Arizona Catch Up

I reckon I have been pretty slack when it comes to keeping Ya’ll up to date on our doings while traveling America on our 2023 Great American Adventure so this will be an attempt to catch up.

 

We have been gone from home about 7 ½ weeks now … leaving the frozen north country way back on January 28^th. You may recall that we started our trip by running to South Carolina to get some annual maintenance work done on Winne The Two … then over to Crossville, TN to visit our friends Darrell and Judy Patterson for a couple of days … then down to visit more RV friends at the Rainbow Plantation in southern Alabama. After our “Run South” leg of our trip was complete and we warmed up a little, we set sails west – into the wind – to see what we could find in the Hill Country of Texas.

 

Fortunately we found some very nice weather, even into the 80s on some days, and we really enjoyed our 10 days or so in Fredericksburg.

 

We completed the westward leg of our journey around the 1^st of March, finishing off our trek through Texas, New Mexico, and then to Tucson, AZ. In Tucson we met up with my sister Jamie and BIL Ernie from extreme Northern California who were on their first “long” RV trip in their recently acquired travel trailer. We spent almost a week together in Tucson enjoying the weather and seeing a few of the sights before we teamed up and drove north here to the Escapee RV Club’s “North Ranch RV Park” near Wickenburg, AZ.

 

We have been hanging out here at North Ranch for almost 2 weeks … mostly just enjoying the somewhat nice temps, each other’s company, a few short trips into the surrounding communities of Congress and Wickenburg, and a day trip to Prescott where we had a great lunch with our friends Larry and Linda Fuegan followed by a nice visit at their home and tour of Larry’s forge and knife making workshop. Peggy and I also had an opportunity to meet up with friends Don and Vickie Crow who own a lot here in North Ranch and happened to be here enjoying themselves watching spring training baseball in the Cactus League.

The weather here at North Ranch has been fairly nice with most days in the mid to high 60s but we have had a few days of rain (including today) in the 50s.

 

So far we have been gone about 52 days and traveled a bit over 3,500 miles burning up about 400 gallons of Diesel Fuel. WTT’s fuel mileage hasn’t been that great as we averaged only 8.8 mpg traveling into the wind on that western leg … but we remain hopeful for better days when we head back east!

 

Our plan is to leave here this Friday traveling north and west into California. We will be traveling up through California’s Central Valley up to Sacramento, visiting Peggy’s sisters along the way over about a 10 day period. Then the plan is to travel east over the Sierra’s to see my sister Marcie and her family near Carson City, NV.

 

Sometime between now and when the sister visiting is complete we need to make some decisions on how to get home. I see the calendar says it is Spring but the weather reports still look kinda winterish in Northern California and Oregon … and that northern route home across I80 still looks a bit shaky weather wise. So stay tuned!

 

And a few prayers for warm weather and fair sky’s wouldn’t hurt either!

Looking Forward to Christmas

 Here it is the day before Christmas and the day following the super high winds and rain we received from Winter Storm Elliott. What snow we had from another storm last week is pretty much gone now. 

The wind yesterday was pretty bad and we did have about 1/3 of our back fence come down. I’ll try to clean up from that this afternoon while the temp is all the way up to the teens! Oh well, at least the wind has died down. I think the fence rebuild will take place next year after the ground thaws, and we return!

Peggy and I have enjoyed our family get-togethers on Thanksgiving and Pre-Christmas last Saturday. It’s always a great time seeing everybody this time of year.

However, if it’s Christmastime … then it’s time for us snowbirds to start start thinking about heading south and west for some warmer weather (past time for some of us species). As I sit here today the planned escape date of February 1st is only 36 and a-wake-up days away! It won’t be long until we are pointing Winne The Two (WTT) into the wind and heading south!

But that means all those preparatory items on the Get Ready To Roll list have to get accomplished!! Finish the medical appointments, arrange for mail forwarding, get WTT checked out and provisioned, get the house ready for Winter Layup, and many more! And do all those things in the midst of Maine’s coldest and wintery-est month of the year! O Boy! I can’t wait.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves … first we get to celebrate the birth of our Redeemer, take down the Christmas tree, and watch the ball drop on New Years Day!

