No Destination : hoyden and two dogs hit the road full-time

[kmcintyre]

Aw, the Negroni..... I don't know how many people know about them. I don't see the orange garnish though!

 

[takesiteasy]

I'm enjoying your reports. Thanks for posting them. Good luck with the RV money thing.

 

[allanb]

you go girl, good on ya for following your muse, dreams and hopes. Sure to meet up again sometime on yonder mesa.

 

[Squatch]

I don't seek adventure. It happens all by itself. Adventure is what happens when things don't turn out as planned and you get away ruffled but unharmed! You just had another one. Happy trails!

 

[hoyden]

Stuck in Terre Haute

After a couple of well-fed days visiting friends in Springfield, I headed to Urbana, Illinois. I met my recently married step-brother for lunch and then went to find the duplex my mom and I lived in when I was in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. We lived in the right side further from the garage. I think it was white when I was a kid. We had an old Fiat that took a couple of hours to warm up in the winter.

Urbana was a place of tornado warnings, cobble-stone sidewalks, school-ground battles - especially in tetherball, best friends and a lot of tree-climbing.

I was a latchkey kid. Mom was in school working on her Master's degree. This little duplex was only a block from school, so I'd get myself home - or more often, I'd banana-seat bicycle over to Carle Park and meet up with my best friend, Becky. Once I found a disposable camera and eventually had the film developed. It was of someone's wedding at the park. I felt bad that I couldn't return the pictures to them. In that park, I learned about cross-country skiing and have wanted to try it since. I took magic lessons there and learned how to put a quarter through a table. There was a play set that would not be allowed these days. It was a huge wooden structure with a long rope swing on one side. We would climb up, grab the rope, swing out and leap into the nothingness... and land in a sandpit. Such great (and probably dangerous) fun!

It was time to move on and leave my childhood behind. There is a campground just on the Indiana side of the state line, so I meandered my way to the Raccoon Lake State Recreation Area. I really need to figure out where to find boondocking out here mid-west and easterly. In the South West there is so much BLM land, it's easy to just turn onto a random dirt road and set up camp in the middle of nowhere. Out here? I'm still on a slow learning curve.

That turned out to be a chilly night. I climbed into bed,read for a while, then noticed I was cold. My thermostat was set at 56, but when I looked, the inside temp was at 50. Bother. I futzed around with the thermostat for a while, thinking it was the problem, but wasn't able to get anything more to happen than cool air blowing. The fan would run, but the heat wouldn't kick in. Luckily, it didn't get terribly cold that night (probably down to the low 40's) and I have a cozy warm down comforter and two doggies. Although, while Pugsly is smart and snuggles under the covers with me, Argos sloughed off the blanket I covered him with, and lay shivering on top of the bed.

The next morning I headed towards cities in search of an RV shop for repair. I came to Terre Haute and stopped for a warm up coffee and thinking time at a little highway diner. The waitress told me about an RV shop just up the road, so I headed over.

The guys in the shop had me roll my camper into the huge garage that is more used to accommodating gigantic Class A motorhomes than little truck rigs like mine. Shop manager Jeff and mechanic TJ took a look, jumped the thermostat to make sure that wasn't the issue, and after tested all the wires and even switching out the circuit board with a new one they had in stock, it was determined that the problem part was the igniter.

Unfortunately, they didn't have one in stock so Jeff ordered it. Word was that it would take two days before the part came in. Instead of going back to the campground, Jeff said I could plug in there outside the shop. Stuck in Terre Haute.

This was my grey home for the next couple of days. I had power and WiFi and I bought a little portable heater, so the dogs and I were cozy enough.

The igniter arrived on Friday, and Jeff installed it. We did a bunch of testing and the furnace works! YAY! Warm convenience!

There's been a little issue with a bill and the RV shop's warranty interpretation, and once it's resolved, I'll do a little write-up about that part of the experience.

Some close friends and my mom had been under the weather when I was in Carbondale last week, but now healthy, they suggested that since I was still so close, why don't I swing by for another visit? I figured might as well stock up on groceries and do another load of laundry, so I went back home for another visit.

 

[Bill D]

Glad you have heat again! It makes a huge difference when it comes to "feeling at home" in your camper.

BTW, Costco fills bottles where I live by volume and the price is dirt cheap $3-5 to fill a 10lb bottle. The nice thing is if you need to top off a bottle you only pay by volume vs. a flat rate. I know some Costcos are flat rate as well, so worth asking before you fill a half empty bottle.

Hopefully you have been able to find affordable propane during your travels.

 

[hoyden]

Ooooh, I even have a Costco card!
Here in Carbondale, True Value fills em and it's also good price. (no Costco here) but great to know for future! Cool!
and good to know about flat rate because I get paranoid about running out of propane so tend to refill them when not terribly low (because in my head I'm almost out. ha!)

Finding propane - and water - haven't been as difficult as I thought it might be. (knock on wood!)

I drained my water tank when I got to Carbondale the other week cuz it was stupid cold here. I'm considering putting water back in since I'm heading souther. Tho some places east and somewhat south are still pretty cold. Hm

I'm not sure where I'm headed - in the immediate I want to go to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky and just a short drive from here, but after that? I've an uncle in Louisa, Va and a cousin in Raleigh/Durham - which is a town I've wanted to visit. Friends in Richmond, Va.... and I'd like to see Florida since I've never been and it's much different looking than where I've been and alligators! Swamp boat! Wheee!

 

[hoyden]

The crazy tornado-y weather in the south east is kinda freaking me out too. I finally bought a weather radio today.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Wander The West mobile app

 

[nikonron]

Tractor Supply also charges by actual propane pumped. Ron

 

[Squatch]

I filled my tanks last week at a local tool rental place. Needed 5 lbs and paid $2.95!

