Hello from Dillon, CO

Hello from Dillon, CO

Wednesday morning    December 29, 2010  

We are at our daughter and her family's great townhouse in Dillon, CO (map).  They bought this townhouse as an investment/get away.  The townhouse is currently leased by a company to house one of the working families.  They are between families and Kelly and Damon have been able to enjoy their town house for the holiday season. 

Their town house is wonderfully decorated and very comfortable.  We are so glad that they invited us to stay with them.  We came up Monday afternoon and will leave for home today.  We would like to stay longer, but things have been quite hectic for the past few weeks and we have quite a few things that need to get done in the next couple of days.

Yesterday morning we just plain vegged out.  That was good for all of us.  Our daughter and her family are always on the go and they need to relax a bit.  In the afternoon, we did a bit of driving around and then Kelly and Damon and the two girls went sledding while Pat and I watched from the top of the hill.  They had a ball.  After that we went snowshoeing into the campground where we will have our family vacation around the fourth of July.  We scouted out the campsites that we have reserved and they look great.

The granddaughters (5 and 7) are great at snowshoeing.  The day was beautiful, and the snow was great.  They have had a lot of snow in the area and we were in “virgin” snow.  I was glad that I could keep up with them.

This area has been devastated by the pine bark beetle.  This beetle attacks the lodgepole pine trees.  I was happy to see that there were pine species that have survived and there are also some aspen in the area.

Today we may try to get in a quick snowshoe session and then we will head home this afternoon.  We will take the scenic route home.  That will take us from Dillon to Breckenridge, then to Fairplay and home via US 285.

As our readers have noted, we have not posted in quite some time.  We created this blog as a travelogue and we have not done much traveling lately.  Our travel plans for next year are up in the air.  We have canceled our trip to Quartzsite in January.   We have made the decision that we will not be attending trade shows for the foreseeable future.  The RV market is in the toilet and the trade show attendance is way down.  It just does not make any sense to speed a lot of money getting to the shows and then not selling enough to pay for the trip. 

Instead, we have a few great personal trips lined up.  The first tentative trip is to the California and Nevada area in March to attend a couple of races and “veg out” in our favorite remote area south of Death Valley:  Shoshone

As I have noted in the past, if you want to follow our travels, it might be best to sign up for email notification so that you will know when we post.

That is all for this trip

Hello from the Orange County/John Wayne airport

Hello from the Orange County/John Wayne airport

Sunday morning November 14, 2010 (third travelogue of this trip).

I wanted to do a quick update on our testing. It went very well!!

Because of a confidentially agreement, I am not able to include details or photos.

I can say that we did several tests and our modules performed flawlessly! The person we are working with seemed very pleased and is quite anxious to develop the market.

The weather has been so nice here. Not sure I am ready to head back to the cold weather in CO {grin}.

That is all for now.

Hello again from Anaheim, CA

Hello again from Anaheim, CA

Friday morning   November 12, 2010   (second travelogue of this trip).

If you have been following my posts in the past week or two, you know that Pat and I were not very thrilled with some aspects of the Norwegian cruise ship – mostly design issues.  However, after following the terrible situation on the Carnival ship Splendor, I guess my bitching pales in comparison to what those folks had to endure.  At least we were not served Spam and our toilets worked {grin}.  I  also want to re-emphasize that the overall cruise was quite fun – primarily because we were with some wonderful family and friends.

As we were departing the ship last week, I began to develop all of the symptoms of a cold.  Indeed, it looked like I would be under the weather for this trip (not fun to fly when you are congested).  However, I started my regimen of  Zinc and Vitamin C and it seems that I avoided the worst of the cold symptoms.  I feel pretty good and have only minimal evidence of a cold.

Yesterday was a fun day.  Gary (the person we designed the new system for) is a drag racing fan, so we planned on going to the Thursday qualifying session of the final NHRA  national race of the year.

Before we did that, we went to the location where we will be doing our testing to make sure they were ready for us.  This is a huge facility with probably 100 or more trash truck.  Most are powered with compressed natural gas engines.  When one thinks of a trash truck, the picture is not pretty.  However, these trucks are immaculate and most look like they are brand new.  Each truck is washed each day and the maintenance seems to be top notch (we briefly toured the maintenance area).  They seemed ready for our testing.  We will do quite a bit of the setup this  afternoon and the actual tests will be performed tomorrow (Saturday) when the yard will not be as active.

We then went to Pomona and I had a blast at the races.  I met up with a very good friend (a good Gates customer) and we spent most of the day together.  Steve and my customer hit is off well, so it all fit together nicely. I even got to put on my “blower belt hat” on and worked with Steve in one of the pits of a top Fuel Funny Car.  Steve was delivering a test belt and we got to talk quite a bit to the crew about the operation of the car and the installation of the test belt.  Gary, my customer, had a great time in that pit area.  I also got to say hi to a good friend/racer that I worked with many years ago.  Lou, has terminal cancer and I really wanted to talk to him before it was too late.

My relationship with Steve started out as a customer/vendor when I worked for Gates.  That quickly changed to great personal friendship.  Some folks say we look like twins (he has more hair) and to a degree, I think we both feel like we are twins.  We have kept in touch over the years and this year we  have gotten together twice.  We must act like a couple of old ladies trying to catch up on all of the events of the past few years {big grin}.

We got to see one round of the nitro car qualifications and that was icing on the cake!

That is all for today.

Hello from Anaheim, CA

Hello from Anaheim, CA

Wednesday night    November 10, 2010   (First travelogue of this trip).

I am in Anaheim, CA without the bus and Pat.  I flew here today.  More about that in a paragraph or two.

I did not get a chance to finish the last travelogue.  When we left off, we were at sea and running several hours behind.  The problem was that we were not able to leave the pier in Cozumel due to high winds.  About half way from Cozumel to Miami, the captain announced that they would arrive in Miami at 10:00 AM on Saturday (over two hours late).  That caused us considerable concern about making our flight.  I got on the internet and started corresponding with our travel agent.  She did some work with South West Airlines to see what our options were.  As it turns out, we were at the pier by 9:00 AM and easily made our flight.  Everyone noted the much faster speed of the ship on that leg of the trip.  I would hate to pay the fuel bill for that trip!!!

In the last blog I was discussing the fact that this was not our favorite ship.  Indeed, it was not our favorite cruise line.  Pat loves the formal dining format where you have an assigned table in a very fancy dining room.  Everything on the  menu is included and you can order as much as you want.  After dinner you can order a cappuccino – also included.  Dress code is pretty strict.  Most have at least one “formal” night.  I, on the other hand like the Norwegian Cruise Line “Freestyle Cruising” where you go to one of perhaps 10 or more restaurants.  The dress code is informal and you don't have assigned seats.  It seemed neat to me the last time we were on Norwegian.  Not so this time.  There were 13 restaurants (including the pool bar).  Out of the 13 only 4 were no cost.  The rest cost between $10 and $30.  The beloved room service pizza for the kids is now $5 and the cappuccino is no longer include in the cruise fee.  That just goes against our grain.  A major enjoyable feature of cruises is the fact that the food is great and included in the cost of the cruise.  Perhaps that is a thing of the past.

