April 21, 2016

April 12, 2016

Yesterday morning we hooked up the car and after waiting out some severe weather that was north of Dallas, we jumped on I-635 and headed north.

Even tough it was after 9 AM the traffic was still very bad but we managed to get through it without too much trouble.  After getting on I-35 we ran into very heavy traffic and a lot of road construction which slowed us down considerably.  It was a mess all the way up to Denton but got a lot better when we turned onto US 380 headed over to Decatur.  At Decatur we turned right and followed that through Wichita Falls and on up to Quanah, TX.

We are now at the Ole Towne Cotton Gin RV Park in Quanah.  We got a large pull-through gravel site with full-hookups including fairly fast WiFi for $30 with our Good Sam’s discount.  Since we are bumping against our 30 gig limit with Verizon it’s nice to have the Wifi.

Today we’re going to head up to the Elks Lodge in Tucumcari, NM where we will spend one night.

April 15, 2016

We pulled into the Elks Lodge in Tucumcari, NM about 2:30 PM after a fairly easy run from Quanah.

After getting setup in one of their RV parking sites we drove downtown to check out the sights on old U. S. Highway 66.  We stopped at the visitors center and picked up a map of all the murals on buildings in town and also made a small donation in the gift shop.

In what I believe was 1959 or 1960, my parents made one of several trips from Fresno, CA to Bradford, TN, driving most of the trip on the “Mother Road”.  Returning to California on one of those trips we broke down here in our 1957 Dodge station wagon.

On Wednesday morning we made the short drive to the Famcamp at Kirkland AFB in Albuquerque.  We have stayed here several times but I have never seen the park this full.

Later in the evening our good friend Janice Railton came out to to have supper with us.  Janice is a solo full-time RV’er who has been on the road for a couple of years.  She drives a Dodge dully pickup and pulls a large Redwood 5’er. She is staying in the area to finish her initiation into the Elks Lodge.

Yesterday Joyce went to the Sandia Casino to make her donation to the welfare fund and I hung around the house doing some chores and watching the RBC Heritage golf tournament.

Our plan was to pull out of here today and make the run over into Arizona but the weather didn’t cooperate.  The guesser’s are calling for very strong winds out of I-40, 25-40 MPG with gusts as high as 50.  That ain’t good when you are driving a high-profile rig like ours so we decided to just hang here at Kirkland and see what happens on Saturday.  At least the forecast is much better.

April 17, 2016

On Friday we took a drive up north west of Kirkland to the little town of Cuba.  Even though the winds were blowing and there were thunderstorms in the area we saw some spectacular views.  We then cut across the mountains on Highway 96 through the villages of Regina, Gallina and Coyote before finally making our way into Santa Fe.

Joyce wanted to get a haircut so we found a J.C. Penny’s and got that done.  While she was in the store I looked around on Trip Advisor for a place to get something to eat ant found The Ranch House very close to the mall.  The reviews were good so decided to give it a shot.

We order the barbecue sampler platter to share that we thought was very good.  Since it was our first time eating here the owner comped a nice desert.

Yesterday I got a Facebook message from our friends Zan and Barbara Kushmaul, who we met at Sunflower RV Resort last winter, saying they were on their way to Kirkland.  After they got setup in a parking site we went to Vick’s Vittles Country Kitchen for supper.  It was really great to see them again.

April 19, 2016

We were finally able to leave Kirkland at on Sunday morning and head west.  Our original plan was to drive to Winslow, AZ but we decided to run all the way to Williams.

We ran into some snow just west of Grants and then some pretty strong winds through east Arizona but other that that the drive wasn’t too bad.  At 369 miles, that is the longest we have driven in all the years we have been full-timing in an RV.  But, we want to make up some of the time we lost at Kirkland so it’s worth the extra time on the road.

After spending the night at the Canyon Motel & RV Park we jumped back on the interstate with the intentions of spending the night in Barstow, CA.  But after talking it over be decided to run all the way to Mojave instead.  If one long drive isn’t enough we did 391 miles on that leg.  We sure don’t want to make a habit of driving like that.

