A tin cup or a gilded goblet, a hut or a castle, wobbly bicycles or a Bentley -- to wherever and by whatever means, my love, our journey is splendid, our cup is full.
Its only been about a month since we last updated our blog, but it seems like much longer than that. Since then we've finished our visit to the Tiffin factory at Red Bay, spent about a week with our sons and their families in Texas, celebrated Al and Claire's new rig, and made it back to Yuma for the winter. We'll try to do an update on each of these happenings with some pictures -- although we've not been as dedicated in snapping pictures as much as we should.
Red Bay to Texas -- we got all of our warranty work taken care of at the Tiffin factory, including the replacement of our rear jacks (which collapsed while we were there). We also got the annual chassis and engine maintenance done by the good folks at Red Bay Diesel. In addition, we got some custom work done by Brannon Hutchison at Custom RV -- a ceiling fan in the bedroom, a revised driver's shift panel, and relocation of some halogen lights. All in all it was a good visit, with everything done to our satisfaction -- and the prices were right too! Here are some pictures of the new items.
Our new shift panel -- the switches are angled toward the driver, and the shift indicator is moved forward. All in all much easier to use.
The ceiling fan in the bedroom is great!! Its a clean, professional installation, and is controlled by a wireless remote -- one of the best additions we've done!
We were anxious to get to Texas to see our family there, so we hit the road and drove from Red Bay to Liberty Hill in two days -- it was a trip we'd made several times, and we didn't have any stops or sights to see along the way. We got to our sons' place and parked the motorhome, and began to enjoy our sons and their families. We were able to snap a few pictures of our good times there --
Tristam got to run the tractor and help mow the parking for the soccer fields
Gillian with her dad
Grandpa and Kaila doing some homework
Garrett chowing down some pizza
Chloe having fun
We took off from Liberty Hill on Saturday, October 24 and headed out for west Texas -- we'd made arrangements to meet up with our good friends Al and Claire who were heading back to Austin from Albuquerque with their new motorhome. We spend a great 24 hours with them in Balmorhea, TX at a Passport campground (which was very nice -- we'll definitely be staying there again on our trips through Texas). Their new rig is a heavy duty class C toy hauler (Chevy Kodiak chassis with a Duramax diesel and an Allison transmission), equipped so they can take both their motorcycles and a tow car with them when they travel. We had a great time going over every inch of it, and making plans on how to spend their money on add-ons. We didn't take any interior pictures, but we did get a picture of their rig and ours alongside each other in the wilds of west Texas:
After our visit with Al and Claire (and "our" German Shepard Elsa, who they take care of for us . . . . ), we headed out early the next morning for points west along I-10 -- we made it through El Paso without incident (I hate driving through there, but there is really no bypass), and just kept going through New Mexico. We'd gained two hours as we headed west and crossed the Arizona border, so we just kept rolling along until we got to the Elks Club at Gila Bend -- and found out when we tallied it up that we'd put 625 miles on that day. We usually don't go to that extreme, but we wanted to get to Yuma, and didn't have any reason to stop on the way. We boondocked there for the night, and then arrived in Yuma by mid-morning the next day -- just ahead of a couple of days of high wind warnings (another good reason for a 600 mile day . . .).
We pulled into our rental lot and had plenty of time to start getting things cleaned up, and to see our friends again before we collapsed for the night. We spent the next two days getting the shed cleaned up and the yard cleared and had it all in order by cocktail hour that evening (celebrating Mandy's first Social Security payment!!) -- at which time our landlady came by and told us that she was raising the rent for the current season -- by 50%. No advance notice (we'd been leasing for 5 years), and no explanation -- just dropped the bomb and spoiled our day!
It didn't take us long to decide that her new price was totally out of the question -- so we promptly began to look for a new place the next morning. Fortunately we were able to rent a much larger lot a few blocks away in the same development from our good friends Mark and Faye, and moved there as soon as we could. All in all, it was a good thing, as we weren't all that pleased with the way our landlady had been treating us recently, and it gave us an opportunity to clean out our junk from the rental shed. In addition, we're on a much nicer lot for less $$ -- and there is no way she'll rent the lot for the price she is wants -- what goes around comes around.
