Category Archives: Scooter

Table Rock Dam

Turkey Creek RV Village is located near the mouth of Turkey Creek where it flows into Lake Taneycomo. Lake Taneycomo was formed when a dam (Powersite Dam) was built on the White River near Forsyth, Missouri in 1913. The name Taneycomo came from its location – Taney County, MO. The lake resembles a river although it is in fact a reservoir.

In 1958, Table Rock Dam was completed upstream from Branson and Table Rock Lake was formed. Cold water running through turbines to generate electricity from deep in Table Rock Lake changed the character of Lake Taneycomo. Near the Table Rock Dam, the water in Lake Taneycomo runs fast and the temperature is in the 40s. As you travel down Lake Taneycomo, the current slows, the depth increases and temperature rises.

Spillway at Table Rock Dam

Last week’s heavy rainfall has the spillways at Table Rock Dam releasing water at a rate of 20,000 cubic feet per second. By regulating the flow from Table Rock Lake in coordination with water released at Powersite Dam, flooding along Lake Taneycomo is controlled.

Water running cold and fast near Table Rock Dam – the sign warns of sudden increases in flow.

Donna and I rode the scooter up to Table Rock Lake yesterday and explored. Our first stop was at a part of Table Rock State Park, just below the dam where I shot the two photos above. The dam is 6,423 feet long and stands 252 feet above the stream bed (943 feet above mean sea level).

We scootered across the dam and went to the Shepard of the Hills Fish Hatchery. The Shepard of the Hills Fish Hatchery raises 800,000 trout per year and they’re released into local waterways, making Lake Taneycomo a trout fishing destination. The state record brown trout was caught here.

Touring the hatchery is free. They have guided tours several times per day. Donna and I opted for a self-guided tour of the facility. We started inside the air-conditioned building. The heat and humidity outside was oppressive at 90 degrees. They have an aquarium display with various trout sub-species in all sizes.

Trout aquarium

This guy was a lunker – I’d love to hook something like this!

We went outside and walked along the raceways full of fish. I’ve been to hatcheries before, but I don’t recall ever seeing this many fish.

The raceways were covered with mesh to protect the fish from herons and other birds of prey. Although I saw people lifting the mesh along the edge to take pictures, I didn’t do that because there were signs prohibiting it. I shot photos through the mesh. They have fish food dispensing machines – a quarter gives you a handful of pellets. The fish are conditioned to receiving handouts and swim en masse toward people by the raceway.

Young trout

Small trout expecting me to feed them

We found a raceway filled with brood stock ranging from three to 13 pounds. These fish are kept for a few years to lay and fertilize eggs. Some of them breed in the spring, others in the fall. I bought a couple of handfuls of pellets and the big trout went wild when I threw fish food pellets into their raceway.

Large breeders in a feeding frenzy

We’d been out in the sun long enough so we returned to the air-conditioned building. We found another room there with terrariums filled with more local wildlife. They had turtles, snakes and frogs. There were also taxidermy displays.

Trout are not native to Missouri but have been in the lakes and rivers here since their introduction in the 1880s. After cooling off inside, we got back on the scooter and backtracked to the Chateau on the Lake – a resort hotel and spa overlooking Table Rock Lake.

Entrance to Chateau on the Lake

We took a look around and continued back to the dam. We stopped again at the Branson Belle. The Branson Belle is a showboat offering lunch and dinner cruises on Table Rock Lake. The two-and-half-hour cruise includes lunch or dinner plus a variety show. Cost is about $70 per person.

The Branson Belle viewed from a covered deck

While we were there, we saw the ubiquitous Ride the Ducks amphibious tour vehicles. These vehicles offer tour rides throughout the area including a splash into Table Rock Lake.

Ride the Duck tour vehicles

Amphibious tour vehicle in Table Rock Lake

We made a stop on the way home – Donna bought a few groceries and I bought fender washers at Lowes. Back home, I installed the fender washers to complete the air conditioner shroud replacement. It was hot on the roof! By then it was beer-thirty and I called it a day.

Shroud Mystery

Sunday was Father’s Day and also officially the first day of summer – the summer solstice. I had a couple of projects to tackle. Actually I combined the tasks as they both entailed getting up on the roof of our coach.

Last week, I ordered new shrouds that cover our rooftop air conditioning/heat pump units. The shrouds on our coach had cracked and needed to be replaced. I spent some time on the Internet trying to figure out which was the right part number to use. It was somewhat confusing. From what I gathered, I needed to order a shroud with the Dometic part number 3308047.012 to fit our Dometic Penguin 15,000 BTU units. However, I saw references to 3308047.006 and 3308047.020 and 3308047.032 – all saying it was the correct part for our unit.

I finally found a document that cleared up the matter. The last three digits are color codes in Dometic’s numbering scheme. All four of the shrouds are the same 3308047 but the .006 is shell white, the .012 is polar white, the .020 is gray and the .032 is black. The other thing that confused me was the appearance. Our current shrouds are solid with no vent holes. The replacement part has vent holes on the left side. Later I read that the solid shroud with no vents are early models – the vents were added later, but they’re dimensionally the same. The vent holes facilitate the exhaust of heated air drawn through the condenser.

The shrouds protect the mechanical parts of the air conditioning (A/C) unit and also ensure proper air flow through the condenser. A fan pulls air through the condenser coil which resembles a coolant radiator in your car. The refrigerant is a hot gas at this stage of the system – heat from the interior of the coach is transferred to the refrigerant. The condenser cools the hot gas and converts it back to a liquid.

