Tag: RV Life

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park

October 17, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

Dayton, Ohio

We drove two hours south the other day to visit the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park in Dayton, Ohio, and get my stamp and sticker in my National Park book. We didn’t realize this was in the heart of downtown Dayton and finding a place to park was difficult.

There are times we become a bit concerned about the area we are entering and driving through. We passed several police cars with people pulled over and lights flashing. The entire area looked quite poor and rundown, except for the buildings that were part of the park. But I refuse to be afraid when we travel. I will not live in fear.

The Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP commemorates Orville and Wilbur Wright who turned cloth, wood, bicycle chains, and gears into the first heavier-than-air airplane. Established in 1992, this national park includes six unique sites, each highlighting a different part of the story.

The Wright Cycle Company (shown in the main photo above behind the park sign) and the visitor center is the first place to begin. These two buildings are right beside each other. The cycle shop was closed the day we were there. This building was actually the fourth cycle shop location operated by the Wright brothers and is the only remaining testament to their cycle operation.

The visitor center was open. It is a beautiful building and the workers inside were extremely nice and helpful. The first thing we did was walk through the small museum.

The photo below is a replica of the 1902 Wright Glider. It’s the first display you see when you enter the museum. It has a wing span of 32 feet and weighs 117 pounds empty.

Located at the corner of South Williams and West Third Street, the visitor center and museum contains exhibits on every phase of the Wright brothers’ lives, exhibits about aviation history in the Dayton area, and exhibits about the life and works of poet and writer Paul Laurence Dunbar.

The house is the third building that is part of the park and is located on North Paul Laurence Dunbar Street. Dunbar purchased this house in 1904 for his mother Matilda. He lived here after he became too sick from tuberculosis to travel. He died in 1906. His mother lived here until she died in 1934. Free tours are available on select days and it was closed the day we were there.

Did you know that the Wright brothers not only figured out how to fly through the air, but they also built a better bicycle with improved brakes?

The Frank B. Hale Grocery store was also located here in the early 1900s. For seventeen years Hale sold canned goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, and other goods to the people of Dayton, including the Wright brothers and Paul Laurence Dunbar. This grocery store replica has been carefully furnished with historically correct items to show what it looked like at the time.

In 1920, the Wrights opened the first factory in the United States designed especially for building airplanes. They had just returned from a European tour and came home to Dayton with orders to build three airplanes. The factory is going to be the newest part of this National Park but is not yet open to the public.

Located on West Third Street is this 1905 Wright Flyer III Sculpture. The Wright Flyer III was the third powered aircraft by the Wright Brothers and was built during the winter of 1904–05. Orville made the first flight with it on June 23, 1905.

I love traveling the country and visiting all the national parks and historic sites. I hope you enjoyed this little tour of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park.

Do you collect stamps and stickers of the National Parks?

Thanks for reading.

Have You Seen the Yellow Rubber Ducks in Jeeps?

October 12, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

So what do they mean?

Traveling around the country as we do, we have noticed some of the other people in RVs that tow Jeeps behind have their Jeep windshield dashes covered with little yellow rubber ducks.

I’ve never asked anyone about it before, but often wondered what the reason and significance of it is.

We had to make a trip to the Newmar Parts and Service Center the other day and I immediately saw these little rubber ducks for sale all over the store.

We don’t have a Jeep, but I wanted one anyway, mostly because it says Newmar on it. I have a Newmar. If you are going to collect something as you travel, why not cute little yellow rubber ducks?

I decided to research and find out more about this strange infatuation.

Duck, Duck, Jeep

According to an article at parade.com, Jeep Ducking was started by one woman in Canada in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. She just wanted to spread some kindness and put a smile on a stranger’s face.

She placed a cute little rubber duck on the hood of their Jeep with a note that said, “Nice Jeep,” sat in her car, and watched their reaction. Sure enough, they smiled, took the duck, placed it on the dash, and drove away.

She did it again, and again, and before she knew it, other Jeep owners were doing it too. It took off like wildfire.

They began “ducking” other Jeeps and also spread the word through Facebook and Instagram. The trend took off like wildfire and now there are over 68,000 members in her Jeep ducking Facebook group. The trend has spread now all throughout Canada, all 50 states, and even countries like Spain and Australia. It just shows how easy it is to get on board with a simple act of kindness! — parade.com

You’ve been ducked

Evidently, Jeep owners are a tight community and are “ducking” other Jeep owners. Some have their own “duck pond” on their dash. They keep all the ducks they get and buy new ones to give away.

Do a Google search for “Duck, Duck, Jeep” and you’ll get more than 20 million results!

