We get inside the new house......

An interesting day, went by us in a flash today, as we finally were allowed into the new house...  And since we were inspecting the insides very carefully, we didn't want to bother the fellow that was with us while we took pictures.....

This guy is Todd that I wrote about several times before... He is quite meticulous with his work and had almost everything showroom perfect....  We didn't see much in the way of things to correct or obvious flaws...

In the back yard, he saw a void in the mortar between a couple of concrete blocks in the wall divider, and pointed that out as he said it need fixed......  I would never have noticed that, and even if  I had, it wouldn't be worth getting fixed....

We didn't quite know what to say other than Thank You....  Thank You for being so intent on getting things beyond right...  Of course there are still a bundle of things to complete that the building company leaves up to us....  Like ceiling fans, and lights outside, and the entire yard inside the fence..

Bare floors and bare walls...... No appliances or furniture....  We have our work cut out for us..

We only stayed there for about 30 minutes, and during that time Todd called and told his people that we had accepted the property as it currently is..  Of course, I'm sure we will be developing a punch list once we spend some time in there...  Loyce's honey do list for me or Todd or whom ever....

So off we went making necessary phone calls from the car to the title company and our financial people, to start getting this show on the road.....  And one of these requirements was home owner's insurance....  I had picked out an agent in the North side of Mesa representing the Farm Bureau..

Way back when I was an independent CPA with a firm in Iowa, we had the Farm Bureau as a client...  I was an insured at that time and have continued ever since..  Its the same little Iowa company from way back then, but now they cover almost all of the Western US states...  Of course they are an Insurance Giant now...

So the next stop was to our new agent's office to apply and purchase the new home owners policy...  This will be an extension of our policy in Kansas, but still took quite a while to build on the computer with new agent Sam!  We paid the money and Joined the Arizona Farm Bureau as well.  You have to be a member to buy insurance....  We are now Kansas and Arizona members, as well as Missouri reciprocal members..  City slicker members..... uh, they call it non producers....  Sounds nicer, though..

If all the ducks fall in a row, we might have some keys next week, and a place to unload all these vehicles we are driving...  That would be quite a relief in itself....  And the storage locker from last time we were here as well...

The final trip of the day ended up with us over at the furniture store looking for a bed and table and stuff...   But since this is too long already, I'll tell about that part later, if I ever get over the shock of it all.......

Retired Rod

By the way, its 109 as I type this at almost 7 PM, but that's the norm around here.....

More on the Mesa weather, new AC...

As it became dusk last night here in Mesa, a big wind storm blew in with a cool front that crossed the desert..  I rolled in the outside awning in the very nick of time as the temperature outside was 109.

I could see off in the distance as I looked South and West, that there was an awful haze over the ground... Dust!!

Suddenly the gust front went over us as we were over in the new sub division driving by the neighborhood to see the changes and just generally to scope out the house.  Of course it is locked up and we can't even enter with one of their associates.

But as the winds blew thru, it was 40+ mph and the dirt just flew....  I could not even make out the superstition mountains that are so predominate to our East.  They were just gone from view..

When we got the motorhome out of storage, we had to leave the pickup on its spot while we registered for the campsite here in Valle del Oro, so we were on the mission to retrieve it, but the dust made driving mostly tenuous.

We pulled into the front gate of the storage lot and just sat the wind out for a good while.  Eventually I unlocked the big gate and we went after the truck.  But during that time the temperature went back to the low 90s all at once, with a few big blotches of rain.  Like big splats, but not enough to wet the ground much.

OK, the weather around here is totally unpredictable and we have now seen how quickly things can change in the monsoon season starting around the first of July...  We've heard the stories from the folks that live here full time but there is nothing like first hand experience..

So since hot will be the forecast for the next several days that we will be cooped  with the motorhome at over 110 degrees, we decided to go get a portable air conditioner to assist the roof airs on the coach. I had learned to do this from Kit and Jerry down in the oil fields of Texas.  She wrote a post about it which she said was just for me....  LOL

Anyway the mostly tall box is on wheels and was purchased over at Costco about 8 PM last night.  It weighs over 100 pounds but they helped me get it into the trailer I was pulling.  Once home we just left it there for overnight.

Of course our internal clocks are still back on Central time, so we were up at 5:30 this morning and ready to work on the ac...  We backed the trailer over against the door on the coach and slid the new ac from the trailer ramp door which was laying on the steps of the coach up into the rig.  It took both of us..

After fashioning the air port to go into the driver's door, the unit has run here all day..  Its about 110 outside now, and we are in the low 80s inside with all three running...  When it gets to 115 this weekend, we may still not have enough ac power, but we will see...

The unit that Costco sells is a 10,500 btu single hose made by Sharp.  It is quite quiet but does not have the condensation hose separate from the exhaust.    It evaporates the moisture with the hot air and blows it out the window vent.

If it fills up beyond this evaporation, we might have to drain its tank, but that will never be a problem here in the desert.  In the motorhome, we can roll it over by the door and put a short piece of hose on it and drain it outside, so we are not worried by that..  But we have often found that only two roof airs on this rig are not up to the summer task of cooling this thing.  But we are probably stretching the 50 amp connection fairly hard right now.

We have spent most of the day calling different utilities companies trying to get things changed into our name for the new place.. This has been an experience, to say the least...  The power company just looked up our credit on Equifax and that was that....  No problem, but the local water place had to have a big security deposit.... Trust no one and verify!!

The gas company also had to have a deposit but it was smaller, so we just sent them a payment.  Of course with the holiday, who knows when the actual transition will occur?  What if we didn't have a place to stay, while all of this took place?  I guess we would be working from a motel room..........

This is too long, so more later....

Retired Rod

Just how hot is it???

Valle Del Oro RV Resort
Mesa, Az

OK, I know we disappeared off of the face of the earth, or at least the blog face any way.....

So like I was saying, Tuesday's ride out into central Missouri is just way too hot for this big chicken..  So what would be better than that??  How about a hot ride in the car where the air conditioner can't keep up??  How about two cars following each other, but I think the Camry did better with its A/C.

It was 107 all the way across Kansas on Monday afternoon, and we saw every mile of it...  And to boot, they were burning off the wheat fields that had recently been harvested.  They cut off the top of the stems to combine the grain, and then chop off the straw and roll it up into those 7 foot around bales.  But after that many farmers just light it on fire and let it burn...

We drove thru smoke and haze until we were South of Greensburg, and after that the wheat was kind of small and some hadn't been harvested at all.  I don't know what happens to that crop....  Maybe just abandoned..

We stayed in Liberal, Ks at a Super 8 that was doggie friendly..  The room was hot since the A/C wasn't on when we got there.  And after we had it on for a long time, the compressor struggled to stay engaged,  cycling off when it was still hot....  Perhaps low voltage in the town.....