Now lets talk about this trip.  I am staying at the Embassy Suites hotel in Anaheim (map).  This is a business trip to test a new product that we have developed.  I will also get in one day at the NHRA drag races at Pomona.  That will allow me to see some old friends.

As background, a bit over a year ago, we were approached by a major vendor to the specialized heavy duty vehicle market.  Our fire detection system was very interesting to him and would compliment the gas detection system he markets to the natural gas powered commercial vehicles (mandated by the government).  We did a preliminary design of a very comprehensive gas detection/fire detection system.  The project became very complex and we decided to focus on the fire detection phase.  A couple of months ago we finished developing a rather sophisticated detection system that would function with an new generation fire suppression system developed by the people who manufacture the suppression system that I market to the RV market.  All of our testing was very successful, but the customer wanted to work with one of his customers to do some joint testing.

Our customer has arranged to do some testing at a refuse facility that has a fleet of trash trucks.  These trucks experience fires periodically and it appears to be a good market.

I will try to detail the event of the next few days as time permits.

Hello from somewhere in the Caribbean

Hello from somewhere in the Caribbean

Friday afternoon    November 5, 2010   (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

I will spend most of this post talking about the ship.  However, there is one item that I forgot to mention.  Pat got very sick late Tuesday night.  Acted like the flu.  She was pretty puny most of Wednesday, but felt reasonably good on Thursday for the wedding.  No one else got sick, so I doubt it was the flu.  We all ate about the same things, so that was probably not the problem.  The doctors have to really minimize her immunity system because of the RA and it could have been a very benign bug that got her.

We are having a kind of exciting day.  The captain announced last night that we could not leave the dock due to high winds.  They did not seem all that high to me, but what do I know.  Well, this morning  I woke up early and we were still at the dock!  We finally departed at 8:00 AM Miami time and that gave us 24 hours to travel 6-700 miles.  We were supposed to leave Thursday at 5:30 central time.  After we had been at sea for a couple of hours, the captain announced that we would arrive in Miami at 10:00 AM Saturday.  That really puts us in a bind to make our flight.  I have acted as the group correspondent with the travel agent to establish contingency plans.  She seems to think we can make our flight.  I think that is optimistic, as just about everything would have to go perfect (including clearing customs which can take quite a while).  We will keep you posted.

Up until today the seas have been like glass.  However, this storm really has us rocking.  The waves are said to be at least 15 feet.  I am surprised that a ship of this size with all of the latest stability technology is rocking as bad as it is.  Most everybody is feeling OK, but the ship is handing out sea sickness pills to anyone that wants them.

Now to the ship.  Before I start in with that discussion, which will be a bit negative, I need to be clear that we have enjoyed this cruise.  This has not been our favorite ship for several reasons.  First, the rooms seem to be designed by someone who does not have a clue.  The theme is curved surfaces/walls and that resulted in separate toilet and shower areas -both of which are frosted glass enclosed and just plain uncomfortable from a privacy standpoint.  The sink is very shallow and tends to splash. Indeed, they changed our faucet (without our asking) with the stated reason being to minimize splash.   The sink is at the foot of the bed.  There is almost no room to walk around the bed. 

As a side note:  I often talk about the book “A Corporate Tragedy”.  It is a story of the terrible mistakes that IHC made many years ago that took them from a company much larger than John Deere to a shell of itself.  One of the major stories in the book was how they told the engineers to go to hell and had the marketing folks “design” a tractor.  It was a terrible failure that caused the farmers huge amount of problems and they ultimately were courted by John Deere and many made the switch.  This ship looks like it was designed by the marketing folks.

Next issue is a personal one with me.  I have very sensitive hearing that is easily overloaded.  The public areas have blaring music and then everyone tries to talk over the music making it even more obnoxious.  The most annoying noise issue is in the spa.   The thermal pool is quite noisy by its nature.  The problem is that they have it in the same room as the supposedly relaxing heated ceramic lounges.  That problem gets worse when people try to shout over the water sounds.  At times I have had my iPod cranked and still could hardly hear the music.  On other ships, the pool is in its own room as it should be.

Now let's talk about the crowds.  I have told the story many times that mom and dad took me on several cruises before I was 16.  All but one were on freighters that had accommodations for about 100 passengers.  This was because my dad hated crowds.  I guess I take after him to a degree.  We have been on ships that had almost as many passengers and it did not seem to bother me as much as this cruise.  As I think about it, it might the the demographics.  The other cruises were with Stampin' Up! folks.   Indeed they even chartered the entire ship for some of the cruises.  These are pretty conservative folks who do not drink a lot and who are not out to impress everybody.  Many of the passengers on this boat seem to drink heavily.  That results in very loud discussion and some pretty obnoxious behavior.  I am not a prude, but it just seems to grate on my for this trip.

Ok having said all of the negative things, I need to make sure that folks understand that this has been a wonderful cruise.  We are part of a group of 26 great folks and we had a lot of fun together.

Maybe my bitching is based on the fact that we had to pay for this trip {grin}.

I have attached a group photo at the wedding.  Looks pretty neat huh?

That is all for now.

Hello from Cozumel, Mexico

Hello from Cozumel, Mexico

Thursday evening November 4, 2010 (Third travelogue of this trip).

I have had the best of intentions posting more often, but I just can't seem to find the time. I have a lot of catch up on, but the first thing that needs to get reported is the wedding.

Shawna and Bryan exchanging vows (note her parents in the background)

Man and Wife!!!

Today we departed the ship and took vans to Mr Sanchos where the wedding was held. This is a small little resort with some neat facilities. The weather was pretty good. A bit windy, but that made the surf really spectacular. I have included a few photos. The setting was absolutely beautiful with the beach and surf in the background. The actual wedding was on the beach and the sand was very clean and white. Shawna looked beautiful and Bryan was quite handsome. Bryan wrote the ceremony and it was very well done. The parents looked approvingly on the wedding and seemed very proud of the couple.

We returned to the ship after the wedding. After lunch, Pat and her sister Judy went shopping and I started working on this blog. We will have a reception dinner in one of the restaurants later this evening.

Now lets do a bit of catching up. Sunday was an at sea day. In the evening they had a big Halloween party. We were amazed at the number of folks dressed up in costumes. We estimate that it was several hundred. Many of the costumes were quite elaborate and/or unique. We positioned ourselves in the walkway that led to the party area and had a wonderful view of all the folks/costumes.

