Summer Trip 2010 #4

We left Forest City, Iowa on Sunday morning and headed for Sturgis, SD for the motorcycle rally. We were having a great trip, enjoying the beautiful scenery, and the beautiful weather, when all of a sudden, Jim said the motorhome lost power and was belching black smoke out the exhaust. We could barely make 35 miles per hour on even a very small grade. It was about 10 anxious miles to a rest area, where Jim call the Freightliner help line. It was comforting to know that we were still under warrenty and Freightliner would cover a tow if we needed it. After talking to customer service at Freightliner and to customer service at Cummins (engine), we decided to drive the RV the 40 miles to Sioux Falls, SD to the Cummins Engine Service. We spent the night in their parking lot and the next morning they started on the RV promptly at 7:30am. Jim had already looked at the engine and found a turbo boost hose on the engine had blown off. Cummins found the cause to be a broken clamp. We were on our way in an hour. The rest of the drive went great. We reached Sturgis, SD Monday afternoon and got our motorcycles unloaded and the RV set up and we are again happy campers. Our little trailer hauling our motorcycles has done just fine. When we got to the campground, the owner (Matt) came out and gave us a big hug and big welcome. (This is our third time here). We are camped up on top of a hill where we have wonderful views of the Black Hills, and a constant breeze. We are looking forward to being here a few weeks. After we unloaded the bikes, and parked the bikes and RV, Matt hooked up our trailer and brought it up the hill for us and parked it near the motorhome. Our tattoo artist friends from Germany are already here. They come every year all the way from Germany. They say the money is that good. We also got reacquainted with the little kids that walked our dogs for us during the day, only they are not little anymore. Brady and Layton are now 15 and 16 years old. I was worried they might feel to big to be dog walkers but Layton said he would be glad to. Brady the 16 year old will be working the campground resturant this year and he is really excited about earning lots of money. Next week is the pre-rally for bike week. We have been told that they are expecting 700-800 people this year. Jim and I were going to ride out to the grocery store and the Buffalo Chip campground to get concert tickets this afternoon but it looks like rain. Since we have no car, we will have to wait til the rain clears. I am definitely a fair weather biker!

Summer Trip 2010 #3

The rally went into full swing starting Monday. The day was full of RV seminars, entertainment, arts and crafts - you name it - there was something to do everyday all day. Some of my favorites were a tribute to Elvis by a young man named Brad Boice. He sure was great. He put on a show in the morning and then again in the afternoon. Janet and I enjoyed the morning show together and when he sang Blue Hawaii, he picked me and this other lady to get up and be his hula dancers while he sang. It was a riot. Of course we didn't have the camera with us! Then in the afternoon, Jim and I watched his show again. Jim thought he was the best Elvis impersonator he'd ever seen and we've seen a lot. Jim and Joe spent most of the days attending various seminars. Jim must have asked a million questions at each of them. Joe said he had to leave after an hour; it was just too much technical info at once, but not Jim he stayed to the bitter end. Monday evening they had a Comedian, Jeff Allen from TN, for the main entertainment. He talked about his wife and kids (teen boys) throughout the whole evening and if you ever raised teenagers, you couldn't help but laugh your ass off. Jim and I were thinking we sure can relate to a lot of his stories with Donnie and Davie stories. They offered hot air balloon rides, first come first served, in the evenings starting around six. I almost forgot about it when Janet reminded me and we rode over to the balloon location on our bikes and were able to get in line right behind two other people so we were assured to get on. I have always been fascinated with watching hot air balloons but never went up on one and never realized how much work it was to get it up. It took several people holding ropes to spread out the balloon on the ground and then they used this powerful fan and blew air into the balloon. It took quite a while to get it set up and then they no sooner got it up when a storm brewed up real fast and they immediately took it down and deflated the whole thing. After about a half hour they started the whole procedure again and this time we were able to go up. It was tethered to the ground so we didn't fly off anywhere but we definitely got the feeling of being up in the air. Tuesday was the row parties. All the states cook up a meal or treat special to their state and you go around sampling all the different treats. Virginia row cooked up Brunswick Stew. Our state got a lot of compliments on how tasty our stew was. They also had a polka band that drove around the campground going up and down all the state rows playing and cutting up with the audience. One of the performers in the band is a guy dressed up as a woman. I think he called himself Melvina. As you can see from the attached picture, he was having a ball cutting up with everyone. He sat down in my chair with me and wanted to know whose boobs were bigger mine or his - and of course his were! Wednesday night the entertainment was the Blooze Brothers Band from Chicago. There were excellent. Two of the singers were called Jake and Elwood imitating Joe Balushi (sp?) and Dan Akroyd from Saturday night live. It was a great show and the band had so much fun they even played an extra half hour. Jim and I and Janet and Joe enjoyed dancing to the oldies but goodies from the 70's. So much fun. The last entertainment for the rally was Thursday night. It featured Barbara and Frank (the concert that never was) from Las Vegas, NV. They were great too and if you didn't know better you would have thought it was really Barbara Streisand and Frank Sinatra. Thursday night we had a terrific rain storm after the show. The campground was a muddy mess on Friday, when a lot of people were leaving. Lots of folks got stuck and some even swerved into other motorhomes as they were trying to negotiate their way through the mud. One of our VA state row friends RV got struck. Thankfully they are scheduled for service on Monday at the factory so they will be able to get their paint job fixed. That is one thing you do not want to do is slide when your trying to negotiate those big motorhomes. Jim and I and Joe and Janet stayed on an extra day so we didn't have to get caught up in the slippery getaway. Joe and Janet are leaving for home in Oklahoma on Saturday and Jim and I will leave on Sunday. Jim is scheduled to tour the Historic Minute Man Missile Site near Wall, SD. It is now a national park offering tours of a cold war missile silo. After that, we will go straight to Sturgis for Bike Week pre-rally and rally. After the rally, Mason and Judy are joining us to finish up our trip. We will be back home about the 3rd week of August.

