The Mystery

The other day I was driving behind a small white car with the license plate LVNWGOD. I quickly deciphered the personalized message - Living with God. Or maybe it was something else. Could it be Love New God? Not satisfied with that message I tried to come up with another meaning for the seven letters. In the middle of my thoughts I missed the fact that the little car had stopped to make a left hand turn. Whoa. I managed to brake and stop avoiding the accident. Living with God. Yes, that definitely was the message. I was and so was the person in the car.

I received notice this morning that a copy of The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin is available through Revaluation Books located in Exeter, DEV, United Kingdom. How this came to be is a mystery to me. Why someone would buy my book for $41.68 US is a bigger mystery.

Tonight you can buy my book at Barnes and Noble in Knoxville. This may be the only time you can buy my book at this or any Barnes and Noble store. Not anticipating a huge demand for my book, I dropped three boxes into my storage unit so I won’t carry 111 extra pounds back to New York. In the vacated space in the RV I put a pile of warm clothes since I am anticipating chopping down a Christmas tree in subzero temperatures - a task that will last three hours on Christmas Eve when Robin and I will finally find the right tree moments before sundown which is about 3:30 in Northern New Hampshire. It will be in the back forty and we will have to drag it a half mile back to the car. The wind will be blowing like stink. But dang, it will be the best tree ever!

If I remember to grab a very sharp saw before begin my three day drive north…

End of the Day

The warm glow of the RV lights. Lazy cats. A phone conversation with Dad. Blog entries. And sweet dreams.

Tune It In

Once again it is time to get up early. You have had a week under the fall time change. Dark at 6 PM, but daylight around 6 AM. So get up and listen Sunday morning to Camping in the Zone with Raymond Brody. I'll be chatting with Raymond about my latest ecapades in the RV. Catch me between 8 and 9 am Eastern Time on WNOX or The Zone. Okay, no groaning unless you live in Hawaii.

Davidson River: Alone

There are always two ways to look at things. It was a free camp site with electricity, security cameras, bright lights and an alarm system. There was a huge “campground” store known as Food Lion, a CVS drug store and restaurant just across the way. Now there were no facilities, such as a bathroom or shower, but like I said, I could view this as a free site.

The other way to look at my situation was I paid $390 for the site and the fuel pump was free. Either way, it was a deal after one long cold day in the mountains.

It has been an all day ordeal starting at 25 degrees this morning (who cares what time it is when it is that cold). It was hard to believe I slept all night; even went to bed with the chickens.

The key to staying warm is not to go to bed cold. When you do half the night is spent getting warm and the other half is spent keeping warm. Wedged between two cats I was toasty. I let the hot flashes sweep through me and praised the Lord for their arrival.

When Diablo perched on the pillow I used to ward off the cold near the window it was still dark outside. My best guess was 2 am, but there was no light from the waxing gibbous moon which had been filtering through the curtains. It had to be later. I fumbled for the flashlight, finding the metal battery cylinder cold enough to adhere my tongue if I had accidentally been drooling. The bright beam pieced the darkness. It was 5:45 am. Sunrise would cast its rays in the valley of Davidson River in about a half an hour.

I was in no hurry to scramble out of bed, unlike two days ago when I got up in time to catch the sunrise and warmer breezes come over the Atlantic. I fixed a bowl of oatmeal, a cup of tea and crawled under the covers bringing the hot pot in which I boiled the water to bed with me. Not much sense wasting the heat as it cooled on the stove. The pan offered a bit of heaven tucked in my sweatshirt. Diablo slipped back underneath my sleeping bag contently purring in the crook of my arm. Phoenix plopped on my chest redefining physics by turning a nine pound cat into what felt like nineteen pounds of feline.

My plan was to poke around the Pisgah National Forest. With my trip winding up, I wanted to spend a little time in the area where Mom and Dad served as campground hosts for the Davidson River Campground in 1988. North Carolina was a special place to Mom. It was also the place where Mom and Dad took the Sunrader on its maiden voyage twenty years ago. Last week I followed the coast of the Outer Banks as they had done; now I was trying to retrace their path in the mountains in North Carolina.

I wanted the opportunity to spend a couple of days visiting the place where over 1509 waterfalls cascade over the countryside. A place where Mom once picked blueberries and made a pie for me in the RV when I came to visit them at the campground. When their summer duties were over they received a letter of appreciation from the US Forest Service. Mom and Dad framed that letter and proudly displayed it in the RV where it still hangs on the refrigerator.

Shortly after leaving the Ranger Station, the RV coughed, hesitating slightly. Thinking the engine was just cold, I headed north on 276 deeper into the National Forest toward The Cradle of Forestry. But the hesitation grew more frequent. Being cautious I turned around, but soon lost all acceleration and coasted to a stop on a curvy mountain road.

Cell service has not found the nooks and crannies of the mountains. I was dead and stranded along side a clear cold stream full of trout the same size as a two cats. Here I threw away my backcountry survival skills and did not stay put. I am capable of running four miles, so I locked up the RV, told the cats to hold the fort and trotted off down the road with my useless cell phone, my Good Sam Card and the RV’s license plate number. The RV wasn’t totally off the road and I feared two cars meeting on the curve would have to suck their guts in to pass safely.

I flagged two Wildlife Guys down and they gave me a ride to the Ranger Station. Three hours later the tow truck showed up. I am not very good when I lose control of a situation. Waiting on the tow truck and not able to get back to the RV because I would lose communication with my “rescuers”, I worried about the cats. I feared someone would break in, and steal my camera and computer. Then having no regard for my property they would let the cats out. For three hours I paced the visitor center reading about trail etiquette, how leaves turn colors, and when bear hunting season is over – sometime in December.

