Its amazing how a retired guy sitting in a motorhome going no place can find so little time to sit and write a blog post. In addition to more committee work to help keep the park a place I want to be there are endless activities. And if none of those are on the agenda for the day there is Bridge most days from 1 PM until 3:30 or so. The other things that are keeping me busy are preparing for our travels to Morocco, Israel and Ethiopia This December and January. 

Carol and I just realized we don’t have any more travel booked after this travel so it is time to plan the return to Panama to complete that trip and  to continue on to Columbia as originally planned. 

Add to that our desire to return to Alaska this coming summer and I will have my hand full with planning. Ordinarily the Alaska trip would be a matter of getting the books and maps out and some minimal prep of the coach and Jeep and done. But we think we want to take the Marine Highway which requires making reservations which requires actual planning. This has not been our strong point in all our years of RV travel. We are more the “wing it” type as anyone who has read these blogs for a while must recognize. 

I have laid out the beginning of the trip using a new, or at least new to me, online package called RV Trip Wizard. My first use of this web site was for traveling from Rochester to Jojoba Hills. This was an easy test since we have driven this several times and could probably do it without a map. It did simplify determining where we would stop each night. This became especially important when our plans were disrupted by the mechanical failure on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Sitting in the coach with the site running I was able to easily reconfigure the trip and plan the visits we still wanted to make.

For Alaska I have put in the big jump from Temecula CA to Prince Rupert Sound, at least a month for us right there, to get us to the initial ferry ride. The Alaska Marine Highway is actually a ferry system in case you didn’t know. Then I started laying out the routes we thought we wanted to take. Oops, can’t book any of that online with a coach over 30 feet long. More oops, they don’e have the schedule online beyond April, yet. That gets us as far as Haines from which we will travel ??? actually haven’t a clue. We know we want to get to Seldovia and Anchorage is an interesting place and so is Fairbanks and Denali NP is between them. But my route planning stops at the last ferry ride to Haines. 

Back to today. The coach and jeep are freshly washed and waxed by Red White & Blue Detailing, I would rather write a check than spend hours pretending I can do as good a job as 2 guys who do it all day long. I have a planning meeting for a project related to Finance Committee and then a meeting to requalify as a tour guide before we go to a Last Friday Dinner being held on the 2nd last Friday of the month because next week is Thanksgiving and we wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity for another reason to get together and eat and dance. 

I have spent altogether too much time listening to hearings, listening to and watching analysis of those hearings, not talking about it with others since we do not necessarily agree and we are a close community. I even read the New York Times mostly “below the fold” to see what else is going on in the country and the world. I doubt our national misery will end any time soon. We are too badly fractured and no one wants to even consider what the other side has to say. 

A lot of road has passed beneath the tires since my last post from Livingston TX. 1,573.1 miles to be precise. We made stops in McKinney Falls SP to visit a former rabbi who has a post in Austin.  Then a stop at Walmart in Fort Stockton TX, if this isn’t the middle of nowhere, you can see it from here. A couple of nights in Las Cruces NM where we had dinner with our friends Leora and Stu and attended , almost by chance a day of the Dead celebration and folklore performance in Mesilla Square. See Carol’s blog at http://cgstudio.net for more details on that. Then  Benson AZ, Saguaro SKP Coop for one night before heading to Catalina SP for 3 nights and dinner with Elly and Kelly from our trip to Thailand and Vietnam. 

From Catalina SP, outside Tucson, we opted to take the southern route on I 8 to El Centro and then into the desert to stop for the night at Peg Leg Smith Monument. I have written about this place a few times in the past. You could google it. Since it was Friday night of Veterans Day we expected the place to be packed. it wasn’t. Actually there was enough space to swing the coach around with the Jeep attached and find a level spot with no one near us and easy egress. The price is always right there – $0.0. From there it was less than 60 miles to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort and by noon we were set up on our site and had arranged for a gang to come over at 4 for Happy Hour.  Parties are always good!

We are still doing the small stuff to make this space home.  I have started connecting with my volunteer activities. Looking forward to bridge, JCATs, and general trouble making as we go forward for the next 6 weeks, until we leave for Morocco.

