You and me and 50,000 Motorcycles

 From Forest City, Iowa, we took off north and our first stop was the Spam Museum in Austin Minnesota - yes they have such a thing - and it was well worth the stop.  After learning about Spam and the history of the Hormel Company we took off on I-90 west towards Rapid City.

We overnighted at a little RV park in Plinkenton SD since South Dakota has a rule about not sleeping alongside the road for more than 3 hours.  Very nice little park - we have it marked for a return visit.

 We couldn't pass through South Dakota with a visit to the infamous Wall Drugs:

We decided to spend a few days in the Rapid City are and found a spot just off the I-90 at a small RV park named "Three Flags RV park and Camp".  The whole area was getting ready for the Sturgis Motorcycle rally and we were lucky to find full hookups in the area.

We made the obligatory trip to Deadwood and Lead just outside of Rapid City.  Even a week before the rally, Deadwood was saturated in motorcycles.  Lead, however was very nice and we spent some time exploring the mining artifacts in a park that was honoring the Homestake mine - closed in the 80s and currently being used by Cal Berkeley to capture neutrinos. 

We then drove back from Rapid City to the Badlands National Part.  Among other things they have restored a fairly large buffalo herd there.  The rangers there have an ad campaign;  "Don't pet the fuzzy cows", we didn't quite understand why until we saw this:

The next day was "Four Presidents and a Chief":

Despite it being "done to death", we would heartily recommend to anyone that they go visit both Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial.

We spent a day exploring the downtown Rapid City area.  The downtown has a bronze statue of all the president up to Obama.  They haven't gotten their Trump statue yet - we believe there is a shortage of orange bronze.

The last day in Rapid City we decided to go to Wind Cave national park.  This park offers tours of the Wind Cave - a massive cavern complex about 230 feet below the surface.  

We left Rapid City the day the Sturgis Motorcycle rally started in nearby Sturgis.  Our route (curse you GPS) .  We were totally amazed by the number of Motorcycles parked along main street in Sturgis.  So amazed we forgot to take a picture and turning the 37ft Motorhome around in city full of motorcycles was not practical.  This shot happened on our way out of town:

Ginger was not impressed with the motorcycles.

Conclusion:  We would have stayed in Rapid City longer if there was RV space availability.  As it was the RV park we stayed at - outside of Sturgis - was fully booked for Sturgis.  There was a lot more to do there.  We have already decided to return when there aren't 700,000 people at a Motorcycle rally.  We would really like to explore Deadwood and some of the other places we missed on this trip.

Winnebago Grand National Rally Forest City Iowa

 Well, we made it to the GNR in Forest City Iowa.

We boondocked across Wyoming, South Dakota and Minnesota ending up in the center of Iowa in Forest City, Home of Winnebago.

We had a few adventures along the way...

1.  The large wall slide failed.  This is the retractable room in the front.  It had a Schwintec mechanism which is notorious for failing in slides.  We braced it closed - it was trying to come out as we ran down the road and lived with it till we got to Forest City.  

2.  We learned that South Dakota does not permit staying in the rest areas more than 3 hours if you are a normal driver.  Commercial drivers are allowed 10 hours.  That is kind of tacky.

So we got into Forest City, got checked into the Rally Grounds.  Just the size of this place is kind of amazing

We are in the upper left, but all you can really see is the Smart Car because....

We were broken.  When we got to the Rally Grounds we bee-lined for the Factory Service Center across the street.  We got into the queue (Factory Service is a very popular option for Rally participants) and eagerly checked the list every morning.

For the first three days we were on the list!!.  We needed to have to coach across the street by 6AM, so we would get up early, take our showers, get the coach "road-ready" and drive it across the street.   We would then go back across the street for the morning coffee and donuts provided by Winnebago/WIT for the rally participants.

We would go to the plethora of seminars/demonstrations/talks that are at the rally, but we needed to be back at Factory Service everyday at 2:30.  

