Ramblin' with Chuck and Pam

Edisto Beach Spring Trip

2011-04-05T20:54:00.000-04:00

We just returned from our early spring trip to Edisto. It is the kind of place you can enjoy over and over. The beach campground is our favorite. Actually we have never stayed in the Pines campground; if you are going to the beach then we want to be on the beach.

Thursday was rather cold and rainy. It was raining and in the mid 50s when we left home, and although the rain cleared up a bit, it was very windy at the beach. We were on site #22 in the beach campground with a view out the door at the ocean and a view of the salt marsh out the front window. Nice!

Friday saw a beautiful sunrise and a clear blue sky, with lots of wind. We spend some time on the beach but it was a bit chilly. During the afternoon we decided to explore the island. Edisto Island has a very interesting history. It was originally settled by very independent and wealthy planters. After the Civil War, many of the freed slaves stayed on the island. Families of both are still in the area today. Many of he descendants of the enslaved Africans still maintain their Gullah culture.

We had dinner out Friday night at the Dockside Seafood Restaurant. This place overlooking the waterfront at Edisto where the shrimp and fishing boats dock, is in its 4th generation of operation by the same local family. And they also operate the fishing boats so the food is absolutely fresh.

Saturday was a beach day. Warm and sunny, temps in the 80s made for a lazy day, and pink faces and legs! We stayed at the campground Saturday night, strolling around, watching the stars and listening to the ocean waves a few feet from our RV.

We did have to move to another campsite Saturday. SC uses Reserve America as their reservations system and sites can be booked 11 mos in advance. This sometimes leaves various sites unbooked for a day or two as people book for a week or two at the time. We were able to get the nice beachfront sites by booking one site for two nights, and the third night on another site.

I didn't even take any pictures this trip. If you want to see some pictures of Edisto Beach State Park look at our dotphoto.com link in the menu on the right side of this page and see the Edisto pictures from 2 years ago.

Back home, RV cleaned up (almost), back to work on Monday. And thinking about Key West in May.

Spring 2011

2011-03-13T22:37:00.001-04:00

Spring is almost here!

Wow, spring is right around the corner. I cannot believe it has been nearly 7 months since I last posted something on this site! Last year seems like a blur at this point. But hopefully things are going to be a bit different this year.

As you can tell from the lack of writing we did not do much traveling last year at all. Due to a lot of reasons, most of our travels were very close to home. We did make it to Edisto Beach last spring for a long weekend, and we have plans to be there again this spring. In fact, in only a couple of weeks. We are looking forward to that.

Another trip back on the books for this year is a return to our all time favorite spot, Bluewater Key near Key West, Florida. We currently have that little trip planned for mid May of this year.

About the most exciting thing travel wise that has happened this year, is not with us, but with my cousin Debbie and her husband Herman. They were able to take a Trip Around the World by Private Jet. This trip sponsored by National Geographic Expeditions, was a 24 day whirlwind trip to some of the most exotic and ancient of locations on the planet. You can read their story and see some of their pictures at this link: Around the World in 24 Days.

Charlotte RV Show 2011
We did manage to make it to the Charlotte RV show a couple of weekends ago. Not much has changed in the past year, other than even fewer motorhomes to walk through and oggle over. Most of the dealer inventory seemed to be focused on younger families. Many light weight trailers that can be towed behind an SUV.. all with bunk beds or plenty of sleeping accommodations for the youngsters. The toy hauler category seemed to be much more substantial that last year as well.

Our favorite quote was from a retired couple that we were talking to in one of the newer design motorhomes that had a set of bunks for additional children. He said "My requirement is that an RV can entertain 6, feed 4 and sleep 2!" I couldn't have said it better myself.

Our show favorite was the Tiffin Allegro RED. (RED short for Rear Engine Diesel.) Kind of an odd name I suppose, but we really liked the layout options. We will likely go to a diesel pusher at some point when we can be assured of using it much more than we use our gas powered Bounder now. However as much as we like it, now is not the time. But I think we are hooked!

The Tiffin we like is the 36 foot model. Not too big - we do like the state parks and some of the smaller campsites we have visited - yet it is big enough. And the ride is awesome. Folks have told us how much quieter the diesel pusher is than a front engine gas RV. And now I believe it. The Tiffin is the first diesel pusher we have ever driven. And it was like driving a golf cart! Push the accelerator and off you go. No noise, no groaning, no racket of any kind. Simply moving forward. As I said, I think we are both hooked.

I hope everyone is looking forward to the spring and the new RV season. Or I guess it is maybe the season for us folks that are still working for a living. Anyway, I will try to be more diligent about posting on this site.

Hope to see you on the road!

weekend trip to Asheville

2010-08-28T17:43:00.000-04:00

It has been quite a while since my last entry, and it has been a long hot summer. We decided to take a quick trip in the RV to the beautiful NC mountains. We spent the weekend in the Asheville area staying at Mama Gerties Hideaway Campground in Swannanoa.

Charlotte RV Show

2010-02-23T20:38:00.001-05:00

We decided to check out the Charlotte RV show last Saturday. It turned out to be a beautiful day to get out and we really enjoyed the afternoon poking around the various types of RVs, accessories, and other vendor at the show. LOTS of people were there, most with smaller children. Or so it seemed to us.

We arrived about 1:30 PM, and were lucky to find a parking spot close by. Tickets this year were $10. I don't know, maybe its just me, but it seems a little excessive for a show that I'm sure charges a fortune to the RV dealers and vendors, then wants you to buy stuff as soon as you enter the door.

Having been to most of the Charlotte RV shows for the past 10 years or so, it was apparent that there were many less motorhomes on display than in past years. Some of the bigger dealers were there with a few coaches. But the Convention Center was primarily filled with travel trailers, fivers, and pop ups.

It is really amazing what can be done in the confines of a 21 foot travel trailer. It is obvious that they are able to focus on specific customer segments. For example, very small travel trailers that were great for a traveling couple. Or one that had multiple bunk beds for the travelers with smaller children.

Speaking of travelers with small children, the motorhome manufacturers are on the verge of turning their back on their bread and butter business; traveling couples. The floor plans of the few motorhomes we did see seemed to have lost all sensibility in trying to do "new and innovative" things in the small space and loosing sight of common sense.

Most of those we saw with full wall slideout rooms, tend to block off the rear of the coach while underway with the slide in. This means that the designers have to accommodate the owners while underway with a half bath that can be accessed with the slide in. What a waste of space for anyone that would like more kitchen counter or storage.

But it was a lot of fun to watch people, browse through the RVs, and run into a few old friends along the way. Comming home with a renewed appreciation of our 2005 Bounder may have just been worth the $20 price of admission.

Spring (trip) is just around the corner!!??

2010-02-11T23:46:00.001-05:00

It was a cold day in Lake Wobegon. Oh, wait. That is from Garrison Keillor.

It's been a cold month in Monroe. This has been one of the colder winters in recent memory anyway. I can't wait for it to warm up some, soon. We were planning a trip to south Florida and the Keys for mid February, but that just didn't work out; too much going on at work and too much going on at home.

The recent passing of a close Aunt of mine after a long illness put another damper on this winter. While she will be missed, we have come to realize what a strange and debilitating disease Alzheimer's is.

On top of that, the Lutherans are having their share of problems as well. And, no that is not a quote from Garrison Keillor. Well, it really is, but I'm saying it too. The recent decisions and actions of the 2009 ELCA Church Wide Assembly has caused our congregation to think twice about remaining a member congregation of the ELCA. The real problem is that there is no other good organization for us to join at this time.

But unlike Garrison Keillor's Minnesota Lutherans in Lake Wobegon, I am really, really ready for a vacation in a more southerly clime. Someplace warm. Someplace quiet. Someplace relatively devoid of Lutherans for a couple of weeks. (Pastor Fink if you happen to read this, please take it as intended.) I think Key West pretty much fits that bill.

We currently have reservations at Blue Water Key RV Resort, MM 14 Highway 1 for the last week of April.

I really do not want to wish time away. Time comes and goes much too fast anyway. It seems not that long ago that a bunch of us boys were playing in our yards. Playing in the woods. Playing. Not playing video games, or personal music devices, or Twittering, or DVRing something to play later, but just playing. We would play in the sandpile and in piles of leaves. It seems like we always had a good time. Parents scheduling "play dates" for kids was not something anyone had even thought of at that time. I don't think we even had much in the way of so called organized athletics. Maybe the boys in Monroe had Little League or something, but not us; that was for city kids. A Pee Wee Football team was eventually organized at our elementary school, but that was after I was already gone from there. Yet, without all that "parenting" (if that is even really a word) we did manage to develop social skills, and friends, and learned how to behave, and got our exercise, and came in for supper, and in the summertime went back out again after supper to play until way past dark.

And last Monday, standing in the sunny chill of a February afternoon, most of those that I had played with were nearby, their sons standing next to me in the pallbearer line at my Aunt's funeral. So I really do not want to wish time away. But I sure wish it was warm and we were with the cat in the RV on the way to Key West.

Texas and Louisiana

2009-11-03T22:23:00.014-05:00

We just returned from a 16 day trip from NC to Texas - Austin & Corpus Christi, then along the coast of LA to Southern Lousiania (Acadiana.) So many folks on this forum helped with suggestions and info, I wanted to give a brief trip report.

