Here we are, on the road: April 2010

Sunday, April 25, 2010

We’re in Bowling Green, Kentucky

Sunday, April 25, 2010 Lorraine’s report

Hello from soggy Bowling Green, Kentucky. Man oh man, did we have a storm come through here Friday night and Saturday. There was thunder, lightening, a ton of rain and some wind. It was down right miserable and sort of scary, since they had been talking about Twister’s touching down as a possibility around here on the radio.

Well, last Sunday I got back home from Sunnyvale, CA and my beautiful granddaughter’s 5^th birthday. We had a lot of fun together, and I hated leaving our little family out west there. Kaitlyn was so angry with me leaving, she wouldn’t say ‘goodbye’. I told her that it was okay, and we would probably see her again in the fall. Thank you Susy, Mark and Kaitlyn for letting me come and visit; I loved seeing you all and it was so hard to leave you!

Chuck picked me up at Nashville airport and we stopped to eat, then headed for home. On the way home, we received a call from Brannon in Red Bay, Alabama. Chuck had called him to see if he could bring the coach back to Red Bay to have a new Direct TV Satellite installed while I was in CA; however, Brannon was at the rally in Gulf Shores and couldn’t fit us in. Since we bought the new TV and receiver, the satellite was not working properly, bringing in only half the stations; we needed a new one that was compatible with the new receiver.

Brannon wanted us to head back to Red Bay, so he could do the work on Tuesday morning. Arriving home at 8:30 pm central time, having been on the go since 6 am Pacific Time, I unpacked my bags and went to bed, totally worn out.

We got up Monday morning and while I packed up the coach, Chuck drove to the post office in Hohenwald to hopefully pick up the water filters he had ordered and should be there waiting for us. They weren’t there yet.

We continued on to Red Bay, stopping by Russellville’s Walmart for supplies, then on to the Tiffin RV park only to find it totally full, with dry camping on the runway only. So off we went to Brannon’s shop in Vina, Alabama. We arrived by 3:30 or so and had to wait until Brannon was finished working before we could set up for the evening, after 6 pm. Brannon had 50 amp and water for us to use, so we were good.

Tuesday we were up early, ready and waiting for Brannon. We told him we had several requests. He would do all he could before his next appointment at noon. We had the satellite changed out, he installed the fan in the bedroom and fixed the jake brake. That was all he had time and parts for; that was enough. We spent the afternoon picking up other parts we hadn’t gotten the last time. We spent another night at Brannon’s.

Wednesday, we were up early so Brannon’s customers could get into his place. We headed back to Hohenwald to the post office hoping the water filters had come in; they did.

So off we headed to Bowling Green, Kentucky to visit Chuck’s sister, Corliss, her husband, Phil and our niece, Samantha, since Bowling Green was only 4 hours or so away from Red Bay. We arrived and parked the coach up by the shop behind their house. Corliss and Phil came in and we visited a bit before Samantha came home from school. Stacy, their other daughter brought Sammy home along with her two children, Nicki and Adam and we all had a nice time visiting.

Since coming here we have visited, enjoyed great food, reminisced and basically had a wonderful visit. Corliss and Phil have such a beautiful piece of land and home here, it’s so peaceful and quiet, we love to come here. Thank you Corliss, Phil and Sammy for letting us come to visit.

Thursday was Phil and Corliss’s 21^st wedding anniversary. We were here two years ago and celebrated with them, so this year we did also. Thank you two for letting us help celebrate with you. May you continue to have many more years of happiness together.

Until next time, be well…………..Lorraine

4/25/10 Chuck’s report

Ok, Ok, we missed posting last week, maybe I should have posted a note saying we didn’t write or post our weekly blog. I didn’t have anything to write about, Lorraine was in California for our grand daughter’s 5th birthday and party and I didn’t see any need to post, sorry.

While I was in Hohenwald I had plenty of time to complete a few items I had been putting off plus cleaned the coach inside and out. The weather was really nice, 70s and 80s most days, in fact, I got sunburned twice, not used to that much sun I guess.

