9 in a row!

 7:59 am - Thursday - 04/26/2018 - St. Louis, MO - 48º F, 100% humidity....yes, that's right....100% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the south by southeast.......looking outside I see no evidence of any wind whatsoever.....seems totally CALM.

We began our 9th consecutive travel day with St. Louis just 157 miles away.  Yeah, I know, another 'strenuous' travel day, right?  Well, it is what it is.....you still have to drive the miles and arrive without incident....that is the trick.

Rain was forecast for our starting location, Lebanon, MO by mid morning, so we decided to roll our wheels by 7:50 am and arrive at our destination for the day before the rain caught up with us.  That's the thing about dry camping......all you have to do is turn the engine over and roll.....you don't have to roll up a water hose, disconnect an electric line, or finish dumping your tanks.....you just start the engine and go.

We were back on I-44 and rolling eastward within minutes.  The route this day was full of big rolling hills....up and down we would go over and over again.....300' up.....300' down for 150 miles until we finally began our descent to the Mississippi River at 450' elevation.  The interesting thing about St. Louis is that from here to New Orleans where this great river empties into the Gulf of Mexico you will only lose 450' in elevation over 658 miles.

We made just one stop with about 50 miles to go at a Rest Area for about 15 minutes to go to the bathroom, and stretch and then continued on to our destination.....the Oakville Elks Lodge on the east side of St. Louis.  They offer just 6 back in RV sites with 20 amp electrical....total cost for four days.....a minimum $15 donation!

Since we had an extremely early start with only one stop along the way, we arrived at the Elks Lodge in Oakville, about 300 yards from the Mississippi, around 11:38 am....the lodge does not open until 2 pm on Wednesdays so we went about parking, and hooking up to one of the 20 amp plugs provided.  TLE called her brother, Creig, about the time we arrived so while we waited for the lodge to open, and Creig to arrive I went about a few chores which included finally stowing the new hose I bought on Tuesday, and removing the brass male and female fittings from the old hose before discarding it into the Elks dumpster.  By the time I finished with that Creig had arrived and we sat talking until the lodge opened.  This is one of the most scenic Elks Lodges at which we have stayed on our journeys.....

There are some soccer fields immediately adjacent to the Lodge....I feel right at home

Once I had made my $15 donation (I actually donated $20) we got in Creig's Ford truck to drive over to his home in Fenton, MO (a suburb of St. Louis located to the southeast of St. Louis), which was only about 10 miles away.  We planned to go out for dinner with he and his wife Kay later in the evening, but first he needed us to help him move his 1996 C-4 Corvette back to his storage garage about 10 miles away......I got the assignment of driving it....I have never driven a Corvette of any vintage before, so I gladly accepted the assignment.....

 TLE took this short video of me driving the 'Vette

.....Creig stores his C-4 in his daughters garage across town when he is not using it.....his garage is full of Triumph TR-6's.....more on that another time.  We arrived at his daughter's garage about 20 minutes later where I backed the 'Vette into the driveway....

.....getting into this low slung beauty is much easier than getting out....at least for me!

Once we had the 'Vette tucked away we then headed back to Creig's home to await the return of his wife Kay who was out getting her hair done, and doing some light shopping.  She returned home about 5:30 pm at which time we headed into downtown St. Louis to a micro brewery called '4 Hands Brewing Company' for some brews and food......

Moi, TLE, Kay and Creig

.....for our first round (we weren't driving) of beers TLE and I ordered two 12 oz. La Belleza's (an Imperial stout brewed with cocoa, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, chilies, and ginger)....delicioso!  For our second round we chose their Zellige (Moroccan Coffee Stout brewed with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamon, black pepper and sea salt)......both were scrumptous!

Our two 12 oz La Belleza's 

The food menu

For us to give our top marks to any micro brewery the food must live up to the beer, and 4 Hands' food definitely rises to that level.  We ordered a Chopped salad, Smoked Brisket Nachos, and their Brisket Poor Boy sandwich to share.....OMG.....this place definitely lives up to its 4 star Yelp rating on 229 reviews!

Creig and Kay delivered us back to the Newell by 8:30....what a great day!  We arrived home in a light rainfall....the rain finally caught up with us! 

