October 28, 2020 - St. Louis Arch and Crown Candy

At this time last year we were at an RV Rally for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.  The fiesta had been on my bucket list for a number of years. I signed up to crew on a balloon and met fellow crew members, Tom and Jane. They live fulltime in their motorhome and travel around the country all year long. Over the course of the week at the balloon fiesta we spent a lot of time with them and have stayed in touch. They were headed from Montana to Nashville to visit their son and grandkids before heading to Florida for the winter and stopped here in their motorhome and spent a few days. We had a good time visiting and playing "Pegs and Joker". They taught us how to play "Canasta". 

Tuesday evening Kelly had the idea of painting pumpkins. We bought some pumpkins and had a great time painting them. We then lined them up on the counter and sent pictures to our grandkids to have them pick the winners.  Here is a picture of our efforts.

My granddaughter, Violet, picked mine as the winner. It was the one on the far left. She liked the hair and the blue eyes. Jane's granddaughter picked hers as the winner. It was the one in the middle. We put three pumpkins on our porch and Tom and Jane took the other two to their grandkids.

It has been raining ever since Tom and Jane arrived. In fact they drove in snow for two days from Montana to get here. For them the rain was a welcome relief. It is nerve-wracking to drive in snow in a motorhome. They had never been to St. Louis and had never seen the Arch so yesterday we headed up there. Kelly and I hadn't been inside for over thirty years so we were anxious to go as well. The entire grounds have been re-done since we were last there. Here is a picture as we approached with all the trees in the foreground.

We had extra time before our ride to the top so we bought tickets to see the movie the on the construction of the Arch. It is quite an engineering feat. It cost $13 million to build which would be $200 million today. Here is Kelly in the theater social distancing. The four of us were the only ones to watch the video at that showing. (It pays to come early.)

Here is a selfie of us waiting to board our capsule to the top.

Here is a picture of the other three in the capsule waiting for lift off to the top. (Tom picked up a couple of souvenirs for the grandkids.) 

Here are a couple of pictures from the top. Because of Covid we could only stay at the top for ten minutes. The St. Louis skyline has changed a lot since we were last up there with a new football stadium, new baseball stadium, and new Arch grounds.

Looking over the river to the East side it has not changed much other than the addition of the Casino Queen. (The yellow building complex.)

After our time at the Arch we went into the Old Cathedral which adjoins the Arch grounds. Here are two pictures of the inside. It had all been painted a different color inside since we were last there and was quite beautiful.

We then headed out of downtown to North St. Louis to have lunch at Crown Candy. Crown Candy has been in business since 1913 and has weathered the neighborhood going down and fortunately it is now coming back. My mom as a young girl went there when she had a few pennies for candy or for a malt. The company was doing quite well until Covid hit and has been really struggling to stay open these past months. We wanted to patronize it and give Tom and Jane a little flavor of an old St. Louis neighborhood. We had a great lunch. Here is a picture of the inside with the original wooden booths. (The plexiglass and plastic dividers have been recently added.)

Jane had one of their famous malts with her lunch. I had the Killer Bacon Sandwich. It literally had bacon an inch thick on it. I couldn't eat it all and gave part to Tom who loves bacon.  Kelly had tomato soup and a cheese sandwich. Kelly could only eat half of her cheese sandwich. Tom and Jane split a soup and sandwich. It was all delicious. From there we headed back to the Interstate. On the way down St. Louis Avenue we passed a house that my grandmother ran as a boarding house when my mom was a teenager.  Sadly has been in major disrepair for many years and is in the process of being torn down. Here is a picture. It was truly a magnificent home at one time.

When we got back to Perryville no one was hungry for supper so we just relaxed and played a couple of games of Canasta.  This morning Kelly and I prepared a big breakfast and then Tom and Jane headed for Nashville, Tennessee. Hopefully by the end of today the rain will be over and they will have good weather while there for the next three weeks. We hope to catch up with them again in Florida this winter.

The new tires came in for Marge so I take her in tomorrow to get them mounted. Other than loading our clothes and food she will be ready to head South for the winter.

