current plans as of Dec. 22

Hi y'all
Good Lord willin' and the ice melts so I can get out of my brothers driveway we will leave here on Saturday the 27th. Going to Tunica, Ms. (South of Memphis about 60 miles) to meet up with some friends and stay until new years. Than head South on US61 towards the Gulf, stopping at a few casinos on the way with our friends. We will end up in New Orleans in a few weeks. Mardi Gras starts the first part of February.

For those of you who do not know, my mom was sick and in the hospital and Linda and I came back from New Orleans to be caregivers. She hung on for almost six weeks and died on Dec. 10th.
We will be back here in South Bend around mid-late April to get the house ready to sell and finish up some loose ends.

We are going to a rv rally in Missouri in late May put on by the Escapees club.

No big plans after than. We still want to do Yellowstone and the Grand Teton's national parks.......and.....this is really wishing..............and.........it depends on a lot of things.........we would like to do the Alaska cruise on Holland America which starts in September(preferably the 19th).

A veranda stateroom(what we really want) would be about $1300 per person plus fuel add on plus excursions, but bar bill....etc Inside room about $700.

We would not want to go by ourselves, and a big party would be great!!!! hint, hint to you all.

Jim and Linda

Jim's dog

Hi

Long time no update....

We left Knoxville and moved on to New Orleans. Got to spend two nites there, when we got a call to come back to South Bend, In. to take care of my mom who is terminally ill. We have been here 5 weeks now and it is close to the end.

As you know, our yorkie, Indy, is Lindas dog, and I have been threatening him for a couple of years now, that if he does not start being nice to me, I will get a dog of my own.

Got him on the 9th of Dec. Drove about 50 miles South to a breeder in Indiana. His name is Walker, he is a Maltese and was born on July 13th(same date as my mom), and weights 6 pounds.

He is my dog, but I do share him with Linda. We hope that the two of them(dog's) will get along once Indy stops being so mean to Walker.

We have hopes of leaving her at the end of the month and will head back to New Orleans, via Tunica, Mississippi for a little gambling. We will stay in the southeast until Spring, than come back here to put the house on the market. There is an Escapee club RV rally in Missouri the later part of May that we want to attend.

Drop us a line. If you can't do it here than send it to us at:

runfintii@gmail.com

Jim and Linda

Smoky Mountain National Park

Hi All

Today we took a drive into the park. We have done this trip several times over the years, but it was kind of a quiet day and we wanted to go for a ride. The biggest changes over the years have been the development of the village of Pigeon Forge, which is on the North side of Gatlinburg. When we first started coming here Pigeon Forge was so small, you would miss it if you blinked. Now its several miles of wall to wall buildings of every type.

The drive thru the park was nice and on the South side at the visitor center is a farm, made of buildings that have been moved here from other places in the park. The pictures show why these are called the "smoky's".

Linda will be heading toward her Brother's new house in Virginia on Friday and I will be "bactching it" for a week.

If you can help me with instructions on how to download pictures from Picasa onto this blog I would appreciate it.

Jim and Linda

Knoxville

We left the rv dealer yesterday and drove on down to the Escapee park North of Knoxville. Its actually in Heiskell, Tn. We will be here for a while as Linda wants to visit with her brother who is moving to Virginia. They will meet us half way on the 4th, and I will drop Linda off and pick her back up on the 13th of October.

The park is the most crowded that we have ever seen it.....effects of the high fuel prices?
Her brother called today from Hickory NC and said that they had a lot of trouble getting gas, they went to several stations that were out! We have had no problems getting fuel, but maybe its coming..
Will spend some time with old friends while we are here.

keep in touch. If you cant post on theblog than send an email.

