2007 Road Trip Posts

Brian MacKay

We started traveling after I found out that I had survived cancer. I finally realized that life will indeed go on without me, it was time to do the things that I wanted to do and see. This is our second trip in our Motorhome. Last year we were on the road and traveled the East coast and from Milwaukee to Austin, but that’s another story. The 71 days that we spent this year was a culmanation of a life long dream of traveling the USA . This year I decided to send out our daily "posts" to our friends. This year was a "National Park" trek. We traveled as a family, myself, my wife "Dixie", and our mixed breed mut "Peanut". Our travels brought us from coast to coast and in all about 8,500 miles on the Coach, and about 2,500 miles on our Jeep. When I realized how much our friends enjoyed my Post, they even sent it to their friends, I decided that our story should be available to everyone who hasn’t traveled America but has always wanted to, it is not just about traveling in a RV around the country but more of a story of Eating, Drinking and Partying across this great country of ours. It is written without thinking about being published but just to keep my friends update dto our travels. Please dismiss my bad grammar, my run on sentenances and my misspellings I didn’t know there was going to be a quiz.

July 25th 2007
Left a little late today because Dixie had to have her hair cut. We have looked for 2 days, prior to leaving for our Sony 7.2 Cyber shot camera, have not been able to find it. If anyone finds it in their car, boat or house please let us know, we have no idea where we left it. Stopped at Taylor’s new apartment in Gainesville and had lunch with him and his new roommate Jim. Tiki, Taylor’s dog is starting to calm down. Got to Tallahassee’s Big Oak RV Park about 4:30. We had visited Tallahassee last year so this is just an over nighter. Mosquitoes were hungry in the park. Had a great rib and sirloin combo dinner at Logans, good bar and restaurant not bad for a chain. Weather clear 90 degrees.Had to run dash and roof AC. I will be sending updates on our trip every so often. If you don’t want to receive them most people would let you opt out , but not me, You will get them and you will like them. And when I get my camera you will also get pictures. I’ll bet you can’t wait. Bye for now. Brian

July 26th 2007
Left early, passed through Montgomery and decided to stay in Birmingham instead, would have made it sooner but somebody missed their exit and we had to back track 10 miles. Stayed at the new M&J trailer park, met the owner Larry, he bought an old trailer park and he is in the process of getting rid of the 60 year old trailers in the park. In the meanwhile he charged us the outrageous fee of $15.00. That was with full 50 amp hook up, God I love Bama. The park was only minutes from downtown and right in the middle of the "hood". We slept sound as Larry kept guard for us, just kidding everything was fine. We drove through downtown about 4 PM and it looked like Tampa, no body around. Dixie saw a few people going into a place called "The Wine Loft" so we circled around and went in to see what was going on. Nice place 30’ tall ceilings the place was written up in N.Y. Times and Wall Street Journal. Naturally we were dressed tourist style, shorts and T shirts. When the 5 o’clock rush came in we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies. Had 2 glasses on wine and a nice sangiowese and a Brie appetizer, which was excellent and large, bill was $50 without $10 tip. We did talk to the bartender and he gave us the local on the dives in town. He suggested and we went to the "5 points Grill" where we were glad to see that ALL draft beers, even Blue Moon, at $2. More to our taste and pocket book. The area is called "5 Point Fountain area" because of the fountain, this is the party place with many bars to choose from. We then drove to a restaurant called "The Bright Side" closer to our RV. It is over 100 years old and the food is outstanding, when we entered the owner came over to shake our hand and make us at home. We just had appetizers, Crab Cakes with a blue cheese sauce on them and Gumbo. Both were to die for.
We are getting about 8 MPG and 100 laughs per mile. Peanut sleeps 23 hours a day. We have a plan to eat lunch in the coach and dinner at a restaurant in town. 90 degrees and hot and overcast today. That’s all for today, see ya. Bye , Brian

July 27th 2007
Set out about 9:30 headed to Memphis. Stopped in Tupelo Best Buy to get a new camera. I hope someone finds my old one. Tupelo is where ELVIS the King was born. We went to see his birthplace. It is a 10 x 20 White house, very modest to say the least, when you see the neighborhood you understand the black influence in his music. We had lunch in a truck stop in the coach.
Got to Memphis about 3PM. Went to one of our favorite parks "Tom Sawyer’s Mississippi River RV Park". It is right on the banks of the River. Water is much lower this year as spoil areas are visible where they were not last year. We are getting ready to go to Beale Street about 6PM and Dixie and I are just having a drink and chilling out. I’ll finish this tomorrow. Got to Beal Street about 7:30 and it was already packed with people. Dixie wanted to eat right away so we got some food at the "Flying Fish", Great Shrimp k bobs and grilled fish. Cheap. Walked to our regular hang outs. There are 2 bars that are hooked together, one has a $3 cover one a $5 cover. Tourists don’t know that you can come and go between the two places, naturally we paid the $3. The Blues Hall $3 and the Rum Boogie Cafe $5 both have live music. Blues Hall is hot, loud, trashy with a great Blues Band that creates excitement with original songs. Rum Boogie has a Band that plays standard fare, HOHUM for the tourist. Naturally we hung out at the Blues Hall. Saturday night we are going to "Blues On The Bluff", right on the Bank of the Mississippi River at the "Metal Museum" supposed to be lots of good Blues Music. We still have not got to a place that has decent internet, when we do I will send these messages. Buy For now, Brian.

July 28th 2007
Getting ready to go to Memphis to eat at the "Rendezvous", a famous rib joint. Real limited menu. Full rack of ribs @ $17 and pitcher beer $8. People that work there dress like the old workers of Morrisons Cafeteria, white shirt and black bow tie. They don’t care that’s just the way it is. In Tampa they would be unemployed and calling them guys that work there "Uncle Toms". Nice to know you can still make a living working. Came home to chill out and napped until ready for Blues on the Bluff. Still really hot 92degrees and thank God for the breeze. Went to Blues on the Bluff sponsored by the local Blues radio station WEVL. Had 4 groups, more jazz than blues. We people watched and ate and drank. Left around 10:30.

July 29th 2007 & AM Day 6 July 30th 2007
Drove to Branson Missouri. Hard driving today lots of Mountain Roads, transmission got a work out. Staying at RV Park 1/2 block from main strip. For those that don’t know about Branson it has hundreds of theaters and mini theaters that have every act from circus to comedy to Elvis to Yakov Smirnoff to Country to rock, well you get the idea. They also have 2 huge lakes here, Lake Table Rock and Lake Taneycomo. We just got settled in so we are getting ready to go exploring. We’ll probably be here for another day. Drove around the lake, it is a man made resouvour, really big. No restaurant bars actually on the lake that we could find, so we stopped into Docs Tavern, a biker bar around 6:30 and talked with a guy named John who gave us the local on where to go. So we went to "Odees", Good place, live band, great ribs and beef brisket, buckets of beer for $12. Great people watching place. The band was great however we thought the singer was a girl by listening. He sang great but sounded like a girl, very weird. Went home 10:30.
Just so you don’t think it’s nothing but fun and games for us, I’ve included this. This morning I got up to walk Peanut and get a paper. Had a cup of coffee, went to do the morning bathroom thing. I noticed that the holding tank was filled up. That was weird because every morning I always empty the tanks before we take off and it certainly should not have been full since it holds 55 gallons. Well sure as anything the toilet paper clogged the outlet so it wouldn’t drain. I got a hose and tried to push the crap from the inside. No go. I then borrowed a toilet auger from the RV park owner, Kent. Tried from the inside, No Go. Well I knew what that meant. I had to go from the outside in. For people that don’t know how a holding tank works, you hook a hose to the connector on the tank which drains into the sewer. There is a valve that you open and gravity drains the tank. Unfortunately when you have to snake this fitting, you have to open the valve and stick the auger directly up the drain fitting. So I open the drain valve and water dribbles out, stick the auger up, spin it a few times and it frees the clog. As I found out gravity will empty a holding tank with a 3" pipe very quickly. Before I can pull the auger out and close the valve there is crap draining out everywhere. Finally get auger out and the valve closed and the hose hooked back up.
Spent half an hour cleaning up the mess outside. Needless to say Dixie will not be buying the toilet paper that I told her not to buy. It’s funny now but it wasn’t then.
We’re RVing Now! We are going to a show tonight. See Ya, Brian

July 30th 2007
Finished my shitty chores. Dixie spoke to some friends of hers that have a condo here in Branson and they suggested a Mexican Restaurant and a show called Tabuchi. We went to the Cantina Laredo at an open air mall called The Landings. The food was great, nice upscale Mexican. They make fresh guacamole at your table. Two fresh avacados , salt ,garlic, fresh squeezed lime, celantra, chives, and onion, ripe chopped tomatoes all mixed at the table. Huge top shelf margaritas, brisket tacos and mole encheladas. We were stuffed. Walked outside to Bass Pro Shop for the mandatory walk through, did not buy anything. I actually did purchase 2 pairs of sandals and 2 T shirts. That’s my shopping for the year. Came home, napped. Drove down to Kimberling City. Small town , nothing going on. On they way back we went down a 19 degree hill. That’s like a roller coaster ride, you ride your brakes and down shift just to stay below 55 mph. The show we were going to was closed down so we decided to go to the original "Outback" restaurant and bar. An Australian themed pub with lots of locals. Turns out they were around before the Outback we all know. They were paid money so that Outback could use the name but they still reserved the right to keep their place called Outback. Played trivia there had a bucket of beer and split a pot pie that came with a big salad.
Filled both of us up. Went back home and sat outside at the picnic table.
Well we are off to Kansas City today. We are going to meet up with Larry and Sherry at Sturgis South Dakota on Sunday. Kansas City here We come.
See Ya Brian

July 31st 2007
Left for Kansas City about 8:30. It started raining so we pulled into a truck stop to clean the bugs off the windshield. When I got there I noticed that the windshield wiper moved when I brushed against it, so I looked under the hood and found out that the nut the connected the rod to the wiper motor was missing, so we had no wipers. I took a nut off a support bolt to see if it would fit and when I was getting ready to put it on I found the nut that had come loose. It was perched on the bracket just below the motor. How it stayed there I do not know, it must have just fallen off when I pulled in, as any vibration would have dropped it to the ground. They had just worked on the motor and I guess the mechanic didn’t tighten the nut properly.
Pulled into another dive RV park in Kansas City, Stadium RV. We had not called ahead figuring they would have room. We got their last space. It is all filled up with bikers because they are having a KC biker rally in town and then a lot of the people are heading to Sturgis. Had lunch at a weird Chile place called "Dixon’s Famous Chili". It has been in business since 1919 at Prez Truman at there often. The weird part is that you have to "make" your own chili. They bring you seasoned ground beef (very dry and lean), chili pepper, onions, cheese. jalapeno pepper relish, red pepper vinegar, sour cream, and juice from the beans, and grease from the meat. There is absolutely no tomato sauce anywhere to be found. Then you mix the stuff together any way you like, It takes a few trys to figure out how you like it, but it tasted good, it was just a whole lot different than I have ever had. They gave you in one serving more that Dixie and I could eat together. $6.99. Ripped off again. Went Downtown
to look at the fountains that they have all over, and I do mean all over. There are hundreds of them. KC is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Lots of skyscrapers etc. Went to River Market, nothing going on. Had dinner at the "Golden Ox", had to have steak in KC. We started with the worst escargot I have ever had, tasted like rubber. We split a $39, 18 ounce rib eye steak, Dixie got the good side I got the bad side, so depending on who you ask there will be a difference of opinion of the quality. Had drinks in front of the coach, all the brothers and sisters came over to talk with the white folk. It really is different being the minority. Getting ready to hit the tourist spots this morning. See Ya , Brian

August 1st 2007,
What a difference a day makes. Went to Independence MO. First visited the drug store soda fountain that Harry Truman worked at when he was a kid, had a ice ream cone at 10 AM. Visited the jail that held Frank James. Visited the Log Cabin Court House, this was the ONLY courthouse to the Pacific Ocean for 40 years, that meant if you broke the law in what was to be California they dragged you back to MO. to be tried., hard to believe. By the way did you know Frank James was declared not guilty of train robbery and murder because no one could recognize him as they all wore masks, OJ must have hired his attorney. Went by Truman's house, went by Presidential museum and library. Then we went to lunch. Busy AM. Had lunch at the most famous Bar B Que joint in KC, Arthur Bryants. It was delicious. We had beef brisket and pulled pork sandwich, Long ribs(to die for),cole slaw, baked beans, and 2 ½ QUARTS of diet coke to wash it down, now you know why our holding tank fills up so fast. Then went to the Jazz museum at 18th and Vine. Very interesting and entertaining. Drove by the WW1 war museum but our camera's battery was dead, went home to take a nap and charge up the battery in the camera and our bodies. Went to Jess and Jim's Steak House, which was voted by Playboy Magazine as the best Steak House IN THE UNITED STATES, in 1972. We didn't believe it so we elected to stop at McDonald's and log on and send and check email. Had a hot fudge sundae there, can't use their internet without buying anything, can you? Came home did a little maintenance on the coach, washed the windshield. We then went to dinner at the Heffer House in downtown KC. Linda our waitress was great, Dixie's filet was great, My 3 tournedos filets were great, cheddar ranch potatoes were great, caesar salad was great, house salad was great, asparagus were great, Are you starting to figure out we liked this place. Naturally we could not eat all our food so we will eat our take out for lunch on the road tomorrow. Came home and opened a bottle of Bare Foot Cabernet, and I am writing this days letter, I'll send this next time we get internet service. I thought about sending some pictures but I figured we would have a party when we get back and look at them all together. Tomorrow we are on the road to either Sioux City or Sioux Falls. Peanut is now telling us it is time for bed. See Ya, Brian


August 2nd 2007,
Left 8:15 from KC. Drove to Sioux Falls. Went to downtown, stopped at Stoogeez, stoogie bar and grill. They were having 2nd annual amateur beer brewing contest. About 8 people brought a few bottles of their home made brew for the peoples choice, and also for the judges to select their favorite. The funny part was that Sam Adams sponsored the contest. They are actually encouraging small brewers to show off their stuff. Had a pizza, "kitchen sink thin crust", delicious. Had to go shopping for a few supplies ,so took care of business. Plan is to head to Sturgis tomorrow and stay at the Elks campground, they are supposed to have unlimited spaces for Elks dry camping. Hope they have an opening. We are hoping for a closer place to Sturgis, we'll keep our fingers crossed. See Ya, Brian


