Two Penny Travels

Life in the Fast Lane

Since leaving Yosemite Lakes TTN, our lives have quickened. We moved to Ponderosa TTN Resort on the American River and got back to civilized Internet, SCOTUS announced their decisions on LBGT rights, and our daughters decided to not wait. They were married Friday, July 5. It has been a while since I was near a wedding. It was a blast, and we officially added one more to the family. I am a father-in-law plus. My biological daughter's new name is Deborah Penny Gallagos. My daughter-in-law is named Paula Roseann Gallagos.

Deb sent me an email about what to call their status. It describes the situation best of any I have heard. "Asking who's the man (or the woman) in a same-sex relationship is like asking which chopstick is the fork."

In the meantime, I had to have the trailer brakes repaired, I received a HD DVR upgrade and ordered a new antenna, and we have eaten far more rich food than is good for us. It has been life in the Fast Lane for the past couple of weeks.

Things are beginning to slow down, but we still have friends and family around Sacramento we need to see and catch up on. We also have a retinalogist visit for Alice next Saturday. AMD is a slow disease if you fight it, but the results are inevitable. Ces la pool.

Next week we head over toward the Pacific Coast and will begin our trek to the north. We plan to visit the Smith River folks and spend some time at Edson Creek. Then we go further north in the TTN system. Maybe we will see some of you travelers along the road.

At this point we are happy and mostly well. Hope everyone else is doing well. Take care, and someday we will return to Jojoba Hills.

Sam and Alice and Teddy

Visalia, Hanford, and the Road to Yosemite

We spent a pleasant Thursday evening at the Visalia Elks, and Friday morning we moved to Hanford to see my sisters. We talked about how to get our “ducks in a row” regarding the mineral rights we own in Oklahoma. We now have an attorney helping us.

Saturday morning Alice and I headed north to Yosemite Lakes TTN, located on Hwy 120 east of Groveland. Our mapping program said the most direct route was to travel up Hwy 41 to the entrance to Yosemite, then go back down Hwy 120 to our destination. It was significantly shorter, and Alice said the views were spectacular. I don't know. I kept my white knuckles on the steering wheel as we climbed and curved through the foothills of the Sierras. We saved some miles, and maybe some minutes, but we were both exhausted when we arrived. I recommend going to Manteca and coming in from the west.

The TTN camp is very pleasant on the side of the South Fork of the Tuolumne River. They plant trout on Tuesday and Thursday, so I will buy a fishing license and try to pay for it with the fish I catch. We plan to visit Yosemite several times during the two weeks we will spend here.

The downside is that we are three miles away from phone and Internet service. We do have a good satellite TV signal.

On The Road To Visalia

Our two week sojourn at Soledad TTN is over, and this morning we packed the rig and truck to travel further north. We have a new 32” TV and mount, new registration for our truck replacing what was lost in the mail, and some new friends in the TTN system. The winds died down over-night, so preparing to leave was not as big a hassle as it could have been. I have learned to be more defensive in my driving.

We will spend the next two days in Visalia (Elks) and Hanford (sister). My sisters and I must figure out how to handle our mineral interests in Oklahoma to our best advantage. I think connecting with a good attorney will be most important. If we get the ducks in a row, it becomes a matter of letting the fates decide.

On Sunday we drive to Yosemite Lakes TTN park at Hardin Flat, 18 miles east of Groveland. I will be able to get satellite TV, and TTN supposedly has some kind of WiFi Internet connection, but we may be without phone and unlimited Internet access. If someone needs to contact us, they should use email. We will be there for about two weeks before heading toward the Sacramento area where there are somewhat more civilized facilities. But the chance to see Yosemite will be good.

Take care, and those of you in travel mode, watch out for the unintended consequences of whatever.

sam

Close Call

We are staying at the Soledad TTN park near Acton, CA. Yesterday we went to the Lancaster Elks for a fish fry (very good). On the way home we turned off I-14 onto Soledad Canyon Road. Two-thirds of the way down the hill to Acton, Santiago Dr comes in from the right. They have a stop sign.

As I approached the intersection, I saw a blue sedan coming down toward the stop sign. It slowed, but did not fully stop. It slowly came into the intersection just ahead of me. I laid down rubber and leaned on the horn, but the car kept coming into my lane. I almost missed it, but clipped its left front with my right bumper. I pulled to the side of the road and stopped. Running back, I saw how the front of the sedan had been torn off. The car was probably totaled.

The young lady driving immediately said it was her fault; she had been distracted by a car on the other side of the road and did not look to see me coming down the road. She pulled in out front of me.

Shuddering, I went to see how badly my truck had been damaged, and there was only a small scratch on the bumper. The truck had survived totally. How lucky.

