A Toast!

We waited until the very end of the year to bring our 2011 travels to a close. Just a couple of hours ago, we made the 100-mile trek from Convent to Mandeville, Louisiana. We're all settled in to our spot at Fountainebleau State Park on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, ready to ring in the new year.

Today's quick trip brought Bullwinkle's total travels for the year to about 5,700 miles. That's less than half of the previous year! Focusing this year's explorations in the Great Southwest fulfilled one of our fulltime RVing dreams. It was really great to slow down and see it all.

Our extended time in Texas, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado provided delightful memories of some of America's most spectacular scenery...and a whole bunch of red rock. More importantly, this year provided us the opportunity to spend time with some very special people.

2011 was the year we met Anne and Gene, Darren and Joyce (and we had so much fun seeing them again in Gunnison), Mike and Peggy, Warren, Carol and Breanna, Mike and Susan, Hayward and Lydia, Fred and Sharon, Keith and Donna, Karen and Arvin and their family and a bunch of great people at the Gunnison KOA, the Wishnies (finally!), Nic and Nikki, John and Bridget and Mike and Sandy. Last night we had the great pleasure of spending time with brand new friends Brad, Wendy and Brady from Wisconsin.

This year we also had the good fun of meeting up with on-the-road friends once more. We caught up with Mike and Leslie, Gary and Francile, Jim and Sandie, Bob and Molly, Jim and Ellie, Roxa and Hutch, Ed and Marilyn in a delightfully chance meeting at a restaurant in Colorado, Craig and Anne, Mac and Netters, Steve and Cathy, Linda and Denny, Mike and Penny, and Deb and Rod. We had four-time fun with good friends John and Sandy, who we got to play with in Kerrville, Cortez, Moab and Kansas.

Sadly, 2011 was also the year we lost one of our fulltime RVing friends when our friend Doug lost his hard fought battle with cancer. We continued to be inspired by his courage and humor. Our thoughts and prayers are with JoAnn, especially during this holiday season.

This year we were lucky enough to coordinate travel plans with some of favorite non-RVing folks, too. Paul's sister Susan and husband Doug coordinated their vacation plans with our travel schedule twice this year, meeting us in Kerrville and Gunnison. They're planning to head to Maui this winter. If there was a way we could get Bullwinkle across the Pacific, we would! We also hooked up with California peeps Rick and Cindy and Matt and Mary Kay while they were passing through Santa Fe.

Our travels this year also provided the perfect opportunity to reconnect with special people from our past. It had been nearly 20 years since we'd seen former co-worker Gail and her husband Dave, so it was a real treat to spend time with them in their home in Utah. And, although it had been a decade or so since we'd seen our dear friends and best neighbors ever Mary and Tracy, when we stopped by their place in Argyle, Texas, it was a joy to pick up right where we left off.

This year has served up a giant helping of fresh stories. Sit around a campfire with us someday and you can look forward to hearing about our very special doormat delivery, our food coma in Santa Fe, the day we discovered disc golf, the time we got kicked out of an RV park (almost), our 25th anniversary hike at Arches National Park, the priciest iced tea anywhere, the back-to-back challenges of keeping our AC and refrigerator running, fun with Freightliner in Grand Junction, the thrill of watching a pack of world-class cyclists roll through town, and watching Christmas Eve bonfires ablaze on the banks of the Mississippi River.

It's been a great year. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to spend our days exactly as we want, meeting fantastic people along the way and sharing it all with you, our faithful readers. We so look forward to what the coming year will bring for us all.

Tonight, as we raise a glass in celebration of the memories of the year coming to a close and the possibilities of the year just beginning, our wish for you is a new year of good health and happiness. May your travels be safe, fun and trouble-free. We hope our paths cross somewhere along the way. That would make 2012 extra special.

Cheers!

Heaux, Heaux, Heaux!

Merry Christmas Eve greetings from Cajun Country!

We made our way safely to our holiday destination, Convent, Louisiana. We're parked here on the banks of the Mississippi River on the grounds of an old plantation. It's definitely shaping up to be a most memorable Christmas.

We toured the plantation house this morning. Late this afternoon we'll head down river a mile or so and partake in the Christmas Eve festivities. Here in St. James Parish, it's tradition to get together with your family and friends and build a bonfire structure along the river. This evening, the bonfires will be lit, and the food and beverage will abound.

The bonfires have an important job. As Louisiana legend has it, long ago on Christmas Eve a dense fog rolled into Southern Louisiana. The fog was so thick that Papa Noel and his pirogue pulled by eight alligators, Gaston, Tiboy, Pierre, Alcee, Ninette, Suzette, Celeste and Renee, couldn't make their way down the river. Papa Noel called on Nicolette, a snowy white alligator with glowing red eyes to lead the way, but it was still too difficult to see. But, the people of the river parishes saved the night by building bonfires along the river to guide Papa Noel along the way.

There's no fog in tonight's forecast. But, provided the rain holds off, an estimated 200 bonfires will be lit and bring the merriest of holidays in with a blaze.

We can't wait.

Wherever you find yourself welcoming Papa Noel, we wish you a very Merry Christmas. Best wishes from our rolling home to yours for a festive and fun-filled holiday.

Mean What You Say

It’s a few days before Christmas, and I’m not feeling especially merry. We’re parked in a lovely site in another fantastic Texas State Park that we practically have to ourselves. Our stay has been great. We’ve rested up from all of the family, fun and food we’ve enjoyed for the last few months. And, we’ve worked off a few accumulated calories hiking the miles of trails here. I’ve used our free time updating Bullwinkle’s Travels with posts about our September travels to Monett, Lake Melvern, Paola and Lawrence. (I'll catch up...someday!) Tomorrow’s forecast is calling for a picture-perfect day to go over the river and through the woods to the Louisiana plantation where we’re looking forward to spending our first-ever Cajun Christmas.

So, what’s the matter?

One stupid word.

I’ve spotted it several times lately. Each time it raises my blood pressure at least a point. This morning, it took me over the edge. So, I’ve decided to do something about it.

And, what is this offensive word?

“Moochdocking”

This neologism has recently emerged in the RVing blogging community. You won’t find it in any dictionary, but I think it means “parking and staying in your RV on the property of a family member or friend”. It appears to be rooted in another term that has become part of the RVing lexicon: Boondocking. That’s another made-up word that basically means free camping without hookups. Some “boondockers” actually go out in the boonies. Others are simply camped in a Walmart parking lot.

While the term boondocking is not always technically accurate, it’s harmless. Moochdocking, however, is another story.

Let’s get down to the root. Dictionary.com offers the following definitions for the verb form of the slang word “mooch”:

1. to borrow without intending to return or repay.

2. to get or take without paying or at another's expense; sponge.

3. to beg.

4. to steal.

At the risk of sounding like a ranting word geek, I checked another source: UrbanDictionary.com. This is the place where real people offer up descriptions of what they actually mean when they choose a particular word.

And, how do they define the word “mooch”? Here’s a sampling of the most popular entries, which use it as a noun:

* A scab or freeloader.

* Someone who wants something for free...someone who takes and takes and never gives back.

* A person who wants other people to pay his way.

* Someone who leeches off other people.

Now, is your average RVer who parks for free in a family member or friend’s driveway a scab, freeloader or leech? Of course not! Are they parked there to beg, borrow or steal? I don’t think so! Especially this time of year, these RVers are likely just wanting to be close enough to family and friends to be part of holiday feasts and festivities. After all, that’s one of the best benefits of this mobile lifestyle. And, chances are these RVers come bearing gifts and are most grateful for a convenient parking spot.

Then, why, dear readers, would this wonderful community adopt a term with such derogatory roots to describe this fun-loving activity?

My best guess is that someone, somewhere thought it sounded clever or cute, without thinking about its meaning. Then, others heard it. And, thinking it was nifty, they used it, too. And, so it went until this morning, when I reached the point where I just couldn’t take it anymore.

My criticism here is not of the act. We’re all for parking as close as we can to where the action is. Along our fulltiming journey, two of our very dear friends have offered us a place to park on their property. One couple even installed 50 amp service at their place just for us! To share your home with family and friends is in itself so generous. To welcome a heavy, moose-size box on wheels on to your place is an especially kind gesture.

No, my problem is with the word. When our friends have offered our moose a spot, we accepted their gift humbly. We were grateful to be close enough to hang out without worrying about things like traffic or when a campground gate might close. And, sure, it’s always nice to save a buck or two when we can. But, were we “mooching” off our dear friends? Certainly not! And, the last thing we would want would be for our friends, or anyone else, to think we were.

How do you think Aunt Gladys would react if she heard her niece or nephew refer to “moochdocking” at her place?

It doesn’t sound so good, does it?

My request of my fellow bloggers is simply to mean what you say. If you really are sponging off your friends and family, then use the word “moochdocking” and we’ll all know what you mean. And, if you’re not just looking for other people to pay your way, then please don’t use that one stupid word.

There. I feel better.

We ❤ State Parks

Greetings from McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, Texas.

