Lena, Illinois

October 8, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

This KOA has a nice focus on fun and families.

In my whole life, I do not think I have ever heard of Lena, Illinois, but that is where I find myself tonight. This is a great KOA campground owned by a couple who has put a huge effort into upgrading the facility and making it very attractive for kids since they bought it 3 years ago. It is very nice and I am glad I stumbled upon it.

Nice decorations for Halloween!

I started my day at Flex Steel with them picking up our recliner chair at 9:00 am. I ran to Walmart to pick up some orange juice and see a little of Dubuque. They brought back the chair at 1:00 pm and they had added new padding to the chair. The lady told me that they have had problems with the chair and since it was just out of warranty, she thought it was best to not charge us and to provide the re-padded chair at no cost. I was very grateful and appreciative of her kindness. After that I brought in the slides on the motorhome and headed east.

I cannot remember a campground that has welcomed people by listing their names on the welcome board. They certainly make people feel welcome.

After a couple of hours on the road, I found a campground with openings that had 50 amp electrical service and a sewer hookup available. I have not had a sewer connection since I left Amarillo, so I need to do laundry and a sewer connection and 50 amp electric are required to use our washer and dryer.

There are many areas focused on children at this campground.

I appreciate the opportunity to see a new area of Illinois. I have been to Chicago many, many times over the years (one year I had 6 trips to Chicago in the same year). Now I get to see a new area and enjoy different communities. I plan to head through Rockford, Illinois tomorrow and then go up into Wisconsin. This is a nice way to see the country!

Keep Your Plans Flexible!

October 8, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Electrical hookups were provided for RVs at the Flex Steel facilities.

One thing I keep learning while RVing is that you need to keep your plans flexible. After the technician told me that they would probably finish the next day, I got out a map and started planning where to travel next. Since I am so close to Minnesota, I thought I would head north and check out the state. Since it is October and the weather is still nice, this seemed like a nice time to go. However, things changed quickly at 10:30 am. The Winnebago service advisor asked to see me and said that they coach was almost finished. I had asked to have a powerful internal surge protector added that morning after hearing stories of people damaging their electronics while staying in parks with poor electricity. He said they would be done within a couple of hours and that our recliner chair could be worked on at the Flex Steel factory in Dubuque. I said “where is Dubuque” and he said it was 4 hours away on the eastern side of Iowa. I had planned to spend the night again at Winnebago and enjoy another happy hour with the RV group and then head to Minnesota tomorrow. However, I was a good RVer and pivoted quickly.

Suddenly, I was looking at Google maps on my phone and planned a route east to Dubuque. This could be nice as Dubuque is right on the eastern edge of Iowa and borders both Illinois and Wisconsin. It might give me the opportunity to check out a couple of additional states.

While driving across Iowa, it was nice to enjoy all their rolling hills. Rather than a flat plane, the landscape was always shifting at different angles. One common theme was corn. There were fields and fields of corn. And more corn after that. And even more corn after that. I also passed a sign for the “Little Brown Church.” This is a famous church building in Iowa where many people are married. I have a friend in Tucson who was married in the Little Brown Church.

When I got to Flex Steel, I met the woman contacted by Winnebago. She confirmed that her company had made the chair and that it had started to wear out a bit too quickly. She said workers would come to the coach at 8:30 tomorrow morning to pick it up and they would start working on it to add more padding. Cool. She also told me that there was an area where they had electrical hookups for RVs. I joined another couple who had also just driven over from Winnebago. We laughed, because we had met each other at the barbeque restaurant the night before. It is quite fun to expand the network of RVers.

Enjoy the RV Family

October 8, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

I would expect to see a sign like this in Texas, but I was surprised to find it in a barbecue restaurant in Iowa.

