To add to our woes at Hazlet State Park, IL, it stormed during the night dropping green gum balls on the roof of the motorhome, sounding more like walnuts, and the wind bounced us around.  Neither of us slept well.
Immediately after rising, we began preparations for leaving:  brewing coffee, making the bed, closing the slides, and unhooking the electricity.  We were out of there by 7:20 AM headed northeast towards Indianapolis and Goshen.  The interstate in Illinois was not too bad, but I-70 in Indiana was rough, and we both commented on the fact that Alaska roads were better.  Finally, we turned north on a small state road and enjoyed a nice drive in farm country, passing through several small towns.

We stopped for our final fill-up at one about 30 minutes south of Goshen, and noticed Rialta Heaven across the street. 
A Rialta is a small, but well conceived motorhome on a Volkswagen Eurovan chassis.  Its layout is among the most efficient we’ve ever seen.  Our friends and neighbors, Wayne and Loretta, have a Rialta, and we’re sending a picture of Rialta Heaven to them.
We arrived at the Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds in Goshen about 3:45 PM ESDT, and it was bigger than the Arkansas State Fair fairgrounds, with several hundred RV sites.  Hearing a train near one group, we retreated to as far away as we could get, realizing that we would have to move come Monday when our rally, RVFest 2010, begins.

After showers and dinner, we drove around for an hour looking for a Baptist or Methodist church to attend tomorrow with no luck.  I finally resorted to the internet and found Goshen First Baptist Church; we just missed driving by it.  The rest of the evening was spent getting these journals ready to post—finally!  Working with two computers, two cameras, and two people add up to some confusion, but we’re going to get them finalized if it kills us.

Kay’s Take:  Donald generously offered to fix supper while I took a leisurely shower and washed my hair.  Abundant water is a luxury!  We ate a good (healthy) supper and are planning to drive around and explore Goshen, IN.  We want to go to church tomorrow and we’re gonna check out the area churches.  Of course, I want to locate the nearest grocery store or Walmart, if we’re lucky.  I also was very interested in Warsaw, IN as we passed through.  It looks like an older town with lots of history; really near; plus, it’s on a lake.  I may go back there to explore some time next week.  There’s a music concert here somewhere tonight and we may try to find that.  There is another large rally here at the fairgrounds – a deaf rally.  I wonder how they got their RVs here – can a deaf person get a driver’s license?  I thought they couldn’t; but that may have been a long time ago.  What do I know!

After a fun Arkansas Travelers rally in Carthage, MO, we departed this morning for Hazlet State Park Campground at Carlyle Lake about 45 minutes east of St. Louis, MO.  I-44 from Carthage to near St. Louis was one of the best roads we’ve traveled—it was smooth, and the scenery was great.  We stopped at a rest stop just west of Rolla to find the cleanest restrooms we’ve ever seen in a rest area; the picnic shelters resembled the facade of old businesses, and were clean and neat.
Signage into Hazlet State Park was poor, and we were further disappointed to find that the camp sites had only electricity, NO water, and were very narrow.  After a skimpy dinner—we’re still on 500 calories a day—we walked the roads in our loop noting many families camping to celebrate Father’s Day as the campground was almost full.  Despite a lack of food and water, we settled in for the evening, relying on our sick water pump for washing dishes and flushing, and caught up on our reading.

Kay’s Take:  It was very hot today!  Humid, also.  Our Garmin took us thru the middle of St. Louis.
I should have overridden her and taken the southern loop around.  My friend, Lois, is gonna kill me for not calling – but I realized that she and Dick were probably in AR visiting her dad for Father’s Day.  The campground tonight was on a huge lake, Lake Carlyle, in IL.  It’s mostly a boating lake.  If we were to come here again, I would want to stay at the dam site campgrounds.  There was a beach there and it was much cleaner, I thought.  It was a corps campground.  I’m right in the middle of my book club book, South of Broad.  I absolutely love Pat Conroy’s writing!  His fluid use of language, descriptive imagery, and wonderful vocabulary is a delight to read.  His characters are always full of depth and inward reflection and this story isn’t as ‘dark’ in context as some of his others.  One of the joys of RVing  is I allow myself time to read – worthlessness at a new level! heheehe!