My guardian angel in a wrecker from Fates (honest, that was the name) finally showed up along with a North Carolina State Trooper. It was close to 2 pm when we arrived at the garage. I settled down on the overstuffed couch in the waiting area, got on line, and tried my best not to get too engrossed in the family dramas played out on afternoon TV: the Guiding Light, Judge Judy and finally the news.

Heith said they would do their best to get me back on the road before they closed. If not, I could plug in to the shop and spend the night. Another hard freeze was expected. I did not want to spend another night without electricity.
I have camped in the mountains of Nepal on nights so cold frost forms on the outside of the sleeping bag. I had to be careful to lay down my goose down jacket so the frost would coat only the outside. And when the sun finally broke over the highest peaks in the world, the sunlight forced me out of the tent as the frost clinging to the ceiling began to melt sending a cascade of water down on me. But during those adventures cold temperatures are expected and I have the gear to meet the challenge. However, I have come to expect my accommodations in the RV to be more comfortable. After all, it is an RV, not backpacking across the Himalayas.

There is a shop in Horseshoe, NC on 280 north of Brevard called Waycaster Tire and Auto Service. The Toyota Dealer in Hendersonville would not touch the RV, despite having a Toyota chassis, but they recommended these guys to Good Sam. Roger Waycaster is the owner.

Repairs were done and I was set to be on my way, but Heith said he could not let me go out into the cold for the night so he offered to plug the RV in just outside one of the service bays. I had called a campground nearby, but discovered they closed October 31st for the season. Since the sun was setting, I accepted Heith’s offer.

If you are ever in the Brevard, NC area with a troubled vehicle or in need of a set of new tires give the friendly, courteous and compassionate staff a call. 828-801-7023. It is located at 4180 Haywood Road at the intersection of Hwy 280 & 191.


Before I left, I autographed a copy of The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin and gave it to the guys at the shop. Well done guys, well done.

Sell'em!!

I haven’t written a word in the last three days. Blame it on the fact that I haven’t had a strong internet connection so I could not have made a blog entry, but that is a lame excuse. The truth of the matter is I am a little scared. In fourteen days from now I’ll fly to Houston for my last scheduled book signing at River Oaks Book Store, a rather upscale store in an upscale shopping area and I’ll find myself spending an hour and a half in the middle of the afternoon hoping someone will show up. If I am lucky four gray-haired ladies with twenty dollars to spare will accidentally drop in and one might buy The Last Voyage of the Cosmic Muffin after I tell her my story because she’ll be more impressed with my escapades than the book itself. At the end of the afternoon, I’ll thank my host Mike Jones, collect $11.34 for a book I bought for $5.60 and won’t even think about the financial loss because it is too much to bear. Later, I’ll spend that much on the tip for dinner with Nancy, my friend from the Peace Corps. While I am hardly in the same league as Bill O’Reilly and won’t even pretend to be, he’ll get 850 people to show up for a book signing for his new book Culture Warrior. After four months, I still have 850 books to sell.

I did sell two books on the beach yesterday. It was kind of cool to walk down the beach and see someone reading a copy of my book. Eight hundred forty-eight more to go.

But I won't sit here tonight thinking, “Shit, I should have never published this book.” I won’t sit here and regret the fact that I spent the better part of the year working on writing, marketing and promoting my first book. I knew it would be hard. And it was. But I did it. Only thing I’ll never be able to say is, “I should have written a book.”

So what am I scare of? How will I keep 20 boxes of books stored in my parent’s basement from getting that “smells like a basement” smell?

Oh-oh, I know. Sell’em!!

Continue

Lord, I have been blessed with an opportunity to not only to do your work, but to recognize that you have given me gifts to be able do your work. Forgive me for forgetting this. When I forget and feel that this entire road trip has been a failure, I will receive an email from someone I don’t know who has been quietly following my journey reading my blog. Unknowingly I shared a bit of me, a story, or a place I visited with someone who has laughed, or was moved in some way through my pictures or words.

I don’t expect to change the world, or influence thousands, or inspire a following in the name of some cause. Nor do I expect to make much of a living at writing. But some where deep inside me I believe this is what I am suppose to do. And if someone experiences a world that otherwise would have been unknown, then I have done what I was suppose to do.

Lord, help me remember that. Bless those who remind me of this.

July 29, 1967

Seventy columns run east, another seventy run west. Silence.

Etched into the black polished surface, the columns begin with a single line. John H. Anderson is the first name. The columns end with with a single line. Jessie C. Alba. Silence.

Bob Kohler was aboard with USS Forrestal July 29, 1967. I was on school’s summer vacation. I was going to be in the eighth grade.

Bob Kohler knew 134 names on the Wall. I knew none. Silence.

How is it that I grew up during the Vietnam War and served in the US Army during the Vietnam Era and I don’t know anyone on the Wall?

The Moving Wall came to Coinjock, NC. Bob Kohler belongs to the VFW in Coinjock. We met on the grass in front of the Wall where he told me about the USS Forrestal.

A fire resulting from a punctured fuel tank killed 134 U.S. crewmen aboard the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin, in the worst naval accident since World War II. John McCain, a pilot, was getting ready to launch when flames surrounded his aircraft. He narrowly escaped. Hell. Fire onboard a ship. No where to go.

Leaving The Island

Last night’s deluge left the narrow, sandy streets of Ocracoke underwater and the RV surrounded by a shallow lake. I tip-toed on the high spots avoiding the floating dog poop, unplugged the electricity and headed out early under promising skies. My first stop was for a flock of ducks swimming across the Back Road. After enjoying latte and the morning paper in the comforts of an over stuff couch at the Coffee Shack, the day started to shape up. Ahead of me was a two hour ferry ride across Pamlico Sound to Cedar Island. Destination Beaufort – pronounced bow (as in bow-tie) ford – otherwise one might think you were asking for directions to South Carolina where it is pronounced as one might expect.

