page started 2/3/08
Posted 2/5/08 - Howdy IOOK! Well, Charlie, WB8NSL, arrived in the Dayton area around 12:30 PM on Sunday, February 3rd. We did a few chores and then ate dinner with Marian, WD8CJD, at Marion's Piazza. Monday morning, February 4th, we were off and running early (6AM) heading towards John, N5AAA, and Jan's, KA9VQS, place in Spring Hill, TN. We arrived shortly before noon their time and enjoyed a pulled pork and with it lunch.
Then we worked on installing the new batteries for the camper that we had brought with us that John had ordered from "The Battery Dude", Jimbo, KA8SFL.
Above, Charlie inspects the 40 meter through 6 meter vertical antenna installation here at N5AAA's. John's other current antenna is a G5RV installed at the back of the yard amongst the tree line there.
Once the new batteries were installed we set to working on making it a bit easier for John to get on the air from the camper when he is out and about. First, John drilled a hole though the shell into the inside of the camper. The hole comes through the wall into an area that is hidden by an easy chair. We attempted to use a bulkhead coax connector, but the one we had was too short. So, for a temporary set up we pushed coax though the hole and sealed it. John plans to cut the coax and install a longer bulkhead coax connector and seal it all up once he obtains a new one.
We finished about dinner time. Before we headed out for dinner, we had a short Skype call with N0BIXie at his winter vacation spot in Bloomington, IN. We had a delightful dinner at Beef O'Brady's!
This morning (Tuesday) we headed to Franklin, TN for breakfast. We went to a neat place called the Loveless Motel Cafe. Once upon a time it was an active motel, but now it is a great restaurant and the small buildings that were the motel are now a series of unique shops. What a great meal and nice place to visit!
Over the year many celebrities have stayed and eaten there. Charlie is shown with an antique television and some of the photos of the various celebrities.
After breakfast, we did a few RV related chores. In the process of checking tire pressure we discovered that there was a problem with one of the tires. A replacement has been ordered and we will pick it up tomorrow around noon.
More to come upon the next update.
========
Friday update - 2/8/08 - Backing up a bit....Tuesday afternoon was delightful...the temperature got up to 73 - fantastic!
We got an e-mail from W5KUB in Memphis Tuesday evening telling us that they had a bunch of tornadoes go through and there was a lot of destruction and many folks injured or killed as well. Early Wednesday morning about 1:30 John and Jan were awakened with a tornado warning alert. They got Charlie and Keith up and we went to the basement for an hour or so.
Below, in the first shot, you see us visiting in the basement. Then in the second shot the computer where we were watching the weather radar indicated that the radar was not longer available. You can imagine our shock that the radar had disappeared! (third shot) In the fourth shot you can see that the next morning all was well with the Hartman Hideaway!
The temperature Wednesday was not quite as warm as Tuesday, but it was sunny and beautiful! We went to Franklin and picked up the tire for the trailer. While there we did some other shopping as well. Keith ended up with a "My Book" 500 GB USB backup drive. :-) Once we returned to the house, we got busy with our chores. The tire was installed post haste and then John did some maintenance on the trailer. In the mean time, Jan had been working loading things in the trailer.
Below you see the newly installed tire, Charlie looking on, John oiling a stabilization jack, our travel vehicles approaching readiness for the trip to Texas, Charlie viewing John's collection of tower pieces and John working on transferring data from the main machine to the laptop for the trip.
We ate in Wednesday - we were helping clean out the refrigerator prior to the trip! Har! Some sacrifices must be made! Ha ha! Wednesday evening Charlie and Keith went to bed a bit earlier and stacked up the zzz's.
Thursday morning John and Jan were up a little after 4AM to take care of all the last minute duties prior to departure. Keith and Charlie got up around 5:30 and we were all on the road by 6AM!
Sadly we were unable to meet with Max, KC4YG, on our way through Memphis. He had a business trip to Mississippi Thursday. We also missed seeing Tom, W5KUB, as we passed through Memphis. We were a lot earlier than Tom expected and Tom was planning to come out and join us for lunch - so we missed visiting with him as well.
However, we were fortunate enough to chat with Hoss, WA5ZAI, a couple of times on 40 meters and we also chatted with Tom, W5KUB on 75 meters as well!
