tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50882017515932634062024-03-13T10:35:34.870-07:00The RV Adventures of Jim & PegThe full time adventures of Jim and Peg as they travel the highways and byways of the North American Continent in their Class A, 40' Monaco motorhome.American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.comBlogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-68971151349496481462011-07-26T23:01:00.000-07:002011-09-18T17:53:52.546-07:00Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Campfire!<div style="text-align: justify;">The title of this entry seems to say it all. I am going to condense the rest of this week since we saw and did a variety of things and I want to highlight the more interesting of those entities.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoNx7B3dj2qMrbU8QPlNV4nCrtE0bIXFZgZC1A31GIgU_rI82MtscOaQ3L8y7u1rP87TemkRhnkDFjZwyHNEraM9i_NCytv0CFoaYFwOa8YxUQZXu_onOTWfSX-e1Q8J9hwVHPeTChqpw/s1600/BeachArea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoNx7B3dj2qMrbU8QPlNV4nCrtE0bIXFZgZC1A31GIgU_rI82MtscOaQ3L8y7u1rP87TemkRhnkDFjZwyHNEraM9i_NCytv0CFoaYFwOa8YxUQZXu_onOTWfSX-e1Q8J9hwVHPeTChqpw/s200/BeachArea.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We had to make a Walmart run and the closest store was in Traverse City. We decided to make a day of it and headed off onto some back roads the GPS lead us down. I guess it was in the mood to see some of the little known sites (and roads) so it finally got us to Traverse City and let me tell you, it was a busy place. We learned that this week was the week of the Traverse City Film Festival. The festival brings an enormous amount of people into that area and the retail stores were in heaven! After going to Walmart, we drove along the shore of Lake Michigan and noticed the small beach areas and numerous parks. After a short cruise, we parked the car downtown behind the stores and walked onto the main street.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXxq7IdxBxHHMIB-XPPvlMDyNA8ZXoYQLR9ET5VgI5CpxaVLxsxXg1XCOwlqXxWvYpsKMrYlZ8HBa64Y00ojRlW296mzX5iiy09nuW82MdvMgyK-gC2cCQGCd8PRXH-2MyJkG_oxUWfX6N/s1600/FilmFestBanner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXxq7IdxBxHHMIB-XPPvlMDyNA8ZXoYQLR9ET5VgI5CpxaVLxsxXg1XCOwlqXxWvYpsKMrYlZ8HBa64Y00ojRlW296mzX5iiy09nuW82MdvMgyK-gC2cCQGCd8PRXH-2MyJkG_oxUWfX6N/s200/FilmFestBanner.jpg" width="200" /></a>The streets were buzzing with activity and most of the stores were open and filled with customers. A large banner stretching across the street proclaimed The Traverse City Film Festival and we were amazed at how many little shops there were with such a variety of unique things for sale. One store caught our eye, since it was cherry season, so we went inside. It is called the Cherry Republic and had everything that could be made from cherries. We sampled the various cherry sodas, chocolate covered cherry pieces, cherry wines and a host of other samples. They even had a Sangria made specifically for cherry soda. Of course we again helped the economy of the area with our purchases.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4kjZ2Vn5m8-YNj74TdDAtGbvq3FEEafYfKoX4g7feblCzRR0dZ_0jUwDWV3qmvY9pFerWex0aQY8Y42KZ69xf8mvO4e4DbUpkkNrLrzyegJ4cOJkdH56IHLXYgjUaeE8kaQuOr9itmV_l/s1600/CherryRepublic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4kjZ2Vn5m8-YNj74TdDAtGbvq3FEEafYfKoX4g7feblCzRR0dZ_0jUwDWV3qmvY9pFerWex0aQY8Y42KZ69xf8mvO4e4DbUpkkNrLrzyegJ4cOJkdH56IHLXYgjUaeE8kaQuOr9itmV_l/s200/CherryRepublic.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We traveled around town and was told one of the better places to eat was only a few blocks up town at Bubbas. So we started walking...and walking...and walking some more. I guess the girl in the Cherry Republic store must always take her car there because this was no short walk. We finally found Bubbas and went in. We ended up eating at the bar where the drinks came quick and the the food was also quite fast. I had a burger and Peg had a Chicken Quesadillas. Both were very good. We carbed-up for the lengthy walk back to the car!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFL2xP1CRfMJpQhfeO0izCE0dCM36drmXfSY8rLCzIy4REDKtAalk1DNB4xvcESjyGYq-wT0MBQ5tKgUWYDbUpQpY1dgo6PPGRHvRaZwxkgt2IzNqcYqTbJA27DvdJ8Uk75A-4rE5q1zBz/s1600/SleepingBear-Sunset1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFL2xP1CRfMJpQhfeO0izCE0dCM36drmXfSY8rLCzIy4REDKtAalk1DNB4xvcESjyGYq-wT0MBQ5tKgUWYDbUpQpY1dgo6PPGRHvRaZwxkgt2IzNqcYqTbJA27DvdJ8Uk75A-4rE5q1zBz/s200/SleepingBear-Sunset1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvguyLthAA2KjyfjQCtvSTpQbKCl4dvX03hK_aeXO4Guv3EIenhz7Qv9sA-qt4-MYeHjrA7fchsktu9pqtZ5CCLYhtMusZ9vvmY9-RYjAiNwJxzAXvVy4WXV9zFTLSgbQ2Ygy6eFx-0ZDC/s1600/SleepingBear-Sunset2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvguyLthAA2KjyfjQCtvSTpQbKCl4dvX03hK_aeXO4Guv3EIenhz7Qv9sA-qt4-MYeHjrA7fchsktu9pqtZ5CCLYhtMusZ9vvmY9-RYjAiNwJxzAXvVy4WXV9zFTLSgbQ2Ygy6eFx-0ZDC/s200/SleepingBear-Sunset2.jpg" width="200" /></a>The next night we drove to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes and took the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive up to the top of the dunes. You park and walk about 1/4 mile to the edge of the dune and a view to die for! You look over Lake Michigan from the dunes and the suspended viewing platform/walkway. It was a great sunset that evening as you can see by these two photos. Quite a number of people apparently thought the same thing since the area seemed to be a popular place. I was shooting video while Peg took photos. I got my phone camera out and snapped a few shots as well.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbOPhW01RsF-bRZ2hau2OWZLkbH5FyjS73mHXW4pm2PmLsFslTpDIEHjjJzjyTvniNmceXx2mP8tFYoEFdZBZQtdj0EgRk0v3YftVyJOYu7DG0_jz7wYByp4Q0rAq3jSl5yuFbOijY2AZo/s1600/SleepingBear-Dune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbOPhW01RsF-bRZ2hau2OWZLkbH5FyjS73mHXW4pm2PmLsFslTpDIEHjjJzjyTvniNmceXx2mP8tFYoEFdZBZQtdj0EgRk0v3YftVyJOYu7DG0_jz7wYByp4Q0rAq3jSl5yuFbOijY2AZo/s200/SleepingBear-Dune.jpg" width="200" /></a>On day three (Thursday) we hung out at the campsite at Indigo Bluffs. I worked on the American RVer show for August and and Peg watched some TV and made some cherry tarts (go figure) and some rice pudding for one of our meals. So, since we had an uneventful day, we decided to have our campfire tonight. One of the things I noticed about this area is the lack of bugs. At night, there were few mosquitos and it was really pleasant to sit out by the fire. The air was cool, just right to watch the flames jump up towards the sky and feel the heat. Of course we had to make some s'mores (a diabetic's nightmare) which we chased down with our newly purchased wine. A nice ending to that day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81WP9u8BW8bJGUXw2dd5Tr85bMWpSmtcS6R8LXOQ5w9Gjmgl_Fz4adgqC5VXYBkBpTS74b72kxQuR3T4NDep2HGkecJgIYCsYZIt4lTsCv0H_websEeLd6cum_U0uZaGMd8QZ0-cP7cAM/s1600/JimAtFire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81WP9u8BW8bJGUXw2dd5Tr85bMWpSmtcS6R8LXOQ5w9Gjmgl_Fz4adgqC5VXYBkBpTS74b72kxQuR3T4NDep2HGkecJgIYCsYZIt4lTsCv0H_websEeLd6cum_U0uZaGMd8QZ0-cP7cAM/s200/JimAtFire.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs0iQIbiqM1j6QghFvemkQZwEfmFlChMsWXFQ569ZhtOlR9BtnGxfACE7TNK-GFfRtQ4XfdW7OkOUj_BRRRVvyPKfJXIy9Ajuy90CpzfBnlIxEq4O1sS9-8sPJsx04-VH_PlWnGuq_CsA2/s1600/PegAtFire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs0iQIbiqM1j6QghFvemkQZwEfmFlChMsWXFQ569ZhtOlR9BtnGxfACE7TNK-GFfRtQ4XfdW7OkOUj_BRRRVvyPKfJXIy9Ajuy90CpzfBnlIxEq4O1sS9-8sPJsx04-VH_PlWnGuq_CsA2/s200/PegAtFire.jpg" width="200" /></a>Our vacation at Indigo Bluffs was really nice but it ended too soon. I hope to go back up there another summer and check out more of the area and maybe even go swimming in Lake Michigan. Tomorrow we follow RV friends Millie and Jerry Cohen north to Hearthside Grove in Petosky, Michigan. Hearthside is supposed to be a very high end RV Resort and we have heard a lot about it. Since we are this close, and we could get a free night there, we decided to try it out...</div>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-70213078656297746352011-07-25T20:53:00.000-07:002011-09-17T16:41:15.195-07:00The Michigan Experience<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOD1R71pU9zQcBcojTm43Ak9-TKc_VXZhz0n10Y_j42eYsmmaTexVyGCFVyFRg7MibIVmBIedsqcysGjOLG3je-EHrov9yJXkyfPiQsZ9GIwRqQWrCVi-xpOvcVhvBPAoJ5LfiOmPqCxGa/s1600/RV-Front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOD1R71pU9zQcBcojTm43Ak9-TKc_VXZhz0n10Y_j42eYsmmaTexVyGCFVyFRg7MibIVmBIedsqcysGjOLG3je-EHrov9yJXkyfPiQsZ9GIwRqQWrCVi-xpOvcVhvBPAoJ5LfiOmPqCxGa/s200/RV-Front.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">We're on vacation so we get up late and go to bed late. My kind of schedule! Peg awoke earlier than I and began to plan our week long itinerary. We ate breakfast outside on the patio and it was wonderful. The weather was suppose to be beautiful the next few days with temperatures in the 80's and low humidity. I decided to wash the bugs off the front of the motorhome and then we had a simple lunch.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhverAcTkgcAsnPmxbcGYgooaN-1v90hvvqG9_sg_khqzjkR8466FuewYGaLUrSRP5yWpwU4o07fP1VLbujYVAc-R9_nO0z55fZ9jQd8SfGrQTWQmEOy5iLazSazGg8vjmqNWQ8Bzt_ap-6/s1600/BlueLake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhverAcTkgcAsnPmxbcGYgooaN-1v90hvvqG9_sg_khqzjkR8466FuewYGaLUrSRP5yWpwU4o07fP1VLbujYVAc-R9_nO0z55fZ9jQd8SfGrQTWQmEOy5iLazSazGg8vjmqNWQ8Bzt_ap-6/s200/BlueLake.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULxxDeSIrb6ySLd64BWIHIGoqNfFSrp7rOLMSUpARmsvWqwtI1m1PB_ibY83PUTz-JhztnBaxRkQ8SpLH07SGJrxldAODfNy2mjfloekLabOP6wR2vhqJweoBB8BLc_C8lpYgfxJkl3Tv/s1600/GoodHarborWinery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULxxDeSIrb6ySLd64BWIHIGoqNfFSrp7rOLMSUpARmsvWqwtI1m1PB_ibY83PUTz-JhztnBaxRkQ8SpLH07SGJrxldAODfNy2mjfloekLabOP6wR2vhqJweoBB8BLc_C8lpYgfxJkl3Tv/s200/GoodHarborWinery.jpg" width="200" /></a>Time got away from us so it was 4:00pm before we headed up to Leland and the Fishtown area. We passed several beautiful blue lakes on the way. A winery came into view so we thought we had better stop and help out the local economy! Good Harbor Winery has been in business since the 80's and they always wanted to make wine that was affordable to the general public. Their prices ranged from about $8-12. We did a wine tasting and then purchased a few of our favorites.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjctQCV_cRxw8Pwic06D6-83dCbXx40Mz5QNs6E8COcgxvGQF9MO1JtONjPUQA2kdvO2KSAi6Qhj5R5npxQJ8IHoPRxLv1KF-D2U_XwRK7LkK_unX1b1lkvyb5QP29c62vW_EKg1pzKb4Gw/s1600/CherryTrees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjctQCV_cRxw8Pwic06D6-83dCbXx40Mz5QNs6E8COcgxvGQF9MO1JtONjPUQA2kdvO2KSAi6Qhj5R5npxQJ8IHoPRxLv1KF-D2U_XwRK7LkK_unX1b1lkvyb5QP29c62vW_EKg1pzKb4Gw/s200/CherryTrees.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Of course one of those favorites was a cherry wine. The cherries are being harvested this time of year and cherry trees could be seen all along the highways and byways in this area. We stopped at a roadside stand to get some cherries and a couple of ears of corn for dinner. I stopped to take a few photos of a stand of cherry trees along one of our routes.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7w6Hz1N1bpKcoQip8-uG_K1_HpFE8VI-YBtxkLqGN90eVjBtt741dfUaQB8Akp6_r9YG_moPV82G1J5ZLLolOrbSPBKVfp0BdYw39t0dkrlJ7qwoEniV2AjDb0Dw0sSgCmkb-KapFx3sh/s1600/Carlsons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7w6Hz1N1bpKcoQip8-uG_K1_HpFE8VI-YBtxkLqGN90eVjBtt741dfUaQB8Akp6_r9YG_moPV82G1J5ZLLolOrbSPBKVfp0BdYw39t0dkrlJ7qwoEniV2AjDb0Dw0sSgCmkb-KapFx3sh/s200/Carlsons.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqjioeWuK8RKYTY-dK5Z4C8u3a26EhwtJ_4266vmHF6za4oy9tvQKJLztbnZWK0vnY2Ivk9yMd7Ep5tpvNr5r6_jJlH9CYTwS-Bd3JZEYhvuZpfXeOh_F9lDQyMvDIOJCemFD9TsLtCg1b/s1600/Fishers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqjioeWuK8RKYTY-dK5Z4C8u3a26EhwtJ_4266vmHF6za4oy9tvQKJLztbnZWK0vnY2Ivk9yMd7Ep5tpvNr5r6_jJlH9CYTwS-Bd3JZEYhvuZpfXeOh_F9lDQyMvDIOJCemFD9TsLtCg1b/s200/Fishers.jpg" width="200" /></a>We drove on to Leland. We parked the car and wondered around the town and found Carlson's, THE place to purchase fish. We got some white fish and smoked trout. This was a quaint little town and the shop keepers were friendly. One told us about a good place to eat north of town called Fischer's Happy Hour Bar. Sounded good to us...So we headed out. We drove quite a while and we almost stopped and turned around but the GPS keep pushing us on. We did finally find it, along with MANY other visitors. We squeezed the car in to a spot and got a table inside. Peg had fried chicken and I had the biggest fried clams I had ever seen. All the food was as good as advertised!