Holiday weekend - Day 688 (Yr 2, Day 343)

Bismarck, ND

Memorial Day weekend approaching, when everything opens here in Bismarck.  State flags are up and flying at the entrance to the campground, and the outdoor, heated pool should be ready for swimming on Sunday.  Mitch has Friday and Monday off, and I think I may do the same, after an 8:15 conference call.  Lots of ideas of things to do over the weekend, including: the state museum/heritage center, fishing, hiking, riverboat cruise, Fort Lincoln Park (and the trolley to get there).  The last thing I want to do is run errands and shop!  Forecast is for cloudy days but no rain and in the high 70s.  I guess watch this space for what we landed up doing.

Meanwhile, it's Thursday night and Mitch promised a campfire tonight (plus, it's L'ag B'Omer when there are traditional bonfires).

Lilacs, no friends - Day 687 (Yr 2, Day 342)

Bismarck, ND

The lilac branch we hung upside down from a cabinet over the couch last week dried very nicely, so we decided to proceed in drying as much as we can.  We collected 8 more branches yesterday which are now hanging on all the cabinets over the couch and fireplace/tv.  Not quite sure what I'm going to do with it, though besides make little fragrant sacs or steep for tea (need to look into the effects of that first, to make sure it's safe to drink straight).  I saw a recipe for lilac honey which I think I'll also make.

And an observation on making friends here in this campground: it is extremely difficult, which is hard for me - the social butterfly that I am.  I guess that because it's not a tourist town, most people just come here as an overnight or 2 day stop-over, en route to somewhere else.  Most people arrive late in the day (after 4:00), so the park is mostly empty when I take my morning and afternoon walks.  They get hooked up and settled in, and then do "the camping thing" -- picnics and campfires, take walks, kids use the playground, people playing tennis and basketball.  Lots of activity seems to happen between 5:00 and 9:00.  Unfortunately, those are my off hours.  Mitch gets home, after a 10 hour shift and 8 miles of walking, around 4:30 and needs to decompress.  I'm usually still working until 5-5:30.  Then I need to make dinner and we watch tv together until bedtime at 9:00 (when it's still light out!).  Somehow, going out to try to meet people during those hours just doesn't work for us.  However, now that he doesn't work on Fridays, we might attempt to do this on a Thursday night.  If nothing else, maybe have our own campfire?

Chairs - Day 686 (Yr 2, Day 341)

Bismarck, ND

This past weekend was uneventful.  The weather on Sunday wasn't all that nice, so we decided to undertake a few tasks indoors, including starting to recover the dinette chairs.

Before:

Mitch working on it:

After:

He only finished 2; we still have the other 2 to go, but it really is a big improvement!  Now need to buy new placemats, or if there's enough material left over, to learn how to make them, since I can barely sew a button on a shirt!

2nd Shabbat - Day 682 (Yr 2, Day 337)

Bismarck, ND

This was the first Friday Mitch was home all day.  It's clear we need to establish some kind of routine.  I was very grateful, however, that he took over most of my Shabbat tasks.  It was a crazy busy work day (although we did take about 2 hours off to go shopping and run some errands).  He made the challah and the soup and put away all the groceries.  Also spent the day troubleshooting the printer and only took 1 nap (which he played on his tablet - didn't sleep).

We were going to grill the tuna steaks - breaking out the grill we bought in Asheville last summer, but discovered there are about 1000 pieces and the instructions say assembly will take at least 1/2 hour!  Not worth it today.

Beautiful weather, although very windy.  I would really like to take that twilight/sunset stroll, which is about 9:15.  At least we don't have to worry about getting to bed early (since we wake up at 5 am).

Mitch Says: RD2.339 (Day 687)

Dateline:     Bismarck ND:   RD (Road-Date): RD2.339 (Day 687)

Yes, I REALLY, really do like MY date format.

Anyway, I figured that I would mention that Cheryl and I went out to dinner one day this week (Wednesday I think).

We found an "All you can eat", Chinese Buffet, with a Mongolian Wok.

If you knew us in our old days, you may know that the  Mongolian Wok in Cranford, NJ was one of our favorite restaurants when we still had a "Sticks and Bricks" house.

I have attached a photo of the most spectacular fortune cookie I have ever personally seen to this post.  It is even better then the mythical, "I am trapped in a fortune cookie factory" (Which I don't think anyone ever actually did get!)

Cheryl actually got the fortune.  She handed it to me, and said, she couldn't read it.

Heh...

Wait a moment..

here goes  ---V

 

Worlds BEST fortune Cookie EVER!

 

And I really really am in a state of disbelief about this.  I bet you feel the same!

Cheers to all, and to all a great weekend!

