February 2017 - Westward HO and Away We Go

February started off as January ended, barely…. as we had just arrived back at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe in Texas on the 31^st of January. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5901558540140544.

Did I mention that when we arrived back from our cruise Susan and I were very sick and remained this way for a couple weeks? We later found out that MANY people on the ship had gotten the same illness which we are pretty sure was a strain of the flu. We did eventually recover but not before we both ended up at the doctor due to this “flu” turning into sinus/respiratory infections so antibiotics were in order.

We enjoyed some pretty nice weather except for the occasional late winter/early spring thunderstorm. But this camp was soon for the end as we were gearing up for our spring migration. We weren’t 100% sure where we were headed, but we had been planning to head to the Pacific North West for the summer; however, Susan and I both had medical appointments to finish up before we left the area AND as is always the case with one of these big rigs we had a couple issues to repair, like the toilet and the #2 A/C unit, so our time was pretty busy.
We couldn’t have left though without our good friends, Leon and Anita Kirby bringing their rig over to Lake Conroe and enjoying some good cornhole (beanbag toss) games. Leon also held one of his famous fish fries before we left – delicious!
Finally the month was half over and it was time Susan and I headed out. Away we went with a few planned stops for fun and exploration along the way to our now finalized destination for this part of our trip to end in Chandler, Az and the FMCA International Rally in March.

For the first leg of our journey we  headed to Davis Mountain State Park and Fort Davis, TX. Susan typically doesn’t let me drive more than a couple hundred miles per day, but on this day she allowed me to open it up a bit and we went a whole 350 miles….lol! We always try to adhere to the 2+2+2 rule at a minimum (no more than 200 miles, arrive no later than 2 PM and stay no less than 2 days). We missed the miles a bit, but everything else was met.

North Llano River RV Park - roomy

We finished up our first day by arriving in Junction, TX at the North Llano River RV Park ttp://www.junctionnorthllanoriverrvpark.com/.  I must say, this little park was pretty nice. The sites were plenty big, right on the river and most all sites had patios and a gazebo. You typically don’t find that much in our price range, so it was a very pleasant change.  We really enjoyed this park, and the people were very friendly and very military supportive. Did I mention I was able to impress my wife with my rock skipping abilities while here? It’s the little things in life that make it all worthwhile.

I just like this picture

It was only a few miles from our campground to the South Llano River State Park http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/south-llano-river. The park provided a brochure on the history of the park about how the land was donated by Walter Buck. We tried to find a good link that shared this history as the TPWD link does not say much and we feel it is important to remember the contributions of those who have gone before us. The following link does not give the whole of the story but does add a bit to the history provided by the TPWD link http://www.work5hop.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?flag=article&article_pk=10000008.

Stop two again found us exceeding the 200 mile rule, but only by 88 so it wasn’t bad. We pulled into Davis Mountain State Park http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/davis-mountains and found our site. They put us in a nice large site with a covered picnic table and plenty of room. This place was awesome and the scenery, landscape and temps easily exceeded our imagination. Unfortunately we only had three nights here but we filled the days completely full with adventure.

If you haven’t kept up, or don’t remember, Susan works part time from the motorhome and requires internet. Davis Mountain State Park had none…lol 😊 Well let me rephrase, they had internet and phone signal at the top of a mountain behind the campsite. So daily we would take truck trips up the mountain to the parking area on top where we would park beside all the other people seeking the signals from the skies..lol Susan would turn the truck into her mobile office. I would isolate myself on said mountain to give her privacy and surf the internet, stir the Facebook pot and search for coach parts, it was fun.

Fort Davis National Historic Site - View of Officer Row

During our stay we visited the old Fort Davis National Historic Site  https://www.nationalparks.org/explore-parks/fort-davis-national-historic-site which was very cool (we both love that kind of stuff). It was a quiet day at Fort Davis and there was only a handful of people around which allowed us to take our time and not worry about anyone trying to hurry us along as we read from the information kiosks. One can only imagine what life in the military was like back then but I'm sure it was not an easy assignment for enlisted men. Susan is pretty sure the officers "had it made" and likely completed little of the manual labor but rather provided supervision over enlisted personnel without breaking much of a sweat. Regardless, they all lived a hard life that not many of us today would choose to try. 

We also took a trip to Alpine, TX where we found probably the most interesting Ace Hardware Store you will ever see. Thank you Rusty and Leon for the tip on its existence and location. It is hard to find a parts store in the middle of nowhere but as is always the case, I had a small project that needed to be attended to and needed parts.

