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On Familiar Grounds

We were up early yesterday and didn’t waste any time preparing to leave St. Ignace. I dumped and flushed our holding tanks even though it had only been a few days since I last did that. I wanted the tanks empty because we won’t be hooked up to a sewer line for at least a week. The black tank won’t be an issue, but we have to be careful with our gray water. We’re so used to full hook-ups that we don’t think much about our water use. Though we never run water while brushing our teeth, we do like to luxuriate in long, hot showers. And Donna does a load of laundry most days. But we’re in water conservation mode now.

We pulled out of Lakeside RV Park around 9am and made a stop just two miles later at Jerry’s Pasty Shop. We bought three pasties (pronounced PAST-eez) and some smoked whitefish along with a whitefish sausage. These are staples of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Pasties are a baked pastry that originated in Cornwall – the southernmost county of England. They’re made by placing uncooked meat and vegetables in a circular shortcrust pastry, folding in half, and then crimping the edges to seal the filling inside. Once baked, the result is much like a pot pie with a turnover shape. They were a favorite of Cornish miners who spread the dish around the world. Whitefish is a prime commercial species from the Great Lakes and it’s delicious smoked.

A few miles later, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge and entered the Michigan mitten – if you look at a map of the lower mainland of Michigan, it resembles a mitten. The toll for RVs crossing the bridge is five dollars per axle. With our cargo trailer in tow, we are a three-axle vehicle so it cost us $15 to cross. The last time we crossed this bridge was on our motorcycles back in 2010 when we did a 2,400-mile tour that included the U.P.

Right lane closed – there seems to always be construction work on the bridge

Donna’s view of Lake Michigan to west from from the Mackinac Bridge

Once across the bridge in Mackinaw City, the sky darkened and the windshield became wet with mist. The wipers swept the windshield intermittently and visibility was reduced by the foggy mist. As we drove south on I-75, we hit brief thundershowers with heavy rain at times. There were a few dry patches but it was mostly rain or mist with a gloomy overcast. Around noon, I fired up the generator and Donna put a pasty in the convection oven. We stopped at a Pilot/Flying J travel center near Saginaw. I filled our fuel tank and we parked to eat lunch. The pasty was filled with chicken, potato, carrots and peas. It was tasty and very filling.

Ozark seemed content in her crate. It was our third day in a row on the road and it seems she has accepted travel in her crate. She spent the whole six hours mostly sleeping, often soundly, and didn’t complain.

We took the I-475 loop in Flint and hit I-69 eastbound. I thought it was odd. The interstate numbering system has odd numbers on north-south routes and even numbers on east-west routes. I-69 is east-west from Lansing all the way to Port Huron. From Lansing it turns south to Fort Wayne, Indiana and points beyond, but I think it’s strange to designate the interstate from Lansing to Port Huron I-69.

We were on familiar ground. We found our way to Addison Oaks County Park in Oakland County, Michigan. We lived near here from 2009 until I retired and we hit the road in July 2013. Check-in was easy – we had reserved and prepaid for our week-long stay. Dropping the trailer wasn’t so quick and easy. The narrow gravel road curves past our site. Getting the trailer into position took a few attempts before I got it right.

Our spacious back-in site with the trailer in our parking space.

This was the first time I had to drop the trailer since we were in Texas two months ago.

We were hooked up and settled in quickly with everything done by 4:15pm. A little past 5pm, our friend Nancy picked us up in her van. We drove to Lake Orion where we picked up her husband Tom and headed over to Kruse and Muer Roadhouse in Lake Orion for dinner.

We had a great meal with lots of conversation and laughs for the next couple of hours. Coincidentally, one of Tom’s water ski buddies sat at the table next to us. We recruited him as the photographer for our group photo.

Tom, Nancy, Donna and me

They dropped us off around 8pm and we gave Tom a quick tour of the coach. The coach and trailer are badly in need of a wash after driving all day on wet roads. That’s my chore for today.

Donna’s bicycling buddy, Bill Frahm, is coming over at 11am. They’ll probably take their bikes to Stony Creek Metropark near our old house to ride.

More Deer Than People

Traveling the last two days left me behind on posting. On Saturday morning, we started off with Donna’s famous banana pancakes made with just two ingredients – bananas and eggs. We eat them with a little maple syrup and a dollop of fresh ground peanut butter.

Donna’s banana pancakes on the induction cooktop

The rain in the forecast never materialized – it passed to the north of us. Donna went out for an 18-mile bike ride to check out Lake Cleary Regional Park. On the way back, she saw what looked liked a farmers’ market in downtown Prior Lake. Sure enough it was, but all the vendors were just breaking down. The market is open from 8am to noon every Saturday.

We took advantage of the dry weather and put the Traeger grill to use roasting a whole chicken. Donna rinsed the chicken, patted it dry, brushed it with olive oil and spiced it with salt and pepper inside. She added grated fresh garlic and put a cut lemon with a few sprigs of fresh rosemary inside. This is how she usually prepares the chicken to roast in the oven.

I preheated the grill on high for 10 minutes, then put the chicken on the rack at 450 degrees. An hour later, I added mixed veggies in a special grilling pan with holes in it. Donna cut up peppers, onions and asparagus and coated the mixture with oil before I put them on. After a total time of 75 minutes, we had a delicious roasted chicken and veggies.

Roasted chicken

Roasted mixed veggies to go with the chicken

Clean-up was a snap. I had lined the drip pan and bucket on the Traeger smoker/grill with aluminum foil before started. All I had to do was wipe down the grill, pull the foil and throw it away and wipe the pan. Simple. I like simple clean-up.

