Catch-Up

I can't believe that I haven't posted anything to my journal since last Sunday and it's Saturday already. Perhaps that's because nothing really exciting has happened. Monday was more work around the cabin. Tuesday was an interesting day, however. We rented a truck and drove up north of Questa (about 30 miles north of Taos) to pick up our refrigerator. The owner helped me load the refrigerator, and we made an uneventful drive back home. When we reached the cabin, I was faced with the prospect of unloading the refrigerator from a truck without a loading ramp, maneuvering across the yard, down several stone steps, and through several doors into the cabin. I love Lois dearly, but a power lifter she's not. But with her good directions and encouragement and a liberal dose of grunting and groaning on my part, we got it done. Now we don't have to go out to the motor home every time we want something cold.

Wednesday was spent working in the yard again. I rented a weed-eater and for three hours attacked some of the high grass and weeds on the west side of the cabin with the idea of relocating the motor home from the east side, where we were blocking access to another cabin, to the west side. I didn't get all the weeds cut, but got enough cut so that we could move the motor home. In doing so, however, I had an unfortunate encounter with a tree limb that left a ding on the left rear of the motor home. Those things happen, I suppose.

Thursday we took a day off from work and went for a drive around northern New Mexico. We drove up to Angel Fire, down to Mora and back to Taos. We left early and saw some beautiful rural country, some of which we had never seen before. When we got back to Taos about 11:00 a.m., we decided to ride up to Taos Ski Valley and try to have lunch in a German restaurant that I had seen advertised. Neither of us had been to the ski valley in years, and I had forgotten how spectacular the ride up Hondo Canyon to Taos Ski Valley is. Needless to say, there's not a lot going on in June at a ski resort, and most of the stores and restaurants were closed. We ended up having a delicious lunch in a small cantina, and then drove back to Taos.

When we got back to Taos, we decided to do a little of the tourist thing and wander through some of the shops and galleries around the plaza. Some of the stores on the plaza Lois remembers from her childhood. We window shopped, ate some disgustingly rich ice cream, did a little grocery shopping and drove back up the canyon to our cabin.

Friday was spent waiting for the propane guy. Propane fuels the cabin's cook stove, a space heater and the hot water heater. When our caretaker left, she left the propane tank close to empty. So close to empty in fact that I decided that we needed to turn off all the propane appliances to avoid running out of propane and an additional charge from the fuel company. So, since Tuesday we've had no hot water in the cabin. Again, we've resorted to trekking back and forth between the motor home and the cabin for showers, cooking, etc. A tentative delivery of propane was scheduled for Friday, but the delivery man didn't make it. So last night, Lois and I had an evening out in the motor home. We had showers, I cooked barbecued chicken on the motor home's grill and we watched a DVD movie on the TV in the motor home. An unexpected blessing was a rainbow above the cabin accompanying the usual afternoon thunderstorm threat. You couldn't ask for a nicer evening.

This morning, we're waiting for a visit from our friends Fern and John Lovelace from Santa Fe. We knew Fern and John when we lived at Grand Canyon and are looking forward to seeing them again. We have tentative plans for more riding and looking today along with a picnic lunch. John is a master woodworker and craftsman, so I'm also looking forward to getting his advice on some projects around the cabin.

More later.

Sunday, June 24

Today was a good day.

We went to church at El Pueblito United Methodist in the community of El Prado, just north of Taos. It's a small church and the only Methodist Church in the area. When we got there shortly after 10:30 for an 11:00 a.m. service, there was a note on the door that said they were meeting outside today. Sure enough, on the other side of the church from where we parked they had set up some folding chairs under a couple of tents and under some shade trees. We then met the pastor who was dressed in bluejeans and a Hawaiian-styled shirt. He looked to be in his forties with graying hair pulled back into a rather long plaited pony tail. A large portion of the people in attendance were my age or older, with only two small children out of a congregation of 40 - 50. Despite the unusual setting, the service was quite traditional. The pastor's sermon focused on the "essence" of Christianity and was drawn from the 58th chapter of Isaiah and the Sermon on the Mount.

For a small church, it appears to have a large ministry in the area, including the largest food bank in Taos County. All things considered, Lois and I were quite impressed and will consider making El Pueblito our church home while we're in Taos.

