5-31-18 Tucumcari, NM

On Tuesday the 29^th of May, the drive from Grand Island, NE to Dodge City, KS was long, tedious and challenging.  We had decided to take a more back way and avoid the freeway.  Then the bad weather reared its ugly head.  Our hope was that our route would circumvent some of the scary looking black skies ahead but, alas, some of it slammed into us head-on.  The windshield wipers’ “fast” speed could not keep up.  There was a bit of small hail, briefly.  Sharp lightning bolts stretched all the way to the ground and deafening thunder rumbled.  Two tornadoes came through Dodge City a few miles from our destination but the bastards missed us.  Ah, the heartland:  tornado alley.  In all the noisy chaos, the sound of the rock that hit the windshield was drowned out and the chip was found later that day.  We were sad.  Rob called the glass guy, he came out in the morning and fixed the damage in about 20 minutes for $55, which AAA paid in full immediately.  The Jeep never got unhitched so we were ready to roll quite quickly, yup, at 11:20AM.  This part of the plains states can be brutal, weather-wise.  Just before our arrival at the campground, the managers had gone around the campground gathering everyone up and transporting them to the shelter which happens to be the bathroom.  Handy when you’re scared shitless.  The glass guy told us that, a few years back, hail the size of golf balls literally totaled an entire dealership lot of brand new cars.  By the way, in the category of attention-grabbing signs, the one at the Winnebago factory customer service lounge reads, “Tornado shelter, employees only.”  Customer service, indeed!

I could have spent a week in Dodge City, I just love the place.  But we are on a mission and a time-limiting schedule so today, the Tucumcari KOA was the destination.  Once again, the prairie winds blew fiercely and that coupled with being passed in both directions by semis, meant no daydreaming behind the wheel.  The 290 mile drive took seven hours of tense, heart-stopping, wheel-gripping attention, mostly on slower two-lane back roads that pass through the small towns, by choice.  It is so much more interesting to travel through the farm country and in the gas stations and rest areas we meet friendly, kind Midwesterners.  They come in handy, by the way.  At the gas pumps, unfamiliar with all things diesel, we newbies were standing there reading manuals to see what kind of fuel to use, diesel # 1 or diesel # 2.  I’m sure the seasoned truckers were giggling at us.  We asked them about it and got several different interpretations but the most prevalent is that # 1 is for winter temperatures near zero and # 2 is for summer driving.  “Near zero?”  No worries, # 2 it is!

Noobee at the Tucumcari campsite

We touched four states today.  Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico and we’ve arrived in Tucumcari.  Last time I drove through Tucumcari was in January, 43 years ago, when I drove my Duster and a small U-Haul to CA on my big cross-country move.  This was when the Beach Boys wished they all could be California girls and I was trying to do my part.  It was also during Jimmy Carter’s gas crisis and I carefully metered my mileage and was on schedule to arrive in Albuquerque with a few ounces left.  Unfortunately, just outside of Albuquerque, I became stopped in a jam and a blizzard up in the hills from where I could see the city lights.  I learned from truck drivers who were on their CBs that a cattle transport had tipped over.  I had just enough fuel and so I turned the car off and on just long enough to warm Boo, my cat, and me.  After some time, I didn’t think I was going to make it to the city, carefully turned around and headed back to a small motel in Tucumcari.  Across the street was a gas station and in the morning, I made it there on fumes.  As I drove the same pass later, there were dead cattle strewn all along the roadside covered in blankets of snow.  My introduction to New Mexico!

Inside Noobee

Toonie time!

5-29-18 Grand Island, NE

This KOA park is populated with hundreds of mature broad leaf trees with great big canopies.  Now that they are leafy, it is shady and pretty, today.  Yesterday, though, the sky turned angry and black.  While riding in the Jeep, our radio tunes were interrupted with a loud, “B-E-E-E-P!”  It was a weather alert.  The scary voice informed us of severe thunderstorms and possibly quarter-size hail.  Oh, great.  The wind and rain came in bursts starting in the afternoon.  There were little whitecaps sweeping along the length of the roofs of some of the rvs.  Surf’s up!  After dinner and a bit of tidying up, at bedtime, we decided to get small.  We retracted the slides and hunkered down and hid under the trees.

