It's Mum (Josie) and we've finally established sufficient rapport with this lap top to get some more information into the blog. Hooray!
Thursday, February 7th. After quite a bit of messing about with the jeep and having to go back home to fix the tow, we made it across to James & Megan and had a wonderful evening because Joanne and Roman came across. Owen was a delight and even more delightful, went to sleep at the proper time. We told everyone we would make an early start next day and said bye bye.
Friday, February 8th. After an excellent night's sleep in the street outside James's, I was awakened by muffled thuds and shudders. It was quite dark and I could just see John, in the dark, dressing at the end of the bed. He said "You can go back to sleep, if you want, but the snow's started, so I think we should set off." I believe I mumbled "What's the time" and nearly got back under the covers when I was told it was a quarter to five. Well, I couldn't let that sacrifice go un-noticed, but it didn't take more than a few seconds to decide to get up. After a welcome, refreshing drink of cold water, in the gloom, we buckled ourselves in and set off. True, it had started to snow, tiny hard pellets of ice, but the hills in Stillwater were still dry and it wasn't too bad. We made it to I35E and set off south. It was still dark at Albert Lea, but ran into sunshine in Des Moines, where we sloshed through snow melt to get to Walmart for something essential, I've forgotten what.
We congratulated ourselves on the sunshine, made it through Kansas City and ended up in Topeka, KS, for the night - courtesy of Moaning Myrtle who took us on the northern route. Well, no doubt the inhabitants of Topeka love it, but we didn't. For a start, the road works didn't match the roads that MM was trying to use, but a toll booth attendant talked us through and we headed for the camp ground recommended by Woodalls Directory. Of course, being late in the evening, there was no-one to check us in, so we did it ourselves. One side was a grain silo, and the site seemed to be a converted parking lot. The water had been turned off because the temperature was in the region of zero and all the snow was frozen. Fortunately, one of the owners popped out and gave us the code to get into the bathrooms, so we had that luxury.
Saturday, February 9th. We crunched our way out of Topeka, headed for Wichita, OKC and then Wichita Falls, TX. The roads were superb, we made good time and the weather was warm and sunny. One new thing we noticed. Between the OK border and Abiline, hundreds of thousands of acres of scrub have been cleared. The creosote bush, grasses, cacti - all gone. So far as we could see, it was being planted with cotton! No doubt the subsidies that are ruining the cotton growers in the rest of the world are enriching the Texans.
As the weather continued fine, we hugged ourselves with glee and decided to head for Abilene, to arrive at a specific camp site about 6pm. Well, Moaning Myrtle did a damn fine job, through lots of different highways and byways. She kept saying "arriving at destination on the left", but after we had circled the spot several times, on unmade roads and past "for sale" signs, it was obvious that either that camp site had never been built, or had been razed to the ground some time previously. Mental note - write to Woodalls.
Anyway, there being no Walmart to beg for shelter, and NO OTHER RV PARK IN ABILENE, we decided to head east to Sweetwater, where there were no less than three RV parks to choose from. It had been a long day, we were tired and hungry, and decided that if we could find one, a bottle of wine would go down well with the spam sandwiches. Well, Sweetwater is on a divided highway which had more elevated spans than solid road, and numerous exits. Of course, we got off at the wrong one and found ourselves heading into the dark on a small road called Sweetwater Road - original, eh? It was obviously not Sweetwater, but some outlying hamlet, but with a very, very good liquor store, prominently lit and obvious. We had some super advice from the owner, who was very glad to see us indeed and he directed us to get back onto the main highway and look for the RV Park signs. We did, and after a few more miles of roaring along with the big boys, we came off and started looking.