August 3rd 2007
Left for Kansas City about 8:30. It started raining so we pulled into a truck stop to clean the bugs off the windshield. When I got there I noticed that the windshield wiper moved when I brushed against it, so I looked under the hood and found out that the nut the connected the rod to the wiper motor was missing, so we had no wipers. I took a nut off a support bolt to see if it would fit and when I was getting ready to put it on I found the nut that had come loose. It was perched on the bracket just below the motor. How it stayed there I do not know, it must have just fallen off when I pulled in, as any vibration would have dropped it to the ground. They had just worked on the motor and I guess the mechanic didn't tighten the nut properly. Pulled into another dive RV park in Kansas City, Stadium RV. We had not called ahead figuring they would have room. We got their last space. It is all filled up with bikers because they are having a KC biker rally in town and then a lot of the people are heading to Sturgis. Had lunch at a weird Chile place called "Dixon's Famous Chili". It has been in business since 1919 at Prez Truman at there often. The weird part is that you have to "make" your own chili. They bring you seasoned ground beef (very dry and lean), chili pepper, onions, cheese. jalapeno pepper relish, red pepper vinegar, sour cream, and juice from the beans, and grease from the meat. There is absolutely no tomato sauce anywhere to be found. Then you mix the stuff together any way you like, It takes a few trys to figure out how you like it, but it tasted good, it was just a whole lot different than I have ever had. They gave you in one serving more that Dixie and I could eat together. $6.99. Ripped off again. Went Downtown to look at the fountains that they have all over, and I do mean all over. There are hundreds of them. KC is a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Lots of skyscrapers etc. Went to River Market, nothing going on. Had dinner at the "Golden Ox", had to have steak in KC. We started with the worst escargot I have ever had, tasted like rubber. We split a $39, 18 ounce rib eye steak, Dixie got the good side I got the bad side, so depending on who you ask there will be a difference of opinion of the quality. Had drinks in front of the coach, all the brothers and sisters came over to talk with the white folk. It really is different being the minority. Getting ready to hit the tourist spots this morning. See Ya , Brian

August 4th 2007
Well this Sturgis thing is a whole lot bigger than we thought. It is like when you leave a sandwich on the ground, you know how ants form a line from what seems like forever, imagine those ants are motorcycles. They are everywhere. I have never seen anything like it, it makes Daytona Bike Week seem amateurish. We went to Mount Rushmore and to be honest I was a little disappointed, I thought it was bigger than it really was. In pictures it just seems so surreal, in real life when you compare it to the Crazy Horse mountain sculpture it seems small. There is no doubt in my mind when Crazy Horse gets done it will be included as one of the 7 wonders of the world. Now what was spectacular was the Black Hills mountains that you went through in Custer State Park. We stopped taking pictures as they did not do the scenery justice. Steep hills, jagged rocks, trees, mountains that went on forever, caves that you drive through, wooded bridges that carry tractor trailer weight loads, I was impressed. Had lunch Hill City, bikers everywhere. We stopped in Deadwood. Bikers everywhere. Deadwood is where Wild Bill Hickock was shot in Salon Number 10, this town lives on aces and eights the dead man's hand. Had dinner at the Deadwood Social Club, I had Buffalo and it was great. Went to the Mt. Moriah Cemetery to see Hickock and Calamity Jane's grave. The grave yard is at the highest point in town, it was a climb. Peanut was pissed as we didn't get home until 8 PM. When his dinner is late he is not a happy camper. Gave him a small piece of my left over Buffalo and he forgave me.

August 5th 2007
Forgot to tell you that we moved and now have electric. It's nice to have AC again. Found out that the park has wifi we just can't get it where we are parked. Today is wash day, so the morning is shot. This afternoon we are planning to go to Devils Tower National Monument, in Wyoming. You may remember this from the movie ET. Driving to Devils Tower, about 40 miles away, spectacular views everywhere, went through Sundance, Sundance kid fame. The tower starts to become visible about 15 miles before you get to it. This is something that you have just got to see. Men might be able to carve some stone figures but mother nature's art can't be beat. We took pictures from every vantage point we could, It not only is spectacular to look at, it is a religious experience. At the base of the tower they have a prairie that has prairie dogs all over the place. They live in holes, look like a tan squirrel. They play with each other and seem curious about people, like to scream bark. Have heard about them but until now never saw one. Rode our bicycles to downtown Sturgis to meet up with DW and Heide at One Eyed Jacks Saloon. Every place in Sturgis is jammed with people everywhere. I think I am the last person in the world that does not have a Harley. I bought a raffle to win a custom motorcycle, hope I win. DW and Heide are staying at a house in Deadwood with some friends of theirs, nice people. We decided to go back to the RV for some cocktails. Dixie and I get on our bicycles and are riding down Main Street and get pulled over by a motorcycle cop, siren and everything. There are two motorcycle cops, one being the good cop to Dixie and the other being the bad cop with me. Cop says bikes aren't allowed on Main Street, I told him I wasn't aware of and didn't see any signs. He repeats, and I repeat what we both already said. Dixie and I walk our bikes off Main Street to the next street over and we're on our way. Had a few drinks with DW, Heide, Mark, and Regina at the RV. By the way from now on we are calling DW, One Dump David, you can ask him why when he gets home. Went out to dinner at a place called Jambos. Dixie got osso bucco and I got gumbo and steak tips, delicious. We ordered a Boulevard (a KC light wheat brew) from the waitress, who turned out to be the owner chef's wife helping out with the heavy Sturgis business, We asked for an orange slice with the beer and she said that she didn't have any. I told her that I was a Boulevard rep and that we required everyone that poured our beer to serve orange slices, she apologized. Another waitress came to pick up our salad bowls and asked if everything was alright and said something about me being the beer rep. When dinner was served we ordered another Boulevard and this time an orange slice came with it, she had gone out to get some oranges. Needless to say she probably got the largest tip of her life from us. On our way out we stopped to talk to the chef and told him how much we enjoyed the food. That's all for today. See Ya, Brian

August 6th 2007
Going to Badlands. Looks like a phosphate mine that has not been reclaimed times 10,000. This is a huge area that is virtually impassable due to all the erosion. The settlers were not happy when they had to cross this area. The park is huge with barren areas of tall eroded layers of sediments millions or years old. Not my most favorite place but I did see my first wild Buffalo. This park is within an Indian Reservation. I have a new respect for the American Indian. Our fore fathers really did royally screw these peoples. After slaughtering them, we moved the survivors to someplace that we didn't want, they made due. Then we discovered gold or something else that we wanted on their new reservation and we moved their poor souls to some other God forbidden place. If there was any justice in this land we would be paying more reparations to the Indians. But enough about what should be. Stopped by Rapid City and had lunch at the Fire House Brewing Co. It is an old fire house converted to brewery/restaurant. Rachel Ray went there and had their gumbo, so did I. It was good but I've had better. Dixie had a cup of Gorgonzola cheese beer soup, that was very good. Ran into the Budweiser Clydesdale horse team hooked up and ready to make a run through town. We have seen them many times before so did not wait around for them. Got back to RV park, Larry and Sherry had arrived so we stopped to talk with them and have a few beers. They were going to see Toby Keith, we did not want to go so we just ate all the leftovers we have been accumulating from eating out for our dinner. Our holding tanks are just about filled so we either have to be pumped out or leave tomorrow. Big decisions here. That's all for now. See Ya, Brian


August 7th 2007
We walked downtown Sturgis today. T shirt city, everyone got em not everyone buying them. Rode the scenic falls by pass road. Had drinks with Larry and Sherry at the RV campground bar. They had a band with very plump women dancing topless on the bar. Called it a night about 1:30. We decided that we've have had enough fun in Sturgis so we will be moving onto our next destination ,Sheridan Wyoming. See Ya, Brian

August 8th 2007
Left out at 8:30, waved goodby to Larry and Sherry, they were headed to the town of Hulett, where they are having no panty Wednesday, I'm sure they will let me know how that turns out. Made great time, by the way the speed limit in the less populated states is 75 mph, 212 miles in 3 hours. Checked into "PeterD's" Rv campground. The owner Pete was there and gave us maps and the local on all the spots in town, restaurants, bars, and tourist attractions. Drove by the historic Sheridan Inn, 112 years old. Wild Bill Cody stayed there often and auditioned his show acts on the front lawn. The place is closed for a total remodel but the restaurant is still open. They have a trolley that picks you up at the park and brings you around the town, no charge, I like this place. Ate lunch at Mexican restaurant "Los Agaves". Great food but even better margaritas, 1 shot real lime, 1 shot tequila, 1 shot contreau, 2 shots triplesec, they come out in a huge shaker with ice and a strainer, two drinks per shaker, Dixie and I both got a shaker. $5.50 per shaker. They have over 200 different tequilas, hasta lluego Jose Quervo. Went to "Trail End" an old house that used to be owned by the governor of Wyoning. It was built in 1913 and this guy wanted everything electric. He had lights everywhere, electric waffle irons, a central vac system, house cost 150K to build when most people only made $1000 a year. Electricity was billed out at $1.00 per light bulb so this guys electric bill was over $500 per month. He was orphaned at 10 and only had a 5th grade education but took over a failing cattle company and eventually owner over 210,000 acres. Gotta have respect for someone like that. We then went downtown where, like many towns that we have been in, they have small and big statues on street corners of town. I think they spend their arts money better than Tampa does. It was like going to a art museum at every corner.. We were told not to miss going to Don King's Saddlery Ropes and Museum. We got there at 4:55 and they close at 5 promptly, like most other retail stores downtown. There was so much stuff to see we are going back today. Then went to the famous Mint Bar, had a few beers, took some pictures. This place is so old, it was around when Custer got killed. The place still has the original bar, booths, fireplace, and cabinets, all hand carved rough saw wood. Stuffed animals. Place is so clean there is not a speck of dust on anything in the place. They had a bear trap on the wall. This is the first bear trap that I have seen, it was over 4 foot across, definitely did not want to accidently walk into that thing in the woods. Went to Big Horn where the oldest bar is in Wyoming, "Bozeman Trail Inn" established in 1882. It was out of business, we were 2 weeks too late. Their schools have not only a Drug Free sign but also a Gun Free School Zone Sign, hunting is big up here. We saw tons of deer. That's all folks, See Ya, Brian



August 9th 2007
We are still in Sheridan (The most western town in the USA). Recovering from a wine hangover. We had dinner at the RV. Met Bob from Florida 2 spaces down. He is a big Gator fan, he was easy to spot since the tag on his car, his RV, his bumper hitch, his windshield, his porch light, even the lighted handle on his coach said Gator on it. Turns out he knew many of the same people we did since he used to live in Tampa. He has sold his hose and lives full time on the road. We are going back into town today and then 4 wheeling on a trail we were told about. Traveling up the road to top of Big Horn Mountain found a guy named Joad selling Elk and Buffalo jerky, had to buy some. Had lunch at Bear Lodge Resort, great place ,Eric let us sit outside and Dean our waiter took great care of us. They had homemade beef soup/stew that was to die for. The local cowboys ride their horses there and tie the horses and their dogs outside while they go into eat. They had gas there, so we filled up $3.69 per gallon, got to have it. The elevation at this place was 8300 FASL and after an hour you knew how high you were. After lunch wed took to the 43 mile dirt road back to town. Beautiful scenery steep enough hills to smoke the brakes on the jeep. Had to pull over to let the brakes cool down. I can not express the beauty of the scenery. Mountains, trees, beauty. It is unbelievable. God I love America. We went back to town to King’s Saddlery and spent 2 hours in their museum. Guns, stage coaches, saddles, leather goods just can not tell you how much quality and beauty American Goods provide. Had happy hour drinks with Bob and his wife Tamara. Then went to The Rib and Chop House restaurant where we had perfectly fried green tomatoes with CRAB meat on top of them, DELICIOUS. We split a full rack of the most tender, delicious baby back ribs, they could not even stay on the bone till you got it to your mouth. A ten ounce fillet that was to die for, no knife needed. This meat was not what we get, this is only reserved for royalty, King Brian, Queen Dixie. Came home and had another drink with Bob and now I’m finishing writing this post. We are headed to Red Lodge Montana tomorrow to see Dixie’s old friend Eleanor. They worked together 30 years ago. She has never been married, is a Buddhist, doesn’t drink, cant wait until I screw up. That’s all for today. See Ya, Brian

August 10th 2007
We left to head to Montana. Stopped off at Little Big Horn Battlefield. Saw the fields where the battles took place. If you know the history of these battles you know that they happened a decade after the Civil War. We freed the slaves but made slaves out of the Indians. Go figure. Got to Eleanor's house, it was gusting about 40 mph, the coach does not like driving in those conditions. Dixie has not seen Eleanor for 30 years. She lives in a small community of about 10 houses with her sister Marian and their two dogs. It is in the small town of Red Lodge. Their house over looks the bear tooth mountains, you can see the ski runs from her property. We are dry camping the RV in her driveway. It may be a few days for me to send out email as they only have dial up. We had homemade pasta with chicken goulash that Emily made. We drank 3 bottles of champagne from about 3PM to about 9PM. Surprisingly, did not wake up feeling bad. The sky is absolutely breathtaking. I went out to look at 9PM and it was awesome, even though there was some cloud coverage. I woke up about 2AM and went out by myself and there was not a cloud in the sky. There were so many stars you couldn't count them. There was no moon and no lights around so the stars were brilliant, and crisp as the temperature was 48 degrees. Day time temp of 92 degrees. A night I will not forget. See Ya, Brian

August 11th 2007
It was chili last night 50 degrees, high of 92. Emily fixed breakfast for us, eggs and homemade crepes, haven't had them for a while, haven't had breakfast for a while for that matter. Dixie and I went cruising in the jeep to Bear Tooth Mountain (Shoshone Mountain in Wyoming and Custer National Forest in Montana. Very high very cool. Some of the Mountains still had snow on them. Very curvy roads some without guard rails with the fall over 9,000', don't want to overdrive your car. Had lunch at Soda Butte Lodge in Cooke City Montana ( Gas $3.79 per gallon). Lunch was OK , view was better. Got to listen to two of the locals orally spar it out. Guy comes in bar and says hello to sailor, she goes you know my names not sailor, guy goes you were talking worse than a sailor last night, girl goes f*ck you and leaves, we later saw her walking to the local Motel, obviously she was the local slut. Highest point that we got to today was 10,498, just barely over 2 miles high. Only wildlife we have seen is what looked like a beaver hiding behind a guard rail, (no it was not the kind Larry and Sherry saw in Huwlett) 3 chipmunks, and a few deer. I still have not seen any grizzly bear or elk. Speaking of chipmunks, you would not believe the fuss people made over chipmunks. Here we were 9,800 feet above sea level in one of the most beautiful places in the mountains and all the tourists are feeding the chipmunks potato chips and taking their pictures. These were fat chipmunks mind you. We went out to dinner in town with Eleanor and Marian, I had a great filet, can't remember what Dixie had, But E & M had Bill McKnight's favorite, Australian Sea Bass. Every bodies food was great. Went home to look at the stars, tonight was even clearer than the night before. See Ya, Brian