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2H_YgyTLRhMiAyNq1OrP44RLxXv_iA-4XCLiAXTFonmj4mxPNBGoY1vtK0bWRNDjGRbHAbLoSPM0LCuWj8K9TNRG6dzvDznD0jL3SYQtGIKoqei1Ukf1uPykuM9OXplBo5DVjUJY_eQO4/s1600/IndigoSign-Night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2H_YgyTLRhMiAyNq1OrP44RLxXv_iA-4XCLiAXTFonmj4mxPNBGoY1vtK0bWRNDjGRbHAbLoSPM0LCuWj8K9TNRG6dzvDznD0jL3SYQtGIKoqei1Ukf1uPykuM9OXplBo5DVjUJY_eQO4/s200/IndigoSign-Night.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It was getting late so we headed back to Indigo Bluffs. The sun sets late this time of year so it doesn't get dark until after 9:30pm. I stayed outside and read a little but Peg was getting cold (yes cold) and she went in to do some reading. The TV came on after 9:00pm and we retired later that night. A good day!</span></div>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-28041147402269634632011-07-24T15:30:00.000-07:002011-09-17T15:53:30.383-07:00Finally. . .On Vacation in Empire, Michigan!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7DVRf-3MEkjhX9T7rmANzRS0ob2Uvg-ktHhHWb6jm4F4H2krXMpuykI1O1e4lIZ1c3Ln0MFgX-RHctjWiXM9ctd0gKBIBBCzX_wDoG_WbF1tPZEjaaaAPdbtJjelsAQvJXxGgnTX4F-52/s1600/RVSite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7DVRf-3MEkjhX9T7rmANzRS0ob2Uvg-ktHhHWb6jm4F4H2krXMpuykI1O1e4lIZ1c3Ln0MFgX-RHctjWiXM9ctd0gKBIBBCzX_wDoG_WbF1tPZEjaaaAPdbtJjelsAQvJXxGgnTX4F-52/s200/RVSite.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">We arrived at Indigo Bluffs just about 3 miles from Empire, Michigan. We took many two lane roads to get here, but most of them were pretty good, even in a motorhome. We had won a week stay at Indigo Bluffs last year and decided to use the stay this year since were were going to be "up in this neck of the woods!" </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBhSaNTWauLkVBT06ZFOWPtLVO6N7osmbjLOIzzNIa6Wi27znjusjw-u4FwmCjAXnXwgYJZBsGLZe35rFV9oXzxTiDupZHrd57bqKEuXSuvBfAMwowQerrgl5GcdB6OMTCRKhAWhf9U6SX/s1600/LakeSunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBhSaNTWauLkVBT06ZFOWPtLVO6N7osmbjLOIzzNIa6Wi27znjusjw-u4FwmCjAXnXwgYJZBsGLZe35rFV9oXzxTiDupZHrd57bqKEuXSuvBfAMwowQerrgl5GcdB6OMTCRKhAWhf9U6SX/s200/LakeSunset.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Indigo Bluffs has two RV parks back to back. One is their "Resort" area where the sites are very large and separated from each other with beautiful wildflowers. The campground consists of much tighter sites and looks more like a typical public campground. We loved the spot we were in and it had pavers for both the coach and for us to sit on. An above ground fire pit is provided and firewood can be purchased for $5/bundle. We got one bundle and figured we would enjoy a fire later this week.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeakfyG0ub5TO8Q_rfMPDU7NCZZgMH4QT21QDgsD31s2i2h_fFODbHxRqAZ9ZKCiaHkGoX6BJdqWVkpquY5xUMpnXf5CA1hmPNJj2qU-6zq6_vMNc1RnttIsewJqPz7ZDvyLGdtvWSmLrB/s1600/ArtsTavern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeakfyG0ub5TO8Q_rfMPDU7NCZZgMH4QT21QDgsD31s2i2h_fFODbHxRqAZ9ZKCiaHkGoX6BJdqWVkpquY5xUMpnXf5CA1hmPNJj2qU-6zq6_vMNc1RnttIsewJqPz7ZDvyLGdtvWSmLrB/s200/ArtsTavern.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The roads into the resort are paved and make a great bike riding path. We got our bikes out and road throughout the resort and enjoyed the flowers and cooler weather. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The first night we headed over to Glen Arbor and after walking over sand dunes for about 1/2 mile to the shore of Lake Michigan to take some photos at sunset (photo above), we ate at Arts Tavern. We had burgers, onion rings and fried smelt. That hit the spot! When we returned to the motorhome, we left the windows open for a cool nights sleep.</span></div>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-14242461720077625582011-07-23T15:04:00.000-07:002011-09-17T15:30:04.962-07:00The Lake House at Cold Water, Michigan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9D2VLeGBV890GfX3bEw7P9DhEhJsmI23_7BduqaXBxe_WdBnvgg7-46sovI96Nxu4CArOsjirR3_22wrMrfZP_dtVS1DKl1i7h1ZJ4i47Q2RgyosUv_MIJfyLv-dn7Cq-dvRDego9M47Y/s1600/LakeHouse-Patsy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9D2VLeGBV890GfX3bEw7P9DhEhJsmI23_7BduqaXBxe_WdBnvgg7-46sovI96Nxu4CArOsjirR3_22wrMrfZP_dtVS1DKl1i7h1ZJ4i47Q2RgyosUv_MIJfyLv-dn7Cq-dvRDego9M47Y/s200/LakeHouse-Patsy.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">We drove across Indiana on the I80 toll road to the tune of $21.70! We arrived at James and Jennifer's lake house where Patsy was staying at about 2:00pm. We parked across the street from their small cottage in a lot they bought which had a garage on it. They were not allowed to build anything else on the site and it had plenty of room for us to back the motorhome in in front of the garage. They brought out a 120v, 20 amp power cord for us to get a little power into the RV.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwX8gHueIvYNksAuSnEcLVO0uVOPYhm5T-xsEQ3jg2ndkvD2mYyZfNqbeh_FuXcig-Twrn5Pj7HxU_Bv7wIn_jXYrOkwX-lDCI_Oxk_J6nCxU9unoxME4NTxAogNDa9VG2STVuT-wq2fHd/s1600/Peg-PatsyInLake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwX8gHueIvYNksAuSnEcLVO0uVOPYhm5T-xsEQ3jg2ndkvD2mYyZfNqbeh_FuXcig-Twrn5Pj7HxU_Bv7wIn_jXYrOkwX-lDCI_Oxk_J6nCxU9unoxME4NTxAogNDa9VG2STVuT-wq2fHd/s200/Peg-PatsyInLake.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif84ZKJOaJcVyu42eETBp2jI4tvaCKR4WtaOfQ0jHeEgDRCG06QZbuofH4njyY-DWMhFJAyR2zMMvwERJpX1PgKIgJSu-LXhH802K7UBJJBYNyY55-4Dztw1V0f1T2LLCNhwDVvASuK_SJ/s1600/Sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif84ZKJOaJcVyu42eETBp2jI4tvaCKR4WtaOfQ0jHeEgDRCG06QZbuofH4njyY-DWMhFJAyR2zMMvwERJpX1PgKIgJSu-LXhH802K7UBJJBYNyY55-4Dztw1V0f1T2LLCNhwDVvASuK_SJ/s200/Sunset.jpg" width="200" /></a>We had a lot of company with almost all of Patsy's family there at the cottage as well as some of James and Jennifer's friends. Peg went swimming in the lake with Patsy, James, Jim, Danielle and friends kids Jack and Diana with their dad Brian. Mom Samantha, Jennifer and I stayed on the shore and watched. We had a nice taco dinner and cooked up some s'mores around the camp fire that evening. The sunset was beautiful over the still lake water.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Didn't get back to the motorhome until 11:30pm and it was still a bit warm. We ran the vent fans and keep the covers off for the night.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFpuZcEzfIs6jsKwx12uOuMPhRFGinH83HU6F6mPHfAGqTcaJ5eODPVb9y7RrXyuSxdnsAdEUzXbU2qrQ2PH-HEfjch9n9EL9OrYhLGTRfMjUus_ByBYhQN76kHJ_S6ZehyphenhyphentXeZo8yS99b/s1600/RVParkedAtGarage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFpuZcEzfIs6jsKwx12uOuMPhRFGinH83HU6F6mPHfAGqTcaJ5eODPVb9y7RrXyuSxdnsAdEUzXbU2qrQ2PH-HEfjch9n9EL9OrYhLGTRfMjUus_ByBYhQN76kHJ_S6ZehyphenhyphentXeZo8yS99b/s200/RVParkedAtGarage.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The following morning we had a big breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes and said our goodbyes to Patsy and the family, hooked up the car and headed off to Empire, Michigan which was about a 5 hour drive. It was great seeing Patsy again and she always makes us feel like we are part of her family. It was sad that her husband, Gary, who passed away last year, was not there to be with us all.</span></div>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-34420580813084084092011-07-22T16:51:00.000-07:002011-09-17T15:02:54.828-07:00Leisure Lake RV Park - Joliet, Illinois<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmRmLlCYh8iuvlNXPBrIRD41JwlVkop6SrSDv2vRORGuEFydYln5CgtedZm_uGNfTX9FNo2pOr5dk-0sTB4aM8SeWsUjHiBTQTmIDfdma8LUS1r9O11MKOEZzPe-xQx7pT4fazAGldZrJt/s1600/LeisureLakeRV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmRmLlCYh8iuvlNXPBrIRD41JwlVkop6SrSDv2vRORGuEFydYln5CgtedZm_uGNfTX9FNo2pOr5dk-0sTB4aM8SeWsUjHiBTQTmIDfdma8LUS1r9O11MKOEZzPe-xQx7pT4fazAGldZrJt/s200/LeisureLakeRV.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The WIT Rally was over and we headed out for Chicago and then to Michigan to see our friend Patsy. We made it to the town of Joliet, Illinois. We found a nice RV "resort" on the shore of a small lake. It was a nice place to rest for the night. They only had a few sites available, so we were lucky to find a place. The price was high at $35 for the night. We also had a scare getting to the resort since the service road looked like it was going to dead end but it continued around a curve and we then saw the park.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tomorrow we should make it to Patsy's daughters lake house.</div>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-1100669880969759282011-07-16T21:34:00.000-07:002011-09-17T15:03:45.032-07:00We Arrive in Forest City, Iowa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFAsFShJNb37VK8VJZ3D4RfQtSUivz0zg1cKVeB6hlIJQYgDvKfHALs9-anotRcJu56aTg202nV6yVbfq7sf8ccHA2aff0yezyLLWND2yWCMeefc7_OSBuBpN5xulnyDq9RLgsREeVkTjX/s1600/PamelPark-ForestCity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFAsFShJNb37VK8VJZ3D4RfQtSUivz0zg1cKVeB6hlIJQYgDvKfHALs9-anotRcJu56aTg202nV6yVbfq7sf8ccHA2aff0yezyLLWND2yWCMeefc7_OSBuBpN5xulnyDq9RLgsREeVkTjX/s200/PamelPark-ForestCity.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Arrived in Forest City at about 4:30pm and headed for Pammel Park which is close to the middle of town along a bubbling brook. Because we do not own a Winnebago motorhome, we can not park on the Winnebago grounds, so we are happy to stay about a mile down the road at this park. There is more room between RV's. We stayed here last year as well. We were not facing the creek this time because we could not get satellite reception in the available sites.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Next to us were Don and Kim Greene of Harvest Hosts (see photo), a membership organization that allows you to park overnight at a variety of vineyards and farms across the country. They turned out to be nice folks and we went out to dinner with them later in the week.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3gIPbA3PS-eg57bxAG2G1wXVz0pgax3POBTwgx0YGe9TErV_RroPjAc3SpMPc212U7qC_0_pkGSKFGV4PwpI_DWdRx9Fasg-bSJcftxR18qyuBKIetU6fxuxPHGe_Fhgs_hRxt7PPiDFz/s1600/MCD-Booth-WIT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3gIPbA3PS-eg57bxAG2G1wXVz0pgax3POBTwgx0YGe9TErV_RroPjAc3SpMPc212U7qC_0_pkGSKFGV4PwpI_DWdRx9Fasg-bSJcftxR18qyuBKIetU6fxuxPHGe_Fhgs_hRxt7PPiDFz/s200/MCD-Booth-WIT.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tonight was the celebration of the Puckerbush Festival in Forest City. They have a great fireworks display in the evening at the park, next to where the RV's are parked. We got our chairs out and moved to the edge of the park where the fireworks were directly overhead...Pretty intense! Good thing we had our Thermacell mosquito repellent unit with us because the bugs were terrible! That unit worked great!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tomorrow we set up for the rally and we will be here all week. The second photo is of our booth here at Winnebago.</div>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-79244636089362337412011-07-14T17:18:00.000-07:002011-09-17T14:33:46.941-07:00On Our Way to WIT Rally in Iowa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZsAZMXm3HOzDlcsMjFY_Gjhe1msTSoHLqtjPJoSyAKI5s0-Q0Lyi-7NDgz4CQMWzcvEpPOiivPzdWIKgYcjzEhhnoNWuh7CRS3Ook9UdHwj_vT4ebjZFhIJkhRuvIWpAMPQk0hdlOLG0L/s1600/RVPark-BigCabin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZsAZMXm3HOzDlcsMjFY_Gjhe1msTSoHLqtjPJoSyAKI5s0-Q0Lyi-7NDgz4CQMWzcvEpPOiivPzdWIKgYcjzEhhnoNWuh7CRS3Ook9UdHwj_vT4ebjZFhIJkhRuvIWpAMPQk0hdlOLG0L/s200/RVPark-BigCabin.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We were on the road again and headed to the Winnebago WIT Rally in Forest City, Iowa. Our first stop was in Oklahoma and an RV park in a small town called Big Cabin. The park was basically a cow pasture that they put a fence around it to keep the cattle out and then they added RV sites with a gravel road. It worked. The sites were quite level but it was out in the open with no shade or anything to block the wind. It did have 50 amp service but the voltage was pretty low.