The Sauters moved on and we rolled forward into their camping area taking over the very nice campfire circle their predecessor had built and some of their firewood. This was made easier by our need to service our holding tanks and get some more freshwater. Which meant we had to move the coach anyhow. The water was still low, but the temperature was rising and overnight lows were moving into the 50’s.

We explored several areas we had never been to in the 4 or 5 five years we had been coming to the area. We finally found the turn off for Mittry Lake, an unmarked dirt road running along an irrigation canal right across from the access to YPG. We arranged to pick up mail at the Christian Service Center on Ferguson Road. We had drven by the turn off many times and had actually pulled in to the area once, but had no idea what services they offered. Mail service is good!

We had heard of the Castle Dome Museum, but had never thought to go there for no reason we could explain. The drive of 10 miles over a barely improved dirt road was a great introduction to the area. Castle Dome is a distinctive mountain top that can be seen for miles around. It sits in the middle of an area that has been mined for gold, silver and lead from the mid 1800’s though the early 1960’s. The most recent claim was filed in 1973. When the mining collapsed the Interior Department took control of all the land that was not subject to active claims and began to remove all signs of development. The founders of the Castle Dome Museum went out into the land and moved buildings and abandoned equipment onto their land. There is now a fairly complete mining ghost town preserved and watched over by a corp of volunteers who live on the outskirts in their RVs. We spent 2 and a half hours there and will go back on our next visit. I will post some pictures on Picasa soon.

The previous day we had returned to the Martinez Lake area and the NWR (National Wildlife Refuge) to reprise a hike in the Painted Desert. This is an area where the ground is colored by volcanic dust in greens, reds and deep brown reflecting different mineral content of various eruptions. It is geologically interesting and quite beautiful. We enjoyed both the hike and the driving way back on 4wd dirt roads to see this area. There are many turnoffs to headlands overlooking the Colorado River which defines this area. On our return to paved roads we explored the lake Martinez area and decided we were not thrilled with the idea of coming there to stay in the future.

Meanwhile at Senator Wash the water was beginning to refill the reservoir. We decided to hike around it while we could still use the exposed shoreline to avoid having to go way back into the desert to get around to the North Shore. This hike took over three hours and it was not as level as you might think. The reservoir has many bays and it was not possible to stay on the shore all the time so we had to hike up out of the shoe area to cross the points and then back down to the shore. Eventually we found ourselves stymied and had to bushwhack up a donkey path to find our way to the top of the dam to continue the hike. This hike whetted our appetite for more. We had talked to George and Linda several times – they were in slot 1 at the very far end of the beach where it would be tough to set up a motorhome, but their trailer fit quite nicely. George had been looking at the mountains to the west and decide to hike out to them. He reported that it was a nice hike so we decided to try it ourselves. The only direction we had was “hike towards those mountains, there is a mine up there.” So we set out to “hike to those mountains.” First we had to cross the LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area) and that brought us to a wash (arroyo, wadi, pick your terms). As we surveyed the sides of the wash we noted a trail down into it and up the other side. We spent the next 2 hours following this trail to the mountains and then up a ridge line where we could see a car and a couple hiking further up. They were rock hounding (looking for turquoise) and we talked for a while before finding a convenient perch for our picnic, we always carry lunch in our hydration packs. By the time we got back to G 2 we were ready to kick off our boots and put our feet up with an adult beverage.

After catching our breath we began the preparations to break camp and head out the next day. After a two week stay we had plenty of stuff out of the compartments. The inflatable kayak was snugged up to the coach, the bikes were in riding condition and we had gone riding and all of the comforts were scattered around the campsite. It took about 30 or 45 minutes to put it all in condition to move.

Move to where? We wanted to go to Borrego Springs in the Anza Borrego Desert, but had been informed that the desert flower bloom season had started and all the campsites were reserved. We decided to head for Borrego Springs anyhow since this is one of the few areas in the country where there is open camping anywhere you can find, off a designated road and not too close to water (what water?). Sure enough all the campgrounds were full when we got there, but we picked up maps of the area with suggestions of where we could find like minded desert boondockers and soon found ourselves near the Peg Leg Smith Monument with several other Rvers. Nice place. No amenities, no charge. We will dump our holding tanks in Los Angeles when we get there. Since our arrival we have had two days of strenuous hiking and back road driving – this park is the reason we had to have an AWD vehicle with reasonable ground clearance when Carol’s car needed to be replaced. We have used all of its capabilities this trip. The short list is Calcite Mines, Palm Slot, The Slot and Hawk Canyon. Each of these entailed a drive of 1 to 4 miles over dirt tracks and a hike of half to 4 miles as part of the experience. There is still much to do and see, but we will save it for another time. We are preparing to leave for Los Angeles in the morning as I write.