Thanks for stopping by!

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You'll get a charge out of this....

6:53 am - Wednesday - April 25th - Lebanon, MO - 51º F, 72% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north......high clouds with a forecast high of 57º F and rain about mid morning....we will be long gone by then.....no rain forecast at today's destination....St. Louis.

Once again we did not plan to leave Downstream Casino until about mid morning so after I finished writing my daily blog entry we took off on a walk around the enormous parking lot....

.....each lap was about .8 of a mile, so we walked around the lot two times for a total of 1.6 miles.....

.......we covered the 1.6 miles averaging over 3.5 mph burning about 296 caloric units.  While we are moving every day we try to walk every single day just to keep the juices flowing.

By 10:30 am we were ready to roll so I unhooked our electrical and we were on our way to our oh so modest goal of Lebanon, MO.....just 127 miles to the east.  Ultimately we plan to spend a few days in St. Louis, but St. Louis was 286 miles away, and I didn't want to drive that far in one day, so we chose a closer destination.

The drive was quite easy along I-44 which in this section has a lot of gentle rolling hills.  I just set the cruise control on 60 mph and held on to the steering wheel.  We ended up stopping to take a break 3 times in 127 miles, a new record for us.  One of our stops was at a Camping World just east of Springfield, MO.  Camping World is owned by Good Sam, and they are a great resource for anything you might need for your RV.  They also sell RV's, and work on them, but I would never let them work on my Newell.  I've heard nothing but complaints over the years from everyone I have met who has had them work on their RV.

I needed to replace my 50' white water hose as it has been 'done' for a long time.  I wanted to get one just like my 25' white hose, which I also bought at Camping World 6 years ago.  It is still going strong after all these years, and I was hoping they had a 50' version of that hose.....they did!  We picked up a couple of other things (valve stem extenders for my rear dualies, and some tension bars for our cupboards to keep things from falling out after a day of driving).

We were back on the road for the final 40 miles to Lebanon and arrived at the Walmart Supercenter there about 2 pm.  We went inside to order a couple of Subway sandwiches for lunch, and pick up some fruit for the next few days.  Our plan after our late lunch was to get the VW out of the trailer and drive one exit back on I-44 to visit a knife outlet store (Buck, Henckels, etc.), and then directly across the Interstate to a large antique store (Heartland Antiques) which boasted 350 booths.  Unfortunately, when TLE got in the VW to back it out of the trailer she found that the battery was dead as a door nail, so I had to get out my portable charger, turn on the big Kohler genset, plug in the trailer to the Newell, then hook up the charger to the battery to get some charge into it before we tried the 85 amp boost quick start option.  It took about 45 minutes to get the battery up to 56% before we tried to use the 85 amp option and it worked.  The car fired right up and we were on our way to the factory outlet knife store.  As it turned out TLE had forgotten to turn off the XM Radio receiver when we inserted the VW into the trailer in Fontana 8 days prior and it drained the battery.

We didn't find any knives we could not live without, so we headed across the Interstate to Heartland Antiques where we probably spent an hour browsing........we came away with a Mason jar to replace the one TLE broke a couple of weeks ago while we were in Fontana.....$2.50.

As luck would have it there was an automated car wash right across the parking lot from where we are parked where you could get a quick wash for $5, so we ran our filthy VW through the wash, dried her off, and then stowed her back in the trailer before heading inside for the day.  By this time it was almost 7 pm....where did that 5 hours go?

Getting ready to role our wheels in about 30 minutes so I will bid you adieu for now.....thanks for stopping by!

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Pucker time....

8:11 am - Tuesday - April 24th - Joplin, MO - 48º F, 85% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the east by northeast.....clear blue skies with a forecast high we will not experience of 75º F.  Nice to have an almost windless day!

We had decided Sunday night we would not leave OKC until after 10 am Monday.....we were only going to drive a little over 200 miles for the day, plus there was no weather, or wind to outrun.  While TLE took care some housekeeping I dumped our black tank for the first time on our trip, checked the oil, and tire pressures of the trailer tires.  All went smoothly.  

