Sunday June 10, 2012 Lorraine’s report
Chuck touched on the most important part of the stuff we did, so I will just add a few thoughts on this past week. Like the thunder and lightening storm we had last night. It was quite impressive and I got really frightened when the storm radio we have came on and said that we had a tornado in the area. Well, if there was a tornado, it was a ways away from us, but in the dark, you couldn’t tell where it was. Also, the radio , it was coming on every few minutes with its loud beeps to get our attention, then their ominous warnings. When the hail hit, it sounded like gun shots everywhere on the top of the rig. I think that was the first thunder storm of that intensity I had been through and I hope the last.
On Tuesday we were out and about, and I got one of the worst migraines I have had for many years. Chuck brought me home and took care of me; thanks Chuck.
The day Chuck had the engine checked, I went and had my hair colored. I gave the gal my formula, she followed it, except for the time, she kept it in for 45 minutes, which resulted in my hair turning way dark. It’s going to take another week before it lightens. Oh well, thank goodness it grows so fast.
One comment on the cancer walk. Chuck has been with me through all my treatments, my recovery and now through all the different places we have traveled so I can participate in The Race for the Cure. This year the temperature was 89 degrees when the survivors walked the first lap, definitely way too hot for us. I thank him from the bottom of my heart for being there for me. Last year, Richard and Sandy came out to try and find me, and they came bearing gifts. That was the first time anyone has come out for me besides so Chuck. I also thank them for being so loving and kind. It meant the world to me, thank you Richard and Sandy. I appreciate you both.
And to get the wills, etc finally out of the way was a bonus, thank goodness it didn’t take too long.
I want to wish our niece’s daughter, Rose, Happy Graduation. Have fun Rose.
That’s it for me. Until next time…..
Lorraine
6/9/12 Chuck’s Report
Yep, an unusual travel day on Sunday, so much so that I’m writing this on Saturday night. We had planned to leave here on Saturday but the State Park where we are heading towards didn’t have any open spots until Sunday, maybe should have tried to make the arrangements earlier but that’s just not our style.
We’re stilling in the motor home watching a thunderstorm pass over, lots of lightening, some strong winds and rain. In fact, this is the third storm we’ve had this week, not used to this back in Washington that’s for sure. We have a weather radio and it keeps going off, telling us about thunderstorm warnings and just now there was a tornado warning for an area about 50 miles from us. This is a huge storm, covers lots of the state it looks like.
Let’s see, this week we got our driver’s licenses renewed, actually I had to get a new one as mine had expired and I had gotten one from Washington while I was working there. Since 9-11 the rules to get or even to renew a driver’s license have changed. You have to have a passport or birth certificate, social security card and a receipt from a campground showing we’ve actually spent some time here in the state. I was surprised that it was harder to get one in South Dakota than it was in Washington. We made three trips to the County Court House to do it but we have the new plates ordered, they will be sent to us. So for now, we are just driving on temporary permits taped to the windshield. And I had memorized the old plate numbers too, shoot. It is getting harder to learn new things and I think it’s almost as hard to un-learn (forget) the old stuff but I’ll get used to the new numbers when we get the new plates.
We also were driving in town and Lorraine noticed a Lawyer’s Office that advertised they do Wills, Estate Planning and such. So we stopped and asked if we could talk to them, they had time so we we able to get the basic info started. After a couple of emails back and forth, they were ready for us to come back in two days. We stopped by their office and about two hours later we walked out with our Wills, Power Of Attorney, Living Wills and End of Life forms all complete and legal for South Dakota. This is something we’ve talked about doing for years but just never took the time to do it, glad to finally have it done.
Wednesday we made a trip to Mount Rushmore, I think we’ve been there 5 or 6 times now and it still is awe inspiring to me. Two years ago we were in Washington DC and saw all the Monuments there and I still think this one is the best I’ve seen.
While we were there I got a call from the mechanic I had talked to the day before about checking out the oil leak on the coach and he asked if we could be in his shop by 2 pm. Here we were, about 25 miles from the coach and it was still set up for living, not traveling. We got back, put stuff away and got there a few minutes early. Unfortunately, the mechanic was still out to lunch so Lorraine took the car and I stayed with the coach. Once the mechanic and I talked, he had a couple of ideas and I told him what I had learned via the internet. He got under the motor and started checking things out, still looked like the filter might be the problem, at least that was were the oil appeared to be originating.
I told him I had heard of the oil dipstick tube melting on some motor homes so he was able to look it over while he was under there. Sure enough, the plastic dipstick tube, about 3’ long, ran alongside the engine, close enough that the plastic was alligatored, or damaged from the heat. We checked all around town and no one carries them, special order only. Seeing as we were leaving on Saturday I thought, I called our friend Dave in Minneapolis and got some phone numbers of places there. We will be there on Tuesday so I had one of them order a dipstick tube and I’ll pick it up when we get there. Meanwhile, the mechanic put a hose clamp on the connection, hoping it might help. Plus, we shouldn’t be hitting too many mountains from here to Minnesota so that should help too. Here’s hoping we make it with no more leaks!
