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tbutler

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  1. tbutler
    When my computer feels neglected it starts running through my photo files. One by one, pictures from our life and travels pop up on the screen. Some pictures fade in and out, others come in pairs. After a while they switch from color to black and white so I'm seeing them in a completely new way. They remind me of the rich life Louise and I have. Clearly, we are not wealthy in the conventional sense. Our bank account would not impress anyone. Still in so many ways, we are in the current vernacular, 1%'ers.
    I'm certain that the number of people who have lived in a motor home for any length of time amounts to less than 1% of the population. Even in today's mobile world, the number of people who have traveled to all states in the US is less than 1% of the population. Not only have we traveled all over the US, we have lived in our home while doing this. Spending a week or even a few days living in a location is so much different than flying in, staying in a motel and flying back home.
    Speaking of flying, my pilot's license also puts me in the 1% category and Louise has shared much of that flying with me. Many of my pictures are from our flights. I have pictures looking up at Denali, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Ranier, Death Valley, the Florida Keys and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. There are pictures of deserts, rivers and lakes, crops, plains, glaciers and so many other beautiful places. Each picture reminds me of another adventure, experiences and people we've met. All that said, there is nothing like the feeling of lifting off from the ground into the air and experiencing the freedom of flight. With no roads to follow, the possibilities are limitless.
    Louise and I were able to retire at an early age. We worked another job for several years beyond our retirement then gave up full time work at age 55. Looking back on this now, from the age of 65 and still not being eligible for full Social Security, I really appreciate the years of travel when I was physically able to take on some of the adventures we did. To retire at such an early age probably puts us in the 1% category again.
    I wrote this several months ago as you might suspect. I still feel like I'm in the 1% category. I recently gave blood for the umteenth time and after shoulder surgery and knee replacements on both knees I'm back on the tennis court. I bowled a 200+ game last week and got a 96 (I broke 100) on a golf course we've played for several years, so life is good.
    The last few months I have devoted my time to getting certified as a Texas Master Naturalist. The certification requires 30 hours of class time (generally in 3 hour chunks) and 10 hours of field trips. A final 40 hours of volunteer time is required before you get your certification. After that, you can work with the parks and nature centers in the area as a volunteer on a regular basis. Needless to say, my time has been at a premium. I have completed all the requirements for graduation. Still, there are intersting field trips and classes. Tomorrow, Monday, I'll take a cactus field trip. I've seen tons of cactus in the last 11 years but there is always something to be learned.
    Meanwhile, I'm consumed by homeowner responsibilites that I haven't had for years. It's just a mobile home on a small lot but there are endless projects to be tackled. I'm battling the spring bloom of weeds in the lawn and beyond. I spent the day attending to the drainage system, gutters, downspouts, etc. We'll depart for the summer in six weeks and there are plenty of things that have to be done to get the house ready. Then there is the list for the motor home. It has been sitting in "storage" next to our house, for almost six months so I'll have to turn my attention to getting it ready for a summer of travel. I can't wait to get her rolling and leave the house in the rear view mirror. It promises to be a great summer.
    We are planning to take our grandsons on a trip through Nebraska and South Dakota. Fun you say? Yes, there are numerous palentological sites (boys and dinosaurs, mammoths and other ancient creatures) in both states as well as the historical and scenic sites. We're hoping to get them to the annual Volksmarch at the Crazy Horse monument near Custer, SD. Our two oldest grandaughers are overdue for a trip to the Kentucky Horse Park and some stops in Indiana including a great candy store and the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. After that, we're off to enjoy ourselves, heading for a long delayed destination, the Olympic Penninsula of Washington. We may stray into Canada to visit friends on Vancouver Island if time allows. We have two young grandaughters in California to visit. Then we'll return to take care of Louise's mother in Denver while Louise's sister celebrates her husband's retirement on a cruise. That is small payment for their care of Mom in their home for the last 9 years. Our final journey will be back to home in south Texas sometime in October.
    If you own a motorhome, the possibilities are endless. Life is much better when you can travel at will.
  2. tbutler

    Preparing for Departure

    By tbutler,

    The weather is taking one last lash at us. Temperatures have been in the high 90s and into the 100s the last three days. Friday and Saturday are forecast to be in the 100s and then we should see cooler temperatures for the remainder of our stay here in Missouri.
    My right knee was replaced on July 28 and is now 5 weeks old. I'll see the surgeon for the 6 week check on September 7 and then we are leaving. I will need to come back for a 12 week check and will do that by flying back to St. Louis for the appointment and then returning to the motor home the next day. I got a bargain fare out of Albuquerque on Southwest Airlines that will be cheaper than driving the motor home all the way back to Missouri before heading to Texas for the winter. Meanwhile we have two granddaughters waiting for us in California.
    Next week will be busy. After being parked for over 3 months, there are always plenty of things that need to be stowed in the motor home. In addition, we've collected some family heirlooms from my mother who is cleaning house. We'll take them with us to California and then to Texas. Mom saved all kinds of memorabilia from my childhood and career. I'd have discarded lots of the stuff at the time but now, looking back they are more interesting. Some make me laugh, others are serious stuff. It is funny how our lives seem pretty routine, just getting by one day at a time. When you look back at it from a historical perspective, it becomes so much more interesting - at least to me.
    So we'll head west the end of next week. I sure hope the fuel prices plummet after the holiday. It is funny how the price of gasoline fluctuates wildly while the price of diesel remains pretty constant. I guess the trucking industry keeps the demand pretty constant. I checked the fuel prices along our route and as usual they increase as we go west. We'll pay about $0.30 more in California than we do here in Missouri. That means that as a rule, I'll keep topping off the tank before leaving each state.
    I'm looking forward to getting the wheels rolling again. Even though we've been over this route dozens of times over the years, it is always good to be rolling down the road. There is no greater freedom!
  3. tbutler

    Preparing to Fly

    By tbutler,

    We’ve been touring Australia for almost three months now. Along the way we’ve collected some souvenirs for ourselves and for our friends and family. When we started this trip our bags were packed to the limit. We investigated shipping the souvenirs and some of the clothing we would not need on the cruise back to the US. Every query ended up with prices that were extreme for even a small package. Then in a discussion with a park ranger at Monkey Mia we found out about something different. She suggested using Sea Mail offered by the Australian Post. She had shipped her goods from Britain to Australia that way and said it was an economical alternative. We investigated and found the prices that UPS, DHL, FedEx charged for a two pound package would pay for a 20 kilogram package shipped Sea Mail. The difference of course is that the Sea Mail package will arrive in 60 to 90 days instead of two days. That was perfect for our needs. We didn’t need to have the materials in hand quickly. So we purchased packing materials and loaded up two boxes. The amount of materials that we wanted to ship back were too much for one box so we split it into two boxes of 13 and 14 kilograms each. That is 27 kilograms or 60 pounds of goods we shipped back to the US. This took care of the excess we had purchased on the trip so far and also lightened the load in our suitcases.
    Shipping was accomplished on Wednesday before our Friday morning flight. Thursday was pack the bags day and also clean the camper day. We set out suitcases on the benches in the rear of the camper. Frist Louise packed the majority of her clothes and goods and then I took my turn. There isn’t enough room in the camper for both of us to be moving around at the same time. Louise did a final load of laundry and while she did that I packed my clothes and goods. Clothes were laid out for the next days flight and then everything was given a good cleaning. We didn’t wash the outside of the camper, that was not required but all the dishes and cabinets had to be left clean. The linens and towels didn’t have to be washed. Those would be left on the bed when we turned in the camper.
    Thursday night it rained. It rained hard off and on all night. By morning I was getting anxious about the final work of disconnecting the utilities, electric and grey water. It was going to be messy. We were parked on a sandy lot and nothing sticks to things like wet sand. If the rain continued I was going to get soaked in the process. Just before sunrise the rain quit. I got up and made a trip to the restroom. Several people were busy packing up to leave while the rain had stopped. I think everyone was thinking the same thing I was, get out quick before it starts to rain again.
    We had a quick breakfast, washed the dishes and disconnected. I washed down the hose and electric cord as I rolled them up. Then a last bit of packing and we left the park at 8:30 a.m. I took Louise to the airport and left her there with all of our baggage except my brief case which had the Britz documents and my records from the rental. The GPS showed me just a few kilometers from the Britz office. Ten minutes and I was there. I had called Britz on Wednesday to confirm their hours of operation. I was told they didn’t open until ten and our flight was scheduled for 11:30. The agent I talked to said he would be there at 8:30 and he could get me checked out at that time and offered to arrange a cab to the airport as well. He also confirmed for me that I would be able to take the campervan to the airport, it would be allowed in the drop off area which is something that isn’t allowed at most US airports. Anyway, he was there and after a brief look at the camper, a cab was called and I was on my way back to the airport.
    I met Louise in a coffee shop where she was waiting and we went to check our luggage. We got a surprise. The tickets I had booked with Virgin Australia didn’t include checked baggage. That was an additional charge. The Expedia confirmation didn’t say that baggage wasn’t included it just said that additional charges may apply for baggage. So we paid for shipping our bags and then were off to the security check. Once through security we had about an hour wait for the boarding call.
    Our plane was an Airbus 300-200, a wide bodied plane for this cross country flight. I was expecting a smaller plane but was pleased by the wide body plane. It takes just under four hours to fly across the country from Perth on the west coast to Sydney on the east coast. There was also a two hour time change for the time zone difference. We arrived just after sunset. I was able to photograph a spectacular sunset from the airplane. It took less than 30 seconds for the sun to disappear below the horizon once its lower limb touched the horizon.
    By the time we landed and got out of the airport it was dark. We picked up our luggage and found the taxi line. A $40 ride got us to our hotel in the Chinatown area west of downtown Sydney. We are right across the street from a large shopping market with three stories above ground and another story below ground. The lowest level is a vegetable market and has other vendors with booths selling other products, rather like a large flea market. Above the basement level are two stories of shops and stores including a large grocery store. The top floor is the food court. We got a simple dinner in the food court and then walked around the neighborhood.
  4. tbutler