On the last couple of cruises we have splurged and joined the spa and we did that again on this trip. They have a very limited membership, so the place is quiet and relaxing. There is a huge hydrothermal pool, two saunas, a steam room and the wonderful heated ceramic lounges. We have gone every day.

Another splurge is purchasing internet time. The ship gets the internet from satellites (much like we do on the bus). However, the connection is pretty slow and you buy internet connection by the minute. I usually chase some business related activity and it has been kind of busy on this trip. Unfortunately, not much in the way of sales.

I mentioned that I was going to do a dive at Roatan, Honduras. Roatan is an island off he coast of Honduras. It has a mixture of beauty and poverty. When we drove to the dive support area, we passed lush tropical areas. These were intermixed with areas of what looked like shanty areas. These areas were on the main road. The houses were in poor condition and there was trash everywhere. A real dichotomy.

We did a two tank dive and both dives were spectacular!!!. The ship dictates that the dive masters not take us to a depth of more than 70 feet. It was obvious that they were not going to police that rule rigorously. Indeed, my dive computer watch recorded a depth of 95 feet. Both dives were what they call wall dives. We swam at a depth of about 30-50 feet for a while and then we came to a complete drop off where we could not see any floor. The coral was absolutely gorgeous. It was almost like parts were sprinkled with gold leaf. The fish were beautiful and the coral formations were quite varied, some of which I had not seen before. We even got to see a turtle and some lobsters. The second dive was supposed to be a drift dive. This is where the boat drops you off and picks you up some distance away. The current was not strong, so we had to do a bit of paddling with our fins, but we traveled quite a ways.

We could have made it from Roatan without an “at sea” day, but our ship had to perform some mandatory maneuvers. All ships that have been in service less than six months must perform these maneuvers. The process takes about three hours. One of the maneuvers is a 360 rotation of the ship. This is done in the length of the ship using the bow and stern thrust propellers. In addition to that, the ship is put in “anchor mode” where the various propellers maintain the ship in exactly the same location and orientation using a sophisticated GPS system. It is said that they can maintain location within 5 feet.

That is all for now.

Hello from Costa Maya, Mexico.

Hello from Costa Maya, Mexico.

Monday Evening November 1, 2010 (Second travelogue of this trip).

We are at our first port (of three) on this trip. Costa Maya is a pretty plain Jane port. We could not see any good beaches and the area is.... well, kind of plain. We did not plan any shore tours. Instead, we walked around the dock area for an hour or so. There were the typical vendors selling mostly tourist type stuff – imagine that. We were the only ship in port, so things were not crowded.

Sunday was a day at sea. We always enjoy that, as it is a bit laid back. Having said that, it seems like we have not had too much time to relax. Sunday night we went to see the “Blue Man Group”. This is the “headline” group for the Epic. It is a very interesting show with lots of drums and all kinds of antics by three men in blue makeup (including blue skull caps that made them look bald).. Kind of like mimes. Very hard to describe. Since I love drums, it was a lot of fun for me and the rest of the group seemed to have a fairly good time.

The seas have been very calm and the weather has been good, but fairly hot. We should be thankful as a tropical depression went through here last week. I think today is the end of the official hurricane season and we have not heard of any storms in the area.

As mentioned in the first post, this is a huge ship. It is quite unique in its design and we are not convinced that they gave a lot of thought to creature comfort. I will talk about that in a post I hope to make on Wednesday which is another day at sea.

Tomorrow we will be at Roatan, Honduras. I, along with several members of the group, will be doing a two-tank scuba dive. It is supposed to be a pretty good diving area.

That is all for now.

Hello from Miami, FL

Hello from Miami, FL

Saturday morning October 30, 2010 (First travelogue of this trip).

We are in Miami, Florida where we will depart on a cruise later today. This is a very special cruise since our niece Shawna and her fiance Bryan will be getting married later this week. Rather than getting married on the ship, their ceremony will be held in Cozumel.

Just a bit of background here. When we first heard of the wedding cruise, we knew that we could not afford to go. However, Pat was determined that we would go since most of her family was going. She decided to set a goal of paying for the trip with earnings from Ebay selling. Darned if she did not get the job done and we are not having to dig into our meager savings (wonderful economy {frown}).

Yesterday we flew from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale. What a trip that was. We flew Southwest Airlines and had fairly high seating numbers (no seat assignments on SW). We got all settled in and the pilot announced there was a problem. We ended up changing planes. Everyone was supposed to take the same seats – yeah right!!!! When we got on, almost every seat was filled except center seats. The stewardess talked a passenger into moving and we got to have a window and center seat. I don't like window seats (space seems too cramped), but it worked out OK for the long flight. When we did get to take off, the flight was pretty uneventful.

There were 20 people on the flight in our party. Additional folks will join us for the cruise – 26 altogether.

The travel agency that made all of the reservations arranged for a full size bus to pick us up at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale and transport us to the hotel in Miami. That normally takes 30-45 minutes depending on the traffic. It was probably longer last night, as we were in rush hour traffic and the Miami Heat (basketball) game traffic.

We are staying at the Marriott close to the dock. Indeed, if you look closely in the photo taken from our balcony, you will see some cruise ships. We are not sure if one of them is ours.

Photo of ships from our hotel balcony

Our cruise will be on the Norwegian Epic. It is a brand new ship (July 2010) and it is huge. It is rated at a bit over 4000 passengers! The ship details are detailed here . We will have more details as we cruise.

That is all for now.

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Tuesday morning October 12, 2010 (fifth travelogue of this trip).

In our last post, I said that the travelogue for this trip was complete. As I drove yesterday, I thought of a couple of things that I had forgotten to say or wanted to add to this travelogue.

For our route home, I chose to go mostly two lane across Kansas and Colorado. Part of the decision was that we have traveled I-70 many times and I wanted to see new scenery. Secondly, this route was more direct. Lastly, I wanted to avoid the Kansas Turnpike (can you say cheap?). We chose to hook up with US 400 and US 50 for most of the trip.

We took most of that route when we traveled in September 2009 to an Eagle Bus Rally in Afton, Kansas in the service truck (blog link). On that trip we enjoyed the small farming communities and the huge feedlots in Kansas. On this trip, it was not quite as much fun, as we had a deadline to be back in Evergreen. Having said that, the small towns are fun to see, no matter what the situation.

We left Garden City at about 7:00 Evergreen time and got home about 2:30. I feel kind of bad that we cheated another towing company out of income {grin}. The bus did very well on the trip and we did not have to come home behind the hook.

The weather for the drive home was not ideal. It rained quite a bit in Kansas, and we had a pretty strong cross wind in CO. Guess I should not complain, as it is spitting snow as I type this.

