Last of the Travel Photos

It already seems so long ago that I was out there on the open road. My trip from Memphis, through Nashville (had to settle for photos: no time to find the museum where they sell the postcards), and on to Chattanooga was uneventful. I enjoyed the Tennessee Aquarium immensely and was there early in the day so I almost had the place to myself. Unfortunately, I only had a couple of hours to spend so that I could get to Asheville before dark.

The main reason for going through Chattanooga was to detour around a HUGE rock slide on I-40 in the Pigeon River Gorge. They say it's 150 feet tall and will take 3-6 months to remove. It's not the first time this has happened in the Gorge and it probably won't be the last. I decided to take a southerly detour rather than the northern one that most of the 18-wheelers are taking. In fact, I recall having to take the northern route on my first trip to Asheville from Minneapolis in 1996, and for exactly the same reason. We followed a line of big trucks down a two-lane mountain road (now widened and hooked into I-26), with the smell and smoke of overheated brakes in the air. The southern detour was MUCH nicer (see sidebar photos) and as I drove eastward towards the mountains, the tree-covered, rolling hills beckoned me onward.

I returned to Asheville just in time to attend a little soiree at the home of friends Jan and Paula. Jan (whose photo will appear in the right sidebar presently) had heart surgery about a month ago to correct a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect that had progressively disabled her for the past 7 years. It's an amazing tale, too long to go into here, and she definitely belongs on that cable TV show about medical mysteries. Suffice to say, she has been brought back from death's door and we are all very glad to have her with us.

Last week I emptied and flushed Michelle's black and gray water tanks, then gave her a thorough washing with help from grandson Austin. It was an all-day project and I was pooped, so I didn't get the fresh water tank drained, which I must do before the temps get below freezing; I will also need to run a special RV antifreeze into the lines.

This week I've been helping daughter Liz do some major re-organizing in her tiny apartment, and have enjoyed visiting with her family and helping out with the cooking. She works several 12- to 14-hour day shifts a week as a hospital RN; Sean works several 12-hour night shifts a week for the Sheriff's Dept. as a detention officer, so there've been some poor eating habits established, understandably. Besides, I do like to cook, especially in a real kitchen with a regular oven.

I'll be moving in with my friend Cathy when her house closes the day before T'giving, at which time Michelle will cease to be my primary abode and become my sole means of transportation. I look forward to settling in for the winter and helping Cathy decorate her new space. We also will be planning a really BIG new business venture that I'll say more about later.

That's all for now. Time to fix Austin some breakfast: doing the Nanny thing again...nice.

Going Home

No excuses. I guess I just got out of the mood to write, for a really long time. Glad I'm not trying to be a real writer: too much pressure. The new retired me doesn't want to do anything that HAS to be done.

The month of October flew by: the vertigo subsided (although I still feel a slight lingering dizziness on occasion); I went to the RVing Women convention in San Antonio, where my sessions were well received and I met a lot of great traveling women; I visited my friends in Austin; I arrived in Memphis Friday evening; I'm leaving for Asheville in a couple of days. I've decided to spend the holidays, and on into spring, with loved ones. Fortunately, a friend will close on her house next week and has invited me to share her space for as long as I want. Everything has fallen into place to make my homecoming work out right. I'm looking forward to spending the winter in a place where it will snow a few times and melt in a couple days each time. It's beautiful but not bothersome. I'll drain Michelle's water and holding tanks and use her as my everyday vehicle. I'll cruise for chicks and invite them in for hot toddies and a look at my travel photos. Smile.

I might change the theme of this blog while I'm "in port." Look for something different after I get settled in my new digs.

Meanwhile, I'll take a look at my photos and pick out some that you might enjoy. Nice to be back.

