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Posted in Full-timing, Traveling

Tagged 75 degrees, Arizona weather, sunny, weather.gov

Cool findings for the New Year

Posted on December 31, 2011 | 1 Comment

We meet the most interesting people in diverse situations and places. These meetings enhance the flavor of our lives in ways we can never predict. Through our tennis clubs we meet many people and probably spend the most time with them. We meet people through our airstream club activities and affiliation, and likewise through our amateur radio activities, NOMADS, and clubs.

The most surprising meetings, I think, are these through our WordPress site comments. We don’t get an overload of comments (do you know some people get dozens and dozens of comments on each post?!) and we are able sometimes to follow-up with our readers personally. We enjoyed, after meeting him through his comment on our post, following Bill Chance on his wordpress page, especially this post.

My resolutions for the New Year, if I make any, should come from Bill’s excellent post two months ago. Well, really they come from 16 Tips to Simplify Your Life (and Increase Your Productivity) by Tom Basson. Bill titles one post each week “What I Learned This Week.” In it he quoted Tom Basson’s 16 Tips.

Thanks to Bill for his aggregation of neat information and very upbeat look at active living. And especially for helping me find what could do really great as my New Year’s resolutions. Even if I didn’t make any of them up.

I like them. At least the first 15 anyway. And checking out evernote might be the best thing I do all year, even if I did all the other 16 too. So I’m all in for Tom’s 16 tips to simplify my life.

Debbie and I sold the house four years ago to start full-timing. We shed all the furniture and almost all the stuff, keeping only a small storage unit full of irreplaceable (at least we thought so when we placed them in storage) items. We eat simply, spend simply, and try to travel simply.

But there’s room for less, we think. Our house is pretty tiny, especially compared to the 3,000 square feet we formerly filled. We consistently try to avoid taking on more stuff but stuff still ends up in our book bin and tool box and crannies in the truck’s bed. Less stuff will be a good thing toward simplification of our lives.

Look at Bill Chance’s posts and web site, you’ll be glad you did. And Tom has great posts too — here’s another one of Tom’s I like. It’s about the superiority of apples. I like what Stephen said to me last week, iPads and Macs “are designed for humans.” Check out these guys’ posts and prepare to be surprised and delighted.

Let the New Year roll. Be curious and mentally energetic. Try to reach out and listen to other people — they’ll probably delight you. Share good information. Simplify your life. And try not to complicate others’ lives. We wish you peace, warmth, fellowship, and simple pleasures in your New Year.

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Communicating, Full-timing

Tagged Bill Chance, iPad, Mac, New Year, simplify, Tom Basson

The vagrant doesn’t fall far from the tree

Posted on December 31, 2011 | 2 Comments

We returned to the states from Canada this afternoon. I think this has been our wettest Vancouver visit yet. It didn’t just rain, it poured. And, of course, we walked all about no matter what the weather did. Or we wouldn’t have had any walks at all. Funny, this morning we saw the sunrise AND had no Canadian rain for the first time throughout this visit.

You know, we work hard to prepare for each border crossing. They can ask any questions they want, they can search without cause (actually they presume cause already, right?) and they’re in no apparent hurry. One never knows what type of encounter to expect at the border crossing and so must prepare.

So we’re preparing as we head east on Highway 1 and south on 13. ”We’re from North Carolina, we have an accounting of the value of all the stuff we’re bringing from Canada, we’ve no citrus nor meat nor dairy”, and and and. . . What are they going to ask us and is there going to be a big line-up at the border?

Today’s had to be the funniest border crossing ever. Absolutely no waiting whatsoever, no cars or trucks in front of us. We pull up to the U.S. Customs Border Patrol kiosk. The officer sticks out his gloved hand to our open window. I pass our two passports to his hand. He asks, “Is this a rental car?”

“Yes.”

Where are you from?”

“North Carolina.”

“What was your purpose in Canada?”

“Our daughter and two grandchildren live in Vancouver. We visited for the holiday.”

“And you spoiled them rotten?”

“Yep, we gave them chocolates and espresso and left them with their parents.”

“Welcome back to the states.”

Really! That really was the extent of our exchange with the officer of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The national security risk is 500 feet below sea level. Or, when he looked us up on his computer he saw everything about us and decided, “we’ve scared these two so much they are totally harmless now.”

One other choice? This is the first border crossing in five years without the trailer and truck and all the baggage they entail. We’re in a rental car we are very unlikely to have altered with hidden storage. Maybe we store the trailer and truck below the 49th parallel and rent a gas-saving car for our Canada visits.

We save a bunch on camping fees and fuel costs. What do you bet the border crossings are probably all easier without the trailer and truck? Hmm, could foretell a change in how we travel and live.

We’re in Mesa again. First thing as we deplaned we donned our sunglasses for the first time in 8 days. We took off our fleeces for the first time in eight days. And we’ll be working on separating our toes — we had so much rain in Vancouver I think our feet were beginning to web. What a nice welcome to Mesa, 60+ degrees, dry, and bright sunshine.

I hit almost 500 tennis balls from 6-7:00 pm this evening. We’ve already hit the grocery stores to restock the pantry and icebox. And we have tennis playmates for tomorrow. Life is good!

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Full-timing, Traveling

Tagged border, customs, patrol

Merry Christmas from dreamstreamrs

Posted on December 24, 2011 | 2 Comments

Merry Christmas from us to you. The tree is brightly lit with colored lights and is standing before the living room window. Presents are under the tree. Eleanor (almost six) is pretty wired about tonight and tomorrow — she’s already bathed, getting supper, and anticipating opening a present before bedtime. And the adults are quietly excited about our time together with these two children.

Eleanor has picked which package to open tonight, one which appeared under the tree this morning. She shared with us this evening her considerations on the package. Not a big box but not a small one, it is unlikely to contain anything she doesn’t need. Yet she doesn’t know what’s in it. And so the excitement waxes.

We are spending Christmas holiday in Vancouver B.C. where Eleanor, her little brother, and her parents live. The last time we celebrated Christmas here Eleanor, our first grand baby, was ten months old. She enjoyed the wrapping paper and the boxes. Five years later and our second grand baby is six months old. He likes the lights and sights and having something to gnaw his gums on.

Eleanor drew this Christmas picture for us on the iPad –

Christmas tree with presents

Debbie and Jim hope all of you enjoy the holiday season.

Posted in Full-timing, Traveling

Best border crossing yet

Posted on December 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

We’re in Vancouver B.C. with Debbie’s daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren. Debbie visited soon after Henry was born six months ago, and while I’ve been to Vancouver many times over the past five years this is my first visit to this house.

The last time we visited over Christmas holiday was five years ago and before we had quit work. We flew into Seattle’s airport, rented a car, and drove to the Aldergrove crossing to enter Canada. It was funny, we felt as though we were awakening the RCMP officer at the border as we slowly crept our rented car up to the barrier — we had no sign at all the station was attended until we were almost at the barrier.

Our border crossings In the ensuing five years have been a very mixed bag of interactions with RCMP and with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Every crossing has been a little different and ony one (check it out here) was at all contentious. Still, we prepare for the event and keep our fingers crossed for an uneventful border crossing each time.

Today we checked out of our Bellingham motel, shopped Christmas presents at Bellis Fair mall and Best Buy, and headed for the border crossing at Aldergrove. We did our typical rehearsal — what’s our home town this year?; how long are we staying?; are we bringing anything we will leave in Canada?; if so, what’s the value of gifts?; what about alcohol or tobacco? How much alcohol (we now try to remember oz and ml, just in case).

Okay, we’re ready for a huge line-up at the border, we’re ready for the questions, we’re ready to pay duty or taxes on the Christmas gifts, we’re prepared for whatever as we reach the border station. There are initially only four cars ahead of us, this is great! And it only gets better.

Our turn at the barrier starts with the officer asking for our passports then asking some of the standard and now anticipated questions. Where are you from? Where are you going? What is the purpose of your visit? Do you have any alcohol or tobacco? Will you be leaving anything in Canada?

