A Visual Look at the Trip

Here is a map of the path of our trip.

The Statistics

Miles driven: 5750 (plus 250 rental car miles)

Gallons of Gas used: 635

Avg. MPG 9.05

Avg. Price per Gallon: $3.68 (yikes!)

Days of Driving: 21

National Parks Visited: 5

Flat tires: 1

Batches of frozen margaritas: 2

States visited: 16

Times we said "it's the journey!" : 137

Picture: Yellowstone River falls

Home At Last

We woke up Friday morning eager to get those last miles over with! Driving I70 through Illinois and Indiana is fairly boring but we had a book on tape, Grisham's The Appeal to finish. We pulled in front of our house around 4:30 pm after 5750 miles. (And 275 miles on our rental van in Yellowstone.) It then took us about an hour and a half to haul everything out of the RV...much of it is still in the garage, some waiting to be distributed to friends, two very dirty bikes that need to be cleaned, and some stuff we have to find room for (I bought a box of RV-suited toilet paper, 40 rolls...needless to say we have most of it left over!)
We went to dinner at Kathleen's parents' house. Then Saturday morning we cleaned the RV and, somewhat sadly, returned it. We think next time we can handle a bigger class A (bus type) with some slide outs!!! Then we, of course, headed to the lake to see our friends!
We have yet to total what we spent, but it was worth it!

Again, broken camera, so I have included a couple of photos from Kris and Maddie's home in New Mexico. One is a pic of their living room and the other is the view west from their deck, including the sight of their "nearest" neighbor!

St. Charles, MO Day 20

Again, not much to see on the road. At the start of our trip we read a book to each other, The Smartest Guys in the Room, the story of the Enron collapse (eerily similar to our federal government now). We finished the book today...a 20 day read! Then we started a book on tape, Grisham's The Appeal. We have had really cheap gas in OK, 3.069 today (how sad, though, that we think this is cheap!) Maybe that is why the roads around Tulsa are so bad.
Kathleen found an RV park in St. Charles, Missouri that had cable TV and wireless (her two conditions). It is a really nice park, so she is forgiven for the Tulsa debacle. The park actually has a restaurant right next to it so we are settled in for the night, sitting outside with toothless Banks, will walk to the restaurant, stumble back then watch the VP debate on TV. We plan to get up early for the last day of our trip... Fort Wayne here we come!! See you all soon!
Back to reality, although I am not sure what my reality will be since I have no job. I will make it up as I go along!!

Tulsa, OK

A pretty dull drive today, nothing much to see, good thing, too, since the camera is broke!!

We arrived at Mingo RV Park in Tulsa...Kathleen picked it out from Woodalls...it looked good in the ad. What a shithole! It is mostly a permanent residence park...a different breed than vacationers. First we had to wait until someone moved their car, parked in our spot. We squeezed in the spot (backwards), easy to do with our two-way radios. (thank you Meribeth)
Kathleen refused to come out of the RV, too many cigarette butts on the ground!

We changed, relaxed a bit then set out for the Cherokee Casino!! It was huge, many table games and slots, of course. We decided on slots since the table games were a little pricey. Kathleen was the lucky one...she hit for $85 on wheel of fortune and also made about $40 on slots. I, on the other hand, lost, lost,lost!! On the way back to the RV park, Kathleen made a plea to stay in a Ramada we passed. I said it would be contrary to the design of our trip, since I was driving, I won. We returned to the RV park, in the dark, and found a pick up truck parked in our spot!! Neither one of us wanted to chance rousting the truck owner in the dark, so after grabbing a mat we had left there, we went to the office to get the manager. After getting our money back, Julie gave in and we headed to the Ramada. There was no wireless in the Ramada so I had to wait to blog! Kathleen was happy in her hotel room and they had a free breakfast buffet in the morning!

Amarillo, TX

We drove around with Madeline this morning as she visited three houses in their subdivision that her builder, Debbie, had in progress. Maddie works for Debbie as a project coordinator. They are all beautiful and large with awesome views. We also stopped at a pueblo in their subdivision and looked for pottery shards...Kathleen seems to be an expert for recognizing them.

Around 1 pm we left Mountainair for the last leg of our journey home. We drove from New Mexico to Texas...it didn't take long for the Texas scenery to become very flat and very boring. We arrived in Amarillo around 6:30 pm. We picked our campsite (the office was closed) and cooked dinner on the grill we borrowed from Ron and Mary. It worked great, after Kathleen figured out how to light it correctly!! We sat outside with cocktails while our dinner grilled (turkey-spinach brats), they were tasty. Tomorrow we head for Tulsa, OK.

Since the camera is broken, I will post a previous picture! The Tetons as seen across Jenny Lake.

The Hikers

Back Left to Right: Kathleen, Nancy, Marybeth, Julie, Kris, Madeline
Back: Dee and her dog Patch
Patch was a great hiker but we did go up a little climb in the cliffs where she balked. We tried to push and pull but she was not going. The solution was simple: Dee went up first then Patch was eager and climbed up with a little assistance!!

