Looking Forward to Christmas

 Here it is the day before Christmas and the day following the super high winds and rain we received from Winter Storm Elliott. What snow we had from another storm last week is pretty much gone now. 

The wind yesterday was pretty bad and we did have about 1/3 of our back fence come down. I’ll try to clean up from that this afternoon while the temp is all the way up to the teens! Oh well, at least the wind has died down. I think the fence rebuild will take place next year after the ground thaws, and we return!

Peggy and I have enjoyed our family get-togethers on Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas last Saturday. It’s always a great time seeing everybody this time of year.

However, if it’s Christmastime … then it’s time for us snowbirds to start start thinking about heading south and west for some warmer weather (past time for some of us species). As I sit here today the planned escape date of February 1st is only 36 and a-wake-up days away! It won’t be long until we are pointing Winne The Two (WTT) into the wind and heading south!

But that means all those preparatory items on the Get Ready To Roll list have to get accomplished!! Finish the medical appointments, arrange for mail forwarding, get WTT checked out and provisioned, get the house ready for Winter Layup, and many more! And do all those things in the midst of Maine’s coldest and wintery-est month of the year! O Boy! I can’t wait.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves … first we get to celebrate the birth of our Redeemer, take down the Christmas tree, and watch the ball drop on New Years Day!

Some kids can’t wait for Santa to bring them toys and such on Christmas Day … other of us elder-kids look forward to other things!

Change of Seasons

Surprise Surprise! If you are reading this I must have remembered how to make a new entry into this blog. It has been a long while for sure!

 

It has turned Autumn here in New England. The mornings are met with a bit of frost on the ground, those lovely colorful leaves are filling my yard, and the “brisk” cool air of late summer has been replaced with downright cold temps! 

 

We had a great summer overall. Plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures, generally good health, and only a poor economy and daily attacks on our values to keep us from fully enjoying life. Hopefully, changes in the social and economic front will also come with the changes in the season.

 

I have stayed more than busy this summer “tinkering.” Tinkering is what I call it when I am trying to make vintage motorcycles look and operate like new again. Apparently it is a disease that is hard to cure. When I resumed tinkering last spring my goal was to finish my remaining project (1973 Yamaha RD350), sell last years project (1965 Honda 305 Superhawk), and then step back from any more restorations. Although I still enjoy “saving” these pieces of history and icons of my youth – my vintage body complains with increasing regularity.

 

I was somewhat successful with meeting my goals. The RD350 is essentially “done” but I am still working on tuning the engine to get it closer to “perfect.” I never reach perfection on these restorations, but I continue until I’m satisfied. “Satisfied” is an ever changing and elusive goal! I ended up selling the Superhawk to a fellow antique motorcycle aficionado  (AKA Bike Nut) who has a collection of over 60 bikes in various stages of “restored”. Some are gorgeous museum pieces and some are in need of some serious time and money! Unfortunately for me, he not only came up with enough cash to make the sale worthwhile … he also offered to include another project bike in the deal … a 1972 Kawasaki 500cc Triple Cylinder Mach III. 

Most of you will not know or care to know … but in the early 70s the Kawasaki 500cc triple was arguably the baddest bike on the planet! Also known as the “Widowmaker” it was the fastest (when driven in a straight line) production motorcycle made! It did have a reputation for punishing novice riders in high speed turns … hence its nickname!

 

Although I really wanted to step back from any more restoration projects … this was a unique opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up!

 

I brought the Triple home in early August and gave it a close looking over. It hadn’t been registered since 2006 and had been sitting in somebody’s basement for many years before my fellow Bike Nut friend purchased it a few years ago. The gas tank contained a foul smelling mixture of old gas that was in the process of turning to varnish and lots of rust, a few control cables were broken and/or missing but other than that … it was a normal “barn find” … filthy and looking for some TLC.

 

Now that Autumn has arrived I have been busy working on my motorized fleet. Winterizing Winne, changing oil and filters in the Equinox and Colorado, and getting the Chevelle,

Yamaha Big Bear, and the RD350 into storage. With those projects out of the way I’ll focus on picking up leaves on the dry days and disassembling the Kawasaki on the rainy days. Winter is coming don’t ya know!

