Thu 11/1 = My final drive north today, after giving my van a final car wash with a fresh-water undercarriage rinse and polishing the headlights, included stopping by shops from Avon, NC to Rodanthe, NC looking for a broad-shoulder wetsuit hanger to replace the one I broke and to bid my friends adieu for this trip.
- It was sunny, pretty chilly and fairly windy as I stopped at
KHK
Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding center in Rodanthe, NC.
,
where they were busy cleaning up damage from Sandy, and pumped up all four of my kites on their front lawn to let them dry off and then swept any sand off of them. That way, if I go directly back home to Phoenix, the kites will be ready for winter storage.
- Then I headed to the alternate/emergency Rodanthe ferry docks (thanks to Sandy NC-12, the usual route for exiting the island, no longer exists) just south of the Liberty Gas Station where I had topped off my tank. At the ferry dock I had time to visit around, take some photos and fix and eat supper before it was time to drive onto the ferry.
- During the free two-and-a-half-hour ferry ride to the Stumpy Point alternate/emergency ferry dock on the mainland, I backed up my computer to an external hard drive. After arrival on the mainland dock I got permission to park my van out of the way where I spent the night. What an eventful day!
Fri 11/2 = Today I drove from Stumpy Point to Abingdon, Va for the night. I needed a little heat for the night, with the lows experted to be in the low-to-mid thirties, so I stopped by a Walmart and bought a small, thermostatically controlled ceramic electric heater. A gas station let me plug my heater in and spend the night beside their building. Frances, there was so helpful that I sent a thank you note to the owner of the chain of gas stations, complementing her. I figure the note will gain lots of momentum by the time it filters down through all the supervisors and managers to her. After listing to a Dave Ramsey discourse on giving and generosity, I included a nice tip for Frances.
Sat 11/3 = It was meant to be... Because my van heater was not putting out hot air, as I was tooling along the highway I decided I should buy a pair of gloves. Checking my GPS receiver, I found Dollar General and Family Dollar stores in various towns but no Dollar Tree. I picked an out-of-the-way Family Dollar at random and navigated to it. Low and behold, Pam was there, whom I had met at the same store in May of 2012. She had left to manage a distant Family Dollar but recently returned to this store as manager to fill a vacancy. Pam and I were just like a couple old friends getting together.
- I arrived at
Scott's
my 37-year-old son
in Oneida, KY a little before 1:00 in the afternoon. We visited and drove about a half hour over to visit some of Scott's friends. What a stimulating visit with copious amounts of humor and good vibes and good food.
- Later this evening we visited Mike, Cindy and Isaac, Scott's neighbors and my friends. Got to bed late; tired but happy, now sleeping in one of the upstairs guest rooms - my first time sleepiing on a TempurPedic mattress.
Sun 11/4 = Scott was sort of under the weather so we did not go to church this morning. On the Internet I gathered some pictures of highway 12 and put them in a table with links to more (see above). We spent some of the afternoon going around
OBI
Oneida Baptist Institute
meeting and visiting old and new friends. Those included Mrs. Lawson, Eric, Jim and Dr. Paul Davidson, the president of OBI.
Mon 11/5 - Fri 11/9 = There was frost on the ground when I left Oneida, KY. Along the way the fall colors were beautifu depending on the timing and severity of the frost, the various trees were in all stages of turning. One of the spectacular views included yellow, maroon and light green leaves on trees and thousands of bright red flowers atop green foliage beside the highway.
- Heading to
involved having the Oneida mechanics, Eric and Big Dave figure why my van engine sounded like it was going to fall apart, chasing parts, then getting my van's AC compressor replaced (remedied the engine sound) and oil changed at Hot Rod Car Care in Manchester, KY, visiting the awesome Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, AL, spending a night at the Coburn RV Park there, stopping by a Discount Tire for a rotation and the Jackson County Library in Edna, TX to update my website, both of which I handily found and phoned through my GPS, spending a night in the Kingsville, TX Walmart parking lot and arriving on SPI Friday around 10:30 AM.
- KITEBOARDING: I rode at the North Flats with my 8m Best Nemesis, after joining the South Padre Island Windsurfing/Kitesurfing Association for 2013, for a little over two hours. The first hour was on my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board, practicing jumps and jump jibes with kite loops for a half hour, then a half hour attempting spins. I think I set a personal record for crashing my kite into the water in the spin process. No consequence: just relaunch and try again. Then I spent almost an hour practicing jibs on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard WITH footstraps. It was nice to be back on the water, see a lot of old friends and some new ones.
- Spending my nights on SPI now. Major runny nose, started suddenly today (Friday), with some associated sneezing.
