Roxy gets some excercise

I took Roxy to a field in my Mom's park today where dogs are alowed to run loose. I took my dummy launcher that shoots a dummy that simulates me shooting a bird out of the sky. Tonight we are going for blue crab for dinner.

Christmas Dinner

Today (Christmas) we spent at my cousin Janet’s house. She lives South of Tampa on a river that goes into the Tampa Bay. She served us a standing rib roast for dinner. After dinner Roxy and her dog Rocky had a nice swim in the pool.

Nan and I got Crabs

We are still hanging out in Brooksville, FL. It’s nice to be able to crash in the same place for a while. I went fishing on Tuesday on a party boat. It hold about 30 people and cost $60 per person. It leaves the dock at 8:00 and gets back at 4:00. Since it was Tuesday there were only 15 people on the boat. I caught about 4 grouper, but they were all too small to keep. The captain gets fined around $350 for each undersize grouper so they are real careful to throw back the small ones. I also caught one grunt that I could have kept, but I threw it back since I didn’t want to bother with one fish. In total the boat caught about 7 keeper groupers and several grunts.
Yesterday my Mom, Nan and I went to a restaurant that serves blue crab in garlic and oil. Very healthy. Today we smell like Little Italy.

Brooksville, FL

We arrived in Brooksville, FL on Monday. We are going to be here 3 weeks. This made Nan very happy since she could now set up her sewing machine and get some quilting done. Then she helped me get the Smart Car off the truck. Unfortunately there was a mishap and she smashed her fingers with one of the ramps. It’s not as bad as it looks. She’s going quilting tomorrow at a local quilt shop.
We are parked under trees so our satellite TV isn’t working. I ordered cable TV today for $63 for the month. My mother said she would pay for the cable if we bought her a microwave at Big Lots. We picked it up today for $62. Looks like I’m ahead a dollar.

Savannah

We spent 2 nights at the Skidaway State park near Savannah. This is the first state park we stayed in with this rig. Luckily it is the slow time of year for the park. While I was looking for a site a guy pulled up in his golf cart. He was a camp host there (volunteer) and he used to own a trucking firm in Seattle. He had me jump in his cart and we found a spot big enough for us to fit. It was a very nice park with trails and lots of trees. Unfortunately, no satellite reception or sewer hookup. Also, the road in the campground is narrow. I would stay here again, but only in off-season. The sites are first come, first served, so there is no guarantee that I could find a site that fits if they were busy.
We went to Savannah on Thursday. There are two pictures of stone streets by the river. In the old days, ships would come into Savannah to pick up cotton and other goods. They would arrive with all these stones that they would use for ballast to stabilize the ships when empty. When they got to Savannah they would toss the rocks on shore and load up with cargo. Savannah used the rocks to build roads and buildings.
We were walking past a bus tour booth with Roxy, and the lady in the booth said "Our tour busses are pet friendly." So we bought a couple tickets and the 3 of us hopped on the bus. It’s a very interesting city. We will have to stay in the area for a few days the next time we are in Georgia. The smallest house in Savannah is currently for sale. It’s just over 500 square feet, and they are asking around $250,000. They would probably take less.
Friday we left for Florida. We spent 3 nights by Ocala and visited with my brother’s cousin-in-law Linda, and her husband Wayne. They live in Ocklawaha, FL. That’s a hard name to spell and pronounce. I wish those Indians would just learn to speak American so it would be easier for the rest of us.
They have some bears in the area so we drove around about an hour looking for bears. We didn’t see any until we got back to their house and saw one running in the next lot over from them.

Before we left the Ocala campground we took a walk one evening and noticed a bald eagle in the tree. My camera/video recorder is 60 power, so I was able to get a close-up shot.

