Days 26-31
12-17 July 2011
Albuquerque & Santa Fe

I really didn't forget about you all! And I haven't been lazy, either! I've just been wrapped up in enjoying our summer trip and haven't made the time to write. And once you get behind, it is hard to catch up! I'll see what I can do this morning.

I'll have to go back to Tuesday, the 12th. We spent the day seeing such things as the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History and the ABQ BioPark where we saw the Biological Gardens and Aquarium. They made for a fun day with such highlights as the butterfly house at the Biological Gardens and all of the tanks of interesting fish at the Aquarium.

At the Nuclear Science Museum, I saw the history of an era that has occupied all of my life. There were mockups of atomic bombs, rockets and airplanes (the real things), and stories of the development of the atomic bomb and its imfluence on culture and society. There were floor plans for bomb shelters. I used to wonder why my parents didn't have one like they were "supposed" to. (Nobody I knew did but the Civil Defense sure did put out the material to persuade us of the necessity of being ready to survive nuclear attack!) New Mexico played a pivotal role in the development of the atomic age. And because of my past visits to Oak Ridge in Tennessee (and to my Uncle Herbert [Taylor] and Aunt Nan who lived there), I knew some of the details of that history, but New Mexico's several related sites that we have visited have added to that.

The highlight of the 12th, however, was an evening dinner with my good friend Debra Burke Rockman. The dinner at El Pinto was great (I had the stuffed sopalillas), but the company was truly excellent. Deb and I caught up on what had happened since we last were together 12 years ago, reminisced about our time together in the Housing Mediation Program of Madison's Tenant Resource Center, and Mary got acquainted with Deb for the first time (although she's certain heard enough about Deb in the past). Thank you for a GREAT evening, Deb! Let's not wait so long for the next time!

On Wednesday, 13 July, we traveled from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. After a leisurely morning, we made the drive up the mountains. The V-10 Ford engine in this motorhome does have to work pretty hard in these mountains, particularly since it is pulling a car too. I did manage to pass a truck or two crawling up the grade although I sure got passed by a lot of other vehicles. Everything went well, though, and even the downgrades weren't too bad thanks for the automatic engine braking system that this coach includes. We are camped for the week at the Rancheros de Santa Fe RV Park. On Wednesday, we just made the drive and got settled in for the day.

Can you see the bunny under our table?

Thursday, 14 July, was my 64th birthday. One year from Medicare (if it still exists in a year -- don't worry, I'm not going to go political; I save that for my facebook page as my friends know). We quickly headed off for the Santa Fe visitors center to collect information on the area.

After arming ourselves with a stack of brochures, maps, and other assorted pieces of paper, we immediately crossed the street to tour the New Mexico State Capitol building, also called "The Roundhouse". It is a great piece of contemporary architecture influenced by the history and cultures of New Mexico. Part of what that means is that like almost everything else in Santa Fe it is made to look like it is an adobe constructed building (and some of them actually are made of adobe, too). After that we went on a walking tour (self-led) of the historic area of Santa Fe. The capitol building also has a fine display of New Mexican art.

We saw the oldest house in USAmerica, the San Miguel Mission  and toured the Loretto Chapel with it's amazing free-standing staircase. We toured the Plaza with its countless stores and vendors.

The "oldest house" in the U.S.

The Spiral Staircase of Loretta Chapel
Two complete 360-degree turns,
no visible means of support and no nails

The highlight of the day was dinner at Thomasita's Restaurant. It had been recommended to us by a local. The food was quite good, but not the best I've had. Still, it was a delightful evening with my favorite friend, wife, and dining companion, Mary.

Friday, 15 July, we had a slow morning, did the laundry, and then headed off to Santa Fe (the campground is actually about 10 miles southeast of Santa Fe) where we toured the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum,  which was interesting but we both agreed that (1) we were disappointed that more actual paintings by O'Keeffe were not on display (they had a lot of paintings by those who had influenced her and who were contemporaries) and (2) that Georgia O'Keeffe was not our favorite artist.  We then went back to the Plaza and its marketplace where we bought a black-on-black pottery "summer" owl made by Merton and Linda Sisneros of the Santa Clara Pueblo near Espanola, NM. Merton gave us a good lesson in the lore of the owl and of the Santa Clara Pueblo, and the little owl will grace our RV in it's travels. May it give us the wisdom and enlightenment of the bird it symbolizes.

For the evening, we went to the free open hours of the Palace of the Governors, the New Mexico History Museum and the Museum of Art. Built in 1610, the Palace of the Governors is the oldest structure in continuous public use in the United States. Outside the Palace, under the portal, is where we found Merton Sisneros and his pottery and many other Native artists/potters/craftsman. The portal is restricted to the Native American artisans. Others are across the street in the Plaza itself. The New Mexico History Museum is a very well done presentation of the long history of New Mexico and its peoples and cultures. This is a tremendously diverse state and the museum was an excellent way to get a grasp of the many cultures that have influenced its history and nature. The Museum of Arts was good, but I think we were getting too "art and museum-ed" out to fully appreciate it.

Saturday the 16th was spent in Taos. We drove the High Road to Taos. I sure am glad I was driving the car and not the motorhome! The road is beautiful but it sure is winding. We did see many CLOSED signs in the National Forest due to the fire danger that exists in New Mexico. We also saw smoke from fires that are burning in the distance from where we are.

Along the way, we stopped at El Sanctuario de Chimayo, a place of "holy ground." As a person of faith, I am always interested in the faith experiences and expressions of others. El Sanctuario is a Roman Catholic shrine, but one catches a sense of the Holy regardless of one's own personal religious or spiritual sensibilities. It was a good visit.

El Sanctuario de Chimayo

We had hoped to catch the tour that would take us to Taos Pueblo, but the drive took longer than we expected (partly due to the time we spent in Chimayo and we wanted to eat some lunch, so we decided to catch the Pueblo on our second trip to Taos which would probably be Monday. Instead, after lunch at El Taoseno, which seems to be a favorite of the local residents. It was a good New Mexican-style meal.

After lunch, we wandered the Plaza in Taos. I let myself purchase a silver-mounted turquoise ring, something that is rare for me. I simply don't focus much on jewelry, but this one called out to me and fit so well that it just had to grace my finger!

We also drove northwest of Taos to see the Rio Grande River Gorge and High Bridge. What an amazing sight!

We then returned home along the Rio Grande River route, stopped and shopped at the most frustrating Walmart grocery I've ever seen and came home for supper. That's life through 16 July.

Days 23-25
9-11 July 2011
Albuquerque, NM

Saturday the 9th we drove up from Las Cruces to Albuquerque. It was a relatively easy drive and went well. We're camped at Enchanted Trails RV Park and Trading Post. The main building is the "trading post" and dates back to the late 1940s as a site on the old Route 66, the "Mother Road" of USAmerica. It is also called "America's Main Street." The Enchanted Trails trading post has a lot of character and the RV Park is pretty good. We actually have a tree to provide some (limited) shade. There are also some classic trailers that can be rented as places to stay while here.

