Sunday, February 15…Choices (George Jones)

  Left Deming, NM, at about 9 a.m. with 263 miles to go. Rapunzel says it should take less than 4 hours. Made a quick stop at Camping World in Tucson for some essentials; arrived at the campground at 1:05 p.m.  Site #59/60 was waiting for us; Joe Pahls is our neighbor in #61. We had a couple of long days on the road, but it feels worth it right now.

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   I’m sure the master plan for this campground shows three campsites back in this area because three hookups are available, but no way is there enough room for three camping units. Joe uses the hookup for #61, we use the hookup for #60, and the hookup for #59 is unused and located between our camper and the tree where we hang bird feeders…our side yard. But at some point in time, a tree was allowed to take root in #59 and now there are only two campsites back here.
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   We have a new camper, which means we have a new set up routine to learn. The thing that’s desirable about this campsite is the side yard with the tree, as I mentioned before. In the past, Kim parked as close to the hookups for Lot #60 so our yard could be maximized. But this camper has a center slide out so we had to put our thinking caps on.  Pull forward, back up…too close to the water/electric hookups? Ding Dang, the slide out will hit the poles. Pull forward, back up again…stop so it slides out in front of the hookups? No good, the camper hitch is crowding the road. Pull forward, back up again…stop so it slides out behind the hookups? Shit, now the ramp won’t be able to open.  Finally, Kim just decided to park it 6 feet to the right, making our side yard a bit smaller. On the plus side, the slide out isn’t hitting anything, the hitch is out of the traffic area, and the ramp can be opened. Life is good!
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   Ran into a slight problem with the electric hitch jack…it wouldn’t work. Couldn’t disconnect the truck from the trailer without the cooperation of the electric jack. Kim finally figured out it was a blown fuse…since he couldn’t find one in his stash of fix-it stuff, he headed to the office to see if they had one on the shelf.  Why, yes…yes, they did.  Fuse changed, electric hitch raised, truck and camper were disconnected.
   Hot water heater, refrigerator and gas oven all behaved properly when the switches were flipped so we’re good to go for now.
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   While Kim was attending to the outside stuff, I set about figuring out where we had stashed the stuff from our other camper and where we were going to put the extra stuff we brought from the house.  It might take a couple of days, but I intend to find a place for everything, so everything can be put back in its place. Even if it’s in a bag under the bed. 🙂
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   I had a bright idea after we were set up and cooled down…68^o and sunny when we arrived wearing sweatshirts. A whole lot of sweating happened while we figured out where to put the camper. Like dripping in my eyes kind of sweating.  Anyway, I suggested we ride our bikes to Dairy Queen to get ice cream…because isn’t that what you do on a hot day? Well, we left a little too late…the sun set while we were eating so the return trip was in the dark.  Good thing we have lights on our bikes.
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   I think it’s time for bed.

 Saturday, February 14…Talk to Me (Stevie Nicks)

  Last night, we made a plan to be on the road early to make up some miles. No pinky swearing on it or anything like that, just setting the phone alarm with good intentions.

   As it turns out, we were up 15 minutes before the alarm and on the road by 7:30 a.m., which is early by our standards.🙂

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   I’m sure the sun would ordinarily have been out by 7:30 a.m., but it was still raining when we left Kingman, so we didn’t see any evidence of it.  The sky was gloomy and rainy gray.  

   The rain was steady but it didn’t take us long to outrun it…well, really, the big green cloud on theradar was tracking northeast and the road we were on angled southwest, so leaving the rain behind was bound to happen. Driving skill had nothing to do with it.😏 It took a couple more hours for the sun to make a brief appearance, and then it played peek-a-boo the rest of the day.  Until about 6 o’clock-ish, that is.  It dipped below the clouds (and our visors) in preparation for sunset and at that point, it was just a nuisance.    

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   As expected from our many trips across this part of the country, we encountered noticeable wind in Kansas, and it stuck with us through the corners of Oklahoma and Texas into New Mexico. Tumbleweeds were tumbling and birds were flying with the wind, not against it. We’ve encountered worse wind but anytime the camper starts dancing, I sit up and take notice. Kim didn’t seem concerned, so I kept any thoughts of the camper blowing over to myself.

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    Today was all about making miles.  Kim wanted to set us up to have less than 300 miles to drive tomorrow and we have achieved that goal.…Yay!  He drove about 745 miles today and his enthusiasm at getting out of the truck when we reached the Best Western in Deming, NM, cannot be overstated. If he could have, I’m sure he would’ve danced a little jig. As it was, he stiffly climbed out of the truck, saying, “My aching ass has been looking forward to this moment.”

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   We finished listening to the Alex Cross book yesterday; after a break, we decided to listen to Lee Child’s “Gone Tomorrow” in preparation to watching Season 4 of Reacher, which should be released soon. I’ve read many of the Reacher books already; and I know there’s always an issue, usually a murder, that Reacher gets involved in, either by choice or circumstance. I don’t dwell on that aspect of the story, though…it’s usually just what gives Reacher the motivation to do what Reacher does. I like how Reacher thinks his way through a problem.

