Category Archives: Other Coaches

Last Weekend in Santa Fe

We’re not in Santa Fe anymore but I need to catch up on our last weekend there. On Saturday, Donna and I rode the scooter to the farmers’ market down by the Railyard Park. We originally planned to ride the bus, but took the scooter instead to save time. It was nearly noon by the time we got there and the market closes at 1pm. We were surprised at the size of the market – this is a big farmers’ market. We’d only been through about half of the vendors when some of them began breaking down their displays around 12:30pm. Donna bought a small bag of roasted Hatch chiles.

I was hungry and hoped to find tamales or street tacos for lunch, but the food vendors were sold out. We thought about stopping at the Second Street Brew Pub, but the food was overpriced and I didn’t want to have a beer that early before riding the scooter home.

We headed back south on Cerrillos Road and stopped at a Mexican restaurant called Los Potrillos. The salsas they provided with a bowl of chips were outstanding and I knew we were in for a good meal.

Tres salsa and chips

I had the enchilada suizas plate and Donna had chicken enchiladas con mole. It was delicious and we took home leftovers.

We made another stop to buy a whole chicken. Donna had invited our neighbors – the ones with the medium-duty truck in my last post – Audrey and Steve – to join us for dinner. Around 5pm, I fired up the Traeger smoker/grill and roasted the whole chicken which Donna prepared by lightly coating it with olive oil, salt and pepper. After about 75 minutes, my new Palermo instant read thermometer showed an internal temperature of 175 degrees. I turned down the Traeger to the smoke setting and basted the chicken with a barbeque sauce Donna had whipped up from scratch. Ten minutes later, we had a nicely roasted barbeque chicken.

Roasted barbeque chicken

I cut the chicken into quarters. This worked out well since Donna and Audrey preferred the leg/thigh quarters while Steve and I took the wing/breast quarters. Donna served it with fresh steamed green beans and cheesy cauliflower biscuits. Audrey contributed mashed potatoes and a couple of bottles of wine.

Chicken dinner plate

We sat together at the table outside and talked for a few hours. At one point Audrey said, “Look, you have a praying mantis on your back.” The praying mantis climbed up my neck onto my head. Donna snapped a couple of photos. I don’t think I’ve ever had a praying mantis land on me before.

Praying mantis walking up my neck

Praying mantis perched on my head

We talked well into the night and finally went indoors after 10pm. Audrey and Steve planned to pull out of Santa Fe Sunday morning.

On Sunday morning, we said our goodbyes to Audrey and Steve. I watched the Formula One race from Singapore, then proceeded to be a couch potato for the rest of the day watching NFL football. Donna went out for one last bike ride on the Santa Fe trails.

The entire time we were in Los Suenos de Santa Fe RV park, there was a 45-foot Beaver Patriot Thunder parked two sites away from us. The Beaver Patriot Thunder is a high-end motorhome with lots of features including powerful engine options. This one had a 15-liter 525 horsepower Caterpillar engine. The thing that piqued my curiosity was the fact that we never saw anyone enter or leave the coach for nine straight days. It was hooked up to water, sewer and electricity and the AC was running, but it just sat there empty. This seems like an awfully expensive way to store a coach.

On Monday morning, I heard the rumble of a large diesel engine running. It was the Beaver. There were two guys walking around the coach, putting away hoses and disconnecting the electricity. There were two cars – one behind the coach and one next to it by our site. The older of the two guys got behind the wheel of the Beaver and drove away followed by the younger man in a Volkswagen GTI. They left the second car – a Porsche Cayman GT4 behind. Curious again. Why did they come in separate cars and leave the $85,000 Porsche behind?

Porsche Cayman GT4 left behind

I took my time packing our trailer and getting ready for the road. We had a short trip planned and I didn’t need to leave the park before the 11am check-out time. Donna had the interior packed early and walked over to the Ross store to buy a skirt she saw there the day before and decided to go back for. She came back just as I fired up the Cummins ISL. The Porsche was still in the empty site hours after the Beaver pulled out.

Our plan was to head down to Albuquerque where we will stay for two nights at the Sandia Casino & Resort. They have free overnight parking in their RV lot. Our route took us south down NM14 which is also known as the Cedar Crest Scenic Byway or Turquoise Trail. It was a pleasant drive. We went through a few old mining towns. I wanted to stop in Madrid – the town featured in the movie Wild Hogs. The town is quaint, but the road through town is very narrow and there’s no place to park a big rig. We drove slowly through and continued on our way. We turned west at the junction of I-40.

I knew there was a Pilot/Flying J travel center off I-40. I programmed it into the GPS and stopped there for fuel. Then I programmed the Sandia Casino as my destination. I should have studied the map. The Pilot/Flying J is about six miles past the casino, near the High Desert RV park which is our next destination.

We found a nice spot at the back of the RV lot at the Sandia Casino. We have a view of mountains to the east and the city in the valley to our west. Donna and I went into the casino where we were given $25 gift cards to play the slots since we’re first-time visitors. Afterwards, we had a beer at one of the casino bars. Then we checked in with security and they gave us a pass for up to four nights of free parking.

We had rain overnight and there’s more rain in the forecast. If the weather clears, we may take the tram up to Sandia Crest which is a 10,000-foot high viewpoint. If the low clouds hang all day though, the tram ride will not be worth it.