This was one of the smoothest and nicest interrogatories we’ve faced. We were ready with our answers to the questions. And we were expecting the follow-ups on alcohol and gifts. We were almost certain we would be within the limits on alcohol with a 12-pack of beer and a fifth each of whiskey and wine. We knew the values of (and had receipts for) the gifts we were bearing for the kids. This all went great and we were pretty surprised when the interview ended quickly. The officer said, “You’re okay, go ahead.”

The weather in Vancouver B.C. is damp and cold. But we are indoors with family and all excited to be sharing Christmas this year in Canada.

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Full-timing

Jim’s Red Shoes did What?

Posted on December 19, 2011 | 2 Comments

Do you remember “Love Those Red Shoes” a few months back? Jim had tried on, and loved the fit of, a pair of Babolat tennis shoes. What colors did the pro shop have for this shoe? Only red in Jim’s size. This has been Jim’s first pair of red shoes since, say, four or five years old.

Red shoes can generate a lot of attention. Service station attendants talking over the intercom, tennis partners, our opponents, and folks in the bleachers all cheer for the red shoes. Gosh, sometimes it seems Jim’s opponents might even be watching the shoes instead of the ball. Quite a legal distraction, the shoes could be a real help if this were only true. And Jim could have generated more comments if only he had worn the courts anywhere other than just on the courts.

But these are expensive court shoes and Jim donned them only for hitting the tennis courts. He has an old pair of Nikes he reserves for painting or knocking around, a pair of Merrells for hiking or walking, and his Birkies for bopping around the block and for dancing. The red Babolat tennis shoes are specialists.

The red Babolat Propulse3 shoes were everything they were billed as and more. These shoes provided Jim with unexcelled quickness and the most comfortable and snug fit in a tennis court shoe yet with room for his toes. He played a little wearing these shoes before we arrived in Mesa AZ. And Jim has played or hit 3-5 times weekly since we arrived here.

How have these shoes worked out? Well yeah, that’s why we’re writing again. After around 100 hours of screaming around the courts, the shoes started leaving bits of sole behind. Jim spotted a couple of pieces of rubbed-off red rubber on the court today and thought to check his sole. This is what he found, to his great surprise and dismay:

Well-worn and suddenly retired

Jim ended his hitting session and walked home to share his surprise with Debbie. The biggest surprise is probably because Jim hasn’t previously worn through the soles on any pair of tennis shoes. What happened? One of two things: Jim’s footwork has increased dramatically (a distinct possibility given the amount and type of instruction he’s gained this year); or these tennis shoes aren’t as substantial as previous pairs.

Don’t call Michelin yet, we don’t want to distract the Michelin Man while he’s throwing tires at the big octopus-armed gas pumps or whatever those things are in the t.v. commercials. Jim’s contacting the folks who sold him these shoes. Word is, Babolat tennis shoes have a six-month wear guarantee. We sure hope so.

We’re expecting Babolat’s U.S. distributors will come through for us on this. They have an opportunity to show us this was just a slightly thin sole on one of these shoes and the next pair will probably wear longer. Twelve hours a week for just nine weeks doesn’t seem like an awful lot of time in a pair of $110 tennis shoes. And until we resolve this Jim will have to play in his Birkenstocks or hiking shoes or, like he sometimes did when he was in junior high school, barefoot.

These have been, hands-down, the best-fitting and most comfortable pair of tennis shoes Jim has played in. And hopefully we will find out they are shoes he can afford to wear on the tennis courts, comfortable or not.

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Babolat, Propulse3, red shoes, tennis shoes, wear guarantee

Dear Mom

Posted on December 17, 2011 | 4 Comments

We’re still at TowerPoint Resort in Mesa AZ. Enough going on to keep us interested. Zero bugs (scorpions aren’t bugs, right?) Low humidity and dewpoint mean we can, or not, use insulated cups for our drinks — the drinks can’t sweat regardless. It’s just too dry for condensing moisture. The low temperature a few nights ago was 40 here and 7 in Flagstaff, and our daytime temp made it to 70. What a great place for winter weather.

We awoke to rain several mornings earlier this week, sort of rare for around here. Sure, we get a sprinkle now and then. But to have an entire morning of rain? There’s nowhere for it to go, the resort is probably 75 percent pavement and has no retention pond other than the tennis courts area. So a river runs down our street and down into the tennis courts. Unfortunately the rain didn’t let up before the courts filled up on the second day of rain. We ended up with between one and two inches of rain in Mesa in under two days.

Rain doesn’t interfere with much for us. My tennis team match was rained out two weeks ago and later the same day other teams were able to practice on the same courts. We rescheduled for four days later, played the match, no problems. And missed a practice this week but had clear weather for our Thursday match.

Sometimes we think we’re pretty busy before we step back and look at what’s really going on. We read the paper Sunday and after church Debbie hit the tennis courts for almost three hours of doubles. I pedaled across the street to another resort to visit with friends and help Jim KB0U get to know his Yaesu ham radio better.

Upon my return we had a visitor, Melissa, who stopped because she saw the NOMADS door signs on our truck. Melissa also is a full-timer and volunteers with NOMADS like we do but we hadn’t met before. We had a nice visit comparing some of our work projects and locations and hope to talk again.

By now it was time for me to run to the courts and practice. I had reserved court time and the ball machine for an hour. While I waited for Darren and Jan to finish their time with the ball machine I practiced serving balls on another court. Then I spent a wonderful hour hitting almost 1,000 balls, cross-court, cross-court, cross-court, cross-court, DOWN THE LINE! Rinse and repeat. . .

Backhand ten times, forehand ten times, backhand ten times, forehand ten times. Sounds repetitious, right? Finally I changed it, hit nothing but volleys for the last basketful of balls. The machine only tattooed me once, it shot a ball right at me at the net and somehow the ball avoided all my strings and the racquet frame. I usually don’t get hit by balls — gosh, it hurt!

The practice is paying off. I read somewhere, in whatever we want to learn and do well, we should work very intentionally and “over learn”. Over-learning is to practice something over and over again until it becomes almost automatic. When you need the skill you confidently let it rip, says the teacher. Last year I lacked confidence in my topspin hits. My confidence is up and now the ball sometimes even goes where it’s supposed to.

Oh yeah, I was talking about how busy we might or might not be? Sunday was pretty typical for us, visiting with friends and playing tennis and Debbie and me spending time with each other. Six days every week we can watch tennis matches in our resort’s tennis complex and we could play every day but try to give our arms and shoulders a break from the action.

Almost every week there’s some sort of street party or potluck in the resort. We spent last Thursday afternoon at the resort-sponsored party with free burgers and beverages and dance music. We line-danced, had fun with a lot of swing music, had a few slow dances. Not a lot of people were on the dance floor but we don’t care, we have fun.

Saturdays we often go hiking with tennis friends. Phoenix has great hiking in the hills all around. We’ve hiked in state and county parks on three or four Saturdays and are so fortunate to have Bill (my tennis partner) willing to lead the hikes. He knows his way around and always provides a nice five or six mile hike for the small group.

Sitting here writing I forgot all about my nine o’clock ham radio network. Rats! I have another one at ten and another one at three every afternoon, if I can just remember. Bob w7iry and I have been playing around with the club’s FLEX 3000, a really neat software-defined ham radio. It’s a challenge running ham radio without visible antennas, but we don’t want to create problems for the resort or our neighbors so we try to not call attention to ourselves.

Some mornings, according to my neighbors on one side, they’ve heard talking on their stereo radio speakers. Which is kind of odd — they say the stereo radio wasn’t turned on. I guess I’ll invite them to keep a brief log of when it happens, date and time, and I’ll compare it to my ham radio log. D’ya think the logs will match? We’ll see and experiment from there to solve it.

