Epic

Sunday we awoke to rain, wind and cold.......sounds pretty familiar, huh?  That's pretty much been our story line since we left Rifle, CO a few weeks ago.  So it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that we stayed in most of the day with the heaters blasting pretty much non-stop all day.  

I spent most of the day watching the final round of the Player's Golf Tournament, and then the L.A. Clippers vs. the OKC Thunder.  The Thunder led the entire game, one time by as much as 22 points, and with 9 minutes to go in the game they were still up by 16 points.  It did not look good for the Clippers, but then the unexpected happened......the Clippers started making baskets, and the Thunder began missing.  With 67 seconds to go in the game the Clippers got their first lead in the game, and ultimately won by 2 points in one of the greatest NBA playoff comebacks in history....WOW!

Internet photo courtesy of Yelp

Around 4:30, or 5 we headed up to Salt Lake City to check out a micro brewery called Epic Brewing Company on State Street.  They have a small tasting room with 6 bar stools where you can also order sandwiches, or salads to go along with your brews.  

The very intimate tasting room courtesy of Yelp

At first I was a little off put by the very tiny tasting area.....there were only 3 bar stools available and there were four of us.....fortunately we were able to pull in an additional bar stool and make room for the 4th seat.  All that being said, from that point on our experience was noteworthy.  Epic specializes on higher ABV beer, and they sell samplers of about 3-4 ounces for any where from .40 cents to $1.00 each, and by the pint for $2.50 up to $6.00.  We all went through at least four samples each....I sampled their Galloway Porter and 825 Stout, then their Smoked Porter and their Smoked and Oaked Belgian Style Lager, and that is where the sampling pretty much ended for each of us.  We settled on the Smoked and Oaked Lager to drink along with our sandwiches, which, by the by, were amazing.  I had the BLT on sourdough and was just blown away....it was the perfect compliment to the beer.  Yelp gives them a robust 4.5 stars on 85 reviews, and that is right on the money based on our experience.

We sat talking with a really nice young man (probably in his late 30's, or early 40's) named Bill Decker who was in town to do a walk through of a home he and his family were buying up near Park City.  His family is back in Philadephia right now, but will be moving out in a few weeks.  As I have written often here, it is ultimately the people we meet along the way that have made the biggest impression on me during our nomadic wanderings, and this was one of those occasions.  

I was so impressed with the Smoked and Oaked Belgian Style Lager that I bought two 22 ounce bottles to take home for future consumption.

We then headed over to the local Trader Joe's to pick up a few items, and then were home by 7:30.  Our evening out at Epic Brewing was the perfect cap to a great weekend spent with my brother and his family. On Monday we continue our trek westward to South Lake Tahoe, and warmer weather......seriously.....warmer weather!

Thanks for stopping by!

Of Mom's, Lovers, and Friends

Unless you are currently a castaway on a desert island with no communication this weekend, there is no way you can not be aware that this is the weekend that America celebrates the value of Mothers.  The Lovely Elaine, my wife of 42+ years, and best friend of 46 years, has raised 5 of the most amazing children.  She has made my life, and the lives of our children worth living.  Thank you sweetheart for sharing this amazing adventure we call life.

At Padre Island in the first month of our new nomadic life

At the "Goonies" house in Astoria, OR 7 months into our journey

On our 41st wedding anniversary in Twin Falls, ID

At Arches NP a few weeks ago.....

Without you, TLE, this nomadic life would not be the same.....I cannot imagine doing this without you.....I cannot imagine not waking up to your beautiful smile every day.  Thank you for making my life worth living.  I wish your mother was here with us today so I could thank her again for raising such an amazing woman, partner, friend and lover.

Now on to Saturday's happenings.......while Saturday gave us partly cloudy skies, and very little wind, it barely got over 50 degrees for the day.  I stayed inside most of the day resting up from our 5 day cross country jaunt.....those last two days kind of wore me down!  I watched some golf......golf is great to watch when you are dozing off periodically.....you can nap for 30, or 40 minutes and not miss much.....lol!

