Sightseeing

We are still in Carthage, Missouri.  Yesterday, Wednesday, and today we did a little sightseeing.  On Wednesday we decided to drive to Joplin, about 10 miles away, to go see the new Men in Black movie as well as taking a drive around.  You may remember that this time last year Joplin was hit with a powerful tornado that did a huge amount of destruction as well as killing something like 140 people.  We drove most of the path of the tornado and were amazed at how much the town has accomplished in one year.  There are so many rebuilt homes and businesses but you can still see large open areas of land where homes once were.  The only debris we saw was at the high school.  It has been completely demolished but not all the debris has been removed, nor has rebuilding begun.  I can just imagine what it must look like from the air as the town is old and well established and the tornado just cleared all that out so that you have this path of just open land, no trees.

Today, Thursday, we visited the George Washington Carver National Monument which is about 10 miles south of us. It was established at his birthplace in Diamond, Missouri.  Beautiful visitor center with a small museum and lots of acreage surrounding the center with a 3/4 mile walk into the fields taking you by Carver’s favorite places, his owners home and the farm cemetery.  It was a nice visit.  Here are some pictures.

Statue of Carver as a child

Walkway through the grounds

Pond where Carver liked to pray

Carver’s owners house.  Carver’s family home was destroyed in a tornado.

Cemetery on farm

Owner’s graves

Bust of Carver

Carver is buried at the Tuskegee Institute where he taught, lived and died.

Update on our travels.  This week we mapped out our route over the next two months as we have planned activities in places and wanted to make sure we had places to stay during the busy summer months.  From Carthage we travel to Lake of the Ozarks for two weeks then to the St. Louis area for a week.  After St. Louis we head into the Chicago area at the end of June for two weeks then we are going to loop around Lake Michigan with stops in Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Michigan, Ohio and finally into Springfield, Ohio the middle of August to visit with our daughter. 

We are looking forward to meeting up with friends and family plus seeing some interesting sites along the way.  So far we will be seeing the Pictured Rocks National Park in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Gerald Ford Presidential Library in Grand Rapids, Michigan and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Bentonville, Arkansas

We are staying, Carthage, Missouri, it is located way down in the southwest corner of Missouri.  The states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas are all just around 40 miles away. 

On Friday we drove to Bentonville, Arkansas to check out Wal-Mart central and to go to the newly opened Crystal Bridges Art Museum.  This museum was founded by one of the Wal-Mart heirs and is free to the public.  We saw a 60 Minutes piece on it and it was just beautiful.  We were not disappointed.  But first, Wal-Mart central.

I am sure most of you know that the headquarters for Wal-Mart is located in Bentonville, Arkansas.  We drove by it, but it was nothing really special, just some buildings with lots and lots of cars in the parking lot.  What was interesting was the downtown square of Bentonville.  They have really made this town square a nice place to visit with restaurants and stores.  The biggest attraction is the Wal-Mart visitor center, which is housed in the original store front for a five and dime store opened by Sam Walton that began the Wal-Mart brand.  His first store was known as Walton’s.  Most fascinating tidbit of information I got out of the visitor center was that if you bought 100 shares of Wal-Mart when it went public in the 60’s you would have paid $1,650.  The shares have split 2 for 1 eleven times since then so you would now have over 200,000 shares valued around $10 million.

Town square

Memorial to confederate soldiers in town square

Where it all started

Sam Walton’s office from Wal-Mart headquarters as it was when he died.

Now on to the museum (www.crystalbridges.org).  What a beautiful facility.  The buildings have a magnificent design and the grounds are nicely landscaped with many walking trails.  The art collection is focused on American Art and works it way from colonial times to present day all very nicely organized. 

This is looking from one gallery over the pond to the dining hall.  The roof of the dining hall and great hall are actually suspended on steel cables, so these two buildings were built from the top down.

Steel tree sculpture at the entrance

Famous Norman Rockwell painting, “Rosie the Riveter”

The grounds around the facility

We had a great time and, except for a small admission charge for a visiting exhibit, it was all free, including the iPod touch for the audio tour.  We had lunch in their dining hall.  The food was good but the views were spectacular.

This is definitely a must see if you are ever in the area as is the town square of Bentonville.  No matter what your feelings are about Wal-Mart they sure have done nice things with the town of Bentonville.

Carthage, Missouri

We have moved to Carthage, Missouri, but first let me close out a couple of story lines from previous posts.

First I have to relate a funny story regarding the RV park we stayed at in Strafford, Missouri.  You may remember how I mentioned how narrow the sites were and provided a picture of our rig in the site.  Well one evening a Prevost luxury motorhome (really a bus) came into the park and obviously was looking to stay the night.  They took a loop around the pull thru sites and left.  No way were they fitting in those spots.  In a post last year I mentioned Prevost coaches as the top of the line luxury line.  The actual coach is the same bus that is used for tour buses, so it is very large.  Add slides to that and you have a very wide rig.

