The fun begins - Tucson style

Sunset in Tucson

On Saturday night we watched the late news and the anchors were muttering something about the moderate drought being suffered in Tucson.

Joan and I had almost the identical thought as soon as the anchors mentioned drought.

“Have no fear, the Smiths are here.”  If our record holds people will be swimming to work within a week.

At church Sunday morning the pastor noted that the congregation had grown since last week and invited anyone who had just arrived out of the “Polar Vortex” to stand up. Because we qualified, we stood along with about 30 other people.

“Now, everyone else stand up greet each other and tell those poor folks how happy we are they made it here to be with us.”

It was a nice welcome and the church service was great. With thousands of people here, the church service draws a crowd of about 500 in peak season and there are some very talented musicians and singers here.

Dirty Tahoe

After church we finished setting up the trailer and I spent a little time with a resort maintenance man stopping an annoying leak in the water spigot that serves our site. He was very nice and insisted I stop helping because “you are dressed for church.”

In our first 24 hours we were becoming increasingly concerned about a lack of hot water from our hot water heater. It has been slowly warming but quickly cools off. I spent some time “under the hood” looking at the water heater, but could see nothing amiss.

Joan had dollar signs swimming in her head thinking we were going to have to replace the water heater when it occurred to me that even when you drain the tanks and clear the lines there is still 2-3 gallons of water in the 7-gallon tank, which is OK to freeze without harming the equipment.

A light bulb went off and I got to thinking that an ice cube 3 gallons in size might take a while to thaw even in the temperate zone. The water has continued to increase in heat so I think I solved a plumbing problem the best way possible. Without doing any plumbing!

Clean Tahoe

Sunday afternoon Joan went shopping to restock our trailer. Part of the economy of living in the trailer is that we can cook our own meals and not spend money on expensive restaurants. Joan loves cooking and has mastered the small kitchen in the trailer.

While she was shopping I drove to a nearby u-do-it-yourself car wash and washed half of Michigan and Indiana off the Tahoe. Tomorrow I will wash the windows and the car will almost be back to normal. While Joan imagines conversations between a mouse couple I imagine what my car is thinking.

What I think the Tahoe is thinking is “I hate pulling that humungous ship anchor once a year, but I really like being out of that cold and snow.” At least that’s what I think it’s saying.

So Monday morning I was up early and went to the gym and Joan went to her water aerobics class.

Back home we spent some more time organizing the trailer and I finished washing the windows of the Tahoe and setting up our outdoor furniture and mat.

My Spartan boo-boo bandage

While doing the latter I sliced open the back of my and which gave me my first opportunity to use my Spartan band aids that were a birthday present from my sister Laura. If she would have waited two weeks she could have purchased the “Rose Bowl Champion Spartan” band aids. But these are good, nonetheless.

As of Sunday, we have seen no trace of the mouse or meeses but still plan to take some precautions to make sure that they are either gone, or that if they are still here that they won’t be here for long.

I have a “live and let live” rule about critters. As long as you are living in your habitat, I leave you alone. But when you trespass into my habitat then something drastic is going to happen – to you.

In addition to a very early morning workout in the fitness center, some minor housekeeping chores Sunday was spent getting our official resort photograph taken for our permanent ID card and watching playoff football.

A morning walk in the mountains

Monday was more organization and we had the resident RV guy come to the trailer because our heater wasn’t working. My first thought that I was out of propane, but the propane stove worked so that didn’t seem to be the problem. So we called an expert.

Forty bucks later I found out my first indication was correct. We were out of propane. The furnace just needs a lot more pressure to light and stay lit than the stove. Because we were out $40 for the service call I had him check the still leaking (slightly) faucet and he fixed that.

We strolled over to the activity office and purchased tickets to some coming events and concerts here at the park so we are now officially booked through the end of the month.

Because we had no propane, or were worried it would run out in mid-meal we did a redo on Sunday night’s sandwich and salad dinner, which required no cooking at all. After dinner we headed over to the small Internet café and caught up on electronic mail.

Back at the trailer the desert cold was setting in and without a furnace we turned on the electric fireplace which kept us warm enough until bedtime and we hid under blankets and on top of our heated mattress cover for a really good night’s sleep.

