Well ... since it has been a month now since my last blog posting I'm feeling a little guilty and figured I better get caught up. I'm not really sure why. When I started this blog thing way back in 2005 prior to our first post-retirement west coast and back trip my idea was to have a way to keep family and friends up to date on our whereabouts and doings. A lot has changed since then. We started using Facebook back in about 2009 as a way to keep track of what was happening with our kids and grandkids ... back when the kids and grandkids were using Facebook and not all the other various "social media." Since then we seem to use Facebook as a way to keep family and friends up to date on our doings - and the kids/grandkids are off using all the other social media platforms while we oldsters hang out on Facebook. I reckon I'll keep making an entry here from time to time ... as the my mood and time available dictate. I figure the Blogger hosting people will discontinue the App at some time and that will help make my decision to discontinue "blogging." But until then ...
After waiting for the weekly Texas Severe Thunderstorm to move through our area ... we finally pulled up stakes and headed out of New Braunfels, TX on April 18th -- heading north on I-35. The original plan was to make it to someplace east of Dallas on I-30, but that plan changed as the weather was still pretty lousy up near Dallas and the wind was pretty strong as well. Having had enough for the day we pulled in for the night at North Crest RV Park in Waco, TX. The RV park was certainly nothing special but it was owned and operated by one of those "characters" you meet along the road in the RV lifestyle - RV Park Mark as he called himself is an ex-trucker, drummer, hippee from the 60s - full of stories and one interesting guy to talk to. And he does like to talk! He went out of his way to find us a spot for the night in a basically full RV Park ... so that was special as well.
We drove for the next several days with relatively nice weather stopping in Texarkana, TX, Forrest City, AR, and Nashville, TN on our way to Crossville, TN where we visited once again with friends Darrell and Judy Patterson before continuing our trek home.
The next leg of our trip home led us to Clarksboro, NJ and a visit with the NJ Evringhams. It was great seeing Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily as always. It also brought back memories of our busy lives back in the days we had teenagers -- on the go all the time! Actually, Alyssa was just finishing her 1st year in college at Stockton University and Emily was completing her Freshman year in High School. Exciting times!
We finished up our trip home after an overnight once again at the Mohegan Sun Casino. We took advantage of their free overnight parking, walked about the casino without gambling, but did partake of their very good buffet for dinner. Good food ... but it certainly was more expensive than the casino buffets out west in the Carson City and Reno areas!
We made it home on April 29th after 39 days on the road. Kind of a short trip for a Winter/Spring getaway ... but we were glad to be home -- as always. Along our way we stayed at 17 RV parks (some twice) and only 3 new places. I guess we tend to travel many of the same roads - and have our "favorite" places to stay. Some are favorites because we like the park/people ... some are favorites because they are located in convenient places. One thing I can say for sure ... they aren't getting any less expensive!
We unloaded most of the "stuff" from the motorhome but not everything since we had one more little excursion planned the following week ... this time to northern Vermont for a couple of days to watch grandson Bailey graduate from Norwich University. We had a busy/fun couple of days and it was a new experience watching kids graduate from America's oldest private military University. Many of those kids went on to accept Commissions in the armed forces the day after graduation but Bailey is moving on to life in the civilian world using his new Construction Management Degree (Summa Cum Laude by the way) ... congratulations to Bailey and family!
Our end of winter/spring trip added some 4,607 miles to WTT's odometer bringing her total up to 30,600 miles over the past 3 years. WTT continues to run well with only the occasional small issue to deal with here and there. She averaged around 9.5 miles per gallon of $3.00 (average) per gallon diesel fuel.
As is typical - we have been really busy these past few weeks getting everything back to "normal" around here. Getting WTT ready to be stored, getting all the antique motorcycles and car out of storage, putting away the winter stuff and getting out the summer stuff. Not to mention getting the latest restored motorcycle out of the basement and ready for its first test drive. Bye the way - that 1967 Yamaha YCS1 180 cc "Bonanza" runs great!
Now it's time to sell a few of those bikes and thin the herd!
I don't expect things to slow down much over the next few months. But then -- that's Maine in the summer ... "The Way Life Should Be!"
Well here we are ... staying put in New Braunfels, TX for one more day and waiting for the thunderstorm front to establish itself tonight and then move east. We had hoped to be heading northeast a couple of days ago but we decided to let the ugly sounding weather move on before we did.
We had an uneventful trip from Lower Alabama, through Southern Mississippi and Louisiana to here in New Braunfels, TX - just north of San Antonio. It was "uneventful" but not exactly stress free. I-10 through Louisiana is still rough, construction zones seem to pop-up every few miles, and Houston is still a busy city to drive through. But through it all We and Winne The Two managed to make it through unscathed.
