Chattanooga Choo-Choo

Saturday-Sunday, August 21-22, 2021 

We left Betsy and Sean's house in Hendersonville yesterday at about 10:45ish. Although I hadn't wanted to take I-40 all the way west to Tennessee, we took a wrong turn and the easiest and fastest thing to do at that point was get back on I-40. So we drove on the interstates all day. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop near the state border, and we stopped again at a flea market/antique place in Tennessee (which was a waste of time.) We arrived at our Boondockers Welcome host's house at about 6pm.<BR>

 Our host has a very large field of mostly grass behind what looks like some kind of business. There are several picnic tables spread out in the field (along with a bunch of RVs and boats which are obviously being stored here. There is a sweet path that leads from the back of the field down to the shores of the Chattanooga Creek. It's quiet and dark, but there are no hookups here. We got ourselves settled upon arrival, then took the Jeep into the center of Chatta, which was only about a 10-minute drive. We ate dinner at Champy's, which is well known for its fried chicken, which Joey loves. The meal did not disappoint-- the chicken was delicious, moist and fresh, and everything, including our fried pickle appy, came out blazing hot. We really enjoyed the meal, and brought home leftovers.<BR> 

 No hookups proved to be a problem for us, because it is too hot to leave Cassie in the RV while we go explore the Scenic City. I found a bunch of places where we could take her--scultpure gardens, Rock City, and Lookout Mountain. But this morning, it was overcast and rain was predicted. We decided to go to Lookout Mountain tomorrow. Meanwhile, we packed up for a day trip, and went downtown. My goal was the Riverwalk, and the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge, the longest pedestrian bridge anywhere. It crosses the Tennessee River, which runs through Chatta and cuts a valley between Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain.<BR>

 We had some trouble navigating the streets, but finally found a parking lot. We had to download an app to pay for it. Then we walked over to the Riverfront, going past the highly recommended Aquarium (which we could not visit because of the dog issue.) We made a loop, not knowing where we were going, but finally got to the bridge. After resting for a little while, we took our photos and then just as we were ready to start walking, we watched a big black cloud head toward us, and it started to rain. We decided to head back to the car instead--it wasn't a rain CLOUD, it was RAIN. By the time we got to the car, we and Cassie were all soaked to the skin. That seems to be the theme of this vacation--too much rain!<BR>

 We were very disheartened, and decided to go back to the RV, because all our ideas of things to do were outside being rained on. We came back, ate our lunches, and then of course it stopped raining. But we didn't want to go anywhere that would be soaking wet. So Joey and Cassie hung out in the RV, and I went to a place about 15 minutes away which had 8 antique centers in one location. I spent a couple of hours walking through the antique stores, but didn't find any Roseville that i needed. I came home, stopping for ice on the way, and Joey said it had poured here again.<BR>

 So we've been here all evening, and we are hoping that tomorrow will indeed be sunny. We want to go up to the top of Lookout Mountain and to Rock City, both of which allow dogs. There is a National Historic Site at the top of the mountain, where there was a major battle during the Civil War. I'm looking foward to all of it, and just PRAY there will not be rain!

