Continuing Along Old Route 66

Welcome back readers. Our last chapter ended on Sunday, June 4^th, when we moved from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to a resort on the Grand Lake of the Cherokee's in the far northeastern corner of Oklahoma. The resort is right on the lake, not too far from the town of Grove, Oklahoma. We came here in and out of rain for the entire trip. No serious thunderstorms, just a lot of on and off rain. When we arrived the steps on the coach wouldn't go out, so it was a chore to get in and out of the coach. I am sure it was a result of them getting wet, so when it dries out, hopefully tomorrow, I can try to get them working again. We got set up and then just stayed in the rest of the day.

Monday, June 5^th, we left the coach after lunch to go out and just explore the area a bit. The weather for today is still unsettled, partly cloudy, chance of rain kind of thing. I was able to coax the steps out, so we can now get in and out without breaking our neck. We first drove south a ways, across the north end of the lake, into the town of Grove. The town has less than 7,000 population, but is the only incorporated city in Delaware County. We located a nice laundry so we could wash clothes tomorrow, we found the Elks Lodge, which appears, at least based on their marquee, is only open on Fridays, and we found the ever-present Walmart Supercenter, good for future reference. We then drove around the north and south sides of the lake exploring. We even drove the 15 miles or so east to the Missouri state line. We went through a dried up little town called Afton, which is on a portion of old original Highway 66, and found a 40's era service station and garage which used to be a Packard car dealership. They still had the signs as well as a number of old, restored and unrestored, Packard cars. The service station is now a gift shop for Route 66 trinkets. There was a geocache here that we got, as well as a couple of others as we came across them through the afternoon. About 4:00 we went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, June 6^th, the anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy in World War Two. We left the coach about noon and went into Grove for lunch. We went to a Mexican restaurant called Las Palmeras, which had high ratings on Yelp. It was a funky little place and when we went in there were several Hispanic people eating, so we had high hopes. Turned out to be not so much. The food was OK, but very bland with no spice. Even the salsa was bland and tomato-y tasting. It was filling and fairly inexpensive and the service was great. I guess that is what you should expect getting Mexican food in Oklahoma. After lunch we went to the laundry and did our wash. After the laundry was done we headed home, getting three geocaches during the trip. We put everything away and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, June 7^th, we left the coach about noon and drove about 24 miles north to the town of Miami, Oklahoma. Spelled the same, but locally it is pronounced My-Am-Uh and was taken from one of the local Indian Tribes in the area in the late 1800's when the town was created. The primary reason for going there was to visit the Newell Coach Corporation facility. Although the full story can be found on the Newell Web site, a brief history is that Newell

was founded in 1967 by LK Newell, an Oklahoma native, when he purchased a new luxury motorhome in California and found the design not to his liking. He thought he could do better, so he founded the Newell Coach company to build high end, luxury bus-style motor coaches. The factory has always been in Miami, as have the company headquarters, and today they build between 40 and 50 coaches per year. We are familiar with Newell's, having seen them at RV shows and more than a few at the Motorcoach Country Club in Indio, California, where our good friend Barry Cohen lives. When we learned the factory was so close we knew we had to try and visit. A phone call brought an invitation to come up today and look around. Even though we were pretty clear that we would have to win the lottery to become a customer, they were still very gracious and assigned one of the sales reps, Brian, to show us the factory. We got a full tour of the plant as well as a chance to go through one of the newest coaches.

They are the only manufacturer left who builds the coach from the ground up, chassis and body. Most of their coaches are 45 foot, but, since most are also custom ordered, Brian told us they can make any length, any number of slides, and do whatever the customer wants so long as they can afford it. Coaches start at just under $2 million and go up from there. Brian told us that they are a favorite for the NASCAR race teams as well as a few entertainers. A look at their owner pin map in the lounge showed a high percentage of owners in Southern California and Florida. It was a great tour and we thank Brian for his time.

After the tour we did some geocaching, getting six finds in an hour or so. We then went to the Miami Elks Lodge for a cocktail and visit. They were a very nice, friendly lodge that has been around since the 1930's. We had a couple of drinks and got another new lodge pin for our banner, then headed back to the coach. We got home around 5:30 and stayed in the rest of the night.

Thursday, June 8^th, my brother Dennis's birthday. Happy Birthday Dennis! We left the coach after lunch and went out to do some more geocaching in the area, which we have learned is referred to as “NEO” for Northeast Oklahoma. Everywhere we looked, advertisements, billboards, and signs we saw NEO. It finally dawned on us what it meant. We had a great afternoon, getting 18 new finds before quitting and making a Walmart run. After Walmart we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

Friday, June 9^th, we left the coach after lunch and went out for some more exploring and geocaching. Today we drove down to the south end of the lake to Pensacola Dam. The dam was built in 1938 and was the first hydroelectric dam in Oklahoma. The dam is nearly a mile long and is made up of a series of concrete arches. It is the longest multiple arch dam in the world. During our tour we also drove through a number of small towns and did some geocaching along the way, getting four new finds. When we finally made it back to Grove after circling the lake we stopped at the Elks lodge for cocktails and dinner. This is a small lodge, only a little over a hundred members, but they were very friendly. Dinner was great, we both had the strip steaks and we shared an order of chicken livers and gizzards. Like the one's we had in Oklahoma City, the livers were outstanding. The steaks were good, but the livers were the hit of the evening. After dinner we headed home and stayed in the rest of the evening.

Saturday, June 10^th, was a stay at home day. Did some cleaning and other chores, but mostly just relaxed and enjoyed a quiet day at home. Sunday was a travel day. We were packed up and on the road by 10:30, going about 130 miles northeast to Strafford, Missouri, a small community just east of Springfield, Missouri. Strafford only has about 2,500 people, but Springfield is the third largest city in Missouri with about 170,000 people. We arrived at the Strafford RV park about 1:00 and got settled in for a three day stay. The RV park is basically a grass field, but it is only $25 a night for full hookup 50 amp service. It is also between the freeway and the railroad, but we have kind of gotten used to that after a dozen years on the road.

After we got setup and had a quick lunch we went out and did some exploring of Springfield. We found the current downtown, the older, Route 66 era downtown with a very neat town square, and then the turn of the century historic downtown. We also drove around some of the neighborhoods and had a good time exploring. We stopped at the Springfield Elks Lodge for a drink and found a very nice building and a very active lodge because they have a swimming pool. There were a lot of families enjoying the pool on Sunday. This is an older lodge, chartered in 1896, and they have over a thousand members. I have no doubt that the nice pool brings in younger members with families, making it easier to keep a big membership. After our cocktail we headed home where we stayed in the rest of the night.

Monday, June 12^th, we left the coach about 10:30 and drove south to Branson, Missouri, which is about 45 miles south of Springfield. Of course, Branson is well known as a tourist destination, originally for country and western music shows and artists, but now as a general family vacation place. We were last here in our first full year on the road, the spring of 2006. We came with a group of Elks and Monaco Rvers and spent a week here, going to shows and on tours. The place has only grown in the last eleven years and, although many of the places we remembered going to are still there, a whole lot more have sprung up. In addition, there are dozens more family activity places now. A dozen miniature golf courses, go cart tracks, a big new amusement park, and souvenir shops galore.

