27th June to the 6th August 2010 in Rocinante

27th. June till the 6th of August 2010-08-06

At 407 East Dewey Avenue Youngstown; this location is not what my first impressions led me to believe.

Spent today "no-more-gapping" the many nail holes in the shingles on the roof from the inside!!. Very poor roofing installer many years ago and a few larger holes effectively repaired. Filled the long gap alongside the chimney. Should be weatherproofed for a year or so now. Borrowed 3 foot pry bar from Ken the neighbour at 405 and removed the top floor kitchen bench and the entire wall covering over the rotted and rusted out cast iron stand (stink) pipe that runs from the basement to through the roof. The section from the floor level of first floor to basement is totally rotted away. Will replace with 3” plastic and fit new waste pipe from first floor kitchen sink which was doing all the water damage. 90° F today! Prepare to lift flooring of front porch by car jack and fit 4” beams on bricks to re-level it from the 40cm depression in middle that exists now!

Relax after a big day by watching Spanish Grand Prix on TV!

Next day I am able to contact the recalcitrant contractor who accepted large payment up front for work and then did a “no-show”. He turns up for a meeting and is a “new man” after problem with cocaine!! He is a 49 year old ex CEO and Inventor with an MBA and a world patent! http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=1996039232

He assures me that he will provide labour to the value plus interest for our payment. I am hopeful but not confident!

Get all the plumbing materials, the neighbour has a utility and is a great help with 10 feet pipe lengths.

The roof has come through its fir5st rainshower withy no leaks!

On Tuesday the 29^th I am able to jack up the porch deck and now it is level again. Screw doublers under all the suspect decking material between the bearers! The Rental managing Agent has and is a problem, has avoided meeting and now I find that he has taken out a small claims case that was undefended by virtue of supplying the court with an invalid address for us!! So we did not find out it was happening!

The other house in Youngstown is about 2 miles away and Jeff the ex CEO takes me to the Realtor who still has the keys. We then visit a nice single family home in Labelle Street is a reasonable; for Youngstown, street. A slight amount of water leakage in rear bedroom, but investigation by Jeff assures me that the repair would be negligible materials and 2 hours work to properly waterproof the displaced shingles and weatherproofing around a chimney.

Next day Ken and I head over to warren where a 4 apartment property is located. Jeff, the CEO, is to meet us there and take us to the house. Warren is quite nice, but as we get closer to our address, the atmosphere alters decidedly. What was a prestigious street in 1920 is now an unsavoury location. The neighbour to the rear of the property is helpful to us in gaining access. He was a source of information about the area. His security precautions were quite extensive! The City Authorities has screwed 8’ X 4’ sheets of ply over all the front doors. This was to stop the prostitutes gaining access for their activities. The lower left apartment had been completely renovated to liveable condition in 2008 and the ex CEO was to live in it while he renovated the other 3 units. Of course this has not happened and a roofing contractor that only did half the roof before leaving the job has resulted into massive water damage everywhere and vast amounts of the ceiling have “black mould” http://www.essortment.com/all/whatisblackmo_rfls.htm

No one will work where this has occurred. The winters here are quite terrible with -20°Someone has already unscrewed all the heating water radiators, but they were still on site, all the copper plumbing fittings have been stolen. Remarkably the very large furnace boiler and gas hot wat6er system are both still there. I arrange for these to be removed and taken to Youngstown.

The City had posted a demolition order on the house that was going to happen in August… disaster.

Have the City water Authority reconnect the water to 407 Dewey to find a myriad of leaks in the 2 units. A trip to the hardware store to buy a variety of plastic fittings and repair them!! Eventually!! Test the sewerage system by dumping all my waste from Rocinante into the basement main!!! No blockages!! Thank goodness. Cut all the grass at the Labelle Street house, now looks good.

Friday is a trip to The Courthouse to talk to the Small Claims Office and write a detail rebuttal to the judgement of 6 weeks previously. This was to be presented to the Judge on our behalf.