Lunch on a rock

Tuesday morning brought me to my first major hike of the season – The Sutherland Trail and Canyon Loop – in the Catalina Mountains. I’ll put a few photos below this post so you can see some of the vistas. There was a large turnout for the hike as more and more people are arriving in the park.

The hike was a little more than 8 miles with a couple steep parts, but mostly a slight incline, with a corresponding slight decline. Remember the rule, what goes up, must come down. A rule that apparently does not apply to taxes or gas prices.

Last year the one drawback to this place was the lousy Internet service they offer here. Not only lousy, but expensive. They charge separately for each device and with Joan and I using separate computers the bill was $60 a month. Did I mention it was lousy service.

So tonight we are picking up a “Straight Talk” wireless hotspot for the trailer. Basically this is a pay-as-you-go system where you don’t sign a contract but purchase just the gigabytes you need. Hopefully it will result in better service for less money. We’ll see.

Also last night we attended our first dinner potluck and Joan made her patented cranberry meatballs which are always a huge hit.

Look for another blog post around Saturday.

Some photos from the Sutherland Trail and Canyon Loop

Getting ready to head out on the trail head

The first part of the trail was wide open

Always fun to see and cross water

The trail narrows

The footing was very rocky for a mile or so

A huge granite boulder was our lunch stop

We ate outside for dinner: Do not try this at home

Tonight we ate dinner outside on the patio at the remodeled Voyager Inn Bar and Grill.  That’s really all you need to know about how much we loved today. Four days ago if we had sat outside to eat dinner we would have been frozen stiff. Today in Tucson, Arizona we sat out on the patio, temperatures in the high 60s and enjoyed a tasty bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

"Wheee, we're in Arizona

This morning Joan and I stopped to pray that everything would go well today. We prayed that we would find the trailer in one piece, that the battery would work to raise and lower the trailer onto the car, that everything in the trailer would work and that our travel would be effortless to Tucson.

It all turned out just as we had prayed.

Unlike yesterday, there was not a breath of wind, everything in the trailer worked to perfection. The only glitch was that during our absence a small, four-legged creature (or two) decided if we weren’t using the trailer for nine months, they would.

Unfortunately for them, we left behind no food, but they discovered a box of Kleenex that they pretty much destroyed. We don’t believe they are still in the trailer, but we will be taking measures tomorrow to evict them if we can find them.

Beautiful Mt. Washington near Flagstaff

Joan, who has an interesting take on just about everything, imagined a mouse couple’s conversation as we drove away with them either hiding in the trailer or looking on as the home they had adopted drove down the road.

Of course in Joan’s world, it was the man who took the beating for selecting a home that had wheels and mobile owners.

“That’s a fine home you made for us,” said the female mouse in Joan’s world. “Now where are we going to live?” The man mouse of course in Joan’s world was clueless and could only offer a sincere apology for picking such a poor home.

It was 19 degrees when we left Gallup, NM and 72 degrees when we arrived in Tucson. This morning it was actually colder where we were than it was in Lapeer, Michigan, but we made short work of eclipsing those temperatures by 10 a.m. as we crossed into Arizona.

At an I-17 rest area

Our trip to pick up the trailer took about three hours and we were hooked up and almost ready to go by 11:30 a.m. The only snag was I have misplaced the two wing  nuts that hold the battery connections on the battery, but we stopped at a nearby Camping World store down the street from the storage yard and bought a couple.

A few years ago, during one of our many trips to Buffalo, NY, Joan was shocked to see a cow running loose on the 403 freeway just outside Sarnia on our way back one weekend. Ever since she witnessed the cow being chased by several motorists she has made my life miserable warning me to “look out for cows” on the freeway.

I keep insisting she was mistaken and that cows simply can’t get on the freeway.

A blurry photo of unhitching the car

So what happens today on our way south on I-10?  We see a sheriff’s car driving slowly down the shoulder of the southbound lanes literally herding two sheep with his car trying to keep them from running out into the freeway and becoming instant leg of lamb.

Now I suppose I’ll have to hear about sheep running on the freeway until I’m 80 years old.

I forgot to mention in the long list of weather events during our travels that our very first night on the road back in 2009 included a tornado blowing through the very county where we were spending our first night in the trailer. I guess we should have seen what was coming right them.