. . . picking up where I left off . . .

The Calcite Mines were developed in WW II to provide calcite for lenses for war time applications. They are slots or crevices in the mountain top. The road was rough and we parked the car 2 miles in and hiked the remainder of the way. A car similar to our RAV4 passed us as we hiked and we met the occupants at the top. The driver had made the trip before which gave him an advantage over us. We enjoyed the climb and spent some time on the summit with views of the surrounding mountains and desert and the Salton Sea. On the hike down we met some young men at a place where the road crossed a large wash. They said we could hike down the wash rather than retrace down the road. With no idea where we would come out relative to the car, we started down an amazing canyon with a series of slots that were just magnificent. At the bottom we located a road (donkey path?) that seemed to head towards where the GPS said we would find the car. A short very steep climb brought us back to the car. We drove back down the road we had driven up and took a right at the bottom before going back up to the highway. This brought us to the entry to Palm Slot, another slot canyon. After pause for lunch which we had packed, we walked through this exquisite slot and retraced to the car.

Although we had had enough hiking by now, we set off for Fonts Point, four miles up another dirt road. This provides a over view of the Borrego Valley and the mountains that surround it. We returned to G-2 and collapsed and read for a while before going into town for Mexican dinner and a show “American Song Book” a review of as much Rogers and Hart as you would want to enjoy in an evening. The performers were Sherri Roberts, vocalist and David Udolf, pianist. We really enjoyed this break from books and videos.

The next day we decided we needed to hike one more slot canyon, this one is known as simply “The Slot.” Another long desert dirt road brought us to a cliff edge. First we took a side trial to a bluff overlooking Hawk Canyon, the floor of which we visited later in the day. We retraced to the car and walked over the edge of the cliff to scramble down a path that led to the bottom of the slot. This slot was longer than the others and was so narrow that I had to move the car keys to a different pocket to negotiate some of the crevices. We returned the way we had come and took the car to Hawk Canyon where we had lunch. Through out these two days we were overwhelmed with the desert flowers in bloom. We never went to any of the special sites people travel for hundreds of miles to visit to see the blooms, but we saw everything they were seeing, just not a two minute walk from a highway. We saw a field of desert lilies and lupine and all the flowers that were listed in the guide. There were acres of yellow and purple flowers and in places the ground was carpeted with orange and yellow flowers that were too small to see as individuals and barely visible unless you looked down at an angle with low angle sunlight. It was a shame to leave, but we were headed to Los Angeles to see the grandchildren so leave we did.

We have been staying with Azriel and Avtalyon for two nights while Miriam and Yechiel have a break to go sea kayaking and tour Hearst Castle. During the day on Thursday, while the boys were in school, we went to downtown LA to see the Walt Disney Music Hall and MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art. Our membership in Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester got us in to MOCA and we went first to the rotating exhibit of the permanent collection. When we entered the room we both stopped and started laughing. That room is dominated by several large pieces by Donald Judd and John Chamberlain. This snapped us back to Marfa TX a month ago. The world really is smaller than we know.

Enough! We have dinner with my cousin John Levey tomorrow night and on the 11^th we will have to decide where we are going.

I guess I haven’t written in a while. We toured several houses with Joanie and found one we might have loved if we were looking for a four bedroom house to live in with space for everyone to visit and room for our coach and a friend’s coach as well. Price was not the killer. We realized we are not looking to furnish a new house nor are we prepared to close our home in Rochester. We really want a place for the coach and at $400 a month plus electricity for a pad in a campground who needs to own land and pay taxes and do upkeep. Glad we looked, glad we did not make a foolish decision (for us), glad to move on.

We waited to hear from Richard (Richard’s RV Service) about our convection/microwave oven. And we waited, and we waited. Finally, a week and a day after he took it he appeared with our repaired convection/microwave oven at 5:30 on Friday night. By 6 pm he was gone with a bad check from us. . . oops. Carol got her hands on my money market checkbook and wrote a check on it to Richard.. She does not have signature authority on that account. Called Richard and arranged to leave him a good check with the campground office before we left.

We were finally free to head for Senator Wash. You can locate it by entering it into Google maps or just do a Google search for it. We are in the south shore camping area where we have stayed a couple of previous times. We are on the shore of a pumped storage reservoir just above the usual high water area. When we arrived the water level was about 30 feet from the high water mark and we set up camp about a foot or two above that. This seemed to be at about the usual low water mark . As we approached the camping area we were concerned because it was Saturday of the three day President’s weekend and from past experience we expected the place to be mobbed. We were both relieved and dismayed to find plenty of space for us. Where is everyone?