By the way, Donna’s doing a book giveaway and today (September 22nd) is the last day you can download her Kindle book, Secrets of Professional Organizer’s Volume I for free at Amazon. Grab your free copy and help her reach her goal of getting listed in the Top 100 Free Kindle Books by the end of the day!

Tire Overload

We left the Flying C Ranch around 10:30am and followed I-40 westbound to US285 north (map). The wind had shifted and we had a tailwind on I-40. Of course this meant a crosswind as soon as we started north. We were going up and down grades with the net result being another gain in elevation.

Our destination was only about 75 miles away. We wanted to spend some time in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A week should allow us to sightsee and get a feel for the place. On the way, Donna looked at different RV parks and campgrounds on her laptop. We debated going to a casino about 15 miles north of town for the weekend. Parking at the casino is free and they offer a shuttle to downtown Santa Fe.

Eventually we decided against it. We wanted to be in Santa Fe where we could walk to restaurants and shopping or take a short transit bus ride to the city center. Our first choice, Trailer Ranch RV Park was full, so we booked a week across the street at Los Suenos de Santa Fe RV Resort. This is a convenient location with everything from taquerias to natural food stores to large department stores within easy walking distance.

We have a long pull-through site. The first site they gave us didn’t work out. It was also a long pull-through, but it had a tree on the left rear corner and a stump on the right rear. It was impossible to turn a rig a long as ours without hitting either the stump or the tree. If I didn’t have the trailer I probably could have jockeyed back and forth and got in. But if I didn’t have the trailer, I wouldn’t need a long pull-through site.

One of the workers told me to move down to another site that was more accessible and we set up without any issues in site 88. There are empty sites on both sides of us.

After we set up, I saw a motorhome trying to get into a back-in site. He had a tow dolly on the rear and couldn’t make it work. He eventually gave up and upgraded to a pull-through – site 86, two sites down from us.

These sites slope from left to right slightly. I saw him back his coach over boards he placed behind the wheels to raise the right side. Then I noticed he had improperly supported the rear of the coach. Here’s a picture – I’ll explain the problem with this.

Coach raised by driving onto boards

The rear wheels are duals. He placed boards under the outer wheel only. The load at the right rear of his coach is intended to be supported by two tires. Having boards under one tire means the entire load is supported by that tire – the inner wheel is just hanging in space.

I’ll use my rig as an example and put some numbers to this. My coach is fitted with 295/75 X 22.5 tires. The tire pressure placard placed by the manufacturer (Western Recreational Vehicles) calls for 110 psi in the front tires and 95 psi in the rear.

I’ve weighed my coach on a certified scale and have the axle weights. My front axle is rated for 12,000 lbs. My actual front axle weight is under that by several hundred pounds. My rear axle is rated for 19,000 lbs – my actual rear axle weight is just over 18,800 lbs.

Looking at the load and inflation tables for my tires (Toyo 295/75 X 22.5 load range H), I can see how much load they can safely carry when inflated to the pressures listed on the placard. The load and inflation table has two columns for each pressure figure – one for tires in single wheel applications (front) and one for tires in dual wheel applications (rear). The dual application always has a lower weight rating due to inconsistencies in how duals carry the load. Things like pressure differential between the two tires or tire diameter variation or even road crown can affect how much load each tire carries in dual configurations.

Back to my example. Toyo says with 110 psi in single wheel application, my tires can support 6,175 lbs. Multiply this times two front tires and I can safely carry 12,350 lbs – a safe margin over the gross axle weight. Since I don’t know my side to side variation, having 110 psi gives me a margin of safety. My 11,000+ lbs front axle weight might be closer to 6,000 on one side rather than evenly distributed. The only way to know that for sure is to have each wheel load weighed separately.

On the rear, Toyo says 95 psi in dual wheel applications can support 5,070 lbs. Multiply this by 4 tires and I have 20,280 pounds of load capacity for the rear axle – again, a safe margin over the 19,000 gross axle rating and my actual weight of 18,800 lbs.

Now, what happens when I place a board under one rear wheel? That makes that wheel equate to a single tire application. The load and inflation tables tell me that a single tire inflated to 95 psi (remember – that’s what my rear tires call for) can support 5,510 lbs. Let’s assume that my rear axle weight is evenly distributed side to side. If we divide my actual weight of 18,800 by two we see that each side of the rear axle is carrying 9,400 lbs.

That single rear tire with board underneath is severely overloaded. Please don’t do this. The tire carcass may suffer damage from being overloaded in this manner. In my neighbor’s case, the problem is made worse because the board is smaller that the width of the tire, so the entire contact patch of the tire isn’t supported.

Today we have beautiful weather. The high is supposed to reach 80 degrees under clear skies with very low humidity. Last night, the temperature dropped to the low 50s and we slept with the windows open. We’re at an elevation of 6,650 feet above sea level now. We’ll take a bus downtown and go exploring today.

RV Museum

I ran a few errands on the scooter yesterday. Getting from the east side of Amarillo to the west side on a scooter requires planning. I don’t like to ride the scooter on the interstate. Here in Amarillo, I-40 has one-way service roads on either side of the interstate. On the north side of I-40 it runs west and on the south side it travels east. There’s a snag though. I-40 passes over a large rail yard just before you reach downtown. The service roads don’t go through the rail yard.