Our Southern Migration Friends and Food Frenzy continues! Since arriving on Monday, we've met up with friends Steve and Cathy and our Iowa buddies Gary and Francile here in Austin this week. Yesterday, we ventured south to New Braunfels to reconnect with fellow fulltiming buddies Deb and Rod over a very tasty lunch buffet. It's been great to see everyone. And, as always, we look forward to the next chance to reconnect with these good people on the road. As much as we love the places we visit, the people we get to spend time with are the absolute best!

Between our fun fests, we've really enjoyed our time here at McKinney Falls State Park. It's just one of the many gems in the Texas State Parks system. This oasis of peace, quiet, green space, wildlife and plenty of Texas live oak trees is just 20 minutes from downtown Austin. But, it feels much farther away. With 50 amp electric, water, 3G cell service, satellite and plenty of HD over the air, we have just about all the comforts of home. (And, there's a dump station on the way out.) Our nearest neighbor is about 100 yards away, which is about 10 times farther away than our nearest neighbor in our last stop in the metroplex. There are about six miles of hiking trails around this place, and we've enjoyed about half of them. (We'd take advantage of more if it would only stop raining!) We've watched deer pass by our place every morning and evening. It's all a welcome break from our 50 amp paved RV park life.

Now, don't get us wrong. If you build a fancy schmanzy concrete RV "resort" with wide interior roads, level concrete pads, full hookups, wifi, cable and swanky landscaping, we will come. But, every now and again we're noticing we like to get back to nature. And, we've discovered that many state parks fill that bill.

We visited our first Texas State Park last March when we stopped by Davis Mountain State Park in the west Texas oasis of Ft. Davis. When we checked in, the enthusiastic ranger convinced us to buy a Texas State Park Pass. For just $70, we could visit all of the Texas State Parks we wanted without having to pay the $5 per person (or so) day pass fee for the next 12 months. Since we were planning to spend five or six nights at Ft. Davis that benefit alone had us ready to sign on the dotted line. An added benefit was a 50% discount on the second night of our next four stays at a Texas park. We weren't sure we'd be able to take advantage of that. But, when we were heading to Austin and found McKinney Falls, we decided check out the place.

It's all good!

So far, we've stayed at State Parks in three states. In our native Kansas, we spent a night at Hillsdale Lake State Park while we messed with our refrigerator repair. Like our experience in Fort Davis, that stay offered a spacious site with lots of green space and a few well-placed trees. While passing through Colorado a couple of years ago, we were fortunate to snag a space for a few nights at the very popular (and beautiful) Cherry Creek State Park near Denver. The way we look at it, to have a spot to call home that's close to nature and just minutes from the city is the best of both worlds.

We like it!

We'll be a bit sad to head out of this gorgeous spot on Sunday. But, a few hours later, we'll find ourselves in another Texas State Park. This time we'll be on the eastern edge of the state on our way to our holiday spot in Louisiana. We've never been to Village Creek State Park before. But, we have a feeling we're going to like it.

With parks in three states under our belts, we're wondering. What are your favorite state parks?

Curious minds want to know!

One Fun Week

We think we might just have this whole "southern migration" thing finally figured out. In our first winter as fulltime RVers, we made the trip too late. Leaving the frozen tundra of Kansas City in late December, our mission was simple: Get someplace warm...fast! Last year, we left our old hometown a month earlier, which was better. That migration was a speedy one. We made a beeline for Texas Hill Country, and didn't stop to have much fun along the way.

This year, we're taking our time. And, we're having a whole lot of fun. The highlight of our stop in Oklahoma City was a visit with the RV Vagabonds, Linda and Denny, whom we met a couple of years ago near Camp Verde, AZ. They made an unscheduled stop in OKC for a repair, and we were happy to time our stop while they were hanging in limbo waiting for parts to arrive. It was great to see them and catch up. We didn't let the unseasonably cool temperatures keep us from having fun. We were pleased to hear that Linda and Denny did finally get to escape Limbo, OK. We wish them safe travels to their considerably warmer winter destinations.

While in OKC, we made time for a return trip to our favorite sushi restaurant in the country. If you're in OKC and like sushi, you simply must stop by Tokyo Restaurant. It was as good as we remembered -- maybe even better! We also made time to stop by the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, which we we missed on our first pass through town. I'll write it all up on Bullwinkle's Travels when I get a chance. But, this week, we've just been having too much fun!

We arrived in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex Wednesday afternoon, and we've had non-stop fun since. We're parked just a few miles away from dear friends and once-upon-a-time neighbors Mary and Tracy, who have treated us to some Texas-size hospitality. We've had more fun catching up with these fine folks than the law should allow. We've laughed so hard our faces have actually hurt! We've also had very little sleep. After two late nights that had us all talking until the wee hours of the morning, last night these old folks had to call it an early night because we've finally realized we're not in our twenties any more. Yep, we were all home and in bed by 11:00! (And, that was early!!!)

While our former neighbors were working, we kept ourselves busy having even more fun. We joined our buddies Steve and Cathy for a fun lunch and house-hunting expedition. Our job was to keep our friends from buying anything but lunch. We were successful in that regard, but along the way we realized there's a lot for us to like here in North Texas. We didn't buy anything either, but we've added this locale to our future home base "short list". The next day we ventured into the charming town of Grapevine and scoped out Steve and Cathy's park. It will definitely be the place we park the next time we visit the metroplex. We made time for another fun lunch with these two and look forward to meeting up with them in our next stop.

We were pleasantly surprised to find our friends Mike and Penny camped at their home base here. We met them during our first southerly migration in Port Aransas, and hadn't seen them since our very quick stop in Fort Worth a year ago. They stopped by yesterday to join us for lunch and a lesson in Class A motorhomes. They have their eye on a Winnebago diesel pusher and had a few questions that we were more than happy to answer. Our fingers are crossed that they'll soon be members of the Winnie family. It was great to see them.

Today we had the great fortune of meeting virtual friends and locals Mike and Sandy of Phannie and Mae fame. From the first moment we saw these two we felt like long-lost friends! The conversation flowed easily and moved from the moose to the interstate to a wonderful brunch to Mike and Sandy's lovely neighborhood to their beautiful home to Phannie and back. What a fun tour! We finally let these good folks get on with their mission of getting Phannie up to McKinney to get some fancy shades that are on Bullwinkle's wish list. Thank you, Mike and Sandy for sharing Mike's birthday with us. It was really great to meet you both. We look forward to seeing you and Phannie and Mae on the road soon.

All of this fun and frivolity in DFW must soon come to a close. Tonight, we'll celebrate our last evening in town with our old neighbors with more food and Cowboys football at their house. It will be sad to say goodbye our dear friends. But, we've been having so much fun here we're going to have to find a reason to come back soon!

Tomorrow we'll point the moose and squirrel south on I-35 and head for Austin. And, guess what? There are more friends to have fun with there! And, family, too! We'll hang out there for a week before we move on toward our winter destination. But, before we get there, we'll just have to make a few more stops.

Like I said, I think we're figuring this out. This year, we're taking our time moving south. Along the way, we're having a lot more fun!

Pay It Forward

Our trip from Monett to Oklahoma City was generally uneventful. We left Monett about 90 minutes after our aggressive planning model thought we would. Of course, that meant we would arrive in Oklahoma City much later than we had hoped. But, along the way we enjoyed pleasant weather, some welcome sunshine and, for once, a rare tailwind.

If you're traveling from east to west in Oklahoma, chances are pretty good that you're going to be on at least one turnpike. Such was the case with us today. We found ourselves on two toll roads. As we entered the first toll gate, we waited on a sedan from Kansas, which seemed to be taking its own sweet time. We watched the gate attendant engage in a lengthy conversation. Somewhere in there, he poked his head out the window and looked back at our rig. We didn't understand what was going on. After a rather lengthy delay, we were starting to get a bit antsy.

At last, the light turned green and the Kansans moved along. We pulled up to the toll gate. The attendant greeted us with a smile.

"Where are you going today?" he asked.

"Tulsa," was Paul's reply.

"The people in front of you were sure you were headed to Joplin," the attendant explained. "So much so that they paid your toll for you."

Paul and I shot the attendant a quizzical look.

"They said to wish you a Merry Christmas," he said. "I tell you what I'm going to do. Since you're heading the opposite direction, I'll give you their three dollars and you can use it when you pay your toll at the Tulsa end."

With that he gave us a ticket and three dollars.

We were so touched by this random act of kindness. We thanked the attendant and wished him a Merry Christmas, too. As we rolled down the road I recalled a similar incident many years ago when I was crossing the Bay Bridge from Oakland to San Francisco. Like today, I pulled up to the gate and was waved through because the motorist ahead me had gifted me my toll.

"You know what we need to do now, don't you?" I asked Paul.

"It's time to pay it forward," he said.

Absolutely right! We look forward to our next chance to do just that.

In this holiday season, we are reminded that it's not always the big, expensive gifts with fancy packaging and bright bows that make Christmas special. Sometimes, the biggest joys can be found in an anonymous gift of just a few bucks.

It sure brought a smile to our travel day.