We stopped in Palestine, AR, for lunch and diesel fuel for John's pickup truck. We guys had Subway sandwiches and Jan had fried chicken! We stopped for dinner in Corsicana,TX, at Don Jose's Mexican Restaurant. Great food and super service! John and Jan decided to stay overnight at Wal-Mart in Corsicana so they could go to the bakery in the morning and pick up some much needed pecan bread! Charlie and Keith headed on west to arrive at the Lazy K Ranch about 9PM. Upon our arrival Charlie got his dog fix meeting Max, Hoss's new companion!
After a delightful visit we headed to bed for much needed rest!
Friday morning arrived with beautiful sunshine. Hoss went out and picked up breakfast burrito's for the guys. Then Charlie had another dog fix.
Before we knew it John and Jan arrived and had their camper set up!
Shortly thereafter, we headed off for our morning walk.
Hoss and Max beat us all back to the house. Jan and Keith got back next and had set up lawn chairs and were relaxing in the sun when Charlie and John got back. If you look carefully in the first shot below, you can see Charlie and John just coming around the curve behind Hoss and Max.
As you can see, the weather here is just gorgeous! The high today was 80 degrees. Pretty tough to take! Har!
A little after 1PM, we headed over to Chandler's Gun Shop for a hands on shopping spree. After we had satisfied our curiosity, we headed back to the Lazy K Ranch and low and behold Ron, AA5RT called us on the radio and then stopped by for a visit. (see top left below) Charlie decided to take Max for a short walk - or, probably more accurately, Max took Charlie for a walk! Har! (see second panel below) The bottom shot below shows the Lazy K Ranch with the camper on the left and ZWJ's maroon van on the right.
Margareth has arrived home from work and we will soon be heading to the Bunkhouse Bar B Q! Hoo haw! We can hardly wait! Yee haw!
More to come........
=======
Update 2/11/08 - Friday night we had a delightful dinner at the Bunkhouse BBQ.
Saturday, Lew, KC4US went to the Orlando Hamcation. Is his own words..... "Hello Keith; While I can't keep up with the Yuma activities, I just thought I'd let you know that the IOOK was represented a little bit at the Orlando Hamcation. The fellow in the light shirt is Pete N4VZJ who I had not seen for many years. I sold him a tower years ago when we were in Homestead. I bought the requisite PL-259's and a few other odds and ends. 73's Lew KC4US"
Well,
Lew says he was introduced to the rest of the gang but can't remember
all their names and calls. I guess he didn't realize there was
going to be a test after he sent in the photo! Har!
Saturday the 9th found us doing computer chores. John worked on getting the map stuff sorted out for Keith's GPS because Keith had managed to load in a different version of maps than the set of routes he was using, so they were not compatible with each other.
We went for our morning walk. Below you see one of the critters we encountered during our walk.
Then we went back to the Bunkhouse BBQ. We wanted to pick up some ribs and brisket for the trip - so we decided to eat lunch there as well - after all, some sacrifices must be made....right?
Saturday evening Margareth fixed us a super lasagna dinner. Mmm Mmm - delicious! After dinner, we enjoyed a group conversation with N0BIXie via Skype. We had managed to get a temporary fix on a camera attached to the laptop.
Sunday morning, after having Siriniki (eat your heart out) we played radio. Sadly, conditions on 20 meters were devastating! We only heard Lew, KC4US, on 20, even though, according to what we heard after the net, NN3V, W6KJ, N8KXM and KC4YG also had a limited conversation on the same frequency at the same time!
40 meters was in a bit better shape, although it was far from great. We managed to Skype in N0BIXix from Bloomington, IN. even though we were having some difficulty as the HF was getting into the wireless system and shutting down the connection during transmissions.
Sunday evening's dinner was a special Valentine's gift from Margareth to our group! Dinner included shrimp cocktail (seasoned sautéed shrimp served over a bed of shredded lettuce and a dollop of seafood sauce served over a bed of ice in a special chilling container), fancy tossed salad (baby spinach with grapefruit, pecans, pears, apples, mushrooms, cranberry raisins with a raspberry walnut vinaigrette), pork loin roast, two potato stir fry (sweet and regular potatoes with fresh dill), asparagus with hollandaise sauce, cranberry sauce and ciabatta bread. The fantastic meal was topped off with beautiful and tasty swan cream puffs which were served upon a layer of chocolate in the shape of a heart with cherry vanilla crème fresh. Incredible! Certainly a dinner to die for! Eat your heart out again!