Going westbound, you have go north to SE 10th Avenue before you can get past the railroad tracks. On the south side of I-40, you have to loop south to SE 27th Avenue to get across the tracks. I learned the way quickly and it’s a minor hassle (map).

In the afternoon, I scootered Donna to her hair appointment at The Plant Studio. The stylist there, Johnny, was recommended by a stylist in Tempe, Arizona, who attended one of his classes. She told Donna, “If you’re ever in Amarillo, stop and see this guy.” While she was having her hair done, I rode over to Jack Sisemore’s Traveland to check out the RV museum.

Traveland is an RV dealership with a very friendly atmosphere. Jack Sisemore has a great story leading to his successful business. He started by borrowing $2,400 from his grandmother to open a gas station – I think it was in 1962. He added a second station soon after. He bought a motorhome for family camping trips and rented it out at his gas station to offset the cost. Within a year, he had six rental units.

In 1974, he opened his RV dealership on a small lot. He expanded that to over six acres of land. Later, Jack and his son, Trent Sisemore, were founding partners in Keystone Travel Trailers. They sold 1,000 Keystone Travel Trailers the first year. Production ramped up to as much as 1,000 units built per month!

The receptionist at the dealership walked me out back to a warehouse where the museum is. Entry is free and it’s open to the public Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm. In addition to the RV collection, Jack collects motorcycles. He had old cars, boats and motorcycles along with memorabilia from earlier times. I was free to walk among the displays and enter the old RVs. Here are some photos I shot.

1941 Westcraft

1941 Westcraft interior

This 1941 Westcraft was owned by a defense worker. He lived in it in a special workers’ camp that provided restrooms and showers. After the war, he relocated to Arizona. This is a very rare trolley roof model.

Wally Byam’s Airstream

Wally Byam was the founder of Airstream travel trailers.

Max Factor’s 1976 FMC

This 1976 FMC was owned by cosmetics mogul, Max Factor. FMC coaches were 29 feet long and were built from 1973 to 1976. The were pricey, selling for $27,000 to $54,000. At that time, you could buy a house for the same cost. Only around 1,000 were built.

1948 Flxible Bus used in the movie RV

Interior of the Gornike’s Flxible

This 1948 Flxible was used in the movie RV starring the late Robin Williams. Jeff Daniels played the part of Travis Gornike who traveled with his family in this bus.

Teardrop trailer pulled by a 1948 Ford

1963 Chris Craft speed boat

In addition to the RVs, cars and boats, there were many interesting motorcycles – mostly hanging from the ceiling.

1967 Bultaco Matador in the bed of a 1967 Chevy El Camino

1973 Triumph Bonneville

He had many Harleys on display. The one that caught my eye was this 1977 XR750 flat track racer. The number plate was signed by nine-time National Champion, Scott Parker. Flat track bikes are raced on dirt oval tracks. They don’t have brakes and are pitched sideways to power through the turns.

1977 Harley-Davidson XR750

The other bikes that caught my eye were the Bultaco machines he displayed. Bultacos were built in Barcelona, Spain from 1958 to 1983. They sold first-rate racing machinery to the public and dominated Trials competition with Sammy Miller riding in the 1960s and 70s. Their motocross bikes were capable of competing with factory teams in that period as well. The Bultaco Astro was a formidable flat track machine. Their enduro bikes competed and won in the International Six-Day Trial competition. They also built road racing machines that won world championships. The name Bultaco comes from the founder – “Paco” Bulto. He took the first four letters of his surname and the last three of his nickname.

1968 Bultaco Pursang

There were many smaller displays of period artifacts such as these motor oil containers. Prior to World War II, oil was dispensed from glass containers with long metal spouts attached.

Old motor oil containers

Do you remember these?

I spent about 40 minutes in the museum before I went back to pick up Donna.

One of the errands I ran earlier in the day was to exchange my sewer hose at Walmart. I’m happy to report the replacement Rhinoflex hose doesn’t leak.

This morning, it’s uncharacteristically foggy out. I plan to load the trailer today – I hope I can find a self-serve car wash to clean the scooter first. This evening, Donna and I will take a free limo ride from the park to a local favorite – Big Texan Steak Ranch.

Tomorrow we’ll leave here and head to New Mexico. We’ll probably head to Santa Fe, but our plans are flexible.

Vixens and Brisket

While Donna was out on her 28-mile bike ride yesterday, I saw a unique motorhome arrive near our site at Tom Sawyer’s Mississippi River RV Park (map). It was a 1986 Vixen. I’ve only seen this model coach once before. After they set up, I walked over to their site and asked if they minded me taking pictures of their unique coach. They were happy to have me take pictures and even gave a tour of the rig.

The owner’s name is Lester and he told me the engine was bad and not running when he bought the rig. The original engine was a turbocharged 2.2 liter BMW diesel. Lester says the coach is underpowered with that engine. He replaced it with a 3.9 liter Isuzu diesel. He says it has plenty of power now and it gets 22 miles per gallon. When I saw one of these in South Dakota, I didn’t realize the roof pops up. I said at that time that the low ceiling would be a deal breaker for me. These coaches were built from 1986 to 1989 in Pontiac, Michigan and were ahead of their time. The design was refined in a wind tunnel at the University of Michigan. This link has a complete description.