The park personnel warmly welcomed us and one of the security folks deftly helped guide me into my parking spot, which is right next to the one we stayed in last year. I asked for this spot when we left last year as the other one is really tight with a palm tree on one side and a gutter on the other.

If I do say so myself, I’ve gotten much better at backing this behemoth.

Our first 2014 Arizona sunset

Lastly, we spotted our first convertible with the top down on our way into Tucson. Tomorrow morning we’ll go to church, then go shopping to put food in the frig and cabinets and start the great mouse hunt.

Not sure I will be posting every day, but as events dictate, I will. Thanks for following us so far.

Mileage out: 68779

Time out: 7:55 a.m.

Mileage out at the trailer storage and beginning trailer haul: 68978

Mileage in: 69259

Time in: 4:37 p.m.

Crossing three states in a stiff crosswind

So before you are brought up-to-date on today’s events I must first (Joan is making me) retract a little thing I said at the end of yesterday’s report. Hopefully, you haven’t run out and purchased a bunch of classic country CDs for Joan.

"Wheee, we're in Texas"

My misguided comment about her loving classic country music was simply a loyalty test to see if she actually read through the entire post. I can assure you now that she does read the posts from top to bottom and no, she is not a fan of classic country music. For goodness sakes don’t send it to her or I’ll be sleeping in the little white shed in my backyard for a long, long time.

Our unblemished record for bringing weird weather continues. Longtime readers of the blog will remember that when we visited the Florida Keys, the weather was historically cold. We brought torrential rains to both the Panhandle of Florida one year and to San Antonio, Texas the next. Until we arrived both places had been suffering from extended drought.

Joan was thinking of her friend when she saw this truck

So this week we left Michigan in the midst of unprecedented cold weather and it followed us all the way to St. Louis, where they had an unusual snow storm that closed schools and businesses on the day we were there. Last year downtown Tucson had its first measurable snowstorm in 20 years and we took a bow.

This morning in Oklahoma City the weatherman was sputtering about a strange combination of fog, wind and rain. Of course, we were there. You want bad weather, invite us.

But for us the weather at our time of departure was relatively pleasant with a 46-degree temperature despite the high winds and fog.

As we traveled west on I-40 the weather, ironically, cleared up at Weatherford, Oklahoma. I know you are not supposed to explain irony, but in this case we didn’t want you to miss the good weather connection and the town of Weatherford.

Our favorite Amarillo restaurant

I did want to make a suggestion to GM on future car builds. When we start up the Tahoe and the weather is 35 degrees or less, a warning shows up on the dashboard “Ice Possible Drive With Caution.”  This past week when the temperatures were really in the basement I thought maybe there should be an alternate warning: “Ice Probable – Stay Home.”

On our way out of Oklahoma we passed by the Elk City/Clinton KOA where we have stayed on two previous travels through the state. We have fond memories of the place and the nice people who helped us fix our trailer when we suffered an electrical problem.

Gas prices continue to be decent at $2.89 to $3.05 along I-40.

"Wheee we're in New Mexico"

At our first bathroom stop for Joan this morning she came out of the restroom giggling, but she wouldn’t tell me what she was amused by until we got into the car. As it turned out she and another woman were using the women’s room at the service station and when they came out of their respective stalls they found a Hispanic man washing his hands in the sink. “Is this the Women’s Room?,” he asked. “Yes, we believe it is,” the women told the man. Apparently there was some language barrier or he was confused, but no one was harmed and he expressed his surprise with a “Dios Mio!”

We recorded our first 50-degree temperature at Mile Marker 88 in Texas, but it came with a mixed problem. Some of the highest winds we have ever encountered while driving. Almost every time we have driven through Oklahoma, Texas or New Mexico we encounter winds, but today was a “Katie bar the door” kind of wind. The stiff crosswind significantly reduced our gas mileage and made driving a pink knuckled affair.

Hard to see, but a haboob is in the background

The high winds continued through all of Texas and almost the entire width of New Mexico. It doesn't help that the only thing on the horizon to stop the wind is barbed wire and utility lines. 

At one point we were looking at the possibility of a minor haboob, which is neither as sexy or fun as the word sounds. Haboobs are intense dust storms and can create serious problems on the freeway. Joan, always one to see things through rose colored glasses, said her sunglasses made dust storm appear pink.