We stopped in the old downtown shopping area, near the river, and walked around for a couple of hours. We had breakfast in a nice cafe and spent a couple of hours looking through shops. In the midst of our shopping I noticed a flier announcing that this week, Sunday through Saturday, was Branson Police Appreciation week and there were all kinds of activities going on, as well as a lot of businesses giving discounts to police, both active and retired, and their families. Even the place we had breakfast gave us a discount. After our shopping we did some driving around Branson, just looking and touring and we stopped at the Radison Hotel, which had been on the flier as the headquarters for the Police Week. There was a booth in the lobby, manned by one of the organizers, a retired Missouri State Trooper, and we chatted for a while. He gave me one of the event's goodie bags which had some nice stuff, a couple hats, a nice pocket knife, and some other goodies. I also bought one of the event tee shirts. We spent about six or seven hours in Branson, also getting five geocaches, before leaving and heading back north.

On the way back towards home we stopped at the Lake Taneycomo Elks Lodge in Forsyth, Missouri, for a cocktail and lodge pin. Again we found a very friendly lodge, which is only about 12 miles from Branson and serves the Branson area. We had a couple of drinks, chatted with some of the officers, and then went home, getting back around 7:00 or so. We spent the rest of the evening with the TV after a very nice, fun day.

Tuesday, June 13^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaches. We were able to get six new finds, and one DNF, in a couple hours. We also made a second stop at the Springfield Elks Lodge to pick up a lodge pin for our banner. When we were there on Sunday they did not have pins behind the bar, although they said they did have them. The told us to come back today and they would be sure to have some available. After caching we stopped at Walmart for some supplies, then headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the day.

Wednesday, June 14^th, another travel day. We were packed up and leaving Strafford about 10:00. Today's trip was about 120 miles to a little town along Interstate 44 called St. James, Missouri. Since I-44 in this area still follows along the old Route 66 trail, this was another Route 66 town. The town only has about 4,500 population and is just an old farming and railroad town. We checked into the Meremac Springs Country Store and RV park about 12:30 and got set up pretty quickly for our two night stay. After we had lunch and finished setting up we went out to explore. We were only out for an hour or so, both because the town was so small, but also because I was feeling out of sorts. I think I may have caught a cold from someone on Monday when we went to Branson. That's the chance you take when you go to popular places. We spent the rest of the evening in the coach.

Thursday, June 15^th, we left the coach after lunch to do some exploring and a little geocaching. Both Jackie and I seem to have mild colds, so we are not feeling a hundred percent, but we didn't want to just sit around the house and be miserable. Our first stop was at the Vacuum Cleaner Museum, located in St. James. There is a very large building which is actually the Tacony Corporation and is where they manufacture vacuum cleaners. They make the Simplicity brand, the Kenmore brand and a few others. In one corner of the factory there is a museum with

vacuum cleaners going back to the 1920's and all the way to the modern day. They even have a full time employee who gives a great, narrated guided tour of the museum with all kinds of trivia information about vacuum cleaners. We found out about this place when we Googled St. James and we had a great time. Among other things, we learned why vacuum cleaners have always had headlights. The very first electric vacuum's, from the 1920's didn't have plugs on the end of the cord. At that time most homes only had electric lighting, nothing else was electric, so there were no outlets like we have today. The first vacuum had a screw base just like a light bulb, so you went into the room, unscrewed the light and screwed in the vacuum. You needed the headlight because most rooms only had one light. Ta Da!

After the museum we drove about 15 miles northeast to the town of Cuba, which was, in fact, named after the island. The town is known for the murals that have been painted on the buildings around town. We did a few geocaches and also saw the world's largest rocking chair. It is 40 feet tall and made of steel. We ended up with three new finds, and one DNF for the afternoon. After our exploring we went back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night.

Friday, June 16^th, my oldest daughter Tye's birthday. Today was a travel day and we were packed up and on the road at 10:30. We went a little over a hundred miles to East St. Louis, Illinois and the Casino Queen RV park. This park is on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, right across from the Gateway Arch. We have a great view of the arch and downtown St. Louis from where we are parked. Since we are both fighting colds, we got set up and then just rested and tried to get well. We will be here in St. Louis for three nights. Saturday we left the coach after lunch and went out to do some exploring and geocaching. We spent about an hour driving around the central part of St. Louis. We have been to St. Louis twice before, once in 2006 and then again in 2008. When we were here in 2008 we had just started geocaching a couple months earlier and we didn't do any during the three days we were in St. Louis. We did our first in the city, a virtual at the Gateway Arch, then continued for about an hour, getting four new finds, along with three DNFs. It seems they like to hide caches in parks in this city, and they always end up in trees or bushes. It was a little too hot and humid to be spending a lot of time crawling around in shrubbery, especially since we still were not feeling completely well. After caching we went to Costco for some supplies, then headed back to the coach where we stayed in the rest of the night. The weather forecast calls for some pretty strong thunderstorms coming through the area late tonight, so we will see how that works out.

Sunday, June 18^th, we woke up a little damp, but to clearing skies. We did have a line of storms come into the area about midnight and for the next two hours the weather radio warnings were going off every fifteen minutes. We only had about ten minutes of very strong winds, and no hail at all. We got a few minutes of heavy rain, but for about three hours we had a steady, moderate amount of rain. I went out in the morning to try to find a paper, but East St. Louis is a real slum and after checking two places I decided to not bother any further. I notice that a small tree had blown over in the park last night. We decided to just have another stay at home day to try and get rid of our colds. We did a few chores and rested.

Monday, June 19^th, another travel day. We headed out of the Casino and headed north on Interstate 55 towards Springfield, Illinois, about 103 miles. We pulled into the RV park on the grounds of the Illinois State Fairgrounds about 12:30 and got settled into a site. They have about 300 sites with 50 amp and water and except for fairs or major events they always have room. Nothing fancy, just paved parking lots, but it is only $20 a night. We also got lucky in that when we got in the security guy told us to go ahead and park in one of the handicap sites, which also have sewer hookups, because they had plenty of room. After we got hooked up we went out to get some lunch. Jackie found a highly rated Mexican restaurant not too far away called Taqueria Moroleon. The first pass I drove right past it because it is in an old building that used to be a donut shop and still has a big donut sign on the roof. The food was good, but the menu was unusual in that it didn't have any of the normal combinations. Jackie ended up getting an enchilada plate and I had carne asada. It was not the tastes we are used to from the Southwest or New Mexico, but it wasn't too bad. My meat was a little overdone though. We keep trying to find good Mexican food in places you shouldn't be able to find it. After lunch we did a Walmart run, fueled up the car, and then went back to the coach and finished setting up. We were able to get one geocache that was in the parking lot of the RV park, only a couple hundred feet from our coach. Very convenient. After we got set up we relaxed the rest of the day.

