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Adventures in the Villa

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June 2017

2017-06-21 Pittsburgh, PA

Once again the Villa is on the move, this time heading into Pennsylvania. Surprise, surprise! You have to go through West Virginia to get to this southwest corner of Pennsylvania; to celebrate, we stopped for lunch…

2017-06-21 Welcome to West Virginia

 

Then it was on to our RV Park for the next 3 nights – KOA of Madison, about 35 miles SE of Pittsburgh. There were some amazing clouds overhead…

 

 

After settling in we drove to Pittsburgh to see what’s happening there. We found the “Cultural District”, right on the river, across from the Pirates’ Ballpark. We walked many blocks looking at wonderful old buildings, new apartment buildings and lofts, and checking out the many bars and restaurants. We’re always suckers for French food, so we opted for Le Lyonaise, and they didn’t disappoint.  We sat at a sidewalk table, had a few cocktails, shared three appetizers, and enjoyed the scene, then walked some more. On the drive back we stopped to refuel.  Another nice, easy day.  The exciting activities start tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2017-06-20 Jackson Center, Ohio: The Airstream Mothership!

One of the main goals of our trip is to visit the Airstream Factory and take the factory tour to see Airstreams being made.

For a history of Airstream, click HERE.  Airstreams were originally made in different areas of Southern California, such as Van Nuys, Downtown LA, Sante Fe Springs, and, finally, Cerritos.  However, in the early 1950s, Wally Byam set out to find an eastern factory site, since so many Airstreams were being sold to owners who lived the Midwest and in the East.  In 1952, Wally Byam found an abandoned bazooka factory, left over from WWII, in a tiny hamlet in central Ohio called Jackson Center.  He bought it for $5,000, and in 1952 the first Ohio-made Airstream rolled out the factory doors.  In 1979 they closed the factory in Cerritos, and today Airstreams are only made here in Ohio.

Airstream provides a trailer park (they call it The Terraport) for use by visitors and people bringing their Airstreams in for service.  We parked the Villa, took a short walk through Jackson Center (a very short walk…), then waited for our 2:00 tour.  On the tour we learned that it takes about 4 days and 40 hours to build an Airstream. A brand new fully complete Airstream rolls out the doors at a rate of about 80 per week, about one every 30 minutes… Airstream has about 850 employees and will probably have 1,000 by year end.

The aluminum skins (exterior and interior) come in giant rolls from Alcoa.  They have a baked on finish similar to the paint on a car, except that it is clear to show the aluminum… These sheets are automatically cut and punched, but they are stretched over the ribs and riveted together by hand. The same is true about the cabinets and other furniture – The wood is cut precisely to fit, then it is assembled by hand. All the wiring and plumbing and ducting and insulation and doors and windows and everything else is connected, attached, and finished by hand. The finished shells are extensively tested for water-tightness before the interiors are installed. Everything inside an Airstream – cabinets, furniture, bathroom showers – fits through the door…

The building where Airstreams are made is over 100,000 square feet, and it is a hustling bustling place. We also saw the original bazooka factory across the street. We were not allowed into the R & D building, and we were not allowed to take pictures inside the plant.

It was a very interesting time to see this huge plant producing these iconic Airstreams…

This place is huge!

 

The original bazooka factory building:

2017-06-20 Airstream Jackson Center - 02

 

Wally Byam’s gold Airstream, used on the Capetown to Cairo Caravan in 1959-1960:

2017-06-20 Airstream Jackson Center - 13

 

Various shots of Airstreams; new and old…

 

Our spot in the Terraport:

 

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2017-06-19 Cincinnati, Jungle Jim’s, and Friends

The Villa is on the move once again. We continue our travels east; today we crossed over into Ohio and we arrived at Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati.

