Back on the road AGAIN!

HELLO everyone! We had an awesome winter in Florida and a fun spring heading north spending time with family but now we are back on the road again. Many of you asked about the blog so you can follow along with us so, here we go!  

 

This first picture kind of sums up the beginning of our trip. After having quite a bit of work done on Phoebe before we left home we only made up as far as Traverse City before the engine light came on. We had already been delayed in our start so we were supposed to make it over the Mackinaw bridge the first night. Exercising caution we stopped in Gaylord for the night hoping we could get into a repair shop in the morning. Friday morning bright and early we were up and at a shop looking for their insight. They were super helpful and ran a diagnostic on the engine that gave them a code. He thought it might have just been a glitch from the work we had done, cleared the code out for us and sent us on our way. As you probably already guessed about 2 hours down the road and now over the bridge, the engine light came back on again. 

 

Second stop for the day, second diagnostic report and the same code appeared.  They were a small shop off US-2 so they said you better go to Escanaba (not where we were headed) to a bigger Cummins dealer. We got there in time for them to run a full diagnostic test and inform us we needed a new SCR canister but now 4:45pm on a Friday we weren't going to get the parts in until the following week. So, we got to enjoy an impromptu almost week long stay at Gladstone Bay campground waiting for the part.  We were thankful they had a spot for us and were even more thankful that on the Thursday before the big 4th of July holiday weekend the part came in and we were back on the road again.

 

Noodle enjoyed when we could be outside at Gladstone Bay. Most of the days the smoke from the fires from Canada were so bad we didn't even go out. Ashamed to admit it but we binged watched the first 5 seasons of Yellowstone during our stay!

Back on the road again but as our luck would have it, we got a rock chip in the windshield going along US-2. A quick stop in at Zenith glass repair in Duluth, MN and we were back rolling again. Kudos to Jon at State Farm for taking such great care of our claim and the guys at Zenith. As you can see they were being closely monitored doing their work! 😀

So finally on day 12 of our trip we were where we were supposed to be...Itasca State Park! What a terrific park with loads of things to do like biking around the lake and kayaking in it!

 

 

 Beautiful water lilies in Lake Itasca

For our friends in the Paladin pool, who have made bets on how many breakdowns/unexpected stops/repairs/missed stops we will make, we miss you already! Hope you guessed high as we missed the first 12 stops. We laugh about how we have traveled across the country and saw over 25 National parks last year but missed the 2 closest to our home on this trip so far!

Good thing we can smile about it and we are still abundantly blessed to be taking this trip!

 

This stop has been on Dave's bucket list for a while. Itasca Lake is the headwaters of the Mississippi river. Legend has it that if you walk across the river at the headwaters and make a wish it will come true in 90 days. That is when the water you are standing in will make it to the Gulf of Mexico! We are headed there too and our wish is no more breakdowns along the way!

Well, not exactly a breakdown but we missed another 2 stops leaving Itasca to detour to Brainerd to a Freightliner dealer to get some work done on the brake pedal. A recall had been done last year while we were in Tulsa and apparently they did not install the tension spring properly so the brake light was staying on after we took our foot off the pedal. Good news was that Freightliner covered it under the original recall!

 

We have really enjoyed our Harvest Host locations so far. This great little spot in Lake Crystal, MN had a concrete pad for us to stay on and the owners were delightful making us a campfire to sit and relax by!

 

Also, they had the most beautiful kitty that looked just like Ali! She and her sister were so sweet! Although their owner's claimed they would swat and bite them, both let me pet them for a long time and purred and purred.

 

So now we are headed for Iowa and are thanking God everything seems to be working OK! Thank you for catching up with this first part of our journey. We covet your prayers as we continue down the road...

Tulsa, Owasso, Route 66

 

Hello from Route 66! While visiting Michelle in Owasso we got to be tourists and did many of the sites on Route 66. 

The blue whale in Catoosa and this sign showing distances to other famous route 66 stops.

The East Gateway Arch.

Route 66 Rising sculpture.

The Golden Driller (above) is HUGE (see how little Michelle & I are!) and then Buck Atoms (right) and the cosmic curios.

We went to the "Christmas Chute" in Sapulpa. They have that part of Route 66 closed down and so wonderfully decorated for the season.

Time for some hot cocoa, and espresso for Dave, of course! Meanwhile Michelle takes a ride with Santa in his new sleigh. :)

 

We were treated to a guided tour by Michelle's friend Amy to Bartlesville and the Frank Lloyd Wright skyscraper, the Price Tower.

The building is so unique, with so many angles. Frank liked 60 degrees best (check out the lights below in the entryway). Even the stairs were not straight. Also Frank was only 5'6" tall so the ceilings were low and the steps short. I doubt that would pass code today!

This was the executive apartment on the top floor kept in the same original furnishings. An interesting style for sure!

The kitchen, which was about the size of the one in our motorhome, was in keeping with his minimalist ideals. The closets were tiny too!

Another day we took a tour, the tunnels of Tulsa and learned all about how Tulsa got started (oil, of course!) and how the buildings downtown connected underground by tunnels (or for the most part, corridors with no windows). This guy in the Kennedy Building looked liked he'd been there for a while and needed some love! 

As fund raiser for the aquarium, there were penguins all over town that people had painted.

There was one "true" tunnel that lead from the Philtower building to the Philcade building. Waite Phillips and his family were able to go between their two buildings without threat of being kidnapped and held for ransom (one of the downsides of being loaded back in those days!).

We went to the Mayo Hotel (where Sylvester Stallone is staying in the TV series Tulsa Kings). Also stood at the center of the universe where unlike what Sylvester experienced in the show, the sound you make is echoed around you, not silent. Last but not least we went to Rhema Bible Church and campus where they put on an amazing display of dazzling lights! Enjoy the videos~

Guadalupe Mountains & Carlsbad Cavern

Hello from Guadalupe Mountains! Another beautiful park with gorgeous views and another El Capitan Mountain (below).

 

It was still pretty cold but nice to see a few hearty flowers hanging in there.

We hiked the Pinery Trail and saw ruins of Butterfield Stage stop. Might be a long time before a stagecoach comes for Dave!

The river was pretty dry but the lack of water didn't seem to hinder this yucca plant that was twice as tall as Dave!

Love seeing the flag at the Visitors center; it is such a beautiful country!

Here is the recycled Roadrunner Sculpture from Las Cruces, New Mexico. It is made from cast off materials such as old sneakers and electronics.

Now on to the Caverns...This place was HUGE! These pictures don't even begin to do it justice. It was amazing the formations and the size of this cavern. We almost didn't go as we thought, "ah, we been in caves before" but we were so glad we did. Enjoy our pictures of this spectacular place! 

 

The metal rails (above) were on both sides of the trail thru the cavern. The picture to the right is looking down into a crevice that had water in it. The aqua color was so pretty!

And from here we are off headed north to Oklahoma...more on that in our next post.