May'03-Jun'03
On mon May 5th we were getting ready to head to Clearlake when we got a
phone call that Kay's dad was taken to the emergency room at the hospital. More
phone calls and found out they would just keep him for the night for observation
so we went on to Clearlake. Next day got another call that they were
transferring him to the hospital in Springfield, Il for some tests and that he
had a mild heart attack. Packed up again and got ready to head to Il. Talked
about getting Kay a plane ticket back and the dog and I driving back. Received
more updating phone calls and found that he was stable and not in any danger but
they would be doing a procedure on him. So we all drove
back. Took Rt. 20 to I-80 and hit a snowstorm just before the interstate.
Continued on and snow quit after we went over Donner Pass. What a relief! At
Wells, Nv we hit another snowstorm but were able to drive thru it. In Wy we hit
2 more snowstorms one was almost a whiteout. People on the CB were saying that
these storms were only a few miles long and it wouldn't take long to drive thru
them. So we pushed on. Hit lots of rain. Got a little touchy at times but
overall it wasn't bad. At least I didn’t have to worry about keeping the
windshield clean. Had planned to drop down to I-70 from Cheyenne, Wy but CB
traffic said that Denver was undergoing severe thunderstorms with tornados. We
decided to go on to Lincoln, Ne and drop down to I-70 there. By now I had been
driving for 28 hrs. More phone calls and we determined that we could take a
little more time to get there so we stopped for the night.
Our
friends, Linda & Willie, were heading to Effingham also so we called them to
see where they were and they were on I-70 almost straight south of us. Next day
we dropped down from Lincoln, Ne to Kansas City to pick up I-70 and decided to
stop another night. Called Linda & Willie when we were about 1/2 hour from
KC and they were about 10 min from there so we decided to find an RV park on
I-70 where we could meet for the evening.
Found
a nice park north of Columbia, Mo. L&W were already there. While signing in
the sirens went off and some guy came running in the office yelling about a
tornado sighting. We went out and could see this huge tornado north of us about
2 miles. While watching, it split into 2 tornados. By the time I thought about
taking pics it was dissipating so--no pics. Parked for the night and some
hellacious thunderstorms came thru that evening. In the AM the RV park had lots
of water standing everywhere. Drove on in to Effingham with no problems but
ominous skies. Next 2 days in Eff were full of storms and high winds. Afterwards
we found out that this was the series of storms that causes over 300 tornados
that week. Now I remember one of the reasons we like being away from this area
at this time of year --- "tornado season".
A week later we were back on the road again heading to Utah with a
stopoff at the HWH (leveling jacks) factory in Moscow, Ia. They checked them,
all was OK and no charge. I had heard that they are a good company to deal with
and now I know for sure.
Trip
to Garland, Utah was uneventful and we arrived early AM. B&D were up already
but not out & about. The place where we stayed had a fenced in yard so we
had to get them to open the gate for us to pull in. The house belongs to a
friend of theirs that was working on the road. B&D had a full hookup setup
and Bob ran a water line and 30AMP elec for us. They had acquired a new dog
since we saw them in Illinois. We laughed a lot at their 2 dogs and ours as they
could run free in the yard and play. They all got along real well.
Bob's Cochlear Implant is amazing!!!! He can hear. Remember--he has been TOTALLY deaf for over 25 years. Now he has to learn to listen. :>) He was going back to the Dr. on a weekly basis for "tuneups" and after each one he could hear better. One evening we were sitting under his awning and it started raining lightly. You could look at him and see he was trying to figure out the noise and finally he popped up and said: 'It's raining!' Besides the 'tuneups' he has to retrain his brain to interpret the sounds properly. They say it will take 9 or 10 months til he reaches the peak that he will achieve. At the rate he is going it might be sooner. He had trouble hearing on his phone so we tried ours and he can hear it fine. Guess they will be getting a new phone!
B&D took us to where they used to live in Ogden Valley which is over
a mountain from Ogden. Big lake in the middle of the valley. A very beautiful
place. Then up a mountain on the other side to Causey Reservoir.
Then back to Ogden to meet their friend Angella and we had a
birthday party for
Bob at her house later in the week.
Kay and I took a day trip to the “Golden Spike National Historic
Site”. A small park with lots of history. They run the trains once a day at
1:30PM for the tourists to see and they have a guide there that gives a short
talk and answers questions. He was very knowledgeable and had some facts that we
never learned in the history books. The one that really stuck with me was that
when they finally met for the celebration of the railroads meeting
to create our
nation’s first Trans-Continental Railroad, none of the bigwigs with either RR,
Union Pacific or Central Pacific, had made arrangements for a flag. They
finally found one that one of the soldiers had with him as a souvenir and they
flew that one. Only problem was that it was a twenty star flag and there were 37
states in the union at that time. They still fly a 20 star flag today. When you
go to the pic section, you will notice the elaborate paint job on the
engines. These are exact (within ¼”) replicas of the original engines
including the paint. One was a wood burner (The Jupiter) and the other was a
coal burner (#119). They had a sandhopper
with a tube running down in front of the wheels
to drop sand for traction. The original engines were melted down during WWI as were
most of the original rails. The railroad was very instrumental in the settling
of the west. Wagon trains took more than six months to make the trip and ships
took 6 months having to go around Cape Horn.
The trip could be made in less than 10 days by rail. I’m not sure I
would have ever visited this park if I hadn’t been in the area already. Now I
highly recommend it. And I think we will try and visit more of our smaller
National Parks.
While we were in Utah B&D bought a boat. A 20 footer with an inboard
Mercury engine. They got it just before we left, took it to a lake, it needs a
tuneup, so we never got to ride in it.
While we were in Effingham we had our mail forwarded to us and we still
haven’t got it. In Utah we got the first forwarding to that area and have
never received the second one. Now we have them forward our mail by UPS. How
weird is that?
We headed out to Clearlake, Ca with stops at Winnemucca, Nv (casinos) and
Boomtown (casinos) in Verdi, Nv just outside Reno. My back had started hurting
me in Utah and at Boomtown it really put me down. Kay took me to the VA hosp in
Reno and got me some meds and they said we needed to stay for a few more days
and rest. Plus it wouldn’t be safe for me to drive with the meds they gave me.
Emailed Bill & Norma (Merced, Ca) and they were on vacation that week so
they drove up for 2 nights. I was able to go with the 3 of them the first night
but had to stay in the MH the second night. Overdid it with my back.
While we were in Boomtown our front A/C unit started acting up and the
night before we left it quit altogether. Figured we would get it fixed in the
Clearlake area. Stopped at a local RV place and he checked it out. It was
working fine. Checked in at the campground and within 4 hours it quit again.
Daytime temps in the 100’s. The back air cannot cool the MH by itself. Temps
inside get up to 85 by mid afternoon. At least it cools down to the 60’s at
night.
My top teeth started hurting me all day. Found a dentist thru a friend (Mike Dwyer) and he said I had a sinus infection and an abscessed tooth. At least that explained all of the top teeth hurting at once. Got my meds and headed back to MH to let things get better.
Later