We went back to Paradise Lake RV Park in Tifton, GA to be able to meet the Fingerlakers the following morning. The park was filled with coaches with the FMCA “goose egg” fore and aft. Everyone was headed for Perry. In the morning we joined the exodus and drove up the road to Cordele. As we pulled into the WalMart parking lot, we noted that there were a lot of RVs there already. A call to our leader, Walter, sent us up the highway to a rest stop where we finally met up with 15 of the coaches we were to caravan into the grounds with. I took my place at 15 with two behind me and we rolled out onto I 75 nose to tail. Later in the day we saw a caravan of 60 coaches roll into the grounds. We saw a sign on one coach that it was in a group of 250. I would not have wanted to anywhere near that group when they were rolling at 60 plus mph.

As we entered the grounds we paused long enough to disconnect our tow’ds and then we were guided into position in a herring bone pattern with our front ends almost touching. There was enough space left to park the tow’d, open our sides and set up a patio area.

Here is the view looking down the inner area.

The inner area became happy hour row. Later it became the walkway out of the mud. Saturday we set up and got to know the group we were traveling with. Walter Linden and his wife were very kind and made us feel very welcome. We got to know Sherry and Tony Wilson quite well since our patio areas were touching. That first night we got together with the Wilsons and two other couples and went out to dinner.

Waiting to be seated

During the day we wandered around the grounds as caravans were pulling in. I had been in touch with leaders from the Chai Chavurot Yehudim Chapter, the first Jewish Chapter in FMCA and knew they were in the Volunteer area someplace so that was where we wandered until we found the group. As we knew, but had never had proven, we are not the only Jewish RVers out there. This group has 120 member coaches – in FMCA we do not count people we count coaches no matter how many people are onboard. There were something like 18 coaches that came in with them.

Carol kept telling me that this was our first rally and we were not going to plan to attend them on a regular basis. I kept saying OK and “sure” and wondered whether we would even want to stay through this one. Sunday was a kind of lost day as the exhibits were not open and the rally had not started yet. Again we wandered and met people and talked. At one point a service truck for an awning manufacturer came by and I flagged him down and arranged to have awnings installed over some windows to provide shade should the sun ever shine and let us open the windows in the rain. This was the beginning of a spending spree the likes of which I have not experienced before. We have a lovely coffee table and several maintenance items that I had been looking for and when we get home, a screen for the windshield and other items we didn’t know we needed. There are a couple of items that remain to be bought.

Very early Monday morning we got in line to sign up for a driver safety class that only admits 300 participants. We were among the last 30 or so to enroll, everyone else got there at 6:30 AM we waited until 6:55, they didn’t even start enrolling until 7:00. Between this course, a Weight and Tire safety course and a Fire seminar we learned a lot and learned that we were not always being as safe as we could be.

Tuesday it rained, I should say it poured. The downpours were not long, but they put a lot of water on the ground. We were all parked on grass in huge fairground parking lots. The roads began to turn to mud. We started to worry about how we would ever get out. The rally went on and we were promised that this quick draining Georgia clay would dry and be sold for our departure on Friday if we didn’t panic and try to move about while the ground was soaking. The roadways became almost impassable. We took to walking the lane between the fronts of the coaches to stay out of the mud, foot traffic did not stir it up.

Monday night Chai Chavurat Yehudim went out to dinner together and had a grand time. Thursday afternoon we had a potluck dinner and Purim Spiel

in the Volunteer area with them before going to hear The Oak Ridge Boys (a gospel country group!). we also spent time with the Fingerlakers. Along the way we met Dottie and Larry Humm. We had met them recently at a Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert, their seats are near us, and we had no idea they would be at this Rally. We were in the same Driver Safety, Part 1, class. When we talked it turned out that we were going to the same campground after the rally to do laundry and clean up the coaches before heading north.

Thursday night the sky was clear, the moon was full and there seemed to be no reason to hurry in the morning, we only had a 60 mile drive and did not want to get aggravated fighting through the 5,200 family coaches plus another 1,000 coaches for sale for space on the highway. We turned in with full grey water tank and half full black tank and half a tank of fresh water and planned to sleep in. At 5 AM we woke up to the sound of rain. By 5:15 the rain was joined by a chorus of large gas engines and larger diesel engines starting up. I went outside to be greeted by the site of coaches moving out. I was not clear to move easily so I determined to wait. While waiting I put away everything I could and Carol set about making the interior ready for travel. The Bluebird that had me thoroughly blocked from the front offered to back up a few feet which would free me to pull strainght out onto grass and drive right up a clear lane to the road. I have never run the departure checklist so fast.. With in a matter of minutes we were underway. A brief stop on the grass let us hook up the tow’d and we rolled.

We had not had time for breakfast, we had no idea where we would stop. We had directions to Lane’s Packing, a peach orchard, that was not out of the way. We headed there and pulled into a large empty parking lot at 7 AM. Not 15 minutes later the Humms’ and their friends Jim and Mary pulled up along side us in the parking lot. Pure coincidence. Very few other coaches stopped there by the time we left at around 10:30. Did I say we shopped and bought some stuff?

We pushed on to Forsyth KOA where we have spent three nights and in the morning we will head for Charlottesville and hope to find someplace interesting to visit along the way. Carol had attended a digital photography seminar and many people were disappointed that he did not talk about composition and picture taking. Carol sought out the organizer of the seminar programs and has spent much of the last two days developing a seminar proposal for a program to present in Minot, ND next
August. We are also looking into regional seminars for her to offer her presentation. If that goes well, I may see if I can develop a financial planning seminar that meets the needs of FMCA members and will pass compliance. Are you reading this Perry? It could be how we plan our travels in the coming years, or not.

