3/9/06
Daily Trip Log – 2/8/06 through 2/28/06
Day One – Wednesday, 2/8/06 – Left Union around 6:30 AM EST. Visited with Max, KC4YG, Lou, N8KXM, Hoss, WA5ZAI and Bob, N0BIX on 40 meters during the day as I traveled along. Stopped and had a delightful eyeball QSO with Max, KC4YG, in Memphis, TN (see photo yuma06-01.jpg). Checked into the IOOK 40 Meter Wednesday net and then did not hear another peep. Made it to Texarkana, TX – 860 miles – around 9PM EST.
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Day Two – Thursday, 2/9/06 – Departed Texarkana around 6:30 CST and headed across country towards Hoss and Margareth’s place. I was fortunate to again have Max, KC4YG, Hoss, WA5ZAI, Lou, N8KXM, Bob, N0BIX and Ron, AA5RT visit with me on 40 meters and UHF as I traveled along. I arrived at the Lazy K Ranch around 11:30 CST and we were soon picked up by Ron, AA5RT and taken to the Bunkhouse BBQ for a delightful lunch. (see photos yuma06-01, 02.jpg) Hoss and I spent the afternoon visiting and working on a couple of computer projects for the local Concealed Weapons Education Center. (see photos yuma06-02, 03.jpg) Margareth arrived home from work and fixed a delightful tuna steak and rice dish for dinner. BTW, the high was in the mid 60’s! J
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Day Three – Friday, 2/10/06 – AM Rain! Well, we got my laptop hooked up to Hoss’s high speed connection and proceeded to do a series of software updates in preparation for the Yuma part of the trip. Well, after a couple of hours of updating the laptop decided to crash – again!…loosing all the new data plus the stuff I had loaded at home. It is now back up and running again (see photo yuma 06-03.jpg) and I have begun looking for a new laptop on E-Bay. We met Murray, Jan, their son, daughter-in-law and their two grandsons at the Bunkhouse BBQ for dinner last evening. After dinner I downloaded photos from the camera and worked on setting them up for today’s mailing.
Day Four – Saturday, 2/11/06 – I went for my morning walk even though it was a bit cool (35 degrees). Margareth was up when I got back and she fixed Sirniki with a sugar free fruit sauce for breakfast this morning! Delightful! Hoss and I will head back to the shooting range today to tidy up some chores he wants to do over there.
Day Five – Sunday, 2/12/06 – We got up
and prepared for our trip to Georgetown for today’s hamfest.
This was kind of a last minute decision that we first discussed on my way
into town on Thursday. Hoss and I
drove to Ron’s (AA5RT) and rode to the hamfest with him.
The flea market was set up in a barn in the Georgetown Fairgrounds.
(see photo yuma06-04.jpg) Of
course, you will recognize Ron and Hoss in the next photo.
John, W5GI, used to be stationed in Dayton at Wright Patterson back in
the 70’s. He has since moved to
Texas and now is retired here. Steve,
NU5D is a good friend of Hoss and Ron and we sincerely thank him for buying our
lunch! Even though it was a bit
cold this am (22 degrees when I got up) it was sunny and pretty and warmed up
nicely in the early afternoon (see photo yuma06-04.jpg). Best regards from
Valley Mills, TX!
Yuma, here we come!
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Day Six – Monday, 2/13/06 – I got up and took my morning walk. I answered some e-mail. Hoss and I ran a few errands and took care of a few chores. We took the van because I had left the GPS’s and remote Clear Speech speaker turned on and had run the battery down. So, now the battery is charged – again. This afternoon Hoss and I went for a walk in the lovely weather. Unfortunately, I forgot to change into my walking shoes and now have a blister on my right foot. Margareth fixed shrimp quesadia – delightful!
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Day Eight – Wednesday, 2/15/06 – Yee Haw! We made over 810 miles today! We left Hoss and Margareth’s at 6:30 this morning. We had breakfast at Lampasas, TX and there were two old guys sitting there playing poker that I took a picture of! (see photo yuma06-07.jpg) We had fun throughout the day chatting with Lou, N8KXM (Englewood, OH), Max, KC4YG (Memphis, TN), Big Al, KB8FJB (Tucson, AZ) and John, N5AAA (San Diego, CA). Thanks for riding along with us today! John picked up N0BIX at the airport today and this evening they will get together with NN3V for dinner get together. We also checked into the “Early 40 Meter IOOK Net” at 6:30PM CST and heard most of the guys on the net! We were amazed at how well the Ohio and Michigan stations came in! We had planned to check into the later IOOK net, but, when we stopped for gasoline and dinner, we decided to find lodging as well and forego the later sked. We have made it to Lordsburg, NM and will spend the night here and then head on towards Yuma tomorrow.