On Sunday, we visited the Petroglyph National Monument. Unfortunately, due to the fires and fire danger in the area, only one of the trails, the Rinconada Canyon trail, was open. We took the 1-1/4 mile trail (1-1/4 mile in and 1-1/4 mile out). We saw petroglyphs all along the trail, but most of them were located at the head of the canyon. Although it was another scorcher of a day, the walk was great fun and quite interesting. After the visit to see the petroglyphs, we drove to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, wanting to be there in time to catch the 2 p.m. native dances.

The IPCC is one of the best museums we have ever visited! It is exceptionally well done. The exhibits are informative and well laid out, the activities are pertinent, and the restaurant is very good! (Yes, there is a full restaurant in the IPCC, the Pueblo Harvest Cafe, and it was our stopping place for a late lunch/early dinner.)

One of interesting and informative displays was "INDIVISIBLE", a Smithsonian Institute traveling exhibit. The exhibit is about African-Native American lives in the Americas. I want to applaud the IPCC for sponsoring this exhibit which has to be controversial in the First Nations community since it is the story of the coming together of African and Native Americans and the resulting genetic mix of both traditions/origins and the difficulties which the African-Native Americans experience in both Native American and white USAmerican cultures. It was an eye-opener to a subject that had not been very much in my consciousness.

The dances were fun to watch and the commentary provided insight into the cultural and traditional expressions that are present in these dances. I appreciated and admired the stamina of the young people who danced in the HOT sunlight, seemingly with inexhaustible energy. I'm sure they were exhausted after the dances. The dances all had spiritual significance and were explained as prayers and communication with the Spirit. I had thought about videotaping some of the dances and putting them on here, but I know I don't think it's appropriate for people to tape my prayers and so I didn't tape theirs. And it kind of bothered me that others didn't feel any restraint from photographing and videoing the dances. But, in all fairness, the IPCC had said that photographs were okay.

The Pueblo Harvest Cafe provided us with the first experience of the classic New Mexican question, "Red or Green?" The question is asking whether we want red chilies or green chilies on our food. I wimped out and said "Christmas" which means "give me both". Mary picked green. Green chilies are the livelier of the two and the red are the more mellow. Both were good (although I drank more than my usual allotment of water, which I completely attributed to the dehydration due to the long walk in the hot sun at the Petroglyphs National Monument). We both had enchiladas (mine with chicken) and they were good!

Monday we took a leisurely morning with a good walk ... which just happened to take us to the Camping World store which is next door to Enchanted Trails. After a few strategic purchases made necessary by the purchase of our new coach, we walked back, ate lunch, and then headed off to Old Town Albuquerque. We could have driven down I-40 to the proper exit and been right at the Old Town area. Instead, we chose to drive down the route of the historic Route 66 which goes right past our RV Park. The drive down "Nine Mile Hill" was interesting. It is a LONG constantly downhill drive to the Rio Grande River. We crossed the river and were quickly at Old Town. It is a market of everything you might want to buy. Many old adobe buildings, open plazas and courtyards, and interesting people were the order of the day. We both "shopped 'til we dropped" without actually purchasing anything. I seriously considered buying one of the Tilley hats which are perfect for walking around in this kind of sunlight but since they run about $75, I decided to pass. Although it is still tempting. They have a lifetime guarantee against wearing out. And for the first two years are insured against loss. Quite a deal! We saw lots of beautiful pottery and jewelry and many other items of "classic" tourist junk. And we didn't buy any of it.

Today (Tuesday) will be our last day here in Albuquerque. We're still deciding where we'll go for the day, but are looking forward to tonight when we'll meet Debra Burke Rockman and her boys for supper in one of the local eateries. Deb and I were part of the Housing Mediation Program of the Tenant Resource Center in Madision, WI. Deb was actually the coordinator that I worked for as a volunteer and then I took her place on staff after she moved to New Mexico. I'm looking forward to reconnecting and catching up with all that has transpired in her life since we last saw each other.

Days 21-22
7-8 July 2011
Las Cruces, New Mexico

White Sands National Monument is an out of this world experience! That's where we went on Thursday. We had an ambitious agenda for the day. We'd head over the mountains, see the White Sands Missile Range and Missile Park, run on up to White Sands National Monument, and continue on up to Alamagordo to see the town and the Space Museum.

Well, the White Sands Missile Range Museum and Missile Park turned out to be quite an interesting place. We spent much more time there than we anticipated. That's okay. It was a fun tour, quite informative, and even evoked some old memories as we saw the manuals that used to be distributed on how to make a bomb shelter for protection against atomic bomb fallout, civil defense "barrels"  of supplies that used to be placed in public bomb shelters in anticipation of "THE Day"! I also saw radio equipment reminiscent of those I used to dream about from military surplus. There was also a great deal about the history of the area that became White Sands Proving Grounds and then White Sands Missile Range. Sitting outside the museum is a missile "park" with dozens of missiles sitting there to be viewed and to get a grasp of the U.S. efforts in building guided missiles. There was an original V-2 rocket brought over from Germany after WW II (they had to keep it it in a special building to protect it from the elements since it is now old and fragile; it is still an impressive rocket). The highlight of the park is the Redstone missile that was so instrumental in the early space program, but there are lots of interesting smaller missiles. I'd show you pictures, but we were given to understand that if we did take pictures, we'd be treated as spies and taken out in the desert and summarily shot (or some other similar horror). We did get to take a few (legally) by shooting "towards the mountains" only. I'll have to get them from Mary's camera and put them up.

That's one of our divisions of labor. I write the story, she takes the pictorial documentation. Unfortunately, that also means that we don't always get the two together for publishing this blog, thus the paucity of photographic material.

After the missile stop, we drove on to the White Sands National Monument. What an amazing place! In the words of their website:

 Like No Place Else on Earth
Rising from the heart of the Tularosa Basin is one of the world's great natural wonders - the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Here, dunes have engulfed 275 square miles of desert creating the world's largest gypsum dunefield.

 White. White extending for miles. White white. On a 100 degree day in the desert. Somehow or another we escaped serious sunburn (due to serious use of sun block). We consumed LOTS of water too.

The gypsum "sand" is amazingly fine. It reflected the heat and wasn't unbearably hot even though it was a blazing hot day. We saw lizards and skinks but NO rattlesnakes (fortunately).

We stayed long enough at White Sands that we didn't get to go on to Alamogordo. That's was unfortunate, but means we still have something to see when we come back to NM.

Friday was a slower day. I took the coach in for one more warranty item. Unfortunately the part didn't get in so it came home unfixed. It's not a big deal. The co-pilot's chair swivel mechanism lock is broken but since it's in lock position it's safe. We just can't use the recliner feature until it gets fixed. While we were waiting to hear about the coach, we went to the Las Cruces Railroad Museum. Small but fun. Then we went to Dripping Springs.