Don’t you just hate it when Friday the 13th falls on a Sunday? It was not one of best days. We left South Padre Island with mixed feelings.

The beach was nice, the wind never let up – 20 miles an hour from the south – except for a grey and cool period. And the Texas Spring Break was filling every available nook and cranny with people. The brief period before these arrivals was great. The county park was a lovely if crowded campground and the people around us were very nice. It was a very short walk from our door to the beach and the beach runs forever. It is not likely we will hurry back; there are other places that are more pleasant and less crowded with less wind.

As we drove up US 77 the traffic was heavy, but moving right along. There were a lot of people on the move on this Sunday. Somewhere near the middle of King Ranch which 77 cuts through for miles, there was a Border Patrol Inspection stop. As we formed into two lanes and moved toward the inspectors, a car swerved into our lane, pulled up way to the right of the lane and stopped with his four-way flashers on. Not knowing what was happening I pulled way left and moved up along side. He pulled in his side view mirror and signaled me through. The clearance was very tight. It was so tight that the minor protuberance of our water heater cover coupled with a twitch on the wheel, or maybe a bump in the road, reached out and snatched his mirror (which he had let go of) off of his car. It was not pretty. I pulled up after the inspection area and waited for him. We were both angry. We both cooled down and exchanged paperwork and went on our way. Two days later there is no apparent sign of the contact on Gee 2 The black marks rubbed off and I removed and straightened the grill cover that got dinged. We shall see what the damage to his car was, probably more.

Two hours later with Carol at the wheel we pulled into a gas station. I think it was Victoria, TX but don’t hold me too it. The station was tight and I got out and guided Carol into a perfect location to fill the tank. The fill cap is on the very back of Gee 2 set in a couple of feet from the left edge. This almost always requires an outside spotter. Also, this is ten feet behind the rear axle. It really swings to the side when you turn the steering wheel. After we filled, I offered to get down and give some guidance as we pulled out into traffic. Carol told me to stay seated – driver is boss! (She explains she thought I intended to go out in the street to stop traffic). As she pulled forward she began her turn to line up with the exit and big pickup trucks kept blocking our way even as they wanted us to move so they could get to the pump. In the distraction neither of us remembered the swing and the left corner hit the big RED post that protects the pumps. I got down, surveyed the damage and had Carol pull the wheel the other way to clear the car (tow’d ) out of the pump it was almost hitting. Still flustered I jumped back aboard and failed to comment as Carol pulled the wheel back to the right to get to the far driveway. THUMP! THUMP! from the rear. Traffic cleared at that moment and we pulled into it and immediately entered the expressway. We pulled onto the shoulder as soon as we could and discovered that we had taken a fair amount of RED paint with us on the rear of the coach and the side of the car.

The intense application of elbow grease and strong detergent has removed almost all sign of the paint from both vehicles and a new marker light cover graces the left rear corner of Gee 2. The RAV 4 will require some professional attention at Vogel’s upon our return so Carol’s “beautiful munchkin” will be restored to its virginal glory.

The weather on the 13th was lovely and hot, Carol’s favorite kind of weather. It would have been nice to stop and enjoy it, but I wanted to get past Houston while the traffic was still light (only by LA standards could that be called light). Using our campground books, we located a likely overnight stop in Winnie, TX (yeah, I haven’t a clue either). It was a very nice parking lot with grass between paved parking slots behind a motel next to I 10. For a dinner appetizer I scrubbed at the RED paint, removing quite a bit. In the middle of the night I had a bad thought and woke up to find the refrigerator was not cooling and freezing adequately, by now it was the 14th but it had started on the 13th. I removed stuff that really didn’t need to be in the freezer to let air flow better and pushed the temperature control to its coldest and prayed it would be alright in the morning. It was. We must have not gotten the door closed fully at some point. We will have to defrost it soon.

Now fully past the 13th the weather brightened again and we moved on down the road. Not being able to take the tedium of I 10 across Louisiana, not to mention the lumpety, lumpety of the road (familiar to anyone who has traversed western Louisiana and eastern Texas on the worst Interstate in the system) we turned off onto the Creole Trail, route 14, across the Creole Country of southernmost Louisiana. It is low flat land mostly at 0 feet above sea level with rice paddies and oil and gas fields as far as the eye can see. The high spots are the bridges over the bayous and the people are very pleasant and friendly to us northerners. We made our way to Morgan City, the Lake End Park city campground and found a spot we want to return to. Here is a picture taken through the windshield before the clouds came the rain began to fall. I built a campfire and we had cocktails at the fire once Carol was satisfied she had removed all of the RED that was removable without application of power tools. This is the first time we have had the weather and the time and space to build a fire. It was very nice.

Today we took a tour of an offshore oil rig. It is the first one built called Mr Charlie. The tour was very interesting and it was exciting to go out onto the drilling floor, even if it is only used as a training platform these days. The equipment is massive and my respect for the “roughnecks” who make their living working in this very dangerous environment is greatly heightened. I am appending some pictures taken there.

Tomorrow we will move on. The weather is not good enough to hold us and we need to be in Cordele, GA, at the Super WalMart, Saturday morning at 9:30 to link up with the Fingerlakers to caravan into the Rally at Perry Georgia.

Here are Carol and me enjoying a picnic stop some place in the Anza Borrego State Park along S 2 in California.

I’ve been trying to keep up with our travels and have skipped over a fair amount of stuff as we went. In Julian, as we pulled into the campground, the office was closed and we were wandering around looking for a place to camp when a truck headed out of the area pulled up along side us. I rolled down my window and greeted our soon to be neighbors for the night and asked where the overnight area was. Dale and Carol (his wife Carol not the Carol that rides with me all the time) had just set up and pointed out the area they were in. We found a nice reasonably level spot that was not under water and set up. Carol prepared dinner while I tried to be useful. After dinner we went out for a walk and saw that our neighbors were back from their expedition and we invited them over for a class of wine.