We drove pretty hard over 2 1/2 days to get from NC to near Austin. We left home in NC Friday night after work, and on Sunday afternoon we pulled into Cottonwood Creek RV Park in Dripping Springs TX. This is a nice little park in the edge of hill country between Austin, Blanco, and Fredricksburg. The owners are on site and will do everything possible to make your stay perfect. It is a quiet place with a good laundry facility, nature trails, and each site is hard packed gravel and well maintained and beautifully landscaped. It was the perfect place to call home while we visited the area. By the way, the WiFi worked flawlessly the entire week providing an excellent high speed internet connection.

On the following Friday, we took a big loop drive through the Guadelupe River valley to Lost Maples State Park. This was very scenic drive that included a stop in Fredricksburg for lunch at a German bakery. We also made a stop in Luckenbach, just to see what it looked like. (We did not see Willy, Waylon, and the boys, but did see a motorcycle rally taking place.)

Saturday we made a day trip to San Antonio to take in the Riverwalk area and El Mercado. The Riverwalk is fun but rather expensive if you are going to try to have lunch there or shop. They have continued to expand it and you can easily spend a half day there just walking through the area.
El Mercado is another story. We walked from the south end of the Riverwalk area across the Old Town Plaza down a few blocks to where we heard the music. Several live stages, lots of import merchandise, and plenty of local street food vendors make for a very festive atmosphere. Next trip, we may just go there and spend a half day watching the activities, listening to the music, and sampling local cusine.

On Monday we left Cottonwood Creek after a full week there and drove all day through the pouring rain to the Corpus Christi area. Our next stop was Mustang Island State Park in Port Aransas. The beaches there are beautiful despite the recent Red Tide. Most of the beaches were clean. The most interesting thing about the area is the hard packed sand beach which is used just like a road. Mustand Island SP is a large paved parking lot on the island between the dunes and the road, but was good for us for a couple of days. Pioneer and Gulf Waters are in the same area and may be more suitable if you are looking for more aminities. Both looked nice from our ride by.

We also took the time to drive south to the North entrance to Padre Island National Seashore. What a beautiful and pristine Gulf Island that is. We stopped at the Malaquite Beach camping area overlooking the beach, and the nice visitors center. We continued to drive several miles down the beach after the road stopped. Even though this is a beautiful spot, we were disturbed by all the trash that had washed up on the beaches. I'm not sure if this is a seasonal thing due to the recent storms, or if it is always like that. But it was dissappointing, and worrisome to think that that much trash is floating around in our oceans.

After our stay at Mustang Island, we continued driving north, taking the Port Aransas free ferry, on through Fulton and Rockport, all the way to Bay City, and from there back to the beach town of Surfside Beach, Texas. The beach road from Surfside Beach to High Island through Galveston was quite an experience. The roads are in good shape along the beach and the 2 ferry was quick and easy and no problem for the motorhome and toad. We were not even the largest rig on the ferry with large 18 wheelers using the ferries too. The devastation left by Hurricane Ike 2 years ago is unbelievable!

There is a toll bridge going into the Galveston area on Hwy 87. It costs $2. What was a little wierd, was that it has a toll collection box like one of drawers you find on a bank drive through, that the toll taker pushes out for you to put your money in. From the drivers window of the motorhome it was about 5 feet down. With the wind blowing at about 20 knots, those 2 $1 bills would have still been going! Yet when the toll taker came out to get the 2 bucks from me, he fussed at me saying he was not supposed to come out and take the money. I'm still not sure what I was supposed to do other than park the MH in the lane blocking traffic, get out and go pay.

From several miles south of Galveston, and on the entire route north out of Galveston, the devastation from the recent hurricanes is still very evident, and pervasive. We stopped over in Port Arthur for the night before getting underway the next morning.

We took Highway 82 from Port Arthur all the way along the Lousiaina coast to Abbeville LA. Before getting on Hwy 82 in Port Arthur heading East along the beach, be sure you have enough fuel to get you to Abbeville LA. Again it was a very isloated coast road, and whatever business were there before Ike are now only clean cement pads and driveways. Entire subdivisions, stores, businesses have been blown or washed competely away. We saw many many mobile homes and RV type trailers that have been brought in, many of them sitting on the spot where a house was before the hurricane.

Finally in Acadiaina, we stayed at the Cypress Bayou Casino in Charenton LA. It was an outstanding bargin at $10 per night, and they give you $10 each credit for the casino. The park is very well maintained, paved sites with patios, picnic tables and a shuttle to the casino. We actually took the $10 credit (it is on a casino card that can only be used in the electronic gaming machines) into the Casino and walked out with $40! So the place was a real bargin!

On our day off, we toured around southern LA, driving all the way down to Cocodrie at the very end of Hwy 57 out of Houma LA. Down the bayous and lakes the road goes until it simply stops at the waters edge. So different from the east coast. It is truly a "working" coast with shrimp and fishing boats everywhere, oil riggers, barges, fabricators, and water everywhere.

Back at the casion we were ready to pack up and head back to NC. The only problem we had all week in any of the RV parks we stayed in was at the Cypress Bayou RV park. There was a group of construction workers staying there. Saturday morning at 2:00 AM the ruckus started. Fighting, drunken cursing, and profanity for about 2 hours before they passed out and got quiet...then started again at 9:00 AM Saturday morning. Security guards didn't do anything about it. When we left Sat morning we called the RV park office to let them know. We were promised a call back by the manager but they never called. Had it not been for that it was a nice place and I would consider it again betting that our experience was an isolated event.

In summary, Texas Hill country is awesome, can't wait to go back and really spend some time there. The Texas coast is a great place to visit, however it is different from Florida or the Atlantic beaches in SC. Cajun country is very interesting and a place you definitely want to see and sample the cusine, but the LA roads are bone jarring and have to be among the worst in the country.

St. Joseph Peninsula State Park - Cape San Blas, Florida

2009-11-03T22:16:00.006-05:00

It has been quite a year from many perspectives. I have not been a good blogger. We have made several trips since our Fall 2008 trip to Chattanooga. They include:
- Two trips - March 2009 birthday trip and September 2009 - to Huntington Beach State Park SC; and,
- A quickly planned trip back to our favorite; Bluewater Key RV Resort at MM14 just this side of Key West the first week of August.

However, one of the highlights of the year has to be our spring trip to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park on Cape San Blas Florida. This is near Port St. Joe and Applachacola. Here are some pictures of that trip.

We were there the last week of April through the first weekend in May, 2009. Driving through central Georgia provided the means to begin to relax, and a week on this pristine beach completed the presctiption! It doesn't get much better than that.

We only ate out at a couple of restaurants during our trip. One reason is that we just didn't want to leave our beautiful island setting; and another being that it is pretty far to drive to get to a restaurant.

There are plenty of trails and areas on the island for bike riding, and plenty of beach for watching the sun go down. It will be nice to return there someday soon.

This was one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen in what has to be one of the most isolated spots in all of Florida. We stayed a week on site #40 in the beach front campground at the state park. I do hope we can return sometime.

Pardon me, but is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?

2009-02-01T14:01:00.002-05:00

First and foremost, let me apologize for not having this blog updated. Not many things stale quicker than a blog that is not updated, and this one has gotten very stale over the past few months. However, I will try to keep things more up to date going forward.

September 2008 - Chattanooga Tennessee.

During the 2nd week of September, we visited Chattanooga TN to meet out good friends from Texas. We decided to take the scenic route, from Charlotte directly through Asheville and along highways 74 and 64 to Tennessee. This took us around in a southerly route around the Smoky Mountains, through the beautiful Nantahala River Gorge.

The leaves had not quite begun to change into their autumn dress this far south yet, so everything was still bright and green. There were quite a lot of rafts and kyaks on the river. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop and watched many of them drift or paddle past.

These guys are Good!

2008-06-09T20:00:00.006-04:00

OK, I know this is not specifically about taveling - unless you want to call traveling 20 miles from home to the Lancaster Motor Speedway traveling - but I wanted to share these bits of video our son shot when we visited the speedway this past Saturday night. The speedway hosted the Carolina Clash, a regional Late Model Dirt touring series.

My brother in law, Tim, his son Tanner aged 13 (and one of the most avid dirt track fans you'll find anywhere,) my son Tristan, and I spent Saturday evening at the track - watching the people, watching the cars, eating french fries, and drinking Gatorade. It's a really nice way to spend a summer evening.

The Clash drivers spend their spring and summer traveling to various dirt tracks across the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia putting on a real show. They race weekly, sometimes two races per week. They may race a double header at one track or they may race Friday night at one track, and another for the Saturday night show. Either way, this has to be a tough schedule for these drivers and their crews

At Lancaster Speedway, a 1/2 mile dirt track, they take just a little over 19 seconds to get around the track. That translates to averaging about 95 miles per hour around this tight circuit, with the actual speed much faster than that on the straights. The first video below is of the 1st turn at Lancaster during 2 of the drivers 2 lap qualifying runs. As you can see, they blast down the front straightaway, then throw the cars into the turn in a controlled slide. As they go through the turn they feather the throttle to keep the car in a controlled slide, gunning it as they are pointed down the back stretch.

(If you let the video play to the end, you can select from 5 or 6 more videos from Lancaster.)

If you think the single car qualifying for the race is exciting, wait until you see all 20 of them on the short track at the same time.

This past Saturday, Randall Chupp won a very hotly contested battle with Clash series leader Dennis "Rambo" Franklin. The 40 lap event saw Chupp jump to a lead with Rambo doing everything he could to get around him. What a show these two put on.

Other than the Clash touring series, Lancaster hosted it's normal weekly card, with several classes ranging from the "Young Guns" (young drivers working to gain some experience), to Late Model Crate (higher powered cars with experienced drivers) and several other classes in between.

If you get a chance to see these drivers at a dirt track near you, by all means go. It is an opportunity to see an exciting event the way racing USED to be, and still is at these local weekend dirt tracks.

Dear Kelli with the new 5th Wheel...

2008-06-06T19:21:00.002-04:00

I just recently saw your comment regarding Bluewater Key. I wanted to respond to you directly but you left no email address. Please let us know how you enjoyed your trip to Bluewater Key and the lower Keys. As you see in the posts below, we were back there a couple of weeks after you were. Feel free to send an email to us at Chuck @ Lomaxonline,com

We are also active on RV.NET with the nickname NCBOUNDER.

Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina

2008-06-01T21:20:00.000-04:00

This weekend we were able to find a site at Huntington Beach State Park near Pawleys Island South Carolina. We had been there several times before, but this was the first time since 2006 (I think.)

Huntington Beach SP is just south of Murrells Inlet SC, which is just south of Myrtle Beach SC. It is situated on the beach near Litchfield Beach and Pawleys Island. The campground is only a small part of this large state park. It is on an old estate that included the state park land and Brookgreen Gardens just across Hwy 17 from the State Park.

On entry to the park you pass the guard gate and cross a causeway that separates a fresh water lagoon from a salt marsh. The freshwater lagoon is home to several alligators that can easily be seen from the road and from a gazebo that is built on stilts in the edge of the lagoon.

Don't worry too much about getting eaten by an alligator... there is rip-rap all along the roadside about 8 - 10 feet down to the water. It would be extremely difficult for one of them to get to the top of the rocks before you could get away.

The beach at HBSP is as beautiful as ever. There are 2 access paths from the campground to the beach. Each one is approximately 300 yards or so from the campground to the beach, so be prepared for a little hike each time. When we were there it was very pleasant temperature wise; mid 80s, with a nice breeze blowing most of the time. Bugs were not bad at all either.

We left home Friday morning and arrived at the park at about 12:30 PM. After setting up the RV on our site (#19), we hauled the chairs and umbrella to the beach to spend the rest of the day.

There is a paved road in the park that goes to another beach access about a mile north of the campground. At it's end is a parking area for day use or for campers that want to drive of bike up there. From there, it is about another mile north to the Merrells Inlet jetty. We didn't go up there this trip.

The park has a nice store with the basic supplies and the usual Tee Shirts and other souvenirs. It also has a very nice and rather large day use area with a big parking area and very nice bath house and dressing area.

Another attraction is the Atalaya "Castle". The Castle as it is called, is a very large spanish style courtyard house built in the early 1930's by the Huntington Family. (See Atalaya link on the Friends of Huntington Beach web site.) You can tour the house, but it closes at about 5:00 PM.

Also check out the official Huntington Beach State Park web site.

Here are a few more pictures of the weekend. The full set of our weekend pictures is on our Huntington Beach 05-2008 album on Dotphoto.com

By the way, I have received comments from some of the readers of this blog with questions regarding the campgrounds we have visited...but with no email address. If you want further info regarding any of the places we have visited, PLEASE leave your email address, or you may email me directly at the email address shown on my blog profile. I will be more than happy to respond.

Back to the Island

2008-05-12T22:31:00.003-04:00

It has seemed like a long winter. It was not a particularly cold one, just long, and dry. The Piedmont area of the Carolinas and Georgia, and some other areas of the Southeast have been under extreme drought conditions for nearly a year, maybe longer. So I cannot and will not complain about the chilly, wet spring we have had. But it did seem to make Winter seem longer.

But as Jimmy Buffett sang in the Leon Russell song:

I hope you understand,
I just had to get back to the island.
And watch the sun go down,
Hear the sea roll in.....
Hear the night bird cry,
Watch the sunset down,
I just hope you understand,
I just had to go back to the island.

And get back to the island we did!

Key West and Blue Water Key Redux.

Last year we went to Bluewater Key RV Resort just outside of Key West at MM 14 on US1. We were so taken by the place that we decided then that we would return. Now this may sound strange, but we went back, stayed in exactly the same site (#74), and did almost nothing for the entire week. Yep, nothing. There are not many places that I would want to return and stay again, but Bluewater Key and the Lower Keys are one of those rare places. We could have stayed, and stayed, and stayed...

Why would you want to leave this?

Sunset from our dock at Bluewater Key

We were so lazy, we didn't even make any more pictures this year. There are several reasons for this:

Didn't want to
Didn't need to (look at last years pictures)
I looked better last year (10 lbs lighter!)
I have on the same clothes as last year anyway (I hate to throw away a perfectly good and broken in pair of shorts and flip-flops)
You can read last years Key West story on this blog.

We even stayed at the same campground at Flagler Beach (Gamble Rogers Recreation Area) on the way back. There is where the story really gets off of last years trip... last year we were on site #14 at Gamble Rogers, this year we were on #12.

We did do a couple of things different this year. First, we drove down to KW in 1 1/2 days. We left home at about 1:00 PM on Friday, and drove all the way to Palm Coast FL, arriving there at about midnight Friday night/Saturday morning. That is where it got a little interesting.

A few days proir to leaving, I phoned the Wal-Mart in Palm Coast and spoke with a member of management. I ask if if was OK to spend the night in their parking lot in our RV. I was told that it would be fine as long as we were out of the way by first thing in the morning. To me first thing is anytime before 7:00 AM, so this was no problem. So as the hours rolled by along with I-95, that Wal-Mart parking lot was looking pretty good.

We got there a few minutes before midnight, and as always, I went in to ask the managers permission. I was then told that there was a city ordinance against any overnight parking. She said that I could do it "at my own risk", but may get a knock on the door by PC's finest in the early morning hours and would have to move. We chatted a few more minutes about it and I decided that the risk of that actually happening may not be that great. Besides, where else were we going to go at 1:00 AM... back on I-95? Thats where we were eventually headed anyway; either with or without sleep! So we decided to try it.

We pulled over near the back of the parking lot, as far away from the street as we could get, and still out of the way of any other store traffic. I didn't feel too guilty because there was one 18 wheeler parked there too. By 12:45 we were asleep, and didn't wake up until about 6:30 when the sun was comming up, and the delivery trucks were moving in. After a quick cup of coffee, we were back on the road.

Now for an editorial comment: One of the quickest ways to get an argument started on some of the RV related Internet forums is to mention parking overnight in a Wal-Mart parking lot. For some reason it just seems to rub some people the wrong way. I see absolutely nothing wrong with parking in a lot like that for a few hours sleep. Not "CAMPING" mind you, but getting some rest while on route to your destination. If campgrounds and RV parks want to take advantage of these in transit overnight stops, they should provide a place where RVers can get in and out easily, no hookup's required, and stay open all night. I don't think there are many campgrounds that would have welcomed us at that hour, for a few hours, for a few bucks.

From I-95 near Jupiter Beach we took the Floridas Turnpike. I think it was a total of about $18 bucks by the time we hit US1 south of Homestead/Florida City, but well worth dodging all that traffic between West Palm Beach and Miami, and the hassel of that 30 miles or so of US1 between the end of I-95 and Florida City.

Since we were doing so good with our time, I decided to take the Card Sound Road through Largo, going past Alabama Jacks and crossing the swinging toll bridge. With the bridge construction on US1, this seemed like a more scenic route. Just after turning left onto Card Sound Road, we came up behind the first of about 1000 bicycles on that route. There was a charity bike-a-thon fundraiser going on. Just our luck, but I do hope they raised a lot of money. It then took us over an hour to make it down that 20 mile stretch back to US1.

Our Week in Paradise!

Finally at about 5:00 PM we were in our "One Particular Harbor"; our site in Bluewater Key RV resort. We had most of our meals during the week there, usually after a swim in the clear, warm water. We did venture into Key West a couple of times for dinner and to check out the action on Duval Street. Here's a picture from the Sloppy Joe's Duval Street web cam:

That day we had dinner at El Siboney, a great family run Cuban resturant. The next time we went to Key West a few days later, we walked around, bought the kids souvineirs, and had dinner at Pepe's. Pepe's has been in the waterfront area for 50 years or so and still serves up great seafood.

One day we did venture up to Big Pine Key, and over to No Name Key to see the Key Deer. There is actually a Key Deer preserve on Big Pine, but we saw none there. But there were several subdivisions we rode through where the tiny Key Deer had come into the area to eat the grass. We saw numerous Key Deer there.

No Name is also deserving of it's name. There is nothing there to be named! It is quite isolated, with only a few houses. Several construction sites appeared abandoned.

On the way back we stopped at the Sugarloaf Lodge. Their restaurant was open, so we ordered a couple of fresh grouper sandwiches to go. Those we enjoyed from our Tiki Hut next to the water back at Bluewater Key.

Most late afternoons found us on our bicycles riding around the RV resort, the neighborhood next door, and the larger island just north of us about a mile up US1 in the Saddlebunch Keys. We always managed to stop someplace and watch the sun go down...that seems to be a required activity in the Conch Republic. Not a bad way to end your day...