I then turned my attention to an issue I had noticed while driving on Sunday.....my oil temperature gauge was not registering a temperature all day.  I suspected a wire had come lose from the temp sensor on the oil pan, so I checked it only to find exactly what I hoped to find.....the temp sensor wire dangling loose.......

The new connector connected to the oil temp sensor once again

.....I carry a supply of all types of 12 volt connectors so I opened up the trailer and found the plastic box containing them, pulled out a new connector, stripped the insulation of the end of the wire, and crimped on the new one.....easy peasy....and order is restored.

I fired up the big 6V92 around 10:10 am and we were on our way to the Interstate on ramp and cruising east bound on I-44 for about a mile.....our fuel gauge was just past 1/2 empty and Oklahoma is replete with low diesel prices right now so we found a station just off the Interstate charging $2.72/gallon for diesel.  We took on 107 gallons at a cost just under $300.  I checked our mileage and found we had averaged 7 mpg for the last 745 miles.....that's the best we have done in quite a while.  Usually we are around 6-6.5 mpg.

We were back on the Interstate within 30 minutes cruising north by northeast.  I-44 is a toll road all the way from OKC to the Missouri border.  Now, to be fair they really keep this Interstate maintained, and in excellent condition as I would hope they would.  We paid a total of $22.50 in tolls for the 200 miles to the Missouri border, and for that cost expect good roads.....

.....as I mentioned above they really maintain this Interstate, and there were several construction zones along our route.....some with the dreaded 'K' rail.  Through this section all trucks must remain in the #2, or right lane which is just barely wide enough.....it can't be any wider than 9.5, or 10 feet..........

Yup....that 'K' rail really is as close is it appears!

......TLE snapped the picture below using her review mirror to show how close I was to this 'K' rail for about 15 miles.....

.....see how close the trailer tires are to the 'K' rails?  All I could do was focus on staying in the middle of the lane.....it was definitely, and officially 'PUCKER TIME'!  Finally the construction zone ended,  just before the final toll booth..... 

.....and just past the toll booth was a toll road Rest Area replete with fast food, truck parking, and gift shops, so I pulled in, parked the Newell and cleared my head for about 15 minutes before we continued to the Missouri border, and the Downstream Casino parking lot.

Finally the Missouri welcome sign appeared, and the sign for 'Exit 1' in Missouri.....our exit.  Within three minutes we were selecting one of about 20 sites available for RV's.......all have water and electric (50 amp) which you can utilize for free for one one day.....after that the daily cost is $30.  I found this site on 'FreeCampsites.net', one of my several sources for overnight stays.  All you have to do is go into the  casino and acquire your 'Q Club' card and you are good to go for one night of free hookups!

So, after 7 days of travel we have now covered 1,517 miles (upper left corner of the Garmine GPS) and are very close to the half way point in our journey to Smuggler's Den RV Park in Maine. 

After hooking up our electric (I didn't bother with the water since we are only staying overnight, and I just topped off the fresh water tank before we left OKC) we walked over to the casino to get our club card, and register for our campsite.  We both got a club card with which you get $7.00 to gamble away if you wish......

......after buying a mocha frappuccino at their coffee shop TLE and I went over to the electronic penny slot machines.  I loaded in $5 of my $7 and began to bet .30 cents at a time.  My balance went up and down over the course of 30 minutes, but I ended up doubling the $5 walking away with $10.83!  I'm not a big gambler, so it's easy for me to stop while I'm ahead, which I did.  TLE was not so fortunate.....she ended up with .12 cents left out of her $5.  We cashed in our winnings and headed back to the Newell for the evening.......

Site #14....all concrete parking lot located a good 1/2 mile from the casino.....nice and quiet!

.....we spent the evening catching up on some recorded shows, plus one show ('Timeless') using our ROKU TV connection....sweet! It was so pleasant outside we left most of our windows open overnight.....haven't been able to do that for about a week now.

Some of you may wonder what sources I use to find overnight spots to park. Following is a list of my favorites:

1) www.freecampsites.com

2) www.RVParkReviews.com

3) www.passport-america.com/

4) Days End Directory....no direct link available as you must be a member of 'Escapees' to utilize this resource.

