Waiting for the Part!

The last time I wrote, I mentioned that we were on the way to the Fleetwood Repair facility in Decatur, Indiana. We got here Tuesday afternoon, signed in, and were assigned spot number 1 in the Fleetwood "campground." Those of you who follow Mary's group on facebook (where are forrest and mary? ... it's a "secret" group so if you want to be part of it write her) have seen her picture of the "campground." For those who haven't seen the picture and who are unfamiliar with this camping joy, let me share the picture with you.

Thrilling, isn't it? If it looks like a parking lot, that's because it IS a parking lot, a gravel parking lot with electrical outlets, lots of electrical outlets.

We kind of feel like the poor cousin of the family since most of the coaches here are the BIG fancy diesel pusher coaches of Fleetwood and American Coach (which is the upper crust of the Fleetwood products). Thirty-eight, forty, forty-two, and forty-five foot long coaches abound. We have a thirty-four foot-long RV. We're small compared to the others!

Coaches at the repair facility have to be dropped off at 6 a.m.! Which means we have to get up at 5 a.m. Now I'm used to getting up at that hour, but Mary isn't, particularly since she retired. We get up anyway. I think they prefer to not have the owners in the bedroom trying to sleep while they are working on the motorhome. The first morning (Wednesday) I got to the office at 6:05 and the service tech had already called my name before I got there and when he didn't find me went off in search of the coach in slot number 1. I did get back to the coach (1/2 block away) about the same time he did.

Anyway, he drove the coach away to repair stall number 8 and we went back to the office. There we were issued our protective glasses and told we were welcome in the service area as long as we wore the safety glasses and had closed toed shoes on our feet (we did). A service writer then went through what we were asking to be done, we signed off on it, and the Fleetwood repair techs took over.

Wednesday we decided to explore, looking for some good water for kayaking. We're NOT whitewater kayakers. Class 1 rapids are all I've ever tried to handle, so we were looking for a lake to paddle around in. We found Salomonie Lake, a US Army Corps of Engineers impoundment leased to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Lake Salomonie is a bit low on water, something like 12-14 feet lower than the normal pool height. That meant that power boats were not on the lake and that the fishermen and the paddlers were having a field day!

These two pictures will give you some ideas of the lake. It is long and narrow and being low on water is even narrower than usual. We paddled for 1-1/2 hours to about the middle point of the lake and then turned around and returned to our put-in boat ramp. It wasn't the most thrilling lake we've been able to paddle around in, but it was water and we had fun!

Wednesday we returned to the "campground" and found our coach back in its number 1 slot. Much of the work had been completed, BUT we also discovered that the driver's seat was missing! Uh oh! It is really hard to drive one of these coaches without a driver's seat. There was a plastic chair in place for the driver to bring the motorhome from the repair bay, but it definitely wasn't legal for street driving.

When we checked in Thursday morning (today), we learned that when the driver's seat pedestal had to be removed to replace the poorly installed carpeting that one of the bolts holding the seat to the pedestal had been determined to have been installed cross-threaded and that absolutely ruins the bolt. They had to order a replacement part from the main Fleetwood factory which just happened to have one. Unfortunately, corporate bureaucracy and red tape nearly held up delivery of the part. Fortunately we knew one of the Fleetwood management people in the facility (he was the one who had facilitated our trip to the Decatur repair shop) and we rattled his cage, so to speak, and he went off saying, "Let me find out what's going on" (or what's NOT going on in our case). Thank you, Larry Rodgers, for your successful intervention! And thank you to the other Fleetwood techs who worked on the coach and fixed things the way they ought to have been fixed in the first place. All of which means that they finished the job, although we decided to stay put for the night and head out in the morning being more rested and refreshed.

Thursday evening we decided to take in the city of Decatur and went downtown to a special event, A Taste of Decatur, where 3 restaurants and 2 ice cream shops were selling their wares. We watched the dancers of the "Razz m'Jazz" dance school perform about a hundred dances (probably more like a dozen but who's counting?), ate pizza and ice cream, and listened to the local high school band play a couple of numbers (and they were pretty good, too). And THEN we got to participate in the special event of the night, the FIRST annual Decatur Sculpture Walk.  We looked at ten of the twelve sculptures that had been prepared for the event, with many of them being on-street sculptures and a few being inside sculptures.

When we returned to the luxurious Fleetwood campground, er, parking lot, we took a short walk looking at the other coaches and then we did what some people think RVers do best ... talk. We talked to a couple sitting out beside their motorhome and three other couples walked by at various times and joined the conversation. RVers can be really nice people.

Friday, it's on to the Timberline Valley RV Park in Anderson, IN, where we'll sit for a couple of nights before heading to the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) homecoming in Indianapolis starting next week.

Glad you're along for the ride!

It's REAL! We're FULL-TIME RV'ers!

I HAVE to write something tonight even though I don't have any pictures to go with it!

This is our first "official" day on the road as FULL-TIMERS! It is mind-boggling to realize that this is a reality. We took a two day trip to Green Bay this weekend to visit with Mary's sister, Kitty, and brother, Dennis, but went back "home" to Beloit to finish cleaning out the house, so today is the REAL first day of a new stage of life for Mary and I.

