Day 2582

Day 1 – 232 miles: Leaving LHR (Lake Huron Resort) just a few minuets behind today’s schedule, we headed south on the Bluewater Highway 21, through Goderich, Bayfield, Grand Bend and Forest before merging onto the 402 Highway, just a few kilometers east of the Bluewater Bridge. And this is where todays travel schedule took its first real hit.

As many of you know the 402 Highway moves traffic from London through Sarnia and dumps onto the Bluewater Bridge, our desired port of entry into the United States. There are signs indicating the wait times at the border crossing, and while the truck showed a 75 minute wait it showed cars (which includes RV’s) as only being 15 minuets, and to be honest it was most likely fairly accurate once we got to the Bridge. But there was a construction delay on the 402 before the bridge which eat up an hour of our travel day, then the Bluewater Bridge was under construction that eat up even more time. Once we actually got on the Bridge we were likely the declared 15 minuets. The American border guard was a bit of a deweib and seemed to struggle to find questions to ask us, it was like everyone was on a bit of a work slowdown today. We finally cleared the bridge and headed south toward Detroit.

But first we need to top off Thunders fuel tank, the first fuel since April and I have chosen a Love’s Truck Stop @ St.Clair MI the pump price for diesel is $4.049 per gallon before our discount and the tank took 63.38 gallons (239.89 liters) and the total price was $256.63, but after our discount it was reduced to $205.70 or $267.10 cdn or $1.117 per liter.

Our plan is to approach most larger cities near the noon hour time, we find less traffic through the suburbs at that time of day, but the delays today before the bridge put that in jeopardy and while not an issue, we did hit Detroit near the rush-hour time and traffic was heavier than desired. South of Detroit there is lots of road construction as the new border crossing bridge is nearing completion and Interstate 75 was congested. We had booked a harvest host for the night just off of Interstate 75, near Bowling Green Ohio and we landed just as they were closing. Close to three hours behind our schedule, we had dinner plans with Betty and her family and had to push it back an hour or so but after a quick stop at a Walmart we made it to Pemberville and our RV family. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone, hear about their summer adventures and their winter plans. Miss Laurie had been cooking dinner in the coach as we drove down the highway and treated everyone to a curry chicken dish that was well received. We returned to the coach at our harvest host after ten o’clock for a much needed rest at the end of a difficult day.

Day 2 – 11 miles: We had left Pemberville last evening with plans for an outing today but an early morning text from Betty, throw those plans out the window, so with a day to fill we toured our Harvest Host. Our harvest host was an automotive museum with a number of old vehicles fully restored and lots of automotive memorabilia some that I remember too well from a former life, here a few photos:

After our tour of “Snooks Dream Cars” we moved onto the Walmart parking lot in Bowling Green, it gave me a chance to fix an issue with some lights, Miss Laurie had a chance to stock up at an Aldi and Mister Sam got a chance to suck in some sunshine in the front window. We are meeting with Betty and family this evening and we are staying at another harvest host even closer to Pemberville, so by three o’clock we were headed to tonight’s harvest host and then on to another evening of great company and food.

Our Harvest Host tonight is an animal shelter “Their Furever Home” and our overnight parking spot is a vacant lot beside a field of corn, it made for a quiet spot for the night but we did get flashes of light from vehicles at a nearby intersection. Different positioning of the coach would have solved the issue and it bothered Miss Laurie because of a reflection on a mirror, an issue that you don’t notice till dark, this was not a photo worthy stop with the main shelter sign being a painted skid (these host spots are not all beautiful spots).

Day 3 – 306 miles: Today is a travel day we are heading south on I-75 and then west on I-70 and hope to get well past Indianapolis before stopping for the day, we have a Cracker Barrel in mind for this evening as our overnight spot. Nothing new to explore today we have passed this section of highway many times and today is just about clicking off some miles.

We often stop at a Cracker Barrel just past Indianapolis and its not till we get to our chosen destination that I remember why we usually don’t stop at this Cracker Barrel at Terra Haute IA. Once we pull in I remember the very slopped driveway that while not an issue this afternoon will cause issues on our departure in the morning. I was planning too much on tomorrow’s crossing of the Mississippi and getting through St. Louis and will now pay for the extra hour of travel today.

Day 4 – 215 miles: Another travel day we expect to make it into Missouri today and have another Harvest Host planned for this evening, but first is a Cracker Barrel breakfast! We use the restaurant app to place our order and I noticed that after I had placed our usual items on the list it popped up a window to order a “later meal” there were three choices they were each $5.00, so we ordered one to see what it was like. we picked the fried chicken with mash potatoes, for five dollars our expectations were not real high. We were surprised that it was a fried boneless chicken breast and a good sized serving of mashed potatoes, we split it for lunch and was all we needed with a cold drink on a travel day.

