Fordham Family

Starting at Sweetwater TN, which was a lovely KOA site, all the right things for the boys to do, jump pad, swim pool, rec room, games room, plenty of shade – yay we think this will be a success. Must come back again.

So looking at the map we imagined a straight line to Asheville, this took us along route 129. We didn’t think any different. So off we set. We passed Foothill imports – a yard full of air cooled volkswagens which was tempting to stop at but with a late start we were short on time and short on patience.

Route 129, started as a gentle overlook on a lake whereupon a few motorcylces turned up, then a few minutes later a few more, eventually we were surrounded by fast bikes, leather clad fast riders and testosterone – lots of it.

The next 10 miles on 129 was frantic, second gear, hard left, hard right, sweep left hairpin right, its only now that we realised we were on what is nationally known as the Dragons tail. Katie managed to take some pictures and a movie from the back seat but after a while she felt sea sick

Dragon over with, there was the long haul home, we didn’t stop again

As before this is the gallery;

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Well, having needed 2 jump starts last night we lashed up a battery charging method and were sure we had the battery problem licked. Hmm. Also AL changed out the brushes in the generator for added luck. We were gambling. So all packed up in the morning, turn the key and… nothing. The battery was shot. Bugger.

Another jump start and plan B was enacted. Walmart sells batteries, so we limp there knowing that if the engine were to stall then we’re in trouble. Suffice to say we made it, bought 2 batteries and a charger, and we were off again.

Memphis was pretty cool – sitting next to the Mississippi (spelling?) and some cool bridge – pic in the gallery of the state line.

A fairly uneventful and ambitious plan to go to Knoxville (about 400 miles). All is well on the journey, lunch on the run which was AL’s first, sorted all the spares, used the knackered battery to power the fridge for cool beers, and then shot for 65mph top speed despite the 4% downhills.

As an added interest we took some artistic photos inside the bus (gallery). Otherwise fairly uneventful. Spotting tag plates we saw our first North Carolina. We also saw lots of poeple either texting, talking on the phone, wearing beards, listening to ipods, wearing a dog on their lap or.. giving us the thumbs up (some weird guy in a BMW).

Many many hours later we arrived at our turn off, the anticipation was there – would this be a noisy train site – nope, would it be a site next to the interstate – nope, or next to an sirport – nope. In fact the Sweetwater KOA is perhaps the best KOA we have stayed at – well done whoever. We think a return visit in the summer is in order.

Katie saw her first glow bug of the summer, yay. The neighbours had stories – they were from Cambridge (Canada) drove an ancient vehicle that also broke down and had 2 boys at home tearing the place up.

Reminder to charge the battery. So this should be our last night, our last dash back home. See you soon.

As before this is the gallery for today;

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Well we started off well enough in Checotah (OK), the morning chorus this time was the road – not any old road but the I40 – the main east west interstate. So it was trucks and cars etc all night gradually increasing in tempo until we had to join them.

The site here at Checotah was lovely, very friendly poeple and very clean etc. Shame we coundn’t stay or have the boys here for a few days. Oh well. Must be getting home sick.

So the plan was to shoot for the KOA just short of Memphis but still in Arkansas – something about wanting to stay in every state along our trip. Hmm. The plan is for just short of 400 miles.

Everything was off to a flying start, cruising at 65mph full of 91 RON gas (premium to you and me) and so we stopped to change drivers and er use the restrooms. Odd layout of restroom – the mens at the front was very very busy but the ones at the back were literally empty, quite clean too. Curious graffitti as always in these sorts of places.

We were sort of cuatious as I noticed the rear lights of some sort were on – we have about 4 levels of brightness in the lights depending on left and right and with brakes or not. Still couldn’t figure it out but oh well the brake lights worked (sort of).

Then it happened, leaving the exit Kate said the lights on, uh oh, the generator light, so we pulle dover, checked everything and all was ok. But the light was on, and then the voltage was low – about 11.9. Def something wrong. Panic - we’re on batteries and limp home. So we phone ahead to Roseville and the Autozone there (theme here notice) had what we needed.

Spent waay too much, changed the regulator no difference, hooked up all wires this time, no difference. Bugger. Played around with the brushes no difference. Bugger again. Ok into Autozone load up with all the tools necessary to change out a generator – 36mm socket, impact gun (electric) adjustable wrnech for the genny nut, vice grips for something, hand cleaner for the misssus, and some nice screwdrivers. Oh and a mirror on a stick and a magnet on a stick.

