To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before!

Today we said good bye to Indiana Dunes and continued our drive West.  We had a long day of driving, covering more than 300 miles, but I also wanted to see something along the way other than just interstate.  Getting off he highway and driving local roads in the country can be a fun experience and really show you places you would never see from the highway.  More on that in a moment.  

Back in Chicago, a side story.  At least 3 major East/west Interstates and a number of North/South ones all converge in Chicago.  This makes for a tense traffic filled drive.  We have done this drive now at least 4 other times as we have driven West, and every-time has been an adventure.  Well I am happy to report, that we cracked the code today.  Leave early on a Sunday morning and its actually not too bad...   In this picture, you can see one of Daniel's favorite rest stops... the Oasis over the highway.  We didn't stop.. too early, and I didn't want to push our luck and stop only to have all the usual traffic jams catch up to us!

We had lunch at a quiet rest stop in the middle of nowhere Illinois and shortly thereafter crossed the Mighty Mississippi.  The water was very high, and we could see much flooding along the tributaries leading up to and just past the Mississippi.   As luck would have it, a huge barge was passing under the bridge, just as we were crossing. Here you can see the picture Daniel took as we passed over it!

Once in Iowa, it was time to get off the beaten path.  we took a small rural road for about 40 miles to the small town of Riverside, Iowa.  Quick, without reading on, can you guess why Riverside Iowa is so famous????

Well - it's not yet...  but in the year 2228 a boy by the name of James T. Kirk will be born there.   That's right, we visited the future birthplace of Captain Kirk today!   It was great, they have a small museum dedicated to the future event, outside there is a replica of the Enterprise, named USS Riverside, so as not to offend the Copyright protectors at Paramount Studios.  After visiting the Museum, we drove a few more blocks up the street to a small nondescript building.  Behind it, there is a stone marker that marks the actual spot where Kirk will be born.  They  actually have an annual TrekFest here that took place the day before we got there with all the usual fanfare, including character appearances and a parade down main street.  

I have to give a lot of credit to the town for finding a way to get people to drive 20 minutes off the Interstate and spend money.  We did, and so did a bunch of other people that were there.  Including 3 men??? who I swear looked like Vulcans!   

It was a great diversion and even Daniel and Alex ranked it an 8.5 out of 10.  

From there, it was just another hour to our home away from home tonight in Newton, Iowa.  It's a cute little campground with a pool, which the boys spent plenty of time in, and a fishing pond, which they also found enjoyable, although nothing was caught, so it was Chicken patties and mashed potatoes for dinner instead of fish.

So for now, Good Night from Newton.  Tomorrow, we plan to be in Nebraska. 

The Museum!

What a change a day can make.  This morning we awoke to a cool, damp and dreary view and we never saw the sun all day.  The temperature hovered in the 60's and a cool breeze was blowing out of the north.  It almost felt like fall.  We were all glad we made it in the lake last evening because today, the beach was closed due to rough water and rip currents.   The waves were between 2 and 4 feet crashing on the shore.

Above you can see our home away from home at indiana Dunes State Park.  We had plenty of room but decided not to set up too much given the dreary day and our trip to Chicago to Visit the Museum of Science and technology. 

Speaking of that, we had a great time there today.  We actually spent over 4 hours inside the museum.  I think thats a new record for Daniel and I!!!  The boys rated the museum a 9.98 out of 10.

Above you can see Alex and Daniel just clowning around... ha, ha.   The picture on the right is with a Navy sailor.  They had a number of them posted around the U505 Exhibit today talking about things on the ship.  Here, he is showing them an oxygen canister used to inflate life rafts from the sub.  Below is a picture of the boys with the U505 in the background.  On the Right, the U 505.

In addition to the sub, we also explored the coal mine and the huge train exhibit.  They have a model railroad that simulates the landscape from Chicago to Seattle with at least 12 separate train lines running. 

Here you can see the best view we had of downtown Chicago.  The real view was blocked by the fog all day, but the train layout is pretty close....

After a nice lunch in the museum, the  boys took some time running in the hamster wheel to burn off lunch.   

We also visited the Zephyr Train, learned about farming in Illinois and saw Chicks hatching, the Apollo 8 module to name just a few.  

