Back in the COLD!

Friday 12/10

We keep looking at the weather forecasts for Chicago and become less and less enthusiastic about returning home on Monday! Fortunately we have our winter jackets, etc. with us, so we may look foolish leaving here Monday morning, but at least we won’t freeze when we get there!

Regular walk in the desert this morning, and then we went into Tucson to the 4th Ave Winter Street Fair. Articles in the paper have called this the nation’s largest street fair and it sure looked like they were correct! The fair booths are set up in the middle of the street in a double row facing each curb. Good layout as the foot traffic goes around each side and the merchants on the street are included in the festival. It covers six long blocks and had a wide variety of arts and crafts. We spent a good part of the day there and walked the whole thing.

Apparently parking is a real issue, it was crowded on Friday - can’t imagine how it looked on Saturday and Sunday! Anyway, with the smart car parking was no issue, we were able to find a free space at the curb just a couple of blocks away. Too small for most cars to get into!

We also had a chance to take a test drive of the new Nissan Leaf fully electric car. They had a display set up at the street fair, first a description of the concept, a cutaway of the battery pack, etc., then we each got to drive a Leaf for a mile or so around city streets. They are very nice, comfortable, roomy, with good acceleration and drive like any other car - boringly normal in fact.

After the street fair we came home and relaxed for a while and then went to Coyote Pause for dinner before joining the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Assc. for a star gazing event at a picnic area in the Tucson Mountain Park. Unfortunately it started to cloud over just about dusk, which made for a spectacular sunset, but put a bit of a crimp in the star gazing. They had several telescopes set up with good views of the moon, Jupiter and it’s moons and a few other things, but naked eye star gazing was not real good.

Saturday 12/11

Lazy morning after our dawn walk in the desert. We took the truck for a spin to loosen it up and keep the batteries charged. Then we stopped for lunch at Perfecto’s, a cute little family restaurant on South 12th Ave in a area with a lot of Mexican eateries and groceries. Excellent food, we will be back here after the first of the year as there were several dishes we want to try.

Back home we started getting things together for the trip back to Chicago on Monday and took a short walk around the campground.

Sunday 12/12

Early morning walk in the desert. It is amazing how the desert keeps changing in the changing light. Dawn is usually spectacular, the cholla seem to glow as they catch the first light of the sun, the cactus wrens perch on the tallest saguaro and sing. It is breathtaking some mornings.

Finished packing and setting things up for an extended absence, last thing I did Monday morning was to disconnect the water.

Monday 12/13

Well we’re back in Chicago and it is colder than a well diggers you know what! Yeah, I know, most of you don't feel sorry for us at all. Flying was the usual hassle, a bit easier since Tucson is a small airport. I have decided to start carrying some kind of purse when I am flying - maybe a “man bag”? It is a real pain to dig everything out of all my pockets and dump all that stuff in a bin.

We lucked out with the rental car. We had an “intermediate” reserved to get the best price, a Ford Focus. When we got to the car it was filthy, inside and out. The Enterprise guy looked at it and said “this is unacceptable”, he looked around and there was a black Buick parked next to it (shiny clean), “Would a Buick Lucerne be OK” Are you kidding, a three level upgrade for the same price? So we drove out in a nice, full size Buick. However, after two weeks driving the smart this thing is a boat! It feels bigger than the Volvo! It is nice though. On the plus side, it has seat heaters!

So we’re back home for three weeks. I’ll resume the blog when we get back to Tucson on January 1st.

Getting Settled in and ready to leave.

Thursday 12/2

Went to Tiny’s Saloon down the road for dinner Wednesday evening. No great shakes for atmosphere, but good hamburgers. Thursday we took our first morning walk in the desert, as always the plants are beautiful in the dawn light. Then we spent most of the day getting settled, putting things into their proper places, etc.

Friday 12/3

After our morning desert walk we did some grocery shopping and then drove up to the Desert Museum to purchase a membership. For the cost of two visits during out time here we can become members with unlimited access and three visitor passes - a great deal!

Otherwise we just relaxed and continued settling in. Watched the Blackhawks lose to Vancouver. A bit of a hiccup with out TV reception. I changed our service address with Dish Network to Tucson so we could get local stations. Seemed like a good solution until I noticed that in doing so we lost Chicago Sports Net, which carries most of the Blackhawk games. Oh well, we can catch the ones on the NHL network and listen to the rest on the radio - I can pick up WGN in Chicago on my iPod.