A Day in Mountainair

We awoke refreshed and ready for our big hike!! We met some friends of Maddie and Kris at Abo, a partially restored pueblo and mission church. It was built in 1622 and rebuilt in 1629 by the Fransicans, sent by Spain to convert the Indians (and in some cases enslave them). All information courtesy of Bob, the ranger who took us on the hike. We heard all about the mission and the brief history of the Timpora plains indians. Then we hiked down through the arroyo as Bob continued to highlight the history. Our hike culminated at some cliffs that were covered with petroglyphs, carvings in the rock made by the indians. Bob pointed out some "petro porn", a phallic symbol that some of us saw, some just didn't get it. On the hike back, Bob got a phone call, he and his wife were adopting a week old baby that had been abandoned at the Alburquerque hospital. They could pick him up later in the afternoon. Did I mention that Bob is 73, what is he thinking? Well he seemed excited and I am sure he will be a good parent again.

In the afternoon, Maddie and Kris had some friends and neighbors over for happy hour, they are a very nice group. Then we drove to Willard to dinner. Willard is 13 miles from Mountainair and smaller than Mountainair but Willard boasts the Willard Cantina. We ran into a little trouble with the nazi bartender when we wanted to move a table and turn the sound down on the TV...but later in the evening all was good, after one of our party (Jack) won two stuffed animals for the bartender's great niece on the "crane game".

The pictures shown are petrogyphs and the pueblo church at Abo.

Mountainair

On Sunday we drove from Durango, CO, to Mountainair, NM. We got a fairly early start - ate breakfast again (Kathleen is delighted) in Aztec, NM. Most of the day was non-descript driving, although the scenery was great. We stopped for gas, $3.359 on the edge of Albuquerque - cheapest yet. I got my camera out to take a New Mexico picture of the mountains and...yikes...it is broken!!!! Don't know what happened but it won't take pictures, but at least none of my previous pics are lost.
We arrived in the little burg of Mountainair around 5:30pm and Madeline and Kris came to get us. We followed them out of town then turned onto a gravel road which we took for about 3 miles to Deer Canyon Preserve. After we entered Deer Canyon we must have driven 5 more miles to get to their house, which sits on 20 acres and you can only see the roofs of the houses of a few neighbors. Their house is beautiful...adobe style, very open, ceramic tile floors throughout, a great deck facing the mountains and a neat outdoor kitchen. We had cocktails on the deck, watched a gorgeous sunset, then went inside for Maddie's special pasta and sausage...a wonderful evening!

The day did have one sad note...Banks met new friends, Dodger and Amega. Banks and Dodger had an incident, some posturing for the benefit of the humans. In the scuffle, Banks loosened a front tooth and later in the evening it came out. Now she is a gaptooth greyhound, instead of a bucktooth greyhound. She is sad... 8-(

Arches

After a lovely day in Moab, UT, we set out at 8:30 (our earliest start yet!) and we went to breakfast at the Jailhouse Cafe...Kathleen was in heaven, even though the book store had sold both of their Wall Street Journals by the time we arrived. We then set out for Arches, what an incredible park! We stopped at a couple of viewpoints then went to the Delicate Arch trail. It took us 55 minutes to hike up (a total of 480 feet) over rock and through sand to reach the arch...and it was worth it! The hike back was much easier and Kathleen was a trooper throughout!
We did a couple of shorter hikes, to Double Arch and to the Window Arches. Both very neat. We left the park around 2:30 pm and headed for Durango, Colorado. The trip took a little longer than expected, we drove through a rainstorm part of the way, and we stopped in a Wal Mart along the way to stock up. We arrived at the Durango KOA at around 7:45 pm, in the dark, but we are experts by now and hooking up in the dark is no problem!!

The picture on the left is Double Arch. The picture on the right is Delicate Arch...who is that in the arch??? You may have to click on the picture to see!

A Day in Paradise

Today was Kathleen's favorite day, her day in paradise. First, we went to breakfast in Cedar City. A real live sit down breakfast, something we have not done because we are unhookin' and dumpin' in the morning! Then I drove to Moab, interstate driving most of the way. There were a few scenic overviews and we stopped at every one...it's the journey!

When we arrived in Moab, we went to a small winery, Spanish Trail, a little south of Moab. We tasted red and white and...surprise...bought 6 bottles! Then we set up in our RV park and walked downtown. Stopped for margs and a slice of pizza (you cannot get a drink in Utah unless you also order food...and we thought Indiana had strange laws!) Then we hit several shops, bought some stuff, then walked back to the RV park. Now Kathleen is preparing Banks' roast beef dinner while I sit outside and blog. Then we will walk a block to a local eatery and have dinner.

Tomorrow will be Kathleen's nightmare...hiking!!!! In Arches NP where it will probably be 90 degrees. This will be heaven for Julie!!!

Utah

We left Ely, NV, and entered Utah on what must be the 2nd lonliest highway in the country. We stopped for gas in Baker, Nevada. The "station" was two pumps and a soda machine out in the middle of nowhere...not a person in sight! At one point we saw something in the road probably a mile ahead. As we got closer, we realized it was three antelope! We had lunch in the RV in Milford, Utah, a cute former railroad town. Our mostly boring drive was rewarded when we entered Zion National Park to the north. We drove through Kolob Canyon surrounded by beautiful rock canyons. We also entered the park from the south and took a couple of hikes. By the time we returned to our RV park in Cedar City it was 7:30 pm. Everything is so spread out here in the west...yet it looks so close on the map! We may have overextended our expectations so we have adjusted tomorrow's schedule...we will cut out Bryce Canyon Park and just drive to Moab, maybe go to a winery, walk around Moab to shop and have dinner.