If you know me at all, you know that I will look for about any excuse for a motorcycle ride and a day of nice weather is really all the excuse that is ever needed. Susan and I took a beautiful motorcycle ride through mountains and desert surrounding the area of Fort Davis. There was very little traffic along the way and we were the only vehicle on the road most of the day. Much of the land was set up as open range which did require me to be on the look out for cattle guards in the middle of the

highway - it really is a good idea to slow down for them, especially when riding on two wheels. Roadside parks were all over so we did avail ourselves to the use of one for a hydration break and a granola. Susan knows me well and generally packs a small cooler even if I tell her it will be a short ride. Short has been known to take five or six hours.  Along the way we passed a gentleman who had his easel set up in the grass just off of the side of the road. We didn't get a look at his painting but there was a magnificent set of mountains that likely were the main subject matter for his artistic inspiration. We finished off our ride by heading to the top of a another mountain where we found, not by accident, the McDonald Observatory http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/. Our timing did not allow us to attend one of their evening presentations and while Susan has an interest in astronomy she is not much into viewing solar displays. So we rode around a bit and explored the visitor’s center but did not actually go into the observatory. This was a cool place to see and I know if we are in the area again Susan is going to insist we attend an evening of stargazing there!

Stop number three took us to the “Original Escapees Ranch” http://skpranch.com/index.htm in Lakewood, NM. It is actually located about 25 miles north of Carlsbad, NM. Finally, we were able to adhere to our 2+2+2, which was good because our drive day found us in heavy 40+ MPH sustained and 60+ MPH gusting side winds the whole day of travel and high wind warnings when we arrived in our camp site. We made it, but it was an interesting drive with the periodic brown outs from blowing sand. We found the park clean, inviting, and the people were some of the friendliest people I think we have ever met and we will certainly go there again.

We didn’t have much planned for this stop over except to see Carlsbad Caverns https://www.nps.gov/cave/planyourvisit/index.htm and I must say, it was breathtaking. Susan and I chose to do the walk in as I was able to walk that day, and we were sooo glad we did!!! If you are not into caving, it may not be for you but to Susan and I there is just something awe inspiring about exploring caves and seeing all the various formations that nature has made over thousands of years. Words really cannot explain or express the magnitude of what saw during the hours we spent spelunking. The caverns are huge and even if you are not able to make the trek from the top, there is still so much to see - they have an elevator that can be taken down 79 stories and once you are down the terrain is fairly level and easy going. If you have the chance, GO! 

Carlsbad Caverns is worth the trip - that’s all we can say.

Stop four was just a short 145 mile hop with a one night stop over to help break the long drive the next day. “This will be easy,” I remember telling Susan those always famous last words …lol! We have a new RV GPS that warns us of roads that do not meet our height, weight or length requirements and it will not route us on those roads. But hey, it’s a device that doesn’t always know and I saw a road I wanted to go on. It got interesting when only a couple miles into it we continued to see signs that said ridiculous things such as “weight limit 11Tons”, and then another that said “length limit 60 feet”. Oh, and one that said “7% grade next 15 miles”….lol Susan looked at me and said

something to the effect of “Uhhhh, should we be on this road?”,  followed by, “How heavy and long are we?”…..lol, I believe she was a bit uncomfortable but I had to be truthful and tell her we are 26 tons and about 70’ long… I’m not sure she found much comfort in my words as she made a post on Facebook “just in case”

It ended up being fine just as I figured it would. We got to drive to an elevation of 10,000 feet, saw snow, elk crossing signs and 15 miles of 7% grade with a ton of curves. Then just like that, the ride was over, the brakes were hot but nowhere near danger hot as I had been using the engine brake mostly (Susan pointed out that she could smell them and she could) and next thing you know we were at our stop in Alamogordo, NM at Edgington Garden RV Park http://www.edgingtonrvpark.com/. This was just a little park, basically a big parking lot, but clean, cheap and friendly. They accepted Passport America so the nightly rate was hard to beat and we just needed an overnight for this stop. As we left Alamogordo we drove by the White Sands Missile Base and the White Sands National Monument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sands_National_Monument. Both of which were pretty neat.

White Sands at 4,200 feet 40 miles away from the snow.

Photo copied from Yahoo 

Stop number five, our final stop for February, took us another 300 miles to Benson, AZ and Valley Vista RV Park (can book at RPI or as Encore park) http://www3.resortparks.com/xap/nwb/MR010?resort=773. Again we found a nice park with sites that were plenty big and people that were very friendly. We did have to fudge the length of our coach as they had a 43’ length limit but hey, if you can fit 43’, you can fit 45’, right? Right! ……..oh and they had a BIG hot tub and pool, gotta make momma happy.