After dinner we had another Skype conversation with N0BIXie.
Monday was filled with tons of errands - John went to the local clinic in Clifton to get antibiotics for an ear infection. Hoss paid a visit to the dentist for a temporary crown because he had recently broken a tooth. Then the gang went to the Austin Airport to drop Jan off so she could fly to California. We guys then returned to Waco and John saw a local gun smith to get a minor adjustment to his carry gun. We visited the local grocery store to pick up soft drinks and snacks and finally returned to the Lazy K Ranch.
Margareth is fixing beef stroganoff for this evening's dinner. Hoss is still wondering about those poor hungry Armenians.
Tuesday is a travel day. Our plan is to leave here at Oh-Dark-Thirty in the morning and we hope to stay overnight in Lordsburg, NM tomorrow night.
More later......
=========
Update 2/21/08 - Well, here are the pictures. The text will follow later......
OK - it's later. We left Hoss's at 6AM on Tuesday the 12th. It was raining so hard it was a frog strangler! However, by the time we got to breakfast to see the old poker players and to give Chuck a chance to play "Phone Boy" it had dried out. It was severe clear as we traveled the "Vice Presidential Highway" in west Texas.
We stopped for dinner near Las Cruces, New Mexico. Of course, it was time to exercise our legs a bit, so, we did enjoy a few of the local sights to see on the way to our restaurant, La Posta!
Dave, K3CRF met us at La Posta for dinner. Now we were five!
As you can well imagine the fun and frolic had already begun! Dave, K3CRF has the IOOK so near his heart that he has gotten an IOOK VP license plate!
We spent the night in a motel in Lordsburg, New Mexico. John negotiated a special room rate for our 5 rooms! I guess we have to dub him our "Captain Kirk" Motel negotiator!
The next morning we headed towards Tucson. The scenery here is a lot different from the mid west!
As we approached Tucson, we stopped at Saguaro National Park and watched an informative video and then took the scenic drive through the park. Truly a beautiful sight to see.
The cactus thrive here because this desert area actually has two wet seasons, which naturally encourage growth.
The slide below explains a bit about the seasons. The mountains in the distance prove to provide a beautiful backdrop to all the cactus plants.
Below Dave, K3CRF captures a shot of the fruit on top of a barrel cactus.
In the second set of panels below you see Hoss, WA5ZAI, squatting to get the perfect shot (seen to the right). Bottom right you see some holes in the cactus. These are made by either insects or birds seeking shelter from the heat and taking advantage of the moisture inside the plant.
OK - we shot a lot of shots. I know it is hard to imagine, but, about 90 percent of them ended up on the cutting room floor!
The last shot is taken near the visitor center which we passed on the way out of the park.
After leaving Saguaro National Park, we went to the Pima Air And Space Museum. Charlie, WB8NSL began to get his "airpane" fix! Har!
Since I am not a well versed airplane buff, I will not attempt to identify the airplanes seen below.
Below you see Hoss entering "Airforce One" that was used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
We took a bus tour of the museum grounds and got to see all the planes on display outside.
Then we got on another bus and went to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to see the AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group) storage sight - affectionately known as the Boneyard.
Actually, the planes stored here (around 4,600 of them) mostly fall into one of four categories. 1 - storage for possible reuse. 2 - storage for possible sale to a friendly foreign nation. 3 - provide parts for existing airplanes still in use. 4 - cut up for recycling.
If you can see the Stealth Fighter shown below, they need to talk with you!
That evening we hooked up with Tom, W3TOM (now we were 6) and then met Big Al, KB8FJB and Lenore, KC8VSA for dinner there in Tucson.
The next morning we went to see the Titan Missile Museum. Outside the facility is an incredible antenna that can be used by amateur radio operators. This is the only silo of this type that remains today. All the rest were destroyed after the cold war ended.
The last picture above is looking down the silo at the missile as it would have been ready for launch with the protective door opened.
Below are the two fuel sources that were to be mixed together at the last minute prior to launch. The entire below ground facility was designed to be able to "flex" as much as 18 inches in either direction without damaging equipment.
