Christmas in Ohio

I finished up my job in Miami, visited my mom in Brooksville, FL for a few days, and then drove her (in her car) up to D.C. where she will spend Xmas with my brother's family. I left the RV, truck and Smart Car in Brooksville. Nan then drove to D.C. and the two of us drove back to Ohio in a rental car.

Yesterday Nan and I drove 2 1/2 hours to Findlay, OH to have lunch with my former co-workers during their annual Christmas party. I haven't seen them since I retired in July 2009, and it was good seeing everyone. During the party I looked over and noticed Nan was circled by 3 of my former female co-workers. I can only assume that she was telling them how much she loves living in an RV, and how a 400 square foot living space is just heaven.

We are in a mad dash to see family and friends while in Ohio. We plan on heading to Florida around the first week of January to pick up the RV, and then spend some time in Fort Myers Beach.

Here is a funny appearance on Jay Leno by Drew Barrymore regarding her RV trip.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWx2vcGvAdo&feature

South Beach

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to South Beach in Miami. I arrived around 2:00 p.m., so nothing weird was going on. I did see one guy changing while standing behind his car that was parked in the street, and he was bare from the waist down, but that was about it. Oddly enough I heard a guy asking directions to a pharmacy, and I recognized his voice as the crazy guy from the campground that was thinking of putting a $500 hit on a couple in Jamaica. I took a video of him walking down the street. I also saw his motorhome parked on the street, and the door was wide open even though I knew he wasn't in there.

I only stayed on South Beach for a couple of hours. On the drive back I stopped at a seafood market and bought a 1/2 pound of conch salad. It had about 1 ounce of conch and 7 ounces of green pepper and onion.

Today the Browns play the Miami Dolphins, so I'll be able to watch a Browns game on TV. I also picked up some frozen Cincinnati chili at the grocery store. I plan on eating that while watching the game, so I'll really be getting back to my Ohio roots.

Working in Miami

The government accepted a bid I had on a 2-week job in Miami, FL. So I left Ohio on Thanksgiving afternoon, right after dinner, and headed for Florida in the rig. Nan and "the kids" stayed in Ohio with Nan's mom. I spend the first night in a Flying J truck stop in Virginia, which wasn't too bad. The next day I made it to Jacksonville, FL and stayed 2 nights in a campground. On Sunday I arrived at my home for 2 weeks, TY County Park, in Hollywood, FL, just north of Miami.

I worked Monday through Thursday this week, and by the time I got home from work it was starting to get dark. Today (Friday) I had off so I took a little walk around the park. A guy pulled in a few sites from me, and as I walked past him we had a nice chat. In the first 15 seconds of the conversation he told me how a girl he had been living with for a month stole all his money and was on her way to Jamaica. He said he called the Feds to have her arrested before she got on the plane. He then said to get back at her he was thinking of having her parents in Jamaica killed since it only cost $500 there. As I left I told him to have a nice day and started thinking of all the excuses I could give to avoid him in case he wanted to hangout tonight. It turns out he was just filling up his water tank and then he left. So all that thinking was just a waste of time.

The park has a blacktop path that circles the big pond in the middle. I decided to take a walk on this path. Unlike most campgrounds this park is open to the public. Usually campers are very friendly and smile to each other while walking. I noticed that no one was smiling at me or even making eye contact. I guess when you live in a big city like Miami you get hardened as a defense mechanism against people that will try to take advantage of you. Either that or the other people on the trail were French Canadians.

This morning I got to sleep in a little. I've been getting up at 5:00 a.m. so that I can get to work by 7:00 a.m. and miss some of the horrendous traffic. Today I woke up around 6:00, and turned on the news to hear about the 32 inches of snow they got in Buffalo, NY. Tomorrow I may check out South Beach.