Make that Livingston. After hassles and unlevel too tight campsites we decided to head for a known place with friendly people – SKPs (that’s Escapees for those who don;t get it).  We paid for a week just to do very little and catch up from our whirlwind start and breakdown. Still some residuals to deal with but no show stoppers so we are sitting. 

Carol started looking into things to do in Houston, a mere 70 minutes away in light traffic and came across a performance of Handel’s Saul. Saul? It’s an oratorio intended to be presented in concert format. To understand why check out British Blasphemy Law from 1605. In 2015 it was first presented as an operatic performance. This performance was being done by Houston Grand Opera with Christopher Purves as Saul and Samuel (interesting since they are singing to each other when on stage).  David is Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen in a contralto role. His vocal range is between alto and soprano! The piece covers the biblical time period from David’s defeat of Goliath to the death of Saul, some 30 ish years with no real dividers. It runs about 3 hours. When it was over we wanted more. Opera in Handel’s day did not use a chorus, oratorios do. This was staged with a large chorus and a  7 member dance corp as well as the principals. 

We started with a lovely lunch at BirraPoretti’s. I found a parking place at the curb for FREE, it was Sunday, next to the restaurant and across the street from the opera house. We arrived in time for the preperformance talk and stayed to hear Purves give a post performance talk with Q&A. The drive back to GeeWhiz was uneventful and swift. It was quite a wonderful day. 

Next stop Austin, Wednesday and Thursday, then Las Cruces with a stop at Monahans Sandhills State Park on route. Here we go again making plans and reservations.

Sunday morning Ricky showed up with his VERY BIG tow truck and towed us about 80 miles back the way we had come to Magnolia Diesel in Columbus MS. We had a pleasant day in Columbus, see Carol’s post at http://cgstudio.net/for our day in Columbus. 

Monday morning Josh brought out his antique diagnostic computer (with current software) and took a look at the codes that had been set. The only active code was failure of the throttle to communicate with the engine! It was decided that a new Throttle Position Sensor was what was needed. However it only comes with the complete throttle assembly, which is no longer available from Freightliner. They had shipped their entire stock of parts to some vintage parts company in Wisconsin. Gregg worked the phone and computer to get one delivered to Tupelo (?) so Tuesday morning Carol and I took the Jeep about 60 miles to Tupelo to pick up the part. 

Thirty minutes after we returned with the part it was installed and appeared to be working. However all sorts of other warnings appeared on the dash. One by one they went away, leaving only an ABS warning light. Josh suggested reinstalling the drive shaft and taking it out for a spin to see how it drove. As soon as we started moving the ABS light went out. We returned to the repair yard, paid our bill and drove almost 4 hours to Vicksburg MS where we are settled in a casino campground.  

Tomorrow, Livingston TX!

Mid afternoon as we drove the Parkway listening to “The Murder of Mary Russell ” just as the story started to resolve a persistent beeping intruded. Looking down at the dash I saw STOP ENGINE and  CHECK TRANSMISSION showing. I immediately  pulled to the verge there being no shoulder. While we waited to get a call through to Coach-net our long time roadside service, I started the engine and resumed driving. About a mile further the engine derated, it would not go above an idle. I rolled along until I saw a stretch of verge that seemed rather level and got about half the coach off the road. I immediately went to a bin where a set of road side emergency triangles have resided, annoying me from time to time, in all three of our coaches since 2001. I set them up at the prescribed  distances and waited for Kelly at Coach- net to do her magic. 

And Waited. . . And waited. 

It is Saturday afternoon and the closest large city is Jackson MI about 70 miles to the south, and we are on The Natchez Trace Parkway. Maximum speed 50 mph. 

Kelly worked hard to find a tow service that could move this beast. While we waited we had visitors. The adminstrator of the French Camp School stopped by twice to make sure we were okay. A family stopped by to offer the names of towing services in the area. Others stopped by to ask if we needed food or water or any things else. The days of true Good Samaritans exist on the local scene.