Our mini-city of RV folks has been quite fun. Last night we had a happy hour after getting our coaches back and someone told us about an all-you-can-eat barbeque restaurant in a nearby town. So, spontaneously, about 20 of us jumped into several cars and we drove to the restaurant. It was a wonderful time. We shared stories about how we got into RVing and where we planned to go. One couple is headed to Mesa, Arizona. It was fun listening to them describe it from the previous winter and why they could not wait to get back. They rent a place in a park with all kinds of activities and club groups. We will have to check out the place sometime in the future.

Warren and his books of RV trips. He has superb stories and excellent suggestions for where to go while we were in the Winnebago lobby.

I met a guy named Warren who told me about many of the RV parks he has visited across the country. He prints out something from their websites and they keeps them in a notebook. We went through his trips through the south of the US as well as his trips through the western states. I have visited some of the same towns, but it is really nice to have names of parks that handle large motorhomes with easy access to main roads.

This is my first time to Winnebago factory, so I went on the tour of their facilities. I went in the two huge buildings where our motorhome was made. They make about 35 to 40 motorhomes every day. Some class C, some gas motorhomes, and some diesel pushers like ours. I was quite impressed with how it is set up. I had heard that this facility was the largest RV manufacturing facility in the US. On the tour, they told us it was the largest RV manufacturing facility in the world. They also said they are looking for about 200 more workers because the demand for RVs is large. Their production is currently limited by their number of workers.

Each day, we meet with our technician working on our coach in the morning and end of the work shift. I have been very impressed with what they have done and how they have traced down the recurrent problem with our matrix system. They thought everything might be finished tomorrow.

I made it to my appointment!

October 5, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

While are all lined up in our RVs in a nice community!

Well, I make it to the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa. I discovered a small, friendly city of people bringing their RVs for repairs and upgrades. There are back-in sites available with 50 amp service. Nearby, there is the Winnebago Rally Grounds that has water and multiple dump stations.

The Visitor Center also has RV parking and electrical power.

Forest City is quite isolated. Minneapolis is two hours north and Des Moines is two hours south. The big thing for visitors to do here is a tour of the Winnebago factory. I am going to try and go on the tour sometime this week. Supposedly, this is the largest RV factory in the U.S. It is sort of funny that this small town in rural Iowa has had such a large impact on the RV industry.

The Winnebago grounds are enormous with enough electrical connections for hundreds of RVs.

As soon as I pulled in and unhooked the Jeep, I was greeted by several people already parked. One gentleman from Seattle got out and helped guide me into my site as I backed up the motorhome. Along with several other people, this is my first trip to Winnebago. Others bring their rigs here yearly for various items rather than work with local dealers.

We meet our service technicians every morning at 7:00 am with our rig’s ready to be driven and we get them back at 3:00 pm and the technicians is supposed to tell us what they accomplished that day. The low was 37 degrees this morning, so it was nippy and dark waiting outside for the Customer Service doors to open at 7:00 am.

At 3:30 pm, all the RVers gather around and have a happy hour to talk about the latest information about their coach repairs, where they are going next, and where they have been. Forest City is a very small town and sometimes groups of RVers go to various restaurants together.

One couple has a motorhome that was struck by lightning and they keep discovering different things that were damaged. They have been here several weeks having work done. One guy loves coming to Forest City yearly. He thinks Winnebago does great work. He was telling me some of his favorite RV locations and Vernal, Utah (where I was born) is one of his favorite places. He was surprised when I told him I was born there. He gave me names of a number of places he really likes to take his RV in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. He thought California and Colorado were not very RV friendly. It was fun comparing notes on places we have visited.

Winnebago has an area with WIFI and coffee where we wait while our coaches are being worked on. Groups of people are discussing where they like to take their RVs for winter. One group likes to go to Florida and another group likes to go to Arizona. It is fun to listen to their perspectives.

A New Day!

