On The Road with Jim and Pat

Hello from Nadi, Fiji

Blog started:  Saturday evening   April 27, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).
Blog posted :  Monday morning April 29, 2013 (Fiji time)

I am starting this blog in the Los Angeles Airport.  This morning we flew from Denver and arrived at about 2:30 LA time.  We then had to get our luggage and transfer to the International terminal.  We had to kill a lot of time, as the check-in counter did not open until 6:35.  Our flight to Fiji leaves at 11:30.

As has been the case in several previous occasions, Stampin’ Up!  is paying for the trip.  As some of you know, Pat has earned several trips over the years.  We have been on eight cruises and this will be our second resort stay.  The demonstrators have to work very hard for these trips, but what trips they are!!!

It has been an interesting couple of days getting ready for the trip.  One of the items that cropped up at the last minute – I discovered my dive computer/watch batteries were dead.  Normally the watch has to be returned to the manufacturer to get serviced (no time for that!!!).  I did a search and found that, with a special tool, you can replace the battery.  I found an Ebay ad for the tool and battery (plus new O-ring) for a very reasonable fee.  The seller is located in the LA area.  After a bunch of communication, I arranged to buy the tool, battery, and O-ring and have a courier deliver it to the airport.  The kit was cheap, but the courier was not {frown}.  In any case, I have everything to get the dive computer/watch running again.  I really wanted to have it for the dives I plan to do.  It does a wonderful job of documenting the dive.

Fortunately, travel to Fiji does not require significant medical preparation.  Your Tetanus shots need to be  current, have current hepatitis A protection and we needed to get typhoid protection.  In my case, I could take oral typhoid vaccine, but Pat had to have a shot, since the oral has live virus and she can not have that with her compromised immune system.  

OK, now I can update this blog, as we are in our hotel room in Fiji.  We are at Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa (map).  I will post a couple of quick pictures that give a hint of how beautiful this place is and will follow up in later posts.

We departed LAX at about 11:30 PM on Saturday and arrived in Nadi at 5:10 AM on Monday.  While a quick glace would say that that is a hell of a long flight, or that Jim screwed up again, it really reflects that we crossed the date line and are one day ahead of the USA.  So, I guess you could say we missed Sunday this week.  I texted the girls and said that it was 6:30 AM on Monday in Fiji and 12:30 PM on Sunday in Denver – to give you a better understanding of the time relationship.

The flight was just a bit short of 11 hours.  Almost every seat was full and we had three people crammed together in our row.  That is the makings for a miserable trip – well, not when you have chemistry on your side.  Our doctor prescribed a sleep medication for the trip – generic Ambien.  It did the trick and we slept pretty well.  Sure made the trip bearable.

A couple of the grandsons wanted to know about the planes we took.  The Denver to LAX was a 737-800.  The LAX to Nadi was a 747-400.  I have always loved the 747 planes.  Gates had a project to develop a V-belt conveyor system for the cargo containers.  I made several trips to California to work on the design and testing of the system.  Then I made a trip to Chicago for one of the first commercial flights of that great plane.  When I saw it coming in, I was convinced it was crashing.  The plane is so big that it looks like it is going too slow to fly.  Over the years, I have taken many 747 flights and it is the smoothest flying plane I have been on.  I have been saddened that most of the airlines are phasing them out.  Imagine how delighted I was to fly one again.

That is all for now.

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Sunday morning  April 14, 2013   (Fifth travelogue of this trip).

When we last posted, we were concerned about running into snow on our drive to Iowa.  Turned out that the weather was OK.  It was cool on the drive, but no snow.  We got to Bill and Jeanne’s about 2:30 and got situated. 