Dripping Springs is a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) site. It used to be a resort and a tuberculosis sanatorium. What it was for us was a delightful hike up to the mountains. Here in this part of NM, the mountains just kind of jump up out of the desert. You drive through the desert with a gradual rise and all of a sudden the rocks just sprout from the ground, rise to the heights and then drop back down again. That means that there are some steep mountain faces. In this case, the resort and sanatorium facilities were built right up against the point where the rocks spring from the desert.

The scenery here is so different from what we are used to that it is all awe inspiring.

Today (Saturday) we'll move on to the Albuquerque area.

Days 18-20
4-6 July 2011
4 July - Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad, NM
5-6 July - Siesta RV, Las Cruces, NM

I've been pretty quite the past few days. Some of it was resting time. Some of it was busy doing stuff.

We spent the 4th of July not doing much at all, just resting after a busy few days. It was a good holiday. For fireworks, we drove over to the overlook at Brantley Lake State Park and watched the fireworks in two nearby towns, Carlsbad and Artesia. We'd look south and ooh and aah, then we'd look north and do the same. We were too far away to have the noise of the fireworks (although my problem ear didn't mind that at all since LOUD noises hurt) and the visuals were small but we enjoyed it.

On the 5th of July we drove from the Carlsbad area through El Paso, TX, to Las Cruces, NM. And I got my first experience of driving in the western mountains courtesy of the Guadalupe Mountains. Let me tell you, that Terra's Ford V-10 works hard when it's climbing and is LOUD. And when descending and the engine break cuts in since I'm in "Tow/haul" mode, it gets even LOUDER! It's not speed demon but it works. (I wonder how the Chevy 8.1 L Vortec in the Fiesta would have handled those grades? I know it didn't have the engine braking mode and I had to be careful to downshift early but it sure did have power!)

We are now camped at the Siesta RV Park in Las Cruces very near to the Old Mesilla area and even nearer to the Sunland RV dealership whose service department has agreed to take time to work on some of the warranty issues we have already experienced (I spared all of you my rant over the problems with Fleetwood's Quality Control in the manufacturing process but let's just say I have some issues with Fleetwood RV, Inc., BUT they are addressing them.)

Today, the 6th, we took the coach to Sunland where they did great work on many of the issues, solving several major issues, and only had to order one part. So I guess we'll be in Las Cruces through Friday at least.

While the coach was being worked on, we took the car (that's why we've towed it all this way!) and went to Old Mesilla, the site of the territorial courthouse where Billy the Kid was convicted and sentenced to death. The building still exists, but today it is a store. We walked around the old town looking at southwestern architecture and reading about local history and checking out local art galleries. Lunch was at La Posta de Mesilla, an historic restaurant with good New Mexican food. Mary had a couple of Compas (tostados) and I had rolled tacos. Both plates were good. Even better was the cold water to drink since the day is another scorcher, hitting 99 degrees (and even at 7 pm MDT it is still 95 degrees). That's why I'm glad we have two working air conditioners in the coach.

Tomorrow, we'll head over to White Sands and Alamagordo to check out that part of the area.

Speaking of the coach, let me give you some pictures (courtesy of Fleetwood) that show our new abode on wheels:

Floorplan of the Terra 34E
(By the way, we have all the options listed)

Driver's "cockpit"

Kitchen Area

Upper Woodwork and Storage in the Living Area Slide

Bedroom Closet and Storage
(we have a TV mounted in the area over the shelf)

Another View of the Drawers and Storage in the Bedroom

Queen-sized Bed and Slide Out

Dinette Area and Adjacent Couch
(note the storage drawer under the dinette/couch area on the left)

Front of Coach with Overhead Queen-size Bed Lowered

Front Area of Coach with Bed Raised and Recliner Out

Living Area

Co-Pilot's Recliner

Bathroom Shower and Vanity Area

As I said, these photographs are courtesy of Fleetwood's promotional material. Our coach looks much like this with some very minor differences: a different lamp shade and a tv in the bedroom.

Day 16-17
2-3 July 2011
Brantley Lake State Park,
near Carlsbad, NM

What an interesting and fantastic two days! The reliability of my internet connection comes and goes, so I hope I get to finish and publish this posting.

I'm using my Samsung Mesmerize cell phone as a tethered hot spot (legally too! I pay U S Cellular for the privilege of using my 5 Gb of data each month for computer connections. It often works but every once in a while (usually when I'm data roaming), it objects and will not connect to the internet even though the computer and and cell phone hot spot will connect.

Yesterday, Friday, 2 July, Mary and I went to Carlsbad Cavern National Park. When we left home, we weren't sure we'd get to see the cavern since one of New Mexico's several forest fires was located there. And was it ever there! Burned vegetation was visible right to the edge of the parking lot at the visitors' center. Literally. We walked over to the edge of the parking lot and looked out over a whole canyon of burned desolation and could reach out and touch the burned vegetation without leaving the pavement. 

However, this fire is out and people can see Carlsbad Cavern. All the guided tours were booked (they say reservations in the summer can be very hard to come by) so we took two self-guided tours assisted by the recorded narration (which is really quite well done). We walked down the Natural Entrance trail (a one hour continuous descent) and then toured the BIG Room (that was an hour and a half walk around the perimeter of the room).

I grew up in cave-rich Tennessee and lived in Kentucky, home of Mammoth Cave, so I am no stranger to caves. I've even crawled around in a few on my hands and knees exploring dark, narrow, wet passages. Carlsbad is a beautiful cavern. The tour route is well planned and the stories of this and other caves in the area are well told. The formations are amazing and beautiful and the cave itself is HUGE! 


Mary, on the other hand, had NEVER been in a cave! (There are very few caves in Wisconsin where she grew up.) She was constantly in awe of the amazing sights before her. She doesn't like edges that look out over deep holes, but the rails along the trail enabled her to go to the edge and take in the wonderful vistas before us.


We did not try to take any pictures IN the cave. Caves do not lend themselves to good pictures, particularly those with big rooms that stretch out beyond the reach of a weak flash on a camera. Besides, there were other picture takers constantly messing with my dark vision through the flashes of their cameras and I decided that I didn't need to do that to others or myself. So the pictures of Carlsbad will live forever in my mind.


We spent over 2-1/2 hours down in the cave. We could have spent another 1-1/2 hours walking out but we decided we were both hungry and so we rode the elevator 754 vertical feet in under a minute! That thing travels.


After the cave exploration, we toured the grounds of the National Park. Normally there are excellent hiking trails to be walked. However, the fire has curtailed that. We did walk out through one area to an overlook where the trail ran through a totally burned out section of the park. Cooked cactii are not very pretty! And there were plenty of rocks that clearly had "exploded" (at least at their surface level) due to the extreme heat of the fire.  There are still fires in New Mexico. Fortunately the one near Los Alamos is being controlled which means that in another week it MAY be possible for us to visit LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory). There is another fire in Cloudcroft which lies between us and our next destination of Las Cruces. We may have to go through El Paso to get there instead of taking the mountain road that is much prettier (and, I will admit, much hairy-er to drive in a Motor Home).