So off we set for the lcoal KOA where we would perform the surgery. But then on the way we noticed the volts were not dropping. Confidence boost. Decided to limp all the way to Memphis.

So 4 hours later, the volts still read the same and so we stopped one last time at the KOA checkin at Memphis West – this evidently was the last straw – she wouldn’t start to get to our spot. Tom the handyman had a jump start thing so we go to our site. Wrong site, borrowed the jump thing again and now at the right site. Lashed up a battery charger with all the electronics in the bus and we’ll see where we are in the morning. We”re hoping to limp another 4-6 hours to the next KOA in TN.

As before this is the gallery;

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Today was long drive - about 400 miles all in with a small diversion to a winery.

Amarillo KOA had a wealth of activities going on, from helicoptors to trains and then then the very tuneful birds. Despite all this we still managed to sleep in (8:30 wow) and had to make an quick turnaround once awake. The airport in Amarillo is called Rich Husband or something – quite humerous.

On the road we set our sites for checotah KOA – most of the way through OK and about 370 miles according to the rather optimistic Google maps. Hmm. Cruising at 60-65mph – aren’t we brave – we noticed the wind starting to pick up in OK. Oh btw there is no official statle line notice on the side of the road when going into OK. Texas had one going the other way.Never mind – the OK welcome center was the most luxurious restroom stop thus far on the trip – thought you’d want to know that.

The wind was coming from the south and the gusts not only blew us  over the road it kept lifting the pop top so… we invented a rucksack ballast on the pop top handle – worked ok but the best trick was to not have the windows wide open. While in the back we noticed a slight fume smell so at the next gas stop (23mpg now at the higher speeds) I erm displayed some redneckery once more and taped shut the rear hatch – fairly sure and now the fumes are gone – kid safe – need a new hatch seal reminder.

Shame the cheap cloth duct tape from wally mart decided to sperate either the new paint from the original paint OR leave its glue on the new paint when we pulled it off. Oh well.

OK city was busy, lots of aggressive traffic – welcome to the hustle bustle of the big cities I guess. And the roads in OK are by far the worst so far, a severe lack of investment – note congressmen.

Had a stop at a winery, quite the character and I must say the ‘tasting’ was a little mean, more like a the tiniest tea spoon in the world. Not sure how you’re meant to nose that. Hmm, took some cool pics (found the widescreen mode in the camera – it was a long boring trip) of us with some cows. Then after much fiddling we found a panoramic mode in the camera – see the last pic. Cool effect I think we’ll play with more.

The KOA site is predictable, the owner decided to sing a few lines from Oklahoma the movie which was kind of sureal and then found the VHS for us to watch. Hmm not likely. Still the site was very clean, busy and well run, they even had a lake trail, and a petting zoo. The boys would love it here.

So tomorrow should be equally long… and as before this is the gallery link

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So this morning we awoke to a tran singing happily as if it was the proudest thing it did all day – just like a cockerel. So today was pre dawn awake – something hideous like 5:30 which is ok if you’re being paid to wake up (ie go to work) but on vacation – sucked. Thanks mr Train and your horn.

On the road at 7:30, cruising happily at 60mph we set a target for Amarillo in Texas - realise that we were in New Mexico and had most of that state to cover first. Ok enough. 362 miles was a target to get to another KOA site - Amarillo TX.

Katie now hates Folger coffee – turns out we only bought it for the (cute) small(er) container. Hmm. Anyway whoever likes this coffee is weird – it tastes weird, Kate thinks she can smell it on her hands / sweat whatever and anyhow its had an effect on our bowels (so we want to blame something).

A highlight was AL having a snooze in the back while travelling – lots of exhuast fumes which is not good. Some thinking later and we realise the heater tubes are open – and is it turns out about 6 inches from the exhuast. If LHT taught me anything it was cabon monoxide was bad for you – made you sleepy and sick. So we blamed the exhaust and then promptly stopped, plugged the holes with the cheapest cloth tape in the world and tyraps – yay. Cloth tape is not same from Walmart – their stuff is the thinnest in the world and not very sticky neither. Racers tape not.

Off again we decided that an early arrival in Texas would allow us an evening on the town, and this led us to… making lunch on the move. A few miles late we were full and happy.

