Running Down Our Dream

Heading East to LA

2012-01-30T11:14:00.016-05:00

We left Q last Monday planning to be at Betty's in Abbeville by February 1st. We would be traveling I-10 the whole way and wanted to spend a couple of days at the two SKP parks along the way to see friends. We have driven almost 1400 miles in a week and did four days of 300 miles. This is very rare for us, but we were on a mission to get to Betty's.

Our first stay was two nights at the SKP Saguaro Park in Benson so we could shake out the dust from our two weeks in the desert and see some friends. We got to spend time with Rick & Terry Traver (left), 07 mates whom we last saw in Cody this past fall. We also visited Bob & Gini Huntley whom we met at the Rose Parade HOP and last saw at their home in Massachusetts in 2010. As always, it was great getting to visit with friends along the road.
The trip along I-10 is really quite boring with miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. The are a few sites along the way, one of which was this huge roadrunner in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

As Easterners who never saw a border patrol vehicle or agent in their lives until going on the road, we figured they must be few and far between and not doing a very good job from all the rantings of the right wingers. Also, in all my years of driving I have never seen a road block on an Interstate highway (see above) until we traveled in the Southwest. Surprise, surprise there are agents everywhere we travel along the border and from what we have seen they are doing a good job with a very difficult task. We were stopped at inspection stations at least three times in the past week.

Our second stop was at the SKP Dream Catchers Park in Deming, New Mexico were we knew the Mossmans and Chapmans, who were a day ahead of us on the same trip, were staying. We got to park right beside them and all three rigs have the same graphic, "Laissez les bon temps rouler", that we all bought last year when we did the Mardi Gras together at Betty's. Thanks to Jim M for getting the graphics idea started.

Jim & Bobbie (left) and Jim, Linda & Walker. We had a great happy hour and then saw them on their way the next morning. It was great having them ahead of us, as they kept us updated on where to stay and where the best fuel prices were.

While at Deming we did a day trip to Paloma, Mexico and the Pink Store. Paloma was the first Mexican border town we have visited that did not have armed border guards. We parked on the US side and just walked to Mexico for the afternoon.

We enjoyed a couple of the Pink Store's famous margaritas and had a great lunch. If anyone is in the area next month the owner told us that on February 10th they were having a customer appreciation day with free food and drinks.

We also did a little shopping. The store has a great variety of made in Mexico (not China) items. The Pink Store is a must see if you stop in Deming.

A few of the statues in Paloma. Left is Governor Patricio Martinez Garcia, middle is Nanc with a whimsical Mexican musician, and right is General Pershing and Pancho Villa. The story of their meeting is in this blog post from our last visit to the area.

The drive across Texas, almost 900 miles, brings a big change from the desert out west, into some small mountains, then high plains and the Hill Country and finally down to near sea level in the coastal plain. Our original plan was to stay three days in the Hill Country, but that would have meant driving through both San Antonio and Houston during the week. We opted to do that drive on Sunday (good choice) and are now at Turtle Bayou RV Park in Wallisville, TX. A neat place that is right off I-10 but above is the great view we have. WOW a real river with real water and not just a dry wash waiting for rain that seems to never come. We are just going to take it easy here for a couple of days before we do the last 200 miles to be in LA on Wednesday.

More 07 Reunion & Q

2012-01-24T11:24:00.012-05:00

The Class of 2007 Reunion is over and we are on the road after two weeks of desert camping. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new people as is true with all SKP functions. On Saturday we did a Skype call to 07 mates Howie and Nora who were unable to make it for health reasons. It was great getting to see and talk to them. This is the longest we have boondocked and we now know we can do fourteen days if we are very conservative (which is hard for a liberal like me). We have decided that we are not really into being desert rats, but the opportunity to get together with so many friends makes it worthwhile. As always, we look forward to seeing them all down the road.

The welcome sign at Quartzsite. This little town (population 3,300) grows to many, many thousands in January. From the time we arrived on the 9th until we left, the number of rigs that pulled in was unbelievable. I don't know what the actual number is, but the tourist info says they have over 2 million visitors a year. It really is something that all RVers should do at least once.
The feeding frenzy continued with a pulled pork dinner. Mike Bubar smoked three big butts and we had our choice of three different sauces. You can see how we "rough it" using generator powered crock pots so the meat will stay warm. Thanks to Mike for all the time he spent cooking, a job well done.

The Class of 07 has a tradition of adopting new members who did not start fulltimeing that year and this event was no exception. Here are our new adoptees. Welcome to all and I'm sure we will see you on the road.

Since going on the road four members of the class, Paul Anderson, Jay Carter, Patty Landry and Keith Curry have passed away. We had a memorial service to remember them and share stories and memories. Jim Chapman did a great job with a very touching memorial poem. This makes us realize how lucky we are to be living the life we have and that each day is so important.

One afternoon we went to the Escapees happy hour, a two day event that attracted several hundred people. It is always great to get a chance to catch up with other SKPs we have met during our travels.

Most evenings we had a fire and enjoyed the desert sunsets. We did figure out why the sunsets are so spectacular, it is because of all the dust in the air. A couple of evenings we really "roughed it" as we gathered around Hank's outdoor TV to watch football and a video of the 2008 Gypsy Journal Cactus Queen Contest in which several 07 members participated. Some of them made great looking women even with their beards.

At many SKP gatherings the group raises money for CARE, Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees. CARE is based in Livingston, Texas and is a place where SKPs can go to recuperate from an illness or surgery or get long term care. At this reunion we raised over $1,600 which brings our five year total to more than $4,000. Hank served as auctioneer and Marcia was his Vanna, displaying the goods. We had a fun time with Jim Chapman bidding "for" me and I returning the favor. I even bid against Nanc once to get the price up. It is all for a great cause and everyone had a grand time.

After the auction we had a chili cook-off with ten different entries. Jim Chapman's contribution was to cook a pork butt Cajun style which he learned in Louisiana last year when we were all there. Jim has mastered it as the pork melted in your mouth. All of the food was VERY GOOD.

The main reason so many people gather in Quartzsite in January is for the Big Tent events. On Saturday the RV show started and, as you can see, it was very, very crowded. They have just about everything any RVer would ever want and more stuff that no one really needs. You can buy clothes, toys, cookware, pets and even a few of the usual RV supplies. Again it is hard to believe this all takes place out in the desert.

To prove that many of the people out here have a lot of time on their hands we found this map of the US and Canada that someone had put together on the desert floor. It really was quite interesting.

On our last night in the desert we had Omer and Sylvia over for dinner. It was great getting to spend the evening catching up on what has been happening for the last couple of years. We hope to see them at Betty's again in the spring.

Desert Fun

2012-01-19T11:30:00.006-05:00

More people arrive each day for the Class of 2007 Reunion. We are looking forward to a week of food, fun and friends in the desert. The group was up to fourteen by Thursday and we did our usual thing gathering around the campfire to swap tales of our travels and just generally get caught up. Nanc says I am never in the picture, but it's my shadow on the left.

On Saturday, eight of us made the trek to the Desert Bar, a neat little place that is at the end of five miles of dirt road north of Parker. The bar has grown steadily since opening in 1983. As you can see by the sign the hours are limited. The place operates off the grid and they advertise it as the Solar Bar. Most people drive in but if you don't want to get the car dirty you can opt for the chopper.

Here's our group soaking up the sun. Nanc, Jim T, Jim C, Bobbie C, Ron, Linda, Sal and Bobbie T. A grand time was had by all.

Joe bugles the call for the official start of the reunion on Sunday. The group has grown to almost forty with several new 07 adoptees.

As with all our gatherings food plays a central role. A different meal is planned for each night. The first night was finger foods and a delicious variety was available.

That frozen concoction that helps us hang on sometimes leads to wild behavior. After an early start with margaritas, twenty of us went to Silly Als for dinner and karaoke. We all want to hear Sal sing Bad to the Bone but we discovered we were way to early. Not to be let down by the lack of a music man, we called up George Thorogood on the iPhone and Sal entertained all the early bird diners.

Every picture tells a story.

Here we honored (and mocked) our leader (queen) Linda who dropped her cell phone into the black tank. We do want the give her a big THANK YOU for being the organizer of the reunion.

Another great potluck dinner. What a great variety of food for all.

Two years ago we met Omer and Sylvia at Betty's RV Park in Abbeville. That summer we took them up on the offer to stay at their place in Nova Scotia on our way to Newfoundland and had a great time. Our first day out in the desert they saw us walking and it turned out they were only about 100 yards from where we are parked. They came over one night and entertained the group. You know what I say about meeting friends on the road.

All the attendees. We continue to have a great time out in the desert.

Good Bye Mesa, Hello Q

2012-01-12T09:42:00.003-05:00

We spent most of our time during our last week in Mesa getting ready for the two weeks we plan to be in the desert in Quartzsite. There are only a few stores in Quartzsite and just purchasing the basic essentials can be very expensive. We did get together for some good-byes with friends and made a trip to the Phoenix Art Museum.

The museum had a special exhibit of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural drawings and we never miss a chance to see any of his work during our travels. No photos were allowed so only this model of a mile high building at the entrance of the exhibit could be photographed. There were drawings of a few of his works that we have seen during our travels, including Taliesin, Taliesin West, Marin Civic Center and the Price Tower. There was a special video exhibit of our favorite Western Pennsylvania Wright building, Fallingwater, which we have toured several times. This is a very interesting stop if you are in the Phoenix area.
Nanc and I in one of the many galleries.

Alan and Sharon explaining this life size pastel drawing by William Merritt Chase. The texture and detail made it look like the woman could step right out of the painting.

A few of my personal favorites from the Western American Gallery.

Here are the two new additions to the Frey family, Elsie and Murray, two cute wire haired dachshunds. They are busy learning the most important of new dog tricks, going outside.

We got together with the gang from Sun Life one last time. Here are Nanc, Jim, Rene, Suzanne, Lynn, Dick, Lorraine and Keith at our favorite local spot, Red, White and Brew. We had a great time on our extended stay at Sun Life and plan to return the next time we are out West.

Our arrival at Q was less than spectacular as I "tried" to drive our 40' motorhome through a 35' wash because I did not follow directions. That resulted in the back getting stuck with the rear wheels spinning in the air. That is the BAD news :-( The GREAT news is, we were rescued by three or four very helpful RVers who brought blocks, shovels and a heavy duty jack. They managed to get it to a point where I could drive it out some three hours later. Without their help I'm sure this stupid move would have cost us several hundred dollars. RVers are the most helpful people in the world. We have no pics because I want to erase this event from my memory, but I am sure there are a few somewhere on the net as we attracted quite a crowd. The full moon rising over the mountains was beautiful. A nice ending to a not so nice day :-)

There were four other rigs with 07 folks when we arrived with more coming in each day. (I hope they follow directions.) Our first day we had a fish fry with the main course provided by Bobby and Sal from their Alaskan trip. Everyone else contributed tasty side dishes so, as usual, we were well fed at a Class of 07 gathering. At top left Sal mans the grill. On the right are Hank, Linda and Bobby waiting to dig in. Bottom left facing the camera are Marty, Nanc and Ron sitting and Marcia standing. Bottom left are Joe and Marty. We are looking forward to a fun couple of weeks in the desert with the "official" 07 reunion starting on Sunday.

Celebrating with Friends and Family

2012-01-07T05:19:00.002-05:00

Since returning from Hawaii we have been celebrating and visiting with friends and family. I must have suffered from camera overload while away (1200 pics) and, even though I have both a camera and an iPhone, I failed to take pictures at many of these gatherings. We had Allen & Sharon and Linda & Mike to our place for dinner and evenings of conversation. On Christmas Eve we had dinner with the ballooning Liberti family at their home and we had Christmas brunch with Allen & Sharon. Nanc organized a traveling happy hour in the park with RVers Rene & Suzanne, Keith & Lorraine and Dick & Lynn and it was a good thing the traveling method was walking and not driving by the end of the evening. These are all the times I did not take a picture. I will have to get back in that mode as we hit the road. Because we have been so busy here we extended our stay at Sun Life by a week so we could get together with friends a few more times.

One gathering where I did get pics was dinner at Red, White & Brew with several 07 mates who were passing through the area. Top are Linda & Ron and Joe & Marcia; Bottom are Mike & Sandy and Steve & Sandy. It was great catching up on all our travels and we are looking forward to seeing all of them at the 07 reunion in Quartzsite.

My brother Rick and his wife Denise flew out after Christmas for a short stay with us. We did a day trip to beautiful Sedona with them. Their Christmas gift to us filled another day with a spa visit at the Royal Palms and a fabulous dinner at T. Cooks. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!

The trip to Sedona was to visit with Nanc's sister Michelle and her husband Keith who were there visiting his mother Pauline. We had a great time getting up to speed on what has been going on with all of them. Above is Rick, Keith, Pauline, Denise, Nanc, Michelle and Jim. As I say so often, getting to see friends and family while on the road is the best part about our traveling way of life.

Here we are ringing in 2012 at the Masquerade Ball in the park. The theme was Mardi Gras so we wore our beads and got primed for our return to Louisiana for this year's celebration.

Lorraine, Nanc and Suzanne all dressed up and ready to party.

Keith, Jim and Rene after a night of fun, fun, fun.

We also did two ballooning events with Mike and T. We crewed on Christmas Eve morning for a couple who were on their first flight. The local balloonists have a tradition of flying in the afternoon on New Year's Day. We joined Mike and T along with several others, but sadly we did not get to soar into the new year because, as you can see by this balloon, the wind was too strong. Only two of the pilots chose to fly and, while we would have loved to, even with our very limited experience we could see that conditions were on the edge for a safe flight. We want to send a special thank you to the Liberti family for the wonderful balloon experiences and for welcoming us into their family. You know what I say about friends, family and our lifestyle.

We will be leaving here on Monday and heading to Quartzsite for a couple of weeks in the desert for the 07 reunion. We will then sprint east to Louisiana for a two month stay at our favorite spot, Betty's RV Park in Abbeville.

2011 Travel Review / 2012 Outlook

2011-12-31T05:51:00.012-05:00

The end of 2011 marks 4 ½ years of being on the road full time. We continue to be in awe of the many wonderful places we have had the chance to visit, the sights we have seen and the many friends and family members we get to spend time with while traveling. We stayed in 46 places, a new yearly low, as we had three extended stays which resulted in the lowest cost for campgrounds we have had in our time on the road. Our travels took us from South Florida to Arizona with many northern locations in between. We stopped in 20 states while putting 8,348 miles on Opus and 11,386 on the CRV. We stayed in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Hawaii for the first time which means we have stayed in 49 states since July 2007. We added 20 National Park Service sites to our passport and continue to feel that these national treasures are one of our country's greatest legacies.

We are so happy we had the chance to start the new year with Jack and Mary Lou in Jupiter as Jack passed away this summer after a valiant struggle with cancer. We then moved on to the Florida Keys where we enjoyed the warm weather and spent time with Joe and Marcia. During a week in Fort Meyers we watched the Steelers win a big game at a Steelers bar on Sanibel Island with a former colleague, Janet Scariot Murry. We then stayed at the SKP park in Bushnell where we saw Wanda and Wallace, Charlie and Sherri and Joe and Marcia. It was then on to Betty's in Abbeville, LA for seven weeks of fun, including many Mardi Gras events. We enjoyed time there with many old RV friends and made many new ones, including a group of over twenty who were there for the whole month of fun activities. While there we got together with Valerie and Richard and had a personal mail delivery from Tom and Georgie. As always, it was great to once again see the Louisiana friends we have made during our many visits. On our way to WashPA we did some diamond mining in Arkansas (no luck), were emotionally moved by the Oklahoma City Memorial, visited the homes of Presidents Lincoln, Truman and Clinton and soared to the top of the Gateway Arch. Luckily we were able to dodge the severe weather that pummeled the South and Midwest this past spring. A stop at Spartan Motors did bring some bad news as we needed new ball joints and tie rods. Oh well, just like a stix and brix a house on wheels needs a lot of maintenance. We spent six weeks in WashPA catching up with family and friends while doing doctor and dentist visits .

Our first stop as we headed west was a few days of fishing with Mike and Sherri at Pymatuning where I CAUGHT FOUR VERY LARGE WALLEYE. It was then a stop at Camp Newmar to have a few maintenance issues taken care of. In Michigan we visited Tony and MaryBeth then explored the US side of the Soo in the U.P. In Wisconsin we visited George and CeCe, tried to see my old classmate Barry Alvarez and got our fix of Frank Lloyd Wright in Madison and Taliesin. We zipped across Minnesota and North Dakota to Roosevelt National Park where we met up with 07 mates Mark and Renita. After a week of exploring the Black Hills of South Dakota, it was on to the Escapade where we volunteered and got to spend time with many RV friends and 07 mates. It was then on to Cody and Yellowstone where we had a wonderful week long visit with Mike and Sherri as part of their road trip through the West. While there we saw grizzle bears, buffalo, eagles, a Peregrine Falcon and got to watch a pack of wolves trying to run down three elk in a fascinating display of nature that few people have ever seen. We had a small hitch in our plans upon leaving Yellowstone as we had to be towed to Idaho for an RV repair that turned out costing “only” $300 which, when it comes to repairs of a diesel, is not too bad. We then sprinted to Albuquerque for the balloon fiesta with the Escapees Boomers. We had a chance to see friends Larry and Amy and were rewarded for a week of balloon crewing with our first ever hot air balloon ride. WOW!!!!

We finished the year with our longest stay in one spot (90 days) in Mesa. Here we spent time with RV friends Alan and Sharon, an old school colleague Linda and her mate Mike and made many new friends in the park. We had visits with 07 mates Mark and Renita, Joe and Marcia, Ron and Linda, Steve and Sandy, Mike and Sandy, as well as, Dan and Merlene. While here we did more ballooning with Mike and T and were invited to their home for a great Christmas Eve dinner with their family. After Christmas my brother Rick and his wife Denise flew out and stayed with us for a few days during which we drove to Sedona to see Nanc's sister Michelle and her husband Keith who were vacationing there. All these visits made for a great holiday. Meeting so many people and making so many new friends is the best part of the fulltime lifestyle. That said, while being with friends and family is fantastic, the high point of the last part of 2011 was our two week trip to Oahu and the Big Island of Hawaii. We can now say when people ask what are you planning to do when you no longer travel that our plan is to retire in Hawaii. Just remember what I always say about our plans.

As 2012 begins we are planning to spend January in Arizona, including some time in Quartzite getting together with many of our class of 07 mates for a five year reunion. We were going to stay out West for the rest of the winter but we learned that Betty is going to be inducted as a Living Legend in the Acadian Museum so we are off to Louisiana for February and March. Isn't it great having a house on wheels? We are then going WAY up North to visit Alaska and the Canadian prairie provinces. We will return to WashPA near the end of summer for our annual visit and hope to do a month on the Outer Banks on our way to Florida where we will spend next winter. As always, these plans are written in sand and may change with the rising tide.

Aloha IV & Mele Kalikimaka

2011-12-22T13:21:00.026-05:00

We continued to explore the Big Island and collected a couple more National Park Service stamps in our passport book. We visited more of the windward, rainy, side of the island and literally stood on top of the highest mountain in the world and saw more stars than we have ever seen.

The Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park (top) shows how the Hawaiians built fish traps and pens to hold them so they were available as they needed them. There were also raised planters where they grew crops of gourds, taro and sweet potatoes on the lava flats. (Bottom) Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historical Site on the Hill of the Whale is where King Kamehameha I built a heiau, temple, that was the last sacred structure built before outside influences altered traditional life. The rocks for the temple where brought from 20 miles away by a human chain passing each one hand to hand. When the heiau was complete Kamehamaha invited his cousin and rival Keoua Kuahu'ula for the dedication. His cousin and most of his followers were killed giving Kamehameha control of all the Hawaiian islands as the first king.

