Day of Capitals

Today, we travelled to Dover, Delaware to visit the state capital. Delaware calls their statehouse the Legislative Hall. Here is a picture of Lynn in front of the Legislative Hall.

  And here is the House of Representatives Chamber as seen from the Gallery.

This is the Senate Chamber.

While on the tour, we discovered several facts. Did you know that Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States thus becoming the first state in the American Union? That occurred on December 7, 1787.

 

Delaware had 3 signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Next,we drove to Annapolis, Maryland and toured their Capital which at one time served as the U.S. capital in 1783, 1784. See the sign for details.

Here is the Maryland State House building.

This is the Senate Chamber.

and here is the House Chamber.

 It was in this building that George Washington resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in this very room, the Old Senate Chamber on December 23, 1783.

Here is the Government House (Governer's Residence)

We were going to visit the Navel Academy at Annapolis also but ran out of time so we need to come back later in the week.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day and Lynn suggested we go out for breakfast. We drove about 9 miles into Bethesda to The Original Pancake House, one of my favorite places for breakfast. Lynn introduced me to this chain more than 20 years ago while we were dating. They have a restaurant in Anahiem, CA in an old house and we used to go there a couple of times a month. We haven't been to one in over a year and it was a real treat. After breakfast, we drove to the University of Maryland College Park Metro station where parking is free on weekends and took the subway to the Mall and walked to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History where we spent the day. We saw the Hope Diamond, a large, 45.52 carats, deep-blue diamond, there. When we returned home, Lynn fixed a nice buffalo steak on the grill. While at the museum, I got a call from my daughter Wendy, wishing me a Happy Father's Day. All in all, a great day.

Visit Mount Vernon

This morning, we decided to drive to Mount Vernon, home of George Washington.

Lynn and I have both been there before but in my case, it was 1972 and Lynn was even further back. Neither of us remembered too much about the place other then the back porch overlooking the Potomac.
The estate is around 500 acres and includes the farm. We very much enjoyed the visit and also took a 45 minute cruise on the river. There is a museum and we had lunch at the Mount Vernon Inn, just steps from the estate. All in all, a very enjoyable day.

Return to Washington D.C.

With our Tracks to Adventure "Old South" trip over, we said goodby to our wagonmasters, Ken and Wanda Harris this morning and drove the 86 miles from Gettysburg, PA back to Cherry Hill Park in College Park, MD where we will spend the next 10 nights. There is so much to see in our nations capital that we decided to come back and try to at least hit the highlights. We did laundry this afternoon and then went to Costco for some shopping and gas, followed by dinner at a Korean place. It was expensive and we did not enjoy the food at all. Bad choice. When we returned to the park, we watched a movie they were showing on the outside screen and then turned in for the night. It has been very hot and humid so we are sleeping with the air conditioning running. We much prefer having the windows open at night, but with lows about 75 degrees and humid, it is just to hot.
More tomorrow.

Friends Visit

This morning, we woke up to another beautiful day. Clear skies and temperatures in the low 70’s were predicted. We spent the morning doing more light housework, arranging the furniture to accommodate our guests and putting out the extra entry step and welcome mat.

Lynn’s friends arrived about 11:00AM and drove right by our location. A very short time later, they were back and we got them parked. There was lots of hugging and kissing as we greeted each other and much ooh’ing and aah’ing about how beautiful they thought our coach was and they took a few pictures of the exterior. Then we went inside to visit.

(L to R) Bertie, Joan, Juliet, Ana and Lynn

 

Lynn and I worked in the back office of the Broadway Stores during the 70’s, 80’s and half way through the 90’s when they went out of business. These friends all worked there too so while they were real tight with Lynn, I knew them also. There were six of them that got together to celebrate birthdays, etc. I used to arrange a reunion once a year of all the Broadway folks. We had anywhere from about 50 to over 120 folks show up each year. It was shortly after our 10th reunion when Lynn and I sold our home; bought the motor home and moved away from California to begin our gypsy lifestyle. Since then, we haven’t seen each other very often.