1986 Vixen with roof popped up

Lester’s 1986 Vixen

Lester is an active member of the Vixen owners’ club and attended their national rally in Frankenmuth, Michigan last year. He organized this year’s group rally which will take place beginning September 15th at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.

My big project yesterday was an attempt to smoke a Texas-style beef brisket. I looked at a lot of recipes and information online. It seemed like everyone has their own unique way of making a perfect brisket. A lot of the information was conflicting. I combined some of the common themes and adjusted a recipe. One of things I had to account for was the fact that I was cooking a three-and-a-half pound hunk of flat (HOF) brisket, not a whole packer brisket. This site will tell all you want know about brisket and more.

I started by placing the brisket on a rimmed cookie sheet and seasoned it with Stubb’s Bar-B-Q spice rub.

Dry-rubbed brisket

I let it sit for one hour, then I fired up the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill. I had the Traeger set to the smoke setting and filled it with hickory pellets. The smoke setting is different from the thermostatically controlled temperature settings. The smoke setting is a timed release of the wood pellets. The auger feeds pellets for 15 seconds then stops for 65 seconds before it feeds pellets again. This creates smoke and the temperature runs about 200 degrees.

I left the brisket in the grill on the smoke setting for three hours. I made a mop baste by combining a cup of beer with two ounces of apple cider vinegar and a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. I put the baste in a spray bottle and sprayed the brisket every hour while it was smoking.

After three hours, I wrapped the brisket in foil, spraying it liberally with the mop baste before I sealed up the foil. I set the Traeger at 225 degrees and left the lid closed for the next three hours. After six hours of cooking time, I took the foil-wrapped brisket off the grill, rolled it up in an old towel and placed it in the microwave oven. I didn’t turn the oven on – I let the brisket rest in the oven. By wrapping it in a towel and confining it to the microwave, it continued to cook as it slowly cooled. After 30 minutes, I took it out of the oven and unwrapped it.

Brisket revealed with a nice, crusty bark

I sliced the tip off it and saw a quarter-inch smoke ring. It was very tender.

Nice, pink smoke ring

I cut the brisket across the grain into 1/4″ thick slices. Donna served it with garlic smashed red potatoes and steamed broccoli.

Tender, moist smoked brisket with garlic smashed potatoes and brocolli

Tender, moist, smoked brisket with garlic smashed potatoes and broccoli

The dinner was delicious – the brisket came out better than I imagined it would. Now I have a new favorite to grill up.

It was hot and humid out yesterday, so I spent most of the day indoors reading. Today we expect the temperature to reach 90 again with high humidity and thundershowers around noon. Hopefully it’ll cool off enough for me to get started on loading the trailer. We’ll continue heading west tomorrow.

Closing the Loop

We opted to stay for a second night in the campground at the Meriwether Lewis National Monument. The free campsites are clean and the scenery is terrific with good hiking opportunities. It’s also very quiet. On Thursday, Donna hiked on the Old Trace trail which is part of the original Natchez Trace. The trail took her past the Meriwether Lewis Monument which is his final resting place near the Grinder stand.

Natchez Trace – wide enough for a wagon

Click to enlarge if you wish to read

Fenceline on the Old Trace

Meriwether Lewis Monument in the background

Meriwether Lewis Monument

Click to enlarge

Grinder house

For dinner on Thursday night, I grilled a pork tenderloin on the Weber Q. Donna had marinated it in a mojo marinade. She reserves half the marinade to pour over the meat after cooking. It’s one of our favorite ways to prepare pork tenderloin and, as usual, it was tender and tasty. She served it with brown rice and roasted peppers, onions and zucchini.

Pork tenderloin with rice and roasted peppers and zucchini

Pork tenderloin with rice and roasted peppers, onions and zucchini

On Friday morning, we packed up and headed down the Natchez Trace Parkway about 16 miles, then we turned west at US64. This is a divided highway with two lanes in each direction. I wanted to avoid I-40 and US64 seemed like a good alternative. There was very little traffic and the road surface was mostly good with only a few sections of construction and rough road. It was slower crossing Tennessee on US64 due to all of the small towns. We drove through Waynesboro, Savannah, Boliver and a few smaller villages before we stopped at Walmart in Somerville (map). We stocked up on groceries, then continued down the road.

US64 hit I-40 about 10 miles east of Memphis. It was immediately apparent that US64 was the way to go. It’s an embarrassment and disgrace how our government has allowed the federal interstate highways to deteriorate. The potholes, cracks and uneven surfaces on I-40 make it barely drivable.

We crossed the Mississippi River and entered Arkansas where we had booked a site at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park. We stayed here the first week of June. Since then, we’ve completed a 4,000-mile loop that took us north to Minneapolis, across Michigan’s upper peninsula, then down through Michigan and east to upstate New York. From there we went down through Pennsylvania and Maryland, across Virginia and finally back to Tennessee. Whew – we saw a lot and had some great adventures over the last three months. Along the way, we picked up a stray cat and also added a Traeger grill.

One big difference we found here in West Memphis this time around is the Mississippi River water level. When we were here in June, the water level stage was 15 feet. When we checked in yesterday, the stage was three feet. There’s a sandbar creating an island right in front of the park. This wasn’t there before. There are fewer barges on the river as well. I’m guessing the low water level makes navigation treacherous.