We had a new television and Direct TV satellite receiver installed when we were in Red Bay two weeks ago. We had trouble getting all the channels and after doing some checking, I found we had two options. One was to continue paying for channels we couldn’t get, the other was to replace our satellite antenna. I called one of the guys back in Red Bay, he said he could fit us in for the replacement on Tuesday afternoon after Lorraine got back on Sunday. So we decided to go with option two, replace the antenna which required a trip back to Red Bay.

Our plans were for me to pick her up at the airport Sunday afternoon, give her a day to get stuff straightened and put away then leave on Tuesday morning for our 4 hour trip back to Red Bay. I picked her up at the airport in Nashville and we went to dinner at a Cracker Barrel, one of our favorite places. As we were walking back to the car after eating, I got a call from Brannon asking if we could be at his place by 7:00 on Tuesday morning instead of Tuesday afternoon. That threw a bit of a wrench in our plans, causing us to leave Monday so we could park at his place overnight and be ready by 7:00 on Tuesday. So, Lorraine’s travels continued without much of a break to rest up. But I’m glad she’s back and life is back to normal for us.

Brannon said the guy that took our afternoon appointment was still waiting for parts so he would have some free time. I took part of the extra time he had to have him install a ceiling fan in our bedroom and also put a brake switch on our engine brake after he changed out the antenna. While he was working on the coach, Lorraine and I had lots of running to do. We had to go to the Tiffin store at the camp ground, to McKinney’s RV parts and supply place and Bay Diesel. Lorraine also made an appointment to have her hair done at a place she’s been to twice before. All in all, a busy day but we got everything done. For those who have been in Red Bay, we also had breakfast at Katie Cakes.

Brannon finished sometime after 1:00, we got back to the coach by 5:00, spent the night there once again and left on Wednesday morning. We then headed North to my sister’s place in Bowling Green for a visit. My sister, Corliss, her husband, Phil and their daughter, Samantha live just outside town on a very nice place and allow us to park at their barn plus supplied water and electricity. They own and operate a home construction business here in town but have left work early each day so they could spend more time visiting with us and showing us the area. We sure appreciate all they have done with and for us while we’ve been here.

Phil is planning a cook out today, they invited their other daughter, Stacy and her family, husband Steve, daughter Nicki and son Adam. The weather was nice through Friday night when it started to rain. Yesterday we had severe weather with possible tornado, high winds and hail and lots of rain. We only got the rain, not much wind and no hail, yea. Forecast for today is for better weather, in the 70s once again, great weather for a Bar-B-Q.

We aren’t real sure of our plans after leaving here. Lorraine got a call from our son, Rich. He’s in Florida for a while, still too cold to do much back in Alaska where he lives. We are trying to work out a meeting place so we can see him, will know more later. Probably we will head to St. Augustine and he will drive up. Corliss and Phil really like Destin, Florida and may have talked us into checking it out on the way to meet with Rich.

So for now, once again, our plans are in Jell-O, maybe even more fluid than that. We are still planning on probably heading up the East coast for the rest of the spring. We have reservations in Virginia for Labor Day week, easily changed if needed. Beyond that, we are in roaming mode once again. I’ve been looking at places along the coast, need to work on it a bit more but have some ideas in mind at least.

So with that, I’ll add a few pictures and get this posted.

The real reason Lorraine went back to California.

At Kaitlyn’s party with her school chums.

Kaitlyn loves to play on the slides and swings at her play ground.

Here is the Natchez Trace Parkway when we drove to Hohenwald, Tenn.

The Natchez Trace Parkway two weeks later, spring has sprung. We saw more turkeys than vehicles on this trip.

Crossing the Tennessee River.

Lots of horse ranches in Kentucky.

Some might need a bit of work.

Here is the underpass we had to go under to get to the 1000 Trails park in Hohenwald, tight fit as the pictures show.

My sister, Corliss, her husband, Phil. Their daughter, Samantha and her cousin, Nicki.

Their home in Bowling Green.

Our rig up the hill at their barn.

A turkey right in front of our MH one morning.

Two upgrades on our coach, a fan in the bedroom and the new satellite we got installed back in Red Bay.

And with that, I’ll sign off; hope you have a good week.