As I had noted, we needed to be in Evergreen yesterday to be help our daughter's family while she has surgery today. She has had severe back problems for several years, and they are going to do a bit of a touchy surgery on her. She has a great blog that details her crazy life in Bailey, CO.   Her blog yesterday details the surgery (blog link). Obviously we are nervous, but taking care of the grandkids will keep our mind busy. Her husband will stay with her tonight in the hospital.

Every so often, I publish the statistics of our bus travels. We bought the bus in late 2000 and planned to do a quick conversion. We finally got it on the road for its maiden voyage on March 6, 2006. The bus is fully functional, but still has a lot of finish work that will get done someday. I have detailed the bus project (here). The project pages are in sad need of updating, but you can get a general feel for what the conversion project involved. I have not kept my time log up to date, but I can document at least 3,000 hours on the project.

The maiden voyage was a trip to California. We can't believe that I finished basic bus conversion (including a huge engine conversion project) and we headed out on a long trip. I was not bloging in those days, but I do have a lengthy travelogue that I might post someday.

Since our maiden voyage, we have driven the bus close to 61K miles and have spent 635 wonderful nights in it. At times it has been a love/hate relationship, but we can look back on some fun times in this crazy vehicle.

That is all for this trip (for sure this time).

Hello from Garden City, KS

Hello from Garden City, KS

Sunday evening October 10, 2010 (fourth travelogue of this trip).

We are at a - drum roll please – Wal Mart (map). We left Carthage this morning about 8:30 and drove a bit over 400 miles. We have about 350 miles to drive tomorrow. Under normal conditions we would probably take three days, but we need to get home tomorrow so that we will be ready to help on Tuesday when our youngest daughter (Judy) has back surgery.

Yesterday we went to the Apple Butter Makin' Days Festival in Mt Vernon, MO. I mentioned this event in the last blog. Unlike the last time we tried to attend this festival, we did not have a medical emergency {grin}. Mt Vernon is a small (population 4017) town about 30 miles east of Carthage on I-44. During the festival, it is said that 40,000 people will attend the event. We have no doubt that at least that many folks attend, as the crowd was huge. They close down all of the streets around the court house square and there are a huge number of vendors. Most of the vendors are craft type products. The “must do” stops are the ribeye steak sandwich cooked by the Cattleman's Association and the apple dumpling (with ice cream) booth. While we were enjoying the dessert, we saw them put the Mrs. Smith dumpling boxes in the trash behind the booth {grin}.

At the festival, we spent some time talking to one of the people cooking apple butter in a huge copper kettle over an open wood fire. In the “old days” they used to spend many days peeling and coring the apples. Recently they discovered the vendor that furnished peeled sliced apples to McDonalds. Of course, we had to buy a couple of jars to take home.

Last night we had another great barbecue dinner. After dinner both nights we all sat around a large fire and had great discussions.

Guess that is all for this trip.

Hello from Carthage, MO

Hello from Carthage, MO

Saturday Afternoon October 9, 2010 (third travelogue of this trip).

We are currently at a bus rally in Carthage, MO (map).  This is a small very informal rally that is held each year to coincide with the “Apple Butter Makin' Days” in Mt Vernon, MO (http://www.mtvernonchamber.com/mt_vernon_applebuttermakindays.php). We were at this rally two years ago and were walking to the Court House square when Pat twisted her ankle on a rock in the street and broke a bone in her foot. As a result we did not make it to the fun event. We plan to go today.

Yesterday I went to Colaw RV Salage (http://www.colawrvsalvage.com/). It declares itself the largest RV Salvage yard in the US. I walked through acres of motorhomes that are being parted out. It was amazing how many were fire damaged vehicles. That is really scary. They are pretty “proud” of their parts and I came away empty handed.

Last night the hosts of this rally served a wonderful dinner of smoked ribs and chicken. Attendees brought side dishes. It sounds like we will do the same thing tonight.

When we get to the bus rallies, we are so busy having fun that I don't have time to post a blog. So, I will try to catch up a bit on things that have occurred since my last post.

In the last post, I mentioned that we were going to detour to go to a cemetery. The cemetery is located close to El Dorado Springs, MO. That was not a big detour from our direct route to Springfield. However, that detour was “interesting”. Pat had found a map of the cemetery location, and I put the coordinates in our GPS system. Looked like a pretty straight forward trip – NOT. First of all, the GPS took us on some very narrow highways. Then when we got close to the cemetery location the GPS told us to make the last turn to the left off of the narrow road we were on. Turns out that it was a very narrow, rutted dirt road. We had to continue without making the turn, but that road turned to a dirt road. We had to unhook and turn the bus around at a “T” in the road. We then drove a round about route to El Dorado Springs and left the bus in a shopping center. We were then able to drive to the cemetery in the truck. It was a neat setting and we were able to find Pat's great grandparent's graves. In addition we were able to somewhat recreate a photo she found of her grandparents standing by grave with her standing in the same location.

We then traveled to Springfield and stayed in a Wal Mart. We unhooked the truck and drove to some very long-term friends. Jack and I went to high school at roughly the same time, but did not meet until we were both working at Gates. Jack left Gates and went to work for a competitor (Dayco) but we stayed in touch. Indeed, we see them whenever we get to Springfield or when Jack and I go to Bonneville together. As usual, we had a great visit.

Tuesday we traveled to Branson for the Eagle Bus Rally. This rally has been held every other year for several years. We have been coming since 2002. It is held at the Branson Lakeside RV Park (map). I think there were 30 Eagle buses at the rally. The rally is somewhat low key. We had a barbecue dinner Tuesday evening and a pot luck dinner on Thursday evening. Wednesday evening the group split up and went to various restaurants in the Branson Landing area. We went with a group to a Mexican food restaurant that was OK, but expensive. Wednesday the group went to the afternoon Pierce Arrow show. They have an extremely funny comedian.

I have posted a couple of pictures that were taken by one of the Eagle's International members (Paul Lawry).  They were taken  from a scenic train that tours the area. 

 Branson Lakeside RV Park from a scenic train on the bridge

 View of some of the Eagle Buses.  Ours is in the lower center behind the trailer

Friday, seven of the Eagles headed in a caravan to this rally.

That is all for now.

Hello from Clinton, MO

Hello from Clinton, MO

Sunday Evening October 3,, 2010 (Second travelogue of this trip).

We left Prescott today about 10:30 and arrived here about 2:30. We could have driven all the way to Springfield, MO (our next stop) today, but we decided to make this a leisurely day. However, driving thought Kansas City with narrow construction zones does not exactly meet the “leisurely” definition.