Some kids can’t wait for Santa to bring them toys and such on Christmas Day … other of us elder-kids look forward to other things!

Change of Seasons

Surprise Surprise! If you are reading this I must have remembered how to make a new entry into this blog. It has been a long while for sure!

 

It has turned Autumn here in New England. The mornings are met with a bit of frost on the ground, those lovely colorful leaves are filling my yard, and the “brisk” cool air of late summer has been replaced with downright cold temps! 

 

We had a great summer overall. Plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures, generally good health, and only a poor economy and daily attacks on our values to keep us from fully enjoying life. Hopefully, changes in the social and economic front will also come with the changes in the season.

 

I have stayed more than busy this summer “tinkering.” Tinkering is what I call it when I am trying to make vintage motorcycles look and operate like new again. Apparently it is a disease that is hard to cure. When I resumed tinkering last spring my goal was to finish my remaining project (1973 Yamaha RD350), sell last years project (1965 Honda 305 Superhawk), and then step back from any more restorations. Although I still enjoy “saving” these pieces of history and icons of my youth – my vintage body complains with increasing regularity.

 

I was somewhat successful with meeting my goals. The RD350 is essentially “done” but I am still working on tuning the engine to get it closer to “perfect.” I never reach perfection on these restorations, but I continue until I’m satisfied. “Satisfied” is an ever changing and elusive goal! I ended up selling the Superhawk to a fellow antique motorcycle aficionado  (AKA Bike Nut) who has a collection of over 60 bikes in various stages of “restored”. Some are gorgeous museum pieces and some are in need of some serious time and money! Unfortunately for me, he not only came up with enough cash to make the sale worthwhile … he also offered to include another project bike in the deal … a 1972 Kawasaki 500cc Triple Cylinder Mach III. 

Most of you will not know or care to know … but in the early 70s the Kawasaki 500cc triple was arguably the baddest bike on the planet! Also known as the “Widowmaker” it was the fastest (when driven in a straight line) production motorcycle made! It did have a reputation for punishing novice riders in high speed turns … hence its nickname!

 

Although I really wanted to step back from any more restoration projects … this was a unique opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up!

 

I brought the Triple home in early August and gave it a close looking over. It hadn’t been registered since 2006 and had been sitting in somebody’s basement for many years before my fellow Bike Nut friend purchased it a few years ago. The gas tank contained a foul smelling mixture of old gas that was in the process of turning to varnish and lots of rust, a few control cables were broken and/or missing but other than that … it was a normal “barn find” … filthy and looking for some TLC.

 

Now that Autumn has arrived I have been busy working on my motorized fleet. Winterizing Winne, changing oil and filters in the Equinox and Colorado, and getting the Chevelle,

Yamaha Big Bear, and the RD350 into storage. With those projects out of the way I’ll focus on picking up leaves on the dry days and disassembling the Kawasaki on the rainy days. Winter is coming don’t ya know!

 

Since winter is on the way it is also time to think about where we might go to escape the cold and snow. As is usual – I want to leave the day after Christmas and not come back till the end of May. Also as is usual Peggy is not buying that plan. We also want to head out to the left coast this year as we haven’t seen that family in several years … and that takes several weeks just to get there and get back — at our travel pace! And we also would like to travel home on a more northerly route but that gets real iffy in the winter/early spring months! So we have reached a compromise where we will probably experience the worst of all scenarios!

 

Assuming the good lord is willing and the creek don’t rise (or the price of diesel fuel) … we will try and escape the icy grip of winter in New England in early February. That way we can enjoy  the bitter cold and snow of January while preparing Winne for travel!

 

As is usual for travel that time of year we will scurry south as quickly as reasonable down to Lower Alabama for a short respite before heading west along I-10 to Arizona for several weeks and then on to sunny California for some visiting … followed by a trip over the Sierra’s to Nevada for more visiting, and then on to Northern California for even more visiting! Of course travel in these northern latitudes can be pretty risky in the early Spring so we will have to keep a sharp eye on the weather!

