Not The Painter

October 24, 2024 – Day 14 Point of Rocks Campground, Prescott, AZ — White Tank Regional Park, Surprise AZ We had a really short day today, so we did the short hike down to the water. The trail was fairly easy and pretty nice. We both shed our outer wear within minutes. It is cool in the shade but hot in the sun. We didn’t see any interesting water birds down at the lake, it smelled pretty bad from the blue green algae, so we didn’t hang around long. We saw Spotted Towhees. There were Mallards and Cormorants. Two very successful species as we see them pretty much everywhere we’ve…

October 23, 2024 – Day 13 Point of Rocks Campground, Prescott AZ In the morning we called CoachNet, the RV “AAA” to find us a mobile RV tech in the Phoenix area. They called back in about half an hour, but since Verizon changed Paul’s number temporarily last night, Paul’s phone didn’t have the correct number, and that created all kinds of confusion. But it all worked out and we have a mechanic coming out on the 29th. Then back to the Verizon store and 50 minutes later his phone was working properly. The Verizon agent recommended a Hawaiian BBQ for lunch. It was good, but not great. (susan here:…

October 22, 2024 – Day 12Point of Rocks Campground, Prescott AZ (Sorry for the click-bait title, titling short blogs is hard. This is a short blog.) Not a lot happened today. Paul fixed the broken DC to DC charger. Our new batteries are wonderful but we’re still running out and left wondering why. Well, before the trip Paul blew a 200A fuse trying to fix the hydraulic pump that runs the jacks and slides. It turns out that that also blew the 60A circuit breaker for the DC-DC charger which is that device charges the house batteries from the RV alternator while driving. Resetting a circuit breaker should be easy,…

October 21, 2024 – Day 11Red Rock Park, Churchrock, NM — Point of Rocks Campground, Prescott AZ Remember how we mentioned we were idiots for having such a late start? We were disappointed that we missed much of the glowing red rocks last night because we we got in late and were driving around until dark to find a place to park. We decided to get up early and go for a hike in the rocks. It was cold! We were greeted by frost on the Jeep! We bundled up and headed out. The trail was pretty easy at the start and the views were fantastic. Of course, the red…

October 20, 2024 – Day 10 Lake Ute State Park, Logan, UT — Red Rock Park, Churchrock, NM We wanted to have a late start. Why did we want a late start? Because we are idiots. When traveling, you never want a late start because things happen that delay you. But Paul got to play radio so we’ll pretend that was the plan all along. Lake Ute, is, well, a Lake and many people fish at Lakes. Can you imagine what it would smell like if the fish bits were left in the bins, yikes! (susan here: Paul thinks this trash can is funny but Trash Kans from the other…

October 19, 2024 – Day 9 Cracker Barrel, Edmond, Ok — Lake Ute State Park, Logan, UT We woke early. That’s pretty common for us when driving west because we’re still kind of sort of on some other time zone. The Cracker Barrel lot was fairly empty. We were just thinking about having breakfast—inside our RV, not inside the Barrel — then we noticed the parking lot was really getting full. It was real Saturday morning as opposed to, say, a Tuesday morning which for us is Saturday, because “every day is Saturday” when you’re retired. (Thanks go to Susan’s cousin Donna for that witty turn of a phrase). So…

October 18, 2024 – Day 8Cracker Barrel, Fenton, MO — Cracker Barrel, Edmond, OK It was just a long travel day today. We decided to try for 500 miles. We called 469 miles “close enough.” There are two reasons for this. First we want to see how hard it is (it was hard before the new suspension). Plus with the problems we had in Lafayette, we had a lot of lost ground to gain back to get back on “schedule.” Cuba, MO Families and dogs welcome!? Susan insisted this be in the blog. They’re the #2 attraction in MO. (we’ll wait for you to get the joke) Mark Twain National…

October 17, 2024 – Day 7 Cracker Barrel, Lafayette, IN — Cracker Barrel, Fenton, MO We’re so far west in the east coast time zone that we woke up and it was dark in the Cracker Barrel parking lot! The sun soon rose and we saw a police car there, presumably looking for speeders. He left after half an hour or so. We passed a curious tree farm. It is curious because we couldn’t figure out what type of tree they had there. The sign is blurry, and the sign on google street view has too many weeds in front of it. It is 40°21’34.1″N 86°59’23.5″W if you want to…

October 16, 2024 – Day 5Liquid Spring, Lafayette, IN — Cracker Barrel, Lafayette IN We’re never getting out of here. OK, that might be overly dramatic. Today was another long one but it ended will. See? Now you don’t have to read the rest of the blog entry! (susan here: it’s not overly dramatic. We thought we’d arrive Sunday night and gone by Monday mid-day. This is the Indiana version of Hotel California!) We got up early, drove over to Lafayette Fleet. The sunrise was gorgeous. We dropped Clifford off and went to breakfast at the South Side Diner (Yep. Again). We wondered if Monday’s server was still there. She…

October 15, 2024 – Day 5Prophetstown State Park, Battle Ground, IN — Liquid Spring, Lafayette, IN The prairie was beautiful in the morning, as was the ham radio antenna. We had a late start since the tires wouldn’t be in until noon. So Paul did some more radio that morning, he had a very busy time, very intense. He expects you to all be impressed. On the way out of the park, we had to drop off the trash. Susan found the name of the trash KAN company very amusing. (Paul here, next time you see her, tell her that the trash can pictures was funny.) We had planned to…