Sandbar in the river

Last evening, I took a walk in the park to look at the river. Our site has us facing the water only a stone’s throw away from the river. While I was out, I saw a 2012 Newell coach. The owner, John, and his son-in-law, Lee, were sitting outside. A 2012 Newell is a million-dollar coach (it was probably over $1.5 million new). I stopped and talked to John. It’s always interesting to hear the success story behind owning a million-dollar rig. John’s story was much like many I’ve heard since we’ve been on the road. He started out 38 years ago as the sole proprietor of a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) service company. He had one truck and one employee – himself. He worked hard and established commercial contracts as well as residential service customers. Then he added a second service truck and employee. He continued to build his reputation and business. Today, he has 66 trucks and nearly 200 employees. He’s enjoying life and seeing the country while his son runs the day-to-day operation of his business. I love hearing how hard work, perseverance and being able to make the most out of an opportunity pays off.

John and Lee sitting outside John’s Newell

Radiused corners on the Newell slides

One of the things that tip off a high-end coach like a Newell or Prevost are the radiused corners on the slide-outs. These rounded corners allow the use of pneumatic slide seals. Once the slide is out, the seals inflate making an airtight seal. Before the slide is retracted the seal deflates and the slide moves freely.

We decided to stay here for three nights before we move on westward. Donna has been mapping routes to keep us off I-40 and finding places to stay as we make our way to New Mexico. She went out this morning to cycle the scenic and quiet 28-mile loop she rode several times earlier this summer.

Last night, Donna prepared pan-seared wild Alaskan salmon. She served it with the left over side dishes from the night before. Delicious!

Pan-seared salmon

Today I’m going to try my hand at smoking a beef brisket. Donna bought one the other day – it’s something I’ve never done before. I’m hoping the Traeger wood pellet fired smoker/grill makes it easy to do.

Getting Race Ready

It rained all morning off and on – mostly on. I spent most of the morning reading while Donna worked at her laptop,doing book promotion. The skies finally cleared around 2:30pm. Donna went out for a walk and found the paved bike trail at Spring Lake Regional Park (map). She walked a little over five miles.

I took the scooter to the store to replenish our bottled water supply. Ozark spent most of the day napping. When I returned from the store, I saw we had a new neighbor setting up in the site next to us here at the Dakotah Meadows RV Park.

After a while, I saw him come out of his fifth wheel trailer and unplug the power cord. He sprayed the contacts with cleaner and plugged it back in. A few minutes later, he was at the back of his RV jiggling the plug again. I picked up my Fluke multimeter and went outside. I asked him if he was having an electrical problem. He said he didn’t have any 120-volt AC power, only 12-volt DC.

We unplugged his power cord from the pedestal and I checked it with my meter. We had 120-volt AC on both legs of the 50amp socket. I plugged his cord back into the pedestal and checked the socket on the end of the cord. We had power there. I told him to check his circuit breaker inside because power was getting to the coach. He came out a few minutes later and said all was good. He thanked me and went inside without telling me what the problem was. I’m assuming the breaker was tripped inside and all he had to do was reset it.

Dakotah Meadows RV Park site A39

Donna made meatloaf for dinner. She improvised and changed up her usual recipe by adding diced sun-dried tomatoes, prosciutto and fresh herbs. The side dish was a winner – it was a warm potato and green bean salad. Delicious!

Meatloaf with warm potato and green bean salad

After dinner, I played with Ozark for a while. She batted her parchment toy around and I encouraged her to scratch the scratching post. I was hoping the activity would tire her enough to sleep through the night. It almost worked. She was up at 6am, running from the bedroom to the front of the coach and back. She attacked the bathroom rug and was bouncing off the walls. I finally gave up on sleeping and got out of bed at 7am.

Today’s forecast calls for a lovely day with clear skies and a high temperature of 70 degrees. I’ll scooter Donna over to the Enterprise rental office in Shakopee around noon. We’re renting a car for the next few days. This afternoon, we’ll drive to the Minneapolis Convention Center to pick up Donna’s race packet. Then we’ll head over to the fairgrounds to preview the bicycle race course. While we’re out, we plan to make a stop to visit Donna’s friend, Shannon. When we were here in August of 2013, Shannon and her husband Paul along with their two children visited us and we grilled dinner together here at the park.

There’s a Costco near Shannon’s house so we’ll stop there and stock up before heading home. The main reason we are renting a car is for tomorrow’s Senior Olympics bicycle race. I’ll drive Donna to the race site in the morning. The race starts at 9am, so we’ll be up early to get there well ahead of time during the morning rush hour.

The weather for the race should be fine. It will be cool – in the 60s in the morning and shouldn’t be too windy. I won’t post again until Thursday when I can give the race results. Donna says her goal is to finish without crashing.

Mississippi River Barges

The earliest super-highway for transporting goods in America was its rivers. The Mississippi River was a major artery in this system. French settlers south of St. Louis would float their harvest down the river as did fur trappers and traders. The barge era began when steam boats came about in the mid-19th century.

Here at Tom Sawyer’s RV Park in West Memphis, we see and hear barges on the Mississippi River daily. I’m fascinated by them and did a little research. In an earlier post, I described a raft of barges pushed by a tug boat. My terminology was incorrect. When barges are lashed together, they are called a tow. I think this name comes from early barges that were towed along canals by draft animals. The boat, which has a flat bow plate and is tied to the back of the barge tow, is called a tow boat – even though it pushes the barges.