 

Assuming the weather cooperates, diesel fuel is still available in America, and we haven’t yet completely drained the travel budget … we hope to return home generally along I-80 and back to Maine in mid May.

 

Who knows how it will really work out … but it’s good to have a plan!

Traveling America … From Sea to Shining Sea

 Time for another update to the Mike and Peggy’s Great 2022 Motorhome Adventure Blog. Every trip in our motorhome is an “adventure” I suppose but this one seems to be full of surprises around each corner. When I last posted here way back last month in Savannah — we had survived the trip to the southland and outrun the snow and sleet (but not the cold). We had also completed our trip to the Freightliner Factory Service Center in Gaffney, SC to get a few chassis related repairs done to Winne before continuing our trip.

We said farewell for now to Savannah on January 28th and moved about an hour south to Brunswick, GA for a couple more weeks of enjoying the Georgia coast. Lots of interesting American History in this area … Revolutionary War, Coastal Pirates, Civil War … you name it they got it! 

Having had our fill of “Low Country Boil” (Shrimp, Potatoes, Corn, Sausage … Kinda like a Maine Lobster Bake — Only Different!) we left the Atlantic Coast and headed west - destination Gulf Coast of Alabama! We really hadn’t made it all that far (near Jacksonville, FL) when the alarms starting going off. First was the orange engine shaped alarm (called a “Malfunction Indicator Light”) together with a dashboard message telling us we had “Low DEF.” For those of you not in the know … DEF stands for Diesel Exhaust Fluid which is stuff you need to have in modern US Diesel Engines to meet Federal Government Emissions standards. If you don’t add the DEF the computer monitoring system will first warn you … then it will gradually take away power from the engine … then it will simply take the engine to an idle. I knew from the DEF gauge reading that I had plenty of DEF and I recalled that I had a similar experience a few years ago and the light and alarm went away after I drove for about 50 or so miles … so I thought I would keep driving for awhile and see if it would clear again.

It didn’t take too many miles before another orange light appeared on the dash. This one was also orange and shaped like an engine but was labeled CHECK!. Winne was getting serious now so I found a safe place to get off the interstate and I called the 24/7 Freightliner hotline for their advice. After researching the engine diagnostic code the computer had displayed they informed me that I probably had a bad NOX Sensor and I should find a Freightliner repair center to have it looked at. I asked how long I could drive it they way it was … they said they couldn’t say for sure … so I asked for a location of a nearby repair center that could deal with a motorhome and I was given the name of a place in Lake City … about 50 miles away. I called the place in Lake City and they said they could probably take a look at it … in a couple of days! Fortunately there was a RV Park right next door to the repair center … so we were off to Lake City!

I’ll shorten this story by letting you know that Winne was all fixed with her new NOX Sensor … 2 days and a couple of buckets of $$ later. Once again we were heading west on I10 and landed here in Summerdale, AL a couple of days after that.

We like staying here at the Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale for several reasons. 1. We have met some really nice folks that we call friends down here. 2. The “Plantation” is one of the Escapee RV Club membership Parks so we get a pretty good discount when staying here. 3. There are several nice restaurants in the area that we enjoy. And 4. The sugar sand beaches of the Gulf of Mexico are not far away in Gulf Shores, AL.

We have been here for a week already and have enjoyed visiting with some of the folks we have met here before … usually this involves joining in for a meal or maybe several! We still haven’t made it to the beach but perhaps we can get that done in the week we have remaining here.

And then it will be time to move on to our next adventure in central Florida. By then my Income Tax Refund may be deposited and I can afford to spend even more $$ keeping Winne ready to safely travel America … From Sea to Shining Sea!

Savannah

 I’ve decided to provide this trip update in the form of a blog update … just because!

We arrived here in Savannah, GA last Saturday, a day earlier than originally planned but we were trying to outrun the severe cold front that moved south into South Carolina and even northern Georgia. We were successful in avoiding the bitter cold but we did get a bunch of rain and wind on Sunday that continued into Monday.

