Our final week in Dayton

Our big project this trip was to finish the kitchen.  The walls, ceiling and trim are all now painted!

Fran ordered the flooring from Floor and Decor.  We had to take the RV to Cincinnati to pick it up.  I added another splash of Diesel Kleen and surprised that the check engine warning is now extinguished.  Guess that whack loosened up the valve, as it appears to be opening and closing as required.

A bit of excitement yesterday afternoon when a small fast moving tornado passed by.  I hunkered down in the RV.  The house is concrete, Fran stayed inside.

Lots of wind and rain, just close enough to mess up the back porch and knock down a few branches.  

And give me a new project, the RV has a leak near the bathroom skylight.  That will have to wait until we return home.

The new range has been delivered, the flooring and base boards installed!, and it is looking good!

Marion's Piazza is a Dayton tradition.  They are consistently voted the Best-of.  We have a 25% off coupon, and it's time for lunch.  We split a pizza while they made up out take out order.

Marion's has been making the pizza the same way for 57 years.  The portions are the same now as then, of course the price has gone up :)  The RV freezer holds 6 Marion’s pizzas.  We order them ‘half-baked’ and uncut, then put two in each box.

After freezing them in the house overnight, I transferred them to the RV freezer for the trip home.

Another concert in the park.  This was a swing band down in Springboro.  The band was pretty good,

but the fish tacos were lame.

The concerts there are sponsored by Warped Wing Brewing.

Dang did not get a pic of their sign, but here are the Wright Brothers discussing the advantage of Wing Warping.

Although we try to do a bit of work on the house each day, we finally got a day off from chores.  We used it to take a bike ride to Triangle Park.  Our route took us past the Carillon, always a favorite stop for me, but doubt we'll have the time this trip.

From the Carillon the bike path follows the Miami River to the confluence with the Mad River.  Then the Mad River to the Stillwater River, back to the Miami River, before reaching Triangle Park.

Triangle park is recognized as the site of the first NFL game.  It was here that Dayton defeated Columbus 14-0 on Oct 3 1920.

Our route back took us through the University of Dayton campus to the bike trail near home.  Instead of going directly home we wanted to stop for lunch at a Thai restaurant on Patterson Ave.  Fran carried her bike up the steps to Patterson, not me - I rode on to the end of the path and the two blocks over to Patterson - my way was longer by a couple minutes.

Across the street from Marion's Piazza is another favorite local lunch stop.  Massaman Thai Cuisine.

For lunch I ordered a dish spicy vegetable with shrimp and Jasmin rice.  I think this is my new favorite.

We'll be here for another week as we complete the projects we started and cleanup.

Ohio - Family and more home work

The diesel in the Midwest is high in Bio/renewable content.  Our 2008 Mercedes 3.0 diesel engine was one of the most advanced on the market when it built.  Biodiesel was not as prevalent then.  On the freeways the stations cater to the big trucks, where 20% biodiesel is most common.

After our second fill-up in Kansas the check engine warning became illuminated.

I always add a few ounces of Diesel Kleen to each fill-up to help combat the Midwest fuels.

The Scan Gauge indicated the error code was P2457 and EGR failure.

Although the EGR valve is right on top of the engine, and I was prepared to clean it, it was stuck. 

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I gave it a whack with a hammer but it remained in place.  I didn’t want to whack it too hard, so I reinstalled the bolts with plans to try again later.

We then went down to Beavercreek to watch Fran’s baby brother play tennis in a clay court competition.

He didn’t do so great … guess clay is not his best court surface.

The Fraze hosted the annual Bacon Fest that weekend.  Fran and I road our bikes over, where we each had a carnitas and bacon soft taco.

and shared bacon churros for dessert.

Fran played some tennis on Monday while I rode my bike to Dorthey Lane Market.  They have the best salad bar around.

Along with a great selection of produce

and cheeses

The High School season is always kicked off on Thursday with the Battle of Kettering.  Fran’s Alter Knights vs her brother’s Fairmont Firebirds.

Fairmont won easily 31-7.  But the 8 turnovers kept the game exciting.

Fairborn hosts the Fairborn Sweet Corn Festival every year.  This is the first time we have attended.  We were a bit disappointed that there were not more corn options at in the food court. 

But they did have a lot of corn!  Burwinkel Farms corn was being delivered by the truck load …

for the gals to shuck …

and cooked up in a large steamer.

There were lots of food options and craft booths. 

a train ride for kids of all ages

and a pioneer life exhibit including axe throwing

The Burwinkel corn as quite good.  We left with a dozen ears with the plan to freeze some with the plan to compare it to the Olathe sweet corn of western Colorado.  We'll pick some up on the way home.