Yesterday, we drove thru Oklahoma and Texas and all the way across New Mexico..  But the event that stuck firmly in our minds was an accident we came upon on Tuesday morning, South of Guymon, OK..

Sunday morning, two Union Pacific freight trains were on a destination course to meet head on...  And they did just that in a massive explosion, that killed three folks.  A forth conductor jumped from the train and lived with minor injuries..

It was Tuesday, by the time we were there, and the wreckage was still smoldering.  A massive crane was on the scene pulling apart the mangled wreckage...  The train out of Kansas City that was Westbound contained a large quantity of passenger cars and trucks that were brand new..  The only thing left was melted mangled blobs of steel... They were lined up along the side of the highway like dead corpses.   The locomotives were fused or welded together by the heat generated as the diesel fuel ignited and burned..

We were still talking about what we had seen in our short drive by on the highway at about 10 mph.  The Ok highway patrol was waving us thru to discourage rubber necking.....  My information was gained from Googling train crash at Guymon...

New Mexico wasn't as hot at only 98 degrees yesterday, when we stopped in Gallup for the night...  This time a Red Roof was the pet friendly choice.  It was more expensive but cleaner.  The only problem was that the entire section crew of the BNSF railroad had the place rented out.

They stood outside our door drinking a few cold ones and carried on until dusk...  Then they were up at 5:30 today stomping on the floor to get ready for work...  We had the first floor room, but might have been better served by carrying our stuff to the second floor....

Today we had the quick 300 mile jaunt over the mountains South of Holbrook, Az, as we gained yet another hour.   But as we arrived the temperature reached 109...

We are parked in Valle Del Oro again, with our rear end facing West, but our A/C's have struggled to keep it under 100 inside....

Just how hot is it in here?....  Well, the glue melted that holds the full length mirror on the outside wall behind the slide out.  It fell on the floor as I was driving between the storage lot and the RV park...  The frame is toast, but the mirror is still in one piece.  We think it is plexiglass..

And not to be out done with the mirror, one of the splash blocks that surround the cook top completely fell off of the wall.  Again the glue had separated...

I am told that it will not be much cooler during the night either...   But once the sun goes down, it has to get better doesn't it...?

Retired Rod

Warm! and we stay inside....

Yep, we made it!  Up to 100 degrees that is....... Yeah that's 38 C for my friends up North,, well and the rest of the civilized world....  But we only had about 50 percent humidity so it was dryer than normal, but that didn't make much difference to the way it felt to me!

Its still hot!! So we hid inside all day....  And I do mean all day, we just tramped around the house, and I hid in the new basement for quite a while and it was really cool down there with the A/C droning on and on.

On days like this the internet is my friend, as I think I browsed every available internet site that I could think of.  But that doesn't give me much to report, and since I've already bored you yesterday with more than you ever wanted to know about oil and its viscosity, I had better not get into one of those rambling posts again.

Biscuit continues to improve, and has forgotten that Loyce took her to the awful Vet's office a couple of days ago.  But she does remember the place, because that is where she was spayed.  And even dogs can remember things like that.

With it being so hot, I didn't even go start the motorscooter.  It just stayed in its stall in the garage all day, but it is supposed to be much cooler tomorrow with a forecast high of 94... So maybe...  I even skipped Wendy's.

Oh, and I looked up the Romeo Rider's Luncheon on Tuesday and it is to be in the town of Higginsville, Mo.  That is 73 miles East of here on I 70, but if I chicken out and take the small highways, it adds a bunch of more miles.....  Those guys will leave at the crack of dawn so they can order breakfast rather than lunch........  But it is much cooler riding that early, so it makes sense..  Since we have to cross all of KC to leave to the East, that will put us in the morning drive time traffic....

By Thursday it is to be 111 down in Apache Junction and East Mesa........  Nice...

Retired Rod

Oil requirements and Biscuit is better..

Why am I particular about the oil changes and the oils that manufactures recommend for their cars?  It has to do with our CAFE rules here in the US and how that has effected the car manufactures..  CAFE is Corporate Average Fuel Economy and dictates what a manufacture's fleet of cars that are sold in the US must obtain as an average fuel economy...  Its mandated by congress...  Who knows absolutely nothing about engineering automobiles....

If the auto companies don't meet these standards, the acts levee huge fines.  So in order to meet these standards, the industry must use very thin oil.  It gets thinner as the requirements for mileage increase..  Thin oils do not have as much drag, so the engines spin freely and are therefor supposed to get better mileage....  But this is in the expense of less protection and increased wear in your engine.

So just because a manufacture has to  thin out the oil because the government says so, that doesn't necessarily mean we all have to follow blindly and use water thin oils in the heat of the summer..  Now they are actually recommending 0W 20 oils in new cars......  So that's a 0 viscosity oil winter blended that protects like a 20 viscosity straight weight....  I'm not even sure you can get straight weight oils for cars any more...

All I did was ask for 10W 30 and the oil change monkey's went off like a rocket that it wasn't right for the cars.  But I opened my owner's manual and found where it said that you could use 10W 30 as an optional oil and had to show it to the fellow.  They were worried that their company would get into trouble with the government for putting the wrong oil in!  Anyway at 110 degrees, I think a little heavier oil will protect things a bit better...

As far as winter is concerned, we will be in Arizona in the winter, so it will never be cold enough to cause slow starts.  This is part of the reason I use Wal Mart for these oil changes..... They will put anything in....  They don't care....  But there are other draw backs to Wal Mart in terms of service and convenience.

As far as leaving oil in for long periods of time goes.... We rebuilt engines when I was working as a mechanic, years ago while going to college....  If you have ever cleaned out the resultant sludge and goopy gunk that builds up in an oil system from not changing your oil, you will never allow that to happen ever again...

And one of the more wild things is that Honda actually uses the thin red transmission fluid in their differential gear cases instead of 80-90 Hypoid lube.  Again the thin oil is designed to get mileage.  But this necessitates lube changes on a regular basis of the gear cases...  When was the last time you changed out your rear end gear grease??  It usually stays in there for almost the entire life of the car...  If it gets low you add some...  But the transmission fluid actually does wear out and needs changed.. All in the name of a little more mileage...  Our government at work!!

Changing the subject, Biscuit seems to be back to her more normal self today, after sleeping off the effects of her shot in the bottom yesterday...  She still wasn't overly excited about her existence today but she ate her meals and went outside for her duty and didn't chase her bottom around trying to chew on herself any more.  

So assuming that she does well again tomorrow, perhaps keeping her inside as much as possible during this time of allergy season will keep us out of the vet's office....

Today was Amateur Radio Field Day again this year, but I haven't been to any of the meetings for most of this last year..  With being out in Arizona all winter and going thru the surgery last fall, I have fallen completely out of the Ham Radio hobby.  I didn't even get to go to Dayton this year either...

