That was the easy part. We have done a fair amount of birding and we are seeing many birds that have ranges that include this sliver of land north of the Rio Grande River and don’t extend more than a few miles into the USA. The most prominent are the Great Kiskidee, the Brown Jay and the Green Jay. There is a couple that has a motorhome on a piece of land next to Salineno National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). They have been feeding birds and welcoming visitors there for 22 years. We have been there twice and have added several birds to our life list of birds we have never seen before. We have also seen many beautiful birds that we know quite well. I actually thought about biking over there today, but with the temperature in the high 80’s an eight mile one way trip did not seen prudent.

As I write I am waiting for a tire road service truck to arrive. This morning as I was working around the camp site I happened to see something like a stone on the outside passenger side dual tire. I went to pick it off and noticed that is the hex head of a bolt with the thread extended directly into the tread. Not pretty! The tire is holding its normal pressure so it may not have pierced the belts. I am unwilling to attempt to extract it myself as the tore is carrying 88 psi at the moment (pushed up 3 psi or so by solar heating. Since we have been sitting still for a week and plan to sit here for another week I am not feeling urgent about the repair, but hope to have it resolved before I finish writing this.

Yesterday, Wednesday February 1, we took a rather long bike ride in the afternoon. There is a small town just across the reservoir from us, Guerro (well the name is longer than that, but it will suffice), and we wanted to see what it had to offer. We could not take a vehicle across as we have no Mexican insurance and there is no public transportation over this bridge so we road across, five miles to the dam (the same ride we took several days ago), two miles across the dam (at least) and then 2 kilometers to the edge of town (I know I changed measurement, that happens when you leave this quaint country of ours). The town has some lovely homes and public buildings. It does not have any people at 4 in the afternoon. There was no traffic and the only people we saw were a couple of construction workers and a pharmacist in her store. We biked on back and collapsed I was dehydrated and short on energy even though I have drunk a quart of water on the ride. The air is dry here.

Have I mentioned poverty yet? Much of this part of Texas would consider poverty an improvement on their lot. The housing is ramshackle, the roads verge on impassable and many times we have thought we had driven across the border by mistake. It feels like the worst of any Mexican border area we have visited. The only thing lacking is the broken bottle wall tops we have seen further south in Latin America around the houses of the well off.

Ah boating! As you faithful readers know we bought an inflatable kayak last summer. It has been riding around in the belly of Gee 2 until our arrival here. It is now in the back of the car and we have had it out on Falcon Reservoir a couple of days ago. As usual it was ten minutes from the car to the water. Then we paddled out into the reservoir and saw the many water birds and even more motor boats dotting the surface of the lake. This is an active fishing area and many people put out in every kind of imaginable small boat to catch fish. I cannot imagine backing a trailer down the very long boat launch ramp. The water is at the middle of its range which makes it 16 feet or so below its high. On our first visit here the water was below the end of the ramp.

Our entertainment has included Pickin’ and Grinnin’ at the recreation lodge, Carol sat in with her new mandolin with a group of mixed musicians playing country and folk. We have also had happy hour of one sort or another each evening and have gotten o meet several new people. I will especially note Daniel Markham who is on his own with a dog in a Ford Econoline and just headed out for San Miguel . . . about six hundred miles south of the border to see if he wants to settle there. We wish him a satisfactory and safe trip. Kay and Doug are just down the line from us in their Super Sport four wheel drive conversion van and many more to numerous to mention. Kay and Doug sold a large sailboat they had lived on in Florida and decided to try dry land for the time being. All in all we are having our usual fine time collecting sights, experiences and people. Speaking of collecting people, we just heard from the Hoggs and have may arrangements to meet them again at Gilbert Ray Park in Tucson mid February.

We have CNN on the satellite dish, wish we didn’t. We don’t have NPR down here, not sure whether I am happy or not, miss it, but what we see/hear on CNN is so disturbing that decent analysis might make me even more depressed about this great country I love so much. I am able to see more than I want about the uncertainty in the Middle East. The internet is available and I want to spend less time being absorbed, but I find it hard to let go. I will go to the JDC meetings in NYC in March and maybe I will come away with a better understanding, somehow I doubt it. The materiel everyone is sending is wonderful, but there are no tolerable answers in the offing, just more trouble. I shall turn my thoughts to the birds, the javalina and howling coyotes and try to let the greater world take care of itself since nothing I can do is likely to change anything anyhow.