Let me back up. The house in Beloit sold the first of this month (at least that's when we accepted the offer to purchase) with a projected closing date of August 24. So we frantically shelved our plans for the month of August and set about cleaning out the house. We had two BIG garage sales, gave away all sorts of stuff to Good Will and Caritas (the local food/clothes pantry), and gave a few things to our kids. The last week, however, has been a mad dash to the finish. Thanks to Lamarr Pulliam and his crew for their last day visit to the house for a major haul-away of all the trash!

Last Wednesday, we moved the remaining possessions that weren't going in the RV to a storage unit. It is stuffed full to the brim! We still have a smaller storage unit to review and condense and we'll do that in a couple of weeks when we go back to the Beloit area for a couple of weeks (Sept. 1-15).

One thing I know for sure is that we have too much stuff in the RV! We've got to pare the list down some (or a lot). I'll try to get us weighed soon to be sure we aren't overweight. An overweight RV is a hazard!

Right now, we are on the way to the Fleetwood factory in Decatur, IN, to get some warranty work done. From there, we'll go to Indianapolis and the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) international rally. Following that, we'll head back to the Beloit area as mentioned above. After a couple of weeks on going through what we put in storage, we'll head east towards Glens Falls, NY, and the Adirondack Balloon Festival in late September. It's not that we're ballooners or anything like that but Mary's sister, Barb, lives in Glens Falls and we thought it was a good excuse to go see her and her family. From there, who knows where we'll go and when we'll get there!

Don't think that life will be a perpetual vacation for us. It won't. There will be many routine days with routine tasks like doing the wash, cleaning the house, and other such domestic matters. I won't have to cut the grass, nor will Mary. That's good. But there are many other things we'll take care of on a regular basis. We will get to see new places and do new things. This first year we may even move around a bit more than we will in future years, just to see where we want to be and when.

I will continue to do my life-coaching and mentoring work. We both will be looking into various places to volunteer and make a difference. And we'll put the kayaks into as many different bodies of water as we can and probably hike a few trails along the way. And I hope we'll get to see lots of friends and family scattered across the US of A and make some new friends to add to the group.

Enough for tonight. It's time to rest and relax. I'll be talking at you some more soon!

It's HOT

We got to the Lone Point Corps of Engineers Campground on Lake Shelbyville in IL on Sunday July 1. As can happen when you pick a campsite online, the one we had reserved was not a great site to park a motorhome. But the nice gatekeepers for the campground suggested several alternatives in case I didn't like the one we were going to (maybe they knew it wasn't going to work). So we wound up in a nice site close to the boat launch and near the front gate. And we got a more expensive site than the one we reserved and paid for without paying any extra cost (the U.S. government computer system couldn't figure out how to charge us for the upgrade). So we have a full hook-up site (water, electric and sewer connections) instead of only an electric connection.

A Bay on Lake Shelbyville at Lone Point COE Campground

 

Lake Shelbyville from Lone Point Campground

It's been an "interesting" week, one of those weeks where "interesting" is a way to say it has been a difficult week. First of all, it has been HOT! Most days this week in south central IL have been over 100 degrees. I sure am glad for a coach with two air conditioners! When we stayed inside, it was comfortable (even cold if we turned the temperature control too low). However, we didn't come here to sit inside an air conditioned coach. We came here to paddle our kayaks around in a large lake. We've gotten to do that twice by getting out early in the morning and staying out until the sun and heat got unbearable (or when the recreational boaters got too obnoxious). In the heat of the day, any effort outside produced drenching sweat.

The first couple of days of the week, however, were marred by the discovery Monday morning that the awning motor had burned out in the extended position. The switch appears to be defective and not cutting off when it is released (it is a spring-loaded switch and is supposed to return to neutral when released. It didn't. So first of all I called General RV in Huntley, IL, to see if they can get the coach in for service. I get to take it in on Saturday (day after tomorrow). The real challenge of the week, however, was retracting the extended power awning without any power being available to move it! Now keep in mind that this is an 18-foot awning that extends about eight feet from the side of the coach. It is heavy and it is about 9-10 feet high in the air. We do have a ladder with us. One ladder. Two would have been nice. We had to try to release the awning's frozen motor and then manually roll it up. Unfortunately the directions provided by the manufacturer did not work. At all. They said remove one specific screw and the awning could be rolled up. Uh uh. Nope. Not at all.

If you're going to be an RV'er, you have to develop some ingenuity. I'll admit that the mechanical side of things is not necessarily my strong point. John Clark (my father) could probably have solved the problem in a few minutes. He was that way, a born mechanic. Unfortunately his sons did not inherit that gene. So Mary and I tried various means of rolling the awning up. Finally, brute force accomplished the deed and we got the roller filled with awning to lock into place on the side of the coach. Except the screws that I needed to put back in place could not be reinstalled. The holes absolutely refused to line up. I did check with a local RV dealer. They could get to me in about two weeks. What we did was to fasten the arms of the awning to the frame on the side of the coach with zip ties so they wouldn't flop down on while we were driving. AND then we taped the end of the rolled up awning with duct tape to (hopefully) keep the air from unrolling it while we drive home on Friday and then to the dealer who will fix it on Saturday. We'll find out tomorrow if our jury rig will work. If it doesn't ... .