Well we crossed the mighty Mississippi today on the southern St. Louis bypass and it again was a great driving experience, and we end up on I-44 just south of St. Louis. We figure it is four or five miles longer that going through downtown St. Louis on I-70 but the highway is so much better, plus much reduced traffic from the downtown crossing, yea your not as close to the arch for a photo op but the better highway makes up for that. Tonight’s Harvest Host is a brewery and the lot proved to be a bit tight to maneuver around but once in position was a great quiet spot for an evening.

We of course sampled the available brews and enjoyed learning about the history and the story behind the brewery, most of the hosts have a great product with some very loyal followers. Miss Laurie had a cider while I sampled a flight and then enjoyed a glass of the “Foggy Mountain IPA” before heading back to the coach and dinner, and enjoy a quiet night a few miles off of the Interstate.

Day 5 – 193 miles: Trying to knock off some more miles today we are aiming for a BoonDocker’s Welcome spot near Springfield Missouri, but I know there will be a fuel stop at a Buc-ee’s just outside of Springfield MO (not to be confused with Springfield OH where they eat cats and dogs). So after a great nights sleep we are headed west on I-44, I-44 follows the route of the old Route 66 that connected Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles County, often referred to as the “Mother Road” and while much has been replaced by Interstate highways every little town along the way still promotes the old highway as well as so many of its attractions, some that are nothing more than empty shells of previous businesses and others that have survived and are thriving even today. We avoid many of the tourist traps but still enjoy some of the signs along the route.

We made it to Buc-ee’s around the noon hour and after fueling both Thunder and Ruby we ventured into the store, I visited the washroom and there was a couple of dozen urinals and a couple dozen wash sinks, it was busy but it was spotless. We wondered around the store picking up needed supplies, I grabbed a sliced brisket sandwich and Miss Laurie a cinnamon bun for lunch before we made it back to the highway and our overnight destination. It is always a little un-nerving heading down small secondary roads with something as big as our rig, but we found our BoonDocker’s Welcome host and got settled in by mid-afternoon. This host “Chicken Bacon Ranch” was located south of Springfield a small farm with cats. dogs and horses, this host offered a 50 amp plug along with water. We were parked by the work shop behind the main house, the location was not the most level but it was a great spot for a couple of nights. We enjoyed dinner tonight with our host along with a bottle of wine and were able to learn so much local history, this is one of our main reasons for these type of overnight stays.

Day 6 – 0 miles: Today is not going to be a travel day and we have decided to explore a number of attractions around Springfield some of which we only learned about last evening around the fire pit. Spring field is the home of the original “Bass Pro-Shop” so we checked that out, we also checked out a Menards which is like a department store with building materials, and last we took a driving tour through “Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield” as Canadians we were not aware that the American Civil War was fought this war west and a site that we would never have found without the guidance of our hosts. A relaxing day exploring and enjoying a day away from weekend highway traffic.

Day 7 – 245 miles: Today is a travel day but not a difficult travel day we are pushing on to a BoonDocker’s Welcome spot in Chandler Oklahoma, we had stayed at this location in the spring and it was such a great spot we decided to spend another night there this fall. Today we will work our way back to I-44 and continue west from Missouri into Oklahoma we only have to travel one highway today and although it is partial toll road it is an easy drive other that around Tulsa where the highway is rough. We will not need to stop for fuel today and made good time and arrived at our overnight spot mid afternoon. This is an amazing spot with a level gravel parking spot, it has full hook ups available and while we have never met the host in person Miss Laurie knows him from all our communication. Today was a nice weather day with lots of sunshine, there was a chance of some rain on our route today but we managed to avoid the rain. It was a quiet night with very little traffic on the gravel road although a little rain would have reduced the dust.

Day 8 – 116 miles: This travel day that went to “hell in a handbasket”, we had hopped to make it to a rest stop in Amarillo Texas to night, a little longer day but as we have just passed the halfway point of our trek and we were hopping to spend some time in New Mexico it just seemed appropriate to click off some miles. The morning was sunny and nice but the breeze was up a bit, so we were battling a head wind, and we found out later that it was a 50+ mph headwind, and it was an hour outside of Oklahoma City that our day went real bad. We have hit a lot of construction on the road so far this year, and while I had a stone chip on the driver side windshield that we picked up many years ago it had spread, in the construction zone in Michigan this fall we picked up a stone chip on the passenger side high on the right side, and a few moments later picked up another on the passenger side closer to the center, this one spread quickly from the star but we didn’t think much of it, other that I said that we would get them replaced next summer back in Ontario. Yesterday we got hit by a bird, a big bird the size of a pigeon and it hit the passenger windshield pretty hard, we had seen a hawk near by and figured it had caused the bird strike. Well today as we are rolling along on Interstate 40 at 65 mph and are hitting a head wind of 55 mph, suddenly both windshields gave way and buckled under the pressure. We limped off of the Interstate and into a Walmart where we scrambled to find replacement windshields.