Tours of Charleston

We spent 4 nights in Charleston and learned some interesting things by taking a carriage tour through the city. The one picture show the water line on a brick building. This is along the main drag in Charleston. Apparently because much of the city is below sea level there is a lot of flooding - about every couple of weeks. We were told that when this main road floods, the cars parked on the street all have out-of-state plates on them. The locals know to check the weather report the night before. Charleston also has a law on the books that once something reaches 75 years of age it can’t be removed - This includes trees. Around 74 years ago the city constructed Army barracks for servicemen. After the war they were changed into low-income housing. Now the city of Charleston is in risk of having the only low income housing facility that is protected by the government as a historical property.
The next day we went to visit the Boone Plantation. The definition of a plantation is as follows: It has to have been at least 1,000 acres of which at least 500 acres was being cultivated, and there had to be slave labor. The entrance to the plantation is referred to as the boulevard of oaks. These oaks are about 300 years old, and live to be about 600 years. Part of 3 movies were filmed here - North and South (with Patrick Swayze), the Notebook, and the sequel to Roots.
That night I took a tour of the Charleston Jail that was closed in the early 1900's. It’s suppose to be haunted. The carriage tour drive said he went on this tour twice and he won’t go back since he got so scared, so Nan declined to go with me. He must have been a real pansy because it wasn’t that scary. The jail was built to have no plumbing or electricity. The life expectancy of prisoners was about 2 months because of the rampant diseases. Also, when people walked on the floor is would crunch from the head lice. The warden was into torturing prisoners. He left his house one morning to walk to his job at the jail, he never arrived, and noone knows what ever happened to him. Although these are gruesome stories, nothing happened that scared me on the tour.
It rained again Tuesday night, but we were able to power our way out of the muddy campsite this morning and head to Savannah, GA.

Charleston, SC

Friday morning we left Mt. Airy and headed for Statesville, NC. They have a Camping World RV facility there and we needed a new antenna. A while back we had a TV antenna incident. Although we have satellite TV, it doesn’t get the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC). To get those channels we have to crank up a manual antenna and get the signals the old fashion way. This allows us to watch the shows that make us a caring, civilized society, like Dancing With The Stars. Donny Osmond ROCKS!!! The weakness in this system is if you forget to crank the antenna down when you leave, it gets whacked off by the tree limbs or bridges. This unfortunately happened to us. I blame Nan. I repaired the antenna, but we got a bad storm in Mt. Airy and the roof was leaking a little. I decided to get a saucer shaped antenna that doesn’t crank up so we won’t have to remember to crank it down anymore. The antenna was on sale for around $130. We only had to pay $110 to install, $50 to remove the old antenna, and a few other charges for parts and labor to patch the roof, so we got out of there for just under $400. They didn’t seem to care that we are on a fixed income. The good news is that we spent the night there for FREE in there storage area. They even had electric hookup for overnighters.
Saturday we arrived in Charleston, SC. They had a lot of rain here, and unfortunately the campsites are grass/mud rather than gravel sites. I’m able to lock the gears in my truck to turn it into a 4 wheel drive to reduce the chances of getting stuck, and everything turned out OK. For those out there that are shopping for a truck, just remember, if you’re in the mud with a 2-wheel drive truck, you will bury your rear wheels up to the axles in mud. But if you spend to money to get a 4-wheel drive, that allows you to bury all 4 wheels up to the axles in mud.
That night we went to a seafood restaurant for dinner. They had a steamed oyster special that night. I’ve eaten oyster fried and raw in individual shells, but never steamed. It came in several clumps of shells, and combined it was the size of a basketball. I’d pry open a large shell with a special dull knife they gave me, and there would be a small oyster in there. I don’t mind working for my food, but it turns out I’m not a big fan of steamed oysters. It was one of those things that I’m glad I tried, but I won’t be doing it again. We are in Charleston 4 nights, so we should get a chance to see the sights.

