Bill and Lisa's Great Adventure

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

The Trip Out

The Trip:

Well ,we finally departed on August 15^th after much running around, attempting to get the jeep repaired and other last minute items. The jeep got a new exhaust system and then died on the way home, luckily near our mechanic, Mike. Also, Lisa was following with Allen (our grandson) who we were watching that day.

Mike rode with me for a bit, and the sputtering finally happened with someone else in the jeep. Mike said it’s a fuel system issue. We thought long and hard about just taking it and dealing with the loss of power but finally we said let's go without it, knowing that our only wheels out west would be our 30 foot motor home. We started to pull out around noon and BAM! A mean ole thunderstorm hit, dumping buckets and buckets of rain. We finally just left, knowing we'd be dealing with wet roads and poor visibility.

Our first stop was in Georgia just south of Atlanta.

Then we made our way through Tennessee and Kentucky, stopping in Paducah for the night. The next day was a long one with us traveling though Illinois, then over the Mississippi river.

Bridge over Mississippi River

The Mighty Mississippi River

Through St. Louis and over the Missouri River

Kansas City

to Kansas City.

Kansas City KOA

We had a good time sitting outside since the weather was a bit cooler than we were used to in Florida. The next morning I had to work so we headed out later that afternoon to our next stop in South Dakota.

Iowa!!!

Something you will never see anywhere else is construction ahead with the left lane closed and everyone lined up, waiting their turn! No one tried to drive up the left lane and cut in at the last moment! I like Iowa!!!.

Sioux Falls KOA

Lisa adding stickers to the map.

Next, we stayed for a couple of nights in the Black Hills and on the way we kept seeing signs for Wall Drugs!!!

...So we stopped.

Downtown Wall with the Famous Wall Drug Store.

Local Band

Wall Chapel

Shops Galore

Lisa's New Friend

My New Friend!!!

So much for Wall, time to move on!!!

Black Hills, South Dakota

Loved our site, we had deer come right up to eat in the meadows.

the meadow

First taste of cool temps and a fire!!!

Yeah, no hot water so I had to grab the tools and fix the issue. A bad backflow preventer.

All fixed!!!

Spent a couple of nights here so I could work during the day. We had early mornings because we are on mountain time but my job is still on eastern.

A stop at Hardin and Missoula Montana .

Elk in Montana

And Finally we made it.

Stop at Ephrata Walmart for supplies and then the 20 minute drive to...

RimRock Meadows!

Home at Last!!!

Next up... Our first two weeks!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Great American Tour Part II

Here we go again.! The great American Tour Part II... well maybe. Lisa and I lost our empty nest classification this year with the return of her two sons, Brian and Joey in May. And last week we had news of Jesse, Brenda and the kids headed our way in Oct. So from two in the house, we will expand to nine, yes, nine, but three of them will be our grandbabies, so they are more than acceptable as all grandbabies are. So our plans were put on hold first in May with the date of departure moved to July, then August, and now to the end of August. But we did get a new roof, which we needed, and drumroll!!!!! We have a new (used)
RV! A 30 foot Winnebago Motorhome!

And to go with that, a jeep (old and still has an issue but will work on the property just fine).

The delay has assisted us in missing another brutal hot spell at Rimrock Meadows and the fire season. But the heat and mugginess in Florida has been no relief either.

So the Prep and the Story!!!

Well Lisa and I began planning in January for the expected departure of April to our 1.6 acres in Rimrock Meadows, in beautiful Ephrata Washington.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.464457,-119.7171861,136m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4

During these discussions, we had prepared a pros and cons list and what improvements would make us happier during our stay. It ended up we found that maybe upgrading our RV would be best. So we talked about what we wanted, and how much we could spend, then we looked at dealers and craigslist just to get a feel what we could get. It was not good. Most good RVs were well above our budget and it seemed we would spend another year in our little travel trailer. One day when we were out, Lisa was looking at my i-pad and spied a 1994 Winnebago. Well it was a bit older than we wanted, but it had only 56k miles on it. Plus it was a class A motor home!!! We went to see it and fell in love with it, and when I drove it, it just felt good, so we bought it. We had it checked out, both at camping world and by our mechanic Mike, who gave it a tune-up. We bought a set of new tires(first trip out we had a blowout)

and some repairs, and it was ready. We did a few test camps and then drove it to Maryland. We did need a couple of issues fixed, and I somehow managed to fix them, despite not having worked on an engine in 30 years. I put in a new fan clutch and thermostat, and baby now runs like the lady she is. Then we had to test towing with the Jeep, and I will tell you I was not very comfortable with the thought, but after a test drive or two it was fine.

Some Pictures of our trips: