We got Grannie for Christmas.

On Wednesday Tonya's mother and cousin, Becky, flew in to stay through Christmas. We rented a park model unit for them to stay in while they are here. That makes them official renters so they can participate in any of the activities in the park they would like.

Here's Grannie and I cutting a rug at the Sock Hop on Thursday night. We got two eights and a nine.



On Friday Grannie joined the weekly double deck Pinochle game. Becky was wandering around taking pictures, found another amateur photographer and spent over an hour at his house talking shop.

We went to Karaoke on Friday night. This is my Uncle Jim and Aunt Ruthie singing a duet. They had been coming here for several years when we got MoMance and are why we came to this park in the first place. They now live here full time and just put a beautiful new home on their lot.



Here we are at the tables.






and Here is a Jim singing.


No, he wasn't laying down. You'll have to turn your computer sideways since I didn't realize you can't rotate a video.

On Saturday I dropped Grannie and Becky off at the local flea market at 9:30 am. They called me to pick them up at 4:00 pm. They were only half way through but it was closing, good thing, or I might have had to get them with a stretcher. We went back to our house where Tonya cooked a delicious spaghetti dinner for everyone. Tonya stayed home to do dishes and rest up, but Granny and Becky were still going strong, so we went to the Country and Western dance where I taught them all I remembered from last years two step lessons (quick quick, slow slow, in a straight line).

Will have to update you later, it's Sunday morning, time to get Grannie to church, then go places and do things.

Fun in the Sun has begun.

After a cool, rainy, and windy first day the sun is back just like we remembered it. Here is our home setup for the next few months (notice the sky in the pictures, that is what it usually looks like). Will have some pictures of the park in future posts.



Tonya just missed a playoff for first in the mixed doubles pool tournament on Wednesday and my (blind draw) partner and I went 6 and 0 yesterday to win the Friday men's pool tournament. Today is the monthly park "Walk and Shop", what you call a yard sale when you have no yard. Then it's off to the local flea market. Pool tournaments on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday night, Friday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and Monday night. Three cushion billiard play every morning. Poker games on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday nights and Thursday afternoon. Some difficult choices will have to be made.

The Eagle has Landed.

At 3:18 pm on December 7 the sunseeker module "MoMance" touched down successfully at 5707 E. 32nd St. Lot 1028, Yuma, Arizona 85365, in an area on planet Earth known as the Imperial Valley. Disembarking from the tow vehicle was one small step for man, one pretty big step for an old man. For the next 5 months from this base there will be many "land walks" and excursions with the 4 wheel rover in order to determine if this area has the climate necessary for maximum fun. Results from this study will be reported here. The first day was rainy and windy, very unusual. Check back later to see if conditions change.

Made it to Arizona

We left Midland on Saturday and are at home in Benson, AZ tonight. If we get started fairly early tomorrow we will make the 300 miles to Yuma tomorrow afternoon. If we are delayed will stop early and make it Tuesday morning.

Snowbound in Midland.

It rained all day Tuesday so we didn't leave San Antonio that day as planned. We took off Wednesday and made a slight jog to Midland yesterday to visit friends Jim and Nita Evans (in Texas anything within a hundred miles of your route is considered "on the way"). Jim and I started working for Sonat about the same time and worked together for 20 years. I haven't seen him in several years but their move to Midland recently put them right in our path to Yuma. We had a great visit and dinner at their house last night. This morning there is a couple of inches of snow on the ground here and the forecast says it isn't going to warm up much until tomorrow. Interstate 20 is about a block away and from here looks like a parking lot. There are some sites to see in Midland and we think today would be a perfect time to check them out. I've already reupped for another night here so we won't be heading west until at least tomorrow.

New Running Gear for MoMance

We got to San Antonio TX Sunday afternoon, rode the city bus downtown and took a stroll along the riverwalk. We ate at an one of the hundreds of restaraunts there then spent about an hour at the dueling piano bar "Howl at the Moon". Even though at 7:30 on Sunday night there were only about six people in the joint the piano players were still asking for requests, so you know I made one. What I found out is, out of three piano players not one new how to play Bumble Boogie. Anybody can play an Elton John song, only real piano players know Bumble Boogie by B. Bumble and the Stingers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvGNBTosRAs"

We had a great evening and got home early.