Grand Island RV Park in Nebraska

This morning, it is still and there are patches of blue sky.  No hail last night and so, happily, the vehicles do not resemble golf balls!  After a restless night, I marched out to talk to the birds.  “Sure!  Now that it’s light and the sun’s out, not a peep out of you!  At four in the morning, ‘Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp!’  Hours of incessant chirping!  Do you feathered songsters ever go to sleep?  When it’s dark out, it’s sleepy time!  SHUT!  UP!”  OK, so I guess I told THEM.  Just had to get that off my chest.

The hard-working farmers must feel blessed with the Spring rain.  We have only been here in this part of America’s bread basket for about 48 hours and along the way, many a tractor has been plowing, manicuring and seeding hundreds of acres for hundreds of miles!  I’m no expert but it seems that, this season, the Weather Gods will hear the farmers’ eternal prayer, “Knee-high by the Fourth of July,” and it will be granted.  Just since we arrived, the happy little seedlings appear to have grown 6 inches in the perfect rows, like green corduroy draped over the gentle hills.  The dark brown fields are turning green before our eyes.  What a happy thing.

We’ll depart here shortly, probably 11 o’clock, right on cue.  Next stop:  Gunsmoke RV Park in Dodge City, KS.  Uh oh, all the cows are lying down.  It’s going to rain on us.

5-27-18 Clear Lake, IA Part II

Hundreds, even thousands, of concerts still
happen here, year after year.

Wind your imagination’s clock back to February 2, 1959, a night to remember.  Buddy Holly stepped onto the stage to sing to the crowd, as did The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.  Waylon Jennings was also a part of the entertainment.  The evening concert took place on stage at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, IA.  When the performance was ended, Buddy Holly called his wife, Maria Elena, from the phone booth in the lobby.  Ritchie Valens called his agent. 

Phone booth last used by Buddy Holly
and Ritchie Valens.

A plane had been chartered to transport the entertainers to their next venue in Moorhead, MN.  Waylon Jennings opted out of the flight considering the severe, icy, snowy weather, choosing instead to ride on a bus.  The relatively inexperienced pilot had not done well at previous training in instrument flight rules.   Five miles north after take-off, the plane rolled and crashed killing all aboard.  It is rumored that the 3 plane passengers chided Waylon Jennings and joked that he should enjoy his bus ride.  The words he quipped back haunted him for life, “Yeah, well I hope your plane crashes.”  Today, the Surf Ballroom is a landmark in Clear Lake, preserved exactly as it was on the night of the last concert performed by the 3 who perished.  The booths along the walls sit before a backdrop of seascape murals intended to give patrons the feeling of lounging near the surf beneath a ceiling painted in the manner of the sky dotted with white fluffy clouds.  On the side, you can walk into a small dressing room where thousands of entertainers have since scrawled their signatures.  And in the front lobby sits a precious baby grand piano whose keys have been tickled by a thousand musicians including Duke Ellington who signed the inside of the top board.

Look under the top board.  See the words, "The Duke."

Rock on, Rob.  Buddy Holly's last stage.

Original booths intended to seat six.  Seascape murals
on the back wall.

LIncoln and Kim

1

Kim and Roberto!