Benson is a neat little town and only about 25 miles from Tombstone, AZ. Nope we didn’t make it there as much as we wanted to. The day we had planned to go was forecast for heavy thunderstorms all day, of which we got NONE. However, the clouds in the surrounding areas indicated that some places did get hit pretty hard and our friends even messaged us to make sure the rains would not delay our plans or hold us up. We really didn’t do much except visit the hot tub and spend time getting to know fellow campers. We even ran into a couple who were actually camped next to us at Lake Texoma, TX last August. You never know who you are going to run into out here on the road…lol. All in all it ended up being a nice stop and we enjoyed it, but it was again time to move on as we had Quartzite, AZ in our sites. But you can’t hear about that until next month….

January 2017 - Cruisin'

January started and ended in the same place - Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Texas. We had lots of travel over the month but only minimal RV time.  If you click on the link http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5873178604208128, know it is not broken - we flew and road the boat so the APP was unable to provide a route. It does however show destination points.

We started the New Year quietly in the park but we did see a few fireworks going off here and there. The first couple of weeks of January we spend relaxing, finishing up doctor appointments and enjoying evenings in the hot tub. A few days before we left for our cruise Brett's mom (Bridget) came and camped at the campground with us. She is enjoying her little Siesta and stopped to see us on her way to "the valley" to visit her mother.  She never comes with empty hands and this trip was no different - several dozen chocolate chip cookies as well as oatmeal cookies and pickled eggs for Brett.

Mid month we left Lake Conroe and drove the coach over to my good friend Stan's to park for the two weeks we were gone on our cruise to Hawaii on Carnival Miracle, January 14-29, 2017 round

Picture courtesy Leon Kirby -  Port Long Beach

trip from Long Beach CA.

Would love to say the cruise was great but this one was just not all we had hoped. It was January after all and January in the Pacific can be touchy as well as chilly. Hawaii itself was great - Susan had never been so it was nice to be able to share the island adventures with her. Weather prevented us from making two of our ports so we did not see Nawiliwili, Kauai or Hilo on the big island.

Spiny Silversword

In Maui we took a sunset tour
up to Haleakala Crater ttps://www.nps.gov/hale/planyourvisit/summit-area.htm to see the sunset at 10,000 feet. The view was indescribable and pictures do not do the experience justice. If we ever make it back to Maui we will plan to schedule a sunrise visit to the crater and we will most assuredly take jackets as IT GETS COLD AT 10,000 feet!! LOL! While at the crater we did see several Spiny Silversword plants - the only place in the world they are known to grow is at Haleakala Crater. This amazing plant lives anywhere from 3-90 years or more but they only bloom once in their lifetime and once they bloom, they die.

We were blessed to have wonderful tour guides while on Oahu - Norm and Michelle Gann were great!  We started the day off by watching the inauguration on Fox News before we walked to the Ala Moana Regional Park Beach https://roadtrippers.com/us/honolulu-hi/places/ala-moana-regional-park where Susan put her feet into the Pacific Ocean for the very first time and where we met up with Norm and Michelle. They then spent the rest of the day driving us from

Norm, Michelle and Brett

USS Missouri

one end of the island to the other. Our day included stops at
Pearl Harbor and tours of the USS Bowfin http://bowfin.org/ submarine and museum, the USS Missouri https://ussmissouri.org/#, and a view of the Arizona (tickets were sold out so we were only able to see it from shore but the sight was still humbling to say the least)! We also had a great late afternoon lunch and of course a few beers. Thank you again Norm and Michelle for helping to make our time in Hawaii enjoyable - it truly was the best day of our trip!  Unfortunately by the end of the day my back started to protest so we had to end the day rather abruptly. Feeling rather bad about this we informed our guides they could just "let us off here" and we would walk the last few blocks to prevent them from having to deal with pier traffic. Thankfully they declined as we arrived at our pier only to find our ship was GONE, and to be informed that it had relocated to another pier and due to weather we would be staying an additional day in Honolulu! So thanks again Gann Family for sticking with us and "going the distance" to get us to our relocation destination!
Day 2 in Honolulu was a bit less exciting but we know how to find fun. We made a few early morning calls to find out the bus schedule and made our way down to Waikiki. It may have been a wet drizzly day but the bar on the beach at the Halekoa http://www.halekoa.com/ was open for business! Guess where we spent the day?