This is the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere.  It is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts left over from the 1893 World's Fair.  If you ever read the Devil in The White City, you will recall this was the center piece of the fair.  

Thoroughly exhausted, we made our way back to the camper so I could take a nap!.  

This evening we saw some great wildlife.  Here you can see the boys with my favorite animal, the Moose. While I wish it were alive, it was instead on display at the local Bass Pro shop, where we stopped to check out the fishing gear, so Daniel could by a new fishing pole.   

Tomorrow is a full travel day, but with any luck, we will find a few detours along the way to Iowa.

The RV Capital Of The World is So Much More!

Friday morning came, bright, sunny and comfortable.  Not a cloud in the sky.   We got up early so we could have the camper to the Ford dealership by 8am.  The boys did a great job this morning getting us packed up and ready to depart.  

After dropping of the RV, we loaded up the car and set off to explore the RV Capital of the World.  according to the Elkhart Chamber of Commerce, fully 80% of the worlds RV's are made here.  The town took a big punch during the Great Recession, but as the industry rebounded, so has this community.  

Our first stop was the RV museum and Hall of Fame.  This is the shrine to everything RVing.  They have exhibits and displays of some of the very first RV's built in the 1920's up through today.  Most of them you can actually go in and explore.  We started a rating system with the boys here and they both rated the museum an 8 out of 10.  A great start.  Unfortunately my camera broke and we lost all pictures of the experience...

Then Daniel came up with the idea to find an open RV factory and go on a factory tour.  He found Newell, a very high end RV manufacturer was in the next town over.  Neither Alex or I wantted to make the drive, so based on advice from the Museum, we set off for Nexus RV, makers of high end class C motorhomes.   When we called, they told us they were expecting a tour of over 50 people, so we rushed off to get there first.

This was quite the experience.  We are greeted at the showroom by a nice salesman who loads us onto a golf cart and drives us over to the factory floor.  And through the factory floor too.  We got a private tour and had the whole floor to ourselves.  They started us were the chassis come in from Ford unfinished.  Then showed us how they build the floor and frame.  We got to see them welding the floor onto one unit.  Next he showed us how they made the walls and then the roof.  We got to go inside an unfinished RV so we could see the wiring, plumbing and super structure up close.   Daniel was in heaven.  We thought he would never want to leave!  We found out it takes 34 days to build their motorhomes from chassis to finished product.  After the tour, we were free to check out the showroom.  It was very tempting, given ours was currently in the shop, to trade it in for one of these great looking new campers!   This tour was rated a 9 out of 10 by both boys!

From there we drove back into Elkhart for a delicious lunch at a unique and fine restaurant, McDonalds.  At this point the Ford Service center called and indeed confirmed that the #6 and # 8 fuel injector coils had gone bad and needed replacement.   The good news, we would be ready to go by 1:30!

With a little more time to spare, we checked out the New York Central Railroad Museum.  This was a cute little museum which sits adjacent to the Burlington Northern freight yard, which we discovered is the second busiest freight yard in the country.  Over 150 trains come past every day!  We saw 6 trains plus an Amtrak train while there.

The museum had a great hands on exhibit including an engine you can climb into and pull the horn... Although we were cautioned not to sound it too often or too long, becuase the neighbors complain.  Which seemed odd, given there were 150 trains a day all sounding horns!   In addition to the engine, they had a huge O gauge model train layout (Alex wants a train layout now!) and a collection of old train memorabilia.  There was a steam locomotive in restoration in the yard along with a number of other cars, all accessible for us to climb on and explore.  

They even had a little train that took us on a short ride around the museum.  Included with the admission!  The museum was a strong 8 leaning toward a 9  as rated by Alex.  Above you can see the boys leaning against the steam train drive wheels! 

Back at the Ford Service, repairs were complete, our RV extended Plan was contacted and paid and we hit the road for Indiana Dunes State Park.