The Texas Capitol Dome

Oh, Woe Is Me

Those who know do not speak.Those who speak do not know.
- Lao Tzu

I was unable to get to the Internet on June 3, so here is what I wrote that day:

I started out from Custer, SD, day before yesterday, heading northwest to meet a new RVing Women contact in Sheridan, Wyoming. As usual, I took my sweet time getting ready to leave and it was past noon when I finally hit the road. My new host said it would take about 4 hours to get to Sheridan. But then I realized that if I drove straight through, I would miss Devil’s Tower, a must-see on my trip through the West ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind" being one of my favorite movies).

So I took a little detour that should have added about two hours to my trip; I would still arrive in Sheridan before dark, just barely. I got to Devil’s Tower in time to see it, photograph it, and be on my way. Where I made my mistake was taking the trail around the Tower. It was great! I got pictures of the wonderfully spiritual monolith from all sides, but I was glad when I approached the sign that would lead me back to the parking lot so I could hit the road. Unfortunately, the sign informed me that I was only halfway around! I had already used up my allotted time for visiting Devil’s Tower and now I was going to be late getting to Sheridan.

To make an already too long story shorter, it was dark and raining by the time I pulled into Sheridan. I was pretty stressed out, having been hypervigilant about avoiding the jumping deer pictured on a series of yellow highway signs. But my new RVing friend, Edith, made me feel welcome and showed me where I could plug into her newly installed 30-amp RV connection on the side of her house. Not only did it fail to light my bedside lamp and radio, it tripped my circuit breaker, so I decided to unplug and try again in the morning.

Next day I reset the breakers and tried again. I knew I'd made a big mistake when I still got no juice and I could smell burning plastic. The radio was fried and when I opened the breaker box a breaker was tripped and the smell was stronger.

Edith suggested that we go to her local RV repair shop and get it checked out. She also called her electrician; since I was the first person to use her new receptacle, we wondered if perhaps it had been wired improperly. Sure enough, the repair shop guy said the converter that allows the motorhome to accept regular 110 current had been blown and that we should definitely look to the new electrical outlet as the most probable cause (they had seen this before, more than once, and had several horror stories to share). The owner of the electrical company came to the house while I was at the repair shop and discovered that his employee had indeed wired the new connection incorrectly. Michelle had received a 220 jolt to her 30 amp system. The Good News: he agreed to pay for any damages.

So Michelle is in the hospital today, to the tune of at least $600-$800 just for a new converter and labor. They also will check out all her systems for damage, which could even include plumbing and gas lines. Then there’s the water heater element, microwave, refrigerator, heat pump, furnace, water pump, etc., all of which could be okay now but break down later from the stress of the power surge. Sheesh.

Meanwhile, Edith and I are in Billings, Montana, enjoying some great scenery and visiting with her sister.


June 8: That was then; this is now. While Edith and I were enjoying beautiful scenery up in northern Montana, including Great Falls, Bozeman, Helena (gotta get that capitol postcard) and Glacier National Park, Michelle was being fitted with a new converter, generator something or other, refrigerator electric coil, and I don't know what all exactly, to the tune of $1,500, mostly for labor, of course. Then we had to find a replacement microwave (which we did find, thankfully, at Sears for $69.99) and a new clock radio. Edith paid for all of it and will be reimbursed by her electrician, whom she trusts. I was so grateful that she did that so I didn't have to worry about getting reimbursed.


Yesterday the weather report was for freezing temps overnight and 70% chance of precipitation but I checked out the situation west of Sheridan and decided to continue on my way to Seattle. I had not even reached the Montana border when the snow started. Before I was through it, the ground all around me was covered in white and huge flakes were coming at me at 60 mph like big wet feathers blown by a giant fan. Fortunately the road was clear, so I plunged on. It's been a long time since I drove in snow but once I got over the shock of snow in June, I enjoyed the beauty and reminded myself that I had lived in Minnesota for seven winters and this was nothing I hadn't seen before. I wish I had remembered to put the camera in front with me before I took off because I could have gotten some really great shots of the only snow I've seen, or am likely to see, since January 2008.