On Sunday morning, we pulled out of Dakotah Meadows RV Park and said goodbye to Prior Lake, Minnesota. We crossed the Mississippi River on I-94 and were in Wisconsin. We left I-94 at the junction of US29. We followed this almost to Wausau before we headed north toward Merrill.

The terrain was a series of rolling hills, never flat. As we drove north on US51, there was a steady stream of vehicles in the southbound lane – cars and trucks pulling trailers with ATVs and boats along with many RVs. Everyone was heading back to the city after a weekend up north.

We took a break at a truck stop and Donna fixed lunch for us. That’s one of the nice things about a motorhome. We can stop and eat, use the restroom and move on without even leaving the coach.

We finally found ourselves driving east on US8 after Nally (our Rand-McNally RVND7720 GPS) directed us along a few lightly traveled county roads. It wasn’t the route I would have chosen looking at a map, but it was interesting drive.

Ozark was in her plastic carrier crate and she wasn’t happy about it. She took a couple of short naps, but spent most of the time vocalizing her displeasure with rolling down the road. I think the crate is the best thing for her though. She isn’t freaked out by the motion and going crazy, just complaining. I don’t know if cats ever get to be good travelers.

We covered about 300 miles of fairly easy driving before we found a wayside park west of Armstrong Creek that we had read about. It had a large lane for parking RVs or trucks with trailers. Overnight parking in rest areas is allowed in Wisconsin, so we set up for the night. We only put out the bedroom slide on the curb side to keep from having a car hit a slide on the street side in the night.

I went outside to check things in the trailer and found the area thick with mosquitoes. Donna put on plenty of insect repellent before she went for a power walk down a forest service road.

In the morning, I went outside to do my usual walk-around before hitting the road. I like to look everything over and make sure all is as it should be before we roll. It had rained in the night and the mosquitoes were out in force. I came inside and swatted 12 mosquitoes on my arms and legs, number 13 was on my face and number 14 got away.

Wayside park for the night

We continued east. Once again, Nally directed us to a little used county road to shortcut our path to US2. The county road was fine at first. Once we crossed the Michigan state line, the road surface immediately deteriorated. Michigan’s reputation for poor road conditions is well-deserved. On this section, we saw more deer than people. My friend Jim Birditt would probably say, “That’s not a bad thing.”

We stopped for fuel at Hermansville and continued east on US2. This route took us through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula along the north shore of Lake Michigan. After 230 miles on the road, we checked in to the Lakeside Park Campground on Lake Michigan about 3 miles west of St. Ignace, where I’m typing this. We lost an hour along the way as we are now in the Eastern Time zone.

Ozark was much better about traveling this time. She spent most of the time napping in her crate and only cried out when Donna would get up or start talking to me. Maybe she’ll adjust to traveling after all.

Donna took a walk along the northeastern shore of Lake Michigan and shot a few photos. I’ve been having a problem with my foot since being bitten by a bug in Texas and have limited my walking while it heals.

Trail from the RV park to the lake

Mackinac Bridge (say Mackinaw) a few miles east of us

Power company sign warning about underwater cables across Makinac Strait

Power company sign warning about underwater cables across Mackinac Strait

We didn’t unpack the grill from the trailer since this is just an overnight stop. Donna prepared tilapia piccata and a veggie medley of oven roasted parsnips, carrots and beets. Like most root crops, beets are full of nutrients but I’m not a fan – they taste too earthy to me.

Tilapia piccata and veggies

Today we are road warriors again making the drive across the Mackinac Bridge south through the state to Addison Oaks County Park in Oakland Township – our old stomping grounds. Addison Oaks is one of the first places we stayed in when we started RVing. So much has happened in the two years since then. It’s the time warp I’ve mentioned before. When we think of all the places we’ve been and the things we’ve experienced, we have to wonder how it could all happen in just two years.

Memphis-Style Ribs

Donna took advantage of the last few hours before returning the rental car yesterday. She drove to Cub Foods and shopped for groceries. She enjoyed walking the aisles and picking up whatever she wanted without having to think about how much she could carry home on the scooter. While she was shopping, I hung out and read. After she brought the groceries home, she had to return the car. The guy at Enterprise drove her home, saving me from making the trip on the scooter.

After lunch, I removed the tire covers and the front window shades. It was warm and dry out, but the forecast calls for rain on the weekend. I always like to pack the covers and shades while they’re dry. Packing them away wet and leaving them in the basement for a couple of days invites mold.

With that chore done, I filled the hopper on the Traeger wood pellet grill. Donna picked up a rack of baby back ribs at Cub Foods. I’ve never tried grilling baby back ribs before, but now that we have the Traeger, it was time to try it. Donna and I loved the Memphis-style ribs we had on Beale Street. So I found a recipe and gave it a shot. Memphis-style means the ribs are dry-rubbed with seasoning, grilled hotter than wet St. Louis or Kansas City-style ribs and served with additional dry seasoning after grilling.

I fired up the Traeger and preheated it to 325 degrees.

Digital controller on the Traeger

The Ortech digital controller on the Traeger doesn’t hold the precise temperature. It monitors the temperature through sensor inside the grill and adjusts the pellet feed and blower fan accordingly. The pellets are fed through an auger – it’s like a large screw encased in a metal tube. As the screw turns, pellets are forced through the tube to the fire pot. When the controller senses temperature higher than requested, it stops feeding the pellets and slows the fan until the temperature drops. Once the temperature drops, it starts feeding pellets and stokes the fire with the fan. The actual temperature at the sensor is constantly rising above and dropping below the target temperature because it’s impossible to burn wood pellets at a precise, constant temperature.