October 2, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

I remember my Mom always talking about how everything looked better in the morning. I agree. I woke up in the Freightliner parking lot and looked out the window at the sun trying to peak through the overcast sky. I remember those Midwest overcast skies when living in Kansas City, Missouri. I was told that Freightliner was swamped with work and that they would not be able to work on our motorhome until tomorrow. I asked the manager if someone could look at it to see where the problem was and if a part needed to be ordered. I was concerned that if they waited until Friday to look at the motorhome and they tried to order parts, they may not arrive until Monday. I am supposed to be at Winnebago in Iowa at 7:00 am on Monday. The manager said he would try to get someone to look at what parts were needed either just before or just after lunch. Also, they only had 2 mechanics that worked on Cummings diesel engines.

At 1:00 pm, I talked to Jose and asked whether he had been able to look at the motorhome. He said no and wanted to know who I talked with that said he should come off his current job and look at our motorhome. He checked with the manager and agreed to look at the motorhome. Jose started pouring new radiator fluid into the back of the motorhome. After a few minutes Jose crawled underneath and found the leak! He said that a connector to one of the cooling hoses had broken. He said, that it was an unusual connector and that a replacement would need to be ordered. He walked into his shop and came back about 15 minutes later holding a new connector! He told me he could not believe how lucky I was that he found a replacement connector that fit. He was laughing and surprised that they had one. I thought it was wonderful answered prayer.

He replaced the connector in about 15 minutes and then he started pouring in new coolant. He had me start the motorhome engine and we gradually added more fluid. We went on a test drive on the freeway and then back to the shop. He gave me two more gallons of radiator fluid and said I should add more in the morning. Although the diesel engine is still under warranty, the thought was that probably road debris hit the connector and broke it. Therefore, the repair was not covered by the warranty. Bummer. It cost a little under $500 to be back on the road.

It was 5:00 pm by the time I signed the paperwork and hooked up the Jeep. I got diesel at a nearby truck stop and then headed north. I found a RV park that could hold big rigs in Waco, Nebraska (in the book that John gave me for my birthday) and called them to make sure they were open. Their office closed at 7:00 pm, but I gave them my credit card and they said call them when I arrived and they would run down to take me to my site. It was 7:45 and the woman manager zipped down in a golf cart, took me to a huge 100 foot site (so I did not have to unhook the Jeep). Since we have owned the motorhome, this was the first time I have arrived at an RV park after dark. It was nice because I just had to plug in the motorhome, hook up the water hose and then open the slides. Say ahhhhhh and relax!

I grabbed my Kindle and laid down on the bed to read and relax before going to sleep. I smiled when I realized that although I have driven through parts of Nebraska before, this was the first time I had sleep in the motorhome in Nebraska. The map in our blog keeps growing with states visited in the motorhome! With that nice thought, I went to bed and fell into a deep, deep sleep.

On The Road Again!

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Usually RVing is very fun. However, sometimes you find yourself broken down in the middle of nowhere in Kansas.

After an extensive time in Amarillo with Charlene, Amy, and Neil, I am on the road again heading to our Winnebago appointment in Iowa. Charlene is going to go to Austin and visit John and Michelle later in the week. Like all good RVers, I decided to totally change my route. Rather than going east to Arkansas and then turn north, I decided to head north of Amarillo and go through a new part of Kansas, catch part of Nebraska, and maybe a little of South Dakota while going to Iowa.

I was enjoying driving and seeing the local sites through rural America. I had the satellite radio playing a classic rock station and was having fun listening to the beat. I saw numerous wind farms in Texas, the brief panhandle of Oklahoma, and Kansas. There were many, many agricultural fields. Some were corn, but others were crops I did not recognize. I had drizzle rain in Texas, fog in the southern section of Kansas, and later overcast skies as I moved north. After driving for 5 hours, I started looking for a truck stop were I could get diesel. The closest city was Salina, Kansas and it was right on my route.

It is not a trivial task to tow a motorhome!

