Cheryl: We left San Antonio on Sunday and made it all the way to the KOA in Van Horn, Texas. Not much to say about tiny Van Horn except that we left the humidity behind, but not the heat. Our views were the wide-open spaces we've come to expect living in the desert southwest. Awesome mountains bordered the desert on one side of our gritty campground.
In the middle of the night I opened the trailer door to see the stars forming Orion appering to be just out of my reach in a startlingly clear sky. Not many lights around to block the view of the heavenlies, and it felt like home as I always see Orion when I go out to pick up the newspaper (or used to when I had to get up early for work!).
Our destination when we left Van Horn was Lordsburg, New Mexico, but as you can see from the following post from Frank, we made it all the way home from Texas to Phoenix on Monday evening around 6:30 p.m. After a good night's sleep in our own bed, we're mostly unpacked and the washing machine is going full tilt. The backyard furniture is covered in sandy grit from the dust storms that blew through while we were gone. That clean-up chore will have to wait a day or two.
The garden and grass have gone wild out back and I've got melon vines growing through the fence toward the pool and across the grass. Flowers mixed in with the melons look great as they're blooming like crazy. The marigolds look like they took steriods, and there are red bell peppers ready to pick! It's wonderful seeing a garden grow in a frenzy without any care at all! I'm always amazed at such bounty.
Here are just a few comments about Kemah near Baytown, Texas, on Galveston Bay since I haven't had a chance to write until now. Our excursion on the Kemah Boardwalk near Baytown, Texas, marked the first time in many moons that I've seen Frank smiling from ear to ear. That boat ride really lifted our spirits along with the upbeat music playing while the salty spray wet our clothes to the skin.
We both love to go fast and getting wet was certainly a plus considering the triple digit temperatures. I must mention the beautiful girl who "danced" on the bow of the boat all during the trip, keeping in perfect time with the beat of the music. Her smile and motions kept everyone wound up, and she only grabbed onto the rail when she knew a fast turn was coming up.
This ride on the Beast was hang-on, get groovin' fun, fun, fun! As we putted into port and turned around in the no-wake zone, we all joined in singing and arm waving to tunes like Y - M - C - A. Great advertising for those waiting on the dock since we were all obviously having a splendid time of it.
I finally got to wear my new bathing suit at the Baytown, Texas, KOA pool where I met a gal from, of all places, Richmond, Indiana (I'm from Kokomo, Indiana). It was great meeting another Hoosier and listening to her new husband tell stories about how they met and married just recently. I really didn't get much swimming done because of the non-stop conversation.
These two love-birds met while playing Scrabble on the Internet! After months of online conversation, she flew to Texas to meet this mystery man. He has 20 grand and great-grandchildren, and she has two grandchildren back in Indiana. The two of them seemed wonderfully happy together and were looking foward to fishing for sharks off the pier that evening. Really, that's what they were having the most fun doing.
I like to tuck memories of chance encounters like this one away to use as future grist for writing novels. Sometimes I don't realize where the ideas and dialogue come from when I'm sailing along writing. Chances are the inspiration comes from tidbits gleaned way back when in some poolside chatter or on some street corner who- knows-where. The brain works in mysterious circular patterns. Imagine what clever ideas will crop up after a six-week roadtrip from the Catskills to the Bayou!
The pups are very happy with a whole house to run around in and a pet door to let them into the jungle that has developed in the backyard. In fact, all four of us are so very grateful for special angles watching over us on the road for such a long time. It's a cozy feeling to be safely back home again!
Get ready, get set, I'm home again and ready to put pen to paper on novel number three.
Love and hugs,
Cheryl - "The writer is in." My kids will remember what that means.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Home again home again, jiggity-jig.
Well, we’re in Phoenix and safely ensconced in La Casa Del Monte. We hadn’t planned to be here until Thursday but the drive across I-10 in Texas and New Mexico went so smoothly we made much better time than planned. That whole section of I-10 is brand new and glass smooth.
