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We went to the Henry Ford Museum today. It's not just about Henry and cars - although there are a LOT of cars. It's also an Imax Theatre, a history museum for American Culture, Aviation and Electricity, and it houses the Dymaxion House by Buckminster Fuller - which is the reason for our visit. What a day of learning! The IMAX theatre was an unexpected high point. We saw a 3D film called Aliens of the Deep. Spectacular. If you get a chance - see it. Did you know that there are thriving communities of creatures who survive without any benefit of energy from the sun? The sun could blow up, destroying all life on earth's surface and these communities thousands of feet below the ocean's surface wouldn't even know anything had happened. Their energy comes from the heat of the earth's core interacting with chemicals in the ocean. Then ... the Dymaxion House:  This was one of Bucky's earlier inventions. Cool ideas. A rotating air vent in the top that would turn constantly to get the best air circulation. A pre-fabricated house made by airplane manufacturers where all the pieces would fit in a big tube and be transported to wherever you wanted your house to be. When you move, you can pack it up and ship it on ahead. It really was kind of wierd feeling tho. It makes sense that it was an early invention. He had visions of going into production with thousands of them, but it didn't take off.  Here's the living room.  Of course, we saw lots of old cars too - but I really perked up in the RV section. Here's a 1928 motorhome!   And, here's the motorhome used by Charles Kuralt in the TV series 'On the Road'   Then there was a lot of information about electricity. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were good friends. We knew this from visiting Edison's winter estate in Florida Reviewing this history made us come home and rewatch the video we have on Nikola Tesla's life. Fascinating that we learn all about Edison when we go to school in this country, but you don't learn about Nikola Tesla who was the one who discovered Alternating Current, the type of electricity we actually use today. It appears to me that Nikola Tesla and Buckminster Fuller have a lot in common. They both claimed to 'discover' what nature already knew - not to 'invent' new things. And, they both believed that we have the resources and the knowledge to provide abundant energy, food and all other essentials to every person on earth. If we only had the political will. Speaking of energy - I'm all out! G'night.
 Another new state to add to our map! It seems almost cheating that we get to add the whole state - including the upper peninsula - even though we're just passing thru the southeast corner. Actually, I don't understand why the upper peninsula is even a part of Michigan.  Anyway - when we were getting ready to leave Indiana and continue east, we looked at the map and saw how close we would be to Detroit. Isn't that where Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion house is in some museum? Sure enough. The Henry Ford museum. So we plotted our little detour because Buckminster Fuller is one of our heroes. Today we're leaving the motorhome at Shady Creek RV in Monroe, Michigan and driving into Dearborn to visit the museum. Yesterday we took a little drive to the shore of Lake Erie.  Apparently, the ducks can't read!  This is a scene that could almost be Florida.  But, not this one. I think this is Toledo.  I wonder what lakefront property costs around here? There's some pretty fancy houses.  OK, we're off to spend Memorial Day in the Henry Ford Museum. I'll tell you all about it later!
An American tradition. Packing up the kids and going camping on Memorial Day Weekend. And I think they ALL came to Twin Mills Campground!  It felt too intrusive to take a picture of a family around their campfire, so you'll just have to take my word for it. The smell of campfire smoke was everywhere and sounds of laughter from the families seated around them filled the air with joy. Biking, hiking, swimming, boating, fishing, and playing tetherball! I have very fond memories of tetherball as a kid - and I don't remember seeing one since then - until now.    Odie was in heaven. He loves kids!  Yet, we could find plenty of peace and beauty here too. This is a big place.  We have apparently left the land of Tulips and entered Iris country. 