So I felt kinda weird going over and just participating in the one major event and nothing else....  So I have stayed home...  Last year I only went for a couple of hours during the meal time, and that was rather weak..  I did pay my dues this past month, and will have to become more active in the upcoming year..........

Tomorrow is supposed to be over 100 degrees here in Kansas for the first time this year!!!  Oh boy, I can't wait.......!

Retired Rod

Oil Changes and Financial arrangements

I just looked at the current weather reported in Mesa.....97 degrees.....  Its almost midnight here and about 10 pm there...   It was 108 for five hours during the afternoon....  Our official high here was 83 so that is quite a difference..... I'm obviously thinking about having to return to the desert....

I spent most of the morning preparing the necessary paperwork for my brokerage firm to handle our financial portion of the new house....  It will take some signatures and things to bring all of this together.  And we will not have the necessary office equipment with us when we finally leave Kansas to head back out to the desert...

We know when that will be, but do not want to post it here until after we have been gone for a couple of days for obvious reasons...

We hope we can pull all of this together without having to take the office equipment with us...  Laser printer and fax machines are big and heavy.  We do have that all in one machine, that ink jet prints and faxes and copies, but it is old and doesn't travel too well.  If worst comes, we might have to buy a new one.

In the afternoon, I decided that all of the vehicles concerned in this upcoming travel, were well out of date on their oil changes.  The Toyota still had about 500 miles left, but would be beyond its 3 K limit about half way out there, and the pickup was on its synthetic oil at about 4K miles, but was beyond reasonable time limits because it hadn't been changed for about 8 months...   Remember it sat here all winter last year without being driven.

And since I am always fighting with the Wal Mart folks over their oil changes, I went to a Valvoline branded oil  change shop.  They were higher in price but managed to get me right thru in a reasonable amount of time, and allowed me to sit in the car while the work was done.  Of course we got in the argument about the weight of the oil I wanted....  I always want heavier oil than recommended by the manufacturers.  Its going to be way hotter in the desert than using 0W20.  But I stand my ground and get the oil I want...

In the case of the truck, I asked for mixed synthetic oil and they wanted $59.95 which seemed high priced, but that didn't include that the truck took 7 quarts, and they got an additional $15 for two extra quarts..  So it ended up being $75.  But oil is now becoming much higher in cost even at the Wal Mart.  Their basic service is now $31.95, and I think it is $51.95 for synthetic  and those prices only include the 5 quart change.

Well anyway I spent about 2 hours driving back and forth to the lube shop and waiting in line to get both vehicles changed out.  And over $100 in price.....  But its done, and we are good to travel now...

Also this morning, we found that Biscuit was very restless and had a red belly and inside of her ears.. Which equates to a fever.  Loyce and I decided to not mess around with that one, and she had to be taken to the Vet.  He found her to be reacting to allergies or perhaps a bug bite... But either way he decided to give her a steroid shot.

That has seemed to knock out the fever and her tummy has come back to normal color, but the side effect was that she has been drunken all day...  She just laid in the recliner chair and slept, but then she hasn't slept very well for the last several days, so perhaps she is catching up.  But we are still quite concerned about her.

I was in the animal cracker jar, here earlier as a desert for myself, and she perked right up and was begging her share of the cookies....  So she must be coming around... These pets are worse than people, because they can't tell you what is wrong....

But just like that the day is over...........

Retired Rod

More preparations

It rained last night about the time the blog was written, and it didn't quit for most of the night... Lightning and thunder and the whole works.....  Usually we can't beg for moisture by this time of year but low and behold...

I was over at Lowes this morning looking for bolts that match the table legs of the table that is stored out in Arizona, and it was still spitting rain.  Kind of a drizzle that wets everything down really well.  And I got lucky and found the washers and nuts to put our old table back together...  We don't plan on keeping the table as our main dining option, but for a little while it will fill in the gap...  While we find just the one we want.  Then it will end up in the sewing room....

I was on the phone all day out to Scottsdale calling the title company trying to find out what the HUD-1 will show for a settlement figure....  Should you have to beg to get a bill?  But it seems that they are so busy closing out the homes they have built this summer that we all must wait in line.

I called the realtor lady again this afternoon and asked for a fire to be built under these folks...  And low and behold after supper tonight the email came in....   Of course they are 2 hours behind out there so they hadn't gone home yet.

While I was waiting, I finalized the Income Taxes for the second time this year and took them over to the mail.  Filed!  Gone!  Done!  Well, until they find something wrong with them........

Then tonight I loaded a bunch of stuff into the utility trailer that we have been piling up in the garage.  Things that we have around here that will be a start of the new home.... I told Loyce it looked like a bunch of cast off old junk....  Probably not even worth the gas it will take to get it to Az, but then I am pulling the trailer for the motor scooter, so what we take beyond that doesn't matter much..

Wow, where did the day go.........?   I guess when you have your head down and are studying numbers and papers, time slips away... But I had to stick right here for the phone and email, so why not finish the return....?

The sun came out around noon, and cooked the moisture out of the ground....  HUMID!!!  The perspiration just ran off of me while I was loading the stuff into the trailer, and strapping down the scooter.  I finally opened the side door to try and get some air...  But it didn't help, so I jumped on Pepper with no helmet or jacket and joy rode around our neighborhood at under 20 mph.  Ahhhh...

Retired Rod

Arizona Pic & Still thinking about the cars from yesterday......

Yesterday was a tough act to follow with all of the cars and folks that I talked to from the Romeo lunch group.  I added a link at the bottom of the page from yesterday to go directly to the Romeo web site for the official post about the lunch.  You will see a lot more of the photos that were taken.

What the heck I'll post it here again..  You'll see that some of the pictures I posted were taken from the official web page, but some of the pictures there are worth looking at...  One of the fellows had a grand daughter with him, and she had one of those big tenderloins..........  And then some ice cream to top it off....  She was about 10 or so.....

For me today, I went to the Suzuki dealership to pick up some special screws that I had ordered as replacements for the ones I lost out of Salt....  They took about a week to get here, and I wanted them replaced before I take the scooter to Arizona...

Then I like the fingerless gloves that the Harley Davidson folks sell at their dealerships, even though they charge an arm and both legs for them.  If it says HD on it,  PRICEY!! I found just the ones, and my old gloves are three years old and ratty..  That was at Rawhide HD here in Olathe, Ks...

Then it was off to the bank to make a deposit of my check that we just received from the reservation for Valle Del Oro RV resort...  I paid $250 for the reservation in early February, but since we signed up for the house about three weeks after the reservation was made, we had asked for it back.

I suppose they could have just told me that they didn't give reservation money back, but instead they said sure, but we only give back $200....   And you will have to wait until corporate mails it out..  That was back in April.....  Guess they aren't in too much of a hurry to send out cancelled reservations, Huh.!