The resort has a sewing and quilting room, a lapidary room, a woodworking shop, a nice library, ping-pong tables, billiard tables, dance lessons, and classes in conversational Spanish. We’ve attended the Spanish classes twice weekly for six weeks and are coming along okay so far. Leslie is a great profesora, trying to drag our wild bunch of seniors along into a fun new language.

We haven’t spent much time at the pool so far. The swimming pools are gorgeous and the chaise lounges are comfortable, nice music piped in for the pool decks, lots of nice people to talk with. When the weather is best, really nice sunny days, we like to be at the tennis courts.

I guess the conflict of interest between the tennis courts and swimming pools sort of sums up our “time situation” pretty well. We aren’t so busy as just doing a lot of what we want to almost every day. The weather is generally outstanding. And there’s so much we can do. We can’t complain about being too busy — but it does seem like we don’t have time to do everything we’d like to.

We hope this finds you all well and enjoying the run-up to the holidays. We’re sorry we haven’t written before now — we do think about you and want to write. I feel like we have been dropped into funland and almost can’t get enough every day. There are no good excuses on this end and we will try to be better about staying in touch.

We’re so lucky we don’t have any more serious concerns than time management. Life is great and winter in Arizona is a blast.

Love,
Jimbo and Debbie

P.S.
Mom, you can really easily see where we are by clicking on the highlighted spot here

Jimbo

Posted in Full-timing

Tagged ham radio, tennis, TowerPoint Resort

How much sightseeing can you do in eight days?

Posted on October 23, 2011 | 4 Comments

This has been a huge sightseeing week for us, and today was a perfect cap on the week. We spent last weekend in Hutchinson KS visiting the Cosmosphere and Kansas Underground Salt Mine. Dodge City was a nice overnight stop from Hutchinson because we arrived early enough to tour Boot Hill museum and the Santa Fe Trail covered wagon tracks nine miles west of Dodge City. An overnight stop in Tucumcari NM put us in an easy driving day of Albuquerque where we parked for four nights.

Albuquerque needs more than four nights but we did the best we could and the weather cooperated wonderfully. Rode Sandia Crest tram and hiked to the Crest, ate at Duran’s Pharmacy (per Sterns’ Road Food book), toured Nuclear Science Museum, ate at Frontier restaurant (another Road Food pick), and toured the iHouse at Karsten Homes.

Oh, and we shopped Camping World, of course. Although we couldn’t think of a thing we needed. Luckily we did come up with some good ideas while there and made good use of our President’s Club discount card. We won’t need to revisit CW for awhile.

Today we drove from Albuquerque to Grants NM to tour the NM Mining Museum (great!); then to Malpais Monument visitor’s center (where we received a wonderful tip about Ancient Way Cafe; visited the Volcano and Ice Cave; stopped in the Ancient Way Cafe for great pie and coffee place,; and visited El Morro (Signature Rock) before pulling in to St Johns AZ, finding an RV park, and connecting utilities 1/2 hour ago in the dark.

We think the last time we arrived late for the night was a couple of years ago when we found ourselves being chased by a winter snowstorm coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. We were on our way between Mobile AL and Kannapolis NC and had plenty of time but if the storm hit while we were still west and south of Atlanta we might be delayed for a few very cold days. We drove through the night, arriving Kannapolis at 01:45 in the morning — and awoke to snow on the ground.

Nothing nearly so dramatic today — just a full day of fun sightseeing. We’ll share pictures tomorrow after we arrive Mesa AZ.

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Sightseeing

Dreamstreamrs going back to the salt mine?

Posted on October 18, 2011 | 1 Comment

Why would a top notch aerospace science and history museum end up in Hutchinson KS, an hour northwest of Wichita? Apparently because the founder wanted it there. And the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center seems to enjoy Smithsonian Institute’s respect too, as one of only two museums entitled to restore used spacecraft.

We had a little help from our friends. We wouldn’t have stumbled onto this or another of the town’s major attractions, the underground salt mine, without a direction from our Slater IA friends Janet and John, and our NOMADS friend Nedra. Janet and John, during our Slater visit two months ago, strongly recommended the Cosmosphere. Hey, they’re teachers and we figured they have to recommend these educational things. While working at Camp Horizon we learned from a Hutch local, Nedra, we should purchase the “double discount” ticket for both attractions.

The prison building is almost 120 years old

Our campground, Melody Acres, was on the prison side of town. Each time we went anywhere we drove by one side or the other of a great huge Kansas prison.We later learned this is the Hutchinson Correctional Facility, a Kansas state prison, and was built from 1885 to 1895. The construction was pretty surprising until we learned the vintage — the twin towers and limestone walls formed from huge blocks are unusual-looking. Things were built differently back then, eh?

Great leads on the Cosmosphere and Salt Mine, thanks to Janet, John, and Nedra. We had a great two-day visit to Hutchinson. Hutchinson sports a vital and attractive downtown, nice grocery stores, and is easy to navigate. We played tennis in strong winds at their really nice tennis facility near the fairgrounds.
We spent all day Saturday at the Cosmosphere and still didn’t quite finish it. And we went way way down 650 feet below ground level to the salt mine.

Caught her at the pee bag exhibit

The Cosmosphere is almost too awesome to describe — better you should read about it at the wiki page here. We were fascinated by the rockets and space travel history exhibits and surprised by the wide array and great detail in the exhibits ranging from V1 and V2 rockets to the Liberty Bell and Vostok capsules, lunar rovers and astronaut’s pee bags.

exhibits for the child in us all

Two of our favorite exhibits were the Apollo lunar missions and the German war missile history. And we enjoyed the lengthy treatment on the Cold War and the race to the moon. We liked the iMax presentation on tornados and would probably elect to skip the planetarium and Goddard physics lab unless we were with young children. The Cosmosphere has so many excellent exhibits we would, next time, spend more time browsing these. Maybe we could find our way through all of them.

Small up top, the mine is almost 4 sq miles downstairs

The Hutchinson underground salt mine is simpler for us to describe — really really deep and old. Carey discovered salt under Hutchinson in 1922, dug this incredibly deep (650 feet) well and started mining salt. In the ensuing years table salt, medical salts, road salt, and other types have all been mined from this same location.

The Hutchinson salt mine is active and productive, and the only publicly open salt mine in the western hemisphere. We spent several hours way down there and found it intriguing and surprisingly comfortable. The ticket reservations folks warned us to dress warmly because the temperature would be 68 degrees. The humidity was 45 percent and the temperature was very comfortable without jackets.

The "dark ride" took us all throughout the old mine dark areas

The scariest thing about the mine is how very dark it is without artificial lights. They have mined fifty feet wide bays between forty feet by forty feet columns of salt seven to eleven feet tall throughout almost four square miles. During the “dark train” ride throughout parts of the old mine areas (not the active mine face) our guide extinguished the cart’s headlight and we were in absolute and total darkness.

what goes down there stays down there

One of the lessons they taught us is about disposition of surplus and waste in a deep mine. Time is money, every trip up (and down) is expensive. There appears never to have been any waste brought back up from below, including old cars and paper cups and everything in between.

I don't guess we can just dig another one?

We just never gave it much thought, but do they really leave it all down there?
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Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Sightseeing, Traveling

Tagged Carey salt mine, Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, Hutchinson Correctional Institute, Hutchinson salt mine

Ark City, the NOMADS, and Camp Horizon

Posted on October 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

The NOMADS Annual Meeting ended, we said our fare-thee-wells to friends old and new, and spent a last day leisurely enjoying Forest City IA. The 560 mile trip from Forest City to Ark City KS was more than we needed to make in one day so we hit the road early the next morning for a two-day drive. We made thirty whole miles before stopping in a very pretty downtown square in Clear Lake IA.

Good friends Herb and Lois had told us about Cabin Coffee and we’d sampled and enjoyed the treat in Forest City. But hey, why not indulge ourselves again at what may be our last Cabin Coffee experience for many months? So Clear Lake was a great choice. Cabin Coffee is THE place to be Saturday mornings in Clear Lake — we had a fifteen minute opportunity to watch a lot of people coming and going, catching up and enjoying, before we earned our spot at the order window. And yes, the coffee is definitely worth the wait, even “to go”.

