John & Rob transplanted the starter motor once again last night and we all took Tillie on a test run into Boulder. Lots of turning on and off of the engine. She performed beautifully although the ride back to the ranch was a bit scary. When they say "terminal winds" off the mountains in early evening they mean it literally! However, Tillie stuck to the road and we got back safely.
Tillie made one last effort this morning to stay in Boulder. For some reason her timing went aschew overnight but John fixed that easily enough. Kenny made us a lovely breakfast, we packed things up again, hugs and kisses all around, and we were off and running heading toward Wyoming.
We spent most of the day driving through incredible scenery on highway 287. It felt like we were in the set of a cowboy western with Tillie and her 85 horses bucking the wind all the way. In Colorado we saw lots of antelope and John seranaded us with "Home, Home on the Range". Unfortunately, or perhaps it's fortunate, he only knows one verse. Do NOT believe it when you see all those people and animals out on the range in the movies supposedly filmed in Wyoming. We went miles without seeing even a bird.
Tomorrow it's off to the Tetons and maybe even Yellowstone. If you don't see a post for a couple of days it will either be because our national parks don't have wireless or I've been eaten by a bear.

Sarah & Kenny have great parties and the one last night was no exception. They have so many nice and interesting friends. One member of our Tillie travelers “partied” more than the others.
After folks went home, Rob went down and installed the relay on the VW. This morning John went down and, with Kenny’s help, finished the wiring and it started like a dream. To give it the old temperature test we all piled in and John drove us to the Butterfly Pavilion just outside Denver. Lots of fluttering about, gorgeous colors. Even saw some butterflies emerging from their cocoons. The bug room wasn’t as colorful but a couple of hundred cockroaches and a few tarantulas made it almost as memorable. Then we all pile into Tillie and wait. Nothing happens. Once again it’s back to giving her a “gentle” push to get her started.
Back at the ranch, John & Rob take off the starter motor once again, then take it in to Boulder to exchange for another one. Luckily they honored the warranty of the one we got in St. Louis so we didn’t end up buying a new one. But all work and no play makes John a dull boy so we piled into Rod’s 1967 Chrysler Fury for a ride into the mountains (Zimmerman tours we called it). A convertible is a great way to get a panoramic view of the mountains. Ended up at Pete’s Beaver Park Inn (he’s a friend of S&K&R & standing next to the sign) for the best pizza we’ve had in ages. Followed it up for a short hike up, up, up the mountain. The photo was taken when we were half way down.
Having been delivered safely back at the ranch by Zimmerman tours, John & Rod are performing another starter motor transplant on Tillie. Personally I just think she’s intimidated by the height of the mountains she has to take us over. Perhaps I’ll blindfold her before we leave for the Tetons in the morning.

Sarah & Kenny have great parties and the one last night was no exception. They have so many nice and interesting friends. One member of our Tillie travelers “partied” more than the others.
After folks went home, Rob went down and installed the relay on the VW. This morning John went down and, with Kenny’s help, finished the wiring and it started like a dream. To give it the old temperature test we all piled in and John drove us to the Butterfly Pavilion just outside Denver. Lots of fluttering about, gorgeous colors. Even saw some butterflies emerging from their cocoons. The bug room wasn’t as colorful but a couple of hundred cockroaches and a few tarantulas made it almost as memorable. Then we all pile into Tillie and wait. Nothing happens. Once again it’s back to giving her a “gentle” push to get her started.
Back at the ranch, John & Rob take off the starter motor once again, then take it in to Boulder to exchange for another one. Luckily they honored the warranty of the one we got in St. Louis so we didn’t end up buying a new one. But all work and no play makes John a dull boy so we piled into Rod’s 1967 Chrysler Fury for a ride into the mountains (Zimmerman tours we called it). A convertible is a great way to get a panoramic view of the mountains. Ended up at Pete’s Beaver Park Inn (he’s a friend of S&K&R & standing next to the sign) for the best pizza we’ve had in ages. Followed it up for a short hike up, up, up the mountain. The photo was taken when we were half way down.
Having been delivered safely back at the ranch by Zimmerman tours, John & Rod are performing another starter motor transplant on Tillie. Personally I just think she’s intimidated by the height of the mountains she has to take us over. Perhaps I’ll blindfold her before we leave for the Tetons in the morning.