Borrowed clip-art

Our next stop was Kona and Susan signed us up for a historical tour excursion that took us by 3 places we would not have otherwise visited. OHHH did we mention the storm we hit on the way from
Honolulu to Kona? Let's say it was a pretty good one and I have been in some pretty good ones...lol We had winds overnight in the mid 90MPH range and seas 25-30 feet. Cruise ships are not designed for those conditions as they are very top heavy. Needless to say it was a bouncy night, awww but I slept like a baby.

Stop 1 brought us to the Royal Kona Coffee Center with lots of samples of 100% Kona Coffee? If you ever have the chance, you must have some! This coffee was not cheap but the samples were free so we indulged in a few or more. 100% Kona Coffee was about  $18 per pound in the store. Not going to make it to Hawaii anytime soon? No worries, you can order it online - for a price. http://royalkonacoffee.com/visit/. 
Stop 2 was at The Painted Church, http://www.thepaintedchurch.org/default.asp which is a historical Roman Catholic church built in 1899 and painted by a priest with no professional training and a very limited budget. His labor of love and devotion took years to complete. The church has ongoing efforts to continue to preserve this quaint beauty and donations from tourist go toward aiding in the preservation/restoration efforts. I know our catholic friends will find this interesting but anyone who enjoys history is likely to enjoy it as well. 


Our 3rd and final stop of the historical tour was at Pu’uhonua o Honaunau https://www.nps.gov/puho/index.htm. We could have easily spent hours enjoying this stop. The good and the bad of booking an excursion - Good: you see lots of stuff quickly, Bad: you see lots of stuff quickly.
We ended up spending two days in Kona due again to bad weather but we opted to stay on the ship the second day as we were only scheduled to be in port half of the day and had no interest in shopping at the time. While we were in Kona we did receive the new that we were expecting a kitten! Well, actually we were informed that the expectant mother had delivered six kittens so we would get one around the first of April.

We were a bit bummed that we did not get to go to Hilo as we had scheduled an all day trip to see the Hilo Chain of Craters (volcanos) and the famed Lava Tube! I don't know if we will make the journey back to Hawaii anytime in the near future but if we ever do, we have seen a peek of what there is to see and have a LONG LONG list of things we would still like to do there. Maybe Susan can get her professional license in Hawaii and then get a contract job there for a few months.
There was a short stop over in Ensenada Mexico and while it was another adventure, it was the mandatory foreign port for this cruise and just another tourist trap in our opinion. Don't get me wrong, it was an interesting stop just not a place we will put on our "have to see again" list.

Partial list of delays due to protest

We finally arrived back in Long Beach on January 29th and spent the night in LA for an early flight back to Texas on the 30th. Did someone say something about protestors? Grrrr.... not even going to go there other than to say the airport and traffic into and out of the airport and the surrounding areas was a MESS!

The 30th found us overnighting at http://www.aggielandrvpark.com/ in College Station. We were just too tired (and not feeling well) to go any further - even the extra 75 minutes it would have taken us to get to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe was just too far.
But on the 31st we were up bright and early, or at least we were moving by mid-morning and on the road by 11 for the short trip back to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe for a much needed bit of relaxation and recuperation.

This is where we head to relax - our "home park" Lake Conroe

December 2016

December finds the Wandering Wickett’s still in Hickory, NC enjoying the area and spending time with our daughter. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/4703505275682816 Susan and I pretty much concentrated our time with our daughter and didn’t really do much site seeing as our MAIN reason for coming to NC this time of year was to celebrate our daughter’s graduation from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

Taskina graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Business Administration. Her major was in Management and she had a major concentration in Human Resource Management. 

We were pleased to share this happy event with my dear mom who made the flight from Oklahoma to Charlotte, NC. We picked Mom up from the airport on Dec 9^th and made the trip up to Boone where we camped in a hotel for a couple of nights.  Our Saturday morning started bright and early as we had to be on campus by 9:00am for the graduation at 10:00am. Did I mention it was also 20 degrees and the wind was blowing about 20 MPH?  I am pretty sure that was the coldest temperature Boone had had this year (2016). Anyway, we made it to the graduation and enjoyed it immensely! It is such a great feeling to sit and watch your daughter be rewarded for all the hard work she has put in over the past four years. Of course the ceremony was followed by pictures. LOTS of picture and celebrated that evening with Mom’s homemade tacos – per the graduate’s request.  We left Boone on Sunday and head back to Casa Wickett in Hickory to spend the night as mom had to be back at the airport Monday morning.