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peg and I were working on producing a book for one of our clients so we planned on staying late the next morning to catch up on some work for him. Did a couple loads of laundry and then headed out about 11:30am.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz2vS6E6O_1ljoVDAfR1vj2-Nv0d8mTFZET2FDaR7QsJADbQy1pHvsHLwH3XZPKxrRX0QJOZDxmGPFBNkA5gQpAzd5jyhzfPUsGjjqdTM3E1qnhf-c0VMc73Fv4UJ-8dsPMuQO4PlcB7fe/s1600/Dave-Jan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz2vS6E6O_1ljoVDAfR1vj2-Nv0d8mTFZET2FDaR7QsJADbQy1pHvsHLwH3XZPKxrRX0QJOZDxmGPFBNkA5gQpAzd5jyhzfPUsGjjqdTM3E1qnhf-c0VMc73Fv4UJ-8dsPMuQO4PlcB7fe/s200/Dave-Jan.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dave and Jan at home</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We made it to the Elks Lodge in Blue Springs, Missouri. We had stayed there once before. Everyone is quite friendly and we had a refreshment and then headed over to Peg's sister Jan's house for dinner. Stayed until about 9:30pm and headed back to the Elks Lodge and the RV. This RV area at the side of the Elks Lodge is on a hill and is gravel filled. I am always a little uneasy staying here because of the severe drop off behind the coach, but I always chock the tires so they do not roll back.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We have a long drive to Forest City tomorrow so we will be heading out in the morning.</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-85587539385746465002011-07-01T19:05:00.000-07:002011-09-17T13:20:59.033-07:00Visit With Rick and Joanne in Oklahoma City<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHujqvrbnxsLNJnsQhPv2iEbN0fsO2ZCIGuS7ucWoWWl8zJ8QtDERmMLJOekZLbaVtmOoGbJ2kZHUPsiyEkMb0L3stUspJS23io4haam8Ll5d7EiSZnLGbhAgRU1is1mPFy1qNugqQRtt/s1600/CattlemansRest-Stockyard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHujqvrbnxsLNJnsQhPv2iEbN0fsO2ZCIGuS7ucWoWWl8zJ8QtDERmMLJOekZLbaVtmOoGbJ2kZHUPsiyEkMb0L3stUspJS23io4haam8Ll5d7EiSZnLGbhAgRU1is1mPFy1qNugqQRtt/s200/CattlemansRest-Stockyard.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">We had gone out to dinner with Rick and Joanne Stone during the week of the Fleetwood Rally and they had taken us into the Bricktown area of Oklahoma City. Bricktown is the stockyard area and it shows the old world style of what Oklahoma City used to look like. We ate at the Cattleman's Restaurant. I think <u>everyone</u> was eating there that night! It is THE place to eat in the Bricktown area because, as Rick and Joanne told us, "Their steaks are the best in town." Yes...They were very good!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFYEDMXYThwAjOktDGfduGdqKx8u3RQRZLQJzHFYp0HqgctsGxMHRkef0yFtytthHf0IMAwEjDhJUeOrVgfb_mELoPCgKGvqTxXQr2tNvni7g92ObSuHpnF1NIre4kws7DpLwsoToR77Y0/s1600/ZiosRest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFYEDMXYThwAjOktDGfduGdqKx8u3RQRZLQJzHFYp0HqgctsGxMHRkef0yFtytthHf0IMAwEjDhJUeOrVgfb_mELoPCgKGvqTxXQr2tNvni7g92ObSuHpnF1NIre4kws7DpLwsoToR77Y0/s200/ZiosRest.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">So after our dinner and short walk around the stockyard area that night mid-week, Peg and I took the Stones' up on their offer to show us more of the city after the rally ended. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Did you know that Oklahoma City has a canal/river walk which takes you through many shops, stores and some very interesting tourist-like areas. We walked past many of the factories and mills that are still part of the landscape, but have been replaced by modern shops and eateries. We had dinner at Zio's Italian Kitchen, which has a very Italian ambience, so much so that it reminded me of some of the places Peg and I dined at while in Italy.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwBhyKzMXTm2IJJ-sp-OCtmOjVM8zhXI8uChpbZiBTnJ7QkBUVMoTQ_aoBA7gOp4iGS2LUvAJKrai6H8_VuJukPdmxg7HkgWfCB-w-IP8LafHTCNYl31qYnn1_hn6HRhoJ6rLHnxKX_0t/s1600/BaseballPark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwBhyKzMXTm2IJJ-sp-OCtmOjVM8zhXI8uChpbZiBTnJ7QkBUVMoTQ_aoBA7gOp4iGS2LUvAJKrai6H8_VuJukPdmxg7HkgWfCB-w-IP8LafHTCNYl31qYnn1_hn6HRhoJ6rLHnxKX_0t/s200/BaseballPark.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZaICoCrmIE0gh8lTQG0Cp0MBfKAv6hsFE537vJbcltiWMDea63jg9X-nuzYWzYRrhSBOPd1kAbtjbsGFI7gVISiet7wZ2U3fPIiKJARC0ZPukXENkBtUI0zyyx2xTAHrmP_h_wr9T3cZk/s1600/MosaicByCanal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZaICoCrmIE0gh8lTQG0Cp0MBfKAv6hsFE537vJbcltiWMDea63jg9X-nuzYWzYRrhSBOPd1kAbtjbsGFI7gVISiet7wZ2U3fPIiKJARC0ZPukXENkBtUI0zyyx2xTAHrmP_h_wr9T3cZk/s200/MosaicByCanal.jpg" width="200" /></a>After dinner we walked some more and saw the Devon Mosiac which is along the canal and incorporates a water feature into the mosaic design. There were many artistic areas of the walk along the canal, and we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and Rick and Joanne's commentary of the area. At one point of our stroll along the water, we walked by the ballpark where the minor league team, the Oklahoma City Redhawks play. Again there were wonderful bronze statues of baseball players at the neat looking entrance to the stadium.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuweEyiOA_HyTI0-oB5CpUIQKxN7t-ewfH2ZHIzJU3EOXmcuMOlEZig-J2k0hfuh7gP5wu9TJEi2fpAFUXCWVJ4zhVGmHkllC_HCf0zperz7bt43813217qZGFNU-X-uXbxJj9iMbopoz5/s1600/PioneerTrek-TourBoat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuweEyiOA_HyTI0-oB5CpUIQKxN7t-ewfH2ZHIzJU3EOXmcuMOlEZig-J2k0hfuh7gP5wu9TJEi2fpAFUXCWVJ4zhVGmHkllC_HCf0zperz7bt43813217qZGFNU-X-uXbxJj9iMbopoz5/s200/PioneerTrek-TourBoat.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Rick and Joanne also took us to the Oklahoma Land Run Monument, a series of giant bronze sculptures which depicts the Land Run of April 22nd, 1889 that opened "Oklahoma, Indian Territory" up to homesteading by settlers. The monument, which sits on the banks of the Bricktown Canal in Oklahoma City, depicts dozens of horses, wagons, soldiers, and cowboys in a race to settle the newly opened lands.It is big and impressive and there are boat tours on the canal that eventually end up at the sculptures.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuU84FK1_-If4muwBj1eNV3rvRi1Qi5_562Muwio48VZrYrtf6L4F1y0kXrEDXaLG7m7_1sUmHj4fKGpAZdpZ-uOWxRupzQqDPAF83msjNvCZpEjkGJ9JJaajrIaKm0vNMs7U2nWaU3cr8/s1600/Memorial-Chairs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuU84FK1_-If4muwBj1eNV3rvRi1Qi5_562Muwio48VZrYrtf6L4F1y0kXrEDXaLG7m7_1sUmHj4fKGpAZdpZ-uOWxRupzQqDPAF83msjNvCZpEjkGJ9JJaajrIaKm0vNMs7U2nWaU3cr8/s200/Memorial-Chairs.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">As evening approached, Rick and Joanne had one last thing on the agenda for our city tour. It was the Memorial for the bombing of the Federal Building on April 19, 1995. We arrived at dusk and there were several other people walking around the reflecting pool which is located where the building used to stand. An eerie feeling came over me as we entered that main area of the memorial. There are 168 chairs, lighted at the base, called the "Field of Empty Chairs" which stand in nine rows signifying the nine floors of the building and depicting the lives lost in that bombing. 19 smaller chairs stand for the lives of children lost in the bombing.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQhCF31VJy85L4j6ZhZUPXKV0FokzBLlep1RCAgvZu-rvfzQMJsvk77vV54-Sl4df-1AbozLsb4pRura0_1Z63rxXoPHtg_J4tbdCjertcK2H2uOh2txJtpz2IkGQ7_jpfcvO_m7CJQXo/s1600/BombingMemorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQhCF31VJy85L4j6ZhZUPXKV0FokzBLlep1RCAgvZu-rvfzQMJsvk77vV54-Sl4df-1AbozLsb4pRura0_1Z63rxXoPHtg_J4tbdCjertcK2H2uOh2txJtpz2IkGQ7_jpfcvO_m7CJQXo/s200/BombingMemorial.jpg" width="200" /></a>The reflecting pool stands between two "Gates of Time", the east gate marked 901 (9:01am-the innocence before the attack) and the west gate 903 (9:03am-the moment we were changed forever), signifying the moment of destruction, in time, of the Federal Building and the people in and around it. There was also a survivor wall on the east side of the memorial made out of the only standing walls of the Murrah Building. More than 600 names are inscribed on salvaged pieces of granite from the building lobby.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCiJFQV1lHy1pj4EQ-X6oIcsGNDcL_yXyCqC2y6xxjHsaDduZU_2Q1hxLoIMJGoldYmXmJktBS9iYwLcTP-8ZQuz5Jv-VJfPZs95hh3N1snPP-hqmbH7y2CkUshyphenhyphenzGArKXKbsg2TzmQ_TE/s1600/Jesus-BackTurned.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCiJFQV1lHy1pj4EQ-X6oIcsGNDcL_yXyCqC2y6xxjHsaDduZU_2Q1hxLoIMJGoldYmXmJktBS9iYwLcTP-8ZQuz5Jv-VJfPZs95hh3N1snPP-hqmbH7y2CkUshyphenhyphenzGArKXKbsg2TzmQ_TE/s200/Jesus-BackTurned.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Across the street on the corner at a church, a statue stands of Jesus with his back turned toward the memorial and his hand over his face entitled, "Jesus Wept" depicting the sad course of events that played out here at this site. I think seeing all these things at night held a special meaning for us and a solemn reminder that we are all vulnerable at any time during our existence here on this earth!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1wCEz6qTMFz88OvDOR2f0aa7j2maf2gJgWcYkh1_Iy35CClBPNoUbZROWBZudCRc64ku_j_4aJ4jKy6y_FzgAAOLjeBW76TXjUXj-oybePZSQHd3p21NeNj_3N1TJBba4csFCq41QTQ7/s1600/Rick-Joanne-Buddy-Bridget.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1wCEz6qTMFz88OvDOR2f0aa7j2maf2gJgWcYkh1_Iy35CClBPNoUbZROWBZudCRc64ku_j_4aJ4jKy6y_FzgAAOLjeBW76TXjUXj-oybePZSQHd3p21NeNj_3N1TJBba4csFCq41QTQ7/s200/Rick-Joanne-Buddy-Bridget.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We said goodbye to Rick and Joanne and thanked them for the eye-opening look at some of what Oklahoma City has to offer. Peg and I really enjoyed our time with our fellow RV friends and we realized how nice it is to have met folks that live all over this country. It is sad to leave friends, but always nice to come together at rallies, events or when passing through their hometowns! Tomorrow we head back to McKinney...</span></div>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-11324948563430066422011-06-25T18:30:00.000-07:002011-09-17T11:34:03.947-07:00Fleetwood Rally in Shawnee, Oklahoma<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHyEg0tpgCFppPjCSnscvK1zpb5sGrI3_VQEO3oFUwqtJ5QDNesiJSDM_ByYIWSDaI-KSWEGWgkNKRRxK0VInKGQ96nBcDUuI61AwvWqpTjISp2u2dneH8rIE7dtcFc4N3R3XWXBA74Hh7/s1600/ShawneeDisplay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHyEg0tpgCFppPjCSnscvK1zpb5sGrI3_VQEO3oFUwqtJ5QDNesiJSDM_ByYIWSDaI-KSWEGWgkNKRRxK0VInKGQ96nBcDUuI61AwvWqpTjISp2u2dneH8rIE7dtcFc4N3R3XWXBA74Hh7/s200/ShawneeDisplay.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peg with customers at the MCD display</span></td></tr>
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Finally arrived in Shawnee, OK for the Fleetwood Rally. Set up the MCD booth and prepared for the show. The rally was not terribly busy, sales wise, but we made many good contacts and helped several folks with minor shade repairs or adjustments.</div>
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We had some issues with power where we first were parked at the rally. It was a 30 amp service and ofter the first day of the show, we returned to a VERY warm coach since the breaker on the pedestal tripped and the temps were in the high 90's. I reset the breaker and later it tripped again. We decided to move the coach to the vendor parking area where it was not grassy (a dirt/rock parking lot) but it did have two 30 amp connections and, with my cheater box, we now had the equivalent of a 50 amp service so both A/C units could be run.</div>
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Of course it rained mid-week and we ended up residing in a lake that surrounded the motorhome! Gee, it looked okay when we first parked there!!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The week moved by fast and before we knew it, we were packing the booth up and getting it loaded into the coach. We decided to hang out near here in the Oklahoma City area for the Fourth of July weekend and have an extended visit with our friends Rick and Joanne Stone...</span></div>