A fun day in Boulder! Can you tell from the photo where we went? Second clue… there were wonderful smells of hibiscus, peppermint, cinnamon, orange etc. Third clue… we all had to wear hair nets and John had to wear a mustache net but unfortunately no photos were allowed. Fourth clue… the bear Sarah is kissing is Sleepytime (Yes, Kenny was a bit jealous.) The answer is Celestial Seasonings. Having started in a garage, production has expanded to a capacity of 10 million teabags a day. Over 100 different varieties are available and we could have sampled every one but choose not to.
This morning Rob & John took Tillie’s starter motor to Boulder’s VW guru. They were escorted into his inner sanctum for a consultation. They came back with a new improved wiring diagram and special harness this guy designed that supposedly fixes the design problem that Tillie has. In the cool of tomorrow morning, Rob & John will perform “surgery” once again. The good news is that the motor is not “fried” and everything else seems to be working well.
Sarah & Kenny have planned a big party for tonight. We’re hoping they will still be in shape to take us for a picnic and hiking in the mountains tomorrow.

Ok, ok… we missed yesterday but only because our campsite didn’t have wireless. However, it was a great day. Barb & family took us in the morning to the Konza Prairie and a friend of hers gave us a great tour. It’s a 8,600 acre “virgin” prairie used as a research facility by Kansas State. Among interesting things they’re finding out is prairie grasses respire(?) more carbon dioxide by an unbelievable amount (that’s my scientific term) than all of the traffic on I70. We also saw bison. More info than that and you’ll need to look it up on the internet.
After sandwiches back at the house, the kids gave Tillie a push down the driveway and we were off and running. First stop, Cawker City, KS to see the world’s biggest ball of twine. There is still time to participate in the “twine-a-thon” the first weekend in August if you’re interested…
Then on to Lebanon, KS, the geographic center of the US. Other that a marker, there’s not a lot more going on in Lebanon. From there we went on to Nebraska. Why? So we could add Nebraska to our state map on the van of course.
We camped at the Prairie Dog State Park campground in KS and saw….???? The answer, in case you really need to know, will be available at Thanksgiving.

Today on to Colorado!!!! HOT, HOT, WINDY, WINDY, FLAT, FLAT!! We did this trip in a Saab 35 years ago. Perhaps it’s not necessary to do the trip through western Kansas and eastern Colorado too often.
Finally we reach Denver. We call Sarah, Sarah calls us. We’re all excited. Plans are made to rendezvous at the Legion. Simple directions, I70 into Denver and then… there’s an accident ahead of us. The temp is 95. We’re going up a hill. The VW has an air cooled engine. Traffic is almost not moving. And now we’re not moving at all. AAA to the rescue! The last 50 miles to Sarah & Kenny’s we got the royal treatment.

Tillie loaded onto the back of the tow truck with a wonderful view. The three of us squeezed into the cab of the truck (it was air conditioned! And the guy didn’t make one of us find another way to get there – he was fine with Mary sitting on John’s lap). So now Tillie is nestled into S&K’s barn awaiting some tender loving care by Rob & Chuck.

We made it to Kansas and Gruenbacher's not so little house on the prairie. Barb & Don and their kids Rosie, Peter, Joy & Antonio have made us so welcome. They have wonderful views in all directions from their home. The prairie is quite beautiful with some wildflowers that we have in the east and some we don't. The neighbor had just hayed the adjacent field into high round bales just to give the kids something to climb on we think.

Back in St. Charles, Connie & Roland and their daughter & grandkids waived goodbye to us around 11 this morning. The correct starter came in this morning for Tillie so she appeared ready to go. How was the drive? HOT, HOT, HOT! When the thermometer in the car registered 100 we hid it in the glove compartment. WINDY, WINDY, WINDY! Several times it felt like we were going to be blown off the road. In the middle of the heat and wind we stopped for gas and Tillie wouldn't start. Luckily we were on a hill so Mary & Patty didn't have to push in Missouri but something still seems to be wrong. (John & Peter who is 8 are working on problem right now.)

Other than that, Mary had her first Big Mac (and probably the only one we'll treat her to while she's with us.) And one of the things Barb gave her for dinner was cottage cheese (something else they don't get in France). Barb, following her mother Helen's example, also made us great chocolate chip/oatmeal/peanut butter cookies to keep us fortified on the road.