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N5AAA picked up N0BIX at the airport and NN3V joined them for dinner and some ham radio fun!
Day Nine – Thursday, 2/16/06 – This morning Hoss and arose and headed to breakfast a bit ahead of our planned schedule (15 minutes – we were both up and ready). We were on the road by 7AM. We chatted with Lou, N8KXM a couple of times today on our 20 meter sked. As we approached Tucson (100 miles away) I dug out the information that I had so I could program the radio for the proper frequency to chat with Jim, AE8R and Sue, AI8Q on 2 meters our way through. To my amazement, we were able to access the machine from that distance and Jim answered our first call! We visited a number of times as we drove through the Tucson area. We arrived at the motel around noon and checked into the hotel. We then got a bite to eat and then checked into the hamfest and checked out to make sure that all was well with our flea market spaces. We chatted with Big Al, KB8FJB and Lenore, KC8VSA and made tentative arrangements for dinner. We ended up calling N0BIX and the Hartman contingent on the cell phone to see where they were since they were not in simplex range at the appointed time. It turned out they were running a bit behind schedule. So, we went back to the motel for a brief respite. When we heard them on the radio we headed back to the fairgrounds, picked them up and then called Big Al and Lenore and we headed to the casino for dinner! N0BIX must have been feeling flushed, because he bought the whole gang’s dinner! Thanks N0BIXie! We had a delightful dinner and after a short look around the casino decided to call it a night.
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yuma06-09.jpg is a couple of snap shots of ZAI, ZWJ as we rode along. Also, there is a shot of Jack, KC7DUU, the hamfest chairman and John and Jan’s motor coach as they had just parked it.
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yuma06-10.jpg shows a group shot of Jan (KA9VQS), John (N5AAA) and Bob (N0BIX). I will get dutch for the snap shot of Lenore (KC8VSA) and Big Al (KB8FJB) as they wanted me to wait until tomorrow to snap their shot! Har! And finally, there is a snap shot of the front of the Cocopah Casino!
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Day Ten -
Friday, 2/17/06 – Man, what a great day!
Hoss, Bob and I met for breakfast at 7AM.
We then went to the hamfest and set up our flea market booth.
Even though attendance was light, we were told by hamfest officials that
the day’s attendance beat last year’s total attendance!
We did sell a few things and our load will be lighter.
This morning it was a bit cool, but, by early afternoon the sun came out
and it was beautiful! This
afternoon we had a meeting with Jack, KC7DUU and finalized plans for Hoss’s
APRS forum tomorrow. We had a dandy
visit with Kbob via EchoLink! We
also had a short QSO with Mike, N7LMJ via EchoLink later in the day.
Photo synopsis for the day: yuma06-11.jpg shows N5AAA attempting to contact NN3V on 40 meters as he wheeled his way towards the hamfest. Jan felt that Flat Kbob was cold, so, she provided him with a coat. Charlie presents ZWJ with a “Fish Grabber” tool!
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yuma06-12.jpg has a snap shot of NN3v with Flat KBob. Lunch Chef, N5AAA is shown preparing lunch on the R-V Q. Our Vice Presidential Marine Air Cap continues this year.
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yuma06-13.jpg Here comes da sun! Yee haw!
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yuma06-14.jpg Shot of our flea market site. Intellectual enrichment of several IOOK’ers. FJB shows his purchase of the day. N0BIX caught napping while reading.
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yuma06-15.jpg KF8KK’s Vice Presidential Helo does a fly by. FJB read to Flat KBob from the Handbook. KK greeted by NN3V.
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yuma06-16.jpg New books that are hitting the market. K8BTE assimilated into IOOK.
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yuma06-17.jpg pizza dinner at Village Inn Pizza.
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Day Eleven – Saturday, 2/18/06 – Wow!
What a day! Even though it
started off a bit cool, the sun came out and warmed things up and it was a
beautiful day! We did a good job of
selling some of the higher quality “junque” as well as a few items of not so
high quality! Har!