A Week with Friends and Family

Saturday, Aug 14-Friday, Aug 20, 2021 After we left Oak Island, we spent a lovely week visiting "at home" with various friends and family. As I wrote in my previous blog, we did a major shuffle of our belongings from house to Jeep to RV when we left our beach house. Then we drove down to Myrtle Beach, where our friends Howie and Lois have an oceanfront condo. We shlepped our two coolers up in the elevator to the 5th floor, where we filled up their refrigerator with leftovers from the beach and our RV foodstuffs. Then the four of us, somehow tired after our lovely beach vacation, just chilled out, reading on the balcony and napping. We had a totally delicious steak and salad dinner with a view of the ocean, and did absolutely nothing until we went to bed. Sunday was similar, but we did go swimming in the ocean. The water was a little bit cooler than it had been at Oak Island, but that may have been due to the rain which fell the afternoon before. Dinner this time was out on the balcony--pasta and scallops, YUM! And after dinner, we watched the movie Yesterday. All in all the two days were completely lovely. Although of course we adored spending a week with our kids and grandchildren, there's something very nice about just hanging out with old friends. Monday morning, we all packed up yet again. Joe and I planned to drive back to Oak Island again to pick up the RV, and then head for the mountains. But after some discussion, we decided that we would not try to get there that night. We knew from experience that our destination was pitch black at night, and we didn't think we'd get there before the sun went down. After looking at various routes, we decided that we'd simply go to Howie and Lois's house in Greensboro for the night to break up the drive, thereby extending our vacation with them. So saying "See you later!", Joe and I headed back to the RV. Our departure from the storage yard was delayed by the electrical connections between the Jeep and the RV. Both vehicles were fine, but the hookups were not working. Joe ended up spending almost 90 minutes completely rewiring the lights, getting soaked to the skin in a sudden torrential downpour of a rain shower. Once he was done, he changed his clothes and we left, without bothering to get lunch, despite the fact that it was now after noon. We drove for a while, and then I wanted to pull over for some lunch at a fast food place (I knew Joe was exhausted and I didn't want to take the time to make lunch and then clean up). We found a Hardee's with a large parking lot, but when Joe went in, they said it was "drive through only." We obviously couldn't drive through in the RV, so we left without eating. In the end, we never DID eat lunch. We did, however, miss our exit, and somehow we turned a 4 hour drive into a 6.5 hour drive. Not only that, but I had a mishap-- we stopped for gas, and I was going to walk Cassie. But she managed to pull me over when I was coming down the stairs, and I landed hard on the concrete. Fortunately, H&L were waiting for us with open arms, a delicious dinner, and a hot tub just waiting for our aching bodies. The next morning, we took off for Linville and our friend Margie's mountain cottage. We were extremely happy to get there in daylight, but as has been our luck so far with this vacation, just as we were unhooking the jeep, another torrential downpour soaked Joe to the skin once more. However, we did get the RV up to the cottage and situated on the flat driveway pad of a neighbor (Margie's driveway is too steep for us, as we discovered the hard way last fall.) We spent the rest of Momday and all day Tuesday visitng with Margie and Grace, and even seeing Margie's parents Dot and Ed (whose anniversary we were at in 2019.) We also saw Margie & Grace's daughter Eliana. We played bridge with Dot and Ed, ate barbeque, and generally just had a relaxing time despite the heavy rains the night we got there. Finally, we left Margie's house to drive to Joe's sister, Betsy, and her husband Sean in Hendersonville. We got there at about 3pm on Thursday, and have been hanging out with them since then. Today, Betsy had an appointment in town, so I went with her and then walked on the main street window shopping while she was busy. Meanwhile, back at the RV, Joe changed the oil and installed a new XM antenna on the roof (the old one was broken, so he ordered it while we were at the beach and had it sent to Betsy's house.) Then all four of us had lunch together, after which Sean went back to work and the three of us went to the Pinball Museum. We ended up buying "bracelets" allowing us to play the machines for as long as we wanted, and Betsy and I spent about an hour trying them all out (I still much prefer the 1970s vintage machines to the razzle-dazzle electronic machines from the 1990s.) Then we came back home, and I took a nap for the second day in a row. Tomorrow we head west to Chattanooga. I have reserved a place to stay for the next 3 nights through Boondockers Welcome, a program which matches RVers up with people willing to host them. This will be our first time using the group, and it looks like a very nice place to stay, very near downtown Chattanooga. So if all works out, we will get there in the late afternoon and have a launching pad to explore the city.

We Reach the Corner of the USA

Corner of the USA--the blue dot is us!

2019-09-23  Monday

Wow, it’s been another wonderful adventure for us today. But when we woke up, we were dismayed to find it was raining again. Not only that, we needed to connect our Jeep. For whatever reason, it took us longer than usual, so it was about 11:20 when we finally hit the road--kind of late for the day I’d planned. I was hoping that the rain would dwindle, because that was why we didn’t do much yesterday--hoping to avoid the rain. But we couldn’t wait another day, so we soldiered on.

We drove about 1.5 hours northwest, heading for Neah Bay (both a bay, and a town of the same name) and Cape Flattery, the northwest-most point geographically in the lower 48 states. It was only about 60 miles from us, but so many of the roads are twisty, 25 mph roads, that it took a long time. We got there at about 2pm, stopping first at the Makah Museum/Cultural and Research Center. Neah Bay is on the Makah Indian Reservation, and I thought we’d learn about them before going to Cape Flattery.