We have been here five days as I write this and the weather has been cool and there have been high winds and even some rain. Since we arrived they have continued to drain water out of the lake and so far as we can tell there has been no pumping to refill it. I am looking across the lake bed and see nothing but mud flats from where I am camped across to the far share. Yesterday we walked across the flats on our way back from a long walk. None of the beach camping area is on the water at the moment. I am sure that by this time next week we will have water up to the high water mark a few feet from the wheels. We have had the company of Kurt and Margaret Sauter from British Columbia since we arrived. They are not related to my assistant, Kathy Sauter Meintel. Kurt is Swiss and a Canadian citizen. He has a delicatessen on Shuswap the tourist area halfway between Vancouver and Calgary and gets away for the winter because business falls off significantly when the tourists and summer residents leave. As I write they are packing up to move on, having overstayed their allotted two weeks in this particular Short Term Visitor Area (STVA in government speak). We will miss their company, but there are others we have met who we have spent time with in past years.

I am hoping to post this today with a stop at the Yuma Proving Grounds (YPG) near where we are camping. This is a US Army proving ground for a lot of military vehicles and track mounted weapons. Also the Golden Knights parachute team practices here. We have free access to the base and many of its facilities and the bowling alley has free wifi available. So we will see if we can get on line there a little faster than here. Otherwise I may try using my phone as usual. 

We got distracted when we arrived on the YPG grounds.  Paratroopers were falling out of the sky all around us.  We took our lunch and chairs to the patch of public land  between the three landing areas and watched as the Golden Knights, the 82 Airborne, and the navy Seals took turns jumping out of planes and hitting the marks in the middle of their respective fields.  For a grand finale, well not finale as they do this once an hour from 0900  to 1530 five days a week, all the teams put up a total of 20 jumpers who fell from 6,000 feet while forming a large formation before breaking and opening their chutes.  Great fun, we watched one full cycle and wandered off to do other things.

The water is rising in the lake.  We may be on a lake shore again soon.

Sometimes things work out the way you least expect. Carol’s new computer came on Wednesday the 4^th and I thought we could be gone by Friday at the latest. Wednesday, as I noted, we had some interesting electrical occurrences with the water heater and the microwave. It turned out that the microwave was not a self repairing failure. Thursday we discovered that although the lights would light and the oven made the right noises, things did not get hot. Discussion with Samsung Tech seemed to indicate that the magnetron (the thing that makes the microwaves) was broken. The shocking news was that it was still covered under the original 10 year parts only warranty. Who’d a thunk? Then there was the matter of finding someone who could do the work and Samsung has no service support people anywhere near Las Cruces. Phoenix here we come! 

But wait a minute, that truck over next to the fifth wheel behind us says “Richard’s RV Service” maybe he will have an idea. In the meanwhile we have been searching the web for a new Convection/Microwave Oven to fit in our cabinet, no more than 24 inches wide. Not One! Richard listened to the tale of woe and looked at the oven and offered to call a local repair man who does this sort of stuff to see if he wanted to even look at it. The short answer is, 30 minutes later Richard brought his power screwdriver on board and undid the 6 screws on the front of the machine and slid the entire unit out in a matter of a couple of minutes. It has sat on two metal brackets with indented places for the feet for five years of hard road, secured by 6 little screws driven into the wood surround. We are waiting for the repaired unit to be reinstalled Tuesday. Then we will be off, slowly.

The weather has deteriorated. There is not a sign of blue in the sky, the winds have been nasty and the temperature peaked in the mid 60’s this morning and has dropped off to the low 50’s this afternoon. I know you northerners would think this is springlike, but here it feels like winter. The gray is too familiar, it feels like February. . . in Rochster.

What are we doing for entertainment? Well, we have spent the last couple of days moving all of Carol’s data from the Mac to the PC and installing the necessary software. The real issue is replacing Adobe Photoshop with The GIMP. $700 or free which sounds like a better option? We are going to go with The GIMP (that is an unfortunate name, it stands for GNU Image manipulation Program). If Carol absolutely can’t stand it, back to Photoshop.  We have taken a hike in White Sands National Monument and we have biked down to the Rio Grande River, about 5 miles from our campground. We have met with a realtor and will be doing some sightseeing with her on Monday. Although we are not in the market, we have come back here repeatedly and keep saying we might want a place here, so now is the time to take a look and see if we can find what we want. That will be hard because we don’t know what we want. It will have land so we have space for our coach and maybe a guest or two; it may have a house, or not. It will have some decent views, which are not hard to come by here. It will provide us with some entertainment and something to talk about. Neither of us is really ready to buy anything, but you never know.