Patty has discovered the advantages of ear plugs. No, Frank, it's not that Mary talks too much. In fact, in spite of the new Quietpack 3 muffler system, conversation as we know it is not possible in Tillie.

Tomorrow we're off to see more of the prairie.

New heights were reached today as we reached the top of the Gateway Arch. It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze even if it was in the 90's. We all walked under/through the Arch so are officially on the way to the west. Lots of info on the Lewis & Clark expedition. In case you don't remember, they completed their expedition in 1805 so we're starting out almost 200 years later. We trust it will not take us 2-1/2 years to complete our journey. The pictures of the Rockies look somewhat intimidating for our VW so who knows.

St. Charles, from which Lewis & Clark actually started & where Connie & Roland live, is beautiful and well worth a visit. Connie and Roland could not be better tour guides.

John, for this trip, has named the VW, "Tillie", after his mother & Mary's grandmother. Tillie is still in the shop awaiting a starter transplant. There are 2 possible starters for this year VW so of course the wrong one came in. The other has been ordered and should be here in the early a.m. from California. (Fed Ex uses something other than VW's for deliveries.) Then it's off to Kansas.

We made it to Missouri. Connie & Roland (Frank's friend from his days in the Peace Corps) have made us very welcome at their home in St. Charles. We're being treated to all sorts of St. Louis delicacies including "toasted ravioli", "gooey butter cake" and tomorrow we'll have barbequed pork steaks and Fitz' rootbeer.

Today we also got to add Indiana & Illinois to the list of states visited. Remember the problem yesterday of the VW not starting & how John read it was probably a problem with the ignition switch and he just needed to wiggle it a certain way? Well, let us just add that Mary & Patty have now "push started" the VW in Ohio, Indiana & Illinois giving the addition of the states to our map a whole other meaning! Luckily Roland found a VW mechanic within a few blocks of their house. A new starter is being overnighted from California and they'll put it in tomorrow while we visit the arch & the brewery.

Mary woke up at 3 this morning, the rest of us at a more respectable "east coast" hour. Judy fixed us a wonderful breakfast and Cousin John did another quick check of the van. He discovered the spare tire on the front was "slightly" under the recommended pressure, about 35 lbs. under. That corrected, we waved goodbye and started for the west coast.
First stop, Allentown to say hi to Uncle Jules, John's uncle and Mary's great uncle. They added Pennsylvania to the state map while we were there.
Then west through Pennsylvania and more of Penn. and more of PA etc. etc. Finally, we were able to add West Virginia to our list and finally Ohio.
One last adventure before camping for the night. We stopped just outside of Columbus to buy gas and the battery appeared to be dead. John, not at all sexist, had Mary & Patty push it while he popped the clutch to start it. One battery charger purchase later we arrived at the campsite where upon reading the VW manual John discovered that if he just jiggled the key switch it would start with no problem and no charging. Hooray! The campsite we're at is only for RV's. We look very small in comparison.

Mary has arrived and with less luggage than John came with! John will have to take lessons. Although the photo doesn't show it too clearly, Mary is putting New Jersey on the VW's map. The first state of many yet to come. We depart for points west in the morning - probably on our time and not European time.

John & Cousin John hard at work on the front end. You can look at the tops of their heads and know they're related. Anyway.... John's adding of brand new shock absorbers to the front end proved to be "slightly" wrong. The good news is that Cousin John knows all, added several washers to "pad" it out, and now the VW no longer sounds like a bucket of bolts every time you go over a bump. The other good news is that Cousin John saw that John's installation of the new brake line was "slightly" off... so they got a new brake line connection which Cousin John fitted and now all is well! So it's ready for the road once again. Mary's plane is on schedule so we'll pick her later this afternoon.

We made it to New Jersey with no problems! Emily arrived at the house right on schedule and we were on the road by noon. Had spiedies, a Binghamton area specialty, for lunch before leaving New York. Then on to New Jersey, shedding layers of clothes while we drove. It was 50 when we left New York and, like all VW's of the past, we had no heat. New Jersey is considerably warmer! Now if Cousin John can figure out what those strange noises are coming from the front end.... Stay tuned.

