our online photo albums of our day at Devils Tower.

On to Wyoming and Escapade

2011-08-26T03:08:00.000-05:00

This morning we're hitting the road again on a short 130 mile drive to Gillette, Wyoming and the Escapees Club Escapade. The big event doesn't really start until Sunday afternoon, but we thought we'd get in early and run out to Devils Tower on Saturday. It's also good to relax a little and meet our close-by neighbors before the event and see if I can motivate someone to make me a batch of brownies.

We're not big rally attendees... have only been to two others, both during our first year on the road. And we really don't join many organizations either (wouldn't think of joining an organization that would have me as a member!) But we do like the Escapees Club and thought the location and timing of the Escapade fit right into our plans this year.

We'll be in Gillette until Friday, September 2nd, at which time "travel mode" will become primary and "exploring mode" secondary... since we have only 8 days to make it to Portland. Gillette is about the half way point on our trek from Wisconsin to Oregon/Washington and it took us 26 days to make it that far. So the 8 days to do the second half is pushing it for us. Might be some Wally-docking or Cracker-docking in our near future.

Since leaving Wisconsin we've tried to stay off the Interstate Highway System and have only been on the super-slab 20 miles by the time we hit Rapid City. But from here, westward, we'll be out there among the semi trucks and fast drivers considerably more... and it may take some doing to adjust to the fast and busy pace.

Scratching My Crack

2011-08-25T12:25:00.000-05:00

No big explorations to report on either Wednesday or Thursday. We just hung around the RV park working on more of those catch-up things that have been hanging over our heads, as well as a run to the local Cabelas store.

Bus-house windshield. The bus-house is four and a half years old and has 36,000 miles on the odometer. We still have the original windshield, but it has taken a beating during that time. It's a huge hunk of glass (5' tall by 8.5' wide)... one of those one-piece jobs that some years ago motorhome manufacturers started installing for the "un-interrupted panoramic view" out the front end. I guess that's supposed to be a "feature".

The downside to this whole "one-piece" idea comes when you have to replace the dang thing... it's a major job. With the old split windshield, replacement is a relatively easy task. I've watched the replacement of a half windshield in an RV park some time ago. Two guys from the auto glass service can remove the old and install the new in a matter of 20 minutes or so. It's a reasonably sized piece of glass that two guys can handle without special equipment.

But replacement of these huge one-piece buggers is a major job. First off, they're not going to come to you in the RV park and replace it in 20 minutes. No sir (or madam), you'll have to break camp and drive over to their place. Second, not many shops keep something like this in stock and it'll have to be ordered and shipped. And thirdly, the windshield is so big and heavy it takes a crew of people and a fork truck to do the job. Additionally, as these things often go, there's the good chance that something won't be done right, it'll leak somewhere or something, and you'll have to make more trips back to the shop for "get-it-right" follow ups.

And a big downside for me is that after you've gone through all the hassle of getting it replaced... and you've got that big new shiny hunk of glass up front... there's the overpowering fear that it'll get nailed again by a passing gravel truck within the first few miles. So, for me, having a windshield with a few repaired chips and impact craters is better than a new one.

Our windshield has sustained 5 impacts large enough to cause damage over it's four and a half year life. It's interesting to note that I remember the exact spot on the map where each one occurred. The largest divot, one so big the chip repair guy would only do it because I insisted, happened in Montana, on two-lane US-191 between Hilger and Roy about three and a half years ago, when a car traveling the opposite direction kicked up a stone -- a boulder really -- that sounded like a gun-shot when it hit.


a little larger than a quarter. (color and contrast altered to enhance image)

Of the first four impacts, two were repaired professionally and two were small enough I took a chance and just let them go. None of the four caused a running crack to develop.

But the fifth one... just a couple weeks ago, was a relatively small hit. I heard it, but could see nothing immediately afterward while driving and thought we lucked out again. However, when we stopped for a break and I took a look from the outside... there was a small chip right on the lower edge on the drivers side... and, curses, there was already a crack, two or three inches long, running northward. Dang! Common knowledge says that once a crack develops, it'll continue to run until it's big and ugly and crosses directly through the driver's line of sight. Replacement is inevitable. Since it happened it has already grown to about 6 inches.

Hmmm. A thought was rolling around in my head. If I could drill a hole at the end of the crack... could that stop it? A little online research indicated that might work... but drilling the hole is problematic because you need a diamond drill bit and steady hand... and there's still a big chance that the whole dang windshield will shatter.

But then I found buried in a user forum somewhere... a comment from an ex-stock car racer that said he had stopped windshield cracks from spreading by taking a simple glass cutter (less than 5 bucks at any hardware store) and scribe a half-inch score in the glass at the furthest point the crack has progressed. The score should be perpendicular to the direction of the running crack. He says he's never had one continue to spread afterward.

