Attacked!!!!

We have seen lots of wildlife on this trip: bison, elk, brown bears, black bears, coyotes, mountain goats and big horn sheep, to name a few. With all these wildlife encounters I guess it is inevitable that one would eventually turn on us. However I was unprepared for the attack of the dryocopus pileatus. D. pileatus, otherwise known as the pileated woodpecker, is normally a shy and reclusive bird. The Canadian variety is apparently bolder and does not like good ol' boys from down south.

We had returned to the coach from an excursion in Jasper, and when I opened the door, there was a loud scratching and scurrying noise from the back of the coach. My first thought was that a squirrel had gotten in and was trying to claw his way out. I rushed to the rear of the coach and found Woody clinging to the outside of the coach, pecking on the rear bedroom window. This is the same window we had just replaced in February this year. CRAP! I ran outside and tried to shoo him away, but he was a stubborn and determined old bird.  I actually had to brush him off with my hand. Our windows have a highly reflective surface, and he was apparently either enamored with or behaving aggressively toward his own reflection. Each time I chased him away, he flew to a nearby tree and glared at me. As soon as I turned my back he was on the coach again. After going around and around with him for about half an hour Woody gave up and left. Thankfully there was no damage to the window, although he did tear off three weep hole covers cemented to the bottom of the window frame. Thankfully, these are easy to repair.

It was a terrifying experience, but I was brave, stood my ground and protected my family and the coach. Score 1 for the good ol' boys.

Jasper National Park

We left Lake Louise under dreary skies and continued northwest on highway 93 towards Jasper. We soon entered the Icefields Parkway, touted as one of the most scenic drives in North America. I'll go with that. It traverses the spine of the Canadian Rockies and tops out at the Icefield Centre, which offers commanding views of the Colombia Icefield, and several large glaciers. From there one can take a snow coach out onto the surface of the glacier. We saw several black bears from the road. Black bear sightings along the road have become pretty common lately, so I won't bore you with a series of bear pictures .. well maybe a few. At a pull-off we met a couple traveling to Alaska from Greensboro. Small world. After the Icefield Centre the highway gradually descended and, after traveling about 145 miles, we arrived in Jasper AB. We set up camp in Whistlers Campground for two nights. Whistlers CG is HUGE, with 781 sites. However, once you are parked it doesn't seem so big. All the sites are wooded and spaced widely apart. The washroom in our loop was closed because the pipes were frozen. Dorcas went through the woods trying to find the one in the next loop and got lost. My navigator.


The sun came out and we explored the town of Jasper, which is very pretty. The Canadian Pacific Railway
has some major operations there, and while we were there the VIA Rail Canada train was in. It has observation cars with roof-top perches. That looks like a very interesting way to tour the country. We took some short hikes around Jasper and a road trip out to Maligne Lake. Along the way we saw big horn sheep and elk.
No shortage of wildlife in these parts.

In case you can't tell, this is a different bear than above! No more bear pics for a while.

Those Wacky Canadians!

We have been in Canada a few days now and have noticed that there are a few differences between Canadians and normal people.

1.  Canadians are really nice folks.  They are friendly and orderly and always follow the rules.  Canadians never cross the street against the "DON"T WALK" signal, even if the light is green in their direction and no traffic is coming.  It is very annoying.

2.  Canadians end their sentences with "hey" while normal people begin their sentences with "hey".  Example: Myron: Hey, how about a beer?  Jacques: How about a beer, hey?

3.  They use funny numbers.  I can't figure out how fast I am driving or how far it is to our next stop.  I can't figure out if our motor home will safely pass under the overpass ahead, or if the bridge will support the weight of our coach.  And how cold is it outside, anyway?  And how many litres does it take to fill a 135 gallon diesel tank?  Too damn many!

4.  They use funny money.  All the bills are different colors, and they have coins called "Loonies" and "Toonies".  We are not fighting it; we charge everything.  Who needs cash anyway?