At about the end of the hamfest day, I had taken so many photos that I
ran out of memory. Big Al was
gracious enough to loan me a memory card so I did not have to return to the
motel to download the pictures before the Old Buzzards BBQ Dinner!
In view of the late hour, I have not included the general shots from the
day’s activities. Let it be known
that Hoss’s APRS Forum went well and was well attended.
Our Vice Presidential Marine Air Cap continued throughout the day.
At the BBQ dinner this evening Big Al and
Keith won door prizes. Big Al got a
“Ham Radio For Dummies” book and Keith got a 2006 Repeater Directory.
Yee haw!
I will include the two group photos that were taken today. I hope you enjoy them and much as we did doing them!
Tomorrow we will attend the fest and after the prize drawing is complete, Hoss and I shall head Eastward. So, do not expect an update tomorrow as we shall be traveling.
Day Twelve – Sunday, 2/19/06 – Ah, this morning NN3V, N5AAA, KA9VQS, WA8ZWJ, N0BIX, WA5ZAI, & ZAI’s son and daughter-in-law met for breakfast. We then went to the fest to make our last minute purchases, sales and see if we were among the lucky folks to be awarded any of the final prizes. Sadly, none of our group won anything, but, several last minute sales made Hoss quite happy. All packed away, Hoss and I headed East at about 11AM.
A funny side note...as Hoss and I were eating dinner, a guy who worked in the kitchen of the restaurant read my shirt (we were still wearing our IOOK shirts from the hamfest). He then struck up a conversation with us saying "Gee! I thought I was the only one of those Krazies! Let me shake your hand". I pointed out that Hoss was a Krazy as well, so he shook his hand too! It just proves that it is a wild and Krazy world!
Day Fourteen – Tuesday, 2/21/06 – After
my walk this morning, Hoss and I spent the morning catching up on e-mail. We also had a great visit with John, N5AAA and Bob, N0BIX in
California on Skype. We then headed
out to lunch at the Bunkhouse BBQ! Yee
haw! After lunch we ran a few
errands and ended up at Stokes Automotive here in Valley Mills.
George, the owner, is also a ham and we had the oil and filter changed on
the van while we all talked radios, antennas and such!
What fun! While we were at
the Bunkhouse we picked up Jessie’s computer for Hoss to work on.
After returning to the house, Hoss worked on Jessie’s machine and I
began work on editing pictures. Margareth
fixed surf and turf this evening – filet mignon and shrimp!
Incredible! It is nearly 8PM
and I have just finished editing photos. Wow!
What a bunch there were to edit.
By the way, Hoss finished fixing Jessie’s machine in just over an hour!
He is a wizard! I will start
sending out photo updates tomorrow. It
is time to crash for the evening….enuf computer playing for today!
Day Fifteen – Wednesday, 2/22/06 – Howdy do! I have had my walk and Hoss fixed us breakfast and I thought now would be a good time to send out some pictures. The first batch are from Saturday at the hamfest. yuma06-18.jpg is a few candid shots of guys walking through the flea market.
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yuma06-19.jpg shots are from Hoss’s APRS forum.
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yuma06-20.jpg are more shots of folks in the flea market.
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yuma06-20a.jpg are shots of the continued Vice Presidential Air Cap. More to come…..
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Wednesday – Part 2 – yuma06-21.jpg has a couple of shots of the guys chatting with Dave, W8TVC via EchoLink as well as a couple of shots from the “Old Buzzards BBQ” Saturday night.
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yuma06-22.jpg has more shots from the BBQ.
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yuma06-23.jpg we shall skip for now and it will show up on the web page when this is compiled later. This cartoon came from Big Al's "Ham Radio for Dummies" book.
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yuma06-24.jpg is from breakfast at the Cracker Barrel on Sunday morning.
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yuma06-25.jpg has shots of the gang as we begin our treks away from the hamfest. More to come…..
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Wednesday – Part 3 – yuma06-26.jpg continues showing folks are they depart the hamfest and a couple of parting shots of the Yuma Fairgrounds as we head East towards Texas.