There's only one crack... the lower one is a reflected image.
Note score across path of crack.

So, this morning I did exactly that... I scratched my crack. And we should know pretty quick whether this simple idea works. It may look a little ugly, but if it stops the crack from spreading it will save this chunk of glass for a little while longer. I mean, I've grown very attached to this old scarred windshield.

UPDATE September 2: The idea that you can score the glass ahead of the crack to stop it from spreading has failed. I don't know if I didn't do it right or if my stock car driver source was just making it all up... just don't know. During our recent "big headwind" day, we watched the crack spread despite numerous attempts to score it in this manner.

Wind Cave National Park

2011-08-23T22:00:00.000-05:00

Got an early start this morning... for us. Out the door a little after 7am, stopped for breakfast at a nearby restaurant that's already become a favorite of ours, and were back on the road a little after 8am. The prime destination today was Wind Cave National Park. I've written before that visiting as many of the National Parks is one of our themes. Our stop at Wind Cave today will be our 21st of the 58 on the list.

The drive to Wind Cave is about 55 miles and takes us through the Black Hills towns of Hill City and Custer, both of which impressed us as very neat, affluent, and comfortable. After a few days of running all over this corner of the State we've found the roads in the Black Hills to be nothing less than excellent. The main north-south backbones, US-16 and US-385 on the west side and SD-79 on the east side, appear to be nearly brand new, wide, and smooth. And the various other roads that weave through the area are in good shape too. We really haven't found any that caused us to grimace.

Wind Cave is one of the oldest National Parks in the system... the 7th designated as such... way back in 1903. Named for a hole, a natural entrance, that blew air... it was known to early natives and considered sacred. But in 1881 a couple of cowboys named Bingham stumbled on the hole, heard the sound of blowing air, and when they tried to look down into the hole the rushing air blew their hat off.

For the next few years only a few people ventured a short distance into the hole to look around. But in 1890, a lad named Alvin McDonald, yet a teenager, developed an interest in the cave and started exploring it in earnest. He also gave tours, for a charge, and soon large numbers of people were traipsing through the cave... often chipping off cave decorations and taking them home. Eventually, some influential people became concerned enough to push for government assistance in protecting the cave for future generations. It all came together when Teddy Roosevelt signed the documents in 1903 making Wind Cave a National Park... the first designated to preserve a cave.

We took the "Natural Entrance" tour... an hour and a half tour down the slightly-modified original entrance and along narrow passageways and a few larger "rooms" where the guide could talk to our fairly large group. At the deepest point we were 200 feet beneath the surface. Wind Cave is noted for the cave decoration known as "boxwork", which are thin fins of calcite that formed in cracks in softer limestone... and left behind after the limestone dissolved away. Arrayed in patterns that resemble boxes, they're very rare and only occur in a handful of caves around the world.

Boxwork

After our tour and exploration of the exhibits and a film on the Park, we decided to drive northward and catch another portion of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway known as Wildlife Loop Road which winds through the southern portion of Custer State Park. Here's a sampling of what we saw... there's more photos in an online album from the day.

The feral burros are not native but the descendants of burros used as pack animals in the early days of the parks history. They hang around entrance gates and will stick their noses into any open car window looking for a morsel of food. They've become quite accomplished beggars, and owing to their cuteness, they're a tourist favorite... a big hit with the kids.

We got the inside tip on where a couple larger herds of bison were located... about 3 or 4 miles down Fisherman Flats Road, a gravel 1.5 lane road with very few straight or flat sections. We came over a rise... and there they were. They were slowly moving, purposefully, it seemed, in one direction and a couple of times they surrounded our car. The ranger estimated each heard in the 200 to 300 range.

During the drive we also found a bunch of pronghorn antelope, a few mule deer, and many "towns" of prairie dogs, which Dar think are the cutest thing going. If she could, she'd adopt a couple of 'em... which would be replacing me since I'd be gone. She also fell in love with this little burro. Women!?

South Dakota Air and Space Museum

2011-08-22T23:34:00.000-05:00

The past couple days we've been hanging around the camper and trying to get caught up on journal posts, photos, and other miscellaneous paperwork/computer work. But today, about noon, cabin-fever was setting in and we had to get out and do something.

A good close option was the South Dakota Air and Space Museum, situated at the edge of Ellsworth Air Force Base... about 12 miles from our camp. Since the day was shaping up to be another warm one (we're getting used to it... heat and low humidity = warm days and cool nights), it'd probably be better to be out and about instead of sitting around the bus-house and sweating.

We both have a fondness for aviation. I've always liked airplanes, the thought of flight... the freedom of it... so much so that many years ago I took flying lessons and got my private pilots license. Dar, on the other hand, just has the hots for pilots... any pilots... anyone who flies. Hmmm. Hope my license is still current.