We are at a Wal Mart (map). Other than the Kansas City part of the trip, the journey went well. This is a pretty time of the year in this part of the country. The colors have not started to change yet. The prediction is that they will not be as colorful this year, because of the large amount of rain. That seems strange, since they are saying the same thing about the aspen in Colorado – except that it is the result of too little moisture.

Shortly after I wrote the last blog, the rain stopped and it warmed up quite a bit. The farmers were able to get into the fields late in the week. Bill started combining corn on Friday and we hit it hard yesterday. So, I got to help with the harvest, albeit for only two days. The yields were very spotty. In the field that we worked on yesterday the yield was about 170 bushels per acre. Not the best, but better that they expected given all of the moisture damage.

While the weather was warm during most of the week, it really cooled down yesterday. This morning our thermometer registered 31 degrees, and wunderground.com (our favorite weather site) reported 32 degrees.

Pat and Jeanne spent a lot of time researching genealogy. They visited a cemetery not far from Prescott and then Pat and I went to one that was close to Brooks, IA. It was a very small beautiful cemetery.

We also got to see most of the relatives. Oftentimes our visits are so hectic that we don't get to see everyone. We also had a ton of fun and ate too much -as usual.

Tomorrow we will stop in Springfield, MO to visit some good friends. On the way we will take a slight detour to visit a cemetery where some of Pat's Kretzinger relatives are buried (Judy, one of the grave is Mary Isabella Kretzinger).

That is all for now.

Hello from Prescott, IA

Hello from Prescott, IA

Sunday Evening September 26, 2010 (First travelogue of this trip).

We set up this blog to detail our travels and a few miscellaneous items. We have reduced our travel schedule quite a bit to minimize our expenses. A significant part of our travel was trade show related, and we often did not cover our costs on those trips. We finally decided to “stop the bleeding”. Because of the reduced travel, our posting frequency has been rather sporadic. Most of faithful readers know that they can sign up for email notification when we post. That will save frustration of checking in on the blog periodically.

We left Evergreen about noon on Monday. We stopped in North Platte, NE for the night at our favorite Wal Mart parking lot. We got a late start on Tuesday and arrive in Prescott about 6:00 PM. We have been going non-stop since then.

We are making this trip to visit family in Iowa and then travel to Branson, MO for an Eagle Bus Rally. From there we will go to Carthage, MO for a second bus rally and then home via a two lane US highway through rural Kansas and Colorado.

We are staying with Pat's relatives in Prescott, IA (map). We always enjoy staying with these folks and visiting all of the relatives. It is so convenient to be able to stay in the bus and still do a ton of visiting.

Prescott is a very small town (population 237). Pat was born about 10 miles west of here in Corning, IA (population 1554). Pat lived in the Corning area for 15 years, so she is used to small towns. For me, it is quite a change of pace, and I love it.

To give you a feeling of the small town way of life, Friday we marched in a parade down the main street of Corning (three blocks long). The parade was to celebrate the high school homecoming. One of the relatives is running for county supervisor and we marched behind a truck with his banners on it. It looked like the whole town turned out for the parade. What a blast.

We left a bone dry Colorado and landed in an area where they have had a tremendous amount of rain. In addition, it has been quite cool at night (43 degrees this morning). With all the humidity, we are freezing at times.

I had hoped to help with the harvest, but because it has been so rainy, the crop is behind schedule. However, we have been very busy doing all kinds of things including looking at auger cart and semi-trucks for the farm. Today we went to an auction run by some of Pat's relatives. This was not a great auction in terms of items, but it is always fun to people watch and listen to the auctioneer's chant.

Thats all for now.

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Saturday evening August 21, 2010

Wow, it has been over two weeks since I last posted.

First, I would like to post a picture of the grandkids at the campground. Boy are they growing up fast. I noted that Brando is wearing a shirt we gave the kids from a bus rally several years ago. That is our bus on the front of the shirt.

The rest of the family vacation week was a combination of relaxing, eating, and generally having fun. The remaining two families went home Thursday. Their busy schedule dictated early departures. We felt lucky to have had them at the campground as long as we did. We left Early Friday and had a good trip home.

We had two of the Jeute kids with us all week even though their folks were only able to stay a couple of days. Nathan got to ride up the the campground in the bus and Isabella got to ride home. Pat drove the PT Cruiser both ways so that we had a car with enough seats.

We had planned to travel from the family vacation to a rally in Indiana and then several stops including Ohio, a friend in KY and then to TN to visit friends and install a system. After weighing the cost of the rally, the fuel and all of the other costs, we decided to pull the plug on the trip. We would have also been fighting some terribly hot weather.

In lieu of the long trip, we were going to make a quick trip back to Iowa in the car to visit the relatives. We have delayed that trip a couple of times. May try in a couple of weeks.

We thought when we got home with an “empty” schedule, we would get a lot of projects done. So far, it does not seem like we got much accomplished.

We will be traveling to Iowa and then on to a couple of bus rallies in the bus next next month. In the mean time, I will try to make a couple of posts just so that you don't think we have been abducted by aliens.

That is all for now.

Hello from Fort Collins, CO

Hello from Fort Collins, CO

Wednesday afternoon August 4, 2010 (First travelogue of this trip).

We are at the KOA Lakeside Resort for our Family Vacation (map). During parts of this week we will have all three of our daughters and their families here in their RVs. That includes 8 grandkids.

Each year we plan a week long get together. For some, that may seem strange, as we all live within a 50 mile radius of our house and we get to see them often. However, this week is special, as we get to just relax together. Judy and her family were only able to make it for two days. However, we get to keep two of their kids for the week.

Two families arrived on Saturday and two on Sunday. Because of hectic schedules, the last two families will leave on Thursday (we leave on Friday).

We are only 87 miles from home. Kind of nice. Two of the husbands have been able to work a couple of days so that they don't have to count it as vacation (actually, one is a real estate broker, but he is able to keep up with some important business).

This campground has a ton of things for the kids to do. Some cost money, but they got a wrist band for $44 (for the entire length of stay) and they have gotten their monies's worth. There are paddle boats, electric bumper boats, a huge jumping bag, large playground, etc. They also get one free meal at the “chuck wagon”.

Yesterday, we took an eleven mile bike ride along the Poudre river. A wonderful trail culminating at the fish hatchery. The kids have been riding their bikes a bunch in the campground area (including riding around the lake) and I have enjoyed riding with them.

The weather has been a mixed bag. During parts of the day it gets uncomfortably warm. Several afternoons, it has rained. As I write this, it is very windy and raining pretty hard.

Because of all the water in the area, the mosquitoes are pretty bad. Fortunately, they only come out late in the evening.

That is all for now.

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Monday Evening  July 19, 2010   (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

We are back home and for the second trip in a row, we did not come home behind the dreaded hook {big grin}.  Indeed, the bus did well.  I have my charge air cooler heat problem under control and that sure makes driving much more fun.  

