On The Road with Jim and Pat

Saturday Morning (revised Sat. afternoon); April 5, 2008 (fourth post of this trip) A bit of a correction about our location in Bermuda. King’s Wharf is on the north east end of the hook on the west side of the island. I started drafting this post while we were in the middle of the Atlantic. At the current time, we are still on the ship, but docked in NY waiting to disembark. We will probably not be able to post this until we get our connection at home. This was a different kind of cruise. Going to and from Bermuda took one night and one day at sea each way. Once we got to Bermuda, we did not move, and essentially used the ship as a fancy hotel. We really took it pretty easy on the cruise. We went to the SPA each day and did some walking around the King’s Wharf area almost every day. On Tuesday we bought a round trip fare to Hamilton on public transportation, and rode the bus into town and the ferry back ($16 total). The bus trip was quite an experience!. The roads are very narrow and twisty. Because Bermuda is a British Colony, they drive on the left side of the road. All of this, coupled with some very aggressive (but courteous) drivers, make for a thrill ride equal to most any Disney “A” ticket ride! The bus takes about an hour and the ferry is less than ½ hour. The weather for most of our stay was pretty good. It was in the high 60’s and sunny. Thursday it was rainy, but we had not planned to do much. Probably the disappointment of the trip was that I was not able to dive. Everything was booked up. The number of Stampin’ UP! Cruise earners were considerably less this year. 394 demonstrators earned the trip (we think that last year the number was over 600). A few folks cashed out, so there were 341 demonstrators on the ship. SU booked the complete ship, so it was not full. They did offer employees the trip (they had to pay) and several demonstrators had additional family members with them. SU also apparently donated 185 rooms to Iraq Veteran’s and their families. Some of the statistics on the Noordam:

• Length: 935
• Guest capacity: 1979
• Crew: 819
• Tonnage: 81,769
• Engines: 5 diesel engines and one turbine for a total of 84,000 HP
• Fuel used per day: 80,000 gallons
• Potable Water Production per day: 450,000 gallons

Our first SU cruise was also to Bermuda. It was in a smaller ship and the cruise was very rough, with many folks having severe sea sickness problems. This cruise was also pretty rough at times. Even though Pat had a patch, she still felt pretty queasy last night. As always, we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise! The event next year is not a cruise. Instead it is a week at an Hawaiian resort. Because of our extensive travel in the bus, it is very unlikely that Pat will meet the requirements for that trip. We have had seven great cruises and we cherish those trips. Update: We were among the last to leave the ship, but that was not an issue as we have a fairly late flight (5:30PM). We got to the airport just after noon, but the Frontier desk did not open until 2:30. We found a place to eat lunch and we are now in the boarding area (3:00 PM). Since we have some time, I cracked out an bought a WiFi subscription to post to the blog and do some other things. That is all for this post and this trip. We will start posting again late this month when we travel to Iowa.

Jim and Pat on Bermuda Cruise

Monday evening; March 31, 2008 (third post of this trip) We are located here. As you can see from the satellite view, we are at the east end of the island. First, let me make a few general observations related to this trip:

1. The weather has been a bit brisk (with the humidity, that translates to cold) on most of the trip. This includes our first day here in Bermuda. While not really cold, it is quite windy and certainly not shorts weather
2. NY is expensive. As we noted, we paid over $200 per night for our hotel, and at the Sheraton where Stampin’ Up! put folks up, the cost was over $300 per night. Meals were about twice what you would expect in Denver.
3. Taxi rides are almost always a white knuckle experience! Unlike meals, taxi rides seem to be reasonably priced (less than $20 to go several miles in Manhattan).
4. Side walks and streets are in generally poor condition, with lots of uneven surfaces. Most of the sidewalks have steel plates next to the building that cover basement storage access. These plates often have raised edges that make walking a challenge.
5. Traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian, is generally very heavy. It is hard to walk on sidewalks because of all of the obstructions and people. In spite of crowded sidewalks, people seem to get around very well.