Time Flies When You're Busy and Having Fun!

WOW! My last post was June 24 and here it is July 4. A whole lot has happened in the intervening time. Let me bring you up to date on the travels and travails of Forrest and Mary.

We left Blackhawk COE (US Army Corps of Engineers) Campground on the Mississippi River and drove to within 20 or so miles of home in Beloit and camped at Blackhawk Valley Campground on the Kishwaukee River. It was a nice one night stop and from there we headed on to Goshen, IN, and the Fleetwood Motorhome Association Rally. Why did we stop so near home and not go there? It seemed more fun to keep on camping instead of getting caught up in whatever was happening at home. And it was even closer to Goshen than Beloit.

We got to Goshen, IN, on Tuesday, June 26, and got assigned to a site. Before we could even get registered, we ran into Bob and Deb Norman from Franklin, IN. We first met Bob and Deb at last year's FMA Rally in Shawnee, OK, and they quickly became friends. It was a  delight to renew our friendship at Goshen and we hope to see them again late in August at the FMCA Rally in Indianapolis. They are a great couple of folks with interesting stories to tell. And while we were still getting set up on our site who shows up but Keith and Jan Penner from Texas whom we also met last year in Shawnee. We had a great time visiting with them too and know we'll see then again down the road. It didn't take long, either, to run into Hugo and Donna Lusten from AZ. We first met Hugo and Donna in DuQuoin, IL at our first FMA Rally, when they were parked right behind us and we saw them again last year in Shawnee when they were parked right beside us.  Great folks.

The FMA rally ran from Wednesday through Saturday night. On Wednesday, we actually got to tour the Fleetwood factory in Decatur, IN. It was a two hour bus ride to Decatur, but the tour was interesting and informative. Of course, Fleetwood thinks they have the most effective and efficient way of making motorhomes of anyone in the industry. Uh huh. They didn't ask me my opinion on that. (More about that later.)

RV rallies consist of educational seminars, displays (trying to sell you something), coach displays (also trying to sell you something), social events to meet up with old friends and make new ones. Brian and Melanie Low of Holland, MI, were new friends we met and had a good time getting to know. RV rallies also provide you with a chance to get some service work done at reasonable rates for labor and parts (unless, of course, they are covered by a warranty).

The big news of the rally was that we did NOT buy a new coach, having done that last year. However, our friends, Hugo and Donna bought a new coach, an Excursion 33C  diesel. It was a real beauty and we were so happy for them. They used to own a 2007 Fiesta 26 very similar to our first coach. Keith and Jan Penner also owned a Fiesta and, lo and behold, they showed up at the rally in a new Tioga! The Fiestas are falling fast!

Mary cornered one of the Fleetwood reps at a listening session they were holding and told him that if he were to come over to our coach and say he was proud of what he saw she'd call him a liar! That evoked an immediate response from Larry Rogers and almost before we could get back to the coach he was on our doorstep. He agreed that a patched carpet did not look good (it was delivered from the factory that way and we didn't see it where it was covered up). There were a few other things we could point out that should not have been wrong on a new 2012 coach. Consequently, some time in late August or early September we are going back to Decatur to the Fleetwood factory to get some extra work done to improve our coach's construction. We're looking forward to that.

We left Goshen on Sunday, July 1, and drove over to Lake Shelbyville Lone Point COE Campground. I'll pick up there next time I can write. Have a happy 4th of July!

Peaks and Mounds

Sunday, June 24, 2012. Today was a hot one. We are still camped at the Blackhawk Park just outside DeSoto, WI. We drove 30 miles south to Prairie du Chien and had a great visit with a good friend today.

Where We Are On the Mighty Mississippi

We went to Pikes Peak! Pikes Peak StatePark, Iowa, that is. It's named after the same Zebulon Pike for whom the western Pikes Peak is named. He did a lot of the early exploring and mapping for the US Army in the westward expansion of the United States. Pikes Peak State Park is on the Mississippi River with gorgeous views out over the river from very high bluffs. It is located right at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers near McGregor, IA, and across from Prairie du Chien. After looking off the bluffs and over the rivers, we took a walk in the woods to the “Crows Nest” (another lookout) and Bridal Veil Falls.

Confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers from Pikes Peak SP, Iowa

Bridal Veil Falls, Pikes Peak SP, Iowa

After our visit to Pikes Peak State Park, we drove into McGregor, IA, and had lunch at the “Old ManRiver Brewery (and Restaurant)” where they promised brewery tours after church on Sunday. We passed on the tour and went straight to lunch. It was a good thing too, since it too forever and a day to get our meals. The service was prompt from the wait staff taking our order, but there must have been only one cook in the kitchen since we had a LONG wait until our food was served. I guess it was worth the wait, however. I had a pulled pork BBQ sandwich that was quite good, but I have to say it did NOT compare to Whitt's BBQ in Murfreesboro, TN, which will always be the standard against which I measure all BBQ. Mary has some kind of Salmon sandwich and our friend had a Philly. Both reported that their food was good.