Since the primary function of the shroud was to direct air flow through the condenser for cooling, it didn’t make sense to me to have a dark shroud on the roof absorbing heat from the sun. A white shroud that would reflect heat from the sun seems more sensible.

I ordered two polar white shrouds through Amazon. I received an order confirmation e-mail right away and the next day, I received shipping and tracking information. The order was being fulfilled by a third party – PPL RV Parts Superstore in Texas. Then things got interesting.

The FedEx tracking info showed the parts en route. On Thursday evening, when I tracked the shipment, it showed the parts in Springfield, Missouri (40 miles away from here) and said delivery was refused, package returning to shipper. What?

On Friday morning, I called Amazon customer service. The rep was helpful – she looked up the order and once she understood my problem, said she would contact the shipper. She sent PPL an e-mail and copied me. PPL was on top of it. A gal in their customer service department phoned me right away. Then she talked to FedEx. She called me back and said they tried to deliver in Hollister, but the package was back at their center in Springfield. She confirmed our address, then got our site number. She e-mailed me later telling me she had given the information to FedEx and asked them to write my site number on the packages.

On Saturday morning, I missed a call from FedEx. They left a message saying they would need my site number to deliver. Hmmm?? I called the number they left and got voice mail. I left my name, number, address and site number. I tried calling them seven times in the next 45 minutes and got voice mail every time. I sent this information to the gal at PPL. She called later and said she talked to FedEx again – they had the site number and it was out for delivery. I have to say PPL was very good at following up.

The packages showed up around 5pm Saturday afternoon. The site number was handwritten on the boxes. The message from FedEx Saturday morning remains a mystery, but I understand now why the packages were marked refused. My name and site number weren’t on the shipping label, just the name and address of the RV park. The RV park office didn’t know anything about the packages and they refused them. My phone number was on the label – all the driver had to do was call instead of returning the packages. I’m not sure if I made a mistake on the order or if PPL did, but PPL made sure I got the parts.

So Sunday morning, I broke out the extension ladder and got on the roof. The first order of business was to sweep the droppings from the mimosa tree from the top of the coach. This is the messiest tree I have ever parked near. Once I accomplished that, I set about replacing the shrouds.

After removing the front shroud, I cleaned the fins on the condenser with a stiff nylon brush. A lot of cottonwood fibers were on the fins. This is something I should do annually. There are 1″x1″ foam strips that seal the shroud to the condenser fan opening to ensure proper airflow. The new shroud came with about 100″ of 1″x1″ foam with adhesive backing. I cleaned the area where the foam adheres with alcohol, then applied the foam strips.

A/C with shroud removed and new foam seals applied

One of the things you run into with an older vehicle that has had more than one owner is poorly executed previous repair work. The screws holding the shroud to the frame on the front A/C were mismatched. Someone put oversized screws on the front, probably a result of stripping out the originals. The old screws were rusted and I wanted to replace them.

I set the new shroud in place, then scootered over to Lowes for hardware. Donna joined me and I dropped her off at Country Mart across the parking lot for a few groceries. I was pretty sure I needed two 14-3/4 sheet metal screws to fasten the front of the shroud and two 10-3/4 sheet metal screws for the rear of the shroud. The guy at the hardware aisle at Lowes looked at the old screws I brought with me and said I needed 1/4″ x 3/4 and 12-3/4. Since my eyes aren’t the best and he does this stuff all day, I took his word for it. When I returned and got up on the roof, I discovered that the new screws were too big. I needed 14-3/4 and 10-3/4 just like I thought. I kept the screws I just bought to add to my inventory and went back to Lowes to buy what I originally went there for.

With the right screws, I was able to finish the installation of the front A/C shroud. One of the things I did differently was to add 1″ fender washers under the flat-topped screw heads. The mounting holes in the molded plastic shroud are 1/4″ diameter and only have about 3/8″ margin to the edge of the shroud. This is poor engineering. The fender washers should spread the clamping load over a larger area and reduce the chances of premature cracking around the mounting holes.

Fender washers under the mounting screws

I went to work on the rear A/C. I found different mounting screws on the rear unit. It had 12-3/4 and 10-3/4. This was probably the original size. I had what I needed on hand. The seals on the rear unit were in better shape but still needed to be replaced. I cleaned the condenser, replaced the seals and mounted the shroud. Job done!

New shroud in place

Ols shroud painted brown with duct tape over the cracked mounting point. That's mimosa tree detritus on the tape

Old shroud painted brown with duct tape over the cracked mounting point. That’s mimosa tree detritus on the tape.

With the condensers cleaned and new foam seals and shrouds, the A/C units should operate more efficiently.

After I put my tools away and cleaned up, Donna made me a special Father’s Day lunch. She picked up smoked barbeque ribs at the Country Store. They have a big smoker in the lot in front of the store and make them onsite. She whipped up a potato salad from scratch and filled a plate for me. The ribs were tasty, but I was spoiled by the ribs at Blues City Cafe on Beale Street in Memphis. These were no match in the tenderness category.

Special Father’s Day lunch

I spent the afternoon kicking back and watching the Formula 1 race from Austria. I had calls from all three of my daughters wishing me a happy Father’s Day.

Donna outdid the purchased lunch by making baked shrimp with fennel and feta for dinner. Yum-yum.

Baked shrimp with fennel and feta

It was a good day!