Thanks Chuck

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Lorraine’s in California, Chuck’s in Tennessee

Sunday, April 11, 2010 Lorraine’s report

Hello, from the cooler bay area, Sunnyvale, CA. I arrived here on Wednesday evening, leaving Nashville, TN around 1:45 pm. Upon arriving in San Diego, we had to disembark the plane, leave the secured departure area, to go through the whole terminal, through the check in area and security again, to go to my other departure gate. The entire flight out from Nashville to San Diego was sold out-not a single seat left. The plane from SD to Oakland was three seats shy of a full plane.

This past week was busy for me. I am not one to wait to pack my bags the last minute. I started pulling stuff out last week, cleaning as I went, to get to the stuff I wanted to take. We were still in Tunica, MS last Sunday.

We spent a nice day Easter Sunday, with me working in the coach. I cooked a ham dinner for us, and on Saturday evening, I dyed a dozen eggs for us, since it wouldn’t be Easter for me without dyed eggs. The day was nice and sunny, with temperatures in the 70’s to 80’s.

Chuck had decided we should stay an extra day in Tunica, since we would have had to find a spot for Monday night, and we were in a really nice park, Sam’s RV Park there in Tunica. Chuck took me over to the outlet mall there for a few last minute gifts. We then checked out the machines at Harrah’s Casino, with not much luck.

Tuesday we headed out to Hohenwald, TN, which is about 45-50 minutes out of Nashville, to a Thousand Trails RV Park. That day was our first 90 degree plus day for over a year. Since we had only 30 amp, water, and sewer, we could only run one air conditioner. Chuck had to put on shorts; his 1^st time for the year!

Wednesday we drove about 90 minutes to Nashville, then I flew 4.5 hours on the first leg of my flight; followed by a 45-50 flight into Oakland. Waiting at the baggage claim area was my very excited, granddaughter, Kaitlyn and her mommy, Susy. It was all Susy could do to keep Kaitlyn from crossing the red line to run to meet me.

Since then, I have spent most of my time with Kaitlyn and Susy. I watch Kaitlyn from around 8:15 am to 6:30 pm or so. We play, read, do art work, eat, rest, and just enjoy each others company. She has been sleeping in bed with me each night, and when she wakes, we start all over again.

Saturday was her 5^th birthday party with her friends from school at Pump It Up, a bouncy house place. She had a blast, as did her class mates; and the parents enjoyed meeting each other.

That has been my week. I would like to wish Brad, Brian and Gilbert, Chuck’s brothers a very happy birthday. Til next time……Lorraine

4/11/10 Chuck’s report

We made the decision to stay in Tunica one more day, have to stay somewhere and this place was pretty nice. Most people were only staying for a day or two, on their way home and just stopping for a quick rest.

Tuesday we drove from Tunica to Hohenwald. We had a good travel day, weather was nice, sunny and warm. Actually the roads were pretty good, we stayed off the interstate and traveled the “blue” roads (that’s their color on the map) and state highways. I need to get a picture of the underpass getting into this place but it says “11’ clearance”, we are 13’4” high! Luckily there is a small dirt bypass alongside that is supposed to be 13’6” so we took it and made it ok. Didn’t even hit the antennas on top so I think it might be a little bit more clearance than that.

We drove through Hohenwald on the here, its bigger than I thought, not big enough for a Wal-Mart or such but more than I saw last time. Looked it up on the web and Hohenwald is German for “Large Forest” or something like that. We are just over an hour SW of Nashville so if I needed anything, it isn’t that far away. But Lorraine left me in pretty good shape, don’t think I need to go into town for anything until she gets back.

Wednesday morning we drove into Nashville to the airport. I dropped Lorraine off for her trip to California to be with our grand daughter for her birthday. Lorraine is e-mailing me her report for this blog, she will probably talk about her trip but I do know she made it ok although it was a long day for her.

That night we had another lightening, thunder and rain storm. This one started about 2:00 AM and lasted just under an hour. I don’t know when the rain quit as I went back to sleep. But since then and for this week’s forecast, its sunny, clear and warm. Each day is forecast to be a few degrees warmer than the last, getting up to mid 80s by Friday. Yea,spring is here. I’m glad it gets back down to the high 30s, low 40s at night however, makes for better sleeping temperatures.