At an outdoor bar and restaurant called the Tiki Bar, we offered one of our empty seats to a gregarious, outgoing fellow named Lincoln.  We got to chatting about our situations and before we knew it, he invited us to take a boat ride around Clear Lake the following day.  Naturally, this was an opportunity neither to be ignored nor left for another time!  After a quick stop at the farmers’ market and our tour of the Surf Ballroom, we packed up a cooler and met up with Lincoln and Kim and their kids at their waterfront vacation home for a sunny afternoon of boating.  We traveled the whole perimeter of the lake (about 22 miles or 4 beers) while our new friends pointed out the highlights including the enormous, glamorous multi-million dollar homes.  Lincoln tells us that everything is seasonal, here.  After Labor Day week end, folks roll up the sidewalks and Clear Lake turns into a ghost town.  And from what we hear, a very cold ghost town.  The lake freezes over at some depth and the few hardy souls who weather the winters drive their cars on the ice to their fishing shacks.  I guess this is the place where the walleye never sleep!  I am certain that the temperatures here could probably turn even me into a “Grumpy Old Man!”  On the flip side, the time was well-spent today with Lincoln and Kim, young, energetic, friendly, generous people who shared their boat, time and cheer with ol’ Lindy and Rob.

Lincoln mansplains it all to Lucky Lindy

All is well with Noobee and we are off like a prom dress, heading for home.  Our first stop is Doniphan, Nebraska at the Grand Island KOA.  Another first for Noobee:  we hooked up the Jeep to tow it and Lindy was the first driver.  Since it was a long drive across the wind-swept plains, we switched drivers twice so as to just walk around, stretch and grab a soda pop.  The gusts of winds were alarming and made staying inside the lines a little tricky at times, especially when being passed by a semi, so it was nice to trade off and dry off the sweaty palms.  But here we are in the park where they deliver hot pizza and buffalo wings to your doorstep, a nice touch after a long, tense day.  No cooking tonight! 

PS-Road kill count today:  8 deer.  Perfectly good venison… ruined.  Sigh.

PPS-Will Power won Indy and Lindy is a VERY happy girl!  Figures I am not in Nevada this year to buy a winning casino ticket on cute Will Power!  But he won.  Yay!

5-25-18 Clear Lake, Iowa

As Frank Sinatra would have sung, “Noobee doobee doo!”  Several of you have asked for interior pictures of Noobee.  I can do that but if you want to see the layout, go to the Winnebago website and search for the 34T Forza.  That’s us!  We chose the floor plan that has a settee instead of that big long C-shaped sofa.  Also, you say, “OMG, Noobee is HUGE!”  Well, the reality is that Noobee is only 20 inches longer than Bee and exactly the same height from the ground to the top.  Maybe the paint job makes it look bigger or something.  The box structure is closer to the ground giving it more cargo capacity so that’s probably part of it.  It looks big and scary to me, too, but in reality, it is so similar that we are putting things in the same cupboards where they “belong.”  It’s really neat… nearly no learning curve for this part.

Noobee at Oakwood RV Park... doesn't look
so big there, now does she?

Today’s assignment was to drive the beast.  So I actually drove a diesel today for the first time in my life.  It didn’t feel a whole lot different than driving Bee but I was nervous, especially in the high winds across the plain.  There are things that differ from a gasser but it doesn’t seem that complicated, which only proves that I am obviously overlooking a lot.  It’s off to WalMart we go for the usual essentials:  soap, rugs, salt and pepper, mattress pad, a couple of lawn chairs, an entry mat on which to wipe muddy shoes.  You know the drill.  Once there, I actually parked staying inside the lines and everything.  (My kindergarten teacher taught me well!)  Strangely, although it is the same size as Bee, it is an intimidating beast.  Some things are just alarming, like when the air brakes deflate with an explosion.  The Winnebago guy coaxed me to touch the air horn and it is heart attack material.  Yikes!  Of course, “The Man” drives it like a veteran, not ruffled in the least.

