Wabash Cannon Ball

We got away from home just before noon on Sunday.  We made our "drop dead" time somehow.  Christian and Laura arrived a little later than we expected, but Laura had breakfast all ready with a delicious spinach quiche (I think that's what it's called).  I had finished loading most everything and Joyce was putting the finishing touches on putting the groceries and "stuff" away when they arrived.  We ate, turned over the house keys and hit the road.

We made an intended-to-be quick stop at Joyce's mom's in Rogersville.  I say it that way because she stayed a little longer than planned, but she needed to say "bye" to her mom.  Traveling on, we grabbed a McDonald's at Mt. Grove and continued on east on Hwy 60.

Our first night was going to be Trail of Tears State Park on the river near Cape Girardeau, but a family crisis required good cell phone service, so we opted for a campground in Cape Girardeau.  It was a nice and convenient place to land, although a little more expensive than we normally shoot for.  But, the crisis abated somewhat and this morning we hit the road, crossing the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, angling across the extreme southern end of Illinois and into Indiana.  It was a nice quiet drive, although we still were concerned with the family crisis.  Eventually though, news indicated we could continue our trip.  But, the stress had played on us somewhat, so we opted to stop a little sooner than we had planned.  After a couple of mis-steps for a campground, we settled on Ouabache (Wabash) Trails Park on the outskirts of Vincennes, In., right on the Wabash River (well, on the banks of the river).  However, the GPS, as usual, chose it's own path there.  It was a fun path, though.  It took us through St, Francisville, Il and onto the Wabash Cannon Ball Rd which crosses the Wabash into Indiana.  We didn't expect it, but it turned out to be a toll bridge.  But, it was only $1.25.  What we really didn't expect was that the Wabash Cannon Ball Rd was built on the old Wabash railroad bed - including the railroad bridge across the river (thus the name of the road).  There were two bridges, one crossing a swampy area leading up to the main bridge over the river.  Both were one-lane bridges as they were the original railroad bridges.  The main bridge was a heavy looking steel bridge and the smaller one built on huge piles driven into the swamp - after all, they used to handle freight trains.  We had to stop and wait for oncoming cars at both bridges, so I took that opportunity to take some photos.

Just crossed the swamp bridge.

Approaching the main bridge.

Because the Wabash Cannon Ball Rd ran on the old railroad bed, the road on the Indiana side was like a Taney County backroad.  Running through the tall ready-to-harvest cornfields made it difficult to figure where we were going.  The GPS wanted to send me back home, but I endeavored to persevere, and here we are at the campground...somehow.

Joyce is fixin' some supper.  Ummm.  Brisket, baked potato and fresh tomatoes.

Oh.  We passed the Indiana Military Museum on the outskirts of Vincennes.  Here's a couple of shots.  I would have liked to have toured it, but it was after hours.

Leaving tomorrow

Here's the "plan".

But, plans are made to be altered.  We might decide to go get some fried clams in Delaware and we might decide to tour the USS Midway in San Diego.  We hit the far NE, SE and NW corners of the lower 48 last year.  I'd like to show Pumpkin the SW corner on this trip, however that's a long ways.  But, the price of diesel is probably as good as it's going to get.  So, we expect to log anywhere from 6000 - 9000 miles...if Pumpkin's wheels stay on and our butts hold up.  One thing...no, two things that will likely determine our direction out west, the weather and the forest fire smoke.  Either one could send us further south and the later it gets in the mountainous areas, the fewer campgrounds remain open.  Mid October is about their limit. some even sooner.

Laura and Christian will be holding down the fort at home.  They needed a landing spot for a while and we needed someone to watch the house.  So, all our backs get scratched.  Ahhh!

Aloha!

Bug Out!

We made a screen for the rear doors last year.  We used fiberglass window screening.  It worked fairly well, but still wasn't quite what we were looking for.  It was heavy and also blocked access to the rear doors from the inside and was just too bulky to use for a sliding curtain screen on the side door.  So, we began searching for another option.  Screens were a must for traveling up near the Canada border.  Mosquitoes there are notorious monsters.

