Jump to content

tbutler

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    2713

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    44

Blog Entries posted by tbutler

  1. tbutler

    An Unexpected Move

    By tbutler,

    Let me introduce our motor home, VGER.  VGER is named for the villainous character in the first of the Star Trek movies.  VGER has been in our family going on 15 years this summer.  It (VGER was an it) was purchased at a Monaco Come Home Rally in Raine, LA.  We traded in a 10 year old Monaco we had purchased as a used coach in the spring of 2001.  We sold our home and moved into that used coach full time on July 7, 2001.  VGER was purchased new, 1235.4 miles on the odometer when we took possession on November 14, 2003.  Today it has 177,326.1 miles on the odometer. 
    From November 2003 until October 2010, we lived in VGER full time.  Starting in the fall of 2010, we move into a mobile home each fall and move back into VGER each spring.  When in VGER, we travel.  A long stay is on the order of 3 to 4 weeks.  Those stays are when we are visiting our children and grandchildren.  Once a year we move into our children's neighborhoods and become neighbors for a period of time.  In between time we follow our noses.  We've visited 49 states and 12 provinces in Canada. 
    We have begun slowly remodeling VGER.  Carpeting, lights, some furniture, plumbing and more.  Some of the remodeling has been out of necessity some just to keep the coach looking modern.  Our work continued this summer, right up to the time we found our next motor home.  While at Gillette, first at the Monaco International pre-rally and finally at the FMCA Convention, we purchased a 2015 Monaco Dynasty.  The Windsor is up for sale, look for the ad in the Family RV'ing Magazine (FMCA) January issue.
    We transferred the license from the Windsor to the Dynasty, VGER lives on.  Since the purchase we have put 4500 miles on the Dynasty and are enjoying many of it's features.  There is a trade-off when moving from a 40' coach to a 45' coach.  The two are not directly comparable as they are of a different age. 
    Right away we realized that the relative frugality of the Windsor was dramatically different from the Dynasty.  Fuel mileage dropped from 8.3 with the Windsor to 6.5 with the Dynasty.  That was no surprise, I figured it might even be lower.  The Dynasty has an Aqua-Hot for hot water and heat.  Both run off the fuel tank as does the generator.  With the Windsor only the generator shared the fuel tank.  With all these uses for the diesel fuel, I have lost the ability to get a true mileage performance figure. 
    Due to the demand for electric, we have an induction cooktop, the Dynasty really needs to be plugged in regularly.  The generator will run things but using the generator extensively is an expensive proposition.  The water and waste tanks are roughly the same size as the Windsor but the water usage in the Dynasty is going to be greater.  The toilets use significantly more water with each flush.  The shower has a rain shower head which is a big water user.  That means we will have to be hooked up every two or three days.  With the Windsor we were able to go close to a week without hook-ups and longer if we really needed to stretch it.
    When we pulled up to our home at Sandpipers Resort in Edinburg, Texas we faced another challenge.  Our parking space is adjacent to our mobile home.  The driveway barely accommodated the length of the Windsor with our toad parked behind.  I knew that and planned to park the toad cross-way in the driveway, that worked fine.  We also had to maneuver a longer coach onto the driveway.  The park road is fairly narrow and there is no way to run off on the opposite side.  We always had to make three or four passes to jockey the Windsor into the driveway.  I didn't even know if we could get the Dynasty  into the driveway.  As it turned out, we made it, a few more passes than the Windsor.  With all the slides open we have about 6 inches between the Dynasty and the roof of the mobile home.  Whew! That is close. 
    Surprisingly, the space in the storage bays is less in the Dynasty than the Windsor.  Some of our gear made the trip home in the toad rather than in the storage bays.  We'll go through some winnowing of our gear before departing next spring.  All in all we are quite happy with our new VGER and as we get to know it better I'm certain we'll continue to look back to the Windsor with many happy memories while enjoying the luxury of the Dynasty.
  2. tbutler
    I have driven the motor home without my navigator beside me before but never quite like this trip. There have been a few short trips to repair shops. The only long trip was from St. Louis to Houston. On that trip Louise was following me in the toad as I returned a tow dolly to its maker. On that trip we had radios for communication on the road and we stopped for rest stops, meals and overnights together.
    On Monday of last week I dropped Louise off at the airport. She was on her way to Denver to be with her daughter during and after surgery. I had to remain until Tuesday afternoon for the final follow-up doctor visit following my cataract surgery so taking Louise to Denver in the motor home was not an option. We had the motor home loaded and ready to go before Louise left.
    My appointment with the doctor was late in the day and they were running behind schedule so it was really late when I left the office. When I got home I packed the last few things in the car and called it quits for the night. Wednesday I hooked up the toad and got underway headed north from Edinburg, Texas to Denver, Colorado. I was prepared to take longer than usual for this drive as my usual navigator/stewardess/chef/housekeeper was not with me.
    I know the route, we've traveled it before. We drive a 40 foot coach with a toad and the team effort makes it much easier. When the GPS tells me to turn somewhere, Louise will check the map and say we do or don't want to go that way. When we need to stop, she can scout various sources of information for rest stops or just watch the road for picnic areas or large parking lots. If I want a snack she can make a run to the refrigerator. Louise usually prepares meals. Normally at overnight stops we divide the work, I do the outside work, wash the bugs of the windshield, check tires and the toad. Louise sets up the interior, attending to slides and leveling and then securing everything before we are underway in the morning. Doing all this by myself means extra stops and doubles the time spent taking care of the coach at each overnight stop.
    Louise has several jobs as we travel through large cities. First, she is on constant watch for those exit only lanes that pop up from time to time. Next, she is reading the highway signs and keeping me posted on any coming lane changes or exits we need to take. Finally, she is checking the map to confirm that the GPS instructions are what we really want to do. Our local knowledge or our preferences are difficult to program into the GPS. Sometimes we prefer an interstate highway, sometimes we prefer an alternate that may be better at a given time of day. When traveling through large cities we have a running conversation going related to our route and all of the above things. When she drives we switch roles easily. Either way it is almost always a two person operation. This trip I am responsible for doing all of the above, no help except the GPS.
    I got derailed in San Antonio on the early side of the afternoon rush hour. I decided to take the I-410 loop west around San Antonio to keep me out of downtown but hadn’t looked at the map before making the decision. For a while the GPS was fighting me until I finally gave in and followed its directions. By the time I was outbound from San Antonio, the rush hour was definitely building. Anyway, an hour later I was clear of the city traffic and rolling along the road nicely. Later when I was able to stop the map clearly showed that staying with I-410 would have worked fine. I should have checked the map before making my decision!
    I stopped for the evening in Ballinger, Texas. There is a city park with hook-ups but it definitely isn't for big rigs. I circled through the park and felt lucky to get away with all my paint. So it was the Wal-Mart that night. Nice people, they welcomed me to park in the gravel lot next to the small store lot. I was joined by an empty hog truck that parked about 30 feet away. He was gone by morning and I slept soundly. I took my time getting ready to go. Wal-Mart had a sidewalk clearance sale and I found a few bargains. I had breakfast, washed the bugs off the windshield and got the interior ready to roll.
    To be continued …
  3. tbutler
    In Part 1 I described the first day of a trip from Edinburg, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley to Dakota Ridge RV Park in Golden, Colorado. I spent the first night in Ballinger, Texas.
    My goal for the second day of the trip was Amarillo. I always prefer to park on the far side of large towns so I don’t have to start out driving through town in busy morning traffic. The weather was mostly cloudy
    until I got near Amarillo. Being just over a week from my last cataract surgery, I really appreciate cloudy days. I have those big dark glasses and they work fine but they work better when the sky is cloudy. Coming into Amarillo I needed fuel. At a roadside stop I checked my phone. Gas Buddy told me the local price for diesel ranges from 3.62 to 3.75. Of course I would have preferred the former price but the stations were off the highway and were small stations. I don't know the streets so I'm off to the Flying J on the east side of town.
    There aren't any RV pumps at this Flying J so I circled the islands and ended up pulling in where the truck towing an air tractor (aerial spray plane aka crop duster) on a trailer had been. I have the Pilot-Flying
    J charge card which gives me a discount from the fuel price but it also allows me to put 100 gallons in the tank with one swipe of the card! I didn't even have to go inside to leave the card and pick it up later. That was nice.
    Leaving the station, a right turn put me on the loop around town which is far better than taking the N/S highway through downtown Amarillo. It is new highway and the intersection with the US 287 isn't marked with any city names. Is this the road I normally take or is there another somewhere? I don’t remember
    highway numbers unless I travel them frequently. The GPS wants me to go straight ahead so I follow the GPS, no second opinion to tell me where to turn.
    When the GPS does finally indicate an exit from the loop highway, the road is a very small curvy road, FM1061, and I wasn’t sure where it was taking me. There is no place to pull off and check the map so I
    drove on. I finally reached US 385 and shortly thereafter crossed the Canadian River. There was a picnic area so I pulled off and parked for the night. I had phone service which was a real surprise. It was almost dark when I parked. I ate, called Louise to advise her of my progress and went to bed.
    The next morning I washed the bugs off the windshield, tidied up the interior and then headed north on US 385, a decent road with passing lanes on the hills. Our normal route, US 287, takes us through the Oklahoma panhandle. The road is one of the worst we ever travel as we leave Dumas, TX until we get to the Oklahoma line. US 385 was definitely a better road than US 287.
    A look at the map showed that I can still get back to the normal route by continuing north from Dalhart on US 385 but the GPS was indicating a turn to the west to Raton, yes, I-25 and the Raton Pass. My initial reaction was no, I don't want to have to go through the pass and I-25 is no picnic either. Then I thought about driving west into Denver on I-70 into the sun in the late afternoon. That stretch of I-70 late in the day is pure torture. I've driven it many times and it gets longer every time. Beside all that, I would be driving I-70 through Denver at rush hour. So, what the heck I'll follow the GPS. I turned northwest on US 87 in Dalhart and headed across the northeast corner of New Mexico to Raton.
    I'd never driven this road before and was pleased to find good road with four lane highway and then good two lane road all the way to Raton. The scenery was wonderful. I passed Capulin Volcano National Monument, another volcano to climb someday. The Raton Pass wasn't as bad as my memory made it out to be. Interstate 25 is exactly what I expected, too many vehicles, too little road. Curves through Pueblo make the drive interesting. Road construction on the north side of Colorado Springs turned the highway into a four mile parking lot.
    Approaching Denver I turned onto C-470. I figured this would be a quick trip to Dakota Ridge RV Campground in Golden. On this day, it was not. Once again I was in stop and go traffic which lasted for about three miles. I pulled into the campground right at closing time, parked and took the toad across town to pick up my most valuable navigator.
  4. tbutler
    For almost a month we have been trying to get concrete poured for a manufactured home at our winter home in Edinburg, Texas. Today we finally achieved our goal. We have concrete. It is curing and we will have our home moved onto our lot next Tuesday... if the weather holds. Heavy rains could still make the move impossible but we are looking at good forecasts with temperatures in the 90's, sunshine and low humidity.
    Meanwhile, we have picked out the furniture for three rooms and just went shopping for appliances. Almost as soon as the house is delivered we'll have the basics for living in the house. We won't be there long. We'll be departing for our usual summer travels as soon as we get everything set up.
    I really enjoy working with the crew that did the concrete work for us. There are ten workers, all speaking fluent Spanish if not speaking only Spanish. Luis and his brother Javier are the crew leaders. Luis does all the business end of things and Javier is the crew boss. The rest of the crew speak English in varying degrees. I was talking with Luis today before the first concrete truck arrived. He mentioned the language of the workers and commented on the attitude of many people about non English speaking people. I related to him our visit to Ellis Island this summer.
    One of the things that impressed me about this wonderful place was a room that had books brought by the European immigrants, some of their writings and one wall filled with ballots from many locations in the country printed in every language from Europe. Clearly, the ancestors of many if not most of us came to this country speaking a language other than English. Ellis Island should be on your list of places to visit. There are photographs of immigrants coming to America and the faces tell stories that are hard to miss. You can not look at the faces of these people and not feel compassion for them and their plight. What brave people they were and what wonderful contributions they made to this country.
    Immigrants have always looked different from "us." Immigrants have almost always talked different from "us." Immigrants have consistently enriched the United States of America even though the people who came to America weren't always the best educated, most upstanding citizens. Their experience and hard work have built the great country we have today. The concrete crew that did the work for us today is an example of the kind of immigrants we've had in the past. They came to America with one plan in mind, to work hard and to give their children a better life than they have had.
    I really appreciate the hard work these men did for us today and I don't care what language they speak, the language of their work is universal. They are recent immigrants to the United States of America and they are following in the footsteps of many of our ancestors. America has a bright future with hard working individuals like these men.
  5. tbutler