Properly fueled, we headed down I-35 for the next bathroom break, and the next one, and another or three before we were south of Kansas City KS to our Cracker Barrel overnight stop in Olathe KS. You know, we’ve always wanted to pay our respects, meet the help, and check out the good cooking when we stay overnight behind or beside a Cracker Barrel. And this one in Olathe did not disappoint. We enjoyed great eating and very quiet overnighting in the amply-sized RV and big rig parking behind this Cracker Barrel. Did you know their store directory has an asterisk beside every location with RV-friendly parking?

We pulled through Ark City to find Camp Horizon early Sunday afternoon. Wow, this was a great place for us and the other eleven NOMADS volunteers. Twelve of our group of thirteen volunteers in mission were in RVs, and one stayed in one of the camp’s cottages. Our camping space had full-hookups, partial shade, was close to our work areas and was just wonderful.

Camp Horizon started in the mid- to late-1940s and is a wonderful complete camp and conference center on 160 acres. The camp buildings and outdoor chapel areas sit atop a 3/4 mile long ridge with fabulous views to the south and west horizons. The skies were clear most of the time and we could see forever in both directions.

The hilltop position, one to two hundred feet above the surrounding farms and lowlands, helped a lot with Jim’s ham radio work (play!) to. He worked a station in Sao Paulo Brazil on 10 meters FM and one in Saitama City Japan on 12 meters sideband, his first contacts ever on either of these two bands. Too, Jim was able almost daily to talk with ham radio friends back east and in the Rockies. Mid-continent is pretty good for U.S. ham radio operations and atop a nice hill with an antenna strung high (40′) between two trees it just gets better.

King of the poison ivy

We weren’t at Camp Horizon to play on the radio, though. Our hosts at Camp Horizon had a page and a half of projects and tasks they asked our group to tackle. Jim and his work buddy, Cliff, spent all twelve work days (three four-day work weeks) clearing brush, felling small trees, and other outdoor work. Jim kept telling everyone this was his physical training for tennis season which starts early November. Whatever gets you through the day, Jim!

Wall prep takes far longer than painting

Debbie spent all twelve days working indoors wallpaper removal, patching, painting, organizing vast files, organizing storage areas, and carpet shampooing. Some of the work was grungy but it was all rewarding for Debbie. She could see the results of her work AND the hosts were tremendously appreciative.

Three weeks was a nice time-frame to learn an area. We visited two churches, played tennis a couple of times in the city park, visited the ice cream parlor, shopped consignment shops for more work clothes, and toured Cow Town in Wichita and the Marland Mansion in Ponca City OK.

Marland Mansion was pretty amazing and a lot sad. E.W. Marland struck oil and made a fortune early in the twentieth century. He spent a tremendous amount of money in his business, was generous with his employees, and built an extremely extravagant fifty-five room mansion. His business decisions and the markets required him to seek financial aid and, unfortunately for E.W., he asked and received “help” from some N.Y. banker named Morgan. J.P. Morgan and Co took over ownership and management of Marland Oil, merged it with Continental Oil and renamed it Conoco, and left an angry former owner by the wayside.

An imposing front elevation of the Marland mansion

Marland and his wife lived in the new mansion less than two years, and thirteen years after completing it sold it for a fraction of the construction cost. He lost his fortune but left a gorgeous house which has been wonderfully restored and is open for tours. We had a three-hour tour of the house and grounds and enjoyed it tremendously.

160 year old cabin, still much larger than ours

Cow Town in Wichita KS represents the other end of the social spectrum and perhaps seventy-five years earlier in the western states’ history. Cow Town is an outdoor walking museum containing 1800s homes and businesses moved from in and around Wichita. We walked through four homes, almost a dozen businesses from the butcher to millinery, grain elevator to drugstore. Cow Town provided us an interesting history lesson laced with great home-made cookies, ice cream, a bratwurst lunch, and a variety of entertainment.

Three four-day work weeks provided the thirteen NOMADS a great opportunity to complete the host site task list. We started every day with devotions and singing, we had fun in games and sightseeing and break times, and we enjoyed getting to know one another and the camp staff. And we worked hard on our projects list.

Our project leaders very capably and calmly guided us (and the hosts) through the list so everyone could work on what they wanted to, we exceeded the hosts’ expectations, and all felt the project was very successful. Our mission project ended Thursday afternoon.

No vinegar-pepper sauce for BBQ is no laughing matter!

Friday morning we packed up and headed in all directions. Some headed south for Oklahoma or Texas. A couple returned to Indiana. Three are from Kansas and had short trips. We headed northwest toward Hutchinson KS. And that’s a story for another day.

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in amateur radio, Sightseeing, Traveling

Tagged Ark City, Camp Horizon, Cow Town, Cracker Barrel, Marland Mansion, NOMADS, Olathe KS, Ponca City

Our Iowa Week with friends and NOMADS

Posted on September 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Last year we joined a volunteers in mission group, NOMADS. We knew a little, but not much, about NOMADS when we joined. An amateur radio and airstreaming friend, Suzanne K5UUU, first told us about it and we filed the info away.

We were luxuriating in the comforts of our home (on wheels) in south Florida during February last year. Remember what happened in Haiti? We watched with horror the helplessness and needs of the Haitian people. And we realized we could do more than just sit on our duffs all the time.

So we joined SATERN, an emergency radio network operated by Salvation Army, and NOMADS, a volunteer mission group of the Methodist Church’s Board of Global Ministries. We’ve not done much with Salvation Army other than check into their nets occasionally. But we’ve completed two three-week mission trips with NOMADs and are interested in more.

This year’s NOMADS annual meeting is in Forest City Iowa, kinda sort of on our way from North Carolina to Arizona. We signed up for a 3-week mission trip in southern Kansas and arranged to be in northern Iowa for the annual meeting. We’ll let you know how the mission trip turns out, we start in two days. But first we drove from NC to Iowa and headed for Slater IA to see friends.

We were lucky to spend four days in Slater Iowa, just south of Ames Iowa, with snowbird friends Janet and John. They are perfect hosts, sharing their house AND letting us plug our trailer into their water and electricity. Okay, they actually went way over the top — they arranged tennis every day for us. How great is that?

It was fun and wonderful to have time together, sharing meals, getting to know one another a little better. We met three of their wonderful grandchildren (and their son, Jeff). They showed us around Ames, Slater, Ankeny, and Des Moines, loaned us out to friends Loren and Becky, and Raj and Chris who we also know from Towerpoint Resort in Mesa. We had a great time with everyone and wouldn’t give anything for the four days together.

One hundred miles northward and we arrived in Forest City and the Winnebago/Itasca Travel Club activity grounds. The activity center is the largest factory-owned RV site in the world, capable of hosting the entire WIT membership group at their annual Grand National Rally with up to two thousand Winnebagos and Itasca motor homes visiting.

Our NOMADS annual meeting group size is only 160 RVs so we had lots of space to spread out in the rally activity center. We parked on Sunday afternoon, met the neighbors, checked in at the registration table, and rested up for a busy tomorrow.

Our Winnebago factory tour bus

Monday morning we hopped on factory tour buses and spent almost three hours touring the factory and campus of Winnebago’s tremendous production facilities. Wow! It is just amazing how vertically integrated they are, how much automation they employ, and how nicely put together the Winnebago motor homes are. This is a really neat company making a high quality product — we are very impressed.

George Stockman house by Frank Lloyd Wright

We spent the afternoon in nearby Mason City Iowa touring a pair of Frank Lloyd Wright projects, the Stockman house and the City National Bank and Park Inn Hotel. We started in the FLW interpretive center then walked to the nearby Stockman house. The Stockman house is a wonderfully restored Prairie house. The River City Society for Historic Preservation provided us a wonderful guided tour throughout this historic house.