I'm Working Part-Time

Just so there's no confusion, the "I'm Working Part-Time" title refers to Tom, not Nan. Nan wants a mansion, so I have to go back to work. Last week I started assisting the government on bank exams as an independent contractor. Actually this may work out well. They send me (and others) a list of exams that need more help. Those contractors that want to work send back a bid on the exam, and then the government picks the winners. I'm now in Michigan for 2 weeks. Next I go to Illinois for 3 weeks. After Thanksgiving I go to Florida for 2 weeks. While I'm working, Nan will be at her Mom's house in Chesterland, OH, soaking in the bathtub. Our plan is to buy a house in about 4 more years. So the more we can save, the nicer house we can get. It's a Win Win. I'll be taking the RV to Florida, but for now I'm staying in hotels while the RV remains stored in Chesterland. If the weather is warm where I happen to be working, Nan will be with me in the RV. If it's cold, then I go on my own and stay in a hotel, since we don't want the RV pipes to freeze and burst. If everything goes right, Nan and I will get to see the country, and it won't cost anyone anything (other than the taxpayers of course).

Leaving Jefferson, Ohio

Tomorrow morning we leave the Thousand Trails campground and go to stay with Nan's Mom for a while. This was one of the nicest parks we've stayed. We'll be back next year.

Yesterday Nan and I went to the wedding of a friend/co-worker of mine. I was told not to use real names in my blog because someone may steal their identity. Not sure how that's possible, but to be safe we went to the wedding of "Sheniqua and Anferny". Nan and I couldn't stay at the reception as long as we (I) wanted because it was a long drive back to Jefferson. That's too bad because it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun. This was based on the fact that when they introduced the wedding party, one guy was wearing the brides maid dress, and she was wearing the tux.

Today we drove around and looked at covered bridges in Ashtabula County. At one they were selling hotdogs for 50 cents. I tried to talk them down to 25 cents, but struck out. Tomorrow I winterize the trailer. I will be taking it down to Miami right after Thanksgiving, so it will be stored and unused until then.

Back in Ohio

Nan and I are back in Ohio for a while. We stopped in Elkhart, Indiana for a couple of improvements to the RV since Elkhart is the RV capital of the world. The original axles on the RV are not that great, so I bit the bullet and had a very good system axle system installed for around $2,400. Then I spent another $2,000 on upgraded tires and wheels. I took a video of Nan after I told her how much I had just spent. Here is the link on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkJofldHRqM

We are now in Jefferson, Ohio, by the Pennsylvania line. This is a Thousand Trails campground, so we are only paying $3.00 per day. This campground closes on 10/19, so then we will store the RV and live with Nan’s Mom for a couple of months. We plan on leaving Ohio after Christmas.

Wisconsin Dells

We didn’t want to travel during Labor Day weekend so we decided to stay in the Wisconsin Dells area from Thursday to Tuesday. During this time we took a trip on one of the Wisconsin Ducks, which is an amphibius vehicle used during WWII. The next day we took a boat trip through the Dells. This included a show where dogs jump from one rock to the other. They used to use employees of the boat company, but the insurance company put a stop to that. The campground was very crowded with kids, and it seemed like everyone (except us) wanted to have a campfire going. So all weekend our home had a nice smokey flavor. While at the campground we got a chance to socialize with Dennis and Linda who also tow their fifth wheel with a semi truck, and carry a Smart Car on it’s back..
On Tuesday we drove to Rockford, IL to visit my sister Nan and her husband Dave. We had a nice dinner at an Asian restaurant. Next time I’ll order the number 2 spice level rather than number 3.
We are getting closer to Cleveland so soon we’ll be able to catch up on the local news. Plus I’ll be able to do the one thing that I really live for - Watch Lebron James lead the Cavaliers to victory.

Mitchell, SD

A couple of days ago Nan and I went back to the flea market and picked up a Bison skull, complete with horns for $30. We plan on putting it outside the trailer for decorative purposes, until someone decides to steal it. We also picked up a Coyote skin hat for Nan's brother Mark. He was at the Sturgis bike rally in 2005, saw one for $150, and has regreted not getting it ever since. We picked up the one pictured for $90. It's obvious to see why he fell in love with this hat. Today we left the Deadwood area and drove to Mitchell, SD (home of the Corn Palace) for the night.