There are some commercially produced screens out there, but due to the unique nature of the sliding side door, they are EXPENSIVE!  Joyce happened across some white tulle (a LOT of white tulle, actually).  At first it seemed almost ideal as it was light and flexible and fairly strong.  She made a screen for the rear using the old fiberglass screen as a pattern.  It came out okay.  Then we tackled the side door.

I found some curtain track that I mounted on the inside.  It has free-rolling hooks to hang a curtain (or screen) from and would easily roll back to open.  Joyce, then began trying to construct a curtain from the tulle.  Not pretty...

She sewed elastic along the top.  The elastic had small holes along the length which were perfect to hook the screen on the track.  That part worked well.  Next was how to secure the screen to the perimeter of the door opening.

I chose Velcro and magnets.  First, I glued a long strip of Velcro "fuzz side" all down the front of the doorframe and Joyce sewed Velcro "hooks" to match on the front edge of the screen.  That was when the trouble began.  The Velcro hooks on the screen would grab the tulle any time it touched it.  It was like trying to put down a feather with sticky fingers.  We would have to swap and put the hooks on the doorframe and the fuzz on the screen.  But, before we made that change, we realized the tulle was so light and flimsy that the slightest breeze would billow it out and it would require some method of securing, not only to the rear of the doorframe, but to the bottom as well.  This was becoming a big chore.  We decided we probably needed "for real" mosquito netting instead of trying to make do with fiberglass screening or tulle.  Since we were going to St. Louis to have Pumpkin checked out, we planned on hitting the fabric stores there to find some proper screening.

Dusty to the rescue!  As we discussed with Dusty what we were trying to do, he remembered he had a large portable screen room stored in the attic that he hadn't used in years.  He offered it as a possible source of screening.  We could cut sections out of the sides if they were big enough and it appeared they were.

I hated to cut up a perfectly good screen room, but...Joyce cut the heck out of it.  Guess this makes her a real "cut up".

She did a fantastic job.  It's amazing what a few well chosen cuss words can do to help.  Of course, her skills as a seamstress helped some, too.  The results were almost perfect.

  

Mosquitoes have met their match, I think.  The side door curtain/screen is easy to close and easy to store.  The rear door screen will be stationary, but has a zipper down the center so we can access the doors from the inside.  We are both very pleased with the outcome.  Thanks again for the screen room, Dusty.

Clean Bill Of Health

Took Lil Pumpkin to the doctor this last Friday.  The closest Mercedes service centers are Fayetteville, AR and Creve Coeur, MO up very near Dusty's.  Even though Fayetteville is closer than Creve Coeur, we chose Creve Coeur so we could visit the grandkids and have a place to stay.  I paid for the room and board by upgrading three computers to Windows 10.

I drove over to the Mercedes dealer and was told it wouldn't take long.  So, I opted to wait.  But, they found Pumpkin had a recall for the on-board computer software and that would take longer than originally thought.  So, I called Traci for a ride back to her house.  I, then, settled in to upgrading computers.  The dealer called about 2 hours later and Pumpkin was ready.  Traci ran me back to the dealer and $432 later I drove Pumpkin back to Dusty's.  The bill wasn't all that bad, actually.  Besides a 30,000 mile checkup, they changed the oil (13.5 qts of synthetic oil) and filter, flushed the brake fluid, topped off the DEF and updated the computer (that part was no cost, however).  All that AND it is a Mercedes, so $432 was expected.

So, I got the generator problem (LP regulator) fixed earlier last week and a 30,000 mile checkup on Friday and Pumpkin is ready for another trip...so are we!  And what a trip we have planned!  We plan of leaving this Sunday, heading east.  Our destination is Tom, Jr's in upstate New York.  We want to get there before the Labor Day weekend rush begins - target date Thursday, Sept. 3rd.  Well, we're slow.  Five days is about right for 1100 miles.

We plan to stay at Tom's for about a week.  Whitney is there with Pepper, Kade and her new girl, Emree.  We haven't met Emree yet.