Leaving Ohio

We are back on the road again after spending a short month living with Nan’s mom. People keep asking, but YES we both enjoy staying with her. We got a chance to see some friends while in Ohio, and now we are heading for Florida to spend Christmas with my mother. We probably won’t be back to Ohio until next October. We left Ohio Monday morning and drove to Mt. Airy, NC to stay at the Mayberry Campground. Not only is this the home of Andy Griffith, it is also the home of Eng and Chang Bunker, the original siamese twins. Apparently they traveled the world and decided to live in Mt. Airy after meeting a pair of sisters and getting married. You are probably wondering why sisters would marry siamese twins. Well, I saw their pictures and they make Aunt Bee look like Pamela Anderson. I was told that when the got married they all lived in one house. This didn’t work out too well, so they moved to a farm with two houses so each wife would have their own home. Then the brothers would spend about 3 days in one house, then go over to the other house for three days. Between the two of them they had about 20 kids. Freaky.
We are staying here four nights because they have such a good rate here. We paid about $63 for the four nights. They owner said if we want to stay the month it’s only $300 per month until March, but we want to head for warmer weather. We bought an electric mattress pad yesterday since it’s getting into the 30's at night and our furnace is burning up a lot of propane. With two people, a dog, a cat, and an electric mattress pad, the bed was pretty comfortable last night.

Staying with Family in Ohio

We’ve been at Nan’s mom’s house for a couple of weeks now. When we first got here we dropped the trailer off at the dealer for repairs. The warranty expires in mid November so we wanted a few things taken care of while it was still under warranty. Anything that breaks now is on our nickel.
I’ve taken Roxy pheasant hunting about 3 times so far. Twice I took the Smart Car and once I drove the truck to Grand River Wildlife Area where the State of Ohio stocks pheasants. I included a picture of the truck in the wildlife area parking lot. I imagine people wonder what a semi with S. Dakota plates is doing parked in an Ohio hunting area. I haven’t gotten any pheasants yet, but that’s OK. The second day there Roxy and I were in the woods and I heard something in the leaves. There was a very fat groundhog heading towards me that Roxy didn’t see. I was thinking maybe it had rabies or something since it was coming right towards me, so I was going to blast it if it got much closer. Actually it was just trying to find it’s hole that was covered with leaves. It finally found the hole about 10 feet from me, but it was so fat (right before it’s winter hibernation) that it had trouble getting in the hole. It kind of tumbled in through the leaves and the last thing I saw was it’s belly pointing toward the sky while it was kicking its hind feet to get in the hole before Roxy saw it. I went out the next day and Roxy was able to flush up a pheasant, but I missed. The state is putting more pheasants out this Saturday so I’ll be out again next week.

Halloween in Maryland

We stayed in the D.C. area the whole month of October and made it to Ross’ Halloween party despite the rain. Ross made up his garage as a mini haunted house. Some of us then took part in trying to scare the kids as they went through the haunted house. I love the sound of teenage girls screaming. After the trick-or-treat portion of the evening was over, Ross, Jim, and 3 other friends put on a jam session in their back yard. In the past they’ve had around 100 people attend the party/jam session. I thought the highlight of the show might be when their electric instruments reacted with the rain, but they went through their set without a hitch. I included a video of Nan dancing with Ross’ daughter Sara during the sound check session earlier in the day.
They next day we packed up and headed for Ohio where we are going to stay with Nan’s mom through Thanksgiving. Because I’m now a S. Dakota resident, I had to buy a non resident hunting license in Ohio so Roxy and I can go after pheasants. Unfortunately a non resident license is $120. It will give Roxy and I a chance to go out and get some exercise, so hopefully it will be worth the price.

A weekend at an Ocean City beach house.

We are spending the month of October hanging around D.C. We have family in the area - My brother Don and his wife Sue, their sons Ross and Jim, and their wives and kids. Ross has a big Halloween party every year that we want to attend, so we will take off for Cleveland around 11/1.
The campgrounds around D.C. are about $40 per night. Nan found one that charges a weekly rate of $120. It’s about 75 miles from D.C., and an hour from my brother’s house. The only downside is some of the campers are low-to-moderate income residents. One night the husband and wife two sites over got into an argument and a glass window was broken. The next day the Sheriff was evicting a homeless man who was invited into a tent occupied by some woman. A couple of days later she invited him back so management kicked them both out. I was oblivious to all of this. We’ve had no problems and everyone we’ve talked to has been very nice.
On 10/16 I went with Don, Ross, Jim, and Jim’s 3 year old son Alex to Ross’s beach house in Ocean City, MD. It’s on a canal about 30 seconds from Chesapeake Bay. Included is a picture of their canal. Ross has 2 jet skis, so he and I went in the rain and cold for a ride in the bay. There is a picture of me before the ride. I know what you are thinking ladies, but forget it. My heart and body belong to Nan. The temp was probably in the mid 40's. The cruise on the canal was nice. Then I gave it the gas and flew like the wind into the bay. The raindrops were peppering my face, my sweatshirt was blowing in the wind, and when I glanced at the speedometer it said I hit warp speed of 15 MPH. Luckily Ross told me later that the speedo was broken and I was probably doing around 35 to 40 MPH. It was rough in the bay and the waves started crashing into me. I noticed I was taking a lot of quick shallow breathes when that happened. I wondered what would happen if I fell off the ski into the cold water, so I suggested that we go into calmer seas. I was sure my blood nephew would take whatever steps were necessary to save my life, but when I looked around he was just a dot on the horizon heading for protected waters. I followed him on my ski but because it was rough I was going about the same speed as a pony ride. When I finally got into protected waters I was able to really open it up and put a smile on my face. I found that one advantage of riding a jet ski in the rain is when the bugs hit your teeth they are quickly washed off.