I’m here in this 1000 Trails park with not much to do. There are over 400 sites here, maybe 50 rigs are here, mostly snowbirds heading home. The park is very secluded, quiet and far from anything. The stars are bright at night however, lots of birds and squirrels. I heard a tornado went through here two years ago, caused lots of damage and blew down lots of trees. They have cleared up the damage and logged many trees, really opened the area from what it was last time we were here.

There is a lake on site, I see people fishing in the early hours but haven’t tried it myself yet. Guess you don’t need a license as it’s on private property, that’s a good thing.

I have spent some time working on and cleaning the rig. I’ve been toying with the idea of waxing the coach but think I will hold off for a few more weeks due to the painting we had done at while in Red Bay. Besides. I’m sore enough just washing the thing; being old, fat and out of shape is probably the real reason I don’t plan on waxing it, ha.

This upcoming week should be more of the same. Lorraine is going to fly back on the 18th so I’ve got one more week to amuse myself here before she gets back.

Besides Kaitlyn having her birthday on the 15th, I also have three brothers who are having birthdays this week. Gilbert’s is also on the 15th, Brian and Brad have theirs on the 17th. Happy Birthday to all of you.

After Lorraine gets back, I’m thinking we may make a quick trip back to Red Bay. I would have liked to go back this week while she is in California but the repair guy we need is not there this week, bummer. We are going to replace our satellite antenna, the one we have now doesn’t support Hi-Def TV and that seems to be wave of the future so if we are going to change, it makes sense to do now while we are here. We haven’t had too many problems with our current set up, hope the new one works as well or better.

Our plans for the remainder of that week are still up in the air. I haven’t talked with Lorraine about it yet so guess we will just ‘wing’ it as usual.

No pictures to add this week. Lorraine took a few on the drive over but I can’t find them. She also took the camera with her so I can’t take any around here either. Oh well, just imagine lots of oak trees starting to leaf out, green grass starting to thicken up and a nice lake. Spring is here and I’m enjoying it!

Thanks Chuck

Sunday, April 4, 2010

We’re in Tunica, Mississippi

Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010 Lorraine’s Report

Happy Easter to all our family and friends! May God's loving hands touch your heart and fill you with His love.

Last Sunday, Dave and Sandy were here with us and we went to the number one tourist attraction in Alabama, the Huntsville Space Center. We all enjoyed the space center and learned a lot; like I didn’t even know how important Huntsville was in the building of the space program. And, how Dr. Wernher von Braun came over from Germany to get our program going, and how much he was involved in it all there in Huntsville.

It was great to get calls from our son and daughter, Rick and Susy, they always lift my spirits and make my day.

Monday, Dave and Chuck worked on electronics taking out the new satellite receiver and returning it to Best Buy for another one. Dave tried to figure out how to save all the music Mark loaded on my new IPod, with no luck, but not because he didn’t try, so we couldn’t load up more music.

Sandy cooked us a wonderful dinner, and we just enjoyed each other’s company, a really nice down day for all of us. Oh did I say it was nice and sunny out?

Tuesday, Dave and Sandy were on the road by 9ish headed north. Thank you both for coming by to see us, we really enjoyed your company and look forward to seeing you when we head back west later on this summer.

We left by 11:30 and headed into Birmingham to have the engine worked on. The Cummins dealer said to park at the Kangaroo Truck Stop; we found a spot, but it was so busy and so noisy, Chuck decided to look for a safer, less noisy place. We ended up at a Sam’s Club about five miles away. We boon docked that night, and were out by 6:30 for our appointment at 7 am.

Wednesday, after dropping the coach off we went to check out several campgrounds, so that if they finished we could spend the night. We liked the Tannyhill State Park in Bessemer, AL. It was really pretty, woodsy with a small creek running through it and a big state park.

Then I wanted to go into a Belk store, since I had never been in one before. Chuck took me there and I shopped a bit.

