Thelma and Louise?

Okay, this is my first ever pre-trip post. All I can think about lately is my upcoming trip to see the Grand Canyon. Of course, I will only see it if it is really there. In fact, that is the only reason for this trip. N2S and I think it may well be a hoax, so we are going over there to see it for ourselves. We plan on spending only slightly more time than the Griswalds.

All brevity aside, the Grand Canyon is one of the only places I have ever wanted to go. I used to think I wanted to go to the Holy Land. Then I saw someone else's slides and couldn't get past the "crowdedness" of the place. I don't like crowds. We went to see Tulum and stood in a line to get in. Then we stood elbow to elbow to gawk at the temple. The Biltmore house, was another place I wanted to see. When N2S and I went, we walked through in a line of people at about twenty steps a minute. By the end, I was looking for open windows to jump out of. Hated it!

When Dad died and left me a little money, I went to see a financial advisor to preserve it for my boys when I'm gone. He told me that, with his financial planning help, I could go anywhere in the world and see the places I dreamed of visiting. I calmly explained to him that I didn't need help to do that. I only wanted to see the Grand Canyon, a place I could get myself to for the cost of a few nights in a hotel and a few tankfuls of gas. He told me I should dream bigger. I did. I bought a lazy boy recliner with some of Dad's loot. I dream  big in it all the time. In fact, I spend so much time dreaming in it that I am getting bigger!

So, here we go on a mad dash to see the Grand Canyon. It will be N2S, his buddy Storm, and me. We are going to pull the Colby T behind us. It will be a four night and five day trip. See... I told you we were just going to take a look and come home.

The canyon is approximately eighteen hours away. I plan to get on the road at 7:00 am the first day and be in Las Cruces, New Mexico by about 6:00 pm that evening. We will set up camp, eat dinner, play some games, and go to sleep at the Hacienda RV park. The second morning we will get up, break camp, and be on the road by 7:00 am and drive all the way to the Grand Canyon by 7:00 pm. We will have some mountains to climb that day, so I plan on taking it slow! That night we will set up camp again, only this time, it will be a complete set up, including sewer and water. We'll spend whatever daylight we have left exploring the immediate surroundings, then turn in for the night.

On day three, we will "do the canyon". I'm not sure what that will mean. Of course, we'll go look over the edge. We may even hike part way down, I don't know. It will totally be played by ear. When we finish, we will head back to the Colby T and rest up for the trip home, which will pretty much be the same as the first two days, done in reverse.

So why did I title this post "Thelma and Louise"? Well, to be honest, this trip scares the hell out of me. For one thing, this is the longest trip I will have taken with the Colby T. I worry about things like, finding gas stations that I can get into and out of easily, flat tires, and other mechanical failures. However, it wasn't until I started hearing from other travel trailer people that I became more than just a little nervous. It reminds me of Rachel's first pregnancy. For nine months every idiot who had ever seen a baby found it necessary to tell us everything they thought we needed to know and every "problem pregnancy" story they had ever heard. Not exactly confidence building.

My first foray into hearing too much from too many was when I routed the trip and saw that there was a "Mountain Directory Advisory" between Phoenix and Flagstaff. Stupid me did not even realize you had to go into the mountains to look down into the canyon. I thought  it was more like Palo Duro Canyon. You drive in flat land and suddenly there's this big hole. When I clicked on the advisory, there was a $20 fee to see it. Not wanting to spend the money for a one time thing, I posted a question about it on the Open Roads RV Forum. Within a few hours, I was getting all kinds of advice. Here are some quotes:


If you use the brakes anywhere near 50% or more of the time going downhill, they will fade and you are in trouble.

Be VERY careful with crosswinds - coming out of cover you can be blown across lane before you know it.

You'll spend a lot on fuel, you'll be driving long hours and you'll get there and turn around. Save this trip for when you have more time and can incorporate more things to do along the way - and there's lots! If going is a definite, at least stay in motels and forget hauling the RV that distance for 4 days. 

Now, you need to hear me say this: These people are not being mean spirited. They are giving their opinions based on their experiences (even though I only wanted to know what the advisory said). There were lots of good pieces of knowledge such as this gem from a fellow educator:

If planning on using I-10 & I-17 (no real climbs on I-10, somewhat one going up to Flagstaff area on the 17), might want to down shift in steepest going up, if returning by same route, down shift when going down. To save the breaks for when needed for stopping. Watch for road signs, the will advise when to use a lower gear or gears. 

By the way, I was born & raise in South Texas (flatter than San Antonio Area) RGV. Just remember not to rely on the breaks in mountains, use the gears & engine to help slow the rig. Be a little more prudent in watching your speed, especially when descending. The weight of the rig can get things moving faster than needed, quickly when descending & usually there will be some curves when doing this as well. 