On our way here we took a diversion through Fredericksburg, TX. This diversion took longer than planned due to an extended shopping trip. Last year our stop in Fredericksburg took longer than planned because of an extended visit to the Museum of the War in the Pacific. On our way into town we stopped at a KOA on the outskirts to top off the propane tank. Several cold nights had reduced the tank to just over half. As we drove away we considered whether we should have checked in and just used the tow’d to go into town, but we proceeded with the entire rig and found parking at the curb for all 60+ feet of us with room to maneuver. We actually parked across the street from tow other motorhomes with their tow’ds.

After a lot of time traversing both sides of the main street and visiting many of the lovely shops we returned to Gee 2 and decided that it was too late to go on to the next likely camping area, about 90 minutes away. Instead we drove to Opa’s Sausage Shop where after some difficulty parking (we used the parking lot of a closed restaurant across the street) I managed to buy a supply of excellent Turkey and all beef sausages. I had sampled them last year and regretted not buying more. We then decided to retrace our steps to the KOA which had seemed so pleasant. It is. There was a further surprise I learned as I was out taking a walk. The immediate neighbor is a game farm. I was really surprised to see these characters across the fence.

and

I was less thrilled to learn that many of these animals are sold to game ranches where they become the paid for targets of “big game hunters” in the confines of a Texas Ranch.

The next day, Thursday, was a road day. We followed TX 87 south to I 10 east to FM 1604 (that’s Farm to Market and in this case is a major outer loop around San Antonio) to I 35 south to ultimately Texas 83 south by east arriving at Falcon SP late afternoon and 350 miles from our start. We have registered here for a week and are settling in to relax a bit and do some things around the coach. Carol is writing and working on her seminar and I am trying to get my thoughts together on more formal writing than this journal. Friday I ended up in touch with my office and various clients and it felt rather like being at work, but staring out at very different scenery.

Today we got on our bicycles for the first time this trip and Carol’s first time since her hip surgery. The weather was conducive and we road out on to the Falcon Dam about 5 miles each way. There was one little issue, we had set off with out any identification and the middle of the Dam is beyond the frontier. Before we left US territory we stopped and spoke to the customs official and Border Patrol person and they did not have a problem with readmitting us after a trip to no place. The middle of the dam and the actual border are just that, no place.

There is another mile before one reaches the Mexican Frontier and everything is in plain view. However, I understand that this crossing is still pretty informal as there is no place to go once you cross on a bicycle and no commercial traffic is permitted at this crossing in any event. On our return they smiled and asked us for our drivers’ licenses knowing full well that we had nothing with us, they waved us through.

We did very little the rest of the day, well I guess that doesn’t count driving through Roma to Rio Grande City and picking up some essentials, food. In the process we passed two more bridges to Mexico. We will cross one of the bridges when we come to it again. Vanilla is on our agenda, we understand that it may be in short supply in these parts, hope we can find some to cart back with us.

All day Saturday the sky was grey and the wind blew steadily. It even rained, although this is the kind of rain you can walk in without getting more than damp. It is desert rain. We were promised great weather for Sunday and was it ever. The sky was clear blue and there was almost no wind and the temperatures rose into the low 80’s by early afternoon. We used the morning to get some work done and to get the motorhome clean again. I went over the entire exterior for the third time in ten days. It glistens. It does need a wax job, but I will find someone to pay to take that on. After lunch we decided it was time to get the boat out and see some of this park and reservoir from the water for the first time. It was great fun and we had a wonderful hour or so paddling around on Falcon Reservoir.

We have the boat stored in the back of the car for now so we can take advantage of any water we see that looks interesting. With the bikes and the boat we are definitely getting too many toys.

The coyotes are quieter tonight than they have been, The evening chorus and the dawn chorus have been something else. Last night I heard them in the middle of the night too. The first time we heard them I was prepared to call the ranger to quiet the rowdy party, I finally figured that any party making that much noise would have attracted the ranger themselves. Haven’t seen the creatures yet, I understand I may not see them. Did have a Javelina in our campsite this evening, they are not the sweetest looking animal and they make a skunk seem sweet smelling. Fortunately this one was alone not in the usual pack of six or more.

We stopped in Bryan/College Station for two nights on our way to Austin. The Marino Rd RV Park was very welcoming even if it is a flat field across the street from the airport and has little going for it in the way of amenities. It is Passport America which endears it to us – 50% off always makes me happy – and the staff people were quite nice and very accommodating. We settled in and Carol got to do the laundry and make dinner on board.

On Thursday the 19^th we set out to see the George H. W. Bush Library. His mother couldn’t choose among the family names so he got them all. This is the first Republican presidential library we gave visited. It has not really been intentional, it has just happened to work out that way ever since our family visit to the JFK library sometime back in the 70’s. This library is definitely worth a stop if you are anywhere near Aggie Town. If you didn’t know, College Station is the home of Texas A & M, known in these parts as the Aggies. A & M stands for Agriculture and Mechanical. I had surmised this but did not know and had to ask as everything in the area refers to A & M and we never did see it spelled out anyplace.

