Kentucky to Oregon---the first five days

A quick update on our adventures.

We left Kentucky on Saturday with a bit of sadness mixed with excitement to be on the road again. It's over a year since we've made a major road trip so there were some kinks to work out but we've managed.

One of our first stops on Saturday was at a truck and RV wash place where we paid to have the RV and the car power washed. We even splurged for the special tire and hubcap treatment.

We made good time on Saturday and spent the night at a casino in Boonville, MO. Our Motor Home is fully self-contained. We have fresh water to last several days, a holding tank for used water and sewage and a generator for power so we can run the a/c and cook dinner, watch TV anywhere.

That is, if the generator is working. Turns out, ours is not. We found this out the hard way on a a particularly warm and windless night in the casino parking lot. In addition, we were on a very uneven spot but didn't want to use our leveling jacks, so we spent the night trying to sleep at a 30 degree (don't quote me on that, but you get the idea) angle. [P.S. for those of you who either visited Big Mike's House of Mystery in Mammoth Cave, KY or heard the stories---it reminded me of the girl saying "Am ah leanin' or standin'?"] We got the generator to run for a couple short periods and cooled things off. Chris didn't think he could sleep with his head lower than his feet, so we attempted to sleep upside down on the bed. He did okay, but it didn't work for me. But when I tried switching, I was afraid I'd end up kicking him in the face.

Soooo, not  much sleep that night.

But, it's those adventures that we look back at and laugh.

Sunday we were on the road and again made good time and got to Sioux Falls, SD, about 900 miles from where we'd started the day before. We had planned to dry camp in Walmart parking lots or rest areas most of the way (which I seriously find so convenient and one of the reasons we have a MH rather than a fifth wheel. You pull in, find a level spot, flip a few switches and we're set up. No need to even go outside.) but w/o the generator, we needed electricity. We spent Sunday and Monday at a very nice campground called The Red Barn in Tea, SD, just a few miles south of Sioux Falls.

We loved everything about The Red Barn except....we had to drive on 1-2 miles of red dirt road (after a rain) to get there. So, less than 24 hours after paying for the fancy wash and tire treatment, the car and MH looked pretty grimy.

We got caught up on our sleep on Monday and then went to the HyVee grocery store. I'm going to do a whole post about how much I love the HyVee. They are mostly in MN, WI and IA. Sioux Falls is the westernmost location. We got some groceries and South Dakota State University Ice Cream (cookies and cream) and went home feeling like champs.

SDSU has its own creamery and if we'd driven an hour north to Brookings, SD we could have gone there and had ice cream at their shop, but we opted for buying at HyVee and it was delicious. So creamy.

Monday night there was a major storm. Lightning struck a tree near the campground office but fortunately no damage (except to the office's computers, phones and wifi for the entire campground). We debated staying another day due to lack of sleep but decided to get on the road and headed out about noon.

We made the drive across SD and landed at our "hometown" of Box Elder (near Rapid City) and camped at our mail service which also has a small campground.

Along the way, I made calls to get the generator fixed. I talked to several people who seem to agree that the problem is the fuel pump, but no one could get us in on our schedule, but we managed to get an appointment for a repair in Missoula, MT on Monday. Glad to get it done, not so excited about the unplanned expense and time away from visiting w/our friends in Missoula, but that is part of being on the road.

After we got set up at our campsite we decided to take a drive...and the car starter appears to have crapped out on us. So, now we're looking at a car repair and a MH repair. Sigh.

But, Wednesday morning Chris was able to get the car started and we are only a few miles from a Hyundai dealer. It can be discouraging (okay, downright discouraging) when these things happen and they seem to happen in multiples, but then I remind myself of all the places where the car could have decided not to start and we'd have been far from a place to get the work done.

We're now in the Mountain Time zone, which is great. We can watch the Late Show at 9:30 pm! Plus, when I naturally wake up, it's about 6:30 am and I feel like I'm really on top of things.