Saturday 12/4

Nice long walk in the desert and then we spent a lazy day just getting into winter vacation mode. Had dinner at Coyote Pause, a small local restaurant nearby with very good food.

Sunday 12/5

After our morning walk and the Sunday AM news programs we went into Tucson and browsed around Old Town Artisians, then had lunch at El Charro (our favorite Mexican Restaurant in the area) and made a stop at Food Conspiracy for some supplies. Came back home across Gates Pass and through the Saguaro National Forest. The Blackhawks game was on NHL network tonight so we managed to watch one more.

Monday 12/6

We have faithfully managed to get in a walk in the desert every morning so far. Weather is beautiful, highs around 80 and lows around fifty! A little cloudy yesterday and today, but still really nice. We are spoiled! Looks like it is going to be cold the week we go back to Chicago!

Monday morning meeting at the campground and then we went into Tucson and did a bit of Christmas shopping and lunch at an In n’ Out Burger. Nice relaxing afternoon not doing much of anything.

Tuesday 12/7

Off to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum first thing in the morning so we could catch the 9 AM tour. Turned out to be an excellent, two hour plus tour. Every tour we have taken there has been excellent and all of them are different, depending on the docent. Had lunch in the snack bar and then did some Christmas shopping in the gift shop. We also bought a couple of books for ourselves. Already we have been to the Museum twice, and that along with the member discount in the snack bar and the new member discount in the gift shop has offset the cost of our membership.

Wednesday 12/8

Nancy went to a sewing group in the morning where they are making Christmas baby buntings for the local hospital.

Early in the afternoon we took our daily walk in the desert, but it turned out it was really too hot, we need to do our walks in the morning before the heat of the day until the weather cools off. They are predicting record high temps here through the weekend - supposed to be 84 on Monday! Unfortunately we will be back in Chicago on Monday where the forecast calls for a high of 10 degrees! Good thing we have our winter jackets with us.

Thursday 12/9

Back to Tucson Yoga this morning. Our yoga leader, Ann, is leaving for a three year retreat in a cabin in the mountains. She is seriously into yoga and meditation, she is even giving away all of her possessions! Hard for us to imagine even thinking of doing something like that. We will miss her excellent skills when we come back in January, but expect that her replacement will do just as well. We enjoy the “gentle” yoga classes here. We will be back to our regular classes at home for the next three weeks.

After yoga we swung by the airport to scope out parking and get an estimate as to how long it will take us to get there Monday morning.

They had an excellent bicycling presentation at the activities center here this afternoon. Focused primarily on mountain biking (we are more road bikers), but there was a lot of good information on determining proper fit for your bike and a lot of other tips. Well worth the time.

We're in Tucson!

Friday 11/26

We decided this year that we would leave right after Thanksgiving in hopes of avoiding the severe weather that we ran into on the way to Tucson last year. In addition we had to commit to December, January, and February in order to hang onto the same space at Desert Trails this year.

So...we picked the coldest day since last February to get the trailer out of storage and load it! It was 18 degrees Friday morning and never got much above 20 during the day. We did however, get everything loaded in a timely manner and by late afternoon we were ready to roll. Left the engine heater on the truck plugged in Friday night to insure starting on Saturday AM.

Saturday 11/27

Got on the road about 10 AM Saturday morning and had an uneventful trip to Dixon, MO. Dry roads all the way. We had planned on staying at Boiling Springs campground, but when we called late in the afternoon they were full! Who’d a thunk it? So we stayed at the Country Hearth Motel campground, same place we stopped last year. Turns out they have done substantial upgrades during the last year. New concrete pads and new, very nice connection posts, lighted with easily accessible plug in points. Really very nice and right off the Interstate exit.

Sunday 11/28

We drove from Dixon, MO to Chandler, OK. today, just east of Oklahoma City - easy drive with dry roads all the way. Lunch both Saturday and Sunday at Cracker Barrel (as usual!). Stopped at Oak Glen RV Park. a Passport America campground in Chandler and had dinner at B’s Restaurant in the Econo Lodge hotel. Nothing spectacular, but good honest food.

Monday 11/29

Still on the road, today was the long day of the trip - just a little over 500 miles from Chandler, OK to Roswell, NM. Finally ended the string of dry days, we ran into about 20 miles of sleet right at dusk between Portales and Roswell. Nothing serious, but it was messy for a while. Stayed at Trailer Village in Roswell, same place as last year. We had a nice dinner at Pepper’s Restaurant, good food and friendly staff, we recommend it if you are in Roswell.