The ladies got a tour of our home and we had a nice long visit. Lynn fixed a chicken and pasta salad for lunch and we drank coffee and tea and had a great time.

Here, I am added to the picture.

Re-Union Ends; We Move To A New Location

Well, we went for breakfast at 7:00 this morning and after many hugs and well wishes for safe travels, we all went our separate ways.

Lynn and I hung around until mid-morning because we only had about an hours drive. We finally left around 10:30AM and headed west on I-10 to Banning and then up the hill on CA-243 toward Idyllwild. About 9 miles up the very narrow, winding road, we turned right on Poppet Flat Road and arrived at Silent Valley Resort. This is a very nice RV resort at about 3500 Ft. elevation. It is much cooler here than the sea level valley we just left. We will be here for 9 nights and then will head to Mesa, AZ on Mother's Day.

Tomorrow, Lynn is having several of her friends from the LA/Orange County area's come up to see the coach, visit and have lunch. This evening, we ate dinner in the restaurant here at the resort. We are catching up on recorded TV shows and emails we didn't have time for during the re-union.

Last Night of Track's Re-Union

Well, last night we had wind gusts of 60MPH. They have subsided this morning but are still quite strong. Today started with breakfast from 7:30AM to 9:00AM. After breakfast, Lynn went shopping and was only gone a half hour. Then I went to Wal*Mart to pick up some medication I had just run out of and I was back in about a half hour too. It was real windy out but in the campground, it wasn't as bad.

From 11:00AM until 12:30PM we had wagon master mini-reunions where a bunch of food is served and you can talk to the different wagon masters about the different tour's offered.

From 2:00PM until 4:00PM was the trade show where most folks signed up for tours. I understand it was very successful for Track's. Lynn and I didn't sign up for anything but will get a special deal on next springs re-union. At that time we will decide which (if any) tours we will do in 2011 and/or 2012.

Tonight, dinner was served from 5:30PM to 6:30PM and then at 7:00PM we had more entertainment. It started with some soft shoe and vaudeville style routines and then we had music from the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's with lots of dancing again. Tomorrow, from 7:00AM to 9:00AM will be the farewell breakfast and then we will get ready to move to Silent Valley, between Banning and Idyllwild. We will be there until Mother's Day when we head for Mesa, AZ.

This afternoon, between the trade show and dinner, Lynn managed to snap off the power to her laptop, where it enters the laptop so I had to make a quick run to Best Buy to get a new power supply for her. That is the second power supply in 3 months. I hope she figures out what she is doing wrong soon.

Busy Day

This morning Lynn and I went to the Tracks breakfast at 7:30. After breakfast, we went shopping at Henry's, Trader Joe's, Stater Bros., Target and Office Max. We were on our way to the farmers market when we heard on the radio that it had been cancelled because of the high winds. While the winds were blowing, I didn't think it was strong enough to cancel the market but what do I know?

When we got back to the RV park, the coach had been waxed and is looking pretty good for the amount of miles and abuse we have piled on her.

At 1:00PM, there was another social with finger food and some light entertainment. Then they had a raffle where they handed out $100.00 to $300.00 certificates good toward future trips. Every couple got at least one certificate and many got two. At 5:00PM, we were back for bingo. There were six games. The first 2 were for $100.00. The next 2 were for $200.00. The 5th game was for $300.00 and the last game was for $1,000.00. Lynn and I ended up with $400.00 which can be applied toward the cost of every trip we sign up for at tomorrows trade show. We have done 10 so far and have 2 more scheduled this year. We really enjoy them, but I think we will skip next year and do other things.

Tonight, at 7:00PM, we had more entertainment. Wine and cheese, beer and soft drinks and The Bill Ferguson group did mostly old standards. Some western, some swing , and lots of other mixture. We did a lot of dancing and are tired now but we had a real good time.

The wind is really howling now. It is gusting over 50 MPH and the coach is really rocking. I put both satellite dishes down as a precaution. Now it is time to watch local TV news and go to bed.

