We left Jojoba Hills 21 days ago. We have been “on the run” most of those days. We had three nights in Redlands and two nights each in Albuquerque and West Memphis AR. The rest of the stops were just overnighters, but since we got in early 3 or 4 PM we had time to relax and take advantage of the areas we were in.

Six nights we were in Harvest Hosts, Elks or other dry camp no charge places. We paid $398 for 8 nights of camping for an average of $49 per night. The last stop, Harrisburg East blew that number up at 84.60 (that was with a 10% discount). Diesel Fuel put in the tank cost $1,964 so far for 457 gallons. If I top off before storing it will take that number over $2,000. The fuel included fuel from Ehrenburg AZ to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort and return, I managed to avoid buying Diesel in California. Last year for comparison I spent $4,460 for fuel to go back and forth and covered 11,100 miles consuming about 1340 gallons. 

The quick trip was necessitated by our desire to attend a Bat Mitzvah in Boston, next week and the balancing desire to stay in Jojoba Hills longer. I am delighted that as we approach our 80th birthdays in the Fall, we are still able to do this fairly easily. Limiting speed to 62 mph and drive time to 4 hours really takes a lot of the stress off.

The coach has performed as well as I could have hoped. Our only “problem” was a rough road in TN claimed a hub cap. Really a center cap on the passenger side front wheel. A replacement will be waiting for us in Rochester, thank you Tiffin (not a gift, I’m paying, but finding a part for a 10 year old coach can be interesting).

The most interesting new place we found on this trip was the Metal Museum in Memphis TN. It is on the eastern bank of the Mississippi and is currently comprised of a campus with a collection of buildings to house the exhibits, the workers and apprentices as well as a forge and a foundry.  We spent a couple of hours there and were not surprised that our friend Thomas Markussen had shown his work  there in its early days. You may find it worth exploring  https://www.metalmuseum.org/ virtually or as a stop when in Memphis where there is much more to see.

The next post will not be On the Road, but I will be posting.

We have made it halfway across the country in a week and a day. Some simple statistics: we have spent just over $1,200 on diesel, 240 gallons so far. Today the pump stopped at $417. The discount program brought that down to $398 for 76 gallons of diesel. We have spent almost nothing for campgrounds since we have been staying in winery parking lots and buying wine. I don’t count that as a cost of camping since I would have bought wine anyhow – probably not THIS wine, but wine.

As I write I am staring out the windshield through the rain at the Mississippi River. It is well worth paying for camping for this location. Saturday I am hoping to stay at a distillery that specializes in Shine. Waiting for word they have room. After that, it appears to be a KOA (horrors) before getting to Dan and Malena’s. 

Today we drove through non stop rain with lightning flashes all around us most of the day. It is not ideal driving, but each of us had only 2 hours at the wheel so it was tolerable. Tomorrow it should clear in Memphis so we can do a bit of touring. 

Not to jinx ourselves, but since we rolled out of Redlands the travel has been relatively uninteresting to write about. Other than the long climb out of Arizona on I 40 with way too many trucks struggling with the climb which meant we lost our momentum and had to resort to low gear struggling ourselves. Even the most foolish drivers have only resulted in my resorting to some blue language, neither of us has had to hit the brakes. 

Our first night we stopped in Quartzite at the Hi Jolly STVA and then on to Pioneer RV Park in Phoenix so we could have a delightful dinner with Mary and Tom Markussen. From there we continued on to  an Elks Lodge in Holbrook AZ. It’s only redeeming virtue was the dust was flat. A quick look into the lodge lead me to not even consider returning for the supposed dinner, since all three denizens were smoking. Back on to I 40 for a two night stop at American RV in Albuquerque so we could visit with niece Erica. We went to VanGogh Immersion. It was fascinating to see so much of his work displayed with so much information and in such a satisfying manner. If I had not seen original Van Gogh works in great museums I would have been much more impressed. As fine as the presentation is the images are still flat, the impasto is flat and does not provide the depth and energy of the original. 

After lunch and some time at the Eco Garden we returned Erica to her apartment and returned ourselves to the coach to prepare for 4 solid days of driving. We stayed last night, Monday, at an Eco-Village Artist community that may be restored to activity some day. During the drive, I turned the wheel over to Carol so I could attend a Zoom Jojoba Hills Board Meeting. She drove almost 180 miles while I attended the meeting and participated and voted. Today was another road day and it brought us to Native Spirit Winery in Norman OK.  The driveway entrance was a bit narrow and we ended up disconnecting the car so Carol could maneuver the coach in between the ditch drop offs. It was nicely done and I get to try my hand at getting us out. The wine is adequate, I bought a couple of bottles to “pay for my stay”. 

