Wild and Wonderful West Virginia

We made it to Reid's house in West Virginia about 5:30 on Thursday.  We'd left the Evansville, IN area about 8:00 and made our way across the rest of Indiana and Kentucky.  Just as we were reaching the West Virginia border, Reid called from Columbus and was on his way south.  He arrived at the house about an hour and a half behind us.  We'd had a chance to unwind and relax a bit by then.  We got almost all of Reid's things loaded into the truck but decided we'll need to do some repacking in the morning to get the last things in and everything stable for the ride to Michigan.  Friday's agenda includes errands and closing on the WV house, but we're hoping it also includes the start of the drive north.

More Miles!

Didn't we just pass this a couple weeks ago?

We left Salina, Kansas around 7:15 this morning with Mary at the wheel.  That way, as we approached Topeka and Kansas City it would be Tom's turn to drive through the city traffic. After Kansas we drove across the state of Missouri...more and more miles!  We switched drivers again after lunch and again in late afternoon so that Tom got the honors of once again driving through St. Louis at rush hour.  It's only been a few weeks since we did that in the RV.  Our stop for the night is on I-64 just north of Evansville, Indiana and still in Central Time, so we'll loose another hour tomorrow.  We're looking forward to being at Reid's house in Fayetteville, WV by late afternoon.

Miles and Miles and Miles

It was pretty cool when we got up this morning in Leadville, CO...somewhere around 48*.  We were on the road around 8:00 and headed through the historic town center and on route 91 up to I-70.  What a beautiful drive!  It was a little hazy, so my photos taken from a moving truck aren't the best, and don't show the streams and lakes along the side of the road either.  Passing Lake Dillon in Frisco, where Reid used to live and work, we noticed that the water level was extremely low...sad!

 Once we got to the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 it was "all downhill."  We were out of the Rockies and east of Denver in about an hour.  Then it was just miles and miles of I-70 stretching out in front of us.  We stopped for the night around 8pm in Salina, Kansas.   The goal for tomorrow is somewhere in south central Illinois.

Kansas is the "sunflower state", right?

It's a little bit smaller than the RV!

Reid's friend Kristin was kind enough to pick us up at the Fairfield Inn this morning and taxi us to the Home Depot/Penske Truck Rental facility in Salt Lake City.  It took a while to get all the paper work taken care of before we drove from there over to the home of Reid's former boss, Brandon, to pick up some of Reid's belongings.  In short order we had things loaded and we were on the road heading south to I-70 and then east.  We made a stop at a Walmart to stock up on road-trip necessities - food and water - and then several more during the day for fuel and stretch breaks.  Around 8:00pm, just as it was getting dark, we arrived at the home of Reid's good friend Ken in Leadville, Colorado.  Ken was another helpful soul and the pile of Reid's "stuff" that Ken had been storing was quickly loaded into the back of the truck.  The last 100 or so miles of the trip will likely the most scenic of our trip.  This section of Colorado is gorgeous!  We settled for the night at the Super-8 Motel in Leadville and will be on our way again in the morning.  The ride in the Penske truck has been very comfortable.  It's almost new with only about 4000 miles on it when we picked it up, but we miss the ammenities of the RV!

Step one of our journey has been accomplished!   Our driver, Dick Lehto, picked us up at Big Sandy Campground a little before 7am and drove us to the Detroit airport.  Thanks, Dick...we appreciate the early morning ride!  In spite of having one-way tickets, we had no trouble getting through security.  Our plane actually departed a few minutes early and we had a relatively short ride to Baltimore on a very crowded plane.  With only 35 minutes between arrival and our next departure in Baltimore we really hustled through the terminal from the A wing to the B wing...whew!  But, it seems that we had no crew for the connecting flight.  It was another hour before a crew was assembled and we departed for Salt Lake City.  That flight was not full, but we were lucky enough to have to sit in a full row for the almost 5 hour flight.  The Fairfield Inn shuttle picked us up at the terminal curb and we are now comfortably settled in a nice room.  Arrangements have been made for us to get to the truck rental in the morning and we'll begin the next part of our journey.

Tomorrow's the day.....the start of our Great Circle Adventure.  We'll be flying from Detroit, Michigan to Salt Lake City, Utah via the Baltimore, MD airport. After an overnight stay, we'll rent a truck, pick up some of our son Reid's belongings and drive on to Leadville, CO.  There are more of Reid's belongings waiting for us there.  After those things are loaded in the truck we'll head east, taking several days to reach Fayetteville, WV.  Reid is planning to meet us there and help us load even more of his things into the truck, emptying out the house he had purchased a year ago near the New River Gorge.  With the loading chores completed, our plan is to drive to East Lansing, MI where Reid has a new job and a new home.  We'll get to unload all the collected items and do a few things to help him get settled in the new place.  We're hoping to get all that accomplished in a week.