According to their email they really enjoyed the Yellow Tail Shiraz and in the morning they gifted us a bottle of “2 buck chuck” as a thank you. For those of you who have never been in a Trader Joes, they sell a line of wine named Charles Shaw for $1.99 a bottle in California. Hence the name “2 buck chuck” – it is better than many wines for which I have paid much more and it is enjoyable enough on an evening in a campground.

The last couple of days have been frustrating. We are trying to get east so we can get to Perry, GA on the 19th without getting so far east that we have to encounter cold weather too soon. Also Texas is a very large state in case you haven’t heard. We left Las Cruces, NM (30 miles east of El Paso) and stopped for gas at the border and encountered a long line at the pump and an even longer line inside as the computers were working a half speed, the staff of that “Flying J were not keeping up with their computers. 45 Minute later we pulled out and drove two miles to get to a brand new Camping World to pick up some items we were looking for. It was major disappointment, this newly opened store in Anthony, TX is half the size of any CW we have been in and was so poorly stocked that we did not find much of what we wanted to look at. Camping World should not have permitted their name to be used on this store.

Finally we got moving down I 8. As you might guess we could not bring ourselves to cross Texas on an interstate. At Van Horn we picked up US 90 and headed for Falcon State Park, 550 miles away. We did not count on getting there that day. We passed Marfa, the home of the lights in the field that we didn’t see when we stopped there one night, Alpine and Marathon. After that the towns become so small that they don’t have dogs (I haven’t got the foggiest notion where that came from). In the dripping rain and fading light we decided that a campground would be more comfortable than a wide spot in the road picnic area and we pulled into Canyon RV on the edge of Sanderson (can’t call it the outskirts since there are none – the edge is a good definition on one side of the campground is Sanderson on the other . . . nothing). Anyhow, the owner escorted us to our site and then commented that I had no lights on the back of the motorhome. Baaad news! Sure enough, although I had brake lights and turn signals all the marker and parking lights were out as were the parking lights on the tow’d. Called Workhorse and they pointed me to a service center in Mission, TX, just 400 plus miles down the road. I called and spoke to Doug who said “come in when you get here.” In the morning we set out for Falcon SP a bit late because we had to chat with our neighbors, one from Romulus, NY and another with an old (mid ‘70s) Vixen MH. The day was bright and the temperature rose all day. Mid day we stopped to change into shorts and kept on moving. At 6:30 PM with 15 minutes of daylight left we pulled into the park and found it more beautiful than we remembered. The shame is that we had to leave first thing in the morning to get the lights fixed.

The lights are fixed and it is raining and we are in Bentsen Palm Village, a two year old RV resort outside Mission, TX. The problem with the lights turned out to be some lousy connections in the connection cable. Somehow the screws that hold the wires in the plug came loose and they were shorting out. It took the hand of Doug, the service manager, to make the diagnosis. The techs were looking all over the car for the problem once they figure out it wasn’t in the motorhome. Doug told them to pull apart the plugs first, sure enough that was it. As we drove away it was with a sigh of relief that didn’t last an hour. When we checked the lights again they were not working right. I had a bright idea and switched the connector cable end for end and that resolved it. One end of the cable had been rewired at Meyers Campers and they did not get it secure and the cable is not a straight pass through anymore. Now that I know, at least I can keep things straight.

We planned to spend the night in Bentsen State Park and were shocked to find a closed gate across the entrance with no place to turn. They have turned the entire park into a bird sanctuary and no longer permit vehicle entrance. They have no advance warning on the road. A ranger saw me coming and let me through the gate to the former entrance turnaround. Some welcome! The resort we are in is just outside the gate. It is quite nice, I think, it has been raining since we got here and I have not been out since we set up.

We finally had to leave LA and the family and begin to trek eastward. It wasn’t easy, and I am not referring to emotionally. The roads that would have provided a more direct route out of Malibu were still closed. We had to head north (really west) on PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) because there was no place to go to the south PCH was closed as was Malibu Cyn. The routes to the north were impassible because they were too steep and were closed to vehicles weighing over 8,000 pounds (we check in at about 21,000 pounds even with my reduced personal weight). We went almost to Ventura before we could finally turn north to pick up the 101. All told we spent three hours covering 50 or 60 miles trying to get out of LA.

We finally broke out of the congestion on the 5 as we neared our turn at Ensenada to head inland to Julian. HAL hiccupped. I had failed to double check the location of one VIA and HAL took us on a special excursion that had us doing circles in Ensenada. We had to disconnect the tow’d to get turned around and out of town. This is a very special happening and leaves me less than thrilled, not to mention the people in cars trying to get past us as we pulled the cables and pins, then moved the car out of the way and then finally clear Gee 2 and get it turned around. We made it to Julian and Pinezenatta Trailer Ranch by late afternoon and settled in for the evening. We did go into Julian in the morning to buy an apple pie, a specialty of the town. It was worth it, we got one with plain crust (the crumb top has more sugar and is too sweet as we learned last year). It lasted three days.

From Julian we drove through the Anza Borrego State Park with Carol taking us down the Banner Grade (6 miles of twisty 7 to 10% descent). That is quite a ride. We kept going and made it to Yuma, AZ before nightfall. We signed up for two nights at Suni Sands RV Resort just across from the airport. It was awful. We had less room than in Malibu Beach.
Out the back gate of the Resort was a walkway to WalMart. Time to get a life. During the day we drove out to the Imperial National Wildlife Reserve along the Colorado River, above the Imperial Dam. While hiking in the Painted Desert Section of the reserve we met a couple who were boon docking at the Dam. They explained where they were and Carol and I decided that it was time for us to have a different experience. On our way back to Yuma we drove into the LTVA to see what it was all about. LTVA means Long Term Visitor Area and is a BLM (Bureau of Land Management – Department of the Interior) designation for a place where it is legal to camp for up to five months for a fee that amounts to $160. Near the LTVA was a Limited Use area which has a daily use fee of $5.00 (reduced by half for holders of Golden Access Passport) or a weekly or seasonal fee.