    And Now Comes Irma

    By tbutler,

    As the news of Harvey begins to fade from the news, the next major disaster looms just off the southeast coast of the US.  A hurricane that looks like a buzz saw in the satellite movie clips is making its way toward Florida.  There are other states that may be the location of landfall, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi are all in the cone of uncertainty.  So as I write I'm using Florida but this applies to many other states as well.  The damage this hurricane causes could easily surpass Harvey, Andrew, Katrina and all previous hurricanes in recorded history.  Each storm was different, none was good.
    If you own an RV, you are ideally prepared to evacuate.  I can't imagine not doing so.  There is nothing you can do to save your sticks and bricks house.  If you are in it when it floods or is destroyed by wind, you are risking your life for no good reason.  You are risking not only your life, those who may have to come rescue you are at risk as well.  If you live in Florida, you likely have a good understanding of hurricanes.  If you don't live there, you should be gone by now.
    For those not familiar with hurricanes, Irma is a monster.  Wind speeds of over 180 MPH have been registered by the Hurricane Hunters.  Wind gusts over 200 MPH have also been measured.  Those are unencumbered wind speeds, taken over the open ocean, there is nothing to slow the wind.  As Irma approaches land, wind speeds at the surface will be less, but not much less.  But the wind speed isn't just wind.  The wind carries debris.  We're not talking about lawn chairs, we're talking about pieces of houses, 2x4's, roof shingles, broken glass, street signs, entire roofs of buildings, sheets of metal stripped off metal buildings and so much more.  The faster the wind speeds, the more debris and the larger the pieces.  When any of these objects impact your home at 100 MPH, it will cause damage.  Buildings that are sturdy buildings sustain horrible damage during hurricanes.  You don't want to be in the building when that happens.
    Flooding due to rain, storm surge and runoff in ditches and streams will be severe over a wide area.  This storm covers a huge area, states other than Florida will almost certainly experience heavy rain and flooding.  If your home is flooded and you stayed in it, now you are living in misery.  The water is not pristine, it carries bacteria, chemicals, mud, insects, and more.  There is no normal once water enters you home.  The rainfall almost certainly will not be what Harvey brought.  Unlike Harvey, Irma is in a hurry.  It will be hit and run.  Like any hit and run, you won't believe how much damage can happen in a short period of time. 
    Following the storm, even if your home sustains no damage, life will be very difficult.  There will be no electric service for many days, weeks or perhaps even months.  There will be no air conditioning or fans.  Supplies like water, groceries, fuel, batteries, toilet paper will all be in limited supply.  Mosquitoes and other insects will swarm over the debris.  An alligator was removed from one of the homes in Houston, Florida will likely see the same.  If you are able to leave, do so.  Do so now.  You can return following the storm and be a helpful volunteer resource instead of being a victim.  Don't wait for officials to order evacuation.  Get ahead of the game, hit the road.  Public officials have to balance many factors before ordering evacuation.  You as an individual have only your own personal safety and your life to consider.
    Maybe Irma won't hit where you live.  Why take a chance?  Waiting will only make evacuation slower and more difficult.  If the storm misses, you will have had a trip to remember.  We are all rooting for a miss but everyone is planning on being hit.  Hope for the best, plan for the worst.  Good luck to those in Florida and along the East Coast.
  6. tbutler
    We’ve had a very dry trip, only a couple of days of rain in New Zealand and nothing to speak of in Australia. That all changed on Tuesday, March 25. As I was doing the final outdoor tasks getting ready to leave our campground in Eden in New South Wales (NSW) I noticed a little mist in the air. The clouds were dark and heavy and the forecast for several days had called for rain. We planned to drive along the Sapphire Coast as it is known. There are designated tourist routes which have historical or scenic value. As we drove on to the north, the rain started and became steadily stronger. Soon we were driving in a deluge. We stopped for lunch at a park in a small town and watched the rain pour down from the roof over the back window of the campervan in sheets of water. Even the birds were taking shelter from this downpour. So we abandoned our plans to continue with the tourist routes. The routes were slow, we were encountering one lane bridges for the first time in Australia and there were numerous places where we were warned that the depth of water on the road could be gauged by the markers provided.
    Our next objective was Canberra, the capital of Australia. The drive to Canberra was in moderate to heavy rain almost all the way, some 250 kilometers. When we stopped at our first choice for campgrounds, they might have a space for us but we were going to have to look at it first. We discussed internet and they had a very expensive internet plan, $10 for one day. When we asked about bus transportation into the city, they indicated that there was no bus service at their campground. They graciously suggested several other campgrounds and called to them to ensure that they had space available. We thank them and went on our way to the one that did have a site.
    The Canberra Carotel (a combination of Caravan Park and Motel, a carotel) had free internet, no restrictions and was at the end of the bus route into the city. We could catch a bus right next to the entrance road to the Carotel. We settled into our site and enjoyed an evening of unfettered internet access. During the evening and through the night it rained lightly and misted keeping everything outdoors wet. We packed our raingear the next morning and set out for the bus stop.
  7. tbutler
    It is Saturday afternoon, May 21, 2022.  We are in Chioggia, Italy.  It is a beach town south of Venice.  How we got here is a long story.  I'll begin with our flight from the US.

    Our flight from McAllen was an early one, we left Sandpipiers Resort at 5:30 a.m. for a 30 minute drive to the airport.  Check in was a mess.  There was a line until things got stopped up, only two agents and both had customers with problems.  Skipping details, they held the plane for Louise and I and one other customer.  We got to Houston in time to get to our gate for our next flight to Newark, NJ.  The airport at Newark is bizarre.  We hadn't had breakfast or much more than a snack and were looking forward to food.  Apparently they have an airport wide system for food service.  Every restaurant or bar had an electronic menu. You scanned a square code for the menu but it wouldn't work well with our phones.  They advised us to switch to Google for our browser.  We didn't and managed finally to get help so we could get a couple slices of pizza.  We boarded our plane, a Boeing 767-400 wide body at 7:00 p.m. EDT.  Once in the air, sunset progressed very quickly and after an inflight "meal" everyone settled down for the night.

    They woke us at about 2:00 a.m., fed us breakfast and landed in Venice at 9:00 a.m. Venice time (all of Italy is the same time). We were processed through Italian customs in a mass of several hundred passengers from our flight and another tour group.  They hustled us through as fast as they could.  The Venice airport is a really small airport, one  runway and one taxiway.  There were two planes at gates.  We had reserved a room at the Antony Palace Hotel just west of the airport.  A short taxi ride and we were at our hotel about10:00 a.m.  The room wasn't ready so we waited in the lobby until about 11.  Once in our room, we showered and hit the sack.  After about 6 hours of sleep, we got up, went to the lobby bar and had a light meal, a plate of assorted prescutto meats with mozzarella cheese balls and a glass of wine (or two). Now it was about 9:00 p.m. Venice time.  We went back to the room and back to sleep.  Up the next morning about 9:00, showered again and checked out of the hotel.

    From the hotel we took a taxi to the Indie Camper rental agency, a completely industrial facility.  There was no waiting room, they stacked our gear and took us to nearby mall.  We explored the mall, got food and drink and found a large well stocked grocery store.  We filled a basket with food and supplies and exited the mall just in time to be picked up, our camper was ready.  They helped us get our gear into the camper, a quick orientation and they were closed.

