Frustrating Day

We were hopeful as the day started and our Majestic was moved into the “rain booth.” The idea was to spray it liberally with water and locate the resultant leaks.

Unfortunately, no leaks appeared. Hard to fix a leak that you can’t find and that evidently is not currently leaking. We were relocated to the far side of the factory.

After another discussion with Ken U., he decided to have the coach pulled back into the rain booth tomorrow. This time, the slides on the leaky side will be extended. Perhaps that will yield some results.

Meanwhile, we talked with some of the folks who have pulled in for service recently. One couple turned out to be Sandy and Jerry. We met them at the NHOG Rally in Kerrvile this spring. They had only one simple repair, so they’ll be leaving shortly. They're going to Albuquerque for the Balloon Festival HOP (Escapees Head Out Program).

We talked with a young couple from Boise, ID, Jeff and Donna. They are here because the pocket door in their Summit fell into the wall, from which local repair shops refused to even try to retrieve it. They were grilling buffalo burgers for dinner but tore themselves away long enough to tour our coach, the first Majestic they’ve seen. They seemed quite impressed.

Paul and Kathy are getting closer to being ready to leave. Yesterday they biked up to the state park. Once their punch list is finished, they’ll move up there for a shake-down before taking off.



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Exploring West Rolling Hills

We took advantage of the weekend to go out to Milford Lake (since no one was working on our coach, we didn't have to stick around Camp Horizons). We went to West Rolling Hills Campground, the Corps of Engineers campground we've stayed at before. We wanted to explore the nature hike that starts at the end of the B loop in the campground.

We didn't see many critters, but we did discover an old stone barn. It was constructed entirely with hand tools. Two masons cut the stones.

The host at the gate recognized our truck and talked with us about how to make the tight turn at the end of the A loop which caused us so much trouble last time. He said to take the loop in a clockwise direction. We walked out to the end of the A loop to check it out and decided that we actually could make it, since it looked like there's enough gravel to allow us to track outside of the roadway. That's good , because the A loop has 50 amp electricity and we like it. Read more!

Post-Wide Yard Sales

We had planned to get up early this morning to go over to Fort Riley for the post-wide yard sales scheduled for 7:30 a.m., but it had been raining pretty much all night and was still raining. I turned off the alarm and went back to sleep. The weather finally cleared up, and we drove over to Fort Riley around 9:30 a.m. The young soldier at the gate checked our driver licenses and gave us a map of the base and directions to the best area for sales.

We had to drive quite a way to the Forsythe residential area, where we did find plenty of sales. Ken drove the truck while I walked from sale to sale. By now it was a lovely sunny day, and lots of folks were walking around checking out the sales. The problem for me was that over 90% of the items for sale were baby and toddler related, and most of the rest held little interest for us. I did have some fun getting out and about and looking for treasures, but I found very little. That's probably just as well, since we live in a small space.

One sale included an assortment of weapons, which were drawing some interest. I made a comment and the woman said that her husband was thinning out his collection.

He must have quite a collection!

We were interested to see whether any of the all night rain had leaked into the house. Unfortunately, it had: in the bedroom closet. The guys thought they had dealt with that leak. We couldn't find any water on the floor in the kitchen. These leaks are not going to be easy to find and fix. Read more!

Jammin' in JC: Blues and Barbecue Festival

This evening we went to the Heritage Park in downtown Junction City to check out the blues festival. The barbecue contest is tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m.  We decided not to wait until tomorrow since there's a front coming through tonight and we're afraid the weather will interfere with tomorrow's schedule.

The last blues festival we went to was the Bluesapalooza in Covina over ten years ago. We heard some really good acoustic traditional blues there. Unfortunately, what we heard tonight was electric and hard driving, just not our cup of tea. The audience was large and growing when we left, so clearly the local folks like contemporary and electric blues with lots of rock influence.

Dan and Tony worked on our list today. Dan fixed the furnace problem by replacing the thermostat. That makes at least the third thermostat we've had. We're hoping third time's a charm. Tony fixed up a bunch of our smaller issues and worked some magic in fixing up a slideout skirt that we had managed to bend out (by trapping a bike seat between the skirt and the body by accident when bringing the slide in). Unfortunately, the leak problem is more difficult. The current plan is to put the rig in the "rain booth" on Monday, so we'll see how that goes. It's supposed to rain here this weekend, and I guess the guys are hoping they'll be able to find the leak that way. We'll have the towels out ....