August 12th 2007,
Day 19 of Road Trip Got up early, figured that I would go rent an airplane at the local Red Lodge Airport. Found out that they don't rent there, drove 70 miles to Billings International Airport because they have a school there that rents. Got to airport and found out that the FBO closed down 2 months ago. No flyin for Brian. Dixie and Eleanor went off, so I am writing this post, at the grocery store in town I got a free newspaper when I bought some tp, found out this area is one of the few areas where building is still going strong, or so they say in the local paper. So far on this trip we have put 2535 miles on the coach and 1590 miles on the jeep. Wind is still howling at about 30mph, and it's 90 degrees. Went for a bike ride, made sure that I started out into the wind. Exhausted after 2 miles, elevation 5200 where we are. Glided back the 2 miles because the wind pushed me. E & M made turkey, mashed potatoes, and veggies for dinner, I love thanksgiving. Went for a ride and walked the downtown area. Nice area loaded with 100 year old bars and one year old real estate agent stores. Candy shops, antique stores, restaurants, gun shops fill in the balance. This is the town where Sundance kid tried to rob the bank but they found out his plans and shot him out of town. Got 4 chairs out and made popcorn and watched the stars. This was the best night due to all of the shooting stars. See Ya, Brian

August 13th 2007,
Day 20 of Road Trip, Monday, We are leaving for Yellowstone we hope to be able to stay in one of the over 2000 camp sites that are in the park. Dixie was able to get us reservations for two days in the park, but we have to move to a different spot for the 2nd day, we got lucky as there are no vacancies now. Wind seems to have died down. Stopped in Cody Wyoming, went to Buffalo Bills Historical Center. It has 5 museums, one for Buffalo Bill, One for Indians, One for western art, one for firearms, and the last for natural history. There is so much stuff to see they give you a pass for two days. We stayed for about 4 hours. When we got out we were heading to Yellowstone and there is a fire at the Cody Entrance, they have a flashing sign to warn you, so we could not go to Yellowstone, had to stay in Cody. It is now 3:00 and we have not had lunch as we expected to eat way before but stayed much longer than we thought at the museum. Had to U-turn and find an RV park. It is now 4 o'clock and we are starving. Ate Italian, so food. We found out that there is a simulated shoot out at the "Irma Hotel" (The Original Buffalo Bill Restaurant). Nice show, funny and loud with gun fire, and it's all for charities. Went to the Rodeo in town, they have one every night from June to the end of August. This was Dixie's and my first Rodeo and we both had a great time. They even had little kids competing, we had fun. Cody, Wyoming is the Rodeo Capital of The World. We went to a bar across the street from the RV Park, it was dead with a loud mouth female bartender so we left. I'm finishing this while I still have internet access. See Ya, Brian


August 14th 2007,
Day 21 of Road Trip, Tuesday, Called to find out if road was now open, yea it is, this will save a 3 hour detour. We called to confirm our reservation at Yellowstone for tonight and find out that the space that they put us in is too small so they have nothing for us, I ask about wed thru fri, I figured we would stay in Cooke City tonight, Carol says she has one available, I say I'll take it, then the phone goes dead. I call back 30 seconds later and then the space is no longer available. So now we have nothing. We try calling back several times and still nothing. Our space that we had for tonight, even though they made the mistake , they can find nothing and since it won't fit they just cancel the reservation. So far every trip we have made we have used private parks, this is the only Government park we have tried to use and they screw up. How typical of government workers, inefficient, unreliable, and uncaring. Thank God our Country works in lieu of our government, no offense to the people that I know that work for the government as I know that you all do your job properly. Just pisses me off. Well, we do what works, Dixie calls a private park just outside Yellowstone. Naturally they have spaces and can take a reservation, and I am sure that they know how to keep a reservation. Well see when we get there. Check in at the RV Park, it is in the small town of Gardiner, it has all the hook ups and only two tenths of a mile away from the entrance, the original north entrance Arch built in 1903, and over looking Yellowstone. Sometimes things work out for the best. We drove the Coach with jeep in tow through the entire length of Yellowstone, 84 miles. I do not want to do that again, even using 2nd gear brakes started overheating and had to pull over for them to cool off. After setting up camp we went back to Yellowstone to check out Mammoth Hot Springs. From a distance they look like glaciers but they are really something like a corral. A living thing that feed off the different temperatures of the hot water that springs from the earth, bacteria and stuff like that. They form ice like natural sculptures. We also saw people, a lot of them, swimming in the hot spring fed rivers. Looked and looked but still have only seen one Moose, lots of mule deer, loads of Bison, but still no Elk sightings. They also have their antique yellow buses back in service for tours, they look pretty cool, they refurbished the bodies but put them on brand new F450 chassis. Lots of fires in tn Yellowstone at this time so smoke is a problem. When we came through we saw many firefighters and even a helicopter dropping regardant on the fires. Went to see Old Faithful today, we stopped along the way and looked at other smaller geysers along the way, also checked out other boiling springs, mud pots, waterfalls and cascades along the way. Old Faithful was cool, it erupts every 90 minutes and it goes about 130 feet into the air, lasts for about 2 minutes. We crossed the Continental Divide two times. For those of you that don't remember the Continental Divide, it is the point that all rain on the east side goes to the east of the entire USA and all rain that falls on the west side goes to the west side. Met Otto and his wife in their custom 4x4 RV. For anyone that knows RVs this RV has been in every RV magazine. It looks like an armored personal carrier. It is designed to go anywhere and can even cross water 3 feet deep. They shipped this thing over from Germany and are touring the US in their RV, the interior is very compact, the truck part makes a Sherman tank look like a toy. We had a drink at Lake Yellowstone Hotel, old time place looks like where they filmed the Shining. The place is not open during the winter but they keep people there to shovel up to 10' of snow off of the roofs. The place overlooks Yellowstone Lake which has some pretty big boats in it, all boats have to come out for the winter as it freezes 5' thick. The fire on the Cody side of Yellowstone really took off so they had to shut down the entrance again. We saw the smoke and flames from the other side of the lake. Busy day today. Tomorrow we are checking out Lower and Upper Falls and if we have time we may check out the Grand Tetons, and I know what all of you are thinking right now. Eleanor we finished the brownies today, they were great, thanks again. See Ya, Brian


August 15th or 16th 2007,
Well I finally figured out that somewhere along the line that I have lost a day in my reporting because today is indeed Thursday 8-16-2007. That said, I can tell you that today was a much easier day than most. Today we saw a mother grizzly bear with 4 cubs, an antelope, a moose, the upper, lower and tower waterfalls, inspiration point, baby ospreys that we got a close up look through the Ranger’s spotting scope, a stagecoach, tons more deer, rapids, petrified trees, the grand canyon of Yellowstone,. you name it . Even a homemade rack for a boat to be carried on top of a jeep wrangler, Bobby K,. I will get with you about building one for me when I get home. Well we will be moving toward Seattle tomorrow. I’ll let you know what’s next. See Ya, Brian




August 17th 2007,
We left Gardiner about 9:30, drove for Helena where we thought that we might meek up with Ron Roma (Pilatus, plane guy), he called us and said that he was in Connecticut but would be back this evening late. Our phones were not working due to towers in mountains. We got to Helena, where Ron lives, and it was so smokey from fires again that we kept going until we cleared them. Well 450 miles later we arrived at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83814. We selected this because we are starving and they were the only park within 50 miles that had an opening, we have electric and water but no sewer. We made reservations to eat and the only time that they had available was 8:30. Remember we are now in Pacific time so that translates to 3 hours to eat. We try to walk in at The Wolf Lodge Restaurant and they can’t work us in, this is supposed to be a good place to eat, so we grab some snacks and drinks at the RV and are waiting till it is our time. You won’t be getting this until we go to another place that has WiFi because they charge $3.00 an hour, I know Howard you are saying you cheap bastard right now. We ate at the Wolf Lodge, for an appetizer we had Rocky Mountain oysters. Deep fried and served with "cock"tail sauce. Rocky mountain oysters are bull balls, a flavor that like no other, tastes good and just a "hair" to the chewy side. Notice how I got all the innuendos in that I could. Oh Yeah the steak filet was delicious also. See Ya. Brian


August 18th 2007,
Saturday, Well we moved to the Elk RV Park in Coeur d'Alene. $5 to dry camp plus cheap drinks in the lodge. We only moved 14 miles today. Went to town today it is on a very large lake. We brought Peanut with us for the first time, he was exhausted when we brought him home. They had an antique wooden boat show (In water and on land) today. Very nice to look at but you really can't use them, nice to look at though. Just a regular day, checking out town.

August 19th 2007,
Sunday They had an opening for a space that had power so we moved 3 spaces down. This is coldest day that we have had, high of 58 degrees, had to turn on heat, it has been raining on and off all day. Went to eat lunch, decided on "Del Taco", we both ended up with Montezuma's Revenge. Washed the coach today in the rain. Went to dinner at The Olive Garden, this is the first time that we have eaten at a chain restaurant since we left Tampa. Chilling out watching football, still raining and forecast calls for more rain tomorrow. We will be heading to Seattle Washington tomorrow. See Ya, Brian.

August 20th 2007,
Monday, Left the Elks RV Park 9:30 with over cast skies. Making great time until we hit rain just as we hit the mountains again. We are slowest vehicle on road, they are repaving so prep work has roads torn up and in terrible condition along with rain they are very slippery. Naturally a semi truck jack knifes trailer ends up broken up against the guard rail tractor over the edge, no driver to be found. Luckily rubber neckers have not stopped our side from passing. We get to Seattle at 2PM and check into the closest RV Park to downtown that we can find, about 10 miles away. This is a concrete jungle with RVs crammed next to each other. WE check out a few areas, and find Seattle to be a very large city, lots of traffic. Weather is predicted to be cold for us, 50 at night 71 for high Tuesday and rain at lunch time. We are off to tour the Boeing Plant tomorrow. See Ya. Brian

August 21th 2007, Day 28 of Road Trip, Tuesday, Went to see Boeing Plant where they make the 777, 747,767 and the new 787(The Dreamliner). The new Dreamliner is their newest most fuel efficient plane ever made. They are only making the 747 in cargo carriers as everyone is now ordering the 787. The 787 is built of composite instead of aluminum and this saves over 40,000 pounds. I guess Sirius airplanes was ahead of the pack, Boeing will deliver their first 787 in May of 2008. If you are thinking about ordering one for yourself, with options they go for about 180 million with a delivery in 2014. Boeing has built 4 special 747 just to fly in the fuselage and parts for this plane, it looks like a 747 on steroids. The building that they build these planes in are huge, 11 stories tall and they can hold Disney Land in California and still have over 10 acres for parking in the building, BIG. Well the tour was neat I wish that we could have got closer to the planes but same old story after 9-11, I wish all the Muslin radicals twice the misery that they wish to do to us. I wish we could find and develop a viable alternate to oil and let them going back to eating sand, let them go back to their nomad uneducated life before American companies discovered and developed their oil fields. But I transgress, Back to my fun vacation. We had lunch on Lake Union on the water at Duke's Chowder House. It was 1:40 before we got there, the Boeing tour was longer than we thought. Started with two large Blue Moon Beers, Dixie had their "Nationwide Award Winning Chowder" and award winning wild greens salad. I had just their standard lobster and wild shrimp pot pie and the wild greens salad. Well it was great, Linda our waitress suggested that we stay with our order when Dixie tried to change to another salad. The place had great food and great atmosphere, reasonable prices, hard to find these days. We went looking for another RV Park that might have some grass within 2 miles but decided that we are better off not moving. Drove around downtown to get the feel of the city. We are going to do the GrayLine double decker bus that runs around town, this will allow us to get on and off at our leisure. For dinner we found a local eatery called The Keg. Great nachos, and the best french dip sandwich I have ever had. Day done. See Ya. Brian

August 22nd 2007, Day 29 of Road Trip, Wednesday, Went to town, they are very proud of their parking downtown Seattle, 0-1 hours $6.00 and each additional hour $3.00, OUCH. Luckily we found a place close to the space needle for $12.00 all day. We're saving money now. Bought tickets for $31.00 each for double decker bus around town including the $16.00 ticket to go up to the top of the space needle. Well we knew not to wait too long to eat so we got off the first stop at "Anthony's" Pier 66, got a nice table outside as it was sunny and about 72 degrees, We both got dolphin tacos Dixie got white chowder I got the red chowder. Tacos great, chowders just so so. We both had a local beer, Mannys, not bad, a heavy wheat type beer. Got back on the bus and went to Pioneer Square where we checked out the parks, waterfall at the UPS. I tried on a kilt at a store called "Utilikilts". Picked out the color and style I wanted but they did not have my size. Their motto is "We Sell Freedom". Remember you do not wear any thing under the kilt. I pre"dick" that this will be the newest style that every guy will be wearing next year. I have ordered mine online, they did not have my size and you save the 9% sales tax. I'm planning on having a "ball" wearing mine. You can get in on the ground floor by ordering yours on line at "http://www.blogger.com/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.utilikilts.com%2522 Be forewarned, they are not cheap. Take your waist size and add 2" to it, I have short legs so I wear a 21.5" length. Most guys wear a 22" or 23". They are built to last. Most will want their "original" style, $131.50, their most expensive is almost $300.00. These are designed to be worn whenever you would wear jeans. Took the bus to the Space Needle. They did have a cool item there, you can pick the time of day and exposure that you want and view it on a wide screen, you can scroll it so that you can see sunsets and sunrises and watch the ferries and cars move.Went to the top, it was OK, nothing like seeing the town from a plane though. Went to a Happy Hour at "Contours" on 1st Avenue, they have $2.00 "Driftwood" drafts and $1.95 appetizers from 3 tp 6 PM. WE had a few drafts and also had Gruyere Mac and Cheese with chicken and Chicken skewers marinated in garlic, spices, lemon juice, and olive oil. They were both great, we watched as other people order Spanakopita, Buffalo Hot wings, Charbroiled Lamb Kabobs, Dill Battered Button mushrooms, and a delicious provolone hamburger with fries for $1.95, unbelievable. We would have ordered more but we have dinner reservations at Salty's. We went back to the coach to feed peanut and take a short nap. Got to Salty's at 7:45 and were seated right away. This place was packed. Apparently everyone wants to eat here. We ordered salad and chowder for starters and split a salmon dinner. Dixie and I have never liked salmon however we did have a delicious salmon dinner when we were in Alaska. The fish was split for us and looked delicious. We have decided that no matter how it is prepared we will not order salmon again. We prefer a white fish. See Ya , Brian


August 23rd 2007, Day 30 of Road Trip, Thursday, We went to Freemont, a small sub-burb of Seattle. Sort of a hippie free thinking type area. People ride bikes and walk and take the bus, What's up with that? The community has declared themselves the "Center Of The Universe". They have a 53' rocket which marks the center of the universe. They have a 20' tall statute of Stalin, a statute of a 40' tall troll eating a Volkswagon and naturally it is kept under an overpass of the bridge, an outside cinema that shows movies on a side wall of a building. Well you get the point. We had lunch at a Greek restaurant that overlooked the statutes of 5 people waiting for a bus. Costa's Opa Restaurant had a great Greek salad that Dixie got, I got the gyro. Gyro served with seasoned potatoes and zucchini , yogurt dill dip, and fresh pita bread, good stuff. In the afternoon we went on the Underground tour of Seattle. Interestingly enough the city burned down in 1899 and since the town always flood out, they just built the streets 8 feet taller, only problem the business were still 8' below, so they put ladders so people could get to the businesses. Well finally the first floor was decided to be a basement and they built another floor at the new level of the roads. That's the short story. Well now Seattle is a very nice town. They have 580,00 people that live IN the city, 2,500,000 that live in the burbs. Tampa is about 15 years behind. They have free bus transportation in town, and get this, free internet while you are on the bus, how great is that. Well I couldn't wait so I went back to the kilt store and got the workmans kilt in black. Make sure you order yours now I don't want to be the only one wearing one when I get back. That's All. See Ya, Brian