Yesterday was a pretty nice sunny day with a high in the mid 60s and today was even warmer into the 70s … so we got out and accomplished some sightseeing. Yesterday we visited the site of one of the original Georgia settlements when English King George II granted this area to a group of trustees and settlers arrived in early 1733. We visited the State Historic Site of Wormsloe, settled by some of these early settlers led by a carpenter, surveyor, physician named Noble Jones. The first thing you see as you enter Wormsloe in a 2 mile straight drive lined on both sides by some 400 live oak trees planted in the early 1890s.

After a slow drive down the entrance road we stopped at the visitors center for the always informative movie and a small museum … before moving on to a scenic loop walk.We viewed the ruins of the original settlement house built by Noble Jones around 1740.

All in all … a nice morning walk learning a bit of Georgia history.

Today we decided to take the Savannah Trolley Tour of the downtown Savannah Historic District. We took this tour back in 2012 during one of our first visits to this unique city and we thought it would be fun to do again. As is usual with these tours … the tour guide makes each one different and unique. Our tour guide Yule did a nice job keeping us entertained while teaching us a bit of history and dodging all the traffic! We had seen all the beautiful squares and buildings before but the narration made it all seem new.

We even got to view a good size container ship coming up the river to the Port of Savannah … that was a first!

Tomorrow we move parking spots to a different RV Park for a few days and then we will return here for most of next week. Don’t ask why … it’s a long story $$.

So that’s what’s up with us. 

I made it into shorts today but it looks like I will be back in long pants tomorrow when the high will be back in the 40s with some potential freezing rain in the forecast for tomorrow night.

Ain’t winter fun … even in the relatively Deep South!

Deja Vu all over again

So … here we are again. We managed to survive a whole day with no new RV related issues. Yesterday was spent cleaning up after my “loss of A/C” repair, staying warm, and a trip to the local grocery store to pick up pre-winter storm provisions along with all the crazy New Jerseyans.

 

This area of New Jersey received about 4 inches of snow last night. Since I am from Maine … and therefore travel with a snow shovel … I got out this morning and shoveled a path around Winne and cleaned off the truck. It was a deja vu moment as I recalled being in this campground 11 years ago when we got 10 inches of snow! Digging out from that one was much more difficult … but the same snow shovel was used!

 

This Morning …

 

11 years ago …

 

As you know, the purpose of our trip here to New Jersey was to have a short visit with our son Brian and his family on our way south. As it turns out … Brian came down with Covid type symptoms right before we left Maine and then spent 7 hours or so sitting in his truck outside a testing facility waiting to receive a Covid test. As it turned out … he tested positive and has been isolating at home for the past 5 days. Although he has been doing his best to stay away from the rest of the family, at-home type tests revealed positive results for them yesterday. Granddaughter Alyssa drove through the snow this morning to have herself tested at the testing facility and she tested negative!? Fortunately Brian’s symptoms have pretty much gone away and the others are doing OK as well. Because I had lots of time on my hands I went to the CDC website to find out what they were supposed to do with these results. I think I now know … but I’m not sure … thanks CDC for all your help.

 

Regardless … we have some items we need to exchange with them so after we give the various NJ Public Works Departments time to clean up the snow we received last night we plan on heading over to their house to do our drop offs and pick ups … outside and distanced! We love them all but they need to deal with whatever sickness they have, we don’t need to be adding to that problem, and perhaps we can visit on our way home!

 We still plan on heading further south on Sunday — y’all keep your fingers crossed! 

Let’s Roll - 18 and a wake-up!

Well, here we are again! Just when you thought Mikee had abandoned the Maineiacs in Motion blog site - it arises from the ashes!