We liked what we saw and returned the next day with Gee 2 and picked a spot where we felt we could be comfortable. We were not alone, but everyone was friendly and we had several interesting cocktail hours and Carol and I had a chance to try out a Folboat Kayak that Jay and Joan Becker had brought along. It was fun. We will never return to Yuma for camping. The Limited Use area is only 30 miles away and for the space and the price it cannot be beat. Thank you all for paying your taxes, Carol and I are enjoying the benefits. After four days of limited phone service and no internet, we decided to empty the holding tanks and refill the freshwater tank before moving on. As we prepared to roll our only plan was to move east.

The first stop turned out to be Benson, AZ at the Pato Blanco Lakes CG where we have been twice before (maybe three times). We had laundry to do, a meal to prepare and too much internet work to catch up on for it to be a restful evening. Eventually it all got done. The campground seemed quite empty to us and we attribute that to the wet, cool season so far, but the sun was still shining for us. We arrived there with more bugs on the front of Gee 2 than I had ever seen on Goliath. We had driven through storms of bees. The sound of their bodies hitting the front and the windshield had been shocking. During a fueling stop at a Flying J, the talk up and down the waiting lines was about the bugs. It would have to wait another day before I could clean them off.

Over dinner I told Carol that I really wanted a steak dinner and I wanted it at La Posta in Las Cruces, NM. We figured it would be a short driving day, but it would give us a chance to catch up on cleaning and maintenance items. We agreed. We have now returned from that meal. Naturally Carol did not have steak or any other meat, but I did. It was grand. I am quite full. Back to veggies tomorrow. La Posta makes no pretenses; they serve good quality food, prepared in Mexican manner with plenty of chili, red or green, your choice, on everything. During the afternoon, I had devoted myself to removing all of the bugs from the front of Gee 2. Washing is not allowed here so I just removed bugs and all the associated dirt from the front and the lower sides. I feel better having some relative cleanliness. It’s amazing, I can go for days with a filthy car in Rochester and it hardly bothers me, but when Gee 2 is dirty, I get very anxious to get it clean. Oh yes this campground is RV Doc’s, we have stayed here at least four times. It is not the greatest, but there is adequate space, the internet is free, the sites are level and the location is perfect for our wants.

Our goal for the next couple of days is to make it to Falcon State Park along the Rio Grande in Texas and then to head for Perry, GA. I will let you know our progress as we have service.

According to plan we pulled into Malibu Beach RV at 1:02 PM, in time to register without causing any complaints about early arrival. These people do not seem to understand that we are customers and they are in business to provide us with service that will encourage us to return. I will not blame them for the rain which began as we arrived and continued for five (5) days with very little relief. But they were less than accommodating. There idea of explaining their rules comes across as if they expect everyone to be rude and inconsiderate and the rules are to be enforced with an iron fist. As an example, as we were position Gee 2 on a none too spacious site, Carol left the RAV with two tires on the pavement while she guided me. A resort attendant stopped by to tell her that she must park with all the tires off of the pavement. Given the width of the pavement it seemed obvious that if we didn’t want to get hit we would pull off as far as we could, once there was someplace to pull to. Here is the view out the windshield after I finished setting up:

Because of our rescheduling we needed to change sites on Tuesday. I suggested that I might move as soon as the previous renter moved out. The man at the desk said “no you must wait until 1 PM.” I was about to lose it with this nincompoop when the manager stepped in and said that since no one would be inconvenienced and we had to help care for the grandchildren, we certainly could move as soon as the site was clear. Yesterday Carol went to the office to let them know that we were moving at 9 AM since the site had remained empty for five days and the same guy tried to tell her we couldn’t and again the manager had to tell the power hungry one that it really was okay. Oh, the site we had to vacate is still empty.

Rain! If you have seen the news, you might have noticed that it has been raining in Southern California. It has rained in inches per hour fashion on and off since we got here. In fact from Friday until Tuesday night it rained over 8 inches in places. Given that normal annual rainfall is 10 inches and they had 30 inches in January this is overkill. People live on the sides of sand and dirt cliffs that turn to mud in the rain. Roads are cut through these bluffs and through canyons with steep sided walls. All of these bluffs are poised to slide to a lower place given any chance. In Rochester we have a furnace Red Tagged when it an inspector finds that it is dangerous. Out here they Red Tag the whole house when its location becomes precarious due to sliding mud, either under it or above it.