American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-47941959465620467452011-06-23T22:16:00.000-07:002011-08-21T14:18:32.036-07:00Tire Blow-out While Heading For Shawnee, OK<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Fleetwood Rally we were heading to is in Shawnee, Oklahoma this year. We left MCD's parking lot at 3:20pm and headed west on Rt 380 towards Rt. 35, then north.</span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> As we crossed the border from Texas into Oklahoma of Interstate 35, we heard a loud "bang"! Peg was on the telephone with Dave, the owner of MCD and she told him we think a tire blew on the motorhome. I pulled the coach over and saw the passenger side rear fender well was blown out at an angle from the coach and I could see the inner dual was blown apart and looking like an afro hair dew from all the steel belts sticking up out of the tire.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggerMjwbMAQKMo2t9fF4PYYeKUnHit46spmoTqGzq02oPYPab8vmS94Zw5guvnkvjP9qhoHFLCUP_FlRE4hQi9n8ox3nJd-Z-7Ah-e4iurXB-DEj-P0tWqKY-HRc8Iw8S1OjVm_lcp_NyK/s1600/BlownTire-NewTire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggerMjwbMAQKMo2t9fF4PYYeKUnHit46spmoTqGzq02oPYPab8vmS94Zw5guvnkvjP9qhoHFLCUP_FlRE4hQi9n8ox3nJd-Z-7Ah-e4iurXB-DEj-P0tWqKY-HRc8Iw8S1OjVm_lcp_NyK/s200/BlownTire-NewTire.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Blown Tire - New Tire</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We got on the cell phone to Coach Net and they had a heck of a time locating a correct size tire to replace the one we blew. A few hours later, they called back and said they located a tire and company that could come out and mount it. We also had our air ride air line cut in the blow-out, so Coach Net found another company that could come out and replace that line. In the meantime, we were sitting on the side of the northbound lane between exits one and two on I-35. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJFzHPBmHqa3VhcXvw14galAwkceaBF6Jez6iYDd1wg47UvNyeptphTbd1Yt7H7guIYdt_7L7KcPKQcjQu6WEymCiU8Tg1f7qyT3tYVyGJeJiZzomZ5Iz9VbDklMqpTwXWvy05h4tGlm1/s1600/WheelWellDamage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJFzHPBmHqa3VhcXvw14galAwkceaBF6Jez6iYDd1wg47UvNyeptphTbd1Yt7H7guIYdt_7L7KcPKQcjQu6WEymCiU8Tg1f7qyT3tYVyGJeJiZzomZ5Iz9VbDklMqpTwXWvy05h4tGlm1/s200/WheelWellDamage.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Wheel Well Damage</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I decided to try and get the blown out fender well back into place as we waited for the tire company to come. I was successful getting it back into place and securing it by the time the new tire and crew arrived. Unfortunately, the compressor on the repair truck kept blowing fuses and they could not remove the old rims or change the tire. They headed back to their shop for another truck and, about that time, the air line crew arrived. Their compressor did work and they pulled the two duals off the rear so they could get to the air line.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxj8zgp53mz90bbGIO4yEKX0TupIPayGnwb9RNgWkdqHhnLpbD-szdnNeZP0nrK9vuObxLQoCeLnTGfFSBl2QADzMPufKYSDB23K7bXBQ2wSniiHUUUuIxNAp092LHuejfvTUHsQac1yYo/s1600/AirLine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxj8zgp53mz90bbGIO4yEKX0TupIPayGnwb9RNgWkdqHhnLpbD-szdnNeZP0nrK9vuObxLQoCeLnTGfFSBl2QADzMPufKYSDB23K7bXBQ2wSniiHUUUuIxNAp092LHuejfvTUHsQac1yYo/s200/AirLine.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">New Coiled Air Line Installed</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">These guys replaced the air line with a coiled quick connect line and when I aired up, it began to leak at one of the fittings. They tightened it as the tire crew returned. The new truck and compressor were functioning and they made quick work of getting the new tire mounted and onto the coach. Both crews were paid and left and as I aired up the coach again I heard the airline hissing. We called that crew and they returned and worked on the line again. It looked good, they left and again I heard it leaking. They were called and returned again and finally took their time and used other fittings to get the line secured and stop it from leaking. They were happy and I was happy.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkT0XelNgQerEqs_0pnxvbGaHEGuGXnrUB0xVjMyUlF74kULwpHoKy2hWYzCDm5B31s_1Ii-qUjhEdfvwG4El0Q0HVFq56SK3y3yfzPqgGLr8LRvQzI35WgUDGC460QQQGL7ZvKJMa0Se/s1600/Winstar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkT0XelNgQerEqs_0pnxvbGaHEGuGXnrUB0xVjMyUlF74kULwpHoKy2hWYzCDm5B31s_1Ii-qUjhEdfvwG4El0Q0HVFq56SK3y3yfzPqgGLr8LRvQzI35WgUDGC460QQQGL7ZvKJMa0Se/s200/Winstar.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winstar Casino Sign on I-35</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We were now on the side of I-35 for five hours! It was getting dark and too late to continue any farther this day, so we limped to the Winstar Casino Campground at the next exit. They told us if we get a Player's Card from the casino, we can get our money back for the night of camping. We did get Player's Cards and when we returned to the RV Park, we brought them in to get the refund and they refused us. They said we paid with cash and not with a credit card so they could not give us a refund. Of course we were never told that when we paid! A perfect ending to a not so perfect day!! At least we were finally off the road.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tomorrow we will hopefully travel on to Shawnee...</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-32949682015182701322011-06-18T12:19:00.000-07:002011-08-21T12:55:46.228-07:00Middlebury Vermont with Don and Barb<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tC0orMPCBwJMIQJxZlkek1DDsX57zDxGXaRYsUVxxnShI_gqlCUuZ4SHZBwTNjevpobBQj25iHqTdJ0tZ5z5pcAcjk-_S4pWU0DMb9NhIIum5MYvKSDykyrulR2Haib4kPWyHI57WMSS/s1600/NooniesDeli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tC0orMPCBwJMIQJxZlkek1DDsX57zDxGXaRYsUVxxnShI_gqlCUuZ4SHZBwTNjevpobBQj25iHqTdJ0tZ5z5pcAcjk-_S4pWU0DMb9NhIIum5MYvKSDykyrulR2Haib4kPWyHI57WMSS/s200/NooniesDeli.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Noonies Deli</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is Saturday and our last day in the Vermont area. We are to meet up with good friends Don and Barb Wood who live in Glens Falls, New York where Peg and I built our broadcast TV station several years ago. It was another delightful drive to Middlebury and we met up with the Wood's in a shopping center.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTq1kvIeYVpJMXkbyfY1v8b5DfleH6eEinZFeviNCjvWmoEc20vF0XPXC1JE47gVubQxOz2EjPjHaRGQHWm0RZetM6Z0uV7OBaQYHQE_LqGawl8ROcYIEFG5mlPQzw__BKmjv6qJjAyv_7/s1600/Middlebury-Falls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTq1kvIeYVpJMXkbyfY1v8b5DfleH6eEinZFeviNCjvWmoEc20vF0XPXC1JE47gVubQxOz2EjPjHaRGQHWm0RZetM6Z0uV7OBaQYHQE_LqGawl8ROcYIEFG5mlPQzw__BKmjv6qJjAyv_7/s200/Middlebury-Falls.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Falls in the Town of Middlebury</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZFGLng4ieACBlqXaHtZcFVUkmmtFkToN1ulx-Z5m-ZMtfzfqgq7vVb0QdNi4fvO_V70VxUDKUM4uJJ1b19M4suDihe6blLffoEAuZ9Oyq1Dz0AdZzwCFS1FAg2V6wJenqttifMMSxMUUU/s1600/Texas-Falls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZFGLng4ieACBlqXaHtZcFVUkmmtFkToN1ulx-Z5m-ZMtfzfqgq7vVb0QdNi4fvO_V70VxUDKUM4uJJ1b19M4suDihe6blLffoEAuZ9Oyq1Dz0AdZzwCFS1FAg2V6wJenqttifMMSxMUUU/s200/Texas-Falls.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Texas Falls</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First order of business was lunch. We found a quaint little sandwich shop called Noonies. It doesn't look like much but it was packed with people and we had some great sandwiches, made to order, there. The deli was located near some falls in town and an area called Marble Square. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There were not too many shops open today so we decided to head out of town to look at a National Forest called, of all things, Texas Falls. We drove along some rocky creeks, steep grades and typical Vermont scenery to finally get there. Texas Falls is located in the Green Mountains of Vermont.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFL2VahAPgLeNFXoLxjR5seKsHa7fWd9nMnb1-Q0af7yPwW-N7Jlucnm8QX3mOirSI2N7yfGYSrSZYbFGNixCHvTIyXWREjzukogoSoL2a2tow7G5nmLWtRdtMxFrQ4yRq10meGeAnjQD/s1600/Peg-Barb-Don.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFL2VahAPgLeNFXoLxjR5seKsHa7fWd9nMnb1-Q0af7yPwW-N7Jlucnm8QX3mOirSI2N7yfGYSrSZYbFGNixCHvTIyXWREjzukogoSoL2a2tow7G5nmLWtRdtMxFrQ4yRq10meGeAnjQD/s200/Peg-Barb-Don.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peg, Barb and Don</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZVMVD9aZ7lNkseCNIxD2tXcQCfbafulFFRNkL_yxxT9COq46gHIHnM1KYr6YpblSziRWauB-1LTbgOCHHKGDlzunaFy7zo7qSVSrfPwVqafpu2XF2wXpAsc18gQFJ_EpQEHH9-cMt10wq/s1600/Texas-Falls-Butterflies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZVMVD9aZ7lNkseCNIxD2tXcQCfbafulFFRNkL_yxxT9COq46gHIHnM1KYr6YpblSziRWauB-1LTbgOCHHKGDlzunaFy7zo7qSVSrfPwVqafpu2XF2wXpAsc18gQFJ_EpQEHH9-cMt10wq/s200/Texas-Falls-Butterflies.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The falls were very nice and we noticed a bunch of butterflies were hanging around a newly built bridge at the falls. The water looked cool and refreshing and we got some nice photos of the area and our friends. It was really good to see them again. Like with many of our friends, we don't see them as often as we would like.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Little did we know, our flight out of Burlington the next day was cancelled. Do you see any pattern here? This time the airlines did put us up in a hotel for the night and gave us food vouchers (to use at the airport) so we spent another night in Vermont. The next day we got up at 3:30 am, took the shuttle back to the airport and did fly out at 6 am. Made it back to Dallas with no further problems. </span><br />
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American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-64641591852709580502011-06-17T21:45:00.000-07:002011-08-21T12:18:56.156-07:00End of the Newmar Rally Week-Ben & Jerry's<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQROypvsSom3yA9ZKhQl1ct489on6WKBjpZ3wte1ClNwXmbPjfXetEnU0lT5nS9xnznyCE2sMbpLE23ntxlFHhUHLXJmyreYGzDctZ6DyRkUgxcbyNArXxDd-v-LihsS8MHt99OEt-CECq/s1600/Ben-Jerry%2527s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQROypvsSom3yA9ZKhQl1ct489on6WKBjpZ3wte1ClNwXmbPjfXetEnU0lT5nS9xnznyCE2sMbpLE23ntxlFHhUHLXJmyreYGzDctZ6DyRkUgxcbyNArXxDd-v-LihsS8MHt99OEt-CECq/s200/Ben-Jerry%2527s.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben & Jerry's Factory</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is Friday and we began packing up the MCD booth. We drove the packed shipping boxes to the main office at the Expo Center and had them hold the items for Fed-Ex shipping. Since we were then officially done at the rally, we decided to drive to Waterbury, Vermont and to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. </span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX7dWGlMGytQ-KkS4uE2L9Q8Kwo5ZsQFuhky64aXCcOvP5fqsEFNu2ohauzZHydAzGq4cY84SdDgO4qIBbzOGe5i1KGFCsyhcO2Ho_MwVv0nN2G0376o-F3dr8kHc1RWFfGOMlgsMdxBB0/s1600/Ben-JerrysGrounds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX7dWGlMGytQ-KkS4uE2L9Q8Kwo5ZsQFuhky64aXCcOvP5fqsEFNu2ohauzZHydAzGq4cY84SdDgO4qIBbzOGe5i1KGFCsyhcO2Ho_MwVv0nN2G0376o-F3dr8kHc1RWFfGOMlgsMdxBB0/s200/Ben-JerrysGrounds.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithQfHMMSbwOMvGQKDKA5jEyfMVoS7C_2O2Wu-296QGlLJFZc8BRvxurwkCrkLXBa00Dj1fyZVNd9EcYCRo2vZHlO_7G134n0ZY-XxjogKx4MasexIHbCFKKmuoO8iDy_uvaBO-qh3I4ee/s1600/Jimtie-dyed-shirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithQfHMMSbwOMvGQKDKA5jEyfMVoS7C_2O2Wu-296QGlLJFZc8BRvxurwkCrkLXBa00Dj1fyZVNd9EcYCRo2vZHlO_7G134n0ZY-XxjogKx4MasexIHbCFKKmuoO8iDy_uvaBO-qh3I4ee/s200/Jimtie-dyed-shirt.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The factory is as colorful as Ben and Jerry themselves. We took the tour of the plant and Jim was singled out to ring the bell for the start of the tour. At the end of the tour, we all received a free tasting of that great ice cream. After the tour, we looked around the gift shop and Jim had to buy a tie dyed Ben & Jerry's T-shirt. We also purchased some "half baked" ice cream.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisPXJ0VEMPkZoV8KxMRKNn9iw4LaWl3JmvloBC-yngP_4RDbobH2xlQARha5uTIIlqC2ScFLGpgaTSXt3bgauklvCHN-aIOF8wB7L8mmXKJwpJ58_V3b2yVF20BOVDmQrVnZTM4vZrwZbn/s1600/PegAtDisplay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisPXJ0VEMPkZoV8KxMRKNn9iw4LaWl3JmvloBC-yngP_4RDbobH2xlQARha5uTIIlqC2ScFLGpgaTSXt3bgauklvCHN-aIOF8wB7L8mmXKJwpJ58_V3b2yVF20BOVDmQrVnZTM4vZrwZbn/s200/PegAtDisplay.