Catching up

We last updated you from our stop at Hamburg, NY. This Walmart was the fanciest one we had stayed at yet. We got up early on Monday, and headed into Buffalo, figuring that we would have a wait at the border. Buffalo is a horrible looking place!

Arriving at the Canadian side of the Peace Bridge, we went to the commercial truck lanes, as instructed by the CBS when I called ahead. There was no line-up at all, and the officer gave a cursory inspection to my carefully prepared papers, and waved us through. We were shocked! Could have brought more $2.97 Walmart wine!

The drive to Toronto was uneventful. We did stop at a truck wash to wash the rig, and gassed up. Wow, 98 cents a litre was a shock to our system. Little did we know....

We arrived at Toronto well ahead of schedule, and found our Walmart in Scarborough. We set up at the front of the lot. Marlene's leg was still bothering her a lot, so she rested up while I went in search of a Canadian broadband card for my computer. I could use my Verizon one, but Telus charges Verizon a scandalous $13 a megabyte. I found that Virgin mobile sold a pay as you go card, so I went into Walmart to see if I could get one. No luck, but they sent me to a Virgin kiosk at a mall a few blocks away, so off I went.

Virgin does offer what we needed, but it is expensive ($90 for the card and $30 a gig for data). I decided it was cheaper than the Telus alternative, so I bought it. They told me that I had to activate the card online to get a $30 data credit. How do you activate it if you need it to go online. The girl in the kiosk said I could use my Verizon card to do the activation, so I went back to the motorhome, and tried it. Of course, the Virgin website told me that I could not activate from "non-Canadian" locations. I called the 800 number, and was told that they can activate it for me but I would have to pay a $10 activation fee and I would not get my $30 credit. I explained that this was their problem, it's their website, but to no avail. They told me to get the kiosk to activate it for me. I went back to the kiosk, and was told that they could not activate it, they had been instructed not to, and showed me the relevant memo to that effect. Fed up, I returned the stupid card! Blog updates would have to wait until we got to Edmonton.

After getting the runaround, I went back to sit with Marlene, and vent my frustration. Then I called my brother Simon and announced our presence. We arranged to meet him after work. Time for a cocktail.

At about 6:30 Simon called and said he was on his way. He had not eaten, nor had we, so I went to the Walmart to get some dinner for us. I was the only white person in the store. This area must be largely populated by Asian and African people. I purchased a Hallal teriyaki chicken, and potato salad. The store was thronged. The lineup for cash registers was huge. Just as I got back to the motor home, Simon arrived. We cracked a bottle of chateau Walmart, and had a nice meal. I think Simon was a bit doubtful about the way we live! We arranged to spend the next day with Simon, and to meet his girl friend, and later to have dinner with Simon and his ex-wife Mary. Simon went home, and we retired to bed.

The next morning, Simon picked us up and we went to his place. He lives in a really nice condo right downtown in Toronto. We imposed on Simon to use his washer and dryer to do some laundry, then we headed out for lunch with his lady friend at the food court in the building where she works. She is a lovely person, very open and friendly, and also attractive.

After a lunch from the Chinese buffet, we headed to Simon`s office so he could check in with his troops and drop off some papers, then we went back to his condo for a beer and to check on laundry and chat. Later, we went back to the motor home to walk Ben, and had a relaxing time for while before going to dinner. We met Mary at the restaurant, which was a nice place in Scarborough. Marlene and I chose rack of lamb, Simon had a huge steak, and Mary had salmon. It was great to see Mary, and she told us some interesting stories about her most recent adventure trip, this time to Cambodia and Vietnam. She also brought us some nice gifts. It was a fine evening, and we were full, happy and tired when Simon dropped us back at our trusty Georgie Boy.

The next morning we headed for Montreal and our big gig at the Olympic Stadium. We stopped at the Flying J truck stop before Montreal and emptied our sewage tanks, and tried to get water, but they didn`t have any available! We also filled up with gas... $1.11 a liter... highway robbery!!

Of course, now we were driving through Montreal at rush hour. Trying to follow the GPS and read the French road signs while avoiding suicidal drivers trying to get rammed by our 65 foot rig. We finally got to the stadium, but could not find the entrance we were told to use. We got lost, ended up at the wrong side, and the nice lady in the booth directed us to drive UNDER the building, and around. We nervously drove down the ramp, and ended up in a parkade with only inches to spare above our roof. We could not find the right exit (sortie) and so I stopped a passing security guard. He radioed for instructions and told us where to go, but it was very confusing, so he led us all the way to our correct entrance. We were the first performers to arrive, and had our choice of parking spots, so we set up by some nice grass and trees.