The standard barge is 195 feet long and 35 feet wide. It can draft 9 feet of water and has a capacity of 1500 tons. Some modern barges used in the lower Mississippi are 290 feet long and 50 feet wide. The lower Mississippi is the portion downriver from St. Louis. Upriver from St. Louis, the Mississippi isn’t as deep and wide. It also has locks that restrict the size of tows in the upper Mississippi.

Multiple barges are lashed together to create a tow. The payload usually consists of grain, coal or petro-chemicals in special tanker barges. This is a very economical way to transport goods downriver.

The tow boats range from 35 to 200 feet in length and 21 to 56 feet wide. They can be powered by diesel engines ranging from 600 to 11,000 horsepower. When I see a tow going downriver, I can hear the diesel engines in the tow boat as it cruises along. The Mississippi River is such a large body of water here in Memphis that it appears to flow lazily. This is deceptive. When you see a piece of driftwood floating in the current, you can see how fast the water is actually moving. Transporting a load downriver, the tow boat isn’t working very hard – it’s turning the propellers just fast enough to maintain control over the rudder.

Coming back upriver is a different story. Once offloaded, the empty barges need to be pushed back upriver to pick up another load. At least I think they’re empty, I haven’t found any reference to shipping goods upriver. Going upriver, the tow boats are running hard. They sound like a freight train running at full speed, but they are only covering a few knots per hour. I can hear one going upriver right now. It will be within sight and ear shot for the next 20 minutes.

28-barge tow – six barges long and four deep lashed together

Tow making the turn upriver

Once the barges in the tow are lashed together and the tow boat is connected to the rear, it becomes one large vessel controlled by the tow boat. It’s amazing to watch these things make the turn in the channel upriver from the RV park.

While Donna was out walking yesterday, she sent me a text message telling me I ought to check out the coach and trailer getting ready to pull out from a riverfront site. I walked over to the riverfront area and saw a beautiful, 45-foot Millenium Coach built on a Prevost chassis. This million-plus-dollar coach was pulling a large stacker trailer that had to be 13 feet high. I don’t know what he had in there, but this type of trailer typically has a hydraulic lift that can raise a car, making room for another underneath. Or it can be configured with a platform with work benches and storage that can be lifted and a car stowed underneath for travel.

Millenium Coach with large stacker trailer

What a set-up! Triple-axle stacker trailers typically weigh in the neighborhood of 9,000 pounds empty, so you need a large, powerful coach with heavy towing capacity to utilize one. Very few coaches have that much capacity. A Prevost chassis is usually outfitted with 20,000 pounds of towing capacity. Our coach is limited to 10,000 pounds. Many coaches only have four or five thousand pounds of towing capacity.

Millenium Coach with stacker heading out

When I grow up, I want one of these!

Last evening, I grilled turkey burgers loaded with diced green chiles, onions, cilantro and spices. Donna topped it with shredded Mexican cheeses and guacamole and served it over spring mix greens with grilled zucchini on the side. The zucchini was seasoned the same way we had it two nights ago with salt and lemon zest. We dined al fresco at the picnic table. A healthy, delicious and nutritious meal.

Turkey/green chili burger topped with cheese and guacamole

Green chile turkey burger topped with cheese and guacamole

It’s going to be hot today. We expect the temperature to reach 90 degrees. Donna headed out for a bike ride at 8:30 to try to beat the heat. The humidity yesterday was 89% and we expect the same today.

This afternoon, I have a reservation for a tour of the Gibson guitar factory in Memphis, birthplace of my ES339 guitar.

Aransas Pass

Flexibility is a good trait when you live in an RV. Right now, our daily plans change from hour to hour depending on the weather. I don’t particularly like planning my activities around thunderstorms, but that’s the lot we drew when we booked time here in Rockport, Texas.

I expected more thunderstorms in the afternoon yesterday. We wanted to get out and explore the area. At 11am, we rode the scooter into the historic downtown Rockport neighborhood. One of the things we had in mind was a visit to the aquarium. Admission is free, but we found out that the museum hours are 1pm to 4pm daily except for Tuesday and Wednesday when they’re closed.

We kicked around downtown and shopped at a health food store. It was housed in half of a duplex, I’m assuming the proprietors live in the other half. There are a few funky little shops along six blocks or so of Austin Street. We took a look around the marina which had just about every type of boat imaginable docked there.

Then we decided to blast down the TX35 business route to Aransas Pass, about 12 miles south of Rockport. I thought Aransas Pass was a larger town than Rockport, but it really isn’t. Aransas Pass has about 500 fewer people than the population of 8,700 in Rockport. There wasn’t anything too exciting to see in Aransas Pass. We did find a couple of fish mongers with fresh seafood from the gulf. We stopped for lunch at the Bakery Cafe on the recommendation of a woman at one fish market.

The Bakery Cafe is a historic diner. It first opened in 1929. A short video of this small-town Texas diner can be found here. Donna and I both ordered the fried whitefish. I had mine with fries making it a fish and chips plate while Donna had a baked potato and salad with hers. The batter was fried to a nice crispy outer coating with moist, tender fish inside. It was a good choice for lunch.

