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S a l l y & C h r i s 2 0 1 3 S u m m e r T r i p

Day 37: Friday, May 10A campsite breakfast of homemadewaffles got our day off to a great start. Wehad wanted to phone Happy Birthdaywishes to our son, Steve, and

granddaughter, Journey, but ourcampground location, Caprock CanyonsState Park, is in a very remote region ofTexas, southeast of Amarillo. We getalmost no bars on our cell phones!

We spent the day walking several hikingtrails in this park, which is known for itsscenic hills & canyons. We had hoped tosee rattlesnakes (at a distance) but weonly witnessed prairie dogs near ourcamps restrooms. These little guys chirpand squeak a lot but I think its just to get

snacks from the campers. A highlight was

having a picnic lunch atop the naturalbridge in the park. The erosion of waterover time hollowed out the ridge creating atunnel and resulting in a bridge over thetunnel.

After hiking four trails we drove to asection of the park that features Texasstate herd of American Bison (what

Americans call buffalo.) Unfortunately weleft our better camera back at camp so wemissed some nice photos but caught theherd as it ran by our car!

Day 38: Saturday, May 11We broke camp and were on the road by

9AM and heading toward Amarillo, TX. Aswe left the park we saw a portion of thebison herd far awayon the plains ofCaprock Canyon.

We drove on a noted scenic road (TX207)from Quitaque (kitty-quay) through Claudeand were surprised with the terrain of thisareas of Texas deep canyons withbeautiful rock colors and formations,though desolate and devoid of people.One town boasted a population of lessthan 400 people. It appears that almost all

the inhabitants work in ranching oragriculture support services.

Arriving in Amarillo we picked up a travelguide for Nevada, then enjoyed lunch at aMexican restaurant. (We think Ocalas El

Toreo ranks higher!) The rest of theafternoon was spent touring the AmericanQuarter Horse Museum, rated a GemSiteby AAA . This is another must-seelocation if youre in this area.

Despite living in Ocala-Marion County,which is known as the Horse Capital of theWorld, we learned a LOT about horses atthis venue! Sally displayed her horse-

riding skills but Chris just couldnt handlehis QUARTER-horse!

Our campground tonight is the AmarilloRanch RV Park great place, greatmanagement. Theyre even going to giveus a free continental breakfast in themorning!

A Travel Newsletter Issue #3: May 10 - May 24, 2013

Tsg , g . O gs YOU s& s .

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Day 39: Sunday, May 12Prior to leaving we availed ourselves ofthe free coffee & donut offered at thecampground. Everyone up at the office/dining area was cordial and talkative.Driving west toward Albuquerque, NM(ABQ) we decided to look for the famedCadillac Ranch along the I-40highway (see photo at bottom of page). Weexited the interstate onto the frontageroad to find ten older (pre-1964 or so)Cadillac cars buried nose-down in thedirt. Each car was spray-painted withgraffiti of about 1.5-2 in thickness! Folkswere all over painting and/or takingphotos. It was kinda like a sixtieshappening.

The drive to ABQ was long, though thescenery was interesting with grassyranges spreading as far as the eye couldsee, eventually touching mountains manymiles away.

Lunch came late in the day when wearrived in ABQ (and though Sally has askedme to keep our eating habits to a minimum inour newsletters, this particular location is

worth mention). Rudys Country Store &BBQ Store is like no other place weveeaten. How its listed as a store inunknown except that they sell store t-shirts with the phrase, I didnt claw myway to the top of the food chain just toeat vegetables!

The line of customers almost defied

belief l-o-n-g. Everything is pricedseparately. You order your BBQ meat bythe half-pound. Sides are in foam cups ina cooler case you pick out yourself.Youre asked how many slices of breadyou want (complimentary). You get foam

cups to fill your own beverages. The hostsays, You might need plates. Here.Then gives you a sheet of butcher paperwith one side plastic-coated. You cleanyour own table after dining and throw outyour own trash. No wait staff except forbeer orders (state law). But the BBQ is

probably the BEST weve ever eaten.