2017-06-19 Map Ohio

 

2017-06-19 Cincinnati - Jungle Jims

Jungle Jim’s is a giant grocery store; it is so big that they hand out maps and give a suggested route for a self-guided “tour”.  It is a combination of your local farmers’ market, Whole Foods, Kroger, Pike’s Market, Sur la Table, Fisherman’s Wharf, and every specialty bakery and deli you have ever seen.  We wandered the aisles for two hours, looking at cheeses, meats, tanks of live fish and lobster, cookware, wines and liquor, and food from all over the world. They have a hot sauce section, a cooking school, and a gallery overlooking the butcher shop so that you can watch the butchers at work.  There is something for everyone here… It was exhausting…

Following our tour, we found our RV park and set up for the night, then we headed out to experience downtown Cincinnati. We met up with High School friends from California, Scott and Yvonne Becksfort. We walked the streets of “Over The Rhine”, a slowly gentrifying neighborhood, then we took a break and tried the local ice cream purveyor, Graeter’s.

2017-06-19 Cincinnati - Ice Cream

We walked along the riverfront, looking across to Kentucky, and strolled by the Reds’ Ballpark.  Then we headed for an early dinner, and returned to the RV park.  All in all a relaxing, fun, and easy day.

 

 

 

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2017-06-18 Columbus, Indiana, Eliel Saarinen, and many other famous architects…

Our second day in Columbus was Sunday, so, naturally, we went to church. There are many modern churches in Columbus designed by famous architects, so we needed to make a choice. We selected the First Christian Church, designed by Eliel Saarinen (father of Eero…)

2017-06-18 Columbus - First Christian Church 1

It was fun to sing the old hymns in such a modern church. The church was built in 1942. It was the first contemporary building in Columbus and one of the first churches in the United States to be built in a contemporary architectural style.

After church we drove to the north part of town and spent 2 hours walking several blocks of very nice houses, some designed by famous, dead architects.

On this walk we saw:

North Christian Church, the last building designed by Eero Saarinen:

2017-06-18 Columbus - North Christian Church 2

2017-06-18 Columbus - North Christian Church 3

 

2017-06-18 Columbus - North Christian Church 4

 

St. Bartholomew Catholic Church, designed by Steven R. Risting (Ratio Architects):

2017-06-18 Columbus - St. Bart Catholic Church

 

Schmitt School, designed by Harry Weese; the first school that took advantage of the Cummins Foundation’s offer to pay the architect’s fees:

2017-06-18 Columbus - Schmitt School 2

2017-06-18 Columbus - Schmitt School 1

 

Northside School, designed by Harry Weese:

2017-06-18 Columbus - Northside School

 

We walked about 6 miles through the north Columbus neighborhood, so we needed a break at Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor (open since 1900) for lunch:

 

Since this was Day #9 on our trip, we spent the rest of the day doing laundry, cleaning house, and setting up computer paraphernalia… An enjoyable time was had by all…

 

 

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2017-06-17 Columbus, Indiana, and Eero Saarinen

We left the Casino Queen RV Park at 5:30 am and we continued east across Illinois. Our destination today: Columbus, Indiana.  First: We crossed the border into Indiana…

2017-06-17 Map Indiana

Columbus, Indiana, is an architectural gem.  It is a typical Midwestern town of 44,000, located about 40 miles south of Indianapolis. It has a Victorian downtown, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  It is also the home of Cummins, Inc. And therein lies the story:

J. Irwin Miller joined Cummins, the family business, in 1934.  As the nephew of the President, he always felt like others at the firm treated him differently and minimized his contribution to the company.  When World War II broke out he took the opportunity to enlist, and he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific. However, he was called back when his uncle died unexpectedly.  He was executive vice president from 1944 to 1947, president from 1947 to 1951, and chairman from 1951 to 1977.

In 1950, Miller helped to establish the National Council of Churches (NCC) and later served as its first lay president (1960–63). Miller chaired the NCC’s Commission on Religion and Race, which coordinated organized religion’s support for strong civil rights legislation, and jointly sponsored the March on Washington. He led religious delegations that met with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to push for the legislation that became the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1954, he established the Cummins Foundation; during the post-war boom, the city of Columbus started to build new schools. The first schools built were so ugly, and so poorly suited for fostering children’s education, that Miller felt he had to do something.  In 1957, he made an offer to the city that the foundation would pay all the architects’ fees for new public buildings in Columbus IF they were chosen from a list of architects selected by the Foundation.  Thus this small Midwestern city has buildings by Eero Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Kevin Roche, Richard Meier, Harry Weese, César Pelli, Gunnar Birkerts, John Dinkeloo, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, many of which feature extensive interiors designed by Alexander Girard.  The American Institute of Architects in 1991 declared Columbus America’s sixth most important city in terms of architecture. 