After dining, we headed back to Rockport. We needed to do a little grocery shopping at HEB and I wanted to be back at the RV park by 2pm. The weather forecast called for thundershowers around that time. On the way back, we stopped at a little community on Aransas Bay on the east side of the highway south of Rockport. This community reminded me of Florida. The houses next to the bay are elevated on stilts. The rows of houses on roads perpendicular to the waterfront are separated by canals. Each home has its own boat dock in back on the canal. Some of the homes are large and obviously very expensive.

Aransas Bay near Estes Cove

House on stilts next to the bay

Canals separate the streets

It was an interesting neighborhood. I think some of the houses are seasonal second homes while others are occupied year-round.

We made it back to the park around 2pm. I covered the scooter and by 2:30pm we had raindrops. It wasn’t anything too big, just a passing shower. By 5pm, the skies were only partly cloudy, but we knew a big storm was coming. We originally planned to grill a pork tenderloin, but with the iffy weather, Donna put it in the slow cooker with salsa earlier in the day and made a taco casserole with it.

We watched a few episodes of Homeland before we called it a night. We’re almost through season one and we are both really enjoying this Showtime series. At 2am, the storm woke me up. There was so much lightning that it was light outside with flashes of darkness. The rain was pouring down, mixed with hail for a while. The wind rocked our coach. I got up and looked everything over. It was a big storm but we were secure and dry.

Weather radar app with alerts and warnings

This morning the rain has stopped, but there’s a lot of standing water in the area. Donna’s friend, Kathy Palmer, and her husband were in an RV park in San Marcos, Texas – between San Antonio and Austin. Late last night, they were told to prepare for evacuation and ended up having to leave around midnight because the river was expected to flood their park. They were relocated to a Walmart parking lot along with about 50 other RVs. This morning, the Walmart lot is flooded and rigs are stranded there with water up to the axles.

The forecast says we’ll stay dry until the early afternoon today. If it pans out, we might head over to Fulton for a crawfish boil. We had a great time when we went to the crawfish festival in Heber City, Utah on Memorial Day weekend last year. We don’t know what this one will be like, but if it’s anything like Heber City, it will be fun.

Minimalist RV Meet Up

We started off with a rain shower Saturday morning. The day remained overcast and blustery all day. After lunch, I scootered Donna to her sister’s house in Point Loma. Donna’s sister, Sheila is a physical therapist. Donna’s elbow is bothering her, she has tennis elbow, triggered by playing pickleball. While Sheila treated Donna’s elbow, I dropped off packages at the UPS store and the post office.

It looked like the skies were clearing over San Diego Bay to the south but when we rode back to Mission Bay, it was still cool and cloudy. The wind was blowing with strong gusts and occasional rain drops when I tried to grill chicken for dinner. I say tried because the gusty wind blew out the flame on our grill. I’ve never had that happen with the Weber Q before. Donna had to bake the chicken in the convection oven.

On Saturday evening, I enjoyed the Detroit Red Wings playoff game in Tampa Bay. Detroit won 4-0 to take a 3-2 game lead. I’m looking forward to game six tonight.

We had clear blue skies and warmer weather yesterday for a meeting that Donna had organized. She invited members of a San Diego minimalist group to come and learn more about the full-time RV lifestyle. Unfortunately, the group leader Bruce had a family emergency and had to go out of town at the last minute. Another group member, Debbie, agreed to take the lead and shuttle in members. We ended up with five for the session, which we hosted at our site.

Donna started off by talking about downsizing and organizing and how we came to be full-time RVers. I led a more technical discussion about the different types of RVs and different approaches to the RV lifestyle. After a 40-minute discussion, Donna gave the group a tour of our coach.

From there, we walked the group through the RV park, beginning with a look at our neighbor’s fifth-wheel trailer set-up and his truck which tows it. I explained how the fifth wheel is coupled to the truck and how maneuverable it is. Then we walked to our friend Bob Schmitt’s site. I showed them how Bob’s coach is set up to haul his Harley and tow his GMC Jimmy.

We looked at the tiny MyPod trailer that I posted about previously. As we walked through the park, we identified different classes of motor homes and looked at fifth-wheel and tow-behind travel trailers.

We stopped to admire an Airstream trailer. The owners were sitting outside and we struck up a conversation. They invited the group to take a look inside. The owners were a young couple living full time in their Airstream and working in San Diego. He is a brew master at Modern Times Brewery in Point Loma.

We continued our tour with a look at another smaller travel trailer – a Casita. Again, the owner invited the group to take a look inside. I think by this time, the group was beginning to understand our statements about the sense of community among those embracing the RV lifestyle. The Casita was in the site next to Martha’s Airstream. Martha is the 77-year-old full-timer I wrote about in this post. Martha gave a tour of her rig and then we continued down the lane.

We made another stop at Karen’s 2013 Big Country fifth-wheel trailer. This is a large rig. Karen invited the group to have a look inside and see the layout. By this time, everyone had a chance to see rigs of various sizes and construction. We came back to our site and continued the discussion. We originally thought the discussion and tour would take about an hour, but we were two hours into it! The group was very enthusiastic and inspired by the tour. I think we may have inspired a couple of them to take the plunge into the RV lifestyle.

Minimalist group - Barbara, Donna, Erin, Hal, Jeanne and Debbie

Minimalist group – Barbara, Donna, Erin, Al, Jeanne and Debbie

Later, I rode the scooter to my old neighborhood. I had sent a message to Christine Brutschy Becker asking if it would be okay for me to stop by to say “hi” to her and her mother. She told me to come on over. They had a birthday party for her granddaughter, Annika, in progress and the extended family was there.