Before getting in line for the ferry, I took a quick trip to the beach to see a still angry surf take a chunk out of the shore line. On my return to town, I once again ran into a Harley Club, this time visiting the Lighthouse.
I was tempted to sleep on the ferry. The night’s rain pounded on the RV and the forty mile an hour gusts rocked my little home. But I had no fear of the captain falling overboard. Thunderstorms were in the forecast, but they never materialized. Instead of napping, I read a newspaper catching up on the news which featured Democrat verse Republican strategies. I amused myself with the crossword, suduko and The Jumble.

In Beaufort I stopped in at the visitor’s center for information on campsites. Two gentlemen companions were buying china in the gift store that is a part of the center. I patiently waited for the clerk to find a box for the blue and white piece when the one gentleman sitting behind me asked if he could ask me a question. I did not have the faintest idea what he might ask, but the first thing that came into my head which I said out loud, “You want to know why my hair is so messy?”

Actually he wanted to know if that was a natural curl I was sporting. Of course it is, accentuated by the fact that this morning I did not wash it, or even brush it, but slapped a ball cap on until noon, and then let the strong breezes on the ferry blow it all around. He complimented my hair saying if it wasn’t natural he wanted to know who set the perm. His friend engaged in the conversation informing me that he was a hair dresser.

“Was that really the question you wanted to ask me?” He said it was. I thanked him, saying he made my day. Now if I could only find a camp site.

Back tracked nine miles to Coastal Riverside Campground in Otway, NC. The RV is parked next to the South River, overlooking the west where the last traces of daylight sit. Red washes the low horizon, a harsh contrast to the black waters in the tidal marshes. Higher in the sky hangs a first quarter moon. The winds have died down, but has left a whispered hush in the oak leaves above the RV. Now this is camping.

Meehonkey

“You from New York?”

I had not opened my mouth, so my accent did not give me away. I was wearing a Saratoga Springs Race Course ball cap, but after accessing my accuser’s accent I concluded he would have not known any race tracks outside of Bristol or Talladega.

An hour earlier I had been at the ferry terminal making reservations for tomorrow’s crossing to Cedar Island. There I gave out information about my vehicle’s registration. Maybe he overhead my conversation, but the place had been deserted when I spoke to the ranger. He joked about me stealing the RV from my dad and that there was an APB issued for the missing RV. I offered him a dollar to keep my identity under raps. Later I visited the museum and I indicated I was from Tennessee when I signed the register.

My accuser was sitting on the railing outside the kite shop in Ocracoke. His accent was definitely southern and definitely from somewhere in Eastern Carolina. “I saw your tag in the campground. Saw you come in.” His tone seemed like he had an unresolved issue with my Yankee ancestors, but maybe I misread it, lost in the accent. Was he an O’cocker, a local?

He fiddled around with one of the kites hanging on the porch of the store. “Leaving tomorrow?” he asked. I had my eye on the lighthouse across the bay when I walked across the porch looking for a potential photo. Now my mind quickly shifted gears. Had he followed me from the campground? I walked to the ferry terminal, the museum and was slowly killing the afternoon waiting for the approaching storm.

“Yes, on the noon ferry,” I volunteered and hoped it was early enough to suit him. “We are on the 9 o’clock, headed back home. Did you like it here?” Okay, so he was being friendly and I was being paranoid. The half dozen kids milling around inside the kite store must have been his. I had to ask him where he was from.

“Over near Raleigh.” I knew it was an eastern Carolina accent.

The O’cockers have an accent, borne out of isolation. The only way to the island is by ferry - either a forty minute ride from Hatteras or a two and a half hour ride across the Pamlico Sound. Despite the infiltration of summer tourists that is as thick as the clouds of mosquitoes that swarm these barrier islands, the seven hundred locals manage to retain their trademark speech patterns. The men retain a stronger accent as they work in fishing or crabbing, and have less contact with the dingbatters (non-residents) than the local women who find employment in tourism and therefore converse more with tourists. That is the story I heard anyway. I began to wonder if there was TV and radio out on the island.

The Ocracoke dialect known as Ocracoke Brogue finds its unique character in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. Here is a small sample:

Being a dingbatter, I thought I was being mommucked by an O’cocker. It was slick cam when I took the ferry, otherwise I might have been quamish. The low clouds are a token of a storm. My two cats are no match for The Russian Rats or a even the fictitious wampus cat. Water fire is not something you drink, but is a light which appears on the surface of the water, probably caused by swamp gas or fire water.

Locals talk fast and pronounce fish as feeish and fire is figher.

Meehonkey is a game of hide and seek.

Bound to Happen

Worst Campground Ever

I have passed a few dumps this week while on The Outer Banks, but I finally stumbled into what I hoped to be the better of the two private campgrounds in Ocracoke. The third choice was the National Park, dry camping for $20. I have done it before, could do it again, but it is suppose to gust to 40 mph tonight and thought I would freeze to death in the sand dunes, my worst fear in life. I selected Teeter’s, what I hoped would be the better of the two (neither are listed in Frommer’s Best Campgrounds in America) and took refuge in my RV under threatening skies. Thank God for broadband wireless internet connections, electricity, curtains and my own bathroom. I could drive and ferry back to Hatteras Village, but would have to backtrack in the early morning.

I’ve learned a few lessons while RV camping, most of them this week:

1. If you automatically cringe when you go over a speed bump, you are going too fast. If there are no speed bumps and you are still gripping the steering wheel like a life perserver, maybe the road is in bad need of grading and could be a sign of what lies ahead.


2. If dogs are not leashed in a campground, you better watch where you walk, be prepared to clean up after someone else’s animal (less you step in it) and leave the cats inside. And most likely, forego the showers.



3. If Halloween decorations look brand new and are juxtaposed to faded Christmas décor which includes a deflated Snowman, it is not a RV campground. It is an RV Park.



