Hello again. Our last chapter ended on
Tuesday, August 4th, when we left Lake Delton, near the
Wisconsin Dells, and drove south into Northern Illinois and the
Blackhawk Valley Campground in Rockford, Illinois. The two-day rally
in Lake Delton was the last of our Summer 2015 rallies and we are now
more or less traveling on our own again, although Gary and Ramona
Wilson are following along with us for the next couple of stops
because we are headed in the same general direction.
Wednesday, August 5th, we
had a stay at home day. I did some research on fridge's and
tried to contact some RV shops. Late in the morning Howie and Pat
Bates parked in the spot right next to the Wilson's. We knew that
Pat and Howie were coming, they just stayed an extra day after the
3T's rally in Lake Delton ended. Pat and Howie are members of many
of the same chapters we belong to and we have known them for years,
meeting them on the road, sometimes several times a year. At 5:00
the six of us had cocktails and chatted and then we put the fish that
Jackie and I caught in Manitowoc a couple of weeks ago on the BBQ.
Everyone brought a little something and we had a wonderful fish
dinner. The fish, all very large Rainbow Trout, tasted great and
everyone had their fill and then some. It was like a little mini
rally with friends. After we cleaned up everything we relaxed with
the TV the rest of the night.
Thursday, August 6th, we
went out after lunch with Gary and Ramona to do some geocaching and
shopping. We were able to get 13 new finds, and one DNF, in a couple
of hours. After caching we stopped at several appliance stores so I
could look at what types of residential refrigerators were on display
and get an idea of what would fit. Although I found a lot of
possibilities online, only Lowes actually had one of the 14 cubic
foot refrigerators in stock that I could actually look at. I now
feel much more comfortable that it will work in our coach. We then
made a Walmart run and headed back to the park. We again had
cocktails with the six of us about 5:00 and then had fish tacos and
sandwiches with the left over trout from last night, as well as all
the other leftovers. About 7:30 everyone headed back to their own
coaches for the rest of the evening.
Friday, August 7th, another
travel day. We were packed up and heading out of the RV park about
10:00 and on the road, heading southeast towards Portage, Indiana, a
small town near Gary, Indiana and just a little east of metro
Chicago. The trip was fairly short, less than 140 miles, but all the
routes went through at least part of the metro Chicago area. We had
dense traffic, a lot of construction and most of the trip was on toll
roads. We racked up almost $20 in tolls for a hundred miles through
the Chicago area. Interstate 80, east out of Chicago and into
Indiana was quite literally wall to wall trucks. We did 10 mph for
twenty miles seeing almost nothing but big rigs.
We arrived at the Jellystone Park RV
campground about 1:00, safe and sound, but frazzled. The Wilson's,
who left Rockford the same time as us, arrived a few minutes after
us. They took a slightly different route, closer to downtown
Chicago, so they got a little delayed. We got set up and about 3:00
went out with the Wilson's to get something to eat. We are still
without a refrigerator, so we are trying to keep our cooking to a
minimum. We found a little Mexican taqueria and market that served
pretty authentic Mexican food. I had some tacos and chili rellenos
and they were very good. After our lunch/dinner we headed back to
the coaches and finished getting set up.
At around 5:30 we had happy hour with
the Wilson's and chatted until about 7:00. When we got back to the
coach I spent about an hour and a half getting ready to pull the old
refrigerator out of the coach. The unit is very heavy and I thought
it would be best to get it out while I had Gary around to help. I
did most of the prep work, taking off the doors, disconnecting
everything in the back, and doing as much as I could short of pulling
the unit out of the wall. After that work we relaxed for the rest of
the evening.
Saturday, August 8th. Today
would have been my mother's 89th birthday. About 10:30
Gary came over to our coach and the two of us began the process of
removing the old refrigerator from the coach. I had the fridge
pretty much ready to take out and within a few minutes we had the
fridge out of the compartment and on the floor of the coach. To make
it easier to get the thing out of the door of the coach we then
removed the cooling unit from the back. I had watched the cooling
unit be replaced a couple of times, so I had a pretty good idea of
how to take it off. Within a half hour we had it stripped off of the
box and out the door. Without the doors or the cooling unit, the
actual refrigerator box was quite light and easy to handle and we
quickly had it out on the lawn too.
We took a short break and then began
the process of getting the carcass of the fridge into the back of our
Jeep. The thing is too big to leave in a dumpster, and even if we
could have, the park we were in had no public dumpsters, so I knew we
would have to haul it somewhere. After I got the back of the Jeep
cleaned out of all the stuff we usually carry we managed to get all
of the fridge parts in the back and still get the back hatch closed.
It was close, but we managed. That was the Job One for the day, so I
cleaned up all the tools and the mess, took another shower and Jackie
and I went out for a late lunch.
