A GOOD FIRST DAY ON THE ROAD…..BUT, NO INTERNET YET:((

THIS IS MY HAPPY RVING FACE TODAY:))
Saturday November 12th 2011……..As expected, we ran into some unexpected problems hooking up our Verizon equipment Saturday night!!
Hauled my frame out of the recliner for the last time this year at 4:28 a.m. Saturday morning.   Surprisingly, Kelly was already up and had coffee brewing.  Lots to do and everything single thing was last minute stuff…again.  Still dark outside under a clear starry sky as we loaded the last few things into the rig.  Big bright moon.  Pre-ignition and systems check at 6 a.m. with main ignition 35 minutes later.  Lift off at 6:38 a.m.  We are finally underway.  Destination….the great American Southwest:)

<<< OUR ANNUAL MORNING DEPARTURE PHOTOS
Unlike like last years snow and fog on the way to the border we had a beautiful morning going for us.  Not cold, cloudy or raining.  Fiery sunrise into a clear blue sky.  Reached the four lane highway 402 at 7:45 and the border at 8:05.  It will either be Jacksboro or St. Jo Texas before we get to set our wheels back on a good old secondary two lane highway again.  I will answer the question of why I prefer this route over going through St. Louis, Oklahoma City, etc in a later post.
Thought we were cooked at the border crossing for sure because the lane we picked had a young male border officer checking each vehicle closely.  Opening car doors and trunks for a look see.  Sent the SUV two vehicles ahead of us to the guard house.  Figured for sure he was the kinda guy to pink slip us for an agriculture check for sure.  But no, just the standard dozen questions or so and he handed our passports back and waved us through with a, “have a good day folks.”
 
 
IT’S QUITE A SNUGGLY CREW WE HAVE ABOARD:))
We barely had time to savor our good fortune when just a quarter mile from the border we were siphoned off down a ramp into what turned out be a long and poorly marked detour through the very heart of downtown of Port Huron.  Road work was apparently being done on I-69 but we eventually found our way back to the Interstate without any wrong turns. 
We had heard there was some confusing road construction around Lansing Michigan but we never did see any.  Picked up I-94 and headed for Kalamazoo.  Made a couple Rest Area doggy pit stops along the way and the guys did fine.  Pheebs was so excited at every stop she nearly jumped out of her fur.  We noticed a big change in Motormouse too.  She was so happy to be traveling again because at each Rest Area she was out running around like a happy little puppy dog.  It was fun to watch both her and the Pheebs playing together.
 
We reached our day’s Wal-Mart destination of Benton Harbor shortly after 2.  Way to early to be coming off the road for us but we slipped in for some groceries while we were there anyway.  This was the same place we stayed on our first night a year ago.
Back on the road we continued west for another hour and a half to Gary Indiana.  Kelly had found a Cracker Barrel using our ‘Next Exit’ book so figured that’s where we would do our overnighter.  This location turned out to be a bonus find because Cracker Barrel is right next door to the nicely landscaped and state of the art Indiana Welcome Center.   There is even a small lake here.  Even found a large vacant parking area for the guys to rip and tear around.  You can actually see the excitement in their little doggy eyes.  The Welcome Center had a very impressive Christmas theme going on inside based on the movie, ‘The Christmas Story.’  I will include more pics of this display in the days leading up to Christmas.

 
OUR OVERNIGHT SPOT BEHIND CRACKER BARREL AND THE INDIANA WELCOME CENTER
A great supper at Cracker Barrel with Kelly having some of those shrimp things and Al having a yummy open faced roast beef sandwich including mashed potatoes and gravy.  Mashed potatoes and gravy sure beats the heck out of Shrimp things in my book.  At the moment I am typing this in our rig parked directly behind Cracker Barrel.  Both Motor and the Pheebs are sound asleep from all their tearing around today.  Pheebs is right beside me on my bed and Motor is curled up in my fleece lined blue jean jacket.  My bed is not wide enough for both Pheebs and I so this will be the first night she will not be able to sleep with me on my bed.  She will have to get used to her own padded doggy bed on the floor.  Motor will sleep on one of our two chair.  We’ll see how our first night goes.  We all have a lot of adjusting to do now that we are on the road.  It’s all a part of being a Snow Bird:))
In the morning we will slip over to a nearby McDonald’s before hitting the road and see if we can check our email and maybe get this blog posted.    Right now our Verizon router is in the process of charging and we are hoping that is all our problem is.  We’ll know tomorrow. (update)  It’s 4:30 Sunday morning and Kelly just got us online) 

THIS INDIANA WELCOME CENTER HAS A CRACKER BARREL RIGHT BESIDE IT AND THIS IS WHERE WE ARE FOR OUR FIRST OVERNIGHTER:))
We are currently being buffeted by wind gusts and did hear on the 6 o’clock news there will be a wind advisory in this area tomorrow.  Yep, sure is good to be back on the road again alright…….10-4:))  I’ll get Groaner’s Corner up and running later today.

ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO, WE ARE ON THE LAUNCH PAD AND THE COUNTDOWN IS ON…..T MINUS 10:))

WE ARE SOOOOOOO READY TO RUMBLE……….

We started the morning off in pouring rain but it soon turned to sleet and light snow for a short while.  It didn’t deter us from our morning walk though as Pheebe and I made our way around the trail.  Stopped for a few thoughts at my favourite young Maple tree and then wrapped up our last Pine forest morning walk for the year.  Yes it’s true…….I talk to trees:))

A SKIFF OF SNOW ON THE TRAIL THIS MORNING AND THE PHEEBS HAS AN APPLE IN HER MOUTH

  

A YOUNG OAK TREE GROWING OUT OF A LARGE OAK STUMP…….AND SLEET ON THE MORNING PATH  

It was a day of cleaning, doing laundry, organizing and rearranging.  We do not shut our place down completely so we put a big thermometer in the window for our neighbour to see because we always leave a bit of heat on.  For anyone doing this it is very important to put fresh batteries in your thermostat.  We didn't do that last year and when the batteries failed in both our electric furnace and remote powered gas fireplace stove at the same time the temps dropped low enough to kill all our indoor plants.  Luckily, the fellow who regularly checks our place caught the problem before any damage was done to our pipes.  A very close call, so be sure to put new batteries in your thermostats folks.
 

YEP, I’D SAY WE ARE GETTING OUT OF HER JUST IN TIME ALRIGHT

Still no idea just where we are headed for first in the southwest but I finally do have an idea on which route we will take when leaving here in just a matter of hours.  Decided to follow our tracks from last year and make our first overnight stop in Benton Harbor Michigan.  Sunday morning we will slip into Gary Indiana on the east side of Chicago, change direction and pick up I-57 heading south down to Effingham Illinois.  Reaching Effingham puts us back onto our old tried and true southern route for the southwest.  We will continue south on I-57 joining I-55 south to the west side of Memphis and the Mississippi River.  We will make the big swing down the Interstate ramp onto I-40 pointing the rig's nose directly at the southwest.  I always look forward to this spot either coming or going in our travels because it is a major change of direction and roughly marks the half way point for us.

PICKED UP THIS LITTLE $3 WALL MOUNTED LAMP AT THE GOODWILL STORE LAST WEEK…..MUCH BETTER THAN THE TIPPY FLOOR LAMP WE USED TO HAVE
Don't want to dwell on this but just want to say thank you to all the folks who have stuck with my blog these past difficult seven and a half months.  I have very much appreciated your support, patience and understanding.  Now, let's see if we can get out there and find us a big breath of fresh air and some new adventures:))

WHEN IT BEGAN TO SNOW AGAIN THIS AFTERNOON I THOUGHT……OH OH!!

Left the History channel on TV all day and found myself continuously drawn to the screen watching programs dealing with the 'Days Of Remembrance.'  Our power went out for about an hour beginning at 10:40 a.m.   At 11 a.m. I was in the Motor Home with the radio on listening to 'In Flanders Fields.'  Years ago in my reading days, the bulk of my reading for many years had to do with factual accounts of the wars.  Maybe that is why I joined the Canadian Navy at age 20.  I remember last year on November 11th at 11 a.m. in the morning we were westbound on I-10 somewhere between Deming and Lordsburg New Mexico.

DECIDED TO TAKE OUR SUN ROOM’S GREEN RECLINER THIS YEAR INSTEAD OF THE SECOND RED POANG CHAIR….KELLY WILL USE IT AND I WILL STILL USE MY RED CHAIR WHICH I REALLY LIKE EVEN THOUGH IT DOESN’T RECLINE

About 3:30 this afternoon I hooked the Jeep up to the back of the Motor Home.  Good thing I remembered how because the last time I hooked it up was nearly 8 months ago  before leaving a campground near Canyon de Chelly in north-eastern Arizona.  Took the rig and Jeep for a test run and everything checked out fine.  Parked it with the door opening into the driveway where we can load up the final things in the morning and that’s it.  We are ready to go……….. at last:))

TAKING THE MOTOR HOME AND JEEP FOR A TEST RUN THIS AFTERNOON AND KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON THINGS IN THE REAR VIEW CAM >>>

If by chance you do not see a blog from me Saturday night or Sunday morning it probably will just mean we have had a few technical problems re-activating our Verizon Internet card.  Kelly doesn't feel there will be a problem but I am always a bit more sceptical when it comes to a lot of this new space age techno stuff.  In my world, Mr. Murphy is always just around the corner waiting to mess me up……10-4:))

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A sweet young thing who has just been shopping is pulled over by a traffic cop and given a ticket for speeding. Rather than fight the ticket, the woman writes a check for the amount of the fine and puts it in the mail.
However, the young woman is anxious. Her husband always examines her checkbook carefully, and she doesn't want him to know about the incident.
Then inspiration strikes, and she scribbles on the check stub: "One pullover, $125."

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-Tourists see the world, travelers  experience it.
-Until one has loved an Animal, their  soul remains un-awakened.
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The only thing better than right now  will someday be the memories of
right  now...AL.