Jim and Linda

more bad news

Hi
We left Kentucky Horse Park campground this morning for a rv dealer in Lexington, Ky. They got us right in and said it would be a little while while they check things out. We went to a tire store and asked them to check the tire that was flat. They said it would take about two hours.
The rv dealer informed us that both grey water valves were bad and needed to be replaced and it would take two days to get them in.....not tooo bad. The good news is that less the $50 deductable, our insurance will cover the repairs.
The tire store called and said that our rim was cracked(I was suspecting this as there was no visible damage to the tire). They did not know how to locate one, so we went back to the rv dealer, who is a Holiday Rambler dealer, and they were able to find one in a warehouse, but it would take 7-10 days to get. The cost is $186 plus shipping.
We told them to order it and have it sent to their location and we would give them a ship to address. so we are back at Kentucky Horse Park for two more days waiting for the valves to get here.

I had expected the wheel to be in the $400 range, so was suprised at the cost.

We had hoped to be on our way to a corp of engineers park at lake Cumberlan today, but will have to wait a couple of days. Camping is a lot cheaper there ($10-11) compared to $22 here.

see ya

Jim and Linda

another bad day

Today started off real bad. I went out to dump the grey water and one of the valves broke in the open position. Luckly it was a grey water valve. While the tanks were draining I noticed one of the tires was very low. Called the emergency road service and someone finally showed up....without a jack, just our luck today. He left and came back with the jack and got the tire changed. He and I both looked at the tire and could not find any thing in it so I asked him to take it back to his shop and check things out. he came back with the tire inflated saying he could not find anything wrong. His idea is that some kid came by and partially deflated the tire....I supose that is a possiblilty. Put the tire up under the trailer in the spare position where I will check it over the next few days for leaks.
Moved down the road about 40 miles to a cheaper place to stay until Monday morning when we will go to a RV dealer in Lexington, Ky to get the valve worked on.

Jim

another bad day

lets catch you up

Hi Everyone

Lets play catch up.

We have spent the summer between ours sons house in Woodstock, Il. and my brothers house in South Bend, In.. While in the Illinois area we went camping with our old club "Des Plaines Valley Camping Club" which is celebrating its 50th anniverary this year! Spent time with lots of old friends and made some new friends. And, of course, our time with our kids and grandsons, snf out familys was the greatest!!!!!

We restarted our full time lifestyle on Sept. 15th, when we headed for Celina Ohio for a RV ralley. It was put on by the Gypsy Journal newspaper, which is a every other month paper designed and edited and printed by a very wonderful couple who have been full time rv'ers for almost 10 years... the rally was in Celina Ohio, and we traveled from South Bend with another couple who we met at the Empress Casino in Joliet, Il. back a month or so ago, Rose and Leroy Roloff. Leroy and Rose left Illinois on Saturday the 14th after 11 inches of rain fell in less than 48 hours. They had to back track and change road a number of times because of the flooding. I-94, I-80 and I-65N were closed due to the rain and they travel lots of different back roads, going less than 100 miles in over six hours!!!!

We had a great time at the rally which was from Sept 15th thru the 19th.....went to a few seminars, won a few door prizes and just enjoyed all the people, especially Rose and Leroy. We hope to hook up with them again in Tunica, Ms. at the casinos and spend several days in October.

We left Celina Friday morning, the 18th and headed South. I wanted to stop at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio as they have added some new exhibits since I last saw it....it was really great (look it up.... Air Force museusm in Dayton Ohio) I wanted to see the exhibit of the presidential planes which included the three main planes that have flow the presidents since FDR, and includes SAM26000, which is the plane that brought Kennedy back from Dallas and was the plane that Johnson was sworn in as president in.....they removed a bulkhead and some seats to make room for Kennedys casket and you can still see where they cut the bulkhead(wall) out!!!
It was a tremendous amout of walking and I went thru most of it pretty fast, as I had been there before and wanted to see specific things this time, including the presidential planes....sorry, but no pictures(you can go on the web site) If you have never seen a B-52, B-36, C-130, any of the stealth planes, a B-29, B-47....I could go on and on,......up close...it is amazing!!!! standing under the b-52 and looking up into the bomb bays is a humbling experience, believe me....