The Texas Mosey

The weather on Friday was a mixed bag, but we didn’t have any of the heavy rains that we had the night before. The precipitation was mostly a light mist drizzling down. Every once in a while, the sun would break through for a few minutes. Of course, every time I stepped outside, raindrops would start falling.

The water level in Turkey Creek receded throughout the day, although the woods along the bank here at Turkey Creek RV Village remain flooded. The ground is so saturated that I’ve had to re-level the coach a few times. Even though I put 12″ square pads under the foot of the jacks on the left side of the coach where it’s low, the pads are sinking into the ground.

Donna did her usual power walk on Friday. I spent a lot of time on Friday dealing with a vendor that shipped new air conditioner shrouds for our rooftop air conditioners. When I tracked the packages, it showed delivery was refused and the packages were going back to the shipper. It’s a long story that I will tell you about later.

On Saturday morning, Donna and I rode the scooter to Branson for the weekly farmers’ market. I rode to the intersection at Pacific Street and Business 65 where the market was supposed to be. No sign of an open air farmers’ market. We asked a delivery guy on the street about the market – he said it hasn’t been there for months. I guess they need to update their web page.

Since we were out and about, we decided to ride back through Hollister and head west to the College of the Ozarks. The College of the Ozarks is located on a beautiful, 16-acre campus at Point Lookout. We scootered through the campus and saw a few buildings that we want to return to. One of them is a tractor and farm implement museum. Since it was Saturday, the museum was closed. I’m a gearhead, but it isn’t just racing machinery that fascinates me. I like old tractors, trucks and trains too.

The College of the Ozarks is a Christian liberal arts school. It charges no tuition for full-time students. Instead, it has a work program for students which requires 15 hours of work at on-campus work stations per week plus two 40-hour work weeks during breaks. Approximately 1,500 students attend the college which is staffed by a faculty of about 90. It awards Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. It was originally called the School of the Ozarks. In 1973, the Wall Street Journal dubbed it “Hard Work U” and the nickname stuck. In 1990, the name was changed to College of the Ozarks.

We rode around the campus trying to find the Point Lookout view. The signage was confusing, but a student gave us directions. We parked the scooter at the Williams Memorial Chapel on campus and walked out to the viewpoint.

Williams Memorial Chapel

We followed the walkway behind the chapel. The viewpoint was a rocky outcropping with a metal railing. Parts of it were wet and slippery from runoff. The rocky point had natural steps as well as carved steps leading down and away from the sidewalk. The last step down is a long one – we had to sit on the step and hop down. Getting back up wasn’t too hard – we grabbed the rail and pulled ourselves up the giant step.

Lake Taneycomo east of Point Lookout

Home and boat docks directly below Point Lookout

Homes and boat docks directly below Point Lookout

Lake Taneycomo west of Point Lookout

It was getting hot out – humid and nearly 90 degrees. We were working up a sweat just walking. When we were in Texas, we noticed most of the locals tended to walk very slowly. We also saw that in Memphis and again around here. We came to the conclusion that when it’s this hot and humid, you don’t perspire as much if you move slowly. We adopted the Texas mosey and walked slowly back to the chapel.

We went inside the chapel and checked out the beautiful stained glass before we continued on the scooter. We rode south, then turned west on MO165. This road winds its way to Table Rock State Park and the dam at Table Rock Lake. On the way, we stopped at a roadside viewpoint and saw the dam. The spillways were releasing a surprising amount of water. With that much water flowing out of Table Rock Lake, it’s a wonder that the flood waters downstream are receding.

We rode across the dam, then turned back and stopped at the visitor center.

Table Rock Lake viewed from the visitor center

Donna talked to the park ranger about hiking in the area and picked up some maps. We’ll return on a weekday and hike along the lake. We also want to visit the fish hatchery.

On the way back, we stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called El Patio. We were curious about the quality of Mexican cuisine in this area. We know that when we get to the upper midwest, it’s hard to find good Mexican restaurants. Donna commented that she hadn’t seen any people of Mexican descent in the area. They were all at El Patio! We took that as a good sign.

I ordered a chicken taquito and enchilada plate from the lunch menu. Donna had two fish tacos. My plate was a little bland, but Donna said the fish tacos were great. The fish filet was fried then chopped into small pieces and blended with pico de gallo. Different than most fish tacos, but tasty. As we were leaving, Donna noticed a sign at the reception desk – El Patio was voted “Best Mexican restaurant” in 2014 and has a 5-star rating on TripAdvisor.

Later we rode over to the Bass Pro Shops store at Branson Landing. I wanted to find new flip flops. My current flip flops are great. They’re anatomically shaped with super arch support and are really comfortable. But I’ve worn them almost every day for the past year and I want to have a backup pair.

I didn’t find the flip flops I wanted but I did find shorts on sale for $18. I bought two pairs and will retire an old pair. Donna found new sports sunglasses that she liked and I bought them as well.

We also stopped at Macadoodles. I was surprised to find a gal at a table in the store serving whiskey samples. In most states, this wouldn’t be legal, but Missouri has loose alcohol laws. She was serving Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey and Jack Daniels Tennessee Fire. I sampled both. The Tennessee Honey had a maple-like flavor and I wasn’t too keen on it. The Tennessee Fire was cinnamon-infused bourbon and it was great! Much smoother than Fireball whiskey. I bought a bottle to add to the liquor cabinet.