There's no admission to the museum... but a donation is appreciated. Most of their museum pieces are on static display outside... a lot of it the big iron: nice examples of the B-29, a B-52D, an EC-135, a B-1B (I wondered who or what buggered this billion dollar machine up so bad that it's now a museum hulk??), and a myriad of other planes from the post WWII era.

But the highlight of our afternoon was the tour of Ellsworth AFB offered by the museum for only $8 each. What tipped me over to taking the tour was that it included a tour of the training silo for the Minuteman II missile... the only other Minuteman II silo that still exists in addition to the Delta-09 silo we stopped and visited outside of Wall a few days ago.

The catch was that we both had to be screened by base security... and with Dar's checkered past it's likely they'd ask us, politely of course, to get off the bus. They're serious about security these days and aren't going to put up with a couple of troublemakers from Wisconsin if they can avoid it.

Surprisingly, we slipped right past security and onto the base. Our tour guide, named Harry, only had the two of us to deal with... and he could see we were basically harmless anyway. So he drove all over the base, showing us some very modern housing units, recreation and workout facilities, parks, golf course, the BX, the commissary, clubs and bars and gathering spots... why, you wouldn't have to leave the base for much of anything. About 6,000 people work on the base and I was "this close" to signing up.

But then we pulled into the missile silo area. They've kept one transporter/erector truck and one armored security jeep-thing they called the "peacekeeper" for museum purposes. Back when the MM-II was active, groups of these kinds of vehicles would be running around the roads of western South Dakota, moving, loading, and unloading missiles and other equipment from the 150 silos under this base's command.

We were able to descend stairs into the silo... three flights of stair down... about 25 or 30 feet. At that level we walked into the silo and saw the training missile. The MM-II is 60 feet tall and the silo is 90 feet deep. Peering down alongside the missile, especially in such close quarters, it's a shocking long way to the bottom.

It was a good visit... especially after having seen the Delta-09 silo out near Wall. And we always love taking photos of classic aviation machinery.

Tonight, we're hitting the sack early so we can get an early start tomorrow. We hope to visit Wind Cave National Park... and then see what other trouble we can get into.

Stone Faced

2011-08-21T13:25:00.000-05:00

Saturday we loaded up the exploration-rig (the toad) and headed into them thar' hills. The Black Hills, that is.

South Dakota's Black Hills are the eroded remnants of a mountainous dome forced upward by volcanic forces many millions of years ago. Despite their eroded nature, they rise 4,000 feet above the surrounding high northern grasslands... like an island in the plains. Harney Peak, at 7,242 feet, is the highest point east of the Rockies and west of the Spanish Pyrenees. The area is about 50 miles by 80 miles and was home to Native Americans for the past 10,000 years.

Heavily forested with Ponderosa Pine, a strong scent of pine is always present when meandering the maze of roads that weave their way through the hills. Due to the ruggedness of the area, wildlife can flourish relatively undisturbed by civilization... although developers are doing their best to turn the place into a vast tourist trap. US16, the road leading from Rapid City to Keystone and the Mt. Rushmore area, is lined with all sorts of glittery touristy "fun" things... Bear Country USA, Reptile Gardens, the Fort Hays Chuckwagon Dinner and Show, Old McDonalds Petting Farm, a Presidential Wax Museum, and Holy Terror Mini Golf are just a few of the places tourists can drop cash and keep the kids happy. I mean... really... who wants to look at rocks and trees when I could be playing mini golf in the dark with lighted balls? I think that's all I'll say about all that.

The first place we stopped was Mt. Rushmore. I think I wrote the other day that it's been 37 years since Dar and I were here. The facilities are now very new and modern, lining a central arched walkway from the parking garage ($11) to the main viewing plaza. It looks to be mostly constructed of native local granite and, considering the huge number of people it must service, is both functional and elegant. Since it's still summer, and this was a Saturday, the crowds were significant, but not too intrusive.

What can I write that will add to what's been said so many times before about the monument itself... the four Presidents carved into the granite mountain? It's a stunning work of art and also a monument to it's creator, Gutzon Borglum. It was a great day for photography and our two cameras got a real workout.

From Mt. Rushmore we drove down to the Crazy Horse Memorial, something new to us. While it did cost us $20 to get in ($10 each), neither of us had a problem with it considering that most of the expense of finishing this massive work is being paid for by admission fees and donations.

I was a little surprised at the scope of the visitors center and surrounding museum, theater, cultural center, the sculptors preserved home and studio, and the viewing veranda and restaurant. It's all much more than I was expecting. This is clearly a Native American project... driven by the Lakota Sioux. The complete ultimate site plan calls for the addition of a huge museum of the American Indian and the Indian University of North America and Medical Training Center.