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The factory had a lot of memorabilia we looked at and some pretty cool areas with bright colors for kids and adults alike. It is located in a rural area (where else?) in the hills of Vermont. It was such a nice day and the drive through the hills was great after a long week of being inside as vendors.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT_mfxXF0KuGFjZCLV9wg5VLhf9on22PDIF-EHpu2jI2org2HzMHTdA_AE12_lNlogcO2zSo5GrwB1eBXSeNGIjorGxK_24LocIX6xFJUX7JaoXwLm5QVfH5oTDjGOdDAVb4azfvUwYciy/s1600/Scenery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT_mfxXF0KuGFjZCLV9wg5VLhf9on22PDIF-EHpu2jI2org2HzMHTdA_AE12_lNlogcO2zSo5GrwB1eBXSeNGIjorGxK_24LocIX6xFJUX7JaoXwLm5QVfH5oTDjGOdDAVb4azfvUwYciy/s200/Scenery.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Tomorrow we meet old friends Barb and Don Woods in Middlebury, Vermont for a quick get together before we leave the area.</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-35907977450368645342011-06-12T23:05:00.000-07:002011-08-21T11:45:06.880-07:00Flight to Vermont for the Newmar Rally<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNH-b-v_fGTrbaV0FanKq58W2N_tGqv70g0_Y51Jhfi3G7FkHq-fpb0ozOiHVa-3TZYoepN0FQo0A8OqH8TYx8aHUatNwlsyhbWHz2KiMx3jh7fZ-Nd0u56ejsxdH4Wtzkxhvlxmq8CfN/s1600/RoadwayInn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNH-b-v_fGTrbaV0FanKq58W2N_tGqv70g0_Y51Jhfi3G7FkHq-fpb0ozOiHVa-3TZYoepN0FQo0A8OqH8TYx8aHUatNwlsyhbWHz2KiMx3jh7fZ-Nd0u56ejsxdH4Wtzkxhvlxmq8CfN/s200/RoadwayInn.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Since it is a long way from Texas to Vermont, MCD decided to fly us to the Newmar Rally in Essex Junction, Vermont. I was kind of familiar with the area since my sister, Phyl, went to college at St. Michael's about a mile or so down the road from the Expo Center. We were booked at the Roadway Inn in South Burlington. It was a 15 minute drive (on a good day) to the Expo Center. Here is a photo of our "home away from home" for the week!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisCVfJZu1YwpwftqxIN_X4enOV3Z-qdhx9DQStGH2Qa_mLVqwQ42K0oHy1_m5k6-lVOGrUvEyp2X9rCmHRPmAWtJJNhQo119MrbO5mVGmMgXhoAHvXCSMOnmN4XN5ZIRTMYIfjcRjEDse1/s1600/MCDBooth-Newmar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisCVfJZu1YwpwftqxIN_X4enOV3Z-qdhx9DQStGH2Qa_mLVqwQ42K0oHy1_m5k6-lVOGrUvEyp2X9rCmHRPmAWtJJNhQo119MrbO5mVGmMgXhoAHvXCSMOnmN4XN5ZIRTMYIfjcRjEDse1/s200/MCDBooth-Newmar.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We got the MCD booth set-up in record time (1 hour) since the display was shipped and limited to one display tower instead of our usual three. The display shipment was waiting for us at the MCD booth when we arrived.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">One thing I neglected to mention was that it took us 24 hours to get to the Burlington, Vermont airport from Dallas. We arrived in Chicago and less than an hour before our boarding time, the connecting flight was cancelled after several delays. It was about 9 pm and one other plane going to Burlington was totally booked. If we stayed there, there were no other flights out to Vermont until the next night. We chose to fly to Newark, New Jersey as we could get an earlier flight out to Burlington the next day. Of course, when we arrived in New Jersey, we had to get a hotel for the night. Their advertised $59 hotels actually cost $115 for the night. The airlines would not give us vouchers for food or the hotel since they claimed our flight cancellation was "weather related"! We did get a flight out the next morning and finally made it to Burlington. Good thing we left a day early for the event or we would have been in trouble.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6wgOa4WPTqt1uwl0o0FZ-uIOX_lTrWLega5mR_qkZCVvHD1j4rRYyqmHU-LWazpTq7BNlVAob1i5hDnbNQn8G-9sYslcs5HGE50TP2oBTCc6Ro-ShRu-G2ELLCPHpESBvpFIu3ZUQJOQ/s1600/LakeChamplain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6wgOa4WPTqt1uwl0o0FZ-uIOX_lTrWLega5mR_qkZCVvHD1j4rRYyqmHU-LWazpTq7BNlVAob1i5hDnbNQn8G-9sYslcs5HGE50TP2oBTCc6Ro-ShRu-G2ELLCPHpESBvpFIu3ZUQJOQ/s200/LakeChamplain.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">View of Lake Champlain</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After we set up the MCD booth, we ventured into downtown Burlington in the rain. We found a great place to eat overlooking Lake Champlain called Salty's. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We had clam chowder, lobster bisque and for the entré, we had shrimp and scallops. It was so good! We drove around and ended up at the Champlain Valley Chocolate Company for, you guessed it, chocolate. This was on a Sunday.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiggAVT3IeFSrvPbmn-jSEpzpHggJn7H7pvu1L3LgWxWNKPRN2pEYvGPqYpTUUHURmg0IYn6FuGNzflK7tKA0HB8uurMEEoCHZzce5N7BWnwlYmglVnSrfemfuJogBw2UXRj3XnWZgBpdhe/s1600/Burlington-downtown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiggAVT3IeFSrvPbmn-jSEpzpHggJn7H7pvu1L3LgWxWNKPRN2pEYvGPqYpTUUHURmg0IYn6FuGNzflK7tKA0HB8uurMEEoCHZzce5N7BWnwlYmglVnSrfemfuJogBw2UXRj3XnWZgBpdhe/s200/Burlington-downtown.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Downtown Burlington</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Monday the show opened and we spent the day in the MCD vendor booth. We talked to a lot of RVer's interested in MCD Shades. After the show, we went to Archie's Burgers, a small place we heard of a little ways out of town. we had an artichoke burger and a portabella mushroom burger. Very good!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The temperature was very nice (compared to Texas) and we looked forward to the rest of the week with the Newmar folks. </div><br />
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American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-86052901114247014312011-05-17T19:43:00.001-07:002011-05-17T20:27:09.489-07:00The World's Best Fried Chicken...At Gus's-Beale St. and Graceland<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwpRh_VU0OJSyrnwIcF_eQdpukStlU4KShwjqDCxKLzzv3aqIOAculj3-Q1gsXD1Ev8r-F7mnrw_36HhBbSRTrQYhjOBRO1s-HYq0n97smSYfOR4i1w3p9j4G3v3-uHUe5Bv0Q0v5CfcRY/s1600/Gus%2527sFriedChicken.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwpRh_VU0OJSyrnwIcF_eQdpukStlU4KShwjqDCxKLzzv3aqIOAculj3-Q1gsXD1Ev8r-F7mnrw_36HhBbSRTrQYhjOBRO1s-HYq0n97smSYfOR4i1w3p9j4G3v3-uHUe5Bv0Q0v5CfcRY/s200/Gus%2527sFriedChicken.jpg" width="200" /></a>We got out of work at 4:00pm and decided to go back into downtown Memphis for dinner. We were told by our friends, Lew and Dottie, that we have to eat at Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken. It is one of those hole in the wall places that has great food. It is a real local place to eat and certainly nothing fancy. We walked in, sat down and ordered drinks and our fried chicken meals. The drinks came out and a few minutes later, out came our meals. The pieces of chicken were big and GOOD! Remember, I am not a big fan of chicken either. After dinner, we decided to head back to Beale St. since it was a nice day and we needed to take a short walk to settle our meal.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOk4mi4f-le-7IV5fCIQMyi-lUmHLyiQcYK52NdVFl3A8L5xmt5fVOmpWxYBWTp_98JR2tL860vQepGvwdl0ovX8zNcECJgl5kVAsbT38I88FVzaO9QZyC1aSWgICgXO4qzC5eaJK1sDWo/s1600/HardRockCafe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOk4mi4f-le-7IV5fCIQMyi-lUmHLyiQcYK52NdVFl3A8L5xmt5fVOmpWxYBWTp_98JR2tL860vQepGvwdl0ovX8zNcECJgl5kVAsbT38I88FVzaO9QZyC1aSWgICgXO4qzC5eaJK1sDWo/s200/HardRockCafe.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWV5USiTm8blA-gyEPZ5duRwBp4KYDEpolkgfMKCCkKRx3No883KXjCeg59zO_dMI6EQ0ZyB8fLQ1GgCp6NmA6MVebUvkcqIZ_VKIaoczVA2ivTuTh-9Qm2267DXxY7loVT043GMBbrPyv/s1600/PepsiColaPavilian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWV5USiTm8blA-gyEPZ5duRwBp4KYDEpolkgfMKCCkKRx3No883KXjCeg59zO_dMI6EQ0ZyB8fLQ1GgCp6NmA6MVebUvkcqIZ_VKIaoczVA2ivTuTh-9Qm2267DXxY7loVT043GMBbrPyv/s200/PepsiColaPavilian.jpg" width="200" /></a>Things were different downtown today. People were out, musicians were playing and the street was busy. We walked the length of Beale St. and checked out all the restaurants, bars and the Pepsi Cola Pavilion. A band was playing at the outdoor pavilion and we listened to a song or two. We then made our way back up the street and back to the car.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKFzhO0rMg5tv84lL8ptudCxcATnWHpni4VeWiPXZrPaMUZLUGrUAWtI_DjRX99ce2OdCYNSGLS2ePJmiA8LGejZyfcMwf26skZa1OIWkVjkvCwcDWwqult56PwXJbwhowM7RCv2awvrcC/s1600/GracelandEntranceGate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKFzhO0rMg5tv84lL8ptudCxcATnWHpni4VeWiPXZrPaMUZLUGrUAWtI_DjRX99ce2OdCYNSGLS2ePJmiA8LGejZyfcMwf26skZa1OIWkVjkvCwcDWwqult56PwXJbwhowM7RCv2awvrcC/s200/GracelandEntranceGate.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7I9fAuwx5Mkbb_AKMs8uYDOPDY2cB0Xk3o7FKB8qrnN77_7JexRLfI2S1QIL9AcBK-vCglHZgwuH0Swp0Eh0LSWPVKH_WRFTrGiCLk07IZje1cwYcxZPZnutKSlyW5S5rrVLljuA2Q_1H/s1600/PresleyAutoMuseum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7I9fAuwx5Mkbb_AKMs8uYDOPDY2cB0Xk3o7FKB8qrnN77_7JexRLfI2S1QIL9AcBK-vCglHZgwuH0Swp0Eh0LSWPVKH_WRFTrGiCLk07IZje1cwYcxZPZnutKSlyW5S5rrVLljuA2Q_1H/s200/PresleyAutoMuseum.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Since we were so close to Graceland and it was still nice out, we headed for the home of Elvis. Of course Graceland was closed for the day but we searched the grounds for a few photos opportunities. We saw the gate to Graceland and even got a shot of one of the houses on the grounds. The Elvis auto museum is also near the grounds (actually across the street) and it would have been fun to go in and see some of the cars on display. </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Maybe next time.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gOJpCixMWFtqqoNMhr1C2R3NKtr2PnY7I35Rq0Q22OzsJGY5G8_uP33UafGy5ETq62R8IGGLaiFIbYUZ1FHFdI0HhFuDAJBAqxEkDz7AO1hOiCPUtBJH6dZHBdNmwf-n4MBIzu2yuPGW/s1600/PegAtElvisSign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4gOJpCixMWFtqqoNMhr1C2R3NKtr2PnY7I35Rq0Q22OzsJGY5G8_uP33UafGy5ETq62R8IGGLaiFIbYUZ1FHFdI0HhFuDAJBAqxEkDz7AO1hOiCPUtBJH6dZHBdNmwf-n4MBIzu2yuPGW/s200/PegAtElvisSign.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peg got into the act as she presents a couple of photos and the neon signature of Elvis on the side of one of the Graceland buildings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> We had a good time as we became "accidental tourists," as Peg commented. We had Graceland all to ourselves, but you know...Elvis had left the building!</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-70998181702263268862011-05-16T19:12:00.000-07:002011-05-17T19:40:52.184-07:00The Crystal Shrine Grotto - Memorial Park Cemetary<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVkDKh-HLmYKz0MpQzfq9wBDf4xtux2401UwhjqEVuUirwjGcCJQH0fkQ7XEJaK_TeJDH3bfB-NddIxkqtmd_lhKQhZqkSxthu1AKSyXIlEUw2IamKV4qZUtIq6x5NPyixvE0iCGqzdq8/s1600/CoveredBridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVkDKh-HLmYKz0MpQzfq9wBDf4xtux2401UwhjqEVuUirwjGcCJQH0fkQ7XEJaK_TeJDH3bfB-NddIxkqtmd_lhKQhZqkSxthu1AKSyXIlEUw2IamKV4qZUtIq6x5NPyixvE0iCGqzdq8/s200/CoveredBridge.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Monday morning the rally vendors (like us) were starting at 12 noon, so we had a little time to explore Memphis a little. We headed to the </span><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Crystal Shrine Grotto</span>.<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Peg did some research on this grotto and though it would be interesting to see. We used our new GPS sent to us by Rand McNally to test and evaluate for our <a href="http://www.americanrver.com/">American RVer</a> show.</span> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is working much better than our old Garmin. It lead us straight to the Crystal Shrine Grotto.</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZKLwkPhkSo_StiqhkQAbhUm26CXaMEzXZpcNqC_d2oTg-nE6JKxTBSUbMAhrNW7YewM_E2NGUA5B-NjsLdWRPdRxxjoON6qF9mzpA2IIe06nuXyTeIYlwtLBVlrCnUJxiriqROI1BTwfD/s1600/GrottoInterior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZKLwkPhkSo_StiqhkQAbhUm26CXaMEzXZpcNqC_d2oTg-nE6JKxTBSUbMAhrNW7YewM_E2NGUA5B-NjsLdWRPdRxxjoON6qF9mzpA2IIe06nuXyTeIYlwtLBVlrCnUJxiriqROI1BTwfD/s200/GrottoInterior.jpg" width="150" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bZve-3MBUxznWrhskru95mIkLTFn94oK1GSOu8a5poKv3An9uczC3yB7C0SbVzwLgZTalOjgC6HsivYzgqOlGOHZ2Ys6ekGeVp1HjX2i7QwJB66Bf5dbz_C2uNSjZfq1KmQOGtgdTvDl/s1600/GrottoPond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bZve-3MBUxznWrhskru95mIkLTFn94oK1GSOu8a5poKv3An9uczC3yB7C0SbVzwLgZTalOjgC6HsivYzgqOlGOHZ2Ys6ekGeVp1HjX2i7QwJB66Bf5dbz_C2uNSjZfq1KmQOGtgdTvDl/s200/GrottoPond.jpg" width="200" /></a>The first thing you see is a small pond and a covered bridge carved out of a large tree. Pretty cool! The grotto or cave was constructed by Memorial Park founder E. Clovis Hinds and Mexican artist Dioñicio Rodriguez in 1935-38. Natural rock and quartz crystal collected from the Ozarks for the background of the nine scenes of the life of Christ. The cave was built of concrete in imitation of rocks, boulders and trees. The entrance is quite impressive and made us feel like we were in a section of "middle earth".