Well, eventually we found all the RV Parks, all were tiny and full up. Dad decided to use the forecourt of a small shopping mall, all the shops were empty and boarded up, but unfortunately it was too narrow for him to turn, so I hopped out and demolished a log wall to let hm through. I was so tired and hungry I would have demolished a brick wall. Decisions, decisions ..... we went back under the highway, up the hill and begged leave to park in the blessed Walmart park. They were quite indifferent, so we joined the other RV in the same area, drank some wine, ate the spam sandwiches and went to bed. It was so lovely not having ice everywhere, we didn't notice the wind that had sprung up, but that was for tomorrow.
To be continued.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
As friends and family undoubtedly know, Josie and I bought a 33 foot National Motor Home and we are using it to go "camping" this winter. Camping! It has two air conditioners, central furnace with ducted air, a separate bedroom at the rear with a queen size bed, a separate bathroom with a shower, gas fired water heater, convection microwave oven, 5.5 kilowatt generator, two televisions with DVD/VCR player, two stereo systems, GPS, a slideout that doubles the size of the living space and a huge awning. Not finished yet. It also has a basement, well, lower level storage that is accesible from the outside. What else? Heated rearview mirrors and a video camera for monitoring traffic behind and for reversing into places, a hydraulic jack system for leveling the beast, antilock breaks. Sleeps four plus two children. We have even added the Jeep as a shuttle craft that we pull behind. In RV speak that is known as a toad (towed)or a dinghy. Strangely enough the power cord that permits us to connect to external electricity is known as "shore power". For those of us that have sailed that is funny.
Josie and I flew to South Carolina to pick up the RV from the dealer and we took a quick vacation in the process. Because of where we were and the time of year we headed to Florida to watch the shuttle take off on the 10th of January. Sadly the mission was delayed by some weeks due to a problem fueling. I knew that this same problem had cropped up before so I did a quick diagnosis. I told Josie that it was the connector where the wires for the hydrogen fuel sensors exited the external fuel tank. Some weeks later it was announced that this connector had been replaced. Lucky guess? You be the judge.
Let's see now, our first days in the RV. At the start we had nothing in the RV. No bedding, crockery, cutlery or food so we headed to a Super Walmart, just six miles from the dealership. We asked the people at Walmart if it was OK to spend the night and got the OK. Most Walmarts or Kmarts will let you spend the night if you ask. We shopped the store for most of what we needed. Much shopping and much storing, unpacking and experimenting later we were duly fed and had a bed in which to sleep.
When we finally got on the road I found the vehicle difficult to handle and very unstable in crosswinds or when being passed by a semi. After a couple of quite uncomfortable days, it occurred to me that we had a full water tank, full lp gas, full fuel and at least half full gray water and black water tanks as a result of the dealership testing everything. Emptying both of the holding tanks and dumping three quarters of our fresh water made a huge difference. While it is still not easy to drive under adverse conditions, I have been comfortable at 75 under good conditions and I maintained 55 mph without too much stress under extremely bad conditions of wind gusts to 35 plus and passing semis. Important note to anyone considering a similar purchase, the duel rear axle or tag exle is highly desireable and improves handling and load carrying a great deal. That is the number one reason that I will sell this motor home and get a new one with a tag axle.
We made it to Cape Canaveral and as we headed for our campground we passed through the docks area where the cruise ships load and unload. I could not see that we were going to have a very nice campground as we drove through parking lot hell. We did arrive at the campground only to be given an already occupied site. It was evening and we had been assigned a site by the night guard on the main entry gate. We duly returned to the main gate and reported our findings. The guard asked if we had noticed any empty sites and as we had, he immediately said "well take that one" and off we went. The guard station had warning notices about the feral cats. You know the sort of thing. "Do not feed the feral cats they will tear your arm off." I must confess they did not look like feral cats to me. They looked like very sleek domestic tabbies. A quick look around revealed that the guard fed them and later on we found that the staff at the campground fed them as well. So much for the warnings. The campground proved to be better than I had at first hoped. We were just 50 yards from the beach and possibly 400 yards from the fishing pier.
