Serene Wandering

Repair and Replace has been the theme of our month in Boise as Randy and the problematic things on our fifth-wheel have been “fixed.”

Randy’s recheck and maintenance treatments went as well as we could have hoped. Physical results, chemical results and three maintenance treatments all went very well. We feel blessed and appreciate the prayers and support. He feels fine (as he always has) and we are “excused” until December 7th when the cycle starts again.   So Randy is “repaired” but will not be replaced!

 

Even if Randy wasn’t worth keeping for other reasons, he surely has upped his game in the handy Randy role during the last few weeks. He repaired both bikes and the bike rack and replaced the ladder damaged in our backward collision with the tree in Missouri.

 

When he was on top he noticed a damaged vent cover and screws that needed to be counter-sunk and covered.   And then he fixed the water heater and on and on.   It seemed the repair jobs would never end!

Randy also buffed out oxidation and waxed our entire fifth wheel. It was a HUGE job but looks so much better!

Elko frequently supervised Randy’s work but one day decided to walk to the river on his own and go swimming.  Elko has never done anything like that before and the adventure was an unwelcome surprise to his people.  Randy found him pretty quickly but after that Elko had to be attached to our trailer.  Elko thinks the penalty is far greater than his transgression.

The damaged shower pan we told you about in the last blog was replaced by Nelson’s RV in Boise under our extended warranty. The warranty company had a $1000 bill and we had one for $260.  We had a $50 deductible and $200+ for shipping.  Again with the shipping!  We were displaced for the day to our friends Darrell and Cindy’s home. That was the morning after they had a water line problem so Randy helped Darrell dig a 4 x 4 x 4 foot hole for the plumber.

It wasn’t all work though. We had a great time taking our grandson to a movie and dinner once a week.    We did some normal Boise summer things like going to the Idaho Shakespeare Festival courtesy of friends Deb and John.  We also enjoyed seeing many of our Boise friends as always.

Also very normal was having a great time over Labor Day weekend at Lake Cascade State Park with Darrell and Cindy.  We have spent many fine holiday weekends together in our favorite sites.

We broke out the inflatable paddle board!

We had started thinking about Lake Cascade as a place to volunteer next summer and made contact with the park manager. We used to wonder why anyone would volunteer so close to home and now we have applied to do that very thing!  The park has a variety of campgrounds and is just a couple hours from Boise.  The location would be convenient for day trips to Boise and Randy’s medical follow-up which continues into next summer.

We went north to McCall and enjoyed a Nine and Dine with friends Rodger and Donna. The course was beautiful, the meal was delicious and the skies were still smokey.

 

Our friend Karen treated me to something new! We had a wonderful evening at Fuel for the Soul! It is part cooking class, part delicious dinner and part great conversation.

Boise foodies, check it out! I look forward to going again when we return to Boise next spring.

We are headed to the Boise State football game this evening and then begin a road trip toward Albuquerque and the Balloon Festival tomorrow.   Hopefully we won’t have anymore repair and replace drama!   Randy needs a break – where his big task is to just drive.

 

 

Randy had his bladder cancer re-check today and it went well. The doctor said “That’s a good looking bladder.”   We are very thankful!

The second part of today’s exam was a urine cytology which we will hear on next week. His maintenance treatments are schedule for three consecutive Fridays beginning  August 25.

Barring something changing after the cytology results, our plan is to be in the Boise area until September 15 after which we are free to travel until his next check up on December 7th.    Before I work on plans for the next trip, lets look back at some random facts on the last one!

Truck miles driven: 5348                   Fuel: 456 gallons,   11.7 mpg

Days on the road: 36

• Three night stops: 3
• Two night stops: 11
• One night stops: 5

Repairs on the Truck:  Two unplanned, one planned

First, the exhaust manifold repair left us Diverted and Delayed in Wyoming.  Fortunately the repair was relatively quick and successful.

