Saturday in Zanesville

Got up today and Donna called reminded me my nephew and his wife  lived close to Zanesville and to call them and see if they wanted to visit with Uncle Sam. The answer was sure, so we made a date for them to come to the motel before dinner.
Patrick, his wife Geae, and their two boys Spence & Drew arrived at about 05:30pm. We went to Ardonetto’s Restaurant in Zanesville. It was a very nice Italian Restaurant with a top rated pizza. Sam had the Lasagna, Geae ordered pasta with white sauce and prosciutto and the rest ordered pizza. All the food and the service was excellent.

                           Spence, Uncle Sam, Patrick,Geae,& Drew 
                                           Geae&Patrick
                                   Spence & Uncle Sam 

                                                  Drew
after Dinner Patrick suggested we drive over to the Longaberger building where he used to work, it is shaped like a huge basket.

                         Sunset at the Longaberger Building
               The front of the Longaberger Building
Sam  had a great time as he hadn’t seen Patrick and his  family in several years. Of course I had to promise to stop for another visit when Donna & I head east in the 5th wheel.
Tomorrow the group will be returning from Washington DC and we will relieve the drivers for the return trip to Jefferson City MO. Until then
be safe. Sam & Donna.

TGIF

Well, here I am in the Zanesville OH Super 8, Picked up about 50 students and chaperones at the Jefferson City MO High School at about 03:30pm CDT.Their destination is Washington DC. I took them to Zanesville OH which is about the halfway point and the limit of a days driving.(10 hours).

                                     Loading up in Jeff City.

We made a dinner stop at the Golden Buffet in Collinsville Il. I like these places, but they are always a madhouse.However if you walk away from one of these places hungry it’s your own fault. Man can these kids eat,double on the desserts.

Made a pit stop at the Indiana, and Ohio state line welcome centers. Arriving in Zanesville at 03;45AM CDT.

Here is the view I woke up to at 09:30am CDT.

This is my room with a view, it’s starting out as a typical Ohio overcast day,no rain yet.

The other day I showed you the nerve center at home that produces this blog.This is a view of my temporary command post set up under combat conditions in my room at the super 8.

Don’t know what hotspots we’ll hit, there are three other drivers here until Sunday when we relay the kids back to Jeff City. But we have a car here so we might do some sightseeing to see what made Zanesville famous.

Hey Rigg’s behave while Dad’s away, I know you will.That's about it for now, Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

Thursday thoughts

Well, had our coffee and said our goodbyes, then Donna headed for the truck company, Sam will be out of here later in the morning and will return late Sunday or early Monday.

We got Donna’s car back last night, they found the shift Cable had broken, and needed to be replaced. The total bill was $182US, towing was billed to our insurance, that’s a nice feature.

I guess that isn’t bad for having to have your car for work and getting it back in one day. A cable? what ever happened to steel rod 1/2 inch in diameter with sturdy clips holding them together like on the old cars, never heard of a shift rod breaking, Hell you needed a torch or a hacksaw to break one in two.

Not much else going on Sam will let you know how beautiful Zanesville Ohio is tomorrow.

Hey how about another chapter in the adventures of Rigg’s he’s always ready for another chance.

“ok Mom, I need your help, you know I'm still a pup and my vocabulary is still growing.

Here are some of the things you yelled at me for taking and I don’t understand the names you called them can you please explain what they are.

A fishing bobber....does it teach fish to bob ?...oh, helps catch fish....well wouldn’t that have saved you money if I'd caught some fish for dinner ?

A laundry basket....I know it was big and I was so proud I could carry it over my head that way ! .  It what ? well, if I hid all of them it would be less work for you...no laundry.

A coat hanger...its used for hanging up coats ?.....well of course I don’t need one, I don’t hang up my coat silly, so why couldn’t I chew it up. its useless .

A bra...that one almost hurt me....as I was running I stepped on one end and almost fell.....it's for girls only !.  well I'm a boy so guess I don’t need to know what it is.

A dryer sheet...now what does a dryer need with a sheet ?......oh its for inside the dryer and has chemicals? well no wonder you kept saying yuck.

Thanks mom.

I promise I'll try to be better tomorrow, honest, I will, I will”

                 Rigg’s with a plastic bowl he stole.

Be safe out there . Sam & Donna.