Our Traeger grill also has an analog temperature gauge mounted on top of the barrel. There is very little variation in temperature shown on this gauge and I’m convinced the rising and falling temperature is inconsequential. The meat on the grill is held at the average and doesn’t heat up and cool down quickly like the flame in the fire pot does.

Dry-rubbed baby back ribs

I removed the thin membrane from the bone side of the ribs and seasoned them at 1pm. I wrapped them back up in the butcher paper and put them back in the refrigerator. I brought them out of the refrigerator at 2:45pm while the grill was preheating. At 3pm I put them on the grill.

I kicked back in our lounge chair and read a book. Periodically, I monitored the temperature of the grill and stirred the pellets in the hopper to keep them feeding smoothly. There wasn’t much to it. Donna prepared russet potatoes by washing them, slicing them in half lengthwise, then coating them with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. At 5pm, I added the potatoes on the grill.

Baby back ribs and potatoes

That was the only time during the cook that I opened the grill. Just past 6pm, it was time to take the ribs and potatoes out of the grill.

Yum-Yum

Just as I held the ribs in tongs over the cutting board they parted in half. The tender ribs broke away from the bone at the tongs! Luckily it didn’t happen while I was holding them over the grass! I grilled the potatoes with the cut side down. Next time I might do them skin side down.

Ready to serve

This was too easy and oh, so good. The ribs were tender with a nice crust but I think I could have taken them off the grill a little sooner than I did. The potatoes were cooked perfectly. The maple-hickory-cherry pellet blend left a nice smoky flavor.

Dinner is served

We dined al fresco at our picnic table. I enjoyed a bottle of Lagunitas IPA with the meal.

Today, thundershowers are expected to move into the area some time after noon. I’ll need to organize the trailer and load the scooter. I need to figure out how to fit the Traeger grill in the trailer too. Hopefully I’ll have that done before it rains and we’ll be set to roll out of here tomorrow with minimum fuss.

Our plan is to head east across Wisconsin. We’ll find a place to dry-camp overnight then continue through the upper peninsula of Michigan to St. Ignace.

Cooking Without Gas

In my last post, I mentioned we stopped at Costco in Burnsville on the way home from Donna’s bike race in Minneapolis. It was a nice store, not crowded at all, but maybe a little smaller than some of the Costcos I’ve been in. I wrote about the start-up of the Price Club and eventual merger with Costco in this post.

We had a few things to pick up – I wanted to stock up on bottled water for our travels next week and also buy clumping kitty litter for Ozark. Costco has a 42-pound bag for just a few bucks more than the 19-pound pack at Petco.

As we wandered through the store, Donna bought organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs and tilapia sourced from Costa Rica. We looked at salmon and that made me think of cedar planks. Sometimes we can find a good deal on a package of cedar planks at Costco. I looked in the area where they had charcoal and other barbeque supplies.

Donna saw a guy by some grills and asked him if he knew where the cedar planks were. He told her he hadn’t seen any, but if we had one of his grills, we wouldn’t need them. I didn’t pay much attention, but I heard him say these grills were wood-fired. I was imagining finding fire wood for the barrel shaped grills anytime I wanted to grill. Then he caught my attention when he said they use wood pellets. What? I didn’t know wood pellet fired grills existed.

I understood the pellet technology and how wood pellet heating stoves work – I had one when I lived in the Pacific Northwest. It turns out that the company that invented wood pellet stoves in ’80s found their market to be too seasonal. People only thought about heating their homes and buying pellet stoves in the fall or winter. In the ’90s, they came up with the idea of making a wood pellet fired grill and smoker. They filed patents and started marketing the grills to fill the slow spring and summer seasons. Over time, they refined the product. This company is called Traeger and it’s headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Costco is now carrying Traeger smoker/grills. I ended up talking to the guy for about 20 minutes as he demonstrated how it works. I already understood the basic operation. We told him that we’re full time RVers, so he showed us a compact model.

I knew from my experience with pellet heating stoves that the quality of the pellets matters. Low-quality pellets don’t make as much heat and also leave ash deposits. He told me that pellet grills use special “food grade” pellets made only with hardwood (more on this later). Heating pellets are often made from lumber mill waste (saw dust) and contain softwoods such as fir and pine which would not be as good for cooking.

He was a good salesman and kept pitching the product. When I asked how much the Traeger Junior Elite (the compact model) costs, he broke out his iPad and showed me the MSRP was $449 with some places selling it for $429. He said the Costco price was $349. Then he said he would include the grill cover, which retails for $60 (I found it online for $45) and a bottle of dry rub spices. He had a ton of pictures on his iPad of food he and his dad have grilled.

I went for it. I figured we had the car today, I couldn’t see myself strapping this 60-lb. grill on the back of the scooter if I bought it later – and I was getting about a $500 value for $349.

It took some doing to get the big grill box, two cases of water and 42 pounds of cat litter in the rental Passat with Donna’s bike and gear already in the back, but we managed. When we got home, I unpacked the grill box on the picnic table. Some assembly was required!

Some assembly required

Everything was nicely packed. I was impressed with how the hardware was handled – every screw had a washer and nut on it, making sure nothing was left out. All I had to do was remove the nuts and washers, install the part and install the washers and tighten the nuts. I read the assembly instructions, then went to work.

Handle with nuts and washers attached before assembly

Start with an empty barrel

I followed the directions with only a couple deviations where I saw a better way. The hardware pack included spanner wrenches in 3/8″, 7/16″ and 1/2″ sizes. I used my own wrenches and 1/4″ drive sockets to speed the assembly.

