Our RV Adventures

Today was another sightseeing day, so after stopping off at the Batesville Post Office to pick up Nick’s mail, we headed south to Aurora, IN. We wanted to check out the area, and also the Little Farm on the River RV Park where we stayed in 2010.

Little Farm on the River is, as the name says, right in the middle of a farm,

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and right on the Ohio River. And even better it’s a Passport America park, so it’s very reasonable.

After making a drive through the park, we drove on south to Rising Sun, a nice small town with a lot of interesting homes and buildings.

Then coming back to Aurora on our way north to Cincinnati, we stopped off at McDonald’s for lunch. While we were there we got a check-in call from our son Chris, bringing us up to date on his family, and especially Piper and her college adventures.

After lunch we headed north to the other side of Cincinnati to take Terry to visit Jungle Jim’s Market, 6 acres of grocery store, including 1 acre of just produce.

Here’s what I blogged last year about the place.

It’s really hard to describe this place. It’s a restaurant, an convention center, a Starbuck’s, a Cici’s Pizza, a high end clothing store, a Chipolte Grill, a bank, a pub, a pet store, and a credit union. It even has a monorail.

But most of all, it’s 6 acres of grocery store, with 1 acre for just fresh produce.

This place probably has every grocery item you’ve ever heard, and a lot you’ve never heard of.

Thirty six different types of olives, 140 different types of honey, 1,600 different types of cheeses from all over the world, over 12,000 different wines, and 1,200 different beers.

Their meat department carries fresh ostrich, kangaroo, rattlesnake, elk, venison, game hens, wild boar, pheasant, and bison. WOW!

And, of course, foods that are organic, non-dairy, earth-friendly, vegetarian, vegan, allergy-free, gluten-free, anti-oxidant, low-carb, sugar-free, fat-free, wheat-free . . . etc., though probably not all at the same time.

And while many seafood shops have live Maine lobsters, how many carry live fish? Jungle Jim’s carries over a dozen different species, including Blue Gill, Tilapia, Largemouth Bass,

and Catfish.

Regular readers here know how much I like really, really hot foods. As I say, if my nose is not running and the top of my head isn’t sweating, then it’s not really hot enough.

I’ve even twice eaten HOT! wings made with Ghost Chiles, also known as the Naga Jolokia, until recently the hottest pepper in the world.

You can read about it here at the Cypress Creek Café in Wimberley, TX.

The hottest chili in the world is now acknowledged to be the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T chili.

But Jungle Jim’s is the first place I’ve found that actually sells them to the public. Besides the fresh ones, they have a salsa made with the Nagas which I bought some of, and a small package of dried Nagas, which I also bought.

The package says to wear eye protection and latex gloves before handling or preparing them.

Not sure what I’m going to use them for, maybe trick Nick into eating one so I can see steam coming out of his ears.

We spent almost two hours at Jungle Jim’s and still didn’t see everything, so hopefully we’ll be able to go back again sometime.

Finally leaving Jungle Jim’s, we stopped across the street at a Verizon store so Nick could take care of some business. Then it was down the road to have dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse before heading home.

Tomorrow we’re going to do another take-it-easy day, just happy to be doing pretty much nothing.

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Thought for the Day:

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently." – Henry Ford

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First thing this morning I went down to the office to let them know I had mail coming in.

Then it was underneath the rig to look at my fuel tank vent problem. As it turned out the hose wasn’t where they said it was, but it was pretty obvious where it was.

It was hanging down from the back of the fuel tank, and by sticking a small wire up into it found it definitely stopped up. So that was the source of the vacuum on my tank system.

When I went over to Nick and Terry’s to see if Terry had any ideas about what I could use to clear the clog, Nick suggested a straighten-out coat hanger. It was one of those ‘DOH’ moments for me.

Nick was thrilled to think that he had thought of it before me, until I reminded him that sometimes even a blind hog can find an acorn.

In rodding out the vent tube I found the remains of what looked like a dirt dauber nest. And after carefully cleaning out the tube, I was able to blow air into the tank. So that problem was fixed.

But the next problem will be harder to solve. I knew that the vacuum on the fuel system had crumpled in part of my fuel tank. In fact it seems I’ve lost about 25 gallons from the capacity of my 150 gallon tank.

At first I thought the sides of the tank were just dimpled in, and that maybe I could put a little air pressure on the tank and pop it back out. But it turns out that the front end of the tank was crumpled in such that it might be hard to fix without replacing it.

So I’m going to have to give it some further thought and maybe check with Spartan, my chassis manufacturer. We’ll see.

Later in the afternoon Nick and I went out in a nearby field to try out our Air Hogs Hawkeye planes.

The planes are equipped with a combination still/video camera and we wanted to see what kind of shots we could get.

Here’s a photo that Terry took of me launching my plane.

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Here’s some of the still shots. The videos are interesting, but you need a strong stomach to watch them, what with all the swooping and diving. In fact the manual warns you about that problem.

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My plane even got a shot of Nick and I below.

We flew until the batteries ran out. because someone left the charger cable back in his rig. He can think of a coat hanger, but he can’t remember to bring the charger cable.

Later, a little after 5pm we all drove over to Greensburg to have dinner at Chili’s. And as usual the food was good and the service was great. But the really neat thing was the Ziosk on every table.

It’s a small computer, about the size of the Kindle Fire, that allows you to play games, order desserts, or reorder drinks. But the neat thing is that you can pay your check right at your table.

There is a credit card swipe slot on the right side, and it even prints you a receipt from underneath. You merely select your check by number, swipe your card, and sign your name on the screen.

Really neat! I wonder how long it will be before we can order our meal on it too.

Tomorrow, if Jan’s still feeling OK, we’re going to do some sightseeing, possibly into Cincinnati to take Terry to visit Jungle Jim’s Market, a really amazing grocery store that covers several acres and has products from all over the world.

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Thought for the Day:

The U.S. and Canada have a lot of bureaucracy in common. A lesson in irony..

The Food Bank Program, administered by Social Welfare Canada, is actually proud of the fact it is distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food vouchers ever.

Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the Canada Parks and Natural Resources, asks us to "Please Do Not Feed the Animals."

Their stated reason for the policy is because the animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves.

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