Indiana Dunes is a hidden gem of a park. According the the Park web page it's made up of 1,182 acres of primitive, beautiful, historic and unique landscape and includes more than three miles of beach along Lake Michigan’s southern shore. On a clear day, you can see Chicago across the lake!  In the early 1900s scientists, recreationists and nature enthusiasts, recognizing the value and potential of the Indiana dunes area, fought to have the region preserved. As a result, in 1925, the state park was established.  Large sand dunes, located beyond the entire shoreline, have taken thousands of years to form, and tower nearly 200 feet above Lake Michigan.

No sooner did we arrive and the boys were out exploring the park.  They climbed the dunes and after we unloaded the bikes we set off to the lakefront for a swim.  The water was refreshing and nice!   

Then back to the camper for dinner and a relaxing evening sitting around the camp.

Just above, you can see Daniel and Alex in the lake.  I got in too, but there will be NO picture of that!  Above that is a picture Daniel took of the lake and beach from the top of The Devils Slide.  One of the dunes you can climb.

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

Thursday post... Delayed.  Sorry for the delay in posting our first day on the road was a rough one.  The plan was to drive 400 miles to Streetsboro Ohio for the night, then push on to Indiana.  Well, best laid plans, sometimes just don't work out.   

Morning came at 3am so I could run Sammi and Missy over to My Church for thier ride to the airport to begin thier mission trip to South Dakota.  Alex joined us at 4:45am and we were on the road by 5am.

Once in the Pa mountains we hit torrential rainfall.  As I've mentioned before, we always seem to hit heavy rain driving over the mountains in Pa!   At one point we actually pulled over and stopped it was rianing so hard. 

A short side bar about the 1999 Ford Triton V10 chassis that our motorhome is built on.  The Injector Coils  on the engine are relatively exposed to the elements and by a fluke or design flaw when it rains a lot, those coils get wet and have a tendency to break or misfire.  This in turns causes the engine to run rough and eventually fail.  

 After a nice lunch at the Flying J truck stop, where we get gas, the infamous "Service Engine Soon" light came on, almost like clock work.   Now since Duct Tape is a campers best friend and repairs everything.... See the great job I did using it to fix the shelf unit above the door entrance... Daniel and I set off to see what we could do to resolve our situation.  Sure enough, a little tape soon made our problem go away.  Here below you can see the tape in action fixing our engine problem.

On the serious side though, I called to a Ford Dealership in Elkhart, Indian where I knew from previous issues we could get it fixed. Made an appointment for the next day and then changed our overnight reservation from Streetsboro, Ohio to Elkhart, Indiana.  This added another 250 miles and almost 4 hours to our already long day!  But who needs sleep.   So we pushed on for a total of 640 miles in one day.  My back felt great! 

The good news, we were able to adjust our plans and spend the whole day Friday exploring Elkahrt, the RV capital of the world!  

We arrived at the KOA campground around 6 pm and the boys went straight to the pool for a swim, while I worked on dinner.   After dinner, I went straight to bed, exhausted while the boys played quietly for awhile.  

On The Road Again... Finally

It was a dark and stormy night...  Well, it seems its always a dark and stormy night the evening before we head out on a long trip.   The rain has been coming down in buckets on and off for hours.  We have been dodging the rain as we finish up packing.   

But I think we are finally ready!  After months of planning we are as ready as we are going to be.  The rest we leave to one of the Walmarts we will inevitably pass along the drive!

Here in this picture you can see Daniel with the camper, the bikes, and the car.  To allow us to take bikes we added a bike rack to the rear hitch.   Under that tarp are 4 bikes!  It extends the car hitch about another foot, not much, but its going to take some getting used to as we drive down the road.  The bikes bounce around a little and the car now sticks out further than ever....  Watch out everyone, a freight train is rolling down the road.

Daniel's friend Alex and his parents just stopped over to drop off his final things.  He will be back first thing in the morning.

Missy and Sammi are finishing off their packing for South Dakota.  I will drop them off at 4:15 in the morning.  Then instead of trying to go back to bed, we will load up and head out on the road.  We hope to be in Ohio by early afternoon.   Thursday's drive will be one of the longest on our journey.  Exactly 400 miles from our door step to the campground in Ohio.   I'm estimating a good 8 or 9 hours.  Maybe longer depending on the drive over the mountains in Pa.   The drive over the Pa. mountains is probably the toughest part of our drive the entire trip.   They may not be tall, but they are rugged.  