Getting on the ship was mostly painless. We took a taxi from the hotel, and were able to handle the luggage pretty well. We got to the dock early, so we were able to get to the sign-in area without having to wait in line. However, the person checking us in did not have a clue. She got our records so messed up that we had to be shuttled off to the supervisor area to have them get things squared away. We just discovered that my picture appears Pat’s ship record and vice versa. It will be a real challenge to get on and off the ship. Tomorrow we will try to use each others card and see if that works. Our room is on the stern (back) of the boat. Our balcony looks out the back (see photo below). This is kind of neat. The balcony is longer than normal, and we can see on both sides of the ship.
View from our balcony
We sailed from Pier 90. The route takes you down the Hudson River and past the Statue of Liberty (see Photo).

Sunday was our day at sea. Stampin’ Up! had a general meeting, but the rest of the time, we were on our own. I went to the Spa and Pat did some Stampin stuff. Today we went to the Spa early and then walked around King’s Wharf for a couple of hours. We decided not to do any formal paid excursions, and that helped us justify the cost of the Spa for the week. The Spa has a very large hydrotherapy pool, several steam rooms, a sauna, and luxurious heated ceramic lounges. It is very relaxing and we feel pampered. I hope to do a dive later this week (we are here for four days). The ship does not offer a diving excursion, so I will have to book one on my own. We got some information today and it lists only one dive shop, in spite of the fact that this is supposed to be a great diving area (lots of ship wrecks from several centuries ago). We are the first ship into Bermuda for the season. It appears that the island may not be fully geared up for tourists yet. On the positive side, we are the only ship in this port, so it is not crowded. That is all for this post.

Friday Evening; March 28, 2008 (second travelogue of this trip)

Wednesday was our walking tour. We walked about a mile to the World Trade Center site. On the way we passed a political protest in City Hall Park. Several TV stations were there and we briefly saw Pat on the local NBC nightly news. The World Trade Center site in undergoing full construction of the new buildings. Everything is still at below-ground-level. We are not sure what we expected to see, but we still got a feeling for the immensity of the tragedy.

Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge

Yesterday was our day to be in the Today show audience outside the studio. We got there about 6:15 AM and ended up getting a great spot. As most of you know Matt Lauer and, in this case Ann Curry (in Meredith’s absence), come out and do part of the show in the square. The weather person (usually Al Roker) also does his report in the same area. The highlights of the event were Ann Curry coming over to Pat and giving her a kiss on the hand (I got a picture of the lipstick marks) AND the weather person briefly “interviewed” Pat and asked her about the picture of our family (we are told that they had a full screen shot of the photo!). We also go to see Hoda Cotb (not spelled the way you would think from the pronunciation), Natalie Morales, Donald Trump and Trace Adkins. We spent over two and a half hours in some pretty cold weather, but it was worth it.

At the Today Show (note Donald Trump and Trace Adkins at the far left)

We then did a walking touring of the Rockefeller Center and Times Square area and had lunch in a great NY style deli. One of the highlights of our tour, was a fun stop at the huge M&M candy store. We then took the subway back to the hotel. Wednesday night we went to see Grease at the Brooks Atkinson theater. It was an absolutely great show. The winners of the TV reality show were the stars and they were fabulous. To top things off, were in the front row! The actors were often within two feet of us! This morning we went to a highly rated Bistro type restaurant: Balthazar (http://www.balthazarny.com/). We had a great breakfast. The rest of today, we kind of cooled our jets. Tomorrow we board the MS Noordam for our cruise to Bermuda. That is all for this post.

Our tiny room at the Holiday Inn

Lombardi’s famous pizza resturant

Pat at Lombardi’s

That is all for this travelogue. I will make new posts fairly often on this trip.

