may2007

May, 2007
go to our "home page"

On the road again! Heading east on I-10 from Arizona, we had spent the night at the Lordsburg, New Mexico Welcome Center (an annual stop). We took our time getting going in the morning and arrived in Las Cruces in the early afternoon. We parked the first two nights of May at the home of Mary's cousins, Geoff and Beth Close. As in our past two visits, we certainly enjoyed their hospitality. Their beautiful home is in such a peaceful setting in the foothills of the Organ Mountains and better yet, has space and hookups for an RV. It was great to catch up on details from the other branches of the family. Mary and Beth spent some time in "Old Mesilla" and Geoff whipped up his tasty enchiladas for dinner. Beth is very involved in the "X-Prize Cup" space competition at the new spaceport in Las Cruces and it was interesting learning all about that.

Our next stop was just down the road - in El Paso, Texas. We had an appointment at Rocky Mountain Cummins for a long list of routine maintenance items. Rocky Mountain Cummins has several branches in the west and is part of the "Coach Care" service network. We had stopped here several years ago and were pleased with their help in somewhat of an emergency situation, arriving unannounced. This time we had confirmed our appointment ahead of time and given them a list of our needs. But it took them until 2:00 in the afternoon to assemble an estimate and ask our permission to begin work. At that point we elected to drop two items from our list because we would have to pay big bucks for overnight delivery of parts and stay an extra day. They were not major items at this time and we've since made an appointment to have things taken care of at the Charlotte, MI Spartan factory in July. Otherwise, they completed the work by about 5:00, we were treated very well and we used their free hookups for an overnight stay.


We're glad that Mary's cousins Beth and Geoff moved to New Mexico two years ago...we seem to get together more now than when they lived in Maryland.	In spite of new construction out there, Geoff and Beth still have a magnificent view of the Organ Mountains from their patio.	In El Paso we took time to investigate the racks where all the trucks were parking at the truck stops. The big yellow flexible tubes fit in the front window of the cab and provide heat and air-conditioning, high speed internet, telephone, cable television, pay-per-view movies, games and electrical hookups for the parked trucks. Not a bad set-up!

Then it was on to the "real Texas"...miles and miles of nothing along I-10. We made our way across the state with overnight stops in Midland and Weatherford...electing to not make any tourist stops in Texas this trip. We'd had such good luck last year in Shreveport, Louisiana that we couldn't pass that by, so made Harrah's Louisiana Downs our first of five nights at casinos. It was worth the stop! The next three nights found us at the Hollywood Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. They have a very nice RV park, so we had made reservations there ahead of time. This also was a profitable stop...with the casino buying all our meals, paying for three nights in the RV park and giving us some cash to use at Flying J. One of the highlights of that stop was that Tom noticed while he was playing Blackjack one afternoon, that there was somewhat of a commotion several tables down. We discovered that the table had changed from the minimum $10 per hand to $5000 per hand, and that the table had been reserved for a single player, golfer John Daly. We're not sure how many hands he played or what he won (or lost!). A bit later we watched him play in the "High Limit Slots" area...with a big stack of $100 bills, playing three machines at once. We know he won at least one jackpot there, but don't know how much. They tend to keep the common people standing back at a distance :-). By dinner time, the Blackjack table was back to $10 a hand and the slot area was open...Mr. Daly had left the building. He comes there quite often we are told. Our final casino stop was Harrah's in St. Louis...always fun as it has two casinos in one.


The Hollywood Casino is but one of close to a dozen casinos in Tunica, MS, but it is our favorite.	Here's Tom checking out the car used by Elvis in his 1966 movie, Spinout. As you might guess, the Hollywood Casino has quite a collection of movie memorabilia.

With cash for fuel in our pockets, we headed on into Illinois and to our old spot at the WInnebago County Fairgrounds west of Rockford. We got the RV all settled in and then reported for duty as baby-sitters for our three granddaughters. Our daughter, Ann, and her husband Matt departed on a Western Caribbean cruise and we were left in charge of the three girls, two dogs, the house and the schedules. We made trips to swim lessons, dance class, several softball practices, had team photos taken, attended the kindergarten spring concert, and Mary was the ketchup lady in the school cafeteria one day. We also managed to squeeze in a round of golf on our own, a bike rodeo and a big neighborhood birthday bash. And, we only had to chase runaway dogs twice. We made frequent trips to the RV as it was convenient to the girls' school and ball fields. Bottom line...we had a busy but fun week.


Merrick (second from the right) was an official "shaker player" for the song "Summer Vacation" at the Pecatonica Elementary School Kindergarten Concert.	You'd better follow the laws you just reviewed, Merrick! Officer Rick followed the Rodeo Riders on a spin through town.	Coffey, Merrick and Close helped neighbor Kaitlin celebrate her first birthday.	Twice a year the Winnebago County Fairgrounds in Pecatonica is host to "The Pec Thing" - a huge antique show and flea market. We checked out some of the merchandise on a Sunday morning walk "right in our own backyard."

Memorial Day Weekend has, for 91 years, meant the Indianapolis 500 auto race. Growing up not far away, both of us know plenty of people who have been to the race, but had never been ourselves. We decided this year to pass up our usual trip to the FMCA G.L.A.S.S. Rally and to travel with the Spartan Chassis Chapter of FMCA to attend the race. We gathered with the other attendees at the Hendricks County Fairground west of Indianapolis on Tuesday, May 22. We had full hookups at the fairgrounds and took the opportunity to catch up on laundry and fill the fresh water and empty the holding tanks before our caravan made its way on Thursday to the Speedway. We had an orientation meeting and some free time to explore the area while at the fairgrounds, so we found our way to the Chateau Thomas Winery for a little tasting session. Then came the big caravan. We had about 65 rigs, and boy could we tie up some traffic. But, we made it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway without too much trouble, and got parked in a lot just outside the north gate. On Thursday we could enter the grounds for free and walk around the 2 1/2 mile track and just see what is where. Friday was "Carb Day." We had tickets to watch the "Freedom 100" Race and also see the regular Indy drivers have their last practice on the track...a lot more noise and people this day. We were also able to walk through the garage area and see where last minute tune-ups take place. As the crowd increased to about 30,000 people standing in the infield in the hot sun, we decided to pass on the "Kid Rock" concert. (He's just not one of our favorites at the moment!) Back at the camping area, the rain began around 5:00, but that didn't put a damper on the spirit of the many campers in our field....boy what a place to "people watch."

AT THE sPEEDWAY...........


Welcome to the corner of 16th Street and Georgetown Road in Speedway, Indiana	The straight-away up to the start/finish line has seats on both sides. The "Pagoda" building is where the officials watch the race.


This is one of the "pits." Under the blue canopy computers keep track of all the information and data about the car. The tank holds 225 gallons of ethanol fuel. A car can be "serviced" and tires changed in 8 seconds! Why do I always have to wait so long at Jiffy Lube?	We don't want to put any undue stress on the car...we'll move them around the garage area by holding the tow rope from a golf car.	Tires, anyone? They don't have any tread on them and are a little small, so I guess they won't work on the Dutch Star.

To help you imagine the "ambiance" of our area, there were groups making a pile of all their empty beer cans and pizza delivery from Papa John's was discontinued at 4am...that's right, 4am. The aroma of campfires and grills was non-stop for the weekend. We DID have door-to-door delivery of the morning paper, fresh water, pump-out service, trash pick-up and ice. There was a row of porta-potties right behind our rig and the big shower truck ($5 each) was right across the road next to the big Camping World tent. Up at the corner there were vendors selling just about any kind of food (and T-shirts and other "stuff") we could want...all the comforts of home. The size and "quality" of the various camping units was very interesting. Ingenuity in some was interesting and the campers kept busy with all sorts of games and activities. Our group enjoyed being "self-contained" and generator powered!! But, no doubt about it, all were here to have a good time!

CAMPING IN lOT 1a..........


The hospitality committee hung out their sign (they weren't a part of our caravan, however.)	Need a shower? $5 for five minutes of clean hot water. Each stall is scrubbed down after each use.	Anybody for a game of "fowling." You stand back about 30 feet and throw a football at the pins.

Saturday was Parade Day. Our group was shuttled to downtown Indianapolis on school busses and we took our seats in chairs right in front of the curb on Meridian Street. The rain started just as we headed towards the parade, but as the whole affair started, the skies cleared and the streets dried up and we had a great afternoon. The first marching unit at the head of the parade was "The Glassmen," a drum and bugle corps from our hometown of Toledo...wow! We enjoyed being "up close and personal" to all the big balloons, floats, and personalities in the parade.
Back at Lot 1-A, the Coke lot (we were right in front of the big Coca-Cola Distributor), life was a little more noisy and lively than it had been on Friday night. Some of our RV group went to the "Midget Races" at another raceway later that night,

Scenes from the parade.......