The next morning huge semi-trailer dump trucks started arriving with some of the hundreds of tons of dirt that would be used to build the track. It was something to see these huge trucks driving into the building three at a time. I finally got a look inside the stadium, and it was IMMENSE. Over the next few days I would marvel at the work and co-ordination it would take to build the whole Monster Truck track inside this HUGE stadium. The weather turned nasty, with rain and cold wind. Marlene smartly stayed inside and rested her leg, which was still sore. I alternately worked on the jet car, talked to passersby and walked Ben, while going into the stadium from time to time to see the progress.

I was told to be there for a press conference at 2:00 pm to fire up the car. I waited while the TV reporter interviewed several Monster Truck drivers, before finally getting to me. She didn`t quite get what I do, and thought it was funny. She asked if she was in danger of melting her skirt! I replied: It depends where you stand!

After much ado, I suited up and climbed into the car. It fired up with no problem, and I gave a couple of pops to warm up the media. Then I let loose a big fireball, and that lady reporter jumped about a foot off the ground. I tried to blow her out of her skirt, but not quite! One of the camera men had mounted a camera on the roof of the car, and he made a nice video of my stationary display. See it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JThBG7whUHI . Both the car and I really wanted to move, but since the bulldozers were working, we had to sit still.

Friday all the other acts started to arrive and set up their machines. There would be 12 monster trucks, as well as snowmobile jumpers, demo derby cars and trucks, sandwich cars and a real nutty nice guy who would do car stunts that make your jaw drop. Sandwich cars are two small cars, welded one on top of the other, with one driver above doing the steering and one below working gas and brakes. Crazy... You can check it all out at www.chrisarel.com .

The rain stopped for a while, so Marlene (using the cane we bought at Walmart in Toronto) and I walked to the Metro station and flagged down a cab to take us to Rue St. Laurent. We had to go to Swartz`s deli for their world famous smoked meat sandwiches. This place has been in business for 80 years, and it is a tiny, crowded place that hasn`t been redecorated in 50 years. We were seated a table with a few strangers, and ordered two sandwiches, some fries and a pickle. It was great. The rain returned as we got back to the stadium.

Saturday was the big day, and Marlene came and looked at the track for the first time. She was somewhat shocked at the size of the place. I was starting to get nervous. We towed the car inside and set it up for the pit party, where fans could come and see it and get autographs. At about 3:00 we had a drivers meeting, where the rules of the event were spelled out, and at 5 the pit party began.

We were swamped by thousands of grabby, touchy, pushy 3 foot tall fans. I signed thousands of autographs, on hats, shirts, arms, heads, autograph books, pennants and foam big hands, and handed out about a 1000 of our post cards while Marlene tried her best to stop the kids jumping on the car, and pulling all the wires out. It was all a bit overwhelming. Next time, we will bring cones and danger tape and cordon off the car out of reach of all the kids (and the adults). Lesson learned! At 6 the pit party ended, and we towed off to our off-stage location to wait for our turn to run. The show began at 7, and the house was just about full. I took a picture of the fans taking pictures of us. The paid gate for the event was 43,600 people!

Of course, the event schedule fell apart after some monster truck breakage, and some demo derby hi jinx, and we were no longer sure when we would go on. I was suited up, and needed 5 minutes notice to get strapped into the car, but when we finally got the nod, we had 30 seconds notice. Marlene scrambled to get me strapped in, and then they said WAIT. So I sat and waited in the car for a few minutes, then got the high sign. I fired up the car out of sight of the fans, and they got excited by the sound of the engine firing up. Then I screamed out of my parking spot, and put on a show. I was hoping to spin some donuts at the other side of the track, but there was a lot of debris on the track, so I had to take it easy there. The fans seemed to like the show, evidenced by the flashes going off for my full 4 minutes of fun. The car performed flawlessly, and when I got the signal to finish up, I pulled off the track. Now we would just watch the rest of the show.

Our favourite act was a young guy from Wisconsin who would drive regular cars off ramps into piles of cars, and drove a convertible into two big cars standing on their ends. He psyched himself up before each run, and afterwards he was excited! We shook his hand each time, and he really was grateful for our praise. His wife and two little kids were thrilled with the whole thing. He had been told he was done for the evening, so he packed up his gear. Then the promoter told him they wanted one more crash, so he put his ramp together again, and rolled a Mazda off the ramp. Cool.

