Author: srj641

When I was a kid, living with my Grand Parents in the piedmont of South Carolina, I was exposed to the art of growing fine tobacco. I can remember the government carefully measuring EC Cooke’s tobacco crop and demanding he plow a row or two under, as he had exceeded his allotment. I have never used the stuff but do remember the warm smell of freshly cured tobacco lying on a wooden floor being graded and tied by my family for sale at auction. Oregon finds itself in need of a similar control in the growing and processing of its prodigious crop of cannabis sativa, aka weed, pot, grass, ganja, bud, kush, puff or any of the other 1,000 or so names. Their market is soft, the result of legalization in other states resulting in an over supply of the dangerous weed. Damn the bad luck.

In Oregon you can grow up to four plants for personal use, a majority of the big grow operations are outdoors and you must erect a barrier to block it from public view. They have a lot of experience with this business, and it shows. There are any number of aging “hippies” along the coast, many of which are buzzed out, drifting about with their rather large group of homeless folks. This is the case in the delightful small towns along the Pacific Coast Highway, but we’ll never know if this is the case in their runaway cities. It is a gorgeous state, replete with natural resources that defy imagination. They also produce award winning wine, specifically Pinot Noir. I am clueless about fine wine, having consumed a fair amount of Rosey O’Grady and Boones’s Farm when coming of age. I like it sweet, if at all, and find dry wines to be a test of my will.

We are currently on the harbor in Coos Bay Oregon, the biggest town on US 101, in their state, at around 15,000 good folks. The temperatures have been running around 70 for the high and the upper 50’s for the low. Salt water sport fishing is the order of the day here and they like tourists. They should, as marijuana, wine and logging are what is happening in these parts and tourists bring a lot of money to the area, with good reason. It is breathtakingly gorgeous, period.

I’ll let pictures do the talking.

A final word. There are any number of internet warriors who suggest that Highway 101 is a problem. It is not, at least in Oregon. It is in great condition, overall, but you must stay focused. The locals are tolerant and pass in one of the numerous passing zones, and there are ample pull outs to swing over and let the buildup behind you go by. A trip along this road, in our 230i convertible, would be priceless. The hamlets and towns are rustic, clean and fun. Fuel is a dollar cheaper than California and readily available. Food is expensive and you need to choose carefully where you seek respite. We go where the locals go and avoid the tourist traps that are inevitable. We have enjoyed the ride and are getting into an interesting phase of our journey, northern Oregon and Washington State, where Victoria Island awaits. If I could, I would bottle up this weather and send it to my people in Missouri. The alternative, for you is obvious!

Have a great week, SR.

We are presently reposing in a chicken yard cleverly disguised as a RV park in scenic Weed, Ca. The town is named after a fellow, Abner Weed, who in 1961 established a lumber business hereabouts. We made the drive from Reno to Mt. Shasta where we enjoyed lunch among the youthful crowd in this pretty village. We were in the shadow of this magnificent mountain, towering some 14,000’ above the Cascade Range, where we enjoyed a lunch and Miss Sharon quaffed a gigantic blackberry Maggie-Rita. The designated driver enjoyed a damned Pepsi. The drive north was fantastic, with beautiful tall pine forests much of the way. The roads were a 6-7 with good shoulders and nominal traffic. Weed is a few miles north of Mt. Shasta, just off I-5.

It is hard to imagine that Californians elected Gravel Nusance their Governor and the likes of Fancy Potted as a representative. In fairness, up here we passed a number of Trump signs and not a single Joey B sign. Being a sleuth, I quickly deduced that much of California’s budget woes are the result of deer crossing warning signs, located about every 10 miles or so on their highways, advising of frequent deer movements, some miles ahead. The warned highways overlap one another and they could save money by putting up a big neon sign suggesting you were going to hit a deer if you weren’t concentrating on the immediate road ahead. It figures, the deer are as restless as Californians in general, who are fleeing the state in huge numbers.

