Moving Again

 Alllllll - Righty Then!

We're moving again, well virtually anyway. There is the whole COVID thing after all.

After a lot of frustration with the whole Bloggr by Google software, I (Paul) bit the bullet and I'm going to be using a Wordpress hosted blog. I spend a huge amount of time choosing and editing pictures, (and hopefully making them look like they haven't been edited..), so you, our readers, can enjoy them to their fullest. Bloggr was no longer letting me accomplish this. Please bear with me as I go through the learning curve of using a new platform. 

This platform is easier to use in some ways, and more difficult in others.Please bear with me as I go through the learning curve of using a new system. At some point I hope to establish a consistent look, navigation that works well regardless of the device the blog is viewed on, and pictures that will enlarge and show in a lightbox when you click on them.

That's the goal anyway...

The new blog can be found at 2psinapods.com/ .

If you're an email subscriber you'll need to re-subscribe in the box provided. Sorry about that. I don't know yet if you'll bet the posts emailed to you like before, or if you'll get a link to click on. I guess I'll find out soon enough...

Again, please pardon our dust, but remodel we must.

Thanx, Paul

Time To Settle Down

After having gone through a series of one-nighters we decided it was time to bite the bullet and make a commitment... to a longer stay at a campground. 

Just kidding! When we travel we prefer to stay at National and State Parks as well as other Federal places like COE (Army Corps of Engineers) projects, Fish and Game Refuges, National Wildlife Preserves, National Monuments, etc. These kind of campgrounds are generally less developed than most RV parks and resorts. What they lack in amenities and conveniences they more than make up for in scenery, natural surroundings, spaciousness and wildlife. A plus for us is that we have Senior Interagency Passes that allow us to enter the federally run places for free, and get half-price camping. Naturally, when we're looking into places to stay, we look at these first. 

The first such place was the Heartland Campground on Pomme de Terre Lake in Southwest Missouri. Pomme de Terre Lake is a COE project, and Wheatland is one of several campgrounds they manage there. On paper, (digital paper that is,) the place looked awesome. When we arrived we found that the roads at Wheatland were really twisty-turny, sharp-cornered, low-limb-hanging and the campsites were incredibly hard to get into, paved with gravel (which ran out onto the paved parts of the road and site's entryway). All the sites were terraced which is really nice except that the timbers needed to shore up the terrace walls didn't leave enough room to turn our rig into our spot. The site was positioned roughly 90 degrees perpendicular to the road, which in turn was at a severe downward slope. In order to make the turn and not hit the wall on the high side of the site, I (Paul) had to attempt to drive on the timbers on the low side without going over the edge. 

This was complicated by two factors. First, the the loose gravel on the asphalt caused the truck's tires to slide downhill while I was trying to turn into the site. This was all Isaac Newtons fault. HIS gravity and laws of motion were screwing with my park job! While sliding down, the second factor came into play. Although the road was going downhill, the site wasn't. It was actually slightly sloping up.

We got it in. I don't know how, but we got it in!

So I'm trying to make a 90 degree turn into a spot hemmed into a wall on the driver's side and a drop-off on the passenger side while the truck is tilted at one angle, the HOW at another angle and the mass of the whole setup is being pushed where gravity says it should go. Did I mention the leaves and nuts?

I cannot remember how many attempts it took to get the rig in the site, but we eventually did! I'm glad to say getting out was less of an issue. 

Paul editing pics for the blog

Once we were parked, leveled, hooked up, and settled in, the place was amazing! Our site had a concrete picnic table, a fire ring, (with wood) and a gorgeous view. 

Check out this view

And the views at night were equally spectacular. Even with a very bright moon, we were able to see the milky way. We hadn't seen our galaxy's closest spiral arm since the early 80's! This time of year is a great time for skywatchers because you can plainly see Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn with the naked eye! Add some binoculars and you can see some of Jupiter's moons. The constellation Cassiopeia was in clear relief against the dark sky, and using her as a guide, I (Paul) was able to locate and view the Andromeda Galaxy through my binos. It wasn't overly clear, but I was able to see that it was definitely a spiral galaxy. I can't wait til we're somewhere really dark, and I have the binos on some kind of steady mount! 

Moonshine during the blue-hour at Pomme de Terre Lake

While we were there, we went looking at another COE campground at the same lake, this one near the dam. This campground was where we probably meant to stay as the sites were larger, leveler, and had really easy access. It had some pretty great views too. Should we find ourselves nearby again we'll stay there for sure.

Below the dam, which was more of a spillway, was a really nice looking stream with bluffs on one side. 