High Desert Campgroundjust outsideABQ is one weve stayed at before, andthe hostess remembered our Snoopycamper. Another nice place to callhome.

Day 40: Monday, May 13We drove across ABQ (Albuquerque) tolovely Rio Rancho, NM to tour the J&RAuto Museum(Chris never gets enough ofem). After we arrived we discovered we

had visited here about 8 years ago, butwe both decided it was due a return tour.What a great collection with terrific details& facts on all the cars. You could alsolook through windows at the restorationgarage, plus they operate a veryextensive auto-related bookstore. Chrisdad always talked about his 1936 FordPhaeton 4-door roadster like the one

pictured in the previous column.

After about 2 hours we drove westwardseveral miles past ABQ for a supremebuffet at the Route 66 Casino, where thefood was spectacular. Sally couldnt

remark enough about the freshness ofthe spinach(?), but shes a salad-veggieconnoisseur! Chris went gah-gah overthe flan custard, though it wasnt as goodas Edith Meldons in Ocala.

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We spent the remainder of the day atcamp: taking a walk, doing odds & ends,reading, etc. A nice place to relax andvisit with our neighbors like Joel & Ann.

Day 41: Tuesday, May 14

An early start got us to Old Town ABQ afew minutes after the Art & HistoryMuseum opened at 9AM, but too early fortwo US Post Offices nearby. (Chris had a

package to mail.) Deciding the museumwas more fun we took the 10AM tour of

the sculptures both indoors and out. Thedocent was very informative and fun. Weimmediately followed that experience withthe 11AM tour of Old Town with docentBill. He sprinkled his wealth of historical

knowledge with humor, witticism and lightsarcasm he gave a wonderful hour-longwalking tour.

With two hours before the 2PM gallerytour we chose to go to our car (3.5 blocksaway), get the package, and visit the US

Post Office a half-block off Old TownSquare. We then shared a lemon-ice on abench in the Square and enjoyed the view,then walked two blocks to tour themuseum while waiting for 2PM to arrive.

The tour of the Common Ground exhibitroom by the docent was also veryworthwhile. Shirley explained that artserves as a common ground betweenpeoples of three different languages:Native American, Spanish and English.She shared info from her notes helping tobring the art pieces to life. Thanking herfor the tour we left the area and had a late-lunch / early supper at 3:45.

Back at camp we planned our next weeks

driving and touring, then helpedneighbors Joel and Ann with a brokendrawer fixture in their truck camper.Before bed Sally read another chapterfrom our mystery novel, High CountrybyNevada Barr.

Day 42: Wednesday, May 15A delicious garlic parmesan muffin forbreakfast served as a primer for ourcasino buffet later in the afternoon. Thisquick treat found us at the ABQ Zoo a bitafter 9:30 along with several thousand

children, most from school groups. Whilewe rode the zoos train the narrator

pointed out the location of various animalsalong with other interesting facts. Forexample, the elephants have six yards toinhabit, changing location during the dayfor fellowship and then private times. Theyalso are not fed by merely finding food ina pile. Feed is placed in many locationsand usually under items which must bemoved by their trunk. This reinforces their

natural instinct to forage.

After our 4-hour visit we enjoyed lunch,renewed groceries at Walmart andreturned to our camper to enjoy a DVDmovie.

Day 43: Thursday, May 16Homemade pancakes the size ofhubcaps are Chris specialty and hedemonstrated that skill again. Followingclean-up we left High Desert RV park totravel west on I-40 toward Gallup. Arrivingat Red Rock State Park around 11AM welocated a campsite we liked that offeredshade for our trailer, then tried to find theoffice to pay. Everything was closed andfurther investigation determined that theannual Run To The Wall motorcycle ridewas stopping here around 3:30-4PM.Staff said theyd catch up with us later forfees.

