New website!!!

Well I'm giving it a shot. I have set up my own domain through a local ISP. Check out my new address:

 

www.theadventuresofccandme.com

 

 

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Independence Day!

Quick four day trip to celebrate Independence Day.

We went to Cuivre River State Park my sister Peg. We took our three youngest grandkids, Saxton, Mica & Kolton, their mom had to work the weekend. Peg took all her daughters & son-in-laws & 6 grandkids, they brought the popup to house the overflow.

We picked Cuivre River because it is close to home, only 60 miles or so.  And it had a beach.

It was a lot of people but it worked out pretty well. All the little kids got a long well. They did a lot of bike riding & on one trip around the campgrounds they discovered “a million tadpoles”..  So of course the and tadpole hunting, or is it tadpoling….. was on

 Unfortunately since we are apparently in monsoon season the lake was closed, ironically, first to to flooding, then due to “water conditions”.  So we adjusted, we had squirt guns, a giant ball the kids could climb in & roll. So fun was still around……

The kids went to the Junior Ranger program and talks.  Friday night was about mammals & fur.  Saturday morning was an expedition to the Big Sugar Creek & catching more tadpoles & crawdads.  Saturday afternoon was amphibians & presentation of badges….

One of the highlights of the weekend was Mica decided she wanted her training wheels off of her bike.  She didn’t want any help she insisted she wanted to do it on her own.  I was truly impressed. She battled balance & a little fear of falling but wow.  She finally beat it.

Here is an early attempt

Here's the next day, piece of cake now..

It wouldn’t be camping without s’mores & Kolton is the king of eating them.

Since the lake was closed the kids all went back to the Big Sugar Creek to beat the heat.

Just before we left I caught Saxton on the Amish bike & Mica showing off

We spent all day Sunday there, packed up early Monday & I was back to work by 1pm.  ugh

8000 Feet

We hooked the Fit onto CC.  Jackie didn’t think she was shifting right & wasn’t sure she wanted to go out on her own.  I drove it & disagreed.  But whatever.

As we got into the next town, (Pinedale, WY) we stopped in the visitor’s center.  I wanted to confirm the route & see what they had to offer.  After 10 minutes inside, we were unhooking the Fit & they were off for more recon.

Rita & I drove on, wanting to get over the mountain pass in the Tetons near Jackson, WY.  Jackie & the boys horsed around in Pinedale then went on an excursion.

Pretty nice drive, we drove under some antelope migration bridges.  They are huge over passes built on migration routes & the antelope cross over on their way to summer pastures.  It’s a big deal because the herds are huge.  These antelope overpasses are huge.  only thing missing is roads.  It's all pasture.....

As we got into Jackson, WY the route had a noticeable incline.  Gone is the cruising at 60.  This was a mountain pass.  CC never faltered but this was some steep climbing.  She powered up one side, cleared 8,200 feet & the charge down hill was on

. 

We thought we had everything secured for driving, but that is flat-lander talking.  A we were on this ridiculous downward angle, plus switch backs  & Jake brakes fully engaged  everything not anchored down joined us in front.  Including the apples, who decided a safe place to hide were behind the gas & brake pedals.  But we got it all straightened out & nothing was damaged.

The base of the pass was Victor ID, so we took a much-needed break at the Brakeman.  Advertised as the best burgers around.  The advertising was CORRECT.  I had the special & Rita had an elk burger.  Both with a huge serving of Idaho potato French fries, go figure.

Found our campsite, Henry’s Lake State Park with no problem.  Nice paved park with a great view if the lake.

The view after we were all set up!

Sunset!!

First light with clouds in the valley

Heading into Yellowstone tomorrow....

Internet is getting harder to find.

OK the advertised internet is elusive.

And cell phone signal is questionable.

Looks like my posts will be made after we get home...

The Road to Yellowstone

Laramie worked out well.  Good night sleep & hit the road first thing in the morning.  Slowly climbing the mountains.  CC is doing great even with the incline the cruise isn’t wavering….

Got to Rock Springs, WY in western Wyoming & left the interstate & headed north on the two lane highways.  We disconnected the Honda from the back & the kids are on recon mode.

Pulled in to a nice RV park in Boulder, WY.  Population 750.  Nice RV Park.  Big level spots.  Set up a breeze on an almost perfectly level site.  Plus they let me wash CC.  It was raining off and on the whole trip & she was the dirtiest she has ever been.  Both boys helped me & she is shiny…

It's easy to work with this view.