From lunch, we drove just a little north to Effigy Mounds National Monument. Effigy mounds are the earthen mounds built by early Native Americans in the shape of animals which had special significance to them. Effigy Mounds has a number of bear mounds and some bird mounds. There are also other kinds of mounds to be found.  The real highlight, however, of our trip to Effigy Mounds was our relative close encounter with a very young fawn (deer). It was so young that it still had its spots. We were within ten feet of it. We spooked it into running but it only ran a few feet and then tried to hide. We walked on and later, as we returned on the same piece of trail, managed to spot the young deer as it lay where it had tried to hide from us. Can you see it? Its eyes are visible in the center of the photo and you can see its body in the left center.

Fawn in the Bushes

After seeing some of the sights of Prairie du Chien (second oldest city in WI), we headed back to the campground and a slow evening. Tomorrow we'll head east, planning to get to a campground south of Rockford, IL, which is about halfway to our Tuesday destination of Goshen, IN.

First Trip of the Rest of Our Lives

Mary retired June 12 of this year. I retired two years ago. Now we have the chance to really live up to the “Retired, RVing, and Rambling” name of this blog! To that end, yesterday (Friday, June 22) we started out on the first trip of the rest of our lives. This one is a shortie, nothing too ambitious, that'll come later. Right now WI; (2) attending the 2012 Fleetwood Motorhome Association rally in Goshen, IN; and (3) taking a days to just hang out, relax, and kayak at Lake Shelbyville, IL.

View from Blackhawk Campground across the Mississippi River

We're camped between LaCrosse and Prairie du Chien, WI, right along the Mississippi River at the Blackhawk Corps of Engineers campground right along Pool 9 on the Mississippi River. We'll camp here Friday through Monday and then move on toward Indiana for the rally.

The truly exciting part of this trip may well have occurred on the very first day. I used Google Maps to chart our route from Beloit to Blackhawk Park. Google, ARE YOU CRAZY? The first part of the route was easy and made sense going from Beloit to Madison to Dodgeville. From there we took US Hwy 18 west to Fennimore. We should have stayed on 18! But Google said go north through Boscobel up Hwy 61 and then stay on 61 to 171. WI 171 is a highway that goes ACROSS the Kickapoo Valley, that is, it goes UP and then DOWN and then UP and finally DOWN into the Mississippi River Valley. Okay, this is Wisconsin. What's the big deal? Well, the road down to Gays Mill on the Kickapoo River has a LONG 10% grade on a winding two-lane road and a LONG upgrade out of the valley and then a descent into the Mississippi Valley complete with more 10% grades. Get the idea? In a thirty-four foot long, 22,000 pound motorhome, this is not high speed driving, just enjoy the scenery, kind of road. We took it easy (some would say slow) and made it safely. I'm still getting the feel of the RV on steep and winding grades, either up or down. It really would have been easier to follow 18 over to Prairie du Chien and then up WI 35, “The Great River Road.” Google, WHY?

Like most (all?) Corps of Engineers campgrounds, the Senior Pass sold by the US government gets us ½ off of the very reasonable rate. If you don't have one and you are 62 or older, the $10.00 fee for the lifetime pass is well worth the effort to get one. They are sold at all sorts of federal recreational facilities, COE Parks, National Parks, US Forest Service, and others. I think you can now get them online too, but for $20.00 (still lifetime) with the other $10.00 covering processing fees.

Flooded Campsites

Blackhawk is not the best COE campground I've ever used, but it's a good decent campground on the backwaters of the Mississippi. Right now, it is a slightly flooded campground since the river's up (more on that below). We've got 30-amp electric (but no water hookup) and a decent gravel back-in site. The sites here are a little close together, but our neighbors seem pretty quiet so we'll be fine.

The Mississippi River is definitely FULL!

Forrest's Yellow and Mary's Blue Kayak

Today we went out kayaking, another first of the season. Since I had rotator cuff surgery on my left arm on February 1, this is the first kayaking trip we've taken this year. I wasn't sure how my arm (which is doing remarkably well) would do, but we paddled about an hour and a half and BOTH shoulders are sore so it's not just the left shoulder and arm that need to be strengthened and worked out. Time and effort will take care of that. We did NOT go out into the flow of the Mississippi River. The advice here at the campground from the fee collectors was that the river was flowing fast and hard due to the floods in Minnesota. We elected to stay in the “lakes” that make up the backwaters here near the camp. And it was a pleasant and easy paddle.

Tomorrow, we'll get to visit our friend, Scott. It'll be good to see him. It's been a few years. And then Monday, it will be back on the road when we drive all the way to Rockford, IL! (Rockford is about 20 miles south of Beloit so it's almost like going home.) We will camp there overnight and then head for Goshen, IN, and the FMA rally.

It's Summer in Tennessee!