It was sad to say bye to mom and even more sad to say bye to our daughter, but when the 14^th arrived it was time for Susan and I to start our slow trek to Texas. So G’bye Taskina and G’bye North Carolina. We had a great time once again and look forward to the next time we will be together.

We made the 14^th a short day and stopped in Sevierville, TN for the night at the Riverside RV park once again. http://www.riversidecamp.com/ This is where we had stopped on the way to NC and saw no reason not to visit again. As we were in no hurry we decided to stay a couple days and take in the sights. We rode over to see Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg as we wanted to see what damage they suffered during the fires in November. Yes, many people and businesses were devastated but I am

happy to say the towns are up and running and tourists were walking the streets. We were actually very surprised to see both towns suffered little apparent damage from our vantage point as tourists. The news made it sound as if both towns were virtually gone and while there was damage it was not at the level of devastation expected from what we saw on the news. This was our first venture to either place, but we have vowed to return at some point, some year in early spring or late fall. Wow, they are cool is the least we can say….But man I bet they are busy in the summer! LOL

Next stop Henagar, AL and the home of my best friend in the world, aside from my wife, Karen Blansit. We set up camp in their yard for a couple of days and caught up once again. Karen and I have been friends since the mid 90’s where we lived across the street from each other in Oregon. Karen was concerned the first night as the weather was calling for possible tornados….nah, we were fine. I tried to tell her to trust me…lol Much time was spent catching up and just enjoying good conversation.  Karen also took Susan and I to a local nursery where they decorate for Christmas. I never thought I would say that, but I was truly impressed.  Always good to see when a small town business had the knowledge and skill that could easily compete in any metropolitan area and set the standard. Just in case you were wondering, this is a florist type nursey, not a baby nursery…lol AND besides more themed Christmas trees than I can recall - I also found a real life elf while we were there! Unfortunately we were only able to stay at Karen’s for a couple days and we were off again.

As we continued our trek heading toward Texas, we stopped in Meridian, MS at Benchmark RV park. http://www.benchmarkrv.net/ This was a nice little park that offered Passport America discounts, so it was also nicely priced. This was where I realized we had no zone one (living room) heat in the coach. Oh and it was cold and raining…lol So for two days I learned a ton about my heating system and how it actually worked. Through trouble shooting I learned that my heating system was fine - good deal as that is very expensive but my thermostat was the issue. I also learned my thermostat is an entire computer system consisting of circuit boards, zone control modules and tons of wiring AND it is not made or supported any longer. LOL it was starting to sound like a Gov’t project. Lastly I found out there is ONE place in the country that can completely rebuild the entire system, IF you remove it all and send it to them in Ohio where they will gladly rebuild it and have it back to you in 4 ½ weeks…. Uh wow, how to not have heat or AC in your home for 4.5 weeks. I will figure it out. But were headed back to Texas and at least slightly warmer temps.

As we continue at a slow bell to TX we made a couple more non-eventful overnight stops in Vicksburg, MS http://www.ameristar.com/vicksburg/rv-park and Marshall, TX at Laguna Vista RV park http://lagunavistarvpark.com/. We had stayed at Ameristar a few times before so knew what to expect. We had never stopped at Laguna Vista and it was little more than a parking lot but hey, they are also a Passport America park so for the price one night was just fine. It was clean and all gravel. Mostly oil field workers that lived there, but no issues at all, owners were very nice. We did learn that their name, Laguna Vista really means “look at the neighbor’s pond” in English…lol

Then just like that we had completed our 9 day trek across 1148 miles and arrived in Willis, TX at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe for our winter stop.  It was almost as if we had returned home as this is our home park within the Thousand Trails network and where we started our full time RV adventure on 10 Aug.  This stop really is a place to get caught up on medical appointments for Susan and I more than anything and trust me, we were full of medical appointments…lol

We had thought we would be alone this Christmas. But this was not to be the case. My Uncle Raymond and Aunt LouAnn who have tracked and visited me all over the country for years  graced us with their presence once again…lol! They had been in Houston visiting their boys and grandson and were passing by on their way home. We had a great visit and were able to catch back up before they had to hit the road again. Glad they were able to stop by!

Our day was good, we were not able to spend it with the kids, but it was enjoyable none the less. Susan fixed one of my many favorite meals for Christmas dinner, TACOS…lol and baked a great cheesecake for desert. That was all topped off by opening gifts from our daughter, thanks for the Moonshine….it is great!