Tennessee Fire

Today I have a project to attend to. I’ll get up on the roof and clear the debris that’s been shedding off the mimosa tree. Then I’ll replace the air conditioner shrouds. Once that task is done, I’ll watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix from Austria.

Taking the Challenge

We rode the scooter over to Country Mart in the morning yesterday after Donna got back from her walk. She wanted to pick up more fresh produce and also buy dried split peas and smoked pork hocks to make pea soup. We knew we would be shut in for most of the afternoon as heavy rain was in the forecast. Coincidentally, we ran into a new friend – Leann from the pickleball court at Branson Sports Club was at the store. She told us about another market nearby that’s known for its superb meat counter.

I had a mostly sedentary day as the rain fell off and on from about 11am when we returned from the store. The heavy rain came around 4pm and continued into the night. This is why we spend most of our time in the west – to avoid this type of weather. Texas was hit hard again by tropical storm Bill. The remnants of that storm will hit the Ozarks over the next couple of days. We can expect heavy thunderstorms and wind tomorrow and Friday. The forecast calls for better weather over the weekend and through next week.

On Monday, my friend Peter Swingle put a haiku challenge on Facebook. Haiku was originally a Japanese form of poetry expressing a fleeting thought in three lines. In English, the haiku typically has 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern. The lines are cut into two juxtaposing expressions. I’ve never tried writing a haiku before, but I bit on the challenge. Here are some of my favorite responses to the challenge:

Leigh Ritchie Steele –

No shower today
Means a cool dip in the pool
Because it’s summer

Vickie Brutschy Stokes

A lime popsicle
Golden sunshine rays of fire
Green droplets toe bound

Peter Swingle

Sun which was welcome
Now insulting the senses
Tone it back a bit

Laurie Suiter

Fur flies and claws rend
Rough tongues brush to soothe again
Feline peace restored

I wrote

Warm summer rainfall
Sitting dry in my cool coach
Writing a haiku

It was a fun diversion. Yesterday I started another novel – The Third Option by Vince Flynn. It filled most of the afternoon.

By bedtime, I felt like I had been sitting around all day – probably because that’s what I mostly did. Ten years ago, I was in the habit of exercising regularly. I would run or bike and do 50 pushups and 50 abdominal crunches almost every day. I got out of that habit when we moved to Michigan in 2009. Last night, I tried to do pushups and could only do 19 before my core strength ran out. I’m challenging myself to build back up to 50 pushups.

Today we’ll have a dry period this morning, but thunderstorms are on their way.

Pickleball in Branson

After posting about finding a good grocery store that required a long run through heavy traffic, Donna found another store nearby on Sunday. We scootered over to Country Mart, about two miles south of here. I haven’t gone out in that direction much and was unaware of the store. It turned out to be a nice grocery store with a selection of organic produce and other items.

We stocked up on groceries, but took a little too long doing it. Just as we were loading the scooter, it began to rain. We rode home through the rain drops. It was warm and the rain didn’t fall too heavily, so it wasn’t a big deal.

We had thundershowers off and on all afternoon. I kicked back and watched the Moto GP race from Catalunya, Spain – I’d downloaded the European coverage of the event earlier in the day. Later in the afternoon, Donna and I took a walk during a break in the weather. We chatted with some neighbors and then offered to help them carry their kayaks to the creek. Their kayaks are made of plastic and weigh 50 pounds each – much heavier than we expected. We haven’t gotten around to inflating our kayak yet, but we definitely want to take advantage of our close proximity to the lake.

A guy pulled into the park towing a travel trailer behind his truck. He was alone and appeared to be struggling to back the trailer into the site across from us. As I was going out to see if I could help, he got out of his truck and approached another neighbor. The neighbor got into the guy’s truck and started to back it into the site. He was having a little trouble as the owner of the truck was just standing there and not giving any guidance. I walked over and directed the guy in the truck and we got the trailer lined up in the site. Then I found out that the guy that owns the truck and trailer was feeling under the weather and had been driving long hours to get here from New Mexico over two days. He was out of it. He didn’t even unhook the trailer from the truck before he went in to lie down. I rolled up his truck window and closed the driver’s door which he had left open.

Donna prepared spiced pork tenderloin with maple-chipotle sauce for dinner. She served it with asparagus and mashed sweet potato. So good!

Spiced pork tenderloin with maple-chipotle sauce

Yesterday’s forecast called for thunderstorms to pass through starting around midday. We took our chances and scootered across Branson to the north side out to the Branson Sports Club. It’s about a 20-minute ride from here. They have indoor pickleball on Mondays from 9:30am to 11:30am. It costs $3 per person to play there. We met a great group of people and played for two hours. There were six courts set up, but we only had enough players for three games at a time.They pushed the time limit and we didn’t finish our last games until 11:45am.

I was getting anxious as I could see a large storm cell approaching from the west on my Radar Express app. We didn’t linger after our last game. We hit the road and made our way back through Branson. We were riding away from the storm cell so I felt comfortable making a quick stop at Macadoodles liquor store. I picked up some IPA brewed in Colorado by Odell Brewing Company. This is a tasty IPA – much better in my opinion than the offering from Mother’s Brewing in Springfield, Missouri.

Odell’s IPA

Once again we had a series of thundershowers all afternoon with brief breaks of sunshine in between. I spent most of the afternoon reading a preposterous Clive Cussler novel. It was written in 1975 and it was funny how it illustrates the chauvinistic mores of that time.