I have lots of pictures of incredibly beautiful scenery but since I'm camped at WalMart, in Butte, without electricity, I'm trying to get this post done before I run out of juice. Here's just a sample. More later.

I'm headed for Missoula and maybe a rendezvous with another RVing woman, although she hasn't called me back yet. After that it's on to Idaho on I-90. I'm told Coeur d'Alene would be a great place to spend a couple of days. I'll let you know.

Still in Florida But Not For Long!

I was reminded yesterday that I hadn't posted since January 2. Then I read my friend Patti's post in which she mentions that her husband, Mr. Brilliant (you'll have to read her book to find out how he got his name) had been blogging for a year and encouraged her readers to try him out. I had been to his site before and couldn't understand a word (he's that brilliant) but I did it again and found that he had posted over 400 messages in 2008! That's like, okay I'm just guessing here (they said I wouldn't have to do math in order to blog), but that's more than once a day! I am ashamed and having been chastened I promise to do better. Unfortunately, I am not brilliant, or even close to it, which is why you only hear from me sporadically. If I had something to say, you can be sure, you'd hear about it.

Yes, I'm still in Florida and I'm bored. Not that there's anything wrong with Florida, if you like palm trees and sunshine and Saw Palmetto and sand and lizards and FLAT. No, I'm NOT complaining/whining/etc...but I have wanted to go WEST since I bought the motorhome and I am still just about as far EAST as one can get. That has all to do with temperature and my decision to forego worrying about keeping all my water lines and tanks above 32 degrees, which means, of course, that I must hang around the warm places. And this year even central Florida has seen some hard freezing (if you didn't know, you will next time you buy oranges).

So here's what's been happening since Jan. 2. First, I realized that I needed to have my annual GYN exam and mammogram (and that I should have done it in November, before I left Asheville, duh) so I set about trying to set that up as quickly as possible. I got the exam pretty quickly at Planned Parenthood, but I couldn't get the mammogram until Jan. 26, so I decided to spend the intervening two weeks in south Florida. Unfortunately, I didn't take time to investigate my camping options and when I arrived all the local state parks (my preferred cheap/nice places to camp) were full, which had never happened before. Since my contact/host couldn't park me at her house, I was left with one option, at $45/night. It was like spending the night in a used car lot. I could read my neighbor's newspaper from inside the RV.

So the next night I went to my favoriate free place to camp,

where I proceeded to back into a utility pole, one of those that is encased in a cubic yard of concrete. As usual (yes, I've done this before but only into a wooden fence...and a nice soft tree) it was the spare tire carrier that made contact. But this time I gave it a good whack and it "bounced" off the back window, shattering the glass. The next few moments were spent trying to imagine that what had just happened hadn't really happened. You know, when you think if you just close your eyes and then open them you'll wake up?

Skip to the happy ending: the next day an auto glass place just up the road in Ft. Pierce had the glass I needed, handled all the insurance stuff, charged me only my $100 deductible (for a $485 bill) and I was on the road again at 3 p.m. Now I know why the previous owner had a back-up camera installed. Too bad it hasn't worked since I bought the RV. I guess I'll add that to the list of things I will buy when I get some extra money (I might have to get a job at the next Wally World).

Next stop: Titusville, where a new contact met me to enjoy a few hours of wildlife watching: an 8-foot one and a 6-foot one.

(Taken with a zoom lens, rest assured.) Then on to New Smyrna Beach where I was able to park in my host's yard and where I spent a very nice couple of days with some less exotic but more hospitable wildlife.

A pair of Sandhill Cranes

and some other nice folks.

The highlight of the two weeks was an overnight stay at Blue Spring State Park and an hour spent communing with manatees. In winter, West Indian Manatees move into Blue Spring from the St. Johns River because the water in the spring run is a constant 72 degrees. What lovely creatures. They make one feel absolutely at peace.

I hope you can see that the large animal in the photo is showing her belly, and that it is her calf just above. What an incredible moment.