 

Since winter is on the way it is also time to think about where we might go to escape the cold and snow. As is usual – I want to leave the day after Christmas and not come back till the end of May. Also as is usual Peggy is not buying that plan. We also want to head out to the left coast this year as we haven’t seen that family in several years … and that takes several weeks just to get there and get back — at our travel pace! And we also would like to travel home on a more northerly route but that gets real iffy in the winter/early spring months! So we have reached a compromise where we will probably experience the worst of all scenarios!

 

Assuming the good lord is willing and the creek don’t rise (or the price of diesel fuel) … we will try and escape the icy grip of winter in New England in early February. That way we can enjoy  the bitter cold and snow of January while preparing Winne for travel!

 

As is usual for travel that time of year we will scurry south as quickly as reasonable down to Lower Alabama for a short respite before heading west along I-10 to Arizona for several weeks and then on to sunny California for some visiting … followed by a trip over the Sierra’s to Nevada for more visiting, and then on to Northern California for even more visiting! Of course travel in these northern latitudes can be pretty risky in the early Spring so we will have to keep a sharp eye on the weather!

 

Assuming the weather cooperates, diesel fuel is still available in America, and we haven’t yet completely drained the travel budget … we hope to return home generally along I-80 and back to Maine in mid May.

 

Who knows how it will really work out … but it’s good to have a plan!

Traveling America … From Sea to Shining Sea

 Time for another update to the Mike and Peggy’s Great 2022 Motorhome Adventure Blog. Every trip in our motorhome is an “adventure” I suppose but this one seems to be full of surprises around each corner. When I last posted here way back last month in Savannah — we had survived the trip to the southland and outrun the snow and sleet (but not the cold). We had also completed our trip to the Freightliner Factory Service Center in Gaffney, SC to get a few chassis related repairs done to Winne before continuing our trip.

We said farewell for now to Savannah on January 28th and moved about an hour south to Brunswick, GA for a couple more weeks of enjoying the Georgia coast. Lots of interesting American History in this area … Revolutionary War, Coastal Pirates, Civil War … you name it they got it! 

Having had our fill of “Low Country Boil” (Shrimp, Potatoes, Corn, Sausage … Kinda like a Maine Lobster Bake — Only Different!) we left the Atlantic Coast and headed west - destination Gulf Coast of Alabama! We really hadn’t made it all that far (near Jacksonville, FL) when the alarms starting going off. First was the orange engine shaped alarm (called a “Malfunction Indicator Light”) together with a dashboard message telling us we had “Low DEF.” For those of you not in the know … DEF stands for Diesel Exhaust Fluid which is stuff you need to have in modern US Diesel Engines to meet Federal Government Emissions standards. If you don’t add the DEF the computer monitoring system will first warn you … then it will gradually take away power from the engine … then it will simply take the engine to an idle. I knew from the DEF gauge reading that I had plenty of DEF and I recalled that I had a similar experience a few years ago and the light and alarm went away after I drove for about 50 or so miles … so I thought I would keep driving for awhile and see if it would clear again.

It didn’t take too many miles before another orange light appeared on the dash. This one was also orange and shaped like an engine but was labeled CHECK!. Winne was getting serious now so I found a safe place to get off the interstate and I called the 24/7 Freightliner hotline for their advice. After researching the engine diagnostic code the computer had displayed they informed me that I probably had a bad NOX Sensor and I should find a Freightliner repair center to have it looked at. I asked how long I could drive it they way it was … they said they couldn’t say for sure … so I asked for a location of a nearby repair center that could deal with a motorhome and I was given the name of a place in Lake City … about 50 miles away. I called the place in Lake City and they said they could probably take a look at it … in a couple of days! Fortunately there was a RV Park right next door to the repair center … so we were off to Lake City!

I’ll shorten this story by letting you know that Winne was all fixed with her new NOX Sensor … 2 days and a couple of buckets of $$ later. Once again we were heading west on I10 and landed here in Summerdale, AL a couple of days after that.

We like staying here at the Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale for several reasons. 1. We have met some really nice folks that we call friends down here. 2. The “Plantation” is one of the Escapee RV Club membership Parks so we get a pretty good discount when staying here. 3. There are several nice restaurants in the area that we enjoy. And 4. The sugar sand beaches of the Gulf of Mexico are not far away in Gulf Shores, AL.