The museum was very interesting (they strictly forbid taking photos, and even have signs not to do any sketching!) The Makah have lived in this part of the world for thousands of years. About 500 years ago, there was a landslide of mud which covered a village called Ozette, about 25 miles or so south, on the coast of the Pacific. The mud totally preserved the village buildings and artifacts for hundreds of years. Then in the mid-60s, the water and wind started exposing the buried village. Archaeologists were called in, and they, along with help from the Makah, carefully excavated the site.

Eventually they uncovered 55,000 artifacts, everything from buildings to every kind of utensil, clothing, weapon, etc. that comprised life in the village before the arrival of Europeans. The Indians realized that they needed somewhere to keep and preserve these items, which represent the life of their ancestors, and they built the museum. It is used as a research resource as well as a display and explanation of the life of the Macah hundreds of years ago. The displays include a comprehensive explanation of the archaeological dig, and then many of the finds are presented in beautiful but simple displays with explanations of Macah life in the village.

Easy part of path. It got harder.

 We spent an hour there, and realized at the end we were both super tired. So we went back to the RV and decided we needed to take a nap before we tackled the 1.5 mile round-trip hike to Cape Flattery. At 3:30, Joe woke me up, and said we’d better go. He was right-- it was another 20 minute drive (for 10 miles) to the parking lot for the hike. We also spent at least 15 minutes trying to decide if we could negotiate the lot with the RV--we weren’t sure we could turn around, despite the fact that there was almost no one parked there. We finally managed, however, and donned rain ponchos and grabbed our walking sticks, and walked into the forest.

I’d read up on the hike, so I knew it was 3/4 mile each way, and downhill all the way there. This did not bode well for coming back, of course, leaving all the uphill portion for after we were already tired. But we were not the ones who designed this continent, and that’s the way it is! The first part was semi-paved. Then we began to encounter more mud (it was raining the entire time) and lots of tree roots. The roots helped somewhat, providing a semblance of stairs. But when it got too muddy, then we had tree stumps buried in the mud to use as stepping stones. Then we reached the wooden pathway built over the worst of the uneven and muddy places occasionally with steps and handrails as well. The wooden walks helped a lot, but often they just alternatived with more tree roots. Occasionally we had to navigate around large puddles--our walking sticks came in VERY handy for this hike. But overall it wasn’t too arduous, just very wet, and then we arrived at the first overlook.

Joe and Deb at the Corner of the United States

Wow! It was beautiful! It reminded me quite a bit of the Oregon coastline-- small islands right off the coast which was steep, and had caves which the waves had carved into it. But it was beautiful, despite the rain and mistiness. In fact, it also resembled Japanese paintings of coastlines, sort of misty and soft. And, it’s the Pacific Ocean! So we had officially gone across the entire country from Atlantic to Pacific. We took a selfie to celebrate.

We continued on the path, and came to a second overlook, this time looking north. This was a beautiful cove, with 3 or 4 caves carved into it. There was another guy there, with a complicated camera and a border collie. The three of us were looking down and suddenly I saw a gray back disappearing into the water. I shouted, “Oh, a whale!!” This was not terribly surprising in one way, because we’d already seen signs along the road saying “Welcome to the Whale Highway” (or something like that, anyway.) The Juan de Fuca straits are known for whales, orcas, and other sea animals and birds, and they are frequently seen. But I certainly wasn’t expecting to see anything in the foggy, rainy air--the visibility was very poor. I almost doubted myself, but we waited about 5 minutes and then both Joe and the other guy said, “There he is!!” This time they saw it, but I missed it... but that confirmed that I did indeed see a whale, which is very exciting.

Pacific Ocean looking north along coast--here is where we saw a whale!

After waiting a little longer with no more whales appearing, we continued on the last little bit of the trail, to the very tip of the peninsula. This last bit included climbing up three steps on a ladder to reach the overlook. There was Tatoosh Island, just off the coast, and the wild ocean all around us. It was fantastic. I’m sure on nicer days, the view is amazing, but just standing there in the rain, feeling the wet air, was wonderful. I took a screen shot of our “blue dot” locating us on Google Maps, there on the very tip of the American continent. We were pretty thrilled.

View from our first lookout, Pacific Coast looking south

Of course, we still had to climb down the steep ladder, and start slogging back up a 3/4 mile uphill trail. The rain began to come down even heavier at that point, and we were just slogging along trying to ignore it all. We did stop to rest a couple of times (they have a few benches along the way, but not many) and I was worried about Joe’s legs, but he pushed to the limit, and after 20 or so minutes of climbing, we were finally back to the parking lot and the RV.

