Our Centennial on Earth North American Tour 2000 aboard the “Love Shack Jr.”
Back in 1978-79 when we took our landmark motor home trip with Joe then 8 years old ,in addition to obsessively writing songs I kept a hand written journal of each days events and experiences and have not looked back at the pages more than a few times in 30 years ,but the memories are very vivid and were as we planned this turning 50 adventure. ( I’m actually writing this in 2008 as we are doing the preparations for our planned 5 year to start “Quasi Retirement Odyssey and it occurs to me that I never wrote a definitive account for 2000 probably because I mostly listed the mechanical problems we encountered especially the first several weeks!) Cyndy’s weekend position at Harvard Vanguard was being phased out after 8 years; she was terrific at Pediatric Urgent Care, working with a group of MDs,NPs and RNs who ran the range from fabulous and friendly to odd and offensive- and she was ready for a break and a change ,with a nice severance package to boot. I was able to convince the VNAB that to cope with this situation (“whatever shall we do?” vs what a great opportunity to hit the road again!) I needed 3 months off and they agreed. As in 1978 and 2008 there were many steps to take and much planning…but what a great theme = to celebrate our 50th birthdays and 22 years since our last RV el blasto.
We had actually put a deposit on a 24 footer with a rear bed after taking a test drive, but we were captivated by the largesse of the 31 foot 1987 Itasca Sun Catcher in large measure because of the queen bed in the back and the spaciousness, complete with dinette and sofa-,good body,engine, repair record and that great raised Class A view for seeing the sites -all for $13,000- seemed like a very good deal and the erstwhile honest enough owner and wife were upgrading to a newer one of the same model. Their main excursion was a yearly trip to Sebago Lake, putting a mere 1000 miles on each summer. We had vey different plans. We took one “warm-up” to Bangor, had Cyndy’s rolling 50th Birthday Bash aboard (complete with a scrape with a parked car that required four of us to lift the light weight car away from the RV – and evidently the owner dedcided against good-naturedly buffin it out and filed a claim instead which resulted in a heafty surcharge…guess he recondsidered the turban I was wearing and felt that I was wacky or could well afford the hit to his benefit).
Dennis actually dubbed our coach “The Love Shack Jr.” after their trailer and with 3 months of bills paid,former English and NP student Sue McSweeney taking up residence at #5 arranged at the last minute, with Joe as the caretaker, goodbyes to parents –just starting to ail Pat- we set off about March 20th with Joe escorting us on his bike as far as the YMCA and off we were to our first stop at the Delaware River Gap Park in NY …and the first night the furnace malfunctioned …the first of a daunting and dismaying series of broken parts and systems. After getting the furnace fixed next was the dashboard tape deck we hoped to study Spanish with and did not fix,then the cab heater which necessitated our driving along clad in winter coats and with blankets over our chilled legs and feet-we had to get that fixed. I remember at Cyndy’s urging to investigate some suspicious engine noise ,taking off the inside cover and peering into the engine cluelessly looking for a loose wire or errant squirrel and saying timidly ,”Hi in there I’m Mike.” It seemed to quiet down and it kept running but somewhat fussily the power fading ,to volkwagen level on inclines.
Some journey highlights-
We had stopped at a roadside rest area just beyond a nuclear power plant, had ourselves our first cookout with the portable grille, stowed it away and hit the road when there was a terrific,horriffic KABOOM and our immediate reaction was either the propane had exploded and perhaps blown out the side of the RV compartment or there had been a nuclear mishap! The RV seemed to be driving steadily and there was no mushroom cloud so we pulled off at the very near next exit, and pulled almost immedialtely into what seemed to be an open but unattended campground. Checking the rig further I could see that an inner rear dual tire was shreaded and we exclaimed,”Thanks god it’s a blowout!” We called Good Sam (definitely never leave home without this RV road service as we were to learn time and again during the trip’s travails; a tow truck came in less than an hour and put on the spare – we would get a new used tire tire in the nearest town next day. Very funny=mystical thing about this campground –there were no other campers, no attendant though the bathrooms were immaculate with some complimentary items if needed and and there was a little gift display with some great items- a few of which we purchased just leaving the cash the next morning along with the camping fee as we were never able to get an answer at the posted owner’s phone numbers…it was all so strangely timely and “singular” with a benevolent “Twilight Zone” twist and were were sure that unlike ghostly George and Marion we had not been killed in that tire mishap because our adventures certainly continued.
(Maybe 2 weeks later in the rather remote canyon land of Texas we pulled into our campsite and walkingaround I was amazed to see a huge flap peeling off the outside rear tire. Somehow the hubcap has bent back and was ripping into the tire like Charlton Heston’s foe in the great chariot race. Fortunately it had not blown on the road, but another call to this remote location, Good Sam changed the tire and we soon bought another. The only souvenir I have from that motorhome is a hubcap which I hung on the alley fence.