This is the same pair and in this photo you can see the scars on the cow's back, injuries caused by a run-in with a boat propeller. Each of the individuals at Blue Spring has been identified, and named, according to these scars and other physical characteristics.

Today I am in Gainesville, on my way north to visit the state capitol in Tallahassee, then westward through Pensacola, across the lower little hangy-down parts of Alabama and Mississippi and landing in New Orleans, where I intend to volunteer for a month before heading up to Memphis to visit my siblings. That's the plan, anyway. The best part of this adventure is having the freedom to revise the plan as needed. I am, after all, Queen of the World.

MOB Update

Okay, here's the latest in the ongoing saga of the dress I'm wearing to my daughter's wedding. I know you have been on pins and needles waiting for this important news. I even have a photo.

But first, I must tell you about one of the best things that has happened to me since I started living in Michelle, my RV. (BTW, I rechristened her Michelle because she's "my shell," my little home that I carry around with me.) Anyway, you'll recall that I bought five dresses "on spec" about two weeks ago. My daughter and I narrowed down the choices to either the brown one or the teal one. I was waiting for the MOG (Mother of Groom) to buy her dress because she is hard to fit and has fewer options.

Well, she chose a charcoal gray suit, which I didn't feel would be a good "match" with either of my choices: certainly not the brown, but the teal was a little too muted and grayish looking. So yesterday I took all five back to Ross with the intention of seeking out yet another option. I gathered up the five three-piece dresses and drove to Ross, arriving at about 10:30 a.m. I didn't have much time because I had to be back downtown by 11:30.

As soon as I got to the checkout I realized I didn't have my receipt with me. I tried to get the sales associate to let me return all five dresses, after which I was going to spend just a few minutes trying on a few different colors in hopes of finding something that would look good with charcoal gray in the wedding photos. Easy-peasy.

Wrong. All I could get for my purchases without the receipt was store credit. Just what I don't need: a $182 store credit at Ross! I gathered up my 20 pounds of dresses and headed for the door, disappointed about my spoiled plans and mad at myself for forgetting the receipt. As I walked through the door the thought in my head, I kid you not, was "Now I have to drive all the way back home to get my receipt."

I'm sure you're smarter than I am and have already figured out what happened next. I took two steps through the door of Ross Dress For Less into the bright sunshine of a beautiful fall day in the mountains and there it was! My home! Sitting the parking lot! I laughed out loud as, with a new spring in my step, I walked home, all of about 30 yards. Woo-hoo!

I found my receipt (Actually it took a good 15 minutes to accomplish that little feat: how many places could it be in a 19-foot motorhome?), went back into the store, found four more dresses to try on, put them on hold, got my $182 back, and made it to my 11:30 appointment.

For me, this is where the story gets even better. My appointment was to emcee the 3rd Annual Asheville PrideFest. I had intended to wear my MOB dress as part of the "act" I had written: you know, the schtick the emcee does between acts to keep the audience entertained while the performers set up. Now I had to find something else to wear plus put on stage make-up, all in ten minutes (fortunately I had already done my hair).

In the past I would have had to drive home, rush around, and then drive to the venue. All I did yesterday was drive the RV from Ross to the venue, park in the designated parking lot, and take care of business. I was so excited! This driving your house around is da bomb!

And so it continued. My next activity was a wedding shower at 6:30 in another part of town. Between getting off from the emcee gig and having to be at the shower I visited with friends, drove back to Ross where I tried on all four dresses and found the perfect one: purple, my daughter's favorite color, and one of mine also, then drove to my daughter's house so she could confirm that I had made a good choice. She loved it. "Where are you going now?" she asked.

"To a wedding shower at Martin's Pizza in River Ridge," I told her.

"So are you going to change in their parking lot like you did at the other one?" she asked.

OMG! I hadn't really thought of it, but yes, that's exactly what I did, and I had a few minutes to have "a little lie down" before the party started. What a life. I am not only MOB, I am QOW: Queen of the World.