Hunting Island SC

2007-11-14T23:03:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, we took advantage of the long Veterans Day holiday and visited Hunting Island State Park on the southern South Carolina Coast. Hunting Island is near Beaufort SC, and is not far across the river from Hilton Head SC. However unless you have a boat, you will need to drive about 70 miles to get to Hilton Head. It is also just south of Edisto Island. You can easily see Edisto from the the beach at Hunting Island, but again, it is about a 60 mile drive to get there.

The light house at Hunting Island (HI) can be climbed for a small fee of $2.00 per person. We arrived too late on Saturday to make the trek to the top, as it closes to climbers at 3:45.

Beaufort SC (pronounced Bew-fert) is a beautiful coastal town. It reminds one of Charleston only on a much smaller scale. There are many old historic homes to see. Guided or self-guided tours are available, as are carriage tours.

We left Friday morning and drove to HI, arriving at about 1:30 PM. Our checkin to the campground was a breeze, being greeted by two very personable camp host volunteers. HI State Park is one of the most popular state parks in South Carolina, and most of the sites are reserved well in advance, as was ours. The greeters met us at the park entrance, verified our name, provided us with a park map, and sent us to site #22. We didn't even need to get out of the RV.

This picture is not of our site, but of the campground road that runs right along the beach to the left. There are some smaller sites on the left of the beach road that accomodate tents only. The RV sites of varying sizes are on the right in this picture.

This next picture is of the campground from the beach. This is a rather old campground that was not designed specifically to accomodate today's RVs. The sites vary greatly in size, some are very large while only some of the smaller RVs or tent-trailers will fit on others.

But as you can see the beach is the attraction here and the beach is what keeps the campground reserved months in advance at a very high rate of occupancy.

This trip to the beach was very relaxing and enjoyable. After unhooking the Tracker and backing into our site, it was apparent that there would be no TV watching this weekend. There is very heavy tree cover across the entire campground. Imagine my surprise when, just to see what would happen, I received a strong satellite signal on the dish. Apparently I had stopped exactly where there was a small hole in the tree canopy and was aligned exactly with the DirecTV satellite. In spite of that, we still didn't watch any TV. This is just too beautiful a place, and the weather was too nice.

Here is a brief slide show with the highlights of the weekend. Some of the things you will see in the slide show include

Campground scenes
Trip to Fripp Island where the deer are perfectly comfortable walking around the homes and businesses
A drive into Beaufort with the beautiful old homes and harbour
Dinner at Dockside Restaurant in Port Royal just south of Beaufort where we watched the sunset.

Please enjoy the pictures and if you would like more information or just want to comment, please feel free to do so.

Chuck & Pam

DelMarVa and Colonial Williamsburg

2007-10-02T21:15:00.000-04:00

There are not many things worse than a stale blog, so my sincerest apologies for not having updated this blog more often than I do. Apologies out of the way, we had a wonderful time last week in Colonial Williamsburg. And a few days before that we were in the DelMarVa Peninsula. I promise to write about it in a little more detail but I do want to get the basic journal down before we forget where we went and - more importantly - where we camped and ate!

For now, here is the general path we followed:

Thursday, September 20, 6:30 PM - Left after work headed as far north as we could get before tiring out too much. Drove to Raleigh up Hwy 49 in the RAIN! It hasn't rained at home in months, and here it is raining on us in Denton NC. But it has still not rained at home. We made it all the way to Roanoke Rapids NC on I-95 and pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot with a few other RVs about 11:00 PM.

Friday, September 21, 8:00 AM - Left Roanoke Rapids and stayed off of I-95 choosing to follow NC-158 over to Murphfreesboro then up toward Suffolk VA, across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, and all the way to our campground in Sanford VA. Not on the map, but as far north on the Chesapeake Bay as you can get and still be in Virginia.

Saturday, September 22. Left the Tall Pines Harbor CG in the toad and drove over to Chincoteague Island to cruise around, look at the ponies, and have lunch at a nice little outdoor place that served up GREAT sandwiches. We shared a hugh shrimp salad sandwich at the Sea Star Carryout. While there we also checked out Toms Cove CG - looks like a pretty good place to stay, and the Inlet View CG - A DUMP to be avoided at all costs!
Later we drove on up to Ocean City MD, drove up the beach to Bethany Beach DE and wet out toes in the water there... an new state for both of us.
Back across the peninsula we go to Crisfield MD for a very good meal at the Captains Galley while we watch the sun go down over the Bay.

Sunday, Sept 23. Lazy morning at the campground, and then a short drive down US-13 to Kiptopeke State Park near Cape Charles just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. This state park has full hookup campsites. It is on the site of the old ferry terminal. No longer used for that purpose, it has a nice sandy beach just a short walk through the woods from the campground. A large fishing pier, and boat ramp are where the ferrys once docked. This would be a nice place to spend a few days... IF you are there when those darn black flys don't bite you.

Monday, Sept 24. Back across the CBBT and up to Williamsburg VA. We arrived at the American Heritage RV park about 2:30 in the afternoon in time to settle in before meeting our dear friends from Austin TX. Dinner that night was at the Kings Arms Tavern in the historic district. This is one of the taverns that served the likes of Thomas Jefferson and his contemporaries in the 18th century. Our dinner consisted of Smoked Salmon for Pam and baked Tilapia stuffed with shrimp and oyster stuffing. Very good...but these old eyes have a hard time reading the menu and the check with only candlelight.

Tuesday, Sept 25. All day walking around Colonial Williamsburg... and it was a hot day too with temperatures in the upper 80's. We started at the visitors center, rode the shuttle bus to the Governors Palace to start our tour of the area. Lunch was at Chownings Tavern on Duke of Glouchester Street (sandwiches and cold water in the outdoor eating area under an arbor.) In the afternoon we walked to the Colonial Capital Building where we heard Thomas Jefferson speak. The interpreter/actor did a fine job of representing Mr. Jefferson and playing a little to "Pop" history. I don't think Mr. Jefferson would have been at all comfortable speaking to a group like this and answering questions from the audience...but it sells in Williamsburg, and it was fun.

The evening found us at "The Whaling Company" a local seafood eatery outside the historic district, but not far from town. Great fresh seafood again. I think we would never tire of fresh seafood.

Wednesday, Sept 26. Again the day spent walking around Colonial Williamsburg. Touring the Capital Building, several houses, shops where artisians practice crafts as they would have done them in the 17th and 18th century. For example a saddle maker, cobbler, silversmith, foundry, gunsmith, and watchmaker. Lunch was outside the historic district in an area of modern shops and restaurants called Merchants Square near the College of William and Mary. We went to a place called The Cheese Shop, that was a fantastic Deli, and very crowded at lunch time. Tuna Salad sandwich for me and Crab Salad for Pam.
More walking in the afternoon and a quick trip back to the RV to freshen up before dinner. It was over 90 degrees today! Dinner was at Christiana Campbells Tavern. This is another restaurant in the historic district that maintains the historic atmosphere.

Thursday September 27. Time for a change in scenery and temperature. Today we drove to Charlottsville to visit Montecello, Thomas Jefferson's mountain. About a 2 hour drive from Williamsburg brought us to Michies Tavern at noon. This place has been serving travelers great meals since the early 1700's, and was no dissapointment to us either. The lunch buffet was probably one of the best I ever sampled, with home cooked vegtables and peach cobbler with home made ice cream.
On to Montecello, we toured the mansion and spent another hour or so just walking around the grounds, gardens, and viewed Thomas Jefferson and his family burial grounds. What a genuis this man obviously was.. whether or not you arreed with his politics and style, he was an extraordinary person.

All Jefferson all the time??? That evening dinner was The Jefferson restaurant back in Williamsburg.

By the way, while we were on the mountain, we heard a couple of the security guards talking about a celebrity being there too. It turns out tha Bob Dylan who was doing a show at UVA that night, rode his motorcycle up to see Mr. Jefferson's house too. We didn't actually get to see him, he was taking the house tour while we were in the garden areas.

Friday September 28. Boys and Girls split up today. The ladys went shopping at the outlet stores while us guys went to do more history. Jamestown and Yorktown. Then back to the RV for a rest in the shade, then (what else) out to dinner on the waterfront in Yorktown. Nicks Waterfront Restaurant was very good. Again, great seafood and a beautiful view of the York River. There was a concert on the green in the waterfront park in Yorktown while we walked off our meal on the new Riverwalk Park area. Then time to say goodbye. Flights back to Austin Saturday morning dictate a farewell this evening. What a great vacation this has been.

Saturday September 29. Very cool and breezy this morning. Get the RV packed up and ready to go about 10:30 for the trip home. Taking our time, we cruise up Hwy 5 along the James River past many plantations, and back over to I-85 headed south. This gets us home about 6:00 PM.

Wow.. what a nice trip, and after the planning and the anticipation it's already over.

Blue Ridge Weekend.

2007-06-10T18:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend, we were able to leave late Friday afternoon and go to Marion NC and the Buck Creek Campground. This was a nice little campground with sites right along Buck Creek, just off of Hwy 80 North of Marion NC on the way up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Buck Creek is not an RV "resort" but a true campground type of place. Very well kept, the owner lives on the property, and it provided a very nice getaway to the mountains without having to really climb the mountains.

Highway 80 is a scenic and very curvy and steep drive up to the parkway. From it's intersection with the Parkway, it is about 16 miles south to Mt. Mitchell State Park.