Summer Trip 2010 #2

We have been busy enjoying the pre-rally this week. We've been checking out the little stores down town and have enjoyed eating breakfast in town. Thursday night, we had a row party with all the RV'rs from VA. We really had a grand time and have met some people who have a home not far from us in Stafford, but they rented out their home and decided to full time it for two years. Friday night, our Winnebago club from VA met at the Branding Iron (a steak resturant) in a little town of Thompson not far from Forest City. Every time we come to the rally we travel to this steak resturant for a delightful dinner. The pictures above are of Jim and I and Joe and Janet at the Branding Iron. We've been stopping in everyday at the little Winnebago surplus store here at the campground. I bought several bolts of upholstery material. Don't know what I'm going to do with it but at $2 a roll, I had to get it. Janet got a beautiful queen size bedspread for $5. Joe bought a sheet of Iron On Winnebago logos for 25 cents. Jim wouldn't spend the 25 cents because he wanted to see how Joe's logos turned out. Well Joe ironed the logo on a hat and Jim was like a puppy dog asking Joe if he was going to share some of the logos with him. And being the good guy that Joe is, he cut off a few for Jim to iron on. You would have thought Jim had a real prize there. He was routing around in the closet looking for shirts to iron on the logos. Saturday was Puckerbrush Day in town. So we went to town to watch the parade. They also had entertainment all day on the courthouse lawns and out in the main street. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the little kids catching candy from all various parade units and after the parade they had a tractor pull for little kids. It was so cute watching them. We took Baxter to the Parade with us since we are crate training him I didn't think he could hold himself for the time we were at the parade. He wasn't the least bit impressed with all the noise and people. He preferred to sleep the whole time. But as soon as we got back to the campground he knew where he was and he was fired up. He was running all around and greeting people and other dogs and just having a ball. There must be 40 or so other little Yorkies here. The last pic above is Baxter in his puppy diaper. We are crate training him but we don't want to keep him in the crate all the time in the motorhome so when we're there with him we put the diaper on him and let him have the run of the place. He doesn't seem to mind it and I'm sure it beats staying in the crate. The Grand National Rally kicks off Sunday evening. Prior to that our VA row is going to have a wine and cheese party before the festivities.