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As Hoss (WA5ZAI) and Keith (WA8ZWJ) head east towards Valley Mills, Texas, John (N5AAA), Jan (KA9VQS) and Bob (N0BIX) head west to a place in southern California where John and Jan frequently meet friends and do some off road playing in the sand. They arrive Sunday afternoon and spend the night in the desert. On Monday (President's Day) they take part in the fun! This is Bob's first off-road experience in a dune buggy. Below, Bob looks through the equipment he has been given to wear during the ride. Next, Bob screws his IOOK hat on tight into "lock position" so it won't get lost in the wind and sand. In the lower left, John finishes belting himself in while Bob practices keeping his mouth closed. :-) Finally, you see them going up the side of the dune! Yee haw! What fun! According to a close source, N0BIXie is still finding sand in places he didn't know he had places!
(The above shots were provided by John, N5AAA)
Now, Back to Hoss and Keith. yuma06-27.jpg shows a few scenery shots taken while we are driving along.
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yuma06-28.jpg doesn’t show them real well, but, if you use your imagination you can see dozens of windmills along the ridge in the distance all churning away making electricity! That’s enough for today!
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Day Fifteen – Wednesday, 2/22/06 – Part 4 – Har! Hoss and I have spent the entire day playing computer. We have thoroughly backed up all the Yuma files onto CD. We also received a number of HUGE files from N5AAA via Skype’s file transfer. Pretty neat stuff! What a great way to move large files if you are on high speed! We did check into both Wednesday evening nets and had pretty good success. We were sorry to miss hearing Ron, W6KJ and Charlie, NN3V on the late sked, but, we did have a nice visit with John, N5AAA. Oh yes, just prior to our leaving for Yuma, Hoss’s APRS machine went down. Seems the hard drive failed. This morning he had it up and running by the time I got out of the shower after my walk! This afternoon he ordered a couple of new memory sticks for his new (to him) laptop that will fix him up with 256 megs of memory. More tomorrow….
Day Sixteen – Thursday, 2/23/06 – Alrighty then! After my walk this morning, Margareth served Hoss and I biscuits and gravy! We then did a few computer related chores and the next thing we knew, Ron, AA5RT was here. The three of us went to Crawford to the famous Coffee Station where “W” stops in when he is in town and had lunch (Jalapeno Burger – Mmm Mmm) (see photo yuma06-29.jpg).
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Then Hoss and I went into Waco for a visit at the local Office Depot. Hoss and I each picked up a new 1 gig thumbnail drive for $30 (after rebate) and Hoss also got a wireless Internet card for his new (to him) laptop. It works great! I have already had a bunch of requests for a KBob Face Kit, so, if you want one, drop me a reply and I will send one to you via e-mail for free! (or click below) I have spent part of the afternoon packing as tomorrow I will be back on the road. This time I will be heading for Nevada, Missouri to visit with relatives. So, I may or may not send out an update tomorrow. Tonight dinner will be my last visit to the Bunkhouse BBQ for this trip!
FREE!!!! 
FREE!!!!
Day Seventeen – Friday, 2/24/06 – Traveled from Valley Mills, Texas to Nevada, Missouri today. I had a nice chat with Ron, AA5RT, Wil, ????? and Hoss, WA5ZAI as I drove out of the area. I didn’t have any luck on the 8:15 or 9:15 CST skeds, however, Hoss rode along with me for a while at 10:15 but faded out after a while. We had no luck at 11:15, but we had a better luck at 12:15. Both Hoss and Max, KC4YG chatted with me as I rode along. Hoss and I managed to hook up at 1:15 and that was all the luck I would have with radio contacts for the day. My cousin, Bob was running the ditch witch when I arrived about 4:15 PM after about 550 miles. He had hoped to have this chore completed, but, he and the rental place had difficulty getting it running. It is a run for electric cable about 500’ long. (See photo mo-2-06-01.jpg)
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It was Grandma and Grandpa’s night to baby sit, so there was a house full of kids. Grandpa Bob had fixed a crock pot full of beef roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions! Mmm! Mmm! We visited and watched the Olympics – I finally got to see some bobsledding! (See photo mo-2-06-02.jpg)
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Day Eighteen – Saturday, 2/25/06 – Before breakfast this morning Bob and I, along with some minor additional help, managed to get the wire stretched out and the plastic pipe over top of the wire and in the ditch! Yee haw! The chore for the day was complete!