Later that afternoon, we went to the Living Desert and Zoo State Park in Carlsbad. That was a lot of fun. They have exhibits of the flora of a desert. The Chihuahuan Desert of NM is a "living desert" and has the greatest bio-diversity of any desert in North America (there are four of them; did you know that?). They also had representative samples of the wildlife to be found in the desert, birds, hooved animals, BIG cats, bear, elk, and others, including huge tarantulas, scorpions, and nasty looking rattlessnakes (all of which were WELL caged, mind you!).


Today, Saturday, July 3, we drove back up the road to Roswell, home of the "incident" in 1947 that has fueled the fantasies and speculations of generations of UFO-believers. The first weekend in July is the Annual Roswell UFO Festival so there was a lot going on. I didn't realize that I shared my natal month and year with such an historic moment! Do you remember hearing the story? A "flying saucer" supposedly crashed in the New Mexico desert outside Roswell and there were even dead bodies (and perhaps a living one) of true aliens. Aliens from outer space, not from across the border. 


There wasn't as much silliness as I expected although there was some, including the alien walking around for people to get their picture taken with it. We went and toured the International UFO Museum where several (presumably important) authors were hawking signed copies of their books about UFOs and other related phenomena. The many displays tell ALL about the incident at Roswell, the "cover-up" carried out by the U.S. government and had lots of "testimony" from people who purportedly saw something and how some of them were even threatened with dire consequences by military representatives if they didn't keep their mouths shut. I will admit to being a skeptic but something happened in early July, 1947, and it is clear that there is a lot of speculation about what we do or do not know. And probably will never know since the U.S. government has kept classified lots of things that might explain what this was all about. Was it a weather balloon? Was it a crashed alien space ship? Or was it a Russian experiment into space travel gone tragically awry (as suggested in a recent book claiming to review the story and to bring forth some new evidence from an interview with one who was there)? Or was it something else? 


I wish all of you a good, happy, and memorable Fourth of July! We'll celebrate ours at one of the local communities (either Carlsbad or Artesia, I suppose).

We also walked around the downtown taking in the sights of the festival, including the belly dancing troupe putting on an exhibition in one of the plazas (although I'm not sure what that had to do with UFOs). We also had our first New Mexico meal at El Toro Bravo near by to the International UFO Museum.

Day 15 (part 2)
1 July 2011
Brantley Lake State Park
near Carlsbad, New Mexico


We have arrived in New Mexico. Brantley Lake State Park is in southeastern NM, not too far from the Carlsbad Caverns where we hope to visit tomorrow. We'll be here until July 5 visiting sights around this area. Then we'll head for Las Cruces (where I hope a local Fleetwood service center can repair the shower drain that was installed wrong at the factory.

Some odds and ends from our journey here:

How about the Jesus Christ as Lord Service Center? It's a gas station, service center for trucks, and convenience store.

I can only apologize for the quality of the picture. Mary had to take the shot while we were passing it on the interstate and the RV window has a screen in it, thus the picture.

Long horn cattle from the Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX:

I started this post two days ago, but my lack of a reliable internet connection interrupted me. So today, when my connection is working, I'm sending it on.

Day 15
1 July 2011
Canyon, TX

What an amazing place! I'm talking about Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Texas. We got in here (Palo Duro RV Park in Canyon, TX) in early afternoon and, after a short lunch, headed for the reason we stopped here: the Palo Duro Canyon. This is the second canyon in the US to the Grand Canyon. You are driving across the plains of the Texas Panhandle when all of a sudden the ground drops away and this awesome sight begins to unfold before you. Today, I'm going to let some pictures tell the story.

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

 In wide view pictures it is truly hard to give a perspective on size, depth, length, etc. But this is an impressive sight!

It was a hot day, so we didn't do any serious hiking. As you can see from the thermometers it was hot and getting hotter. The second thermometer is in the shade!

Your intrepid explorer and 105 degrees F.

110 degrees F. IN THE SHADE!

And just a few more.

Today, we will leave Canyon and head for Brantley Lake State Park, New Mexico. NEW MEXICO! Finally! Brantley Lake SP is in the southeastern part of the state near Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Day 13
29 June 2011
Elk Creek, OK
Elk Creek RV Park

Well, we DID it! We traded our 2006 Fleetwood Fiesta 26Q for a 2012 Fleetwood Terra 34E. That's moving from 27 feet long with no slideouts to over 34 feet long with two slideouts! Space! Here's a short look at the new coach. It's not professional video but it will give you a glimpse of what it looks like.

Do we like our new RV? Yes! Are we happy customers of McClain's RV in OK and TX? NO! Are we happy customers of Fleetwood RV? NO!

Everybody says that when you buy a new RV it is like buying a brand-new car. There are always some things wrong that have to be worked on and fixed. That is often true, but I bought a new car last fall and had NOTHING to take it back to the dealer to get fixed. Honda makes their products right, I guess. But that's neither here nor there.

We took possession of our new coach last night (Tuesday night, 28 June). We signed the papers and went to the closing dinner of the FMA Rally (Fleetwood Motorhome Association). THEN we pulled our soon-to-be-former coach out of the campsite, drove up to the parking lot, and moved everything we had from one coach to the other. That took us about 1-1/2 hours (plus a little more because we had some wonderful people helping us and that sometimes causes a little ... er, down time, but thanks to the wonderful people who helped us out we had fun getting the job done, thanks to Bob and Deb Norman, Keith and Jan Penner, and Hugo and Donna Lusten, plus an unnamed couple from Canada who joined in).

We then moved to new RV back to our site and prepared to finish organizing things to move on the next day as the rally concluded. What?! The rear air conditioner isn't cooling! What's wrong? Grrr.  This is a big problem, particularly since we are headed for the heat of New Mexico in the summer!

I began to collect a list of the "little" problems that were emerging. Fortunately, the evening was somewhat cool and we could use fans and open windows and get some sleep. The next morning I continued compiling the list. It eventually got up to 15 different items that needed fixing, ranging from the major (the A/C) to the insignificant (two small holes in wall panel which, in the light of day, turned out to be poorly placed staples holding the paneling). The list also included a significant water leak.

So we headed for the nearest McClain RV service center (since that is the dealer through which we purchased the coach). We bought the Terra through a salesman from the Dallas-area store, but the Oklahoma City store was the closest. I want to give a great big shout-out to Regina Gill, the service manager at McClain RV in OK City. She was buried in RVs needing service and had all her techs working on other people's problems. Somehow she managed to take care of about twelve of the items leaving only the leaking shower and a couple of small items. The A/C wouldn't work because in construction ONE wire to the thermostat wasn't attached. The leaking shower had a P-trap that was not properly installed. The bathroom door trim wasn't installed correctly (keeping the door from closing), and the list goes on. Fleetwood RV, YOU have a MAJOR quality control problem. Fleetwood RV CEO John Draheim will be getting a detailed letter.