During a respite from the rain, we went out and walked to stretch our legs. I was a little stiff and sore from the pickleball activity. My S Health app showed over 8,500 steps on the pickleball court.

I grilled boneless chicken thighs that Donna marinated for dinner. She served it with a delicious zucchini side. The zucchini was cut in quarters, topped with parmesan cheese and herbs and baked to a crispy finish. The chicken thighs were marinated in lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil and fresh herbs.

Grilled boneless chicken thigh with zucchini

Grilled boneless chicken thigh with baked parmesan zucchini

Today we expect the weather pattern to continue with thunderstorms rolling in around noon.

In Search of Groceries

A great comment adding a little history of this area was written on yesterday’s post by Clayton Elisson – thanks, Clayton.

We were up early yesterday. Donna planned to meet up with a bike club at the high school at 7:30am. I prepped her bike at 6:30am and she hit the road by 7am. I mentioned it’s hilly around here. The first thing she had to do after turning on Evergreen Street, just a few hundred feet from the RV park, was climb a steep hill – so steep that she had to dismount and walk her bike to the top. She made her way to the school, arriving at 7:20am and hung around waiting for cyclists from the club. They never showed up. She found out later that they revised their start time to 7am due to the heat. Not having an alternate plan, she rode home.

After Donna returned from her ride, she walked to the post office to mail some letters and then continued walking for a total of four miles. She walked four miles on Friday as well and snapped a few pictures each day. Here are the photos from Donna’s walks – the first four are from Friday, the rest are from Saturday’s walk.

Cedar Steps, constructed in 1936, 229 steps and 33 landings

Next stop…downtown Hollister

Railroad car at the Hollister Community Center with a view of historic Downing Street

Hackett Falls – a short hike from the memorial park at City Hall

Maurice Lane overpass near Old Mill Road

Branson Scenic Railway train coming through

Turtles in Turkey Creek (taken from Railroad Avenue)

While she was out, I saw a guy fishing the creek by our site. I walked down and talked to him. He’s from Bolivar, Missouri and has fished around here for years. He said the cold water from Table Rock Lake was good for the trout and trout fishing can be good here at times. Yesterday was not so good. While we were talking, Donna called out to me from the other side of Turkey Creek where she was walking on Railroad Avenue.

Fishing hole on Turkey Creek

I rode the scooter up to Sunfest Market to pick up a few groceries – Donna made a list for me. They didn’t have spaghetti squash or jicama, two of the items on her list. I found the selection of produce to be small and the prices a bit high. I came home and we searched online for another store. We found Rhodes Family Price Chopper and Walmart west of downtown Branson where Main Street becomes Country Boulevard.

I memorized the route and scootered over there. My route avoided the downtown traffic but I found the traffic to be just as bad up the hill on Country Boulevard. After you cross US65, you enter a district with museums, theaters, dance halls, concert venues, hotels and resorts. The traffic crawls along at 15mph with frequent stops.

I found the Rhodes store and it was a very nice grocery store. They had spaghetti squash and jicama. When I was checking out, the girl at the register looked at the jicama and asked what it was. When I told her jicama she said, “That’s spelled with a ‘J’ right?” I told her it was – jicama is pronounced HICK-a-mah. Donna cuts it up into what she calls fresh fries and serves it with guacamole.

The traffic was just as bad on the way back. I got caught in a brief rain shower while piddling along at 15mph. I skirted around the north side of downtown to Branson Landing and found Macadoodles. Macadoodles is a large liquor store with fine wine and a large selection of liquor and beer. Now I know where to shop – that’s always one of the challenges when we relocate to unfamiliar territory. Hopefully on weekday mornings, the traffic won’t be as bad.

After I came home, I was just about to cover the scooter when rain started pouring down. We had showers off and on all afternoon – some of the showers were heavy. This afternoon’s forecast calls for the same 80% chance of thunderstorms. I’m hoping they’re wrong and we can ride the scooter up to Branson Sports Club for pickleball at 2pm.

Winding Road Ahead

I tied down the scooter and had the trailer completely loaded and road-ready before dinner on Wednesday. After dinner, I took I took my last walk through Tom Sawyer’s RV Park. I watched a large barge tow heading upriver, then snapped a photo of a rare motorhome. It was an Airstream 310 from the early ’80s – I’d never seen one before. This one was powered by an Isuzu diesel engine, making it doubly rare – most had 454 Chevy gas engines.

Airstream motorhome

When we were pulling out of Tom Sawyer’s RV Park on Thursday morning, I could hardly believe it when I saw a similar Airstream motorhome stored near a shed by the office. It looked like it hadn’t moved in a long time. After nearly two years on the road without seeing one of these rare coaches, I saw two here at the park!

Our destination was the Escapees (SKP) Turkey Creek RV Village in Hollister, Missouri (Map). Our route out of West Memphis took us up I-55 for about 12 miles to the junction of US63. This was the only stretch of interstate on the entire 270-mile drive.

I generally enjoy taking the smaller highways and US63 was a nice road. The pavement was good and the traffic was fairly light. When we crossed into Missouri and headed west out of Thayer on MO142, it got interesting. MO142 has a smooth surface, but it’s a narrow two-lane highway with no shoulder. Most of the time, if you dropped a wheel off the pavement, you would be in a ditch. Our lane was barely wide enough for our 102-inch width. Luckily, there was very little traffic. But, when an oncoming heavy-duty truck would pass, I had to squeeze over to right as much as I dared and brace myself for our mirrors to collide. We managed not to knock mirrors and only had half a dozen truck encounters over the next few hours.