Deadwood, SD

Nan and I are tired of driving (mostly Nan), so we are staying put in Deadwood, SD for a while. We both like Deadwood. They have casinos, nice scenery, and a 50 cent breakfast at the Silverado Casino. They have an old car show event this weekend, so unfortunately we had to move out of the campground that is right in Deadwood because it was full, and go to one by Rapid City, about 15 miles away. It has been in the high 90's yesterday and today, so this is one of the rare times we've had to use our air conditioner. We went to a flea market today and they had a lot of interesting things. They had a black bearskin rug for $350, and several buffalo skulls with horns for $50 each. I really didn't want either of these things, for for those prices I may go back and get something. After living in a 400 square foot trailer with Nan for over a year, I'm starting to think like her.

We made it to the lower 48

Yesterday (8/20/10) we arrived in the lower 48 - Montana. It took us 12 days to get from Tok, AK to Montana. We spent a lot of time driving since we were anxious to get to the land of "Not ripping you off for food, fuel, and camping prices". Canada and Alaska try to make all their money for the year during tourist season. I didn’t track our expenses, but a friend we met in Alaska emailed us that their motor home trip totaled around $11,000 for 3 months.
We did take time to enjoy ourselves on the way to Montana. One place we stopped was Liard Hot Springs. We stayed in a provincial (government) park that was dry camping - no electric, water, or sewer. You could then walk to the hot springs from your site. They have 2 hot springs, but one was closed because a momma grizzly bear and her cubs were hanging around the one location. Along the highway we also saw some more wildlife. In the video you can see a big herd of bison that hang around right by the highway. We also saw some mountain goats. There is a fire that has been going on for about 4 weeks near Watson Lake, Yukon. This has caused some of the wildlife to move closer to the road.
We then headed to Jasper and Banff in the Alberta province. I hear it is just lovely there, but because of the smoke you could see much of the scenery.
We are spending two nights in Shelby, MT, because this campground has 50 amp electric so we can use any appliance we want all at the same time. They also have cable TV, water, and sewer hookup. I can tell that anyone reading this will be green with envy.

Heading to Ohio from Alaska

We are now on our way to the lower 48 states. Yesterday we drove about 9 hours from Tok, AK to Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Today Nan is taking a train ride to Skagway, AK, for a day of shopping. She said she needed time to herself. I'm still trying to figure out how she will have time to herself since thousands of people on cruise ships are going to be dropped off in Skagway today. I'm starting to think that maybe I got on her nerves yestereday by playing my continuous loop of Good Vibrations by Markey Mark and the Funky Bunch on the radio for 9 hours. She has never been a big fan of the classics.

Valdez, AK

We arrived in Valdez, AK on Tuesday (8/3/10). We are spending 5 nights here. Our campground site gives us a view of the waterway into the port of Valdez. They have a fish hatchery outside of town. Three years ago they released some pink salmon, and they are now returning from the ocean to spawn. You can catch them if you want, but they are at the end of their life cycle, so they are really only good for smoking or canning, so I didn’t bother catching any. The bear don’t seem to care that the fish are near the end of their life, so they tend to hang around the hatchery to eat.
In 1964 Valdez had a bad earthquake that wiped out the dock and part of the town, and killed about 34 people. It was determined that the rest of the town was unsafe after the earthquake, so they moved the town about 4 miles down the road. We visited the site of the original town, but there isn’t much there other than some foundations.
Yesterday the Valdez museum put on a demonstration on how to make jam out of salmon berries (similar to blackberries). About 10 of us collected the berries (while watching for bears), at then went back to the museum to make the jam. Nan and I ended up with 3 jars.

Tonight Nan found a guy (with a tip jar) that had a hawk and an owl. Nan was able to have the hawk sit on her arm. Prior to that I was getting something out of the truck and heard a seagull squawking. I looked up and it was chasing an eagle that had one of the seagulls friends in it's claws. I asked the tip-jar guy why an eagle would choose a seagull over all the fish that are around here now. He said the seagull must have been sick or injured. We'll go with that theory.

