Cindy found our tongue battery missing this morning. The sheriff has been summoned.
Dammit.
Mark_
28 October 2013
21 October 2013
Missouri, and beyond.
We have seen old friends, camped in a beautiful state park, eaten catfish, looked around Mark Twain's boyhood home town, and ridden a little train whose cars were like commercial tumble dryers (up a leg of St. Louis's Gateway Arch; pix soon)--and now it's time to visit south Missouri.
I will have a look at the small farm where my maternal grandparents lived, and where I got my taste for the outdoors. My memory of the nighttime insect sounds is vivid and pleasant; we have enjoyed hearing sounds that we have not heard during the 29 years we have been living in the Northwest.
The place will be in serious disrepair, and I have no expectation of entering the house. Apparently all worth having was stolen long ago, anyway.
Even so, I intend to walk around outside.
After that, a natural spring or two in south Missouri, then on to Albuquerque.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Babler SP, St. Louis, MO.
• Pictures: <https://picasaweb.google.com/socrates4718>
13 October 2013
Camping @ Knob Noster SP
The Longs and we have driven our trailers to Knob Noster (Latin: Our Hill[s]) State Park for a couple of nights among the trees. Nice park.
Sunday we took a nice walk through a forest of oak, hickory, and cottonwood. Some of these were pretty large. And the effect overall was quite beautiful. Things are beginning to look as if they might like to turn to fall colors, although not much progress has been made at present.
After our return, and just as our very late lunch (or slightly early dinner) was ready, were visited by old friends who had been our neighbors when we lived in Independence. We had camped together--they had had the first pop-up we had seen--and next weekend we will camp together again, near Hannibal, MO. While there we will look around Mark Twain country, and as we depart at the end of the weekend we may drive through St. Louis (MO Botanical Garden, Climatron, etc.).
We finished the day sitting around a campfire as the evening cooled. The majority of the other campers have departed, so except for the barred owl we hear, the place is pretty quiet.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Knob Noster
SP, MO.
• Pictures: <https://picasaweb.google.com/socrates4718>
Sunday we took a nice walk through a forest of oak, hickory, and cottonwood. Some of these were pretty large. And the effect overall was quite beautiful. Things are beginning to look as if they might like to turn to fall colors, although not much progress has been made at present.
After our return, and just as our very late lunch (or slightly early dinner) was ready, were visited by old friends who had been our neighbors when we lived in Independence. We had camped together--they had had the first pop-up we had seen--and next weekend we will camp together again, near Hannibal, MO. While there we will look around Mark Twain country, and as we depart at the end of the weekend we may drive through St. Louis (MO Botanical Garden, Climatron, etc.).
We finished the day sitting around a campfire as the evening cooled. The majority of the other campers have departed, so except for the barred owl we hear, the place is pretty quiet.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Knob Noster
SP, MO.
• Pictures: <https://picasaweb.google.com/socrates4718>
11 October 2013
Sights and Activities in Kansas City
Today we visited a quaint little retail complex where the foods were arrayed on and beside some interesting antiques, then we drove into Kansas City to walk around one of the U.S.'s first themed shopping districts, the Country Club Plaza. This area is near the biggest of the city's art museums, the University of Missouri, the Union Station, and other cultural features.
It contains a Starbucks, a Sur la Table, and an Eddie Bauer.
After reconnecting with old friends, we drove a couple of miles through town for some authentic barbecue from Arthur Bryant's. After that very late lunch we returned to pick up those friends and attend a Spanish Baroque music concert <http://bachariasoloists.com>. This was delightful.
Just as a major thunderstorm was arriving, we drove back to _Arcadia_ @ the Longs--arriving barely in time to close windows before the rain hit.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, the Longs', Lone Jack, MO.
It contains a Starbucks, a Sur la Table, and an Eddie Bauer.
After reconnecting with old friends, we drove a couple of miles through town for some authentic barbecue from Arthur Bryant's. After that very late lunch we returned to pick up those friends and attend a Spanish Baroque music concert <http://bachariasoloists.com>. This was delightful.
Just as a major thunderstorm was arriving, we drove back to _Arcadia_ @ the Longs--arriving barely in time to close windows before the rain hit.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, the Longs', Lone Jack, MO.
09 October 2013
Camping at Dick and Evalyn's
I had an excellent little shop install my rivets today: Abe Thompson RV of Grain Valley, MO. He knew exactly what was needed (although he was quite skeptical about the use of acorn nuts on the "other" end of pop-rivets). The cost was quite reasonable, he let help, and he was pleasant. One further, excellent, result is that I understand things better.
The trouble with my effort was that holes were not aligned so that I could push rivets into place. Because the coach and its furniture are flexible, when I parked in his lot loading was different, and holes lined up better.
