Hitting the Road for... where?

8/18/15
We are heading west in a couple of days for parts unknown. Originally this trip was going to have Sedona as its ultimate destination, but in the past couple of days, I've been modifying our itinerary. It's HOT in New Jersey, as well as pretty much everywhere else, and we were thinking someplace cool might be a little more enjoyable. We already had southern Colorado on our route as we headed back east; now I think we may spend a bit more time there. But the great thing about RVing is, if we change our mind while we're on the road, no worries-- this country is big and beautiful. We know wherever we end up, we will have a great time! For now, our first destination is St. Louis and the City Museum. And after that.... who can say?

Vacation is Almost Here

Midnight, Thursday August 15, and we are fully into Vacation Preparation Mode. We are heading toward the Finger Lakes in New York State--first planned stop is Watkins Glen State Park. Last time we were at Watkins Glen was for the Watkins Glen Rock Festival in 1973. Just a couple of weeks ago was the 40th anniversary of that enormous event-- 600,000 music fans in the heat of July gathering to hear the Band, the Allman Brothers, and the Grateful Dead.

Now we return to the scene, having traded in our 1964 VW minivan for a 28-foot 1992 Jayco Eagle Motorhome. Looking at the photo, Joe doesn't look too different-- he was again in a long hair and beard phase last fall when we brought Samantha (Sam the Eagle, for you Muppet fans) home after spending our first night with her at Turkey Swamp State Park.

Anyway, the plan is to leave on Saturday. Looking forward to a mellow couple of weeks-- a lot less driving than we usually tackle. Lots of waterfalls and state parks. We are looking forward to relaxing!

Almost Gone

So we are finally leaving tomorrow, right? I mean, that IS The Plan. But we are both so exhausted that maybe we'll only be driving two hours, and then stopping to sleep for a couple of days. It's probably the most sensible thing to do.

However, that is NOT The Plan. The Plan is that we are going to Wisconsin. "Wiss-GONE-sin"??? someone asked me. It is amazing how many of our northeastern friends are wondering how we came up with THAT. Well, it's simple. We need the sticker for our states map . And the Wisconsin Dells is one of the major family vacation destinations in the country.... funny how none of our friends seem to have been there, and some of them haven't even heard of the Dells at all.

OK, so I'm rambling... I'm really tired and still have stuff to do to be ready in the morning. But this is The Plan: leave tomorrow morning and drive for the next two days. Head Mo toward the west, and turn right at Chicago. (Although the one thing absolutely everyone agrees is that no one should EVER drive an RV anywhere NEAR Chicago... so we will do our best to swing wide around it.) Anyway, make a right at Chicago, and drive north a little bit longer, and there we'll be.... at the Wisconsin Dells, the Waterpark Capital of the World.

However we don't plan to go to any waterparks (although we could change our minds, I suppose.) Instead our plans include a tamer boatride through the Dells, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Preservation, the eclectic House on the Rock, Circus World Museum, the International Crane Foundation, and a few other things. I do have to say, however, that judging by the vacation guide we received from the Wisconsin Dells Visitor Bureau, we could easily spend a LOT more time in the area than the three days on my itinerary. And of course, if the weather heats up again, one of those waterparks might be just the thing!

From there we will be heading west again through Minnesota and on to North Dakota, with our ultimate destination the ND Badlands. We stopped there for a very brief time in 1980 when we camped across the country for about 6 weeks, and I remember it struck me as truly wonderful. So we will try to get there on this trip, and then head south to the SD Badlands (which we saw in 2007, and we wanted to come back again) and then home through Nebraska and Iowa. If we really pull it off (this is a LOT of driving for 2 weeks!), we'll "collect" four more stickers for our map, and have a wonderful trip.

Alternate option: if the weather is too stinky hot in the midwest, head up into northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and come home through Michigan's Upper Peninsula (see the 2008 blogs.) Another alternate option: Find a nice state park someplace and sleep for a week.

"You're going WHERE?"

Well, after months of going nowhere (except to Nashville and Greensboro for long wedding weekends without Mo, and down to UD for Beth's graduation WITH Mo as our travelling kitchen), we are getting ready to hit the road again. Destination: Indiana and Michigan.

And everyone asks, "WHY??". Or, alternatively, "What's THERE??"

