Layover Day...

A fellow full time RV'er, Nick Russell (Nick's Blog) refers to their travel plans as being written in Jello, or something to that effect.  When you live this full time life you have to take that attitude, otherwise your life will be filled with self imposed stress.  We're slowly arriving at that mindset, but it has taken time.  


Our plans, written mostly in Jello, were to continue on westward on I-80 yesterday to Cheyenne, WY, but I noticed that the weather forecast there was for snow showers, and rain showers most of the day as well as wind......so we made a decision yesterday morning to stay in North Platte another day.  There is a lot of local history in this western Nebraska town, and it was to be mostly sunny, so we got out our bikes, and spent over 5 hours riding from one historical point of interest to another.....within 5 miles of the Walmart is the Nebraska home of Buffalo Bill Cody (Scout's Rest Ranch), the Lincoln County Historical Museum, and the Union Pacific Railroad Bailey Yard (largest classification, or "hump" yard in the world).  I found Scout's Rest Ranch to be totally fascinating, and it is well worth your time.  The per person entry fee is only $2.00, and of the three attractions was the least expensive, but I would recommend all three.....there is a lot of history to absorb at these three sites.  One thing I did learn about diesel locomotives is that the diesel engines do not power the locomotive....the diesels power electrical generators, that in turn supply electricity to the electric motors that turn the wheels.  Seriously, I did not know that.

"Buffalo" Bill Cody himself

UPR Bailey Yard - 8 miles long

Lincoln County Historical Museum

Buffalo Bill Cody's home in North Platte, NE

All told we covered around 12 miles of riding distance before returning to our coach around 5:30pm.  Prior to our ride I had checked our oil level in the Detroit Diesel and saw that we were about 2 quarts low....the engine holds over 4 gallons, so this is not serious.  Prior to this extended trip the Detroit used about 1 quart every 8 hours (6-700 miles) of operation, but that has dropped quite a bit on this trip.  We have only used 6 quarts in over 6,300 miles.  Thee is an oil reservoir separate from the engine that holds over 3 gallons of oil, so all I have to do it open a gate valve and let 2 quarts, via gravity, flow into the engine.  It was also time to add back in oil to the reservoir, so I poured in 2 gallons of Rotella Heavy Duty 40wt to top it off.


When we woke up yesterday the house batteries were down to 83%, but by the end of the day the solar panels had brought it back up to 91%.  


I watched the Clippers beat the Memphis Grizzlies in OT......first time I have had two L.A. NBA teams that may get into the second round.  Both the Lakers and Clippers are up 3 games to 1 in their series.


We have enjoyed our stay at this Walmart......uh, well, up until 8pm last night when a semi pulled up next to us (this is a big parking lot, and there is a lot of space NOT right next to us) with his "refer" running full tilt.....he pulled the curtains on his cab and went to sleep....what the......so, I cranked up the DD and moved our "home" to the other side of the parking lot.  You know, now that I think about it, that is really cool.....at our sticks and bricks home I'd have to go next store and ask our neighbor to turn down the volume, or call the police.  All I have to do now is move a few hundred feet and the problem is solved!


Well, that was our day....on to Cheyenne!  Thanks for stopping by!

Whew!!!

The lightning, thunder and rain ended somewhere around 6:30am, we finally woke up around 8am and walked outside to survey any damage that might have resulted from the 60-70mph winds the night before, and, thank God, there was none!  I did not mention in my prior post that I had opened up all the window awnings on the driver's side of the coach when the sun was  out the day before.  They were catching a lot of wind, so I had to go outside and put them up.  The decision to go outside was easy....opening the door was another.....the wind was pushing it in so I had to lean into it to open it.....just as it opened about 12 inches the wind caught the door and pulled me out of the coach.....I just went with it and let it pull me, and landed on two feet.  Elaine helped me close it, and I went around to the drivers side and put the window awning in whilst being pelted with large rain drops and buffeted to and fro by the gusting winds.  Getting back in was another deal....Elaine pushed, while I pulled, being careful not to let it go out too quickly, and slipped back in again.

Back to there being no damage....we took the opportunity to wipe down the T-Bird, which we had not put away the night before, and then put it back in the trailer, which was also dry inside.  We discussed staying put for another day as the wind was still blowing around 20mph, but I noticed it was coming out of the east, which would mean we would have a tail wind all day, and who can turn down a good tail wind.  We set a goal of getting to North Platte, NE on Sunday, but had an interim goal of Lexington in case the wind changed directions.  If any of you have ever driven a high profile vehicle in cross winds you know it is NO fun.  