This is the last day of the rally, and the only planned activities are a business meeting followed by dinner on the economy—that’s Army talk for eating dinner in town.
About noon, we took the audio CD guided tour of historic Carthage.  It took us forever to synchronize the start of the tour with the start of the CD as several of the tour markers had been removed.  However, once we found the start, the tour included many historic houses and other buildings, dating back to the mid 1800s.  There are many historic houses in Carthage, and most have been restored.  I opted out of a Walmart trip and returned to the motorhome while Kay toured the Precious Moments Chapel and Gardens, followed by a shopping trip to Walmart.  At 4:30 PM we attended the business meeting, and was once again reminded of why we retired—it was so much like the last few years of work!  I hate meetings!  After the meeting, we joined the other rally attendees for dinner at a really good Mexican restaurant for our meat and vegetable of the day.  Upon returning to the campground, we readied the RV for travel, and Kay adjourned to the rally room for a game of “31”.
This has been an outstanding rally, we met some great new friends, and enjoyed good conversations and laughter.  Among our best finds were new friends, Mickey and Menlo, from Texas.  We can’t wait to visit with them again in late September.
Kay’s Take:  On the last day of the rally (Thursday) I went to Precious Moments Chapel and Gardens just on the edge of Carthage.  The artist who developed the precious moments characters – drawings, sculptures, etc. is a fervent Christian man and he built a chapel depicting many Bible stories using those characters.
 

The crowning glory is the back wall of the chapel which has the Hallelujah Square painting.  It’s wonderful!  He painted his mother in there and his grown son who was killed in a tragic auto accident.  So many families were there with children and the children were very responsive to the murals.  I think the artist must have a heart for children’s ministry.  The grounds were beautiful with many blooming flowers and sculptures.  It was 98 degrees so I didn’t tarry outside very long.

Carthage is an interesting old town, with a picturesque court house square and many Victorian houses.  The women toured one such house, historic Phelps House while the men tripped to Colaw’s RV parts and salvage, the largest in the world.  The county courthouse itself is a sight to see, made of Carthage granite, with a mural depicting Carthage’s history.    And, there are historic Route 66 buildings and mementos throughout the the area.

This has been a really fun rally, and we’ve enjoyed all the Travelers attending.

Kay’s Take:  The Coxes and the Garros have outdone themselves with the food they’ve prepared.  And the potluck desserts looked divine!  We have met the nicest and most welcoming people at this rally and learned a new card game.  31!  It’s a killer; one night I came in 2nd but close only counts in horseshoes. Hehehehe!  

Today marked the official beginning of the rally, with coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast; coffee only for us.

We carpooled to the George Washington Carver National Monument where we took in a hour-long guided tour of the farm where he lived as a child.  The son of a slave mother who was kidnapped and disappeared, he was raised on this farm by a white family.  We remembered his work in developing uses for peanuts, but had forgotten his research on soybeans, and invention of synthetics, including a substitute for rubber during World War II.  A deeply devout man of God, Carver was quite a philosopher and exhorted others to make the most of their God-given talents and gifts.  As part of the tour, we strolled by a large pond with several active bream
beds and one bass bed.  The tour was well worth the time.  The photos below show Kay and our tour guide, a seasonal ranger whose regular job is teaching English as a second language, and the house where Carver’s adopted parents lived after he left home.

The afternoon was spent attempting to repair the water pump, to no avail.

Dinner included beef brisket, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, rolls, and several deserts.  We took a banana nut rum cake cooked via the microwave oven.  Once again, we restricted ourselves to meat, green beans, and salad—the price for trying to lose weight.

A lively game of 31 ensued with lots of fun and laughter.  We’re both immensely enjoying the rally.
As an aside, we’re accessing the internet via tethered Verizon Droid phone, and it’s working great.