Before leaving Wisconsin, I took one more picture I want you to see. I think this is Trillium - and it brightens up the forest just like beams of sunshine.  Traveling isn't always beautiful. Driving thru and around Chicago took forever and our only view was of trucks!  And, what is this?!? Some kind of open pit mine. It was on both sides of the highway - I thought we'd wandered onto a movie set of some post-nuclear war reality.  Now, we're back in beautiful nature, at Twin Mills Camping Resort in Howe, Indiana. This is a real family camping place and it is filling up for the Memorial day weekend.  The Wi-Fi here is only available at the clubhouse and nearby sites. It's a big place and we are quite a ways from the clubhouse, so WiFi is not available. We're surrounded by trees and the satellite dish couldn't lock on to the satellite. So, it's on to 'Plan C' - for cell phone. Luckily, there is some cell phone signal here. Not much - but, with the external antenna, there is enough. We just got new phones, so of course, our Mobile Office Kit for our old phones doesn't work. Jim found a Verizon store about 20 miles away and picked us up a new kit. On our plan, there is no extra charge for using the phones for Internet Access, but you do use minutes. So, nights and weekends is the only time I'm comfortable using it. To read more about using your cell phone for Internet Access, there's a great forum on Yahoo. Hey! If you gotta have Internet on the road, you better have Plan A, Plan B, AND Plan C.
Jim and I can sleep anywhere. It's a good thing because lots of RV parks are right next to highways and railroads - it doesn't seem to bother us. BUT, I have sure noticed a difference in the quality of my sleep the last couple nights. It is SO quiet here. The peacefulness permeates you. It's really pretty too. Here's our morning walk down to Little Elkhart Lake.  This looks like such a fun place for families in the summertime. The park has been here 30 years. I'll bet there are kids, who are adults now, with memories of many summers here.  And, the nearby town of Plymouth is so quaint and picturesque. We went geocaching again to get us out and about for a couple hours. This is a neighborhood ski slope in the wintertime.  We must be getting better at this! We found the geocache in a record 20 minutes!  So, we decided to explore the area a little further by car. Just north of the park is a delightful town called Elkhart Lake. Here's the lake - this area is a private beach.  The tulips are spectacular.  Nature is such an exquisite artist!  Enough ... back to work. We gave our WiFi seminar in the evening. 
We covered 400 miles, took 8.5 hours (including lunch stop), used $85 of gas and $8.50 in tolls, and traveled in 3 states: Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin.  The rolling hills, green fields and pastoral farm scenes were beautiful, but the road was awful! I don't know if Wisconsin is known for bad roads or we were just unlucky in our choice, but I-39 and 43 rattled my brain loose and vibrated my skin off my arm while trying to hang on to the steering wheel.  But we made it. It's very quiet and peaceful here at Plymouth Rock Camping Resort in the Wisconsin woods.  And, we're doing good work. Jim set up their Internet Cafe which they've been advertising for the Memorial Day weekend. 
We're putting another state on our map this morning!   We have 400 miles to go today to be in Plymouth Wisconsin by our promised time. That will be a record for us. Twice as much as normal. We usually consider 200 a full day, a very full day. So, instead of our normal noontime departure we figured on 8am. It's 7:30 now and everyone else is already gone! We found a very nice park right off Interstate 80 in Kellogg, Iowa. $11/night! and attached to the service station with a cafe "Iowa's Best Burger Cafe". It was good! Especially the onion.  Here's what Iowa cornfields look like in the springtime!  Gotta Go. We will gas up at this station first ... with the 10cent discount for camping here, we'll pay 1.87. That's the lowest we've seen in 8 months. They use Ethanol here ... surprise,surprise!
Our original plan, after visiting Nebraska, was to head south to Texas. But, as we looked at the calendar and we looked at the map, it started making a lot more sense to visit some of the Coach Connect RV parks that were further north. They are just coming into their season, and would benefit more from our WiFi training and support. SO ... From Nebraska, we're going to Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and North Carolina, on our way to Florida and scuba diving in July and August. When we headed east on Interstate 80, it didn't take long to go thru 'The Arch' Then, the logical place to stay one night would be Prairie Oasis RV where we stayed a year ago! Cool. A first! The first time we've returned to a place we visited on this trip. Interesting. This park is just at a location that is right in the middle. They say that they have several 'twice-year-friends'! This is the park where I did their website. The hosting account is up for renewal and I hadn't heard from them all year, so it's a perfect time for a visit - I wasn't even sure they were using the website. Come to find out, they've gotten some good attention because of the website - even a banner on the Trailer Life page for Nebraska! Cool. So, here we are.  The place is just as pretty as I remember. And now they have WiFi, so we don't have to worry about parking in the trees for our satellite dish.  And, yippee - they're still making their own wine, and they gave us a bottle again this year!  Thanx to the kindness of new friends, we had a spectacular dinner. Loy (from Holiday Park) gave us a bag of fresh spinach and a recipe before we left. "Saute onions and garlic; throw the spinach in to wilt, add stewed Italian tomatoes and simmer" Yum. We had some fish to complete the meal, but this was the pretty part. Thanx Loy!  Then, this morning, Jim worked with David a little on his computer. Showing him a few things about managing his WiFi system and about maintaining his computer. Notice the bottles of homemade wine! You've seen elsewhere that we've 'worked for food' - now, this is the ultimate, "Will Work for Wine"! He gave us a bottle of red too, but he said we had to promise to wait 3 months to open it. Anybody wanna place bets if we make it? 