The folks at Factory Service know people are here at the Rally and don't have any other place to live so everyday at 2:30 - whether finished or not - they gave you your coach back.  In our case it took two days to get the Schwintecs replaced and an extra day on the drivers door seal we asked them to fix.  The drivers door seal was apparently a booger.  On day 3 they went up to bend down our antennas so they could get it out of the service bay and noted that the roof had some issues and needed caulking.   So we signed up for day 4 as a "standby customer".

We got the call at 9AM the next day and had 1/2 an hour to get the coach across the street.  But we did it and got repair work done.

We can't say enough about  Winnebago Factory Service.  They were more than accommodating,  the work was top notch and not all that pricey.  

We will stay until Saturday and then we think we head back to South Dakota to see Mt Rushmore before the Sturgis Motorcycle event - which don't want to get anywhere near.

On the road to the Winnebago Grand National Rally

 July 19, 2021 - Thousand Trails San Benito to Thunder Valley Casino, Lincoln California.  293 Miles.  Will conquer the Sierras tomorrow.  

Note:  Thunder Valley has a large, flat lot and encourages trucker and RVers to spend the night.  They ask that you register with Security.  

July 20,2021 - Our wedding anniversary spent putting miles down.  We were very disappointed to find that gas prices in Reno are on par with gas prices in California.  However when you get out of Reno the gas prices drop dramatically?  What....?  I guess if you have to truck it farther, you can charge less.  Spent the night in the Alamo Casino truck lot in Wells Nevada.  Not wonderful, but free.

Thousand Trails San Benito

 Name:  ThousandTrails San Benito

Location:  16225 Cienega Road, Paicines, CA 95043
Sewer:  Yes
Water:  Yes
Power:  30A/50A
Cable:  None
WIFI:  Yes - very good.  Roughly $2.00/Day (we could stream video)
Cellular:  T-Mobile:  None.  AT&T is reported to be ok.
Comments:  Large RV Resort in the Central California

July 2021

This is a large RV resort located sort of near Hollister California.  It advertises 627 sites, but not all of which are RV capable.  Most sites have sewer connections - but a few do not.

Power is 30A with a large number of 50A.  There is water to every site.  There are quite a few pull-thrus.

There are a fair number of sites designated for "Tent" camping.  These seem to be sites that have "infrastructure issues", most likely electrical.  

Since it away from the ocean, it does tend to get a bit warm, so 50A for 50A capable RVs is probably a good idea.  Though in this authors opinion, the prettier sites are 30A.

like many of TTs campgrounds, this one is a older, but it appears ELS is spending money to refurbish the campground.  They recently re-paved some of the access roads, they've renovated and in the process of renovating the bathrooms.  While we were there the "Adult" Lodge and the "Adult" pool were closed for renovation.  We note new fire rings in a lot of the sites.

The family lodge and family pool were entirely sufficient given the low occupancy rate (not sure if the low occupancy is due to Covid or $4.10/gal regular)

We found the staff to be very friendly and accommodating.   They were very helpful when we needed to store the rig temporarily to go handle a family emergency.

It is within striking distance of Pinnacles National Park, Fremont Peak State park and the Hollister ORV area.  Slight longer to Monterey with is various attractions.

There is partial week store in the RV park and a "general store" in Paicines that looked pretty small.  Tres Pinos seemed to also have a small general store, so major provisions should be bought in advance in Hollister which is a bit far down Highway 25.

One of the fun things about this park, is the wildlife.  We are not talking about the partying septuagenarians,  but the local creatures.  The deer were not quite hand tame, but they had little fear of humans and were content to maintain a minimal distance.

Lots of quail...

a bunny or two...

A couple of feral pigs...

We didn't get a picture of the bobcat we saw, they are nocturnal and don't care for humans that much.  We didn't see any of the foxes or racoons that reportedly inhabit the area

A travel note:  We will be storing the RV at San Benito for a few days and then doing what we call a "Kamikaze run" to the Winnebago GNR in Forest City Iowa.  We will do 80 from California to Salt Lake City and then we will decide if the approach to Forest City will be from the Northern route or the Southern route.

...And Go!

 June 27,2021 and we finally started the USA tour.