Tuesday, June 20^th, the first day of summer! We went out after lunch to do some more geocaching and exploring. Since it was very hot and humid it was more of a car tour. We did get four new finds, and two DNFs in a couple hours. We also drove around the capitol campus and saw both the old state capital and the new one, at least new in 1868. We also drove around the city cemetery and saw Abraham Lincoln's tomb. About 3:00 we quit and went back to the coach where we relaxed the rest of the day. Wednesday was laundry day. We went out after lunch to a nearby laundromat and did our clothes. After we got home and put everything away we just relaxed the rest of the evening.

Thursday, June 22^nd, another travel day. We got out about 11:00 and started our 95 mile trip northeast to Champaign, Illinois. For the first time since we left Santa Maria, California in April we left the basic route of old Highway 66. It continued up to Chicago, it's starting point, and we were heading east. About half way through the trip up Interstate 72 we noticed traffic slowing and then a helicopter that looked like it was landing on the freeway. We were about a half mile when traffic came to a halt. The CB traffic confirmed that it was a serious wreck on the freeway and that a medical chopper was on the ground in our east bound lanes. After about a half hour the chopper lifted off and shortly after traffic began to move again. When we got to the scene we could see that it was a large, class A diesel pusher motor home that had gone off the road, down an embankment, the into a tree line. Ouch and scary! At this point we don't know how many injured or what exactly happened. We arrived at the D&W Lake Campground around 1:30 and quickly got settled in for a two night stay.

After we got set up we went out to do some touring since we have never been to this area before. Champaign got it's start in the mid 1800's as a railroad town. Today it, along with it's connected neighbor, Urbana, are mostly known as college towns. The University of Illinois has parts of it's campus in both cities and Champaign is home to Park College, a private university. Between the two cities they have about 100,000 population. We drove around downtown and the UofI campus for a while, and toured some neighborhoods, before heading back to the coach. We had a nice pot roast cooking in the crockpot which we had for dinner, then watched TV until bedtime.

Friday, June 23^rd, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching and more exploring. We were able to get twelve new finds, and no DNFs, in a couple of hours. We then decided to visit the Champaign-Urbana Elks Lodge. The lodge is actually located in a suburb called Savoy, south of Champaign. We had a couple of cocktails, and got a lodge pin, and had a nice conversation with one of the members, who happened to be a Past Exalted Ruler of the lodge. The Urbana Lodge was actually chartered in 1906. In the 1950's it ended up folding and in the late 50's the Champaign Lodge was chartered and also took in the Urbana members. Usually when two lodges merge they maintain the older lodge number, but the PER was unsure of the reason why they didn't in this case. After the lodge visit we stopped at Walmart for supplies, then headed back home for the rest of the night.

Saturday, June 24^th, another travel day. We were on the road by about 10:30, heading about a hundred miles further northeast to the little town of Remington, Indiana. We arrived at the Caboose Lake RV park around 2:00 local time, having lost another hour moving into Eastern Time. Most of Indiana is on Eastern Time, but several counties in the northwest corner are considered part of the Chicago metro area, and stay on Central Time. Several counties in the southwest corner also stay on Eastern Time, mostly because they want to. Time zones and observance of Daylight Savings has been a big issue in Indiana for the past 25 years with changes occurring every couple of years. Even now it is not standard as Jasper County, which is the county Remington is in, is “legally” on Central Time, Remington, which is in the far southeast corner of the county chooses to observe Eastern Time. It works out for us, I guess, because we will now be on Eastern Time for the rest of the summer. We got settled into a very nice site right in the shore of Caboose Lake, a small private lake around which the RV park is built. We will be here for three nights. After we got set up we stayed in the rest of the day, did a few chores and relaxed.

Sunday, June 25^th, I went out and got a Sunday paper and we had a relaxing morning. About 12:30 we went out to have lunch and do some exploring and caching. We drove to a neighboring small town, Reynolds, Indiana and found a local cafe open. Jackie had an omelet for breakfast and I had a fish sandwich. The food was quite good, although Jackie was not happy they left the broccoli out of her omelet. After lunch we did some caching, getting nine new finds and no DNFs. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Monday we decided to have a stay at home day. We got several major chores done, including a couple of light repair jobs I have been putting off for a while.

Tomorrow will be a travel day and will start a period of about three weeks when we will be visiting with some family and then going to several RV rallies and enjoying time with friends. Since we have been about three weeks on this chapter, it is a good point to close this out and get it published. Until next time, ponder the words of author Len Holman. “We have become a nation of thoughtless rushers, intent on doing before thinking, and hoping what we do magically works out. If it doesn’t, we rush to do something else, something also not well thought-out, and then hope for more magic.” Slow down, look around and enjoy the world. See ya soon.

Starting Across the Heartland

Hi there, good to see you back. Our last chapter concluded on Friday, May 19^th, when we arrived in Amarillo, Texas. Saturday we left the coach after lunch and did a badly needed Walmart run. We also got one geocache because it was in the Walmart parking lot. After shopping we went back to the coach, put stuff away and then did a few chores. We spent the rest of the day in the coach.

Sunday, May 21^st, we got a Sunday paper and had a relaxing morning. After lunch we went out to do some geocaching. We were able to get 13 new finds, along with 3 DNFs, for the afternoon. In the midst of our caching we also did some shopping at Kohls. About 5:30 we went to the World Famous Big Texan restaurant for dinner. We have been to Amarillo on two other occasions and gone to the Big Texan both times. Although we enjoyed the last two trips, this one was a little disappointing. Jackie's steak was not done to her liking as it was the last two times. The service was awful, they even ran out of butter. The place if most famous for it's “Free” 72 oz steak. Free if you eat it, along with a baked potato and salad, in one hour. Today was the first time we actually saw someone up on the platform trying the challenge. He was a big guy, but when we left he had less than 30 minutes, was about half way through the steak and hadn't touched the potato or salad. He may have ended up paying the $80 or $90 tab they charge if you fail. After dinner we drove back home and relaxed the rest of the night.

Monday, May 22^nd, was forecast to be on and off rain all day. Only a chance of severe storms in the late afternoon, but mostly just rainy spells. We left the coach after lunch and went out to do our laundry. After laundry we went back home, put everything away, and just relaxed the rest of the day. We never really got any serious rain, just a sprinkle here and there. The radar showed it all passing to the south of us. Tuesday the weather was still iffy and it was quite cool. After lunch we headed over to the theater to see a movie for first time since we left Yuma. We saw Snatched, with Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn. Schumer is dumped by her boyfriend just before a planned trip to Ecuador and, since the trip was non-refundable, she convinces her very paranoid mother to go with her. They get kidnapped by bandits and taken into the jungles of Columbia where the hilarity ensues as they attempt to escape and get back to civilization. Not an academy award winner, but very funny and entertaining. We like these kinds of movies, and we enjoyed this one. After the movie we went to Sams Club for some shopping, then back home where we stayed in the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, May 24^th, we left the park after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. We had a great afternoon, getting 18 new finds, and 2 DNFs. One of the finds took us to another Amarillo public art display, along the lines of, but not nearly as famous as, the Cadillac Ranch display along Interstate 40. The work was called Ozymandias on the Plains and was created by philanthropist, millionaire, and artist Stanley Marsh, who is also responsible for Cadillac Ranch and several other odd public art displays in the area. It is basically a pair of broken off feet and lower legs, meant to invoke the image of a vandalized or destroyed larger statue. Like the cars in Cadillac Ranch, it is frequently “vandalized” with various colors of paint, although the most prevalent painting issue for this work is that local “painters” keep painting socks on the legs, which were intended by the artist to be bare. After caching we stopped again at both Sams Club and Kohls because we had some discount coupons that were going to expire. We then went home and I made a batch of stuffed green peppers for dinner. We stayed in the rest of the night.