A semi-related second issue has arisen that has our truck sounding like it has flatulence.  It isn’t a required repair but is way too embarrassing to live with.   That repair is pending.

We have a significantly cracked windshield but purposely waited until after this trip to install a new one.  That is scheduled.

Repairs on the Trailer:

One self-inflicted – unplanned repair in process – our Missouri Oops!  The new ladder has been ordered and Randy will install it when it gets here.  He is working on getting my bike wheel repaired or replaced. He has begun research on a new bike rack and bike for himself.

Even with some unplanned events to manage, it was a great trip! We enjoyed seeing friends and family along the way. We saw some great places and learned interesting things.  It was very nice to be away from the medical stuff for a while!

After all the money we spent on and as a result of this trip, we got an interesting surprise when we picked up five weeks of mail at the UPS store that is our mailing address. We got a check from Norcold!

There has been a class action lawsuit against Norcold claiming a design flaw in their RV refrigerators which cause an increased risk of fire. It has been going on for years. We qualified to join the lawsuit and did. (In the meantime Randy completed two fixes which minimize our risk for a refrigerator fire.)

A settlement was reached last fall and we were told we’d get some money eventually. Eventually was almost a year later!  When we returned we had a check for $228.90 It was the first of four installments which will total $927.75!

Whoo-hoo! It won’t begin to pay for this trip, but it more than paid for Handy-Randy’s refrigerator fixes!

On this last week of our road trip we made it to Colorado. We are now very intrigued with the idea of spending a lot more time in Colorado. We drove past a number of venues that landed on our to do list!

It helped that our first park, Lake Pueblo State Park, was terrific! The sites were huge and the views were expansive.

I found a very nice Safeway!  It was the nicest grocery store I’ve been to on the whole trip. I confess to being a grocery store snob. I like new, clean, well-stocked stores that have a Starbucks. Although not every Safeway is this nice, I always look for them.

One evening we watched a storm roll in. We watched for too long because the next thing we knew we were getting wet through our ceiling vent. It closes automatically when it detects rain but the wind was blowing so hard that it couldn’t.

Randy was trying to help it close and keep the water out while I was wiping up the water coming in through our window weeping holes.

The next morning we had to go searching for Elko’s water bucket and were surprised to find it!

I talked with the camp host who said they were enjoying their experience but had 98 sites by themselves. Whew! That is a lot but we liked the park well enough to consider it in the future.

Next we traveled to Curecanti National Recreation Area near Gunnison. We had a nice site there too. Our big event was the National Park Service Morrow Point Boat Tour.    Once you get to the parking lot you go down 232 steps to water level.

Then you walk a mile along the old railroad grade until you find the boat.

We had a delightful tour learning about the geology and history of the area. We learned about the quest to build the narrow gauge Denver- Rio Grande Railroad through the Black Canyon Gorge. It was so difficult that a number of men died and eventually they had to bring in foreign labor.  Beginning in 1882, the railroad hauled ore, coal, livestock and passengers for 67 years.

We saw some interesting rock cliffs!

 

 

It was a great trip even though we then had to go up those 232 steps!

If Colorado is so Colorful, why are their signs so plain?  And why are people putting travel stickers on the Utah sign?

We arrived at Green River State Park in Utah which has a golf course on site. Randy doesn’t golf often but this was so convenient! He came by mid-round for a Guinness.

When our neighbors pulled in they had one of those “I can’t believe I did that” moments when the gentleman closed the tailgate and started to pull forward before he had cleared the trailer hitch. Randy was over there for a while helping him get it cleared. No condemnation here!  Everyone has those moments – like our Missouri Oops!

(In an interesting add on:  The next night Randy was out there again helping ANOTHER couple in site 25!  This time an Airstream trailer door/ lock wouldn’t work and they couldn’t get in.  The woman finally went in and out through a window but they still couldn’t open the door.  They eventually did get the door to open but then couldn’t get it to reliably open/close/ lock.   Randy assisted for over an hour last night in finding a temporary solution to getting their door/lock functional until they can get the issue fixed.    The site is jinxed – avoid it!)