The Kelter Zeitlin family have left for Rochester for Zvi’s (that’s Zvi Zeitlin, Leora’s father) recital in Kilbourn Hall. They have caught the best of what Rochester has to offer for weather at this time of year. We expect that they will be back some time on Monday. It is unlikely that we will get to see them again this trip, but I am sure Carol and Leora will talk before we roll out of here. You never know!

ENOUGH!

A couple of days ago Carol informed me that the shower water was tepid. This is rather astonishing given that the water heater is set to “scald” and has no temperature controls on it. This is how a 10 gallon water heater can provide as much hot water as your average 40 gallon home water heater, you just use less and add plenty of cold. Not great for kids, but ok for those of us adults who are supposed to be able to be careful.   But I digress.   Clearly if the water from the water heater was tepid, it was not working.   I immediately turned on the gas fired portion of the heater so my shower would be hot, but that did not resolve the issue of why the electric portion of the heater was not working.  I checked every fuse panel in the coach looking for something that was wrong or at least said water heater.  I found nothing.   All breakers and fuses were just fine.  Understand that getting to some of these can result in severe contortions, without the driver door I have no idea how I would reach the fuses above the driver’s left foot. As it is I have to stand on a step stool on the ground and lean in the open door, but I digress again. Having crawled under and into a number of places I had not known existed I determined that it was beyond my capability to troubleshoot much less fix.   Time passes.  Just as I was about to find out who to hire to fix this I opened the cupboard doors where the switches are and noticed that the last person to switch from Microwave (keep that thought in mind) to Water Heater had left the switch in the unmarked mid position, neither microwave nor water heater was on! This switch ensures that we do not attempt to use the microwave and the water heater at the same time, as the current draw would exceed our electrical system’s capability.  This is the second time this has happened in almost five years of ownership.

Tonight we had a failure that is less explicable.  Carol was ‘waving potatoes for dinner.  The cycle completed and the ‘wave went dark.  The control panel lights and the interior light would not light and there was no response to the control panel.  Knowing right where to go now, I checked the circuit breaker for the ‘wave and it was not tripped.   I pulled the plug and used my circuit tester to verify that there was indeed 120 volts at the outlet.  Stymied, I guess the microwave is kaput.   I go to the Samsung web site and am defeated by typical badly engineered consumer website design.   Nothing is straight forward not even the model number which is slightly different than that which is on the ‘wave itself.  I determine I will call in the morning, but I know there is nothing that can be done, it is broken and there is no warranty on a five year old microwave.  I’ll have to buy a new one.   Or will I?  When I gave up on my troubleshooting I left the ‘wave unplugged since, if it isn’t working it is better not to take the risk of fire.  For one last time I plug it in. It lights up with the installation screen, do you want to use KG or LBS? We are back in business for the time being.

Stay tuned for the next installment.

We have driven in and around Alpine, Marfa and Fort Davis, TX, several times and people have told us there was a lot of great art to be seen, but where! No one could give us any clue. So Monday, Jan 26, we drove 26 miles into Marfa to search for ART. Although we have been through in Gee 2 with tow’d attached and maybe once in the tow’d we had never come in late morning with the intent of really searching. As we walked around the central area of Marfa we noted that the name Judd appeared on many building, taking this as a cue we walked into an office under the words “Judd Foundation” and found ourselves talking to a conservator for Donald Judd Foundation. By now the name was poking at very old, long unaccessed memory cells. Rather than my trying to tell you about Donald Judd, the Chinati Foundation or the Marfa area myself I will let their websites and photos of the installation speak for themselves. I cannot show you my pictures as I signed a release that I would not publish them in any form, for the privilege of taking them. Them’s the rules. First “The Block” and Donald Judd http://www.juddfoundation.org/spaces/marfa.html next the largest art installation we have ever seen is at http://www.chinati.org/ . On Wednesday we managed to get to Chinati in time for the the 2 PM tour which includes among other installations a Flavin installation that occupies 12 large barracks (actually six U shaped buildings with separate entrances into each leg of the U).

Although we drove back and forth between Alpine and Marfa several times and did a U turn to visit a winery, we never more than noticed a curious block building at the roadside on US 90 until we were flying by a 62 mph westbound for Las Cruces in the motorhome. As we went by this time we both noticed that it appears to be a very smart shop and the sign says “Prada Marfa”. There is no parking lot! For much more on this and on Donald Judd follow this link http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99130809 (do click on the “Listen Now” button if you haven’t heard this) which by some wild coincidence was broadcast this morning January 31, 2009.