Last night, Tuesday night, we left Miriam and Yechiel’s home at about 8:15 to get to bed early. We had to be back by 5:30 so they could get off to the hospital with Azriel for a small medical procedure (which has gone just fine). Depending on traffic the ride has taken as long as 50 minutes, but generally it is about 30 minutes. As we turned on to PCH (Pacific Coast Highway also CA rte 1) we saw a sign that a slide had closed the road. I said “they must have cleared it by now” – wrong! As we approached Topanga Cyn (that’s California for Canyon) Road I knew I was wrong because there were lights and barriers all over the place. There is no real alternate to PCH at this place. We turned up Topanga Cyn, which was going to be closed in 15 minutes so the flagman could go home, and called Yechiel to see if he could look up an alternate route. His map was not fine enough detail and he had little enough knowledge of the area that he could not help us. I knew that, if I could get to the 101, I could get to Malibu Cyn Road which would bring me back to PCH past the slide. I did not have any assurance that Topanga Cyn would get me there. Eventually I got to the flagman and he said we could indeed get to the 101 on this route. He did not have time to tell me that I would drive 16 miles of road to cover 6 miles as the GPS points. We got to the turn for Malibu Cyn and I said to Carol that this road had been closed by a slide in the morning. “Surely it must be open by now” – Wrong! Five miles from the freeway (FWY) there was a little sign in the middle of the road “Road Closed.” I turned back just a bit desperate by now, so desperate that I pulled into the first gas station I saw to ask for directions, without any prompting from Carol. To our great good fortune there was a police officer filling his vehicle and he said that just a few miles further North (sure looks like South or West to me on the map) on the Ventura FWY (the 101) I would find Canaan, well that how I heard it, it really is Kanan and it was a straight shot south to the PCH. Straight shot relative to what, he did not say, in this case 13 miles of road to cover 6 miles as the GPS flies. We got back to Gee 2 at 10 PM.

Since we had no idea what the morning would bring, we set the alarm for 3:30 (who said this is a vacation?) to allow plenty of time to get to the house by 5:30. We retraced the route up Kanan to the 101 to the 405 to the 10 (I know back east that would be route 101, to I 405 to I 10, but Californians use the definite article for all of their major roads) and arrived in just under an hour, about 5 AM. Fortunately we had keys and let ourselves in quietly to await their waking up.

They were off by 6, the doctor got the timing wrong and they were waiting for her until 8:30. Carol has taken Avtalyon to a Mommy and Me program and I am alone with the computer and the cat. The SUN HAS COME OUT!!! I can see mountains and the Hollywood sign. The sky is blue and I didn’t have to take and airplane up to 30,000 feet to see it. In two days we will begin driving east into the back side of the storm that has passed over us. I will drive slowly and hope not to catch up with it.

Here are some family pictures:

Avtalyon, 20 months old

Azriel, 4 years old

Avtalyon with Bubbeh

We moved on to Arizona. This has been a favorite playground of ours in the past, but we planned to just pass through on our way to LA this time. Ah plans! A year ago we stopped in El Paso, TX to catch a plane to Atlanta for a Bat Mitzvah.. When we got back, we found a Southwind set up next to us. As these things happen we got to talking and as we sat down to dinner we heard a knock on the door and Pat was there inviting us over for a glass of wine after we got cleaned up from dinner.

We have kept in touch by email and these blogs ever since. Bob had sent us their planned stops at the beginning of the travel season and I have kept it on my desktop. As we headed for Arizona I looked at it and noted that they planned to be in Tucson when we would be passing through. A phone call later and we were set to meet at Gilbert Ray Campground in the Tucson Park near the Sonoran Desert Museum. As we traveled we got a phone call from Yechiel suggesting that they would like for us to be with them February 23rd and 24^th when Azriel was going to have a minor medical procedure done. This gave us the idea of extending in Tucson and delaying our arrival in Malibu. A call to the campground in Malibu got that in motion.

We arrived in Tucson mid afternoon and once we got set up we spent the time catching up with Pat and Bob Hogg. They have a 2003 Southwind 36E and it was the first with that floor plan that we saw. Bob has made many modifications and improvements and with Pat they have personalized the interior far beyond what we have achieved so far. I was particularly taken with Bob’s solution to storing the sewer pipe (the stinky slinky). He has bolted a section of PVC pipe to the back of the street side slideout compartments to hold it. For those who don’t get it, when the living room slideout is extended the storage compartments below it move out with the room. When the room is closed, there is sufficient space between the backs of those compartments and the frame for a four inch diameter pipe. This will be one of my next improvements; otherwise the stink slinky rides in the same compartment as the freshwater system. The other changes were too numerous to mention, but certainly make for a comfortable way of life which is important since they are full time on their Southwind.

In the evening we went to dinner in town at Seri Malaka a Malaysian restaurant that was very lovely. We all managed to order dishes that met our desires. I had a lamb chop dish in curry that was just on the edge of fiery and was perfect for my mood. The next day we set out to spend the day in the Desert Museum. We had spent some time there four years ago, on our first voyage. We had much more time and managed to take in most of the outdoor exhibits. While there we had lunch in the restaurant. This turned out to be more of a dining experience than we had expected. The food was excellent the service was interesting. How do you divide a bill in two even parts and end up with a $7.00 difference between the results? The waiter never did understand our complaint and it became more trouble than it was worth to sort out. He reassured us that the two separate bills added up to the correct total. Oh well. We continued our tour and then returned to the campground to relax and have some wine before venturing out again. This time we introduced the Hoggs to Sweet Tomato, a restaurant we first enjoyed in Atlanta and more recently in St Petersburg, FL. We had spotted it from the car the day before and suggested it as a treat for our credit cards. In all of our experiences this has been a source of good fresh vegetables well prepared and modest prices. We had a delightful time and returned to the campground sated and ready to keep talking for another hour or so. On Wednesday we took our leave.

We stopped first at an Albertson Grocery we found in Casa Grande, AZ to stock up our food supplies and ate lunch while stopped there. We then kept moving until we reached Quartzsite, AZ. This modest crossroads in the far west of Arizona grows from it’s permanent population of less than 1,000 to over 250,000 at any one time during the peak of mid December to mid February. This is the second time we have stopped there. No Bob, we didn’t figure out where to boondock in the desert, we just pulled into the B 10 campground where we stayed two years ago. Prices are UP. Our purpose was to hit the vendors and the swap meets to see if we could find some items for Gee 2. We had very little luck. We started too early in the day – 9 AM – and had to be out of the campground by 11. As we pulled out of town, we could see many more vendors open, but none had the kind of things we were looking for.