Later that day we went to see the Corvette parade on the boardwalk that was scheduled for that weekend. About 600 Vette owners signed up for the parade. Not sure how many showed up in the rain, but there were plenty. After the parade, Alex begged us to take him to Hooters Restaurant, so we finally gave in. Our waitress mentioned that she wanted to move out of the area. Ross told her that I was living in an RV and traveling the country and maybe she could go with me. When she responded that sounded like a good idea. I told her it was OK with me if it was OK with my wife. The waitress was still willing, but don’t expect to see any of her pictures in our future travels. Nan’s such a prude sometimes.

Gettysburg

Yesterday and today we looked around Gettysburg, PA. Here is a quick history lesson for those that are interested. In 1863 the town of Gettysburg had a population of 2,200. During the Civil War, the North and South happened to meet in Gettysburg. They fought for 3 days beginning July 1, 1863. In one battle called Pickett’s Charge, the South tried to overtake the Northern stronghold and they lost 5,000 men in one hour. By the end, 6,600 people had died. A total of 51,000 people had either died, been wounded, or were missing. Many of the missing returned after everything settled down. Of course the North won the battle. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln arrived by train and gave his famous Gettysburg Address during the dedication of the National Cemetery. Included is a picture of the train depot where Lincoln arrived, and a picture of a small section of the fences that the troops constructed to give themselves some protection against enemy fire.
I went to the visitor center and you can go to a computer there and look up if you had any relatives that fought at Gettysburg. Just like Ellis Island, there were several Graham’s so I’m not sure if any of them were related. Nan and I then took a tour in our car to different spots in the area that marked certain battles.
It’s starting to get cold here at night so I’m glad we are moving a little further south tomorrow. It was so cold this morning that when I woke up I noticed that Nan had frost on her pumpkins.

New york City

We just finished up a 4 night stay in Florida, NY, which is about one hour from New York City. On Thursday we drove the Smart Car to NYC. We planned on parking it and going to China Town to buy some $50 Louis Vitton purses and scarfs. Because parking was about $30, and the places we wanted to see were not close to each other, we just drove around in the city. At one point I slowed down in China Town and Nan jumped out to buy some scarfs. In the 15 minutes it took me to go around the block she was able to complete the transaction. We also drove by ground zero, Rockefeller Center, and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Roxy and I never got out of the car. This is the one time I have been happy with the Smart Car. Being that small it was easy to zip around in tight spaces.
On Friday Nan and I left Roxy in the trailer and caught to ferry to Ellis Island. We looked around there a couple hours and then took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We were running short on time so we didn’t get off the ferry at the statue. It was about 4:00 when we started our drive back, so we hit some rush hour traffic in Jersey which was interesting.
Saturday we drove out to the Orange County Choppers showroom. It’s from the American Choppers show on TLC. There were several custom made themed bikes in the showroom, including a 9/11 bike and a Vietnam MIA bike. Didn’t see anyone from the show though.
Today (Sunday) we drove to a Gettysburg, PA campground. We’ll look around the town in the next couple of days. We did meet a guy here that said he planned to live in his RV full-time around 3 years, and so far he’s done it 15 years.