On Friday morning, with the coach and car freshly hand washed we set out through the drought stricken East Texas plains for Austin. Washing the coach did it, sort of. We had enough rain along the road to require a thorough wipe down upon arrival. We pulled into Austin Lone Star RV for our second time and were greeted at the gate and welcomed and guided to our site. We were also informed we had a package waiting, thank you Kathy. The weather was delightful, sun shining and temperature of about 80! I got out my clothes and cleaned up Gee 2 again, tempting fate. Then we showered and sat in lawn chairs and read until time to drive to Leigh and Pat’s new home. We had lovely conversation and dinner at a neighborhood spot that featured a longish wait and good food together with pleasant ambience, once past the noise of the waiting area.

As always Leigh had researched a wide range of options for Saturday and after Study Group and services at Temple Beth Israel we joined them for lunch at Ruby’s, famous for there barbecue. The chicken and brisket were wonderful; we wondered how we would ever eat dinner. We went on to the Umlauf Gardens, home of a collection of sculpture by George Umlauf. It was a wonderful stop.

Afterwards we toured several areas of Austin we had not seen and returned to their wonderful house in the city where Leigh prepared a wonderful meal the featured Soufflés and a Gratin Salad. Here is Leigh preparing to serve the soufflés.

On Sunday for something entirely different, we picked Pat and Leigh up at their house in Gee 2 in full travel mode. We had learned of a US Army Corp of Engineers campground not too far to the north on Lake Georgetown. The reputation of these parks is very good and this seemed like an ideal time to do some research. We found the campground with no trouble and there was plenty of room, it is winter here too. We drove around the loop twice looking for the ideal view and a relatively level site. The view is great, the slope is a bit much, both front tires are off the ground. We had lunch on board and then set off for the town of Salado, another 20 miles up the road. This little strip of a town has more shops per person than seems proper. We shopped until we dropped and then drove south to Georgetown where we had dinner at Wildfire Grill. It was very nice and then we took them back home in Austin and returned to Gee2 for the night.

Monday we hung around the campground most of the morning doing various things and at about noon we drove into Georgetown for lunch at the Monument Diner which was highly recommended. The recommendation was well deserved. The meatloaf was wonderful and the accompanying vegetables were excellent as were the rolls, Yum!

For the afternoon we went back to Salado to retrieve a gift we had bought that was being gift wrapped. We spent a lot more time wandering the shops and we had sent home a Mexican style dinner set for our own casual use, made in China. Saw a lot of other stuff we didn’t need to buy, but might have in another time. We returned to Gee2 for a fancy dinner prepared by Carol using our convection oven, still learning how to use that item. Today was another day spent in the campground through lunch. My practice was calling and I had to “go to work” for a bit. We also began to project the next phase of our wandering. Tomorrow, Wednesday the 24^th we will set out for Falcon State Park, not too far from Zapata, TX. If you actually have a map out, look to the south and east from Laredo directly on the border, just north of Zapata. We will pass through Fredericksburg, not on the most direct route, but more interesting and it takes through Johnson City. I expect it to take at least two days to cover the 350 to 400 miles to Falcon SP. The Verizon Wireless coverage map seems to project that we will have full internet service there. It remains to be seen.

As we have crossed and recrossed this country we have retraced many different routes from the Chisolm Trail to Route 66 to the route of the rout of the Texians as they ran from the Mexicans after declaring Texas Independence at Washington on the Brazos. As we crossed from Mississippi into Louisiana on L 6 we noticed signs bearing the shape of both Texas and Louisiana and the word Camino, Spanish for trail. This was the route of the Mexican forces as they explored this land from Mexico to Florida. It took us back to Nachitoches in western Louisiana, south of Shreveport where we had enjoyed ourselves a couple of years ago. We stayed in a different campground, Dogwood Camping, to avoid the truck stop noise that had kept us awake in the Nakatosh Campground which bordered the truckstop. Dogwood had two inescapable features. We saw the first immediately as, with Carol at the wheel, we had to surmount an enormous and steep hill on broken pavement just to get into the place. There was no alternative for her but to gun the engine and go for it to hesitate would have meant disconnecting the car on the hill and backing off for another try. She made it easily, but not without some hard breathing.

The second was a bit more interesting. As I entered the office to pay for the night my eye was immediately drawn to a small table with a crossed flag stand bearing two flags, the US and Israel. I worked real hard to avoid the obvious thought that I had found a Jewish campground, in Nachatoches, LA. I cannot come up with as unlikely a scenario to compare it too. Once I disclosed my name the answer became clear. I was in the presence of an Evangelical Christian who has a love affair with Israel. As the conversation progressed and she asked if I was a Messianic Jew, I knew where we were going. We did. I assured her in no uncertain terms that there was no way I could/would consider Jesus as other than a prophet and left to go about my business.