Bottom is one of many lava tubes that can be found here. Top is an example of Hawaiian graffiti. It is not painted, it is white coral on the black lava. This graffiti started in the 1980's when people did the first ones as encouragement for participants of the Ironman Triathlon that takes place here each October.
A few of the many birds we saw. There were many more but they were too quick for us to capture a picture. The colors and variety were fantastic.

Another must do on our list was to go to the top of 13,796 foot Mauna Kea. We were disappointed on Monday when we got a call that the tour was cancelled because of a winter storm at the summit. On our trip around the island the clouds cleared and we got to see why the trip had to be rescheduled for Wednesday. Click on the picture and look closely, you can see the road and a couple of the observatories.

The tour departed Kailua-Kona at sea level at 1PM. The first one hour stop was at the visitors center at 9000 feet to give everyone a chance to adjust to the elevation change and have dinner. This telescope was looking at the sun. On the way back down, our tour took us off the road for a chance to see the stars and planets through their 11 inch scopes. We got fantastic looks at binary stars, Jupiter and its moons, Venus and the Orion Nebula as well as several shooting stars.

IT WAS THE MOST SPECTACULAR NIGHT SKY WE HAVE EVER SEEN.

What Hawaiians have to do if they want a white Christmas. We saw a couple of people taking truck loads of s**w off the mountain.

In case I have not mentioned it before, the weather in Hawaii is the absolute best we have ever experienced. This was the only day we had to wear long pants during our two week stay. The tour included winter parkas as it was very windy and in the 30's at the top. I guess they have the reflective strips so they can find you if the clouds roll in. You can see four of the 13 observatories from several countries that are at the summit. The Big Island has the nations strictest light pollution laws to keep the night skies clear for the astronomers.

One thing the tour promotes is the sunset at the top. Ours was just OK as there was one big cloud that blocked the sun from the top of the clouds we were looking down on. It was still great being on top of the highest mountain on Earth as measured from its base on the ocean floor and raising over 32,000 feet.

I am hanging loose at the highest spot in Polynesia. It is Hawaii so it is always t-shirt weather. You can see in the background how much of the s**w had already melted. When the s**w accumulates you can ski down the mountain about 2 1/2 miles.

Beautiful 442 foot Akaka Falls, one of many on the windward, rainy, side of the island. There was a neat little path through the rain forest to get to the falls.

Just a few of the many beautiful flowers we saw along the path to the falls. I don't know what they are but I still loved seeing such a great variety in such a small area.

One of the most unusual was the flower on the banana tree. All the fruit we had was wonderful. It was all the sweetest we have ever eaten.

A small falls at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, another windward side attraction that is a great place to see native flora. The garden is in a steep, stream carved valley that runs down to the ocean. The water level was high with all the rain they have been getting.

WOW what a giant leaf. Many of the green plants were the peace lilies, zebra plants, philodendron and many others that we had as house plants in our stix and brix. The impatiens grown on the island like weeds.

A really high point was the orchid garden. The variety of colors in these beautiful flowers was unbelievable. The botanical garden should be on your must do list when you get to the Big Island.

People often ask what we are going to do when we stop full timing and so far we have always said we do not have an exit plan. That may have changed with this trip. If weather is a big part of our decision on what we will do, then Hawaii would be a great place to settle down some time in the future.

Finally, to all our family and friends a big Hawaiian

Mele Kalikimaka!!!!!

Aloha III

2011-12-18T12:17:00.015-05:00

After a wonderful week on the island of Oahu we flew to Kailua-Kona on the Big Island, Hawaii. From the moment you arrive you can tell this is a different place than Waikiki, as you walk down steps and across the tarmac to get into the terminal rather than walk through a Jetway.

We were greeted with live flower leis as we missed this in Honolulu because we had been bumped and arrived late. This picture is "inside" the airport that has no roof except for a few areas of the waiting rooms. The weather here is very different than Oahu. Because of the high mountains it became overcast almost every afternoon, but the temperatures where still perfectly warm.

This is the main area of Kailua-Kona with the Royal Kona, our hotel, on the far right. The church steeple is one of the oldest on the island and the yellow building with the green roof was the summer home of the king. The town was a neat mix of shops, bars and restaurants to cater to all the tourists. We arrived the day the Steelers were playing and we found a neat place to sit outside to watch the game while over looking the beautiful Pacific and an incredible sunset. A big down note is I lost a cap and had to go to the dentist who said the tooth was too far gone to replace the cap. Bad news, but it caused me no discomfort so I can wait until we return to the mainland to deal with it.

Readers know I have this thing about driving to the "end of the road" and on this island there are many places you can do that. This wind blown tree is at South Point, the most Southern spot in the USA. Nearby was a green sand beach which turned out to be a much farther walk than we were prepared for (we were in sandals) so we only got to see a little bit that had blown off the beach.

Some of the animals we saw. Bottom is a green sea turtle and one of many goats that roam free on the island. Top is an Hawaiian monk seal and a huge barracuda that the guy caught deep sea fishing from the top of the cliff at South Point. The fish was almost five feet long.

This is typical of much of the coast on the Big Island. There are very few natural sand beaches as the island is so young compared to those to the north. The monument marks the spot where a crewman from Captain Cook's ship was buried in 1779. Cook is credited with "discovering" the islands and was eventually killed by those he discovered.

Looking down into Pololu Valley. The weather here was very different than Oahu. The island is dominated by high volcanic mountains and there are all of the worlds 13 climate zones, except Arctic and Sahara Desert, within just a few miles. We drove to the windward side and were greeted with a tropical rain like we have never seen. They get over 200 inches of rain each year. We sat in the car for a half hour waiting for the rain to slow enough so we could get this picture. Most of the time we could not even see out of the window. All this rain makes for a thick tropical forest with many flowers.

The lava from the volcanoes has created new land all over the island. Here you can see the black land where the lava flowed into the ocean. There are many places on the leeward side of the island where the land is just the black remains of the flows that have happened in the last few hundred years. This side of the island only gets about 6 inches of rain a year so it takes many, many years for anything to grow on the new land. You don't see this on the other side because with all the rain vegetation quickly covers the new land.

There are three National Park Service Historical sites on the island devoted to the history of the native Polynesians. We visited Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park the site of a compound for the ali'i, royal chiefs, that was know as the place of refuge. It was a place where no blood could be shed and where a person who violated Kapu, the scared law, could get a second chance if you could make it there before being captured. In our travels we always like to explore the history of the local area.

Just a few scenes from around the hotel. The fish pond was in the center of our building. There where always many different kinds of boats including a couple of big cruise ships that visited for a day. One morning we had breakfast on the lanai including mimosas we made with our complimentary bottle of champagne. While we explored a lot we did just kick back a couple of days to enjoy the beautiful weather. We really indulged ourselves one day with a couples massage compliments of a gift certificate from from Rick and Denise. Here on the Kona Coast even cold blooded Nanc never wore anything except shorts for the entire stay.

We did not attend a luau here because we had done one on Oahu, but we did get to see them cooking a pig from start to finish. Top is the pit and the rocks being heated up. (They cheated and used propane.) Bottom is the pig with the hot rocks stuffed inside and covered with huge leaves. Finally, it is all covered with wet burlap, buried in dirt and cooked for several hours. While I did not get to taste this one, the pork I did have was wonderful.

We even set the alarm for 4AM so we could get up and watch the lunar eclipse. It was really neat seeing the moon turn red and then start to come out of the shadow of the Earth. The Big Island is a great place to see the stars because they have strict light pollution laws to ensure that the observatories on Mauna Kea have a great view of the universe.

This is Panalu'u Black Sand Beach. It is a very strange sight to see the black sand and the clear blue water. The black sand is the result of the lava that has eroded over many years. There will be more black beaches many, many years from now as more of the lave flows are pounded into sand by the waves.

The steaming Kilauea Caldera in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. One big thing we wanted to see was the lave flows of this volcano. You can see the glow of the lava here at night, but most of the flow is in an area that is now outside the park. We scheduled a helicopter ride where we would fly over the flows and be able to see them during the day. Unfortunately, the weather on the windward side of the island did not cooperate so this was all we got to see. We did not even spend much time here because we were in a hurry to get to the airport only to learn the flight was cancelled. This was the only real disappointment so far in what has been a fabulous trip.

We did take a short hike in the park including walking through an old lava tube. There are old lava tubes all over the island, but this one is lighted. This is the only time Nanc had to wear a light coat because it was chilly inside the tube. Hawaii is a wonderful place to see how the real power of nature is shaping the land and environment.

Aloha II

2011-12-12T16:48:00.014-05:00

We continue to have a grand time in Hawaii. The scenery and weather are fantastic with the clouds and sometime even the rain adding to the beauty. When it has rained it has only lasted for a short time and has created beautiful rainbows. We have been trying to strike a balance between sightseeing and just relaxing and enjoying ourselves. It is hard when you are in a place with so much to see and may never get back to. By the way, here is a link to the YouTube interview I did when we were at Pearl Harbor that I talked about in the last entry.

Here is a look at Diamond Head and Waikiki from the air. I think the clouds add to the variety of colors of the water. It is a spectacular sight.
We walked from our hotel to the top of Diamond Head and the view was great. The trail was built by the army when the crater was used as a natural fort for coastal defense. Because of the high crater walls it is very dry and hot, but the view makes the climb worth it. Unfortunately, the day we visited there were thousands of kids from bands all over the US who were here for the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor activities. They were not bad, but it was very crowded. We even met someone from Burgettstown at the top, small world.

The one tour we did while on Oahu was to the Polynesian Cultural Center on the north side of the island. The center has presentations on the cultures of Samoa, Fiji, Hawaii, Tahiti, Tonga and Aotearoa (New Zealand). Above were demonstrations with drums, climbing for coconuts, cooking and of course hula, which was originally only performed by men. They were all very well done and informative.

They had several audience participation activities. We got to try poi :( and Hoa, our guide, taught the basic moves of hula.

There was a parade of canoes with each culture doing their traditional dances. For dinner we had a luau with many performers and the evening was topped off with a lively play telling a story of a Polynesian king. It was a great day and a fun way to learn the cultures of the Pacific island people.

Another day we rented a car and drove around the island. (Less than 100 miles.) We started with a few sites in Honolulu. Above is Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on US soil and a statue of King Kamehameha I, who unified the Hawaiian Islands under one rule. In Hawaii even Santa Claus knows how to "hang loose". All these pictures were taken within ten minutes of each other including the background shot with the pouring rain.

We did a short Obama tour. This is the street where he lived as a child after he WAS BORN IN THE USA. The buildings on the right are where he went to school and the picture was when he visited after being elected president. There is talk of having the high rise where he lived declared a national historical landmark.

One of the beautiful beaches we stopped at on our drive.

On the windward side of the island the scene changes dramatically with dense jungle and more clouds. There are great views around every turn.

It was windy the day we took the drive so the waves where up on the North Shore. This is the famous Bonsai Pipeline. There is a surfing championship going on all month. There is one event that they only hold when the waves are over 20 feet. It has not been held for several years because the waves have not been big enough. I can't image as these 10 to 12 footers looked scary enough to me.

Top in the pic is someone wiping out and on the bottom you can see the front of a board of a surfer who is in the pipeline. This is another of those places I have always wanted to visit and I was not disappointed. Maybe if I had been here fifty years ago I would have given it a try.

The islands are the location of many movies and TV shows. On our way out to Ka'ena Point we came across several police cars and emergency vehicles, but instead of being a crime scene it was the shooting of Hawaii 50. Here a truck comes around the corner as part of the show.

More movie and TV locales. Top is the truck we saw and the house used as McGarrett's in the show. Middle is the valley where Jurassic Park was filmed, they say you can still see the dinosaur footprints. Bottom left is the church from Karate Kid and right is where Lost was filmed. It was neat seeing these spots even if we did not get to hear McGarrett say "Book 'em Danno."

Another great thing has been the food, especially the fresh fruit. We stopped at this little roadside stand for some Hawaiian grown bananas, mangoes and papayas. A must do on our list was eating at Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. There are many shrimp trucks along the North Shore today, but this is the original and we were not disappointed. They only offer four items, three shrimp plates and a hot dog. Nanc had the garlic shrimp and I opted for the hot and spicy, which came with the warning "NO REFUNDS". They were both fantastic. If you get to the North Shore make sure you stop at Giovanni's.

Aloha

2011-12-06T16:48:00.006-05:00

We had accumulated enough travel points on our credit card to pay for our airfare and some of the hotel costs and we had a good place to leave the rig at Sun Life in Mesa, so we planned (always written in sand) to go to Hawaii for two weeks. Even though it sounds like we are always on vacation, we still have the same daily chores everyone does in a regular house; cleaning, cooking, maintenance. We thought it would be nice to go somewhere and let someone else do all those things for a short while, thus, the trip to Hawaii. Upon arriving at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix for our direct flight we learned we were going to get bumped off that flight. The bad news, we had to fly through LA with a delay. The good news, we got two $500 comp tickets that we must use during the next year. The change in plans meant we did not arrive until 10:30 PM rather than 4:00 in the afternoon, so it was not that big a deal. This is the 49th state we have visited since we retired in 2007.When we awoke early (5:00 AM as we are still on Arizona time) and stepped out on to the lanai we were greeted with this view of Diamond Head. Is this fantastic or what?

Looking the other direction we could see Waikiki Beach and several of the hotels. It is really beautiful almost beyond description. The first morning we went to a "free" breakfast to hear about all the tours they offer. We only opted for the Polynesian Cultural Center. (More on that to follow.) On Saturday we had a "free" lunch and $100 off our cultural center tour for listening to a timeshare presentation. Both turned out fine but we can say for sure, nothing is "free" in Waikiki.

In addition to the beaches and high rise hotels, Waikiki is a mix of the high end shops like those on Rodeo Drive, the cheesy junque stores of Gatlinburg and the wild, over the top street performers of Key West. Nanc wanted to go into Prada since I would not stop at the one in Marfa, Texas. We walked the streets just looking and people watching for the most part. Of course, we did do the beach and for the first time were able to swim in the Pacific. Along the west coast of the mainland it is way to cold.

Sunset from our room. The weather has been unbelievable. Everyday the high temp has been 82 with a low of 71. The couple of times it did rain the shower was over in five minutes and was not enough to drive us inside. Even Nanc has not had on anything but short sleeves the whole time. We have slept with the lanai door open so we can hear the ocean.

On Sunday we went to the USS Arizona Memorial that is part of World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. We had originally planned to go on December 7th, but learned the tours would be very limited that day and we did not want to miss getting out to the memorial. Even getting there by 9:30 we had to wait until 1:00 for our boat ride out. There was plenty to do while we waited. The memorial, which is built above the ship, is the final resting place for many of the 1,177 crewmen killed that day. The design on the left of the memorial is the Tree of Life.

Because it is the 70th anniversary there are many survivors here. We got to meet and thank Edward F. Borucki, left and Delton E. Walling. How great it is to get this chance to meet these true heroes as their number is declining daily. The flag at the memorial is attached to the ship.

Being on the memorial is a very solemn experience that for us was similar to visiting the three 9/11 sites. The wall has the names of those who gave their last full measure that day. Several who survived that day have chosen to be interred there. There are only 18 Arizona survivors remaining. You can see the ship below you with only the remains of a front gun turret being above the water. The sheen on the water is oil that is still leaking 70 years later.

This is a memorial to the 429 men of the Oklahoma who died that day. Its loss was second only to the Arizona. We did not have time to see the Pacific Aviation Museum that is another part of the site.

Another part of the memorial is the USS Bowfish and a memorial to the 52 submarines and over 5300 crewmen lost during WWII.

The USS Missouri, on which the Japanese surrender was signed in Tokyo harbor in 1945, is now anchored near the Arizona, thus marking this as the site of both the beginning and end of WWII. The plaque marks the spot where the signing took place. Some of the signers and the documents are also pictured. President Truman wanted the surrender signed on the Mighty Mo because Missouri was his home state and his daughter Margaret had christened the ship.

Mighty Mo was the last battleship built and the last to be decommissioned in 1992 after serving in Desert Storm. Most of the WWII guns were replaced with modern missiles, but the big guns were fired over 200 times on its last mission.

Here I am being interviewed by two sailors about my thoughts on the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. They said it would be on YouTube so I will have to keep an eye out for it.

Just a few of the many beautiful flowers we have seen here. We are looking forward to seeing many more during our stay.

Just strolling along the beach we have enjoyed a couple hula performances and were even invited on stage to dance at one. Here is Nanc moving so fast she is a bit blurred. I was so quick that my picture was totally fuzzy. The Hawaiians really know how to have a fun time.

Giving Thanks & Apache Trail

2011-11-30T06:51:00.003-05:00

We celebrated all of the many things we have to be thankful for at Alan's and Sharon's with a great traditional holiday feast. True to form, I ate too much because it was all wonderful.

After Alan took the bird out of the oven I went to work with the knife carving this beast. We had all the traditional food with both mashed and sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, green bean casserole, two kinds of stuffing, butternut squash soup, and all topped off with both cherry and pumpkin pie. Way too much food, but it was great having a couple of days of leftovers.

Here we are in the studio with a first course of butternut squash soup. After dinner we relaxed and watched some football. We have been in five different places for our five Thanksgivings on the road and they have all been different and great. Each one has been with different friends or family.

One day the four of us decided to take the big loop drive on the Apache Trail. We had been as far as Tortilla Flats before, but this time we did the whole trip including the 22 miles of dirt road. The first sight that caused us to stop was this big tarantula that had attracted a crowd (four people) along the road. They are neat critters that are really helpful and harmless to humans.

The road was originally built to get supplies to the site of the construction of the Roosevelt Dam. It is a real up, down, over and around trip with steep narrow spots where we needed to wait for oncoming traffic to pass.

We were rewarded with a beautiful up close look at the high Arizona desert.

Here Sharon is taking a picture of a scene she or Alan will turn into a beautiful pastel painting.

It was unusual, but beautiful, seeing the fall colors on the trees along dry creeks in the middle of the desert.

This is Apache Lake, one of three we passed along the road. It is a little strange seeing so much water in the desert.

Roosevelt Dam was originally built in 1901 when it was the highest masonry dam in the world. At that time, Roosevelt Lake was the largest man made lake in the country. In the 90's the dam was raised 77 feet and the exterior was covered with concrete. It took 13 years, until 2009, to raise the lake to the new level because of the Western drought.

Sharon and Alan in front of Roosevelt Lake and the bridge that had to be built when the dam was raised. Even with all the miles of dirt road the Apache Trail is a worthwhile drive to get into the back country of Arizona.

Music, Music, Music

2011-11-23T06:41:00.001-05:00

First off, anyone who knows me knows I love music, but have NO musical ability beyond the radio and CDs. Even with that background, the Musical Instrument Museum is a great stop to learn the history of instruments from around the world. The museum is also a great teacher of geography as its displays are arranged by areas of the world starting in Africa, then moving to Asia, Oceania, Latin America, Europe and ending in Canada and the United States.

So true!!
Each visitor is given headphones that play the music that accompanies the videos that often show the actual instruments that are on display. Here is Alan listening to the music of Africa.

This was an excellent display of oil can guitars. The music that came out of these cans was amazing.

On almost every continent early cultures had drums, flutes and stringed instruments in some form. The one that surprised me was how many places had bagpipes. There was even one made from an entire calf hide.

Other displays showed how instruments were made. Here they show how early gongs were produced.

This was a exhibit on the building of Martin guitars.

This one showed how Steinway pianos are made. One of the things I learned was how much of a hands on job making instruments is, even today.

The Artist Gallery has displays of videos of a variety of contemporary artists. These show John Lennon, Toby Keith, Carlos Santana and Elvis. There are many new displays being added to this wonderful museum every week so it is a place we will have to return to in the future.

Here we are at the museum cafe that is licensed by Bon Appetit. Meals are planned using local suppliers and the menus change according to what is available each week. Nanc had a great vegetarian sandwich and lentil soup and I had a wonderful Moroccan lamb stew. The MIM is a great stop for anyone who loves music even if you have a tin ear.