Segway Tour

Today Nan and I took a tour of Guilford, Ct on Segways. It took about 10 minutes to get used to them and then we were able to zip along. Included in the tour was the oldest house in New England and the marina. Nan and I are always interested in real estate values. One person we talked to has a 600 sq foot cabin on the water in Guilford. It's worth $600,000, and real estate taxes are $11,000 per year. Not exactly like the Cleveland market.

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut

Yesterday we went to Mystic Seaport in Conn. It’s an outdoor sea museum. There is a replica of the ship Amistad that was used for slave trade. Also, they had a small bank that was basically used to hold valuables and issue it’s own bank notes. No checking or savings accounts in the early 1800's. On the way home I took a picture of a stone fence. Each state seems to have something unique. Conn has a lot of these stone fences along the roads. Even the campground where we are staying has one around one campground site. It seems like a lot of work since some of these fences stretch several hundred yards and are 2 to 3 feet thick.
I got in my first disagreement with a campground owner while checking in. I paid for a weekly rate ($150), and unlike almost any other campground in the world they consider a week to be 6 nights here. I was always pretty good at math, and tried to explain that a week is 7 days and nights, but finally I was told - "That’s the rules. If you don’t like it you can leave". After about a 5 hour drive I decided to stay. I did some quick math and I’m out about $21.43. On a related note, there is a nice website called http://www.campgroundreviews.com/ People that stay in campgrounds can write their reviews in this website giving positive and negative feedback. Look for my review in about a week for Lake Williams Campground, Lebanon, CT. Because of them there’s some poor poker player at Foxwoods Casino that wasn’t able to win another $21.43 from me.

Visit with a coworker on Sebago Lake

Yesterday we visited a former coworker, Doug, and his wife Linda. Doug inherited a cabin from his father in Raymond, Maine right on Sebago Lake. I attached a picture of his beautiful view from the back deck. He has set up an account at the local bank if anyone would like to make a contribution to help him pay his real estate taxes. Doug also has a problem similar to Pinocchio, he has a wood pecker. You can see the tree that has several large holes. Another one in their back yard snapped in half from the damage done by the bird. After seeing their house we went to a local seafood restaurant and (of course) Nan and I got some lobster.

Bath Maritime Museum

Yesterday we went to Fort Popham by Popham Beach State Park in Maine. We tried to get in the State Park, but no dogs allowed this time of year. The ranger said we can walk the dogs by the fort on the beach if we keep her on a leash. We went there, and were one of the few people that kept our dog on a leash. It’s not that we were being responsible dog owners. We just know from past experience that Roxy would start swimming to her mother land (Newfoundland) if we let her off the leash.
Today we went to the Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine. There was a picture in the museum of local fisherman that I included in this blog. Apparently some of the fisherman had quite a crack problem. The museum included a fishing boat built in 1942 that we toured. Also I included a picture of the dry dock that is currently used at the Bath Boatworks facility. Once boats are completed they are put into this dry dock that is then pulled into the river. The dry dock is then sunk so the boat can float out.

Maine Lobster

Yesterday we drove from Mass. To Phippsburg, Maine. We found this campground in Maine that is a member of Passport America. It’s a club you join for about $50 per year, and you can get a site for half off. A lot of these campgrounds have restrictions like no discount on weekends, or maybe it’s only good for one or 2 nights. This campground didn’t have any restrictions like that so we were able to stay for a week for around $140 rather than $280.
The drive yesterday took about 5 hours. We are still trying to find what works best for us. Nan doesn’t like driving that long in one day. She would rather drive about 3 hours. But on the other hand, Nan would rather get to a place and stay for about a week rather than doing short trips each day. So if we could get those 2 people to agree on how to travel I think things would go a little smoother. Actually, now that we are here for a week and eating lobster she is in good spirits. When Momma is happy, everybody is happy.
The campground cooks a lobster dinner for you if you want. The lobster is $5.99 per pound. You can also get sides like potato, corn, clams, butter, for a little extra. We had a couple lobsters each for dinner last night. Today we went to where the campground buys it’s lobster. We paid $3.75/lb. We bought 8 lobster and brought them back to the trailer to cook ourselves. We have plenty of meat left over, so I’ll make either a lobster salad or spicy lobster salad tomorrow. It was kind of funny - We went to Wal Mart to buy some things and they had live lobster for close to $10.00/lb.
It seems like when we spend a couple days driving, when we get to our destination we spend the next day just hanging around the trailer, getting things organized, doing laundry, and relaxing. In the week we are in Maine we plan on doing more than just hanging around the campground and eating lobster, but so far that has been the highlight.