Nothing to be overly fearful of doing, not really a hard climb (but more than what is in Texas)....Think of it as a Fun Drive. An Adventure. It's why I wanted to live in New Mexico....to have some curves to drive, hills to climb, far horizons to see, rocks to climb & canyons to awe over. Then look for real hills & curves & mountains to cross for more adventures. 

My wife & I are retired teachers, the time off in summers was the reward for being teachers. 10 weeks or so of unpaid vacation time, better than higher pay checks any day. We have many wonderful memories of our time traveling in the summers. Great way to go. IMHO.


Anyway, the second thing that got me a little nervous was when a friend of mine, whose opinion I really respect, told me to carry extra tires. He mentioned how I could get blow outs in the middle of nowhere. Even though I have a 24 hour tire service plan with which someone will come to me and take care of my tire problems, I got worried by the thought that my blowout could happen in a cell phone dead spot! I only have one spare. Would that be enough? Then I realized that I didn't even know how to change a tire on the Colby T. That led to my going back to the Open Roads RV Forum to ask about that. Some answers were helpful, others made me worry even more. Things were brought up that I never thought of. Could I even get a jack of some kind under the Colby T?  It is already really close to the ground. Torque? What the heck is torque? If I had a torque wrench, would I know how to use it?

I spent an entire afternoon learning how to change a tire, looking at different jack types, and learning about the torque wrench and how to use it. This weekend, I am going to measure the clearance on the Colby T and then go buy a jack and torque wrench somewhere. Then I am going to just practice jacking it up. I know how to change a tire once it is jacked. The torque wrench process is a step by step kind of thing that I have snapped as an image on my kindle fire.  Although I am still worried about a flat, I am not going to let it consume me.

The last worry I got was when people started telling me that I may have to drive in snow. Just yesterday,
Amarillo was practically buried. What if there is another cold front on our travel days? What if I get stuck on the side of the highway because of snow. Will some semi with chains on plow through us during the night? Okay... I need to change the subject before I just talk myself out of taking what will probably be the greatest road trip of my life!

I've done what I can to prepare for flats. I've studied up on mountain driving. I have a plan in place for when and where to get gas at travel centers, even if I don't need it at that moment. I will have my Discover card with me. If we have problems, we will take care of them.

Now it's time to focus on what we will see on the way. Where are the interesting sites and scenic overlooks? Is there a Cadillac Ranch or Giant Ball of String type of thing along the way? Whatever there is, you know I will have stories and photos for you when we get back. Later!

TCEA in Austin 2013

This is raw and unedited. I will finish it later. Tired and going to bed!
[Okay. It is now finished, but still raw and unedited, except the part about Rachel's boyfriend picking her up.]

Well I am writing this on February 6^th, which is my third night in Austin. I took the afternoon off on Monday and headed straight to Packrats. I was actually on the road by 12:09 and parked at my site in Austin at 1:30. There is absolutely nothing to tell about my trip except that it was smooth sailing the whole way.

Let me give a little information about the problems I had with the stabilizer jack on the Colby T, since it was such a big issue for me, and because it was important to the prep for this trip. In a nutshell, I snagged it when going into the driveway of the Alamo River Ranch RV Resort on my last trip. After a lot of false starts, I finally was able to order and install a replacement. The total cost was under $30. The ordeal part of it, was that I wasn't sure if the bolts on the jacks were aligned with the wholes on the original model. They were, and the Colby T is as good as new. Now-- Back to my arrival at Austin...

A park host guided me to my site, which is right in the front of the park.You can hear the sounds of the highway traffic, so I guess they don't put the long term people here. I don't mind. I run my box fan most of the time, and that is pretty much all that I here. I went to the office and checked in before coming back and unhitching and setting up the Colby T for my longest stay ever- four glorious nights. By 2:00, everything was in its place. Having nothing to do but wait until time to hook up with N1S, I took a nice walk around the park to look at all the trailers. Then I went ahead and hooked up the cable for TV, just in case I needed to watch the Spurs on Fox SW. I fiddled around with my new closet setup, which consists of three big plastic drawers, then read for awhile before taking a quick nap.

At about 6:30, I got in the truck and headed over to the Pinthouse Brewery and Pizza Parlor to make sure that we would have a seat for the Geeks Who Drink Trivia Contest at 8:00. I ordered a wedge salad and ice tea, and just as I was sitting down, Larinda Rios, a fellow CIT, came in and joined me. Then Josh got there and ordered himself a pizza. He and I each got a flight to try half of the beers they brew there. Then we played in the contest for about two hours. We actually did pretty good. There were 38 teams and we were somewhere in the middle.