Chuck knew a man that he went to boot camp with that lived there in Bessemer, and had called him earlier last week. Well, James called him that first night and when we were done with the Cummins dealer, we headed over towards that park and James met us outside and he and Chuck visited for a while before we left to set up. They did a lot of reminiscing about their years in the Navy.

While we liked that state park, we did not get any TV reception, my phone was sketchy and the internet was slow. We decided to leave the next morning.

Did I say that the temperature had gone up drastically since we left Red Bay? Wednesday the high for the day was 81 degrees, our first 80 degree plus day this whole winter, with the low around 55. Our highs in Red Bay were 40’s to 51 degrees most of the time; with lows down to the 30’s, with windy, rainy and gray days. It was sure nice to see blue skies and feel the warm sun on your face.

From Bessemer we headed to Tunica, Mississippi. We arrived Friday after a four and a half hour drive, beautiful weather, and fairly easy driving except for around Memphis, which we came close to and at rush hour, so very heavy traffic. We are at Sam’s Town RV park, which has nice big pull through sites.

Since coming here, I’ve been busy spring cleaning and catching up on laundry. I’ve had to straighten out my closet, getting my clothes ready for my CA trip this week. Then Chuck helped me clean out under the bed, digging all the birthday presents so I could take that too. It was good to purge and clean out my stuff.

Today is Easter Sunday and again I want to wish all our family and friends a very Happy Easter. Next Saturday is Chuck’s birthday. I will be in CA attending our Granddaughter’s 5th birthday party on the same day as Chuck’s, so I will not be with him, that makes me sad.

Until next time, be well…..Lorraine

4/4/10 Chuck’s report

First off, Happy Easter to one and all! I hope you have a good one.

Lorraine and I have both beat back the colds we had and are starting to feel better. Neither one of us has much stamina but come on, when we don’t really have to be anywhere or do anything in particular, does it really matter?

This past week was a better week for us. We toured the Huntsville Space Center with Dave and Sandy. We sure enjoyed our short visit with them and already are looking forward to seeing them in Minnesota on our way West this summer.

None of us were aware of the part that Huntsville played in the Space Race. Seems that is where all the minds got together (can you say Rocket Scientists?) and actually developed lots of the initial plans for our Space Program. They have a program for kids there called Space Camp where they get to stay for a few days, learn about our Space Program then develop and launch their own rocket. All the trees around the campground we stayed at have these rockets and parachutes hanging from them, some quite a ways from the launch pad.

There was a movie out a few years ago about a kid from a coal mining town that played around with rockets and he finally went to work at the Space Center here in Huntsville. Guess it was a true story and he became sort of a local celebrity within the program, they even named the kids launch site after him, Hiram Hickim or something like that.

Monday Dave/Sandy and we went to Huntsville. I had to return our Direct TV satellite receiver because the remote didn’t work very well. Well, the new one works the same, have to get a different type remote, I guess. We also went back to the dealer where we had bought our coach, three years ago this month. Boy what adventures we’ve had in the past three years! Sure glad we made the decisions we did and got to enjoy this lifestyle.

Tuesday morning found Dave/Sandy leaving, heading back to their house in Minnesota. They planned on making a few stops along the way but we got word they made it back on Thursday. Didn’t smell many roses along the way, did you Dave and Sandy??

Later, we got loaded up and headed for Birmingham for our appointment on Wednesday. We found a Sam’s Club and got permission to park in their parking lot for the night. Sure is convenient parking there, just walk over and get a chicken and salad for dinner.

Wednesday morning we were at the Cummins place by 7:00, they got us in the repair bay and the paper work completed before 8:00. We took Misty and went out exploring and checked out a couple campgrounds in the area. We decided to stay at Tennihill State Park, a few miles away in Bessemer. We chose this area for a couple of reasons, one, it was a nice place and two, I was to meet up with a guy I had gone to boot camp back in ‘68 who lived in the area.

We stopped off at a mall so Lorraine could look for presents for our grand daughter’s upcoming birthday. I decided to stay in the car and enjoy the sunshine while she shopped. I got a call from the Cummins repair shop saying they had finished much earlier than anticipated and we could pick up our coach. We made it back there before 1:00, checked out and was on our way to meet up with my friend, Jim, from the Navy. He met us along the way to our campground and we visited for a couple of hours. He owns his own business and already had plans for the evening and the next day so this was our only visit with him. Too bad, we hadn’t seen each other in 42 years and certainly didn’t get caught up with all the happening to us since then. Oh well, guess it will have to wait until we get back to the area next time, whenever that will be.

