The Sandcastle

Every now and then my GPS decides it has worked hard enough for now so it takes a break. As in refuses to turn on. Or, if it is already on, it turns itself off. Today it decided not to turn on when I was ready to leave the rest stop just before KCMO and KCK.

For those of you who didn’t grow up listening to Midwest radio stations, that’s Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. Another set of twin cities separated mostly by attitude.

As places go, that was not a bad place for it to decide to take a break. All I had to do was follow the signs to stay on I-35 all the way through the metro area, out the other side, and about halfway to Emporia, Kansas. I could do that with my eyes closed. OK, not really. It is hazardous to drive with your eyes closed. But you know what I mean. I’ve been down this route  enough to not panic about my GPS taking a break.

So about 5:00 I pulled into a Corps of Engineers park. I was thrilled to see the gates to the campground be open. But surprised to see the registration fees were only applicable through September 30th. OK, likely that means no water. I did not expect it to mean no electricity either. But I have a level, pull-through spot overlooking Malvern Lake and it’s late and I’m tired of driving.

The wifi signal here is weak but plugging in my antenna brought it up to acceptable speed so I can compute.

My batteries are 100% charged so I can reheat lunch leftovers in the microwave for supper and charge electronics when their batteries get low.

It is 83° in here. The forecast low tonight is 37°. That’s nearly 40°, right? It should stay warm in here until at least bedtime, right? Then I can run my furnace until it goes haywire (which appears to be about 5 hours) then have enough residual heat to get me through the night, right?

I sure hope so, because I am staying. I need a break.

TTYL,

Linda

I didn’t get to decide when to leave Minneapolis. I wasn’t actually ready to go. I hadn’t done my typical route planning.

All I knew was Mason City, Iowa, was probably going to be my first night’s stop and I should buy diesel before crossing the border into Iowa since they are big on bio-diesel there and I can’t put more than 5% bio in my tank without risking damage to my engine.

So I left mid-day Thursday, bought 5% biodiesel in Albert Lea, Minnesota, and drove to the Walmart in Mason City as planned. Then I started looking at routes from there.

I could so southeast from there to my hometown to visit my Dad and share with him some old pictures that just came into my possession. That would also put me en route to the original Lambert’s restaurant which I’ve just learned is managed by a nephew I haven’t seen since he was about three years old. One of my cousins was in town last weekend and he told me he always stops there when in the area. Calling first means my nephew rounds up his mom so I could visit with her, too, if I went that way. That route would also put me going through Little Rock, Arkansas, where I could probably meet up with Carolyn of http://amigoingsomeplace.blogspot.com. That sounds like a great trip, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, my RV had a different plan. My furnace has decided it does not have to listen to its thermostat. Turn the furnace on and it runs just fine. And runs. And runs. I woke up in the middle of the night to discover it was 78° in here! No wonder I was tossing off covers! The only way to cool it back down was to turn off the furnace. Which worked really well. I woke up shivering.

So, again I don’t get to make the decision. I must move south where I won’t need the furnace until I can get that thermostat fixed. Bummer!

In the meantime, no more Walmart overnights. I need power to plug in my electric heater. Sure hope IT work right tonight.

TTYL,

Linda

The leaves here in the Minneapolis Metro Area are beautiful colors. Which means we have been having warm days with cool nights.

The forecast for the next few days have the temperatures dropping some more with most DAYS being good sleeping temperature while continuing to have at least some rain. Which means my solar panels are getting not quite fully charged every day.

No, I’m not living in my RV yet but I have been stocking the freezer in preparation for departure and my refrigerator draws its energy from my solar panels.

The freezer in my 7 cubic foot refrigerator has one shelf. On it are two bags of frozen fruit for making smoothies and two trays of ice cubes. Below the shelf I have placed two double retainer bars making a cage of the lower section. That section is full of precooked meats in individual serving size packages and I doubt I could get much more food into that freezer.

The forecast last night said our liquid sunshine could turn into the white flaky stuff Saturday night.

Tomorrow the rain here is  supposed to start in the afternoon. The rain in Mason City, Iowa, is not supposed to start until evening. So I should be able to drive at least that far tomorrow without having to drive in rain.

It is time to go.

TTYL,

Linda

One of the advantages of living in an RV is, if the neighbors do something that keeps you awake when you want to be sleeping, you can move to a different spot. That’s a bit harder to do when you live in an apartment.

That’s one of the reasons we chose a top floor apartment this time around. We no longer appreciate the pitter patter of little feet overhead.

Now, don’t get me wrong. The apartment we live in is well insulated. We rarely hear anything from any of our neighbor apartments. If I happen to be in the bathroom when the folks below are bathing their little ones I hear happy voices coming up the vent shaft but that’s not a sound I would complain about.

Now we do hear sounds outside that come in through our windows. Like when they mow the grass in the mornings before I get up.

But, can you imagine my puzzlement when I woke up in the wee hours of the morning a couple of nights ago to the sound of snow shoveling? It’s September! But it sounded to me like a metal shovel scraping on a concrete sidewalk. But, we have no concrete outside our windows. The emergency vehicle access drive is asphalt and everything else is grass or brush. Then the noise stopped and I went back to sleep.

The next day Dave and I talked about the noise. He said he thought it sounded like someone plastering a wall. And he heard vacuuming, too. And we both heard some thumps and bumps as well.

Yesterday Dave went down to the office to pick up some packages delivered there for me. And he got the story of the odd sounds.

It seems someone in the apartment below us flushed a toilet then went back to sleep. And slept soundly enough to not realize the toilet was still running–from the tank into the bowl. And right on out of the bowl. Running enough that when someone from the apartment below them went into their bathroom they found it raining in there.

Those odd sounds were maintenance coping with the mess. Walls, floors and a ceiling need to be replaced. The occupants are temporarily in a different apartment. And the fans are running day and night.

Still the sound of the fans is better than the sounds of snow shoveling. Or having it rain in your bathroom. Another reason we are glad to be on the top floor.

TTYL,

Linda

In 2007, after Dave retired, we decided we would try being a one car family. We sold our 1998 Honda Accord to a former co-worker. He just emailed us to say he sold that car to the daughter of another former coworker. That makes it feel like it has stayed in the “family”.

 

About a year after we sold the Accord we decided we’d sell everything else and move into an RV. So we sold our PT Cruiser to other friends. We met those friends for lunch the other day and they arrived in the Cruiser.

It feels good to know we helped friends as we downsized. Just as they helped us fund our travels. Win-win, right?

TTYL,

Linda