The Lonliest Highway

Today we drove from Reno to Ely along US 50, the lonliest highway in America. It is the lonliest because we were leaving Jane and Marcia...and also because you see no vehicles for miles and miles. Most of the road is straight and flat but as you get farther west we climbed up to passes of heights from 6200 feet to 7600m feet. The ol' Winnie Minnie struggled but got er done! We arrived in Ely and just like any city in Nevada it has several casinos...we went to the Ramada for a little gamblin and dinner. Kathleen won $10 on bingo...never saw her run so fast (thought she had a bad heel?)...and we played some Texas Tea.

Hogan, per your advice we took a little side trip and guess what we saw? Thanks for the heads up, we did not plan on seeing that sight but there it was!!

Day 2 in Reno

We woke up to another beautiful day under the blue skies of Reno. Walked down and up the switchbacks...no easier on the second day. We drove to Carson City to pick up the RV...all better now and our rental agent will be none the wiser ;-)

We piled two dogs, four bikes and four people in the RV and headed to Tahoe. Parked near Squaw Valley and rode bikes to Lake Tahoe, about 6 miles on a very nice bike path along the Truckee River. Stopped at the Blue Agave mexican restaurant where we sat outside looking at Lake Tahoe and had drinks and lunch...lovely. The we biked back, loaded up the RV and drove back along the Truckee and stopped at a little campground where we had cocktails and the dogs went swimming. Well, Mannie swam and Banks just uncomfortably stepped about in the rocky bottom.

We returned to Reno for a little pit stop then out again to the Bonanza for a little gamblin'. We played some blackjack until each of us realized the dealer was kicking our butt, then switched to video slots. All in all a great day in Reno!! Thanks to Marcia and Jane for being such great hosts! We had a wonderful time and got all our laundry done. I highly recommend this oasis in the desert for all of you traveling out west.

Hey Janel !

OK, just a few days late but
HAPPY BIRTHDAY...from your RVin' friends.


Julie, Kathleen & Banks

A Day in Reno

We began the day with a "walk" down the switchback trails from the neighborhood, easy enough on the way down, but coming back was tough. Marcia made breakfast and we started our laundry, hanging it on Jane's new clothesline since she has gone green and doesn't believe in using a dryer. Tomorrow we will be taking the clothes down the switchbacks to the stream and beating them clean on the rocks - Jane's newest idea.
We took the RV to Carson City for a little repair work and returned to Reno for lunch and more laundry. We sat outside under a beautiful Nevada sky and chatted while the dogs played in Mannie's pool. Then we went inside for Monday Night football, which comes on at 5:30pm in Reno. A good thing since most of us went to bed early. Tomorrow we will pick up the RV and head to Lake Tahoe for some biking.
Hello Lonsways, from all of the gang at the Cougercreek RV Park...RV-less for now!

Arrival Reno

We got our earliest start yet to date...before 9 am!! Must have been the time we spent at the casino last night. No sightseeing today, just driving across Nevada for Reno we arrived at the Cougarcreek RV Park (better known as my sister's house) around 3:30 pm. You can see the RV sign that awaited us. (click on the picture to enlarge.) As you can see, the rules at this park are strict...we may get kicked off the curb soon!! Specially the drinkin and duct tape parts. We gambled off the premises soon after we arrived, hitting a local bar and playing video blackjack...we still have a little money left for dog food.

To Nevada

We woke up outside of Jackson and it was raining...glad we brought umbrellas! We walked Banks along the Snake River. We rolled out in our earliest start to date...9 am...no ironing to do! We left Wyoming and entered Idaho, driving along the Snake River. The fall colors and the river made for a gorgeous combination. We saw the falls at Idaho Falls then crossed a 450ft tall bridge at Twin Falls...another incredible sight! Just one mile west of the bridge is where Evil Knieval attempted his jump across the Snake River.
In Twin Falls we stopped at a PetSmart to buy a ramp for Banks, er, Kathleen. Kathleen had been lifting Banks in and out of the RV and this repeated 70 pound squat and lift was taking its toll...after several practice runs Banks is pretty comfortable with it.
We arrived in Wells, Nevada, and stopped at a Shell station to buy gas...$140 worth. While I was at the pump, a helpful station guy sidled up and mentioned we had a bad front left tire (this was the tire we had fixed in West Yellowstone). He said if we drove over to the bay he would change it for us. At the bay, he "examined" the other tires and announced we would need four new tires. We said we were not the owners and would have to get permission from the rental agency...which he called. I began to smell a scam. I told the rental company I thought this guy saw two women in an RV and saw $$$. The rental company agreed to replace the left front tire only and I agreed. When I told the station guy we only wanted the left front tire replaced by the spare, he replied that his buddy had overheard my comment and he would not be changing any tires for us...not so helpful anymore! So if you get to I80, exit 352 in Nevada, do not stop at the Shell station!!!!
We drove to Angel Lake RV Park in Wells and they hooked us up with another service center in Wells. A nice kid came out and switched the bad tire and the spare...he said all our tires were fine and even the "bad" tire could be driven on. I love it when I am right!!!
The owners of this park are very nice...a "retired" ranching couple in their seventies. Now in their retirement they just work 12 hours a day at the park! it is very clean and they told us about a shuttle available to a casino. Didn't have to tell us twice...we showered and went to the casino for dinner and a small contribution to the Nevada treasury. Wells, Nevada, consists of two truck stops, three casino, oh, and one dishonest service station.
Tomorrow we drive to Reno to stay with my sister...she doesn't know it yet but her washer will be running for many,many hours! The picture shown is the Snake River canyon at Twin Falls and the golf course in the canyon...beautiful country!