Weathered

Today has been all about the weather.

First and foremost, a line of big winds and nasty rain and thunderstorms stood between us and Oklahoma City today. So, we decided to kick back for another night in Monett. Tomorrow looks like a much better day to travel to OKC, but it looks like we might have to weather some weather there before we move on to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Such is life on the road, especially in December.

With our day free, we made a lunch date today with Paul's cousin who lives in nearby Joplin. As you may recall, Joplin was struck by a devastating EF-5 tornado on May 22nd this year. We were eager to see how Joplin was recovering from the storm. So, after lunch, cousin Nancy gave us a driving tour of the devastation. It's been six months since the deadly tornado destroyed a quarter of the town. Most of the debris has been cleared away, and some rebuilding has begun. Walmart re-opened a week or so ago. Several homes have already been built, including seven constructed in a week by the crew of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and ten built by Habitat for Humanity. These 17 homes looked like lush islands in a barren sea where everything has been flattened. Trees are gone. Those that remain are mere remnants of what stood before, and are not likely to survive.

It was all amazing. We had planned to take pictures. But, today's dark skies and pouring rains made that impossible. Maybe, just maybe, it's better that way.

St. John's Medical Center, an eight-story acute-care hospital, took a direct hit from the killer tornado. Today, its crumbling remains stand in a sea of nothingness bearing witness to that tragic Sunday afternoon. The fact that only five souls perished in that facility that day is a testament to the heroes and heroines that stepped up that fateful afternoon. This site was particularly touching to me. I spent nearly a decade of my life working in two Kansas City hospitals that were about the size of St. John's. Twice each year we would conduct "disaster drills" that helped the hospital staff prepare for the thing we all hoped would never happen. About every other drill was built around the scenario of a major tornado striking the area. In that scenario, the staff's first mission was to protect the patients. The second objective was to prepare the hospital for an incoming flood of tornado victims. In each scenario, the hospital was designated to be a safe place for a destroyed community. But, in Joplin the hospital became a victim. Having gone through 20 or so of these drills, I cannot imagine the chaos that must have swept through that facility that night. To see it today was heartbreaking.

Joplin's schools were also hard hit. The high school and two elementary schools were destroyed. Thankfully, the tornado struck on a late Sunday afternoon in May. So, the schools were empty. Any other time, the death toll would have been significantly higher.

Nancy was lucky. Her house was literally three houses away from the northern edge of the tornado's path. Three houses. Can you imagine?

Growing up in tornado alley, I've always had a healthy respect for Mother Nature in general, and tornadoes in particular. These days, as someone who lives in a fiberglass box on wheels, one of my biggest fears is facing a big bad tornado. These days, I'm extra careful. We've evacuated a couple of times. When it comes to that, I really don't hesitate. And, I have to tell you. After seeing the devastation we saw today, one thing I kept asking myself was what would have happened to any motorhome or trailer in this bad boy's path. It would have scattered in a zillion pieces into the wind.

No doubt about it.

I'm not exactly sure what the point of this post is. But, after surveying the devastation in Joplin today, what I know for sure is that it's not a good idea to mess with Mother Nature....especially if you're living in a fiberglass box on wheels!

The other thing I know is Joplin is going to need help...for a long time. If you are so inclined, here's a link with information on how you can donate to help the people of Joplin recover from this devastating storm.

On The Road Again

Greetings from beautiful Monett, Missouri! We're here at the "Crossroads to Everywhere" enjoying our first morning out of Kansas City. As much as we love, love, loved being in our old hometown, we are oh so happy to be on the road again.

Chances are nobody else refers to Monett as any kind of crossroad, but our family members who live here joke that this tiny little town in the hills of southwest Missouri must be something like that for us. And, we suppose it is. This is the fourth time we've brought our rolling home to town. And, as always, it's really good to be here.

Yesterday was an especially notable travel day. It was the first time we've left Kansas City without stopping for service on our way out of town! We're taking that as a sign of good things to come! We did make a quick stop for a propane fill, and then it was smooth sailing for Bullwinkle. This is one moose that is happy to be heading south!

We were planning to spend a night or two here. But, after sitting in one spot for two months, nobody at our house, especially our girl kitty, really feels like traveling today. Tomorrow's forecast calls for wind and rain between here and Oklahoma City, which is our next destination. So, it looks like we might just sit here in this comfy spot until Sunday morning. We'll keep an eye on the weather and see what happens. It's such a blessing to have that kind of flexibility. That's one of the many things we love about living life on the road.

Meanwhile, we're thinking about heading out to our favorite breakfast spot in town this morning. Then, a bit more family visiting is in order.

Yes, it feels good to be on the road again! We've really missed it!

Outta Here

It's "travel eve" around our house. It's hard to believe that our two months in Kansas City are soon to be behind us. Alas, the temperatures are falling, and we are definitely ready to head south. We are so outta here!

This has been a great visit. No doubt about it. We haven't done everything and seen everyone we'd hoped, but we've had wonderful times with family and friends. It seems there's never enough time when we're here, but we've managed to pack a lot of good times in the time we've had. And, between the fun, we've squeezed in doctor, dentist and vet visits, and Rocky and Bullwinkle have been tuned to tip top shape. Our fingers are definitely crossed!

Back in the day, before we hit the road, we remember reading blogs of fulltimers who talked about how hard it was to leave family. Back then, we imagined how tough it might be. Today, we know. It's definitely a mixed bag. We're sad to leave our loved ones, but we're eager to get back on the road.

So, come tomorrow morning, we'll do just that. We're planning to fire up this big ol' moose and head south about 200 miles. A few days after that we'll head further south. And, a few days later we'll go even further. You see, we have lots of exploring to do. And, in five months or so we'll be back to these familiar digs, laughing it up with family and friends once again.

Until then, we'll miss everybody here in our ol' hometown. But, starting tomorrow, we're definitely ready to get back to the life we love.

More soon from the road.

The End

This was the first morning in the last 27 that I didn't have writing on my agenda. That's right. A mere 50,557 words from the beginning, I have reached the end of my first "novel" (and I used that term very loosely). In the land of NaNoWriMo, that makes me a winner!

(Insert applause here.)

Like a good winner, I have prepared an acceptance speech. And, it's short!

First, I would like to thank my beloved husband for putting up with me for the last 27 days. While I sat for hours glued to the keyboard, still pajama-clad and unshowered, he kept our home running like a top. Thank you, Paul, for the breakfasts, lunches, dinners and, most of all, the encouragement. Your wife has come up with some pretty crazy ideas over the years. And, this one ranks right up there.

Another big thank you goes to our friends, family and beloved readers for your words of encouragement. I felt supported during this wacky marathon. I was also very accountable! For those of you who have expressed a desire to read this most recent creation, I thank you for your interest. All I can say is, "maybe, someday". This thing needs a lot (and I mean a lot) of heavy (and I mean heavy) editing. If I ever declare it readable, you'll be the first to know.

Finally, a shout out to the creators of NaNoWriMo. I never (and I mean never) would have done this had they not extended their wild challenge. And, an extra shout out to my dear friend Cindy, who got this crazy idea before I did and she somehow roped me into it with her. It was fun.

To all you wannabe novelists out there, I encourage you to block out your calendars for next November. It's challenging. It's nutty. It's fun. And, you can actually write a novel in 30 days. Really!

Now that we're on the other side of "The End", I'm stepping away from the keyboard (in just a minute) and we're gearing up to head south. Like my crappy novel, we're at the end of our two-month stay in Kansas City. We're out of here on Thursday.

Lots to do. Gotta go.

Word Count

Just in case you were wondering, I am still working on my "Great Frantic Novel" as part of National Novel Writing Month.

A few good folks have inquired about my status with this nutty project, which to date is best described as a barely readable attempt at chick-lit. But, I'm pleased to report the words are adding up. And, this month, that's all that counts, really. Like I said, the 50,000 words I pull together this month don't have to be good. They just have to be done.

During a break in today's writing blitz, I did craft a couple of posts for Bullwinkle's Travels recapping our recent travels across Kansas to Abilene and Emporia. Then, I found a nifty little widget that will report my current word count right here on this lil' ol' blog.

So, now I'm really holding myself accountable. And, I'm still procrastinating!

Gotta go find a bunch of words.

50,000 Words

Despite a long and perfectly rational list of reasons not to, I have decided to participate in NaNoWriMo.

National Novel Writing Month is held each November. Last year I thought about it. This year, I've decided to do it.

You see, I've been working on my Great American Novel for over a year now, on and off. (Actually, it's been more off than on.) With NaNoWriMo, I have the great pleasure of joining thousands of professional and wannabe writers in penning my "Great Frantic Novel".

My mission, which I've fully accepted, is to write 50,000 words. That's about 175 pages. In 30 days. In keeping with the spirit of the month, this project is about quantity, not quality. (I'm going to have to remind myself of that.) This novel doesn't have to be good. It simply has to be done.

So, I'm doing it. My hope is this marathon will get my creative juices flowing and reinvigorate my desire to write the real thing. The discipline of writing every day will be good for me. Besides, I love it. The feeling of finishing a novel (even a crappy one) in a month will be joyous.

