RV Update #2 Uddate from Bowling Green, KY

Update from Bowling Green, KY, Friday May 19

Bobbi has completed her Driving Lessons, and according to her instructor, Saint Warner "stay away from the pole" Detrick, she passed with flying colors, and what a surprise that was! To alleviate her anxiety pre-lesson, Lee took her to see RV with Robin Williams, which may not have been the best approach, since Bobbi was convinced all of that driving was stunt driver type.
Bobbi can do left hand back ups, right hand back ups, drives down country roads and merges onto the interstate. So, to all of you who said it couldn’t be done___ It’s done! Did you know that there are streets in America where the telephone/electric poles are right AT the street and that they slant in?? Which of course is a big no-no if one is 12 ft tall. Bobbi had planned to send out a multi-state alert noting that everyone should “get off the road” on the 18th and 19th, but she was catatonic in anticipation on the 17th, which slowed her down.

We've just left Beech Bend Campground which is a combination Gwynn Oak Park/Nascar track.
This week all the world’s Buicks have converged for some sort of national race, which requires copious reving, and smoke production. The amusement park opened the day we left, so we only heard the Wild Mouse for a couple of hours. So much for the great outdoors, but they did have a clean cheap laundry room, and wifi.

We have been to Valhalla, and have toured the GM factory in Bowling Green where they make the Corvette and the Cadillac XLR. The Cadillac sells for a mere $70,000 with no extras. It was a fairly impressive operation, even for those of us who only expect a car to start when the key is turned. No Corvette is made unless it is ordered, so each one going down the assembly line is different-different color, interior, engine, radio, etc. So, one line does the engine chassis and one line does the body, and then they 'marry' at one point. I asked what happens if one bottom gets there and it doesn’t match the top, and the young whippersnapper tour guide was horrified, and said that had never happened!. The mass of wires that gets installed as the electrical part of the engine is truly amazing. The XLR line moves slower and each person does many operations. It's possible to go on the tour the day your Corvette is being assembled and there was a guy with us who started whooping when a yellow one finished the line.

We had anticipated that we would have to spend at least one entire day dealing with the laptop problems a few days ago. One night we came in and started it up and it made noises that had never been heard before, never a good sign, reverted to dos, asked to be reconfigured, really never a good sign, and would not let one scroll to the top of the page. George Edwards, our own personal traveling computer expert, and Life on Wheels (RV school) fellow alumni, diagnosed the problem. Bobbi had piled maps and books on the wireless keyboard that was still on the dash, and even tho we weren't using it, it was still sending its signal, those darn pesky signals. George not only figured that one out, he charged the 2nd battery, a feat which had not occurred for the 3 years we've had the darn thing. We've purchased an inverter, and for you lowly non-techies out there, that means that after the 2nd battery runs out, I can plug my plug into a 12 volt cigarette lighter type thing and keep going. I suspect my old fingers will wear out first. But we have purchased Earthlink, software that has every darn road in America and Canada in it, plus a USB GPS module. Trust me, we are connected. The navi-guesser is now elevated to a new plateau, and is supposed to be on the laptop, with the GPS and software turned on, close to the gazillion books we have. Bobbi has the equivalent of 3 yellow pages at her feet, with every campground, gas station, dump station listed, if she just had the time to find and read them all!

Check our blog, http://bobbiandleerv.blogspot.com/. Bobbi’s niece and computer consultant, Lauren, set it up for us and there are 2 pictures there, plus the first Blurb. Bobbi has a technical glitch changing the upload from Comcast to yahoo, but we will notify you by email later as soon as Bobbi figures out how to get the new pix up on the screen. Memorable items to look for:
1. The gatehouse to the Beech Bend Campground, and keep in mind that Bobbi drove out and in for her lesson. Of course, it was a 10 minute operation, but Warner assures Bobbi slower is better.
2. Pix of Bobbi and Lee, still pre ‘nuts and berries’. We have discovered Bourbon balls and bourbon sauce for the bread pudding.
We’re having fun!, thanks to all of you for reading and for your responses!
Fondly,
Bobbi and Lee