Pacific Time!

Yesterday we made the trip across Utah and well into Nevada before stopping for the evening in Winnemucca. From what I heard on the TV weather report it looks like we made it through there just in time. Altough it was in the 80s yesterday - the have posted a winter weather warning for Wednesday with a foot or so of snow forecast for the mountain areas east of Salt Lake City that we just came through. Crazy weather in this part of the country this time of year! The trip through Utah and eastern Nevada was pretty uneventful. After traveling throught the flat lands of Utah there are a couple of pretty steep climbs we had to negotiate coming into Nevada but the Winny managed to pull herself up the hills and then fight some more wind. We'll have to see how the gas mileage averaged out when we fuel up today.

Speaking of fuel - I think I have mentioned this before - but does anybody know why gasoline costs more on the east and west coasts than in the mid west? If we are getting so much crude oil from overseas I assume it comes to us on ships to our coasts - and I seem to remember seeing a lot of oil refineries on the coasts - so why is fuel cheaper away from the coasts? I think if you look at a political map of the US (you know - the "red" states and the "blue" states) - I think the answer lies there somehow. I'll leave it to you all to figure it out and let me know. So far the most expensive gas we purchased was in Maine at $2.649 per gallon and the least expensive was in Clive, IA at $2.359. It looks like I will be paying around $2.70 or so here in Nevada and around $3.00 in California. In spite of it all - it's a lot better than the $3.70 or so I averaged on this trip last year and even the $2.70 something I averaged in 2007.

So here are the pictures of yesterday's adventure.



Here is the Great Salt Lake ...

Here is where your table salt comes from - just a bit west of the Great Salt Lake ...

Bonneville Salt Flats (the home of land speed records!) ...

Here is Nevada (pretty much anyplace along I-80) ...

On another side note for anybody that cares - our new Verizon Wireless Broadband Internet setup here in the motorhome is working great. We have had a relatively high speed connection in every place we have stopped along the way and we have even used the internet while driving a couple of times to check on gas prices and other such stuff. Well Peggy did anyway - don't worry I haven't tried surfing the net while driving yet!

So this morning we head for Sister Marcie's place in Minden, NV - a short drive of only about 200 or so miles. It is supposed to be windy again today so I'm glad we only have a relatively short drive. We are looking forward to seeing Marcie & Don as well as niece Carin and her son Zach during our short stay in Minden.

Utah

It continued to stay windy all night last night and we ended up bringing in the slides to minimize the rockin and rollin. I really don't think the wind ever stops blowing in Wyoming. I'm pretty sure that if you dropped some litter in Rock Springs at noon it would be in Nebraska by 2 PM the same day. The wind was a little better today as we finished driving the rest of the way through Wyoming and into Utah to Salt Lake City.

We did see several herds of antelope along the highway today. They certainly aren't as skittish as deer! They just kept grazing as us crazy humans speed right by. Speaking of speeding right by - every time I make this trip I think of all the "stuff" we get by truck. All one has to do is watch any particular stretch of I-80 - at any time of the day or night - and notice all the trucks going in both directions to get a picture of what I'm talking about. I'm sure that at least 80% of all the traffic on this interstate is large tractor-trailer rigs pulling one, two, or sometimes three trailers. Think about that when you have your wheaties for breakfast tomorrow!

Once we got to the mountains of Utah we were treated to some pretty nice fall colors. The foliage in New England this time of year is prety hard to beat - but Utah has some pretty nice display as well.

We are staying at a new RV "Resort" here in North Salt Lake City. It's a little pricey - but a very nice facility in a relatively quiet spot north of town with some nice views of the city and the nearby mountains. It was around 83 degrees when we got her today and it is supposed to be about 87 here tomorrow. It is hard to believe that it was snowing when we came through here at almost the same time two years ago.

So tomorrow is driving day #9 and we are planning to drive across the barren northern Utah desert to the high desert of Nevada. We plan on making it to about Winnemucca before we call it a day. Only another 800 or so miles to go!