    We spent about a half hour getting things organized before we hit the road.  I had the Italy chip for our Garmin GPS we use in the car so the GPS is familiar.  We had identified a campground south of Venice but not too far away as our first stop.  The camper had a 1/4 tank of diesel and 1/4 tank of DEF which is the added to the exhaust of diesel engines to clean up the exhaust.  First stop was a gas station to fill up.  Surprise number one, their gas pumps, completely self service, take credit cards but require a four digit PIN.  I haven't seen a PIN needed for a credit card in I don't know how many years and had to look up the PIN in my computer.  It was three digits and was not accepted.  I figured we would find another station and try again.  As we pulled out of the station, the engine which had been running normally now was speed restricted to 35 kilometers per hour.  Pretty slow for a major thoroughfare.  I was driving on the shoulder with flashers and finally when I couldn't get better performance from the engine decided to call for road service.  There was a call box and I pulled up and stopped.  Talking to someone on the other end who is struggling with his English as I am with Italian, we finally decided to call for a tow truck.  It arrived shortly and the camper was loaded onto the back of a slant bed tow truck.

    It turns out that the 1/4 tank of DEF and Diesel were much less than that.  We had gone about 10 kilometers when the tow truck picked us up.  He added DEF at their service center, it didn't help.  It wasn't until we left and found another fuel station that the problem was solved.  So the Fiat diesel engine derates itself for DEF and/or diesel.  We stayed on the slower roads and pulled aside for following traffic when possible.  Using cash, I put in enough diesel to get it to 3/4 full.  Now things were running fine.

    It was getting late, the sun was setting so we set out for the campground.  An hour and a half later we were there.  I missed two or three turns which the GPS corrected each time.  I'm not sure how much that added to our travels.  In  at least one case it simply turned us around and put us back on the same road and I got the correct exit that time.  We arrived in Chioggia about 10:00 p.m.  The town is on the coast, marinas and beaches everywhere. The bars and restaurants were going full swing.  There were people walking everywhere.  We also had to contend with 100's of bicycles and heavy traffic on narrow roads.  Louise was not happy.  No matter how many times we tried we could not find the campground. Tom was not happy.  We finally drove by a campground, not the intended one, and pulled in, it was now after 11:00 p.m.  They had one space.  We took it and are staying 2 nights.

    We explored the campground, found the restrooms and showers. Facilities at this campground were unisex, everything except sinks were in enclosed spaces.  Showers are pay showers and require Euro coins.  We had none.  No showers.  The toilets didn't have toilet paper so it was back to the camper.  Fortunately we had purchased toilet paper at the above mentioned mall stop.  All was good.  It took us a while to get the bed made and enough of our gear stowed that we could get to sleep.  We opened all the vents, covered the windshield and climbed into bed.  After a good night's sleep, the day looked better.  We got more groceries, stopped for a snack and drinks on the way back from the Aldi food store and are now relaxing for the afternoon.  The beaches are all controlled entry and have huge full parking lots.  We haven't been to the beach yet but may try that a little later as some of the beach goers head off to the restaurants and bars mentioned above.  Louise is sleeping soundly as I write this.  It takes some time to adjust to the overnight flight and a seven hour change in time.  We are adjusting.  I am pleased that the driving isn't as bad as I had feared.  Despite difficulties we were able to get around without accident or incident.  We went through some pretty hairy stuff dealing with crowds, narrow roads and oh yes, did I mention that I'm relearning the standard shift of my childhood.  There have been a few missed gears but, hey, it's a rental!

    So that is installment number one of the great Italian adventure.  Four days and counting...

  8. tbutler
    After a three week stay in eastern Missouri at my daughter's home we were preparing to leave. After unplugging the coach I started the generator. Just as it was switching the current over to the generator it died. The error code indicated an overheat condition. It was a very warm day but we could get by without the air conditioners running so I decided to let this ride for now and investigate at our next stop. While on the way to Independence, on the other side of the state, I pondered how the generator problem would affect our schedule. I discussed several options for making an appointment with Cummins to get the generator serviced. We pulled into the Campus RV Park in Independence in mid-afternoon and settled into our campsite. The purpose of our stop in Independence was to visit my sister and her family. We enjoyed an evening of visiting and feasting before turning in for the night.
    Sunday morning I was up early to wash the bugs off the windshield, I hate stale bugs so I try to wash them off while fresh besides, we have this huge windshield which gives us a great tour-bus view of the world as we drive so who wants to look at smashed bugs all day? I ran the generator out to check oil and water and added about a cup of water. We pulled off the campsite and hooked up the car. Once we were in our seats, seat belts fastened and ready to pull out I tried the generator. Surprise, it ran! All it took was one cup of water to take care of the overheat code. That is surprisingly sensitive. We enjoyed the roof air conditioner as we drove north on I-29 toward South Dakota on a warm August day.
    Our next stop was a visit with our friends in Yankton, South Dakota. We stayed from Sunday night to Saturday morning. We played cards and golf, then played more cards and more golf. Our Carefree of Colorado replacement awnings arrived on Monday but one was missing. So I got on the phone and talked to customer service who transferred me to the person in warranty service who was gone until Wednesday. So I called on Wednesday and found out that the person who was supposed to be handling the warranty replacement wasn't, it had been handed off to someone else. I was given a phone number of the supervisor. It took several calls but I finally got the supervisor on the phone. I explained the problem with the remaining awning and sent a photo to verify my claim. The replacement for that awning arrived on Thursday afternoon. Friday I started installing the replacements. The fabric is held in place with a crimp in the channel and that turned out to be a real challenge. The channel is aluminum but it is 1/8 inch thick and doesn't bend as easily as I had hoped. It took four hours and help from my friend to get all four awnings done. As we explained to the ladies, we were learning as we went.
    Friday afternoon I began putting away the tire covers and the sun screens. I got everything put away before the rainstorm hit. I had planned to unhook the utilities before the rain but didn't quite make that. After the rain stopped I dumped tanks (yes, they have full hookups in their driveway) and stowed the sewer hose. We had dinner, leftovers from a week of feasting on fine food, and played one last evening of cards before turning in for the night. Saturday morning we slept in, got up and ate breakfast next door with our friends. We pulled out about 10:00 with an uncertain route to Denver. We had about 600 miles to go but we had no campground to stay at until Monday afternoon, September 1. We could only find one campground that had a site available on that date.
  9. tbutler

