On The Road with Jim and Pat

Hello from Elkhorn, WI

Saturday morning  June 5, 2010   (fifth travelogue of this trip).

Tuesday we had a “down” day.  We were pretty wiped out from the two previous days.  Dan caught a nice bass (perhaps 4 pounds) in the lake that our condo adjoins.  We barbecued the fish along with hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner.  During the week, Dan and the kids did quite a bit of fishing.  They all  caught some nice bass, but they returned them to the lake. 

Wednesday we went to Kennedy Space Center and had a ball.  Two of the grandsons are pretty technically oriented and we had a great time looking backwards into the space program that put man on the moon.  They have a Saturn V rocket on display and we were blown away by how large it is.  We also took in an IMAX on the moon landing.  After that, we had Adam (our taxi driver) take us to Cocoa Beach.  There we had a great lunch at a restaurant on the beach and then went down and spent some time in the sand an surf.  On the way home we stopped at the famous Ron Jon surf shop to get some T-shirts.

Thursday was Josh’s (our grandson) birthday.  We spent quiet morning in the condo.  In the afternoon, we arranged for Dan and the two boy to take a helicopter tour (Josh’s suggestion).  It looked so fun that I scheduled a second flight with Josh and Brandon.  Attached is a photo of us in the helicopter.  For dinner Dan cooked a special shrimp pasta dinner (Josh’s favorite).

Yesterday, we again took it easy in the morning and then went shopping for souvenirs in the afternoon.  We again barbecued for dinner (partly to empty the fridge).

This morning we cooked a breakfast using most of the rest of the food in the fridge.

Without question, this was a great trip!!  We had a nice mixture of hectic touring and relaxing.

Our flight will take us back to KCKA where we will pick up the truck and head back to Prescott, IA

Thats all for now.

Hello Again from Orlando Florida

Tuesday afternoon  June 1, 2010   (fourth travelogue of this trip).

We had two great days at the the parks in Orlando.  Before we get to that, lets talk about our transportation.  When the Bergmans (another daughter and her family) were here a few weeks ago they found a wonderful taxi driver that has a 15 passenger van.  Lisa negotiated a contract with him to drive us around this week.  That includes 5 trips to the airport, a few trips to mouseland and then a day at Cape Kennedy and Cocoa Beach.  This is a very convenient and and cost effective system.  Our driver is great and is always willing to work with us.  At the Parks, he drops us off close to the ticket booths and we get picked up in the same place.

Sunday we went to EPCOT.  Pat and I go there whenever we are in the area (perhaps every three to four years).  We love this park as it is pretty low key and has great rides and theme buildings.  It also has a large lagoon surrounded by several “countries”.  Each country has a structure representative of the architecture of that country.  Some are displays from that country (e.g. Canada has a great surround movie that displays the wonderful beauty of Canada).  Others have great restaurants  with menus representing they typical food from that country.  We always go to the German restaurant.  It has great food, wonderful beer and fun music.  Irina (our “German Shepherd” exchange student from ’81/’82) often reads our blog.  I can picture her reaction to our going there {grin}.  Obviously, it is heavily slanted towards Bavaria and her very strong belief is Bavaria does not represent all of Germany {another big grin}.  However, we always think of Irina and her family when we are there.  This time it really brought back memories of her mother singing with a Bavarian entertainer when we visited Vail, CO.  We had so much fun and her mother was such a wonderful person.

We were very fortunate at EPCOT.  In spite of the holiday weekend, the lines were fairly short and we were able to go on all of our planned rides and a few extra.  We stayed for the 9:00 PM fabulous fireworks and laser show.  We arrived at the park at 8:30 and left at 9:45!!  One of the group had a pedometer and we walked 9 miles!  The weather was almost perfect, in spite of the predictions of rain.  It did get a bit hot and muggy in the middle of the day, but cloud cover quickly took care of that.

Monday we went to Magic Kingdom.  Again, the lines were not terrible.  With the FastPass option, we were able to ride all the rides on our list and quite a few more.  We were tired and decided to head home about 6:30 as opposed to staying for the fireworks at that park.  Again, the weather defied predictions and was favorable.  We only walked 5 miles there.  The crowds were larger at Magic Kingdom, but not what we expected for a holiday.

When we got home, we ordered in Pizza and just relaxed.  Today we are also relaxing.  Dan’s brother Andrew and his friend Brian are flying home today.  We have had a ton of fun with them.

That is all for now.

Hello from Snow Central (Evergreen)

Thursday Morning May 13, 2010   (Second travelogue of this trip).

We are back home after our short trip to Iowa for the funeral. 

It rained for most of the first half of the trip home and then again as we got closer to Denver.  Indeed, the rain turned to snow as we got close to the house.  We have over 4 inches of snow on the deck this morning!