Lilacs, more photos - Day 682 (Yr 2, Day 337)

Bismarck, ND

The lilacs are really starting to bloom.  Here is a photo of just a small portion of the perimeter.  Pretty soon the entire perimeter and all the bushes around the sites will look like these!  I took a small branch to put in a glass on the counter.  Loving the scent!

Here are a few photos from our travels which were on my phone that I forgot to upload:

As I mentioned in a previous post, I really enjoyed visiting the rest areas in Iowa, as they were very theme based.  The first one after we crossed the border from IL and crossing the Mississippi River, was a nautical theme because the area was a huge shipping port.  IA is also known for it's high level of education, so another area was designed by students all over the state, with exhibits of their arts.  As we approached western IA and farm country, this was my favorite rest area -- an actual converted barn!

They converted the upper level into a cafe

Lastly, I mentioned that while in Fargo, Mitch found one of his favorite restaurants (Noodles & Co).  Here he is posing out front:

First weekend in Bismarck - Day 680 (Yr 2, Day 335)

Bismarck, ND

As of Friday, the team pretty much got on track.  MDU (Montana-Dakota Utilities) is closed on Fridays, so Mitch will be working 10 hour days, 4 days a week.  I guess having a 3 day weekend (at least for him) is a good thing so he has an extra day to catch up on his sleep.

Thursday night we did go out for dinner with Bill & Phyllis; a very lovely couple with a lot of interesting stories.  They have a s&b house in MO and only travel/work 6 months. We went to Paradisio - a Mexican place that had a LOT of vegetarian options, including faux steak & chicken strips for the fajitas!  It's next door to a Hawaiian/Sushi/Thai restaurant. We'll have to try that some time -- sounds interesting. We haven't really figured out the food culture here yet.  Someone told me German, but I haven't seen any German restaurants.  So far, mostly the "big box" chains.  Interestingly, there are quite a few bagel places which have pretty decent bagels.  Ok, still not NY bagels, but not half bad.

On Friday afternoon (Mitch had 1/2 day - see above), we ventured out to Walmart to shop and were pleasantly pleased to see that they had a fairly decent selection of our faux meat products, as well as a nice and well priced produce department.  As much as we hate patronizing Walmart, unfortunately it seems to be the only place so far that has what we need. There's a Sam's Club nearby which may also have those products, but we really don't have the space to buy in bulk.  We also haven't discovered a state farmer's market, although during the summer there will be plenty of local (tail gate) ones.

The weather had been pretty miserable and very cold until Sunday, when it finally broke 60 degrees and the sun came out.  Today it is about 70 and will go up to 80 by Thursday.  There's always a wind which makes it bearable.

Friday night Shabbat was quiet and pleasant as always, with a special dinner and "converting" the dining room and kitchen.  Candle lighting wasn't until 9:00, but we started an hour earlier; 8:00 is late enough!  Here is a photo taken outside last night at 9:15 pm, which is our bed time!  Hard to go to bed when it's still light out.

 We did a little extra Torah study beforehand to "get in the mood," and a tradition I'd like to keep (actually, it involved watching some great videos on Alephbeta.org).  On Saturday, we forced ourselves to get up at our normal Shabbat time (8:30), have cold cereal for breakfast, get dressed in somewhat nice clothes and say our prayers at the time we would have gone to shul. We then took a walk, had a nice lunch, took our weekly nap, then spent the rest of the day reading or walking around the campground.  In fact, we walked to the other side and discovered a much larger, better equipped playground.  I didn't get the swings into the picture, but when we went out on Saturday, we both swung on the swings!  I had some fun, but Mitch was too tall for them!

Another photo of the park.  It's a nice place to walk around.  All the trees are in spring bloom.

Even got a photo of a western meadowlark, although it's too far away so you can't really see the bright yellow:

There are also a lot of lilac bushes all over the property.  Some of them are in bloom, but it'll be nice when they all are.  Imagine the scent!  The color is much more vibrant than in the photo.

On Sunday, the plan was to explore the downtown area in a spontaneous way -- just drive to the general vicinity, following the skyline for direction (see photo below) and just seeing what was in the area. 

View of skyline from the campground (about 5 miles away):

En route, we passed a large classic car show at the Elks Lodge, so we decided to stop in and take a look.  This was my favorite license plate and one of my favorite cars (1940s Bel Aire), although I also love the 1920-30 Fords.

For one thing, we discovered that the state capitol building (the only skyscraper one can see) is not in the business area at all. 

State capitol up close, which you can see from miles away.  There's a whole plaza and park that surrounds it, which we plan to visit again soon, as well as the neighboring Heritage Center/History Museum.