We sure felt at home during our stay at Holiday Park in North Platte. Nice place, nice people. Family-owned for 35 years! For our last night there, we had a cookout/party with Loy, Richard, John, Vicky and Clayton. RVers are a sociable bunch! John and Vicky own the park, and Loy and Richard work here in the summertime. They work at a Fish and Wildlife park in Georgia for the winter.  Here's Richard with his grandson Clayton.  And, here's John taking Clayton for a ride.  We learned a lot about midwestern hospitality here. 
There's a first time for everything. Jim had to replace an antenna for the WiFi here in the park. It's up 45 feet. We had to schedule a bucket truck to come out. I worried about the weather, you never know what it's going to do here.  But when the time came, the weather was perfect, even calm. Just like My-Cast.com said it would be!    He looks cool, calm and collected doesn't he? Well, I won't tell you otherwise. Let's just say he doesn't plan to make a habit of this work.
Where DOES the time go? I sat down at the computer to read my email at about 7:30 yesterday morning, and the next thing I knew it was 11pm and time to go to bed. I never told you about Sunday. What does it take to get us away from our computers? Another computer of course. This is Jim's handheld GPS. It's pretty old by gadget standards. Jim got it years ago to help us find dive spots in the ocean when we were kayaking.  So, we went to www.geocaching.com to look for something nearby. It's like a high-tech treasure hunt. We saw a listing for one in Buffalo Bill's Ranch aka Scout's Rest Ranch. Buffalo Bill and the original Wild West show are from North Platte doncha know. So, off we go ... We started on a nice trail. The GPS showing us the way.  But quickly we had to take off cross country. It was marshy in spots.  I was afraid we were going to lose Odie in the tall grasses.  We wandered around for awhile. The GPS showed that we were *real* close, but we didn't see anything but trees. It was easy to get discouraged, since we haven't been so successful in the past.  But this time we perservered, and soon I heard a shout from Jim, "I FOUND IT!"  One of the things inside is a pen and a log book, so we can sign and prove that we actually did find it. Then those results are posted on the website. Cool stuff. And it got us out and about North Platte in Buffalo Bill country. Here's the Platte River.  Ok, back to work. I mean me ... but maybe I mean you too!
When you travel alone, like George, you've got to have a plan for how to handle emergencies. Most people depend on their cell phones. But that's not so good when you travel off the beaten track. We have found, to our surprise, that you don't have to get very far off the beaten track to lose cell phone signal. Our Datastorm Internet satellite dish works everywhere. We couldn't travel without it, and neither could George. I've been following George thru his weblog for almost 2 years now. He was my inspiration - Thanx! George. If you haven't checked in with George's weblog lately - you gotta go look at his entry for yesterday, May 14. George (actually Ms Tioga) got stuck in the mud and his cell phone couldn't help him. One of his thousands of weblog readers did! COOL story.
I was determined to get my hair cut and colored while we were here, so I made an appointment for the first day that we were not scheduled for a seminar - Friday. This is always a scary thing when you travel - getting a haircut from yet another new person. 'Haircut Roullette' as Lynne and Frankie say. But, I didn't realize until I was there that the day was Friday the 13th! Oh well. Jim was still helping folks in the park with their computers. So I took the car and went into town.  I take old photos of when I liked my haircut and color samples too. She didn't do too bad. I would have liked a little *more* color and a little *more* cut, but hey! Thats' a lot better than the other way around. Whaddaya think? 
