No travel today!

Let's see, do we tow the Camry?  No, Camrys or for that matter, no other Toyota with an automatic transmission can be towed with all 4 wheels on the ground.  They are either dollied or trailered.  Otherwise the tranny is toast.

We are towing a two wheel utility trailer, that has my Suzuki Burgman motor scooter in it.  Oh and a lot of other things that we like to take with us during the winter. We have considered a compound tow dolly, that has the rails for the cycle in front of the car, but that adds a lot of weight, that is beyond the capacity of this front engine diesel.  So Loyce drives and follows.

We have two way radios between the coach and the car, so we are in constant contact, and make the decisions to pull over and the like by the radio.  The draw backs to this arrangement are, the cost of the gas for the car, but the coach would burn more diesel pulling the car.  And the fact that we can not spell each other from the driving task as we are both driving all the time.  And it also puts mileage on the Camry's clock.  It does get more than 30 mpg, but then again, I have never calculated exactly how well it does.

So we try not to go over 300 or so miles in a day.  But we have violated this at times, because we drove 500 on our way back from Red Bay, Al last spring.  I think we were both in a toot to get home after spending 10 days at the factory.  Seemed like 10 weeks in a dusty parking lot.

Today we decided to take the day off.  Loyce has picked up a nasty cold from the grandkids, whom she couldn't leave alone as we celebrated Thanksgiving.  Now she is paying the price, so we decided to just stay here in OK City.

Our friend the Jet Stream is really playing havoc again!

Mid afternoon, we drove downtown here in OK City.  We drove past the Federal Building Memorial, and found that the West side of the building is closed to traffic.  They are enhancing the West entrance to the empty chair display and reworking the streets.  We were only able to see the work from about a block away, and parking is still an issue, as it has been.

The East side street is also undergoing renovations, and is down to one lane, with no parking except for the tour bus loading and unloading area.  Again, the buses are not able to park there.  The people in attendance seem to be coming from the Museum area on the Northwest corner.  All of the gifts that were left by people are now gone from the street.  I read somewhere that they were packed up and will become part of the permanent display once it is completed.

We also drove around Bricktown for a while, but did not stop and partake of any of the restaurants.  Loyce is on her diet, and I can't eat rich stuff anymore, so we just looked around.  There was absolutely no one on the river walk or the pontoon boats.

In deciding to stay today, we found that they were predicting snow showers in the afternoon for the Amarillo area, and we both decided that we did not need to experience the snow.  But we do plan to head out that way in the morning.

It is supposed to freeze hard here tonight, at 26 degrees.  I will have to go remove the water hose before we go to bed, as we do not want things to freeze up, and slow us up in the AM.  I am placing a light bulb in the water locker under the rig, to keep the pipes above freezing.

If we do make it to Amarillo tomorrow, it is to be even colder there tomorrow night, possibly in the teens, and the wind continues.  Waiting until Thanksgiving is over to head out is obviously not a good plan.  At least this year anyway.

Retired Rod

We left!

We didn't look at the weather report any more.  If we wait for it to be favorable, we could wait all winter!  So about 10 AM we threw the rest of our stuff in the door of the motorhome, on the bed and couch.  On the floor and anywhere else that was flat and wouldn't fall.

We headed out of town by driving the two miles South of our house that goes directly to the country.  Then on the country roads we intersected with the Interstate headed South.  By about 11, the wind began to come up on our nose.

We made the corner at Emporia and headed South to Wichita.  Stopping  at a rest area pavilion in the middle of the toll road, I was amazed by the force of the wind.  It must have been blowing 40 mph.  The rig rocked and rolled, and it was parked at the diesel pump!

We pressed on into the wind and barely made 60 miles an hour.  We could have gone faster, but that would have required the pedal on the floor, so we just took it easier.  We made good time, until we got to the end of the toll road at the Kansas, Oklahoma state line.  Traffic was backed up 4 miles going thru the toll booths.  We barely made 10 miles an hour for that 4 mile stretch.

It gets dark really early now, so by 5:30 we were looking for the RV park.  We stayed here on our way home from Arizona last spring, and it was stored in our GPS.    Where is here, you ask?   We are in North Oklahoma City, at the Twin Fountains RV Resort.  This is right on the corner of two Interstates.  I 35 and I 44.  The park is really nice, with blacktop  roads and concrete pull thru sites.  The rest is grassy and landscaped.  I used the Good Sam card for the 10 percent discount and it was about $35.

So we have lots of highway noise, and it is dark so we can not see the ambiance, but the nice street lights have us comfy when we are outside.  Well except for the wind which is still out of the South at 16 with gusts to 28.  But we have the jacks down now, so we are not rocking and rolling as much so all is well.