 When we did find the business area, pretty much everything was closed (not sure if there are Blue Laws -- I doubt it as there are places that are open -- or if it's just a seasonal thing.  Side note: we found the Visitor's Center but they, too, were closed until the summer).  I wanted to park somewhere in the business district and explore the stores with the urb-es but Mitch felt it was a waste of time if nothing was open, not even the restaurants.  By then, he was getting very tired and hungry, so we went to the nearest place we could find, which was across the street from a large (Kirkwood) mall - Epstein's Bagels.  Afterwards, he suggested we take our urb-es to a nice park and ride around, but by the time he got to the car, his tiredness caught up with him and he desperately needed to go back home and nap.  Afterwards, we did some household projects such as trying (not successfully) to wash the accumulated squashed bugs off the front of the RV which we collected during our drive here, and then to work on recovering the chairs (also not successful as we're not sure we have enough fabric.  We need to visit a JoAnn's and have them help us cut it).

Having driven a bit more around the area, here are some more observations:

• unlike Asheville, it is very truck friendly; most people here drive trucks and even tractors.  The roads are wide, mostly straight, and smooth.  The parking lots are fairly empty and easily accommodate us, and even the downtown (business area) had pretty wide streets.
• like Fargo, and pretty much "anywhere USA," there are big box stores and malls being built all over the place.  They are very new; apparently this area was nothing but wheat fields until about 10 years ago or less.
• unlike "anywhere USA," instead of townhouse developments, there are numerous and large mobile home parks.  They do look very nice, though with lots of space and new construction.  Wherever we passed residential, non-mobile home areas, the houses were mostly ranch style, new, with a decent amount of land between each one.
• There are a LOT of RVs which you can see for sale at any of the several large dealerships, parked, or driving around.  I guess a lot of folks probably like to leave this area and head towards warmer climes during the winter, and it's a cool destination during the summer.
• Despite what they tell you, it's not all flat and there are trees!  Of course, the trees could have been planted at the time the developments and stores were constructed.
• Regarding visitors of this campground - especially over this weekend - there are a lot of overnighters.  They pull in during the afternoon and then leave the next morning.  Perhaps it will be different during the summer if people make this a vacation destination.  I suppose it makes sense because this really isn't a very touristy area, especially during off season, so this would be just a nice place to stop for the night.  Then again, there are several other RV parks in the area.  They aren't as nice - are more like parking lots - but they're also a lot cheaper, which I would think one would want for an overnight stay.  But who knows?

Mitch's new assignment; campground - Day 675 (Yr 2, Day 330)

Bismarck, ND

Mitch has been meeting with his team since Monday; predominantly just one person who he is shadowing/training with (Bill).  So far, the team has not begun any actual work; they are still getting prepped and we're told there's a good chance this will run into October.  We still have not received the replacement phone or GPS, so it's a good thing Mitch is tagging along with Bill for now (although so far they have only met at a restaurant for breakfast or here at our rig to review things).  As an aside, Bill says his wife, Phyllis, is "a hoot" and wants the 4 of us to go to dinner together.  I think he's just as much of a hoot and I'm looking forward to this tomorrow night.

We arrived on Sunday to a windy, but otherwise beautiful weather day.  That was the only one so far this week.  It rained all day yesterday, and today is cloudy and windy, as it will be for the rest of the week.  Temps won't go above 60, and there's actually a freeze warning for the night times.

I walked around the campground taking photos, but before sharing those, here are a few I took while driving through the mountains of TN.

Beautiful mountains

Fog over the mountains

Winding mountain road

And now for photos of the campground (Bismarck KOA).  This is the first time we've stayed in a KOA (Kampgrounds of America) park.  In general, they have a pretty bad reputation for being old, run down and overpriced.  That is definitely not the case here as it is a very lovely park.  Currently there is a lot of wide open space but that's because the park is almost completely empty.  There are a lot of sites, so I can imagine how crowded it will be when it gets busy.  May as well enjoy the serenity while it lasts!  The owners, Mark and Kate, are very friendly and helpful.  We met 2 neighbors so far, but only very briefly -- not enough to get their names, where they're from or their stories.  There's still time for that.

Our back yard - overlooks the tennis and basketball courts and a field beyond that.  We have a picnic bench on our site (as do all the sites):

The front yard (faces another row of sites which are currently empty):

The road in front of our site (row):

The playground:

The dog park (love the teeter-totter and climbing board!)