After lunch, I spent most of the afternoon working in the yard, and Lois spent a good while coordinating with our neighbor Jasinda who is picking up our mail and letting us know about any important stuff like bills that we've gotten.

More later.

A couple of rather boring but necessary days

Friday and Saturday were rather routine and unexciting. We spent most of the day Friday having utilities and services switched to our names We were successful at everything but getting a library card. Although Lois has been a New Mexico property owner and taxpayer for years, and we had property tax receipts and the like to prove our status, we didn't have any documents on the library's acceptable list. They suggested that we mail a letter to ourselves at our NM address. The postmarked letter would be sufficient to prove our residency. So we'll do that and get everything taken care of.

I spent the rest of the day cutting willows that had grown up by the creek in the backyard. If allowed to grow, the willows will take over the place and completely obscure the view of the creek and waterfall. It's hard work, and I'm nowhere near through. I did learn that one shouldn't cut willows in high grass in shorts and a shortsleeve shirt. Apparently there are noxious weeds here that my system is not familiar with. My arms and legs were crisscrossed with puffy scratches after a few hours of willow cutting. Next time I'll be more cautious and wear more clothes.

Today, Lois and I spent most of the morning catching up on e-mail and shopping on line for a refrigerator. When our caretaker moved, she took her refrigerator with her, and we have been utilizing the refrigerator in our motorhome. This works, but isn't exactly convenient. For instance, when I cooked supper tonight, it took me three trips from the house to the motorhome before I had everthing I needed and a fourth trip after supper to put everything back (and a fifth trip about 9:00 p.m. for Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches). We had seen an ad in the local paper for a used refrigerator that seemed promising. Lois called the owners this morning and left a message. They called back around lunch, and we arranged to go see the refrig. The refrigerator turned out to be just what we are looking for at a very reasonable price. We also had the pleasure of meeting a couple who had recently moved to the area from Oregon. He is a sculptor and she is a diabetes educator at the local hospital. The only downside is that they live about 50 miles from here. Now I'll have to rent a truck to go pick up the refrig. The truck rental will cost me more than the refrigerator.

Tomorrow morning we'll visit the local United Methodist Church, El Pueblito UMC. From the appearance and the neighborhood, it appears likely that it will be quite different from our familiar Midway. Probably be good for us and broaden our horizons. I'll let you know how it went.

Next time I'll try to provide pictures of the church and (don't get too excited now) our new refrigerator.

More later.

First Full Day in Taos

Thursday, June 21

Today was really a work day.

When Lois' family left the cabin at the end of the summer, they always stored things in the attic so that it would not be stolen if someone broke into the cabin during the winter. It also became a dumping ground for assorted stuff that at some point someone thought might be useful. So--I spent most of the morning in the attic handing boxes down to Lois so that we could salvage that which was useable and get rid of the rest. We came upon a few real treasures, but most of it was junk.

During the afternoon, we made another trip to town to WalMart for more supplies and tools like a WeedEater and lopping shears so that I can do some cleaning up around the cabin and along the creek.

In the late afternoon, Sandy and her significant other came over and gave us a more thorough briefing about the where theings are and how they work in the cabin.

Tomorrow, we plan to continue going through the attic treasures and try to get as many of the utilities changed over to our names as possible.

Hopefully, next week we'll get to the point where we can just rest and relax a while.

More later.

Finally Taos

Journal 6-20-07

Our day started early at Sumner Lake State Park so that we could get business taken care of in Albuquerque and then drive to Taos. I think we were successful on all counts. We had to resort to some interstate driving again, but only about 50 miles of it. It was necessary so that we could arrive in Albuquerque in time to go to a Kinko’s store, pick up an e-mailed letter from Elizabeth having to do with the sale of her condo in Durham, sign the letter, have it notarized, overnight it to the closing attorney in North Carolina, and pick up a rental car at another location in Albuquerque--all by noon. We made it with the help of Niles. We’ve named the British-accented voice on our GPS Niles, and we even get into arguments with Niles over the directions he gives us. Very polite arguments, I might add.