5. They have funny road signs.  I'll talk more about this in a future post. 

6.  They have two national languages.  What's up with that?  Why not just pick one? At every National Park station they say "Hello.  Bonjour".  I don't know how to answer, so I just say :"Buenos dios."  Uh, wait a minute. The USA will be bilingual in another 10 years.  Never mind.

7.  Even when they use English they do it all wrong.  They misspell common words like "colour" and "centre".  OK, that probably comes honestly from their British heritage.  But, hey, "Walmart Supercentre"???  You shouldn't mess with a proper noun!

Banff National Park

On Saturday morning we drove through Calgary where we topped off our fuel tank at a Flying J .  Fuel prices would be significantly higher as we crossed the Rockies.  We turned west and got on the Trans-Canada Highway headed towards Banff National Park.  That's when we fully appreciated that we had entered Canada at the beginning of their spring 3-day holiday, Victoria Day.  Kinda like Memorial Day weekend in the US.  Calgary has about 1,000,000 residents.  999,000 were headed to Banff for the weekend.  The drive up the Bow River valley into Banff was gorgeous, in spite of the traffic.  At the boundary gate into the national park we learned that the entry fee was almost $10 per day per person.  Yikes!  We told the ranger we didn't know how long we would be in the park, but would be camping in Banff for a night or two.  He said fine; when we checked in at the campground we could buy the entrance permit there.  However, when we bought our camping permit, the ranger had no real interest in selling us a park entry permit.  She said we could probably get by without it and not to worry about it ("But don't tell anyone I said that").  Fine with me.  We paid for a site with 30A electric for two nights at the Village II campground.  The campground was fairly busy, but we scored a very nice site on a small ridge. The scenery was outstanding.  There were magnificent peaks all around us.  The wildlife in the
park was abundant, but not particularly varied: mule deer, elk and Colombian ground squirrels.  There were a LOT of ground squirrels. 

We set up camp about lunch time and went to town to explore Banff.  Big mistake.  Wall-to wall Calgarites (Calgarians?).  We gave up on town and hiked Tunnel Mountain, which offered outstanding views of town, and the Bow River valley.  We also walked on the river walk on the Bow River.  I had been told that our DirecTV service would end once we got about 100-200 miles north of the Canadian border. We are more than 100 miles north of the border and so far DTV is doing well.  On our second day in Banff we hiked some short trails near the campground.  We did a loop trail around the camp sites and hiked to the "Hoo Doos".  We drove to the Bow River Falls, which was very impressive.  We also drove the loop road around the golf course, which we were told was a good place to spot wildlife.  It was fun watching the elk on the fairways and watching the golfers try to figure out how to play around them.  Finally,we walked up to the Banff Springs Hotel, which is a beautiful and massive structure.

This morning we moved about 58 "kilometres" to Lake Louise, still in the Banff National Park.  Don't ask me

how far that really is.  We are camped in the Trailer CG, just outside Lake Louise village.  We drove up to Lake Louise to explore the area.  We hiked the Lakeside trail to the far end of the lake, where we were delighted to watch small avalanches falling off the mountain on the far side of the lake.  We also attempted an ill-fated hike to Mirror Lake and Lake Agnes.  The trail was snow-covered, but we had instep crampons, gaiters and hiking sticks ... in the car.  Oh well we have hiked on worse snow-covered trails before.  The going was pretty easy and gentle, and we were about half way up the mountain when I realized that my polarizer filter had fallen off my lens. CRAP.  We decided to turn around and search for it on the way back down.  Soon we met a mother and her two teen-aged children.  They had found my polarizer.  YEAH!  We could have turned back around then and headed back up the hill, but we decided to cut our losses and head back to the lake. Finally, we went into the Chateau Lake Louise which is very luxurious.