Grand Teton

Whew, a lot has happened since my last post, let me check my notes. We have had spotty internet access the last couple of days so I am playing catch up. Friday morning we took a bike ride through a geyser basin. We thought we would get ot see many geysers...not so much. Saw one spring at the start then a small geyser at the end...7 miles of burned out landscape in between...lame-o. Many places in Yellowstone you can still see the effects of the fire in 1988 which burned 25% of the park. We walked the Midway Geyser basin and saw some neat springs and pools. Onto Grand Teton where we saw awesome mountains, blue lakes and our first moose. As usual, we saw a gathering of humans and vehicles along the road and stopped to ask what we were looking at...a moose far off in the grass. She was hard to see but the nose told us unmistakeably that she was a moose!
We left Grand Teton heading south to an RV park in Jackson, Wyoming. Every RV park up to this point had been maybe 25% full, so who needed reservations? A No Vacancy sign awaited us and we had to change plans. We parked downtown and went to the Cowboy Bar upon Kathleen's boss's recommendation...great idea! We saddled up to the bar to drink some great margaritas (when at the bar you sit in a saddle). Then Kathleen found a cute Mexican restaurant, the Merry Piglets...good food and more margaritas! By the time we were back in the RV it was dark and Kathleen drove us to a KOA 11 miles south of Jackson. With me giving directions over the walkie-talkies, Kathleen expertly backed the RV into our space...our first back-in of the trip...and in the dark no less! We were supposed to get 2 TV stations, but we don't seem to be able to receive TV by antenna...so we fed Banks and fell into bed. Or maybe fell into bed and Banks scrounged for herself...whatever.

Yellowstone II

I awoke this morning to a familiar sound in any RV park, the squeak of an ironing board being opened...Kathleen will have no creases while we are visiting the geysers! We also noticed that our RV seemed to be leaning. When we ventured outside to walk Banks we discovered a flat left front tire! Luckily the office here recommended a local service and it was fixed in about an hour.

We rented a car today and set out to see some geysers. Our first stop was Great Fountain Geyser, it only erupts about every 12 hours. We arrived a couple of hours before its predicted eruption time (predictions are within a 2 to 3 hour window). We walked to another geyser then returned to Great Fountain to wait. The crowd swelled and we were rewarded after about an hour and a half. The geyser was much bigger than Old Faithful and we were much closer! We did see Old Faithful and ate lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge. We also saw the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River.

The pictures show a group of elk we discovered by following the gaggle of humans. The elk were all swimming to the far side of the river, all except one baby who remained behind on our side of the river. The young elk, probably realizing he/she was now alone, let out a mournful cry. Then he/she calmly went back to eating grass...the adults did not seem concerned. Tough love in the wild!

Entering Yellowstone

Day 5 we drove across Wyoming, including up and over mountains with hairpin turns...Kathleen survived but she had to dig her fingers out of the bottom of her car seat. We arrived in Yellowstone around 3:20 but still had two hours of driving to get across it!! One lonely buffalo slowed traffic at one point, but cars stopped in the middle of the road for some elk grazing close to the road. We also saw elk along a river. It did not take long to figure out how to spot wildlife. Either you scour the sides of the road and happen to see some, or, more likely, you come across a gaggle of humans in a traffic jam...sure sign of wildlife. Banks got to go swimming in Lake Yellowstone, she loved the water but was not fond of the rock bottom.
We arrived in West Yellowstone, Montana, at our RV park just in time for happy hour. We sat outside under the clear blue sky and sipped our cocktails while conversing with the many dog owners who walked past. We have discovered the Ritz Carlton of RV parks...this place is great!!
Tomorrow we explore the wonders of Yellowstone!!

Day 4

We left the Badlands and motored to Mt. Rushmore. It is an incredible sight, even more incredible that 90% of the sculpting was done with dynamite! This day was significant because Kathleen spent a great deal of time on the phone with her bankers and her boss as the markets crashed!! While Kathleen sat in the RV in the parking lot securing her companies' assets, Julie wandered the grounds of Mt. Rushmore...la la la!! We left Mt. Rushmore for Deadwood, SD, with plans of a nice lunch with a drink at an old time Deadwood saloon. Our dream died in Deadwood when we missed the first RV parking lot then got kicked out of the next one...no RV parking. Not wanting to turn around, since Deadwood has essentially one main street, we continued out of Deadwood to Spearfish and ate a late lunch at Taco Bell, sans margaritas.
We are spending the night in Buffalo, Wyoming, and tomorrow intend to drive to Yellowstone.
Looking ahead, Kathleen is right now planning our trip home...not that she is anxious or anything. But I have to say she is quite the RVer...she is the one who has taken charge of emptying the "poop" tanks !!! She seems to take a rather perverse pleasure in this task!!!