The terrain changed on MO142. We were heading into the Ozarks. The Ozarks are the most extensive mountainous region between the Appalachians and Rocky mountains. Although they are often referred to as the Ozark Mountains, it’s actually a high plateau with deep ravines and ridges. MO142 constantly climbed and dipped. The hills were short and steep. I was either on full power or using the Jake brake to slow a descent. There were so many curves in the road, Nally (Our Rand McNally GPS) was constantly chattering “Left curve ahead” and then “Right curve ahead” or “Winding road ahead.”

After about 40 miles of this difficult stretch, we turned north and found US160 at Caulfield. This seemed like a better two-lane highway – the lane was wider anyway. My opinion soon changed. US160 continued up and down in the fashion of MO142 but soon became more extreme. The climbs and descents were steeper and the road was a series of sharp curves. At the crest of many of the climbs, I couldn’t see the bottom of the descent until we started down. Nally kept warning of the winding road ahead as I would see speed advisory signs of 30mph curves.

At one curve, a car was partially pulled off the road. It was halfway into the lane because there wasn’t enough shoulder to pull completely off the road. We were moving slowly and I braked hard, I couldn’t see around the curve at first to see if it was clear to get around the car. We saw why they were stopped. The passenger door was open and the passenger was sitting on the door sill with his head down – obviously very car sick. It was understandable with all the up, down, right and left motion.

The scenery was beautiful, but I didn’t have much of a chance to enjoy it. My concentration was fully absorbed by driving and keeping us on the road and in our lane. We made a stop at the Bullseye station in Gainesville to top off with fuel. I stretched my legs and took on 38 gallons at $2.55/gallon. I think this was the cheapest diesel price we’ve ever had. Our fuel mileage worked out to 8.5mpg – better than I expected. I figured the up and down terrain coupled with running the diesel generator to run the AC all day would result in poor fuel mileage.

We pulled into Turkey Creek at 3pm – nearly six hours after our 9:15am departure. It was a tough drive. During the drive, Donna and I discussed our options for the next few weeks. We will be in Minneapolis on July 5th, we have a site booked there for Donna’s Senior Olympic bike race. I originally booked two weeks here at Turkey Creek thinking we would move on to Des Moines. Des Moines is problematic due to the Junior Rodeo National event that has the RV parks full.

While we were checking in, Donna mentioned the SKP Stay & Play promotion where you pay for 15 days and get five additional days free. A quick look at the calendar showed that we could stay for 18 or even 20 days and still make it to Donna’s scheduled event with Meredith Publishing (Better Homes and Gardens) in Des Moines. Doing the math, if we stay for 20 days, the promotional rate works out to $14/day. Even if we leave after 18 days, it’s only $15.55/day for a pull-through 50 amp full hook-up site. So we paid for 15 days and have the option of staying up to 20 days.

We have site D8, the only pull-through available for our length of stay. The good news is the site is shaded by a large tree. I don’t know what kind of tree it is – maybe a reader can enlighten me.

Shade tree by our site

The bad news is, the site slopes toward the creek and is also low in back. Getting the coach level was a chore.

Looking up at our site from the creek

All of the 9 sites in row D are pull-throughs. Sites 1 through 7 are fairly level.

Sites 1 through 7 in row D looking toward the office

While we were driving with the generator on to power our roof air conditioner, Donna took advantage of the electrical power and put a whole chicken in the slow cooker. Once we were set up, we dined outdoors at our picnic table. The slow-cooked chicken was tender and tasty.

Slow cooked chicken with garlic red potatoes and green beans

Slow cooked chicken with garlicky roasted red potatoes and green beans

Today we’ll head out and explore Branson on the scooter. The forecast calls for a 60% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon.

Gibson Tour

Donna went out for a Sunday morning bike ride at 8:30am trying to beat the heat. She wasn’t entirely successful. By the time she returned from her 26-mile ride at 10:30am, the temperature had risen well into the 80s with high humidity.

I grilled a couple of salmon burgers that we bought at HEB in Rockport, Texas and froze for later consumption. We have two more in the freezer. We had them for lunch on onion ciabatta rolls. I wrote about the fresh salmon burgers from HEB in this post.

After lunch, I rode the scooter to Memphis via the I-55 bridge. I followed Riverside Drive to Beale Street and found my way to Lt George W Lee Avenue where the Gibson guitar factory and retail store is located. Parking is problematic in this area. I had no choice but to pay $5 to park in the Gibson lot.

Gibson retail entrance

Gibson guitars are made at four factories in three locations – Memphis is where they make the semi-hollow body and hollow body guitars. My ES339 was made here. In Nashville, Gibson USA makes the solid body guitars. Also in Nashville, the Gibson custom shop makes special guitars – my Les Paul 1960 reissue G0 was made there. In Bozeman, Montana, Gibson makes acoustic guitars – my L130 acoustic guitar was made there.

Orville Gibson founded the company at the end of the 19th century to make mandolins. The company was headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan and built guitars there until guitar production moved to Gibson USA in Nashville in 1974. The Kalamazoo plant continued operation as a custom shop until it closed in 1984 and the Nashville custom shop opened.