The carving itself, begun in 1948 by Korczak Ziolkowski, is immense. The largest carving in the world, it will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long. In comparison, the Mt. Rushmore Memorial, all of it, would fit on the side of Crazy Horse's head. Funded completely by private donations and admission fees, it's a project that will move slowly and could last well over a hundred years.

The story goes that old Korczak, already in his 40s when he started the work in 1948, worked alone for the first 5 years. Every day he had to climb something like 900 stairs to get from his base camp to the top where he was working... lugging air hammers, drills, and tool steel up with him. His first big air compressor (needed to run the equipment) was a tired old Buda compressor that was sitting down at the bottom... the compressed air piped to the top. It had to be hand cranked to get it started. Some days he'd start the old Buda, make sure it was running ok, and start climbing the stairs. About half way up, he'd hear the old Buda chug and kaput to a stop, and he'd have to climb all the way down, restart it, and then back up again to resume the climb to the top. On the worst day, he had to go down and back up again 9 times to tend to the old beast.

Korczak died in 1982 and since then his wife, Ruth, and 7 of their children continue the work. I find myself hoping, but wondering if it will ever actually be completed. I'll never know... nor will anyone alive today. And who will be looking at these massive stone faces a thousand or ten thousand years from now? And what will they be thinking? Could they be among the most enduring evidence of our culture and civilization after the cockroaches take over?

With a few hours of daylight left, we decided to drive another portion of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway. When I wrote earlier about the maze of roads that weave through the Black Hills... this is the epitome. All together, it's a 66 mile double loop of twisting roads, low narrow tunnels, and "pig-tail" bridges that traverse some of the most difficult terrain here. And what a great thing it is... to be able to get to places in the hills where, without the road, you'd have to hike and climb to. The two highlights of the afternoon were portions of the road known as the Needles Highway and the Iron Mountain Road.

The best way to appreciate the Scenic Byway is to go slow. Considering the places you'll stop to walk around and soak in the views, to smell the pine, you might only average 10 miles per hour... maybe less. For example, Needles Highway is only 14 miles long, but took us a little over an hour and a half to complete.

Tunnels. There are 6 tunnels along Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road. Since the smallest, dimensionally, is only 10' 7" high and 8' 4" wide... it'll be a long time before we take the bus-house on these roads... like never! If you travel from south to north on Iron Mountain Road, the last tunnel perfectly frames Mt. Rushmore, directly in front of you, as you inch through the narrow gap.

Pig-tail bridges. These are bridges that are curved so that they spiral down (or up... depending on your direction) in a tight circle and cross under themselves... a 270 degree or more curve, depending on the geography. We crossed a number of them on Iron Mountain Road.

Shadows were growing long as we finally made it back to Keystone, one of the centers of activity here in the hills. I'd best describe Keystone as the Gatlinburg of South Dakota... enough said.

During our stay in the area, we'll be back into the hills to see more next week. But I think we'll let the weekend crowd have it to themselves on Sunday.

Remember, clicking on any images in this blog will enlarge them. Dar also has many more photos from the day in our online photo collection.

Scenic For Sale

2011-08-20T16:23:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago in the news media there was a story about a town in South Dakota that was for sale. That's right, the entire town... well, at least most of it. It created quite a stir among news organizations and even hit network TV news shows. The town is Scenic, South Dakota, with a population of 9. The asking price is now $799,000 which could be quite a deal if it included the 9 people. But I don't think the people are included.

We have in our acquaintance a couple of good souls who have been toying with the idea of buying a piece of property and starting their own country. They, like a lot of us, are getting close to giving up on the good ol' USA... feeling helpless, powerless, and represented by idiots. They long for rationality, reasonableness, and equal opportunity... things many of us feel slipping away. I know... there'd be a lot of hurdles to making this a reality and the idea has about as much chance as a snowball in South Texas. But it's certainly a good thought exercise and a lot of fun to ponder. We'd even discussed, in jest, whether this "town for sale" could fit into the plans.

Well, what'dya know... our drive between the Badlands and the Rapid City area on SD-44 took us right by Scenic. That's right... we could stop in and check out the town for our friends... and maybe get the inside track on a quick sale.

There are three exits off SD-44 for Scenic. I slowed as we neared the first and found a badly rutted gravel/dirt road. Proceeding to exit two... same thing. But exit three was the charm... a hard surfaced road. So in we went and found an acceptable parking spot right in front of the jail.

There's not much to Scenic but what's there has possibilities... Dar thinks real possibilities! The first place I ended up was in jail. (memories of my past?? or just bad dreams??)

All the essentials are there... a post office, a saloon, a diner, a hotel/hostel/bunkhouse, and a gas station/convenience store. I mean, what else would you really need in a small basic town?