I grilled some chicken & the boys started a campfire.  After dinner we invited the neighbor over.  Don was from Alberta Canada.  He & his wife RV about 6 months out of the year.  They are working their way back to Canada from Texas & are meeting friends in Yellowstone.

Then we invited the other neighbors, Steve & Joanne Hall.  He is a retired Police captain from Rhode Island & she retired from teaching.  They are full-timer & travel with their 3 kids.  She home schools them & they try to host @ campsites.

While we were sitting there another camper came by asking where we got our firewood.  We pointed out the office but invited her to our fire.  Leika & Marcel joined in.  They are from the Netherlands and flew to the US, rented an RV & are touring the Rockies.  What an eclectic group we have.

The kids are all off playing some sort of game in the dark.  We are drinking pitchers of Rita’s margaRita’s, all is good.  We stayed up past midnight talking about RV’ing, the places we all came from, and how to solve the world’s problems.  I’m not sure I really remember.  But we had a blast.

Woke up in pretty good shape and headed for Yellowstone in the morning. 

"Go west young man"

If that is what Horice Greeley wants me to do then that is what I am going to do. Plus Rita said our very first big trip had to be to Yellowstone, but as you may know Williamsburg, Washington DC, and Gettysburg won out last year. 

So this year one tick off of Rita's bucket list. Yellowstone here we come! 

Worked all day Friday and pulled out with me, Rita, Jackie, Hunter, and AJ at 5pm and took a chunk out of the mileage. Drove till midnight about 420 miles, and covered 4 states ( Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska). We boondocked in a Walmart parking lot in Nebraska City, Nebraska. 

Woke up early to a beautiful red and orange sunrise over Walmart. The boys air mattress had a leak so fortunately there was a Walmart nearby. New air mattress and travel coffee mugs now on board.

Decided to crock pot dinner (Pot Roast and French Onion Soup-- thanks Window) to have a pleasant smell while driving to our next stop. We do this by getting everything prepped and cooking and then put the crock pot in the sink while we drive so it doesn't slide around. 

Pulled out of the parking lot 8 am heading for I-80.  2 hours under our belt, how come I don't smell anything. Crock pot dead, damn it no Walmart around. Fortunately smaller back up crock pot up and running. 

Beautiful Nebraska day driving down I-80

On a side note a quick your welcome to the citizens of Nebraska in 4 hours of driving we have successfully eliminated 1.2 gazillion bugs. 

We made a pit stop at a a rest area so I could stretch our legs. Jackie popped open her geocaching app (she might just be addicted) and found 2 caches that they made quick work of. Then back into CC to get some more miles in. Me and Rita relaxing in front while the Laminack's all laid around the back reading books and Nooks. Mostly because Jackie makes them read for an hour everyday.

Got a little shoulder rub during one of our stops. I knew being married to a massage therapist would have benefits.

Spending the night in Laramie, WY. 

The altitude here is interesting.Started out at home at 425 feet above sea level (FASL).  Spent the night at 1000 FASL.  Lunch on the way at 2000 FASL.  Shoulder massage at 5000 FASL.  Spent the night at 7127 FASL.......

 More tomorrow as we head HIGHER.....

Easter In Hot Springs

We scheduled a trip to Arkansas for the Easter Break.  Since I didn’t leave for the colleges actual Spring Break I waited until after Session 126’s graduation to go.

I taught my normal Thursday class, AOJ 203 Criminal Law (real exciting stuff! This week is corporate law & RICO statutes, yea hah).

After class we finished loading up & coordinated with my sister Peg & headed out.  The plan was to drive to West Memphis & spend the night at the trusty Flying J.  When I got home found the Gustafson’s. Saxton, Mica & Kolton were all going to ride with us.  (Brand, Jackie, Hunter & AJ were driving down Friday morning pulling Peg’s popup camper.)

Anyway kids traveled great. They watched Pound Puppies, Sophia the First, & played games with Rita.  No need for potty stops we have one on board!  Got to the Flying J with no problems dieseled up & once again parked right out front where the employees could keep an eye on us.

We ate dinner at the Denny’s there & headed to bed. When we woke up there was another Class A nestled up next to us.  It made squeezing out a little tricky pulling Rita’s car but we made it.  On the road after a quick breakfast & heading to Hot Springs!

Nice drive. Enjoyed watching the scenery turn greener by the mile.  Found the RV park, Catherine’s Landing easily.  Beautiful park. Sitting in a valley with a river running along side of it.  Wide roads & staging at the sign in.  We had three sites along the river.  Wide asphalt streets & angled concrete pads made backing in, leveling & setting up a breeze.  Lots of questions from the little ones but all set up & heading to the play area in minutes.

Only bad thing about the play area is its next to the pool.  That’s where the kids wanted to go next.  A quick check on the status of the rest of the family & the popup and a 5:30 swim time in the heated pool was planned

.

BL & JT showed up, we set up “Poppie” quickly and hit the pool. Well the kids did. I don’t care if it’s heated, when you get out its chilly.  Kids had a blast. First pool time in a long time!

After the swim we headed into town for fish, it Good Friday.  Went to a local joint called Mr. Whiskers.  Delicious, great potions & reasonably priced, you don’t go home hungry.

We were keeping an eye on the weather and decided to do our Easter egg hunt Saturday.

Admitting we are a little strange, we hung on to one of our Easter traditions and had colored string for each grandchild then we had them twist & turn through our campsites in search of their individual Easter baskets.

We followed up with a normal egg hunt.  The only problem was the campground also had an Easter Egg hunt & they were mixed up among all the campsites (I wasn't happy with that part, all these kids & strangers walking around & looking around our RV's.)  Rita had put money in some of the eggs & we didn't want some other kid hitting pay dirt.

Edmund A. Babler State Park

This was Spring Break @ SWIC.  Unfortunately the Academy is still in session, it's week 9 of 10.  So as it turns out Van & I are the only faculty on campus.  It is desolate.

We have been taking turns coming in or leaving early, so that takes some of the sting out of being here.  Van decided we should each take a full day at the end of the week.  He took Thursday & I took Friday.

That worked out because Friday after work Rita & I were going to go to the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, Mo for an awards program for a business group that Rita belongs to, Business Network International (BNI).  We reserved a room.  We can spend the night & in the morning go get CC.

Then I found out that CC would be done Friday afternoon.  If you remember we had to reserve Babler for Friday & Saturday.  Now we can leave earlier. We decided to cancel the hotel room, get CC, set her up at Babler then go to the function.  Or not.....

We had a nice Friday, slept in.  Rita scheduled me an hour massage.  Then we did some shopping, grabbed lunch & headed to 3 R RV in Union, MO.

She was all ready & the bill wasn't too bad.  We didn't hook up Rita's car we just headed to the campsite.  Arrived with no problems and backed her into slot #23.  Plenty long, paved and close to level.  I set out all the lights & decorations and flags.

I was pretty happy here so, no shocker, Rita went to the dinner for BNI & I stayed at the campsite to "tend the fire".

I took a walk, had a couple of cocktails, listened to music and chilled.  I waited until Rita got home.  She wasn’t very happy that all the wood was gone, as well as the cocktails.  So we went to bed.

So here is where this trip’s lesson came into play.  The site we had was only 30 amp electric hookup.  Previously, we have always had the max power sites 50 amp.  When we took delivery of our RV, the technician explained that when we only had 30 amp, CC would know & work according.  As in using only two of the 3 heat pumps on the roof.

Well not exactly.  We hooked up, turned on the electric hot water heater & the heat pumps.  I heard it fire up so figured all was good. Not really.  CC must have tripped the circuit & we didn't notice because she automatically reverts to battery power so everything works, except the heat pumps.  Around 3am it got pretty chilly in bed.

I couldn’t quite figure out why.  So, in my jammie's, I went outside in the cold.  I turned on the Aqua Hot system, that's the whole house heating system the uses diesel fuel to work. That was one of the things tuned up at 3 R RV. Worked perfect.  Circuit held because I turned off the heat pumps.  CC warmed up comfortably.

In the morning I emailed Jimmie at 3 R RV.  I thought maybe they changed a setting on the system or something. Or maybe the power supply from the park is messed up. 

Meanwhile for breakfast we decide to head into town.  We prowled around Wildwood, MO a little & found a nice diner.  There are some pretty big houses there….

After we got back to the campgrounds we decide to take a walk on one of the trails.  As we passed by the check-in booth we talked to the attendant.  When I asked her about the power she suggested that maybe I was misinformed by the RV dealer on what happens when using a 30 amp hook up.