Now, about the campground. It has a large chicken pen, replete with old Shasta trailers acting as coops. I managed to capture a picture of Roho, the boss rooster who was selecting his roost partner for the evening. Several of his harem were outside their pen, wandering through the campground precluding anyone from walking about at dusk. You are quite likely to step where you should not, resulting in your shoes reeking of Democratic cologne, or pardon me, chicken shite.

Tomorrow we will be out of California and travelling north into Oregon in search of the coastal gem, US 101. An additional thought, I shopped for diesel fuel and finally found a bargain at 5.43 a gallon. The pump ran hot as it delivered this fuel with the cost meter turning at breakneck speed. Some more of their government at work…..

Have a great week!

SR

Rather than bore my readers with loads of “vacation” pictures, I thought I would summarize the past week in and around Zion, Bryce Canyon, and the Arches National parks. There are thousands of commercially shot pictures of these parks that eclipse our talent behind the camera, or a viewfinder that my friend, Mike, in Springfield relies upon.

In a word, these parks offer a panorama of majestic rock formations, scenery, and ease of travel through them. Succinctly put, Zion is magnificent, Bryce awe inspiring and the Arches unique. Zion was our favorite, but you would not want to miss the other two. Be sure and get your senior pass to visit these parks without paying admission fees of around 30 bucks a shot. I strongly recommend bringing a lunch and/or plethora of snacks and drinks as they are not available once you enter. It will save a fight over half a moldy protein bar later. Only the south rim of the Grand Canyon is open, the north rim being destroyed by wildfire in the past two weeks, driving the tourist crowd to the south side. The air can be iffy at this point so be careful, particularly if an inhaler is in your pocket.

Now for the local flavor. The Navajo Indian people, by far and way are stand offish and not particularly welcoming. I was surprised, even though I understand their history. Page, Arizona is the key to Powell Lake’s Glenn Canyon dam and the lower reaches of a nearly 200 mile long lake. The food was a 4-5 on a 10 scale and outside of Wal-Mart and a very good Safeway store, there existed an infrastructure I suspect is typical of a town founded in 1957. Next up was the charming town of Kanab, Utah. It was rustic, and laid back with a very friendly vibe. We then moved northwest through Utah, with neat small towns (super clean), terrific roads and vistas that were grand. You barely notice the miles clicking off. We returned to a highly tourist and commercially developed Moab, (we were there years ago to a different atmosphere.)We try to dine in most of the time, as restaurants costs are exorbitant. So far, we have not been rocked by any particular place, and we dig deep for local flavor off the beaten path. Of note, we are Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club pharmacy clients and obtaining the occasional refill at stores out west has been as easy as home.

We are striking out tomorrow across Nevada, into Col. Paul Corbin territory, and stopping in Reno to check out the gambling situation. We are on a tight casino budget, as in 20 bucks each, as I once regulated this industry in Missouri, and understand the business. Mathematically challenged folks should not enter these places. The RV parks at these establishments tend to be very reasonable, clean and accessible. We have yet to be burned in a casino park.

We have received conflicting advice on traveling Highway 101 north up the Oregon Coast. A dear friend, experienced in RV’ing says no way. Other folks say yes, just take your time as it is allegedly beautiful. This road is an RV favorite, and as a trooper, I am used to adverse traffic issues, and have infinite patience (well, the adverse traffic issue thing is right..🤨). We are all in on this adventure and hope we haven’t made a big mistake.

We have embraced the full time RV thing and love our modest trailer. Cirrus the Ram is proving to be strong and trouble free. One month in, the jitters are resolved and we are officially vagabonds.

(We are striking camp in the nick of time as the smoke from wildfires has reached us. Utah and Arizona are struggling with fire.)

Until next week!

