Starship Bounder

  Monday, October 16, 2023 – Home in Phoenix We arrived in Phoenix about 4 PM on the 12 th . Interestingly the drive from Flagstaff to Phoenix was one of the most harrowing of the trip due to the construction.  Apparently, I-17 (an Interstate that doesn’t go Interstate) is being either widened or having additional reversable lanes added.  Dunno which.  But the lanes are reduced to one, are bracketed by cement barriers, are very roughly surfaced, incredibly narrow, and zig-zaggery.  And that describes the good parts. It was scary! Here are some stats: 1.     Days                               :         50 2.     Total Miles                    :  ...

  Thursday, October 12, 2023.   Last Day. It’s not windy!   It’s a beautiful bright morning in Holbrook, AZ.   The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the coffee is hot, the dogs are peeped and pooped, and Shawn is vertical.   What more could one ask at 07:00 in the morn? Anyhoo, this should be our last day on the road.   It’s 185 miles to PHX and if we leave in an hour or so we should be at the house about 1 or 2 this afternoon. I will try to do a closing entry in this blog once we are back and settled, and maybe even include some trip photos once I offload and have access to my home-based photo program.   The photo software I bought for this computer was soooo powerful and so difficult for casual use that I uninstalled it. I’m not going to let any clients know I’m back as I will need a week or so to undress the rig and resettle the house and shop.   And, I have a list of things I need to do to get the rig ready for sale. Get it...

  Wednesday, October 11, 2023 – I love KOA, I hate KOA . . . . Windy!   Oh my gosh, WINDY! It’s 11:00 AM.   We left Grants, NM at 9 AM, and for the last three hours (time change) we have been pummeled by sidewind gusts from the South of up to 40 mph.   So sayeth the official weather report for Holbrook, where we are currently parked in a state of limbo in the Holbrook, KOA back parking lot.   (The riff-raff room for any of you who ever watched “Ellen.”)   The winds were so strong we made several unplanned lane changes, as did several big trucks when they were passing us.   Seriously, I had Shawn standing by with her iPhone camera, ready to take a photo of any big SOB truck that might take off my left side mirror.   Yes, I have a dash-cam, but I wanted photos anyway. I looked at the steering wheel a couple of times and figured I had about a 15 to 20 degrees of left turn dialed in just to keep the rig in my lane and that was enough for me to d...

  Tuesday, October 10, 2023 – Thinking of Dad….. So, earlier today I was motorizing West on good old Interstate 40, and I saw in my sideview a commercial bus coming up behind me in the left lane and obviously going to pass me. I was pretty sure it was a Trailways, or Big Dog, or some other travel bus because it had a flat top.   That’s noticeable because big bus style RV usually have Air Conditioners mounted on their roofs. So (again), I suddenly wondered where do the commercial busses have their air conditioners installed.   Down under the bus in a big bay I assume.   And then I thought, “Dad would know!   I will ask him.”   And then I remember Dad passed away about 12 or 14 years ago.   So (again), I guess I won’t be askin’ the old man, but I sure do be missing and rememberin’ him.   It hurts less, but it never stops. Tonight, we are in a very nice KOA that offers gor-met meals delivered to your rig.   I’m ordering a Full Roast Turkey...

  Monday, October 09, 2023 – Rough Road, New Mexico. Greetings from New Mexico!   State Motto : “Our Right Lanes Will Beat You to Death!” And they do!   When traffic was spread out far enough, I spent the day taking my half of the road right out of the middle of the road.   Moving over only when a big truck wanted to pass me. TN I-40 was good.   AR I-40 was good.   OK I-40 was OK.   TX I-40 was good.   NM I-40 is definitely as good as Arizona’s I-40.   A little humor there.  But true. We are in the “ Blaze-In-Saddle ” RV Park in Tucccumacocari, NM.   We were aiming for Santa Rosa, or even Moriarity, but all the RV parks around those towns were full up when we called at about 11 AM.   So, as we approached Tummaacaccorree we were please to find this park a bit ahead of us and overjoyed to find they had a full hook-up, 55 foot long, drive-thru site available.   So, here we are.   Parked, hooked up and hungry. ...