Cool to see the layers of sedimentation in the rocks forming the bluff

On the other side the rocks formed ledges that dropped off sharply and ended abruptly. There looked to be a small patch of shoreline just big enough to fish from. And from my vantage point above the drop-off at the end of the spillway, there were some enormous carp to fish for.... 

Nice stream below the dam

That's all we got for now. Until next time...

Take Me To The Fair

But before we begin, let's have a word about our host. This blog is hosted by Blogger, a Google product. They've left this site become rather outdated in that the format is fixed. If you view it on a larger screen device like a computer or tablet, it looks like it should. Anything smaller, like a phone or small tablet and it breaks down completely. Pictures don't scale down, (and pictures are a a fundamental component of the post,) and text doesn't reformat. That makes it really crappy to read on the go. The software does give me the ability to code in HTML, but, do I really wanna do that? If I wanted to do programming, I'd a kept working. Perhaps over the winter I'll experiment with a different host or two. Maybe I'll buy a case of 32 oz energy drinks and write a template.

Another item I'd like to address deals with comment. Time was, if a reader left me a comment, I'd be notified. Today... NOPE, no mas. I'm pretty PO'd about that. Now I have to go out and view my own posts to see if anyone commented, so I apologize if I don't respond to your comments in a timely fashion. LAME!

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

One of the reasons we like staying off the interstates, preferring instead state and county roads, is that we get to experience a lot of the real America that just isn’t very abundant along the fast lane. We route completely around cities whenever we can. 

One of many small, local businesses; gone forever 

Small towns and rural communities are an endangered species. Life is slower, people are friendly, conversations are easy. We wanna experience these unique places before they disappear. 

There’s a lot of character that you find when you get away from the urban sprawl dominated by national fast food and eatery chains, big box retailers, lube, muffler and brake franchises, and tract home subdivisions. 

We spent a night in such a small town, one that has a municipal fairground where you can rent an RV campsite with full hookups. You just go to the township office, pay a nominal fee and go to the campground. If the office isn’t open, there’s a guy who’ll come along at some point and you pay him. If he don’t come along there’s a dropbox you can put your fee in. Total honor system.

Not a McDonalds in sight

When we got into town, the office was closed. Everyone must have gone to the new Mexican restaurant that was scheduled to open that day. We’d learned about that during our ½ hour conversation we had with a gal in the township office when we called to make our reservation. Like I said earlier, people are friendly and conversations are easy… 

Great River Road Campground

Anyway, we proceeded to the campground, where there was a row of campsites to choose from, all of them empty. 

We began setting up, and were nearly done when an older man on an ATV came by. This was the guy who collects the fee for the campsite. I bet we shot the breeze for an hour! We talked about the campground, the fairground, the kinds of events that took place there, and some of the campers he’s met over the years including one guy who comes every October in his truck camper for the whole hunting season. He stays till Christmas. We talked about Texas, his original home state, and Illinois where we currently were. It was a really nice time.

The grain elevators were busy day and night... Harvest 

This was one of a series of one-nighters that we planned to get us out of the cold and into warmer Southwest Missouri, but what a great example of why we like to travel the smaller highways and byways of this great land we call The United States of America.

Slidin' into First

Our first stop was to be at Clinton Lake State Recreation Area in Central Illinois. We had planned for two nights just in case we had to shed more weight, which we didn't, or had something go wrong, which we did. (If you missed that, see the previous post.) That left us with a one night stay, and we were back on schedule. 

We're new to parking a fifth-wheel, so that in itself is a learning experience, but add to that, Illinois, in its wisdom, angled the campsites so that you have to back in on the blind side. After a half-hour of trying, trying again, and again, and again... we were in and straight.

Ah yes, backing in on the blind side at 90-degrees

Did I mention the hitch? No, don' think I did... Our truck has a 6.5-foot bed which means if we turn really sharp, like close to 90-degrees, the trailer's nose could hit the rear of the truck's cab. That would be bad. And expensive. We required a sliding hitch. When towing on the road, the hitch needs to be positioned forward, in order for the the trailer's kingpin, and all the weight it carries, to be over the rear axle. When needing to maneuver in really, really tight places, like many gas stations or having to perform a 90-degree back-in to a campsite, the hitch needs to be in its rearward position in order for the trailer to clear the truck's cab. 

There are two kinds of sliding hitches available. The first kind requires you to get out of the truck and pull a handle to release the slide. Then you get back in the truck, lock the trailer brakes and drive forward so the hitch can slide back. Then, you get get back out of the truck and pull the handle again to re-lock it in the rearward position. Then you can perform your maneuver. When you're ready to drive on again, you reverse the whole process. If you forget to do this, well... $$$$$$$. The second kind is an auto-slider. No getting in and out to unlock the slider; it does everything all on its own. OH, and no forgetting...