Fully assembled smoker/grill

I completed the assembly in about 30 minutes. Once I had it put together, I filled the hopper with Traeger pellets I bought at Costco. There are a variety of wood pellets available – hickory, oak, cherry, apple, etc. that can impart different flavors to the food you cook.

Maple, hickory, cherry wood pellet blend

Maple, hickory and cherry wood pellet blend

Pellet hopper full of pellets

I bought a 33-lb. bag of maple, hickory and cherry blend of wood pellets at Costco for $20. This will last for 15 to 40 hours of cooking time, depending on temperature selected and ambient wind and temperature conditions. This fuel is more economical than propane and it imparts flavor like charcoal or wood-fired cooking. I fired up the grill and ran it on high for 45 minutes to season it and burn off any oils or manufacturing residue.

The Traeger has a temperature sensor inside the grill and a digital controller. Once fired up, you set the desired temperature and let it warm up for about 10-15 minutes. Then you place the food on the grill and leave it alone! No peeking. Let it cook for the required time and voila!

I don’t usually impulse buy like this, but I was intrigued by the wood pellet technology and felt like I needed to move up from our trusty Weber Q grill. This thing has so much potential for barbeque, smoking, roasting and baking – yes, baking. Donna prepared boneless chicken thighs and I preheated the grill. It was so easy – set it and let it do its thing. The chicken was delicious.

Before I began cooking, I lined the drip pan with aluminum foil. Any fats that drip grease are caught by the pan which slopes and drains into a grease bucket. Easy clean up and no flare-ups.

I spent time on the Internet and found that wood pellet smokers and barbeques are quite popular among the barbeque competition crowd. Some people say it’s cheating because they’re too easy.

I also found there’s controversy over “food-grade wood pellets.” Heating pellets are about a quarter of the cost of “food grade” wood pellets. The thing is, there’s no standard for “food grade” that I could find. One site mentioned a USDA requirement, but after half an hour on the cumbersome government site, I couldn’t find anything. My thinking is this – I’ll buy the “food grade” stuff from reputable firms for my own well-being. I know first-hand that heating pellet quality varies and I wouldn’t want to use a pellet with soft woods, bark or recycled construction waste – not to mention made on manufacturing equipment that wasn’t using food grade lubricants.

The reputable manufacturers of pellets intended for grills use only hardwoods with no binders and use food-grade lubricants such as canola or soy oil. The pellets are made by pressing saw dust through dies under extreme pressure at about 250 degrees. The saw dust is lubricated to facilitate the extrusion through the dies. The naturally occurring lignin in the wood binds the pellet together during the process. Heating pellets may contain cornstarch as a lubricant and binder or other undesirable elements. Until standards are established as they have in Europe, I’ll stick with major, albeit more expensive brands. Traeger has their own pellet manufacturing plants to ensure quality pellets for their grills.

There is one consideration that has me keeping the Weber Q at this time. Wood pellet grills are really smokers or convection ovens. They don’t really provide direct heat, so it’s difficult to get pleasing grill marks on meat. The pellets are burned in a small pot with a fan blowing air across them. This oxygenates the burning pellets and also creates a convection flow in the grill. There’s a diffuser over the burning pot – this along with the drip pan prevents direct heat from reaching the grill. There are ways to work around this and I’m looking forward to learning. I hope to move on from the propane Weber in the near future.

I’m afraid this cover says “steal me”

Donna had a book signing in St. Paul last night. Before she drove to St. Paul, we went to the farmers’ market at the tribal Mazopiya natural food market. It wasn’t much of a farmers’ market – just a few tables of locally grown produce.

Today Donna wants to go back to the natural food market before she returns the rental car. The weather guessers are calling for a warmer day with temperatures in the mid 80s before thundershowers move in for the weekend. I think I’ll remove the tire covers and windshield covers this afternoon and pack them away while they’re dry. We’ll pull out of here on Sunday.

Senior Olympics Experience

I scootered Donna to Enterprise rental car in Shakopee on Tuesday. We met back at the Dakotah Meadows RV Park and had lunch before we headed out to the Minneapolis Convention Center. The gal at Enterprise gave Donna a free upgrade on the car – we got a VW Passat and it had South Dakota plates matching our coach and scooter plates!

VW Passat with South Dakota plates

We found parking across the street from the convention center and made our way to the hall where check-in for the Senior Olympic Games was taking place. Donna picked up her packet and we had a look around. Pickleball is a Senior Olympic sport. We found a vendor near the pickleball area selling high-end paddles made by RiverStyx here in Minnesota. They were very lightweight and reported to be extra durable, but at $166 each, we passed.

Donna at the check-in

From the convention center, we drove out to the fairgrounds to preview the bicycle race course. We saw several racers riding the course for practice. The course was laid out entirely within the fairgrounds complex. It was a criterium-style course with lots of tight turns and little elevation change. The length of the course was just over three miles – the race would cover eight laps. Donna hadn’t raced on this style of course before – she’s always been on longer road courses with fewer turns.

Donna said the race started at 9am for all competitors. She had e-mails dating back for months stating this. I found it hard to believe. For one thing, men and women rarely start together. Add in the fact that 300 riders were expected. Three hundred riders of all age groups, genders and abilities on a tight criterium race course at once would be a recipe for disaster. She was nervous and I was nervous for her.

On the way home, we made another stop to visit with Donna’s friend, Shannon. We took a tour of her house and chatted for about 40 minutes before we were back on the road. By then, we were hitting rush hour traffic and it was brutal. One of the things I don’t miss at all is the requirement to commute in rush-hour traffic. I don’t have to do it, so I avoid it whenever possible.