SR

This week, we visited a modern laundromat for obvious reasons. My experience in a laundromat was limited to college days when you sort of washed stuff in one load, dried it and left wondering why all your clothing was changing to the same color, usually pink or gray. On the road, my regimen is to drop Sharon off and head to a coffee shop to grab a couple of brews for us. Not this week as my planning and logistics manager insisted I stay the course and learn the intricacies of washing clothes in a commercial establishment. Uh……

To be successful in the RV business, you must have skills or training in sanitation management, electrical systems, water management, mechanics, carpentry, chemistry and mechanical engineering. You also need at least two rolls of Gorilla Tape, useful in most of the above noted regimens. In addition to my cartography skills (paper maps in Vietnam and artillery) I also agreed to sitting through basic laundry 101. My hat is off to whomever handles that responsibility in your compound. You need to master fabrics, soaps, bleaches, dryer sheets, fabric softeners, computers and financial planning. I will never take this responsibility lightly again!

Today’s commercial washers (costing between 5K and 16K EACH) will wash the hell out of your clothes. You pay for each load with an app on your phone. Each load costs between 6 and 15 dollars and is spun out in around 30 minutes. Dryer cycles run around a buck for 20 minutes. Extra time on a dryer can be bought by the minute for 1.25 but you’ll quickly see you are ahead buying another full cycle which requires moving to another dryer. Temperature control in all respects is a skill that requires lots of experience.

My concept of folding clothes did not meet Sharon’s standards. She thought I would do better just tossing stuff in a bag randomly. Believe me, I have it down now.

A thousand pardons to skilled laundry practitioners. I grossly underestimated the nuances of doing it correctly. The preservation of colors and the continued fit of clothing is far more complicated than what I remember on the back porch with my grandmother. We had a wringer washer, a tub for rinsing and a tub with some magic stuff called blueing. Our dryer was a wire between two posts and a gentle South Carolina breeze. Please take a moment to thank the scientist in your home who does the laundry. Times have changed…..

Have a great week!

SR

We are spending the holidays still ensconced in beautiful Page Arizona. As I write, a motorized para-glider is gingerly flying over the RV park, enjoying a rare respite from the seemingly incessant wind. We are easterners in the minds of the populace here, very much in tune with the beauty of the midwest. That beauty comes with near constant ambient light and noise.

It gets dark here. I am talking about cave tour, turn off your flashlight kind of dark. There is no ambient light where we are and you can see the heavens much more clearly. The quiet is disconcerting. Step outside and hear nothing…..no traffic, folks puttering about, lawn mowers. In Edgar Allen Poe terms, it must be similar to the day they close the lid and cover you with dirt…..

We walked the docks this week and were thunderstruck by the size and opulence of the houseboats in their berths. The docks are wide enough and long enough to accommodate small service trucks, pedestrians and the endless stream of UTV’s loading the houseboats with a convenience store sized inventory of stuff necessary to enjoy a week or two anchored in a niche on this puddle called lake Powell. We can pick up our cellphone, dial a few numbers and presto, bingo, a courtesy cart will be at your site and transport you to your boat, the restaurant or any of the other amenities found here. When you do back your mammoth barge out, you provide the marina with the coordinates where you will be and they will send an “anchoring crew” to anchor your boat! Apparently there is a trick to doing that when shore is a sheer rock wall. That and many of the folks we see maneuvering the armada around here have not a clue how to drive the damned things. Out of curiosity, we inquired about the rental of a houseboat. Not a problem if you have 2 grand a day for the nicer ones. Another observation….there are several ramps to shuck your ski boat into the creek, one for do it yourselfers and one where a professional launch artist puts her in for you. The carnage around the do it yourself ramp reminds me of Gaza……you get my point.

I did notice a bass boat, equipped with power poles, slip into a tie down for a sandwich, I am guessing. I laughed, as the depth of this lake would require power poles about 100’ long. As long as I am mentioning things, there is a proliferation of young beauties whose bathing suits would not make a kids slingshot, leading me to the conclusion that a dermatologist would do quite well here. Money that you weigh instead of count, big boats and gold chains seem to attract these little girls. Bass boats do not.

