Dallas, Day Two

Friday was a day to catch up with Chris while Lisa was at work, and also a chance to re-hang that damn mud flap. We went to Home Depot and picked up a couple of shackles, then headed to Anamia’s for a wonderful Mexican lunch, the highlight of which was the guacamole made fresh at table-side in a stone Molcajete (mortar). It was most excellent! Here we go with the food again.

Finally the mud flap was hung, by the axle with care, no wait that is another story. That darned thing hangs too low now, but I am not sure what I can do with the tools at hand.

Dallas, Day One

Thursday was primarily a driving day, but it was not without its drama.

Things were routine until we were nearly through Dallas construction traffic. While approaching an off ramp to Hwy 114, the construction had us slowed up enough for the guy in the car next to me to get my attention and ask that I open my window. I regretted it when I heard him say, “The car you are towing is smoking!” We worked our way over to the shoulder. Happily, it was recently poured cement and relatively clean since I was soon going to be crawling under the coach. Turns out the heavy mud flap that hangs beneath the rear of the coach had once again come loose on one side and was dragging. Risking life and limb, I got my tools out of the compartment on the traffic side and crawled beneath the beast. The bracket had broken so there was no quick fix on the side of the road. I disconnected the good side and Barbara and I hauled the damn thing (all six feet and 60 or so pounds) into the coach.

We pulled up in front of Chris’ house feeling like we were home free. We disconnected the car and I started to back into Chris and Lisa’s driveway with Barbara guiding me in while standing on the lawn of the house across the street. All of a sudden she was doing the chicken dance and her arms were flying all over. That made directions hard to follow so I stopped until things settled down. Things did not get better, but we managed to get the coach in the backyard. It turns out Barbara had stepped into a large fire ant nest and got many bites. Within minutes she had hives over a substantial part of her body. She was really having a bad time, so I drove to the store for Benadryl. Thankfully she was feeling better relatively soon, but the rash persisted through the next day.

Finally we were snug in our spot behind Chez Ruburgner. (Rubin + Burgner)

Things got better when Lisa got home and we headed to Jack’s daycare for his Easter egg hunt. What a great time that was. He is a sharp young lad, and jumped right in to getting his share of eggs. 

As for getting his picture taken with the bunny, well there is always next year.

Natchitoches, LA. Home of Steel Magnolias.

All that weather that hit Dallas yesterday (minus the tornados) hit us at one in the morning. The lightening was non-stop. The flashes coming in through the shower skylight made it like a disco in the bedroom, and the rain was coming down like crazy. Worrying that the wind would pick up greatly I pulled in the slides to avoid damage to the topper canvas. It took forever to get back to sleep, but eventually we did.

We woke to the traditional coffee grinder alarm, but ended up waiting until after eleven for the rain to abate before leaving.

It was a good drive. A lot of I-10 through MS and LA was washboardy and irritating, but once past Baton Rouge and heading north on I-49 it was pretty nice.

Baton Rouge

We rolled into the Nakatosh Campground just before five and got settled in. 

There was a reason for stopping. Would you believe it was related to food? Oh, yeah! When we drove west right after retirement we stopped in Natchitoches and found a great Cajun restaurant on Front Street. Mama’s Oyster House is worth driving out of your way for. We are partial to the Catfish Supreme, a pair of fillets smothered in etouffee sauce. Spicy good stuff.

So today was pretty much driving and eating. We are excited because tomorrow we reach Chris and Lisa’s to spend time with grandson Jack.

Niceville, FL and Gulfport, MS

We have stopped in the Gulfport, MS area for the evening. We are staying at Southern Oaks Mobile home and RV Park. As it turns out it is a nice little place to stop when traveling on I-10. Once a FEMA trailer facility it is now transitioning to a commercial park. All the pads are cement and there is grass between the sites. There are many young trees, so it is a nice environment. Lots of full time residents, but there are some pull-through sites that allow those of us traveling pulling a car to stop for the night without unhooking the car.