We chatted with the other three couples who are here for the weekend with us. Jim and Suella, like us, are in for service. Two other couples, Paul and Kathy and Stan and Linda are here to pick up new Majestics and waiting for fixes on things that were left off or done wrong (like a missing awning, for example). Read more!

Quiet Day

Tony came to see us early this morning to go over the work order Ken Ullmer created from our list of repair issues. Tony could hardly climb the steps to come in because he is having severe back pain. He started on our list, but we don't know how far he got. He was working on the Corams' rig too. Ken U. says that both Dan and Tony will be working on our list tomorrow.

Meanwhile we learned that Fort Riley is having a post-wide yard sale Saturday morning, if we're still around (which we expect to be). Also, Junction City has a blues festival in the park this Friday and Saturday. We're afraid that the showers and possible thunderstorms forecast for Saturday will put a damper on the festivities.

We took some time today to do our trip planning, but it's all written in jello, since we don't know how long we'll be here. We did our laundry at Laundry Land also, and on the way stopped at a tire place. Ken spotted a nail head in one of the duallies. It wasn't losing air, but he figured it was a good idea to have it at a tire place when the nail was pulled out. The problem turned out to be a short screw that barely penetrated the tread, so we were sent on our way relieved. Read more!

Uneventful Day

Unfortunately, today was quite uneventful. We got up early to go talk to Ken Ullmer. He was out of the office, but when he came back we had a brief talk. He asked us to close up the rig so they could move it out of the way so another trailer could use the dump. They parked it in front of the service building, but both electrical connections were already in use, so the refrigerator ran on propane.

We asked if Ken had a ballpark estimate of when our work might be done. He said that he'd have a better idea this afternoon, but that he hoped to get us out on Friday. However, no one even looked at the rig today, much less started work on it. Dan was busy on other rigs, and Tony was out with a bad back.

We spent the day in the customer lounge with Paul and Kathy, who are waiting for their brand new Majestic to be ready. They found several problems when they arrived to pick it up. For example, they had ordered a vessel sink in the bath, but found just a regular sink.

We are hoping that we'll have some progress to report tomorrow. Read more!

On to Camp Horizons--Again

We were just ready to turn in last night when suddenly we heard truck engines around us. Ken looked out and saw construction vehicles unloading something that at first looked to him like it might be a jack hammer. Oh no! How will we sleep with a jack hammer pounding outside our bedroom window?

Ken went out to talk with the workers. The tool was fortunately not a jack hammer, but some sort of saw. They were cutting out part of the parking lot surface, but they told him that they were doing only a small area and wouldn't be working near us. We decided to try to get some sleep. After a few hours they packed up and left. This morning we woke to find this hole. Never a dull moment!

We walked towards the town this morning, hoping to see more of Perry, OK. We walked east on Fir St., US 64, the street we had come off the interstate on. We didn't see much until we came to N. 6th Street. Ken looked south and saw some promising looking buildings. We walked that way and came to the Noble County Courthouse. Perry bills itself as the "Pride of the Prairies."

In front of the Noble County Courthouse is a memorial to the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893, the largest land run in history. Perry had one of the land offices for that land run. The sculpture is named "Hopes and Dreams" and is a tribute to pioneer forebears.

(The lighting wasn't right, so our photos did not come out. This one is from Flik'r.)

Here's a view of a downtown street in this heartland town.

When we arrived in Junction City and pulled in to New Horizons, we immediately saw that Jim and Suella Coram are here. We met

Here we are, parked behind the service building at New Horizons. We have an appointment to talk with Ken Ullmer in the morning.

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Perry, OK

We enjoyed an unusual sight during our morning walk: a fire engine on a boat ramp. Actually, several fire engines and lots of fire fighters were gathered at the boat ramp at Lake Park on Lake Lewisville. We think they might have been doing some training. We saw fire hoses sending fountains of water into the sky and into the lake.