Friends & Trains

2011-11-16T07:56:00.001-05:00

We continue to stay busy here in Mesa. There are many activities going on in the park including happy hours with live music on Monday and Friday and dances every Thursday featuring live bands. The weather has warmed up and we have been enjoying the pool and spa. Alan and Sharon have invited us for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and it will be nice to enjoy the holiday with friends. We picked up our travel documents for the trip to Hawaii, but I am having some second thoughts. We watched Hawaii 50 thinking we could get a feel for the place but there seems to be a lot of crime on the islands. Maybe we should stop watching?? :-) While at AAA I picked up maps for all the states and provinces we will be traveling though on the way to Alaska and have been doing a lot of research on what to see and do next summer. It is great fun planning for all our travels whether it is visiting a local attraction or getting ready to visit the 49th and 50th states.

We had a wonderful home cooked Italian dinner at the home of Linda Rocks and Mike. I worked with Linda many years ago before she moved to Mesa about 25 years ago. We had a great evening sharing stories of old friends and getting caught up with Linda and Mike. If you are in Mesa and need anything related to your bicycle make sure you visit Mike's Bike Chalet on the corner of Brown and Higley.
In nearby Scottsdale we visited McCormick Stillman Railroad Park a unique must see for anyone who loves trains. The park has displays of trains from tiny Z gauge to a full size locomotive and cars with many different sizes between. The center piece of the park is the 5/12 scale Paradise and Pacific Railroad, a replica of the Century Narrow Gauge Railway. We took a ride on the neat little steam train pictured above.

There is a "cattle" car but they would not let us inside because we were to tall. The kids seem to love it. The detail of the replicas are correct down to the smallest parts.

All aboard!! This is a fun ride for all ages.

The engineer fills the water tank for the steam engine.

Another group of trains are part of the Scottsdale Live Steamers. They include this electric train and, of course, tiny steam engines all built at either 3/4 or 1 1/2 inch to one foot scale.

This steam engine, that was built in 1907, was used by mining railroads until 1961. It has been in the park since 1977. The attached Santa Fe baggage car and the Pullman Car are part of the museum.

The Roald Amundsen Pullman Car was one of six the company built to rent to the wealthy for private use. They were all named for famous explorers. This one was used by Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower. You can see on the log that it was also used for Roosevelt's funeral. The dining room was served by a full kitchen. The picture shows Mamie Eisenhower and friends in that room. Nanc is standing in the lounge at the back of the car which also had an open porch. This is not the car used by Truman for his whistle stop tour. He used the one named Magellan that was armor plated for the protection of the President after the start of WWII.

There is also a neat little carousel in the park.

The 10,000 square foot model train building just opened in July 2010 and is a work in progress. There are going to be displays of O, N, and HO gauge trains. Nanc is looking at the prairie dog town where they pop up out of there holes just like we saw in the Dakotas this summer. The bridge is an award winner. The roller coaster will be the center piece of this display. One layout is going to be models of towns in Arizona.

We liked the Clark sign because that candy was made in Pittsburgh and there was a similar sign there for years. The sculpture shows the many different scales of model trains. You can see the display is a work in progress. The parts that are complete were brought from the old small model train building located elsewhere in the park. If you are in the area a stop at McCormick Stillman should be on your list of things to do.

Enjoying Arizona

2011-11-08T12:28:00.000-05:00

We continue to have a great time here in Mesa getting things crossed off the to do list and making plans for future travel. We had the carpet cleaned and I polished the rig only to have a huge dust storm followed by rain two days later. Oh well, I know keeping Opus clean and shiny is a never ending task. We bought an iPhone so we have better access to the Internet while traveling and have been spending a lot of time just figuring out how the darn thing works. We are hoping that it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks because it can be real convenient. The first change in our travel plans is to not stay in the Southwest for the entire winter. We learned that in February Betty will be inducted into the Acadian Museum as a Living Legend for her contribution to promoting the Cajun culture. We did not want to miss this much deserved honor so we contacted her and made a reservation for February and March. That means we will also get to celebrate Mardi Gras in Louisiana for the second year in a row. Tough to take be we will give it a try. The other BIG travel plan we made was to book a two week vacation in Hawaii. We are staying in Waikiki for a week and then going to the big island. Once again a tough decision, but we have quite a few air miles and we want to do our part in getting the economy going.

Here are Marcia and Nanc doing the zip line at the Salt River Balloon Glow Spooktacular. We had told Mike we would crew for the glow and Marcia came along one day to also help. She and Nanc talked their way into a free ride from the guys who were setting up the line for the weekend. They both loved it. Marcia missed Saturday because she and Joe where going out to celebrate their anniversary. CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!
Crewing turned in to a bigger deal than planned as we ended up helping all four of these balloons. Left to right are Daniel's Morning Wood, a clown, a haunted house and Mike's Morning Star. We had a fun time, but decided that working with the shapes is a pain in the butt.

The glow was a Halloween event and all the balloonists had candy to pass out to the trick or treaters. I won't tell you who the monkey is but his initials are Daniel Liberti. Bottom is the clown envelope before it was inflated and right is Mike firing up the burners. We did work hard but we had a great time helping and tailgating.

For our anniversary we had a great dinner at d-vine, a very good local restaurant. It has been a great 42 years. Life is good!!!!!

After I cleaned Opus we put this decal on the back. We have had it since we were in Louisiana last spring and finally got up enough nerve to put it on the paint. It sure sums things up, "Let the Good Times Roll". Two days later it was streaked with mud from the dust storm and rain.

Here are Sharon and Alan with some of their work that was accepted for the Arizona Pastel Artist Association exhibit in Cottonwood. Their work has progressed a great deal since we were last here in 2009. They have turned their place into a neat studio and taken many workshops and the effort shows. They did not get any of the awards, but just getting paintings into the show is a big deal. We made a day of it exploring the shops and having a great lunch in the Old Town section of Cottonwood.

We got a call from Dan and Merlene Goan, whom we met at Betty's. They were passing through Arizona and we got together for lunch and to share travel tales. They had a great travel year visiting eleven major league ballparks around the country. We hope to see them at Betty's this winter. We have also been meeting many people in the park at happy hour and the dance they had last week. So far we have been busy enough that staying in one place for an extended time has been just fine even though the weather has cooled a great deal. Phoenix had a record low high temperature over the weekend and today the high is to be lower then WashPA. We even saw s**w in the mountains when we went to Cottonwood. We hope this is just a passing event and not the trend for the next two months.

11-1-11

2011-11-01T02:58:00.002-04:00

Here we are, 42 years ago today. We have come a long way baby and like fine wine it just keeps getting better with time. Neither of us could have imagined the life that was ahead of us on that wonderful day long ago. Being married to our best friend who has so many of the same interests just makes it all that much better. We look forward to continuing our fulltiming lifestyle as we explore and discover new and exciting places and things while making new friends together.

This year November 1st is another major milestone as I am now on Medicare. Wow, who ever thought I would live long enough to enjoy that great benefit. LIFE IS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to Mesa, AZ

2011-10-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

We have a reservation at Sun Life Vacation Resort from the middle of October to January 2, 2012 at a very good rate so we headed straight here from Albuquerque. Of course, we stopped at the Arizona visitors center to pick up our gun so we would not be the only people in the state without one:-) We are off to a fast start seeing many friends, doing major interior and exterior cleaning of the house and going on a couple of adventures all during the first few days.

The first Saturday we were here we got a call from Mike Liberti, the balloonist we met at the fiesta, who wanted to know if we wanted to crew on Sunday morning. Wow, we went from never being in a balloon to going up two weeks in a row. There were only five balloons that flew out of a park in nearby Chandler at dawn so it was very different from the fiesta. Also, the crew was Mike's wife T, who drove the chase car, and Nanc and I. It was really neat getting to fly together this time and we had a great view of Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun. We are planning to crew for Mike at a Halloween glow this weekend.
The first week we got a message from Mark and Renita that they were passing through the area and were going to stay at Sun Life for a few days. We got together with them and Alan and Sharon, whom we also met at Watersedge in Rockport in 2008. Here we are at Tortilla Flats, a neat little tourist spot east of here on the Apache Trail. The walls of the restaurant are covered with money from over 60 nations.

Beautiful desert scene along the Apache Trail that we drove on the day we went to Tortilla Flats.

Mark's picture of an Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep that everyone saw except me as I was roaming were I could not see it. This is a rare sighting, especially during the heat of the day.

Another evening we all went to Organ Stop Pizza, a neat place with a huge Wurlitzer theatre organ. Orchestra organs were used during the showing of silent movies and have many other instruments attached that make it sound like a full band. This one was originally built for a theatre in Denver and has grown to have nearly 6000 pipes since it was installed here during the 1970's. It is a great stop for an evening of great entertainment and an OK pizza.

Another evening we were invited to Alan's and Sharon's for a cookout. It was fun sitting around and swapping tales of all our travels. Above left are Sharon and Renita with Molly. Bottom are Mark, Mike, Alan and Rose. We met Mike and Rose here on our last visit. They also used to stay at Watersedge.

I always kid Mark and Renita that their 5th wheel is going to end up like Lucy and Desi's in the movie, The Long Long Trailer, as they collect rocks all over the country. When we saw their finished work in Medora this summer I did not have my camera to show what they are doing with the rocks. Bottom left is a raw stone, right are cut stones and the rest is some of their finished work after the rocks have been shaped, polished and wire wrapped. They make necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings. You can see AND BUY more of their work here.

We knew the Steelers were playing Arizona the second weekend we were here so we went on line and got tickets not realizing there would be THOUSANDS from STEELERS NATION in attendance. We saw the truck above and just followed it into the parking lot so we were with many Pittsburgh fans. Above is our section in the stadium, me partying with fans before the game and Nanc with a real enthusiast. We met people who had bussed in from LA, Las Vegas and other places around the Southwest just to see their team. Here is a short video of the Steeler fans drowning out the boos of Arizona fans when they were introduced. It really was like Heinz Field West.

Bottom is the pregame coin toss and the Steelers scoring a field goal. Top you can see the sea of Black and Gold in the stands. It was a great time (they won 32 - 20) and even Nanc, who would NEVER sit through a game in October in Pittsburgh, loved it.

ABQ Friends & More

2011-10-20T09:56:00.002-04:00

Our stay in Albuquerque was more than just balloons. We visited with old friends, both RVing and from our w**king days and made new friends. We also visited a nearby national park site to explore and add a stamp to our national parks passport.

Here we are having lunch with Larry and Amy Stone. After not seeing Larry for over 25 years, we stopped to visit with them in '08 when we passed this way. I w**ked with Larry at my first full-time teaching j*b and Nanc and I traveled cross country with him in 1977 when he was returning from Colorado to Pennsylvania. On that trip we briefly visited some of the sites we stopped at during our travels this summer. They are both doing well and Larry is enjoying his first year of retirement. It was great seeing them again and catching up.
Petroglyph National Monument was just down the road from the Balloon Fiesta RV Park so we had to visit. This is an easily accessible site with a few very short walks that get you up close to as many as 24,000 petroglyphs along a 17 mile lava escarpment. Most of the drawings are believed to be between 400 and 700 years old, with some possibly dating back 3000 years. This is a great place where anyone can view these ancient works.

Jim and Nanc, Kaz and Jackie Hada, Marcia and Joe Jones at dinner. When we were in Gillette 07 mates Marcia and Joe expressed interest in going to the balloon fiesta. We put them in contact with Judy and when a spot opened up they jumped at the chance to attend. Kaz and Jackie were our neighbors and while we were setting up I kept thinking we had met before. It finally hit me that we talked to them at Greenbelt National Park outside of DC last fall. The RVing community is a small world and we often meet people we have seen on the road before.

Left are Jan and Chuck Moore who we met at Quartzite two winters ago. They were parked two rigs away. Right are Terry and Vickie Webb who we got to know while crewing together. We are planning to see them all at Q this winter. We also got together with Andy and Diane Hitzel who we also met at Q and saw again this spring at Betty's but I did not get a picture. As we say so often, meeting and seeing friends along the road is one of the best things about our fulltiming lifestyle.

Well, we are in New Mexico (you know Roswell and all that alien stuff) so Nanc could not resist having an out of this world picture taken. She wanted to buy it to put behind the wheel of the CRV when we are towing it but we passed when we thought about how often we would be blowing the thing up. Such a shame, he is soooo cute.

The Boomers thanking Luke and Judy for all their hard work in putting together a great two week event. Here is a link to her blog about the fiesta. Our thanks again to Luke and Judy for a great time.

The Boomers are about more than having a fun time. Here people peruse a few of the items that were to be auctioned off. The auction was to raise money for Escapees CARE (Continuing Assistance for Retiring Escapees). The goal was to raise at least $1500 and this group really outdid themselves and raised the bar for future auctions with a grand total of $2876. It was a great job for a great cause.

Here Terry Webb, Chuck and Jan Moore and Judy St. Croix were very good in the role of auctioneers and encouraging people to raise there bids with the constant reminder of where the money was going. We did make a couple purchases and had a fun time.

We had a great time and have crossed the balloon fiesta and a balloon ride off our bucket list, but we both agree that this is one event we will fit into our future travel plans.

UP, UP AND AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-14T09:57:00.001-04:00

After working with Daniel for four days we Boomers on the crew, Marcia, Terry, Nanc & I were pretty confident that we would get in the air. But then, starting on Wednesday, all events were canceled for three days because of the wind and rain and our chances were not looking very good. We still had to get up at 5:15 AM each morning to check on conditions with Daniel to see if it was a go. We awoke Saturday to cold temps (39) and s**w down to about 6500 feet on Sandia Mountain. We layered up with just about all our cold weather gear (we do not normally do cold) and went to the launch field. After the balloon was spread out and waiting for the zebras to tell Daniel to start the fan, T, Daniel's mom, told Marcia and I that we needed to sign the release because we were flying that morning. Wow, were we happy. When I told Nanc she smiled and gave me a hug but I could tell she was sad that she was not going to be going up. Marcia and I had a GREAT flight and when we landed Daniel told us to call Terry in the chase truck and tell him to get to the balloon because conditions were still fine and he was going to take him and Nanc up. WOW, what a day.

Jim and Marcia in the air and Nanc and Terry in the balloon waiting to lift off. Do you think she was happy? They got off the ground and the wind quickly changed so there flight was very short and we on the chase crew had a hard time getting to them where they landed. They did get down really close to the canal and loved the ride even if it was a bit short.
Looking at the launch field as Marcia and I slowly rise above the crowd. What an unbelievable sight of colors and people.

It really is like you are floating. The only noise was the occasional burst of gas when Daniel hit the burner. You can see balloons in every step of the process from envelopes on the ground, to being aired up with the fan, to standing upright after going hot, to flying.

As we floated away from the field we were surrounded by balloons. They coordinate the launch in waves with different rows going together.

Looking down on our rig (middle) and a few Boomers watching. Many of the balloons that had launched earlier were landing by the RVs.

It was amazing with balloons above, below and all around us. It was without a doubt one of life's great experiences to get a ride. The basket on Daniel's balloon, Morning Wood, only holds three or four people so it was much neater than being in one of those big commercial balloons.

This is our first flight initiation. Terry had been up before so he was exempt. Top left, we kneel before our glasses of champagne. Top right, Chris, Daniel's brother, tells the tale of how champagne became an important part of ballooning going back to the first flight in France. Bottom left, as we all drink without using our hands the whole crew drenches us with whatever liquid (water, beer, champagne) they had in hand. Bottom right, for those who know Nanc and how much she HATES the cold (remember it was 39 that morning) I think her smile says it all about what a great experience this was.

As we got the balloon ready for the last mass ascension on Sunday Nanc learned that since her flight on Saturday had been cut short she would be going up again with Michael and Courtney. I thinks she loves this ballooning thing.

There they are soaring above the crowd.

Looking down as they float above the launch field.

You can see the bees spread out on the field before they begin to inflate them as other balloons take off.

Looking down on balloons, Albuquerque and the Rio Grande where Daniel was taking them for a quick dip, another ballooning tradition. They got up to about 2000 feet above the ground, an altitude of 7000 feet.

With Sandia Mountain in the background the balloons line up to take their shot at getting in the water.

We were chasing them, but did not get there in time to see them in the water. Morning Wood is the highest balloon on the left.

Nanc's look at the river as she was about to get her feet wet. Wow what a ride.

One thing about ballooning, you never know for sure where the wind is going to carry you and where you are going to land. It was rather calm so they were drifting real slow as Daniel looked for a spot to land while we followed through the streets below. It was so calm that he threw a rope down so we could pull the balloon to a good landing spot. After it was on the ground the whole crew walked it to a spot were there was room to deflate the envelope. Really a rather strange sight seeing a bunch of people out walking a balloon down the street. The people in the neighborhood even lent a hand.The crew of the Morning Wood (Marcia and Nanc were taking pics) celebrating a great flight and a great week. TRULY AWESOME!!!

Going to the Balloon Fiesta was a bucket list item and when you think that thousands of people attend each year just to watch and that we got to be part of the event as crew members, including some great tailgating and partying with the pilots, it was really special. Then, when you throw in the fact that WE GOT TO FLY that really made for a super fantastic week . For any SKP going with the Boomers it is also a great deal as we only paid for camping and the crew pass got us into all events whether we were working or not. There was just too much going on the whole week to cover in two blog entries so here is a web album of a few more of the over 1100 pictures we took. We had a great week and plan to return for a future fiesta. A special thanks to all the Liberti family who let us be part of the action of their exciting family hobby. YOU GUYS ROCK!!

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

2011-10-08T16:10:00.006-04:00

A bucket list event for us since we went on the road has been the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. At Betty's last spring Jim and Bobby told us the way to go was with the Escapees Boomers so we immediately made our reservations. The advantage of being with the Boomers is that they have great contacts to get everyone a crew pass which gains you admission to all events so the only cost we had was for camping. That was a bit of an issue as it is dry camping and we had never gone 12 days, but it has been working out just fine.We arrived on Wednesday, three days before the fiesta started, so we could get acquainted with the other Boomers (here at the first happy hour) and attend crew training. Here, Cool Judy our host (she and husband Luke live in Cool, CA) brings us all up to speed on the upcoming events. We all went to the orientation video and had a safety talk by pilot Mike Liberti. We ended up crewing for Mike's son, Daniel, on his balloon, Morning Wood. Our first hands on training event was to be Albuquerque Aloft on Friday. This is a neat experience where balloonists go to schools all over the city and launch from there as all the kids watch. Unfortunately, the weather (to windy) did not cooperate so we did not do much that day except meet our pilot, Daniel and crew chief, Jess.The fiesta's official start was early Saturday morning. Yes we were up and at it by 5:15 AM every flying day:( Our first sight of a balloon launch was the Dawn Patrol, a few balloons that launch before sunrise to check out the winds aloft. Albuquerque is a great ballooning location because of the “box” which means the winds blow in different directions at different elevations so they can drift in different directions at different altitudes.Here is our first real crewing experience at the mass ascension. The burners are attached to the wicker basket and tested and the envelope (balloon) is laid out on the ground. Then the pilot and crew chief attach the lines from the balloon to the basket as Marcia looks on. Then Boomer Terry uses the fan to fill the balloon with cool air. The pilot, Daniel, goes inside the top of the balloon to attach the crown with Velcro. This will be pulled out on landing to deflate the balloon. As the pilot uses the burners to heat the air the balloon begins to rise with someone holding the crown line to keep it from rising to fast. When the balloon is upright ALL crew members have “weight on” the basket to hold it on the ground. Next is “hands on” so the buoyancy can be checked. Finally the balloon is in the air along with several hundred others. The crew then stows all the equipment in the trailer and the chase is on.This is the scene as the balloons launch in well orchestrated order. The colors and shapes are just fantasticHere are Daniel's Morning Wood and Mike's Morning Star in the air.As we watched all the balloons above us Jess told us to make sure we kept an eye on Morning Wood. Yeah Right!! This part of the crew, Dwayne, Vickie, Marcia, Nanc, Linda and I were transported to Terry's truck in the back of the trailer so for the first few minutes we saw nothing. When we were in the truck Vickie, who is not a morning person, took a nap. Then we stopped to see if we could find Morning Wood among all the balloons. We found Daniel and raced to the landing site. We had a couple of false stops as he was searching for a good spot. After he landed he kept the balloon inflated until we arrived and spread a tarp so it could be pulled gently to the ground. There are no pics of this as it was ALL hands on deck. The deflated envelope is then stuffed into the bag and then along with the basket is put into the trailer.Next we learned that balloonists know how to party and have a great time after the flight. Mike (not Liberti) had a huge parachute to use as a tent and it was a real group effort to get it up, but we made it. Marcia and Nanc fit right in with the Mardi Gras theme that included gumbo and king cake. T & Mike had a ride in the Model T and Mary & David (who had us to their home for a party the night before) just carried on. Part of the ballooning tradition is the first flight initiation that Creighton and Cory got to “enjoy”. Being part of the chase crew has been a great way to get the feel of this wonderful balloon culture, BUT, we are still really hoping we get to fly.Another big event is the Special Shapes Rodeo where the balloons are every size and unusual shape you can imagine. They did not fly this day because of the iffy weather but it was neat to see only shaped balloons on the field. We helped Chris Liberti with the Shamrock that was really hard to control in the wind.The Twilight Twinkle Glow is another magical event where the tethered balloons just use the burners to make the balloons glow. These were followed with a great fireworks show.

