Hey Mom, We're Home!

Our last visit left us in Rawlins, Wyoming. On Friday, August 29th we left Rawlins and again headed West on I-80 to Rock Springs, Wyoming. We stayed at the KOA there, primarily because we had won a coupon for a free night at any KOA at one of the rallies back in July. We normally don't stay in KOAs because they are much more expensive than most other RV parks and you don't get anything much more for your money. The park in Rock Springs was no exception. It was OK, but nothing special - gravel roads and spots, very little grass and the spots were close together. We were only going to stay for two nights, so the coupon made it half price for the stay.

Rock Springs is a medium sized town, about 19,000 people, but it is built around a series of gullies and hills so it is widely spread out and the streets run every which way. I normally have a pretty good sense of direction and don't have trouble navigating, but I kept getting lost in this town because you never knew which way you were headed with the streets twisting and turning. On Saturday we toured around the town, did a little shopping and tried to visit the Elks Lodge. Unfortunately, it was closed for the holiday weekend. We also did some local caching and managed to find five fairly quickly. On Sunday, the 31st, we left to head down into Utah. We had reservations at a park in Provo, about 50 miles South of Salt Lake City. We made reservations because of it being the holiday weekend. We arrived at the Lakeside RV Resort in Provo and found a very nice little park. Lots of trees and green space and down in a quiet part of town near Utah Lake.

On Monday, the 1st of September, we did a little touring of Provo and visited the local mall for the holiday sales. We also went out to dinner to celebrate one of our anniversaries, which is September 1st. This date marks the 10th anniversary of my moving from Phoenix to the Coachella Valley and moving in with Jackie. We have now been together for 10 wonderful years! Yea! We went to an Olive Garden and had a very nice dinner.

On the 2nd we spent the day touring the Salt Lake City area. We drove all around the downtown area, around the State Capitol campus, and the LDS area in the center of town. We also spent some time walking around in Temple Square, which is where the LDS Church (Mormons) has their headquarters. Its sort of like the Mormon's Vatican City. They have the beautiful Mormon Temple, their headquarters building which is about 40 stories, a big hotel, a convention center, and a couple of historical buildings which go back to the 1800's when Joseph Smith first brought the Mormons here from the Midwest. Very interesting place to visit, even if you're not a Mormon. After touring the city we drove out to the Great Salt Lake and found that it was drying up. The area off of I-80 where the marina sits is now well over a mile from the actual shore of the lake. You can barely see the water from the marina. I guess the Western drought over the last few years is having its toll on the lake. After this disappointing visit, we went by the Salt Lake City Elks Lodge (actually in Murray, UT.) for a visit. We found them to be very friendly.

On Wednesday, the 3rd, we drove East into the mountains to Heber City, Utah, to take the tour train that goes through the Provo River Valley. The Heber Valley Railroad is an historical tourist train that runs from Heber City South for about 25 miles along the banks of the Provo River. About half the run is through a winding canyon which makes for very pretty scenery. The railroad uses old equipment for the trains. The two passenger cars and the "dining car" (actually a snack bar) were probably 30's vintage. There were also two open cars and an old caboose. Although the railroad has a couple of old authentic steam engines, our train was using a small diesel locomotive because the steam engines were undergoing renovations. The cars were not fully renovated and were kind of rough looking, but it still made for a fun ride. It took about an hour and a half to get to the turn-around point along the river. Of course, along the way we had to stop the train so we could get "held-up" by the obligatory horse mounted outlaws. I have been on both the Silverton train in Colorado and the Grand Canyon train in Arizona and was held up on both of those trains too! Bad luck, huh? The only one that we weren't held up on was the wine train in Napa Valley. I guess they don't allow bandits in that snooty part of the country. After they attached the engine to the other end of the train, we went back to Heber City on the same path we took South. The ride is pretty cheap, $23 for seniors, and about 3 hours. If you like trains and nice scenery, its worth a trip if you are in the area.

After the train ride, we went back down to Provo to do some more shopping at the mall and visit the Provo Elks. The Provo lodge recently completed their new building and it is gorgeous. It is a two story building with a dedicated Lodge Room and a nice bar. It is located right next to the big mall in town. The people were very friendly and we enjoyed the visit. The next day, the 4th, we went out in the afternoon to do some caching locally in Provo. We were able to find 13 caches in about 3 hours! This is a new personal best for us!

On Friday, the 5th of September, we left Provo for the ride South on I-15 to Beaver, Utah. Beaver is a very small town (2,500) and the only reason we stopped is because it was about halfway between Provo and Mesquite, NV. We stayed at the United Campground (which, in the Trailer Life book is called Beaver United!) which was a fairly nice little campground right off the interstate south of town. Our second day there, the 6th, we did a quick tour of town, including the local cheese factory (actually a Cache Valley Cheese Co. outlet) and had dinner at the Kan Kun Mexican restaurant just down the street. The food was passable Mexican, but pretty bland. At least we were able to identify the dishes, which we found difficult at the couple of Mexican restaurants we visited in the Midwest during our time there. I guess when you grow up and live most of your life in the Southwest, you think everyone should know what real Mexican food looks and tastes like. NOT! On Sunday we went out and did some caching in the local area and managed to find eight in just a few hours.

On Monday we left beautiful downtown Beaver and headed South on I-15 again, headed for Mesquite. Of course, to get to Mesquite, you first have to drive through the 35 miles of the Arizona Strip, between Utah and Nevada. This is some of the most beautiful roadway anywhere in the country. You are down at the bottom of the Virgin River Gorge and the road winds back and forth with thousand foot cliffs on both sides. Very pretty drive. We arrived in Mesquite early in the afternoon and set up camp at the Oasis Casino RV park. Pretty much an asphalt parking lot, but full hookups for $16 and night, who's to complain?

The next day we did a little caching and found eight. We also visited a couple of different casinos. Didn't win anything, but didn't lose too much either. We also went by the Elks lodge. We had stopped there on the way up from the Desert in April and had found it to be a very friendly lodge. We were again welcomed and found a large group of friendly folks in the bar. After the Elks visit we went to the Casa Blanca Casino for dinner. We went to the Purple Fez restaurant, which is essentially their coffee shop, and both of us had very nice porterhouse steak dinners for $10.50 each. The dinners were very good and I would highly recommend the Purple Fez if you are going through Mesquite.

On Wednesday, the 10th of September, we finally left Mesquite and arrived in Pahrump, Nevada - our "home". This is where we have our official mailing address which appears on our Nevada driver's licenses and other official documents. We settled into the Charleston Peak Winery RV Resort, which is one of our Western Horizons membership parks. We are finally going to light in one place for two full weeks - the first time since we left Spring Grove, Minnesota back on the 2nd of August. We have a couple of different things we need to take care of while we are here, including my annual weapons qualification for my Federal gun permit, and getting our absentee ballots for the November General Election taken care of.

On Thursday, we waited anxiously for the arrival or our best friends from Indio, Barry and Colleen to arrive. They live in their motorhome full-time in the Indio Outdoor Resorts, but are not retired yet. They are working towards full retirement and are hoping to be able to sell their property there, sell Barry's business and hit the road like us. When they found out when we would be in Pahrump, they made arrangements to come up and visit. Since this is a membership park, the only way they could come up and stay here was to agree to attend the sales pitch for the park. That way they get a four-day, three-night stay. They arrived late in the afternoon and got set up and we just spent the rest of the evening talking and catching up.

Friday morning Barry and Colleen had their appointment to listen to the sales presentation for Western Horizons. They ended up buying into the program so they are now Western Horizons members just like us. They actually ended up getting a better deal here at Charleston Peak than we did three years ago at our "home" park in Arizona! After they finally finished all the paperwork we went out to the Nugget Casino for some gaming and dinner. A little later Barry got to feeling badly, so he went home. The girls played cards for the rest of the night. On Saturday we went out to another casino for a couple hours, then went over to the Elks Lodge. The Pahrump Lodge is now our lodge since we demitted from Indio last year. After that we went back to the park and had a very nice cookout. The girls played cards and Barry and I went in the back of the coach and did karaoke for then next four hours. We had a great time, as we always do with our good friends. Sunday morning Barry and Colleen packed up and headed back to the Coachella Valley.