However as I was driving, suddenly everything changed. The engine light went on, a message said I should stop the engine, and the overheating light went on. The engine temperature gauge was at the highest temperature possible. Fortunately, this two lane road had enough of a shoulder that I could immediately pull to the right and get the entire motorhome (barely) to the right of the white line. I think of all the driving I did earlier in the day where there was no shoulder at all and I would have been stuck in the middle of the lane of traffic.

I got out of the motorhome and walked to the back and there was water dripping from the bottom of the motorhome. The hitch and front of the Jeep were all wet. Somewhere, I think a radiator hose broke, so the water was probably radiator fluid.

It is complex to connect a large rig!

I sighed and got out my card for CoachNet, our trusty roadside service that I had to call once before in Montana. They transferred me to one of their technicians who agreed that it sounded like it was radiator fluid and that the motorhome would need to be towed.

CoachNet called back to say they found a nearby tow company that could come get me tomorrow morning. I told them that I was barely off the road in a remote section of Kansas and that I did not think that would be safe. They called back a few minutes later that they found a tow truck in Salina that was large enough to tow the motorhome, but they could not get to me for 2 hours. So 3 hours after my initial call to CoachNet, this massive tow truck arrived.

The tow truck driver told me to be patient because it was a big process to tow a large motorhome. He said he was very careful to do everything to not damage the motorhome. I was very impressed with everything he did to go through the whole process of getting the motorhome hooked up to the tow truck. It took just over 2 hours to get everything connected. He had to remove part of the drive shaft for towing and it was complicated to get the motorhome connected under the front axle.

As we were getting ready to go, he gave me his cell phone number and said I should call him if I saw anything go wrong or suddenly saw sparks flying. I jumped in the Jeep and started following him. It took us an hour and 20 minutes to drive to the Freightliner dealer in Salina, Kansas. Next,it took an hour and a half to get the motorhome all unhooked and put back together. While the tow truck driver worked on the motorhome, I went inside the coach to get some food. This was 9:00 pm and I was absolutely starving. I had pre-cooked some salmon and boy a piece of cold salmon and a banana never tasted so wonderful! It was fantastic to eat something! The guy at the Freightliner dealer said I was welcome to sleep in the motorhome if I wanted but that they locked the gate at midnight and it stayed locked until 6:00 am. The guy finished unhooking the motorhome just after 10:00 pm and I started getting ready for bed. With all the stress, I fell asleep very quickly and slept until after 6:00 am.

Caprock Canyons

September 16, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

This was the back of the rear-view mirror entrance permit.

With my extended time in Amarillo, I discovered a real gem. Caprock Canyons is a Texas State Park and it is beautiful. In some ways it is similar to Palo Duro Canyon, but it has its own bison herd. In fact, this state park hosts the only official Texas State Bison Herd. They are huge and magnificent!

This bad boy was giving me the eye. I was scared taking the photo and ready to run if he started charging me!

The landscape has many red rocks. It reminded me as a combination of Sedona and Kanab. It is gorgeous.

These guys are huge and impressive.

After paying my $4 fee, the ranger told me about a couple of mountain bike trails. I drove around the state park and then stopped to ride a trail loop. The ranger told me there was one section I would need to walk my bike because it was very steep and rocky. She was correct. There was no way to ride down it. I crossed a creek 3 times and had some rigorous riding. I was exhausted when finished, but completely loved the ride.

Giving me the evil eye picking through the grass.

The bison are open range in Caprock Canyons, meaning there is nothing separating you and the Bison. You are strongly urged to get no closer than 50 yards to any bison. That sounds like very good advice to me since they can weigh up to 2,000 pounds! I got out my telephoto lens to take a few pictures of these massive creatures. A couple that I saw had some intense horns, so I did not want to get too close!

Check out his tongue action.

I loved this sweat shirt in the gift shop!

Driving back to Amarillo, I passed through Armstrong county. Not everyone has a county named after them.

Places to Date

August 29, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

A great start to see many wonderful places!

A great start to seeing many wonderful places!