Reindeer farm

Yesterday (8/1/10) we went to the reindeer farm in the Wasilla, AK area. Reindeer are the same as caribou. They say the only difference is that reindeer can fly. Reindeer are also good at multi-tasking. In the first video you can see one eating out of Nan's hand while it takes a leak. In addition to the reindeer, they had a couple moose, one bison, and some elk on the farm. They kept those behind fences, but the reindeer were tame enough to be right with us.

Fishing in Seward

Yesterday (7/27/10) Nan and I went on a fishing charter out of Seward, AK. There were about 10 fishermen on the boat. Between us Nan and I caught a silver salmon, a couple pink salmon, and yelloweye (like a red snapper), and some black bass. Nan also caught a ling cod that the captain hooked for her, but it was too small so they threw it back. In the video, the ling cod are the big ones on the end, and the one picture is looking down the mouth of the ling cod.

Today we went on a 3-hour wildlife cruise. This was a bigger boat that could hold over 100 people. We saw puffin, seals, otter, mountain goats (that looked like white specks because of the distance), and whales. In the one video I think Nan thought the whale was a sperm whale because you can hear her asking to see some tail, but it turned out to be humpback whales. We leave tomorrow for Anchorage, and then on to Valdez (now the site of the second worse oil spill in U.S. history).

Seward, Alaska

Nan and I are in Seward, AK for a week. Today (7/25) we went to the Sea Life Center in Seward. The most entertaining animal they had was a Puffin. It’s a seabird that can swim underwater. It was in a tank with ducks and other birds, and it would harass the ducks by swimming underwater and chasing them while they floated on top. They workers weigh the birds daily by coaxing them on a scale with fish.

Kenai River Float Trip

Nan and I are in Cooper Landing, AK, at the Princess RV park owned by the Princess Cruise line. The campground is nice, but nothing special. But we get the use of the lodge that includes a hot tub and dining facilities. Some retirees work up here in the summer. In addition to pay and lodging, Princess gives them a discount on cruises in the winter if they want.
A few days ago Nan and I went with Jan and Paul on a 2-hour float trip down the Kenai River on a raft with our guide Treena. We didn’t see any bears, but we did see eagles, fish jumping, and several fishermen along the bank going after Red (or Sockeye) salmon. Treena told us a good place to look for bears that evening, so the four of us drove around at about 11:30 p.m. We didn’t see any bears, but we did see some salmon swimming upstream to spawn. A couple of days ago Nan and I went to the lodge for a presentation from Loraine, who has trained sled dogs to race. She also had a business to take people out on dog sled excursions. She told a story of friend of hers that also trained sled dogs, and a couple of her dogs were used in the Disney movie Snow Dogs. This lady was drunk one evening and arguing with her boyfriend. She pulled out a gun and said "No man will ever put a ring on this finger". Then she shot her ring finger off. Women have a saying in Alaska because there are so many more men than women up here. The odds are good, but the goods are odd. It seems like this saying could be considered trans gender.

Yesterday Nan and I took a 5 mile hike looking for bears eating salmon in the Russian River. On the way we didn't see anything other than salmon when we reached the river. Nan was saying on the way back that there weren't any bears in the area. Just then we heard a branch snap, and a large grizzly crossed the trail about 50 feet behind us. Luckily I think he was more interested in going after salmon. Since he never even looked at us, and was crossing the trail rather than walking in our direction, I thought it was a fun thing to see. Nan didn't consider it fun. Her knees were shaking and her heart was pounding, and she considered that a little to close for her taste.

Razor Clamming

Today I went after razor clams. You can either dig them out with a shovel, or use what's called a clam gun, which I am using in the video. It's a lot of strain on your back, and they are very thin shelled, so it's easy to damage the clam. The campground owners (Bob and Brenda) took a group of us out this morning to teach us some tricks. Then we came back to the campground and they showed us how to clean them. The limit is 60 per day, but I think I got about 20 before I had enough. You want to go after them at very low tide. For the month of July this is from 7/10 to 7/14. Tomorrow (7/12) should be even better because the tide will be lower than today.