Oh Canada

On Thursday morning we left Yellowstone National Park and headed north into Montana.  We were bound for Conestoga Campground in White Sulphur Springs MT, only about 130 miles away.  We would like to have gone further this day, but this was a fairly necessary stop.  There were no dump facilities at Mammoth CG, and we had not dumped our waste tanks or taken on fresh water since we left home two weeks ago.  We also needed to do some laundry and take some time to make some plans.  We still had not determined our route across Canada and into Alaska. Being flexible is good, but sooner or later you need to decide where the heck you are going!  

Conestoga Campground was very nice.  It had long pull-through sites with 50A electrical service and full hook ups, meaning water and sewer.  It was on the edge of town, two blocks from main street (it's a small town), but also on the edge of the cattle district.  Our hosts were super folks.  Conestoga Campground is a Passport America park, meaning we score half price camping. Cool!

Dorcas and I discussed our options for getting to Alaska.  We had once considered taking the Alaska Marine Highway up the inside passage, but had resisted that plan because we knew it would be very expensive.  However, on this day we were feeling extravagant.  Dorcas went on the web, researched some routes, estimated the fares for our coach, car w/canoe, passengers and the pup, and we made a plan.  We would sail from Prince Rupert, BC and de-boat at Ketchikan AK, Juneau AK and Petersburg AK, for 1-3 nights at each stop.  We would then end our cruise at Haines AK.  We could not make our reservations online, due to the complexity of our caravan, so Dorcas made the call and booked our passage on the phone.  I won't say what the cost of this excursion is, but it is cheaper than the comparable cruise .... maybe.

We also made plans to cross the border.  We inventoried all our meats, produce, alcoholic beverages and other items of concern.  We got all our papers together, including passports, vehicle registrations, insurance documents and puppy papers. The idea of crossing the border had been really terrorizing Dorcas for months, and we were both anxious to get it behind us.  We called Verizon and switched our cell plan to a Nationwide Plus Canada plan.  It's only about $30 extra per month, and we can switch back and forth to our original US plan at will and the charges are prorated.  Unfortunately, Verizon could not offer a reasonable plan for our internet air card.  This means that while traveling in Canada we would be dependent on public wi-fi resources.  Bummer.  Faithful readers will know that I am sometimes a bit slow posting to this blog; my posting rate may be "glacial" for the next few weeks.

Thursday night it rained at White Sulphur Springs.  We learned that it had snowed on the pass northward to Great Falls.  Our campground hosts helped us check the road conditions over the pass, and we found reports of only some soft slush, so we took off.  We safely cleared the pass and rolled into Great Falls where we bought groceries and topped off our fuel and headed north for Canada.

We arrived at the border at Sweetgrass MT on I-15 about 6:00 PM, and there was not another vehicle in
sight.  There was only one lane open; I pulled up and shut down the engine.  The Canadian border agent asked for our passports, asked a few obvious questions, including those about weapons and ammunition.  She asked if we had any alcoholic beverages, and we showed her our list, which indicated about 4 times the amount of beer and liquor we could legally carry across the border without paying duties.  She handed our papers back to us and told us to have a nice trip.  No questions about a pet or pet food, plants, or meats. No mention of paying duties on our excess liquor.  It took all of two minutes!  We never left our seats and she never left her booth.  All that worry for nothing.  Well, at least until next time.

We had no planned destination for that evening, so Dorcas spotted us a Walmart Supercentre in Okotoks AB about 20 miles south of Calgary.  We arrived about 11:30 PM and the store had closed, but Dorcas found an employee walking to her car and asked if it was alright to park overnight.  She said it was OK, but to park on the right side of the lot, because workers were sweeping the parking lot that night.  Sure enough there was a large street sweeper and several guys with backpack blowers patrolling the lot.  No sooner had I parked on the right side of the lot when a guy with a blower asked us to move to the left side of the parking lot, where they had already cleaned.  Fine.  I moved and parked on the left side of the lot and the guy driving the sweeper said not to park there, because he hadn't cleaned there yet.  Fine.  We finally got parked in a mutally agreeable spot about midnight, but slept poorly.  The sweeper and the blowers went on all night.  Welcome to Canada.