Sat 11/10 = It is terrible to do what I did this morning with the wind blowing, but I updated my website, ordered a new
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
(helicopter, only) just like the one I already have because I have six batteries, two controllers and lots of spare parts [my next one might be a Blade mSRx (with no flybar) and a fancy new controller] and over an hour trying to get a Nasonex 50mcg prescription at CVS Pharmacy.
- This afternoon I went out at the North Flats with my 8m kite; first with my twin tip to work on spins. I, of course, cashed my kite a bunch of times. I successfully completed one to starboard and with the following attempt I crashed my kite so hard that the dump valve stopper came out. I walked in from .37 miles out in Laguna Madre. I practiced the spins first, so the kite would have a chance to dry while I was working in the other stuff. After draining the water out of my kite, straightening out the lines, I took out my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with footstraps
and made all four jibes and then switched to my twintip to work on jumps and jump jibes with kite loops. Oh, yes. With the surfboard I now start out by putting the board on the water in front of me, diving the kite, jumping up on the board and riding away, getting my feet into the footstraps as I head out from shore. Neat! I don't even get wet, avoiding sitting down in the water to put the board on my feet.
- I was last off the North Flats at about 9:00 this evening, doing some blogging and getting my life together.
Sun 11/11 = Two kiteboarding sessions this beautiful, mostly-sunny 80-degree day with 30 mph southeast winds, using my 8m Best Nemesis. The first session I was out for an hour at noon, starting on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with footstraps. Then I switched to my 130 cm Lite Wave Stealth twin-tip board and practiced various jumps and tried two unsuccessful spins, trying, unsuccessfully, to keep my eyes open and spotting my landing.
- The second session, to a place I had not been, was a spur-of-the-moment downwinder with Angie, GG, Scott, another friend and me, using my twin-tip and 8m. The group left the north Flats a little underpowered and went one mile to Outlaw Beach to the north, where we had dropped off a car. We got out kites wrapped up and loaded into GG's car just about sunset and got stuck on the way back. The four of us passengers were able to push the car out of the slippery, wet, muddy sand while Scott did the driving.
- Due to the above adventure, I missed hearing my ICD-R100's homing alarm, so did not find the unit. I lost it, I think, somewhere in my van before I left the eastern time zone and before the time change to Standard. Therefore its 7:00 PM homing alarm should be sounding at 5 PM.
Mon 11/12 = There were only three of us out this morning at 11:00, and we were the first ones out with a north wind in the middle-to-upper 30's and a gust up to 43.6 mph. This is the first time I used my 6m Best Nemesis in a long time, and I mostly had it fully depowered. The timing for jumps is quite different for smaller kite, so that's what I worked on. Did a couple of good ones.
- Still on my 6m, and on my Naish Custom Fish 5’2” x 17.5” surfboard with footstraps
I successfully tried some carves to toe-side and then switching my feet. I made all my jibes and even tried a few jumps with the surfboard. Also I tried to see how fast I could go - a little scary to use full power with that much wind, but I did it anyway. Max speed to port was 23.0 mph; possibly when I was flying through the air after I lost the board. To starboard, which is usually my slower direction, I did 24.4 mph, bouncing along the waves but keeping the board on my feet.
- Today's third session,for a half hour, was with my 8m kite and twintip. I didn't feel like doing anything great so mostly just practiced jumps.
- This evening CVS finally managed to get my Nasonex prescription approved and filled, thanks to Mary, who collected all the necessary information for the cinsurance company.
Tue 11/13 = Two short kiteboarding sessions today on my twin-tip board, neither session very relaxing. In the first I had to work pretty hard to hold down my 15m Epic Renegade Infinity. My 12m would have been a better choice. Most other people were on 9's and 12's.
- In the second session I had to pump my 12m Epic Screamer to keep it flying. My 15m would have been a better choice. Ah, well...
- Between the kiteboarding I figured out my SPI Exit Plan and made several phone calls, one to Phillip Allen, a new kiteboarder from Fredricksburg, TX who found me through my website. We are going to get together in Corpus Christi for a few days and kite, if there is wind. This will give me ahead start on my trip back home to Phoenix.
- I found the end of Park Road 100, eight miles north of town, to be about the best place to spend the night; quiet, dark and no one to disturb.
Wed 11/14 = Today I mostly got ready to leave the island by Saying "Hi" and "Bye" to Shy, with whom I got acquainted last year; washing and rinsing my van, including the undercarriage; taking my van to Dan's Automotive in Port Isabelle, TX to have the heater checked and visiting the library where I updated my website and studied spread spectrum and other RC controller technologies.