We'll be in touch!

Back to work!

We've begun the "settling in" process at our winter home, Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort in Casa Grande, AZ.  Each day we have taken care of a few more chores like collecting saved mail, filling the bicycle tires, putting together a new grill and taking care of previously scheduled doctor appointments.  The weather has been hot and sunny in the daytime and comfortable in the evenings.  We've made our way through the park and the city, checking out the changes that occured while we were gone.  Best of all, we're checking in with friends and neighbors as we go...catching up on everyone's adventures.  Bright and early Monday morning it was "back to work" for both of us as we joined the group of tennis players at the courts at 7:30 am.  We even had to set the alarm!  This is the work we enjoy!  Let the season begin!

Tom playing with partner, Trisha, serving to Bob.

Can you hear me now?

We had a great visit in Abilene, Texas with our grandchildren and their parents....learning our way around their new hometown and taking the grandparents role at ball games, dance lessons, horseback riding sessions and more.  We also enjoyed touring some of Abilene's new neighborhoods as the family researched building a new home.

Months ago we had scheduled a string of regular medical appointments in Arizona, so it was finally time to head west once again.  We departed Abilene on Monday, October 10.  Our planned stopping point that night was in Sierra Blanca, Texas at an RV park listed in our Passport America Directory.  When we got to the small town we found that the RV park was abandoned and went to another down the road that didn't look much better.  But, there was working electricity and a lock box to deposit our $10 fee for a night.  Shortly after arriving, we discovered problems with our brand new tow car.  We started making phone calls to get roadside help only to discover that we were in a very marginal area for cell service.  We were alos on the edge of a time zone change.  There was much confusion in trying to get someone to understand where we were located and what help we needed, and then when help would come.  "Can you hear me now???"

A contact was finally made and help arrived.  Our AAA driver, Joe, managed to get us relocated into El Paso, an 80 mile drive, on Tuesday morning.  We spent two days 'camped' in an alley behind a Ford dealer in El Paso before deciding that we would have them totally disengage the drive train and transmission and we would tow the car on to Arizona.  We drove directly to a Ford dealer in Gilbert to drop off the car.  The service department there has been completely helpful and says they will help us recover from our "catastrophic failure" and work with us to prevent it from happening again.

Greater downtown Sierra Blanca, Texas



Load 'em up, move 'em out!


The RV is now happily parked at our winter home at Palm Creek in Casa Grande, Arizona.  There are still details to work out, but it appears that Ford will cover our expenses under warranty.  After all, the car has barely 2000 miles on it and the transmission failed!  We are looking forward to a relaxing winter.



    

Friday Night Lights!

Friday we went to the Abilene-Wylie High School homecoming football game.   We had noticed the big stadium earlier in the week and decided that we'd check out the action on Friday night.  Our granddaughter is a new member of the marching band.  However, since she and a group of other new students are not quite up to speed on the routines and also having to learn a new instrument, they are uniformed "go-fers" for the time being.  I think Tom and I were the only people in the stands NOT wearing bright purple shirts, but we enjoyed being a part of the Wylie spirit for the evening.

The stadium is quite impressive for a high school and is part of a large complex of facilitiess for all the sports.

The football team entered the field running through the giant inflatable helmet.

                                                       

The visiting team brought their leopard along.

The giant scoreboard has a video feed in the center for current action on the filed as well as instant replays.
There were even flat screens mounted above the concession stands and restrooms under the grandstands so you won't miss a minute of the game.

The visiting band arrived in two big busses and two Penske trucks full of instruments. 

 The football team had their own fleet.

The Wylie band takes the field on artificial turf painted with a giant bulldog in the center.  Our granddaughter was in charge of the big drum in the center foreground.

Sadly, the Bulldogs lost the game...but we had a good time!

Happy Birthday, Merrick!

We've managed to keep busy this week...exploring the Abilene area and running various errands.  We are about 14 miles from Ann's house - about a 20 minute easy drive.  We have attended softball games and the open house at Merrick's school.  We're learning our way around town and relearning how to drive on the crazy Texas road system which we first experienced years ago visiting Mary's parents in the Rio Grande Valley.  Today was Merrick's 11th birthday and we enjoyed sharing dinner with the family at CiCi's Pizza Buffet.  Matt will be coming from Pennsylvania for several days and there are lots of opportunities for fun over the weekend.

Abilene!