And it isn’t just Jeep owners anymore. Everyone else got jealous and wanted to collect cute little rubber duckies on their dashes too. According to Car Talk, ducking has become very popular and widespread.

The trend has spread well beyond Jeeps. Drivers of other marques, looking to get in on the fun, have started ducking each other. We have seen examples of Bronco ducking, Mustang ducking, and some particularly inventive Toyota-loving wags are selling green rubber ducks with pointy ears for — what else — Ducking Yotas.

I found several great articles that helped explain the simple concept of Jeep Ducking to me. Car Talk, Readers Digest, and Parade are just a few among the millions.

So, if you drive a Jeep, don’t be surprised if someone “ducks” you.

What a great way to spread kindness in a world that needs it. Kindness is a ripple effect. It spreads from one person to another, and soon it can change the world.

Thanks for reading and coming along with us on our travels.

 

An Excuse To Go For A Drive

October 11, 2023 – Traveling with Rich & Julie

To the RV repair store

It was a beautiful sunny morning and I secretly wished we could go venturing out and about. I had surgery on my knee a few weeks ago, and we had to come home to Ohio for the months of September and October. I originally planned on being somewhere else by now.

I am biting at the bullet to get going somewhere, anywhere. The nights are getting chilly in Ohio, and we have had frost warnings with temperatures down in the 30s.

Lately, we have simply been bombarded and swamped with repairs on the RV. It is a great motorhome and I love it to death, but we are both getting sick and tired of things going wrong one after another. It is twenty years old now and it makes me doubt our plans to hit the road and take off. Will we break down again after only 500 miles of travel?

Let’s stay positive and hope not.

Anyhoo —

The last time we put the bedroom slide out, the bottom seal broke loose, and we knew it needed replaced, but it wasn’t a vital fix. We have had several expensive vital fixes lately, and I figured the seal could wait.

I said something to Rich on Monday that when the slide went out and the seal broke, I heard a bang. He heard it too. But something told me we better try to put the slide back in just to make sure it would close ok without a new seal. Good thing I did.

Nothing.

We pushed the button, and nothing happened. There was no click, no motor sound, no movement. Just nothing. WTF?

Uh, oh.

We checked the front slide…nothing there either. Surely both motors couldn’t have gone bad at the same time. We did find one blown fuse, but all we got was a clicking sound that was coming from the slide-out controller box.

We called the Newmar Parts and Service department and found out that a new slide-out controller box was going to cost us $170.00. And while we were at it, I asked about a new seal for the rear slide and that price came to $30.00. Damn, another $200 bucks with no guarantees that it would fix the issue. Once you plug the wires into the new controller it is non-returnable. But at least the new seal was only $30.

The Newmar Parts and Service store is located in Nappanee, Indiana. We could be there in 90 minutes. We hopped in the car and went for a drive to buy our parts.

I was pleased with the service we received and how nice the partsman was. He even gave us an in-store discount for coming to get our own parts, but with tax, and the cute little rubber ducky I purchased, it still came to $200.

We got home and plugged in the new controller box, and it blew another fuse. !@#$%^&. We go through those fuses like crazy. Once we got another new fuse put in, the front slide began working, but the rear one still just clicked.

Ok, a half-fix is better than a no-fix. We always try to start with the cheapest fix and work our way up. Kind of like in August when we just had the throttle body cleaned for less than $100, but then two weeks later had to replace it anyway for $700. 🙁

Eventually, Rich figured out that the rear motor burned up and a new one is going to cost $535. No, thank you, Newmar. Can’t we just manually crank that sucker in?

He found one on Amazon for only $349, but I am still not happy with that price either. At least not today. I’m just so frustrated at the cost of repairs lately eating up our traveling funds.

So today we are attempting to replace the bottom seal on the rear slide. Not a fun or an easy job. I keep telling him there is probably a Mickey Mouse easy way to do this that we aren’t getting, and we are trying to do it the hard way. YouTube Videos were not much help here.

But that’s how we learn.

Five hours later, Rich hollers — “I think I figured it out!”

I love living the dream, even on the days when repairs suck the happiness out of both of our smiles. It isn’t all glamour and fun like most people think it is. But it does have its moments.

PS — I bought a Powerball ticket. Can’t win unless you play.

Thanks for reading. 

We Have To Dump Today

September 30, 2023 – Traveling With Rich & Julie

One of the everyday ordinary mundane activities of living life in an RV motorhome is that you must dump the tanks, which means driving to an RV dump station.

There are two separate tanks. The gray water tank consists of the drains from the sinks in the kitchen and bathroom and the shower drain.