    Bad to the Bone

    By tbutler,

    Our travels after Denver were easy to plan. We drove about three miles from Golden Terraces RV Park to I-70, headed east and stopped when we got to Foristell, Missouri. Another three miles south of I-70 and we were at our daughters' home where we are parked for an extended period of time.
    Our activities since arriving here have included a dance recital by our granddaughter, a barbeque on Memorial Day weekend which included several killer games of croquet, and now a brand new knee for me! We've visited with my mother, both of our children and their families including our four grandchildren in the St. Louis area.
    Our granddaughter loves to dance and it shows. The dance school has a huge performance about this time each year. The participants range from 2 and three year old dancers up through high school and beyond. The really young ones are cute beyond description. The older dancers have amazing ability. Our granddaughter is somewhere in the middle. She does love to dance and it shows in her performance. The show starts at 1:30 and runs until 4:30 for a full afternoon of dancing. We treated everyone to ice cream at Fritz's, the local ice cream shop.
    The next week included hitting the doctor's offices including getting surgery for my knee scheduled. Louise has had a persistent cough, ear congestion and swollen glands. The doctor diagnosed a sinus infection and bronchitis. She is now on the mend. My orthopedist scheduled my knee surgery for June 2. This set off a series of visits for tests and exams at the GP and a pre-surgery visit at the hospital.
    As part of my pre-surgery routine, I set about getting everything top shape on the motor home. I had no idea how long it would be until I was able to work on fix-its after my surgery. One of my projects was to install the day/night shades from MCD Innovations which we ordered on our way out of Texas. The shades arrived on Friday after our arrival in Foristell. I had them installed by the following Monday. So now we have first class shades in the motor home. Louise loves how dark the night shades are. She has been sleeping late trying to shake off her bronchitis and sinus infection.
    At 5:30 a.m. on June 2, I reported to the surgery unit at St. Anthony's Hospital. Two hours later I was in the operating room and two hours after that I was waking up in the recovery room. It is now the 4th of June and I'm resting comfortably at home in the motor home. My orthopedist prescribed a rigorous pre-surgery exercise and conditioning program and it has paid off by getting me home quickly. Now I'll continue with the follow-up therapy. Once this knee heals, I'll have the other replaced. I thought perhaps I didn't need to have the replacements but a week off the pain medication I've been taking for the last several years settled that issue. Once both knees are replaced and healed completely, we'll break camp and head down the road for more motor home adventures. In the meantime I'm really ddddddddddddddddrowsy. Those hospital beds aren't all that comfortable. I only got about six hours of sleep the last two days. It turns out I'll be enjoying those MCD Innovations shades also!
  10. tbutler
    Look up at the sky tonight or any night in the next few days.  The brightest thing in the sky is the Moon.  Our Moon will play a key role in the coming total solar eclipse.  Between now and the 21st of August, the Moon will move from its current position, slowly closing in on the Sun.  On August 21 the Moon will slide between Earth and Sun, casting its shadow on Earth.  You can watch this drama starting right now.  If you look at the Moon in the next few nights, you will notice that shortly after the Sun disappears below the western horizon you can turn to the eastern horizon to see the Moon rising higher into the sky. 
    Continue to watch every night, you will notice that the Moon is closer to the horizon each night at sunset.  Next week if you look for the Moon it won't be in the sky until after sunset.  At the same time you will notice that the Moon changes in appearance, becoming fully lighted, full Moon.  A few nights later the Moon will begin to darken along one side and you will have to stay up later to see it in the sky.   All of this can be quite mysterious until you think about what is happening in three dimensions. 
    At this point the show becomes much more exciting.  You will be able to see the Moon in the morning sky before sunrise.  Watch carefully each day as the Moon moves closer to where the sunrise is occurring.  In the days just before the total solar eclipse, a thin crescent Moon will be poised in the eastern sky above the sunrise point.  You will have to look very carefully to find it in the eastern sky on August 19.  Few people will be able to find the Moon on the morning of August 20 but if you have been watching you will have a real good idea where it is hiding in the glare of the Sun.  On August 21 the invisible Moon will slowly reveal itself as it slides between Sun and Earth.  Of course we won't be seeing the familiar Moon we are used to seeing.  During the eclipse we will see it's silhouette as it moves between us and the Sun.  If you are fortunate enough to be within the ribbon of totality, the Moon will slide across the face of the Sun and for just a few precious seconds the Moon will fit exactly over the Sun.  Then just as fast as it moved in front of the Sun it will retreat, slowly exposing the full face of the Sun.  Once more, the Moon will become invisible.  By the evening of August 23 or 24 you will once again see the Moon in the night sky.
    When it makes it's reappearance, be sure to give it the applause it deserves.  That wonderful total solar eclipse you saw was brought to you by the greatest supporting actor of all time, our Moon. 
    If you watch each night and morning until the eclipse you can also challenge yourself to think in three dimensions about what you are seeing.  See if you can keep track of where the three actors in this play are each night.  Earth, Sun, Moon in a dance of the centuries.  The show never ends.  Follow it every night, just as your ancestors did. 
  11. tbutler
    We are still in Missouri which is unheard of since we began living full time in our motor home. The weather has made us wonder if we need our heads examined. We keep telling ourselves this is why we haven't done this before. We were going to be here later than usual this year and we have two grandchildren with June birthdays we haven't celebrated with them for a while so, why not make the best of it?
    Kaitlyn is six years old this year. For her birthday she chose to go to the Magic House (www.magichouse.org) in Webster Groves, Missouri. As a teacher I had been there many times before, even taken groups of students numerous times. The Magic House has grown since I was last there! They have a large parking lot and on a weekday it was packed. Inside the place was swarming with children. It was noisy with kids everywhere. Kaitlyn and her brother Ryan fell in with the crowd quickly. There were dress up costumes in story land and a beanstalk for the kids to get from floor to floor. They could navigate that faster than adults on the stairs. There were mysteries to be solved complete with revolving bookcases and hidden rooms. The kids could crawl through the duct work to find clues and then go through the fireplace into the next room. There were slides, puzzles, a shadow wall with a strobe light to record your movements on the wall. The kids and adults played with one thing after another. Both of them enjoyed the rooftop garden. With plastic vegetables in a mock garden, they could harvest their crop and then cook and eat in the kid size house. Kaitlyn did a thorough job of sweeping out and cleaning the house while Ryan re-planted the vegetable garden before we could leave this exhibit. This attraction rivals any I have seen for activities you can touch and do. Louise and I have a tradition of being swept out of places by the cleaning crew at closing time and this was no exception. The children were going to be sure they got their money's worth. Dinner at a local favorite Italian restaurant finished Kaitlyn's birthday celebration.
    Just over a week later, Ryan had his 9th birthday. Given his choice, Ryan will ask to go to the St. Louis Zoo. Perhaps it was the hot weather and some encouragement from Mom that led him to choose the City Museum (www.citymuseum.org). Located in downtown St. Louis, the City Museum is a unique collection of urban discards from factory machinery, stores, banks, buildings and other items. You can't possibly see everything there is to see here. The ceilings, walls and floor are covered in items from the city. There is an extensive climbing area outside the museum that goes up three stories to several airplane fuselages then on to other items like a crane, tree house, and much more. You can enter this corridor made mostly of tubes constructed of rebar from several points in the museum. Within the museum, every surface is covered with things to see and do. A two story slide is covered with conveyor rollers so as kids slide down they can hold their hands up and spin the rollers as they slide down to the first floor. Ryan immediately headed for the aquarium and we spent over an hour looking at all the animals. There were sharks and rays to touch. Docents brought around snakes and turtles for children to touch. Both Ryan and Kaitlyn were turtle rustlers for the turtle race. Even in the aquarium there were tunnels everywhere for the kids to crawl through. They would disappear in one place and we never knew where they would reappear. Another area had skateboard type surfaces for the kids to run and slide on. Another extended time here. You just can't wear out the kids. Once again, we were among the last to leave the museum. After leaving the City Museum, we stopped at Lambert International Airport to pick up Louise who had been in Kansas City trying out for Jeopardy! This is her second try to get on the program. She qualified last time but they select from the pool of qualified applicants by a random process and she wasn't chosen within the year of her qualification so she had to try out again. Our final stop for the evening was Canoli's Restaurant in Florissant, Missouri. This restaurant has been a favorite of Louise and I for many years. We enjoyed sharing it with our daughter and her family.
    About a week before all the above started, we spent a Sunday afternoon with my daughter and her family. The four of them, Louise and I all rode about a seven mile stretch of the Katy Trail State Park (www.mostateparks.com/katytrail). The Katy Trail is a rails to trails park that starts in St. Charles, Missouri and follows the Missouri River westward almost 3/4 of the way across the state. Ryan has his own bicycle and did the complete 14 mile round trip on his own. Kaitlyn has a half bicycle that attaches to dad's bike. She can pedal or coast as she pleases. We rode, drank water, ate strawberries and apples we carried with us and picked mulberries off the trees along the trail. As we packed up our bicycles, we decided that pizza was the perfect end to the day so it was off to CJ's Pizza in Foristell, Missouri.
    One of the treats of living in St. Louis is the excellent theater we have at the Muny Opera (www.muny.org). In an outdoor setting in Forest Park, site of the 1904 Worlds Fair, is a theater which seats nearly 13,000 people. We took the children to the Muny Opera for a production of Annie on Tuesday, the 27th. We were prepared for hot weather with cool drinks and wet cloths. It turned out to be quite a comfortable evening. Both children enjoyed their first theater production.
    This afternoon the kids came to the door of the motor home and asked me to go for a hike in the woods with them. Ryan had the Rocks and Minerals book that he got for his birthday and he wanted to go find some rocks. We hiked down to the creek and searched for rocks along the creek. We found several but Ryan was most interested in just exploring the woods and stream. Kaitlyn was always out in front, often somewhat off course. I had to keep guiding her back toward the house on our return home. Being with the children keeps us young.
    We'll be leaving here soon but staying here in Missouri with our children and grandchildren has been a wonderful experience we hope to repeat often in the future.
  12. tbutler

    Blogging

    By tbutler,

    BLOG is a contraction of the words weB LOG. Wikipedia says a BLOG is "regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video." According to Wikipedia, "As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112,000,000 blogs."
    So the idea here is to weave a continuous account of the events or activities of an individual, group or organization. Continuous is the tough part. We all have routine days when nothing seems extraordinary to us and so we don't think to mention what is going on. This describes our past month and thus I feel I haven't gathered enough to report on. While our life seems routine, it is far from that by any measure.
    I was on the phone talking to my insurance company today. A rock in the windshield brings a need for repair. In talking to the agent, I have to give my home address in South Dakota, my phone number from Missouri and my current location where the repair will be done here in Edinburg, Texas! I am so far outside the norm that I have to take charge of making sure that they understand all this. I've learned to do this over the last 8 years of living full time. Patience I tell myself, just explain it one more time. If I don't say it they'll schedule my repair for my home address in South Dakota... Who, after all wouldn't be at home in South Dakota? Have you looked at the weather there? This morning the temperature was zero, nada, zip, nothing, for the poor folks who live where my mail is collected and forwarded.
    I've played tennis Sunday morning and golf in the afternoon. Now I'm recovering from that burst of activity. Monday was cool and today we had a rainy day with temperatures in the 50's and we complain! We're looking forward to temperatures in the 70's on the last day of 2009 and slightly cooler to start 2010. At our park we'll dance until the bell tolls 12:00 p.m. then drink champagne with hugs all around. We are very much a family here at Sandpipers Resort. So much so that Louise and I are in the throe's of planning our residence here in the park. If all goes as planned, we'll have a grand mobile home (today they are called manufactured homes) set up ready for occupancy when we return in the fall. At that point I suppose we'll cease to be full timers in the strictest definition of the word. We'll still have the motor home and travel in the summers to escape the heat that no one who can afford to will flee. Someday when the motor home becomes more than we can handle we'll have to give up even that semblance of living on the road.
    And so my friends, I challenge you to take a minute to create another "regular entry" in your BLOG here on the FMCA web site. You are far from the ordinary person. You have discovered the lure of the road, the romance of travel, and you own a magical machine capable of transporting you in the comfort of home to the remote corners of our continent or beyond. What is your story? What have you done in 2009? Where are you going in 2010? So many BLOGS, so little activity. Let us resolve to change this in 2010.
  13. tbutler

    Britz Comes Through

    By tbutler,

    Without any definite word on the outcome of the refrigerator problem we decided to stay one more night at the Big 4 Campervan Park in Ecucha. Louise had our refrigerated items stored in the refrigerator in the park kitchen facilities. We moved to the new site and then decided to explore the town. As we walked, we got a call from the road service company. The agent informed us he was trying to put together a solution. He thought we would be exchanging our campervan for a different one and just wanted to confirm where we were headed and where the best place for the exchange would be. We indicated our intentions to be in Albury in New South Wales as our next stop.
    With that news, we could relax and enjoy the day in Ecucha. Our first stop in town was the Port of Ecucha. Yes, Ecucha had a port. We are far inland but like the cities of St. Louise and Minneapolis, goods and materials can be shipped up and down a large river to the ocean. The Murray River was just such a river. Ecucha no longer has a port because the Murray has several dams downstream from Ecucha. At one time goods and materials were shipped into and out of Ecucha on the Murray River. A fleet of paddle wheel river boats still rest in the river there. Several of these operate tours.
    There is a preserved old town along the waterfront with buildings from the early settlement of Ecucha and they post signs on buildings so you can tell who built them and their original purpose. We enjoyed walking from shop to shop, a tea café attracted Louise’s attention and we planned to return later. Unfortunately, tea is served for a specific time in the afternoon and we didn’t get back in time to stop there. We browsed the blacksmith shop and the woodworker shop. A modern day clock shop was in one of the old buildings and several wineries had outlets along this street. We had a grand time walking along the river and exploring downtown Ecucha.
    Returning to the campground, we found that we had missed a phone call. The phone I have is set to maximum volume and vibrate and I still am missing calls. The message said that someone would drive a different (new to us) van to meet us (at our specified location) tomorrow at 2:00 (our specified time) and that they would call again in the morning with details. To get the phone message I had to set up my mailbox which took almost 10 minutes and ran down my prepaid phone. I would have to buy a voucher at the Coles Supermarket on my way out of town to put more time on the phone. I could do it on-line but they won’t accept foreign credit cards for any payments on-line or even over the phone.
    Friday morning we left Ecucha headed for the Big 4 Park in Wodonga where we would meet the new campervan and its driver for the exchange. We arrived about noon. That gave us two hours to get lunch and begin unpacking the current campervan. Almost exactly at 2:00 the driver arrived with our new campervan. We went through the inspection and began to transfer our clothing and supplies from one to the other. Con, the driver, pitched in and within an hour we were moved and he was on the road. We spent the evening putting everything into cabinets and rearranging until we were happy with the way everything was stored.
    The new campervan is different, a 5 passenger van instead of 4. Both in New Zealand and here in Australia, our campervan was a 4 passenger vehicle. This one is the same size as the one we had before but it has two bench seats up front and a dining table/bed that can be set up there. Everything is arranged differently so we really do have a new house. Driving this vehicle the next morning I found it performed much better than the one we had previously and glory be, it had cruise control! I love cruise control. In fact I almost always drive with the cruise control on, even in light city driving. Cruise control would have been of no use whatsoever in New Zealand but here in Australia I can see long drives in the outback coming up in our itinerary and had been wishing we had cruise control.
    Besides the cruise control, this campervan has better suspension so it doesn’t rock and roll so badly and the engine/transmission combination is much peppier than the previous van. We are much better off with this vehicle. Not only that but Con told us to stop at the office in Sydney and they would wash the campervan for us and exchange the linens for a fresh set! I’d say that Britz really does take care of its customers.
  14. tbutler

    Broome

    By tbutler,

    Broome is a small town on the northwest shore of Australia. The pearling industry has been a strength of the area along with tourism. Broome isn’t the only place where pearl farms are found here, it is the center of a large region that extends from Darwin in the north to Port Hedland to the southwest. The largest pearl oysters are found here and the pearls we saw in shops are enormous. The downtown of Broome has a dozen jewelry shops specializing in pearls. We browsed our way through all of them! There are a few other shops and stores and we spent Tuesday afternoon drifting through downtown Broome.
    Adjacent to the downtown area is an old jetty which was at one time the place where the pearling boats docked. We walked the jetty, over 100 years old, to the end. At low tide we could see hundreds of red fiddler crabs on the mud below the jetty. Tides around Broome are very large with variations during spring tides up to 30 feet. Spring doesn’t refer to the season, spring tides the tides change very rapidly from low to high tides. This occurs each new moon and each full moon. At the first quarter and last quarter phases of the moon the tides are called neap tides. Neap tides change very slowly. You can imagine a spring tide going from low to high tide with a 30 foot change in water level in about six hours, the water would seem to spring up quite quickly.
    The downtown area is known as Chinatown though we saw nothing of China in the shops and stores. The Japanese were primary developers of the pearl farming in this area and much of that history is recounted in the historic plaques and signage. There is a statue to the three Japanese men who started the industry there. It was a very warm afternoon so we stopped at an ice cream shop and enjoyed an ice cream cone while sitting in the shade on the porch outside the shop. School was out and kids were stopping to get an ice cream treat on the way home. Several mothers with young children stopped by the shop. We stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things before heading back to the campground for the evening.
  15. tbutler

    Burning Diesel

    By tbutler,

    In my notes, I titled this day as above. Unlike the curving road we found coming into Mount Isa, the road was straight for long stretches with little change in elevation and only one town with fuel. We started out on the Flinders Highway and then at Camooweal the name changed to the Barkly Highway. The other fuel stop we made was at the Barkly Homestead. This is a large homestead which has everything that someone on the road would need. There is a caravan park, hotel, restaurant, activities including camel rides and the all-important fuel. At the Barkly Homestead they are not on the electric grid. They run a generator 24 hours a day to provide the electric they need to operate. I know this because they had it posted outside the store. They gave the amount of diesel the generators use as an explanation of why their fuel and other prices were so high. We paid $2.099 for a liter of diesel.
    Just west of Camooweal we crossed into Northern Territories, the seventh Australian state we would travel through. Northern Territories is so sparsely settled that it doesn’t have the status of state in the government and has very limited representation in the Australian Parliament. I noted with a chuckle when we pulled into the petrol station at Camooweal a sign which indicated that eastbound travelers should set their clocks ahead 5 years AND 30 MINUTES. The thirty minutes being the time change between the state of Queensland and Northern Territories. The 5 years was a regional slur on their neighbors to the west.
    We stopped briefly at the border to photograph the welcome sign to Northern Territories. We don’t do this at all borders but this being such a remote location I decided to pause and collect a souvenir photograph. Observing someone else who was photographing the sign busily swishing flies away from their face I decided to go with the through-the-windshield option for the photograph. Flies are a pesky nuisance in this part of the country. These are not biting flies but they love to be in your face. If the wind is blowing they will be on the downwind side of your body. So you face into the wind to keep the flies off your face and your back is covered with flies. When it is time to get back into the campervan you have to wave off as many as you can before quickly ducking through the door. Then you kill as many as you can before driving away! This is all very reminiscent of our mosquito experience in Canada on the drive north into the Arctic Circle on the way to the native village, Inuvik. Not wanting to shortchange Alaska, I’ll add that we found the same to be true in Alaska.
    We are getting a special treat. You will notice quite a bit of green in the photo with this posting. Central Australia got a good rain about a week and a half ago and we are seeing the desert dressed in green. You can still see plenty of soil in the picture, that is where the region gets its nickname, Australia's red center. You will also notice dark mounds of dirt on the landscape. These are termite mounds which are common in the area. We saw many of the on parts of the road and in other places very few but they are an ever-present reminder of the recycling going on as plants die here in the desert.
    We drove the entire length of the Barkly Highway today. The drive, like yesterday, was pleasant enough. The temperatures were a little cooler, low 30’s, in the 80’s Fahrenheit. We had a few clouds, always welcome late in the day when heading west. The road was straight, level and the surface in good repair. We covered another 660 kilometers before reaching Tennant Creek and our camp for the night. Tennant Creek is on the Stuart Highway which runs from Adelaide on the southern coast of Australia to Darwin on the northern coast. We drove a short distance on the Stuart Highway when we left Adelaide a month ago but at that time we turned east to explore eastern Australia. Now we would travel south toward Uluru (Ayres Rock). The Stuart Highway is the only north-south highway through central Australia.
    One of the things that Louise and I noted at the end of the day was another day without road repairs and also the fact that we hadn’t seen the abundance of kangaroos that we expected. In fact, we hadn’t seen a single live kangaroo. There were a few dead ones along the roadside but not a single live on. At Camooweal they had a statue of a kangalope outside the gas station. Those familiar with the Texas jackalope know what a kangalope would look like! Kangaroos are primarily nocturnal so driving during the day we wouldn’t expect to see them. We do watch carefully for them in the early morning and late in the afternoon. So far, our greatest kangaroo sightings have been in Tasmania and when we were in Lightning Ridge where we had kangaroos on the lawn outside the bath house in our campground each night.
  16. tbutler

    Cairns

    By tbutler,

    Our first day in Cairns is dedicated to catching up with laundry and getting to know the town. While doing laundry we discussed our plans for our stay. The Great Barrier Reef is one of our prime objectives. One travel brochure we picked up in the park office has an item I was interested in learning more about. It was a an offering of the Down Under Dive company to certify for open water SCUBA in a four day course. The course involved two days of tests and preliminary training followed by two days of dive training on the Great Barrier Reef. I figured what better place to learn to dive and having certification would greatly improve the dive opportunities on our cruise in Fiji at the end of this trip in June.
    Once the laundry was done, we had lunch and then walked to town. We were camped at the Cairns Holiday Park, just a few blocks from the seafront Promenade. Our walk was welcome after four days of continuous driving. We enjoyed a beautiful warm day as we strolled along the seafront. The Promenade is about 60 feet wide, beautifully landscaped, and incorporates a boardwalk along the beach, a walking path, a separate bicycle/running path, a series of exercise equipment for adults and a variety of activities for children of all ages. It was mid-afternoon on Wednesday, April 13 and the facilities were being fully used. There were hundreds of people enjoying all the facilities.
    Nearing the docks in the heart of downtown Cairns we came to a swimming pool with hundreds of children and adults enjoying the pool and surroundings. This was no ordinary square pool, it was huge and included a wading area with a sand beach, fountains for children to play among, shaded areas of the pool and a huge deck for sunning or picnicking. It was not fenced in any way, the entire pool and deck were simply part of the seaside entertainment.
    One of our objectives was to find the Down Under Dive offices to discuss the classes. We were able to find a booth that is only manned early in the morning so we abandoned that quest. We found the shopping area and Louise set about shopping. This lasted for about an hour. While she shopped, I walked around the mall area and picked up a local paper to read. After a while I decided to give Down Under Dive a call to learn more about the classes. Once on the phone with their representative I learned more about the course. Louise joined me during the call and I relayed some of the information to her. We decided to sign on for the first class we could get which would start on Friday.
    With that decision done, we decided to find a place to have dinner. We found a seafront bar/restaurant and decided on our menu choices. Louise went to the bar to place or order and returned with the beer and told me that the kitchen didn’t open until 5:00 p.m. and they would begin taking orders then. This is pretty standard practice here in Australia, restaurants and bars have kitchen hours around meal times and in between limited items are available. We relaxed and enjoyed the afternoon breeze on the outdoor deck. When the kitchen opened we ordered our meal.
    Following dinner we retraced our steps from earlier in the day. As we passed the swimming pool we saw about 100 adults doing Zumba in the water being led by three instructors on the stage on one side of the pool. The walking and running tracks were thick with people and families with children were everywhere. The exercise equipment was being fully employed by people waiting their turn at each piece of equipment. There were groups practicing games in the adjacent lawns and fields, the seafront was alive with activity and this held throughout our walk as the sun set and dusk faded from the sky.
  17. tbutler

