Our RV Adventures

A: Fuel Prices Immediately Jump 30 cents a Gallon.

Jan and I headed over to Debbie’s this morning about 8:45, stopping on the way to get gas at the Wal-Mart. The last time I put fuel in the truck at Lake Conroe in TX, it was $3.21 a gallon. Today it was $3.54. When I got diesel in MO the other day, it was $3.62. Around here I’ve seen it as high as $3.99.

Don’t know where the extra taxes are going. They’re certainly not putting it into fixing the roads, that’s for sure.

A while after we got Debbie’s, Jan and I headed out with her to have breakfast at a nearby Mennonite breakfast place. The food was really good, and plenty of it. And they also had a lot of nice baked goods.

I had always thought that the Mennonites were a split-off from the Amish. Kind of Amish-light, so to speak. I have some relatives who are Mennonite, and they look, act, and dress like any Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc. But the Mennonites in this area are like the Amish of Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio. They shun technology, drive buggies, and dress plainly.

As it turns out, the Mennonites came first. Coming out of the Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s in Germany and Dutch-speaking countries, they were part of the Anabaptist movement of the time. And, as a matter of fact, the Amish came out of the Mennonite Church, not the other way around. There are about 15 different sects of Mennonites, ranging from ones like my relatives, to ones that shun all modern technology, to various levels in between.

Leaving the restaurant, we stopped off at an Mennonite flower nursery that Jan and Debbie spent some time going through. I, on the other hand, read my Kindle in the car.

Getting back home we spent time talking and napping before heading out to pick up our great-niece Gwen from school and bring her back to Debbie’s for the rest of the afternoon.

But that entailed a stop by the RV park so Debbie and her husband Jim could see the new floor in the rig, and a stop at Wal-Mart for a few things.

After getting back to Debbie’s, we all headed out about 6pm to attend Gwen’s band concert at the local high school. Reminded me a lot of my day’s in high school.

Gwen plays trumpet in the 5th grade band and really likes it. There were 3 different bands playing tonight and they all sounded good.

Tomorrow, our last day here, will be another one filled with fun, family, and frolic.

Well, maybe just fun and family.

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Thought for the Day:

"It is always the best policy to speak the truth, unless of course you are an exceptionally good liar." – Jerome K. Jerome

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Jan and I were up about 7:30 this morning, on schedule to head out about 9:30. And as forecast, it was pouring down rain. I was really glad that I had done as much as possible last night getting hitched up and ready to go. It was only 52° when I got up and it wasn’t supposed to get much warmer as the day went on. But the low temps meant we wouldn’t have to worry about needing to run the coach AC’s.

Our destination for today was Vandalia, IL, 185 miles away, where we’ll spend a few days visiting Jan’s sister Debbie, and her family.

Except for the fact it rained the entire way, the trip went very smoothly with a couple of stops. The one thing that was different from yesterday was the MPG.

As I mentioned yesterday, since we left the Houston area, we had averaged 9.16 MPG. This included a lot of hilly back roads and some city driving.

Then, after we filled up yesterday, we did 49.5 miles and used 4.9 gallons, giving us an MPG of 10.1 on the flat and level Interstate.

But  today we only got a little over 8 miles per gallon. So what was the difference?

The transmission temperature, which is governed partially by the air temperature. When the air temp is at least 70 degrees or so, the trans temp stays in the 160 to 165 range.

But if the air temp is below that, the transmission never really warns up. In fact on today’s run, the temp never got above 122° So the transmission fluid stays thicker, which results in more friction, which gives lower MPG. And this is with the TranSyn synthetic fluid I’m using. I assume it would be even worse with regular fluid.

About 1:30 we pulled into the Timber Trails Campground, a PassPort America park, we’ve stayed at a number of times before. It’s a nice park, about 10 miles outside of Vandalia, with level sites and good power and water. What more do we need?

About 3:30 Jan and I drove over to Debbie and Jim’s to meet up with them for dinner. Gwen, one of their granddaughters, was there too, and she’s a real cutie.

Tomorrow night we’re going to her band concert where she plays trumpet. Looking forward to it.

Our destination for dinner was a place we eaten several times before called Crossroads. It’s out in the middle of nowhere in a small town called Keyesport, but you know it’s good by the size of their big parking lot.

And it was just about full tonight because Wednesday is All You Can Eat Fried Chicken Night.  And boy, was it good. Really, it’s Lambert’s good.

After saying our goodbyes, Jan and I headed back to the rig, which is actually not far from the restaurant. We’ll be meeting up with Debbie tomorrow for breakfast at a Mennonite Restaurant. Supposed to be really good.

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BUSTED!

Our daughter Brandi sent this over. Here’s what Landon was doing when he was supposed to be napping.

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Who needs a guard dog if you have a guard cat, especially one that hates dogs.

Note how the cat runs back under the car to protect the boy and escorts him into the house.

Mister would be so proud!

BTW  The mother did not run off. After checking the boy’s wounds she ran after the dog and was bitten herself trying to keep it away from other kids.

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Thought for the Day:

A recent poll shows that only 4% of Americans believe they have below average intelligence.

Well, that certainly explains a lot.

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