09-12-08 Friday (What was that noise?)

This WAS to be an uneventful day. Alas, I wished it had been.

We departed Eureka, Missouri at about 11:30am for our 380 mile trip to Salina (pronounced sa-line-ah), Kansas. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get an earlier start as we were waiting for some mail to arrive. We got the mail, and then departed.

We chose an easy in and out Pilot gas station to fill up before hitting the road. After a fill up, Jim drove several feet away from the pump and then BANG. Ah, shit. Yes, that was the sound of the left rear coach smacking a concrete fuel pump barrier. We jumped out of the coach to find a broken sewer hose holder that was attached to the bumper accompanied by some yellow scrapes, topped with an obliterated left rear side marker, and finally joined by a smashed left tail light. My reaction was shocked, followed quickly with chuckles as we re-entered the coach. I shrugged it off looking to the brighter side of things by imagining the other things it could have been. When and if it’s my turn to smack the RV, hopefully there will be laughing rather than anger.

Before I move onto Kansas, I must point out 2 important facts. 1- We never went to a Wal-Mart in Missouri! 2- On one of the interstates I noticed a mile marker every 2 tenths of a mile. (Notice the .8 on the mile maker sign to your right?) I found this to be amusing, as well as a waste of money. Jim says someone at the DOT has family in the sign business. I think the Missouri state parks could have used the money; a few of them needed help. Perhaps fixing the damn roads might have been money well spent? If you Google for the top ten worst roads, St. Louis makes the list. Maybe these weren’t necessarily important facts, but it is my job to embellish this blog to keep you amused……………. And you are amused, aren’t you?

Our Wal-Mart shopping trip was due. We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Topeka, Kansas. It was not the usual conforming exterior Wal-Mart style. The inside was huge but under some sort of reorganization. We wanted to buy a small ceramic heater since tomorrow our next stop is Colorado with a low of 36 degrees! Sure we have heat via a furnace but it’s cheaper to use the parks electric rather than our propane. So, I walk over to the fans but don’t see heaters. Excuse me, Mr. Wal-Mart employee, where would I find the space heaters. Mr. Wal-Mart employee says they don’t have room for them right now so none are out. I would have thought that since Salina, Kansas has a low of 56 degrees, and getting colder, it might be time for heaters over fans? We’ll just wait and stop at another Wal-Mart.

It was our first time arriving to a campground at dark. We’ll avoid this situation in the future. It was 10pm and the office was closed. Typically, you just use a night drop box and pay in the morning. This, as I verified earlier in the day was the case here at Sundowner West. We filled out our form, slipped it through the slot and took a map. As a side note, the map indicated the shelter is below the restrooms. Scary. Out of all the RV’s there, 90% were dark inside. Maybe it’s so boring here that they went to bed at 9pm on a Friday night???? The campground, like most was pitch-black. We could only see the road directly in front of us but not where all the sites were, the site numbers, hookup boxes, etc. On a turn within the park, we got stuck on an incline that lifted a rear wheel off the ground. We were half on the road and half on the grass. We attempted backing up with the Cherokee in tow. Again, this never works unless the Cherokee and RV and perfectly straight with each other and only a foot of reverse is needed. But of course, if this was the case, we probably wouldn’t need to back up. I got into the Cherokee and tried to backup in tandem with the RV. Nope. We had to disconnect! Luckily we were at the campground but with a one night stay, we didn’t plan to disconnect. Now the RV was able to get unstuck, and into a spot. We made our park connections and ate dinner at 11 or something. Goodnight Salina.

Some miscellaneous photos I snapped:

This sign is for a Missouri town called Blackwater. If you remember that in RV lingo, blackwater is toilet waste. It was raining.

Missouri: A giant cow, pretty much in the middle of no where.

Missouri: I missed stopping at a Wal-Mart so much, I snapped a photo of the Wal-Mart truck.

Missouri: Wildflower Area sign. I thought this interesting because we had seen many of them throughout. One sign that intriqued me was a "Pairie Rehab" sign but I could never get a clear picture of it at 70mph. I wanted to comment something like, "A place for the alcholic Ingles family?"

I had so many great headlines to call this blog entry. Of course they all incorporated The Wizard of Oz somehow. We came up with, "Oh Toto, I don't want to be in Kansas anymore" "Maybe the Wizard can fix this?" "Kansas ain't freakin' flat Toto." What can you come up with?

09-11-08 Thursday (One man's junk is...)

I’m glad that we did the Arch yesterday. While at the top of it, I nervously asked Jim for the date. Every September 11th, I’m always reminded of the terrorist attack as well as the possibility of others. Being in a large city or monument on the 11th makes me edgy.

As usual, we were off to a late start. We knew we’d probably not catch the City Museum and the Zoo so I chose the museum. I think if we catch another zoo somewhere else, the animals will be very similar, unless St. Louis has unusual animal exhibits. Unlikely, I suppose.

First a stop to Burger King for a quick lunch. The Angus Steakhouse burger was ewwwwww, just so you know. Yeah, what did I expect…….

The City Museum is pretty awesome. The exhibits are all interactive. Interactive to climb on, slide down, crawl in, etc. Per its website (http://www.citymuseum.org/), here’s the description:

Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children's playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.
Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions'. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, CITY MUSEUM boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!
"CITY MUSEUM makes you want to know," says Cassilly. "The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, 'Wow, that's wonderful.' And if it's wonderful, it's worth preserving."


A slideshow should appear below. You can pause it and then use the arrows to go to the next picture at your own speed.




For the days finale, we again drove around downtown St. Louis but this time focusing on the neighborhoods. A lot of the buildings and old homes have great architecture. We couldn’t find the church I spoke about yesterday and the GPS was of no help in its location. We did see a beautiful tower from a road so we drove toward it and checked it out. It was actually the Compton Reservoir. The cool looking tower is actually a water tower. It’s all surrounded by a nice park. Ya just never know what you’ll find by just driving around.

09-10-08 Wednesday (You don't know Jack)

Going back to work was this morning’s conversation. We discussed our plan for after the Grand Canyon, and ways to stretch our money. One way is to let everyone who reads this blog that we normally exchange Christmas gifts with, forget it for this year. Whatever we’d spend on Christmas gifts would certainly shorten our temporary retirement. No gifts! Yes, this includes family! We know that it’s getting colder outside which makes it more difficult to sight see in the future. I told Jim that he should have lost his job earlier in the year. ;-) The plan of visiting the Grand Canyon and then high tailing it up north to Niagara Falls may not be feasible. By the time we make it to the Grand Canyon it will be early to mid October; this makes it very cold by the time we get to Niagara Falls. Jim suggests we take temporary seasonal jobs for a month or 2 in some state and then hit the road again after the holidays. This will extend our temporary retirement possibly until April or May. We’ve looked at our finances and have set aside money for restarting our lives, and doing so debt free. The remainder is what we’ll live on from today until it runs out. That’s the plan thus far (subject to tweaking).

Yes, Mom and Dad as well as the rest of Jim’s and my family, we probably won’t be home for the holidays, but know that we’ll miss you and we love you all very much! I think most of you suspected it would be a tough and expensive trek for us to return home for the holidays. I also know that so many of you have family to surround you now and through the holidays. It’s not the end of the world, focus on who’s there with you now, and enjoy their company. OK, so I’m getting way too sappy and a little teary so we’ll move on to the fun stuff and the further MISadventures of Jim & Garret.

(Royal trumpet playing)

With much happiness, I’m ecstatic to report our icemaker has survived its fall. I know so many of you lost sleep last night, dreading the possible outcome. Rest easy, dear reader, all is swell. Yes, I said swell.

Jim and I have decided that the streets in St. Louis are scary, hazardous, poorly laid out and confusing. Did I miss a word? Last night we drove downtown to a club, and I think even the GPS was confused. Some examples, 2 roads that lead to the same place, possibly 1 avoided a traffic light. A right turn signal posted in the left lane. White lane lines are barely visible; not only are they faded but they are short, thin and look like a child drew them. They don’t believe in lane reflectors. On and off ramps are all over the place. We also managed to drive about 4 blocks up a road before realizing we were on the wrong side of the road. There was no “Wrong Way” sign posted, no RED reflectors. Fortunately it was dark-thirty so there was no one driving. We got on the wrong road because we needed to make a right, and there were 4 roads, 8 lanes or more within feet of one another.

Today’s travels are brought to you by the letter A. Arch! We ventured to the Arch today. We went below ground to gain entry to the Arch. There are the North and South entrances, and each underground lobby features a museum, gift shop (of course), theater and the tram entrance. The tram ride to the top was $10 each. It was well worth it. Because it’s a slow time of year, only 1 entrance was open. I was told that each entrance has a different museum and different historic movie. The part we were in was all about the Western expansion while the other side focused on the Arch construction. I would have liked to have seen the construction side. The trams are a cross between Ferris wheel technology and elevator technologies that were available in the early 60’s. The tram cars are often referred to as capsules and looking at the picture, you’ll see why. They SQUEEZE 5 people in each of the 8 capsules and run the line of capsules 10 minutes apart. On the ride up, you can’t see out of the Arch but see the inside stairwells and maintenance ports. Very cool. All of the technology is still the same except they replaced the leveling switches from Mercury to electronic. All parts have been replaced except for the capsules themselves. Very impressive. Once at the top, you exit the capsule and can stay up there as long as you’d like. Up at the top where the 2 sides connect, there are small viewing windows that you can lean comfortably on and see the city. Amazing. The Arch is almost twice the height of the Statue of Liberty! There’s so much history and information there.

Left: Jim in front of Eads Bridge.

Right: Inside Arch Capsule.

After the Arch, We stopped off at the downtown area to shop at a themed store. While in the area we spotted an Ethiopian Restaurant but decided the portions would be much too small so we moved on to the shop where we bought matching rings. On the way back to the RV, Jim spotted a beautiful church. We got out of the Cherokee and walked around it. It was built in 1867. I snapped some photos of the exterior and once home, I Googled for information about it and see that the inside is gorgeous too. We may head back tomorrow and see if it’s open. Click here if you'd like to visit the website about this church's history.

We stopped at a Jack in the Box on the way home for a snack. I’ve heard of them, and may have even eaten at one in California in 1985.

Back to the coach for Jim’s awesome crockpot chili creation. Last night was my amazing meatloaf…. Sorry Carl, my meatloaf is better!

A couple of unrelated photos I snapped are below. One of the funny speed limit within Jellystone and the other of Jellystone’s front entrance.

{Scanned postcard I purchased}

Funny video

09-09-08 Tuesday (Go away, we're closed)

It’s so hard to think of ways to start sentences other than with “we”. I can remember writing in school and having a teacher yell about starting each sentence with “I”. Enough of that. We were slow going this morning but eventually got moving to take the RV to a local shop. The list of concerns were only 2 but turned into 3 (of course). 1- Belt squeal. 2-Steering wanders and vibrates. The 3rd occurred at the point of leaving the campground. The jacks were visually up but the system said it wasn’t. We’ve been having a few minor issues with it but today it reared its ugly head. Luckily the shop, which came recommended by 2 people, was only .2 miles up the road. I say luckily because with the system thinking the jacks were down, a loud ugly alarm sounds and a light flashes if it’s in drive. Jim managed to endure the nuisances while I followed in the Cherokee. While the shop had it, we went to a Jiffy Lube for a front and rear differential service, transfer case service, and transmission service. (Like you care) Funny thing about that is that as a service manager in the automotive industry, I despised hearing about people going to Jiffy Lubes. We chose them because of their nationwide locations in case they screw something up. As far as the RV, we tried to get the RV to a Ford dealership but they couldn’t handle the size of the RV and recommended the shop we went to. I’m glad we went there because they seemed honest. They adjusted the belt. They said the steering was fine for that age coach without spending a fortune on a new gearbox, and 1 jack is leaking so he topped it off and we’ll have it handled in Colorado since he didn’t have parts in stock.

When the shop called Jim to tell him it was ready, they told us the icemaker on the counter fell during a roadtest and damaged the floor. I just bought the damn thing 2 days ago. The floor is new too. %@$*#~! I was relieved to find out that they cleaned up the ice and picked it back up. The cover came off but was easily snapped back into the place. The rest of it seemed fine too. I’ve left it unplugged for now until I’m sure no water made it into the electrical parts. Smart, I know. I also read during initial setup, if it had been anything but upright, it needs to sit 12 hours before use so as not to damage the compressor. Hopefully the damn fall itself didn’t kill it. As for the damaged floor, Jim and I can’t find anything wrong with it.

