Down The Mississippi

Our favorite restaurant in Memphis Tennessee is the Rendezvous Ribs in the alley across from the Drake Hotel.

Another nice thing it wasn't till I was stationed near here in the 70's that I really learned about the Mississippi and this great town. The following two photos show the river at its normal level.  The first is shooting across a small channel off the Mississippi to Mud Island you can see some of the  river boats at the base of the Levey.   The second photo is looking north up the canal it shows the height of the Levey and remember the river overflows this Levey every few years.

Good memory photos.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.

Vegies and More

It is winter so its time to take some more photos of vegies (Brussels Sprout) to start getting ready for summer.  The following two vegetables keep well uncooked.

 

Here is a pepper.

 

Diversion Dams are common out west.  In the east they get their water from rain, out west we get it from snow melt off the mountains. 

 

Out Our Front Door (Overland Trail Stage)

Visited one of the Overland Trail Stage Stops at Point of Rocks Wyoming.  The main house and office has been rebuilt and is a Historic Site in Wyoming.  In the second half of the eighteen hundreds
there were stage coach stops every ten miles or so to change out the horses and every fifty miles a place to rest and make repairs.

 These markers are placed across the State along the route and are a reminder of past travelers.

Out Our Front Door (old log)

Summer was too short now in December, I look back on warmer weather and plan for our Christmas break.  This is a photo from a stream that feeds into the North Platte River in Eastern Wyoming in the summer.  It is forty degrees today and I hope it holds till the next snow.

Out Our Front Door (old log)

Summer View of Old Faithful

 

While you can not camp right at this site you can park nearby and walk to it within a couple of minutes.  We enjoy bringing our RV to sites like this even if camped in the area because we always have our bath and kitchen nearby.  Also if you really want to make a day of it you can go back to the RV and take a short nap.

 

 

It is always a good idea to go early so you can find a good parking spot.  Always remember to try to make sure when you park so that no one can pull right in-front of you and block you so you can  leave when you want.  It happened to me once. I tried so hard to only take the minimum space needed.  Once we had to wait two hours for the folks that blocked us to come back and leave so we could.  So since then I have always tried to take up a little extra space to reduce the chances of this ever happening again.  It has worked so far.

Duluth - Out Our Front Door (Old Log)

I love our visit to Duluth while there we stayed in a lake front hotel (they had parking room for our RV).  It was the only way to stay by the harbor so we could watch the ships come and go.  I learned that when you can see them just on the horizon they are 30 to 45 minutes out.

 

Below is a ship coming into the harbor just off the sea wall.

 

Below we see a ship passing the sea wall and turning into the harbor.  This port is only closed a couple months each year do to ice on the lakes.

This final photo below is a large Laker coming out of the harbor taking ore to Indiana.   These larger Lakers are so large they can only travel the upper three lakes.  They are over a thousand feet long.

 

We hope to go back to Duluth in the summer of 2015.

Out Our Front Door

You never know when you may see an Abbey

 Kathy at a zoo that allowed visitors to feed and pet some animals under zoo keeper supervision.  Kathy has always loved giraffe's.

Since the Space Race I have always been interested in Rockets and Missile's I ended my Air Force days as a Missile Launch Officer.  Here is an Atlas Rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day to all the veterans and their families.  This great land and we are free because of you.  Below is just a shot down into a valley just south of Rock Springs, Wyoming.

 The following is a photo taken by my sister Judi.  You see my father a B-17 Navigator in WW2, me, my mother and my brother now a Retired Army Artillery Officer.  We are in front of our trailer back in 1961.  This is the first recreational vehicle in my family.

Richard Sout Kathy's Dad

 Peter Kisiel Our Son

 Kathy and I

 My Dad

Out Our Front Door - Selection of Photos

On our travels we often stop off in small city parks with their campgrounds normally free or low overnight fees.

Here is a one leg pigeon I saw one evening walking back from the beach while in Florida.  The birds along the coast are always interesting.

Traveling  out west wild horses are not uncommon.  It is a big country out west and you never know what you will see.

An old WWII artillery range near Cheyenne is now part of a National Forest.  Here is an old observation bunker.  My brother is a retired Army Artillery Officer so it had special interest.

Water out west is always a concern and windmills are common for bringing the water to the surface without electricity.