Getting ready

John has filled all the VW's little compartments with tools, extra oil, little gadgets etc. I'm hoping there will be room left for what Mary & I need to take. However, the beds are made and there's enough food on board to last us a while. Helen even dropped off a big tin of Amaretto chocolate chip cookies for us to enjoy along the way. After trying one this morning I can assure everyone they won't last long!
It's not too clear in the photo, but John affixed a decal of the US to the side window. It comes with a decal of each state for us to add as we pass through them. So far New York, Vermont & New Hampshire are filled in from our trip last summer. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that we'll be able to fill in a lot more on our trip west this summer!

Our two weeks are over and they were great! We highly recommend it to any of you looking for something different to do. Everyone in our group got along so well... it was sort of like VISTA but in a very shortened way, and we came away with a whole new set of friends. And we accomplished a lot more and a lot less than we expected but together we provided them with a 1,000 hours of extra labor which put them much closer to getting the houses completed. The last day was rainy so we mostly worked on inside projects except for the crazy Irishman and Polishman who were working on their PHD's (post hole drilling) in a light rain. They did manage to get their holes dug, concrete poured and posts set and filled in for one of the porches.
The VW did us proud and held it's head up high next to the big RV's. Patty, especially, is looking forward to staying with friends on the trip west this summer. The VW is comfortable and cozy but...
We just discovered that we hadn't set up this blog to allow for comments. I think we've got that corrected so you should be able to add your own comments in the future. We'll try this again when we start heading west on June 12th.

Dennis, our site supervisor, invited us all to his home last night. It is absolutely beautiful. He and his wife built it from a kit 23 years ago. It's like half of a grapefruit turned upside down and set into the ground with windows on the southeast and southwest sides and the rest covered with earth. It's 50 feet in diameter at the bottom providing the living space on the first level and bedroom space on the second level. All sorts of interesting angles and spaces. Attached in another earth structure for the workshop and garage. The temperature when unheated is the 52 degrees ground temperature and is very easy to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. They said it was very easy to build. Do John & I need another project???
Another day of door hanging, vinyl, roof and porch work.
Tonight is John's community chorus concert in Sherburne. All the work crew is going to either provide support or make cat calls... They said if they see me fall asleep that will be a good indication.

Some photos from today's build. Patti cutting the last strips of vinyl siding. Larry & Ted are working on completing the last side of house one. John, Sean & Dottie completed the gable end without getting electrocuted.
A field trip tonight to our project manager's earth house in Cooperstown.

A new week begins

We all came back refreshed and ready for another week at work. Red our dog went for a week's vacation at Bruce & Leigh's as the forecast this week calls for some rain and our social calendar is filling rapidly for evening activities.
We are within sight of finishing the siding on 3 sides of the third house which will complete the exterior fabric of two of the three buildings. The doors are all hung in house two thanks to the door crew. We took pictures to send then realized the disk was not in the camera. So much for good intentions.
A new heater in the VW has made the evening and mornings much more pleasant.

The door hanging team successfully completed all the single doors in one house and their first double doors! A mighty effort!!!

The porch team on house two and the siding team on the other house. John says "vinyl siding is the pits to install. Thank heavens for caulk!

This if Friday evening and we get time off the weekend. Our RV buddies have us lined up to go as a group to the Robin Williams movie "RV" or something like that. We had seen the previews and deemed it a must miss but going with this folks should still be fun.

Photo 1 is John at the end of yesterday. In case you can't tell there were snores coming from that body.

Picture 2 is our group this morning. The guy on the right is our construction manager, Dennis. He's an absolutely wonderful man to work for!

Photo 3 - The homeowner is the Melissa (sorry we weren't able to upload the photo yesterday) and the guy is Byron, one of our fellow workers. The kitchen cabinets for the 3 houses we are working on have just arrived.

The Work Begins

Days 2 & 3 - Our first day on the job, Monday, was varied and interesting. These folks are building 3 houses at the same time and they are all enclosed so we are doing finish work and exterior add-on tasks - i.e. - John & Larry dug three 4 ft. deep holes and mixed and poured concrete footers in those and two others. We also worked on cutting and attaching window jambs. Patty & Carol spent most of the day hanging interior doors w/jambs. We have several more to go so willl have plenty to keep us busy for a few days.
We've met the owner, Melissa, of one of the houses. Her kitchen cabinets are being delivered in the photo and we hope to help put them in while we're here.