On Tuesday night, I was looking for additional race information on the Internet. I stumbled upon a document that showed all cycling participants by group with different start times for each group. One group would begin their race starting at 8am. Donna’s race would start at 9:30am. This document wasn’t provided in the race packet nor was any reference made to it in any communication Donna received from the organization. We were glad I found it, but not too impressed with the way we accidentally learned the schedule.

We were up early on Wednesday morning. Well, Donna was up early, she didn’t wake me until 6:40am. I was planning on leaving here by 7am. That didn’t happen – it was 7:15 by the time we left. I had mapped a different route from the traffic-ensnarled route we took the day before. Our new route took us east, then we hit I-35E north. This worked so much better. That’s always the challenge when we’re in new locations – we don’t know the traffic patterns and best alternate routes. Google maps help, but there’s nothing like local knowledge.

We made the drive in less than an hour. We found the check-in table despite the lack of any signage directing racers where to check-in or what was expected. We talked to several people who all thought the race started at 9am. The men’s races didn’t begin until 11am with some of the age groups starting at 1pm and 3pm. A lot of guys were unhappy about getting up early and fighting traffic to be there for a 9am start that wasn’t happening. The race director really needs to figure out how to communicate the schedule. I wonder if anyone missed the 8am race, thinking their event started at 9am.

We found Donna’s Aunt Kathy and her cousin Ginny at the start/finish area. Donna warmed up and staged shortly before the 9:30am start. As I suspected, the race pace was very fast. The leaders were experienced racers who powered through the turns on this flat course. Donna started off fast but says she got dropped in the first quarter mile. The pace at that point was 27.2 mph! Her goal was not to crash and to average 17-18mph with some drafting. Riding alone, she made it to the finish with a 16.7mph average pace. She was feeling her lack of training these last months due to a combination of heavy rain, unsafe roads, and too-hilly routes along our route. So while she didn’t do as well as she expected, she’s happy to have had the experience of making it to the National Senior Games.

Donna on the course

Catch the draft

After the race, we followed Ginny and Kathy to a popular restaurant called Muffuletta’s in the Como Park neighborhood. Of course, Donna and I ordered the muffaletta sandwich. I had sweet potato fries on the side with mine – Donna had a salad. Donna’s Aunt Kathy used to work nearby and says this restaurant gets packed for lunch and dinner. The service and the food was excellent and we enjoyed eating outdoors on the patio.

Donna, Ginny and Kathy after the race

We backtracked our route down I-35E and made a stop at Costco. We wanted to stock up on a few things while we had a car. I ended up making an impulse buy that I’ll describe in my next post.

Today we expect mostly sunny skies with the temperature reaching 80 degrees. Later this afternoon, Donna will drive to downtown St. Paul for a book signing at Subtext Books.

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.

Sixty to Zero

Sunday was a travel day. We relocated from Des Moines to Minneapolis. There was a lot of activity in the Des Moines State Fairgrounds campground as many of the car show attendees were bailing out on the last day of the show.

We took our time packing up. By the time I had dumped and flushed the tanks and pulled the slides in and jacks up, it was nearly 11am. We said our goodbyes to our new friends, David and Karin, and I fired up the engine. As usual, before pulling out I said to Donna, “There’s a big road ahead…if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen out there.” It’s a line I paraphrased from the movie Captain Ron.

This time, we traveled with Ozark in a cat carrier crate. She wasn’t happy about being confined to the crate, but overall it was less stressful for her and us than the last two times we rolled down the highway with her. We made a stop at a nice rest area at exit 158 on I-35 and ate a hot lunch.

We continued north on I-35. About ten miles into Minnesota, we hit road construction which narrowed the route down to one lane of travel. We were moving along smoothly at about 60 mph though. I kept a reasonable distance between our coach and the car ahead.

Suddenly, I saw brake lights as the traffic came to a screeching halt ahead. I braked hard and at the same time switched the Jake brake to high. I was braking so hard that the tires were beginning to squeal on the threshold of lock-up.

I was amazed at the braking performance. I stopped a good 20 feet behind the car in front of me and a car behind me had to swerve onto the shoulder because we stopped so quickly. I wouldn’t have believed stopping our 33,000 pounds could happen that fast if I hadn’t done it myself.

When we began moving again, I saw the cause of the panic braking. A guy had run his car off the road and hit a cable barrier on the right, spinning the car around. The driver and passenger appeared to be okay.

Like I said, if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen out there.

We pulled into Dakotah Meadows RV Park around 3:30pm. We stayed here before when we first hit the road in 2013. We have a pull-through site on a concrete pad near the pond. This is a clean, quiet RV park with security patrols and level pads. When we came here the first time, I thought it was nicest park I’d ever stayed in. I don’t know if I would make that statement today – we’ve been to a lot of RV parks over the last two years.

While were driving down the road, Donna had a pork tenderloin in the slow cooker. She sets up the slow cooker in the kitchen sink so it won’t slide off the counter – which it would have for certain when I had to make the sudden stop. The aroma in the coach whetted my appetite for sure.

I put the jacks down and slides out before hooking up so we could let Ozark out of her crate. She was fine – she didn’t bound out of the crate and go crazy – just sat up inside with her head sticking out and jumped out after a few minutes. I completed our hook-up and put tire covers and window covers on. I unloaded and set up the grill and had the scooter out of the trailer by 5pm.

Donna served dinner – it was slow cooker char siu (Chinese barbeque pulled pork) and it was delicious. She served it over brown rice with fresh steamed green beans from the Des Moines farmers’ market on the side. She got the recipe from our neighbor, Karin, along with others. They enjoyed talking about food and cooking and sharing recipes.