August 24th 2007, Day 31 of Road Trip, Friday, Well we are on the road again, goodby Seattle we like you but we got to go. We check in at the River Oak RV Park in Toledo Washington where the owner/manager/Gardner/etc. Mickey carefully selects the perfect spot for our RV, he only has 3 transient spots and one is already filled, the rest of the park looks like live ins. We go to his office, the picnic table next to the RV and I pay for 2 nights. It is really a nice park, a bunch of old RV and 5th wheel campers all nicely kept up. The nicest part is that there are hundreds of flower beds everywhere, Beautiful roses and everything else that you could imagine, very nice. It is also on the Cowlitz River, it has a fishing dock where they fish for steelheads , a fish like salmon. The park is conveniently located so that we can visit Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Ranier without moving to another location. We get settled and go out to lunch at a local place that Mickey suggested. Little Crane Café where there is a waitress that should be named Flo but her mother named her Linda. A country little place. The place did not have any tables available so we sat at the counter. Linda is the hostess, waitress, cashier, ice cream maker, etc. they do have one cook in the back. It's 12:30 and I have not had anything all day. I order breakfast, 2 eggs, country fried chicken, hash browns, Dixie got "The Gut Boom", we think it was supposed to be bomb. This is a huge baked potato with everything on it, it took up the whole plate, Dixie is now eating the rest of it for dinner as I am writing this. The people next to us were from Arizona, he got breakfast like me, she got mashed potatoes and hot roast beef over bread with a gallon or gravy over it, it was huge. She had ordered a half order but Linda brought a whole by mistake. She ate the whole thing. Another couple we met was from Texas, we all came to this out of the way place to meet some of the locals, so much for that idea. We drove to Mt St. Helens. You really can not believe how much of the mountain blew off when it erupted in 1980. It went from a 8000' to a 5000' tall mountain, it burned out 240 sq. MILES when it erupted, it's still smoking and oozing lava now. 27 years later and the trees have grown back. You can still see the lava flow for miles. The government has spent a half Billion dollars to stabilize the area so it doesn't flood out the towns below it and fix the roads. On the way back we stopped at a small pub ( the only one in town) The "Riverboat Restaurant and Pub", talked with the waitress, Marie. Found out that they are having their first "Last of Summer Bash". They have 3 bands set to play, Hub City Hillbillies, Overbearing Conceit, and Lost In Fall. Starts at 8 PM. Marie was getting ready for the crowd , stocking beer, but most of all she had to get the spit cups ready for the chewers. No kidding she had about 10 cups with a napkin stuck in them so she can hand them out to the chewers. They also have "Toledo Cheese Days" July 13 to 15th, I'm sorry we couldn't make that one, they have a float and everything in the parade. A few names of streets that I found unusual were "Plomondon Rd., and Fluckinger Rd. And Ittibittimysee Rd., I swear I'm not making these up. Well I had my emergency dinner of Chef Boy R D Beef Ravioli, it was a little disappointing. We went to the Riverboat at 8:30, the bands didn't start till 9:10, loud heavy metal music, kept getting feedback on their mikes, reminded me of a high school band. Actually the singer was good but the band wasn't up to his talents. Marie was visible disappointed that only a few people had showed up for something she obviously had worked so hard to put together, we finished our beer and left at 9:30. I hope everyone showed up after we left. The weather has been beautiful, a sunny 79 for the day and 50s at night, I still look up to check out the night sky for stars, just nothing like a Montana Big Sky. Peanut is even a little frisky from the cool weather. See Ya. Brian


August 25th 2007, Day 32 of Road Trip, Saturday, We went to Mt. Ranier today. It was a long trip over 140 mile round trip. It was overcast and gloomy all day. Could not see the glaciers at the top due to the clouds and fog( yes I know fog is a low cloud), luckily at Mt. St. Helens yesterday we could see the glaciers at Mt Ranier and we took pictures. Stopped at the visitor center and could not find a place to park, guess everyone was complaining about the weather, probably asking for a refund because they couldn't see the summit. Sort of a ho hum day. I'm tired from driving and have a stiff neck, going to bed early because we are ready for some city life. We have hurricane evacuation signs they have volcano evacuation signs, saw at tree that started growing 673 years ago, very big. I have had enough of nature, trees, mountains etc. stuff for a while. We are headed to Portland Oregon. We got some good news, Tara and Chris bought their first house in Fayetteville North Carolina, They will be moving in October 8th so we are planning on being there to help them move. We will then be headed back home. See Ya, Brian

August 26th 2007,
It was only a short trip to Portland, found a really nice RV Park, it was a condo park. Went to downtown Portland, we somehow found our way around town. They have lunch wagons of all type set up in parking lots so people can grab something for lunch, unusual but convenient and reasonable. They have no signage and the signage they do have is wrong, we literally drove around in circles for hours. We wanted to eat lunch at a place on the river so after 2 hours of looking around, we found only industrial stuff along the river. We went back home to feed Peanut and this time we left the park we went right instead of left and a mile down the river we found 4 places, we felt very stupid that we did not ask a local before we took off. Portland had a lot of people walking around downtown and we were going to walk around but could not find a place to park under $20. Leaving for California.
Se Ya. Brian
August 27th 2007,
We drove straight through to Karen and Dave’s house. over 600 miles. It was a long day on mountain driving. Did get to see Mt. Shasta, over 14,000 feet tall, and Lake Shasta which is about 40' lower than normal, huge boats still using it though. Got to K & D about 8 PM. Karen cooked Halibut, very good. Drank and talked a lot.
Se Ya, Brian

August 28th 2007,
We are parked in Karen & Dave’s driveway. Everybody woke up a little fuzzy today, Dixie seemed the worse for wear. By about noon we dragged our butts into Dave’s car and went to Sacramento(State Capital), Dave was going to show us around but mostly we got lost on their one way streets. Noone wanted to see the capital building, or the church, I mean Cathedral, or anything else. We ate at a place that only Dixie can remember the name of the place, hint it is next to Joes. They have two paddle wheel boats docked there, big discussion on whether wheels were functional. Everyone had a nice jambalaya, except Dix who ordered a cheeseburger, that she didn’t touch but took home with her. We were all ready for a nap as none of us quite feeling100 %. Karen fixed dinner again (Score D&K 4, B&D 0), Dixie still not feeling good enough to eat, the rest of us gobble down homemade salad, sausage and pizza, 1 bottle of champagne and two bottles of red wine. Dix goes to bed early, we stay up and play penta. Tonight we will take them out for dinner at a nice place. We have booked a RV Park for Friday - Sunday at Lake Tahoe.
See Ya. Brian


August 29th 2007, Day 36 of Road Trip, Wednesday, Word of the day HOT. It is hot here 105. They say it's a dry heat, bull shit it's hot, it will melt your skin. Nice easy day, I picked up a few things at the market, washed the jeep, fixed the coach's power cord from tripping D&K's breakers, remember its hot here, AC never turned off. Karen and Dixie both had their hair done, both look great. Went to dinner a nice restaurant K&D go to, good food, nice atmosphere, they even had a fire in the fireplace, how nice on a 105 degree day. Welcome to California. I have 6 season tickets for the USF Bulls Football Games. They are being overnighted to Dixie's office today so they can be picked up at Dixie's office anytime after noon this Friday. Parking pass comes with the tickets. I hope someone can use them, If you want them let me know and I will make arrangements for you to get the tickets. The first game is this Saturday.Either call me 813.598.5592 or Dixie 813.323.2173 and the tickets are yours. See Ya. Brian

August 30th 2007, Day 37 of Road Trip, Thursday, Word of the day, Really HOT. It is still hot, it was 107 on Dave's cars thermometer. This morning we just chilled out, I needed the down time. We went to 3 wineries in the afternoon. All the wineries are generally in the same area of Shenandoah, about a 40 minute ride from Karen and Dave's house. All of them want you to feel at home when you get there, so they go to great lengths to decorate both inside and outside their wine tasting rooms. One even had an old wooden 40' Chris Craft in the Pond that they have on the property, they had faces made of pottery in the gardens and the trees, bees in the entry, decks shaded by trees, and picnic tables to sit at. Ahh, isn't American marketing wonderful. It was so wonderful that we bought almost 2 cases of their wines, must work. Karen and Dixie brought cheese and salami and bread, that they bought fresh this morning from the farmer's market, that we ate at the wineries, Yogi would have loved this picnic basket.. If you ever get to this growing region Dave recommends these 3 wineries, Young's, Bella Piazza, and Windwalker. There are many others but if your time is limited these won't disappoint. Went to dinner at "Redbud" a restaurant that Dave and Karen had heard of ,it was hidden away in the back of a strip center. Dave and I split a pizza and crab roll appetizers, we were both not that hungry due to the cheese and other snacks. Karen and Dixie both got full meals as they had worked up an appetite due to the hard work of wine tasting. Karen got a really nice roasted half chicken and Dixie a delicious pork chop. They were still a little hungry so Karen and Dixie split a desert of a fruit tart. Went home and rehydrated with a lot of water. We are going to a campground at Lake Tahoe tomorrow, don't know if they have wifi or not, we'll be there Monday. See Ya. Brian

September 1st 2007,
As you have already concluded we do have wifi, as I sent yesterdays post out. Today we drove completely around Lake Tahoe. This is a beautiful lake, 22 miles by 11 miles, 1650 feet deep, blue as the Mediterranean Sea, it is surrounded by mountains on all sides, just like a crater filled with a lot of water. Thousands of boats moored on it. Very few water front restaurants, we found Riva Grill in South Lake Tahoe, where they know how to make a Cobb salad, they also charge 13.50 for it and 17.50 for a pitcher of Blue Moon. Food was great just a little expensive. They have a paddle wheel boat that takes you for a tour and also a smaller boat that a couple were getting married on , we watched the bride carry her gown to the boat and then watched the rest of the guests load onto the boat. Driving around we passed Emerald Bay, nice sub bay that has its own little island in the middle of it. Lots of boats in the bay, very picturesque. You drive through a small tunnel through the mountain, not quite long enough to turn on your lights. We stopped off where Karen and Dave were staying and met the owners Andy and Vicky and their friends, Casey and Jim. They were all drinking wine and vodka diet tonics. Very nice people, Condo is 7000 ASL and the condo is 4 stories tall, so you need an oxygen fix after climbing 4 flights of stairs. Had a few drinks and went back to Truckee to have dinner at a Mexican Restaurant.
See Ya, Brian

September 2nd 2007,
Went to Tahoe City and Tahoe Vista where we ate lunch at Captain Jon’s. Finally found the area where they have bars and restaurants on the water. Had a great lunch of dolphin tacos and crab cakes and vodka tonics. Life is Good. We then went to Garwoods. They have a dock so you can pull up in your 500,000 dollar wooden boat or if you just have a regular boat they have a tender that will bring you in from one of their mooring buoys. Just by accident we ran into Karen and Vicky and her daughter, it’s a small world. We decided to cook out, so we stopped by Safeway and bought a pork roast, baked potato, and corn on the cob. We broke open a few bottles of wine, invited our neighbors to have some wine and had a delicious dinner and some conversation with Bob and Bonnie. Bob is and experienced RVer, in this area so he told us the best way to get to Yosemite. Bonnie must have been having a problem with Bob drinking because she boogie it in to her RV and was not to be seen again, Oh well, more for us.
See Ya ,Brian

September 5th 2007,
We left for SF today along the way passed thousands of wind electric generators, very cool. Got to Candlestick RV Park, it is located directly next to Monster Stadium, 150 spaces with just enough room to open your door to get out. They have shuttle buses that go downtown for $10 round trip and wifi. We drove downtown and lucked out and found a space to park on the main drag "Embarcadero" by Pier39. Took pictures of Alcatraz, the sea lions, Golden Gate Bridge, the fishing fleet, the trolley, and the cable cars. Stopped for a beer and a blackened snapper sandwich at "Lous" , they had the only Happy Hour prices that we could find, we got a seat on the sidewalk. A mumbling homeless guy started talking with some people at another table, we thought that they were going to get fed up with him but apparently the guy was entertaining them so they bought him a beer. They talked with him for a few minutes and then paid their bill and left, the homeless guy did what a homeless guy would be expected to do, he finished his beer and the rest of the left over drinks and then stole all the cloth napkins and then went on his way. Went home during rush hour traffic, it really wasn’t that bad, we cut through Chinatown. We must have looked liked locals because a limo driver asked us where Union Square was?, luckily Dixie had a map out and told him where it was. Had a verde pizza from "North Beach Pizza" delivered to the coach. We were not ready for a great pizza, this was a white pizza with mozzarella cheese, pesto sause, spinach, and onion and a crispy chewy crust. It really was a great pie, turns out this pizzeria wins best pizza every year, we got lucky when we ordered from them. Well just as I predicted California is now on fire, smoke is creating a haze all over SF, some stupid idiot was burning trash and it got away from him, I thought Florida had all the idiots. The sun is really eerie with the smoke and haze. Just so that you know we have Steve Fosset with us, we were driving south of Reno when we found him hitch hiking and picked him up. This was his plan as he wants some publicity for his new stunt of him driving the fastest car on earth. Don’t worry when we get done with SF he is going to emerge and pretend he landed his plane and couldn’t get it going again because of a shorted out battery and also say he was in a area with no phone service, also his ELT was stolen from his plane so he couldn’t set that off. Don’t tell anyone about this. I’ll let you know before we drop him back off in the desert. See Ya, Brian

September 6th 2007,
Well guys today was a good day. We went to town by the RV tour bus, $10 per person round trip to down town SF. WE had lunch at Hun’s Wun-Tun Hus it was true Chinese food, served with hot tea in a glass, $10 including tip. We walked to Fisherman’s Warf , along the way we passed Larry Flint’s Hustler Club, we kept walking toward the warf up 2,467 steps at a 30 degree angle. We were tired, then we realized if we had walked 3 blocks over we would have been walking down hill instead of uphill, Stupid. We took the two and a half tour ride around town with Mike ( he looked like Uncle Ugly). We did the standard tour and enjoyed it, however it was 60 degrees and 60 freezing degrees when we were dressed for 80 degrees, Dixie had to buy another seat shirt with a hood. The bridge was all fogged in so we got shitty pictures. Went by a pet cemetery, lots of expensive headstones for pets. Went by where they filmed the race down scene on the movie "Bullit" with Steve McQueen, for you old folks that remember the original chase movie. Had a beer at Boudin’s sourdough restaurant’s bar upstairs, we had heard that they had entertainment and a good deal on drinks and food, we were had heard wrong, nothing going on so we left. Went to another place where they had cheap beers and a piano player and bass player for entertainment, had a great time, but we were hungry, can’t remember the name of the place. We went to the best restaurant that we have been to on this trip "Scoma’s" . Now bear with me this time, I know I have said our food was great, this food was heavenly. This restaurant has it’s own seafood boats right next to the restaurant , you can watch them process the seafood right through windows. We got a beautiful window seat, we ordered the cheapest bottle of wine, that was terrific. Ray our server told us that we did not have to order appetizers or salads as we had ordered his favorite meals. Dixie got Scallops Saute Sec, and I got Coppino Alla Pescatore , the Lazy man’s Choppino. This stuff should be illegal it was so good, scallops, sword fish, trout, snapper, lobster, shrimp, baby shrimp. These two dishes had everything and everything cook perfectly, oh yeah great garlic toasted bread also. When in town check out this place, you will not be disappointed. The price $120 WITH tip. We may have to eat there again before we leave. Another thing we both could not finish either of our meals, and I mean there was a lot left over, we will split a meal next time. Steve paid for the dinners so it was even better.See Ya, Brian