"Kabin" area: (in case anyone wants to come visit us, there's a place to stay)

The office and pool (obviously, the pool isn't set up yet):

And a few more shots of the campground:

First impressions of Bismarck - Day 673 (Yr 2, Day 328)

Bismarck, ND

Obviously, I haven't been out and about very much yet.  Last night, we went "exploring" -- finding the closest stores, which are up the road between 1 mile (supermarket = Dan's) and 5 miles (Walmart, Sam's Club).  Not a lot of restaurants in the area, and the ones that are here, don't have the same types of vegetarian choices on their menus as Asheville (or Raleigh, or FL, or NJ).  We did visit the supermarket and, although it was a very large place, we were horribly disappointed in their lack of vegetarian options.  Nothing by Morningstar Farms, Boca, or Quorn.  No Tofurkey or LiteLife products.  Absolutely nothing that we normally purchase as our protein.  Later this week we will visit Walmart and hope they have a bigger selection, otherwise we're really screwed!  Come to think of it, I didn't even take a look at their fresh fish dept - did they even have one?  Unfortunately, it is the ONLY supermarket within driving distance, so we'll need to make do from there.  Veggies were extremely expensive.  Farmers markets open in June, so hopefully we'll find one relatively nearby and get good produce at good prices.

As for the area, still haven't really gotten too far, but from what I see, there is just so much open space.  Still much to be developed, and what is here, looks relatively new (within the last 5-10 years).  Not as many strip malls and housing developments, but there are some and it looks like it's just a matter of time.  I've seen photos and a webcam from the local tv station of the downtown area, and it's very small and open (at least compared to the other major downtown areas we've visited such as Raleigh and Asheville).  All the roads are pretty new and a pleasure to drive on.

The campground at the moment is almost completely empty and therefore a pleasure to walk around.  I hope to take pictures over the next few days (rain in the forecast tomorrow so may not be able to get to that for a few days).  Of course, I expect a mad house when busy season arrives.

One thing of note (not sure if I'll be able to get a photo)... the state bird is the Western Meadowlark.  I actually saw a small, yellow bird and discovered it was this meadowlark.  Also saw a few black birds (need to identify - crows?) and a robin.  May have seen a few bluejays, but not really sure.  I'd love to develop a new hobby of birding!

Finally in Bismarck, ND - Day 672 (Yr 2, Day 327)

Bismarck, ND

Well, guess I now need to get used to writing this location for the next 4 months!  But thank G-d we finally made it here safely, albeit 3 days later than we originally planned.  We hit the road at 7:15 am.  Mitch drove about 100 miles, where we stopped at a rest area to use the facilities and switch drivers.  The rest areas here are clean and well maintained, but not as nice as IL or IA; just very, very basic, which is all right with us since we don't have pets or kids that need to exercise.  I drove the remaining 90 miles.  The road was the best one we've been on - finally something smooth and no construction from Fargo to Bismarck.  Scenery was pretty much the same as the previous states, although we did see a few pastures with cows and a number of tiny lakes.

The campground is pretty nice as a first impression.  We haven't had much time to explore yet.  Nothing really scenic here to look at, but it's a lot prettier than a parking lot.  I'll try to take some photos some time this week, as well as provide a better description.

Anyway, we arrived at the campground at 10:30.  Very nice owner, Mark, guided us into the spot.  It took until about 1:00 to "set up house," meaning unlocking all the cabinets, taking out all the stuff that was put away during the move, having water and sewer again (dumping the tanks first), putting out my chotckies, etc.  We didn't really have breakfast before we left, so the onions/mushrooms/tomatoes/lox scrambled eggs I had planned was made for lunch.  It is also extremely windy, so we decided to rope down the 3 slide toppers to prevent them from tearing off.  We may decide to use the tripod for more stability if we shake too much.  Other than the wind, the weather was beautiful -- clear and in the low 70s.  I'm told this is pretty standard, although during the summer it may get up to about 85 on some days.

Right now, we still have a few more things to do, in particular Mitch needs to package up the GPS and his phone for repair.  I'm doing much needed laundry and then, if there's time, we will take a ride and explore where the important stores are (supermarket, Walmart, CVS, Dollar Tree).  Although if they're not in the same general area, I may just want to wait until we have a street map or one of the devices is returned.

Tomorrow we both return to work.  I have about 15 messages from clients waiting for me so I plan on a busy day.  Mitch will get to meet his new team, and get his equipment and instructions.

Travel Day 6 (none-Shabbat) - Day 671 (Yr 2, Day 326)

Fargo, ND

This was our day of rest and we were very grateful for it!