I had information that my presence in Youngstown was not totally appreciated by this Realtor whom I had made accusations against in my letter to the Court.. So I headed for Ravenna about 60 miles to the NW and as it was the July 4^th long weekend, I had heard that a concert btof the Cleveland Symphony orchestras Festival Band at The Blossom performance bowl in the country side near there. http://www.tickco.com/venue_schedules/blossom_music_center.htm

On Saturday I head to the Hartville Flea market. http://www.hartvillemarketplace.com/

This has to be the biggest and best flea market I have ever seen. It is operated by the Amish Community that is very large here. Bought some great bargains and my only toast rack I have found this trip!!

The 3^rd of July evening fireworks were readily viewed from my Wal-Mart parking spot. Great display. Flat batteries on Sunday morning!! I had left the headlights on. I had moved in the Wal-Mart parking lot late at night and the bright Parking lot lights meant I did not see that my lights were on!!!

The joy of an on board generator saves the morning!! And I am able to go out to the Blossom Festival area and await the evening performance. I have met some marvellous people here, very friendly and have been taken out sightseeing to local beauty spots. The concert is fantastic and I shared it with 25,000 others. The fireworks at the conclusion of the performance; which concluded with the 1812 Overture!! Were magnificent. Traffic jam to end all traffic jams afterw2ar5ds. But I just waited till all had disappeared.

Next morning it was a little bit of local sightseeing and my friend’s wante4d their 95 year old mother to meet me and to see Rocinante. She arrived in her small 4 cylinder sedan and was more agile than the kids!!

Next port of call was Darlington on SW Pennsylvania. There is a little Air Museum here and I have an invite to park on a property for a couple of days. It is not far from Youngstown and I can get back there if necessary.

Stinking hot for next few days and I had power connected to Rocinante and was able to relax on the small farm, Thank you Jeffrey and the boys. A little bit of local exploring and and a good look over the Local Vocational College. Very well set up, impressive. The rides in your Corvette will stay with me for a lifetime, and I did not realise how nice big cats can be.

Back up north on the 8^th July to Erie and a revisit to the farm at Edinboro. They have contacted me and said they have some Spalding sports memorabilia to pick up!! Also was able to visit Joe who lives on his extensive property down the road on Saturday the 10^th. He has an ex SA Harvard as well as a J3 Cub, 1951 170 Cessna and a Stearman. A lovely 7 place hangar as well as a very big separate 2 airplane workshop. A spraybooth on the side of the workshop and large aircon / heated work area. 2200 feet of level and good approach runway make for a lovely property.

On Sunday morning I headed for Rochester and the last house to investigate. A tenant was installed in November 2008 and had been terribly silent!! I arrived in Rochester after travelling through eastern Pennsylvania and large tracts of wine grapes and Vineyards. Very beautiful country. Refuel in Pennsylvania at good rate; $2.80 US Gallon. Arrive at the house at 7.30pm and no answer on door. Let myself in as the mail in the post box was not the names of my tenants!~ Obviously occupied, food and very tidy setup, lounge and bedroom and kitchen furnished. Clothes neatly hung and good supply of food in 2^nd bedroom. Investigate basement and no gas nor electricity connected. So I turned the water off and wired the valve closed! Lefty message on front door to contact me and removed the locks and knobs.

Checked into the local Wal-Mart and had a comfortable night. Early next morning went back to street and asked at Ex?? Tenants parents house and was informed that they left our place some 18 months ago!!! But no-one in the street had ever seen the mystery occupants!!!!

Went to local bank to open an Account into our LLC (Pty Ltd) Company’s name so the back rent being held by Social Security can be recovered??!! And then went to Social Security and stood in a line for 2 hours and 5 minutes; after the severe security check, to be told to ring a number I already had!! So was given an alternate number that had a full message bank!~!! Off to the Sheriffs Dept, City Police and Eviction Office to discuss Squatters. Result= squatters have rights, Landlords have a problem. Was told to call police when I wanted access.