I never fail to find a great overnight site whether it involves an actual RV park where you pay, or something free, or as close to free as you can get utilizing these sources.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Oklahoma!

7:41 am - Monday - April 23rd - Oklahoma City, OK - 50º F, 90% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the north by northwest......cloudy with a forecast high for today of 74º F.

Shortly after awakening Sunday I was checking the weather on my phone and noticed that the winds would be coming out of the north all along our route with the worst of the wind around Elk City, OK at over 20 mph around mid morning.  Elk City was about 130 miles east of us so it was imperative we get back on the Interstate and cover as many miles as possible before the wind got bad.

We were rolling out of the Cracker Barrel parking lot by 8:10 am and up to highway speed on the Interstate within minutes.  Initially there was no wind at all, and it was very overcast......for a while I thought what we saw in the distance was rain.......

.....but it was not......just very low clouds.  As we continued eastward we saw this old, abandoned water tower that was leaning over so much I was surprised it did not fall.  I guess it has been that way for years......

......it soon began to clear, and eventually the winds from the north began to appear.  Most of the day we were going due east on I-40 so the winds were coming from the drivers side of the Newell forcing me to crank the steering wheel hard to the left almost 1/3 turn.....this is the kind of wind I hate, but at least it was steady and not gusting.

 Heading due east on I-40

Ultimately we entered Oklahoma, but there were no signs welcoming us like we saw in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.....just this sign indicating an Oklahoma Information Center and Rest Area 4 miles distant.....

....we finally got our official Oklahoma sign at the rest area.....it was well worth the wait.....it almost seems like the sign is shouting 'OKLAHOMA!'.  As we travel we stop every 60-90 miles depending on what is available, and at least once a day, sometimes more, we get dressed and go for at least 1/2 mile, but mostly for a mile, or more.  This day we walked 1.2 miles....a couple of times around the Rest Area.

The rest of the day's drive saw me fighting the ever stiffening winds continuously.  We took two more rest stops before finally reaching Oklahoma City.  We were here about 9 years ago and stayed at an RV park on the northeast side of town called Twin Fountains RV Resort.  It is right near the junction of I-44 (yes, we have left I-40 after 6 days) and I-35.  It fits our requirements for being 'easy off and easy on', and having very large, long pull through sites.  We hadn't plugged in for a few days, and TLE needed to do a load of wash so we got off the Interstate around 2:30 pm and snagged a site (P-4) which puts us right at the exit for the RV park.....perfect!  Just as 9 years ago we had no reservation at this very popular park, but got a site easily (it is quite full).

Once TLE got the wash going we walked across the street to a local 'health and wellness' school and walked for about 2 miles on their series of walking trails.....

....we walked a combination of their three trails to get our 2 miles of walking.

Around 6 pm we put on our bathing suits and walked over to the Jacuzzi for a good hot soak, and what a hot soak it was!  It was the perfect temperature.  You know how sometimes you in get in the Jacuzzi, or even the bath tub and it feels hot initially, but within a couple of minutes you are wishing it was hotter?  Well, this was was perfect in that I never wished it was hotter.  We soaked for about 30 minutes, which really helped relieve any residual tenseness remaining from our windy drive earlier.

We've now covered almost 1,300 miles on our journey to Maine, leaving roughly 2,000 miles to go.  We're going to slow down a little over the next week, and are planning on spending at least 3 days in St. Louis visiting TLE's brother, Creig (pronounced Craig), and his lovely wife Kay.  

Thanks for stopping by!

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The color is Yellow......

7:18 am - Sunday - April 22nd - Amarillo, TX - 41º F, 91% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the northwest....forecast high for Amarillo today is 64º F.......mostly clear skies after a little rain yesterday.....we only experienced some sprinkles west of here for a few minutes.  Will be on the road in less than an hour.

It was quite cold (34º F) Sunday morning in Edgewood, NM, and it took about an hour using the block heater to warm the big 6V92 up enough to start her.  We were back on eastbound I-40 by 8:30 am heading for, we hoped, Amarillo, TX.......another state and another time zone change......more clock changing ahead.