If I had to pick a month to try to write a novel, November would be my last choice. It's the second half of our annual visit to our old hometown. The doctor stuff is pretty much out of the way, but that's been replaced with a growing list of commitments and to-dos that will keep us running until our departure date. And, oh yeah. There's a holiday in there, too.

Even though it's not the best month, November is the month of this challenge. So, I've taken it on. The reason I'm sharing this news here is two-fold: First, I don't think I'll have the time or energy to do any blogging on top of my novel-writing. So, both blogs will be on hiatus during the month. (They already have been. I'm just making it official.) Second, this makes my goal pretty public. Now that y'all know about this, if I don't do it, I can just imagine how embarrassed I'll be.

Dear reader, did you have any idea how motivating you are?

I have many words to churn out today, and these don't count. So, I'll close.

See you after I reach "The End".

Better Numbers

It took awhile, but we're finally seeing better looking numbers around here.

A few months ago, the remote control on our Sleep Number bed went wonky. It still deflated and inflated the bed, which (most thankfully) still held air. But, the patented number on the dial started looking like a Chinese character. (And, we don't read Chinese!) The number, such as it was, would fade in and out. We replaced the batteries, not once but twice just to be sure. But, that didn't help. Eventually, the dial became completely undistinguishable.

In the scheme of our motorhome maladies, this was nothing. We had bigger issues to tackle at the time, such as our heat pump that was operating at half power and a refrigerator that went kaputt. With the bed under warranty until November, we put the Sleep Numberless project on our list of things to do in Kansas City. Shortly after our arrival, we went to work on getting a working remote.

The Sleep Number web site was of minimal help. It offered instructions on how to "reset" the remote. (That didn't work.) Apparently, this "numberless" problem is quite common. Select Comfort has spent tons of time and money building a brand around their unique "number" and their technology can't deliver the brand promise. Brilliant!

I called the Customer Service number and spoke to a customer service agent who I think was actually in the United States. She put a new remote in the mail, which arrived a few days later. We followed the instructions to "start up" the new remote. It still didn't work. The next call to Sleep Number Customer Service revealed that we'd been sent the wrong remote. The friendly tech set things up to ship the proper remote ASAP. I confirmed that the new remote would be sent to us here at the park, just as the first had been. A few days passed and we had no new remote. I tracked the package and discovered it was on a truck and scheduled for delivery...to our mail box in Livingston, Texas!

We thought this little project would be easier than the heat pump or the fridge. But, about this time we weren't so sure!

I called to alert Sleep Number about the problem. Another representative arranged to send another remote to us here at the park. I asked her to intercept the package on its way to our mailbox, and she assured me she would. The next day I checked the tracking number and, of course, the allegedly intercepted package was delivered in Livingston and is sitting in our mailbox!

Yesterday, a package arrived for us here at the park. We were delighted to find a remote that looks exactly like the one we have. We followed the startup instructions and within a minute we were back in business.

When our mail catches up with us next week, they'll be a remote in that package, too. We'll return the two "wrong" remotes to Sleep Number. With that "to-do" done, we'll move on to our next Kansas City project.

And, there are many!

Overload

Shopping was the big item on this afternoon's agenda.

So, it was destined to be a good day. Right?

Paul's Dad is in need of two new upholstered chairs. And, as his two least-furnitured next of kin, we were happy to take on the task of finding a couple of new chairs during our stay in Kansas City. After all, it's been so long since we've actually shopped for furniture that we were both eager to take on the project.

This afternoon, we ventured to the Nebraska Furniture Mart. (It's in Kansas, not Nebraska!) Now, if you've been there, you know what we're talking about. If you haven't, imagine a 480,000 square foot building full (and I mean FULL) of furniture.

Let's just pause for a moment and think about how big 480,000 square feet is. It's about 11 acres! That's big! Now, imagine an 11-acre farm of furniture. That's a lot of furniture!

Anyway, we went to the massive farm o'furniture and made our way to the chair department. We found a couple of possibilities. We'll see how that all works out. Chances are we have more shopping to do.

While we were there, we decided to wander around....through the sofas and chairs and bedroom suites and dining room sets and patio sets and kitchen stuff. We spent almost two hours wandering around, imagining. Some day we'll have a house again. And, when we do, we'll need all of this stuff.

YIKES!

I can only speak for myself, but I gotta tell ya. I started to get all sweaty. And, it wasn't about the money. No. It's about all the choices! There are too many. Way too many!

Besides, didn't we just spend an extraordinary amount of time and effort getting rid of a bunch of stuff like this?

Uh huh!

We must confess, these days it's pretty easy for us to imagine owning a house again. But, after this little shopping trip, we really can't imagine furnishing the thing.

Huh uh!

Too many choices. Too much stuff. Too much. Too much. Too much. It was a new level of sensory overload for us both.

By the end of our visit to "The Mart" we agreed that we could see ourselves easily furnishing a patio, a kitchen and a laundry room. The rest is too much. Right now, anyway.

We've often wondered how we'll know that it's time to come off the road. We don't know when we'll know. But, after today, we have a better idea of how we'll know.

When we walk into a giant furniture store and get excited about what's for sale, it's time.

Good to know!

120 in 110

Another week (and some) has passed here in our old hometown. And, we continue to keep ourselves busy. We're just about done with our health care stuff. This week it was the cats' turn. They paid a visit to the vet we loved for a decade or two. They're both doing great. Of course, our boy kitty was recommended a "dental plan" to the tune of nearly $700. Apparently, that's common practice for vets who practice in one of the 100 most affluent counties in the country. We passed on that. Instead, we'll let the boy chew on rocks or something until we can get a second opinion.

I've been working diligently to get our travel blog up to date. I'm not quite there yet, but there are new posts for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Crested Butte, Gunnison and Colorado Springs. More to come, of course. But, it's sure been fun reliving our wonderful Summer days in Colorado. We can't wait to get back!

Here in our old, decrepit home park, we've been dealing with other issues. When we arrived a couple of weeks ago, we were assigned the same site we had in September. It's long enough, relatively level (which is a big plus for this place) and satellite-friendly, which is a rarity in this tree-covered park. A problem we noticed during our five-day stay in September was that the voltage was frequently low. On those 90-degree days back then there were air conditioners humming all over the place, and we were running on just one compressor, so we didn't worry about it. And, since we've returned, the mild weather hasn't required the power demands of summer. But, in the last few days Mother Nature has turned down the thermostat around here. Things have definitely gotten chilly, and the power demands in the park increased. With that, our voltage plummeted.

We've been monitoring the situation carefully for the last few days, keeping a steady eye on our digital multimeter. This morning the voltage was so low we worried about turning on the toaster. It was time to do something.

A week or so ago we brought the situation to the attention of park management, and they promptly dispatched an electrician. His diagnosis was that we were sharing a "Y" with our neighbor from the main line. (That would explain why our power dropped when his AC came on!) There was a problem with the Y, but he couldn't locate it. The park offered to move us as soon as the place cleared out. And, today was the day.

We were reassigned to Site 110, just two sites up. It's just as long and more level than the place we had been calling home. The big question was if we would still be able to get a satellite signal. (This is the same site we called home without satellite in the very chilly days of December 2009.) After packing everything up (Whether you're moving two sites or 200 miles, you have to do that!), we made the move and carefully placed the moose in the hopefully most satellite friendly spot in the new site. We plugged in and headed straight for the TV. It worked! With that, we put down jacks, extended slides and called the new place home.

And, oh yeah, we pulled out the multimeter and put the new site to the real test. We're so happy to report we are rock steady at 120 volts in Site 110.

Life is good!

Rusty

Our first week back in Kansas City has been a busy one. Between stocking up on essentials at our favorite grocery anywhere, visiting family, doctors and dentists, we have managed to squeeze in a little fun.

Wednesday we drove south to Louisburg to finally meet up with fellow bloggin' fulltimers John and Bridget. We've followed each other's adventures for years, so when we discovered they were an hour or so out of town we decided to meet up on the outskirts. Over mighty big and tasty grub at Miss B's Cafe we shared lots of laughter and stories that somehow never made our respective blogs. (Those are some of the best!) It was a real treat to meet these fantastic folks and move their blogroll link from bloggers we only read about to bloggers we've met! We wish them safe travels toward home in Jackson, Mississippi, and look forward to catching up with them again down the road.

Yesterday, Paul brought the Jeep back to its original black after excavating a thick coating of earth collected across the Southwest. It was a big job! Early in the evening I took our bright shiny squirrel into a swanky part of the city for a happy hour reunion with "alumni" from a former employer with whom I was associated for a decade. It's been nearly a dozen years since I worked at this not-so-small local firm, so I wasn't sure I'd see anyone I knew. Sure enough, the third person I shook hands with was a familiar face, and that started the stories flying.

Over the course of a couple of hours I reconnected with a dozen folks from my past. A couple are happily retired, others have launched businesses of their own, and a few are looking for work in this tough market. Then there's me, the former workaholic who's wandering the country in a Winnebago. There was no prize for traveling the farthest to this event or doing the zaniest thing after leaving this denizen of corporate America, but had there been I would have cleaned up.