Sally made sandwiches while I handledtrailer-related chores. Lunch in hand, westarted our ascent up Church Rock Stem(canyon) to view Church Rock. The sunswarmth was tempered by gusty windsthat put our hike in the mid-70s. Verycomfortable. An hour later we reached a

lookout positionthat offered agood view, anice place to eatlunch, and anend to our trailas much harder& moredangerousterrain was thenorm ahead ofus. We both took

Corporate IntegrityEveryone makes mistakes but toomany avoid taking responsibility. IrecentlyinstalledanotherRVelectricalconverter, a unit by ProgressiveDynamics. Iprefertheirunitformanyreasons but found a flaw in theirdirections thatresultedin theunitnotproperly operating. This resulted inextra hours to remedy the problem,somethingIdidnotenjoydoing. Aftercontacting Progressives executives Iwasterrificallypleasedtofindthem

assumingfull

responsibility

for

the

errorandmakingcorrections in theinstruction booklet plus justcompensation. That doesnt occuroften enough in todays corporateworld. Myhats off toProgressiveDynamics for backing up a greatproductwithgreatservice. Ifyourein theneedof replacingyourRVsworn-out converter, or updating aunit, consider the excellent featuresoftheir 4-stageconverters. Ourshasworkedgreatforseveralyears!

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photos as we ate and talked.

The walk back required care with narrowpaths and steep drop-offs of 20-30 feet.The wind was getting gustier and we oftenhad to turn our backs to the gusts as sandblanketed the area.

Once back at camp we chose to hike tothe conference area to see the action thatwas expected. We found that severalhundred Native Americans (Navajo andSuni) were hosting a welcome andcookout for some 500 motorcyclists who

are part of the annual ride from LosAngeles to Washington, DC to supportveterans, POWs and MIAs from all thewars. This was a very emotional eventwith Indian dancing and music, veterans inuniform, some from WWII, and all the

riders and their bikes. Plus the State ofNew Mexico has volunteered over 15state troopers to escort the riders throughthe state and stop all traffic at entranceramps while the 500 riders go past. Nowthats commitment. Wow what a day!

Day 44: Friday, May 17The motorcycles began establishing their

riding formation around 6AM; we couldhear the bikes in the congregate areaabout a quarter-mile away. Those campingnear us joined them around 7AM. Thewhole group hit I-40 around 8AM, their exitparade lasting about 15 minutes. Though

windy, we enjoyed camping here.

Our travel to Flagstaff was uneventful butenjoyable. Sally read us two chapters ofNevada Barrs High Country, a murdermystery in the Anna Pigeon series (Chris

favorite author). We took a more leisurelypace today driving at about 60-62 MPHrather than the 75MPH posted speedlimit. It really helped our fuel economy(see related sidebar).

Arriving in Flagstaff we chose to eat lunchbefore going to our campsite at BlackBarts RV & Steakhouse. Pizza Hut wasbetter than usual and this time they hadanchovies!

At Black Barts the girl in charge said wecould park in the first site, close to the

restroom, then see her for registrationwhile she finished her chores. After set-upChris walked to the office. She had a lookof concern on her face, Im so sorry.Someone else had that site reserved.Youll have to move. They had taken theirRV to the store and no one Her storywent on and I could see she wasembarrassed. I groaned, You mean Ivegot to pack it all up after I just set it up?

Finding the Sweet SpotSorrythis is notthe preface to aromantic novel, but rather some thriftyadvice from the ThriftyTravelers.

Our 10-year-old VW pull-car has reachedthe 208,000 mile mark, still runsexceptionally well, but has not deliveredthe fuel mileage we recollect from

previous trips. Still, 25-29 MPG is nothingto sneeze at while pulling a campingtrailer (even though its less than 2000 lbs.loaded).

While driving I-40 from Gallup, NM toFlagstaff, AZ I decided to slow down fromthe posted speed limit (75MPH in thiscase) to a more leisurely 60-62 MPH. Iavoid going too slow on highways wheretraffic is riding you like a wedgie; its justnot worth getting rear-ended and havingto abort your trip.

My take-it-slow strategy paid off. When Ifilled up I calculated an achievement of 35MPG! Woo-hah! As speed goes up fueleconomy diminishes rapidly, andexponentially, meaning the faster you goyour fuel economy drops even quickerwith each rise in speed. So find yourcars sweet spot where your speed issufficient for the present driving conditionsand yet slow enough to keep you fromgobbling up the fuel.