Hello from the Wal Mart in Trinidad, CO Wednesday evening; March 12, 2008 (Seventh and final travelogue of this trip) We are currently located here. We have stayed at this Wal Mart several times. One time it got down to one degree, but we were cozy in the bus. After two 400 plus mile days, we decided to split the final 400 plus mile leg into two parts. That would also let us do some much needed shopping so that we would have food when we get home. Pat also got some Easter goodies for the grandkids. Some of you are new to our blog and travelogue. On our travels we often stay at Wal Marts. Most permit overnight stays. We always try to get some supplies since it is convenient and it is a nice way to say thanks. Some Wal Marts do not permit overnight stays, but that is generally a local ordinance (often written in behalf of local campgrounds). Tonight there are just two RVs, but often we will see 10-20 rigs. Most are careful not to abuse the privilege, but sometimes we see folks who think they are in a campground with their chairs and awnings out. Last night we stayed at the Hollywood Casino in Algodones, NM (here). If you look at the map, it shows that historic route 66 overlays I-25. I was sure that was incorrect, because I had understood that route 66 generally parallels I-40 through NM. After a bit of research, it turns out that prior to 1937 route 66 turned north west of Santa Rosa and went up to close to Las Vegas, NM and then generally followed what is now I-25 south to I-40. From the satellite image, you can clearly see the casino and car race track. We have never been there when they ran the races, unfortunately. We like to stay at the Hollywood casino. The campground costs $10 and Pat can do her thing (she came out over $100 ahead this time). They have an OK buffet. We can top off the water and dump in preparation for the next trip. We also often fuel up, as it is convenient and the price is competitive. We will be home tomorrow (3/13). I will probably not post to the blog until our next trip later this month. Check back in about two weeks.

Hello from Seligman, AZ Tuesday early morning; March 11, 2008 (Sixth travelogue of this trip) We are currently located here. The satellite imagery is not good for this location, so you may have to zoom out a couple of times We enjoy Seligman. It is a very small town that was once a pretty popular stop along the famous Route 66 (often referred to as “The Mother Road”). The highway (mostly gone now, replaced by the interstate system) went from Chicago to LA and was immortalized in a song and a TV show in the ‘50s/60’s. There are a lot of websites the document the highway. One of the better ones is: http://www.historic66.com/. There is a crazy little walk up diner that has great malts. It is pretty much as it must have been many years ago. The town has lots of displays dedicated to Route 66 history. Now that we are writing a blog, and it is more public, I have a few drag racing fans that probably would like a little information about the races we went to, so I will include a bit of detail The races at Bakersfield (“The March Meet”) were great. It was a huge event with over 25 cars in each of the tow major classes (Top Fuel and Fuel Funny Car). There were over 500 cars at the event. I would say that it was as big as an NHRA national event. This event was a part of NHRA’s Heritage Series: http://www.nhrahotrodheritage.com/. The series was established to bring back drag racing as it was in the ‘60s. The rules for the nitro fuel classes closely define the engine modifications and car specifications to assure the cars are very much like the race cars out of the ‘60s, with the exception of safety updates. The Top Fuel best time was: 5.568 at 263 mph (which was a record) while the Fuel Funny car best time was: 5.836 at 243.63 mph. The event also had a huge swap meet and car show along with a ton of vendors. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was always my dream to attend The March Meet in Bakersfield. It was THE drag racing event at the time. It went downhill over the years, but has come full cycle and is now the premiere event of the series. This was the 50th anniversary of the event and there were a large number of famous racers from both the past and present attending the event. Shown below are a couple of pictures.
A couple of Top Fuel Cars
A couple or Fuel Funny CarsThe car in the far lane is owned and tuned by some friends and won the event!The track is located in the middle of a highly agricultural area. There are orchards and vineyards surrounding the track. When we pulled in we noted a distinct odor. It turns out that there is a huge compost center (several acres) behind where we parked. You can see it from the satellite photo in the previous post. I kind of got used to the smell (not sure Pat did). Saturday night the RV parking area (perhaps 200-300 RVs) was one big party! Someone close to us played very loud music well into the night. However, we slept well anyway. The downer for the event was a tragic accident where a well know racer was killed (http://www.nhra.com/content/news.asp?articleid=27272&zoneid=8). I was at half track watching the race. I could hear the engine continue to run well beyond the finish line and knew that it was going to be terrible. They think that he developed a medical problem during the run and did not shut off the engine or pull the chutes. Yesterday we started heading home. We drove a bit over 400 miles. Today we hope to make it to a casino north of Albuquerque where we can dump and fill up with water and Pat can contribute to the economy {grin}. That’s all for now.