4. Avoid RV parks if possible. Park is more closely defined with the verb park, not the noun park, as in National Park. The verb park means the sites are littered with “campers” that have been parked since Aero Steams first went into production. The permanence of the campers redefines them as trailers. This is not to be confused with travel trailers because these things haven’t traveled since Lewis and Clark returned from the northwest.



5. Barking dogs are just a bad sign altogether.



6. Know the ferry schedule so you can get off the island when you want to get off the island.



7. If you don’t get a receipt for payment, don’t be surprised when you return and find your campsite taken. Be suspicious when you don't get a car pass, their is no fence, security gate and it is difficult to determine where the "check in" office is.



8. “We only take cash” is a red flag.



9. Expect trouble with the neighbors who have a fence around their site and it runs around your electric pole. Okay, so they don’t unplug it in the middle of the night, but their dogs will chew the hell out of it. Again, the dogs.



10. Wetsuits hanging on the railing, surfboard scattered about and young men with frazzled (sand and salt) hair taking too much notice as you drive by...not a good thing.



11. People yelling at each other, also not a good sign.

First available ferry leaves at noon tomorrow. I’ll be on it.

Well, hell I am here, lets see what this place has to offer before it starts to pour.

Time In Between

It has been over a year since I have stood outside to look at the night sky.

12: 37 a.m.

Orion rose in the east just over the dunes. It was too darn cold for me to venture over the sand swept landscape to get a better view, get away from the lights in the campground. I put a sweatshirt on and stood shivering outside the RV in my pajamas. I was careful not to venture too far away from the RV, afraid I would have to spend the rest of the night pulling sand burrs out of my socks. Directly overhead the Milky Way’s cloudy haze faintly stained the midnight sky. I could not find Ursa Major or Ursa Minor, but I think I saw Draco, the dragon twists its snake like body past Ursa Minor. Maybe it was too late to see the long tail bears.

The wind is suppose to die down tonight. Maybe, I’ll venture beyond the concrete RV pad after midnight to see more sky.

Find your night time sky at Learn What’s Up.

Somewhere East of Edenton

A couple of months ago I would have cringed at this campsite, a open space facing directly into the afternoon sun, the nearest shade tree two football fields away. Temperatures never made it over 60 and the wind chill has got the bite of the Chinook. I am delighted to take advantage of the power of the sun. All the curtains are drawn open but, the windows are shut against the wind that has rocked the RV all day. My two cats are lounging in the sunshine seeking the comforts of Rah, the sun god. Phoenix is snoring; Diablo just let out a long sigh after giving herself a good bath. Inland they are expecting frost, but on the coast, it will drop into the forties. It won’t be the temperature that is cold, but the wind.

Sold one book to my cousin and gave another away to the Edenton, NC Public Library. I have to be the first author who has ever personally donated a book to the library. The assistant told me that the librarian is vacationing in Italy, but that she would call me when she returns. Yeah right, I skeptically think, but then again…

I spent the better part of yesterday trying to remember the names of some of the employees who worked at the TRW Automotive plant in Greenville. Known throughout the company as one of the best employee involvement facilities, we even made the cover of the annual stock report one year. Alas, the good employee management practices didn’t guarantee employment for the employees, but they should have walked away from the plant with a set of team skills any employer in town could appreciate and use. At least, that is what I use to tell them when we were working hard to develop a team-based approach to work. Now I was sitting in the abandoned parking lot, with an RV full of unsold books, looking at three naked flagpoles, a yard that needs moving and wondering who they were and where did they go.

I couldn’t help think of one employee who never had to worry about his future. Dale Leary was a bright young man who knew how to work hard, and played even a little bit harder. He was eager for promotions, so he volunteered for shift overtime, worked on the toughest and dirtiest machines and finally he became an A operator. As an A operator, he was assigned to the Acme Screw Machines, a machine that takes years to master. Dale was fortunate for he became friends with an older employee who worked on these machines in the automotive supplier plants in Detroit. Harold knew these machines like he once knew the rebellious yearnings of a youth. He took Dale under his wing, and showed him how to fine tune the delicate machines. Dale learned, listened and grew.

I first met Dale when he was coming up on his one year employment anniversary. He was eligible to enroll in the company’s 401k and sat in the enrollment meeting with me. The sleepy eyed kid with his blonde hair hanging down over his collar made an impression on me. I remembered his name, one of nearly 250 I would soon learn as the new HR Manager for the plant. Dale was surprised that I remembered his name when we talked later on the shop floor. There was just something about his polite manner and smile that did not seem to set right with his reputation for wild Saturday nights. He hated weekend overtime, as it interfered with his weekend activities. Finally he lost his license for drinking and driving. Once his partying was curtailed, he buckled down to focus on his employment.

Harold and Dale became a solid team. Dale was more prone to adopting the team concepts than Harold. Harold also intuitively ran his machines, and balked at charting statistical process control charts, the “new way” to manufacturing. Dale helped his mentor with plotting the charts; Harold showed his apprentice his trade like a father teaches a son to fish, where skill and lore all became the same.

I transferred to another plant, but came back to Greenville one Thanksgiving when I read in the local paper that Dale had been stabbed to death on a county road. I attended the funeral. Details about the crime were few but rumors were many. I never learned what happened. I don’t know if anyone did.

I find myself thinking of him every once in a while. It is strange how the mind will hold a name and memory. When I became the manufacturing manager, Dale challenged my management one Thursday after we announced overtime. We were out on the shop floor. He said I didn’t care if the employees had to work the weekends or not. Overtime didn’t wreck my weekend. I never forgot his remark, mainly because he accused me of not caring. For some reason, I always did care about him. Rest in Peace, Dale Leary.

