Sunday, May 13, 2012. The Preacher's treehouse

We had such an interesting day today, that I had to do an "extra" edition of the blog.  We are staying at Spring Lake RV resort in Crossville Tennessee for an American Coach Association rally.  Today was a quiet day for official activities and it was suggested that we take a tour of the Preacher's tree house.  This was perhaps, the most interesting and most weird tours I have ever taken and suggest you take the opportunity to tour this amazing structure if you ever have the chance.  If you click on the link above, you will read some of the history of this structure which is a 7 or 8 or 9 story tree house.  I'm not sure how many stories there really are, but by all accounts, the house is over 100 feet tall.  As you can see from the pictures, the actual structure is difficult to describe, even if you have been in it, walked up and down in it, toured it, and walked away from it, shaking your head in wonder.  One word kept coming to my mind and that is, "WHY??".  Why did this preacher invest the time and money into building this structure which, while unique and different, is almost totally useless.  What I have heard is that several couples said their vows in the chapel, and at one point some homeless people lived there.  Other than that, there seems to be no purpose, no use, no reason for the tremendous effort put into erecting this house.  It did, however, provide an interesting afternoon for us, along with a lot of exercise exploring the twisting random rooms, stairways, and hall ways.

While this photo doesn't really do the structure justice, you do get an idea of the magnitude of the project.

Randomly located throughout the house are lifesize carved wooden figures of various biblical characters.

This is a view of the "chapel" from the "balcony".  I use the quotes because at any moment, you are never really certain what room you are looking at or located in as the structure is very non-descript.

This is a photo of the tower that extends up from the roof of the house.  If you climb up to the top of the tower you are at least 100 ft. above the ground.  There is a warning that if you jump or fall, you will die!

This is your view of the front lawn from the top of the tower.

Our "tree hugger"  This is one of seven trees that the house is built on/into.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Today is Sunday, and in addition, today is also Mother's day so consider this a great big hug to all the mothers out there who work hard to raise kids, and keep their family together.  Obviously being a mother is a full time job and one of the hardest jobs on earth.  I thank God every day for my family, for my kids, and give credit to my wife for her contribution to the way my kids turned out.

Along a similar line, I was having a discussion the other day, here in the motorhome, about one aspect of RVing that hasn't been discussed before, that is the subject of towels, and in particular, those smaller "hand" towels that are sooooooooo useful in daily life.  In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here are a couple of examples:

I will readily admit that when I am in desperate need of a hand towel for (as an example) wiping up spilled water, or cleaning off some greasy engine part, I reach out for the closest one in reach.  My first glance is to the counter top where all hand towels should be stored!  Where I do not look is on the towel rack shown in the first picture.  Who in their right mind will go to the trouble of taking a hand towel, folding it neatly, and then threading it through the rack?  Why go to all that trouble when you know you will need that same towel in just a few minutes anyway?  Seems like a waste of effort to me.

The green towel laying on the counter is just fine for me, but apparently not for the other occupant in our rolling home, or as our son calls it, "the box".  "She who must be obeyed" is of the school which says you have to hang the towel back up on the rack, or even worse, if you find the towel neatly and precisely folded when you arrive, you must neatly and precisely fold it back into the same shape after you are finished using it.  I suspect there is some mysterious precise location on the counter top where the previously mentioned precisely folded towel must also be positioned or some awful fate awaits the errant towel positioner.  Just one more thing to worry about in an already troubled world!

Men know instinctively that those pretty towels typically found in places like the bathroom of the home of special friends you are visiting, those towels are not there to be used!  After all, if you use them, you have to refold them, again, precisely and neatly, and then reposition them as you found them.  All men have found this to be totally impossible, at least for the male of the specie and therefore chose not to even attempt it as the results are a very poor imitation of the original.  Besides removing those greasy spots after drying ones hands just takes too much time.  It is soooo much easier to just take the path of least resistance and wipe one's hands on one's jeans and then walk out of the bathroom with a smile on your face, acting as though nothing special has happened.  If you watch carefully in this situation, I have actually seen our hostess slyly get up, go into the aforementioned bathroom and surreptitiously check to see if her towels had been disturbed.  Don't deny it ladies, you all do it!  Men know that and that is why we use our garments as towels.  Keeps us out of trouble and that is the goal of every married man.

Getting caught up----maybe

I was reminded recently that according to my blog, I am stuck in Wyoming, when actually we made it home to Ohio mid April.  After remaining in Ohio for about a week, we then left for a gathering of friends in Gettysburg Pa., staying at Gettysburg Campground.  We had a great time getting caught up with everyone, and I was busy fixing various motorhome problems including installation of a new battery charger, and fixing an icemaker.  We traveled to Gettysburg with our friends Orlando and Sally, and spent about 3 hours on Saturday touring the civil war battlefield.  The magnitude of that battle still amazes me when you start to realize the number of combatants, the amount of ammunition expended, the casualties, etc. it is overwhelming.  This doesn't even begin to take into account the human interest stories that abound. 