    California Girls

    By tbutler,

    After our stay at the factory service center in Oregon, we are now in California staying with our daughters family in the Gold Hills south of Sacramento. We come here every fall to take care of the two girls, age 6 and 8. Their school is on a year-round schedule and they get a break this time of year. Mom works in another school district which has a different vacation schedule. Dad has a varied night work schedule. So we take care of the girls for a week. It saves them money for child care or a babysitter and we get to know our granddaughters better.
    We've been here for one week, the week before our babysitting duties. The girls have been in school and we've been free to do some shopping and relaxing. There are no RV parks near where our daughter lives. For a number of years we stayed at a park about 20 miles away. We tried several parks over the years but none was convenient and we were often driving home in the dark. Last year the kids put in a 50A outlet and we there is a water faucet about 50 feet away and a sewer connection. Life is so much more convenient when we are living next door.
    We've had an opportunity to go with the girls for their gymnastics lessons. They have been attending classes for several years and they are showing nice improvement. It is fun to watch them develop their skills. The girls love to visit the motor home. They find excuses to come visit us when we aren't at the house. We keep a store of coloring books and drawing paper to entertain them. There are some other toys and games and they enjoy those as well.
    Both the girls are in 4-H and we will take them on a 4-H field trip to Apple Hill next Wednesday. Apple Hill is a fall festival area for children. There are dozens of apple orchards, wineries and farms. In the fall they all market their wares, pumpkin patches, corn mazes, petting zoos, and a host of other activities for children. For adults there is food, a pleasant outdoor shopping and recreation experience and a place to entertain the children. We've taken the girls in the past. This year it will be part of a larger group. Both Louise and I have done many field trips with children when we were classroom teachers. This will be a flashback experience for us.
    Today we went with Mom and the girls to the Grape Stomp in the town of Murphys. Each year they hold a festival to celebrate the grape harvest. As part of the festival they hold a grape stomping contest. This is "I Love Lucy" grape stomping. There are two person teams, one person stomps the grapes and the other moves the grapes and pushes the juice out the drain to a collecting bucket. Each team is given 5 gallons of grapes, freshly harvested, still attached to the vines. The grapes are in a half barrel which has a one inch drain. Contestants are sometimes in costume, sometimes just shorts and t-shirts. They have five minutes to get as much liquid as they can from their 5 gallons of grapes. It is as much fun for the spectators as for the teams. Louise posted the girls near the stage so they could see the action. They were close enough to catch some of the splattering juice from one of the teams! We only watched one of the preliminary flights of contestants. There were over 50 teams competing in the contest this year.
    The main street of Murphys is lined with vendors and all of the wineries in the area have their tasting rooms open. In the park where the contest is under way you can purchase a souvenir wine glass and there are many wines there to be tasted as well. With the girls along we didn't do much wine tasting. As the designated driver my job was to entertain the girls while the ladies tried some of the wines. We brought home three bottles of wine. The girls enjoyed wading in the stream that flows through the park. They met several of the dogs who were also enjoying the cool water on a warm afternoon. They spent some time touring a real old-time toy store. It had all the great stuff many of us remember from the neighborhood dime store. I resisted my impulse to steer the girls toward some of the musical toys even though mom refused to pay for my silence! We all had a good time.
    We've taken the girls on trips in past years and this year will be no exception. We're going to take the girls on a trip to Oregon. Mom and dad have a family vacation house not far from the Oregon coast and they will spend a week at the vacation house. We'll take the girls in the motor home for the trip to Oregon. It will just be a two day trip, no special destinations, just a road trip in the motor home and the girls will be thrilled with that. After we spend several days with the family we'll begin our trip south for the winter.
    There are so many ways that having a motor home enriches our lives and the lives of those we love. We truly are fortunate to have this wonderful home.
  18. tbutler
    Our last evening at Uluru was spent on a camel ride with a sunset view of Uluru. We spent the earlier part of the day hiking in the domes of Kata Tjuta. Following that we returned to our camp to get showers and dressed for the evening. We were picked up at a bus stop just outside the entrance to the campground. It was a small, 30 person bus and we got the last two seats. After a short ride from the campground and we arrived at the camel stables. We were escorted into the office and given a short briefing before meeting our camels. They were all lined up, saddled waiting for us. The line of camels were all sitting on the ground. It is amazing how they can fold up those long legs and sit right on top of them.
    We were given the mount and dismount instructions and then assigned a camel. When we climbed on the heavier person gets the rear seat, that’s me! Mounting from the left, swing a leg up and over being careful not to catch your foot on the lead to the next camel in line. There is a lead rope tied to our saddle for the camel that is behind. There is also a small line with a clip to the nose of that camel. The clip on the nose is to keep the camel from regurgitating its last meal! It is a time honored solution to a messy situation. Catching a foot on either line would be unpleasant for the camel and also for me.
    Louise then swung into the saddle in front of me. The saddle was a single saddle, two seats, one in front of the hump and the other behind. We had stirrups for our feet and there were bars in front of each of us to give us a place to hold on. And hold on we did as the camel stood up. We had to lean back then the cameleer would tell the camel to stand giving it a prod on the hindquarters with a hand if necessary. Most of the camels would bray loudly at this point as they lifted their load raising to full height on their hind legs and then rising on their front legs. Our camel was no exception. We really weren’t that heavy a load. A camel can carry about 1500 pounds for great distances in the desert.
    Camels came to Australia many years ago and they have adapted well to the conditions here. There are numerous places where you find camels here and rides are readily available. As far as I know, there is only one franchise for camel rides at Uluru, Uluru Camel Tours. I would rate the quality of the ride as simply outstanding. The staff of a photographer, who seemed to be in charge, and seven cameleers plus a cook and bartender were all very engaging and did an excellent job of explaining what they were doing and answering questions about the camels and the operation at the camel stables.
    The camels were in two lines that traveled independently. There were ten camels in our line and another 15 in the other line. We led the way out of the stables across the desert up and down several dunes. From the top of the dunes we could see Uluru in the distance. As the ride continued the light and shadows changed on Uluru, the sky color changed and the shadows faded as the sun set. Watching the sunrise and sunset on Uluru is one of the major activities here. I took a few photos but riding on a camel, it was hard to be steady enough to get good photos. I took advantage of the pauses to snap some shots of Uluru as well as the rest of the group. In the end I purchased the CD with all the pictures of the event as well as a few pictures of desert critters, all done by the professional photographer.
    The lead camel was ridden by a cameleer so they had control of starting and stopping the camel train. Along side there was a cameleer walking and monitoring the behavior of the camels. The longer line had two cameleers. We were encouraged to ask questions and did so. Since we were in the middle of the line, the cameleer that was on foot was always somewhere near where we were and we carried on a near constant conversation with him. He was quite informative and told us about plants and animals found in the desert as well as his personal history of working there and some general information about Australia.
    As the light faded from the sky we returned to the stables and dismounted. Then we went into the office area and they had snacks laid out for us and a variety of drinks. There was also merchandise and the photos. We had a great time, there were drinks aplenty and the staff was there to explain everything that hadn’t already been discussed. The cook talked about the desert version of beer bread and also the ingredients that went into making this delicious bread as well as the dips. We went home well satisfied with our experience.
  19. tbutler