Pondering this opportunity a little more, I wondered which way this ownership thing really goes? Does the person own the town... or does the town own the person? With many, if not most, ownership situations -- regardless of what it is that's being owned -- the thing really owns the person. With ownership comes responsibilities including upkeep, maintenance, repairs, taxes, liabilities, and storage... and probably more burdens I can't think of right now. I, for one, am sure I'm not ready for all this... especially on the scale of a whole town.

But alas, all the dreaming and thought games came crashing to an end today when I found that the town now has a buyer and the sale is supposed to close this next week. For now, at least, it appears Scenic is off the table.

The Badlands and the Doomsday Machine

2011-08-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Badlands are exposed layers of silt, mud, ash, clay, sand, and goop that have been semi-compressed into a soft stone. These layers were once the bottom of a vast inland sea that covered much of the central USA many millions of years ago. Due to geologic forces these layers have been thrust upward here, in the area of Badlands National Park, and are eroding away at the rate of about an inch per year -- quickly in geological terms. In a few hundred thousand years what's visible today will all be gone.

At first glance it all looks so desolate and lifeless. And it's true... these are tough conditions for life. But on closer examination life is everywhere. Small plants shoving aside a shard of crust and poking up through the soft rock... a little pine tree clinging to a crevice on a vertical slope... burrowing animals. When viewed carefully and up-close, it's rewarding to find these small footholds of life... and to marvel at their adaptations to this harsh environment.

Thursday, we drove and explored the loop road through the middle of the park. Stopping at almost every pull-out and overlook, soaking in an experience that is so different from your run-of-the-mill walk in nature. The way these layers of material were laid down over the eons of time provided perfect conditions for preserving evidence of early life, plants and animals that have long since gone extinct but are preserved here as fossils in soft eroding stone. Both paleontologists and vacationers (even kids) have found fossils freshly uncovered by the process of erosion.

The day was slightly hazy and thus not all that great for photography. But we did our best and our photos are mostly for the record and probably won't be in a fine art gallery near you any time soon. No delusions there.

As we exited the park through the north gate, a late lunch sounded good so we checked the map for anything nearby. Hmmm. The only thing that popped up was the town of Wall. Yes, that Wall! Thinking back, we believe it was 1974 when we were here last... 37 years ago. (Yikes... time screams by!) We stopped at Wall Drug at that time and about all I remember was seeing shelves full of jackalopes. (if you don't know... google it)

Well I'm here to testify that Wall Drug has been taking steroids. I really don't remember much from 37 years ago, but it certainly wasn't the full city square block sized retail monstrosity that we witnessed that day. I had no idea. Free parking surrounded for blocks around. Cars and motorcycles and RVs and trucks and people were everywhere on this Thursday afternoon. Clearly, the old formula of advertising free ice water alongside the nearby hot dusty roads must still be working. Wow.

Yes, we did find our way to the cafe inside, had a quick sandwich and requisite free cup of ice water... and then left.

From Wall we drove I-90 eastward. At exit 116 we pulled off and took a gravel road to the right, which wound around to a nondescript and unsigned fenced in area about the size of a football field. There was very little parking and the gate was slightly ajar -- just enough for a person to slip in. No one was around. A pamphlet holder on the gate contained an info-sheet that diagramed and described what we were seeing. We slipped in.

On one end of the area was a small flat concrete thing covered with glass panels. We approached and looked in... and down... at a Minuteman II missile in it's silo. This was Delta-09, the only preserved and open to the public Minuteman II silo that remains of the 150 that were strewn around just South Dakota during the cold war. There were hundreds more in other surrounding states. After the signing of the START treaty in 1991, 149 of the South Dakota silos were "imploded" -- deactivated and destroyed. This was the only one preserved, according to the info-sheet, "to tell the story of the Minuteman's role in deterring a conventional war and preserving the peace." There was no going down into the silo as it's sealed. All we could do was look down at the sleek machine it contained and wonder... were they right? Did these devices preserve peace by assuring total annihilation? Where we looking at an element of a doomsday machine? You've also gotta wonder, now that technology has advanced another 50 years from these 1960-ish gizmos, what threats and challenges are in our future?

Down the road a few more miles, at exit 131 was the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Visitors Center -- not much more than a couple portable buildings next to a Conoco gas station. There a visitor can sign up for a tour of the one preserved underground launch control facility that's a part of the historic site. They were sold out for the day, but my interest was marginal anyway.

From there it's just a few miles south to the Northeast gate of the Badlands National Park and back to our campsite at Cedar Pass.

Dar has many more photos from our day in our online photo collection. Check 'em out if you'd like.

Whippersnappers and Fossils

2011-08-18T21:30:00.000-05:00

What he said:
"Hey Mister... this is a pretty intensive hike. It goes straight up that wall to the top. A few miles down the road there's another trail that'll get you to the same place... but it's much more level and a lot easier."