The next morning Carol went to the office to pay for a second night and the conversation was repeated. It is nice to find people who care about Israel as much as we do. It is difficult when they want to change what we believe and do not accept no for an answer. Having had a Caatholic friend when I was 5 whose priest told him it would be good for me if he converted me, I have had plenty of experience at warding off most approaches, I do get bored with the subject.

In the campground we met Norm and Wilma. Norm is a minister, Orthodox Presbyterian as it turned out. We invited them in for happy hour and had a wonderful time. I learned more about the Presbyterians, and their schisms than I remember from any comparative religion course I ever took. We even had a chance to look at different ways of viewing a passage in the Torah, Exodus 34:14 if anyone is interested. We only had two translations to work with, but I know there are others. There was no overt attempt at conversion and there was lots of talk about grandkids and interesting travel.

The next morning, that must have been today (1/18/06) we continued across the Camino through Nacodgoches, TX and Crockett (last time through here we stopped at the spring where Davy and company stopped to refresh themselves – it’s still there and there is now a sign saying “Future Site of Park.” And on to Bryan where we will spend two nights and the most likely conversion attempt will be to Texas A&M loyalists, but we will be joining Leigh and Pat in Austin on Friday and will have to maintain our loyalty to #1 –

BROWN University, #1 in the Ivy League!

This is not quite a nonsequitor, well maybe it is, but I’ll go with it as you will see how it fits.

It was cool and threatening when we started up in the Wal Mart Parking lot. We moved back out on to US 278/MS 6 westbound from Oxford to reach the river. At Clarksdale we worked our way over to the Great River Road, MS 1 and turned south. It you pull out a map of the region you will see that the Mississippi snakes its way south like a plate of linguini. There are many threads of water, none of them connected to the main stem. They are remainders (or is that reminders?) of where the river once was and is no longer, for the time being. Actually this paragraph is very much like the area, meandering around the subject without really reaching it. The valley floor is a wide flat plain of very fertile soil and it is mostly agricultural, we saw cotton, rice and wheat fields and I am sure other crops as well that I would have no way of recognizing at this time of year. We did not ever see the river! We saw water that was old ox bows and we saw tributary streams, but the river was always just over the next levee or meandering west as the road went east.

We were intrigued with the name Yazoo City and when we saw a sign for the Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) we had to explore, in Gee 2 with the car still in tow. We turned off into the entry road fully expecting to find a visitor center parking lot that would provide a place to stop for lunch and a place turn the rig around. As we got further in we saw hunters heading off into the woods with portable tree stands on their backs. We saw plenty of turnoffs into the woods, but place to stop comfortably and certainly no place to turn. We came to an intersection, deep in the reserve, where all our choices were unpaved. I hailed a passing truck and the driver, in hunting camouflage, assured me that the road ahead had no low hanging or encroaching trees and would, as my mapping software told me, return us to MS 1. We proceeded a short distance and found a spot where we could get off the road for a lunch break, but not reverse our course. There were some trucks in the area and as we were ready to get lunch out a hunter appeared. I engaged him in conversation about hunting in the NWR and he explained that bow hunting only was permitted and only in certain areas. He said that hunting was allowed to the right of the entry trail (from his perspective) and to the left was a closed area. All the really large deer stay in the protected area and don’t venture into the hunting area during the season, that is why they are large, they are, for deer, intelligent.. After eating we continued down the road with no incident and returned to the highway and continued on down to Vicksburg.

We had stayed near Vicksburg a couple of years ago, the year of the snow storm on the Natchez Trace Parkway. At that time we drove into Vicksburg and had dinner at Borellos, an experience that we both remembered fondly. That being the case we left the Magnolia RV Park in the car after cleaning up and drove into town and after wandering around in the gathering dark for an hour we parked in front of Borellos and went in for dinner. The waiter approached and asked for drink orders and I ordered a Beefeater Martini, up with an olive. He looked startled and asked me to repeat which I did. As he left I looked at Carol and realized what I had done. I have not had Beefeater in a martini in over twenty years. Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray for sure, but I had heard the words fall out of my mouth and decided to go with it. It was the best part of the meal. We will not seek out this place again. It wasn’t bad, just not worth coming out for.

As I write we are not sure where we are going today. We could spend the day here, but it is rainy and it being MLK day much is closed. We are thinking of moving on through Natchez and then into LA and across to Natchitoches (pronounced Nakotish). Still no word on the volunteer connection so it appears we will just keep moving and visit the Rainwaters in Austin late in the week.