This morning we celebrated my birthday by having breakfast (my favorite meal) at the “soda fountain” in Chugwater, WY  We then drove to Evergreen (about 170 miles) and arrived about 2:30. 

We have had several discussions about how fun the Eagle Bus rally was.  Part of it was being with friends who have a common interest, part because I get to talk unlimited bus {grin} and part because of the fantastic setting in Custer, SD.  There is so much to see and we missed a bunch.  They are talking about have the rally there again in 2012.

We always have a let-down when we get home and have to face reality.  Pat is trying to get several things done before she flies to Salt Lake City tomorrow (Stampin' Up! Convention).  I have several small bus projects that need to get done before we head out again at the end of the month.
 

BTW, I just updated the map that shows the states we have visited in the bus. We have now been in 28 states.

That is all for now.

Hello from Chugwater, WY

Hello from Chugwater, WY

Sunday Evening July 18, 2010 (Third travelogue of this trip).

We are parked on the main street of Chugwater (map). We had decided to make our trip home (a bit less than 390 miles) in two days. I did quite a bit of thinking about where to stop. As I thought, a wave of nostalgia came over me.

In the mid '70s we joined a membership ranch in Wyoming (Flying X Ranch). It was located on Wyoming 34 not too far from Wheatland. We were among the first members and the membership was not all that costly. At the time we were living in Lakewood and getting away to a huge ranch with lots of wild animals, horses, fishing, swimming pool, square dancing, etc made for a great get-away. We spent a lot of time at the ranch and have a ton of memories.

The nostalgia creeps in twice in this story. First, the ranch had a bus that transported us to the ranch – yes an Eagle Bus!!!! Secondly, the bus used to stop in Chugwater to pick up meat for the meals at the ranch.

I did some searching on the Internet, hoping to find a picture of the Flying X bus. I will contact the ranch in the next couple of days to see if they have any photo achieves.

Chugwater is much like most small towns – dying. Kind of reminds us of Prescott. However, as I walked around, I saw the sign shown below. No question about it, we had to eat there. We talked at length with the owner and she said that while the rest of the town was mostly shut down, her business is doing very well. There was a couple in the “soda fountain” that had lived in Chugwater all their lives (at least 70 years) and they remembered the great meat store and talked about all of the gas stations, stores, etc. that existed before the interstate went around the town.

Great sign that got our attention!

Chugwater makes a big deal of their chili contest and “Chugwater Chili”. So, of course, we had to have a bowl for dinner and it was great. We also had great malts.

Just across the street from where we are parked there is a small outdoor museum. One of the items is a sheepherders wagon. I had thought one time of putting mural of one on the bus and labeling it “Our Shepherd's Wagon” Pat was not too hot for the idea {grin}

Sheepherder's wagon in Chugwater

It was close to 100 degrees when we got here, so we have been running the generator to keep the bus cool. In SD, the weather was quite warm in the daytime, but cool in the evening. Last night we had a HUGE thunderstorm that got everyone's attention.

That is all for now.

Hello from Custer, SD

Hello from Custer, SD

Saturday Evening July 17, 2010 (Second travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Broken Arrow Campground (map). This is a fairly new campground and does not show up in the satellite view. This is the site of the Eagles International Rally.

Today was the last full day of the rally. We arrived on Wednesday (7/14) and the rally officially started on Thursday. There is a good turnout with 21 Eagle buses and two SOB (some other brand).

Some of the Eagles at the Rally

Custer is located in the main tourist area of SD. Mount Rushmore is very close, as is Crazy Horse and many other fun destinations. Thursday we took the Wildlife Loop where we saw some really neat burros who tend to block traffic until you feed them. Later, we saw a whole field of Buffalo (perhaps 200-300). Many had calves who were still nursing. Later we drove over a tight twisty road to Mount Rushmore. You pass through several tunnels, two of which “aim” right at the monument.

Friday we toured Bear Country USA. This facility has a road where you drive through the facilities and view many wild animals including Elk with HUGE racks and mountain sheep. The last part of the road is through an area that has a large number of bears. The bears wonder all around the cars and one even started chewing on the front bumper of one car. At the end of the drive, you can walk through a zoo type area. One pen had several baby bears. There was a vet tech there talking about the bears. About four of the cubs were extremely playful, wrestling with each other and the vet tech.

Burros on the Wildlife Loop

Buffalo on the Wildlife Loop

Bear Cubs at Bear Country USA

We have had some wonderful meals with the group, concluding with a great potluck tonight. Of course, there was lots of social time and the guys all stuck there heads in each others engine compartments and compared note on their buses and some of the experiences encountered while driving our “toys”.

Tomorrow we head home. We should have a relatively easy two days of driving.

That is all for now.

Hello from Devil's Tower, WY

Hello from Devil's Tower, WY

Tuesday Evening July 13, 2010 (First travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Devil's Tower KOA campground (map). As you will see from the picture, we are right at the base of this magnificent formation. There are a large number of reference sites for Devil's Tower, but the National Park Service site is: http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm. A couple of interesting facts from that site: 1) Devils Tower rises 1267 feet above the Belle Fourche River; 2) President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower the first national monument in 1906. Words simply can't describe how majestic this rock formation is, nor do pictures do it justice. Today we went up to the visitors center and then another fellow and I took the 1.3 mile hike around the base.

Four Eagle Buses with the Devil's Tower in the background

This trip is to attend a Eagle Bus Rally in Custer, SD. However, several Eagle owners decided to make a bit of a detour and travel to this location prior to the actual rally. There are four Eagle buses here (see photo with Devil's head in the background).

We left Evergreen Sunday at about 8:30 AM and drove to Casper, WY where we met up with two other chapter member couples. We all stayed in the Wal Mart along with several other RVs and trucks. We all went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Yesterday we drove here and arrived about 2:00 PM. We sort of took it easy and then went to dinner at the KOA restaurant. At 9:00 last night we went to the showing of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind “(shown at an outside deck area on a big screen TV with a great sound system) . This is a 1977 Stephen Spielberg movie about UFOs that centers on Devil's Tower as the landing site for a UFO. Kind of a strange movie, but it was fun to see the area in the film.

I want to digress and talk about a fun day we had on Saturday. The family got together for a celebration of Pat's birthday and Father's day (we were out of town for both). In the morning, Pat had a Stampin' UP! party so Kelly, Damon and I rode our bicycle up Waterton Canyon – close to their house. This is a very scenic ride along the South Platte river ending up at the Strontia Springs Dam. The ride is 6.5 miles each way. The route up the river is a steady, moderate climb, which makes riding back a piece of cake. We got to see quite a bit of wildlife, but the best experience was seeing very young mountain sheep up on the rocks very close to the road. I have included pictures of the mothers and the lambs.