All good now.
That stop along I-70 occurred as we drove to our next overnight stop: in the yard @ Dick & Evalyn's. Tomorrow evening Evalyn will host a party for Cindy and her former colleagues from the Blue Springs, Missouri, school district.
It will be big fun.
Weather has been beautiful: pleasantly warm, brilliantly sunny days; clear, cool nights.
We have been renewing our acquaintance with Midwestern plants, birds, and insects. Pix @ my Picasa. (That is the largest praying mantis I have ever seen. Wow.)
Camping with Dick & Evalyn this weekend.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, @ the Longs', Lone Jack, MO.
• Pictures: <https://picasaweb.google.com/socrates4718>
The trouble with my effort was that holes were not aligned so that I could push rivets into place. Because the coach and its furniture are flexible, when I parked in his lot loading was different, and holes lined up better.
All good now.
That stop along I-70 occurred as we drove to our next overnight stop: in the yard @ Dick & Evalyn's. Tomorrow evening Evalyn will host a party for Cindy and her former colleagues from the Blue Springs, Missouri, school district.
It will be big fun.
Weather has been beautiful: pleasantly warm, brilliantly sunny days; clear, cool nights.
We have been renewing our acquaintance with Midwestern plants, birds, and insects. Pix @ my Picasa. (That is the largest praying mantis I have ever seen. Wow.)
Camping with Dick & Evalyn this weekend.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, @ the Longs', Lone Jack, MO.
• Pictures: <https://picasaweb.google.com/socrates4718>
08 October 2013
Leisurely Day in Camp
This was a leisurely day in camp; we had taken a late-night walk to the marina last night, so we slept in this morning until quote late.
I spent the day working on the issue of some broken rivets @ _Arcadia_'s galley. ("It's not a bug; it's a _feature_!"). In the end, I failed; Casita will pay for a shop to install replacements.
I had not realized it, but one had been out for months--perhaps since our first trip. The other three probably broke because of that one's lack of support at a crucial location--and because we had to drive over the most uneven stretch of interstate highway I believe I have ever encountered.
The rivets are apparently considered sacrificial: They break so that nothing more expensive breaks. This seems to have worked.
During the evening we chatted with the full-timer owners of the Casita in the slip next door. They carry more stuff than we do--an amazing amount.
Tomorrow, to the shop (we hope) and then to Richard & Evalyn's.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Lake Jacomo Campground, Fleming Park, Jackson County, MO.
• Pictures: <https://picasaweb.google.com/socrates4718>
• Web-Log: <http://socrates4718.blogspot.com>
I spent the day working on the issue of some broken rivets @ _Arcadia_'s galley. ("It's not a bug; it's a _feature_!"). In the end, I failed; Casita will pay for a shop to install replacements.
I had not realized it, but one had been out for months--perhaps since our first trip. The other three probably broke because of that one's lack of support at a crucial location--and because we had to drive over the most uneven stretch of interstate highway I believe I have ever encountered.
The rivets are apparently considered sacrificial: They break so that nothing more expensive breaks. This seems to have worked.
During the evening we chatted with the full-timer owners of the Casita in the slip next door. They carry more stuff than we do--an amazing amount.
Tomorrow, to the shop (we hope) and then to Richard & Evalyn's.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Lake Jacomo Campground, Fleming Park, Jackson County, MO.
• Pictures: <https://picasaweb.google.com/socrates4718>
• Web-Log: <http://socrates4718.blogspot.com>
07 October 2013
Visiting with Friends
We visited Dick & Evalyn at their place last evening. It was great seeing them again--and also to have excellent cookies and cake--a triple treat:
Desserts! (We haven't been having desserts much for the previous year or so.)
Dick and Evalyn! (Warm hospitality; excellent slides of their summer travels; laughs; good times.)
_Evalyn's_ desserts! (Any desserts might have been acceptable, but _these_ cookies and _this_ cake were worth a three-day drive!)
Two more nights here @ Lake Jacomo (where, I have fairly recently remembered, I was on a sailboat for the only time during that part of my life), then we will relocate to Dick & Evalyn's for three nights. For the weekend we have arranged to camp with them @ Knob Noster State Park. We are eager!
For the time being, no plans are in place for additional visits with Cindy's father.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Lake Jacomo Campground, Fleming Park, Jackson County, MO.
Desserts! (We haven't been having desserts much for the previous year or so.)
Dick and Evalyn! (Warm hospitality; excellent slides of their summer travels; laughs; good times.)
_Evalyn's_ desserts! (Any desserts might have been acceptable, but _these_ cookies and _this_ cake were worth a three-day drive!)