We left Dayton, which was under major road construction!!!!!including all the roads South. We are somewhere in Kentucky tonight.....after a very stressful afternoon of driving. I missed my turnoff three different times!!!!!!! and had to backtrack, including turning around on the four lane highway at the place where it says no turns, police only.

We will move onto the two lane highways tomorrow heading South, towards Knoxville, Tn.

We will keep you updated from now on, and our plan is to spend some time in Knoxville visiting with our good friends(and ex boss). Linda wants to spend some time with her brother who is moving to Virginia, and he has agreed to meet us halfway...but they are selling one house in North Carolina and closing on another house in Virgina, not too far from Washington D.C., so we will see how that goes.

Take care all of you, and PLEASE write when you can.

If you think someone else would like to read this blog, please send them our web address, we do not have the addresses of a lot of old friends and would like to get in touch with them, if you have their address.....

I am sending this out without pictures, but will send another email with a few pictures attatched later.

As usual.....
with love to all of ya

Jim and Linda

Hi All
Sorry to be so long in writing....we just got home from a camping weekend with our old club...has a nice time, but the weather was miserable!!cold and rainy Friday night and Saturday.
It was nice to see all of our old friends again, along with some new ones.
We left South Bend, In. from my brothers driveway last Sunday morning, and after $19.25 in tolls and about 150 miles arrived in our sons driveway. We had forgotten about all the toll ways in Illinois and Indiana.
It is great to see the kids and grandsons after such a long time, and we have enjoyed our visit.
We will leave here on the 7th of May to head to North Carolina for two graduations and visit with Lindas brother, his wife and the three kids....welll not kids anymore.
I am looking forward to the Hank Williams jr. and Lynard Skynyrd concert on the 9th of May. it will be a great time I'm sure. I have been a Hank and Hank sr. fan for a lot of years .
Weather here today is cold and still windy, and the prediction is for snow!!!!! we can't seem to get away from it....

Have a good week and keep in contact....

Jim and Linda

OUR TIME IN TAHLEQUAH

Hi

We are leaving Tahlequah OK. Saturday morning(tomorrow) after a wonderful week here with Bob and BJ. We have had a great time talking over old times, and taking wonderful scenic drives around the area that they love so much.....Today we went to Devils Den state park in Arkansas. A wonderful park down in a valley. Like most areas around here there is a lot of wind and water damage from all of the rains. We have survived some pretty good winds sitting here in our little campground.

The weather does not look good leaving here and heading across Missouri into Illinois and Indiana, but its time to go.

The pictures are of our dear friends Bob and BJ and Devils den, normally the water is just trickeling over the falls, but with the recent weather this is what we saw. Sorry for two of the same, but still having some problems downloading pictures.

Take care

love to ya

Jim and Linda

Hi All
First things first...you can reply to this blog, just click on the comments box and the end of a post and send a message....we love to get feedback.....try it, you make like it.

We are in Salina Kansas now...off of the road early because of the extreme wind that came up about two hours ago from the south (we are heading east) It was a struggle to keep us in our lane. We head south tomorrow towards Tahlequah, OK. Hopefully the wind will go away.

Bye for now
Love to you all, each and every one of ya'
Jim and Linda

Friday April 4th
Amazing day today. We only drove about 250 miles, but we are finally!!!!!!out of the mountains. I know we will regret saying that as we head across Kansas which is totally boring, but....
We did get out of the campground without any trouble and Glenwood canyon is as beautiful as they said it would be....the climb up to Vail pass(10,608 foot) was spectacular, but the road is a piece of shit....so it took away from the beauty as I was constantly worried about blowing a tire and we did hit one pot hole that I thought we would lose the truck in!!!!!
One down grade was 11(count em' eleven) miles of 5 and 6 percent grades....it would have been fine without the ROUGH highway.
But we did survive, with some minor damage inside the trailer, one lamp kind of broke but I think it is fixable.....drawers were open dust came off of the slides...
We are now in Limon Colorado as it was such a stressful day that we stopper early.
We are about 650 miles from Tahlequah and another 800 from Indiana, so lots of driving to do.
I am still having problems getting pictures onto the site. When we download them from the camera onto the computer they do not show up as pictures, just an icon. So it is hard to pick out the ones to post....we will get it figured out eventually with some help from a computer whiz (phil, HELP)
see ya
Jim and Linda