Left for Turning Stone Casino

We spent a couple days visiting with Nan's Aunt and Uncle. We were able to fit in their driveway which was nice. I wonder what the Amish thought when they drove their buggies past this residential driveway with a semi parked in it. We left this morning and ended up close to Turning Stone Casino. We'll spend a couple of days here and then continue on to New England.

You can see a picture of us in their driveway, plus a video of me driving the Smart Car up the ramps onto the semi.

Heading for New York State

We are finishing up our visit with Nan's Mom tonight, and tomorrow we head for the finger lake region of New York (by Watkins Glenn race track) to visit her Aunt and Uncle for a couple days. The trailer is packed up and ready to go. I had Nan take a video of me loading the Smart Car on the semi. I'll try to upload that video to the blog in a couple of days.

While at Nan's Mom's house I came across a video of Nan as a baby. When we were looking for a trailer I wanted one with a pocket door that separated the living room from the rest of the trailer. That way I could close the pocket door and watch my movies in piece while Nan sewed or whatever in the kitchen area. Take a look at Nan's baby video below and you'll see why I insisted on this privacy door.

http://rock103.com/pages/crew/twisted/play.html?filename=borntobabble.wmv

We left Elkhart.

We waited until Wed for the counter top repair specialist to show up. He arrive about noon on Wed and said "Oh, you have granite, not Corian. I can’t repair that." So that was a waste of 3 days. Thursday we left for Nan’s Mom’s house. We’ll stay here a few days and then off to New England. Yesterday I received the $1,000 check from the Chinese tire company to cover my deductible on the damage. The insurance company covered the remaining $1,700. Nan and I took all this in stride this time, but if we have to go through it again then one of us will break down in tears. I’m not sure how Nan will react.

Today (Sat), I went to Mountaineer Casino in Chester WV with Nan's Mom and her 2 friends Jim and Shirley. I play limit hold em poker. They only had $2.00/$4.00. I prefer a higher stakes but that's all they had. I played about 4 hours and lost $20. I can't wait to go to Foxwoods Casino in Conn where they have real poker.

Repairs Made

Well, we are close to leaving Elkhart after our repairs. The body work and paint were completed today. We talked to the shop owner about repairing a crack we have in our granite counter top. He said in order to have it done right there is a specialist in town that does this kind of work and it doesn’t look patched. It’s under warranty, so no cost to us. Unfortunately, the guy can’t do it until Wed afternoon. So we are paying $35/night for 3 nights waiting for this guy to come out and do the repairs. I also had some problems with my truck. A couple days ago the speedometer, tach, oil pressure, water temp, radio, and cig lighter quit working. I suspected a fuse, but couldn’t find a bad one. I took it to the shop today and it turned out to be one fuse labeled "clock". It cost me $50. I told the mechanic I felt stupid, but he said they never should have labeled it "clock. He also said later model Kenworths don’t have all those guages going to one fuse anymore. I figured they charged me $1.00 to change the fuse, and $49.00 to know what fuse to change.