Iowa:  where there are Hy Vee Markets.  You may know what this means:  walleye.  As far as we know, there are 3 places in the US to acquire walleye (without a fishing pole):  Boise, the Hy Vee Markets in Iowa and Basha’s in Wickenburg, AZ.  So today, I drove the frig down to the market and exclaimed, “Fill ‘er up!”  Just kidding about the frig part but we did stock up on about six pounds of walleye.  Unable to resist, dinner was a few filets accompanied by fresh Iowa sweet corn on the cob.  The first dinner in Noobee!  Well now!  It just doesn’t get much better than this!  A few restaurants serve walleye but as one proprietor reasoned, “Why offer walleye?  Nobody orders it.  When you can go down to the lake and catch walleye all day long, why buy it in a restaurant?  I caught seven of  

Lakeside Church, built by Scandinavian, Russian and
German immigrants in 1890

them just yesterday.”

Life in Noobee has been pretty exciting and uneventful all at the same time.  We keep thinking we should take it back to the factory for something but so far, nothing has gone awry.  Well, OK, nothing that we can’t crawl around to fix or tweak.  The Winnebago factory is 15 miles away and this rv park is out in the country on Clear Lake.  The park is expansive and green, green, green.  There is a tiny church on the property, the Lakeside Church, built in 1890 and moved from its original site 2 miles from here to save it from a practice burn by the Fire Department.

(As the pastor cornered me to discuss the history, I was invited to attend the Sunday service.  It was a narrow escape.)  The chickens wander about and provide everyone with fresh eggs and the rooster awakens us in the morning with a loud, “Cock a Noobee doo!”  Great northern geese are on final approach for the warm summer season.  This is quite an experience!

The inside of this church was destroyed by vandals.
The current pastor rebuilt the pews.  Original wood
boards make up the floor and wainscoting.

King of the yard

Twice today, we went down to the lakeshore bar and grills, once for a quick lunch and again for dinner.  The natives are restless!  We have been told that winter temperatures here can creep down to -60F with wind chill factored in.  Now that it is sunny and warm, the ice is melted and the lake is in the form of a liquid, the pontoon boats and other water craft are swarming to the loading docks and beaches.  The humans are crawling out of their cocoons.  Lilacs and daffodils are in full colorful array.  Let the holiday week end begin!  Spring has sprung in the Midwest!

5-22-18 Forest City, Iowa

Roberto, Ray, Lindy and George (and walleye)
at Tavern on Grand

Three days in Minneapolis-St. Paul were busy, complete with picnics of bratwurst parboiled in beer and smoked on the bbq, sauerkraut, music and laughter.  And of course there was walleye.  The Tavern on Grand serves walleye every way you can dream up including breakfast:  walleye and sunny-side up eggs!  So our stay in St. Paul involved dinner and breakfast of walleye, what else?

Ray, Donkey Odie and George at Waldoch Farm

Springtime at the zoo is the most fun of all.  All the animals are horny to make babies.  We visited a nursery, the Waldoch Farm, during our stay, mostly to see the animals.  It was an amazing visit.  I have never seen a peacock all excited to show off to the female (peahen) and it was quite a display.  The beautiful bird’s tail feathers when extended are taller than Rob and he is 6 feet tall.  There were many other animals, as well, horses, tiny goats and pigs, noisy colorful chickens and cute little donkeys.  It was OK to pet them but you have to be careful of the goats, they would like to eat your hand.

Naughty kids!

How does he do this?  Why doesn't he tip over?

George and Ray’s back yard is a festival of flowers, feathers, chirping and gobbling.  Ray keeps the bird feeders stocked with many kinds of seeds and jelly, some preferred by orioles, some preferred by bright yellow finches or cardinals, some by hummingbirds and all preferred by the wild turkeys that live in the area.  And there is one small red squirrel that runs the show, chasing all the other possible diners out of the vicinity.  There is one girl turkey wandering around waving at the boys and they are showing off at this time.  This was quite a dramatic spectacle!  Another display of feathers and bragging rights that, before now, I have not seen!  Wilbur is the leader of this comical pack.  Everybody talks to Wilbur including the disposal guys and he follows everybody around.

Showing off for the chick in the back yard.
Jeez, get a room, you guys!