The tour cost $10. About 20 people were in the tour group. All tours for the weekend were sold out. They give six tours daily, Monday through Saturday from 11am to 4pm. On Sunday, they have five tours starting at noon. Our tour lasted about an hour and we walked through the entire production area. We saw how the process works from beginning to end. There’s very little automation – almost everything is carried out by hand. Each guitar takes about four weeks to to finish and they complete about 65 guitars per day here. There are several inspections during the process. About 4% of the production is scrapped due to flaws. The final finishing process is all done by hand. The guitars are painted with a nitro-cellulose finish by painters using spray guns. The last step is polishing the finish on buffing wheels. Polishing is a three-step process with increasingly finer compounds used to achieve the final lustre.

My tour ticket

It was a very interesting tour for me. I was surprised by the diverse people in our group. We had older folks and young people. We had families. Most of the people in the tour weren’t very knowledgeable about guitars – I wondered what enticed them to take the tour. I think most of them didn’t really understand what the tour guide was talking about some of the time – like when he explained the installation of truss rods or how the binding is applied.

After the tour, I walked to Beale Street a block away. It was fairly quiet as it was Sunday afternoon. I saw two bands playing – one was jamming loudly in the court where we saw the Australian guitarist on Friday night. I cooled off with a cold Wiseacre Ananda IPA at BB King’s Club. While I was at it, I checked the Statelines app (from Technomadia) on my smartphone and saw that alcohol is not sold in Arkansas on Sunday. I needed to get some beer, so I decided to stop at a store in Memphis where alcohol sales are legal on Sunday after noon. I saw a funny sign as I was walking down Beale Street.

So true

My map showed a market a couple of blocks away on Vance Street, so I scootered over there. Wow, what a difference two blocks makes in the neighborhood. The gentrified Beale Street is world away from Vance Street. The neighborhood was reminiscent of Beale Street back in the ’70s. I found of photo of Beale Street taken in 1974 on this site.

Beale Street at Third Ave circa 1974

I went into the market and made my purchase quickly. I wasn’t comfortable in this neighborhood. The people loitering on the curb outside the store looked rough. I rode back home to Tom Sawyer’s RV Park.

I was inspired to practice guitar while Donna was outside reading a book. Later, we took a walk together through the park. This RV park has very few long-term visitors. It seems like most people use it as an overnight stopping point or maybe a weekend getaway. Unlike most parks, we haven’t seen the usual weekend influx of campers or the Sunday afternoon exodus back to the workaday world. Instead, people seem to come and in and out in a fairly equal exchange. Over the four nights that we’ve been here, we’ve had four different RVs in the site across from us.

One of the rigs that’s been here since we arrived is an old GMC bus converted to an RV. A lot of the bus conversions I see are a little rough looking, but I’m always intrigued by them. Converting an old bus into an RV is a lot of work. It’s invariably a labor of love to make it into your own vision of what an RV should be.

GMC bus conversion

This is a far cry from the Millenium Coach built on a Prevost chassis I showed in my last post. Speaking of Prevost chassis, we saw two more coaches built on Prevost chassis as we walked through the park. The first one was a 2011 Liberty Coach. We met the woman who owns the coach along with her husband and chatted for a while. They’ve had several coaches, including a Marathon Coach built on a Prevost chassis. She said the Liberty was the best they’ve ever owned.

I forgot to take a photo of their beautiful RV, but I snapped a shot of a Country Coach built on a Prevost XL chassis.

Country Coach Prevost XL chassis

Today the thermometer is forecast to hit 90 degrees with less humidity than we’ve had lately. There’s a 40% chance of a thundershower. I might try fishing the ponds here today.

Great Day in College Station

We saw a few sights in College Station, Texas on Tuesday. Donna and I rode the scooter down through the Texas A&M University campus to the George Bush Library and Museum. This was the first visit to a presidential library for both of us. It’s well worth the $9 admission.

Donna at the fountain in front of the George Bush Library and Museum

The library chronicles the life and times of our 41st president, George H. W. Bush. It goes back into his childhood and takes you into the new millennium. Donna was inspired to write a post here on her organizing blog after hearing something in his inaugural address from 1989. The library is not all about Bush – it also highlights newsworthy events from World War II to end of his political career and beyond. If you go, be sure to allow an hour and a half or more to see the exhibits.

Donna looking presidential in the re-creation of the oval office

Me, not so presidential

After touring the Bush Library, we rode the scooter to the Blackwater Draw Brewing Company just a couple of miles away from the library.

We sat at a table and a waiter brought us menus and ice water. Donna realized she didn’t have her glasses. She wasn’t sure if she had them at the museum and set them down at some point or maybe left them at home. She was racking her brain, then came up with the idea of looking at the photo on my phone (posted above) and sure enough, she had her glasses on when we arrived there.

We told the waiter we had to go back for her glasses. We rode back to the library and Donna went to the ticket desk. She asked if anyone had turned in any lost glasses. The girl at the counter asked Donna to describe them. The girl said, “You must be living right” and handed Donna her glasses. She was pretty relieved as these are her glasses for reading, driving and also double as her sunglasses thanks to transition lenses.

We rode back to the Blackwater Draw Brewing Company and sat at the same table we were at before. The waiter brought us water and menus again. They had five of their beers on tap, plus a selection of other Texas craft beers in bottles. I went for the RIP Smash IPA. Donna tried a Kolsch but wasn’t impressed, so she decided to stick with water. We both ordered the daily special which was oxtail tacos with a sweet and spicy pineapple-mango salsa that was very tasty.