    Puffins

    By tbutler,

    We left Gander, Newfoundland, on Friday, July 31 on our way to St. John's, NL. Along the way we passed through Terra Nova National Park. We spent several hours at the visitor's center and did some hiking around the area. We had hoped to stay in the park for several days to do further exploration but there were no spaces suitable for us in the campgrounds. They do have some spaces that we could fit into but they were already taken so we continued on late in the afternoon. Coming into Clarenville just south of Terra Nova we stopped at the visitors center as it looked like a good place to spend the night. Pulling into the parking lot we noticed a sign prohibiting overnight parking. We decided to ask if they had suggestions for places to stay. It turns out there was a Walmart less than a mile from the visitor's center. We asked about things to be seen in the area. Clarenville is located at the inland end of a long peninsula. This is typical topography for Newfoundland. We find that we are exploring Newfoundland one peninsula at a time. In this case, we parked the motor home at Walmart and took the car to explore the peninsula the next day.
    Driving down the peninsula is always a slow process. There is one road, it goes through towns and speed limits are slower. The roads are rough in places and speed limits for the roads tend to max out at 80 KPH, about 55 MPH. Get off the main road and things go downhill rapidly. Potholes, dips, broken surface and just plain gravel and dirt roads are the rule, not the exception. Anyway it takes a while to get anywhere on these peninsulas. We set out on Saturday morning for a coastal hike, the Skerwink Trail, a 4.5 kilometer loop out of the town of East Trinity. Billed as one of the most beautiful hiking trails by Travel and Leisure Magazine. It lived up to its billing. The coastline is mostly seacliffs with sea stacks in many locations. Sea stacks are just sea cliffs that have been eroded away, separating them from the mainland. They are isolated pillars standing just off the coast. The trail skirts the edge of the cliffs so there is a constant scenic view of the bay, the coastal cliffs and the sea stacks. We spent a good four hours on the trail. I'm taking pictures so the time required to travel is directly related to the quality of the scenery.
    On the trail we encountered a number of other hikers. One of the first groups to catch up and pass us was another retired couple, residents of the Toronto area. They recognized us a hikers, not just tourists out for a walk. We visited for a while and they tipped us off to several other hikes that were musts in Newfoundland. They also mentioned a location where we could see Puffins. It wasn't far from where we were so we put that on our list, one more thing to do today. Following the hike we set out immediately for Elliston. Remember what I said about secondary roads. The road to Elliston was 15 kilometers of all the things listed above, continuously, never any good pavement, creeping along we were the Butler bobbleheads.
    Once in Elliston we had to find the exact location to see these Puffins. After a missed try a friendly gentleman gave us directions and we found the trail head to the Puffin viewing area. The trail led out toward the sea over one potential sea stack and then another before we finally ended up on a third about-to-be sea stack to be looking out at an actual sea stack. On that sea stack, the top covered with grasses and low plants, there were Puffins. Several hundred Puffins. This was a rookery. Puffins are pelagic birds, they spend most of their lives at sea. They are here on land only briefly to raise a chick and then they will return to the sea. Their nests are burrows, deep underground, up to six feet below the surface. That is where the egg is laid and the Puffin chick stays there until big enough to fly. Even at that the gulls and other predators will get most of the chicks. The few that survive will spend their next four to six years a sea before they return to land to breed and raise a chick.
    So here we are, gazing across about 100 feet of air at this Puffin rookery. Their antics are quite entertaining, they walk funny, they fly as if they are hummingbird wannabees. Their short stubby wings are a blur. When they land they are quite entertaining with their red feet dangling as if they are stretching out for the land all the time the wings are beating like crazy. Their bills are beautiful in their breeding plumage, a blue vertical stripe accents the red tip of a massive bill. It is really a very strange looking bird which makes it even more interesting.
    Another visitor to the site told us that if we stand back toward the center of the area they would land on our piece of real estate. We backed away and in just a few minutes we had Puffins within ten feet. Now that was a real nice look at these amazing birds. I took pictures, clicking them off as fast as possible. I had to stop now and then to wipe the moisture off the lens as the humidity was very high and everything was moist. It is late in the day and fog is starting to form. One memory card is filled with Puffin pictures, pop in the next one and take more pictures. One bird is walking directly toward me. I keep zooming out with my telephoto to be able to get the entire bird in the picture. I finally gave up, it was cold, breezy and damp. My hands were getting stiff from the cold. We hiked back to the car carrying with us some great pictures of Puffins. These pictures were more than I would have ever thought possible.
    Driving on into Bonavista on Saturday night we used the last light of day to locate a statue of John Cabot at the place where he landed in 1497 and wrote in his log book about this new found land. We snapped pictures, using flash to get enough light for a good picture of us. The statue remained too dark for detail until I took pictures of it by itself. Then we found a Subway shop in a quick shop and picked up dinner for the road. An hour and a half later we were back at the motor home. We slept in on Sunday morning. Walmart didn't open until 10:00 and we were on our way shortly after that.
    Since then we've moved on to St. John's and are in the campground in Pippy Park. Today, Monday, we had an appointment for a Puffin and Whale Boat Tour. We did some additional hiking in the morning, got lunch and then arrived before the appointed time to check in for the tour. Setting out from Bay Bulls, we saw about five whales, humbacks, a mother and calf swimming together in the bay. Then we turned our attention to the Puffin rookery in the Witless Bay Ecological Preserve. This a group of five islands lying just offshore. Each of the islands hosts thousands of breeding birds. There are many different species, Puffins being only one. Throughout the trip we are seeing Puffins flying, resting on the water, diving to catch fish. As we approach one of the islands you can see Puffins flying in the air, hundreds of Puffins flying in the air. It is like watching the activity around a bee hive only these are birds. It reminds me of bats at Carlsbad Caverns if you have ever witnessed that phenomenon. Not as many, not quite as thick as the bats. There are Puffins everywhere. On land there are thousands. Unlike the previous experience we are on a rocking boat. The chance to get good pictures of individual Puffins was yesterdays experience. Today we are seeing a different aspect of Puffins. The activity of a monster colony of Puffins is amazing to witness and something that we saw on a much smaller scale the day before.
    Isn't it amazing, my best Puffin pictures are the result of a casual conversation we had with fellow hikers we met on the trail. We don't stop and talk with many hikers, I'm sure they also pass by many groups without more than exchanging pleasant greetings. We sensed a common interest and that led to a conversation, which led us to see Puffins up close. And Louise, my lovely Louise, will hike until she can go no more than go further to see the Puffins and stand in the cold offering assistance with equipment as we work as a team to experience the wonders of nature and get these amazing pictures.
  5. tbutler

    Putting Her to Bed

    By tbutler,

    It's been a shocking month and a half since I've written about our motor home and the experiences it brings us. There are many excuses: busy lives, family challenges, etc. Most of all, there has been little activity involving the motor home. We parked the motor home in the driveway next to our new mobile home at Sandpipers on October 13. I buttoned her down with window sun screens, and tire covers. Then we began to unload our gear from the closets and cabinets. This was new territory for us. For the last 9 1/2 years we have been living in a motor home. We unloaded one motor home before this one and that was a direct transfer from the old motor home to the new. I carried drawers from the old motor home out the door of the old, two steps on the ground, and right into the new motor home. Louise unloaded them, packing them away in the new motor home, and I brought the drawers back to the old motor home. Three days and we were on our way in a new home!
    Now we were moving into a house. The half-empty motor home will sit beside our home until spring when we head north to escape the heat of the south Texas summer. The refrigerator was emptied post haste. It was near failing and we were glad to shut it down. Will it ever run again? Only time will tell. Some clothes came out right away, others as the occasion demanded. One of those rare times when I needed a pair of dress slacks I had to hustle into the motor home and dig into the closet to bring several pairs into the house. I reluctantly unpacked my tools as the jobs in the house began to pile up. After a while, my focus is on getting the house in operating condition. I'm spending less and less time in the motor home.
    When we returned home we made a stop at a inspection station to have the motor home inspected. We weighed in at the Flying J as we needed a weight ticket for our license plates. We planned to take it out one more time for our driving test to get our Texas drivers licenses. With that in mind, we didn't refuel on our way home. We would do that after we had completed the driving test. Shortly before Thanksgiving, Louise called the drivers license bureau to get specific details of the testing procedure. She was told we would not need to take a test and could get our license by turning in our South Dakota licenses. So we picked up all the required paperwork and headed off to the license bureau. After waiting in line for two hours, we arrived at the counter. Anna Marie efficiently worked her way through our paperwork and issued us our Texas drivers license. After checking her computer, she apparently found the information that equated our South Dakota operator license with the Texas Class B license. We were able to exchange our South Dakota drivers licenses for a Texas Class B license required to drive a motor home greater than 26,000 pounds without having to take a written or driving test! Louise was visibly relieved. Every time I had mentioned the impending test to her she got this graven look on her face that said she really didn't want to face the test now or later. I was greatly relieved because I was beginning to think that I was going to be the only driver of the motor home.
    So now we didn't have to take the motor home out for the test. But there it sits, with a partial tank of fuel and no fuel preservative. So I pulled the tire covers off and removed the sun screens. Several hours going through the interior to ensure that it was secure and we're ready to make a run to the Flying J. Now that I've done that, I am in the process of parking the motor home for the winter. Unlike my northern neighbors, I don't worry about securing the motor home against freezing temperatures. Here, the sun is a constant worry so the sun screens and tire covers go back on the motor home. Tires are protected from the concrete by parking on a set of boards that also help level the motor home. It will be plugged in to keep all systems live and the leveling system will be kept active. We'll keep the furnace active, set at a low temperature to conserve fuel but warm enough to prevent freezing of the water pipes when temperatures drop low during the winter. I'm working on the routine maintenance items, tire pressure, flushing the water heater, cleaning the furnace, etc. This will continue on and off through the winter with the goal of being ready to hit the road next spring.
    Having a house is nice but it has it's own challenges. I have a whole new set of tasks to keep me busy. I'll keep dreaming of the next trip, the new territory to be explored and new friends to see. The motor home will be there to remind me that there is still a whole world out there to be explored!
  6. tbutler
    We have been on the Olympic Peninsula for just over a month now. Starting on the east side of Olympic National Park and moving north, west and now south we have explored the fringes of this vast wilderness park. We have also explored the towns and villages surrounding the park. There are so many things we have seen and done that I won't even begin to write about all of them in one entry. I'm starting with nature because that is the focus of the national park.
    We have walked many miles of trails over the hills and through the forests of Olympic National Park. I always have my camera with me and I take pictures as if they were free because they actually are since the dawn of digital cameras. After you purchase the camera it costs you no more to take 10,000 pictures than it does to take one. So we return from an outing and I download two or three hundred pictures.
    We were walking a trail in the Hoh Rain Forest on the western slopes of the Olympic Mountains. Here rain falls in annual amounts in excess of 100 inches. Summer is the dry season so the trails were dusty and no water dripped from the leaves of the trees. By the end of September, this will end and rain will start to fall. Higher in the mountains it will be snow and there are active glaciers on the peaks of the Olympic Mountains. The Hoh River has a bluish color associated with the color of rock flour, formed as glaciers grind rock into a fine powder. This is released as the glacier melts during the summer.
    As I walked the trail and snapped picture after picture something dawned on me. I am constantly frustrated because my camera isn't large enough. The trees are up to 300 feet tall. It fascinates me to look up at these monsters towering far above my head. But it isn't just one tree, it is a whole forest of trees. I can turn left, right all the way around and I am surrounded by incredible scenery. With my little camera I get a bit here, a bit there. I can digitally stitch pictures together to get panoramic pictures. But there is no way that I can convey the splendor of what I am actually seeing. It is impossible to put nature in a box.
    I've seen the redwoods of Northern California and the sequoias of Sequoia National Park. The Douglas fir trees, Hemlocks, Sitka spruce, red alder and maple trees of the Olympic Peninsula are no less amazing. The forest here on the western slopes is known as the asbestos forest because it seldom burns. There is enough rain and moisture that the forest is very difficult to set on fire. Most of the trees in the national park are destroyed by wind. Hurricane Ridge in the park gets its name from the ferocious winds that blow here during winter storms. Winds in excess of 100 miles per hour bring down trees, laying them out across the forest floor. Root balls 20 feet tall are raised as a huge tree rips its roots from the ground. The forest floor is littered with monster logs piled up across other logs.
    With the wet conditions, every inch of the forest floor grows something. When a log falls to the forest floor, it becomes fair game. Mosses grow and cover the downed tree. Other trees sprout on top of the log. Such logs are known as nurse logs because they feed the life growing on them. Over time the roots of young trees grow down around the log into the ground. Over time the nurse log eventually rots away and leaves a void beneath the young tree. The roots that once framed the nurse log before it rotted away now are well above ground with a void beneath. The tree towers above these roots as if the tree is standing on its tip toes.
    So I have pictures of the roots of such trees. I have pictures of mosses draped from limbs of trees, covering logs, growing on the ground. I have pictures of streams, waterfalls, rapids. They can be 4 x 6 snapshots, 8 x 10 pictures, 20 x 30 posters or wall size murals Whatever they are, they are flat, two dimensional representations of nature, Putting nature in a box, no matter how pretty it looks, just doesn't convey anything close to the real experience. So enjoy the pictures but you really have to come see this for yourself.
  7. tbutler
    I’ve had several commenters ask questions so I’ll take a little time to answer one of them here. This was written in February and I’m posting it now that our trip has ended.
    Regarding the nature of the night sky here in New Zealand. First let me say that you don’t have to go far outside the large cities to experience some of the best dark skies you can imagine. The population is spread thin outside the major cities. One in three people live in Auckland and 85% of New Zealanders live in cities or towns so that leaves just 15% for the rural countryside. On the South Island the population is spread really thin with much of the area being mountainous.
    The Milky Way stands out brilliantly from most everywhere on both the islands. This alone can confuse the casual visitor. There are few places in the US where you can see as many stars in the sky as you will here in New Zealand. That is simply because it is almost impossible to get far from centers of population in the US and we have a love of light at night. So we light up the night sky to an extent that hides many stars. See The Globe at Night website for more information about light pollution in the US. In major cities you will only see a handful of stars, the brightest planets, our Moon and Sun. Fill the sky with stars and it’s hard to pick out the familiar groupings you may know.
    Now, as far as recognizing constellations, there are three challenges to be met. The first is that when you look to the south you are seeing stars that an inhabitant of the northern hemisphere never gets to see until they cross the equator. This is one of the great treats of crossing the equator. The whole of the south circumpolar region is completely new. It would be like someone from New Zealand coming to the northern hemisphere and seeing the north circumpolar stars, the Big Dipper or Ursa Major and Little Dipper or Ursa Minor, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Perseus, Andromeda, and Draco would all just look like a jumble of stars until they picked up a star chart and began to pick out the patterns of those constellations.
    The second challenge is that the portion of the sky that we are familiar with is all upside down. As we look at the sky in the northern hemisphere, the projection of Earth’s equator onto the sky would form an arc from east to west and at its highest point will be south of the zenith (the zenith is the spot straight above your head projected onto the sky). Everyone has their own personal zenith and it changes as we move about the planet. The equator is south of our zenith in the northern hemisphere. The further north you are, the further to the south the equator will be.
    Take the constellation Orion as an example. Earth’s equator passes right through the belt of Orion. When we look at Orion from the northern hemisphere, the star Betelgeuse forms one shoulder and is well above (to the north of) the equator. The star Rigel forms one knee and is well below (to the south of) the equator, thus Orion seems to be standing upright with his head toward our zenith (our head) and his feet toward the southern horizon in line with our feet.
    Now imagine seeing Orion from the southern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, your zenith is south of the equator. When you look to Orion, you are facing north. In the northern hemisphere you were facing south. This causes a left right reversal. So now, Betelgeuse is upside down and the star Betelgeuse is to your right instead of the left as we are used to seeing it from the northern hemisphere. That means that every constellation we see will be left-right reversed. And this is the third challenge to recognizing the constellations which are familiar to us.
    So the entire sky is now rich with stars, upside down and backwards (left-right reversed) and there is a whole cast of new characters around the South Pole that you only see from the southern hemisphere. Even for a seasoned observer of the sky, this presents challenges. The casual observer may want to enlist the help of a guide! Or, you could just stand on your head and wear sunglasses to observe the stars!
    Watching the sun during the day presents the same problems. When the sun rises in the east for us in the northern hemisphere we watch it move across the southern sky and it sets in the west. As we do this we are facing south and the sun seems to move from left (east) to right (west). In the southern hemisphere, it will rise in the east, move across the northern horizon and set in the west. Facing north, the sun will move from right (east) to left (west). So the sun seems to move across the sky in the opposite direction because we are turned around. This also applies to the motion of the stars at night.
    I have been an avid observer of the sky for many years and figuring all this out has been an interesting challenge.
  8. tbutler

    Rally Report

    By tbutler,

    We are in rally mode.  We do this every two or three years.  It is a fun thing to watch the coaches gather, a small city literally pops up almost overnight.  Thousands of people bring their houses, whether full timers or just camping for the week, they have almost all the comforts of home.  And, at the end of the week we will all scatter to the four points of the compass and the city will just disappear - poof!
    Our rally attendance began last week.  We were one of the last arrivals at the Monaco International Pre-Rally in Celina, Ohio.  Monaco International is a chapter of FMCA, in this case the chapter is open to owners of all the Monaco family of coaches, including Safari, Holiday Rambler and Beaver.  We like their pre-rally before an FMCA Convention and this one lived up to our expectations.  We arrived Wednesday, July 5, in time for the 4th of July Picnic.  Many gathered earlier in the week just for the chance to sit around and visit informally before the actual rally began on the 5th.  By the time we arrived, most of the coaches were already parked.  There had been significant rain so they were being quite selective with the parking.  Even so we were directed to drive across a field up to a road on the far side.  As I did so, I could feel the coach lugging in the soft ground.  I kept a steady foot on the accelerator and managed to pull up to the road.
    More rain was forecast so after seeing some of the coaches that had arrived earlier, now with wheels sunken well into soft soil, I went in search of lumber to place under my rear wheels.  At Menard's I purchased two 3/4 inch plywood pieces 2 feet by 4 feet.  I also purchased four 2x12's four feet long, one for each tire.  The 2x12's supported the tires while the 3/4 inch plywood under the 2x12's kept them from sinking into the ground individually.  I now had a 2 foot by 4 foot pad to put under each rear dual.  At this point let me point out our coach has air leveling only, we have no jacks which could be used to raise the rear of the coach.  So I pulled forward far enough to put the pads behind the wheels and backed onto the pads.  It worked, I was solid, for the moment.  The front wheels sunk in some but being near the road, the soil was more solid there.  I could move them if I had a solid surface for the drive wheels.
    By the end of the rally on Sunday, the whole assembly on the left rear had sunk into the ground about 3 inches.  Still, the tires were now on a solid surface.  It rained several times more during the rally, such that there were large puddles in the street which weren't gone by Sunday, our planned departure date. 
    Saturday afternoon as festivities were winding down, I made a run to Menard's and picked up two pieces of 3/4 inch plywood, 2 feet by 8 feet and four 2x12's six feet long.  This would give me additional support as I pulled off the pads I was parked on.  I was certain enough that the wheels would just sink into the now saturated soil when I tried to pull out if I didn't have some support under them.  Part of the convincing came from watching other coaches being pulled out by wreckers. 
    Louise described our departure from our parking spot as the Egyptian method, kind of like moving stones for the pyramids.  Place a set of boards in front of the tires, pull onto them, move the set that were under the wheels ahead, pull onto them, move the boards again.  By then we were close enough to the road to put the short 2x12's in front of the tires and the plywood in front of that.  I accelerated firmly until the tires were near the end of the plywood and then eased off to let the rear tires "coast" across the last of the soft soil.  The left rear was running on mud and the tires pushed mud up eight inches between them.  The resulting mud sculpture was impressive.  We were out without damage, delay or expense.  Yes, I could have used my road service for this but if I can keep the wrecker away from my rig I'm happy.
    We left Celina Sunday afternoon and drove to Anderson, Indiana.  We spent the night at a very nice RV park, Timberline RV Resort.  There we purged our waste tanks and recharged the fresh water tank in preparation for our stay at the FMCA Crossroads to Fun, Indy-2017.  We arrived at the north campground shortly before noon Monday.  There was a line of coaches waiting to be parked.  We waited patiently and then impatiently for more than 30 minutes before finally reaching our assigned space.  The north campground is pretty far from the activities of the convention but we have bicycles and they run a shuttle so we are happy to be here.  More importantly, we are in a real campground with 50A power (which we paid for), water and sewer at our site (which was a pleasant surprise).  We have learned never to expect this but sometimes we just get lucky.  Louise was ecstatic.  She can tolerate dry camping for a short period of time, we had just completed 5 days living on our tanks.  She much prefers to have all the nice features of our coach working fully. 
    I am certainly happy.  It is Tuesday, the convention starts tomorrow.  We woke up to thunderstorms this morning.  It continues to rain this afternoon.  Almost 3:00 p.m. now, we are under flash flood warnings until noon tomorrow and it continues to rain off and on with the occasional lightening and thunder.  We are not in an area subject to flash flooding but if we travel we know there are already roads closed in the area due to flooding.  We are parked on a solid surface, gravel is below the grass growing in this area.  No worries about tires sinking into a soggy grass surface.  So this year, we won the lottery.  Now if we can get the storms to move on we'll let the fun begin.
    I certainly don't know for sure but I think FMCA may have scheduled us to be in the campground on Monday because the full hookups makes it easy for us to be on-site for a week.  I assume then that those without hookups are being parked this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  It would be a tough day to arrive and set-up.  My heart goes out to those who are faced with this challenge and to the parking crew that is out in this weather getting everyone safely situated for the convention.
  9. tbutler
    I just finished reading an article in the New York Times travel section.  Titled: To Reduce Travel Stress, Plan Less, the article by Geoffrey Morrison highlights the advantages of making travel decisions on the run, as you travel.  While it is based on travel by plane or automobile, stays in hotels or hostels, and meals in restaurants, many of the concepts are applicable to RV travel.  In fact, in our travels, this has been our normal mode of travel. 
    I know that some people have to have every RV park reserved for an entire trip.  Activities are planned before leaving home.  We seldom plan more than a destination and that is in general terms.  As we travel we make decisions on where to stay each evening based on our location and the possible places to stay that are ahead.  This usually happens about 3 or 4:00 p.m.  If we're looking for a rest area or Walmart, we start looking for possible places within our desired travel distance.  If it is an RV park that we want for the night, we'll call ahead to ensure a space is available. 
    Traveling this way allows us to consider things like traffic, weather and our endurance in each day's travel.  Traffic delay?  No problem, we will travel less distance that day and stay some place within range before sunset.  Bad weather ahead, we may stop and stay near our current location.  Even if the weather is unavoidable, I'd rather be parked than on the road during a dangerous storm.  If continuing to travel longer than usual will keep us ahead of a storm, we can stretch our travel for the day.  With no reservations, we can alter our travel to fit conditions without worry about having to be a certain place at a certain time.
    As we travel, we are always looking for places of interest.  Without a set schedule, we are able to spend a spontaneous moment or a day exploring a park, festival, visitors center or museum.  In Wyoming there are many roadside historical or cultural sites.  Each one is an opportunity to learn more about the state, it's history and people.  I mention specifically Wyoming because almost all of these sites we've seen are RV friendly, well marked large pull outs with easy exit and re-entry to the highway.  They make excellent lunch stops as well.  They are perfect for relaxed travel.
    In the spring of 2016, we made a stop in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  We imagined spending two nights and once assured of our arrival we reserved a site for two nights.  Once there we started exploring Hot Springs National Park.  After the first day, we added two more nights to our stay.  There were more things to see and do than we had anticipated.  We ended up reserving the full spa treatment at the Buckstaff Bathhouse, the one remaining original bathhouse in the park.  Louise and I both had the full treatment then went to The Pancake House for breakfast!  Well worth staying an extra day or two. 
    In 2004, we left Texas with plans to travel the Lewis and Clark Trail.  It was the 200th anniversary of their trip going westward.  We made our way north and east to Louisville, Kentucky traveling another of our favorite routes, the Natchez Trace.  At one of our stops we happened on the grave marker for Meriwether Lewis.  We hadn't planned on finding grave sites for Lewis or Clark but ended up making that part of the trip.  Anyway, that delayed our trip by a few hours, no problem, no reservations.  It turns Clark's grave was in a cemetery we passed frequently when we lived in the St. Louis, Missouri area. 
    We made that entire trip with few if any reservations.  Each day Louise read an entry from Lewis' journal so we would appreciate the travel challenges faced by the expedition.  We found many of the visitors centers and historic sites had RV parking and when necessary we could spend a night in a park to tour a museum.  The relaxed nature of our travel made the trip a delight, one of the highlights of our 18 years of RV travel.
    We did have one serious interruption in the trip.  Louise's mother's health had taken a turn for the worst.  Her doctor told her she could no longer drive.  This was the end of her stay in Lake Havasu, Arizona.  We left Missouri, spent three weeks helping sell many of her belongings, and drove her to Arvada, Colorado where she would take up occupancy with her youngest daughter and her family.  Following that two week delay, we headed north to the nearest portion of the trail in Western South Dakota.  We spent several days in an RV park in Custer, SD then picked up Lewis and Clark in Pierre, SD.  On the return to the midwest we would visit several of the sites we had missed including The Sargent Floyd Monument in Sioux City, Iowa.  Sargent Floyd was the only casualty of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  His death is thought to be a result of a ruptured appendix. 
    We were able to take on the unplanned event without worrying about reservations or staying to a schedule.  Today we are at my daughter's home with no set date for departure and we are discussing where we will go as we head east to visit relatives.  We'll work it out as we go.
    Do we ever make reservations?  Yes!  Some events attract a crowd, some events are scheduled for only a certain time.  The FMCA Conventions are reservation events for us.  We attend a pre-rally before the convention and that also is a reservation situation.  In 2003, we attended the celebration of 100 years of flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  We had reservations in an RV park as soon as we had secured tickets for the event. 
    Many people made long range plans and reserved a location for viewing the total eclipse last year.  We chose to locate in northeast Colorado, near but not on the path of totality.  As day of the eclipse approached we changed our plans several times based on the weather forecast.  Two days before the eclipse we left our campsite in Colorado headed for Idaho.  The day before the eclipse we woke up in the parking lot of Little America on I-80 in western Wyoming.  The weather looked as good or better in Wyoming so we picked the general location where we would be for the eclipse.  On the way to Riverton, Wyoming Louise called the Wind River RV Park.  They had a cancellation, we got a site with full hook-ups for the eclipse.  It turned out perfect, we saw the complete eclipse. 
    Que sera sera, what will be will be. 