The black water is the toilet only.

When we park in our daughter’s driveway or yard, we have water and electricity but no sewer line. This requires us to close up the motorhome and pull out about every two weeks to drive somewhere and go dump the tanks.

I bought a book titled RV Dump Stations last year that lists places where you can dump either for free or for a small fee all across America.

That’s how I discovered that our local fairground allows travelers to pull in and dump for free. It is only about six miles away.

One time we pulled into the fairground and there was a sign on the station that said, “The dump is full. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Now what?

There are two local campgrounds in our area so I called them to ask if they would allow us to dump. Only one of them had a station for dumping and said they charged $5. That’s not bad at all.

The other campground was smaller and only had sewer hookups in each individual campsite, so their answer was no.

Our current RV is nice but it is twenty years old now and we have been having a lot of problems with it recently, such as mechanical issues like the throttle body, serpentine belt, exhaust manifold, etc. Expensive issues.

I think we are both concerned about leaving home and heading south for the winter, but we can’t wait too long.

Rich works hard to keep the RV running right. Today will be a beneficial drive to make sure it sounds ok and everything is working fine before embarking on another season of traveling.

My knee is about as healed as it is going to get. It still hurts when I walk, but at least I can walk now. I will always have this limp and need to wear a knee support brace, but I am tired of sitting at home.

PS — it stinks when we dump. I am so glad Rich doesn’t make me do it. I would probably gag. 🤮

Thanks for reading my dumb story…I mean my dump story. 😃

 

No Makeup in the RV

September 20, 2023 – Traveling With Rich & Julie

(Photo by Nick Noel on Unsplash)

I completely stopped wearing makeup when we moved into the RV full-time. I didn’t wear a lot of makeup anyway, but I wouldn’t be caught dead without eyeliner on.

I worked in an office and rarely had to go out front to work with the customers. I wore the minimum to work — eyeliner and maybe some lip gloss.

Of course, I did go through the years when I wore makeup regularly, but I am 59 now and don’t really remember much about those years.

In recent years, eyeliner was always my one required item. I think because my hair is light which makes my eyebrows and eyelashes light. I haven’t worn much mascara for several years because I always wore contact lenses, and it bothered my eyes. But eyeliner made my eyes pop out. It is my favorite piece of makeup.

I never wore much makeup in high school either. I was never into makeup that much.

Living in an RV and camping a lot gives me no reason to wear makeup daily. Rich has always said I look fine without it. My makeup is put away in a shoebox tub in my closet and I only pulled it out when Rich’s mom died in April. I wore makeup for the funeral. But just eyeliner and lip gloss.

I bet every bit of the makeup I have in that tub is expired. But what would be the purpose of buying new makeup? It would just expire too.

The Accidental Friends We Make Along Way

September 19, 2023 – Traveling With Rich & Julie

The best part of RVing is the people you meet along the way.

One of the things Rich and I love most about traveling around to different campgrounds is meeting new people and making new friends.

Rich is always walking around the campgrounds and talking to everyone. He finds out where they are from, what they do for a living, and where they are going.

I am usually the quiet one, just listening.

But there was one time when I made a friend. We were in the state of Washington at a state park campground. Neighbors pulled into the site right beside us. The dogs didn’t seem to like each other and were barking the entire time these people were trying to set up.

Eventually, when the dogs calmed down, the man came over and introduced himself and it was as if we had always known him. Soon his wife came over and she and I hit it off immediately. We talked for hours.

We spent a couple of days getting to know each other and spending time together. I believe when you feel an instant connection with someone you need to listen to that feeling and embrace the connection.

Rich and I still stay in touch with this couple we met in Washington and hope to get back out there to see them.

Before we left the state, they invited us to their home and fed us steak and crab legs. We had a wonderful visit with them, and they will always be important to us.

I can’t wait to head south in a couple of weeks and see what new friends we will meet this year.

 

America the Beautiful National Park Pass

September 17, 2023 – Traveling With Rich & Julie

America is beautiful!

Rich and I have always loved traveling and seeing the country. We love the outdoors and nature. We crave the simple peacefulness of nature and have spent our lives together taking every chance we can to travel and see the beauty around us.

We spent many years hiking and taking day trips to nearby parks and places. We spent some time tent camping at State Parks. As of April 2022, we sold our sticks and bricks home, sold nearly everything we own, and bought an RV. We have both officially retired from our day jobs and are full-time travelers now in our RV.

In preparing to spend the rest of our lives exploring as much as we can of this beautiful country, we found out that it would greatly benefit us to purchase an America the Beautiful Pass.  Discovering that most national sites and parks charge a hefty entrance fee, it was financially smart to purchase this pass for $80 for one year.