The Badlands

We got a little earlier start today...we are getting better at this every day. We drove to Wall Drug, the mother of all tourist stops...but you have to go there! Then we drove through the Badlands...saw several prairie dogs and one lonely bison. Kathleen wanted Banks to come out and "see the little bison"...luckily she saw the sign...bison are very unpredictable and dangerous.

Took Kathleen's picture on top of a butte...she wants to know "if this butte makes my butt look small". Dinner at the park lodge, really just a coffee shop/souvenir stand, then on to our little site at the Badlands KOA. We have cable, but no ESPN, no Monday Night football...life is rough!

Tomorrow Mt. Rushmore and on to Wyoming.

Day 2

Kathleen took over the driving and the RV seemed to sway alot more today. OK, it was a little windy. We saw a big wind farm in Minnesota. In South Dakota our final destination was the Corn Palace, which friends told us we had to see. Kathleen cut a corner close and we went over the curb, settin' the RV arockin'. Soon after, a familiar odor enveloped the RV. I went to the back of the RV (risking my life since we were in flight) and sure enough, some items had shifted! A full tequila bottle had fallen over, the cap came off and tequila poured into the storage area and onto the bed. I am not sure which was worse...cleaning up the mess or dealing with Kathleen's hacking sobs (we can buy more tequila, I tried to tell her.) Finally, she was consoled when I pointed out that when she laid her head on her pillow she would smell tequila.

Needless to say, we did some laundry tonight! We also cooked in the RV for the first time...spaghetti with great sauce given to us by our neighbor Jen. Tomorrow we do our first major sightseeing...the Badlands and Wall Drug.

Oh, the Corn Palace was interesting, many murals made of corn cover the walls, the top picture is the Golden Gate Bridge in corn. Some murals were unfinished which was really cool to see. They are huge color-by-numbers, or color-by-corn murals with not all the corn yet installed. That is the second picture you see. I think it will eventually be Washington crossing the Delaware or Kathleen saying "catch that tequila bottle". Those are just my guesses, what do you think?

Day 1

We got off to a late start (Quelle surprise!) but hit the road. Friday night we had our nieces and nephews stay in the RV...it rained all night and it hit the top of the RV pretty hard...driving some to my bed. Rained most of the day Saturday too...heavy traffic in Chicago of course but we have arrived in Wisconsin...we have 'lectricity, air conditioning, water, cable TV (OSU-USC) and have margarita and wine in hand. What a vacation! And we haven't even seen any scenery yet! Banks is a natural RVer...she spent much of the trip on her back on the couch!

The RV has Landed

We picked up the RV today and got our training. We can dump, hook up, and back up with the best of them...er, or so we hope! Banks jumped right in the RV like she knew it was for her. She is comfortable on the bed or the couch...just like at home! And Kathleen is excited that she has room for her ironing board and her iron. She will have the best pressed shorts at Old Faithful!! We should shove off tomorrow at 9 am, or maybe 10 am, or at least by noon. 8-)

The Big Dump

I hoped that retirement would be exciting but I had no idea it would be like this!!
Last Wednesday I took the biggest dump of my life!!
Our neighbor here at the lake has an RV, a big 36-foot class A. We went with him to a campground to dump the sewer and water tanks of his RV. This was practice for our RV trip. Seems easy enough, but we shall soon see for ourselves!
Got the latex gloves and haz-mat suit so we are ready to go!!

Banks in Retirement

I have joined Banks in retirement. Of course she left greyhound racing quite a while ago so she has this retirement thing down, as you can see! I am still learning.

Retirement

After 32 years, that Monday in August arrived and I did not have go to work! Many people have asked me if I miss it...not yet. I don't miss getting up early, I never was a morning person. Now I can watch Monday night football and not pay for it the next day! I don't miss living by the bell. I don't miss having a student call me a bitch or tell me to f**k off!! Most of all when I see Wendy Robinson on TV I don't throw up a little bit in my mouth, because she is no longer my boss. I do miss the actual teaching, the excitement when you introduce something new to students and they get it...or giving extra help to a struggling student and the light bulb finally goes on. Still the best feeling in teaching.
And I do miss my colleagues, but I do hope to see many of them through the winter when I am working at the basketball games. See you then!!

The Forensic Accountant

In March, 2006, I spent the morning monitoring a classroom of students taking the ISTEP. When I returned to my office my secretary directed me to a book case and pointed to a now-empty space where about twenty 4-inch notebooks should have been. It seems our principal had come and taken these notebooks to her conference room - notebooks containing ticket reports, copies of claims paid, receipts, copies of game and officials' contracts through 2011 and monthly summaries of the athletic accounts.
She began her investigation by having her secretary make copies of almost every page of every notebook! What a huge waste of resources...not only a waste of paper but the waste of time for her secretary to stand at the copy machine! Then she and her secretary and maybe our treasurer combed through the documents looking for financial fraud. A couple of days later I was called in to face the results. She accused me of selling the same ticket twice - once at the end of an event, then a second time at the beginning of the next event. There it was, a massive fraud scheme...at the rate of $4 per event, let's say 100 home events for the season, a whopping $400...at this rate I would soon have my condo in Florida!
I went to the white board in the room and taught my little class of three - principal, her secretary and the treasurer. For example, at event one, the first ticket off the roll is 1 and at the end of the event the next ticket on the roll is 4 (4 is unsold). This is recorded on the ticket report and by subtracting, we find 3 tickets have been sold (tickets 1,2,3).
first ticket = 1
last ticket = 4
tickets sold = 4 - 1 = 3