Two more nights here @ Lake Jacomo (where, I have fairly recently remembered, I was on a sailboat for the only time during that part of my life), then we will relocate to Dick & Evalyn's for three nights. For the weekend we have arranged to camp with them @ Knob Noster State Park. We are eager!
For the time being, no plans are in place for additional visits with Cindy's father.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Lake Jacomo Campground, Fleming Park, Jackson County, MO.
06 October 2013
New mooring
After a trying morning and abrupt departure, _Arcadia_ has taken a new mooring in the campground @ Fleming Park, eastern Jackson County, Missouri.
After making the acquaintance of the Casita owners in the next site (fulltiming for the last 17 months), we accepted an invitation to spend the evening with Dick & Evalyn. While there we accepted an invitation to park there (beginning Wednesday night); Evalyn will host a party for Cindy of her long-ago colleagues from the Blue Springs school district.
Beyond that?
Not certain. I do wish to contact some old friends from music school and later, and we do expect to get around to that. In addition, there are parks and other outdoor attractions to see--earlier than we had expected to get to them. Plan 'B' may not be too bad.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Jacomo Campground, Fleming Park, Jackson County, MO.
After making the acquaintance of the Casita owners in the next site (fulltiming for the last 17 months), we accepted an invitation to spend the evening with Dick & Evalyn. While there we accepted an invitation to park there (beginning Wednesday night); Evalyn will host a party for Cindy of her long-ago colleagues from the Blue Springs school district.
Beyond that?
Not certain. I do wish to contact some old friends from music school and later, and we do expect to get around to that. In addition, there are parks and other outdoor attractions to see--earlier than we had expected to get to them. Plan 'B' may not be too bad.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Jacomo Campground, Fleming Park, Jackson County, MO.
New plan
We have weighed anchor, and will be moored in a park or someplace not-so-nearby.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Independence, MO.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_, Independence, MO.
05 October 2013
Midwest Trip 131005
Huge thunderstorm last night! Excellent!
We always liked them, and now our fiberglass craft does not have a large metal protrusion above us.
During the evening we used an app to watch the storm's approach, then as dark fell we saw distant lightning in the clouds. As we were retiring for the night, the lightning, thunder, and rain arrived, and I had to furl the awning and close the windows. Pretty entertaining.
As you can see from my pictures (Picasa), we are seeing insects unlike those we have found in the PNW. Of course, some of those are of the "singing" sort--something else that we miss. We both like to go to sleep to the sounds of insects, so much so that we have recordings that we play on occasion.
This is my first visit back here in quite a number of years. We have found that there are lots of new businesses--new business districts, in fact--but although there are cars in their parking lots, it is not clear how those cars got there; traffic is quite light by comparison to virtually anyplace we are accustomed to going in the NW.
This week, Evalyn & Dick L. will host a party of Cindy's former colleagues from her days as music teacher in nearby Blue Springs. We plan to see if they want to go camping somewhere; we have been reminded of a pleasant park not far from here <http://mostateparks.com/park/watkins-mill-state-park>.
Cindy has the unenviable job of considering how to help her parents--who are not yet convinced that any help is needed. It is not likely to be easy.
More later.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_
Independence, MO
03 October 2013
Midwest Trip 131003
Today's big event was a bit of a storm--the real, meteorological kind, not the family kind: dark clouds, wind, torrential rain, lightning, thunder. A year or so ago, I should have added, "the kind that Seattle never has." As of this very season, that might be rather less true.
Even so, this was quite the little event. I was fortunate to be able to watch it approach, arrive, and depart--all by using a weather-radar app on my iDevice. I stayed inside _Arcadia_ (after shutting windows and overhead vent, and unfurling about four feet of awning, with the feet in their fittings on the trailer's side; I wanted to leave the door open--which worked).
A half-hour later, sun and calm had returned, with humidity as companion. Maximum temperature was about 86 degrees F., or so, but the continuing breeze kept the impression from seeming overly warm.
We went driving around town--a place we used to know--to find that much was unfamiliar. (Someone apparently left a gate open somewhere, and a whole lot of people arrived and built stuff.) Of course, the predominant trees are broad-leaf deciduous trees, some of which really are quite large and beautiful. The elms are nearly all gone, but the big oaks and maples and such are lovely. Nothing is as pleasant as the cool shade of a big tree on a hot day.
And we learned why the house was so hot: For [however long; months?] the old hot-water baseboard heating system had been not just _not disabled_, but was actually _on_ and _active_--set to bring the house's temperature up to 80 while the climate-control system (unified heating & air-conditioning) (or the attic fan, later in the day) fought to reduce the temperature to 65 or so. The system that replaced the baseboard system, a heat-pump with gas-fired backup, must have wondered why the task assigned was so difficult. We all did, but once we worked out why the house had begun the day warmer than the outside air, things went better. (Gas to the old system has been shut off now.)