Hello from San Dimas, CA.
Sunday morning; March 2, 2008 (Fourth travelogue of this trip)
We are currently located here.
I can’t believe that it has been almost a month since I updated this travelogue! We have been on the go at full speed since I wrote last.
As has been the case in the past, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Shoshone, a very small quiet community. At one time I found a good website on the town, but I can’t find it now. This website has some information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshone,_California.
On Wednesday some great friends spent the night in the campground. Sean and Louise have a great blog: http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com/. They have a beautiful, unique bus with the living quarters above the drivers compartment (hard to describe, but their blog has some details). Folks often describe it as a “double decker” bus (not technically correct, but it works. We had planned to have dinner with them at the only cafe in town. However, a terrible windstorm came up and the whole area lost power. We cooked a large pan of frozen lasagna and had a great meal in our bus.
On Friday we made a long trip into Death Valley and visited the very unique “Scotty’s Castle”. This is quite a structure and has a ton of history. Some information is contained at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotty’s_Castle. We took two tours and were absolutely amazed at the structure and history. We had dinner in Furnace Creek in the park. We left our campground around 9:00 AM and got home about 11 hours later. I think the trip was over 200 miles. We continue to be amazed at the beauty and drastic geology variations within the park.
Saturday we went to the Amargosa Opera House. This is a very unique building/hotel in the middle of nowhere. Their website is: http://www.amargosa-opera-house.com/operahouse.html. A lady by the name of Marta Becket restored the building and painted beautiful murals in the Opera House and motel lobby. She has performed in the facilities since the early 80’s. In those days it was a melodrama. Today she is too feeble to perform, so she sits on the stage and tells some great stories and sings a little.
The rest of our stay was filled with trips to Pahrump, swimming, working, and just plain goofing off.
We left Sunday 2/17 and drove to Chino, CA where we were scheduled to do a system install at a company called “The Paint Department”. I was there to train an installer. The person was good at detail work, but I ended up doing a lot of the work, since he did not have any experience and we got way behind schedule. It was a very difficult install and we did not get it done ( I will finish the install in the next couple of days).
From Chino we drove to Hemet, CA where we met up with other members of the Converted Coach group. We ended up missing most of the first day, but we still had a great time and got to see some old friends.
On Saturday (2/23) we caravaned over 60 miles to the Fairplex (Los Angeles County Fairgrounds) for the FMCA International Convention. We parked with the CVC group rather than with the vendors (who often are not friendly to bus conversions that are not “up to their standards”). We set up the booth on Sunday and Monday. The vendor area was open Tuesday through Thursday. The attendance, as has been the case for the past two years, was down considerably from past years. In years past, there would often be 5,000 to 7,000 motorhomes attending. This year there were a bit more than 2,300. Pat did two craft seminars and I did my safety seminar. Her attendance was great, mine was OK.
This was our best show. We had reasonably good sales and booked three of our systems for future delivery (confirmed sales). We also had great interest and one person is having a special handicapped motorhome built and is going to have the factory install the system (the factory engineer came to the booth to get information on the system). If this works out, it could lead to working with OEMs to offer the system as an option.
On this trip we also sold four systems via phone and Estore ( including one to the military). Maybe we are beginning to see the light (headlight?) in the tunnel.
Friday night we tried to be sneaky and stay at the fairgrounds, but the security folks came by and made us move (at 9:30 PM). We moved to a Wal Mart in San Dimas. Yesterday, we got a bunch of critical errands done and moved into a great “campground”:
East Shore RV Park. You will see from the satellite map that we overlook a lake. We have a very panoramic view of the colorful hills, valleys, and distant snow capped mountains. We also overlook Brackett Field, a small airport. We have been watching planes take off as I write this.
I have included one photo that I took yesterday when we moved in. It was foggy and the photo does not show the views. It is clearing today and I will post another picture and some more travelogue in a day or two.
That is all of now.