Day 2 Of The Re-Union

We started off this morning with a breakfast of bacon and eggs with different juices, coffee, fruits, oatmeal and pastries. Then it was time to relax, visit, or anything else we wanted to do around the resort.

My motorhome got a bath and tomorrow, it will get waxed.

At noon today, the wagon master teams prepared hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the fixins along with potato salad, baked beans, all kinds of sodas and water and fruit and cookies. Quite a spread and very good. We all sat around and visited and ate and enjoyed another beautiful day. A partial very high cloud cover kept the tempature a little cooler than yesterday and a gentle breeze felt really good.

Ar 5:30PM this afternoon, we had dinner served to us. Again, very good. Than, at 7:00PM we had more entertainment which was enjoyable. Everything wrapped up about 9:00PM. The wind is picking up but isn't too bad yet. I took down the flag late this afternoon before the wind gets really bad.

It is now about 10:00PM and I have done all my chores, finished all my emails, paid some bills and am ready to relax some more while watching the local news on TV. Breakfast tomorrow is again at 7:30AM to 9:00AM.

Track's Re-Union Begins

This morning we travelled about 3 miles from TT Palm Springs to Emerald Desert RV Resort in Palm Desert, just across the freeway. It is a very nice resort and we were welcomed by management here.

There are 35 rigs attending the re-union including 6 wagon master rigs. It is a great group of people and we know 12 of the couples personally from previous tours. We had a social from 2:00PM to 4:00PM today. There was a welcoming speech by Larry Olson, the owner of Tracks and lots of finger foods and drinks to keep us busy while a guitarist played in the background. Then everyone adjourned to get ready for the evening.

Lynn and I found out it was Ray and Carol Garges’ anniversary so we invited them out to dinner. We went to Mimi’s and enjoyed dinner very much and the conversation even more, but after the social, we were all stuffed. We returned to the RV park just in time for the evening entertainment which began at 7:00PM.

The entertainment started with a duet. A violinist and a bassist played for 45 minutes. Then Larry came out on stage dressed in a tux with a top hat and did some soft shoe routines. He was very good and we all enjoyed his show. Then it was back to the duet for the rest of the evening. We did a lot of visiting, catching up with past activities and finding out what others plans were for the rest of the year.

Lynn and I are scheduled to take a couple of Track’s tours this year and found out several of our friends are also signed up for the same tours. While we really enjoy making new friends on these tours, we also enjoy renewing old friendships.

Today, the weather was a lot warmer than yesterday and it seemed a lot more humid also. It is still 88 degrees out right now, about 10:18PM. It is starting to get windy too. There are wind warnings for tomorrow afternoon and evening. We will see, but I think I better take down the flag tomorrow afternoon. I have already had one flag pole snap in 65 MPG gusting winds earlier this year.

Breakfast is from 7:30AM to 9:00 AM tomorrow. We are looking forward to another good time tomorrow. Today was great.

A Little Excitement, Followed By Confusion

This morning, Lynn suggested we go out for breakfast. We are in Palm Desert and there is a Jewish Deli called Sherman's just down the road. I love good rye bread and thought we might be able to pick up a couple of loaves there so I said "Sure". The food was very good but the rye bread didn't look so good so we passed.

Tomorrow, we will be moving about 3 miles from Thousand Trails Palm Springs to Emerald Desert RV Resort where Tracks To Adventure is having a re-union. Tracks hold re-unions twice a year, western US in the spring and eastern US in the fall. They are marketing events but are a lot of fun. We have been on 10 tracks trips so far and have met a lot of wonderful people and it is always great to attend these re-unions to see familiar faces and catch up on the latest. On the way back from breakfast, we decided to stop in and see who had come early and scope out the facilities. We saw a half a dozen folks already there and talked a bit before returning to TT.

When we got back to the RV park, we took a walk and then started to put some stuff away in preparation for tomorrows move. It was a beautiful spring day with very little wind, clear skies and tempratures rising through the day to about 90 degrees and then cooling off again to where it is about 84 degrees right now.