April 20, 2016

We left Mojave about 8:30 AM and arrived at the Elks Lodge in Fresno, CA at 12:30 PM, stopping in Pixley, CA for fuel.  Fuel here is The Republic of California is much higher that we have seen so far but at $2.25 a gallon it is still much lower than a couple of years ago.

Until next time,

Barry & Joyce

April 10, 2016

April 3, 2016

Yesterday we took a drive over to Fort Benning, GA near Columbus.  Known as The Home of the Infantry, this is a huge installation and home of the Army’s Infantry and Armor Schools, elements of the 75th Ranger Regiment and the 3rd Brigade-3rd Infantry Division.

April 6, 2016

On Sunday we took a drive up northeast of Maxwell to Lake Martin to check out the Air Force’s Lake Martin Recreation Area but mainly just to get away from Montgomery for a day.

The Air Force has cabins, trailers, boats and other things for rent.  Also, there is a campground but it is mainly for small RV’s or tenting.  There are four or five sites that larger RV’s could use but you would really have to be careful driving into that area.  I don’t see us ever taking our rig in there.

Monday we went to see the movie about Hank Williams, “I Saw The Light”.  Although the hype about the movie was good we found it to be very slow moving and a little boring.  Joyce says I’m not allowed to pick movies that we go see anymore.

We finally got our Honda CRV out of the shop yesterday and everything seems to be good.  The shop sent it out on Monday to a local RV dealer for the towing system base plate installation. When the body shop got it back they noticed that the the bumper was installed a little crooked so they fixed that.  They also sent it out to have the front end alignment checked to make sure that was good.

All-in-all we are very happy with Capital City Body Works.  They did an outstanding job and got all the work done in a timely manner.  When they were painting the new bumper they fixed the nicks and scratches on the hood at no charge to us.  So if you are in need of body work in Montgomery, AL. we highly recommend Capital City.

We are going to spend today here at Maxwell and do the Hyundai cars plant tour and then tomorrow we are going to start the trip west.  We will be driving a lot harder than we normally do but we still want to visit my family in Fresno, CA and Joyce’s in St. Helena.  We also want to stop in Dallas, TX to visit dear friends.

April 10, 2016

We left Maxwell AFB on Thursday the 7th and started our trip west.  The first stop was at the Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp-Resort in Pelahatchie, MS.  This very large park that caters to families in a big way with a huge water play area, a pool and mini-golf just to name a few of the amenities.

After spending one night there we hooked up the CRV headed toward the Elks Lodge in Shreveport, LA. stopping at a Chevron station for fuel on the way out to the interstate.  Got diesel fuel for $1.80 a gallon making us very happy.

For those of you who have never driven I-20 through Mississippi and Louisiana, don’t do it unless it is absolutely necessary.  Several times we had to slow down to 50 MPH because of the rough road and near Bossier City and on into Shreveport we even got down to 45 MPH.  To say the highway is rough is an understatement.

We arrived at the Elks Lodge at about 2:30 PM where we got a parking site with 30 amp electric service for $15.  The sites there are not big-rig friendly so we had to do some maneuvering to get parked.  When I plugged in the electrical cord we couldn’t get any power with or without our surge protector.  No problem, we just plugged into the post next door.  One of the guys in the lodge came out and fixed the problem but he told us just to stay the way we were if case it failed again.

After getting situated we went into the lodge for a cold one or two.  It was steak night so we ordered a huge ribeye steak to share with all of the timings for $18.

Somebody buy for me!

After a good night’s sleep we left Shreveport at 9 AM and headed off toward the Elks Lodge in Dallas, TX.  Once we crossed the Texas state line the road smoothed out considerably.

Since I don’t like to let our fuel tank get much below 1/2 full, we stopped at a Shell station in Terrell where we got diesel for $1.86.  So far we are only getting about 7.5 MPG this trip but we have been fighting a lot of head winds along the way.