Windy in Mountain Time

Greetings from windy Rawlins, Wyoming. I think this is the third time we have stopped here at the KOA in Rawlins - and it has been windy every time. As I recall - the first time we stayed here the winds got up to around 50 mph and we pulled in the slides to ride out the storm! Actually it has been pretty windy all day as we drove west along I-80 right into the wind. Not only were we into the wind but we continued to drive uphill all the way ... leaving North Platte at about 2800 feet, cresting the continental divide just east of Laramie at 8700 feet and then finally to about 7500 feet here in Rawlins. I will fill up with gas tomorrow on our way out of town at the Flying J and I expect to get some pretty bad news regarding our gas mileage for today. Oh well - we have been doing pretty good on gas before today so hopefully we'll do better tomorrow.

Tonite is laundry night so Peggy is off finishing that chore while I goof off here at the computer. She is probably enjoying the break from sitting in the rig all day watching pretty much the same scenery go by mile after mile. Tomorrow we plan on completing our trip across the high prairie of Wyoming and then drop down into the high desert of Utah where we plan on staying tomorrow night in Salt Lake City.

We made it into Mountain Time today - just west of North Platte. I have always found it difficult for me to adjust to changing to Pacific Time when we have flown to the west coast. It seems easier to me to adjust to coming east from the west. But since we change an hour every 3 or 4 days when driving - the change seems more manageable. But then I have to adjust my evening TV watching! Central Time is really crazy with shows coming on an hour earlier than they should - and then it changes back to "normal" when I get to Mountain Time. Boy ... I tell you what ... this traveling is pretty tough on an old guy like me!

By-the-way - I really had no particular theme with the pictures posted on this entry. They are just some random shots of our last two days.

Driving Uphill

Another day - another 300 or so miles - and tonite we find ourselves in North Platte, Nebraska. We arrived in North Platte around 3:30 PM Central Time, got the rig set up, and then drove over to the "farm" to see Aunt Velma and Uncle Junior Perkins. We got a bonus in the deal as Peggy's cousin Tom from Denver was visiting his folks so we got to visit a bit with him as well. After a short visit we drove back to town and visited the local WalMart to replenish the motorhome larder ... we are just like the pioneers of the wagon train days - cross the great plains and pick up supplies in North Platte before continuing our trek across the plains to the great Rocky Mountains.


I did learn something today ... when you drive across Nebraska from east to west - you will just about double your elevation by the time you get to North Platte. We started off near Omaha this morning at about 1300 feet elevation and North Platte is at about 2700 feet. Nebraska looks flat but you are actually driving uphill all the way from east to west. As I remember - we will be closer to 6000 feet by the time we get to Wyoming tomorrow and will peak out at around 8700 feet before coming down into Cheyenne.


So tomorrow we leave the plains and enter the mountains and high desert of the west. Another day - another 300 or so miles.

Welcome Scarlet !!

Not too much new to report on the travel front this evening. We left our parking space among the soy bean plants in Illinois early this morning and tonight we are parked amongst the corn in Western Iowa - in Shelby, Iowa to be exact. We are staying in a small RV park in Shelby where we have stayed a couple of times in the past. Shelby appears to be not much more than an exit on the interstate with a few businessess - but it seems to be in the right place for us - so we'll stay the night once again and hit the road in the morning for Peggy's birth state - Nebraska - the Cornhusker State. We have now traveled about 1,577 miles since we left Maine - just about half way as I figure.

Our plan tomorrow is to drive to about North Platte, NE. North Platte is Peggy's birthplace and is still the home of her Uncle Junior and Aunt Velma. If the travel goes smooth and we make it to North Platte at a decent hour - perhaps we can fit in a visit with them again.

The really good news for today is that Peggy's youngest sister Robin delivered a new daughter, Scarlet Faith Umiko Ohara, into our world this morning. We understand that everbody is doing OK and we look forward to seeing Scarlet within a week or so!