Stay tuned!

We left Hungrytown Hollow fairly early and had an uneventful drive up and over the Blue Ridge and down the Shenandoah Valley on I 81. We remembered this time that the first Flying J we come to at exit 80 has propane but no dump facilities and is sized for mini RVs. Therefore we continued down the road to exit 77 where there is a Flying J with room and propane and dump facilities. Dump facilities are to RVers like bathrooms in Manhattan, sometimes hard to find and critical when you really need them. Lest I bore the non RVers I will leave that subject for now, but you may be assured it will reoccur and the most inopportune moments. We went looking for a Wal Mart in Bristol, TN that showed in all our guides. It wasn’t where it was supposed to be, it must have grown legs and moved. We gave up and continued to a campground we remember well. Baileyton RV is maybe 20 miles over the line into TN. We stopped there two years ago and had a pleasant enough stay – until we awoke in the morning to several inches of snow. The new owners remembered the storm; they have pictures of the campground that day. It has not happened again, yet. After a good night’s rest we continued down I 81 to I 40.

On one of our first trips down this way in 1988 (tent camping and staying in Inns and B & B’s) I had decided I wanted to take a tour of Oak Ridge, TN. As we got tangled in traffic coming through Knoxville I decided it was a bad idea and we continued back up into the mountains. The idea has stayed with me, but we never got within range of Oak Ridge again until this trip. We located a campground Volunteer Family Park outside Knoxville and twenty minutes from Oak Ridge, TN, it was open, well, sort of open. A quarter of the sites were torn up for upgrading water and electric and the place was a bit of a mess, but they had water, electric and sewer and more to the point WiFi (not free – $2). After setting up and having lunch, this was a really early stop, we drove over to Oak Ridge and found the American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE) which has a huge exhibit of photos and memorabilia from the days it was the “Secret City” one of the homes of the Manhattan Project. There are still vast tracts of land that are off limits to anyone without appropriate clearances. This is one of those stops that is not worth going way out of your way for, unless you are fascinated with the history of this country through WW II. It is definitely worth a stop if you are passing this way.

Hmm, Tennessee, what else is in Tennessee that I want to see but would not get on a plane or make a special trip to visit? Jack Daniels Distillery in Lynchburg, TN population 361! Just look at a map, it is in the same state and only moderately out of the way from any place one might want to go. So off we went, going cross lots on roads that were lightly traveled and not another RV to be seen. Eventually there was the Distillery right on route 55, the main road to no place in particular. The tour covers then entire plant, even in the rain and cold, from the preparation of the charcoal for mellowing to the mashing and distilling and barrel aging warehouses. Moor County, the home of the Distillery, is a dry county. By special state legislation they are permitted to sell commemorative bottles of the product in one room of the visitor’s center. After the hour and a half tour and a walk into the heart of Historic Lynchburg, we got on the road to Mill Creek RV in no place Alabama. This place is off a back road, off a back road (I am not stuttering) in the boonies. It is about an hour north of Huntsville which is to say it is barely south of the TN line. Nice place, nice people, cold weather! The site was level and roomy and if I were into hunting or fishing this is a place I might come back to many times. I am not likely to be back there again myself.

As I am writing I am sitting in a Wal Mart parking lot. They may mistreat their employees, but they are mighty nice to us RVers. Free parking with all the security you could ask for. This particular Wal Mart happens to be located in Oxford, MS. When you remember what/who Oxford is famous for, let me know. To get here we had to drive past the birth place of Helen Keller and make a stop at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in Tuscmbia just outside of Muscle Shoals. There will be a quiz on who and what these places are famous for when I see you next. The rest of the day included a piece of the Natchez Trace Parkway and sundry roads also not well traveled by our fellows in the big boxes.

Our current plan is to continue across Mississippi to the eponymous river and proceed along its east bank on MS 1 at least to Vicksburg. I’ll provide a report on reality after the fact.

Everything old is new and everything new is old. Setting up Gee 2 in the driveway in the cold of the New Year is becoming part of our normal life. As we park in the slot behind our townhouse the neighbors recognize we are getting ready for our winter travel and stop by to wish us well, offer to keep the keys and plants, look out for our unit and in general be good neighbors. Everyone wants to know where we are going this year. Our answer is, as usual, a bit vague. We will visit the kids in Virginia and the ones in Los Angeles. Somehow there is an awful lot of country between those places and a lot of time available this year. We too are fascinated to know where we will have gone by the time I am ready to close this section of the journal in early April. For now open roads and a sense of adventure lie ahead.