We will be here in Pahrump until the 23rd of September, when we will head South to Hemet, California and the Southern California Elks RV Rally. We haven't been to one of the SoCal Elks rallies in a couple of years so we are looking forward to seeing all our old Elks friends. There is a large contingent from Indio going, as well as folks we know from Desert Hot Springs and Fullerton. Until then, stay safe and live happy!

From the Prarie to the Western Slope

Our last entry had us arriving in Henderson, Nebraska, about 120 miles West of Omaha on I-80. The campground was actually right off of the interstate and the town was about 4 miles south. The campground was pretty barren, but had full 50 amp hookups and was moderately priced, OK for a three day stay. On Saturday, the 16th of August, we did a little tour through Henderson (Pop. 986) and then drove over to York, Nebraska, a larger town (about 8,000). We visited the York Elks Lodge #1024 and found them to be a pretty friendly group. Later that evening we drove to McCool Junction (great name for a town!) a few miles south of York for the local stock car races at the Junction Motor Speedway. Neither Jackie nor I had been to a local dirt track in many years and when we found that JMS had regular Saturday night races during the summer we thought it would make an entertaining evening out.

The speedway was nothing fancy, but since it was only a couple years old, the grandstands were well constructed aluminum, not the rickety wood one's I remember from when we used to go to the Hales Corners, Wisconsin track when I was a kid in the 50's. The track was dirt with a 3/8 mile oval main track and a 1/8 mile dirt oval in the center. They had four classes of cars, ranging from the four cylinder "starter" cars which raced on the 1/8 mile, up to the NASCAR modifieds which were pretty fast. All except the four cylinder class raced on the larger oval. The format was the same as I remember from 50 years ago - two sets of five to eight lap heats for each class, then an intermission, and then the "features" which ranged from 10 laps for the smaller cars to 25 laps for the modifieds. We noticed that this was very much a family venue with a lot of kids in attendance. Since all the cars from from within a hundred miles of the track there were a lot of family and friend type fans rooting the various racers on. The folks were very friendly and when the announcer found out we were from Nevada, we got introduced to the crowd and they gave me a free t-shirt! All this for $8 admission. All in all we had a great time and may try some other local tracks in our travels.

On Sunday we went caching in the local area which took us around the countryside to some of the other small towns in the area. We found 9 caches. Monday, August 18th, we packed up for the drive to North Platte, Nebraska, about 200 miles West of Henderson. About halfway through the drive we passed under the Great Platte River Road Memorial Archway. This was an interesting sight as it was this huge wooden arch which stretched completely across I-80. Since we were in the coach we didn't stop, but reading about it later we found that it was built as a sort of living history museum with all sorts of exhibits about Indian and frontier life. We also noted that this general area seemed to be the demarcation point between the heavy farming area of the central prairie and the western foothills leading to the continental divide and what we considered to be the "West." Around Henderson we saw the usual miles and miles of corn and bean fields. As we approached Western Nebraska we started seeing fewer fields and more rolling hills and grazing land. We settled into the Holiday RV Park which was a very nice park right off of the interstate at the edge of town.

The next day we did a tour of the area. North Platte is the biggest town in Western Nebraska with a population of about 25,000. We went to the local mall and did some shopping, then went to the movies. We saw Tropic Thunder, the new Ben Stiller movie. While not the best Stiller has done, it was still pretty funny and entertaining. Not Oscar material, but enjoyable if you like this type of comedy, which we do. After the movie we did some caching in town and managed to find 9. We also went by the Elks lodge that was listed in the travel directory and found that the building was now a church. A little later Jackie found a phone book and found a new address listed for the Elks Lodge. When we went by the address we found it to be a house on a residential street. There was a lady working in the yard when we stopped and she came over to chat - turns out she is the Lodge Secretary and the Lodge is in the process of remodeling their new building after selling the old one. The new building happened to be in the back of the mall parking lot where we had gone to the movies. She thought the Lodge would be up and running by the end of summer, so any of you passing through North Platte and wanting to visit the Lodge, go to the mall (only one in town) and look in the back parking lot. That night we went to the Whiskey Creek Steakhouse, just down the street from the RV park, for a nice Nebraska steak dinner. Everyone had told us we had to try Nebraska beef and we were getting close to leaving Nebraska. Had a very nice dinner and the beef was very good.

On Wednesday afternoon we went to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch and then did some more caching in town. We found another nine caches. The lunch was so-so, the Nebraskans seemed to have an odd idea of what Mexican food was. It wasn't the Sonoran we are used to in Arizona and California, wasn't Tex-Mex, and certainly wasn't Sante Fe Mexican. It was tasty, just not what we were used to.

On Thursday we headed West out of Nebraska into Wyoming. Our destination was Cheyenne, about a 220 mile trip. We climbed from 2,800 feet at North Platte up to 6,200 feet in Cheyenne, however, there was never any real grade to climb. It was just a gradual climb up over the whole 200+ miles. We settled into another nice Good Sam park, the A B RV Park, and did some laundry since the park had a nice laundry room just a few yards from where we had parked. The next day we did a tour of Cheyenne, which is the Capitol of Wyoming and then some shopping. On Saturday we went out for some local geocaching and found six more caches. We also went by the Cheyenne Elks Lodge # 660. They were still in their original building right in the heart of downtown which had opened in 1902. The building had been remodeled so it didn't look anything like it did at the turn of the century, but it was still very nice. The lodge room took up the entire third floor of the building and was gorgeous. The people at the lodge were very friendly and one of the trustees took us on a tour. On Monday, the 25th, we went out and found five more local caches and also spent some time in old town Cheyenne walking around and looking at all the old historical buildings. That evening we went to Red Lobster for dinner. I was jonesing for some crab legs and it had been forever since we had been to a Red Lobster.

Tuesday the 26th of August had us packing up again for the trek to Rawlins, Wyoming, about 150 miles West of Cheyenne. We now find ourselves truly back in the front range of the divide. In the 50 miles between Cheyenne and Laramie we went over two passes which were well over 8,500 feet in elevation. Surprisingly, there few long, steep grades - nothing like the grade west out of Denver on I-70. I can see now why I-80 is considered the busiest interstate in the west - it is a very good road. After Laramie the elevation dropped back down to about 6,800 in Rawlins. The worst thing about the trip was the wind. The wind was blowing about 35 MPH for the entire trip which was a little tiring. When we settled into the RV Park (Western Hills) the wind was still blowing, with gusts probably close to 40 or 50. It blew the rest of the afternoon and all night. The next day, the 27th, we took a drive around Rawlins (Pop. 8,500) and did some caching. We had a very successful day with 8 found and no DNFs (did not find). Part of our tour took us to Sinclair, Wyoming, a small town of 400 just to the East of Rawlins. Sinclair was founded as a refinery town back at the turn of the century and was originally known as Parco, named after the company (Petroleum and Refining Corporation) which built the refinery. In the late 30's the company was bought out by Sinclair Oil and the town was renamed Sinclair. The refinery is still active, in fact the company just spent several million dollars enlarging and modernizing the facilities. The town has about five streets and the refinery proper is about five times the size of the residential part of the town.

After Sinclair we drove around Rawlins, which is is a cute little town. We visited the Rawlins Elks Lodge # 609 which, like those in North Platte and Cheyenne, is still in its original downtown building. Like the Cheyenne Lodge, the Rawlins Lodge remodeled the building so it doesn't look like it did in 1908, but the inside still looked pretty original in places. It was a very friendly lodge and we ended up walking out with a couple free drink tokens which we plan to use tomorrow.

That brings us to today, Thursday the 28th of August. We have one more day in Rawlins, then tomorrow we head for Rock Springs, Wyoming, about 110 miles further West. That will be our last stop in Wyoming before we start South into Utah. In about two weeks we will finally be back in our "home" of Pahrump and the summer 2008 journey will be ended. Once we get settled into Pahrump I will post stories of the final leg of the trip. Until then, don't worry, be happy!