Elaine fixed me fried eggs, sour dough toast, and sausage links for breakfast......I am always impressed with the great food she turns out of that small kitchen!

We were on the way by 10:10am, and hit I-80 and with the wind at our backs floated down the Interstate......when you have the wind at your back there is virtually no wind noise, and it feels like you must be driving an electric car....very, very quiet.  And, that is the way our day went.....before we knew it we were passing Lexington with no intention of quitting early. About 16 miles short of North Platte we decided to stop at a rest stop for an hour as it was only 3:30pm, and we don't like arriving at Walmarts too early in the afternoon.  As it turned out that decision was one of the best of the day....this rest stop at mile marker 186 is the nicest rest stop we have every encountered.  It must have been 15-20 acres in size with most of that being mowed grass, meandering sidewalks, and small picnic areas surrounded by red brick walls on three sides.  

I just sayin'.....you be the judge....this is one nice rest stop....congratulations Nebraska...you did this one right!

I took time to call my Mother, whom I hadn't talked to in a few weeks, and we had a nice conversation catching up.  She is always chiding me for not posting each day as it happens, so I will make an effort not to wait over a day to make a post.....just for you Mom.

We arrived at the Walmart Supercenter in North Platte around 5pm, and quickly found the truck ghetto, found a level spot and parked.  This is actually a nice truck getto...it is quite spread out, and there were a number of RV's already parked.  We walked into Walmart and got a few necessities (Spanish peanuts, Dewars White Label, anchovies for the pizza Elaine was preparing, half and half....like I said.....NECESSITIES), and then walked back to the coach so I could watch the end of the very close Heat/Nicks game, which the Nicks ultimately won by 1 point.....I still don't get what the Heat play was supposed to look like on that last possession.

Later that evening we watched the Amazing Race finale, and in between the 1st and second hour watched the end of the Laker/Nuggets game which the Lakes won....what a great ending to a close game!  I even had my purple and gold Laker Tshirt on for good luck.

That was our day.....thanks for stopping by!

The end of the day....

From the Hawkeye State to the Cornhusker State

I-80 across Iowa...NO K Rails in the construction zone!

We enjoyed our stay in the Iowa City, Iowa Super Walmart.  That evening Elaine and I walked over to a Texas Roadhouse Restaurant to get a couple of draft beers and an appetizer.  We had a late lunch and didn't feel like a full dinner so this fit the bill.  They had one of my favorite draft beers, Fat Tire Ale, and we ordered a platter of potato skins.....a perfect end to a nice travel day!

Our destination for the next day was Greenwood, NE, just east of Lincoln.  The forecast for Saturday was in the mid 90's, so we decided, in advance, to get a reservation at the Pine Cove RV Park where we could plug in and us our A/C with abandon.  To avoid driving during the heat of the day we left Iowa City at 7am under overcast skies.  The weather forecast indicated the overcast would burn off by 9am, but, thankfully, it lasted until almost Noon.  The Interstate in Iowa had a lot of construction going on, but amazingly when we were merged on to the opposite side of the Interstate there were no K Rails separating us from the on coming traffic.....actually, I like this a lot....we're only going 55mph.....no faster than on many rural two way roads.  Much less stressful for sure!

We passed through Council Bluffs, Iowa around Noon, and subsequently crossed the Missouri River into Omaha, Nebraska.....which meant the RV park was about 30 more miles.  We love the Nebraska portion of this Interstate after only 30 miles!

After exiting I-80 at exit 420 we got to the RV park by 1pm, and checked in shortly after that....were we ever glad...it was around 90 at the time, and the A/C was very welcome!  After getting set up for the evening, and doing a little office work we unloaded the T-Bird and drove into Lincoln to a local brew pub called Granite City Brewery to sample some of their craft beer.  By this time, 4pm, it was up to 96 degrees and it was time for a couple of cold ones.  We sampled a couple of stout beers and settled on one called Broad Ax Stout, and ordered a couple of pints, and some Asian Crispy Shrimp, which was, by the way, excellent!

We got "home" around 6:30pm, and settled in for the night....I watched a couple of NBA playoff games, and Elaine read.  We hit the sack around 10:30pm, and quickly drifted off to dreamland......until 4:30am when we were awakened by the coach rocking back and forth!  What?  An earthquake?  No.....high winds, which led to heavy rain, and then the kicker....lightning and thunder that far surpassed that which we experienced in Joliet, IL.....seriously, we were checking for tornado alerts.  Fortunately in about 30 minutes the wind abated, and it was just heavy rain and a light show....finally about 5:3opm we went back to bed, and slept until almost 8am, but the lightning, thunder and rain continued for a couple of hours.  That's the first time in over 3 months on the road that I was scared by the weather! 