Lois drove the rental car and followed me to Taos. We arrived about 4:30 and went straight to the cabin, which is about eight miles outside Taos. When we got there, Sandy, the lady who has lived in the cabin for 16 years, had not quite finished moving out. She and her friend were close to finishing and encouraged us to go to town for dinner while they wrapped up. After talking for a while, we took them up on their offer and went to Michael’s Kitchen, a favorite spot of Don Ricketts, Lois’ father. We had a nice meal, drove around Taos, saw what was new since our last visit and made the obligatory visit to WalMart for some essentials before returning to the cabin. When we arrived, Sandy had still not finished, but was through within about 30 minutes. We scheduled some time with Sandy tomorrow for more of a walkthrough on what we need to know about the cabin.

On another positive note, Sandy is quite a gardner and the flowers at the cabin are in full bloom. There are daisies, columbines, irises and other flowers all around the cabin in beds that Sandy made over the years. They really add beauty to the place, but are going to be an upkeep problem as well.

I think that Lois and I had both been anxious about today’s meeting with Sandy and tour of the cabin. Since none of us had been in the cabin for eleven years, and in light of the passive resistance that we had been experiencing from Sandy about moving, we really didn’t know what to expect. Considering everything, I think that things went as well as could be expected. Sandy was helpful, and the cabin is in reasonably good shape. I think Lois is disappointed because the floor plan of the cabin has been changed and most of the furniture that was here when we came here 20 years ago is nowhere to be found. In her words, “It doesn’t feel like my cabin.”

I think that will be a worthy goal for the next couple of weeks: doing everything we can to make the cabin feel like ours.

Journal 6-19-07
Today was another good day. When we left Caprock Canyons SP it was cloudy and misty, an unusual condition according to the Ranger. We doubled back to Turkey, specifically to get a picture of the “Welcome to Turkey” sign. While out taking a picture of the sign, a lady stopped her car, got out and offered to take our pictures. We quickly learned that she is 86 years old, has lived in Turkey almost all her life, and used to volunteer for the Bob Wills Festival, which is held the last weekend in April. We also learned all about her surgeries and the loss of her husband. She was a kindly soul, and you don’t often have someone stop solely to pay a kindness to a stranger. Perhaps we’re too busy and can learn a lesson from this lady.
Although we were forced to drive on Interstate 27 for about 25 miles, (our first Interstate driving since we left Hiram) we had an otherwise uneventful trip from Turkey to Canyon, TX, where we visited Palo Duro Canyon. Palo Duro is a large eroded canyon south of Amarillo and east of Canyon. Though it is certainly not as deep as the Grand Canyon, it is nevertheless beautiful. Beautiful wildflowers were an added attraction, abundant because of recent rains. A road winds from the rim to the bottom of the canyon where there are camping sites, hiking trails, and an amphitheater where the pageant “Texas” is presented during the summer. We had a picnic lunch at a day-use area, stopped by the Visitors Center, and continued our drive west on Highway 70 through Hereford, TX, and into New Mexico. After a stop at the New Mexico Visitors’ Center, we drove on toward our accommodations for the evening, a campsite at Fort Sumter State Park. We stopped at a small grocery store in the town of Fort Sumter (claim to fame—the burial site of Billy the Kid), picked up our supper and drove on the park.

After setting up and eating supper, we’re now listening to the Braves and Red Sox on satellite radio, hearing about the rain in Atlanta and watching an approaching thunder storm here. It never rained, so Lois and I took a walk down to the lake and watched some men land a boat in a stiff wind.

Tomorrow it’s back to civilization. We’ll leave here early so that we can pick up a rent car in Albuquerque by noon before driving on to our destination at Taos, NM.

More later.

Journal 6-18-07

Fourth day on the road and it was a doozy. Last night at Robber’s Cave State Park in eastern Oklahoma, it came a heavy rain during the night. We had been sleeping with the windows open and the skylight in the bathroom open and the exhaust fan running to pull in some cool air. About 4:00 a.m., when it started to rain hard, I got up shut windows, turn off the fan and close the skylight. To avoid turning on lights, I tried to do it in the dark. That was a mistake! Instead of closing the skylight I must have opened it all the way. Lois got up later and spent some time mopping up the water in the bathroom. Oh well.