Cornstalks As Far As The Eye Can See

We have come to the realization that there is a LOT of corn (and soybeans) in the Midwest! Our last post had us just arriving at Hidden Bluffs RV Resort near Spring Grove, Minnesota. Hidden Bluffs is a private membership park and a part of our Resorts of Distinction (ROD) network. It is a very pretty park that requires travel on 3 miles of gravel road to access. Spring Grove is the nearest town and has a population of 1,020 folks. But there is corn - lots and lots of corn. Most of the land is farmed in either corn or soybeans and it stretches as far as the eye can see. This part of Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa is called the Bluff Country because of the rolling hills and bluffs in the area. The fields have very interesting designs to conform to the rolling hills. Makes for very pretty farmland.

When we arrived at Hidden Bluffs we were surprised to find some friends of ours already staying there. Ed and Carol are also full-time RVers and run a sales business on the road. They are vendors at many of the FMCA rallies and we met them a couple years ago at one of the rallies. We have befriended a number of the vendors because we see them so much at rallies. Carol mostly sells jewelry and they also have flags, windsocks and other decorative stuff. Ed also sells cargo drawers for motorhomes. When we first met them they sold Internet stuff and we bought our T-Mobile aircard, booster amp and antenna from them a couple years ago. They were only at Hidden Bluffs a couple of days while we were there. A couple of days after Ed and Carol left, some other friends of ours, Jan and Charles Alphonso, arrived at the park. Jan and Charles live in Indio and are members of the Indio Elks RV Club.

On Tuesday, the 22nd, we took a drive over to La Crosse, Wisconsin, a river city on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is by far the largest city in the immediate area. We had lunch, did some touring and geocaching and then headed back to the park. On Thursday, the 24th, we took a tour of the local area, visiting Harmony, Lansboro and Rushford, Minnesota. These are all small farming communities in the area. Harmony has the reputation of being the big Amish community in Southern Minnesota, and was one of the tours available when we were at the Elks International rally in Rochester earlier in the month. We drove and walked around town for a while but didn't see anything Amish except for the shops advertising the Amish Tours. I guess the Amish all live out on the country roads, not around town. We did see one buggy in Lansboro, another small town. Mostly what we saw on our several hour tour was a lot of corn and soybeans.

On Friday, the 25th, the we and the Alphonso's drove down to Decorah, Iowa, only about 30 miles South, for their Nordic Fest. We expected a big festival. They did have the main street closed off, but there were only a few food vendors on the street. We had lunch there, walked main street and checked out the small craft fair at the school, but all in all, there wasn't much there to see. The town had a bit of a Nordic feel to it in the architecture and all the flags, but the festival was a bit of a let-down.

On Saturday the four of us took another road trip to Houston, Minnesota, about 20 miles North of the park. Houston was having their Hoedown Days festival. This one was more of what we expected with a lot of vendors and stuff in the city park, a tractor pull and other festivities. We had a pretty good time at this one. Jan was all excited about seeing a tractor pull - she had never been to one before.

Most of the remainder of our time at Hidden Bluffs were spent vegging or driving into one of the closer towns for shopping or other errands. The Alphonsos left a few days before we did, headed back over to Wisconsin. Our final tour was on Saturday, the 2nd of August, when we headed back up to Lansboro for their Buffalo Bill Days. Lanesboro turned out to be a really interesting town and we spent several hours up there shopping in the old downtown area and walking around the park where they had the various booths and events set up. Had a really good time at this festival, the most fun of the three we went to.

On Sunday the 3rd we packed up and headed South into Iowa to Montezuma, Iowa. This is a little town off of the I-80 in central Iowa, about 180 miles South of where we were in Southern Minnesota. All the way down we saw nothing but corn and beans and then a lot more corn and beans. We were headed for Diamond Lake County Park to meet up with Ray and Anita Purcell, another of our friends from the Indio Elks Lodge. They had come up from Texas because both Ray and Anita were originally from Iowa. They had told us about this great little park near Montezuma, on a lake. We found it to be a great little place to stay. The sites had electric service and there was water in the campground close enough to most of the sites to be able to use to refill tanks as necessary. There were no sewer hookups, but they did have a dump station. The sites were only $15 a night, so who's to complain? I would recommend Diamond Lake County Park to anyone traveling through Iowa on I-80 who is looking for somewhere to spend a relaxing couple of days.

On Monday Ray drove us all to Tama, Iowa to an Indian casino there. Ray's sister, Dorothy, who lives in the area, was also with us. We spent a few hours and a few dollars, but no winners among us. The next day Jackie and I took a drive to Pella, Iowa, about 30 miles West. This is a small Dutch town, complete with windmill and glockenspiel. They had a number of nice shops which we checked out. We also did some geocaching in and around the town. Actually a very cute town and I would recommend a day trip for anyone in the area. On Wednesday, the 6th of August, we all packed into Ray's truck again and headed for the Amana Colonies. These are a group of five or six small towns all grouped together and originally formed by the Mennonites back in the late 1800's. The Mennonites were are communal society and the original towns were basically large communes with everyone sharing work and homes and the "group" owning the property. In the 1930's they ended the true communal life style, but the area still has a very old fashioned look and feel to it. We ate in one of the restaurants that serve family style meals where they just bring big bowls of potatoes and other sides for the table. Great food and fun shopping. And yes, this was where Amana appliances got their start. The appliance business was one of the big successes of the Mennonite group.

On Thursday the 7th we said our goodbyes to Ray and Anita and headed West to the Des Moines, Iowa area. We stayed at a resort called Cutty's. We were there because they were a Passport America park, but it turns out that this is a very large park right in the suburbs of Des Moines that is similar to our own Silent Valley in the way it operates. You buy into the park and get an undivided deeded interest in the park. Then you can stay for 30 days at a dollar a day, and as much time after that as you want for $6.50 a day. Pretty nice park with a lake and other amenities. On Friday we drove North to meet up with Don and Sally Richmond who were staying in a town about 60 miles North of Des Moines. We met Don and Sally at the Elks International rally earlier in the summer and took an instant liking to them. We were also with them at the Monaco International rally in Wilmar, Minnesota. Sally is a Past Supreme President of the Does, which is the top national position in this Elks Ladies group. We learned a lot about the Does and their activities from her.

Saturday the 9th we took a drive to Winterset, Iowa, about 35 miles West of Des Moines. Winterset has the distinction of being the birth place of John Wayne (visited his boyhood home) and also the location for the story of the Bridges of Madison County, the book and the movie. We had lunch in the same cafe where Clint Eastwood and Merle Streep dined in the movie. We also drove around and visited some of the covered bridges in the area which were featured in the book and movie. We also did some geocaching around the area. We had a really good time and enjoyed the town.

On Sunday we did a tour of Des Moines, the Capital of Iowa, and also did some geocaching around the town. Iowa has one of the prettiest state capitol buildings we have seen. The dome is plated in real gold. Monday morning we packed up again and headed West to Shelby, Iowa, about 95 miles West of Des Moines. Another 100 miles of corn fields! Shelby is pretty much in the middle of no where, but it was the closest decent campground to Omaha, Nebraska, which is located on the Missouri River at the border of Iowa and Nebraska. The park we stayed in was very basic, but did have 50 amp and full hookups for $25 a day. We didn't do too much around here except for a little geocaching and a day trip to Omaha. Omaha has a great market area down in the old warehouse district. They have really fixed the area up into a pretty cool shopping and entertainment district. It reminded me a small version of the Gas Lamp District in San Diego. We also were able to visit a couple of Elks Lodges, one in Omaha (Lodge #39) and one in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the river. These were the first Elks lodges we had been in for a while since we have been mostly out in the boonies for the last month.

On Friday the 15th we saddled up and headed into Nebraska, planning to stay at an RV park in Henderson. Henderson is another farm town (MORE corn!) in the middle of no where, about 60 miles West of Lincoln, the capitol of Nebraska. We are only here for three days, but it is a very nice park. As usual, we look out the front window of our coach at a corn field. It was interesting to watch the corn during the two months we have spent so far, starting in Southern Minnesota, then Iowa and now Nebraska. It was only about a foot tall when we first went into Minnesota, now it is taller than I am and they won't be harvesting for another six or eight weeks. I guess the corn really does get "as high as an elephant's eye" as they sang in Oklahoma.