Okay, free time is over, now the show is on. We’re here for the annual meeting of NOMADS, Volunteers in Mission. We’re first-timers, don’t really know what to expect. Didn’t matter. From the first session onward we can tell, this is a gently- but well-organized group. The meeting agendas are fully developed and the group stays on schedule. Leadership is calm, the organizing committee has done their job wonderfully, and the meetings went without a hitch.

What did we meet about? Each morning started with spirited singing, then a devotion. The NOMADS Board of Directors presented us a brief seminar each of three mornings on various topics, each topic presented by one or two different board members. So we heard from numerous directors. The most enlightening presentation was the Treasurer’s report. Cliff Shornick kept it very short and engaging: “Remember these three numbers, 15, 70, and 150.”

He explained briefly the significance of each of these three numbers in terms of financial goals and performance of NOMADS. Then he stated, “NOMADS has enough money, at the current rate of spending, to continue operations at least three or four years.” That’s all, that’s the treasurer’s report to the general membership. And why do we want to hear more? He hit the four key indicators, and anyone wanting more information can go read the annual financial report to the Board of Directors. Very refreshing!

We attended eight seminars, choosing from thirteen possible topics. Couldn’t attend all, wouldn’t have wanted to. We attended some together, split up a couple of times to cover competing time slots for two good seminars. We attended seminars on painting, sheetrock finishing, skilsaws, convection and microwave cooking, and insurance and tax tips for RVers. A broad range of topics, the seminars were well-organized and presented.

Yesterday the Board adjourned the meeting at 10:00 a.m., a few minutes ahead of schedule. We had already made our list of many things we needed and wanted to accomplish before departing today for Arkansas City KS for our three-week mission project. So we headed out from the grounds in our truck for downtown Forest City.

Hansen Hardware: going for 200 years?

Our first stops included visiting Hansen Hardware store for a saw blade, stopping at the gas station to refuel the truck, and to Farmers’ Coop to refill one of the airstream’s propane cylinders. The hardware store was the highlight of the morning’s errands for us. Hansen’s has been family-owned and in business for 100 years and is still a vibrant and well-organized store. We found the saw blade we wanted, a blade wrench (nice surprise!), and enjoyed browsing the various departments of this general store.

We re-installed the propane cylinder on the trailer and walked to the nearby WIT Club and Winnebago Museum building. We spent our first hour browsing the open motor homes and trailers outside the visitor’s center. We already mentioned the quality we found throughout the manufacturing processes. These were evident in the models we toured too.

Our favorites are the Winnebago View, a 24′ motor home on a Mercedes Sprinter diesel-powered chassis, and a 28′ and 30′ Itasca motor home with full-time beds and all the features we would want if we moved into a motor home. No, we have no designs on changing from our wonderful 25′ airstream home. But we do like to look and the Winnebago brand has a lot of good stuff to look at. We spent another hour browsing the museum and visitor center and enjoyed learning a little about the background and founder’s history.

But we had to scoot, it was time to play tennis. We had rain and very windy days all week until Friday and also only then gained free time to play. This worked out perfectly — the weather was in the low 60s with no wind and sunny skies. Just right for hitting tennis for an hour on the Forest City rec park courts near Waldorf College campus.

the only thing nicer is what's inside the cups

Then off to Cabin Coffee before they close — why close at 4:00 p.m.? Because they can? And hey, we can make it there in time, if we don’t stay too long at something else. Apparently this was true for a lot of other people too — Cabin Coffee had a fine and boisterous crowd of teachers, businessmen and RVers stopping in for a cup of the best coffee in northern Iowa. Thanks to Herb and Lois for recommending Cabin Coffee to us.

Nice way to end a great week!

The week ended, NOMADS’ annual meeting adjourned, and the sun set on our Forest City experience. Although we only were there one week we felt already at home. We were with 300 wonderful fellow NOMADS, we were in as friendly a town as we’ve ever visited, and the weather turned nice at the same time we gained free time to enjoy it. This sunset in Forest City is part of our warm memories of our visit, and we’ll look forward to returning.

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Full-timing, Rallies, Sightseeing

Tagged Cabin Coffee, Forest City, Mason City, NOMADS, Stockman house, Winnebago, WIT

Love those red shoes!

Posted on September 12, 2011 | 3 Comments

Two weeks ago I bought a new pair of tennis shoes to replace my couple of pairs of NIKE Max Air tennis shoes. The Max Airs were ruining my toes and just didn’t feel good. Found a really comfortable pair of new sneaks at our tennis club in Concord NC (SportsCenter) and made a good deal on a racquet and the shoes. The only color he had was red. I’ve never had red tennis shoes but now I do.

We are enroute from NC to Iowa and stopped overnight in Dayton OH to visit friends, eat pizza at Marion’s, rest up, and go again. While in Dayton we knew we could find local parks with tennis courts — Ohio is great at state parks and they are great with city and county parks. Our friends gave us helpful directions and we found nearby courts in very good condition.

NIKE max air sneaks

Debbie and I hit some tennis this morning at Walther Park in Kettering, a ‘burb of Dayton OH. I wore the only pair of tennis shoes I now own. You know, full-timers don’t keep a lot of extra stuff so the NIKES (with great tread and uppers still) are now for sale at the local Value Village.

After tennis we found the local SuperCuts and trimmed our haircuts. The truck’s gas tank was down to the last 1/2 inch of gasoline (seven gallons spread out on 7′ X 1′ bottom surface area) so we were pumping fuel into it.

A voice speaks from somewhere within the gas pump, “I love those red shoes!”

I look around, see no one. Not many people are pumping gas in red sneakers, right? I realize it has to be the attendant inside the convenience mart and he’s talking to me. So I say, “Thanks”.

Then he says, “what kind are they?”

At this point I really should have gone inside, let him see these sneaks close up. The sneakers are great looking from sixty feet. Think how good they look from six feet. Really great! But I was just beginning pumping almost forty gallons gas into our tank and another car had pulled in almost under our bumper. Need to stay with my truck a few minutes.

Babolat Propulse 3 tennis shoes

I holler back to the gas pump microphone, “These are Babolat tennis shoes, like Roddick wore!” And if I had gone inside I could have talked with the guy a few minutes, found out if he likes tennis shoes or just red shoes. I could have told him these are Babolat Propulse 3s, have Michelin tread with a six month wear guarantee. And how much better these are for my feet than my Nike LunaPros even though I have narrow feet. I love these red shoes!

I wish I had gone inside, if only to thank him for the compliment on my really cool tennis shoes. The Babolat brand and Andy Roddick name might not have registered with the guy, or he might be a sneakers aficionado. Who knows, there may be a spike in Babolat shoe sales in Dayton OH. Do you think they might buy the white ones instead? No one ever comments on white sneakers, right?

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Full-timing

Tagged Babolat shoes, NIKE Max Air, Propulse 3, red sneakers, tennis shoes, walther park

We Only Wanted To Adjust The Airstream’s Brakes

Posted on September 9, 2011 | 6 Comments

We’re leaving today for a Carolinas Unit of NC airstream club rally in Mt Airy NC then Sunday for points west and way west. The preparations for today seem to have snuck up on us although we’ve known all summer we’d be leaving this week. We forget how much there is to do when you unpack the trailer and move out of it for a little while (like all summer, off and on).

Jim planned two not-so-major tasks for yesterday afternoon, having already lined up almost everything else. He only wanted to refill the fresh water tank we drained last night and adjust the Airstream’s four drum brakes. Neither job is complicated and neither takes much time, maybe an hour total for both.

We’ve been clicking along really well this week, marking things off our list each day and feeling pretty good about everything. Wednesday Jim thought he should run the little Yamaha 1kw generator an hour or so just to keep it happy. Unhappily, it wouldn’t start. Seems Jim has fallen down on monthly test runs on the poor little genset and the gas just went bad.

