You know you're back in the Midwest when....

You know you're back in the Midwest when....

1.  There's actually water in the river.

2.  You hit pot hole city.

3.  The grass is green.

4.  There are more deciduous trees than conifers.

5.  You listen to the weather forecast before deciding what to wear.

6.  There are more orange barrels in one state than you saw in the last 6 combined.

7.  You can buy pop, not soda.

We stayed at Camp Lakewood RV Park in Effingham, IL last night.  It was very nice.  Free WI-FI and cable, nice wide sites, and a campfire pit!  YAY!

There was a beautiful, small lake and you can see some color just beginning.

We left this morning to drive to Indy to have a visit with my family.  They are coming out to the RV park tonight to visit with us.  

"Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts."  ~Author Unknown

Kansas

There are only a few things to say about Kansas....

1.  They have nice sunsets.

2.  There are ruby slippers everywhere.

3.  It is one very wide state.  I-70 is 424 miles from border to border.

4.  I left a donation at the Prairie Band Casino north of Topeka.

5.  There were a lot of desperadoes back in the day (or maybe that was Colorado?).

6.  There is one desperado in particular who has a very high bounty on his head.

7.  There are thousands of windmills out on the plains (both old style and new style).

"I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee."  ~Flash Rosenberg

Colorado Springs

We arrived in Colorado Springs (CS) on Saturday.  While driving up I-25 just south of CS, my husband sees a KOA and says "why not stay there?".  I told him that we're in Colorado and we're going to stay in the trees with a mountain view, not next to the interstate.

We proceeded to the RV park that I had picked out (which shall remain nameless).  The ad said "WI-FI" and while no cable stated "good TV reception with your antenna".  Neither were true.  The road from the office to the RV area was narrow, winding and steep.  The sites were rutted but we got sort of level.  Turns out we couldn't get one bar of signal off the antenna.  Okay, not a problem, we brought plenty of movies with us and there is a really nice fire pit made out large rocks.  As for the WI-FI, you supposedly had to go to the laundry building but I couldn't even get us connected then.  We had paid in advance for 2 nights, left the next morning before the office opened and didn't care about getting a refund.  This property has great potential, but needs help bad.  It turned out okay for one night, but not our kind of place.

The next morning, we headed to Garden of the Gods.  The free park in CS which is breathtaking.

Charles Elliott Perkins, the head of the Burlington Railroad, purchased these 240 acres in 1879.  He died in 1907 before he could make the arrangements for the land to be given to the public.  His heirs knew of his desires, gave the land to the city with the condition "where it shall remain free to the public, where no intoxicating liquors shall be manufactured, sold, or dispensed, where no building or structure shall be erected except those necessary to properly care for, protect, and maintain the area as a public park."

After the park, we settled in at the KOA that Doug had suggested the day before.  We had a beautiful site with a creek side view, a huge concrete patio, a chimnea, patio table and 4 chairs, free WI-FI and free cable.

My nephew, Nick, came out to see us.  He is stationed at Ft. Carson.  We went to a great barbeque place called Rudy's.  It was fantastic!  Some of the workers had on shirts that said "Rudy's 'Sause' Because Taste is More Important Than Spelling".  They had all different kinds of pop in 12 oz bottles stuck in ice (choose your own), cold side salads pre-packaged (choose your own), grab a bag of chips if you want them and then when you ordered the meat, they put the whole thing in a plastic tub to cart it all to your table.

We really enjoyed the food and will look for Rudy's when we are in the Southwest.  It's not just the food, it was the decor and attitude, too.

Before Nick left, we took a couple of photos.

We are very proud of Nick.  Hooah!

After Nick left, Doug laid down for a nap.  I read, took the dogs for several walks and after it got dark, the dogs and I lit a fire in the chimnea.

As usual, Jackie was off sniffing something.  Bunny tracks maybe?

This morning before we left CS, there was a beautiful sunrise and a hot air balloon.