</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9bXZyqAULqMC45P4oPgrllUU80m2tLBz190kZh_mKeFaqPaR0gb_Z3x3NiJ7uXF1F_kF_oYgp7W5ZdQVVHZxnolxuVHnmMOLNldV-O1JSWqSB5iW83SZpU34L_mlAbgdXI8JTGC5vZlhT/s1600/PegInGrotto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9bXZyqAULqMC45P4oPgrllUU80m2tLBz190kZh_mKeFaqPaR0gb_Z3x3NiJ7uXF1F_kF_oYgp7W5ZdQVVHZxnolxuVHnmMOLNldV-O1JSWqSB5iW83SZpU34L_mlAbgdXI8JTGC5vZlhT/s200/PegInGrotto.jpg" width="150" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwatsRM7FdfUO9lMVCIgUm44cyDo7K7pr1TvDoNveHJxKZU6s7sdEEMyeJReptOvTi1_SkjQ9X5Hu3zdEshUUIvjpYqQqiYazaUNvPtXyMM4kxHZXBGwm6XEyTvpw_5fajnhoE9EAZq5w/s1600/CrystalShrineGrotto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwatsRM7FdfUO9lMVCIgUm44cyDo7K7pr1TvDoNveHJxKZU6s7sdEEMyeJReptOvTi1_SkjQ9X5Hu3zdEshUUIvjpYqQqiYazaUNvPtXyMM4kxHZXBGwm6XEyTvpw_5fajnhoE9EAZq5w/s200/CrystalShrineGrotto.jpg" width="150" /></a>Peg and I checked out all the scenes and I was especially interested in the huge quartz crystals used in the walls of the cave. With the lighting inside the grotto and the reflective crystals the interior looked quite mystic.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Even through the weather was still overcast, this little diversion was a nice departure from work...at least for this morning...</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-52123035099618276772011-05-15T18:52:00.000-07:002011-05-17T19:11:41.018-07:00We're Walking in Memphis - Our First Day Here...<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We are on the road and now in Memphis, Tennessee after traveling Rt. 40 near the Mississippi flood waters. We made it to the American Coach Association Rally at the Ag Center just outside of Memphis. </span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWkfWaVEbvCBTYnueSe6Sa5AyY1h4fNT8DDEyCNIgBbKHAOdXiBNTfovGhkk5KPDuom_Oo4rjuGqj8tiVDyjDqkQgSjyzToLcCFYxFpBKfd0Bf3NXf4zQKMhZwXUlE0Ew6a4yW4VeGPou/s1600/RiverDrive-Beale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisWkfWaVEbvCBTYnueSe6Sa5AyY1h4fNT8DDEyCNIgBbKHAOdXiBNTfovGhkk5KPDuom_Oo4rjuGqj8tiVDyjDqkQgSjyzToLcCFYxFpBKfd0Bf3NXf4zQKMhZwXUlE0Ew6a4yW4VeGPou/s200/RiverDrive-Beale.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We set up the MCD booth on Sunday morning and had brunch with Peg's nephew, James, who was traveling through Memphis on his way back from a wedding in Nashville with three other people. He lives in Ft. Worth, so it was ironic that we were all up in Memphis together. We ate at The Grove Inn and the food was very good. One of the women that was traveling with James knew the owner/chef and suggested we all meet there. It was a nice time and after the meal, we all headed downtown to check out the river and Beale St. It was cold and windy but Peg and I did walk a little ways on the river walk to see how high the Mississippi river was. There was still evidence of the water that had flooded that area only days before.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiajmdmiri0GScNlOpW9i-wA9WeJ7FfYcdYuNCNByaeS41mS2S-8Z366QkMJQQczuGOTl-9jOM4vuSBr8s0vF-BbGnbi4agXqiHpER2pm3504tmBQgawLOr3CmvPTJHwfYsOD5z0xyG-59i/s1600/BealeSt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiajmdmiri0GScNlOpW9i-wA9WeJ7FfYcdYuNCNByaeS41mS2S-8Z366QkMJQQczuGOTl-9jOM4vuSBr8s0vF-BbGnbi4agXqiHpER2pm3504tmBQgawLOr3CmvPTJHwfYsOD5z0xyG-59i/s200/BealeSt.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We then headed towards Beale St. and took a few photos of the "birthplace of Rock N Roll" in downtown Memphis. Not too many people hanging around on the street because of the weather so we decided to come back here at a later date in better weather.</div>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-5380986528423929032011-03-05T19:10:00.000-08:002011-03-05T19:25:25.827-08:00Back on the Road Again-Monaco Pre-rally in Moultrie, Georgia<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We left McKinney, TX Thursday morning and headed east. We are going to our second rally of this year which is the Monaco Pre-rally being held this year in Moultrie, Georgia. We were here two years ago as participants and this time we are working the MCD Innovations booth at the rally. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We are looking forward to seeing many friends. We arrived about 4:30pm (EST) at the Moultrie RV Park after driving several days in the rain. That in itself is not so bad but having windshield wipers that are stripped and when one uses them while traveling over 40 mph they tend to swing off the windshield and become non-functional. I then have to stop, remove them, tighten them back on, and continue down the road. I used a little Rain-X to try and see a little better on my side of the windshield and that helped. Since we are at the Monaco rally, I will try to buy a couple of wiper arms from them...We'll see if that works out.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hopefully I will have some photos for the next post. Too tired to shoot anything tonight. Tomorrow we set up the booth. We have to tote all the booth parts to the venue from the coach with the car so that should be fun!!! We'll see how many trips we have to take. I'll report more as the week goes on.</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-17181216480874871702011-02-05T16:50:00.000-08:002011-02-08T17:01:05.392-08:00Welcome To Our World!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RWgg1m1QLatapz3uE9gG4cIFQPGiOYyQXbiLAxPvj7ScPE_t_-ERWSRgJyxWtYsoOmH2OvHPT1UnkMxGFACQzm9FVsDzE7uhmtsB-QArmgB4SJBrdRHBBFHQfajU3vBCItTtoWUqhxCO/s1600/Peg%2527sSnowman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RWgg1m1QLatapz3uE9gG4cIFQPGiOYyQXbiLAxPvj7ScPE_t_-ERWSRgJyxWtYsoOmH2OvHPT1UnkMxGFACQzm9FVsDzE7uhmtsB-QArmgB4SJBrdRHBBFHQfajU3vBCItTtoWUqhxCO/s200/Peg%2527sSnowman.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>With a bunch of new snow on the ground (at least a bunch for Texas), Peg decided it was a beautiful sunny day and the perfect time to make a snowman! Up until this point, the snow was too dry to make a snowball and roll it, but with the temperatures into the 40's, the snowball makin' was perfect.<br />
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There were three couples in the MCD lot and Peg got donations of carrots for the snowman's nose and buttons and some rocks for the snowman's eyes and other buttons. Peg added her hat and scarf to perfect the look. A few branches were acquired for the snowman's arms and hands and, voila, a three balled snowman arose...Three balled?!?! Anyway, she had a good time and I stood by for moral support in her endeavor.<br />
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Sure can't wait for warmer weather. We will be traveling to Georgia soon for two RV shows and, hopefully, the weather will cooperate!American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-2901514730231653552011-02-04T13:09:00.001-08:002011-02-04T13:48:45.921-08:00Winter is Hell in McKinney!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivfZxlOJ8Ld1wDWeo97_KhAixigXNjnYogSBT4CH21gqlWceP_OOfsUJer7HQ0gNwXJpbhYmUdKHODZHTVnDX3QY8H3Pdz_LdR0Kjzxi0BXMjkQBnwF7UpbQAbTUcC6_TgAMhXq8eTb6RE/s1600/IceStorm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivfZxlOJ8Ld1wDWeo97_KhAixigXNjnYogSBT4CH21gqlWceP_OOfsUJer7HQ0gNwXJpbhYmUdKHODZHTVnDX3QY8H3Pdz_LdR0Kjzxi0BXMjkQBnwF7UpbQAbTUcC6_TgAMhXq8eTb6RE/s200/IceStorm.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqVt0vzSuLWWptrhFzBB4PmSbRLm6mrBDAStDg3g8u0jZxuVCfjFhpJ-DOz8h4k7GPIBwPWqsObj92X5KQpZ_neCpASL1htoxyUtKgMCZqNnw2yPHJsnE1sNC4J05GR8kerj9JALzeUlY/s1600/SnowStorm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Since January 31st, winter has really descended upon Texas and in particular, McKinney. I know I have not added to the blog for a while but this week is really worth mentioning. On Tuesday, February 1st we were greeted with a nasty storm which rained down sleet and freezing rain. Peg and I thought we would be smart and pulled our motorhome slides in to save the awnings that cover each slide. On Tuesday the temperatures plummeted and we were stuck living in our normally roomy motorhome with all the slides in. As you RVer's know, this is not a wonderful amount of living space. It becomes pretty tough, especially after being closed in for three days. The temperatures did not get above 20 degrees during the day and at night it was in the single digits. I could not get to my jeans in the drawer, so I was stuck in shorts for a couple of days. Now that was a topic of conversation around here!</span><br />
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</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I tried to open the slides during the day on Wednesday and they opened part way and then I could see the tops bending in as the toppers were so iced up they were keeping the slide from deploying. I also heard a bang and the topper roller actually came out of the center support arm and rollers so it was very difficult to get the topper material to rollback in. I barely opened my jean drawer, got jeans and then I went on the roof and rolled the fabric as Peg brought the slides back in. No way would I do that again until they were thawed out!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqVt0vzSuLWWptrhFzBB4PmSbRLm6mrBDAStDg3g8u0jZxuVCfjFhpJ-DOz8h4k7GPIBwPWqsObj92X5KQpZ_neCpASL1htoxyUtKgMCZqNnw2yPHJsnE1sNC4J05GR8kerj9JALzeUlY/s1600/SnowStorm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqVt0vzSuLWWptrhFzBB4PmSbRLm6mrBDAStDg3g8u0jZxuVCfjFhpJ-DOz8h4k7GPIBwPWqsObj92X5KQpZ_neCpASL1htoxyUtKgMCZqNnw2yPHJsnE1sNC4J05GR8kerj9JALzeUlY/s200/SnowStorm.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On Thursday we decided to try and get the motorhome unstuck from the ice (jack pads, tires and power cord) and make our way across the icy parking lot and into the factory at MCD to try and thaw out the slides and the entire motorhome. MCD has a very large garage door that will accommodate our motorhome. After fighting the ice, chipping out the leveling pads and trying to get the back engine compartment door open so I could plug in the engine block heater (used a hair dryer to melt the ice from the locks), I moved the coach inside and it stayed there the rest of the day. I was able to fix the center roller mount while it was inside. Finally, after a couple of hours, I was able to move the slides out. I left them in that position to dry.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We left the building around 5:30pm with the slides functioning and moved back into our site. This time I put wood blocks under the jack pads and got the slides extended quickly. Ahhhh...room again! </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFIkZifqZL4KFwyomKxIWTdd56yTp54QqVrVmGM8RNZv5i4sviLxDYmqtU884HZcyc6VHqOw8BMGlkbCuJll3ZqQ8p9k-tyd2E6zt6gUdttugeeEOWynlXWoQ5R2rVx9W6tpAACRJubFL9/s1600/JimOnCoach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFIkZifqZL4KFwyomKxIWTdd56yTp54QqVrVmGM8RNZv5i4sviLxDYmqtU884HZcyc6VHqOw8BMGlkbCuJll3ZqQ8p9k-tyd2E6zt6gUdttugeeEOWynlXWoQ5R2rVx9W6tpAACRJubFL9/s200/JimOnCoach.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Wouldn't you know it, it began snowing around midnight on Friday and here we sit in about 6" of snow. There are a few other folks stuck here with us waiting to get their shades installed, but the factory has been closed most of the week so work has been slowed to a crawl for the most part.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> As you can see, I took my position on top of the coach and began getting rid of the snow. I HATE winter! Hey...Can anyone say snow in Dallas for Super Bowl Weekend!!!!!!