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1 to 15 November 2014 16 to 30 November 2014

Saturday November 1st, 2014

Last night the temperature dropped down to +3 C and we had a maximum of +4 in the afternoon. We still have a lots of wind.
Now let me tell you about the not so nice part of our full timer lifestyle.
October can be on the cold side for us! Cold feet, electric heater running all day. Did I mention the cold floor?
Life is not that bad, but we cannot wait to get in the warmer weather...

A special morning breakfast! Fried potatoes and eggs. Hummm! We have to use everything from our fridge before we cross the border. You never know what they will be asking about and what food not to bring in the US this year!!!

The day after Halloween is time to shop the specials. We went to Walmart for Halloween specials...

Our candy stash is good for a year now!

We are home and it is still + 3 C. Boring weather!
Guess what? We watched the next few "Suits".
It is hard to see, but snow was falling today. It was mixed with rain.

We got all the laundry done, this way we can leave with all clean clothes! LOL!

Sunday November 2, 2014

I would like to report that the tow bar is now working very well. I got the car hooked up this afternoon and all went well. It also gives me less stuff to do tomorrow morning!

We really can't wait to leave!!!

Monday November 3, 2014

On the road again!

The Peace Bridge between Fort Erie, Canada and Buffalo, United States.

The Niagara River, on the left is the USA and on the right is Canada.

Even with only three boots open, it only took us 15 minutes to cross the border.

The first State we crossed was New York.
One part of the travel was done on a toll highway and the cost was $11.80 for about 100 km.

The next state was Pennsylvania and a stop at Walmart to replenish our food supply.

We made it to Ohio and stopped to fill up on diesel for the motorhome. I love the price of diesel even with the exchange rate!

I know that I keep saying this, but the roads are so nice (most of the time) in the US.

I had not seen a glider trailer in a very long time.

There is nothing wrong to be proud of your country.

Once we were on the other side of Columbus, Ohio, we spent the night at Alton RV Park.

We are on our way to our site.

Home for the night.

We had spent a night in spring 2014.

Another good day with over 500 km on the road. Most of the driving was done on the Interstates.

Tuesday November 4, 2014.

By 8:30, we were back on the road and on our way to Terre Haute, Indiana.
We will be driving of the interstate for a while, US-40 follows I-70, but with less traffic.
We really enjoy driving the secondary highways, you see a lot more stuff along the road.

Once we crossed over Indiana, we stopped at Walmart for some food and replenish the alcoholic beverages.

The US-40 is a very nice road and we do go through many little towns.

Of course at certain time we do go back to the interstates and like Canada, they also have a lot of construction going on.

Indiana, here we come!

We are back on US-40.

We are at the northern edge of the "Bible Belt".

Many of our friends have asked us about driving the secondary roads and does it slow us down in our travel?

Yes, of course it does, but not by that much. We love it because as I said earlier, we get to see a lot more stuff and for us the trip is as important as the destination. For those who prefer the interstates, good for them, it is a personal choice and either is better or worst then the other.

This one is for our friend Charles…

A Tim Horton in the US?

You have to love filling up in the US.

$2.889 US is about $0.76 CDN for the regular and for the diesel at $3.649 US, it is about $0.96 CDN.

It always surprises us when we see abandoned houses right in the middle of little towns!

As we got closer to Indianapolis, we moved back to the interstate to go around the city.

It started to rain.

Something is wrong because the wipers are slowing down and the dash is lighting up like Christmas!!!

The alternator is not charging the batteries.

We managed to make it to the next exit at the Pilot Travel Plaza. As soon as we pulled in the parking lot I shut down the engine and it will not restart.
Here is the guilty party!!!

So, I took it out and went to get a new one…

A local, very big, truck repair shop has one, but it is not exactly the same. It cost over $700 US!!!
I think I will let them install it and if something goes wrong, it will be their fault, not mine.

Wednesday November 5, 2014

The truck stop where we spent the night.

By 7:30 this morning, I called the ERS or "Emergency Road Service" for a tow truck to the nearest repair facility.
The tow truck showed up by 10 and started to work.

Ready for the move. We only have two kilometers to go to get to "Stoops" repair facility.

Before they can actually move us, they have to remove an axle from the drive train.

On our way!

When things go wrong, they go wrong!
Something went wrong and the front end is busted up.

Here are the details...
The front end...

The right side...

And sort of the same thing on the left.

Once the tow truck is gone, the mechanic showed up to have a look and get up to speed on the repair needed.
He left to try to get a proper alternator because our alternator is modified to work on the motorhome.
We are now waiting for the next step.

Our campsite for the night???

Just a little before diner we got a call from the service manager telling us they found the proper alternator. It is actually cheaper at $375. However, the bad part, they can only change it tomorrow morning.
Therefore, we are off to get some pizza for diner.