We drove 8,480 miles in 47 days, but we spent 9 days at the Norton Rally and 10 days at Brother Greg’s. Plus 2 days in Charleston, 3 days in Savannah, 2 days in Alabama, 2 days in Baytown, Texas, and one or two other longer than overnight stays here and there. So figure 19 days of actual travelling. That works out to be 446 miles per day but that’s way too high as we normally only drove about 300 miles between camps, so to heck with the statistics.
The best parts of the trip for me were: The time I got to spend with my brothers in Virginia, seeing the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum and friends Brian & Dian in Alabama, walking around Savannah and seeing the areas used in the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, riding the Beast in Baytown, Texas, and showing the Alamo and River Walk to Cheryl in San Antonio.
The driving was trauma free until yesterday when we entered Arizona and almost got clobbered twice. The first time was by a huge gust of side-wind that moved the whole rig, truck and trailer, sideways off the road and onto the shoulder. It was the most amazing and scary thing I’ve ever encountered. It felt like the truck was sliding on ice and I had no steering. It scared the heck out of me. The second time was as we passed through Tucson during rush hour and a crazed, frustrated race car driver wannabe switched from the far left lane through the next to left lane, and into my lane almost sideswiping the truck. I swerved to the right to avoid him and luckily he saw me and swerved back to his left and again luckily, there was no one to the right of me as I had no time to do a check-see before I reacted. So I live to write the tail.
This year’s technology addition to the truck and trailer was a tire pressure monitoring system. Eight small sensors were screwed onto the tire stems and they reported the actual tire pressures to the read-out module in the truck. So as long as I could glance down and see 8 black tires displayed on the screen I knew all the tires were within the hi/low specs (truck front tires 60, rear tires 70, and trailer tires 80 each) I set for them. If a tire had lost some air it would have set off beep-beep warning and the tire indicator image would blink. If a catastrophic failure (blow out) had happened the alarm would be shrill, loud, and obnoxious indicating pull-over right now! I bought the system because having a blowout on the trailer was my worst nightmare during the last three trips. A ripped up blown tire can destroy the whole side of a trailer in just a matter of seconds without the driver even knowing there was a problem. So the new system really took a load off my mind.
Next year’s technology addition will be a rear facing video camera. I backed the rig into a lamp post while trying to turn around in a too small parking lot I got myself into through sheer stupidity and impatience. The camera wouldn’t have kept me out of the lot, but it might have kept the lamp post a bit safer. I should send them a check. Ha! Ain’t gonna happen.
I finally got the Alamo photos out of my camera’s internal memory and frankly they are not that great. I will post the only one worth looking at. A bigger, better camera is on the list for next year’s vacation.
I will encourage Cheryl to write some words about the trip.
For now,
Happy to be home Frank.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Algorithm: Bucket List = Bucket List – 2.
Mark two more items off the Bucket List. We “did” the Alamo and Riverwalk today. I will post three of Cheryl's photos of Riverwalk but the photos of the Alamo will have to wait until I find a Radio Shack where I can get a cable to connect my camera directly to the computer. It seems I forgot to put the memory card back into my camera and today’s photos went into the camera’s internal memory and I need the aforementioned cable to get them out. Rats.
The last time I was at the Alamo was back in 1962 when I had just graduated Basic Training at Lackland AFB, just outside the city. That’s 49 years ago! Can you believe it? We saw lots of “slick sleeve” airmen walking around today. There went I ever so long ago. I spoke with one young kid. He was very nice. Called me “sir” a lot. God I feel old.
We’re back in the KOA. Cheryl is napping. I may go do some laundry if I can work up the gumption. We head west tomorrow and don’t know where we’ll end up. Somewhere about 300 miles or so from here. I’ll let you know.
Frank
Friday, August 19, 2011
Unplanned, Unexpected.
Sometimes the best adventures are the unplanned ones. We arrived here in Baytown, Texas, which is near Galveston, at about 2 PM today. As the day was early we asked if there was anything nearby to do and if there were some nice restaurants around. The answer to both was “Kemah Beach Boardwalk”, about 20 minutes south of here.