   However, I realized something today: listening to a narrator read a story can be a lot more intense than reading the same words myself. It has to do with the emphasis and nuance an actual voice gives to the words. Dick Hill, the narrator of this book, does a good job...maybe too good of a job at times.  Tonight, as soon as I realized where   a particular selection was heading, I plugged my ears.  And kept them plugged until I could see that the chapter had ended. It’s impossible to unhear words so I made sure I didn’t hear them.  Other than that, it’s been a good book, although I am curious as to how the TV show will deal with that particular scene.

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Wildlife sightings: two coyotes wandering along a train track and a male pheasant

 Friday, February 13…Money Changes Everything (Cyndi Lauper)

   Ooh! Friday the 13^th!  The route we choose takes us through Topeka, KS, and if I was a superstitious person, I’d be directing Rapunzel to avoid that area, no matter the cost to our time.  Last year’s tire/axle issue that delayed us for 5 days in Topeka is still very fresh on my mind.  But I’m not superstitious….well, okay, I have been known to avoid stepping on a crack but that’s more of a fun holdover from childhood than an outright belief that I’d actually break my mother’s back…so I’m not avoiding Topeka.  Although I did quietly mention at breakfast that maybe I should hold my breath until we were 20 miles west of Topeka, just in case. 

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   In the truck and finding our way by 8:15 a.m. We left without realizing that we had phone/truck connections problems, so I became Rapunzel’s voice until the cord issue was resolved.  More importantly, we had about 5 hours left of our audio book. We couldn’t listen to the book if the phone and the truck weren’t talking to each other.

  Last year we whiled away the hours by listening to 3 or 4 Harry Bosch books (author Michael Connelly); this year we changed to James Patterson’s Alex Cross books. Listening to “Along Came A Spider”, which I’ve read but as usual it was so long ago that I don’t remember anything but the names of the main characters. The crime/mystery genre is my jam…John Sanford, Lee Child, James Patterson, Michael Connelly are all authors whose books I devoured back when I had the time to read…or maybe I should say ‘when I made the time to read’.  Sue Grafton’s alphabet series, with Kinsey Millhone as the main character, was another favorite. It’s crazy to think that it’s been 25 to 30 years since I read these books. No wonder the book details escape me.

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   We started out this morning under a sunny sky with a slight chill to the air.  Crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri about 9:30 a.m. with the temperature reading 44^o.  After about a half hour later, the last layer of Michigan snow went flying off the camper. Not that we could necessarily tell, but our load just got a bit lighter. 

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   When I get bored on a long-distance drive, I turn to the Roadside America website.  First, I peruse the appropriate state map, looking for something interesting, then I check to see where it is in relation to our route. If it doesn’t work, I start the process over.  Today, I struck gold right away in the world of offbeat attractions.

   The Davis Memorial is in Hiawatha, KS, a little town 40 miles further west than our next turn off US 36 West, the road we were on.  While it wasn’t exactly on our route, it wasn’t far off either.  In fact, by staying on 36 West, we could avoid the chaos of Kansas City traffic.  Also, there was an alternate route from 36 West down to Topeka. Stopping to see the memorial would add a few miles and about an hour to our ETA in Picacho. Kim was agreeable, so we told Rapunzel of our change of plans.

   The Davis Memorial is a gravesite in Mount Hope Cemetary.  The story of how it came to be is as interesting as the memorial turned out to be.  A summary from various websites:

   John and Sarah Davis were hardworking, frugal, and childless farmers who settled near Hiawatha. And apparently, they were wealthy also. When Sarah died in 1930, people in the town wondered what John was going to do with his money.  They soon found out when he removed the modest headstone from his wife’s grave and began building a massive memorial. He placed a 52-ton slab of granite on 6 granite pillars over their burial plot. Then he added two life-sized statues, carved from Italian marble, one of himself and one of Sarah on their 50^th wedding anniversary. He liked them so much that he added more from various points in their years together. When it appeared that he was running out of room under the pavilion, he simply placed statues beside it. A couple of the statues depict Davis after he lost his left hand in a farming accident, and another one shows a beardless Davis, which was the result of another farming accident. The only statue carved in granite portrays an older Davis sitting next to an empty chair, aptly named the ‘Vacant Chair’. In 1934, the final pair of marble statues arrived, which are of them kneeling. The kneelingand were placed at the foot of their graves. Sarah is portrayed as a kneeling angel. It took four years to complete.

   The Davis Memorial was featured in newsreels, newspapers and postcards, causing it to become a popular tourist destination. Davis erected a three-foot high granite wall to keep the visitors from damaging the statues. In total, there are 6 statues of John and 5 of Sarah, although she is represented by the ‘Vacant Chair’.

   Legend has it that the townspeople were irritated that he wasn’t interested in building a hospital, a park, or funding other community improvements. Animosity grew as they watched him spend his money on himself and not on the community, especially in the midst of the Depression. He never revealed how much he’d spent on the Memorial but in 1938, he’d told a reporter, “They (the townspeople) hate me, but it’s my money and I spent it the way I pleased.”  