Happily there is a new outdoor equipment place only one block away from where we’ve been staying all summer. Time passes so quickly on some things — we had no idea we had been using (mostly carrying around) this generator since 2006. It has worked so well, always starting right away whenever Jim pulls on the cord. And Thursday afternoon Kannapolis Power Equipment gave us the generator with an oil change, a new spark plug, new gasoline, and a cleaned-out carburetor.

But back to the breaks. I mean, the brakes. Jim adjusted the two street-side brakes and started on the curb-side rear wheel brake when he saw he needed to reattach the water heater’s propane gas line under the trailer and replace a missing rivet in the belly pan nearby. He completed these and adjusted the brake without incident.

When he prepared to adjust the front curb-side wheel’s brake he noticed the shock absorber was missing the washer and nut at the top mount. Jim tried to reach over or around the tire and just couldn’t get access to the mounting with the tire in the way. But also cannot remove the wheel while it’s in the air because cannot break the lug nuts loose on a spinning wheel.

Jim lowered the trailer to the ground, loosened the lug nuts, raised the trailer, and removed the wheel. He used a thick washer and a nut from his junk box to refasten the shock to the mount and realized he would need to check all three other wheels for the shock absorber mounting. Guess what he found?

The other curb-side wheel’s shock also was missing the washer and nut at the top mount, although the two street-side wheel’s shocks were fully attached. Again with the loosening of lugnuts, removing the rear curb-side wheel, installing another washer and nut while again busting knuckles in the tight clearance of the wheel well.

We don’t know when these shock absorber mounting nuts came loose or why. Jim used Loctite threadlocker blue on these two repairs so they will hopefully be good until time to replace shocks.

And we’ve added another inspection point on our trailer’s annual brake inspection and bearing lube job — check shock absorber mounts, top and bottom. We might encounter no surprises when we only want to adjust the Airstream’s brakes, eh?

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Maintenance

Tagged adjust brakes, Loctite, shock mounts

Test Tubes Find Buyers

Posted on September 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

We should have started months ago and the sale was coming up Saturday morning. So many tubes, so little time. Jim was talking to Deb’s father about the huge number of vacuum tubes in the basement. Deb’s father liked the idea of taking tubes for sale at a local ham fest.

How does one go through over a thousand glass and metal electronic tubes and get them ready for sale? We started with a look at some web sites showing retail and wholesale prices for certain tubes. Pop’s collection included many of these desirable tubes. His business was building, evaluating, and maintaining sound systems and he had a lot of audio tubes. We knew where to start sorting and trying to make sense of so many pieces in the shop.

Jim set up a couple of tube testers, really cool old-school test instruments, and started going through the first batch of tubes from the list. Pop and Jim worked side-by-side a few evenings sorting, testing, cleaning, and re-boxing the good tubes. Ninety percent of the tubes were good, a credit to Pop keeping up with his stuff back in the day. Many of the tubes, despite their age, are in high demand for guitar amplifiers, stereo amplifiers, and ham radio amplifiers.

Two testers and a bunch of vacuum tubes

Pop and Jim would spend hours working each day, sometimes together and sometimes singly, through the piles of tubes to cull the poor ones and shine the good ones. By Saturday morning they had gathered two full tube caddies (wood boxes with fold-open sections for carrying and organizing tubes) and several cardboard trays and boxes full. The offering for a ham fest comprised several hundred vacuum tubes with manufacture dates over the past four decades.

We weren’t sure how to price the tubes for sale. Our goal was to find a new home for the tubes without giving them away. We couldn’t readily find valid comparables for this inventory of tubes. The inventory is older stock than many people still have. And without calibrated tube test equipment we weren’t confident we could compare these tubes to what we found offered elsewhere. The value of something can be determined by what someone will pay for it.

Pop and Jim took the tested inventory to the Shelby Hamfest Saturday morning. Great thanks to the Dixie Rebels Contest Club for sharing their flea market space with us. Pop and Jim opened the car trunk and before they could get the tube caddies from the trunk several interested customers were trying to sift through the tubes. We didn’t realize the anticipation caused by our casual announcement two weeks ago of tubes for sale we would bring.

Jim insisted on putting the tube caddies onto the nearby tables along with trays of tubes he and Pop had brought. Undeterred, the customers were examining the tubes and asking questions about provenance and condition. One fellow who had driven up from Rock Hill SC decided within five minutes to offer to purchase the entire lot of tubes.

Pop and the man agreed on a price, the buyer made a down payment, and promised to return quickly with his car. Jim and Pop had expected to spend all day Saturday and possibly some part of Sunday morning at the hamfest showing off the tubes. They instead packed their tables into the car by 08:30 a.m. and had time to wander the show two hours and still get home in time for lunch.

The tubes sale paid for parking, two ham fest tickets, rental of a flea market space to show the tubes, a few gallons of gas to get there and back, and had cash left over. This worked out great. We found the tubes had plenty of value to someone and generated a lot of interest among many other shoppers in the very brief exposure.

What’s next? Ideally we find someone who will come to the house and take the remaining inventory and test instruments and assorted gear without our sorting, cleaning, boxing, pricing, and showing. More likely we will be going through the processes again and looking for motivated buyers. It’s a win-win deal — we organize and clean shop space and someone else finds purpose for these things. It all works if we test tubes and find buyers.

Jim and Debbie

P.S. For those interested, we used (or tried) these tube testers:
Hickok Model 533 (started out great and petered out)
N.R.I. Model 70 (the only one to withstand the week’s work)
TV-7U (worked fine until we blew a fuse we couldn’t replace)
Weston 981 (we have some work to do on this one)
Jackson 648 (we have some work to do on this one too)
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Jim

Posted in amateur radio

Tagged ham fest, Hickok 533, Jackson 648, N.R.I. model 70, selling electronic gear, Shelby Hamfest, tube tester, TV-7U, Weston 981

A Woodstock Tennis Pilgrimage

Posted on September 1, 2011 | 4 Comments

We heard from another tennis player at Hilton Head of this great tennis retreat in the Catskills. The food, lodging, locale, and tennis, we heard, were a really good deal. Last week we drove thirteen hours from NC to NY following a beautiful route on I-81 through Virginia and Pennsylvania, then I-84 and I-87 into NY. This is as pretty a drive as we’ve done anytime, routed through farmlands and wooded areas of really pretty states.

Saugerties Village NY is pretty

Saugerties, New York derives its name from Holland Dutch, Zager’s Killetje. Zager (meaning sawyer or sawmill), and Kill meaning creek or stream, with the suffix “t j e” to indicate small or little. The sawmill was on the Esopus Creek. Saugerties Village is ten miles from the village of Woodstock but over fifty miles from Yazgur’s farm where the Woodstock music festival was held.

Seamon Park an uncommonly nice picnic place

We drove around the village of Saugerties and to the Waterfront Park, a nice area with playground and beach with swimming area. We arrived midday Sunday to Saugerties and found Seamon Park, a pretty little stream-side picnic place. We ate the leftover (and large and wonderful) half of pizza from last night’s dinner at Booty’s Place in West Hazleton, PA.

The park has several interesting features. The first we noticed are the paint colors on the playground equipment — vivid primary colors on all the iron and wood. Some group spends a lot of time making this playground fun-looking. Second, the campfire ring with a stone monument at its center. Third, the not-so-old ruins from a mill’s sluice box and wheel house just below the parking lot and above the stream. Saugerties takes really good care of their park and we appreciated it.

A little mystical, eh?

The campfire ring was built in 1929 by the Campfire Girls and has been lovingly maintained. The stone ring includes three stone fireplaces, each with an engraved center stone. The effect is suggestive of years of good times for many area girls. Campfire Girls originated in Maine just eighteen years earlier and was probably in its heyday during the building of this stone campfire ring and fire places.

Out of the way place outside Saugerties

We arrived several hours too early for check-in at Total Tennis at the Katsbaan Lodge a few miles from Saugerties Village. Since we were so close (nine miles) to Woodstock we drove through beautiful countryside and found the village teeming with pilgrims, so many baby-boomers with silver ponytails. The week before was the 42nd anniversary of Woodstock Festival, looked like it attracted extra pilgrims.