We went to "services" last night - it was in the rabbi's home and there wasn't a minyan (the requirement of at least 10 men in order to recite certain prayers).  Mitch joined the men and I helped the rabbi's wife to set up the table.  It turns out that I was  incorrect in thinking that Fargo has a large Jewish population, although I guess "large" is a matter of perspective; there may only be about 50 Jews in the entire city!!!  That's 50 more than in Bismarck.  The next 4 months will leave us hungry for community, but we will still find ways to keep our spirituality.  Either way, it was a very enjoyable (and tasty) dinner.  Mitch was invited back to join the rabbi for prayer and then have lunch, but we opted out -- deciding to pray at home and open the nice package of lox we bought in Peoria.

Today, we slept late.  We thought it was about 10:00, and were very surprised to see that it was 12:00 noon!!!  I guess our bodies and minds really needed that sleep.  We had cereal for breakfast, prayed, read a little, took another nap around 2:00 and had a nice lunch at 3:00.

We ended our observance around 5:30 (otherwise it will be near 10pm).  We saw a billboard for one of Mitch's favorite restaurants (he got really excited when he saw it), which he discovered in Raleigh - Noodles & Company (turns out they have 3 locations in Fargo), so we went there for dinner.  When we returned, we hitched up and filled the 10 tires.  Now going to watch a little tv, and then go to bed.  The goal is to get up around 6:30-7:00 and hit the road as close to 8:00 as possible, after making a nice egg/lox breakfast and then putting everything away and locking the cabinets, and disconnecting the electricity (we decided that since we still have enough fresh water in the tank, and the gray & black tanks aren't full yet, we could go another day without hooking up to water & sewer, even though we're paying $30/day at this campground for the privilege).

My thoughts about Fargo, ND, from the little bit that we've seen:  worse than Raleigh!!!  I'm not sure what the city looked like up until about 10 years ago, but currently there is nothing but HUGE shopping strip/mall after mall, after mall.  You name the store, it's here.  Seems there are more stores than there are people. Thrown in between are a lot of new townhouse developments.  "They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot." 

The only other thing I have to add is that this has not been a good week for things mechanical.  Besides the problems with the truck, my tablet died (it's been on it's last legs for a few months), the GPS died, and yesterday Mitch's cell phone died (which we were using for a backup navigation system).  To get to the rabbi's house, to get to dinner tonight, and to get to our final destination, we had to resort to the old fashioned way -- looking at a map (actually used Google and printed it), and calling for directions!  The only problem I foresee is how Mitch is going to get around Bismarck for his work (when he needs to be in many different places and doesn't know until the morning) without a GPS.  Perhaps his boss has an extra one he can borrow until he gets that and his phone replaced.

Travel Day 5 (IA, MN, ND) - Day 670 (Yr 2, Day 325)

Fargo, ND

We drove nearly 500 miles today, from Mitchellville, IA to Fargo, which was our goal.  Still about 200 miles left to go to Bismarck, which we may do on Sunday so we can enjoy the Sabbath.  Very interestingly, the Chabad in Fargo does not have weekly services (I guess the community is way too small), so they offer a Friday night, once a month service and dinner.  The timing worked out so perfectly that we could participate.  Not sure yet if we'll leave tomorrow or Sunday (probably the latter).

The drive was ok.  There was some construction, some rough roads, and as we got into the westernmost part of MN, a lot of wind to fight.  Still, grateful to have made it safe & sound.  We are staying at a local Fairgrounds campground.  Not a place I'd stay long term, but ok for overnight or 2 nights.  VERY VERY WINDY but I've been warned by several people back in Asheville about how windy ND is.

A comment about rest areas - which we tend to stop at almost every one of them.  I am very impressed by almost all the rest areas on the Eisenhower Interstate system.  Except for the ones we've seen in NJ where there are food courts, most of them just have a building for restrooms (which are extremely nice, modern and clean), some history of the area, have very well maintained grounds, playgrounds (not all), pet exercise areas, picnic benches and pavillions.  I really loved the ones in Iowa as they were themed based on the area.  For example, the first one we visited was right after we crossed the Mississippi River, so there was a nautical theme throughout the rest area, depicting life as it was back then.  Iowa is also a state that strongly advocates education, so another rest area was designed and had artwork from local schools.  BTW, we also learned that although Eisenhower signed the interstate bill, it was Senator Al Gore, Sr. who created and sponsored the bill!

Anyway, getting ready to prepare for Shabbat.  We will go to services and the dinner tonight and most likely just hang and relax tomorrow.  I'm glad there's a community dinner because I forgot to take the fish out of the freezer, plus, after about 10 hours on the road, I really don't feel like cooking. 

Travel Day 4 (IL, IA) - Day 689 (Yr 2, Day 324)

Mitchellville, IA

Funny, isn't it?!!!

Well, as you can see from the title, the truck has been repaired and we are back on the road again.  It was ready at 4:00 and we pulled out of the dealership at 5:00.  Just pulled into the rest area at 10:30.  Actual driving time was 5 hours and we covered about 225 miles.

