The Adventures of Me & My Shadow #3 in ID,UT,CO,KS,MO,IL,IN,OH,PA,NY,VT,NH,MA,
CT,NJ,DE & MD 09/28/97
Hi Everyone!, I'm back again. I had a nice visit in Boise, ID
with Dave, Meg and Erin. For the Labor day weekend we went to
a camp site in the Boise National Forest (about a hundred miles
north of Boise). I'm looking forward to a visit with them next
year. When it was time to head to Bryce Canyon, UT for the Western
States GMC convention I decided to follow Dave to Pocatello (he
had some work to do there) to help him. Everything went well but
he wanted to test it the next day so we spent the night in the
motorhome. The next morning I headed south & he ran the tests
and headed back to Boise.
The trip to Bryce Canyon went well. Stayed at Ruby's Inn RV park
& campground, we were at 8000 feet so it was cool and it rained
off and on every day. I met a lot of old friends & made some
new ones. The Inn with 146 rooms was full every night, mostly
Germans on tour buses, some French and a few Japanese. Also many
Germans in tents and RV's, I had a German couple in an RV next
to mine when I got there & when they left another German couple
came in so I had some interesting visits with them. We had some
interesting seminars I and learned a lot about GMC motorhomes.
The scenery is fantastic, if you haven't been there you should
mark it on your list of places to see, you can take it all in
on foot, horseback, auto or by air.
My GPS program picked the route when I pulled out and headed northeast
on some back roads to get up to I 70. One road marked "local
road" on the map, I stopped at a cafe and asked about it.
They said I might get through with a FWD but there may be washouts
due to flash floods. They gave me a different route that was OK
but it showed evidence of flash floods. I finally made it to I
70 and headed east, lots of pretty scenery.
When I got over the mountains and was coming down to Denver I
could see lightning flashes way off on the eastern horizon and
figured I would soon have some rain. I could always see the lightning
to the east but didn't get close to it till I was in Kansas. I
pulled into a rest area to sleep and let the storm move further
east. After 2 hours I was up and gaining on the storm. I stopped
at a cafe to have a cup of coffee and apple pie. I had a nice
visit with two guys having breakfast before heading to Ohio. I
headed east again as the sun was coming up and before I caught
up with the storm the sun hit me in the eyes and the storm was
south of me. The weather was perfect from there on with some partly
to mostly cloudy keeping the sun out of the way. Before I got
to Kansas City I was routed off I70 onto US 40. I was wondering
why I was directed off of I 70. I zoomed out on the map and I
see that I 70 was now a toll road. I had told the computer not
to route me on toll roads, it was doing what I had told it to
do. This would take me out of the way a little but it was better
than paying toll. I also started hearing a noise from the engine
that sounded like a leaking exhaust pipe. When I got to Gerald's
I checked and found one of the mufflers coming apart, he took
me to get a new muffler, I got down in the gutter and installed
it before heading east again.
The weather was good all day and once when I stopped for gas I
went in to pay for it and saw this truck driver with hairy arm
pits paying for fuel. Now, I had seen other truck drivers with
hairy arm pits before. Big men with hair all over them, but this
one was different. This driver weighed about 120 lbs. The hair
protruding from under her arms was long enough to braid. I knew
she was a truck driver because she was paying $103. for diesel
fuel. I knew she was a woman because she was standing right next
to me and had on a loose fitting sack dress with no sleeves. She
was well endowed and did not have a bra on. I figured she needed
a closer inspection so as I reached for my wallet I leaned over
and looked down the inside of her dress. I didn't see everything
she had, but I'm sure that the dress and her socks and shoes were
all she had on, I believe she was the most comfortable truck driver
there (it was a warm day). I wonder what she would wear on a hot
day? I sure hate to see winter coming on. As she went out to get
in her truck the gal behind the counter was shaking her head.
I don't know if she just couldn't believe what she saw or was
shaking her head at me for seeing what I saw. It was a very interesting
day.
The rest of the trip to Goose Hollow camp ground in New Hampshire
went well, but was rather boring after the above. I arrived a
day early, there were about 300 coaches and there is only room
for 150, it was crowded. It rained on the second day and the weather
was cold, I mean COLD almost as bad as Nebraska in the winter,
they had propane heaters in the tents where they held the seminars
and served meals so we got by OK. It warmed up the day I left
and it was forecast to stay warm awhile. I was spoiled by the
hot weather I enjoyed in southern Calif. and Idaho. Even with
the cold weather the leaves were not changing very fast. As I
came south, the leaves in Massachusetts had more color. We had
some real good seminars and I got a lot of ideas to try on my
motorhome. Again, I met a lot of old friends and made a lot of
new ones. When they find out that I live full time in the motorhome
they invite me to stop and visit a day or two when I am in their
part of the country. Several are from Canada so I'll have to make
a few trips north of the border (in the summer of course).
The trip south to Maryland is another story, as I said before,
I have trained my computer to keep me off of toll roads. I purposely
didn't turn the trip over to Gertrude because she would have put
me on every one of them. There are a lot of them out here in the
east and my computer did just as I told it to do. The problem
is, there is a good reason for having toll roads out here and
I found that out on this trip. Next time I'll turn it over to
Gertrude and bring a large bank roll to cover it. My computer
took me through all of the parts of New York city that no one
wants to see. Except for the Brooklyn Bridge, I crossed it in
rush hour traffic at three miles per hour so I got a real good
look at it and I never want to see it again. I drove on the roughest
streets in the world and saw chuck holes that compare to Bryce
Canyon out in Utah. Several times I was under the street going
the other direction and my GPS couldn't find any satellites to
show me where I was. I sure missed the consideration shown to
me by the California drivers (except for the gal in the red sports
car). In New York, most of the drivers are like the gal in the
red sports car but a few of them must have learned to drive in
California as they would let me change lanes. The majority of
them just honk their horns and close up any gap there might be.
Some of them give you the finger as they go by, They must be miserable,
I think I would be miserable if I had to live there.
I have one bit of good news on the trip south. I was forewarned
about the $1.49 price for gas in Connecticut and $1.39 in New
York so I filled up in Massachusetts for $1.25 and made it to
New Jersey where it was again $1.25. Of course I saw some for
$1.15 after I had my tanks full, It always happens so I'm used
to it. I arrived at Jeff's in Maryland about 11:30 PM and was
glad to shut down and get some rest. If I had let Gertrude pick
the route I'm sure I would have arrived by 8:00 PM but my wallet
would have been empty. I have some work to do on the motorhome
& Jeff has some jobs for me to do. I also have to go on down
to Virginia and check in with Jennifer & Mark. I suppose Jenny
has a big pile of mail for me to take care of before going across
the bay to check in over there in VA Beach.
After I get my defibrillator checked here in Salisbury, MD in
November I'll head for Florida then over to Texas and plan to
be in Phoenix, AZ in January where I'll get my defibrillator checked.
Then in the spring I'll try to make it up to Coleridge and Sioux
Falls for the next check.
The motorhome conventions in the spring will be in Las Vegas and
northern California so won't have too far to go from one to the
other. It will not be too far from Boise so can spend some time
with Dave's again. I'll keep you posted as my plans get firmed
up. For you guys in Nebraska, don't let the cold weather get you
down! I'll be thinking about you an I wish you could be with me.
Till next time, Dallas, or Dad if it fits.