We still have a couple of days before we want to be in LA, but we want to be able to get in mid day, to avoid the rush hour and to be able to get to Miriam and Yechiel’s before Shabbat. We decided to stop in the Palm Springs area. We are in Sky Valley Resort in Desert Hot Springs, CA and a very nice resort it is, especially since they are Passport America and we were able to take advantage of the 50% off program. Two nights for the price of one. The place is packed with many park models and otherwise permanent looking arrangements. We are a lonely itinerant RV in the block we are located on. The hot spring fed pools are very nice and I am sure we will get back to them tomorrow.

We finally made it to Austin and the Lone Star RV Park on Saturday, February 5. As soon as we had settled in to this very high touch RV Resort (more about that later) we went off to meet Leigh and Patrick at the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA). The exhibit —and we spent over an hour there before going to their home for a breather and a beer until it was time to go to dinner at Z Tejas. This is a very Texas place with fine southwestern cooking that is a substantial cut above the normal Tex-Mex one gets here. Sunday morning we had breakfast on board and joined them for Brunch at Shady Grove, another funky place that is mostly outdoors.

It used to be the reception area for a trailer park. The park now serves mostly as parking for the restaurant. We wandered through interesting parts of Austin and walked the South Congress area which has many interesting shops. At last as Super Bowl time approached we parted and Carol and I returned to Gee 2 to clean up and make preparations for the next stage of the trip.

This is the first campground we have been to that had greeters and assistants always around. We were met at the gate by a gent wearing the blue shirt uniform that came to be familiar. He had our name on a reservation list and it had our site number too. He lead us directly to the site and saw that we were getting set up while he gave us all the necessary information about getting registered and about what activities were scheduled. The kitchen offered pancake breakfast included in the price of the site and on Monday, as we were preparing to leave, it was a nice addition to the service and it helped us avoid the breakfast cleanup on board.

Upon departure we had a route to LA that in our usual indirect manner included a visit to Big Bend National Park. First we stopped in Del Rio, TX at Buzzards Roost CG, don’t ask. If you look at a map of Texas, you will soon come to the conclusion that if you go to Big Bend that is where you are going. It is at least 85 miles out of the way from anyplace, in this case anyplace is McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains. There are two roads that lead to Big Bend and both of them end there. For variety, one can come in by one route and leave by the other, in either event you will find yourself back on US 90 within the same 30 miles. The material for the park warns that distances are vast and always start out with a full tank of gas. This is not a laughing matter. In addition to great distances there is no cell phone service and the mountains block most other radio service as well. We set up in the Rio Grande Village campground run by the Park Service. It is primitive; this means there are no services other than a fresh water supply. We recharged our batteries each day with the generator, about 90 minutes in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening.

The park is huge and magnificent. From the St Elena canyon in the west where the Rio Grande enters the park through a 1,500 foot gorge cut in the cliff

to the Boquillas gorge in the east where the river enters another huge gorge cut in the highlands. We hiked both of these canyons as far as the trail permitted as well as several other modest hikes of 1 to 2 miles. Here is Carol at the end of the trail.

Through out our stay we enjoyed the company of many interesting people and shared trails and stories with many. The most thoughtful people are still unknown to us. On our first day we did a newby stunt. We left for the day with our awning extended and without any storm fittings. It was a mild sunny day, what was the worry? As we drove back to the campground eight hour later, the temperature dropped a little, clouds moved in and the wind picked up. As we approached the campground the wind was strong enough that I began to worry about my awing being ripped. When I parked in front of Gee 2 I still couldn’t see the awning and it wasn’t until I walked around the side that I could see that someone had stowed it properly in our absence. The Camp Hosts denied any knowledge so I printed up a large “Thank You” and posted it on the windshield.

As we approached the banks of the Rio Grande in places that had been traditional “soft crossings” before 9/11/01 we were greeted by hopeful salesmen displaying their wares on the far shore.

After two days and three nights, our food supplies were getting low and we needed to move on to keep our schedule with Yechiel through Alpine and Ft Davis to go to the McDonald Observatory. We have passed this way before but never with time or inclination to stop. This time it was in our mind to make the stop and we had noted that near the observatory was a camp ground at “Historic” Prude Ranch. We called ahead for a spot and were assured that they were open and empty. How true, we were the only RV in the campground when we arrived and remained so the following morning on our departure. They won’t last long on $10.00 a night. However they have been there for over 50 years serving guests so they must know what they are doing. We went up to the Observatory and took the Solar Tour (that’s the day time tour). Since it was cold and grey we decided not to come back for the “Star Party” beginning at 7:30 in the open amphitheater. It was really impressive going onto the dome floor of the 107 inch telescope and watching it move and watching the dome revolve. They couldn’t even open the observation slit because the wind was too high. We then went to the 432 inch segmented mirror HET scope, WOW. No useful pictures because there was no was to get far enough from any of these instruments. Check out the observatory website for pictures.

I will cut this off here and post. Next I will be writing about getting together with other RVers we met last year.

I know, depending on the context the title can have a wide variety of meanings. In this instance it is closest to the musician’s understanding. Since leaving Dan and Malena’s we have not stayed any place for more than one night.

That first night, looking for propane, missing the family, and rehashing the Bar Mitzvah, we ended up in a WalMart parking lot in Lynchburg, VA.. We pulled into a Flying J on I 81 only to find that they were out of Propane. We backtracked six miles to another Flying J that said they had plenty of propane. By the time we maneuvered through the truck fueling area to the propane tank by the scales we were frazzled. The campground in the area that we remembered was Hungry Mother and our memories were not fond. We asked about the nearest WalMart and found one in ten miles just off the interstate. The signs said No Camping, I said to Carol “we aren’t camping, we are eating and sleeping.” We had company and no police or other officials disturbed our sleep to tell us to move on.