September 7th 2007,
Got a late start today. Stopped off at Walgreens to get my two prescriptions filled, they had to call Riverview Sweetbay where I normally get them filled, so I said I would come back in the afternoon. This Walgreens, like the RV Park is in the hood. We drove to Haight/ Ashbury , it is still a nice hippy area. Drove to the Pacific Ocean Golden Gate Park area and had lunch at The Beach Chalet. Nice upscale restaurant that was on top of the information center of the park. I had a chowder and salad, Dixie had a burger, two micro brews finished us off. When we left we took pictures of the full size windmill and the Tsunami Evacuation Route sign. Drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and looked at the houseboats and houses in Sausalito. Drove through downtown again on the way home and drove down Lombard Street, the steepest street in USA. It was Friday at 3:45 and traffic was getting bad so we headed home.
Now this is where my true realization of life in the US began. I went in to pick up my prescriptions but they still were not ready but they said if I waited a few minutes they would be ready. Well I’m sitting there and watching and listening to everyone else pick up their prescriptions and other Rx stuff. First lady is in a brand new hi tech wheelchair that the pharmacist obviously knew, she had about a dozen Rx to be picked up, her bill $2.14. She then bought some shelled pecans, candy and other treats, that bill 10.54. Next guy up got his for no charge. Next couple gets 4 Rx for less than 5 dollars. Then they buy their kid a stuffed toy for fifteen dollars. Next lady up gets 2 or 3 Rx for less than 3 dollars, than she buys her daughter/grand daughter two bags of chips and some other junk. Medicare/medicade/welfare paid for all or just about all of their drugs, our taxes pay for their drugs. The working people pay for the drugs of the not working. I know they were not working because I heard one lady say that she has not worked for over a year, she looked more than capable of being able to work. Well now it is my turn to pick up my 2 Rx and I get charged twenty five dollars for each of my 2 Rx, a total of FIFTY dollars. I paid more for my two Rx than all of them combined, and I’m paying over 800 dollars a month to Humana for my medical plan so that I can be insured. Folks we have a problem. Not only are our emergency rooms so crowded that I spent 6 hours in terrible pain when my gall bladder had to be removed, but apparently I am the only asshole in America that is still paying for my services and drugs. Everyone gets the same service but not everyone pays the same. WE NEED TO FIX OUR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS. Illegals and non working get better care than working people, let’s fix this. I am tired of subsidizing every person that has not prepared themselves. I went to High School, everyone gets to go for free, I paid for myself to go to college to better myself so I could have a better chance to do well. I pay for car insurance so if I have an accident, I am covered, I pay for health insurance so if I get sick I am covered, I pay for house insurance so that if something happens I am covered. I guess everyone else just gets stuff, doesn’t get insurance and if something happens, says oh poor me I need help from the government, why don’t they help me. Well you had your chance at free education and the chance to work as many hours in the day that your body would allow, if you didn’t take advantage of the free education and learn something so that you could support yourself, why should the government give programs to support your stupidity and lack or preparedness. The government is the WORKING people that PAY TAXES, let’s make the taxpayers our highest priority not the crybabies and illegals that get everything for free, and they think that they are entitled to it for free. Americans are not entitled to everything for free, they are entitled to have the chance to learn, work hard and prepare for the future. Those that don’t learn and work become the leaches that feed off of the rest of us. Folks, Freedom ain’t Free. If you are going to give away all services for free, lets give it free to everyone. Folks this ain’t right. Well as you can see, I’m pretty pissed off right now so I will say ,
See Ya. Brian

September 8th 2007,
Got dropped off from the shuttle in Chinatown at 11AM, walked through the lantern decorated streets and pagoda roofs, I bought my first back pack. I got tired of having my pockets bulging from all the junk you have to carry around. We went to town early to get tickets to Alcatraz, they were sold out, guess we’ll do it next time through. Had lunch at Pier 39 overlooking the sea lions. Walked out to see Forbes Island. Went up to Ghirardelli Square, they were having a flea market chocolate festival. Same old junk. Walked the Hyde Street Pier and looked at the old boats. In town we saw this guy driving around on a bicycle for seven. One person steers and the rest sit in a circle and peddle, this way everyone gets to talk because you are all facing each other. Watched the streetcars turn around. Walked up Columbus Ave. and found a restaurant "Calzone’s" with sidewalk seating. We had just had lunch so we ordered a bottle of wine, they brought bread without us asking, we looked at their desert menu but they didn’t have anything that caught our attention, so we ordered some blue cheese and crumbled fog goat cheese to spread on the bread and it was good. We sat people watching for a hour and half, talking to the people on either side of us, couple from England were driving the West Coast. Dixie and I had a sweet tooth so she went to the bakery next door to the restaurant and bought a chocolate fidora, a light pastry loaded with shaved chocolate, light chocolate cake, and chocolate icing. Did I mention we had a craving for something sweet. Ordered another bottle of wine and people watched for another hour. We needed to move around a little to get the blood flowing so we walked toward our shuttle pick up point. Heard a band playing in a bar called "The Saloon". They obviously have a hard time coming up with catchy names for their stores. Well the band was great, ordered a corona since they didn’t have Miller lite. Talked with the local town drunk girl, I don’t know how I attract these people, bought another round for Dix and I , also ordered a drink for the girl but the bartender wouldn’t serve her. She went and tipped the band and left. The band was really good playing the Blues. Talked with another local guy for a while and he tried to buy us a round but we had to leave to catch the shuttle. When we got on the bus we realized that we were hungry and did not have anything to eat at the RV. There was just one other couple on the bus with us so I asked the driver to stop at Safeway and we all got off and speed shopped for what we needed. The other couple were glad since they didn’t have a car to get around. It was cold outside by then so we just hunkered down inside and ate diner and watched TV.
See Ya, Brian

September 9th 2007,
We have departed from San Francisco. Steve F.will do his thing Monday. I’ll fill you in on details after Monday. Went to San Jose and to the Winchester Mansion, If you are ever in this area you must stop here. This is classic proof that money does not make you a smart or popular person. This lady marries the second president of Winchester Repeating Rifles and he dies. She thinks that she has to make amends for all of the people that were killed from her husbands company’s rifles. A Psycho tells her that she must keep building a house but to never finish the house to keep the spirits at bay. She keeps building this "nut" house for 38 years. 13 carpenters working 24 hours a day. Can you say cocoo. This place should have a terrible grease fire instead of being a national monument. I did not realize that stupidity was a national monument. Unfinished rooms that lead to no where are used for nothing and that leak when ever it rains, that cost over five million dollars. This is absolutely the biggest waste of lumber that I have ever seen, but you have to see it to believe it. I asked the guide if she was nuts and she said "we like to say superstitious". I asked if she ever asked an architect to help her and they said that she could not agree with their suggestions. I’m sure they said to burn it to the ground and start over. Nuts is nuts. We left this mess and had lunch at Chili’s. We hit the road to parts unknown, we thought Capitola however there was no room at the Rv park, finally ended up in Prunedale, I swear I did not make up that name. Headed to the Giant Sequoia Forest tomorrow.
See Ya. Brian



September 10th 2007,
We stayed at Prundale last night however we passed through Salinas California and got lost going through the city because the pass through to 101 N was under construction and they had detours. We drove around in circles and I was finally at a stop sign and a cop that came by and I flagged him down. Told him that we couldn’t find the way to 101N because of all the detours and he started to tell me how to get there then says, let me get ahead of you and he proceeds to give us a police escort for about 2 miles through town, nice service in a small town. Back to today. Drove to Visalia and stayed at the local dump RV Park. It was the closest to the Great Sequoia Forest. We did not leave the park until 2:20 and we headed to the Sequoia Forest, this was Peanuts lucky day as we brought him with us. Got to the park and had to pay twenty dollars. For all of you that are going to travel the country I recommend that you purchase the $80 National Park Pass. This will let you get into any National Park for your flat fee of $80. We did not do this and have already spent over 135 dollars. Buy the pass if your traveling, it’s good for one year. Drove through the forest and got to the mother lode of trees. THE GENERAL SHERMAN. The biggest tree in the world. Well they don’t let you park by it unless you are handicapped, so you have to drive another 2 miles and then hike back to the tree about a half mile. Well we went to walk and because of Peanut, he was not allowed on the trails because bears consider him an appetizer. So we went back to the handicap area and about 100 feet from where you park, there is the General. Dixie waited in the jeep and I took some pictures and then ran back and then Dixie went to see the General and then came back so we wouldn’t get a ticket for parking in a handicap spot. These trees are BIG and OLD. Clearly you do not have to be a tree hugger to realize their value. Stopped off for a beer at the "Gateway Restaurant". Lots of Locals, ate dinner and watched Monday Night Football. Peanut got to eat with us outside. Drove home and now I’m writing this. P.S. HOW BOUT THEM BULLS. USF beat Auburn in OT. I can’t wait till I get home an watch them play live. It’s nice to see what an new team with spirit can do.
See Ya, Brian

September 11th 2007,
Drove to Lake Havasu, Arizona. Had heard about this place from talking with Carol and Jack from the Elks club that we stayed at in Idaho. Drove over 400 miles through desert to get here. Passed Edwards Air Force Base, this is back up landing site for the shuttle, lots of planes there. Passed thousands of windmills again. The smoke from the fires hid the mountains on either side of the desert until you had to drive up them. Did not realize how hot it was outside until I noticed that the temp on the coach was running a little hot. I had already turned on the generator to run the 2 roof top AC s since the dash air could not keep up, had to turn off the dash air to keep the engine from overheating. When we got to the RV park we got a spot right on the lake. Saw boats and people anchored up so we put bathing suits on and went into the water for the first time since we left Tampa. Actually Dixie was about 10 minutes behind me because she had to "nair" her leg hair first, remember it has been 48 days. I introduced myself to everyone, found out they were from San Diego and had come with 4 boats and 5 Rvs..They come every year after Labor day. It was like being at Beer Can Island. Everyone hanging by their boat with a beer and talking. Had a good time. There are some kind of gnats around here but they don’t bite they just are everywhere. The inside and outside of the coach is coated with them. We ate Mexican again last night, luckily it was half price for all tequila drinks. Tons of good food, enough that we both had enough left overs for lunch tomorrow. No free internet so no telling when this goes out. Oh yeah it was a comfortable 114 degrees today (remember it’s a dry heat), no wonder the coach was running hot. Thankfully the lake water was about 83 degrees. We will be staying here for about 5 days.
I am sure that many of you are saying, hey it’s Tuesday, Steve F. was supposed to have been rescued yesterday ,according to Brian. Well folks I’m sorry to say that there has been a big lie. I don’t know how it happened but it appears that Steve has lied to everyone including me. Imagine my disappointment and humiliation after transporting and putting him up for three days. He has contacted me and said that he is going to stay hidden until he feels like coming forward. Folks this man needs our help, he is obviously not ready to function as a mulitbillionare, we must help him. If you could find it in your heart to send what you can to help me help Steve. Send all donations to P.0. Box 1148 Riverview Florida 33568. Please make all checks out to Citizens Against Steve’s Hypocrisy, You may abbreviate and only write CASH on your check. A 5 dollar donation will put you in the "Balloon Club", a ten dollar donation in the "I think I can make it club", and for fifty dollars you can be in the "Pilot’s Club". Remember none of these donations are tax deductible, so please whatever you send please consider adding 30 percent to it, as it may put me in a higher tax bracket. One last thing, and I have never asked this before, Please, send this to as many people as you can, and ask then to send it to as many people as they can, and remember we can’t help Steve until the cash starts rolling in. I will keep you all updated as I hear from Steve. God Bless You, Be an AMERICAN, you can help Steve, never has there been a more worthy cause.
See Ya, Brian

September 12th 2007,
As I said yesterday we are staying a RV Park on Lake Havasu. The RV Park is actually on an Island in Kale Havasu, and you have to cross over "The London Bridge" to get to it. This is where they moved the London bridge to. The name of the park is Crazy Horse Campgrounds, it has over 600 sites. Across the lake from us is California. They have basically everything here. I actually rode my bike around this morning just to check out the RV Park. Had to re-provision today so we hit Wally World and Safeway. Filled up with gas in the Jeep and only paid 2.39 per gallon. At the gas station I used one of their window scrubber thingys to clean the bugs off my windshields, it was 10 times easier using this thing rather than my regular brush washer. I bought one at Wally World when we were there, love bugs fear me. So far we have 5010 miles on the coach and have used 629 gallons of diesel, we have 3356 miles on the jeep and have used 186 gallons of gas from driving around in the towns we have stopped at. The boats on this lake are from what I have seen all hi performance boats or hi performance deck boats. It looks kind of funny to see a boat jetting along about 80mph and then when it get close it is a deck boat. They are very popular here, many boat brands that I have never heard of, and everyone has thru the transom exhaust. There is not a boat that is not loud, I guess noise is good on the lake. We actually cooked on the grill tonight, standard grub, steaks, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob cooked in the husk with a cucumber and tomato salad with blue cheese crumbles. Life is tough. There are tons of bars to go to at night however we have stayed home, we’ll go hopping tonight. This is off off season here so we’ll see if anything is going on.
See Ya, Brian

September 13th 2007,
It is so hot here you can not believe it. Imagine that you are driving down a deserted street and you can see the heat rising off the asphalt now imagine that same road on the sun, that’s how it is. Dixie compared it to the blast of heat that comes when you first open an oven door except it is a wind of heat that just keeps cooking you. We’re in hell, it’s hot. We are leaving this hell tomorrow, I don’t care where we go as long as it’s not here, I’m sure this place is nice in winter but a human is not meant to survive in this heat in the summer. Now I know why the middle east countries are so pissed at the rest of the world, their brains are fried. Heat like this makes you stupid. As you all know I don’t have any spare brain cells and can’t afford to get any stupider so we are gone tomorrow. Right now it is about 116 degrees outside, the two ACs in the RV have not turned off since 10 AM and it is barely 82 in the coach. We have decided to head to the Grand Canyon. Saw a T shirt that I wanted to buy but the store was closed, it showed a skeleton cowboy and a skeleton horse in the desert, it said "Arizona" at the top and the words "but it’s a dry heat" at the bottom.
See Ya, Brian


