Ready to go but......

     Well, we are all packed up and ready to go but Mother Nature is throwing a monkey wrench into things. With Spring comes storms in America's Heartland and this Spring is no exception. All along our intended route is severe weather (high winds, heavy rain, possibility of hail and tornadoes). So, we have always said that the advantage of being so mobile is the ability to come and go as you please. In this case we have decided to stay put for a couple of days and wait it out. The down side is finding new campsites on short notice. Used to be easy but over the last few years, spontaneous travel changes don't always result in finding accompanying campsites. We're now in the process of making those changes and will try it again next week.

Time to Pack Up and Hit the Road

     Well, it's that time of year in southeast Texas where the Snowbird migration is in full swing. The weather folks are predicting 90 degrees by Friday! So far it has been an early Spring. The grass has been being cut since April, the flowers have been out and blooming, and the various "seasons" of Texas bugs has come and gone (ladybugs, wasps, forest webworms, and love bugs). Usually the Magnolia trees are just beginning to bloom when we are packing up but this year they have been shooting out their fragrant blooms for weeks. (photo above) Every morning I have wandered out and found a bloom to inhale. The fragrance is light but very pleasant.

     With the addition of the golf cart, we were looking at covering it for the brutal Texas summer. The more we thought about it, the more we felt we needed something more substantial to protect our investment. With that in mind, we decided to upgrade our storage shed. We made a deal with our neighbor and we traded our shed to him in exchange for one of his deck boxes. This then freed up space for a larger more substantial shed. We shopped around and found a nice lofted barn style that could accommodate the golf cart yet still allow plenty of room to store the things we needed to. This building was custom made by Cook buildings and delivered (and set up) on our site. It arrived on the back of a flatbed trailer and was lowered to the ground. The delivery driver unloaded a "mule" which was a fancy mini-fork lift. He used the mule to then drag and align the shed in it's new location.

Off loading from the trailer 

Using the "Mule" to move into position

Big double doors for golf cart access

In place and set up

A perfect fit with room to spare!

     Prior to this, we had to empty the old shed and move it to our neighbors property. I really didn't want to disassemble it then re-assemble it again. I felt that it was sturdy enough that we could easily get it to its new home by setting up some PVC pipe and rolling it to its new home. I asked our property manager if I could borrow a few moments of time from his crew to make the move. Well, they showed up and just carried it to the new location!! I didn't think that it was that sturdy but it all worked out fine.

Moving the old shed

      Our next home improvement took me a bit out of my comfort zone. We have had moisture condensation along the inner peak of our Casita roof for some time. It just gets too hot and humid around here and the ventilation is poor along the roof. We have seen what is called a ridge vent in homes and buildings in this area and it seemed to be a good solution for our problem. It looked like an easy fix that could be done by a "do it yourself-er". After studying a few You Tube videos, we found a couple of four foot vents and some shingles to match the roof.

   

      The process involved climbing up on the roof and cutting the appropriate sized slot into the ridgeline (thus providing the attic air a place to exhaust). Then the vents were nailed down and the shingles secured to the top. Now the air could vent and the moisture had some place to go other than down the interior roof of the Casita! The ridge vent itself is neat, fits well along the roof line and is barely noticeable.

The finished product.

     We are now ready to pack up and head northwards. Keeping in mind the floods of last year, we have taken as many precautions as we can to reduce any damage should the floods decide to recur. 

Early 2017

     Just a quick "catch up" on things we've been doing since returning from the Cruise. Spring came early to Texas and with the warmer weather we worked to spruce up the outside of the property. With the improvements going on at The Preserve of Texas, we find ourselves meandering around a lot more. In light of that, we decided to invest in a small golf cart to use in and around the property. We found this nice used vehicle that seats four, or the back seat folds down and there is a little space to haul things. It is raised a bit which allows us to "navigate off road" (as our GPS is fond of saying) without getting stuck. The grandkids came down over spring break and they had a great time riding around on it on trips to the playground, fishing dock, and beach area.