After filling up we made our way north-west to the Elks Lodge.  The traffic wasn’t to awful bad except when we turned onto I-635 then it got a little worse.  But we made it in here without to much hassle.

The lodge has seven parking sites with 50 amp power and water hookups.  We were the only rig there so we had our choice of sites.  They also provided key cards so that we could use the bathrooms and showers in the back of the building.

Our main purpose for coming to Dallas is to visit our friends Jim and Linda Holtz who live in Amarillo.  About ten months ago Mr. Jim suffered a stroke so they come down to Dallas where he goes to speech and physical therapy.  They have a large 5th-wheel trailer that their son-in-law pulls down here for them to have a place to live.

After getting situated at the Elks we drove up to Carrollton, TX to the RV park where Jim and Linda are staying.  We sat around and talked for quite a while then we went to Agave Azul Mexican Restaurant.  The supper was fantastic and the conversation was lively.

 On Sunday we visited President George W. Bush's Library and Museum on the Southern Methodist University campus.

This is a piece of the World Trade Center.

More later.

Barry & Joyce

April 1, 2015

March 25, 2016

So, we dodged a bullet yesterday.  Some very nasty thunderstorms started moving into the Montgomery area about 1:30 PM but nothing near as bad as the folks south of us were getting.  Our emergency weather radio’s alert feature was sounding the alarm every ten minutes of so for several hours but the warnings were all for storms about a 100 miles south of us.  The forecast is for more bad weather on tomorrow night and on Wednesday as well, some of possibly severe.

March 28, 2016

On Friday we went over to the Gunter Annex to tour the Enlisted Heritage Hall.  They have a nice collection of memorabilia telling the story of enlisted airmen over the years.  Although there is a lot of construction going on, we were really impressed.  Especially impressive was the Order of the Sword and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force displays.

March 29, 2016

Yesterday we drove over to Tuskegee, AL to visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.  The museum is located on Moton Field where most of the pilot and ground crew training took place beginning in July 1941.

March 30, 2016

As most of y’all know, we use a Verizon Jet Pack for our internet connection.  We have a 30 gigabyte limit on our data usage and for the past few years this has been more than enough.  If we are in a RV park that has WiFi we try to use that as much as we can in order to help keep our usage down.

Yesterday we got a notice that we have used 75% of that 30 gig limit already this billing cycle which began on 19 March.  In all the years we have been using Verizon we have never used this much data in just eleven days.  Yes, we do bump up against our limit sometimes but it is always just a few days before our monthly cycle is over on the 18th.

While we have been here at Maxwell AFB we have been connecting to the park’s WiFi as much as possible.  It is sometimes very slow and in some cases we can’t even get connected so it is pretty much unusable most of the time.

I have been looking into renting one of the “grandfathered” plans that you can get on Ebay and other places.  More on that later after I do more research.

March 31, 2016

Well, the month of March is going out with a bang here in the Montgomery area.  This morning we were under a High Treat Warning for a 50% chance of severe thunderstorms and now that has been extended until 3 AM in the morning.  We did get quite a bit of rain earlier in the day but no thunder bumpers but now a new line of storms are firing up over in Louisiana and Mississippi that might affect us.

Here on Maxwell AFB the evacuation plan has us go over to the Supply building and from there into billeting rooms if we don’t have any pets.  Those with pets will have to stay in that building and will be provided cots and sleeping bags.  Joyce and I have packed a bag and will prepare the rig to get the slides pulled in quickly in the event we have to get out of here.  I also have a weather radio that I will leave in alert mode when we go to bed.

Have I told you that I hate dealing with this kind of weather and for that reason I don’t think I could ever live in the south again.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the south in a lot of ways but the weather is a deal breaker for us buying a home down here.

More later.

Barry & Joyce

March 23, 2016

March 20, 2016

“Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi (er… Montgomery) again”.

On the 17th, we made the run up to Maxwell AFB in good time without too much hassle except running into some thunderstorms just west of Quincy.  There was a lot of stop and go driving up Highway 231 but we just took our time and enjoyed the day.