Unfortunately, we were also both soaked and exhausted. We got inside, stripped off our wet clothes, and threw ourselves on the bed for about twenty minutes. Then it suddenly occurred to me that it must be getting pretty late--we hadn’t even started our hike before 4:00. Sure enough, it was after 6:30pm, and it was STILL raining, and as a result, it was pretty dark too. According to my original plan, there was an hour and a half of driving ahead of us to a state park along the western side of the peninsula. But the roads we’d come in on were very winding and slow, and we were now really tired.

Luckily, on my way through the town of Neah Bay, I’d kept an eye out, and we did pass one RV “park”. It looked like an empty lot off the main drag, but I did notice electric posts at the site and the sign saying RV Park. So we decided to see if we could pull in there for the night, rather than drive in the dark when we were tired, with the almost certain prospect of having to unhook the Jeep once we arrived at the state park, in the pitch dark, and possibly still in the rain.

So we drove back to town, and kept a very careful eye out for the RV park, and pulled in. And just like that, we were able to pull through a double space so we didn’t have to unhook. Of course, we are now 90 minutes from where I want to be tomorrow. But it was not a good idea to drive on those roads when we needed to eat and were so tired as well. Joe made us a quick dinner when we got here, we have electricity for our great electric heater (which might help our wet clothes to dry faster), and we are both ready to crash. It was a long day. But an awesome adventure!

Moving Right Along to the Movies

Cassie sniffing ferns at our campground

2019-09-22  Sunday

Today was pretty quiet. We knew it was going to rain all day, and were hoping to have a better day weather-wise today. So instead of sight-seeing, we did as planned-- left our KOA, stopped at Walmart for a few items we needed, and then drove to the movie theater to see the new Downton Abbey movie. We really loved the tv series, and I was determined that although we missed a couple of movies released while we were away, that we’d make a special effort to see this one. It worked out perfectly, although we literally got the last two tickets in the theater and couldn’t sit together. We were surprised by how many people (many of them tourists like us) had the same idea!

When the movie (which we thoroughly enjoyed) was over, we drove about 45 minutes west to Fairholme Campground, right on Lake Crescent, which we had seen the day before. We were literally the only ones in the entire campground, I think (certainly in our loop of it) other than the camp host. We thought we’d seen a lot of larger sites which could hold us, and we had. Our mistake was thinking that ANY of them were level! No matter what we tried, we were always on a significant slant.

We finally decided that the entire campground was a “Mystery Spot.” When I was about 15, my family went to California for a vacation, and we stopped at the Mystery Spot. It was this very mysterious place where balls rolled uphill, and people who were taller looked shorter than short people, depending on what end of a level wooden plank they stood on. We were very mystified by the entire place, but as the years went on, I started seeing other places with names like “Wonder Spot” or “The Cosmos”. And now Joey and I laugh when we see them, and I say, “That’s another Mystery Spot, right?”  And it is. They are always on fairly steep hills, and the entire thing is an optical illusion brought on by the trees all being completely vertical. There was actually one near Glacier NP when we camped, and the guy in the RV next to us told us he’d gone there. And we kind of laughed about it.

Tree roots

Well, this campground was the same problem-- all the sites LOOKED level in relation to the trees, but they were completely unlevel in relation to us!  We finally gave up, taking a spot that was easy to get into, and using all 30 of our leveling blocks to make the RV at least acceptable for one night. It was really crazy to see how each spot we went to (“This one looks better, let’s try this one”) turned out to be as sloped as the last one. By that time, it was dark, and I was tired, and ended up going to bed without writing a blog (we had absolutely no way to upload anyway; we had no bars at all.)

I must say, though, the campground was gorgeous. It was the same atmosphere as the hike we took on Saturday, though the forest-- it had old trees decaying, moss growing on branches and hanging down, and endless enormous ferns! Some campsites were just surrounded by ferns. They were twice the height of Cassie when I walked her, really amazing. The entire place was one of the most beautiful campgrounds we’ve been in. Just... not level.

An Inauspicious Beginning to A Long Journey

The view through our windshield.