  10. tbutler
    Having traveled the country for 14 years in a motor home there are many places mentioned in the news Louise and I have visited. They become more than just abstract names of places in the news, they become familiar territory. In the news in the last few weeks, Phoenix, Lake Havasu, Tuscon all had major flooding and damage. We stayed in RV parks and visited friends and relatives in those cities. Today Joshua Tree National Park was in the news with flooding also. We've hiked many miles in Joshua Tree and thoroughly enjoyed the desert scenery and the trails to old gold mines and oases.
    Weed, California is in the news today. A ferocious fire has destroyed over 100 buildings in the town. My history with Weed (the town) goes back more than 30 years. Weed is a small town along I-5 in northern California. It is a few miles northwest of Mount Shasta, a beautiful composite volcano. Mount Shasta is in the Cascade Range of volcanoes that include Mount Ranier, Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens among others. The whole range is active though the activity at any one volcano may be hundreds or thousands of years between major eruptions. Active in this sense is a geological term more than a human term. Still any one of these volcanoes could have a significant eruption at any time.
    I mention that because it was the framework for my first encounter with Weed (yes, still the town). We (my first wife and I) were on summer vacation with our two pre-teen children, We had been to Crater Lake which is a caldera from a collapsed Cascade volcano. These were our tent camping days and grocery stops were frequent. The whole family, our camping equipment and clothes fit into our Chevrolet station wagon so the quantity of groceries was pretty slim, a small ice chest and a box of what we needed for the next two or three days. So we pulled off I-80 at Weed and found a grocery.
    After a swing through the store we lined up at the cash register to pay for our food. When it came time to pay for the groceries I wrote a check (remember those days?) and was asked for my identification. I dutifully produced my Missouri drivers license. The clerk, a young woman, took a look at the license and noted that it was from Missouri. She looked at me and asked, "How do you live there with all those tornadoes?" I told her it really wasn't that bad, we had never been affected by one. She said, "I could never live there." I shrugged it off and we loaded our tucker (an Australian term I learned this year meaning grubstake or food) into the station wagon. Then we were off to return to I-80.
    As I pulled onto the entrance ramp to the highway I looked at the road ahead and there straight ahead was Mount Shasta with the cinder cone Shastina on its northwest flank. So here we are in the shadow of an active volcano and the clerk is worried about the danger of tornadoes. I had to laugh at that. For years I incorporated this story into my Earth Science classes. The 8th graders always laughed when I mentioned Weed, I can't imagine why. I used the story to help them understand that almost anywhere you live you will find some danger from nature. In some places it is tornadoes, other places have floods, earthquakes and tsunami's are common in still other places. You might wonder why anyone would live near a volcano but people do that also. It is just one more of natures dangers.
    Fast forward to 2002, the first summer of our RV travels. We started in southern California in the early spring. We visited deserts, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and others. We tromped our way among the trees of Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. Further north we stopped to explore Mount Lassen, the most recent active volcano in the US (before Mount St. Helens) and yes, a Cascade Volcano also. Traveling further north we pulled into Weed and found a very pleasant RV park there as our base to explore Mount Shasta. I am a volcano junkie, I love to explore volcanoes of all kinds. We stayed there for a week, partly to just rest and partly to do some climbing on Mount Shasta. We found many interesting hikes to other areas nearby and enjoyed the entire area very much. We've stayed there again and explored the area since.
    So Weed, California has for me many pleasant memories. It is a town that has been in my lexicon and in my memory for almost half my lifetime. A sleepy little town along a major highway. Now Weed is a smoky disaster area. We'll make a swing by Weed on our trip this year. I hope that the RV park is still there and that we'll be able to find a place to stay for at least one night. I'm sure there will be sadness to see an old friend in its despair. Perhaps we can lend some support to those by our presence.
    Travel makes life so much more vivid. These aren't just names in the news, they are places. Places with personality; parks, homes, forests, bike trails, mountains and people. When you know them, the news is so much more than just a story. Now Weed, in the shadow of the mighty Mount Shasta, has fallen victim to a forest fire. Mother Nature is beautiful but very dangerous.
  11. tbutler
    This will be a short note to let all know where we are located and what conditions are in Riverton, WY.  On Saturday we set out from Fort Morgan, CO for Idaho.  We spent Saturday night at Little America, a fuel and food stop on I-80 in SW Wyoming.  Sunday morning I checked weather conditions along the line of totality and found the forecast for Riverton, WY to be about the same as Boise or Pocatello, Idaho.  Since Riverton was closer to Colorado where we would return, we decided to head for Riverton, WY.
    This morning I am up because the internet here was not accessible.  As I explained to a fellow camper, the local system was probably designed to handle 1000 connections and now it is getting hit with 10,000 connections.  Nothing works when the system is overloaded.  Anyway, back to Sunday morning.  As we left I-80 in Green River, Louise called a campground in Riverton.  They had a cancellation and we got a full hookup site.  We arrived about 2:30 p.m. and were welcomed to our eclipse home.  There are several astronomers in camp.  One couple we've met is from Belgium.  Our rate for two nights stay was well over double the rate posted on the office board.  The fee includes a pair of eclipse glasses, a mini moon pie (label says since 1917 how appropriate, 100 years old this year), tickets for a root beer float here in camp and also a Sunday night dinner.  So we get more than just a site. 
    The forecast here calls for clear skies but there will be patchy smoke from the fires in Oregon.  I saw some of that last evening.  Boise has clear skies - sunshine, no mention of smoke.  Pocatello has patchy smoke.  Casper, WY which was also on our option list has patchy smoke.  Our other option for viewing was to stay in Colorado at Fort Morgan and then drive to Scottsbluff, NE.  There the skies are forecast to be sunny.  When we made the decision to leave Colorado on Saturday the forecast called for storms in Scottsbluff. 
    We should see the eclipse, perhaps not under the best skies but it will be visible here.  There are a whole set of activities going on in the city park and the town is positively humming with activity.  There is even an eclipse shuttle.  They were well prepared for the crowds, everyone here seems to be well informed.  The casino in town has lots of dry campers and they have a program for those saying with them.  There is a county-wide newspaper with a schedule of all the activities going on and information about viewing the eclipse including times for a number of locations within the county.  It's going to be a memorable day.
  12. tbutler

    Role Reversal

    By tbutler,

    Today we become house sitters. Our daughter and her family are off for a family vacation. They are leaving, our motor home remains parked in their driveway. The summer continues to melt away and we aren't going anywhere. Normally, we're long gone by this time of the summer. One of our reasons for buying the motor home in the first place was to escape the unbearably hot mid-west summers. This summer we're stationary and the rest of the world is on the go.
    Despite my whining about our being parked, it was planned this way. My knees have been getting more painful as the years have stretched on. In the last several years, they have tolerated my activity only at the price of long recovery resting periods after each period of activity. I was spending more time sitting in a chair than on the go. It's not the lifestyle we wanted. I've done knee braces, medications of various kinds and modifying my activity, all with diminishing returns. So finally after all this, we decided this was the year to rebuild my knees. As of last Thursday, I now have two shiny new knees. You can tell by looking, the zippers are evident.
    Today I start home therapy for my right knee. A visiting nurse will arrive this morning to assess my condition and guide me through the next three weeks of my recovery. The therapist arrives this afternoon to lead me through the first exercises to recover full use of my new knee. I know the drill, still it helps tremendously to have some guidance with the whole process. I see one of the great values of this kind of attention being that a professional is assessing my condition and prescribing activities to challenge me appropriately to keep the recovery going at a fast rate. Without professionals monitoring me, I might go too fast or too slow. My right knee seems to be recovering much faster than the left knee. I'm experiencing less pain and greater mobility.
    So today my daughter and her family are off on vacation and we remain parked, a reversal of our normal situation. We'll stay here for the next six weeks. After the six week visit to the doctor, we are going to head for California to visit another daughter and her family. We'll spend a month there then return to the mid-west for the final visit with the surgeon before heading south for the winter. In the meantime, I am having a number of interesting experiences.
    On Saturday, I was in Wal-Mart, waiting for the pharmacy to fill my prescription. I had three separate discussions with other customers. I don't usually visit with other customers at Wal-Mart, it is a place to shop not visit. Most people are there on a mission and aren't looking to visit. Sitting there by the pharmacy, one after another, three people came up to me to comment on my knee surgery. The first, a man, his wife and daughter approached. He asked me about my knee surgery, did I have them both done recently? I told him they were eight weeks apart. He lifted his shorts a little to show me his scars. He had both knees replaced in one surgery and we discussed his recovery process. Later a younger man came up to me and asked about my knee surgery. He talked about the pain and difficulty of movement he was experiencing. He is planning to have his knees replaced in two months and was full of questions about the process and the recovery. Then a lady approached. She was picking up medications for her husband who had just had a knee replaced. She was surprised to see me out and about so shortly after my surgery. Her husband was having a much more difficult recovery.
    So I'm part of a club. I guess I'll be meeting lots of new friends. At a picnic for the local pilots organization last week I picked up several more new friends who noticed my scar. We visited about our surgery, recovery and current condition. Who knew there were so many of us? I certainly didn't know until now.
    I'm joining another club today. Today my insurance switches over from the insurance policy of my employer to Medicare. Yes, I'll be 65 this month. Having insurance with my employer has been a mixed blessing. They haven't been paying for my insurance, only keeping me in the group. Being in a group means I have insurance, good insurance and won't be dropped. It also means that I have expensive insurance and the cost has been an increasing burden on our budget. Medicare will reduce my insurance costs while providing good insurance and a guarantee of not being dropped. At my age, I would not want to be without good health insurance.
    When we went full time, being tied to my employers insurance meant that we had to return to Missouri for all of our medical care. Louise has been in the same situation, being tied to her employers insurance. We've managed to do the routine stuff without problems by planning to swing through the area each spring and fall. In the case of my knee surgeries, we've had to change our routine to be in Missouri for this surgery. Now with Medicare, we'll be able to get our medical care wherever we are. It gives us a bit more freedom. Still, since I have a good doctor and a favorite surgeon here in Missouri, we'll keep returning as long as it is convenient.
    The whole Medicare enrollment process has been an interesting challenge. It took me quite a bit of reading, searching and questioning to arrive at an understanding of the possibilities available to me through Medicare. Both Louise and I have elected to go with the "original" medicare for the simple reason that it allows us to travel and receive medical care anywhere in the US. With the right supplemental policy, we are even covered for trips outside the country. It is a little more costly than some other routes but compared to what we have been spending on medical insurance, this is a real improvement.
  13. tbutler

    Rolling On!

