Mother's Day in Gate, Oklahoma

Driving east from Liberal, KS, we stopped in front of an out-of-business gas station in a small town in Oklahoma to stretch our legs and walk the dogs. As I stepped out of the door, I found myself staring at a cowboy

painted on the old garage door.  The dogs and I walked up the street a bit, and found ourselves at the Gate, OK town park.

It appeared that almost every building in town had been painted with murals.  I walked back to the motor home and got Dinah so she could also admire the art work.

Across the street was Lauries Cafe, and we decided to go there for lunch.  It turned out, according to a couple that we sat with for lunch, that Lauries was the only restaurant worth its salt within a 30 mile radius.  The restaurant was bustling with families celebrating Mothers Day.  The food was good, and the people friendly.
In the course of dinner conversation, the couple we sat with recommended Fort Supply Lake Corps of Engineers Park.  We liked the idea, and changed our destination.  So after a nice Mother's Day lunch we were off to Fort Supply, OK.

On the Road again - May 2013

On Friday 3 May I started our summer travels, driving to Valley of Fire, our usual first stop.  Dinah had embroidery orders to fill so stayed behind to finish, joining me the next day. We moved along to Bottomless Lakes State Park near Roswell, NM where we spent 5 days, then moved along to Amarillo, TX for a night, then to Liberal, KS for another overnight at the local Walmart. No pictures for this first portion of the trip; I'll try to do better!

Summer Reading

In the summer of 2010 I completed my goal of reaching the high point of each of the lower 48 states and I set a new goal – to read all of James A. Michener’s writings. Many of his books are very long and the print is very small.  I completed The Covenant (1235 pages) this summer, but not without a lot of breaks reading something else to rest my eyes.  Here are some of the other books I’ve been reading:

The Wrecking Crew – Kent Hartman

The story of the musicians who recorded much of the Roll & Roll music of the 60s and early 70s. In some cases they replaced members of groups such as the Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel during recording sessions. Some members of the wrecking crew, such as Glen Campbell went on to become famous on their own.

102 Minutes – Jim Dwyer & Kevin Flynn

The 9/11 story from the perspective of survivors and rescuers. It was 102 minutes from the time the North Tower was hit until it collapsed; the South Tower was hit later but collapsed sooner than the North.  I was surprised to learn that building codes had been weakened over the years so that the Trade Center towers had fewer stairways than the Empire State Building, and they were enclosed in drywall rather than concrete.  

A Tale of Two Subs – Jonathan J. McCullough

The USS Sculpin and the USS Sailfish (originally named the USS Squalus) were sister subs; built side by side. The Sculpin had helped rescue Sailfish crew members after a test dive accident and in 1943 both were involved in the war against Japan. The Sculpin was damaged by a Japanese Destroyer and forced to surface. Survivors were taken prisoner and divided between two Japanese aircraft carriers; Chuyo, and Unyo. The Sailfish attacked and sank the Chuyo, unaware that American prisoners were aboard.

The book also talks about the intelligence gained by breaking the Japanese code, and about the problems with American impact and proximity torpedo fuses.

Monstering – Tara McKelvey

Subtitled “Inside America’s policy of secret interrogations and torture in the terror war”, this book in centered on the problems at Abu Ghraib. It seems that “enhanced interrogation” was justified as a way to get lifesaving intelligence from high value captives, but was used on prisoners randomly. Official approval at the top, lack of direction and control in the middle, and depravity among some at the bottom resulted in prisoner’s injury and death.  Many Iraqis who might have looked favorably on the US became enemies as a result of mistreatment by the US military, the CIA, and contract interpreters and interrogators.

McKelvey says, “The vast majority of prisoners at Abu Ghraib had no information about the insurgency or about possible future acts of terrorism. Yet American interrogators, guards, and contractors applied harsh techniques and then used some of their own methods that did not appear on the approved list.”

Terminal Event – James Thayer

This is a novel about a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FBI investigation into the crash of an airliner. It is well written and kept me guessing. It was loaded with authentic sounding tidbits about investigative techniques and aircraft systems. For example, after a crash the most common words found at the end of the recording from a cockpit voice recorder are, “Oh shit!”

Gabby – Gabrielle Giffords & Mark Kelly

This is a biography of Gabby and Mark going back to their childhood, but concentrating on the period after she was shot, through her appearance in Congress to vote for the debt ceiling bill. It covers the behind-the-scenes events that mesh with what we were hearing on the news. There is a very interesting chapter on Mark’s final space flight, STS-134. The emcee at their wedding reception, Robert Reich, toasted to “a bride that moves at a velocity that exceeds that of anyone else in Washington, and to a groom who moves at a velocity that exceeds seventeen thousand miles per hour.”

I’m continuing to read Michener, and I’ll talk about his books at another time.

Visiting

Dinah and Oliver Witte have been friends for decades. Oliver is a journalist (He wrote about our solar panels at http://lifeisgood2.com/TravelReports/2011_1/SolarMagazineArticleFeb2011.pdf), a journalism professor, and is in the process of writing a dissertation for his doctorate. We visited him at a restaurant and at his home in Carbondale, IL

Oliver at his computer working on his thesis

 The next stop was in Chicago to visit Dinah’s sister Pat and brother-in-law Dick. Our original plan had been to attend their 50^th anniversary party at the end of June but Dinah’s leg problems delayed us. We missed the party, but had them all to ourselves for a full day.