Enough complaining. We are enjoying our coach tonight and when we get to Las Cruces should be able to get the last BIG problem, the shower, fixed.

This is an adventure in life, a Grand Adventure (or was it Great Adventure) I called it when we first left home. And adventures don't always go as planned. We had NOT planned to trade and buy a new RV. That was supposed to happen NEXT year. But it happened this summer. Things were supposed to work the way they were intended to work, but that didn't. I mostly kept my cool. Mostly. And nice people made good things happen. Tomorrow, we move on to Canyon, TX, and the Palo Duro Canyon.

Day 11
27 June 2011
Fleetwood Motorhome Rally, Shawnee, OK

It's a windy day in Oklahoma. I could start a description of every day so far with that description but this morning seems even more so than others. I could also start with "It's going to be a HOT, HOT day in Oklahoma." Near record temperatures. 103 degrees F. yesterday was the high here in Shawnee is what I heard. More of the same to come.

The rally is going well. We've met a number of folks and enjoyed visiting with them. Who knows, some of them may even turn into friends as we get better acquainted. They've all been nice folks. Most are older than us, but some are younger. Most have bigger coaches than we do, but that is to be expected since we have one of the smallest. Of course, I've been looking at the coaches on display and have found one to love: Fleetwood Terra (2012) 34E. To me, it seems to have almost everything I would want in a coach. Mary likes it too, but in her way that complements mine so much she wants to see more examples, learn more, look at the dollars and cents. I think it is a good balance. I get excited. She restrains me. It works for us anyway, although I know that at times she feels like she is being a wet blanket to my enthusiasm. She's not. It's like a governor on an engine keeping it from running away and self-destructing. I appreciate her thoroughness. So now I have two "favorite" coaches, the Terra 34E and the Tiffin Allegro 34TGA. Each has something to recommend it over the other. Each has some points at which it is not perfect. Compromise is the nature of life so we'll see which way we go. Interestingly, the salespersons I have talked to that represent each of these models are both named Fred. It's too bad that I can't get them in the same room competing with each other to make an offer!

We've gone to some interesting seminars and learned some useful information. We both have gone back to seminars we went to last year and learned things that we either didn't hear last year or that have been added to the presentations. We have things we need to talk to people about to learn even more in areas like cleaning and safety and internet connection on the road. (I wish my US Cellular connection was more reliable and faster. I know the latter is unlikely to change unless I could stay in 4G areas and invest in new equipment, but those areas are scarce. The former, however, could be improved. I'm going to look into options: a booster, an external antenna, a new carrier [Verizon is likely, should I decide to change].) 

The highlight of yesterday was a beneficial discussion with Blue Ox, the manufacturer of our towing system. I've had some frustrations with installing the supplemental braking system in the car prior to driving each day. For those who haven't thought about it, even though a motorhome is a large vehicle, if it is towing even a very small car (like our Honda Fit Sport), it needs to have a system in the car that activates the car brakes when the driver steps on the motorhome brake. In our case, that is a Blue Ox Patriot model that pushes on the brake pedal when I step on the brake in the coach. It seems like it takes me half an hour to do something that should tae five minutes. I stopped by the Blue Ox booth and explained my problem and Michael Swan, a customer  service representative, came out to our coach and spent some time looking at the setup and suggesting some changes to solve the problem. It worked for him. Now let's see if it works for me on Wednesday when we get ready to leave here. I also got a free part to replace a small ring that had vanished somewhere along the road. Thanks, Blue Ox!

Saturday, both Mary and I took a short (two hour) driving course. It was excellent instruction. Some of it told me what I already knew, but we both learned that we could back a 38-foot coach through a slalom course of orange cones WITHOUT hitting or running over a single cone! We drove straight line learning how to handle a diesel coach (ours is a gasser and feels somewhat different...and easier to drive), backed straight line, practiced precision stopping, drove a slalom course forward and backward, and then
practiced turning corners in a long coach. And we both passed with no mishaps.

Last night (Sunday), we went out to eat at Alister's Deli, a chain we learned to appreciate in Murfreesboro, TN. Good eating, reasonable prices, and great sweet tea.

Now let's see if the conference center can top yesterday's breakfast which was biscuits and gravy. Off to begin a new day!

Day 9
25 June 2011
Shawnee, OK, Heart of OK Expo Center

We're at the site of the 2011 Fleetwood Rally in Shawnee, OK, now and will be here for several days (until next Wednesday).  Yesterday's drive from Taylor Ferry campground on Fort Gibson Lake to the Heart of OK Expo Center was wind-blown and HOT! The temperature pushed 100 degrees and the wind pushed us around at 25-30 mph as a headwind most of the day. But we made it safely. And air conditioning kept us comfortable throughout the day.

What happens at an RV Rally? Those of you reading this who aren't RVers may be wondering about this. We'll meet fellow RVers for one thing. For instance, we are parked next to a couple from AZ who are in a Fiesta 26Y that we met last year in DuQuoin, IL, at the 2010 Rally when we were parked in adjacent rows. There are seminars and classes on a variety of things of interest to RVers. Today, Mary and I will take a class on "Driving Your RV." That'll start soon ... at 7 AM! Mary isn't too happy at having to get up at 5:30 to eat breakfast and get ready to get over to the driving course but it'll be worth it for both of us to learn how to do it RIGHT. And hopefully it will make ME a better passenger when she's driving (I'm a terrible passenger and I know it and it's not fair to her!).

Other seminars/courses are such important things as "Fire and Life Safety in Your RV," "Holding Tank Care and Maintenance" (holding tanks are where the "waste" water goes; there is a gray water tank for the kitchen and bathroom sink and shower drains and a black water tank for the toilet; you may say "yuck" at the thought of learning about these but it is an important maintenance item in an RV), and "Camping for Half the Price." There are a lot of others I could list but these are just a sample.

In addition, there are entertainment events and there will be a presentation by people from Fleetwood. There are also Fleetwood service people present to help solve problems. I've got a trim strip that keeps trying to come loose and blow away so I'm going to ask them what I can do to secure it properly (instead of just guessing at the a way to do it that might or might not work). We'll also have a couple of opportunities to check out Shawnee and it's attractions.

Yesterday's drive was notable for the number of Native American nations that we drove through. I lost count and may have missed the signs for some, but we drove through at least seven different nations including the Sac and Fox nation, the Citizen Potawatomi nation, the Absentee Shawnee Nation, the Cherokee Nation, the Muskogee (Creek) Nation, the Kickapoo Nation, and the Seminole Nation. I may have missed some. The vast majority of OK is dedicated to one Native American nation or another and the boundaries are distinct ... as, I suspect, are the cultures.