The campground we are at will allow us to wash the rig so Thursday morning I got started. I washing the roof, it’s been awhile and it was pretty dirty and chalky. Then Lorraine and I washed the sides, section by section. She would wet it down and spray it off after I washed it then we both would dry it, a big job to be sure. But we were done about 1 or so, tired but pleased the rig was clean once again. I told Lorraine I sort of wished it would rain to remove any water spots we couldn’t get to, maybe I shouldn’t have wished for that as we had the second of our big thunderstorms that afternoon. We were in the Lawyer's Office in downtown Rapid City so we didn’t see the worst of it. We did see about 1” of sleet alongside the road on our way back to the coach, however. Glad we haven’t had any hail though. But I was right, the rain did wash the hard water spots off and the coach looked pretty good.
We been having problems with our Verizon air card, some times it would just shut itself off for no reason. I tried unplugging it, pulled the battery and reset it and still we would sometime have problems. This time I unplugged it from the box itself rather than from the wall and found the problem, the plug-in connection was broken and loose. So we took it to the store in town, they ordered us a new one and it will be delivered to us in Minneapolis at the campground there. Hope this one lasts until then.
I got a call from our friend Tim Powell from back home on Friday. He had been talking about driving his motor home back to Iowa this summer and he was on his way. He happened to be in a campground in Sturgis, about 30 miles away. After we got our air card business taken care of, we drove over to see him for awhile. After a short visit, we had to come back to take Misty out for a walk.
As most of you know, Lorraine is a breast cancer survivor, 12 years ago she found the lump and it started from there. Anyway, she is now cancer free and tries to attend the Cancer Society Relay of Life each year. Depending on where we are, she checks the local area and tries to go wherever we happen to be. This time it was while we were here in Rapid City, on Friday night. So after walking Misty, we put the address in the trusty GPS and headed out to find the park where they were holding the walk. The GPS led us right to it, no problems.
Lorraine got registered, got her Tee-shirt and signed up for the walk. This is the fourth or fifth state she has done this walk and this is the first time where they have read off the names of all the survivors, a nice touch I thought. So Lorraine had her name read, got her survivor medal and got in line to do the survivor’s first lap. All the survivors walk the first lap and everyone else stands along the track and cheers them on. There are lots of smiles, laughter and tears, from both sides. I was once again so proud of Lorraine, 12 years and still fighting. I’m glad she is cancer free and that is behind us but it has been a huge part of our lives.
This morning we drove to Deadwood City, where Bill Hickok was shot and killed back in 1876. Of course, the town is now mostly tourist traps and casinos but what the heck. We made arrangements to meet with Tim at a casino for lunch while we were there. Tim was there, waiting for us when we got there but we couldn’t find a restaurant that was opened for lunch so we just had a snack and called it good. Lorraine checked out some of the shops, we walked through a couple of the casinos (only played in one of them and that was because the had a free snack bar set up for players) and just played tourist for awhile. I guess it is worth the trip, really nice scenery along the way too.
We have friends who live in the area, Peter and Elaine Pi but we didn’t contact them this trip as we didn’t know when we would be going to Deadwood. Peter is a cop in Sturgis and he sure has some stories to tell about biker week. Sorry Peter and Elaine, next time we’re in town we’ll contact you and try to get together.
Our plans for the upcoming week are pretty simple, we will head to Arlington, SD for two days to meet up with Jim/Annie, friends who really helped us out when Lorraine was having liver problems when we were in San Diego. Then we will head on to Minneapolis for a week to meet with friends Dave and Sandy. So with the personal stuff behind us, it’s time to meet with some friends.
That was our week,not very exciting stuff but just like everyone else, the personal stuff has to be completed. And now I’ll add a few pictures and get this posted.
Entrance to Hart Ranch
Our site here at Hart Ranch
Downtown Rapid City has statues of all the US Presidents on the street corners. Lorraine managed to get pictures of some of them.
Mount Rushmore
We’ve seen lots of antelope but this is one of the few deer we’ve seen.
Lorraine at the Cancer Walk Relay for Life
Deadwood
An afternoon storm brewing to the West.
Shoot, it just started hailing, big pieces too. Must be about 1/2” or so, sounds like popcorn on the roof. Sure hope there isn’t any damage!
Ok, stopped writing for the night and now it’s Sunday morning. The storm has died out, the sun is shining, no apparent damage except for a couple of small limbs down. That was the second worst thunderstorm we’ve been in since getting on the road. We set in the coach with the screens up, watching the lightening and rain.
We will be putting stuff away and getting ready to travel, get back on the road soon.
Thanks Chuck
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