Hello from Shoshone, CA.
Saturday evening; February 9, 2008 (Third travelogue of this trip)
Our current location is here (you should be able to click on the word “here” and it will direct you to the map). You can change the map from a normal view to a satellite view and can increase or decrease the viewing area to better understand where we are.
We sadly left Yuma on Wednesday and traveled about 130 miles to Parker, AZ where we stayed at the Blue Water Casino. It was a very picturesque setting, right on the Colorado River. Pat said the casino was not that great, but it was a good place to stop.
On Thursday we traveled to Shoshone. On the way we stopped in Lake Havasu, AZ to spend some time looking at the London Bridge. Background on this bridge is pasted in the next paragraph. London Bridge in Lake Havasu
In 1962, London Bridge was falling down. Built in 1831, the bridge couldn’t handle the ever-increasing flow of traffic across the Thames River. The British government decided to put the bridge up for sale, and Robert McCulloch, Founder of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and Chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation, submitted the winning bid of $2,460,000. The bridge was dismantled, and each stone was numbered. Everything was shipped 10,000 miles to Long Beach, California, and then trucked to Lake Havasu City. Reconstruction began on September 23, 1968, with a ceremony including the Lord Mayor of London, who laid the cornerstone. On October 10, 1971, the bridge was dedicated. We drove the bus over the bridge and then parked it a few blocks away and walked along the river under the bridge so that we could see it from all sides. I have attached a picture of the bridge. We have talked about Shoshone in previous travelogues. It is a tiny town of 100 people. The campground is very basic, bordering on primitive. We like that. It has a great spring fed pool that is about 90 degrees. We found this place in Pat’s Hot Springs Book. We first stayed here in March of 2006 on our maiden voyage. The weather is warming a bit. Last week the lows were in the 30s, but the forecast for next week is 70s in the daytime and 40s at night. As most of you know, we have almost no cell phone signal here. I did buy an amplifier prior to this trip and we can get out once in a while on Pat’s phone. I have a new phone and have ordered the adapter cable for the amplifier. I should have it next Tuesday. I cracked out for a new Palm 680 “smart phone”. It is a PDA and a phone. I can get internet and email as well as phone. I also have my Palm database of contacts, memos (basic data items) and calendar that I have developed over the past several years. At the same time, I switched back to AT&T since they have the same phone technology as that used in Europe. The plan is to be able to use the phone in Europe for both voice calls and checking my business email. I will also take my laptop, but this will allow me to keep up on business items much easier. Besides, it is a GREAT TOY. I used my saved up Christmas and Birthday money to buy a Garmin GPS system for this phone. Can you say GEEK/TECHNO JUNKIE .

Yesterday we went to Pahrump, NV (about 30 miles each way) to do some shopping, check cell messages and let Pat get even with the machines (about $300 worth). She had been having terrible luck at several casinos on this trip and was sure glad to see a turn of events. Today we did some catching up on projects and went swimming. It really felt great! Tomorrow we will probably do the same things.
In the last travelogue we talked about Dexter the beagle. What a work he is!! After his dinner (exactly at 5:00 PM) he gets a ride in the golf car (see photo of him waiting).Dexter waiting for his ride
I also need to catch up on a couple of events from Yuma. Ed, Stevi, and Pat stopped at an orchard and picked three five gallon buckets of tangerines ($4.00 per bucket!). They juiced several of them and you can not believe how good the juice is!!! As we were getting ready to leave, we planned to be sneaky and leave a gift for them without them knowing about it. Our plans worked. Later Ed, called us to thank us and mentioned that they could be sneaky as well. That evening we found two large wood burned decorated spoons that Stevi had made for Pat. They were in a plastic bag the Ed had sneaked into the bus. These are similar to the ones we gave the girls at Christmas. They are gorgeous and Pat loves them. Stevi did them from some Stampin’ Up! Artwork. We laughed our tails off (censored for the grandkid’s eyes). We could not believe that they got the last laugh! They sure are great folks and we really enjoyed our stay at their “lot”. Guess that is all of now.