We visited Mammoth Cave and Bowling Green and horse country in Kentucky. Crossing into Tennessee we came into Nashville on a rainy Sunday, checked out the huge Grand Ole Opry Hotel complete with inner canals –country’s answer to Vegas’s over the top Bellagio – which we see later. There was some March Madness basketball game going on which held no interest for us and somehow we were not drawn in by any evident charm which so many folks attribute to Nashville (maybe another time) We decided to head about another 100 miles on to Memphis which we loved. We stayed at a funky campground just down the street from Graceland (we may have been having some work done ) so we took the tour and were genuinely captivated by all things Elvis there enshrined. On one side of the street bigger displays= “Air Elvis” the small jet and the 727 which was all decked out for touring and which he kept on call in case he had a hankering in the wee hours for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich the likes of which could only be had in Denver. Across the street was the “mansion” really a rather modest ranch style affair ,vintage 60’s with hideous shag carpetry thoughout. Other buildings housed his incredible ,outrageous costumes, photos including the weirdest= a caped Elvis at the White House with Nixon as the King maybe blasted on pills received an FBI/DEA badge, his awards, very generous charitable donations,, the grave where he his twin brother who died at birth and his beloved Mother are buried together with the eternal flame and with floral tributes delivered every day from around the world. We had not been big Elvis fans ,did like some of his tunes especilally “Suspicious Minds”, “In the Ghetto”, ”Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” , got a hoot out of his movies like “Roustabout” ,etc., We heard the news that he died while we were in traveling in Europe ? 1976 and thought it was so tragic how he had fallen to pill addiction. He really was a musical innovator and “King” who rules still today. We took the trolley along the waterfront, were off trying to find the Civil Rights Museum and came around the corner and were stunned to be face to face with the Lorraine Motel and that balconey we had seen on TV so many times, the actual spot where Martin Luther King was assassinated April 4, 1968 ,where violence and fear struck and tried to extinguish his/the Dream …the museum was closed, but just being there was so powerful. As 18 years olds we were just barely aware of King’s inspirational leadership in the struggle for equal civil rights. From our vantage point in 2000 it seems impossible such discrimination had been the norm – and yet we see the legacy of slavery /inequity still resounding in the inner city where we care for primarily Black and Hispanic poorer people. Come so far and so far yet to go .
Memphis is music and we totally enjoyed a night of live blues at BB King’s club on Beale Street, drove past seminal Sun Recording Studio and left the city feeling as if we had only scratched the rich surface.
Arkansas had to have the worst roads in the country. The major interstate was just a un ending stretch of frost heave like splits that made the RV jarringly echo boom-boomp every 50 feet. We were driving along on a Sunday eve at dusk m-boompoing along when it started to rain. A carload of Black guys pulled up next to us gesticulating out the window at the bottom of the RV, and as they sped off I noticed that there was a large amount of tissue hanging off the hood and roof ,but I did not make any connection. The RV seemed to be handling OK, no swerving, burning smells etc. I pulled off at the next exit and took a walk around. Nothing seemed to be wrong. I knelt down and looked under the rear and to my shock I saw just open PVC pipes with toilet paper hanging out! Cyndy came around back as I exclaimed“holy shit “ and asked “what’s wrong?” to which I replied as it was shockingly dawning on me –“It’s all gone!”It’s all gone! What -was under here- the whole septic system, the holding tanks, everything , it’s all gone!” And we realized what the paper was on that car and why the black guys were gesticulating so animatedly…we had let go our whole load of shit onto their car! Lucky for us they did not stop- but oh woe is us –what the hell are we going to do for the next 2 months with no bathroom or kitchen sink in this supposed motor home!?! We drove to an RV dealer in Little Rock who was able to get us all hooked up for about $200 in 2 hours, a miracle for us…He explained that it’s a common problem that RVs without even seeing it sometimes hit a truck tire tread on the road which twirls end over end under an RV and takes our any wires or plumbing suspended under the rig. That may be what happened we did not see or hear anything – or it may have just been the heaving Arkansas highways shook the shit out of our rig!
We had some kind of repair/tune-up done in Oklahoma City and again made the most of the down time. We went into town to the site of the memorial almost completed for the Murrah Federal Building bombing – where it developed that domestic terrorist Timothy McVey parked a truck full of chemical fertilizer which detonated and blew the front off the building killing 160 innocent people, including children in the day care…there was a small memorial in the name of each vicitim and a reminder that violence against innocents by an individual or a government is an outrage (brought to an even more horrible extreme when aggrieved religious fanatics flew 2 passenger jets into the World Trade Towers ,another against the Pentagon and one into a Pennsylvania field on Sept., 11,2001…)
Also in the city was “The Crystal Tunnel” a marvleous elevated glass arboretum roadway- a path of plants and flowers amidst the inner city.
Soemtime around now we lost our windshield wipers, that is the wiper motor ceased to function. We made several attempts but it was impossible to locate and coordinate the delivery of a used replacement for this older model. What to do? A resourceful mechanic directed us to a parts place to pick up some Rain-ex which he assured us if properly applied would make rain drops just shed clear off our properly waxed windshield . We had never heard of the product and were skeptical, but purchased and applied a good coat per instructions and SHAZAM- the next time it rained damned if the drops just trickled off our glass giving us remarkable visibility. So we kept applying it weekly.
We were way out in the hills of New Mexico, had a rather pleasant couple of surprisingly care-free days and were driving toward Taos in the mountainous hinterlands, with intermittent flurries. We had just passed a rather closed looking dude-ranch/conference center when there was a loud pop and smoke started coming out of the engine cover into the driving compartment along with some liquid spray and Cyndy yelled –“Let’s get the hell out of here!!” as I quickly pulled over to the gravel shoulder and agreeing , thinking that here we go this devious machine is going to burst into falmes and blow up- so abandon ship …and we waited…no flames, no explosion…so gingerly I entered, took the cover off ,restarted the engine and could see antifreeze squirting in a steady stream from a hole in one of the hoses. How to plug the hole? I tried some duct tape we had, but it did not hold. I walked back to the dude ranch and a helpful fellow gave me “some super heavy duty air force grade tape that would hold anything”, which I walked back and applied and it was immediatley blown through…so we called and waited for the nearest Good Sam tow truck to get to us…He arrived in about an hour, with a truck too small to tow us, but was able to bypass the heating system so we could follow him to Taos for a repair. Earlier in the journey we had got used to no heat so we bundled up and followed him frigidly down out of the mountains but quickly into the 25 mile drive the intermittent flurries turned to some serious snow and with no wipers and Rainex not up to this frozen precipitation the show quickly caked up on the windshield and I would be peering way over from the streering wheel out of the corner 6 inches of the windshield trying to keep the tow truck in sight as he sped down the sharp twists and turns. Every couple of miles I just had to pull over and use a broom to clear the windshield and try to catch up with him…probably repeated this 6 times and finally we reached his station and his buddy was able to replace the blown hose to our relief and a minor amount of cash. But our nerves were frayed from the “exlposion” and thrill ride and the accumulated troubles for these first three weeks and we both had a meldown in Taos… a case of finally being able to to take an extended RV trip the first real one since 1978, all the planning to make this 3 months happen and simultaneously feeling” for chrissakes why do we have to have all these friggin problems, this is supposed to be fun not an endurance contest with so many mechanical screw ups, at this rate we’ll be riding home on the frame like the Beverly Hillbillies if we can make it at all!!! We both had our turns venting and crying and in the morning it was OK to travel on.