The next night found us a bit out of place. The direct route would have had us in Nashville, but we spotted a show cavern we had not seen only 60 miles or so off the route. We went to Lost Sea Cavern just east of Sweetwater, TN. The underground sea and the anothodites (cave flowers) were spectacular. The rest of the cavern was rather sad as it had been open and unguarded for some years and the wandering public had stripped the cavern of many of its features. After all how could it hurt if I just break off one stalactite? Enough people took enough that little is left for today’s public. We located Sweetwater Valley KOA just west of the interstate back through Sweetwater. It is very pretty and is on our list as a return should we ever be so far off any predictable route again.

The roads we selected to get to Nashville could be used to design a rollercoaster. By now Carol was fully in the grip of the stomach bug bequeathed by Cory. I had the driving to myself as we soared up and down hill and around bends that had me staring at the tow’d in hopes it wasn’t trying to pass me. It was good that Carol’s version of the bug did not include nausea as the road would not have been possible had that been so. If anyone is really interested, I can clip the log and send you the route. It is gorgeous, would love to do it again.

Once in Nashville we took Gee 2 into Camping world for routine maintenance (oil change) and did some shopping. Since we had stayed at two of the three adjacent campgrounds we decided to visit the third, Two Rivers. We won’t go back there. The people were officious, the camp ground was ordinary and the price was high. KOA or Yogi Bear are nicer and no pricier. We had dinner; well I had dinner at the Nashville Palace. It is a venue that has been the gateway for several country musicians and we had wanted to go. Tuesday night is amateur night. We got worse than we expected. Fortunately the back up band and the waiters who performed were quite good.

We were heading for Little Rock, slowly, as we planned to meet the Beth and Josh Brunner, from Rochester, at the William Jefferson Clinton, Presidential Library which has opened recently. Although we were planning on meeting them Friday, we decided to arrive on Thursday. We stopped in West Memphis, AR (just across the river from Memphis, TN) and found America’s Best Campground (that is their new name). The people were lovely, the campground was immaculate and we determined that it would be high on the list for return visits the next time we were in the area. We would like to spend more than one night there.

For our Little Rock visit we found there was very little choice at this time of year. The only well located campground that is open is Little Rock North KOA. While not among my favorite campgrounds, it has nice facilities, and the people are pleasant. We went into town and met the Brunners as planned. They had changed their schedule and had to move on before dinner, so we had a nice visit, and bade them safe travels and went looking for some entertainment and eventually dinner. We found “The Flying Saucer” which is a “beer restaurant.” The wall behind the bar was covered with, it seems, 60 active taps. I was not able to sample them all J or even more than one, but the selection was so great as to be cruel for one who likes tasty beers. Their web site which I have not had the chance to visit is www.beerknurd.com We went on to dinner at Sonny Williams Steak Place. It is a fine restaurant and as such was able to cater to Carol’s vegetarian needs every bit as well as to my desire for a the Omaha Beef they serve, Yum.

Our last one night stand on this segment is Buffalo RV Park and Campground in Oakwood, TX. We did it again. How do you get to Austin from Little Rock, or for that matter any place in Texas from Little Rock, without passing through Dallas? You get off the interstate and go someplace else. In this case the route is through Tyler and Taylor Texas and it misses all of the big cities until we get to Austin where we plan to get together with Leigh and Pat Rainwater tomorrow. We may stay more than one night, thuis breaking the chain of one night stands at six, which is way too many. The laundry is piling up and other things need attending to, like putting this blog together. Oh, yes this campground rates way down on the list. It is on a par with WalMart, but noisier. Highway 79 is a hundred yards from my windshield and the trucks are moving fast and constantly. The campground is little more than a flat open field in which decent amenities have been installed. It serves its purpose and being Passport America it is not terribly expensive, unless you compare it to free.

The long awaited day finally did what such days do. It arrived with a flash and was gone almost before we realized. From our perch in the driveway we helped with preparations both for the party and for the house. We also were able to observe the rising levels of stress in the household. All was pretty much as usual, with the exception that I was watching my precious supply of propane dwindle rapidly in 10 F over night temperatures. There was a storm called for so no one would come to fill my tank and clearly I was not about to drive any place for a refill, which would have necessitated spotting the unit back into place, a non trivial project. We pulled in the slides, turned the heat down to 55 F and left it up to the fates. We left for our hotel room at the Omni in downtown Charlottesville where the party was to take place.

The first stop was rehearsal at CBI (Congregation Beth Israel). This was to be the only opportunity for picture taking in the sanctuary and here is Josh carrying the Torah.

After the rehearsal we had time to get settled at the hotel, greet the arriving guests and family and try to get our act together for Shabbat dinner at Escafe, a wonderful restaurant just a few steps from the hotel. We went to services, well some of us went, and then came back to the hotel where we stopped in the lounge to unwind before going to bed in preparation for Josh’s big day.

The Bar Mitzvah did his part of the service beautifully. The rest of us filled our roles as best we could, very well in most cases, and Josh got to deliver both his D’var Torah, teaching us about the portion, and a talk on the mitzvah projects he had performed as part of his preparation. The presentations by the parents were wonderful and my reservations about such presentations were lessened. If only more parents would talk about there hopes and dreams for the child and offer them solid advice drawn from the portion of the day and not tell us about what the child likes to do.

During the afternoon we escorted some people out to Dan and Malena’s house since they had never seen it and the sight of Gee 2 perched up there brought a chuckle or two in my car. Then we went back to town as the weather was getting dicey. We stopped in a coffee shop on the mall and there Dan found Alex and Corey and two cousins and he read a book to them instead of drinking his hot chocolate.