Tuesday 11/30

Cold again this AM - about 22 degrees! There was a little bit of snow Monday night, but barely a dusting. Plugged in the engine heater again and took our time getting ready to go. Left about 10 AM, fairly easy trip to Wilcox, AZ, which puts us just 85 miles out of Tucson. Stayed Tuesday night at Fort Wilcox RV Park, another Passport America park. Last year we stayed in Bowie, about 30 miles east, but the campground seems to be gone - no answer on the phone and we could not see any signs of life as we went by on the Interstate. Dry roads all the way and lunch at Cracker Barrel again - that makes four days in a row! Seems like we might be in a rut! Nancy made pasta for dinner as there did not appear to be much in the way of places to eat around Wilcox.

Wednesday 12/1

Went to Mc Donald’s in Wilcox for a leisurely breakfast and hit the road around 9:30 AM. Cold again this morning - 22 degrees here. By the time we reached Tucson it was shirtsleeve weather! Stopped on the way in to town and filled a propane tank, then on to Desert Trails. Nice to have a warm welcome from people that remember us from last year.

Backed the trailer into the same spot as last year, managed to get it in a little better this time. We have the same neighbors as last year on one side, new folks on the other as the couple that had been there did not make it due to health issues.

The new Winegard Trav’ler satellite dish works great, locked on all three satellites and a quick call to Dish Network, a temporary change of address, and we have all the local Tucson stations on the satellite - ain’t technology grand!

Sure feels good to be back in our winter home, the sun is shining and there is not a cloud in the sky! Life is good!

A Fun Gypsy Gathering

Friday 8/27

Watched F1 practice first thing in the morning and then loaded up and left the campground at 10 AM. Took US 30 west to Lancaster and then 283 NW to Harrisburg where we picked up the PA Turnpike. Followed that all the way across past Pittsburgh into Ohio. Eight miles in we left the Ohio Turnpike and dropped down to Salem. Stoneridge Terrace turned out to be a really nice small campground around a lake. They have three wide open pull through spots, easy in and easy out. Turned out that they have a fish fry on Friday evenings! Lucky us! Nancy had a really nice (and large) piece of breaded whitefish for less than $10! Dennis passed on the fish and opted for a pizza which also turned out to be pretty good as well.

Nice quiet evening, very peaceful campground and it cooled off nicely.

Saturday 8/28

52 Degrees this morning!! Wow, have not seen that cool a temp since sometime last January in Tucson! Had to turn the furnaces on to take off the chill before we hit the shower.

Watched F1 qualifying first thing, love the new Winegard Trav’ler satellite dish. Then we packed up and hit the road a few minutes after 10 AM. We are getting pretty good at this, we get parked, unhooked, and set up in 15 to 20 minutes and can be loaded, hooked up and ready to go in about a half hour.

Took US 30 west across Ohio, two lane and hilly for the first 50 miles or so and then four lane and getting flatter the rest of the way across. Arrived at Woodbridge Campground in Paulding, OH just about 4 PM, two reasonably short driving days, we’re getting better at planning shorter travel days instead of beating ourselves to death on the road.

Turns out the were having a pig roast here on Saturday evening! $3.50 apiece, and it was wonderful, more bar-b-que and side dishes than we could eat! Can’t beat that!

Sunday 8/29

Watched the F1 race in the AM and then hit road headed for Elkhart Campground and the Gypsy Gathering. Fairly short day including a stop for lunch and we were there just after 2 PM.

Elkhart Campground is already pretty full, a lot of rally participants here already.

Monday 8/30 through Friday 9/3

The Gypsy Gathering was great fun just as it was last year, more vendors than there were in Ohio last year. We bought a bunch of neat stuff, new covers for our outside steps, a digital signal booster for the batwing antenna, some microfiber towels, and more other stuff than we care to list!

On Tuesday we took an hour and went to visit one of the rally sponsers, Bradd & Hall, to look at recliners. We have not been very happy with the recliners that came with the trailer, they are large, heavy, and neither of us like the rocking feature. We found a pair that we liked that are locally made. We will stop by Bradd and Hall on the way out of town on Friday and have them take out the old recliners and put in the new ones.

A lot of interesting seminars during the week, all of them very well presented and very informative. It was a fun week and we will be heading home on Friday. Next trip is to Tucson right after Thanksgiving, unless we decide on a quicky for leaf watching in October!