Wednesday Doing’s

Well, Donna’s off to the truck company, but she had to take Sam’s Duramax, her little Escape gave her trouble on the way home last night, She stopped at a convenience store and then when she backed out of the parking space and went to put it from reverse into drive it hung up in neutral and no amount of force would move the gearshift lever. Sam drove up there and he couldn’t figure it out, stepping on the brake hard, shutting it down and then restarting, the lever wouldn’t budge and the car was in neutral. Two guys helped push it back into the the parking space. The tow truck was called and it went to the Ford dealer to be looked at today, Hope we get it back today or Donna won’t have any wheels for work Thursday as Sam is heading out on a trip with the bus.

                                             Donna’s Escape

It’s a 2002 model and so far with well over 100.000 miles it has not costs up much on repairs. See it pays to change oil every 3000 miles.

Hopefully it will be something easy to find, maybe a broken piece of shift linkage, or and electrical part in the brake pedal interlock, this is a ford product that you have to have your foot on the brake to shift it from park or neutral into gear.

Yesterday was another nice sunny day in the 80”s. Sam went out and took both batteries out of the 5th wheel to check them, the top one needed some water in all the cells, the bottom one only needed a little water in two cells, not bad for being hooked up to the post for the winter. I checked both and they both registered fully charged, I think they are both 2 or 3 years old so, I might get another couple years out of them, so far we haven’t camped much without electrical hookups.

Also got the digital TV converter working, but I found it is only good for one TV at a time. I told Donna before we leave we will measure the entertainment center and buy a flat screen HDTV for the living room and keep the small bedroom TV on the converter. That way we won’t have to switch from one TV to the other.

While I was checking the TV’s I opened the DVD to put a disk in it and found one of my train movies I couldn’t find during the winter. It had been left in the DVD on our last trip and spent the winter there. All the DVD players and Radio systems worked.

Maybe today I will sand and paint the spots on the frame and springs and underneath area that needs yearly freshening up I like a nice clean black looking bottom without rust spots.

Sam got his order’s for Thursdays trip, he will pick up some High School students in Jefferson City MO. with three other busses, they will drive to Zanesville OH. Where they will meet 4 other drivers already there, These drivers will take the busses to Washington DC. Sam and the other drivers will wait for the busses to return on Sunday and then drive the students back to Jefferson City MO. The wait is usually boring, but you are being paid to layover. I will make sure to bring the camera and laptop on this trip.

Not much going on as a load of laundry has already been put in, and Sam will catch up on some of the home stuff today. Be Safe out there. Sam & Donna…..

Tuesday Musings

Well, after coffee, Donna headed to the truck company, my son Andy went to work, (Hooray he’s back to work), Grandson Adam is in school, so Grandpa Sam has the house to himself and of course Rigg’s, who will never cease demanding attention until he is so worn out he falls asleep on his rug. But have no fear after a nap he will be ready for more.

Yesterday was a lazy day, I took the truck to Wal-Mart to have four new tires put on, I have found that for LT tires they are reasonable and you can get a warranty on them anywhere in the US, (Maybe even Canada or Mexico Wal-Marts if I am lucky), haven’t read the fine print yet. Didn’t I just put four tires on Donna’s SUV last month.

Ever notice how when you are waiting for work to get done on your truck, there is a natural tendency to say, I think I’ll just look around the store. I know I can’t be the only one with this trait, but true to form that’s what I did.

I remember some time ago reading on someone’s blog about their printer going out while they were traveling and finding an all in one printer for the remarkable price of $40. Don’t know if it was at a Wal-Mart or not but I thought at the time wow that’s a hell of a deal and once we hit the road that’s what I will need rather that my two old printers that would take up the whole dinette table.

Well here I am walking up the aisle near the electronics and there on an end group is a sign This item $40, and right next to it , This item $59. On this end group under the $40 sign were Canon MP250 all in one printers, and under the $59 sign was Canon MP 300 printers.

I looked at both of them and could not see any difference from the two other than the model numbers, the fellow working there was helpful and said he didn’t know the difference either but that from what he had heard they did a good job and were selling fast. Since there were only 3 of the 250’s left I guess I can believe that.

I asked them if they could be used with a laptop and if they were network compatible and he said yes. The clincher was I asked if I didn’t like it could it be returned without any hassle and he said yes.