After setting up the RV and getting the dogs settled in we drove down to Kemah. The boardwalk is clean, bright and shiny, and has lots of neat funky shops, but no “been there pins.” It also has, “The Beast”, a monster speed boat with twin 3500 horse engines that can seat 100 people. We signed up for the 5PM tour and there were only about 20 of us hardy souls on board. It was a blast! That thing screams! And it heels over so far it throws water all over all of us passengers. We were soaked, and it was great fun. I spoke with Skippy, the 25 year old “Captain” (he looks 12) and he told me he was in college getting his engineering degree. I told him, “Screw engineering, this is waaaaay more fun.”
After the boat ride we slogged our way down to a nice restaurant, “The Sugerweed Inn” or something like that. The food was average and plenty of it, the service was excellent, and the prices were only too high rather than way too high. So, considering we are on vacation, it was exactly right for us.
Once again the advertised WiFi doesn’t reach us so this will have to be posted later. Maybe Cheryl can add some words then.
Later,
Soaking Wet Frank
After setting up the RV and getting the dogs settled in we drove down to Kemah. The boardwalk is clean, bright and shiny, and has lots of neat funky shops, but no “been there pins.” It also has, “The Beast”, a monster speed boat with twin 3500 horse engines that can seat 100 people. We signed up for the 5PM tour and there were only about 20 of us hardy souls on board. It was a blast! That thing screams! And it heels over so far it throws water all over all of us passengers. We were soaked, and it was great fun. I spoke with Skippy, the 25 year old “Captain” (he looks 12) and he told me he was in college getting his engineering degree. I told him, “Screw engineering, this is waaaaay more fun.”
After the boat ride we slogged our way down to a nice restaurant, “The Sugerweed Inn” or something like that. The food was average and plenty of it, the service was excellent, and the prices were only too high rather than way too high. So, considering we are on vacation, it was exactly right for us.
Once again the advertised WiFi doesn’t reach us so this will have to be posted later. Maybe Cheryl can add some words then.
Later,
Soaking Wet Frank
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Baton Rouge - Leaving for Baytown, TX
Cheryl: We have great WiFi coverage here at the Baton Rouge KOA so I thought I'd at least let you know our plans. Tonight we'll be in Baytown, TX, at a KOA on the water. Tomorrow we'll arrive in San Antonio where we hope to tour the Alamo and see Riverwalk. After that it's run for the barn! Our plan is to be home by Thursday, August 25.
We had three wonderful nights sleeping with the windows open in Birmingham, AL, but here we're back to the heat and humidity. Our friends said we hit Birmingham during a cool spell. I'm hoping it will be cooler by the bay in Texas.
Frank: We are going to San Antonio to see their "River Walk" which I woulda sworn was in Austin. I guess they moved it. I'm glad we Googled it before we made our plans. Woulda been embarrasing to ask where it is in Austin only to be told "go to the end of town and make a left . . ." Gee, if you've been reading this blog all along that will sound familiar.
Love from
Maw and Paw Kettle and the dawgs
(You younger folks will probably have to look Maw and Paw Kettle up on the Internet)
We had three wonderful nights sleeping with the windows open in Birmingham, AL, but here we're back to the heat and humidity. Our friends said we hit Birmingham during a cool spell. I'm hoping it will be cooler by the bay in Texas.
Frank: We are going to San Antonio to see their "River Walk" which I woulda sworn was in Austin. I guess they moved it. I'm glad we Googled it before we made our plans. Woulda been embarrasing to ask where it is in Austin only to be told "go to the end of town and make a left . . ." Gee, if you've been reading this blog all along that will sound familiar.
Love from
Maw and Paw Kettle and the dawgs
(You younger folks will probably have to look Maw and Paw Kettle up on the Internet)
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Interior Shots of the spacious Barber Museum
Cheryl: We had such a good time touring the Barber and visiting with our good friends Dian and Brian. We hadn't seen them for at least 25 years, so spedning the evening over great seafood at the Fish Market in downtown Birmingham was such a treat! The behind-the-scenes tour Brian gave us was simply outstanding as was the tour of the sprawling grounds outside the museum.
Here are some of my photos that include interior shots to show you the Barber's open and spacious design. I've also included some shots of the wall-art that helps place the bikes in context throughout the museum, some exterior pictures of the acres of landscaped grounds with the race track that is used daily by the Porsche driving school, and then some photos of some of my favorite bikes.
Love and hugs, The Biker Chick
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