Driving School is coming up soon. So is sunrise and the heat. More later!

--forrest

Day 7
23 June 2011
It's Kind of Peculiar Around Here!

We're in Peculiar, Missouri at the Peculiar Park Place RV Park. It is just right off Highway 71 and, I will admit, just a little bit noisy. It was a pleasant evening, cool and clear. So having windows open to let in fresh air (always preferable to running the AC) helped it be a little noisier. Having the fan on to circulate that fresh air helped drown out the noise. So it wasn't too bad.


Yesterday (Wednesday) was NOT the kind of day I like to drive. It was a day filled with tremendous wind! Sometimes it was hard to stay in the right lane with the gusts hitting hard. I would have preferred to have waited, but that was not to be. So we drove. And I have the sore shoulders to go with it. Not much else to say about the day. Long, hard driving. Sometimes days like that are necessary but they are not the reason we go RVing.

Today we are back on the road with a little shorter day of about 4 hours driving time (although I'll take a little longer since I don't drive the speed limit on most roads). We're headed for the Taylor Ferry campground on Fort Gibson Lake, OK. It's a Corps of Engineers campground. They are usually excellent places to camp and the price will certainly be right! With my "Interagency Senior Pass" the daily rate is $9.00. You can't beat that (unless it's free).


Friday we will get to Shawnee, OK, the site of "Circle Your Wagons in Shawnee," the 2011 Fleetwood RV National Rally. We'll be here through Wednesday, June 29. The Rally is at the Heart of Oklahoma Expo Center. Who knows? We may even see some folks we saw last year at DuQuoin, IL, where the theme was "Bring Your Toys to Illinois." (They do like cutsy titles, don't they?)

Day 6
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
George Wyth State Park, Iowa 

When we started this trip last Friday, I promised myself to try to write something every day. That is a promise that is hard to keep. Some of it is the simple discipline of writing. Turn the computer on, connect to the internet, put fingers on keys, write. That's not hard, is it?

Step 2 in that process has been the hardest. I use my Samsung Mesmerize smart phone as a wifi hotspot to connect my computer to the Internet. It is a great concept but has rarely worked as well in practice as it should (or at least as well as I think it should). I log in and sites that are routine stops become impossible to find. Or they take ten minutes to load. Or I get dropped offline. And the hotspot is supposed to take up to five different computer devices and allow them to connect to the internet at the same time. Forget that! If one is connected, the second may or may not connect and BOTH of the computers become slower than molasses in winter. In fact, watching rocks erode may be faster.

Right now, I'm not sure what I'll do. But if I run across a Verizon dealer who can set me up with their MiFi 2200 router hotspot on the spot, I may just leave the US Cellular "tethered" fold and go to Verizon. Last year, I used a MiFi and was generally well pleased. I may even check into their 4G system. But I shouldn't go "techie" on you. Let's get on with the narrative.

On Day 3, Sunday, we went to the Churdan United Methodist Church exactly as we had planned to do. The day started out with serious fog, but as we drove to Churdan it lifted. We were a bit early for the 9 a.m. worship service, so we drove around town looking at the sights and reminding ourselves of what had been and marveling at what currently is. We drove past the Paton-Churdan School where Mary had been librarian for several years while I was pastor of the Churdan-Lanesboro Charge. The Caboose Park was still there. It has just been completed when we arrived in Churdan in 1984. The parsonage hadn't changed a lot since our residence there. It is a nice ranch-style home that was still relatively new back in the 1980s. The church building was well-kept and it was a delight to see the "new" front entrance to the church, complete with elevator, for which the planning had begun while I was pastor. It was a project that I encouraged and even pushed for but didn't get to see to completion before my move to Perry, IA, in 1991. It was a great addition to the facility and made it much more usable for the aging congregation.

It was wonderful to see friends from 20 years ago who were delighted to see us. Pastor David Arulnathan was most cordial in his welcome and delivered a good message to the 20 or so of us who were gathered. It was sad to note the many missing faces of those who have passed on into the Body of the Cloud of Witnesses who are with us in spirit. However, those who gathered were a joy to see.

One of the delights of the morning was a visit with Wayne and Karla King and their two college-age children. I married Wayne and Karla over 20 years ago so it was great to reconnect. Wayne is an amazing craftsman in addition to being a farmer. He built his house himself and it is a beautiful home. The woodwork is absolutely amazing in it beautiful finish, careful craftsmanship, and loving detail. It may have taken him well over a decade to compete the project, but it was obviously a labor of love and well worth the effort.

Sunday afternoon we returned to our camp at Spring Lake Park and welcomed some other friends who came by to see us. John McPherson came over from Boone to introduce us to his good friend, Maggie. John is a great storyteller and a delightful conversationalist. We laughed our way through much of the afternoon as we reminisced about our years together. Later in the afternoon, we were joined by Cindy Dunne from Harcourt and we spent some time catching up on kids, events, health, and home.

Thanks to everyone who made our visit to west central Iowa a joy! You are indeed good friends.

Sunday night was not a pleasant one. About 12:30 a.m., the weather radio started sounding its alarm about approaching thunderstorms and dangerous high winds. Now, high winds and thunderstorms that produce hail and that may result in tornadoes are NOT an RVers friend. They can be frightening, destructive, and deadly. For a while the weather radio was sounding off every 5-10 minutes with warnings of progressing storms and potential danger. I spent much of the night sitting near the radio in one of the comfortable "captain's chairs" of the coach so I could turn off the ringing alarm and listen to the latest National Weather Service bulletin. Thank goodness for NOAA Weather Radio. It is a great service of inestimable value to everyone. About 5:30 I went back to bed to sleep for a while before getting up and breaking camp. By the way, there was a significant storm that passed through the area of the park where we were camped. The coach rocked and swayed in the hard winds, the rain pounded, but we were warm, comfortable, and (most important of all) dry. I think Mary woke up when the actual rain started pounding on the roof of our motorhome but otherwise slept through the worst of the rocking of the wind and the rolling of thunder. When it starts raining hard on a motorhome coach, it gets rather loud (in case you've never had the joy of experiencing it.

Monday dawned bright and beautiful and we broke camp to head toward Cedar Falls, IA, and another visit with friends. Unfortunately, into every RVers life some ... er, mishaps must happen. As we went to hitch the tow car to the motorhome, we discovered we were missing a "link" to fasten the security cable from the coach to the car. A drive into nearby Jefferson furnished a replacement after the fourth stop. The folks at Holiday RV, NAPA, and Harrison RV were all very friendly and helpful even if they couldn't provide the missing link. Everyone of them did identify someone else in town that might have the part. Bomgard's Home and Farm (I may not have the name quite right, but those folks who go to Jefferson, IA, will recognize the place, I'm sure) did have the "missing link" and we returned to Spring Lake Park to finish the hook-up and to drive north for the next leg of our journey.

