The glamorous world of full time RV'ing

Behold last night's din-din, succulent little chicken thighs cooked on Jim's new cute little barbie. The evening started out with such promise. We grilled chicken thighs and then decided to cook the forbidden food, french fries. The fries cook at 450 degrees, a hot oven. So we were sitting there talking over cocktails waiting for the fries to be done, and then BOOM! HISSSSSSSSSSSS! Instant terror, thoughts of propane explosions, certain death, or at least a pretty good maiming. We turned off the oven, determined it wasn't the gas and then noticed the water running out from under the cabinets. As it turned out, the pex hot water tubing had somehow contacted the bottom of the really hot oven and melted. The water is under a fair amount of pressure and it just went everywhere. So, we ran out, got the water turned off and looked at each other with disbelief. Dinner ended up being chicken and almost cooked fries eaten standing up from the stove top because we would not be doing dishes.


This is one of this century's best inventions. The mobile RV repairman. I called him at 0700 hours this morning, he'd been able to get gasoline the day before, so he was out at 9 am. The pex tubing was replaced with metal tubing and all is now well. Jim is now arm wrestling with Keystone to get them to pay for the repairs.

So after washing and drying the bath towels used on the floor last night we took the bus out to the mall to walk around. Jim got shorts and a shirt at the Dillard's clearance center and I got pink fuzzy lounging pants. On sale! Cheap! Then it was off to the Farmer's Market. It's pretty cool. They've got great looking okra, tomatoes everywhere, pumpkins and jam. We were surprised to see the delicacy known as Frog Jam. Mmmmmmmmm good.


The bay where they sell to the public.


Folk art.


Hot sauce, these people have hot sauce.


Below is this year's must-give Christmas present. It makes realistic rooster crowing noises. Just think, you could have a flock of them.


It's fall, time to mutilate and eviscerate a pumpkin.


Allegedly the gas is flowing through the Colonial Pipeline to Spartanburg to be trucked in to Asheville tonight. They're showing lines of tankers at the depot on TV. We're thinking we'll get up at oh dark thirty and check the Shell, BP and Hess. I want gas! We want gas now!

No gas for you today

The lack of gasoline situation continues to worsen. They are now saying 7 to 10 days before it's appreciably better. I hate this. Whining will ensue.

This is the first of many gas lines we saw today, this is taken from the truck when we went out to ensure we had food. It was early in the morning, so we were thinking we might be able to get gas, but HAH! double HAH! - HAH!HAH!HAH!. We were so mistaken. Click on the image to get the full view of the line of cars.


This is Jim on the bus. The #9 line is about a 5 minute walk from the RV park. It's a typical hub and spoke, you take the bus in to the transit center and then back out to where you really wanted to go. The last bus here leaves the transit center at 5:30 which is sort of a bummer. Then again, parts of Asheville are scary enough that I don't think we'd be walking around in the dark, anyway.


Another gas line. The gas lines are messing up the bus schedules. The buses eject passengers from the far right lanes on the streets, which are currently full of cars queuing for gas.


A gas line in Asheville. There had been some argey-bargey and several citizens were in handcuffs. We saw one where they had just run out and the guy was having to tell the people who had been in line for hours that they were out of luck. I would hate to be him.


This line was affecting traffic in the downtown part of Asheville.


I think we'll probably go back in on the bus in the morning. Now that we know which side of the street to stand on to go North (yes, I know, how lame is that?) it will be easier. There are some cutified areas we want to go look at and some old areas as well. It's something to do. Since we're back in the stone age, or perhaps seeing the end-of-days, public transportation is becoming a must. We're running low on balsamic vinegar, that's not good, so perhaps we'll find a grocery store there as well. If not, there's one at the end of the bus line. And movies, there's a movie theater, and shopping. All things are available on the bus line.
I hate this!!!! I just want to get in the truck and drive somewhere!!! I think it's good that we don't live in places that have hurricanes, I am not pioneer stock.

