Some might say, “I can’t do what Bob’s doing, isn’t he’s praising himself for his own achievements?” Or some might say, “He’s awfully proud of himself; his vehicle, his life, his adventure!” Well believe it or not, I get it! I’m not a shy guy! But my intent is not to speak too proudly or sound snobby or self important. I simply want to share our adventures, share our insights, praise God, and practice my writing skills; and of course have a fun, extended, vacation!

Honestly, it is both nice and humbling that more of you than just my mom, have “followed” my blog. (Worthy mom’s always read their son’s blog’s, thanks mom) .

We have, all of us, worked our butts off for many years and when it comes time to retire or repurpose our lives I know some of you may not be blessed by means, but you should certainly be blessed with time when you are no longer working.

As for our trip funding, Jackie and I are trying to be as frugal as possible. In hipster terms, we are trying to be as responsibly efficient and economical as possible. In old fashioned words, our retirement funds are not endless. Note, we are sleeping together in an old van, possibly an old icecream truck or bread truck with our dog! Most of the retired “campers” we have run into have 30+ foot air conditioned rigs with slideouts and big screened TV’s which they use to sit inside and watch golf. Go figure!

For you who have not retired yet and are wondering sbout the economics of such an adventure (like ours), Well, it has not been cheap even by our standards. Our old van gets about ten miles per gallon and so far we’ve traveled about 4,300 miles (we are only half way). The van takes premium gas at an average price of $3.10 per gallon, so that means we have spent about $1,333 on gas. We have had about $200 dollars in repairs. And we are finding that “camping” sites can be very expensive! Most KOA sites run between $40-$110 per night! We have been on the road for more than a month, you do the math. That’s right, campgrounds cost sometimes more than hotels! Fortunatly, state or National Parks are typically $30-$40 per night, but we have found that it is almost impossible to get one of tbese sites unles you reserve them a year in advance, the best locations anyway. We were fortunate to snag four of these sites along the way by being early season campers, or by driving into the parks and hoping for cancellations. One night we spent in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel because nothing was available.

Then there is the food. Eating out is expensive in popular tourist destinations, but you knew that. Tonight, to save money and not drive to find food, we had three day old bread we bought from a store in Savannah. We added peanut butter and jelly, and had beef jerky and water to drink! Other nights we have had dinners with our friends or we decided,”To heck with the budget, that looks so good,” and we splurged on food we could not get at home in Montana! (We have avoided as many chain food resturamts as possible).

So here we are! I’m not trying to defend the fact that this is a hugely fun and relatively expensive road trip or that it might seem like I enjoy being the center of attention by having my own blog. I know some of you cannot afford such luxuries or have not yet had the freedom to do what we are doing or just do not like your personal lives to be so exposed. Therefore, if or when you have the time and just some small amount of money, come visit us. A few nights at the Graham’s will be very cheap and I won’t post photo’s without your permission,

Now, if you don’t already know, let me give you some hints on how a less expensive trip could be for you if you don’t want to stay with odd people like us. First, don’t buy an old van that’s cute! Cute, like getting old, has its drawbacks and vans such as ours can drain your pockets dry. Second, buy a good camp mattress and tent camp! Most tent sites are much cheaper than rv/camper sites. Or just stay at a airbnb and get livestreamed (not funny). And finally, go west! This east coast camping is ridiculously more expensive. I’m not asking all of you to come to Montana, because we have enough tourists, but camping, the way we like to do it is still free out west. In most state forests or BLM land you can drive up, park, and stay up to two weeks free of charge. I’m talking about a beautiful spot on a creek in the middle of nowhere.

So, am I braging about our blessings? Am I posting “too much information or too often?” I hope you don’t think so! We feel very blessed that we can do this and we’ve sacrificed much in years past. Still, it has been fun so far. Of course it sometimes feels like I should keep my mouth shut and not post pictures of us on the beach when you still have a foot of snow on the ground or because you have not had a vacation in years and you are still slaving to just pay health insurance and taxes. I get it! For us, retirement and this trip, has helped us reflect on our blessings. And, I think, God may be helping us focus in on what our life will be like after we return home. Right now we can only see dimly what retirement will look like; we are simply enjoying the moment. No schedules, no deadlines! We do know our future will full of adventures, and this retirement tour is only the beginning.

