Snowbird Journal

Day 3—Oct 27, 2008
Well gang it got a little nippy last night in El Reno. We awoke to 29 chilly degree’s.
When I woke up at 3:30 AM freezing I was sure that Betsy had left her window open, but no it was just that cold. Our little heater couldn’t keep up. I unhooked the electric, cable, sewer, and the water hose in the dark. It’s a real treat to try and stuff a half frozen hose into the small storage compartment about the size of two shoeboxes! Next we headed to the motel for the promised hot breakfast. Sure enough it was there and pretty good too. After breakfast we hit the road and the sun still hadn’t come up. We made real good time and rolled into Amarillo about noon. After a brief stop at the Texas Tourist Info Center we found our way to two special attractions. Those are covered in The Special Edition of Oct 27th below.
After Amarillo we found Hwy 60 which cut’s SW over to Clovis, NM. Son In Law, Jim who has made several trips from Tucson to Erie, PA swears that cutting diagonal thru NM is quicker that following I-25 from Las Cruces to Albuquerque. Plus you get off the interstate and see places such as Hereford, TX (Beef Capital of the World) and Friona, TX (Cheeseburger Capital of the World). We also saw several cattle feedlot’s, one must have been a mile long and a quarter mile wide. Luckily we were upwind on that one.
They grow millet down here. The only thing Betsy and I know about millet is that it’s in birdseed, but they must also be feeding it to cattle. We arrived in Clovis and found the NM Tourist Center and ask the nice lady about RV Parks in Clovis. She said there were a couple in Clovis but she really wasn’t recommending them, but on the way to Portales there was the Wagon Wheel RV Park and it would be better. After a brief WalMart stop (the first of this trip) we found the Wagon Wheel RV Park and believe me folks it was pretty grim. Several of the sites where obviously occupied by permanent residents, one trailer even had a rather fancy wheelchair ramp. Obviously that puppy wasn’t going anywhere soon. And to boot the place had no bathroom or shower facilities. We were about to head back to Clovis to find the real crappy campgrounds when Betsy remembered that there was a state park close by. We found it and the campsite and facilities are great. Also the park ranger grew up in New Castle, IN. Plus we finally found Nowhere. I’m not positive that we’re in the middle of Nowhere, but we have to be close. There are about 30 campsites and 3 are occupied—one by us, one by an ex Marine and proud NRA member, and the last site is the campground host. I’m sure he’s enrolled in the Federal Witness Protection Plan. I was hoping to watch either the Colts game or the World Series but couldn’t find a TV signal with our antenna. No TV for Jamie tonight. Way out here in the high desert I expect to see Clint Eastwood ride over the hill any minute now. The stars should be spectacular tonight. Don’t forget to look at the Special Edition for the special attractions that we saw today. It should be below.
Disclaimer: The comments written by my traveling companion are not necessarily accurate and may be slightly to greatly embellished and should in no way reflect badly on me. Betsy

Snowbird Journal

Day 3—Oct 27, 2008 Special Edition

I’m trying to get better at this leisure travel deal. You know, the stop and smell the roses thing. When we were in OK we could have stopped at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum. I guess that I’ll always wonder if Dick the Bruiser was a hall of fame member and just what in the heck do you put in a wrestling museum or the gift shop. Or we could have stopped at any one of the 37 Route 66 museum’s that were advertised along I-40. But I didn’t and now it’s too late.

The other day I was looking at the map and the Amarillo area in particular. Now the only thing that I know about Amarillo is that it’s home to The Big Texan steak house. It’s a restaurant that serves a 72-ounce steak with the trimmings and the hook is that if you can eat all of it in 1 hour it’s free. When Betsy and I took Jeff to Flagstaff we stopped at the place and ate. We did see an uncooked 72-ounce steak and it was freakishly huge. If I remember correctly the place was rather seedy. But heck it’s only been there for a hundred years.

Anyway, I’m looking at the map and see Cadillac Ranch just west of Amarillo. I’m always interested in Cadillac’s so I look the place up on the web. I thought it might be a ranch where there were a lot of Cadillac’s with big horn’s attached to the hood along with six guns on the fenders, etc, etc. Heck no, it’s the place where someone partially buried 10 old Cadillac’s front bumper down and all at exactly the same angle of tilt. It’s sorta
like a vehicular Stonehenge. So anyway we tool on out there expecting maybe a little museum, or plaques describing the creative process of this major work of American art.
There was nothing of the sort. The ten caddies are in the middle of a millet field about a hundred yards back from a frontage road that parallels I-40 eastbound. There is a gate that you open and walk through, and then you just follow the path through the millet field to the cars. Over the years people have put all sorts of graffiti on the cars. While I took pictures Betsy added the following inscription on one of the cars—“On this day, Oct 27th, 2008 Starship Avion landed at this site. The crewmembers, Jamie, Betsy, and Tipper bring greetings from a galaxy far, far away.” I’m glad she didn’t have any pot or we’d be out there yet. Later on in the day, while Betsy was in WalMart I learned that the angle that the cars were tilted was exactly the same as the Cheops pyramid in Egypt. Now it all makes sense!! And we took the time to see it. I’m so proud.