Yesterday morning we had an appointment with Southwest Wheel to do some work on MoMance. They converted the brake system from electric drum to electric/hydraulic disc. While they were doing that we had them replace all the leaf springs and shocks. Now we have all new brakes, bearings, springs, and shocks and figure we are good for the next 100,000 miles. One guy, Reuben, started the job, at about lunch time when I could tell he wouldn't get done I told him we would be getting a motel. He said he had things to do the next day and had to get done so he had recruited two other guys to help him. All three of them were humped up like cut worms all afternoon to get done by 5:00. They made it so we were home again last night.

We spent the night just a couple of miles down the road. Will be easing our way west today, getting the brakes broke in and checking for boogers.

Head em up...

We haven't posted in a couple of weeks so I thought I had better get caught up since things are about to change. We are still in Whitehouse, TX where we have been visiting friends and Leah's family. I have been hanging out at Clicks, the local pool hall, and Tonya has been trying to pick up all the trash in Whitehouse. We also managed to sell and give away at least some of the stuff in our storage unit.

We decided the new paint job on the repair to MoMance didn't match as well as it should so we had to take it back in. The repair shop repainted it for us with a very good match this time.

We joined the kids at James' parents house for a great Thanksgiving dinner and also went to Bob and Kathy's for extra dessert with them and the Gill's.

We are getting ready to pull out today, headed for Yuma, AZ. It will take several days to get there with a couple of things planned along the way. We'll keep you posted as we go.

Move em out.

Home Again

Picked up MoMance yesterday and are homeless no more. Here are a few pictures of the work that was done.

The crack was at the corner of this slide. There was water damaged wood framework under the slide. To get to it the front caps had to be revoved and fiberglass and plywood exterior wall taken off.



Here is the new wood and a steel plate that was added to reinforce the corner. This should prevent the crack from reoccuring.


The new fiberglass skin is installed and getting prepared for paint.


We are pleased with the with the job Northwest Collision and RV repair did. It is a small shop that apparently does quite a bit of this type of work. I don't think they had worked on any Travel Supremes though because the owner, Filipe, was amazed at the size and quality of the wood used in the framework. He is used to seeing 1 and 2 inch frames and partical board floors. Even with that we apparently had a weakness in construction that caused the crack in the first place. That problem should be solved for good and we on our way to the next 8 years.

Body work turns in to surgery

Last week we postponed taking MoMance in to get the body work done due to rain. Took it in yesterday and after the initial look behind the small crack in the fiberglass we could see that some major surgery would be required to get to the framework. Some water damaged wood needs to be replaced and we need to confirm there aren't other problems that caused the crack in the first place. We won't be able to stay in it while the work is going on, now we are really homeless. We asked Leah if she needed a really convenient baby sitter, in other words could we move in for the week. She fell for it, so that's where we will be for a few days.

If you already looked at the last post about Paige's birthday party I have fixed the album, it now shows all the pictures instead of just one, go back to it and check them out.

Paige 4 year old mermaid

Click here to view these pictures larger

Saturday Paige had her 4 year birthday party. Since her birthday is the 30th the partiers usually wear their halloween costumes, Paige was a mermaid which became the party theme. The beautiful cake made by her grandmother Cynthia. After the party we went out to eat with friends and the girls' families.

Body Maintenance

We are staying in Whitehouse TX, going to doctors and visiting with family and friends. We had a great dinner at Bob and Kathy's a few days ago. When we left town in June, Bob was in intensive care recovering from an auto accident. He had a long period of recovery and rehab before he could even go home. Even with some recurring problems he is doing great compared to when we left. We got to see Tim and Jesse's beautiful new Log House under construction. We still have several more friends to see that don't even know we're in town yet. Of course we go to Leah's every couple of days and, as you can see, the grand kids are glad to see us.


This is Leah's cute little lap dog (he thinks), Lucky.