Pennsylvania Dutch Country

Thursday 8/19

Great truck race last night. Kyle Busch put on quite a show coming from a dead last starting position to win the race. Not one of our favorites, but the kid sure can drive.

Did a little grocery shopping today and generally just relaxed. Went to the Ridgewood for lunch and then stopped and picked up a couple of jars of local honey. A bit overcast today and really humid, unusual for the mountains.

Friday 8/20

Hot and sunny today, humidity is down though. Once again a quiet, relaxing day. Watched qualifying on TV as it was way to hot to trek over to the track. Went over about 7 PM by which time our seats were in the shade and we had plenty of time before the race started, helped by the fact that we snagged a ride in a courtesy golf cart from the campground all the way up to the gate of track!

Once again a really good race and it was a picture perfect evening, mild temps and clear blue sky with a light breeze. One of the best Nationwide races we have seen here. Good hard racing all around the track throughout the race. Kyle Busch won again, wonder if he will three-peat on Saturday? Should make for another exciting race in any case!

Saturday 8/21

Went into downtown Bristol and picked up a dozen doughnuts at the Blackbird Bakery. After lunch Dennis loaded the car onto the Volvo as we will not be going out again today (too much traffic) and we will be headed north to Pennsylvania in the AM. Relaxed the rest of the day as it was raining on and off all day. Fortunately the rain cleared in time for the race Saturday evening and it turned out that we made it through all three races with no rain delays. The Cup race was better than they have been the last couple of years (since the Chase for the Cup made Bristol a race where no one wants to make a mistake!), but still not as good as the races were before the Chase, some blame that on the track rebuild a few years ago, but the truck and Nationwide series’ still seem to have exciting races. Probably the least exciting race of the three this week.

Sunday 8/22

We left the track around 9 AM and headed north on back roads up to Abingdon, VA where we jumped on I-81. Missed the traffic going through Bristol, but it was a narrow, windy road so we may just go through Bristol next time. Most of the campers wait to head home until Sunday after the August race, so the traffic was pretty heavy for the first three or four hours. Lots of motor homes and trailers on the highway.

Made it to Country Acres Campground in Paradise, PA about 7 PM. Weather was good all they way, but the traffic slowed us more than we had planned. After we dropped the trailer we doubled back to a Cracker Barrel a few miles down the road for dinner, rather than spending the time to search out something local.

Campground is very nice with good Wi-Fi and one of the quietest campgrounds we have found, although there is the obligatory train of in the distance once in a while.

Monday 8/23

Housekeeping day. Nancy did laundry while Dennis unloaded the smart, washed road grime from the rear of the trailer, and cleaned inside. Had lunch nearby at Jakey’s Amish Barbeque! Really pretty good barbeque and excellent fresh french fries. Nothing special about the atmosphere and it was cold inside so we ate out on the porch.

When we stopped at the Cracker Barrel the night before we saw that there were a couple of shopping centers right nearby with a a lot of outlet stores so we swung by there. Nancy picked up a few bargains and Dennis found a Black & Decker outlet that was having a one day 25% off sale and picked up a nice battery powered drill to replace the old one that died a year or so ago. Did a little touring around the area and then back home and had a relaxing evening.

Tuesday 8/24

Nice sunny morning, but overcast built up during the day with a bit of rain. We went into Lancaster to check out the Lancaster Central Market. The market was very interesting, and fairly crowded for a weekday. They are in the process of rebuilding the interior, so sections of it are closed off. Looks like it is going to be really nice when the refurbishing is completed.

We bought sandwiches for lunch, but there was no place in or around the market where we could sit and eat, so we walked a few blocks to a park where we found a table to eat at.

After the market we went west to Columbia to see the the National Watch and Clock Museum. This turned out to be a really impressive place! We spent about two and a half hours there and could have easily spent an entire day if our feet had not given out. A very comprehensive clock and watch collection.

On the way home we did some searching for a grocery store. They seem to be few and far between around here for some reason. Back home we went to Isaac’s Deli in Strasburg for diner and relaxed.

Wednesday 8/25

Took a drive through the rolling countryside on back roads. Lots of horses and buggies. At various time we have seen farmers working with horses and family members harvesting corn, tobacco, wheat, and alfalfa. Pretty farms with good looking crops.

Stopped at the Bird-In-Hand market. A guidebook said we would find more local products there than at the Lancaster Market, but we were a bit disappointed. It was fairly small and a lot of the stuff was not really local. Good looking meats and baked goods though.