As I sit here contemplating my next sentence - the sky is grey, it’s the week before Christmas 2021, and our first shovelable snow is forecast for this afternoon/evening. Peggy and I are doing fine … except for our daily “issues” that come with maturity. We are looking forward to a  joyful Christmas celebration with our Maine family and then a post New Year celebration with our NJ family. Along with the rest of the world, we continue to follow the ever changing Covid saga through its various variants and case surges. In spite of all that craziness we are planning to head south for a few months starting around the 6th of January … armed with our common sense and our triple vaccinations … hopefully that will suffice!

So the process begins! I woke up Winne yesterday, drove her over to get topped off with propane and diesel fuel, and then got her parked in the driveway to start the prep and loading. We have 18 days and a wake-up before our planned leave date so we should have plenty of time to get done what needs to be done - in between cleaning up from the inevitable snow storms.

Our travel plan is to spend our first night dry camping at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut and then head to NJ for a few days visit with the NJ Evringhams. Since it still won’t be warm enough in NJ - we will continue south along I-81 through Virginia, North Carolina, and then to Gaffney, SC where we have scheduled a day of motorhome service at the Freightliner Custom Coach Factory Service Center. 

With that chore complete we plan on heading east and a bit more south to settle in Savannah, GA for a few weeks and then an even smaller bit south to Brunswick, GA for a few more weeks. After wearing out our welcome in Georgia we plan on scooting east to one of our favorite haunts near Fairhope, Alabama for some visits with friends, some yummy gulf shrimp, and perhaps a walk or two on the sugar sand beaches near Gulf Shores. After a few weeks in ‘Bama we plan on backtracking east and even further south into central Florida for several more weeks.

Sometime about then I suspect we will be ready to wander home - so we will!

As you can probably tell … I’m ready to get these Maineiacs Back in Motion!

But between now and then we have preps to make, Christmas to celebrate, and a few more motorcycle restoration projects to finish. 

The Yamaha RD350 engine is ready to go, some assorted parts have been cleaned and ready for reinstallation in the spring, now the gas tank needs to be cleaned and sealed before we leave.

Time to get busy … Let’s Roll!

Motorhome Maintenance Madness

Well here we sit … October 3, 2021. Another lovely Maine summer is behind us as we look forward to autumn in New England. 

 Since I had a few maintenance chores to take care of on Winne I decided to devote pretty much all of September to getting her back into “travel shape.” Item #1 was to investigate and solve a soft spot in the floor back in the bedroom area. I noticed this soft spot on our last trip and really wasn’t sure what was causing it. The spot was next to the bed on the drivers side in an area you don’t normally walk … but it was quite noticeable if you knew where to step. The problem became very apparent once I removed a few of the vinyl floor tiles and saw a pretty large (6 inch diameter or so) water damaged spot in the plywood floor which was in the process of rotting away! Well that ain’t good I says! 

At first I thought water may have leaked in from a window above the spot … but that made little sense since the wall showed no signs of any problem? Then I thought maybe the water was coming up from underneath. That area of the floor is outboard of the engine area and consists of 1 ¼ in. of plywood with a thin metal backing glued to the bottom. I could access the bottom side and did notice some corrosion of the metal backing but nothing “major” that I thought would lead to the problem. Then I thought about the water heater which is located just behind the damaged area. Maybe it was leaking? After spending several hours checking that out I determined that the water heater itself was not the culprit. But during that investigation I did notice that the outside metal enclosure that seals the external side of the water heater to the side of the motorhome wall was missing a very tiny screw leaving a 1/8” hole in a spot that leads directly to the floor area inside! Since this enclosure area is generally open to the outside world it is easy for rainwater to get inside and then run through this hole. Fixing that problem was relatively easy … replace the screw and seal up the area with some sealant. But that still left the soft spot to repair. 

 It took me several days of demo, engineering, re-engineering, metal fabrication, and carpentry … but after cutting a 1 foot by 3 foot section of flooring out to make sure I removed any semblance of rot, adding in a couple of metal braces to support the new flooring I needed to install, installing and sealing a new metal protective layer, and then replacing the plywood floor and tiles .. the floor was now just like new … probably stronger than new in that area … and hopefully it will stay dry now! With that project complete it was time to move on to the dash ventilation blower repair. 