Next morning at 5.30AM I am knocking on the front door; my notes had been removed! I am using a length of 4 x 2 softwood for a door knocker!~! No answer, so I let myself in and surprise, houses squatters are not here, but all their stuff is. You see I have not been inside before!!~ Well that was what I told the Police when they turned up 10 minutes later after I made the 911 call. In fact 4 cars arrived within the next 10 minutes! And later a 5^th!! They went inside with guns drawn and I followed. They said that it was the neatest squat that they had ever seen. They went through everything… pockets books, clothes, bags, under bedding, found nothing but latest Playboy magazine!! They did get the names of the 2 occupants from paperwork. The Police were marvellous and all got little koalas!! And I got a signed incident report! The occupants had been using a hot rock cooker on the table to cook with!! And candles and all blind were drawn. They said I could toss all the stuff out on the street, but I was only one person and did not need a confrontation from someone who was clearly my build of larger and about mid 30’;s from clothing size and styles!! They suggested as an alternate to move all the stuff into the unrenovated 2^nd apartment in the building, but bit sounded like to much work, and still dangerous. So I went and bought all new locks and a bunch of padlocks and locked the water valves closed and used 3 inch screws and 2 x 4 studs to fasten all the doors except the front door from the inside. The front door was fitted with conventional and deadlocks; both locked and I gave a Realtor the approval to list and sell the property.

I did one last inspection and slammed the front door and as I locked the deadlock, it sounded like a kid was on a skateboard on the first floor room! Could not be, But someone may have come in, so opened the front door again and as I stepped inside, the rest of the suspended ceiling in that room fell down on me!! Only injury was a large bruise on my left arm above the wrist as I protected my head! So I disconnected the power wiring that was holding the parts connected to the li8ught fittings and stacked all the panels against the wall, locked the door again and left!! What else could I do!!! I was due to be at Paul and Lorraine Irwin’s farm in Ontario that night!!! $1000 would have been necessary to replace the suspended ceiling in both the bottom room. The fine wire used to suspend the ceiling frames had rusted away over the many decades since they had been installed 50 years ago and not a cent would be added to the resale value. In fact the realtor that had just inspected it and said he would list it, suggested that as the house next door had plywood over every window and door, would dramatically affect the value of our place!!

Next stop was Niagara and a walk along the shore of the Falls on the Canadian side never fails to impress. The road from Rochester to Niagara follows the river and is very impressive. Customs and Immigration was a breeze, I was the only vehicle in the RV and Bus queue. My GPS did not cover Canada!! So after I missed the turn off that bypassed Toronto, I had a very interesting trip that took me through downtown Toronto at about 5pm and then through the Chinatown!! In a 38 foot long apartment!! Eventually got onto the highway that goes NW to the Irwin farm some 160 Km away.; arrive on the farm at 8pm. A LONG day!!! The Irwin’s farm is called Boar Rock farm, 100 acres of lovely country and the new runway is very well positioned!!

A nice level place in front of the garage gave me a panoramic view to the west, the newly painted house and barn are a dramatic improvement to their property. Young Dalton who is 15 is in British Columbia with his Grandparents and is ready to do his first solo flight as a aeroplane pilot. Quite an achievement. His sister Kassidy is about 12 and away at a lake home of a school friend.

I spend 4 days cleaning the underside of Rocinante with detergent by high air pressure and after a couple of coverages of that, I had my high pressure water blaster do the final clean. Looks good.

Did a few jobs with Paul and had a big rubbish tip run and rear porch spring clean.

Head off on Sunday about 9am and head to the Grey Roots Museum. http://www.greyroots.com/

This is a history of the area where Paul and Lorraine live. The Extension Officer is an older Australian fellow. Very interesting place. It was down the Highway 21 which borders Lake Huron. I crossed back into the US at Sarnia; Port Huron is on the US side. It was a 1 and a half hour queue for Immigration over the river bridge that separates the 2 countries. The free Black eyed Peas free concert in Sarnia did nothing to ease the traffic congestion! I rolled up the north bound highway for 4 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart! For the night. Filled up with fuel at the Murphy Petroleum at Wal-Mart for the cheapest so far, $2.76 a gallon. Travelled west on State 90 and then 57 to get to Greenville 2/3 of the way across Michigan to yet another Wally world!