Well folks, that's it for now - we are all caught up. We will be continuing our trip West, through Nebraska and Wyoming, then down through Utah to Nevada. We will be back in Pahrump (our nominal "home town") the second week in September. Until the next time, happy travels!

The Summer Rally Tour

Well folks, the Grand Summer 2008 Rally Tour is finally over! In our last post we had just rolled into Hinkley, Minnesota on the 29th of June. Hinkley is about 60 miles North of Minneapolis on I-35. The RV park was part of the Grand Casino Hinkley complex and was very nice. This stop was for the Full Timer's Chapter rally. We had about 20 coaches. The first night they had a nice potluck dinner in the clubhouse. Tuesday night's dinner was at the casino. Part of the rally fee was used to buy tickets for the buffet - I have to say that the buffet at the Grand Casino was one of the best casino buffets we have been to. A good variety of very well prepared food. If you're ever in the area, try it.

Wednesday was game day - the rally set up a couple of games and most everyone played. I was eliminated pretty early in the bean bag toss, but ended up on the winning team for the "snakes" game. That's the one with the two golf balls on a string. That night we went back to the casino and Jackie and I sat down at the Let It Ride table. They had a $1 minimum bet which is a low as I have ever seen on that game. After about 15 minutes Jackie hit a full house and ended up winning over $400 with just $1 bets out! Yea! I played for over two hours and only ended up $5 down.

On Thursday the 3rd we left Hinkley for Rochester, Minnesota. Rochester, home of the Mayo Clinic, is about 60 miles South of Minneapolis. It was about a 130 mile drive and we had to go through the Twin Cities to get there. Fortunately, we went through at midday and used the bypass route so the traffic wasn't too bad. The Rochester rally was for the Elks International Chapter of FMCA. At least one member of each coach family in this chapter has to be an Elk in good standing. We had 35 coaches at this rally and the park was quite nice, although the clubhouse building had no air conditioning and it was pretty hot and humid. Unfortunately, the rally masters had coach problems somewhere in Kansas while en route to the rally and couldn't get there. A couple of members stepped up and filled in so things went fairly well. The first night was a pot luck, then the rally had caterers for the next three days for breakfast and dinner. The food was pretty good. One thing Rochester had was one of the coolest water towers I have ever seen - a giant cob of corn right in the middle of town!

The rally masters had recommended a couple of tours, one to the Mayo Clinic and one to an Amish town (Harmony, MN) about 60 miles Southeast. We really didn't want to do either one so we went out on our own adventures. On Friday, which happened to be the Fourth of July, we went out geocaching with our friends Lu Verne and Gary Underhill. They were the one's who had really got us interested in the sport at the last Elks International rally in Lancaster back in February. We had never been team caching before, but we ended finding 8 out of 10 caches - not too bad for an afternoon. Rochester was having fireworks at the city park in the evening, but we decided not to try to fight the traffic and crowds and just stayed in the campground and chatted with folks.

On Sunday, the last night of the rally, we set up the karaoke stuff in the clubhouse and had a couple hours of singing after dinner. We only had a couple of singers, but for most part they were good and most people stayed until about 8:00. After that people started drifting off so we closed up shop.

On Monday, July 7th, we packed up and headed to Willmar, Minnesota for the Monaco International Rally. Willmar is located about 100 miles West of Minneapolis. We probably look forward to the Monaco rally the most because we know a lot of the folks, they always have good catered dinners and an open bar. YEA! On Tuesday we spent some time looking at the new Monaco coaches in the display area. We have been to most of the seminars at past rallies, so we had some time on our hands. We found a 40 foot Camelot with a new floor plan that we really liked. It had the mid kitchen, bath and one half and a nice computer desk in the living room. It also had the big mid coach entertainment center.

Unfortunately, we made the mistake of discussing how much we liked the coach within earshot of one of the Beaudry salesmen and he was on the hunt. We actually told him to give us some numbers but after a day and a half he couldn't come closer than $130,000 difference, so we told him we weren't interested. He finally gave up. We were a little miffed because the first "offer" he came up with was to give us about $25,000 under wholesale book for our coach and sticker price for the new one. We laughed and asked if he was serious and his response was to say, "let me go back to the boss and see if I can do better." I hear Beaudry is going out of business, selling out to Lazy Days. Not surprising.

The next day we went to a luncheon for an FMCA chapter called Monacos in Motion. It turns out that they are a caravan club that does at least two member-led caravans per year. Most of the caravans are 5 to 15 days or so and go to various parts of the country. Since membership was only $20 we joined the chapter. May be fun at some point in the future to caravan with the group, and a lot cheaper than the commercial caravan companies, like the one we are using for Alaska next summer. Later in the afternoon we went to the Willmar Elks Lodge which was only a couple miles from the fairgrounds where the rally was being held. Nice friendly little lodge. We told the bartender we would try to come back later in the week with a bigger group.

On Thursday we just kind of hung around the coach most of the day. In the afternoon we went back to the Elks Lodge with four other couples for a cocktail. We had a pretty good time. Dinner that night was pretty good and the entertainment was wonderful. They had a group called Three Men and a Tenor. At first we thought they were some kind of opera group, but it turns out they were a 50's & 60's group with a real cute comedy routine too. One of the better non-name entertainment groups we have seen at rallies.

Friday was the last day of the Monaco rally and this is the day that Monaco puts on its various customer service oriented seminars. I went to a service seminar and a seminar with the head of design development, Pat Carroll. Jackie went to a women's only seminar, also with Pat Carroll. Pat is the VP in charge of all products made by Monaco and he is hysterical to listen too. He is very irreverent and gives basically smart ass answers to most questions and comments. However, he also writes every comment down and actually takes them into consideration when designing future floor plans and coaches. Very worthwhile sessions to attend - informative and entertaining. The evening dinner was the last of the rally and was the prime rib. We had finished the happy hour open bar period and the Monaco folks were just going up on stage to present cash checks to the folks who had bought new coaches at the rally. Monaco always gives away money at the rallies to new buyers. The weather had been on and off rainy most of the day, but we had no idea what was coming. Just as the Monaco guy took the stage we heard the tornado sirens going off outside. At first the representative of the fairgrounds said not to worry, that the siren doesn't necessarily mean there is a tornado imminent. I stepped outside of the building and to the South of the fairgrounds there was a tornado coming down out of the clouds. This is only the second time in my life I have actually seen a tornado in person, and the last time was in Texas where the storm was about 15 miles away. This one was only about a mile and a half from us. I went back into the building just as the leaders got the word that there really was a tornado. They herded all of us (about 6 or 7 hundred people) into the bathrooms and locker rooms. (The rally activities were in a building housing two hockey arenas.) We stayed in there about 10 minutes and then they gave the all clear. By the time I got back outside the rain had stopped, the storm had blown over and we had a beautiful clear sunset. The tornado blew through the southern part of Willmar, destroyed two houses, a couple of turkey sheds and a barn. Only a couple minor injuries, no deaths. The path was only 1.5 miles from where we were parked. Close enough for me!

Saturday morning, July 12th, we headed out from Willmar to St. Paul for the FMCA Convention. We had decided not to go with the caravan since we were going to be parking in the area set aside for FMCA Governing Board Members. Jackie was an appointed delegate to the Governing Board for the 3Ts Chapter. Since the caravans go to a different parking area we elected to go on our own. We left early, about 8:00 a.m. (yikes) so we wouldn't interfere with the gathering of the caravan. The Monaco caravans are usually several hundred coaches long, so we knew we would beat them to St. Paul. We actually got to St. Paul and parked slightly after noon. We were parked on a gravel lot at the North end of the fairgrounds. Since we were expecting some rain during the rally, we were glad for the gravel lot.