sorry I downloaded by mistake.
finally
END OF GRADE

We are in Glendale Springs Colorado. The gateway to Glendale canyon(look it up)
The campground is pretty amazing......it is terased(sp) and muddy...the manager told us to go to the first road and make a wide sweeping turn and follow the road to our site (#13 by the way)....I barely make the turn into the site and will have a really good time trying to get out without sliding into the site below me....I took pictures but doubt if they will show the predicament I am in. the weather over Vail pass is doubtful and I will have to check before we leave here as to whether I can get over the pass without chains. We did not get in our 425 miles today as this was the last place listed with camping before Vail. I had to unhook and go back into town to get fuel, as there was nowhere that I could get the trailer into...I had to turn and back into the gas station to fuel up!!!!
I-70 has some spectacular scenery in Utah. It is am amazing geological sight.
If you have never traveled in the mountains you will not apprecialte the following signs going into one of the most spectacular canyons we have ever been in...... they are in order:

BRAKE CHECK AHEAD
TRUCKERS PULL OVER AND CHECK BRAKES
WARNING: STEEP MOUNTAIN GRADES AND SHARP CURVES AHEAD
WARNING: 6 PERCENT GRADE FOR NEXT SIX MILES
SPEED LIMIT 50 FOR VEHICLES OVER 10000 LBS
RUNAWAY TRUCK RAMP 1 1/2 MILES
RUNAWAY TRUCK RAMP 1 1/2 MILES
RUNAWAY TRUCK RAMP 1 1/2 MILES

and finally!!!

Hi Y'all
We drove our 400 miles today and are somewhere around Provo Utah. No weather channel tonight, no cable hookup.......
Only supprise today was going over two passes, one at 5530 ft. and the other at 5311 ft. leaving Idaho and coming into Utah. I knew we we climbing, but it was very gradual as were the decents, and we were both suprised to see the summit signs.
Tomorrow we head east on I-70 (yes Amy and D, we are going that way). Shortly after getting onto I-70 we go over a 7923 ft. pass.......whopeeeeeeeee
Weather was good all day, and looks good for the next two days, so we hope to be out of the mountains by than.
Bob and BJ, right now it looks like Saturday afternoon.
We will keep you all up to date......you do know you can post a reply onto this blog....you had better start or I,m gonna smack ya one!!!!!

Take care and love to all
Jim and Linda

Friday was last day of work. We got to work with the trailer in tow, and around 9am it started to snow! We scrambled around trying to figure out what to do as the pass we had to go over to get to Maryhill state park was snow covered and chains required.!!!!
We ended up at Crow Butte state park, along with our good friends Abel, Amy and Dileep and their son Mack, Terri and Sid. When we got to the park it was very nice, but within an hour the wind came up and hardly let up all weekend.....we were all beat up by the wind. We did have a fence to cut some of the wind, and we put up a tarp to help. We built big fires and drank a lot of alchohol. All weekend!!!!
Sid and Terri left Sunday to go back to work, and we had a last party Sunday night. Abel left Monday, amid a few wet eyes from us and he. We also left Monday with Amy, D, and Mack and went across the river into Oregon where we spent a last nite together. Linda and I had to wait until Tuesday morning to leave as one of the passes in Oregon was still requiring chains.
We left this morning, saying good-bye to Amy, D and Mack amid more wet eyes and are now in Boise, Idaho.
We are keeping an eye on the weather channel and the computer to check road conditions, and will leave here tomorrow towards Salt Lake City Utah. We want to take I-70 across the RockyMountains into Denver, but may have to go further south to Las Vegas(I know what you are thinking, but its not true!!!!).
I will download pictures as soon as I can figure it out!!!!!

Friday is last day of work.