There is nothing better than the arrival of a newborn to set your perspective on the world in the right place. Regardless of how tough the days' problems might seem - they seem to melt away with the arrival of a new life.

Happy Birthday Scarlet !!

Visiting with the Mellos

Yesterday we left Lake Erie had a relatively short driving day - making it through Cleveland - and pulled in to our parking spot around 1:30 PM near Toledo, OH. As planned - Patty and Jerry Mello pulled in around 3:00 in their 1968 Corvair powered UltraVan. Jerry completed the drivetrain restoration a few weeks ago and then took off immediately for a 1200 mile trip from thier home in Oregon to the Bay area in California. After returning to Oregon they only had a few days at home before they took off again to do some visiting in Washington state and then they took off heading east - destination east coast USA! They still have plenty of restoration work to do on their rig - but they seem to making the trip fine and are having a great adventure! As you can imagine from the pictures - they get a lot of interesting looks as they travel.

We spent the evening having dinner at our place and then had a great visit with Pat & Jerry. We got to visit a little more this morning before we headed out heading west and before they took off to complete their trip east. Who knows - maybe we'll get to meet up again somewhere before we get home. "Safe Travels" guys !!! 

We made it through the Chicago area today and pulled in this evening in Utica, IL. I guess we are now officially in the "mid-west." We are parked tonite in an RV park in the middle of a field of soy beans. Only a few more days of corn and soy beans and then we'll arrive in the high desert of Wyoming - and then we get to look forward to miles and miles of high desert scrub brush and a stray antelope or two. But until then ... tomorrow we hope to make it to just east of Omaha, Nebraska.

Happy Autumn !!!

Rollin Through the Empire State

Both Peggy and I were both pretty beat yesterday so we went to bed relatively early - around 10:00 PM. The good news was that the new mattress was muuuuch more comfortable than the original Winnebago supplied mattress that we removed after our last trip! The bad news was we woke up around 6:00 AM ready to go!

So we left Amsterdam around 7:30 or so and headed west. We had a pretty quiet day weather wise and didn't see any rain until right before we arrived here in near Erie, PA. Even then - it didn't last long. Tomorrow it's supposed to warm up a bit and the high should make it to around 80. As is always our goal - the drive was uneventful. We stopped for lunch near Buffalo at our favorite lunch eatery - Cracker Barrell. As they did last trip - once again Eric & Jen provided us with a pre-trip gift of a gift card to Cracker Barrell ... so we need to take advantage of our opportunities - Cracker Barrells get pretty scarce the further west you go!!

You may remember from our last trip through the Empire State that I discovered my new blood brothers - the Seneca nation - who happen to sell gas at 15 to 20 cents a gallon less than the rest of New York. So we visited them again at Exit 58 on I-90 and filled up the thirsty Winnebago to be ready for another day of driving tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow ... we called Patty and Jerry Mello last night. They made it to Rochester, MN yesterday so we compared notes and decided to meet for the evening tomorrow just outside Toledo. I understand the UltraVan is making the trip just fine! Jerry states that he drives around 55 MPH in the flatlands but did have to drop down to around 35 MPH  going up the mountains out west. Still - pretty impressive for driving a recently restored - late 60s/early 70s corvair powered 4200 pound RV! It ought to be a fun reunion tomorrow night!!

Repelling Boarders and Getting Underway

Even though we only had a "few" things to do yesterday - we both were cerainly beat after a very busy day. I spent most of the day finishing up my motorhome preparations and the last minute work around the house - like mowing the lawn. Peggy had a bunch of stuff to do in the house - and then there was "the mouse."

It seems that the motorhome gained a mouse while it was being worked on at the RV Store. I noticed a few droppings on the dash when I went to move the rig early in the morning and then upon further investigation - I found plenty of other evidence of our intruder. After informing Peggy that our motorhome preps would now involve a more intense cleaning than we anticipated - I went back outside to continue my freshwater tank flushing. When I opened up the door to the wet bay (where the freshwater hose connection and sewer hose connection is located) I found a very dead mouse - hopefully our only uninvited visitor. So after "repelling boarders" from the land yacht - we spent most of the day cleaning the rig, preparing the house, and loading our "stuff."