So . . . . we're all settled in for the winter, and have been getting in plenty of biking and socializing with all of our Yuma friends. As full-timers, our wonderful winters in Yuma have been the one consistent item in our past 6 years of travel, and we really look forward to them. Mind you, we're ready to leave each April/May to do our summer thing -- but in late October, the Yuma foothills is where our compass points us to.
Speaking of summer travel, there is one other item to note -- we've already finalized our plans for Summer 2010. We'll be spending June and most of July volunteering at the D. C. Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish, SD -- the rest of July and August will be spent traveling and visiting friends and family in Montana and Wyoming. In September and October we'll head to Lago Vista, TX (just about 20 miles from our sons' place in Liberty Hill) to volunteer at another US Fish and Wildlife location -- Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. We visited both of these locations this summer, and are very excited to be able to participate in their volunteer programs next year. As usual, when we pull up the jacks (and hoping they work) in late October 2010 in Texas, we'll be heading west again to Yuma for another season here.
That's about all for now -- although I guess we should also note that we're planning on using a few of our airline miles to spend Christmas this year in Liberty Hill with our family there (our granddaughter Gabrielle will be spending Christmas in Texas this year and we didn't want to miss her). Greg will also be taking a mid-winter break in January or February to fly up to Seattle to visit his mother. All is well with the both of us as we complete another year of vagabonding, and, as you can see, we hope to continue taking advantage of this great lifestyle for the foreseeable future.
So long from Yuma -- we've got the best sunsets in the Southwest
We've had an interesting week here in Red Bay, Alabama, the home of Tiffin Motor Homes. We planned our annual visit here to get some warranty issues resolved, to get some custom work done, and to get the annual engine/chassis service. So far two out of the three have been successfully achieved -- the details . . . . .
We arrived here Sunday afternoon in the middle of a pretty significant rainstorm, and got a partial hook-up site. Upon arriving, we realized that the motorhome pulling in just ahead of us was Oscar and Penny's -- friends that we had met this summer in Custer, SD. They are long-time friends of my brother Tom in the Boulder, CO area, and they looked us up this summer in the Black Hills as they were starting out on a summer trip to the Canadian Maritime provinces. They are on their way back, and were stopping in to get a whole list of repair items taken care of. We spent Monday visiting with them and hearing about their eventful trip.
Although we had our custom work scheduled at the end of our stay here, we called Brannon at Custom RV, and he indicated that he could get us in early as he had some schedule changes. We went out his way on Tuesday afternoon, and in less than two hours, he had installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom, and put in a modified driver's shift panel in the cockpit. We made arrangement to see him in a week or so to get a couple of lights re-located, and headed back to the campground. We also made contact with our cabinet man, Chris, to have him do a few small changes when he had the chance -- wow, everything is falling into place. . . .
On Wednesday we went out to Bay Diesel to get our 24 month chassis/engine service, and all went well there too. We got all of our items taken care of, and were pleasantly surprised to have Freightliner (our chassis manufacturer) cover the cost for a new exhaust pipe tip -- the stock one had become corroded and rusted -- and, although it sounds like an incidental item, the replacement would have cost over $300! Life continues to be good . . . .
Thursday was our scheduled appointment day at the Tiffin Service Center. Almost all of our items were carry-over items from our warranty service last year, and after checking with the floor supervisor, it was reconfirmed that they would all be covered by TMH under warranty -- just what we wanted to hear. Given the work that would be necessary in several different service departments, it looked like we would be out of here in about a week. . . . . .