So this is why we are heading towards Columbus. Today we will tour the Miller house, and tomorrow we will see the other significant buildings in the city.

After an uneventful drive across Illinois and Indiana, we checked into the RV park at Ceraland; here is another piece of Mr. Miller’s legacy.

CERAland Park, established in 1963 as the Cummins Employees Recreation Association, started out as a corporate recreation facility in Columbus, IN, that has 345 acres of beautiful park land consisting of both indoor and outdoor recreational activities.  In 2012, the CERA Sports Corp was established as a not-for-profit organization that is committed to developing CERAland Park into the highest-quality recreation and wellness provider in the community.

Ceraland offers an 11-acre stocked lake, fishing, paddle boats, row boats, and canoes, 324 site campground, 6 camping cabins, picnic areas, 7 shelter houses, 2 outdoor basketball courts, 4 permanent Corn Hole sets and 3 portable sets, 6 horseshoe pits, 2 sandpit volleyball courts, a go-kart track, 18 hole miniature golf course, driving range, 6 tennis courts, outdoor amphitheater, playgrounds, remote control airplane strip, rifle and archery range, trap and skeet range, 9 softball / baseball diamonds, aquatic center with large water slide and toddler play area, 30,000 square foot sports & fitness center with 2 full gymnasiums, cardio room, running/walking track, weight room, locker rooms, and much, much more.

Currently, CERA has over 100 local community corporations / partners that provide the opportunity for their employees to participate and utilize the services of CERA for discounted corporate rates.  In addition, CERA continues its community outreach by offering an expansive Youth Sports program and events schedule.  CERA is the host site for Bartholomew County Little League, numerous Fast-pitch Softball and Baseball tournaments and leagues and is an AAU sanctioned park.

In 2014, CERA was opened to the public, and, thus, we are staying here for a few nights…

2017-06-17 Cereland 6

There were major softball/baseball tournaments going on this weekend, but the camping area was very quiet:

 

I don’t know why, but Lynda keeps insisting on taking pictures with me in them. I have expressed my dissatisfaction…

2017-06-17 Cereland 4

 

After setting up, we headed back into Columbus and met the Miller house tour at the visitor center. After watching a short video we boarded the shuttle bus to ride to the house, about 2 miles away.  The house is about 6,300 square feet, and is set on over 13 acres of beautiful, landscaped grounds. To get an idea of the extravagance of the place, we were told that Mr. Miller paid $30,000 for the land and over $550,000 for the construction of the house. Do the math… This was an extremely expensive house when it was built in the early 1950s.

Unfortunately, no interior photography is allowed, so you can only get a feel for the exterior and the grounds…

The house was designed by Eero Saarinen, the same architect who did the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. This is one of only a few houses designed by Saarinen; he and Mr. Miller were close friends, and this house resulted.

The Millers had five children, and this was designed to be a true family home; in addition, was was designed on a grand scale to accommodate the many guests who came to visit – heads of state, titans of industry, famous architects.

The exterior walls are all giant slabs of black slate, with some walls clad in marble. The rest is glass… The interior walls are all the same white marble. There are linear skylights throughout the house, which means the quality and intensity of light changes as clouds pass by…

We entered the grounds through the service entry:

2017-06-17 Columbus - Miller 91

 

The real entry approach for family and guests is off a small residential street:

2017-06-17 Columbus - Miller 92

2017-06-17 Columbus - Miller 94

 

The front yard is impressive:

 

2017-06-17 Columbus - Miller 95

2017-06-17 Columbus - Miller 96

 

So is the back yard…

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2017-06-17 Columbus - Miller 82

2017-06-17 Columbus - Miller 80

 

And the path to the pool:

2017-06-17 Columbus - Miller 84

 

These exterior shots show some of the materials and detailing of the house…

 

All in all, a very impressive house. Designed to last for hundreds of years…

 

 

 

 

 

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2017-06-16 Missouri, and Eero Saarinen