How to do this? Experiment. Fill your fueltank. Record your mileage from theodometer. Drive at a pre-determinedspeed when youre on a road trip on ahighway. Monitor your speed. Refill thetank. Note the gallons used and the milesdriven since the previous fill-up. Divide themiles by the gallons and youll find yourMPG (miles-per-gallon) achievement. Re-set your trip odometer. Do this procedureagain with a new fill-up, drive at a differenthighway speed, record the miles driven,then fill up and recalculate your MPG.

After several trips youll start to discover

your cars sweet spot: the driving speedthat returns the most useful fuel economy.

But dont trade high MPG for unsafedriving conditions. I would never drive inmy sweet spot through Atlanta or otherbig cities on an expressway. You need tokeep up with the legal, posted drivingspeed to keep up with traffic, but in safeconditions knowing your sweet spot willcertainly make passing-the-pumps moreoften a sweet & cost-effective experience.

Chris almosttried taking an aerial photograph of our trailers campsite via a giant bungee slingshot.

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She quickly responded, You can have theother site for half price! I waited,satisfied, for a second or two. Sure. I cando that. She was happy, apologizedagain, and I walked away $30 richer.Thats what they call a Win-Win situation.We packed up, moved, and re-set up inless than five minutes. (Whats that indollars-per-hour?)

Secured in our new campsite we drove toWalnut Canyon National Monument thatsonly about ten miles from our site. Havingbeen here about 20 years ago we wantedto renew our memory of this historic site a Native American community of cliff-sidecondos. Inhabited around 1100 A.D., the

ruins are beingrebuilt aftertreasurehunters lootedthe groundsaround1890-1915.The NationalPark Service iscarefully

rebuilding thelodging to whattheir research indicates is historicallycorrect. This is another must-see spot butexpect the walk to be strenuous, not goingdown but coming back up a LOT of stairs.Benches ease the climb as there areseveral rest stops for old folks like us.

Day 45: Saturday, May 18I made waffles this morning despite thecold outside our camper. It was to have

dropped to 38F last night but it didnt feellike it hit that low. Our usual electric heaterwas not operating properly but our back-up unit was keeping us cozy.

We drove to the Flagstaff Habitat-For-Humanity Restore (thrift shop) searchingfor window blinds for Cindis home. Goodselection, wrong sizes.

Our travels took us northeast up US Hwy89 to two national monuments: SunsetCraterand Wupatki. National monumentsare similar to national parks, usuallysmaller or of less notoriety.

Sunset Crateris the site of a hugevolcanic upheaval that occurred1,000-1,200 years ago. Cracks opened upand fire from molten lava spewed forthfinally resulting in a lava cone that burstsending cinders and ash for miles. Thiscataclysmic eruption had a distinct effecton the local native American population

and the geology of the region. We walkedseveral trails to views its effects. Evenafter a thousand years observers can seethe remnants: volcanic ash & cinderscover 75%-80% of the land, cooled lavaflows stretch across the ground looking

like a million gas BBQ grills have vomitedtheir lava rocks in huge piles.

Driving on we toured several Indian puebloruins, also built about a thousand yearsago, around the time of the mightyeruption. Falling apart due to age, decay

and treasure hunters, the ruins have beenrebuilt or at least stabilized to preventfuture decay. We were surprised by theability of these native peoples to constructmulti-story buildings using just rock andmud-mortar. We walked through at least

five separate ruin complexes, one of whichonce contained over 100 rooms. It causedus both to be thankful for what we haveand wonder how hardy these people musthave been. Heres an example: If waterwas low (remember, this is desert) womenand children had to walk ten miles to theclosest river to get water to carry it back.

And this area is no cake-walk, its

rugged terrain.

Leaving the 38-mile loop road connectingSunset Crater and the Wupatki, we droveback to Flagstaff making a short stop atMcDonalds to sample a milk shake andsmall sundae. Sleep came early as we

were worn out from several miles of hiking.