We have been here for a week already and have enjoyed visiting with some of the folks we have met here before … usually this involves joining in for a meal or maybe several! We still haven’t made it to the beach but perhaps we can get that done in the week we have remaining here.

And then it will be time to move on to our next adventure in central Florida. By then my Income Tax Refund may be deposited and I can afford to spend even more $$ keeping Winne ready to safely travel America … From Sea to Shining Sea!

Savannah

 I’ve decided to provide this trip update in the form of a blog update … just because!

We arrived here in Savannah, GA last Saturday, a day earlier than originally planned but we were trying to outrun the severe cold front that moved south into South Carolina and even northern Georgia. We were successful in avoiding the bitter cold but we did get a bunch of rain and wind on Sunday that continued into Monday.

Yesterday was a pretty nice sunny day with a high in the mid 60s and today was even warmer into the 70s … so we got out and accomplished some sightseeing. Yesterday we visited the site of one of the original Georgia settlements when English King George II granted this area to a group of trustees and settlers arrived in early 1733. We visited the State Historic Site of Wormsloe, settled by some of these early settlers led by a carpenter, surveyor, physician named Noble Jones. The first thing you see as you enter Wormsloe in a 2 mile straight drive lined on both sides by some 400 live oak trees planted in the early 1890s.

After a slow drive down the entrance road we stopped at the visitors center for the always informative movie and a small museum … before moving on to a scenic loop walk.We viewed the ruins of the original settlement house built by Noble Jones around 1740.

All in all … a nice morning walk learning a bit of Georgia history.

Today we decided to take the Savannah Trolley Tour of the downtown Savannah Historic District. We took this tour back in 2012 during one of our first visits to this unique city and we thought it would be fun to do again. As is usual with these tours … the tour guide makes each one different and unique. Our tour guide Yule did a nice job keeping us entertained while teaching us a bit of history and dodging all the traffic! We had seen all the beautiful squares and buildings before but the narration made it all seem new.

We even got to view a good size container ship coming up the river to the Port of Savannah … that was a first!

Tomorrow we move parking spots to a different RV Park for a few days and then we will return here for most of next week. Don’t ask why … it’s a long story $$.

So that’s what’s up with us. 

I made it into shorts today but it looks like I will be back in long pants tomorrow when the high will be back in the 40s with some potential freezing rain in the forecast for tomorrow night.

Ain’t winter fun … even in the relatively Deep South!

Deja Vu all over again

So … here we are again. We managed to survive a whole day with no new RV related issues. Yesterday was spent cleaning up after my “loss of A/C” repair, staying warm, and a trip to the local grocery store to pick up pre-winter storm provisions along with all the crazy New Jerseyans.

 

This area of New Jersey received about 4 inches of snow last night. Since I am from Maine … and therefore travel with a snow shovel … I got out this morning and shoveled a path around Winne and cleaned off the truck. It was a deja vu moment as I recalled being in this campground 11 years ago when we got 10 inches of snow! Digging out from that one was much more difficult … but the same snow shovel was used!

 

This Morning …

 

11 years ago …

 

As you know, the purpose of our trip here to New Jersey was to have a short visit with our son Brian and his family on our way south. As it turns out … Brian came down with Covid type symptoms right before we left Maine and then spent 7 hours or so sitting in his truck outside a testing facility waiting to receive a Covid test. As it turned out … he tested positive and has been isolating at home for the past 5 days. Although he has been doing his best to stay away from the rest of the family, at-home type tests revealed positive results for them yesterday. Granddaughter Alyssa drove through the snow this morning to have herself tested at the testing facility and she tested negative!? Fortunately Brian’s symptoms have pretty much gone away and the others are doing OK as well. Because I had lots of time on my hands I went to the CDC website to find out what they were supposed to do with these results. I think I now know … but I’m not sure … thanks CDC for all your help.

 

Regardless … we have some items we need to exchange with them so after we give the various NJ Public Works Departments time to clean up the snow we received last night we plan on heading over to their house to do our drop offs and pick ups … outside and distanced! We love them all but they need to deal with whatever sickness they have, we don’t need to be adding to that problem, and perhaps we can visit on our way home!

 We still plan on heading further south on Sunday — y’all keep your fingers crossed!