In Green River we spent time at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum. Powell was a one-armed former civil war officer who led an expedition along the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1869. The Colorado River area was the last unexplored area in the US and maps designated it as such.

Powell’s  first expedition had boat and rapids challenges and lost much of their provisions. Three members left and were killed by Paiute Indians. The expedition became one of survival (Mormon settlers assisted them with food) but they eventually became the first to traverse the Grand Canyon by boat.

Powell later led a second expedition that focused on scientific, photographic and mapping goals. Many of the canyons and landmarks along the Green and Colorado Rivers still bear the names given to them by Powell’s expeditions.  In reverse, modern day Lake Powell was named for him.

The terrific movie at the museum, Journey Into The Great Unknown, inspired us to float the Grand Canyon too! Let’s add some Utah-Arizona intrigue to the mix….

 

Dorothy said “There’s no place like home” about her Kansas farm but I didn’t feel the same about my Kansas home. I lived 2 years in Salina while in high school, but routed us through Hutchinson and Dodge City instead.  Tourism over sentiment!

There are eight Wonders of Kansas and two of them are in Hutchinson. We started with the Strataca Salt Mine Museum.

Formed when the Permian Sea evaporated 275 million years ago, a massive salt layer spreads across 27,000 square miles of central Kansas.  While looking for oil, a developer found salt.  Mining began in 1923 and continues to this day. The active and previously mined sections cover 1000 acres and include 160 miles of tunnels.

More than half of the current production is sold to Chicago as road salt with the rest going to other states and municipalities for the same purpose. A small amount is used in livestock feed.

We descended 650 feet to the Strataca Museum where you tour areas worked in the 1950s. There is a self guided portion, a train ride, and two shuttles through different sections of the mine.

Much of the salt in Strataca has brown and red veins – good for roads but not for tables.

We were able to choose salt pieces to take home – or in our case, to our grandson.

 

We saw interesting artifacts including gloves from the 1940s with double thumbs. To accommodate war time shortages, gloves were made to be used one way and, when the palm was worn, reversed to use the back side.   Miner gear, boxes and garbage are museum artifacts and not disturbed.

Because it was costly and time consuming to remove, and there was plenty of room,  miners left garbage piles.  These give additional perspective on mine history.   The pile above had a partially eaten sandwich from the 1950s.

There are thousands of discarded dynamite boxes left in the mine. All are in perfect condition, as though they were used yesterday.

The salt mine environment is perfect for preserving garbage, boxes and valuables because there are no critters or moisture. There is a constant 70 degree temperature.

After the Monuments Men recovered art the Nazis had hidden in European salt mines, a new business was incorporated here in 1959.  Underground Vaults and Storage holds original Hollywood films (including The Wizard of Oz), costumes and props. They also store medical,  financial and insurance records from around the country.  State governments’ and other nations governments’ records are stored here.    It is big business with 65 employees, 2 shifts and nearly 1.7 million square feet of storage – with lots of room to grow!

 

 

Randy visited Cosmosphere, the second Wonder of Kansas in Hutchinson. It is an affiliate of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. He spent four hours at Cosmosphere and said he barely scratched the surface.

The Cosmophere has extensive history and artifacts detailing how German rocket technology developed, came to America after WWII, and factored into the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

   The Apollo 13 Command Module is at Cosmosphere!  “Houston, we have a problem.”

 

Eventually, we moseyed across the prairie to Dodge.  Dodge City began as a location for  buffalo traders and became a hub for western cattle drives.  It also became infamous for gunfights, saloons, gambling halls and brothels, including the Long Branch Saloon.

We enjoyed a sarsaparilla and a show at the Long Branch Saloon.

In the rough years between 1872-78 known and unknown folks were buried on the hill above Dodge. Several were buried with their boots on, thus the name Boot Hill.