I’ll close this post now, and finish up our visit and the work done on the house next time.

OH YES! - Remember that black watermelon from my last post?  It survived the trip from Green River UT nicely.

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The Route to Denver … and TWINS

July 28th was a travel day as the family wished each other well and safe travels, after our time in Shasta.  All are now safely home, except us.  We have another 6 weeks, or so.

Our next stop is Denver either via I 80 or via US 50.  It was an easy decision to take US 50 … “the Loneliest Road in America” ... again!

We stopped in Alturas for diesel and a good thing as the next diesel was in Fernley 220 miles distant.

We came this route to see the Fly Geyser.

Fly Geyser

The Geyser has always been on private property, which is now in the hands of Friends of Black Rock (aka Burning Man).  One of the Tenants of Burning Man is Immediacy, which was fairly strictly enforced on Fly Ranch, where my camera was returned to the RV.

Silly as one of the artwork pieces was a 40’ Narwhal Whale easily seen from the road ... but no pictures allowed ... They have satellite Internet, but a point and click camera is forbidden ...

I asked if the photos on the web had been enhanced with Photoshop.  Our docent was quite firm that she has not seen any that have been.  The geyser changes colors with the seasons.  It's green and more robust in the spring, more rust in the summer with a lesser flow, more white with steam that cam be seen for miles in the winter.

web photos

No matter the season the water temperature is 175F.  There is no sulfur content, hence no unpleasant smell.

Gerlach was in full crunch mode with 80,000 guests coming for Burning Man, just a few weeks away.

Elon Musk is a big fan of Burning Man and  is hosting it again this year.  He has donated StarLink devices for use at the event and at Fly Ranch.  He has also provided equipment, including a tractor, to help it become self sustaining.  There is a lot of info on the web if you want to do your own Google search.  

There’s a lot of info available on Nevada US 50.  We did it last year in 4 days.  That blog is HERE. 

We zipped all the way to Cold Springs Station RV Park <website is not secure>.  Sorry the pictures did not turn out.  The camera settings were totally messed up … one too many drops.   There are a dozen FHU sites for rigs of any size, a restaurant with a full service bar and good WiFi.  The WiFi is not secured, but I use Norton’s Secure VPN.

We stopped at the Hickison Petroglyph Site a great spot for a leg stretch.

There is a campground with a host there. But alas no trail brochure for the interpretive trail.

The trail passes unusual rock formations with some very faint glyphs

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Then climbs to a viewpoint

The trail forms a loop as it returns to the parking lot where there is a special set of glyphs on a large rock.

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Our next stop was Green River UT for fuel and melons.  We’ve had great luck with the Vetere Melons and have not used another vendor.

They are honest and expect the customer to be so too

in addition to the Honeydew and Cantaloupe, we always get their watermelon.  We added a ‘black watermelon’ as the the staff said it was best suited to survive the trip to Ohio.

We stopped in Grand Junction for the night at a newer RV park.  Canyon View RV Resort

The gravel sites are large, each with a concrete patio and picnic table.  Some even with a private dog enclosure.

our site backed up to I-70, but with the wall freeway noise was not a problem.

Free Pickleball lessons are offered twice a week.  Fran was the first to signup!

After some basics and drills it was time to play.

One thing we learned was how to know which side serves first.  The game was first played on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, hence the side closest to Seattle serves first.

This is a 5 star place, for instance the showers are your own private bath room.

Oh yeah, it is totally Fran approved!

If we had not stopped for the Fly Geyser we could have been in Palisade for the Sunday morning farmers market.  

But it was a good one-n-done stop.  Not to worry the Palisade west slope peaches are readily available.

As was the Olathe Sweet Corn.

Our last stop was again at FS Heaton Bay Campground.  I lucked into a nice site in an Aspen Cathedral.

No hookups, but a strong cell signal.  A local humming bird checked on us.  Totally Jeff approved.

We pass the Littleton Golf/Tennis Club on the way to Chatfield State Park.

A nice stop for Fran to hit a bucket of balls.

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We’ll be at Chatfield State Park for a few days, as we need to do some laundry and meet those twins!  If Chatfield is in your overnight plans, be prepared that very few sites offer shade.

TWINS

We've met Lucca a few times before.  We brought her a couple books and a dozen socks.  She so loved the socks!

Is that 'Double the trouble', or 'Twice thee fun'?

Fran is getting an idea of a what it might be like for a busy mom.

Identical twins Robin and Rowan

Rowan konks out while I feed Robin

What a great pleasure to hold and feed them.  They did not fuss in the least.  After feeding Robin fell asleep, with a soft snore like a kitten purring.

We are now making good time to Ohio.  With an engine check light indicating EGR error.  UGH!