 

October 24, 2020 - A Couple of Cold, Dreary, Covid Day RV Projects

I don't know what gets into me but it seems like I'm always looking for another RV project particularly on dreary, cold days. I recently watched a YouTube video showing that the insulation in the ceiling vents in many RVs is not taped down properly thus allowing cool air to blow partly into the attic area rather than into the room. This morning I decided to pull Marge's vent covers off to see if hers were like that. As it turned out all but one vent opening was nice and tight. One needs a little tape to make it good.  An easy fix.

While I had the six vent covers down I decided it would be a good time to clean them. The vent covers are made of white plastic. White plastic always turns yellow over the years. Marge's vent covers are fourteen years old. Surprisingly the four vent covers in the living area were still pretty white. The one in the hall and the one in the bedroom were really yellow though. I have no idea why there is a difference other than those two are two steps higher. Maybe those areas retain more heat thus causing more discoloration. 

While I soaked the vent covers in hot water I got on the internet and looked up how to get their white color back. The methods I saw involved soaking them in bleach or peroxide. Neither method seemed to work that great plus it could soften the plastic. I tried the peroxide fix on my yellowed outside scare light lenses last year and it did nothing. I decided to paint them flat white instead. I did this on numerous plastic items in Homer sometime back and it worked great. 

These vent covers not only open and close, they spin around to direct the air flow where you want it. After soaking them I noticed that several had lots of tiny bug parts down in them which inhibited their turning movement. Each vent had four tabs holding the flapper section into the round vent case. I carefully pried on one and got it out. I had to be really be careful with all of them because fourteen year old plastic not only yellows is gets brittle. Here is a picture of five them with two taken apart. 

In this picture you can clearly see that two are really yellowed compared to the other four.

Here is a picture of one vent taken apart showing all the little bug parts in both turning sections even after soaking them in hot water. Gross.

The orange bug parts are from beetles that have invaded Marge for the last several years. Two years ago as we headed to Florida, and as the rig warmed up, they came out everywhere. It literally took a week after we arrived in Florida to get rid of them. They like white areas and hung out primarily on the ceiling. They are pain to get rid of because if you smash them they stain the area and they stink. We used a loop of Duck Tape on a stick to impale them.

The fact that the vent covers came apart made it much easier to paint them and will ensure that the flappers will rotate and not be stuck in place with paint.  Here is a picture of the painted parts.

Here is a picture of the six vent covers put back together and ready to be re-installed. 

I reinstalled all vents and they look like new. Here is a picture of the one by the door. While on the ladder I installed a battery in the smoke alarm and re\installed it as well.

While on the ladder in the area of the air-conditioner return I noticed that it looked pretty dirty. Walking from the front to back it wasn't so noticeable. Here are a couple of pictures.

After taking the grill off this is what the filter underneath it looked like. It definitely needed cleaning.

It looked even worse when I laid it down in the kitchen before cleaning it.

I washed the filter out in warm water and scrubbed the grill with a brush. When both are dry I will reinstall them for another season. It doesn't seem to me that this 1/4 inch thick piece of foam does a very good job of filtering the return air. I would like to put a piece of pleated furnace filter in there but it may restrict the air flow too much. I'll have to ask others about that on line.

A couple of Covid day projects completed as we get ready for the winter in Florida.

October 18, 2010 - Ball Mill Resurgence Natural Area

For something to do yesterday we drove to the Ball Mill Resurgence Natural Area in Perry County and took the hike. In the forty plus years we have lived here we had never visited this site. Here is the sign as you enter.

I had to look up the L-A-D Foundation when I got home. It is a non-profit established by Leo Drey to protect natural areas in Missouri. It is quite a story. You can read all about it ladfoundation.org. It is really worth a read. Thank goodness we have people like Mr. Drey preserving our natural areas.

We started the hike not knowing the length of the the trail since no pamphlets were available. Here is a picture as you start the hike.

It is very serene and here were no sounds except the occasional bird chirping. At the end of this wide path there is this plaque as you turn on to a narrow dirt path the rest of the way. I had never head of Mr. Vineyard but I thank him for his work.

