On To Red Bay

Our Monday started early.  We needed to be up and ready to move the motor home from in front of the SMI office where we had spent the night.  SMI opened at 8 am, and our appointment was for 9:00.  They were on time and ready to start the installation of our Air Force One.

They pulled the

 

Jeep into this small garage to do the installation.  Then, they crawled

under the motor home to install the necessary parts to the braking system.

When all was said and done, the Air Force One was ready to connect.

This

connection hooks to the motor home and

the other end connects to the Jeep.  On the inside of the Jeep is

this mechanism.  And, on the other end of this line is

this little light bar.  All connected, the air brakes on the motor home tell the brakes on the Jeep to slow down and/or stop.  When we look in the back up camera on the dash of the motor home, you see this a little red light indicating that the system is working.

We were checked out and ready to pull out of Newburgh by noon.  We were finally ready to head South.  We traveled out of Indiana, through part of Kentucky and Tennessee, and finally into Alabama.  There was lots of time for playing

Words With Friends...lol  Thanks, Brenda, Deb, Donna, Dee, Sandra, and Jennifer for playing today!

We made a stop in Alabama at a road side park where this

Saturn Launch Rocket is on display.  After a short break and a walk around the park, we were back on the road.  Next stop, Red Bay, Alabama.

Oh, yes, after traveling this far, my driver said he was very happy with the new brake assist system.

We reached Camp Red Bay and the service center before dark.  Upon checking into the office, we found that the campground was full except for one site with electric only...SOLD!  We parked and were content to have at least electricity because it is still warm here in the South and there were 13 rigs ahead of us to be assigned to a full hookup site.

Tuesday morning rolled around and so did Norris.  He was coming to officially check us in for service.  He said he would get our paper work turned in and that we should be getting a FHU site sometime during the day.

Soon, Nick came to the door.  He is one of the techs, and was here to check out the issue with our front TV.  A while back, we lost the ability to play a DVD and thought something had gone wrong with the TV brain.  Well, after a little while, Nick had everything working like new.  A cable had come loose from the back of the TV.  Yeah, simple fix.  He also reprogrammed our remotes so that when I change the channel on the back TV, the front TV doesn't change with it...oops!

Wow, the day was moving along quite nicely, and as promised, Donald was soon knocking on our front door to assign us a FHU site.  So, we pulled in the slides and jacks and moved to our

home for the next couple of weeks.

We also learned from a Facebook post that Randy and Pam Warner were here in the park.  We have already had a couple of great visits with them.

Content to be here, this morning Mark was ready to start his own little projects.  He

cleaned bugs,

replaced the wiper washer hoses, and washed and

waxed the Jeep.

While he was so occupied, I took a great walk.  I also stopped in the service center where I placed an order for a pull down shade to replace the mini blind over the kitchen sink.

Later this afternoon, we sit outside to enjoy a beautiful afternoon.  However, that beautiful afternoon turned

stormy.  The winds blew about 60 mph, the thunder rolled, the lightning flashed, and the rains came.  At one time there were even a few tiny little hail stones.  It took it a couple of hours for the system to move through.  After all was quite, we headed down to Mr. J's for salad and pizza.  A nice place to spend a rainy night.

Tomorrow, we have an 8:00 am appointment at Bay Diesel for an oil change and our scheduled yearly maintenance.  We wanted to get this taken care of while we are waiting our turn for a service bay here at the campground.

And, so on and so on...such is life at Camp Red Bay...

Moving East...

Thursday was our last day in Fort Collins, and, we wanted to make the most of a beautiful day.  Especially after our rainy and snowy day in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

We each had a couple of errands to run.  I needed to find a post office and Best Buy while Rod needed a new camera battery.  And, of course, you can't do all that shopping without a little

nourishment.  And, this pizzeria seemed to fit the bill.  The

salad was to die for and the

pizza was good too.

After lunch and errands, we thought we would take a tour of this local

brewery, but we decided against the tour and just sit out and enjoyed their patio and soaked up a little sunshine while visiting.

The brewery wasn't so good, but the blizzards at the Dairy Queen were awesome.  The new flavor...Caramel Chocolate Brownie!

One last stop by the

local produce stand.  They were out of peaches, but not short on corn or

roasted peppers.

By this time, it was late afternoon, and we needed to head back to the RV Park to meet up with

Todd, Shelli, and the kids.

Soon, the

sun was setting over the mountains and it was time for us to start packing up for an early morning departure.

Friday, we had our hugs, and said see you in October in Texas.  Soon, we were on the road and headed out of Fort Collins.  We decided not to take the interstate to Denver, but to try

Hwy 34 across to Burlington.  We certainly missed the traffic, but, had to

dodge one very wide load coming down the road.