I'm going to write just a short post today. I'm back on the road for my first trip of the spring. This is a solo trip. Mary is still teaching and they just expect her to show up every day during the school year (would you believe it?!).

I'm headed "home" for the annual Shelton Cemetery gathering in rural Rutherford County, Tennessee. Every year on the Sunday before Memorial Day, Sheltons and friends gather to remember those of their families who are buried there in Shelton Cemetery. The cemetery is located up Eaton Hollow (pronounced "Holler" if you're from Middle Tennessee) and looks out over the valley where my great-grandfather and my grandfather and their families farmed for many years. We'll also get to have a gathering of the Shelton cousins on Monday, thanks to cousin Linda (Shelton) McGill and her husband, Lynn, who have invited us to their place in Franklin.

I left home in Beloit Thursday and drove far LESS than I intended to. I was aiming to reach the Rend Lake area and the Corps of Engineers campgrounds in that area, a 6 or so hour drive. However, the winds were so terrible that after only making slow progress I put into the Champaign Sportsman's Club in Mahomet, IL, which is at Lake of the Woods.

If you're ever looking for a camping spot in the Champaign, IL, area, I recommend this place. Mary and I visited it for an overnight on the way home on our trip to the south two summers ago and found it a nice quiet place to stay. The host is really a helpful and friendly guy. And it's not too expensive to stay there ($18.00 for the night). The campground was almost full (it is the Memorial Day weekend, after all) and I could only get an electric, no water, site, but that was alright. I  had enough water on board to take care of me for the night with no problems and the electric was the 30 amps I needed. I even had a water view out the back of the coach (it was just a slough off of the lake but it was water).

I drove on from CSC and made it into Two Rivers Campground in Nashville, TN, yesterday afternoon. This park too is almost full, but I have a water and electric site for the next several days. The campground is only about two miles from the Grand Ole Opry but I won't be going. We had a small happy hour yesterday and a band played for a couple of hours last night. Another band will be playing tonight. So there's some built-in entertainment.

Why didn't I stay somewhere closer to Murfreesboro? Simple. Brother Ransom is staying at the Wyndham Resort near Opryland so I stayed where he and I could get some time together.

It's hotter than "blue blazes" as they'd say here in TN. Record-setting heat in the mid-90s. Tomorrow at the cemetery could easily see 95 degrees! I'm glad my motorhome has good air conditioning! It is really making a difference on a super hot day.

I've not done much today other than housekeeping. And that has to be done sometimes. I slept late, made a leisurely breakfast, checked email and facebook, and did the other kinds of stuff that had to be done (like sweeping, washing dishes, and washing me).  I'm not trying to post any pictures today. There's not much to be seen but a long row of various kinds of rv's.

-forrest

Happy New Year to all our RVing friends and to our family who follow our travels and travails!

Mary and I are both hoping that 2012 will bring us as good and enjoyable a year as 2011 did. We had a wonderful long summer of travel, camping, sightseeing, and kayaking. We saw old friends and made some new ones and both old and new friends brought us a great deal of enjoyment.

In our summer of travel we first went to two different places in Iowa, one where we lived for seven years in the early days of my United Methodist ministry (after some 15 years of Baptist ministry). That was at the Churdan and Lanesboro United Methodist Charge and we lived in Churdan. We were able to worship with the Churdan church and visit some dear friends from our time there. We also visited some friends from our days in Perry, IA, who have since moved to Reinbeck. It was great to see all these people who have been part of our life for many years.

Our FIRST RV, 2006 Fleetwood Fiesta 26Q

After Iowa, we traveled through Missouri, stopping for a night in Peculiar, and then headed on into Oklahoma. We camped at a nice COE campground in eastern OK and then headed to Shawnee for the Fleetwood Motorhome Association Rally. Now that was an eventful week! We met some friends from the previous year's rally and made some new friends. We learned new things in educational seminars (on different aspects of RV living). We bought some handy things and we looked at LOTS of new motorhomes. Before the week was over (actually as the week was coming to an end), to our great surprise, we bought a NEW 2012 Fleetwood Terra 34E Class A Motorhome!

The NEW RV, 2012 Fleetwood Terra 34E

It actually wasn't easy to say goodbye to our 2006 Fiesta 26Q, our very first motorhome. It was a great choice as a first RV and will always hold a special place in our memories. However, the Terra 34E is proving to be a great home on wheels. In making this move, we went from 27' with no slides to 34' with two slides. That was a lot of increase in square footage.

After Shawnee, we drove across OK to the panhandle of Texas after a short stop in Oklahoma City to get some warranty work done on our NEW motorhome. That would be our first of multiple stops for warranty work we would have to get done. One of the things we learned in this experience is that RV manufacturers seem to rely on dealer service departments to finish the last 5-10% of the manufacturing and quality checking process. We have repeatedly been assured that this is not uncommon at all.

In TX we visited the Palo Duro Canyon State Park, just south of Amarillo. From there we headed into New Mexico. Fourth of July was at Brantley Lake State Park in southeastern NM where we also visited Carlsbad Caverns. We drove from there to Las Cruces where we played tourist while some more warranty work was done on the coach. We got to see White Sands Missile Range Museum and the White Sands National Monument while we were there.