On Sunday we both attended some training seminars for new members of the Governing Board. The Governing Board of FMCA is very large, consisting of the Executive Board (five National officers and about 8 area vice presidents) and the National Directors. Each FMCA Chapter elects a National Director and there are just under 500 chapters, so the Governing Board is about 500 strong. The Chapter also elects an Alternate National Director who attends if the National Director can't. If neither can attend, the chapter can elect a temporary delegate. That's what Jackie was for the 3T's Chapter. The Governing Board only meets once a year, at the summer convention. Monday was the day for the Governing Board meeting. I was able to sit in the spectator area and watch some of the proceedings. The meeting lasted all day. They started at 9:00 a.m., took an hour for lunch, and adjourned at 5:30 p.m. Both of us were amazed that this huge group was able to be very well controlled and disciplined to accomplish a lot of business, including cutting a half million dollars out of a seven million dollar budget with little shouting. This was a VERY well organized and run meeting.

The next three days of the rally were fairly busy for us. We were able to spend some time shopping in the vendor area, found some time to go through some of the new coaches, and also take care of our various volunteer commitments. We had volunteered to help with the ice cream social on Wednesday. The Full Timers Chapter handles this project. We managed to give away nearly 4,000 ice cream bars in 20 minutes. Its amazing how many people will line up and wait 15 minutes in 85 degree heat for a 50 cent ice cream bar! We also tended bar for the Elks International Chapter's social hour and handed out 40th Anniversary cake for FMCA. By the time we were done with the cake thing both of us were covered in frosting. Again, 4,000 pieces of cake in less than an hour. Of course, there were about three dozen people working at it, but it really was fun because we were doing it with friends, again from the Full Timer's Chapter.

In some ways, the venue at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds was nice because you could drive your own car just about anywhere on the property and find a place to park. This way you didn't have to rely on the shuttle service like we have had to at other rallies. The entertainment was fair. The first night was a hypnotist act which could have been pretty funny, but it didn't come across well on a large stage in a large arena. This type of act needs a smaller venue to be really good. The second night they had the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. This is a country rock group from the 70's and I thought they were pretty good. Jackie didn't think too much of them, but both of us got a little ticked because half way through the act the FMCA folks had the sound people turn the sound down - and they did it in the middle of one the songs. On the one hand FMCA wants to attract younger members, then they do something stupid like that. I have seen t-shirts with the saying "If the music's too loud, you're too old!" I think that was pretty true here.

On Thursday we had the business meeting for our 100%ers Chapter. This is the chapter that I was Vice President of and consists of folks who reside in their coaches 100% of the time. About the only thing we had to do was elect new officers and I was elected as President and Jackie was elected as National Director. We will hold these offices probably for two years.

Friday was time to leave St. Paul and head for the last rally of this round, the 100%ers/3Ts rally in Faribault, MN. Faribault is about 40 miles South of St. Paul on I-35. Jackie and I were the wagon masters for this rally and had set up the RV park based on Internet information. We had never been there before we arrived Friday. It turned out to be an OK park. Nothing really fancy or special, but all except one coach had full hookups and that was only because we added a couple of coaches after the original deadline date. We had a large clubhouse (more like a barn) to use for our activities and I think most folks had a good time. This was only a two day rally. On Friday the 18th we had a pot luck for dinner. On Saturday Jackie actually got up and served breakfast at 9:00 for 22 people! Saturday night we went to a restaurant in Faribault called the Depot Bar and Grill. This was another place that we found on-line and set up the reservations sight unseen. The restaurant was the old Faribault train station and was right on the railroad track. The manager was very accommodating and the menu they had on their web site indicated it might be a pretty good place. We also learned that if a train went by while you were in the restaurant you got two for one drinks. Problem was, after we got there we found that they had no clue how to handle a group of 22 people. They had one waitress assigned to our entire group and try as she might (and she did try) she could not get the orders in and the food and drink out in a timely manner. Most of the food came out cold and people were really unhappy. The majority of folks finally got fed and the food, once it came, really was pretty good. Then the train went by! Everyone in our group was hooting and hollering like they won the lottery. We all got two for one drinks and most people left happy. A group of us stopped at the Faribault Elks Lodge for a drink after dinner. I won a $50 pull tab ticket and one of the other members, Jan Alphonso, won a $100 pull tab.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed for Spring Grove, Minnesota, down in the Southeast corner of the State. We were headed for the Hidden Bluffs RV Resort, one of our Resorts of Distinction (ROD) parks. We are scheduled to stay there for two weeks. This is our decompression phase after a month of rallies. We arrived and found a lovely - if remote - RV park in the hill country of south Minnesota. I think we will like it here. Funny thing (for some of our friends who will know who they are), the resort is one of a small group of membership resorts called the "Midwest Outdoor Resorts." So, we are staying at an Outdoor Resort!

Well folks, that's it for now. You have heard the saga of our summer rally tour. Until the next update, enjoy every day! We do!

Adventures in Yooperland

Yooperland? On Monday, June 16th, after our rally in Oshkosh finished up, we headed up to Escanaba in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Folks who live in the Upper Peninsula, or the U.P., refer to themselves as "Yoopers." Escanaba is a small city on the upper shores of Lake Michigan. We actually stayed at the Island Casino about 13 miles West of Escanaba. The casino had a nice little RV park in the back parking lot. We were accompanied on the journey from Oshkosh by some friends of ours, Paul Ferrenti and Barbara Lang. They are members of most of the same FMCA chapters as we are and are also full-timers. Went to the casino but didn't have much luck.

On Tuesday we went out geocaching with Paul and Barbara. They had never been caching and wanted to see what it was all about. They got very into it and have expressed an interest in becoming cachers. We found seven caches together and Paul found three of them on his own. One of the caches we found was our #100! This is a milestone for cachers. After our caching we had a nice dinner together.

Wednesday morning one of the caps in my mouth came loose. This is a pinned crown that seems to come loose at least once per year. I drove into Escanaba and found a dentist's office that was able to get me right in. The doctor took an Xray, glued the cap back on and I was out in less than an hour. Other than going back to the casino for dinner and a little gaming (unsuccessful), we didn't do much.

Thursday we packed up and headed East along the upper shores of Lake Michigan to St. Ignace. Paul and Barbara headed West - we will meet up again with them at the Full-timers rally in Hinckley, Minnesota. St. Ignace is the little town on the North side of the Straits of Mackinac. The Straits seperate Lake Michigan on the West side of Michigan from Lake Huron on the East side of Michigan. They also separate lower Michigan from the Upper Peninsula. The five mile long Mackinac Bridge connects the two Michigan's. Until the bridge was built in 1957 the only way to get to the U.P. was through Wisconsin like we came, or by ferry from Michigan. We settled into a nice little RV park on a hill overlooking Lake Huron.

Friday morning we got out early and headed over to Mackinac Island. This island is in Lake Huron, a couple miles off shore from St. Ignace. The island is only about six square miles in size and the only way there is by ferry from either St. Ignace or Mackinaw City, on the South end of the bridge. The interesting thing is that no motorized vehicles are allowed on the island. There is a state highway that runs around the perimeter of the island, but no cars or trucks. All transportation is by walking, horseback, horse and buggy, or bicycle. Many of the homes on the island are mansions that date back to the late 1800's or early 1900's. It is a very pretty and interesting place to visit. We spent most of the day there, going through some of the many shops and just walking around the island. We also did some geocaching there, finding 5 caches on the island.

On Saturday we decided to drive across the bridge to the lower part of Michigan and visit Mackinaw City. The drive across the bridge was pretty cool, the bridge is four lanes, but only the two outside lanes are paved with asphalt, the two inside lanes are open grid work. The center of the bridge is 200 feet above the water and the bridge is five miles long. It is a toll bridge, but the toll is only $3 each way. While in Mackinaw City we did some shopping and some geocaching. We found five more caches down in lower Michigan. That night we had dinner back in St. Ignace on the North side of the bridge at a little restaurant in downtown called the Marina Pub. The food was very good and I would recommend it to anyone staying in the area.

On Sunday we packed up for the arduous 55 mile trip north on I-75 to Sault St. Marie. This town is in the area where the St. Mary's River connects Lake Superior to the West to Lake Huron to the East. Our original plan was to stay at the Elks Lodge where they had four water/electric sites right on the river. When we got to the lodge there was one open site, but the grass was about 18 inches tall so we decided to go to the RV park about a half mile down the road. The RV park was also on the river, only six dollars more than the lodge and we were able to park on pavement. We had a great view, facing the river, and were able to watch the big ships go up and down the St. Mary's River. The center of the river is the dividing line between the U.S. and Canada so we were looking into Canada from our site.