  Sunday, October 08, 2023 – Sometimes you lose . . . On the Darker side: I like TPMS.   T ire P ressure M onitoring S ystems.   I’ve installed one on each of my coaches and then included them with the coach when I sold them.   I like being able to see the pressure and temperatures in the tires as I go a rolling down the highways and byways.   And once I actually got a real alarm and found one of my trailer tires dangerously low from a slow leak on the valve stem.   Quick fix, on my way, and no cat-ass-trophy. This year I bought an “EezTire” System.   $600 for an 8-sensor system.   Six tires on the coach, two on the bike trailer.   It looked like a step-up from previous systems as it has a bigger than usual C O L O R display rather than the usual black & white and boasted of “easy installation and setup.” Turned out to be a piece of do-do.   Vexed me every day.   I just gave it a Del Monte “adjustment.”   My brot...

  Saturday, October 07, 2023 – Sometimes you win . . . . Two Wins Today. Win 01 :   The generator ran all day as we drove.   That’s more mobile running than all the previous attempts put together.   BUT, I’m not going to claim a full success until we have a couple of more winning/running days. Win 02 :   I hooked the external speakers to the TV, and they work great.   Much better sound.   This I will claim as a win. We are in Muskogee, Oklahoma, which is OK, by the way, but we have not seen any eye-high corn, much less any elephants to measure it against. Plains yes, winds yes, elephants no. Muskogee is about 30 miles north of interstate 40 on big, good, wide roads, such as Routes 62 and 64, or 720 miles if you wind your way around 23 triple-digit numbered, two lane, country roads as we did, thanks once again to the BIB. New Rule:   No more three digit numbered roads . We drove an actual 314 miles today mainly because these big recta...

  Friday, October 6 th , 2023.   Nasty’s Sister, Broken Trucker, Carb Install, and a Nice Hardware Store. Wow!   Today we got a four-fere! One-Fere :   This morning I ran into the Nasty Lady’s sister.   Or brother. Or whole damn family.   Who knows?   Pulled into a nice large, crowed gas station, headed for the far end, end spot.   Car parked by the far, front pump.   No one in the car.   Figgered the owner was: (a) inside paying for gas, (b) getting a receipt that failed to print, (c) eating a 15-course lunch at the attached fast-food café’ and taking a nap, or (d) buying a cuppa coffee. Turns out it was most likely (c).   So, I waited, and waited, and waited and left.   I’m beginning to think this might be “A Southern Thing” as in, “The TV’s broke, so let’s go down to the Esso Station and park the car by the pumps!” BTW:   In my mind I see myself drilling the full-length center out of a bunch of roofing nails and...

  Thursday, October 05 th , 2023.   So, how’d she do dat?   DID she do dat? Interesting question in the header. The “she” is a very nasty lady sitting in her car, looking at/working with what appeared to be an iPhone, in the gas lane at a Buc-ees Gas station and blocking me in.   When asked if she would move to another parking spot she snappily (as in not nice) replied, “I’ll move when I move!” I said, “Yes Ma’am,” and walked over to the entrance of the store and asked for a security type employee.   But by the time he arrived she had moved, so the situation was over. Or so I thought . . . A few minutes ago, I got an email asking me if I had ‘attempted’ to buy $xxx.xx worth of gas (correct dollar amount) at Buccees (misspelled) on October 3 rd , and if so to “click here” to clear up the yadda-yadda-yadda , with several capitalization errors, and words misspelled.   So, the question(s) are: 1.     Was there a skimmer on the...

    Wednesday, October 4 th , 2023 – And the déjà vu continues . . . We left Hungry Momma Park a tad bit late this morning and struck out for the west.   But Mr. Peanut has been scooting a bit and we found the one and only Vet shop in Marion and they were open and said to come on down!   Wow!   I told the nice lady on the phone that we were in an RV, and she said, “That’s no problem.” It was a problem. I failed to mention the “RV” was 30 feet long with a 20’ trailer, and she failed to mention their driveway was 75 feet long, and up a 45-degree slope, to a 5-car, no turn around parking area.   As the warden in “Cool Hand Luke” said, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” So, when the BIB said, “Turn right”, I looked up and said no %$#^ way. At that point my only recourse, since we were on RT-11, which is a four-lane highway, was to pull in across the entrance to the driveway completely blocking it, set the four-way blinkers, and hoof it ...