• 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! I 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, Millennials, 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. I have decided to just give it the old 10,000 foot summary and move on. This blog is about the adventure , not my personal life challenges and triumphs!

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, overnighted it ( took 2 days) , overnight delivered on Saturday and was taken back , delivered Monday: wrong part. Ordered again, right part , more days. Humpty Dumpty was patched up and we got back on the road.

One day back on the road, the RV starting overheating. The fan belt broke and damaged a few other parts. We glided into a TA truck stop in Gary Indiana ( murder capital of the U.S. a few years back). The TA truck stop had 24/7 truck repair. “Jagger, we are so lucky, I said!” But then the truck stop said they don’t work on RVs. I told them it was a cummins engine, same as most semi-trucks. they said ok. When we went to order replacement parts from the RV manufacturer, one of the parts was back ordered and would take 3 months. We tried to find 3d party parts, nope. Can anybody rebuild it, nope. Then Tiffin told me 10 pieces were were due in within the next 2 weeks ( end of June) and I was number 8 in line! So, we decided to grind it out in the summer heat, in the truck stop and wait it out. Lots of dog park visits and walks through and around a very noise truck stop ( that could hold 300 Semi-trucks overnight) When I called to check on the incoming part, I was horrified when they said I was told wrong….. Not end of June but end of July and I was 12th in line for the incoming 10 parts coming in. While I I started calling everybody and anybody at Tiffin HQ to state my case and get some help, I also started visiting RV dealers to trade mine in as a back up plan. This was very difficult because I had my current RV ( what I thought) 100% step up, organized and ready for the adventure of full timing in it. I looked first at used RVs to trade for but quickly came to the conclusion the additional cost of a new RV would of course provide all new warranties and the newest amenities. I gave up hope on getting mine fixed and worked a deal for a trade. I would have to have the RV towed to the dealership 1 hour away. Even thought the tow was covered under my insurance policy, I would still have to pay $1,000 out of pocket because of the distance of the tow.

AND now for the highlight of the disaster month and the icing on the cake that best represents the nightmare. I told the tow company to make sure they had the right equipment. I was assured they did. The morning of, they showed up with not the right equipment. The tow truck driver was determined to make it work, but I called Tiffin and told them how he was going to do it and they said,…..ah don’t do that. The driver had to go back to the shop ( 3 hours round trip) to get the right equipment. When he got back he told me multiple times that he had only had 2 hours sleep the night before. I think he also suffered from PTSD because every time something didn’t go perfect ( screwdriver slipped ) on loading the RV he would go into a cussing rant. AND OH Yea, he had a small metal pipe/tube sticking out of his head. Have no idea what that was. Finally (and with my help,) we got everything loaded and ready to go. 20 minutes down the road, THE TOW TRUCK BROKE DOWN!!! With cars and trucks whizzing by so fast, it continuously rocked the RV ( it takes a lot to make a RV that big move and sway). Now remember, this guy had 2 hours sleep, suffered from PTSD and had an “office boy” (me) helping him while cars and trucks whizzed by at 75 miles an hour. I just knew he was going to start cussing and fall into traffic and I would witness my first pancaking of a human!!! Finally we found the hose that had come lose tightened it back down and poured gallons of water ( from the RV clean water tank) into the radiator. 5 minutes back on the road, overheated again, hose came loose again. repeat the tighten, cussing and praying. 10 minutes back on the road, we had to stop and put more water in. 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 the huge motorcycle rally in 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. We will be trying to do the same.