Good morning from Atlantic, IA where I comfortably spent a night at a Best Values America motel. I’m currently enjoying my “indulgence” for the day, a Belgian Waffle, courtesy of the Best Values America. The room is large, comfortable, nicely equipped with a microwave and refrigerator and coffee maker (of course, I don’t drink coffee, so that didn’t get used last night or this morning. (I forgot to bring my own stash of tea.) The wifi works great (as compared to where I stayed in IN where I could log on, but it was slow and didn’t like anything to do with Google (gmail, blogger, etc.).
It’s another beautiful day out. I just took a nice walk to get some exercise and stretch the leg muscles. I had a muscle spasm in my right calf when I woke up on Wednesday morning, before I left Keyser. I don’t have them but once in a while when I might stretch without warming up. Boy, it hurt like hell. But, then sitting in a car with cruise control on doesn’t help relax those muscles very much. So, whenever I stop for gas, “pit stop,” etc. I do a little walking to keep the energy up and keep the muscles from “freezing up.”
The Cadillac RV performed very well again, yesterday. I went about 500 miles on a single tank of gas – not bad. The AC is my only nemesis. I either (finally) blew a fuse in the blower motor circuit – or the damn $500 variable speed motor burned up. Bummer! But, I discovered that, even with the temperatures approaching 90 degrees yesterday, I was able to keep the car very comfortable, even a little too cold at one point. When the car is moving at speeds in excess of 50 or 60 mph (which is most of the time), Air is forced through the AC system and provides a constant, flow of air, carrying the chilled AC air through the vents and into the cabin. Additionally, since it’s a Cadillac, it has separate AC vents in the back of the center console with a separate fan motor – this to take care of passengers in the back seat. Well, I have that fan blowing the AC up toward the ceiling of the cabin and – viola – the car stays beautifully comfortable. Ah, ingenuity. When I slow down when I’m off the high-speed roads, I simply open the sunroof in the vent position and crack the right rear window and create a constant air flow and that cools it down – or I just open the driver’s window and enjoy the fresh air.
The cooler in the front seat took care of keeping my water and other cool stuff cool for two days. Today, I’m refilling my gallon, Ziploc ice bags, repacking the cooler and that should last me another couple days.
I have been watching for inexpensive (not off brand) gas. So, again, yesterday, while I got dangerously close to the bottom of the tank (I put in about 5.5 gallons at $2.63.9/gallon) – I found a station down the road another 100 miles with $2.53.9 gas – and if I would have held out a little longer, I could have gotten it for $2.48.9. So, I seem to be getting a bit better gas mileage (despite my typical speed of about 76 to 77 mph) and my gas has been costing me, on average, about $.25 less per gallon then I estimated.
I made a determination that I was going to find comfortable accommodations (or sleep in the back seat) for under $50 per might (inclusive of tax if possible) and so far, I’ve managed that. I had planned to stop outside of Des Moines, IA last night, but the best prices I could negotiate were in the range of $60 or so, with tax. So, I was in great shape and not having any problems with falling asleep, so I just kept going until I found this place. So far, so good! I know I’ll have to pay more in Ontario OR because I need a quiet room that I can acoustically condition with the piles of acoustic foam I’m carrying with me. This will be my temporary recording studio for four days of recording two audio books. The environment needs to be comfortable for both the author/narrator and for me. But, otherwise, my objective is to keep the overall costs down to about what it would have cost to fly, ship materials out and back to the east coast, rent cars, etc.
I have expended a total of $5.75 per day in food so far. That doesn’t include what I’m carrying with me or my morning protein smoothie (yes, I have my Bella Rocket – similar to the Magic Bullet – smoothie machine with me). Yes, living and working free means I can do or eat anything I want. But, what I want is to continue my regimen of consuming about 1250 (+/-) calories a day to continue on my own weight reduction plan. 25 pounds are history at this point and I’m looking to lose an additional 20 (maybe 25) pounds more to get into an ideal weight range. So, eating simply, carefully and inexpensively are all part of the plan – and this road trip can’t interfere with the bigger picture for my own health and well-being.
I had planned to cover 500 miles yesterday and I actually covered 650 miles. I’m less then an hour from Nebraska, another state I’ve never been in before. I’m very close to the halfway point to Ontario, OR. I have covered about 1120 miles since I left Winchester and I have about 1355 miles to go to Ontario according to my GPS. I’m looking to cover another 500 miles today. That should get me through Nebraska, possibly a little dip into the northeaster corner of CO (according to the map) and into Wyoming , yet another state I’ve never been in before. I’ll look to overnight in Wyoming somewhere. That means, on Saturday, I’ll be closing in on my ultimate destination. I’ll probably head for Boise and stay in that area somewhere on Saturday night. I have a friend who is the chief engineer of a TV station there, perhaps, I’ll be able to hook up with Bob. I missed the opportunity of meeting up with Randy, my audio engineer/producer friend in IN, but another opportunity will present itself. It always does.
I’ve been getting some requests for photos – and I’m taking some photos and shooting video from my dashboard mounted camcorder. I had hoped to get some of them posted on my FB page today, but, alas, I was pretty tired last night and I’ve been going constantly since I awoke this morning and I do want to get started on the road for today, so, if I can pull in a bit earlier tonight, I’ll make that a priority. Some of you folks want to see the Cadillac RV and how it’s outfitted. I’ll be posting some of those photos, too.
So, for now – adios. Time to grab a quick shower, refill the cooler, repack the “RV” and get on the road.
Enthusiastically,
Ed
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