Well, lots, as it turns out :) We're planning to stop first in Elkhart, IN to visit the RV Museum, and take a factory tour of one of the RV factories in Elkhart (although sadly, with the gas "crisis", several of them have apparently closed.) From there we will head up to the Michigan coastline along Lake Michigan, stopping along the way at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, go north to the area around Traverse City, and then go via Mackinac Island up to the UP (that's Upper Peninsula, for you New Jersey people who have never lived in the midwest!), with a stop at Sault Ste Marie to check out the Soo Locks, and then along the coast of Lake Superior (Tahquamenon Falls, the Shipwreck Museum, etc), until it is time to turn around and come home.

At least, that is the plan.

Right now we are in preparation mode. This includes getting "flat" on paperwork (both Joe and I have plenty of it), making packing lists, fooling around with a new MP3 player (and loading up our Travelling Music), doing the laundry so we have clean clothes to pack, paying the bills for the month, etc. It also included me checking out the interior of Mo. Joe had cleaned up in there, cleaning and airing out the refrigerator, etc. But... I climbed up to check out the cab overhead bed, and yuck-- once again, we've had a leak someplace, and we need to dry it out. At least we discovered this BEFORE we hit the road, unlike last September, when we had to take the bed apart to air out while we were driving. With luck, we can handle that before we leave.

Other systems appear to be in reasonable working order, however-- she started right up and turned over with no problems today, which I guess is a good sign. In any case, we are hoping for the best--Joe has been working on our intermittent vapor lock problem (which gave us problems again in May, when we took Mo for a weekend down to Delaware.) He's done some research since then, however, and done some brainstorming with our friend Mike (another car buff), and we are hoping to NOT have any engine issues on this upcoming trip.

The plan is, we are leaving Friday (Sept 5) and returning Sept 20 in time for Selichot. YAY!!!

A Week of Stress

Well, it's been a long and exhausting 9 days since my last post. Despite our hopes, Mo was not out of the shop by the end of last week. What we did hear on Tuesday was that some part(s) in the cruise control had basically died, and they were going to get replacements to fix it. We'd heard nothing about any progress by the end of the week, and while we tried to remain optimistic, it was definitely worrisome. So Joe called again on Monday, and was told that the parts were still not in, that it would take at least 3 days to get them! This is apparently due to Mo's age-- little parts for 1988-model cruise controls are hard to find.

We decided not to wait, and we went to collect Mo and bring her home. We figured that we had driven plenty without cruise control, and we can do it again. Unfortunately, though, when Debbie went to pick up Mo, we had another episode of the fuse blowing and the electrical system dying. This happened right in front of the repair shop, so two technicians were there to see what was going on. It was their opinion that there is a wire loose somewhere connected to the camera (the RV shut down when Debbie turned the lights and rear-view camera on to leave). Joe said he would "take a look", and when Deb drove home without the camera on (and with a new fuse), Mo ran fine. Today we moved her over to Joe's office again, so he could see if he can find the suspected loose wire. Of course, if he can't find it, then we have to ask, what IS causing this, and should we be delaying our trip until it can be diagnosed and fixed? At this point, a big box of replacement fuses seems to be a critical necessity!

So... with this uncertainty added to all the stuff we have to do to get out of here, our anxiety levels are going off the charts. We've started to put together the things that we need to get packed into Mo before we leave--the packing is greatly complicated by the fact that we have no front steps! The front porch is in mid-construction, and although the deck is complete, there is no way to get up and down without a ladder. Hence, we will have to haul everything out the back door and down the driveway to load the rig. And all the time we are worrying, will we really get out of here?

Stay tuned for the next installment. Only two more days to go!

Another Crisis Averted

Ann commented on my last blog that with 12 days to go, I need to come up with twelve things my true love gives to me before we leave. Well, today my true love solved the latest almost-crisis, which threatened to literally leave us stuck in our own driveway!

At 8:15 a.m. today I called Joe to say, "Ready to take Mo to the repair shop?" He says, in a rather frantic voice, "Forget it!! The batteries are both dead. Everything is dead. There's no electric power at all!!!!" I replied with the Understatement Alert comment of the week: "THAT isn't good!" He told me he'd call me later, that he was going to see if he could figure out what was wrong.