We expect the car will be repaired today and we'll head out tomorrow for more adventures. Tomorrow night we'll stop in Billings, MT. The temps are supposed to be ridiculously hot (near or over 100) so we are going to do something different and stay at a hotel w/a pool instead of trying to cool the MH in that sort of heat. We plan to leave early and get there before it gets too hot. I'm not sure if we've ever had Dooley in a hotel room, so that should be interesting.

Update...the car is done! We weren't expecting it until the end of the day. Stay tuned...

Eight hours later...we're back home. We picked up the car and then headed to Spearfish, SD to meet up with one of Chris's favorite people from his days driving tours to Washington, DC. As it happens, we're in the area during the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. It's a big deal and there are lots of people in the area for it. We had planned to meet up with Chris's friend last night, but with the car out of commission, we had to cancel, so we were very pleased to be able to make that happen and to have lunch with him. After lunch and a couple errands, I'm pooped out.

We'll be up early to be on the road before the day gets too hot tomorrow.

Here are some pics from the journey. Those of you in Instagram have probably already seen them.

Highway Art

Windshield tint at the top of this photo. It's one of my favorite views. Crossing the Missouri River in SD. This photo doesn't do it justice, but the change in scene from one side of the river to the other is dramatic. The west side is rugged and has that wild west look.

 Speaking of wild west...I was able to stalk and photograph this beast.

A small shot of 

the Badlands from the moving RV. If you've not seen the Badlands, it really ought to be on your bucket list. This photo is a tiny sample. There are other photos with more detail from in the archives from our visit in April of 2016. 

Saying Good Bye to Kentucky

Look! Another blog post already.

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are packing up and heading out. Who knew that when we wandered into the Kentucky Horse Park back in April of 2017 for a two week stay, that we'd end up spending nearly 18 months in Kentucky. We sure didn't.

We have enjoyed our time in Kentucky. This is the first place where we have really gotten to know some locals, me through a couple of groups at the library (knitting and writing) and Chris through work, so it is more bittersweet than most of our other moves.

But, new adventures beckon and we'll be going "Jacks Up" within 24 hours and heading to Portland, OR.

We are extremely excited about this move. We had planned to work our way west gradually, but since when have either of us shied away from jumping in with both feet?

I've not been the most diligent blogger, so probably the best way to see how we are doing in our travels is to follow me on Instagram. Look SNCLivingLarge and click follow.

In other news, we have been helping out a friend who is traveling by checking on his goats and pigs. 

Happy RV-Versary To Us!

July 9, 2018 marks the four year anniversary of buying our motorhome. Can you believe it?

We thought we’d do a little recap of some of our experiences, good and bad.

Speaking of bad...this blog post is sort of a mess of different spacing and alignments. I'm not sure what
the problem is. Sorry.

In no particular order (other than as they pop into our heads) here are some of the highlights
and not so high-lights. Many of these were already reported here in the blog so
if you want more details you can scroll through the archive to the right. I’ll include some links too.

Going to New Mexico.

• Loved the area, the food, the people. It was all very different from Ohio.
• It was our first RVing adventure and everything was new and exciting
• Made new friends.
• Really didn’t like the job.
• In looking back, I realize we were darned lucky to hop into a used motorhome

that we’d just bought, take off across the country and didn’t have any problems.

• Visiting the Jemez Mountains
• We got to go to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
• I now know how to spell Albuquerque

Our time in MN, ND and SD.

• We went to a Native American Wacipi (aka pow wow)
• Found a restaurant with great club sandwiches that was also

in a building that housed a laundromat, gas station and hardware store.

You could look out from eating your homemade pie and see

the latest in bird feeders and rain gauges.

• I loved driving across Devil’s Lake every morning and afternoon.
• Driving 100+ miles each way to get to work.
• We learned that “we’re all going to stay until the job is finished”

doesn’t really mean much to most people.

• We went to a restaurant where the lunch special was shrimp burgers.

We both envisioned something like a shrimp po’ boy, but what we got was a patty that

appeared to be made from mushed up shrimp and then deep fried into a hockey puck.

It was memorably awful.

• The nice man who gave us apples from his tree.
• We attended a nice church in MN for several weeks which came at a good time for us.

Working for Amazon CamperForce We’re sometimes surprised the company is still
operating after they let us bumble around one of their warehouses.  