Today the Boot Hill Museum sits on the former cemetery.  (The residents were moved.)

The museum recreated Front Street including the shops and saloons present in 1870.

Neither was Matt Dillon.  There are pictures and artifacts of Gunsmoke but the museum focuses on the real history of Dodge City, not the TV version.

The next time we wander into Kansas, maybe I’ll be drawn to the old home town.  Or maybe we’ll catch the remaining six Wonders of Kansas!

 

 

We were here for the Mariners-Royals baseball game and the RV park in Independence was the closest to the stadium. We knew a little about Independence. Most western migration left from Independence and Harry Truman was from here but we were all about the baseball game. And some Kansas City BBQ!

Our first dinner was at A Little BBQ Joint and it was a great meal!

We were hesitant to go to the Truman Library and Home since we had been so impressed with the Lincoln versions in Springfield. How could Truman even begin to compare? Despite the lure of Kansas City attractions,  we decided to focus our activities in Independence. And we are glad.  Truman held his own!

Harry S. Truman, our 33rd president, is everywhere in Independence.  This was his home before going to Washington to serve as Senator, Vice President and President and then again until his death. We spent a whole day immersed in everything Truman visiting the county courthouse, the Truman Library and the Truman Home.

Harry grew up in the area and worked in the Clinton Soda Shop as a youth earning $3 a week. (We had lunch and ice-cream there!)  He tried a variety of jobs over the years with little success until he became Jackson County Judge – what we’d consider a county commissioner.

Harry met and fell for Bess when he was six and she was five. They eventually married and moved into her family home. He ran for the US Senate and served 10 years, returning to Independence whenever possible.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for his fourth term, Democratic powers questioned whether he would survive the term.  They handpicked Harry Truman as his new vice presidential candidate. Truman served 82 days as Vice President and met with Roosevelt just twice.

Truman inherited a world at war and, in 8 years as president, made decisions to drop atomic bombs on Japan, implement the Marshall Plan, mobilize airlifts during the Berlin Blockade, desegregate the US Armed Forces, be the first to recognize Israel and fire General Douglas McArthur.

He felt his most difficult decision was to enter the Korean conflict and his greatest regret was the inability to implement a national compulsory health insurance program.

The White House was found to be structurally unsound during Truman’s term.  The interior was gutted and rebuilt in a three year project.

These are Harry and Bess Truman’s official portraits.   Bess’ original portrait is in the  Truman Home in Independence.  They took it with them and wouldn’t send it back.  A copy was made and is hanging in Washington, the only copy among originals.

When Harry and Bess returned to Independence, they had very modest means. He had a small military pension but past presidents did not yet receive a pension or secret service protection. Nevertheless, he was able to raise monies for the very first Presidential Library believing that papers and items of his presidency belonged to the people of the United States.

The library displays many of the 1300 letters he wrote to Bess over their years together.

Truman’s approval rating at the end of his presidency was 22%. History has been kind to his legacy. Rankings of presidents by historians have him as the sixth best president in US history.

Continuing with Independence history, we visited the National Frontier Trails Museum. Most western migration left from Independence in the early and mid 1800s. This included travelers on the Santa Fe,  California and the Oregon Trails. We have a good working knowledge of the California and Oregon trails but were glad to learn about the Santa Fe.

The Santa Fe Trail was a commerce highway between Missouri and Santa Fe, Mexico (later New Mexico). It was a 3 month trip and merchants traveled both ways. Bent’s Fort, an adobe outpost,  was the largest permanent settlement between Missouri and Santa Fe. The trail became obsolete in 1880 with use of the railroad.

The most surprising place we visited in Independence was The Community of Christ Temple. It has a very tall spire visible from all over town.

The Community of Christ was originally the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   When Joseph Smith was martyred in Nauvoo, Illinois (1844) his church splintered. Brigham Young took most of the believers to Utah. Several groups stayed in the midwest and eventually reorganized under Joseph Smith’s wife Emma and his son Joseph Smith III.