We got the automatic kind. With the most common gas station design these days having the fuel pumps perpendicular to the store and parking places, maneuvering around can be a challenge. Lots of tight turns and squeezes. Also we're finding there are a lot of campgrounds that require the 90-degree back-in. And of course, there's those senior moments.... 

It works great for us.

There is, however, a serious drawback to this system. The device works on a cam principal, so there is a rectangular key that fits into a matching slot. In order to hitch or unhitch the  components must be within ten-degrees of dead-on-balls-straight, ("it's an industry term"...). That complicates the parking considerably, (not to mention the adapter plate has to be removed to tow with a conventional hitch). 

Of course, as it often is in life, once you've bought something, it either goes on sale, or the new-and-improved version comes out. In the case of our hitch, there's now an auto-slider that doesn't require any adapter. When the kingpin locks into place, the hitch simply clamps onto the pin-plate at whatever angle the two just happen to be at. Grrrrrrrrrr!!!

It was a nice site after all was said and done...

At any rate, it's fun for the other campers to watch us getting into our spot. On to the next stop. See you there.

Launch Aborted

October 7th. We finally left Blackhawk Valley Campground for our slow leisurely meander to Texas. We got about 35 miles away and the truck started smoking. We pulled over right away and had a look. I (Paul) noticed what appeared to be transmission fluid leaking from a fitting at the bottom of the radiator. Last month we had the radiator replaced and apparently one of the lines popped off and transmission fluid came shooting out and spraying all over the drive train and exhaust! That was what caused the smoke. 

Fortunately, we have Good Sam emergency road assistance. Unfortunately it is not worth a damn! They said they'd line up a tow truck to take the truck and the trailer to a repair center capable of doing this kind of repair, and that they'd call back in 15 minutes with info, but an hour and a half later we still didn't hear from them. When Good Sam finally did get back to us, they told us that the only tow truck they had could only tow the truck. The trailer would have to stay on the shoulder of the interstate. WTF is THAT?! They're supposed to be an RV road service provider. What a crock of $h!t! 

In the mean-time, I called Kurt's Auto who installed the radiator. I spoke with Nathan, one of the owners, who asked for pictures of the suspected leak, and the puddle of fluid. After seeing the pics, he devised a plan. Nathan drove about 40 miles to where we were with 6 quarts of transmission fluid. He popped the line back on, and noticed it didn't feel like it was seating the way it should. He put the fluid in, and then drove with us back to the shop to make repairs the following day. On the way, Nathan arranged to have new Ford lines and another radiator delivered first thing in the morning, so they could get us back on our way ASAP. 

That's a LOT of tranny fluid

They gave us a spot to park the trailer for the night. So there we were, camping in the parking lot at Kurt's Auto Lube and Service.

 

Camping at Kurt's Auto Lube and Service

Quite an inauspicious start to our new life!

Turns out, the radiator was still fine, but the installed lines were machined slightly different than the ones from Ford. At highway speed the buildup of heat and pressure on the transmission lines, was more than the other brand of lines could bear, and one of them unseated, causing the fluid leak. Nathan put the new lines on and they snapped right in securely. Just to be extra sure they couldn't fail again, he also installed new locks on the line fittings.

We were back on the road that afternoon!

The roadside service trip, the fluid, the parts, and all the labor was covered by Kurt's warranty on the previous work. Talk about above and beyond! (Nathan also contacted the manufacturer of the failed line to explain the defect, and how to resolve it.)

Oh, almost forgot, Good Sam called back while we were driving back to Kurt's. I told them to F__ck Off!

That's it for now; we're almost caught up...       Oh yeah, we made weight, but just barely...

Who doesn’t love a good plan?

 First a little recap...

When last we wrote, we shared that we traded in our travel trailer for a 33’ fifth wheel trailer.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow us to introduce Thurston, our third HOW.

We had also bought a 1 bed, 1 bath park model (stationary) trailer in Mission TX where we spent most of last winter, enjoying time with old friends and new, and learning some new hobbies.  

Aren’t plans great?  We planned to head back to Illinois in March to begin the process of selling our house.  I, Penny, had all of our doctor and dental appointments made well in advance so that we could jump right on them in April.  I felt like the queen of organization!  

