• Days On The Road:60+
• Miles Driven This Month: 762
• Miles Driven Total: 2,410

For those of you that reached out wondering where the hell the June report was, thank you for your enthusiasm and support. As you will read, the second half of June and the beginning of July were 5 weeks of pain and suffering. If you like white water rafting or reading about how wrong things can go in others people lives, YOU WILL LOVE this month’s blog.

First, the fun and beauty of rafting, hiking and fishing in W. Virginia. West Virginia has beautiful scenery and outdoor activities. Part of the beauty comes from the fact that it is the #1 forested state in the Country. 80% of the land is covered in forest. While NC is mostly pine trees, West Virginia has more variety of trees helping fill in the forest and make things full and lush. The people are “southern” and friendly but be prepared , things do move at a very slow pace. With only 1.7M people in the state, it still ranks 40th in the US by population.

I have whitewater rafted multiple times in North Carolina and once in Colorado. I have never rafted a level 5 rapid, the highest level rapid. The New River Gorge here in West Virginia has two level 5 rapids. There is a second river in this area called the Gauley. It has 3-4 level 5 rapids but only is open in Sept through Oct. I will definitely be coming back specifically to raft and hike again.

My 25 year old rafting guide , “Possum”( was born and raised in W. Va , you have to get him to tell you how he got his nickname) and also does fishing charters. $200 for a 1/2 day. Two person inflatable boat that allowed us to slowly float down the river with baby rapids every once in a while. We caught 15 fish. Blue Gill, Redeye and Smallmouth bass.

Not sure what the colors are like in the fall, but just driving around the roads was an E ticket. W. Va roads are an adventure. they say two lane but good luck getting 2 cars side by side at some points. Somebody has to pull over. Not to mention the one way bridges where you have to take turns. Fun and enjoyable motorcycling.

Ever wondered what is was like to be a coal miner? Dark caves, lethal gases and low pay! We went inside the mine riding in authentic rail cars used from the time. We learned about how they did it despite all of the dangers they had to deal with; lethal gases, cave ins and living in mining towns in the middle of no where. I am sorry, Millennial, did you say how difficult life is today?

Leaving New River Gorge….. the nightmare began!!!!!!!. I have sat down at least 6 times over the last 3 weeks to organize and summarize all the notes of all the screwups Jagger and I went through for a month. Each times I realized I could fill pages with details that nobody wants to hear. Even if I could make jokes about them now that it is all past. I have decided to just give it the old 10,000 foot summary and move on.

The morning I got on the road to leave, I heard a hissing coming from under the RV. The RV uses airbags for suspension and leveling the coach while driving. One was leaking. No Rv repair facility for miles, I found a small shop that did truck repairs. What should have taken 2-3 days, ended up taking a full week and $3,000. Summary: couldn’t find the part, found the part and overnighted, overnight delivered on
Saturday and was taken back , delivered Monday: wrong part. humpty dumpty was patched up and we got back on the road.

One day back on the road, RV starting overheating. Fan belt broke and damaged a few other parts. We glided into a truck stop in Gary Indiana ( murder capital of the US a few years back). The TA truck stop had 24/7 truck repair. We are good! “Don’t work on RVs”, engine is cummins like all semis, ok we will work on it. Part needed was 3 months back order ( i started visiting RV dealers to trade mine in) , no wait 10 are on the way and you are number 12 in line, ok, stop crying you are 8th in line, oh wait not end of this month end of next month. What should have taken 3-4 days took 3 weeks.

This was the highlight of the disaster and best represents the period. The special tow truck sent out to tow the RV to the dealership ( that I made a deal with on a new coach) broke down 30 minutes down the road. With cars and trucks whizzing by so fast, it rocked the RV. I helped the driver tighten a leaking water hose twice. The driver told me multiple times he had only gotten 2 hours sleep. Every time the screw driver slipped or something didn’t go perfect he would cussed and screamed like his ass was on fire. I was very worried he would fall into oncoming traffic while he was working on the tow truck. It took us 5 hours to navigate the 90 minute route.

Happy ending to the month long disaster. Traded in the 8 year old Tiffin Allegro Bus and bought a brand new motor coach: Newmar Dutch Star 2025.

Have you ever meet anybody from Illinois? No, everybody says they are from Chicago. “oh, what part” people say. No other state in the country goes by the name of one of its cities.

Chicago and the surrounding area is one of the few place in the U.S. I can get in the car , check the GPS (61 minutes until destination), drive for 35 minutes and the the GPS then says 59 minutes to destination.

Jagger and I did spend a lot of days at dog parks and best of all was the dog beach at downtown Chicago; Montrose Dog Park

Somebody ate my cereal and drank my milk, not sure who. Can you figure it out?

Next Month will be Sturgis, South Dakota. It will be the 85th anniversary of the motorcycle rally. The town of 7,000 goes to 350,000-400,000 for 10 days! Jagger and I hope you are well and staying out of the heat.