Friday was really a whirlwind day for me.  I wanted to talk to a company in the Corning area that I need to have make a couple of metal parts for me.  They have done some projects for me in the past and their prices are very fair.  The project involves shearing and bending some rather heavy plate into frame rails that I will use to lengthen my old IHC truck.  I had remembered that they have some really large equipment.  Turns out that they can bend ½ inch thick plate and shear 1 inch thick steel plate!!!!  Far more capacity than I need {grin}.  I also stopped at a tire store to get some prices on drive tires for the bus.  I really like to do business with folks in that area.  They could use the business, their customer attitude is great, and their prices are very good.

Pat and her cousin made several stops and visited Pat’s aunt Jarris.

Yesterday, we drove 650 miles in the PT Cruiser from Iowa to our home.  That was a long day, but bearable.  We had decided to leave the bus in Iowa, since we planned to return for what has become our annual Memorial Day visit.

This trip was a bit less than three weeks.  You would think that there would be some leisure time in that period.  That really was not the case.  There were some periods of a few hours that we got to relax, but most of the time we were on the go.  That said, the activities that we participated in were all very enjoyable!  Our original plans called for a more leisurely trip, but NTT confirmed that the class I was scheduled to teach was a go.  When we laid out the trip, it did not look like they had enough students to justify the class.  Because of the class, we had to break up the trip into two parts.

Now, I must spend most of my time over the next couple of days getting ready for a class that I have not taught in about 10 years.  No rest for the wicked.

That is all for now.

Hello from Arrowhead Point RV Park  close to El Dorado, MO

Wednesday Evening   April 10, 2013   (Fourth travelogue of this trip).

Before we get into this travelogue post, I just had to publish one more picture from the Blytheville rally.  The photo was taken by Stan Holter during the rally.  It is a beautiful photo that could have easily been taken 60 years ago.

We are at the Arrowhead Point RV park (map).  We chose to stay here for three nights so that we could dump our holding tanks, get water and generally relax and not worry about running the generator.  This location was midway between two activities that we had planned.

The first was a visit with a friend of Pats from her very early days.  Linda and Pat grew up together and have kept in touch all these years.  We drove to Linda and Leonard’s house in Roach, MO.  It is a beautiful house right on The Lake of the Ozarks.  We had visited them in the same general area a few years ago, but they have built a new house.  While Linda and Pat caught up on old times, Leonard and I went down to their dock and I got to watch him do some fishing.  We then took his “gator” type ATV for a ride around the area.  Even though the trees are not yet leafed out, it is a beautiful area.   We ended the day with a fun dinner at a local bar/restaurant.  Without question, they are great hosts.

Today was our genealogy day.  Pats Grandfather was born in this general area and a host of his relatives are buried in various cemeteries within about a 60 mile radius of our RV Park.  Last year, after our Eagles International rally, we spent a bit of time in the area, but wanted to do some more research.  We had planned to go the the library in Butler, MO.  Pat had contacted them prior to our trip and the genealogy expert had done some research.  This was her day off, but she left some great material for Pat to review. In addition, the head librarian was of great help in locating additional material and making a couple of contacts for us.

We had also planned to visit three cemeteries.  The weather was very rainy and cold, but we were able to make our planned visits.  One of the cemeteries was the burial location for Pat’s grandfather’s grandparents.  We also visited another cemetery where her grandfather’s parents were born.  Wonder family history.

Tomorrow we head to Iowa – we hope.  They have a prediction of some snow (part of the storm that dumped snow and cold in the Denver area yesterday).  Our bus has not proven to have a great deal of traction in slippery conditions.  We will drive as long as we feel safe and stop if there is any doubt.

That is all for now.

Hello from Mountain Grove, MO

Sunday Evening   April 7, 2013   (Third travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Walmart in Mountain Grove, MO (map)

Well, the rally is over and it was an event that is almost beyond description.  We were parked about 100 feet from the restored Greyhound terminal which was the focus of the rally (map).  The first picture is the terminal at night with Tom McNally’s seated GM Scenicruiser parked beside it.

Probably the highlight of the rally was riding very old seated (not converted to RVs, but restored to the condition of the buses of that era) buses to Graceland in Memphis (about 70 miles each way).  I have included photos of the buses we rode. On the way down we rode in Tom’s 1956 Scenicruiser.  Pat thinks it is a very cool bus – a split level bus that really set the bus world on it’s ear during that era.