It was not long before we had to put on the air conditioner and that was a fantastic thrill in January. We spent several days at the site and apart from our three hour naps there was not much to report. You can see pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvict the one thing of note is as follows. Many years ago, when I first started treatment for high blood pressure, I was pressured to take a vacation. Josie and I went camping in South Dakota. During one of our long walks in which I was taking the lead I stopped because on the trail ahead of me was an Emu. Now remember that I was simultaneously taking large quantities of new medications. Well I got teased about the Emu for years. During our recent trip to Florida, Josie repeatedly saw Penguins. I think she was talking about Pelicans but I will never admit that. In future if she brings up Emu's I will mention Penguins and that should be that.
That's all for now. Much more to follow.
Josie and I flew to South Carolina to pick up the RV from the dealer and we took a quick vacation in the process. Because of where we were and the time of year we headed to Florida to watch the shuttle take off on the 10th of January. Sadly the mission was delayed by some weeks due to a problem fueling. I knew that this same problem had cropped up before so I did a quick diagnosis. I told Josie that it was the connector where the wires for the hydrogen fuel sensors exited the external fuel tank. Some weeks later it was announced that this connector had been replaced. Lucky guess? You be the judge.
Let's see now, our first days in the RV. At the start we had nothing in the RV. No bedding, crockery, cutlery or food so we headed to a Super Walmart, just six miles from the dealership. We asked the people at Walmart if it was OK to spend the night and got the OK. Most Walmarts or Kmarts will let you spend the night if you ask. We shopped the store for most of what we needed. Much shopping and much storing, unpacking and experimenting later we were duly fed and had a bed in which to sleep.
When we finally got on the road I found the vehicle difficult to handle and very unstable in crosswinds or when being passed by a semi. After a couple of quite uncomfortable days, it occurred to me that we had a full water tank, full lp gas, full fuel and at least half full gray water and black water tanks as a result of the dealership testing everything. Emptying both of the holding tanks and dumping three quarters of our fresh water made a huge difference. While it is still not easy to drive under adverse conditions, I have been comfortable at 75 under good conditions and I maintained 55 mph without too much stress under extremely bad conditions of wind gusts to 35 plus and passing semis. Important note to anyone considering a similar purchase, the duel rear axle or tag exle is highly desireable and improves handling and load carrying a great deal. That is the number one reason that I will sell this motor home and get a new one with a tag axle.
We made it to Cape Canaveral and as we headed for our campground we passed through the docks area where the cruise ships load and unload. I could not see that we were going to have a very nice campground as we drove through parking lot hell. We did arrive at the campground only to be given an already occupied site. It was evening and we had been assigned a site by the night guard on the main entry gate. We duly returned to the main gate and reported our findings. The guard asked if we had noticed any empty sites and as we had, he immediately said "well take that one" and off we went. The guard station had warning notices about the feral cats. You know the sort of thing. "Do not feed the feral cats they will tear your arm off." I must confess they did not look like feral cats to me. They looked like very sleek domestic tabbies. A quick look around revealed that the guard fed them and later on we found that the staff at the campground fed them as well. So much for the warnings. The campground proved to be better than I had at first hoped. We were just 50 yards from the beach and possibly 400 yards from the fishing pier.
It was not long before we had to put on the air conditioner and that was a fantastic thrill in January. We spent several days at the site and apart from our three hour naps there was not much to report. You can see pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvict the one thing of note is as follows. Many years ago, when I first started treatment for high blood pressure, I was pressured to take a vacation. Josie and I went camping in South Dakota. During one of our long walks in which I was taking the lead I stopped because on the trail ahead of me was an Emu. Now remember that I was simultaneously taking large quantities of new medications. Well I got teased about the Emu for years. During our recent trip to Florida, Josie repeatedly saw Penguins. I think she was talking about Pelicans but I will never admit that. In future if she brings up Emu's I will mention Penguins and that should be that.
That's all for now. Much more to follow.
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