    Canberra

    By tbutler,

    Canberra is the national capital of Australia. It is located between Melbourne and Sydney which have a population of about 4 million people in each city. That is 8 million people in a nation of about 14 million. So most of the population of Australia is in these two cities and in the surrounding communities. Once we leave this area we’ll see very few large towns and as we head west, we’ll see fewer people. Canberra itself is not a huge city. The population of Canberra is just over 400,000. That makes it small enough to be accessible. We enjoyed riding the buses, a ride from our park to the downtown terminal area was less than 30 minutes. The downtown terminal is a series of bus stops within several blocks of each other in the central downtown area. From there we transferred to another bus which took us to the parliament building.
    Australia replaced their original parliament building in the 1980’s and the new parliament building is a beautiful piece of work. The building sits atop a high hill. Much of the building lies beneath the ground and behind a façade that faces out toward the city with the old parliament building clearly visible several kilometers away. The building itself has modern utilities including solar panels and energy saving design. Parking lots are located beneath the building and as is necessary these days, everything is designed for tight security.
    We checked in through the security area and then were admitted to the public portion of the parliament building. We had a backpack with our rain gear and we checked it at the information desk. They have tours and we browsed our way around the building waiting for the next tour. On display in one area is one of only two copies of the Magna Carta that exist outside England.
    Our guide met us promptly at the appointed time and greeted the group, asking each person or couple where they were from and then replying in their language or with comments about their home area. He detailed the history and nature of the building and the history of democracy in Australia.
    The highlight of the day came following the tour when we were directed where to go to sit in on a session of parliament. We passed through another security screening and were seated in the gallery just before “question time.” This is a weekly procedural event something like a press conference with the Prime Minister and members of the House engaged in questioning each other regarding the issues of the day. It began with on a somber note as the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, addressed family members of the Australians who were passengers on Malaysian Flight 370 which had just been confirmed lost by tracking and the discovery of debris far off the southwest coast of Australia. The families were present in the gallery as Mr. Abbott addressed them and expressed his condolences. The opposition party leader agreed with Mr. Abbott and then added his remarks as did the Speaker of the House.
    This was the last agreement we saw during our stay. The format has the opposition asking questions of the party in power, primarily the Prime Minister. When the reply comes, there are outbursts from the opposition party mocking and jeering the Prime Minister. The Speaker of the House dismissed one of the opposition party members who she felt was being particularly persistent in her remarks. It didn’t seem to take much steam out of the opposition. This it turns out is pretty much a show of puffery for the public and the press. It does serve to air out differences but there is no substantive progress on any particular issue being made. The news media are happy, they have a number of topics to pursue in the coming week. We saw coverage on the session on the news broadcast that week and are still hearing news about some of the comments made during that session.
    Leaving the parliament building we took a bus back toward the city. We stopped off in another area to check out the science and technology museum. There was too little time to pay admission and buzz through it so we continued on our way. There are an amazing array of buildings located in the area and much time could be spent visiting the various art, science and history museums and other government buildings.
    Returning to our campground, we arrived just as the rain started to pick up. Overnight it rained heavily and by morning the grounds were thoroughly soaked. We were parked on grass in an area that could have been a real problem. I wasn’t at all sure we would be able to get out. Our plans had been to drive into Canberra and visit the Zoo and or the Science and Technology Center but with the rain, we gave up on those plans. I examined the soggy ground and determined our best strategy for leaving our parking spot. Fortunately, the ground was firm enough we had no trouble getting out. We didn’t even leave any ruts. That done, we set our course for Sydney, just over 200 kilometers away.
  20. tbutler
    We left Exmouth headed for another sea adventure in Monkey Mia. South of Exmouth we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. In doing this we left the tropics for the last time in Australia. The distance from Exmouth to the Monkey Mia was too far to cover easily in one day so we decided to make it a two day trip. We needed to stop for groceries and figured that Carnarvon would be a good stop for that and give us an easy 2 day trip to Monkey Mia. As we pulled into Carnarvon, there was a huge dish antenna on the horizon. It turned out to be the 97 foot diameter dish for the Overseas Telecommunications Commission. But, on the same grounds was a much smaller Cassegrain horn antenna which received the signals of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing in July 1969. Carnarvon was the location of the NASA Satellite Tracking Station that served the US Space Program from its inception through Skylab. Along with Madrid, Spain and Goldstone, California, the station at Carnarvon gave the US coverage and communication with spacecraft orbiting Earth for most of their orbits. A small museum today contains some of the memorabilia donated by Australian participants in this effort.
    Today the NASA Deep Space Network is located in the Australian Capital Territory near Canberra. Carnarvon is left with a couple of unused antennas and a small museum along with memories of its glory days during the space race of the 1960s. Buzz Aldrin was present for the dedication of the museum. In his 80’s at the time, he looked quite different than when he walked on the moon with Neal Armstrong. It is hard to believe that almost 45 years has passed since that event. Sad also to see the US Space Program hiring our competitor for rides into space. We walked around the 97 foot dish, marveling at its size. We weren’t able to get to the Cassegrain Horn antenna as it was within a construction area. We could see it from the back side. While taking pictures of the large dish antenna I noticed a ring around the sun and found a place to get both the antenna and the ring around the sun in the picture. You may have to enlarge the photo with this posting to see the ring around the sun.
    We also went into Carnarvon to walk the mile long pier which is featured in their publicity. There is a “tea cup” train that makes runs out to the end of the pier but it wasn’t running when we arrived late in the afternoon. We enjoyed walking the length of the tour and watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean and full moon rise over Carnarvon. The moon rise was a fitting event considering the location and the events that transpired here.
  21. tbutler
    Happy birthday to our National Park Service.  One hundred years ago this week, Congress created the National Park Service.  There were national parks before the park service was created.  The park service became the agency that managed the national parks.  In the last few weeks we have visited four parks.  At each park we found amazing views, exciting experiences and crowds of people enjoying their heritage.
    Our first stop on the way west from Denver was the San Luis Valley of Colorado and Great Sand Dunes National Park.  The dune field at GSD is located on the east side of the San Luis Valley.  Winds picking up sand particles from the dry lake bed of the San Luis Valley drop them when they encounter the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  We've seen and walked dune fields before but these are unique for several reasons.  The highest dune in the field is over 600 feet high.  You can rent sand boards to surf the dunes and many people climb all the way to the top to do just that.  Younger sand surfers were busy learning on the lowest dunes.  But before you reach the dune field, you have to cross Medano Creek.  In the spring, Medano Creek carries large amounts of sand from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the southwestern edge of the dune field.  Choked with sand, the stream periodically experiences blockages and then breaks them creating pulses of water that people surf on.  In mid-summer the stream flow becomes more docile and it is filled with young children with buckets and shovels who enjoy a great cooling sandbox.  Shortly after we reached the dune field, the wind began to pick-up and we were treated to the marvel of dune formation.  Sand grains began dancing around our bare feet.  With each gust of wind the sands around us began to flow along the ground toward the dune field.  Our footprints in the sand were quickly turning into mini-dunes. 
    Moving on toward southwestern Colorado we stayed at a campground across Highway 160 from Mesa Verde National Park.  Mesa Verde is a very large park and features hundreds of cliff dwellings of the Pueblo people.  There are overlooks to view many of the cliff dwellings but the real highlight is to actually tour some of the dwellings.  There is currently one that can be toured on your own.  Another that was open to touring is currently off limits because of potential rockfall.  Ranger guided tours are available for three others.  To manage the size of the audience, you purchase tickets for each tour.  The ticket specifies the time of the tour.  Tours involve walking and climbing stairs or ladders.  To walk the ground where the Pueblo people lived and learn about their lives and their history in this area is an amazing experience.  There are also museum exhibits with some of the artifacts from the park.  A recent series of fires on the mesa has exposed hundreds of archaeological sites on the mesa surface.  Prior to the cliff dwellings, the population lived on the surface where they farmed.  The cliff dwellings are the final phase of their history at Mesa Verde.  After about 100 years living in the cliff dwellings they were abandoned as the Pueblo people moved on to other locations.
    In northeastern Arizona is Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Shey) National Monument.  A National Monument is designated by Presidential proclamation, National Parks are created by an act of Congress.  Canyon de Chelly is an example of a national monument.  It is administered by the National Park Service but has limited visitor information.  There are cliff dwellings at Canyon de Chelly but none are open to visitation.  There are places to view them from a distance.  One can be viewed up close by hiking two miles down into the canyon and back out.  We made that trek one afternoon.  Along the trail we encountered many Navajo people on their way to visit the cliff dwellings.  Near he site we witnessed a religious meeting of the Navajo people.  In fact, the national monument is located on the Navajo reservation and many of them live within the national monument.  Access to the canyon floor is limited to Navajo escorts at all other locations.  Jeep and horse tours are available.  The canyon itself is quite spectacular in its beautiful formations.  Sandstone layers were formed by ancient sand dunes that migrated over the area many millions of years ago.  The cross layering within each layer tells the story of the passage of another dune.
    From Canyon de Chelly we traveled to the granddaddy of all canyons, Grand Canyon National Park.  It had been a long time since either Louise or I had last visited the Grand Canyon.  Needless to say, things have changed.  Louise had been there as a young teen (no year given ), I was there in the late 70's.  While the experience was different, the park service is doing a wonderful job of managing the crowds and keeping the canyon accessible to all.  Visiting the south rim, large parking lots at the visitors center are the starting point.  There are shuttle buses, tour buses and a train to bring you to the park in addition to your own private vehicle.  Yes, they do have an RV parking lot.  Parking becomes difficult to find early in the day during the peak summer season.  Once at the visitors center, a bus system will transport you around the central park area and out to the viewpoints which are scattered along the canyon rim.  Walking part of the Canyon Rim trail gives you a constantly changing view of the canyon.  You can also ride the shuttle bus from one major viewpoint to another.  As interesting as the canyon was the amazing variety of people visiting the canyon.  Foreign languages were as common if not more common than English.  The story of the formation of the Grand Canyon is the story of Earth's history.  Along the rim trail there is a timeline of Earth history.  Markers on the trail about every 30 feet mark the passage of 10 million years. 
    Our national parks are a national treasure.  Our Senior Pass allows us free entry to these parks.  When we got our lifetime pass to these parks we became members of the National Park Foundation, a private foundation which assists in funding the parks.  It is a way for us to continue support of our parks while we enjoy our Senior Pass.  Find a park near you and drop by to visit this week. 
  22. tbutler