The long hallway above goes between the control center and the missile silo. It too is designed to "flex".
Below you see the top of the missile looking up. The second shot is of the silo and it's cover door.
After the Titan tour, we headed towards Yuma. Upon our arrival we put up the banner to help all hamfest attendees identify that the IOOK was here for the hamfest.
We ran into a lot of our Yuma Hamfest friends that do such a good job of taking care of us! They spend many hours making all the necessary arrangements for the hamfest. They are well organized and have a great facility!
We met Lou, N8KXM, Sandi and Jack at the motel and we headed to the Cocopah Casino for their buffet dinner. After dinner Hoss and Sandi won a few bucks and managed to quit before they lost it!
Friday morning found us at Penny's Diner for breakfast! Yup, we got fed up again!
As you can see below, it was a bit cool Friday morning. However, it did warm up nicely in the afternoon. We were hit with an onslaught of buyers as we got out our stuff to set up for the flea market. Numerous sales were made before we even had a chance to put some of the stuff on the tables.
Above right Hoss shakes hands with Richard, AE6DH, a friend of IOOK'er Rich, KJ5RA!
Below left Hoss is shown with his son, Ron and daughter-in-law, Kristen. Top Right below on the right is Ralph, K7YUM who owns the K7YUM repeater we use when we are in Yuma that also has the EchoLink Internet connection. Thanks Ralph!
Middle right below is Charlie, NN3V. He ended up being a bit later than he had hoped getting to Yuma for the hamfest because the mountain pass he needed to use was closed because of snow when he got there. After returning to town and having breakfast he was successful in crossing the pass.
Above, John, N5AAA, watches a flea market neighbor's table while Charlie, WB8NSL shops.
Below Charlie, NN3V, prepares sushi - fresh yellow fin tuna he brought from his latest fishing excursion! Delicious!
Then Big Al, KB8FJB and Lenore, KC8VSA arrive. Lunch Friday was IN & OUT burgers!
Above, KBob takes a turn at the wheel once we get to the hamfest. Timing is everything! Right!
Below you see the IOOK doing what it does best......EAT! We met at the Village Inn Pizza near our motel and enjoyed visiting and eating...and, yes, we all get fed up! AGAIN!
Saturday morning, the early birds went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. The staff must have looked at the photo of ZWJ in the kitchen wrong and managed to mess up things for N5AAA instead. ZWJ has a long line of bad luck at Cracker Barrel. Maybe AAA has broken the spell? Naw, probably not.
It was absolutely gorgeous Saturday at the hamfest. Severe clear and a sky so blue it almost hurts your eyes!
Second row left below - Ted, KF6BFI and Menchie arrive! To the right - airplane drags the IOOK Banner across the sky.
Third row below left - Lou N8KXM receives his brisket sandwich from the Bunkhouse BBQ in Clifton, TX. The Texas guys brought Bunkhouse BBQ and Big Al warmed it up in the microwave oven in his motel room and then Charlie, NN3V played lunch chef and made sandwiches for the gang! So, we had brisket sandwiches and ribs for lunch. Delicious!
Here are some shots of the indoor vendors.
Here are some shots of Charlie, NN3V's EchoLink forum.
Prior to our group photo, Jack, N8KXM's step dad, is presented with his IOOK shirt to proudly wear at all the IOOK functions he will be attending now that his is living with Lou and Sandi.
If you look carefully, you will see that some of the shirts in the picture below are not the "standard issue" IOOK wear. That is because they are special "Yuma IOOK Wear".
Here is the special "Yuma IOOK Logo"
Below top left is Richard, KC2LGR in the process of taking our group picture. Hoss, WA5ZAI was the first of the gang to win a prize! did you know that the list price of an ARRL Handbook is almost $50 these days?
In the bottom set of panels you see ZWJ and AAA chatting with Dave, W8TVC in Michigan via EchoLink after his partial knee replacement surgery the day before. Mike, N7LMJ joined in as well. Dave is doing well on his road to recovery.
Famous Dave's catered the Old Buzzards BBQ Dinner Saturday night. As you see this was no fun at all..... :-)
Flat KBob really enjoyed the BBQ dinner....so much, in fact, that he went back.....repeatedly!