 

Lets just say it did not go well, our Canadian vehicle insurance would pay for the windshields by way of a reimbursement, so we were left on our own to locate, install and pay for the windshields on our own, we had a $200 deductible but that didn’t help much right now.  Just so you know the cost of both windshields on Thunder are $3824.56 US which when converted worked out to $5302.36 CDN, from a company called RV Glass solutions based out of Oregon, The glass had to be packed and shipped from Indiana to a installer in Oklahoma City and the estimated time to complete the repair of this was 7 – 10 days. So here we are parked in a Walmart parking lot with the coach being buffeted by a 50 -60 mph wind, I parked so it was hitting our side to protect the windshields.

We decided to stay tonight in the Walmart parking lot, Miss Laurie was able to grab some supplies for our upcoming wait for the new windshields, we have a campground booked for a week, just a few miles down the road and will limp to it on a secondary road tomorrow. The winds have not let up today at all, but are forecast to be less tomorrow but we have lots of rain in the forecast. 

Day 9 – 2 miles: Our check in time at the campground is one o’clock so kind of a leisurely morning before head to the campground the wind is less than yesterday but still enough to make us a little concerned, but we also feel lucky to have located a spot to stay only a couple of miles away. At one o’clock we started our journey moving down secondary roads to the campground. So the “Wanderlust Crossing RV Park” is our home for the foreseeable future, it appears to be reasonably new with 100 sites, the roads were paved and very wide, the sites were concrete and long enough to accommodate big rigs, they offered a weekly rate and with full hook-ups and garbage pickup at the site it had more than enough amenities. Of course one of the most disturbing amenity was all the tornado shelters scattered around the park the laundry was clean and the washrooms well maintained and the park was located a mile south of the Interstate highway and two miles to the town of Weatherford which had enough supplies to get us by. We are using our new Starlink and having good results and we will be putting it to the test this week catching up on multiple shows that we try to fill our days. Luckily I have a number of books on my iPad to read as we settle in.

Day 10 – 0 miles: Not a lot to report, we are I suspect a week away from our new windshields if all go well, Miss Laurie is walking the park between rain storms and weather has been unpredictable.

Day 11 – 0 miles: Thursday October 31st, Halloween but we are not expecting any trick or treaters, the park seems to be mainly long term adults going to work and returning daily with the occasional over night transient. 

Day 12 – 0 miles: We are hunkered down through many high wind events, I’m repairing a connection on the roof for the solar panel, and have had to flip the Starlink over after a big wind gust, we have received a tornado warning but there have been a lot of warning for wind and heavy rain on our weather app.

Day 13 – 0 miles: The weekend and we are just putting in time, watching Canadian television and reading my library books.

Day 14 – 0 miles: Starting to go just a little crazy, feeling very trapped, but holding hope for tomorrow as we are closing in on seven days.

Day 15 – 0 miles: After lunch we called the glass installer that is located in Oklahoma City, hoping the windshields have arrived free of damage from shipping and they had. They indicated that they could install later today if we were ok with that. We were and they suggested possibly late this afternoon, so I decided to prepare to be able to hit the road tomorrow. I dumped the black & grey tank and decided to top off the fresh water for the rest of our journey. The afternoon dragged on and no sign of the installers.

Miss Laurie tried calling the number as we late afternoon and starting to get dark and we were beginning to feel a little anxious about the installers. Finally at near eight o’clock we received a call saying they were on their way and would be here in about an hour. Quiet time at the campground is ten o’clock so we declined to have them replace the windshields tonight, and they said they would get here earlier tomorrow so we decided to stay an extra evening to avoid upsetting the park management or other campers.

Day 16 – 0 miles: So we were originally thinking that the installers would be out early today, and our hope was that we would be able to get on the road this afternoon with only a few hours later than check out. And that idea passed as we closed in on noon, we called and were able to extend an extra day with no issue. My day was not going well as I realized that our fresh water tank that I had repaired in the spring was now leaking, I have to assume that the repair has let go because of my topping off the tank yesterday, the rain has stopped and I know can see water dripping under the coach.