UPDATE!!!! We did get in the air today so more Balloon Fiesta will follow.

YNP to ABQ

2011-10-02T06:01:00.000-04:00

The plan (as always written in sand) was to stop for a few days in Santa Fe, NM on the way from Yellowstone to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque. At about 12 noon and just 60 miles into the thousand mile trip the STOP ENGINE light and buzzer came on. Fortunately, we were by a turnout in Grand Teton National Park so we immediately did as told. The next step was to call our road service for the first time ever. They called back with the info that the closest Cummins repair facility was 135 miles away in Idaho Falls, ID and they were trying to find a truck big enough to carry our 33,000 pound motorhome, Opus. A while later they called to say someone could be there by 9PM which would have required us to follow the tow for about four hours over very steep Teton Pass at night. We opted to spend the night where we were and wait until the AM for the tow. Just after dark a ranger knocked on the door to see why we were along the road in the park which is illegal. After I told him the story he had no problem with our staying.

About 10:30 the next morning Sean from Eaton Towing showed up with a flat bed to carry Opus to Idaho Falls.

I did have to help by basically hanging on tight to the steering wheel so it would go straight on to the trailer. It was a bit tense as the trailer wasn't much wider than our wheels.

To haul a big rig you need a big rig.

This is not the view of the Tetons we were looking forward to seeing. It took some time to get relaxed watching our house on top of a trailer going down the road. Going under the traffic lights in Jackson was a little hairy, but the further we traveled the more confidence we had in Sean.

Then we came to Teton Pass that is a 10% climb up and a really slow 10% decent. It was all done expertly and we were very happy with the service.

We did not arrive at Kenworth in Idaho Falls until after 3PM and they could not work on Opus until Friday, so we had a night of industrial camping. They were also very accommodating and gave us an extension cord so we could have power to charge the batteries. Here is another Sean under the rig checking things out. The news turned out to be not too bad as the problem was "only" a $27.81 heat intake sensor that cost "only" $301.60 to diagnose and install. After a 51 hour delay we were back on the road at 4:30 PM (a later start then we have ever had) heading south to Utah.

Since we were West of the divide we decided to go to Moab for a couple of days to relax. We were here in 2008 and loved it. On Sunday we did some short desert hikes in Arches National Park. Here is a link to our 08 post on Arches.

The red rock and blue sky were absolutely beautiful.

Another view in Arches

The next day we did a 30 mile side trip to see the only place in the US where four states, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico meet. This little geographic oddity was on our to do list so we made the stop for the mandatory picture. When we looked at it we discovered Nanc was only in three states as she was not touching Arizona so we might have to return. We were also able to help the Native American economy (which Nanc did visit in every state) as we made a couple of purchases from the artisans.

A few sights from along the road South. The cloud was dropping rain but it was not getting to the ground. Top left is Ship Rock and the others were just some of the interesting landforms we saw along the way through the arid Southwest.

We are now at Enchanted Trail RV Park in ABQ and will be moving 20 miles to the balloon fiesta for the next twelve days. They have a couple of old cars and several old campers displayed here. This is an old Hudson. All said, the trip we planned did not happen but the trip we were forced to take turned out to be very great. This past week showed the down side as well as the up side of having a home on wheels and living this adventurous lifestyle. Life is Good!!

More of Fabulous Yellowstone & the Grand Tetons

2011-09-27T06:15:00.001-04:00

On day three of our Yellowstone visit we awoke to cloudy skies and a bit of rain. We were not deterred and explored the Northern part of the park loop road passed Mount Washburn to Mammoth Hot Springs. We were rewarded with more spectacular scenes of nature.

We encountered our first wolf jam and got to see a large wolf far off in the distance. One of the watchers let all of us have a close up look with his spotter scope and I got this blurry picture as this lone wolf walked through the high meadow. This was an animal that was high on our must see list, as the last time we were here in 1977 there were no wolves. Their reintroduction in 1995 means that all animals that were here in 1872 when the park was establish are here today. This project was not without controversy, but from what we saw later it was the correct decision.
Buffalo Jam. Buffalo are the most seen large animal in the park and we encountered many buffalo during our stay often blocking the road as they meandered slowly along. This big guy and another one, after wallowing in the dust, made passing threats at each other before moving on. These huge animals appear to be very gentle but they cause more injuries to stupid tourists than any other in the park. They can run very fast and can jump most fences with ease.

The overcast skies added to the surreal look of the Mammoth Hot Springs. These massive springs of hot water and calcium carbonate have formed the ever changing colorful, steaming terraces.

While we did see some s**w this is a white terrace with a hot water falls. The sign warned "Danger Hot Water Will Scald" and even I did not want to test the waters as you could feel the heat just walking the paths through the springs.

This is one of the older formations at the top of the terraces. This is a really neat, beautiful area that should be on your must see list.

Norris Geyser Basin has many spouting geysers including the Steamboat geyser, the world's largest. This giant erupts at irregular intervals of days or years so we did not wait for the show. This is another place where the colors have changed because of the idiots who throw junk into the water. Go Figure!!!

That evening we enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel which has been renovated to its original 1891 grandeur. It was a great time with great friends. We do love having our friends visit us so we can share a bit of our wonderful lifestyle.

Driving back to the campground from dinner we had both a bear and buffalo jam. This mama grizzle and her cub were within about 25 feet of the car. She was standing to see what all the ruckus was about as all the cars in both directions were stopped on Fishing Bridge because a big herd of buffalo were stampeding around all the vehicles through traffic to cross the bridge. After she saw what was happening she and the cub ran up the hill and out of the way. The picture is not very good because it was dark and I was so excited that I failed to get any pictures of the buffalo. I think we have seen so many that at the moment I did not think I needed more buffalo pictures but it was quite a show.

The next day we traveled South out of Yellowstone down the John D. Rockefeller, Jr Memorial Parkway to Grand Teton National Park. The parkway includes 24,000 acres of land that was donated by Rockefeller to connect the one grand ecosystem of the Tetons and Yellowstone. The Grand Tetons offer the most beautiful mountain scene in the US with peaks that raise to 13,770 feet above Lake Jackson at 6,772 feet. Being face to face with 7000 feet of mountain is an experience that is only seen in a few places in the world.

Everywhere you look there is a spectacular view of these impressive mountains that are jutting out of the lake and valley to form the impressive chain.

The Chapel of Transfiguration an Episcopalian Church. The window behind the altar frames the beautiful view of the Tetons. The minister had better be great to get his flock to focus on his words and not the beautiful scene behind him. We had to wait to get inside as there was a wedding going on. What a wonderful place to start your married life.

Mike and Sherri left a day too soon. In Hayden Valley we had the chance to see one of natures great encounters. For almost 45 minutes we watched as a pack of four wolves tried to run down three elk cows. The chase ended at the banks of the Yellowstone River. Here the exhausted wolves get a drink as the last cow walks into the river. The large buck stood by and watched the whole event and was not bothered by the wolves.

After being threatened again the cow starts across the river to join the other two on the opposite bank. The wolves did not venture very far into the water.

Here they have given up the chase and start back through the meadow to the forest. Near the treeline they stopped and went nose to nose with a big bull buffalo but thought better than to take on that big guy. This was truly one of the most amazing natural events we have ever seen.

It is time to get on the road and head South as there is some fresh s**w in the higher elevations. We had a great week in Yellowstone and sharing it with Mike and Sherri made it even better. If you are keeping score the guys went 4-0 in the four euchre tournaments we played this visit. Yellowstone is the most spectacular and diverse natural environment in the national park system and is not possible to capture it in two blog posts so here is a web album with more pictures of this wonderful park. Click on slideshow to enlarge the pictures.

Fabulous Yellowstone

2011-09-24T06:12:00.002-04:00

When it was established in 1872 Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the world. A visit here makes you realize what a wonderful decision this was. The diverse, natural environment includes rivers, lakes, falls, mountains, forests, meadows, the largest geothermal hot spot in the world and many, many animals. The large, central part of the park sits inside the collapsed caldera of an ancient super volcano that last erupted 640,000 years ago with an explosion several hundred times more powerful than Mount St. Helens. This is why there are so many geysers, hot springs and mud volcanoes in the park. The Yellowstone ecosystem extends beyond the park making it the largest such area in the lower 48 states. We arrived at Fishing Bridge Campground with Mike and Sherri and immediately began exploring with a drive through Hayden Valley to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.Our first stop was Mud Volcano, where boiling mud pots steam and smell of sulfur. It is so strange to see these large areas of earth that look like something out of a science fiction movie.

This is Dragon's Mouth Spring, a boiling, steaming, hissing and burping mud spring that really does make it seem like you are looking down the dragon's throat and smelling its bad breath.

A sure sign that animals are nearby is a traffic jam with many cars stopped on and along the road. They are commonly called buffalo jams because they are the most seen animal. I can't even imagine what it would be like during the summer months. Our first such stop was an osprey jam to see this huge bird. I also had my first case of lens envy as many of the photographers had big, big equipment.

This is the 109 foot Upper Falls at the entrance of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The 1000 foot deep canyon was carved by ancient glacial floods.Looking down the canyon from Artist Point under the setting sun sure shows where the name Yellowstone comes from.

Even though it was cool enough for jackets, Nanc, Jim, Sherri and Mike are enjoying the warm sun at Artist Point.

Nanc and I returned to the Grand Canyon to hike the North Rim Trail and a couple of side trails into the canyon. It looks really different in a different light. Here is the view of the canyon, river and Lower Falls from Inspiration Point.

This is looking down the canyon from the same spot.

The hike down to the brink of the Lower Falls rewarded us with this great view and the rainbows in the mist.

This is the view of the Lower Falls from Red Rock Point. Look carefully and you can see the people on the brink of the falls where we took the above picture.

On day two we drove to Old Faithful then out of the park to Earthquake Lake in Montana. Here is a post of our earlier visit to Earthquake Lake. We also had dinner and did a little shopping in West Yellowstone.

Here is the first eruption of Old Faithful that was not very high and did not last very long. The duration can be from one and a half to five minutes and height can vary from 106 to 180 feet but this geyser still goes off within ten minutes of the predicted time. We don't think Sherri was too impressed.This is the second eruption that was higher and lasted longer than the first one. She liked this one much better.Two historic figures, Sherri and Mike, in front of one of the historic Yellowstone tour buses at historic Old Faithful Inn.

Morning Glory Spring is one of the most colorful and is located near Old Faithful. The color has changed over the years because idiots have thrown coins and other junk into the spring. It has to be cleaned out every year. There are several more similar springs in the area.

Another of the many geysers on Geyser Hill near Old Faithful. The eruption of most are not as often, as big, or as predictable as Old Faithful. Some show their stuff daily while others may not erupt for years. Much of this is affected by the thousands of small earthquakes that occur in Yellowstone each year. Old Faithful Inn is pictured in the background.

On our return from West Yellowstone we were stopped in an elk jam. This big racked buck was with a couple of cows and a young elk. All this is only a glimpse of a wonderful week in beautiful Wyoming. There will be more to follow.

Buffalo Bill & Cody

2011-09-19T17:25:00.005-04:00

Our stay in Cody continued with a hike to the top of 8,123 foot Heart Mountain and a visit to the Japanese relocation center near the mountain. We also had visitors as Sherri & Mike, (aka Capt'n Catfish), arrived from WashPA for a week-long stay. The four of us explored a bit of Cody on the local trolley and toured The Buffalo Bill Historical Center.The view of Heart Mountain as we approached on the dirt road. The mountain is part of the Heart Mountain Ranch Preserve, 14,000 acres owned by the Nature Conservancy, that saved the land from development. The climb of 2500 feet over 3.6 miles was rather steep, but very scenic.

Here we are at the top. If you want a nice hike without many people, this is the place. We made the top late in the afternoon and were only the fifth and sixth people to sign the book that day

Part of the 360 degree view from the top. Once again it was smoky from the fires in Yellowstone but we could still see Pilot and Index Peaks in the distant Beartooth Mountains.

The Heart Mountain Relocation Center was used to house Japanese Americans, most of them US citizens, who were forced from their homes during WWII. This was one of the low points in the American history of civil liberties. It was as if the Japanese were less likely to be loyal to their chosen country then the millions of German and Italian Americans whose home countries we were also fighting. After they were allowed, these people showed their loyalty to the US when more than 400 from this camp enlisted and served in the military.

Here are Sherri and Mike at Buffalo Bill Dam. When completed in 1905 it was the highest dam in the world. In the 1980's it was raised 25 feet to increase the capacity of the reservoir by 50%. This is an interesting stop with a nice visitors center.

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is named for William F. Cody who used his experience as a pony express rider, fur trapper and army scout, who also won the Congressional Medal of Honor, to create his Wild West show. This museum is often referred to as the Smithsonian of the West with its extensive collection of Western art and artifacts. There are five wings that feature Cody's life, Yellowstone natural history, a collection of 4000 firearms, Western art and the Plains Indian People.

Part of the exhibit about Buffalo Bill (center). On the left is Annie Oakley who was a featured performer in his show and on the right is Pawnee Bill one of the many Indians, including Sitting Bull, who were in the show that traveled throughout North America and Europe.

Some of the displays and artifacts in the Plains Indian Museum. There were several exhibits on their relationship with the buffalo.A few of the many pieces of art. For someone who dislikes snakes, the rattlesnake picture was very interesting as it was very, very large. Another is of Custer's Last Stand and a sculpture of Sacajawea. The historic center ticket is for two days and you really do need that much time to see all five wings. It is a must see stop if you get to Cody, a neat little town that is more than just a stop on the way to Yellowstone.

Wild Animals & Wild West High Ways

2011-09-11T11:37:00.006-04:00

The plan when we left Gillette was to spend one night in the Bighorn Mountains on the way to Cody. We stayed at Sitting Bull Campground on the west side of 9,666 foot Powder River Pass and were rewarded with a great stay.

Yes that is s**w on the top of the Bighorns. One of our goals as fulltimers is to NEVER be in s**w so we approached the mountain with a great deal of apprehension.
Here was our first reward. We were walking to the check-in booth to pay when this big moose walked into the campground. We were standing behind the trees but Nanc had to step out for a closer look. This big guy must be used to people as he just turned around and went back to eating leaves along the stream.

This was the view from our site. We hiked across the meadow into the mountains and got to see a small herd of elk. It is bow hunting season and they were spooked so the only picture I got was of elk butts as they ran into the trees.

The next morning we continued down the 18 mile decent through Ten Sleep Canyon. This was our first mountain driving in quite a while so we took it real slow. There were a couple of 25 mph switchbacks that we approached so slowly we did not need to use the brakes at all.

The view looking down the beautiful canyon. This is the "easiest" of the three roads that cross the Bighorns.

The land changed again when we came out of the canyon on the west side of the mountains. It was dry prairie but with many ranches and farms that use irrigation. We did hit one stretch of road construction with five miles of gravel. Oh well, I guess it was practice for driving to Alaska next summer.

We arrived at Green Creek Inn and RV Park in Wapiti (Cree for elk) and were rewarded with the sight of this big herd of elk. We have seen them twice in three days.

We hook up with 07 mates Rick & Terry Traver are staying in Cody and drive a mountain loop out of Cody. Here they are at 8048 feet at Dead Indian Pass on the Chief Joseph High Way. We all loved the fabulous vistas along the way.

These are Pilot and Index Peaks that dominate the skyline where the Chief Joseph meets the Beartooth High Way. Some of the views were a bit limited because of the smoke from nearby forest fires but it was still spectacular.

Now you see why I don't want to be in the s**w. Nanc just can't be trusted. There were many patches of the white stuff left from last winter in the high Alpine meadows near the top of 10,947 foot Beartooth Pass. This is the highest road in Wyoming.

Our biggest reward on the drive was a herd of mountain goats that moved across the rocks and ended up very near us in the parking lot.

There were a dozen goats including two young ones. A couple of them were being a little feisty. The one, top right, rushed another goat and kicked up some dust when he put on the brakes. Seeing this herd was truly the High Spot of the drive.

The east side of the Beartooth High Way has many switchbacks heading into Red Lodge, Montana. Even though this road is not recommended for vehicles over 40 feet because of all the turns, you can see that our GPS Ditsy Dotty says the speed limit is 65mph. Yea Right!!!

Looking up the valley you can see a few of these turns. Charles Kuralt, a long ago TV commentator, called this the most beautiful highway in America and we sure agree that it ranks right up there and is a drive worth taking.

51st Escapade

2011-09-07T05:41:00.001-04:00

We have been in Gillette, Wyoming for the 51st Escapade where we are serving on the staff for the first time. We arrived early to help get things ready and stayed through Labor Day weekend just to kick back for a few days. We always have a great time when we get together with our Escapee friends and it was great being part of the crew that helped to put on a fun, informative event for almost 1300 SKPs. There is something for everyone including seminars, socials, entertainment, crafts, bingo and more food than you can imagine.

Top right is the first staff meeting. It really does take a group effort to pull the whole thing off. Bottom is Lanny Swanson, who got us to volunteer and assist with the morning coffee and donuts the last time we were in Gillette for the rally. Here we were all packing the welcome bags for the attendees. All positions are filled by volunteers.

One of the pamphlets in the packet was about Northeastern Wyoming's Severe Summer Weather and as you can see we had a chance to experience some of it. We had a little rain, some hail, lots of wind but also abundant sunshine. I think we had three seasons with temps ranging from near 100 down to the low 40's. All that said the weather did not interfere with any of the planned activities.

At most SKP events we always get together with our Class of 07 mates and welcome new adoptees into our group. Top left are this years adoptees, including Jim & Cookie Grigware (right in group picture), who we know from Betty's in Abbeville. Center are Wanda & Wallace Lewis who are the first SKPs to give us a hug when we arrived at RV Boot Camp in Goshen in 2007. They are assistant directors this year. Right are Bob & Molly Pinner whom we met at that Boot Camp and who are the directors for this Escapade. Left center are Keith & Donna Green who were market hosts for all the vendors. Bottom left are Joe & Marcia Jones who were in charge of bingo. Center are Leland & Cathy Schleip who were part of the awesome parking crew that got all the rigs safely in place. Right are Mark & Renita Brackin who were on the sound crew and also hosted a great star party. The 07 gang played a big role at this year's rally.

Nanc talking to SKPs at the First Timer's Happy Hour we hosted along with other 07 mates, Joe & Marcia, Mark & Renita, Keith & Donna and Rich & Mary. This was the first time they have done a social for "newbees" and it was a big success with over 170 attendees.