Slow cooker char siu with samba oelek (chili paste)

I watched the Formula One British Grand Prix at Silverstone which I had recorded in the morning. Ozark was happy to roam in the stationary coach.

Ozark the cat

A thunderstorm rolled in at bedtime. Ozark slept through most of the night – she hadn’t slept as much as usual during the day while we traveled. The forecast calls for rain to continue most of the day today.

Good Guys in Des Moines

Donna went out for a bike ride again on Friday. Before she went she prepared an excellent breakfast for me – an omelette made with leftover parmesan zucchini and asiago cheese with sides of tomato wedges and bacon strips. She treats me like a king.

Excellent breakfast

This time, she had a better idea of what to expect on her ride and where she wanted to go. She went out on the Gay Lea Wilson Trail again and also rode the Vern Willey II Trail. When she returned, I rode the scooter over to a self-serve car wash and washed it. It was badly in need of a wash job.

Our neighbors, David and Karin, are here for the Good Guys car show. While we were talking, we discovered that they’re essentially carless and can’t leave the fairgrounds. Although they have a car hauler trailer behind their Tiffin Allegro Bus motor home, it hauls their 1966 Chevelle convertible show car. David has the car in the show all day and even if he didn’t, it’s doubtful if he would want to drive it and park it in a grocery store parking lot.

Dave’s 1966 Chevelle

Big block Chevy producing 650 horsepower

It made me think of the times when I had Corvettes and would show them in car shows. I had a red 1965 Corvette big block (396 cu. in.) roadster and a yellow 1972 LT-1 T-top. I was amazed at how inexpensive agreed-value insurance on these cars was. The insurer knows there isn’t much risk, because the cars aren’t driven much and when they are, the owners are super careful about how they’re driven and where they’re parked.

I grew tired of the car show scene and eventually sold them. Once at a car show, at the Pavilions in Scottsdale, Arizona, a woman and her daughter were admiring my LT-1. The daughter was 16 years old or so. The woman said to me, “My daughter absolutely loves this car.” I said “Why doesn’t she get in and see what it’s like behind the wheel?” So the girl opened the door and sat behind the wheel with a big grin on her face. The mom said to me, “That’s so nice of you to let her do that.” I said, “What do I care, it’s not my car.” The woman had this horrified look on her face so I quickly smiled and said, “Just joking, no worries, it’s my car.” Maybe it wasn’t a good joke, but I was at a point where I was tired of the car shows and always answering the same questions.

So, back to David and Karin stuck here at the RV park. Donna told Karin that we were going to the grocery store and asked her if they needed anything. Karin lit up and said she would love to have a few items if we didn’t mind picking them up. We scootered over to the store in the afternoon and bought some things we wanted and also got the things on Karin’s list.

When we returned, I went out for a walk in the RV park and found a couple of interesting RVs. The first one is an old bus conversion that’s also a hot rod.

Hot rod bus

The next one is a real curiosity. It reminded me of the black coach guy in Mission Bay back in 2013. I don’t know what the deal is – the web site shown on the front of the coach doesn’t exist and the toll-free phone number is a car dealership in New York. This thing is totally bogus and I just don’t get it.

Specialized Intelligence and Security – huh?

For dinner, I grilled boneless chicken breast and skewered strawberries. Donna makes a balsamic reduction that is almost chocolate-like and drizzles it over the grilled strawberries. She served it over baby kale. Yum!

Grilled chicken and strawberries

After dinner, Donna devised a toy for Ozark. She rolled parchment paper and tied a string to it. We swing it back and forth by Ozark’s scratching post. Ozark pounces on the parchment paper which crackles and stimulates her to attack. Sometimes she leaves it and goes after the scratching post with great fury.

Ozark caught the parchment toy

On Saturday morning, we rode the scooter downtown for the Des Moines farmers’ market. On the way, we passed the state capitol building and I had to pull in and take a photo. The morning sun on the dome was a sight to see – the picture doesn’t do it justice.

Iowa state capitol

The farmers’ market covers four blocks of Court Avenue with additional vendors on both sides of three cross streets – this is a huge farmers’ market. There are approximately 300 vendors and they claim 20,000 shoppers visit every Saturday from May until October. The market started in 1976 with just 15 vendors. It was ranked as the number two “best farmers’ market in the country” by The Daily Meal in 2013 and 2014.

Entrance to the farmers’ market

Once again, we asked our neighbor, Karin, if she needed anything. We were able to find most everything on her list as well as some good stuff for ourselves – fresh produce, fresh-ground peanut butter, local grass fed beef, Nuremberg sausages and local honey. They had street musicians on every block of Court Avenue.

These guys were good

After we came home and had lunch, I went down to the Good Guys car show. Our neighbor, David, had given me a free ticket, saving me the $20 entrance fee. I walked for more than two hours and saw an unbelievable number of fantastic cars. I decided not to take photos because I would end up with hundreds of them once I started. I doubt if I saw more than half of the cars spread out on the hundreds of acres of park-like grounds. The fairgrounds occupy 450 acres – 160 of which are the campground.

I also watched cars compete on the autocross course. Autocross is a tight, twisty course laid out with cones. One car at a time runs the course with timers recording the elapsed time to complete the course. Penalties are applied if you hit any of the cones. It was entertaining and there were some very good drivers.

After dark, Donna and I walked up to the top of the hill west of our site. This high point gave us a great view of fairgrounds fireworks and also turned out to be a great vantage point for fireworks displays in various communities around us. There were fireworks in every direction!