At least I'm not stuck paying the $2 K that the rest of the time would cost next winter...  But we will continue to rent the RV storage place even if we bring back the Motorhome next month.  Mainly because we might take it back again this fall so we can leave from Arizona for short jaunts around the Southwest...  Just thinking out loud..  Plans are made of cardboard...  In pencil......  

The realtor lady sent this picture taken from the street showing us the landscaping.  Which is wrong from the layout that we drew last spring....  She said they would get it corrected..  But hey, the roof is on right, and the driveway looks normal.  I'm not complaining any....  Those little bitty bushes could be dug out in about two seconds....  But there is one tree over on the right out of the picture that should have been different....

So tonight, I went over and retrieved the utility trailer from storage and washed up the scooter named Salt, and loaded him into the wheel chock in the trailer.  He's strapped down and ready to travel...  Now if only everything else was done....  That was all we accomplished here in KC today, but we are one step closer to Arizona...

Retired Rod

Romeos in Lewisburg, Kansas

They opened up at 10:30 just for us!

They only serve lunch, so lunch  was ordered.  The time doesn't matter.....

This is what you want at 10:30 AM for a little lunch.......

The count was somewhere in the 60s when I headed inside for my lunch......

Their specialty is a breaded tenderloin and its bigger than a plate, so they just have bigger plates.

I had curly fries but otherwise this was what my plate looked like..

After everyone took on about 10 pounds of breakfast we all headed over into Missouri to go to the town of West Line.  This place has a unique car dealership and we all parked up and down the street.  Some folks were right down on the apron going into the garage as well....

Going into the main showroom you encountered this 1955 Chevy..

Once out in the garage, there were cars stacked up upon cars.  So close that I couldn't get pictures of each individual one.

Ford Rag top from about the same time......

F100 pickup with a big V8

This looks fast just sitting here parked.....

El Camino Pickup,  It had GMC on the side, but I wasn't aware there were any of these made.

Yep, that Camero still looks fast!

This was back in the garage restoration area where the cars were being cleaned and made ready for sale.  I didn't actually see any body or mechanical work going on in this building, but it must take place somewhere around here.

72 Corvette, I didn't know what to look at first......

This 59 Ford is actually the hard top convertible.  I am told it is quite hard to come by.

My roomate in college had this exact 57 chevy, and we worked on it constantly.  We kept on adding go fast parts.  It was only a 283 V8 and no amount of go fast parts would actually make it fast, as I now understand, but we kept at it....  Man does this thing bring back memories...

I must have liked this 68 Chevy tudor, since I took its picture twice...  I had one of these in Green when we were first married and traded it off for another newer one after it was about two years old.  Obviously I didn't have any idea what I had........

For Mopar lovers, this 66 Coronet with the 383, was lightning fast!  

The cars in here are actually for sale, but the price list was way beyond my classic car budget.  

A whole group of these fellows were heading on out on a winding twisty road for the rest of the afternoon, but since it was already in the 90s and the wind was blowing from the South at about 30 miles an hour, I passed.  

As a blond, red head, I would have been roasted to medium well by the time I got back home, so riding right back was the best decision for me.

If you want one of these vehicles, let me know and I will get you this fellows contact information.....

For a lot more pictures and the official Romeo Web Page on this ride, click Here!  You can see that I used some of the official pictures of the food in my blog as well...

Retired Rod

Guilty!!!

OK, Okay!! I'm guilty as charged!!  I'm a certified Nut Case, because I scrape those little license stickers off of my license plates from last year before I put on the current year..............

I'm an Auditor, and spent years as a detail person making sure that all I's were dotted and T's were crossed.  If you haven't found something wrong with the paper work that you are reviewing, you just haven't looked at it long enough....  There's always something wrong with everything, if you just spend your time checking every facet.  Especially "my" spelling,  LOL...

But we were taught that if you put a license sticker over the old one, the two year old glue now had to hold two stickers in place, and the three year old glue had to hold three and the ten year old glue had to hold ten........  You get the picture,  ......  Eventually something has to give up.......

So with the pontoon boat, you are sticking stickers directly on the painted aluminum surface of the outer fence behind the seat bolsters.  And they already have decal style stickers on them from the factory as decoration.  Ours has swirling checkered flags to make it look like its going fast....

So I am trusting that glue to hold fast before I put a new sticker on, and they must stick for three years in Missouri.  So that is why I use the hair dryer to soften the sticker glue and carefully peal the license sticker away from the manufactures decal/decor paper or perhaps plastic stickers.  One day the whole thing will fall off, but perhaps the boat will be old when that happens and it won't matter so much to me then.  Remember this is all routinely wet while the boat is moving...

This discussion is brought about by the thought of me going back to the DMV again today for more of our annual tag renewal.  Or the filching of our pocket book by the state of Kansas, if you like.

Remember they are changing the computer system and our last name requires a June renewal.  Enforcement will start on July 1st......  And I had an old style license that I wanted traded out, so that meant that the private vendor that takes care of mail in renewals couldn't do it for me.  I had to appear.

But I have learned how to work the system now.......  I checked in on my computer and acquired a spot in line with my cell phone number.  I was only 296 minutes back in line when I started at 11:30.  It's a wonder they even took me for today.

I had to have proof of insurance, so I stopped by the local insurance office and had the young fellow print off all of my little cards.  This took over a half an hour, so my place in line moved up and they messaged me on the phone about my advance.  246 minutes, now!

I arranged my paper work carefully stapling all the correct cards to the correct renewal notices and laid them in a pile next to the door......  196 minutes.........  I took a nap!

My son dropped by and left me a father's day gift of a shirt made from the dri lock fabric that I usually wear when on the scooter.......  more phone messages, and the time descended...

I rode the scooter over to Wendy's and had the small burger, but splurged and got bacon on it!  Yea, I know, too much cholesterol....  The bike was low on gas, so I stopped at the pump and filled up.  Another message, I was under thirty minutes...

So I was off to the DMV, and it was about 3 PM by now...  When I went in and looked at my place in line, I was only 8 back from the top!  Wow!  They list your phone number on the screen... And in only about ten minutes I was at the window......  Only 210 minutes, hey they are moving right along today!

The clerk couldn't figure out how to renew the motorhome, and wanted it inspected..........Gasp!  Its in Arizona.........  But I didn't let on......  Calmly I suggested that we might need a supervisor to explain these things.  And so the clerk went after the lady in the corner office by the front windows...

Well, it seems as though we were registering the vehicle as a truck and not an RV.  A box needed checked that said Rec Vehicle, and then all that Mumbo Jumbo and big price tag went away... Whew!

So before you know it I was out of there with much lighter pockets but with a big pile of new tags for scooters and cars and motorhomes and such.  By now it was 97 outside and the ride home was a tad warm.