September 14th,
We left early 8AM before it could get over a hundred degrees and found a nice town where they have a train that follows the rim of the canyon, package deal with RV parking. Temperature is a nice sunny 80 degrees. The town of Williams, Arizona is still stuck in the 50s and 60s, they play old music throughout the town, Route 66 has a big following here, so they capitalize on that in the 50 & 60 era. We passed through a fire that had just started and now that we are parked the smoke is closing in on us hopefully it won’t get too bad.. I guess Hell is following us one way or another. Ate lunch at "Cruiser’s Café 66" for lunch ,standard roadside fare but they do make their own beer and their wheat beer is the best we have tasted, have to ask for the orange as it doesn’t come standard. We up graded our tickets for tomorrow’s train ride to first class and also booked a tour bus ride and a buffet lunch, so far our good package deal for 3 days is now up to 400 dollars. Oh well can’t take it with you. It was so nice out we actually rode our bikes into town, bought some junk that we don’t really need. Watched the train pull into the depot then we went back to Cruisers because they had live music, the guy was only about 24 but he knew all the oldies from the 70s. A funny part of the mens room is that the divider for the urinal is a door from a VW Van, with the window rolled down.
The temps at night are in the 50s, the stars are out, life is good again, it’s nice to have a house on wheels.
See Ya, Brian

September 15th,
What a beautiful day. The weather is great, we a going to watch the gunfight in town before the train ride. It was a pretty funny pre train show. Got on the train, it is a 65 mile run to The Grand Canyon, nice comfy seats, a little bit of history along the way. This train line was started in 1901 and brought the original visitors to the Canyon until the automobile took over. It went out of business in 1968 and then in 1989 Max and Thelma bought the line and figured out not to charge seven dollars but charge seventy dollars, make it a national historical and start laughing all the way to the bank. They have 10 passenger cars hooked up with 50 seats per car with the average price of 100 dollars per person (upgrades you know) so that’s fifty thousand dollars per day trip, then they have another train for a sunset trip that brings in another 30 thousand per trip, they serve dinner so that cuts into the profits a little. They also have hotels at the Canyon, and RV park, Hotels, restaurants, and even a pet resort in the town of Williams. If this was a utility the government would be breaking up this monopoly, God I love, capitalism, Isn’t America Great. Well they just sold out for more money than God has, Good for you Max and Thelma. The Grand Canyon is absolutely awe inspiring, and the real beauty is that it makes sense. Take porous rock, add running water for 7 million years and there you have the Grand Canyon in all it’s majesty. We had a great time today, The train got robbed again today, this is the 60,000 time this train has been robbed by the same guys. Wackenhut you are not doing your job. They had free champagne on the way back, we like our White Star however they have their own Grand Canyon Railway brand that was really good, it is Woodbridge brand with their label on it, so we will try Woodbridge when we get home. The first class cars even have a cowboy singer that comes around and sings songs, he plays guitar and harmonica. We saw the sights along the Hermits Rest Route today by bus. We’ll see the other two routes by our car when we move in a day or so. As always we took pictures but as always no pictures do justice to the experience of being there. Raise your hand if you knew that the biggest uranium mine used to be right in the middle of the Grand Canyon. The shafts and rigging are still there. When we got back we fed peanut and took a nap. We walked to town and went to "Rod’s Steakhouse", we both had the filets, we couldn’t finish them so in the box for later. Went to a "local" bar, it didn’t even have a sign outside, talked to some guys from Germany, and some other couples. Next thing we knew it was 2 AM and time to go home. We forgot the filets at the bar. I sure would have liked them for breakfast, nursing a overhang so that’s all for now.
See Ya, Brian

September 16th,
Today has been a rest and recuperate day. Hopefully you all will be getting a picture with most emails from now on, I finally figured out how to send some attachments through the intermediary service that I have to use on the road. How bout those Bucs? We did not get the game here but we heard the score. We are leaving to go to Tusayan tomorrow. I do not know if we’ll have internet so I’m sending a few more pictures for now.
See Ya, Brian

September 17th,
We have decided that Williams is a very nice small town. Lot’s of local live music at the bars, friendly locals and friendly tourists, even a Safeway, thank God there are no fast food places except for the McDonalds at the freeway entrance. Last night a bunch of old VW Buses came in. Some were tricked out some had canvas tops, they are traveling around the country together, hippies will never die. But we have to go, so we are headed to a town right by the main entrance of the Grand Canyon called Tusayan. We called one RV Park and they had already closed for the season, they must have had a good year because they are usually open till mid October. Could not get a space inside Grand Canyon Trailer park so we went to Ten-X campground, 3 miles from the GC. They have 70 spaces in the forest, when we got there Ranger Bruce came out and introduced himself, gave us a layout of the park and told us the good spots for our size RV and gave us discount tickets for some attractions, told us to pick out the one we wanted. A nice guy. They have a unique and simple method to save your spot if you leave for the day. The envelope has a tear off section that you put in a small box with your space number on it, it has a clear glass window, this lets everyone know that spot is taken. Then you put in ten dollars for each day that you are going to stay and stick it in a box by the office. We have a whole forest to our awning side. Each spot has a nice big picnic table, bar-b-que grill and a firepit. There are toilets every so often but no showers. The park has to haul in their drinking water so they encourage you to conserve. There is no water at the site just some areas throughout the park that has a faucet where you can get a gallon or so. There are only about 15 people in the whole park and all of us are spaced out so we can not even see each other. Guess the government got this one right. We went to the GC and found a spot with a great view and parked the jeep and put out some chairs drank some wine, ate some cheese and watched the world go by, peanut got to come so he was happy. We were by a rim trail so people came by and we talked with them. One guy had spent the night at the river, this is a two day hike where you spend the night at the river. He was loaded down with a heavy backpack. It is about 30 degrees warmer at the base than at the rim so it was about 100 degrees where he camped. Lots of other people came by and pet peanut, they all said that they missed their pets because they left them home when they went on vacation. Lots of foreigners visiting, seems that we are seeing many more now that their money is worth about double due to the exchange rate. We should be glad they are here because they are spending their money and putting money in American pockets. We always try to be friendly and helpful when ever we meet them, I also thank them for visiting the USA and wish them a good trip. We should all be ambassadors for the USA. Went back to the RV and read books under the trees trying to stay in the sun. It was about 75 degrees but the wind was blowing about 30 mph so it was cold in the shade. Rode my bike several miles and walked the nature path. Cooked burgers, sweet potatoes and corn on the cob on the grill. We don’t have any power or sewer or water so we’ll leave when something fills up or when we run out of water, whichever comes first. Obviously we don’t have internet so no telling when this will go out, our cell phones don’t work at the site either.
See Ya, Brian

September 18th,
Woke up this morning to find it about40 degrees outside, glad I put the heat on last night. Have to run the generator as our batteries were low because I forgot to turn on the battery charger at Williams and they were on low when we got to Tusayan. We have 8 days before we are to meet Bobby K and Mary K at Las Vegas so we are just killing time. We went to the IMAX theater about the GC, they tell you about the past of the GC and then take you on a recreated trip with John W. Powell who rafted through the GC, Mountain men told him it could not be done and even the Indians said it was impossible, but what does the one armed guy do but take the trip anyway. He makes it but 3 of his men said that they could not do another rapid so they left the group only to be lost forever. The rapid that they left the expedition was the last rapid that they came across. It really is amazing how many people went into the unknown just to find out what is there. After that the film takes you through the GC swooping and turning with shots from planes, helicopters, and ultralights, Pretty realistic and nauseating at some parts. But you have to see it when you go to the GC. Outside they have an exact replica of the boat that John’s party used, it is the real one from the making of the movie, I would not have wanted to trust my life to this boat. Before we went into the theater we saw the same RV that holds 26 people that we saw in San Francisco. Talked with Walt the driver and apparently the company operates over 100 of these all over the world, check out what they have at( http://www.rotel.de/ ), they have this down to a science for travel bargain hunters. Went back to the GC and took more pictures that still don’t do it justice. Walked around and decided to have lunch at the El Tovar restaurant. We started to go to some cheaper places but decided lunch would be our big meal of the day. Went in and they tried to seat us at a table with no view so we said we would wait until a table by the window was available, the hostess must have been having a bad day because she was not nice to us or the seaters. When we got our table, it was worth the 5 minute wait as they put us right a big picture window overlooking the canyon. Jeff our waiter came to take our order and recognized the Captain Tony’s Saloon T shirt I was wearing, he said he had spent many fun nights at the bar. We ordered 2 Blue Moons and then ordered our meals. Dixie got the Mediterranean chicken salad and I got the pork cutlets stuffed with black beans and chorizo served with rive, and fresh broccoli , oh yeah we decide to split a cup of their filetaloin and porkaloin chili just to try it. Well the chili comes out split with enough meat on one plate for 2 other people to split, We thought Jeff had brought out two orders by mistake. It was served with the best jalapeno corn bread I have ever had. The meat was so tender, it really was filet, and with no beans. We ate as much as we could and decided to save the rest for lunch tomorrow. Jeff boxed it up and brought out extra bread for us along with napkins and plastic knife and fork for us. When our meals came, another 2 meals with enough food to serve four people. I forced myself to eat it all it was so good. The bill was 47 dollars, can’t beat that to eat at a really nice place. Went walking through some store but had to go home for a nap after all that food. It is now a nice 70 degrees. Went back to the GC to watch sunset at Hopi Point. It was like Mallory Square without the entertainers and hawkers. As usual pictures do not do it justice. We went out looking for a restaurant in Tusayan and found there were none that met our needs, so we went home and had the chili for dinner. We are heading out tomorrow, where? we are not sure maybe Lake Powell.
See Ya, Brian

September 19th,
We left Ten-X Campground for Page Arizona where Glen Canyon and Lake Powell are located. It was a short 145 mile trip but it was so windy, 30 mph winds with even higher gusts we could only drive a tad over 50 even though the speed limit was 65, I thought some of the gusts were literally going to flip the RV. Well going slow was a benefit because we passed some beautiful areas. I did not realize that all along the Colorado River Route that there is the same wall structures as in the Grand Canyon, it isn’t a mile deep but it is still beautiful. We drove through parts of the Painted Desert, mountains with every color in it you could imagine. We drove through roads cut through mountains 300 foot deep with walls strait up. Views of the flat desert then crevices and mountains and valleys all mixed together, like God was playing in his sand box. It was huge and breathtaking, especially when the wind feels like it is going to blow you off the road and into a 1000 foot strait down drop off. We also passed hundreds of Indian’s meager houses, shacks in some cases, lots of road side stands set up for them to sell their wares. We screwed these people. We are still looking to buy a nice Kokopelli, the figurine with the Indian playing the flute, just have not found the perfect one yet. Took many picture that still don’t do any justice to actually seeing it. Got to the Wahweap Campground, it is in the Glen Canyon Rec Area. We bought the Annual pass for Federal Parks when we were in Williams, so we did not have to pay the entrance fee. The campground is nice but has a very crappy wifi system, it must be on dial up as it takes me over 20 minutes to send out one e-mail, better than nothing. They are very into boating on this Lake, they also take Lake cleanliness very seriously. They have a decontamination system that you must use to make sure that the Lake does not get infected with zebra mussels. Boats have to disconnect the overboard discharge from their pooper so it can not be pumped overboard. If you go backpacking, most parks allow you to bury your poop, not here, you have to pack out your poop or have a personal pooper. They do have pump out stations everywhere, and I mean everywhere. All the marinas have to have them and they have floating restroom/pumpout stations. These things are just floating in the Lake about every mile or so, you pull up your boat, use the restroom or pump out your boat, how easy is that. They have boat ramps that are 500 foot WIDE. They are also really steep, they are set up to handle the weekend warrior boaters. They have Plenty of truck and trailer parking, Some of the houseboats are over 150 feet long and there are thousands of them. Florida needs some lessons from these guys. This is the second largest man made lake in North America, over 1900 miles of shore line. When they built the Carl Hayden Dam it all backed up and formed this vacation paradise in 1957. I know your all saying by now enough of the history lesson, You all want to know, what did they do for dinner? OK here goes. We went to the restaurant at the Lake Powell Resort, had to make reservations, first opening was for 8 thirty. Atilla from Romania was our waiter, this guy was working 10 tables and still taking care of us. We have had enough beef lately so Dixie selected pasta primavera and I got Chicken Pot Pie. Both dinners were served with a large salad that had a delectable balsamic vinagrette dressing. Homemade olive rolls and a nice flat bread were served by Atilla at the same time he brought our wine. We got a bottle of their house Cabernet, It was made in Woodbridge Calf.and called La Terre. It was a great bottle of wine, and only 17 dollars. Atilla never knows how the house wine is going to be because they serve whatever their distributor has on special. We were glad we hit it on a good night. Dixie’s pasta was creamy and filled the large bowl, my pot pie was also loaded with veggys but seemed a little shy on the chicky it came with a puff pastry on top, the bowl was so big it more than filled me up. A nice dinner, a nice bottle of wine in a nice restaurant less than 40 bucks. Good night Gracie.
See Ya, Brian