Then came covid 19.  We ‘sheltered in place’ in Texas.  Thought it’d be for a few weeks, then a few more, and a few more, just like everyone in the country, or in the world for that matter.  As time went by, the virus seemed to be spreading far more  in Illinois than in TX, so we stayed in TX.  We rescheduled appointments, then rescheduled again, then finally just cancelled them cuz who knew when we’d be home, or when Illinois would open back up.  I’ll say no more, except that we stayed healthy.  Thank you Lord.

We finally made the long avoided trip to Illinois at the end of May.  Three nights in hotels, where we wiped down each room with Lysol wipes, removed the blankets and pillows and replaced them with the ones we brought with us, and used copious amounts of hand sanitizer.  Just call me neurotic, I can take it, but I never want to travel anywhere without our HOW again.

Fast forward to August.  After eight weeks of thinning out our possessions, holding a garage sale, painting the inside of our house, generally sprucing up the outside (and catching up on those doctor & dentist appointments!),  we were ready to call a realtor that was highly recommended by a friend.   We liked him very much and hired him on a Friday.  He had his first showing the next morning, and by that afternoon he had a cash buyer for us.  That evening we signed the sales contract, and closed on August 28th.  Woosh, just like that!

Well, it was a really nice house...

Preparing for take-off!   Did I mention something about ‘thinning out our possessions’ earlier?  We’ve gone through our ‘stuff’ and purged so many times, and still we have 3 boxes of who-knows-what in the RV.  And the car is packed to the gills.  And there’s more stuff in the back seat of the truck.  Hello, our names are Paul and Penny, and we are pack rats.  Now I know the true meaning of  ‘you can never be too thin’.  It refers to how much weight  is in the RV.  The RV can only handle so many pounds safely, and the truck can only tow so many pounds safely, and the car can only weigh so many pounds safely.  

In about 8 days, (actually on Oct 7), we’ll begin our journey.  Our first stop will be the CAT scales at the truck stop to see if we made weight or have to purge once again.  

Until then, be safe & healthy!

 

Home... Home on the Range

Shootin' range that is....

But first a disclaimer:

  With my (Paul) having been through the things you've read far too much about already, since 2015, I've found that things have changed regarding my photography, which in turn trickles down to the pictures posted in this blog. My hands have gotten shakey, not enough to interfere with day to day stuff, but enough to affect holding a camera. I'm having to rely on a tripod for all but shots using very fast shutter  speeds, which I rarely use. Also, using a tripod increases setup time for shots, and requires more physical space. If you recall from our Yellowstone posts, using a tripod around people is not fun. I'm having to relearn my craft all over again, 3-Legged Photography, as it were. 

 From an artistic standpoint it's a good thing because it will force me to slooooooowwwwww dooooowwwwwnnn and think more about the shot. However, in a blog such as this, where we're sharing things we do and places we see, it becomes difficult to grab those spontaneous shots of our surroundings.  

 That being said please forgive the pics taken with our cheap phones that, when enlarged by clicking on them, are, ... frankly, not up to the level you, our readers, are accustomed to.

On to the range!

As alluded to in the last post, we've been doing some shooting. Penny is a total natural, (of course she comes from a family full of shooters,). Right now we're limited to shooting paper, but perhaps in our travels, we'll be places where we can enjoy some real plinkin', cans, jugs, metal targets, that sort of thing. 

Back in North-Central Illinois, the ranges available to the public are indoor, crowded and kind of expensive. The only outdoor ones, with the exception of shotgun related sport ranges, are privately held and owned by clubs that are invitation only. I prefer outdoor, because it's quieter and there is little to no gunpowder smoke. This is really important for Penny. If you've ever been indoors, next to someone shooting a .50 cal, you know what I mean. Hearing protection or not, it's loud.

Here in Mission, Texas, we have the Mission Skeet and Trap Club. 

It is a beautiful facility that's open to the public three days a week, and has a 25 yard pistol range.

I love this range. It's totally old-school, has 10 stations without partitions, and target hangers at 3, 7, 15 and 25 yards. It's corrugated steel, with a roof over the shooters, and utilizes a dirt berm bullet-stop. 

Like I said; Old School

Guy below-left was sightin' in his new Sig Sauer pistol

Busy day at the range

With the exception of classes around noon on Saturday's it's usually deserted, or close to it. I wish there were a rifle range for shooting longer distances, but I ain't complainin'.

The old farmhouse we rented (curtesy Google Maps)

Back in the early 80's we rented a dilapidated old farmhouse on two acres in a rural area. We used to shoot Penny's dad's 1948 Stevens Model 87A .22 cal rifle at all kinds of stuff. He bought it to shoot crows, squirrels and rabbits in the family garden. We still have that gun. We also shot .177 cal pellet guns, BB guns and anything else that anybody brought over. I even shot a WWII German Luger pistol that a friend's dad brought home after the war. It was a hoot! 