 The dash area heater/ventilation system has a blower system with 4 speeds controlled by a dash mounted switch. Well … ours did until a couple of years ago when I lost all but high speed on the blower. I knew that the problem was a bad resistor module that needed to be replaced. Unfortunately … almost all of the dash has to disassembled and removed to access the resistor module. So I removed the 30-40 screws necessary to remove the necessary panels and I replaced the resistor module a few years ago. But alas … all I gained was one additional blower speed and I really didn’t have time to troubleshoot further as we needed to get back on the road again.

 So it was time to try again … Out came all those screws again followed by all the dash panels … but here is where I got lucky … I think! When I went to remove the wiring plug from the resistor module I found it was sorta loose. After plugging it back in securely and testing the blower … voila … all 4 blower speeds worked! So … back went the panels and the 30-40 screws and the blower still worked correctly. Yippee! So … now on to the next planned repair …right? 

Nope. The first step of the next repair involved bringing in Winne’s slide outs which had been moved out for the previous work. Start the engine … push the slide-out retract button … nothing … no movement … no sound! Oops … new problem. 

After mentally going through all the steps necessary for the slide-outs to move … and thinking about the work I had just done on the floor and the dash blower I concluded that one of those 30-40 screws must have shorted a wire on re-installation and immediately I had 3 particular screws as suspects. Sure enough … one of those screws wasn’t quite where it was supposed to be and a wire underneath got shorted. Once that little problem was fixed all was good once again and I was on to fighting rust! 

 First let me explain that motorhomes are not built like automobiles. A motorhome is “built” by a specialty manufacturer (in our case Winnebago Industries in Forest City, IA) on a chassis manufactured by another specialty manufacturer (in our case Freightliner Custom Chassis in Gaffney, SC). Where today’s automobiles are dipped in special rustproofing protective coatings, neither of these RV specialty manufacturers are really all that concerned that the future owner might drive one of these things in the cold snowy states where salt, sand, and brine might be deployed for safety sake. Therefore there are plenty of spots on the undercarriage where the minimal original paint will be eroded off in no time and rust will begin to rear its ugly head! 

 And so it is with Winne. Another September week was spent scraping rust, chemically neutralizing rust, repairing rust damage, and repainting treated areas to slow down future rust. It is a true axiom that in the RV world .. Rust never sleeps! 

 One of the areas needing specific rust attention are the two battery storage compartments. Since I had to remove the 4 large “Coach” Batteries to do part of this work, and since these batteries are 6+ years old and showing signs that they are starting to lose capacity … I decided to take this opportunity to replace them. The only extra effort this took was carrying the bucket of money to the battery store! 

 So that was September. Winne is now back in her storage spot all ready to be awoken in January for her dash south and we are moving on to October. Time for leaf peeping, leaf picking up, leaf dumping, and annual vehicle oil changes. 

 I love New England.

Who needs a plan?!

 I’ll bet you thought I had given up on this blog since I sorta abandoned it during our spring trip earlier this year. And I did. Since I tend to make a Facebook posting periodically during our trips it just seems duplicative … and it is.

But once in awhile I suppose I’ll make an entry here just to keep you on your toes.

We have been normal summertime busy here since we returned around the end of June. Summertime is always busy in Maine since it is so short and we have lots of projects waiting for summertime to accomplish, lots of visiting to do, and plenty of summertime things to do. We accomplished the first few gotta do chores during June/July … get Winne cleaned up and back in storage, get the summer toys (motorcycles and the Chevelle) out of storage, tinker with the toys to get them back into running condition, get summertime house projects completed (new roof this year), and get through Evringham family birthday season (Aiden, Stacy, Me, Nicky, Kaj, Eric, Brian).

Now we have moved right in to late summer projects like re-stain the shed and go to a few motorcycle/car shows. 

It won’t be long before the  pre-autumn chores will begin … like accomplish a few pre-travel Winne repairs/upgrades, and get in a few last minute summertime projects before the leaves start to fall.