When we got to Maxwell AFB things changed after going through the main gate.  After leaving the gate, I was trying to get into the left lane but was being blocked by a little car next to me.  While watching him in the mirror, I hit a speed bump a little too hard.  Now, this is not your ordinary speed bump.  In the left lane it’s not very high but as it slopes to the right, it gets very big due to the slope of the street.  Although I was going less than 10 MPH, we thought that everything in the coach had come loose.

We then drove on to the base’s Famcamp, checked in and found our parking site.  After parking, we went back to unhook our tow car and that’s when we saw the damage.  The tow bars had bounced up very hard and took out the whole front of the car.

So we started making phone calls.  Joyce talked to the Honda dealer who recommended a Capital City Auto Body.  I called Good Sam’s to get a tow truck started our way and then called our insurance company.

To make a long story a tad shorter, we got the car into the shop.  They told us they would try to expedite the repairs as much as possible and then we picked up a rental car at Enterprise Rental.  Our insurance is covering the rental car up to $25 a day or for a total of $750.  More later.

March 22, 2016

Yesterday we made a trip over to Selma, AL to do some sight-seeing.  As you probably know, Selma is best known for the 1960s Voting Rights Movement and the Selma to Montgomery marches.

On the way into town we stopped just east of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where “Bloody Sunday” took place on March 7, 1965.

Our next stop was at the Slavery and Civil War Museum but unfortunately it was closed.  We then walked back up the street to the Side Porch Restaurant for lunch.  I had their Crawfish Po-Boy and Joyce decided on the Catfish Nuggets, both of which were excellent.

Next, we walked up to the National Parks Service’s Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail office.  There is a small area in the back that has interactive displays that were interesting.  Also, while there the ranger introduced us to an Army veteran named Joanne Bland.  Before we left, the ranger gave us more information about Miss Joanne.  More on here is below.

Next, we drove a few blocks to the Brown Chapel AME Church and King Monument, the starting point for the marches.  Miss Joanne was there giving a tour to a high school class from Los Angeles, CA  she asked if we wanted to tag along.  Well, yeah!

Our group was led to an cement area at the back of the church and Miss Joanne told us all to pick up a rock from the ground and hold them up above our heads.  Three students were asked to come forward with their rocks and Joanne to us that this is where the marchers gathered before leaving for Montgomery on March 7th.

Joanne asked us to keep our rocks and put them in a place where we could look at them everyday.  Then, if we every saw see an injustice happening, think about what went happened in Selma and do something positive about that injustice.

Joanne was 11 years old and along with her 13 year old sister Linda, marched to the bridge on Bloody Sunday where they were beaten and gassed buy the state troopers.  Joanne was arrested thirteen times, the youngest person jailed during that time.  Linda later made the march to Montgomery, the youngest person to do so.  To say it was an honor for us to meet Joanne is an understatement.

Read more about Joanne Bland and her sister on these web sites:

http://www.baylor.edu/alumni/magazine/0202/news.php?action=story&story=7595-title=Joanne

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/norma-adams-wade/20150127-youngest-marcher-at-selmas-bloody-sunday-to-speak-in-dallas.ece

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanne_Bland

https://cj222.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/civil-rights-activist-shares-her-story-and-calls-students-to-action/

 Joanne Bland

 Joanne is in the center in the black coat.

March 23, 2016

Looks like we are going to be in Montgomery for longer than we thought.  We got word yesterday that our car won’t be ready for at least 12 days, maybe longer.  That sure wasn’t good news.

The good news is that the famcamp here on Maxwell was able to get us a parking site for as long as needed.  We will have to move on Saturday but that’s OK with us.  And, the insurance company will be extending out our rental car for us.  Also, we are life members of Good Sams so we have $500 worth of trip interruption insurance that will help us out.

So, when life those lemons at you, make some lemonade and that is exactly what we plan to do.  Not sure what just yet but you can bet it we ain’t going to be sitting around here feeling sorry for ourselves.

Nuff for now.