I followed Josh back to his place, and we sat in the parking lot and talked for about an hour. I took the opportunity to tell him how proud I am of him. I wanted him to know that it had nothing to do with school or anything. I am just proud of the man he has become. I really enjoy his company. I only wish he had a bigger social circle, as he seems to spend a lot of time on his own.

I left and drove the eight or so miles back to the Lonestar Carefree RV Resort. After a quick trip to the bathhouse, I was in bed and ready for a good nights sleep by about midnight.

I woke up at 5:00 am to a surprisingly cold morning. I got the little ceramic heater out and turned it on, before heading over to the bathhouse to shower and shave. I wanted to beat the traffic, but knew I would be okay as long as I left by 6:30, so I enjoyed a breakfast of an Atkins bar and a couple of cups of coffee before heading off to the convention center.

Traffic was a non-issue. I was inside and picking up my bag and name tag before 7:00. Then, I just went up to the third floor and sat waiting for the doors to open up. I was pleased to discover that the presenter for my first session from eight to eleven was Tammy Worcester. She is a very well respected educational technology guru. I sat in on one of her presentations for a few minutes last year when I need to rest a minute and recharge my electronics. That time she was in the huge hall and there were several hundred extra seats.

This year, I got the premium registration, which let me register for as many of the paid sessions as I wanted for one low fee. I never went to those sessions in the past because they cost between fifty and seventy-five bucks. This time for about seventy-five extra, I was able to book myself solid with back to back premium sessions. This first one was a really good one on Web 2.0 apps for education. I took copious notes and learned more than I can even begin to process. Then, by some strange luck, Tammy was the presenter of the next session from 11:30 to 2:30 in the same room. It was on Google Docs. I loved it.

My third session from 3:00 to 6:00 was not as good. The presenters were fine, but all they had was a list of apps to show me, many of which I already knew. They didn't really give any ideas for using them with students. The WiFi was not working well, which really ruined it for me, so I finally just pasted the list of apps into an Evernote note and bailed on the whole thing at about 4:00 and took a walk up to 6^th street to buy a cigar at Babalu, my favorite TCEA vice. Then I went back to the truck and wrestled with rush hour traffic for a longer time than I wanted. I guess it was about 5:30 when I was back at the Colby T.

About five minutes after I got to the camper, N1S called to say his class was cancelled and he was ready to go whenever I was. I told him to give me a while because I needed a little break before fighting the traffic again. The traffic going into the downtown area really wasn't all that bad, and I made it to his apartment a lot faster than I had expected. I would have been there even faster, but I got lost in the dark and had to call OnStar to get me back on track.

When I got to the apartment, N1S and his collaborative partner from his advertising program were playing some kind of video game. I was still on the phone with Rachel, and barely had a chance to say hello to the young lady before she got a call that her boyfriend was there to pick her up. [ I had to edit this. Originally, it sounded like Rachel's boyfriend was there to pick her up! That would not be good.]

We got in the truck and drove south on Lamar to a place called Red's Porch to play trivia and eat dinner. I was really hungry. I had forgotten to eat my Atkins bar for lunch, and decided it was too late by the time I remembered. I had a half of a barbecued chicken with green beans. It was really good.

One of N1S's friends, a guy named Michael, joined us to play trivia and eat dinner with us. We were sitting outside and played pretty well. There was one question that only I got in the whole place. They were playing music by some group UB40 (or something like that), and you had to name the song and the original artist. Some where easy such as I've Got You Babe. Then they played one and I thought I heard the words “bulging eyes and twisted mouth”. I wasn't sure that's what it was because the volume was really low on that one. Anyway, I knew that, if I had heard right, the song was Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday. When they gave the answers after the round, I gave a little victory shout, and all the young people looked at me in amazement. I don't think most of them even knew who Billie Holliday was. I used that song with my class one time to teach about civil rights. Plus, I am a big fan of Billie Holliday ever since seeing my first R rated movie as a teenager, Lady Sings the Blues, with Diana Ross.

Anyway, we were in 9^th place out of 20 at the middle part of the contest. Somehow we slipped to 18^th by the end, but I didn't care. We had a great time. I drove N1S home and then headed back to the Colby T. Much to my surprise, it started to rain heavily about half way. Then it kept on raining all night long.

I will write more tomorrow morning. Right now this old man is really tired and sore from sitting in classes for 9 hours straight.