Thursday, May 25^th, we went out about noon and had lunch at a local Mexican place not too far from the old route 66 downtown area. It was at the edge of a barrio and seemed pretty old school Mexican. We were the only non-Hispanics in the place. The food was very tasty and quite authentic. We had a great lunch, with good service. We are getting pretty good at finding authentic old style true Mexican restaurants in towns we visit. After lunch we headed out for some more geocaching, getting 13 finds in a few hours. It was pretty windy and getting hot, so we quit about 3:30 and went back to the coach where we stayed in the rest of the night.

Friday, May 26^th, moving day. Today we continued east, going 156 miles on Interstate 40 to Elk City, Oklahoma. It was a pretty easy trip, with a stop for fuel and lunch along the way. We arrived at the RV park about 2:30 and got moved in for a four day stay. We will be here for the long Memorial Day weekend. Elk City was hit by a tornado about a week and a half ago. It tore through a neighborhood just a mile south of the RV park, just the other side of the freeway. The weather looks pretty good for our stay here, we have our fingers crossed. After we got set up we just stayed in and relaxed for the remainder of the day.

Saturday, May 27^th, we awoke to another beautiful morning. We left the coach after lunch and went to the Walmart here in town. After we dropped the groceries back off at the coach, we went out to do some geocaching in Elk City. Elk City was founded in 1901 as a railroad town and was so named because it was built at the head of Elk Creek. Today's population is a little over 12,000. There were not a lot of caches in town, but we were able to get eight new finds, along with one DNF, in a few hours. The last cache of the day was another milestone for us, cache find number 8,600. When we finished our caching we did some sightseeing, including a brief visit to the area where the EF2 tornado went through a week and a half ago. It was only a couple of miles south of the RV park we are in. The tornado first touched down in a fairly new country club neighborhood where it destroyed the clubhouse and damaged or destroyed dozens of homes. It then wiped out a smaller, older neighborhood across the road, along with several businesses. The tornado hit just before 7:00 p.m., but there were only two fatalities, one in the country club and one out a more rural area. Although in our travels over the last 12 years we have seen isolated instances of tornado damaged buildings, this was the first time that we saw first hand an entire area of recent damage. Driving through the neighborhood, we saw typical tornado effects, a house completely leveled and the one across the street with minor roof damage. It was very devastating to see.

We went back to the coach and relaxed for an hour or so, and got cleaned up from caching. A little after 5:00 we left again and went to the Elk City Elks Lodge for cocktails and dinner. The place was very busy because they had a wedding reception being held there. However, the Lodge does have 540 members, which is pretty good for a small town like Elk City. We had a couple of drinks and got our lodge pin, then we went to a table for dinner. The Lodge has full menu dinners three nights a week. Jackie had chicken livers and I had fried jumbo shrimp. Both of our meals were excellent. The chicken livers were big, well cooked and very tasty. They were way better than the place in Yuma where Jackie has gotten chicken livers several times in the past, a place that is “famous” for it's livers. This Elks puts that place to shame. We had a great dinner, a nice visit and were back home by 7:30 where we stayed in the rest of the evening.

Sunday, May 28^th, I went out and got the Sunday paper and we had a relaxing morning. After lunch we went out for a day of caching. It was a nice, clear day with temps expected in the low 80's, just a nice day. Since we had done all of the caches in Elk City yesterday we had to go out in the rural areas today. We ended up making a big circle, going about 30 miles south and then 20 miles east, catching caches along the way. Many of them were cemetery caches, so we visited a number of small, community cemeteries. Because it was Memorial Day weekend we found a lot of
people visiting in the cemeteries. Among our cache finds today were a couple near a small town called Burns Flat. It turned out that they were on the site of an old military base with quite a history. In the early days of WW-II the Navy bought up a bunch of farm land 15 miles south of Clinton, Oklahoma and built Clinton Naval Air Station as a training base for Navy pilots. After the war the base was closed and turned over to civilian authorities. In the early 1950's the government came back, re-aquired the rights to the property and opened Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base. The property was greatly expanded, including improving the runways to be very wide and 13,500 feet long, over two and a half miles. The base became a SAC base with several squadrons of nuclear armed B-52 bombers as well as their aerial refueling squadrons operating out of it. The base was again closed in 1969 and returned to civilian control. Because of the long runway, one of the longest and widest in the country, the Oklahoma authorities have been promoting it as a “Spacebase”, a location for the horizontal launching and recovery of space vehicles. So far that effort hasn't accomplished much more than some buzz and a few signs, and the air field is mostly just used for local companies as a regional airport. Most of the hangers are still up and being used, as well as the control tower and a few other buildings. The military barracks are gone, but the old base housing area has been turned into a neighborhood of mostly well maintained private homes. We had a good afternoon of caching, getting 14 new finds and one DNF. After caching we went back to the coach and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Monday, May 29^th, Memorial Day. We decided we needed a day off, so we just stayed in the coach for the day, except for a quick trip in the afternoon to Walmart for some coleslaw to go with the BBQ pork we are making in the crock pot tomorrow. We did a few little chores, watched a movie on TV and just enjoyed the day. Tuesday was another travel day. It was an easy 105 mile trip to Oklahoma City. We left Elk City about 10:30 and got into the Rockwell RV park in southwest OKC about 12:15. We were quickly parked and set up for our five day stay here in the capitol city.

Since we got here early we decided to go out and just do a little exploring in the afternoon. We spent a couple of hours doing a driving tour of the state capitol campus, the downtown area and the business area near where the RV park is. We did stop to get one geocache near the state capitol, in one of the little parks. A very pretty capitol building with oil wells in several locations around the building, including
one very large oil derrick right in front of the front steps. This is the only state capitol with active oil wells on the campus. It seems they built it right over a large sandstone oil deposit. After driving around for a while we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night. We enjoyed our yummy pulled pork for dinner.

Wednesday, May 31^st, we left the coach after lunch and went out for a day of adventure. We spent most of the afternoon geocaching, getting 24 new finds, and two DNFs, mostly in the southwestern part of town, not too far from where we are parked. About 4:30 we drove up to the northeastern part of the metro area to the town of Edmond, Oklahoma and visited the Elks Lodge there. Edmond is a bedroom community of OKC, and is also the home to Central Oklahoma University, one of Oklahoma's public universities. The lodge was in a very pretty rural area and was quite large. It was also one of the friendliest lodges we have visited in a long time. Although the lodge only has a little over 100 members, they were very busy and everyone who came in came over and said hi and talked to us. We had a couple of drinks and got a lodge pin, stayed for an hour or so and then left to go visit the Oklahoma City Lodge, which is the “mother lodge” of Oklahoma, the first Elks lodge in the state. The last time we were in Oklahoma City was back in 2006 and when we visited the OKC lodge they were in an older building near downtown. About four years ago they sold that building and land and built a new place in the southwestern part of town, only about eight miles from where the coach is parked. There were only a handful of people in this lodge, but the bar manager was a past Exalted Ruler and very friendly so she sat and talked to us until we left after about 45 minutes. Their new building was very nice, but they too only have about 150 members and are struggling. We got a new lodge pin before leaving. We stopped at a nearby Applebee's for a quick, late dinner, then headed back to the coach. We didn't get home until about 8:30 after a very busy and enjoyable day.