Over the past few days, we left the cat crate on the floor in front of the passenger seat with the top and door open. Ozark sniffed around it and eventually went inside. She didn’t stay there, just looked inside then crawled out the top opening. Later, Donna put one of my t-shirts folded up inside the cat crate. I added a little catnip. Ozark followed the catnip aroma and soon made herself comfortable inside. Yesterday, Ozark entered her crate with the top closed and napped inside it most of the day. She apparently finds it to be a safe and secure place. Today we’ll try driving up to Minneapolis with Ozark in her crate.

Hot Rods and RVs

There’s a nice rails-to-trails bike path here in Des Moines called the Gay Lea Trail. After I posted yesterday, I got Donna’s bike out of the trailer and pumped up the tires. She headed out, rode out of the campground and about a mile down Dean Avenue where it became Fairview Drive and intersected the trail.

While she was out, I set up my extension ladder, wash bucket, hose and brush and got up on the roof. When I swept the debris from the mimosa tree in Turkey Creek RV Village from the roof, a lot of dirt and dark stains were left behind. The stains extended over the roof coves and were driving me crazy. After I started cleaning, I snapped a photo of a two-foot section of the roof I was brushing to show how dirty the roof was.

Getting started on the roof cleaning

Of course, as I cleaned the roof, dirty water was running down the sides of the coach. So I had no choice but to wash the entire rig. The trailer was just as dirty and needed to be washed as well. While I was on the roof, RVs pulling car trailers were streaming into the park. The Good Guys Fourth of July car show here at the Iowa State Fairgrounds is a big show.

View in front of our coach from the roof

RVs starting to fill the hillside

Our row is packed now

While I was washing the coach, there was a group of people camped behind our site that piled into a van. Then an argument broke out with a lot of shouting. I thought a fist fight was about to happen. They all got out of the van except the driver who sat there with the engine running for about 15 minutes. One of the guys from the group came over and made small talk with me. It turns out they are workers at a carnival near here and their trailer is a bunkhouse with 10 compartments. It must be difficult to work together, then share tight quarters and be around each other 24/7.

Bunkhouse trailer with five rooms per side

Just as I was finishing up the wash job, Donna came back from her 24-mile bike ride. I put everything away before realizing that I didn’t wash the scooter. It’s badly in need of a wash job. I might find a self-serve car wash for that chore today.

As I was packing things up, I met our neighbor, Dave. We chatted for a bit. He’s from Flagstaff, Arizona and is following a car show circuit with his 1967 Chevelle convertible. He is selling the car to someone who will come to get it at either the Indianapolis show or the big show in Columbus, Ohio. It’s going for $66,000. He told me he has nine classic cars in his collection.

While I was washing the coach, I stopped and came inside to get a bottle of water. Ozark, our cat, must not have like the sound of me walking on the roof. She was hiding under the couch and wouldn’t come out. We’ve only been feeding her for a week, but she’s filling out nicely and is no longer the scrawny cat that found us. After Donna came inside, Ozark came out from her hiding place.

When I was at Petco on Wednesday, I bought some catnip. I put that on her scratching post and it got her attention. She’s using the post now, but we still have to keep her from scratching the furniture. Donna puts covers over the furniture if we leave Ozark alone in the coach and at night before going to bed. She also covered some of the more vulnerable valances with clear packing tape to deter the cat from scratching them.

Like many cats, Ozark is crepuscular – she is most active in the evening and at sun-up. She spends the day napping and getting up to eat or play for a short time. Her early morning antics have us getting up earlier. I’m hoping that she acclimates to our schedule and becomes more active in the afternoon and sleeps more at night. Last night was the best yet. She slept on our bed most of the night, but still rose early.

Last evening, I took a walk through the park and took photos of some of the cars here. There are so many nice cars, I was tempted to shoot dozens of photos.

Cars a couple of sites away from us

Our neighbor Brad brought this car

Chevelle convertible – RVs and hot rods, how cool is that?

Another red Chevy

Smooth looking Impala

I'm not sure what this is - it looks like a handfull to drive

I’m not sure what this is – it looks like a handful to drive.

Big bore stroker twin-turbo VW – crazy

This is cool

When I was a kid, this was my idea of a hot rod

This morning, the hot rods started firing up early. The guys all want to be first in line to claim a good spot in the show. They’re required to pull out of the show area at the end of the day and the process will start over again tomorrow morning and again on Sunday. I think I’ll wait until tomorrow to buy a ticket and see the show.

Who Said Iowa is Flat?

When we left Kansas City Tuesday morning and made our way to Iowa, I expected the terrain to flatten. To my surprise, we drove through rolling hills all the way to Des Moines, which is in central Iowa. I’ve been to Iowa a couple of times before but I never drove across the state.

Our cat Ozark started out fine but quickly wore down on the drive. I think there’s too much visual stimulation as we cruise along the highway. She gets unsettled and seems anxious. I stopped about 40 miles short of our destination at a Pilot/Flying J travel center for fuel. I topped up the tank with 62 gallons of diesel fuel. I use the Pilot/Flying J RV Plus card when I fuel up there.

I like fueling at the travel center because I never have to worry about tight quarters. I usually go through the truck lane. I’ve read that most RV collision insurance claims happen in fuel stations where RVs hit pumps, posts or other vehicles. Some people complain the Pilot/Flying J fuel is too expensive. With the RV Plus card, you get a discount off the cash price even though you’re buying on credit. We paid $2.62/gallon which is fair for this area. Even if I had to pay the regular price, it’s worth the peace of mind knowing I can easily maneuver in and out of the station.

