May 8, 2011
Birmingham, Alabama
We packed up the Rover and headed for Birmingham on Friday morning and - get this - we left the pups behind! Rick and Annette were kind enough to offer to watch them while we headed off for a few days to visit our long-time friends, Linda and Wendell. It's been several years since we had a chance to visit them at their home in Birmingham; we've seen them at their "lake place" on our more recent trips through the area. This was a nice change since we had a chance to see their family and friends this time as well.
Friday afternoon, we did some shopping with Linda before Wendell got home from work, then she made a new recipe: Pulled Chicken Pizza with Peaches and Gorgonzola Crumbles. Woo-hoo; was that good! We paired it with a couple of white wines, both Sauvignon Blancs (one still and one sparkler). This one's a keeper; we got a copy of the recipe and will make this one on the road when peaches are easier to find.
Saturday was one big party. We started out at Cosmos Pizza, where they put on a great weekend brunch, including a "make-your-own-Bloody" bar. After a power nap, they put on a barbeque spread of tri-tip and pork loin for us and family/friends - Wendell's son Patrick, Linda's Mom, Dad, and brother (Til, Bob, and Joe), and friends Pat and Clarence. Wendell set up the outside table under the lights and we took advantage of a beautiful spring evening; doesn't get much better.
Sunday, we were treated to another brunch including Wendell's Fritatta and Linda's Blue Corn Gouda Grits. Full once again, we packed up and headed back to Albertville, thankful for another great visit. The pups were none the worse for wear, having bonded nicely with Rick and Annette. we capped off the day with dinner at Annette's parents, Gerry and Lois, , including a belated birthday cake for Erik.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Happy Birthday, Erik
May 6, 2011
Albertville, Alabama
Erik (our nephew) arrived home from college Thursday afternoon. He's just completed his freshman year at the University of Montevallo, just south of Birmingham. And today's his birthday. Good deal!
Albertville, Alabama
Erik (our nephew) arrived home from college Thursday afternoon. He's just completed his freshman year at the University of Montevallo, just south of Birmingham. And today's his birthday. Good deal!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Power Up...
May 5, 2011
Albertville, Alabama
We've had a nice stay in Albertville so far. Power came back on and everything's back in operation with no real damage. The only thing requiring a "reset" appears to be Rick's cable modem and/or router, since Internet access has been spotty. All the "old" food is consumed or tossed (very little of the latter), although fresh supplies aren't being loaded in too quickly since store shelves are still a bit bare. Interestingly, even though this area is home to numerous Tyson plants, chicken is the last thing to appear in the stores since the factories were also shut down by the extended power outage. I'm sure the shortages will translate to price increases somehow...
There's no shortage of portable generators, though, as every home improvement, warehouse and hardware store has palettes of them sitting around now. Good luck with that; people who don't have one already won't think about buying one until the next disaster.
Back to local happenings, I changed out the bad macerator pump and toilet, so everything's flowing smoothly in the coach now. Rick and I painted the bedroom in the apartment side of their house (where Mom used to live) so Alyson will have a place to stay when she comes home from College in a week-and-a-half. Annette and Geri picked out a nice color in the "brown" family ("Vanilla Brandy"?) that looks like something from a magazine ad.
And, the weather has cleared somewhat, with no strong storms in the forecast at this point. Yea!
Albertville, Alabama
We've had a nice stay in Albertville so far. Power came back on and everything's back in operation with no real damage. The only thing requiring a "reset" appears to be Rick's cable modem and/or router, since Internet access has been spotty. All the "old" food is consumed or tossed (very little of the latter), although fresh supplies aren't being loaded in too quickly since store shelves are still a bit bare. Interestingly, even though this area is home to numerous Tyson plants, chicken is the last thing to appear in the stores since the factories were also shut down by the extended power outage. I'm sure the shortages will translate to price increases somehow...
There's no shortage of portable generators, though, as every home improvement, warehouse and hardware store has palettes of them sitting around now. Good luck with that; people who don't have one already won't think about buying one until the next disaster.
Back to local happenings, I changed out the bad macerator pump and toilet, so everything's flowing smoothly in the coach now. Rick and I painted the bedroom in the apartment side of their house (where Mom used to live) so Alyson will have a place to stay when she comes home from College in a week-and-a-half. Annette and Geri picked out a nice color in the "brown" family ("Vanilla Brandy"?) that looks like something from a magazine ad.