We left CS this morning and headed east.  We have a ways to go to get home, but we're taking our time.  Gotta stop and smell the coffee, right?

Phoenix

After all the dust settled from the blown tire, we had a great visit with Mom and Bud.  My niece, Cari, came over on Wednesday night and it was great to see her.  We went out to eat several times, Mom and I ran some errands (including getting our flu shots) and Mom baked some cookies for Doug.  They were great!

Doug trimmed some fronds off of a palm tree for Mom, the dogs loved going to the dog park (particularly on the golf cart) and I got caught up on some laundry.  We had coffee outside early every morning and watched the sun come up.

We left there Friday morning to drive to Albuquerque.  We took some U.S. Highways as a short cut up to 40.  Through the Sonoran Desert and some mountains.  Beautiful two lane highways.

We stayed at a KOA just north of Albuquerque on Friday night where we had free cable and WI-FI.  Saturday morning, we set out for Colorado Springs.  Just north of the Colorado border, we visited the Ludlow Massacre site.  In 1914, a clash between striking coal miners and the Colorado State Militia ended up with 24 people dead, including women and children.

Here's a link to read more about the strike and massacre.  http://www.santafetrailscenicandhistoricbyway.org/ludlow.html

Thank God for the miners, the early auto workers and the construction workers who fought hard for 40 hour work weeks, paid time off, worker safety, health insurance and retirement benefits.  All workers owe them gratitude for the basic employee rights and benefits we enjoy today.

Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical.  ~Jonathan Swift

We Survived a Blown Tire

We left the Grand Canyon yesterday morning to drive to Phoenix to see my parents.  We were about 10 miles from their house on the 202.  Six lanes of traffic, and while it wasn't rush hour, if you've ever driven in the Phoenix area, you know that the roads are always busy.  My husband was driving and I was talking to my sister on my cell when all of a sudden we hear the biggest bang.  Doug stayed calm, cool and collected and got us off to the side of the expressway.

We assume that a tire had blown so he got out to check.  Sure enough, the passenger side, inside rear tire had blown.  He smelled LP gas, opened the outer compartment that holds the tank and propane was spewing from broken lines.  He immediately shut off the propane.  He started looking around and saw the bottom of one of the other compartments hanging.  By this time, I was also outside of the MH and he says to call for help.  Before I could even open my phone, a State Police Officer pulled up behind us.

I told him that we have blown a tire and he told us that he knows because he just saw the debris scattered on the expressway.  Soon after, he got a radio call that a Highway Service Patrol truck is on the scene of the debris.  The officer backed up the expressway while truck held traffic so that they could get the debris off the road.  The debris was not only the pieces of the tire, but also the contents of the compartment.  He and the Highway Service Patrol truck driver then helped us get a phone number for a nearby tire dealer and gave us directions on how to get there.  Because the inside tire was blown, Doug tells them he's pretty sure we can limp over to the tire store.

The police officer stopped traffic that was entering the expressway from the nearby on ramp, which allowed us to safely get over to the exit lane and off the expressway.  While we were waiting for the new tire to be put on the MH, I called my sister to have her search online for the nearest Jayco dealer so we can have them take a look.  They agreed to take a look at the damage and at a minimum give us a safety inspection to check for frayed electrical wires, brake lines, etc. and to see if they can do an estimate for the insurance company.

I called the insurance company to make notification and to get a claim number.  After the tire was done, we headed to the RV dealer which fortunately was only a few miles away.  They did the emergency inspection, lowered the stabilizers, had us run out the slides, take the slides back in and retract the stablizers.  All of that seemed fine.  Clearly we do not have the use of any propane so we can't use the stove or the furnace.  They determined that there's no way they could do an estimate because they would have to start tearing things apart and it could take days just to do an estimate.  They told us to bring it back Wednesday morning and they would do a minimal fix so we can be road worthy.

This morning we were their first appointment at 7:30.  They capped off the LP (precautionary because we already had the gas off), checked the LP tank for leaks (none found) and re-secured the compartment flooring and wheel well.