Christmas in south Texas tends to be pretty nice weather and this year was no different. Temps in the mid 80’s and mostly sunny made for some great walks with my darling wife. The past few months have been very hard on me health wise and Susan has been doing her very best to help me out by encouraging frequent short walks and staying with me to provide her support. Now if all of that were not great enough, the entire day was topped off by a nice night time sit in the hot tub. Nothing like being in a hot tub at 9 PM on a clear night with temps in the low 70’s on Christmas. Gotta love it!

November 2016 - Maintenance Continues

November found us on a continuation of our "maintenance trip" in Indiana and Ohio but by the end of the month we did finally make a turn south. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5847367115341824

When we left off last month we were back in Decatur, IN to finish up with REV (American Coach’s service facility). On our last trip to Decatur we ordered two manual awnings…..To explain the two, our coach came from the factory with a Girard electric awning package, that actually is top of the line and pretty expensive. However, when something breaks repairs are also pretty expensive. In this case our bedroom window awning motor had quit and after pricing just the motor at $1200, plus $240 labor for install. To heck with that! Remove the entire electric awning and replace with a manual. The other?  For a long time I wanted to get a manual window awning over the living room window next to my chair. This window always relied on the main patio awning to shade the window, but because of the height above the window and its configuration it just didn’t do a very good job of shading. I must say the factory did a very nice job in the retrofit from electric to manual as the two different awnings were from entirely different manufacturers and were completely different.  Now we only have one electric window awning left and will likely replace it with  a manual in the future. This whole event only took a couple days but we were in no hurry to leave so as our next appointment would not be until the coming Monday so we camped in REV’s parking lot campground  through the weekend.

Finally, on Monday the 7^th, we hooked up and prepared to head to our next appointment destination. This was a short 40 mile drive to Cruising American in Celina, OH. Here we met with owner Kevin Mallory for yet a bit more work….lol. Kevin doesn’t have a website but he has an outstanding shop. He and his sidekick were both techs at the

American Coach Factory for many years and they really know their stuff. Our main reason for this stop was to have our tank gauges changed out. We decided to go with SeaLevel Tank Gauges from https://www.garnetinstruments.com/rv-shop/ 

This install removes all gauges from the inside of your tanks and places the new electronic sensors to the outside of the tanks…..They work great!

Remember I said that was our main reason to visit Kevin but when you have an RV, there are ALWAYS additional repairs that need to be completed….lol! Unfortunately when we left Auburn, IN another fix-it project added to our list - while we were pulling in the living room slide we blew out an upper slide seal..ugh So guess what else were having looked at. We were a bit concerned because that is a major seal on the slide. However, upon inspection by Kevin he determined it was actually the sweep seal as opposed to the slide seal. Easier to fix and less money! Unfortunately, that is apparently a proprietary seal from the factory and Kevin was not able to order one. This could have been a big problem but remember we were only 40 miles from Decatur. Susan and I jumped in the truck and made a quick trip back to the factory to buy the seal allowing Kevin to continue to work.  Day One work with Cruising America started on the 8th - tank gauges prepped for install, seal purchased and planning for completion by the end of Day Two.
But the fun didn’t stop there. We pulled out of the bay to park for the night and relax…..Oh, no - this was Election day and the night was young. I vowed to stay up to see the winner announced and  I was not alone! Many of my Face Book friends were awake with me. AS the results came in we were rapidly typing back and forth posting our thoughts and opinions. Most of us made it to the final

results but  my dear wife Susan gave up about 0130. I sure missed her because she had spent the evening working the internet getting updates while I was keeping track of the news on FOX and CNN and posting our combined intel. We make a heck of a team.  Once the election was called, I finally got to bed about 0320. The night was long but it was worth it, at least until the alarm went off at 0700.

Day Two pretty much took the entire day to complete guage install and replace the sweep seal. It may have completed a bit earlier BUT before they said we were done I came up with another little project. I decided to have them install another electrical outlet so that I could plug in the new electric recliner that we would be picking up in a few days. You know it’s the important things in life. Kevin was gracious enough to allow us use of his parking lot one more night. Thank you Kevin for outstanding quality work! Hopefully we are done with repairs for awhile.  

Too many cars to pick just one!

On departing Kevin’s we headed BACK NORTH as we have furniture to pick up and a roof to get repaired. However, we do have a couple days to burn so we decided it was time for a little fun. We stopped back at Fireside Resort http://www.firesideresort.com/  in Auburn Indiana. There were still a few things we wanted to see in Auburn, most especially the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum. http://www.automobilemuseum.org/#home.html.

