Labor Day in Red Bay

We always love coming to Red Bay.  This time we have appointments to get some things done at Bruce Deaton's Custom Body and Paint Shop (two bay doors), Brannon Hutchison's Custom RV (vent fan, new digital antennae) and Bay Diesel (new shocks and front a/c).  There are other things on 'the list' but those are the main items.

For the second time now, we are staying at Downtown RV.

We like this place because it is within walking area of a lot of places.  It has some shade and the main reason this time, is that friends Steve and Karen (GoneByRV blog) area here.

We arrived on Saturday morning after a pleasant drive from Mid South Naval Station outside of Memphis. Our reserved spot was open and we got set up in no time.  There is a good group of people here and they have a nightly social hour.  Its always nice to chat it up and get to know some new folks.

On Saturday evening we had a potluck under the big shade tree in the RV park.

 We had so much food left over, we decided to do it again on Sunday evening.

This is one of the most things we do -- hang out and chat with folks and learn about their story and share some episodes in ours.

Speaking of eating - we heard of a new dish in Red Bay:  biscuits and chocolate gravy.  Chocolate gravy?  never heard of it.  Biscuits and sausage gravy is common but it is known here as 'white gravy'.  The chocolate gravy is something I had to try.

I walked a block over to the Red Bay Food Mart and got two to-go boxes for bacon, scrambled eggs, and biscuits and gravy -- one with white gravy and one with chocolate gravy.

 The white gravy looked pretty normal.

 The chocolate gravy was something I had a hard time wrapping my head around when I first heard about it.  But then I thought about chocolate donuts and I like those.  I normally don't have bacon and eggs and chocolate donuts....

So here's a closer look.  I ate the bacon and eggs first and then the open faced biscuit with chocolate gravy.  It was pretty rich and a little too much.  I actually ate the whole thing just to give it a fair try.
The verdict?

I don't think so.  It's a wonder I didn't get sick.  I didn't feel quite right the rest of the day.  But now I know.  I can say, "No thank you after giving it a try."

But the food at the potluck was really great.  Pam made an Asian Salad, Karen made a fruit salad and cupcakes, Marty made Navy beans with ham and rice, Yvonne made deviled eggs, Suzanne brought shrimp cocktail and wrapped bacon weenies, and Nancy and Dave cooked some brots.   It was a feast.

On Sunday, Pam and I went for a long walk over to the Allegro Campground and back.  It has been very warm here but we got out and back before it started to heat up.  I found a large shade tree to wipe down the CRV and wax it.  Then we downloaded a sermon and listened to it in the Roadrunner Chapel.

Later Joe came over from the Red Bay Self Service RV Park and we had a nice long chat.  Hadn't seen him and Carolyn since the Tampa RV show in January.  It was a nice Sunday.

Later on in the afternoon we watched some golf and joined in the social hour/pot luck.  It has been a fun start to our time in Red Bay.

Happy Labor Day!

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Roadrunner Financials - August 2016

Roadrunner Recap
In August, we left Portland, OR and headed estate and then south from Sioux Falls to Memphis TN,.  The big event was recovering from my retina detachment surgery in Portland where we stayed from the last week of July into the middle of August.  

We also stopped along the way at:

• Portland Fairview RV Park, Portland OR
• Four Seasons RV Park, Walla Walla WA
• Cummins Spokane Jim and Mary's - Missoula MT
• Mountain Range RV Park - Columbus MT
• Peter D - Sheridan WY
• Sleepy Hollow Campground - Wall, SD
• WH Lyons Fairgrounds - Sioux Falls SD
• Griff's Valley View RV Park, Altoona IA
• HWH Parking Lot, Moscow IA
• Galesburg East Campground, Knoxville IL
• Cahokia RV Parque, East St Louis MO
• Scott AFB IL FamCamp, MO
• Hinton RV Park, Sikeston MO
• Mid South Navy RV Park Millington TN

Here's an interactive map of our travels:

Or, if you prefer and find this easier to navigate, here is a static map:

We spent the month leaving Portland and taking a route east through Montana and into Wyoming.  We were able to see the beautiful Columbia River Gorge, the spacious and scenic Montana vistas and we stopped at the Custer / Little Big Horn Memorial Historic Site.  We ended up in Memphis were we took in the fun Graceland home and museum.  It was a busy month!

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget

Biggest Expenses
Our most expensive categories included:

• Fuel
• Maintenance
• Campgrounds and 
• Eating Out

Large One Time Cost Item
In August, we had work done at Cummins Spokane ($212) and then we had the slideout fixed at HWH in Moscow Iowa ($885).

Monthly Average

Our monthly average  is still sadly way above what we were hoping for.  The RV Maintenance and paying for high season campground sites also were factors in our overage.

That's a snapshot of how we're feeling about the cost of things on this Full-Time Journey.  We are in month 87 of "Living the Dream".

Hopefully, some of the thoughts and figures are of some interest/value/curiosity.  If you'd like a blank spreadsheet of what I use I'd be glad to send you it at no charge to do with what you wish.  

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

More Throwed Rolls on the Road

This is a look at our itinerary for the next few days.  We left Scott AFB FamCamp yesterday morning and are slowly making our way to Red Bay Alabama for some work on the Roadrunner.  We are arriving at Red Bay for the Labor Day Weekend and have some time to get there.

Last night we stayed at Hinton RV Park which is a great overnight stop in Sikeston, MO.  It was only about 3 hours from Scott AFB and right along our route.  Next, we'll spend a couple of days outside of Memphis and see some sights there before heading into Red Bay.

We got into our open, flat and level campsite about noon.  It was hot outside and a chance for me to wash the Roadrunner.

It was really hot so I put up some shade in the form or our new REI canopy.  I am really going to like this one!

It's been a while since I had a chance to scrub the coach down and clean it up.  I really need to wax it too, but that will probably come next week at Red Bay.

In our research to find a decent campground I came across a review of someone who mentioned Lambert's Cafe - home of the Throwed Rolls.  Once I saw the reviews of the campground and mention of Lambert's - I knew this is where we wanted to overnight.

We first heard of Lambert's while in Pensacola a few years ago.  We drove over to Foley AL with some friends and had lunch.  It was a hoot!  If you have never been to Lambert's at one of their three locations (Foley AL, Ozark MO near Springfield, the the original-first-one here in Sikeston MO.)  

Lambert's started as a cafe in 1942 when things were pretty tough.  Earl and Agnes started the cafe after borrowing $1500 to get started.  After Earl died, his brother and wife joined Agnes running the place.

It was crowded one day at lunch time and a customer said, "just toss me a roll" and that's how the now famous "Throwed Rolls" began.  They also have "pass arounds" which are on the house and include:

• hot rolls, (with apple butter and/or sorghum),
• macaroni and tomatoes,
• fried okra, 
• black eyed peas,
• fried potatoes and onions

Different folks walk around and ask if you want one of the pass arounds and serve it up right there.  

 If you look real hard you can see the guy cocking his arm to toss Pam and me each a roll.  

 We were two for two!  Both of us caught one from clear across the room.  Next, a young lady stopped by with the apple butter and sorghum, both of which were good.  I also had some fried okra which was pretty good.

We opted for the catfish and shared one plate.  There was plenty of food there for both of us.  It came with an additional two sides.  We had the baked beans and coleslaw.

Yikes!  One doesn't go to Lambert's to watch their weight!  But it is a unique place and a lot of fun.

We went to dinner early in case there might be a tour bus at Lambert's or a lot of people.  There were neither but the result was we had plenty of time for an early evening drive around town.  Low and behold we saw a small sign for the outlet stores.

Apparently there were a couple of dozen stores there at one time, but this shopping center had clearly seen a better day.  But they had a few stores worth stopping in and looking around.  One was Carter's Kids -  that was trouble!  We picked up a couple of shirts and pants for our fast growing little grandson Brooks.  At 18 months he is wearing 2 size clothes.

We also stopped by Bass Clothing store.  We didn't find anything there but had some time to chat with a couple of young ladies at the store on a slow evening.  They asked where we were from and we got into a brief discussion of our lifestyle.  I gave them a contact card and encouraged them to take a look at the blog here.

I asked if I could take a picture and they were more than glad to do so.  Antrava is on the left, Autumn is on the right.  It was nice to talk a little with them.  And nice to see more young people working.  Just like at Lambert's -- we saw a lot of young people working there too.

That's about it -- one overnight stop along our way from St. Louis to Red Bay.  We set up some shade, washed the Roadrunner, had dinner and fun at Lambert's and had time to meet some locals while picking up something we couldn't do without for our favorite grandson.

It was another great day as a full-timer.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Little Bighorn National Monument Stop in Montana

After leaving Columbus MT, we wanted to stop at the Little Bighorn National Monument which was a couple hours along I-90.

It was a cloudy day with some rain, but we stopped anyway to see the museum and the grounds.

A national cemetery is on the site on one side of the main building.

Over time, I am learning more and more about the history of the American Indian and the U.S. Government's expansion through the Great Plains.  There were many reasons for encroachments west of the Mississippi, but the lure of a quick fortune meant trappers and fur traders, gold rushers and others looking for a place to homestead, meant treaties with the Indians were broken again and again.

The tensions between the Indians and the white man varied for a number of years, specifically between 1854-1890 in what was known as the Sioux Wars.  The Little Bighorn was one of those battles of the Sioux Wars.

I liked the small but well done museum.  It had a number of interesting artifacts and displays depicting life in the 1870s on the Plains.  The U. S. 7th Cavalry was dispatched to the territory to "get rid of the Indian problem" and Lt. Col. George A. Custer was among the 700 men who fought against approximately 2,000 Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors.

Custer's Last Stand is the source of much speculation, contemplation and legend.  Since it was undoubtedly a complete rout, there were no eye-witness soldiers to substantiate different accounts.  But by most accounts, Custer's force was annihilated within an hour of engagement.

This internet map shows how the Army was positioned for a three pronged attack against the Indians gathering in the area.

It was the largest battle in the Sioux Wars of 1876.   Afterwards, the Indians divided up into smaller groups and dispersed because there was not enough grass and game to sustain the large number of forces that had gathered there.  This was the last significant battle of the Sioux Wars.  Afterwards, the Indians were chased and forced onto numbers of reservations where they were promised peace and rations and their own territory once again.

Among the displays was a display of key people at Little Bighorn including Custer, Major Reno, as well as Indians who served as scouts, guides and interpreters for the Army.

Sitting Bull inspired many of the Indians, including Crazy Horse to fight for their people.   Sitting Bull said to his warriors, "You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hard tack and a little sugar and coffee."  Another leader of the day, President Ulysses S. Grant advocated the Peace Policy of 1869 which had little effect on the roaming Indians and the corrupt Indian Agents throughout the territory.

After slowly going through the museum we took a walk up the hill to separate memorials for the Army and Indians.

A monument was erected with the names of the Army fallen.

Across the way was a memorial built for the Indians.

It was worth the stop and we were glad we did.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Memories in Montana

We definitely did not spend enough time in Montana.  What a beautiful state! We love driving through the mountains and getting to see the spectacular mountains and buttes of Montana.  It is a wonderland.  We will definitely have to come back and spend more time here.

Six years ago we went to Glacier National Park and I decided then Montana was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever visited.  At that time we said we need to come back.  We did, but we need to spend a few weeks here rather than a few days.  There is too much to see.

We drove from Spokane to Missoula the first day (Jim and Mary's RV Park) and on to Columbus MT the second day.  I-90 has to go on our list of some of the most scenic drives in America!

Sadly, photos out of the windshield do not come close to convey the beauty of this place.

I thought I took a lot more photos but I didn't.  :(

The country goes forever through valley after beautiful valley.  I reminds me of the Shenandoah Valley except it is bigger and there are more of them in Montana.   And less people.  It is really something.

Santa Fe High School friend Donna and husband Paul live in Montana.  We didn't get a chance to see them our first time through Montana, but were able to do so this time.  She is a nurse and he does sales in the building industry.  They have a place on the river a few miles from where camped in Columbus, MT.

This is our campsite for our two night stay at the Mountain Ranger RV Campground in Columbus.  It was fine for a short visit and we were able to get some wash done.

We met Donna and Paul for dinner at the 307 in Columbus this first night which worked out great.  It was fun to meet Paul and hear of his days as a professional baseball player.  I think the last time I saw Donna was when she was a cheerleader for the University of Wyoming and they came to Arizona State for a football game in 1972.

We were able to spend the next afternoon/evening with them at their place on the river.  The summer has been especially hot this year and the river is pretty low.  But in normal times they can literally fish off their deck as the river goes right by.

Donna fixed a wonderful meal and we had a great time seeing them.

We can see why they love it here in their little slice of heaven!  It was a wonderful time, they were gracious hosts and it was another upside to this RV full-timing thing.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

In-N-Out Cummins

The Roadrunner has been hesitating going up hills a little ever since I had a brain freeze and put a few gallons of gas into the diesel tank.  That was about six weeks ago.

While in Portland Pam called the local Cummins facility and they said it would be three weeks before they could get us in.  And they recommended Cummins Northwest which is a RV CoachCare repair facility.  It is located right outside of Spokane on I-90.

Not to overstate it, but this might be the best RV-friendly repair facility we have visited.  We were very glad to see the back-in parking spaces with 50 amp and water.

 We got in early afternoon on Sunday and had our choice of two spaces.  (Don't know why that had two school buses over there but a couple of motor homes that arrived later than we did could have parked there.)

We had time to go over the Fairchild AFB which was about five miles away.  We had been there five years ago when we had another Warner Bros Reunion in 2011.  We did some grocery shopping and returned to our parking spot.  It was an uneventful evening and watched the Olympics enjoyed the beautiful 90 degree weather.

We were there with some other folks when the door opened a few minutes before 7:00 AM and talked to Tim the Service Manager.  Pam had spoken to him a few weeks ago and he remembered.  Pam had a hunch it was the fuel filters that needed to be changed so that's what we asked them to do.