2019-08-07

We are on the road again! We left Highland Park this afternoon at 4:25pm in a monsoon (the heavens opened when we were 5 minutes from home) on a trip which represents several “firsts” for us. To begin, this is planned to be (God willing) the longest trip we’ve ever taken. We expect to be away from home for ten weeks. Although the first week will be our annual family vacation at the beach, rather than RVing, but still, we have blocked out ten weeks. For the first time we have a house-sitter-- the post office won’t even hold mail for more than 30 days, and we will be gone, we hope, 70 days.

Second, as I said, this is the first time that we’ve combined the RV trip of the summer/fall with our summer family vacation week in Oak Island, NC. In the past we’ve had the beach week over July 4th, but due to the convergence of 1) the house we’ve been renting for about 8 years suddenly going off the rental market, which meant 2) we had to find a new house with at least 6 bedrooms (we’ve got three generations now, of two families), and this great house was available in August; and 3) all of this was fortuitious because of the arrival of the 3rd generation of our family, who was due on June 19. This mean that if said arrival were late, it would be expecting a lot of my daughter to bring a one week old baby to the beach. So pushing the vacation to August worked out perfectly.

But this meant that we had to tweak our usual traveling style for the first time. We will arrive at Oak Island in our RV, but we will be towing our Jeep for the first time on our cross-country trip.We did a trial run with the Jeep and RV for two weeks in June, when we hung out near the hospital waiting for our granddaughter to make her appearance, and then for another week after she was born. We parked at Lum’s Pond State Park campground, and ran around town in the Jeep, and it all worked perfectly.

So the Jeep tow is our third big change to this trip. We will be dropping the dog off at a doggie “Bed & Biscuit” for a week while we stay with our clan in a beachfront rental house (no dogs allowed.) The RV will be left in a secured storage facility, and we will then arrive at the rental house in the Jeep, which will be our transportation for the week. And when the beach week is over, we’ll hook ourselves back up, collect our dog, and head west from North Carolina instead of from New Jersey.

It’s been a long time planning this trip, and one thing we did was plan to drive to the beach more slowly (in a car, it’s one long day’s drive.) My expectation was that the RV with the Jeep tow would slow us down a little bit. So we left home this afternoon, Wednesday, with plans to stop two hours down the road in Newark, DE, to see the grandchild and pick up a few diapers (our daughter’s car is going to be too full of other baby and beach gear to fit everything!) and a case of wine (we vacation very classily.) And then we figured we’d have two leisurely days to get almost to Oak Island, and we’d then wake up Saturday morning and do the dog and RV juggling act.

Then came the monsoon, which slowed us down. But what slowed us even more was when our tire pressure monitor went off, alerting us to the fact that one of our rear RV tires was losing air. (The monitor is great--it monitors the 6 RV tires and the 4 Jeep tires.)  We were SO lucky that the rain stopped and it cleared up as we approached a rest stop on the Turnpike. So Joe got out, checked the pressure, and then hooked up our air compressor. He filled the tire back to the right pressure, while I walked the dog (she was so freaked out by the thunder, lightening, and teeming rain!) and then got back on the road (this was about a 30-40 minute stop.)  But we kept an eye on that tire, and sure enough, it was slowly losing air again. We must have picked up a nail since we left home.

Unfortunately, it had started to rain again almost as soon as we left the rest stop (we were SO lucky that we caught that hiatus long enough to deal with our tire and dog.) And it just came down heavily and steadily. We called a tire place in Newark, DE, recommended by my daughter, and they open tomorrow at 8am. We would have stopped and refilled the tire on the road again tonight, but seriously, it was raining VERY HARD. So we stopped at the next rest area, between Exits 5 and 4, and decided to chill for a little bit on the off chance the rain would stop. But it kept on until 8:30.... just as predicted by our weather app. Meanwhile, I made the bed, and Joe made us some dinner.

Our original plans were to grab some blacktop in Newark either at a large empty parking lot, or in the lot owned by our son-in-law’s business. In other words, we had no exotic plans, although we were looking forward to seeing the baby tonight! But as it happens, we are going to spend the night in the Walt Whitman rest area on the NJ Turnpike instead. It has actually stopped raining as I type this, but Joe is really very tired, and not up to filling the tire (which does take a while) and then driving another hour or so. And it’s getting kind of late anyway.

So here we are. Tomorrow we’ll wake up early, hit the road, and head straight for the tire place. Somehow between getting the tire fixed up, and connecting with daughter and baby, we will make it all work. And then we’ll keep driving south until whenever we stop.

Isn’t it lucky we left ourselves extra time?