It took us about 12 hours to drive home.  We took our time and made some longer than normal stops (one to do some Internet work).  We arrived home last night about 6:30 PM.

Our short time in Iowa was very whirlwind.  We were amazed at how small towns respond to the grieving families.  Some of the families delivered food within a few hours of hearing the news.  The food was abundant!  Folks were very good about delivering the food, saying a quick condolence greeting and then leaving.  They did not overwhelm the family. 

Speaking of family, Joe’s family is very large.  We had a family dinner Sunday night and there were over 50 people there.  The minister said a few words and asked for ideas as to what to say the next day at the funeral.  That started an small avalanche of stories.  Everyone was laughing and crying at the same time.

In my last post, I may have given you a slightly distorted picture of Joe.  He was everything I described, but much more.  To say the least, he was a CHARACTER!  He loved life and lived every moment to the max.  You would not be able to pick him out of a crowd, but he was larger than life.  The minister concluded that many of the stories that folks related would not be appropriate for the the service {big grin}.

There were 18 of Joe’s cousins (first second and third) that traveled from Denver for the funeral.  That tells you how much our family thought of Joe!

We are off schedule for our travels.  We had planned on leaving for Iowa next Monday for a wedding and then some family travel to Orlando followed by travel to two trade shows.  We will still make the trip, but may not be able to make the wedding.  Part of that depends on how my final testing of the bus goes.  I think I have worked my way through the problems and have a plan. 

I am a little surprised that none of the readers noticed that I posted the wrong month in the text my last post.  Seems anymore I don’t know what month it is {grin}.

That is all for now.

Monday May 3, 2010

Catching Up.

I have not posted on this blog since April 1.  As I have mentioned several times, this blog was conceived as a travelogue.  We have not traveled since our fateful trip home behind the hook (tow truck).  I thought I would catch up on a few things that have been happening since then.  And for a change, it has been a pretty good month.

First, I have to tell you that we are still having some snow storms.  Over the weekend, the snows in the mountains were huge.  Two of our daughters were traveling in the mountains and had hectic stories to tell.  Daughter Judy and her family were traveling in their new to them motorhome and got into terrible snow on one of our highest passes.  Their story is here. 

Last week we talked to our former German exchange student, whom we keep in fairly close contact with.  She was asking about my analogy of the light at the end of the tunnel as related to some of the trials and tribulations we have been going through.  It was obvious that she was concerned.  I assured her that things were not as bleak as she had thought.  It is always fun to talk with her and catch up on her family  news.

Last week we went to a very sad funeral.  The granddaughter of our good friends died at the age of 34 from cancer.  She was developmentally disabled, but seemed to live a fruitful life based on considerable testimony from her many friends who live in the various community facilities with her.  It really brought home how fortunate we are to have healthy productive children and grandchildren!

Speaking of productive children, we must brag on two of our daughters.  Their books have been published recently.  Kelly has written a great textbook for new teachers.  This book is a continuation of a training class that she presents.  The Amazon link is here.  The ISBN number is:  978-0545167284    .   Daughter Judy has published a children’s book  based on her llama business.  The ISBN is:  9780984532308.  It should be on Amazon in the near future.   She has plans to visit disabled children’s facilities with one of her llamas with the goal of helping the children cope with life.  Now each of our daughters have been “published”.  Lisa co-authored at least one professional technical paper.

One of our major accomplishments this past few weeks is to establish a new doctor “network”.  As a retiree of Gates, we have to adjust to the changes of their insurance program.  For years we have been in the Kaiser system.  We felt comfortable with their program and our doctors.  This year Gates dropped Kaiser and adopted Anthem.  That meant that we had to find new doctors.  Sounds simple, but that is not the case.  Pat was finally able to find a rheumatologist.  That was getting critical as she had to have her bi-monthly blood tests.  Her rheumatologist recommended a doctor in Conifer (close to our house).  We have appointments this week for our physicals.  Hopefully we will feel comfortable with this new doctor.  My physical will include the paperwork for renewal of my CDL drivers license.  I have an appointment with the eye doctor who did at least one of my eye surgeries (now possible since we are in the new insurance system).  I will need his sign-off on the CDL form because of my sight issues. 

Now to the bus project.  I have been trying to put at least 4 hours most days to get some fairly major projects done.  The timing of these projects affect my ability resolve the transmission control problem.  The major sub-project was to revamp the hydraulic system.  I am adding a large hydraulic fan to cool the charge air cooler.  This has been an ongoing problem since I installed the Series 60 engine in the bus.  When the hydraulic system is finished (hopefully today or tomorrow), I will be able to operate the jacks from the same system.  The jacks will permit me to easily elevate the axles off the ground.  This, in turn, will allow me to place the rear axle on blocks in order to do some preliminary testing in the shop.  That will make the troubleshooting much easier.  I am sure that is paragraph is clear as mud to most folks, but the crazy bus nuts will understand {grin}.