After we got settled into the park we went to do some sightseeing in Sault St. Marie. We went downtown and poked around in the shops for a little while, then went across the street to the Corps of Engineers park where the Soo Locks were. Unlike the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are the same height, the surface of Lake Superior is 21 feet, on average, higher than that of Lake Huron. The only way to get ships between the two lakes was to construct large locks to raise and lower the ships, depending on the direction they were traveling. The visitors center had a very interesting history of the locks at this site, the first of which was built in the early 1800's. Right now there are four large locks on the American side of the river and two on the Canadian side. Most of the large shipping traffic goes through the American side since those are the largest locks, over a thousand feet long and two hundred feet wide. While we were there a large freighter came into the locks from Lake Huron (the lower lake) and we watched as they brought the ship into the lock, pumped up the water raising the ship 21 feet or so, then letting it out onto Lake Superior. It was very interesting to see how this process worked and to find out that there are some 60 million tons of shipping through the locks each year. That's a lot of ships!

On Monday we got up early to go to Canada for the day. There is a large bridge over the river that connects the two countries. It only took us about 5 minutes to go through the Canadian entry point, although they did ask a lot of questions. We spend several hours driving around looking at the sites in Sault St. Marie, Ontario, Canada, then did some geocaching. (Yes, there are caches all over the world) We found six caches in Canada. We then went by the Canadian Elks Lodge in Sault St. Marie, Ontario. We introduced ourselves and showed our American BPOE cards and were welcomed into the club. We had a couple of drinks and chatted with several of the guys in the bar. I was amused to note that Canadians (at least this bunch) really did say "hey" a lot! We got our first Canadian Elks Lodge pin for our banner. After we left the lodge we stopped at the duty free store located just before you got onto the bridge back to the USA. We found that booze was very cheap compared to the prices we had seen elsewhere in the Midwest USA. We bought two 1.75 Ltr. bottles of Absolute for $29.95 each - they sold for over $42 in the stores in Michigan and Wisconsin. The gal at the store told us that we would have to pay duty on the bottles when we went back to the States, but that it was only about $4 a bottle which still made it a bargain. I put the bottles on the back seat in plain view and we headed across the bridge. When we got to the entry post we gave the Immigration Officer our passports and he asked a couple of questions, including what we were doing in Canada. We told him we had gone over for some sightseeing and to do some geocaching. He asked what that was and we had a five minute conversation about what geocaching was. He handed our passports back and told us to go ahead. He never asked if we brought anything back.

Tuesday afternoon we decided to do a little geocaching around the Sault St. Marie, Michigan area and found another six caches. Afterwards we went by the Elks Lodge where we were originally going to stay. It was a very pretty lodge with a great view of the river, but not especially friendly. We chatted with some folks at the bar, but they were visiting Elks also, staying in the RV park.

Wednesday, the 25th of June, we left Sault St. Marie and headed West to Ishpeming, Michigan. this is a small town just West of Marquette, Michigan on the shore of Lake Superior. The next day, Thursday, we drove into Marquette so Jackie could go to the urgent care facility. She seems to have a real bad cold or allergies and was feeling pretty lousy. The docs gave her some prescriptions and we drove around Marquette for a while, waiting for the Elks Lodge to open. We then stopped there and visited for a couple of drinks. The Marquette Lodge was very nice and very friendly. From there we drove about six miles West to the town of Nagaunee and stopped at the Elks Lodge there. Also a nice friendly lodge. When we left there we finally stopped at the Ishpeming Lodge, which was only about two miles from the RV park we were staying at. All three lodges had about 500 members or so and were very friendly. All three also had lodge pins available so we were able to add to our banner.

On Friday we packed up and headed West out of Michigan and back into Wisconsin, stopping at the little town of Saxon. Saxon is about 21 miles East of Ashland, which is a moderately large town. However, Saxon is in the middle of nowhere. We pulled into the RV park and found that it was an RV park, gas station and bar, all rolled into one. You registered for the park and bought your gas inside the bar. However, the park turned out to be OK, back in a little meadow surrounded by woods. Big sites with full hookups and pretty inexpensive. Unfortunately, there was NO phone service, NO wifi, and NO T-mobile Internet. Since we were only there two nights it was no big deal, but it was different to be completely out of touch for the first time in many months. That afternoon we drove into Ashland to see if we could find a laundry to wash clothes, but didn't find anything satisfactory. We drove by the Elks Lodge, which was a very large building with a golf course, however, Jackie was still feeling puny so we didn't go in. We thought we might go back the next day, but on Saturday Jackie was still not feeling well, so we stayed in for the day.

On Sunday we headed out of the North Woods and crossed into the great state of Minnesota at Duluth. Duluth, and its Wisconsin twin Superior, sit on the shore of Lake Superior at its far Western end. From there we headed south on I-35 towards the town of Hinkley, Minnesota and our first rally of the 2008 summer series. With that we will end the saga of Yooperland and pick up next time with our rally adventures. We will be going to five rallies over most of July, all of them within a hundred miles or so of Minneapolis/St. Paul.

We will catch you all up on the happenings after the rally tour. Until then, stay safe, have fun and enjoy your life. We are enjoying ours!

Milwaukee - Roy's Boyhood Home

Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst - the beers that made Milwaukee famous. Pabst is still around, but now as a limited production “designer” brew instead of the blue collar working man’s beer it was when I was a kid. The rest are just memories. Maybe I didn’t make Milwaukee famous, but I did live there the first 12 years of my life, so a visit to my childhood home was on our agenda. We left Portage, Indiana on Wednesday the fourth of June and headed North. The weather was much nicer than it was when we visited Chicago the day before - however, the traffic through the Chicago area was heavy and the roads were horrible. They were rough, torn up and frost heaved, or they were under construction. The freeway was under construction from downtown Chicago all the way to the Wisconsin border. Needless to say, when we arrived in Milwaukee I was ready for a cocktail and a little relaxation. We settled into the State Fair RV Park which is on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis. The park was all paved parking lot but it had full hookups and was right in the middle of town which made it real convenient for sightseeing around Milwaukee.

The next day we did the “Roy’s childhood” tour. I only remember the four places we lived from about age 6 and I was able to find all four houses, or in one case where the house used to be before the state bought it and built a freeway over the site. I also found all four of the schools I went to during this period. The picture here is the last place my mom, brother Dennis and I lived in before we packed up and moved to Arizona with my soon to be step-dad Russ. The house was a duplex and we lived up on the top floor of the house. I was in seventh grade when we left Milwaukee in 1960. The next picture is of the apartment building in which my parents lived when I was born in 1947. They lived in the first apartment on the right side of the building. I know this because the address is on my birth certificate. The building is still occupied as apartments, although the neighborhood is kind of seedy. We spent most of the afternoon driving around different parts of the south-central area of the city that we lived in with me pointing out different childhood memory locations to Jackie like some crazed personal tour guide. The only thing I wasn’t able to find that I thought I clearly remembered was my aunt’s house where I used to spend a lot of my time as a kid. Her youngest son, Roger, was the same age as me and was probably my best friend growing up. I knew the area within a couple blocks, but never could pinpoint the house.

Later on in the afternoon we visited the Milwaukee Elks Lodge # 46. The lodge is now located way north and west of downtown, but in a very nice building. They have about 400 members. The group at the bar when we visited was very friendly. That evening we went to a Cajun restaurant in downtown West Allis, about two miles from the RV park. We had found the restaurant, called Crawdaddies, in a local tour book and decided to give it a try. It turned out to be one of the best restaurants we have ever been to. The food was outstanding and the service was great. It was true Cajun food, but not overly hot, just the right amount of zing. They also had a great tee shirt which, of course, I had to buy. I would strongly recommend that anyone visiting Milwaukee check out this place. It is at about 71st Avenue and Greenfield Road in West Allis. You won’t find better Cajun outside of New Orleans.