For the most part, the drive was very easy.  We plan to leave around 5 am and do as much driving as possible.  It would be great to make it to the campground in Fargo for Shabbat, but that's still about 500 miles away.  Including stops, that's a good 8 hours of driving, which means 10 on the road including bathroom breaks and probably 1 long rest.  Still, that would bring us there before dinner time.  But we shall see.  We'll do whatever we can.

Travel Day 4 (still none) - Day 688 (Yr 2, Day 323)

Peoria, IL

Another full day at "Camp Ford" but at least we finally got a response as to what the problem(s) are:  (1) a bad high pressure oil pump and (2) a broken O-ring on a fuel injector.  We were losing confidence, but we realized we were speaking with the "service advisor" - basically the liaison between the mechanic and the customer who was mostly a translator.  We got to go into the bay area and speak directly with the mechanic who was working on the truck and he was able to show us and explain his methodology of the diagnosis.  My confidence has been restored.  In order to fix the problem, they need to order a part which won't arrive until tomorrow morning.  With any luck, we can be on the road again by tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.  We still have about 900  miles to go.  The plan is (remember plans are always made in bubbles) is to arrive in Fargo, ND, which is about 700 miles away, by Friday afternoon.  There is a Chabad there, so we hope to stay at a campground nearby for Shabbat and then drive the last 200 miles on Sunday.  This plan all depends on what time we can hit the road, and how much driving we can do.  It is of utmost importance that we don't push ourselves past our limits, so if we can't make it to Fargo by Friday, so be it.  Serendipity will still lead the way.

Too lazy to cook tonight (plus don't want to have too many pots & pan to clean so as not to fill up the gray tank).  After much research, found a food delivery company (Order 2 Eat Peoria) and ordered Chinese food.

Mitch Sez...

Mitch Sez...
Yes, I really exist, and I am NOT a figment of Cheryl's imagination. 

Travel Day 3 (none) - RD (Road-Date): RD2.322 (Day 687) 

If you think about it, (for those who actually know me!) it's really QUITE pathetic for someone like me who's been doing computer-geekie (tech stuff) since 1979, that I don't use Facebook, or a great deal of similar apps.

But occasionally I also comment on our trials and tribulations.  So I thought I'd post my latest one here too.

Please note that Cheryl and I do have different writing styles, and my RD2.322 date log was inspired by StarTrek's dating system.  However, since she runs most of  the blog, It was a losing battle to get her to adapt my date format, so it'll only be on my posts in the future

---my take:

Ehhh, 800 miles done, slightly under 1/2 the trip.
For those of you now wondering if we're really crazy and ready to quit RVing now, The answer is...

• You have problems (like a broken/flooding hot water heater ) in REAL houses too, (we call 'em sticks & bricks)
• Hopefully its something minor they can take care of fast and early tomorrow morning, so we can get some time on the road... 

And most importantly.  Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong WILL.  I say that

...Mr. Murphy was an optimist.  Ain't getting out this morning... MAYBE by Wed Night?

They did find ONE part not responding, looks like we get the $$$ piecemeal approach to fixing this. ONE part at a time, till it works, SIGH!

 Two Pictures: 

#1 (above) My poor Bull (named Ferdinand) and the CoW, about to  be towed.

#2 (below) Well, I'll be a durned NYC boy, but both Cheryl and I initially took a second look after seeing this..

Answer? Most likely for A big big big tractor.

When I was in Hendersonville, NC, I saw a  John Deere dealer that had mammoth tractors, combines, and such with these kind of tires.

Cheers to all, and to all a Good night from Peoria, IL
 

 

Travel Day 3 (none) - Day 687 (Yr 2, Day 322)

Peoria, IL

It's almost 5:30pm and no word on the truck yet, so it's pretty safe to assume we are going to camp here again tonight.  It's actually pretty comfortable, especially since we found that Mitch could run his 200' extension cord to a power outlet on the outside of the building, so we have 15 amp electric.  Not enough to run the microwave or other high power appliances, but enough to plug in and charge our laptops, tablets & phones, and watch some tv.  It's a huge space and we don't have other RVs next to us.  There's even a small field out of our window so we're not looking at a parking lot.  We still have plenty of water in the tank and space in the gray and black tanks.