During the fuel stop, Ozark calmed down. She was good for about 20 minutes before her anxiety level rose again. She started climbing the screen door which is inside our regular door. Donna had to get up and take her off the screen. She would sit in Donna’s lap for a few minutes then go back to the door and climb it again. It was tiresome. I hope she acclimates to road travel soon.

We found the Des Moines State Fairgrounds where we planned to stay at the RV campground there. The campground doesn’t take reservations but we were assured over the phone that a pull-through site would be available. When we arrived, the main entrance to the fairgrounds was closed. We continued past it and found another entrance off a side street. I drove in and went through a midway area where workers were assembling food vendor trailers.

I had no idea where to find the campground or if I was heading for a dead end, which would be trouble. Donna flagged down a worker going by on a golf cart and asked him where the campground was. He told us to follow him. We drove up a big hill and found the campground entrance at the top.

I stopped at the office to register. I asked for a pull-through site for five nights. I was astounded when I was told it would cost $210. The web site showed 734 full hook-up sites at a cost of $28/night. They also showed about 1,500 sites with water and electricity (no sewer) for $26/night. I asked why I was being charged $42/night. The lady told me that the pull-through sites for big rigs with trailers are essentially two sites. You pay $28/night for the main site and half price – $14/night for the secondary site. If I wanted a $28/night site I would have to drop my trailer in a different lot, well away from our campsite. To make matters worse, she added that our site would be 30-amp service! Out of approximately 2,300 sites, they only have four with 50-amp service and they were all taken. I paid the $210.

Another guy on a golf cart led us to our site. Actually he led us to our site area and told me I should go with him and look things over before deciding which sites I would take. I mentioned how we drove along rolling hills. Well, the fairgrounds are in the midst of hills. There isn’t a level site to be found. I picked a site that was as close to level as I could find. I put down jack pads and had to raise the front and right side of the coach considerably to get it level.

Our site at the fairgrounds

Our coach is set up for 50-amp electrical service. I had to use an adapter also known as a dog bone to plug into the 30-amp pedestal. I know, going down from 50 to 30 amps doesn’t sound like it’s a big deal, but it is. Here’s why – a 30-amp service has three contacts. One prong is the hot lead, one prong is the neutral and then there’s a safety ground contact. It provides 3,600 watts of power (120 volts X 30 amps). A 50-amp service has four contacts. Two are hot leads (L1 and L2), one prong is the neutral and there’s a safety ground. The coach is wired so the loads are split between L1 and L2. Each of these contacts provides 120 volts at 50 amps – 6,000 watts. You have total of 12,000 watts available. So a 50-amp service provides more than three times the power of a 30 amp service.

Dog bone adapter between 30-amp pedestal and electrical management/surge protector

In simple terms, the 30-amp adapter connects both legs (L1 and L2) of our 50-amp system in series. The cumulative loads demanded by our 120-volt electrical system cannot exceed 3,600 watts or the breaker will trip.

Donna found this out right away. We haven’t been on a 30-amp circuit for a while and she wasn’t thinking about it when she turned on the air conditioners, put something in the microwave oven and then turned on the Keurig coffeemaker which we shut off for travel. Pop! Circuit breaker shut down at the pedestal. Our inverter was charging the house batteries plus two A/C units and the microwave and coffeemaker on top of that was too much load. On 30 amps, we should only run one A/C unit and take care not to operate too many appliances at the same time.

Once we were set up, I took a ride around the fairgrounds on the scooter. I found out what all the workers were doing. There’s a big Good Guys car show here this weekend and they’re preparing for it. One guy told me they expect 500 RVs to arrive by Thursday afternoon and more than 3,000 cars in the show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A large crowd of spectators is expected. That should be fun.

When I returned, Donna wanted to stretch her legs and get some steps in, so she took a walk. Here are a few photos from her walk.

At the playground area

Sheep barn

Glider transportation to the main midway

First church in Iowa

One of the things I did before hooking up our water supply was change out the cartridges in our filter system. I’ve written about our two-stage system before. The first filter – a spun polypropylene sediment filter wasn’t too bad. The center 1/8″ was still clean meaning it had a little life left. I also changed out the second filter – a carbon block element.

Old filter cartridges

Donna prepared a mango salsa while I grilled blackened chicken. She usually serves the mango salsa over Jamaican jerk chicken. The mango salsa was every bit as good over the blackened chicken.

Mango salsa over blackened chicken with brown rice and green beans

Yesterday I scootered Donna downtown to Meredith Publishing. She spent the day taping videos on cleaning and organizing for Better Homes and Gardens. After I dropped her off, I rode to the west side of town to Petco where I bought a small cat crate and other cat supplies. We’re thinking Ozark may travel better in a crate. I need to have one anyway so we can take her to a vet.

I had the scooter stacked with the crate and supplies. Rain was threatening. I made a quick stop at the beer store on the way home. I unloaded the scooter and put the cover on it. Just as I stepped inside, rain began to fall. I spent the rest of the day reading. It stopped raining before I rode back downtown to pick up Donna at 4:30pm.

Last night, we slept with the windows open and it got down to 64 degrees in the coach. We’ve been running the air conditioning constantly since we left San Diego. Being able to open windows was a welcome relief.

It may rain again, but I think I’ll get on the roof and start cleaning the coach. It’s so dirty from our stay at Turkey Creek, I can’t stand it any longer.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Uncategorized

On Familiar Grounds

More Deer Than People

Memphis-Style Ribs

Cooking Without Gas

Senior Olympics Experience

Getting Race Ready

Sixty to Zero

Good Guys in Des Moines

Hot Rods and RVs

Who Said Iowa is Flat?

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