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Summer Trip 2010 #1

Well we are on the road again in our RV. We left home July 6th and our first stop is the Winnebago Grand National Rally in Forest City, Iowa. Our next stop is Sturgis, SD. We don't have a tow car on this trip but we are towing our motorcycles in a trailer. This will be a new experience for us, not having a car. We met up with friends from our Winnebago club from Virginia and also our two friends, Joe and Janet Utley, from Tulsa, Oklahoma at Amana, Iowa. Then we all caravaned to Forest City Forest City on Sunday. After getting set up, the four of us took a ride around town and pointed out the Winnebago factory to Joe and Janet and the grocery store, etc. The town is very small, only about 4,000 population. But it is a very family oriented town. After our ride and ice cream at A&W, we went back to the town square and listened to the Forest City Municiple Band under the shade of the oak trees. It was a very enjoyable first night. Jim and Joe go back a long way as airplane buddies. Joe and Janet recently bought a Winnebago motorhome and we invited them to meet us at the rally. This week is known as the pre-rally. Not a whole lot is going on, except trips downtown Forest City and lots of happy hours. We have a pot luck dinner planned for all the Virginia RVr's here at the rally on Thursday. Then our club is going to go to a steak resturant called the Branding Iron just outside of Forest City. The town of Forest City celebrates Puckerbrush Day (I told you it was a small town) and they have a parade, and all kinds of entertainment and they close off the main street in town and set up these big cookers for chicken and corn. So we'll be going there on Saturday. Sunday is the kickoff day for the Grand National Rally and all kinds of activities are planned. Oh and before I forget, we have a new addition to our family. We have a little 12 week old Yorkie, named Baxter. He is the cutest thing and he has really gotten in to this camping. He loves going for walks and greeting people and when we head back to the motorhome he goes racing across the lawn and knows which motorhome to stop at. That is pretty amazing since they are expecting 1200 motorhomes this year and most of them are already here.

Winter Trip -2010 #13

We had a great trip to Ocean Springs, MS. The Kuhl's were great hosts. We got to go to the casino in Biloxi, MS twice-- you know I was happy! We enjoyed buffet dinners on both occasions thanks to Nan and her comps. Both buffets had crab legs to die for. I was in crab heaven. And to top it off, on the second visit, right at the last moment, I won $571 on the penny machine. At first I thought I won $57 then when it kept going, I realized I won $571. It was very exciting. So my total wins for our trip was $1100. Not too bad. On Sunday, we went to another Diner from my book of Funky Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It is called Manci's Antique Club Restaurant and is located in Daphne, AL which is about 45 minutes from the Kuhls. Dave, Jim and I went. The restaurant has all kinds of weird antiques about the place. In the lady's room, there is a wooden figure of Adam (of Adam and Eve) with a fig leave covering his privates. (see pic above). If a lady should lift the fig leaf, a siren goes off all over the building. The locals know exactly what happened and break out in cat calls and applause. I admit I was tempted to lift the leaf, but I knew what would happen so I didn't lift it. Before we left some lady did go in and lifted the leaf and boy that siren was loud. A little girl sitting with her family goes, oh my gosh, someone looked! Anyway it was funny as hell and the food was very good too. After Ocean Springs, Jim and I continued our journey towards home. We spent the night at a Wal Mart just outside Atlanta, GA and that evening we headed out for another diner. This was called The Highlander and was located right in the middle of Atlanta. We used our GPS to get there and had no problems with traffic or directions. This restaurant is known for its unusal art on the walls and their great food. One of their specialties mentioned in my book was their home-made cheese sticks. So I had to try the cheese sticks and they were great. It was a fun atmosphere and we had a great meal. We left Atlanta, GA and made our way the next day to another diner in Tucker, GA called Matthews Cafeteria. The food here is southern home cooked food and was very very good. We met the owner, Mark and he was very gracious to us and thanked us for coming. We really enjoyed our experience. This evening, we are spending the night in Gafney, NC. We tried another diner in Spartanburg, SC called the Beacon Drive-In. This is a cafeteria style restaurant with the menu posted to a wall as you walk in. Then they have a caller at the end of the food bar and you tell him what you want and he calls out the order. Their hamburgers are covered with fries and onion rings and is called in as Hamburger - A- Plenty. The restaurant was started in 1946 and was sold to the current owners on the basis that they promised not to change anything about the menu or the way the restaurant is run. It was a very unique experience to go there and our burgers were great too. We also met one of the owners this evening and he signed my book and thanked us for visiting. Well we have run out of diners to visit and should get home tomorrow afternoon. Its been a great trip. We loved visiting with relatives, and friends and loved visiting different parts of the country that we haven't seen before. Right now though, home is looking very good.