- The public library here could use a lesson or two in customer service. Of all the libraries I have visited across the country, it is the only one that does not have open Wi-Fi (they change their password daily); seven minutes before closing time, with no warning, they turned off all the lights for the room in which I was working and then four minutes before closing time; said "We're closing now;" in an abrupt voice. Fortunately my computer finished copying some files and I left before the actual closing time. Who knows, they might have chased me out with a broom!
Thu 11/15 = Extremely sore throat tonight, to the left when I close off my sinuses. Since I have no salt, I started gargling with fresh water followed with a saline nasal spray to the throat.
Other things seem to be going well:
- No biggie, but a 39.5" (stretched) bungee-corred safety line that I bought from Real Watersports a couple weeks ago has stretched out so that my safety line now sags any time I depower a kite. Mat offered to mail me both white and blue replacement lines for me paying the $5 shipping charge. Thanks, Matt!
- My Elan Master Card bill was overdue, as I changed my charge pattern and overlooked the $250 charged by my new Straight Talk cell phone provider. I called Elan, confessed that I goofed, explained that there was no excuse for my non-payment, in spite of the fact that I am on a road trip and not receiving paper bills. Without my asking, Austin offered to reverse the $25 late fee, reverse the $2.12 interest charge and take my payment over the phone at no charge. I am sure it helped that I had never been late before. Thanks, Elan Master Card.
My van radio now receives stations perfectly after Dan, Antonio and Oscar installed a new one. It was not easy, as they had to remove a tire, unbolt the wheel well and thread the line through. Thanks Dan's Auto.
At the library, I updated my website and watched a bunch of videos from Wacky Hobby on learning to fly RC helicopters. Thanks, library.
I charged my "new" Archos7 Internet tablet in anticipation on getting it working again. Thanks inverter and
LiFeMnPO
Lithium/Iron/Manganese/Phosphate/Oxygen battery
battery!
I was unable to start up the road to Corpus Christi as planned because Dan was unable to determine the reason my van's heater was not working and will not have time to look at again until Saturday morning. Spent the night in the Walmart Supercenter parking lot in Port Isabelle. Thanks, Walmart!
Fri 11/16 = Today I hung around the library, drove over to SPI, trying to ignore the kiteboarding winds since I am trying to recover from my cold, calculated the drive miles/time home via Fredricksburg, TX, realigned my van's radio antenna, picked up my new
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
which had freshly arrived at the SPI Post Office and assembled it, found a vibration on the old heli's main rotor which could have been confusing the gyroscopes and explained the lack of yaw control, hung out at the library some, flew my heli in a large open classroom area at the All Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, thanks to some nice people there,and spent the night in Dan's Automotive's driveway in anticipation of tomorrow's heater work.
Sat 11/17 = Car troubles lead to a rather long day. This morning Dan and crew fixed my van's heater, eventually by blowing out the heater core in reverse with air and water. While they were accomplishing that, I scrubbed the white lettering on my van tires. Then I updated my website and, on my Archos7o, initiated Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts (but was unable to get it to sync) at the library, gave my van a final fresh-water undercarriage rinse for $5 at the Port Isabelle car wash, wiped all the windows, polished the headlights with Mirror Glaze, fixed lunch and, about 2:30 PM,
headed toward Robstown, TX, 26 miles west of Corpus Christi to meet up with Adam, my new-found kiteboarding instructor friend.
- My van lost coolant and overheated after 106 miles on the road, 11 miles north of Raymondville and 93 miles from my destination. Fortunately I had tanked up with food, water and gas before leaving Port Isabelle. I let the van sit and cool down while worked on small projects, added four quarts of water and continued on... until the van overheated again, only five miles from my destination. Four more quarts of water got me to Adam's in Robstown, two hours late, at about 7:30.
- The welcome I received at Rancho DelVecchio by Adam, Joely and little 4-year-old Layla was phenomenal, considering I was an old guy off the road that they had never met before. They invited me to use whatever I needed, including their shower, bathrooms and electricity for my little ceramic electric van heater.
Sun 11/18 = No wind, but otherwise a beautiful day for hanging out with my new friends at their beautiful ranch house. Joely fixed eggs etc. for breakfast, little Layla helped me tune my train horns to match a Saint Louis Southern locomotive in Hutchinson, KS, (impressive as always), I showed Adam some of the finer resources on my website, fixed my famous oatmeal concoction for lunch, gave the three a tour of my van (Layla loved it, and even later set up her own future van layout in their living room), demonstrated my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
,
updated five days worth of this Blog, researched (on my phone since there is no WiFi here) repair locations for my van's cooling system, practiced precision heli hovering and landings in their living room and headed out to bed in my van to get a good night's sleep, with the ceramic electric heater, before getting my van to a shop early tomorrow morning.