So that's how we got to the part about scraping off all the old stickers and putting on the new ones.  But since it was soo hot outside, I just took the plate off the vehicles and brought it inside the A/C of the house to peel and scrape and re apply.  I know, I am certifiably nuts, but that is over for the vehicles that are here in Kansas for now.  And I have a tag for the motorhome when we cross back into Western Kansas on our way home from Arizona.......

Wonder what enforcement on that sucker would cost? !!!  Nope, don't want to find out!

Retired Rod

KC Safe and Sound

We are back in KC tonight and our bandit grandkids are back in their own beds resting from their long endeavor with their grand parents.  We are sure they will rest more peacefully tonight, after 4 nights at the lake place.

We do have beds and a kids bedroom set up all for them at the lake, but it is still not like being at home, so they run out of steam after a few days..  And then all the swimming in the lake and the hot sun takes its tool as well.

Our trip back here was totally uneventful just as we like them.  The truck bed was jammed full of bags and baskets of provisions.  Seems we always move most everything in the fridge down to the lake and back on these jaunts.

So it takes us quite a while to load out and then load back into the home place.  But we are used to it and have the travel down to a science after so many years.  We used to do these weekend trips from Des Moines, Iowa years ago where we would travel 6 hours each way just to put in a Saturday on the water.  Seems nuts now, but we were used to it then.

Biscuit is really tired out tonight as she just laid down in the chair next to me here and put her head on her paws and stared at me..  Kinda with her eyes half open.  Not moving a bit, and usually she is a very nervous dog, fidgeting all around.  But not tonight she is just killed.

So with everything safe and sound, I think we will just report all is safe and well and hang up the keys for tonight.

Retired Rod

Having fun now!

We have to head on back to KC tomorrow, so today was the do it all now day.  That means that we had to get all the things done that we had wanted to do today because this adventure was coming to an end...

For Loyce it was her trip to the Jo Ann's fabric store in town...........  Which I opted to not partake of, since she had grand daughters that wanted to attend..     Caden and I opted to stay back to do man's work like applying the license stickers on the pontoon boat.......

While that doesn't sound like much, they are about three inches square and need to be heated with the hair dryer to be removed.  They stick with the goopyest glue imaginable....  I have never really been able to remove all of the old glue, but figure it will just help stick the new stickers to the same place.

Since the stickers stay on for three years you wouldn't want the glue to give up during that time, so I understand and agree why its so permanent.  Its just time consuming to change.  The stickers expire on June 30, so my skate time on this project was over........

And every time we come here, the spiders and bugs have further webbed in our boat and dock.  This woods is very buggy, and the mess is on going.  So again today we used the bucket and pole handled scrub brush to wash the dock and the entire pontoon boat.

Somewhere in the middle of this task the girls returned and swimming commenced from the docks swim platform...  After a bite of lunch, we headed out on the boat for the rest of the afternoon.....  Of course it is Saturday, and all the big boat crazies were out being the idiots they are.

They pass really close to you at wide open throttle speeds and never even give you a look or a nod.  Its not like we are small because we are 26 feet in length, but they mostly are around 40 and larger.  Of course they are entitled because their boat is worth more than my house and they have money to burn on hundreds of gallons of gasoline at at time, without any thought about it at all.  Its just the get the he!! outa my way attitude.  We should have gone earlier in the week,  I know...........

But its dark now and late, and Loyce and the kids are packing up stuff so we can do some swimming in the morning before we have to head out for home.......

Retired Rod

Happy Fathers Day!!

Fathers Day to Me Gift....

I had a brain spaz today because I gave in to the wishes of my bride and purchased a new gas grill for the lake place...  They were having a big special over at that new home store Meynards here in Lake Ozark.  It was normally $279, but was on sale for $249.  Well, OK so I went and got a big flat cart to load it up.

A store clerk helped as the box was really heavy..  The check out clerk used the price gun on the UPC code and it rang up at $199.......  Hey!  I didn't say a word, just swiped the credit card quickly before someone looked it up somewhere.........

It was about all Caden and I could do to get it into the truck from that flat cart...  We were supposed to have help, from a stock person, but they never showed at the front of the store..

Once home we opened the box but removed pieces from it while still in the truck...  It was all folded sheet steel and stainless on its upper lid.  The cooking grates were cast iron that had been covered with porcelain.  Its all very heavy, no matter what it was made from.

Of course it was all in parts and pieces with the resultant thick book of assembly pictures.  Yes pictures,  the book was in several languages, but the actual assembly was only pictures...  Must have run out of translators..

It took me all afternoon to put this thing together....  I had trouble with bolts not threading into nut plates, and being here at the lake, I didn't have my taps with me to chase out the threads.  I thought it must have been made in China, but I found a Made in USA sticker on the inside of the back panel.

Tonight I grilled a bunch of beef sausages that we like and only had one burner on to do it.  It has four burners and if I had purchased the larger one it would have had five........!

Grandma and the kids were swimming during the afternoon, but I never even went near the dock.  Perhaps tomorrow!!

Retired Rod

Just in from Arizona....

We have some pictures from Arizona taken inside the new house.  I'm not sure why, but they have not sent any photos taken of the front or the roof, or things that I would normally be interested in..

Like perhaps the concrete driveway or the grading of the yard, or how the concrete block fencing has come along...

But we do have these 8 pictures...

Is there something missing on our new stove?  I do think there might be a missing oven door...  We didn't get any mention of the door or where it might have gone too, but perhaps it didn't pass inspection somehow and we are waiting for a replacement.

But the good news is that the microwave seems to have a door and everything!!  Oh, and we seem to have a dishwasher, which will be a relief over doing the dishes by hand in the motorhome.

We have two photos of the laminate floor that they put into the den or utility room.  This is kind of a bedroom that doesn't have a closet or a door on it. Seems as though the floor is covered with paper to protect it.  The realtor lady made a point of explaining that construction workers can't walk on it and mar it that way.......

We appear to have chosen quite a dark wood color from the looks of the edge where the paper doesn't cover the wood.

We have faucets now in the master bathroom, so that should mean that the plumbing is complete.  And there is a mirror over the sinks as well.

One of the last things to be done in a completed home is lay the carpet, and this is the master bedroom where the carpet has obviously been installed.

Back in the dining area looking into the kitchen, we can now see we have a faucet on the kitchen sink.  So the plumbing is complete as I guessed in the back bathroom.  We also added that small cabinet over the place where the fridge will go.  We both thought it looked bare without it, even though neither of us can reach the things placed up there.

We do hope the colors go better once we see them in person, and think the cell phone camera is turning things kind of green like the counter top next to the stove.  We are optimistically excited to see all of this in person...

We are now working on the financial part of this closure and will have a schedule ironed out in the near future to go back to the wonderfully hot desert and stay in the motorhome while we inspect and close up this whole deal.

It has been very nasty hot in Mesa this last week or more with temps in the over 110 range every day.  We will again have to dig the motorhome out of storage and put it on a RV park lot.  I'm not sure I will be up to the task of setting up a camp site with the temperatures so high..  Maybe just put the levelers down and plug in the A/C.