So the day is started, a fuel truck is on site and the games begin. Have a wonderful holiday and join the masses that love America. May a police baton leave an indelible impression on those who hate. America is on the mend and all is well.

SR

We have made it to the shores of Lake Powell in scenic Arizona, very near the Arizona-Utah line. The lake is magnificent, dwarfing our Lake of the Ozarks, offering 186 miles of shoreline, 25 miles wide at its widest point and an average depth of 132’. We are in Navajo Indian country and for the first time in my life, I understand why the Indians were so mean. It is the heat, described as “dry heat”, whatever in hell that means. Our tour is the elimination tour and we chose to experience Arizona in the hottest time of the year. We have eliminated Arizona, at least in the arid lowlands. If you get to 7,000’, say in Flagstaff, the weather moderates considerably, apparently the Indians didn’t figure this out. As a point of reference, most folks around here have no idea what “humidity” even is. The climate accounts for the orneriness of the abundant rattlesnakes and scorpions….there are signs everywhere to not pet the snakes. One last point, a 20 MPH wind is described locally as a breeze.

In a strange sort of way, the place is beautiful, well except for the proliferation of old trailer houses where your wealth is showcased by how many tires are on the roof. I suspect the affluent folks choose radials as opposed to bias ply truck tires, which are likely too heavy to hoist onto your roof anyhow. We have scored wonderful parks to set up the Taz M-Haul, especially the one we are in now named Antelope Point. It is paved, with Astro-turf to set your chairs and grill on, level and filled with RV’s ranging from our modified hillbilly rig to 500,000+ coaches. The park is adjacent to a huge marina, run by the Navajo Nation. Half of the population of rural Arizona is here for the weekend, with houseboats and top tier ski boats everywhere. My logistics officer, Sharon, is a meticulous planner, landing us in places like a secluded but a very nice place named Homolovi, which the Mormons chose to build a settlement on but got the hell out of there after a summer or two. The sign there suggested they had great difficulty raising crops (it is on the banks of the little Colorado river…..a ditch to a Missourian). No kidding!

We are here for an extended stay as it is close to the Grand Canyon and a dozen other national treasures, which you can drive to or boat around. We probably won’t see much on a boat tour, as I am insisting we go at night or dawn, lest you become mummified in the heat. I am including several photos to illustrate our journey so far. As a final point, I found myself in the wrong lane entering the park, as the sign telling you which lane to be in was about the size of a paper plate and placed well beyond the point you could make an adjustment. A native lady manned the booth and was not in a good mood, probably because her restroom facility was a porti-potty that smelled like death from 100’ away. She chastised us and I responded by suggesting that whoever placed the sign was somewhat mentally challenged. She was irritated and I can become irritated right back at ‘ya. I cut her some slack though, as I have a First Calvary decal on the RV and I am sure she has relatives who took umbrage at anything related to Calvary!

have a great week!

SR

We knew it would be hot but failed to anticipate the winds today as we visited the museum and memorial dedicated to the Murrah Federal Building bombing in 1995. The museum is the best curated museum I have ever visited, and I have been to many. The simplicity of the memorial is both beautiful and moving. The museum is an emotion racking experience with vivid descriptions of the tremendous response by the various emergency services who turned absolute chaos into an organized and tremendously effective exercise in handling a mass casualty event. Should you attend, allow at least two hours to see and feel the events of the day at this National Park.

After the museum we walked the 4 or so blocks to the famous Devon building, said to be the tallest building in Oklahoma at 50 stories. We made reservations for the lunch buffet on the top floor, offering an incredible panorama of Oklahoma City and the surrounding countryside. The restaurant goes by the name Vast and was allegedly a wonderful place to enjoy an upscale luncheon buffet, replete with what is described as a terrific dessert offering. The building is an architectural masterpiece in steel and glass with the fastest elevator in the midwest.