For the next event, now the first ticket is 4 and let's say tickets 4 and 5 are sold. The next ticket on the roll is now 6. So we have...
first ticket = 4
last ticket = 6
tickets sold = 2

Ticket 4 has NOT been sold twice, but it has been listed twice, as the last ticket for one event and as the first ticket for the next event. It is done that way so one simple subtraction calculates the number of tickets sold. As I finished my explanation, I saw the lights bulbs go on...her secretary and the treasurer understood perfectly...however my principal had a "deer in the headlights look". She did not get it at all, but she did understand that she was the only one in the room who didn't get it and that her dreams of nailing me for financial fraud were now gone.
I enjoyed the moment (and still enjoy the memory) but then she moved on to something else.

The Master Scheduler

I almost forgot this...and it is too funny!

Every spring each high school makes up its master schedule for the following school year. Next year's students sign up for classes they want to take and the school puts together the class schedule for next school year. All students class requests are then fed into the computer and the computer assigns students to the classes...a good first run might be 80% of student requests met. Then the master schedule might be tweaked and eventually some students will be scheduled by hand. The entire process might not be finished until July.

In the spring of 07 the principal thought she was expert enough to handle this process so she and her sidekick put together the master schedule, ignoring the assistant principal whose job it really was to do this. By June, the principal's master schedule was only at 40%...YIKES...this is disaster for a high school...imagine students showing up in August with no classes to attend!!!

A scheduling guru...retired administrator...was hired in July to clean up her mess. Since he had worked with her before (during year one of her reign)...his condition for fixing the schedule was that the principal could not be in the building to bother him. District officials guaranteed this. Sure enough, he had not been working long when the principal showed up!!! He made a phone call to district officials, someone came out to the school and ESCORTED THE PRINCIPAL OUT OF HER OWN BUILDING!!!! I had to use Dave Barry-like capitals here. A principal escorted from her own building....after this you would think FWCS leadership would get it and realize what a loon they had on their hands. Nope, took three more months for her to do something even more embarrassing!

A Final Story

This story epitomizes our principal and her interactions with students.

A senior boy ordered a pizza for lunch from outside the building and was cutting class awaiting its delivery. He was caught by the principal and she escorted him to the office. This might have been the end of it, he was a good kid, rarely in trouble, maybe he would have received a detention or in-school suspension. Once in the office, the principal berated him for several minutes. She left, then returned a few minutes later and started in on him again. Finally she got what she wanted and he snapped, saying to her something like "get out of my face, bitch". Oops, magic words, three day suspension. What started out as a somewhat typical senior incident was escalated by the principal into a major deal. The sad part is I don't think she even liked kids.

GET OVER IT ALREADY !!!

Hey get over it already, no one died, you still have your health. blah, blah, blah. All true and I get it. I am mostly over it. But...(you knew there was a but) if I worked in the corporate world I might almost expect such behavior. But in education we are expected to model honesty, integrity and ethical behavior...heck, state law requires us to be "moral". And I had a boss who was none of those things. I guess I expected our leadership to, silly me, do the right thing. WR talks the talk and claims that FWCS has an employee code of ethics, but when it comes time to apply the Code of ethics WR does nothing. Instead an unethical, dishonest, lying and possibly unstable person was left in a leadership position...with the inevitable result that she eventually imploded. But at what cost?

Super Duper Meeting

At the close of the school year we had end of year administration meetings. On day one the head honcho, the big cheese, the super duper sought me out and ushered me into an empty classroom. As the door closed, I turned to face the superintendent and the yelling began..."This has got to stop...you should see my emails...many of them use the word bitch." I bit my tongue but wanted to say "have you met [the principal]?" Then she said quite angrily..." I am not losing my facility vote because of your situation." Ah, there it was. In a few days the school board was to vote to start the process for a building initiative, the Write Yellow, Write Now campaign. The superintendent did not want to meet with me because of my lawsuit, not because she had heard all the stories coming out of our school, not because she wanted information...the super met with me because she heard that a group of supporters were coming to the school board meeting and they might disrupt the meeting and jeopardize the facility vote.

BTW, how did that Write Yellow, Write Now thing turn out for you anyway????

And I get it...it was easier to fire an athletic director than admit your recently hired principal was an unethical, pathological liar. Still, would it hurt for the school district leadership to have done the right thing? So much for the FWCS code of ethics...only words on paper when leadership does not follow it.

Coke or Pepsi

Every school has a soft drink contract because schools are full of captive consumers. Ours ran out and it fell to our new principal to negotiate a new one. Uh oh. Another high school and recently signed with Coke and received three new scoreboards. I mentioned to our principal that we needed new basketball scoreboards...she mumbled something about not wanting to have her hands tied in negotiations. I had heard otherwise...oh wait, that's something else. A new contract was eventually finalized with Coke and we switched over after spring break. A couple of weeks after spring break a Coke truck arrived with a new machine and some new refrigerator units for our concession stands. Since my office was by the door, I told them they could put them in my office and then I would find out where they would go. I radioed the office. Shortly afterward the principal arrived and started yelling at the delivery guys to load everything back on the truck. She then yelled at me for calling Coke and ordering the equipment. I tried telling her that she had ordered the stuff but she would hear none of that. Back on the truck it went.

