October 27, 2013

           I'm missing a day here. Day Four. Sunday. I drove from Demopolis to Greenville. I'll get this sorted out. Skip a day here. Be sure to read over this when I get it right. I'll post which days I change so it will be easy to go back. Careful, you may get some duplication of days here, as I was hand-writing material on the fly, where my standards are different than what you may be used to seeing here. So never mind if I report the same thing on more than one day.

           My rear tire is wearing away rapidly, the tire I just replaced. So, I'm getting 5,000 to 6,000 miles per tire. And that's from Dunlop, the best brand normally available. Modern quality is pitiful.
           A new camper design is forming in my brain. Lighter, a foot longer, roomier, and with some amenities. The main building material will be a tone of experience. The solar panels have done their job and they work right. However, I will soon tell you about some of the curves on using DC current. It is cheaper to buy an inverter that changes it back to 115V DC than to find 12-volt appliances.
           The temperature has been ideal for touring. Outside between 58F to 72F, the camper keeps out the extremes and is easy to maintain at a comfy 68F. The idea is to stay near optimum, but without automatic sensors, the trick is to run the fan until the night cools to 68F. Then it is not needed, but if the temp falls too low, crank on the heating pad. It is surprisingly easy to keep the interior warm. Unlike fiberglass, the wooden interior, done in a pleasant sky-blue finish, does not get clammy from breath condensation. Even tents have that problem.
           As near as I can tell this early, the camper takes 18 miles off per tankup. It could be better to wait, but that's a least a good ballpark figure. I've also learned due to danger of spillage, not to tank up to the brim. Mileage is down nonetheless. I was expecting worse.

UPDATED ON DECEMBER 2, 2013:
Here is the missing day referred to above.
           Aha, found the missing day. It was entered into the wrong scribbler. The stop at Demopolis was a rare planned visit. It was just 236 miles from my stop last evening in Dawson. I got to Dawson via a side road mostly through pine forest, one of my favorite types of roadway. See photo. The town is north of Albany, where I could not find any parking.

           From Demopolis, I headed by back roads through some great little-known spots, across a lake at Fort Something-or-Other to a place called Eufaula. It has an historic downtown where the fancy courthouse of tomorrow's post was taken. This downtown dates back to the Civil War, as does most of the repair work on their streets. I would have toured the sights more but the ruts and potholes were murdering my beautiful Honda.
           In case I forgot to say, the folks at Demopolis were away at a motorcycle rally when I arrived. Just my luck to pull into a town pulling a camper and sidecar just when the local cops are likely to be most vigilant. I stopped for a couple at the local watering hole, the Red Barn. What? Because that’s what it is. The saloon is in the hay loft. But I didn’t stick around as the staff was trying the old two-waitress trick on me. No, I only tip once.
           I stopped at the Pike Road Library, where a great-looking lady let me on the computer, but not for long. This is the point in the journey where I gave up trying to salvage my laptop. She also turned out to be married, if I recall. If she was single, then I’d recall for sure. Next stop was Montgomery, were I bought a marine battery and an electric blanket. (The blanket was on sale, it is not for use on this trip.) The battery increases the wagon weight to where I can skid on gravel by hard braking. I tested it. There should be a photo nearby of the side roads I prefer to travel.

           Then I crossed the Chattahoochie. That muddy water meant nothing to me, but as far as rivers go, it is “wratt purdy”. But I think we can rule out this being an Indian summer. I’ll be lucky not to hit snow by the time I get into the Rockies. I’ve already got “rumble fatigue”, the weariness of hanging onto the handlebars ten hours a day. The throttle has to be gripped enough to keep up the speed, so it all adds up. Plus, I bought a bottle of Canadian Mist for the party at Demopolis last night. I didn’t partake, but I took some Buds for myself.
           The Mist was a gift. They sell it in two sizes, but one size came in a plastic bottle. I opted for the bigger one, since plastic somehow does not have the feel of a gift, know what I mean? Before I forget again, many thanks to the Dawson Kangaroo gas stop for letting me stay in their back lot. I arrived well after dark as a consequence of trusting the GPS to find me a shortcut.

ADDENDUM
           More about this in the morning, but I crashed overnight in the truck parking lot of Harlow's Casino. These places always have spotless restrooms. Next to the casino lot, I saw a bunch of semis parked, so I puttered into the far corner of the lot where my rig was not visible from the road. I noticed several private security cars prowling the area, so I kept well out of sight. But it was late and dark and I was in no mood to go looking for a Walmart.

           Surprise. When I awoke the next day, all the semis were gone. And there was my cycle and camper alone in the almost empty parking lot. Nobody came over and said a thing. This photo shows the situation at 6:00 AM.
           So I went into the casino and ordered the breakfast special. It was okay, but the most special thing was the exhorbitant price. Ten bucks. They don't have coffee. Well, that isn't strictly correct. When I asked for coffee they said, truthfully, they did not serve it.
           But they neglected to say that fifty feet away around a corner, the casino coffee was free. Self-serve. Don't we love the way people take pride in their work these days?
           The good news is the camper was so comfy that the trucks pulling away never woke me up.