The skies started out partly cloudy, and by the time we arrived in Amarillo (means yellow in Spanish) around 3 pm Central Time it was totally overcast, however, I get ahead of myself.  The road surface was as smooth as a baby's butt most of the day, and mostly flat.  The engine temps ran in the low 180's most of the day climbing into the 190's on short climbs......perfect!  It was really just a matter of me hanging onto the steering wheel and enjoying the giant views...... 

......by  11 am we were coming into Tucumcari, NM which is about the last large (I use that word advisedly) New Mexico city on I-40 before the Texas border.  We stopped overnight in Tucumcari about 9 years ago, and while it was kind of a sleepy little town on a Sunday afternoon, it seemed there were a lot of active businesses.  We took a walk that day down Route 66 about 6 blocks to visit the local supermarket.  Below you see the local supermarket all boarded up in the background on Saturday, April 21, 2018.  It seemed that about 50% of the local businesses were closed for good.....

.....it was a little sad to see the stark decline in just 9 years.  We took our second break of the day in Tucumcari at the abandoned supermarket and then continued our quest to cross another state line.  Within an hour we were saying goodbye to New Mexico and being welcomed into Texas.......

.....the terrain did not immediately change, but within 20 miles we came to the flat Texas landscape with which we are well acquainted.........

........with 100's of windmills covering the landscape in every direction......we were passed by a couple of  'Tiny Homes' along the way.......

.....at last we were on the outskirts of Amarillo and our destination for Saturday......the Cracker Barrel just off the Interstate on the north side.  We exited the Interstate and made our way over to the RV parking area in the Cracker Barrel parking lot.....

.....found a spot that suited us and parked.  This is only the second time the RV parking has been long enough for our 62'.  The only other time we have found long RV spots was at the Cracker Barrel in Missoula, MT a few years ago.  The time was about 3 pm Central Time, and the skies looked quite threatening, although we did not get any rain.

We went into the Cracker Barrel about 5:45 pm to have breakfast for dinner.....I had their Oltimer Breakfast (2 eggs, bacon, grits, biscuits and gravy).  Service is always quite fast, and true to form within about 8, or 9 minutes we had our food and were sipping coffee.  We talked about how idyllic the day had been, and our Jello plans for Sunday.....hopefully we will enter another state (Oklahoma), but no new time zones.

After returning to the coach I decided to spend the evening setting up our ROKU TV channels.  Many of the channels we watch are already included in the 'Home' menu, but we had to add about 6, or 7 more which takes a while.  By the end of the evening we were set, and as I write this latest missive I am watching British Premier Soccer on ROKU TV......no turning on the DirecTV DVR, or cranking up the satellite dish.....just turn on my Samsung hotspot, and turn on the TV and we are in business.....perfect for traveling.....quick and easy!

We watched Masterchef Junior before retiring the for evening at 10 pm, which is really 8 pm Pacific Time......my body is still adjusting.

Thanks for stopping by!

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2nd to None.......

7:02 am - Saturday - April 21st - Edgewood, NM - 34º F, 76% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west.....clear blue skies with a forecast high for today of 63º F, but we will not experience that as we will be far down the road by then.

Our Jello plan had been to remain in Grants, NM until Saturday morning, but as things would have it the wind was almost nonexistent when we got up Friday morning.  We debated about whether to move on eastward, or not.  When the winds came back they were much more moderate than the day before, and they were coming directly from the west, which meant we would have a following wind.  In addition to that my coolant temperatures had been running about 5-10 degrees higher than normal and I was convinced that my rear facing radiator needed cleaning.  I got on the phone and checked for some truck places in Albuquerque that offered radiator cleaning services and found one called '2nd to None Fleet Services'.  Yelp gives them 4 stars on 5 reviews, and we would have to agree. I made an appointment and within a few minutes we were back on the road being pushed eastward by the light winds.  

It was only 77 miles to Albuquerque and we were there a little after 11 am, and in their wash bay a few minutes later......

......while I supervised the cleaning of the radiator TLE spent time on her phone looking for a place to spend the night, and found a Walmart about 26 miles further down the road in a little town called Edgewood at about 6,700' elevation (the reason for the cold temps this morning).  John finished cleaning the radiator around 12:45, and we were back on the road to Edgewood shortly thereafter.