Barry & Joyce

Mar 18, 2016

March 16, 2016

A lot has happened since I last wrote, some good and some bad.  The bad first.

The very next day after the cardiologist in St. Augustine said I was good to go I had a dizzy episode while adjusting the air conditioning temperature.  I laid down on the couch in hopes that it would go away but it didn’t.  In fact, it got much worse and to top that off I started having a hard time breathing.  Well that really got my attention and scared me some so Joyce called 911.

When the med tech’s got there and did their assessment, they recommended I go to the hospital.  It’s funny, when they got me up from the couch I immediately started to feel better but we decided to make the hospital trip anyway.

When I got to the Emergency Room at Putnam County Hospital, the nurses got me hooked up to several monitors and started an IV.  A few minutes later Dr. Zabad came in and ordered blood tests.  He said my heart rate was really low which didn’t make him or me happy.  And, my blood pressure was high as well.  He also sent me down for a chest x-ray.

After Dr. Z got the blood test results and after analyzing all the other stuff going on, he decided to admit me for more testing.  So, off I go to the ICCU where I was put on oxygen along with more sticking and poking.

Later, along comes a neurologist who ordered a CAT scan so I had another ride downstairs to the CAT lab.  Later, the neurologists comes back and said that I had “significant” calcium buildup in the arteries that go up to the brain and then proceeded to tell me what my options are, none of them good.  He decided to do another CAT scan, this time using dye to get a better look at the arteries.  He came back later in the evening and said that the new CAT results were much better and that the buildup wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought after the first test.  Yay!!!

I also saw another cardiologist who is also a member of the First Coast Heart and Vascular Institute who did all of the work on me before.  He looked at my charts and told me he was going to recommend to Dr. Z a change in my medications.

So, after two nights and the next day, the doctors finally let me go.  They took me off of two of my meds I have been taking for several years and put me on a new one.  Then during the followups in their offices another new drug was added.

That is the bad stuff so here is the good times.

On March 12th we drove down to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, FL to spend the night before our cruise to the Caribbean.

The next morning we boarded Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas which happens to be the largest cruise ship in the world at the present time.  Harmony of the Seas in presently in sea trials which will eclipse Allure buy a few feet.  Our trip took us to Labadee, Hati (RC’s private resort), Falmouth, Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico.

The Allure is huge!  We were on her for seven days and didn’t see all of her but we did try.  When we wanted to be in the back of the ship it seamed like we were always in the front and vice-versa for the back.  And of course that happened several times a day so we did get some exercise just walking back and forth.

This cruise was all about the ship and since we had been to all of the ports before, we only got off twice and for very short times.  We did a little shopping in Falmouth and Cozumel but other than that we just enjoyed the Allure.

The Allure is huge!

Time to get the party started!

Labadee, Hati

Falmouth, Jamacia

 Cozumel, Mexico

Here comes Liberty of the Seas

The Captain turned her around and backed her in just slicker than heck.

Joyce cleans up really good!

We will be taking another cruise out of Seattle, WA in June sailing to Alaska on the Explorer of the Seas.  This will be our second cruise to Alaska but we will be going to the Tracy Arm Fjord, a new destination for us.  We are going to be joined by Joyce’s mother, Jim and Jeanne Glaspey and Jim’s brother Ron and his family including some grad children.

March 17, 2016

On Tuesday night we went to the St. Augustine Amphitheater to see a production of the Lion King with Michelle, Abigail and Skyler.  The play was fantastic but it was a sad evening as well as we had to say goodbye to them.  We had a wonderful winter spending time with our family and of course we were sad to leave them.  Sniff, sniff.

Yesterday morning we hooked up our towd, jumped on highway 100 and headed toward Quincy, FL, our first stop on our way west.  We pulled into the Beaver Lake Campground about 3 PM, not a “destination” park by any stretch of the imagination but for $20 a night, it works.  We’ll be leaving here this morning headed to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL where we will spend two nights.

Well that is more than I had intended to write.  More later.

Barry & Joyce