Speaking of WTT ... she is officially three years old now. We purchased her on April 11th 2016 in Tucson, Arizona, moved in over the next few days and took off towards Maine on April 14th. On this date in 2016 we found ourselves in West Texas - waiting for a line of thunderstorms to move further east - kinda deja vu all over again - don't ya think? Over the past 3 years we have driven WTT some 27,000 miles - From Sea to Shining Sea ... and back again.
We arrived here on Tuesday the 9th and immediately had a hankering for some Texas BBQ. Fortunately some of the best BBQ is just down the road from where we are staying and even more fortunately our BBQ eating buddies Rod and Debbie Kendall are also nearby - so we asked if they were available - they were - and so off to Cooper's Old Time Pit Barbeque we went. The food was great and the visit with Rod and Debbie was even better!
One of the main reasons we came to this area was to see our grand daughter Kyla graduate from her USN Hospitalman "A" school, join the Naval Hospital Corps, and then get on her way to her next duty assignment in Hawaii. Exciting times for a 20 year old ... or so I remember!
Our Daughter Stacy, SIL Kaj, Granddaughter Taylor, and Grandson Aiden arrived by plane into San Antonio on Wednesday the 10th - so we met up with them and made our way over to Joint Base Fort Sam Houston to see Kyla that evening. But not before making it over to the famous San Antonio River Walk and the Original Mexican Restaurant for some good Mexican food - and a margarita of course! We had a good visit with Kyla Wednesday evening.
Thursday was Kyla's graduation day and the school command put on a nice ceremony. HN Kyla Johansen even graduated on the Dean's List!
After we were able to spring Kyla from the base we found our way over to Rudy's for some more great BBQ, made our way back to San Antonio for an afternoon boat ride on the San Antonio River, and then more visiting.
Miss Kyla was off on her way to Hawaii early on Friday morning and the rest of us did the obligatory trip to the Alamo and then walked over a few blocks to the River Walk and another great lunch. This time we visited the Rainforest Cafe for some fun jungle entertainment!
Saturday morning the previous line of thunderstorms moved through followed by clear skies and a fairly nice day. In fact - it was so nice that the Johansen's visited us up here in New Braunfels, played at the playground, went swimming in the pool, and the adults celebrated Happy Hour at the Maineiacs in Motion Tiki Bar on Wheels. With Happy Hour complete ... it was time to eat again ... and since they had never been to Cooper's ... well we just had to go again!
On Sunday the Johansen's enjoyed the San Antonio Zoo in the morning and we joined them in the afternoon. It seems Fiesta week was starting in San Antonio so we walked a few blocks from their hotel to the Market Square were the Fiesta activities were in full swing! Lots of people, lots of vendors, lots of latin music, lots of Mexican food ... and lots of fun being had by all! And yes -- we did find a nice Mexican Restaurant, La Margarita, for some more Mexican Food and margaritas.
The rest of the Johansens flew home on Monday after a waay busy week for us all. As for Mom and Dad? we had a sorta normal quiet day and did some grocery shopping. We even had all our meals here at the RV! Peggy thawed out some of those yummy Alabama Gulf Shrimp and made Tequila Lime Shrimp Flambe`. Well ... the Flambe` part wasn't part of the recipe - but it added to the experience!
Yesterday was supposed to be our leave to start the trip home day. After looking at the weather forecast along our intended travel path we decided to hang out here for a couple more days, ride out the beginning of the nasty weather here and then follow behind the storm heading east and steering clear of any severe weather.
So that's the plan for now - subject to change as always! You just never know when an opportunity for some fabulous food might present itself along the way!
Well now ... I suppose since we have been gone now for two whole weeks I ought to at least provide an update as to what we are up to and where we are!
We left Maine as planned on March 21st and completed our 500 mile Day 1 trip to Jonestown, PA without incident ... but we did have to deal with a lot of rain those last few hours. After a decent night's sleep we hit the road again on Friday the 22nd. We planned on a relatively short driving day since it was supposed to be really windy as the day progressed but it didn't seem too bad so we drove all the way down I-81 to near Wytheville, VA - another long day at about 380 miles but that would mean we could make it to Crossville, TN in one more relatively short day where we could spend 3 nights resting up a bit.
We had some good visits with friends Darrell and Judy Patterson who live in Crossville and were even able to help celebrate Judy's Birthday before we were back on the road once again - this time heading west towards Nashville and then south to Birmingham, AL.