By the time we left, the rain had slacked off. The first couple of hours we made good time on fairly good roads. Then we began driving into more and more rain. We heard on the satellite radio that there was a tornado watch in effect for southeastern Oklahoma as well as a flash flood warning. Along about then the bottom fell out. When we got to Ada, OK, it was raining extremely hard and streets were beginning to flood. We got turned around going through town and had to backtrack on flooded streets. One advantage of driving a motor home is the fact that it will go through water that would drown out an average sedan. After detouring around one street that was closed because of high water, we made it out of town, and soon afterward, the weather began to improve. By the time we crossed I 35 most of the rain was gone, and drivingbecame a little easier, except for a persistent cross wind of about 25 – 35 mph. A disadvantage of driving a motor home is driving in a crosswind.

By the time we crossed into the Panhandle of Texas, the skies had cleared and the winds had died down. We decided to try to make Caprock Canyons State Park south of Amarillo for the night, but from looking at the map we were unsure of the best route. There were really no direct routes, and we couldn’t determine the exact location of the park itself. With a bow to satellite technology, I keyed the name of the state park into my GPS and followed its explicit directions. It routed us on some farm-to-market roads where we didn’t see another car for 30 miles, but it got us here, and we saw some beautiful isolated country to boot. We arrived about 7:30, set up camp, cooked some turkey burgers on the grill, ate supper, went to the bathhouse for a shower, and got ready for bed.

Having driven around 400 miles today, none of those miles on interstates, a large portion
in extremely bad weather, and many on winding back roads, one could ask was it worth it? Sure it was. I’ve done something not everyone can say that they have done.
Have you ever been to Turkey? Not as in Istanbul, but as in Turkey, Texas, home of the legendary Bob Wills. For the uninformed, Bob Wills was the leader of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, the originators of Texas Swing. I can now say that I have been to Turkey, Texas. When we go back through Turkey in the morning, I’ll snap a picture of the “Welcome to Turkey” sign to verify my claim.

More later.

Mountains in Oklahoma

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Mountains in Oklahoma?
You bet!

Last night we camped at DeGray’s Lake State Park. We got up around 6:00 a.m., and it started to rain soon after that. I took advantage of the break and opened my Father’s Day present from Elizabeth. She gave me a set of DVDs of the Britcom “Keeping Up Appearances” that I love so much. Now I can watch Hyacinth, Richard, Elizabeth, Onslow, Rose, and the the rest of the gang to my heart’s content. It rained fairly hard for a couple of hours. We didn’t want to break camp in the rain, so we waited until about 10:00 o’clock before we left.

We drove on back roads to the town of Mena, AR, had lunch and then started up the Talimena Scenic Byway. I was astounded. We quickly climbed to the top of a ridge and stayed on that ridge for 50 or 60 miles. The views on both sides were spectacular. I think the scenery rivals the Blue Ridge Parkway, and there is hardly any traffic. We drove through Queen Wilhelmina State Park in AR, and it’s a place that I would certainly like to visit again. It has a beautiful lodge perched on the edge of the ridge and spots for RV camping with spectacular views. Best of all, on a Sunday afternoon in mid-June there were hardly any people there.

We decided to make Sunday a short day, so we drove to Robber’s Cave State Park in Oklahoma and set up camp at a very nice, relatively secluded spot by 4:30. While setting up camp, Emily called me for Father’s day, and I had a nice conversation with her. Lois then fixed a good spaghetti dinner with a green salad. After dinner, Lois and I took a walk over to the other side of park. We talked to Elizabeth on the way back, and now we’re watching a DVD and listening to the rain on the top of the motor home. This is not a bad way to travel. Roughing it has never been better. More later.

June 16, 2007
Today was the second day on the road. We had breakfast with our friend Linda this morning and then left Houston, MS, about 8:00 a.m. We had a peaceful drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway to Kosciusko, MS. So peaceful and traffic free, in fact, that Lois practiced her motor home driving skills on the way. She did well but had a nervous tutor in the passenger seat. See picture.

After stopping by the Natchez Trace Visitors’ Center and doing some grocery shopping at Kosciusko’s Super WalMart, we went by Possumneck and had a short visit with my nephew Todd Ingram. We dropped off some screening material for his screened-in porch and left with some home-grown squash that Todd had recently frozen. He said that he wasn’t an expert in food preservation but did everything his mother told him to do.