Yesterday was a busy day. These folks are early risers - we scheduled our seminar for 8:30am.  Then there were people and computers to help. Seeing Jim with 3 computers going at once in our motorhome/office/computer lab made me think of the old vaudeville acts where they kept a dozen plates spinning!  It really is amazing (and disturbing) how the condition of a computer affects its ability to connect to WiFi. If you don't keep everything up-to-date and clean on your computer you may not be able to use a WiFi hotspot ... even though everything else *seems* to be OK on your computer. It's like your body. You may be feeling fine, but try to do a cartwheel or touch your toes and you just can't do it. For a computer, connecting to a WiFi hotspot is like doing a cartwheel! Then, in the evening we just hunkered down for the storm. We learned that, if we hear sirens, that means run - don't walk - to the bathroom building. It is a concrete block structure and designated at the tornado shelter here. We kept the TV on so we had the latest updates. Luckily, the tornado warning lasted less than an hour - but we did get the golf ball sized hail in this warning. Wow! What a racket that made hitting our roof! 
Here we are in North Platte Nebraska, working at a Coach Connect park called Holiday Park. When we got here it was a warm, beautiful day. We really need to wash our rig and most RV parks don't let you do that. I'm really not quite sure why - use too much water, make too much of a mess or something - but here they said 'no problem', just make sure to get as much of the water on the grass as possible!  We really had a lot of work to do the first day - no time for washing. And, I don't think we'll get to it today, the weather has turned cold, windy and generally yukky.  After our seminar this morning, we might take a drive back down the road we came and see if we can spot our lost wheel cover. There was a really rough stretch of highway just before getting here. It's SO ugly without it. And, they are hard to replace. We know, we've already done it once. We had to buy them in the complete set of 4. 
Sometimes you don't want to be in a beautiful place where there is lots of cool stuff to see and do. Sometimes you don't want to be where there are all sorts of nice people to meet and help with their computers. Sometimes you don't want anyone to know you're there. Sometimes you don't want to be expected to do anything. Sometimes you want a cow pasture. We found this Passport America park that is basically a cow pasture with hookups.  Another view, from the cow's perspective.  Payment for this park is on the Honor System. Gotta say - this is the first time we've seen this.  It sure is true though. We're on our third day here and this is the closest thing we've seen to a proprietor:  Parking in a cow pasture gives us time to catch up. Catch up with our thoughts. Catch up with R&R - reading and riting. Although it's impossible to catch up with computer work, we've gotten some items done that have been on the list for quite a while. When there is no concern for privacy, we can leave the windshield cover off. It's so wonderful to see the sun streaming in. Odie is delighted to find a sunny spot on the driver's seat.  The sunshine also makes for a delightful office.   Notice the wire hanging down from Jim's cell phone. That goes to an external antenna. One problem with cow pastures ... most of them don't have real good cell service! Even though we're right on Interstate 70. Thank goodness for external antennas! Next, we'll try our outdoor WiFi antenna to try to get the free Hotspot from the truck stop on the other side of the highway. Stay tuned ...
We can really tell that we've begun our travels back from whence we came. The mountains are gone and we're in the prairies once more. We left the prairies and saw our first real mountains last year in June when we were also in Nebraska and we were traveling west to South Dakota and Wyoming. I love the idea that, over the years, we will become as familiar with the highways and the sections of this country as we used to be with the streets and neighborhoods of our city.   And, the more you live on the road - the more you appreciate the sights and sounds of the road. 
I know, I'm behind in my posts. We're actually in Nebraska now ... but I never told you how much we liked Clear Creek! Usually, we're in much larger RV Parks - this one is so small and cozy you almost feel you're camping!  It really is right alongside Clear Creek, with a path that goes for miles in both direction.  You can walk along the path to go into town that's only about a half mile away with lots of restaurants and shops.  Or you can take a quick drive up Lookout mountain for a view of Denver. You gotta watch out for the bicyclers though. Four and a half miles of steep switchbacks and it draws bicyclists like moths to a flame! They seem to like it. Not for me!  At the top is the gravesite of Buffalo Bill.  We gave our WiFi seminar in their conference room and met some very nice folks staying in the park.  After the seminar, a couple from France asked us for some help with their WiFi. Jim got them online (even though all the messages on their computer were in French!), then, of course, we had to show them this Weblog. Hmmmm, wanna see it in French? Just go to BabelFish the Web's translation site. Fill out the language you need and the website you want translated:  and, here's what you get ...  I've never been very trusting of computerized translations. There's a story about translating 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak' - a computerized translation into russian comes out 'The vodka is good, but the meat is rotten.' Hah! But, these folks said that the french for our website came out pretty good. Maybe it's gotten better. Ok, time to leave Clear Creek behind.