As for the repairs on our rig.  The parts came in on Monday morning and they completed the installation of the new seals and brakes by 2:30pm allowing us to drive the 75 miles to Carthage and get set up before dinner.  I was told by Camping World for some reason the Bakersfield store used a non Dexter seal on the axle and it failed or was installed improperly, which is very strange to me considering I was told by the Bakersfield store that Dexter was requiring all their parts had to be used in the repair and had them shipped to the store. 

Now that I know about the breaking period of new brakes and how to activate the self-adjusting feature we should be in good shape.

We are in Carthage for a couple of weeks before we move on to Lake of the Ozarks to meet up with my niece and her family.  We plan on visiting Joplin and going to the Crystal Bridges (Wal-Mart) art museum that recently opened in Bentonville, Arkansas.  Most likely we will drive by Wal-Mart headquarters and bow as true RV’ers should do (just like Apple devotees).

Strafford, Missouri

Huh, why in Strafford you ask??

Ok here goes.  You may remember that back in January we were in Bakersfield, California having some work done on our trailer at Camping World and that when they removed the wheels to repack the bearings they had found that the seals had failed.  This required new seals and new brakes for both axles.  Fortunately the axle manufacturer, Dexter, covered the repair under warranty.  The service techs at Camping World gave us no instructions regarding “breaking in” the new brakes.  As we left the Camping World parking lot the trailer brakes were not stopping the trailer at all.  I drove back to the store and the mechanic adjusted all the brakes to the maximum and told me they were self-adjusting and would take a little time to form to the drum.  He did not explain how the self-adjusting feature is activated (I now know have learned you are supposed to back the trailer up periodically with the brakes engaged). 

As we are driving east the brakes do get somewhat better but still nowhere near the stopping power I had previous to the brake job.  So I keep this in the back of my mind.  Move on to the next issue.  While in Tucumcari I noticed one of the tires was completely worn on the outside tread.  I had the Camping World in Bakersfield rotate the tires to hopefully balance out the wear and had asked the mechanic about the tire wear issues. I was told it was somewhat normal on trailers due to load distribution.  Ok, so now I have the brake issue I am thinking about, a tire going bad and now believe I must have an alignment or camber issue on the axle. 

At our next stop I decide to make some calls to see how best to get these issues resolved.  The next Camping World on our route would be in Strafford, Missouri, just outside Springfield.  I call them first and tell them my issues.  They service person was pleasant enough but indicated he was not sure how to proceed on the brake issue as his store did not do the repair and it was a warranty repair.  Ok, I understand, except Camping World, any store, should stand behind their work.  I called the Bakersfield store and the service tech that had previously helped me said he would get the issue resolved and contacted the Strafford store.  I spoke with the Strafford store again and we agreed to a service date of May 18th where they would look at the brakes and see if anything needed to be done.  In addition I would purchase a new tire and they would swap it out with the bad one.  As for the alignment issue on the axle I was told they do not that and they referred me to a truck repair shop in Springfield that specializes in wheel and axle alignments for big rigs.  I contacted them and set up an appointment for the afternoon of the 17th.

May 17th we arrive at the truck repair shop and they align the axles and wheels telling me that they were out of alignment and that was what was causing the irregular tire wear.  One issue resolved, $300 later.  We leave Springfield and drive the 10 miles to Strafford and decided to stay in an RV park that is in town near the Camping World.  This is just a small, very old RV park but it has full hook-ups with 50 amp power.  The problem is the sites must have been laid out 50 years ago when trailers were much smaller.  When our slides are open on both sides we just miss the electrical box on each side by inches.  Fortunately the place does not fill up as if there was someone next to us it could get dicey.  Here is a picture to show how narrow the sites are.

Hey it was only $20 a night!

Today, Friday, we go to Camping World first thing and the service guy I spoke with is waiting along with the warranty manager.  They tell me about how new brake pads are supposed to be broken in during the first 2,000 miles and how the self-adjusting feature is activated.  All new information to me.  They take the truck and trailer around the lot, back it up and play with the brake controller.  They then come back and tell me that they noticed some improvement and that Dexter wanted a weight on the trailer to see how large a load is on the axles.  At this time it is felt that most likely we did not probably break in the brakes and with this new information their performance should improve.  We get in the truck, with trailer attached, to go get it weighed and to test out what they are saying about the brakes.  I do notice a slight improvement but when fully engaged the trailer never fully stops.  I cannot “slam on the brakes” for the trailer.  We get the trailer weighed at a nearby truck stop and come back to Camping World.  I tell them I did notice some improvement and that with this information I will make sure to back up periodically to activate the self-adjusting feature.  Meanwhile they still needed to put the new tire on and swap the spare with one of the tires.  The warranty manager said he would have the mechanic take the drum off the wheel so he could see the brakes.  Well guess what they found???  The seals had failed again and there was grease all over the brake pads.  No wonder it was not stopping.  Now it is elevated to a big problem.  All seals and brakes need to be replaced and we are not paying for it and this Camping World is concerned because they did not do the sloppy repair work.  It appears the seals were not properly seated by the Bakersfield mechanic.  So we wait for a couple of hours while calls are made and finally the axle company, Dexter, stepped up and said they would cover it and most likely go back to the Bakersfield Camping World for reimbursement.  Problem is the parts are not available until Monday, so we are here for the weekend, back at our narrow little site!