Taking watercolor painting classes together. We had a good time and made some
interesting paintings. The instructor said, “I always look forward to seeing what you two come up with.”

Barns

Tomatoes 

Modifying our home to make it suit us. We removed furniture and added furniture that
worked better for us. Changed out old TVs for smart TVs and did a few cosmetic changes.

The times when things just fell into place for us.

Joel, the old man with a smelly dog who lived in a purple school bus...we think about him often.

When we were in Statesville, NC and one of us spent each morning in the guard shack,

Joel and his smelly wet dog would come in to chat. At first I was frustrated because

I saw that as a couple hours of alone time for me and the internet, but Chris and I both realized

Joel was lonely and maybe it wasn’t such a big deal to be nice to him. He’s the one who told us

about Carowinds Amusement Park, which lead us to so many other things.

While working at Carowinds, Chris randomly met the Greens

and that lead to our jobs with Southern Cross that got us to MN, ND and SD,

as well as a few other adventures.

We stopped at the Kentucky Horse Park for two weeks to figure out what to

do next and ended up staying seven months.

We never planned to spend as much time as we did in Kentucky,

but because we were relatively close to Ohio we were both able to visit with

our parents a couple of times last summer, which is fortunate since Chris’s mother

and my father both passed away last fall, just three weeks apart.

The times when things didn’t seem to be going our way. Not all of these events
made it to the blog because when you’re having a crappy time, you don’t necessarily
want to share it with everyone. Or at least we don’t. But, with some time and perspective,
we realize that we survived them all and we’ll survive the next round too.

• We bought a used truck and the engine blew up before we’d had it for a month.
• The many times when it was so hot, we had popsicles for dinner.
• The time the motorhome starter died at a Walmart gas station.

The time the steps wouldn’t retract and Chris had to do a makeshift fix so we

could get back on the road. All my fancy education is pretty worthless in those situations

and I am particularly grateful for Chris’s skills.

The incident where the hitch for the tow dolly got stuck in the pavement going uphill

into a gas station. That happened the day after the step malfunction.

That was a period of time when we both felt very discouraged.

We got fired (a first for both of us) from a job by a guy who didn’t even have the

authority to fire us. I still sometimes think of sneaky ways to get some revenge on him.

Feel free to include any suggestions in the comments.

People we’ve met.

We’ve met a wide range of people and even made a few friends. Among them are Tom and Joni,
whom we met while working at the KOA in NM. Since then our paths have crossed
several times in our travels and we even spent a few days with them this past spring visiting Nashville.

I’ve met a nice group of ladies through the library here. There’s knitting on Mondays,
writing every other Wednesday and watercolor painting once a month.
They have been very kind and welcoming to me and I’ll miss them when we leave.

We’ve met a few people we wish we could have gotten to know better and quite a few
people we wish we’d known a little less.

What we’ve learned.

• I’ve become more self-reliant.
• We’ve learned to rely upon each other more.

I think I know more about the operations of our motorhome than I ever really

understood about the operation of a stick and brick house.

• When you don’t know what to do, be quiet and wait.
• We don’t need very much stuff to be happy.

Traveling the country in an RV is a dream that both Chris and I had before we met.
After we got married, I never imagined we could really make it happen, but we have.
It hasn’t been easy, we’ve made some mistakes, we’ve learned some hard lessons,
but we have no regrets and no plans to stop moving any time soon.

Thanks to all of you who have encouraged us.
To those of you who thought we were nuts...we are. And we’re having the time of our lives.

Bourbon balls--A Photo Essay

We've been seeing bourbon balls for sale all over the place since we got to Kentucky but why just buy some when there's an opportunity to make a mess on my own. 

Chris kindly got a recipe from one of his co-workers. Here in Kentucky, it seems these recipes are guarded as family treasures. 

We were really impressed with the results. I have some photos and at the end I'll include the whole recipe as well as my suggestions (of course). You'll want to make some of these bad boys for yourself. Because nothing makes the holidays more tolerable than sugar and booze. 

Step one. Soak 1 cup chopped pecans with 1 cup of bourbon over night. I covered and kept in the fridge. 