I am sitting in the shade of the motorhome enjoying a beer while I write today’s entry. Although there is considerable highway noise from I-10 it blends into the background. In the distance I can hear the clang of a game of horseshoes being played somewhere nearby.

We spent the last two nights with good sailing friends Jim and Phyllis Kaiserski in Niceville, FL. Their home is on a short cul de sac with homes on only one side so there is room to leave the motorhome on the street.

The Kaiserski home is on a bayou off of Choctawhathcee Bay. What a wonderful setting. They have a great view out back across the creek feeding the bayou. They overlook a previously undeveloped parcel of land. Unfortunately, that is to be short lived since the owner has started clearing roads to build homes. For now, though, it is a little slice of heaven. One of the perks of this home is the ability to keep their boat docked out back. Sure beats the two-hour drive we had to visit Totem. If it were this handy we would possibly still have her.

Phyllis, Sonata and Barbara with Sisu in the background.

We had the opportunity to go sailing on Sisu yesterday. It was a wonderful sunny day with a brisk breeze. We took some cheese and crackers along and had a terrific time. Barbara and I have found the secret to sailing. Use OPB! (Other People’s Boats)

Jim and Phyllis introduced us to a new pizza place. Luckily it is a chain so you can look for one near you. It is called Papa Murphy's. What makes Papa Murphy’s so different is that they do not cook pizza! Huh? You say. Nope, YOU cook the pizza at home. Papa Murphy’s little helpers prepare the pizza to go. It is on an oven proof disc and over-wrapped in cellophane so it does not come apart on the way home. You toss it in the oven (without the cellophane) for 12-18 minutes and you end up with one very good pizza. I should have taken a picture. Not only do they taste super, they are gorgeous to look at. Look and see if there is one near you and give them a try. Unfortunately, back home the closest one is forty minutes away, so it would be a very special event for us when we get home. It is good enough to make the effort, though, and we will.

Someone mentioned that a common theme in my writing is food. I guess they were right, weren’t they! It always seems to work its way in there.

Hardeeville, SC

Electronic tools such as iPhones are a real boon to travelers. We woke up to the grinding of coffee beans at seven this morning. I won’t pretend I jumped right up. I knew it would take at least ten minutes to brew that elixir that gets our days started. After a protracted period of time spent checking my eye lids for light leaks I got up and brought coffee back to Barbara and we started checking weather on the Weather Bug iPhone app.

Things looked iffy, with forecasted high winds and rain ahead of an approaching cold front. It was already blowing pretty strong but there was no rain yet in Gaffney. We could see on radar that we had a window for departure. After selecting a few alternate places to stop along our route just in case it was too uncomfortable, we set out. Barbara had the first leg and ended up driving in rain for the better part of two hours. The wind was getting stronger. I-26 southbound is protected reasonably well from southwest winds so it was not too bad. The new Bilstein shock absorbers we had installed while we were here made a terrific improvement in handling. The ride was much more stable than it was prior to the upgrade. We may have stopped short of our day’s destination with the original shocks.

This is what we were driving through today.

We are now tucked in under the red pin at the Hardeeville RV Park just short of Savannah.

We are spending the rest of the afternoon listening to the rain on the roof, and occasional thunder, while also listening to an appropriate CD titled “Jazz For A Rainy Afternoon”. It is a very relaxing way to wind down after driving in all that wind.

While the real traffic snarl will be on Sunday, we will still try to time our drive home tomorrow to miss any tie-ups around Daytona Beach since this is race weekend.

The Peachoid

One of the joys of traveling by motorhome is visiting small town America. While the coach was being serviced we set out to see more of the sites around Gaffney, SC. On our last visit we spent time at Cowpens National Battlefield. This time we decided to learn more about the town of Gaffney itself, so we wandered through the downtown area and spent time in their museum. The revitalization of downtown is a work in progress since, as you can imagine, the poor economy has limited both business opportunities and visitors. We got an earful from the owner of a large antiques store who is eager for a change in Washington in the hopes that it will improve the business climate.