Our anticipation did not meet the realities of the buffet. The food was very average, the selection limited to two mediocre meat offerings, a few vegetables and a soup that was mysterious and underwhelming. Sharon is a veteran of 27 tours in the classroom and elementary education and her summary of the dining experience was succinct and accurate. She described the main courses as bad elementary cafeteria food. My brutal assessment is augmented by the cost of the meal for us, in the 70.00 range. Sorry Vast……

Oklahoma City, downtown, is a super clean city that is very pedestrian friendly. We were surprised at the relatively few folks moving around during the lunch hour, being used to KC and STL downtown foot traffic. The lack of enthusiasm today may be the result of the Pacers thorough thrashing of the Thunder from Indy. We can attest…they take basketball as seriously here as we do the Chiefs and NFL.

Tomorrow we move on to Amarillo, Texas to take the pulse of this north Texas town steeped in cowboy lore. Yesterday we visited the Will Rogers museum in Claremore, another very nice place honoring this ordinary man with an extraordinary wit and ability to communicate. He is one of my favorite Americans, although we discovered he was a lifelong Democrat, a fact I failed to note over the years.

I promise not to turn my blogs into a rendition of “my vacation” but will continue to report on the neat things we see as we motor on.

Have a good week and watch the heat…..gonna be a scorcher in Missouri!

SR

It takes a lot of courage to sell your home and move into a 30’ RV. Another way to look at it is that you must have suffered a stroke somewhere along the way (I have, actually) and are willing to throw caution to the wind. Motivations aside, we did it. There is a degree of romanticism involved and, to be certain, uncertainty.

Our brief career as real estate agents is behind us, and we turned the keys to the Johnson compound over to its new caretakers this past Tuesday. I have a good number of friends in the real estate sales industry and mean absolutely no disrespect to them, but selling a home is not a difficult proposition. Times have changed as have the rules today. I owe our success here to Sharon’s tenacity. A lecture or two recounting our success at selling various vehicles, boats and the jetsom and flotsam of life convinced Sharon that we could sell ourselves and save a pile of money. I was not convinced, but am now.

We have stored our earthly possessions, our cars and clothes in Springfield, as one day, perhaps sooner than later, we fully intend to return to normalcy with a new compound somewhere, likely still in western Missouri. Sharon has enjoyed stability most of her life, raised on a farm, but embraces travel with gusto. My life has been anything but stable, the result of being an Army brat and the penchant of the Highway Patrol for relocation as you advance. We love people and are excited about the prospect of meeting new folks. Our years of RV travel have eliminated many of the surprises attendant to a nomadic lifestyle.

Health concerns prompted me to fight my absolute love of food with a little belly shot once a week. GLP-1 has managed to consume 23 pounds of excess in 5 weeks. No more pre-diabetes, no more high blood pressure and no more runaway appetite. Long term success remains to be seen, but I sleep better than I have in 30 years. By the end of the year I will be at my fighting weight, last seen in the Academy. For those who see us as long in the tooth for this adventure, fear not, age is just a thing. We refuse to let the old man (woman) in.

We will develop a good number of relationships with interesting folks who have a story to tell, and write about them and the places we find. We are “off the road” travelers who revel in hidden eateries and places. Our parameters are clearly defined with little travel in blue states and a reluctance to spend even a single dime in them. We are done with mealy mouthed Democrats and their abandonment of sanity these days.

God willing, we will return to our roots wiser, and with a deeper appreciation for the geography and culture of folks different than us…..but not too different as in liberals. We’ll stay in touch and keep the Taz-M-Haul’s awning lights on!

Have a good week!

SR

Since the election of Mr. Trump, and giving the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth his due credit, our military is enjoying tremendous recruiting success. Folks do not join a military organization to be woke and share a fighting position with a sexually confused person. The motivations are many and I applaud this resurgence in the popularity of our Armed Services. Recruiters are well schooled in answering the questions that are posed by folks interested in this early option in life, but I have seen little written about the long term effects of military service. Until now.