We left there shortly after noon and drove to Greenwood and Greenville, MS, and then across the “Father of Waters” into Arkansas. The old two-lane bridge at Greenville was much narrower than I remembered, especially when you’re driving a motor home. However, a new bridge appears to be near completion and it’s a beauty. From what I could tell, it looks like a suspension bridge of some sort with cable in the middle of the roadway. I couldn’t concentrate on it too much, because I had to keep my eyes on the road while crossing the bridge.

After we reached Lake Village (which was a much prettier place than I remembered) we stopped at the Arkansas welcome center. After talking to the attendant, we made a telephone reservation for a campsite at DeGray’s Lake State Resort Park outside Arkadelphia, AR.

When we crossed the river, Lois also got to open her goody bag. Emily had sent her a bag in the mail a few days ago and told her that she couldn’t open it until she crossed the Mississippi River. Lois was puzzled but remembered after talking with Emily that this was a tactic that she used with Emily and Elizabeth when they were small children and we traveled from our home in Mississippi to visit relatives in Texas. Lois would prepare a bag of goodies for the girls and, to keep them from opening it as soon as we pulled out of the driveway, would tell them they could open their bag until we crossed the Mississippi River.

Emily was so thoughtful to remember this and to send Mom such a treat.

It’s about a three-hour drive from Lake Village to Arkadelphia, so we had to push it to be here before closing. We made it. It’s a beautiful place, but we didn’t have time to do much after we got here except cook a little supper, clean up, and go to bed. I think we’ll try to take time in the morning to go to church somewhere around here and then put in a short day tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll have some scenic drives in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, and we need to take the time to enjoy it. The only time constraint we have is to be in Albuquerque by noon on June 20 to pick up a rent car on the way to Taos. If necessary, we could postpone this a day or two if necessary. We’ve just got to get out of the hard-driving mentality and get used to the fact that we’re retired and really don’t have to be in any particular place on any particular day. However, that’s a hard adjustment to make. It will probably take a lot of practice, I’ll try to stop somewhere that has internet access in the next few days so that I can upload this to my journal. More later.

First Night on the Road

We had a pleasant but uneventful first day of our big trip. After loading even more stuff into the motorhome. We finally left things in Kathy and Jasenda's capable hands and left home about 10:00 a.m. We drove across north Alabama and had a late lunch at Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman. The Grotto is really an interesting place, well worth a trip. A Dominican monk, Brother Joseph, spent almost 70 years at St. Bernard Abbey building 125 small stone and cement structures, miniatures of historic Christian churches, cathedrals and other buildings from around the world. Many are decorated with seashells, marbles, tiles and other donated articles. These are really inspring examples of folk art.
We spent the afternoon pushing on to Houston, MS, for a visit with our friend Linda Scott and her husband Henry. We had a delightful dinner and had a wonderful time talking with their friend Lala, an 86-year young lady who spent 27 years living 8 miles outside Port Townsend, WA, where our daughter Emily lives.
I'll try to update soon with pictures of the Grotto and more news from west of the Mississippi.

Big Day

Big Day
The big day is finally here, and I'm sitting here pounding on this keyboard instead of finishing loading. Loading everything yesterday was a major task. I was completely bushed at the end of the day. It was like moving without handling any major appliances. We loaded so many things that our motorhome may not get out of the driveway.
We're staying in Houston, MS, tonight and then on to points west. I'll keep posting this journal as I can. Regards to all.