We skippped alien Area 54 in Roswell for another time and headed toward Phoenix for our rendez-vous with Joe and Chris- which went so smoothly mecahnically and personally. We picked them right in the airport in Phoenix and headed up to a reunion with Marty and Dale and Matice in Sedona where the V’s were maintenance and nurse for the Valley Verde Private School ( we had been there with Marge on a previous trip that included the phenominal CSNY,Jackson Browne,Marc Cohen,Bruce Cockburn benefit concert under a full moon with the red rock backdrop= fantastic!! ) visited the local vortices,amazing rock formations complete with Chris leading yoga ,went swimming with 14 yo Matice who turned to us and asked –“Is it good to be rich?” and later at night at dinner sent me into a choking fit when we were reviewing movies and Joe mentioned Tarintino’s wacky Pulp Fiction and Matice quoted in reference to the horrid gimp in the basement scene-“Get off of the nigger!” ~ Wow that kid is unique! And speaking of unique we were not to find out until later that during our visit Marty and Dale were actually already divorced and making plans for their next chapters~ again WOW. But it was a great reunion and from there we headed up to the Grand Canyon, Bryce (where having been mishap free for a long stretch , while Joe and were taking a hike we went off for a drive and I managed to scrunch the bikes against a treee while backing up- did not tell Joe and was able to get fixed fairly easily) then on to Zion … and then we dropped them off at a Greyhound pick-up spot waving somewhat tearfully as Joe waved and pointed out the chain smoking babe with the long ugly coat and 2 litre bottle of RC cola last on the bus , definitely one of “Joe’s People”. It had been a really enjoyable 10 plus days with them and they were good luck as we had had no breakdowns thankfully during their visit! Our next stop was the weird man-made and trash strewn Lake Meade, and then the worst of all VEGAS…UGH!! We “camped” in the convenient “Circus,Circus “ casino parking lot,at least it had a pool and laundry, walked through there and along “The Strip” (= stripped of real value and taste!) with the bizarre casino sidewalk shows and this utterly neon and unnatural enrgy black hole in the desert and Cyndy literally had an allergic cultural reaction so we were out of there the next morning! (Vegas touts itself as a family -the Mansons? Or Addams? And recreational destination with so much so close – but this place would not be here without the vice of gambling and the absolute necessity of air conditioning!- We shan’t return again!)
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Next best = our favorite Big Sur 4 day stay at Kirk Creek Campground where we have been so many times… this our longest stay complete with pounding wind and rain storm, sunny bike ride,gallery and Henry Miller exhibit and my gourd thumb piano souvenir…no problems!
Heading up to San Francisco we passed through Steinbeck territory and headed into the Los Padres (“Lost Padres”) camping area ;we had just made the turn when the muffler blew and we were embarrassed to have thundering reverberations resound through this narrow valley,sometimes very near to little clusters of homes obviously there for the quiet… and we thundered along until we each the end of the line park parking lot all to ourselves where the next morning we were sourrounded by wild turkeys until we started up the engine! We were able to get replaced within about 50 miles while we still had our hearing intact.