Tumbleweeds were flying at us in huge numbers or as we called it, “the attack of the tumbleweeds.” As we ran over them they became more like “crumble weeds.”

But one of the more unusual sights of the day came at a service station in the middle of an Indian Reservation in New Mexico. Stopping for a leg stretch I noticed a teenage Native American boy wearing the controversial emblem of the Washington Redskins. It caught my attention because so much has been made of how racially insensitive the mascot is and yet here was a young man who apparently embraced it.

The moon, but with plants

As we pulled out of the service station, the young man climbed into a car with people we could only assume were his family and on the back of the car was the same Redskins emblem. It just seemed odd that a Native American would be wearing a symbol that others see as racially insensitive.

Today we crossed the Continental Divide in New Mexico at an altitude of 7,275 feet. We also once again crossed through one of my favorite counties: “Deaf Smith County” in New Mexico. More appropriate this year as I am breaking in a new pair of hearing aids.

A 10-hour drive will sometimes make me a little feisty and today Joan made a comment that some of the landscape in New Mexico looked like “the moon.”

“Yes, honey,” I said. “But I don’t think the moon has plants.”  For that the former science teacher gave me a playful slap on my arm.

We had a hankering for Italian food and went to Fratelli's Italian Bistro. We both had the spaghetti with meatballs and it had a wonderful spicy sauce. Lots of ethnic folks in the place, but not an Italian to be seen.

Tomorrow – Tucson.

Mileage out: 68093

Time out: 8 a.m. (CST)

Mileage in: 68776

Time in: 5:02 p.m. (MST)

It took 1,000 miles but the snow is finally gone

Our quest to get out of the snow started out with more snow this morning in Pacific, Missouri. Schools in the St. Louis area were closed this morning because of what was basically an inch of snow. The panic-filled weather forecast for a moment had me considering a two-hour delay in our departure.

Not free of the snow yet

Then I remembered a lesson I learned during 30 years of newspaper work: Don’t believe what you hear or read on the news. So I picked up my laptop, did a quick search for a local Missouri radar and found that we were on the very west edge of a very small front moving through.

So I dusted the snow off the car and we departed a few minutes before our scheduled sail time of 9 a.m.

The roads were a little slushy, but once on the freeway we were free of snow and ice within 9 miles. Our departure temperature of 26 degrees rose quickly as we headed west and by 10:40 a.m. at Mile Marker 146 (we started at 257) we saw our first non-freezing temperature since, well, forever it seems.

Snow, but not on the road, that's a good thing

I have to back up a little to correct something (Joan is making me) I wrote yesterday. I may have exaggerated just a bit when I was relating my anger at “many” motorists. The fact is I probably only maligned two mothers by referring to them as b-witches, so it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. I still apologize to those two women, who are probably wonderful mothers and deserve a better offspring result than they received.

Also on the news last night, they announced the closing of the rotating restaurant in downtown St. Louis. The interesting part of this to us is this is the place that I proposed to Joan so many years ago. On the news story it referred to the fact that the restaurant was a favorite place for wedding proposals so we were sure they were referring to us. Sorry to see it close as it was a very nice place in the Millenium Hotel, which is not what it was called when we were there, seeing as how the Millenium had not yet happened.

To pass some of our short travel time today (anything less than 500 miles is a short travel day for us) we listened to a “Jersey Boys” CD that was given to us by a good friend. It was fun to remember going to the musical with Pam and Greg and we truly enjoyed the music again.

Joan (left) walking to a Missouri rest area

Joan has picked up the interesting habit of going “wheeee” and raising her arms whenever we cross a state border. Our new daughter-in-law Toni taught her that cute little maneuver during a recent long distance trip to Virginia in October.

With a short travel day, we decided to stop and sample some of the Native American culture here in Oklahoma at the Buffalo Run Casino just inside the border with Missouri. Joan is more of a gambler than I, but when I found out they were giving out $5 in free play for new members, I joined. Heck, I’ll join any club that will give me $5 just to belong.

I quickly lost my $5 and then graciously donated $10 of my own. Joan, on the other hand, parlayed her $5 into a $49 win. Between the two of us, my losses and her wins we left about $35 richer than when we went in an hour earlier.