Another night in a garage parking lot!
But it is very quiet here.

Thursday November 6, 2014.

We are up by 6 am to be ready for 7 am for the mechanics.
Of course, they did not show up until 7:45!
Because I cannot run the engine, they have to push us to the bay in the garage.
It is not an easy job to drive the motorhome with power steering!

We made it to the bay without any damages!

This is where the alternator goes.

So we left them alone, went to Walmart, and spend some time. By 10 am, we got a call from the service manager telling us that a cable between the alternator and the battery is broken! Change the dam wire!
This wire goes all around the engine to reach the batteries.

It is 11:30 by the time they are all done.

So here is the new alternator and the new batteries, we got installed.
They were over 7 years old and we decided to get them changed along with the alternator that way if something goes wrong, it will not be our fault...

After paying the bill ($1700.00 US) and I cannot wait to see this after the exchange rate kicks in. We left for the "Lake Heaven Retreat" located less than 3 km from the repair facilities.

It was time we got to a campground because we were out of fresh water this morning.

I forgot! While we were in the garage being repaired, a man showed up to do an estimate for the repair on the front end.
He said when ever we show up, they will drop everything to get us back on the road as soon as possible. We will see!

So, tonight we fill the fresh water tank and dump the used water tank. We also got caught up on laundry.

Friday November 7, 2014.

This morning we are leaving the Lake Heaven Park to go to "JBK Truck, Trailer & Bus Inc.".

Now! I have to say that JBK are the nicest people to deal with. They did drop everything to work on our motorhome and get us back on the road ASAP!
Once the motorhome was in their good care, we left to visit downtown Indianapolis. First, we had to wash the car.

After the car wash, we stopped at Denny's for a good breakfast.

One of our friends mentioned that a lot of outdoor work of art usually get "damaged" in some way back home (Canada, Quebec).
We do not seem to see this when we go south! Hummmm!!!!

The downtown Indianapolis is a beautiful place. We are surprised by the cleanliness and the lack of traffic. BTW, Indianapolis has invested a lot of money and time to revitalize the downtown area. What are we missing in Canada???

The Monument Circle and a beautiful clock.

Being a circle, even the buildings are circular.

The State Capitol on Indiana.

The backside of the Capitol.

We have to wait to get on the next guided tour. We use our waiting time to take a walk along the canal downtown. With no wind, the reflection on the water is perfect.

Pretty neat clock and it came from a Canadian city!

Here is the canal. Most of the sites along the canal used to be industrial and not nice. 20 years ago, the city started to make improvement along the canal.
Now, tell me about a vision for 20 + years.

Back to the Capitol, we started our visit, but we had a choice, either go with a group of fourth grader or a group of senior. We picked the young one.
We are at the middle of the Capitol in the rotunda and at the top, you have the stain glass dome. It is at 105 feet above us and it is 72 feet across. The guide also gave us a lot of information about the construction of the Capitol.

These places are always magnificent.

We are now in the "house" of the Capitol.
The guide is the best we have ever had. He kept the attention of 120 fourth graders at all time.
The house is home to 100 members of the house.
Guess what? The chandelier has 100 lights.

Every doorknob has the seal of the state.

We are now in the Senate of the state where 50 senators work.

We even got to tour the Supreme Court.

We really enjoyed our tour of the State Capitol.

We have never seen a restaurant named after a BBQ grill!

One of the buildings in the circle has mirror like columns in front and we like the way we look in them! Tall and skinny...

The downtown is very nice looking as I said before.

I have never seen electric car rental before.

Back at the body shop, the work is moving along pretty good.

We even had a nice sunset tonight.

It is a Friday evening watching TV.

Saturday November 8, 2014.

I am up early this morning because I want to be ready for when the crew comes in at 7 o'clock. By 7:20, the motorhome is inside and they get right to it.
They are done with the bodywork.

By 11 o'clock, the primer is on.

They got a heater pointing to the motorhome to make it dry faster.

With the motorhome in good hand, we leave to go to the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
It is a free museum.

We have never seen any plants looking like these one!

Once inside we discover a very nice museum.

I have to tell you this before we go into the museum. Sometime I think that what is considered art by some is not art by me!!! Just my humble opinion.

Like this mural in the hall, is it art?
I do not see it as art!

This museum is huge. It has four floors full of art.
On this floor, you have American and European designs stuff.
A nice teapot.

Why this plate?

Because the bugs are painted on the plate!
Why would you do this?

Of course, you have some well-known painters.

A painting of Washington street here in Indianapolis in 1892.

On the third floor, we had the chance to see some stuff from Africa, Asia and Oceania.

On the fourth floor, we discovered contemporary art. It is so much from the 60's.

We really loved this chair.

Now, that is recycling!

