Status Report

Just checking in with everyone. We arrived at Vein Mountain LDMA camp amidst some heavy rain a couple weeks ago. Sunshine and fair skies and temps took over in short order and the ground we were parked on firmed up nicely. Always a good thing- firm ground. But wouldn't ya know it, someone must have told the weather channel that we were headed back to Florida...which of course reactivated the hurricane season, even this late in November, and sent tropical Ida winds and rain storming up the coast in welcome home fashion! Humbug. We were scheduled to pull out of camp Thursday morning but heavy rains, a rapidly rising to flood stage Muddy Creek and soggy soil sent us out a day early in semi-panic mode, headed for the higher ground and paved parking of a nearby campground at a local RV dealership. After two weeks of dry camping, full hookup is nice, I admit it, even though the roughing it in comfort style of camping we often do is real nice too. We already had two floods to deal with this year- one in South Dakota en route to Alaska and the other- the antifreeze pouring out the basement compartments when the antifreeze line went bust on us. They say when it rains, it pours. I know that's a Morton Salt thingamajig, but this rain and potential flood out also saw us dealing with a leaking fuel line on the van for two days running, which meant driving back and forth to Hickory and the Chevy dealer there to get that fixed in the heavy rain and low visibility naturally. Our time at Vein Mountain was excellent. Too bad it ended with a flash of trouble, but that's the way it goes, isn't it. Without valleys, no mountains!

And speaking of mountains, we did manage to get in a ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway, but I'll hold those shots until next time because Picasa is giving me fits at the moment and I need to get some sack time before driving through the rest of Ida tomorrow. You remember Ida? Knock, knock. Who's there? Ida. Ida who? Ida been here sooner but the car broke down...... I never really thought that would happen, but here it is.......

Rain drops on the lens, but you should still be able to see that the camp road is now part of the stream. Never a good thing when the coach is parked just off the road and under the trees.

Spooking Time at Vein Mountain

Working our way to warmer “climes” for the winter months, we stopped along the eastern corridor route at one of our favorite haunts (that’s a Halloween thing, don’t ya see?)- at Vein Mountain LDMA gold camp just in time for the Halloween festivities and the local outing. We’ve made lots of good friends here and it’s always fun to see them, work with them, and of course dig in the dirt with them. On this occasion, we were extra blessed to be joined by quite a few of the crew team from the GPAA Motherlode Expedition and the Nome Alaska 6 week summer outing. It was a great opportunity to ask questions and learn more from those that have attended before, some many times before. And any time you can talk Alaska with “them that know her well”- that’s a good time for sure. We used the opportunity to compare and contrast our Chicken Alaska (Chicken Gold Camp) experience and while the two are very different in many ways, they also have a lot in common and both are experiences that, given the chance, you surely wouldn’t want to miss.

Because I have covered outings here at Vein Mountain before, I’m just focusing on the end of outing auction that is always held right before the gold draw. Every body loves an auction, and these auctions are not only good, they are darn funny to boot. And the North Carolina flair that is attached to this one is just precious. A southern drawl and a mountain humor makes for some amazing one liners!

People always ask if there is really gold in North Carolina. Yes there is. Quite a bit of it actually. But while you may, if both luck and hard work are on your side, find a nugget or two, most of the gold is extremely fine, like a dust. Still gold is gold and we have always maintained that the fun is in the finding, while the real gold is the friendships. This camp now has a wifi (small fee attached) set up for use by members. That is a big help for those among us who need the computer connection to the outside world for any of a dozen reasons. Some prospectors don’t want it and don’t need it. Good for them. Life more simple can be a good thing. I try to keep one foot in that camp and one in the fast lane of technology- not always easy, but always interesting.

Here’s a look at the auction:

Bull's Eye(s)

Two days on the road, one in terrible weather and one in gorgeous weather and we landed at the Van Hoy Farm Campground in North Carolina. We had been here previously for Cinco de Mayo and found the twice monthly Mexican Community festivals held here are a good time, and have some great eats! REAL Mexican food- no re-fried beans from a can here. It was late in the season, even for this far south, so the pool was closed. I got a kick out of a "must shower" sign on a pool that was closed for the season, but full of dead leaves and algae rich green water still waiting to be drained. Gotta love signs! This is a beautiful property so don't take anything from this image other than an amusing seasonal shot.