Repairs Being Made

The insurance adjuster finally got a hold of us so we can start the repair process. I had gotten tired of waiting for the adjuster so I called the company that is going to do the repair (Charger Enterprises), and they came out and gave us an estimate. Our deductible is $1,000, and I figured if the repairs cost around that I could go ahead and get the work done and not worry about filing a claim with the insurance company. The estimate came out to $2,700. So much for that idea.
On the way to the repair place we stopped at La-Z-Boy furniture. We had picked out 2 new recliners to replace our uncomfortable recliners that came with the trailer. We wanted to make sure they fit so we parked in the lot and put the chairs in the trailer before we committed to buy. They fit fine, so Nan went back in the store to see if they would take less for them. Because they were already sitting in the trailer, I didn’t have high hopes for a better price. After a couple of minutes, my straight-laced Christian wife came back and said "We had to pay full price. They had us by the balls."
After we purchased the chairs we drove the whole rig to a Goodwill drop-off point to get rid of the old chairs. We got the rig in the Wal Mart parking lot where the Goodwill drop-off box was, but it was very busy, and half the parking lot was under being repaved. The sign by the bin said if we left something outside the bin we could get fined $2,500 for dumping. They had a small hole in the bin to put goods in there, but the bigger door of the bin was locked. We got the chairs out of the trailer, took them to the bin, reclined them fully, and were able to cram them in that hole of the bin and get them in there. It feels good donating to poor people. Then Nan had to stop traffic coming into Wal mart so I could back the rig out and get out of Dodge.
Now we are sitting in the parking lot of the repair facility, plugged into a 30 amp plug so we have electric. Tomorrow is Thursday, so they have 2 days to work on it before the weekend begins. Our guess is we will be in Elkhart through the weekend, then head for Cleveland after the repairs are completed some time next week.

I put my tire pressure monitor system to the test

Well we had a boring day in Salem/Madison SD picking up mail, washing the RV, etc. Then today we left for Minn and had an exciting day. We planned on working our way to the upper peninsula of Michigan in the next 3 or 4 days where Nan’s grandparents had a house and 3 cottages. After we entered Minnesota we heard a loud pop. A couple seconds later the alarm in my tire pressure monitor started going off. One of our Chinese tires blew, and I saw a part of our trailer flapping in the breeze. I pulled over to inspect the damage. A couple minutes later 2 nice highway workers pulled up to hand me my plastic fender and hot water tank screen. I declined their offer to help since I had some experience changing these tires before. I put the spare on and we headed for Fairmont, MN. Originally I thought Fairmont would be too close to spend the night, but it turns out it was a good place to stop. I called a local tire place and they had some Goodyears in stock, so I replaced the Chinese blown out tire with a Goodyear. I’m going to take the trailer there tomorrow and have 3 more Goodyears put on, and keep one Chinese as a spare. I had hoped to make it a lot further today, but it turns out that cheap tire really put a chink in our plans. In case you can't make it out, the first picture is our fender sitting by our kitchen table.

Heading East from Deadwood

Yesterday we had a long day of driving. We hung around in Deadwood an extra day waiting for a package in the mail. I had bought a Pressure Pro tire monitoring system when we started traveling that monitors the pressure in each of my 14 tires. The trailer came with cheap Chinese made tires that are known to blow out. Unfortunately, the American made tires don’t have a much better reputation, so for now I’m sticking with the Chinese tires. I couldn’t get the Pressure Pro system to work consistently. I suspected I had a bad monitor. They said they hadn’t had a bad monitor in several years. Turns out I was right, so they sent me a new one.
We left Deadwood at about 9:00, stopped at a Subway for lunch by Wall Drug, stopped in Wal Mart in Mitchell, and arrived at Salem, SD at around 5:00. The Pressure Pro system worked perfectly. Now I don’t have to be stressed about having a tire blow out on the trailer and me going down the road not knowing that I’ve lost a tire. If this happens, an alarm will sound and I can pull over and put on the spare tire. The good news is that the Pressure Pro monitor costs only $250. The bad news is that you have to put a sensor on each tire, and each sensor costs $50.

A couple of stories that happened to us while I was still working for the State of Ohio, but living in the trailer.

1) When we are at a campground, we hook up to water so we can shower, flush the toilet, etc. When traveling I can put water in a water tank in the trailer if I want in case we spend the night without water hookup (like a Wal Mart parking lot). I didn’t bother putting water in the tank because we always planned on spending the night in a campground, and I didn’t want to carry that extra weight of the water in the tank. I told my mother this, and she said you should always carry some water in the tank in case you have to use the bathroom on the road. I hadn’t had any bathroom emergencies in years, so no water in the tank.