The party in the evening was at the Omni and the food was great, the DJ was ok and everyone had a great time. It is really exciting to have four generations together. Here is a picture of my mother with my sister and her daughter.

Somehow we never did get a shot of the four generation lineup from my mother to me to Dan to Josh.

Sunday morning found Corey with a stomach bug, the weather deteriorating and people ready to get back home. Some left early to try to get ahead of the weather, others waited, counting on good fortune to make their connections. Over brunch in the hotel lobby, we said our goodbyes and eventually, leaving a few who were delayed to await their flights, we departed for the house. The first thing I did upon arriving there was check the propane level. Although it had showed ¼ of a tank on Saturday afternoon, now it read Empty. We decided we had no choice but to depart at once rather than wait another day. We said our farewells and beat it out of there to a Flying J almost to Tennessee along I 81. It was a good thing we left. By nightfall everyone in the house except for Josh had the stomach bug, he had had it the week before. We thought we were clear, but Carol came down with it the next day.

More about the next days in another piece.

The time has come to head back north, to Charlottesville. As we prepared for our last night in Ft Desoto I turned on NOAA weather report and heard that there was a front coming through at 4 AM with high winds, falling temperatures and some rain. I just hoped this would not interfere to greatly with our departure.

At 5 AM on January 23, I was awakened by roaring winds, flapping awnings and leaves driven across our roof and side walls. I got up and put some clothes on to go out and assess the damage, if any. I almost lost the door to the wind as I opened it. Having had that experience once, I was prepared to hang on tight. A quick look assured me that there was no damage yet. I was not sanguine that the circumstance would continue. I got Carol up and we pulled in the slide-out rooms so their awning toppers would not be exposed to the wind. This made it a bit cozy, especially in the bedroom where the foot of the bed was now pressed firmly against the opposite wardrobe drawers as it always is in travel mode. We snatched our needs out of those drawers before we closed the room. Being as secure as we could be, we went back to sleep for an hour.

With this early start and three and half days to travel 900 miles we decided that we would get out of Florida and stop early. We took a slightly indirect route because we did not want to retrace our route down, first as a matter of our usual practice and second because who needs I 95 up the east coast of Florida and through Georgia. That road is the pits for traffic. For those who like to see maps of the route click here (be warned this is a large file). Instead we went up I 75 through Valdosta, GA and pulled into Paradise Lakes RV Park north of Valdosta. Paradise it isn’t unless you like a flat piece of land with no redeeming features other than nice owners and full hookups, which were unusable in this instance because of an impending hard freeze. As soon as we had showered, I disconnected the water line and drained it and I could not hook up the sewer line for fear that the cold hose would break in my hand as it has in the past. This was no problem and we may come by here again in March. For $10 my expectations are not high.

Arguing with Hal

We are using mapping software from DeLorme, if you have bought the big state map book or done much with maps you know DeLorme. They are very good. This software works with the GPS to provide constant tracking of location versus the planned route. It has voice prompts and will accept voice command. When I set it up I assigned the “voice’ of Microsoft Mike” as the default voice. Carol instantly renamed it Halitosis, Hal for short. Of course that name has given it an obligation to be difficult. He has not yet refused to open the pod bay doors, but I am waiting. Early on it became clear that when I “forced it” to route me in an inefficient, but scenic way that some of the “vias” I had inserted were slightly off the track I intended. After the first blip of this sort, I went in at higher magnification and relocated most of them to the intended route. In one instance, the main route was split into two one way streets passing through a town and Hal went nuts recalculating to bring me back to the route, which was a one way street the wrong way! Once I figured out what was happening I ignored its clamor to immediately turn right, left, or do anything but follow the highway signs. We laughed it off and kept going.

As we entered Athens, GA, with me at the wheel and Carol as navigator, the route became somewhat convoluted. Rather than stay on the bypass around the city it insisted that we go right through the city. Not having surveyed the route carefully on a FPM (folding paper map) we proceeded to follow the directions until the program seemed to stop responding after having us take a couple of obvious wrong turns. At the next light Carol and I swapped seats on the fly and I tried to coax Hal into being more helpful. I then noticed that I had left a random “via” in the middle of the city and Hal, as any good computer program will, was following its programming to the command. We pulled into a shopping mall parking lot and I restarted Hal without the misleading command. It promptly guided us out onto a slightly different road than we would have taken otherwise that very conveniently led directly to a Flying J Travel Plaza. Lesson learned, Hal is very precise and generally accurate, but has no sense of humor.

From the Flying J we searched for a nearby campground and found another Passport America facility nearby. The Lake Hartwell Camping and Cabins is very nice with wooded sites that have been newly leveled and upgraded. We are putting it our file for a return visit if we come by this way in better weather. The 50% discount price of $12 sure makes it nice on a winter’s evening. For tomorrow I have coaxed Hal into following another scenic route, part of the Savannah River National Scenic Highway and the Cherokee Foothills National Scenic Highway. Click here for map If the computer gets too obstreperous, we will turn it off and return to the paper maps.

Well it worked quite well taking us through SC and into NC on I 85. Our route passed through the Greensboro area where we were to pick up US 29 North, the last leg. Well unknown to DeLorme or even to the NC State map maker, they have opened a new bypass carrying I 85 – I 40 further south and well beyond the connection to US 29. Hal went nuts trying to route us through an area that did not show any roads. Eventually we got back to the old road and backtracked to US 29. Then we had to follow a detour because the ramp we wanted was closed. Hal took this in good stride and figured out the detour and brought us on to 29. We got off in Danville, VA where the software had located a Wal Mart just off the route. That was where we spent the night before coming on to Malena and Dan’s house. We are now in our usual spot in front of the house.

We will stay here until Monday, January 31. Then we roll out west.