And, the weather has cleared somewhat, with no strong storms in the forecast at this point. Yea!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Back in 'Bama
May 1, 2011
West Memphis, AR - Albertville, AL
Yesterday, we followed storms and today, we made it to my Brother's in Alabama.
It was sunny when we left Oklahoma City, looping around I-240 back to I-40. Clouds were on the increase as we traveled east across Oklahoma and almost all of Arkansas. We stopped for the night in West Memphis, on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. Our original Destination, a RV Park down near the River, had called a week before to say they expected to be flooded when we arrived. I booked us into a safer location in Marion, along I-55, for the night. If it wasn't for our plumbing issues, I'd have found a boondocking spot, but I wanted to head for Rick's with empty holding tanks.
Soon after we were parked and set up, I could see from Weather Underground that a line of storms was approaching, and we had thunderstorms all night long. These storm systems are different than we're used to, which would be a line of storms along a weather front. Once the front passes, the storms are gone. Not with these systems. The storms form in a line, but then move along that front one after another. From what I could see, we had a series of storms from 8PM on, but places 50 miles northwest and 50 miles southeast of us got nothing. In any event, we kept the slides in and Maya Lynn had a very difficult night as she was quite frightened by the thunder.
We were up early and on the road by 8:30, following I-55 back to I-40. Although it was only 10 miles or so, the rain and wind increased significantly. We stopped for fuel and I was looking around for the Weather Channel guys (didn't see them). I was soaked by the time I was back in the coach, and we slowly made our way back to I-55, across the Mississippi, and then leaving the interstate to cut across the corner of Tennessee to pick up US-72 in Mississippi. We followed this route (US-72 and US-72A) to Alabama, turning to AL-67 in Decatur and AL-69 through Arab and Guntersville, then US-431 into Albertville.
Once we were in Alabama, we started seeing some evidence of the tornados and strong storms that had hit the area several days before. just before Decatur, we saw a row of houses that were heavily damaged and even totally destroyed, and we started seeing areas where the power was still out. Common sense suggests that drivers treat inoperable traffic lights as "stop signs", so we had some minor slowing but nothing too bad.
Once we got closer to Guntersville and Albertville, the damage was more evident with more trees snapped off or uprooted. We saw several power crews working to restore electricity. Interestingly, most (60%?) of the downed trees weren't snapped off but rather their whole root system came loose from the ground. We saw several sections where numerous trees were damaged this way. It's possible that these were what's called "straight line winds" as opposed to tornados. Overall, the damage can still be severe, just different. Right up the street from my brother's place, an older house was just crushed by a large tree.
They haven't had power here since last Wednesday at 6:00 AM (it's now Sunday), but it should be back soon. Rick's done a fine job of managing out of various coolers without losing much of the food stocks. This has been a good thing, since most stores in the area are closed and not getting new food shipments at this point.
More later...
West Memphis, AR - Albertville, AL
Yesterday, we followed storms and today, we made it to my Brother's in Alabama.
It was sunny when we left Oklahoma City, looping around I-240 back to I-40. Clouds were on the increase as we traveled east across Oklahoma and almost all of Arkansas. We stopped for the night in West Memphis, on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. Our original Destination, a RV Park down near the River, had called a week before to say they expected to be flooded when we arrived. I booked us into a safer location in Marion, along I-55, for the night. If it wasn't for our plumbing issues, I'd have found a boondocking spot, but I wanted to head for Rick's with empty holding tanks.
Soon after we were parked and set up, I could see from Weather Underground that a line of storms was approaching, and we had thunderstorms all night long. These storm systems are different than we're used to, which would be a line of storms along a weather front. Once the front passes, the storms are gone. Not with these systems. The storms form in a line, but then move along that front one after another. From what I could see, we had a series of storms from 8PM on, but places 50 miles northwest and 50 miles southeast of us got nothing. In any event, we kept the slides in and Maya Lynn had a very difficult night as she was quite frightened by the thunder.