When you  are traveling east on I-40 out of Albuquerque you must climb from 5,400' elevation to over 7,100' before you slip down the grade into Edgewood.  This would be a good test to see how clean the radiator got, and she passed with flying colors.  Before the radiator cleaning the temps on climbs were hitting 208-210º.  After the cleaning they settled in at 198º, which is where they have traditionally been.

We arrived at the Walmart around 1:30 pm having covered just 108 miles for the day, found a spot to park out on the edge of the parking lot, and then went inside.  As we walked across the parking lot we would feel the winds picking up again, and were quite glad we were finished driving for the day.  We were both hungry and decided to get some food from their Deli.  We bought a pound of Orange Chicken for $5.50.  TLE noted they had a nail salon, and told me she wanted to get her toenails done so after escorting me back to the Newell where we ate lunch she headed back inside for a pedicure.  The Orange Chicken was delicious.....only $5.50 and it fed two easily.....great deal!

Once we get into the dry camping mode as we travel day after day I really almost prefer it to staying in RV parks.  When we stop in an RV park I have to go outside to plug in, and almost always connect the water.  That is just more stuff to put away in the morning, and folding up a cold water hose is no fun.   We like overnighting at Walmarts primarily because when we travel every day we tend to shop daily buying more fresh food to eat that day.

Time get get ready to roll our wheels once again ever eastward.  Today, Saturday, we should pass 1,000 miles traveled on our trip to Maine, and we should be in Texas by this afternoon.....thanks for stopping by!

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The southern winds......

8:05 am - Friday - April 20th - Grants, NM - 41º F, 29% humidity, wind 16 mph out of the southwest.....clear, blue, sunny skies with a forecast high of 54º F, which we will not experience as we are moving down the road in about an hour.

Because high winds were forecast for the section of the I-40 corridor we are traveling on Thursday around 11 am we decided to get an earlier than normal start to see if we could at least get to Grants, NM (186 miles away) before the winds got too bad.  The forecast winds would be coming out of the southwest, which would mean a cross wind, which makes most large RV's hard to handle.  I don't mind a head wind, or even a tail wind, but any kind of a side wind in the 25-35 mph  range can be exhausting, to say the least.

We exited the Walmart parking lot around 7:30 am and were on I-40 once again heading east.  As I mentioned yesterday Winslow sits at about 4,300' elevation.  Grants, NM, our destination for the day sits at 6,400' elevation, so I thought might have a gentle climb over 186 miles, however, we both forgot about the Continental Divide which was between us and our goal.....

.....which sits at 7,275' elevation, so it was to be like the day before when we had to climb up to Flagstaff in order to slide down to Winslow.  At first we cruised along with no wind, then for a while a tail wind, but then the Interstate turned southeast for quite a while just as the wind picked up, which meant we were taking the wind from the side, and that was the way it stayed for the last 70 miles of our trip Thursday.

We passed by the 'Welcome to New Mexico sign about 10 am, and then suddenly it was 11 am......Daylight Savings Time has struck again! 

We almost got off the Interstate in Gallup, but it was only another 64 miles to Grants so I put on my 'big boy pants' and continued eastward.  By the time we hit the outskirts of Grants, NM the wind was up into the 40 mph range, and it was definitely time to call it a day.  One thing first, though.  We needed to take on a bunch of diesel.  Our fuel gauge was reading under 1/4 tank.  We found a Petro Fuel Station just off the Interstate and pulled in to take on diesel.  I figured we would need around 135 gallons, and I was close.....we took on 137+ gallons at $2.89/gallon (ouch!) for a grand total of $400.  

While I was fueling the Newell the wind was buffeting me around like a rag doll.....yeah, really time to get off the road for the day.  We found a nice little RV park two miles down the road right off I-40 for $19/night, and they had a spot which fit us perfectly!

The winds continued unabated well into the night.  I woke up around 3 am to find they had finally abated so it looks like we can continue our journey eastward on Friday.  What wind there will be Friday will be coming from the west, or behind us.....perfect!

 

We were treated to a beautiful sunset around 8:20 pm......wow, the sun goes down pretty late here and it's only the middle of April!

Thanks for stopping by!

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