Mountain sheep in Waterton Canyon

Mountain sheep lambs on the rocks close to the road

 

As an added note, I have changed our blog picture to show the bus in front of Devil's Tower.

Tomorrow we will head for Custer, SD for the official rally.

That is all for now.

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Sunday Morning   July 4, 2010   (twelfth travelogue of this trip).

Happy fourth of July everyone.

This was quite a trip.  We left in the bus on May 20th.   That means we were gone 45 days!  Our trip took us through 8 states.  We traveled 2900 miles.  We even made it home without the benefit of a tow truck {grin}.  During this trip we took  a side trip, flying to Orlando to spend some time with Mickey and our daughter Lisa and her family.

Up until the last few days the bus did very well.  In Kansas, we got a warning light that the water temperature was shutting the engine down.  Water temperature has never been a problem.  When I started to check out the problem, I found that the air line that turns on the radiator fan was melted and the fan was not turning.  The water temperature got over 230 degrees, which is very high for a diesel and at the point that engine damage could occur!  

Before I left home, I noted that some of the exhaust insulation had come loose, but I did not have enough time to fix it.  The huge amount of exhaust heat coupled with the high ambient temperature got the engine compartment hot enough to melt the DOT type tubing (special plastic).  The repair was pretty straight forward.  However, getting the heart rate and blood pressure to settle down was not quite so simple.  I drove the first few miles with my eyes scanning all of the gauges on the SilverLeaf, looking for signs of damage.  After two days, and several hundred miles, the engine looks like it did not sustain damage.

Then yesterday, we had THE REAL SCARE – two miles from home.  It is a very tough pull up long steep hills to get to our house (7500 feet).  I had been keeping a close watch on the charge air temperature and was controlling it pretty well with some water misters that I had installed.  We take a strange route home once we get to our tight twisty canyon road.  Shortly into the canyon, we turn and go through a subdivision so that we do not hold up the folks who think the are champion race car drivers {frown}.  In that subdivision, my fire suppression system warned me that the compartment temperature was getting high.  About that time, it dawned on me that power was not getting to the wheels.  The latter could be either a failed drive shaft, or worse yet, a failed rear end (think several thousand dollars).  I checked and my engine water temperature was also climbing.  My thought:  two separate problems.

After I opened the engine hatch in the bedroom (180 degree engine compartment temperature overwhelmed the bedroom, I found another melted air line.  This time, it was a major supply line.  The fix was, again, pretty easy.  As I was working on the fix, I recalled that my 10 speed transmission has an air operated “air shifter”.  Could it be that the lack of air had put the range shifter in what would act like neutral?  Well, that was the case!  All was well and we proudly drove home without the tow truck.

Back to the last couple of days of this trip.  From Junction City to Denver, it is 500 miles and we just did not feel like busting our tail to get home.  We were pretty worn out from all the activities of this trip and I needed to do a bit of work on the bus before we hit the big hills.  Our decision was to drive about 300 miles one day and then have an easy trip home the last day.

We ended up in Goodland, KS early in the afternoon on Friday.  Of course, we stayed in a Wal Mart.  We had to run the generator for the afternoon and early evening because it was very hot and we had to needed the roof airs.  That kept us very comfortable.  I had to fight a terrible side wind most of the way from Junction City to Goodland.  Thank goodness the bus does well with GUSTING side winds.  Had we been in the motorhome, we would have had to stop.  We did get a kick out of seeing several folks trying to get their awing rolled up on the side of the road.  A few years ago a huge side wind unrolled the awning on our motorhome and blew it over the top.  It was not a fun job to get everything back in place!

We parked in the Wal Mart such that the wind was blowing on the side of the bus and it rocked us pretty badly until late evening. 

As a part of my effort to keep make the charge air cooler more effective (keep the air inlet temperature down), I have been playing with water misters.  This is a technique that many folks use on buses that have water temperature issues.  The concept is to spray the radiator or charge air cooler with water from the domestic water supply tank.  I have made many iterations of the system, but none seemed all that effective.  So, I decided to redo the system once again.  I walked over to a farm supply store, hoping to find a agricultural spray head that would work.  They had spray heads, but none were easily adaptable.  Then the light went on.  I use special spray nozzles on my fire suppression system that would be just the ticket.  I cut up my existing system and modified it so that I could use my heads.  They flow a lot of fluid (2.25 gallons in 45 seconds with three heads).  So, I have to flip on the switch on for only a few seconds at a time when the temperature got too high.  The testing I did on the hills of SW Kansas and eastern CO suggested that they did a good job and would allow me to climb the big long hills to our house with minimal problem.  Turned out that was the case. 

I have been working on the hydraulic fan system (some details in previous posts) and think I have the handle on how to make it work better (change to a more viscous fluid).  All in all, I think I have the charge air cooler problem at a manageable level.

That is all for this trip.  We leave again next Sunday to travel to Custer, SD for an Eagle Bus rally.  Stay tuned.

Hello from Junction City, KS

Hello from Junction City, KS

Friday Morning July 2, 2010 (eleventh travelogue of this trip).

The Fleetwood rally was both fun and rewarding. We did a little bit of touring of the small town of Du Quoin – mostly to go eat or have ice cream. The Du Quoin fairgrounds are well equipped and nicely landscaped. However, it is quite spread out, and not easy to walk to everything. They had tractors pulling passenger trailers and that helped. Some folks drove their cars or golf carts. It was pretty darn hot and humid, so most folks did not walk to the events. Indeed, the attendees at these rallies have a few years under their belt and walking can be a challenge. The huge building we were in was well equipped including good air conditioning. The building was large enough to have a dining area for over 1000 people, the vendor area and several display motorhomes – and not be crowded.

They had two nights of entertainment. The first night seemed way too loud and we left early. The last night of the rally they had a great group. It was three guys that played perhaps 20 different instruments. They played a wide variety of music and the drummer mimicked some famous artists with very humorous skits.

The fairgrounds are the site of the Illinois state fair. It has several barns, a horse trotting track and a full horse race track. We saw several trotting horses (with the carts) working out on the track right in front of the bus.

I was able to ride my bike quite a bit and that was fun. Daughter Judy wrote a comment to one of our blogs that she was glad that we were getting some exercise. I suspect that her idea of exercise and ours is a bit different {grin}.

At the smaller rallies, we set up a double booth. On one side we have our fire suppression products and on the other side we have the SilverLeaf (http://www.silverleafelectronics.com/) products. The SilverLeaf products take the vast amount of engine data from the diesel engines data port and display them in the form of an electronic dash. It is a top notch product that folks really love.

This was a unique situation where the owner of the company spent a great deal of time in the booth. He was attending the rally because Fleetwood is a significant customer. In any case, Martin is a great guy. He fits the description genius very well, but he also has a great personality. His being in the booth probably helped our sales.