Hugh, County Sherriff officer, stopped and parked his cruiser with the lights on as twilight approached. Jay, the tow truck driver arrived and determined that indeed there was no way for him to tow GeeWhiz with his equipment. In the process I started the engine and pulled onto the pavement so he could try. Eventually the decision was made to proceed as best we could in a procession with the Sheriff’s car in the lead and the tow truck with all his lights bringing up the rear. I could not get the engine to accelerate above idle. So the procession moved at 5 to 7 mph for maybe 3 miles into a lovely pullout “Hurricane Creek” where we leveled up and made our home for the night with the Sheriff’s blessing – and I guess the NPS as well.

The story will be resumed in the morning with a bigger tow truck and a less wonderful camping spot in a repair yard.

Stay tuned!

We came into  Red Bay with two relatively minor needed repairs. The more critical one was the motor that drives our windshield privacy night screen up and down. Also a spline that keeps the front edge of our main awning attached to the roller has been slipping. Called Brandon at  Custom RV to see if he could fit us in. When we arrived I called as instructed and he told us to be at his place by 9 the next morning. Had to call back to find out where his place might be 🙂 

We arrived at 9 and there was another coach in the bay being worked on and they were running into a problem with some non standard wiring that someone had done when the coach was new.  They finally sorted that out with help from someone at Tiffin and by about noon we pulled into the bay for our turn. In about 30 minutes they had the shade rollers out, the new motor installed and everything reinstalled,, tested and calibrated. Brandon and his assistant then turned to the awning and were able to push the spline back into the track from the rear and insert the piece I had cut off into the front. Both pieces are now held in place by small screws.  

This left us time to spend some money at the Tiffin Parts Store and at a hardware store for various spares. We will be on the road tomorrow, back on the Natchez Trace Parkway headed for Rocky Spring CG near the southern terminus. Could be in Livingston TX the next day if we wanted to, Mostly likely at least one other stop along the way. 

I can’t believe I got out of a service bay for less than $1,000. Actually less than $300. This must be a new record for our RVing life.

We left Rochester on Sunday heading for Pittsburgh PA to visit Carol’s VSW (Visual Studies Workshop) classmate Cynthia and her husband Jay. After threading coach and Jeep through some of the narrowest, windy, hilly streets – Pittsburgh – we have encountered we entered the Elks parking lot to find them waiting. This was more awkward then usual since we had not really stowed stuff carefully on departure and setting up while being observed can lead to stupid mistakes. We were lucky not to make any. Since they had met us, we had no need to disconnect the car which was a blessing. After a lovely dinner and a tour of their incredible home and art collection we returned to the coach and slept soundly.

We rose to set off for Columbus OH just 2 or 3 hours down the road to spend time with Lee and Tinya, he was one of my college roommates and also a classmate from Temple B’rith Kodesh so we have a long history. We pulled out of Columbus the next morning and headed to Nashville. The usual places we have stayed were either full or had such horrible reviews I could not abide stopping there. We found a place – Safe Harbor RV – that met our needs and had a space for us. It was the most expensive campsite we have ever had outside of Jersey City across from Manhattan. It was worth it. The area is lovely, the location was central and staff were pleasant. Our first night was a shopping expedition with an accidental excursion into the heart of Nashville . Carol says to blame the GPS, I am inclined to take the blame for operator failure. The next day we toured The Hermitage, President Jackson’s home and then headed into Nashville for a dinner to celebrate my birthday knowing there would be no decent restaurant at our next stop in Red Bay. Rolfe and Daughters had ambiance, common tables and a bit too much noise, service and food. I have never had a chicken dish that tasted so wonderful , I seldom order it, but it was recommended. Carol’s food was also very good. We would go back. Next we drove to Broadway, the entertainment heart of Nashville. After parking we strolled a couple of blocks before walking in to Legends on the Corner where a group called the Scalawags was playing. After a bit Carol got into the music and  this link tells the story.

A half a day’s drive along the Natchez Trace Parkway brought us to Red Bay. We stopped at Bird Song Overlook where we spent a day and a night in a blizzard in 2003. If you are interested in that story and other tales from ’03 https://goldberg-online.net/journals-blogs-whatever/cross-country-2003-xc2003/ will take you to the entire winter blog with the tale of Natchez Trace after the first —break—

I feel very loved with phone calls, texts, emails and FaceBook regards. Thank you all.