Tomorrow, Wednesday we will drive to Post Winery in Altus Arkansas. Then one more road day to Tom Sawyer RV Park on the bank of the Mississippi river where we will stay 2 nights with full hookups. Laundry, long showers and a break from the road. We will travel on OK  9 for a bit to stay off the Interstate for a while. 

AS I post this I am off to solve today’s Wordle

Not the most auspicious beginning to a cross country trip. Trying to leave our site the jacks on the driver side chose not to rise like magic into their storage cylinders. After a moment of consternation I got out the WD 40 and crawled under the coach to clean the shafts so they could retract. A minute later they behaved as hoped for and retracted to Travel Mode.

As we hooked up the Jeep on the exit road I thought I had followed the ritual to perfection, apparently not, as the Jeep was not in neutral when I did the “roll test”. With Carol franticly giving me the STOP signal, I did and repeated the process two more times. The last time I had the manual open to the instructions and followed them precisely, which worked – remember to keep the brake firmly depressed throughout the process. 

As we drove up the long but shallow grade coming out of Temecula on the I 215 the engine began to overheat. I nursed it to the top of the grade and finally into The Grove, the campground that Redlands Truck and RV maintains for customers. I was coming in for routine service and had them check out the cooling system. I just learned that the two stage clutch for the engine cooling fan isn’t working. It won’t switch to fast speed. We hope the part will be available tomorrow so we can get on with the trip.

None of this is really discouraging or even unexpected. The jacks do need to be cared for after a long pause and forgetting the rather involved procedure for getting the car into neutral didn’t surprise me. Even the failure of the cooling system was not unexpected and the likely cause is a relief since I have been imagining so many more costly and time consuming sources. 

Like living in an aging body, traveling in an aging motorhome has some unplanned failures and unpleasant surprises. 

From Google Maps History 2021 travels. Many years ago Carol’s late brother asked for maps of our travels. At the time it was a nontrivial ask. Today Google Maps makes it almost too easy. If you think about our desire to stay warm it becomes clear that the northern route was late Spring into Summer and the Southern route was in the Fall. 

First stop West bound was Dyke Virginia where Dan and family now live on their large farm (15 acres) with space for their two horses. The moochdock space for us is a straight pull in (which results in an extended back out). From there we headed south to Charlotte for a reunion of friends and time with the Rainwaters, who have since begun to relocate to Asheville.

We got in a bit of a hurry leaving Charlotte NC after a week long delay for mechanical stuff. We skipped Louisiana altogether. We made four stops in Texas although only three show. Texas is that big and we needed some time in Livingston to pick up the mail and get the coach inspected. Then on to New Mexico to visit Leora and Stuart in Las Cruces and then to Erica in Albuquerque. This resulted in backtracking south on I 25 to get to Quartzite where we hung out in Hi Jolly camping area to limit our total time for the year in California to less than 180 days. We returned to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort on December 4 and finished 2021 there. We have enough diesel to make it out of California before we need fuel.

The eastbound trip had a hiccup or two. The first stop was Redlands Truck and RV to service the coach and set up the tow for our new Jeep. From there we made it to Albuquerque to meet Erica who flew in to scope out the town as a place to move to. A doctor suggested we return to Jojoba HIlls so Carol could have yet another test and so we did. When the results came back we were released to continue on. We returned to Redlands since the new brake system for the Jeep did not seem to be functioning as expected. They jumped on it the minute we arrived and determined that one of the parts they had installed had failed and they replaced it under warranty, total time was two hours! We stayed the night in their campground spending time with two other Jojobian couples who were there. 

As we ventured north and east we had wonderful experiences along US 50 headed to Lake Tahoe. It appears that most of the places we stayed and visited have been reduced to ashes. 

Colorado was the big draw for the next section of the trip as we visited Elly and Kelly from our trip to Thailand and Vietnam in 2013 and then moved on to Escapade in Rock Springs Wyoming. Heading north toward Nebraska we finally returned to elevations where there is more air to breath. Our next destination became Madison Wisconsin for a visit with cousin Mimi and finally a reprise of US 20 through Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. We gave up on US 20 in Buffalo as it was very local and very high traffic.

The map also shows a jaunt into Canada. We left the coach in storage and took the Jeep to Hamilton to visit Carol’s Aunt Dorothy, now 98 years old, and cousin Marilyn. Then to Toronto where we stayed with the Starkman’s and made a condolence call to Harvey’s younger brother Michael whose wife Stacy died recently. That was a tough visit. They are the youngest in their generation of the family. 

Back to Rochester and back on the endless, so far, cycle of time on the East Coast and then on the West coast with extended drives in between. 

Our travel plans for 2022 include Boston for a Bat Mitzvah, Jazz Fest in Rochester and Sicily in August. That trip has now been postponed twice.