Once we get our visit out, we're heading west toward Skyler's in Idaho.  But, we're taking the scenic route from the lower end of Lake Erie up through the "thumb" of Michigan.  We'll probably take a jog over to Lake Huron.  We haven't visited it yet, so it's pretty much a "have to".  We'll cross the Mackinac Bridge over to the Upper Peninsula.  We've been to the UP before and wasn't particularly impressed.  We'll give it another chance then slide on down to mid Wisconsin and all points west...well, sort of.  We plan to cross about mid Minnesota and North Dakota.  I want to visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and while we're in the area, maybe pass through Stanley in the middle of the Balkin Shale oil boom area.  Have to hit it at the right time of day, though, because campsites are few and far between and very expensive.

Eventually, we'll get to Skyler's in Ashton, ID.  There's another new great granddaughter there we haven't met.  Penelope Joyce, most call her Pennie, I like PJ, however.  And then there is Rosie.

From Skyler's, we'll continue west.  Joyce wants to see eastern Oregon and, if the forest fires aren't smoking up everything, I guess she will...see eastern Oregon, that is.

Right now, the plan is to drop down to Nevada then across Utah to northern Colorado.  By then it will be deep into October and no telling what kind of weather we might encounter.  But, if we're not snowed in, we'll cut across the top of Colorado and across the middle of Nebraska.  Luckily, by the time we hit Nebraska, Joyce will have smelled the barn and we'll scoot right on across.

Overall, we will have put another 7,000 miles plus on Lil Pumpkin.  But, that's what we bought it for.

Go West, Young Man...Again

After a weird couple of months Pumpkin wise, we're beginning to prep for another lengthy trip.  Finally!  Actually, we took a two week trip out to the Grand Canyon last month, but we didn't go in Lil Pumpkin.  We went with Stephen in his new 4-dr pickup towing his new-to-him travel trailer.  We had a great time and I didn't drive one single mile.

Stephen had never been to the Grand Canyon and Joyce and I had not been for...well, let's just say it had been a while.  On the way out, we passed through Taos and Santa Fe after struggling across the Texas panhandle.  Actually, we did stay at an interesting state park in Texas.  We stayed at Caprock Canyon.  Unfortunately, it was rainy so we didn't see much and then as we were leaving with the trailer in tow, we couldn't tour the prettier sites because the trailer wasn't permitted.

We spent a night up in the mountains just east of Taos and planned to tour Taos the following day.  As we headed toward Taos, the truck's "check engine" light came on.  It had happened before shortly after Stephen had bought his trailer.  The Ford dealer couldn't really find anything and blamed it on a sensor for the turbos.  They changed something and reset the codes - no more problems until now.  We looked for a dealer in Taos, but the only Ford dealer had closed recently.  We'd have to get it looked at in Santa Fe.  In the meantime, we'd tour Taos.

Well, let me tell you, Taos is worse than the Branson strip in July.  Stephen did good dragging the trailer around town, but it was not easy and there was no place to park it so we could walk around a bit and there was that pesky "check engine" light.  So, after he got his fill of traffic (vehicles and pedestrians), we decided to head on down to Santa Fe.  On the way, Stephen made an appointment with the Ford dealer for early the next morning...early as in 7:30 am.  I had found a state park on the edge of the city that looked good.  It was up on a mountain, waay up on a mountain.  As Stephen headed up and we got out of town, he realized he was nearly out of gas.  Then the "low fuel" light came on.  But, here's the park...wait, we missed the turn.  Oh well, he can turn around up the road a ways.  But, it was a windy mountain road heading on up to a ski resort 10-15 miles on up...and no place to turn around while dragging a 20 foot plus trailer.  Now it's getting serious!  But, we found a place, turned around and got back to the campground.  It was a nice little spot, but with no vacancies!  Back down the mountain we go.  But, at least, if we run out of gas, it was downhill and maybe we could coast to a gas station.  We made it.

Since the state park was full, we had to find another campground and wound up with a private campground near the Ford dealer.  Although it was expensive, it was nice and convenient.  The next morning, Stephen drove to the dealer.  He left the truck there and they drove him back to the campground.  Checkout time was 11:00 am, so I went ahead and booked the next day since it was very unlikely the truck would be ready by 11.  Surprisingly, it was ready by 11 or close enough that we could have checked out.  Again, they didn't really find anything, just reset the codes.  But, we wanted to tour Santa Fe anyway, so the additional day worked out okay.