We found a local place called the
Rosewood Family Restaurant in downtown Portage. This was a very
nice, clean place with a great staff, nice menu selections and
excellent food. I had the liver and onions, which was a huge slab of
liver, mashed potatoes, veggies, soup and salad, and a dish of ice
cream for desert, all for under $10. Jackie had a gyro that she said
was better than what she gets at most Greek restaurants. All the
food, and a beer for me, and the tab was a few cents over $20. This
was a five star place for us in our Yelp review. After a very
filling lunch we did a few local geocaches, getting four finds. We
then went back to the coach and relaxed. We had cocktails with the
Wilson's and then watched TV the rest of the evening.
Sunday, August 9th, another
travel day. We left Portage about 10:00 and headed southeast towards
Fort Wayne, Indiana, a trip of about 130 miles. Once we left the
northwest counties of Indiana we migrated into the Eastern Time Zone
and lost an hour. We arrived at the Indian Creek Campground about
2:00 local time and got settled into our spot. It took a while to
get parked in just the right place to get a satellite signal,
something we didn't have for the two days we were in Portage. After
we got parked and setup it was nearly 5:00 local time, so we just
stayed in, did some chores and relaxed the rest of the day.
Monday, August 10th, we left
the coach about 11:00 and headed to a small town called Auburn, about
five miles northwest of the RV park. I had found a scrap yard and
recycling company there that advertised that they took refrigerators.
I have learned that, given all the environmental rules and
regulations in effect now, most landfills will not accept appliances,
especially refrigerators. We found the scrap yard, but were told
that they do not take RV reefers because they have ammonia as the
cooling gas. They gave us the name of another scrap yard in Fort
Wayne that might take it. Getting rid of this carcass seems to be
becoming a major issue.
While we were in Auburn we stopped for
a burger for lunch. Turns out that Auburn is where the Auburn, Cord,
and Duesenberg were made back in the 30's and 40's. They have a big
museum there in town. Too bad we are so busy and can't take the time
to visit. After lunch we stopped at an appliance store in Auburn,
but didn't find anything promising. We got on the freeway and headed
south to Fort Wayne. We found the second scrap yard and this time
there were no issues and I got the thing unloaded from the back of
the car, with the help of some of the guys there, dumped in on the
pile and we were on our way with no more RV refrigerator. Yea!
Now that we had one major chore done we
checked out an RV park right in Fort Wayne, in one of the city parks.
Turns out to be a very nice campground and we were able to make
reservations there for a week, starting on Wednesday when we leave
the campground we are in now. It will be a lot easier to get a
refrigerator if we are in the city rather than 15 miles out of town.
We then stopped at a major appliance dealer, HH Gregg, and our good
luck for the day held out. They had a 14.6 cubic foot Hotpoint
refrigerator that was the perfect size for our application. Plus,
they can get it in black and delivered in a couple of days rather
than a week or two like Best Buy and Lowes. We didn't order it yet,
but as soon as we move on Wednesday I think we will get it ordered so
we can install it while we are parked in Fort Wayne.
Once we had our important chores done
for the day we visited with my niece, Raquel Disch and her new baby
Malakai. Raquel is the daughter of my brother Russ, who lives in Las
Vegas. She moved out to Indiana about four years ago wher
e her
mother, Russ's ex-wife, lives. Her brother Russ III also lives
there. Visiting Raquel was the reason we headed for Fort Wayne after
the rallies. We found Raquel’s house in an older part of Fort
Wayne and had a great visit with her and her boyfriend Ron, the
father of the baby. We spent a couple of hours catching up with
Raquel, whom we had not seen since my mom died in 2009. She was
excited that we were going to be in the area for another week. We
left about 4:00 and walked out into a torrential downpour. We only
had to drive a few miles north and the weather cleared up, but it was
sure raining hard downtown. After a stop at Lowe's to look at
fridges, we headed back to the RV park and relaxed the rest of the
night after a very successful and fun day.
Tuesday, August 11th, we
left the coach about noon and drove up to the little town of Garret,
Indiana, about five miles north of the campground. We went there
specifically to try and get one of the geocaches in town that is
rated a five difficulty, the highest rating for a cache. There is an
on-going challenge on the caching website to find certain types of
caches before September and one of the challenges is to find a cache
with a five rating, either in difficulty or terrain. We certainly
aren't about to try a five terrain, but we could try a five
difficulty. This one was located on an old passenger train car at a
museum in Garret. We looked and crawled around under the train for
45 minutes but came up empty. I guess we will have to find another
five rated cache. We then got one other cache before driving over to
Walmart in Auburn where we grabbed a quick lunch at Subway and got a
few items we needed. After our shopping we headed back down to the
coach and spent the rest of the day doing chores and relaxing.