After that drive we pulled Gee 2 into the parking area of The Chinati Foundation to continue with the 10 AM tour which includes much of Judd’s work – the 100 aluminum cubes in two “Artillery Sheds” and much much more. To complete the tour we had to drive into town and park the entire rig! To enter the Chamberlain building with yet another huge intense permanent installation. We had also toured The Block on the previous day and by now we were thoroughly worn out and ready for lunch and a quiet ride to Las Cruces. Lunch was at the Food Shark an old step van with a serving window under a huge permanent shed that is also home to a farmers market and benches that looked like they were designed and built by Donald Judd himself. If you are there it is an interesting lunch stop right in the center of town, next to the railroad tracks.

As I write we are in Las Cruces and have had a delightful Shabbat dinner at the Kelter Zeitlin home with much family present and arriving and leaving. Marianne Zeitlin’s brother Hesh and his wife Bernie were there from north of Truth or Consequences so we finally got to meet them. This morning there was a chorale concert of the NM All State Elementary School and Middle School Chorales on the university Campus. Amalia (Zeitlin, if you are keeping track) was performing in the Middle School chorale and we were delighted to be able to attend and listen to these two wonderful chorales perform. Tonight we are off with Leora and Stewart to El Paso for the El Paso Chamber music concert. Wow! We are finally catching up with our recent drought of fine music and adopted family.

First, here is a link to my pictures from December 21, 08 to late January ’09 (it may be too subtle click on the word “link” it is the link).

We returned to Austin for the 8th time to spend a weekend with Leigh and Patrick Rainwater. On Friday we spent some time at their home before heading out to dinner, a special dinner at Eastside Restuarant to celebrate Patrick’s birthday. Saturday Morning we cleaned up and made minor equipment adjustments. We picked up Leigh and Pat for lunch and a round of Austin galleries and then dinner at Chueys a long time Austin favorite. Somehow, a week later, I cannot remember what I had for dinner that night, but I do remember that I was very happy with my choice and cannot wait to go back there. Sunday was to be the day of a long ride. Of the four of us only Patrick, who was raised in San Antonio, had ever done the entire Mission Trail. There are actually five Missions that date to the 1700’s, the Alamo is at one end of the chain and the other four are spread out like beads over a sixteen mile stretch. We had all seen the Alamo so we set out to see the other four and the only 18th century European style aqueduct in North America near Mission Espada. The pictures of the mission and their grounds can be found at the picasa link above. We completed the tour in time for a late lunch and we followed Leigh’s choice to the Liberty Bar in a broken down industrial neighborhood, almost under the interstate in a building that leans so badly that it seems to be a miracle it is standing. The food was up to the recommendation and we would all highly recommend a visit there if you get to San Antonio. It isn’t cheap, but good food seldom is these days. To round out the day we took a decidedly out of the way route back to Gruene and the Gruene Hall, reputed to be the oldest active Texas Dance Hall. The music was free and the drinks were inexpensive, We did not get our money’s worth at that stop. The music was not dance hall music and the crowd had too many small children and too many smokers!!!! (that will end soon). Once again we learned that there is a lot to do and see in the Austin area and plenty we have yet to get to. We’ll be back.

We decided to hang in Austin a couple of days waiting for a replacement bolt for the Tow Defender, failure number three, I’ve about had it. Anyone out there want to try a used Tow Defender designed to keep the rocks off your towed vehicle and the mechanic in business? It is for sale at 75% off new price, after I get it fixed this last time. The part never arrived and we arranged to have it forwarded rather than invest another $40 in staying just one more day. We had waited for the mail so we ended up rolling out at 3 PM on Wednesday. This limited our choices of destination for the day to Fredericksbirg, a place we have stopped at several times. Carol announced that this stop would serve to renew our supply of orange peelers and provide a chance to stock up on some interesting salsas and hot sauces. We did not want to go back to the campground we had stayed at last so we threw darts until we chose Oakridge RV just south of town on 16. It is a delightful park and we decided to stay two nights so we could backtrack in the car to the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch and Johnson City. The ranch house is newly opened since Lady Bird’s death, she had life use of the residence when they made the gift to National Parks. We understand that over the next year or two more and more of the house will be restored to the way it was in the ’60’s when it was the Texas White House. LBJ spent a quarter of his presidency working here. The office has been restored to the way it was minus the red shag rug. Lady Bird had changed it to parquet and asked that it be kept that way (the rug is in storage should someone change his mind).