I would have taken last place in another category, though. It didn't take me long to realize these busy professionals were networking! Over glasses of wine, cards were being exchanged. Follow-up appointments were being booked on smart phones. Conversations centered around work, our old company and an industry that, until two-and-a-half years ago, was the focus of my existence.

Not anymore.

When it came to this kind of talk, I was really rusty! I felt like my brain was covered in the southwestern soil Paul had just washed off the Jeep. I don't think anyone noticed the smoke coming out of my ears as my gray matter struggled to gear back up on the subject matter at hand and recall names of colleagues, products and services for which I once felt heartfelt passion. One former colleague, who recently launched a firm that is similar to the one I left in California, was eager to hear about my work experience in Oakland. While doing my best to provide a helpful answer to one of his questions, I was so tempted to shout out above the trendy music that made it impossible to think, "I DON'T CARE! I DON'T DO THIS ANYMORE!" Instead, I graciously made that the last question and found another colleague who was curious about how it is to travel the country.

When the conversation shifted to travel and the places that all of us have been, I came alive! I love hearing about people and places, and I'll share as much as I know about any given spot with any questioning soul. These conversations are effortless and fun. I've suspected this for awhile now, but last night I witnessed a seismic shift in my passion. It's official. This former workaholic is a travelholic!

I don't even think that's a word. But, I love the sound of it!

Relief

Back when we were enjoying our Rocky Mountain High in Gunnison this Summer I did what I later thought was a dumb thing. I scheduled an appointment for a check-up with my brand-new, never-met-before doctor on the first weekday of our two-month stay in Kansas City.

Now might be a good time to mention I really hate check-ups, especially with new-to-me doctors.

So, when I awoke in the wee hours of this morning with high anxiety about this visit I cursed myself repeatedly. What the hell was I thinking? We have two months here. Why, oh why, did I have to do this nasty deed on one of the first days of our stay?

Fast forward a few angst-filled hours.

Minutes before my scheduled arrival time at the new doc, I was driving along the streets of suburban Kansas City wishing I could turn left and see my old, familiar doctor's office in California. But, that was not to be. There's nothing "central" about California. It doesn't make sense for us to have our doctors there anymore. As much as I don't like it, it's time for us to make a new home base here in the middle of the country. And, even though I was kicking and screaming inside, that meant getting ourselves established with new doctors here in Kansas City.

With pulse pounding and blood pressure rising, I made my way to the new place.

One hour later, I was relieved.

I love my new doctor! Really, she's a perfect match for me. And, the best news is, all is well! I have a few more this and thats to take care of in the next couple of weeks. Here's hoping all will be well with that, too. And, with that, this deed will be done.

There's something really wonderful about having that annual visit behind me just three days into our two-month stay.

It's called "Relief".

A Place to Ourselves

It's our last peaceful morning for awhile.

So, we're relishing it.

We're wrapping up our six-day stay at the COE park on the south side of Clinton Lake. We split our time between two campgrounds in the place. The first, Cedar Ridge, offered water and electric and a pull-through site. But, we couldn't get a clean shot at a satellite. We decided to remedy that situation by checking out the electric-only park across the street. There we found a perfectly shaded, satellite-friendly extra spacious site and decided to call it home for the remainder of our stay.

This park closes for the season on Saturday. With the last possible camping weekend behind us, the place has emptied out. It's just us and the park custodian amongst a bunch of empty sites. We've absolutely loved having the place to ourselves.

As much as we enjoy camping amongst the kids and their families all summer, we love the solitude that comes to campgrounds after Labor Day. The peace, quiet and space are a treat. And, this week, we've been blessed some of the best weather days you'll ever experience in Kansas.

We don't want to go.

But, go we must. Today we're going to Kansas City for our annual maintenance at Freightliner. Then, we'll head to our home park in the 'burbs for a two-month visit with family and friends. We're looking forward to it, of course. But, we'll be busy for sure.

So, pardon us as we enjoy one more cup of coffee in this lovely campground before we get this moose rolling.

We'll get there soon enough.

De-Icing

It’s 23 degrees in our freezer.

(That's 17 degrees warmer than yesterday.)

And, it's about 40 or so in the fridge.

Now, please remain calm. No need to panic!!

It’s time for a lesson in de-icing.

(Or, at least, we’re hoping so.)

It has been precisely 52 hours since we plugged in our new, improved Norcold. And, as you will soon see, that’s a very important number.

In our effort to consume as much information as possible about our silly refrigerator, we learned about something these things do every 48 hours or so.

They go into “de-ice” mode.

This is something our fridge has done every couple of days for the last couple of years. And, until a month or so ago, it did it without us ever noticing. That was about the time we became uber-obsessed with the temperature in our fridge and we noticed every temperature shift to the tenth of a degree. By then, our faulty control board made it so the fridge went into this cycle and didn’t always come out. (Of course, that's a problem!)

Now, it’s important to know that “de-ice” is not the same as “defrost”. As much as we’d love for these cold boxes on wheels to defrost themselves, they just can’t. That’s up to us. But, they can de-ice. That’s a process where the fridge basically turns itself off for awhile to allow the frosty fins in the back of the fridge compartment to thaw.

We think the process is time-based and not temperature-activated. As much as we’ve monitored this process we’re pretty sure about that. The de-icing process starts, like clockwork, every 48 hours. For about four hours the fridge just sits there doing nothing as it gives a goodly amount of time for the fins to thaw.

48 + 4 = 52, for those of you who are paying attention.

After about four hours the fridge fires up and gets back to the business of cooling. Within hours, give or take a few, everything is back to normal.

Of course, if it’s 97 degrees outside while your fridge goes into this every-two-day cycle, things could heat up pretty fast. Or, if you time your stocking up trip from Walmart about the time the thing starts de-icing you could load your fridge full of lukewarm groceries and be looking at fridge and freezer temps that look pretty darn scary for awhile.

Get the idea?

Some folks say that you can “reset” this cycle by turning the fridge off and then on. But, we gotta tell ya, we’re not exactly sure about that.

What we do know is that it’s been a bit over 52 hours since we plugged in our new, improved fridge. Right now, the temperature in our freezer is down to 19 degrees. We think we’ve just passed through our first de-ice cycle and everything is returning to normal.

Like I said. At least we hope so!

Six Degrees Of Refrigeration

It's six degrees in our freezer.

That's definitely the "top headline" at our house today. You see, it's been awhile since that's happened. We've been watching freezer temps fluctuate from zero to 70 for the last month. Today's steady single digits are definitely better. Much better!

Now that our Norcold refrigerator is back in the "safe zone", we can offer a brief summary of what we've learned over the last month. The first thing we learned was there is a bunch of misinformation out there. We're not claiming to be experts by any means. We're just a couple of RVers who have spent the last month dealing with a problem with one fridge and finally reaching a solution. By recapping our recent experience, we hope this information helps any fellow owners of "no"cold Norcolds that may pass this way.

Got Ammonia?

That's the first question to ask and answer when your Norcold loses its cool. If you see or smell this yellow liquid leaking from your fridge, your cooling unit (aka, the most expensive part of your refrigerator) is toast and needs to be replaced. If there's no sign of ammonia, the good news is your cooling unit might be OK. The bad news is you get to do some time-consuming trial-and-error troubleshooting.

Time and Temperature

These are the essential tools to troubleshooting your troublesome fridge. Gas absorption refrigeration is a slooooooow process. With every test you need to give the fridge plenty of time (like 24 hours) to "stabilize" and reach its best possible temperature. Of course, you need to be able to effectively monitor the temperature inside the fridge, ideally without opening any doors. We placed the outdoor sensor for our indoor-outdoor thermometer in the freezer and placed a "mercury" thermometer on the shelf near the fins in the fridge.

Got Air?

Gas absorption refrigerators need air to work. So, the first thing to check is that you fridge is getting all the air it can. Open your vents and check behind and above your fridge and in your flue and around your fans to make sure the flow of air is unrestricted.

Got Heat?

It takes heat for your fridge to keep its cool. Set the fridge temp on its highest setting and locate the "burner" on the back of your fridge. The area should be warm and any surfaces near the burner should be hot to touch. (They can be extrememely hot.) Run this test with the fridge set on "electric" and then on "gas". If you have no heat on either source, chances are your cooling unit needs to replaced. If you have heat with either or both, it's time to do some serious testing.

Pull The Thermistor

The thermistor is the thing that tells your fridge when to turn on and off. On our Norcold, it's a wire that runs from the light in the ceiling of the fridge to a clip on one of the fins in the back of the inside of the fridge. When you set the thermostat on its highest setting and remove the thermistor, you put the fridge in "emergency cooling mode". Give the box 24 hours of undisturbed cooling time. If temps are in the safe zone, your cooling unit is working. But, something else isn't. The first thing to replace is the thermistor. For about 20 bucks you can replace this part yourself. (No tools required!) After you've installed the new thermistor, give the fridge another 24 hours and check. If all is well, great! If not, it's time to check the control board.

Control Board

The control board is the "brains" of the cooling operation. It takes commands from the thermistor and tells the cooling unit how to work. We called on professionals we trust to test our control board. It failed the test. Replacing the control board is easy, but not exactly cheap. The ticket for our job was nearly $400. (Thanks to our extended warranty, our cost was $250.)

Cooling Unit

We gave our Norcold 24 hours to stabilize after the new control board was installed, and on a cool September morning in Kansas the freezer was the warmest spot in our house! With that, the evidence was clear. Our cooling unit, which had been dying a slow death, was gone. The most likely cause of death was a blockage of crystallized ammonia. It probably moved around awhile, which explained the fridge's off-and-on performance. With the blockage in its final resting place, it was time to replace the cooling unit.

At this point in our refrigeration adventure, we considered a couple of options. The first was what is known as the "Amish Cooling Unit". This aftermarket cooling unit is reported to be of better quality and have significantly higher performance than the Norcold. It's on backorder for weeks, plus we weren't exactly sure our extended warranty would cover a non-OEM replacement of this $2000 part. The second option we briefly considered was replacing our Norcold with a residential-style refrigerator.

This is an individual decision, to be sure. We opted to replace the cooling unit with another Norcold. There may be a residential fridge in our moose's future. But, for now, this was the quickest and easiest way for us to obtain the six degrees of refrigeration we were so desperately longing.

The new cooling unit arrived in a couple of days. (We spent those days in the good company of friends Sandy, John and Koko, who made a stopover at Melvern Lake en route to their new winter home in Arizona. They provided a most welcome distraction from our not so cool problem. It was great to see them!) Back at the repair facility, it took just a couple of hours for a couple of techs to slide out the fridge, place it face down on the floor of the moose, remove the old unit off the back, install the replacement and slide it back in.

Now that we have replaced the thermistor, control board and cooling unit, the "guts" of our Norcold are brand new. One of our techs pointed out that the only remaining part that could cause any trouble is the icemaker motor. ("Bite your tongue!" was my response to that little ditty.)

With handshakes with the trusty techs and a tip of the hat to our extended warranty company, we made our way late yesterday to another beautiful COE park at Clinton Lake, just a few miles from one of favorite towns: Lawrence, Kansas. We're looking forward to enjoying a few days getting reacquainted with our old college town.

Meanwhile, our new and improved Norcold will just be chillin'. In fact, I just heard the icemaker dump. What a wonderful sound!

Kaputt

That's the state of our fridge. We declared it so yesterday.

Let's just say yesterday wasn't a very good day, and leave it at that.

We're now the proud owners of a 2.7 cubic-foot refrigerator that looks like it belongs in a college dorm. We've rearranged our dining chairs to give it a temporary home until we can get the "Nocold" repaired. It's big enough to keep a few essentials chilled. Just a few!

Meanwhile, we'll enjoy the company of family who are gathering here in Monett to celebrate a really big birthday this weekend.

And, oh yeah. We'll eat out a lot.

Dear Diary

I don't actually have a diary, per se. But, these days I feel like I need one. I don't need no ordinary run-of-the-mill diary. You see, I need an HVACR Diary. (I'll explain the R in just a bit.)

Since we had our loose connections on our heat pump fixed, we've been watching our thermostat like a couple of hawks. It seems that our AC is working just fine, thanks. But, you see, we're just not sure. So, it feels like we need to start a diary that reads something like this. September 12, 2011, 3:55 PM. Ambient temp: 94 degrees. Thermostat: 77 degrees. Inside temp: 80 degrees to 77 in 59 minutes.

That all sounds good. But, who really knows for sure? We feel like we need to write it down and document it all.

The "R" is all about our stupid-ass refrigerator. (You see, I have a pet name for it now.) It seems it may have had a "brain fart" again last night. It was warm this morning and got warmer as we made our way from Lake Melvern to Monett. I needed to write it down in my HVACR Diary, but I didn't. We picked up a new thermistor this afternoon, which is the cheapest fix on the troubleshooting flowchart of not-cooling-so-well refrigerators. But, so far, that didn't seem to do the trick. So, my diary entry needs to include that. Right now, we've turned the stupid thing off for a couple of hours hoping that will reset its mixed up brain. We shall see.

It'll all work out, sooner or later. We know it will.

Meanwhile, like I said, I need to keep a diary to keep track of these things. Is the heat pump cooling? or heating? or not? Is the fridge doing its thing? or something else?

Only my dear diary knows for sure!

Connections

Two months ago today we were fuming in Salt Lake City, recovering from our far from satisfactory experience with Blaine Jensen RV. In a related post, we warned our friends to avoid the place like the plague. Here's an excerpt from our write-up about the experience.

The service tech told us the news was bad. Repairs were needed that would require more than one day, and maybe several. The bill was certain to be at least $1500. Maybe more. And, that's if they could get the parts they needed. Worse yet, he reported, the heat pump manufacturer said it would not honor its two-year warranty on this 19-month old unit.

Wanna' hear the rest of that story?

Yesterday we took the moose about 40 miles south of Kansas City to A-Z Mobile RV in Paola, Kansas. They have a new, three-bay facility there that gives them the space to take care of really big jobs like servicing basement heat pumps. We came across three states to this place for one simple reason: We trust them.

Bullwinkle was backed into a bay immediately after our arrival and the techs went to work. Paul and I headed off for a late breakfast and put together a plan to keep ourselves busy for the next couple of days. About an hour later, A-Z gave us a buzz to let us know they had wrapped up the job.

Say what?

We rushed back to the shop and joined two techs sitting in the moose. As we stepped inside we couldn't miss the rush of icy cold air coming from the ceiling. Our heat pump was working!

What was the problem?

Was it a failed compressor? Or, a refrigerant leak? A blown control board, perhaps?

Nope.

It was a loose connection.

The techs explained that the first thing they do when they see a problem like this is tighten all connections and then test. With freshly tightened connections, our heat pump was firing on both compressors. It heated and then cooled like a champ.

Quite understandably, our heat pump manufacturer doesn't cover loose connections under warranty. So, this fix was on our dime.

And, how much did it cost?

Did we have to spend $1500, as the crooks in Salt Lake City suggested? Or, some other four-figure amount? Was it half that? Or, double?

No, the cost to restore normal heating and cooling to our rolling home was a whopping $85, plus tax.

(We're so kidding about the "whopping" part.)

Of course, we're delighted to have a functioning heat pump. And, we're thrilled that it cost so little to make it so. But, we're more irritated than ever with the dishonest dealership we dealt with two months ago. We're trying really hard not to dwell on that.

With the moose back in tip-top shape before noon, we found ourselves with a new dilemma. We had planned to spend at least a couple of days waiting on service. Suddenly, we were free to move about the country. With no particular place to go, we didn't know what to do! So, we did what many RVers would do.

We went to Walmart!

It had been awhile since we'd stocked up on provisions. So, we were in need. As we traversed the aisles and filled our cart, we hatched a plan to spend a few days at a COE campground about an hour away. Standing amongst the canned goods, I gave the park a call and was assured there was plenty of space for us. A couple of hours later we were all set up in a level, shady, satellite-friendly spot with a lovely lake view. Because we could, we turned on the air conditioner and watched the temperature plummet five degrees in less than an hour.

All is right with our world!

We Made It!

It's been 10 days and nearly 600 miles since our last post. And, we have just one thing to say.

We made it!

We made it across Kansas to our home park near Kansas City, with an overnight stop at the coolest campground ever in Ellis, Kansas and a couple of nights visiting family in Salina. We're oh so happy to be here in our old stomping grounds to celebrate the holiday weekend.

Now that we've been here in our home park for a night and a bit we can say we've made it in another way. We survived the mid-80s in Colorado Springs, the high-90s in Ellis and temperatures well over the century mark in Salina. Our first day here in Kansas City the temperatures topped out near 100 degrees. Today, thank God, the cooler weather came. With temperatures rapidly climbing past 90 degrees this morning, the skies clouded and the rains came. By 4:00 pm, the temperature outside was down into the mid-70s. And, the moose wasn't too far behind. Our boy only has half an air conditioner, but he was quick to recover and adapt to the new and improved temperatures here in Kansas City.

It's not quite Gunnison, but it'll definitely do.

Yes, we've made it. We've made it across Kansas and into temperatures that are tolerable. We can't ask for more than that. Come Wednesday we'll take our moose in for service to repair its faulty compressor and prepare it for heating and cooling in the extremes.

Meanwhile, we'll enjoy the company of family over a holiday weekend in temperatures that we can definitely tolerate, even with half a heat pump.

We definitely made it!

Bubble or Bungle?