Other knowns about this year’’s trip are a visit with Leigh and Pat in Austin, TX; we hope to meet up with the Hoggs in AZ; as of today we will be at the FMCA Convention in Pomona, CA in late March where Carol will do her seminar again. I assume there will be a group from Chai there for us to meet with. After that, we will cross the entire continent (well, most of it) to Rochester by the end of the first week in April or so.

The drive from Rochester to Covesville, VA was uneventful. The weather was various shades of gray with an occasional splatter of rain. We stopped at the Flying J in Carlisle, PA for Gas, Propane and a nights rest. Unfortunately, people far less considerate then us, pulled in behind where we were parked and blocked access to the fueling islands, propane tank and dump station. At 9:00 PM a peremptory knock on the door informed us they we had to move on because no one could move until those who were first in had left. We rolled 6 miles down the road to a Wal Mart along with a dozen others and were left alone in blessed quiet for the rest of the night. I won’’t even try to stay at that Flying J next year. This intersection of I 81 and I 76 (PA Turnpike) is a madhouse with hordes of Canadian Rvers coming down 81 from the 1000 Island border crossing where they pick up it up and many others from northeastern US who are not headed for Florida (or are and are just avoiding the traffic and large cities on I 95). Each year when we reach this point coming down US 15 we haven’’t seen any RVs at all until we get to this intersection.

The kids, large and small and the dogs are wonderful to visit. We were able to be here for Josh’’s 14^th birthday and what a party it was. He had his entire class -– 7 in all -– at the house for active play in the yard and individual pizzas that each got to dress for themselves and a gluten free birthday cake that did not seem to be missing anything. Malena is a miracle worker putting the whole thing together in a day while also driving the older children into school and doing all kinds of shopping.

Dan and I are working to develop a more appropriate site for the motorhome on his property where I will be able to have some more amenities to extend our stay. We are currently limited by the size of our holding tanks to less than a week. Also using a 15 amp circuit from his house really limits what we can use on board. The microwave pulls the circuit way down. Our 1500 watt heater leaves us almost no ability to use any other appliance while it is on. Also, as I may have mentioned in the past, positioning Gee 2 in the driveway is more of an art than a science. It takes 5 or 6 very small maneuvers to essentially turn it around in 10 feet more than its length, without hitting the house, fence or tree and once we are in the space is not very level and requires a lot of blocking to get the refrigerator sufficiently level to work well. In the next year or so we hope to improve the parking, get in a 30 amp service and most importantly get access to his septic system. Now that the specs are in place we can start looking for what it will take to make it happen.

Carol and I had dinner with the Gretchen and Ed Robb last night. We went to the Mill Street Grill in Staunton as we did last year and had a delightful evening chatting about all kinds of subjects. We even got on to politics, amazing that that would come up. Ed has two years left on his current term and I guess politics are never too far from the top of his mind. We read “Friend of the Family” since the last time we saw him and I must admit it casts a different light on this gregarious friendly guy to know how much time he spent undercover in the Mafia for the FBI. Gretchen is still managing their menagerie and has added another quarter horse from the King Ranch to the stable. She is going off to a hunt this weekend.

The weather was in the 60’s today (Monday the 9th as I write) and Carol and I took a wonderful hike further up the Hollow to a hunting lodge (a fancy name for a derelict cabin in the woods). WE hiked with the dogs for over an hour and returned to the house tired and ready for showers. We were disappointed to find the power out, which meant no shower for the time being. Power was restored in time for dinner. Tomorrow Carol will join Dan at an open jam in town, I may go along as audience. We plan to be on the move Wednesday, the 11th.

You can see my first attempt at a PowerPoint slide show covering our trip from Hamilton, Ontario to the Convention in Minot, ND by clicking on this link . Be patient, this Adobe Acrobat file is 7 meg. I hope to put up another slide show in a few days.

On the roll again. It is September 1. On our arrival at Cedarville CG at 6:40 PM we were greeted by Shelley and Norm and the owner. We were guided to a site next to the Topfs and after a few minutes to get set up we put together the first of our pot luck dinners together. They had been touring the area for the past two days and we had just put in a long day behind the windshield so for our first day we decided to do nothing. Nothing included a trip to the town library to make use of their WiFi, as a result of which you received the previous posting. It also included getting the boat out again. Carol was not up to boating so Norm and I went out for a long paddle during which we had to pull the boat up onto a dock to further inflate it. I had been inflating to carry Carol and me and Norm actually weighs a few pounds more than Carol and the boat needed more air for appropriate stiffness. Since I had the pump along, per instructions, this was a simple exercise. After clean up and dinner it was time for early turn in.

