Milwaukee and the Harley-Davidson Museum
Union, Illinois – a KOA and some revised plans
Our plan was to get close to Milwaukee and then spend the night and get some rest before facing Milwaukee traffic on Monday morning. Getting all the way there today would have been good but it made the day too long and makes both of us too tired so unpleasant things can easily occur. There is a shortage of campgrounds around big cities and paying the price for KOAs is pretty hard to avoid. This time we could have gone farther but didn’t like the reviews that some of the parks got on TripAdvisor so we picked the KOA which can pretty much be relied upon.
The “husband of the owner” (that is what his name badge said) told us that people commonly spend the night here before going into Chicago by car (about 60 miles away) and they store your RV in “dry storage” for only $5 per day. Since our destination is just under 100 miles away and we would be storing the coach during our stay there anyway, we decided to change our routing plans and just use the tow car from here. The 200-mile round trip would cost us at least $125 in gas in the GMC. The storage fees and gas for the Tracker will cost us only $40 and it will be a lot more relaxing drive.
Monticello, Indiana – really
The picture above is one of several very impressive old buildings that we have seen along the way during both this trip and our previous ones. We don’t really like traveling on the interstate highways because they bypass all of the interesting towns, roads, and buildings along the way. Traveling the pre-interstate highways takes you right through the cities and towns and lets you experience America the way it was when my parents were young and everyone seemed to have more time. Makes us feel like Charles Kuralt. We are thinking that the next time we see one of these buildings we will stop and investigate and try to find a story to tell. It might be interesting.
GMC stuff: We had a rough start this morning. I got ready to go and it would not start. The starter cranked like crazy but not even a cough. I verified fuel to the carburetor and started looking at the distributor. I pushed on all the connections – especially the 12V supply but felt nothing move. I R&R’d the distributor cap and still nothing. I pulled a wire to verify no spark and there was one and it started. I guess something, probably the 12V supply, was actually loose but I didn’t feel it. No further problems with it and drove all day.
Another item waiting to rear its ugly head is my carburetor. A while ago, in the beginning of the trip, I had to crank the idle speed up to keep it from almost stalling at intersections. After a while, no I can’t remember exactly when, the idle ended up being way too high and I tried to turn it down but it is either too fast or not fast enough. I went for too fast. Now, suddenly, the idle is either just right again or too slow. I think there much be more junk in the carburetor but deeper – just a guess.
Now in Ohio with new shoes for Barbie
We really got into some back country roads today. Turns out, it is really hard to get Streets & Trips to stick with decent roads. I felt really comfortable with the roads because there are no high speeds and there is lots to look at. After about two hours of mostly country roads we got onto a 4-lane divided highway in central Ohio and suddenly the coach started vibrating at a pace that made it hard to tell if it was a tire or the road. Seems that lots of paving lately has a sort of ripple effect and it reminds you of a tire out of round. I stopped when it got a little serious and checked the tires but could see or feel nothing wrong. I drove a little farther and was about to stop and check again when the middle tire on the driver’s side separated – the steel belt came loose from the casing and broke. It hit a bunch of stuff and did some new damage to the fiberglass but nothing that didn’t already need fixing. Fortunately it didn’t damage any suspension components.
I changed the tire while Carol called around for a tire store that could supply 6 or 7 new tires. Once we got going again we drove to the store and had them install 6 new Delta Essential tires. These are private branded tires made by major companies as store brands. Delta tires are available mostly in the East but I don’t know anything more than that about them. They were much cheaper than the BF Goodrich, Firestones, Michlins, etc. I put about 50 highway miles on them this afternoon and the feel good.
This thing about my old tires is that I paid top dollar for them even at Costco. They were Michlins and were supposed to be good tires. I bought them 5 years ago, put 45,000 miles on them in those 5 years and rotated them often. One of the tires they took off had another tread separation waiting to happen – wires from the steel belt were poking through the tread, another had some odd wear that could have been the same thing, a third had a nail in it but had not started leaking yet, and then there is the one that failed today. The Michlin web site says that if you put 10,000 miles per year on your RV tires that you should not have to worry about aging – I came very close to that and the tires were only 5 years old. Is it worth buying top of the line tires? I don’t know, but I didn’t this time. I will figure out what to do about a spare when I get home – maybe go to the 2 tires per year plan that Dan Gregg (fellow GMCer) and others use.
Sorry, no photos again.
In Pennsylvania again!
We are on our way back West and, in an effort to stay away from the tolls, traffic and frenzy of the roads near the Great Lakes we made our way down South a little from there. We followed state highway 17 west for a long time and then took highway 62 down from New York to Pennsylvania. We have stopped in Harrisville, PA for the night. This is our third time in Pennsylvania on this trip. First, just north of the Maryland line on our way to Harrisburg, then back in after Maryland, and now to get out of New York. We had a heck of a time trying to find a campground – I guess because we are not on main roads – and Carol does not like the idea of camping in ‘free’ spots like others do.