From Las Cruces, we drove to Albuquerque where we spent several days seeing the sights and visiting a dear friend from my days as Housing Mediator for Small Claims Court in Dane County, WI. Next, we drove north to Santa Fe where we camped for a week and traveled around in the "toad," our Honda Fit Sport. We also went to Taos while we were camped in Santa Fe.

After three weeks in NM, we headed north to Colorado where we stopped in Salida for several days along the Arkansas River. There we were able to get in some hiking and enjoyed watching the white water and stunt kayakers playing in the river. We also got to ride the Royal Gorge Railroad route up into the Royal Gorge on the old route of the Denver and Rio Grande Western RR. In the course of taking that trip, we decided that one of our RV goals would be to ride every operating tourist railroad in the US (there are MANY of them!).

We headed home after Colorado enjoying the leisurely travel that an RV affords. We camped in Nebraska and Iowa on the way home. After a short while at home in Beloit, WI, we headed out on phase 2 of our summer, heading first into NW WI. We rode another tourist RR and kayaked with some friends from our days in Baraboo, WI. Then we went over to Eagle River and kayaked several of the lakes over there. Another of our goals is to kayak in every one of the chain of lakes around Eagle River and Three Lakes. There are something like 27 lakes in the chain that are joined together.

After a few days camped near Green Bay so we could visit Mary's sister, Kitty, we finally headed for home in Beloit just before it was time for Mary to return to her teaching and librarian duties in Madison. All told we were on the road nine of the twelve weeks that were available for travel in the summer of 2011.

Over the next few months, I'll be working at planning the trip that begins in the summer of 2012. It is my hope and intention to write about that planning so others can follow the development of the trip and maybe even make some suggestions about places to go and see during that trip. The 2012 trip is going to head toward the Northeastern United States. We'll hit the Fleetwood Motorhome Association Rally at the end of June in Indiana. From there we'll head further east. We will definitely make stops in the Adirondack Mountains in or near Saranac Lake where we lived for five years when we were first married. We'll try to connect with some friends remaining in the area from those days. We'll also plan to visit Barb and Mike Hemken in Glens Falls, NY (another of Mary's sisters) plus visiting some other friends in NY. From there, we don't know where we'll go or how long we'll be gone. We will come back to WI at some point to do some more kayaking in the lakes of the chain around Three Lakes. As we encounter tourist RRs we'll also take some trips to continue to reach that goal. So if you've got some "must see" places in the NE states, I invite you to make your recommendations and suggestions of places worth a visit.

Happy NEW YEAR to all of you. I look forward to traveling with you or having you travel with us through what I'm able to write about our rambling and rving in retirement. The big question of the year is whether or not Mary will join me in retirement and what we'll do after that if she does. Full-timing is definitely a consideration.

~forrest

Back on the Road
August 8-11
Outside Sarona, WI

Here we sit at Whitetail Ridge Campground and RV Park located between Sarona and Shell Lake, WI. For those who need a quick lesson in WI geography, that's located in the northwestern part of the state, north of Eau Claire up Highway 53. We left home on Monday, drove up here and camped for these four nights. Tomorrow we'll head a few miles south to New Auburn to connect with our friends Mark and Gloria Carlson from Baraboo. They have a lake home outside New Auburn where we'll spend the weekend. By leaving here before the weekend, we'll miss out on the opportunity to see Gilbert Brown and Santana Dodson of the Green Bay Packers who'll be here for a fundraising camp for a charitable foundation.

We came up here to Whitetail Ridge to be near Spooner and the Wisconsin Great Northern Railway. One of our traveling goals is to ride each of the operating tourist railroads in the U.S. That will take quite a while since there are hundreds of them! This was a 2-1/4 hour ride on about twelve miles of railroad. We started out in a regular passenger car that had been remodeled for the "dinner train" that the WGN runs (we were just on the noon train and that is NOT a dinner train). The conductor, being a friendly fellow, stopped to chat with us after the train got underway and then sat down and we had quite the conversation with this retired railroader who now volunteers two days a week as a conductor for the WGN. Just as we were reaching the north end of the run, he came back to our seat and quietly asked would we like to ride in the engine on the ride back! We certainly would! So we were led through the next car and told to sit tight and wait. After the train stopped, we were escorted to the engine. Here's a picture of the S-1 Switch Engine that was powering the train for the day. After that is a picture of me standing in the doorway of the engine, the engineer's area, and me sitting in the fireman's seat.

Wisconsin Great Northern S-1

In the doorway of S-1 Switch Engine

Engineer's Console for S-1 Switch Engine

 

On the fireman's seat of an S-1 Switcher

The train ride itself was just a jaunt through the northern Wisconsin woods with regular glimpses of the road and many trees along the way. We went past the Namekagon River but didn't get to cross it.

We also went to Spooner's very fine Railroad Memories Museum located in what remains of the old Spooner train station.

Spooner Railroad Memories Museum
(with F-7 of Wisconsin Great Northern in the background)

There were thirteen rooms of railroad history and memorabilia. It was truly a fine place to visit.