----street in downtown Indianapolis was a little wet right up until the parade started. Our seats were the white chairs up against the curb.	Patrick Depmsey, aka Dr. McDreamy, drove the Pace Car on race day. He is also part owner of several of the race cars. ( Dr. Mc Steamy was also there!)	Peyton Manning was the parade Grand Marshall and the race "starter".	General Chuck Yager was celebrating the 60th anniversary of his flight going faster than the speed of sound.


Apolo Anton Ohno wasn't dancing or skating today...but he still looked good!	What's a parade without big balloons... "Garfield"	...and "Hello Kitty"	Crowd favorite Danica Patrick rode with her husband, Paul. She was as high as second during the race, but placed 8th.

Then came RACE DAY! We woke up with the big bomb blast at 6AM to signify the track gates were opening. Perhaps the blast had something to do with the rain we got a short time later? The local TV stations were, of course, broadcasting live from the track and giving minute-by-minute weather updates. They truthfully predicted that the rains would stop in time for the track to dry and the race would start as scheduled. We started the trek to our seats around 11:30, but took rain gear along as the weatherman said the rains would return mid-afternoon. As we got to the road in front of our camping area, we joined the sea of humanity just trying to get to the gates. Then came the hike to the opposite side of the track. Our seats in the "North-east Vista" were just high enough that we could view the width of the track in front of us. "As the crow flies" we were about a half mile from the starting line across the infield. We could see it on the big "jumbo-tron tv screen" in front of us. Florence Henderson sang "God Bless America" and a military choral group sang the National Anthem. Jim Nabors was unable to attend for the first time since 1986, but sent a video greeting and the crowd sang "Back Home Again in Indiana" karaoke style. Patrick Dempsey drove the "pace car" and Peyton Manning waved the green flag to start the race. It seemed like the yellow flag came out almost immediately...someone lost a car part on the track almost in front of us...and it continued from there...a few laps and then a yellow flag...a few more laps and then a yellow flag, etc. The lead changed numerous times, so it was always interesting to watch for the next lap...which only took seconds...whew, do they go fast! After 114 laps a red flag was called due to rain. It looked like it would last a while and technically they could declare the race over at any time after 101 laps...so we headed back to the RV. Several hours later the rain had stopped, the track had dried and they restarted the race. We had kept track on TV the whole time. But, they were once again predicting rain within a short time. We opted to watch the rest of the race on TV rather than hike back to our seats at the track...and we were glad!

RACE DAY.......


Here comes the Pace Car...an orange Corvette.	And here are some of the cars racing around Turn 3, and some of the close to 500,000 spectators spread around the 2 1/2 mile track.	Oops...who lost their mirror? Quick...pick up the pieces!	From our seats on Turn 3, we could see across into the infield where people brought their own canopies and chairs - and across about 1/2 mile to the "Pagoda" and the starting line.


The winning car (in the garage area on Friday)	and the winning driver, Dario Franchitti and his wife, actress Ashley Judd at the parade.

Following the race, on Monday morning we waited until many of our fellow campers had departed before we attempted making our path through the mud. Actually, our grass lot was in pretty good condition and we had little trouble getting on the road heading east into Ohio. After checking on-line for fuel prices we decided to get to the Flying J in Beaverdam, OH before filling up. Our low fuel light flashed as we were getting off at the exit. How's that for planning? We don't usually get that low on fuel but we had been using our generator which also uses the fuel. And, we were pleased that there were no rigs at the RV Island. We'd prefer to use the truck islands since they have faster pumps, but they no longer accept VISA cards in the truck lanes. We broke a personal record.....the most gallons purchased at one time...124 gallons...and the most money spent on one fuel purchase...$338.58 (it was $2.72.9 with our Flying J RV discount...guess that's cheaper than gasoline right now!) We had visits with Tom's sister Judy and her husband Ron Kaminski, and our dear friend Kathy Dew as we headed into the Toledo area and then on to the Harbortown RV Resort just over the state line into Michigan. We've stayed here quite a few times in the past, and it was easy to get settled in for a month's visit in the area of our old home town. We had a week's worth of laundry to catch up on and some dirt and dust to clean out, so we got started on our chores. All was well till Mary broke the kitchen faucet right off. We remembered how to get to the local Lowe's and managed to get the water flowing again with a few new parts and a little effort. We celebrated the accomplishment with a session at the driving range next to the campground. They give the senior RVers a $18 weekday rate, so Tom plans to get over there soon - and often! The last day of the month found us on a drive to Jackson, Michigan. We had a great visit with Mary's mom and step-father sharing photos and stories of the winter. Our calendar for the coming month is filling up quickly, so come again to see what we've been up to.