The state park is really nice, has good sites with 50 amp power and water, some have sewer. They have a museum on site, seems they made cannon balls here before and during the Civil War. They said its the only place in the US where all the ore and other stuff needed are within 10 miles of each. There are lots of mines in the area, both coal and iron and they have some equipment from the mines here too. Only problem we had was its a bit out of town and in a hollow with lots of trees. We couldn’t get connected for cell phone or satellite TV service. Oh well, at least the weather was nice, the park was nice and there were LOTS of squirrels for Misty to chase. I almost pulled out our fishing poles and checked out the creek but we don’t have fishing licenses, darn.

We finally decided where to spend our extra time before Lorraine leaves to go to our grand daughter’s birthday party this week. She has reservations from/to Nashville, I will be staying about 100 miles South of there at a 1000 Trails park until she get back. So on Thursday morning, we headed West a bit and drove to Tunica, Mississippi to spend a few days. We are about an hour’s drive South of Memphis, Tennessee, staying at at nice casino campground. They have built a bunch of casinos in the area so we have plenty to do until we leave. Lorraine has been busy going through her closet and other storage areas, trying to find all the presents she has bought for Kaitlyn’s birthday and stashed away. She also is planning on what clothes to pack for her trip. She starts packing a week ahead of time, unlike me who always waits ‘til the morning we leave before I would start.

On Saturday, we made a trip to Memphis for a Wal-Mart trip and too look around. Boy are the roads here confusing to me, luckily the GPS didn’t lead us astray too bad and we got back home. Maybe I should have looked at a paper map before we left, huh?

It sure seems like Spring has sprung around here. We’ve had a couple of days where the temperature got into the 80s, first time for us since fall/winter of ‘09. It is nice to have short pants weather once again. We did have another storm move in Friday night with lots of rain, lightening and thunder. Misty sure doesn’t like the thunder part, she came into our bedroom and spent the rest of the night there. Next morning there was standing water all over the place, some folks had small lakes around them. Its drying out now but looks like another storm may be coming this morning but I haven’t seen or heard a weather forecast yet.

Our plans for this week are pretty simple, we leave here on Tuesday and head towards our next stop. We have been there before and I don’t mean to say this place is in the middle of nowhere but the nearest town is called Hohenwald, Tenn. There might be 800 people in town, just has a small main street with a couple of businesses and a post office. I will drive Lorraine to the airport in Nashville on Wednesday then wait for her to return the next week.

Last time we were there Lorraine flew back for our grand daughter’s third birthday and I had moved to a different campground while she was gone. When I picked her up and drove back to our coach, she remarked how it was good to be home again but she had never been in that campground before. That’s when I realized how comfortable we had become and how our coach was truly our home, where ever it was parked.

So that is the story of our past week. I will add a few pictures and get this posted.

Chuck, Lorraine, an astronaut suit and Sandy and Dave at the Space Center. Lorraine took a good picture of the Saturn Rocket with the Alabama state flag directly behind it. The sun was pretty much in her eyes, she just held the camera and took a chance, turned out nice, I think.

Looking upwards to one of the rocket booster engine exhaust. They have a full size Saturn inside the museum , laying on its side with lots of parts exposed for viewing. Boy are these things complicated!

One of the Lunar “Dune Buggies”.

Neal Armstrong on the left, an actual re-entry module on the right.

They have lots of rockets outside in a park like setting, including a yellow submarine used to recover parts from different rockets.

Chuck and Dave on Shuttle simulators, trying to land without crashing. Note to self, don’t ride in a Shuttle when Dave is driving.

Here is an actual Shuttle with booster tanks.

SR-51, one of our spy planes.

Sandy and Dave fixing dinner for all of us on our last night in Huntsville. Dave has a unique method of timing while he’s doing a Bar-B-Q, ask him about it sometime.