Kinston, NC

From RV.com: Nearly one in 12 U.S. vehicle-owning households now owns an RV. That's nearly 7 million households–an increase of 7.8 percent during 1998-2001, according to the study. I won’t dispute that, but last night only four RVs were in this little jewel of a campsite sitting on the banks of the Neuse River in Eastern Carolina. I found a good thing. The question is do I keep it a secret or share it? Located on the sleepy banks of the Neuse the campground offers eight sites with water, electric and sewer and a small shower house situated on 55 acres featuring hiking trails, a nature center, planetarium, health and science museum. All this for a staggering price of $10.00 a night. Should I tell the world?

Come to the Neuseway Nature Center and Planetarium, Health and Science Museum and Campground of Kinston, North Carolina. By the way the museum, planetarium and the nature center are FREE. 403 W. Caswell Street, Kinston, NC 28501. 252-939-3302. Can't find a website.

I stopped in Wilson, NC for gas and wondered where I was going to spend the night. It took all day to travel across North Carolina through a corridor of color, a trip I have made a hundred times in my Jeep. The majestic mountains gave way to the Piedmont’s gentle rolling hills. In Raleigh I picked up 264 and began to wander into the coastal plains.

I use to live here, but I could not remember any campgrounds in the area. So after I filled the RV up with fuel, I checked the internet for campgrounds. When a campground in Kinston popped up I paused. Kinston? Really?

My memories of Kinston: a hot and humid, economically depressed town sitting in the middle of tobacco and cotton fields. Summer starts in March where blistering waves of heat dance on the distance horizons over the flat lands. Humidity hangs in the air as still as the Spanish moss hanging off the cypress long the Neuse. Water oaks and hickories cluster around old farmhouses, little islands in a sea of tobacco and cotton. In the deepest part of summer, nothing moves here except the fast ball of a young pitcher with the Kinston Indians trying to make it to The Show.

Kinston is the home of my best friend, Barbara Smith who grew up eating cucumber slices between two pieces of white bread bathed in mayo. I am not talking high-society finger sandwiches. I’m talking dirt roads where grasshoppers the size of hotdogs buzzed in the tall roadside grasses.
Walking down the road is a little girl with bare feet, stringy blonde hair, wearing a cotton dress and eating a bag of peanuts poured into bottle of Coke. For a Yankee, this was signature South.

It was after 5 pm when I pulled into the parking lot for the Nature Center. It was closed, but Bobby, the only paid employee was waiting for me to arrive. He checked me in, showed me the showers and told me how the Center was flooded in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd ran up the coast. (I sold my house in Greenville two weeks before the flood.) I took note of the electrical outlets placed on poles about six feet high. I doubt if I’d hang around the campground if the Neuse was in flood stage.

Next door, I met a couple who have been RVing full time (living out of their RV) for six years. They sold their farmhouse in Connecticut, told their kids to come get their stuff and took off in a motor home with two cats and two dogs. Presently, they have one cat and one dog, both adapting well to road life in a 36 foot Fleetwood complete with a couple of slides. Summers are spent traveling the country visiting Civil War sites and participating in reenactments. Winters are spent in Florida in a community of snowbirds from all over the US and Canada. Each winter sixty of them flock together to catch up and socialize.

I glanced up at their big RV and then looked over at my little SunRader. I wondered if I could live such a life. I have gone over 4000 miles, and have been on and off the road since July 29. Few things have gone as planned and my book tour fell apart. It doesn’t seem to matter to me. It has been a good experience; I am living my life with no regrets about setting out on the road. I’ve seen places I have never been, visited places where I have had good memories and met a bunch of nice people in bookstores, farmers markets, campgrounds, grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants.

I enjoy the evenings spent quietly writing in the confines of the RV. The rest of the world disappears behind the curtains as darkness settles around the little vehicle. With Diablo usually at my feet and Phoenix perched on the bed, I sit at the table writing in the warm glow of the RV’s lights. The only intrusion from the outside world is from the radio playing sappy love songs, generally Delilah’s radio show. I am alone, and comfortable.

Take The Tour

Someone told me about a trip to they took to Siberia. In one remote fishing village they found the people were proud and friendly. The residents insisted on showing the tourists whom arrived aboard a plush cruise ship their aquarium. The aquarium turned out to be a maze of metal tanks with fish cut out of cardboard. No real fish. The town was too poor to have a real aquarium, yet someone in town took the initiative to construct the attraction, which turned out to be more educational than first appeared.

At the Nature Center in Kinston there is a modest collection of stuffed and live animals found in the Carolina habitat. And there is a glass aquarium along with a very verbal cockatiel, a couple of huge diamondback rattlesnakes, a cute little owl and a couple of skates swimming in a shallow pool. Outside there is an elephant near the rock climbing wall.

In the planetarium, the young guide memorized the lines of his monologue which he delivered in a monotone drone. He showed us the North Star, the Big and Little Dippers, told the Native American legend of how the bear’s tail became short and explained the fuel system in the Saturn 5 rockets. He probably was born twenty years after we walked on the moon and all he knew about the moon program was what he saw in the movie Apollo 13, from which he showed a clip. It was free and it rained all day.

Plan B

Some times you just got to punt. I waited a week for the electrician and his little helper apprentice. After accessing my situation his diagnosis entailed buying new light box housing for the fans—the transformer, the light and ceiling fan switches. Now where do you suppose you can get these things that come with a Life Time Guarantee? After all, Life Time Guarantee means forever. So where do you buy things to replace things that don't wear out, or break or fall apart or stop working? Not Lowes; not Home Depot. You got to contact Hunter directly.

I don’t know whose life ran out, but when it did, the guarantee on my fans was no longer valid. And if it was, I did not embrace the idea of calling a phone number that wasn’t even a 1-800 number. Facing a self-imposed deadline to get out of Dodge (sold two books while in Dodge) this morning, I decided to remove the two five-bladed ceiling fans and replace them with two $7.95 ceiling lights.