A rather quick visit to Bob K in San Fran, Golden Gate,a seder with friends Saralee&Tom then on to….camping on the street above their home…
Mount Tam and the Mount Tam Terror (from Mike’s perspective – at 31 feet we were below the 35 foot vehicle restriction on these twisting hair pin turns,able to negotiate without bottomingout, climbing up to the top on Easter Saturday eve. The campground turned out to be the not too level parking lot. We got settled in when some travelers from Europe came over and asked for jump as they had left their inside light on and the rental car battery was dead. Thinking how I’d appreciate the help in a similar spot I got the Love Shack Jr in place, gave them the jump and off they went with thanks. Cyndy suggested that rather than go back to our original position perhaps we cold get a bit more level as she was cooking some oatmeal for the cool eve supper and so I pulled head-on facing into the curb and picnic table grille area, put the leveling ramps in place and directed Cyndy to drive up on them and as she got a bout half way up I called to her to stop as I walked down the driver’s side to check the level mounted on the side. What follows took only seconds but seemed agonizingly long- Before I could check the RV shot off the ramps and I whipped around yelling” hit the brake!;hit the brake!” as it jumped the curb,snapped the grille right off and headed toward the boundary fence and some kind of drop off, all the while ,only a few seconds,I’m yelling to Cyndy to hit the break,and as I frantically came up to the driver’s door she was not there at first- and I tried to open the door as she jumped back in the seat and the front end broke the rail fence and as it started to head over I could just see a big (maybe 50-100 deep) ravine and the thought flashed in my brain that if this goes over the front end will be stove in, probably crush us both to death and I was not going to let go of the driver’s door handle or Cyndy, just feeling so powerless when the Love Shack II came to a jarring stop with the two front wheels just going over the edge…I yelled to Cyndy,put it into park and to stay at the wheel with the brake and emergency brakes on. I got the ramps and some rocks to wedge the tires,so that it would not roll or slip…it really felt like one of those cartoon/adventure scenes where the vehicle is teetering over the abyss.Very badly shaken from this near death experience I got in the side door just so relieved that she was OK and asked what had happened. Cyndy was not really sure…if she had left it in gear on the leveling ramp or it has just slipped or what,but it had definitely taken off and scared us badly, our closest close call ever . We both went outside and surveying the scene in the dusk we realized that amazingly it was the grill wedged up under the drive shaft which had stopped us and incredibly it had not crushed in the front end, the radiator, had missed all the wiring,propane tank and everything else vital or explosive under there! I had a long spade and sure with the tires blocked it would not slide I spent some time by flashlight trying to dig around the grille-but after about 45 minutes it was obvious that we needed help and none had spontaneously arrived so we called Good Sam Road service and a father and son team arrived in the pitch black dark about an hour later. The elder’s first words were:”Got away from you, eh?- well at least it stopped.” Over the next hour among the 3 of us we dug around the grille and he hooked up his winch to the rear and said-“OK get in ,put your foot on the brake and start it up,when I honk put it in reverse and give it the gas and let’s hope you can back it out because I don’t think with this truck I can pull it out or keep it from going ove-r so if it starts to roll over just jump out! Holy Easter Saturday Night Shit!! The son took out the blocks, I put it in reverse and with left foot on the brake and right on the gas gave it the gun and what a relief the tow truck held and the LSII backed away from the edge and onto the parking lot. Needless to say we gave effussive thanks and a good tip to our rescuers and waved to our new best friends as they drove off into the night. It was after 11PM when we finally had that oatmeal, whewing and laughing nervously to have had such an anxious evening …and we dropped off to sleep exhausted and hugging each other. To be awakened in the ealry Sunday morn not by resurrection trumpet blasts but by the roar of dozens of motorcycles thundering up Tam for the annual Easter run…I put the broken split rail fence back together as best I could and hid the grille remnants by a tree,hoping that we would not have to pay for it and we drove out with no further investigation or incident except to stop and take pictures overlooking San Francisco Bay and City in the distance just so glad to be alive and back on the road…
Stopped at Van Dam Park up by Mendicino as we had with Joe in “79 during the beginning of our homeward loop…just beautiful along that entire northern coast,California,Oregon and Washington – along the Columbia River Gorge with its scenic road and waterfalls beautiful even though damp , enjoying a very “schmoopie lifestyle”.
As they had arranged and we agreed-sort of- about 2 weeks later we picked up Mimi (and her 8 pairs of shoes) and Sal at the Seattle Airport. Noteworthy- In Olympic National Park in one day we travelled up to a snow covered peak, then to the warm,wave swept seashore and camped in a rainforest!!! We had some genuinely good times with them- Victoria, the extraordinarily scenic Ice Fields Parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper with so much wildlife – enen polar bears per Cyndy- actually long horned rams, elk,moose,bear…we just kind of hit the wall after about 10mostly good days and Mimi being a bit too much with too much vino, related to Sal taking him aside just how much we had gone through to make this trip possible and how we really wanted to have our trip back to ourselves and so we dropped them of in Calgary to have some time to themselves…Sal was very helpful when we were climbing up through some pass and the main sewer PVC drain came loose and dragged on the highway, fortunately not emptying the load on the alerting passing car as had happened in Arkansas…and together we were able to get it all clamped back in place.
The road back home was rather uneventful, just one more back up dent, no other big deals..
Special features…we never figure this out but every time we arrived at our destination we had instant and abundant hot water without the heateer being on…? Co-generation?
And the shower which was a great size cabinet never had enough pressure; we’d take turns sitting on the floor and pour warm water on the showeree to rinse. The generator? Well we had one, but it never worked. And the electric step- that never worked either and every time we got in and out I had to put a plastic stool on the ground for a step up or down…
Mount Rushmore, Wind Caves, Wall Drug, skirting Detroit for a swing into Ontario, then on to Niagara Falls and down to visit Irene in Livonia, then a last day in a western Mass Park with very bad bear control,and a visit to the quaint town ?Shelburne Falls - with the flower bridge and then on to home sweet home where so fortunately everyone and everything was OK; we went to the book club that eve rendez vous’d with friends and family,Sue headed to the VNAB and Cyndy to Manet and did a job search,enjoyed a unique and well deserved summer off and remarkably came to the VNAB MCH team on weekends and we would work together for the next 8 years (it would be 2 more years before we’d have to bid a heart-breaking farewell to our beloved Dads…)
The Trip, our Centennial Celebration, was an adventure in so many ways, while we were plagued by mechanical problems even wondering those first three weeks if we should just try to sell it on the road ,cut our losses and get a reliable van we could make do with, but with luck and teamwork we worked it all out together; we almost were killed one evening: and the togetherness, the “schmoopieness” of the experience was the essence of that and our entire journey through life and our resolve to spend as much time together as possible would lead to research and planning for Our 5 Year Plan beginning in 2008 – but with a new RV, our Mobile Casita
Postscript on the Love Shack,Jr.- once home we did not take anymore trips out in it…tried to sell it from April on and finally put it on consignment…getting a call from the dealer on the eve of the VMA outing in December with a take it or leave it offer for $5,000;it had needed a new toilet and wiper motor etc, but the buyer wanted to drive it immediately to Arizona…and we hope he had a safe and less troubled trip than we had- Happy Motoring pal.