Look for more pictures once I finally get the camera out and figure out how to use it and better yet, transfer the pictures from the camera to my iPad.   Missy is the usual photographer!

To bed, then one the road...

P.S. as someone has pointed out, I'm not catching all the spelling mistakes.  The iPad blog post app I'm using does not seem to have a spell checker that I can find.  So.... Apologies ahead of time for taking some poetic license.   I will try to catch what I can...

Following Americas First Transcontinental Highway

Did you know that just 100 years ago the United States dedicated its first transcontinental highway?  Its true and the centennial celebration of that highway will take place in Kearney, Nebraska,  the exact mid point for the old Lincoln Highway.  And guess what, we will be there during the celebration!
Why is this significant for our journey this summer you ask?  Well, the Lincoln highway as it exists today is US Route 30 and it parallels interstate 80 for much pf the distance we will be travelling.  The highway begins in Times Square and ends in Lincoln park in San Fransisco.   Or visa verse for you folks on the West Coast!  
According to the Lincoln Highway Association, (Yes, there really is one!), The idea of the Lincoln Highway came from one Carl Fisher who some of you may recall is the man responsible for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Miami Beach.   He, along with other industrialists of his time, envisioned an improved, hard-surfaced road that would stretch almost 3400 miles from coast to coast!
While the main dedication in Kearney will be about 2 days before we arrive, we still hope to catch some of the celebration and also take some time to slow down, get off the Interstate and follow in the history of Americas first coast to coast road project!   Believe it or not, there is tons more on the on the  Lincoln Highway web site.  http://www.lincolnhighwaynebraskabyway.com/

Two Trips in One!

Our summer trip is actually two separate trips in one.  There is this trip, our 3 week RV adventure out to Denver, Colorado and back, and then there is the real reason we are making this trip, the 10 day South Eastern Pa Lutheran Church, mission trip out to South Dakota.
Missy and our middle daughter Sammi along with around 100 other high school kids and adults will be flying out through Denver to spend about a week in South Dakota on an Indian Reservation.  There, they will learn and experience the Native American culture while doing work, like building a library, teaching bible school and generally helping the local tribe.
In the meantime, Daniel and one of his friends Alex and I will be taking the scenic route out to Denver to sync up with them on July 8th.  We will follow Interstate 80 West to Denver, then return on Interstate 70.  Along the way, we plan to stop off in Chicago; Omaha, Nebraska; North Platte, Denver, Colorado Springs, Kansas (see my previous post!), St. Louis and Columbus.  
We plan to travel a total of about 3567 miles round trip, with the hope that gas prices keep trending lower! FYI, for those of you who like this sort of thing, I have a new iPad App that will help me to track and report on our MPG and other related statistics along the way.
So with one week before departure day, we continue to make preparations.  Packing is ongoing.  We are loading in food and supplies to at least make it a week or so without a major grocery run.  And most importantly, I've run around the house collecting as many quarters as I can find for the customary laundry machines and dryers, and the occasional shower at the campgrounds!
On to Ohio we go!

What Does Kansas have to do With Our Summer Trip Anyway?

In just over a week we will be on the road again!  I can't wait.  But what does Kansas have to do with our summer trip anyway?  We have been to all the States with our Motorhome with the exception of Alaska and Hawaii over the past 10 years, and over that time we have spent quality time in all of them.  All except Kansas!  Sure, we drove through it, but for my daughter Sammi, driving through a corner of a State on the interstate, just doesn't count!  

Sammi is a proud member of the "All 50 States" club.   This is a club for people who have actually visited all 50 states, something Sammi accomplished after she talked her grandmother into taking her to Alaska a year ago.  As a member of the club, she feels we actually need to spend at least a few hours in the State and visit something.  So no matter what our summer plans, all roads lead to Kansas.  The current plan is to drive all 400 or so miles of Interstate 70 from Colorado to Missouri from one end of Kansas to the other.  The only problem, we can't find anything to really pull over and visit.  If you have made the drive through Kansas, give us a yell and let us know what we need to visit.

So, no matter where we end up this summer, Kansas remains on the top of our list.  After this... I think it might be time to start counting down the Canadian provinces!