Winter Trip 2010 #13

Well our two weeks in Harlingen, TX went by so fast we can hardly believe it is over. We had such a great time. The weather was perfect and our friends couldn't have done more to keep us entertained. I was telling Jim, it seemed everywhere we went there was music and seniors were dancing, laughing and having a grand time. It was so good to see people enjoying themselves. Harlingen does such a wonderful job of making "Winter Texans" feel welcome. There are welcome signs everywhere. One of our fun times was going to Pepe's on the river. They had wonderful entertainment and a huge dance floor and the place was jammed packed in the middle of the afternoon. We went over to Progresso, Mexico about 3 times. It was only after we left Texas that we heard about how bad Mexico is getting and it turns out Progresso is one of the only cities left that is heavily protected to ensure tourists are safe. After Harlingen we went to a Thousand Trails campground in Columbia, TX about halfway between Austin and Houston. We are still checking off diners from our book of Funky Diners, Drive-in and Cafes in the U.S. One of the Cafes in our book was located in Austin, called the Magnolia Cafe on S. Congress St. so we decided to go and check it out. The restaurant was wonderful and food excellent. It was extremely crowded but once you got seated the service was outstanding. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit. I noticed a lot of the customers looked like performers because of the way they dressed and the strange hairdo's. I started reading some of the pictures on the walls and realized Austin is known as the Music Capital of the U.S. (I always thought Nashville was). Later we rode through town and we realized that a music festival was going on so we parked and enjoyed the music for the afternoon. A lady sitting next to us told us it was a music festival with performers coming from all over the world to perform. Most of the concerts were free and there were concerts going on all up and down Congress St. We really had a great time. The next day we were hooking the truck up to the motorhome. I was in the truck and Jim was standing behind the motorhome and in front of the truck. The motorhome was running. All of a sudden I saw the backup lights come on the motorhome and I pointed to Jim to look up. Jim went around to check inside the motorhome and our dog Charlie had put the motorhome in reverse. Thank God the air brake was on, and the motorhome didn't move. So now we know we can't leave Charlie in the motorhome with the motor running. Jim says no telling what the little black s__t will do next. Nothing like a little excitement. The next night we spent at a WalMart in Lafayette, LA. We went to a Cajun restaurant called PreJeans recommended by Jim's brother Mason. The food was really good and they had a Cajun band playing music. We met a couple at the next table and spent the evening talking with them. It was a great time. We are now in Ocean Springs, MS spending the weekend with a classmate of Jim's from West Virginia, Dave and Nan Kuhl. We started off our weekend visit with a trip over to Biloxi, MS for dinner and gambling. I was pretty lucky and won $47.00, so needless to say we are looking forward to a nice weekend visit.

Winter Trip-2010 #12

We have been having a wonderful time in Harlingen, TX, catching up with old friends, Mason and Flo and Kenny & Jerry from Oklahoma. They have been wintering in the valley now for eight years. The weather has been beautiful. We've been enjoying having dinners together, flea markets, and going to Mexico. Progresso, Mexico is about 30 minutes from Flo and Mason's Campground. We also went to Border Fest which was kicked off with a 2 hour parade. The parade was awesome. They must have had a hundred floats, a couple high school bands, motorcycle clubs, beauty queens and my favorite of course was the horses. We saw lots of paso fino horses and it was really cool to watch them. The middle picture above is one of my favorites - this dad and daughter are making wonderful memories together. That little girl was so cute and she rode the whole ride. We even saw Charo at Border Fest. She is still a good entertainer. I remember seeing her some 20 years ago in Hawaii and she still has the crowds laughing and clapping the whole time she is on stage. We all went to Padre Island today to watch the spring breakers but the fog was so thick and it never lifted so we couldn't see the beach goers but we did have a nice lunch at the beach. We leave Harlingen, TX on Monday, March 15th.