    Chasing Waterfalls

    By tbutler,

    Monday, April 7, 2014. Looking over the information we picked up from the ladies in Ayr the day before, we decided to pursue a scenic drive into the Dividing Range to see some waterfalls. I love a good waterfall and the ones in the brochure looked inviting including one which we were told we could swim under the cascading water. We had about 70 kilometers to cover before leaving the Bruce Highway for the highlands. I put the town with the same name as the waterfall we wanted to visit, Millaa Millaa, into the GPS and it guided us through a dizzying set of turns on small roads to our desired destination. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, purchasing the GPS maps for New Zealand and Australia, a set on a chip and bringing our own GPS was one of the best decisions I made on this trip. By the way, my second best choice was to bring my Leatherman!
    There were three waterfalls, each beautiful. The first we viewed about 50 feet from the plunge pool. On the hike down into the stream bed, we were met by an Australian Brush Turkey. It crossed our path and disappeared into the woods so fast that I didn’t even think to try for a picture. We both got to see it and there was no doubt it was a turkey. On the return to the parking lot, we found what looked like the same turkey sitting next to the trail near the parking lot. I got a number of pictures. It lingered as if it was completely comfortable in this environment even as a tour bus unloaded 30 or so passengers who tromped by on the trail barely taking notice of the turkey I was photographing. This turkey has a red head and a yellow collar which makes it pretty easy to identify.
    The second was inaccessible from that distance. I tried an old trail that had steps but there were so many large trees that had fallen across the trail it became more than I could do to get to the bottom. Tracks on the trail indicated that younger people were undaunted by the challenge but I gave up and settled for the view from the top of the falls. We saw several of the same people who were at the first waterfall and said hello. As we were leaving, the tour bus pulled in.
    We drove to the third falls and it was now almost 1:00 p.m. so we decided to eat lunch then go see the waterfall. I figured the tour bus would come and go in that time and we would be able to enjoy the falls without the crowd. Wrong! We got to the falls and the bus had a picnic set up for the tour group. They were scattered all over the lawn that faced the waterfall. A few of the group were in the water, shivering and cheering on a half dozen of the group that had swum to the fall and were cavorting behind the falling water. We dropped our shoes off and entered the water. It was cold but not too cold for swimming, just cold enough to make you pause to adjust to the temperature as you waded into the pool. We both swam across and enjoyed the view of the falls from behind and under the falling water. By the time we were there, the tour group was packing up but there were plenty of casual visitors and a number of them joined us under the and behind the curtain of water.
    Returning to the campervan, we dried off and dressed for the drive into Cairns. The road to come was described by the ladies at the visitor’s information station in Ayr as, “a road with 100 turns” and I don’t think she was wrong. We were going to descend from high in the mountains of the Dividing Range to sea level. The turns were near constant from the time we started our descent until we reached the valley. We took our time and let other traffic pass and safely made it to the bottom. Louise gets car sick so she has to concentrate on watching the road. If she looks around she gets dizzy and becomes ill quickly. She didn’t have much to say about this part of the drive.
    Checking in at our campground which is walking distance from downtown Cairns, we booked in for four nights. This is one of the premier destinations on our trip. On the news tonight a cyclone (Pacific hurricane) which has been sitting off the northeast coast of Australia for several days and was initially projected to just brush the northern peninsula is now possibly going to make landfall somewhere north of us along the coast. We’ll be watching this carefully and may leave here early if necessary. We wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef and spend some time snorkeling or diving there. With a storm approaching and high seas expected in the area, we may miss this opportunity completely. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
  23. tbutler
    Leaving Fairley on Monday morning we drove through farmlands with the first real crops we had seen in New Zealand. We had seen many hay fields but these were wheat and corn fields, cultivated crops. We stopped to enjoy the view from a high vantage point overlooking this agricultural land. Traveling along, we had a running debate on where to go next.
    The first 40 kilometers would get us back to the main roads and from there we had choices. We could take NZ 1 directly to Christchurch or we could travel an inland road, less traveled, more scenic and still go to Christchurch or we could take a detour into the mountains t Arthur’s Pass. The latter would involve putting off our trip to Christchurch for one more day. We rather quickly decided the trip into the mountains would cut us short for our stay in Christchurch. We were going to be there for four nights and if we took one away, that would leave us just three days in Christchurch. One of those days would be largely dedicated to packing up our luggage and turning in the campervan.
    The winner was NZ 1, we bit the bullet and joined the traffic on its way into Christchurch. The TOP 10 Holiday Park was located on the west side of town near the airport so we had a bit of city traffic before we got to the park. As we traveled along, we ran into several sections of road that were narrowed to a single lane by road work. We were to see later that this is a very common sight in Christchurch.
    Once we got our campsite assigned, we got a settled and went to bed early. The next morning we slept in, making up for our late night of astronomy. The bus stop was just a block from the park and we took the bus right from our park to the International Antarctic Centre (IAC). Christchurch is the staging area for scientific teams from many countries on their way to Antarctica. The IAC is a public facility dedicated to the memory of those who explored the South Pole and the continuing study of the continent of Antarctica. In fact, from the entrance to the IAC you can see a large hangar on the Christchurch Airport which has the logo of the United States Antarctic Program which is operated by the National Science Foundation.
    We had a fun and informative afternoon at the IAC. There is a 4D movie (3D with moving seats and other special effects to increase the reality) of a trip to Antarctica. We rode in a Haaglund, the tracked vehicle which is used for transport over the snow and ice. The driver took us up over steep hills and down into a pool of water where we floated to the other side driven by the spinning tank tracks. There were ducks swimming outside our window! We put on parkas and experienced a winter storm on Antarctica in a refrigerated room with winds up to 35 miles per hour. I was glad I didn't wear shorts that day! We watched the staff feed the blue penguins, not native to Antarctica but native in the Christchurch area. These were rescue penguins, injured or otherwise unable to fend for themselves in the wild. From the ads for the IAC, I wasn't sure it was anything more than an entertainment place for kids but it was so much more. I would highly recommend this place if you get to Christchurch. It's almost like going to Antarctica and a whole lot cheaper!
    On our way home we stopped at the Northland Shopping Center to see what was there. We arrived just as they were closing up shop. So we walked the six blocks back to the holiday park and called it a night.
  24. tbutler
    Our second day of touring Chirstchurch we chose to take a tour sponsored by the Canterbury Museum. Titled the Rebuild Tour, this bus trip through downtown Christchurch showed us much of the destruction of two earthquakes, September 4, 2010 Magnitude 7.1 and six months later on February 22, 2011 at Magnitude 6.3, which literally wrecked the city of Christchurch. The theme of the trip was the effort to rebuild the city with building codes that would help the city withstand further earthquakes. Even as we waited for bus at the bus stop near our holiday park, many miles from downtown Christchurch, we could look across the street at a stone and brick church which had obvious damage, missing ornamental stones and a pair of large metal braces holding up the front wall of the church.
    For a little background, New Zealand is a divided country. It isn’t divided politically, it is divided geologically. The North Island is part of the Australian Plate, a continental mass of rock which is overriding the Pacific Plate and this produces volcanoes and hot springs which are typical of the North Island. The South Island lies on the Pacific Plate which is sliding past the Australian Plate in a way that crumples up mountains. The South Island has a series of mountain ranges running the length of the island on the western side of the island. This crumpling produces not only growing mountains but also earthquakes as the stresses lifting the mountains are occasionally relieved.
    Christchurch is no stranger to earthquakes but these two very strong earthquakes coming in quick succession dealt a terrible blow to the city. Dozens of buildings collapsed partially or completely. One recently built building pancaked killing over 100 people. Investigators are still probing the cause of this catastrophic failure of a modern building. Older stone and brick buildings fared little better. Many commercial, municipal buildings, stadiums, museums, churches and cathedrals were damaged beyond repair. Most of these buildings have already been razed while other are still the subject of debates as to whether to try to restore them or to simply tear them down. You can identify the buildings which are in this state by the reinforcing braces holding up walls and fences blocking access to the buildings.
    Whole sections of the city near the Avon River were damaged when the water soaked soil became liquefied by the shaking action of the earthquakes. When this happens, buildings which have a foundation on the soil suddenly begin to sink into the ground. This usually doesn’t happen smoothly. Some parts of a building may sink faster than others. This will tilt the building or may cause part to collapse while another part remains standing. A large residential area will be destroyed because of this phenomenon. Some of the homes are relatively undamaged but the dangerous soil conditions in the area require closing the whole area to existing and future buildings.
    We were taking the tour on February 26, just four days after the anniversary of the 2011 earthquake. Our guide described the feelings of Christchurch residents about the earthquakes and the lingering fear they experience, a genuine post-traumatic stress syndrome. Ties to beautiful and familiar buildings are hard to break and reaching decisions on what to do about damaged buildings and how to rebuild new buildings are all mixed up in their emotional state. With destruction and construction everywhere, streets are closed or partially blocked by orange cones so the reminder is there in every daily activity. Three years after the last earthquake, many residents of Christchurch are still waiting for the insurance companies to settle their claims.
  25. tbutler
    We spent Sunday and Monday nights, May 22 and 23, at Mareblu Camping in Fano.  Tuesday morning we woke, tidied up the camper and headed out the gate about 10:00 a.m.  Our intended destination was Isernia in south central Italy.  The trip was mostly south before turning west into central Italy.  We were driving on the A14.  A is for Autostrada, the Italian version of the Interstate highways in the US except that they are toll roads.  They are the only high-speed highways in Italy though you wouldn't know it the way some Italians drive.  We stopped to fill up with diesel fuel so we wouldn't have to worry about finding a station along the way.  The total distance was about 250 miles, 200 on the Autostrada and 50 a smaller mostly 2 lane road into the mountains.  We never drove into the mountains, they made great scenery but the route we took kept us in the valleys. 

    One of the most interesting things about Italian roads is the extraordinary number of tunnels.  They have tunnels on the Autostrada, on major highways and even on small roads.  There are just so many extreme hills and valleys that it makes tunneling the only option.  We didn't count but I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't fifty tunnels in the last two days driving.  On the Autostrada they had three lanes for the first 100 miles as we got further south the number of lanes dropped back to 2.  There was frequent road work including some tunnels that were under repair so all of three lanes of traffic would squeeze into one lane.  The roads are generally in good shape though we have encountered small patches on rural roads where the speed is reduced to 20 km/hr (12 MPH) for rough roads.

    Our goal for Wednesday was to get to Isernia and contact members of the Lombardi family.  Louise’s younger sister married Louis Lombardi.  He was born in Italy and brought to the US by his mother, Ida.  Louie's father had been in the US for a while and had established a home for the rest of the family.  The family home in Italy was near a small village just north of Isernia.  Unfortunately, the phone and internet access failed us and we were unable to make contact with relatives in Isernia.  We attempted to find a campground and there were none to be found anywhere near Isernia.  We ended up spending the night in a parking area near an old, abandoned building.  There were some local groups hanging out there, loud music, noisy motorcycles, etc.  That quieted down about 11:00 but I wouldn't know.  I fell asleep noise and all.  The next morning we spotted a dump station on one end of the lot.

    Our camper is very much like our motor home.  Both are happiest if they are plugged into a power source.  Our motor home has enough battery power to get us by and of course we have a generator.  The camper has one battery to start the engine and one battery to run everything else.  In addition, there are some things that will not operate without an electrical hookup.  Not plugged in, we have  no way to charge our computers.  We can charge our phones and i-pads from a USB outlet when the engine is running.  There are other USB outlets that won't work unless we are plugged in.  By Thursday morning, everything needed charging. 

    With no family contact to guide us we set out with directions that Louise’s sister had provided.  We left Isernia headed for Caravilli.  We have seen any number of small communities draped across the tops of hills.  They make quite a picturesque sight.  Caravilli is one of them.  Up the hill, around the curve and up the next hill.  The view from the village is spectacular.  We missed the turn and had to turn around and go back down a way before we took the next road on our quest to the town of Villa San Michelle.  Another spectacular drive and we came to Villa San Michelle.  People were parked along-side the road on what looked like sidewalks. We made like the natives and parked the van on the sidewalk.  We explored the town from bottom to top.  Along the way Louise struck up conversations with people who spoke no English.  No matter she got her point across to most.  One touching encounter happened when we talked with three women.  One was able to work with Louise and develop an understanding.  There was one very old woman who seemed to make a connection talking about Louie's parents.  We had Ida's picture on the memorial card from her funeral.  When we mentioned her name and Nickolo, Louie's father, she lit up.  Then mentioning Ida's sons, Luigi (aka Louie) and Dominic seemed to really make a connection for her.  We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the experience of a small Italian village.

    Then it was off to the West Coast, Naples and Salerno.  That was about a two-hour trip from Caravilli.  We wandered along small roads for a while and then got on the A1 Autostrada.  A look at the possible locations of campgrounds set us on our way to Camping Salerno which is where I write from now.  Coming through the gate, the asked if we wanted a shaded site or seaside.  We jumped at the seaside location.  We were guided to our spot at the southeast end of a long line of RV's along the wall overlooking the beach and surf.  I'm certain I'll sleep well tonight with the sound of the sea. 

    From this base, we will stay here a week, we plan to explore Naples, Pompeii, Vesuvius, and Capri Island and probably more...  It took two tries to get our electric hooked up.  The power box is located too far away for our cord, so the park brought an extension.  Nothing worked so they brought another, plugged it in and viola! It worked and we once again are powered up.

    Louise has had her first swim in the Mediterranean and a shower.  I need to do the same and then we are planning to have dinner in the restaurant here at Camping Salerno.

    We left Texas and the US on Wednesday and arrived here on Thursday so this marks day number 8 of our great Italian adventure.

×
×
  • Create New...