We stopped in town to do the shopping mentioned above plus a new fry pan and returned to the campground to prepare dinner. I began preparations for departure the next morning and I was in front of the coach taking down the sunscreen while a new neighbor was busy setting up in the adjacent site. He said he and his wife were headed out to Wal Mart and they got in their truck and drove off only to return in less than five minutes. I was still outside and suggested to Max that I had never seen a shorter shopping trip in my life. He said their was a social hour in the Rally hall (generally a large bare room rented out to groups who want to hold a rally) and that was far more important than shopping. He invited us to come along as it was an Escapee Rally (Chapter 11) and all are welcome. Being Escapees we accepted the invitation to social hour. We ended up staying on for the weekend with the Alamo Chapter of Escapees and joined the chapter at the business meeting. Carol became a song leader and together we became known as the dancing couple. I also learned to play the spoons. The theme was Redneck Wedding and we had a ton of fun. They are a bunch of really great people.

We moved on after the “hitch up breakfast” this morning and are settled in Alpine Texas (use your google earth to see where). We are no longer planning to camp in Big Bend this year. Just a change in mind. It seems I thought Carol wanted to go there and she thought it was my idea.

We got up with the bird songs on Monday and after showers and breakfast we took a couple of mile round trip walk up to the abandoned town site of Rocky springs. Finally we left for the final miles of the Trace into Natchez.. Foiled! Route 61 has exits from the Trace marked North and South, but there is no sign to indicate that the Trace itself continues if you follow the sign for North and stay to the right.. As we wandered through Natchez following signs for the Visitor Center we found the southern terminus of the Parkway. What a let down, it just ends. There isn’t even a sign that says, “The End” or “The Beginning” for that matter. We drove north on the Trace to where we had left the Parkway so we could say we have now driven all the length of it and then stopped for lunch.

Next we headed back through Natchez to pick up a bridge to Louisiana to continue our trip west (the Mississippi River was in our way). As we rolled, we decided to see if we could stay the night in the Natchitoches (for those whose memory is short or new to this blog that is pronounced Nakatish) Wal mart. After a bit of a skirmish with Germaine (the GPS) which resulted in my driving the coach right through the old brick paved Historic Main Street which was never meant for as big a vehicle as Gee 2. We determined that we could stay at the Wal Mart, but really didn’t want to since we did not want to be in Natchitoches without enjoying the town, which would have meant leaving the coach unattended for several hours, and the parking lot was really busy and on a very busy main street. (deep breath to recover from the run on sentence) As we thought about it we decided that maybe we could get to Nacogdoches, TX (same tribe, different location) where we were planning on a tour of the ForeTravel Motorhome factory. We rolled on.

As we neared our destination in the dark once again we failed to heed Germaine and then we did pay attention it was to our dismay. According to good old paper maps we were to stay left onto Rt 59 when it split off from Rt 84 which we had been following for many miles. At the junction, Carol could not read the paper map in the dark so we stayed on Rt 84. Almost immediately the GPS began its “Recalculating” routine and we knew we had blown it. I thought to try a U turn to recover, but not being able to see how deep the ditch on the far side was, I hesitated. Germaine came up with an alternative. We followed instruction to a FM route (in Texas that is Farm to Market and could be most anything). Then she called for a turn onto a four digit CO (county) route, I began to get nervous. An approaching pickup truck flashed its headlights repeatedly, this announced the end of pavement and indeed the end of the road. There was a turn and Germaine urged us on. The road was narrow and dirt. Had we not driven the road to Dan and Malena’s many times I would have stopped and broken the tow and backed out, but we are used to dirt farm roads, we kept going convinced that this route must return us to US 59, Germaine said so. The cows did not immediately agree. We encountered three of them wandering the road as if it was theirs, which it was! They did not wish to moove out of our way. Finally they let us pass and we continued for 2 more miles wondering if this road actually would continue as promised. It did, We got out onto US 59 and found our way to the ForeTravel plant where we found one of the 70 hook ups with water and electric, in the parking area and collapsed for the night.

In the morning we saw the construction of a high end motorhome. They build the entire chassis and body as a single unit. They buy many parts, but the chassis, body, cabinetry, upholstery and all the wiring are done right there. We are convinced that our next motorhome will be a ForeTravel. They are amazingly well constructed and all the cabinets are solid wood and they pour their own solid counters and floors. All the plumbing fixtures are high end residential and the attention to detail is very high. We did take a test drive and that really sold me. Of course, having only driven diesel twice for a grand total of 10 miles, I am easily impressed.