After exchanging information, we went on home, and I collapsed. It had really been a close call. Next week we will continue north, but from here on I will be more cautious.

sam

Good news and bad news, from the retinalogist

We visited the Inland Eye Clinic in Hemet today. Dr. Carlson told Alice at the meeting he had good news and bad news. The good news is that the swelling in the retina of her right eye has gone down; the shot of four weeks ago stopped the bleeding. The bad news is that there has been little or no recovery in her eyesight. She has a level of macular degeneration in her right eye that will probably be there from now on; she will see a dark spot in the middle and only have some peripheral vision in that eye.

He suggested that she be rechecked in about two months, when we will be in the Sacramento area, and continually monitored after that. One of the key concerns is to be sure the problem does not develop in her left eye. She will need another shot only if the bleeding resumes.

A recommendation to our friends at Jojoba: Alice's eyesight went from okay to this in less than six months. She started to tell me about having more problems seeing back in January, but we did not react immediately. Maybe it would not have made a difference, but if you have a potential problem with your eyesight, check it out quickly, rather than lately. Loss of sight is a terrible loss.

So, we will be traveling north starting Friday, heading for Soledad TTN. It is now a matter of learning to live with what life presents to us.

Plan B for 2013

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge in the last four months, so to speak. It is now settling down to a level where our plans might make sense.

Things past: Wolf died in April, but we have Teddy who is stepping up to be first dog. It was sad to lose a dear friend of nearly fifteen years, but his body just gave out on him. In March Kelly convinced me to help him market and sell his new sewLITE. We made plans to show these wares at the SKP WARE meeting in Lodi, but Alice was diagnosed with wet macular degeneration a month ago, and we put the brakes on leaving the area until mid-May. Yesterday I told Kelly I was withdrawing from the active business world; I am no longer the world's best entrepreneur. I will display product on my website and help people with LED problems, but active selling time is now past.

Alice's health is pretty good, but her eyes are a concern. She see's a retanologist tomorrow, and gets another shot of Avastin that is supposed to arrest the further development of the condition. She can get shots every 4 weeks on the road so we will be able to travel.

My health is actually pretty good, though I still abuse myself with bad behavior like too much wine. The Afib has mostly gone away, and I am walking more and keeping my weight under better control. Not trying to sell will also help.

Things future: on Friday we head further north to Soledad TTN, the second leg of a 3,000 mile loop up into WA and back down the coast then to Sedonna. Plans are to return to Jojoba Hills in time for Thanksgiving with the girls. It will be a liesurely trip, not a rush from point to point as in the past. I am now working on preparing Dad's Story for publication, and it should go pretty fast with not much else to do. Dad did most of the work.

A potentially exciting phase in our life is beginning in Oklahoma. Continental Resources Oil Co. has started drilling an oil/gas well on the old farm where I grew up. Janet, Rosemary, and I each have 4.4 acres of mineral rights in that section that might pay us some royalties in the next few years. There are still a number of details to be worked out.

So, keep in touch. We like to hear from you.

sam & alice & teddy

Plan I for 2013

Here we are in the first month of 2013. We are starting to plan for this year's adventures.

Last year we did the 6,400 mile trip around to see relatives back east. It was a good thing to do, but at times it surely got hot.

We saw Chuck Voris in Salt Lake City, and he has since passed away. We saw Margaret and Ralph Barringer in Newton, KS, and we hear how they are becoming increasingly frail. We went to Memphis and I talked with folks there on how to write my book about the recovery of Memphis from a giant earthquake. We went to St. Louis and visited with son David (JC) and wife Krista and granddaughter Fayth. Then we returned to the west coast and finally to Jojoba Hills.

A big glitch along the way was when my computer crashed last November. I lost 14 months of my records, and at my age, that is like losing 14 months of your memory. So there are two books I am not going to finish, and there are several Jojoba projects that will not get done.

Now I am starting to plan for this year and the trips we will take. I know they will concentrate on the west coast.

The first of these trips will be a week in Palm Desert at the TTN park. We go there next week. We have to return to Jojoba for dog-sitting, propane tank re-certification, and the Annual Meeting. I also have an appointment with Dr. Wood, hopefully to get a full release on the cardiology side of things. Then we will be able to start putting dates next to trips.

We will keep you posted on where we go and what we do.

Sam Penny, the Prudent RVer (www.prudentrver.com)

 

End of our summer trip 2012

Tomorrow we go back to Jojoba Hills to end our journey for the summer of 2012.We have driven 8,015 miles, 6,777 of which was pulling the trailer. So our truck has done a lot of work. The radiator cleaning job just before we left really made a difference - it never overheated. It has a new set of tires and a recent lub job. Alice says it needs to be washed.

We saw Alice's brother Charles (in UT) and sister Margaret (in KS) as well as son David and his family (in IL) and his daughter Ashlae and her brood (in WA).