Back in 1978-79 when we took our landmark motor home trip with Joe then 8 years old ,in addition to obsessively writing songs I kept a hand written journal of each days events and experiences and have not looked back at the pages more than a few times in 30 years ,but the memories are very vivid and were as we planned this turning 50 adventure. ( I’m actually writing this in 2008 as we are doing the preparations for our planned 5 year to start “Quasi Retirement Odyssey and it occurs to me that I never wrote a definitive account for 2000 probably because I mostly listed the mechanical problems we encountered especially the first several weeks!) Cyndy’s weekend position at Harvard Vanguard was being phased out after 8 years; she was terrific at Pediatric Urgent Care, working with a group of MDs,NPs and RNs who ran the range from fabulous and friendly to odd and offensive- and she was ready for a break and a change ,with a nice severance package to boot. I was able to convince the VNAB that to cope with this situation (“whatever shall we do?” vs what a great opportunity to hit the road again!) I needed 3 months off and they agreed. As in 1978 and 2008 there were many steps to take and much planning…but what a great theme = to celebrate our 50th birthdays and 22 years since our last RV el blasto.
We had actually put a deposit on a 24 footer with a rear bed after taking a test drive, but we were captivated by the largesse of the 31 foot 1987 Itasca Sun Catcher in large measure because of the queen bed in the back and the spaciousness, complete with dinette and sofa-,good body,engine, repair record and that great raised Class A view for seeing the sites -all for $13,000- seemed like a very good deal and the erstwhile honest enough owner and wife were upgrading to a newer one of the same model. Their main excursion was a yearly trip to Sebago Lake, putting a mere 1000 miles on each summer. We had vey different plans. We took one “warm-up” to Bangor, had Cyndy’s rolling 50th Birthday Bash aboard (complete with a scrape with a parked car that required four of us to lift the light weight car away from the RV – and evidently the owner dedcided against good-naturedly buffin it out and filed a claim instead which resulted in a heafty surcharge…guess he recondsidered the turban I was wearing and felt that I was wacky or could well afford the hit to his benefit).
Dennis actually dubbed our coach “The Love Shack Jr.” after their trailer and with 3 months of bills paid,former English and NP student Sue McSweeney taking up residence at #5 arranged at the last minute, with Joe as the caretaker, goodbyes to parents –just starting to ail Pat- we set off about March 20th with Joe escorting us on his bike as far as the YMCA and off we were to our first stop at the Delaware River Gap Park in NY …and the first night the furnace malfunctioned …the first of a daunting and dismaying series of broken parts and systems. After getting the furnace fixed next was the dashboard tape deck we hoped to study Spanish with and did not fix,then the cab heater which necessitated our driving along clad in winter coats and with blankets over our chilled legs and feet-we had to get that fixed. I remember at Cyndy’s urging to investigate some suspicious engine noise ,taking off the inside cover and peering into the engine cluelessly looking for a loose wire or errant squirrel and saying timidly ,”Hi in there I’m Mike.” It seemed to quiet down and it kept running but somewhat fussily the power fading ,to volkwagen level on inclines.
Some journey highlights-
We had stopped at a roadside rest area just beyond a nuclear power plant, had ourselves our first cookout with the portable grille, stowed it away and hit the road when there was a terrific,horriffic KABOOM and our immediate reaction was either the propane had exploded and perhaps blown out the side of the RV compartment or there had been a nuclear mishap! The RV seemed to be driving steadily and there was no mushroom cloud so we pulled off at the very near next exit, and pulled almost immedialtely into what seemed to be an open but unattended campground. Checking the rig further I could see that an inner rear dual tire was shreaded and we exclaimed,”Thanks god it’s a blowout!” We called Good Sam (definitely never leave home without this RV road service as we were to learn time and again during the trip’s travails; a tow truck came in less than an hour and put on the spare – we would get a new used tire tire in the nearest town next day. Very funny=mystical thing about this campground –there were no other campers, no attendant though the bathrooms were immaculate with some complimentary items if needed and and there was a little gift display with some great items- a few of which we purchased just leaving the cash the next morning along with the camping fee as we were never able to get an answer at the posted owner’s phone numbers…it was all so strangely timely and “singular” with a benevolent “Twilight Zone” twist and were were sure that unlike ghostly George and Marion we had not been killed in that tire mishap because our adventures certainly continued.
(Maybe 2 weeks later in the rather remote canyon land of Texas we pulled into our campsite and walkingaround I was amazed to see a huge flap peeling off the outside rear tire. Somehow the hubcap has bent back and was ripping into the tire like Charlton Heston’s foe in the great chariot race. Fortunately it had not blown on the road, but another call to this remote location, Good Sam changed the tire and we soon bought another. The only souvenir I have from that motorhome is a hubcap which I hung on the alley fence.