SKP's are all about helping others and here Nanc lends a hand with the Sew Much Comfort group. They modify clothing for wounded soldiers. Another group of knitters made several hundred newborn baby caps for the local hospital.

Here we are doing our main jobs. Nanc had an exercise class every morning at 7:45 and I served as a seminar host for seven seminars throughout the week.

SKP's know how to have a fun time and there is a lot of talent in the group. One evening at the Ham-O-Rama several people entertained. As you can see they were almost all very good and only one person, the MC Mark Nemeth got the hook.

Many people stayed through the weekend as fulltimers usually prefer not to be on the road for holidays. We packed a lot of fun into those extra days. We had happy hours, a potluck, played games and ended the weekend with a surprise party for Marcia who will turning the BIG 50 this month. There were many gifts that are very appropriate for someone of that advanced age. On Tuesday morning the last of the rigs were hitched up and hitting the road. Many hugs were exchanged and plans made to see ya down the road. Safe travels to all.

Crazy Horse, The Biggest Dakota Art

2011-09-04T06:08:00.005-04:00

In 1977 we did a Western trip and passed through the Black Hills. We visited Mount Rushmore, but did not pay to get in to see the Crazy Horse Memorial because from the road we could see the top of the mountain and it was nothing more than a pile of rocks. Much progress has been made since then but I am sure we will not live long enough to see the finished work. This GIANT sculpture was started in 1948 by Korczak Ziolkowski at the request of Lakota Chief, Henry Standing Bear, and other chiefs. They wanted to show the white man that the red man had heroes also. The main reason progress has been so slow is because Korczak felt the project should be built by public interest and has never accepted government money. He died in 1982 but the work continues today under the guidance of his wife, Ruth, and seven of their ten children.

Here is a plaster model of how the competed work will look with the mountain in the background. The rock they find may dictate some design changes, like the size of the hole under the extended arm, but their goal is to remain as true to Korczak's model as possible.
This is a picture of the mountain in 1977 when all that was done was the level surface above the arm, the tunnel under it, and the basic blasting of the face. This was after almost thirty years of work.

This is what you see today. Korczak's plan was to do the horse's head first, but after his death Ruth decided they needed to complete part of it sooner to keep the public's interest, so they concentrated on completing Crazy Horse's face instead. The outline of the horse's head is painted on the mountain. There are only eight people working on the mountain today and since the face was completed they have been blasting terraces to get to the rock that will eventually be carved. Nine of the eleven terraces are done. All of the blasted rock is removed from the rubble pile and will be used to construct buildings for a planned American Indian school and cultural center. When complete, the sculpture will be down to the tops of the trees.

Here is a comparison of the Presidents with Crazy Horse. They are about 60 feet high and his head is almost ninety. The finished work will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long with the arm being 263 feet. The horse's head will be 219 feet high including the 62 foot mane. This is truly a colossal undertaking.

Bottom left is the compressor and drill Korczak started with. He called it Kaput because on many days he would start it and climb the stairs to the top only to have the thing go kaput. Top right are the tools he used. Top left is the larger equipment they are using today, much of which has been donated. Bottom right is a piece of stone that was removed from over Crazy Horse's eye.

On top of the head is the frame work for the giant protractor that was used to measure where the rock needed to be carved. They no longer have to use it as they now have sensors planted on the mountain to electronically do the measurements. We did pay an extra $4.00 to get a closer look at the bottom of the mountain, but did not opt for the $125 to stand on the arm. Every year on the first weekend in June they have the Volksmarch and you are allowed to walk to the top. I guess a return visit is in the plans.

When complete the sculpture will be three dimensional. Unlike Mount Rushmore, you will be able to walk to the back side and see the work from a different angle. This is one of the things that makes this such a huge undertaking.

Here we are at the foot of the mountain.

The complex also includes the Indian Museum of North America with an outstanding collection of artifacts and a cultural center with craftsmen selling their handmade wares. We also got to enjoy a demonstration of native dances while there.

On our last day in the Black Hills we took a short ride on the George S. Mickelson Trail. This is a great rails to trails that runs for over 100 miles from Deadwood to Edgemont. Unlike other rail trails we have been on this one has pretty good grades that we had to pedal up. But of course, when you pedal up you get to coast down, which was very nice since it was a very hot day. In the background is Harney Peak where we hiked earlier in our visit. We really enjoyed the Black Hills and plan to return as there were many more things we wanted to see and do but could not cover in the week we were there. Having the opportunity to stay in places for extended visits and to be able to return to places we enjoy is one of the great things about the fulltime RVing lifestyle.

Mount Rushmore, More Big Dakota Art

2011-08-31T05:59:00.001-04:00

The first idea of putting large sculptures on mountains to attract tourists to the Black Hills was to have heroes of the West carved into the needles. When Gutzon Borglum was hired for the job he said that if he was to do the work the sculptures would have to have a more national significance than local Western figures. He chose the four Presidents for the work and scouted the area, choosing Mount Rushmore because its southeastern exposure with its direct sunlight would enhance his work. The results are spectacular.

There are many places with distant views of Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It is too bad that Borglum's original plan to allow tourists access to the top of the mountain was never realized. It would be great to see the view across the Black Hills to the prairie that the Presidents will see for eternity.
Sculpture of the sculptor Gutzon Borglum.

The Avenue of Flags with 56 flags of the states, districts, territories and commonwealths of the US create an impressive entrance to the memorial.

Of course, Mount Rushmore is all about BIG. Each head is approximately 60 feet high. If head to toe figures had been carved they would have been 465 feet high with the feet at the bottom of the rubble pile behind us.

Mount Rushmore before the work began. Over 90%, 450,000 tons, of rock was removed using dynamite before jackhammers were used to honeycomb the rock to weaken the granite so it could easily be removed. The final step was to use a bumper tool to make the surface as smooth as a sidewalk. All this work was done by the workers hanging over the front of the mountain in Bosun chairs. Miraculously, not one worker was killed.

The Presidential Trail offers a different view. Washington was chosen as the "Father of Our Country," the leader of the Revolution and the first President. Lincoln was chosen as the "Great Emancipator" who held the country together. He was Gutzon's favorite president and he named his son Lincoln. Jefferson was chosen as the writer of the Declaration of Independence and for expanding the nation with the Louisiana Purchase. Roosevelt was the most controversial choice because he had only been dead for eight years but Borglum felt the building of the Panama Canal during his Presidency realized the dream of Columbus of a water route to the Pacific. He was also a personal friend of the sculptor.

In the sculptor's studio is the original 1:12 ratio plaster model Borglum sculpted. Look carefully and you can see the finished work through the top of the window. Precise measurements were made on the model using a protractor on the top of the heads and a plumb line. These measurements were then multiplied by 12 and transferred to the mountain to show the workers what rock needed to be removed.

Here we are with Don "Nick" Clifford who worked on the project from 1938 to 1940. Nick has written a book on his experience as one of the the 400 workers. It was great to meet and talk to someone who knew Borglum and was there when the project was completed. I always think it is neat to look at things from the perspective of how closely people and events are connected. I met Nick in 2011, Nick knew Borglum in 1939, Borglum knew Roosevelt 1900. Through three people I have a connection going back over 100 years. Neat! Even though the work was not totally completed it stopped six months after Gutzon Borglum's death in 1941 as WWII was threatening and money ran out. Mount Rushmore is a must see as a great American icon and BIG Dakota art.

Custer State Park

2011-08-28T06:14:00.011-04:00

As we drove from North Dakota into South Dakota across the prairie we began to notice off in the distance this long line of hills that appeared to be black. It became quite clear how these hills got their name. Custer State Park is a great place to get an up close look of the Black Hill. The highway through the park has fabulous views of the hills and many different animals. The rock formations in the Black Hills are very interesting. These are called the Cathedral Spires.
More granite formations that have survived years of erosion. These types of formations are called needles
Little Devil's Tower is a smaller version of the one in Wyoming.

The fire tower at the top of Harney Peak at 7,242 feet.

Here we are at the top of Harney Peak. This is the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and the Swiss Alps, so we felt like real mountain climbers. The actual climb was not that difficult as we started at 6,145 feet and the 3 1/2 mile trail was not very steep.

The fabulous 360 degree view from the top makes the climb well worth the effort. The brown trees are dieing because of an invasive pine beetle. Because of Global Warming the winter have been to warm to kill the beetles. We have seen this same issue all over the West.

Chris and Jim Guld are the Geeks on Tour. We have crossed paths with them several times on the road. This year we just missed them in Nappanee, IN and Madison, WI and they were right behind us when we got off the interstate in Rapid City, ND but turned off to another campground. On our Harney Peak hike we met them on the trail. They travel the country doing computer classes at RV rallies. We have taken the classes and purchased one of their videos and would recommend both. They are also on their way to the Escapade Rally in Gillette, WY so we look forward to seeing them again and taking another of their classes.

These stacks of logs are part of the effort to control the pine beetle. The diseased trees are logged and the small logs are piled up to be burned when it is wet enough to control the burn.

The Needles Highway is a must do in the Black Hills. This is why we tow a car. It took this bus about fifteen minutes to squeeze through this tunnel that is one of five.

We saw more wildlife in the park than we have seen in a long time. This is a great place to see the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play. Here a few sheep on the side of the hill right along the road. They were knocking rocks down on to the road.

A white tail buck with his rack still in velvet.

A pronghorn.

OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR!!!!

The park has a herd of 1300 buffalo who have free range to roam. The signs in the park read, Animals At Large. This is where the movie Dances with Wolves was filmed. We saw this herd of 200 or 300 coming across the hill so we stopped and waited and were rewarded with really up close sights and sounds. Click here for a short video of the buffalo surrounding the car.

Each September the entire herd is rounded up and placed in corrals to be examined. The newborns are branded and some are sold to keep the herd at a manageable size. Several people told us that seeing the entire herd running across the prairie is a must see so we have decided this a very good reason to return to Custer State Park again in the future. We really enjoyed spending time in the park and highly recommend a visit. You are sure to see buffalo and if you drive through in late afternoon you have a very good chance of seeing all the other animals as well. Very cool!!

Drugs, Missles & Badlands

2011-08-24T05:23:00.017-04:00

On our first day in the Black Hills we did a 200+ mile road trip to the Badlands. Driving big distances is to be expected "out West" as things are spread out over a very large area. We stopped at Wall Drug and two national park sites.

As soon as we were on the interstate we began seeing signs urging travelers to stop at Wall Drug. The store became a big stop starting in 1936 when, after five years of not being able to attract business from the highway, they put up their first sign, "Free Ice Water." Business grew so rapidly that in 1937 they had to hire eight girls to handle the crowds who, after getting a free drink, began spending money. Oh yes, they still offer free ice water and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.
The small store has grown into a whole block of buildings selling just about everything, from authentic Western wear to typical imported Made in China tourist junk. It really has changed a lot since my visit in 1964 on my way to college in Montana. We can now put Wall Drug on our been there done that and don't need to go back list.

Just down the road from Wall along I-90 we discovered a different kind of national historical site, a Minuteman Missile launch command center. There were once hundreds of missile silos across the Great Plains. I was surprised to learn there are still 500 deployed. The sign at the entrance warned that in an emergency visitors must be capable of climbing two 15 foot ladders. While waiting for the tour we got some inside background from another visitor who had been a construction supervisor building command centers and missile silos all over the Great Plains. The group was so big they split it in two and while we toured the top side facilities the others went down the elevator to the underground command center. The top right pic is the building we toured. The top left pic is a ranger climbing the ladder after the elevator broke down. We ended up leaving and did not get to see the command center or find out if the group that did had to climb out. Bottom is the top of a missile silo a few miles away and the inside of the command center we did not get to see.

Next we drove through Badlands National Park. The land in the park was once an ancient sea floor that has eroded to produce spectacular, beautiful formations. There is very little water and in many places it looks like a moonscape.

A big horn sheep on the ridge. We also saw buffalo in the distance.

As with much of the West this year, the Badlands are greener than normal because of so much snow melt and rain. Here, the distant rain seems to dry out before hitting the ground.

The clouds began to clear and the colors became more brilliant in the sun.

The colors change with the different layers of rock and as the sun moves across the sky.

There is also a lot of tall and short grass prairie in the park.

Badlands National Park is different from the badlands we visited in North Dakota. It was formed by erosion and is more varied in color and appearance. It is a worthwhile stop and an easy drive off I-90 and you can stop for free ice water at nearby Wall Drug.

Bully About Medora

2011-08-21T06:03:00.002-04:00

As I write this, we are at the Heartand RV Park in Hermosa, SD and, as you can see by our States Visited Map, we have now stayed in all of the lower 48 in our rig. The places we have seen and the things we have done continue to be wonderful.
We stayed a week in Medora, ND just outside Theodore Roosevelt National Park and when we first walked through the town, all of ten small blocks, we wondered what we would do here for a week. It turns out that Medora is a great destination with plenty to keep us busy. The park includes a north and south unit and the remains of Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch. We did all our exploring near the 37 mile loop road in the south and found plenty of interesting sights. The national park, the only one named for a person, honors Roosevelt's ideas about nature and conservation that he developed while visiting here in his early life. These years are well documented in David McCullough's book Mornings on Horseback. It is fortunate that these lands were set aside for a park as the surrounding Little Missouri National Grasslands are the site of a huge oil boom and there are many wells surrounding the park.

A must see in the park is Painted Canyon overlook at sunset. The colors were spectacular and we saw many elk and buffalo off in the distance.
Much of the red rock, scoria, is from the natural burning of the underground coal that turned the clay into brick-like rock. As someone who grew up in a coal town with a coal furnace I can honestly say I never thought of those waste piles as beautiful but in this setting they really are.

The Little Missouri River flowing through the park. This spring they had the worst flooding in years and the entire valley was under water.

We saw a lot of wildlife and were really up close with many of them. We saw these wild horses grazing on the short grass prairie in a typical Western setting. Only when we downloaded the picture on to the computer did we notice the horses standing on the ridge.

Shown at the top are elk and at the bottom is a mule deer.

There are a few hundred buffalo in the park and we saw several herds. These ones were right by the road. The calf was trying to eat and at one point mom even kicked it away. This bull was giving us the evil eye so we moved on.

There are several prairie dog towns in the park and you could take a thousand pictures of these "cute" little critters. We like these two hugging each other while surrounded by a herd of buffalo.

Another day we went on a trail ride. We have not been on a horse for many, many years and Rudy with Jim and Zinger with Nanc where well suited for two novices. There is a trail ride in Medora but we opted for the one at the Peaceful Valley Ranch is inside the park. When they saw our name as we checked in, the owner told us her vet was Dr. Tidball. The only place I have ever met a Tidball that was not a close relative was in Montana almost 50 years ago so there must be a Western branch on the family tree.

There were only four riders on our ride and guess who got to eat the trail dust. I did see much more then horse butts. We went through the middle of a prairie dog town and got an up close look because they are used to the horses. We also saw a small herd of elk and rode along a ridge with great views of the park. I did not get good pics as I was busy hanging on.

Near the Visitors Center is the original Maltese Cross Cabin that Roosevelt had built near here as part of the cattle operation he invested in when he visited in 1883. The chest by the bed and the rocking chair were both owned by TR.

Another stop is the summer home of the Marquis de Mores who started an ill fated cattle business and built the town of Medora, which is named after his wife. The plan was to slaughter the cattle here and ship them in refers cooled by ice by rail to St. Paul. The chimney is all that remains of the slaughter house. The tour of the 26 room home was very interesting as it was in the de Mores family until it was given to the state so most of the furnishings are original.

Another major attraction is the Medora Musical, a very entertaining show of Country and Cowboy music that celebrates the history of Teddy Roosevelt and North Dakota with songs and dance. Also included in the show was an act by Rudi Macaggi, a circus acrobat. We really enjoyed the show and all the things we did in Medora.

Along North Dakota's Enchanted Highways

2011-08-18T06:07:00.000-04:00

During our first morning in Medora, we received an email from Mark and Renita Brackin, 07 mates who we last saw in Texas two years ago. They were in the nearby national park campground and wanted to get together. Once again, seeing friends along the way is one the the greatest things about this lifestyle. We have been amazed at how green North Dakota is at this time of the year. The picture below will help explain why. From the last post you can see that here in North Dakota they are really serious about there BIG highway art. We continue to see some great examples of this as we travel.

This year has been one of the wettest in North Dakota in many, many years. They had a huge snow run off in the spring and a lot of rain this summer. There were three places along I-94 that were down to one lane because of water. Here the right lane and the road into the rest area are still flooded. From all the equipment we saw it looks like they are going to raise the road above the "new" flood level.
This is typical of what you see along the road. Great fields of wheat, miles of prairie and a big sky. It is not usually this green but the ranchers are all happy because they have been able to cut so much hay for winter feed.

There are also many fields of sunflowers. Sometimes they all seem to be ignoring you as they are turning their heads into the sun. It is neat to see them follow the sun across the sky.

We were driving to the campground to see Mark and Renita when we saw the white truck with their signature red canoe. We stopped at a pullout and talked for a while. They invited us to dinner, which was great, and to get caught up on our adventures. We do follow each other's travels closely via our blogs. Make sure you check out Mark's blog, he is a great storyteller. Mark and Renita often write about their rock collecting and I kid him about weighing down the rig with stones like Lucille Ball in the movie, A Long Long Trailer. That said, they shared the results of their collecting and jewelery making with us and we were very impressed. Duh, I did not get any pictures but here is a link were you can see and buy their work. After not seeing them for a couple of years, we will see them in a couple of weeks in Gillette and again this winter in Q. They are also planning to do Alaska next summer so we are looking forward to crossing paths more often.

More North Dakota "LARGEST" sculptures. Since 2001 "Geese in Flight" has been the world record holder for the largest scrap metal sculpture as recognized by the Guinness World Book of Records. There are seven sculptures, with four more in the planning stage along the Enchanted Highway between I-94 and Regent, ND. They are the work of Gary Greff, a teacher and principal, who was looking for a way to bring people to the town of Regent. He put up his first work in 1991. You can see Nanc standing in front of the sculpture to get an idea of how big it is. The largest goose is 19 feet long with a 30 foot wing span.

The Deer Family was added in 2002 and Grasshoppers in the Field in 1999. You really have to see them to understand the size. The deer is 75 feet tall and the grasshopper is 50 feet long.

Fisherman's Dream includes a small mouth bass, walleye (almost as big as mine), catfish, northern, salmon, bluegill and a 70 foot rainbow trout coming out of the water. Pheasants of the Prairie has a 40 foot high rooster, a 35 foot tall hen and three chicks.

Teddy Rides Again is a tribute to Theodore Roosevelt's role in the history of North Dakota. It is made of 9000 pounds of used oil well pipe.

The Family was the first work Gary put up in 1991. Pa is 45 feet tall. We were lucky to meet Gary at the Enchanted Highway Gift Shop and Ice Cream Parlor where we stopped for a cone. He told us the whole project is about bringing visitors to the area and is funded by donations. The final four are a web with a spider and fly, a 102 foot Harley-Davidson, an American Indian and a huge Enchanted Highway sign on the interstate. He did say he has a couple more sites available for anyone who has a theme in mind and a $100,000 to donate. If you are crossing North Dakota a trip down the Enchanted Highway is well worth the time to see all the works of art made of scrap material. It certainly makes you appreciate how BIG everything in the west really is. While we did the drive in the CRV each stop has a parking lot that can accommodate any size vehicle.

West Across the Prairie

2011-08-15T05:19:00.000-04:00

In the last few days since leaving Wisconsin we have traveled over 800 miles. We stayed at Dakotah Meadows RV Park in Prior Lake near the Twin Cities but did not do much while there except chill. We then moved to Frontier Fort Campground in Jamestown, ND adding state 47 to our list. As I write, we have just arrived at Red Trails Campground in Medora, ND for a week's stay to explore the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We did more interstate driving than we have done in a long while. Nice for getting from place to place quickly but usually we do prefer a slower pace.