We departed home this morning at 8:30 AM headed to Carthage, MO, for the first of two RV rallies.  The drive was largely uneventful—except for our RV water pump not ceasing to shut off, similar to last year when we had it repaired in Grand Island, NE—and despite a major frontal system barreling its way toward us, we succeeded in escaping rain, arriving at Coachlight RV Park in Carthage at 1:00 PM for the Arkansas Traveler rally.  Upon arriving in Carthage and setting up, I tried everything I knew to repair it, without success.  Oh well, we only need it when we’re without city water, so no potty breaks when traveling down the road until it’s repaired!
Happy hour started early with Bloody Mary’s.  With coffee and hot tea in hand, we joined the others for renewing old acquaintances and meeting new people.  This crowd is a bit younger, most about our age, but everyone is young at heart.  It’s going to be a good week.  A pot luck began at 5 PM, and the food looked scrumptious.  Of course, we’re still limiting calories and could only partake of a small portion of meat and salad—passing up so many other good things—and we didn’t even look at the deserts.  After eating, Kay joined in a game of “31” and lost two whole dollars, but the lively conversation was worth it.  We met several new couples and particularly liked a couple from Collierville, TN, another from Arkadelphia, AR, and another from near Springfield, MO.
After walking back to the RV in a slight mist, bedtime came early; we always sleep well in the motorhome.
Kay’s Take:  This is a nice RV park.  Donald went over to the RV center and requested a service tech to check out our water system.  The service manager said he was backed up all week and took D’s phone number to call if he got any openings.  We never heard from him.  So much for a Jayco dealer and service department.  I recommend the RV park but not the Coachlight RV dealership or service dept.

Inserting a video

We danced, or rather bobbed, the night away, and didn’t intend to—gale force winds of 50 MPH caused the ship to rock and roll, and walking a straight line was impossible!  We luckily survived without any seasickness.
When planning this trip we left the entire last day open before fly home for touring sights we might have missed on Oahu, and it really paid dividends.  Also, we had been concerned as to how to get our luggage from the ship at 9 AM to the airport for an 8 PM flight, without it costing us an arm and leg.  Kay found a “Grand Circle” tour of Oahu departing the ship at 9:15 AM, arriving at the airport at 5:30 PM, and including parts of Oahu outside of Pearl Harbor and Waikiki Beach.  Our guide for the day was Earnel Smith, a half Hawaiian/half Korean.  Our first series of stops were along the beach on the east and north side of the island.

We saw “Blow Hole” where the water blows up through a hole in the rock.

 Of course no trip to Hawaii would be complete without a trip to the Dole Pineapple Plantation where we sampled some great pineapple ice cream.

Kay’s Take:  Wow!  Oahu is so much more than Waikiki.  We saw some great snorkeling beaches  – that’s one thing I have never done and I’d like to try it.  The color of the water here is absolutely gorgeous.  We also passed through several towns, one of which is the one where Obama stayed with he visited the islands when his grandmother was ill.  They said he was really friendly, got out a lot, swam at the beach with his girls – probably a nightmare for the secret service.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and proud of his Hawaiian heritage so he taught us many Hawaiian words on our tour – the longest one was our password to get back on the bus, and the name of the state fish—it sounded like humahumanukenukeapahahah (pronounce each vowel as a syllable).  It was the Hawaiian name for a trigger fish, I think.   Any way, it was a really good tour seeing more of the island.  The real estate market in Oahu is very high – millions for not that large a house – but if it’s on the ocean – pay through the nose.  The beaches can’t be privately owned; so they belong to everyone.
The plane trip from Honolulu to Denver was long and uncomfortable (6 hrs. 55 min. total flight time).  We left Hawaii at 8:00 pm their time Sat. night and arrived at Denver on Sunday at 7:00am.  (4 hrs. different in time zones)  We flew from Denver to LR where my son Ron picked us up and then we got home around 6:00 Sunday night.  We were some tired puppies.  It was a great trip and we’re really glad to be home!  Nice place to visit but wouldn’t want to live there. 
I almost forgot!  Donald was so worried that we would have to pay overage poundage on our checked luggage – my bag weighed 49.1 lbs. and his weighed 45 lbs.  Plus we both had carry ons.  Talk about dumb luck or all the great planning in the world!  Of course, I brought too much stuff – but not my hubby!!  The baggage guy at United was quite amazed; he was sure we were gonna be overweight. Hehehehe!

Rain, again, this morning.  We met Eduardo at 7 AM outside the secure area and began the drive south and west towards Waimea Canyon.  Passing through several small towns, it was obvious that this was a different culture than what we saw yesterday—on the same island.  These towns largely were the result of the once big sugar industry, and class distinctions were highly visible.  The workers lived in nice, but small, houses, and the bosses lived in large houses along tree-lined streets.  Most of the workers were uneducated Hawaiian and Filipinos, while the bosses were generally Portuguese.  Remnant sugar cane fields were present, as were the newer biofuel crops.  We drove from sea level to an overlook at 3,000+ feet, and the views of Waimea Canyon were breathtaking.