We and Our RV (Old Log)

President Harry Truman's Library has ample parking for Motor Homes and is a great afternoon tour.  This location is also easy access from the interstate highway which is always a plus in a Motor Home.

 

A sun rise in a park.  Every day brings a new look and a new experience ahead of us.

 

I think I will start posting more photos with sunrise and sunsets in future postings.  They always seem to be nice to look at and tend to calm one down. In many of the stock agencies they say they have enough of these type photos.  I feel there is always room for one more:).

Canals & Locks (Old Log)

Our first lock seen together was by Lockport on the Erie Canal.  This canal is still in use for recreational use and limited commercial use.  The canal is to narrow and shallow for most commercial uses.  These are the best locks to see to learn how they work and talk to the locals.

While at the Welland Canals we saw some small ships and because we had to move on (we were on vacation).  We could not stay for a Canadian Destroyer that was coming into the Great Lakes in another hour for a PR visit.  However we will come back it was a nice spot to visit.  I am amazed how many ships from around the world come into the U.S. and Canada Great Lakes.

 

 

We stopped again in Minnesota at another river lock and enjoyed the self tour with all the nice plaques.  I saw recreational boats here but understand there is some commercial use here as well.

 

 



Larger canals and locks are always unique and interesting to see.  If you have not stopped in on some please do most have ample room in their parking areas for RV's.



Out Our Front Door DO Cooking

 

 

Dutch Oven (DO) cooking saves propane.  With a DO you can bake, boil and fry.  If you are going to start cooking with a DO make sure you cook at least once with an experienced outdoor DO cook if possible.  At a minimum buy a good DO cook book with lots of photos for your first book they do help.  Also YouTube has tons of short DO cooking videos.  Once you learn the process it is a fun way to cook and saves propane.

The old western trails brought families as well as "The Old Black Pots, the Dutch Ovens (DO's)" to the west.  One DO was an oven for diner and it's lid a grill for breakfast.  I have been using them since the early eighties and keep learning more each day about them.

What Lives There

Unique trees in the red desert are very common. 

I wonder what lives in these rocks?  It is always an interesting walk when ever we pull over to explore.  Lizards, birds and some rabbits may be in the area as well as some insects and an occasional snake.

 

Food sources are everywhere.  Here, if you scrape off the thorns you can eat the flesh and it also has high water content to help keep you hydrated.  Please note it will not be like drinking water and many types of cacti are not eatable.



Locating real water sources is a lot harder out west but not impossible.  Some times you will find it next to hard rocks like granite if you find moist sand by them dig down a foot or two and give it a couple of minutes.  If the sand becomes moist in the bottom wait another minute or too to pool then drink it.  If the sand is dry in the hole or no water pools move to another location and try again later till you find water.

Out Our Front Door

Harvest time is here! 

As my travel we are starting to see the tumble weed catchers (barb wire fences) doing their jobs.  Soon three types of fence cleaning will start.  The number one method is burning them off the fence a fall/spring project.  The second most often used method is putting a shredder on the front of a tractor and going along the fence line and shredding the tumble weeds.  The final method is individuals collecting the nice ones and selling them. I checked online and yes you can buy them:)

 

Speaking of harvesting.  I always like watching shrimp boats going up and down the coast harvesting this great food source.  Every few years I will get a fishing license and use a net to catch some from a dock, pier, or shore.  I also like going out on a fishing pier with a crab net and getting dinner as well. 

 

Of course make sure what you are after is in season and you know any other rules because each state can have different rules.

Our Second Flat Continued

Here is a photo of part of one of the compartments that had damage and melted.  You can see the propane line that comes out to the side of the RV for hooking up our outside grill.   We do not drive with the propane on, if we did there could have been a big fire or explosion if the line was damaged.  You can see the melted back of the compartment and white plastic drippings on the bottom by the opening plus some damage from the tire blowing the day before.

The current estimate for all the damage is just under seven thousand dollars and we are covered by our insurance thankfully.  Another point, the replacement black water tank and the melted compartments are made as needed at the factory (for our older model) so it will be weeks before they can reach our repair facility and be installed. In another few years when we go full time (retired).  We will continue to keep good insurance and road service, plus an emergency fund of about this much for none insured topics. 