Around Noon time I decided I should empty our black and gray tanks.......while neither is at capacity they will be by the time we get to a place where we can dump again, so I got out my portable macerator pump and went to work.  Within an hour both tanks had been dumped, and flushed, and then it was time to watch more gold, and take a nap!

Around 5 we went inside my brother's home for a wonderful taco dinner accompanied by great guacamole dip, chips and margaritas.  Around 7:30 we headed off to their son, Arthur's National Clogging Championships up in Bountiful, UT.  Another weather front was coming in, and it had started raining as we drove north about 25 miles, but by the time we arrived at the competition venue the rain had stopped.  Arthur made the final six in the Freestyle category.  

Left to right: Moi, TLE, Arthur, Lori and my brother Dwyer

Around 11 pm they had not yet announced the winners of the Freestyle, and it did not look like they would get to that before midnight, so we bid adieu to Arthur and headed home.  I will have to find out this morning how it came out.

It rained most of the night, and finally stopped with in the last hour.......the good news is that as of Monday we will have a warming trend across the west with mostly clear blue skies as we head into the Tahoe Basin later this week.

Stormy......still

Thanks for stopping by!

Ooops.......Part 2

Friday.........

I left ya'll kind of hanging with yesterday's late blog post, so here is the rest of the story.

What I discovered Friday morning when I got up was that the water bay electric heater must have come on, as the temperatures dropped, sometime while we were watching TV Thursday night, and drained the house batteries down to 38% before I turned off the TV and the inverter around midnight.  As a direct result I could not start the big generator Friday morning as the house batteries are used to start it.  I usually start the big generator to run the block heater when we are dry camping so we can start the engine when over night temps get below 40 degrees.  The electric heaters each use 10 amps of power per hour.  I had the water bay heater thermostat set at 60 degrees, and the temperatures got into the 40's pretty early in the evening, so it must have been coming on and off for hours while the inverter was supplying it with power during our TV watching.....DOH!

Wow, I never, ever thought I would make that mistake!  My fall back option was to get out the Honda 1000 watt generator and plug the block heater directly into it to warm up the engine, and after a hour and a half we were finally able to start the big Detroit Diesel.  It takes longer to heat the block up as the small generator puts out just barely 10 amps (1,000 watts) of  usable power, and that is what the block heater takes.  With the big generator it takes less than 45 minutes before I can start the engine.

I don't know yet what the long term consequences of my mistake will be.....discharging a flooded cell battery below 50% usually results in some damage to the battery's charging capacity, and we were way below that threshold at 38%.  It took 4.5 hours of driving just to get them back to 60% by the time we arrived at my brother's home.  Now that we are plugged in they are charging back up pretty fast.....they are already up to 77% after just 3.5 hours of being plugged in.  It will probably take until some time tomorrow to get them all the way back to 100%......that is if they will take a full charge after being discharged so far.

Friday's drive, after we got the 6V92 started, was an adventure.  Once again we were battling a headwind out of the west, but as the Interstate changed directions it became a side wind at times.  We took a break in Evanston, WY after 98 miles of heavy rain, and wind.  We got back on the Interstate around 11:30 am and continued fighting the wind.  

Eventually we reached the Park City, UT area where the rain suddenly became torrential, and then, for a while, heavy wind driven snow.  As we descended I-80 into Salt Lake City the rain continued unabated, and then as we merged on to I-15 for the last 12 miles to my brother's home the traffic became terrible stop and go.....that last 2 miles were like pulling teeth. 

By the time we had the coach parked in front of m brother's home I was literally wrung out, and ready for a nap!  Amazingly, within 90 minutes of our arrival the clouds had parted, and the sun was beating down on us.  There was little evidence left within 30 minutes of the monsoonal type rain we had arrived in......in fact, as I write this entry the neighbor who lives across the street is mowing his lawn.....it has dried out that quickly!

Hard to believe it was raining and snowing

I know many of you admire what we do, and would love to be able to do what we do.........and we also love what we do a lot, but sometimes, because we are only human, mistakes are made.  The question is, what do you do after the mistake is made?  I think we handled my mistake pretty well, and we handled the horrible driving weather pretty well, too. 99.9% of the time our life is pretty cool, and we wouldn't change a thing......when the .1% we don't like comes along we just deal with it knowing things will be better tomorrow, and they usually are.  I can only hope I haven't taken too many months off the life expectancy of our house batteries, and only time will provide that answer.