They have a shared history with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) but have evolved quite differently in belief and practice.

The Community of Christ’s world headquarters are in Independence, Missouri.  The tour was quite interesting and the temple very unique.

On our last evening in Independence, we went to the baseball game that brought us here.    Kauffman Field is beautiful but the Mariners came up short.

 

Randy named the blog this time because he (we) had a pretty big Oops!   More on that later…

As we prepared to cross the western border leaving Illinois, I saw an interesting situation on the map.  We left Illinois, crossed over the Mississippi River and came into Missouri. The first city we came to was Louisiana. Kind of a weird four corners region!

 

In spite of a GPS error, we made it to our campground and parked.  The ground was soft so Randy wanted to move the trailer slightly to position it better onto the gravel. That is when we had the Oops!  He backed into a tree. I was standing right there but didn’t expect him to go back that far so I share the blame.  Oops!

My fear, as I ran back to see the damage, was the condition of the big window but it and our trailer structure were fine.

The bikes, bike rack and ladder took the damage! The ladder and bike rack will be replaced. We both need new wheels.  Randy will likely replace his bike as he’s wanted to anyway. Overall, a pretty lucky Oops!

However, the damage to our bikes meant we couldn’t ride the Katy Trail, the longest Rails to Trails route in the country at 225 miles in length.   The trail uses the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy) railroad corridor developed in 1872.

Franklin Junction served as a prominent railroad site from 1893 until World War II.   The line had diminished use mid-century and was discontinued in the 1980s.  The railroad grade became a Rails to Trails route in the 1990s.   Our campground is on the old junction site.

The crash de-railed potential biking but did result in us meeting our campground neighbors.   They came by to see what happened!  While visiting, we learned about their Vintage Trailer!

 

Janet wanted a project so she bought a very rough 1964 PlayMor Trailer for $50. She spent $3800 refurbishing it and did a great job! It was Janet’s project but her husband Joe helped a bit.  Another vintage trailer refurbishment is in the works!

We met this guy patrolling the campground – Randall Mathews of the New Franklin Police Department.    He and my Randy Matthews chatted and compared notes.  He told us the definitive answer on whether to say Missour-EE or Missour-UH.   North of I-70 the state is called Missour-EE and south of I-70 it is Missour-UH.

So all of this happened in our first afternoon and evening and I haven’t even mentioned the reason we came to this neck of the Missouri woods.   We came to see the Budweiser Clydesdales at Warm Springs Ranch!

There are five Budweiser Clydesdale ranches but all breeding is done here in Boonville, Missouri.

 

Stallions are brought in “on assignment” from other Clydsdale breeders around the country for three year terms.   Outside stallions brings new DNA into the herd.

 This is Stan (named for St. Louis Cardinals’ Stan Musial), born and raised on the ranch.   When full grown he will be about 18 hands and weigh 2000 pounds.  He has the desired Budweiser Clydsdale look – bay color, black mane and tail, white blaze on the forehead and white socks.

Mares are bred in their third year and deliver 11 months later. Each mare will deliver 7-10 foals in her career. The mares live their entire lives at the ranch.  About 40 foals are born each year.

This is Otto. He was born June 7 weighing 125 pounds and standing 3 1/2 feet tall.  Otto was walking around when our tour went through the barn but when we went back 5 minutes later he was napping! Otto will feed on his mama for six months and then be weaned to depend less on milk and more on hay and grains.   (All Budweiser Clydesdales eat Timothy Hay from Eden, Idaho. It is shipped throughout the year to each of the ranches and to all performance locations.)

Foals and yearlings enjoy expansive pastures and undergo light training. Two year old geldings begin more intensive hitch training and eventually go to the New Hampshire ranch for hitch “finishing school.”

Hitch trained Clydesdales get assignments to one of three regional ranches: – Fort Collins Colorado, St. Louis, Missouri and Merrimack, New Hampshire.