The weather started hot, with 104 of Las Vegas the first night on July 6. We got to higher country and survived. Then on 7/19 we headed into Nebraska and Kansas. Hot, hot, hot, and humid. We went through Memphis for a brief visit with the earthquake people then up to near St. Louis to visit JC. Hot, hot, hot, and humid. JC took on a short fishing trip up near Springfield, and I got a very bad sunburn on my leg, mostly because of the meds I was taking.

The first week in August we made it back into somewhat reasonable country from a temperature point of view. It was only Hot, hot. We visited Glacier National Park then went on into WA. From there we went to the coast of OR where we froze in 60 degree fog.

We made it down to the Sacramento area to visit with our daughters then came down to Palm Desert for brother-in-law michael's birthday party. Here it has been hot, hot, hot, but not humid. Tomorrow we go back up the hill and lose about 15 degrees.

It has been a good trip, but one that convinces me we want to stay this side of the Rockies. It will be good to get back to our base camp, though we will go over to Newport Dunes for grand-daughter Becca's wedding on 10/13. Then we start the next series of medical appointments and such.

We plan to do some traveling, but closer to base, this fall/winter. We will see.

sam

 

 

 

 

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Living In A Dead Zone

We are near Newport, Oregon, at the TTN Whaler's Rest Resort. The last couple of weeks have caused me to review our requirements for four major items: sewer, satellite TV, Internet access, and Verizon phone service.

Having a sewer connection at our camping site becomes a requirement in about 7 days. That is the time it takes us to fill one of our three holding tanks: black water, grey water, or galley. We can get along for a while with collecting our waste water in those tanks when we have no connection. In fact, we get pretty good about conserving our capacity. But being cheap, when one or more fill, I move the rig to someplace with a dump rather than pay for the service to come by and dump us (usually at $5 a tank). So, on longer stays we need to find a full-hookup site with a sewer connection. On shorter stays I can dump on the way out of the camp.

At TTN Chehalis we started at a site with a satellite TV signal then moved our rig to a site with a sewer connection. We had to wait four days for one to become available.

But when we moved to obtain sewer, we gave up our satellite TV connection. I thought I could see the satellite, but the trees across the street were just too high, and I could not get positioned to focus the signal through one of the small holes in the leaf cover. So we did a week without TV. That was a little boring, and we missed a Nascar race and part of a convention, but we survived by keeping up on the events of the day using Internet.

While in Washington, we upgraded our Verizon phones and 5spot wireless router to Samsung Galaxy S III phones and a new JetPack. It offers 4G service and lots of nice apps. So our Internet experience was pleasant. It helped us do without the TV.

When we moved to Whaler's Rest we found a spot with a sewer connection and a good view of the southeast sky for satellite TV. What we did not realize was that this park is in a Verizon Dead Zone, and we are without Internet or phone unless we drive 5 miles into Newport. There is Internet at the Clubhouse, but it is relatively slow, and there is no phone service (at least for us). So we are learning to live without Internet and phone in our rig. Very Inconvenient.

It is sometimes difficult to find a perfect campsite with all the amenities we want, but what the heck, someone has to live this lifestyle. We can always move.

sam

Now in Chehalis, Washington

My records show it was nearly six weeks ago when I last posted, and at that time we were in Kansas finishing up our visit with Margaret (Alice's sister) and Ralph Baringer. Since then it is been another 3,561 miles.

We drove to Memphis to visit with Jim Wilkinson at CUSEQ and talk about doing my third book on the Memphis earthquake (plan to do the book but change the tenor to one of recovery). Jim said he would help with some sample recovery plans.

Then we went to Collinsville, IL to see son David and his family, Krista and Faythe Anne. We joined them for a stay at Lake Sangchris up near Springfield. I did not realize I was spending so much time in the sun, and got a reaction to one of my meds that made my skin extra photosensitive -- I had some real burn problems for the next week as we worked our way through WI and into ND.

In Montana we spent time at the Teddy Roosevelt Nat Park and saw some buffalo. Then we went on to Great Falls and had the brakes replaced on the truck. From there we stopped over in West Glacier and took a tour bus trip up to the pass. It was an awesome view, and the tour bus was the way to go.

We then headed on into WA and are now staying at the Chehalis TTN Resort for a week and seeing Ashlea (our adoptive grand-daughter) and her family. I have been fighting with trees trying to find a satellite TV signal (unsuccessfully) for the past couple of days.

One of the big events on this trip is our decision to replace our smart phones with really smart phone. We bought Samsun Galaxy SIII phones and an upgrade of out 5spot WiFi router with a JetPack router at the Best Buy in Olympia. The difference in lifestyle is awesome.

Both dogs are doing pretty well. Wolf is still having trouble breathing, and the lasix is increasing the urination rate, but he seems to be happy. Teddy is enjoying the travels and is settling in to our life style.

Next Monday we head for Oregon to start our leisurely trip back to Jojoba. We expect to be there on 9/24.

So that summarizes our current status here is Washington. I hope to be more prompt in my next update.

sam