So today's events... they took the truck to the bay around 9:00.  At noon, they said they needed to charge the batteries first (not sure why they were drained; maybe we had some stuff plugged in).  By 3:00, they still couldn't determine the exact problem.  At first, they said the oil pressure wasn't building up properly, so they put in a new pressure regulator.  I asked if that meant it was not the fuel injectors and we were told it still could be; they wouldn't know until they saw how it responded with the new regulator.   At 4:30, they said it wasn't doing what it should but they found a broken o-ring on the gasket of the fuel injector.  It is now almost 6:00 and we still don't have an answer.  We were promised they'd give us status before they left for the day.  At this point, I'm wondering if we'll even be able to leave tomorrow.  But that's a worry for tomorrow.  We'll get to Bismarck when we get there.  Not worrying or panicking about it.

Anyway, it was a pretty nice day until about 2pm when it got a little cloudy and very windy.  They have a shuttle service and there's a huge shopping center about 2 miles away.  We took the shuttle, along with our urb-e's to Bob Evans for breakfast.  We were going to stop at Walmart or Aldi for some more snack foods for the trip, but decided not to.  We did ride the urb-es back to the dealer.  It was a very nice ride, although a little harrowing due to some areas being high traffic streets without a sidewalk and a lot of potholes or huge cracks on the empty back roads.  Just needed to ride very carefully.   For the rest of the day, I was able to get quite a bit of billable work accomplished as well.  That made one of my clients very happy!

The only other excitement of the day was Mitch banging his head on the slideout.  He was bleeding profusely for a few minutes, but after getting it cleaned up, it's just small cut.  He looks cute with a bandaid on his head!

Travel Day 2 (TN-KY-IL) - Day 686 (Yr 2, Day 321)

Peoria, IL

Very interesting day.  First, let me start off by saying we are not "wallydocking," nor are we at a rest area or truck stop.  We are sitting in the lot of a Ford dealer (I'll get to why in a bit...)

First, we did wake up at 3 am and got on the road at 4:15 am.  Mitch drove about 100 miles, through TN into KY, to a truck stop where he used the facilities and filled up his cup with ice.  By now it was daybreak (6:30am), so I took over driving.  As I said yesterday, I really don't like driving in the TN.  Mostly KY was pretty much the same (mountains and hills) as was IL where we entered in the southern part of the state.  It really wasn't until we got onto I-57 in Carbondale where things started leveling out a bit and the mountains were replaced with lots and lots of farmland (only saw 1 cow pasture, though and only about 25 cows).  As we entered IL, we saw lots of fields full of beautiful yellow flowers.  Not really sure if they were some type of wild flower or the blooms of a vegetable, as we couldn't get a close up look.  Just lots and lots of pretty yellow.  For the most part, after we left the mountains in KY, it was wide open farmland.  If there were any tall buildings, you could see them miles and miles away!

We took several breaks, driving through TN, KY, and most of IL.  We made it 486 miles today and are about 50 miles from the border of Iowa.  Although we made much better time today -- we were slowed down due to the mountains yesterday - today we hit quite a lot of construction.  Fortunately there was no construction traffic, but we still had to go significantly slower through those many zones.  In some of the areas, there were warnings for maximum width 10'6".  We are about 9' wide, so driving through the areas with concrete walls on either side, that left us less than a foot on either side.  True white knuckle driving!

It was 3:30, and being on the road about 11 hours, with actual driving time of 9 hours (we stopped around 9 am and found a rest area where we could open the slides, so we went back to bed for an hour),the plan at that point was to rest for about 1/2 hr, and then find a Walmart about 30 to 60 minutes away to settle in for the night.

As we were passing Peoria, which was about 35 miles from the rest area we had chosen, I noticed that the truck seemed to be struggling to accelerate.  This is what happens when we go on inclines, so I figured that even though it didn't appear to be one, and I assumed I was in flat land already, perhaps I was wrong.  Indeed, as we got past Peoria, there were clearly a few hills.  However, I was still not gaining speed at the points when I should have; I couldn't get much above 50mph).  I was watching all the gauges and everything was in order, and no lights came on.  We made to the rest area and just as I was pulling into a spot, the truck died.  Kaput!  No idea why.  We are so very thankful that this happened as we pulled into a safe space.

Mitch tested the batteries and they appeared to be fine, but he gave them a charge anyway.  We don't think it's a battery problem.  I'd say a starter but it died while the truck was still running.  We called for a mobile mechanic and learned that only the RV is covered, not the truck, so we need a tow.  As I write this, it is now 6:30 and we are still waiting for 3 hours.  We are going to be towed to a Ford dealer and they will look at it in the morning.  They have room in their lot for us to park the RV so we have a place to stay at least (I will continue this post when we settle in the for night to let you know what time that finally is).

My biggest fear is the engine.  But worrying won't change anything so may as well wait until the diagnosis -- I will post that tomorrow.  Meanwhile, not sure how this is going to affect our arrival time in Bismarck.  But the plan is still - "we get there when we get there."  We'll continue to drive as much as we can in a day, which if anything like today, is about 500 miles.  If we have to drive on Shabbat, so be it, although I pray that's not the case.