On Thursday, we all traveled to Lancaster Pa. to see the presentation of Jonah and the Whale at the Sight and Sound Theatre.  This was an amazing performance.  The special effects and the costumes were tremendous and the story was a joy to watch.  The theater holds 2200 and every seat was full. If you are planning to be in the Lancaster area any time before Dec. 29, you should look into attending a performance.

Following the trip to Gettysburg, we returned back home for a week to relax and clean up the RV.  Then, on Wednesday of this week, we headed out again, this time for the Volunteer state.  We will be in Tennessee for a week and a half to attend a rally in Crossville Tn. with the Great Lakes Chapter of the American Coach Association, and then on to Sevierville Tn. to attend the national rally for the American Coach Association.

Today is Thursday, and we just arrived at Spring Lake RV resort in Crossville.  Thus far, it appears we are going to have a comfortable stay here with full hookups, a large grassy site, with a very nice view of the lake located right behind our site.

As the week goes on, I will try to discuss some of the attractions here just in case you decide you might want to visit the area.

Sunday, April 15, 2012, Cheyenne Wyo.

Having considered the weather, both here in Cheyenne, and in Nebraska, we decided to stay here last night, and then remain here at least until later this afternoon, hoping the wind will die down and the tornadoes will go away in Nebraska.  This is an example of what we are contending with here in Wyo., and people wonder why people don't camp in Wyo. in April!

 

And so we sit, waiting for the weather to improve when we will head out for Nebraska.

Saturday, April 14, 2012 Rock Springs, Wyoming

Yesterday was Friday the 13th, and after what we went through, I am beginning to be superstitious.  We had spent the last week in Salt Lake City Utah, attending a home missions conference and graduation ceremony at Salt Lake Baptist College.  We got to spend time with old friends, and make many new friends.  All in all, we had a great time.  The conference ended Thursday evening and after taking friends to the airport, we made it back to the church where we parked our RV for the week.  We also made it back just in time to discover that we both had encountered a case of intestinal malfeasance.  Since there were several others who attended, we concluded that something in the previous evenings menu contained the culprit with evidence pointing to the cantelope being the bad player.

We managed to get things packed up, said our goodbyes, and headed up the road on I-80 towards Wyoming.  I was not comfortable at all, and after about 3 hours of driving, we pulled into the Flying J in Rock Springs Wy, to spend the night.  After a very uncomfortable night, with little sleep, we are both feeling a little bit better today and after putting things away, and taking a hot shower, we will be heading east in I-80 towards Nebraska, specifically Pender NE. 

I decided, after looking at my Blue Ox, Aventa tow bar, that a side trip to the Blue Ox factory was in order.  We bought the tow bar in 2004, and have about 70000 miles of towing on it.  That plus some winter snow and salt, have led me to conclude it needs some TLC from the factory.  Blue Ox reportedly has a nice campground at the factory where we can stay while having the service done, so we will make the trip, and  then be able to report on our experience. 

This morning, I woke up to snow falling outside.  Apparently the snow in our high altitude is part of a larger system that is raining in Nebraska and causing tornadoes in Oklahoma.  Thanks to our friend Jim for pointing that out, and naturally, we will keep a close eye on the weather as we travel. 

Sunday, April 8, 2012 Salt Lake City, Utah

Whew!!!  It has been almost a week since my last post and have we been busy.  Since my last post, we have traveled from Phoenix, up to Las Vegas, and then on to Salt Lake City, Utah, where we are presently located.  We had a great time in Phoenix, getting together with folks we haven't seen in far too long.  It is a wonderful thing to have a great family, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent with family members.

On Thursday morning, we met up with friends from northern NY who flew into town on business.  We had a great time at breakfast with Bruce and Jill and the girls and appreciate them taking time out from their business to spend time with us.

Thursday afternoon we left Phoenix with sad hearts.  We love the warm weather, the sunny skies and the great times we had, but our schedule was looming and off we went.  Our stop that night was Las Vegas, at the KOA located by Circus Circus.