I always.....well almost always.....make sure I turn off all the electric heaters, and block heater before I unplug the coach.....this time I forgot one.....lesson learned!  TLE came up with a brilliant idea to remind me about the water bay heater in the future.....what do you think?

Around 6 we (my brother, TLE and I) headed over to a new micro brewery in town called Red Rock Brewing to check out their brews, and have a few appetizers.

We settled immediately on pitcher of their Smoked Porter and ordered our appetizers.......Bruschetta, Beer Cracker and 4 Cheese Pizza.  Yelp gives them 3.5 stars on 288 reviews which puzzles me.  Our service was fabulous, the ambiance is hip, and the beer and appetizers lived up to our expectations.  We would give it a solid 4 stars.

By the time we got home around 9 pm my brother's wife had just gotten home from a Clogging competition in which their son was competing.  We spent a couple of hours talking and sipping some excellent single malt scotch......

Friday was like two different days in one, and that is one of the reasons we love our life.  We started out with problems, drove through horrible weather, and some bad traffic, but ended up in better weather, mild temperatures with good friends who happen to be relatives.  We'll spend the weekend with my brother and his family before continuing our westward trek to South Lake Tahoe.......just 550 miles to go!

Oh yeah.....the batteries are back to 90% as of this morning.....that last 10% should take the rest of the day....we'll see....

Thanks for stopping by!

Ooops......Part 1

Thursday.......

After a few years of "doing this" you would think I would have everything "down pat"....apparently I don't......more on that a little later.

We departed Cheyenne around 9:30 am Thursday morning after a very cold night that saw some snow sticking to vehicles, but not the ground.

There was some fog early on, but by the time we hit I-80 it was gone, although the iron clad skies threatened rain and/or snow at any time.  We took time to put in $200 of diesel to top off the tank......it only gets more expensive as we head westward.

The first 50 miles saw us gain elevation steadily from 6,000' in Cheyenne to over 8,640' as we crossed over the highest point of the Continental Divide on I-80.  As it turned out we would cross the Continental Divide two more times Thursday, but at lower elevations each time.

Thursday was a 267 mile day.....one of our longer ones in a while, so we took breaks multiple times at Rest Areas, and one time in the parking lot of Tractor Supply in Rawlins, WY.  We battled a head wind most of the day, and for a 100 mile stretch we had snow flurries, and for about 20 miles very heavy snow.  The good news is that it was not sticking to anything, except to our windshield.

We arrived in Rock Springs at the Super Walmart around 4 pm ready to be done with the driving part of the day.  Once we had the coach parked and leveled we did a little shopping, and then walked across the street to Starbucks for some coffee, and a little decompression time.  Driving into a head wind, or with a wind coming from either side wears me down quickly.

Once back at the coach I made sure to unplug the charger/converter and take the fridge off "auto" so it wouldn't switch to electricity when I turned on the inverter.....I needed to dial in the satellite dish for the upcoming NBA playoff games,and I need alternating current for that task.  If I leave the charger/converter plugged in it will take the 110 AC coming out the inverter and try to charge the batteries from which the 12 volt is being fed into the inverter......in essence I am charging the batteries with the power from the batteries if I do not unplug the charger/converter.  

We watched some basketball, Hell's Kitchen, and Elementary before heading off to bed around midnight blissfully unaware that I had forgotten to do something very important that morning.....what I forgot, and where the "ooops" comes in, is I forgot to turn off the water bay electric heater before we left Terry Bison RV Park that morning.  Stay tuned for Friday's blog to find out the consequences of my mistake.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mr. Jello takes a bow....

