Tucson Classic Car Show

This last Sat. we entered our 1967 & 1968 Mustang GT-500's in the Tucson Classic Car Show. We arrived at 6:45am and didn't get out of there till 4pm, after a long, hot and fun day. It turned out quite warm for sitting out in the sun all day.

There were over 400 cars at the show and lots of spectators. It was a constant flow of people. Jim and I enjoyed all the family that came and show their support. It was great to see everyone.

After a full day of "car talk" they gave out the awards at 3pm. Jim won 2nd in Class (Mustangs thru 1973) and received a plaque.

 All show participants vote for their choice in each class, and the cars that get the most votes are the award winners. Here's Jim with his plaque in front of the 67' after his win.

So now he has two plaques on his "Wall of Fame" in the garage.

Our next show will be the Cops and Rodder's Car Show on Nov. 1st where we will take the 2014 Super Snake and the 1967 GT500, this will represent the first year the GT500 was produced and the last year it was produced. Maybe another plaque for his wall?

The Last Stop

We finally made it back to Tucson Wed. afternoon after a long two day trip. Getting out of Newell didn't happen real early as we still had some issues with the HDTV setup that needed to be taken care of. We stopped in Amarillo again to give us time for laundry and cleanup before we took the last leg of the journey from Amarillo to Tucson, over 700 miles.

As you can see they literally drive their cars into the ground in Amarillo! And they call this "art"?

 Of course we headed back to the Big Texan for dinner where this guy was challenging that 72oz steak. As you can see, he has 10:32 left when I took this picture and he looked like he was going to finish it, but didn't stick around to see if he did.

Our 700+mile trek home was uneventful, left Amarillo at 4:15 am and got back to Tucson at 3:30pm driving straight through without any stops (you can do that when what you are driving has all the conveniences needed).

Our next event is taking our 67' & 68' GT-500's to the Classic Car Show at the Gregory School on Sat. This will be our 2nd car show and there are over 400 cars entered, so we will see how we do.

Stuck in Oklahoma

Well you've heard the song by CCR "Stuck in Lodi", well we're stuck in Oklahoma. We asked too much of Newell for them to do and they were not able to get the HDTV Satellite installed. They work Mon. thru Thurs, so we are here over the week-end (where there is nothing to do). Hopefully Monday they will finish up and we can get on the road back to Tucson.

Of course, Thurs. right before 5pm when we were backing out the RV to dump our sewer for the long weekend in the "barn", the sky just dumped. One of the guys here at Newell sacrificed himselve to the weather and got our coach emptied and back inside. The sky put on a very close lightning and thunder show and it rained all night, but since we were inside, we didn't hear much, just some thunder.

Friday, since it rained most of the day, we pretty much stayed inside and watched TV, played games and read. Since we have to conserve on our waste water so we don't fill our tank, since we haven't washed clothes all week, we went to a laundermat and did a load of wash and brought it back to the RV to dry.

After being totally bored on Friday, we decided to get out and about today. So we took off on Route 66, which runs right past where we are parked. We started out in Oklahoma, went through Kansas, into Missouri and then back to Oklahoma.

Our first stop was at the Baxter Springs Heritage Center and Museum in Baxter Springs, KS where we spent a good hour going through a very impressive museum. Here's Jim in the back of the classroom.

After still getting in trouble in the classroom, he was put in jail.

After I sprung Jim from jail, we left Baxter Springs and followed Route 66 on into Galena KS, which passed this historical Marsh Rainbow Bridge (1923).

On the internet Jim found a winery in Galena listed, Vogel Winery, with wine tasting by appointment. Jim called and they had us come over as we got into town. It turned out to be their home.

 They had crackers and cheeses out and generously poured their wines. Surprisingly they were fairly good. They had 2 reds and 2 whites.

Steve Vogel gave us a tour of their small operation.

We purchased 2 Riesling and 2 Cabs.

This the view they have from their back yard, their vineyard is just out in the back 40.

 On our way out of town we had to stop at this place where they filmed a part of the movie "Cars". Never saw the movie, so can't verify that, but that's what they tell you when you go in to visit the mini-store.

Then we headed east to Carthage, MO to see the Precious Moments Chapel that we read about on the internet. It is where they make all those Precious Moments Figurines, other than that, I really don't know the purpose of the place.

 I guess it's just set up for tourist to tour.

 It had these paintings and stain glass windows.

From there we headed back to the motorhome in Miami. Hopefully we will find something to occupy our time tomorrow.

And We're Still Here

Yes we are still parked behind Door #8!

We keep adding to our list, so we are here much longer than planned, but we decided to improve our entertainment systems. First we are taking out a big center in one of the bays that held a small refrig. & freezer with the TV on the end. The whole system was awkward and we didn't use much except the little TV. We are replacing it with a 42" TV that will pull out on a bracket so can move in any direction. This will leave the rest of the bay as open storage (a place to add more stuff)!

 Here's the box that was removed from the above bay.

We had to replace our original wine cooler that went out about 1 1/2 years ago. This is the old one that came out. Hopefully the new one will last longer than the first, because they are quite costly.

 An inside of the building view of our coach.

Well, since it will take time to replace the TV in the bay, we might as well spend this time installing a HDTV Satellite system which we don't currently have. So here is the installer climbing onto the top for installing the new system. When we originally purchased our coach the HD Satellite system wasn't available. I think it cost more to upgrade all the time to new technology. But how can you watch TV that isn't in HD????

Men hard at work getting a bracket out of the bay.

Everything will be completed tomorrow and we will be on the road back home on Friday. It's really not a vacation to come back to Newell for service. We really can't go anywhere during the day, because we need to be here to make sure things are done the way we want them and to show the workers what is wrong so they can fix it. So it's a bunch of sitting an waiting. And you all know how Jim is at sitting and waiting!

We're Finally Here - Again

As in Oklahoma! Yes our bi-annual trip to Newell Coach for service on our RV. We drive just under 1200 miles to get back to the factory for them to service and fix items that are not working properly.

We left Tucson on Friday morning to spend the night in Las Cruces. Upon leaving Las Cruces early Sat. morning, the interchange to I-25 from I-10 was closed so drove an extra 20 miles to get heading north on I-25. Made it to Amarillo by late afternoon. Once we were set up we took off to our favorite tourist attraction - you guessed it - The Big Texan!

Even though the parking lot was full, we got a table fairly soon after arrival, in fact, maybe a little too soon, we didn't get much beer time at the bar.

But we took our time at the table enjoying our beers, then on to a wonderful steak dinner. For being a tourist restaurant, they do serve great steaks. Our's seemed to be exceptional this time for some reason, or maybe we were just hungry from driving over 500 miles. Jim had a 21 oz sirloin and I had a 8 oz. We both polished off our whole dinners in record time.

 We even got serenaded by the Big Texan Country/Western Trio that provided a song especially for us by Merle Haggard. It's so much fun playing tourist.

 At the Big Texan, if you eat their 72 oz. steak dinner within an hour, it is on the house. I can't even imagine eating that much even if I starved myself for 2 days.

 Had to sit and relax on our way out to the car after our big meals and entertainment. Another enjoyable trip to The Big Texan!

Sunday early it was onto Miami, OK (northeast corner of OK), a 450 mile trip that went quite well with no problems. Only hit a few construction spots, but traffic was pretty light. Got in around 3:30 and set up, then visited with other Newell owners that are here for service.

We'll probably be here for a couple of days for them to finish everything. Hope all goes well and we can get out of here Wed. But you never know, it might take longer.