We still had time that day, so we drove into town.  Disappointment again.  Santa Fe was not a whole lot better than Taos, lots of traffic and all the historic sites were heavily commercialized.  We took a few photos, but never got out of the truck.

 

 

 

We opted to check out nearby Bandelier National Monument up by Los Alamos.  It was a good choice - sorta.

Bandelier National Monument is a location where ancient cliff dwellers lived in holes in the rock faces of cliffs.  We parked at the visitors center and left Joyce and the dogs in the truck.  Stephen and I started the hike up to the dwellings.  At over 6,000 feet elevation, I didn't get very far.  I turned back and Stephen went on.  I did get a few photos, though.

This is where I turned back and Stephen trudges on.

Holes in the wall...The rock here is called "tuff" which, it is not, tough, that is.  It was formed from volcanic ash and is relatively soft.  Water and wind has carved caves in the tuff.  Early residents hollowed out the caves further to make their dwellings.  Stephen had a good tour and Joyce and I and the pups had a good rest.

We headed on down to Albuquerque.  On the way, the "check engine" light came on again.  But, we kept on charging, on to El Morro National Monument south east of Gallup.  El Morro is a group of big high rocks where many early travelers left their names and messages scratched in the rock.  Water running out of the rock forms a pool that attracted the travelers.  Again, Joyce and the pups stayed in the truck and Stephen and I took the walking tour.  This time I made it.

 

 My son is learning how use a camera.  Keep trying, Stephen, you'll get it yet.

We made it on to Gallup where we stopped at the Ford dealer there and they reset the codes.  Stephen said the heck with it and bought an ODBII code reader so he could reset the codes himself instead of having chase down a dealer.  At Gallup, we camped at Red Rock Park.  It used to be a state park, but the city of Gallup has taken it over.  The city wasn't doing a particularly good job, but it was a place sleep.  It was a little entertaining, however.  The entire campground was one big prairie dog town.  The pups were intrigued.

Next stop was the Grand Canyon.  We found a new campground at Cameron, Az. that wasn't on my campground list.  It worked out well because it was located near the east entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park.  We got there early enough to check in, drop the trailer and head into the park.  Traffic was minimal so we were able to tour the entire length of the south rim then turn around and head back to the campground just as it was getting dark.

Well, Stephen made it to the Grand Canyon.  I think he was duly impressed.  So, we did a Clark Griswold then headed back to camp.

Next stop, Four Corners Monument.  The monument is a little different than the last time I was there.  Well, the four states (Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado) still all join there, but the monument is part of the Navajo Reservation and run by them now.  Actually, the huge plaque is great with very good access both physically and photographically.  There was a fair sized crowd waiting in line to be able to stand on the spot for a photograph, so Stephen and I (guess who stayed in the truck) opted not to wait it out.  Surrounding the plaque was a large circular plaza about 100 feet across.  In all four quadrants around the perimeter were vendor booths where the Native Americans peddled their crafts.

 

 

From here we headed on up to Mesa Verde National Park.  Stephen made one of the tours while Joyce and I snoozed in the truck.  We're getting in a lot of snoozing on this trip, it seems.

We stopped at Chimney Rock National Monument in Colorado (not the better known Chimney Rock of Nebraska).  We couldn't drive up to see the ruins there with the trailer so all we did was eat lunch and continue on.  We passed through the beautiful little town of Pagosa Springs then dropped back down to Santa Fe.  We stayed at a large but not so pretty campground there, the Road Runner.

From there we caught I-25 up to Springer, NM where we caught Hwy 56 east through the entire panhandle of Oklahoma.  This not a part of our trip I can recommend, but we were NOT going across Texas again.  The following photo is one I took of Stephen's GPS as we traveled along the panhandle.

It was a very boring ride for the kids.

 

One last camp and then we were back home.  It was a fun trip.  The company was great and the weather couldn't have been more perfect...except for rain in Texas.