After Graceland we rode a 1968 Flxible bus a few miles to a catered lunch.  From there we rode a 1960 GM 4104 back to Blytheville.  It was as if we were transported back about 50 years.

On Saturday they had a parade of many of the classic buses down main street.  The town really turned out for the event. Someone post a youtube video of the parade (here).

The rally was “advertized” via a youtube video that was a great assembly of original footage, movie clips and still photography.  Even if you are not a bus nut, it is certainly worth viewing (here).

The weather was very cold and rainy on Tuesday and Wednesday, but cleared up nicely for the event.

By the way, the locals pronounce Blytheville as Blyville.  Took us a while to learn to say it their way.

That is all of now.

Hello from Blytheville, AR

Tuesday afternoon   April 2, 2013   (Second travelogue of this trip).

Well, it has been pointed out that our last post was a bit confusing.  One of my goals in this travelogue/blog is to “benchmark” all of our major stops.  I wanted to make sure that one of the posts was from Moscow Mills, MO.  That said, I knew I would not finish it in time to post it before we had to leave.  Clear as mud?

We are now in Blytheville, AR which will be the site of a very unique bus rally – one that will focus on classic buses out of the 40s, 50s, and 60s.  I will talk more about the rally in a future post.   This post will try to catch up on our stay in Moscow Mills.

We had planned to arrange for Pat to spend some time with a good friend in St Louis.  Kay is the wife of a good friend of Jim’s from the high school period.  Ken passed away several years ago, but we have kept in contact with Kay.  The friendship history is rather unique.  Ken was an amazing car painter and I used to hang around and help him so that I could learn from a real pro.  He used to paint midget racers in the garage behind the duplex they lived in.  Pat and Kay started to get together when Ken and I were in the garage.  They became very good friends and “Scrabble buddies”.  Ken and Kay had three boys that are somewhat similar in age to our girls.  Pat and Kay used to swap stories about the kids.  Prior to our getting married, they mentioned that they were buying a house.  We made arrangements to move into their duplex after we got married.  It was in a great location not far from where I grew up.

Ken later went to work for PPG as a paint sales person.  First in Omaha and then in St. Louis.  We kept in touch over the years.  Indeed, Ken and I went to many Kustom Car events (yes custom with a K). 

When we told Kay that we might be headed her way, we got an email from one of her sons who offered  for us to stay at his place.  I have attached a photo of Kevin and Ann’s beautiful house.  It is in a very rural area and is set on a 3 acre lot.  Kevin and Ann treated us like royalty!  Both are great cooks and they prepared meals for us that were amazing.
 

The house they bought was a foreclosure and had a huge amount of water damage – mainly in the kitchen area.  When they moved in, the kitchen was bare and all of the drywall had been removed.  They built a kitchen that is absolutely magnificent.  The stove has four gas burners, a large grill and a large griddle.  The double oven has convection and steam capabilities. 

On Saturday night, the three brothers and their families joined us for dinner at Kevin’s.  I have attached a picture of Kay and the boys.  As you can tell, the boys are all very tall (6’3 to 6’8).  We had a lot of fun seeing them and catching up on what has been going on in their lives.

Pat and Kay spent about half of two days catching up and working on genealogy.  While they did that, I worked on some issues that had developed in the bus.  We have an issue with the DVR and roof mounted dish.  I have worked on it since we left and we still do not have television.  Our solar system controller would not provide power to the batteries.  That turned out to be a butchered wiring problem (guess who?).  Pretty easy fix once I got it all sorted out.  Now we have better charging that we have had in the past and we will need it because we are dry camping most of this trip.

However, solar only works well when it is sunny out.  Yesterday was great, but today is very overcast and cold.  I think we will have more of this type of weather during the rally.  Guess we will just have to run the generator more.