What I think I said:
"Oh, (pause)... OK... thanks for the tip"

What I heard:
"Hey, grandpa... I don't think this is the hike for old fossils like you. It's for young fit hardbodies that workout and exercise every day... people like me. Why don't you elderly folks drive a little further down the road where there's another much easier trail. Why, I think you can even use a walker or wheelchair on it."

What I wanted to say:
"Hey you smartass whippersnapper... how old and crippled do you think we are? Why don't you come over here and grandma will introduce you to the side of her walking stick."

We were at the Saddle Pass trail-head in the Badlands National Park and intending to take the short hike to the top of the "wall"... for a look-around. Could probably get some great pictures from up there on a bright morning like this. We were gearing-up for the walk... hiking boots, Dar's hiking poles, water... and had exchanged pleasantries with the young fellow who parked next to us. After he walked a ways up the trail, he turned and initiated the exchanged recounted above.

Grandma Fossil working a steep section of trail.

With that, he hopped up the hill and out of site. We shook off this boost of confidence and agreed to proceed, to see what we'd encounter. The Park Service has this trail classified as "strenuous"... but we've also been of the opinion, based on many other hikes on public lands, that they usually exaggerate the rating a little in order to be on the safe side... so as not to lure people into hikes they shouldn't be doing. We've done some pretty severe hikes in the past and we really didn't think this one would exceed our capabilities.

So up we went... scrambling in a few steep areas... but a very do-able hike for fit old fogies like us. In short order we were standing at the top... looking for any signs of our friend...

"Hey Kid... check out grandma and grandpa! We made it and didn't even break a serious sweat.

Fossils on top.

A Good Drive to the Badlands

2011-08-17T21:53:00.001-05:00

We got an early start out of Cottonwood COE near Yankton on Wednesday morning. The day was bright and quiet... and what little wind we experienced during the day gave us a push to some degree. We decided to once again shun the Interstate Highway System and stick to mostly 2-lane US and State highways. Our route took us over the Fort Randall Dam... the next higher dam from Gavins Point on the Missouri. From there, we clawed through the heart of southern South Dakota, through farm country and Indian Reservations and, somewhere, oh, maybe somewhere west of Winner, South Dakota, crossed from the "Midwest" to the "West". I notice this every time we make the trip west... there's a point, OK, maybe an area... where you cross from the Midwest with it's farm fields of corn and soybeans, it's dairy cows, it's county fairs, it's smaller farms and fields... to the West with it's wheat fields and grazing land, horses, steers, it's rodeos, and it's wide open spaces. At the same time there's a noticeable change in the humidity... and the sky seems bigger. Hard to explain, but bigger. We crossed into the West today.

Our objective was to make it to the area of the Badlands National Park -- about 280 miles for the day. There's a basic campground of sorts in the park and, since we're only going to stay for maybe two nights, we'd thought we'd make that our primary target. . There were a couple alternates in the small town of Interior just to the south of the Badlands Visitors Center... so even if "plan A" didn't work out, there were options.

Well, we arrived about 3pm and drove through the Badlands NP campground with it's funny arrangement of one-way circular roads and "wide spots" that are the designated campsites. Some have power and some don't. We found one of the last sites with electric, pulled in, and found we could make it work fine for two nights. Even though it had power (50 amp to my surprise) it was a tad "pricey" at $28 per night. But we're parked in the National Park, with gorgeous vistas of colorful peaks and rock formations and stunning sunsets and awesome sunrises. The only thing, even slightly negative to write about, is the heat. In this higher and dryer climate, the sun can really get to work and heat things up when it's out. After we arrived the air temp rose to well into the '90's... which drives the interior of the bus-house even higher. Suddenly, I'm real glad we've got that 50amp pedistal right over there, and we've got both air conditioners running full blast just to keep us under three digits.

Then, as soon as the sun gets low in the sky... about a half-hour before sunset... the air starts to cool noticably and the A/C is switched off. Dry air, without the power of the sun, cools quickly. It might sound strange, but by shortly after sunset there's a coolness in the air that can send some people looking for more clothing. That's the West... especially, the high-country West.

After setting up we headed over to the Visitors Center and picked up some history and information to make our exploration the following day productive. Then, as tired as we were after a long day of traveling, we opted to have dinner at the Cafe in the Lodge. We split a ceasar salad and a taco on flat bread. It was acceptable but certainly not high-class dining. Some people live to eat... most of the time we eat to live.

More exploring tomorrow!