Hi Wilbur!  Don't gobble your food!

On Sunday, we paid a visit to my sister Carol and Swede.  They have just done a complete remodel in their kitchen and it was something I had to see.  It was quite beautiful, we were impressed!  Swede and Carol entertained us and we all celebrated Swede’s 79^th birthday with snacks and a birthday cake decorated with gummy fish.  It is always good to spend time with my family.

Carol in the new kitchen!

Lindy, Rob, Carol Annie, George, Ray and Swede

Today is Tuesday and we are off to the Winnebago factory to take delivery of our motorhome.  Fast forward to the details.  We spent 5, read it, five hours, with the mechanics, structural, electrical and avionics.  We didn’t take any “no” for an answer and it was exactly as we had ordered it up.  I don’t want put a hex on us or come to any premature conclusions but I dare say the new rv’s “more wonderful the second time around.”  It doesn’t seem to have a single little nut or bolt wrong with it.  Granted it has only been a day.  The hardware isn’t too difficult, we’ve already had to crawl under it to undo an access cover, but as for digital and computerized gizmos, the lights, bells and whistles on this beast are a challenge to us seventy-somethings.  The Jeep is now emptied of supplies.  The bed is made, we have a few dishes, towels, pots and pans and the beer is cold.  “Noobee” is parked at her first campground ever, hooked up and getting proofed.  We’ll be here for 4 nights to do what we hope will be a complete shake-down.  Outside, all night long, a Midwestern thunderstorm raged so we are engaged in baptism by total immersion.  Inside, meanwhile, the little fireplace and a cup of rustic coffee (made in a saucepan) are keeping us snug and cozy.  So far, all is calm, all is bright.

Moments after Noobee joined the Delamare family

Noobee at her first campground, Oakwood
RV Park in Clear Lake, IA

Forest City, Iowa 5-16-18

Lindy and Rob at Gramma's house

We made it to Forest City, IA today and we’ll spend the night at The Lodge.  This is a really unusual old place.  We have a room with a kitchen, separate bedroom and a wet bar in the bedroom (Well, it’s actually a powder area but, you know.  Think outside the box, right?).  Our room reminds me of my Gramma’s apartment:  the wall paper is cream colored with white and pink roses all over it.  There is pretty, highly-polished cherry wood furniture, overstuffed chairs around the dining room table and old lamps with pretty shades.  The acreage around the lodge is full of trees, flowers, a lake and benches and tables and expanses of mowed grass adjacent to a golf course.  What a nice place!

View from our room

Golf course as seen from our room

En route, we departed the interstate and took a little red side road for some time.  Spring has sprung in the Midwest.  There are acres of yellow dandelion flowers and of course, dozens of John Deeres preparing the fields for seeding.  The daffodils are springing up and smiling.  Cherry trees are covered with blossoms.  There are acres for miles of beautiful yellow flowers, which I am sure those of you who suffer from hay fever cannot appreciate.  The Midwest is alive with the renewal of Spring and Summer!  What a beautiful drive it is watching the sunny warmth awakening everything from a long Winter sleep!

Today is the last leg of the outbound trip, 150 miles to my brother George and Ray’s home in St. Paul.  We’ll spend the week end with them while we await delivery day at the Winnebago factory.  Stay tuned.  Love from Lindy and Rob

5-15-18 Gretna, NE

 We are currently in North Platte, Nebraska and today we will travel onward to Gretna.  So far, traveling in the Jeepster has been a piece of cake.  Even though we are packed to the gills, we had planned it for easy in-easy out access to the essentials for an overnight.  You know, teddy bears, clean undies and martini glasses, stuff like that!

Interstate 80 parallels the Nebraska Chain O’ Lakes.  The water table on this flat plain is only 10 feet in depth and the surrounds are a mix of sand and gravel.  The geologists and highway department found this aggregate to be perfect for creation of the foundation of the interstate highway.  As they scooped out the aggregate, small lakes were formed and one can drive about 200 miles across NE encountering one small lake after another at an average depth of about 15 feet and often connected by little rivers and streams.  No alligators so it’s all good.