So just to recap, it’s noon we have extended our stay, the fresh water tank is leaking, and the windshield installers are not returning our call. Now all we can do is wait, something that Miss Laurie is not good at, but we sit and wait for a phone call that finally comes at around six o’clock, pretty much a repeat from yesterday, but today I’m ok with the late install, I figure if we annoy the management the worst they can do is ask us to leave which is what we want to do anyway so we give the go ahead for the install. We had dinner and we’re still waiting, finally after nine o’clock Miss Laurie is preparing to turn in for the evening and the installer pulls into the park.

This went against everything that I believe in, but I wanted the new windshields installed. I knew this would be a four hour install but I really didn’t care anymore, I just wanted the new glass installed and for us to be able to get back on the road. So the process started, spot lights shining on the coach and the glass removal has started, they do this one side at a time, the old glass is removed the area prepared and the new glass installed. So with the glass removed we are now open to the outdoors, at least the wind has relented so it is just the evening cold that is entering, I closed the front curtain to reduce the flow but it was still more than our space heater could keep up with. Miss Laurie and Mister Sam were in the back of the coach with the door closed to retain both some warmth and Mister Sam. By midnight the first windshield is in and the removal of the second is underway.

Day 17 – 262 miles: Well my day started real early this morning, the glass installers worked on Thunders windshields until 2:00 am, making the install of both windshields over a four hour process. As they finished up I was dead tired so I crawled into bed while Miss Laurie got up to check for glass splinters that our dash walker (Mister Sam) might encounter before returning to bed. I slept till near six o’clock but knew we wanted to get on the road so started to plan our day, to be on the road by nine o’clock, not a difficult task but I knew I would need an early start to make this driving day work. I dumped the grey tank, disconnected the water and electric power the normal things but this morning I had extras like reinstalling and adjusting the windshield wipers, the Starlink has just become a normal part of packing up and I often store it in the passenger floor of Ruby on travel days.

Miss Laurie made breakfast sandwiches for breakfast, along with some fresh perked coffee and we were ready to roll a few moments after nine. There is always a feeling of nervousness when you first start rolling after having such large windshields replaced especially after having them crack and buckle in like happened a little over a week ago, but we left the RV park and weaved our way back onto Interstate 40 and were Texas bound, but we have a tail wind today and as we reach our normal driving speed 60 – 65 mph, we become more comfortable that all is well, a few miles down the road we stop at a Love’s truck stop to take on diesel fuel our first since Buc-ee’s in Missouri. The fuel stop was small and all the truck pumps were busy but we topped off Thunders tank and were soon west bound again.

Today we are trying something different, we are listening to an audio book on our route today. I had planned this for this journey but had been waiting for the book through my library app, I had actually picked a series thinking it would be good and of course the first book in the series was the last one to be down loaded but we are listening through the blue tooth speaker on my iPhone and it seems to be working well. We used to rent audio books on CD from the Cracker Barrel stores when we traveled south and had always enjoyed them so I have no idea why it has taken us this long to start this process but it has and today is our trial run. Now I know some of you are curious as to what we are listening to and may be surprised to hear it is the “Harry Potter” series, we have not seen the movies and I thought it would be a good choice for a 30 hour trip.

The day has rolled along well after our fuel stop we pushed into the Texas panhandle and stopped at the Amarillo information center, the boondocking spot that was our destination way back over a week ago before the whole windshield fiscal. Today it is just a lunch stop as we are pushing to get into New Mexico before shutting down for the night. Traffic has been light and the highways through the Texas panhandle are some of the best that we drive on this route. we are going to push on with the objective of getting to the New Mexico Welcome center and see how I’m doing after a very short night, as we pull into the welcome center we decide this will be tonight’s destination as we are starting to see some rain on the windshield.

Day 18 – 39 miles: We seem to have found ourselves in a winter snow storm, and woke-up this morning to a light snow cover on everything and as day breaks there is no sign of the weather breaking up. Driving Thunder in the snow is something I have done a couple of times but have no desire to add to that experience. My decision is to move to an Elks lodge in Tucumcari New Mexico and a 50 amp electrical hook-up and just hunker down till this storm passes by, presently wet snow or rain is forecast in New Mexico until late Friday afternoon, with all of our issues so far on this trip it just doesn’t make sense to push the issue and get stranded or something worse on the side of I-40.

We finished off the first Harry Potter book and watched a little television, it is a brutal day with wet snow and rain through out the day and into the evening, as the temperature is hovering right around the freezing mark we are keeping all the curtains and blinds down to retain our warmth, I have booked us in for two nights as tomorrow is not looking any better.

