Little Rock, Arkansas 4-29-08
The day you first get your hands on a book you've written is always special, and yesterday was no exception. The fourth edition of my Alaska Highway guide, this time called the Guide to the Alaska Highway published by Menasha Ridge Press in Birmingham, Alabama, was delivered to the RV park yesterday...and this one is in full color, a huge improvement over previous editions. The earlier three versions of this book were published as The Alaska Highway: An Insider's Guide.
I wrote a blog on www.rv.net on Sunday about the book being available this week, and orders have steadily been coming in, another reason for feeling good. This book is based on 35 trips up and down the Alaska Highway over the past 36 years, and it is filled with all kinds of insider knowledge of when and where to buy gas...or not to buy gas in some cases, fishing holes, and dont-miss sights that everyone should see. No other non-advertising guidebook by any other author out there can match the depth of experience that permeates every page of this book. It will literally help you plan your trip, then take you from your front door to Alaska and back.
Anyone wishing to order a copy of this book can either wait for several weeks until it filters down into a bookstore near your home or you can contact me direct at rdcomm@gci.net for an autographed copy mailed right to your door.
Little Rock, Arkansas 4-17-08
I've wound up in Little Rock for a month or so working on a project for the Air Force at Little Rock Air Force Base. Part of the project requires me to write a section in the base's guidebook about the local area. And I must confess, I've been favorably impressed by every one that I have met and almost every place that I have seen. This is the first time in my life that I have ever spent any significant time in Arkansas, and I'm sorry I waited so long. This place is great.
One item, though, got to me. The William J Clinton Presidential Library has got to be the ugliest building built in modern times. I needed a photograph of it for my project and I walked all around trying to find a flattering way to depict it and had to admit defeat. The best picture I could get from the ouside was the window washer hanging from the roof as he went about his job.
Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia 4-10-08
My son and his wife just bought a brand new Lance camper for their big pickup and we decided it needed to be tried out. So off to the Blue Ridge Parkway in southwestern Virginia we went. I was awed. This was my first trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I can't believe what I've been missing.
For this grandpa, though, the best part was watching my almost-three-year-old granddaughter discovering a stream and the thrill of throwing rocks into the water. She reminded me very much of her father at that age.
Then, of course, she fell in, which also reminded me of my son in years gone by. He then asked if he was ever that bad as he took her back to the camper for dry clothes. I pointed out that she was only wet up to her chest; he would have been wet up to his neck.
Hayes, Virginia 4-8-08
I am less impressed today with Strobel Tire in Summerville, SC, that I was when I wrote he entry below last week. Seems they don't know what a tire pressure gauge or a torque wrench are. I specifically asked for maximum inflation in all my tires (slightly rougher ride but better gas mileage) and 475-foot-pounds of torque on the lug nuts as required in my owners manual. I got 94 pounds of air in the four tires I can get to, and the person putting the duals on didn't have the sense to leave the inside valve stem where it can be accessed. I'm going to have to have the rear tires remounted so I can check the air pressure from time to time.
In short, if you need tires, you can probably do better in South Carolina than Strobel Tire and Oil Company in Summerville.
Summerville, South Carolina 4-2-08
We came here because of our tires. Last summer we put new Cooper tires on our motorhome and have been quite pleased with them over the past 15,000 miles or so. But, our dealer in Alaska tracked us down on the cell phone, had me check some DOT numbers on the tires, then told me they had all been recalled.
Working with the national office, it took the Cooper Tire people a day or so to locate a dealer with the right size of tires and the ability to replace them somewhere along our proposed route of travel. Summerville was only a little out of the way.
As always, though, there had to be somebody who didn't get the word. While all the higher ups knew what the plan was, the people turning the lug wrenches at the bottom of the food chain didn't have the slightest idea. The tire wholesaler in Summerville didn't know about the recall, and the dealer where I went to have them changed as instructed looked at me like I was trying to rob the place. A few phone calls, the first from me while still somewhat irate, straightened things out, though.
Next morning, we drove into Strobel Tire in Summerville and they went to work. We left later that day with six new tires holding up the motorhome and headed north for our son's house in Virginia.
St. Augustine, Florida 3-31-2008
We spent yesterday, blustery and cool for Florida even in March, exploring the oldest city in North America. Lots of history here, from a walled and moated fort that has, at various times, been under Spain, France, England and the United States. It has been assaulted many times but never captured.
We stopped here because our son's in-laws live nearby, Jim and Sallye Thomas. Jim was our guide yesterday in St. Augustine and was able to get us around the city quickly, much more so than would have been the case were we on our own. We wound up in late afternoon having a bowl of gumbo at Harry's overlooking the waterfront. If you vist St. Augustine, try Harry's gumbo by all means. It really hit the spot on this cool afternoon.
There are a lot of shipwrecks scattered off the coast in this area, including some nobody knows about. Case in point...at the lighthouse on the island across the Intracoastal Waterway there's a very old ship's rudder, probably from a 19th century merchantman. Some 14 feet long and sheathed in copper as was the custom in those days, it washed ashore during a storm. Nobody knows what wreck it is from. The ship it came from was obviously burned, because the vertical part of the rudder ends in scorch marks about where the waterline would have been. Beyond that, anybody's guess as to what ship that was is a good as anybody else's.
At the castle we watch a demonstration by National Park Service volunteers. Togged out in 18th century Spanish uniforms, they demonstrated military drill, flintlock musket firing, and cannon firing as was probably done more than 300 years ago. All the commands were in Spanish, and they actually fired the various guns involved with the demonstations. Quite a good show.
Clermont, Florida 03-28-2008