Like I said, we still have that old venerable .22, and it's still a gas to shoot, but it needs some help. It has a unique design that allows shooting .22 short, and .22 long in single-shot mode only, and .22LR in semi-auto or single-shot. For semi-auto the gun uses a 17-round tube magazine. Right now, when the magazine is loaded, it won't chamber a round. That means it's singe-shot only until I can fix it. Problem with single-shot goes back to that unique design. Savage Arms, who manufactured this rifle, utilized a knob as a charging handle/ cocking device instead of a carbine style or lever style handle. To use the rifle in single-shot mode, you pull the knob outward, away from the chamber, pull it back towards the butt, against the spring, and push it into a hole at the very rear of the chamber. Then you load a round into the barrel, pull the charging handle back to the outward position and let it return forward. You can then push the knob back inwards to lock the chamber, or leave it out to eject the empty shell automatically when you fire.

Penny with her Dad's old .22 rifle

 It's not as difficult as it sounds, but it does take longer to load and fire the next round, and after a few minutes of pulling and pushing the knob my fingers were gettin' kinda sore. 

The solution? 

A Ruger 10/22 Carbine. Arguably, the most popular rifle in America. Accurate, reliable, rugged, light, cheap and fun right out the box.

The new toy: A Ruger 10/22 Carbine

Penny tryin' out that new toy

Our nephew Shawn had put a red-dot reflex sight on the old Stevens while he owned it, and my senior, cloudy, floater-filled, tri-focal wearing eyes really liked it. So when I brought the new toy home, I transferred the sight to it. I think I got it reasonably close to zeroed at 25 yards. I'm sure I'll have to make adjustments in the future.

Sightin' her in

Got to hit some bulls-eyes after 3 hours and 70 rounds (ish)

 "   ... they cling to guns or religion ...   " Barack Obama

I had gotten a .357 snub-nosed revolver, and a Makarov 9mm semi-auto pistol from Penny's late brother Ken. I had a LOT of trouble shooting those as they both had non-adjustable iron sights, that I just couldn't focus on. Penny would likely not have enjoyed shooting those either, especially with the increased recoil, (even when using .38 Special rounds in the snub-nose).

I swapped the .357 and the 9mm with another family member in exchange for this:

Ruger Mark II

This beauty is a 1988 or 89 Ruger Mark II. This is one of those guns that, nobody who has one, ever gets rid of. If they do, they regret it later. It too has fixed iron sights, but they are large enough, and the pistol is long enough overall to be able to focus on them. A little day-glow acrylic paint helps too.

Penny took to this gun like a duck to water. First time shooting it and at 7 yards, she never missed the target. After a clip or two, she was hittin' throat and head shots like she'd been doin' it all her life.

Penny at 7 yards

A word of advice: DON'T PISS PENNY OFF!

Next year we'll take advantage of the range's "Winter Texan" membership. That will make the already cheap fun of shootin' n plinkin' with .22lr's even cheaper.

Until next time....

Bull S. Eye

I haven't written lately which is unusual when the 2P's are on the road. Really since the last post, we've not done much that would be overly interesting to read about. Mostly we're learning about the area, becoming acclimated, and sampling some activities, both in the park, and out.

In the park, there is a lively group of dart enthusiasts. There is a league and also open darts, which is what we participate in. 

Open Darts Warmup

We have a lot of fun....

Yup, we suck

...even though we suck pretty bad.

Ron Speidel

Ron Speidel is the driving force behind the whole deal. Ron designed and built our dart room using UK professional guidelines and equipment, from the lighting to the boards themselves. There are six boards! A lot of people can throw at the same time, often playing in teams. We play mainly 501, since that game is played internationally, (and much of the park's Winter residents are French Canadian,) but sometime we play a simplified version of Cricket. All the players pony up a few bucks each year so Ron can buy new boards when they wear out. 

Neither Penny nor I threw this round

Ron has a contact who buys the previous year's dart models from manufacturing companies in the UK. When the model year ends, Ron buys the old version and has them shipped over here. He resells them, (the money goes into the dart fund,) to anyone who needs them. This allows the players to buy high quality darts, not available in the US, for the price of what is sold at stores here. What a difference throwing good darts makes!

There are other activities here that we haven't availed ourselves of, choosing to concentrate mostly on darts.  Well, shooting too, but that's another post.

 

Till we write again....