Down at the arena, they were getting ready for some rodeo style bull riding. One bull in particular had some serious objections to being photographed and he actually charged me a couple times. Classic: head down, hoof scratching, nose snorting, horns waggering back and forth. I was grateful for the iron fence rail between us, but the charge still made me jump back a bit. It wasn't til I put the shot I took of him in the computer that I saw those devilish Halloween eyes. Bull's Eyes! Focused on me!


I decided that if they asked the Gringo (that would be me) to ride a bull, I would pick this one. Then I promptly left the arena before anyone had the chance to do just that.....

On the way back to the coach, we stopped for some Mexican style "carne" tacos, fresh shaved off the roast, grilled, toasted, hot peppers, pineapple, toppings added...yum. I had two, but found that two demanded that I eat one more before walking back. Oh man that was good! It's hard to find good Mexican food, but there is nothing better when you are able to find it.


There was an important soccer match in the state so the usual crowd that converges for these festividades was late to arrive on this occasion. Plenty of time for the little caballeros to hone their skills with the ropes.

Tomorrow morning we'll head out for a short hop, skip and a jump over to Vein Mountain and the LDMA Gold Camp there for the annual local outing. That camp is one of our favorites and the people there are super. Cell phone service is weak there and computer hookups? Maybe, maybe not. So we'll have to see just how regularly we can keep up with postings. We'll be at the camp for 17 days if the plan stays the plan. So for tonight..., adios, amigos.

What Next?

I've told you a few of our current woes. i shall continue that in this post. but should you discover a lack of capital letters and correct punctuation in this post- it is because now even my keyboard has decided to give me a rash of crap. oh joy! I'm tempted to leave the numeral 1 wherever it pops up for now because since the cap (shift) key became problematic there are no exclamation points- case in point11111.

after nearly three weeks sitting it out while repairs to the coach and quigley van were carried out, the weather was horrid. rain 3.9 days out of every 4. So when the clouds broke and the sun appeared, the geese took to flight and the fall colors hit the trees fast and furious. It felt good. positive energy. encouraging. enlightening. energizing.




so I was a happy camper pulling out of camp and heading back to Tom Schaeffer's RV Superstore for the final piece of the puzzle- the replacement of the cracked windshield which was scheduled for a two day stay....and then onward. Driving was easy. gauges looked good. peace to the world1 it came as a bit of a shock that I couldn't get heat to the dash as the morning temps were a tad on the chilly side. maybe a few more minutes to warm up. then Marilyn smelled something a little funny1 Not me! through the intersection in Ephrata we went. but then the temp gauge shot up to the red zone and the dash alarms started to scream. Without hesitation we pulled over- forget that we were blocking traffic and on a double yellow line representing somewhat of a traffic hazard. call the police; let them know. An inspection quickly showed antifreeze pouring out of every basement compartment. a tsunami of coolant, a tidal wave of terror came over my otherwise happy morning moment. this was a problem. call the insurance company, the auto club, the tow truck, the rv center where we were NOT going to make our scheduled appointment- no matter what.

45 minutes later the tow truck turned up, hooked us up (that was another story in itself) and off we went. whatever was to be was now out of our hands. we followed the tow in to the dealer. way too fast for comfort- also another story. but get there we did and unhooked. Whatever had busted and caused the rapid coolant loss was now complicated by a cracked and damaged front end where the coach had bounced on the boom of the tow truck all the way from the point of the problem to the parking lot of the dealer. stay calm. deal with it....



The sight of the drive axle laying on the parking lot next to the disabled coach made for a sinking feeling in the head and the stomach. But not to worry. Tom Schaeffer RV to the rescue...and another three days and some few more bucks got things back under control. negotiations with the tower eased the concerns and so now we are about ready to head out once again.

can't say enough about Tom Schaeffer RV service. Phenomenal! over and above. anything and everything you need- provided by a fleet of master mechanics and a support staff second to none. fair. always fair! i hope not to have more problems, but if i do have them, i hope i have them VERY close to them. if everyone ran their business like they do- then no businesses would ever have any trouble staying in business and being a profitable and thriving entity. kudos to all you guys (and gals)... and thanks for everything1111! hey i got at least one exclamation point1

In The Beginning...