Tomorrow we will be in Ohio all afternoon and will be taking our time since we have lots of time to get to our next destination – Milwaukee.
Sorry, no photos today.
The Corning Glass Museum
Our plan for today was to drive about 20 miles south of Watkins Glen to Corning, New York, the home of Corning Glass and the Corning Glass Museum. All of the photos today are of the glass art they have on exhibit there but they also had several demonstrations. The first we went to was about fiber optics where they explained how the whole thing works and what is going on with the technology. Very entertaining and informative. The second was about traditional glass work called “flame working” with lots of detail about glass and its behavior when heated and cooled. They had another session on “glassbreaking” where they showed the different types of glass we encounter: regular window, laminated safety glass, and tempered glass and how they break and why. The final demo was glass blowing and they made an awesome glass vase with multiple colors in a spiral pattern in about 10 minutes.
In addition to the demonstrations they had lots of info on the history of glass making. Like every other human endeavor most of the innovations in glassmaking have happened in the last 50 or 60 years. Until 1959, plate glass for windows and similar uses was rolled, ground and polished on both sides. In 1959 they invented “float” glass and revolutionized glass making. It wasn’t until the 1984 (if I remember correctly) Thunderbird that compound curves in glass could be done by machine – it was developed at Ford’s request. The GMC’s windshields and most other car windows are bent on a single radius. They didn’t mention it, but Corning is the company that developed the “strong” glass that the iPhone’s screen is made from – still, don’t drop it.
Watkins Glen Gorge – beautiful is an understatement
We really got lucky with our lack of planning and scheduling again (serendipity is fun) because our visit falls right between Labor Day and the final Watkins Glen International race of the season on Saturday, September 8th. This huge state park campground with over 300 camp sites will be full beginning on Thursday but we’ll be gone by then.
When we checked into the Watkins Glen State Park campground the ranger there told us that rain would not interfere with touring the gorge because you can always walk under the wall overhangs and stay dry. We took her advice and headed for the gorge right away. We actually did have light rain during most of our hike but hardly got wet at all without even trying to stay dry.
We walked up the Gorge Trail – about 1.5 miles and 800 steps to climb – and then back down the Indian Trail. I could not stop taking photos. Around every bend in the trail was more awesome scenery. The cloudy and rainy day lighting is perfect for photography so I got lots of good ones. The trail was wet but sneakers were fine, especially compared to some of the fancy footwear of the many Labor Day tourists. There were lots of tour buses and most of the tourists were from other countries – hardly any Americans.
GMC content: our exhaust manifolds are leaking again. I have a suspicion that some sort of physical disturbance is what caused it this time and the last time. I thought I was having success with the Remflex exhaust manifold gaskets but they have failed on me twice. The first time they failed I am thinking that the installation of two new mufflers disturbed them – cutting, pulling, welding, etc. – and they failed about 800 miles later. This time I am thinking that the road in and out of my sister’s house in Maine was so bad that I dragged the bottom of the coach – the mufflers and exhaust pipes are very low – on the ground. The manifold gaskets have both failed now in the less than 300 miles since we left there. I will buy and install a third set and give the Remflex gaskets one more try. After that headers might be in order.
On the road again
Our plans are to next visit our friends in Milwaukee on our way to the GMC Western States rally in Springville, Utah on September 23rd. We left Ludlow this morning after my reunion brunch and made it to the Susquehanna Trail RV park in Oneonta, NY. It was a nice day – low 80’s and dry. Tomorrow we plan to go to Watkins Glen Gorge State Park in the finger lakes region of New York. There is hiking and sightseeing there and about 20 miles away there is the Corning Glass factory and museum. We plan to spend a couple of nights there and decompress a little – visiting can be stressful for all concerned.
My 50th high school reunion
Ludlow, Mass. – visiting family
Besides family, food is a big attraction for me here. The seafood in New England and Massachusetts especially is some of the best in the world. My favorites are clams – the same Ipswich clams that I had in Maine. They are great steamed or fried and, because they are not always available, we sometimes have to travel a little to get them.
Last night – Thursday – we had to drive quite a way but they were delicious. On the way to get dinner the family showed us the horrendous tornado damage that occurred last summer in a 36-mile path from Springfield to the Brimfield, Mass. area. Much of the area is heavily forrested but the tornado changed all of that. A sometimes half-mile wide path of trees was completely destroyed like a giant vehicle had driven through the woods. Lots of houses were destroyed too. Miraculously only 3 people were killed. This is an area where tornados are unheard of and storm shelters are non-existent.
On our way home we stopped for ice cream and a little fun.
Today, Friday, I plan to do a little GMC work – passenger side exhaust manifold bolt apparently need tightening. I think that sides exhaust pipe may have been hit on the way out of my sisters house in Maine. Here driveway/road is not a place to take a GMC.