We made the drive from Oklahoma City to Abilene on Friday...had a slight delay when we stopped for lunch and discovered that the car battery was dead again.  We managed to get it started and charged a bit before we continued on our way.  Our planned stay at the VFW Post did not happen as they were overbooked.  So, we headed to our old standy-by...Walmart.  Ann and the girls came to meet us and we had a fun dinner and reunion.  On Saturday we drove all around Abilene, checking out all the available RV Parks.  None of them are anything to rave about or all that near to Ann's house, but we decided to stay a while at the Abilene RV Park on I-20....about 16 miles from Ann's but and easy drive.  Today we moved to the park and got settled in and caught up on laundry.  Ann and the girls came to dinner.  We've enjoyed being with the girls and hearing about their new activities and school.  More later.....

Wishy-washy....or not!

The rain left....but in it's wake (but not because of it!) the washer/dryer was not working.  We had thought we'd get all caught up on laundry while parked at the casino with hookups.  But, one load was all that happened before the machine was not working.  So, this morning we made phone calls and while en-route from Joplin to Oklahoma City connected with Nunn Electric in the OKC suburb of Moore  that said "Come on down!  You can park out front!"  Not only that, they gave us a 30-amp hookup and invited us join them at Golden Corral for dinner.  Their 14-year old son was the 'lead mechanic', and the machine is supposedly fixed.  Total checkout can't happen till we have full hookups.  All in all, a productive day.

Rain, rain, go away!

I guess the country needs the rain, but we sure don't like driving in it.  The thunder and lightning started around 3am while we were parked in the Walmart lot in Eureka, Missouri for the night.  We weren't excited when it was still going on at 9am as we were ready to hit the road.  The car battery performed well, but we had a small delay with concern about the "idiot light" for the security/theft system which was constantly flashing on the dash of the Escape.  It had not done that previously.  We made calls to Bryan Ford and to the service department we had visited in Indianapolis yesterday and were told not to worry about it for now.  Okay!  We later heard from our Palm Creek friend who tows an Escape that his does the same thing.  We continued our drive west with a couple stops at rest areas and arrived at Downstream Casino just west of Joplin, MO around 4:00 local time.  From the freeway we saw little of the damage from last spring's tornado.  We have stayed here a couple times in the past....free water and electric hookups and a shuttle to the casino if we so desire.  They are counting on that, I suppose, but we usually don't spend any money inside.  This is the place that the casino is in Oklahoma, the hotel is in Kansas and the parking lot is in Missouri.  :-)   This will give us a chance to catch up on some laundry.  And, WOW, the sun came out as we were getting hooked up.

Dead battery!

This morning's start was not the best.....the new car had a dead battery when we went out to start it and get ready to tow it away.  We had faithfully followed all the directions for towing requested by Ford.  Since we were in the Walmart parking lot we went into the Auto Center and checked out the options there.  They offer no service but do sell "Instant Starters".  We thought about purchasing one of those, but they have to be plugged in for 24 hours before they can be used.  So, we called AAA and they were there within minutes.  We drove the car to a local Ford dealer and discussed the situation with their service guy and the opinion of Ford and the AAA guy is that we need another wiring job to connect the car and the RV while on the road.  We'll look into that at some point soon.  Meanwhile we finally got on the road around 11:15 and arrived in Eureka, MO west of St. Louis around 5:00 Central time.  We made several stops along the way and while at Flying J, besides dropping $430 for fuel, we ran the car for about half an hour.  It started again when we got to Eureka, so we'll see what happens in the morning.  We sailed right through downtown St. Louis on the early side of rush hour and will continue our trek in the morning...batteries permitting.

Where did the summer go?

    We left Palm Creek on May 17, heading east. We barely missed being in the midst of tornados as they devastated Joplin, Missouri and a few other places along our route. We arrived in Berrien Springs, Michigan in time for the Memorial Day weekend and the GLASS (Great Lakes Area Spring Spree) rally of the FMCA. Our good friends, Kathy and Dennie Dew from the Toledo area met us there just as the heavy rains began at the fairgrounds. In spite of that, we had a great rally and fun with our friends we hadn't seen in months!

    Leaving Berrien Springs, we made stops in Jackson, MI to visit Mary's mom and in the Toledo area to see more relatives and friends for a few weeks. Then it was on to central Ohio to "crash" a Bounder rally and renew friendships with some of our original RVing buddies. Next stop was Fayetteville, West Virgina and a great visit with our son, Reid. He had just moved into his first house and we are proud of his purchase and enjoyed helping him to a few things to make it "more like home." (Tom got a reminder of what it's like to keep up a yard!) By then it was July and we headed to the J&D Campground in Catawissa, PA to be near our daughter, son-in-law and three granddaughters for a month. As usual for our summer visits, it was very hot and humid as we attended lots of softball games and ferried the girls to various activities. We had to extend our stay while waiting for a new refrigerator cooling unit – which arrived damaged, so we moved on to Ohio to await another shipment. After a month without a refrigerator, and with the help of a couple of friends, we got a new unit installed and so far, the fridge is working! We stayed in the Toledo area for another couple weeks again visiting friends and relatives, taking care of a few business and medical chores and getting a new tow car purchased and set up for towing. Our son arrived for a short visit and his class reunion.