After the show ended, the whole track building process was reversed as big dump trucks lined up to haul away the dirt, and forklifts rushed around picking up the demo derby cars. We got a tow back to the trailer, and I loaded the car and equipment, all in pouring rain. Some of the monster truck guys would pull out that evening. We would stay till the next morning.

As an interesting note, everyone treated us great in Montreal. They thought we were from Tucson, and we never corrected anyone. Maybe that is why they didn`t give us a hard time about not speaking French. Wonder what they would have done if they knew we were previously Albertans.

Sunday morning we rose early, and I used my tools to open up a water outlet on the outside of the stadium so we could fill our tank. As we left Montreal we stopped back at the Flying J to dump our sewer and top off our gas tank, then headed west. Our first stop would be North Bay, Ontario.

Driving through northern Ontario we encountered the worst roads we had ever driven the motor home on. There were huge chunks of roadway missing, and we got bounced mercilessly for hours on end. We finally reached the Walmart at North Bay. Gas here is $1.09 a liter.

Next day we headed for Kapuskasing, Ontario. More rough roads. When you are driving your house, every bump sends things crashing around in drawers and cupboards. This is the Trans Canada Highway, a major route, and it is in worse condition than the highways we had driven in Mexico. Kapuskasing is a small city, mostly French in character. The Walmart is small. Kapuskasing is best known as the cold weather testing site for the car manufacturers of the world.

Next stop was Thunder Bay. The drive was more of the same bad roads, rocks and trees. The best part of the drive was all the beautiful lakes we saw. It must be nice here in the summer. There are lots of hunting and fishing lodges here. At the Walmart in Thunder Bay, some kid stole one of our safety cones from around the motor home.

From Thunder Bay it was a long haul to Winnipeg, our next stop. We ended up following the GPS to the Walmart, and went right through downtown. This was a hair raising drive through heavy traffic and pedestrians. Later we found that we could have got to the Walmart by staying on the highway, but the GPS wanted to save us half a mile!

After a quiet night, we left for Saskatoon. Gas in Winnipeg seemed almost reasonable at 98 cents a liter. We decided to take the longer route through Regina so we could savour the smoother divided highway all the way. This was a 500 mile run, and by the time we got to Saskatoon we were beat. My rear end was chapped and sore. Marlene made a good choice to stay at the Flying J here, and it was close to the highway. They had no water at their dump station, and we were running low, so Marlene convinced the manager to run a hose from the building for us. With empty sewer tanks, a full gas tank and water tank, we were ready for the last run to Edmonton. We rose at 4 am (Eastern Time) and hit the road at 5 am. We had decided to stay on Eastern Time until the trip ended, so we could gain a couple of hours. We were rushing to get to Edmonton because our daughter Miranda was having her wisdom teeth removed and we wanted to be there for her.

From Saskatoon to Edmonton we fought high headwinds, rain and snow all the way. It was a wild ride. Some gusts threatened to blow us off the road, and I had to slow to 80 km an hour just to control things. My arms were sore, let me tell you! We stopped by Vermillion, and parked to take a break. The wind was howling, the motor home was rocking wildly, and the snow was blowing sideways. A few minutes before reaching Edmonton, the rain stopped. We dropped off the motor home and trailer in the compound, got the Toyota from the house, and rushed to get Miranda. I am done driving for a few days!

Miranda is doing well with her teeth. She is swollen, sore and bruised, but she is a fast healer like me. It will be nice to visit with Miranda, and stay at her place for a few weeks. We`ll try not to annoy her too much. We are waiting to see if we get a couple of jobs in Alberta, before we must leave for our next gig in Oregon. Stay tuned...

Another race event behind us

Our drive from Louisville, Kentucky to our race destination of Shady Bowl Speedway in DeGraff, Ohio, was uneventful. But the scenery was gorgeous. In Ohio, they like their houses BIG and their churches even bigger! They also build their homes, whether on a farm or in a small town, right up against the highway. The state highways run 30 ft. in front of homes. And these are BIG homes!!