This afternoon I decidsed to work some more on this blog. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I am starting this blog in April of 2010 but am trying to make it look like I started it back in 2007. I am trying to blog every day now and going back through my old notes and emails and trip planning stuff to document our adventures from the beginning. Anyway, I am a real dunce when it comes to software I am not familiar with and I am brand new to Blogger. While it is very easy to use, I seem to always find a way to succeed in making it difficult. I was trying to insert some pictures into my first days post and was having a real tough time. The pictures went in just like I wanted them to and looked real good, but when I exited everything and then went back in, the pictures were gone. I will need to figure out what I am doing wrong some other day. I don't think the next few days will leave much time to play around.

This afternoon, I had the RV all closed up and the front air on. About 3:30PM, all of a sudden this shrill beeping started right over my head. Lynn was in the bedroom with the door closed and was visiting on the phone with a friend. I jumped up and found the Carbon Monoxide sensor in the dining area had gone off. There is a sensor in the bedroom too but it didn't go off. The dining area sensor was reading over 800 which is just a bit more than the zero that it is supposed to read. I immediately opened all the windows, turned off the air, started the Fantastic roof fans and asked Lynn to go outside. I checked all possible sources of ignition thinking that the only way to get carbon monoxide was to be burning something. We have an Aqua-Hot unit but it was off. The stove was off too. I wasn't running the engine in the car or the coach or the genset. Those are the only 5 sources of possible Carbon Monoxide I could think of in our coach. Next I went outside and checked all the neighboring units. No one had a car or truck idleing and there just wasn't any potential source that I could find. When I went back in, the sensor was reading 42 and dropping. It went back to zero a few seconds later. I still don't know what caused the problem but it has not re-occured. Anyway, my heart rate is back to normal and it is about time to go to bed.

Very Quiet Day

Today was one of those very quiet days where it was beautiful outside and I spent much of the day inside, doing very little. In the morning, I was working on this blog. It is new to me and I am still learning how to accomplish what I want to do. I also tidied up the coach a bit and put up the flag. One of Lynn's cousins and her husband came to visit us this afternoon. I had never met either one of them and Lynn hadn't seen them in about 13 years. Alice and Dr. Nordy Spibak were very nice and we had a lovely visit for a few hours. We finally went to dinner about 6:00PM which is late for us. Nordy, who plays golf out here quite often recommended La Donne Cucina Italiana at the other end of Palm Desert from where we are staying. He drove and took the freeway, but about 300 yards before we were to exit, there was a very bad crash. A truck travelling the same direction as us went through the center divider, overturned and caught fire. While the freeway on our side was clear, the looky loos had it backed up for about a mile and a half, crawling along at five miles an hour. When we finally got to the restaurant, the food and service were both very good. When we returned to the RV park, it was very pleasant outside with clear skies and a very balmy 79 degrees. A nice night to sit outside and just look at the stars.

Friday Night Movie At Thousand Trails Palm Springs

Today's weather forcast was for rain with a cold front coming through. The front did come through, but there was no rain and the weather was fine. High 70's to low 80's and light winds. An old friend from our Broadway days, Jim Rothenberger, lives here in Rancho Mirage and he came over for a short 2 hour visit. We hadn't seen Jim in 5 or 6 years and it was good to catch up on each other's lives. Later, Lynn and I went to dinner at a Jewish Deli, Sherman's in Palm Desert and then we returned to TT to see the Friday night movie, First Wives Club. Although it is an old movie, we had never seen it and enjoyed it very much.

New CB Antenna

The weather forecast for today was heavy rain and winds as a cold front moved through. The worst of it was predicted for late morning so we got an early start as today was a moving day. We have been at the Thousand Trails Pio Pico Preserve near Jamul, CA, about 20 miles SE of San Diego, for the past 20 days and moved to TT Palm Springs. On the way, we detoured to a CB shop in Fontana that had been recommended to us by a RVing friend, Ray Garges. We arrived at the CB shop about 9:30 in the morning. Although it was cloudy, we had no rain or wind during the drive.