This was our first experience at camping in downtown Las Vegas, and it was certainly interesting.  Somehow we got the address of the KOA entered into the GPS wrong and ended up driving the coach down some dark and narrow streets.  Just as we were about to panic, I saw the yellow KOA sign and we were saved.  The campground is mostly blacktop with full hookups.  The "sites" are large enough, but close together as is typical for KOA.  The big draw of course, is the proximity of the casino.  After getting registered and set up, we walked across the parking lot and into the casino for dinner.  We went to the buffet and ate way more than we should have, especially from the dessert bar.  After that we walked around inside and outside.  We were sitting and watching the crowd go by when a ruckus sounded above our head.  To our surprise, there was a flying acrobat show starting right over out head.

We just sat there watching  as the acrobats flew through the air.  Kind of neat as an unexpected surprise.  After that, we walked back to the coach and went to sleep as we had driven a long way that day and we were tired.

The next morning we broke camp and took off heading north towards Utah.  It was during this drive that we got to see scenery that has to rate as the most beautiful and awe inspiring I have ever seen.

Unfortunately, my camera cannot do justice to the scenery.  You will just have to see it for yourself.  Trust me though, it is worth the drive.

Also unfortunately, our Jeep continued it's slide into oblivion.  Maybe, just maybe it's time to think about replacing old reliable.  With about 195000 miles on the odometer, and another 80000 being towed, things just don't work as well as they used to.  Friday afternoon, as we were driving up I-15, a passing car honked and waved at us, pointing toward the back of the motorhome.  I looked in the rearview monitor and to my surprise, there was smoke billowing out of the hood of the jeep.  I immediately pulled over, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and ran back to the car.  I raised the hood and realized that the smoke was from hot oil smoking from the front differential, and the smoke was slowing down, rather than growing.  I climbed under the car and saw that there was some kind of problem with the drive shaft.  I pulled out the tool box, and removed the front drive shaft.  On the jeep, the front wheel drive mechanism has a transfer case that sends power to the front wheels through a driveshaft.  When I pulled out the driveshaft, I noticed that the pinion gear on the end was missing.  I then removed the back cover from the differential and there was the gear, laying on the bottom of the case, with some parts slightly bent.

With the gear removed, I reinstalled the cover, added some 90 wt. gear lube, and stuffed a tennis ball into the hole where the driveshaft used to be to keep the oil from splashing out.  After that, we continued on our way to the Nephi Utah Flying J, our original destination.  We pulled in there after dark and crashed for the night.  It had been a looooooong and stressful day.

In the morning, we woke up and I took the pups outside to take care of business and saw yet another breathtaking sight.

In the distance was a beautiful snowcapped mountain range.  Wow!  I could get to like this place!

After breakfast at...........you guessed it...........Denny's, we hit the road again for our last leg, about 80 miles to Salt Lake City.  We will be staying there for about a week to attend a world missions conference, to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones.  We will be talking more about that in future posts.  Needless to say, this has been an eventful trip that we will long remember.

One last comment, one of our dear friends, Jim, and his family are camping this week at Disney in Florida and apparently he is thoroughly enjoying his stay there:

Until next time, safe travels.

Larry

Saturday, March 31, 2012. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Today was a really mixed bag with good, bad, and ugly.  Things started out ok, I mean, I woke up and I was NOT looking up at grass roots, and at my age, that is a plus.  After breakfast, I took Linda over to Desert Ridge Resort to meet up with her sister and cousin for a day of shopping.  Unfortunately on the way back, the bad struck big time.  Driving along and heard a thump, then the power steering quit, the volt meter started dropping and the engine temp began climbing.  I quickly concluded the serpentine belt had broken, and after pulling off into a restaurant parking lot, raising the hood, and looking, I confirmed my suspicion.  Fortunately I had my Garmin with me, and plugged in "AutoZone".  Even more fortunate, the closest AZ was........right across the street!  Lucky me!  I hoofed it across the road, and bought a new belt, plus a wrench to move the tensioner pulley.  A closer investigation revealed that in addition to the broken belt, the tension pulley was gone, as a result of a bad bearing.  Hoofed it back to AZ, and got a replacement pulley, and after about a half hour of wrenching, the new pulley and belt were installed and I was on my way.

I finished my drive home and then gave the puppies a bath.  As usual when we are traveling they have a tendency to pick up a lot of dirt and the normally white coats have a grey cast to them.  After washing the dirt down the drain in the shower, the pups look much better.

After that it was off to sister Nian's place for a dinner get together with some members of my extended family, including my favorite aunt and uncle who are also celebrating their 68th wedding anniversary.  We got to see cousins, and uncles and aunts and others, some of whom I have not seen in many, many years.  A good time was had by all and many thanks to my sister for hosting.

Now for the ugly.  While at the party, we had the TV on and watched the Ohio State, Kansas NCAA b'ball game.  Sad to say, the Buckeyes came up a couple points short and will be going home instead of to the final to play Kentucky.  Congratulations to Coach Thad and the team for a great season.