I do have to commend Dexter as a company with excellent customer service. They stepped up both times.  Hopefully the repair will be done properly and I will now break-in the brakes and everything will be good.

Truman Presidential Library

On Tuesday we took a drive to Independence, Missouri to visit the Truman Presidential Library.  We had been to it back in 1990 but the kids were young, not interested, and, as a result, Fran did not get to see much of it.  Our one memory of the first visit was one of our daughters walking on the gravestone of President Truman (now it has flowers and a chain around it)!

It is a very nice library, especially considering it has been around for 40 years.

The famous sign on his desk in the White House

The museum has a replica of the Oval House as it was during his presidency

Gravesite for Harry and Bess Truman. 

His working office at the library

Their home in Independence

I did not realize that following his presidency, Truman did not receive a pension as a former President, nor Secret Service protection.  Because of his limited financial resources the Former President’s Act was passed in 1958 granting a pension and Secret Service protection to former President’s. 

Following our visit to the library we took a drive to Bates City, Missouri (about 15 miles east) to have lunch at Bates City BBQ.  I had been here back in the 90’s when my nephew suggested it on a road trip we were doing to Wichita.  My nephew had grown up in nearby Blue Springs, Missouri and remembered the good BBQ at this restaurant.  A little hole in the wall restaurant about a mile off Interstate 70 in a very small town.  The restaurant has a smoky haze to it from the meat being cooked.  It was a great lunch. Sorry no website link.

St. Joseph, Missouri

This past week we took a day trip to check out St. Joseph.  It is about 75 miles north of where we are staying.  The town’s claim to fame is it is where the Pony Express was started and where Jesse James was killed in his house. 

We went to the Pony Express museum, which is housed in the original building where it all started.  It was a quaint little museum and interesting to read about the history of the Pony Express.  I did not realize that it only lasted 18 months. The telegraph finally went coast to coast and eliminated the need for the service.  When it was in service it cost $5.00 per ounce to send a letter.

Here is the museum building

The inside

Inside the had an exhibit about the western migration via wagon train, so I took a picture of the first real RV

We have come a long way!

Fran had to try out one of the saddles

We did not go to the Jesse James house as the biggest thing to see was the bullet hole in the wall from the bullet that killed him.  We drove by and saw the house and the hotel next door.

Good Sam Club

We are still here in Peculiar, Missouri and will be for another week and a half.  Not much going on so I thought I would write about what I am doing with the Good Sam Club.

For those of you non-RVer’s, the Good Sam Club is a membership club where you get discounts on campgrounds.  I believe they are the largest and have the most participating RV parks.  They recently were purchased by Camping World (national retail chain of stores for RVer’s). Joining is something like $20 per year and you get a monthly magazine called Trailer Life.  The membership gets you 10% off the nightly rate at participating RV parks.  In addition, Good Sam inspects and rates parks so you can get an idea the quality of the park before you get there.  Good Sam also offers many other services such as chapter groups, online forums, publications, etc.  They also have, in my opinion, the best roadside assistance program (for an additional yearly charge) for RV’s. 

We have been members for over 20 years and have used it mainly for the campground discount and the Trailer LIfe magazine.  We did join their roadside assistance program a couple of years ago.  We never joined any of the Good Sam chapters in the states we lived in as we did not have the interest at the time.  Our snowbird friends from Wisconsin who we met up with last week started a chapter in Wisconsin and we talked about it.  It got me thinking that it would be fun for us to join a chapter now if we could find one that had other full timers in it.  This way we could meet up periodically with others that share our same interests. 

I contacted Good Sam and inquired about finding an “at large” chapter that catered to full timers.  The representative got back and could not find any such chapters but did have some other members that would be interested in joining such a chapter.  Since we use South Dakota as our address they put me in touch with the South Dakota State Director for the Good Sam chapters and he has offered to help me, along with the corporate representative, to see if we can set this up and make it work.  I am amazed that somebody else has not raised this to Good Sam before and really excited to see if I can get this up an running and see who is interested.

Peculiar, Missouri

We left Wellington, Kansas on Monday and drove to Peculiar, Missouri where we will be for the next two weeks or so.  We have been to this park before as it is near Fran’s sister who lives in Grandview.  We made the trip here as Fran’s sister is graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work this weekend.  A huge accomplishment as she has been working, raising a family and going to college to better herself and change professions.  We could not miss it!

It worked out that we were able to meet up with my former boss when I was employed with the government in the Chicago area.  My boss retired back in 1999 to northern Wisconsin but since that time he and his wife have become snowbirds and spend their winters in Brownsville, Texas.  Via Facebook we kept in touch and the timing worked out as they were on their way back to Wisconsin and were coming through the Kansas City area.  We had a great visit on Monday evening and Tuesday morning and made plans to meet up at a later date for an extended RV trip.

I have been providing monthly updates since we made it to our one year anniversary.  I thought I would do quarterly map updates during the second year so you could see our progress.  Here is the updated map to reflect 15 months of life on the road.