As planned we put North Platte in our rear view mirrors around 7:10 am Wednesday morning heading due west on Interstate 80 toward our destination of the day.....Cheyenne, WY.  As related yesterday, rain was forecast for Cheyenne and points west early afternoon so we wanted to be there before Noon.  Initially the drive was a mirror of Tuesday......a wind out of the east pushing us westward.  That held until we passed the intersection of I-80 and I-76.....then we began to gain elevation and the wind began to shift to the point where it was coming out of the northeast, and eventually, out of due north.  Cheyenne rests at approximately 6,000' elevation and North Platte at 2,800', so we were expecting to gain over 3,000' for the day....we weren't expecting the wind shift, but nothing lasts forever, especially a wind out of the east when the prevailing winds are typically out of the west.

We took a break at a Rest Area around 60 miles into the day, and then a final break at the Pine Bluff Rest Area just at the Wyoming border about 110 miles later.....I think I over estimated the size of my bladder.....it is definitely not 110 miles big....:D  Pine Bluff is also one of our favorite Rest Areas.....the last time we stopped here was in May of 2012......they have about 5 miles of hiking trails here, which we hoped to utilize, but it was beginning to sprinkle just as we arrived.

From Pine Bluff it was only 36 more miles into Cheyenne, and we covered that distance by 11:20 am....and it was a good thing because a heavy fog was settling in over the Interstate the last 10 miles!  We have stayed at the Sierra Trading Post parking lot before, and that is where we headed.   Sierra Trading post is primarily an online store which specializes in outdoor clothing.....I have been using their online store for years.  Cheyenne is the site of their large fulfillment center, and retail outlet store....in between those two structures is ample RV and customer parking.

TLE made "breakfast for lunch" while I returned the phone call of my good friend Tom McCloud....he had called while we were on the road, and I really avoid talking on my cell phone while I'm driving the coach.....I am a "one trick pony" and do not multi-task well at all.  It looks like they are ready to finally move all their furniture over from Mesa, AZ to their Wittmann home.

Internet photo.....there was NO blue sky Wednesday

Eventually we ventured inside to find out what bargains we could find this day.....usually we strike out here, but Wednesday I found a pair of Columbia convertible pants for $14....normally they go for $45.  I also found a new pair of slippers for $14......normally $60.  TLE found another pair of shorts for $14.  There is a coffee bar in the store, so once we had secured our newly found treasures we got some coffee and sat down to enjoy it.  I started perusing the weather forecast on my phone and saw that not only was it going to dip below 30 degrees sometime Thursday morning, snow was forecast in the early morning hours.  That was Mr. Jello just letting us know he is still around.  

After much discussion we decided to move a few miles over to Terry Bison RV Park where we could plug in for the night.  This is a Passport America park that normally charges $44......we got a site for $22.  Just as I finished plugging in the skies began to deliver the forecast precipitation.  Along with the rain came wind, lightning and thunder.  

Along about 6 pm TLE finished her preparation of this amazing meal......green beans, roasted vegetables, and roasted chicken.

We watched a couple of recorded shows left over from Tuesday night (NCIS L.A., and Person of Interest) and then watched Revolution and CSI.  All the while we are being buffeted by wind and lashed with rain as the storm raged on outside.

I woke up Thursday morning to see some snow on RV's and cars in the RV park, but none was sticking to the ground.....and on top of that there is a little bit of sun breaking through the clouds.

We'll hang out until about 10 am and then we are on our way westward to Rock Springs.....the forecast shows rain all the way to Rock Springs, but much warmer temps at our destination.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ride, Captain, Ride......

What a ride we had Tuesday from Lincoln to North Platte.....partly cloudy, 15 mile an hour tale wind and smooth roads.......I mean smooooooth roads!  All I did was set the cruise control and hold on to the steering wheel for 236 miles.

We stopped at 3 Rest Areas along the way......we had breakfast at the first one about 65 miles out from Lincoln, then took a mile walk at each of the last two before arriving in North Platte around 4 pm.  The last Rest Area (19 miles east of North Platte) is one of our favorite Rest Areas on the Interstate system, and we have been to a lot of them.  It is like a park.....one lap around the park is about 1/2 mile.

 Stainless steel sculpture on the pond next to the Rest Area

 Parkland!