    By tbutler,

    A month ago we had the close call with fire (see my previous post, Good News, Bad News) in Lander, WY. Leaving Lander we made a dash for California. A night here, two nights there, and next thing you know we are in Valley Springs, CA. Our son-in-law and his father installed a 50A hookup for us on their home so now we can park next to their driveway. What about the lawn you ask? In this part of California, rock and gravel are a natural ground surface and we found the parking spot just made for us. There is water available and a sewer clean out that I can reach with the macerator hose. It is much more convenient than staying almost 20 miles away and driving to and from each day as we take care of our granddaughters.
    For two weeks we we daytime babysitters for two girls, ages 5 and 7. Their year-round school schedule has a vacation break in early October so this is a regular appointment for us the last few years. A babysitter could do the job but we can save their parents some money and connect with our granddaughters. We use the days to go on adventures. Apple Hill is a favorite for the girls. Located on US 50 just east of Sacramento, there are orchards and wineries in this region that have banded together to market themselves as Apple Hill. In October they have corn and hay mazes for kids, pumpkin patches to explore and pick out a special pumpkin. You can had feed the goats and sheep at one farm, at another you can go on a hay ride. On weekends, vendors open their booths and sell their wares. Lunch is available at most venues and there are some spectacular pies for sale.
    The girls enjoy almost any outing, a day exploring the local reservoir which is far below full allows us to walk on the lake floor and explore rocks. Bowling is a real adventure. Nothing is more fun that knocking down those pins, yippee! Louise and I love to play golf and we decided the girls would enjoy riding along. We got a loaner putter, kid size, so the girls could putt. They took turns dropping their ball next to grandpa or grandma and putting to the hole. Nine holes took care of their interest in golf.
    Leaving on Friday, I took the motor home to Lodi RV Center to have a new slide out cover installed, replacing the one with the burn holes. That done I was off to Sacramento to get two new tires from East Bay Tire Company. Monaco International, a chapter of FMCA has a purchase agreement with Michelin for tires similar to the FMCA program and I was able to get the tires at discount. I had the new tires put on the front and moved the front tires to the right rear replacing the oldest tires on the motor home. There was one more stop to make. Beverages and More, doing business as BevMo, has periodic wine sales, buy one, get another for 5 cents. It's basically a 1/2 price sale. We stock up on wine for our winter retreat at this sale. A ten dollar bottle of wine becomes $5, a forty dollar bottle is now $20. It is a chance to get an interesting variety of wines at reasonable prices.
    Louise meanwhile is finishing the last day with the girls at their house. As soon as their mom arrives home, Louise is off to Sacramento to join me. We meet at the Pilot Travel Center on I-80 just west of I-5, hook up the car and are on our way. We reach Corning, CA just after dark and park at the Rolling Hills Casino just south of town. This has been a favorite stopping spot for us, easy off and easy on with now special parking for RV's and trucks. Off early the next morning we keep the wheels rolling all day long, arriving in Olympia, WA just before dark. We'll spend two nights here and pick up a totem pole that we commissioned last summer when we were in La Push, WA. I fell in love with totems on our trip into British Columbia on our way to Alaska. We found an artist, teaching carving at the school in La Push. David Wilson has done the large totems and also does exquisite smaller works. We met David on Sunday and saw our totem pole for the first time. It is simply put, spectacular. Atop the three foot pole is an eagle perched on the sun. Then a whale with dorsal fin and at the base a bear. Each of the figures has significance for Louise and I so this is our totem pole.
    Monday morning we were on the road once more. I had contacted the Monaco Factory Service Center in Coburg, OR. They agreed to take a look at the damage to the motor home caused by the motor home fire in Lander. We arrived there just before noon. I had a good discussion with the shop foreman, the damage was much less severe than he expected from our phone call and photos that I sent. It could be repaired but the repair wouldn't be as good as the original wall is now and likely wouldn't look much better. The possible damage to the paint doesn't show. He recommended that we ask the insurance company keep the claim open for a year to see how the wall weathers a year of seasonal changes. I left feeling much better.
    From Coburg we headed east, almost directly. We dropped south to Eugene and picked up Oregon Highway 126 for a beautiful scenic drive along the McKenzie River and then through the mountains to US 20 which would take us across eastern Oregon to I-84 in Idaho. The drive on US 20 rivaled our trip on US 50 across Nevada. Both roads are little traveled across desolate areas. We stopped for the night at a roadside rest area near Buchanan, Oregon. The next morning we completed the last 100 miles of US 20, surprised to see corn fields, hay fields and finally the Onion Capitol of the US near Ontario, OR along the eastern Oregon border. We cross Idaho and enter Utah, pulling up for the night at a rest stop in Brigham City, UT. Our next leg took us out of Utah on I-80, across Wyoming and into Nebraska where we stopped for the night at the Cabela's campground in Sidney, NE. We opted for the electric only sites and enjoyed a good nights sleep.
    Leaving Sidney early the next morning we made an unplanned stop. Louise had been complaining of double vision the day before and it was worse this morning so we pulled up in North Platte, NE to visit the hospital there. We spent about six hours there getting excellent care. Louise had a number of tests run in the first 30 minutes that eliminated many of the worst possibilities. A CT scan and an MRI cleared most of the remaining possible causes. The doctor diagnosed a palsy of the sixth cranial nerve which controls eye movement. Her left eye is aimed slightly to the right and its movement isn't coordinated with the right eye, thus double vision. Needless to say, this is not a good condition when you are riding miles and miles in the motor home. The doctor says these often cure themselves. Meanwhile, Louise has an appointment to see an Opthalmologist next week.
    We finished our drive Thursday in central Nebraska at a Wal-Mart in Kearney. We completed the next leg of our trip on Friday as we pulled into 370 Lakeside Park in St. Peters, MO. Saturday we joined my son and his wife for a couples baby shower/happy hour. That evening Louise and I went to dinner and a show before turning in for the night. We really enjoyed Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips. It was really a spectacular drama and another great performance by Tom Hanks. Sunday we went bowling with my daughter and her family. Monday morning I made a run to my dentist for a cleaning and checkup. Then we were off to Warrenton, MO to meet my two sisters. We had lunch and celebrated the final closing of my mother's estate. Another chapter of life ends. By the end of the day we would be parked at Wal-Mart in Joplin, MO.
    Tuesday we crossed Oklahoma and made our way to McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, TX. Louise attended an executive meeting of the Texas Silver Haired Legislature on Wednesday afternoon. Today, Thursday we drove south to Hill Country RV in New Braunfels, TX where I will attend a weekend state meeting of the Texas Master Naturalist organization. Next Monday we'll stop in San Antonio for routine service for the Cummins engine and the Onan generator before rolling into Sandpipers Resort in Edinburg, TX where we will park the motor home for the next eight months! Whew! We will close out a much heavier year of travel than any time in the past, almost 17,000 miles from January to parking on October 28. The trip described above was over 5000 miles in just a month and 5 days. This is not the way I prefer to travel but I'm glad that I have the motor home and am able to do this when necessary.
  14. tbutler
    Rotorua is a good size town. Among its claim to fame is having a number of local boys playing on the All Blacks Rugby Team, the national team of New Zealand. The name comes from their original uniforms which were the least expensive available, all black uniforms, no stripes, no decoration, no names. The team has become a cause celebre for the nation and now are internationally ranked in the top rugby in the world.
    We had one objective in Rotorua and that was to learn more about the Maori people. There are several interpretative centers in the Rotorua area. We chose Te Puia, and went there on Friday, February 7. This center hosts a national center for the Maori arts. There is an air of authenticity in this park with all the statuary and art works on display. On the grounds are several active geysers. These geysers erupt constantly with periodic pulses that take them higher into the sky. We chose to attend a dance performance for our introduction. After a short introduction, we were greeted outside the meeting house by a warrior who approached in a menacing manner to greet our leader and determine our intent, peaceful or war party. Once that was settled, we were invited to advance. Then the performing group danced and invited us into the meeting house. The performance that followed was most interesting. The Rotorua area is the traditional home area of the Maori. The native dances by the women were graceful and athletic, the men danced the menacing dances of warriors. During their dances they would periodically make fierce face and stick out their tongues.
    After the performance we took a tour of the park. Our guide started with a brief introduction and then took us toward the geysers. As we walked, Louise asked him about his hat which looked just like the hats we had seen when we visited the Olympic Peninsula. These hats are woven from wood strips and take quite a bit of effort to prepare the wood strips and then weave the hat. It turned out the hat was from the Salish tribe in the Pacific Northwest. He had been at Montana State University in Kalispell, Montana for several years. His role was to bring more of the Blackfeet and Salish people into the arts programs at Montana State University. From there we were off and running. We had a good conversation with him between the stops to describe the various features of the geysers. As we looked at the geysers he pointed out the boundaries of the caldera of the volcano in which we were standing. The distant hills he pointed out were well outside the city of Rotorua. The caldera was formed by a single eruption long ago. Obviously the volcanic activity continues as the steaming vents and geysers are all over the area. If the volcano were to erupt today, a whole town would be destroyed.
    Our guide then went on to describe the nature of the Maori people. Among the points he made was that the Maori had a good sense of their history and where they came from. Their ancestors came from Polynesia and then went out to Hawaii, New Zealand and other Pacific islands. He talked of the culture of the people and how and why tribes split and warred with each other. He said the tongue in the war dances was a threat to an enemy that they wanted to eat the enemy. Eating an enemy warrior was a way to desecrate them. They weren’t eating for food, they ate their enemies when they defeated them to destroy them completely. They turned them to feces. His phrase, “If you are beaten you are eaten!”
    Tattoos which are a part of the culture were part of a coming of age ceremony and were done by cutting the skin and inserting dye. It was extremely painful and sometimes resulted in infection or death but it was seen as a test everyone had to submit to. His tattoos were done with modern equipment he said! Tattooing of women was prohibited by the New Zealand government in the early 1900’s but continued into the 1930’s. Women’s tattoos consisted of a mustache and circled the lips and down the chin like a beard. Women were extremely fierce and didn’t run the tribe but let their men know when they were out of line.
    The last part of the tour was devoted to the arts. He demonstrated how the Maori made their fabrics by stripping the fibers from a flax plant. Using an oyster shell he cut across the leaf then pulled the ends of the fibers out. Holding them he used the shell to peel the leaf away from the fibers in a smooth motion. Then he wove the strands of fiber into a strong multi strand string by rubbing them on the calf of his leg with his hand. This was done in a series of motions taking no more than a minute. Once done he passed the string around the group. Then he showed how the grass skirts are made using the shell to cut away sections of the leaf and leaving others intact. The alternate sections of leaf and fiber then curl naturally to make sections with fiber and sections with the curled leaf. He gave that sample to Louise and it hangs in the campervan. If we can take it with us to Australia, Fiji and then bring it home to the US, she will have a nice souvenir of our trip!
  15. tbutler

    Running Hot and Cold

    By tbutler,

    Our travels have taken a turn for the hot lately.  We've been spending most of our time in southwestern Colorado, northeastern New Mexico and northern Arizona.  The temperatures we've faced have been moderate to cool.  Several weeks ago we decided to visit Louise sister in the Mohave Valley in western Arizona.  The elevation is 483 feet alongside the Colorado River.  Needless to say the temperature was quite a bit warmer than in the mountains and high elevations we were used to.  Temperatures were in the high 90's during the day.  We had a nice site at Moon River Resort with a little shade but not too much.  We enjoyed three days of visiting.  On Saturday we spent the day at Oatman visiting the donkeys that roam the town and doing some shopping before having a fine dinner at the Oatman Hotel. 
    Our next stop was Lake Havasu City.  This is where Louise's parents settled when they retired.  The state park was almost empty and we had a nice site with a view of the lake.  We visited the cemetery where her parents are buried and spent some time around town.  In Lake Havasu City, elevation 459 feet, the temperatures at sunrise were 90 degrees and it warmed into the mid 100's.  We took the Copper Canyon Sunset Cruise the night before leaving town.  The best part was the breeze when the boat was cruising.  We left town headed for Williams, Arizona. 
    We had stayed at the Canyon Hotel and RV Park in Williams, elevation 6924 feet, just a week before.  Returning, we were delighted to find more moderate temperatures again.  We were back to comfortable daytime temperatures in the upper 70's and low 80's.  We spent one day in Flagstaff at the Lowell Observatory.  The Lowell Observatory was built by Percival Lowell, an astronomer famous for his drawings of the canals on Mars.  This is also the observatory where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto.  They have a spectacular program of lectures and tours of the telescopes that are well worth a visit. 
    The next morning we were on our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  As busy as the South Rim is, the North Rim is uncrowded and very available.  We stayed at the Jacobs Lake Forest Service Campground, elevation 7900 feet which has no hookups but has some nice sites the will accommodate large RV's.  We ran the generator morning and evening to charge the batteries and only needed to run the furnace at night.  Air conditioning was never needed.  We were parked among trees and the daytime temperature was in the high 70's while the nights dipped into the high 40's. 
    We drove to the North Rim one morning and came back after dark.  There are many overlooks into the Grand Canyon and you can drive to each one.  There were plenty of parking places at each viewpoint.  There were never crowds at any place until we reached the visitors center and the lodge.  After a day of exploring along the northeastern reaches of the canyon we spent the evening at the Lodge and the viewpoints in that area. 
    It was a little early for dinner but Louise wanted to get dinner at the lodge so we asked and were given a table by one of the big windows overlooking the canyon.  Wow, was that a fantastic setting for dinner.  Louise had roast duck, I opted for the blackened chicken fettuccine Alfredo.  Both dishes were gourmet quality and the service was excellent.  Following our meal we made our way to the overlook below the lodge.  We enjoyed the view and visited with several of the people who were there.  Everyone was quite talkative, maybe the bar above had something to do with it.  From there we made our way to the Bright Angel Viewpoint to watch the sun set.  We drove back to the park and arrived by 8:00 p.m.  On the way back we saw a few cattle near the road (open range) and several deer but none challenged us for a spot on the road.  
    The next day we moved on to Hurricane, UT.  We stayed at Sand Hollow State Park, elevation 3040 feet.  We're back to warm again.  With highs in the upper 80's and nary a tree in sight, the air conditioners are running all day.  We are headed for Zion National Park tomorrow morning for a little hiking and exploring, then we'll leave for Las Vegas, elevation 1672 feet, on Friday.  Once more into the desert heat.  Maybe they will have a cool spell while we are there though the forecast calls for highs near 100. 
  16. tbutler