With my previous toll evasions here in Oklahoma I figure I am about $50 to the good when it comes to fleecing the State of Oklahoma. Gas is cheaper here and we filled up for $2.95 a gallon, but saw it as cheap as $2.78.

Buffalo Run, we took 'er for $35

Speaking of tolls, when we went through the toll plaza along the turnpike between the Missouri border and Tulsa, Oklahoma we pulled into the booth and ended up with the same toll taker we had last year when we traveled through.

Now, I know what you’re asking, “Jim, how would you know that you had the same toll taker as last year?”

Well, let me tell you how. Last year I had a rather animated discussion with the woman about my total lack of need for a receipt for my $4. She insisted I take the receipt and I insisted I didn’t need it. She finally gave up and let me drive on without the receipt. I couldn’t figure out why she was so insistent until we traveled on last year and realized if I had to get off the turnpike I would have to pay all over again if for some reason I had to leave at one of the exits.

This year I took the receipt without complaint. I’m pretty sure she didn’t recognize me. I’ll bet she sees lot of people every day.

The last part of the trip between Tulsa and Oklahoma City was made during a pretty steady mist, but with temperatures in the high 30s it was not a concern. The snow that had been our scenery for much of the past two days is now completely gone here in Oklahoma City.

On the way today we were laughing about our granddaughter last year who told her parents “We haven’t taken a long road trip in awhile.” What she didn’t know was her parents at that very moment were planning a quick trip to Tucson last year from Michigan over Spring break.

Her mother told her “be careful what you wish for.”  So just a few short weeks later she and her brother were trapped in a car for a 2 ½ -day trip to Tucson with a similar trip back. Later she whispered in my ear that she knew all along they were going to Arizona.

Good food, better music

We really like the Texas Roadhouse restaurant here in Oklahoma City so we stopped there at 5:51 p.m. before checking into the Governor’s Suites Hotel, which is also a favorite stop of ours. It is on a par with Embassy Suites at half the price.

By the way here's a little tip for you. One of the reasons Joan likes the restaurant besides the food is the wonderful country music they play very loudly. Joan is a real fan of classic country, so if you want to surprise her or get on her good side she would always love getting a boxed set of Hank Snow, Hank Williams, Roy Acuff or Ernest Tubb's CDs.

Tomorrow’s destination: Gallup, New Mexico. Only three more "wheees" to go before our final destination. Hopefully I can find a restaurant in Gallup that plays good country music.

Mileage out: 67611

Time out: 8:40 a.m.

Mileage in: 68093

Time in: 6:49 p.m.

Slip slidin' away to Tucson

Our first travel days have included chain saws and an all-night drive from Lapeer to Valdosta, Georgia in frigid temperatures.

So when plans began for Winter Trip 2014, it never occurred to me, but probably should have, that we would be leaving during the worst cold snap in Michigan for two decades. The only redeeming part of that was that I didn’t have to hitch up the trailer or drag it because it is already enjoying the fine Arizona winter.

Leaving behind a snowy, cold Michigan

We always plan our trip departure for the day after the January blood drive that I coordinate at my American Legion Post in North Branch, Michigan. For a while, when something called the Polar Vortex, swooped down and swallowed America I began to think I had wasted a week in Arizona to hold a blood drive that no one would venture out to attend. I would have been wrong.

The North Branch natives are a tough lot and while our numbers were down slightly, we still ended up with 32 blood donations on a day when the high temperature for the day was a great big goose egg number.

Tuesday started at -14 degrees and warmed to a high of 0 degrees by day’s end. Tuesday night the temperatures fell again into negative territory and stayed there long enough to make packing the car pretty miserable on Wednesday morning. The temperature was -2 as we pulled out of Lapeer. It eventually fell to -5 at some spot along I-69 approaching Lansing.

With a house sitter in place, we pulled out of our recently cleared driveway and made a quick stop at the daughter’s work to grab a latte and hot chocolate to start the trip.

No roads have been salted in Michigan since Sunday and Monday’s storm because salt is useless in the extremely low temperatures we have endured since Sunday night.

I-69 was pretty much one good lane and one lane that can best be described as the world’s longest skating rink. What that means is that you are at the mercy of the slowest car on the freeway.  We still made decent time and I was able to get around most of the slow pokes.