Paul, Krauser and Tom at the brewery!

While in Golden, Rob was researching restaurants in North Platte.  He found a tiny brewery but it is closed on Monday.  He had a question or two and went to “contact us” on their website.  It was fortuitous that the proprietor of the brewery was online when Rob wrote to him and he responded immediately.  Paul told us that, although he was closed on Monday, he would be there and we could stop by for a little tour and a beer if we wished, just knock on the back door.  Well duh, we did that.  He drew several samples of his fine home brews and they were cold, refreshing and delicious, especially the jalapeno lager!  We acquired a growler of that to go!  In the course of the conversation, I learned that Paul hails originally from Wausau, WI.  He learned that I am from Neenah.  He said,

The fourth from the left is Patty.  (I'm the other green
coat.)  This picture was taken in 1962 at Holy
Family Academy in Des Plaines, IL.

“Oh!  My mother-in-law is from Neenah!  Her maiden name is Francart.”  I was startled!  I asked if she was 70 years old and if so, is her name Patty?  “Yes,” Paul replied.  Patty and I went to St. Margaret Mary’s together and then 2 years at a girls’ high school in Des Plaines, IL.  We both returned to Neenah at different times and Patty and I parted ways then.  That was about 54 years ago, when we were 15 years old and I never saw Patty again but I often wondered what had happened to her.  Paul called Patty, who now lives in FL, and put me on the line.  Of course she remembered Linda Kraus!  (I’m unforgettable, mostly because I was always in trouble.)  We were both shocked.  We laughed and laughed and compared life notes.  Now I am reconnected with another childhood friend due to a short stay in North Platte, NE and a chance visit to a local brewery.  What happy webs we weave!  Who knew?!

Patty, now.  Beautiful lady!
(We all survived Catholicism!)

Today’s destination is Gretna, NE.  About halfway, we took a jog in the road and drove along the back road through the pretty farm country dotted with many small towns and parallels the cross-country railroad.  Nebraska is so green and wide open, with blue sky and big fluffy white clouds.  The landscape is sprinkled with horses and cows, brown, black and white (and another animal, the green and yellow John Deere).  The roads, on the other hand, are sprinkled with dead raccoons, porkypines, skunks and the occasional deer.  It took us a long time to get here to our next hotel because we horsed around and took our time.  Hey, we’re retired!  Yay!

Looking across Nebraska!

5-13-2018 FRUITA, COLORADO

Ah… Utah, where you can’t get a glass of wine with dinner.  You can recognize the locals immediately.  We were all bundled up because it was in the 40s and windy.  They are in short-shorts and flip-flops.  And it’s usually Mom and Dad with 4 little ones on the runway and another one in the hangar.  Tiny little blonde-haired, blue-eyed miniature conservatives.  Loving it!

Cabinets inlaid with pieces of elm wood.

In Parowan, we stayed the night at the Mountain View Lodge on the outskirts of town in the farm country in the company of many cows and sheep and their lambs.  The room in the lodge was furnished with interesting pieces;  cabinetry, table tops and chair seats and backs were heavy, almost unmovable.  They are crafted of bits of elm wood which had been salvaged from the antique doors of houses in China that date back over 100 years.  Each piece of wood tells an historic story.  We did not get more of an explanation than this.

In the morning, amid rain showers, we packed up the Jeep to head out on the longest leg of our trip.  It was cold and we thought we might run into snow but hey, buck up and forge onward, right?  In a Jeep?  No problem!  The planned route continues east 310 miles to Fruita (pronounced, “FROO-tah”), Colorado.  Who says that the drive across the heartland is boring?  How can these magnificent red rock mesas and canyons along these scenic by-ways be boring?  (I haven’t ever been bored for a minute, not counting my first marriage.)  Every time we came around another turn, we gasped, “Oh my God!”  The scenes are breathtaking!  I’m quite sure that God, as a child, was sitting on the beach with a pail and shovel building incredible sand castles and palaces on Earth’s land.