Yellowstone!

We departed Cody noon-ish on Saturday after a skillet breakfast at "Granny's", a small shopping spree at the Sierra Trading Post outlet where we bought some chew toys for Matilda, and completing some housekeeping chores in the coach. Our drive across the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway to Cooke City was outstanding. It actually takes no longer than the drive through the East Entrance from Cody. We had been waffling about whether to stay at the campground at Mammoth Hot Springs or Madison River. This route forced us through Mammoth, and it would be another hour or so to Madison, so we made Mammoth.our first choice. It occurred to me as we were driving over the mountain that we would be arriving late in the afternoon on a weekend, at a popular campground, in a popular national park, in a largish rig, without a reservation. In fact this campground did not take reservations. However, when we arrived they had a site that would fit us. There are no hook-ups here, but our site was in an open space, and we had excellent solar gain and the satellite TV had a clear view. Bison and elk were wandering through the campground and you needed to carefully watch your step in order to not foul your shoes. Cool.

Wildlife and thermal features are the elements that make Yellowstone most special. There are more thermal features: hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, etc. in Yellowstone than in the rest of the world combined. We left camp about 8:00 each morning to explore the park, returning about 6:00, dead tired. Many of the short trails and turnouts were closed because they had not been cleared of snow. Yellowstone had received 250 inches of snow this year, almost twice the average. We, of course, explored the most popular geyser basins, but spent most of our time looking for wildlife. There were bison by the thousands. They were everywhere. Elk were almost as common. This is my third trip to Yellowstone, and I have never seen a bear here before. This time we saw three grizzlies on our first day, and at least one bear every day. We saw one very large "cinnamon" black bear. My previous visits were all in the fall. I think the bears are more active in the spring and therefore easier to see. I was disappointed not to have seen a moose. During previous visits I had always seen moose. I saw one coyote sitting in the campground. I was walking Matilda in the campground about 7:00 am and I spotted a coyote about 100' away under some trees watching us. It was very interested in us and watched us intently. I was moving in its direction, and it moved away as we approached, keeping its distance, but would continuously stop and turn to watch us. Finally, when we reached the end of the campground, it turned and went up the hill and stopped at a high point to watch us. I guess some wildlife enjoy watching the tourists as much as the tourists enjoy watching the wildlife. Matilda never saw the coyote, but did become a little excited when we crossed its path.

Our weather here was outstanding. It was generally sunny and clear, with lows near 30-40 degrees and highs near 60 degrees. We stayed at Mammoth Hot Springs for five nights, and then on Thursday continued north into Montana and towards Canada.

Cody WY: Deja Vu All Over Again, Again!

It rained all night at Devils Tower and was raining when we left camp. The coach looked pretty good after we cleaned it before leaving home, but now the coach and the car are two big mud balls. We continued westward on I-90 before cutting off on US 14 to cross the Bighorn Mountains. The road across the Bighorns had only been open a few days, and there was still a significant snow pack on the mountain. It was a beautiful drive across the mountain, and then we dropped down into the Bighorn basin.

We entered Cody late in the afternoon. We drove through town and went a short distance up the Yellowstone highway towards Yellowstone's East Entrance when disaster struck. There was a sign saying the road to Yellowstone was closed! Deja Vu all over again! The only other time I was ever in Cody was in September 1988. That summer was the period of the most devastating fires in Yellowstone's history. In the spring of '88 we made plans to drive to Yellowstone and spend about a week there, then go to Arizona for a raft trip through the Grand Canyon. The fires started in Yellowstone early in the summer. I figured: no problem, they'll be out by September. Each week the fires spread and became more intense. We left home with all the optimism we could muster, but it was not to be. When we arrived in Cody, intending to use the east entrance, the fires were at their peak. The Yellowstone east entrance was closed. In fact every entrance and every road in the park was closed except a short section from the north entrance to Tower Junction. Bummer! That summer, after a day in Cody and no prospect of the park reopening soon, we regrouped and headed to Utah. Dang.