The train trip was on Tuesday. On Wednesday we had a slow morning ending with me on an hour long coaching call with my mentor coach. This was the final session of my year-long course of study for International Coach Federation certification (I still have to get enough hours of coaching in to qualify for that certification but have gone a long way toward it!). Then we went up to Spooner again to see the Canoe Museum that is located there. It was interesting but was a bit overpriced at $4.00 per person for a two room museum. They did have some very beautiful and interesting canoes and the best part of the visit was the opportunity to go into the shop area where they were both refurbishing old canoes and building some new ones. These are finely crafted wood or wood and canvas canoes so they are truly works of art!

Just what the sign says!

In front of the workshop at the Canoe Heritage Museum
(volunteer is restoring a 1930s era wooden canoe)

Today, Thursday, we put our kayaks in Long Lake (the largest lake in Washburn County, WI) and paddled around for a couple of hours. We got plenty of sun and water and had a good time.

Long Lake

Long Lake

We came back to the campground for lunch and in mid afternoon ran out to Shell Lake for ice cream, which we enjoyed sitting near the Shell Lake beach looking out on (what do you expect) Shell Lake! It's a tough life but somebody's got to do it!

This catches you up with us. Tomorrow we move on. We'll go to New Auburn, then over to Eagle River, down to Green Bay, and finally to Baraboo where we'll finish our summer's travels. But that won't be for a while yet, so follow along with us as we go!

Days 37-41
23-27 July 2011
Howard, CO, and home

It always happens at the end of a trip! We head for home and get there and I don't take time to wrap up the narrative which leaves a loose end hanging. I'm going to try to correct that this time (although we've already been home for several days and I'm just now taking the time to write).

We are home in Beloit for a few days. We'll be back on the road in a week doing some exploring of Northern WI and visiting some good friends. We're looking forward to being back on the road.

But let's catch up with where we were and what we were doing. Saturday, 23 July, we drove over to Canon City (Blogger doesn't seem to have the Spanish en-ye character or at least I can't find it so hear Canyon when I write Canon in this sentence) to ride the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. This three hour train excursion leaves Canon City on tracks of the former Denver and Rio Grande Railway and travels twelve miles through the Royal Gorge of the Arkansas River and then back the twelve miles to Canon City. It is an AWESOME ride. The Gorge itself is spectacular and for an old rail buff  (be REAL careful with the "old"; I just mean a long-time rail buff) like myself it was a real treat to ride the trail and see the story unfold along the tracks.

I'm only going to post a few pictures with this part of the story. My next goal is to post a series of pictures from the places with visited. But here's the Royal Gorge ride:

A view from the train of The Royal Gorge Route

Rafters on the Arkansas River IN the Royal Gorge

The Royal Gorge Bridge, 1053 feet above the floor of the Gorge

The Royal Gorge Bridge again

The train and the river on the return route

Sunday the 24th was kind of a wind-down, catch-up day. We went to church at the First United Methodist Church of Salida, CO. The pastor there is the Rev. Margaret Gillikin who, as a student pastor when she was at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, served a WI Conference church (I think she said at Brandon, WI). She gave a splendid message, one of the best I've heard in a long time, and it was a delight to meet her. After church we checked in at the Arkansas River to watch the kayakers and waterboarders ride the waves of the rapids. It was fun watching them. Although I enjoy my kayak (and we're going to try to take them with us on the next trip), what there were doing was far beyond my abilities or interests at this time in life. Performance stunt kayaking is for the young not the gently aging! We watched forward flips, reverse flips, rolls, turns, and wave riding and were simply amazed at their abilities. Here's a link to the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, a Colorado State Park. We enjoyed watching them. Can you tell?

Monday saw us leaving Banderas Bunkhouse and heading out on the road again. We had to come down from the Colorado mountains (we were in the Sangre de Cristo range which we had also been in when we were in Santa Fe, NM) and head east. There was a good bit of construction on part of the route, but it wasn't a major difficulty. It just slowed us down. The new coach is not a speed-demon in the mountains (read: we climb up pretty slow, like a loaded semi) but it does manage the downhill grades pretty well with the engine brake helping control down-shifting of the transmission and keeping the driver's foot off the brakes. So we came out of the mountains and through the Front Range of Colorado, drove through a part of Kansas, and arrived the Johnson Lake State Recreation Area outside Lexington, Nebraska, fairly late in the evening, having traveled well over 450 miles (which is a LONG day for an RVer). Johnson Lake won't be our favorite stop of the trip (the facilities are a bit sparse), but it was an excellent spot to stop for the night, enjoy a nice evening and a pretty lake, and get on the road the next morning.