The picture below was sundown on Saturday and gave no hint, or warning of what was to come a few hours later.

That was Saturday, and a little into Sunday....thanks for stopping by!

After the storm

We awoke Friday to heavily overcast skies.  We mosied over to the Cracker Barrel for a quick breakfast.  Our goal for Friday was Iowa City....there is a nice Walmart there, and you know we cannot pass up a nice Walmart parking lot!


It was nice to have early overcast skies.....nice to drive in.  Our interim goal this day was to "pay the rent"...it was time to feed the beast as the needle had dipped slightly below 1/4 full.  We also needed to empty our black tank, and take on fresh water, so Flying J in LaSalle, IL fit the ticket perfectly.  At the RV island you can fuel, dump your tank, take on fresh water and even get propane!  With our Flying J loyalty card we got $3.94/gallon.  Fueling, dumping our tank and taking on water was the easy part.  I went into pay with my check card and it was declined.  I knew I had plenty of money in my account, so I called my bank.  They informed me that I indeed had plenty of money, but I had lost my card, and they had put a block on it....WHAT?  I had used it that morning to get $100 out of an ATM, and paid for breakfast, and in fact, had my card right there in my hand.  When did they think I lost it?  The nice young lady couldn't tell me, but the reality was that my card was no longer good do to some error on their end, and it could not be reactivated.  BUT, they said my wife's card was still good, and she could use hers to pay.  So, Elaine walks in to pay...within a few minutes she returns saying her card had been declined.  Now I'm close to a rare use of profanity....I get on the phone again with my bank, and they say the system suspended her card because it was being used a long way from home for a large purchase......I said "I know, I just called you and told you we were going to use it for a large purchase".  So, now I am transferred to the fraud department who asks me a lot questions about where I am....I tell them we have been traveling for over three months and have each been using our cards in state after state without problem until today.  At any rate, they finally release the suspension on Elaine's card and we pay our bill.  In the mean time I am now awaiting the arrival of a new bank card, so Elaine is the "money man" now....haha!  

 Over the Mississippi

 Goodbye Mississippi until September

The drive across I-80 was completely pleasant.....not much to tell....the interstate is very flat, and straight across the plains.  All I have to do is set the cruise control and hang on to the steering wheel, and, maybe sing along to 50's music.....Elaine says what I do is not remotely close to "singing", but I enjoy myself, so as long as no small animals are being harmed I'll continue to make my "beautiful noise"...haha!  We crossed the Mississippi River around 2pm, and are now west of the Mississippi for the first time since early March.


We arrived in Iowa City around 4:45pm and found a nice quiet corner of the Walmart parking lot to park in for the night.....another nice day in the life!


Thanks for stopping by!

Lightning and thunder and rain....OH MY!

We left Kimmell House Inn around 11am Thursday morning and headed out US 6 to Indiana 35 south to Indiana 30 west all the way to I-80 and Joliet, IL...at 148 miles a little more distance than we normally travel.  That's the short version....lol!  If that's all the excitement you need today you can stop reading and ignore the rest!

Yep, we are in Amish country!

Actually, the long version is not much more exciting.  The first 118 miles was a cake walk....the secondary roads we drove were very pleasant until we hit Chicago Heights, which appeared to be a very seedy town....and then the road got narrow, and rough for about 5 miles....that ended up being the least of my worries......then the mind numbing 20 mile construction zone started.  If we had stopped after 118 miles it would have been a very easy day.....25 of the last 30 miles taxed my nerves and concentration to their limits.  The construction zone involved 1 lane each way with K rails on each side and maybe  1 1/2 feet to spare on each side for me.  To add to the difficulty factor the road was rough, and often off camber....very difficult to keep the Newell in the middle of that narrow lane.  When we hit I-80 I could feel my blood pressure lowering....only 5 miles to the Cracker Barrel where we would spend the night....but wait, there's more......the last 4 miles was another construction zone.

Cool barn

This is where it gets a little more exciting, or maybe interesting....you be the judge.  Around 8pm it started raining pretty hard....so hard we lost our satellite signal for about 5 minutes....that is what I call a thick cloud cover!  Then the lightning and thunder followed, and continued virtually all night long.  You could hear the thunder just rippling all around us hour after hour.  Fortunately, where we were parked in the Cracker Barrel parking lot had very good drainage, and, of course, we were quite snug in the Newell.  I don't know if I have ever been in an electrical storm that lasted that long.  A couple of bolts seemed quite close.