Humbly yours,

Bob Graham

One might say I’m more of a radical, than a rebel. Before our retirement tour began, I ate my first Chick-Fil-A sandwich, bought President Trump’s MAGA hat, and got one of Mike Lindell’s “My Pillow’s” for our retirement tour. Sure, I could have brought my luxurious down pillow, bought a Glacier Park hat, or tried some hipster cauliflower rice, kabobs, or anything sriracha instead of a yummy spicy Chick-Fil-A chichen sandwich.

If you’re not aware, Trump, Christians, and even companies, like Mike Lindell’s “My Pillow,” are getting all sort of liberal hate these days. So my inner, radical, self said, “You gotta do this Bob! You need to ruffle some feathers if only to support contrary and righteous ideoligies!” The secular left, especially the media, goes bananas when they think of such things; as if exercising the power of thought is really what they do? I needed to fight back, I needed to do this!

If you are logical and right minded, you may have your own opinions about trumps MAGA hat or the flavor of a Spicy chicken sandwich, and that’s ok, but not all of you own a “My Pillow” so I thought I’d write someting about it as it has a role in our trip.

Sure I bought the pillow because “I’m a bit of a radical too: And, I like the fact that Mike wears a cross in his commercials, that he is a bold advocate of President Trump’s economic policies, and Mike makes no apologies for his success and his Christian faith. I think I paid $34 for his pillow! That is pretty radical, right!

Now about the pillow! Unsurprisingly it is lighter and feels less substantial than even a low end Walmart brand. The outer fabric is not as soft as many comparatively priced and more expensive down pillows, it actually feels cheap to the touch! So much for “Christianity” and truthfulness right! Wrong! In my opinion, Mike’s pillow performs as advertised. He uses some form of proprietary fill (I did not tear mine apart to see what it is), I can feel some sort of small foam chunks inside. The chunks don’t bother me nor do they create some sort of irritation, they just exist and tend to wrap themselves around my head. I added a nice pillow case to solve the fabric issue. When I lay my head on the pillow it does not compress all the way down (as advertised). It’s quite cushy and it supports my head perfectly, I’m actually liking “My Pillow,” I like it for reading, and lying on my side and back. In truth I’m a three or more pillow guy and also own a luxurious down pillow to compliment this “My Pillow,” but for this trip I left (forgot) my down pillow at home and “My Pillow” is performing well.

So, setting politics and religion aside, as we should with pillows, hats, and chicken, Mike Lindell’s “My Pillow” is a great, tough, and comfortable pillow for van life as well as my own bed in Montana. So there you have it, religion, politics, and pillows in a 1961 Metro van.

Well, wasn’t that interesting!

Ok…where was I? Right! I didn’t think I’d have much to say about my journey from Fargo to Sturgeon Bay, but as usual, life, the way God makes it, is always full.

First I must say Fargo surprised me. Apart from its standing as a backwards place, full of half crazy mystical characters, the area and the people I visited with were not comedic at all. It was a small but suprisingly metropolitan city in a God awful cold and windy place. That’s all I learned about Fargo this trip. I just stayed the night, got a pizza, and drank a half a can of PBR and talked with a few nice folks!

From Fargo I headed east to Brainerd MN and visited truly a wonderful couple who have a cute cabin also in Polebridge Montana. Bill was and still is a faithful friend and prayer supporter of our son and it’s always a joy to see both he and Kathy. I appreciated thier hospitality, their faith and fellowship. Great people, nice home, super close family. And like all hospitable hosts they fed me well! So typical of good hosts and always a blessing, a good host asks when you’re trying to leave early morning, “Would you like an egg before to leave?” Sure, it’s just an egg you think. Twenty minutes later delicious yummies are produced and always the finest combination of conversation and eating begin. Thanks Bill and Kathy!