     At the end of February, we made a trip to Phoenix, AZ to attend the wedding of our niece. While there, my brother-in-law Bob and I attended a spring season baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the California Angels. We had great seats and it was the first time I have ever attended a pro baseball event. My thanks to Bob for setting this up!

Not a bad view from my seat!!

     Also while we were there we attended the Good Sam rally which was held at the Phoenix International Raceway. We checked out the vendors and all of the new trinkets and gizmos that any serious RVer can't live without. The Richard Petty racing experience was doing NASCAR driving opportunities on the track and we were able to get a peek. (I have driven previously at the Kansas Speedway).

At PIR 

     One of the things that Barb has been busy with during the winter months is making gifts with her Scan-N-Cut machine. This machine can cut paper or vinyl to make things such as cards, scrapbooking highlights, T-shirt decorations, etc. We found a store in Conroe, TX (not far from us) that sells the vinyl sheets and Barb made many of our Christmas gifts, T-shirts for the guys on the Cruise, and decorated insulated mugs for a whole bunch of folks. She made a nice wall hanging tile for our niece as a wedding gift.

Tile for the new Bride and Groom

Rtic cup for our Daughter, Amanda

T-shirts for the Guys on the Cruise

     We have been planning our summer and decided to head back to the upper midwest. Since last summer's trip was interrupted by the floods in Texas, we wanted to go back and see things we missed or didn't have time for. In the process, we stumbled on to a neat workamping position in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. Baileys Harbor is on the eastern side of the Door County peninsula just minutes from Lake Michigan. We were given an offer we couldn't refuse so we accepted and will head there at the end of May and stay through mid-September. The park is called Beantown Campground and offers Tent, pop-up, and RV sites along with camping cabins. Here is a link to their website: Beantown Campground

Bean Town Campground

     So now we have returned the grandkids to Kansas following spring break and will return to Texas to get ready for our next trip: spending the month of May in Kentucky visiting with our son and doing some remodeling of his Chiropractic offices.

January Starts with a Surprise!

     January started with quite an event. Shawn's former roommate was turning 30 and wanted to do something special. He decided that a cruise was in order. He invited Shawn and some of their mutual friends to go along. We were invited also. Others heard about the cruise and wanted to be a part of it and in no time, a little over 20 folks had signed up! So we all converged from various locations to Jacksonville, FL.

     The cruise ship was one of the smaller Carnival ships and it sailed to Freeport, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau. All in the Bahamas. Things started out COLD as a big cold front enveloped most of the country and stretched deep into Florida.

     Amanda, Charly, and the girls set up in their cabin and by the looks of things packed only shoes. Anyway, in Freeport we braved the temperatures and went ocean Kayaking. Our original destination was unavailable due to winds and choppy seas but we did go to a nice area where the mangroves abounded as did the pelicans.

     We did get in to snorkel a bit but the waters were so cold that we had seen enough after about an hour. We don't look very cold in the picture below but believe me, it was chilly!

From L to R- KC, Shawn, Tyler, and Brandon

     Barb surprised the "Birthday Boys" with some shirts she had made and made a couple for Shawn and KC to round out the crew. 

     Carnival's private island, Half Moon Cay, was the next destination. This was an important stop as Shawn had a surprise for his girlfriend Shelby. It all started with the entire group getting together for a group photo on the beach...

     After the photo, the group sort of meandered about and Shawn and Shelby snuggled a bit...

     Then Brad slipped him a small something and...

     

     A totally surprised Shelby was caught completely unaware. We didn't hear all that was said but...

     We're pretty sure the answer was "Yes!". 

     Not to be left out, Shelby received a special shirt for the occasion...

     Amazingly to all involved, everyone had managed to keep this secret for the last few months while the plans were made and the ring carefully hidden away from discovery (sounds like the plot to Lord of the Rings). Anyway, welcome to the family Shelby!!!

     Formal night on the ship let us all dress up and enjoy the evening's activities. 

The guys...

and the Girls.

     The last port of call was Nassau. We took Amanda and her family along with our frequent travel buddies Geoff and Brenda on a walking tour of the city. 

The Queen's Staircase

Our ship as viewed from the Fort

Now where did I put that key????