 

[craig333]

Ooh, mammoth caves have been on my list since I first heard of them. Glad you got your heater fixed. Curious to see what the billing issue was.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

I am not "hijacking" this thread,but it's about the heater issues hoyden has had and how they might pertain to my issues.
First on our Alaskan trip I started to have problems with the heater not staying on enough to heat.
In some searches today I watched a lot of "how to" videos. Non of them seemed to hit on my problem.
The fan would start then after the normal time the ignihter would come on and start the gas,run for a very short time then
shut off the gas ,only to start again after another short time. But after a couple starts the fan/heater would shut off.
I started to play with the thermostat and hit on that the contact under the "on/off" switch wasn't making a good contact.
I solved this by bending the contact a bit and now everything works OK.
Next step is to get a new digital thermostat.
It was nice to solve this without going to an RV place only to find out I have a bad thermostat.
Hoyden's issue was a totally different problem and glad she got it fixed. Not fun in very cold weather to not get to use that heater in the camper.
Frank

 

[hoyden]

Yeah, that one night was pretty uncomfortably chilly. It was tolerable with the comforter and dogs, but still too cold to get any decent sleep. I'm glad my furnace issue was fixed relatively easily and quickly! Good luck with yours!

I got talked into sticking around Carbondale another day to help my mom and stepdad move some furniture this afternoon.
Me strong like ox.

I'll leave for Mammoth Caves tomorrow morning. Looks like the tour I wanted to do isn't offered during winter. That's okay, I'll do the "Domes and Dripstones Tour"! https://www.nps.gov/maca/planyourvisit/winter-schedule.htm

Holy crap that is MAMMOTH! Whoa. I had no idea.
That yellow line on the right, I think is where the "Domes and Dripstones Tour" covers. It's only 3/4 mile.

 

[craig333]

Wow, need to spend some time there to see even a portion. May have to bump that up the bucket list a bit!

 

[Squatch]

Mammoth cave is amazing due to it's size. But it's not a real interesting cave for formations in many areas. There are other caves in the region that have more spectacular formations and more of them. That's not to say it not a worthwhile visit. It surely is.

Many of the caves in the region have closed or partially closed due to "White nose syndrome". Humans carry it from cave to cave and it's killing bats in great numbers.

The park itself is a couple of hours away from any major city. in mid winter it is very quiet and has some of the best night sky you'll see east of the Mississippi.

 

[hoyden]

<snip> There are other caves in the region that have more spectacular formations and more of them. </snip>

Many of the caves in the region have closed or partially closed due to "White nose syndrome". Humans carry it from cave to cave and it's killing bats in great numbers.

The park itself is a couple of hours away from any major city. in mid winter it is very quiet and has some of the best night sky you'll see east of the Mississippi.

Hi!
Ooh, please tell me more of "other caves in the region"!

My mom and step-dad hijacked me today to help with some tech stuff, so I still haven't left Carbondale. Ha!
Planning on leaving tomorrow!

I have read some on the white nose syndrome! Yikes! I would rather not be allowed to see caves than to accidentally kill bats

The jet stream is changing and temps here and East-er are going to drop about 15°F tonight, so I decided to head South instead of East.

GET ME TO SOME WARMER!
or a hot springs.
or hot tub.
warm foot bath?

Tomorrow (barring any more family help I get suckered into doing ), I head to Mammoth Caves for at least one overnight. (I've been doing so much family help that I haven't had time to update my TR to current! oops)

From Mammoth Caves, South!
My cousin-who-is-like-a-sister is in New Orleans, so I'm aiming for there.
No Destination stands, so it's all open to how I'm feeling on any given day

 

[Squatch]

I'm sure a web search will bring up bunches. Most of the Ohio valley is littered with caves. I saw many of them when I was young. But since I no longer live in the area I'm not current on what's open or not. My 2 favorites were a State Park in southern Indiana. Wyandotte Caves. Last year we went to see them and couldn't even find the signs. We found out they are permanently closed now due to White Nose.

 

[nikonron]

Also Marengo caves in southern Indiana, saw most of these when I was a kid also. Ron

 

[Cayuse]

No Destination stands, so it's all open to how I'm feeling on any given day

Roll the dice!

 

[hoyden]

Sometimes you can go home again

I went back to Carbondale after my fiasco in Terre Haute to spend more time with my mom and since it was no longer freakishly cold, I was able to visit some of my favorite haunts like Giant City State Park.

First, Argos and I climbed up to look out over Shelter 1. This is a favorite hang-out spot, and also where a lot of folks practice rappelling.

It was a gray day, and my photos aren't fabulous, but at least you can get an idea of my old stomping grounds.

The City:

Over the years, this area lost the nostalgic hold it had over me, and became current in my mind. This visit I spent enjoyable time fixing my mom and step-dad's gate so that their littledog can't squiggle underneath. I had to remove some old wood that was a temporary fix and kept breaking off. I installed some rubber pieces that move with the gate.

Helped mom 'fix' a hole in the old fence where Hula dog can escape

Visited with some people whom I love dearly, like my high-school 'adopted dad' who is now in his mid 90's. When I met Mr. Juul I had a blue mohawk, wore ripped up jeans and combat boots, and had a pretty healthy disrespect for authority figures (well, some things don't change too much ;-) ) Unlike most of the adults in my life then, he saw past all of that, and simply loved me. He would greet me with his thick Norwegian accent and give me a big bear hug. He still does, although now I have to kneel down next to him to get my hugs.

Got some nice hiking in with Argos

I got to help as a "technology consultant" to my mom and step-dad on the B&B they are currently building out, have some good meals, share stories, spend great time with my mom, and reconnect with old friends.

If the definition of "home" is where you feel most comfortable and at ease, then I went home again for a short while.