We did take some smaller local roads getting out of Wisconsin and enjoyed the beautiful family farms we passed along the way.
In St. Paul we visited our second capitol building in as many states. The capitol was designed by Cass Gilbert who also designed the US Supreme Court Building. It has the world's largest unsupported marble dome. Above is the capitol building with the Cathedral of St. Paul in the background.

The capitol is being renovated so the huge chandelier that usually hangs in the rotunda was on the floor for cleaning. Top are the two chambers of the legislature and a Minnesota battle flag from the Civil War. Bottom left, the Governor's Reception Room and right, paintings on the ceiling of the Rathskeller Cafeteria. The original 1905 floral designs with mottoes written in German were painted over years ago and have just recently been restored. Some of the mottoes were changed during Prohibition from "wet", "Better be tipsy than feverish" to "dry", "Temperance is a virtue of man". Go Figure.

These are statues in St. Paul's Rice Park to honor natives F. Scott Fitzgerald (middle) and Charles Schulz. We have visited Schulz's Peanuts Museum in Santa Rosa, California. We enjoyed our short time in St. Paul including a visit to the Great Waters Brewery.

North Dakota does not have a lot of people (just over 600,000) but it makes up for it with some "LARGEST" roadside attractions. Left in Steele is the largest Sandhill Crane. Top in New Salem is Salem Sue, the largest Holstein Cow and bottom is the largest buffalo in Jamestown.

Within walking distance of the campground in Jamestown is Frontier Village a collection of 24 historical buildings from the states frontier past. Our first day there the authenticity of the place was even greater when a group driving restored cars were parked along the street.

Looking down the street is the saloon, sheriff's office, art gallery and dentist office. Bottom is a windmill, jail (I got rowdy) and 1898 log cabin.

Top is the bank, school and dentist office which looked like something you would see in a Hollywood torture movie. Bottom is the stagecoach that you can take for a ride around town. Middle the price list in the barber shop. Even I might think about a shave and a haircut if it was only two bits. Right is the writer's shack of Jamestown native, Louis L'Amour. The village is a worthwhile stop for a look back on pioneer times and the best part, admission is free.

In the same area is the National Buffalo Museum that works to promote the culture and history of the prairie and buffalo. The museum has a herd of 30 that roam over 200 acres. It is the home to White Cloud, Dakota Miracle and Dakota Legend, the only albino buffaloes in North America. Pictured are two of the albinos, but I am not sure which ones.

Some of the displays in the museum. Top, an Indian shirt made of buffalo hide, a buffalo, and a picture of thousands of skulls collected and sent east after the great herd was slaughtered in the late 1800's. In 1902 there were only 700 buffalo in herds owned by private individuals and 23 wild ones in Yellowstone. With preservation efforts there are now more than 500,000. Bottom, a display on how the Indians used the buffalo and a 10,000 year old skull.

Taliesin

2011-08-11T05:07:00.000-04:00

We have been fans of Frank Lloyd Wright for a long time and search out any buildings of his design where ever we travel. We have been to Taliesin West in Scottsdale twice, so going to Spring Green to see Taliesin was high on our must do list. We were not disappointed. We opted for the four hour Estate Tour that included Hillside, a walk across the grounds passed Midway Barns, a refreshment break on Mr. Wright's private patio and the gardens and house. Kyle, our tour guide, was very well informed and did an excellent job.

The entrance to the 600 acre estate. More than 2000 acres of the nearby land was once owned by Wright's family. Nanc and I in the garden. The original Wright grave. His third wife had his remains exhumed, cremated and buried with her ashes at Taliesin West. That action was so unpopular with the family that the Arizona grave is unmarked so this is the only one pilgrims can visit.
The first Wright designed building on the estate is the 1902 Hillside School that was originally used by his aunts as a boarding school. Starting in the 1930's and continuing today it is the summer home of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. We toured the drafting studio, the community room and the theater. Unfortunately, inside photos were not allowed.

The windmill, Romeo and Juliet, is really two structures that hold each other up.

The Midway Farm building was rebuilt by Wright apprentices to blend better into the hillside using the material of older buildings on the property. In the beginning Taliesin was more than a school of architecture, it was also a working communal farm with most of the work being done by the apprentices. Much of the 600 acres is farmed today by a organic certified group. Midway was used for both the animals and the living quarters of the students. The stone silo has recently been turned into a small living space by a student.

Taliesin means shining brow and the house reflects Wright's belief in organic architecture where buildings blend into their surroundings. He often used local materials for construction. This view is from above Hillside.

This is a composite view from the garden. Taliesin was a work in progress where Wright would design and build something to see how it worked, then would change or tear it down when he had a new idea. Over 200 documented changes have been made to the house since it was first started 100 years ago in 1911. You can see many of the features that were used in other Wright buildings we have seen.

Today's house is really Taliesin three as it burned twice, the first time in 1914 when a deranged employee murdered seven people, including Wright's mistress, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and her two children and then set fire to the home. The story of this incident is told in the book Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. Nanc just finished the book and said it was quite an interesting story covering that seven year period of their lives.

The entrance to the home. This became the entrance after changes were made to the driveway to guide people to this side of the house. There have been some issues with the house settling and major preservation work is one of the ongoing goals of the foundation.

Just a few shots of the house. Many of these elements have been used in other buildings. In addition to students, several Wright Fellows live on the property. The oldest is in his 90's and worked personally with Wright. There is a guest bedroom in the main house that is available for visiting family members and former students. The great room. Most of the furniture was built of plywood not the woods that would have been used in the homes of clients. This was Wright's way of experimenting with cheaper materials to see how things would work. If you are in the Spring Green area and only have time to see one place we would recommend Taliesin over the House on the Rock. We loved it.

The House on the Rock

2011-08-08T04:40:00.001-04:00

For a couple who got rid of all their "stuff" and live in less than 400 square feet The House on the Rock is surely at the far, far opposite end of the spectrum. Pictured below is only a very small sample of the collection this man accumulated. It is even hard to think of something he didn't collect. Alex Jordon began construction of the house on a rock outcropping over the Wyoming Valley in the 1940's. The building continued until 1985 when the 218 foot cantilevered Infinity Room was completed. In addition to the house, Alex also built a huge metal structure to house all his stuff. It is a collection that is beyond belief.

The Infinity Room jetting out over the valley. It really does look like it goes on forever when you step into the room. The 3264 windows and a glass cocktail table offer spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.
The interior of the house was obviously inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright with its low ceilings and built in furniture. The story is that Wright was not a fan of the house.

And now some of the stuff. Understand, there are hundreds or even thousands of each type of item Alex collected. Top are Faberge eggs, a huge planter, and various bottles. Bottom, Tiffany pieces, guns and a cigarette lighter from Mobay were Nanc worked years ago.

More stuff! Top, model planes, Burma Shave signs and a model of the Delta Queen signed by Jimmy Carter. Bottom, one of over 200 fully furnished dollhouses, scrimshaw and one of several circuses.

It was difficult to get good pictures because everything was so packed together and the lighting was poor. Top is the world's largest carousel with over 20,000 lights and 269 handcrafted animals, but not one horse. We were very disappointed that visitors are not allowed to ride the carousel. Next are carousel horses and a music machine. Bottom is another of the music machines that Alex built. It is a full orchestra. There were several of these including a circus band and a fish band playing Octopus's Garden in the seafaring room. All the music machines worked and visitors are given tokens to play them. Next are a few beer steins and one of many organs in a room that used large industrial machines to create whimsical pieces. The House on the Rock is very different. It is difficult to describe and something you have to see to believe and is now on our been there done that list.

Mad About Madison

2011-08-05T05:00:00.000-04:00

We moved to Lake Farm County Park near Madison, Wisconsin's capital and home to the university. It is a great little city built on an isthmus between Lake Medota and Lake Monona. It has much to offer to the outdoor enthusiast because of all the water and also has excellent bike routes throughout the city and surrounding area. There is quite a bit to do in the city such as visiting the capitol, museums, used book stores and neat little shops, just to name a few. It is a pretty compact city so if you don't mind doing a little walking much is accessible on foot.

Since we were here, I decided to stop by the university to try and see a high school classmate, Barry Alvarez, who I have not seen in 47 years. Barry is now the Wisconsin athletic director after 16 years as the head football coach who returned the Badgers to national prominence. Unfortunately, he was out of the office when we stopped. He is obviously very well respected here as you can see by the banner and the statue. I'm sure he is the only 1964 Union High School grad who has a statue of himself right outside his office. This is another one of the things about fulltiming that is so neat, you can just drop in on people you have not seen in years as you travel the country.
We have been to several buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in our travels and we can now add Monona Terrace to the list. The terrace was built in the 1990's using the exterior plans Wisconsin native Wright had originally drawn in 1938 as a cultural, governmental, and recreational building and which he reworked several times before signing off on the final design just before his death in 1959. The state of the art interior was redesigned by Taliesin architect, Tony Puttman, as a community and convention center. Included in the new design is a bike elevator so cyclists can get from the trail by the lake to the street level above. Wright's quote says it all. The building does tie them together as it is built over the highway and railroad that separates the city from the beautiful lake. We enjoyed lunch at the rooftop restaurant overlooking the water.

The Wisconsin Capitol from the terrace.

One thing we wish we had started doing sooner in our travels is touring state capitol buildings. They are usually very beautiful and always have interesting bits of history about the state. Bottom left is the Supreme court and right is the Senate chamber. Top left is in the rotunda and on the right is a painting in the Assembly chamber. We were peeking through the door at the painting when a worker saw us and took us in and gave us a little local history. Click to enlarge the picture and you will see the ghost in the mural just above the badger located in the left of the photo.

Wisconsin is at the center of the attack on middle class workers by Republican controlled state governments across the nation. I wanted to check out what is happening with the teachers and other public employees who had their bargaining RIGHTS taken away by newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker. Wisconsin became the center of this struggle when thousands protested the new law at the capitol this past winter. Wisconsin has a recall law and next week there will be nine recall elections that union members hope will give them power in at least one house of the legislature. There are also plans to recall Walker next January after he has the required one year in office. For the upcoming election one dirty trick that was in the news was a flyer sent by a group backed by the Koch brothers (Oklahomans who were Walker's biggest financial supporters) that told people the election was being held on the eleventh when it is really being held on the ninth. Hopefully the workers of Wisconsin will show the rest of the country how to stand up against these attacks on the middle class.

Madison may be the most bike friendly city we have ever been in. There are miles of bike only trails and wide well marked bike paths on many streets. The red bikes are available throughout the city for people to use and leave at another stop. One bike shop where we did a little shopping has four shops within about six blocks of the university.

Of course when in Wisconsin you must purchase cheese which we did at a store called Fromagination. When we entered the store a photographer was taking pictures for the Madison visitors bureau and asked us to be models. We were so thrilled that we failed to take any pictures ourselves. So if you are in Madison and see our pictures in an ad please let us know so we can get a copy. We purchased several varieties of cheese and they are wonderful. There were many things we didn't get to do while in Madison so we have put it on our list as a place we will definitely return to.

Oshkosh By Gosh

2011-08-01T06:02:00.006-04:00

We moved on to Oshkosh to tour the EAA AirVenture Museum and to visit with George & CeCe Donaldson, another couple we met at Betty's. The museum is dedicated to innovators in flight. There are displays on the Wright brothers, Lindbergh, Burt & Dick Rutan, air racing, WWII and even a section on model aircraft. The Pioneer Airport, an outdoor exhibit, has several hangers displaying older aircraft and other artifacts of early flight. We were here the week before the AirVenture Fly-in that will bring over a half million people and thousands of planes to Oshkosh. The fly-in will make Oshkosh the busiest airport in the country for a week.

A few stunt planes including the world's smallest, bottom left.
Aircraft in the main hall including a replica of the Wright Flyer.

Air Racers.

We have been to many aircraft museums and this is one of the best with most of the planes being built by private enthusiasts who just love flight and are not in it to make money.

This is the workshop of a person building his own plane. This was of special interest to me as I have an uncle who worked for years at building a glider in his basement.

The Eagle Hanger, dedicated to WWII aviation, has an interactive map that shows all the major air battles of the war. Some of the aircraft were out of the hanger for the fly-in. Bottom left is a P-38 and right a P-51. Middle is a painting from a WWII bomber named Sagittarius. The archer is our sign.

The exhibit covering the Rutan's had a few of the many planes they built including (left) Space Ship One, the first private craft to fly into space and return to Earth with people aboard. There was a special on Voyager (not pictured), the first plane to circumnavigate the world nonstop without refueling. We have seen the Voyager in the Air & Space Museum in DC.

They have a very good kids section that we both enjoyed. Top, Nanc and I are in front of a screen that shows how a heat seeking missile works. Bottom, Nanc pedals to turn the propeller to cool off and I try to grab the floating balls that demonstrate the weightlessness of space. There was no harm done to any children as WE had fun in this section.

Here we are at dinner with CeCe and George. We had a great evening catching up on their travels, including being in the tornadoes that hit Alabama this spring. We also learned a lot about the up coming AirVenture where they both are volunteers. We will have to make sure attending the fly-in is on our list of future travels.

On the Shores of Gitche Gumee

2011-07-28T06:14:00.001-04:00

For us, it was Christmas in July as we moved to the Kewadin Casino in Christmas, MI were they have 50 amp electricity at a few spots in the parking lot that are FREE. That made losing a few dollars easier to take. We are here to see Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, a park that stretches 40 miles along the southern shore of Lake Superior at its widest point. The best way to see the sandstone rock formations, beaches and waterfalls is from a boat. There where a couple of people on the boat who had hiked the length of the park and they said the view was much better from the lake.

Miners Castle, one of the few formations that is easy to get to by driving.
It was a beautiful day on the water with its color changing from blue to aqua and green. It was so clear you could see deep into the lake. There is another boat tour that goes out to see old ship wrecks on the bottom. Most of the erosion from waves comes with the winter storms that travel across 160 miles of open water.

This arch is called Lovers Leap. The water under the arch is only a couple of feet deep.

Look carefully at this rock and you can see the profile of an Indian.

The tree on Chapel Rock is unique. It has survived more than 50 years after the connecting arch collapsed because its roots, now hanging in the air, are still attached to the shore.

Only one trip a day goes as far as Spray Falls. Is is worth taking that trip to see this beautiful falls. Much of the coast east of this point consists of beaches and sand dunes.

Some of the many colorful cliffs with there different colors which are caused from various minerals that the water seeps through.

This is a Sandhill Crane. Its unusual color is the result of the birds drinking the tannin colored water from the area streams and lakes.

We drove to the Beaver Lake (lower right) area and did a day hike of the few miles through the forest to Lake Superior (top left). The forest was beautiful but we were attacked by evil flies on the portion that went along Superior.

Left is Alger Falls and right is Munising Falls.

There are several lighthouses in the area to guide ships around the shoals and sandbars like this one at the entrance to Munising Harbor. Right is the 150 year old Grand Island Light. The two on the left are different than any lights we have seen. They work as a pair and when a ship had them lined up it was in a safe channel to enter the harbor. For navigation the lights have been replaced by buoys and of course GPS.

One of the beautiful sunsets we saw on Lake Superior. We really enjoyed this part of the UP, remote little towns nestled in the forest or along the lake. A new food I had here was a pastie. It is a sandwich like thing with meat and root vegetables, including rutabaga, that is wrapped in pot pie dough. It was served with gravy and was very good. We also purchased some smoked whitefish which was excellent.

Year Four Summary

2011-07-24T06:29:00.000-04:00

THE LIST...................................... YEAR 2........YEAR 3........YEAR 4
Motorhome Miles.............................8,481..........9,070............9,576
Average Miles Per Day..........................23.23..........24.85............26.2
Average Trip........................................160..............162................184
Gallons of Diesel Fuel........................1083.27........1173.05.........1179.93
Average Cost Per Gallon.........................2.79.............3.11...............3.46
CRV Miles.......................................12,834.........11,949.............11,517
Bicycle Miles..........................................91..............149.................119
Camp Sites.............................................53...............56...................52
Average Nights in Each..........................6.9..............6.5..................7.0
Number of Frosty Nights...................too many........fewer.......too many
Number of Windy, Stormy Days.........20++.........fewer.....way too many
Number of States(Provinces)...............19(0)...........17 (5)..............27(3)
National Parks & Monuments.............23+..............11....................34
Blog Posts..............................................77.............100...................62
Days of Exercise (Jim).......................195..............173..................173
Days of Exercise (Nanc).....................261.............234.................240
Number of haircuts (Jim)......................0................0..............still 0
Old & New Friends & Family.......Priceless.........Priceless.........Priceless

This marks four years of fulltiming and it continues to be a wonderful experience. It gives us time for extended stays in places we visit and the opportunity to enjoy extended time with family and friends. We started year four in Canada and stayed in the Eastern half of the US for most of the year. We stayed in 52 places and the cost per night averaged $17.53. We had stays of a month or more in four places and weekly stays nine times. While traveling we only had one night stops 12 times and 10 of those were Wally World or other free places which helped keep our average down. We also have to thank friends who provided us with power a number of time which sure helps keeping costs down. Of course, higher fuel prices are an issue that does affect expenses, but we have not let it change our plans too much. We purchased about the same amount of fuel as last year, but it cost just oer $400 more which, at about $33.00 a month, is not too bad. We traveled in three Canadian provinces, including Quebec, for the first time. We traveled in 27 states while adding Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Wisconsin to our map of places we have spent at least one night. We have stayed in 45 states and 6 provinces during our four years of travel. Several times during the year we encountered bad weather starting with a nor'easter on the Outer Banks and we were under tornado, severe thunderstorm and high wind watches on several occasions. While we escaped all these events unscathed, it is not fun riding out a storm in a house on wheels that does not have a basement. A really, really big change for us this year was getting Dish Network satellite service. This, for a couple who never owned a TV during all the years we had a house. I still have former students ask if I have a TV yet and the answer for the first time is yes. It has been great getting to watch the Steelers, Pitt, the Pens and now even the Pirates who are having the best season in 20 years.

We continue to enjoy the experience of new places and things that we have documented on the blog but seeing friends and family is always the high point of our adventures. We started year four on Prince Edward Island as we were returning from Newfoundland. We spent a week at Jean Paul's and Celine's in Saint Omer, Quebec before heading back to the US. We explored a bit of New England where we stopped to see Bob & Gini who we met at the Rose Parade and then hooked up with 07 mates Dave & Kathy and Linda & Ron in PA. Next we went to the Yanni/Tenenbaum wedding in Cleveland where we had a great weekend celebrating with John & Patrice, Dave & Jackie, Bill & Kim, all the Yanni family and several others. This was followed with a few days of fishing at Pymatuning with Mike and Sherri. It was then back to WashPA for a month with a run to Goshen in the middle for the Escapade. Both stops were all about seeing friends. In PA many old pals and in IN our many RV mates. We then headed south with the first stop in DC for a week where we played tourist and got to see Nanc's sister, Michelle, and her husband, Keith. Next, was five weeks of fun, sun and fishing on the Outer Banks. While there we had a visit from Mike & Sherri and were able to spend a lot of time with Tom & Georgie and their dog Murphy who spent a week at the Outer Banks Motel. On the way to Central Florida we spent a weekend with Brian & Lori and their kids, visited Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head and St. Augustine where we had a short visit with Richard & Valerie. Next was a month in Apopka so we could enjoy Thanksgiving with Nanc's sister, Judy, and her husband, Bill. We also went to a couple of SKP luncheons while there to see some RV friends. For Christmas and New Years we were in Jupiter with Jack and Marylou. The first move of 2011 was to the Keys where we got to spend some time with Joe & Marcia. During our week in Fort Myers we went to a Steelers Bar to watch them win the AFC Championship with former co-worker, Janet Murry, who now lives on Sanibel. On our way out of Florida we did two weeks at the SKP park in Sumter Oaks cleaning the rig and seeing friends Wanda & Wallace, Charlie & Sherri and Joe & Marcia again. Next was a great seven weeks at Betty's RV Park for Mardi Gras, fun and more friends than I can list here. During the month of Mardi Gras activities there were 25 people who stayed the whole time so we got to know them all very well. As always, there are also many, many old friends at Betty's and new people who we met at those great happy hours. While there, Tom & Georgie came down for a week for a course in Cajun culture and we got together several times with Richard & Valerie. We loved our time with Betty and all the people we have gotten to know there. On the way north we stopped in Murfreesboro, AR; Oklahoma City & Bartlesville, OK; Kansas City & St. Louis, MO and Springfield, IL. We went to Spartan for annual service and then back to PA for six weeks of more family, friends, food and GREAT fishing. While in PA we saw many, many old friends and even had a couple of visits with RV mates, Dan & Merlene and Richard & Valerie, who stopped while passing through. We were especially happy to once again have a euchre tournament with Mike & Sherri; Tom & Georgie; and Tim and Diane. It is definitely something we miss. We were also very glad be able to spend some time with my brother, Rick and his wife, Denise. It's so nice to have time to just hang out and catch up with everyone. After PA we had some maintenance and repairs done at Newmar and then it was back to Spartan to complete the job they started in May. On our way to the UP of Michigan we spent a couple of days with Tony and MaryBeth who we met at Betty's. We had a great time in the UP and are ending year four in Wisconsin where we visited George & CeCe who we also met at Betty's.