Thursday, June 1^st, a new month begins. We left the coach after lunch and went to get Jackie a haircut. After the haircut we did four geocaches that were close by and then stopped at Home Depot for some plexiglass. I am going to try and make a shield for the counter, next to the stove, to keep our old cat Smokey off of the counter and sink area. In his old age, pretty much blind and deaf, he has gotten into the habit of going up on the counter every chance he gets. We don't like his constant visits, so we hope that a splash guard will block his path from the couch. After Home Depot we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the afternoon there. We did a few chores and watched a movie on TV. Mid afternoon we had some storm clouds move through, got a lot of wind for about a half hour, but no rain. It is supposed to be this way for the next few days.

Friday, June 2^nd, the weather was still very iffy. We did our exercise walk in the morning and after lunch we did a quick Walmart run. Other than that, it was a stay at home day. Did a few chores and watched a movie on TV. We did get about two hours of pretty good rain in the mid afternoon, but it cleared up after that. Saturday was more of the same weatherwise. About noon we went to a nearby restaurant called Trappers for lunch with some RVing friends. A few days ago Jackie found out that Bob and Diana Beatty were going to be in Oklahoma City fo
r a couple of the days we were here. Their coach was actually parked at an RV park a mile west of where we are, but they had gone off on a three week car trip back east. They were going to be back on Thursday, so we made arrangements to have lunch on Saturday, our last day here in OKC. We met Bob and Diana several years ago at a rally and have had contact with them on and off since.

Trappers is a Louisiana themed fish restaurant with a very interesting decor and menu. Very “old bayou” kind of place. The food was quite good, although Jackie said her salmon was a little overdone. I had seared peppered ahi and it was wonderful. We also had an alligator appetizer, half fried and half blackened and grilled, and it was quite good too. We had a two hour lunch and really enjoyed visiting with Bob and Diana. We had last seen them in Chandler in March at the FMCA rally, but we didn't get to spend any time with them there. After lunch we ran some errands. One was to take the plexiglass I bought back to home depot since I got up this morning and Smokey was on the counter despite the plexiglass blocking the way from the couch. Not sure if he jumped up from the floor, or figured out a way around it, but I didn't see the need to go through all the trouble of trimming and securing a shield that wasn't going to do what we wanted it to do. We also drove around in the on and off rain doing a little more sight-seeing in OKC. About 4:00 we were back in the coach for the rest of the night.

Sunday, June 4^th, the 12^th anniversary of our full timing adventure. June 4^th, 2005 was when we closed on the house in Indio and bought our coach. Yea us, still going strong and loving the life. Today was moving day, despite the fact that the weather was going to stick around for one more day. We got out about 10:00 and started north and east on Interstate 44, heading for the northeast corner of Oklahoma and a resort on the Grand Lake of the Cherokee, near Grove, Oklahoma. Grand lake is a 43,000 acre lake formed by the building of Pensacola dam on the Grand River in 1935. We arrived at the Eagle's Landing Resort, which is right on the north shore of the lake, about 2:00, after driving through on and off rain the whole 200 miles from OKC. We got checked in and the basics set up in the rain and then just relaxed the remainder of the day. Our arrival here for a week long stay marks a good place to close this chapter and get it published. Until next time, remember that age is a very high price to pay for maturity. See ya soon.

Eastbound and Down

Hello again, welcome back to our travels. Our last chapter concluded on Sunday, April 30^th when we officially began our summer travels by leaving Santa Maria, California and starting east. Those of a “certain age” will recognize the title of this blog as the theme song from Smokey and the Bandit. Our first night was in Bakersfield, California where we stayed one night. Didn't even unhook the car, just relaxed for the afternoon and evening. Monday was another travel day, 150 miles east to Newberry Springs, California, just east of Barstow. We stayed at this same RV park last week when we were going West to the coast. Again we left the car connected for our one night stay and just stayed in and watched some TV for the day.

Tuesday, May 2^nd, we left Newberry Springs about 9:30 and continued east on Interstate 40, heading to Needles, 120 miles away. We arrived at the Needles Elks Lodge just before noon and got settled in for a two night stay. After we got set up and had lunch we went out to explore just a little and get at least one geocache so we could get the souvenir that they are giving for finding a cache today. This is the 15^th Anniversary of the sport of geocaching. We were able to find two quick caches and stopped at a store for a couple of things. We were going to make a Walmart run, but it seems that Needles doesn't have a Walmart, or any other grocery chain store for that matter. The closest Walmarts are in Bullhead City, Arizona or Kingman, Arizona. We drove around for a half hour exploring Needles and then went back to the coach for the rest of the afternoon. Today it was going to hit 100, so we are going to stay inside.

Wednesday, May 3^rd, we had a non-travel day for a change. Since it was going to be well over a hundred today we decided to go for a drive to Laughlin, Nevada, which is only about 30 miles north of Needles. We have not been to Laughlin in at least eight years, if not longer. The drive took about 40 minutes and our first stop was the Harrah's Casino. We gambled for an hour or so and then went to the coffee shop for lunch, although we both had breakfast. We then drove up to the Golden Nugget and gambled for another hour or so before leaving and making one last stop at the Riverside, the original Laughlin Casino. Laughlin is named after Don Laughlin who opened his casino and hotel in 1966. There are now ten casinos in Laughlin and it is listed as one of the top five RV destinations in the U.S. We didn't win anything, but between the two of us we only lost less than a hundred dollars for the day, and had a good time. When we finished at the Riverside we crossed the bridge into Bullhead City, Arizona, and stopped at Walmart for some supplies. We then went home, getting home about 5:30, before the cats even missed us. We spent the rest of the evening in the coach.

Thursday, May 4^th, Star Wars Day. (May the “fourth” be with you) This was another travel day, and was going to be as hot as yesterday. We got out around 9:30 and started east on Interstate 40 again. We are going 178 miles to Williams, Arizona. After 11 miles we crossed the Colorado into Arizona, leaving California for at least six months if the current travel plans stick. We made a fuel stop but still made it to Williams just after 1:00. Because Needles is 500 feet elevation and Williams is almost 7,000 feet, it was pretty much uphill all the way. I was really having to work to keep the coach from overheating, but we made it with no problems. Williams is considered to be the “Gateway” to the Grand Canyon and the old steam train that goes up to the canyon leaves from here. We are staying at the Grand Canyon Railroad RV park, which is right next to the tracks for the canyon train. We are going to be here for three days, so we took a little longer to get set up. Once we got set up we relaxed for the rest of the day. Jackie will need a quiet evening to acclimate to the altitude anyway.