 Granite sculpture at the Rest Area

Holding on to the steering wheel

Straight, smooth I-80

We parked in our usual spot in the Super Walmart, just as we have done 2 times previously.  The shot below was taken from the third floor of Bailey's American Cuisine which we visited for dinner around 6 pm.....we loved this restaurant so much the last time we were here we had to come back for more.  We didn't know they had an upstairs extension of the ground floor restaurant with full bar, and a nice view so we decided to eat upstairs this time.  You can just see the Newell peeking out from behind a tree in the Walmart parking lot.

TLE opted for a glass of their "house" Cabernet and I tried a pint of their Peach Wheat Ale......I'm not big on "see through" brews, but this one was very good.   We added some Cajun Shrimp and split a Chicken Caesar Salad.  The Shrimp was to die for.....loved their sauce.

After a lovely dinner we walked a couple of blocks over to the local Goodwill, which we visited on our last pass through North Platte.....this time TLE scored big time with two pairs of shorts, a skirt, and 3 shirts, including a Caribbean Joe shirt for a total of $18.

We arrived "home" around 7:30 and while TLE did some reading I watched some more NBA playoff basketball.....the Heat trounced the Nets, and the Spurs did likewise to the Trailblazers in the late game.  We watched NCIS at 10 pm (West Coast feed) and then went to bed at 11 with the intent of getting an early start on Wednesday's drive into Cheyenne, WY where the forecast shows thunder showers early afternoon and into the evening.  We hope to get there before the rain starts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hello Mr. Lincoln....

Without much fanfare we departed the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds around 10:12 am heading south on I-29.  There was not a breath of wind in the air...such a nice change! Our destination for first Saturday was Lincoln, NE....about 228 miles away.  We were last in Lincoln, NE back in May of 2012....in fact almost exactly 24 months ago to the day.  I remember sitting in the bar at Granite City Brewery watching the Kentucky Derby back then, and this year's running of the Derby was just a few days ago!

The drive south on I-29 was new territory for us all the way to Omaha where we exited the Interstate for about 30 minutes to fuel up......yep, time to pay the rent one more time.  I had found a Sinclair just a couple blocks off the Interstate with diesel for $3.69....it was an easy in and out station with not much traffic mid afternoon.  There were still 60 gallons of diesel left, but this will be the best price we see until Wyoming, which is beyond the range of our remaining fuel, so we took on 120 gallons at a cost of just under $450.  This tank will get us to Salt Lake City this Friday, but we will more than likely have add fuel for the final 600 miles into South Lake Tahoe as it is just over 1,400 miles and our range is about 1,200 miles.

By the time we merged on to I-80 west bound the forecast winds out of the east had made their presence known, but now they were pushing us westward, which is a good thing.  It appears the forecast for 2nd Saturday (Tuesday) will be more of the same....suhweet!

 Our travel day was completely uneventful, and went pretty much according to our plan.  At our first Rest Area we took a mile walk by circling the Rest Area 4 times....was nice to walk with no wind.  At our second rest stop we had lunch, and our third was the fuel stop.

We arrived at a Walmart on the outskirts of Lincoln around 4 pm, found a quiet corner of the parking lot to rest for the night, and headed in to do some shopping as we always do.......we needed some chips, salsa and Margarita's for our Newell Cinco de Mayo celebration....as well as a few other minor items (D cell batteries, a water filter for the coach, and more Kleenex.....I have depleted our supply in just 6 days....:D).  This Walmart is 5 miles off the Interstate.....we don't normally venture that far off the Interstate when we are moving every day, but the Walmart that is close to the Interstate does not allow overnight parking, so there you go.

I watched some NBA playoff basketball and saw the L.A. Clippers dismantle the OKC Thunder by 17 points....it was not even that close.  Did I see that coming?  Nope.

TLE and I have been looking forward for some months now to the return of "24", and Monday night was the two hour premier, which we thoroughly enjoyed.....everybody needs a Jack Bauer, right?  We were so "wired" after watching "24" that we stayed up to watch "Castle" not getting to bed until after 1 am.....very unusual for us.

The night was peaceful.....no disturbances, and we have awoken to another beautiful day....there are no heaters humming in the background....we are back in "shorts and t-shirts" weather.....YAY!

Thanks for stopping by!