Anyway, more later after we finally get towed and settled in....

BACK NOW, and it is almost 10:00 pm.  Got settled in at 9:30 and made a quick dinner (Asian salad: tomatoes, scallions, sesame-ginger baked tofu (prepackaged), sesame seeds, and a dressing of sesame oil & rice vinegar).  So...

We thought we were going to the closest Ford dealer, less than a mile away.  Turns out we had to go to Peoria, 40 miles backwards (plus about 20 miles forwards just to turn around to go back).  They sent a tow truck that tows semis, but our truck is built differently, so it took him about an hour just to get it hooked up.  Another hour to get to the dealer, and almost another hour to get unhooked.  At least it's a large dealership and there was a very lovely place to put the rig.  I can't complain about our location for the night - much nicer than a noisy rest area or Walmart.

As an aside... it was a huge challenge for me to get in and out of the tow truck.  It was a semi with the huge, high steps.  As it is, I need a step stool to get into my pickup; and the steps on this is about triple the height.  I did it, but I was shaking when I got down!!!

We described our problem to the mechanic who towed us.  He said it can't really say without diagnosing it, but his best guess is it has something to do with the fuel injection system.  We did have some problems a few weeks ago when we saw black smoke coming from the exhaust.  We took it to the Ford dealer in Asheville.  They didn't find anything wrong, but suggested it could be the fuel injectors and recommended we add a cleanser to the gas tank, which we've been doing.  If this is indeed the problem, it could run about $2K to replace the injectors.  Ouch, but surely not as bad if it was the engine.

We shall see how things turn out in the morning.  Hopefully they will take us first thing and we can be back on the road by noon.  At least I'll have some time to get some client work done in the morning.

Running on the generator now so we can recharge our devices, the house battery, and maybe watch a little tv before turning into bed.

Stay tuned....!!!  Never a dull moment, that's for sure!

Travel Day 1 (Asheville NC to Springfield TN) - Day 685 (Yr 2, Day 320)

Springfield, TN

I was going to keep track of my daily journey and then just publish it when the travels were complete.  But some of my family members want a daily report, so I will honor that.  Warning: it may be very boring!

We left Asheville this morning.  The goal was to leave at 9 am and for once, we actually met that goal!  There was about 40 miles in NC, and the rest was TN, where we still are, although towards the western side of the state.  The scenery going thru TN is really beautiful (mountains), but the drive was horrendous, as there are nothing but very windy roads and steep mountain grades.  Our truck, workhorse as it is, still doesn't like inclines; the engine starts to rev too high and we can't get above 35mph.  Then going downhill, you're not supposed to ride the brakes, so it's equally scary if someone's in front of you.  Fortunately, no one was.

We pretty much hit every rest area along the way, which was about every 100 miles.  We did a total of 320 miles today and drove a total of about 7 hours, (excluding the breaks--on the road for 9 hrs) and are currently "wallydocking" (parking in a Walmart parking lot).   We also crossed into the central time zone, so although we gained an hour, our bodies are telling us it's an hour later than it really is.  I made a quick dinner of scrambled eggs and leftover gefilte fish.  We then made the sandwiches we'll need for breakfast and lunch tomorrow, will watch a little "tv" and then go to bed early.  Mitch would like to get a very early start - i.e. about 3:00 am so that we don't have to deal with the rush hour traffic that will surely be on this one lane, 10 mile road that leads back to the highway.

The only last adventure was getting to this Walmart in Springfield.  We heard on a local radio station that there was a severe thunderstorm warning in the area, and we noticed the sky ahead was very dark.  It was around the time to stop anyway, so we looked at our resources and decided to go to the closest possible place, which was a Walmart 15 miles away (5 on the highway and 10 on a local 1 lane road).  This road was also very windy and hilly.  And of course, the torrential rains hit (I was the one driving).  It was one of those blinding rains, too, and there was absolutely no place to pull over to the side, so I just put on my flashers and went about 5mph in a 50 zone.  Too bad for the drivers behind me!  After about 7 miles, there was an area to pull over, so we did that until the rain let up, about 15 minutes later.  Naturally, by the time we drove the last 3 miles, the sun was back out.

We are very grateful that we made it through the first day of travel safely and without incident.

I absolutely HATE this kind of travel.  I would much rather do it at my own pace - no more than 150 miles or 4 hours in a day, and being able to stop and see some sights.  But this is not that type of trip.  Either way, we get there when we get there, taking our time and stopping as often as needed.  Hopefully the rest of the trip will be much easier as we'll be past the TN mountains.