You walk quite a distance to a fork in the path. Interestingly there was no sign about which way to proceed but looking to the right about fifty feet up the trail we saw an informational sign post so we headed that way.

This sign tells you that Perry County has more caves (over 630) than anywhere else in the state. It shows the various sinkholes that you will pass on your hike and it explains why there are sinkholes, which are depressed areas funneling water into an underground water system.  Here are some picture of the various sinkholes we walked by. They are a little disguised by all the fallen leaves.

The path slowly descends until you reach a creek bed that leads to the Ball Mill Resurgence spot which sits below a 100 foot limestone cliff.  What happens is the water enters the sinkholes all over the area and runs underground. At a resurgence area it builds up great pressure and blows out the water. The water coming out from underground then creates an above ground creek. 

Here is a picture of the limestone cliff as you approach the resurgence area walking in the (now) dry creek bed.

Some pictures of the rock cliff just above the resurgence area.

The leaves at the bottom of this picture cover the area where the water blows out.

Here is a picture of the (now) dry creek bed leading away from the resurgence area. It is quite wide.

It is called Ball Mill because the power of the water is so great that it has rounded off the rocks as they boiled out of the ground over the centuries. Here is a picture of some of the rounded rocks caught on a ledge about fifteen feet above the resurgence depression. There are also many carried into the creek bed.

The return hike was much shorter but mostly uphill. There was another car at the beginning of the trail when we arrived but we never saw another person and that car was gone when we got back. This hike was an interesting, informative, and great way to spend a Covid-safe afternoon. 

October 15, 2020 - B17 Bomber in Perryville

 A very unusual event today in Perryville. A B-17 bomber from WWII landed in Perryville to refuel. The bomber is the "Yankee Lady" and is owned by an aircraft museum in Michigan. They stopped for fuel in Perryville because the pilot had been in Perryville some time back for three months waiting for a jet to be completed at Saberliner. He looked at their flight plan for today and said they were going to get fuel in Perryville. They let the city know about a week ago that they would be here so that people could come and get a look at the plane. They were out "barnstorming" because all the air shows have been cancelled and they want to exercise these planes. Here is a picture of the bomber as it circled the airport for a photo op.

I learned today that the Perryville airport runway is longer than the one in Cape Girardeau and it is the fifth longest in the State of Missouri. The Perryville Airport was built as a training location for WWII. The runway was lengthened over the years to accommodate jets landing to be worked on at the old Saberliner plant which was located here before they went belly up. Now the buildings are occupied by Western Star Aviation which refurbishes jets.

Here is a picture as the B-17 was landing and then one as it approached us on the taxiway to refuel.

While it was fueling we got to walk around to look at it up close. Here is a close up of the cockpit area.

Notice the gunner position in the nose of the plane and another on top. The one on the top was obviously the most vulnerable. I wonder how gunners got assigned to their spots. There were crew members in all these gunner positions as the plane landed. It has machine guns all around. Here is one that hangs below. In this spot the airman was especially subjected to freezing cold at high altitudes.

Here is a picture of the machine gun sticking out on one side.

Here is a closeup of the front gunner spot. It had to be freezing there as well with only a layer of plexiglass between you and the outside temperature.

Here is a picture of the rear gunner position. A lot of plexiglass there as well.

Here is a picture of the crew fueling up the wing tanks. I don't know how much fuel it holds but I know they put 300 gallons in one wing.

Here is a picture of the inside where the side gunners were located. You will notice there is absolutely no insulation anywhere. Everyone had to be freezing when at altitude. I would think long missions would be uncomfortable with only the sling canvas chair on the right to sit in but at least they could stretch out a little, unlike the front, rear, and bottom gunner positions. 

What was astounding to me were the B-17 statistics they had on a plaque inside the door. Here is a picture.

It is a little hard to read but there were 12,731 B-17s built which flew 1,440,000 missions. 79,265 crewmen were lost and they dropped 2,700,000 tons of bombs. Think about that. Those planes had to be on constant missions and clearly most didn't return if 79,265 crew members were lost in action since there are only about eight crew members per plane. An interesting morning.