The next day we headed out in the afternoon intending to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, South of Milwaukee. Jackie lived in Kenosha for about a year with her first husband back in the early 60's and wanted to see if she saw anything she remembered down there. We decided to stop on the way at a costume shop in West Allis to see if they had any pirate costumes. The rally we are going to next week in Oshkosh has a pirate theme. That shop had something for Jackie, but didn’t have what I wanted in my size. But they had another store in one of the northern suburbs that the sales clerk called and they did have it, so we drove up there. In the course of all this chasing around looking for costumes the weather turned bad with heavy rain and the promise of more to come so we decided to wait until the next day to do Kenosha and headed back to the coach for the rest of the day.

The next morning we headed down to Kenosha and spent several hours driving around the area. Unfortunately, Jackie couldn’t remember much about the area and we were unable to find any of the places she lived or remembered. Since we were already down south, I decided to head west to Elkhorn, Wisconsin, where my grandparents lived when I was young. They lived in a farming area near town and close to a lake, however, the area has grown up so much that I was not able to figure out where the house might be. I also couldn’t remember the name of the lake and the maps we had didn’t show the names of the nearby lakes. I have since remembered that the lake was Wandawega and I have found the area on a map. So if we are ever back in the area I think I will be able to find the place. After striking out both places we headed back to the RV park to relax before leaving to head for Oshkosh the next day. Not much relaxation as about 4:00 in the afternoon the tornado warning siren went off and we had to head for the shelter (the office/restroom complex) and ended up being there for over two hours while this torrential set of thunderstorms came through. Luckily there were no tornadoes at the park, but one was sighted at the zoo only about three miles to our north. We have pretty much decided we don’t care for the weather in the Midwest!

The next morning, Sunday the eighth, we headed up to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for our rally. The rally, being held at the county fairgrounds, was being put on by the International Area (abbreviated INTO) of the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA). For those who don’t know, FMCA is subdivided into a whole series of geographical areas. (Western, Eastern, Southeastern, Etc) Each area then has numerous Chapters set up around common interests. The International Area was created to be the area for those Chapters who were national in scope and didn’t have a particular geographical component. All of the chapters we belong to, such as Monaco International, Elks International, Full-timers, are INTO chapters. Like most area rallies this would be fairly small (200 coaches or so) compared to the full FMCA conventions like the one in St. Paul in July which will have two or three thousand coaches.

I had been asked to serve as a volunteer captain by the rally chairman, so although the actual rally didn’t start until Thursday evening, we were asked to arrive early, so we came up Sunday afternoon. My job was to set up all the signs around the rally site, including the directional signs on the roads coming into the fairgrounds, and all the various signs in the parking lot and inside of the buildings. It is amazing how many signs you need at a large rally! I spend most of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday making and putting up signs. On Thursday the rally started with the evening entertainment and the group was the Marlin’s. We had seen them once before at a Monaco rally in North Carolina. They were very good and played a mix of oldies along with some comedy bits. It rained most of the afternoon and night and there were periods when the rain was so heavy you couldn’t see across the parking lot. Fortunately, most of us were parked on blacktop or gravel. There were a few people parked on grass and at one point the water got so high in one spot the rally master had to air up his coach airbags to keep the water from getting into his storage bays.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were the rally days. Fortunately, the weather changed and was very nice for the rest of the rally. There were only a couple dozen vendors at this rally so it didn’t take too long to go through the shopping. We had also been to most of the seminars at previous rallies, so we didn’t attend too many of those. I had to get up early each morning because in addition to being utilities captain, I was also the sound engineer for the Frustrated Maestros at breakfast. The Maestros are another FMCA chapter that provide amateur entertainment at rallies. I had be up and set up each morning by 7 a.m. Yikes! Also, on Friday afternoon I was the MC and DJ for a chapter fair and block party. I played music and ran some contests. This was the major event that was pirate themed. They had costume contests for men and women and a beard contest. Both Jackie and I wore our pirate costumes and looked pretty good, I think. The entertainment for Friday night was an old guy who used to do sound effects for Warner Brothers cartoons and for Disney. He put on a pretty funny show. Saturday night was a jazz band that was OK and did manage to get people up dancing.

One thing we did do on Sunday was finally sign up for our Alaskan tour. We have waffled back and forth about going to Alaska and finally decided to do it. We signed up for an escorted tour with Fantasy RV Tour and will be going in June of 2009. It’s a 48 day tour and should be a lot of fun. We decided that it would be better for us to go up with a group which included some professional guides rather than do it on our own. When we talked to the lady with the tour company we were originally looking at Mexico tours, but after looking at the timing and the costs, we decided we would rather do the Alaskan one first.

Sunday was the last day of the rally so I spent most of Sunday afternoon going around taking down all the signs I had put up the week before. We thought we might have to stay over on Monday to help clean up the rest of the rally, but we got everything that had to be done finished by late Sunday evening. We came back for Bingo Sunday night and Jackie and I both won, me $60 and her $75. Yea!

Monday morning and the rally is over. I had a brief 8:00 a.m. meeting of the captains for “debriefing” and then we were off to our next destination, the upper peninsula of Michigan. The report on that part of our journey will have to wait for the next blog.

Remember, life is a journey not a destination - enjoy the trip!

The Greatest Spectacle in Racing - The Indy 500

Yikes, its been almost three weeks since my last post! Time flies when you're having fun, and have we ever! Last time we had arrived in Springfield, Illinois on our way to Indianapolis for the big race. While in Springfield we did some sightseeing around the Illinois capitol. We spent several hours touring the Dana-Thomas house. This is a very large, beautiful home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in the early 1900's. We also toured the old Illinois capitol building and walked around downtown checking out all the "Lincoln slept/lived/worked here" stuff. Lincoln is very big in Springfield!

On our last day in Springfield we did some geocaching around the general area. Many of the caches were in various parks along the shore of Lake Springfield, a very nice lake at the south edge of town. We managed to find eight caches. A couple of the finds took us to old abandoned sections of original Route 66, which was a concrete divided roadway through this area before the freeway came. We also made a couple more visits to the Elks Lodge and found them to be a fairly friendly group.

On Wednesday, May 21st we left Springfield and traveled East to Crawfordsville, Indiana, about 35 miles Northwest of Indianapolis. We wanted to be able to arrive fairly early at the racetrack on Thursday for our rally, so we planned a one night stay at Crawfordsville. On Thursday morning we arrived at the track about noon and were able to get settled in. The rally parking was on a nice level gravel parking lot right across the street from the south end of the race track. We were only three coaches in from the street, very convenient for viewing the craziness of race weekend. (More about that later)

After we settled in we walked over to the track and spent a couple hours walking around the infield area where there were a bunch of sponsor booths and souvenir stands set up. One of the party tents was sponsored by Jim Beam and when you went in, you got a wrist band with two detachable tabs, each one good for one free drink! Since Jackie doesn't drink bourbon, I managed to get five nice cocktails! (one return trip the guy didn't take my tab) Yea for walking distance parking! Also got to drive the race car simulator - like a video game on steroids. The cockpit was on hydraulic legs for motion simulation and you were all belted in and hunkered down just like in the Indy cars. There was a big TV screen in front of you and away you went on a simulated banked oval. If you got down too low on the track, or up against the wall, the simulator would shake the beejeebees out of you. Quite a lot of fun. Didn't even have to pay for the fun because it was sponsored by AAA and you got to ride it if you were a member.

The next morning was Friday, which is "Carb Day" at the track. This is the day when the Indy cars get their last practice session before the race on Sunday. It was named carb day from the days when cars actually HAD carburetors and they would do the final fuel calibrations. Of course, everything is electronic controlled fuel injection now, but we found out over the course of our stay here that tradition is very big at Indy. There was also supposed to be a 100 mile Indy Lights race in the afternoon. The Indy Lights are to the Indy cars as the NASCAR Busch cars are to the the Cup cars. They "only" go about 185 mph rather than the 225 that the big boys drive. Jackie woke up Friday morning with another bout of vertigo and decided to skip the activities at the track. I packed up and headed over about 10 to watch the practice session. They got in about two laps and the rain started. It then rained on and off the rest of the day, cancelling both the final practice session and the Indy Lights race. I finally gave up about 2:00 and headed back to the coach. We spent the rest of the day doing some light shopping and checking out the area. Our rally also included a dinner Friday night, however, it was set up as an outside event with no tent or shelter. Although it was raining, most everyone from the rally came over to the catering area and loaded up from the buffet line. It was a basic fried chicken, beans and coleslaw kind of meal, so we were able to just take it back to the coach and eat. No camaraderie with your fellow campers, but hey - free food.