Later that day we left for Livingston, TX, Escapee’s Rainbow’s End home base, knowing we would find a warm welcome. We are settled comfortably for three days when we will leave for Austin to spend time with Leigh and Patrick. Today I found that the vent cover on the bathroom vent was disintegrating and I needed some other spare parts, so we stopped at Joel E West RV and picked up the parts I needed. After an extended shopping trip to Wal Mart, we returned and I changed out the vent cover, replaced the porch light cover and had a beer. Enough of this work stuff. I needed a break at 5 PM.

More when we leave Austin for . . . oh we haven’t gotten to that yet.

Some people make a plan and follow through with it. Some make no plans and wander aimlessly. We make partial plans and change them as we see fit. Some times that results in changing our plan as the highway intersection approaches (actually we approach the intersection, but the scotch and wine are speaking). In this case we set out for Huntsville, AL to see the Space and Science Museum there. Somehow when we made the plan we assumed that finding a nearby campground would be trivial. As we prepared to roll out from Pigeon Forge we started looking and could only find two in the vicinity and both are state parks. Rather than wait for someone to wake up and return our call we set out assuming we would hear before we got there. Carol called the Space Center Museum and found out there is a campground on the grounds. It is not in any of our extensive collection of resources nor is it mentioned in any of the literature or on the web site. I guess you are supposed to call and listen to a really long phone message and wait to hear item 5 which offers the campground as an option!!! Carol called the campground and while she was talking the state park returned my 3 hours earlier call. I told them thanks, but no thanks.

We planned a driver change and lunch stop at a rest area that turned out to be closed for renovation. I pulled on to the shoulder there and we had a quick lunch and driver change. As Carol set out I started reading an article about the Space Center looking for a real address or highway intersection. While reading I came across a story about Scottsboro, AL and a special shop. It is the Unclaimed Luggage Center. If you want to know where the suitcase you lost and never recovered on a flight finally came to rest, this is where it ended up. When I looked at the map I realized we were passing right by it on the way to the Space Center in Huntsville. We decided right then to stop there and so we are now in their overflow parking lot with the permission of Gary (Loss Prevention)) to spend the night, having spent more than a night camping would have cost. I have a new iPod, we have a camera for (daughter-in-law) Miriam a set of Tefillin we could not leave there and books. All of these goods were found in lost luggage, airplanes after everyone has deplaned and left and airport lounges. Rather than my regaling you with stories of what has been found go to www.unclaimedluggage.com. Think of a department store stocked from lost luggage. Prices are set at 30 to 80% off retail. I found an old SciFi hardbound priced a $4. I looked inside the cover and found it have a bookstore notation of $2. At the register I pointed this out and with a call to pricing they dropped the price to $1.

You really do not want to know what they have in the electronics area. There are so many headsets of all kinds, including the Bose headsets that retail for $300 that it is hard to imagine. They claim that their inventory is low at the moment. Enough! In the morning we will set out for Huntsville. For now we are happy to be in the overflow lot next to the cemetery. They open at 8 and I may have to sneak in to see what new has been put on the shelves.

The next morning, Saturday, we took a walk to stretch our legs and walked back through the store. Fortunately we found nothing more to buy so we bid the concierge fair well and hit the road for a hefty 42.5 miles which brought us to One Tranquility Base, the campground associated with the U.S Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Al. We set up quickly and headed for the Museum. It was a cloudy day with forecast of rain and the temperatures were in the high 50’s to low 60’s. I report this weather not to taunt those of you freezing in the north, but the museum is a rocket museum and this entails a fair amount of walking around outdoors to see everything. Economic hard times rear their ugly head, especially here. Our first indication was the big sign that National Parks Golden Age Passports are no longer honored. The price for us jumped from $6 to $21.5 with a coupon and including the Imax film. We paid! I had checked out the museum on Google Maps while at Dan’s and in the satellite view the surviving Saturn V rocket can be seen on its side out in the open air. When we got there we learned that it has been built into a museum building in it entirety. This makes for one very long building. The first two stages are on giant frames and the remainder are suspended from the ceiling. The history of the development of the ability to send men to the moon is highlighted in exhibits of actual artifacts that line the hall. Out in the Rocket Park, there is one of almost every rocket that has been part of NASA or the US Army’s inventory on display, from Jupiter to Juno to Atlas to Nike Ajax and even an antique Nike Zeus (our Boy Scout Explorer Troop went to the Niagara Falls Air Force Base to tour a Nike Zeus launch site shortly before it was decommissioned). We spent close to five hours there, including lunch in the Space Camp Cafeteria (the main food court was closed). We returned to One Tranquility Base so Carol could take a nap and I could putter around. We no sooner got settled in Gee2 than it started to pour and thunder and lightening. Carol slept and I marveled at our good timing. We had dinner on board, got a good night’s sleep and a late start the next morning.