    RV Yoga

    By tbutler,

    At the Monaco International Pre-Rally for FMCA 2017 in Indianapolis, Louise and I looked at a nice used coach.  It was a 2008 Monaco Signature in beautiful condition.  Louise loved it, very nice inside and out.  I really liked it also but the price, the age and the 45 foot length were a problems for me.  We ended up walking away from the deal.  I told Louise that I now had a huge budget for making “home improvements” on our 2004 Windsor.  So, I started by ordering something I had seen on the Signature.  It had two pass-through storage bays, just as our coach does.  Both those bays had slide trays.  We have one slide tray and I have often thought about adding a second.  At the FMCA convention I found one vendor offering slide trays for storage compartments.  I talked to them, got prices that didn’t scare me away.  I went back to our coach, measured carefully, and then went back to the SlideMaster booth and placed an order.  It arrived on Tuesday, a freight shipment, on a huge 18 wheeler. 
    Slide Master coordinated the delivery with the Emerald RV Park in Fort Morgan, Colorado where we are currently staying.  The truck driver very generously agreed to unload the slide tray alongside our coach.  So, there it sat, 229 pounds shipping weight including the 42” x 8’ pallet.  I unwrapped it, operated the slide, looked at the hardware supplied, and began moving it toward its eventual home.  Everything had to be unloaded from the compartment.  Piece by piece I moved everything from the compartment.
    With the slide extended, the opposite end was easier to lift.  I set it into the open compartment.  Then I moved the slide to the opposite end, making the far end from the coach lighter and lifted it, sliding it into the coach.  I scooted it this way and that way until I had it positioned so it would slide both ways with the desired clearances.  In specifying the vertical position, I had given them the height of the lip on the storage compartment, 2 ¼ inches.  The sliding tray needed to clear that lip.  They supplied 2 inch aluminum block shims for each mounting hole and also one ¼ inch aluminum block for each mounting hole.  Unfortunately, the desired shim that was needed to elevate the sliding tray was 1 5/8 inches and there was no way to get to that with the shims they provided.  I ended up using a wood 2x2 plus some 1/8 inch stock that I had on hand.  I wrestled the 8 foot 2x2 under the rails on each side of the tray.
    I drilled holes in the 2x2 shim and through the compartment floor at each end of one rail and anchored the tray in place.  A check confirmed that everything cleared the doors, the position was good.  Everything that fit in the compartment had to be stored for the night (we’ve been having frequent rains) so I reloaded the compartment.  Good news, everything fit just as before.
    The next morning I’m off to Ace Hardware for bolts, nuts and washers.  The two 3 inch bolts I used the previous day seemed too long so I got a set of 2 ½ inch bolts.  I set about drilling holes at each of the pre-drilled locations.  The first bolt went in the hole and it was too short.  Back to Ace Hardware, longer bolts.  When I drilled the holes, the standard 3/8 inch drill was too short, I made do with the 5” bit by inserting the bit only as far as absolutely necessary to get enough length and even at that the drill chuck was contacting the rail of the slide tray.  I forgot to get a longer drill bit so it was back to Ace Hardware.  Before the project was complete I was on a first name basis with the checkout clerk. 
    I finished inserting the mounting bolts on one side of the tray on the first day.  Day two I unloaded everything in the compartment – again.  I crawled back into the compartment and began working on the other side of the tray, drilling holes and inserting bolts in those holes.  I’m working in and out under the storage compartment doors.  The slide tray has cross members so I’m laying over the cross supports and maneuvering in limited space.  Every move is twisting and stretching, craning my neck to see through my glasses, using the mini-vacuum to clean up the drill shavings. 
    Once all this is done I have the bolts in place.  I can put the nuts on the lower side of the end bolts myself, working the top of the bolt inside the compartment and putting the washer and nut on under the coach.  I even managed to do the second on one end of the tray.  The rest will require Louise working from above, holding the head of the bolt stationary while I put the nut on below.  So now I’m underneath the coach on pads, pinned between the gravel below and the coach above.  I’m putting silicon caulk on the washers to seal the hole from the bottom.  Maneuvering a caulking gun is never easy for me but doing it laying on my back under the motor home, well, let’s just say I was in danger of being caulked permanently to the motor home.  I can maneuver all the way to the center but everything is limited, stretching, trying to see what I’m doing all the while.  We got it done, the whole thing is in place and bolted down, ready for use.  So, I reload the tray, everything back in place.
    “So, what does this have to do with Yoga?” You ask.  Louise loves to watch Rachel Ray each morning.  This morning Rachel Ray had a guest on the show.  She was young and an author.  It was a promo for her book on Yoga.  She loves Yoga and she was demonstrating Yoga moves that you could do while reading a book, watching TV, vacuuming the house and many other ordinary situations.  At one point while watching the show, I mentioned that this reminded me of my last few days of working on the slide tray.  I said, “RV Yoga.”   Louise laughed and said, “The topic for your next blog.”
  17. tbutler

    Savusavu, Fiji

    By tbutler,

    After two days at sea we arrived at Savusavu, Fiji. The city of Savusavu is located on Vanua Levu, one of two large islands in the island nation of Fiji. There are dozens of other islands in the group of islands that make up Fiji. At Savusavu, we had a tour to Wiasali Rainforest Reserve. Billed as a strenuous hike, this lived up to its billing. There were 15 people on this shore excursion. Eleven members of our group fit into a van and the remainder of us rode to the reserve by taxi. Louise and I had the first taxi, the remaining two people had the last taxi. We arrived before the van which had stopped to fuel up on the way to the reserve. The rainforest reserve was about a 40 minute ride from the town of Savusavu where our ship was anchored offshore.
    Once the rest of the group arrived we were welcomed by our guide. The official language of Fiji is French and our guide was partially fluent in English. He had some difficulty translating names of plants into English. As we started down the trail we were going down into a deep valley in the rainforest. Our guide walked ahead of us pointing out orchids, palms and other plants along the trail. Unfortunately the trail was a narrow single file trail. That meant that the group was strung out for some distance. Louise and I were the second and third people in line and if we walked quickly we could hear what he was saying to the first person behind him. We asked him to stop repeatedly so others in the group could hear what he was saying but it was no use, he wanted to keep going. We tried asking questions which would allow the group to catch up and that worked sometimes.
    We saw a number of different kinds of orchids on the walk and heard a Barking Pigeon but never saw it. Actually I may have seen it flying but at a distance it is hard to get enough details from a flying bird to truly identify the bird to its species. The bird I saw was a pigeon and was the correct color but never having seen one before and not having a guide book to consult, I can’t claim to have seen a Barking Pigeon. Hearing it was enough to be able to say that this bird had an appropriate name, it really did sound like a barking animal.
    Reaching the bottom of the valley we paused for a few minutes along a small stream and enjoyed the view and the cool air near the water. Our guide lifted a long leaf submerged in the water and stirred up a crawdad-like animal in a pool in the stream. Then we began our climb back to the top of the hill. The trail was a loop trail so this was new territory. The trail was as steep as the trail down with many steps, some normal size and others being twice as high as a normal step even a few that were larger. They were at least constructed steps and we weren’t climbing up rock steps which can have uneven surfaces and be a challenge to find the best place to step on each step. Since we were trying to keep up with our guide we didn’t have much time to look around as we climbed the hill. Again we managed to stop him with a few questions.
    Louise and I decided that we would think seriously about just doing these explorations on our own. This particular shore activity was fairly pricey and we could have easily hired a cab and taken our time exploring rather than getting the trip that we did. So we put that in our memories. We aren’t the kind of people who like tours. I like having the freedom of not being on a schedule and having to rush through things. Likewise I like to be able to pause and look at things that interest me, take some pictures and then continue on the trail.
    When we returned to the town we had some time to walk around and explore some shops and vendor booths before we returned to the ship. The theme for the night was dressing as Fijians so we both got a good warm shower and put on our finest souvenir Polynesian clothes for dinner. We skipped the show for the evening and went to our room for some rest after a stressful day on shore.
  18. tbutler