Saturday there are normally no activities at the track, however, because of the rain on Friday they rescheduled the Indy Lights race for noon. The weather was nice again and Jackie was feeling better, so we headed over to the track to watch the race. There were no assigned seats for this event so we watched from the bleachers right behind the pits on the front straight. The race was pretty good, although from our seats we weren't high enough up to really see anything except about 100 feet of the track. Also, since it was only a 40 lap race, there was no pit activity to watch. After the race we went back to the campground and noticed a significant increase in activity along 16th street, the road that runs along the south edge of the speedway. As the afternoon wore on, the number of motorcycles and cool cars continued to increase until it was a continual parade. Come to find out, Saturday night before the race is the "happening" night. 16th street becomes a cruising site from the corner of 16th and Georgetown, which is the main entrance to the track, to a place called Mike's Speedway Lounge, about a mile east. We had actually been told about Mike's by someone we met at an Elk's Lodge in Colorado. He told us that Mike's was a "have to visit" place.

About 6:00 we drove down to Mike's and found a relatively dive bar with about three hundred motorcycles in the parking lot. We went in, had a couple drinks and ate dinner there. They only had sandwiches, but they were pretty good. Afterwards we took a couple drinks outside and sat on the grass at the side of road next to the parking lot and just watched the bikes and cars cruising in and out of Mike's and the bar across the street. The music was playing and people were having fun. Apparently, the police suspend the drinking in public laws unless you are creating a disturbance or driving because everyone in the parking lot and walking on the street had a drink in their hand. About 8:00 we went back to the campground and found everyone from the rally sitting in their lawn chairs along the side of 16th street. As the night came there were literally hundreds of motorcycles going up and down the street, thousands of people walking around and everyone having a great time. About 11:00 the people from the rally started to head back to their coaches, so Jackie and I took a walk down towards Georgetown Road. This road runs north and south along the west side of the speedway. We found that they closed the road to traffic and let folks set up booze and souvenir booths along the street. There were about 25,000 people walking around the streets partying and it was almost midnight. There were cops all over the place, but while we were walking around we didn't see anything except people having a good time. I chatted with one Indy cop and he told me that about 2:00 in the morning they would get a few fights breaking out and that the party would go on until probably 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. We went to bed about 1:00 and fell asleep by the sound of motorcycles cruising the street. This has to have been one of the more interesting and entertaining "events" we have been a part of since we started travelling.

Sunday morning, Race Day. The race was scheduled to start around 1:00, but we went over about 10:00. We wanted to experience the whole happening so we had lunch at one of the vendors and then went up to our seats. We actually had great seats about two thirds of the way up the grandstand which was right in the middle of the "short chute" between turns one and two. We were up high enough to see both turns, the short straight between them and a little bit of both front and back straightaways. There are no seats at Indy that let you see the whole track, so ours were pretty good. We watched all the pre-race stuff, the parade of drivers, a salute to veterans with about a hundred uniformed folks from all services parading around the track in pickup trucks. Good old Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) sang Back Home in Indiana like he does every year. Florence Henderson did God Bless America (she apparently does it every year too) and Jackie and I both decided she probably ought to retire. The little cutie from Dancing with the Stars, Juliane Hough did a great job with the National Anthem. The flyover was a group from the Navy Top Gun school and was two Navy F-18 Hornets and two F-16's decorated as "aggressors" with a big red star on the side. Gee, I wonder who they're supposed to represent?

The race went for almost five hours, which is a long time to be on a hard metal bench with no backrest, but we brought booze. It was a great race and until you actually attend a race you don't appreciate the colors and noise the cars make and how fast they are actually going. TV is a comfortable way to watch a race, but being there makes a big difference in how you appreciate the sport. I had found the same thing in my previous attendance at NASCAR races. There were a couple of wrecks on our end of the track, and the paper the next day said there were more accidents at this race then in the last 10 years. No big wrecks though, and no one hurt. One of the nice things about our seats was that not only did we have a good view of a pretty large section of track, we had one of the big "Jumbo-tron" TV screens in the infield right in front of us. That way we were able to easily keep up with what was going on around the rest of the track. The best thing about the seats was that after the race we got up and eight minutes later we were sitting in a lawn chair with a drink watching the other 350,000 fans try to get out of the track and out of the area. Interestingly, within three hours there was no one on the street. When I lived in Phoenix, it would take four hours just to get out of the track parking lots after the NASCAR race.
On Monday morning, Memorial Day, we headed out of the rally site for a campground on the other side of Indianapolis, actually about 30 miles East of town. We went there to visit with some good friends of ours, Randy and Charlene Basom. These are folks that we met on the road the first year we were traveling. They are also fulltimers and have the same year and make of coach we have, with the same exterior paint scheme. We have met up with them several times over the last couple years as we wandered the country. Their daughter Amy, and her husband John, live in a small town East of Indianapolis. Amy has just had her first baby, a little girl named Abby. We had been with the whole family last 4th of July in Washington and this was when Amy had found out she was pregnant, so Jackie thinks of herself as an adopted aunt. We wanted to spend a few days with the five of them. The first night, Monday, we met them at a local restaurant for dinner in celebration of Amy's birthday. The second day we went over to John and Amy's place for the afternoon and for a BBQ dinner there. Randy and Charlene have their motorhome parked in the yard next to the barn. They have been staying there for about four months helping while Amy was pregnant. The third day we were there we again spent the afternoon with the group, but this time we took them out geocaching. Randy and Charlene had never heard of it before we talked to them about it and they thought they might enjoy it. We went out and found six caches in a couple hours that afternoon and Randy and Charlene were hooked.

On Thursday morning we bid farewell to the Indianapolis area and started north towards Elkhart, Indiana. Elkhart and the surrounding area are an RV manufacturing center. Monaco Coach has a couple of factories there and also has a factory service center. Our coach was due for its annual service (oil, lube, filters, etc.) and we thought since we were going to be in the area anyway we would go to Monaco for the service. The service center has a free campground for customers so we checked in and got set up. The down side to using the factory service center is that they start work at 6:30 a.m. We don't normally do anything before nine or ten in the morning, so having to get up at five to have the coach ready to roll into the garage at 6:30 was tough on us. Friday morning came and we managed though and by 8:00 we were eating breakfast! Another unusual event for us. They finished off the coach late in the afternoon so we parked back in the campground, planning to leave for the Chicago area first thing Saturday morning. Saturday morning we packed up the coach and got on the freeway heading towards Chicago. Right after we started I noticed that the transmission temperature gauge was very erratic and was jumping all over the dial. One of the things I had serviced on Friday was the transmission. Since the problem hadn't existed before Friday, I guessed that the tech had either broken a wire or left one loose. Since I didn't want to travel with a malfunctioning gauge, we turned around and went right back to Camp Monaco and set up again. We relaxed on Saturday and on Sunday decided to go and do some geocaching in the area since we were stuck there anyway. We managed to find nine caches, all right in the downtown Elkhart area. We found several very nice parks we would never have seen were it not for our geocaching hobby.

On Monday morning I got the service writer at 7:00 and told them about the problem. They took the coach right into the garage and by 9:00 it was fixed and we were ready to roll. It had been a loose connection on the sending unit, probably bumped during the servicing of the coach. Since we were only going to be able to spend two days in the Chicago area because of the delay in getting out of Elkhart, we elected to stay at a campground in Gary, Indiana, about 25 miles from Chicago. The next morning, Tuesday the 3rd of June, we headed into Chicago for some sightseeing. Unfortunately, it poured down rain the whole day so we weren't able to do any real walking around. We drove around the city and looked at the sights as best we could, but we really couldn't do it justice. I guess we will just have to come back to Chicago someday. We will be leaving for Milwaukee, the city of my birth, on Wednesday morning. Our stay there will be the topic of my next blog chapter.

Until then, keep the shiny side up and the greasy side down!