Crazy Ideas: How People Play

Made from Matchsticks--the U.S. Capitol

Monday, Aug. 6, 2018

Well. Last night was one wild night. After I finished my blog and went to bed, the rain started up again. We had thunderstorms and torrential rains ALL night. The emergency weather radio did not go off again, but that didn't matter-- the rain itself kept waking me up. It would pound on the roof for 10-15 minutes, then ease up to almost nothing. Then start pounding again. At 3:30 I was awake, wondering if it would ever stop.

I was also concerned about Cassie. She had utterly refused to go outside with me just before I came to bed (which is our usual routine, and I knew she hadn't "gone" for quite a long time.) She spent the night curled up between the bed and the wall of the camper, which is where she goes to feel safer when there is thunder. I thought I heard her whimper at one point, which she does when she needs to go out, although she was not moving at all from her "safe spot." Finally I heard a lull in the rain, and got up and called her to come with me. She actually did, and we went outside. I chose my moment well--it was not really raining at the moment, although the air felt wet. The ground was completely saturated, with the parking lot surface soaked and small rivers in every crack. Luckily, we were right by an "island" of grass and mulch, and Cassie hopped onto it. As soon as she was finished, we both rushed back to the RV, and about 5 minutes later, yet another deluge commenced.

So it went all night. But the great news is-- my makeshift ceiling leak barrier worked great! We didn't get dripped on, and everything was still dry in the morning!

We got a sort of slow start after all that rain, which didn't matter too much. I wanted to stop at an "attraction" (I hesitate to call it a museum) on our way today, but it didn't open until 1 p.m. and was 2 hours drive away. So we took our time, dealing with sheets everywhere, and the damp bedspread, etc. We also went back into the Walmart yet again, to pick up some roof sealant (and I returned the extra sheet I'd bought last night, which thank goodness I didn't need.) Then we finally hit the road.

The scenery all day today was pretty much the same everywhere-- huge huge HUGE farms of corn and soybeans. It is a beautiful countryside, and unless you've driven through it for hours on end, it's hard to fathom how much grain is really produced in this country-- this is just one state, but driving through Nebraska, or Kansas, or the Dakotas (all of which are "stacked up" in the center of the country) are similarly part of the "bread basket". We are supplying the world with grain; it is quite astonishing how much there really is.

Our stop was in Gladbrook, Iowa, at something called Matchstick Marvels. Gladbrook itself was a tiny town with nothing much going on in it as far as we could tell, but it does have this one claim to fame-- a guy from Gladbrook named Pat Acton has a hobby-- building things out of matchsticks. (I joked to Joey that considering the size of these small towns, how isolated they are from each other, and how there is NOTHING much but farming all around, what did the people do in the winter? Building things with matchsticks must be the only thing TO do. But it's funny, Acton works as a school counselor, not a farmer.)

So we stopped at Matchstick Marvels to see these matchstick "sculptures," for lack of a better word. They are truly amazing. He has sold several dozen to Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and they are displayed all over the world that way. But now he's just building his own museum in Gladbrook. We saw models of ships, buildings (the Iowa Governor's mansion, Notre Dame cathedral, and the U.S. Capitol), animals, and miscellaneous things like Pinocchio and a rocket ship (all of these items were specific; that is, it was a particular ship, a specific rocket, etc.-- but I forget what they were.) I was disappointed that two models I really hoped to see-- Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter books, and Minis Tirith, from Lord of the Rings, were displayed elsewhere. But what we did see was awesome.

We spent about 45 minutes or so there, then kept heading west. We had nothing else scheduled for the day besides driving, but suddenly we saw a sign on the highway-- World's Biggest Popcorn Ball. Now, HOW could we EVER pass that by? I was driving, so Joey directed me about a mile off the highway to Sac City, IA, where indeed, we found the Popcorn Ball in its own little building. There were a lot of photos showing all the volunteers putting the popcorn ball together. They got the popcorn from the Noble Popcorn company just a few blocks away. So utterly silly, and such a perfect example of Americana.

And that is why I called this blog, Crazy Ideas: How People Play. The matchstick models and the creation by a group of volunteers of the World's Biggest Popcorn Ball are such a contrast with the amazing natural beauty of the Mississippi River-- people are creative and just love to do things that are so.... well, "unnatural." That's one of my favorite things about people--the playfulness. I appreciate the passion that goes into those matchstick models so much, and I would most certainly have enjoyed helping create that popcorn ball. It all sounds like fun. (I stopped myself from buying a bag of matchsticks to make my own model!)