Day 19 – 0 miles: Still at the Elks lodge, and reviewing the weather forecast and watching some of the New Mexico traffic cameras on I-40 still tell me that we have made the correct choice to wait out this storm, two of the four RVs that were here yesterday have pulled out and headed down the road and while the reports are a little better, there are still closures because of accidents between here and Albuquerque and at the higher elevations where there is still snow covered highways. Our plan is an early start tomorrow and with no precipitation in the forecast as well as sunny skies it just makes the most sense to be smart and safe. And much more enjoyable than driving in the rain with wiper running, just not what we want to do for three or four hours.

Day 20 – 226 miles: Well the storm as dwindled out and the weather is looking so much better, we are going to continue our trek west today. There is still snow on the ground but the traffic cameras are showing clear pavement and moving traffic well so we are disconnecting and heading west on Interstate I-40 through New Mexico. The sun is shining and as we prepare to hit the road our hope is to make it to Dancing Eagle Casino and their RV park. That will be the start to our swing south toward Show Low and a visit with Tom & Kathleen at their new permanent home. But our day looked like a jouney across a winter wonderland.

Our day went well, stopping for fuel at Santa Rosa at a very busy Petro, lost of truckers taking shelter from the snow the night before, our next stop was the RV park at Dancing Eagle, a very small full hook-up campground. and because of our fresh water issue and the cold temperature it is a good choice. It is Saturday evening and we are just glad to be out of the snow. This trek seems to have worn us down a bit with the windshield issue then a winter storm, I have to admit that that I’m looking forward to it coming to an end … but in the next breath I’m looking forward to getting together with Tom & Kathleen as well as all our winter friends at our winter home.

Day 21 – 198 miles: Sunday morning and today we will be travelling on secondary roads as we head south west from New Mexico to Arizona, we are hitting the road early today as we want to spend the afternoon with the Andersons at their new home. And todays drive has some beautiful features as we till travel through lava fields, along the shear cliffs of a mesa, and travel through farm land and end up in the Ponderosa Pine forest in the Show Low area. I was hoping to stay at the Elks Lodge in Show Low but to my disappointment they had shut down their camping area for the season. The Walmart in Show Low is RV friendly so off to the Walmart parking lot it is, it will be a bit tough with no water but nothing we can’t survive. Miss Laurie wanted to stock up on some supplies after our extended journey and we are planning most of the day with Tom & Kathleen so it will all work out ok.

Tom and Kathleen picked us up at the Walmart early afternoon and took us to their new home just outside of Show Low. The Andersons had been living full time in their motor coach for more than ten years, and Tom had lost interest in dealing with the daily issues that come with the mobile live style. So they purchased a park model unit in a year round park. Their coach has been sold, their RV pad in their Co-op has been slod as well, their storage shed emptied, so this is looking pretty permanent. The park has many amenities, golf, wood working, glass and lapidary, social club, with cards and bingo, community meals and the like. Although the park is open year round during the winter there are not a lot of people there, it is during the summer when the people from the Phoenix valley move north to avoid the triple digit temperatures that the park is the busiest.

There unit is one bedroom unit with an add a room that provides a huge living room, there is a covered car port/patio where they have their outdoor furniture , their back yard has a she/he shed along with a large garden area. Their unit back onto green space which is ideal for the puppy Lucy to do her zoomies. During this off season elk are seen grazing on the common area behind their unit. Tom barbequed a pork tenderloin for dinner and it was great to catch up with the Andersons. Tom & Kathleen took us back to the Walmart where we promised to keep in touch, and while the Andersons headed home Miss Laurie pick up some needed supplies as we will be at the Arboretum tomorrow.

Day 22 – 118 miles: Not a bad nights sleep for a Walmart parking lot, maybe because of being a Sunday night, not sure but reasonably quiet for a Walmart. It will be a quick breakfast this morning as we start our last day of our trek west, today will have is trans versing the Salt River canyon which is an amazing drive for the views, maybe a little hard on the brake system and my nerves but each time it seems a little bit easier and better. This route looks crazy on a map but is the most direct route to our destination, saving close to one hundred miles, and providing a beautiful drive. After exiting the Salt River canyon we pass through Globe, Miami, Top of the World, Superior and finally make our winter destination at the arboretum.

Looking back on the last three weeks we have so many different feelings, the joy of spending time with friends, the horror of watching both windshield fold into our coach, the boredom of waiting for the new windshields, to the rollercoaster of weather snow storms to tornado warnings, missing many of our planned stops in New Mexico and Arizona, it has not been a journey for anyone weak at heart.