Around 8 a.m. I’m on the road again and soon after I am traveling around Saint Paul Minnesota, ironically the most dangerous part of my journey so far. The crazies are out at that time of morning. They’ve had too many cups of coffee and are all in a rush to get somewhere important. At least a sane person would think so. The semi trucks and their trailers were flying by me. All were speeding and darting in and out of traffic searching for that slight edge over the other to get where they were going. Besides their speeding, the roads were worn and groved which made the old van bobble and weave. At moments I thought, “This is it! I was going to hit one of these groves and big semi was going to fly by me and suck me into it. Soon after there would be all sorts of antique Metro van parts for sale on Craigslist.” But I survived, barely, and that’s not rhetorical drama, it’s truth, the “barely” part!

Now a while back, before I arrived in Brainerd, I started hearing a pinging sound. For those of you not familar with the mechanical workings of old vehicles; the timing can get out out of wack, and “advanced timing” on an engine can make a pinging sound. It happens when the piston fires late in the engine progression. A well timed engine fires just before “top dead center.” I’ll not bore you with further mechanical details, but that is what my enginge was sounding like. I needed to adjust my timing, so I thought.

So at first the noise was not that loud so I drove on. I had more important objectives I was going to see Jackie, my wife, and make my destination, Stugeon Bay Wisconsin. But gradually the pinging became louder, “the distributer must have loosened, I thought!” I pulled into the next gas station, the Flying J near Hudson Wisconsin. I came prepared! I had a timing light with me and I checked my timing. It was right on, so I something else was wrong. I looked around and could not see anything striking, so I decided to reproduce the sound by opening up the throttle and accelerating the engine. This is where pinging occurs. It’s also sometimes associated with vacuum advance. As I pulled the throttle linkage I noticed the power steering fluid holder shaking. So this was the culprit, not the timing.

The bracket had broken at the bend. I suppose a stress fracture. After all the steel is at least 40 years old. We used an old bracket off another vehicle. “Well now what?” I thought. I have about all the tools I need in the van, but I don’t have a welder. I called around and one person recommended another until I finally found an outfit that could weld my bracket bact together. It was Veterans Truck and Trailer Service in Hudson, WI.

Great people worked there. When I pulled up they was like a bunch of girls flocking to a new puppy. “What year is it?” “What engine do you have in it?” “Look he put four wheel drive in in!” The guys were great! Young and enthusiastic diesel mechanics.

They were obviously all proffessionals. Their shop was fantastically outfitted and the were very busy working on several eighteen wheeler’s. I was thankful they had the time to fit me into their busy schedule, I told them I desperately wanted to make Sturgeon Bay by nightfall.

Yhe bracket was not a hard fix and it only took the pros a half hour shop time to remove and weld the break. Fifty bucks and a bunch of fun with the young men and I was rolling again.

Darkness fell and it got cold again, but by seven thirty I made it. My eight hour drive had turned into and eleven hour experience, but I was with my bride. We were together again! It was a well worth it journey. After hugs and kisses, I wanted some Perch and a beer. We stopped into the most typical of northern Wisconsin restaurants, The Greystone Castle in Sturgeon Bay. The place was filled with mounts and stuffed fish, good food, and friendly people.

We will spend a few days together in Sturgeon Bay then begin our retirement journey in earnestand together next week. First stop Madison to see our Son, then a short stop in Wheaton/Glen Ellyn Illinois to see my sister and high school friends. Then on to Kentucky! From there you’ll have to follow to find out!

I’m still working on a few last minute fixes before I head out to pick up Jackie. So until then, a few of you were interested in what the van looked like before I started the renovation. I’ve put together a mess of photo’s for you to see below. I’ll not bore you all with long detailed explanations. I think you can see for yourself it has been a journey. There are many more things I’d like to do after we get back from our tour, but until then……

Well that’s it for now. I’ve a lot more to do like re painting and fixing all the things you can’t see. But the tour comes first. We will work out the bugs and fix things accordingly. I think it’s better to start something and use it, then go back and fix things that really bug you! Next post will be from on the road!