It’s been such a long time since I last saw Donna Brutschy, neither one of us could remember when it was. Chris’s son, Matthew, was a kid the last time I saw him – he’s in his mid-forties now. Chris’s daughter was a teen the last time I saw her – now she’s a beautiful mom. I also met Chris’s niece, Danielle, another beautiful mother that was just a child the last time I saw her. I met their husbands, whom I never met before and their children.

I have a lot of memories from the Brutschy’s house. When I was a teen, I spent a lot of time there and was generally treated like part of the family. One of my first memories of their place came after Howard Brutschy and I rode dirt bikes out to Rose Canyon and spent the night camped out. In the morning, we rode back to his house. His mother Donna prepared breakfast for us. She asked me if I liked my scrambled eggs wet or dry. I didn’t know how to answer – no one had ever asked me that before. I just said, “However you prepare them will be fine.”

I don’t know how the eggs were prepared. I was mesmerized over breakfast by the beauty of Howard’s younger sister, Vicki. I was 15 years old and totally infatuated. That’s just one of many memories of my teenage years at the Brutschy residence.

Matthew Becker, Donna Brutschy and me

Sheila picked us up at the RV park at 6pm. We went to Sushi Ota to celebrate her son Connor’s 11th birthday with his favorite dinner – sushi. Connor’s friend, Sam, came along. We ordered a platter of sushi and hand rolls.

Sam, Connor, Sheila and Donna

Yummy sushi platter

The sushi was excellent as usual. Sushi Ota has a well-deserved reputation for the quality of their sushi. Sheila brought a German chocolate cake for dessert. Although I don’t usually follow a meal of sushi with cake, the top-hat shaped cake was delicious as well.

Happy birthday to Connor

I finished off a very full day with a bottle of Alesmith IPA. They are one of my favorite San Diego breweries.

Great beer

Today we are back to clear skies and warm, sunny weather. I’m thinking I might break out the ladder and clean the coach. The Red Wings playoff game comes on at 4pm, then we have dinner plans with my daughter, Shauna.

How Small Can You Go?

We had a couple of surprise phone calls yesterday. First, in the morning, Donna’s phone rang. Her phone showed that it was a call from Vancouver, British Columbia. When she answered, she was pleasantly surprised to hear it was Chris from Kit and Ace. Donna had connected with the Kit and Ace crew through Facebook.

Chris invited Donna over to the Copper Studio. They were getting ready to pull out of Mission Bay RV Resort and continue their journey north. Donna grabbed a copy of her book Clear the Clutter, Find Happiness to give to Chris and walked over to the Copper Studio where she met Chris, Kate and Trevor. Chris had a gift for Donna too – a gift bag with a Kit and Ace technical cashmere tee shirt inside! They gave Donna a quick tour of the Copper Studio and explained how they set up the studio when they are doing their road shows. They are heading up the coast promoting Kit and Ace clothing in cities where they intend to open stores. We may meet up with them on road – possibly in St. Louis.

Front to rear – Chris, Kate and Trevor

Inside the Copper Studio, packed and ready to travel

After Donna returned from her visit with the Kit and Ace crew, my phone rang. It was Israel Coughlin, the watchmaker at the Ben Bridge Jeweler in Fashion Valley. He had completed the overhaul of Donna’s watch much quicker than I expected. He completely disassembled the movement, replaced the broken set lever and reassembled the watch with new seals and gaskets. He pressure-tested it and regulated it over a period of five days. I rode the scooter to Fashion Valley Mall and picked it up. The watch I bought for Donna eight years ago is like new again. I took her wedding ring with me (also purchased from Ben Bridge) and they cleaned and polished that too.

Our friend, Mona, joined us for happy hour and dinner last night. We had a drink, then took a walk through the RV park to look at all the different types of rigs. Donna has a meet-up scheduled at 11am Sunday at our coach with members of a minimalist life style discussion group. Ten people have signed up to attend. We’ll talk about downsizing and living on the road in a 40-foot motorhome and give them a tour of our coach. We also want to show them other RVs in the park.

While we were walking, we stopped and talked to a few people with various styles of RVs and asked if they would mind having the group check out their rig and maybe even speak to the group. We want to show them the traditional Class A, B and C motorhomes as well as fifth-wheel and travel trailers. We also want to show them alternatives such as Casitas or other small campers. Granted, most of the owners of these smaller units aren’t full-timers, but there are people who do live full-time in them such as Becky Schade (Interstellarorchard).

Here are a few pictures of smaller RVs currently here at Mission Bay RV Resort.

Casita travel trailer

Mona checking out the MyPod tiny trailer

Pickup truck slide-in camper

Pop-up tent trailer

After our walk and talk, Donna prepared skinny shrimp scampi over zucchini noodles for dinner. It was so tasty! She made the zucchini noodles from fresh zucchinis cut with a spiral slicer she recently bought from Amazon after learning about it from a friend.

Skinny shrimp scampi with zucchini noodles

Another day well-lived!

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Other Coaches

Last Weekend in Santa Fe

Tire Overload

RV Museum

Vixens and Brisket

Closing the Loop

Getting Race Ready

Mississippi River Barges

Aransas Pass

Minimalist RV Meet Up

How Small Can You Go?

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