After a good nights sleep we finished our loading this morning and rolled out of Topsham around 9:00 AM. We had a very nice travel day weather-wise with a high around 70 degrees. During our drive today you certainly could see the first signs of Autumn in New England. Although the fall colors certainly aren't out in full splendor yet - you can definitely see the start with lots of reds, yellows, and oranges. We drove about 320 miles today and pulled in to a nice RV Park here in Amsterdam, NY around 3:30 PM. The RV park here is actually a Marina and RV Park located right on the banks of the Mohawk River.

Tomorrow our plan is to navigate our way west along the NY Throughway and make it to around Erie, PA. We've made this trip before, some of it just last month, but it's a pretty nice drive on a relatively smooth road so we'll hope for an uneventful trip and I'll try not to think about the cost of the tolls.

Oh-by-the-way - today we heard from our Oregon friends Pat and Jerry Mello who are heading east in their restored Corvair UltraVan. They are in South Dakota now so maybe we can meet up with them somewhere between here and there to say HI and swap some RV travel stories before they head further east and we continue our trek west. That would make the trip extra special!!

Single up all Lines

Friday - September 18th - the day we celebrate the birth of my fantastic wife - Happy birthday Peggy!!!

Today was a busy day in many respects. We started the day trying to get things done that needed to be done before we leave - but things that didn't require the motorhome to be here. Then around noon we drove over to Auburn to pick up the motorhome. They did manage to repair the leak on the #2 A/C System (finally), recharge the unit, and reinstall the whole system in the rig. I tested the system before we left and it appears to work OK so we'll head west and give it a workout to see how it holds up. After getting the rig home I got the oil changed, did a chassis service (grease job), replaced the air filter, and installed the tire pressure monitors.

While I was playing motorhome mechanic Peggy did our pre-travel grocery shopping.

After cleaning up from our busy afternoon, we joined Stacy & Kaj and Eric & Jen for dinner at the Olive Garden in Augusta to celebrate Peggy's birthday. We all had great meals and a few glasses of wine. Peggy only had one glass of wine but apparently that was plenty - ya'll will have to ask her for "the rest of the story."

Although we could load up the rig and hit the road tomorrow - we have decided that it will probably be best to take our time to load the rig tomorrow and take care of a couple more things around here - rather than rush to leave ... so we have decided to finish our preps tomorrow and leave early on Sunday. Since we plan on being gone for a couple months - we might as well get off to a rested start rather than forget to do half of what we ought to do.

So tomorrow we will finish loading stores and we'll single up all lines in preparation for getting the land yacht underway. (Don't cha just love that nautical lingo?) Look out you left-coasters -- we are (almost) on-our-way.

Waiting Impatiently

Here we sit - all dressed up and no place to go! We are mentally ready to hit the road for California, our local obligations are pretty much taken care of, the homestead is just about prepared, but we are without Winnebago!!! Yup - the Winny is still at the RV store getting its heat pump repaired - or is it? It seems the RV store has to subcontract its air conditioner/heat pump repairs and they have had problems getting their "guy" to show up. He was supposed to show up and work on the rig yesterday afternoon so we'll find out this morning how (or if) that went down. We are pretty much out of time for them to keep messin' with this repair so if they didn't fix it yesterday I think I may have to tell them to just put it back together the way it is - and live with it until we have more time to get it fixed. I hate to do that - but sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do!

Assuming we get the rig back early tomorrow (Friday) - I can probably get the work I need to do done and we can load it tomorrow and we can leave as planned on Saturday. If not - we may have to leave on Sunday (or later). Fortunately we are not on a super tight schedule and we can take a little extra time to try and get our preps done right. But I do have my limits!!! Did I ever tell you how much I hate taking anything into a repair place to have work done? Grrrrrr.