It still was too early for the 5:30 p.m. check-in to the Katsbaan Lodge so we spent an hour sipping coffee and enjoying free wifi to read emails and do a little work. Finally we had allowed enough time for check-out by the prior period’s tennis campers. The 4 p.m. check-out policy is really generous, allowing tennis through the afternoon lessons and time for a hot tub soak and shower before packing and departing.

An old Catskills lodge converted to great purpose since 1978

The Katsbaan Lodge consists of six buildings, a swimming pool, eighteen outdoor tennis courts, and an indoor tennis building. Our room was in the “new” building and was snug but perfectly adequate. We didn’t drive thirteen hours to sit in our room. If we wanted to bag the tennis we could hang out in the main lodge’s comfortable lobby or living room. We attended Total Tennis for three days of tennis and Total Tennis is the perfect place for it.

Our lodge at Total Tennis

We moved into our cozy little room, unpacked, and cleaned up. The room is a little more than ten feet by ten feet. We had a comfortable double bed with bedside lamps and powerful ceiling lights over the head of the bed. The bathroom was very compact with a nice corner shower with a narrow vanity to one side and on the other a commode. Like our Airstream’s, the bathroom is serviceable and appropriate to the amount of time we spend.

We walked a few hundred feet to the main lodge for the seven o’clock dinner bell. A lot of folks had been visiting in the living room and swept into the dining room as we walked in. The lodge serves food cafeteria style and the food is extraordinarily good. We enjoyed roasted beets, roasted carrots, chard, tofu, quinoa, squash, onions, tomatoes, corn, and a wide variety of tasty meats. The abundant fresh organic vegetables are from the resort’s nearby farm. And the variety, presentation, and flavor of food impressed us.

The vast majority of campers seemed to be from “The City”. We shouldn’t have been surprised but we thought we’d find more people from out of NY. One couple from Virginia, one FL woman (visiting her NY son), one Aussie couple living in Japan, a couple of Connecticut couples, the remainder principally from The City.

We sat with Kenny and Wendy, Stephanie, and Melissa. Kenny and Wendy are from Long Island, Stephanie and Melissa from Manhattan. Everyone at our table at every meal was a lot of fun — maybe they came here to have fun, relax, and play a lot of tennis? We think so. Dinner was hamburgers, bbq, chicken filets, sauerkraut, salad bar, blond brownies, beer and wine. After dinner we sat around talking awhile then retired to our room for the night.

Meal times were excellent for us. We became acquainted with many more people from FL, VA, NY, CT, and Australia, enjoyed talking tennis, travel, and family stuff. The dining room atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable, encouraging enjoying meals and making new friends.

Monday morning we joined the whole crew for breakfast of granola at 7:30 then met at the bleachers at 8:30 for assignment to our instruction groups. The program director asked us to pay close attention to his descriptions of the USTA skill levels ( NTRP 2.0 through 4.0) and join the appropriate group for our abilities. Debbie’s was pretty easy, advanced beginner. Jim took a lot longer to get sorted into the right group.

Debbie and two to three other players worked all six sessions with a young pro from Colombia. They liked their instructor and the consistency of working with one pro. Jim, on the other hand, worked with Lydia for one session, Sajiv and Tony for a session, Francisco for two sessions, then Sajiv and Tony for two sessions. Jim may have received the best diversity because each pro sees and offers something different.

We survived!

We’ve had a few opportunities to hit since we returned from Total Tennis. The lessons are still perking, we’re trying to incorporate what we learned into our regular hitting and play. This will take awhile but we have time. One of Jim’s high school classmates used to say, “what better to do with your time?”. Amen.

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Sightseeing, Traveling

Tagged Catskills, Katsbaan Lodge, Max Yazgur, Saugerties Village, Total Tennis, Woodstock

Whose birthday is today?

Posted on August 31, 2011 | 1 Comment

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged birthday

Readying for the Road

Posted on August 21, 2011 | 2 Comments

We’ve been loafing all summer in steamy North Carolina, playing tennis in mornings or evenings. The mountains called us for a couple of weeks of cooler temperatures, we’ve spent a week in Myrtle Beach, a week in The Bahamas, and a couple of weeks in DuQuoin. And we accomplished very little on the truck or trailer.

Jim put a couple of 3/4″ holes in the truck cab’s roof for his ham radio antennas. The improvement on antenna efficiency is fantastic, with standing wave ratio (SWR) at or near 1.1:1 on both antennas. Neither magnetic mount nor (of course) door edge mounting was nearly as good. Gosh, wish we had done this years ago!

Weighing the trailer's corners gives more accurate readings

We replaced the tires and brakes on the trailer’s axles. The trailer was born October 2004, we’ve towed it five years and approximately 50,000 miles on the original brakes. Jim bought seals and complete brake sets (backing plates, shoes, springs, adjustors, magnets, all assembled) last year and decided then to wait a year to install. We took the drums to a local tire store (thanks, Brothers Tire Co in China Grove) for turning. The old brakes still looked okay although a little glazed. The new brakes are much stronger.

Did Jim really paint this only two years ago?

We refinished and tuned the trailer’s a-frame and Equal-I-Zer hitch. Escapees provided all wheel weighing earlier this year and demonstrated we could raise the hitch an inch or two to equalize weight between trailer axles. We removed the hitch completely from the trailer, disassembled and cleaned it.

hitch cleaned, painted, re-labelled, and adjusted

Some parts we took to a local shop for powder coating, the others (including the hitch head) we cleaned and spray-painted. Jim reassembled it all with grade 8 bolts (bought by the pound) from Tractor Supply Co. Progressive Mfg (Equalizer’s parent company) sent new decals for the load bars and sockets. The hitch looks like new and, yes, the axles weigh the same now.

Let’s see, and we played a lot of tennis and worked out at the local tennis club. But ignored the trailer other than these few chores. Summer is drawing to a close for us and we realized so is time to get projects completed before we hit the road for the year.

Time to make a list of all the work we need to do while we are here. Our list ran the gamut from making new pillows to oil change. Then we assigned days for each task, filling four days with fun things we need to accomplish. The change on our focus and activities is remarkable and predictable.

Battery box sanded, primed, and plastic cutting boards into bottom

Suddenly we’re getting things done. Monday morning Jim removed the batteries and sanded and painted the battery box. This was a great opportunity to check the battery water level — Jim was surprised to add 8 ounces of distilled water to each cell (48 ounces total) even though the plates were covered with water already. Before reinstalling the batteries he placed plastic cutting board under the batteries to prevent them wearing through the paint and exposing metal to corrosion.

Batteries re-installed in rust-proofed battery box

Monday afternoon we went to a couple of fabric stores and picked new pillow forms and fabrics to redo our interior. Deb made new pillow shams for the bed and new covers for the dinette bolsters. Jim tore down our portable ceramic heater to see if he could restore the missing airflow. It took very little time for him to dissect the heater and get to the heater core. The heater core was almost completely blocked with a dust mat. The heater cleaned up well and works great. Then Jim had the truck’s tires periodic rotation, balance, and pressure adjustment done at Discount Tire.

The PDI 9260 fits snugly in bottom compartment of trailer's pwr center

Tuesday morning we removed the charger-converter from the under-sofa power center to see if it might also be clogged with Chinle (AZ) dust like the heater. The charger-converter was surprisingly clean after two years’ service. Jim removed a little dust from the enclosure. Since he already had disconnected and removed the device Jim decided to carefully rework all connections and attachments in the charger-converter and the 12vdc and the 120vac distribution panel.

Tuesday afternoon Debbie completed the sofa pillows and started figuring what to do about decorative pillows for the bed and Jim made an oil change appointment for Wednesday morning. And three sets of tennis Tuesday evening finished Jim off thoroughly.