We were assigned a tech and he began analyzing our problem. He determined that the antenna was out of tune with the radio and tried to tune it but couldn't. Next, he tried to attach another antenna to the cable on the roof but that didn't work either so I suggested he bypass the cable and install a new antenna on the drivers side of the coach, close to where the radio is located. Around 4:15 PM it began to drizzle and by 4:45PM, there was a steady rain coming down with light winds. Finally, at 5:00PM he was finished and the radio now seems to work great. The real test will be on our next Tracks trip which begins May 18th in Natchez, MS.

We paid for the work and headed east toward Palm Desert. About the time we got to the Banning Pass, the rain stopped and it was sunny and beautiful from there on. We did have a stiff crosswind but the Safety-Steer unit on the rig handled it fine and I was able to control the gusts with no problem. We were the last people with reservations for the day when we arrived at Thousand Trails Palm Springs and the ranger at the gate could take off for the day. This is a very nice preserve.

 

We found a spot and parked although it was very tight. It took a lot of maneuvering to get the rig into the spot between large Palm Trees.

  When I was finally parked and hooked up to the utilities and had the slides extended, I deployed both satellite dishes. Neither of them could find their respective satellites through the forest of trees in this park. I moved the rig forward and backward about 3 feet, 6 inches at a time, but no luck so I finally gave up. We have local TV using the batwing antenna and Internet service with the Verizon air card, so we are fine. I just won't be able to use the DVR to record programs and skip through the commercials like I usually do. Life is tough sometimes.

Going To Casa Grande

Our coach is fixed so we left Mesa this morning and headed to Casa Grande, AZ. There is a TRACKS TO ADVENTURE reunion in Casa Grande starting April 20. Since we are 'members' of the Moose, I decided to try the accommodations at the Arizona City Lodge which offers 30 amp electricity. We will watch water usage the next several days until we leave on April 20 to the Palm Creek RV Resort for our stay at the reunion

We arrived in Casa Grande early this afternoon. We went exploring in the area and drove by 'The Escapees' RV campground which was 15 or so miles from us. This was the original Escapees RV park and it is nearly 30 years old.

We left the campground and took a different highway back to Casa Grande. By coming in from the 'West' we came first to 'old Casa Grande' and then drove to the new developments of the city. By the time our exploring was somewhat completed, it was nearly 6:30 pm. We drove back to the Moose Lodge where Lynn made dinner. It is very wide open here and I am sure we will be able to enjoy the sunrises and sunsets the next several days.

Retired At Last - Finally, We're On Our Way

Today was unbelievable. The Jeep has been in the shop since June 28th for warantee work and after all the excuses of backordered parts, etc. and the promises to have it done by end of work day, yesterday,  7/2, it still wasn't ready until this afternoon around 4:00PM. Lynn and I had been sitting in the motor home outside the Jeep dealer since 11:00AM. We have plans to see what is billed as one of the very best fireworks displays in the country. It is called LibertyFest and is located in Edmond, a suburb of Oklahoma City. After leaving Mesa at 4:00PM on the 3rd, a full day late, I have just driven 414 miles and arrived to spend the night in a Wal*Mart parking lot in Albuquerque, NM at 12:15AM on 7/4. I have reservations at the Rockwell RV Park in Oklahoma City the night of the 4th. I still have 515 miles to drive to get there, so I will sleep for about 5 hours and then drive the rest of the way and hope I don't have any problems. It will be close, but it is certainly doable.

Copy of A Letter Sent To My Work Associates

Dear All,

In case you haven't already heard, this coming Monday, July 2nd is officially my last day at Nestlé. After spending more then 10 years here and over 47 years working full time plus 10 continuous years before that working part time, I have decided to retire. It has been a great pleasure working with so many wonderful people here. It was a challenging, wonderful experience. I truly appreciate the opportunity which helped me grow personally and professionally. I will miss you all.