                Suddenly, it was Labor Day. Whew….the days had flown by! We started our return trip to Arizona on September 1 by heading back to Jackson and Mary's mom's. Over the holiday weekend we helped her out with a few chores and made more preparations for the long trip west. Our next stop was in Elkhart, IN where we had several repair and maintenance items taken care of at Elite RV Service. They did an excellent job with items that were mostly needed because of our spending a good part of the last eight years in the hot and sunny southwest. They were great to work with and provided us with hookups for the week we were there. Leaving Elkhart, our goal now is Abilene, Texas. We have passed through there before, but not made any extensive visits. Now, however, our daughter and her family have moved there due to a job transfer, so we'll be making a stop to see their new home and check out the area. Life is always an adventure!



      

The “Countdown” has begun!

Out of about 250 sites in our section of Palm Creek, maybe a dozen are occupied…only 2 or 3 of them being RVs.  The annual flowers have been pulled, the ponds and creek on the golf course drained, the activities rooms cleaned and locked up, staff is down to a minimum, we rarely have any sort of traffic on the roads around us or see people following us on the golf course……..do you think its time to move on?

We have our list of “things to do” pretty well completed.  Mary will have one last tennis match, and Tom a round of golf on Tuesday morning.  By lunchtime the few last items should be stowed in the shed or the RV and we should be on the road heading east.    Stay tuned!

Getting Ready

Palm Creek has fewer and fewer residents each day...total population is about 600 right now compared to the close to 4000 in mid-winter.  "It's a 'dry heat' ," they say.  The temperatures have been hovering in the high 90's and the humidity is a whopping 2%...that's two!  Golf and tennis begin between 6 and 7am.  We are enjoying the peace and quiet and lack of traffic and the slower pace of life.  And, we are working on our "to do" lists.  We plan to head east in another 10 days or so.

It's winter!

We're surviving the winter in Arizona...after a holiday trip to Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  It was warmer in Detroit than in Phoenix the day we returned, and it has stayed pretty cold for Arizona...but we've had nothing like the winter they are enduring back east.  So, I guess we can be glad that we are comfortable with our flannel sheets and electric heater and a few weeks of long pants and socks on our feet.  This soon shall pass!       We've been keeping busy with our usual rounds of golf, tennis, bridge, sewing and gatherings with friends and a few doctor appointments thrown in for good measure.    We're looking forward to having a few out-of-town visitors and to the warming of the weather.

Ouch!

Not known for my love of medical procedures, especially injections, I was not looking forward to today.  We had signed up for the shot clinic here at the RV park.  But we dutifully arrived at the appointed hour, filled out the two pages of repeating information (how many times on one page do they really need my name, insurance ID number, and my address?), presented our insurance card and then "faced the music."  Since we were just recently eligible for Medicare we had never gotten pneumonia shots....so we each "got it" once in each arm, and we are now hopefully protected from flu as well as pneumonia.

Beyond that, we are still dealing with all sorts of issues trying to become established with new primary care physicians.  The Veteran's Administration may provide wonderful benefits, but they certainly don't provide clear and concise information on how to go about getting them, or telling you exactly what they are in your case.  It would help if they just answered the phone!  Private sector offices in this area don't fare much better for us.  They all are very crowded, seem impersonal and perhaps we'd do better if we spoke Spanish.  Fortunately, we have no great medical needs at this time.

The weather is beautiful and we continue to enjoy this idylic time of year at Palm Creek.

Back home at Palm Creek

We arrived back at Palm Creek a week ago, October 1.  The park is still quite empty, but there are new arrivals every day....none on our street, however.  When we first arrived the temperatures each day were around 105* so we have not started the task of washing and waxing the vehicles.  On Saturday we had a "haboob"...one of Arizona's famous wind/dust storms.  On Tuesday and Wednesday we had a round of wild and windy rainstorms complete with thunder and lightning.  Fortunately we missed the harshest of the storms and tornadoes that hit a bit further north.  We had close to 2" of rain...quite unusual for this part of the country.  Tom has played 18 holes of golf every day but one...hitting off the first tee at morning's first light (somewhere close to 6am).  The rest of the day has found us running various errands - getting settled once again here in Casa Grande - banks, laundry, dry cleaners, groceries, a couple doctor's appointments and a trip to Phoenix to deliver some packages we brought from Toledo for Tricia Lehto.  We're keeping busy!