Tomorrow we will eat breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, and "pay the rent" as I say....it is time to fill the diesel tank....it will probably take around 130 gallons to "top off" the tank....lol!


Thanks for stopping by!

Moving day....

Kimmell House Inn

Every once and a while we need to change our view.  After all, it is why we love this lifestyle.  On the otherhand, I don't like goodbyes, especially saying goodbye to family.  We had a wonderful week at the Andrew's homestead in Chelsea, and we will miss my sister and her husband dearly.

Backing Up

As you will recall, we had to kind of shoe horn the coach into the parking spot at their home, and I was not looking forward to backing out.  So much so that I had several dreams Tuesday evening about backing out, or I should say "trying" to back out.  My sister decided she would take a video of me extricating my 62 feet from their driveway.  That video is just above this paragraph for your viewing enjoyment, or not.

Our destination for Wednesday was Kimmell, Indiana......why Kimmell, Indiana you ask?  Well, it is home to another Newell owner, Dean Stoops, and his wife Deb, who own a 1993 Newell.  A number of years ago they bought the old Kimmell mansion, built in 1876 out of red brick, and converted it to a beautiful Bed and Breakfast called, of course, The Kimmell House Inn.  A picture of the Inn is at the top of this post.  

The drive down to Kimmell along I-94 westbound to I-69 southbound to Indiana 6 westbound from Chelsea was uneventful and we arrived around 3pm at the Kimmell House Inn.

Breakfast with the Lovely Elaine

Dean treated us to a tour of his 1993 Newell, and later that evening the mansion, and all the work he and Deb have done to make this a wonderful Bed and Breakfast destination.  After the tour we sat around talking until almost 11pm.  They are very near the Lincoln Highway, Shipsewana (home to a famous flea market), and, of course, this is smack dab in the middle of Amish country.  Additionally there are a number of lakes in the area.

That was our Wednesay....we are moving west for the next 12 days at a 150 mile per day clip.  I need to get Elaine to Boise, ID by the 15th so she can drive the rest of the way to Cannon Beach, OR to her women's retreat.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Serendipity strikes again....

 Zou Zou's Cafe in downtown Chelsea, MI

When a comment is left on our blog I get an e-mail notification that a comment has been left.  The most recent comment was left by Krash and Karen pictured below.  They had been following our blog since Cedar Key.....they had been in Cedar Key in January and had actually stayed at Low Key Hideaway, and had met Pat and Cindy Bonish who manage the Hideway.  Through Pat and Cindy's blog (Every Mile is a Memory) they found a reference to us and our blog and began reading.  Krash and Karen do not currently have an RV, but are very interested in the lifestyle.  As it turns out the world is quite small, and they actually live about 20 minutes from Chelsea in a town called Ypsilanti, MI.  They wanted to know if it was possible to get together and meet, so we set agreed to meet them Tuesday afternoon at Zou Zou's Cafe in downtown Chelsea for coffee, and then drive out to see our coach.  We spent a delightful 3 hours talking about the places we had been....they had also been in Savannah around the same time we had been there.  Thank you Krash and Karen for stopping by and making our lives a little richer for having met you!

Krash and Karen

I don't remember if I had put up any pictures of the tool box damaged in my "backing mishap" in Ranburne, AL, but here is a picture of the repaired damage.  It's not perfect, but it is much more functional.  I just need to re-install the lock on that side.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Chelsea visiting with my sister and her husband, and we have gotten a small taste of Chelsea and Ann Arbor.  On Monday Jill, Elaine and I drove into Ann Arbor to have lunch at the Blue Tractor Brewery and BBQ....what a treat!  Great beer, and extremely good pulled pork BBQ.  After lunch we walked over to The Treasure Mart, a local consignment shop where Jill found a couple of treasures she could not do without.....lol!


Monday was kind of a drizzly day, so after we returned home we spent the rest of the day inside staying dry, and did some reading.  I know I have written this blog a little out of order timeline wise, so I hope I haven't confused anyone....haha!


Today, Wednesday, is get away day....a day I do not enjoy when I have to say goodbye to family and/or friends.  Today it is family, and I wish we could have spent another week, but we must continue our westward trek to Spokane.  On, or around the 15th of this month (May) Elaine will be leaving me for a week to attend a women's retreat in Oregon that she had been attending for several years.  Somewhere around Boise, ID we will unload the T-Bird and she will drive over to the Oregon coast to Cannon Beach.  I will will follow her at a much slower pace and meet up with her in Oregon, and then we will head north to Spokane. 


Over the next 14 days we will be moving every single day at least 150 miles so there will be a lot to write about!


Thanks for stopping by!!