Sunday morning the 11th found us ready to move on. Our route took us through some territory we don’t remember, across I 20 to Jackson MS where we picked up our old friend the Natchez Trace Parkway southbound to Natchez. We stopped for the night at Rocky Springs Campground for our third time. A reminder for those who appreciated good mystery stories, Nevada Barr bases all of her stories on the struggles of Anna Pigeon, Ranger, to catch the bad guys while not becoming one of the victims. Several of her stories are based on the parkway and she (Nevada Barr) has made this area her home. Rocky Springs is the scene of one of these stories and we have walked the ground and she has not used any literary license in her description of the place.

For those interested in camping details, there are maybe 20 sites with no facilities other than what you bring (and what you must take away with you). The price is appropriate for the lack of any facilities, nothing. It is at mile 54.8 on the Parkway. We highly recommend it. There are several nice hikes and we will take one in the morning before leaving. We are not sure where we are headed yet, but we will have a plan of sorts before we turn the key, if Carol has anything to say about it.

We kissed the boys good bye and said our farewells to Malena and then Dan as they went off to school and to work. With the place to ourselves we got the coach ready for the road and set off with Carol taking the lead down the road to warn of cars and trucks headed the other way and of tree limbs that might have fallen between Dan’s departure and ours. The drive down the 1.8 mile stretch of dirt road was uneventful until the last couple of hundred yards when five deer bounded across the road in front of the coach and behind Carol in the car. She never saw them. My heart rate accelerated like it does when I peak on the treadmill. They had it timed quite nicely and I merely had to slow the coach to somewhat less than my heart rate.

In the driveway of the Church of the Hookup/Disconnect (a small Baptist church which is a tenth of a mile up Heards Mountain Rd from US 29 with a very nice driveway) we aligned the car and had it completely hooked up with the exception of one hold down when I looked up and noticed something was very wrong. There were no bicycles in the bike rack on the roof! “Oh Darn!” I said. We decided that this was a practice hook up and disconnected so I could drive the car back to Dan and Malena’s and put the bikes on the roof rack and return to Carol to complete a “for real” hook up. For a wonder weverything worked, including all the lights AND the breakaway switch. The rest of the day was fortunately boring. 373 miles of uneventful driving that brought us to Walden Creek Campground in Pigeon Forge, TN

I will report on what we found to do here in another post, on another day.

Oh yes there has been some excitement. I have been engaged in an email discussion of possible responses to Israel’s attempts to dislodge Hamas from Gaza. Since I believe that there is no alternative for dealing with people who want all of the Jews removed by any means from the State of Israel and others believe that we must talk while they destroy us, the conversation has not gone entirely well. I would not choose to live in Sderot or Ashdod or anyplace within the reach of Hamas’ rockets knowing that there are no real targets and everything and everybody is a target. It is the Government of Israel’s duty to provide security for it’s citizens living within its borders as defined by the UN and recognized by most of the world.

Stepping down from my soapbox. I will try to keep these matters out of this blog in the future.

In reporting about our activities, I have missed one of the more exciting days here. On December 30th we looked up the mountain behind the house and saw smoke rising below the far ridge. Very shortly there were local firefighters at the foot of the driveway looking for a way to get to the fire. Dan went up as a guide to show them the logging road that reaches an old CCC road that goes up toward the ridge. The firemen, in the mean time, had found an approach from above using a road built to service a radio tower on the high point. Firemen prefer to approach a fire from below so Dan opened the gate so they could use the private road below his property to get to the fire. A bit later in the day the owner of the land, where the fire was, arrived to see what was going on.

The wind switched and began to blow the fire down the ridge for a bit, but the firemen got it under control and left a small watcher force of Forestry Dept employees to keep an eye on the area. By the next morning they had left and the winds began to pick up. Malena left for a supply run only to find the road closed by a couple of fallen trees. While she called some neighbors, Dan grabbed his chainsaw and I joined him to see if we could open the road. It took about 60 minutes with help from Dan’s neighbor David to cut the fallen wood and clear the road. David was busy cutting it into firewood lengths while Dan cut longer pieces with the plan of cutting them to wood stove length later in the day. Having cleared the road, Malena was free to go on her errands while the rest of us left for Richmond to go to the Science Museum.

The museum was a bit of a bust. It is intended for a slightly older audience than our gang and it is a bit used up. I doubt we will undertake that hour long drive again in a hurry. We did have to cope with high winds both ways on the drive.

This seems to have been enough excitement for a 36 hour period and we resumed a semblance of normal life – such as that is with two families plus grandparents living together for ten days.