We drove across Colorado and we drove across Kansas, and some 600 miles later, we stopped on the Kansas Toll Road, just shy of Kansas City where we spent the night.  Boy, no one had to tell me it was bedtime...lol

However, yesterday, we made up for it, and drove only 62 miles from Kansas City to Grain Valley, Missouri.  We stopped off here to visit with Pat and Garry, friends from Retama.  During the summer, they manage

the Trailside RV Park just off of I-70.

Mark and

Garry got in some good visiting while

Pat was busy taking a reservation or two.

Great to see you guys even though our visit was just for one day.  It was a nice break from the long travel day on Friday.  We even had a beautiful

rainbow to finish off the day.

Again this morning, there were hugs and see you soon in Texas, before we were back on the road heading East.  We had an easy trip with not much traffic until we reached St. Louis.  We wiggled our way through

town and across

the river.  Wow, what a trip.  I am glad it was Sunday and not a weekday.

It wasn't too much farther down the road and we were out of the busy city and enjoying the beauty of the Illinois and

Indiana country sides.  By mid-afternoon, we reached our destination in Newburgh, Indiana.  Here we are

parked at SMI Industries.  In the morning, they will be installing an air brake system that will work on the Jeep by using the braking system of the motor home.  Yeah, no more Brake Buddy to mess with.

Thanks for coming East with us...see you tomorrow as we head South.

All For A Stamp

We woke this morning to rain, rain, and more rain, but, we didn't let it mess up our plan to head out to

Rocky Mountain National Park.  Along with Rod and Deb, we drove up to Estes Park.  First, we made a stop at the visitor center.

Next on the agenda was lunch.  Rod and Deb

recommended this great deli. The sandwiches were delicious, the soup was great, but, the desserts were awesome.  Needless to say, we all enjoyed our lunch.  Our walk back to the car took us by a shoe store were Mark had his eye on a new pair of Merrell's.

Now, with lunch and shopping behind us, we were ready to head into the park and up the

mountain.  Now, we all know that when it is raining down below, there could be snow up top.  Well, that statement is true, and by the time we reached the

Alpine Visitor Center at 12,000 feet, it was 34 degrees and snowing...but, Deb and I needed that cancellation stamp!

Even, this

little guy thought we were crazy.

We did learn that...

Alpine weather bounces between sunlight and storms, strong winds and balmy breezes, violent weather and surprising calm...resilient plants, insects, birds, and mammals.

Okay, okay...we got the stamp, and headed back down the mountain to better conditions.  But, we still needed

more stamps.  So, our next stop was the Moraine Visitor Center.  The weather was much better at this stop.

We also made stops at the Fall River Visitor Center and Beaver Meadows.  Our grand total of stamps today...five!

By this time, we had collected ourselves right into mid-afternoon and there was yet another stop we wanted to make.  But, as were about to exit the park, we were stopped by this

 

fellow!  Ya'll come back, real soon!

Now, on to our

last stop for the day.  We tasted, shopped, and purchased

lots of Cherry Juice, Cider, Jelly, and Pies.  A great finish to the day.

Despite the weather, it was a fun day in the Rocky Mountain National Park!

Surprise!

Yesterday was our last day in Gillette and a pretty laid back day at that.  I started the packing up process while Mark rearranged the outside bays.  We sit outside most of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and friendships.

Last night, we pulled off a really big

surprise birthday party for Marcia.  She will soon turn 50 and we couldn't let her leave without a party.

There was

cake,

gag gifts, and lots of

friends.

Oh, yes...and,

balloons all around her motor home!

Mark and I were especially glad to have

Jack, Nell, and her mom, Blondie (friends from Fort Worth) join us for the party.  We have had a great week with them and they have fit right in to our group.

What a great evening!  Happy Birthday Marcia!

This morning, we were up early and taking care of last minute details before time to pull out.  There were hugs all around and lots of "see you down the road" said before it was finally time to pull out.

Mark and I had discussed several different directions to take from Gillette, but none of them seemed to come together until just a day or so ago.  It was then that we decided we wanted to make a stop in Fort Collins, Colorado and try and surprise Rod and Deb.  However, I needed a little more information about their whereabouts, and had to include Rod in our plan.

We arrived today shortly after noon and pulled off the surprise visit without a hitch!  So, we are

parked here, just down from

Rod and Deb and looking forward to a fun couple of days.

The fun started this evening with

Rod and Shelli, their daughter, grilling some yummy burgers.  We also enjoyed

meeting Ashton and Riley, Nana's favorite grandchildren.

What a great family...Todd was there too, but I missed him in the pictures.

A fun, fun day!  I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store.