</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-65213287115752637412011-01-30T14:00:00.000-08:002011-02-04T14:35:08.053-08:00Ft. Worth Stock Show and Rodeo<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peg's nephew James wanted us to experience some of the big events in Texas. He said we had to go see the Ft. Worth Stock Show and especially go to the rodeo there. We said okay and got on the road early today (Sunday) and headed for Ft. Worth where James lives. We arrived around 10:15am and parked our car and climbed into James' vintage Cadillac to ride to the stock show. It was a short trip and since James has been there several times, he knew just where to park for a short walk to the event and no charge to park.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bCz9_EgsMACuR2DEytG_w2louKupkkA0eFhGMLpx0oD_gYGbtwl9_6wFiNJuHR_X1lHhZELCkqZOoox9OQZa3j6xYhKdfLHknCGCAd07D9iN609m3qePeRVWiKUuZeG6bZ_9nltFUgnu/s1600/Cow%252BCalf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bCz9_EgsMACuR2DEytG_w2louKupkkA0eFhGMLpx0oD_gYGbtwl9_6wFiNJuHR_X1lHhZELCkqZOoox9OQZa3j6xYhKdfLHknCGCAd07D9iN609m3qePeRVWiKUuZeG6bZ_9nltFUgnu/s200/Cow%252BCalf.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We first saw the livestock barns and went in and out of all of them. We checked out the sheep, goats, rabbits, chicks, ducks and the cows. We even saw a new calf and its mother in one of the stalls (see photo). There were several bulls there as well. Every farmer was continually cleaning up after their animals. That is a big job in itself. Many were grooming their stock so they could be presented for awards and ribbons. We observed a cow judging in the arena near the stock yards.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLYXIhVBqmPcXy7LazSonhKNwVkNEysQ6OvO3eo_IQ2IY2TRdvfrgd9Qn1V2kUYHI8FDzy-OW6s7ChKgja_LM1pdPEXe58eqKxaS4VYtBgYa_vXtTNHEA9wsXPVjKo5kGpDvmW9L-UvxX/s1600/CowShow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVLYXIhVBqmPcXy7LazSonhKNwVkNEysQ6OvO3eo_IQ2IY2TRdvfrgd9Qn1V2kUYHI8FDzy-OW6s7ChKgja_LM1pdPEXe58eqKxaS4VYtBgYa_vXtTNHEA9wsXPVjKo5kGpDvmW9L-UvxX/s200/CowShow.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After we wandered a while, it was time for the rodeo. I am not sure if I had ever been to a rodeo before, so we was looking forward to it. The rodeo lasted about two hours with no break, but the time went by rapidly. I took a few photos, but more video. These cowboys are a tough group and are gluttons for punishment! They even had a Future Farmers of America event where the kids went after cows to try and collect money. It was called Cows for Cash (see photo)! pretty funny watching them try to drop and tie up these calves. They all did pretty well though.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm3x90udc6Af71nOYR8f_rUASrUMST0wsZLFkOt_QxcAKvFryOCzIkeYD_yECYA97E3wO_G36MWhbrX8mTlfUd0AxeH4cXRdknYr3ggzgQSLDdMrilYNoiky7thf9KiN9_f6gw_VIVYtQ/s1600/KidsInRodeo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUm3x90udc6Af71nOYR8f_rUASrUMST0wsZLFkOt_QxcAKvFryOCzIkeYD_yECYA97E3wO_G36MWhbrX8mTlfUd0AxeH4cXRdknYr3ggzgQSLDdMrilYNoiky7thf9KiN9_f6gw_VIVYtQ/s200/KidsInRodeo.jpg" width="200" /></a><br style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After the stockyard, we went to my favorite place to eat, IHOP. It was getting late, so Peg and I headed back to McKinney and to the motorhome. It was a nice day and we got to see something different and experienced some of the rodeo events that are so popular here in Texas.</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-14336418637126641292010-11-18T16:08:00.000-08:002010-11-22T16:40:54.989-08:00November is Birthday Month in the Grich Household<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As the title states, both Peg and I have birthdays in November. My day came first on November 11th, Veteran's Day, with little fanfare. We got up a little early and went to iHop to cash in my birthday certificate for a free breakfast meal...A rootie tuttie fresh and fruity!! Say that fast 10 times! And since I turned 55 today, I am finally a senior citizen and entitled to 10% off the total bill, which amounted to Peg's breakfast.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXgHPxzrszoTZPpisnUnkZbz4gHppt8R2Ydi7nGUb9ndRW_j2Da6txQaMrONadMnMDOIhnBN1AGWPYboQ0XKYULrf4T28yJD_AMpm4gGRqzSaiTLValbgv0Y8P9KwlwQCX8JjWICLR-J2v/s1600/JimsBday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXgHPxzrszoTZPpisnUnkZbz4gHppt8R2Ydi7nGUb9ndRW_j2Da6txQaMrONadMnMDOIhnBN1AGWPYboQ0XKYULrf4T28yJD_AMpm4gGRqzSaiTLValbgv0Y8P9KwlwQCX8JjWICLR-J2v/s200/JimsBday.jpg" width="200" /></a>I did have to work today, but it was nice to see my 55th birthday. After work, Peg made me my requested dinner of homemade lasagna. She made it the way my mother cooked lasagna and it tasted every bit as good. A bottle of wine topped off the meal and the evening. Peg got me a DVD, fresh roasted coffee beans and some great cookies. I also received many e-mails from friends across the country and a call from my sister Phyl and brother Bob wishing me Happy Birthday. It was nice to hear from everyone.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Bfz1l-XEIzgiGwp_p-rc2XgxsgqrCpzyXWLY2c28jkqXMYxfm8eBDfGgTxZD-oWlzg5XpsmgH7gag53jZ4Iw_BQgQaHASLc5jAKfcPi4f-xtXmIUmwSk_HtR8zzVi8wr8z2ixfGCP_0E/s1600/GenghisGrille-PegsBday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Bfz1l-XEIzgiGwp_p-rc2XgxsgqrCpzyXWLY2c28jkqXMYxfm8eBDfGgTxZD-oWlzg5XpsmgH7gag53jZ4Iw_BQgQaHASLc5jAKfcPi4f-xtXmIUmwSk_HtR8zzVi8wr8z2ixfGCP_0E/s200/GenghisGrille-PegsBday.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brenda, Sue, Peg, Paul, Jim and John</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Next up was Peg's Birthday on November 18th. Just to be fair, she had to work on her birthday too. Again we got up and went to iHop to cash in Peg's birthday certificate for, you guessed it...A rootie tuttie fresh and fruity!! It was less crowded today since all the kids that were here on Veteran's Day (because they had the day off) were back in school.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRBJpEvpBKo4X8uAh6zcf0dRT1Yp0QHNa3RTB8vZ2b36ZMTKpOfcHTEC7QrsWZlD59u-n3ySr3UmtCOPDZ2LWjqqsS8ZYdIEYiMmRanpwK8yLMvl3XrGn4dSWzTNiUqY9AEZahBsnxhCj/s1600/WaitressSinging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRBJpEvpBKo4X8uAh6zcf0dRT1Yp0QHNa3RTB8vZ2b36ZMTKpOfcHTEC7QrsWZlD59u-n3ySr3UmtCOPDZ2LWjqqsS8ZYdIEYiMmRanpwK8yLMvl3XrGn4dSWzTNiUqY9AEZahBsnxhCj/s200/WaitressSinging.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">That evening after work, we got together with two couples, both RVing folks. We've known Paul and Sue for several years after we met, of all places, at an RV dump station in Georgia after an FMCA rally. New friends, John and Brenda, were our neighbors here at MCD for the week. We all went to the Genghis Grille in McKinney. It was a really good time and the food was equally as good. Peg had a good time especially when the servers came over and sang for her and she partook of a free desert.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKHCb29Ku2EIfMsoH0FIrwNP63JDPvB-ELpgJp79gDA3nwAKraIv_f7m4OPq013PtZ3VBOU4KsJQZzndzazy-COdLXMmP62IN4af4GUh3Pw8iURp9l8ckKqHtOoJIlJlNwq5doS9OgJCTe/s1600/PegsBirthday-BrownsCoach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKHCb29Ku2EIfMsoH0FIrwNP63JDPvB-ELpgJp79gDA3nwAKraIv_f7m4OPq013PtZ3VBOU4KsJQZzndzazy-COdLXMmP62IN4af4GUh3Pw8iURp9l8ckKqHtOoJIlJlNwq5doS9OgJCTe/s200/PegsBirthday-BrownsCoach.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After dinner, we all went over to John and Brenda's coach to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. Glad we had some nice folks to share the day with. Oh and Peg got some black jeans and shoes from me (she shopped for them) and a nice bouquet of flowers from John and Brenda.</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-61586974206767254262010-10-10T22:26:00.000-07:002010-10-24T17:56:17.323-07:00Texas State Fair....The Big Tex!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy9W9hzxmgZY1Ve9ZFElfuA44L2foPOJDAHbl2Tj3qbKqQUfRMBYETwQCS-G4__besMYlgcR99qUOb2eP-QNJH-kWw0pzXlMIhIxjFQRqTfNSLiWQvtUNK0qtNM2Ko2zqqnD6rQcLkZduB/s1600/Trains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy9W9hzxmgZY1Ve9ZFElfuA44L2foPOJDAHbl2Tj3qbKqQUfRMBYETwQCS-G4__besMYlgcR99qUOb2eP-QNJH-kWw0pzXlMIhIxjFQRqTfNSLiWQvtUNK0qtNM2Ko2zqqnD6rQcLkZduB/s200/Trains.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>It was a beautiful day in this part of Texas and Peg and I had planned on going to the Texas State Fair in Dallas. We had heard so much about it we felt we would be missing something if we did not show our faces there. Peg's nephew James and friend Mark suggested we drive to Mark's house and we could pick them up and head to the train station. We would take the train directly to the entrance to the fairgrounds. Since they wanted $15+ to park a car and only $4.50 each for the train ride, we felt it was more convenient to ride the train. We heard some folks had to wait almost an hour to park once arriving at the grounds because of all the traffic.<br />
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The drive down to Dallas was fine and taking the train was a good move. We actually took two trains to get to the State Fairgrounds but you could ride all day for the $4.50 fair. The train was a bit crowded but we managed to squeeze in and found ourselves at the front gate with many other people. The line moved quickly though.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFP3Iib_CiSt53ujaNYkx13VqgA3Zr3JzxZ4b1_qInPRyfFwyaqrgoGNW2lHlFV2VMWWQlmCax1-YRrEQhoi4kNGdLy7tF43BnTdsNLtPclVHgPjXcB24Mir6vDIaX-jRkekdbAkuhCPBh/s1600/Viper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFP3Iib_CiSt53ujaNYkx13VqgA3Zr3JzxZ4b1_qInPRyfFwyaqrgoGNW2lHlFV2VMWWQlmCax1-YRrEQhoi4kNGdLy7tF43BnTdsNLtPclVHgPjXcB24Mir6vDIaX-jRkekdbAkuhCPBh/s200/Viper.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
We headed for the car show first since it was the first thing on our route. Mark was looking for a new pick-up truck so we wandered through the massive indoor display. I had my eye on a forest green Viper (pictured) but the $80,000 price tag brought me back down to earth.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIS1sPZVqOM5-AQEa5PKGw7-WtibJyrwjNKfOvgTBJ-i_jC_aDXFQGwAKEulaG6bC61XpYvaUP2ohSh23G_DL53QFqxl_gloi58o92CHRKs13GJLMNIOjxFnUhT05NCNemaIWFscBL2EM/s1600/FriedSign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIS1sPZVqOM5-AQEa5PKGw7-WtibJyrwjNKfOvgTBJ-i_jC_aDXFQGwAKEulaG6bC61XpYvaUP2ohSh23G_DL53QFqxl_gloi58o92CHRKs13GJLMNIOjxFnUhT05NCNemaIWFscBL2EM/s200/FriedSign.jpg" width="200" /></a>It was almost lunchtime so we headed for the food court and the fried everything. Yes, the Texas State Fair is known for its fried food...fried coke, fried moon pies, fried lemonade, fried coffee, fried smores, fried frito pie, fried beer, fried magaritas and almost anything else you might have a hankerin' for fried! We opted for some of the world famous corn dogs on a stick...tastee!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf2ssZVsnVYdKa-Vi0HNjgWULQVyiNqEjOi_9rxU3arog3xx7_Fkus1AKnsfrBtc9B6cplVdKm2I9zjMtqTAouSQInBxutAXnL6XvfgCR3v2SlQrgnEY9OwYUVWKisYTO0NX0u7jtq9aTu/s1600/TractorPeg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf2ssZVsnVYdKa-Vi0HNjgWULQVyiNqEjOi_9rxU3arog3xx7_Fkus1AKnsfrBtc9B6cplVdKm2I9zjMtqTAouSQInBxutAXnL6XvfgCR3v2SlQrgnEY9OwYUVWKisYTO0NX0u7jtq9aTu/s200/TractorPeg.jpg" width="112" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTxSvfImHuRtB1iSNpXiTSmBXfuezcf6leyl41ka_U0GJ_Xf1TellBKtlB-FKG0WzcYlxOssvSfrzRNoYqXJVyvdOEsm1iUEZ1gAlt1Zj3epLzktkXYYjbjSLOE3DG4YEJRNZLowWIZT6/s1600/DogShow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQTxSvfImHuRtB1iSNpXiTSmBXfuezcf6leyl41ka_U0GJ_Xf1TellBKtlB-FKG0WzcYlxOssvSfrzRNoYqXJVyvdOEsm1iUEZ1gAlt1Zj3epLzktkXYYjbjSLOE3DG4YEJRNZLowWIZT6/s200/DogShow.jpg" width="200" /></a>Next it was time for the dog show in one of the arenas. The dogs dove into a pool, caught frizbee's and raced over barriers. We ate our corn dogs and watched the show. Next we visited a John Deere display and Peg standing next to one of the units shows just how big those tractors can be!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSreB4TLHGSIUNJW6ptAlS-meG7uaw-HuyhYxgwCEtU0rctgypc_JzTs3rclskJti4Qca6UY5ZX801_hxzLI6x7Dk2PN3vftrsoe-OxuY7xe8B3ZJL4FBeFQ3_-Jvoy_6cub5quwTbjO2r/s1600/HorseWhisperer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSreB4TLHGSIUNJW6ptAlS-meG7uaw-HuyhYxgwCEtU0rctgypc_JzTs3rclskJti4Qca6UY5ZX801_hxzLI6x7Dk2PN3vftrsoe-OxuY7xe8B3ZJL4FBeFQ3_-Jvoy_6cub5quwTbjO2r/s200/HorseWhisperer.jpg" width="200" /></a>We moseyed on over to the horse arena and watched a show performed by a horse whisperer. He trains horses that they take in when no one wants the horse or when a horse can not easily be trained. t was a good show but we were in the direct sun so we were ready for some shade when the show was over.