It is a tricky operation to install and remove large ceiling fans. It is not a solo operation, but I managed to get the two fans down without dropping the things on my head or falling off the ladder. The light installation was fairly easy except for navigating the ceiling screws through the lights’ insulation so I could attach the fixture to the plate secured to the electrical box. When I finished the last light I was so pleased and relieved. I could have bowed down and kissed the ground, except I was straddled atop of the ladder. I bowed my head and praised the Lord for His help.

Once all my tools were packed and the disasmebled fans toted to the trash, I informed Phoenix and Diablo to buckle up as we were headed east. It was 12:10 pm. I had not gone to the bank, yet. I was late for nothing. So much for Plan A.

The skies cleared, revealing Carolina Blue and the late afternoon golden rays spilled over the multicolored blanket draped over the Smoky Mountains. The foliage is at its autumn’s peak—brilliant reds, rich oranges and deep yellows set the coniferous greens apart. Beneath the clear skies it will be cold in the mountains tonight. A great night for star-gazing and dreaming.

Bear season opens this week in the Carolinas. A wise person would stay out of the woods.

The Sterling Hill Mine: a piece of the past

In a shallow Precambrian sea from zinc-bearing hydrothermal vents, a zinc carbonate oozed from the depths of the earth to morph into a mineral rich family known as the "ites." That is willemite, franklinite and zincite. Now if you were a seventh grade kid and had trouble remembering this stuff for a science test, think of it as a family of Ites, husband Franklin, his wife Wille and their first son Zinc.

The assemblage of these minerals in a very old seabed in northern New Jersey is quite unique, as no other place on earth contains as many minerals. The main reason for this occurrence rests on two factors over a very long period of time- about 1.2 billion years: temperatures as high as 760 degrees Centigrade and pressure equivalent to 5000 atmospheres. At this point it doesn’t matter if you convert the temperature to the all familiar Fahrenheit, because it is adequate to say it was hot as hell. And as for the pressure, let’s say it was more than what the contestants bear on Dancing with the Stars when the vote announcement is interrupted for a commercial break.

What we get is the richest mineral deposits in the world. There are over 4600 minerals in the world and more than 360 are found in the south Wallkill Valley of Northern New Jersey near Franklin (oooh, name sound familiar?) and Ogdensburg. This alone could put the area on the map of any serious rock hound, but consider that 32 of the minerals found here are found no other place in the world, a bunch more are very rare and 89 of the minerals are fluorescent. It is a world-renown bonanza for mineral collectors.

Okay, that is about all the geological history I can muster. In the days of yore, many of these minerals were carried out in the pockets of miners and when the rock hounds showed up on Friday afternoon the miners sold their pocket of rocks for a six pack of beer. And the rock hounds walked off with minerals that today carry “Big Buck” price tags. (In rock hound lingo big buck means a thousand.)

My grandfather was a miner and if he carried rocks out of the Sterling Hill Mine in his pockets or lunch pail, I don’t know.

Bonafacio immigrated to the United States of America for the opportunity to work in the mines of Colorado. He got diverted to New Jersey.

In Mexico a miner worked all day in the mines, hauling dirt, debris and hopefully ore to the surface in a wheelbarrow. If he came to the surface with a load but, had no ore his labor below in the dark, damp and dangerous tunnels was not compensated.

He came alone, leaving my grandmother and my infant father in Mexico. They would later travel by train to live in the company town of Ogdensburg in a small square house on the street known as Mexico or Bridge Street.

Mining had been going on in this area since the 1700’s, but the New Jersey Zinc Mine took over the operations in 1852 and continuously blasted more than 33 miles of tunnel beneath the surface until 1986 when a dispute between the town and the mine over taxes led to the company’s decision to abandon the mine, all its equipment and assets, and shut the place down leaving an estimated 600,000 tons of ore behind. The short-sightedness of the town caused property taxes to rocket and ended a long proud tradition of mining which played a key role in the defense of America during WWII.

Fortunately, some local visionaries realized the significance and value in rescuing the old mine from demolition and subsequent development. They bought it and today the Sterling Hill Mine Museum preserves the story and the history of the mine. The tunnels are flooded so the shafts, the equipment, the ghosts and the legends are entombed in a watery grave. The places my grandfather once toiled are hidden forever.

I had an opportunity to enter the adit, the mine’s entrance. It is open to the public for tours as it remains above the water. I felt some special connection to my past when I entered the mine, and visited the change room where the miners showered and hung their dirty work clothes in baskets at the end of their shifts. I felt proud to be where my grandfather once worked, but shivered at the thought of his labor in the place that produced 22 million tons of zinc. I have no doubt he would be proud of the fact that the mine is now a museum.

Sources of Information: Mining for America: The Franklin-Sterling Hill, NJ Zinc Mines by William Truran and A Mile Deep and Black as Pitch: An Oral History of the Franklin and Sterling Hill Mines by Carrie Papa.

Visit the Sterling Hill Mine Website


Twin Tunnels:

Also known as the Backward Tunnel built in 1871 over the Wallkill. Supposedly it was built backwards because the water side is larger than the road side. I loved this tunnel as a kid. We'd close our eyes when dad drove his car through and we would try to guess by the sound when we came out the other side.

It Take Five Minutes

Are you kidding me? I heard a radio announcer say the other day that keeping a blog takes no time at all. He claimed it took five minutes, yet he confessed he only made weekly entries. Then he read one of his entries. He was off to Disney World with his wife and kids, and thanked several people who made it possible. Okay.

I must be doing something wrong. I thanked Raymond Brody the other day for making my RV trip a bit easier and it took me two days to write that entry.

I have been distracted for the last five days. I had not planned to return to Knoxville this week so this was an unexpected turn of events. Since everything else about this trip has been a series of fateful events, I accept the surprises and don’t get upset when the realities of life catch up to my fantasy lifestyle. I accept it as my tuition for living my life in the manner I choose. I have the freedom to travel and write, but it comes at a small price of the inconveniences of being responsible for a few things. When I step back and review the details, I gratefully thank the Lord for the opportunities He has given me. I can afford to graciously pay the price when duty calls.