We were a little dissappointed in that after getting to Mount Mitchell on one of the only times I have ever been there with the sun shining and the weather nice, we found that the observation tower on the summit was closed for rebuilding. The project will take all summer and the tower is scheduled to reopen in September of 2007.

From there we went south to Asheville and had dinner at the Jack-o-the-Woods pub. Always good pub food and burgers, we enjoyed Fish and Chips and a burger before heading back to the campground and a late afternoon swim in one of the swimming holes on beautiful Buck Creek at the campground.

Check out some of our pictures including a few of the campground on our Dotphoto.Com site.

Southernmost! and back.

2007-05-08T21:54:00.000-04:00

Well, after all of the planning and waiting and anticipation, we have been to the southernmost point in the continential US and back...Key West Florida. What a wonderful place to visit. It is such a nice combination of so many things and places. The "Conch Republic" is a very unique place with so many flavors thrown in to spice things up.

I don't have time right now to write all I want to about this place, but will get to it eventually, bur for now, just look at these pictures by clicking the link: Key West Photo Show. I put together a set of our favorite pictures, or you can see the album by clicking on the "DOTPHOTO.COM" link on the left of this page.

Just so you'll know, we left Monroe Thursday night and drove to Brunswick GA where we pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot about 10:00 PM. We shared the outer part of the parking lot with 3 other RVs that night, and were on the road by 7:00 the next morning.

All day driving got us through central Florida to Homestead/Florida City that night, where we found an RV park. We took our time getting there so we could detour around Lake Okeechobee, which we had never seen before.

By 9:30 we were on the Old Dixie Highway (US-1) headed on the only road south toward Key West. We took our time - what else is there to do? - and arrived at Bluewater Key RV Resort

about 1:00 PM. WOW! What a place. We have NEVER stayed at an RV park that was much more resort than RV park. Here is a picture of our parking site for the next 5 days.
We spent the next 5 days exploring in and around Key West, the Lower Keys from Little Torch Key to Key West, and just hanging around our waterfront site enjoying the beauty of this place.

I think I'll just keep paddling!!!

On Friday morning, we left and drove to Flagler Beach between Daytona and St. Augustine FL. That was a 400+ mile drive that put us in our beachside campsite at the Gamble Rogers Memorial Recreation Area about 5:00 PM that evening. We stayed there Saturday enjoying the beach before heading home Sunday.

Please look at the pictures and leave comments and questions. If you are a camper and want info on the places we stayed, let me know and I will write more details or send you info in an email.

I do plan on writing more about what we did and where we stayed as time permits.

Again, all your questions and comments are welcome.

Edisto Beach SC

2007-04-14T21:13:00.000-04:00

This is what you call a campground on the beach. I know we have been here before, but this time we were camped right behind the dunes. I don't have much time to write, but did want to share some of the pictures:

Visit our Dotphoto.com site to see all of our pictures for this and other trips. (See Link in Menu on Left side of this page)

Next: Key West for our anniversery/birthday trip. We will be going to Key West and staying at Blue Water Key RV Resort for 4 days, then moving to the Curry Hammock State Park after that for a couple of days. Then on the way back home, we plan on a 2 night stop over at Gamble Rogers State Park on the Atlantic coast between Daytona and St. Augustine. Can't wait!

Spring Trips to Edisto and Key West in the Planning Stage.

2007-02-05T23:42:00.000-05:00

Here it is, the dead of Winter. In fact it going down to 18 degrees here tonight according to the "Storm Tracker Team". I feel kind of bad whining about that when I see that the high tomorrow in Chicago is going to be only 1 degree above 0. But it helps to think about the next RV trips we will take. Our plans are for a late March weekend trip to Edisto Island State Park, and an early May week to the Florida Keys

Our spring birthday weekend trip in March is to Edisto Beach State Park. Here is a picture we took on an earlier trip to Edisto. At Edisto there is a large loop at the end of the campground that is right on the beach... as in right ON the beach. This picture was made from the beach looking back to that loop. The site we have reserved for our March weekend trip is about where you see the RV right in the middle of this picture. These sites are very hard to reserve due to their popularity. Right after Christmas, I was checking out the reservation system and saw that site available for a Friday and Saturday that happen to be Pam's birthday weekend. I went ahead and reserved the two days.

We will probably take off work Friday, and hopefully leave home after work Thursday, driving as far as we want to Thursday evening and finding an overnight parking place somewhere down the road. That will put us into Edisto early Friday so we will have almost another whole day there. I was thinking, that since this is to be such a short trip, we should leave the Tracker home. But Pam reminded me what a shame it would be not to have another dinner at the "Old Post Office" restaurant in Edisto...so I guess we'll take the Tracker.

We are also planning our big Spring Break Trip to the Florida Keys. We will take a full week for that trip and plan to stay 4 nights at the Bluewater Key RV resort. It is one of the nicest places we have ever considered staying and it is only 12 miles from downtown Key West. After that, we will move to the Curry Hammock State Park near Marathon, then stop over for two nights on the way home at Rogers Gamble State Park between Daytona and St. Augustine. All of these campgrounds are right on the water.

Home from New England

2006-10-11T23:07:00.000-04:00

We arrived back home Sunday afternoon after 10 Days through NY and Vermont. What a beautiful place that is. Seems like we just got started when we have to go back home. Oh well, we'll just have to try to go up there again someday.

Anyway our trip took us across northern NY, 4 days camped in Stowe Vermont, then back through Eastern NY, Central PA, and the Shanondoah Valley in Virginia. The posts below are a recollection of the trip with a few photos included. For more pictures please click this link to look at our picture site on Dotphoto.com for the photo album of our Fall 2006 New England Tour. You can also click the "Our Picture Albums" link on the left side of the page under the Favorite Links section.

Please leave comments and don't forget to sign our guest book linked on the left.

On the Way Home

2006-10-08T22:20:00.000-04:00

Friday morning came around before we knew it. After getting everything unhooked and cleaned up, we leave our home away from home for the past 4 days. Our planned route will take us down through the eastern side of Vermont along Lake Champlain, then across the river along the shoreline of Lake George NY to Albany. There we will pick up I-88 to Binghampton NY. There we will get on I-81 through Pennsylvania, and Virginia through the Shannondoah Valley, and from there back to Charlotte and home. Hopefully we will have time to stop at the Hershey Chocolate World in Hershey PA.

Lake George was beautiful. It is easy to see why so many families have their summer places here. There were even a few sailboats and motor boats out this Friday. Although traffic was very light, it picked up a little later in the day.

After we got to Albany and found I-88 southbound, it was just miles and miles of interstate. I will have to say that it was pretty through there for a lot of the way. Mountains and valleys with the fall colors were still at their peak.

By night, we were in Hazelton PA. Time to think about stopping for the evening, and there happens to be a Wal-Mart nearby. We found the Wal-Mart (finally!). It is not visible from the interstate, and there were no signs pointing the way. In contrast to the place we parked overnight in Massena NY, this place was one of the noiseist places we have ever stayed. There were 3 or 4 other RVs parked there, but at about 5:30 the next morning, we were awakened by the sound of diesels and chains ratteling. Then a tractor roared to life. Looking out the window I see a front end loader pulling up the pavement nearby. It was a pavment repair crew out on this early Saturday morning to get some work done before too many customers showed up. That is enough of a wake up call for us, so we are on the road to Hershey.

The PA welcome center provided all of the maps and borchures we needed to get to the Hershey plant, which is several miles from I-81 on some secondary roads. But when we got there we couldn't believe our eyes. There were cars as far as you could see. They are having a major antique show here this weekend and there must be 50,000 people here. We could get no where near the entrance to Hershey World so we kept on truckin'. But thats OK, that means we will get to a campground in the mountains of Virgina earlier than planned so we may have some time to explore there a little.

Harrisonburg VA is in the mountains west of Washington DC. There is a smaller town - New Market VA - located a few miles south of there with a KOA that we decided to try. It is way off the road, about 3 1/2 miles from the interstate down a very narrow little side road through a farm area. This little campground was immacualte, very well maintained, and beautifully decorated for the fall season. We had time to walk around the campground a little, then we asked the manager for a recommended restaurant in the area. She recommended the Blue Stone Inn, just a few miles up the road.

This place was really a blast from the past. The place was built in the 1920s as a motel with a cafe. The motel or "guest court" (little cottages scattered around behind the restaurant) are history now, although a few are still standing. But the restaruant is still going strong with the same family operating it since the 1940s. They served up some of the best seafood ever. This stopover provided an outstanding last night out for our trip.

So, Sunday morning brings us back through the Shannondoah Valley, to I-77 and the home strech back to Charlotte then home.

All in all, this was a great trip, with good friends. But it left us with enough of a curosity about so much of New England we didn't get to see, that we'll just have to go back again sometime.

Ice Cream and Maple Syrup

2006-10-05T22:06:00.000-04:00

Wow, today is our last real day in Vermont. It seems as though we have planned and looked forward to this trip for months, and now it is almost over. There is still so much to do that we didn't get around to, but I guess that will leave it open to the sequel at some point in the future.
Today's agenda includes Ben and Jerrys, the Cider Mill, and hopefully, a tour of a sugar house. On the way to Ben and Jerrys, we decide to stop off at a scenic waterfall that we have pasted several times. It visible just as you exit I-89 at the Waterbury exit (Route 100 north). Each time we pass it, we decide to stop and take a look, but never took the time. So now is the time. Traveling south on Route 100 almost to I-89 then left just before the ramp, then an immediate right through an older residential and commercial area of town. There is an old mill near the waterfall that has been converted sometime past into a reataurant. However there is a small park area just behind the mill/restaurant with a sign up inviting you to go and enjoy the view. Out back of the restaurant there is a platform built over the edge of the creek where you can see the water rushing down the rocks for about a 15-20 foot drop into the little pool right behind the mill. We are not sure what kind of mill this used to be as there is no signs or anything else we can see to provide that information, just the quaint view, and time for a couple of pictures.