Speaking of sales, we did pretty good. That was also true of the Fleetwood rally last year. Guess we will keep this on our “attend list”

In a recent post, I mentioned our '87 trip back east in our '56 Chevy. I am including a picture we took at the end of the trip. You will notice that Pat and the girls are in poodle skirts. The event we traveled to dedicated to the '50s era. Pat made the outfits and had each girls initial on the sweater (think Lavern and Shirley TV show). Of course, Lisa's sweater had an “L” and she got ticked off every time asked if she was Lavern {big grin}.  BTW, I still have the Chevy.  It needs a complete makeover, but it is still fun to drive.

Our Family and the '56 Chevy in '87

We departed Du Quoin Wednesday and drove a bit over 200 miles to a favorite stop: Isle of Capri casino in Boonville, MO. Yesterday we drove to Junction City and are staying in a Wal Mart (map)

That is all for now.

Hello from Du Quoin, IL

Hello from Du Quoin, IL

Saturday Morning June 26, 2010 (tenth travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds  (map) for a Fleetwood motorhome rally. We arrived here Thursday (6/24). Set-up day was supposed to be yesterday, but they let us set up on Thursday. That was nice and gave us a day to catch up on projects.

One of the projects was to pay state taxes for the last two rallies. I really need to vent here. Both the state of New Mexico and Wisconsin are terrible to deal with. I have had sign up ahead of time (a huge project where they want vast amounts of personal data and the birth certificate of our third daughter (sorry Judy {grin}). The latter is, obviously, an exaggeration, but not much. Then trying to file my payment (unfortunately very small) is equally a hassle. I would say that I have spent at least 4 hours (probably closer to 6) on each state. In the case of WI, I can't file it till we get home, since they mailed me a “Letter ID” which is separate from my tax account ID number which they emailed me. Arrrrrgh. Of course, CA is terrible as well, but we did not sell there this year. Other states like WY and here in IL make it so easy. They hand you a slip of paper and you simply enter your gross sales and extended tax and mail it in.

Now, lets catch up on Hannibal. We chose to stop there because of some very fond memories. In 1987 we headed out in a '56 Chevy that I had just finished a total rebuild with all three girls and headed to Springfield, IL for a big car show. To this day, we don't know how we talked the girls into going with us (Lisa was 21!) but somehow we did. They were getting a bit restless, so we decided to do something fun. Somehow we found Hannibal (famous for being the boyhood home of Mark Twain). One evening we took a dinner cruise on the Mississippi and had a ton of fun.

So, we decided to take the riverboat dinner tour again and it was fun again. I have attached a photo of the boat taken from “Lover's Leap” (an overlook on the huge bluffs adjacent to the Mississippi).

River Boat Cruise taken from "Lovers Leap"

I had mentioned that we had observed some serious flooding of the farm fields in the river bottom areas as we traveled south. Well, just before we went on the cruise, we got a call telling us that they had to move the departure location up the river a bit to higher land. Indeed, the city had to install the flood gates in the levy that protects the town (see photo)

Flood gates installed in the levy

We also toured the Mark Twain Museum and the buildings where he grew up in Hannibal. At the museum there was an actor that portrayed him and he did an excellent job!!

We drove south on MO route 79 which is a part of the Great River Road. It was a nice drive, but we did not get to see the river very much.

The Injun Joe campground was showing its age. The sites were very small and close together, but it was on our route out of town and had 50 amp service which let us run all three of our air conditioners at once. I was able to take a dip in the pool and that was really fun.

I mentioned air conditioners. Wow, do we need them!! There have been heat warnings all over the area for several days. The heat index has been well into the 100s most days. Even the locals comment about how hot and muggy it is. The same is true here in Du Quoin. We only have 30 amp service here, but that lets us run two of the air conditioners and that keeps us comfortable.

Got to get ready for the opening of the rally today, so that is all for now.

Hello from Hannibal, MO

Hello from Hannibal, MO

Tuesday Morning June 22, 2010 (ninth travelogue of this trip).

Lots of miscellaneous stuff to catch up on. Our wonderful campground in West Salem, WI was right on the La Crosse River. It looked like a good place to fish, so I bought an out-of-state 4 day license ($24). I guess that is not too bad, but compared to the very reduced fee in CO for folks over 65, it kind of hurt. Worse yet, I never find the time to fish in CO. I did not catch anything, but had a lot of fun.

I talked about how neat the campground was. We were lucky and did not have any close RVs except for the last day. Even that was not bad. The camp hosts even had great rolls and coffee for Fathers Day. We had only planned to say a couple of days, but we enjoyed the area so much that we stayed 7 nights! I have included a photo which does not come close to showing how neat the area was.

I brought my bicycle with me on this trip and have been riding it a bit. Pat got it for me as a gift a few years ago and it is the first high quality bike I have owned. The shifting is flawless! I was able to ride it on some trails in the campground area and it was a ton of fun. Rides were not long, but I still got a bit of exercise.

I mentioned that I had been working on a problem with the bus. It is not a huge problem, but my charge air cooler air flow is not what it should be and it allows the air entering the engine to get hotter than I would like. I built/installed a hydraulic fan system before this trip. That should have solved the problem, but it did not. I have been working with the fan blade supplier and he said that I must have a shroud to make the fan work properly. So, I fabricated one out of fiberglass in the campground (see photo). The photo shows the raw shroud with the fan. I wrapped the fan with cardboard to get the best fit I could, given the situation. The shroud doesn't look all that impressive, but once I got it trimmed up, it looked pretty good. That did not solve the problem completely, so I am doing some more system analysis and working with both the fan manufacturer and the pump/motor manufacture.

When we were touring the upper Mississippi, we saw some strange purple contraptions hanging from trees along the highway. Then we found one in the campground. It turns out that they are bug traps that are mounted in selected Ash trees. It turns out that there is a terrible infestation of Emerald Ash Borer (http://www.emeraldashborer.info/). This threatens ash trees in North America.

We left the campground on Sunday and drove a bit less than 250 miles to a truck stop close to Mediapolis, IA on US 61. We then drove a bit over 100 miles to Hannibal. Normally we enjoy two lane roads, but the two days getting here were not a lot of fun. The trip through Wisconsin was not good at all. The roads were very rough and there was a lot of tight twisty areas. In addition, it rained heavily during parts of both days. Indeed, it has been raining in the Midwest a bunch. All along our journey we saw flooding of the farm fields. The rivers are out of their banks in some areas, and there have been a lot of flash flood warnings. It is probably not bad enough to make the evening news, but the huge number of folks affected are probably really suffering.

We are staying in Injun Joe Campground (map). We will have more about Hannibal in the next installment.


That is all for now.