After the popcorn ball side trip, we really had to book it through the rest of Iowa. We got to South Dakota at about 7:30, after passing the KOA where we stayed in 2007 when Mo broke down and we had to wait for 2 days for the repairs to be completed. Now we are in a county park in Vermillion, South Dakota, just over the border from Nebraska. It is a very pretty campground, only about half full, less than $20, and for such a low price, we get electricity, a very nice bathhouse, and all the mosquitoes we can swat! Tomorrow morning's plan: The National Music Museum here in Vermillion.

And Then Came the Deluge!

I could use a clothes-line right about now!

Sunday evening, Aug. 5, 2018

We left Fenelon Place at about 5:30 pm, and headed for Walmart to do our next errand--purchase a new battery for the RV's "house" systems. I still thought that we could go back to the casino for the night, but it occurred to me that if the Walmart was RV friendly, staying there might be easier. But as we drove, it became the obvious choice, because the skies turned black, and opened up, and suddenly it was simply POURING. Pounding heavy rain, and winds blowing the water across the roads in front of us like rivers, and the wind blowing, and the visibility almost at ZERO. I had the thought that, this being Iowa, perhaps I should be listening to a weather station--I didn't know if there was something going on besides just a torrential thunderstorm (tornado, maybe?)

Thank goodness, we were not far from the Walmart, and we parked, quickly deciding to wait for the rain to let up before we even ATTEMPTED to go inside! I had realized that while Joe looked for a battery (which he was determined to install right then and there), I had the time to pick up the groceries which we needed (yes, i know we shopped 48 hours ago, but we had a list of things we'd forgotten!)

We waited for about 15 minutes until the rain had let up and was just a normal, light rain again. We also took out our weather radio, which we haven't had occasion to use in years, and turned it on to hear if there was anything we needed to know. But no, it was just a thunderstorm (with hail in some places!) after all. The good part, however, was that it had brought down the temperature outside quite a bit, making our prospects for a comfortable night much more likely. But just as we were getting ready to go into Walmart, we made a very unpleasant discovery.  The roof fan which is directly over our bed was leaking, and there was a large wet spot on our bedspread, and down through 3 layers of sheets to the foam mattress topper!

So we stripped the bed completely, and took stock. I was able to soak up the wetness from the foam, and we had a couple of spare sheets. However, I hung up the wet sheets in the bedroom, trying to get the cross breeze to dry them. Then we went in to shop. Joe found his battery, and asked the manager if we could stay overnight. She said yes and told us where to park. Then while I did the grocery shopping (and by the way, picked up a spare sheet to replace the wet ones), Joe went out and installed the new battery. He really IS amazing, and it works great.

Meanwhile, I was amazed to discover that a couple of the sheets I'd hung up felt dry. Joe had to lie down to rest after his battery install (he DOES strain himself too much, I'm afraid) and we had a few more "light" rains (some were not so light.) At which point, Joe casually says he's felt a few drops on him. When i checked, it was very wet on the bed again, next to where he was.

So I had to move the sheets yet again, and we had a discussion about what to do in the event of more heavy rain. In the end, we decided to prepare for it, even if it didn't happen. So I stood on the bed and covered the fan vent with a plastic bag and duct tape, so it wouldn't keep dripping on the bed. I also went outside and brought in a large bucket we have, which if the roof were leaking again, we could put onto the bed to catch the water. It makes it hard to SLEEP on the bed, but at least if the plastic doesn't hold, we have some way to avoid another thorough wetness. The main problem is drying things out! The sheets are large, and there's no clothesline or way to really hang anything large in here. Plus there are 2 people and a dog taking up a lot of space.

We'd also set our weather radio to give us an alarm if there IS some kind of weather emergency. And at 10:30 while I was writing this, it suddenly went off. The National Weather Service said there was another line of extreme thunderstorms heading for Dubuque. I had already been seeing a lot of lightening, so we battened down the hatches again. Sure enough, the line of storms went through, but the plastic on the ceiling seems to have held! So so far, so good.

And that's where we are now-- in the Walmart parking lot with dampish sheets, and a taped-up bedroom ceiling. Joey has fallen asleep regardless while I'm typing. If we have to, one of us could move to the couch to sleep, and make the table into a bed for the other one of us. But we do prefer to be in our own bed, that's for sure! Right now it is quiet and calm, and not raining. So let's hope we are lucky for the rest of the night!