A little later we are on our way to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. This place is obviously a destination in this part of the country and when we reach the parking lot the place is already full. We have to go up the hill to the auxilary parking lots where a lot of RV's and Tour busses had parked. The walk down to the factory welcome center takes us past the "Graveyard of Flavors Layed to Rest". There is actually a headstone for some of the varieties of ice cream that they do not produce any longer.
As we approach the large patio/deck area behind the welcome center, we notice that there is a large tent set up with several tables under it. As it so happens, today is the final announcement of the Ben and Jerry's New Flavor Contest winners. This turns out to be a pretty big deal for dedicated B&J fans. Over the past few months of the contest, they have collected over 40,000 entries from fans across the country suggesting a new flavor of ice cream for B&J to make and sell. Today the 5 finalist have been brought to the factory to have the factory make their new flavor and then put it before a panel of expert tasters to determine the winner. There was also an international division with 5 international finalist too.

We bought the tickets for the factory tour and that was interesting - although not nearly as interesting as the Cabot Cheese Factory we saw the other day. I think part of it had to do with our tour guide. He was a teenaged guy that really had a case of the "smart alexs" so to speak, and was not nearly as entertaining or informative as he thought he was.
We were able to sample a couple of flavors of ice cream at the end of the tour which ended where it started in the large gift shop. Outside on the open deck, we just had to visit the scoop shop and buy a cone or cup of our favorite flavor.

Shortly after 1:00 PM the music started and the taste panel for the contest was introduced and got right to their business. After sampling all and making comments on each, a winner was voted. They made it clear that the winner would not necessarily become B&Js next marketable flavor, but it (or any of the others) could be as some point in the future. Then we were able to sample the flavors that had been part of the contest.

Time to walk a little so we went over to the Cold Hollow Cider mill for a look around. Here is a cider press that makes many many gallons of apple cider daily. By the time we arrive, they had finished pressing for the day, but we could still see the press through a large window. Again, there is a large gift shop where all sorts of items from apple preserves, apple jelly, apple cider, apple butter, apple/maple syrup, apple crafts, apple tee shirts... well you get the idea.

After getting our fill of apples, along with several bus loads of folks from Georgia on tour busses, we stopped at a place that sells Vermont Teddy Bears, Chocolate, and of course Maple candy and syrup, and, what else,, more Cabot Cheese. ( I TOLD you we were doing all the tourists stuff today.)

Late in the afternoon, we realized that we still had not been to see a real working sugar house. There is one listed in one of the Stowe area maps that is not too far from here, so we go up the mountain following the directions on the map.

Nebraska Valley Sugar Farm is the name of the place. We arrive at the top of the narrow gravel road thinking that maybe we turned at the wrong place. This is someone's home with a barn and out buildings out back. But there are a couple of cars here, and a small sign pointing to the the sugar house.

As we walk around behind the house, we see the entrance to a building that is the sugar house. Inside it is very small with a desk and kitchen style cabinets around the walls. A small table has a sampling of each size and tyhpe of syrup and candy they sell. There is a lady at the desk, but as it turns out, she is a tourist too. Instructions on the desk indicate that you can buy all you want and payment is honor system. Put your money in the cash box and write down each of the items you buy and their quantity on the sheet of paper on the desk.

It turns out that the people that run the farm also run a construction business, and according to someone we just met, they also teach piano lessons. The ski's and snowshoes stacked outside the back door indicate that there is a lot more snow here than anything we are accustomed to down south. Opening the back door we find the workings of the sugar house...large boiler, stacks of wood cut and cured and ready for spring. Large pans over the boiler where the sap is boiled down to make the syrup. There is also a large filter room where the sap is filtered for impurities. These guys have all of their charts from years gone by posted on the walls around the room, with the statistics on the yield from each year going back to the early 1980s. It looks like they tap more than 4000 trees! Seems like a lot to me, but I know absolutely nothing about maple sap except what I read about in school more than 40 years ago. How much could it have changed since then? I guess that means that they collect and haul buckets of sap down the mountains from over 4000 trees? Wrong!

Looking behind the sugar house we see that there is a large network of plastic piping all through the forest on the mountain side. This network gravity feeds a large holding tank in another building just up the hillside from the boiler house. Sap is collected there, then piped down to the filters and boiler pans as needed. I guess like everything else, they have figured a way to do more with less labor.

We could not walk up the mountain to see how the trees were actually tapped, so if anyone knows how they do that, please leave a comment here and let me know. I'll include that information in an update.

Backtracking down Nebraska Valley Road we take a left up over the hill back toward Stowe. This gravel road takes us through some very pretty farms and eventually to the Trapp Family Lodge. This hugh resort set on the mountainside overlooking the valley is named for the Von Trapp Family of "Sound of Music" fame. The place looks like an Austrian lodge and is a busy place here in the middle of peak leaf peeping season. We pause for a few pictures and continue on our route to Stowe.

Riding through the countryside north of Stowe in search of another covered bridge, brings us to the Foxfire Inn north of Stowe on Route 100. This is where we will have dinner tonight. It is an old house built in the 1800s and has been the home of one of the best Italian food restaurants in the area for many years.
The place is packed (luckily we had called for reservations earlier in the day) and we really enjoyed the atmosphere. Most of the rooms of the old house had tables set up as you would expect of a restaurant, but some were outfitted as private dining rooms for parties, and had a residential feel with large china cabinets, chairs, lamps and a large dining table. A couple of rooms simply were decorated as "parlors" for waiting with sofa, chairs, coffee table,and antique lamps.

I admit I picked this place due to a recommendation I recieved prior to taking this trip, and was a little dissappointed. The food was just not as good as I had expected. It was good, no question about that, I was just expecting more. Maybe we just had so much Ice cream earlier today that it "spoiled my dinner" as my Mama would say.

Now for the sad parting of ways. We have spend the past 3 1/2 days with our special friends from Texas and tomorrow we would have to go home. Their flight leaves at about noon, meaning they would have to leave for the airport at 9:30 or 10:00 AM. And we have a long way to go in the camper tomorrow too to get us back to North Caroling by Saturday night. So we will be saying our goodbyes as we drop them off at the hotel. It has been a wonderful trip, but we are sad to see them go.

But that just means that it will be a little closer to our next opportunity to vacation with them next year.

Vermont Rocks!

2006-10-04T23:13:00.000-04:00

Lots to do today so we get started a little earlier. We have a load of the "touristy" stuff on our list for today and tomorrow. All the usual things: Ben & Jerrys Icecream Factory, Cider Mill, Maple Syrup farm or "Sugar House" as they call it. And maybe some things that are still touristy but not quite so well known, like the Granite Quarry.

Granite Quarry you say? Yep, Granite Quarry. Vermont as it turns out, is one of the premier producers of granite in the world. The history of quarries in Vermont is almost as old as the state itself. We head up the mountains to a place called Graniteville (duh!!!) and see what it is all about. On arrival we find a hugh visitors center with a large parking lot right next to the manufacturing facility. Inside the visitors center is the history of granite in Vermont and a lot of interseting facts and displays. We get our ticket for the quarry tour and wait on the bus to arrive.

The old school bus takes us and a busload of others around the plant and up a mountain road littered with giant blocks of granite. Up top we stop and get out to view the 600 foot deep pit from the top down. This is an operation conducted on a massive scale. Granite here is wholesaled to many companies for various applications. The manufacturing plant here is primarily in the business of producing memorial stones....as in cemetary headstones. They have highly skilled artist that can create all types of artwork on the memorials.

The company Rock Of Ages - has several quarrys in the United States producing specific kinds of granite depending on the area. And what a surprise, one of their quarries is located just up the road from our home. Located in Salisbury NC, is the production facility for Pink Granite. You can read all about Rock of Ages at their great website www.RockofAges.com.

For all you powertool lovers I have to through in this picture of the biggest circular saw I have ever seen.

Now for something a little quieter, we head south back into the mountains down Route 14. This road parallells I-89 through the central Vermont mountains. After a failed attempt to locate the famous floating bridge in Brookfield (another case for getting that GPS I'v been wanting.) we stop in Randolph VT for lunch at Patricks. Sandwiches and a big choclate brownie call for a walk around the village. It is mid afternoon and the weather couldn't be more perfect.

By the time we get back to Waterbury just before returning to Stowe, we decide to stop at Ben & Jerrys. But this place is packed with people. The tours are sold out for the rest of the day (it's about 4:30 PM), so we decide it would be better to drop back by here tomorrow when we'll have more time. Arriving in Stowe, it looks like a nice time to just walk around the shops and galleries for an hour or two before going to dinner. Then the rain starts again, out come the umbrellas, and we keep walking and looking. This IS vacation, and a little rain - OK, a lot of rain - is not going to stop us. Dinner tonight is at the Partridge Inn just up Mountain Road a few blocks from the center of Stowe. This was a restaurant that Pam picked and it was very good. Their specialty is seafood and the crab cakes and mountain trout were perfect. Good seafood and great atmosphere. Gee...it is hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day in Vermont! Time flies when you are having fun.