MoMance is also going to the doctor. It has had a small crack in the figerglass for a long time that we are going to take in to get repaired on Monday. It will be necessary to check under the crack to see what caused it so we don't know yet whether this will be a minor cosmetic repair or something more involved. I am also looking in to doing more work on the brakes and suspension since we had trouble with both while traveling this summer. MoMance has been 75,737 miles, we don't plan on getting a new mobile mansion or stop traveling, so we need to make sure it's good for the next 75,000. The plan is to have all of our bodies roadworthy by the time we leave.

Deal, or No Deal?

more...
We actually saw the truck last Saturday but our internet was so bad in Livingston I didn't post until now. Prior to going to the dealership I did some research using the on line Kelly Blue Book numbers for trade ins and used trucks. I thought I had an idea of what we might be able to make a deal for, but apparently they were using the orange book or black book or some other book because as soon as they gave their first numbers I could tell we weren't in the same ballpark. We negotiated them down to what I think was their bottom number which was still well above our top number so it was "No Deal".

The campground was having their annual Octoberfest festivities so we stayed until Wednesday before moving to Whitehouse. We'll be here a few weeks visiting friends and spoiling granddaughters.

Sad news for us about another one of our granddaughters. Carrie and Stephen had to put their Dalmatian, Abbey, to sleep today to end her struggle with kidney failure. We'll miss her.

Truck Detour

We ended our visit with Carrie, Stephen and Zack (and Abbey and Sophie and Mo and Joe) and headed towards Whitehouse TX on Monday to see Leah, James, Megan and Paige (and Lucky and Ears).

We decided to stop at Rainbow's End RV Park in Livingston TX. This is the Escapee's park where our mail is sent and is our official home address. We were just going to stay a couple of days to tour the park, but the guy right behind us had a 2008 Ford F450 pick-up truck; and as I always do when I see one, I asked him how he liked it. He said he loved it but was trading it in on Thursday. I asked why he was trading it in if he liked it; he said he just trades for a new truck every two years (the truck he's getting is the same, only a 2010). Since I have been looking at this model of truck for a couple of years I thought we might have a chance at buying a slightly used one that was in good shape.

I have talked to Ron about where he has been with the truck (40,000 miles including Alaska) and what problems he has had (none). He has already made his deal so he has no reason to be anything but honest. We have been to the dealership, they confirmed that Ron maintains his trucks by the book and trades with them for a new one every 1-1/2 to 2 years. His "old" truck should be ready to sell on Monday (they're giving us first chance) so we are going to hang around until then to see what kind of a deal we can make.

Wanna Play?

It's never too early to start a misspent youth, and "Pearland Pudgy" just happens to know someone that can start him off on the wrong foot.

Any comments?

We would love to see your comments, so if you want to leave one but don't want to open a Google account, here are instructions I copied from Carrie's blog.

"When you go to the comment screen, at the bottom, you choose your identity from a drop down menu. If you do not have a Google Email Account, you can choose 'Name/URL'. Then you can type in your name (please use a last initial in case I know more than one person with your name), and Voila! a post with your name on it!"

Zack Time

Visited Carrie and Stephen and gave Zack some grandparent's guidance all day Sunday; going back tonight. Carrie is doing an outstanding job of sharing Zack's adventures and pictures on her blog http://thestavinohafamily.blogspot.com/.
Check it out if you aren't already a regular reader.

Don't worry, granddaughters, we will be up to see you next week.

"To the moon, Alice!"

One of the RV parks we stay at when visiting Carrie is just a few miles from the Johnson Space Center. We finally decided to go for the tour yesterday. Well worth the time and money, although give yourself more than the 3 hours we allowed. We paid an additional $3.00 each to become members of Space Center Houston. This membership (complete with photo ID) will allow us to return each and every day for the next 365 days for free admission ($19.95 each) and free parking ($5.00). What a deal! Surely we'll be back in Houston some time before 09/30/10! (Tonya--I'll be back this week for at least a few more hours.)




Actual size mock-up of the shuttle, used for astronaut training and design engineering (and changes while in space in case of a "glitch" along the way).




Actual size mock-up of the space station.



Bottom of the huge Saturn V Rocket used to send the moon shots.