From their home ranch, teams of 10 horses (8 pullers and 2 alternates) travel across the region for hundreds of performances. Budweiser has strict guidelines for travel (breaks after 2 hours and no more than 500 miles per day) and stabling. They have their own portable stable if there aren’t local stables meeting their specifications.

Each Hitch team uses three semi-trucks to transport the horses, handlers,  wagon and equipment.  Once on site, it takes the six handler crew four to five hours to groom the horses, equipment and wagons to exacting detail.

We came away very impressed with the whole operation and especially the “cradle to grave” care for the horses.  After a work life of 8-12 years, horses retire on one of the company ranches or at a handler’s ranch.  Either way, it seems good to be a Budweiser Clydesdale!

We had a great time on our tour and recommend it highly but plan ahead as it is’t an easy ticket to get.

 

 

 

We rolled into the Land of Lincoln and to the campground at the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The grounds are massive and it has been interesting to walk around and see the preparations for the fair beginning August 10.

This is the poultry barn,  just one of many  large, beautiful buildings for animal groupings.

 

Randy discovered a different “animal” grouping while looking at an electric vehicle charging station!  He disturbed a hornets nest when he removed the charging handle and got swarmed and stung.  The next day he destroyed the nest and was able to replace the handle.

But we didn’t come for the fair, we came to Springfield to be immersed in everything Abraham Lincoln.

 

We visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, Lincoln’s Home National Historic Site, Lincoln’s Tomb and Union Station.

There were two excellent video productions about Lincoln and the Lincoln Library. Ghosts of the Library (in Holavision) was SO amazing that we thought the narrator was a real person! The picture shows the set – no pictures allowed of the actual performance.

Lincoln’s life and death are shown in full size dioramas but the museum adds much depth to the man and President we thought we knew.

 

 But did you know Lincoln had two sweethearts before Mary Todd and that they were engaged twice before they married? Mary came from a wealthy family who were opposed to her engagement to someone beneath her social standing. She eventually married him regardless.

They had four sons and had a permissive style of child rearing. He said “It is my pleasure that my children are free, happy and unrestrained by parental tyranny.”

In 1858 Lincoln debated Senator Douglas seven times as candidate for the United States Senate.  Lincoln lost the election (as he did many before that) but the resulting publicity made him a viable candidate for President in 1860.

Lincoln was assaulted in the press. The Wilmington Daily Journal declared him “by all odds the weakest man ever elected. He is vain, weak, sterile, hypocritical, without manners…. is beneath contempt in every particular, morally and mentally.”  Of course we know better now!

The Civil War began soon after Lincoln’s first inauguration.  Year after year of war was hard.  Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address and wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.

 

The proclamation was released in a variety of forms and the museum has several examples.  An opinion in the Chicago Times stated  “…it will be known in all history as the most wicked, atrocious and revolting deed recorded in the annals of civilization.”   Not quite, as the proclamation was furthered in the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

A sobering movie shows the Civil War, including battles, territory modifications and casualties, in four minutes.   One week of war is represented each second.

The War Gallery allows you to select a photo on a matching video display and learn more about the person or persons depicted in the wall photo.

With the war in its final days, Lee had surrendered but all hostilities had not yet ceased, Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth.  Lincoln’s body made several stops on the way home to Springfield.

This photograph of Lincoln lying in state was taken in New York City on April 24, 1865. Mary Lincoln felt it was disrespectful and Secretary of War Stanton ordered all plates and negatives confiscated and destroyed. A single print was sent to Stanton who sent it to a former Lincoln secretary years later.  The photo was found in 1952.

 

 

The remains of Abraham, Mary and the three sons who died young, Eddy, Willie and Tad, are all in the Lincoln Tomb complex. Their first son, Robert, lived a full life and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery at the request of his wife.

We also visited Lincoln’s Home National Historical Site – the only home Lincoln ever owned. The family lived there for 17 years before moving to Washington DC. There are furnishings the Lincoln family actually owned and others that are similar.