Tim said, "We'll try to work you in, but we are real busy and we may not get to you before your Thursday appointment."  That was three days away.  But we were hopeful.  How long can it take to change a couple of filters?

We explained what we thought the problem was and the fact the fuel filters are easy to get to to and....yada yada yada.

To our amazement about 20 minutes later Jesse the mechanic walked out and drove the Roadrunner into the shop!  He was waiting on parts from another job and had some time to work on ours.

Next we went into their small but comfortable Customer Lounge and used their wifi which was fast. I went over to the Parts Department and was able to get a baseball hat.  (Can one have too many hats?) Then I went back to the lounge and logged on.

I didn't get very far before the job was done!  It may have been 20 minutes.  It probably took as long to do the paperwork as it did to replace the filters.  $213 later and we had new ones on and a couple of spares in the passenger seat for next time.

We thanked Tim profusely and hooked up the car and made it to Mizzoula Montana for the night.  We had a few mountains to climb and it drove like a champ.  Needless to say we were pretty excited about how things went at the Cummins facility.  We are going to add this one to the list that is worth waiting for to get the Roadrunner worked on if we need to again out West.

It's a medium size facility with about 10-12 service bays, has electric and water hook ups and has a dump station to boot!  And the Petro truck stop is just down the street.  So we were able to fill up and get going in record time.  It is right off of I-90 and a little noisy but not a problem really.  (Especially when you run the a/c or ceiling fan.  Not much we could do about the trains but that is part of the charm in these parts...

It was a great experience at Northwest Cummins! We highly recommend and will remember this place.  That's all for now on the Roadrunner Chronicles. Thanks for stopping by.

More Memories in Walla Walla

Growing up, our family took a few road trips.  I remember a cross country one back in 1962 from Presque Isle Maine to Phoenix.  My dad retired from the Air Force and my mother had enough of cold weather to last a lifetime.  So my dad did some job hunting and found a position with the U.S. Forest Service in Phoenix AZ.

A year later he took a Forest Service job in Silver City NM where we lived for three years.  While in Silver City, we took another road trip -- this time to see my mom's sister and family in Walla Walla Washington.  I think we were 10 years old at the time.  We had a good time with cousins Gary and Greg although Greg was much older than us.  But Gary is the same age as me and my twin brother Reid.  And Gary grew up in Walla Walla.

Last week, we pulled into Walla Walla for a three day stay.  We had planned on meeting full time RV friends Geroge and Marge who were traveling from Sioux Falls.

Over the years cousin Gary and I have not really kept in touch too much.  Just a few notes back and forth on FaceBook.  I sent him a note and said, "Guess where we are -- Walla Walla".  To my surprise he sent back a note and said, 'We will be arriving tomorrow for my 45th high school reunion'!

Really?  - Wow -- we could not have planned it any better.  We found a restaurant (Olive Marketplace and Cafe) and decided on lunch with him and girlfriend Lisa.

 We had a great time catching up and learning about our lives at this stage.

After lunch we had them out to the Roadunner for a quick tour before we took them back to the Marcus Whitman where they are staying.

It was really great to see Gary again and to meet Lisa.  Lots has happened in our lives and it was fun telling stories of what has happened over the last 50+ years.  It was a wonderful time.

One thing about Walla Walla is that it is one of the most well taken care of small towns we have ever visited.  One thing I did after checking into our campground (RV Resort Four Seasons) is to get hold of a city map that showed the bike trails.

We checked them out and did a pretty good job of seeing the outskirts and neighbors of the town.  We also had dinner downtown one night and all in all -- Walla Walla is one of the great towns in America!  It apparently has no 'bad areas' -- it was all kept up well and we just didn't see any 'bad areas of town'.

We had another great time with good RV friends Marge and George.  We met them in Key West when were were there for the first time about five years ago.  Since then we've met up with them a number of places and kept track in between times being together.

They were heading west from Sioux Falls and we were heading east from Portland when we made plans to rendezvous in Walla Walla.  It worked great!

 We got sites next to each other and had dinner together plus hung out for three days.

It's always great to see these two.  They are such nice folks!  Here we are at another downtown restaurant that was recommended by the RV Campground Manager -- T. Maccarone's.

We enjoyed time at their place for dinner a couple of nights.  They have a 42 ft Winnebago Tour with a long DS slideout that goes down almost the full side of the coach.  Very well done and comfortable. The only disappointment in Walla Walla was the lack of a large produce market on Saturday morning. We were able to find a good supply of a couple different kinds of corn and managed to get hold of some world famous W2 (Walla Walla) onions and some tomatoes but we missed out on what we expected with the produce market.

But that did not dampen our time in Walla Walla -- being able to see good friends and unplanned time with cousin Gary -- it was a great three days there full of memories!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!