Before I get to today’s activities, a thought struck me regarding Frank Lloyd Wright and Laura Ingalls Wilder:  They were both born in 1867; she died in 1957 and he died in 1959. They were contemporaries in time, yet I can’t think of two more different people who lived two very different lives… They were born in the age of horse and buggy and covered wagons; they lived to experience trains, planes, and automobiles. She was modest, a simple homebody, and quite introspective; he was arrogant, a home wrecker, and a master designer of our built environment… A very interesting contrast that just appeared on our trip on two adjacent days…

Now, back to our travels:

This morning we walked to Mansfield, and found a delightful little cafe where we had coffee and Belgian waffles. (Ma and Pa’s Diner had terrible Yelp reviews…) Then we packed up and headed the Villa towards St. Louis.

We did our best to avoid the Interstate, because we could. However, whilst driving the back roads of Missouri, it started to rain. Not just any rain, but a true cloud burst like I have never seen. We drove for about 45 minutes with the windshield wipers at full speed, travelling maybe at 30 mph because we could not see any further ahead.  There was thunder and lightning (luckily, no hail – Airstreams hate hail like Superman hates kryptonite…).  Then, suddenly, within a 5 minute time-span, the rain stopped, the road was dry, the sky was blue, the sun was shining, and a guy passed us by in a top-down convertible… I’m just glad we had that vent cover fixed!

We proceeded to St. Louis, then immediately crossed the Mississippi river into Illinois to camp at an RV park behind a casino in East St. Louis. It was 94 degrees and very humid, not a breath of air moving. We plugged into shore power, turned on both AC units, and headed back to St. Louis. There was a convenient light rail train service right at the casino, and we soon were walking the streets of St. Louis.

2017-06-16 Map Illinois

We had two goals to accomplish in St. Louis:  BBQ for dinner, and a ride the top of the Jefferson Memorial Arch, designed by Eero Saarinen. (Eero Saarinen died in 1961, so he did not live to see the arch completed.) But remember the name…

We headed towards the Jefferson Memorial. It was started in 1935; they cleared 40 acres of riverfront property to make way for the Arch. The Arch was completed in 1965, and tours to the top began in 1967.  We found that most of the tickets for the day had been sold out, but we were able to get tickets for the 8:35 pm tour.  This left us plenty of time for our BBQ dinner.

BBQ, as most of you know, is a generic term that literally has no meaning. Saying “I am eating BBQ” is like saying , “I’m eating soup” or “I’m eating meat”.  What kind of soup? Cream based or broth based?  Or, what kind of meat? Braised, grilled, or roasted?  All meaningless without many more descriptors.  Having endured living in Texas for some time, there is exactly one thing I love from Texas and that is their style of BBQ. But I am always happy to try others.  St. Louis BBQ refers not to their sauces or type of cooking – you can find both slow smoked and fast grilled BBQ in St. Louis, with a variety of sauces – sweet, vinegar-based, tomato based – whatever you want.  What is unique about St. Louis BBQ is the way they cut their ribs:  According to Wikipedia, “St. Louis-style spare ribs are cut in a particular way with the sternum bone, cartilage and rib tips removed so that a well-formed, rectangular-shaped rack is created for presentation.”

There are 2 local places that seem to have their fans – Pappy’s and Bogarts. We opted for Pappy’s, because it was a nicer walk through the city to get there… always a determining factor in our lives…

2017-06-16 St Louis - Dinner at Pappys

It was terrible.

OK. On to the arch…

2017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 12

The Arch is officially called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, to commemorate Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase and the massive migration west by the pioneers in the late 19th century as the Federal government literally gave away hundreds of thousands of acres of land. It is probably the largest planned migration of people in the history of the world, and it totally reshaped the USA.