Day 46: Sunday, May 19Leaving Flagstaff, AZ we stopped atShepherd Of The Hills Lutheran Churchfor Sunday worship. Arriving early, Chriswas most interested in their dual LCD flatscreens used during services just as ourhome church uses an LCD projector. Thischurch has two pastors, a female & male,who happen to be married to each other.Worship was a contemporary service withnice music, fast-paced. The SundaySchool following was exceptional. PastorTim is a bible scholar with a backgroundin many languages so he talked ofGenesis with an explanation of thecreation story from a scholars perspective

Driving west to Kingman, AZ, our nightspot, we chose to take I-40 then take oldUS66 to Kingman. We got off too early at

Ash Fork, AZ and drove following theRoute66 sign only to find the road endafter two city blocks. Why? Chris asked at

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a campground and found that the roadwas unserviceable and merchants hadbeen asking the state for its repair.

We got back on I-40 and exited atCrookston Road (our original exit) about 5miles west of Ash Fork. This is the roadthat brought millions of people west as faras the Pacific. We drove about 30 or somiles enjoying the scenery and then

arrived in Seligman, AZ, a town of twentyor so buildings with most focusing on1950-70 memorabilia (see above). Thissection of Route 66, from Crookston Roadto Seligman, is worth a jaunt. Wecontinued on Rt.66 for another 1.5 hoursor so. There wasnt much to see that wasdifferent than our first thirty miles of thishistoric road, and its loop added anotherhour to our journey, though it was asmooth road. Our recommendation is tostick to the section of Old Route 66 fromSeligman, AZ to Crookston Rd west of

Ash Fork. Again, this is a view ofAmericana worth a hour of your life.

Our Sunday night campground, SunriseRV Park, in Kingman, phoned us duringour drive to see if we were traveling welland to offer ideas on sights to see whiledriving to their location. When we arrivedwe were warmly greeted by Kay who wasVERY cordial and went out of her way to

see that our stay would be comfortable.As an RV drove by she mentioned thatthe driver was Mr. Oh from Asia. Later, onour evening walk, we saw him outside hisrented RV. He said hello and we did also.Chris said to him, I do mind reading.The man smiled and looked quizzically atChris, who then said., Youre, hmmmMr. Oh. The man had a super-shockedlook on his face. How did you know myname?he responded. Its on your shirt!Chris replied. He looked down. No name.Chris immediately added, Kay at the frontdesk told us. He laughed heartily and wethen began a very nice conversation for10-15 minutes. Yeonjoong, his wife andhis daughter were completing theirvacation having traveled from South Koreawhere he is a retired math teacher.

Day 47: Monday, May 20We visited again with Yeonjoong, and met

his wife, Kyungeun (a retired Englishteacher), and their daughter, Hyunsook, (agraphic artist). They were all veryinterested in our Aliner, especially whenthey heard that Aliners are now beingmanufactured in South Korea and that weeasily pull our trailer with a Jetta diesellike they own in Korea. We felt veryspecial to have met such very nice people.We hope to continue our communication

through emails as timepasses.

Hitting the road we drovefrom Kingman, AZthrough the barren desertto Las Vegas. Weconsidered stopping atHoover Dam but securityis very tight since 9-11,and the observation point

has changed to a walkway on the side ofthe new bridge that is set back from thedam.

Arriving in Las Vegas we set up our Alinerat Sams Towns RV Park with a terrificdaily rate of $15.20 per day becausewere registered in their Players Club.We then drove to several locations forgroceries, a vacuum gauge (Harbor

Freight), and vacuum hose and clamps(AutoZone). Long story short, Chris wasable to diagnose that the $350 vacuumpump was notbad, but that a rigid plasticvacuum hose had minute cracks at a bendand was leaking vacuum. The repair wasless than $5 and now the brakes workterrific, even with over 208,000 miles onthe odometer. Still love that VW-TDI !