We visited Mammoth Cave and Bowling Green and horse country in Kentucky. Crossing into Tennessee we came into Nashville on a rainy Sunday, checked out the huge Grand Ole Opry Hotel complete with inner canals –country’s answer to Vegas’s over the top Bellagio – which we see later. There was some March Madness basketball game going on which held no interest for us and somehow we were not drawn in by any evident charm which so many folks attribute to Nashville (maybe another time) We decided to head about another 100 miles on to Memphis which we loved. We stayed at a funky campground just down the street from Graceland (we may have been having some work done ) so we took the tour and were genuinely captivated by all things Elvis there enshrined. On one side of the street bigger displays= “Air Elvis” the small jet and the 727 which was all decked out for touring and which he kept on call in case he had a hankering in the wee hours for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich the likes of which could only be had in Denver. Across the street was the “mansion” really a rather modest ranch style affair ,vintage 60’s with hideous shag carpetry thoughout. Other buildings housed his incredible ,outrageous costumes, photos including the weirdest= a caped Elvis at the White House with Nixon as the King maybe blasted on pills received an FBI/DEA badge, his awards, very generous charitable donations,, the grave where he his twin brother who died at birth and his beloved Mother are buried together with the eternal flame and with floral tributes delivered every day from around the world. We had not been big Elvis fans ,did like some of his tunes especilally “Suspicious Minds”, “In the Ghetto”, ”Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” , got a hoot out of his movies like “Roustabout” ,etc., We heard the news that he died while we were in traveling in Europe ? 1976 and thought it was so tragic how he had fallen to pill addiction. He really was a musical innovator and “King” who rules still today. We took the trolley along the waterfront, were off trying to find the Civil Rights Museum and came around the corner and were stunned to be face to face with the Lorraine Motel and that balconey we had seen on TV so many times, the actual spot where Martin Luther King was assassinated April 4, 1968 ,where violence and fear struck and tried to extinguish his/the Dream …the museum was closed, but just being there was so powerful. As 18 years olds we were just barely aware of King’s inspirational leadership in the struggle for equal civil rights. From our vantage point in 2000 it seems impossible such discrimination had been the norm – and yet we see the legacy of slavery /inequity still resounding in the inner city where we care for primarily Black and Hispanic poorer people. Come so far and so far yet to go .
Memphis is music and we totally enjoyed a night of live blues at BB King’s club on Beale Street, drove past seminal Sun Recording Studio and left the city feeling as if we had only scratched the rich surface.
Arkansas had to have the worst roads in the country. The major interstate was just a un ending stretch of frost heave like splits that made the RV jarringly echo boom-boomp every 50 feet. We were driving along on a Sunday eve at dusk m-boompoing along when it started to rain. A carload of Black guys pulled up next to us gesticulating out the window at the bottom of the RV, and as they sped off I noticed that there was a large amount of tissue hanging off the hood and roof ,but I did not make any connection. The RV seemed to be handling OK, no swerving, burning smells etc. I pulled off at the next exit and took a walk around. Nothing seemed to be wrong. I knelt down and looked under the rear and to my shock I saw just open PVC pipes with toilet paper hanging out! Cyndy came around back as I exclaimed“holy shit “ and asked “what’s wrong?” to which I replied as it was shockingly dawning on me –“It’s all gone!”It’s all gone! What -was under here- the whole septic system, the holding tanks, everything , it’s all gone!” And we realized what the paper was on that car and why the black guys were gesticulating so animatedly…we had let go our whole load of shit onto their car! Lucky for us they did not stop- but oh woe is us –what the hell are we going to do for the next 2 months with no bathroom or kitchen sink in this supposed motor home!?! We drove to an RV dealer in Little Rock who was able to get us all hooked up for about $200 in 2 hours, a miracle for us…He explained that it’s a common problem that RVs without even seeing it sometimes hit a truck tire tread on the road which twirls end over end under an RV and takes our any wires or plumbing suspended under the rig. That may be what happened we did not see or hear anything – or it may have just been the heaving Arkansas highways shook the shit out of our rig!
We had some kind of repair/tune-up done in Oklahoma City and again made the most of the down time. We went into town to the site of the memorial almost completed for the Murrah Federal Building bombing – where it developed that domestic terrorist Timothy McVey parked a truck full of chemical fertilizer which detonated and blew the front off the building killing 160 innocent people, including children in the day care…there was a small memorial in the name of each vicitim and a reminder that violence against innocents by an individual or a government is an outrage (brought to an even more horrible extreme when aggrieved religious fanatics flew 2 passenger jets into the World Trade Towers ,another against the Pentagon and one into a Pennsylvania field on Sept., 11,2001…)
Also in the city was “The Crystal Tunnel” a marvleous elevated glass arboretum roadway- a path of plants and flowers amidst the inner city.
Soemtime around now we lost our windshield wipers, that is the wiper motor ceased to function. We made several attempts but it was impossible to locate and coordinate the delivery of a used replacement for this older model. What to do? A resourceful mechanic directed us to a parts place to pick up some Rain-ex which he assured us if properly applied would make rain drops just shed clear off our properly waxed windshield . We had never heard of the product and were skeptical, but purchased and applied a good coat per instructions and SHAZAM- the next time it rained damned if the drops just trickled off our glass giving us remarkable visibility. So we kept applying it weekly.
We were way out in the hills of New Mexico, had a rather pleasant couple of surprisingly care-free days and were driving toward Taos in the mountainous hinterlands, with intermittent flurries. We had just passed a rather closed looking dude-ranch/conference center when there was a loud pop and smoke started coming out of the engine cover into the driving compartment along with some liquid spray and Cyndy yelled –“Let’s get the hell out of here!!” as I quickly pulled over to the gravel shoulder and agreeing , thinking that here we go this devious machine is going to burst into falmes and blow up- so abandon ship …and we waited…no flames, no explosion…so gingerly I entered, took the cover off ,restarted the engine and could see antifreeze squirting in a steady stream from a hole in one of the hoses. How to plug the hole? I tried some duct tape we had, but it did not hold. I walked back to the dude ranch and a helpful fellow gave me “some super heavy duty air force grade tape that would hold anything”, which I walked back and applied and it was immediatley blown through…so we called and waited for the nearest Good Sam tow truck to get to us…He arrived in about an hour, with a truck too small to tow us, but was able to bypass the heating system so we could follow him to Taos for a repair. Earlier in the journey we had got used to no heat so we bundled up and followed him frigidly down out of the mountains but quickly into the 25 mile drive the intermittent flurries turned to some serious snow and with no wipers and Rainex not up to this frozen precipitation the show quickly caked up on the windshield and I would be peering way over from the streering wheel out of the corner 6 inches of the windshield trying to keep the tow truck in sight as he sped down the sharp twists and turns. Every couple of miles I just had to pull over and use a broom to clear the windshield and try to catch up with him…probably repeated this 6 times and finally we reached his station and his buddy was able to replace the blown hose to our relief and a minor amount of cash. But our nerves were frayed from the “exlposion” and thrill ride and the accumulated troubles for these first three weeks and we both had a meldown in Taos… a case of finally being able to to take an extended RV trip the first real one since 1978, all the planning to make this 3 months happen and simultaneously feeling” for chrissakes why do we have to have all these friggin problems, this is supposed to be fun not an endurance contest with so many mechanical screw ups, at this rate we’ll be riding home on the frame like the Beverly Hillbillies if we can make it at all!!! We both had our turns venting and crying and in the morning it was OK to travel on.