Wednesday, August 12th,
another moving day. We had the coach packed up and ready to roll
about 10:30. We are only going about 15 miles south to Fort Wayne,
so Jackie just drove the Jeep and followed me. Within a half hour we
were parked at the Johnny Appleseed City Park in Fort Wayne. We have
a nice, big, paved site with 50 amp and water. No sewer, but we can
manage that for a week. We spent a little while getting the basics
of setting up done before leaving and driving to the HH Gregg
Appliance store where we saw the fridge we want. The store is only a
few blocks from the campground. Within a half hour we had the new
Hotpoint refrigerator on order and the delivery was scheduled for
Friday. Once that was done we grabbed some quick lunch and went back
to the coach to finish setting up.
Once we were done setting up I went to
Lowes and bought all of the stuff I thought I would need to get the
old refrigerator space set up to take the new refrigerator, as well
as what I thought I needed to fix the leaking propane connection from
the old fridge. I needed a new plywood platform and the hardware to
hold the platform in place and then to fasten the refrigerator to the
new platform so it can't move around. The old refrigerator was
heavy, about 250 pounds, and had no wheels or “feet” on the
bottom. It just sat flat on the floor of the compartment, making it
unlikely to move. A household fridge has rollers and a higher center
of gravity, so it needs to be anchored well so it won't move when we
drive. Once I had all my stuff I went back to the coach and worked
on the propane connection, finally getting the old fitting properly
capped and not leaking. Yea! We then relaxed the rest of the
evening.
Thursday, August 13th, I
spent the entire day working on the refrigerator compartment. We did
go out for lunch, and did three geocaches that were in the parking
lot of the restaurant, but other than that and a quick ice run to
re-ice the coolers we are using to keep our food in, I did nothing
but work on the platform. I was very happy at the end of the day to
have all the work done and the compartment ready to hold the new
refrigerator. We watched TV the rest of the evening.
Friday, August 14th, we woke
up anxious to receive the new refrigerator. I spent some time in the
morning taking the grab bars that are in the coach step well off,
removing the screen door and fixing everything to we had the maximum
width available at our front door so as to be able to bring the new
fridge in the door. Otherwise the only way to bring big stuff in the
coach is to remove windows, something I couldn't do on my own. The
store had called us last night and told us that delivery would be
between 12:30 and 3:30, so we went out for a quick lunch about noon.
The truck showed up a little after 1:00
and the two delivery unpacked the fridge and got it ready to bring in
by taking the doors off. When they had the fridge unpacked they
noticed a small dent in one top corner of the fridge. They said they
could arrange for a new fridge, to be delivered next week, or take
$50 off of our purchase price. We elected for the refund since the
dent is small and won't be noticed once the fridge is installed. The
two delivery guys did get the fridge into the coach through the front
door, but once they got it in they couldn't move it to the middle of
the coach because of the passenger seat being in the way. They took
the fridge back outside and while they installed the ice maker in the
freezer compartment I took the passenger seat off it's mount and
moved it out of the way. They then got the fridge back in the coach
and were able to get it back to the kitchen area. They lifted it
into the opening and it fit into my new platform just perfectly.
Yea, we now have a refrigerator again.
We plugged in the fridge to let it cool
down and did a few chores around the house. I re-installed all the
stuff I had to move to get the fridge in. About 6:00 the fridge had
cooled enough to let us clean out the coolers and move all the stuff
into the new fridge. Yea, no more ice chests! After that we relaxed
with the TV the rest of the evening.
Saturday, August 15th, I was
up and headed back to Lowes in the morning to get what I needed to
fasten the fridge down. When I came back we went out for lunch at
Panera Bread. This was our first visit to that store and it was OK,
but a little pricey and the food was average at best. After lunch we
did a couple of geocaches and then did a Walmart run for some of the
stuff that we had to throw away because the coolers didn't keep
everything as good as we would have liked. We then went back to the
coach and I spent the rest of the afternoon working on securing the
new refrigerator so it won't move. By 5:30 I was done with my work
and had everything cleaned up so we could have cocktails. We then
had dinner and relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening. Although
I still need to make it look pretty, we now have a fully functioning
and stocked fridge again. Yea!
Sunday, August 16th, for the
first time in a couple weeks we had a relaxing Sunday morning with
the paper and our coffee. We did a few chores around the coach and
at about 3:00 my niece Raquel, her boyfriend Ron and their baby
Malakai, came over for a visit and BBQ. We sat talked and enjoyed
spending time with family. About 5:30 I went out to cook some
burgers on the BBQ and the skies opened up. We weren't expecting
rain this afternoon, but in the summer in the Midwest expectations
mean nothing with regard to weather. Luckily, I had put the big
awning down and the BBQ was under it. I did it to hide from the sun,
but it worked for the rain just as well. I got the burgers cooked
and in the house without getting wet. It rained really hard for
about an hour, which brought our pesky leak in the bathroom back in
play. I have been on the roof twice trying to fix that leak, but I
guess I have to go up one more time. We had a great visit with
Raquel and her family and were really happy they were able to come
see us while we are here. They left about 7:30 and we cleaned up and
then relaxed the rest of the evening.