Wednesday morning we dropped the truck for oil change and shopped for fabric for Debbie to complete three more throw pillows. We picked up the truck from Classic Chevrolet and took it to a local auto glass shop, Deal’s Auto Glass, both in Kannapolis. Last week our windshield took a hit from a BB, resulting in a nickel-sized chip. The glass shop did a great job filling the chip and we can’t find it. Hopefully this will extend the windshield’s life — we learned this morning we don’t have glass coverage in our insurance policy.

Jim realized he had been procrastinating on a few jobs. The tasks list helped get him started again and broke down the big list of things to do into just one big job each day and a few easier ones. Wednesday afternoon he tackled what seemed like a big job but turned into a fun and pretty easy one.

Months ago we had temporarily hung an LED light strip under the roof locker above our dinette. It served us well on our last boon docking trip, but the power was pirated with a short piece of wire stuck into one of the Airstream’s 12vdc light sockets. This afternoon Jim finally tackled permanent wiring and a neat new switched circuit for the LED light.

Jim emptied the hundred or so pots and pans and empty Tupperware containers from above the dinette to allow removing the roof locker’s interior panels. The exposed bottom in the roof locker provided ready access to wiring for the existing three recessed halogen lights. And Jim easily installed the needed wiring to supply the new LED light.

The fun part is a switch Jim added inside the roof locker recessed into the left (aft) end panel. This is a single-pole double-throw switch and allows us to select which light circuit will be powered when the Airstream’s light switch is on. In the new switch’s left position, the new LEDs light up the dinette. In the new switch’s right position (toward the shore power pole) the three recessed lights shine on the dinette.

The light switch on the wall works normally, and we select with the added switch (hidden inside the roof locker) which dinette lights we’re operating. Simple and effective, the new switch setup keeps us using the best light for our power source. We don’t have much extra battery capacity and believe this will help us make best use of our limited power when boondocking. We like how this job turned out, and Jim wonders why he waited so long to do it.

Thursday morning we iced the cake — we washed and waxed the trailer’s roof on our coolest and driest morning. Conditions were so nice we decided to start on just one end of the trailer. Before we knew it we had washed and waxed the entire exterior from the roof to the banana panels. It looked so great. And Thursday evening through Friday evening we had rains. Nothing like a nice cool rain to set the wax hard, right? And we don’t need to wax again until next February or March, whether it rains or not.

We’re road-ready, and more than two weeks ahead of our departure from Kannapolis for points west. Many of the tasks are easier with Pop’s workshop area and Mom’s sewing area at their house. We’re accustomed to working wherever we are, and to have fully equipped work areas for our projects is really nice. We accomplished more in less time by organizing and working from a list.Making the project’s list worked very well for us — we were able to look forward to each day’s projects and look back on what we completed.

Our travels begin September 7 and continue through at least October 20 upon our arrival in Mesa AZ for the winter. The maintenance and improvements we’ve completed may prevent untimely breakdowns and will help us enjoy fun travels instead of repair worries.

Jim and Debbie

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Posted in Full-timing, Maintenance

Tagged axle weights, battery, bolsters, charger-converter, Equalizer, hitch, NMO mount, pillows, shams, SmartWeigh, SWR

Bahamas Best Birthday Bash

Posted on August 4, 2011 | 4 Comments

Where better to celebrate a birthday than on Paradise Island, The Bahamas? Jim’s mom decided she wanted a special birthday we’d all remember. Jim, his brother and three sisters, and all the spouses joined Catie for nine days in June across the bay from Nassau, The Bahamas.

Paradise Island at top right of map

Our direct flight from Charlotte was only a couple hours, a pretty short flight. We arrived at the modernized Lyndon Pindling International Airport, just as nice as the Charlotte-Douglas Airport we’d just left. And the adventure begins.

Luggage and eight in a minivan

How do you get eight adults and lots of luggage from the airport to the hotel? We crammed all in a small minivan with fold-down jump seats and luggage piled to the ceiling. It was a good fit for the twenty minute trip to the hotel. We were early and couldn’t get into but one of our rooms so we stowed luggage in the one room.

What do you do with one room?

The grounds of the Comfort Inn on Paradise Island were very pretty, typical of a lot of places on the island. The hotel is bigger than it looks but only seemed crowded at check-in. The pool-side bar and breakfast bar weren’t crowded, what else matters? The rooms were clean and spacious and furnished with a refrigerator, comfortable bed, a table and a small sofa.

Our hotel's entrance

Three qualities of the hotel are outstanding:

1. Free breakfast buffet daily in the open-air restaurant near the pool,
2. Happy hour from 4-6 daily at the pool-side bar,
3. Free run of The Atlantis Resort amenities.

Our group (eleven of us) informally met daily at breakfast, wandering in whenever we felt like it before heading for the beach or town. The buffet included eggs, sausage, bacon, bagels, cereal, fruit, yoghurt, juices, tea, coffee, and milk. And we met a little more formally each day for happy hour. The UNC Tarheels men’s baseball team were still in the College World Series so we watched a little of that, we discussed dinner plans for the evening, and we enjoyed Chrystal’s hospitality. She ran the pool-side bar most afternoons and was a lot of fun, besides being very very good bartender.

The Atlantis Resort at Paradise Island

The Atlantis Resort amenity of interest for us is the 141 acre water park. Daily use fee is $110 per person unless bundled with your hotel stay. The Comfort Inn provided this for us without extra charge. So we spent every day somewhere in the water park. Five days we played doubles tennis on the clay courts and enjoyed free stroke clinics there as well.

The Atlantis Resort is awesome, amazing, incredible, huge, and extravagant. Six thousand Bahamians work at The Atlantis, a sprawling hundreds of acres campus of hotels (2,300 rooms) and recreational amenities. Here’s a summary we found online:

More than 20 swimming areas, including family pools, children’s pools, Goombay Water Slide & Baths, and lazy river for tube rides.
Paradise Lagoon, a seven-acre saltwater swimming and water-sports area with snorkeling gear, kayaks, and pedal boats available for rent.
Three miles of Atlantic Ocean beaches flanking entrance to Paradise Lagoon.
Five waterslides built into a six-story Mayan Temple, including the Leap of Faith, a 60-foot, nearly vertical plunge running through a clear acrylic tunnel submerged in a shark-filled lagoon; a 48-foot corkscrew slide transporting tube riders through the Temple’s dark core; and shorter, gentler children’s slides connecting cascading pools.
Sports center with six lighted clay and hard-surface tennis courts (surcharges); 27-yard, four-lane lap pool; fitness facility (surcharges) with free weights, cardio and weight machines, steam rooms, and workout studio for aerobics, spinning, kickboxing, yoga, and Pilates (surcharges).
Dolphin Cay Atlantis, a 14-acre dolphin habitat, is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Guests can share in the dolphins’ playful shallow water antics or experience their speed and agility first-hand in the deeper waters.
Aquaventure, a 63-acre waterscape, contains over 20 million gallons of water and features water slides, a mile-long river ride with rapids and wave surges, and special effects. Guests in inner tubes are propelled along by water escalators, waves, and water surges. Unlike traditional water slides that require the participant to leave the water and climb back to the start, AQUAVENTURE guests never have to leave the water as they are propelled back up the slide tower via water conveyors.

How do I like my birthday in The Bahamas?

We hope we haven’t lost you. This post is really about the birthday celebration for Catie, Jim’s mom. Let’s see: spend days in beautiful Bahamian island surrounded by her children; free breakfast prepared daily near the hotel room; lunch on our own; happy hour with very nice drinks pool side; dinner out in nice restaurants on the harbor. This was a pretty nice get-together for everyone, and we think Jim’s mom enjoyed it as well as any of us.

The entire gang

The trip was an incomparable chance for Jim and his siblings, all the spouses and Catie to spend nine days together in a beautiful and fun-filled setting. Thanks, Catie!

We loved our stay

and article on Nassau

Jim and Debbie

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