Ken Ullmer at the factory emailed us that he can get us in for repairs on Wednesday, so we headed north on I-35, getting about halfway today. We're stopped at Perry, OK, at one of the smallest, oldest Walmarts we've seen. We walked around the town some, and everyone we encountered was small town friendly.

Tomorrow we'll finish the drive to Junction City. Read more!

Back at Lake Lewisville

We left Bossier City this morning and returned to Texas for the first time since we left last May. We stopped at a rest area for lunch. It had a nature trail, so of course we went exploring and found this interesting character. It evidently found us interesting too, so our guess is that people feed it. We think it's an emu.

We're spending the night at Lake Lewisville, in site #60. We were lucky to get a site. They are quite busy. This is the first time we've arrived without a reservation. We didn't think we needed one, since all the campgrounds we've been in lately have been mostly empty. Not Lewisville!

Kelley came over after work and had dinner with us. It was really great to see her again and catch up on all her news. She is such a gem.

We really like it here at the lake. It's familiar, attractive, and has plenty of space for walking or biking. We may not be her as much since Ed and Julie and the kids aren't here, but we'll be back to see Kelley and Molly for sure. Read more!

Change of Plans

It rained all night last night, the kind of rain that makes you think of building an ark. We woke up this morning to find a small flood on our kitchen floor. Some of the carpet along the wall in the bedroom is wet too. This is definitely not good news. The number one enemy of RVs is water.

So we have had a change of plans. Instead of going to Jackson and Vicksburg and soaking up some history, we were soaking up water with some large towels and making plans to go to the factory in Junction City again. We're spending the night parked at a Walmart in Bossier City, LA. Tomorrow we'll drive to the Dallas area, and Monday morning we'll call Ken Ullmer, the New Horizons service manager.

On the bright side, the weather is much more clement here. The sky is blue and cloudless, and the humidity is much lower than it has been farther south. Besides, we didn't hit any love bugs today! Read more!

Population Boom

We've had our loop of the campground pretty much to ourselves, but today it seemed that every time we looked out the window, another RV was arriving. Kids were out playing and riding bikes. People were setting up. Definitely a population boom in the campground! We think that many of them are her for a family reunion. One unit arrived late last night, and the folks told us that they were expecting to be joined by many more family members today.

We biked around the park again today and checked out some of the areas we missed yesterday. One sign with an arrow pointing into the woods was labelled "Magnolia Brushy Arbor." We walked in to see what that meant and found this small amphitheater and gazebo.

There were some magnolia trees in the woods nearby, and a large carved magnolia blossom hung in the gazebo. The place looked a bit the worse for wear, but it has a wonderful view of the lake..

We tried to do some more trip planning, but our Internet connection is frustratingly slow (as in try to load a page and go away for five minutes). We did get some more chores done, including spraying the hitch with white lithium grease to see if that will quiet our noisy hitch. Ken also cleaned and sprayed the slide mechanism on our large slide, also in hopes of quieting the squeaks.

This evening the thunderstorms and heavy rain returned. Looks like we'll have raindrops on the roof to lull us to sleep tonight. Read more!

Lake Lincoln

This morning we biked around Lake Lincoln State Park, investigating our surroundings and challenging our quads a bit with the hills. It’s a rather small state park with a lovely lake. We checked out the campground and the beach. We’re not sure exactly what people are thinking when they get into water that has “Beware of alligators” signs around.

We saw several fishing boats out on the lake and talked to a couple of anglers who were preparing to leave. We asked about bass, and they admitted there were bass in the lake, but they had been fishing for perch.

We rode up to the gatehouse/office and talked to the attendant there. She’s a contractor working for the State of Mississippi. Ken was off taking photos of the entrance area, and there was no traffic, so I had a chance to chat with her. Her name is Sarah. She worked for Bell South for 33 years and has worked at this state park for the last five years.

She was a student at Jackson State when the police shootings occurred there, just days after the Kent State shootings in May of 1970. In fact, she was looking out her dorm window along with some friends when the shooting started. At first, everyone thought the police were shooting blanks, but then they saw one of the murdered students fall. They ducked, just in time, as shattered glass rained down on their backs. She said that she was recently watching a documentary made for the 50th anniversary of King’s I Have a Dream speech when the scene turned to Jackson State and she was on camera (just standing there on campus).

