Red Bay, Alabama: WD-40 & Duct Tape Wizard

It's been said all you need to survive in life are the following two items: WD-40 & Duct Tape. Use according to these instructions:

1. If it doesn't move and it's supposed to move, squirt it with WD-40.
   
2. If it moves and it's not supposed to move, 'duct tape it'.

That's it. The secret to many a supposedly 'mechanically inclined' guy.

Anything that can't be fixed (at least temporarily) with WD-40 and/or duct tape needs professional help. And of course, many of the repairs accomplished with WD-40 & Duct Tape will eventually need to be re-done. No matter. Both items have saved the day for more people than live in China... well, more people than live in Mayberry, South Carolina... I mean, even the Apollo crew used duct tape to repair/improvise fender extensions on the moon rover.

Why do I share this secret with you. Just so you know the repair I made to the windshield on the RV today was exactly what any handy professional 'in the field' would have done. Let me start at the beginning.

This morning started with Mary Lynn finding a few drops of water on the dashboard of the RV. She had noticed a small draft coming from her side of the RV's windshield when we last drove the RV in November. Imagine my surprise this morning when I investigated and found a small gap about 1/8 inch wide and 4 inches long. I could see the sky way too clearly through this gap. Hint: you should not be able to see ANY sky between the windshield and the roof.

When I looked at this area from the outside I realized the windshield had separated from the RV in the top right corner. The solution? Let's see: moving and not supposed to move, that would be .... Duct tape (took me a minute to consult the instructions). Actually the duct tape worked quite well. We drove for about 9 hours today and at least half of that time it was raining.

And you know what? No leaks. Enough of an emergency repair to get us to Red Bay. Now the professionals get to remove and re-install the windshield.

Today was a long travel day. We left Wytheville, Virginia and travelled south to Nashville and then Chattanooga Tennessee, clipped the corner of Georgia, and then travelled across all of Alabama from east to west.

We arrived in Red Bay, Alabama, which is on the Alabama / Mississippi border about 10:30 pm EST. Of course Red Bay is in the Central time zone so we had to reset the clocks. The benefit? We get to sleep an hour later tomorrow. We start at 7am to get registered and 'in line' to have some warranty work performed on the RV.

Oh well. Despite a few issues it still feels great to be on the road again. Not sure how long we'll be here at the Tiffin service center since we don't have an appointment but I'm thankful the windshield issue popped up (or out?) now rather than when we are 2000 miles from the factory.

Always a great day on the road... See Ya!

Wytheville, Virginia: Give Me The Heat or I'll Have to Leave

After spending the holidays with our family and friends we are back on the road. Actually we originally planned to leave a week ago however we spent an extra week at home playing host to a flu bug. Entertaining little fellow but that's a different story...

The flu only lasts a week if you get flu shots; if you don't get the flu shot, the flu lasts for seven days. Thank goodness we both got flu shots in October.

We left Maryland around noon after getting the RV back in shape. Funny; everything worked perfectly when we got back to Maryland in late November. Here it is early January and suddenly there are a number of systems that are not working exactly right.

I did the winterizing myself so now I'm wondering if I did it right. Nah, couldn't be cockpit error -- that only happens to other people, not to me...

In any case, most systems are now functioning except the water system which I did not want to de-winterize until we get further south where the temperatures do not go below the freezing point.
Here in Wytheville (far southern Virginia near the Tenessee border) it is about 45 degrees at 10:30 pm EST. HUGE improvement over the freezing temps back in Maryland. I should be able to re-connect and charge the water system tomorrow morning and then -- we continue our search for warm weather.

Currently we plan to head south until we hit mild weather and then turn right (west) and head for Arizona. We may stop in Red Bay, Alabama at the Tiffin factory. We have a slide we want them to adjust.

After being on the road for 9 months last year I can't tell you how good it feels to be travelling again. Even though we miss the kids we really enjoy seeing this beautiful country -- at least the warm parts...

See Ya!

Monrovia, Maryland: Quick, Which Way To The Warm Weather?

We left Phoenix last week to make our way (slowly) back to Maryland. Along the way we stopped in Tulsa to see our oldest son Christopher and his lovely bride Rachael. As always, it was great to see them. Also great were the temperatures in the mid-60's; in fact, the day we left the forecast was for 70 degrees.

On Wednesday we drove from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Jackson, Tennessee, a distance of 486 miles. I've driven that distance in a single day in a car many times however it's a little different in an RV. Really need to pay attention to keeping that big rig between the lines; especially fun when an 18 wheeler blasts by, blowing you onto the shoulder.

On Thursday we did it again, driving from Jackson, TN to Wytheville, Virginia. Except, as we drove across the Tennessee border into Virginia, we hit snow showers. Can you believe it?

Mary Lynn's immediate response? -- "Turn this RV around and go south until we find warm weather" said in a rather severe tone. Actually, she said that repeatedly as I tried to find a way to get all the snow off of the wipers.

We stayed at a campground in Wythevile and woke to about an inch of snow this morning. The roads were a mess so we purposely started late before driving from Wytheville to our home in Monrovia, Maryland.

Strong, gusty winds made the trip interesting however we arrived safe and sound around 6 pm this evening. Feels good to be back in a 'full sized' house again. I opened the refrigerator and just stood there staring at the luxury of space. Wow!