For day two we drove up to Sault Saint Marie (finally learned how to spell it) and watched a freighter go through the locks and had an acceptable lunch. We then stopped at a coffee house, where we should have gone for lunch, to use their WiFi. For a change only Carol was able to get connected. Usually she had a hard time and I didn’t have any problem. We went back to the campground and Norm and I took computers to the library for another round of connectivity. When we got back to camp, it was still a bit early for wine so Norm and I took the boat, which was still inflated, out for a quick paddle before cleaning it up and packing it away. I think that those are the forth and fifth uses we have made of the boat, but who’s counting. The women put together a wonderful dinner of eggplant on the grill, ask Carol for the recipe she made up on the spot. Shelley baked a cake and we ate in the Topfs coach because the flies had become totally miserable when the food came out. As the women cleaned up from dinner, Norm and I were busy outside putting away all the stuff we could in preparation for an early departure in the morning. Early in this instance was by 9.

We woke up at our usual time this morning and with out pressing too hard we were hooked up and rolling in caravan by 8:50. We plan to stop in Saginaw to fuel ourselves and the motor homes. 32 miles remain as I write this. We will go our separate ways from there.

Fuel stop: talk about pucker factor. We bought 48.75 gallons of gas at $3.40/gal. OUCH. I guess I had best readjust my thinking about operating costs. The reality is that the additional dollar a gallon still has not made fuel the most expensive part of operating the motorhome. I will just have to modify my expectations and drive slower and take more direct routes. As for the “drive slower” when you RV’s on the road running 10 mph below the limit, don’t get annoyed, take a lesson from us, fuel consumption improves by 15 to 20% and that makes a big difference.

After parting from the Topfs at Saginaw, we crossed into Canada at Port Huron and started looking for place for the night. The Wal-Marts were all too far off the road and I had no way to locate a Canadian Tire. From our books we determined that there was a campground in Woodstock and that is where we directed our course. My oh my! Woodstock was an eye opener on our drive through, large gracious homes on beautiful lawns with lovely gardens. Except for the size this could have been England. We later learned it was settled by British Admiralty retirees. It is also a short drive to Stratford (50 km). The campground certainly fit in, it had lovely grounds and gardens and a pleasant pool that I managed to take advantage of. In the morning we trundled on down the road to Niagara on the Lake for three plays and a visit with some family.

We saw Gypsy, Belle Moral and Happy End. All were well produced and acted. Happy End had the difficult attribute of lacking a play that was related to the music and lyrics. We enjoyed the music, but were mystified as to how it related to the meager plot that was offered.

Saturday night we had dinner with the Foreman and Arnie Zimmer and Peggy at Epicurean. The place was a delight and on advance order they had a nice veggie dish for Carol.

On Monday we set off for home at 10 AM. By 10:30 we had cleared customs on the Lewiston Bridge and were rolling for home with one more fuel stop to top off the tank for storage. As we pulled out of the Pembroke Flying J, I decided to drive along NY 5 rather than the Thruway. The good news was it was pretty and we could drive slowly without upsetting the rest of traffic. The bad news came as we approached Caledonia. I thought I saw something in the road, in the shadows, but was unable to see much other than that it was in the center of the lane. Too late it became clear that it was a stacking chair. The noise it made as I hit it was horrendous. It dragged under the front end. I pulled over at once and discovered a metal framed plastic chair wedged under the front bumper against the axle. Our FMCA Goose Egg is gone from the front and the license plate is bent. There is other minor damage to fiberglass that will not hinder our operations and will not be repaired immediately because it is not visible except on close inspection. People appeared from nowhere, drawn by the noise and we were glad to reassure them that the damage was limited to some broken plastic. The chair was in much worse shape when I hurled it into the adjacent field. When we stopped shaking we drove on home. We are grateful that this was the only untoward event of a 4061 mile trip.

Some other statistics: We put 616.81 gallons of gas in the tank. We average 6.84 miles per gallon, but that was improving steadily toward the end of trip. The worst tank; Driving in the Black hills and Badlands averaged 5.26 mpg; the best at 7.95 mpg was from Madison WI to Cedarville, MI (near Sault Saint Marie). We stayed in 14 different campgrounds and our longest stay (other than the rally) was three nights in three different places.

I will not describe the monuments, they have been photographed and used in so many media that they are totally familiar to all. We stayed in a very nice camp ground in Hill City, very close to the center of monument area, it is Crooked Creek CG and we would certainly stay there again, if we return to the area. While we were there a collectors car club was gathering for a weekend rally and there were plenty of cars from the 20’s 30’s and more recent already encamped as we were there. I would suggest that if you have not been to the area it is well worth the trip. We took a 22 mile loop road, in the car, that twists and turns and goes through several tunnels, two of which afford splendid views of the Mt Rushmore framed in the tunnel opening. Along the way we passed Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park and decided it would be a great place for paddle number two in our boat. We returned with the boat and had a fine time on this tiny gem of a lake with rock ribs protruding from it and gentle shores all around.