Back in Thousand Trails, Hershey (actually the camp is in Lebanon but only a short hop to Chocolate-ville) and still licking wounds from the last big Alaska trip- but gaining! Had the occasion to sit at my old 'puter and look back at some of the nearly 6000 digital pics I took since our full time travel adventure began three years ago. This is one of my favorites (Marilyn's too for obvious reasons) That first post was made in November of 2006. It went like this:

Shake Down Cruise:

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and Deer Lake Fossils

Well sir, the coach is in the shop for a couple weeks worth of repairs. Ouch! The Quigley is in the body shop to repair the "hit and run" damage the Fifth Wheel driver did to it in the Yukon on the way to Alaska. But problems with turkeys are no reason not to soar with eagles, so off we went to see the sights from the vantage point of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Some of you will remember a few posts back I mentioned that my father had been given the Warden's Award for a lifetime of contribution and achievement from this prestigious wildlife preservation organization. I had accompanied my dad with the rest of the family many times as a child to hike up the mountain and look out over the ridges and valleys through a pair of binoculars, and watch the eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, and whatever else happened by on the seasonal migrations. The place hasn't changed much, ("The rocks are still all in the same place," said to ranger on the ticket counter) although it is clear that the number of visitors who avail themselves of the magnificent collection of trails and lookouts has increased 10 fold or more.

It's only a mile hike to the north lookout (a not too difficult rocky climb if you will) and a much shorter easy walk to the south lookout. We carried our walking sticks and one child asked us, "Hey where did you get them?" When we told her we brought them from Alaska, she remarked: "Oh I didn't know they had trees there...." You learn something every day.

It was fun visiting the mountain again. We saw some ospreys, some Sharpie hawks, one Redtail and a few other non raptor species. But for us the visit was more about the mountain and the views than it was about the birds. One of the nicest things about traveling all the time? We see hawks, eagles, all kinds of birds, nearly every day. On a wire, a pole, a fence, the brush by the side of the road as we cruise on by. It's a neat way to go birding and does NOT require getting up with the sun to get out in the field with the old binoculars.


Hawk Mountain Slide Show:



Once we drove back down the mountain, we decided to try to find a spot nearby where my family used to go fossil hunting. We found Deer Lake and the adjacent rock quarry just as I had remembered it. Well, almost- enough to recognize right off. And we were finding fossil shells, aquatic plant life, even a few trilobites almost from the moment we got out of the (rental) van we are using while our repairs are being done. It was good to put our geology picks back into rock and ground...and we have a few small pieces to add to the collection. If you watch the slide show, you may see the praying mantis that was (I guess) looking for fossils as well. He kinda looked like a living fossil!

Deer Lake Fossil Hunting:

Back In The US of A

There are some days when if you didn't have bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all. I suppose a day or two like that every once in a while wouldn't be too bad, but it seems like the last half of our cross Canada trek was one day like that after another. I mean: my eyeglasses broke down the middle , my windshield is cracked, my door awning quit working and had to be pulled off the coach, floor tiles cracked when the coach twisted from an excess slope at a campground in a province that is otherwise flat, went to bed one night in a wooded camp site and woke up to find the coach sitting in 8 or so inches of water from overnight heavy rain...and then had the rear axle sink into the soft sand thereby leaning the back slide awning up against a nearby tree that should have been removed a long time ago and damaging it way too much trying to extricate the coach from the heavily wooded campground, which in turn made the slide impossible to open now. Did I mention that the pots and pans are in the closet which cannot now be accessed behind the closed slide? So shopping trips are limited to buying supplies that can be grilled (we can still get at the grill) or eaten raw. Mmmmm. Celery and lunch meat. The Magic Fan ceiling fan crapped out too. Bummer! There's more, but what the heck....

So it feels like "limping home" at the moment even though we are still rolling. At least at this point! All these concerns made the drive by Lake Superior seem less than superior to me. Lake Huron and Ontario much the same.

Our first look at Lake Superior:

There were literally thousands of small lakes in addition to the "Great" lakes too. Below is a look at the GPS passing through Ontario- more water than land or so it seemed.