But before we were to land in Birmingham for the night we had a drop-off to make. About a week before we left Peggy volunteered us to deliver about 400 pounds of excess church literature to a ministry in Decatur, AL that collects the literature, sorts it, and then ships it to organizations worldwide for their use. So ... up to this point our car was doubling not only as a secondary mode of transportation but as a utility trailer! We found our drop-off point without a problem and it did not take long before our cargo was in their sorting area. We took a few moments for a short tour of the "Love Packages" facility and then hit the road again to finish our trip to Birmingham.
We have traveled around Birmingham many times in our past travels but this time we decided to take an extra day for a visit to The Barber Vintage Motorcycle Museum. The Barber Museum boasts that it is the largest collection of vintage motorcycles in the world - and I believe it! They not only have about 1900 vintage motorcycles in a fantastic facility but they also have a variety of specialty cars including probably the largest collection of vintage Lotus cars and racecars anywhere. And oh yeah ... they also have a very nice road racing course where they host several events every year - including a race for "Indy" cars that was to be run the weekend after our visit. As you would imagine - I was really looking forward to the visit!
The Museum is in a relatively new facility with 5 floors of exhibits. 1900 motorcycles of 200 different makes from 20 different countries. Peggy and I toured the place for about 3 hours -- and I could go back several more times without being bored! I was too busy ogling the displays to take many pictures - but I will include a few to give you an idea of what's there. You must remember that I tend to like the vintage Japanese bikes so that will explain why there are more of those type pics ... but don't be fooled ... there are lots more "other" types!
After spending our second night in Birmingham we hit the road again on Thursday March 28th and completed our southern swing down here to one of our favorite spots at the Rainbow Plantation RV Park in Summerdale, AL - not far from Mobile and not far from Gulf Shores, AL.
We tend to come here frequently because we like the park and because we have developed friendships with several of the RVers who tend to hang out here in the winter months (or year round in some cases). Most of the snowbirds are heading north right about now but we were fortunate to see some of our friends before they headed north. Oh yeah ... the other reason is they have some really good places to eat some fantastic gulf shrimp - fried, blackened, grilled -- in a Poboy, maybe in a gumbo, or just on a plate --- I'm not all that particular!
So we have been here now about a week and have really enjoyed the visits and the nice weather - until today when the rain has been falling pretty steady for several hours now and shows no sign of letting up in the near future. Oh well - you know what they say ... Rain makes corn ... and all the rest of that song!
We have a few more days to enjoy ourselves here in Lower Alabama before moving on further west into the great state of Texas where we are looking forward to visiting with some family and more friends, eating some Texas BBQ, and viewing the bluebonnets in bloom.
Yee Haw ... Ya'll!
Now that we have been home for about 3 weeks recovering from our Great Israel Experience and the sickness that followed -- it's time to answer the ever present question - what's next?
They say that spring is right around the corner and I see it officially starts next week. As I have mentioned before ... it may look like spring in the southeast or southwest - but in Maine in still looks an awful lot like winter. We could just hunker down and suffer through the next month of cold weather and on again off again snowstorms while continuing to tinker on my latest motorcycle project ... or we could break Winne out of her ice and snow storage jail and head south to find real spring!
Just in case ... I went over to visit Winne yesterday to say Hi. There she was quietly waiting, last week's snow melting off her roof, just itching to be brought back to life. I went inside to check things out and everything looked just as we left it several months ago. The solar panel appeared to be doing it's job keeping the batteries charged up so I went ahead and turned the key to see if the engine would come to life. And it did! Always a good sign!
Since I was on a roll I let the air system fill the suspension air bags and then shut off the engine. With the air bags filled it is easier to remove the tire covers -- so I shoveled enough snow to get to the wheels and got that chore completed. Since I just recently completed getting the engine back together on my motorcycle project,
and since the weather doesn't look too bad over the next week, and since the potential for finding warm weather down south sounds pretty inviting ... I guess that provided the answer!
So .... the new plan is to bring Winne home tomorrow ... spend a week getting her -- and us -- ready to go and hit the road heading south around next Thursday. We will follow our normal routine getting as far south as possible as fast as possible -- always dependent on the weather.
We are not planning on this being a long trip. We will probably spend a week or so warming up in southern Alabama and then head to the hill country of Texas for some more R&R. Since our grand daughter Kyla will be graduating from her Hospital Corpsman "A" School around that time we will spend some time visiting with her before she heads off for her next naval adventure in Hawaii.