We used a lot more fuel today that we normally do, but I never calculate fuel mileage, since it will get what it will get, and I can't change that at all.  I just fill it up and move on.  But when battling the wind, you can see the fuel gauge move right before your eyes.

Perhaps I will have to look at the weather tomorrow, and decide if we are proceeding West or staying here for a couple of days.  Who knows?

Biscuit traveled with Loyce in the Camry, and traveled well.  She has played here in the motorhome all night since we stopped.  She doesn't seem to be upset with the change from home at all.  She still has her crate, which is her special dog house with the towel over it, and that is all it takes to make her happy.

I see it is still 51 degrees outside, so the wind is only cold not unbearable.  Hope the wind dies before the cold comes racing in.

Retired Rod

Weather problems!

Now here is the problem, why Al is freezing his behind way down on the Mexican border, and the Dallas Fort Worth crowd is whining about frost on the lawns.  It seems the jet stream has divided itself and has a nasty Southern flow across the North part of Mexico.

This thing is trouble for the next several days.  See it split and even go over Florida, before heading back North.  Gonna be some major league bitching here in the near future.

We want to leave, but it is actually colder South of us than it is here in Kansas!  So what should we do?  They are forecasting single digit cold West of Albuquerque along I 40 in the middle of next week.  We have a reservation in Mesa!  Don't ya just hate reservations?  Why do we all feel like we have to march to some imaginary drummer?

We will have to wash out the antifreeze in order to live in the rig at some point!  Maybe the light bulb in the water locker trick will have to come into play, but if we get to single digits like the prediction, I'm not sure that even that will do any good.

Meanwhile we are getting closer, that is if we don't kill each other in the loading process!  We have to get out of here sometime, or the really bad snowy stuff will catch us soon.
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Biscuit dog, hasn't figured out what is going on, as she had to go over to the Vet again today.  She is on the last of her antibiotics for the kennel cough, and seems to be mostly over that.  But it was time for the next round of puppy shots, and that includes the doggie flue shot.  H3N8  influenza.  Loyce said she really cried when she got that one.  Aww, I'm glad I wasn't there.

So this afternoon, she has been sleeping off the effects of the shots in a mostly lethargic stupor.  She is in her crate with the door closed and she hasn't even objected much.

I read that this doggie flue is mostly transmitted from contact with other dogs at dog parks and common potty areas like at the RV park where we are going.  When you have 200 dogs going to the same square block as a dog walk.  We might just pass on that area for a while when we get there.

But anyway she senses that something is up, as we are not in the normal routine of drinking coffee and going shopping.  Actually, I am thinking normal might mean going to the Doctor's office around here.  We both wonder how she will adapt to traveling and sleeping in the motorhome.  We may have a rather sleepless night, on the first night out!

Who knows about all this stuff?  Time will tell though!

Retired Rod

Packing stuff!

Well no kicking back here!  I went over and brought the motor home over so I could do a lot of stuff on it again today.  It was in the early 20's outside this morning, and the RV was really cold when I got it out of the storage lot.

The dash heater ran on the way back here, but didn't do much good since it is only 4 miles to the house.  Once here, the work outside began, and I'm not sure what all I did, but I never quit all day.  I did go get more clothes to put in and worked on sealing up a hole in the firewall under the drivers dash.

The coach must have had its Sirius radio system added after the rest of the equipment was already installed.  Someone had just knocked out the foam plugs that fill the firewall hole where the wires were fished thru.  In the summer, it was obvious that we had a big leak of fresh air under the dash somewhere, since the AC would never really be able to help when it was over 90.

But the other day when I was driving it back to the storage lot and it was about freezing outside, I could see my own breath in the driver's seat.  I traced the cold air to under the dash and got to poking around, and found the wire hole.  It wasn't all that big and did have some foam in it, but I could still see daylight out thru the firewall.

I bought a can of Great Stuff,  which is like a can of whipping cream that you put on your pie at Christmas.  It has a straw like trigger, and makes a really big mess, if you aren't careful.  I just gave the hole a couple of shots of foam and backed off.  It kind of ran down the inside some, but it expands quickly.

It felt much warmer as I drove the rig back to the storage lot tonight.  But perhaps that is just my imagination.  But the draft seemed to be gone.

Oh, and I did remember to put the satellite box back in the rig.  But promptly forgot the remote.  I was sitting here looking right at it and all at once it dawned on me that without that remote the satellite box would be about worthless!

We'll have to get the rig back over here in the morning, as Loyce has all of her stuff to get packed as well.

Retired Rod