This time the road was closed because of an avalanche that had occurred the day before. The road at Sylvan Pass was under 30 feet of snow. It had been opened for the season for several days, but recent high temperatures had softened the snow and caused the fall. Park officials were non-committal about when the road would open. They hinted for several days that it "might open tomorrow", but apparently the work was more difficult than expected, and the opening date stretched on. We were told they could only work for a few hours each morning before the temperatures warmed to the extent that it was unsafe to work in the area. When we left Cody on Saturday AM, they were looking at Wednesday or later.

So, we spent a little time in Cody seeing the sights. By far the best thing to do in Cody is visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. We spent a whole day and part of another exploring the five museums of the BBHC. The museums include Yellowstone Natural History, Western Art, Plains Indians, Firearms, and, of course Buffalo Bill Cody. It is a wonderful place that everyone should visit if they are in the area. We also visited the Buffalo Bill Dam on the Shoshone River. When completed in 1910, it was the largest concrete arch dam in the world. We also drove up the South Fork Road into the mountains along the South Fork Shoshone River. We saw hundreds of mule deer and pronghorn and dozens of elk. While waiting for Sylvan Pass and the East Entrance to open, the road to the Northeast Entrance and Cooke City, the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, opened. We had lingered long enough in Cody and departed Saturday morning for Yellowstone National Park via the Northeast Entrance.

Devils Tower National Monument: Close Encounters of the Natural Kind

This morning we had breakfast at our Walmart camp and picked up some groceries. The Walmart had an in-house McDonald's, but they did not serve my favorite, bacon, egg and cheese biscuits. In fact, they had no biscuits at all. They served biscuits across town at the other McDonald's, but not here. Go figure. I had to settle for an egg McMuffin (Dorcas' favorite).

We hit the road westbound on I-90 headed for Wyoming. We only had 110 miles to our next stop, Devils Tower National Monument, so we considered some side trips. Our choices were Sturgis, a biker's mecca and Deadwood, a historic western town. We decided to pass on Sturgis and head to Deadwood. Big mistake. Parking in Deadwood is at a premium, but they did have a dedicated RV parking area on the far end of town. The problem was that they were having a school walk/run event that day and had converted the RV parking lot into the staging area for the event. There were barricades, school buses and school kids all over the place. We didn't realize all the congestion was there until we got trapped in the parking lot. Nobody seemed to understand why we were trying to park an RV in the RV parking lot and looked at us like we were idiots. Finally we got a yokel to move his pick-up, which was blocking the exit and escaped. I headed out of town as quickly as I could and did not try to find another parking space. Our drive through town did not reveal any reason to stay anyway. Deadwood was a big let down.

As we approached Devils Tower National Monument, we had excellent views of the mountain starting about 15 miles away. It is a very impressive structure. We arrived at the park in mid-afternoon and parked at the Belle Fourche Campground on the banks of the Belle Fourche River at the base of the mountain. Rain was threatening, so we hurried up the hill to do the 1.3 mile hike around the base of the mountain and visit the Visitor's Center. We finished our hike and returned and toured the massive prairie dog town near camp. We arrived back at camp shortly before the rains arrived. About dusk it began to rain and rained most of the evening. We had a very short but very pleasant visit at Devils Tower.

Mt. Rushmore

"Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon"
Lennon/McCartney. Beatles White Album

This is my third trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. I've been looking for Rocky Raccoon, but so far I haven't found him. They say he went to Hollywood ....