Camping with High Water and Mayflies

2011-08-15T12:27:00.000-05:00

We're at the Cottonwood COE (Corps. of Engineers) campground just outside Yankton, South Dakota. We arrived about 3pm yesterday. This campground was built as part of the Gavins Point Dam project in the 1950's and is just one of many around the dam and the resulting impoundment -- Lewis and Clark lake. Of the two campgrounds being operated by the COE only this one is open as the other, Tailwaters, is still under a few feet of high water... part of the ongoing saga of the big Missouri River Flood of 2011.

And speaking of high water, the COE is still "spilling" 150,000 cubic feet of Missouri River water through the Gavins Point spillway. Although the crest of the 2011 flood occurred some weeks ago, it's August and they've got to start lowering the reservoirs to prepare for next years runoff. It's impressive indeed... to stand next to the spillway and watch all that water violently churning as it speeds downriver. We made a short video (click here) for anyone who'd like to see it.

There are 6 dams on the main stem of the Upper Missouri River built to minimize flooding, produce electric power, and provide recreation opportunities for surrounding residents. This is the fourth one we've camped at (Fort Peck, Garrison, Oahe, and now Gavins Point).

We had decided not to come over here for last weekend... concerned after checking online that the campgrounds were full. Indeed, the internet reservation system indicated as much, and a phone call to the COE confirmed it... at least for the one campground they operate. All together, State and Federal, South Dakota side and Nebraska side, there must be almost 1000 campsites around the dam and lake... it's a very popular vacation spot. But if they were as booked-up as they seemed to indicate, the stream of campers leaving yesterday morning must have been almost as impressive as the water coming over the spillway. At least two State of South Dakota operated campgrounds we drove through after setting up camp... both very nice and would easily accommodate the big ol' bus-house... were virtually empty by 5pm.

I was also a little put off by the thought of crowds (a thousand campsites could mean a thousand campfires, thousands of kids, dogs, drinkers, cars, bikes, late parties, and more). Since we weren't here over the weekend, I can't testify to any of that. But today, Monday, it's peaceful and very agreeable.

The one odd thing we did find here was the mayfly. They're everywhere. For some reason swarms of them are attracted to the shady sides of hard surfaces (like campers!!) and cover it like a blanket. So far we've not had enough to freak-out Dar, but I'm standing ready with a dose of Valium and the smelling-salts if she starts to hyperventilate. I don't know why mayflies are blooming in August... perhaps it has something to do with the high water this year. They don't eat anything and don't bite -- don't even have a working mouth or digestive system -- as they only live for one day or less and exist for the sole purpose of reproducing.

Our trip over from Algona yesterday was an enjoyable 200 mile jaunt on mostly two lane roads. Some of those roads were rough, some were narrow, and we did get jostled around some... but we managed and didn't break anything that we're aware of (although, as of this writing, we haven't opened up every cabinet yet... so something could still jump out and crash to the floor).

We think we'll be here until Wednesday before heading toward the setting sun once again.

Oh, and for the record, I have to mention the surprise visit we had the other day, Friday I think it was (we were still in Algona), from my sister Jan and brother-in-law Dave. We had known they were heading to Sioux Falls for their anniversary weekend getaway but had no idea they'd be coming right down US-18 and right through Algona. We were standing in the grocery store at the intersection of 18 and 169 when our phone rang... it was Jan and they were looking for us. Well, by the time we finished checking out they were in the parking lot. Nice surprise! They joined us for a short visit out at camp before continuing on to SF. Thanks you guys for stopping in and brightening our day. We don't get many visitors from our home town when we're out exploring... ya know. Happy Anniversary to you two. And thanks for the growler.

Hobos and Tramps

2011-08-13T22:00:00.001-05:00

Since we were this close we felt we had to go. I mean, it's only held one time each year, on the second weekend in August, and this year, 2011, this is the weekend.

I may have heard something about it... on PBS or NPR... years ago. But really... who's going to go far out of their way to attend something called the National Hobo Convention? Com'on... I'm not a hobo. Am I? Sure, I'm a wandering itinerant, live "on the road" fulltime, and I do look for handouts along the way... I don't have a permanent home in a fixed location... and the only reason I'd consider "working" is if or when my money runs out. Hmmm. Maybe I have more in common with this hobo-thing than I thought.

So, since we're so close, just 27 miles away, and with nothing else to do on a cool cloudy Saturday, I guess we have a responsibility of sorts... to ourselves... to find out what we have in common with hobos and to learn a little more about what this lifestyle is all about. So off we went.

Like me, you're probably thinking that hobos were a sub-culture that had long ago died out. I was also tempted to believe this convention thing was mostly a put-on... a reenactment of sorts... like those people who dress up in civil war garb and reenact civil war battles on weekends. But, like me, you'd be wrong! Real, live, in the flesh, hobos still travel the rails and live a nomadic existence on the road, and a goodly group of them show up every year in Britt, Iowa for their annual convention. Color me red! Yes, the hobo culture still exists and, thanks to a couple sharp-minded civic promoters from the town of Britt, Iowa... way back in 1900... they have convened in Britt each year since. It's almost as if Britt could be called the hobo capital of the world.

