GETTYSBURG

We have been in a campground in Gettysburg, PA this week, and have had a chance to spend a day at the Visitors Center and Museum. The exterior of the structure is kind of hodge podge, but the museum is simply awesome.

Inside is a cyclorama of the battle. Cycloramas were very popular in the 1890s, and basically were huge paintings in the round, so the viewer would stand in the middle of a circular room, with the painting on the wall. The viewer can turn around 360 degrees and see the continuous art work.

The Gettysburg Cyclorama is 42 feet high and over 350 feet in circumference! Longer than a football field!!!! It was originally displayed in boston, MA. The restoration of this magnificent painting was completed in 2008. Just below the circular viewing platform are actual artifacts, (cannons, rifles, etc.) and landforms to aid in the 3 dimensional effect. By the way, the painting is amazing in its 3D illusion.

We did an audio tour of the battlefield yesterday, which took in most of the 25 square miles of the ground around the town. Here one of the Confederate Napoleon cannons on Seminary Ridge.

This is the magnificent Pennsylvania Monument, which lists every one of the 34,000 plus Pennsylvania soldiers that fought here.

The Virginia Monument features Robert E. Lee on his steed Traveler, and is located on Seminary Ridge, where the ill advised Pickett's Charge was begun.

There are monuments everywhere, for individual officers, states, brigades, divisions, and on and on.

This is a humbling experience, walking the ground where thousands of men were killed or wounded.

HAIL, HAIL ROCK AND ROLL

We made a day trip to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum on the shores of Lake Erie. Wow, what a trip back into time. All those albums I once owned, played so many many times, and lost along the way were there, in word, artifact, photo, video and sound.

The building is sort of weird looking with those angled wings. This is the best view I think with the gigantic atrium featured.

Inside view of the atrium features huge things, like these British autos suspended. Not sure, I think these are from a U2 video. Roger Watter's (Pink Floyd) Wall is also there. ("teacher, leave those kids alone!")

Some interesting artifacts include John Lennon's outfit from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club album cover, Mick Jagger's Union Jack/American flag cape, and Jim Morrison's cub scout uniform. By the way he was a model child!

There was so much in the museum, we have to definitely return on our next swing though Ohio. One feature I really enjoyed was the Hall of Fame Jukebox. It was a listening station with headphones like at Best Buy, only you could access any member's total musical output, sorted by album, song or year. Ellen had to almost tear me away. One area of the museum had installations by 'era'--Grunge, British invasion, etc., full of video and photos, along with posters and rock historical objects. There also was an excellent exhibit about the roots of R & R--hillbilly, blues, etc.

There were several guitars in the entry area, decorated for theme or specific artist.

This is a must see attraction for anyone interested in music!!!!

REUNION AND A RALLY

Yesterday was a sweet reunion with Don and Connie Sarver, fellow full timers from NW Ohio. Our rendezvous was supposed to be at a Wal-Mart in Van Wert Ohio. They were coming from the north, but couldn't find it, and they asked some guy in a pick up truck about the store's location, and he was nice enough to lead them to it on the north side of Van Wert. We followed our GPS from a store listing on line, and were led to what is now a Pik'N'Save on the city's southwest side! A cell phone conversation got us up to where they were waiting.

We then drove to Celina for the Eastern Gypsy Journal rally, at the Mercer County Fairgrounds. This is a beautiful fairgrounds, compared to the several we have seen or camped at. Lots of mature trees, nicely maintained buildings, and paved roadways. This is our 2nd Gypsy Rally, and we are looking forward to learning some RV stuff and meeting new folks, as well as enjoying spending time exploring Celina.

Nice to catch up with our good friends, sharing what has been happening with our families and our respective RV's. We both have Excels, theirs being a 2009 version of our 2008 LMKO.

Fall has fell

On this first day of fall we motored down highway 4 in central Iowa, totally enjoying the changing fields of corn and soybeans. What beautiful colors! Bean fields ran the gamut from green to bright yellow, to rust and finally a dull brown. Corn fields showed changes vertically, as the plants dry out, there is a variety of greens to dull yellows on each stalk.

We then turned west on highway 44 heading to Guthrie Center, where we have a service appointment at Bob and Jo's RV for a list of warranty work. The scenery is awesome with rolling hills and changing foliage. We know it will get better as time goes on, but the start of the changing leaf colors is exciting.

Our list is a big one, as things have piled up. Most important is the toilet issue, as I have been manually flushing our stool for quite some time. Ugh! Jason, our tech here, has the part coming in and we will have a real, functioning toilet tomorrow!

Other big issues are replacing our blown microwave convection oven and replacing our water pump. Several little things are being addressed as well.

We still love this life, even when we seem to be under a dark cloud for periods like these past few weeks. We are so lucky to be able to move around and see and do things, almost at will...someone said last week that it is like you are on a permanent vacation. Well said, but the vacation will be much more fun with that flushing commode.

RV Woes

Well, Full time RVing is really a lot of fun.....usually. Not so this weekend, as Saturday, I discovered that when I depressed the foot pedal toilet flusher, all that happened was the water ran into the bowl! Yes, picture this---the ball (that allows the stuff to go down the soil pipe) did not move.

After looking at things while lying on the floor, I deduced that something broke inside the flushing mechanism. The ball was not stuck. So now I am manually reaching in there with a rubber glove on and manually moving the ball to the side to allow the bowl contents to drain down the soil pipe. Yuck.

It is a 3 day weekend, and we will not be able to contact anyone until Tuesday morning.... :-(

Great Check up for Ellen

Labor Day Weekend...hmmmm....I haven't worked for three years now, but I still get the day off. Retirement sure has hastened the speed with which time flies. I hope all get to enjoy the last taste of summer.

We are in Rochester, MN, where Ellen has gotten another great check up! Hooray!!!! She is still being monitored for repercussions from a thyroidectomy about 5 years ago. The check up was so good that now she has to report back only once a year instead of twice a year. This is great news! We don't return until September of 2010, so this should loosen up our travel schedule. But the best part is that Ellen's blood and mineral levels are doing fine, as is her bone density. We are ecstatic!

I still have my check up in Jacksonville every 6 months, :( but we have decided to have me fly solo from wherever we are for a day or two. We are fortunate to have good friends in Jacksonville, John and Cindy Dahl. John will actually pick me up at the JAX airport, let me use one of their cars to go to my appointment, and then drop me off at the airport!!! Wow, that is simply awesome. This should cut the cost of a trip to JAX by about two-thirds. THANK YOU John and Cindy!

Florida

The past 2 weeks have been a blur. Some notable things have passed, the least of which was my 63rd birthday, August 22nd. We were in a rental car heading for Jacksonville, Florida for my 6 month prostate cancer check up. No cake, no candles, and that's ok. We did celebrate with a late dinner at a Bob Evans in Paducah KY...and a totally unecessary strawberry shortcake. We really like Bob Evans--it's kind of like home cooking (I had their pot roast, Ellen had their fantastic chicken pot pie).

The check up went fine--my PSA has continued to drop, now it is at .6, down from a high of 4.3 and a 1.0 at the 3 month mark. I've gained some pounds (thanks Bob Evans), but my blood pressure, which had been kind of high, was much much better. So good news is great to get. The Proton Institute seemed so different from when we left in February. Missing of course were all the folks we got to know during my treatments. Our nurse and doctor were there, but past that, only a few staff were recognized. One of my favorite techs, Kim from Yulee FL, came up and talked with us for several minutes. That was nice.

We are now in a beautiful condo/timeshare on Daytona Beach. We decided to make the trip a little more worthwhile with a mini vacation. Very very nice to spend a couple of days on the beach!