Amarillo, TX, is a larger place where upon we went past the very place we’d been reading about for the last 100 miles on the bill board – Big Texan. So 72oz eat free huh, yeah right, they forget to mention the 4 other parts of the meal you have to eat to get it free. Needless to say we declined. We had a 13oz ribeye, some chilli and fries and a bottle of something merlot, all very good. This place had lots of photo (read tourist) opportunituies (read their claim to being world famous). Marketing gotta love it.

Limo ride there, forgot to tip the driver (oops) and a ride back with someo other pilot geezers who were all about basketball. Tried to talk to them about Curry (Davidson) but they quickly blew that off.

So we made the trip to Amarillo, a total of 360 or so miles today AND according to our speedo this was 1005 miles since we collected the bus. A milestone – we hope so – cos we celebrated with copious red wine.

This time we thought about a link to the album (which we re-ordered for easier viewing hopefuly)

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Special thanks goes out to Eric this time for waking us early (5:30am) – his excuse was he did not realise the time difference – right. Thanks Eric.

The Sears blanket (its not that kind of shop) worked an treat and now we’re warm and toasty.

After we left we found a cool single cab on the site, cool and loved obviously – maybe it was the KAO checkin lady with a VW tattoed on her ankle, hmm?

Staying at Flagstaff was good furtune, there was an Autozone down the road which had a load of parts for the bus including another set of points, etc Also got some aluminium tape to cover those heater holes in the tin allowing hot air to re-circulate. So gaps reset, timing reset and we were off (again). Much happier and cooler bus, 60 no problem and uphills now not a problem – amazing. We even overtook our first vehicle on I-40 – they did over take us back again tho – probably when they woke up and realised a 50hp 3300lb vehicle just smoked them – ok we were doing 61 and they were doing 59 but we’re drag race experts now and that was a smokin.

Found a cool trading post that sold (more) Indian stuff – this time we got Indian blankets of different thicknesses – apparently you pay for what you get – $7 is a thin one, and $14 is a thick(er) one. Right. And some hats for the boys. They had a HUGE dream catcher out front of the ‘post’ which we tried to take pics of with the bus. Once done we were off again.

New state - now in New Mexico – yay. 

Today was longer on the road than any other – a staggering 260 miles and we’re exhausted. Still nothing that a few Coronas wont solve, found another KOA site in Grants NM. Ever seen that advert with the weirdo at the desk saying about poor coverage in the end room, ok it was filmed here. Needless to say we’ll make an early start. However Kate has to go and buy NM keychains for the boys so she’s off to talk to her ‘friend’ (she took her pepper spray).

Nowt else to report. More driving tomorrow.

Link to the gallery pictures
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Well after the breakdown(s) last night we were thinking we would have to spend another night on route 66 in Seligman, so heres the story.. the points in the distributor broke, and being imaginative we thought we could fix it with a tyrap – yeah right – that lasted about 2 miles, then with 2 tyraps we got another 15 miles – enough to get us to Seligman and an RV park. Randy the local mechanic was tutting and hissing about how much it would cost and as if an amazing coincidence a VW bus truck single cab creation drove past, we should talk to this guy we thought, a long story shortened he had a wore out set of points for a 009 that got us out of trouble and on the road again….

So off to the Grand Canyon, it was a long gentle uphill drive, which in a heavy bay window was not easy – 2nd gear 20 mph at some points much to the disgust of the gas guzzlers behind us. Anyhow on arrival to the park we were literally gobsmacked by the shear scale and beauty of the canyon – wow. Lots of pictures later including a few ‘er your too close to the edge’ moments we were suitably overloaded with Canyon.

Off to Flagstaff we set, a much happier trip downhill, lots of Indian trading posts, one of them sold us a dream catcher for the bus, and then Kate was talked into driving the bus for while, anyhow the bad running oil light on at tickover, stalling, not able to find 2nd gear was too much, AL drove the rest of the way..

Sears, what an interesting place, not what you think, so with a forecast 38 deg F overnight at the KAO campsite (recommended btw) we went shopping for a fleece blanket thing, stumbled on an electric kettle too - tea – tea – tea – and we were set for the night.

Link to the gallery pictures
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What a day, started in Vegas, ended in a RV park somewhere on route 66, saw some awesome man made stuff, collected another VW, the guy had a goatee beard like AL, turned in the very reliable Ford Focus, went shopping, bought some food and camping stuff, started the journey, figured out the bus was not as powerful as the drag bus, probably overheated the engine climbing an ever so slight incline, found route 66 which was cool, but then broke down, and then broke down again, but then eventually found an RV park – with cell phone coverage -
gallery pics enjoy
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