A couple of weeks later in a meeting with HR, the HR person would bring this up. I sat and watched as the HR person and my principal argued about this incident. The principal still insisted she was right to order everything back on the truck. The two of them went at it for about 10 minutes. It was kind of like watching a tennis match. It was funny but it was sad - sad to think it was what each person at the school went through one time or another. I wanted to say to the HR person, welcome to my world.

Note: When the principal was finally fired, oops resigned, district officials would search her office and find unsigned copies of the Coke contract. It turns out she never signed and returned it...null and void! When contacted, Coke asked that the money they had given the school in good faith be returned since their was no contract. Last I heard they were still negotiating...

The Rest of the Story

March 30 - I was informed by my principal's boss that I would be terminated effective June 30
April - I was told to request a teaching position for the following year
May - another HR meeting; I watched as the HR person and my principal argued around and around about a recent incident (see Coke or Pepsi)
end of May - I filed a lawsuit
June - I accepted a teaching position for the next year

The HR Meeting

At the meeting with HR in February, my principal told many lies. It is rare to be in the presence of a pathological liar - she lied as easily as most people breathe. She told some little lies and some big ones.

Little lie - she said I had a loud fight with our treasurer. When I returned to the building I mentioned this incident to our treasurer and we had a good laugh about it.

Bigger lie - My principal claimed that in November, an assistant coach who was not yet cleared to work was working with a team and the principal and I saw this coach in the gym. The implication was that I knowingly allowed a coach to work without clearance - a big no-no. Never happened - I was pretty incredulous.

The whopper - My principal produced three memos that I had never seen before. One was dated August 1 - the first day we met on the job. I believe she created these memos specifically for this meeting for the purpose of proving my insubordination. I pointed out to the HR person that wasn't it curious the memos were not on letterhead and not signed. I asked for copies, which I never received. I was told I would be hearing from HR after considering these serious allegations. That would take seven weeks.

It was after this meeting that I hired an attorney.

Scary January

OK, so my principal didn't like me. Unfortunately, I did not see this train coming until it was upon me. She made her intentions clear in January. I came in one Monday morning - January 23 - to find my desk a mess, papers strewn about and drawers open. Someone had been in my office and since only a select few had a key, I was sure of the rat. I immediately called the deputy superintendent and said my principal was trying to fire me. He said he would look into it and get back to me.



A couple of days later he called - yes, there was a file on me in HR - going back to September and he expressed surprise that HR had not spoken to me yet. He said it was time they did and said he would set it up. I will never forget his words, " it's that stuff all you AD's get in trouble about, nothing to worry about". Untruer words were never spoken.


The next week, someone entered my office again and took a school laptop, We used it to take stats for football and score gymnastics meets. Workers scored the last two meets by hand. The next fall, the laptop would "appear" again. A couple of weeks later I would catch my principal in my office - confirming my suspicions.

My principal and I had a meeting set up with HR personnel in early February. See the HR meeting...

The School Secretary

The newspapers have told the story... "The Fort Wayne Community Schools board Monday approved the resignation of Elmhurst High School’s principal and her secretary, who left amid allegations that the secretary had sexual relationships with former or current students." [Journal Gazette, November 27, 2007]

At the close of the school year in 2007, the principal forced her secretary to transfer. This is when the principal unwittingly dealt herself a death blow. High school principal's secretaries are like the school's office manager. Every one I have worked with has been organized, efficient and tremendous multi-taskers, and the one she removed was one of the best. Now the principal had to hire a replacement - and, guess what, very few people wanted the job...surprise! So over several staff members objections, a young inexperienced person was hired for a very demanding job. The outcome was almost inevitable, although losing the principal as well was just a welcome bonus.

The Human Co$t

As mentioned before, at least 30 staff left under this principal's watch. Many were transfers but some cost the school district additional money. First, of course, was the assistant principal who left after one week. This assistant principal was allowed to take medical leave...this is the game they play when they want you gone but can't fire you. A replacement had to be hired - a retired administrator - so two people were paid for one job.
At the start of the principal's year two she called in the head of the guidance department and gave him his previous year's evaluation. This well-respected, long time educator was given a poor evaluation. He responded by giving his two weeks' retirement notice. Oh to have been a fly on that wall...hilarious. So a retired counselor was hired to run the guidance department for the year. The next day, another embattled counselor - who had been put on probation with his evaluation - took medical leave with sky-high blood pressure. Another replacement hired, another two people paid to do one job.

In a delicious bit of irony, when the principal was eventually fired, oops resigned, she took a medical leave for several weeks - and, of course, a replacement was hired while she was being paid. The school board should calculate the total cost this principal had to taxpayers. In fact, the school is so f**ked up that they now have two retired educators as temporary principals.

While I am on a roll, let's look at some of the school district's recent hires. The principal, hired from outside the system, resigned in a sex scandal. This school year, a high school assistant principal hired from outside the system, fired after an inappropriate relationship with a student. Another assistant principal, hired from outside the district, was terminated this spring because he was using sick days to work somewhere else! And let's not forget the principal's secretary, the cause of the sex scandal that brought down the principal. This is quite a legacy for current school district leadership.