Aargh! Gas Shortage in NC

It's always something. We got across the mountains, went in to the out skirts Asheville to get gas and discovered, there is no gas. Not only is there no gas, they don't expect there to be gas for a WEEK. So, we are at the Bear Creek RV park in Asheville with a little less than half a tank of gas, where we will stay until there is gas. Persons who are considering traveling to parts of the country served by the pipeline that originates in Houston would do well to check availability prior to pulling up stakes.

On the other hand, we've been talking about visiting Asheville for some time, the weather is gorgeous and we have bicycles. The only problem I foresee is cycling with the gallon water bottles. It's really frustrating, we're only 70 miles or so from Spartanburg which is where we were headed to buy the diesel pickup and await delivery of the new RV, but they don't have any gas, either, and we're afraid to try it with what's currently in the gas tank. I'll tell you what, we are getting an auxilliary fuel tank for the diesel. I'm talking hoarding here! 

The park is quite nice, we have bucolic views of scenic vistas and I think we're going to get the bikes out and go check out the area. There is an arboretum 3 miles down the road, the Biltmore estate is around here somewhere, and we want to check out down town. So, at least we're not out of gas by the side of the road in the mountains. We are safe, we have propane and best of all we have each other.

We're South Dakota residents

We arrived in Sioux Falls yesterday and went immediately to the DMV for new licenses. Ya gotta love it, took an eye test, paid $8 and we were done. I did not think it was possible to get a picture that was worse than the NC license picture, but I did. All it needs is me holding a number under my chin.
SD is another place ruled out for the final resting place (that would be the next house we buy). The wind blows constantly. It's rural. Very rural. See below. That's what most of it looks like. We're in the Yogi Bear Jellystone RV park, which is our new permanent address for voting. When you register to vote, the physical address is where ever you spent the previous night. I love that. I live in an RV park now. Anyway, it's right next to the freeway, and frankly I can not see any reason to be here other than passing through. However, the weather this weekend is supposed to be nice, and the the park is booked. People will bring their RVs out for the weekend and what? What, exactly, will they do for two days? We're mystified.


Coming up 80 and 29 we encountered abysmal roads. How abysmal you ask? This has never happened before. The entire contents of the medicine cabinet were ejected. I knew it was going to be bad when I walked in and saw my mouth guard container upside down in the middle of the floor.


This is the Sioux Falls historical district. We had a fattening lunch so we went for a walk afterwards. We were mainly drawn by the spires we could see.



This is the St. Joseph's cathedral. It's large.


So, tomorrow we're leaving. We do not have a delivery date for the RV yet so we don't know what we're doing exactly. Allegedly there are gas shortages across the Ohio valley and into the Carolinas, so that's unnerving. It's generally not as bad as the talking heads would have you believe so hopefully it won't be terrible. I'm looking forward to having a bigger gas tank and more range. The debate continues regarding 3/4 ton vs. 1 ton diesel. Currently the 3/4 ton is winning.

Correction to corn post

At one point diesel was more than gas, and mid-grade gas was more than regular gas.

This should have read: At one point diesel was less than gas, and mid-grade gas was less than regular gas.

Sorry about that.

Corn, everywhere I look I see corn

We're in Adel Iowa, which is west of Des Moines IA. We drove for a long time today and all we saw was CORN. Corn to the right of us, corn to the left of us, corn, corn, everywhere there's corn. Anyway, you get the picture. Leaving the sodden Ohio valley was without incident, gasoline was plentiful and expensive. Apparently Hurricane Ike increased the value of the gasoline in the tanks in the gas stations. At one point diesel was more than gas, and mid-grade gas was more than regular gas. Go figure. Tomorrow we will reach the promised land, Sioux Falls. We'll get drivers licenses, insurance, register to vote and then leave. After that, our only plans are to await delivery of the 5th wheel and purchase the manly diesel pickup to tow it before the current price incentives at Chevrolet are discontinued. Everyone knows what corn looks like so I'm not uploading any pictures. Hope you are all well and having more fun than we did today.