After a completely uneventful travel day (Yeah!), we are settled in our shady site near Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

The most anticipated part of our day was climbing Monarch Pass. At an altitude of 11,312 feet, this summit would take Bullwinkle to his highest point ever. During our six weeks in Gunnison, we asked for and received lots of advice on how to tackle the pass. It all came down to two things we already knew. First, keep your RPMs up. And, second, take your time. Paul did both and our moose made the 7-mile climb with the temperature of our great big Cummins engine staying rock steady at normal. Once over the top, Paul carefully guided Bullwinkle down the 10-mile grade with the assistance of our kick-ass engine brake. (We LOVE that thing!) Before we knew it, we were on gently rolling hills heading toward the Springs. It felt great to have Monarch Mountain in our side view mirrors. If we could give Bullwinkle a treat, we would. He definitely earned it!

The biggest surprise of our day was our refrigerator. In the middle of the night, I got up and grabbed a bottle of water, which was the only thing left in our tepid Norcold. I took a sip that jolted me from my slumber. The water was ICE COLD! Magically, our fridge had healed itself overnight. By the time we got up, the temperature in the freezer was in the single digits. Paul was all smiles as he unloaded the contents of the coolers into the now cold Norcold.

Of course, the mystery remained. So, when we arrived in the Springs, we called the local mobile tech and he came right out. His first assessment was a possible “air bubble” in the cooling line. If that was the culprit, it worked its way out during the night and resumed normal operations. Wanting to make the most of our investment in the service call, the tech offered to do a thorough check of the fridge. He quickly discovered that the work we had done for our Norcold recall last November was incorrect. He showed us the manufacturer’s instructions, which showed even us non-techs the error. Two wires that were supposed to be removed had not been, which essentially left the refrigerator just as prone to a fire as before. (Isn’t that comforting?) He quickly righted the wrong and our refrigerator checked out just fine. He placed a quick call to the service company owner to let him know what was up. Then, he told us we still had time on the clock, so was there anything else? We took advantage of his offer and had him replace a squealing check valve on our water heater. Bonus!

Moments later, the boss returned the tech’s call. In his opinion, the cause of refrigerator problems may have been a bubble. But, after hearing about the screwed up recall fix, he was convinced it had caused our very uncool problem.

Whether it was a bubble or a bungle, we’ll never know. What we do know is we made it safely over a great big mountain, we have cold adult beverages in the fridge and our water heater is quiet.

That’s all we need to make it one great day!

Done Chillin'

Well, it looks like we’re double done chillin’ in Gunnison!

We’re leaving here tomorrow for Colorado Springs. It’s forecasted to be warmer than we like, being as how we have half a heat pump and all. But, we need to get moving toward Kansas where we’re planning to get it fixed after Labor Day. Besides, we need to get out of here and find a place to fix something else as soon as we can. You see, our refrigerator has stopped chillin’.

Ugh!

The refrigerator section is empty. It’s too warm to cool anything in there. The freezer section is sitting at something like 40 degrees, so it’s keeping a few things chilled, which saves us having to buy another cooler. Thankfully, we don’t have any signs of ammonia leaking anywhere and our cooling unit seems to be heating up quite nicely. The thing just isn’t cooling.

Paul made several attempts to call a mobile tech here in Gunnison, but the guy hasn’t called back. So, we’re bagging any hopes of having the fridge checked out here. We called the park in Colorado Springs and asked for a recommendation for a mobile tech and if it would be OK to come in a day early. They helped us out with both. Paul called the recommended tech and they’ll be waiting for us tomorrow afternoon.

Hopefully, it’s something simple. We’re not scheduled to leave the Springs until Tuesday, so that gives us some time if parts need to be ordered. And, if we needed to, we could probably stick around until Wednesday. And, if worst comes to worst, we can live without a refrigerator. For awhile, anyway. We can have it fixed with the heat pump. Why not?

We’re trying to keep our spirits up. After all, even with no fridge and half an air conditioner, we’re not working! And, we’re in the Colorado mountains, where it’s beautiful and, relatively speaking, cool and comfortable. Really, we know we can’t complain.

But, we can whine, a little. Can’t we?

More soon from Colorado Springs.

License to Chill

Let the rat race run, roll around in the sun until

Trouble turns funny, songs get sung

A little bit of money, the night's still young

Leave me alone I've got a license,

A license to chill

Those popular lyrics by Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney have been rolling around in my head today. Finally, after more than two years of roaming around this country, we feel like we’re passing our final tests for our license. Our license to chill.

You see, we’ve been hanging here in beautiful Gunnison for more than a month. We’ve hung out with friends, made a few new ones and entertained family for awhile. We’ve made the scenic drives, seen the national park and taken more pictures than we imagined we could. (However, one of us just hasn't seemed to muster up enough strength to craft a travel blog post!) These days, we’re hanging out and acting like a couple of locals.

We ride our bikes to breakfast. After we’ve had our fill, we head out on one of the many trails in this very two-wheel-friendly town for some exercise with sweeping mountain views.

Back at home, we read. We write. We nap. We knit. We soak up the pleasant sun-kissed days. Basically, we chill.

Actually, we’re getting pretty darn good at it.

As the resident travel planner, I’ve been trying to plot out travels from here to points east. The major influence in our planning is the weather. We won’t be heading into Kansas when the daytime temps are in the 90s. After all, we have just half an air conditioner! The days are just gonna have to cool off before we head into that part of the country. Until then, we’ll just chill.

We have tentative plans and even a reservation here or there. But, truth be told, we don’t have to be anywhere until mid-September in Southwest Missouri. Reservations can be cancelled. Plans can be changed.

So, what to we do in the meantime?

We just chill!

We’ve been at this fulltiming gig for a bit over two years. So, you’d think we’d be pretty good at this. But, when it comes to chillin’, we’re the first to confess we’re really newbies.

You see, we feel better when we have a plan. But, as we’re learning, sometimes we need to just chill.

Like right now. The 80-degree temperatures around here are just getting better and better. We like this town. We feel really comfortable here. We know that Monday night is $5 burgers at the Gunnisack. Tuesday night is Sushi night at the Brick Cellar. And, Wednesday is the night for cheap wings at 5b’s BBQ.

That’s right. We’re eating our way around this town!

There are a couple of great biking events coming to town. How often do you get to see three of the top five finishers in the Tour de France? They’ll be here in Gunnison next week, with tens of thousands of their friends. It sounds like a real party.

So, we think we’re gonna stick around for awhile. After all, we really like it here.

After more than two years on the road, we think we might - finally - just be earning our license to chill.

And I believe I will.

Dial Up

One of the reasons we’re moving across town tomorrow is this park’s wifi, or lack thereof. To say it’s “hit or miss” would be kind. It’s actually more “miss” than “hit”. A lot more. With no AT&T 3G service in Gunnison, our aircard is useless. So, we’ve not stayed particularly well connected this month.

Yesterday afternoon found me wandering across the park, with laptop in hand, searching for a signal. As I sat on a picnic table in the shade, I watched our cute little four-year-old neighbor Jonathan pedal by on his bike. His young mother was walking not too far behind. We exchanged pleasantries and she asked if I had found a “hotspot”. I replied that I was lucky enough to be connected, but the speed was far from hot.

“I grew up with dial-up,” she smiled with an eye roll that implied that was a long time ago. “Once you have high-speed internet, it’s tough to go back.”

“Sure is,” I replied, suddenly feeling quite old.

You see, I didn’t grow up with dial-up. I was an early adopter at 30! Even as an “old fart”, it’s still tough to tolerate slower than snot, miss and hit internet service in the 21st Century.

I shared the story with Paul, who offered a quick quip that was supposed to make me feel better...I think.

“You didn’t grow up with dial-up,” he said. “But, when you were growing up phones actually had dials!”

True. True.

Speaking of dial ups, Paul’s phone rang just after 7:00 this morning. It was Forest City calling. We recently returned a customer satisfaction survey sent to us by Winnebago. The survey asks new Winnie owners to report on areas where their new motorhome has required service, their satisfaction with that service and the motorhome overall.

As we went through the survey, we realized we’ve had more than our fair share of service issues with our new Winnie. Most have been mentioned here, but we’ve spared you the details of a few others. By the time we completed the survey we were feeling pretty darn unsatisfied! There was a space at the bottom of the form that asked if we’d like to talk to someone about our responses. Paul said yes. This morning, somebody at Winnebago called.

Receiving that phone call impressed us. It would have been easy not to make the call, and we probably would have eventually forgotten we’d made the request. The call lasted about an hour.

We’ll spare you the details of that conversation. We’re not exactly sure how things are going to work out. But, suffice it to say that Winnebago has the opportunity to delight these less-than-satisfied two-time purchasers of their product. We’ll see if they do. We’re waiting for them to dial us up again and let us know.

We’ll keep you posted.

Rug Doctor

We’re down to our last few days in Gunnison...in this park, anyway. We’ve decided to bag our plans in Littleton as it’s just too hot there and we’re having too much fun here! So, we’re going to hang out in Gunnison for another week or two. But, we’re not going to stay here. Any additional days at our friendly park would be charged a hefty day rate, so we’ll take advantage of the weekly rate at a nice park across the highway. Besides, we’re ready for a slight change of scenery.