Spygate

One of the first things our new principal did upon her arrival was to fix our security camera system. There were now 40 cameras in the building (OK, 41 if you counted the one under my desk...). This was a good thing because there are many legitimate uses for the cameras. Sometime in the fall, one of counselors was called into the principal's office and asked, "why was a teacher pushing you in the hallway a couple of days ago?" First, the counselor was stunned - what was this about? As the counselor rewound her past, she did remember that she and a teacher had exchanged friendly put-downs one morning and in a playful gesture, the teacher had lightly pushed her. But more to the point, who in the heck had reported such an incident as inappropriate?

Well, it turns out that our principal was watching security videos like you and I would watch TV! And she was at school at all hours. She was often there when I left in the evening after ball games and many staff members would report seeing her car there at all hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Word was also out that she roamed the building and got into classrooms and offices - she had keys to everyplace. This was beyond weird! These confrontations would replay themselves many times throughout the year - "It was reported that you were....blah,blah,blah".

Interesting side note: when she was fired, oops resigned, she was seen on the security cameras carrying a trash bag full of stuff out of the building on her last Sunday night there. She later claimed it was personal stuff, although I never saw a picture, a plant or anything remotely personal in her office.

November

By this time, many of us were having private conversations, "how did this person get hired" and "where did she come from" were the most common topics. Our principal had been a middle school computer teacher the year before. Yes, read that again...how does that happen? In business that would be like, maybe, going from store mananger one year to CEO the next. Altogether, now, ... she knew someone! And, sure enough, she was hired by her sister's best friend. In her previous school district, she had been a high school assistant principal but had lost that job and been returned to the classroom for reasons unknown to us (although this would be revealed later).

Also, anytime I met someone else working in our school district, I was asked "what to you think of your new principal?", followed by a look that said, is she really as crazy as I have heard? One colleague said it best...she looked rode hard and put away wet. Enough said.

The Cheer Coach

In October we fired our cheer coach. The principal and I agreed on this one. When I asked the principal if I should contact HR to post the cheer coach position, my principal said she would take over as cheer coach. Whaaaaat?? What principal has time to do that? Of course, it turned out she did not. I was constantly finding someone to cover practice, ride the bus to games or watch the squad while the principal attended to other more important duties than cheering (what could there be?). Once I rode the cheer bus to a game - when she informed me an hour before the bus was to leave that she somehow could not be on it.
This was the first real sign that this principal was, as my mother would say, "a different breed of cat". It's funny now, but at the time I knew we were in trouble.

The Football Coach

In September, a football player had a run-in with an assistant coach and was dismissed from the team. This player boasted loudly in school that he would get the head coach fired. I held a conference with the player, his parents and the assistant coach. The parents were satisfied that their son was wrong (what a refreshing attitude!) and I thought that was the end of it. The next week, the principal stopped me on a Thursday afternoon, showed me a document and told me the head coach was suspended because this player had alleged (to the principal) that the coach had physically abused another player. The principal's "investigation" was a complete surprise to me - why should I be involved, I was just the athletic director! I walked out to football practice and informed the assistants that they were in charge for Friday night's game.

The next day, just before lunch, I saw the head coach in the hallway. He had been reinstated - quickest suspension in history! Evidently no other player would corroborate the story. However, the damage was done. Under this new leadership, you were guilty until proven innocent.

Week #1

The first week all admin staff were back we had student registration day. In the afternoon, I passed our assistant principal walking down the hallway with a glazed look in her eyes. She mumbled something about not getting the memo about expected dress for the day. She was wearing jeans and a school t-shirt. I was wearing shorts and a school polo - I kept a low profile for the rest of the day. Our assistant principal never worked another day. We were told she was taking a medical leave. Someone made her an offer she couldn't refuse. Victim number one.

I had gotten a new computer that summer and asked our custodians to set up my old one in the coaches office - I had asked the assistant principal if that was OK (since we did not have a principal at the time). Much later I would find out that the asst. principal had been accused of over-stepping her authority by giving permission for the use of these old computers. The computer soon disappeared from the coaches office, never to be seen again. When I asked why the coaches could not use it, I was told that all the old computers were being collected and their use was being evaluated by the new principal. No one ever saw the old computers again.

Why Retire?

A few years ago, retirement was far from my mind. I enjoyed my job at a good school and had the respect of peers and supervisors. Then in July 2005 a new principal was hired. This principal was unethical, dishonest and created a school climate of mistrust, paranoia and vindictiveness. For two years, I and many other adminstrators and teachers told Fort Wayne Community School district leaders that this principal was incompetent. These voices went unheeded and, instead, this principal's bullying behavior and dishonesty was tolerated. At least thirty employees left the school during that time. While most were glad to get the heck out of Dodge, leaving for most was bittersweet since leaving was not on one's own terms. Finally, almost predictably, an incident so embarrassing to the FWCS district occurred and this principal was forced to resign in the fall of 2007. A FWCS district official said the incident was "further proof that [the principal] was incapable of performing her duties as a principal". Hellooooo ... no surprise to most of us who had worked there, we had been saying that for two years.

I have lost respect for our Fort Wayne district leadership. They either wanted this principal to behave the way she did or they did not care. I am not sure which is more disturbing. Time to retire.

I will chronical a few examples of bizarre behavior.