The house is accurately represented because there were drawings commissioned by a newspaper when Lincoln became President.

Mary Lincoln’s stove is original to the house. She liked it so well that she considered taking it to the White House.

The bed in Abraham Lincoln’s bedroom is not original but the wallpaper is an exact replica based on protected sections that were found.

We visited Union Station where, when leaving Springfield for Washington,  Lincoln  said  “Here I have lived a quarter of a century and have passed from a young to an old man.”

Today the station holds sets and memorabilia from Steven Speilberg’s movie Lincoln. Speilberg strove for authenticity. He coordinated with the Lincoln museum and library, even obtaining a sound clip of Lincoln’s law office clock ticking.

In considering a title for this blog, I thought of familiar phrases like “…dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…”  or “Now he belongs to the ages” as spoken by Secretary of War Stanton upon Lincoln’s death.

Instead I decided on a phrase we just learned about. Lincoln, the man who said “with malice towards none and charity for all” also said “Play Dixie For me.”    He was visiting Richmond just after it fell and asked the band to “Play Dixie for me.”   He said “It is good to show the Rebels, that with us in charge, they will be free to hear it again.”   This exemplifies President Abraham Lincoln as he contemplated putting the nation back together again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a frenzy of one nighters in Indiana! Our fist night was spent at Indiana Dunes State Park on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.

Indiana Dunes is the most visited state park in Indiana and it surely qualified the night we were there!

When we traveled in the area last year we were disappointed at how little public access there was because so much lakeside property is privately owned.  This time our campground was within walking distance.

The next day we went to the MorRyde factory in Elkhart.  This factory was the reason we embarked on this 5 week jaunt across country in the muggy and busy summer! We have had axle alignment issues on our trailer for years and have been chewing through tires. Randy was convinced that installing an independent suspension system would solve our problem.

He was reluctant to put on new tires before the installation so we came across country on poor tires.  He rotated in the spare in Wyoming and our Tire Pressure Monitoring System chose these past two weeks to stop working.  There were some anxious moments as we rolled along the horrible roads in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. He kept telling me we would get there and, thankfully, he was right.

At 6:00 the next morning the transition from Dexter axles to a MorRyde independent suspension began.

We drove two hours south to Indianapolis and spent the day and night with our friend Rosa. It was wonderful to see her!    How do we know so many people in the midwest?

 

When we arrived back in Elkhart the new suspension system was installed and being aligned.  Our new G-rated tires were in place.  The technician told Randy that he and his partner’s eyes really popped when one of our old tires came apart when he tried to take it off the rim.  They had not seen that happen before.  We just BARELY got there!

 

The installer also told us he could see what the problem had been with our axles. Someone had bent them by raising the trailer on the axle tubes.  A huge mistake. It likely happened replacing our first set of tires or having our bearings packed as we had continual problems after that. Randy was not pleased that four supposedly reputable alignment shops could not determine that the bent axles were the problem.

At any rate, it took 2500 miles, two weeks of travel, and two days of work but we were ready to roll! Randy was very pleased with the process and the installation. He could immediately feel the difference in how the trailer responded.

At our first stop, Randy found rubbing on one of the cosmetic fenders caused by the very slight difference in suspension height. He trimmed it to allow more room as the suspension accommodates the road. Easily resolved.

We started our three week trek home by driving 120 miles southwest to Indiana’s newest state park, Prophetstown.   It is a very lovely state park in the Indiana grasslands with a nice campground, waterpark, bike trails, small scale working farm and an Indian village.

Prophetstown was named for an Indian settlement that was here from 1808 – 1811.  Shawnee leader Tekumseh and his brother the “prophet” organized a confederation of tribes intent on stopping western expansion.

William Henry Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, recognized the danger of Tecumseh’s plan. He brought troops to the area and the Battle of Tippecanoe took place on November 7, 1811. Thirty-seven soldiers and an unknown number of Indians were killed in the battle. The next day Prophets town was raided and destroyed.