Amy alerted me to our second special attraction. It’s in Canyon, TX just south of Amarillo. Kimbrough Memorial Stadium. Has a nice ring to it. Except that memorial part. That’s usually not a good thing. The stadium is associated with West Texas A&M, and is the largest of all Division II schools. But look, another concrete white buffalo just outside the stadium. First we see a concrete white buffalo in Chelsea, OK and now another one in Canyon, TX. And just after we’ve been to the Cadillac Ranch. It’s all coming together now. I’m telling you this trip is getting more and more mystical. Instead of Snowbird Journal we should re-name this portion of the blog the White Buffalo Magical Mystery Journey of Blissful Sedation. Wow what a day of adventure and excitement. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. We’re in luck. Our first stop will be Roswell, NM. Alien spaceships and Area 51!! Lordy, Lordy, Lordy.

Arizona Snowbirds

Oct 26th
We actually slept in a little later than normal. I don’t think I realized how much my recent “procedure” took out of me. Yesterday my voice was strained and my lungs seemed wheezy, but today I feel better. We got back on I-44 and headed toward OK.
I think that most of the political pundits are calling MO a toss up state, but based on the yard signs it will be McCain winning. I did not see one Obama sign from Lebanon to the state line. Once we were in OK we got off I-44 at Vinita and took Route 66 into the Tulsa area. What a treat to tool along The Mother Road as Steinbeck called it. And to make it even more special was to be pulling a vintage trailer. We were going through Chelsea when we found this old store with all the animal figures. We had to go back and take a couple of pictures. If any of you are looking for that special accent piece for your bedroom, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with this fine establishment. Remember, nothin’ says lovin’ like a concrete life size buffalo. While we were between Tulsa and Oklahoma City the wind really picked up from the north. On top of the wind problem we also found THE WORST concrete road in the U.S. It’s I-40 just outside Oklahoma City. Rough as a cob. Between the rotten road surface and the wind we were forced to reduce speed to about 50 mph. We had decided that we wanted to stay on the west side of Oklahoma City so that we didn’t have to mess with rush hour traffic tomorrow. We have checked into a Good Sam campground in El Reno. This campground has a new wrinkle. It’s owed by the same people that operate the Best Western Motel next door and the RV people also get a free hot breakfast in the motel. We’ve never run into that deal before. The motel/RV empire has you check in at the motel and while there a big Halliburton crew checked in. With all the publicity regarding Halliburton you would think they might want to go low key. No way. The crewmembers were all wearing red overalls with white reflector stripes. And of course the name Halliburton was plastered all over everything.

Arizona Snowbirds

October 25th
Finally, we are headed for AZ (again). As you can see from picture #1 we have a new way of securing the door when we’re on the road. Not very high tech but it seems to work. We made it to Lebanon, MO where our friends, Kay and Ernie live. Kay was attending a scrapbooking event close to Bennett Springs State Park so we elected to stay there. The park operates a hatchery and releases trout and bass into the stream that flows through the park. We were amazed at the number of fly fishermen. According to Kay and Ernie, when the season starts in the spring the fishermen stand shoulder to shoulder on each side of the stream. We ate at a barbeque place and the food was excellent, but being with Kay and Ernie was the real treat.

Cayo / RV Hall of Fame

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
True to his word, Chuck arrived at the shop around 7 AM and immediately started working on our funny looking door. When I first walked into the shop Chuck and his dad were rolling a door jig from the back storage area. It was THE jig that was used when our trailer was first built! We came to the right place. Chuck said that the repairs would take about 5 hours so we decided to have breakfast in town. From Watervliet we headed to Elkhart and the RV Hall of Fame. What a fantastic place. If you have any interest in campers, trailers, RV’s this is a must see. We also ran into Al H. the museum historian who we had met at the Tin Can Tourist Rally in May at Camp Dearborn, MI.
What a great source of information! Since we had him cornered I took the opportunity to ask several questions about the RV industry that I had always wondered about.
At about noon we headed back to Watervliet to see how Chuck was doing. When we arrived he was just finishing up. The “new” door looks great. He used the old jig to reshape the inner pan and replace the aluminum skin. He even gave us a bungie cord to fasten the door shut while moving, just in case. Since I have another Dr. appointment on Monday we’re headed back to Columbus yet again. Yes, ladies and gentlemen we will attempt to make another trip and see if this time we can reach our destination without incident! Arrived home about 8 PM with no problems.
Top Photo--Chuck Cayo doing his thing.
Second Photo--Ta Da It's Magic!
Third Photo--Betsy's favorite Yellowstone exterior
Bottom Photo--Yellowstone dinette area

Cayo/ Watervliet Here We Come!