I figure living in an RV qualifies us to live in the space station. (Tonya--Not!) As you can see I am pretty much ready to go.

We have a winner.

Actually, several winners of the different pool tournaments (amateur 8-ball, amateur 9-ball, amateur team 8-ball, amateur wheelchair 8-ball, amateur women's 8-ball, amateur scotch doubles 8-ball, professional women's 9-ball, professional one-pocket, professional 8-ball, professional 10-ball) this week in Galveston. To no one's surprise that are pool fans, the players from the Philippines won most of the money, although Mika Immonen from Finland won the featured 10-Ball event. I stayed until about 2:00 a.m. this morning until all the trophies and cash were awarded (thinking they may have a spectator award, which I was sure to win). Unfortunately they didn't, so the USA missed its chance to get in the winners circle.


This is the TV pit where the feature matches were streamed live on the internet. The other tables were where the amateur events were held.


This is the Pro side of the venue, where all the professional events were played.





I was in the TV pit so often I got to know Cornelius the cameraman.

Now that that's over we are going to stay here a couple more weeks to do some visiting with Carrie and Stephen and get some more Zack time. Tonya found our camera yesterday so future pictures will be better than the last few I took with my phone. MoMance may be small but there are lots of nooks and crannies to stow/lose things.

On the beach

where we used to run.... We are going to be staying here in League City TX for the next few weeks. There is a huge pool tournament extravaganza going on at the beautiful Moody Gardens Convention Center in Galveston (note the youtube address in the last post you didn't go to). The event started on Friday and will go through next Monday. All day long there are pro and amateur tournaments, high stakes gambling all night long. Needless to say I spend about 14 hours a day (all my butt will stand) at the convention center watching. League City is about the same distance from Carrie's house so Tonya has been to see the Z'ster and will be going even more after tomorrow when Carrie's work schedule slows down. Well, my butt is rested now and I've got to get ready to go so I don't miss anything.

Another place, another song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2tgVAML2gE

Actually we're 25 miles north but nobody ever sang a song about League City.

Back in Texas

After a little unplanned adventure in Oklahoma we made it to Texas, spending last night in Madisonville, about 100 miles north of Houston.

In Oklahoma our GPS routed us on State Highway 63, a shortcut from westbound US 270 to southbound US 69. This was a state highway after all, how bad could it be? The answer, we found out, is pretty damn bad. State Hwy 63 is 22 miles of rough two-lane blacktop with no shoulder, lots of 90 degree blind curves, and two one-lane bridges.

About 5 miles into this shortcut the left rear leaf spring on MoMance broke causing the axle to shift, tires to start rubbing together, and no telling what else. I didn't realize it in the truck and would have continued driving, but lucky for us Tonya was following in the car and saw something was amiss. She tried calling me (no cell service) then passed me in a no passing zone (it's all a no passing zone) honking her horn. I stopped where I could, which was right in the middle of my lane.

Fortunately there was very little traffic at this time of day. More good luck as there were two nice young guys who stopped shortly after we did, jumped out of their truck, and hit the ground. They spotted the broken spring before I did, and since they had experience with ranch and oilfield trailers, knew immediately that I was going to have to pull both wheels off the back axle, tie up the broken side, and run on the other 4 wheels to somewhere I could get it fixed. They helped pull off and load the wheels; the shock held the broken side up off the ground so we didn't have to tie it up. I will be passing their help forward at the very first opportunity.

We eased on at about 20 mph for about 14 miles when one of the four tires I was running on picked up a nail and started leaking air. Luckily, our tire pressure monitoring system alerted me so I knew it was getting low before it blew out. With only one tire left on that side (meant to have three) it wouldn't have been long before we had no tires on that side. A side road suddenly appeared so I could change it without being in the "highway" (I just happened to have a couple of good tires in the back of the truck).