(See photo mo-2-06-03.jpg)
We then caught a church basketball game where Grandson Cody was playing at 10AM. (See photo mo-2-06-04.jpg)
We then had a Mexican lunch and licked up lunch and dinner for Sue (Sue is recovering from a broken leg and is restricted to the bed or chair for the time being). After dropping off Sue’s lunch, we headed back to the church for Grandson Tyler’s basketball game. (See photo mo-2-06-05.jpg)
This evening we attended the FOE’s (Fraternal Order of the Eagles) “Casino Night” which included an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner (traditional spread, Italian spread, Mexican spread, desert bar as well as all the beer you could drink until 7PM and then the beer was $4 a pitcher). We then played a variety of games until we lost our $100 of play money. I will spare you all the details and just say a good time was had!
Day Nineteen – Sunday, 2/26/06 – This morning we jumped in the pickup truck and headed to Kansas City (100 miles north) to the Western Farm Show. The live music was provided by John Deere. (See photo mo-2-06-06.jpg)
We had a delightful time looking at all the displays. Bob and Lincoln purchased a scale that can be transported to the field and can weigh trucks with grain before it even leaves the field! (See photo mo-2-06-07.jpg)
Afterwards we went to Jess and Jim’s Steak House in southern Kansas City for a delicious lunch. This afternoon we stopped by Ron and Janet’s and visited with them. (See photo mo-2-06-08.jpg)
We picked up dinner and brought it home to share with Sue. This evening has been spent enjoying the closing ceremonies of the Olympics , organizing photos and setting up the laptop to phone MSN locally!
Day Twenty – Monday, 2/27/06 – Howdy all! Well, this morning Bob and Sue headed to Joplin for Sue’s doctor appointment to check her progress with the broken leg. We look forward to a good report. After they headed south I went down to Lara and Doug’s and snapped a few shots. I had run out of memory space when Bob and I were there a couple of days ago. (See photo mo-2-06-09.jpg)
This afternoon Bob and I will see about checking out some of the radios and antennas in some of the equipment here to see if the problems are with antennas, radios or both. I expect I will make another update this afternoon or evening. However, in case I don’t have a chance, tomorrow is the final travel day. I hope to leave here tomorrow morning bright and early and make it home tomorrow late afternoon or evening.
Day Twenty One – Tuesday, 2/28/06 – Hoo Haw! What a day! But first, let me tell you about yesterday afternoon/evening. After Bob and Sue returned from her doctor’s appointment (BTW, the x-rays indicated the leg is healed and she can now begin putting some weight on it now as well as begin therapy) Bob and I spent the afternoon checking out his and Lincoln’s two way business band radios, antennas and microphones. We had a very successful session! (see photo mo-2-06-10.jpg)
We then dropped Sue off at a board meeting at the hospital where she works and Bob and I took a tour of the dairy operations they have been helping out. That is quite an impressive operation! We finished up with a Chinese dinner and then picked up Sue and headed for home. I was in bed shortly after 10PM.
I missed the 12:15 sked and then caught Hoss
at the 1:15 just as I was leaving the restaurant.
I didn’t hear anyone on the 2:15 sked.
I called Marian on my cell phone and left a
message for her saying that I had just fueled up on the east side of Indy and
the GPS said I would be home at 6:15PM EST.
As luck would have it, I chatted with her on 442.850 as I crossed under
the Rt. 127 interchange. I also
chatted with Dave, WB8WIQ on his 220 machine until my exit came up. I arrived home at precisely 6:15 EST, picked Marian up and we
headed to the Toll House Tavern for dinner.
Today I drove 665 miles in 10 ½ hours.
The total mileage for the entire trip was 4,920 miles.
It doesn’t seem like I have been gone for three weeks.
Many thanks to all those who rode along whether is was by ham radio, or just by checking on my progress via APRS. Also, to those whom I had the opportunity to have a personal visit with during my trip, I say THANK YOU! It has been an incredible journey. Thanks to all of you who have endured the pictures and updates. Finally, to Hoss & Margareth and Bob & Sue for letting me spend time in your domicile, I say a very special thank you! Your hospitality was outstanding!
Just FYI, the response from KBob when he first saw the group photo of himself at the hamfest was "Oh my God!"
KBob, our illustrious President, was one of the first to request one of the free "KBob Face Kits". He has also been the first to respond with his very own "KBob Family Photo". We have KBob, El Presidente (in maroon), His wife, KBob (in blue) and his best friend, KBob (in fur)! Incredible!
In El Presidente's own words "Gosh...I married myself and I have a pet KBob!"....KBob and family
More to come I feel sure....73.....Zed W. Jay