We left the Badlands in the late morning for the relatively short drive to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. Rather than double back to the interstate, we took scenic SR 44, which took us through, of all places, Scenic SD. We would spend the whole afternoon there and stay for the evening lighting ceremony. Mt. Rushmore stirs something inside me that I can't explain. It is a grand monument created by a man, but that will probably survive all of mankind. We arrived at the monument and parked the coach in the RV parking area where there were two mountain goats grazing about 50 feet away. They never left the whole time we were there. We began exploring the monument and attended a ranger-led walk to the base of the mountain. We returned to the coach for lunch, and then hiked around the monument some more. Finally we ate dinner in the cafe before the scheduled 9:00 lighting ceremony. Old movie buffs will remember that the cafe and other sites at Mt. Rushmore were the setting for several scenes from Alfred Hitchcock's thriller North By Northwest, starring Cary Grant. Unfortunately, that cafe was torn down several years ago and replaced when the NPS performed major renovations at the park. Damn shame. I thought the NPS was charged to preserve and protect our national treasures!

It was cold and windy (41 degrees and 20+ mph) during the lighting ceremony, but we stuck it out. There is no campground on Mt. Rushmore, so after the ceremony we drove about 25 miles down the hill to Rapid City where we parked at the Wal-Mart Supercenter one block south of I-90.

Not So Bad-Lands

Day 3 was another long driving day. We drove across most of Iowa, up along the eastern border of Nebraska and westward across South Dakota. We made a stop in Mitchell to see the famous Mitchell Corn Palace. The Mitchel Corn Palace is a city auditorium that is decorated inside and out with mosaics made of ears of corn. The citizens design new art each year to replace the previous years scenes, usually following a central theme. Unfortunately we arrived after five o'clock and the inside was closed. So we walked around a bit and took some photos before hitting the road again. We arrived at Badlands National Park just before dark and parked in their Cedar Pass campground. I was pleased and surprised to discover they had recently installed 50 amp electrical service. Most sites were level pull-throughs, so we picked a nice one over-looking the prairie on one side and the Badlands bluffs on the other side. We had driven over 1500 miles since leaving home 3 days ago and were ready to sit for a few days and have some fun.

The next morning western meadowlarks and black-billed magpies were swarming the meadow around the coach. However, by the time I got my camera and tripod set up they they had all disappeared. Very strange!

Today's order of business was to explore the park. We backtracked to Cedar Pass and did some short trails: the Cliff Shelf Nature Trail, the Notch Trail and the Window Trail. Then we drove west on the Badlands Loop Road looking for scenery and wildlife. We found both. We saw bison, pronghorns, bighorn sheep, mule dear and and prairie dogs. While out that way, we cut cross-country and zigged up to Wall SD, famous for Wall Drug, where travelers have enjoyed a cup of free ice water since 1936. Wall Drug is a classic tourist trap, but it's cool and has been around so long it is iconic. It's kinda like Graceland, you gotta go at least once in your life.

We had originally planned to spend only two nights in the Badlands. We would then spend the next day and evening at Mt. Rushmore. However, the evening we intended to go to Mt. Rushmore was forecast for heavy storms. We figured that might put a damper on the evening lighting ceremony. So we decided we would hang out in Badlands NP a third night and relax and catch up on some chores. That means basically do nothing. On the third evening we enjoyed a far-off thunder storm. Most of the wind and rain skirted us to the south.

Tomorrow Rushmore !

The "I's" Have It (deja vu all over again)

Day Two was virtually identical to our travel day on June 30, 2008. On that day, we departed a Thousand Trails park, and zoomed across all the "I" states, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa and stayed overnight at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Coralville, IA. You can read about that day, three years ago, here. The only difference is, we started at a Thousand Trails in Ohio instead of Indiana. What more can we say...it's deja vu all over again.

This morning, we slept in a bit. Myron needed to put air in one of the rear coach tires because he neglected to check the pressures before leaving home. It sure is handy having an on-board air system. Matilda and I took a short walk around the park and decided it would be a nice place for a longer stay. We stopped for breakfast at the 73 Grill, a sports bar we spotted on our way in. Our timing was perfect since they only serve breakfast Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Our expectations for breakfast were not high since there were more TVs tuned to ESPN than there were breakfast patrons and the six foot high beer cooler was longer than our coach. We ordered our usual coffee, eggs, bacon and hash browns (what are grits?) and were pleasantly surprised how delicious everything was. When we return to this Thousand Trails we will definitely check out their signature "Fat Boy" burger and get a brew.