One of the soldier combatants, John Tipton, acquired the battlefield land in 1829 and donated it to the state of Indiana in 1836. The constitution of the state includes a mandate to enclose and preserve the Tippecanoe battlefield.

 

There is a monument to William Henry Harrison and soldiers as well as headstones for the officers.

 

Known by the name Old Tippecanoe, William Henry Harrison ran for president in 1840.  His running mate was John Tyler and that familiar slogan was coined!

Harrison was elected the ninth President of the United States defeating incumbent Martin VanBuren. After serving only 30 days, Harrison became the first president to die in office.

After only five days we leave Indiana tomorrow.  This afternoon we ate lunch at White Castle, a familiar but unknown entity for us westerners!

We tried a combination of beef, chicken, and chicken-waffle sliders. The french fries and the chicken-waffle were really good! The rest was unremarkable, perhaps an acquired taste. But what do we know?

 

 

 

 

 

Like the pioneers of western migration, we are traversing the Great Platt River Road but we are doing it in reverse, going east instead of west, and on Interstate 80 instead of a flat river plain.  At an interstate rest area we saw an exhibit where wagon ruts had been covered and commemorated in brick.

The topography is very different in Nebraska than in our home state of Idaho but an advantage of the barren west is that Oregon Trail ruts are still visible more than 150 years later. We have seen miles of ruts thanks to our friend Jerry who has a passion for the Oregon Trail and took us on field trips over many years.

Our eastern migration destination for this day was Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska. It holds the country’s largest private collection of “Americana.” Opened in the 1950’s, Pioneer Village was awarded “Best Pioneer History Collection” in 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2017! We were prepared to be impressed!

When we arrived at the Pioneer Village campground, we were not impressed.  After roaming the mostly abandoned motel grounds to find the office, our expectations were plummeting.

We checked in (after signing the required damage waiver) and found our site.

While I spent time picking up trash, Randy hooked us into very suspect looking utilities. (In fairness, the utilities worked great. The electricity was stable through a thunderstorm our first night and through the hot and muggy next day.)

It’s good that we are self contained because restrooms were unavailable.

The site turned out alright once you got past the very rough first impressions.

We spent most of a day exploring the vast collection of Americana (over 50,000 items) in Pioneer Village.  I appreciated that groupings were displayed chronologically – and there were groupings of SO MANY THINGS!

There were old computers and a punch-card reader just like Randy used at Northern Arizona University about 1980.

 

We didn’t skip the wagons, buggies and automobiles  but couldn’t possibly give them all their due because there were so many of them – over 350 autos displayed chronologically.

We had just had a conversation about how many cars there were that we had never heard of when we saw a 1978 poster listing 2600 U.S. automakers operating between 1898 and 1978. Only eleven companies manufactured automobiles for more than 40 years. Those eleven were Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury(2011), Oldsmobile (2004), Plymouth (2001) and Pontiac (2010) and the dated ones have since discontinued.

My favorite part of the village is the displayed kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms across generations between 1830 and 1980!  Every actual sized room had so much detail.

Randy’s favorite part of the museum was just the fact that Harold Warp and his family went to so much effort to gather and present “ordinary aspects of American life for future generations to understand and enjoy.”

Harold Warp was a plastics pioneer. His company invented Jiffy Wrap and was the first to make plastic garbage bags. Products were marketed as Flex-O-Glass and Warp Plastics.

His goal was to preserve articles that made America grow and he traveled the country for decades purchasing and collecting the artifacts now on display.  He has since passed away and a private non-profit continues the mission.

Reviews on Trip Advisor for Pioneer Village were very good but a few expressed concern over the condition of the village.  It was somewhat confusing until we experienced it ourselves. We totally agree.  Pioneer Village is absolutely worth the trip because the collection is marvelous –  but you may want to come sooner rather than later.