Drove up to Lititz and visited the oldest pretzel factory in America, Jacob Sturgis. A simple tour of a small 18th century pretzel factory and some really good pretzels. Had lunch at a deli in Litltz and then went to Wilbur Chocolate. Nice displays of the history of chocolate making and a really nice chocolate shop, with some pretty good chocolate.

On the way home we finally found a farm selling goat milk, Nancy had not been able to find any in the stores around here! The stand was well off the road by the barn, no one around except two young boys. Payment on the honor system, with a note to “leave money in top drawer”. When we opened the drawer we found a full stocked cash cash drawer! Not just what people had paid today, but a substantial amount of cash - 5’s, 10’s 20’s! Talk about trusting!

We had a very nice dinner at Revere Tavern, just down the road from our campground.

Thursday 8/26

This morning we drove back around some of the back roads between Paradise and Strasburg, looking for a couple of farm stands Nancy had noticed before. Picked up some eggs and cheese. Then we droce through Lancaster and visited Wheatland, the home of President James Buchanan.

Wheatland was a very interesting home with a delightful tour that gave a real insight into the personality of the 15th president. One particularly interesting tidbit - President Buchanan established a fund in the City of Lancaster to provide firewood to widowed and indigent women in the city of Lancaster. In his will he left an additional $2,000 to the fund. Eventually the fund was dissolved and the remaining monies were distributed to churches in the city of Lancaster. Some of the churches invested that money and even today they continue using the income to assist poor people in paying their winter fuel bills!

After Wheatland we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch (yes, we’re boring) and then went by the Bird-In-Hand market to pick up some cold cuts. We also wanted to get some mince meat, but found out it is not made fresh until mid-September.

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon and we sat outside under the awning and relaxed. Nancy did some laundry and Dennis loaded the car in preparation for leaving Friday AM. We had dinner at a dinner down the raod from our campground.

Friday we will be back on the road and headed west. Plan on stopping in Salem and Paulding Ohio on the way to Elkhart for the Gypsy Gathering.

We're at Bristol and it's Hot!!

We had planned on leaving first thing Tuesday morning the 17th, but we were loaded and ready to go Monday afternoon and since Dennis prefers driving at night we decided to take off Monday evening. We went to our regular Monday evening Yoga class and then hooked up and headed out about 10 PM Central time.

As it turns out we were happy about leaving in the evening since there was a fair amount of construction around Indianapolis, which could have been a mess during the middle of the day. We went on through Indy and stopped at our regular Cracker Barrel in Shelbyville, IN.

After a leisurely breakfast we headed on down the road. The trip was uneventful and the weather was good until we got into Tennessee where we ran into a couple of fairly heavy rain showers, heavy enough to slow traffic on I-81. We arrived at the track a little after 5 PM. Did a quick set-up and headed over to the Ridgewood for some Bar-B-Que!! Had to wait about 20 minutes - to many people have been blabbing about how good the food is there!

Our new Winegard Trav’ler satellite dish works great! One button push and it is locked on all three satellites, sure a lot easier than messing around with the portable dish on a tripod.

Whelen Modified and the truck race tonight. It is hot here, cloudy so the temps are only around 80, but the humidity is unusually high for the mountains, so it is pretty uncomfortable walking around these hills. We'll be here until Sunday when we will be heading north to PA.

About Ready to Hit the Road Again - Yeah!

Hope you all had a great summer, it's been really hot here in the midwest, but pretty uneventful. The fiver has spent the last two months at our local (former) Newmar dealer. They did not have a lot to do, but since we did not need it until now they kept it on the lot and used it to fill in between more urgent jobs. Had the wheel bearings greased, propane system checked, roof inspected and sealed, some body work on dings and scratches, and....tah-da! A Winegard Trav'ler satellite dish installed! No more messing around with the portable dish and spending 20 to 30 minutes to locate one satellite. Now we just turn it on and it does it all by itself, and locks onto all three Dish Network satellites. I'll let you know how it works out since all I have done so far is confirm that it finds the satellites sitting in our driveway.

We are headed out the first part of next week for Bristol, TN on our semi-annual trek to Thunder Valley. Looks like good weather for the race next weekend, but hot. After the race we will going to SE Pennsylvania for a week and then the Gypsy Gathering in Elkhart for a week. Should be home by Labor Day weekend.

Won't have on-line access at the track campground, but I'll try to post an update later in the week.