Just around the next curve we found Pittsburg, a town of a few hundred people, an out-of-business bar, a gas station (with convenience store) that doesn't take credit cards, and a bar that is in business. We pulled into the parking lot of the out-of-business bar and decided to make our repairs there. Lucky for us all we had to do was crank up the generator and we were home for the night. After setting up I went on a fact-finding mission to the local watering hole. After a few beers and a few games of pool I got some leads on where to get a spring, and also found out that country singer Reba McEntire graduated from high school three miles up the road in Kiowa OK, although she doesn't claim that as her hometown. I was playing pool with a guy that had dated her sister, Suzy Q.

On Tuesday morning I found a spring in McAlester, only about 15 miles away, and got a new tire (the nail had punctured the outside edge of the tread which means it wasn't repairable). In the afternoon I installed the new spring and replaced the wheels. We decided just to go to an RV site in Reba's unclaimed hometown for the night and hit the road again on Wednesday. I guess the repair job is okay since we traveled 300 miles and nothing fell off.

I would say all in all things turned out great. We avoided some potentially really bad problems, got to meet several nice people, found a state highway not to take, and were home every night.

We're not in

Kansas anymore Toto, we're in Poteau. That's a town in Eastern Oklahoma where we have been visiting our friends Scotty and Rose Price. They have a beautiful home on a hilltop with a pool and a 20 mile view. Played some pool in their pool house that is also a pool room. Scotty grilled some steaks on the barbie and Rose made a fantastic meal which we ate on the patio under the full moon. I'm pretty sure that's about as good as it gets. Leaving this morning as soon as the fog lifts.

For the younger generation of readers that didn't get the last post go to the link I have added under the picture.

The sun is breaking through, "A little traveling music please maestro."

Standin' on the corner...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baDi3WpQZnI

With our car

we did rejoin. That must mean we're back in --- ------. Just a little quiz to see which of you readers has been paying attention. Poolplayer Charlie "Hillbilly" Bryant said his daddy always told him. "It doesn't cost anything to pay attention". I wish I had paid attention to where I put the camera since it's not in the car. This has given me an idea though. If you have a digital camera, print out a sheet that says "This camera belongs to .......... Phone Number........." Take a picture of it and leave that picture in the camera just in case you leave it somewhere and an honest soul finds it.

We have stayed at some beautiful parks the last few days. Lake Elmo Reserve near Minneapolis, Clear Lake State Park in Iowa, and Prairie flower Corps of Engineer Park near Des Moines IA (clue, people, pay attention). Heading out today. Will let you know where we end up in a couple of days.

By the shore

of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
The weather there got cold and gloomy,
We desired somewhere hotter,

Got our compass found true north,
Turned the other way and ventured forth,
Now at the city with the IKEA,
It'll be a few more days before we see ya.

Do you know the way

to Grand Marais? Just follow scenic Highway 61 along the coast of Lake Superior until you are about 40 miles from the Canadian border. That's where we are, living on the bank of Lake Superior and on the edge of the 3 million acre Superior National Forest. People around here say they have had a cool and rainy summer but, as luck would have it, we are enjoying sunny 70 degree days while taking driving and hiking trips through the official north woods. I would add some pictures but apparently I left our camera in the car. We'll be here a couple more days before starting to work our way back south. You Texans need to turn off the heat before we get there.

Why are we in Duluth, MN?

Because we have never been here before and even though it rained the first three days it is now sunny with highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's. We have done just a little sightseeing so far. I had to repair a slideout problem during which I pulled a calf muscle and can barely walk so hiking through the woods is out for a while. I can still sit around, watch TV and run the computer so everything is good. Plenty of trash so Tonya has lots to do. Meanwhile we're home every night.

Minneapolis, MN

This is very disturbing. Ever since we got to Minnesota Tonya has been shrinking until now she can fit under Momance. I don't know if we can stay much longer.

On the other hand, Mall of America is big as advertised. It doesn't have an IKEA store in it like I had heard (IKEA is across the road) but it does have an amusement park in the middle, an aquarium with the largest shark tank in the world in the basement and 5 floors of stores. We went to a "Human Body" exhibit that is also showing at the mall. This is one of those with the real "plasticized" bodies and body parts, skeletons, circulatory systems, muscles, internal organs etc., very interesting. There were also various shows from Branson playing over the weekend.

Did some more sightseeing today. Ate lunch at the Mystic Lake Casino buffet but didn't gamble, so not only did we not lose our ass, we added to it.

