Flooding Back Home; Boys Town; The Duke; Iowa City; Towing a Toad; Crunch!

My sisters live in the New Orleans area, one in the suburb of Metairie and one across Lake Pontchartrain in Covington, right along the Tchefuncte River, where we had kayaked early in this summer's tour. Unfortunately, between the storm surge and the heavy rains dumped by Hurricane Isaac, many of the lower Mississippi River Basin’s rivers are overflowing, and my sister’s house in Covington is flooded on the ground floor. I’m not sure how bad the damage is, because when I spoke to her two days ago, they were on the second floor with friends and the sandbags around the doors were mostly holding, but the river had not yet crested. Their house is about 15 feet above river level, and the Tchefuncte had never before risen that high. Our prayers are with them and everyone affected by Hurricane Isaac.

While we were packing up to depart Omaha, I looked at the map and got a surprise... Remember Spencer Tracy when he played Father Flannigan in the 1938 movie Boys Town? Well, the real Boys Town is about 20 miles west of Omaha. It still helps boys, girls, and families in need, and even has branches in Central Florida and many other locations around the country. Unfortunately, it was behind us, and we couldn't spare the time to visit.  

Today we passed John Wayne’s birthplace, DeSoto, Iowa. He was a great actor, but one of the connections we have is that he also had a dachshund; in fact, the dog saved his wife and son while he was away in Japan in 1958. A fire had broken out, and “Blackie” woke up Mrs. Wayne and her young son, allowing them to escape the burning house. When Suzanne was looking around for a dog while we were cruising aboard our sailboat, Liberty, she mentioned dachshunds. I had always had larger dogs, mostly golden retrievers. My first thought was that a little “fluffy” type was not very manly... but when she said that “Duke” Wayne had a dachshund, it was okay. And of course Rudy turned out to be a very noble, “manly” example of his breed. Then we got Gretchen to keep Rudy company, and she is a delicate little girl. They make a nice “couple”. We get lots of smiles when we go out walking.

We arrived in Iowa City late this afternoon, and after dinner, took the puppies to town for a w-a-l-k. This is a college town, home to the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. Like Fort Collins, Colorado, there are restaurants and bars galore, lots of shopping, music and entertainment. The school laps over into downtown, and lots of kids were out having fun. We met one very young couple and chatted with them. She is from Las Vegas, he is from Chicago; they are both English majors and want to study creative writing. When I mentioned that Suzanne is an author with nine books, their jaws dropped, and they both asked her for tips on getting published. It was a fun encounter.

On the drive home, sunset was fast approaching, Suzanne got some great pictures of these red clouds. (By the way, that's a tornado siren on the pole on the left side of the photo). I commented that the clouds looked much like what you see when a hurricane is approaching. Indeed, after checking the weather, we confirmed that these clouds are the leading edge of the remnants of Isaac. The storm is going to bring much-needed rain to the Midwest. It’s just too bad that it didn’t move faster through Louisiana and Mississippi. 

We have been asked about how we tow our car (RV’ers call them toads); here is a photo of the connections between The Bus and our toad, a Honda CR-V. They include:

- A Blue Ox tow bar, two steel rods connected by steel pins to a base plate mounted on the car;

- Two safety cables that will tow the car in case the tow bar fails;

- A 12 volt electrical connector for brake and running lights and turn signals;

- A supplemental braking system that activates the car’s brakes when you depress the brakes on The Bus;

- A safety cable that will activate the car’s brakes if the car should be separated from the tow bar and safety cables.

It only takes 5 minutes to connect/disconnect the entire kit. Other options include a tow dolly (way too much work for us; at least 30 minutes to connect up) and car trailers (too big; you can’t fit in most gas stations with them behind a big motor coach, and of course there are extra charges at campgrounds for a 15 foot trailer). 

While driving past another motor coach in our campground, the husband was backing his car up close to the front of his bus, and WHAM! He had backed an inch or so too far. Our eyes met and we both grimaced. Later, I stopped by his bus to “pimp him”, as we say in the Navy. It’s when you give someone a good-natured (to you, anyway) hard time for doing something he wished that he hadn’t done. John flies a “silver dolphins” flag, so I knew that he is a former Navy submariner, and my first assignment had been on a sub.  John took it pretty well, but didn’t think his wife would need/want/consent to be there “on watch” every time he backed his car up. J