We had about 92 here this afternoon, and the grandkids swam in the lake until they ran out of steam mid afternoon.  By then the air conditioning and soft pillows called for a refreshing nap.

I have been installing cabinet pulls on some of our cupboards here since they have never been done since we built the place several years ago.  Its a vacation place, and working on it cuts into your play time....  So I spent a bit of time late in the afternoon with the drill.

I had to go purchase some more pulls by late in the day, and that gave me the excuse to ride the red scooter as well.  Its only 200 cc's so its a much slower ride.....  But it will go almost 60 if your not in a hurry.

Retired Rod

More Bar B Cue!!

OK, I know that eating BarBCue is conducive to weight gain, but when the scooter can still go 80 MPH with me on it, I don't think I will need a new one just yet!!

But with that said, we went to the Bar B Cue again tonight!  What?  Again? Well, yes I have to confess that we were at the Bandana's in Osage Beach tonight...  Because we drove over to the lake place this afternoon, and we never cook on the night of arrival.........  But I only had a luncheon plate of pulled pork....Honest!!  And I dumped the big baked potato for a few fries instead....  And water to drink.....  Not diet coke!!  I can still hear Penny scolding me......!

But anyway we are down here at the lake with all three of the Grandkid Bandits from the younger son's crew.  They are 10, 8, and 5.......  And very eager to go swimming and boating and running and jumping and yelling and dragging the dog all over the place and, and, and........

Whew, I can never keep up with all of this..  Hope grandma is up to it!!  But we haven't been here long enough to have any reportable news.  So rather than chew your ear about nothing, this will be a short blog for tonight.

Plattsburg, Missouri

This luncheon group that I have joined this last couple of weeks is called the ROMEOs.  Which is an acronym for Retired Old Motorcyclists Eating Out.  That would conjure up pictures of fine dining establishments, Right?

What about this one?  Famous?

That don't seem too bad, until.......

You pull back the camera some and have a look at the rest of the place.........

This is in a small rural community way up North of Kansas City, Missouri, called Plattsburg.  Its a bar b cue, and you all know how I like to try new bar b cue....  So even though it is 60 miles up there, I hopped on the scoot and headed right across the downtown part of KC, Mo and then beyond all the Northern neighborhoods out into the country another 22 miles.

The day was really nice as the sun was shining and it was about 74 when I left.  The city streets became a bit scary when a lady tried a U turn at an intersection before we got onto the freeway, and ended up T boning another car with her SUV.  The car she hit did a spin about on its wheels and came to rest on the median of the road directly behind where I was standing over the bike, trapped in standstill traffic.  They really slammed together with a ear shattering WHACK!

I was glad to get on the divided interstate where everyone was going the same direction, with limited access, at about 60 MPH.  Seemed much safer up on the big highway.  Anyway it was divided freeway all the way downtown and then for about 15 miles outbound to the North. I never got off or slowed down.

From the North edge of the city,  it turned into country roads that were normal two lane rolling country highways.  I found a friend on a BMW bike and when I rolled up along side, I asked if he was a Romeo, and sure enough he was headed to the luncheon.  His 1200 cc machine was much faster than my little ole scooter, but I managed to keep him right in front for the rest of the way into town.

It turned out that his name was Bob, and he was from Olathe here in the Southern suburbs.  We ended up sitting at the same table.

When in a strange BBQ I always order the same thing, a pork sandwich and fries.  Can't mess that up too much.... But it was good!  Really quite good!  And I liked their BBQ sauce too as it was runny with a lot of apple vinegar and dark with molasses.  Tangy to the taste and not too sweet like so much of what we see here in the KC area.

 I came back home on the outer perimeter highway 435 which is an official Interstate, and it rolled quite fast at over 75 mph, but there weren't any people doing funny stuff at that speed so in no time at all I was back in South KC, Ks.

By 2:00 in the afternoon we had clocked 135 miles and had a full belly of BBQ from a new to me place in another strange, small, rural USA town.  And that is what ROMEOs are all about.

Retired Rod

Pictures were borrowed from the Romeo's web site forum with creative commons license....

Flying under the boss's radar..........

All that resting and recuperation came to a screeching halt today, when Loyce went over and picked up the grandkids this morning about mid way into the day.  They were only back here for about an hour before they packed up and headed for the housing association swimming pool.

But that's when my conscious kept yelling at me to get back on correcting that tax return.  But of course when I started back on the computer program that does the taxes, the computer went into an elaborate update of its entire operating system.  Thus hogging all the processor time, making everything else run like it had glue in it.  On top of that it required that it be rebooted three times.

By now it was 2 in the afternoon so I gave up and went for a Wendy's on the bike I call pepper.  After that it was over to Wal Mart where I purchased a fairly large paper shredder...   Waste basket and all....  I had to go into the auto isle looking for bungee cords to fasten it to the rear portion of the scooter seat.

Why do I do these things? The car was sitting right there when I left and it would have carried a dozen of these machines home in great style.  But anyway, my shredder and myself shared the seat all the way back home.  I came in with my helmet on and the shredder in its box in my arms.  Loyce looked at me like I had lost it...

So for the rest of the afternoon, I spent the time merrily shredding the stack of old pages out of the now wrong tax return.  That is until the grandkids went home and Loyce decided that it was now time to mow the yard.  But dear its only been a week!  Ten days she responded............  Oh, really..

Well at least we're all cleaned up around here now and I can sneak off in the morning on the scooter and go to one of those old folks motorcycle luncheons.  I didn't have the nerve to bring it up tonight.....

Lets see what tomorrow brings.......

Retired Rod

Surfing the net and staying home......

Since I wrote two posts for yesterday, with the second post explaining how the mechanics of the bike ride took place, if you haven't read them both drop back and catch the second part.

Our day here started sunny but for some reason I wasn't too interested in running right out and going biking......  I was going to go get a burger, but the sun began to duck under the clouds.  The weather man was calling for thunder storms.

So I just had a couple of hot dogs from one of the packages that were left over from grandma making dogs and macaroni for the grand kids.  Oh, and they officially went home yesterday while I was off biking all over Kansas.

While my DIL is still on crutches and does have a broken bone in her foot, she will not have to have surgery and will recuperate with a boot and those crutches.  I guess that was a favorable outcome, but she still has a few weeks to deal with it.  I know she was relieved to not have the surgery part!

So we hung back today relaxing from the big week that we had.  So not much new to report from here.

Retired Rod

More on the ride..

OK, perhaps I should go on with the information about this ride that has been asked in the comments, while it is still fresh in my mind.

As far as the beer drinking is concerned, the policeman up in Spring Hill at the riders meeting before we left, set out the ground rules for beer drinking.  He asked that we stick to coffee at the first stop since the day was young and this is a social ride!  Heck it wasn't even noon yet...