Well I brought it home and plugged it into the laptop and ran the software and clicked on share and then tried to print, copy, and then scanned a photo. The results were great. The photo scanned in better resolution than my old flatbed scanner, which in all fairness was bought in 1998.

                                        40 Dollar Printer

How in the heck can buying a printer take up so much blog, Anyway I have already decided it’s small enough to go in the trailer and now we can make copies and pictures while were on the road.

Oh yeah the printer when added to the new bubble levels for the trailer, and the two bags of chips, and tax made it $70 before it was over, not counting the tires. So much for just looking around.

Anyway if your need a reasonable all in one printer it works for me so check it out at Wally world. Be Safe out there. Sam & Donna.

Monday, Monday.

Well, it’s back to the usual routine, up at 04:30am, Coffee, Donna gets ready for work, then she heads for the truck company at 05:30am, San heads downstairs to his office and fires up the computer. While on the subject of computers the new to us laptop has been loaded with just the programs from our desktop as we will need to put a blog out while on the road, and also download pictures from the camera, I managed to find out why my Outlook wouldn’t send e-mail, but would receive it, Evidently when it automatically configured the wireless and the mail program it put the wrong pop info in . When I got home from my last trip I took it down to the office and compared the account settings in Outlook to one another and bingo the one in the laptop was different, After making the correction it sends and receives just fine.

             This is the command post for Sam & Donna’s Blog

As you can see my office space is the male bastion of the household decorated in a railroad theme. One wall in the family room has the cop wall which contains awards that gathered after 30 years of crime fighting,

                                          The Cop Wall

OH well Donna does have a sewing room.

Hey, here’s Rigg’s and he wants to tell you about his weekend.

“Now Mom you know a dog can have a runny nose too!....no, I don’t have a runny nose but you know it

never hurts to be prepared !   anyway how do you know I was the one that took that whole box of Kleenex

And as far as that package of Adams you call peeps....

they looked just like bunnies and I am a hunting breed, so eating bunnies is a natural instinct in me....I didn’t take anything else, yeah I know, I'm not suppose

to take anything off the table, but technically it was in a basket that was on the table.

I am VERY sorry about hurting you this weekend, I didn’t mean to wrap the chain around your legs and have you fall

on the concrete, it was a new maneuver I was trying when chasing a ball.

I will try to be better tomorrow. Honest Mom, Honest I will.”

Yesterday was so gorgeous, Sam got out there and drained the RV antifreeze and flushed all the water lines and then filled the tank with fresh water, I thought my water pump had gone out, since after the tank was full  couldn’t get it to pump anything to the faucets.I hitched up the hose to the city water and it ran fine. So I disconnected the hose and then when I tried the pump it ran fine and pumped water.Don’t know why unless there’s a check valve that was stuck. Now maybe today I will pull the two batteries and check them and see if they are okay, I have a feeling they are a couple years old so I hope they will be okay, I kept them on a charger all winter.

That’s it for now,nothing planned for today just an off day before my trip on Thursday. Be Safe out there, Sam & Donna

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, everyone, As soon as the grandson Adam was awake the hunt to see what the bunny left was on. It didn’t take long, but Adam has had eight years of experience trying to outsmart that wily wabbit. He checked out some of the previous years locations like the sun porch and Grandma’s upstairs sewing room, Then he made a beeline for the love seat in the living room and moved an afghan and there it was his Basket.

                Adam makes the discovery of the secret hiding place.

                          Now let’s check out the loot.

              Hey Grandpa look, marshmallow eggs, Yum, Yum..

I told him the Bunny must have known where Rigg’s keeps his treats  in the treat milkcan, as there was a fresh supply of Doggie treats in it for him.

Tonight we are having a combined Easter and Grandpa’s birthday feast, amongst the course’s will be Ham, Au Gratin Potatoes, and grandpa’s favorite, corn fritters.

Adam is going to watch the movie Grandpa brought him home from his trip, It looks like a kid adventure called Hoot.

When he is out of town on long trips he never forgets to bring a small souvenir back for his grandson.

It was supposed to be sunny and 80 today but it is starting out overcast. Hope it gets better and maybe I will go out and winterize the water tanks and flush the lines in the trailer today.

I can only hope there will not be another hard freeze,in MO. this late.

Well enjoy the rest of your holiday, and be safe out there. Sam & Donna.