This time of year also starts the winter travel process. Since we do not really have a set spot to spend each winter when we run away … we tend to start our planning process very late as compared to most snowbirds. Those folks have their winter travel plans set before the last snowflake leaves the north country. Those folks are smarter than us!

As you may have heard … RV travel and the RV lifestyle took a big jump in popularity during the last year and a half during the pandemic. Although this trend may be temporary … it is still real and has made RV trip planning more challenging … especially for us that like “just-in-time” planning!

In spite of all the news, fake news, and other hubbub going around regarding the Coronavirus Varients X, Y, and Z … we are still planning a trip south this winter. As usual, we hope to be leaving shortly after Christmas during a break in the weather. 

We plan on spending a few days in New Jerzee catching up with the NJ Gang and then heading further south to find some short pants weather. This year I think we will plan on heading down I-81 again and then over to near Charlotte, NC to visit the Freightliner Service Center in Gaffney, SC to get any needed Winne service accomplished. 

I’m not exactly sure what service we will need since we were just there in May … but if I don’t get it done earlier - I do have some new Koni Shock Absorbers waiting to be installed!

From Gaffney I think we will head over to the Savannah, GA area for about a week then down a bit further to Brunswick, GA for a couple more weeks. We both like that area and haven’t visited for many years so we thought that might be fun.

Then we thought we would head west to visit the Rainbow Plantation in Lower Alabama for a few weeks. I’m sure we can find some Gulf shrimp to eat, a few friends to laugh with, and maybe even some Mardi Gras activities!

By the time Fat Tuesday rolls around it will be March and time to start thinking about heading home … but not before heading over to central Florida for a few weeks to really warm up before pointing Winne back north.

We have managed to reserve enough spots to stay in these locations to start filling in the blanks … and there is always Wal-Marts, Truck Stops, and Casinos along the way. Who needs a plan!

Catching Up

OK … Way behind on catching you up on our doings so here goes …

We are presently in Crossville, TN and have been for a few days … just visiting our friends Darrell and Judy Patterson and enjoying springtime in middle Tennessee … which means some nice weather followed by a thunderstorm or two and then immediately replaced by some nice weather. But I need to get you caught up!

We left the Freightliner Service Center parking lot last Saturday drove back north to Asheville and then headed west on I40 over the mountains to Knoxville, TN and then a bit southeast to Walland, TN near the southern entrance to the Smokey Mountain National Park. Winne ran great during the trip over the mountains so I guess she enjoyed all the attention she received at the Freightliner shop! We did have one little issue though … when we needed our windshield wipers while driving through the mountains west of Asheville and they quit working! Yikes! We survived but it made for interesting few miles to say the least!

We spent 4 nights in Walland and spent our days visiting with friends Gene and Judi Curp who live nearby in Maryville, TN, seeing some sights nearby, and oh yeah — fixing the windshield wipers! (Just needed to tighten a loose nut). It was great seeing the Curp’s again, catching up a little on our lives, and enjoying the mountain scapes there on “The Quiet Side of the Smokies.”

We left Walland on Wednesday and made the relatively short trip west along I-40 to here in Crossville. Our plan is to enjoy another day of visiting with the Pattersons today and then head further west tomorrow.

After a few days of travel we hope to find ourselves in Branson, Mo. in the heart of the Ozark Mountains. I’ll bet we can find something to keep us entertained for a few days there!

Blue Ridge and BBQ

 Today we will complete our week stay here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina.We have been staying in a very small RV Park about 10 miles southwest of Asheville ... located in a small valley not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway. The weather has been quite nice during our stay with mostly sunny skies ... highs in the low 80s and nighttime temps around 60 degrees. Good daytime tourist weather and comfortable sleeping temps - can’t beat it!