The canyon, dubbed Grand Canyon of the Pacific by Samuel Clements, is over 3,600 feet deep and compares in beauty, in our opinion, to the Grand Canyon.  The colors covered the entire spectrum, and the addition of various forms of vegetation added to the beauty.

After a Jimmy Buffett concert by the pool, we cruised along the Na Pali Coast, the most beautiful coastline I have ever seen, as the mountains climb almost vertically 4,000 feet from the ocean surface.  We were able to see it all from the balcony in our stateroom.

Tonight’s entertainment included a Pride of America crew show, and a Farewell Variety Show featuring Comic Jeff Harms and Master Magician Fred Becker.  Both were very good.

Kay’s Take:  I loved Kauai; it is such a diverse island.  The eastern side was my favorite with wonderful beaches and lush rain forest views and rivers/streams running down to the ocean.  If we ever came back to Hawaii, I would come to Kauai and rent a cottage on the beach and just ‘chill’.  The western side is also beautiful but in a different way.  The canyon was great and the middle of the island has the most rainfall of anywhere in the world.  So it is a lush jungle/swamp on top of this huge mountain range and then drops into the ocean on the Na Pali Coastline on the northernmost part of the island.

Our guide and Donald began discussing “wrestling” on the way back to the boat – I’m sure my son would have enjoyed this conversation also.
We stopped by a coffee plantation and tasted several roast flavors.  We saw some salt ponds where the Hawaiians harvest ocean sea salt and sell it.  We thoroughly enjoyed our guide, Eduardo.  He has lived in Hawaii for over 30 years and is a student of various cultures so he was a good resource for the history and culture of these islands, especially Kauai.  We’re packing tonight; the cruise folks will load our luggage on a tour bus tomorrow morning and we’ll be touring a part of  Oahu that we haven’t seen before being dropped off at the airport for our flight home.  We’ll be on the ‘red-eye’ flight leaving Sat. night at 8:00 pm Hawaii time and arriving Denver around 7:00 a.m. mountain time.  We’ve got about a 4 hr. layover in Denver; then we’ll arrived in LR around 2:30 pm / cst on Sunday.  We’re gonna try to take some Tylenol pm to help us get some sleep on the flight from Hawaii/overnight.  Sure will be glad to get home.

Rain again this morning.  We pulled into Nawiliwili Bay on the island of Kauai about 7:30 AM.  Kauai was the site of many movies including South Pacific, Blue Hawaii, Jurassic Park, and several others.  In fact, Johnny Depp is filming another Pirates of the Caribbean sequel as this is being written.  Today, we saw evidence of the magnificent rain forest and beautiful beaches.  Our tour today was the north side of Kauai; our private guide, Ernesto Valenciana, was one of 4 survivors of a DC10 crash in Mexico in the 1970s, while serving as a flight attendant on the plane, and told us of the ensuing cover up by the airline, the Mexican government, and the US government.  His story is quite amazing, but we have to verify before passing it on.  Anyway, we passed by the now dilapidated hotel where parts of Blue Hawaii were filmed, Hanalei (Puff the Magic Dragon…in a land called Hanalei), beautiful waterfalls, and great beaches. 

As a side note, Hawaii has both the driest and wettest climate on earth, and on Kauai, Mt. Waialeale, is the wettest spot on earth.  And oh yeah, Kauai is full of free range chickens.  Many years ago, a hurricane blew all the cages hither and yon, the chickens escaped, and because they eat the huge centipedes, locals have let them have the run of the island.  They are everywhere, and we heard one after another crowing as we left the ship.

There was great entertainment tonight:  we saw the group, Toby Beau, twice tonight singing a tribute to Rock ‘n Roll (remember Toby Beau had the #1 hit single, My Angel Baby in 1978), then Fred Becker, a great magician.


Kay’s Take:  This island is what I had imagined that Hawaii would look like.  Kauai is called the garden isle.  Our guide took us to the  Regis Hotel which was built on the spot that Emile’s plantation home occupied in the musical, South Pacific  Looking out from that bluff, we could see Bali Hai – the visual image and the surrounding ocean.  It was glorious. The hotel is probably a five star.  No expense was sparred. We saw so many wonderful beaches on the eastern/northern side of this island.  Our guide pointed out Sylvester Stallone‘s and Harrison Ford’s houses.  We drove until the road ended.  Tomorrow, we drive west and North towards Hawaii’s grand canyon.