Ghost Rock in Utah

The wind was unforgiving even for a little Jeep, especially in the canyons, where it would change directions unexpectedly, making the Jeepster all squirrely.  When we finally arrived in Fruita, we were exhausted just from holding the Jeepster in his own lane for hours.  At last, safely moved into our hotel room, it was dinner time.  Rob found a wonderful restaurant named Suds Bros. Brewery.  The fish and chips were the best I have ever eaten.  You know how sometimes the fish is coated with thick pancake-like batter and swimming in grease?  Not here!  This chef makes the batter using one of their home brews.  They would not give me the recipe (Top secret!) but the batter was light and crisp.  It was like the fish was coated in a thin potato chip and not greasy.  If it were walleye, I could say my life would have been complete!

We are now headed to Golden, CO.  When we emerged from the Johnson Tunnel (eastbound), it was snowing.  This tunnel (1.7 mi. long) was bored to cut under the continental divide.  The Eisenhower Tunnel is the westbound side and both are at about 11,000 ft. elev.  Just so you know, as we passed through this location, our popcorn bag exploded.  We thought we'd been shot.  Ah… Colorado:  Stoner Land, where you can not only get a glass of wine with dinner but possibly also a joint, man!

Tonight:  Mother’s Day dinner for Lindy, mother to many little animals, crickets and teddy bears.  Happy Mother’s Day to all with love!

Happy Lucky Lindy!

Parowan, UT 5-11-2018

Hi everyone!  We are on the road!  More on this below.

Leaving the homestead for 3 weeks became complicated, as it often does.  As my surgeon said one time, “We make plans.  God laughs.”  This time, as we prepared to leave, I walked out onto the back patio and there I found about a million and a half crickets.  Some were sneaking through tiny holes into our kitchen and other rooms.  Fortunately, they were all dead because we have a pest control company that comes to our house each month.  But seriously… a bazillion bugs?  It completely freaked me out.  “The Invasion Of The Crickets.”  The pest control company came out and sprayed, etc. and I was informed of “Glue Boards.”  They are sticky boards about a foot long and you line them up along the doorways or anywhere else where the bugs are getting inside.  So, in addition to all of the orchestration that is involved in leaving the homestead, we had to become “The Bug Busters.”

As some of you know, the new 2015 Fleetwood Bounder that we acquired turned out to be a bust.  Absolutely everything that could be wrong with it was wrong with it.  For the 12 months we had use of it to travel, it was in the shop for 5.  In the end, we won a lemon law litigation suit against Fleetwood and dumped it.  Still, we asked ourselves if we thought that, at our age, one more beast could possibly be in our lives or if we should hang it up.  We decided to take one more shot at it.  Well, you know how dealerships can be.  Every model you walk through has all kinds of features you don’t want and lacks features that you want.  So we said, “Fuck it.  Let’s just order exactly what we want and have it built.”  We did that and decided to pick it up at the factory.  Drive to Forest City, Iowa in the Jeep?  Not exactly a “freeway flyer,” to be sure.  Like driving a brick.  Plus it has to be loaded with all of our “stuff.”  You know, linens, towels, a few pots and pans, the tow package, secondary brake system.  Not to mention rain and cold weather gear and a tool box.  Are we too old for this?  Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that we’re not. 

So here we are on the first leg of the journey.  We are in Parowan, Utah, driving a Jeep stuffed to the gills with supplies like sheets, towels and potato chips and of course a cooler of martini fixins.’  We are settled in at our first hotel, sipping a cocktail and preparing to walk to the restaurant for a Chinese dinner.

More to come as we cross the country to Forest City, Iowa!