Friday, May 5^th, Happy Cinco de Mayo! Not Mexican Independence Day as many believe, but certainly a day when everyone is Mexican. In the spirit, we went out to a local Mexican place called the Fiesta Grill for lunch. The food was good, not the best ever, but good, solid Sonoran Mexican food. The salsa was the best thing, the cost of the drinks the worst. My tequila driver and Jackie's margarita totaled more than our meals. After lunch we did one geocache, only because it had been put out the day before and we would be able to get an FTF (first to find) on the cache. Since we are not really early starters, we rarely get FTFs, so it is fun to stumble into one. After our cache find we went to the one laundromat in town and did our laundry, the first time since Ehrenberg. While unloading the car we were checked out by a Coconino County Sheriff's Deputy. It seems a few days ago an elderly couple were murdered and their car, a white Jeep Liberty, was stolen. The cops are looking at all white Jeep sedan's. Once our laundry was done we went home and put our clothes away and relaxed the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Saturday, May 6^th, we left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching in the Williams area. We had a good afternoon, getting 15 new finds, along with four DNFs, before quitting about 3:30. One of the caches was another milestone, number 8,500! Yea! We then went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day. Sunday was another travel day. There has been a storm system setting over the southwest for the last couple days, and, although we didn't have any rain like Southern California, we were having very strong winds. The winds blew all night long and we were a little worried about traveling, however, the other side of the coin was that we were at 7,000 feet and the storm was predicted to bring snow to as low as 5,000. Decision made, we were on the road about 10:00. We continued east, about 100 miles to Homolavi Ruins State Park, just north of Winslow, Arizona. We stayed at this park a couple of years ago and liked it. It is only about three miles out of town, but it is up on a mesa and very quiet and pretty. The winds on the trip were strong, but never got into the scary range, so we had a pretty good trip. We are going to be here in Winslow for five nights. We got everything set up and then we just relaxed the rest of the day.

Monday, May 8^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaches. We got four new finds, and two DNFs in about an hour, then the rainy weather that we had been promised looked like it was moving in. We quit caching and went back to the coach. As it turned out, the rain bypassed us except for some very light sprinkles.  Nonetheless, we had a nice, relaxing afternoon and the weather didn't spoil our evening BBQ. About a year ago our friend Ray Babcock brought back a bunch of Mahi from a Mexico fishing trip and it has been sitting in our freezer since. We got it out today, BBQed it and had some great fish tacos. Yum. Ironically, just as we were finishing dinner Ray called, the first time I had talked to him in weeks. Of course, we thanked him for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV.  The picture is of one of the geocaches we found today was at a 9/11 Memorial on Old Route 66.  It was built with two of the steel beams from the World Trade Center.

Tuesday, May 9^th, the promised rain finally came in early in the morning. About 4:00 a.m. the thunder came and we had a series of brief thunderstorms and rain showers until about 9:30. There was a break in the weather so I had time to get my walk in. We left the coach after lunch and went to Walmart, which is on the far west side of Winslow. We are just east and north of town. When we came out of the store we noticed a very heavy, black storm over towards the west. We drove through town, just sight-seeing a little, and didn't hit any rain until we turned into the drive for the State Park. We were right under the thunderstorm and the rain was very hard, and there was small, pea-sized hail. Fortunately, it was small and soft, so I don't think it could cause any damage to vehicles, but it was piling up on the ground like snow. Oddly, when we turned into the drive for the campground the hail stopped. The storm track was such that the hail was falling only about a quarter mile north of the campground, so the coach didn't get any at all. We spent the rest of the day around the coach. We did get a little more rain, but by evening it had cleared up. We did some pork chops on the BBQ for dinner and relaxed the rest of the night.

Wednesday, May 10^th, we went out after lunch to do some geocaching. It was still very cloudy, but the storm system was moving out to the east. In a few hours we were able to get eight new finds, and one DNF. About 3:00 we finished caching and stopped at the Winslow Elks Lodge. For whatever reason, we did not come here when we stayed in Winslow for the first time two years ago. The Elks are in their original old brick building, built in 1923, just a block or two from old downtown on Route 66. It is a two story building with the club room and a large ballroom on the first floor and the lodge hall taking up most of the second floor. The bartender took me up to the lodge room and it was very pretty and very typical for lodge rooms in the older lodge buildings. Very big with lots of seating. The entire Winslow Lodge is about 300 people and I think you could sit half of those in the Lodge Room. Clearly built for a different era. We had one cocktail and talked to the bartender, who was the only other person in the lodge while we were there.

One interesting bit of history is that the Arizona Elks were responsible for the introduction of the first actual elks into the State of Arizona. In 1913, a year after Arizona became a state, the Department of the Interior determined that the elk herds in and around Yellowstone National Park were too large. The Arizona Elks organization, with members of the Yuma Elks serving as spokesman, made application to capture and relocate elk to Arizona. Later that year 86 elk were captured and shipped to Winslow, turned over to members of the Winslow Lodge, and eventually located in the nearby Sitgraves National Forest. Many of the elk in Northern Arizona today are descendants of that original herd. The entire story can be read on the Winslow Elks website. (link here) After our visit at the Elks we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the evening relaxing. Thursday was finally a clear morning. We had a stay at home day today, getting a lot of little chores done.

Friday, May 12^th, another travel day. We left the Winslow area about 10:30 for the 126 mile trip east to Gallup, New Mexico. The trip was uneventful and we arrived at the USA RV park in Gallup about 1:30 local time. When we crossed the Arizona-New Mexico line we lost an hour, going on actual Mountain Savings Time rather than Arizona Mountain Time. We quickly got settled into our space for our two night stay. After we got set up we stayed in for the rest of the day. Saturday we left the coach about 11:00 and went out to lunch at a little restaurant called El Matate. It is a small, converted house in an old neighborhood near downtown that we discovered two years ago when we were here. We came then with the Babcock's and Bullock's and we all enjoyed our meals. We were not disappointed, the food and service were excellent. After lunch we did some geocaching and were able to get eight new finds and two DNFs in a few hours. We then did a Walmart run and returned to the coach where we stayed in for the rest of the night.

Sunday, May 14^th, Happy Mother's Day. Both of our mothers have passed away, so we don't really celebrate Mother's Day. It was another travel day for us. We left Gallup about 10:00, continuing east about 135 miles to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We made a fuel stop and then arrived at the Enchanted Trails RV park about 1:00. We have stayed at this park numerous times in the past. We quickly got parked and set up. The park is right next door to a Camping World store, so we had to make a quick run there after we got set up. We didn't buy much, only a reflective sun shade for the front window of the coach. However, we did run into some old caching friends, Robert and Diana Knight. It turns out they are also staying at the same RV park as us, right behind us in the row over. They have been in Albuquerque for several weeks getting some repairs done to their coach. After Camping World we went back to the coach, made cocktails and went over and had happy hour with Robert and Diana. We have known them for several years, meeting them while geocaching. After happy hour we went home and had some of the chili I made. We then stayed in and watched TV the rest of the day.