All I can say about this place is WOW! If you in any way like cars and history, this is a car museum you have to see. Right behind this museum is the National Automotive and Truck Museum http://natmus.org/. Another outstanding museum dedicated to automotive history and a must see if you are in the area. Unfortunately, I was once again dealing with some pretty bad health issues and we were very much hampered in our walk around of all these fabulous cars. Thankfully we had all the time we needed, were not rushed and were able to take a few minutes to relax as we ambled through all the tires and steel. This was a fairly quick couple of days and we are once again rolling.

Almost mid-November and here we are back in Elkhart, IN and back at Mastertech RV. This time we are here so they can re-do our roof from the last visit. We don’t know what to expect, except they have assured us it would be taken care of. Because we arrived on Saturday and our apt was on Monday we had a little time to explore. What do you do in Elkhart, IN on a Sunday? You go visit Notre Dame University! That was one of the most beautiful campuses I think I have seen. It took us a bit of time to find the entrance and a parking spot, but there was virtually no one around and we took advantage of it. We didn’t walk around a whole lot, but the main grounds in front of the gold dome and the immediate surrounding buildings are really inspiring and almost breathtaking. The history and the architecture – if only the walls could talk. There is no doubt tons of Catholic Dollars have been dedicated to this facility. We pretty much spent the whole day on this site seeing adventure.

Awe inspiring!

Back to the coach and Monday (November 14^th) morning finds us up at 6 AM and in the shop once again. It didn’t take long and it was decided that we would once again be back in a hotel room – this time on Mastertech’s dime. Susan and I grabbed our travel bags, a few food items and we are on our way to our new home for a couple days.

Susan and I have decided to make the best out of every situation, and this is no different. We wake up Tuesday morning ready for another adventure as we were not far from Nappanee, IN, the home of Newmar Motorhomes - off to the Newmar factory for a tour. http://www.newmarcorp.com/ This was interesting for Susan and I for a couple reasons. 1. We owned a Newmar Mountain Aire motorhome before our current American Eagle and 2. We had seen the American factory so we could make some comparisons.  I was very impressed with the cleanliness and the way in which their line moved. There was very little chatter, or talking between employees which was odd, as the American factory was filled with music from radios all over the place and their employees talking, laughing and carrying on. I will say that while both are outstanding coaches, I was more impressed with the Newmar factory. It is hard to describe, but it was very professional, clean and well organized, the workers had such a routine that they almost seemed to be reading each other’s minds – it was that smooth.  

After a couple days in the hotel and another long day in a waiting room our coach is ready to go – again. I had made several inspections during the process this time and I can say it is finally right.

                          No time to waste as we have an appointment at

Getting ready for new furniture

Lambright’s to pick up the furniture we ordered last

The recliner really is full size - I assure you!

month.  Susan needed to get her couch as she had been sitting in a lawn chair for the past week  and really did not appear to be impressed…lol.  Lambright’s went off without a hitch. They helped install, made sure everything worked, made sure we were happy, took our money and poof, we were on the road again.

It had been a LONG day so we didn’t drive far but it is still after dark when we arrive at http://timberlinevalleyrvresort.com/. We didn’t get to see much as this was just a one night stop over but from what we were able to see we need to revisit this park. It was late when we pulled in but yet the staff was friendly and even escorted us to our site - always a nice bonus when arriving in the dark at a place you have never been before..

November 17, 2016 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOMINICK!

We celebrated Dominick’s birthday with a phone call full of well wishes for him and setting up for a few days of much needed rest for us at Thousand Trails Diamond Caverns in Park City, KY. https://www.thousandtrails.com/kentucky/diamond-caverns-rv-golf-club/
Our original plan when we started this whole new life back in August had been to spend three weeks here but maintenance stops and reworks had us pushing the days back and back again. All told we were only able to spend a week here but this is another place we will someday revisit.

We had a great time while here and I was able to get a couple of things accomplished that I had been wanting to do for a long time. We went to the Corvette Factory and Museum in Bowling Green, KY http://www.corvettemuseum.org/. The Corvette Museum and Factory is something I have always wanted to do. Susan and I have owned a couple different Corvettes over the years and will likely own another one someday. Seeing how they are made and the history of them was a lot of fun. “Man o man do I gotta get me one of them new C7 Z06’s! Yeah, I see one in my future…”

2007 Atomic Orange C6 ZO6 - Ok, this one was not in the museum but DAMN it's a nice 'vette and I'd love to have it back!

Did someone say there is a Cabela’s in Bowling Green?  Well yes there is and you know we had to visit there as well. Neither of us had ever seen a Cabela’s as small as this one and we were informed it is the smallest Cabela’s in the US - surprisingly it is only a couple of years old.