We had a fabulous long weekend with Paul’s sister and brother-in-law. This is the second time they’ve met up with us on our travels. They seem to like doing that and we very much enjoy their visits. We made a day trip to surprisingly magnificent Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, and a return trip to super scenic Crested Butte. Between our adventures we managed to eat our way across tasty Gunnison. One of these days, I’ll pull together a write up of our fun on Bullwinkle’s Travels.

Of course, not all of our days here have been about fun and adventure. Some have been quite mundane. Yesterday was one of those days.

In preparation of our oh-so-short travel day later this week, Paul spent some time yesterday morning checking tires and batteries and such. While he was hanging around the moose, our neighbor explained that he was about to clean his carpets and inquired if we would like to use the rented machine after his job was done. We passed on the offer, as carpet cleaning is on our growing list of things to do during our two months in Kansas City this Fall. With our daily chores complete, we soon found ourselves twiddling our thumbs. Suddenly the idea of tackling the carpets sounded like a good idea. Why not knock out a “Kansas City to do” before we get there? Besides, with less than 200 square feet of carpet, how big could this small job be?

We probably shouldn’t admit this, but we’d yet to clean the carpet in our soon-to-be two-year-old moose. We’re fanatical with our vacuum cleaner, so the carpet looks practically as good as new. That said, we both knew it was overdue for a good cleaning.

Convinced that we could complete this job in an hour or less, we nabbed the Rug Doctor. As soon as we rolled it into our rolling home the task became more complicated. Suddenly, that little red machine didn’t look so little. Actually, it was huge! There was no way we were going to be able to maneuver that thing around most of our house without bumping into doors, walls or cabinets. We ended up doing about two-thirds of the job on our hands and knees using the upholstery tool. There were just a couple of spots where we could actually make a pass of the big red machine. After a couple of hours of crawling around and wrestling with a long hose, the carpet was clean and damp. Our table, chairs, recliner and other things that normally sit on the carpet filled nearly every inch of our tiled floor. Moving around our home was like mastering an obstacle course. The place was a wreck!

Thankfully, humidity is practically non-existent here in the high country. So, everything dried fairly quickly. It was half-past happy hour before we had nearly everything back in place and returned the machine. By the time we eased our sore bodies into bed, our rolling home was back to normal.

Today, we’re feeling better and our carpet is clean, fresh and fluffy. With one big “to do” done, we’re ready to get back to the business of having lots of fun in Gunnison.

Next time we make a date with the Rug Doctor we’ll know: Cleaning a little bit of carpet is a really big job!

North Texas

It's another beauuuuuutiful day here in Gunnison, where the expected high is a very pleasant 76 degrees. Who cares if our heat pump isn't quite up to par? We don't need it here!

Merikay asked a great question. She was wondering if this was a place where we could settle down and hang out all year, especially since we seem to like it so. I did a bit of research on this morning.

The short answer is, "No!"

One of the hazards of exploring the country fulltime is falling in love with a place while it's having it's absolutely best weather. These days, Gunnison is in its glory. Summer here means comfortable days and cool nights. You just can't beat it.

Of course, we know it gets cold here. After all, we're sitting at 7700 feet. And, there are mountains all around us. And, when winter comes to the Rockies, it gets cold.

But, my morning research revealed that when winter comes to Gunnison it can get really cold. With overnight lows that consistently have a minus sign in front of them, January and February can be brutal. Temperatures of -30 are not uncommon. And, that doesn't include any wind chill!

And, yes, it does snow here. But, really, it's not that much. But, honestly, if the temperature is -30 how much difference does a few inches - or feet - of snow make?

When we find the next place we call home, it'll be in a place that we can hang out all year if we choose. As much as we love Gunnison, this won't be it.

We've come to discover that we aren't the only folks who feel this way. As we've made our way around town and the surrounding areas, we've noticed that most of the license plates aren't from Colorado. They're from California, New Mexico and Oklahoma, among others. Many are from our native Kansas. Most are from our adopted Texas.

On our drive to Lake City the other day, we noticed a steady stream of Texas plates heading our way. When we arrived in the tiny town of 300 or so, the Texas cars far outnumbered those from Colorado or any other state. When we found Roxa and Hutch, the folks we met last winter in Kerrville, at their very fun and funky gas station and BBQ joint we asked them if Lake City was actually a suburb of Amarillo. They assured us it wasn't, but understood why we might think so.

"Some folks call this part of the state North Texas," they explained. "Seems like everybody escapes the Texas heat and comes here."

Good idea. Today's high in Austin is supposed to be 104. We'd make that escape, too. Our friends, quite wisely, serve up some mighty tasty Texas BBQ that gives these cool Texans a taste of home cookin'.

We didn't need another reason to love Gunnison, but it looks like we have one. While we're cruising around town sporting our Texas plates, we look like locals.

For the Summer, anyway.

Kickin' back

It’s Friday, Friday

Gotta get down on Friday

Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend, weekend

OK, I'll confess. Sometimes I'm not absolutely sure what day of the week it is.

Today, is no such day. I woke up with this inane little tune stuck in my head.

So, I thought I'd share it with you.

Friday, Friday

Gettin’ down on Friday

Everybody’s lookin’ forward to the weekend

Yes, it is Friday. That means another week has passed here in gorgeous Gunnison.

(Have I mentioned lately that we really like it here?)

We've kept ourselves busy doing nothing much in particular, just Jeepin' here and biking there. In between, we've met up with some amazing hang gliders and sat in on the championship game of the six-to-eight year old town baseball league. There's just something about sitting in the stands on a Summer evening watching cute little kids play baseball. (Unfortunately, "our team" lost.)

This morning, Karen and I are walking to town where Arvin and Paul will join us for breakfast. Then, Paul and I are planning to take a very scenic drive to Lake City to check the place out and see if we can find some folks we met in Kerrville last winter.

Other than that, we're getting pretty good at this "kickin' back in the mountains" thing. In fact, we could get used to this!

Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah)

Partyin’, partyin’ (Yeah)

Fun, fun, fun, fun

Lookin’ forward to the weekend

Have a great weekend!

Sunscreens

We are just loving it here in Gunnison. While much of the country is sweating through a monster heat wave, we are blessed with daytime highs in the low 80s and overnight lows that dip into the 40s.

What's not to love?

Our first week flew by. We had so much fun! We finally had the great pleasure to meet The Wandering Wishnies. We've "followed" these good folks for about three years. It was treat to finally meet up in person and enjoy a couple of fine meals here in town. We're so pleased to move Fred and Jo to the "Bloggers We've Met" on our blogroll! We also got to spend some quality time with Darren and Joyce, whom we first met in Kerrville and decided to alter their itinerary to hook up with us for awhile. (Thanks, guys!) We shared a most enjoyable wildflower expedition to gorgeous Crested Butte, and introduced them to the Wishnies, too!

Sadly, our friends all hit the road yesterday. So, we're left to our own devices. I'm proud to report that Bullwinkle's Travels is, at long last, nearly up to date. I've been a blogging machine! (My next step is to report on all the fun we've had here!) We've made several outings on the bikes, and it's been just too long since we've done that. We also met two really fun neighbors, Karen and Arvin. They've made summer stops in Gunnison for the last seven years, so they really know their way around. This morning, Karen gave me a wonderful Jeep tour of the area and we scoped out real estate.

Don't get too excited, people. We're just looking!

It is easy to see us living here in Gunnison. It's our kind of place. It's beautiful and cool. There's plenty of hiking and biking for miles. And, there are Jeeps everywhere. Of course, we have to remind ourselves that this is July! In the middle of winter, the snow really piles up and Gunnison frequently earns the title of coldest place in the United States. We've been advised that if we get really serious about living here, we rent first...and spend a winter. We'll see.

We've taken care of various odds and ends and household chores that are best taken care of when you're parked in one spot for awhile. Today the UPS man delivered our latest, greatest moose accessory, which we ordered shortly after our arrival.

Bullwinkle is now sporting sunscreens! Since the day we purchased a motorhome, we've been researching the options for moderating the amount of sun and heat that come blazing through our big Imax windshield. We've stopped more people in more campgrounds and inquired about their sunscreens. (It's a great conversation starter!) Through our research, one company rose to the top.

Prompt RV Sunscreens are unique. You can put them up and take them down quickly and easily without using a ladder, and you don't need to add any snaps or buttons to your motorhome to attach them. They block 90% of the sun's rays, which can have a huge impact on the temperature of the front of our rolling home. After talking to several happy owners of these magical sunscreens, we ordered two: one for the windshield and another for the big driver's window.

I was out shopping for real estate when the UPS man came by this morning. But, by the time I got home Paul had the big sunscreen up. Moments later the second was attached. With these two nifty black wraps, we had just one thing to say.

Bullwinkle looks cool!

He doesn't just look cool. He is cool! It's amazing how much difference these screens made in the temperature just today. And, like a great pair of sunglasses, we enjoy a glare-free view of the great outdoors.

We realize it's only been one sunny afternoon with this new purchase. But, so far so good. Actually, we highly recommend them.

After all, don't we all know how to beat the heat? Drink plenty of fluids, wear a hat and apply sunscreen liberally. We're all over it.