Monday, May 15^th, Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife Jackie, as well as our little cat Benji. Benji is five today, Jackie isn't. We went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We kind of got off to a slow start, with a few caches that we couldn't get to for one reason or another. However, it got better and we ended up with ten new finds and one DNF in a couple of hours. We then went back to the coach, relaxed for a bit, changed clothes and went out for dinner. For her birthday Jackie wanted to go to PF Changs, so that's where we went. We had a great meal, Jackie had salmon, I had surf and turf. For her birthday they bought her entree as well as gave us a desert to take home. We were back home about 7:30 and stayed in the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, May 16^th, we left the coach about noon and went to lunch at an interesting place called the Monte Carlo Steakhouse and Liquor Store. It has been featured on Chef Guy Fieri's TV show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and was recommended to us by a couple of friends. We have been to at least three other “Triple D” restaurants here in Albuquerque over the years, some good, some not so much. The restaurant is in the same building as a large liquor store, however, contrary to what you read, it does have it's own entrance in the back as well as access through the store. When we first walked in the first thing that came into both our minds was that it reminded us of Cactus Jack's in Indio. Lots of wood, low ceiling, red leather booths and chairs and bar decorations. Jackie had a cheeseburger, which she said was good, but nothing special. I had Louie's Special, which was kind of a cheese steak without the peppers. It was outstanding. Like Cactus Jack's, the portions where very big, lots of fresh cut fries on mine, lots of onion rings on Jackie's I would recommend the place, and it will be on my list of “go backs” the next time we are in Albuquerque. Speaking of Cactus Jack's, we just learned yesterday that the original Indio location is closing down this month. We have heard rumors for a year or more, but apparently the owner George has had issues with the landlord and is not going to renew the lease. He is making good money on the new store in Palm Desert. It is too bad, because the place holds a lot of memories for Jackie and I and a lot of our friends.

After lunch we drove to Costco for some things. It was a stormy day, on and off rain and wind, so there would be no caching. We needed to go to Costco because we are heading east and needed to stock up on vodka. The only states in the country where you can buy liquor at grocery stores and Costco without really high state taxes and fees, are California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. Once we leave here we are at the mercy of State liquor stores and high prices. We bought enough to get us about two thirds of the way through our summer trip. After Costco we headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening. Wednesday we went out after lunch for one more day of caching. In a few hours we had a dozen new finds, and one DNF. We went back to the coach so that I could do a couple things to get ready to travel tomorrow. We spent the rest of the day in the coach.

Thursday, May 18^th, we packed up the coach and headed out about 10:00, continuing east 185 miles to Tucumcari, New Mexico. We parked for the night at the Elks Lodge, water and electric for $15. Hard to beat. Since we were only going to be here for one night we didn't even unhook the car. We spent the rest of the day in the coach. Friday, was yet another travel day. The storm fronts that have been coming through the Southwest the last few days are moving out, but there are some strong winds in their wake. We only had to go a little over a hundred miles but it was a rough ride because of the strong cross winds. We arrived in Amarillo, Texas about 1:00 local time. When we crossed from New Mexico into Texas we lost another hour, moving into the Central Time Zone. We checked into the Oasis RV Resort and got our spot. We are going to be here for a week. I originally had it set up for five days, but the park's weekly rate is cheaper than the daily rate for five days. That was a no brainer.

Our arrival here in Amarillo, Texas, marks a good place to close out this episode and get it published. We are now 1,200 miles almost due east from where we started in Santa Maria, California less than three weeks ago. We are now out of the mountains of the Southwest and onto to the prairies of America's Heartland. We are also crossing Tornado Alley, so keep your fingers crossed. Until next time I leave you with the words of Billy Joel from his song, Keeping the Faith. “You know the good ole days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.” Later dudes.

A Quick Trip to the Coast

Hi there, glad to see you are back. Our last chapter ended on Saturday, April 15^th, when we left Camp Verde in Central Arizona and traveled south to Buckeye, a western suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. Sunday was Easter morning. Happy Easter. We got a Sunday paper and had a relaxing morning. We then went out to do some geocaching in the area. We were able to get nine new finds before we stopped because it was getting a little warm. Normally warm wouldn't bother us that much, but the air conditioning in our Jeep Grand Cherokee quit. Again! This makes the ninth time the air has stopped working in this car. It has literally been an annual event until this time, it lasted exactly two years, the length of the warranty of the part. It is very frustrating, but Jeep corporate has no interest in making us happy because the car is nine years old. We stopped and had lunch at a very nice Chinese restaurant. We had checked a couple other places, but they were closed or closing early. After lunch we went home and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach, in the A/C.

Monday, April 17^th was another travel day. We were packed up and on the road by 10:30, heading west to Ehrenberg, Arizona, on the Colorado River right across from Blythe, California. We got into the park and got set up, and then we stayed in the rest of the evening. For dinner we had the rest of the great Chinese food we had on Sunday. We are going to be here for three nights. We stopped here because Jackie has a doctor's appointment in the Coachella Valley on Wednesday. We didn't want to take the coach to the valley because we are headed to the California Central Coast, Santa Maria, after we leave here, and I will not drive through the Los Angeles basin during the week. We will drive the car into the Coachella Valley from here and then go north out of Blythe to Interstate 40, thus avoiding the LA area.

Tuesday, April 18^th, we went across the river into Blythe about 11:30 and had lunch at one of our favorite places. There is a little Mexican place called Garcia's in downtown Blythe that has wonderful homemade Mexican food. We have to hit it any time we are in the area. After lunch we went back to the park and did our laundry. There is a nice laundry in the clubhouse and the park is nearly empty this time of year, so there is no competition for the machines. We finished our laundry about 4:00 and spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the coach.  You have heard of sock monkeys?  Benji is our sock kitty, this is he on the bad as I was putting away my socks.

Wednesday, April 19^th, we left Ehrenberg, in the car, about 8:45 and headed west for the hundred mile or so drive to the Coachella Valley. Jackie had a follow up appointment for her knee today. We arrived with time to spare, and the drive wasn't too bad with no air because it was still fairly cool that early. Jackie got in to see the doctor and talked to him about the on and off pain in her leg. It is not so much the knee now as it is the muscles. The doctor didn't have too much to offer except to say keep exercising the leg and taking anti-inflammatory. At the very end he did suggest another cortisone shot, which he gave her right in the knee.

After we left the doctor's office we stopped and both of us got haircuts at a Great Clips in Rancho Mirage where there was a guy working who had done Jackie's hair a couple months ago. She really liked the haircut. I had my first haircut in about four or five months. We then drove to the Cactus Jack's in Indio and had lunch. By 2:30 we were on the road again, headed east toward home. We arrived back at the coach just after 4:00, not even an eight hour day. The cats never even missed us. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the coach.

Thursday, April 20^th, a travel day. We were packed up and on the road about 10:30, heading north to Needles, California. Within the first mile of the trip we crossed the Colorado into California, the first time the coach has been out of Arizona since January 15^th. The trip was about 100 miles, but U.S. 95 is a bad road, very curvy with lots of dips, in very bad shape, and, to top it off, the wind was blowing pretty hard. We arrived at the Needles Elks Lodge about 12:30 and I was glad to be off the road for the day. This Elks has full hook up, 50 amp sites, but Needles is not exactly a tourist destination. We didn't even unhook the car as we are on the move again in the morning. We did a minimal set up for the night and then spent the rest of the day relaxing in the A/C.