Weather, and the RV Lifestyle

Cassie zonks out on a lazy day

Sunday Update, May 13, 2018--

I’m typing this Sunday morning, as a sort of summary of the past few days from the “lifestyle” point of view (as opposed to the “activities” point of view, which I will do separately.) We have been set up since Thursday evening at Mendota County Park on Lake Mendota. It’s kind of like being in a suburb or residential neighborhood-- there are private homes bordering directly on the park (and I mean directly-- you can walk into private back yards only a few feet from the road leading into the park, where I walk with Cassie.) It’s very pretty, but small (which is not a problem, just an observation.) If Lake Mendota is a clock face, we are parked at 9:00, and the campus of the University of Wisconsin is down at 6:00. Our car rental place is at 3:00. so we have now driven all around the lake in one direction or another, depending on our destination.

It’s been VERY rainy this weekend, but we were extra lucky yesterday during the day-- the temperature was mild (maybe about 60 degrees) and there was not a drop of rain all morning, which meant that graduation, held in the football stadium, was quite comfortable and pleasant. There was a light sprinkle in the afternoon while we were inside having some lunch, but it stopped when we drove to the base for Natan’s commissioning ceremony. It didn’t rain until just after Joe and I got back to the RV and I’d had a chance to walk Cassie. The road in the park at that point was almost all dried up, except for one particularly deep puddle. And then it POURED again, thunder and lightening, on and off for several hours. Cassie spent a lot of time curled up between the bed and the wall in the bedroom, where she comes to feel more secure during thunderstorms. So this morning, all the puddles are back, the large puddle is larger, and the ground, which was already saturated, is now full of puddles in the lower grassy areas. Our campsite is not quite as dry as the best ones, but certainly not as bad as a few, which are one big muddy morass.

We have been quite snug and comfortable inside, thanks to the propane furnace. However, when we got home yesterday, it was cold inside, and sure enough, we’d run out of propane. The propane not only powers the furnace, but also the stove. And it’s still pretty damp and chilly outside. Luckily, we are not in such bad shape-- we have a very nice electric heater, which is keeping us comfortable (thank goodness we DO have an electric hookup!). Also, before this trip, we invested in a new item--an induction heater to cook on. It runs on electricity without heating up the room, and we’d thought it would be a good thing to have when the weather is very hot-- cooking on the stove in hot weather is uncomfortable. We made sure to bring along some pots that will work on the cooktop (they need to have a ferrous metal in them to work) and our tea kettle is all metal too. So we’re able to cook if we want to, and I have just boiled water for tea. The coffee maker is electric, so Joe had his coffee, and the refrigerator runs on electricity when we are plugged in, so that’s working fine, and even the hot water heater runs on electricity. But when we leave tomorrow, our first thing will be to find a place to fill the propane tank again before we go wherever we might go.

Flooded campsite

I see people are starting to pull out this morning-- we will probably be more or less by ourselves tonight, I suspect. Cassie would be a lot happier here if she could spend some time outside in the grass, as usual in a site like this, but since it’s so muddy, she’s been staying inside with us. She’s been enjoying her walks, though-- there are ducks and geese on the lake, and she rediscovered her golden retriever side when we inadvertently flushed a duck this morning-- it was on a grassy puddle behind some bushes. Two geese followed it-- great canine excitement!

It is very nice to have the option of making our phones into a wifi hotspot-- I remember having to drive around looking for a place with wifi to “borrow” so I could upload my blogs. But when I am finished with this one, we’ll turn on of our phones and upload that way.

Our plans for today include just hanging out, but we will do some errands also. We need a few items, such as bottled water, and we are going out to a Chinese Noodle Restaurant for lunch. Beth and Joe have been sending us food porn pictures from Japan, and I can’t stand it any more! Although there appear to be numerous Ramen places here in Madison, Joe found a Chinese place which makes home-made hand-pulled noodles, and I am salivating for them. So we’ll go out for lunch, and then a shopping trip, and then back to our little nest to rest up until tomorrow. And I *do* have to figure out where we are going after this!!

Reading in bed

[Added after lunch: Noodles were yummy, with lots of leftovers. Stopped at a grocery store, and now we are home again. The rain is stopped, the sun is out, and it's warmer. Where SHOULD we go tomorrow??]