Under that pile of powdered sugar (2 lbs which equals about 7 cups) is a stick of melted butter. 

Combine the pecan/bourbon combo with the butter/powdered sugar mountain. Plus a tsp of vanilla and pinch of salt. 

Roll into balls. This is the first batch I made and it was too wet to roll so I put these little spoonfuls in the fridge and then rolled them into balls after they hardened up a bit.  On the second batch, I put the whole bowl in the fridge until it was firm enough to roll.

The step you don't see is dipping in chocolate. More about that in the recipe, but it took some trial and error to get that right and taking pictures would not have added to the success of the mission. 

Finished product. All we have left now are photos and memories, but these were really good.

A couple notes. I made two batches, one with pecans and one with pretzels instead for those who are nut-adverse. I couldn't really taste a difference, but some might.

Bourbon Balls plus my suggestions and variations

Original Recipe

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup bourbon

1 stick butter (½ cup) , melted

2 lbs powdered sugar (about 7 cups)

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

Chocolate chips/chunks for melting I used a very dark chocolate because the rest is so sweet. You’ll need one bag, maybe more.

Cookie sheets, parchment or waxed paper

Yield---40+ balls depending on how large you make them

Step one:

Soak pecans in bourbon over night. I covered the bowl w/foil, not sure if that’s necessary or not.

Step two:

Make sure you have plenty of room in your refrigerator because these take up a lot of space. Or freezer.

Step three:

Melt butter and mix with powdered sugar and the bourbon/pecan combo. Add the vanilla and salt.

Line some cookie sheets with parchment/waxed paper. If the mixture is not too runny, roll into balls and put in the fridge for several hours or overnight. If it’s too runny to roll, put it in the fridge for a while until it stiffens up, make balls and put in fridge.

Step four;

Once they have firmed up you’re ready for dipping. I found that the best method was to put the chocolate into a small to medium heat proof bowl inside my crockpot. It took 30 mins or less for it to be the right consistency and stayed that way throughout.

I learned the hard way that you need to do just a few at a time and then get them back into the fridge fast after dipping in the chocolate. If they sit too long, the balls melt and you end up with things that look like chocolate covered half dollars. With Chris helping me, we did about 5 at a time, taking them from the freezer in small batches, dipping and then put them in the fridge.

If you want to be fancy, you can put a pecan half or a few chopped pecans on top before putting in the fridge. Or sprinkles or whatever.

Once the chocolate has set, store in airtight containers or zip loc bags in the fridge or freezer.

Non-nut variation

Substitute crushed pretzels for the pecans. Do NOT soak over night because that seems like it would just make paste. So just mix everything together w/the pretzels and go from there.

Note: These are very sweet. I think the next time I make them, I’ll increase the nut/pretzel combo by a cup and cut back on the powdered sugar by a cup. You could also use crushed vanilla wafers or graham crackers, but even that might be too sweet. In my opinion, you just need something as an additional binder that works well with the powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you'd like a printable copy of the recipe, just send me an email and I'll attach it.

Halloween Festivities At The Kentucky Horse Park

It's Halloween at the Kentucky Horse Park and it's been a busy weekend. Today's festivities included a costume contest. Several hundred people were here for the festivities, including trick or treating where we handed out 14 lbs of candy at our site. People are here camping with their families and there were also a large number of locals who came out for the fun.

Very clever headless bride costume. This girl stopped by while we were handing out candy and it was a little freaky talking to her. 

Tommy Chong impersonator with giant joint. 

Elf on a Shelf

Deviled eggs...get it? 

It's All Part of the Adventure

On July 8, 2014 we spent the night at the Drury Inn and Suites in Findlay, Ohio. We were pretty excited because the next day, July 9, we were going to pick up our motor home.

Three years later, almost exactly to the day, on July 11, 2017 we again spent the night in Findlay, Ohio and within in view of the Drury Inn...except this time we were broken down and spending the night in a WalMart Parking lot.