The rally begins officially on Thursday.  I volunteered to coordinate the parking and that will be a challenge.  There are 60 buses signed up for the rally and we are parking in the middle of the downtown area.  Going to be a tight fit, but I think folks will be understanding and cooperative. 

I suspect I will not have much time to post during the rally, but I will catch up in a few days.

That is all for now.

Hello from Moscow Mills, MO

Sunday evening   March 31, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

We are at a friends house that is a few miles from Moscow Mills, MO (map).  When we are at a person’s house, we do not show the exact location.  We are about 30-40 miles west of St. Louis and about 10 miles north of I70.

We left Denver on Tuesday afternoon and made our first stop in Goodland, KS at the Walmart.  The next day we drove to Junction City, KS and again stayed at the Walmart.  We had hoped to get a bit further, but the timing was such that we would be going through Topeka and possible Kansas City in rush hour.  Also, we need to stock up on some things at Walmart.  We had stayed at the store in Junction City before and knew it was a large parking lot that was easy to get in an out of.

On Thursday, we drove about 350 miles to get to our present location.  Unfortunately, we are leaving in a few minutes and I will have to post this blog from our next stop.

OK, this blog is being posted from Blytheville, AK, as I was not able to post it before we left the St Louis area. 

There are a lot of things that I will try to cover in the next few blogs, but I am too tired tonight to write any more.

That is all for now.

Hello from Atlanta, GA

Monday evening   February 11, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Well, what do you know, a travelogue about a trip that is more than 100 miles {grin}. 

I am in Atlanta to audit/co-teach an NTT Mechanical Drives class.  The class is one of a series being taught to maintenance folks at Emory University (info). 

Sunday I flew from Denver to Atlanta.  Getting to the airport was a bit tricky, as the roads were pretty iced over in our canyon that leads to US 285.  After I got out of the canyon, it was not all that bad.  The flight was OK (I don’t enjoy the hassle of flying).  I paid to upgrade to a better seat, since it was a long flight.  That gave me lots of leg room (exit row).

I am staying at the LaQuinta (map).  This is an old hotel that could stand some remodeling, but the bed is comfortable and the room is clean.

The weather here is very rainy.  There is some localized flooding.  I sure wish that we had some of that rain back home.

Today I taught the belt section of the course.  I will probably do another session tomorrow.

That is all for now.

Update:  somehow blogspot is adding advertising links to my post.  I can’t find a way to eliminate the ad links – sorry.

Hello from Fort Collins, CO

Saturday evening   February 9, 2013   (First travelogue of this trip).

Well, actually I am cheating a bit, since I am writing this from Evergreen, CO.  However I wanted to document a fun day trip that we took yesterday. 

Our granddaughter (Amanda Kassel) qualified for two relays and two individual events in the 5A Girls State Swimming Championships.  The event was held at the Edora Pool Ice Center (EPIC) (map).  This facility is in Fort Collins, CO – about 90 miles from our house. 

From the time she was very young, we have been amazed by Amanda’s swimming skills.  She has worked very hard to develop into a competitive swimmer.  Her goal this year was to make it to “State” in one individual event.  She exceeded that goal by qualifying for both the 50M and 100M freestyle.

The big challenge was getting tickets for the event.  Our daughter Kelly camped on the computer and got 4 ticket for her family.  I was also camped on the computer but the tickets were gone within minutes and I missed out.  We were bummed, but resigned to follow the event via texts.  However Amanda’s mom (daughter Lisa) was able to get us two tickets and we were elated.

Tickets for these events are generally in tight supply, but this also happened to be Missy Franklin’s last high school swimming event.  We got to witness, firsthand, what an amazing swimmer she is!

Amanda did not qualify to go to the finals in the individual events, but her relay team did qualify for the finals. 

As an added note, both of Amanda’s brothers are on swim teams and seem to be wonderful swimmers.  Kelly and Damon’s two daughters have just started swimming in club competition this year at ages 9 &7.  Looks like we will be going to more swim meets!  Then you add in Judy and Tom’s kids band events and basketball games – these grandkids keep us hopping.