Mon 11/19 = Today I finally got the van's heater fixed in near-by Calallen, TX. It took about $125 and almost two hours to bypass the rusted, leaking rear-heater plumbing to stop the leak, have no heat anywhere, then open it back up again to connect the front heater core directly to the engine, bypassing all of Chrysler's original, convoluted piping. Everything works properly now, except the rear heater, which I never use anyway with my rear vents being blocked by the built-in furniture in the back.
- While waiting for my van I got acquainted two fine gentlemen. John Honeycutt is a 63-year old talented songwriter and musician who off-the-cuff composes songs, including one about Arizona Lou! Roman Mazurek is the proprietor of the Shell service station fixing my van. I think he is thinking about retirement, as he is turning the shop's day-to-day operation over to Big Joe.
With a newly fixed van, I went to the Corpus Christi, TX Northwest Library Branch to do web stuff, import my contacts as a VCF (vCard) file into my new Archos7 Internet tablet (never got the Archos to synchronize them, though) and flew my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
eight batteries worth in the Children's section when no one else was using it. About 7pm I fixed supper in my van then headed back to Adam's for a short night after timing my heli batteries (finding the Battery B lasts about half as long as A, B & C) and staying up late visiting with Adam.
Tue 11/20 = Up early to fix breakfast for my hosts, the DelVecchio's. They liked my All Bran/nut/ginger/milk concoction. As a matter of fact, so did I.
- After Joely took Layla to school and went to her office, Adam came up with the excellent idea of flying my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
outside in their gigantic yard while the air was still. This is the most spacious and best outdoor experience yet for me and the heli. I did crash a few times with no real damage except a canopy cracked in two places. Magic mending tape took care of that. Also the main-rotor drive pinion started slipping down loosing its grip on the motor shaft. A little penetrating Lock-Tite took care of that. While it dried I printed out and prepared postcards for mailing.
- The day was topped off with a long afternoon nap (still trying to shake off my sore throat), by planning tomorrow morning's drive to meet Phillip Allen at Jacob's Creek Park at Canyon Lake, Tx, which is NNE of San Antonio, the last supper with Adam, Joely and Layla and then packing up and retiring to my van early for tomorrow's drive.
Wed 11/21 = Wave runner to wakeboarding to Fredricksburg, TX today: I got up at 6am to drive to the Jacob's Creek Park at Canyon Lake to meet Phillip Allen. We both tried riding our wake boards behind his borrowed jet ski. It was sort of like the blind leading the blind. After three tries each, we gave up.
Phillip went home to take care of some business and I drove to the Texas Ski Ranch cable wakeboard park in New Braunfels, TX. It was a little after 5pm and close to sunset when I finally got on the water. I hung around the lake for an hour and a half and road 4 sessions, doing two jump starts (the first one after a firm face plant) a few puny pops and my first switch - almost. I would have nailed it if I had had more confidence and not let go of the tow bar. GPS report: 1:27 total time; :57 minutes moving, 13.0 miles; 27.7 mph maximum Top speed
Arizona Lou rounding the drive tower at Texas Ski Ranch: Photo by Glen
Let go of the tow rope and coast in: Photo by Glen
Tow rope is engaged and Lou Starts out: 10 sec. video by Glen
Puny pop, iding around tower #5, the drive tower and edging to the outside: 20sec by Glen
- I arrived at Phillip's, Northeast of Fredricksburg, TX about 9:30pm for two nights in his driveway.
Thanksgiving 11/22 = What a pleasure spending the day with Phillip Allen, his wife, Heather, their three children Kelsey, Justin and Grace and Phillip's parents, Gary and Pat. Heather outdid herself with a delicious turkey dinner and even yummy leftovers for supper. During the day we tuned up my train horn, took a tour of my van, went on a long walk and enjoyed each other's company. Justin and I flew our helicopters. My deltoid muscles are a little unexpectedly sore, evidently as a result of my cable riding yesterday.
Fri 11/23 = Drove 548 miles at a moving average speed of 71.8 mph from Phillip's northeast of Fredricksburg, TX to the Dalmonts RV Park where I had made reservations for the night so I would have electricity for my little heater in Las Cruces, NM, with an elevation of about 4570 ft MSL and a forecast low of the lower 30's. Never did get the temperature of the van adjusted right. The Sunbeam ceramic heater thermostat allows over nine degree of temperature swing. Before heading to bed I made the final image and video selections of
TSR
Texas Sky Ranch wakeboard cable park
for my Blog web page and shortened the videos.