Then we will take a few weeks to find our way back home -- just in time for grandson Bailey's graduation from Norwich University in Vermont in early May.
After that? .... I think it will be time to settle in and enjoy spring and summer here in Maine - The Way Life Should Be!
8 and A-Wake-Up!
The last several days of our Great Israel Experience were spent touring the northern part of the country with our base of operations in Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee. Once again, most of the stops included some amazing historical biblical sites such as Nazareth, The Mount of Beatitudes, Megiddo, Magdala, and Capernaum where we visited sites where Jesus began his ministries. And then there were the historical sites at Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea featuring ancient Roman era ruins of Herod's Castle, the amphitheater, the hippodrome, and the aquaduct ... all built to Roman standards of the day. Absolutely amazing!!
We also visited the Jordan River at Yardenit where many of the group participated in being baptised or re-baptised by one or more of the clergy traveling with us - including David Huckabee and Al Denson our traveling piano player.
As I think I have mentioned before - the leaders of our tour (Mike and Janet Huckabee, their son David, and several of the entertainers) traveled on our tour buses with us as we visited the various sites and would change buses from day to day. One day we might travel with Mike Huckabee and the next day Janet would ride with us.
On the day we visited Nazareth David Huckabee and Al Denson rode with us and tried to entertain the group with their version of joke telling. Unfortunately for them - the Yellow Bus just wasn't that into their humor that day and many jokes fell flat. To make up for their comedy failure David and Al decided to treat the bus to a special meal upon our return to the bus after walking about a re-creation of biblical Nazareth. It seems that David knew that there are a couple of non-kosher McDonald's restaurants in Israel and that one of them was in Nazareth. While we were touring - David and Al had gone to the local McDonald's and purchased 100 cheeseburgers to share with us on the Yellow Bus. They more than made up for their poor jokes!
And then there were the more modern sites such as "The Valley of Tears" - site of the 1973 invasion of Israel by Syrian tanks and troops. Pretty awesome seeing the lush valley, complete with rusty abandoned Syrian and Israeli tanks here and there and viewing Syria only about a half mile in the distance. One of the group's tour guides was a young tank commander during those days and shared his story about being rousted from his bed, saying goodbye to his family, and commanding his tank to defend his country within a matter of hours. Such was the life of a "common" Israeli in 1973. And this lifestyle continues to this day. After graduating high school each Israeli child serves in the military. The boys serve for a minimum of 3 years and the girls for 2 years. They understand that they live in a tough neighborhood and must be constantly on guard against those who wish them serious harm!
I never felt unsafe while we were in Israel. But being just a half mile from Syria and Lebanon was rather "interesting." Add to that the acres and acres of fields in the Golan Heights region with signs telling you not to enter due to the potential for coming across a land mine ... and you might get an uneasy feeling or two. You really can't fully understand why the people of Israel defend their borders with such zeal (remember those "zeal"-ots) until you see how truly close the bad guys live!
Our final day in Israel was more than busy. We started with a morning trip to the Mount of Beatitudes for a morning service, added a walk along the Sea of Galilee, visited a museum housing a 2000 year old boat that has recently been raised from the bottom of the Sea, took a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee - complete with our traveling band, had a fantastic send off dinner in Tiberius ... and then hit the road for our 90 minute drive to Tel Aviv and the looong trek home.
Once at the airport the air-travel fun began once again. We and our bags must have been scanned and screened at least four times before the final screening at the boarding gate ... but it really did go fairly smoothly.
It was about this time that the cold symptoms started to hit me. Nothing bad yet -- but I could feel it coming!
So there we were -- back on the same plane - with the same size seats, the same in-flight movies, and the same little airplane on the screen that took forever to fly those 5,600 miles back to New Jersey. Actually it took about an hour longer since we had to fly into a headwind all the way home.
Once we arrived in New Jersey the cold was really starting to come on strong ... but we weren't done yet! First we had to find our checked bag, get through customs, get back through security so we could check in for our next flight to Washington, DC, fly to DC, walk briskly for what seemed like miles to our next boarding gate for our flight to Portland, and then fly back over NJ and back to Maine over pretty much the same path as we had just traveled from Tel Aviv!
But we made it! My cold symptoms may have been in full bloom by then ... but we made it!
It has been a little over two weeks now since we made it back ... and since then Peggy has joined me in trying to survive this nasty cold. Hopefully we will both be fully recovered soon.
In spite of the return home sickness ... and the misery of the loong flights each way ... we both agree that our Israel Experience was truly one of a lifetime and well worth any negatives along the way.
But I'm not ready to do it again any time soon!