Heading north tomorrow, should be at the north pole soon.

Made it to MinnaSOOOODA

We left Des Moines on Tuesday after we couldn't get the brakes to quit working again or find the problem. When we got about 150 miles north they temporarily shorted out again. We found our way to Ken's RV Repair, a one man shop in Forest City, IA, and stayed in town a couple of days until he could take a look. Forest City is a small midwestern town in the middle of Iowa cornfields that also just happens to be where Winnebago motor homes are made. If it hadn't been for our problem we would have never come down this road or taken the very interesting tour of the huge Winnebago plant. They are still building RV's but operating with about 1300 employees, down from around 2600 a year ago. Ken diagnosed the brake problem on Friday as worn and cracked magnets. He came in on Saturday and replaced all of them so we could get on our merry way to Minneapolis, Minnesota where we are this morning. We will be going to the Mall of America in a little while. Tonya will probably want to shop and I will probably do the Clark Griswald; "Wow that's big, lets cross it off our list and hit the road".

Balloon Classic Indianola IA

We are still in Des Moines, IA. Thursday evening we went to the 40th annual Balloon Classic in Indianola, IA., a week long event with around 100 hot air balloons participating. Here are some pictures of the balloons being blown up, in the air and the night glow show.







For the RVers reading this the park we are staying in is called Cutty's. You have to belong to Passport or Coast to Coast to get in but if you belong and need a spot in Des Moines sometime I would recommend it.

There is a maintenance guy at the park we are staying named Dick that works for the park and also does RV repair. I hired him to help me (read I helped him) pull a couple of hubs to check a wheel that was running a little hot on the way over here. We didn't find anything wrong but I got introduced to Dick.

We decided to leave the car here for the next few weeks and get it on the way back through, so Friday morning we put the car in storage, fueled up the truck and got rigged down. While I was preparing to hitch up Momance the serpentine belt on the truck started shredding and knocked the radiator hose off. As I was looking things over Dick came by and said "Looks like you need to go get a new belt". I agreed but said I had just put the car in storage. He said he had a car, gave me a ride to his RV, handed me the keys to his car and told me how to get to the auto parts store. I went and bought a belt, when I returned Dick happened by and helped me put it on. After installing we found the cause of the problem was a bad tensioner assembly. Dick said I needed to go back to the parts store and buy a new tensioner. I asked if he could install it. He said he could but would have to do it after he got off work. I took Dick's car again, bought the part and we installed it that evening. I asked Dick how much I owed him, he said "I figure it's worth $40. I paid him $60 and told him if he said anything I was going to give him more. I had just had a show stopping mechanical failure, not while pulling down the highway or even running around town, but while parked in our "front yard". I didn't have to move it, got to buy the parts myself for about half what a shop would charge, and the mechanic came to me. Pretty lucky I would say. Did I mention Dick is 75 years old and has retired three times. (I know Uncle Jim is saying "So" but not everyone his age is that active and still working everyday.)

When we left Saturday morning we didn't get a mile when the electric trailer brakes quit working. We immediately turned around and went back to the campground, it's not a good idea to pull this rig anywhere without its' brakes working. Couldn't find the problem right away so we got another spot until Monday. I have done some research and think the problem is a short so I will be looking more today. If I don't get it figured out Dick is back to work tomorrow. In the meantime we are not stranded on the highway but "Home Every Night".

From Terry: Last week we were in Ottawa IL visiting our friends Jim and Donna Skolek. While we were there we went out to Skydive Chicago (the skydiving airport just outside of town) where they were having their annual event that brings skydivers in from all over the world for 3 weeks. There were about 300 skydivers going up in 4 planes (with 20 in each plane) from morning until dark. It looked like it was raining parachutes all day long. The video above shows a few of them landing (there were often dozens landing in quick succession during the day). We talked to one of the participants who claimed to be fairly new to skydiving with only about 120 jumps. He was going to give a demonstration of how the backup chute worked by cutting away his main chute on the way down. Tonya told him "That's pretty stupid." He not only jumped out of a perfectly good airplane but cut off his perfectly good parachute on the way down. We were impressed when another said he had about 1800 skydives until he told us some here had 17,000 plus.