We loved the gentle, rolling countryside, lush with greenery. The track is located way out in farm land. We had to travel almost 20 miles on a narrow, rough, winding country road to get there. This track was built in the 50's, when guys drove their race cars to the track. Now, all the racers have 50 ft. rigs, and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested. So, 1950's pits were really small, and we were really crowded in by a couple of hundred noisy, speeding race cars. When we arrived at the track, the owner and his son showed us to the spot where they wanted us to set up. So, we did. But the whole place is on top of a hill, and slopes off rapidly. The first attempt to level the motorhome was not very successful. We ended up with our front wheels 3 ft. up in the air, and we were swaying violently in 20 mph winds. It was windy on top of that hill. Marlene was terrified that we were going to blow over. So, we repositioned our rig, and re-leveled it.

We spent a quiet country night there. I barbecued some sirloin steaks, accompanied by Caesar salad and baked potatoes. Of course, we had wine to go with our Sabbath dinner. This was the same wine we had been buying in Tucson for $2.97, but in Louisville, Kentucky it cost us $3.97. We had fresh strawberries and ice cream for desert. All in all, a great evening. It was lovely and quiet there in the countryside.

We walked the track with Ben, and mapped out our runs. Then we went to bed early, we were alone and no one around for miles. It was nice. In the morning, we arose early, had breakfast (oatmeal) and then got to work, prepping the car for the night's runs. While I fueled and charged batteries, Marlene shined and polished. We had picked up several pounds of rubber on the car from the track in Tucson and we had to remove it. Now we sat back, and waited. Some racers arrived early, around 1:00 p.m., but most of the racers arrived at 3:00. This was quite a crowd. They are serious about their racing, and deadly competitive. The first thing they did, was complain about where we were parked. They are not used to having anyone in that spot, and especially not a 65 ft. long rig. We were getting ready to relocate, when the track officials told us to stay put. They said that the racers can manage just fine, and they just don't like change.

The people here are friendly. In Tucson, no racers approached us until after we ran. Here there are 5 times as many racers, and they all wanted to talk to me about the car. Marlene was intimidated by the constant passing of loud, fast race cars. The guys managed just fine, but it seemed they were going to drive through our living room every time they passed.

I had reviewed our program with the track bosses, and they said everything would be looked after. But we had already learned to check everything ourselves. This time, for the car burn, we would position the cars ahead of time, and fire up the jet in front of the crowd. But first, we had an early run to plan. I would do 4 laps of the track, putting on our fire show. The run went well, and the crowd loved it. I saw a lot of flashes going off in the stands. I survived the experience, and got a real kick out of it. Unfortunately, Marlene suffered a minor injury when she was rushing to our pit to be by my side when I extricate myself from the car. She hit a large pothole with her one front wheel, and went sailing off to the side. Panicking a bit, she squeezed the throttle and froze, ramming her leg into our neighbour's jack. She was embarrassed, and wanted to hide. But, she bore up under the pressure, and got me out of the car. Then we examined her leg in the living room. It was red, and bruised, but nothing seemed broken. But, it sure hurt.

I had to prep the car for the next run, our big car burn. This time we were burning a Hyundai Sonata, and I thought it would be a real pleasure to burn this particular model of car! I was there when the auto wrecker delivered the car, and he said he would pick up the remains after the race. I laughed and told him he wouldn't be picking it up for a least a day. He did not believe me.

This time, we had the track tow me down onto the track with one of their crash trucks, and we carefully lined me up with the burn car. Marlene was hobbling around supervising, and things got set up quite quickly. Everyone then scattered, Marlene gave me the sign, and I fired up the engine. It always sounds neat when the engine starts up, and the crowd seemed to like it. I turned on the strobe lights, the track lights went out, and I decided to bluff the crowd a bit. I played with the throttle a bit, and looked at the crowd lined up along the front of the stands. They were looking a bit disappointed, so I woke them up with a huge fire pop, igniting the Hyundai. I went with alternately shooting fire, then fanning the flames with the 300 mph winds produced by the engine. I had a pretty good view in my little mirror. I also had a good view of the crowd, and they were loving it. Pieces were raining down around me, and Marlene signaled me forward a bit. I complied, and completed my burn of the car. Driving away with a few fire pops to finish up, I found the exit road blocked by the ambulance. These guys were so anxious to save me, they were almost on the track. Earlier, they had quizzed Marlene about how to open my escape hatch. They quickly backed out of my way, and I was able to reach the top of the hill before running out of fuel. I coasted back to our pit, and waited for Marlene to come back. She was supposed to ride back in the crash truck, but instead she toughed it out and walked all the way back on her bad leg.

After our first run, and all through the evening, people were coming up and asking questions about the car. These Ohio folks are really friendly. The little boys are very knowledgeable, and they ask better questions than their parents!