Our one dinner out in the area – at Ruby’s in Keystone can best be described as Iceberg Lettuce and bland coffee. It wasn’t bad, just not good. On the other hand, our lunch in the restaurant at the Crazy Horse Monument was delightful and inexpensive. Also the Board of Directors, including Korcak’s wife, Ruth, were at the next table. We spent 4 or more hours there and could have stayed longer.

The next day, Friday, I think, found us on the road toward Madison WI, some 750 miles to the east. First we had to drive through the SD Badlands. All the guidebooks take this route east to west, but were going the other way. In retrospect, the approach from the east would be far more impressive. You would have driven 400 miles of straight flat highway and then encountered this 1,000 foot wall that forms the first impression the pioneers had of this area. We had that view in our mirrors as we descended onto the plain. Ah, but first as we entered the Badlands from the west we had to stop in Wall, SD at Wall Drug where we were able to actually purchase some drugstore items we were in the market for. Of course you could buy almost anything else there too. This is another not to be missed ONE TIME stop.

We drove east across SD the rest of the day and still did not make it to Minnesota. We stopped in Mitchell, SD at Rondee Campground which had the benefit of being Passport America (50% off) and being located just off I 90 and on the edge of town. In Mitchell one must visit the Corn Palace. It has had its exterior redone in corn, rye and other material since 1892. Of course the current building is the third one, but it dates back to 1913. Once we saw it there was nothing left to do but hit the road, and we did. Crossing the rest of South Dakota and all of Minnestoa took up the rest of the day. As we approached the Mississippi River, I started looking for a place to spend the night. The Exit Source (a book that lists every business within ¼ of a mile of every Interstate exit) said there was camping at exit 2 in La Crosse, WI. We got off and took the indicated turn and found ourselves on an industrial road with no indication of camping availability. As we proceeded to the end we had the La Crosse airport on our left and at the end there was a large paved area that had the look of extended disuse. It was perfect for an overnight dry camp. As we settled in our seats to contemplate it, I noticed the Airport Police and Fire Office with one car in the parking lot. It occurred to me that they might have an interest in anyone wanting to park where we were. I walked over and rang the bell and was admitted. The officer who greeted me was clearly nonplussed at my request. And had to think about how to respond, this resulted in the natural easy response for any security officer, NO! We moved on and two miles later we pulled off for a Wal Mart/Sam’s Club parking lot. The Wally was abandoned, clearly replaced by a Super Wally someplace, but the Sam’s Club was in business and all ready inhabited by motorhome set up to spend the night. We joined them. In the morning we were up by 7 and we walked through the parking lot to a Panera Bread store that had just opened and had breakfast there while Carol got her Mac online using their free WiFi. We returned to Gee 2 by way of a Farmers Market that had just opened in the parking lot and bought some fresh vegetables that we didn’t need, but looked too good to leave there. We then set course for Madison, WI and cousin Mimi whose home we have never seen. We arrived at Mendota Park and Campground by noon, slightly frazzled by a dispute between Hal and the TrailerLife Campground Guide, at polite way of saying we got lost. I Stopped and Asked for Directions with no coaching from Carol!!

By 2 PM we were showered and had lunch prepared for Mimi and her friend Kate. Both of Mimi’s homes are in a state of turmoil as she is finishing preparing one to move into the other is being taken apart for moving out of. Kate’s home is also in a state of remodeling so Gee 2 became the venue. Since we were situated on a lake (hard not to be in Madison) they brought a long a kayak and we got the new boat out and had out third outing on it. This is a bigger lake with power boats and waves and the PaddleSki responded well enough and was not excessively disturbed by the waves. For those interested in campgrounds this one would be an all ‘round 10 if had had water and sewer on site. As it is it is mostly 30 amp electric and the water and sewer are on premises but not at the sites. There are shaded sites and sunny sites and there is ready access to the lake and Madison is just around a bend in the lake. Gravel pads and nice grass for the camping areas made it very comfortable. Reservations must be made 10 days ahead and do call during “ normal business hours,” there is no on site staff and registration is DIY. There was a very nice host present when we were there. We greatly enjoyed our visit with Mimi and Kate and concluded it with a fine meal at Edo’s and very nice Japanese restaurant where Carol and I were delighted to be Mimi’s guest.

After a too brief night’s sleep we got our act together and were rolling by 8:28. We are still rolling as I write this at 4:15. We expect to arrive in Cedarville CG by about 6:30 to hook up with Norm and Shelley Topf who we first met in Perry, GA and most recently spent a week with in Minot.