So after our walk I turned off the electric water heater and then fired up just one of the heat pumps.  And nothing blew. She warmed up nicely.  I’m going to have to do some follow-up on managing power, but nothing we can’t figure out.

We walked all over the campgrounds and discovered that they converted an entire loop to 50 amp, so next time none of this will matter.  But you know, “lessons learned.”

We then spent a leisurely day around CC. Nice dinner and one more walk.

Sunday we slept in, it stayed warm in CC all night, Yea!  Had a great breakfast and then went on a real long walk on the trails.  We slowly cleaned up, had lunch outside and left around 2pm.  It’s always sad when we leave…..

CC is on the prowl for 2015

CC is back on the prowl. After an anguishing winter we finally got her uncovered & on the road.

Winter lasted forever. Once a month I uncovered the back of CC & climbed inside & started the Diesel engine & the generator. You’re supposed to do that to keep her healthy.

When we were at the RV show in St. Louis, Rita signed us up to win two motorized bicycles. But we didn't win them. Instead, we won a free weekend trip to Lost Valley Lake RV Resort out in mid-Missouri. We decided to try & get her de-winterized & go!

So last weekend we took off the ADCO cover & wrestled it into a trash can for storage. Well that was the plan. I saw a YouTube video that suggested that, but the freaking cover is so big it could fill two trash cans. We got a storage bag over it & in the garage good enough to keep it nice until next winter.

Then we got inside CC, opened her up, cleaned her up, flushed the water system of antifreeze then sanitized the water lines & tank. I swept her out & started moving stuff back into her.

Thursday I had a 3 o'clock appointment at Freightliner in Troy for an oil change & lube. Unfortunately the guy who set it all up was new & goofed up some details. I got in eventually, and the process began. The engine has three filters & holds 8 1/2 gallons of motor oil. I had them change the oil in the generator too. Three more filters & two more gallons of oil. Part of the problem is they didn't have the right filters for the generator, it's a big one. (10 kW). I had almost a 2 hour delay waiting for the filter.

A nice thing was the comments from the service writer & the mechanic. Both commented on how Country Coach upgraded all the engine features, she should be a work horse. Plus she was in real good condition.

Anyway, all done at about 9 pm. Here is the tough part, $465 for an oil change. Wow!

Got her home & Rita helped me park her in the dark. 

Friday, we finished carrying everything back out so we now have the pantry & fridge restocked. We left home around 3 pm for Lost Valley Lake (LVL). Bad part of the trip is it rained the whole way, including when we got here.

We got checked in & escorted to our spot, a pull thru on top of a mountain. Nice site, but they re-graveled all the roads so they are sloppy. CC & Rita's car are FILTHY! All I did was plug her in and we headed out for a fish dinner at the lodge. It rained all night, so we packed it in.

Over the winter we changed from Direct TV to Dish.  After I figured out how to get the old box out of the cabinet & the new one in we only got half the channels.  I quick call to TracStar, the company that makes the roof satellite dish, I found out we needed a software update.  I got the software update device in the mail from TracStar right before we left so we decided to try installing it while in the boonies.  Opening the access panel & the gazillion wires was spooky, but with Rita helping me, everything went well. (Not the norm for me, usually if it can go wrong it does). After all updated, I called tech support thru TracStar & after a few lost/dropped calls we got it working.  Now it works perfect, the system switches satellites as needed and we have HD TV while camping. Can you say roughing it???

Saturday morning we did the tour of the grounds. It was ok.  It took 90 minutes like they said. No hard sell at all. When we said no they gave us a free real nice Coleman cooler and said see ya. Resort is nice but we don't feel like being "owners".

Our stomachs were starting to grumble.  So we headed into the bustling town of Rosebud, 409 people, for a nice diner for lunch. We found Kline’s. It was nice, I think half of the town was there for lunch.

After lunch we came back to LVL & CC got a much needed bath. 

Now I'm plopped down in front of a campfire getting ready to BBQ some ribs.

Tomorrow we pack up & head to Union, Missouri to drop CC off at 3R RV to get the AquaHot tuned up & some other RV things tweaked. We are getting there on Sunday when they are closed.  The owners gave us the gate access code & we are going to let ourselves in & boondock in the parking lot.  Then she should be already for 2015!!!!!!!