Beer board at Blackwater Draw Brewing Co

The IPA was okay, but just okay. I haven’t been impressed with Texas IPA – it just doesn’t measure up to the west coast IPAs found in California and Oregon. I also tried the Contract Killer coffee porter. This was a winner. I’d gladly have another glass of this brew.

We rode back to the RV park via old downtown Bryan. It was pretty sleepy. We saw no need to stop.

On Wednesday morning, Donna did her exercise routine while I prepared for the road. We lit the fires and pulled out of the RV park at 9:45am. I had a couple of challenges getting out of the residential neighborhood. I had to make a couple of loops before I found intersections with streets wide enough to make the turns we needed to make to get to the highway.

We headed out of town on TX6 to Benchley, then hit TX-OSA (Old San Antonio Road). This was the worst stretch of road we’ve been on since the time we drove up US89 in northern Arizona. The road had bumps and dips that worked the suspension overtime. It also had uneven lane surfaces that had the coach rolling from side to side. Our air suspension actively adjusts to maintain ride height, but it can’t react quick enough to sudden surface irregularities like these. The first hour of driving was exhausting. The lane was narrow with no shoulder and I had to maintain concentration to keep from drifting off the road due to the poor surface.

The road eventually improved. Our route took us through Tyler then Linden, Texas which is birthplace of the great blues guitarist, T-Bone Walker (Stormy Monday). Almost all of the rivers and lakes we saw along the way were flooded. There’s no drought in this part of Texas.

I know I said in my last post that we’d be heading to Shreveport, Louisiana. As always, plans have a way of changing. Since Memphis was our next goal, we decided to take a more direct route through Arkansas. Earlier, I was worried about the possibility of tornadoes, but the weather forecast was looking favorable.

We’re doing something different going down the road that I think we only did one time before. The temperature and humidity were so unbearable when we left Rockport and again when we left Bryan that we’re driving down the road with the generator running and the front roof air conditioner on. It’s so much more comfortable.

We crossed the stateline at Texarkana and decided to park for the night at a Walmart in Texarkana, Arkansas. Today we’ll drive to Memphis and check in at the Tom Sawyer RV Resort on the Mississippi River.

Beating the Storm

The weather guessers had me scrambling yesterday. I wanted to get things done since they were certain we would be in for a wet and stormy Sunday. I packed up the tire covers and the windshield covers. I wanted to store them away while they’re dry – packing them when they’re wet makes a good environment for mold.

I broke out the ladder and climbed up on the roof. Our front air conditioner shroud is cracked. I put duct tape over the crack. Then I checked the rear cover – it’s cracked as well. I need to order new shrouds soon. I thought the shrouds were made of fiberglass but it appears to be molded plastic. Baking in the sun on the roof eventually leads to deterioration. Our air conditioners are Dometic Duo Therm Penguin 15,000 BTU heat pumps and parts aren’t cheap. The plastic covers are about $100 each!

Workers here at Copano Bay RV Resort were also going double time to beat the weather. The park is pouring new concrete. The workers are prepping unoccupied site pads. About a dozen of the pads already have new concrete. They’ve prepped about a dozen more over the past couple of days. I’m thinking they should be using rebar in addition to the wire mesh to strengthen and reinforce the concrete. After all, there may be a 40,000+ pound RV rolling over it. But they’re the experts, not me.

Pad ready for concrete

I don’t know when they will pour the concrete. They need a window of dry weather for a day or two.

Donna took the scooter grocery shopping in the morning. When she returned, I rode it to Walmart and picked up a case of water and restocked my beer supply. Then I finished organizing the trailer and loaded the scooter in preparation for Monday’s departure. I figured we wouldn’t be using the scooter on Sunday if it’s stormy and I might as well have the trailer packed and closed up while it’s dry.

My daughter Jamie came up from Robstown with her friend Ruby, two of her step-kids – Rayleen and Ariana – and their cousin, Victoria. Donna took them to the community pool while I was packing the trailer.

The rain held off while they were at the pool. When they returned at 5pm, I could see a storm approaching on the weather radar app. We said our goodbyes and they left, trying to beat the storm home. I don’t know when we’ll see them again, but we plan to return to this area at some point – hopefully at a time when the weather isn’t so wet. May has been a very wet month – more than twice the average rainfall for the month.

One of the things Donna bought at HEB was jalapeno salmon burgers. These are made fresh at HEB, not frozen. I fired up the grill to cook them and also toasted onion ciabatta rolls. Donna made a remoulade sauce and garnished the burger with lettuce, avocado and remoulade. These were the best salmon burgers I’ve ever tasted.

Jalapeno salmon burgers and toasted onion chiabatta rolls hot off the grill

Jalapeno salmon burgers and toasted onion ciabatta rolls hot off the grill

One tasty sandwich

We rarely buy bread, but when Donna asked the guy at the seafood counter if the salmon burgers were good, he told her how he makes them and it sounded so good, she had to do it! Since she had to buy the onion rolls in a package of six, she bought four more salmon burgers and stashed them along with the rolls in the freezer.

It started raining while we were watching Homeland. The lightning made a great backdrop for the show.

This morning it’s dry out. The forecast has backed down from the dire storm warnings. Now they say there’s a 30% chance of thundershowers this afternoon. Oh well, I guess it didn’t hurt to make our preparations for travel a day early.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Scooter

Table Rock Dam

Shroud Mystery

The Texas Mosey

Taking the Challenge

Pickleball in Branson

In Search of Groceries

Winding Road Ahead

Gibson Tour

Great Day in College Station

Beating the Storm

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