We'd pulled in around 10 pm to get gas before the final 20 miles or so of our trip to Tiffin, Ohio in order to attend the funeral for Chris' Uncle Ronnie. It had been a long day before we left Lexington at about 4 pm for the drive to Ohio and we were looking forward to getting parked and getting a decent night's sleep before the funeral the next morning.

But, after gassing up, the MH wouldn't start. Nothing. We thought it was the battery and Chris plugged in some chargers to see if we could get it juiced up (please note these are not technical terms, just my report of what happened). The gas station manager was sympathetic and told us that even though the station was closing we were welcome to stay...but had to be gone by 7 am when the station opened again. I guess having us sit in front of a pump all day would be bad for business.

Though it was a lovely evening, as we sat on the bags of water softener salt pellets, we fought against discouragement. We were hot and tired and looking at potentially unknown and unlimited amounts of expenses.

But, then we looked up and saw the bright red and white sign for the Drury Inn and remembered that this was literally where our adventure had begun and ...This is all just part of the adventure. We passed the time talking about all the things we've done in our three years on the road. And all the other challenges we've figured out and survived.

The battery chargers didn't help the situation. Attempting to jump start the MH w/our car didn't work...a Hyundai is no match for a Winnebago. Finally, around midnight, we called a tow truck for a jump. The guy was nice, but still no luck.

But, the MH was on a slight incline and we were pointed directly into a large open area of the parking lot, so the tow truck guy and Chris pushed the MH until it got rolling and I "drove" it into the parking lot.

We weren't able to go anywhere, but we were safe and had a place to stay. We put out the slides, turned on the generator and tried to get some sleep...it was about 2 am. But, we were still immobile and the cause was unknown, so sleep was elusive.

The next day we let people know we wouldn't make it to the funeral and started making calls to see if we could get someone to come and take a look to see what the problem was. No mobile RV repairs or mechanics were interested or available.

Ah...but as luck would have it...we were back in Ohio where we have friends. Chris called Brad, the mechanic from the bus garage where he used to work, and Brad came through for us. Turns out we needed a new starter, not a new battery, and by late afternoon we were back on the road.

We missed the funeral, but we still got to see Aunt Mary and offer our condolences and we visited with friends and family while we could.

I'll be honest...this was pretty stressful. But in the end, we realized that if it had to happen, we were in the best place. We were on an incline and pointed in the right direction to roll into a safe spot in the parking lot. And we were just a phone call away from a reliable and honest mechanic who was willing to go out of his way to help us out.

Maybe sometimes all you need to do is make sure you're pointed in the right direction and hope for a push when you need it. And sometimes all you can do is roll.

Wise Buys---Wifi Ranger

You know I love wifi, but often getting reliable service is tricky. Campgrounds will say they have wifi, but it is usually weak or the quality of your signal varies depending on how far you are from the source.

When making reservations and asking about the quality of the wifi we have heard, more than once, "Well, you know, it's campground wifi."

This is rather frustrating and with more and more people living and working on the road, you'd think that campgrounds would get with the program, but since they seem to continue filling their sites, apparently they don't care too much.

Enter the Wifi Ranger

This is the second post about "Wise Buys". The first one was about a motion sensing light for about $12, the Wifi Ranger costs significantly more, about $600, but has been well worth it.

I'm not super tech-savvy so I might not describe this accurately, but I'll describe it in a way that makes sense to me. The Wifi Ranger attaches to the TV antenna on the roof of the RV (that was exciting) and picks up wifi signals in about a 1/2  to one mile radius (possibly further) and strengthens the signals it connects to.

Now, it's not like a magic wifi provider, you still need the password on a password protected network or you can use open networks like you might find at a fast food restaurant.

Once connected to a wifi source, the ranger then provides wifi to our devices. The ranger is password protected, so it creates our own wifi system with an extra layer of security vs. logging into a public wifi source.

It takes weak campground wifi and boosts it so we can stream and have a steady source of wifi instead of having it go in and out...which is very frustrating.

All of our devices automatically connect to the ranger, so we don't have to log in to each new network as we move around.

The cost of the ranger made us think long and hard about buying it, but since we kept going over on our phone data plan due to weak wifi, we decided to give it a try. It has been well worth it for us.