The owner of the track knocked on the door, and presented us with the cheque. We asked him how he liked it, and he said he'd never seen anything like it in his life. He said that the crowd loved our show.

When we finally unwound, had a light supper of chicken gumbo soup that Marlene had prepared, and went to bed, it was 1:30 am. The Hyundai was still burning. At 8:00 am today it was still smoldering. I did try to tell that auto wrecker fellow! We ate breakfast, packed up, and hit the road. The GPS took us on a lovely tour of rural Ohio, and we saw some beautiful places, before hitting the interstate again. We stopped at a Flying J truck stop to dump our holding tanks and fill up with gas and water, then headed northeast, skirting around Cleveland, passing through part of Pennsylvania, before reaching New York State. First thing you encounter in New York: Toll booths... welcome to New York. We'll stay at the Walmart in Hamburg, NY, tonight, then head to the border early in the morning. We are excited to visit my brother in Toronto. Stay tuned....

Now we go swimming

Last night in Memphis we were hit by a HUGE storm. 2 inches of rain in 2 hours. Thunder and lightning to match. Half our power went out, and the roar of the rain was deafening.

Didn't get much sleep, what with the storm and the gunshots in the night.

A few observations: Little Rock, Arkansas is a nice, clean, picturesque city with a rich history. Memphis also has a rich history, but is very poor, with many closed businesses and a lot of visible poverty. It is also ugly, and the constant FedEx jets flying over are annoying (Memphis is their main hub). People in this part of the U.S. are friendly, and accommodating.

Since we didn't sleep much, we were up early to pack up and hit the road. But first we have to go and hook up to the trailer in the field where the management had us leave it. Big problem, field is now like a small lake, or a large bog. No one in the office, so we drove in cautiously. So far, so good. Now we hook up... O.K. Now try to drive out... nothing but wheel spin digging us down to the axles in about 30 seconds flat!!

Now we go looking for staff to get help. They aren't sure what to do. A guy brings wood to jam under the wheels... no luck. He gets the tractor to pull us... No way, tractor can't budge us. Finally I remember I paid $69 for road side assistance on my RV insurance. Call the 800 number, and in 15 minutes a tow truck is dispatched to us. We were promised the truck within 30 minutes, but he was late. It took him 33 minutes to arrive. A nice fellow, knows Steven Segal, who has a house in the area, close to the cancer hospital where his daughter is being treated. Says Segal is a prick.

After about 1/2 and hour of positioning and winching, Georgie Boy comes unstuck with a sucking noise. Tow truck driver asks if I smoke, and I say "Yes, do you want one?" He says: "Only if you can afford it, my friends live in Canada and say smokes are $10 a pack there". I confirm his information, and he says: "Yeah, smokes and stuff are expensive, but at least you have free healthcare whenever you want it".

Total invoice cost of the winching: $350. Total I pay: $0. Best $69 I ever spent!

Finally on the road, we head north east toward Kentucky. We pass such places as the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, and the Corvette museum at Bowling Green (where the Corvette plant is located). Judging by the farms and ranches we see, Kentucky is a prosperous state. This is horse country. They breed race horses here, and it is serious business. This is the home of the Kentucky derby, of course. Some of the homes on the horse farms we see are FABULOUS.

Bucking a crosswind again, we make pretty good time, and arrive at our destination in suburban Louisville, Kentucky safe and sound. This is a pretty new Walmart, and seems to be the slowest we've ever seen. Nice landscaping though, and the liquor dept. has 42 different bourbons in stock. Veggies here are cheaper than in our last few stops. Gas is 25 cents a gallon more expensive here than all the prior stops.

Tomorrow we should get to our next track, Shady Bowl Speedway, at DeGraff, Ohio. These guys have been heavily promoting our appearance. Should be fun. Stay tuned....

Memphis, Tennessee

We arrived in Memphis after a short, but harrowing drive. The crosswinds were the strongest we'd yet encountered. Even the semis were having trouble staying straight. As we hit the Memphis city limits we stopped at a truck stop to refuel, and took the opportunity to fill our propane tank, too. Then we drove into the city. We are staying 2 nights here at the Graceland RV park, next door to Graceland itself. We will get a chance to hook up to services, do some laundry, and relax a bit.

This is a nice little RV park, with lots of greenery around. The weather is hot and humid, and of course windy.