Day 48: Tuesday, May 21Theres never a dull or inactive momentwhen Bob & Lynne are around! This was

our first full day in Las Vegas and Bob &Lynne met us at the entrance to ourcampground at 9AM and drove us all tothe Carroll Shelby auto museum andmanufacturing plant. Shelby, who diedabout a year ago at 89, was the inventorof the famous Shelby Cobra race car,along with the Mustang Cobra and manyother high-performance street, muscleand race cars.

Bob sits in the polished, aluminum-bodiedACCobra from the mid-1960s valued atover $23 million. It took over 1000 man-hours to remove the original paint and

O l d R o u t e 6 6 i n d o w n t o w n S e l i g m a n , A Z

New friends from SouthKorea (L>R) Chris, Hyunsook(daughter), Kyungeun (wife),Yeonjoong (husband), Sally.

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polish the metal. No one gets to sit in it, soChris photoshopped Bob into the driversseat. Located just north of Nellis Air ForceBase in a warehouse complex at the endof the Raceway, Shelby is another must-see venue for the auto enthusiast. With

around 20 historic cars to see, the guidedtour is very interesting, plus we were

taken through the manufacturing facilityand saw how several styles of cars &trucks are built. For example, a newmodel of Ford Cobra Mustang comes with1,000 horsepower!

Following a terrific buffet at Fiesta Casino,courtesy of Bob & Lynne, we played

cards at their house, then saw a $3 moviein Sams Town Casino Iron Man 3. Talkabout an action movie !

We spent a great day with two terrificfriends. Who could ask for more?

Hope youve enjoyed the ride so far!

For the Guys & Gals of theCentral Florida TDI Car CubWeve been nursing our VW as the powerbrake booster seems to have lost its oomph; it stopswell but requires a strongfoot to the pedal the samefeeling as having old-time manual brakes in a big car ortruck. In the old days you could diagnose a carburetoredcar by spraying carb cleaner near a suspected vacuum leak and

itd be sucked in resulting in the engine running faster becausethe cleaner got into the engine and ran faster. But new cars,especially diesels, dont work the same way. Having tried someideas I felt it was time to call in the big guns Pete Raissis.

I phoned our dear friend, Pete, who is THEguru for VW and Audiproducts. This man has more knowledge of cars in his fingerstips than I have in half of my brain. He confirmed my guess thatthere was a vacuum leak somewhere and then gave me somediagnostic info (e.g. vacuum specifications) & hints.

Arriving in Las Vegas we set up our Aliner at Sams Towns RVPark, then drove to Harbor Freight and bought a vacuum gauge.I then disconnected a line to the brake booster and took areading while running the engine. AOK! (Happy for the reading a replacement pump lists for $350.) Drove back to AutoZone andbought a foot of 1/2 vacuum hose and clamps. Took a chanceand cut off the rigid plastic, heat-shrunk vacuum line to thebooster. Check it for two days and couldnt see nor feel anycracks. After removal I found TWO cracks, invisible unless

flexed. Installed the rubber hose and clamps and test drove it.Whalah. The repair was less than $5 and now the brakes workterrific, even with over 208,000 miles on the odometer.

Our special thanks to Pete, who will be our guest (along with hiswife) when we visit South Florida in October. They often don;tbuild guys like pete anymore, but they still build VWs as well. Stilllove that VW-TDI ! Im considering shopping for a new VWstation wagon after I add another 100,000 miles on this one.

Bad hose w/ cracks: Side A unbent SideA bent See crack? Side B unbent SideB bent See crack?

(above)A view from Sunset Craterregion (north of Flagstaff, Arizona) of its lava fields. Molten lava erupted from cracks in the earths crust spewingfire and molten rock across the lands surface. To relieve pressure, a volcano cone developed shooting cinders & ash for MANY miles. (below) Theview from our campsite at Red Rock St. Pk. Gallup, NM. We hiked 1/3 of the way to Church Rock in distance. Many cliffs were along the trail; Chriswas concerned about falling 25 off the sanding foot-wide ledges near cliffs edge. God sure made some neat scenery for his people to view & enjoy.