I was also able to treat Susan to a rare meeting of yet another cousin. You would be surprised at how few cousins she has actually met but the nomadic life of the Coast Guard did not often place us near family over the years. My cousin Shawn Ellis and his girlfriend, Becky Hoover, live only a couple hours from our campground and came to spend a day with us before we left Kentucky. I had not seen Shawn in probably 20 years or more so it was fun to catch back up. Shawn and I used to do some, uh fun stuff growing up…lol Probably safer to leave that right there. It was a great visit and “We really appreciate you coming by Shawn, let’s not wait so long next time.”

Susan’s highlight for November was the Mammoth Cave Domes and Dripstones tour https://www.nps.gov/maca/planyourvisit/winter-schedule.htm.  All of the cave tours were not open because of time of year but the park rangers told us this was the best one and they were not kidding. Be advised though that if you are well grown (BIG) or have an issue with tight places you

probably want to skip this…  Some areas of the cave were pretty tight for us man size people and we had a couple in the group that were less than comfortable with the tightness of some of the places we had to go through.  At one point on this cave trip we were 500+ feet BELOW ground level. There are no elevators in this cave, so if you have an issue with stairs you probably don’t want this trip either.  Just remember if you go down 500 feet below ground level, you have to go back up!

Diamond Caverns has now come and gone as we put it in our rearview mirror and started our journey to see our daughter. After all, seeing our daughter and being a part of her graduation from Appalachian State University has been our goal for hanging out in this area anyway. Susan doesn’t like for me to drive very far in a day anymore and actually I am quite happy about this -so we break this 400 mile trip in half and stop for an overnight in Sevierville, TN at http://www.riversidecamp.com/. What a nice facility with tons of room. We really liked his place and we will be back for certain.

Before our journey even began back in August, I had made reservations for us to stay at Thousand Trails Forrest Lake in Advance, NC from November 23 – December 14, 2016. Unfortunately, this park is about two hours from where our daughter lives, but hey it is “free” for us and we like free… in case you are unfamiliar with Thousand Trails and I have not explained before – Thousand Trails  is a campground membership that we bought into a couple of years ago. We pay annual fees but are able to stay at parks all across the country virtually free.

Photos taken from Indian Springs web page

Anyway, I had Susan call ahead to make sure we were still set for our arrival only to be met with the dreaded words “we are not sure we will have a site large enough for you”, SERIOUSLY? Rather than stress, we decided we were not interested in going that far only to not have a spot so we frantically started looking for an alternate campground. AHHH did we find a diamond in the rough when we found Indian Springs Campground http://www.indianspringscampgroundnc.com/. in Hickory, NC. While this campground was not free like the one we were headed to - the price was very reasonable, they offer a 10% military discount and had we been interested we could have had the monthly rate for what our three week stay cost. The owners are outstanding – very friendly and they worked with us on short or rather no notice! The campground is small, quiet and secluded but close to the interstate making it easy to get anywhere we needed to go. It has large sites and is only an hour south of our daughter…..win, win, win.

As we get to Indian Springs Susan and I are very excited as we have not seen our daughter (Taskina)

Larry and Susan

since June, her graduation is right around the corner, and we get to spend Thanksgiving with her. So on Thanksgiving morning Susan and I get up, pack the food and head north up the mountain to Boone, NC and our daughter’s apartment for our Turkey Day Feast. That evening I needed to get back to the motorhome as there just isn’t enough room for ole dad in our daughter’s efficiency apartment but I did leave Susan as she had already planned to stay with Taskina for a couple weeks. OK, actually it was only 9 days, but man from my lonely motorhome it felt like a month! But she did stop by for visitations and on one of her visit days we had the pleasure of meeting up with Susan's Uncle Larry who had been in the mountains visiting friends. It is always good to see family!

I have to mention that within only a couple days of us leaving Sevierville, TN we were saddened to see the news of the fires and devastation in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg area. Many campers, homeowners and businesses were evacuated. So very sad and our hearts and prayers go out to the homeowners and business owners that lost everything.

We survived November and before we knew it December was here. Hope to have December posted soon. However, it is New Year’s Eve and Susan has had this post in her possession for editing for over a month – she already has December in her documents as well, wonder how long before she has it ready for your reading pleasure? LOL – I, Susan, really wrote this last paragraph or he would be in deep trouble but as the editor I can put whatever I want and pretend he wrote it! Try not to blame Brett for the late entries – he is all ahead of the game, it is his editor who procrastinates!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year!