and the skys are not cloudy all day (mostly)

Greetings from Joplin, Missouri. 3 days down and slightly more than 1,500 miles gone. We crossed the great Mississippi this morning and drove by the Arch. Then we proceeded across Missouri and landed here. These last 2 days have been a lot of work with little reward except for the sheer distance traveled.

We have an end point as well as an end time for this jaunt. We are headed for Pasadena and Cheryl’s neice’s son’s graduation (HS). He moved out to Califirnia to be with his father last year. He has been attending Pasadena HS and will graduate next Wednesday. We figured that since we planned to be in the area (at least within 3 states of the area) that we would attend. We would be the “other” family support and represent all of those who couldn’t travel to CA. It doesn’t hurt that the graduation is in the Rose Bowl; we may not get to see a game there but we will at least get into the place.

Two days ago we arose early and headed down the road. We had only covered a couple of miles when I noticed the oil pressure was really low. Somewhat distressed (to put it mildly), I kept the proverbial eagle eye on the gauge, hoping that it would not drop any further. As I closely watched the oil pressure, I noticed that the engine temperature ( the guage right next to it) had spiked to near the “red” zone. This was definitely not a good sign. I pulled off the next exit and looked for a (large) place to stop. I found an out of business gas station, stopped and opened the hood. I checked the oil (ok) and pondered the situation. After about a minute, I heard a metallic click from the engine. Figuring that the problem was with the thermostat and the click was the thermostat releasing, I started the engine up and the temperature dropped to 200 degrees with a rise in the oil pressure. I hit the road again and the temperature remained stable at 200 and the oil pressure returned to 40 lbs. It appeared to me that the thermostat had stuck driving the temperature up and causing the oil to overheat and to lose viscosity driving down the oil pressure. That crisis averted, I filed in the back of my mind that I would need to find a garage to put in a new thermostat before I hit the added stress of the Rockies but for now, everything seemed to be back to normal.

Deer continue to be victims of the interstate system. Add two more for Wednesday and an additional 2 for Thursday. Not the killing field of Tuesday but the total is now 8 for 3 days. We have started seeing more campers. I think we saw 2 the first day out and not too many more on day 2 but we must have seen a couple of dozen yesterday. We haven’t had many neighbors in the Flying J RV parking areas. Lots of trucks but few campers.

On day 2 we drove another 560+ miles ending up in western Indiana. More hills but we have gotten used to being passed very unceremoniously as we creep up. We are making good distance, even if the time factor isn’t all that good. I used to believe that if you could squeeze an extra 5 or 10 mph on a long trip, you would knock hours off the whole trip. My philosophy has changed to slow and steady wins (you know the drill). Putting in the extra time will win the battle (and save gas as well).

Day 3 started out decently. We got up late (6:30) and drove a couple of hours before we stopped for breakfast. The day was clear and bright, the air a lot cooler and the terrain flat through miles of farm country. The temperature gauge remained steady but low. We have been maintaining rather strange eating habits. Our refrigerator has stopped working! The freezer is fine but the fridge barely maintains English beer temperature. Things come in threes; this is our second temperature related problem. We have moved all of the perishable food into coolers and are trying to eat up whatever is perishable. We stopped at a couple of RV places along the highway with little satisfaction. The best we could do was “We can look at it in 4 or 5 hours.”

“No thanks. I have a problem with the truck that I am willing to wait several hours to fix but I can live out of coolers until I get someplace where I will be long enough to make an appointment.

The heating problem then began to resurface. After we stopped a couple of times, the temperature was back close to the red line. We saw a billboard for a chevy garage and decided to go find it. We asked some people in the town of Sullivan but they didn’t seem to know where the garage was. We did find a Pontiac/GMC garage who seemed willing to help until they saw our rig. They expected something a lot smaller and balked at helping us. They did spend some time on the phone calling around for someone to help us and the Chevy garage came to the rescue. They were the ones we had come to find anyway. They were located on the next street to the spot we had asked for directions. Go figure!! Maybe they were just visiting……..

Let me tell you…If you are ever in Sullivan, Missouri, look up Tom at Meier’s Chevrolet/Buick. You will never find a better and more friendly place to get help. They rearranged their afternoon schedule including calling a man with an appointment and asking him to reschedule so they could rescue some travelers from Maine. Of course, Murphy’s Law struck in several ways. Mikey’s (Michael Waltrip – the spokesperson for NAPA to you non-racing types) company gave them the wrong part and when they went to tighten the housing, it broke. Eventually, they got all the parts they needed and treated us like kings and we were off. We had a rather long break from the road, watched Tiger for a while and settled in on a Hogan’s Heroes marathon for the rest of the afternoon.