About thirty years ago, a couple of friends and I made a road trip from NJ to Golden, Colorado. The purpose of the trip was to visit the Coors Brewery. Some of you may remember, at that time, Coors was not sold east of the Mississippi. We wanted to experience the brew first-hand. We set out just after midnight from the Jersey Shore. Thirty six hours later, we were in the parking lot at Coors. It was snowing. Their clocks said 9:30 am. Our clocks were not functioning by this time. We were early for the tour, so we had a couple of beers while we waited. I'm sure we enjoyed the tour because I have pictures somewhere to prove it. After the tour, we had several more beers and they said we should go. We retired to the parking lot where we found enough snow to have a snowball fight. Again we were asked to leave. Fine. We found the Rockies, turned around and headed back to Jersey. At least, that is what I remember. Some might say it was a long way to go to get a beer. I think it was just about right. I still love a road trip.
No trip to Golden Colorado is complete without a tour of the Coors Brewery.  They really have their act together.   In addition to their most popular beer, Coors Light (isn't that redundant?), Coors also makes Killian's Red - I like that one. And Blue Moon. And one that only comes from the local microbrewery at Coors Field is called 'Barmen'. Also known as 7 minute beer because it takes 7 minutes to pour. They don't serve this on the Coors tour, but we found it at the Old Capitol Grill restaurant. I REALLY liked that one.  "Malting" is the process of making the barley sprout, then roasting it and grinding it. Coors has been around since the late 1800s - they survived the prohibition years by selling Malted Milk!  Green beer? Nope, this is Coors' malt beverage - Zima - I tried the green apple and Jim tried the Orange. Tastes exactly like soda pop ... but with 5.9% alcohol.  They are very proud of their flowers here. With good reason. 
Right next to the RV Park is Clear Creek. They have a course for watersports. 
We finally ventured out of our cozy shell. We also moved to another park in downtown Golden - Clear Creek RV Park. What a nice little town.  Except for that ugly big factory with the smokestacks ... ooops, that's the Coors brewery. Coors is what puts Golden on the map, and apparently they are a very good community citizen. They also give a great 1.5 hour tour with free beer. You can bet we'll do that - as soon as we finish our seminars tomorrow. Jim tells a great story of a road trip when he was 21 ... at that time, they didn't sell Coors east of the Mississippi - so it was kinda special to him and his friends in LBI, New Jersey. 3 guys took off in Jim's truck and, after 36 straight hours of driving, they toured the Coors brewery. Then they drove home with a couple of cases.  Here's Jim standing with a statue of Adolph Coors.  The Clear Creek RV park feels more like a campground. There are only 31 sites and it's right on the banks of this beautiful creek.  And, this creek is developed as a course for kayaks!I hope we get to see a kayak in the water before we leave. No, we're not going to try this with our Ocean Kayak! Ocean Kayaks are meant for just that - oceans - not for quick maneuvers.  Ok, back to our computer work ... Isn't this a great t-shirt for Jim?  Thanx Frankie!
Today is May 1. Doesn't that mean spring? Green grass and flowers and stuff like that? Here's what we see.  I'm sure glad we have WiFi here because the dish ain't workin' so good!  Here's Odie. What do you suppose he's thinking?  Of course, we're here to do our WiFi seminars. Yesterday we only had one person show up - even tho we see at least a dozen people using the system. I guess it just works so well that nobody has any questions?  That one person sure appreciated the individual help!  Then our staff session was great - they kept us going with questions for a full 2 hours. That's the best anyway - cuz then the staff can help the users who come and go.  We're going to stay inside our nice cozy motorhome today - till our next seminar this afternoon anyway. Happy Mayday.
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