 

What are these topics?  Once full time in a few years we will not have a house to while the RV is in the shop.  With no home and no RV we will need to pay to live somewhere for this down time. 

See you on our next post.

Launching Soon Again!

We should have our RV back in a couple weeks and are eager to re-launch our adventures.

This photo of Kathy and I in front of an Atlas Rocket at Kennedy Space Center reminds us of what we are missing without the motor home.  While anyone can drive to any location, having a motor home allows us to retire to our RV for a meal and a quick nap without having to leave the center.

More soon.

Our Second Flat in Twenty Years this Summer

Our second flat in twenty years.  Our first flat (twenty years ago) was simple we were on the interstate in Utah heading back to Wyoming.  Temp's were over 100 degrees and a tire blew, so I started coasting and pulled over quickly.   We had AAA RV plus back than and called with our bag cell phone.  In less then two hours we were back on the road.

 

This summer we had our second RV flat about fifteen miles west of Cheyenne, Wyoming.   Again we coasted to a stop on the side of the road.  We called our insurance company (with our flip phone) and they sent out road service, they changed the tire in less than two hours.  While waiting we also saw that at least two of our basement compartments had heavy damage from the tire exploding.  With the tire changed our rig looked safe to drive so we went back to Cheyenne Wyoming. That night we also got a new spare and stayed the night.

 

The next day we again headed west with the idea we would have the compartments repaired once we got back to our home area.  However, about twelve miles west of Cheyenne we noticed smoke coming from the damaged area and pulled over.  In twelve miles the end piece of our muffler had fallen off, it must of came lose from the tire blowing.  With the end piece of the muffler off the heat from the exhaust had melted more of the compartments and part of our black water holding tank.  This time we needed a tow back to Cheyenne (Good Sam Road Service).  Oh what fun!!!

 

Here you can see some of the melting from the muffler all the way to the outer panel of the basement.  We have the spare on with a new tire on the spare drop down cable under the home further back.  It was OK.  Our road service was again great and has now paid for its self plus some.  That is it for this post more to follow in another week.

Motor Home/Trailer as a back up home.

Last night we had a two hour power outage and it made me think even more. 

1. I am on oxygen at night so a power outage means switching to my emergency oxygen bottle, which will last about four hours.  Four hours is just enough for a recharge to my blood stream but if the outage lasted longer I could be in trouble.
2. In our motor home. I will have solar panels, 1000 watt pure sine inverter and a battery bank so I can keep my oxygen concentrator and CPAP going for a few more days.  Plus, it has a generator that could add a few more days (needs gas) if needed.
3. If the weather gets cold out I could be in trouble.  I only have enough propane for the heater for a few days tops. 
4. I have just over a 30 day supply of meds.
5. Big problem with the motor home it is currently in the shop! So for now I really have no backup.

Now back to the house last night.

1. Once we flush a toilet it can stop working if no more water is in the tank for the flushing action.  We have a bucket and trash bags, thankfully we did not need to use them.  We could also dig a pit in the back yard, but the city would not be happy with us.
2. Water, we only have about 8 gallons of water so for two of us it could last up to 3 days.  If we use a gallon in a bucket to flush the toilet each time it will go much quicker.
3. We also had to remind each other not to open the refrigerator till morning.  You only get about two quick openings before you lose the cool air in there.  With the freezer you may get several quick openings because of ice build up.

What if this outage would last several days?

Winds Shape the Rocks

In the red desert much of the rock is sand stone which the wind can carve with little problems.  Birds also often help out by painting the rocks with their droppings.

This rock looks like one of those science fiction movies where the monster comes up out of the ground.

The wind is contently reshaping the face of cliffs around the desert and the world.

 

 

Early Fall Walk

Walking on the edge of the desert is always interesting and exciting.  Rabbit hunting season is open so it is fun to see their habitat out here.  Here they should be called "Rock Bunnies".

 

Bone pile after a predator has finished with its prey in the red desert in Southwest Wyoming in the summer of 2014.

Checking out the valley below. In this photo there is a wide ledge about four feet down from where this individual is standing.  Please note you never want to stand on the edge of a cliff, every year people fall off cliffs.

 

 

Coming back into town I stopped and took a photo of a bee on a flower with my canon rebel with a 18-55mm lens.