Moving the Taylors to Iowa

Most of you have kept up on Facebook as the adventure unraveled, but here is my official version of the road trip that could be dubbed "The Taylor/Beach/Thomas Cross Country U-haul-a thon."

First, Matt Taylor's company, Expander, decided that it made more sense to manufacture its product near the Mississippi River shipping channel than in Arizona, far from adequate shipping facilities. Then, they (Expander) asked Matt to move with them. Well, good jobs being hard to come by just now, he said yes. Therefore, Vada and the kids needed to move to Iowa. Matt needed to be in Iowa ahead of the family for many reasons, so they needed someone to drive the U-haul, since Vada needed to drive the family van. As you all know, I am not just a professional driver, but also an eager road tripper.

So, here is how it worked out. A 16 foot U-haul truck was loaded with household goods. There was overflow. So a small U-haul trailer was needed. A pickup also needed to be moved, so it was put on a trailer specifically designed for vehicle hauling. So, the caravan looked like this: 16 foot U-haul truck pulling the vehicle trailer, Margie and Dave's truck pulling the overflow U-haul trailer, and Vada driving the family van. Four adults and four children ages 6-12. One child, on a rotational basis, rode with me in the U-haul, one with M&D in the pickup, and two with Vada in the van. Every time we stopped for gas, food, or potty break, the kids rotated.

The kids were great travelers. We talked a lot. We played lots of road trip games. They read. They colored. They wrote. They played video games. They looked out the window. They did not whine. They did not incessantly ask "Are we there yet?"

Things to know for next time: A 16 foot truck is too short to pull a vehicle carrier carrying a 4000 pound pickup. Wind gusts, passing semis, and uneven road surfaces can cause the trailer to sway. When the trailer sways, the leverage created by the hitch causes the truck to sway. That can cause the driver to lose control, and end up crashing. I determined from experience that 65 mph was the top safe speed for the prevention of catastrophe. Also, at every stop, it is a good idea to inspect everything. Tie-down straps mysteriously become loose, tires can lose air, safety chains start to drag, tarps flap, and wires short out. Going through Albuquerque at rush hour is not a good time or place to have a tie-down come off and let the pull-out drive-on ramp slide out and drag on the road. It makes a spectacular sparks display, but then you have to find a safe place to pull over and fix it.

If you ever notice that your remote door locks don't work, at the same time that your intermittent wiper function won't work, and you head lights don't come on, the solution might be to disconnect your battery for a few minutes, then reconnect it. This is similar to rebooting your computer. In fact, it reboots the vehicle computer which fixes all those unrelated malfunctions. We learned this in a small Nebraska town after an hour of trying logical trouble-shooting ideas.

Driving 1600 miles in three vehicles, one a gas hog, and meeting bathroom and food needs of 8 people takes 4 1/2 days at a top speed of 65 mph. Returning in one vehicle with three adults at 75 mph takes 2 1/2 days.

There are many good family run restaurants between here and there. Fast food and chain restaurants are best avoided. Best Western Plus serves a good hot breakfast including eggs and meat at no extra charge. Gas prices ranged from $1.99 to $2.49. Sometimes stations in the same town varied by 20 cents.

We spent one night in Dodge City just so we could get up in the morning and say, "We better get outa Dodge." We passed through the home towns of John Wayne, Herbert Hoover, William Allen White, Thomas Mitchell, Jesse James and Elizabeth Bice Thomas. We traveled along the Oregon Trail, The Santa Fe Trail, the Pony Express Route, and visited areas previously inhabited by the likes of the Dalton Gang and Billy the Kid.

I am available for future adventures. I work for food and shelter.

Happy Birthday, Tomoko

We won't mention age.
We are excited that you are willing to share your "boys" for a few days. We are leaving for the airport right after this is posted. We are ready for some loud fun and early wake-ups.

Happy Birthday, Casey

We celebrated with Casey and a dozen of her friends on Saturday. She had a Bingo themed party which we attended, then spent the night. I won a couple of games, Casey won some, and Peggie cleaned up at LCR at the end. So, aside from money spent by all three of us getting to and setting up for this party, we all made money. Cool.
Casey has always made friends with people we like.

To Write, or Not to Write...