Halibut Fishing

Yesterday we went halibut fishing in Cook Inlet, by Homer, AK. The limit is 2 halibut per day. They get as big as 400 pounds, but most are around 30 pounds. If you catch a small one, you can throw it back and keep trying for a bigger fish. We had 8 people fishing on our boat, and everyone got their 2 fish. The biggest fish was 34 pounds. We got in the water about 6:30 a.m., and got out around 1:00 p.m. Our friend Jan went fishing with us, and a friend of hers said she would take all the halibut Jan caught and the friend would pay for shipping. Then she found out that it costs about $300 to ship, so we ended up with Jan’s fish.

The captain of the boat was Bob. He has a house in Oregon, but leaves his wife for about 5 months each year to come to Alaska and run fishing charter trips. He says when he's up in Alaska he really misses his dog. The first mate on the boat was a girl named Tiffany, from Texas. We asked her if she stayed in Alaska during the winter. She said she usually does, and last winter she lived in an old abandoned school bus near Talkeetna. A musician had lived there, but he told her she was welcome to it since he was moving back to the lower 48 states. She said the people in Talkeetna were very friendly. She would run into them every once in a while when she went into town to take a shower. She said the wood stove didn’t work that well, and when it got to around 60 below, the oil in her oil lamp would gel, so she didn’t have any light source. I think she understated it when she said last winter was kind of rough. But I guess it can be rough for many people in Alaska. Nan wants to move from the campground we are in now because we don’t have TV.

I included a picture of the inside of the Salty Dog bar in Homer, AK, where people sign and stick dollar bills to the wall. If you are a fan of the show Deadliest Catch (about king crab fishing), it was the bar where Mike Rowe interviewed the ship captains on the show. Also, the boat Time Bandit docks in Homer, but it wasn’t in port when we were there.

Martin Buser's facility

Today we went to Martin Buser’s Happy Trails Kennel and Iditarod dog training facility. He usually owns about 90 dogs. From this he gets about 16 dogs that he uses to compete in the Iditarod. He has won this the race several times, and holds the record for completing the race in the shortest amount of time (just under 9 full days). He and I were talking prior to the tour and he gave me some interesting info. First place in the Iditarod pays around $50,000 to $70,000, depending on the number of participants. Second place is around $15,000. The entrance fee is $4,000. The prize money is hardly enough to keep the kennel running. He also gets money from sponsors, and earns some from giving these tours of his facility. When people take a cruise to Alaska, one of the side trips they can take is to have a dog team pull them on a glacier. Martin leases some of his dogs out for this purpose during the cruising season. He also travels around giving motivational speeches to corporations.
During the tour he mentioned that the Iditarod committee wanted the mushers to install GPS trackers on their sleds so that fans could track the progress of each team online. At one checkpoint he ran into a pilot friend of his, so he gave the pilot the tracking device. This caused the website to crash because everyone was logging in to find out why Martin Buser was now traveling 125 miles per hour in the wrong direction. The one picture shows Martin accepting his first place check while his lead dog is peeing on the trophy. He said he didn’t mind. The check was his and the trophy belonged to the dog.
On the way back I took a picture of what was reported to be Sarah Palin’s floatplane. I’ll assume this is true until someone proves me wrong.

Knik River glacier cruise

Today we went on a 3 hour cruise on an airboat to see a glacier on the Knik River. We also hoped to see some wildlife, but the only thing we saw was a squirrel that the guide had made a pet by feeding it peanuts. We also saw some moose poop. The first time I saw that it was exciting, but it's getting kind of boring now. The guide told the story of his dog that is half wolf. It used to live outside until a moose charged the guide and was ready to stomp him to death to protect it's calf. The dog came to his aid and saved his life. The dog now lives inside his house and gets his share of hamburger.