Attached is a photo of Amanda and Missy:

That is all for trip

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Wednesday  evening  January 23, 2013   (Third travelogue of this trip).

Wow, two posts in one day – that is a record.

Today we decided to drive home via Central City.  You will recall that my links to history of the area were based on Central City.  If you blink when you drive towards Central City (from Black Hawk) you will miss the sign that tells you that you have gone from one town to the next.  They are essentially the same town (don’t tell that to the “natives” as they don’t seem to get along all that well {grin}).

We took the back way and then drove around the town a bit.  I am glad that I did, since a great deal of the historical buildings are preserved/restored/converted to modern use.  Indeed, I could almost picture wandering through the town many years ago (before gambling).  I have to admit that I had the wrong impression of what gambling did to the two towns.

Our route from Evergreen to Black Hawk took us through Clear Creek canyon (US 6) to CO 119.  I have often talked about how dangerous that road is and advised Linda and Pat not to take that route.  However, I wanted to “revisit” the route we used to take when I was young.  I thought that driving at mid-day would allow us to avoid the drunks from the casinos and have a safe journey.  Well, I was very concerned as we drove the canyon.  There is a huge quarry at the junction of I 70 and US 6.  We must have passed 50 large gravel trucks on the narrow winding road – each doing the max. speed limit. This morning there was a major crash where an asphalt truck turned over and totaled three cars. 

I had already planned a different route home, but I would not have had a choice.  They closed US 6 for several hours.  Our route home was via the Central City Parkway ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_City_Parkway ).  That is a privately funded 8.4 mile multi-lane highway between I 70 and Central City.  It is a very easy drive and has great views.  If you look at the link provided you will see that there is quite a bit of animosity between Central City and Black Hawk, including a suit and counter suit over routes into their towns.

As a side note, if you look at the pictures I posted this morning you will see that is was a gorgeous day for a walk.  The sky was a beautiful blue and the temperature was moderate.  Today was supposed to be warm and clear, but it was overcast and not all that warm.  Glad that I walked the day that I did.

Now for an update on the gambling debt – there is none {big wide grin}.  Pat hit a good jackpot today and came out a few dollars ahead for the trip after being down quite a bit.

That is all for this trip.  We have a few trips in the planning process, so either check in occasionally, or better yet, sign up for email delivery.

Hello again from Black Hawk

Wednesday Morning   January 23, 2013   (Second travelogue of this trip).

Yesterday, I took a fairly long walk into the more historic part of Black Hawk.  My first goal was to document the AMERISTAR casino and hotel:

As you can see from the photo, a large amount of rock removal was necessary to give a sufficient footprint for the huge building complex.  Many of the other new casinos had huge amounts of “mountain” blasted away to make building them possible.  There appears to be a very large amount stabilization done after the rock removal throughout the newer casino area.

As I wondered into the older part of town, I was pleasantly surprised that they have documented the towns history reasonable well.  There are several markers that have good detail and photos of some of the major events in the town’s history.   There are many buildings from the 1860s-70s documented with metal plaques such as the one shown below:

The Jenkins McKay hardware store documented in the plaque is shown in the photo below:

Perhaps you can see in the photo that the building has been converted into a casino.  That is the case of many of the original buildings.  Many have new buildings built around the original building.  The new building has a similar style to the original building. 

The oldest building I found is the Rohling Inn:

This building was built in 1864 and served for many years as a dry goods store.  Note the newer building on the left with a somewhat old style theme.

The last building I am going to highlight is really two buildings:

The plaque for the two buildings simply lists their address:  141 Gregory.  The buildings were built in the 1870s.  You can see that the recently built building on the left was designed to have a similar exterior look.

I had mentioned that Pat was ahead of the game.  Well, that did not last long.  She will play again today before we leave.  Hopefully the machines will be kinder to her.

That is all for now.