I am a landlord, a debt-free landlord. All rental income is at my disposal. I am a landlord with an investment in rental property and I expect to capitalize on the dual dimensions of my real estate: rental income and property appreciation.
Therefore, I maintain my property by reinvesting in maintenance and expect my tenants to respect the property.

I have good tenants and like good employees to any employer, that makes all the difference. However, I have had error in my judgment in selecting a couple of tenants and I paid for my error. I don’t have stories like the time one of the tenants repaired his motorcycle in the living room and proceeded to ride it up the flight of stairs to the second floor. True story, but fortunately, not mine.

I lost two tenants this month and decided to protect my investment by returning to Knoxville to assure the apartments were in good order and to secure new tenants. Managing rental property long distance is a challenge, but I have done this for twenty years, so I know nothing but the hardship of long distance management. I am an idiot.

For the past few days I have cleaned walls, touched up paint, and tackled minor electrical and plumbing problems. I have no vast wealth of knowledge about these things, but I can read and I can problem solve. Most of my skill comes from days of pondering the problem and reading reference materials and then slowly applying my book knowledge to the issue, such as when I remodeled one of the kitchens this past winter. Most of the time this works, especially if I do a bit of praying. I’m serious. And when things work out, I praise the Lord for giving me the talent.

I probably was a bit over confident when I tackled a minor electrical problem. I had two Hunter ceiling fans with lights. Both lights and fans were operational, but the pull chain switches to the fans were broken and neither could be turned off. I have made these repairs in the past, so I climbed the ladder and wiped out my electrician tools. Snip, snip, strip a few wire ends, reconnect and back into business. After replacing the pull chain switch I now have two ceiling fans that don’t work and two lights that also don’t work. The good news is that whatever mistake I made on one I duplicated on the other, so once I figure out the problem, I can fix both.

So this has taken me forty-five minutes to write and I have not proofed anything, nor have I taken any photos, cropped them, uploaded the photos or the text to the blog so, I think the five minute theory is nothing more than a passing comment to an uniformed audience.

Meanwhile, I am living out of the RV. Unlike when I can run around town in my Jeep taking the back streets, I must carefully plan my routes as not all streets are accessible due to the low clearance on the RV’s rear end. My trips to the hardware stores are planned to reduce the number of times I have to cross town. Therefore, I multi-task my projects, something I hate because I like to stay with one problem until I get it worked out. In the past I have frequented Home Depot enough times that the contractors as well as the store employees thought I worked there. Now maybe I think I should just park the RV at Home Depot and get a job there.

In the end, I rented out one of the two apartments and hope by Friday to have the other rented and have the electrical problem fixed (even if I have to call an electrician). I have little nicks and cuts on my hands and they are all dried out. My hands hardly look like those of a writer--more like a boxer. I have bruises on my ribs from crawling under the bathroom sink to replace the lever in the pipe. I banged my leg on the oven door when I was cleaning it and took three chunks of skin out of my shin. Ouch. And while working on the ceiling fans I got into the light’s insulation and suffered a day of pin-prickling torture when fibers dropped on me from head to toe. Yes, it is time to get back on the road. RVing is less hazardous.

Was this more interesting than letting you know about an upcoming trip to Disney World? Probably not. It took two hours to write this, another half hour to get photos done, uploaded and document proofed and look up links.

Security Blankets

Fall is kicking in, but winter is licking its chops to get here. I plan to drop south quickly after a brief “I was in the neighborhood” visit to Knoxville. There is less competition for camping sites, at least in Virginia. I am sure the conditions will change as I head further south. A convoy of Fleetwood Bouncers nearly blew me off the road as they passed by me in the Shenandoah Valley. Their Pennsylvania tags looked to be Florida bound. They will arrive tomorrow. Me? I plan on taking three days.

I listened to Camping in the Zone this morning. Raymond Brody’s lead topic on his radio show was about the cold weather. I was relieved to learn that the pipes, the toilet, the shower and other water features in the camper will not freeze with just one night of cold weather. However, while the RV might not freeze, that doesn’t mean I won’t. Anything below seventy is freezing. Fortunately, I have a heater in the RV. Set on low it kept the bite out of the air last night and Diablo did sleep under the covers curled up in the crook of my arm. (She is no fool. She knew where it is warm.)

Here is my confession. Starting out on this four month road trip, I had no RV experience. Going alone made me a little nervous, but my spirit of adventure always gets the best of me. Being alone was not going to stop me, even if I was a bit concerned. It was not until this morning that I realized I had a couple extra security blankets.

The first blanket is the camaraderie of those who RV. Many people notice my little and old RV. Or they notice the cats. It is not uncommon to strike up conversations with anyone in the campground regardless where you meet: camp store, adjacent campsite, front entrance, bathroom…

The other sense of security comes from Raymond. Whether I am talking on the air with Raymond, or just listening to him on the radio (or the internet in my case), I have felt that if I got into a real pickle, I could call his store in Nashville or Knoxville and get a good bit of advice and if needed a shot of confidence. Fortunately, I have not had any major issues with the RV or my confidence. Yes, the engine light came on hours after I began the trip (Mom reassured me that it had done this for years) and there was a few weeks of stinky hot water (Dad and I took care of that) and I was concerned about freezing pipes (Raymond addressed that this morning). I knew I could always call Dad and I have Good Sam’s emergency road service for the extreme cases. But knowing there are other RVers out there and a special person like Raymond who has a wealth of expertise to share, I have confidently motored down the road seeking the next place to sell a book or two. I am hardly alone.

Thanks Raymond.

Hawaii: Aloha. Praying you are all safe.

