2010 - June 19 (Day 4) No rain today!!!!!

Today was bright and sunny with a high only in the mid 80s. We went to a couple of Aliner tech sessions in the morning, went into Amana for lunch, then returned to join the traveling tech session that addressed individual camper issues. Dinner was great - baked steak, mashed potatoes, cottage cheese (yuk!), corn, cake and lemonade. Marsha is starting to put things away in preparation for an early departure (hopefully before 8:00) in the morning. The trailer is already hitched up. All that is left is to unhook the water and electric and head north. We'll post more when we have a connection!

2010 - June 18 (Day 3) Got out and about Amana a bit today

Today was another stormy day. We went into Amana and explored a bit, then drove the loop thru all of the Amana Colonies. While we were in one of the shops a huge storm blew in, bringing high winds and a lot of rain with it. By the time we got back to the campground, about 1:30, the storm had passed and everyone was assessing the damage. Luckily, we had no damage, but a little bit of water blew in thru the stand pipe vent and made a little puddle under the sink right where the contacts for my water detector are. The alarm was sounding, so I mopped up the puddle with one swipe of a paper towel.

One of our friends' camper was blown open when they opened the door to the wind. They had several inches of water in the camper and were pouring water out of their flat screen TV and the toaster. They were heading for home when we passed them on our way into the campground after the storm. Wind gusts of 60 - 70mph were reported!

Another storm was forecast for early evening so I folded the camper down before going to dinner. I was glad I did, but I don't think the winds were as high as they were earlier in the day. I hope the rest of our trip is clear and sunny. I feel like we've seen enough bad weather to last us for about six weeks.

2010 - June 17 (Day 2) Stayed at the Aliner Rally today

Still HOT today. It's about 11:35PM now and, so far, it looks like we have dodged all of the bullets that the weather gods have shot at us. It got REAL black here mid-morning, then at the last minute the storm parted an the bulk of it went south of us. Aliners were rolling in all day long. Lots of displays and seminars tomorrow, so we should be busy. More later.

 

2010 - June 16 (Day 1) at the AOC North American Rally in Amana, IA

Here we are on the first day of our trip to Alaska. It was an uneventful drive from home to the rally. Joe and Loretta Aman, from Decatur, followed us on the 237 mile trip. The trip was uneventful except for the deer that ran across the road in front of me and Joe having to stop to plug the opening in the end of his bumper before he lost all his awning poles. I don't know what happened to his bumper cap. Left home about 10:00 and got here about 3:30. Nice park, but ZERO shade. The sites are a bit soggy from all the rain (just like home).

2010 - June 10 - 13 Aliner Owners Club Regional Rally, Double J Campground, Chatham, IL

We arrived on Thursday, along with ten or twelve other rigs. By Friday evening there were 29! Hot and humid weather prevailed until we got a heavy thunder storm on Saturday evening. Upon returning from dinner at the Golden Corral, we found that the entire campground was suffering from a low voltage situation, so everyone shut off the 110 volt power at their campsite, switched their fridge over to gas and continued to socialize. The power normalized in about an hour, so everything went back to normal. The campground owner was joking when she said there would be an extra charge for the resulting waterfront camp sites. I told her that we would pay the extra fee as soon as we received our refund for out-of-service WiFi for the first two days. That was the end of the "extra charge" talk.