Thank You so much for all your kind co-operation, support and help throughout my time with Nestlé.

During my working years, I was able to see much of the North American continent via car, motorcycle and private plane, but at a very brisk pace as I could never get more than 5 weeks off at a time. Now, in my retirement, I plan to travel the North American continent at a much slower pace in my motor coach, exploring areas of interest in detail with my 4X4 Jeep.

Initially, I will be exploring the Great Lakes area and then the Canadian Maritime Provinces and the Gaspe Peninsula and Quebec areas. Come fall, I will start in the New England area and follow the fall color south along the Skyline Drive through the Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway down to North Carolina and into Florida to visit friends. Next, we will explore along the Gulf Coast, to Hidalgo, TX. Then off to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and then the Copper Canyon where we will load the coach onto a rail car for a 5 day excursion through the canyon. From there we will take a ferry over to the Baja and do the length of that. After that, it’s up through Canada along the ALCAN Highway to spend next summer in Alaska.


If you would like to stay in touch, you can reach me either via e-mail (agr8skp@gmail.com) or via my mobile: 714-658-8833. If you get a chance, please reply back to my gmail account with your contact information.

I wish you THE VERY BEST in all your future endeavors.

With Best Regards,

David Cross
Full timer (7 months) spending my daughter's inheritance
Traveling North America
Currently in Mesa, AZ
2007 Monaco 41 Ft. Executive
2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited
FMCA
Good Sam

Preparation For The Adventure

We sold our home in Brea, California in the early fall of 2006. We sold or gave away most of our worldly possessions, keeping only what we thought we needed for our new home and we also stored a few antiques and other stuff we really didn't want to get rid of just yet in a small 5X10 storage unit. You can't imagine the feeling of relief I had after doing that. I was suddenly free of all the stuff I had spent a lifetime accumulating. There were a lot of things I had completely forgotten I had. I decided it was just "stuff". I have pictures digitized so I can see them anytime I want, but they don't take up any space.

After selling the house and while returning from a vacation to Georgia in September, we detoured north to Madison, South Dakota to establish a domicile. It took less than 4 hours to become South Dakota residents. We first went to a mail forwarding service and established a Personal Mail Box (PMB) which would serve as our new address. We than walked across the street to the courthouse and filled out the paperwork for new SD drivers licenses. We took the eye test; got our picture taken and traded them our California licenses for the new South Dakota licenses on the spot. Next, we registered our Jeep in South Dakota and they handed us our new SD plates. With our new licenses as proof of SD residency, we went to another room in the courthouse and registered to vote. Next, we walked a block and a half to a local branch of Wells Fargo Bank and opened a checking account. Hooray, we are official SD residents. Later, we went back to visit a lawyer to update our trusts, wills, etc.

Lynn and I left California for Oregon, hauling a U-Haul which was loaded to the gills.

We arrived at the Monaco factory right on time on 12/4/06.

We were there when they opened on Monday morning and after checking in, we went straight to the rig and it was beautiful. Unfortunately, we were in so much of a hurry to begin our inspection and delivery process that we forgot to take any pictures of the exterior.

Apparently, it is the policy of Monaco to have the salesman participate in all factory deliveries, so we were to meet him at the factory so he could participate. That is when things began to go awry.

The salesman we bought from has a home just 17 miles from the factory in Oregon and was working for the dealer in California for a couple of months when we bought from him. He seemed like a great guy who really knew the product and basically full times in the same model we bought. He moves around the west, working for different dealers for a few months at a time. After we bought from him, but before the delivery, he changed jobs, taking a General Manager job at a dealer in northern California, but since he sold us the coach, he would still be the participant in the factory delivery.

The dealer in Irvine where we bought it should have sent the paperwork to the factory, but instead sent it to the salesman at his new employer so he would have it when we got to the factory. Problem was that the salesman was in Oregon at his home there when the paperwork arrived in northern California and had no idea that it was sent to his new employer. The new employer just put the envelope in his inbox. Our salesman had expected the paperwork to be waiting for him at the factory and so when he arrived at the factory and we did our pre-delivery walk-through which took most of the day and then went to complete the paperwork, it wasn't there.