Mary Lynn kept caressing the dishwasher; so much so that if the dishwasher was alive I'd be worried.

See Ya!

Tulsa, Oklahoma: Slowly Headed To The East Coast

We are now in Tulsa, Oklahoma visiting our son Christopher and his new bride Rachael. This is the first time we've seen them since the wedding in late July and we are having a great time.

As you may remember, we spent a few days in Albuquerque, New Mexico before heading east on US 40. We left Albuquerque, travelling east and then stopped for one night in Amarillo, Texas.

Albuquerque was great and we will definitely go back. We explored several museums and a portion of the Torquoise Road however there is a lot more to see in New Mexico. We need to get to Santa Fe, Taos, and Roswell at a minimum. Santa Fe and Taos have some of the best scenery available in the west along with lots of Pueblo's and art galleries.

I would like to follow the torquoise Road out to Madrid, the small town highlighted in the film "Wild Hogs".

And Roswell is famous as the home of Area 51, believed by some to be the site of an alien spaceship crash back in the 50's.

Oh, and there is Los Alamos, where the atomic bomb was developed in great secrecy during WW II.

They (they being Texans) say that everything is bigger in Texas. Just outside of Abilene, Texas there is a field of the large windmills. These windmills, which are massive devices for generating electricity, are becoming increasingly popular throughout windy areas of the US.

Well, we drove for over 5 minutes alongside this massive Texas windmill farm. Mile after mile of windmills. The largest windmill farm we've seen to date. And of course it was extremely breezy with lots of wind gusts. This always makes driving the RV interesting, to say the least. You have to really focus to keep the RV in the appropriate lane, especially when an 18 wheeler passes you or you pass them. Fun!

Today we attended church with Christopher and Rachael before watching the Redskins Vs Dallas football game. Rachael had rented the large screen TV room at their apartment complex to celebrate Christopher's birthday. We had a great time despite the Skin's losing to Dallas. Oh well.
We'll be here in Tulsa until Wednesday when we'll once again point the RV towards the east coast. We should get to Maryland on Saturday/Sunday. Just in time to get everything ready for a Thanksgiving Feast with many of our relatives.

See Ya!

Albuquerque, New Mexico: Getting Frisky In Albuquerque -- Enchanting

We are now in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The city of Albuquerque is tucked into the base of the Sandia Mountains which makes it beautiful however that's not what makes it so special.

No, what makes it special is the quality of the light which is an incredibly pure blue and has an almost mystical quality. At night the clear air causes the city lights appear as 1000's of individual points of light that sparkle and twinkle with the mountain faintly visible in the background. Absolutely beautiful.

This afternoon we had time to go the the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center which represents all of the Pueblo's located along the Rio Grande River. The museum was interesting however it is really just an excuse for the gift shop, which displayed many very expensive carvings and bronzes.

How expensive? So expensive I warned Mary Lynn not to touch any of the items the same way I used to warn the kids not to touch when they were young. There were items in the gift shop selling for over $25,000 dollars.

Not your average trinkets and trash here, no sirree. The gift shop offers beautiful paintings, bronzes, jewelry, pottery and massive stone carvings of the same quality as the items on display in the museum.

Fortunately, we have no room in the RV for new items, expensive or otherwise! Even more fortunately both MLA and I were able to avoid breaking any of the items for sale (or the non sale exhibits for that matter).

MLA said it best. The museum was a good museum however the museum should have been free and they should have charged for touring the gift shop. The museum's policy of not allowing any photographs (not even in the gift shop!) was very disappointing, and as a result I cannot share with you the beauty of the Indian artifacts.

After touring the Pueblo museum we had enough time to squeeze in another museum and MLA was nice enough to go with me to the museum that caught my eye: The Rattlesnake Museum.

You can take photos as long as you do not use the flash. Fortunately the displays were very well lit and I was able to get a few good pictures.

This place should be called a Zoo rather than a museum since it has the largest (their claim) collection of live rattlesnakes along with a good number of (live) spiders, lizards, tortoises, frogs and scorpions. Basically almost any reptile that has a potentially lethal bite or sting is on display.

I was able to identify the rattlesnake MLA almost stepped on in South Dakota as the Prairie Rattlesnake, which is found in one of the largest geographical territories of any rattlesnake. In fact, this snake's range includes parts of Mexico all the way up into a small portion of Canada. Pretty impressive.

The displays at the Rattlesnake museum are really large aquariums with lids attached, although the lids looked like they could be a little more securely locked in place. In fact, the fear of one of these little buggers having 'escaped' made it impossible to wander around the crowded exhibits without carefully looking around. I was constantly scanning for an 'escapee'. The ad for the place said they had rattlesnake t-shirts "To Die For" however I didn't see anything I really liked.

We also explored some of Albuquerque's old town, which is home to many, many art galleries along with lots of stores that cater to tourists including lots of turquoise jewelry, Indian artifacts and clothing.

The picture above shows a couple of tortoises getting frisky. A tortoise may be slow but the fella above was quick enough to catch her. What he lacked in speed he more than made up for in enthusiasm. Every 10-15 seconds or so he would thrust so hard I thought he would knock the large barrel that serves as their home right off the table. I mean, it was very impressive.

Of course, it was MLA who discovered this pair in a back room; she found me and drug me back to see all of he commotion. Too funny.

See Ya!