You WILL change as a result of your experience. Some changes are in your face, some very subtle. I am an Army brat and served a hitch in the US Army, replete with a tour in Vietnam. The memories are etched into my mind.

We are all proud of some aspects in our life. The military is going to instill pride in your soul. You will learn to function in tandem with another soldier, squad, platoon and company. You learn to feed on the strengths of your fellow men and women and to understand human frailty. I was an artillery Fire Direction Control specialist. It was my computed data that was fed into an artillery piece guiding the deadly munition to an appropriate target. While proud of this experience, I have an unbridled respect for the incredible power of a well led rifle company. The combat arms branches, where steel meets flesh, is but a small part of the massive machine our military represents. There are millions of good soldiers, airmen and sailors who have supported the point of the spear, the combat arms. Your post military pride will know no bounds, nor should it.

You will learn to do as you are told, with no compromise. A combat action requires a carefully choreographed weave of disciplines and duties. Our young people today desperately need this discipline and for once in your life you will know and appreciate it. You will understand the necessity for uniformity in your existence. If subjected to a deployment, you will learn to manage fear and turn this emotion in to strength. The very real possibility of dying sharpens your mental and physical reflex in ways you could not have imagined.

You will develop a lifetime and deep appreciation for the concept of leadership. The military quickly separates bullshit artists from leaders. This ability will follow you in life. You will develop an appreciation for your limits in life, whether they be physical or mental. Your ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment will be sharpened and you will rely on this ability for the rest of your life.

Finally, you will have earned the standing to raise hell about the political climate in our country. The proliferation of the aforementioned bullshit artists that permeate government will cause you to wince and smile simultaneously, another skill you will have developed.

If your son, daughter, or grandchild is headed in this direction, smile. Rest assured they will be better for it!

Have a great week!

SR

We both were raised in modest environments, Sharon in neat farm homes and me in a military officer’s abode where excesses simply did not exist. Notwithstanding her father who kept every nut and bolt and other pieces of stuff that you tend to accumulate in a machinery shed, if we didn’t need and use it, we didn’t own it.

We have scheduled the fabled three men and a truck to load out our furniture, my tool chests and outdoor cooking appliances. We need young muscle for those tasks although the move to a storage facility is a short one. We decided to move our “household goods” ourselves, the other stuff you collect over time. It is important to note that we lived at Truman Lake for ten years, collected quite an array of stuff and chose a reputable auction service to assist us when we left. In short we left with the clothes on our back and enough tools to fill a widow’s tool box. That my readers is the way to do it….start fresh with new stuff and roll on.

I asked Sharon as we lifted another carefully packed and labeled box into our storage facility if she believed we are hoarders. We agree that we must be. When we finally settle someplace, it will be after another glorious sale of the jetsom and flotsam we have collected in ten short years. We have stuff we have never used and lots of stuff we used once. The retail world loves us especially the outlets that sell clothes. Hundreds of pounds of clothes, some the result of a waistline that is anything but static, some impulse buys, some from our professional existence and a precious couple of items we wear regularly. It is no small wonder third world countries despise us.

I could provide detail to support our realization that we have crossed some line in the acquisition of stuff but it is embarrassing. One simple example of our full throttled consumer lifestyle is a huge box filled with bird feeders. Birds could care less what they eat out of as long as they eat. I am sure some of my feeders would attract a flock of Pterodactyls if they were still flying around. I am equally sure this concern is addressed in the hundreds of pounds of books from our library.

Suffice to say, this new realization has jolted us into reality. We are getting ready to live in a modest travel trailer which will be refreshing as the favorite shirt I always reach for is likely to be one of a precious few items in the wardrobe. We are about to find out what a modest living environment is all about. We are going to shake this self described hoarder lifestyle and learn to exist without the trappings of a runaway consumer. Wish us luck….and do not judge us harshly. Look around your own abode before you ridicule us, uh huh, just what I thought.

Have a great week!

SR