It rained this afternoon and early evening, which surprised us. We hadn’t expected rain until tomorrow. We waited until later to take our evening walk and were rewarded by the sight of a bright September moon over the lake.

We spent some time today researching places to stay in the Jackson area and things to see and do. After Jackson, our next destination will be Vicksburg.




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Northbound

We've been hugging the coastline for a while now, but today we turned inland and headed north towards Jackson, MS, on I-55. Jackson was a bit farther than we wanted to drive in a day, so we searched for a stopping point and found such a good one that we decided to spend three nights.

We’re at Lake Lincoln State Park, just outside Brookhaven, MS. According to a brochure at the Mississippi Welcome Center, that town bills itself a “haven for retirees.” We stopped to pick up some groceries, planning to settle down and catch up on our planning and chores—and our sleep. We’ve been on the go the last few weeks, and we’re ready for some quieter times.

Our site is just about perfect for us. It’s a long and level pull through, has a view of the southern sky, and is on a little projection so the lake is on three sides. Of the twenty or so sites on our loop, only three are occupied, so we have plenty of space. The campsites are mostly open, but the loop is surrounded by trees.

The one fly in our ointment—or more literally bug problem we faced on arrival was a large collection of love bugs to clean off the end cap and the truck. Darn pesky critters require a lot of elbow grease, even though we’ve been careful to remove them as soon as possible after they glue themselves to our vehicles.

There’s a price to pay for the seclusion and beauty of our surroundings: the Verizon signal is spotty and weak.


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Gardens and Jazz

We took the Algiers Canal Street Ferry again, this time so that we could go to the Garden District. We decided to walk so that we would get some exercise. We stopped at a tourist information place and picked up a self-guided walking tour. Even the homes that were not on the tour were quite interesting. Everything seems to be quite historic.

We stopped by Lafayette Cemetery #1 to check out the above ground burial methods. A guy snagged us on the way in and offered a ten-minute tour in exchange for a tip. We walked around and looked at some historic homes and then decided to have a po-boy for lunch. We ate at the Magazine Street Po-Boy shop. So far, quite authentic--but we had a Reuben, probably not authentic, but delicious.

Iconic Trolley

One of several painted models of trolleys we saw.

Historic home

Then we hopped a bus to go down to the Old Mint in the French Quarter to attend a free concert. First we got on the wrong bus (Google Maps was taking us to the current US Mint instead of the old one--my fault). The friendly bus driver let us off and told us which way to go, so next we took a trolley down St. Charles and then walked to the mint.

The second floor of the mint is dedicated to a display chronicling the history of New Orleans Jazz and Preservation Hall. It features some really powerful, beautiful photos and some good jazz. Then we went to the concert on the third floor at 3:00 p.m. It was a presentation on jazz roots featuring a "musical ranger" and a Haitian trumpet player and a New Orleans trombone player. We learned a lot about New Orleans jazz, with demonstrations of the call and response technique and the "second line."

This latter term is a bit slippery. It refers to the second part of a jazz funeral. After the dirges are played on the way to the cemetery, more upbeat music accompanies the mourners as they move on to celebrating the life of the deceased. That's the second line. Or the second line may be the people who follow the jazz musicians in a parade--the uninvited but welcome guests. Or it may be a style of dance....

Fats Domino Piano!

Louis Armstrong's cornet

Jazz performers

Afterward we headed home, taking the 5:00 p.m. ferry back to Algiers Point. All in all it was an enjoyable day. We saved plenty to do on our next trip to New Orleans! Read more!

Biking the Mississippi River Trail

The Mississippi River Trail extends the length of the mighty river. We of course biked only a small part of it atop the levee along Hwy 18, the River Road. We hoped to see a bit more of the river than yesterday, and we did, although a good bit of the shoreline is lined with trees that effectively block the view.

Our first challenge was finding a place to park near the beginning of the trail. There are evidently no official parking areas. We decided to park in the parking lot of a small cemetery and bike back to the trail. For the first part of the ride, we had rail lines inland and shipyards on the river. We saw lots of barges, many being pushed along by tugboats.

We bounced a bit over grains of dried corn that had fallen from the loader as we passed under this ADM loading facility.

We saw lots of rail lines and shipping facilities.

We saw several huge ships waiting to load or unload cargo. One of them was signed Singapore.

We saw egrets unconcernedly hunting for breakfast in the long grass at the foot of the levee. Our round trip of 18 miles was limited by the amount of water we brought along, since there was no place to get water. We did find a small park built by ADM for St. Charles Parish, where we climbed down the grassy face of the levee to use the port-a-potties.

We saw some armadillos in the park today and did our laundry (free machines!). Read more!

Laura Plantation

We visited Laura Plantation today and took their tour. This historic Creole sugar plantation is about 45 miles west of Bayou Segnette, on the Great River Road. We chose to drive along the River Road (Louisiana 18) although it's a longer route to the plantation, because we were hoping for a scenic drive. Unfortunately the very high levee cuts off any view of the river. We did, however, see some small towns and some very large industrial plants, including a giant Dow Chemical facility.

At the plantation we parked and entered the plantation store to buy our tickets. Fortunately a tour was starting in ten minutes. The tours last about an hour and a quarter. Our guide was very professional and clearly had a memorized script. We learned some interesting facts about the Creole culture that reinforced or added to what we had learned on our bicycle tour on Friday.

This plantation was run by three generations of women, a not uncommon situation in Creole culture, where women had more civil rights than in the Anglo-American culture. The Code Noir also provided more rights to slaves than they had in Anglo culture. For example, husbands and wives could not be separated, and children under fourteen could not be separated from their parents.

This table looks rather elegant to us, but we were told that the family had a much more elegant home in the French Quarter, the one they lived in during the winter and entertained at.

Slave cabins housed two families, one on each side.

The Mississippi River was lined with sugar cane plantations. From our observations, much of it still is. Cane plantations were run somewhat differently from cotton plantations. The cane harvest was crucially time dependent, and masters offered cash bonuses to their slaves at harvest time. Slaves could buy their own freedom, and they could and did own slaves themselves.

On the way home we noticed this building and just had to stop and get a photo. How wonderful!

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Jean Lafitte National Historic Park: Barataria Preserve

We stopped in the Visitor Center for the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park yesterday in the French Quarter (unfortunately just before it closed). We found out that this National Historic Park is actually six different sites around this area designed to provide a picture of the history and culture and environment of the New Orleans area. Today we decided to visit Barataria Preserve and take a hike through the swamp and marshland there.

Visitor Center

 At the Visitor Center we saw some great displays, many featuring the importance of wetlands to coastal protection--and the rapid loss of said wetlands due to human activity. The staff were particularly friendly and helpful.

We walked a series of trails through the preserve, including the Palmetto Trail, the Bayou Coquille Trail, and the Marsh Overlook Trail. Much of the trail surface is boardwalk, and the rest is gravel, making for an easy walk. (Other trails in the preserve are muddy when wet, so we avoided them. Besides, that area is infested with feral pigs. The rangers can shoot them, but have no way of disposing of the carcasses, so they rot in place--ewww.

Boardwalk

We saw lots of trees and flowers and some critters as we walked, but no alligators.

Large Live Oak growing on a midden.

The intrepid photographer has his eye on some flowers.

Salt Marsh Mallow

These unusual large black grasshoppers caught our eye several times, sitting near the edge of the trail. As we approached, they would just sit still and finally crawl slowly off into the brush. Evidently they can't fly and only feebly jump or crawl. They don't need to move quickly: they are toxic to prey. When threatened, they are said to hiss and emit a foul, irritating foam, but evidently the ones we saw didn't feel threatened. They can grow huge, with one blogger reporting a 7" specimen (although generally adults are 2.5-3", which is what we saw).

Eastern Lubber Grasshopper

Turtle

The most unusual thing we saw was the "Flotant"--floating marsh. It looks like solid ground, but is actually a tangle of roots and peat and plants woven together. It's treacherous for hikers, but home to lots of wildlife that have adapted to life in this strange ecosystem in the delta.

Flotant Marsh

Ken fills his water bottle at the GlobalTap water bottle filler: Drink Local!



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