We skippped alien Area 54 in Roswell for another time and headed toward Phoenix for our rendez-vous with Joe and Chris- which went so smoothly mecahnically and personally. We picked them right in the airport in Phoenix and headed up to a reunion with Marty and Dale and Matice in Sedona where the V’s were maintenance and nurse for the Valley Verde Private School ( we had been there with Marge on a previous trip that included the phenominal CSNY,Jackson Browne,Marc Cohen,Bruce Cockburn benefit concert under a full moon with the red rock backdrop= fantastic!! ) visited the local vortices,amazing rock formations complete with Chris leading yoga ,went swimming with 14 yo Matice who turned to us and asked –“Is it good to be rich?” and later at night at dinner sent me into a choking fit when we were reviewing movies and Joe mentioned Tarintino’s wacky Pulp Fiction and Matice quoted in reference to the horrid gimp in the basement scene-“Get off of the nigger!” ~ Wow that kid is unique! And speaking of unique we were not to find out until later that during our visit Marty and Dale were actually already divorced and making plans for their next chapters~ again WOW. But it was a great reunion and from there we headed up to the Grand Canyon, Bryce (where having been mishap free for a long stretch , while Joe and were taking a hike we went off for a drive and I managed to scrunch the bikes against a treee while backing up- did not tell Joe and was able to get fixed fairly easily) then on to Zion … and then we dropped them off at a Greyhound pick-up spot waving somewhat tearfully as Joe waved and pointed out the chain smoking babe with the long ugly coat and 2 litre bottle of RC cola last on the bus , definitely one of “Joe’s People”. It had been a really enjoyable 10 plus days with them and they were good luck as we had had no breakdowns thankfully during their visit! Our next stop was the weird man-made and trash strewn Lake Meade, and then the worst of all VEGAS…UGH!! We “camped” in the convenient “Circus,Circus “ casino parking lot,at least it had a pool and laundry, walked through there and along “The Strip” (= stripped of real value and taste!) with the bizarre casino sidewalk shows and this utterly neon and unnatural enrgy black hole in the desert and Cyndy literally had an allergic cultural reaction so we were out of there the next morning! (Vegas touts itself as a family -the Mansons? Or Addams? And recreational destination with so much so close – but this place would not be here without the vice of gambling and the absolute necessity of air conditioning!- We shan’t return again!)
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Next best = our favorite Big Sur 4 day stay at Kirk Creek Campground where we have been so many times… this our longest stay complete with pounding wind and rain storm, sunny bike ride,gallery and Henry Miller exhibit and my gourd thumb piano souvenir…no problems!
Heading up to San Francisco we passed through Steinbeck territory and headed into the Los Padres (“Lost Padres”) camping area ;we had just made the turn when the muffler blew and we were embarrassed to have thundering reverberations resound through this narrow valley,sometimes very near to little clusters of homes obviously there for the quiet… and we thundered along until we each the end of the line park parking lot all to ourselves where the next morning we were sourrounded by wild turkeys until we started up the engine! We were able to get replaced within about 50 miles while we still had our hearing intact.
