Category: Personal

Day 2386

Monday April 15th, 2024

Day 7 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

The clock radio in the bedroom reads 3:14 which sounds like a terrible time to get up until you add the three hours of time zone changes last week, then it seems like a more reasonable time to get up. The clock radio is the only clock that hasn’t been changed yet, that is because it is the biggest pain in the butt to change, in fact I could be having a wee internal battle about changing it at all. Miss Laurie has been updating the microwave clock time as needed and I have been updating the main clock that we use when traveling. I mean how bad is it when you look a purchasing a clock that one of the things that I check is how easy is it to change the time?

And speaking of time changes why is it that my iPhone updates with in moments of crossing a time zone and my iPad takes days? And don’t get me started on this laptop!

The coffee is ready now and being that is Monday morning there will be no Irish blessing for me this morning, I had to start weaning of the blessing sometime, and a Monday morning seem like a good time. Because today will be a shorter travel day we are just ordering breakfast now, Biscuits and Gravy with bacon for me and Miss Laurie is having the pecan pancakes. Our departure time today is ten o’clock and our destination is a Walmart in Bowling Green, Ohio,

Breakfast was good as usual. and I do like the order ahead and pick it up option, as we get to watch the news while enjoying breakfast. This Cracker Barrel had a lot of traffic noise last night, but I was so tired that I slept through most of it, in fact I did not even hear the waste removal truck this morning that apparently Miss Laurie did. Our departure time is near nine o’clock and our estimated time of arrival is near one o’clock this afternoon, a short day just under 200 miles (320 kilometers). We traveled northeast on Interstate I-69 to Fort Wayne Indiana the took the by-pass I-469 eastward to US-24 which ran us to the Ohio State line.

US-24 turned out to be a four lane freeway, a larger highway than I was expecting. There is a lot of standing water here in northwest Ohio, I seen people trying to mow their lawns around water puddles, we seen lots of daffodils as well as lots of dandelions in bloom. There are no leaves on the trees although the trees have a green hue as many are at the bud stage of spring, I did not see any farm land being tilled yet for the year and temperature is above normal right now.

This travel week has worked out almost perfect for us, with higher than normal spring time temperatures, we have been able to keep pace with clear sunny skies and have not seen any rain since last Tuesday afternoon in New Mexico. A review of the forecast shows that the next weather event is slowly catching us and this area will have rain by Wednesday, just after we have left the area. Our next highway is OH-6 a well maintained two lane highway with a double nickel speed limit, it will take us through a couple of small villages before bringing us to the Walmart in Bowling Green. This is a reasonably new Walmart and we have stayed here a number of times over the years, we picked a spot in the northwest corner of the lot near the retention pond that is full right now with a few Canadian Geese right now, we are a long way from the store but that’s ok.

The GPS says we are only 4 hours from Goderich but it will take us a couple of days to get there, as tomorrow will be a visiting day and we will only advance a few miles.

Day 7 Stats: 195 miles (314 kilometers), solar harvest 278 amp / hours $0.00 camping, no fuel purchase today

Day 2385

Sunday, April 14th, 2024

Day 6 of our trek north

Dear Journal:

Well there was no knock on the coach door overnight, and because of the no overnight parking signs we had a very quiet night, although I was up early this morning but that had more to do with going to bed earlier than usual. The temperature overnight was 64ºF (17.7ºC) and a balmy 71ºF (21.6ºC) in the coach. This morning has been spent catching up on this weeks blogs as we trek to our summer home base. It’s now seven o’clock and Miss Laurie has risen and made coffee, and now we are settling in to watch Willie Guise on NBC, a Sunday morning tradition.

Bacon and Tomato sandwich for breakfast this morning, always a popular choice in the Buchanan household, todays route will move us through Illinois into Indiana where we will move to our final time zone Eastern Daylight Savings time. I’m hoping to be on the road by nine o’clock and with the lost hour we should be at tonight’s destination by 2:00 there will be a fuel stop in Indiana, and I hope to circumvent Indianapolis before we end the day, leaving a very easy day tomorrow.

We were on the road ahead of schedule, and I-70 traffic seams lite, Thunder is running well and we are just clicking the miles off. The smooth ride went to hell at the Indiana State line as I’m thinking that Indiana may have moved New Mexico out of the number one position for the worst roads, maybe someone should tell Indiana that the Federal Government have money available for roads, we have seen the signs posted in almost every other State.

Fuel prices in Indiana are the worse we have seen, higher than Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, they are close to California or Canadian prices. As we get to Indianapolis Navi is recommending the by-pass which we have taken the last few trips so I was not thrilled to find miles of construction on the by-pass. The only good part of this scenario was that it is Sunday and the traffic was lite, as we leave the bypass and head north on Interstate I-69 we are just a few miles from tonight’s destination a Cracker Barrel in Fishers Indiana, and of course the RV / Bus spots were full of cars, so we parked in a plaza near by to watch the Masters golf tournament and wait for a spot to open up.

After the golf was over we moved across the street to an open spot where we eat the beef brisket from Buc-ee’s that Laurie had picked up along with a salad, my conclusion is that the hype over the brisket is justified and we will be getting more the next time we stop. We are settled in to just watch television tonight, I was pleased with the outcome of the golf tournament, and it has me thinking about playing a round or two this summer.

Day 6 Stats: 245 miles (395 kilometers), solar harvest 273 amp / hours, camping cost $0.00 (breakfast $19,00), 47.366 gallons (179.29 liters) of diesel fuel $208.26 ($286.24 Cdn)