It felt good to get back on the road and we tried to make up for lost time driving until 9 or 10. we didn’t make our 500 miles but we were far enough ahead of the total that we still passed the 1,500 mile mark.

We fixed some supper and used up some more of the things from the coolers. Then we watched the Celtics beat the Lakers. Great game!

Its morning again. I decided to make coffee before we set off. The weather is brutal. Severe T-storms. You could hardly see the camper next to you. We had all of the windows closed and put on the generator to make the coffee. Unfortunately, the combination of the A/C and the coffee maker blew something out. The fuses and circuit breakers are ok but all of the outlets have stopped working. Something else to work on. We made the coffee the old fashioned way on the stove. When the weather started to let up, we hit the road and headed for Oklahoma. The travel was good. There weren’t many hills and the traffic was light. We cruised right along and were soon in Oklahoma (where the wind comes blowin……oh you get the idea). We started to see more farms and lots of cattle. Neither of us had ever been in OK so it was all new. The down side was that route 44 through most of OK was toll road. 8.50 twice and 1.30 3 times. The smaller tolls were to machines. In the first 2, there were no people at all, just cameras and exact change machines. The last booth had a real person who was not impressed when I noted that she was a live person. Not much of a sense of humor.

Soon (not soon at all, OK is a big state when you are going east to west) we were crossing the border into Texas. The geography changed severely once we entered Texas. The green fields and pastures with trees and rolling hills was immediately replaced by an arid wasteland. It was flat from horizon to horizon. There were few green things with the exception of the sagebrush(?). We are crossing the small nub of Texas that is right at the top. Later in the state, we started to see small mesas and other geologic features that time has stolen from my mind. We stopped in a roadside picnic area to take some pictures. The grass was brown and totally dead. It was so dry that it crunched when you walked across it. It is warm but there are constant breezes that make the temperature bearable. Dehydration will become a problem from here out. It is imperative to continue to drink liquids.

In the past, we have used the local water to wash and sometimes to cook but have always carried bottled water to drink. It is travel that makes us appreciate the water we have at home. The town water is great and I have a well which is even better. This year, we decided to invest in a brita water filtration pitcher. Chlorine is at the top of the list of things it takes from the water. We are not impressed. The filtered water still smell badly of chlorine. We will keep trying it.

We have had our third heat related disaster. We ran the coffee maker and the rear A/C at the same time and blew something. All of the outlets no longer work. I checked all of the circuit breakers and the fuses and found none out of order…..another project for the repair shop. Now we only have the A/C in the cab….of course we are pretty much only driving anyway. The days reach into the 90s and touch 100 but the nights (so far) have dropped into the 60s and 70s so we sleep comfortably, at least until the time for most of the trucks to leave.

We took a walk through the truck parking area last night. There must have been more than 200 trucks here, and this is only one place. There is a Loves truck stop across the street and many more along the highway. The trucks are lined up at the diesel pumps and there are a dozen of them. The gas pumps all have lines at them most of the day and night. They have some special RV pumps that are open. We have only had to wait once while a guy filled up his diesel truck and then filled up his (large) gasoline boat. A credit card will only authorize $75 at a time and this didn’t fill his boat. The $75 limit is archaic at this time as gasoline has gotten so high. I used to be able to fill the camper on 2 fills but now it takes 4 so I go inside and leave my card with them. They then allow me to fill the camper and put the whole thing on one bill. Even with the walk back and forth, this takes less time. I have to get a bag of ice anyway so I would go to the store once anyway.

We were going to stop at Amarillo, Tx but the flying J there was tiny. There were only 4 camper spots and they were all full (2 with cars who didn’t want to park in front of the store). I would have had to back in even if a spot existed and we were on the edge of the highway. We motored on and landed in Tucumcari, New Mexico. This is a new F/J with a lot of RV spots but you have to share an entrance with the truck population so it is kind of noisy. We slept late and were awakened when the camper next door started up then drove away allowing the sun to shine in our window. We groaned, figured out the time (every clock in our coach is a different time). We have yet to figure out how to change the clock on the dashboard and our bedroom clock is confusing even though we have changed it, we are not sure what we did.

We are slow starting. 2,000 miles in 4 days has taken its toll but we are still enthusiastic. We should navigate New Mexico today and end up somewhere in Arizona. I hope we can put some serious miles on today. Each mile over our goal of 500/day gives us more time to play in the high dessert of CA before we make our first reservation. We still have an extra day and hope to visit Joshua Tree and 29 Palms before settling in.

That’s about it from this end. We are, in spite of the disasters, having a good time. Oh by the way, 3 more dead deer in the road yesterday. That makes 11. We’ll check in with you in a while.

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Clayton & Cheryl