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpxIMQugFzZsAGOaAardJhsM3Y75RD_sStbqQ75fflh7dNCPFoTyZ1l2y-2s4r4x9VoSWqauuzEmtFO3fqCXMfpNZGfx0iN_rsWHwJZGmZOd3BnUzX8HQGs3x3Cx8EBKAmstmfMJKDirI/s1600/Longhorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNpxIMQugFzZsAGOaAardJhsM3Y75RD_sStbqQ75fflh7dNCPFoTyZ1l2y-2s4r4x9VoSWqauuzEmtFO3fqCXMfpNZGfx0iN_rsWHwJZGmZOd3BnUzX8HQGs3x3Cx8EBKAmstmfMJKDirI/s200/Longhorn.jpg" width="200" /></a>We headed for the 4-H barns and saw the horses, cows goats and Longhorn cattle, like this one. Pretty wild rack of horns this guy had. Would not want to be in an open field with him!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-G9_SDSGTyPkSVrXf3mrKW3X6ZMrK8BIQ2yylt50BjBWw5fsYGfze62-sLD5cfqpgQm52RzmQGFF8ejFvvQZ0PcjjinQryVfabJDPzSSTEravljVpRfngD7FRyFwAHAaW472rEoTb8P5s/s1600/Pumpkins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-G9_SDSGTyPkSVrXf3mrKW3X6ZMrK8BIQ2yylt50BjBWw5fsYGfze62-sLD5cfqpgQm52RzmQGFF8ejFvvQZ0PcjjinQryVfabJDPzSSTEravljVpRfngD7FRyFwAHAaW472rEoTb8P5s/s200/Pumpkins.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Another building had model railroad trains running through flowers in a hot house type atmosphere. Also in that building was a pumpkin carver. He was no ordinary carver as you can see by the picture I shot as he was telling his story and carving large pumpkins. Some pretty cool designs!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRM_xBzkG7ALj9QnKeSHtZv-vzoma0_Oxq2gChKkM0yOS1caVv4gQvLsoauVB2kOt15Zb3UfTfT6KTwnduhswYSTDc5meyb1jvhc6Lpq2OO6QvEv8Rlavgwlx82ocrdwigGUjMKez09v8p/s1600/Flowers-Trains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRM_xBzkG7ALj9QnKeSHtZv-vzoma0_Oxq2gChKkM0yOS1caVv4gQvLsoauVB2kOt15Zb3UfTfT6KTwnduhswYSTDc5meyb1jvhc6Lpq2OO6QvEv8Rlavgwlx82ocrdwigGUjMKez09v8p/s200/Flowers-Trains.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
Next we entered the amusement ride area and James wanted Peg and I to go on the ferris wheel. This is one of the big attractions of the Texas State Fair. We had enough tickets left for one of us so I told Peg she could go. Not a hard decision on my part. By the way, tickets are used to purchase everything at the fair. That way, the merchants do not have actual money to deal with and I am sure that keeps any potential robberies to a minimum.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5LUuQJqohHlzvqHQLojjOQ9I6w2J0KEl326ams5tC5YE_fyfA5yuW7VI4BS11v5a13WV6gXJ94M3xcL9CCa8z1GYIgwTuf8i9Ix9sai6jkDHdW1i45YqjXKlOHzszjpsQPT5ilkahVG6/s1600/James+Peg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY5LUuQJqohHlzvqHQLojjOQ9I6w2J0KEl326ams5tC5YE_fyfA5yuW7VI4BS11v5a13WV6gXJ94M3xcL9CCa8z1GYIgwTuf8i9Ix9sai6jkDHdW1i45YqjXKlOHzszjpsQPT5ilkahVG6/s200/James+Peg.jpg" width="200" /></a>Here are a couple of shots Peg took from the ferris wheel. I think she and James got one non-stop revolution on the wheel after everyone was loaded and that was it. The entire process of standing in line waiting to get on the ferris wheel to when they got off took about 45 minutes! I guess it was worth it to say you did it. One photo is James and Peg on the ferris wheel and the other is a birds-eye view of the City of Dallas and some of the fairgrounds.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIkUs8_z0NIVJ21hcaFWttGnPCH62xCtSypKXSHKnEE2_Yk67GDPr171FaTlLzojHdKF53AHec3CCiREFLc0McQIw5xCpGhP_OFKZMqz1hokH3Yeo5ZotnZ1Vb0wqdD0bcaFE4LEjandsX/s1600/DallasAerial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIkUs8_z0NIVJ21hcaFWttGnPCH62xCtSypKXSHKnEE2_Yk67GDPr171FaTlLzojHdKF53AHec3CCiREFLc0McQIw5xCpGhP_OFKZMqz1hokH3Yeo5ZotnZ1Vb0wqdD0bcaFE4LEjandsX/s200/DallasAerial.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
By the way, for those of you not familiar with the fairgrounds, we walked right around the famous Cotton Bowl stadium where the Texas Cowboys play football.<br />
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This is an addition to this post I almost forgot about. Actually, it was the highlight of our visit to the fair. We went to the bird show at the amphitheater and it was fantastic! I tried to included a video clip from the show for you to watch, but blogger would not accept it! Sorry about that...They did have some beautiful birds big and small. The Condor had a 10 foot wingspan and if flew into the audience, not by design, and them walked to the stage! Wow, a few people were a bit frightened when it landed. They said that never happened before. I thought it was pretty cool! The show was well worth going to.<br />
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It was pretty late by the time we got back home. We went to dinner at Luby's in Dallas and then drove back to McKinney. We can now say we have been to the Texas State Fair!American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-83781388949437789342010-10-03T22:37:00.000-07:002010-10-06T07:16:28.651-07:00Octoberfest/Fondu At Dave and Marie's<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dave and Marie came back into town (McKinney) for doctors appointments and we got together a few times for some fun and relaxation. I am combining two events here because I want to get these online and it is a little quicker!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFmAMS9-XVbqZ_SrF6EYN5gC6a2zvXWbtqoM61r4uE4f5tp1LX-ksoqunbBp1iZ12xP9poYgmjuSHxPX2_FlAHv1Cv-2YomG16i7jps42j37Yp0Qsu_3bjsXycFzi5qpzsbM6xaQMU2l-B/s1600/Octoberfest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFmAMS9-XVbqZ_SrF6EYN5gC6a2zvXWbtqoM61r4uE4f5tp1LX-ksoqunbBp1iZ12xP9poYgmjuSHxPX2_FlAHv1Cv-2YomG16i7jps42j37Yp0Qsu_3bjsXycFzi5qpzsbM6xaQMU2l-B/s200/Octoberfest.jpg" width="200" /></a>First we traveled to downtown McKinney for the big Octoberfest celebration. The square was filled with music, dancing and of course, drinking! Rain was threatening, but it held off while we were there. Dave and I sampled some of the German beer and Peg and Marie partook of the wine. As you can see, there were German dancers and an umpa band ringing music into the air. Looked like everyone was having a good time. We also walked around, visited a few shops and took in the whole event.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3wBfJlVh40JttegZTdVkESfzpZ8XYnuGLSm4bW0J3oJ021p9zMPXL4uSUStkk-VFWrzHt4dbkbTjWKC1Lu4q2vEeXFYHIOzlBvmiEvHw3gwjPU-RzOjzR1YzjhD-KfhXGXRTxyJW3bhQU/s1600/5thInCountry-McKinney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3wBfJlVh40JttegZTdVkESfzpZ8XYnuGLSm4bW0J3oJ021p9zMPXL4uSUStkk-VFWrzHt4dbkbTjWKC1Lu4q2vEeXFYHIOzlBvmiEvHw3gwjPU-RzOjzR1YzjhD-KfhXGXRTxyJW3bhQU/s200/5thInCountry-McKinney.jpg" width="112" /></a>While we were watching the dancing, I noticed a sign on the light pole stating that McKinney was voted the 5th best place to live in the country by Money Magazine. I guess we chose a good area...or did it choose us?</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9XmIjLxkTCMpiCaK26AVRkzX9uPTbEqbSZLRhBbEL7Ye1_mK7h2dfAlwn_mqenlw50hXoQAfHqy4AaIQvmXinM_izlBAjAir9RZshXDH_bvKaPbwub9apV-IyE489h-9utkf2nJeIuFXr/s1600/Marie-Dave-Peg-Jim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9XmIjLxkTCMpiCaK26AVRkzX9uPTbEqbSZLRhBbEL7Ye1_mK7h2dfAlwn_mqenlw50hXoQAfHqy4AaIQvmXinM_izlBAjAir9RZshXDH_bvKaPbwub9apV-IyE489h-9utkf2nJeIuFXr/s200/Marie-Dave-Peg-Jim.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">About a week later we were invited to Dave and Marie's motorhome, which was parked at the Lighthouse RV Park in Melissa, TX about 7 minutes from MCD. We were treated to a cheese fondu which Peg and I don't remember ever having! It was tasty and add some wine, sausage and good conversation and it was a really good night. So nice to see Dave and Marie again. Since we are a little off the beaten path, it helps to have friends visit occasionally. We'll see what other trouble we can get into in the next couple of weeks that they are here...</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-71729913135997546722010-07-31T17:49:00.000-07:002010-09-06T17:57:28.992-07:00Cruising Through Idaho<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmxLP-YHNRUPs6YiVf7VXvy3kHqPPDgTBbNUkEZteV8Y2N1zJi0NSIqcyFmTj0RY9q0RgF02jp4MZwmNvyMIW7pBxhyphenhyphenFMVp_sCFsrhWpoKlTWA7bSat9jWIGChxVcl64NljNm28nZZMir/s1600/Idaho-Rt90.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmxLP-YHNRUPs6YiVf7VXvy3kHqPPDgTBbNUkEZteV8Y2N1zJi0NSIqcyFmTj0RY9q0RgF02jp4MZwmNvyMIW7pBxhyphenhyphenFMVp_sCFsrhWpoKlTWA7bSat9jWIGChxVcl64NljNm28nZZMir/s200/Idaho-Rt90.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We headed across Idaho on Rt. 90 and that route was a bit mountainous. I do not like cliffs and drop-offs so there were a few spots that were not to my liking! The vistas were something to see, but I was glad when we got down to flatter ground.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Stayed at a KOA for the evening and Peg took advantage of the pool they had by taking a little evening swim. Tomorrow we follow the Columbia River to Portland!</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5088201751593263406.post-41387628187733490072010-07-29T17:14:00.000-07:002010-09-06T17:48:23.661-07:00Clinton, Montana. . .Feels Like We Are Home!<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It always feels like we are going home to see family when we pull into our friend Patsy's house. She and her late husband Gary became instant friends of ours several years ago when we met at Buddy Gregg Motorhomes in Knoxville when we all were getting repair work done. At that time we also met our friends Roy (and his dog Snert), Dave and Marie and Hank and Lillie. We have all kept in touch over the years. A great testimonial to the RV lifestyle!</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipFgvWRYYUycxyNzlEFr057iTUqB1CxiZRqrS10cfsq3BFbMWl1CmHdT851b8BTaQH0OKsrzXbiEN6AFvOvw84ia2rQtheFidaxeKouaufoJT-T0Pzcv4xMT6tWWX22l8BoiGlsPQ3yq94/s1600/RVinDrive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipFgvWRYYUycxyNzlEFr057iTUqB1CxiZRqrS10cfsq3BFbMWl1CmHdT851b8BTaQH0OKsrzXbiEN6AFvOvw84ia2rQtheFidaxeKouaufoJT-T0Pzcv4xMT6tWWX22l8BoiGlsPQ3yq94/s200/RVinDrive.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">On Rt 212 across Montana it rained and the road became muddy and that mud stuck to our motorhome in places I never knew it had! So when we got to Patsy's house, she was very nice in letting us use her pressure washer to clean off the coach. It took Peg and I a couple of hours to get it reasonably clean.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We had a late dinner and then I thought we should check to see if Patsy's motorhome would start since I had to take it to Missoula to get a few repairs in the morning.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Friday, July 30th...Drove the motorhome to the repair center first thing in the AM and then we decided to run errands and see some of Missoula as we waited for the repair center to make the repairs and call us. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">I got my hair cut (which I desperately needed) and we stopped into a few stores for "necessary" items. We met Patsy's daughter, Rachel, for lunch at a nice outdoor deli. The weather was great and being outside was a treat.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw7L_9GuoROeCvyMy_MoCpPcJrRT5zLBC2_7c3lKQXCkaum232UxIlU40wlaWnj8_c-nBY5hdvjKnPbVpUlKm9UQL5ry_ddMvuEepw46z7_6p8ckkFyky9WGhH_MKueWt-ne5HJd9O0g0_/s1600/Jim-Rachael-Patsy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw7L_9GuoROeCvyMy_MoCpPcJrRT5zLBC2_7c3lKQXCkaum232UxIlU40wlaWnj8_c-nBY5hdvjKnPbVpUlKm9UQL5ry_ddMvuEepw46z7_6p8ckkFyky9WGhH_MKueWt-ne5HJd9O0g0_/s200/Jim-Rachael-Patsy.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We finally received a call about the motorhome at the house around 6pm (the shop was open until 9pm) so we jumped in the car and headed back to Missoula to pick it up. Everything seemed to work fine on the drive home. Got it parked in the storage barn and closed it up and plugged the motorhome in to keep the batteries charged.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We ate around 9:30pm (Peg, Patsy, Rachel and I) and had a nice time reminiscing about our previous visit and about our friend Gary. It felt really sad to me that he was not with us. We do miss him, his humor and his presence! Tomorrow, we are off to the state of Washington. This visit was too short!</span>American RVerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03584254707077911782noreply@blogger.com0