We reserved and paid for seats on the shuttle bus to old Beale Street, downtown. When we showed up to catch our bus, they had no record of us on the list of reservations, so they wouldn't let us on the bus! We presented our wrist band tickets, and they told us we would have to wait for a later bus, which we didn't like. So they finally drove us downtown in the company shuttle limo!

Beale St. is like a small version of Bourbon St. in New Orleans. It is a 3 block section of street closed down nightly, and lined with "Juke Joints", restaurants and shops. This is the centre of Blues music, and the birthplace of Rock and Roll, and there was lots of live music to entertain us. Some of the bands were very good, and Marlene bought a couple of their CD's, autographed of course.

Bands play inside the seedy little joints, and also outside on patios. There were bands in the park, and bands on the street. It was a lot of fun. We went into the famous Rum Boogie Cafe, and heard a great band, ate some prize winning Gator Gumbo and BBQ chicken wings, while slurping back some draft Bass Ale. Yummm. Later, we stopped at a sidewalk bar and bought a "Big Ass Beer", which we actually drank! All 32 oz. of it.

After 4 hours of trekking up and down Beale St., enjoying the sights and sounds, we caught the shuttle bus back to our RV park, and had a last drink of the evening, and listened to Marlene's new discs.

This morning the sky was dark and threatening. Spent an annoying hour on the phone with Canada Customs and Border Services trying to figure out how to get the car across the border. Could be fun when we get there! Hope we have the paperwork complete and in order.

After the bureaucratic dealings, we headed across the parking lot to the entrance to Graceland, Elvis's estate. The "mansion" is really a nice big house. Elvis bought it when he was 22, and had the interior gutted and remade to his specifications. Today it looks like 70's gaudy kitsch, complete with green shag carpeting (even on some ceilings) and dark wood paneling. I enjoyed touring the racquetball building and the trophy building, both of which are jammed to the rafters with gold and platinum records. Truly amazing to see his whole body of work in one place.

Dodging around weeping fans, we saw the Elvis gravesite. We saw his cars, and toured inside his airplanes. Marlene mugged for the camera beside the Elvis bed in his big plane, the "Lisa Marie". We saw his fabulous costumes, and his everyday wear. We saw his several gold plated bathrooms. To me, Elvis was a very talented, likable, charismatic star. But all this other stuff is kind of low class. He should be remembered for his songs, and maybe his acting, but not for all his stuff.

This afternoon Marlene is doing laundry, and bathing Ben. I am doing paperwork, and inputting the next legs of our trip into the GPS. Tomorrow we leave early for the long run into Louisville, Kentucky. From there it will be on to DeGraff, Ohio for our next job. We are really hoping that the winds will die down. Stay tuned...

We get all Presidential

Greetings from Little Rock, Arkansas. As we all know this is the home of President Bill Clinton, but not his birthplace. He was actually born in Hope, Arkansas, a little spec of a town, about 2 hours before Little Rock, as the Georgie Boy flies.

We left our spot in Greenville, Texas at 8 am, filled up with gas ($2.59 a gallon, cheapest so far, and they were raising it just as we left), and hit the I-30 East, headed towards Arkansas. We passed through such places as Sulphur Springs, Old Boston, and Hooks, eventually reaching the city of Texarcana, which straddles the state line between Texas and Arkansas. This part of Eastern Texas/ Arkansas is lush and green, and the homes we see look neat and well kept. It's a real change to see all this greenery, and the trees are blooming in many colours. There are a huge variety of cattle on view, including longhorns, brahma bulls, and cows we're never even seen before. Marlene loves it!

After Texarcana (nothing on the radio but religion stations and country, with the odd Spanish language station) we pass by Hope, Arkadelphia, and Malvern on the final approach to Little Rock. Lots of traffic now, 8 lanes full, and we have to pass through the centre of the city to get to our first stop. Following our Garmin GPS we finally get there. Its the President William Clinton Presidential Library!

For the miserly investment of $7 each, we were able to see President Clinton's limousine, follow a pictorial and documentary timeline of his presidency, and enter exact replicas of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as they were in Clinton's time in office. As a special added feature exhibit, they had the lapel pin collection of Madeline Allbright. These are mostly gold, with diamond, jade and other stones, and they must weigh a lot. They are beautiful, and many carry meanings relating to her job as Secretary of State. She had a pin made of 22k gold in the form of a viper, with rubies for eyes specially for her state visit with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. He had referred to her as a cold blooded snake. There were many butterflies, bugs of all kinds, vegetables, fruit, and everything else, immortalized in precious metals and stones. It is a fabulous original collection.