We were up early and on the road by 8:30, following I-55 back to I-40. Although it was only 10 miles or so, the rain and wind increased significantly. We stopped for fuel and I was looking around for the Weather Channel guys (didn't see them). I was soaked by the time I was back in the coach, and we slowly made our way back to I-55, across the Mississippi, and then leaving the interstate to cut across the corner of Tennessee to pick up US-72 in Mississippi. We followed this route (US-72 and US-72A) to Alabama, turning to AL-67 in Decatur and AL-69 through Arab and Guntersville, then US-431 into Albertville.
Once we were in Alabama, we started seeing some evidence of the tornados and strong storms that had hit the area several days before. just before Decatur, we saw a row of houses that were heavily damaged and even totally destroyed, and we started seeing areas where the power was still out. Common sense suggests that drivers treat inoperable traffic lights as "stop signs", so we had some minor slowing but nothing too bad.
They haven't had power here since last Wednesday at 6:00 AM (it's now Sunday), but it should be back soon. Rick's done a fine job of managing out of various coolers without losing much of the food stocks. This has been a good thing, since most stores in the area are closed and not getting new food shipments at this point.
More later...
Friday, April 29, 2011
Oklahoma City Memorial
April 29, 2011
Oklahoma City, OK
Today, the winds finally weakened and we were able to deploy all the slides. I caught up on some bills in the morning and went to the memorial for the Oklahoma City Bombing in the afternoon. It's extremely well done, with emphasis on the victims, the implications of the blast, the outpouring of support and assistance, and the justice process. I spent a couple of hours exploring the Memorial Museum, then another hour outside on the grounds.
Click here for a photo album from the afternoon
Oklahoma City, OK
Today, the winds finally weakened and we were able to deploy all the slides. I caught up on some bills in the morning and went to the memorial for the Oklahoma City Bombing in the afternoon. It's extremely well done, with emphasis on the victims, the implications of the blast, the outpouring of support and assistance, and the justice process. I spent a couple of hours exploring the Memorial Museum, then another hour outside on the grounds.
Click here for a photo album from the afternoon
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The best laid plans...
April 28, 2011
Amarillo, TX - Oklahoma City, OK
...often turn to crap. Or, in our case, the toilet failed. So, I spent the better part of the Wednesday researching and troubleshooting instead of going to Palo Duro Canyon. For those familiar with household toilets, the RV versions are a bit more complicated, with everything controlled by a circuit board (water flow, trap opening/closing. It's not rocket science but it's probably more complex than it needs to be. I ran through the diagnostics in the manual and called their support line, and I got the name of an expert at the factory. The support person thinks it's a control board ($694) and the factory guy thinks it's the motor ($200). With a new toilet retailing for $499, I've got some deciding to do.
All this was probably just as well since we continued to have very strong winds all day and a sightseeing trip might have been less than desirable. We had dinner at "The Big Texan" because, well, it's something you have to do once. I had a T-bone (reasonably OK) and Geri had a "Texas Filet" which turned out to be a piece of top sirloin masquerading as a filet mignon (not OK). Check; done; no need to do that again.
We did make a quick stop at Cadillac Ranch on the way out of town, which was easy since it's right next to the RV Park.
Click here for some pictures from Cadillac Ranch.
Once fueled up and on the road, it was a breeze to drive over to Oklahoma City. Get it? A "breeze" with all the strong winds. Fortunately, they were still mostly tailwinds, which helps with the fuel economy. We had a couple of choices on an RV park, and probably chose the least desirable option but it was right on the route and worked out OK for a two-nighter. We were parked and relaxing by cocktail hour, and had good Net and TV access. I was able to make a Home Depot run to get a plastic hose and valve to temporarily jury-rig the toilet for emergency use. Now, if the winds would just calm...
Amarillo, TX - Oklahoma City, OK
...often turn to crap. Or, in our case, the toilet failed. So, I spent the better part of the Wednesday researching and troubleshooting instead of going to Palo Duro Canyon. For those familiar with household toilets, the RV versions are a bit more complicated, with everything controlled by a circuit board (water flow, trap opening/closing. It's not rocket science but it's probably more complex than it needs to be. I ran through the diagnostics in the manual and called their support line, and I got the name of an expert at the factory. The support person thinks it's a control board ($694) and the factory guy thinks it's the motor ($200). With a new toilet retailing for $499, I've got some deciding to do.