   John died in 1947 at the age of 92; he was buried next to Sarah. Photos show that ten people attended the burial, which may have been a big crowd considering how the town felt about him.

  In 1990, the kneeling statue of Davis was decapitated; it’s unknown if it was the result of mindlessvandalism or done by someone with delayed anger at how he spent his money. The Director of the Brown County Historical Society maintains that “because it’s a historical monument, they can’t replace the head with a new head. It has to be the original head.”  Over 30 years have passed since the statue was vandalized and there’s still a reward of $10,000 for the return of the head.

   Hiawatha eventually got the hospital, park, and swimming pool that it wanted. Although none of it was bankrolled by John Davis, he did help the town indirectly. The town, which supposedly despised Davis for wasting his money on himself, has benefited in the long run by having one of the most visited offbeat attractions in Kansas. 

     When we pulled up to the cemetery, there were two older gentlemen hoisting flags in preparation for a veteran’s burial being held tomorrow. They stopped what they were doing to talk to us and Kim explained that we were there because I found mention of the Davis Memorial on Roadside America and then I shared some of what I’d learned about it that interested me, including the missing head.  At the mention of the head, one man smiled, shook his head and emphatically said, “Somebody knows where that head is.”   

   I've played around with making pots out of clay but have no idea what carving a statue out of marble or granite entails. I can say with a great deal of enthusiasm, however, that the detail and accuracy in these statues is astounding! Threads, buttons/buttonholes, fabrics, jewelry, facial aging, John’s beard and Sarah’s hair, and more are all so detailed.  What artistry!  No wonder Davis, being pleased with the first pair of statues, kept adding more. I applaud his taste!   

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   Found a truck wash along the way…time to get the Michigan snow grime off the truck and the camper.  Four trucks in front of us with number five in the wash bay. It took too long to get into the wash bay and by the time we got out of there, it was dark and we were a bit behind our mileage goal. But on the plus side we sailed through and around Topeka with no problem…and I didn’t have to hold my breath. 

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   Saw a high of 65 degrees today. Time to get the shorts out of the camper for tomorrow!  Jeans and a sweatshirt were a bit much today.

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   We pulled into our hotel in Kingman, KS, just before 11 o’clock. Lots of lightning flashes on the horizon for 50 miles…luckily, the rain held off until we were in our room.  And of course it rained…we’d just washed the truck. 

Thursday, February 12...On The Road Again (Willie Nelson) 

  Let the 2026 snow birding trip begin!! When we said good-bye to Ryan and Felicia last April, we told ‘em we’d be back on Feb. 15, 2026. Oh, and by the way, could we please have Lot 59/60 again?Please?  Today was the day to be on our way. Crossing our fingers that the weather would cooperate…and so far, it has.

   Kim is the driver and I am the navigator. Since I’m not a fan of always traveling the same route, I try to change our route from one year to the next, even if it extends the trip by a few miles.  However, because we couldn’t leave until today, which makes it tight to get there on the 15th, Kim wanted to take the shortest, fastest route this year.  No problem!  It’s a little over 2100 miles from Charlevoix to Picacho. Left at about 9:15 this morning and stopped in Jacksonville, IL, at about 9 p.m. (Central Time). Just shy of a 600-mile day so that leaves about 1500 miles to go.

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   The temperature was a sunny, but cold 20^o when we left Charlevoix; as we headed south, the day was mostly sunny and at one point, the temperature read 39^o. Since we didn’t have a long enough broom to pull the snow load off the top of the camper, we started the trip with that extra weight; but by the time we stopped at the hotel, the snow on the camper was mostly gone.  Sunshine and an uptick in the temperature to the rescue!

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   Last fall we sold our 2013 Forest River camper and bought a newer (used) one…a 2021 Coachman. Length is about the same, but the inside is totally different. Both campers are toy haulers but instead of the bikes being stored in the living space like in the old one, this one has a separate garage for the ‘toys’. And when the garage is empty, a table/bench set-up and a queen bed can be lowered to provide another dining area and/or sleeping space. The main area has a kitchen area on one side with slide-out on the other side.  The slide out contains the dinette area that can also be made into a bed. And then there’s a regular bedroom up front. This camper is rumored to sleep eight, but I’d say they’d have to be small people to fit comfortably on the table beds...so maybe not eight adults.  While our bedroom has a queen bed with ample storage underneath, the general layout and clothing storage area are not as roomy as the old one was, but we’ll make it work. Oh, and this camper has a separate bathroom with bathtub/shower combo. Everything about the bathroom is small; in fact, we had to mount the toilet paper holder on the bathroom door. But the fact that the shower curtain adequately hangs inside the tub, preventing water from running out on the floor makes it a major improvement, in spite of the smallness.

   Plenty of storage and windows, an indoor/outdoor sound system, and the separate ‘garage’ make it a definite upgrade…just wish the bedroom was configured a little differently. But I guess to get some extra living space something else had to give.