On display, in towering cherry wood stacks, are 3% of his papers from the time of his presidency. they are 3 stories tall, in large filing boxes, stretching the full length of the library. Millions of papers that crossed his desk. And this is only 3% of them. My eyes are sore just thinking of all that reading. There are some great photos displayed, as well as many of the gifts the Clinton's received from other world leaders. There was even an embroidered Kipa (Yamulke) from when he visited Israel.

I especially liked the cabinet room, where Marlene and I mugged for pics, and the Oval Office, which we were prohibited from entering. All in all, an interesting and strangely moving experience, especially the room commemorating the Oklahoma City bombing. I took pics of some of the remains of the Ryder rental truck used to carry the bomb.

We decided to skip the neighbouring Heifer Museum, and headed to Georgie Boy, patiently waiting for us in the Tour Bus parking lot. It is 80 degrees, like Tucson, but REALLY humid. Inside, it is 90 degrees, and Ben is panting pretty good. We fired up the generator and the air conditioning, and drove the 5 miles to our chosen Walmart of the evening. We scored a spot along the edge, with a green belt beside us.

Actually, what we see of Little Rock is quite nice. The people seem friendly, much like in Texas, and perhaps a little more orderly, judging by the greater number of people returning shopping carts to the corral. When we filled up this morning a fellow with a mullet, and a real Texas twang, asked me "what KAAAAND of raceCAAAAAR you'all got in that trailer?" I told him, and he said "Holy Sh*t, AAAAHHH gotta shake your hand man", and he did just that. I gave him a card, and he asked where we are headed. I told him Ohio, and he was shocked, his jaw dropped and he said: "AAAAAALLL the WAAAAAYY to OHIIIIIO? Holy Sh*t". I told him we were headed for Montreal after that, and he was flabbergasted. Clutching my hand, with my card in the other one, he just repeated his favourite phrase, and walked away, looking back twice on the way to his beat up old van. He and his friends waved furiously at Marlene and Ben as they pulled out.

This is not like Canada. Here in the U.S., people actually greet me in stores, and start conversations beside gas pumps. In Canada, people studiously ignore each other.

Anyway, tomorrow is Memphis, Tennessee, and we have a surprise planned. Stay tuned.....

Today we went sailing

We woke up a little early this morning, and were on the road by 9:00 am. The day is dark, humid, and really windy. As soon as we hit the Interstate we felt the full force of a 20 mph crosswind gusting to 40. Each time we were hit by a gust, I had to crank in 1/4 turn of steering to stay in our lane, trailer wagging violently behind us. Even the semis were slowed down, and you could see them blowing back and forth.

Just before Abilene, a particularly strong gust hit us, while we were doing 55 mph. Now the motorhome felt like it was being dragged sideways. Suddenly, we were assaulted by a loud rapid banging noise, reverberating through the motorhome. I got slowed down and onto the shoulder, figuring we'd blown a tire. I climbed out and saw what had happened.

The last gust had torn our awning free from its cover, and was whipping over the roof. This thing is 150 sq. ft. of canvass, and it had become our own private sail. We are lucky it didn't drag us right off the road!

Anyway, we're sitting at the side of the Interstate, with this huge sail flapping and bending its metal supports. I could see where this was headed, and it wasn't good. Jumping into action, we got our ladder out of the trailer. Marlene went and got our sharpest knife and then with a pale face, held the ladder in the strong wind while I cut the top of the awning free from the roof. Marlene was terrified I was going to take off and sail away at the end of the awning. I transferred Marlene from ladder patrol, to holding on the edge of the awning. Maybe with both of us anchoring it, we could keep it from flying away, trailing its supports behind.

With a final rip, the f****ng thing came loose, and we wrestled it to the ground, weighing it down with the supports and recoil rollers. Now I had to go up again and remove the support bar pivots from the edge of the roof. Up the ladder again, clutching my 3/8 socket and ratchet. Each time a truck passes, the whole motorhome sways, then each time the wind gusts, it sways the other way. Hanging on for dear life, I ratcheted those bolts off in record time, and clambered down to earth. We quickly packed up the tools and ladder, locked up the trailer, and tugged the door open to climb in to the motorhome. It was hard to open the door because of the wind pressure. Once inside, we looked at each other, shrugged, and hit the road again. The adrenaline hit Marlene about an hour later, just as we reached a rest stop. She needed to recuperate, and so did I. Her fingerprints are indelibly etched into the dash on the passenger side of the motorhome. While maintaining her death grip on the dash, Marlene was clutching Ben with a grip so tight he had to give her a look, and pull away. Then we realized that we'd forgotten to take pictures!