     We returned to Jacksonville to much warmer weather than when we left. Here the parties parted ways, all headed back to their homes. A couple days' drive returned us to Kansas and we began our preparations to return to Texas. We did delay a week in order to be around when the girls get their delayed Christmas gift... a new puppy!

2016 Comes to an End

     Well, it has been an interesting year to say the least. We started off the year by helping Shawn move to his new home in Kentucky. After arriving just before the blizzard dropped a foot of snow, we stayed around and helped him settle in to his new digs.

     Then in February we took a quick trip to Belize and went "primitive" for a week on an island off the coast with our friends Geoff and Brenda.

     We also took a quick return trip to Kentucky to check up on how Shawn was settling in. We augmented our trip by touring a few of the Bourbon distilleries the area has to offer.

     March saw us returning to Texas and getting ready for summer travels. We cleaned up after some minor flooding and got the motorhome spruced up and ready for travel.

     Our summer touring took us through the midwestern states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan. In June we met up with extended family in the Wisconsin Dells and enjoyed a great reunion. Unfortunately our summer took a decidedly disastrous turn. Late May through early June the rains fell in Texas and our place was submerged. We made the decision to cut our summer plans short and return to assess the damage and determine how best to recover.

     By the time we arrived, the waters had receded. In all it appears that we had about 6-8" of water standing in all of the buildings. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, we were not well prepared for this event and most everything that sat on the floor was damaged beyond repair. We rolled up our sleeves and worked through the Houston summer (don't EVER want to do that again!!) to return our place to its former glory. By the end of August, we were back in business and, in my humble opinion, were better than original.

     September and October saw us heading back to Kentucky to cool off and see how Shawn was doing in his Chiropractic practice. We found a campground that was well out of the way but we enjoyed our stay. Travels to sights in the area culminated in a trip to Mammoth Cave.

     From there we headed to Red Bay, AL to get some minor work done on our motorhome. Oil change and lubrication along with the replacement of a shift motor in the transmission put us back in shape and ready to continue our travels. Always a little unnerving to see your 30,000+ lb motorhome on jacks standing four feet off the ground!

     From Red Bay we returned to Texas and spent a quiet Thanksgiving holiday enjoying our place. In early December, the new management at The Preserve shot a commercial to be shown on local television beginning sometime in 2017. We were asked if they could use our place for some location shots and we were actually included in the filming! This was our first and only introduction to professional filmmaking and it was an interesting and unique experience. Mid-December we prepped our motorhome for a long winter's nap and left it in Texas while we drove up to Kansas to visit with friends and family for the Christmas Holidays.

     So another year has passed and we are looking forward to what 2017 has to offer. We have decided that, since our plans this summer were unfortunately cut short, we would pick up where we left off and continue our upper Midwest touring for the summer of 2017. Planning is already in the works.

Catching Up and Cooling Off

After the dead of the summer in south Texas, we were ready for a cooler change. With repairs completed, we packed up and headed northwards to Kentucky to visit our son. We had not been there since getting him settled in to his new Chiropractic practice and wanted to see how things were going. We also wanted to visit Kentucky when it wasn't cold and snowing!

We found a small campground near Ravenna, KY. During the summer the area is a church retreat and summer camp facility. Off season they rent out sites in the RV Park. The park itself is beautiful. Located in the valley with wooded mountains on either side, it is secluded and quite serene. The downside is that the roads to it are narrow and winding. In fact, the last three miles are on a single lane road with no shoulders and steep ditches. If you meet any oncoming traffic, somebody has to figure out a way to pull over. To top things off, about half way to the campground, an overhead electric line was perilously low and threatened to get snagged on the roof of the coach as we drove beneath it. To say the least, we arrived a bit frazzled. The campground management were very nice and listened to our comments and suggestions for better access by bigger rigs. To their credit, they even located the appropriate utility company and had the offending wire shored up and raised well above passing traffic.

One of our first visits was to old Boonesborough fort. This was the first fortified settlement in Kentucky and named for famous Daniel Boone (who lived here along with other members of his family). The fort has been painstakingly restored and was staffed by docents in period costume, each eager to discuss aspects of frontier life in the late 1700's.