Across from the new city hall is a reconstruction/reclamation of the log cabin home of the founding father, Michael Gaffney. The town sprung from its beginnings as a tavern and store at a crossroads in post-revolutionary (1803) South Carolina. The area is steeped in Revolutionary War history and Cowpens is only one of several revolutionary battlefields in the region. We hope to visit others such as Kings Mountain on future trips to Gaffney for service, but we limited ourselves to the downtown area this time.

The city of Gaffney reclaimed a retired elementary school and built an impressive history museum that contains many artifacts from early Indian settlements, the Revolutionary War, and early industry such as iron smelting. There were many exhibits depicting life in Gaffney, including athletic accomplishments of the local high school and college. One section was labeled Horses, Hooch and Hot Rods. It seems moonshine and stock car racing are in the blood of South Carolinians and these passions were well represented in the museum.

We visited Limestone College and the Limestone Springs nearby. The college was originally a hotel that was converted to a girl’s high school and subsequently a girl’s college in 1864. It is now coed, and boasts a national men’s Division II lacrosse championship in 2009. So far this year the women’s team is number three! In their opening game they won 22-0. How about that! For those not familiar with the sport it is scored like hockey. One goal, one point.

 

The campus is quite small and is bordered by two historical sites. The limestone quarry (now a lake) is the quarry site of the official South Carolina stone used to build the Washington Monument. I need to learn more about this, but evidently each state was to contribute a stone for the foundation of the monument.  Nearby are the Limestone Springs that in the late1800’s were a vacation destination and thought to have healing properties.

We returned to the Freightliner Service Center around 3:30 and found that all of the work was completed, so we settled up. I have to tell you that the folks here at Freightliner are terrific. They are really a friendly bunch and know their stuff. Anyone out there riding on a Freightliner chassis owes it to themselves to attend the Camp Freightliner classes held several times a year and have your chassis looked over by the pros.

Oh, what is a Peachoid? Thought you would never ask!

The Peachoid is the 135’ tall, one million gallon water tower built by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Works from 1979 to 1981. The special features that make it peach specific are “false work” welded to a spherical tank. The paint job that makes it such a wonderful landmark was done by artist Peter Freundenburg, a specialist in super-graphics and murals. This thing is pretty impressive! The stem (not visible in this picture) is 12 feet long and 19 inches in diameter. The leaf is 60’ by 16’ and weighs 7 tons!

So. Now you know!

Gaffney, SC

We are on the road again. Those of you receiving the Spot notices noticed that we were in Hardeeville, SC last night. This is our annual pilgrimage to Gaffney, SC and the Freightliner factory where the chassis on which our motorhome rests was built. Their low season for activity is from December through February. To encourage business they offer a discount on service during this period. This discount, and a labor rate already much lower than in the Orlando area, makes coming to the folks that know this chassis best a great way to start our RVing season. 

One of the benefits of this trip is a chance to visit with Nina and Archie Sellew in Bluffton, SC. We had a great visit with these wonderful friends and Nina treated us to a terrific dinner. She really excelled with the dessert, a flour-less white cake with whipped cream and lemon curd frosting. The strawberries didn’t hurt either! We always leave their home about five pounds heavier.

We are spending the night behind the Freightliner facility. They provide electrical hookups and a dump station so customers need not seek hotel accommodations while having work done. We appreciate their thoughtfulness very much.

For those of you that have never seen what is under a motorhome’s skirt, here are a few shots of a typical chassis. It is interesting to see how far in front of the front wheels the driver sits. Considering how far back the engine is, it is no wonder the motorhome is so quiet as we head down the road. By the way, the battery location is for shipment of the chassis and not where they will finally rest.

Winnebago builds motorhomes in a two-story factory. The top floor assembly line is where the “house” is built, while on the ground floor accessories are added to the chassis. At the end of the two assembly lines there is a hole in the ceiling and the “house” is lowered onto the chassis. Pretty cool.

Tomorrow we will do a little sightseeing while they work on the coach.