Getting Closer

Getting Closer
It's June 11, and we still plan on pulling out on June 15. We have a few things left to wrap up, but hopefully we'll be able to leave on schedule. A little more about our itinerary: we're leaving here and going across northern Alabama and northern Mississippi. We'll probably spend the first night in northern MS and try to see our friend Linda in Houston, MS. From there, we may take a little swing to the south and see my brother Francis and/or sister-in-law Carolyn in Possumneck, MS. (Yes, Virginia there really is a Possumneck). We'll probably cross the Mississippi River at Greenville (or perhaps Helena, AR) and head west. We may go through Texarkana and stay on U.S. 82 across north Texas, or we may go through the Oauchita mountains around Hot Springs an continue west into Oklahoma. Either route will take us to Amarillo where we would like to visit Palo Duro Canyon. We'll probably then go by I 40 to Albuquerque, where we'll pick up a rent car before heading north through Santa Fe to Taos.
We'll be staying in Taos two to three weeks assessing what we're going to do with the cabin that Lois inherited from her mother. The cabin is a small log cabin over 60 years old about eight miles "up the canyon" from Taos. Although close to a major road, the setting is idyllic. The elevation is around 8,000 feet and there's a beautiful stream with a small waterfall within a few steps of the back door. Days are cool, and nights can be downright cold. No air conditioning is necessary, and the mountain air, combined with the sound of a stream outside your open window, is one of the best sleeping and napping environments I've run across. When Lois was a small child growing up in Ft. Worth, her mother would load the kids up when school let out for the summer and head for the cabin in Taos. They would stay all summer and return to Ft. Worth shortly before labor day. Needless to say, she has fond memories of Taos summers and a strong emotional attachment to the cabin.
For the last 16 years or so, a caretaker has been living in the cabin, and none of us has stayed there. The caretaker always knew that when Lois and I retired, she would have to find other housing, but I'm sure it is still a traumatic event for her.
While in Taos, I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time shopping yard sales and the Goodwill Store (if Taos even has a Goodwill Store) to furnish the cabin. We also know that the cabin has some structural issues, and may have some other problems as well. We plan to give it a good going over and make some decisions about what we need to do to keep it as a viable summer cabin for us, our family, and our friends.
Hopefully, we won't be busy the whole time we're there. We want to do some relaxing, some revisiting favorite places around northern New Mexico, and exploring to find new places. We also want to find time to visit our friends Fern and John Lovelace in Santa Fe and Nicky and Trina Lindig in Mancos, CO. Fern and Nicky worked at Grand Canyon with me--in fact Nicky was my boss. Nicky and Trina built a gorgeous retirement home on a mountain lake outside Mancos, and I want to visit him so he can show me how to catch some ofthose trout that he used to bring home to the Canyon.
When we leave Taos, we'll take the rent car back to Albuquerque and then head west to visit our good friends Larry and Shelly Thompson who are still working at Grand Canyon. It will be good to see the Thompsons and the Canyon. I need to go at least every couple of years to get my Grand Canyon fix. if they don't mind, we'll probably stay a couple of days in the RV in Larry and Shelly's driveway and then head for one of our favorite places on earth--the North Rim of the Canyon. From the North Rim, we'll revisit Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, try to make it to Cedar Breaks NM and head north. We would like to visit Timpanogas Cave NM south of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City itself, and Golden Spike National Historical site at Promontory Point, north of SLC. From there, we'll head north into Idaho and spend a little time on I 84 to Boise. From Boise, we'll head north again and probably head west into Washington on Highway 20 which eventually will take us across the Cascades and on to Puget Sound.
We should arrive in the Seattle area by July 24th or 25th and have a little time to visit with our daughters Emily and Elizabeth before we leave the RV at Emily's house in Port Townsend and fly back to Atlanta on August 1. We booked the flight back to Atlanta so that I could go on a mission trip to Nicaragua August 4 - 11, but it's beginning to look like that won't happen. Nonetheless, by this time we probably will be able to use a couple of weeks at home catching up on what's happened over the past six weeks. We fly back to Seattle on August 15. At that point, we'll make a decision whether we will continue to Alaska or not. Alaska or no Alaska, we'll head back to Taos for a week or two in late September, close up the cabin for the winter, and then head back to Georgia.
I'll try to update this journal every few days so that those of you who are extremely bored can follow our journey

Getting Ready

Today is Saturday, June 2, 2007. My wife, Lois, and I both officially retired three days ago, May 31. For months (and perhaps years) we have looked forward to taking an extended trip across the U.S. when we retire. A couple of months ago, after much shopping and research, we bought a new 28 ft. Jayco Escapade class C motorhome. We've been on a few shake down cruises, and so far so good. We'll spend the next couple of weeks making final arrangements and preparing to leave our house and pets in the hands of our house sitter. June 15 is the tentative D-day, and we plan on taking five or six days to reach Taos, NM., our first destination.
On most of our previous vacations, our aim has been to see and experience as much as we can in a limited period of time. Since we now have more time, we plan on travelling at a much more liesurely pace. As much as practicable, we plan to stay on the "blue highways" and off the interstates. The first photo shows or motorhome on a weekend trip to Saluda, NC, the day that we picked it up from the dealer.