The shape of the arch is what engineers call an inverted catenary arch. It is the shape that a loose chain takes when suspended between 2 points, just up-side-down.  This shape can be calculated using integrated calculus, and it is also the the graph of 100% tension and zero compression, since a chain, while strong in tension, can withstand absolutely no compression. And that is the limit of my knowledge of structural theory, strength of materials, and calculus…

The arch is 630 feet wide, and 630 feet tall. (The Washington Memorial in Washington, DC, is 555′ tall, and would fit under the arch…) The shape of the cross section is an equilateral triangle. As the triangular form ascends to the top of the arch it gets smaller, creating very interesting perspectives…

2017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 042017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 022017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 062017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 012017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 112017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 17

The designers knew people would want to ascend to the top, so a complicated tramway system was custom designed to carry 40 people at a time. There are two trams, one in each leg, and the viewing space holds about 100 people… The trams consist of 8 cars each, holding 5 people each. The cars are tiny, cramped compartments, less than 6 feet tall, with a door about 2 feet wide and less than 5 feet tall. As the tram ascends along the curved path of the arch, the tram cars must articulate, a bit like a Ferris wheel, except not in a smooth manner. As the cars ascend they tilt (forward or backward), then abruptly snap back into a vertical position.

It was TERRIFYING!

Once at the top, you can see forever. Since we were there just after sunset, our views are all at night…

2017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 31

 

The old courthouse, where the Dred Scott trial was held

 

2017-06-16 St Louis - Gateway Arch 35

Illinois across the Mississippi River – our RV park is back there somewhere…

 

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Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals…

After our terrifying experience (for some reason, Lynda didn’t find it terrifying at all…), we returned home back to the Villa. We have a long drive tomorrow across Illinois and into Indiana…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2017-06-15 Kansas, Missouri, and Laura Ingalls Wilder

We left Bartlesville after breakfast atop the Price Tower.  We were only a short distance from the border…

 

A short time later we were at the location of The Little House on the Prairie (No, not the stupid TV show…).  The exact site was only discovered a few years ago, and it is on privately owned farmland, but the owner has erected this small wayside memorial. It includes a reproduction of the log cabin, and some other typical pioneer buildings. The only “real” item is the hand-dug well that Laura’s Pa dug with Mr. Edwards…

2017-06-15 Little House on the Prairie 7

 

The other structures are fun, but not original…

 

And the view of the wild prairie Laura must have had from the cabin:

2017-06-15 Little House on the Prairie 4

 

From here we proceeded east across Kansas…

 

Our destination:  Mansfield, MO, where Laura and Almanzo Wilder lived for 60 years.  This is where all the Little House books were written. It now has a beautiful museum full of memorabilia, including the Ingalls family Bible, which recorded all the deaths, births, and weddings. Also, Pa’s fiddle is here…

There are 2 houses on the property; the original 1- room farmhouse, built by Almanzo from 1896 to 1913, plus a “modern” cottage (The Rock House), ordered from the Sears, Roebuck catalog, bought by Rose, their daughter, and built in the 1930s.

2017-06-15 Rocky Ridge Farm 2

2017-06-15 Rocky Ridge Farm 3

 

There is a nice RV park across the street from the museum, and it is about 1 mile into the town of Mansfield.  Lynda found a nice place to “read”…

2017-06-15 LIW RV Park 2

 

Tomorrow our odyssey continues as we head to St. Louis to see another architectural icon…

 

 

 

 

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2017-06-14 Bartlesville, Oklahoma and Frank Lloyd Wright

No Airstream repair issues today! Just a romp through a rare icon of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.

We had a leisurely morning and an easy drive north from Oklahoma City to Bartlesville, OK, located north of Tulsa, and a few miles south of the Kansas border.  Bartlesville is an oil town, subject to oil’s booms and busts. Mr. Harold Price wanted to expand his oil pipeline business, and to do so, he needed a new building. In 1952, he contacted FLW and told him of his intention to build a 4 story building for about $750,000.  FLW visited Bartlesville, rejected the chosen site, rejected the concept of a 4 story building, and convinced Mr. Price that what he really wanted was a 19 story building that would cost $2,000,000.  It was completed in 1957, just before FLW’s death.  And, to make a long story short, here it is:

2017-06-14 Bartlesville Price Tower 3

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2017-06-14 Bartlesville Price Tower 2

 

The building is laid out on a hexagonal grid, with a structure of concrete and all else being non-bearing walls.  The ground floor contained the local utility company offices, a salon, the lobby, and a fancy dress shop. The tower floors each had three offices and one (2 level) apartment. The top floor, where you can see the facade steps back, is the office of Mr. Price and his secretary.  If you look at the tower, the areas with horizontal louvers are offices, and the areas with the vertical louvers are the apartments. There are eight 2 level apartments, about 850 square feet, each with 2 bedrooms. One apartment was kept by Mr. Price for corporate functions, two others were rented to long-term tenants, but the others were only rarely rented. The rent, in 1957, was $285 per month, so you can see that this was an extremely expensive place.