Quilt Highway

Not Buffalo

It is presently 47 degrees. The heater is on and I am hoping I can coax Diablo under the covers. It is suppose to go down to 27 degrees tonight. A two-cat night.

It is fall not winter.

Buffalo, New York got clobbered. I took this photo last winter. Dad is plowing the driveway. Need you ask why I don't want to live in upstate New York. Burrrr.... I am dreaming of someplace warm.

Cracker Barrel

I saw her walking across the dining room in Cracker Barrel. She looked all of 110; small, frail, and suffering from osteoporosis. She walked with a cane; each step could not have been more than a fourth of what once had been her active stride. A flashback hit me. I had been nearing the summit of an 18,000 foot peak in Nepal. Exhausted, starved for oxygen and cussing up a storm, each step I took was a forced effort and about half of my normal stride. Unfortunately, feeling the effects of the high altitude my attitude did not match the woman’s, who seemed determined, independent and appreciative of the opportunity to share a meal with a friend who had already made her way to the table. She could have been a daughter and she looked 90. Again I wondered if I should be so lucky to live so long. If so and I could only move that fast, will my brain constructively use the time to think of great things? In other words, if it takes one minute to physically do something and later the same task takes four times as long, does the mind fill that space? I concluded it does. Since I have been traveling in an RV it takes me a hell of a lot longer to travel from point A to point B. I am very aware of how long it takes me. Thankfully, I am not pushed to be anywhere and I use a bit of the time to converse with my Lord.

The waitress returned to my table and before presenting the bill for the Friday night catfish special, she asked if she could bring anything else to me. I said, “Yes, there is one thing you could do. You see those two ladies over there? I would like to buy them their dinner.” My waitress was shocked. “Do you know them?”

I did not have a clue as to who they were. That made it all the more baffling to my waitress and I can’t really say what prompted me to do it. I told her that she was not to inform the two that I was buying, but discreetly bring their bill to me.

Before I left she told me that she had had a really bad day, but my gesture toward the two ladies had turned her day around. “You are an angel.” I hardly think so. Her reaction and renewed spirit was unexpected and that made me smile.

Two Thirteen and Krispy Krème

Lewes, Delaware. That is pronounced Lewis, not Lou’s.

In Lewes, I stopped in to see a childhood, neighborhood friend, Gayle Parker. I had not seen her since I got married. So how many years ago was that? Gayle and I were in kindergarten together. I was not the most outgoing kid in class, but she was as shy as a sand crab. The little girl with curly blonde hair never said a word, volunteered an answer, spoke only when spoken too, did not read out loud and tried the patience of a teacher who did not know what to do for the terribly shy and withdrawn little girl except to shake her in the hallway and make her cry. Gayle’s mom happened to be in the school when that happened and the teacher nearly lost her job over the incident. After that, she left Gayle alone, but Gayle continued to zone out to the point that even when the recess bell rang and we all tumbled out the door, Gayle sat in her chair unaware that the bell had even rung.

Somehow, Gayle and I became friends. I suspect mostly because she did not live too far away (about a mile up the mountain towards Greenfield Center which was a lot closer than any other girls in my class. There were only five.), and because she had horses. I always wanted a horse and she had one named Pony Boy.

There was a field behind her house and we would go into the field and surrounding woods to play. We were both tomboys and enjoyed climbing rocks, trees and fallen logs. One day, I was crossing a huge fallen log that spanned a small gully. I fell and cracked my head wide open on a rock. I never started crying until I saw the blood running down my face. As bad as it bled, I could not have been too hurt, for I ran like hell down to her house. Panic-city. I got my first set of stitches at my hairline in the middle of my head.

We reminisced about our childhoods, our siblings and our families and caught up on what we had been doing for the last thirty years. She remembered details I could not such as the name of our second grade teacher—Mrs. Bright and the name of Robin Stroup’s first husband—Lindsey Waterhouse. Gayle was a big Elvis fan and I asked if she still was. Not really. Yeah, the music was good, and it lasts forever, but there was a place for it and it was in our past.

Gayle showed me around Lewes, Rehobath and Dewey. We popped in unannounced on three bookstores, (Browse-About Books told me they would consider ordering it if it was available through Barker and Taylor. It is.) to see if they might have interest carrying my book. It was a long shot, but one never knows until one asks. Did not have much luck.

It was good seeing her.

I have not bought gas since Jersey where it was as low as 1.95 at a crazy gas station named Wawa. I finally checked one out.

Great coffee, clean restrooms, and polite staff. As I headed south into Maryland gas price rose, but I suspected the price would be lower once I crossed over to Virginia. Yes, two-thirteen and I saw a Krispy Krème, which would be against the law to patronize if you were from the Boston area, where every 5000 people have their own Dunkin Donut.


First time to Virginia: another memory

I wish I could more, as the memories are so precious. We came to Chincoteague driving through the farmlands of Delaware where I remember a sign, “Corn so fresh their ears still wiggle.” It was late July and we came to see the pony round-up and swim.

Mom and dad took us to Virginia to camp at Tom’s Cove in tents. The vampire mosquitoes almost killed us. The heat almost fried us. The rain almost drowned us. But I remember we had a good time. We saw the ponies swim the channel from Assateague to Chincoteague. We went swimming in the ocean and Robin got stung by a jellyfish. We fished off the campground pier with slimy squid. We watched the movie, Misty. And we slept in our sleeping bags despite the heat because the mosquitoes were so vicious.

I wish could remember more. What did mom cook for dinner? What did she think of the pony swim? What did she tell me? What did she like about the trip? How did she feel about the weather? Did she have a good time?

As I sat on the beaches of Assateague Island on this warm mid-October afternoon, I thought of these things and missed her. What I could not do in New Jersey, or Connecticut, I did in Virginia. I let a sadness began to wrap its arms around me and hold me to until I gave in to the loss. I missed her.


Self portrait