It was now late in the afternoon on Monday and all of a sudden, we couldn't take delivery. A few phone calls later, and we were told that we could stay in the coach at the factory until the paperwork arrived, but we couldn't drive the coach anywhere without a factory person along, using the factory plates and we couldn't move our stuff from the U-Haul into the coach. The paperwork was to be overnighted from northern California to Oregon and would be there in the morning. The next morning, the paperwork arrived and we filled out everything, but it turns out that we had to sign something in front of a notary and then send it back to the dealer in Irvine and he in turn needed to send us the final documents that we needed to register it in South Dakota.

Meantime, we got permission to load our stuff into the coach so we could return the U-Haul, which needed to be done on Tuesday or we would need to pay additional days rental.

When we started to load the coach, we discovered we had brought too much and didn't have room, so we started building a new Salvation Army donation.
We finally got the U-Haul empty and returned it with a half hour to spare and the coach was full of boxes that needed to be put away and Lynn was beside herself, trying to figure out where she wanted stuff to be vs. where it would fit.

Four months later, we were still re-arranging stuff and trying to figure out what else can be given away so we can make room for stuff we want to get, like a barbeque and folding picnic table, etc, but let me get back to the delivery.

Now, things start to really fall apart. We got the paperwork notarized okay, but it was too late in the day to FedEx it to Irvine, so the salesman, who needed to get back to work in N. Calif., took it with him to drop off at FedEx the next morning. Meanwhile, I had an appointment at a shop in Eugene to get the tow bar and aux brake system installed in the Jeep and the connections and controller for the aux brake put in the coach, but I couldn't drive the coach without the factory person going along. They were very accommodating, but we felt bad about it. After all, it wasn't their fault either. They sent someone along with us and sent another person in a car to follow us so we could get the coach to Eugene and the factory guys could go back to the factory while the coach was being worked on all day. Then they had to come back in the afternoon to drive it back to the factory for us. Everything got installed okay, and we got back to the factory, but no paperwork was there yet. We tried to contact the dealer, but it was too late. Next morning, we left a message for dealer to call, but they didn't until early afternoon and when they did, they said they hadn't received the notarized paperwork yet. We then tried to contact the salesman for a tracking number, but couldn't reach him. We left messages for him on his cell and at the dealership in N. Calif., but received no calls from him.

Long story short, we didn't get our paperwork for 13 days, until 12/17. We had to cancel the driving lessons and other activities we had planned. We were allowed to have the coach moved to a RV park we had reservations at, but the factory moved it and we weren't allowed to drive it once it was parked there. Without driving it, we weren't able to properly test everything and get all the bugs identified before we left the factory. The salesman says FedEx lost the package and it took them a long time to find it, but since we were never able to get a tracking number from him, I suspect he just miss-placed it and never sent it on time. We will never know for sure, but had to re-do everything again.

All this time, I was working 8 hours a day from the coach, via a slow connection since there was no high speed bandwidth available where we were.

The weather in Oregon sucks. It was cold, rainy and foggy every day we were there and we had snow one day, hail one day and one day it was so windy, we had to close the slides to keep from destroying the slide toppers. Sustained winds over 45 MPH directly from the left side of the rig with gusts over 65 MPH. Power was knocked out over much of Oregon in that storm and it took crews they brought in from WA, MT, ID and CA over a week to restore everything. They had winds over 132 MPH on one of the mountains further north.

In this photo taken from the campground, you can see the frost on the grass.

We needed to be in Tempe so I could begin work at the data center on 12/27 and I wanted to see my daughter, grandkids, and great granddaughter over the Christmas holiday. They are all in the White Mountains, in the Show Low area of AZ. Because of the way the laws are written in California, when we changed our residence from California to South Dakota and because we purchased the RV in California but took an out of state delivery, we were not allowed to bring the motor home into California for six months unless we paid sales tax and registration fees which ran to about $35,000. That meant that to get to AZ., we needed to go the long way through ID. and UT.