It was so cold that I noticed that icicles were hanging off the muffler pipe of a car driving in front of us. Clearly it was the muffler shroud, but still it seemed very odd to see. My father taught me to watch my vehicle gauges and I noticed that yesterday and today the engine temperature did not reach its usual 210 degrees until well into the trip after temperatures had warmed a little.

During the day it slowly edged up as we headed south and at our first fuel stop south of Ft. Wayne, Indiana it felt practically balmy at 17 degrees. It almost had me changing into a t-shirt. The traffic lanes in Indiana varied from “clean and green” to “not nice ice.” The road conditions changed drastically from moment to moment.

If I ran the world I would make the brake pedal much harder to use on a car, especially on icy roads. Sometimes the worse action a driver can do is slam on the brakes when confronted with ice, but despite that many, many drivers seemingly panic when the find suddenly they are riding on a sheet of ice.

Instead of letting a little speed bleed off the car they stomp on the brakes, which causes a chain reaction that puts at risk everyone behind them.

If you are one of those people who slam on the brakes while driving on a sheet of ice, consider yourself slapped upside the head. It’s much easier to maintain control and keep pointed in the right direction if you use the gas pedal and a little distance to keep out of trouble.

Before I go any further, let me just apologize to all the mothers of some of those drivers who were called names that I should never have used. You are not what I said, but your driver children pushed me to it.

With muddy, melting roads my windshield washer got a real workout and I may have to buy yet another bottle of windshield washer fluid to make sure I have enough to get to Tucson. I will soon need a new set of wipers too.

So we passed through Indianapolis shortly after noon, including a drive-by of Lucas Oil Stadium, the scene of Michigan State’s recent dismantling of Ohio State University on its way to a Rose Bowl win. I symbolically tipped a hat to the stadium as we passed by. Symbolically because both my hands were firmly grasped onto the steering wheel for nearly 10 hours.

When I planned this trip I estimated, considering the Central Zone time change, that we would be through St. Louis downtown traffic about 4 p.m. a little before rush hour. What I didn’t plan for was a 100-mile stretch of I-70 through Illinois that was littered with hundreds of spun out cars and semi  trucks and trailers.

Only a slight exaggeration of I-70 today

Most of the cars and trucks were deeply buried in snow banks and medians and it had the appearance of the so-called “Highway of Death” left behind by retreating Iraqi soldiers feeling Kuwait in the first Gulf War.

Looking at all these stranded and abandoned vehicles I imagined I felt like one of the surviving water buffalo watching one of my kin being taken down by a lion.  Sorry for my brother water buffalo, but also glad it wasn’t me.

I need to ask Kevin, a professional truck driver I know, if he has ever experienced having his trailer pass by his tractor. That must be a frightening and scary moment when you realize that you are headed the wrong direction in the right lane and that your trailer is now in front of you. We are hopeful no one was seriously hurt in any of those crashes.

At various places, we slowed to a crawl, and on the eastbound lanes traffic was stopped for 4 miles while huge tow trucks worked to haul out some of the wrecked semis.

Between some earlier slowdowns when the road ice caused us to slow down and the major traffic hold ups in Illinois on I-70 I missed by estimated time of arrival by a good two hours. Because of that we stopped on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River to have dinner about 6 p.m. (Central Time) to allow some of the rush hour traffic to dissipate. Probably wasn’t necessary as traffic was very light, but heck I was hungry and the Ruby Tuesday’s garden salad bar is one of my favorites.
Tomorrow: Oklahoma City. I smell a steak in my future.

Time out: 7:50 a.m. (EST)

Mileage out: 66995

Time in: 7:10 p.m. (CST)

Mileage in: 67611

A bitter sweet good bye to another successful ship reunion

Me and her at the Bellingrath Gardens

So, when we last left off I was writing a blog post at 5 a.m. after a middle of the night false fire alarm brought the entire USS Cogswell reunion to the lobby while hotel management worked out how to reset the alarm and restart the elevators.

(Note to self: When staying in an older hotel always ask to be housed on the lowest possible floor).

After the short night we headed back downstairs to catch an 8 a.m. bus to Bellingrath Gardens.

As I boarded the bus I shook my head and pronounced loudly, “you guys will never believe the weird dream I had last night.” Almost in unison, they responded that I was not dreaming.