Okay. I had a great rest. I woke up at 6:30 because my first session was at 9:00 and I knew I could rush to get ready and go before the worst of the traffic. In my rush, I nicked my ear with the razor  while shaving. It bled and bled and bled. I could not get it to stop. It wasn't a medical emergency, but I couldn't go anywhere with a constant stream of blood running down my jaw. By the time it finally stopped, It was about quarter to 8:00. The traffic crawled all the way there and took me almost thirty minutes. Then I discovered the lot I like was completely full to the point of being blocked off.

I continued up the street passing all the lots with the same sign in front of them until I finally found a spot past 8th street. I hiked as fast as I could to get to my session, but I  was too late. They have a rule that you have to be in your seat 5 minutes before it starts or they give your seat to the wait listers. I was just late enough to lose it.

I decided to go get a cup of coffee at the Coffee Cup on Cesar Chavez, which is across from the southwest corner of the convention center. I stayed for almost an hour stewing while they were brewing. Then I headed back to my next session. I got there early, so I sat on the floor and answered email, etc. When it was time to go in, I remembered that  I had not preregistered and had to go on the wait list. Of course have of Austin got on the  list while I was just sitting there on my butt too stupid to get on it. Fortunately, they had just enough slots for me to get called in. It was a great session on QR codes. I liked that they gave us ideas for using it, and not just showing us sites that making them.

more later...

Okay, I am at home now. I'll take a few minutes to fill in the rest of the trip.

So after the awesome QR code workshop, I hurried down to the bag handout booth, where I volunteered for two hours. It isn't much of a job. You just scan the badges of the people who come up to the counter and hand them a TCEA bag. We only had about 5 people during our shift. I did get to chat with some of my buddies as they passed. Oh, there was one lady who asked for a bandaid, which I just happened to have amongst my hypochondriac supplies in my backpack. For volunteering, you get a shirt. I liked this one.

After I volunteered, I tried to get into two different sessions but couldn't. I went out on a balcony and sat looking at email, etc. while I waited for the retirement seminar. The weather was gorgeous  Austin had a record breaking 85 degrees! It was so nice, that I decided to blow off the retirement seminar (Rachel won't let me retire anyway.)  and hike the miles to my truck before it changed as Texas weather is prone to do. The hike was mainly uphill, but I didn't mind.

When I was in the truck, I was forced to exit the lot on a one way street that went opposite of where I wanted to go. I looped around a block and got to I-35 South, but I managed to get in the wrong lane and got forced to turn left onto 7th Street. I just kept going down, thinking I would find a road that N1S had shown me that cuts down to Riverside. Of course, I ended up having to call OnStar to get me back on track. In the process, I passed about 6 Vietnamese restaurants. I decided that was a sign from God that I was supposed to find the meaning of life by eating a bowl of pho, so I did just that, once I was closer to the campsite.

After eating, I went to the camper and reviewed  the stuff I had learned.Then I got in the truck and headed to  the 400 Rabbits Bar by the Alamo Drafthouse on Slaughter Lane to meet N1S and some of his friends for trivia. We had fun, but came in next to last place. Our new team name for this event was "I want some poundcake". I know. I don't get it either. I did know the reference for 400 Rabbits, though. Do you?

Trivia ended at about 10:45, so I said my goodbyes and headed back to the Colby T. I was pretty tired, so I read for awhile before turning out the lights and being asleep by 11:30. I decided not to set an alarm, because I had to get back to San Antonio to solve a problem with N2S's college application submission, and would be skipping the session "Pinterest for Educators", which was not one that I was overly excited about going to. I wanted to go to the closing session and here the keynote, but it just wasn't to be.

I took my time getting everything packed up and ready to go. I had a problem hitching up again. The sun was at an angle that played hell with my ability to see where I was backing. I tried the white paper roll technique  and the yellow balls, to no avail. I had to do the back/check/pullforward/back/check routine several times. Once the Colby T was all hitched up, I went over to the office to check out and get my $20 pass key deposit back.

The drive home was uneventful, except that the traffic was pretty heavy for a Friday morning. It wasn't bad enough to make me nervous.

I stopped at Camping World for a few minutes. I wanted to pick up the Good Sam plush toy so I can join the photo contest. You just sit him in your photos and snap away. For my teacher friends, it is just like Flat Stanley. I had tried to get one online, but the shipping was twice the price of the silly thing! I just didn't see paying $6.00 + $12.50 shipping. Instead, I stopped at the store an only paid seven something with tax. He will be joining me on my trips from now on.

Well... That's it. I'm home now. Nothing else to say.

Next trip will be in four weeks. N2S, Storm, and I are taking a whirlwind 4 night excursion to the Grand Canyon to see if it really exists.  Later!