A rather quick visit to Bob K in San Fran, Golden Gate,a seder with friends Saralee&Tom then on to….camping on the street above their home…
Mount Tam and the Mount Tam Terror (from Mike’s perspective – at 31 feet we were below the 35 foot vehicle restriction on these twisting hair pin turns,able to negotiate without bottomingout, climbing up to the top on Easter Saturday eve. The campground turned out to be the not too level parking lot. We got settled in when some travelers from Europe came over and asked for jump as they had left their inside light on and the rental car battery was dead. Thinking how I’d appreciate the help in a similar spot I got the Love Shack Jr in place, gave them the jump and off they went with thanks. Cyndy suggested that rather than go back to our original position perhaps we cold get a bit more level as she was cooking some oatmeal for the cool eve supper and so I pulled head-on facing into the curb and picnic table grille area, put the leveling ramps in place and directed Cyndy to drive up on them and as she got a bout half way up I called to her to stop as I walked down the driver’s side to check the level mounted on the side. What follows took only seconds but seemed agonizingly long- Before I could check the RV shot off the ramps and I whipped around yelling” hit the brake!;hit the brake!” as it jumped the curb,snapped the grille right off and headed toward the boundary fence and some kind of drop off, all the while ,only a few seconds,I’m yelling to Cyndy to hit the break,and as I frantically came up to the driver’s door she was not there at first- and I tried to open the door as she jumped back in the seat and the front end broke the rail fence and as it started to head over I could just see a big (maybe 50-100 deep) ravine and the thought flashed in my brain that if this goes over the front end will be stove in, probably crush us both to death and I was not going to let go of the driver’s door handle or Cyndy, just feeling so powerless when the Love Shack II came to a jarring stop with the two front wheels just going over the edge…I yelled to Cyndy,put it into park and to stay at the wheel with the brake and emergency brakes on. I got the ramps and some rocks to wedge the tires,so that it would not roll or slip…it really felt like one of those cartoon/adventure scenes where the vehicle is teetering over the abyss.Very badly shaken from this near death experience I got in the side door just so relieved that she was OK and asked what had happened. Cyndy was not really sure…if she had left it in gear on the leveling ramp or it has just slipped or what,but it had definitely taken off and scared us badly, our closest close call ever . We both went outside and surveying the scene in the dusk we realized that amazingly it was the grill wedged up under the drive shaft which had stopped us and incredibly it had not crushed in the front end, the radiator, had missed all the wiring,propane tank and everything else vital or explosive under there! I had a long spade and sure with the tires blocked it would not slide I spent some time by flashlight trying to dig around the grille-but after about 45 minutes it was obvious that we needed help and none had spontaneously arrived so we called Good Sam Road service and a father and son team arrived in the pitch black dark about an hour later. The elder’s first words were:”Got away from you, eh?- well at least it stopped.” Over the next hour among the 3 of us we dug around the grille and he hooked up his winch to the rear and said-“OK get in ,put your foot on the brake and start it up,when I honk put it in reverse and give it the gas and let’s hope you can back it out because I don’t think with this truck I can pull it out or keep it from going ove-r so if it starts to roll over just jump out! Holy Easter Saturday Night Shit!! The son took out the blocks, I put it in reverse and with left foot on the brake and right on the gas gave it the gun and what a relief the tow truck held and the LSII backed away from the edge and onto the parking lot. Needless to say we gave effussive thanks and a good tip to our rescuers and waved to our new best friends as they drove off into the night. It was after 11PM when we finally had that oatmeal, whewing and laughing nervously to have had such an anxious evening …and we dropped off to sleep exhausted and hugging each other. To be awakened in the ealry Sunday morn not by resurrection trumpet blasts but by the roar of dozens of motorcycles thundering up Tam for the annual Easter run…I put the broken split rail fence back together as best I could and hid the grille remnants by a tree,hoping that we would not have to pay for it and we drove out with no further investigation or incident except to stop and take pictures overlooking San Francisco Bay and City in the distance just so glad to be alive and back on the road…
Stopped at Van Dam Park up by Mendicino as we had with Joe in “79 during the beginning of our homeward loop…just beautiful along that entire northern coast,California,Oregon and Washington – along the Columbia River Gorge with its scenic road and waterfalls beautiful even though damp , enjoying a very “schmoopie lifestyle”.
As they had arranged and we agreed-sort of- about 2 weeks later we picked up Mimi (and her 8 pairs of shoes) and Sal at the Seattle Airport. Noteworthy- In Olympic National Park in one day we travelled up to a snow covered peak, then to the warm,wave swept seashore and camped in a rainforest!!! We had some genuinely good times with them- Victoria, the extraordinarily scenic Ice Fields Parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper with so much wildlife – enen polar bears per Cyndy- actually long horned rams, elk,moose,bear…we just kind of hit the wall after about 10mostly good days and Mimi being a bit too much with too much vino, related to Sal taking him aside just how much we had gone through to make this trip possible and how we really wanted to have our trip back to ourselves and so we dropped them of in Calgary to have some time to themselves…Sal was very helpful when we were climbing up through some pass and the main sewer PVC drain came loose and dragged on the highway, fortunately not emptying the load on the alerting passing car as had happened in Arkansas…and together we were able to get it all clamped back in place.
The road back home was rather uneventful, just one more back up dent, no other big deals..
Special features…we never figure this out but every time we arrived at our destination we had instant and abundant hot water without the heateer being on…? Co-generation?
And the shower which was a great size cabinet never had enough pressure; we’d take turns sitting on the floor and pour warm water on the showeree to rinse. The generator? Well we had one, but it never worked. And the electric step- that never worked either and every time we got in and out I had to put a plastic stool on the ground for a step up or down…
Mount Rushmore, Wind Caves, Wall Drug, skirting Detroit for a swing into Ontario, then on to Niagara Falls and down to visit Irene in Livonia, then a last day in a western Mass Park with very bad bear control,and a visit to the quaint town ?Shelburne Falls - with the flower bridge and then on to home sweet home where so fortunately everyone and everything was OK; we went to the book club that eve rendez vous’d with friends and family,Sue headed to the VNAB and Cyndy to Manet and did a job search,enjoyed a unique and well deserved summer off and remarkably came to the VNAB MCH team on weekends and we would work together for the next 8 years (it would be 2 more years before we’d have to bid a heart-breaking farewell to our beloved Dads…)
The Trip, our Centennial Celebration, was an adventure in so many ways, while we were plagued by mechanical problems even wondering those first three weeks if we should just try to sell it on the road ,cut our losses and get a reliable van we could make do with, but with luck and teamwork we worked it all out together; we almost were killed one evening: and the togetherness, the “schmoopieness” of the experience was the essence of that and our entire journey through life and our resolve to spend as much time together as possible would lead to research and planning for Our 5 Year Plan beginning in 2008 – but with a new RV, our Mobile Casita
Postscript on the Love Shack,Jr.- once home we did not take anymore trips out in it…tried to sell it from April on and finally put it on consignment…getting a call from the dealer on the eve of the VMA outing in December with a take it or leave it offer for $5,000;it had needed a new toilet and wiper motor etc, but the buyer wanted to drive it immediately to Arizona…and we hope he had a safe and less troubled trip than we had- Happy Motoring pal.
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