We had a tour of the building, seeing Mr. Price’s office and one of the apartments, all beautifully restored. There are 4 very small, odd shaped elevators (hexagonal grid, remember?). There is one stair. It is a delightful and beautiful building!

Mr. Price and his sons ran his firm from the tower for about 30 years; His firm was then bought by Phillips Petroleum, who used the building for about 10 years until they moved their headquarters out of Bartlesville. After that the building sat empty, until Phillips had it restored about 10 years ago. Here is the fun part:

The tower was converted to a hotel!

So we took the opportunity to leave the Villa in the parking lot next door, and we spent the night in the tower.  Our room was one on the office spaces. (The 2 story apartments are also part of the hotel, but they are much more expensive…)  The interiors of our room is not original FLW, of course, since it used to be one of the office spaces.  But is was designed by the FLW devotees at Taliesen, the FLW school and studio…

2017-06-14 Bartlesville Price Tower Interiors 3

Here I am sitting uncomfortably in the FLW-style stair (which are always uncomfortable…

 

2017-06-14 Bartlesville Price Tower Interiors 7

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The rooms are quite bright – only my camera skills make them seem a little dark…

 

2017-06-14 Bartlesville Price Tower Airstream

And the Villa, parked below…

 

We had a delightful time walking the town, having lunch in a local pub, and having drinks and dinner in the restaurant atop the Price Tower, located in one of the 2 story apartments…

I also took a selfie with Frank to celebrate his 150th birthday…

2017-06-14 Bartlesville Price Tower #FLW150 Flat Frank

 

And an enjoyable time was had by all…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2017-06-13 A Visit to the Oklahoma City Airstream Dealer

Tuesday was a day spent in fear and anticipation, but all’s well that ends well…

As if our power situation were not enough to worry and annoy us, whilst traveling to the Airstream Dealer, we were hit with several gusts of wind. While control of the RV was never an issue, once things settled down we saw in our mirrors that our front driver-side rock guard was gone – blown away somewhere on the east-bound I-40. We stopped to survey the damage, and also saw that the vent cover on one of out fans was also gone. The missing rock guard “only” exposed vulnerable aluminum skin to the potential of damage from rocks being thrown up on the highway, the missing vent cover meant that we were exposing the interior to rain, which was sure to come.  Now we had more issues to report to the Airstream dealer…

We arrived at Leisure RV, the Airstream dealer in Oklahoma City, at 12:30pm for our 2:00pm appointment, chronically early, as usual. This is a large, multi-brand RV dealer with very impressive facilities. We spent our waiting time browsing the store full of gadgets and supplies, and we wandered through the sales lot admiring the brand new RVs of many makes and models.  Finally we met with our service adviser, we unhitched, and they pulled the Villa into one of their 16 service bays. Then we waited some more.

Our suspicions were confirmed that we had, indeed, blown the power converter. (This device takes the shore power and distributes it to the trailer as 110v and 12v power, also charging the batteries along the way…)  Fortunately, they had a new converter in stock, and repairs were underway. They did not have rock guards in stock, but they were able to replace the missing vent cover. So, at about 5:30, with one swipe of a credit card, we were once again on our way. We had called a nearby campground (KOA Oklahoma City East), who had a very nice camping site ready for us when we arrived a little before 6:00pm.

As soon as we arrived, we plugged into power to see that everything was once again working – no damage to any other electronics on-board; the one exception: The refrigerator did not switch over to 110v power when available, but it runs just fine on propane.

We took a quick dip in the pool to gain some relief from the stress (and heat – did I mention the heat?) we were able to have a restful night. Tomorrow we set out for Bartlesville…!

What the rock guard looks like and what it looks like when it’s gone:

 

Finally relaxing after settling in at the KOA…

 

 

 

 

 

 

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