Joan stopping to smell the roses

As it turned out we accidentally left two couples behind at the hotel as they accidentally slept in and had to catch up with us at the gardens in their personal car.

The gardens were beautiful, but the weather was a little on the unpleasantly warm side with plenty of humidity. Joan’s knee was bothering her a lot, but she declined my offer to borrow one of the garden’s wheelchairs to help her around. She’s a trouper.

It took about 15 minutes to walk the paths to the Bellingrath home, which is a beautiful home that was one the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bellingrath. He made his fortune in the early part of the 1900s by purchasing the first Coca-Cola franchise in the Mobile, Alabama area.

At the beginning he did his own bottling, driving and delivering and built the business into a multi-million dollar empire in a short time.

One of the many pretty flowers

The home started out as a small camping retreat for Mr. Bellingrath to take him away from the pressures of work at the suggestion of his doctor. The small camp cabin turned into a beautiful two-story impeccably furnished home. The couple had no children and when Mr. Bellingrath died (nine years after his wife died) he left the home and gardens as a memorial to his wife and for the public to enjoy.

Mrs. Bellingrath collected Boehm Porcelain from around the world and the extensive collection is displayed throughout the home.  No photos are allowed inside the home, but you can check out the pictures of the home and gardens by following this link.

Another cruise ship

Following the home tour we watched a short film on the house and then boarded a river boat for an enjoyable 45-minute cruise on the Fowl River which runs next to the Bellingrath property.

Joan and I took a long route back to the front gate and walked the boardwalk that takes you through the bayou gardens. We were looking for wildlife, but saw only one fish.

With the heat and humidity rising we took frequent breaks but got back to the main entrance and gift shop in time to cool down in the air conditioning before boarding our bus back to the hotel.

We arrived back about 3:30 p.m. and headed to our room to freshen up for the official reunion photo session and then the formal  banquet.

Another beautiful spot in the gardens

My shipmates and spouses gathered on the mezzanine floor for the photo session and then we sat down to a wonderful dinner and a Mystery Dinner Theater presentation “Murder on the Carnivore Cruise.”

The title of the play was pretty appropriate considering Joan and I just got back from our own Carnival Cruise.

The cast was funny, but I missed figuring out the murderers were by a country mile. It was a fun night, but everyone was pretty exhausted from the early morning wake up and the room cleared fairly quickly following dinner.

Joan and the bamboo tunnel

In the morning we said our farewells to my shipmates and started the long trek home about 8:30 a.m. from Mobile. More and more shipmates from my time on the ship have been coming to the reunions which makes it very nice for me as I have gotten reacquainted with a number of guys I was friends with at a critical time in my life.

George, who is the association secretary, has done a great job of collecting memorabilia (including the ship’s flag from our 66-67 cruise that I saved for 40 some years before donating to the association). Each reunion brings more and more memorabilia from the cruises and George has done a great job of assembling photo books from nearly every era of the ship’s history.

Sadly, this reunion was the first where none of the World War II sailors aboard the Cogswell were able to attend. They were sorely missed.

Storm clouds on the way home

A few miles outside Mobile we drove over a long series of bridges that traverse several rivers. It was an interesting road project, one like we had never seen before.

With storms crossing the country we found ourselves driving through several squalls. Traffic was slight and we breezed through Alabama and Tennessee and when I realized we were approaching Louisville just about rush hour we decided to stop and have dinner at a Texas Roadhouse Restaurant just outside Louisville to let traffic clear out before finishing our trip.

We finished dinner a little after 7 p.m. and breezed through Louisville landing in Clarksville, Indiana about 7:30 p.m.

One sad fact we noted that the further we got north the higher the gasoline prices. We topped off in Alabama for $3.11 a gallon. By the time we got to Indiana it was more than $4 a gallon and it got worse as we drove into Michigan.

We had some nice weather on the trip

We heard they are blaming some refinery fire. I have this picture in my mind of the oil company executives sitting around their conference room laughing and pulling notes out of a hat to come up with an explanation of why they are going to gouge us this time.

"Hey, let's pull out the old standy excuse that we had a refinery fire. That always gets 'em," the executive says. It would be more refreshing if they just said they want to fleece us. At least that would be honest.

The Best Western was nice and we got a good night’s sleep before the final leg on Thursday.

More rain followed us home to Lapeer but we arrived about 4 p.m.