September 20th,
We decided to stay at Lake Powell for a few days. I unhitched the bikes off their rack and took mine out for a spin. I rode all the way from Arizona to Utah this morning, it really is only about a half mile there. I needed air in my tires so I rode to the gas station, they still have free air here, behind the station was the decontamination Station for you to use before putting your boat in the Lake to prevent Zebra mussels from entering the Lake, it’s a pretty neat set up. I rode down and watched the boats load at the boat ramp, then rode for exercise for a half hour. Dixie had already done her hair so she did not want to come, any excuse is better than no excuse. We then went to eat lunch and do some necessity shopping. We had lunch at The Dam Bar & Grill. Actually the shopping center and just about everything in it is named the Dam something or another, after the Dam that they are near for those of you that are not catching on yet. Well they had Dam good food if I do say so myself. Dixie had a southwestern chicken wrap, boring. I had The Ortega Chicken Sandwich, It was perfectly grilled chicken breast stacked with ortega chilis, melted swiss cheese and FRESH AVACADO with creole mayonnaise, onions, tomato and served with crisply but not over cooked thin cut french fries. It was Campbells, umm umm good. We also played Trivia while we were there under IDONO and won 3 rounds in a row. Nobody beat us while we were there, OK we were the only ones playing. This is an alcoholics town, they sell liquor everywhere. At the bait store, at Circle K, at the supermarket, you don’t have to go far to get a drink. We are having cocktails at the coach now, Vodka and diet tonic with a double squeeze of fresh lime. We are going to dinner on the 95 foot motor yacht that the resort rents out. I’ll let you know how we liked the cruise. The cruise left at the exact time it was supposed to, 5 PM. They sat us with a family of four from Virginia, it was the parents 40th anniversary. They took orders as soon as we pulled away from the dock. Food was good, we both had medallions of beef tenderloin. All during the trip we are going down the narrow channels with walls going strait up. The water level is down about 80 feet over normal. Dixie and I walked the ship where we found Captain Robert steering the boat. We talked with him for a little bit, we watched the depth finder go from 480 feet to 43 feet. I steered the boat for a second just so I could say that I did. Over all a nice evening.
See Ya, Brian
September 21st,
Got a late start today, who cares. Went to Wally World to pick up some more stuff we did not need again, we also went to the super market to buy stuff for lunch and dinner. Decided that we are too lazy to really cook so bought some pre-made sandwiches for lunch, a baguette and blue cheese for happy hour and a roasted chipotle chicken, potato salad and pre made garden salad for dinner. We learned that you only buy for one day or else you throw a lot of crap that you did not use away. Ate lunch at the RV and checked e-mail. Read mags and paper. Finally got cabin fever and went for a ride in the jeep, finally found where the locals hang out, about 7 mile north on 89 in Utah there is a park entrance that lets you drive down right to the beach on the lake. Everyone has a 4 wheeler of some type because they have all sorts of trails along the hills, naturally we had to test the jeep. It did just fine, better that I expected, we did not even spin a wheel and we were climbing really steep hills. We are probably going to go there tomorrow just to hang out. Got back to the coach in time for happy hour. There are a bunch of RV clubs staying here this weekend so we rode our bike around the park to say hi and check them out, just a few people outside so just did a lot of waving instead of talking. There is no TV service of any kind here, not even a ghost on the screen. I had a run in with one of the girls at the office today. I went down to the office because they warned you ahead of time that there was only wifi around the office area. I couldn’t get anything at the RV so I walked to the office and still could not get any signal. I walked completely around the building. I finally went in side and asked the girl if there was a problem with their wifi, she stated that they NEVER have had any complaints about their wifi. I told her thaI could not and that several people in the park told me that they could not get a signal either. She stated that they never have any complaints. I asked her where am I supposed to put my lap top where I could get a signal, I was in their office and still could not get a signal, I said maybe the wifi needs to be reset or re-booted or something, She kept saying she never has any complaints. Well you know me, my voice goes up 10 octives and I tell her that she has one now and I want to speak to the manager, she says he is not there, I say here is my phone number have him call me. I walk out. Manager calls me back and I tell him maybe he has a problem because I could not get it to work , he says he will call the service guy, DUH how hard was that lady. I thought about telling him to retrain his help but I figured once you’re a bitch you are always a bitch. 10 minutes later wifi starts working again, slowly but at least working. I call back Tom, the manager, and thank him, still held my tongue and did not say anything about his unqualified, disrespectful, demeaning, and I certainly did not mention that she was also fat and UGLY. I can really control myself sometimes, being on vacation for two years has mellowed me out. Well Dixie is putting dinner together now and I do not expect anything else exciting to report on so I’ll send this out tonight. For all of you going to Vegas for Mary Ks and Bobby’s anniversary have a safe trip and we will see you there.
See Ya, Brian
September 22nd,
Today was a very slow day, It rained most of the day so we did not do anything. Hi -light of the day Dixie took a picture of a jack rabbit behind the coach, it was bigger than Peanut. Sherry please tell Larry Thanks for the loan of the Deadwood CD pack, now we are hooked on the series .We are moving out today.
See Ya, Brian
September 23rd,
We left for Zion Canyon National Park this morning, a nice easy drive through nice wide roads. You drive through fairly level ground between the mountains, spectacular scenery along the way. Sometimes you think you are in the National Park since everything is unbelievably scenic. We got to Zion Park, Had to disconnect the jeep as the switchbacks were said to be too tight to Safely pass, according to the Rangers. We could have made it. So I drove the RV and Dixie followed in the Jeep. I forgot to give the camera to Dixie so here I am taking pictures and hair pin turns at the same time. There is a big tunnel that you drive through and there are some really tight turns with steep drop offs and no guard rails, they have a mile long tunnel that the RV can not pass through without a tunnel escort. They charge you 15 dollars extra to stop traffic from the other side, There is on paper enough room to go through however it is really tight looking from the steering wheel. Made it through and got a campsite just outside the park, you would not know that you were outside the park because the mountains and Virgin River were right at the property line of the campground. The River was super muddy from the previous days heavy rain, looked like coffee with heavy cream in it. We had lunch at the road side restaurant just outside the campground, We split a green chili burger with fries, I tried their local "Squatters" wheat beer. Took the free shuttle into the park and then the free shuttle through the park, Howard, this is to save fuel emissions and save fuel not because I am a cheap Bastard, as you always say. Saw all the cool sights, the entire route in the Park is only about 10 miles so it only takes about 2 hours to really see it all unless you decide to do something like hike, how crazy an idea is that. We did what we do best, had happy hour and figured out where we were going to have dinner. Springhill, the town where we are is a quaint small town with quite a few restaurants, local artists and junk tourists shops. Dixie bought the kokopelli that we have been looking for, it is made of wood , you will see it behind our outside bar next party. After walking the town we figured the place to eat was just across the street from our campground. Had to wait for a table so we struck up a conversation with a couple from Chicago, watched the Chicago - Dallas game with them. Our table was ready , I ordered a pasta dish with a nice creamy beef gravy with filet in it and blue cheese crumbles on top , Dixie ordered a house specialty pizza, we were going to split them between us. The pasta dish was great the pizza not so much, it came out burned so we sent it back and told them we did not want it replaced. The pasta dish was big enough for both of us anyway. Came back to the RV and watched two episode of Deadwood, curse you Larry I’m hooked.
See Ya, Brian

September 24th,
I would like to start this post with a quote from Humphrey Bogart "The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind". People catch up. Life is too short to sit there and let life pass you by, if I could do one thing it would be to turn back the clock and do what I am doing now. I am not saying to follow my path, I am saying to follow your own path. For too many years I worked and worked and worked. I worked hard and played hard, I did not have time to stop and think, now I know I was wrong. You do have to stop and smell the roses. I remember the first time that I had two weeks of vacation in a row. I had time to realize that I was not happy in my life, I quit the job that I had for eleven years, started my own company and proceeded to get in the same rut, fortunately it was a profitable rut this time. I took one experience and expanded it without finding myself, I now realize that I have wasted my whole life, I could have been working for Steve Fossitt, Recently, Steve offered me the position to step into his role of running his empire. I am happy to say that I accepted. Come October 24th I will be assuming the command of Fossitt enterprises. I hope all of you will be at my coming out party, it will be at our house on the River on the 27th of October, so please plan on attending. This of course will be a BYOB party as Steve has decide that we should live as Mountain Men and not beholdin to anyone. Naturally Steve has decided that he will be having his coming out party also and officially announce the transfer of power at this time. Everyone will be there, except the press, they will not be invited, Steve has decided that they did not cover his disappearance to his satisfaction, however if you have been receiving these posts for the last two months, you and your friends ARE invited. Don’t forget this date, put it on your calender, this will be an affair that you will not want to miss. October 27th 2007, 8 P.M., details to follow.
But now back to the regular post.
We spent 5 hours driving the scenic route to Boulder City, it is only 100 miles. The scenery was awesome. Red rocks bigger that hi-rises, mountains as tall as the sky, deserts as parched as a piece of sandpaper, no life visible, no human for miles, water that was suppose to have boats held sand, water levels down 100 feet. This area is like earth science come to life. Everything that they taught you in school is s totally brought to life by a drive thru. You can actually see how one rain erodes a crevice and how that crevice becomes a ditch and that ditch a valley and so on and so on, finally something that you can see with your own eyes and see millions of years into the past. Totally awesome. What amazes me is that people made it through this impossible environment and made it to the other side, what amazes me more is that they did not turn around, this is what Americans are made of, going where no man has gone before. We passed some asshole pulling a u-haul trailer that was swinging back and forth so bad I thought he was going to kill himself and take a few innocent people with him, he would never have survived a hundred years ago. We also passed a guy riding his bike pulling a small trailer with and American flag waving on it, he will make it, if the idiot does not kill him. We made it to Boulder City, checked into the campground, Steve the camp manager told us about a local dive called "Evan’s" but it was closed on Monday. Found a place to watch Monday night football, it starts local time at 5 thirty, nice. We went to a micro brewery called Boulder Dam Brewing. Good beer, we had a cheese plate with 3 kinds of cheeses, apples, grapes, bread, and a pickle, yes a pickle. Talked with Robbie the waiter and a local musician until half time and then went to a pizzeria where they had one dollar drafts, pizza was just so so. Figured we would watch second half at home. And so it is.
See Ya, Brian
September 25th,
Today is wash day, it is amazing I have purchased tons of T shirts along the way, and brought plenty with me, but I still wear the ones I always do, funny how that works out. We went to Hoover Dam today. Lots of concrete blocking a river to make electricity. An engineering marvel even today, and when you consider it was done in 1935 it is even more amazing. There were a lot of visitors to this Dam thing, more so than I expected. They are building a new bridge to divert the bi-pass traffic away from the Dam. The bridge is amazing considering how high the support columns for it have to be. Last year during high winds two of them fell down, so they had to rebuild them. When we got done at the Dam we went to lunch at Evan’s, standard bar food. We walked around town for a while and then went to Lake Meade to check out the marina. Everything at the marina floats, the office, the stores, the bar and the docks for about 3000 boats. They are tied to cables that can be pulled up the bank or down into the lake as the water rises or falls. The Lake is presently down about 100 feet. It comes up 15 feet on average with the rains and snow melting each year, That means it is still down about 85 feet. They have millions of porno catfish begging for food by the docks. Got a beer at the bar, we were the only ones there so we left. Went to dinner at "Milos", we got nice seats on the sidewalk, ordered an appetizer cheese plate with 6 different kinds of cheese, crackers, grapes, and two kinds of rosemary and oil seasoned olives. You can order wines by the glass or you can go inside and select a bottle of wine from the store inside and then they add a ten dollar corkage fee to anything you select. We got a eleven dollar cab and with corkage fee it was twenty one bucks. The appetizer plate was so big we did not even have to order a dinner, we even had the nerve to get two take out boxes for the cheese and olives. Went back to the Dam Bar had a couple of their ice cold wheat beers from Robbie. The whole town shuts down at 9 PM, last call is 8 45. Went home early so that we are ready to Party in Vegas tomorrow. I finally realized that some people have not been getting the daily posts because the group list limited me to 50 people. I have deleted some people so others can get the daily news updates. For those of you that were left out by mistake if you will let me know I will send the past posts to you. Sorry, I thought everyone was getting it.
See Ya, Brian
September 26th,
We drove the 24 miles to Vegas, drove down the strip and checked into the RV Park right behind Circus Circus. Got a taxi to The Flamingo where the K gang is staying and met up with them for lunch, they were at Margaritaville, need I say more about the food. We bought tickets to tonight’s Spamalot Show. Had happy hour at the RV then got ready for the show. Took the bus "The Deuce" as they call it, you get unlimited ride for 24 hours for only 5 bucks, that’s a good deal, picked it up right in front of the hotel. Went to the Wynn where the show was, had a Miller Lite each at the bar and we split a sandwich , twenty five bucks, ouch, we are not in Kansas anymore Toto. The show had John O’Hurley, who played the J P Peterman guy from Seinfeld. It was a Monty Python kind of humor that I do not usually care for, on stage it was funny. Show got done about 10 45 so we called the K gang, they did not answer their phone so we took the deuce to their hotel figuring they were gambling, they were no where to be found, I guess the time change caught up with them, as they were crashed for the night. Hung out people watching. We either could not find the bus stop because of construction and then when we did find a deuce stop every bus was filled so we ended up walking home, a little more than a half mile, unfortunately Dixie was not wearing walking shoes so she was not a happy camper. I have been trying for 20 minutes to send out this email but I can not get a strong enough signal, so I guess it is true, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I will try later.
See Ya, Brian

September 27th,
Today we took the deuce to the other end of the strip, where all the new casinos are. They are all there, They have New York City in miniature, The Luxor, MGM, Caesars Palace, and every other one you can imagine. It is truly a Disney World for adults, rich adults because everything is expensive. Beers for 7 bucks, please. We rode the monorail, walked the strip for a while then decided to head back to side of town. We found a place next to our campground, Slots of Fun. Went in there for a few cheap beers $1.75 each for Miller Lite in bottle and got a sandwich for a late lunch, we each played 5 dollars on electronic black jack, this kept us busy for a couple of hours until we both lost our 5 dollars. We tried to get tickets for Louie Anderson for last night but we were too late. Met up with the K gang at their hotel, they had been playing electronic roulette, for many hours when we got there. Had a few beers and discussed the goings on of Riverview etc. Dixie and I were hungry so we found a restaurant in the hotel, Italian place don’t remember the name. Figured the food to be so so since the prices were so low. We were pleasantly surprised, Dixie got Veal marsala with mashed potatoes and broccoli and it was delicious, I got chicken parmigiana on top of angel hair pasta pre tossed in marina sauce topped with baked mozzarella cheese , superb. Two glasses of their house wine finished off the meal. I was stuffed, no doggie bags tonight. Finished our wine while talking with the K gang, then took the deuce home. Speaking of the deuce, we have not had good luck on the last 3 trips, we have had to wait on the bus for half hours, they are supposed to be every 6 minutes, apparently they have quite a few busses broken down, everyone bitching about over crowing and waits. What can you do? When I got home I realized that I had spilt wine all over my shirt, so much for that shirt.Called it a night.
See Ya, Brian

September 28th,
Went downtown today on the deuce, the bus was right on time with no long wait, I guess they fixed some of the buses that were not working. We passed the Stratosphere, this is a neat hotel, it has a tower like the space needle but on the top they have 3 rides. The one that is the killer is they have a moving slide that lets you ride in a coaster that tilts you up then tilts you down where it looks like you are going to be falling off the top of the building, it is way too scary for me to ride. Passed a lot of the wedding chapels and even the drive thru one that has made Vegas famous for quickie weddings. We were on Freemont Street or as they call it The Freemont Street Experience. This place is pretty cool, It was the original casino area and now I guess tp get people back downtown they covered it up with a semi roof, lets the hot air out keeps the sun rays away. They have speakers all over the place and pipe in 70 and 80s music. A nice mix of casinos, strip joints, discount stores, restaurants, and kiosks. They have along the street refurbished neon lights of the old hotels and casinos that have been replaced by the more modern ones that now stand, they also have a plaque at the base of each one saying where it came from. It is bike week here so they have a few more biker displays than normal, welcome to the world of Harley Davidson. The old casinos and hotels like $ Queens, Jillian’s, Trader Bill’s, Golden Nugget, The Plaza are still there but Lady Luck is closed down now I guess she ran out of luck. There is still a Lady Luck sign advertising a hot dog and beer for a dollar. I remember seeing these names on TV while growing up. Went into the Hogs and Heifers, it had a bunch of bikers and it was to early for even us to drink yet. Well we had to eat so we went into the Freemnot casino and checked out their buffet, I thought that I had died and went to heaven, this was better than any buffet than I have ever been to, even better than any cruise ship. They had all kinds of salads, fruit, seafood, a roast beef carving station, a pasta station, a Mexican station, a Chinese station, a chicken station, all kinds of desserts, you get the idea, they had everything. We were seated at a nice booth and I ordered a sprite and Dixie a diet coke, the waitress brought out 2 of each. She checked on us 3 times, cleared our finished plates along the way. Great food, great service, even told that we were not supposed to tip, naturally I left a few bucks for her. Now for the second best part the total bill was 12.98 that was including the drinks. Bingo I love this place. We went down to take some more pictures of the old signs, we got back just in time to catch the waiting bus and headed back home. OK so now it’s 12:45. I can tell this is going to be my day so I bet a C note on the Bulls to win on this Saturday’s 5PM game, It will pay me 330 bucks if they win. As we passed through Circus Circus the trapeze show was on, 4 people doing a real trapeze act inside the casino, how cool is that. Mary K and Vicky K called and we are all going to meet at New York New York for dinner at Gallagers, hope it is a good as lunch. I had to work on the hot water heater, water was not hot enough just on electric, everything checked out on the electric element, that’s good because the element has to get changed from the inside, I’m sure it will need to be changed but in the meanwhile we will use the gas to heat it up. Dixie is away at the store and I’m ready for some of Dixie’s homemade sangria and peanut and I are ready to people watch, our coach is parked where I can see and talk to all the new arrivals. We went to NY and met the K Gang, there were 19 people in all, everybody had a great time and great food, Gallager’s is a high dollar steak joint, most of us split a meal and still had food left over. Really good fluffy baked potatoes. During dinner we kept on checking the score for USF and sneaking a peek at the game, and what a game it was, HOW BOUT THEM BULLS. Kicked VW Ass. Can not wait to see the new ratings on Manday. I will collect my bet tomorrow, After dinner we all went to a night club and partied our asses off until 1 AM, it was a very long bus ride home. We had a great time Bobby and Mary K, thanks for inviting us. Chris thanks for calling with the score , I did get your message.
See Ya, Brian