The drive was uneventful and unremarkable (see link above). The weather continued to be clear and crisp, beautiful driving weather. The rivers and creeks were swollen and muddy from recent storms. Ironically, Iowa River and Cedar River had experienced devastating floods when we visited this area three years ago.

Matilda has recently adopted a new travel habit. Previously, as soon as we started the coach, Matilda would go to the back and bed down in the far rear corner of the bedroom. We would not see or hear from her until we made a stop. Lately, she has changed her favorite travel position. Matilda has been hanging out up front with us. She moves between the entry door stair well to under the driver's seat and steering column. Basically, she lays under or on Myron's feet while he is driving. It's OK as long as she stays left of the steering column, against the outside wall, but it gets tricky when she moves between Myron's feet and the pedals. We enjoy her company and having her up front, but we need to work on training her to stay in a "good place".

Today we had our first "breakdown" of the trip. The latch on the refrigerator door broke, allowing the door to swing wide open. We duct taped the door shut so the milk and eggs would not fall onto the floor, but that proved inconvenient due to Myron's frequent requests for "cool ones" LOL. We then removed the duct tape and secured the door with a bungee cord strung from the door handle to the stove top. This proved to be a better temporary fix. We were discouraged about easily finding a replacement part. Myron had known the latch was failing and had tried to located the piece in FL, but no one had it in stock. However, we saw an RV place off the interstate, R & S Sales and Service in Mahomet, IL. We exited, pulled into the place and viola! they had the latch we needed. Within in minutes, Myron had the new part installed, and we were back on our way.  The cool beverages were happy once again.

Photo of the Week - Cost of Fuel

Remember way back when, when the price of diesel fuel was less than the cost of regular unleaded?  Perhaps it was so long that gasoline still contained lead.  In any case, at many stations in Illinois diesel was cheaper than unleaded, or maybe I should say that the price of unleaded was even more outrageous than diesel.

Go figure,

On the Road en el Cinco de Mayo

We got up early to do final packing and preparations for our great Alaska adventure. We went through our usual check list before going on a long trip: setting lights, turning off appliances, adjusting thermostats, turning off well pump and water heater, locking doors and securing outdoor items. We loaded PCs, chargers, satellite receiver and printer. On yeah, and Matilda. We departed about 10:30 a.m. and headed north toward West Virginia. It was a beautiful, clear, crisp day. A wonderful day for driving. With all new fluids and filters and a fresh bath, the coach was looking and running fine.

There is a Thousand Trails park that we have never visited, in Wilmington, OH, about 45 miles east of Cincinnati. It was directly on our route and about the right distance for our first stop, so we made an online reservation for the night. The ranger was super and pointed us to one of two pull-throughs for single-night guests. The site was nice and level, so we didn't have to unhook the Honda. We didn't spend much time exploring, but it looked like a very nice place to return for a longer visit. It is convenient to Cincinnati, Dayton and some other interesting sights.

We were bushed and crashed soon after parking. A light rain began to fall as we went to bed which made for great sleeping.

Work Work Work Work Work Work

OK. We didn't make our May 1 target date to leave for Alaska. There was just too much to do. Those who don't want to hear me whine about all the work we have done the last few weeks, please skip to the next post. Those who want to hear the gory details, boldly read on.

By far the biggest chore was coach maintenance. When we bought the coach in Jan 2007 it had 9000 miles on it. Now it has almost 50,000 and the only real maintenance I have done is change the engine oil and filters and the transmission oil and filters. OK, I did change the fuel filters a few times and did a little work on the generator, but suffice it to say there were many systems that were overdue for a little TLC. In the weeks before the work I purchased fluids and filters, almost $700 worth, in total. Dorcas was very helpful. She brought me tools, provided extra hands when necessary, wiped the oil out of my eyes and provided much-needed moral support. She also endured my rants and tirades when things went wrong, which was frequently. Following is a summary of that work:

Change transmission oil and filter: Drain tranny oil, remove primary and lube filters. Reinstall primary and lube filters. Fill 4.25 gallon of TranSynd, a synthetic transmission oil.