We arrived shortly after 10am and the parade had already started. Those who procrastinate and are always late love parades... because we've learned that even though the parade has already started and that we're LATE, you can still see the whole dang thing by finding a seat near the end of the parade route. We sat with a group of locals under a big walnut tree and chatted for almost half an hour before the START of the parade finally, at long last, made it's way to us. And there, amongst the fire trucks, the wagons full of high school classes of old (61. 66, 81, etc), the classic cars and tractors (remember, this is farm country)... there... on a wagon full of real life hobos... on a raised seat way up top... was the Hobo King and the Hobo Queen from last years convention. This was their final spin around Britt before they surrender their exalted positions to a new couple who will be elected this very afternoon.

Hobos are all dubbed with monikers... nicknames that are a little more descriptive of the person. For example, some famous Hobos from the past were Iowa Blackie, Fishbones, Hobo Lump, Bo Grump, and Cinders.

OK, so what is a hobo... officially. Well, this is it: Hobos are workers who wander... an itinerant or migratory worker.

"The hobo is a migratory worker, some with a special skill or trade, others ready to work at any task, but always willing to work to make his way."

Closely associated, but distinctly apart from hobos are tramps and bums. Tramps are those who wander and work only when forced to and bums are so lazy they will neither work nor wander. In other words, hobos are the creme-de-la-creme of all wanderers, vagabonds, and nomads.

I'm growing a little concerned at this point. Since Dar has a special skill (nursing) and she does work (for a few months the past two years)... and let's see... she is certainly migratory (summer North... winter South)... she fits right into the definition of a hobo. As a mater of fact, she fits in so well she might be eligible for Hobo Queen some day. However, with no special skill and since I'm certainly only going to work if I'm forced to... Oh Woe!... it looks like I'm a tramp! May have to change the title of the blog to "Hobo and the Tramp".

A couple more hobo terms: a "bridger" is a hobo that has ridden the rails behind both steam and diesel locomotives. There are very few "bridgers" left. And a "rubber-tramp" is a hobo (or tramp) that has forsaken the rails for rubber tires... usually on an old car, van, or RV. (Wait a minute... now that's hitting a little too close to home!)

Britt pulls out all the stops for this four day event. Saturday is the culmination, the high-point, of the week... with the parade, the election and coronation of the new Hobo King and Hobo Queen, and the noon Mulligan Stew feast, which is free (what did I say earlier about handouts?) and for which people line up for a city block or more to take as much of it as they can carry in whatever container they can bring. Almost everyone in line has a large pot, dutch oven, or recycled ice cream bucket in which to lug home the treasured Hobo Mulligan Stew. The good people of Britt make hundreds of gallons of the stuff, mixed and heated in a dozen or so large pots made from 55 gallon drums... and they dish it out in any quantity to anybody in line.

The hobo mulligan stew serving area

A mish-mosh of potatoes, meat, carrots, rice, vegetables, celery (don't know what celery is, but it's not a vegetable!)... really, whatever you have... Mulligan Stew is a traditional food of the road. As the hobos would gather and camp for the night, they'd contribute whatever "makins" they might have had, threw it all in one pot, and boiled it until tender and edible. That's Mulligan Stew! After the crowd ebbed and the line shrank, we got our free bowl and slurped it up. It's really comfort food for the vagabond.

We sat in the bleachers and listened to various hobos get up to say what was on their mind. A few have been on the road for 20 or 30 years. Some have homes, but still travel much of the year. Some recited poetry they had written, some sang songs. Then the electoral process began with each candidate for Hobo Queen addressing the crowd. After each had spoken, their names were called individually and the loudest crowd response indicated the winner. Same with the King. The now certified results for 2011... the Queen is Minneapolis Jewel... and the King is Uncle Freddie, who is one of the last remaining bridgers.

Hobo King and Queen
Uncle Freddie (left) and Minneapolis Jewel (right)

Deciding not to stay for the toilet bowl races, we walked back to the car and toured "The Jungle"... the hobo camp set up alongside the railroad tracks, and the Evergreen Cemetery (in keeping with the "cemetery theme of this week") where there's a special section way out back for hobo graves and memorials.

All kidding aside for one lousy paragraph... the event made me more aware of this real but dying subculture... that there are more similarities to us, as fulltimer RVers, than differences... and that we may not be far away from a resurgence of hobo-ism, of desperate people having no other choice but to live on the road, if we don't get this economy and our politics straightened out soon.

How much fun can a person have in one day?

Dar will have more photos uploaded in the next day or two, so check them out if you have a chance. And tomorrow, Sunday, we're off again. Westward Ho!