Each pass admits the pass owner and all people in the vehicle to all national sites and federal recreation lands.

Rich turned 62 in December of 2022, so we purchased a lifetime pass for him. With this, we get to visit any national park or monument without paying any entrance fee for the rest of his life.

I highly recommend considering this purchase if you expect to visit very many national park sites this year.

Thanks for coming along with us on all our traveling adventures.

Preparing for the Migration South

September 5, 2023 – Traveling With Rich & Julie

(Photo by Julia Craice on Unsplash)

Winters in Ohio are just too cold.

We moved into an RV in April 2022 and have been traveling around America full-time ever since. We come home to our daughters’ house in Ohio to see family when the weather is nice. We don’t like the bitter cold of Ohio winters, and it isn’t feasible to live here in the RV during the cold months. So usually, by the end of October, we are heading south somewhere warm.

Once my torn meniscus is fixed on September 13th, the surgeon said I should be able to walk within 7 to 10 days without pain. I sure hope so, because we are itching to leave and go places. For Rich and I, it is definitely the sense of excitement, possibility, and adventure that drives us to migrate. For our daughter and her family, they are sad when we leave and miss us terribly.

I always send the kids postcards from the places we visit and they love getting them in the mail. We video call a lot so we get to see the ones we miss regularly. Is it bad that Rich and I would rather be traveling and exploring and don’t miss them as much as they miss us?

From Ohio, the plan is to head to Alabama this year. We are scheduled to be in northern Alabama for the month of November, and southern Alabama for December. October will be exploring on the way down.

January, February, March, and April are still a mystery so be sure to follow along with us as we explore America.

Thanks for reading.

The Jolly Green Giant Statue

August 22, 2023 – Traveling With Rich & Julie

Blue Earth, Minnesota

The Minnesota Valley Canning Company was an industrial vegetable cannery in Le Sueur, Minnesota that was founded in 1903. In 1928 they introduced the green giant mascot for their larger green vegetables.

We were in Minnesota earlier this summer driving down I-90 when the “Jolly Green Giant Sculpture” popped up on my Google Map in Blue Earth, Minnesota.

Well anyone who knows me, knows that I am going to make Rich turn off the Interstate and pull into something like this.

The Jolly Green Giant Statue Park gives plenty of room for a 38′ RV towing a car to pull in and park and turn around. It was a nice place to stop and take a short break.

According to an article posted at Roadside America, the statue stands 55.5 feet high. He was built in 1978 and officially bolted to his permanent base next to the county fairgrounds on July 6, 1979. He is made of fiberglass, wears a size 78 shoe, and weighs 8,000 pounds.

There is a museum on the grounds but it was not open at the time we were there.

If you ever find yourself traveling down I-90 in Minnesota, be sure to pull off and see the Jolly Green Giant Statue. It was fun to see.

Thanks for reading and coming along with us on our adventures.

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site

August 20, 2023 – Traveling With Rich & Julie

We had already driven north to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park north unit entrance in North Dakota, and were only 60 miles away from this national historic site, so we made the trip on up to Williston.

What a neat experience it is to drive through the vast open prairie and see an old fur trading post appear.

According to NPS.gov, Fort Union was one of the most important and profitable fur trading posts on the Upper Missouri River between 1828 and 1867.

Several local Indian tribes exchanged large buffalo hides and smaller furs like beaver and rabbit, for a mixture of goods from all over the world.

Fort Union was not a military fort. It was built by John Jacob Astor, founder of The American Fur Company as a privately owned commercial establishment to engage in business with the Northern Plains Tribes.

As settlers moved west and migrated into the Dakota territory, the United States Army built Fort Buford in 1866, just three miles east of the trading post, to protect the Missouri River transportation route from scavengers. We did not have time to visit Fort Buford.

One year later, in 1867, the Army purchased Fort Union from its last private owner and tore it down.

It wasn’t until 1966 that the National Park Service acquired the property and began reconstruction efforts to restore the fort to its former glory.

Archeologists recovered many artifacts during the restoration process and these items are on display today.

Today’s Fort Union is a reconstruction based in part on the archaeological evidence recovered during those and later excavations completed between 1986 and 1988. Rebuilt to its appearance in 1851, at the height of the buffalo robe trade at Fort Union, the fort offers a place that helps illuminate the post’s role in shaping the land and culture of the Upper Missouri region and the Northern Great Plains. -NPS.gov

Another National Site marked off my bucket list.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my article about another great site in North America.