Introduction to Vermont

2006-10-03T23:18:00.000-04:00

We start the day a little later than expected but by 10:00 AM we are on our way. Again it is sunny and then cloudy, but I immediately head up toward Smugglers Notch on Vermont Route 108. The "Gaps" or "Passes" in the mountains that are referred to down south are called "Notches" in the New England Mountains. Smugglers Notch is said to have gotten it's name due to sumggling cattle and other commodities through the area during the Revolutionary Way. However it recieved the name, it is quite a ride there. Route 108 is a typical mountain road winding and twisting up and back through the mountainside. On the way up we pass many people riding bicycles up, others walking or running.

This area is huge in its support of outdoor activities. There are many, many miles of walking, hiking, biking trails through out the state. The Stowe Recreation Path, actually provides a hiking/biking trail from downtown Stowe to the top of Mount Mansefield, the highest peak in the state. The Long Trail, is Vermont's own version of the Applachian Trail traversing several hundred miles of the mountains from the Canadian border to Massachuttes. So it is no surprise that we see many out for their morning ride/run/hike in the brisk fall air.

Suddenly we are at the top, the road narrows to only one lane in a couple of places and twists quickly between the mountain on one side and a few very large boulders on the other. That sure explains the "No Trucks with Trailers" signs we saw down below. A number of bicyclists have stopped here for a water break and a Kodak moment. This certainly is a Kodak moment spot.

We continue on to Route 15 and go east toward the mountains, then north on route 109 to find our first covered bridge. The bridge is one of many in Vermont. Some are relatively new, some are old and have been restored and kept in use, and some have been taken out of service altogether. This one is just off Route 109 and crosses a creek up an unpaved road. Just next to the bridge is an overlook with a parking area next to the creek. After taking a few pictures and walking throuugh the bridge we move on.

For the next couple of hours we just meandered through some mountain backroads in the area with beautiful vistas seemingly around every turn. Shortly after noon we decide it is time for a short break. Up ahead we see a country store on the side of the road an pull in for a snack of some sort. This is a very old country store but still very much a part of the local community, and definitely not a show for tourists. Inside on the old wooden floor stood racks containing everything from Pepsis and crackers, to canned vegetables, to fan belts, work gloves and snow shovels. They even had a hotplate in back with a couple of kinds of soup of the day, (chowder I think it was) and a lunch plate special. Several people had stopped in for lunch. We found the restrooms, bought a Coke and a bag of crackers, and went on our way. These stores were seen all over the area of Vermont we visited and are still seem to be the center of some of the communities we saw.

Headed back we see an unpaved road that looks promising, so we take it. For a mile or two it is a normal maintained gravel road, then seemed to get more and more narrow. Finally we see that it turns into a private road so decide we better get back to the main road. This little road took us through a beautiful mountainside with a meadow on one side with a creek running through it. With the sun out now shining through the yellow/red leaves of the many maples, it was a very pretty diversion off the main road.

Completing our loop brings us back to Jeffersonville. We vote to get lunch and we find a spot called 158 Main Bakery...and oddley enough it is at 158 Main Street. Home made tuna salad on fresh baked bread, was not enough for us vacationers, so we had to have a Maple Tart which was more of a Creme Brulee type of custard.. yummie!

After a walk around the rest of the town and through some of the shops and a antique store with a lot of interesting old stuff, we are on the roads again. Back tracking across some of the roads we have been on already for a few miles then into some new territory. We pass a lake with a scenic overlook. There are a few canoes out exploring the far side of the lake. The golden red leaves of the trees of the far side reflect in the water for a captivating view.

Soon we are in the town of Cabot VT, home to the Cabot Cheese Factory. We see the facility at the other end of town with a visitor center in front, so decide to check it out. There is a gift shop selling tickets for the cramery tours...last one for the day in 10 minutes. What luck. We sign up for the tour and sample some of the many cheeses made here in the Cabot Creamery.

Cabot is one of the oldest dairy cooperatives in the country. They have expanded outside the local Vermont area and still have hundreds of farms as members. Their primary product is Vermont Cheddar with several veriations and flavors added. The 30 minute tour is very informative. A guide leads you down a hallway with large windows looking into the various areas of the creamery where the cheese is being made. Technology has only increased the volume that can be processed, but it is still the basic routine of cooking the mile, stirring to separate the curd from the whey, draining off the whey and compressing and draining the whey into cheese. Only now it is done in giant kettles and troughs with large stirring and pressing machines, allowing them to make hundreds of pounds of cheese blocks.

The thing that surprised me the most is the fact that all cheese is white. Well of course, milk is white, so why not. Some sort of color is usually added to the cheese to give it an orange color. Cabot adds a vegtable product for color to avoid any artificial coloring. Maybe other manufacturers to that too, I'll have to look into it later.

Soon we are headed toward Montpielier VT, the state capital. Montpieler is the smallest capital city of any of the state capitals. But after some of the small villages we have been through today, it looks like a thriving metropolis. For the first time, we see new houses in subdivisions being built. Most of the other areas we have been through are old farms and homes, or vacation houses. I guess the goverment and all of the associated service organizations keep employment going in this area. We pass the State Capitol Building with its gold dome set against the mountain in the background.

Soon we are back in Stowe arriving just in time to have dinner at the The Shed. This is a very informal place specializing in steaks, burgers, ribs, and BBQ. We enjoyed our meal there, just up the road a bit from the center of Stowe.
Back at the campground it is about 8:30 PM.. long day, lots of fun, now Bobbi is ready to play for a while.

Lake Champlain Islands

2006-10-02T23:07:00.000-04:00

Monday we awoke to the sound of rain.. again. This was without a doubt the quietest Wal-Mart parking lot we have ever been in. Other than the fact that Masenna is a relatively small town, and somewhat remote, this is not a 24 hour Wal-Mart Supercenter. It closed at about 10:00 PM last night and after the few associates left for the evening, we heard nothing. And if the parking lot sweeper came through, the sound of the rain on the camper top must have drowned him out.
There was a little activity around the store when we woke up at about 8:00 AM. Its kind of funny actually, when we open up the front window curtain to see whats going on, we see an Aldi Food Store.

After a quick cup of coffee and a little breakfast, I go out to check the tires, car in tow and see that all looks well. But it it COLD! The rain must have been the escort for that cold front comming through, and it really did chill things down quiet a bit for this southern sunshine loving bunch of campers. I think it is in the mid to lower 40s and that seems pretty cold to us. But with the sun up and the sky clearing, it feels pretty good, just like you would expect fall in New England to feel.

We have not been on the road long when I begin to look for a gas station. I was hoping to hold out until we got to Vermont. Gas prices are pretty high in NY. When we crossed the NY/PA border they were about 25 cents per gallon higher. Our tank holds 75 gallons, so thats $15 dollars or so that I could save. But if we run out of gas on the road.. well that wouldn't be such a good thing. It is not long before we enter the Mohawk Indian Reservation. We start seeing signs for a casino, so I assume that a gas station or two is nearby. And since it is on Mohawk land, the NY gas tax doesn't apply, so it should be a little cheaper. Just in case there are questions about whose jurisdiction we are under, we pass a large sign saying "This is Mohawk Land, not New York Land."

The first station we see is a convience store with the gas pumps lined up in a couple of lanes going towards the store. Not cool! If I pull a 32 foot motorhome pulling a car behind in there, I'd never get out. Finally we see a smaller station with pumps parallel to the road. I get in and begin to fill up. An employee of the station comes out and looks at me kind'a strange, then goes to help the car that pulled in next to us. Thats right, I said "help", as in full service pumping of the gas for the customer. I didn't know any place still existed where there was an attendant pumping gas, I thought those were all extinct now. After he finished with the other customer he walks over to us. I apologize for taking his job over, but he's ok with that and we talk for a few minutes while the 65 or so gallons dribbles into the RV tank.

As usual, we began by talking about the weather. Cold - I thought, but not that cold for the region. Just wait he said.. a few weeks and the snow will start, and it will be really cold. Seems they had had a very wet autumn so far, and were expecting more snow than usual this winter.
He asked where we were from... (not sure why he didn't think we were locals). It turns out that he had been in the military and had lived in Beaufort SC for a few years. After that, he decided to return to NY. "Never could get used to the humidity and the bugs." he said. Coastal SC can get pretty hot and humid in the summer, but it sure doesn't approach 20 below in the winter.
Before long we are approaching Vermont and the Lake Champlain Islands area. The sun is finally out, Pam is settled into her navigators position with Bobbi on her lap, and we are finally there.

The Lake Champlain Islands are very pretty and exactly what you would imagine a New England setting would be. Houses on the lake shore, boat piers behind them, even a few boats (motor and sail) on the water today. The leaves on the trees are spectacular. The road winds down through the islands with the lake first on the left, then on the right, then on the left again. With the trees reflecting from the opposite shore into the water it looks like double colors.
We cross several bridges and the road has taken a more easterly direction. We pass over a couple more bridges and on to a rather small island with the water easily visible on both sides. We have been looking for a spot for lunch, but the pull off up ahead is already crowded with cars, so we keep going.