As with life, not everything was wonderful as we did have several maintenance and repair issues to deal with this year. This is an expense that has generally been higher then we expected. We had a recall for the fridge, a bad circuit board in the washer, a leaking water line, and then ball joints and tie rods at Spartan. At Newmar we had new slide covers, new heavy duty springs for the jacks and new running lights installed. They repaired the water heater and the entry step and checked the slides and LP lines. We also had the dining room chairs reupholstered in Nappanee. Even with all that, it is really not that different from owning a stix and brix that also requires continual maintenance.

Looking to year five the big picture plans are to fill in the rest of the states. As we are heading west to the Black Hills and the Escapade in Gillette we will complete our map of the lower 48 with stays in Minnesota and North & South Dakota. After the Escapade we have reservations in Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone. A week after Yellowstone we are going to the Balloon Fest in Albuquerque with the SKP Boomers. We have made a reservation in Mesa, Arizona for the remainder of 2011 which will be longer than we have ever stayed in one spot since hitting the road. We will see how that works out. To start 2012 we will be at Quartzite for the Class of 07 reunion. We are hoping to add Hawaii to the map with a vacation there in early 2012 and then next summer we want to travel to Alaska to complete the 50 states. As always, these plans are not written in stone and whatever we end up doing will be a fun new adventure.

Whitefish Point

2011-07-21T07:48:00.001-04:00

We did a day trip from the Soo to Whitefish Point to visit the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. We chose to take the scenic route to the museum and much of the drive was through the Hiawatha National Forest with occasional spectacular views of the bay.

Along the way we stopped at the Point Iroquois Light Station that, along with the Gros Cap Reefs Light on the Canadian side, guides ships through the Whitefish Bay to the St. Marys River and the Soo Locks. We climbed the tower and could see the reef light in the distance. The house has been restored to the way it looked in the 1950's and the visitors center has a good display of the tools of the keepers.
Part of the shipwreck museum is the restored USCG Lifeboat Station. The equipment is the same as that used by the stations on the Outer Banks. The boat was towed to the waters edge to be rowed out to rescue survivors. The wagon has a cannon that fired a line to ships that had run aground so people could be rescued using a breaches buoy to pull them ashore. The famous quote of the lifesavers was, "boys the manual says we have to go out, it does not say we have to return." I am sure these rescues in the icy waters of Lake Superior were very dangerous.

The museum had a display of Fresnel lights including a second order one that was several feet high. There were exhibits on the way diving equipment has changed over the years. The yellow divers suit was used in 1995 to dive 550 feet to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

This is the ship's bell from the Fitz that was recovered on that dive. A new bell with the names of the 29 sailors who were lost in the 1975 wreck was placed aboard the ship. Family members were invited to ring the bell while the names of there departed loved ones were read before the bell was lowered to the ship. The site is now off limits to divers since it is a grave site.

The Whitefish Point Light Station. The tower is different than any we have been in so we paid extra for the chance to climb the narrow cylinder to the top. The spiral staircase is very tight.

This is Whitefish Point from the top of the lighthouse. They told us we could see the spot where the Fitzgerald went down 17 miles from the point. On the horizon is a Great Lakes freighter that we had seen on the St Marys River earlier in the day.

Here we are at the top with Lake Superior in the background. We have now been to all five Great Lakes on our travels. The museum has exhibits on several wrecks that happened near here over the years. Many of them were the result of ships running into each other during foggy conditions. A large portion of the wrecks, including the Edmund Fitzgerald, took place in November when Lake Superior has many storms with hurricane force winds.

The keeper's house at the station has been very well restored to show the life of the keepers and their families. All the furniture is original to the house.

Near Whitefish Point is Tahquamenon Falls that is second in size to only Niagara for falls east of the Mississippi. The falls are 200 feet across and 50 feet high. The beautiful unique color comes from the tannin that Cedar, Spruce and Hemlock trees put in the water. For years the river was used to transport logs from the forest to the lake where they were put on ships to be sent to the mills. Since it was a sunny warm day we were happy to find the Tahquamenon Falls Brewery offering several varieties of craft beer at a pub in the park. I don't think they use the river water for the beer.

It's All Happening at the Soo

2011-07-17T10:39:00.001-04:00

We moved on to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and stayed at the Elks Lodge on the St. Marys River in Sault Ste. Marie. It is a great place to watch the boats and ships traveling between Lake Superior and Lake Huron prepare to enter and exit the Soo Locks. We visited a couple of local museums with exhibits about shipping on the Great Lakes. We discovered a new brewery, Soo Brewing Company, that has only been open since March. This brewery was different from others we have stopped at because they have tables and pews for patrons but they do not serve food. They have menus from several local restaurants so we chose Chinese take out to go with "our" (yes even Nanc had a beer) brews. It is also a place where the locals come to relax and have a cold brew which was quite obvious by the growlers they were returning for refills. They even have a great variety of games to pass the time. If you are in the Soo stop by and support the local brewer.

To get to the UP we had to cross the the Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in North America. At 200 feet above the water it is the highest bridge we have crossed. It has to be this high to allow ships to pass from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. I think the view from the middle is great, but I did not get to see much as both eyes were on the road.
A must see are the Soo Locks that allow ships to navigate through the 21 foot drop in water level between the lakes. The first lock that was built on the Canadian side in 1812 was destroyed during the War of 1814. The first American lock was built in 1855. The four locks (above left) that are used today range in length from 800 to 1350 feet. The two longest, built in 1914 and 1919 by the "War" Department, are the oldest and need to be rebuilt because they are too narrow for the newer larger ships.

The 730 foot long, 76 foot wide Mapleglen entering the 800 foot long, 80 foot wide MacArthur Lock. There are no tugs and no bumpers to prevent this giant ship from hitting the wall of the lock. The amount of freight carried by the 11,000 ships that pass through the locks each year exceeds that carried through the Suez and Panama Canals combined.

Another look at how tight it is for these big ships. The biggest ship today, the Paul R. Tregurtha, is 1013' 6" long and 105" wide. The Poe lock that was constructed in 1968 is the only one large enough to handle the 1000-footers.

The Mapleglen sails out of the lock 21 feet lower than it was a half hour earlier to continue its journey to Montreal. Ships carrying ore, coal, grain and general freight to places around the world pass through these locks.

It is not just big ships that use the locks. Here is the tall ship, Pride of Baltimore, that we have seen docked in that city's Inner Harbor. There is a lock cruise that we opted not to take as we have been through other locks a few times.

Some of the ships we saw out the front window of the rig while parked at the Elks. There were local sailboats, ocean going freighters, Canadian Coast Guard ships, work barges and 1000-footers. Boat spotting is a fun activity. There are books you can buy to identify all the ships.

The Museum Ship, Valley Camp. It is 550 feet and could carry 11,500 tons compared to today's 1000-footers that can carry over 78,000 tons. The Valley Camp's cargo often went to the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania.

Looking down the length of the ship. The displays in the cargo holds offer a history of Great Lakes shipping. The floor was very uneven from years of having coal and ore dumped on to it. Bottom is a crew cabin and the officer's mess. You can also get into the engine room of this old coal burner and see what it was like to work aboard a freighter.

Of course, sadly the most famous Great Lakes freighter is the Edmund Fitzgerald that sank in November, 1975 with all 29 crew members lost and memorialized in the song by Gordan Lightfoot. Part of the Valley Camp display is a movie about the Fitz and these two life boats that were some of the few items recovered. This museum is very well done and worth a visit.

Aves des Amis a Paris

2011-07-11T10:46:00.002-04:00

After getting the work done at Spartan we are back on the road. Our friends from Betty's, Tony and MaryBeth Linn, are spending the summer in Paris so we decided to stop to see them and take in the sights of the City of Lights. Imagine our surprise when we discovered they were in Paris, Michigan. Oh well, we had a great visit and really enjoyed the area. They took us to a couple of great local restaurants we never would have found on our own and showed us around beautiful Central Michigan. When you see Tony ask him what you are supposed to do when there is a red octagon sign at an intersection. The officer was very nice and since Tony has a South Dakota driver's license, even though he lived here most of his life, he got off with a smile.

MaryBeth, Tony, Jim and Nanc enjoying the great weather on the deck at Moe-Z-In where the fish basket was wonderful. Once again, meeting up with friends on the road is the best thing about our fulltiming RV lifestyle.
I told Nanc when we went on the road that I would show her the world. Here we are at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. We took advantage of the rails to trails bike path that ran past the campground and had a Tour de France experience to enhance the feeling of being in Paris.

Another stop we would have missed had we not been with Tony and MaryBeth is the Shrine of the Pines in Baldwin. The shrine is a museum of rustic furniture built by Raymond Overholzer in the 1930's and 40's for the hunting and fishing lodge he operated. Everything is built of wood he salvaged after the forest had been clear cut to rebuild Chicago after the fire. He used no nails or screws putting it all together with dowels and glue. Above is a gun rack that holds twelve guns and rotates on hand made wooden ball bearings. Our guide, Virginia, was fantastic. She grew up here and knew Raymond and his wife so she offered a personal insight into his life and his work.

Above top is the main chandelier, a picture window with a one piece root frame and a day bed.

Bottom is Tony on the only chair we were allowed to try. It was very comfortable even with its twisted legs. Next is another chandelier and a small window frame.

Here is Nanc at the liquor cabinet that hid the booze around the corner in a stump. There was a slot to stack shot glasses. The background is the three hundred pound front door that swang open on pine pegs.

Here Virgina is showing a buffet that was made from a rotten log. Raymond (pictured) carved out drawers and and the top from a pine root that he carved slots into for the shelves. The pine roots look like drift wood but they have never been in the water. They were left behind when the forest was cut and when farmers moved into the area they dug them up and stood them up around their fields to make fences.

Here is a poker table. A unique feature of all the furniture is that it does not have a varnish or painted finish. Raymond rubbed maple ash into the wood to bring out the grain and produce the shining finish.

The fireplace was constructed of native stone. The chair was carved from one log and the bench was another old root. You are supposed to be able to see every letter of the alphabet in the root embedded in the chimney.

The dining room table was made from a 700 pound root. The center was rotten so Raymond carved a puzzle of seventy pieces to make the inlaid top. Like most of his pieces, Raymond caved hidden little nooks into the legs and under the table. The Shrine of the Pines is a very interesting stop that should not be missed if you are traveling near Baldwin.

Back Home in Indiana

2011-07-05T13:41:00.001-04:00

It is not us but our motorhome, Opus, that is back home in Indiana. We are at its birthplace, Newmar in Nappanee, to have a few things fixed on our seven year old rig. We had new covers put on the slides, heavy duty springs on the jacks and new running lights installed. They also adjusted the slides and repaired the hot water heater and entry step. I guess driving on bumpy roads really takes its toll on our home. We had our two dining room chairs (our most used furniture) reupholstered. All the work was completed by Wednesday but we decided to stay here through the July 4th weekend since we are only travelling a short distance to Spartan to have the work started in May completed. Holiday weekends are often an issue for travelling fulltimers as the parks fill up and the cost of staying here is what we paid for the work we had done. We did a bit of exploring around Nappanee and rode our bikes for the first time in quite a while. We also took a tour of the Newmar plant. It is always fascinating seeing how they put the rigs together. Business is way down from the first time we visited in 2006. Back then they were making 12 to 15 rigs a day and now they are only building three. They are down to 400 employees from a high of over a 1000. The whole RV industry is in big trouble with many manufacturers going out of business. We are happy that Newmar is still around as this is really the best place to get repairs done.

Here is a before and after of the chairs and one of the two pillows we had done at Mast Upholstering. Nanc had called them a couple of weeks ago and they were very accommodating in getting the work done in only three days as we had originally planned to leave last Thursday. We had already purchased fabric but they have quite a selection to choose from if you have more time to wait to have the work completed. I sure hope I am not the first person to spill something on the new chairs. Mast did a great job so if you are in the area and need any work done give them a call.
One afternoon we drove to Elkhart to the RV/MH Hall of Fame Museum & Library. They have a great collection of old and modern RVs. The display above shows how RVs have changed over the years. The Hall of Fame is photos of people in the industry most of whom we did not know. We did recognize the owner of Newmar and Joe & Kay Peterson the founders of Escapees. According to the local paper, the museum like the rest of the RV industry is not doing very well because corporate contributions are way down.

The road leads you down a memory lane of old restored RVs.

How about this early rig with a bathtub and a pot that is literally a pot. We like our more modern facilities much better.

Many of the oldest rigs and even some smaller new ones have outdoor kitchens, an idea that goes back to the old chuck wagons.

This Shasta really brought back memories for Nanc and me. My Uncle Chuck and Aunt Sis had one like this and we spent many weekends camping with them. We usually slept in our tent but one rainy weekend we slept inside with Chuck, Sis, Randy, Greg and their dog Skippy. Looking at it now it is hard to believe we got seven bodies in there for the night, but it was great fun.

Nanc loved the Tennessee Traveler and thinks we should look into what we can get on a trade. The RV Museum is a real walk down memory lane but if finances don't improve it may not be open much longer.

We enjoyed riding the bikes and driving along the country roads with all the beautifully kept Amish and English farms. One way to tell a Amish farm is they usually still have small bales of hay and not the big rolled ones. The work here requires a lot of laborers. We try to collect some small memento that will remind us of a place we have visited and we were lucky enough to find a very unique one here in Nappanee. We found a horseshoe which we hope will provide us with continued good luck in our travels. It will also be a reminder of the slower pace of Nappanee and the pace we continue to strive to keep as fulltimers.

I guess it is OK to use an outboard motor as long as the boat is pulled to the water by a horse. We did discover we can bike faster then the buggies travel, as we passed several on our rides. The greatest obstacle while bike riding the roads here are the IPDs, Improvised Poop Devises.

Look very carefully in the tall corn and you will find a farmer, his son and a team of draft horses. The countryside around Nappanee is well worth a visit. As the welcome sign says "Embrace the Pace."

Last Week in PA

2011-06-28T08:59:00.029-04:00

Our last week in PA was filled with family, friends, food and fishing. We enjoyed eating out and ate at over 25 different restaurants during this stay. Several times we went to our usual favorites like the Union Grill, Sam's and Burgh's. Other times we went to places that we love to go to with friends and even went to the Kopper Kettle a place we have never eaten in thirty years of living in WashPA. Some, like Eleven and the Back Porch, are places to go on special occasions and since we are here so rarely that makes it a special occasion. We have really enjoyed our time here seeing so many good friends who we miss so much while on the road.

Here we are with Rick and Denise at Eleven in Pittsburgh. We had a great meal and a wonderful evening catching up on what has been going on in our lives. You can tell this is a fancy place, I wore a shirt with buttons.

Here we are at Pete and Rosemary's where we had a Greek meal that was as good as any we had eating out. They have a beautiful back yard complete with a grape arbor where Pete gets the grapes for his famous jelly. They even got out the columns to give their place more of a Greek feel. We are looking forward to hearing about their fall trip to Greece.

Another evening we went bowling at the Meadows Casino with Mike and Sherri. Check out the "English" the bowlers are using to try and bring the ball to the pins. That is a deceptively impressive score. It was the team score about six frames into the game. We may not be very good but everyone, even Mike, had a fun time. After bowling we ate at the Terrace Restaurant and Mike, Nanc and I lost some money in the slots. Sherri was the only winner.

On the last Wednesday of our visit the teachers did a road trip to the Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh. This is a neat brewpub in an old church. The brews and food were heavenly. Top left are Kim, Sandy, Nanc and Patrice. Bottom left are Ron, Becky, Pat, Ann Marie and Bill. Sorry John I did not get a pic of you. That evening we got one last fix of local jazz. Dan on the guitar and Josh on the sax were joined this week by another former student Ruben on the trumpet. Ruben is also an author and his book, A Young Man's Wisdom, about growing up and becoming a father is a great read. It is available on Amazon.

Our last day in WashPA was a big one. Richard and Valerie, rving friends who we have met on the road several times, stopped by while traveling from Michigan to their new condo in Charlottesville, VA. We had brunch and had a couple of hours to get caught up. It was so nice to see them again and we are so glad they were able to squeeze in a visit.

That evening we went to dinner at the Back Porch with all our old euchre club friends. Tim, Diane, Sherri, Mike, Tom, Georgie, Nanc, Jim, Jack and Marylou. We all had wonderful meals and as you can see from the next pic some of us got a little out of hand.

A picture is worth a thousand words. This is typical of our PA friends and shows why we miss them all so much. They are such a fun group.

We left Washington on Wednesday and went to Pymatuning to visit with Mike and Sherri at their cottage for the weekend. We had a great time all weekend and laughed so much we hurt. In addition to the GREAT fishing, Nanc and Sherri did some retail therapy and played many games of upwards and frustration. Then we all played euchre where the guys once again triumphed over the gals.

And the final fish story. Over the last 25 plus years I have been fishing at Pymatuning many, many, many times. On ALL those trips the biggest walleye I ever caught was 22 inches which makes this trip so special. As you can see from the previous post I caught three very nice fish on Wednesday. On Thursday the skies were threatening and we were only out for an hour before a storm ended our day. BUT in that hour I landed (with Mike manning the net) another big 27 inch walleye. This really makes up for the many days I sat in the front of the boat without a single fish while Mike caught fish after fish in the back. As you can see he did not go fishless this time either as he hooked several catfish, a couple of perch and a small walleye. The last two days of this trip brought me back to reality as they were typical days of catching small walleye, catfish and perch.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MIKE AND SHERRI FOR THIS GREAT WEEKEND OF FISHING!!!!!!!

Gone Fishin

2011-06-23T08:55:00.009-04:00

If the the worst day of fishing is better than the best day of work then the best day of fishing must happen only in retirement. We left WashPA for a few days of fishing with the Sharps at Pymatuning before heading west.

We were not even going to go out on the boat the first day so we were not on the water until almost 5PM. On the first pass a real big one got off the hook, but then on the second I landed this 27 inch walleye with Captain Mike doing a fine job with the net. This is the largest fish I have ever caught.
On the next drift I landed this 19 incher which is a nice size fish for Pymatuning.

Then on the next float I upped my biggest fish with this 28 inch beauty.

What a great few hours of fishing. A special thanks to Capt'n Mike for finding these beauties and manning the net. We will be eating fish tonight.