Drain Hydraulic Oil: Drain hydraulic oil from reservoir. Open hose at fan controller. Remove hydraulic filters (all three of 'em). Replace 3 hydraulic filters. Replace hydraulic oil: 3.75 gal Dexron III.

Drain and Flush Coolant System: Drain coolant using petcock on radiator and petcock on engine block. Remove engine coolant thermostat. Refill radiator with tap water. Run engine with dash heater on until dash blows hot air. Drain again and repeat 3 more times. Then drain and flush 2 more times using distilled water. Reinstall thermostat. Remove and replace coolant filter. Fill with 13 gallons of Final Charge OAT Extended Life Coolant. Top off with distilled water. Drive coach until the engine reaches operating temperature and top off again with distilled water. This project was by far the most difficult and time consuming. It easily took most of two days off and on. I also had a difficult time determining the correct coolant filter, since the original filter was not compatible with the new coolant I would be using. Then I had to haul almost 50 gallons of old coolant and flush water to the county hazardous waste recycling facility. The good news is that this coolant is good for over 500,000 miles. I doubt I will ever need to flush the system again.

Flush Generator Coolant: Same process as above, but much simpler. The genny coolant capacity is only about 1 gal vs. 26 gallons for the coach engine. The filler neck is difficult to access and the fluid doesn't want to flow into the filler, but eventually it gets there.

Change Generator Oil and Filter: This is pretty simple. Warm the genny, drain the oil, remove the filter. Reverse the process. Piece of cake.

Replace Generator Fuel Filter: The guy who designed the fuel filter ought to be drawn and quartered. Why not use a simple spin-on filter, for crying out loud, like everyone else in the world. Instead Onan uses a cartridge filter that is bolted to a bracket and the fuel lines are affxed using compression nuts. This wouldn't be so bad if the whole assembly were not recessed into a tiny cavity on the bottom of the genny, where you have to lay on your back with diesel fuel running down your arms and into your face. There is no room to turn the wrenches and your fingers and tools quickly become too slick to work. Remember the old STP commercial where you could not pick up a screwdriver coated in STP. Slicker than goose poop!

Replace Generator Air Cleaner: Not too hard if your wrists are double jointed and you have eyeballs on your fingers. You have to work blind, but if you can remember how it came out, you can get it back in.

Other Miscellaneous Items: While not mechanical maintenance I did improve and repair some other items. I replaced the broken Sirius radio antenna, installed a more robust cellular antenna and amplifier and mounted the controller box for the Winegard satellite dish in a cabinet. These tasks all involved routing cable through areas of the coach not intended to be accessible to the end user. They also involved a few more roof penetrations, never something to be taken lightly.

In the meantime we were busy doing more mundane things. We had doctor's visits, we donated blood, we cleaned the basement (well, made a big dent in that project), we washed the coach, we bought new dehumidifiers for the basement and installed them to perpetually drain. In the meantime Dorcas was researching customs and border crossing rules, cellular and internet data plans in Canada, insurance requirements and other such stuff.

This afternoon I confirmed that we had bats in the attic. I had suspected they were there. When one fell down through the ceiling fan and into the hall last fall, that was a fairly strong indication. So I finally crawled up into the attic to see and sure enough, they were there, and they did not appreciate my presence. I could see at least 6 but could hear many more in a space between two walls. I'm not sure how to get them out. There was a gable vent with rotten screen, so it was obvious how they were getting in. I assume I will need to go up there late at night when they are out (I assume they go out each night) and seal the opening. To do this before we leave for this trip would delay us for at least a day. I decided to let them stay a little longer.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. We have finished practically everything that we had intended to finish. We will finish packing the coach in the morning and hit the road as soon as we can get away, hopefully before noon.

Whew!!!!!