We pulled out of Imperial Manor in Sacramento, wiping away a tear, and headed south.  we were supposed to go north to Bend Oregon, but 105 degree heat and a sketchy power grid convinced us to head instead to Laguna Seca in Monterey County to a) visit a grand daughter and b) enjoy the 65 degree weather.

Laguna Seca is one of RVers best kept secrets.  The campground is located above the world famous race track and while some people may consider that track noise a disadvantage, we consider it a bonus.  There is some low level noise from a nearby shooting range that the dog considers a nuisance.   Doesn't bother us a bit.

The campground is operated by Monterey County Parks and at $45.00 is one of the best priced options in the Monterey Bay area - Thousand Trails not withstanding.  It also has the advantage that you can usually get in there with little notice - unlike any of the other area campground.   Non-potable water (exceeds federal maximum for arsenic - very common on farmland these days.  A lot of people in the campground drink it anyway, the standard is questionable) and no sewers.  30Amp power.  

Caveat:  wife reminded me of the Monterey County Fairgrounds - which has RV sites.  We managed to get in there once during the AT&T open at Pebble Beach. - I didn't care for the RV sites that much, but beggars can't be choosers.

One other caveat:  During major Racing Events (NASCAR, AMA Superbikes etc) the county essentially cedes control of the campground to the event producer - who then rents out the spaces to their fans.  It is usually not possible (and probably very expensive) to get RV space during one of those events.  The ticket office told us that the RV spaces for some events are passed down in family inheritances.

We, unfortunately, had to cancel the run to Glacier National Park, Dubois Wyoming and the ESCAPEES convention at Rock Springs Wyoming.  We will remain in California until July 19.  We will stay at Laguna Seca until July 7, when we need to vacate due to the upcoming Superbike Race.  We are not sure where we will go for the 7 to the 15th.  (RV will parked outside our house 15-18).  Maybe Thousand Trail San Benito.

Ready....Set...

 A frantic couple of weeks.  the author and his wife have both retired now.  About 1/2 the garage is taken up with school supplies, which hopefully our youngest daughter will use in her new classroom and few days of frantically readying the RV.

The RV preps consist mostly of packing and evaluating what we have with an eye to reducing the weights and minor repairs 

Tentative start date, June 21, 2021.

Here's hoping.

One retirement down - one to go - the roadtrip is about to begin

 

Today I draw the curtain on a career in Computer Science that extended over 40 years. 

I started on computers that were car sized behemoths that we actually called "Minis". We programmed them using Hollerith punch cards, paper tape and the switches on the front panel.  I ended my career working on computers that didn't actually exist - virtual machines within other computers where the compute engine is smaller than one of the keys on that PDP-11/45 I spent hours happily toggling in my first job.

And that machine within a machine is located miles away accessed by this remarkable thing called the Internet.  A far cry from the from the TTY-33 over a 110 baud dial-up modem I used in college.  When we got a 300 baud Decwriter I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

And yes, the Internet.  I watched it grow from an interesting thing that a few computer people used to share messages, small files and tons of jokes, to a ubiquitous force that has changed virtually everything we do. 

It even allowed me to court my wife via email - though we worked in offices a couple of doors apart.

I've done fascinating things with computers - working with satellites, signals, commercial applications and even building new computers. 

I’ve met fascinating, capable people.  I’ve even hired incredible capable people that are still out there making a difference

All the companies I worked for were doing amazing things that I was proud to be a part of.  There was one, that I joined as a small operation, and we grew it by orders of magnitude to be the "gorilla in the marketplace".  Sadly, I also got to watch it implode down to be shadow of its former self.

It was that company that taught me that there is a big difference between a manager and a leader.  It taught me that it is not necessarily a compliment when senior management categorizes you as "excellent leader".  It also taught me that you really can't go home again.

My last company and jobs was picked by me for me.  It was a company I admired.  And much to my delight, I got to work with computers and radios.  And they even paid me to do it.  I think I would have done it for free.

 My last company also brought in the newest generation of Computer Scientists.   I stand in awe of their intelligence, knowledge and abilities.  To them I say “Ok, Kids, the torch has been passed.  Run with it”.