Musk Ox farm

A couple days ago we took a tour of the local Musk Ox farm in the Wasilla, AK area. They raise the musk ox for their fur, which they then spin into yarn and make hats, scars, etc. I could have bought a nice ski cap for around $150, but I passed. We then went to an animal sanctuary that treats injured or sick animals. We saw grizzly bear, caribou, moose, elk, owls, and eagles. After that we stopped at the Iditarod museum. They had a guy giving 2 minute sled dog rides, so Jan, Paul, Nan and I hopped on for a ride around the dirt track. It’s amazing how calm the dogs are until they know they are going to start pulling the cart. Then they start jumping all around and yelping. While in Wasilla we are hoping to get a look at Sarah Palin’s float plane. You can’t go down her road, but we hear if you go to the Best Western and look across the lake, you can see her plane. If I’m lucky I might run into her and she can give me one of her famous winks.

Flight around Mt. McKinley

On Saturday (6/26/10) we signed up to take an airplane ride around Mt. McKinley in the Denali National Park. The plane takes off out of Talkeetna, AK. When our plane returned from a previous trip the pilot said that the mountain was clouding up and it wouldn’t be worth going up right now. So Nan and I, and the other couple going up (Bob and Kris) left our cell numbers so they could call when conditions looked good. No call the rest of Saturday, and no call on Sunday (because it rained all day). Unfortunately, Bob and Kris had to leave on Sunday so they weren’t able take the plane ride. Fortunately, Nan and I were staying until Tuesday morning, and the skies cleared up on Monday. We got the call and were able to take off around 6:00 p.m. After the call, the good news kept coming. Another couple had just signed up for a flight with a glacier landing. I originally didn’t think landing on a glacier would be worth the extra $150 on top of the $400 for the flight, especially since I’ve seen my share of Cleveland snow. But since the other couple had paid for a glacier landing, we tagged along with them for no additional charge. It turned out to be the highlight of the flight.

Monster Truck Tour

We were in Fairbanks for the longest day of the year - June 21st. There’s about 22 hours of daylight. I took a video of how the campground looked at midnight. While in Fairbanks, Nan and I took a 3-hour cruise down the river and got a demonstration on dog sledding from the husband and daughter of the late Susan Butcher. She won 4 iditorods before she died of cancer a few years ago. We then left for Denali National park. While there we took a tour on a monster truck with our friends Paul and Jan. We didn’t see much wildlife, but we did see a pair of ptarmigan (birds like pheasants), some grizzly footprints, and some wolf poop. The next day the four of us drove through Denali. We got a good view of Mt. McKinley, but it didn’t show up on the camera very well, so I didn’t include a picture. While looking at the mountain we came across a young moose that was feeding right by the road. Paul kept getting closer to get a good picture, and I had my video camera aimed right on him in case there was some excitement, but no luck. The moose snorted at Paul, and he decided he had enough close-up shots.

Touring Fairbanks

On Wednesday night I went to the local car races in Fairbanks. They had two classes of cars, Legend cars that are similar to 1937 cars, and Bandelaro. The Bandelaro can’t weigh more than 750 pounds, including the driver, and they had 30 hp engines. The drivers were girls, I believe in their teen years. The Legend cars were for the adults. The next day Nan and I and our two friends (Jan and Paul) went to the Chena Hots Springs, about 60 miles from Fairbanks. They had an ice hotel that we toured. It included ice chandeliers, a chess set, ice sculptures, and an ice toilet (for display purposes only). On the way back we looked at the Alaska pipeline. Most of it is above ground, but some goes underground. The next day we got a tour of the North Pole by Jesse the elf/campground worker/local pastor. Then last night Nan and I went to a 3-hour chef school. We helped prepare halibut encrusted in macadamia nuts, asparagus wrapped in fillo dough, and baked Alaska. I enjoyed it more than Nan. She doesn’t understand why you should go through all that work when you can pop a frozen dinner in the micro and be eating in 10 minutes.