Monday--Oct 6, 2008
A lot of Sunday early AM was spent on the internet seeing if we could find a replacement door or finding someone to repair the damaged one. We also drove to Seymour to look at used trailers. We found a 1989 32ft Avion that we might keep in mind if worse comes to worst. The rest of Sunday was spent watching the Colt’s and the race at Talledaga. I did finally pry my butt out of the recliner and went out to the trailer and re-oiled all the woodwork.
Today my first call was to Chuck Cayo in Watervliet, MI. Chucks grandfather started the Avion Co., and Chuck and his dad still have a repair shop that caters to Avion owners. I told him what had happened and he said he wasn’t surprised—apparently the door locks on some of the early models are not that great. Luckily he doesn’t have anything pressing at this time so he has agreed to do the work tomorrow. He’s rebuilt a couple of doors in his lifetime and anticipates that it should take about 5 or 6 hours. So the plan is to head to his shop today, spend the night next to the shop, and then have the work done. Betsy and Tipper are with me since it didn’t make sense to drive all the way back to Columbus. We’ll just head to Tucson by way of Michigan!! Isn’t that the way everyone does it?
“Houston, we have a problem.” Are you kidding me? Enough already!!! We were driving on US 31 around Carmel and I heard a clunk from the passenger front wheel well.
We drove to a gas station and I checked under the hood, in the wheel well, rechecked all the trailer connections but found nothing. So off we go again. We’re tooling along and now we hear a scraping sound as the wheel rotates, but then it quits. The brakes aren’t affected nor the steering. To find out what’s going on we’ve stopped at a Dodge dealer in Kokomo. We’ve detached the trailer and we’re waiting in the trailer in the back lot. Of course we get here just before noon so nothing will happen for the next hour or so.
Does Comfort Inn and Southwest Airlines offer some sort of program where you buy a lifetime deal? Oh, I about forget. We’ve seen a couple old Airstreams going south. One rather large Airstream was being pulled by a 1980’s era Jaguar! I didn’t know that was even possible. Wonder what auto service center he’s in.
According to our new best friend, Mike the service tech, our left side wheel bearing is shot. From prior experience I already knew that you couldn’t just buy a wheel bearing.
It’s now a wheel bearing assembly, as in more dollars. We were just thankful that they had the parts needed. This is the second time we’ve been on the road with the trailer when we’ve had a mechanical issue. It’s really sort of nice to be able to spend the 4 to 7 hours it takes to complete the repair in your trailer instead of the waiting room. We finally arrived at Watervliet at about 7:30 PM.
No pictures today!

Oct 4, 2008 !!!!!!!!OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

Things were going so well on our first day of travel to Arizona. Everything was packed, double checked, and all arrangements made to be gone a few months. We were just west of Indianapolis when I looked in the right outside mirror. Something didn't look correct. Couldn't quite figure out what wasn't right, but there was something different. I ask Betsy to take a look, and she commented that the door appeared to be open!! I pulled over on the shoulder of I-70 and she jumped out and ran back to shut the door. I saw her lock it, slam it shut, and pull on it to see if it would open. It didn't budge. So off we go again. Not a half mile down the road it blew open again and slammed into the side of the trailer. We stopped at the next exit and figured at the worst we would have to tie the door shut for the rest of our journey. We were totally unprepared for the damage that had been done. The outer skin had a huge dent, the door itself had been bent where the door stop on the side of the trailer had hit it. The upper and lower corners of the door had been forced out when the center of the door was forced in by the door stop. Consequently the door wouldn't shut totally. After a few hammer blows we were finally able to almost shut the door, but the upper and lower corners still protruded and would act as wind catchers. We duct taped the door shut. It wasn't pretty but it worked. Our first call was to Dan who sold us the trailer, but he doesn't stock old parts. He confirmed my feeling that we should get in touch with Chuck C. in Watervaliet, MI. Chuck runs a vintage trailer shop, and his family started the Avion Co. Unfortunately he isn't open on Saturday. We decided that we'd head back to Columbus and figure out what to do from home.
When home I found on the internet a listing of salvage RV shops and called one in Carthage, MO, another in Phoenix, and three or four in northern IN. No luck, but some didn't answer probably because it was Saturday. I guess we'll wait until Monday and then call Chuck to see what advice he has. There is another possibility that our friends Kay and Ernie have a neighbor that might be able to make the repairs. We've e-mailed pictures to let him see the damage. We'll keep you updated. Ah, the joy of vintage trailering. Tippy likes the campground we're in tonight--it looks just like home.