We drove back to our site at the end of the day pleased with the way that the week had gone, little realizing that Murphy was about to rear his head. We stopped at our site, took the coach out of gear and put on the parking brake, and pushed the buttons to activate the leveling jacks -- they began to extend and level the coach, but after a minute or so, both the rear jacks suddenly sheared and collapsed. The resulting drop of the coach on the rear suspension (after the air had been let out of the air bags) caused quite a jolt, spilling all of our hanging clothes off the rod in the closet across the rear of the motorhome, moving the nearby washing machine around an inch or two, and buckling the paneling on the bedroom wall. We got the Tiffin techs out to look at the situation, and they helped us get things back in order, both mechanically and personally. They assured us that they had spare jacks in stock to replace the damaged ones, and that all would be OK. We were a bit shaken up, but realized that this was absolutely the best place for a failure of this type to happen. We're right on the cusp of our warranty period for the jacks, so it appears -- at this point -- that we can get things fixed without breaking the bank. We may have to spend a day or two longer here than we anticipated, but that's no big deal -- we hope.
On Friday we spent all day burning off our propane tank in preparation for Monday's repair of the tank float system which measures the level of propane in the tank, and Monday we'll go to the welding shop to get the tank and the jack repair done. Still left to do is the cabinet work, and some work at the paint shop, as well as our remaining custom items with Chris and Brannon -- so we're thinking that we'll be here through most of next week.
We'll do a post next week with pictures of the repairs (the replacement of the jacks should be a good one) and the new items. All in all, we can't complain -- life is still good (but the weather could be better here -- lots of rain and clouds) and everyone in the shop will be happy Monday, as Alabama beat Ole Miss this weekend, and the boss's grandson (Leigh Tiffin) kicked a near-record 5 field goals in getting the job done.
After leaving our friends and the beautiful fall colors in Wausau, WI, we headed south through Wisconsin and Illinois in the general direction of St. Louis. We're taking our time and trying to limit our daily mileage to less than 250 miles, and alternating our stays between Wal Marts and campgrounds. We've not traveled through this part of the country, so we're trying to go a bit slower and smell a few of the roses.
We'd skirted the St. Louis area before on the west side, but had never stopped to see any sights. This time we took the time to go into the city and tour the Gateway Arch and the associated museum. We stayed at a park on the Illinois side of the river which was about 40 miles out of town, and took a day to drive in and wander around a little. Here are some pictures of our visit on a beautiful fall day --
A couple of shots of the arch as we approached it
These are the little pods that you ride in -- with a supposed capacity of 5 people (but they all better be pretty small or very friendly people). You crowd into these things for 4 1/2 minutes while the train of them crawl up the inside framework of the arch. An interesting way (and probably the only one) to get to the top.
Some of the views of the St. Louis area from the viewing area at the top of the arch -- 630 feet up:
The mighty Mississippi
Looking straight down from the window
Busch Stadium - home of the St. Louis Cardinals
Downtown St. Louis looking West
They also had a great museum at the site and two theaters which showed several outstanding documentary films -- one about Louis and Clark and the other about the building of the arch. We'd recommend the whole park -- its called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and is run by the NPS.
We'd wanted to take a bit more time, but there were a couple of weather fronts chasing us, and we'd decided to take another more easterly route, which would allow us to stop for a few days and visit Mammoth Cave in Kentucky before heading to Alabama. We got ahead of the front, spent a leisurely night at a Wal Mart in Owensboro, KY and then rolled into Cave City on Wednesday. We'd located a park (map) with very attractive rates -- and highly rated -- that was just outside Mammoth Cave, and would allow us to stay several days and explore the area. We had a great 4 1/2 hour tour of the cave yesterday, and although it rained a bit last night, the sun is back out this morning and we're getting ready to get out and explore the Bowling Green, KY area today -- the Corvette Museum looks like it might be interesting.
We're only a couple of hundred miles from Red Bay, so we'll head out of here on Sunday and get to the Tiffin factory a day or two ahead of time and see if we can get things started early there. We're having a couple of custom items done to the coach (new shift panel and a bedroom ceiling fan), along with some holdover warranty items and the 2 year engine/chassis service -- all at three different places -- so we'll probably be there for at least 10 days.
