Not many of you have yet read my latest book, but if/when you do, you'll find a chapter on the best and worst times to visit various states, including Alabama. In the book, I note that about the worst time to visit Alabama is February, because of a history of ice storms, freezing rain, etc. Well, guess where I spent a large portion of February 2004? ... You guessed it ... Alabama!
I went up to Huntsville for a few weeks to take care of some business and several interesting things happened. No ice storms, no freezing rain, and the weather was actually fairly nice the entire time. A couple of bad thunderstorms, some tornado watches, but hey .. that's Huntsville. I was going to just put a few words about the trip in my March newsletter, but then decided I had much more to say than could be easily included in the newsletter .. hence, this chapter.
Now the biggie -- I can just feel your anticipation.
While in Huntsville, I received an email announcing the pay incentives being offered to those who'd go to work at our new site in Alaska. They were talking about 20% pay increase, plus a $20,000 bonus at the end of the year. All one had to do was be able to complete the work (I could do that), be willing to spend 5 weeks at time doing this work in Alaska, 100 miles North of Fairbanks (I could do that), and not mind the travel from Alaska back home for a week after each 5-week work period (I could do that). I figured I could drive the RV up there (something I've been wanting to do for some time), find a campsite in Delta Junction (I checked and found out such campsites are available), then do the 5 weeks on, 1 week off thing for a year and walk out with a couple hundred thousand to really retire with! I phoned Joyce and asked her what she thought of living in Alaska for about a year -- she really surprised me with "Sounds good to me! Let's go!" Later, she told me that translates to "I'm not going to try to talk you out of it -- hopefully, you'll come to your senses on your own."
Well, things went along fine for a couple of days. I talked to a guy who's living there now to find out more about weather, work conditions, living expenses, etc. I talked to another guy who's taking the Alaska offer and who'd actually RV'd up there several times already, and I spoke to HR about the monetary stuff. On the Saturday morning that I was to leave Huntsville to return to Florida, I woke up rather early. I was creaking and shivering my way to the shower at about 6:30 when I said to myself, "Self, you're too old, too soft, and too comfortable to be going off to Alaska, getting up at some ungodly hour every day, not seeing sunlight for 6 months, and withstanding temperatures alot colder than what it is in Huntsville right now!"
So that's how I almost went to Alaska for a year. I'm still toying with the idea of going up there, but it'll be in the summer, it'll be for a few weeks, and I probably won't go nearly as far up as 100 miles North of Fairbanks.
That's it for February 2004. Hope you found the reading anywhere nearly as entertaining as I did the living of it.
Wait! Almost forgot! What do you do on a lazy, sunny Sunday in a campground in Huntsville? Check out Setting Up My RV ... hahaha.
First a picture ... if you've ever checked out my sunset pages, you've seen several pictures of the Big Rocket at the Space and Rocket Center. Well, here's another.
I couldn't resist this photo! You can just imagine how much trouble I went to in setting it up ... had to find two pilots willing to do the crossed contrails in that specific location, exactly at sunset ... well, you can imagine!
That's the Space Camp building in the forefront of the photo, which you probably can't see without looking at the enlargement.
Click the picture for a larger view.
Now, the interesting happenings! I'm going to relate the lesser ones first, then finish up with the Biggie ... biggie from my perspective, anyway.
Years ago, I discovered a technique for fixing almost anything. This is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I've actually used in on several occasions and had it work! The technique ... take it apart, blow on it, put it back together. hahahaha ... you're laughing, right? HOWEVER, I've used it to fix problems on various vehicles, appliances around the house, ... the list goes on and on. Now, it's probably the taking apart and re-assembling that actually does the fix, but who knows? It doesn't hurt to blow on it .. maybe it's dusty or something. On this trip, I used the technique to fix my RV water heater. One cold morning, I turned it on, waited my prescribed 30 minutes, and jumped in the shower. Wow! Cold Water! I went out and tried the heater again .. it would burn for about 5 seconds, then turn off. Had to skip my shower that morning. Later, I phoned Damon and subsequently a local service company they pointed me to. They suggested turning it on, then going outside and checking the flame, plug/unplug the electric connection, etc. I did that ... BUT ... while I had the connection off, I blew on it. I also blew on the burner. Result? ... Problem fixed! Was it the blowing? ... I think so.
What else? ... ahh .. the motorcycles. My drive from Huntsville back to Florida takes me down U.S. 231 and then East on I-10 across to Tallahassee. About the time I got onto I-10, I started noticing a fair number of motorcycles going the other way. I realized that the big motorcycle week in Daytona had just ended and I was seeing the bikers returning home. Just for curiousity, I started counting. I quit counting at about 300. From there, all the way across I-10, down I-75, and across on FL SR 40, I met bikers and bikers and bikers. Probably on the order of 2 or 3 thousand. One thing that really impressed me were the large number of monster RVs that I saw. About 25% or so of the bikers were in large RVs towing large trailers, frequently painted to match the RV. One that particularly caught my eye was an American Eagle about 45', with a trailer that was taller than the RV! The trailer was painted with the same fancy paint job that the RV had. Very impressive!
As I was watching all those RVs/bikers going by, I got to thinking about Sturgis. Now, I've been to Daytona Bike Week a couple of times and really enjoyed it. Although I don't have a bike, I enjoy looking at the bikes, listening to them, having a couple of beers with the bikers, and just watching all of the goings-on -- guess I'm what you might call a biker wannabe. I've also heard that Sturgis is many more bikes, more parties, more of everything. But, I really don't want to go unless I've got a bike to ride. I'd also like to go with someone who'd been before, so I didn't miss any of the major events. Then, it occurred to me that I have at least three friends/relatives with bikes, some with access to extra bikes. Now, if one of them was to want to go to Sturgis, I'd be willing to provide the RV for travel and living in while we're there. We rent or borrow a trailer, split the gas, and off we go! Anyone interested?
This next little item was something I happened upon by pure chance. I'm including it here because it involves some really great little dogs and an "RV accessory" that I've been looking for. I stopped at an I-75 Rest Area to exercise my toadie's transmission, walk around and stretch a little, and do other things that rest areas are famous for. As I was walking around, I noticed an RV in a separate parking lot not too far away and it looked like he was dumping tanks. Now, for some reason, Florida did away with all of their Rest Area dump stations sometime back, so I found this worth investigating. Using my camera's zoom, I took a closer look and found out he wasn't dumping, he was walking his Pugs, of which there appeared to be several. I grabbed my camera and walked over, only to learn that these RVers had about 7 or so Pugs of various sizes. We travel with 4 dogs and I thought that was about the limit -- they have us by at least 3, maybe more. While I was there, Mrs. kept handing new puppies out and Mr. would send one of the outsiders back in, so I never really did get an accurate count. He was so busy with his pooper-scooper that I really didn't want to bother him, so I just took a few photos and left him to his chores.
What was actually of greater interest to me than the dogs was the fence the guy was using. It was about 2-3 feet high and folded up completely to fit into the RV compartments. I've had something like this in mind for when we park for an extended period with our 4 little dogs, to keep me from having to put leashes on them every time we go outside, but wasn't sure where to look for it. Found out they bought the fence at PetSmart. Since I've seen that it exists, I'm going to also check out Lowe's and Walmart -- if they have it, it'll no doubt be cheaper. I think PetSmart is a neat store to visit, but their prices are generally high.
As usual, click any picture for a close-up.
Daddy Pug -- Just won a show in North Carolina
Puppies, mommas, and Big Daddy, all in separate pen areas
57. Weather, Repairs, Bikes, Pugs, and Alaska
My Travel Log
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