Guess that is all for now.

Hello from Mile Marker 117 South of Colorado Springs
Subtitled:  I think the light is a train.

Started Wednesday Morning  March 31, 2010  finished Thursday evening April 1, 2010 (Fifth travelogue of this trip).

The information relating the subtitle will become a bit more obvious as you read through this lengthly post

I am starting this post at a location that was an unplanned stop on this trip.  We are having Internet issues, so I am not sure when we will upload this post.

We decided to stay over Sunday night at the Hollywood Casino so that we could watch several race programs (NASCAR, IRL and NHRA).  Turns out that they were all rained out.  However, we enjoyed the laid back day and the weather was pretty nice.  Monday we drove to Trinidad, CO and stayed at the Wal Mart.  We have stayed there several times as it is a nice driving distance to/from Evergreen.

Yesterday, as we drove through Pueblo, we noted that the transmission did not down shift as we slowed down.  We made it through town OK in tenth gear and then continued on to this rest stop.  I did quite a bit of trouble shooting and determined that the transmission computer had failed.  I had a backup computer, but it was at home.  I have been carrying the replacement parts with us for the past several trips, but in the rush to get on the road for this trip, we left them home.  We were a bit over 100 miles from the house so we decided to unhook the service truck and drive to the house to get the computer.  We left at 12:30 and arrived back about 5:30 after taking a detour to for a stop to get a backup disc from our printer who is going out of business.

I was able to switch the computer and we everything looked OK.   All of the issues I  had seen on the computer reader were gone and the transmission went in gear correctly.  It was getting late, so we decided to stay in the rest stop. 

Well, it is now early afternoon and we made it all the way to MM 116 – all of one mile.  The transmission has gone into limp mode where it will not shift.  I did quite a bit of diagnostic work with my computer reader with the help of the Eaton transmission representative – a great resource.  We are both very puzzled as to what is going on, but we have no alternative but to be towed home.  I do not think this a huge, costly problem.  However, it needs to be addressed at home where I can pick away at the troubleshooting process.

The first tow truck that showed up was big enough (capable of hauling semis), but did not have the reach to hook onto the suspension.  The second  tow truck has been dispatched from Colorado Springs.  Supposedly they have the correct equipment.  I will update this post as we learn more and then try to post it later today.  {note: we got home quite late and had Internet problems (see below), so the actual posting will be delayed.

The new tow truck showed up and had the correct equipment.  It took at least an hour to hook up and pull the axles.  We left for Evergreen about 3:30.  We followed them to the weigh station where the DOT folks made them put on an “oversize load” banner on the back of the bus and the front of the truck (they were 85 feet total length).  That was not a huge issue, since the towing company had the proper approvals.

The trip to Evergreen was quite slow.  We had to take a route that allowed wide turns.  We arrived at the entry to the Highlands about 7:00 PM.  We unhooked there because we still have a lot of snow/mud in the yard and the area we would normally pull into was not available. The trip to our house was quite short which was a good thing since I was locked in second gear and that is about 5 MPH (recall that this is a 10 speed truck transmission).  Besides, I was at least able to show that the bus was still drivable (small grin}.

As if all of that is not enough, we have a major Internet issue.  We use Hughes Satellite for both the bus and the house.  For the past several days we have not been able to connect with the satellite.  We had been told that we had a problem with the satellite controller on the bus.  We accepted that, as it is a fairly complex system and there are lots of things that can go wrong with the software/hardware.  However when we got home, we still could not connect using our fixed dish.  Lots of troubleshooting determined that our modem and/or power supply has gone bad.  We have one on order, but it will be a few days before it gets here.  I have been using the library to do some posting, but that is a real hassle. 

Today we finally decided to get a Verizon Air Card.  This will back up our normal system and give us options for connecting to the Internet when we travel without the bus.  It seems a bit slow here, but we are pretty much off the beaten path for these kinds of services.

Now lets discuss the my reference to the light.  Many of our recent posts discussed the fact that the past several months have been very difficult for us.  I have made reference to being in a tunnel and seeing a light in the distance.  We were not sure if it was daylight or a freight train.  Well, our latest setback suggests that it could be a train {grin}.  We can only hope that things get better.

BTW, Pat commented that I had handled the very stressful bus situation rather well.  We were both pretty stressed, but we took the attitude “what can you do?”.  We can only hope that things get better (they can’t get much worse).

That is all for now.  I will update the blog after I figure out what is causing our bus transmission problem. 

This post had significant problems due to a file corruption problem.  I have re-posted it with corrections in a new post.

Sorry for the confusion.