Tire Blow-out While Heading For Shawnee, OK

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. 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.

Blown Tire - New Tire

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. 

Wheel Well Damage

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.

New Coiled Air Line Installed

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.

Winstar Casino Sign on I-35

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.

Tomorrow we will hopefully travel on to Shawnee...

Middlebury Vermont with Don and Barb

Noonies Deli

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.

Falls in the Town of Middlebury

Texas Falls

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. 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.

Peg, Barb and Don

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.

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.

End of the Newmar Rally Week-Ben & Jerry's

Ben & Jerry's Factory

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. 
 

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.

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.

Tomorrow we meet old friends Barb and Don Woods in Middlebury, Vermont for a quick get together before we leave the area.

Flight to Vermont for the Newmar Rally

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!

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.

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.

View of Lake Champlain

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. 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.

Downtown Burlington

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!

The temperature was very nice (compared to Texas) and we looked forward to the rest of the week with the Newmar folks.

The World's Best Fried Chicken...At Gus's-Beale St. and Graceland

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.

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.

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. Maybe next time.

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.

 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!

The Crystal Shrine Grotto - Memorial Park Cemetary

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 Crystal Shrine Grotto. 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 American RVer show. It is working much better than our old Garmin. It lead us straight to the Crystal Shrine Grotto.

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".

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.

Even through the weather was still overcast, this little diversion was a nice departure from work...at least for this morning...

We're Walking in Memphis - Our First Day Here...

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. 

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.

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.