    Sheep World

    By tbutler,

    After our long drive from the Waipoua State Forest we pulled up for the night at Sheep World. We had seen this place on the way north, it is right on NZ Hwy 1. It looks for all the world like a real tourist trap but we were tired and it was late so there we’ll stay. The owner is a real character, elderly and quick with his mind.
    We had breakfast at their restaurant the next morning then stayed for the dog and sheep show at 11:00. We visited the many animals they had in pens and cages, everything from rabbits and opossums to pigs and deer. There was a nice nature trail and then the show.
    John described the two kinds of dogs, eye dogs and away dogs. An eye dog works the sheep by looking at them and running around near the sheep. The sheep react and the dog then reacts to their every move. If they start to go back where they were the dog moves quickly back in that direction and the sheep will immediately turn around and go the other way. The eye dog never barks, only stalks and pursues the sheep in a way that makes them move. He never gets really close to the sheep, always a distance of 20 feet or more away. The dogs instinct is to keep the sheep in a single group and to bring them to John. Not just near him, the dog tries to put the sheep at his feet. John communicated with the dog with a series of commands and whistles. It took five minutes or so to bring the group of sheep into the corral. The job of the away dog is to bark and get the sheep moving. The away dog is used to flush sheep out of remote areas of the pasture. With a big bark he will rouse sheep from ravines and in the bush. Once the sheep are moving his job is finished. Both dogs answer to commands so the herder can stand in one place and round up the sheep. Doing this job for a single person would be almost impossible without the dogs.
    Once the sheep were in the corral, John showed how they sort the sheep. Sheep are run through a chute in single file. Standing at the end of the chute a person manipulates two gates to direct each sheep left, center or right into three chutes leading into three different holding pens. If done by a professional, they can do the sorting almost as fast as the sheep can come through the chute. A member of the audience was brought up to sort a group of about 30 sheep. Each of the sheep had a color marking on their head, red, blue or no marking. After a bit of training, she was able to sort the sheep making only one mistake.
    John described sheep shearing including job opportunities and pay. It is a high paying profession for really good shearers and they can travel worldwide to work. Then he demonstrated shearing making some of the initial passes. Then he brought up members of the audience. Louise was one of three selected to get their hands on the shears. She got a handful of wool for her efforts. I got to hold a bottle to feed the little lambs which came charging up to get their bottle of milk. It was quite a show and one of the things on Louise’s list that she wanted to see and do on this trip. This will remain a special stop in our memories, kind of like finding a diamond in a coal bin.
    Leaving there in the afternoon we began our drive back to Auckland where we would get the water heater repaired. We haven’t had hot water in the campervan since we picked it up five days ago. A quick stop in Auckland and our water heater is working. It took just 15 minutes for the repair at the rental shop. Then we began the drive south out of Auckland. Our destination was a small town, Thames, in the southern part of the Coromandel Peninsula. We were delighted to find the first straight roads for any significant distance. We were able to get up to 90 km/hr (about 56 MPH) most of the way. This turned a long drive into quick work. There is a little yellow sticker at the top of the windshield informing us that we are a “heavy vehicle” and our maximum speed is 90 km/hr. The highest speed limits we have seen here are 100 km/hr. There have been precious few roads that I would feel safe driving the campervan at 90 km/hr.
  19. tbutler
    We have traveled 6500 miles so far this summer. One of the things we have noticed while on the road is that there seem to be many more motor homes on the road this year than in years past. I can recall the days when we considered purchasing a motor home and then first hit the road. We would drive down any road and see lots of RV's of all kinds. Then the industry fell on hard times. Fuel prices went up and motor homes pretty quickly disappeared from the roads and highways. We traveled through New England in 2005 and saw many RV's sitting by the roadside with for sale signs everywhere we went. We saw very few motor homes on the road. That has been the case ever since. I'm sure other FMCA members have noticed the same thing.
    Based on our informal observations, this year is different. Everywhere we have traveled we have seen other motor homes on the road. Noticeably more people are out and traveling this summer. We attended a Lone Star Chapter rally in late May and the turnout was considerably larger than in the past. I wonder if this will be reflected in the turnout for the FMCA gathering in Indianapolis this month.
    We're moving on to a new park tomorrow. We've been in Sequim, WA for two weeks. We'll move to Elwa Dam just west of Port Angeles. A week, maybe more there will give us a chance to explore other areas of Olympic National Park. Most of the park is wilderness so there are only a few roads that provide access to the park. Our days of backpacking are past so we don't get far into the interior. Still each road is an adventure. We drove to the Deer Park Campground and Blue Mountain viewpoint on Saturday. Deer Park Road is 18 miles long from Hwy 101 to the peak of Blue Mountain with the last 8 miles being a narrow gravel road. It is winding, steep and quite scenic. Louise was quite tense as many of the views were out her window on the way up the mountain. She was frequently looking down a very steep slope extending hundreds of feet down the mountainside. I was busy looking for oncoming traffic because the narrow road required negotiating with other drivers to find a place to pass. Fortunately, all drivers were taking their driving very seriously and they were watching for us as much as we were watching for them.
    Once we got to the top, the view was well worth the drive. We had the mountaintop experience without making the climb ourselves. We did walk a short trail up to the peak. To the south we could see the interior mountains of the park. Even now in August, these peaks up to 7980 foot high are holding significant amounts of snow. To the east we were looking down the steep slopes of Blue Mountain to the foothills of the Olympic Mountains. Off to the north was the town of Sequim where we are staying. Beyond that we could see the Strait of Juan de Fuca and across the strait we could see the southern shore of Vancouver Island. On the horizon to the northeast the snow capped volcano, Mount Baker, stood out above the surrounding terrain. All around us the view was spectacular. The trail guide highlighted the role of rain or in this case lack of it in shaping the flora and fauna in this area. Blue Mountain and Sequim are in the rain shadow of the higher mountains to the west. Those mountains take all the moisture from the Pacific air as it is lifted over them. As the air descends the eastern side of the mountains it is too dry to drop much precipitation, this forms a rain shadow.
    One of the other delights we've found here on the Olympic Peninsula is the Olympic Discovery Trail. This bicycle and walking trail extends 130 miles from Port Townsend in the east to La Push on the Pacific Coast. Much of the trail in the area where we are is paved. In other areas the trail is unpaved and in many places to the west it still uses the shoulder of roads. We've ridden two sections of the trail here at Sequim. To the east the trail crosses two wooden railroad trestles. One is 410 feet long and stands 86 feet above the stream below. The section passes through Sequim Bay State Park and goes on the Blyn, a community of Pacific Coastal Indians. We ate a snack at the Hwy 101 rest stop next to the trail then went on to the native art shop to browse the work of some local artists. Our return trip was easier than we expected and we enjoyed a happy hour beverage sitting in the shade when we got back to the motor home.
    Just as we are seeing more RV's on the road, we are seeing parks closer to full capacity. There have been a few no vacancy signs at parks so we are making reservations as we move. This is something we have seldom done in the past. If this is a sign of the times it is a good sign.
  20. tbutler
    I'll start by celebrating the return to life by the FMCA Computer System. Today is the first day I've been able to log on in the last two or three weeks! That doesn't explain my long absence from blogging. When we returned last fall I fell right into some intense volunteer work as Education Chair for the Rio Grande Valley Chapter Texas Master Naturalist. We had a class of 22 trainees who will become new members once they complete their volunteer commitment. With classes and field trips to plan and conduct, my winter was pretty busy. It is also hard to write the blog when I'm not in the motor home traveling. Now that we're back on the road I should be contributing regularly again.

    We left our winter home in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas two months ago, May 9. In the week before we left we had 5 inches of rain from a single storm. That was followed by several other storms. Portions of our park including the road in front of our mobile home were flooded. Since we left, there have been other storms resulting in at least two subsequent flood events. We keep watching the weather reports and are pleased that the last two weeks have brought a return to drier conditions. The drought conditions in Texas have been resolved but the fact that it occurred within two months was responsible for a great deal of damage and loss of life. Our flooding was very minor compared to what happened in other areas of Texas.

    From Texas we made our way to Golden, Colorado for a week stay with Louise's family. The trip was made more interesting as we traveled through flooded lands near Lubbock and into cold rainy weather in the Denver area. In fact the weather was a positive factor in our decision to leave a day early just to give us more time to travel to our next destination.

    A family wedding in Cincinnati was a fun event with many of my cousins attending. Our family is scattered over the country and keeping in touch has been difficult. Our motor home has facilitated many visits that would have been impractical under normal circumstances. As much as possible we try to get our visits in as we take planned trips to other destinations. While in Cincinnati we stayed at the FMCA Campground on Round Bottom Road. It is a nice place to stay, a well maintained campground. I was surprised to see that the building at that location is now empty. No doubt FMCA is facing a number of challenges.

    From Cincinnati we backtracked to Missouri to stay with my son, daughter and our amazing grandchildren. They span a wide spectrum, from a year and a half old to the fifteen year old who just got his learners permit to drive. We enjoyed attending softball games, graduation celebrations, Eagle Scout leadership training graduation, dinners, several birthday parties and a St. Louis Cardinals ballgame.

    While in Missouri we endured numerous rain events. We were parked in a high location so water levels never threatened us though flooding was occurring regularly throughout the area. Leaving Missouri we traveled to eastern Kentucky to visit my brother. While there we endured another series of rains that delivered over 5 inches of rain in 48 hours. At this point I figure we could travel to California and solve their drought conditions in short order! We will go to California in October so we'll get to test this theory.

    Our motor home is showing its age. When we got ready to depart this spring the electrical system in the coach shut down completely. After trying everything else, I went to check the batteries which were good and then checked the battery cut-off switch. Bingo! The switch wouldn't turn. It had melted down. It is a small plastic switch which connects the total load of the batteries to the coach itself. The cables were clamped to a plastic surface which held the post in place. After years of use, the heat had melted the plastic enough that the post came loose. I didn't have a replacement switch so simply bolted the two cables together. Viola! Problem solved. Without DC current, the systems that control the current in the coach also stop working so everything is dead.

    Now it isn't convenient to pull apart wires to cut off the electrical supply from the batteries so I've replaced the switch. I found a much better switch, rated for twice the current of the previous switch. I also replaced the old switch for the chassis battery at the same time. It was identical to the other switch except there was a nut between the plastic and the cable attachment. With metal on both sides of the cable lug, that switch was in fine condition. The house battery switch had been replaced before and I'm guessing that the tech who did that either discarded the extra nut or it wasn't there and they didn't think to install it. I have a spare now in case you are parked next to me and need a replacement for your melted switch!

    Today we're at Cummins in Harrisburg, PA. This is our second Cummins stop this spring. In Colorado we had the alternator checked but they could find no problems even though we traveled for 100 miles with the alternator alarm sounding before it mysteriously quit and the voltage came up. This has occurred again after parking a month at our daughters home but was resolved before we left their driveway. I guess we'll have to wait for complete failure before they can diagnose the problem. I may have it rebuilt next winter if it lasts that long. While in Colorado they did find a leaking fuel boost pump and replaced that. I now know what the spot on the driveway was when we pulled out this spring. They also noticed that the exhaust gasket on the number 3 cylinder was leaking. We had just had all the exhaust gaskets replaced last fall and had traveled less than 1500 miles so either it was a bad install or we have a more serious problem. That is the reason for our stop in Harrisburg. We didn't have time to deal with the problem in Colorado and it hasn't resolved itself so now we'll take a day or two to get it fixed. Meanwhile we've had intermittent generator problems with it failing to run smoothly and then dying when the load is connected. They have diagnosed that as a failing inverter in our 7.5 KW Onan Generator. This is a DC generator which has a built in inverter to provide AC current. We're not getting out of town without leaving a few bucks behind. Fortunately fuel costs are down this year.


  21. tbutler
    There is a little bit of everything in Kakadu National Park but the heart of the park is the South Alligator River. The entire drainage basin of the South Alligator River is within Kakadu National Park. About the name, it was incorrectly named when the person who named it mistook the crocodiles for alligators. Once named I guess there is no way to correct the mistake. So there are no alligators in the Alligator River, only crocodiles. This goes along with a standing joke Louise and I have. If we see a feature named for some animal we seldom if ever see that animal in that feature. Swan Lake for instance would likely have no swans (at least when we see it). We’ve never seen a snake in the Snake River. Bear Meadow seems to never have a bear. You get the idea. If we cross Turtle Creek one of us will ask the other if there were any turtles in Turtle Creek.
    We are visiting the park at the end of the Wet. The rivers are running strong from rains received over the last three or four months. Much of the park is closed because roads are flooded. The park is one huge wetlands and they are at their prime right now. We took an early morning cruise on Sunday morning. Driving to the cruise the bus drove through roads that were covered with standing water, maybe 6 inches deep. We started out on the Jim Jim Billabong also known as the Yellow Water. Much of what we cruised on today will be dry ground in August at the end of the Dry. The park is a World Heritage Site which reflects the value of these extensive wetlands.
    On this boat trip we saw several crocodiles and a number of birds including the spectacular Black Necked Stork which was gathering nesting materials and then taking them back to its nest. We were able to watch it fly to its nest where it greeted the female by tapping their long beaks together. We also saw a number of Magpie Geese which are quite common here. Several White Bellied Sea Eagles were also in the trees and we had close up looks at several of them. All this and we were able to view a beautiful sunrise over the water. Breakfast was included in the cruise and they came through with a full buffet breakfast.
    After breakfast we returned to the campervan. We had an hour to get ready to check out. First on our list was to shower and get the insect repellant off and remove a layer of sweat. The tropics are being truly tropical, temperatures overnight in the 80’s and quickly into the 90’s during the day with humidity that approaches 90% constantly. It is quite a change from the first three months of this trip which have been quite cool weather at least at night if not all day. We were in the tropics in Cairns but the humidity was not nearly as high as it is here.
    We got off the site right on time and stopped at the fuel station here to top off the tank with diesel. The price was just 4 cents higher per liter than it was at the Lazy Lizzard in Pine Creek. This fuel will be enough to take us into Darwin on Monday. Today we headed east, further into the park. The visitors center is located deep within the park and that was our next stop. We pulled off at a viewpoint which involved a 1.3 kilometer hike to get to the viewpoint. Given our new rule, no hike starts after noon, we bypassed that hike and continued on to the visitors center. We spent about 30 minutes viewing the exhibits there before continuing on to our planned campground at Kakadu Lodge and Caravan Park in Jabiru, NT.
    Jabiru is a small town that supports several mining operations which have mining leases to some of the land within the National Park. Their claims date back to before WW II so the mining continues today. One of the resources that is mined here is uranium. The area which has the uranium was known to the Aborigine people as a land of sickness. They must have experienced health problems when living there and the land became a kind of forbidden territory.
    The campground here is one of the better places we’ve found to stay in Australia. There is plenty of room, good shade and nice restrooms and showers. We arrived before 2:00 p.m. which is the usual check-in time but we were welcomed without hesitation. It was a relief to be plugged in again and have the air conditioning to keep us comfortable.
  22. tbutler