As we've traveled down expressways, we've often commented to each other, "There's a piece of blown tire.  Hope we're never near a tire when it blows".  I never dreamed it would happen to us.  I had no idea how much force an exploding tire has.

It's not as bad as it could have been.  We are fine, the dogs are fine and we will get our repairs made after we get back to Michigan.  We didn't have a fire, we didn't loose our brakes and while we can't cook or use the furnace for the rest of this trip, we still have a microwave which will warm up pre-cooked food from the grocery and we have extra blankets and a sleeping bag on board.

Thank you, God, for keeping us safe yesterday.  Thank you, guardian angels, for keeping us safe yesterday.  Thank you St. Christopher for your protection yesterday.

I'd stop drinking coffee, but I'm no quitter.  ~Author Unknown

Grand Canyon

On Monday, we drove up to the Grand Canyon National Park.  There really are no words to describe the beauty of the place.  It truly is breath taking.  I'm not sure why the photos are so washed out, but here's a few shots.

The only wildlife we saw was a couple of deer quietly eating right across the road where we were waiting for the shuttle.

The park was the busiest we had ever seen it.  When we got back to the MH there wasn't a parking space anywhere.  Cars were driving up and down the aisles waiting for other cars to leave and there wasn't an RV parking spot to be had.  I'm not sure why we have experienced the big crowds in the National Parks this trip.  The other two times we have been out west in September, there were not this many people.  In the KOA where we are staying there were 10 Cruise America rentals, 2 Camping World rentals and 2 Roadbear rentals.  I don't think we've ever seen that many rental MH's in one park ever.  Many of them are overseas tourists.

Today we are off to Phoenix to visit Mom and Bud.  I just saw the weather forecast, and it will be over 100 degrees there, but cooling off into the 70's at night.  Not too bad.

That fresh pot of coffee is calling me and you know what they say...coffee is the best thing to douse the sunrise with.

Laughlin

We left Vegas on Saturday morning and drove to Laughlin.  Only about 120 some miles.  Nice, short, scenic drive.  We had driven through there before but had never stopped.  But before we headed into the city, we drove a short distance to drive into California.

We stayed at Don Laughlin's Riverside RV Park.  It was okay for a one night stay.  Cable TV and WI-FI and a short walk to their casino.

Don Lauglin is a gambling entrepreneur and rancher and the town is named after him.  He bought property there in the mid 1960's starting out with an 8 room motel of which he could only rent 4 rooms because his family occupied the other 4.  Today, his Riverside property has over 1400 rooms and there are 10 casinos.

The water taxi takes you from casino to casino and the view from the Colorado River is very nice.

I went and played at Riverside and Harrah's by myself that afternoon.  At Riverside they actually have machines that still pay in coins!  They have some that spit out the voucher, but it was fun to hear the coins jingle.  I did break my streak and managed to break even.  

That night, Doug and I took the water taxi to Joe's Crab Shack.  Dinner was good and waiters entertained.

We took the water taxi down to Harrah's and played a bit and then back up the river to Riverside.  Along the way, you pass the Colorado Belle which has beautiful neon.

We had fun in Laughlin and will probably go back there some day.  I mean, they got some of my money that I have to try to get back and the coffee at Harrah's was really good!

We left Laughlin Sunday morning to drive to the Grand Canyon.  We took a short stretch of Route 66 from Kingman to Seligman.  One of the towns you pass through is Hackberry which has a collection of old stuff and a small gift shop.  Cool place.

We got settled in at the Grand Canyon KOA and Doug wanted a snack.  Okay, how about some chips and dip?  Look what happened to the potato chip bag!  Is that an altitude thing?

Well the season premier of Two and a Half Men is on and I just have to see Ashton Kutcher to see how he does.  That and a fresh cup of coffee...perfect night!

Caffeine isn't a drug, it's a vitamin!  ~Author Unknown