My destination on Tuesday is the home of Gary and Carol Tripp. I met Gary on a Greyhound bus between Indianapolis and Benton Harbour in Michigan in 1975!! And met again in Florida in January 2008. So it was back to Grand haven again after 35 years., The last time was when Gillian and I were doing our US trip in’75 and Gary arranged for us to stay withy his Mum and dad and younger Brother then. We attended his Grandparents 60^th wedding anniversary back then. The old family home was being just put on the market when I arrived today. His Mother passed away just a few months ago. WE did all the tourist things. There is a great Maritime Museum; Grand haven is on the shoreline of Lake Michigan which is an enormous area of water; like open ocean!! That evening we went to the Water and light show. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Haven_Musical_Fountain

It was quite magnificent, but a chilly night! Carol went off to Chicago to do Grand kid stuff and Gary and I were left to our own devices!! So we installed a ham radio HF radio in his Ford Utility and made a fantastic transmitting loop antenna setup in his attic. The Housing association in which their Condo is located prohibits external antennas!! I was able to use his tools to fabricate a reinforcing aluminium plate for the Refrigerator door in Rocinante and several other small jobs; there are always small jobs.

Next day was a very early start to Ludington where the regular ferry crosses massive Lake Michigan and departs from for Manitowoc on the Wisconsin shore. The ferry is a coal fired steam ferry that was built in 1953 to carry about 40 rail cars of coal and general cargo. It was modified in mid 70s to carry about 300 cars on 2 decks and big motorhomes like Rocinante and semis as well. It cost me $269 for Ronnie and me and saved 9 hours travel by road. Which is through Chicago, so you can add another hour!! The trip is 60 miles across the Lake and takes 4 hours and a time zone! I was ashore at 1.30pm and was on my way to Oshkosh where I arrived at about 2.30pm. I had pre booked a camp site several weeks ago and when I arrived at the gate, I was told to park somewhere in town and come back in2 hours as the grounds were too waterlogged for big rigs. It transpired that the heaviest July rains on record had occurred the day before!! 3” in a couple of hours! I came back in 2 hours to be given the same story. The organisers were trying to get permission from large retailers in town who had large car parks, to have the RV’s park there!! I did not come to Oshkosh to park 5 miles from the venue!! So I went down a side road and a farmhouse with a couple of acres beside it; which was opposite the campground, had tents and caravans and a few small RVs. I parked on the road and when I went in saw that a 44 foot rig was quite well bogged. I walked the property and found a spot where I thought I could get Rocinante in to. I negotiated with the owners and had them clear the way of victims; sorry pedestrians and faced myself into the driveway on the property. I locked Ronnie in 1^st and hit the place at 20 mph!! I got right to my assigned place with disappearing. I had my 8 x 2 short planks out and backed her onto these which stopped her disappearing to the axles. I was in for the week and only 15 minutes walk from the main gate at about the same cost as the Campground and closer!!

http://airventuresiteupdate.blogspot.com/2010/08/hey-gimme-back-my-blog.html

Felkers Farm at 1864 Waukau Av was to be my home for the week. As I was set up in a few minutes, I wandered down to the open air Theatre. It was a 25 M wide and 15 M high blow up screen. The projectors were located in the back of a big tray pantechnicon and shot out the back. All the movies had an aviation theme of course!! The camp site was just 200 M from the EAA Museum and a source of Wi-Fi. Perfect, had airconditioned comfort and a power point and comfortable chairs. My weekly Airshow pass gave me unlimited access to the museum as well.

It was onto the airshow ground early on every day. Registered at the Overseas Visitor Tent and there are hundreds of Australians here. Several large organised groups. They were accommodated in vacant school rooms!! In town! Accommodation over AirVenture week is big business.

There are no words that can describe what AirVenture; or Oshkosh Airshow, really is. Gigantic and immense are just not enough. The website is a good start, http://www.eaa.org/photos/

23 DC3’s flew over in formation on Tuesday before landing to celebrate their 75^th anniversary!!

Hoards of T6 Harvards created aluminium overcast and private jet fighter were so common, about 10 T39 Albatrosses were in the air bat one time!

As things dried out, thousands more private aircraft arrived. They had been waiting at numerous local airfields for the OK to come in.