We got the plates from SD. on 12/18 and left Eugene on 12/20. We stopped in Portland the first day to see a friend from our days at The Broadway, Carol Chavez, and then headed through the Columbia Gorge, headed for Boise, Salt Lake and Show Low.

When we got up the morning we left Portland, the weather guy said there had been ice storms in the gorge, but it was open now, so we took off. I've got to tell you, that was one white knuckle ride. I had a total of 314 miles on the coach and at 102 inches wide 13.5 feet tall and 65 ft total length towing the Jeep and weighting 51000 lbs, and no driving instructions, with the slippery ice and a little blowing snow with cinders they use to help traction; and accidents every few miles and cars laying on their sides and roofs and spun out everywhere and snow and cinders constantly hitting the windshield so that I had to keep clearing it with washing fluid, do you get the picture??? We went less then a hundred miles that day and I was exhausted. We finally got to Show Low on Christmas Eve

and had a wonderful time on Christmas with all the family

and got to Mesa on time to begin work.

We are staying at Mesa Spirit RV Resort, which is on Main St. in Mesa. It is a nice resort with lots of activities to keep Lynn occupied while I work.

We will be here until I retire on 7/2 and will leave the morning of 7/3 for the Great Lakes area. I'll get to our itinerary soon, but I need to fill you in on some other stuff first.

I believe you knew that I had prostate cancer and had the prostate removed in Jan. of 2002. The cancer had already escaped the capsule and was found in one of the lymph nodes in the pelvic region, but the Dr. had suggested a wait and watch regime, checking PSA levels every 3 months and later every 6 months. The PSA count had started to rise dramatically in October, just before I left CA. and I got another test in January when I got to Mesa. It showed a doubling rate of less than a year, so I was sent to a Urologist here who found the cancer had metastasized and was in the pelvic area where the prostrate used to be. I was sent to a radiation oncologist who has started me on radiation therapy and hormone treatments. I have completed 26 days of radiation so far and have 13 more daily treatments to go. The prognosis is good and the place I am going to has been rated very high in the US, so I guess they know what they are doing. Thank God for insurance. Treatments are $1768.80 per day.

Now, back to our plans. We will head for the Great Lakes region in July and after spending about a month there, we will head for the Canadian Maritime provinces including Montreal, Quebec, the Gaspe areas, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and our New England areas.

We are taking a couple of Tracks tours, the Viking 33 day tour, followed by the Gaspe, Quebec 29 day tour. You can read all about them at http://www.tracksrvtours.com/index.asp. We are planning to hit New England during the height of fall foliage and then follow the color south down through Shenandoah National Park, following Skyline Drive and then the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way down to Ashville NC and then down into FL to visit friends in Lady Lake and Sebring and Pinellas Park. Then it's over to Mesa for more Dr. visits to follow up on the Cancer, but on the way, we will visit all the Gulf Coast stuff, including New Orleans.

After Mesa, it's down to Mexico to do Copper Canyon on Tracks 17 day tour, putting the coach on a railroad flatcar for five days through the canyon. I'm sure you have seen the ads for this trip. When we get back from that, we will probably visit CA for a short time and maybe the kids again, but in early Jan, we will be going on another Tracks tour, this time 45 days to the Yucatan Peninsula.

Next Spring, we will be heading north through the Canadian Rockies, and into Alaska. I plan on spending all summer 2008 up there and after that, I have no plans yet.

Lynn is doing well and we are both looking forward to getting past this Cancer thing and getting on the road.
We have been taking day trips around southern Arizona since we got here and it is fun. We went to Bisbee for the weekend a couple of weeks ago. Below are a couple of pictures from that trip. 

We have also hit many of the tourist stops in the Phoenix area.
Last weekend, we did the air show at Luke AFB.