As probably everybody who reads this knows - we are making this trip primarily to help out Sister Jamie / Niece Decky and her son Derek. Derek is 11 years old and has been dealing with a brain stem tumor for several years now. Derek had an operation two months ago today and has been in the hospital ever since recovering and in rehabilitation. We found out last night that Derek will be having another operation today at 1:30 PM (PDT) - to remove part of his lower left lung since it is (and has been) a source of pnemonia and associated repiratory problems. Our thoughts today are with you all out there in Oakland.

Where Did Summer Go?

Wow - here it is September 13th ... football season has started and we are only about a week away from when the calendar says Fall begins. What happened to summer? I remember we had a few warm days last month but certainly not what one would call summer! OK - I give up - summer came and went and I missed it! So I now I look forward to a really nice Autumn season. Believe it or not there are a few trees here in Maine that are actually starting to change color already. The good news? .... the weather here in Maine continues to be pretty nice with plenty of sunshine.

We have been pretty busy this last week. We had a great time visiting with friends Darrell and Judy during their stay here in southern Maine, including some sightseeing here on the mid-coast, Frappes at Fat Boy in Brunswick, and scallops, clams, and lobster stew at Captain Mike's last evening!! It just doesn't get much better than that. I also stayed out of trouble by spending a couple of days laying on my back in a '67 Camaro installing a new headliner. I'm not sure how I got to be considered "experienced" at doing such work - but I got to tell ya that of all my car restoration experience - headliner installation in a mid '60s and earlier car is not one of my favorite things to do. But the job got done and it came out OK.

Well it looks like we have finally made a decision. We are now planning on leaving for California next Saturday - the 19th ... contingent on having our Motorhome back from the Motorhome and RV Supercenter ("the RV store"). It's a long story - but the RV store is still working on repairing the heat pump system in our motorhome. Hopefully we can get it back mid next week so we can finish our trip preps and hit the road on Saturday. If not ... we'll adjust our plans and do what we have to do.

So we are now in trip planning and preparation mode. Lists to make and items to cross off ... let the fun begin!

Laboring on Labor Day

Whew - am I glad the Labor Day holiday is over! While many of you were using the long holiday weekend to rest, relax, and get away from work - I was working my buttocks off. Now that particular part of my anatomy could use a little work reduction program but I think I took it too far this weekend.

After Peggy and I finished the driveway work on Saturday I decided to finally tackle the limbs on the big front yard oak tree on Sunday. Since I was too chicken to climb a ladder some 30 or so feet up the side of this tree - without someone else to blame if something bad happened - I tricked Eric into coming over to give me some help. I will refrain from going into a lot of detail here ... but let's just say that in spite of having to climb the shaky ladder and operate a chain saw with one hand while holding on with the other --- the objective was achieved  (the limbs I wanted removed were removed), no calls to 911 were involved, and no health insurance use or reform was necessary. 

Of course having all those limbs down meant that someone had to clean up that mess and haul all the tree-trash off to the local solid waste facility (a.k.a. - da dump). So Peggy helped me on that chore yesterday and we finished off the job this morning (Tuesday). Like I said - Whew - I'm glad that job is done!

Tomorrow I think we will slow down a bit. We both have some running around to do in the morning and we are looking forward to seeing and visiting with our RVing friends Darrell and Judy in the late afternoon/evening after they arrive here in Maine from New Hampshire. Rumor has it that Stacy may even come by to say Hi!

Everybody have a great 09/09/09 ...

Happy Labor Day!

Boy have we had a great run of really nice weather! It has now been 7 days since we last had rain and it has been gorgeous every day - mid 70s to low 80s - and lots of sun. Even better - more of the same is forecast for the next several days!! We deserve it after all the rain in June and July. I heard on the news the other night that it is official - 2009 was the wettest on record for the summer months of June - July - August.