Now with lunch, it is alright to have a beer, since you are eating food with it and its effects should be minimal.  We didn't stay long enough to get a second beer...

When we stopped in Paola, it was 2:30 and the ride had become hot.  So yes everyone, well, except me and a couple of the older riders had a beer.  But again, we weren't there long enough to have a second one.

And once back at BB's we were on our own since the ride had officially ended at that point.  And I'm sure that several folks had more than one.  But 90 percent of the people live right there in Spring Hill, so it was not much more than a  mile to get home.

As for the dice toss, this is called a dice ride, where you are given an official score card about the size of a recipe card.  On it is each of the stops and a place for your score and the signature of the scoring official.  They use those great big Las Vegas dice and you get three of them to toss.  Perfect score is three sixes for 18.  With five rolls during the day a perfect score would be 90.  You carry your card during the day and turn it in at the last roll.

They quickly add up your card and sort them into high to low order as they are finished at the last toss.  The wining score was a 66 yesterday.  Second place was a 63, Third place was in the 50s....  First prize was a gift certificate to be used in the bike shop for $50.  Second was $30 and Third was $20 and I think last place got a beer koozie as a booby prize....

Last year I won it with a score of 63, so the fellows are getting better at the winning toss, as it is getting tougher.   My last roll yesterday was two snake eyes and a deuce for a score of 4.  That fairly well killed any chances of me placing anywhere near the money...

And a question that usually gets asked but didn't come up yet, is are there any girls on these rides?  And the answer is of course!  We had several trikes that had couples on them and one Goldwing had a couple.  Also one gal rode her own.  And just for the record, she was a better rider than me...!

Also as we neared the home town, several of the wives joined us at the La Tapatia in their cars.  Also the dice toss officials ( man and his wife) were in a truck and preceded us to the next restaurant, informing the folks that the riders were about 10 minutes away.

Rod

The Cycle Ride

And just as I surmised last night, I was too excited to sleep very well.  I awakened at 3 AM thinking it was time to get going.....  only to see that it was still the middle of the night.  Sleep didn't come back to me very easily after that.

But, of course once it was time to get up, I had fallen back to sleep and needed the alarm to shake me back awake....  I showered and dressed and slipped out of the house without waking the grand kids, but I think Loyce was awake by the time I left.

I buzzed over to the bank to get some cash, as this ride is also an auction of motorcycle stuff at the end to benefit the High School, and sometimes they have a few things that I would really use.  And then I stopped by McDonalds for a biscuit.  As a diabetic, you have to have something when you take your pills, and we wouldn't be stopping by a restaurant for a couple of hours yet.

Once over at Ben's house, I found him all packed and ready to head out.  We traveled the 10 miles down to the small town of Spring Hill where the ride begins.  It was cool and the sun hadn't dried the dew from the fields.

We were early, and hardly no one was out front of the sports shop.  So we hung around as people began to drift onto the main street.  The owner of the shop arrived and opened the door.  His helpers set up the registration table and the dice toss.  A dice roll at each of the locations is the main feature of this ride.

Stories were swapped and everyone milled around looking at each other's bikes and the additions that were new since last year.  Eventually the town policeman went thru  a safety briefing as to how we were to ride staggered and keep three seconds between ourselves.  And with that, we were off!

In the past, I have tried to take a picture or two, but have been disappointed with the photos of a bunch of bikes in the parking lot.  It is impossible to take any pictures as you ride, and you can't break formation and just stop along the way.  So I have given up on pictures during an organized ride.

The first leg of the ride was headed into the Eastern sun for 17 miles to the town of Lewisburg.  By now the dew was gone from the freshly harvested wheat fields.  Farmers were out bailing the remaining golden wheat straw into those gigantic round bales.

At Lewisburg we rolled the dice again, and ordered those small little cinnamon rolls that are 6 inches across and 3 inches tall.  They serve them on dinner plates with frosting dripping over the sides onto the table.  I stuck with an Iced Tea.

The ride progressed as the day began to get hotter.    La Cygne is 25 miles down the divided highway at 75 miles an hour.  Lunch was at a bar and grill that has the best hamburger and fries.  Then 10 miles West to the Prairie View High School that is out in the middle of the country.  This is the farthest away point, and it was now 1 PM.

We headed North back to Osawatomie some 18 miles farther where our leader took a wrong turn out in the country and we ended up at the Kansas State Hospital.  It is located out in the country North of Osawatomie and is secluded on a big campus with fences all around and large trees....

And a Sheriff that came bounding up behind 40 motorcycles stopping our entire brigade. Discussion ensued and it wasn't long, and we were all doing U turns in the middle of the road going back to the interstate.  Move it on down the road folks!

Seems that this hospital was a prize awarded to the town during the civil war because of the settlers being abolitionists. And as you probably have guessed, it is a mental facility.  Missouri and Kansas really had a large rift between them during that war.

Once turned about, we went 8 more miles into Paola, Ks, where we were scheduled to stop at a Mexican cantina called La Tapatia.  There are restaurants all over the country by this same name but they are not related to the one in Paola Kansas any way.  The beer began to be a popular order by now since it was well into the 90s.  I stuck to my Iced Tea.

The last leg was to the North over the Hillsdale reservoir dam, where folks were busy boating and floating in the waters of the lake.  By now, I would have just driven right into the water given half a chance.....

The last 25 miles brought us back to Spring Hill and another restaurant on the outskirts of town.  BB's where we had the entire back room reserved.  The auction of the many cycle related items commenced and we also rolled the dice for the last time.    I did poorly all day.  That's OK because I won the entire deal last year and someone else needed a chance this time.

Ben and I both enjoyed this ride, even though it gets quite hot by mid afternoon.  I fell sound asleep for a couple of hours when I made it back to the recliner here at the house..........  Total mileage including the commute to Spring Hill from South Overland Park and back,  133 miles....

Retired Rod

Preparations for the Ride......

Another one of these not too exciting days.  We still have the grand kids here and mostly we are making breakfast and begging them to eat it.  At least our three year old is one of those kids that pouches up her food and doesn't chew it or swallow.  She looks like a little squirrel at that point.

And then before you know it its lunch time and it starts all over again.  Loyce took the girls Wal Mart shopping with her for a while, but even though I had the best intentions of ducking and bolting, I was reading blogs and went sound to sleep.  I'm getting too old for these games....

They woke me when they returned and opened the door.  Which startled Biscuit and she let out a war whoop howl......  But then I was trapped again, until we got lunch over with, and they went upstairs for a nap.

This time I headed straight for the scooter, and the Wendy's over by Wal Mart.  I did pass by the eyeglasses store and stopped by for a quick adjustment on the new wire rims.  They have a bunch of special wire and plastic pliers and a bunch of expertise in how much force to use to get them just right.