Friends, Food, Music, Let's Go Bucs

2011-06-18T06:02:00.000-04:00

We continue to enjoy our time back in PA and have finally completed all the doctor visits and are almost done with the spring cleaning of the rig. We have had a whirlwind social schedule getting together with friends. We have an appointment to have a couple of things (new slide covers) done at Newmar at the end of the month so we will be heading back to Indiana when we depart PA. We have made reservations, something we don't often do, in the Black Hills of South Dakota for a week in the middle of August so we will have about seven weeks to add Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas to our map on the way west. After the Black Hills we will be in Gillette, Wyoming for 12 days to attend the Escapade. Following that we have reservations for a week in Cody and a week in Yellowstone (hope we get out before the snow). Our friends Mike and Sherri are going to meet us there so we can tour together. After Yellowstone we have a week to drive 1000 miles to Albuquerque, which is hyper speed for us, for twelve days with the Boomers at the balloon fest. By then it will be time to start looking for a place in Arizona for the winter including a stop in Q for a Class of 07 reunion.

Another Wednesday lunch with the teachers. It was the last day with kids for those still working so a few additional teachers joined the group. Joy is retiring and the shirt says it all. Pictured are Jim, Becky, Peg, Ken, Lena, Sandy, Joy, Bill, Kim, Linda, John & Nanc. We really do love being here and seeing so many friends, but we also really love the flexibility of the life we live.
We went to the All Saints Greek Orthodox Church Festival and had a great time visiting with Pete and Rosemary, eating the great food, listening to the music and watching the kids do traditional dances. They start with the youngsters and then the high schoolers show their stuff. It is great seeing how they are working to preserve their culture.

Father George conducted a tour explaining the significance of the beautiful paintings in the church. We also got a history lesson on how the Greek Orthodox Church differs from the Roman Catholic Church. If you are traveling in Western PA during the festival we recommend you stop in Canonsburg to enjoy a good time with great food. The festival lasts a week and they start preparing for it in January. Among all the wonderfully prepared Greek food we were told they make over 30,000 stuffed grape leaves. Everything that is prepared is excellent and the crowds prove it.

Another dinner out with friends. Top; Nanc, Mike, Judy, Ed, Donna and Jim all loved the food and conversation at Al & Rubens. Bottom the band plays some great jazz and blues. Josh, on the sax, and Dan, on the guitar, are former students and we always make it a point to see them when we are in the area.

We took in a Pirate game at PNC Park with our friends John and Patrice. Top left is the newest statue of Bill Mazeroski celebrating his walk off homer to win the World Series against the Yankees at 3:36 on the afternoon of October 13, 1960. That is a moment that is burned into the brain of every Pirate fan. People still gather along the wall of old Forbes Field that was left standing to replay the broadcast each year. Middle is Hall of Famer Honus Wagner and right the Pirate Parrot. The wall and scoreboard in right field is 21 feet high to honor number 21 the great Roberto Clemente. There are other statues of Clemente and Willie Stargell that I did not get pictures of. We got to see Maz, Willie and Roberto play many times over the years at both Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium.

The view of the city from behind home plate. It was a perfect day to take in a game.

The setting sun reflects on the skyline looking from our seats in left field. This is truly one of the most beautiful ball park settings in the country. Of course, we are just a little prejudiced.

Here the Bucs have the bases loaded. They did score a run here and won the game 3 - 1 over the Mets. Here in Pittsburgh they are celebrating because the team's record is over .500 at this point of the season. Remember, we have suffered through 18 loosing seasons, a professional sports record. I don't understand how the idiots who run baseball expect people to support the game when the winners are always those who can afford to buy the championship. "They" say we are a small market team as a explanation but it is the same small market where the Penguins have won THREE of Lord Stanley's Cups and the Steelers have won SIX Super Bowls since 1974. Go figure.

It's a Burgh Thing

2011-06-09T08:32:00.001-04:00

We are still in PA doing the things we need to do. We have been poked and probed and are happy to report all is well. The importance of our health has really hit home recently with the reports of the passing and illness of several friends. Our thoughts go out to all who are dealing with health and family issues. We have been having a great time with old friends and family and are happy to see all our favorite restaurants are still doing well. Our bill for groceries is way down for the month but the dining out is through the roof. We have more than one favorite dish at each place so several visits have been required. We have been doing some much needed motorhome cleaning including emptying, cleaning and reorganizing the basement. It is amazing how much stuff we have accumulated in four years on the road. Nanc has cleaned closets and I still have to wax the exterior

We got together with the Euchre group for an evening of food, fun and cards. Nanc tied for first and had to spilt her winnings which really cut down on the profits for the night. Of course my coming in last also contributed to this financial setback. Left to right are Tim, Nanc, Tom, Diane, Georgie, Mike and Sherri. The euchre tournaments are one of the things we miss on the road.
We had a fun day at the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival. Three streets were closed and they had groups all weekend. Dahntahn was alive with music n 'at. Pittsburgh has a proud heritage of jazz, but the local NPR station has just changed hands and the hours of daily jazz on the radio are in danger which has resulted in a lot of uproar and many letters to the editor.

Some of the Burgh's art. Top is a transformer man made of bridges, a mural celebrating the cultural district and our very own magnolia tree that blooms year round. Bottom is a sculpture of a musician, a juried piece by a former student, Toby Fraley, and a neat fountain in Katz Plaza. Pittsburgh is a beautiful city and no longer the smoky steel town most people think it is. It is doing well in these tough economic times with an unemployment rate well below the national average.

There were many artists selling their wares and all kinds of food at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Yinz could get perogies or a jumbo sandwich along with a can of pop or an ahrn to wash it dahn. The festival was really crowded because there were so many jagoffs in tahn from Philly to see their team loose 2 out of three to the Buccos.

At the Point (see pic in the last entry) the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers come together to form the Ohio making this spot a strategic location for both the French and British in the middle 1700's. The French first controlled the confluence but burned Fort Duquesne and fled when the British approached. The British then built Fort Pitt and the blockhouse is all that remains from that fort. This was part of the same war that led to the expulsion of the French Cajuns from Canada to Louisiana that we learned so much about when we stayed in Abbeville.

Today the Point is a beautiful state park that gives a much different view of the city skyline. The outline of concrete shows the location of the walls of the first fort. Pittsburgh is a beautiful stop if yinz are traveling in the area but unfortunately there are really no good RV parks within twenty five miles of dahntahn.

Back in PA

2011-05-28T10:13:00.012-04:00

We are back in PA for a few weeks to do doctors and dentist as well as reconnect with old friends and family. We have each had appointments and so far, unlike last spring when Nanc had knee surgery, all is well. We are staying at Pine Cove Beach Resort about 20 miles from Washington because at the place we stayed in the past the electricity was so bad we could not run our AC and we believe it caused damage to the washer/dryer because of low power. The weather the first week was not very good with rain almost every day but it has been better lately with highs in the 80's expected for the holiday weekend. I have been lazy and did not get pics of everyone we have gotten together with so far. I am running behind with the blog and there was a problem with google where I had trouble getting on.

We brought back a LOT of beads from Mardi Gras and shared a few with the lunch group. Top left is Becky and Sandy, right is Lena and Linda and bottom is Paul and John. We also gave two boxes of beads to my old colleagues at school. They were ooohing and aaahing so much I hope they share them with the kids. It was great seeing all of them and catching up with what has been happening here.
One of our favorite things about being in PA is the chance to go fishing at Pymatuning. We had a great weekend of weather and fishing with Mike and Sherri at their cottage and going out on their pontoon boat. We caught quite a few perch, catfish and walleye and enjoyed the time together.

At the lake we had a real thrill when we saw this eagle swoop down and pick a fish out of the water. Click on the pic to enlarge it and you can see the fish in the eagle's claws.

In addition to old friends we also saw some new ones when Dan and Merlene, who we met at Betty's, stopped by for a couple days. It was nice enough that we ate dinner on the patio of the Speers Grill overlooking the Monongahela River. Many, many times we meet up with RV friends along the way and it is always great to share our adventures.

Dan and Merlene did a day trip to Pittsburgh to tour PNC Park and to see the view of the city from Mt. Washington. They were surprised at the beauty of Western PA. Being from California they could not believe how much water there is and how green everything is.

Tulips & Tie Rods

2011-05-21T06:38:00.000-04:00

We had an appointment at Spartan Chassis for the annual service and inspection. We like to go to Spartan when it fits our travel plans because they are so thorough in checking everything out and our rig is seven years old. Well, the inspection turned up bad tie rods and ball joints so we ended up staying an extra day to have that work done. They did a new alignment but a tire has worn because of the problem so we now have a slight pull and we may have to get the tires rotated. We will drive to PA to see how it handles and, if need be, will plan to travel back this way on our way west to have that done. This is one of those times when the "camping is free" but you learn that is a relative term when you get the bill. Oh well, the work is done and we are back on the road. Nanc told me we were near Holland and we could add another country to our map while they were doing the work, so we drove to Holland only to discover it is a town in Michigan. It was a great day with so many tulips in bloom everywhere.

At the Veldheer Tulip Garden and DeKlomp Factory they produce 5 million bulbs a year and have 3/4 of a million flowers in bloom. The variety of color is really beyond belief.
This is one of those places where words cannot describe the beauty and each picture is worth a thousand words. Just enjoy.

Nanc among the blooms.

A small windmill in the garden.

Who knew there were so many varieties?

You can buy a pair of klompen (wooden shoes) that are made in the factory. The wooden shoes were used in Holland because leather was too expensive and would not last in the damp Dutch fields. In the top two pics Elmer is making shoes the old fashion way, by hand. He said it takes about four hours for each pair starting with a block of wood that is first cut into the shape of the shoe and then hollowed out. In the factory they can make a pair in fifteen minutes. Bottom left a machine using a jig shapes the outside from a block of poplar in a few minutes. I am holding the results of the first step. These are then dried for about a month before the inside is cut out by another machine (middle). You can also buy hand crafted delftware here from the only remaining factory in the US that produces the famous blue and white earthenware. This was a very interesting stop.

Statue of a Dutch couple and, of course, more tulips in a park in Holland.

One of the six miles of streets in Holland that are designated as "tulip lanes." We were here the day of the Tulip Festival parade but we skipped all those festivities.

The De Zwaan (the swan) in the Windmill Island Gardens was originally built in the Netherlands in 1761. It was the last authentic windmill the Dutch allowed to be taken out of the country.

The Holland Lighthouse (Big Red) is on the shore of Lake Michigan at the entrance to Holland Harbor. The drive to the lighthouse is through a beautiful area with many homes along the water. We had a great time in Holland and recommend it as a must see if you are here in the spring.

Land of Lincoln

2011-05-14T05:21:00.006-04:00

We moved to the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield to continue our tour of Presidential sites. Springfield was the home of Abraham Lincoln for the 25 years before he moved to Washington to become President in 1861 and became his final resting place following his assassination in 1865. While in Springfield he became a successful lawyer and served in the Illinois legislature and the US House of Representatives. Lincoln married Mary Todd and his four sons were born here. One son, Edward, died here in 1850 and another son, Willie, died in the White House in 1862. His youngest son, Tad, died in 1871 while Robert, the only child to live beyond his teens, served as Secretary of War and was president of the Pullman Car Company.

Lincoln's Springfield home.

Abe's home was originally one story but as his family grew and he prospered as a lawyer a second floor was added. The park service has done a great job of restoring the neighborhood around Lincoln's Home. In the four surrounding blocks the homes that were there when Lincoln lived here appear as they did at that time, while those built more recently have been removed. You get a real feel for what the area looked like when the Lincoln's lived here.
There are only a few original furnishings in the home as the Lincolns rented the house and took most of their personal belongings to Washington when he was elected President. Mary would not live in the house following his death. The home is typical of an upper middle class family of the time.

Some of the places around Springfield that are tied to the history of Lincoln. Top is the train station were he gave his farewell speech when they left in 1861 and the old state capitol building where he served in the legislature. Middle is a statue of the Lincolns in front of his law office and bottom are some of the restored homes in his old neighborhood.

The Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery.

The tomb was dedicated in 1874 and is the final resting place of Lincoln, his wife Mary, sons Edward, Willie and Tad. Robert is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The granite obelisk rises 117 feet and is surrounded by statues that represent the four Civil War services infantry, navy, artillery and cavalry. The military statues were cast with metal from cannons. There is a statue of Lincoln holding the Emancipation Proclamation and a plaque with an eagle holding the broken chain of human slavery in its beak.

The burial chamber.

There are reduced scale reproductions of several Lincoln statues and excerpts of several of his speeches in the halls leading to the chamber. It is said that rubbing the nose of the statue outside will bring good luck and we are never ones to pass that kind of opportunity.

A must see in Springfield is the new Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum that opened in 2005. There are two very well done multi-media presentations, one on the role of the library and the other about Lincoln during the Civil War. The log cabin is the entrance to the exhibit on Abe's early life that includes the tragedies he suffered growing up when his mother, his first love and a son died. It follows his life as he educates himself and passes the bar and his political career, both successful and unsuccessful. This includes his debates with Stephen Douglas who defeated Lincoln in a run for the US Senate but lost the Presidential election to Abe two years later.

The Lincoln family in front of the White House that is the entrance to the exhibits about Lincoln's time as President. Standing on the left is John Wilkes Booth. This area deals with how Lincoln's election lead to the secession of the Southern states and the burden of leadership the Civil War placed on Lincoln. A must see exhibit condenses the war to four minutes with each second representing a week. A map shows how land changed hands and tracks the causalities that added up to over 1.5 million. There are exhibits about the assassination and a large room with the casket as it lie in state in the Illinois capitol. This museum is very well done and should be on the to do list of all Americans who want to understand how this great man saved the country we know.

As with most places we visit there always seems to be a reason to return. In Springfield it is the Dana-Thomas House that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is undergoing a major renovation and is not open at this time.

The Arch

2011-05-09T05:42:00.000-04:00

We stayed at the Elks Lodge in Oakville so we could visit St. Louis and see the arch. This is a great stop at only $5.00 a night but the power is 15 amp so in the summer if you need AC it may not be so great. Our goal was to visit Jefferson National Expansion Memorial that includes the old courthouse, a museum and, of course, the arch.

The first day we visited downtown it was overcast and a little rainy so we opted to tour the old courthouse. The courthouse was the site of the Dred Scott case in 1846. Scott, a slave, had lived for a time with his owner in Illinois, a free state, were he should have been able to gain his freedom. When he was moved back to Missouri he sued for his freedom based on the precedent that having lived in a free state gave him his right to freedom. The case finally made it to the US Supreme Court that ruled in 1856 that slaves were property and had no rights as citizens so Scott could not sue for his freedom. The ruling also ended the prohibition on slavery in the territories and prohibited Congress from regulating slavery anywhere. Scott was emancipated by his original owners following the decision. This decision lead to the rise of the Republican party, the election of Lincoln and the Civil War.

The building is architecturally interesting and has a display of St. Louis history from the first French settlers to the present.

In 1965 while on a cross country trip with my grandparents I saw the arch before the two legs were joined. Since then I have wanted to return and take the tram to the top. The idea for a monument to honor St. Louis as the Gateway to the West went back to the 1930's. The arch was designed in 1947 and construction began in 1963. It is a great engineering feat and a must see is the movie about the construction and the problems they overcame.

At 630 feet the arch is the tallest structure in the park service. This relief compares the height of other natural and man made sites to the arch and honors those that designed and built it. Nanc tells me the name of the architect, Eero Saarinen, is often in crossword puzzles.

Looking down from the top at the Mississippi. The water here was receding a little during the couple of days we saw it. The road to the right of the shadow was under water on our first visit.

Here we are at the top. This ride is not for the claustrophobic as the tram cars are very tight. Each holds five people and the entrance is only five feet high. The tram is part cable car, part elevator and part Ferris wheel. If it breaks down there is a 1076 step stairway in each leg that can be used to get down.

At the top the curve of the arch is very evident. That is Nanc from the knees up off in the distance. There are 16 small windows on each side of the observation area.

There is a great view of the Mississippi, St. Louis, Missouri and Illinois from the top.

Under the arch is a museum that tells the story of Westward Expansion with the exhibits arranged by decade telling what occurred throughout the US as states were added through the century. It starts with the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase by the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery and other explorers. It then shows how the West was settled to the point where, by the end of the 1800's, the census bureau declared there was no more frontier left in the continental United States. It also tells what happened to the Indian culture because of this expansion. The exhibits covered many of the same events we have seen on our recent travels from the cowboy culture and cattle drives to the trails followed by pioneers heading West.

Some of the animals that were important during Western Expansion. This is a great stop and the ride to the top of the arch is wonderful.

Independence, Trails, KC

2011-05-04T06:53:00.000-04:00

After learning the SKP park in Branson was half under water we changed our plans again and extended our stay in Independence. There is plenty to do here and it is very close to downtown Kansas City. We made a couple of trips into the city and enjoyed some of the sights and, of course, the food. The Midwest is not a great place to be a vegan like Nanc but for a meat eater like me it was wonderful. KC is known for its barbecue and after a combo of pork, beef ribs and burnt tips at Jack Stack Barbecue I can attest to the quality, mmmmmmmmm!

A few of sights in Independence.

Clockwise from the top left is the 1827 Log Courthouse that for forty years was the last courthouse between here and the Pacific and where Harry Truman held court in the 1930's. Middle is the Truman Depot that was the final stop of Truman's 1948 Whistlestop Campaign and where 8500 people welcomed Harry and Bess home at the end of his term in 1953. Next is the Auditorium and Temple of the Community of Christ, a Mormon sect, that towers over the city. The two stones at the bottom mark the beginning of the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails and a statue of President Andrew Jackson for whom Jackson County is named.
Here are a few of the many large, grand homes in Independence. Top left is the Bingham Waggoner Estate, Center is the Vaile Mansion and bottom right is the home where Bess Truman was born. The other two are just a couple of neat houses we liked. There is a Truman Historic Walking Trail around the city that includes many of these places.

We visited the National Frontier Trails Museum that celebrates Independence as the "Queen City of the Trails". The Santa Fe, Oregon and California Trails all started here in the 1800's. The museum starts with the story of Lewis and Clark's Expedition and then the trappers and traders who opened the early paths that lead to America's Western Expansion. It has separate exhibits on each trail and the role Independence played as the staring point. Above is a statue of Jim Bridger an early mountain man and trapper. The top wagon is a Pennsylvania built Conestoga Wagon like those used by traders on the Santa Fe Trail. The bottom smaller wagon is more like the ones used by the pioneers. You can take a oral history tour around the city in this wagon. The rattler shows only one of the many dangers these travelers encountered along the trail. The background is a quilt with each block done in a different pattern made by local groups to celebrate the opening of the museum.

Top right is how Independence looked as a trail head town and left is the plaza in Santa Fe, Mexico. The Santa Fe Trail was more of a trade route than a road used by people moving west to settle. Bottom center is a Independence wheelwright shop with trail trash travellers discarded to lighten their loads on either side. The Oregon Trail was used by those going to settle on the fertile farm land of that territory. The California trail opened with the discovery of gold there in 1848 and followed the Oregon trail to a cut off point in Idaho. One of the stories in the museum was about Ezra Meeker who worked in the early 1900's to preserve the Oregon Trail. Meeker traveled the trail to Oregon in 1852. Then, to promote the trail's preservation traveled it Eastward in 1906. Before he died in 1928 he made three more trips, one in a wagon, then by automobile, and finally by airplane in 1924. This museum is a great stop to learn about those early pioneers who settled the West.

KC is known for its jazz and blues music so we went to the Blue Room in the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District for a great session. Two museums we will have to check out in the future are the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. We also made a stop at the corner made famous in the song, Goin to Kansas City, 12th Street & Vine. Because of urban renewal the corner is now in a park where sculptures reflecting the music heritage of the city are still being added.

In the 1920's KC was known as the Paris of the Plains and as you can see from this Peep Show going on downtown there today that tradition continues. Today the city is famous for its many fountains. Some we found were not working but here are a couple that were. Kansas City and surrounding areas have much to offer for everyone.