Back in the USA, nothing had really changed as far as the conditions I just told you about- BUT, it felt a little better to be in the homeland. Help is much closer here, or so it seems, than it is in rural Canada. Right now- that's a good thing. We crossed the border at Niagara Falls, put the concerns behind us for the time being and headed off to see the falls. Parked on the US side, walked across the Rainbow Bridge ( you'll see from the slide show why it's called that) and strolled along the Niagara River to the Canadian or Horseshoe Falls as well. Then down the canyon wall to the river to ride the Maid of the Mist into the spray, the fury of the base of the falls. What a ride!




I'll close today with a slide show of the stroll by the falls....

Amber Waves of Grain

Saskatchewan and Manitoba are one big wheat field- at least from what we saw crossing Canada on Rt 1 and flying right along. Flat. That is except for the place we parked in a couple nights back, which was a downhill slope just steep enough that the coach couldn't level out properly and we did some damage to tile and trim when the slide outs wrenched putting them out...and then immediately right back in. Too late, but nothing to stop us or put us at risk, so on we go.


If you check out the Provinces Visited map you will see we have now added Manitoba and also Ontario where we landed tonight at Anicinabe Park on Lake of the Woods. In contrast to the recent provinces we have visited, Ontario is more like the Canada I know from the past. Big trees, lakes everywhere, rich greens and dark blues under a pastel blue sky- very beautiful. Below is the view out the front window of the rig at our first stop in Ontario. Had a nice walk down to the lake- boating, fishing, snorkeling, swimming all going on down at the lake...


The rest of our journey through Canada will be around the area of the Great Lakes and we are really looking forward to that.

Dino-topia

We had hoped to visit the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum on our last day in Alberta and Drumheller, but the museum had just moved to its winter schedule (closed Monday) and since it turned out to be a little further from our campground near the HooDoos than we realized, we decided we could not fit it in Tuesday morning before continuing on. Instead we walked around town, which is loaded with dinosaur replicas of all shapes and sizes. There are plenty of fossil shops, other museums of a lesser stature that the Tyrrell, and other attractions. They have a neat suspension bridge nearby so we took a walk across that and the Red Deer River. Neato. A couple stills and a slide show to mark the occasion.

I told Marilyn to get out of the way of the T-Rex, but would she listen???



Then on to Saskatchewan today. Another province added to our Canada map. Looks a lot like the prairie states so far- hot and seemingly very dry as well. Nothing in particular to write about yet....

HOO DOO: You Think I'm Fooling?

There are some days when, if it weren't for bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all. Yesterday was pretty much one of those days. An RVers nightmare, the electronic door awning left open over night refused steadfastly to retract in the morning as we prepared for departure on a day that called for a run of about 6 hours. Now running down the road with an awning out is not the best of ideas. In fact, it's about the worst. Passing trucks, crossing bridges, passing close to telephone poles just doesn't work with the awning out. It'd be like an eagle with a 6 foot wing span trying to fly full speed into a pigeon coop. Not good for the eagle or the pigeon coop. It was a Saturday. Four hours of trying everything to get that awning back rolled up failed to produce a solution. And even though we found two RV repair services within a possible emergency commute- one had another job he could not leave, and the other guy had, get this, a sick horse, and wouldn't come out. What are the odds? So with little else to do, we got out the installation manual for the awning and DE-INSTALLED it- cut the wires, removed the mounting screws and slid that baby right off the track. Tied it all up, threw it in the car and off we went. We had started to get ready to depart at 6:30 AM. By 12:30PM we were on the road. Stress went along for the ride! Got in late, so the pull through we had reserved was gone, the power was 30 when we had pretty much planned on 50 amp. I know there are gonna be days like this, but I've had my quota for the year now, so.....

Which brings us to the destination for today. Drumheller, Alberta. Home of the Hoo Doos. An early and different form of VooDoo - where the evil spirits were believed to have turned into rocks. They call this the Badlands of Canada and for obvious reason. But the hard hat, soft sandstone rock pillars are everywhere and in every size and stage of development. Was it the Hoo Doos that gave us trouble with the awning? Who do, I say Hoo Doo you think you're fooling?




And since it was close, we opted to drive just a bit further down the road and visit the famed Atlas Coal Mine. There was a very interesting outdoor museum walk of old coal mining equipment, something on the order of what I think is planned for the new museum in the works for Chicken Gold Camp. It was great. We had a trip planned to the dinosaur museum on Monday, but the brochure says it will be closed that day, so we'll just have to see if we can still fit that in...or if the Hoo Doos have their way with us one more time!