    Stuff

    By tbutler,

    Do you have stuff? We have stuff! George Carlin used to do a routine on stuff. He had stuff, but he had another s word for other people's stuff. George was probably right, we have too much stuff. Andy Rooney, are you reading this?
    Louise and I are coming in off the road. In July of 2001 we moved into a 1994 Monaco Dynasty (no slides) and we've been living on the road ever since. This fall Louise decided we needed a home, so like a good husband I set about working on the project.
    We knew where we wanted to land. We had talked about it for years. We found the community -- RVers and people living in mobile and manufactured homes in deep south Texas. We were fortunate to find a place where we "fit" in to the community. It's always been a retirement community but one that is highly active. We've joined in the activities and contributed our own leadership to some of them. It is a community that thrives in the winter as flocks of northerners flee the s and c (snow and cold). Fully a third of our winter residents fly the maple leaf.
    Any normal person would just look up manufactured homes on the Web, pick one and have it hauled in. Louise calls my projects "a Butler." I like to plan out every detail and get everything right. Nothing just happens, I plan it. So I've had many episodes of planning at 4 a.m. The result is that everything (well, almost everything) is going according to plan. The schedule is way out of whack, but we're getting it done.
    So now we are accumulating stuff. I spent a day putting up towel bars, shower rods and other accessories. I needed a shop vac to clean up after myself. We are accumulating lawn and garden tools. I need plumbing tools that are different than RV plumbing tools. Every time I turn around, there is more stuff. Stuff we can't get by without. We're building an addition on the house for our stuff. The stuff needs shelves and closets.
    When we moved all our stuff that was stored in my daughter's basement for the last nine years, it filled a 5' x 8' U-Haul trailer. Needless to say, we're up to a U-Haul truck already and there is no end in sight. It is time for you to get back into the stock market. I'm buying stuff, so somebody is making money! A lot of this stuff is Hecho en China! They make lots of cheap stuff and we love cheap! The dining set is Hecho en Malaysia! The shop vac was assembled in the U.S.! Who knows where the parts were hecho. It's a fine shop vac though, a vast improvement over the old one that I had when we last lived in a house.
    So the anchor is set. We now have enough stuff to keep us tied to this location. We'll drift away briefly only to reach the end of our chain and then anchor will bring us back. We'll keep coming back to our stuff here in south Texas. Eventually we'll become feeble and we won't be able to drift away, and we'll huddle among our stuff to the end.
    It was fun being without the stuff. Well, we really weren't without stuff, but we had almost all of our stuff in a motorhome. We set our schedule to suit ourselves and the people we love. We would wake up in the morning and discuss our plans for the coming weeks, throwing in thoughts about changes. We were gypsies. Now we have stuff.
  23. tbutler

    Suva, Fiji

    By tbutler,

    Suva is the capital city of Fiji. It is located on the southeast side of Viti Levu, the largest island in the Fiji Islands. Our cruise started when we departed the western side of the island from Lautoka. Suva is the largest city in Fiji. Within view of our ship at the dock we can see the downtown area of Suva. There is a huge bus station. Most of the inhabitants don’t own automobiles so they depend heavily on public transportation. There are three large sheds, each with a half dozen parking spots for the city busses. A constant flow of busses into and out of this area indicates the thriving nature of this city.
    Located right next to the bus depot is a huge vegetable market. We walked through the market marveling at the amazing variety of food displayed for sale. There were vendors with tables full of fruits and vegetables. Many vendors simply had a cloth spread on the pavement with their wares displayed for sale there.
    Leaving the market we walked toward the larger buildings. We browsed our way through several shops and stores. This would be our last shopping stop in Fiji and the last for the cruise. We picked up a final few Fiji souvenirs at a shop which featured goods made by local artists. Louise found a shop that sold Indian garb. After selecting a few scarves for our granddaughters she tried on a sari and fell in love with it. She picked out accessories to complete the ensemble and then wore it for the evening meal and entertainment.
    The overnight cruise returned us to our starting point in Lautoka where we disembarked at 9:00 a.m. We had reserved a hotel, the Gateway Hotel in Nadi, for the night which would allow us to adjust for any schedule changes in the cruise schedule. Nadi is the location of the international airport and the Gateway Hotel was right across the road from the airport. The Gateway turned out to be a delightful surprise. The hotel was really nice with excellent rooms and beautiful grounds. The staff welcomed us and checked us into our room well before normal check-in time. They also knew our flight would not be leaving until late the next day and extended our check-out time to noon. We enjoyed meals and relaxing at the hotel. The extended check-out time gave us time in the room the next morning to do our final packing for our trip back to the US.
    On Sunday evening, June 15 we boarded a Fiji Airlines flight to Los Angeles. After flying through the night and crossing the International Date Line, we arrived in Los Angeles at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 15, approximately 7 hours before we left Nadi, Fiji. In Los Angeles we now had a seven hour wait for our flight back to Houston and on to McAllen, Texas. We finally arrived in McAllen at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, June 16 and took a taxi to our house at Sandpipers Resort in Edinburg. We were back home for the first time since leaving for New Zealand, Australia and Fiji on January 29, 2014. It had been one fantastic vacation.
  24. tbutler
    Monday, May 12, we went out to swim with the whalesharks. We chose Ningaloo Whaleshark Swim as the company based on the information we could gather. We were picked up at our park at 7:15 and driven to the dock which is on the other side of the peninsula. There were 19 adults in the group plus three young children. We were transferred to the boat which was anchored offshore and then taken to a reef area. The snorkeling was partly a training exercise for the whaleshark swim which has to be executed very quickly to catch the shark as it swims by. You can swim for a while but eventually it will outpace even the strongest swimmers.
    The boat anchored off the reef and we were to swim to the reef for snorkeling. With the tide coming in and the boat being inside the reef it meant we had to swim against a pretty strong current. I wore myself out completely swimming against the current and just couldn’t get ahead of it. So I returned to the boat, a washout! Louise is a stronger swimmer than I and was able to get to the reef and snorkel there. Everyone came back with stories of a Manta Ray and other great sightings of fish. Once everyone was back on board we set out to hunt a whaleshark.
    The actual hunting is done by airplane. Pilots spot them swimming just below the water’s surface and relay their location to the ship. So off we went bouncing our way into the 2 to 3 meter swells of the Indian Ocean. As our guide said it could be rough as there is nothing between where we were and Africa just a whole lot of open water! Reaching a whaleshark we put on our snorkeling gear and once the boat was positioned ahead of the shark we jumped in. Off we swam to see the whaleshark. I got a look at it but it was a fleeting look still I had seen it. Whale sharks are large, this one was about 4 meters long from head to tip of tail.
    Returning to the boat, we continued searching for whalesharks. More rough seas plus the seawater swallowed while snorkeling began to hit a few of the adults. One woman was down and out from that point on. A second whaleshark was spotted and we got another chance to snorkel. This time I got an even shorter peek at it before it swam away. I couldn’t keep up with it at all. Louise got a pretty good look.
    We encountered a group of dolphins and circled them several times. There were about 20 dolphins in the group. They were not shy and stayed close to the boat. I went to the top deck and took some pictures. The telephoto lens doesn’t work for dolphins because they pop up and then are gone before you can point the lens at them. You have to aim a wider view lens at the area where they are and even then when you see them the lag time between realizing they are there and pressing the shutter relase can mean you get a nice picture of the ocean surface. I got a few good shots of dolpins before we left them.
    Shortly after that we found a third whaleshark. This one was swimming slowly and I was able to swim along with it for what seemed like a good length of time. I would guess that I was within 5 feet of the shark for a good 30 seconds, maybe more. I had time to look at the gill slits, to examine the fins and tail and to also appreciate the host of smaller fish that accompany this huge shark. There are different fish at what seem to be special locations. I had seen two long eel-like fish just below the belly of the shark with the first shark. There was also a school of about 20 tiny fish that were five or six feet below the belly of the whale. Several medium sized fish swam just above the shark and one colorful reef fish was swimming just in front of the tail. So the whaleshark has a whole community of fish that swim along with it. During this whole time I was the only swimmer along that side of the shark. Then the group caught up with me and I dropped out. It was the best experience of the day for me. Louise also got a look at this one but was on the other side with the crowd most of the time so she didn’t get as good a look. The photo with this article is one from the set the photographer for Ningaloo Whaleshark Swim took on the day we were swimming. They gave us a set of pictures taken during our swim.
    Finally a really large whaleshark was spotted. Our guides estimated it at 8 meters long. Louise was too tired and was feeling the effects of the motion of the boat and the saltwater she had swallowed while snorkeling so she sat out this one. I went in after it but never saw it. Louise told me I was right in front of it but must have somehow missed it. Anyway, I’d had a good experience and learned something about my limitations. I’m going to have to get more swimming exercise to get those muscles toned up for our coming cruise in Fiji.
    On our way back to the dock, we were traveling with the swell and it made the ride much easier. Everyone seemed to recover from their seasickness enough to eat lunch. We stopped just short of the dock to do one final reef snorkel and then returned to the dock and back to the campground. We spent the next day taking care of laundry and resting in the campground before departing Exmouth on Wednesday.
  25. tbutler

    Sydney Harbor

    By tbutler,

    By Tuesday we had accomplished all our first priority activities for our stay in Sydney. The forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday was a chance of rain but the rain never materialized. We left the hotel and took a city bus downtown to Circular Key, the heart of the transportation hub in Sydney. The bus route terminates near the ferry terminal and the commuter train station. We went to the ferry terminal and located the Manly Fast Ferry, a ferry service for people traveling to and from destinations within the Sydney harbor to the south of Sydney. It is not a tour boat but we used it as one. At the ticket office, we inquire about the ferry. The lady at the window says I’ve got a ferry just for you. She motioned toward the boat at the dock behind her and said it was about to depart and we could purchase our tickets on board. We hustled down the dock to the ferry and were welcomed by a young man who directed us across the gangplank and promptly pulled it in behind us. The lady in the ticket booth was correct, we were the only passengers on the ferry as it left the dock.
    We took seats on the top deck, an open air deck, which facilitated photography. Leaving the dock we got a harbor view of the Sydney Opera House. This was the only way to see the front of this amazing building. Among the stops were the Sydney Zoo and a National Park on the site of an early 1900’s immigration station. Manly is a community near the mouth of the harbor. All along the route we see one harbor after another with dozens of boats moored in each one. Beautiful homes crowd the hills along the harbor. In Manly we see many condominiums with harbor views.
    Our ride was suggested to us by an exhibitor at Vivid Sydney. He said you haven’t really seen Sydney until you have seen it from the harbor. He was correct. The ride around the harbor was a completely different view of this thriving city. Sydney is a city built around a harbor and they love their harbor. The Manly Fast Ferry is only one of the ferries that operate here. The City of Sydney also has an extensive ferry line that serves all areas of the harbor. There is a constant flow of ferry traffic into the ferry terminal day and night.
    Sydney has almost one quarter of the entire population of Australia. With nearly 4 million people, there is a life to the city that is found only in the largest of cities in the US. Our hotel was about 3 miles from the center of downtown Sydney. Foot traffic is heavy from downtown all the way out to our hotel all day long and well into the night. It is not uncommon to wait at a cross walk with 20 other people facing another group of equal size on the other side of the intersection. At ten in the evening we were surrounded by other pedestrians and felt quite safe. Sydney has a very diverse population. Its proximity to the Orient accounts for a large percentage of people from that area. We also met many people who were recent immigrants from European countries.
    One thing that stood out in our experience was the completely peaceful nature of the crowds of people. We saw no rowdy behavior or violence. Graffiti was rare and people were friendly, willing to strike up a conversation with us, total strangers. I even had one young man ask me how to use his Sony digital camera to photograph the night lights of Sydney. Not being familiar with his camera I couldn’t offer him much help but tried to give him some idea what the numbers on his digital display meant.
    We rode a city bus back toward the hotel but got off a few blocks away to get dinner at the Three Wise Monkeys Bar, now a favorite of ours. Once again we got a seat at the window and enjoyed watching the passing parade on the sidewalks of Sydney.
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