We took the Winnebago over to the dealership in Auburn on Wednesday to have the Air Conditioner looked at. They spent Thursday morning confirming the results of the troubleshooting I had already done and determined that the unit had apparently lost it's charge of refrigerant. So they called to get permission to remove the unit from the rig and they will have an AC company come in to find/fix the leak and recharge the unit. I suspect a solder joint has cracked and will need to be resoldered. Hopefully they will get it fixed this upcoming week.

Yesterday Peggy and I finally finished a project I started back in June and we sealcoated the driveway. We managed to complete the job in about 2 hours and we only had a minor amount of the black tar like stuff on us. Whew - I'm sure glad that project is done.

Our fulltiming friends Darrell and Judy should have finished their workamping stint at Lake George yesterday and will be heading for Maine in a few days. We look forward to visiting with them again as they hit the road again and re-commence Wandering America.

We are continuing to plan a potential trip to California. We have made the trip 3 times now in the last 4 years so we pretty much know the way. If we go - we will sorta be on a mission so we will probably drive straight across Interstate 80 again. The potential return trip is very much unplanned - coming back east in what might be Novemberish will require a much more southern route I think.

You may recall from an earlier entry - the story I told you about our friends Patty and Jerry from Oregon who were restoring the old Corvair based UltraVan. I understand their rig is ready to roll and that they will be heading east in a couple of weeks. If we are still here on the east coast - we hope to hook up with them here in Maine or perhaps down in Delaware. If we are heading west - we'll have to try and meet them somewhere in mid-america.

We hope everybody is enjoying your Labor Day Weekend.!

Plans & Stats

So what are our plans? Well it looks like one short term option is off the table. The potential for going to work for a few months down in New Hampshire has played its course and just didn't work out. It was nice to be thought of and called to see if I would consider the position - but the compensation offered just didn't match up with what I think my time is worth. So one option down and several left to consider.

We are continuing to consider a near term trip out to California to do what we can to help out my sister and her family. We have a few more things to work out before we make that decision - but we are preparing for the trip nonetheless. So that means preparing the motorhome for an extended trip again. Since I have exhausted my troubleshooting on my air conditioner problem - I will be taking it to the RV Dealer today to let them fix it. I hate to pay their labor costs but I think I have no other choice this time. After we get it back I will have the standard chores to do like change the oil and do a chassis service (grease job) and then it should be ready to roll again.

One thing we have already done is change the bed. We have never really liked the original mattress we got with the rig - but we made it tolerable by adding a 1 inch standard foam pad and a couple of inch memory foam pad. But during our recent trip we decided to swap the mattress with the relatively new mattress we had on the bed in the spare bedroom upstairs - so we did that yesterday. What a difference! I'm actually looking forward to sleeping on it now ... whenever our next trip may be.

Since our recent trip was pretty short I haven't bothered posting my traditional boring post-trip statistics. So instead, I thought I would post some 5 year statistics. We purchased the motorhome in May of 2004 and didn't use it much in the first few months we owned it so although it's now September - I declare it is close enough to call it now the 5 Year Anniversary. So here goes ...

Overall miles driven - 48,340 (The rig actually has a little over 50,000 miles on it but it had 1,745 miles on it when we got it new (delivery miles from Iowa))

Nights in paid campgounds - 288
Nights in Friends/Relatives Driveways - 50 (approximate)
Number of Different Campgrounds - 117
Number of camprounds visited multiple times - 18
Longest stay in one place - 30 days (approximate) - Quiring RV Resort, B&B, and Day Spa
Longest stay in paid campground - 12 days - Rainbow Plantation (Escapees Park), Summerdale, AL

Miles towing a car - 46,330
Miles towing our 2006 Saturn Vue - 36,081
Miles driving our 2006 Saturn Vue - 37,173

Average Motorhome miles per year - 9,668
Most Motorhome miles in a calendar year - 14,327 (2007)

States Visited -  43 (Still need WA, MT, ND, WI, & MI in the "lower 48" plus AK and HI)

Fun Days - Most of 'em
Interesting Days - All of 'em