September 29th,
Everybody was up to a late start today, R and R. At 6 PM those that could, arrived at the campground for happy hour, cocktails, brews and appetizers served by Dixie. We then took the deuce downtown to Freemont Street Experience to see the light show that they do every hour on the bottom side of the semi roof that they have. It is very cool, every hour they do a show, all the lights from the stores and casinos go off so that the lights really show up well, and they do a different show every hour. Everybody was hungry so we went to the finest hot dog joint that we could find. Dixie and I got the Greek dog, feta cheese, hot really hot peppers, olives and onions. Bobby went the more traditional American route with the half pound chili dog, and Todd not to be out done went with the cheese onion dog. All very good. On the way home on the deuce I entertained the folks in the back of the bus with my comedy routine, some were not as receptive as others. I concluded my show with a standing ovation by the crowd, they were just glad I was leaving.
See Ya. Brian

September 30th,
We departed Las Vegas today and are headed East according to the compass. Our plan was to get to Gallup New Mexico but we were making such good time that we said we would go as far as we could without killing ourselves, well 550 miles later we are in Albuquerque New Mexico in a WallMart parking lot. Checked in with the manager to let her know that we were going to stay the night and our name and coach info, you would have thought that we were family visiting her, Theresa was very nice to say the least. There are 3 Wally Worlds in Albuquerque and naturally we pick the one in the hood, at least they have 24 hour security and the guard comes by every 30 minutes. The weather is great 80s days and 50s nights. We have not had rain since Sturgis almost 2 months ago. This is our first time actually spending a night at Wally World, we have talked about it many times but have never stopped, from now on when we are just passing through we are hitting Wally World. The scenery for today, Desert, Desert, and more Desert with the occasional desert mountain thrown in, nice big red rocks here and there and then flat and dry, everywhere you can see and you can see for probably 30 miles. Had lunch at subway from the station that we fueled up at, and Microwave dinners, welcome back to reality.
See Ya, Brian

October 1st,
First of all, Happy 22nd birthday to Taylor. We drove to Exit 308 In Oklahoma, over 700 miles, Stayed at Wally World again. We drove to one that was in the hood but it looked there might be a drive by shooting any second so we quickly microwaved some dinner and moved to another one about 60 miles further toward home, Super Wall Marts all have night time security so we will only go to them from now on. I am starting to get a cold.
See Ya, Brian

October 2nd,
We got ON the road at 6 AM today, I forgot that there was an AM at that time. We had sandwiches for lunch, on the move again. My cold is really bad so to keep moving Dixie drove the coach for the first time, an excellent job she did as well. We rotated back and forth. Got to Montgomery Alabama about 6 PM so that’s 12 hours driving covering 644 miles. We were going to stay at Wally World again but they had signs posted, no overnight parking. We ate dinner at Long horn Steakhouse, then went to a campground where I am writing this post now. We are going to have lunch with Taylor tomorrow in Gainesville on our way home. We hopefully will make it all the way home tomorrow, the GPS says there are 475 mile to get home.
See Ya.
October 3rd, Day 71 of Road Trip, Wednesday,
Make sure that you all READ ALL OF MY POST SCRIPT LETTER after this letter.
We’re BACK See Ya, Brian
DO NOT READ THIS UNTIL YOU FINISH READING THE OTHER POSTS
While I have enjoyed writing my posts I also hope that you have enjoyed reading them and that you have also learned something from them. It helps me to better keep track of what we were doing and to reference info if we go back to the same area again. My only regret is that I could not get more pictures to you. I have learned many things from my travels in this Great Country that we call home, I hope that someday everyone gets to have the fun experiences that Dixie and I have had the last two and a half months. Make sure you read all the way through. Your support and reply messages ment so much.Until our next Road Trip
See Ya, Brian

While on my Road Trip I have discovered and noticed these items, some are observations that I believe to be true some are questions that I can’t answer:
It doesn’t matter if you are in a Prevost motor coach or tenting, everyone gets to see the same sites both along the way and when they arrive.
The roads are always under construction.
If you don’t bring a jacket you will freeze your ass off.
Harley Davidson charges too much for their stuff, yet people still buy it.
Mexicans are everywhere.
No matter what, people lie about how many miles per gallon that they are getting.
People smile and wave at people in RV s, especially kids, and I don’t know why.
TV is a waste of time.
The internet is a waste of time.
You have to have TV and internet to survive in today’s world.
The GPS never works when you need it.
The phone always rings when you are driving and are the busiest and need to concentrate.
Most places do NOT take American Express.
Everybody takes Mastercard or Visa, they may not give it back but they do take it.
If you wash your car or coach it will rain.
Your coach/car will look the same in two days weather you wash it or not, so don’t bother washing it until you get home..
If you pull into a fuel station because you want to make sure you don’t run out, the next exit, fuel will be 10 cents a gallon cheaper.
Rest Areas wont let you sleep in them.
People will look at you if you are wearing a different looking hat.
The cheaper the rate at the RV Park the nicer the person behind the counter.
You can only get 30 amp service when you really need 50 amp.
They have 50 amp service when you could do with 30 amp.
You really only need 5 shirts because when you move to another town they don’t know that you have worn the shirt already.
People in mini vans can’t park worth a shit or they just don’t give a shit how they park.
Why are Barns painted red?
The USA needs more painters. Everyplace I look houses need a paint job.
I have figured out how to get 30% better gas mileage in town, get the towns to get some decent traffic engineers so that we don’t have to stop at every damn light and idle and waste gas.
The ratio to shoes for men vs women is 1 to 10 pairs
Life is a road trip so enjoy the journey because you may not like where you end up.
Don’t be in such a hurry to leave a place where you are having fun, the trip to the next place might be a bitch.
If you want to have a successful RV Park you need location(next to the interstate), location (under the flight path of an airport), and location( next to some attraction) and location(close enough to a train that you can hear their horns in the middle of the night).
I do not know how our forefathers made it across the country to the west coast. The topography of the land seems impossible to cross without our modern day roads, they had to be very determined to reach the west coast ,either that or someone was chasing them.
We should all be nice to foreign visitors, the kind that come for two to three weeks, spend their money and then go back home.
How did we get along without a digital camera?
Delete the junk pictures before you download them into your computer.
The nicest people show up where you least expect them.
The most expensive campgrounds do not give out free wifi, where as in medium priced campgrounds they give it to you for free, greed factor.
You can justify almost any expense just by saying , Hey, we’re on vacation.
P.S. Steve Fossett called me and we met for the last time when we were staying in Vegas. Apparently Steve or the person representing himself to be Steve Fossett met with Dixie and I. His story started to fall apart and, at the point of my gun, this is the true story he finally told us. His real name is Henry Peters, he basically is a bum that works when he can and hikes around the country, he just happens to look just like Steve to the T, looks, hair color, height, weight are all the about the same. Apparently he was hiking the back country just South of Reno when he came across the wreckage of a small plane. He found inside the plane Steve Fossett, dead. He riffled through his pockets and found his wallet with over 3 thousand dollars in it, and several credit cards. He kept the cash and credit cards and also his light weight jacket embroidered with Steve’s name on it, the one he was wearing when we picked him up hitch hiking. He did not know who Steve was until the news told the story about his crash, he then figured he could pass for Steve and decided to use it to his illegal advantage. When he came to see us in Vegas he had run out of cash and said he needed for us to spot him some money, that he would pay back tenfold, I knew something was wrong then, he had been using the credit cards at places where he did not have to meet face to face with anyone and then they stopped being accepted, hence his reason to meet us in Vegas, to see if he could borrow some cash. I finally told him it was time to pay the reaper as I knew he was lying, a 9mm to his head made the truth just pop out of his mouth. So that’s the story and I won’t be taking over Steve’s multibillion dollar industry. The authorities have been notified of this story and the approximate whereabouts of the plane, I don’t know why they have not found Steve yet, maybe they have and they are just withholding it from public knowledge. If anyone has a job opening that requires my skills or knows of anyone, I am done traveling for a while, the home building industry still sucks, so give me a call and maybe we can work something out that will benefit both of us.
By the way instead of the Party at my house at 8 PM on Saturday October 27th being for my celebration of my new job it will now be for a memorial service for Steve, the man I almost knew like a brother. It’s still BYOB, especially since I’m not going to be a multibillionaire. See you all there, if you can’t make it say a prayer and send me ten dollars to help offset the cost of Steve’s Memorial service. I want you all to know that Steve came to me in a vision, in the vision he said that he would appear in spirit form and reveal to all who are there his secret to making money, each October 27th he will appear to us and reveal more information to help us all live more fulfilling and prosperous lives, he said he got this idea from a guy he met in heaven called Houdini. However he said that he will reveal these secrets to only those that have paid the ten dollars to Brian, cash only checks not accepted. Call or email me should you have any questions.
bmackay1@tampabay.rr.com
8224 Rancheria Drive
Riverview Florida
813.598.5592
See Ya, Brian "King of the Run on Sentence"


This email is coming to you now that Dixie and I do not own Dixies Dockside and we are now able to travel again.
To those of you that have not been on my Road Trip email list before, what I do is send a mostly daily blog about where we are traveling and what we do and what we EAT. We will be traveling the USA, east of the Mississippi during this trip. I hope you enjoy my rantings and descriptions of areas we are visiting. If You wish to not receive the Road Trip emails let me know and I will tell everyone that you are a queer and eat your boogers.
03-05-09
Getting ready to go to Bike week In Daytona, have a place for the Coach in Beverly Beach, should be a fun 3 days before we head to Fayetville to see Tara after she has her baby, she is due on the 12th. All the plans made when Tara calls at 9 and says her water broke. I told her to call a plumber, apparently different kind of water. Well change of plans so we get packed up for the 604 mile trip to the campground that we will be staying. Start out at exactly 12 noon and arrive, with one stop for fuel and two P breaks, at 9:30 P.M.. 604 miles divided by 9.5 hours = 63.57 miles per hour. For a house that weighs 28,000 lbs and pulling a jeep that's hauling ass. OK so we get to the hospital at 10:15, perfect timing as Tara delivered at 8:45 and by that time everything was cleaned up the, baby had been fed for the first time and they let everyone in to see the new delivery. A lot of you know me as really not "the baby type" well seeing Emmalyn made me change my mind. Bear in mind I have NEVER held a baby before, Never. When I held her, you know, well what can I say I'm now "Papa Brian", When I saw her little feet, hands, arms and legs I wondered how humans walk upright. I guess after being in a ball for 9 months makes your arms and legs a little curved to say the least, a little cone head but not much. The nurse says she is perfectly normal. She is a beautiful baby. We left them and went to waffle house, it was the only place open at 12:30. Had a wonderful fat waitress that took our order with a snear, did not refill our drinks even once, luckily the cook did. She was too busy yacking with her other fat friend smoking a cigarette when an even fatter friend came in wearing flip flops and a mu mu type dress. Her legs could not even lift her legs as she had to shuffle her flip flops instead flip flopping she sloshed sloshed along the floor. Luckilly she had a cigarette to help her keep moving, she was like the train I think I can I think I can. Fayetteville after dark will never make it as a TV show. That's all for today. I promise I will only send one picture as I know that to other people every baby looks the same. See Ya. Brian
03-06-09
Today was catchin up on sleep, woke at 8:30 and walked the peanut boy, he seems to have found a new love with any tree that he comes across. The RV park is OK, nice big pool,closed till warm weather arrives, and a stocked lake for fishing. Just 45 spaces with mostly live aboards for half the spaces. America is becoming the land of the fifth wheelers. As all good RV parks are, and this one is no different, it is in the airports flight path, this one is so close that the i.l.s. landing lights are actually on the property. No alarm clock necessary when this is the case I broke down this week and bought a bottle of Grand Marnier, screw France but America does not make anything close, and it sure goes down good after a long day of, has the baby pooped yet?,has the baby smiled yet?, is that a rash on the baby's bottom. I'm beginning to think it may not "be just about Brian" what's up with that shit. Visited Tara and Chris 2X today. Oh yeah every time, that's right every time you go into the Base your car gets searched, Open the trunk, open the HOOD, open the glove box, open the console. Still no hidden atom bombs so you can pass. Every time, I can not tell you how much safer everyone feels with this security in place at our military bases. Tara and Chris and Emmalyn should be leaving the hospital tomorrow . They are all ready to get home. Emmalyn is now attracted to breasts almost as much as I am. We went to dinner at a place sort of like "Hops", local brewery that serves only their own beer. Had a great home brewed hefeweizen beer "blue moon,shock top" type beer, really good at special price of $2.50. Had a FEW before and after dinner. Dixie drove home. Dixies Filet was perfect, pittsburg rare with just the right amount of crust and I had the best meat loaded thin crust pizza I have ever had, there was so much that we both have the other half for lunch tomorrow, who knew they knew how to make killer pizza in North Carolina. Did I say Dixie drove home. I'm having a G.M. now and everything is SMOOOOTH. Looks like I will be leaving Sunday morning to go home, I am really looking forward to driving the Jeep wrangler 600 miles, did I mention no cruise control so I guess i'll be the idiot that's ahead of you that can't seem to hold the speed limit.. One of these days I am going to kick myself in the ass for cheaping out on some things. I'll be home for about 4 weeks by myself while Dixie stays here to help Tara out with the baby, so make sure that you invite me over or out for dinner. One thing that the front page of the local paper is complaining about is that the house prices are RISING. They are also complaining about the increase in taxes due to this fact. I guess nobody is happy about their housing crisis. Well that's all for now, See Ya. Brian