Michele walking of a piece of art. The glass floor is supported by tiny figurines!

We decided we did not want to cook tonight. A good burger at Steak'n Shake.

Back at the body shop, by 8 o'clock the painter let us take the motorhome outside for the night.

Sunday November 9, 2014.

Sunday and nothing is going on. We are not complaining.
Here is what was accomplished yesterday.

Of course, we did not move the motorhome.
And another sunset...

We cannot wait for the motorhome to be ready and leave Indianapolis. A cold front is coming from Canada.

Monday November 10, 2014.

This morning have finished all the final details on the bodywork. Therefore, here is the outcome.
We are very happy with the result.

It is almost 10 am when we finally got back on the road.

We are on our way to Terre Haute, Indiana.

We just love the secondary highways because they usually are in good shape with hardly any traffic.

You never know what you will see in little towns.

Shortly after Terre Haute, we moved in Illinois.

I kind of like the message.

We are spending the night at Percival Springs Campground near Watson.

I played around with the camera special effects...

It is good to be back on the road.

Tuesday November 11, 2014.

First, I would like to say "Thank You" to all members of the military, past, present, for what you have done in the past and keep on doing at the present. Our world would not be the same without your sacrifice.
Once again "Thank You"!

We are back on the road without any problems.
There is always a little road construction going on.

Sometime you have a big slowdown for no apparent reasons!!!

It always impresses me when we go aver the Mississippi. We have to go so high!

On to the next state, Missouri.

Our fist cotton balls for this trip.

We are not stopping in Missouri and shortly after we enter Arkansas.

This is a first! A handicap parking spot for truckers!!!

We are spending the night in a little town called Blytheville, Arkansas.

Wednesday November 12, 2014.

Here is the site we had for the night. For $12.50 a night with full service sites, it is not bad, but only good for a stop over.

We are on our way out of the park.

Two 1960's "Shasta" travel trailer in very good condition.

We got off the I-40 to take the US-70 that runs parallel to the I-40.

A good road with very little traffic.
The road is very good at times and not as good other times.

I used to say this was a "Bird's Wedding Party" when I was a kid.

I like this name of a town.

Some little town downtown area.

The "Suburbs".

As soon as you get in the south, you start to see yards like this one. The more south you go the more often you see yards like this one in little town.
Different!

Sadly, we see more and more of this. Abandoned houses.

A nice cotton field.

We made it to Texarkana.
The city of Texarkana is right on the border between Texas and Arkansas, hence the name.

Surprise at the RV Park. The owner gives us the Passport America and on top, a 2 for 1 deal. Therefore, for two nights, we pay $17.00 and the next night is free!

Thursday November 13, 2014.

Guess what?
This is the only photo of the RV Park!

At the information center, we had to get our picture taken as "Winter Texan".

We also learned that Texarkana has an audio tour on the city.

The US post Office & Court House sits right in the border between Texas and Arkansas. Michele is in Texas and me, in Arkansas.

A foot in each state.

This mural honor the composer and pianist Scott Joplin (1867-1968). He was famous for is Ragtime music. He lived in Texarkana.

The "Draughn-Moore House" or the Ace of Spade house. Because it is built like an Ace of Spade. It is a museum, but looks abandoned. We did not go in and visit.

Just a pretty mural near the tracks.

We eat at TLC Burger & Fries for diner.

The menu is simple and the service is fast.

You know it is a good place to eat when all the locals go there.

Our meals, two Phyllis cheese steak & fries. We should have ordered only one, as they are big. It was delicious!

Just a bench with a historical scene.

Another view of downtown.

The cold front from Canada is still with us. Only +1 C today.

Friday November 14, 2014.

We leave Texarkana behind us and hit the road to get to Houston.
Our first deer since we started the trip south.

When it is only +2 or 3 C outside and driving, it is cooling fast inside the motorhome even with the truck heater going.

A flowerpot man!

We are on the US-59 and it is not an Interstate!

As we got closer to Houston, we found an RV park for the night.

This is our home for the night. It is a little tight and I will have to un-hook the car to make it out the park.

Saturday November 15, 2015.

We are back on the road and heading towards Houston. Being Saturday the traffic is not too heavy.

Just as we got to our exit, an accident slows us down for about 10 minutes.

Like many cities, Houston is working on its infrastructures.

With Houston behind us, we are back on US-59. There is hardly any traffic.

Our stop for the next few days.

Why Goliad?
It happens to be in our path and our friends Charles and Agnes are here too.

Me and Charles doing crazy moves.

Charles and Agnes invited us for diner. Once we were all set up, we went to there place.

Of course, we have to have a crazy photo!

Boy did we have to catch up with each other's lives. After a very good meal, we finished the evening playing Mexican Train.

Until next time.

Life is good...