Friday, April 21^st, we were on the road again about 9:30, heading west on I-40 to Newberry Springs. It was 120 miles, most of it on freeway, so other than some gusty winds it was an easy drive. We arrived at the Newberry Mountain RV park around noon and quickly got parked and settled in for another one night stand. Today we decided to unhook the car and go do some exploring. Newberry Springs is an unincorporated community of about 3,000, although in our exploring I would be hard pressed to say where most of those people were. The bulk of the buildings, which line the National Trails Highway, the two lane road running parallel with the freeway, were vacant and falling down. This two lane road used to be a part of old Highway 66, the Mother Road.

We had lunch at a run down, but VERY interesting diner called the Bagdad Cafe. It seems that in 1988 this was the location of a movie called Bagdad Cafe, a German made comedy. The inside of the place is covered in money, tee shirts, cards, stickers, placards and other memorabilia. We actually had lunch, a couple of cheeseburgers that were OK, but while we ate there were a dozen people who just came in, looked around, took some pictures and left. Apparently the film is a bit of a cult culture hit, especially with European tourists. After lunch we did some geocaching along old 66, getting five new finds, and one DNF, before deciding it was getting too hot to drive around with no air conditioning. We went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day.

Saturday, April 22^nd, we were on the road about 9:45, continuing west towards Bakersfield, about 120 miles away. The drive was pretty routine, no wind, just a bit of a grade up and down over Tahachapai Pass. We arrived at the Desert Palms RV Park about 12:30, quickly got parked and set up for our last one night stand for a while. We didn't unhook the car today, so we just stayed in the coach the rest of the day. Sunday was the last travel day for this sprint to the coast. We were on the road about 9:30 heading west 130 miles to Santa Maria, California. We arrived at the Santa Maria Elks Lodge about 12:30 and got parked in our spot. We did the initial set up then went out and got an In and Out for lunch and did a Walmart run. After we got back to the coach we finished getting set up and then relaxed the rest of the evening. Our primary purpose for coming here is to see Jackie's Aunt Donna, who is 91 and lives in Pismo Beach, just north of Santa Maria. We will be here for a week.

Monday, April 24^th, I headed out about 7:30 and took the Jeep to the local dealer to get the air conditioning fixed. The service rep told me that his A/C guy had a couple of other jobs ahead of me and that it would likely be after lunch before they had a diagnosis of the problem. I had the shuttle take me back to the coach and we hung around the coach the rest of the day. We did a few chores and played some cards. About 4:30 I got a call from the dealer that it was, in fact, the condenser again, the same issue as the last seven times. He also said I had a minor oil leak in one of the rear axle seals. I gave him our extended warranty information and he called back a little later to tell me that the office for the warranty was closed and he couldn't call until tomorrow. Since it made no sense to pick up the car tonight just to drop it off again first thing tomorrow, I told him to keep the car and get on it first thing in the morning. We checked to see if Jackie's Aunt Donna and her grandson Corey wanted to come over and visit, but Corey said Donna was not feeling like going out. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV.

Tuesday, April 25^th we were stuck in the coach with no car. The dealer called in the morning and said that the extended warranty company had approved the repairs and that they would get the part that day. However, in the mid afternoon the service guy called and said the part had just come in and it was not likely that the repairs would be done before the end of the day. We spent the rest of the day playing cards and relaxing. Wednesday the dealer finally called about 1:30 and said the car was fixed and ready to pick up. The shuttle came and picked me up a little while later and by 2:30 I was in the car and traveling with air conditioning. It only cost the $250 deductible and I plan on writing Chrysler Jeep again to try and get that refunded. I stopped at KFC and picked up some chicken for dinner and then went back to the coach, got Jackie and we drove over to her Aunt Donna's in Pismo Beach for the first time this trip. Regular readers will remember that she lives in a very nice house on the hill overlooking downtown Pismo Beach and the pier. A great view of the beach and the ocean. We had a very nice visit with Donna and Corey, her grandson who lives with her and is her caretaker. Donna is 91, soon to be 92 and is doing pretty well for her age, but she is still frail and needs someone to watch over her. We had the KFC for dinner and left about 7:30 to head back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Thursday, April 27^th, we left the coach after lunch and drove to San Luis Obispo to do some shopping. We stopped at Dick's Sporting goods because for the last couple of months Jackie has been wanting to get one of the patio rocking chairs that sit flat on the ground and have shock absorbers on the back legs so you can rock the chair. We have checked a couple of places before, but everyone was out of stock. This store had a bunch of them, so we were able to get her one. Yea! We then did a Costco run since the stores were right across the street from each other. After shopping we went back to the coach and unloaded our stuff. About 5:30 we drove up to Nipomo, the next town north, to go to Jocko's for dinner. Jocko's is a local steak house that is, as far as I am concerned, the best steak house anywhere. Corey and Donna met us there and we had a great meal, with lots of leftovers. After dinner we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Friday, April 28^th, we were invaded by dogs. The Elks is hosting a dog agility competition this weekend in the park area between where we are parked and the Lodge building. There are all kinds of RVs coming in and people setting up tents and shelters as well as the obstacle course that they run the dogs through. This is the second or third time we have been here when this dog event is going on. We left the coach about 1:30 and drove up to Donna's to spent the day with her and Corey. We just sat and talked, had some cocktails and snacks late in the afternoon, and just had a good visit. We left a little before 7:00, went back to the coach and had a light dinner. We then watched TV the rest of the evening.

Saturday, April 29^th, was a stay at home day, although we did make a quick run to the grocery down the street for a couple of things. Corey and Donna came over around 1:30 to spend the afternoon. Jackie's cousin Pia, who lives nearby in Grover Beach, also came over. We pretty much just sat and talked, although Corey and I did go outside for an hour or so to watch the dogs on the agility courses. They had everything from Chihuahuas to German Shepherds running the obstacles. The only thing is that for the little dogs the jumps were lower. Corey brought over a lasagna and we had that for dinner with the five of us. Everyone left about 6:00 and I spent an hour or so cleaning up so we could leave tomorrow. After that we relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, April 30^th, another travel day. For the next four days we will be back tracing our route over here to Santa Maria. Today we traveled 130 miles to Bakersfield. We got into the RV park about noon for our one night stay. We didn't unhook the car, so we just stayed in for the day and chilled. Since we have now completed all of our winter travel and our spring family visits. As of today we are officially starting our 2017 Summer Tour, which will take us all the way across the country to a series of rallies in the Midwest in July and then on to the far Northeast part of the U.S. We are working to cover the eight states in the continental U.S. that we have not been in, all in the Northeast. From today until we arrive back in Pahrump in November we will have traveled almost 10,000 miles if we stick to the current plan. All of this means that this is the perfect place to close this chapter and begin the first of many episodes covering our summer odyssey. Until next time I leave you with this very apropos quote from Robert Louis Stevenson. “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” See ya soon.