Above, Sandi and Ted win prizes.
Below, John, N5AAA wins a prize - his luck is really something! It is the prize that the IOOK donated to the hamfest committee! What do you suppose the chances of that happening are?
Sunday morning arrived with a beautiful sunrise. Charlie gives an IOOK salute as he leaves his room. The gang went to IHOP for breakfast.
After breakfast our gang went a short distance into California and were introduced to how a lot of folks spend their weekends playing in the sand! There are literally thousands of campers, dune buggies, four wheelers, souped up golf carts and motorcycles of every size and shape there to be seen. We found Jan, KA9VQS there in the sand. She had been visiting with Claretta and Dave since she flew out of Austin the week before.
Above left - Charlie, WB8NSL visits with son-in-law, Mike. Mike's dune buggy is shown above. It sports a Wankel rotary engine with over 500 HP. Above right - Jan and Hoss exercise the cricks out of their necks.
Below left - Charlie gets yet another dog fix! Below right - Jan and Keith visit. Second row below - Dave works on adjusting the newly rebuilt Corvair engine on his dune buggy. Third row below - John and Hoss play dueling cell phones. Dave returns from his test drive.
Above left - Claretta's Volkswagen powered dune buggy on the left and Dave's dune buggy on the right.
This space left blank waiting on pictures from Marci.
Below - out on the top of the dune! Tom, W3TOM left top - Keith, WA8ZWJ right top. Second row - Claretta talks with her hands. Charlie, WB8NSL waves from Dave's buggy while Mike visits there.
Above left - Dave, K3CRF enjoys the sun from the back seat of Mike's buggy.
Below left - Witch's Eye - a place to avoid cuz if you get down one you can't get back out. Below right - Claretta still talking with her hands!
Remainder of photos below are after the ride and we are sitting around and enjoying some drinks and conversation.
Flat KBob decides to have some fun and he asks if he can drive Dave's buggy.
Later, after KBob's ride in the sand he enjoys visiting with the gang by Dave and Cloretta's camper.
Our sincere thanks go out to Dave and Claretta for their fine hospitality! We had a great time!
More to come!
========
On Monday, 2/18/08, the four of us (N5AAA, WA5ZAI, WA8ZWJ, WB8NSL) headed back towards Hoss and Margareth's place. It always amazes me the difference in landscape changes as one drives across the southwest. Big rocks and boulders always impress me!
Below are photos from Monday afternoon/evening. John drove after dinner to where we stayed in Van Horn, Texas. I must add that we ate at a little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that we found last year and were sorely disappointed. So, we took that waypoint out of the GPS. Shucks!
Starting with the sunrise above are pictures from Tuesday as we drove through western Texas. John and Charlie were sleeping but Hoss was just concentrating very hard on listening to the joke tape we had inserted in the tape player.
The top two snap shots below are of the refinery that had the explosion and the fire in Big Spring, Texas. The next two shots are of the electric generating windmills along the I-20 Interstate. There are literally hundreds of them! Really a lot more than we are used to seeing along I-10 when we take the southern route and there are a lot of them down there!
Finally, the last two shots in this panel are of Rick at the Bunkhouse BBQ. Yup! You guessed it! We ate dinner at the Bunkhouse Tuesday evening! Yee haw!
Upon our return to the Lazy K Ranch, John discovered that his automatic switch over valve and regulator on the camper had trouble, so, Wednesday morning we headed into town to seek a replacement. It turned out that the camper supply place was right across the street from the Blue Bell factory, and they were giving away samples! Eat your heart out Sandi! (she just loves Blue Bell)
After getting the new valve installed we met Ron, AA5RT for lunch at the Western White House's own Coffee Station!
Thursday we paid a visit to our good friend Alice Chandler near Valley Mills, Texas. Even though it was a bit cool, John and Keith took in a bit of target practice. It seems that Thursday afternoon was catch a nap time for at least a couple of us. :-)
Friday noon we drove to Salado, Texas and met Don Snoots, a high school buddy of Keith's. We met at the Stagecoach Inn and had a delightful visit and lunch. Dave, K3CRF had made some side trips between Yuma and San Antonio and had spent the last couple of days visiting with Bert, K0JIH. He met us for lunch as well. Yes, that is a huge tree growing in the middle of the restaurant. They built the place around it.