The Blue Ridge Mountains here in North Carolina are quite stunning ... gorgeous views everywhere - especially from up on the Parkway! Peggy and I have spent our time enjoying the weather, enjoying the views, checking out the Asheville- Waynesville - Cherokee areas ... and even trying some local Carolina BBQ! Our first BBQ was in Asheville at a spot that has been a local favorite for decades named “Little Pigs.” Peggy and I both had a lunch platter with the typical fare ... pulled smoked pork, hush puppies, slaw, potato salad and baked beans. I added a small helping of BBQ ribs to my platter. We both enjoyed the fare at Little Pigs but it didn’t rise to one of the top ten places we’ve sampled. We decided to try another Asheville BBQ spot this evening - Luella’s. Now Luella’s was another story! We tried some sliced smoked brisket with a spicy dry rub and some dry rubbed smoked ribs. Both meats were fantastic with no sauce at all and even better with just a bit of one of several sauces. I have added Luella’s to among my top 3 BBQ spots. As for Peggy? She seemed to enjoy her meal but you will have to ask her for her own review. And oh Bye-The-Way ... I have learned that you can’t order anything down here without getting Hush Puppies ... and I really don’t care for Hush Puppies ... where is Terry Guiler when I need someone to take my Hush Puppies!

With our planned time here in the Blue Ridge used up ... it is time to move on. Our next stop is a bit further south to northern South Carolina to visit the Freightliner Factory Service Center and get some planned preventative maintenance items accomplished at Winne’s Chassis birthplace. It looks like we may also get to experience a southeastern US heatwave with temps climbing into the 90s for a few days.

Everyday is an adventure with these Maineiacs in Motion!

Jerzee!

 Well here we are ... one week in on our 2021 Springtime getaway. We have been hanging out in “southern” New Jersey ... more specifically in Absecon, NJ ... a few miles west of Atlantic City ... a few miles east of Stockton University, home of the fighting Ospreys ... and about 30 miles east of Sicklerville, NJ, home of the New Jersey Evringham Clan.

Our granddaughter Alyssa graduated from Stockton last Tuesday with a degree in Marine Science ... so that was pretty exciting!

She even found time to tour her grandparents around nearby historic Smithville. I can’t say we saw a lot of “history” ... but we did visit a lot  of CLSs (that’s Cute Little Shops for you unfamiliar with the Acronyms of Miss Judy Patterson!). After buying plenty of Cute Little Things from the CLSs ... Miss Alyssa took us for a side trip to the Stockton University Marine Field Lab Site where we met Steve the Field Lab Manager and even got a quick tour of the Stockton University Research Vessel RV Petrel complete with explanations of the underwater ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) and the SSS (Side Scan Sonar). Fun times on a beautiful spring day here on “the shore.”

Today is granddaughter Emily’s 17th Birthday ... so we will assist in celebrating that at some “Escape Room” here nearby and then dinner out at some Japanese Hibachi Style cookery! So wish us luck on that adventure ... hopefully we escape with all participants and in plenty of time for dinner.

The trip is going fine so far with only one semi major hiccup when I had to replace the evaporator fan motor on our refrigerator a couple of days ago! Fortunately I was able to source the needed part in short order at a local appliance parts supply business and make the installation in about an hour ... after carefully studying the appropriate you tube video! And then there was/is an ongoing issue with some neck pain I am having — but we will survive that too I hope!

I guess I should also note that we are planning on heading further west and south starting tomorrow with our next waypoint scheduled to be near Asheville, NC on Wednesday. Yes — I am aware that that part of the country has been experiencing fuel shortages after a major distribution pipeline had to be shutdown last week ... and then the panic buying set in for a few days. But the pipeline is back up and running now and the fuel supplies are returning to normal so ...off into the abyss we will go!

In spite of all the reasons to turn back ... we will venture forth! After all ... look at the bright sides ... we are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 ... the feds tell us we can stop wearing masks ... someday soon all the states may agree that masks are not necessary ... the crisis at our southern border is “under control,” Israel will soon stop Hamas from firing rockets in their direction until the UN brokers a ceasefire thereby allowing Hamas to rearm and start again, the Democrat Socialists will soon piss-off everyone around them and will be pushed back into their caves ... so yeah ... things are looking up!

I told you kids that this mess is yours to fix ...

I’m off to the next adventure!