Sat 11/24 = This morning, since the air was still, I flew my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
in the RV park where there were no cars and little air movement. I did pretty well at managing the variable 1-2 mph breezes. Then I spent about 1.5 hours at Whataburger uploading two
TSR
Texas Sky Ranch wakeboard cable park
videos, embedding them on this Blog web page and updating the page. Then headed home to Phoenix, AZ. I arrived home at 7:07 pm, got almost everything unloaded from the van, water turned on, water heater lit and checked the high and low temperatures around my house while I was gone. The electricity never was interrupted while I was gone. Thank you, APS! It did seem strange to be sleeping in my bedroom for a change.
Sun 11/25 = I put up my brand new blue LED Christmas lights, picked up the three months of mail from my neighbors this morning, helped Mildred with her computer a little, gave her a mild scolding for not keeping track of our get-together-times, took her shopping, flew my heli for her in the Fitness 1 aerobics room, bought light-weight 1.5" plastic Christmas tree balls at 99 Cent Only to use with training gear I'm making for my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
,
did an initial mail sort and checked my schedule for tomorrow.
Mon 11/26 = This morning I went to my Doctor (Gergi Dwivedi) for my annual physical, got a fasting blood draw, ate the breakfast I fixed earlier, got my teeth cleaned by my dentist (Dr. Jeff Krohn), and made some phone calls about training gear for my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
.
- At 11:58 I phoned the Clark Howard show as a test, although it was, I thought, before they record the show. It turns out they were recording the show and Kimberly put me on regarding how to charge a lot on a credit card without it effecting your utilization ratios and thus your FICO score.
- This afternoon I took my old Li-Polymer heli battery D to Radio Shack for proper disposal, as the battery is only lasting for about 30 seconds of flying time. At least I hope it was D because I have been unable to locate E, my new one.
- This evening I went to Hobby Bench to look at their RC heli training gears and found mine to be better (longer and lighter). Mine at 14g only weighs 56% of theirs at 25g. On a smooth surface I can remove the balls to fly on a smooth surface and my training gear will weigh less than 2 grams or 8% of theirs. On the way home I stopped by 19 Ave & Bell McDonald's to add the Unclaimed Baggage Center to the Bargains section of my Smart Stuff web page, study mattresses on Consumer Report's website and stopped by Fitness 1 for a light full-body workout and to fly my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
.
(only 3 batteries worth because I can't find battery E. Got to bed late at 11:30pm.
Tue 11/27 = Sorted some mail and put away some things from the trip. It seems I did not get much accomplished today - sort of bogged down with too many things to do. I did finish the training gear for my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
.
I can't use the balls because they add too much weight for flight.
Wed 11/28 = HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ME at 71! This morning while the air was still I flew my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
in the back yard. Pretty fun. Phone calls from both of my kids was heartwarming.
- After hours on the phone this past month with representatives from all over the world trying to straighten out the mess that AT&T created when I closed my phone service with them, Rachel Anne finally got things straightened out and said I could keep a double refund check that someone forgot to void. Thanks, AT&T, I feel better now!
- For my day's trip, I went to the Hostess Outlet, this their last day open due to their bankruptcy, and told Kathy "Bye" (she had been there about 20 years), then to 24-Hour Fitness in Chandler for a light full-body workout and to Gang Plank where I flew my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
and Ben helped me perfect my blog archive pull-down menus like this:
.
Thu 11/29 = Dave Ramsey gave an emotional tribute to Zig Ziglar who died yesterday at 86. One of his most famous books was See You At The Top which sample I immediately downloaded to my Kindle.
- This morning I flew my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
out front and and then later projected my budget (checking account) through the end of January, did a light full-body workout at LA fitness and bought a small travel USB-2 hub at Walmart so I can charge all four of my heli batteries at the same time. Since I got my RC flight simulator working, I added my second heli controller to my Toshiba laptop as a sort of a dedicated flight simulator on which I have been practicing my crashes.
Fri 11/30 = I made six of my Protein Frosties and got Internet installed through Cox Cable. I got the slowest speed, which, with a little patience, should save me some money. While waiting for Jason to come I cleaned out the spaghetti-mess of unused cables from the back of my computer and re-arranged some shelves in the library. I didn't get my desk cleared off as I had hoped.
- I think flying my
heli
little TRex 100x RC helicopter that has a tail rotor and flies similar to a real one
outside, as I did this morning, will become part of my morning routine and flying the simulator, part of my evening routine.
Merry Christmas 2012! Here is my Christmas Letter (more pictures & videos on my Trips web page).