We were taking a vacation to Myrtle Beach in May, and on the way down I kept seeing signs for boiled peanuts. I had never tried them before and was curious. We stopped at a truck stop on the way down, and they happened to have some for sale. I tried them and thought they were pretty good, so I had quite a few. Then we hit a traffic jam. I was bored sitting in traffic, so I had a few more. Turns out, Mom was right. You should always have had some water in the tank, especially if your going to eat truck stop boiled peanuts.

2) We were staying in a campground in Bluffton, Ohio while I was working in the area. They had a pond that Roxy could swim in, so I took her for a swim. Everyone was very friendly at the campground and would wave and stop to talk with you while passing by. Roxy was done with her swim so we were walking back to the trailer by the pond. There was a couple and their 2 young kids in a paddle boat in the pond coming toward me as I walked to my trailer. There was a high bush on the bank of the pond between us. I wanted to be friendly like everyone else in the park, so I stood by the bush waiting for them to come into view so I could wave to them and say hi. As they came into view, I noticed the woman was nursing the one child, and when she saw me she quickly put her boob back in her bathing suit top. As I walked bach to the trailer, I thought to myself, instead of coming off looking like a friendly fellow camper, now I look like a pervert that was lurking behind a bush trying to get of glimpse of that woman’s boob.

Wall Drug

Yesterday Nan and I went to Wall Drug. Originally this was a struggling drugstore, until the wife came up with the idea to offer free ice water to truck drivers. After that, the business exploded. It was a 2 hours drive from Deadwood. I’m not sure it was worth the drive, but I wanted to visit Wall Drug at least once in my life.
Originally we planned on visiting Wall Drug on our trip from the Badlands to Deadwood last Monday. I was following my GPS, which is accurate about 75% of the time on a good day. It took us down a dirt road that it said was Rt. 6. We went about 2 ½ miles until we got to a cattle guard in the road (a metal grate that cattle will not cross). I wasn’t sure it would hold the weight of my truck, so we started backing up. After about 2 miles in reverse we came to a spot where we could turn around. After that we just stayed on paved roads till we got to Deadwood.

Custer State Park

Today we went to Custer. When we first got there, we drove about 20 minutes and hadn't seen any wildlife to speak of. Then we came accross a herd of Bison right by the road. I got out my video camera because some people were so close I thought I may be able to submit the video to "When Animals Attack V" Unfortunately nothing happened. I did have some concerns of my own though. I read that the bulls could be aggressive in August for mating season, so I was afraid that a dominate male could either start ramming or humping the Smart Car. Luckily we were able to conclude our visit to the park with our dignity in tact. We also saw some pronghorns, and some "wild" donkeys that were begging for food.

On edit - We went back to Custer State Park on Sunday (8/16/09) and I took a video of some bison. I was able to upload the video to this blog. Unfortunately they were standing much farther away than the herd we originally saw, but it will give you an idea of whats out there.

On a side note, Nan and I have been eating at the Silverado Casino in Deadwood for breakfast. They have the 2-coiner breakfast for 50 cents. It's 2 eggs, 2 peices of toast, and roasted potatos. I tell Nan to only drink water so the 2 of us can get out for only $1.20 (after my generous 20% tip). That last part is a joke, but the breakfast really is good.

Mt. Rushmore and Chief Crazy Horse

Yesterday Nan and I went to Mt. Rushmore and the Chief Crazy Horse monument. The Chief monument was kind of interesting. The tribe hired a sculptor to sculpt this thing. He was using no public funds, even though the government offered him $10 million twice. He started in the 1940's. You can see in the picture the hole in the monument. That is 10 stories high, and took 10 years to blast through. The sculptor died a few years ago. Now 7 of his 10 kids are working on it. If that's all they got done in 60 years, I wonder if there will be any 100% indians in the U.S. when it finally gets done.

Corn Palace

One of the things I had on my "Bucket List" was to visit the world famous Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Let me tell you, that is one big scam. I went there expecting to see a palace made out of corn. If you look at the front of the building, that's what you see. But if you sneek behind the building you will see it is nothing but a typical brick building with a corn veneer. As I left dejected, all I could think of was "What's next? Will the biggest ball of twine have a cork center?" What about the world's tallest thermometer? Stay tuned while I expose further lies and deception.