On Thursday night a few brave souls did a night jump with lighted suits and fire shooting out of their heels on the way down. There was plane flyby after which the whole runway seemed to explode with some kind of timed charges (about 8 fireballs), followed by a spectacular fireworks show. (We missed the Toga party the night before - damn the luck.)

On Friday a group was going to try to set a world record with 80 divers all touching in formation while head down vertical. The current record is 69; if they succeeded I think they were going to go for 100 next. Any group that is going to do a formation on the way down does a "Dirt Dive" or rehearsal on the ground just before going up. Funny name, I would think a dirt dive would be what you would call a jump when the chute failed. The pictures below show the choreographer going over the formation design with part of the group and the whole group doing the "Dirt Dive". I don't know why the picture is so dark, I guess I was wearing my sunglasses when I took it. Will try to figure out how to lighten and repost later.

We stayed long enough to watch the first attempt. They didn't all get together on that one so they were preparing for another attempt when we left. Don't know if they succeeded later or not. Amazingly while we were looking up trying to locate the divers we could actually hear them before we could see them, not because they were all screaming in fear like I would have been, but because the suits of 80 divers all falling at the speed of gravity makes a low roar.

For my oilfield friends that are reading this I also learned that Ottawa is the sand mining capital of the country. I suspect a lot of frac sand comes from here.

Later on Friday we took our circus to Des Moines IA. Starting on Friday night there was a challenge pool match between two top players, each putting up a $5,000 wager. The match was played on a 7' bar table with the winner being the first to win 150 games of 9-ball.

This is Scott "The Freezer" Frost originally from Des Moines now living in Phoenix AZ. Scott is well known as one of the best players in the country and the home town favorite.

And this is Shane "The Kid" Van Boening from Sioux Falls SD. Shane may now be the top player on the planet. There will be some argument about that, but he is certainly in the top 5. If you watch any professional pool on TV you have probably seen him. They played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights with Shane winning by a convincing margin of 150 - 104. Great fun for a pool hall junkie like me to watch.

We are still in Des Moines. Planning on staying until Friday then heading north.

Brickyard

From Terry: Sunday I went with friends Rod, Dewey, Jerry, and Kim to the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race in Indianapolis. The weather was perfect and we had a great time as usual. Here are a couple pictures from our seats showing the cars just before the start of the race and the "yard of brick" at the start finish line.

Meanwhile back at the junior national pool tournament my pick as the future hall of famer, 15 year old Landon Shuffett from Kentucky, won the 15 - 19 age division. His dad is one of the top pool instructors in the country. We may end up in Kentucky one of these days.

Breaking camp today and heading north.

From Terry: Pictures of our new spot at Comlara park and the lake that is part of the park.

This week I have been attending a national college level pool tournament. Players were college students from all over the country that have won qualifiers at their school. The event was held at the rec center of Illinois State University, Tonya and my alma mater. The winner was Adam Maloney from Texas A&M University, Carrie and Stephen's alma mater (just a coincidence? I think not). Junior nationals are going on here for the rest of the week with kids 14 and under and 15 - 19 playing. I have been watching them practice and one is a sure future Hall of Famer. Getting a little warm here with the temp getting way up in the 80's.

From Terry: We are now at Comlara County park between Normal and El Paso, Illinois visiting friends and family. We've been here a couple of weeks at the site shown in the pics. Thursday we went to my uncle Jim's 75th birthday party. Jim and Ruthie are full timers also but live most of the year in the RV park we go to every winter in Yuma, AZ. They are also here visiting family. Saturday night we went to my brother Jeff's for burgers on the grill then to a street dance in Lexington (my home town), had to wear a jacket because it was so cool. Just a little information for those of you in Texas. Sunday we went to the monthly flea/antique etc. market in Bloomington and ate supper out on the patio at my sister Sonja's. Moved to site #5 yesterday. Plan on staying another week.

Just created.

Just created this blog. Plan on using it to keep those interested informed about our whereabouts if we keep it updated. We'll see.