That is the question.
Do you wait until an "adventure" happens? Or just report the humdrum?
Thanksgiving happened.
I like Thanksgiving. More food than anyone really 'needs' to eat. And good food.
I am a traditionalist. I like the foods I grew up with. Our family has kept with the basics: turkey, ham, yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, fruit salad, and, most important, pies. Lots of pies. Pumpkin, cherry, apple, and pecan.
The fruit salad is my mother's recipe (some variations are called "ambrosia") of apples, pineapple, banana, walnuts, and mini-marshmallows in whipped cream. Not Cool Whip! Cream, whipped with an electric mixer. We have adapted over the years, we have both canned yams in brown sugar and marshmallows and fresh baked yams. We have cooked-in-the-cavity stuffing and "dry" baked dressing. We have the cream of mushroom, canned onion green bean casserole, and fresh green beans. We have cranberry jelly from the can and fresh cranberries. We now serve some fruit salad without the whipped cream. We have white and wheat rolls.
Best of all, no matter how many family members and friends show up, leftovers. Plenty of leftovers.
Still, part of the current tradition means that on Black Friday, all the women go shopping in Jerome while the men babysit. And Bill cooks chili for dinner. We get honest-to-goodness tortillas from a local market. I don't actually follow a recipe, so the chili isn't consistent from year to year. Sometimes spicy, sometimes not. Sometimes red, sometimes green. Usually I make cornbread, this year I got tamales from the tortilla store.
However, change is coming. My niece, the pie baker, is moving to Iowa. Iowa! We still don't know what will be done for pies next year. And hers are the young kids that need a sitter. The older kids are fine alone.
I hope I don't have to spend Black Friday shopping next year.

Another reminder

This past week three quarters of the country was experiencing all-time record breaking cold and snowfall while we were basking (literally, basking) in unseasonable warmth. Reminding us, once again, why we still call The Old Pueblo home.

Peggie gathered all of her post-surgery energy to attend the reception for the opening of "Journeys," the SAQA show at JCC.  She has four pieces hanging, one of which won "Honorable Mention." She was very pleased at the juror's comments on her work. And, looking at the rest of the show, she is in good company. The reception was well attended and several people sought her out to congratulate her and to praise her work.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is always either too hot or too cold for trick-or-treating. October is always one of our most pleasant months, weatherwise, but by the end it either hasn't cooled off yet, or it has gotten downright cold. That's the way I remember our kids' trick-or-treating years. I bet a search of the weather archives would not support those statements. I bet Halloween is mostly a nice evening for ringing door bells in costume. This year certainly is.

While it hit 90 today, it is partly cloudy and pretty pleasant. However, by Sunday we will be in the low 70's. In the mountains, it will dip below freezing at night. So, with that in mind, yesterday we headed to Eagar to retrieve our trailer before the pipes freeze. We decided to take the long way, ie 191 from Safford to Alpine. It is a fine road when you have the time to enjoy the spectacular scenery as you wind your way from 4000' to over 9000'. It is deer season and every piece of level ground has a camp set up. We were driving through mid-morning, so everyone was in camp and the traffic was light. We even saw a group of 10 or so does and fawns grazing by the road. I guess nobody has been shooting at them, they didn't run far when we slowed to look. The forest still shows the effects of the Willow Fire, but for us, the open vistas it created add to the beauty of the mountains.

We had a beautiful orange sunset as we dropped into Salt River Canyon, but it was dark before we reached Globe. Too bad, as we like the views from Pinal Mountain and Dripping Springs. Last time we came that route at night we had numerous close encounters with skunks. This time we got a whiff, but no glimpses.

It was an enjoyable adventure-less trip. I found that I really can unhitch successfully in the dark.
Maybe next time I will try it with my eyes actually closed.

Oh, and we can recommend the burgers at Trailriders restaurant in Eagar. In front of Basha's. They use nearly half a pound of good Angus beef. We have had several meals there and the food and service is always good.

Ironic

Funny that in the last post I mentioned "cheaper than going to a movie," because that is exactly what I did last Thursday, instead of watching the solar eclipse for free. If you've seen one solar eclipse, you've seen them all, right? Anyway, I don't have safe sun-viewing goggles.

The cloud cover prevented us from sitting in the hot tub watching the Orionid meteor shower, but they (the clouds) made for a couple of beautiful sunsets that came just as I was burning meat on the grill last week.

Gotta brag on Peggie a bit. She submitted four pieces to a juried show called "Journeys" to be mounted at the JCC next month. They only had room for 35 pieces, and all four of hers made the cut.
We are very excited. This is her first juried show. To see pictures of the pieces, contact Peggie.

We are also excited for our niece. She and her family are moving to Iowa for a job offer that is too good to pass up. This will be a great adventure for them. We will miss seeing them as often as we have so far. But, we enjoyed the adventure when we moved far from home and family, and we hope they will, too. And since we intend to drive to New York several times, it will be nice to be able to stop at their place on the way.