Now, at 22:47 Central time, the outside air is nice and cool, and the insects are singing. Pretty great.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_
Independence, MO
Even so, this was quite the little event. I was fortunate to be able to watch it approach, arrive, and depart--all by using a weather-radar app on my iDevice. I stayed inside _Arcadia_ (after shutting windows and overhead vent, and unfurling about four feet of awning, with the feet in their fittings on the trailer's side; I wanted to leave the door open--which worked).
A half-hour later, sun and calm had returned, with humidity as companion. Maximum temperature was about 86 degrees F., or so, but the continuing breeze kept the impression from seeming overly warm.
We went driving around town--a place we used to know--to find that much was unfamiliar. (Someone apparently left a gate open somewhere, and a whole lot of people arrived and built stuff.) Of course, the predominant trees are broad-leaf deciduous trees, some of which really are quite large and beautiful. The elms are nearly all gone, but the big oaks and maples and such are lovely. Nothing is as pleasant as the cool shade of a big tree on a hot day.
And we learned why the house was so hot: For [however long; months?] the old hot-water baseboard heating system had been not just _not disabled_, but was actually _on_ and _active_--set to bring the house's temperature up to 80 while the climate-control system (unified heating & air-conditioning) (or the attic fan, later in the day) fought to reduce the temperature to 65 or so. The system that replaced the baseboard system, a heat-pump with gas-fired backup, must have wondered why the task assigned was so difficult. We all did, but once we worked out why the house had begun the day warmer than the outside air, things went better. (Gas to the old system has been shut off now.)
Now, at 22:47 Central time, the outside air is nice and cool, and the insects are singing. Pretty great.
Mark_
R/V _Arcadia_
Independence, MO
02 October 2013
Midwest Trip 131002
We have been here for just 24 hours, and Cindy has accomplished some of the first items on the list: an escorted doctor visit, lists of medications, face-to-face evaluation of the situation.
I have installed Wi-Fi on their iMac (for our own convenience), tightened a dangerously and precariously loose blade on their ceiling fan, and demonstrated to them the joys of the attic fan. (They have stopped running the air conditioner, because keeping the house at 61 degrees when the outside is 99 is so expensive. It is considerably less hot than that now, but the house can be sweltering anyway.)
Alas, however, they don't like the fan because of the dirt and dust that the incoming air introduces into the house and the curtains it blows on its way in. (To clarify: This is in the middle of the suburbs; there is no perceptible incoming contamination.)
The trailer, sitting in the sun but with windows open, is more pleasant inside.
It has been a bit warm; sunny, and obviously humid. However the nights are cool and filled with the sounds of lovelorn insects--something that we both miss. (Last night we had crickets, katydids, cicadas, things I don't know [never did], and a barred owl. Excellent!)
Rush hour through Denver yesterday morning and through Kansas City in the afternoon were nearly nothing. Furthermore, the arterials here in Independence were nearly deserted as we drove between the freeway exit and the destination neighborhood.
Very different.
The trip was tough but not difficult; the challenge was in its length compressed into as few hours as possible. For Cindy, the next weeks (expected to number four) may be far tougher. Her father and his wife are likely to feel similarly.
More later, should anything interesting occur.
Mark_
_Arcadia_
Independence, Missouri
I have installed Wi-Fi on their iMac (for our own convenience), tightened a dangerously and precariously loose blade on their ceiling fan, and demonstrated to them the joys of the attic fan. (They have stopped running the air conditioner, because keeping the house at 61 degrees when the outside is 99 is so expensive. It is considerably less hot than that now, but the house can be sweltering anyway.)
Alas, however, they don't like the fan because of the dirt and dust that the incoming air introduces into the house and the curtains it blows on its way in. (To clarify: This is in the middle of the suburbs; there is no perceptible incoming contamination.)
The trailer, sitting in the sun but with windows open, is more pleasant inside.
It has been a bit warm; sunny, and obviously humid. However the nights are cool and filled with the sounds of lovelorn insects--something that we both miss. (Last night we had crickets, katydids, cicadas, things I don't know [never did], and a barred owl. Excellent!)
Rush hour through Denver yesterday morning and through Kansas City in the afternoon were nearly nothing. Furthermore, the arterials here in Independence were nearly deserted as we drove between the freeway exit and the destination neighborhood.
Very different.
The trip was tough but not difficult; the challenge was in its length compressed into as few hours as possible. For Cindy, the next weeks (expected to number four) may be far tougher. Her father and his wife are likely to feel similarly.
More later, should anything interesting occur.
Mark_
_Arcadia_
Independence, Missouri
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