After our rest stop, we continued the journey. We are out of the sandy, dry, oil well country, and into real Texas red dirt farm country. It is lush and green, and today in the drizzle it looks very nice. We pass the town of Sweetwater, which bills itself as "The Wind Generation Capital of the World". We have seen windmills all over the US and Canada, but never such a concentrated mass of them. The rows of huge, spinning mills go on for miles and miles. I tried to keep count of them, but lost it at 318 windmills. Got hit by more nasty wind, and had to concentrate on the road.

We proceeded without drama until we approached Fort Worth. Now we're in the traffic. Easter Sunday traffic. Eight lanes, everyone cutting in and out, merging in front of 60 mph traffic while still going 40. A real challenge piloting through here, especially with all the construction zones narrowing things down. We were in this traffic through Fort Worth, then Dallas. We couldn't see the beautiful Dallas skyline, because it was obstructed by a thick, grey mist.

Free at last from the city congestion, we relaxed a bit, and were able to look around. We noticed every restaurant we passed had full parking lots. As we drove over the reservoir, we saw thousands of people picnicking in the green areas. Don't people have Easter dinners with their families at home? Even the Dallas Zoo had an over-full parking lot, with cars lined up to get in. All this in the rain, of course.

We figured that the Walmart in Greenville, our destination today, would be pretty quiet on Easter Sunday. Fat chance! The place is teeming with people. There are a couple of other RVs here. We found a parking spot long enough to take our 65 ft., rolled out our slides, put out our orange cones, and fired up the generator and air conditioning. Time to relax, have a shave and shower, a glass of bourbon, and start thinking about dinner. Tomorrow we have a shorter run into Little Rock, Arkansas, but there are a couple of things we want to do there. Stay tuned...

If it's Saturday, it must be Big Spring

Hi again everyone. Tonight we are at a nice Walmart in Big Spring, Texas. We left Tucson on Good Friday morning at about 9:30 a.m., and headed east on Interstate 10. We were kind of sad leaving Tucson, which had become like home to us. But, the world beckons.

Our first port of call was El Paso, Texas, and we had in mind a place like in the movie The Getaway, with Steve McQueen. What it really is, is a big, dirty industrial city. The smog rolls in from Mexico, which we can see on the other side of the border fence in the middle of El Paso. The sister city is called Juarez. There are many US manufacturers running plants in Juarez, to escape the highly regulated US, and the high payroll costs here. We pulled into the Walmart in El Paso, to find the parking lot jammed, and people coming and going at a furious pace. We were able to park, but were afraid to put our big slide out in case someone ran into it. This place was crazy! The traffic continued all night, waking us up at 2:00 a.m. What are all these people buying at that hour?

We made an executive decision to pull out early in the morning, drive to the next rest area on the highway, and relax over a nice breakfast there. And that is what we did. We left at around 7 am, or was it 6? The parking lot was teeming with shoppers already, so we headed back to the Interstate, and drove about 40 miles to a nice little rest stop. We put out our dining room slide, and Marlene cooked up a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, tomato, onion, etc.

Thus replete, we rolled back onto the highway. It is windy, and I'm fighting the motorhome all day long as we head east, then northeast. We pass by quite a few ghost towns, all of them looking like they died in the 70's. Then we drove through Pecos. This seemed an interesting place, with old buildings visible, and nice aura to it. We eventually reached Odessa, where we filled up with gas ($2.79 a gallon here) for a total of 65 gallons. We had covered 444 miles since our last fill, so we're doing about 7 mpg in the wind, towing the trailer.

We passed through Midland, TX. the hometown of George W. Bush and his lovely wife Laura. We didn't stop to see the library though. We were headed for Big Spring, and didn't realize we would have to drive about 5 miles off the interstate to find the Walmart, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a busy, but not crazy store with ample empty parking spots. We snagged a spot at the side of the store, along a green belt. To pay our way, we went into the store and bought some Sharpie markers (for autographs) and a pair of driving gloves, to aid my sore hands from fighting the crosswinds.

Tomorrow we continue northeast. It will take us 3 days to drive across Texas. This is a big state, and we have seen our fill of sand, scrub, and oil wells. We're looking forward to Arkansas and Tennessee. Stay tuned...