For anyone who wonders, this was majorly strange and Not Good. An RV has two full-size batteries, one to start the engine, and one to power the "house", i.e. all the lights, electric appliances, and anything plugged into the outlets. If either battery dies, it can be jumped from the other one, or from our portable battery jumper. For both to die is bizarre. Plus, the RV was plugged into "shore power"-- getting electricity from Joe's office via a long extension cord. How could the entire electrical system stop working overnight?

I went out to walk the dog with two conflicting thoughts: 1) We are buying a new RV this week; 2) we'll have to cancel the trip and stay home-- and there aren't any seats left at the "late" Rosh Hashanah services anymore!! BUT, when I got home, I got a call from my True Love, who said, "It's all fixed-- it was a blown fuse! I replaced it and everything is working again." We're still not sure how-- we had rain last night, and maybe there was some kind of power surge or lightning nearby? But a large fuse which affected the entire system was "totally melted", Joe said. Lucky we make sure to have lots of replacements for that sort of thing, and luckily, he is thoroughly familiar with how electric systems work.

Well, that's my hero! He fixes electrical systems, water systems, generators, valances, running lights, and installs back-up cameras. There is NO WAY I would ever do this trip with anyone else. So..."On the twelfth day 'til vacation, my True Love gave to me... a new fuse in our RV." Mo is now at the repair shop, and we await the verdict on the cruise control.

All Systems Go? Not So Fast.....

Last month Mo spent a few days in the shop, having all kinds of preventive maintenance in preparation for our trip. However, I wanted to take her out to make sure that everything felt right, and that no new problems had cropped up (why is it that when you leave a vehicle at the mechanic, you get it back with a new problem?) So today we headed out for a "joy ride" up to the Delaware Water Gap and Old Mine Road, formerly the site of Harry's Farm. Harry was Joe's grandfather, who made the property into an idyllic resort on the Delaware River during the 1940's. The land there is still very special to our family, and despite the fact that the buildings were all destroyed by the US Government when it had plans to build the Tocks Island Dam, we love to visit the property and see the farm in our imaginations from time to time.

So off we went on a glorious day, and it turns out we were smart to make this little day trip. Mo's cruise control, which we used with no problem during our last excursion, now doesn't seem to be working. So now we need to get that fixed before we leave-- I am NOT driving across the country on interstates without being able to set the cruise control and relax. It is all too easy to find ourselves going 65 mph, and although that sounds fine in general, we think we will get significantly better mileage if we can stay at 55. For that, we need the cruise control to guard against an overly heavy foot on the gas pedal!
We stopped on the way to the farm to pick up Joe's sister Betsy. Betsy lives down a very narrow lane--we wanted to see if Mo could make it through the trees. Success!

A view of Betsy's lane from the front seat.

When we got to Old Mine Road, we found a place to pull off and park just past the site of Grandpa's farm. There were some old buildings still standing on this adjacent property, and we explored them a little bit. What a run-down mess, but all four of us (including Roxy) couldn't help imagining what it would be like to have a vacation home there. Joe says that the government would rent that part of the land to us for $1/year, if we would renovate it! I want to know, what constitutes renovation? If we rehabilitate the old dirt road we hiked down, so we can park Mo down there and spend the weekend, does that count? $1 seems like a great price for a permanent campsite on the shores of the Delaware River, doesn't it??

Betsy taking a photo of an abandoned building on Old Mine Road.

We hiked back up to Mo, and returned to Betsy's house via Route 46. Such a pretty road--right along the river, and so picturesque. Plus, we got to stop at a famous bit of Jerseyana-- Hot Dog Johnny's, in Buttzville, NJ (who could make this up?) All in all, a really delightful day, and useful. Looks like Mo will be in the shop again this week--our departure is only 20 days away! Mo parked at Hot Dog Johnny's.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles

A journey of a thousand miles.... begins with a single step. Or, in this case, with the first blog entry. So here we go.

Just like a certain frog and bear, Debbie and Joe are taking a road trip to California. We know we'll have many adventures.... we know we'll have lots of fun. Click the arrow in the screen below to hear our theme song! It's only 23 days before our scheduled departure.....

"A Frog and a Bear, seeing America!!!!"