We drove through the corn and soybean fields of Iowa for hours. Well, not through the fields. That would have been impossible, but between the fields on the highways. If you've never driven in Iowa, one of the characteristics is STRAIGHT highways laid out on a one-mile grid. Much of our journey was on I-35, but it's still straight, flat, and green. Moving from the view of one large grain elevator to another as the miles rolled by reminded us of the importance of heartland agriculture to life in our country and world. Much of the world's food and grain comes from fields like these across the US and billions of bushels of grain are stored in elevators like those we saw as we drove. The drive was windy, which is not always a pleasure in a motorhome, but was negotiated safely.

George Wyth State Park in Cedar Falls, IA, is a beautiful park along the Cedar River. We arrived in late afternoon, made our camp, and got in the car to drive to Reinbeck, IA, to visit friends Jim and Marcia Ellenberger. Jim and Marcia moved to Reinbeck a year ago from Perry, IA, where we had gotten acquainted. They became very special friends to us when we adopted the sibling group of 4 from Guatemala that became our children and the heart of our family. In fact, Jim and Marcia and their two girls, Tiffany and Sarah, met us at the Des Moines airport when we disembarked after the journey from Guatemala with our children arriving at their new home in the United States. It was an emotional greeting and the welcome our kids received gave them friends during their years in Perry and friendships that continue until today. Thanks, Jim, Marcia, and girls for all you have meant to us over the years. We love you all!

Monday night was another stormy night with me sitting at the weather radio to catch it's warnings (and quiet it's howl). Although funnel clouds were sighted on the ground just a county away and although severe thunderstorms did roll through the area and once more rattle the coach with wind and rain, it was a better night that the night before and I was only up for a couple of hours before returning to bed and the blessedness of sleep.

Tuesday was spent visiting some more with Jim, Marcia, and family. Today, Wednesday, 22 June, we will break camp and head for Peculiar, MO, on our way to the Fleetwood Motorhome Association Rally in Shawnee, OK.

Day 2 (Continued)
18 June 2011
A Visit With George

Aren't old friends great? We had a great visit yesterday afternoon with activist farmer and sustainable agriculture and food advocate George Naylor. George was one of my parishioners 25 years ago when I was pastor at the Churdan and Lanesboro, Iowa, United Methodist Churches.

I went to the Churdan and Lanesboro churches right in the middle of the great Farm Crisis of the 1980s. It was a rough period for many farmers. I stood beside parishioners as farms that had been in their families for over 100 years were auctioned off along with the majority of their possessions. I went with parishioners and sat in bankers' offices as they tried to renegotiate new terms that might save their farming operations and who felt they needed an extra pair of listening ears to be sure of all that was being said (and, unfortunately, to help gain some modicum of honesty and truth-telling in the process as the banking industry was under great pressure to deal with huge farming loans that were not being supported because of declining operational incomes and land values; hmmm, reminiscent of what the housing industry and banking have been going through for several years now in the 21st Century). I went to visit them and listened to their personal tales of struggle and attempts to survive in a way of life they loved. I took special training from the Extension Service (and other agencies) on how to help people through the crisis. One year, I was even a local delegate to the National Farmers and Ranchers Congress in St. Louis. And I prayed and cried with numerous people on a regular basis. Oh, and I was interviewed and quoted on CNN News! (The news crew had gotten lost and were in the wrong town but were on deadline and needed somebody, anybody, to talk to. That they interviewed me was a sign of their desperation!) Throughout the whole period, one of the people teaching me about farming and agriculture and food was George Naylor.

George was/is an internationally known activist in the agricultural community, advocating tirelessly for the small family farmer in the face of the growth and development of the huge corporate farm and agricultural industry. He has written many articles, addressed many gatherings, and been quoted or referenced in many books. And he is based in the rural area around the small town of Churdan, IA. He suggested books for me to read, explained the philosophy of the small family farm, and tried in every way possible to spread the message as a fervent evangelist for sustainable agriculture. One of the things I learned about George is that he has a broad, expansive, and deep mind and is conversant on a wide range of subjects.

It was great to get back together after all these years and to hear that the activist continues to be active. He was recently prominently featured in a NYT bestseller, The Omnivore's Dilemma and was included in the documentary movie Fresh. We revisited the past, reviewed the present, and commiserated with each other about the state of the world and progressive politics. And thank you, George, for the package of pure, home-grown, Iowa porkchops. We WILL enjoy them. And remember all the good times that ministry in Iowa brought into our lives. The seven years we spent in Churdan and Lanesboro were among the most memorable years of ministry for me and they certainly produced some of the most lasting friendships I've ever had.

On Day 3, we'll see more of these old friends and miss many more who have departed from this earthly life. We'll go to church at the Churdan UMC and, I'm sure, see quite a few folks we know. And this afternoon will visit with a few very good friends from those days. And I'll celebrate another Happy Father's Day with the wishes of my wonderful children (whose story of adoption into our family actually began during our days in Churdan so there is a link between past and present).
Well, better get on with the day and its adventures!

Day 2
18 June 2011
Spring Lake Park, Jefferson, Iowa
Such a prosaic title! But it IS where we are. The Great Adventure 2011 has begun with it's own small adventures as a part of the day.

Yesterday, Friday, 17 June, we were up early finishing the loading and doing a final cleaning of the house. Since the house is for sale and there might be showings while we are on the road, we thought we better leave everything in excellent condition for folks to come traipsing through. May there be many … or at least the right person! (Anybody want to buy a great house in Beloit, WI?)

As we finished loading, the very last thing to do was to drive to the nearby (abandoned) K-Mart parking lot (it's the K-Mart that is abandoned, not the parking lot; it gets frequent use by police, neighborhood meet-ups, and folks needing a parking lot for who knows what). The purpose of driving to the parking lot was to hook up the car to be towed, thereby making it (in RV palance) a "toad." Park car behind coach. Attach drop hitch to coach. Attach tow bar (Blue Ox Aventa II, if you're an RV'er and interested)to coach. Attach tow bar to car. Attach rock shield to tow bar in front of car. Try again to attach rock shield to tow bar (WHY won't these holes line up for the clevis pins?). Get frustrated. Try again. FINALLY! Attach electrical harness and break-away link. Easy! Now, let's get the supplemental braking system in place. Good! Testing the braking system (Blue Ox Patriot system … brake in a box that sits on the floor of the car and presses on the brake in the car when I step on the brake in the RV). "Reposition brake." Move box a fraction of an inch. Test the braking system. "Reposition brake." I'm not sure how many times it took but it was several! Hey, not bad! Only an hour to hook up today. (Thursday in practice it took and hour and a half.) On the road by 10:30 a.m., only an hour and a half AFTER I wanted to get off. Hooking up, therefore, was our first adventure of the trip. I wonder if it will be an adventure every time we do it or if we'll get better as we go! But then hooking-up is always an adventure, isn't it? ;-)

Wisconsin to Illinois (wow those tolls in IL can really hit hard, $5.35 at the last one!) and finally to Iowa.