We did make a quick stop at Cadillac Ranch on the way out of town, which was easy since it's right next to the RV Park.
Click here for some pictures from Cadillac Ranch.
Once fueled up and on the road, it was a breeze to drive over to Oklahoma City. Get it? A "breeze" with all the strong winds. Fortunately, they were still mostly tailwinds, which helps with the fuel economy. We had a couple of choices on an RV park, and probably chose the least desirable option but it was right on the route and worked out OK for a two-nighter. We were parked and relaxing by cocktail hour, and had good Net and TV access. I was able to make a Home Depot run to get a plastic hose and valve to temporarily jury-rig the toilet for emergency use. Now, if the winds would just calm...
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tailwinds
April 26, 2011
Amarillo, TX
I haven't figured out our fuel mileage heading east yet, but I'm guessing it'll be way above our historical average. We've had strong tailwinds ever since we left the coast. Our route took us back down US-101 and CA-126 to I-5. After a short segment south, we picked up CA-14 heading to Lancaster/Palmdale, and took the Pear Blossom Highway cut-off to CA-118 and CA-18 over to Victorville. From there we took I-15 north to I-40 in Barstow. We'll follow I-40 all the way east to Memphis.
The winds have been almost non-stop, night and day. I'd planned to stop overnight at the last Rest Area in California, just before Needles, but it was closed. Apparently, I need to get near-real-time updates on Rest Areas as we travel these days. Anyway, we motored on another 50 miles to the next Rest Area, on the Arizona side. No worries.
Monday, we continued our journey east on I-40, through Kingman and climbing to Flagstaff (at over 7,000 feet), then descending across the high desert. We made a fuel stop in Winslow and continued on to Albuquerque. It was interesting to finally catch up with the rest of the country by switching from Mountain Standard Time to Mountain Daylight Time as we crossed into New Mexico. We stopped for the night at the Route 66 Casino just west of the city. There were plenty of other RVs already there so we just took our spot in the designated part of the lot.
Today, we were back on I-40, for a shorter driving day. We were off the road around 2:00 PM, even accounting for the loss of another hour as we entered Texas and the Central Time Zone. We're staying at the Oasis RV Park just west of Amarillo, and I planned for a two-night stay so we can do some things in the area tomorrow (Cadillac Ranch, Palo Duro Canyon, The Big Texan to see if someone eats the 72 ounce steak). After showering off the "road grime" from the last couple of days, Geri's well on her way to knocking out the accumulated laundry. The winds are so strong, we pulled in the slides on the windward side for now. The park had a small cafe so we'll dine there tonight (Brisket and Ribs, I suspect).
Amarillo, TX
I haven't figured out our fuel mileage heading east yet, but I'm guessing it'll be way above our historical average. We've had strong tailwinds ever since we left the coast. Our route took us back down US-101 and CA-126 to I-5. After a short segment south, we picked up CA-14 heading to Lancaster/Palmdale, and took the Pear Blossom Highway cut-off to CA-118 and CA-18 over to Victorville. From there we took I-15 north to I-40 in Barstow. We'll follow I-40 all the way east to Memphis.
The winds have been almost non-stop, night and day. I'd planned to stop overnight at the last Rest Area in California, just before Needles, but it was closed. Apparently, I need to get near-real-time updates on Rest Areas as we travel these days. Anyway, we motored on another 50 miles to the next Rest Area, on the Arizona side. No worries.
Today, we were back on I-40, for a shorter driving day. We were off the road around 2:00 PM, even accounting for the loss of another hour as we entered Texas and the Central Time Zone. We're staying at the Oasis RV Park just west of Amarillo, and I planned for a two-night stay so we can do some things in the area tomorrow (Cadillac Ranch, Palo Duro Canyon, The Big Texan to see if someone eats the 72 ounce steak). After showering off the "road grime" from the last couple of days, Geri's well on her way to knocking out the accumulated laundry. The winds are so strong, we pulled in the slides on the windward side for now. The park had a small cafe so we'll dine there tonight (Brisket and Ribs, I suspect).
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| So, I should have posted a video. Then you could have seen the rocking in the 60 MPH winds... |
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| Don't mind the tumbleweeds! |
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| Tomorrow, we'll visit Cadillac Ranch. This is the RV Park's version... |
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