Friday at 12 midday was time for the International Visitors Parade march and official welcome by the CEO of EAA and also a welcome from the founder Paul Poberezny. I was fortunate to speak briefly with him and shake his hand at the end of the ceremony. See Picture at head of this blog!!! A couple of thousand people were in the march and at 5.30pm that afternoon a free dinner with unlimited beer and wine was provided. The Canadians and the Brazilians were outstanding performers in this arena!! It was early to bed this night. The Saturday night was the first Night air display and fireworks display afterwards. See the above photo link for magic photos of both these events.

Asleep at the Wheel; http://www.asleepatthewheel.com/ gave a magnificent Show in the theatre in the Woods at 6pm before the Night airshow. People dancing in the aisles, I even was invited to get up!! Just lucky some days!

After the spectacular finale of the Fireworks, it was in the stampede to get out of the very dark grounds!! But I managed to find a courtesy bus back to the Museum to save my aching feet!!

I had planned an early start back to Florida on Sunday morning; BUT.. I had not bought any Air Show T Shirts!! So at 7.30 am I was on the airfield taking photos as the sun rose behind the aircraft. A great photo of the C5A with the sun creating a halo around it. By 9am I had backed out of my bog hole of a week before onto solids ground and was on my way SW to avoid going through Chicago or its environs.

Down through Wisconsin into Illinois w on I 39 where the flat farm lands continued with not a breath of wind. I mid Illinois there were at least 200 electrical generating windmills with not a single one moving!! East on I74 and cross over into Indiana and more flat country. The expansion joints every 8M on the concrete roadways were a slight nuisance. But I did not realise how much until late in the Sunday afternoon I went to use my loo and a cover plate for the gas stove which i stored beside the pedestal, had vibrated forward and held the flushing handle on!!! So it had emptied my fresh water and filled my black water. There is no reversing this process. So at Terre Haute I found a KOA Kampground and did a dump for my waste tanks and refilled my water supply again. Thank goodness for no hills as the temperature was over 35°. Next morning it was south on I41 through Kentucky and into Tennessee to Nashville where I picked up I65 south. I made Montgomery Alabama by 8pm and sought out the Wal-Mart. Did not need rocking to sleep!!! 450 miles on day one and 550 miles on day two!! Awake at 5.30am and started on Highway 231 SE straight away while it was still under 30°!! Had breakfast and a shower at Troy Alabama and by 8.45 was at Ozark where the Army Aviation Museum is located just 10 miles to the west of I231 at Fort Rutter. I certainly had time to go in here. Very strict security provisions to get Rocinante on the Base. But it was worth it. Magnificent collection of fixed and rotary wing aircraft.

Out on I231 again and in no time I was in Florida and at Marianna I got onto E10 which was taking me directly to Jacksonville. I10 is a marvellous highway and no hills. Rocinante was flat out at 77mph on the flat! I had to try it out!!! Sat on 65 to 70 in the 35°+ day and a couple of very heavy thunderstorms to boot! Arrived at Middleburg Wal-Mart at 6pm to make a trip distance from Oshkosh of 1,354 miles.

Up early next morning to be at Rivers RV and Bus Workshop to be in time for my arranged appointment. Needless to say, the process of this job has drawn out and 4 days later; Saturday, I am sitting in their lovely Customer lounge; airconditioned and Wi-Fi and large screen TV, while Rocinante is in the complimentary campground about 100 M away with lots of parts and panels removed waiting for the expert to arrive with the parts on Monday morning!!

I have had the opportunity to replace the 2 fan belts on the hydraulic pump that have been squealing for the last 10 weeks. I fitted a 1” shorter pair of belts and now have ample adjustment and no screaming!! The camp site is under trees, so it was a good location to work on it. I have the use of the Company’s courtesy car; a 2005 Lincoln, to do my parts buying, laundry and grocery shopping!! I have found what has been slowly flattening the House battery. The coaxial cable to the roof antenna has 12 feed to supply the powered antenna. The coax had deteriorated and was shorting out and drawing a constant 3 or 4 amps and I could not find it!! I have bought a new antenna and now have 28 channels where before I had 3!!

Rocinante is booked to be shipped out of Jacksonville in the 4^th of September and I am able to leave her with the shipping Company this week. I will then get a rental car and drive to Miami from which I depart for home on the 17^th August.

Magnificent and adventurous holiday!!!