We spent an afternoon and morning visiting Pat & Dick

On to Grafton, WI to visit Linda & Warner Schafer. Linda has been in and out of the hospital for two years now and continues to have serious health problems. On this visit we found her to be somewhat better.

We visited with Dinah’s brother Bob, his wife Ellen, their son Steve, and his wife Ann.  Dinah pumped them all for information and opinions on the iPhone and iPad, and even had them take her to the local Apple store … twice!

Next, we visited with Allen’s navy buddy Mike Sherman and his wife Martha.  They have been on the road as full-time RVers for about a year and are spending the summer near family.  We met them in Montello, WI where we strolled around downtown, had lunch, and chatted. I walked around their RV park with them and their new dog, Maddie Wigglebottom.

Lunch with Mike & Martha

 Dinah visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN as a drop in patient hoping they would be able to help her with her spine problems.  We had hoped they would accept her and had allowed time to stay there for a while if necessary.  But they required a referral from one of her doctors which she did not have, so she decided to try again at another time.

We moved on to a Corp of Engineers park on the Mississippi River.

Another Breakdown

We were driving toward Carbondale, Ill when the “Do Not Shift” light came on again. My first thought was that something had gone wrong with the transmission repair done just a few days ago – the new “output shaft speed sensor” had failed, or the plug connecting it to the wiring harness had come undone.  We kept going while Dinah researched the nearest transmission repair place.

But then the speedometer became erratic and pegged at 80MPH while the GPS said we were doing less than 60. When the tachometer started to fail and we began to loose power we decided it was time to get off the road. We turned onto a side street and headed for a deserted gas station.  About 200 feet from the gas station, the engine quit and it slowly dawned on me that this was more than a transmission problem.  For the first time I checked the dashboard voltmeter. It showed that the vehicle battery voltage was below 8 volts.

Our RV has 2 separate sets of batteries: the “vehicle” batteries which handle the starter, engine, headlights, etc, and the “house” batteries which operate the inside lights, refrigerator, and, through the inverter, the TVs, microwave, and other 110v stuff. There is a dashboard switch that connects the two systems together, and by using that switch I was able to get the engine started again, and get us off the road.

I knew the vehicle batteries were old, and had been drained and left discharged for months when we left the RV in storage in 2006. I assumed they had died and started to collect the measurements and specs I would need to replace them when it dawned on me that the symptoms pointed to a charging problem, not a battery problem. If I tied the 2 electrical systems together and used the 110v generator to charge the house batteries, we would be in business! Rather than holding the momentary contact dashboard switch to connect the two systems while I drove, I rigged a jumper on the relay that the switch controls, watched the vehicle battery voltage slowly climb, and we were on our way. There was nothing wrong with the transmission – it was just reacting to the low voltage.

We spent the night in a campground in Poplar Bluff, MO with an appointment at the local truck repair place for this morning.  They quickly diagnosed a bad alternator and replaced it. Two hours and five hundred dollars later we were on our way.

We have been very fortunate in that none of the problems we have had with our motor home over the years have required that we be towed – we have always been able to get to a repair facility under our own power. We are hoping that our good luck will continue.

On the Road Again!

Dinah & I have finally started our summer travels, driving away with 2 dogs, 3 cats, and a kitten on Monday, 16 July.  We spent our first two nights at Valley of Fires Corp of Engineers campground in Carrizozo, NM.

This bird, with it's mate, shared our campsite shelter

Sunset at Valley of Fires

On Wednesday we headed out for Amarillo, TX, but shortly before getting there a dashboard light indicated a transmission fault. We limped to Walmart, got out the Allison transmission manual, and determined that we had an "Output shaft speed sensor" failure.  Fortunately for us, Julian's Transmission Repair, Inc, an Allison repair facility, was nearby and we arranged to visit them the next morning.  The transmission's computer decided it was not safe to shift, so we drove the 12 miles to the repair shop in first gear.  The lead mechanic, David, immediately went to work, and in an hour or so we were on our way. The part (which looked like it was worth about $20) cost $85 and the whole bill was under $200.  But to put that in perspective, on the way out of town we filled the tank with diesel, and that cost $250!
Next stop, the Corp of Engineers Canadian Campground at Canton Lake, Canton, OK. A nice place, but with 100+ temperatures, and lots of prickly things to get stuck in the dog's fur and our sox and shoe laces, we mostly stayed inside, hitting the road again on Sunday morning.
We passed a lot of dry brown corn on our way to Neosho, MO where we spent last night at the Stage Stop RV park.

Our green car after being towed a couple of miles on a dirt road, and visits by a local cat, and even a bird

 We expect to stay put today, then head toward Carbondale, IL tomorrow.

Cleared!

The Dr. has cleared Dinah for travel, and we hope to begin our delayed Summer RV trip soon.  We again have the three black kittens (one has died, and two were returned to the shelter when we thought we were about to leave 3 weeks ago) and plan to take one of them on our travels, returning the other two to the shelter again.