Afterwards we spent a bit of time walking through some of the shops. One place had a bunch of ducks for sale that reminded us of KF8KK's Duckland Internet sales. We also found some "wood that works".
http://www.woodthatworks.com/IM_pages/IM_Techniques.html
Of course, Dave, K3CRF had never been to the Bunkhouse BBQ, so, we went back there Friday night so he would have the opportunity to sample Rick's cooking! Yes, it is true that the IOOK travels on it's stomach! Har!
Saturday morning early Keith and Charlie headed north to go to visit Keith's cousins in Missouri. On the way we met Jim, W5JCS in Wagoner, Oklahoma. Jim is to be commended for his effort in meeting the guys, since he drove all the way from Stillwater (about 2 hours one way) to meet them! We had a delightful visit and lunch lasted a couple of hours! Of course, after lunch, Charlie needed a short nap to recuperate!
Hmm - things are a bit out of order, but rather than redo the above set of shots, just drift back with me a bit and imagine that we are on our way to see Jim and we are driving through Dallas. Here are some shots of downtown Dallas.
Imagine our surprise upon crossing the Missouri state line and suddenly the temperature dropped and we saw large deposits of ice on all the trees! This went on for miles and miles. Then, when we turned north and saw snow on the ground! The top right shot is the back of cousin Bob's farm. He and his son Lincoln farm about 4,000 acres. As soon as we arrived at Bob and Sue's, Charlie bonded with Skeeter, Bob's bird dog. Sue is a bit camera shy. The kids are a couple of Bob and Sue's grandchildren.
Of course, Charlie continued his dog fix!
That evening we went to a fund raiser chili dinner. Good chili! We got to see Lara and Doug as well as the rest of their family at the dinner.
Upon returning to Bob and Sue's, Charlie continued his dog fix!
Sunday morning we headed 100 miles north to Kansas City to the Western Farm Show.
On our way home, this license plate above right caught our eyes! Don't know if the lady liked dogs or cats...
After dinner, Lincoln brought over his boys while Trinnade went to church.
Later, Bob and Keith went to Lara and Doug's to deliver a new toy that Grandpa had bought at the farm show.
Monday morning, Bob, Chuck and Keith headed to Springfield to take in the Bass Pro Shop.
Of course, a trip to Springfield would show neglect if one passed up the opportunity to eat at the nearby Lambert's Cafe, home of the hand thrown rolls!
Anyone who leaves Lambert's hungry has no one to blame but themselves! In addition to the sides included, folks are always bringing around extra sides of fried okra, fried potatoes and more!
After a HUGE lunch, the boys returned to the Bass Pro Shop to look around some more.
In the above middle right shot if you look carefully, you can see the bear chasing the guy on the rope bridge!
You can imagine our surprise when, in the process of taking an alternate route home, we drove through Charlie's home town, Pennsboro! Of course, this was Missouri and not West Virginia!
That evening we went to Lamar, Missouri and met Nancy and one of her daughter's and family for dinner at the Blue Top Restaurant. Our waitress was quite a spunky gal!
The above mural is painted on the wall in "Bob's room" where Charlie slept.
Tuesday, 2/26/08, on our way back to Dayton, Charlie and Keith were privileged to be able to meet Bob, N0BIX for lunch near St. Louis. We were really surprised when we first heard the call sign of the local repeater we used to coordinate our meeting. It was AA9RT! Of course, I thought I heard AA5RT! I was thinking that Ron, AA5RT had added a long distance repeater to his collection in Texas!
N0BIXies' treatments are now complete and he is back home in O'Fallon, Illinois.
Our thanks to all who put us up and put up with us during our three week trip to Yuma and back!
Our trip included countless tanks of gasoline, fantastic sights and visits and 5,651 miles.
Even though there seems to be an overabundance of pictures, the ones shown here were selected from 1,475 snap shots.
Thanks to K3CRF, KA9VQS, N5AAA, N8KXM, Ron Karimi, WA5ZAI, WA8ZWJ and WB8NSL for contributing photos!
Once these have been posted it will be time to RELAX! Yee haw! What a great trip!
Thanks to you for enduring the diatribe and numerous photos!
Best 73, Keith, WA8ZWJ