I am a member of a RV social website called RVillage (http://www.rvillage.com/). It is a way to connect with other RVers of similar interests by joining various groups. It also provides a way to connect with people when you move to a new campground or RV park. I have been entering various places as I have traveled and just discovered that it has been maintaining a map with all the places I have entered. I think it is very amazing to see all the places I have stayed in our motorhome. This includes our trip through New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas last summer. I would say this is a superb start to seeing some amazing places around the US. Obviously, there are many more places to visit.

I have loved being in Amarillo seeing Charlene, Amy, and Neil. Charlene and I had lunch today at a fantastic hamburger restaurant. I love trying new independent restaurants that are popular to locals in a community. The food is always so yummy!

I fly to California this week to give some lectures and then I will start a slow trip up to Iowa for an appointment at the Winnebago factory. I think I might go through Oklahoma, part of Arkansas, all the way through Missouri, and then into Iowa. I reserve the option to change the route multiple times since I am in no hurry. I would like to visit Branson, Missouri since so many people have talked about all the nice shows they have. It sounds very fun to me! Stay tuned! The travels will resume shortly!

Texas, Oklahoma Loop

August 25, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

It is nice to enjoy the beautiful blue skies of Amarillo!

I cruised back into Amarillo this afternoon. I am looking forward to reconnecting with Charlene, Amy, and Neil. It will be wonderful to see them! It is amazing how big Texas is. This is a huge loop and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a large section of Oklahoma, the opportunity to spend time with John and Michelle, and the chance to spend time in Abilene and Lubbock. I am also glad I identified some nice RV parks for future trips around Oklahoma and Texas.

Now it is nice to get the coach setup and enjoy the beautiful blue skies of Amarillo. I am also grateful that it is only 88 degrees. I am loving the cooler weather!

Check out the huge driving loop I just completed!

Texas, Oklahoma, Texas drive map

Songs “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue”

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

The songs “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” were written in this bedroom in Lubbock, Texas!

Today was amazing! I stood in the bedroom where the songs “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” were written! All over the world people have tapped their toes to those two songs, and they were written in Lubbock, Texas, in Drummer Jerry (JI) Allison’s house and made famous by Buddy Holly. I had no idea that all occurred in Lubbock!

Buddy Holly was famous for his glasses

When I was looking at things I wanted to see in Lubbock, the Buddy Holly Center quickly rose to the top of my list. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Buddy Holly and The Crickets. Previously, all I knew was that Buddy Holly died tragically in a plane crash when he was very young. Today I learned that Buddy Holly had an enormous impact on music around the world. Buddy was a key rock and roll innovator. He was the first to set up the structure of a rock and roll band (2 guitars, bass, and drums), changed the way many chords were used in songs, and he wanted to have artistic control of his songs. There was a recorded interview with Paul McCartney at the Buddy Holly Center and Paul McCartney credits Buddy Holly’s trip to England as setting the stage for the Beatles getting started. Paul McCartney said the first 40 Beatles songs were strongly influenced by Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly also influenced the songs by the Rolling Stones. In fact, the Rolling Stones first hit (“Not Fade Away”) was actually written by Buddy Holly. Elton John wore unnecessary glasses to be more like Buddy Holly because Buddy was famous with his black horn-rimmed glasses. Buddy’s glasses were found after the plane crash and are on display in the Center.

Buddy Holly had a short career, but made a large impact on music!

Buddy Holly was born in Lubbock in 1936 during the Great Depression and he came from a musical family. However, what really got his creative juices flowing was seeing Elvis Presley play in Lubbock in 1955. After that, Buddy and his fellow musicians went full force to unleash their creativity. “That’ll Be the Day” was released in 1957. His career only lasted for around 18 months, but he had 25 hit records in that short time period. He died in a plane crash in Iowa in 1959. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper (JP Richardson who is famous for “Chantilly Lace”), and the pilot were all killed in the crash.