Monday, August 17th, we had
lunch and then headed out on a couple of specific missions for the
day. Our first stop was to find and log a nearby cache that was a
Mystery Cache. For the non cachers reading this, there are a number
of types of caches. The most common is the regular cache, a
container with a paper log. There are also virtual caches, an old
type that had no container, only a location where you went to gather
information used to verify you found the location. There are earth
caches, a newer type, similar to a virtual cache, but tied to some
natural phenomenon, geology, biology, etc. Mystery caches are
usually puzzles, where you have to solve a puzzle of some sort to
reveal the cache coordinates, or sometimes a challenge. The one we
were after today was a challenge. To get credit for the cache you
had to have found at least one geocache on each of the 366 possible
calendar dates. We actually achieved that goal a couple of years
ago, the last leap year.
The reason we wanted a mystery cache
was that Groundspeak, the “headquarters” for geocaching, was
having a contest in which cachers have to find five different types
of caches in the month of August. A regular cache with more than 10
favorite points, points given by people who find the cache and admire
the way it was hidden or cammoed. We achieved that a couple weeks
ago. A mystery cache, the type we are after today. An earth cache,
we are still working on that one. A regular cache with a five
difficulty or terrain rating, one like we tried to get a few days ago
on the train car. And, an event cache, another one we are still
working on. The mystery cache was not too far from the campground
and we were able to find and log it pretty quickly.
Our next goal was to head back up to
Garret to take another shot at the train car cache with the five
difficulty rating. After we logged our DNF a few days back we got a
hint from another cacher who had found the cache. With the new
information we were pretty sure we would be able to get the cache.
We drove up to Garret and within a few minutes we had the cache
found, signed and logged and had the third of the finds we needed for
the challenge. We then made a stop at Home Depot, looking for
something we could use on the new refrigerator to keep the doors from
swinging open when we drive. Like most household refrigerators our
new one has magnetic door latches rather than the positive latching
types on RV refrigerators. We bought some latches used to
child-proof appliances, hopefully they will work OK.
We then stopped at Walmart for a few
items, then headed back down to Fort Wayne and the Costco store.
Indiana is the last state we will be in for a couple months that
allows liquor sales in grocery stores, so we wanted to stock up since
the price is much higher in states that require spirits to be sold in
liquor stores only. While we were in Costco we heard another
torrential downpour start, you could hear the rain on the tin roof.
By the time we checked out and got outside it was subsiding and we
were able to get the stuff in the car without getting wet. When we
got back to the campground, only about four miles away, we found that
it had not rained there at all. Weather is weird back here. After
we got home we did a few chores, had cocktails and dinner and relaxed
the rest of the night.
Tuesday, August 18th, we had
lunch at the coach then headed out to do some geocaching and a few
chores. We had experimented last night with the child latches for
the refrigerator, but we decided it probably wasn't going to work as
we would like, so we will take those back. In the midst of our
geocaching in Fort Wayne we stopped at Menard's, another home
improvement store, and they had the two inch black heavy duty Velcro
that I had originally thought would work best on the refrigerator.
We bought a roll of the Velcro and will try it for keeping the doors
closed. We had a good caching afternoon, getting nine new finds,
including our number 7,300, another milestone. After caching we
headed back to the coach and BBQed some nice steaks on the grill for
dinner.
Wednesday, August 19th,
another travel day. Our week long travel delay for the refrigerator
has concluded and we are back on the road again. We left Fort Wayne
about 10:30 and headed east into Ohio to the little town of
Wapakoneta. Wapakoneta has a population of about 10,000 and is
mostly a center for agricultural support and a rail stop. It's
biggest claim to fame is that it is the birthplace of Neil Armstrong,
the first man to walk on the moon. There is a Neil Armstrong museum
in town and the airport is also named after the astronaut. We
settled into the KOA about 1:00 and after we got set up we went into
town and found a laundromat. After finishing our laundry we headed
back to the coach for cocktails, dinner, and a relaxing night with
the TV. The good news is that the refrigerator survived it's first
trip without moving. The Velcro worked on the doors and the curtain
rods we put inside kept everything on it's proper shelf. All is
good. Yea!
Since it has been about two weeks since
the last time we posted, this marks a good place to get this new
chapter online. Stayed tuned to this channel as we continue our
travels and we will try to get another episode up in a couple weeks.
Until next time, it seems appropriate to quote Astronaut Neil
Armstrong. “Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of
man's desire to understand.” Never lose your appreciation for
mystery and a sense of wonder. See ya next time.