After Wendy's it was over to my Suzuki dealer to purchase some of the special screws that hold the cowling together on the used bike.  Seems I lost some of the screws when we flew back from Garden City the other day on the interstate.

And they are so special that the only way to get them is to order them from the Suzuki parts house in the sky.  I was riding the bike I call pepper, and it is my plan to take it on the bike ride that will commence tomorrow.

This evening my younger son called and said to pick him up in the morning on my way out.  He will be riding his Honda and he said he is all gassed and ready.........

I think I am too excited to sleep.........

Retired Rod

Biscuit gets a doo, and Pizza, Ice Cream and a Movie

I said I was going to take it easy and rest up for the big ride this weekend, but I didn't know that I would actually take it as seriously as I did.   I was up in good time this morning, but Loyce left with the dog to go to the groomers several miles North of here before 9.

I got started on the dreaded Tax Return again.  Seems as though we have a couple of items that turned up since the original return was done, and now it needs to be redone.  Of course it was filed with the state of Kansas so that will have to be amended.  But luckily we extended the Federal so it just needs corrected again.   Essentially you throw everything away and start printing stuff out again.

Then the eye glasses place called with my new glasses.  I went over in the car as I like to not be hot and sweaty for these encounters.  Its mostly the helmet that makes your hair and head drippy.  Folks wonder why guys go without a helmet, but it is beyond hot inside one.

The new glasses took a while to bend into reasonable fashion to fit my face, and the prescription isn't much different than the last time.  But since they are new, they are just enough different that I am getting used to them tonight.

They still have a few spots where they are rubbing me wrong, making sore spots.  They changed the nose pads on the old pair too, so they don't fit like they did either.  Good thing they are close to the house, as a few adjustments will be needed.

The grand kids are sill here today and our house is a fright with toys and books and colors and the like.  And also I had to go after Biscuit when she was done this afternoon.  She had to sit there in a crate all day waiting for her turn that turned out to be way late in the afternoon.

I asked why they made us do it this way.  We could have brought her over right before her turn....  Basically I was told that the dogs need to be here so they didn't have to wait any at all.  Inconvenience the customer and the dog, so we can be without inconvenience here in the shop.   We are here first for ourselves and the fact that you are the customer means nothing.  It was also the most expensive dog hair cut we have ever had........  Not too sure I think much of this new place.

We had a home made Pizza tonight, and for once we didn't have to keep barking "eat" at the girls all thru the meal.  They gobbled the pizza and ice cream right down.  Loyce and the kids were watching a movie on the DVD down in the new basement tonight as well.

The poor scooter never moved all day......

Retired Rod

Today I passed on another luncheon ride.

The folks that ride these luncheon rides went on another ride again today. It was half way across Kansas down where my son's often go camping with their trailers.  But after over 100 miles yesterday, I decided that I am not that strong and healthy to do two days in a row, so I passed on it today..

We do have the annual ride that I went on last year coming up this Saturday, and I do plan on going on that one this Saturday.  It will again be over 100 miles.  So I plan to rest up for it.

We are working as grand parents with our grand kids this week because our DIL is on crutches with a bad foot.  So Grandma is helping out.  That has kind of kept me around here this week as well, so I haven't much to report.

I went out on a ride late in the afternoon for that small burger, and then down to the bike shop in Spring Hill to check on a Helmet that I have on order.  Really it was just an excuse to go on an afternoon ride, since I was passing on what would have turned out to be 200 miles for a luncheon.

And of course I managed to turn down the wrong road when the state had a detour for bridge construction.   This wouldn't have been so bad except the road was gravel....  Have you ever ridden a bike or a motorcycle on a gravel road?  The back end is all squishy and wobbles from side to side.

But it looked to only be a mile, so I went on.  Little did I know that the county had dumped numerous loads of fresh gravel on the road for the second half of the mile.  I was too far into it to turn around, so I traveled on at about 5 miles an hour.  Just enough to keep the bike balanced and not tip over.

I made it to the pavement and breathed a big sigh of relief.   Some folks can do this gravel at 50 miles an hour, but not me!  I usually get on thru it but not when it turns about 4 inches deep.

Anyway another day is in the books.

Retired Rod

Cycle Riding and the news from Arizona

Way last summer when I was doing the CA treatments every week, the local fellows invited me to ride with the Romeo's group here in the KC area.  That would be Retired Old Motorcyclists Eating Out!

There are several of these groups all over Kansas and they each go on a ride weekly to a small town and overwhelm a local restaurant with 80 or more people that show up all at once and want served.  I'm sure it makes for a rather nice cash register total once breakfast and lunch is over.

In fairness, someone from the group calls ahead and warns the  folks in the small town that half of Kansas City is about to appear on their doorstep.  And usually they add staff for the day to help get thru the experience.

I never felt well enough to go last year so it just passed me by.  But today I hauled my  behind onto the bike at about 9 AM and rode quietly thur the countryside South of town here and then over into Missouri to the little town of Garden City.  This is just a wide spot in the road on Highway 7 headed for Branson.

Perhaps some of these pictures that were swiped from the Romeo web site will tell the story better.

Salt was mixed it this row in front of the white building but was in the second row about 4 bikes back from the green one.   Mostly all that is visible of him is the windshield.

As you can see, we filled the room that is usually used for the Lions Club when it meets.  There were so many folks that about half of them were standing outside waiting for the first shift of breakfast eaters to be done.

Since I had eaten breakfast with Loyce and the grand girls, I was up to lunch now, even though it was only about 11:30 when we arrived.  I did stand around outside for a while to let some of the breakfast folks get their meals complete.

We rode back to KC almost as rapidly as could have been done with any car.  I saw 80 mph on the speedo at times, but since it displays about 10 percent fast we were doing more like 75. That is more like the speed limit on US 71 which is a divided four lane highway.  I still don't like the semi trucks that are all around you at that speed.

Once back here in the local suburbs of KC, Mo, we stopped again at a local McDonalds for Ice cream sundies and coffee.   The chat continued again non stop.  I was good and stuck with a diet soda...

Once on the road again, I broke off from the group and went to my barber's shop, since it was on the way over in Missouri.  It was after 5PM when I finally arrived back home.  Loyce wondered if I had gotten lost..........

In other news, Loyce got the call from the builders that they want us to be back in Mesa the last weekend in June....  They will be ready to do the first presentation of the New Home, as they called it over the phone.  We still won't close for about another week or more while they get the final items on the punch list corrected.

And we won't get any keys until the utilities and insurance is all transferred into our names.  You can darn tootin bet, they won't be springing for any of the air conditioning after that closing date...

Of course this makes the dead week of waiting, the holiday week with the 4th of July in it.  Why do things seem to work out like that?  You know nothing much will get done during that week........  But we will be sitting in a motorhome  during 110 degree days.

But anyway, we had it figured out that their estimate of late July had to be way off.  Better get to packing stuff up!

Retired Rod