On Tuesday, we drove across Nebraska and into Iowa, in fact, most of the way across Iowa, stopping for the night at the Kellogg RV Park in Kellogg, IA, which also happens to be the home of the "Iowa's Best Burger Cafe." Of course, we had to sample the burger to see if it really was. Now I don't know if it is really the BEST burger in Iowa, but I can tell you that they make a mighty good burger! Now this is a stopping place that we want to remember. It is a decent day's drive from home in Beloit and has good facilities for the traveler and the owners are very nice to deal with. They've got it all, pull-through sites, full-hookups (IF you want them; we just went for W/E [that is, a water and electric hookup site]), a cafe with good food and ice cream, and a gas station. They even had TREES! Many of the western campgrounds are sorely lacking in good shade trees so we enjoyed being back in the shade.

Wednesday, 27 July and Day 41 of our trip, saw us getting home to Beloit. The new coach FILLS the driveway! I probably could have fit a 36 or maybe a 37 footer into the drive, but if we'd bought a 40 foot coach it would have stuck out into the street. Thirty-four feet was a pretty full driveway! Of course, the coach doesn't live at home. After unloading, we drove it (the next day) to it's full-time parking place in a storage lot.

It was quite a trip! We had a lot of fun, only a few frustrations (mostly due to dealing with McClain's RV over the purchase of the coach, but don't get me started on them!). It's nice to be home, but we're both looking forward to heading out again in a week after we take care of some business and family matters. I see you on down the road. Thanks for following our adventures and travels.

--Forrest and Mary

Days 31-36
17-22 July 2011
Santa Fe & Taos, NM, and Howard, CO

I think I'm about to lose control of my reporting of our trip. It seems like I'm missing days! Actually they're not missing, I'm just forgetting all that we managed to pack into the days! And I'm not making the time to write every day. That's what happens when you're having fun AND when the wi-fi connection is less than reliable.


Let's go back to Sunday, 17 July, when we were in Santa Fe. It was a slow and relaxed day. We needed that. Honestly, I don't even remember what we did other than shop for groceries. That's what happens when you don't write every day.

Monday, 18 July, was another Taos day. We drove up to Taos and took the Trolley Tour. It was a three hour ride that gave us an overview of the town, a bit of narrative, and, most importantly, took us to the Taos Pueblo.

There aren't any pictures of the Taos Pueblo since we didn't pay for the license to take pictures. On the way home, however, we passed by Camel Rock on one of the other pueblo's reservation.

Tuesday, 19 July, was our last day in Santa Fe. We went back downtown to pick up a few souvenir gifts, wandered around, looked at the city one more time and found a delightful little place called Maria's where we had a marguerita (choosing from 170 different varieties, with the most expensive costing $58.00 per glass ... and that was NOT the one we ordered) and a delicious New Mexican meal. Maria's may have been the best meal we have had all trip! Gotta love those green chilies!

Wednesday, 20 July, was a driving day. We left Los Rancheros de Santa Fe RV Park, and headed north to Colorado. We had our fill of heat and smoke in the air from forest fires and decided to look for cooler heights. So we drove to the mountains of central Colorado. We drove north on US 285 across Poncha Pass giving me my first experience of crossing a fairly significant mountain, climbing up, over, and down the pass (not a terribly high one although it was over 9,000 feet). We are camped outside Howard, CO, at Bandera's Bunkhouse and RV Park. It's right on the Arkansas River.

Thursday, 21 July. Today we drove from our campground in Howard, CO, back into Salida. We visited the Visitors' Center and the San Isabel National Forest office and then went to the historic Salida downtown. We took the walking tour of the town and spent a lot of time watching the kayakers playing in the rapids of the Arkansas River.  They are definitely WAY above my class of kayaking! Although we did watch one kayaker get flipped over who couldn't right himself and who had to slip out to the kayak underwater to get free and who then got separated from his kayak and washed down the fast flowing Arkansas River, much to the horror of his girlfriend (or wife) who was in another kayak at that rapids. Obviously they were taking a lesson because the guy teaching them took off like the proverbial shot, paddling downriver the fastest I've ever seen a kayaker paddle. They went a long way down river before the teacher caught up with the floating student (wearing a life jacket and special cold water kayak clothing) and it was 15-20 minutes before we saw the two returning walking up the shore carrying their kayaks. We also saw a dog playing in the water who had to get rescued from the undertow of a "hole". He just wasn't strong enough to swim out and was getting sucked underwater. Fortunately one of his owners was able to reach him to save him. No pictures of the dramas since we were too busy watching them unfold.

Friday, 22 July, was a hiking day. We went up the road to Monarch Pass, not quite reaching the top, and headed up the trail to Waterdog Lakes. It is a short trail, 2 miles or so, UP! And UP! And UP! And we actually got started on the wrong trail, but it joined up with the Waterdog Lakes Trail so we were fine.

Lower Waterdog Lake
(notice the snow in the peaks?)

 

Upper Waterdog Lake
(and here the snow comes right down to the lake)

Upper Waterdog Lake
looking up at the Continental Divide

My favorite hiking partner

Mary at Upper Waterdog Lake

We both felt the effects of the 11,000+ feet of altitude on the hike and were glad we hadn't tried one of the longer walks we could have selected.


Today, Saturday the 23rd, we are going to ride the Royal Gorge Scenic Railway up the gorge from Canon City (pronounced Canyon City) and see the Royal Gorge Bridge.

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.