Iowa, the land of $3.49 gas (we actually saw a station with that price at a Kum-and-Go near Boone, IA. Unfortunately, it was full and I couldn't get a place to fill up. So we went on down the road and in Ogden (we're on US Hwy 30 heading for Spring Lake Park) where I see a Casey's. Ok, we need gas, let's give it a try. Gas at $3.62 a gallon here! Oh, well. We only need 3/4ths of a tank … 47 gallons and $170.00 later we're ready to pull out of the station. Hmmm, a bit of a sharp turn here. I think I can make it. Oh, no. There is a tree limb in the way! Will my 11'4" height clear it? NOPE! Have I mentioned that when when you're in an RV with a "toad" that you CANNOT back up. Straight ahead is the only way to travel or maybe a turn right or left. But NOT in reverse. NEVER! So, right in the middle of the gas station parking lot we have to unhitch the car, back it up and then back up the coach enough to turn a little tighter and clear the tree limb! Ok, we're not that far from the camp (15 miles or so). Mary, you drive the car instead of hitching it up again and follow me to the park. Whew! Second "adventure" survived. Let's hope there are no more for the day!

Spring Lake Park (a Greene County, IA, park) is a beautiful rural county park with a large campground around a very pretty lake. The camp sites are nothing great. There is electric but NO water (that's why the RV has it's own water tank, you know, but I prefer to get park water when I can since it means I don't have to weight the coach downs with a HEAVY tank of water for travel thereby even further reducing the gas mileage.

(Do you know what towing a car, even one as small as our Honda Fit, does to gas mileage? Just imagine! Our gas mileage yesterday was 7.5 MPG. It could have been worse!)

Back to Spring Lake Park. We have a decent enough campsite. We can see the water through the trees (which do give afternoon shade). Not bad at all. Here are a few pictures of our campsite.

And here are the crows watching for anything to be dropped from the campers' tables.


And here's our loyal traveling companion, Tiger, looking out the window keeping watch on everything. And you might keep a look-out for Tiger and his further adventure.

Now it's time to get on with the day. Let's see what we can get up to in west central Iowa!

"On the Road Again!"

It's time for Roadtrip 2011 for Forrest and Mary. Follow along as we head west and see friends and sights in Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico ... and many other places. I'll write more as we go ... If I don't lose it to cyberspace!

I learned something about blogging on Blogger using an iPad this morning. DON'T leave the page you're working on to try to preview what it will look like even if Blogger does offer you that chance! If you press the "Preview" button, you'll lose it all!

After writing a much more eloquent and descriptive post, I tried to preview my posting. Bye bye post! There'll be more to come in the days ahead. I hope you will enjoy our journey with us.

Forrest

Just visiting

Well, Tiger and I have been staying in Nashville at a timeshare with brother, Ransom. Wyndham Nashville is a nice place. Every day, Ransom and I drive into Murfreesboro to visit our Mother in the nursing home. After all, that's why we are here. Those visits may be pleasant or difficult. It varies from day to day.

Tuesday, I was almost caught in a tornado. All the "weather" that came through here on Tuesday generated an "air tornado". I'm sure there is a more proper technical name for it, but it was a funnel cloud that stays up in the air and does not touch down. I was driving on I-24 when the funnel cloud passed over the interstate. And I wasn't even smart enough to pull off the road and head for cover! Actually, I didn't know it was there. The rain and wind were so bad I was concentrating on the road and not getting run over by the semis going 75 mph so I didn't look up in the air. By the way, I did finally pull over to the side of the road to escape the effects of all the water in the road and to let the wind die down. I'm not totally dumb!

I hadn't had lunch so I stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Murfreesboro and while I was there learned that I had just driven under a tornado. I will admit that did shake me up a bit!

Tiger's been taking life easy and staying at the room. That weather probably would have scared him pale! I don't have a picture of him anywhere today because my camera batteries died. Isn't that the way it goes? We'll correct that asap.

Time to head to Murfreesboro. See you soon!

Travels with TIGER

I kind of dropped off the earth with my travel "blogging," didn't I? I don't have any excuse. It just happened! We weren't even through with our travels! I'll try to do better. That's all I'll promise!

After the amazing storm in Florence, we headed on toward Eagle River. Since we had planned to stay one more day in Florence, we had to improvise and went to Arbor Vitae for one night (it was good; I wouldn't mind going back there) and then to Eagle River KOA where we got to do some canoeing. Then we headed for home and a brief stop in Beloit before we hit the road again.

We next took a trip to Baraboo, Door County, and DePere (back to Apple Creek). That was another good ten days. (I'm giving the short form of the story but it was just ten good days of camping. Nothing was extraordinary except we had a great time. But that was typical for our summer!) All in all, we were on the road for some 40 days this past summer. That was enough to whet our appetite for more travel NEXT summer. We'll probably go west for the big trip and spend time in WI again, this time in the northwestern part of the state.

With that last trip, however, we returned home so Mary could get ready for the beginning of the school year. We did get in a couple of weekend trips in to Baraboo before putting the coach away for the winter.

However, now I'm on a new journey with a new companion, TIGER. A little background: our dear kitty Sally died in September. She had traveled with us all summer, adjusting to life on the road pretty well. She was real laid back and since she was getting a little old (aren't we all!) the confined life didn't seem too bad (she didn't get outside back home in the sticks-n-bricks either). Maybe the illness that took her from us was already at work and she just covered it up. Cats do that, you know. We do miss her something fierce!

We're not ready for a new cat member of the family right now, so Mary suggested (and I thought it was a neat idea) that we take TIGER, a stuffed animal from the World Wildlife Fund (1998 [!] was the "Year for the Tiger" for the WWF and TIGER comes from that era) and pose TIGER in various places showing the places where we are traveling. We could take pictures and then make prints of them and send them to our grandchildren as a way of letting them know where Grandma and Grandpa were when they were on the road.

Well, this time I'm not traveling in the motorhome. I'm driving our new car (2010 Honda Fit Sport) down to Tennessee to visit Mother for a few days. I'll meet Ransom (my brother, for those who don't know him) and we'll have most of a week with Mother.  So TIGER started today on the dash of the Fit as we were leaving home in Beloit (although he did move to the comfort and safety of the passenger seat for the trip). And now he has a comfortable bed for the night at our temporary home in Marion, IL. (He's got a bed of his own!)

And as we travel, I'll try to keep you posted. This doesn't have quite the excitement of our summer travels, but it gives me a change to practice the discipline of writing, which I really need to improve on for our summer travels to come AND for the writing I am trying to do in two other places:

"Hope for Tomorrow ... TODAY!" at http://fsclark.wordpress.com, where I'll be writing about coaching, conciliation, and consulting, and

"A Circuit Rider on the Internet," http://fsclark47.wordpress.com, where I'll be sharing my reflections as a retired but not retiring United Methodist clergy person.

Be seeing you down the road!

--forrest