Within walking distance of our campsite was the Fitchburg Furnace National Historical Site. The furnace was built in 1868-70 and only operated for four years. It was reportedly the largest charcoal burning furnace in the world, standing 81 feet wide, 40 feet deep, and 60 feet tall. It became the last charcoal burning furnace built in America. An extensive stabilization and restoration effort on the furnace was completed in 2010 by the National Forest Service. This was an interesting site to visit and we took Misty on walks there frequently. All that remains is the stone furnace building. All of the wooden structures have long been gone. It was fascinating to crawl in and around the large furnaces and imagine the charcoal it took to heat huge quantities of iron ore and produce huge quantities of molten metal.

Side view looking through the furnace

Looking up the chimney

Something we discovered about Kentucky is it seems that there is some sort of festival somewhere in the state every weekend! We attended the Bar-B-Q festival in Danville and the Railroad festival in Ravenna. We went back to Danville the week after the festival to visit the town itself. Danville is where the Kentucky Constitution was written. In fact, Danville was suggested to be the first Kentucky Capital, but it went to Frankfort instead. Old historic buildings and recreations are in the town square.

The Old Danville Jail

Kentucky's Constitution was written here

On the outskirts of town lies the Wilderness Trail Bourbon Distillery. This is a new craft distillery and has yet to release bourbon product in the market. They are known however as major suppliers of yeast to distilleries around the world. They also make a vodka and a unique rum made from sorghum. They are building a huge barrel house capable of storing 2,100 full sized barrels of bourbon. Within the next year or so they will hit the market. We took the tour and really enjoyed it. We were the last tour of the day and we were the only people on the tour. So we got what felt like a personalized visit. Not only do they offer a discount for Military, once you pay for and take a tour you can come back as often as you wish and tour at no additional charge! As part of the marketing strategy, we were allowed to complete a registry entry. When they begin to distribute bourbon, we will get two bottles FREE!! We are excited to go back next year and see how they have progressed.

Yeast and cultures made and controlled here

Slowly becoming Bourbon

Notice: We signed this barrel. We will come back to collect...

The Barrel house under construction

Towards the end of our visit, we packed up and headed to the south end of the state and visited Mammoth Cave. Shawn, his girlfriend Shelby, and their friend Tyler (also a Chiropractor with Bluegrass Chiropractic) came out and toured with us. The cave itself, as the name implies, covers a huge area. Over 400 miles have been explored and surveyed to date. The 52,830 acres that comprise Mammoth Cave National Park are ripe with caves, scenic vistas, bluffs, forests, hiking and aquatic trails. There are several different tours that you can take of the cave. One is a self guided hike through the original entry and proceeds about a half mile into the cave. Here you can see the remains of a saltpeter mining operation used to make gunpowder during the civil war.

Looking up through the original tourist entrance to the caves

The other tour we took wound through deep pits and high domes. This was entered by negotiating a steep, 280 step spiral staircase. One thing that we noticed is the lack of usual cave formations. Things like Stalactites, Stalagmites, Columns, etc. were only rarely seen on the tour. This is explained by the unique geology of the area. Above the cave structures lies a "cap" of sandstone which does not allow water to penetrate below. Towards the edges of this "cap" the rock turns to limestone and allows the penetration of groundwater. It is here that you can find the presence of expected cave formations.

Rock lined passageway

Some cave formations

More cave formations 

In between our cave tours we hiked around the countryside. It was a warm day but all of us really enjoyed the natural beauty. S'mores and a campfire, followed by a good night's sleep were the order of the evening. We bid farewell to Shawn, Shelby, and Tyler the next day and headed to Red Bay, AL for our annual trip to the Tiffin Service Center.

Nothing major in the way of repairs, but we did need some engine work. Above is the coach on jacks while getting the oil changed. Some paint issues, carpentry and cabinet fixes, and a few poor performing electrical parts were repaired/replaced. We returned to Texas to drop off the motorhome then a quick trip to Kansas for some doctor visits. Next week we return to Texas and plan to stay until the Christmas Holidays.