When we returned to the campground we chose a different spot that was roomier and resetup. I’m not really sure why the idiots here didn’t give us the best site being their park is dead! It’s a shame I won’t be able to prop my feet up on a sewer hose, or set my drink on an electrical box.

We heard about a Haunted House attraction here so Jim looked it up on the internet and it’s only open Fridays and Saturdays for September. Sheesh. I’m surprise the Arch is still where it is. I’m thinking they would have hired David Copperfield to make the damn thing disappear. Tomorrow is go into the Arch day. It better be open or I’ll be getting a ladder at Wal-Mart.

I made meatloaf tonight, and it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have a bowl large enough to fit 3 pounds of meat into so I mixed it as best as I could and then split it into 2, then added the other ingredients. It tasted a little too much like sausage (1 lb sausage, 2 lbs beef). Who knows what happened. By the time the evening wrapped up the temperature outside was 56.

PS: Steve & Rich, you never sent your email in a blog post! Please send it. I hope you’re still reading!

09-08-08 Monday (PADUCAH - Bless you)

ROADTRIP! Kentucky and Illinois are just faded memories today. They were almost obstacles to reach St. Louis, Missouri. Kentucky seemed to boast a lot about its National Quilt Museum. These 2 states just didn’t interest us. I’m sorry to any Kentucky or Illinois readers, like Bill Reynolds from Kentucky, and the Zarbucks in Illinois. Besides, I didn’t see any blue grass; it all looked green to me. ;-) You guys have nice barns. We did stop into a Wal-Mart in Paducah Kentucky, where we shopped for the weeks groceries. THEN we ate lunch in the RV and enjoyed the breath-taking views of the metals and chromes adorned upon the vehicles in the parking lot. Sounds nice, huh? I realize that these 2 states have more to offer than farmland, but then again, it wouldn’t be as amusing for the blog.

One plus is that we crossed the Tennessee River and Ohio River. I couldn’t tell ya what states those were in without looking at a map. My blog note taking skills slacked a little during the visual barn-fest and farming fields fest. A big minus for Illinois is their speed limit for trucks and RVs. 55 for us, 65 for others. I’m sure the truckers who provide our country with food and supplies really love Illinios, although most of them seemed to ignore the sign. A humorous moment was Jim spotting a Goreville sign in Illinois. He asked if it was Gore like Al Gore or gore like icky scary gore, I replied, “Same thing.”

ARRIVAL! To get to Jellystone camp grounds, one passes Six Flags. It was about 6:30pm and Six Flags looked lifeless. The website said they were open until 8pm. Hmmmmmm. We pulled into Jellystone and Jim checked in. Jim found out that Six Flags is only open on the weekends. Apparently, when we looked it up on the website it was still August. Checkout was planned for Friday so we’ll miss it. Oh well, there’s plenty of other Six Flags around the country.

Of course it started raining as we pulled into our site which lowered the temperature to 60 or so immediately. The sites are terrible. To the best of my knowledge, RV’s and travel trailers are all setup the same. Hookups on the driver’s side and coach door on the passenger side. Well, the sites are on top of one another. Just about literally too. If we were to actually set up the coach the way the site is laid out, our awning would be over the next sites connection boxes. We’d be able to set up a chair and put a drink up on the sewer connection for the neighbor. Never mind setting up a screen room, although we’d be able to shield the neighbor’s hookups from insects. Handy, huh? The picnic table, fire ring and BBQ for OUR site are on our connection side. We’d be able to enjoy our dinner at the table while putting our feet up on our connections. Totally unacceptable! Luckily, you can count how many RV’s are here on 1 hand so we’ll deal with it.

DINNER! Yay, we wanted to go somewhere unique to the area. The guy at the check-in desk recommended “Joe Boccardi’s” so off we went. Jim had toasted lasagna which is cooked normally and then fried. I didn’t care for it; I craved Laurie Taylor’s famous lasagna. I had chicken marsala and didn’t really care for it either.

ARCH! My foot arch was killing me. Oh no, not that arch, I meant THE Arch. The gateway to the West. We went to see it at night. It’s amazing you can even touch it. I guess I was thinking it would be roped off or something. It’s remarkable. We expected it to be lit better but it still was neat.

BAR! A man walks into a…. sorry, we went to a local bar. There were maybe 4 other patrons. It’s a Monday what could we expect? We chatted with the bartender for a couple of drinks worth and then came on home to the coach.