Hello from Yuma, AZ
Sunday evening; February 3, 2008 (Second travelogue of this trip)
Our current location is here (you should be able to click on the word “here” and it will direct you to the map). There is no satellite image for this location, so click on “Map” rather than “Satellite” if our location does not show up.
Well, a lot of fun things have occurred since our last travelogue. And one not so fun. While we were in Indio, a fellow showed up and knew about every stop we would make on this trip (I had posted the information on one of the bus forums). He was interesting to talk to a first. But at the conversion went on, it became less fun (he was loud and a bit obnoxious). I was able to excuse myself, and I thought that would be the end of it. However, when we came back from dinner in Quartzsite Thursday evening, they were parked next to us. They jumped out of their bus and kind of “pounced” on us before we could even open the door. The rest of the evening was not very pleasant to say the least. He was even more obnoxious and loud this time and his wife was kind of weird. We were able to get away from them after about an hour and half of “pain”. The next morning we had a breakfast appointment with a friend. When we came back, the “stalkers” were gone (whew!). We were prepared to pack up and move if we had to.
On the positive side, we got to meet some great bus folks that were in the area. We also spent some time in the big RV Tent where there were a lot of vendors (some that we knew from our membership in PRVVC: Professinal RV Vendors Chapter of FMCA). It was fun to talk with them. We also purchased a few things at the show. In addition, we did some shopping in the flea market that was close to the tent. I should mention that there are huge flea markets all over town. We bought lots of little things at what we think were very good prices.
Saturday we left Quartzsite and traveled to Yuma (about 80 miles) to stay a couple of days with some friends: Ed and Stevi Hackenbruch. Well, that couple of days has expanded quite a bit. Our plans are to leave on Tuesday or Wednesday and start heading to Shoshone, CA (our favorite little town).
Ed and Stevi live in their bus full time. In the winter they stay in Yuma and in the summer they travel to Washington where Ed works as a heavy equipment operator. Ed and Stevi are absolutely great hosts and we have had a ball with them (and there great beagle: Dexter). Dexter is a hoot! He has a very special schedule: he goes for a walk in the desert with Ed each morning, eats exactly at 5:00PM and then goes for a ride on the golf cart. Last night Ed and I were in our bus looking at the computer. Dexter came to the door and then went and sat in the cart staring at us until Ed took him for his ride.
We have done a lot of fun things with Ed and Stevi. One day we went to Algodones Mexico (about 20 miles away) and did some very fun shopping. Pat bought a purse, a couple of light jackets and a bracelet. We also bought a couple of colorful blankets as protective covers for our bus seats. The day we went was the last day you could get back into the US without a passport (we left ours at home). We also went to the Yuma flea market which is quite “upscale” with great merchandise. Actually we went there twice. We have gone out to eat several times and just plain had fun!
It is very hard to explain what their “lot” is like. This whole subdivision (several square miles) is aimed at folks who live in RVs . There is also a mix of permanent homes, but RVs out number permanent structures. The lots are laid out for two RVs and most have great looking brick walls surrounding them and fancy gates. Many have casitas (small buildings with varying levels of amenities). Theirs has a bathroom with washer and a room that Stevi uses as a workshop for her work with decorated gourds (she does great work). The attached photo that Stevi took shows their lot and our buses as well as the casita. Even the picture does not convey how neat the area is.
Guess that is all for now.