A little later we are back on the interstate - I-89 between Burlington VT and Montpielier, the state capital. The first rest stop is the Vermont welcome center, so we decide we can't wait another minute and pull in to make lunch. This welcome center had free internet WiFi avaialble, but I didn't try it. I am not sure if other Vermont rest stops have internet access or not.
Soon we are approaching our exit from I-89 onto Vermont Route 100 headed north to Stowe. That exit is at Waterbury VT. On Rt 100 we soon pass Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, Cold Hollow Cider Mill (all crowded with tourists) and pretty soon we see the entrance to our campground up ahead. Gold Hollow Campground will be our "home" for the next 4 nights.

We pull in to the campground entrance and realize that it is on an old farm in a meadow. This is a beautiful spot with the grassey fields all around and the gold hue of the mountains in the background. We check in at the office and get our site assignment - #73. The manager tells us that the sites have "back to back" utility hookups. That means that the water, electric, and sewer connections for 2 campsites are in the same general spot between the campsites. That also means that one camper pulls into his site, while the other backs in so both can reach the connections. In some campgrounds this is very inconvient, but we have a pull in, and there is a couple of trees, the picnic table and a large grassy area between us and our neighbor on the awning side of our RV. Besides that, after pulling in, the view out our front window is wonderful. No campers or streets in front of us.. only a large grassy field with mountains in the distance. What a view! This is going to be great.

We soon get a call from our friends from Texas. They have arrived at the Burlington Airport and will be heading to their Inn in Stowe shortly. That is only a few miles from our campground.
Let me explain something before going any further. Our friends are very special frinds to us. They are concerned (and rightly so) about identify theft and other internet based identity problems. Therefore, I will not mention their names or any other personal information about them. We have known them for about 15 years and try to visit with them at least once or more each year. The last few years we have been able to get together for a vacation. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have close friends with which we can share special times and special places. So while I will not mention them, realize that they are very much a part of this trip.
We get our call...their flight was uneventful, and they are in their room at the inn (sounds like Mary and Joseph doesn't it...), and we'll go pick them up for dinner in a while.

That will work out fine because Bobbi is about to go crazy spending so much time with us over the past 4 days. Cats really are curious creatures. They sleep most of the day and roam around most of the night. During a normal day, we are working or doing other things in and mostly out of the house. I think getting into the RV with us really bothers her internal schedule. For the first day she is not really sure what we have in mind, so she sits on Pam's lap watching everything go by. Then the first night she is on her usual sleep a little, wonder around alot schedule. The second day out she is beginning to get tired, and seems like she can't wait to get to the campground where she can settle in. When we get to a rest stop for a few minutes, she tries to get in the bed or closet where she likes to sleep during the day. Then when we start up again, she is back up front with us looking like she's thinging "when the heck are you going to stop this moving house and let me get some rest!" So now here at the campground, she is wanting us to just get out and leave her alone for some piece and quiet.

We drive the few miles to the inn and greet our friends. It is really great to see them again. We choose a restaurant that is in Stowe for dinner, a place called Gracie's. Stowe is really a ski resort area. It is one of the oldest ski resorts in the country, maybe the oldest. But the fall "leaf peeping" season as they refer to it, has become larger than ski season. The streets of Stowe are lined with antique shops, gift shops, galleries, and restaurants, not to mention the many inns, hotels, resorts, and the ubiquitious bed and breakfasts that we see everywhere. It sometimes appears that anyone with an old house has turned it into a B&B.

Now I know that some of you are reading this and think I am describing a very "tacky" (I think that is a southern word that means gawdy) area similar to a Myrtle Beach or Gatlinburg TN. But it is no where close to that. All of the resorts and shops are somewhat understated and somehow tend to blend in with the town. No big billboards, neon lights, no Ripley Believe it or Not kind of places. Lots and lots of people though. Downtown Stowe is New England Mountain witht he meeting house/church with the large white steeple on top. Comming down from the mountain the road winds its way through meadows and woods for an occasional down into the valley where you can see to colors of fall and the white spire of the church steeple rising above all else. In spite of the crowds, this is a rather peaceful and relaxing place.

Gracies Restaurant: This is an interesting place indeed. Gracie as it turns out, is not the owner or cook, it is a dog. The whole place is dog themed. After a great meal at a table not too far from a family with a loud bunch of kids, we part ways and look forward to tomorrow, when we can really get started exploring some of the Vermont mountains.

Across NY from West to East.

2006-10-01T00:03:00.000-04:00

Next morning we were a little lazy and didn't get going until about 10:30. Like I said before we had all day today, Sunday, and Monday until 3:00 or 3:30 to get where we needed to be to meet our friends. I had always thought it would be interesting to follow the shore of Lake Ontario, so thats what we do. We cruise past more farms, vineyards, pumpkin patches. There is a lot of very large farms here, and beautiful homes along the Lake Ontario shore.

The shore seems to be somewhat eleveted from the lake itself. It is difficult to tell from the road. Maybe the houses are situated up about 10 to 20 feet above the lake? And there appear to be very few if any with any sort of dock for boats behind the homes. I wonder if that is due to the rough water conditions or ice in the winter. However almost every creek or small bay we cross has lots of boats in it.

One town we go through has a lot of activities going on. Cars are parked along the streets and people walking down the street toward the center of town. We are in Hilton, home of the Hilton Apple Fest. All kinds of food vendors and activities. This looks like it would be a fun stop, and the weather is beautiful. It's a little cool for us, but alot of the people we pass are wearing short sleeved shirts and shorts. Too bad we are not retired yet with unlimited time, we would definitely stop and spend a couple of hours here and get some lunch at one of the local food stands. But we press on.

We are nearing the outskirts of Rochester NY. We go through a smaller town called Greece. We see numerous signs saying "No Greece Soccer Complex." Looks like a politicial battle of some sort. And these signs were all over the place in people's yards. I later found out that there is a youth soccer club with over 450 kids on 26 teams in the area. The proposal was to build a complex with 25 fields and 1700 parking places on 120 acres in the area. Wow! What a large sports complex that would be. With all the traffic those soccer moms would bring, no wonder they want it stopped.

Through Rochester and along Highway 104, on through Osewgo at the end of Lake Ontario, and finally to I-81 south of Watertown NY. Soon we are purring along the interstate headed north...way north... way way north. It is not to long before we cant go any farther north in the US on this road. We can see the Canada border up ahead and we pull off the interstate and head East on Highway 12. Actually the road goes much more north than east. This is rather desolate country and the road follows the St Lawrence River. This is a massive river with a lot of cargo traffic. It is a very isolated looking landscape on the south side where we are, but across the river we can see several large manufacturing facilities. Not sure what they are or what they manufacture over there, but they do take advantage of the river transportation.

We are pretty soon in the Thousand Islands region. The road goes on and on, and we meet very few cars or trucks in this area. I'm sure that during the summertime there is much more traffic in the area, but not now! This area would definitely be worth a visit to spend a little time here. We'll have to put that on a future trip list. Soon we pass through Ogdensburg and are headed toward Massena. There is a state park near there right on the river - Robert B Moses State Park - that looks promising for the evening. As long as we get there before dark we shojld be ok. I don't like having to pull into a strange campground after dark, having to unhook the car and back into a campsite if I can avoid it.

Speaking of Robert Moses, I have to admit ignorance concerning his name. I had never studied NY history, but Robert Moses literally changed the face of NY - for better or worse some say is still up for discussion. Moses was a city/urban planner and archtect. Many of his work projects changed the cities and state in which he worked. For example, he is considered to be the "master builder" of present day NY City and some of it's suburbs such as Long Island. Although he never held public office, he was considered the most powerful man in NY during the 1930 - 1950 time period. He favored highways and road systems over public transportation and as a result many of the highways and bridges in the area now were his ideas. He left his legacy all across the state of NY. Thats why we went to Niagara Falls on the Robert Moses Parkway, and are considering staying in the Robert Moses State park tonight. His name is important to the history of NY.

So now that I know who Moses is, we begin to look for the park bearing is name. According to the trusty campground guide book, I go through Massena, turn left on Hwy 131, go 5 miles then find the park entrance on the right. I hope it is accurate directions because it is getting darker by the minute. We are on 4 lane divided highway in this part of Massena, so it shouldn't be hard to find our turn. Past the Wal-Mart, i see Hwy 131 ahead, make the turn and keep going....hopefully for 5 miles just like the book says. But as we go farther the road seems to narrow and it is looking less and less like we are going to find a campground in this area. On we go, and like a dummy I am not paying close attention to the odemeter, but clearly we have gone more than 5 miles. And there is nothing around here even remoetly looking like a campground or state park. I start to look for a place to turn around, but no such luck. There are a few small houses and moble homes in the area with narrow little driveways. Nothing to pull an RV pulling a car into to do a U-Turn. Now it has gotten completely dark, and this road seems to be headed toward the river. I'm beginning to have visions of comming to a dead end on a narrow back road with no place to turn around...and this road seems to go on and on. Then up ahead I see signs for a junction with Hwy 37. That was the road we turned OFF of after we passed the Wal-Mart a while back. The road we were on made a loop all the way around Massena and now we are about 10 or 12 miles back where we started. Well, at least now we know where we are, and I'm starting to think that that Wal-Mart parking is looking better and better for the night.

After another 15 minutes or so we are back at the Wal-Mart and the rain starts again. Thats it, no state park tonight. The Wal-Mart has a very large parking lot with plenty of room to spare. I find a spot, park, and run it to ask the managers permission. She was more than happy to have us stay the night there. We fixed some dinner and settled down for the night. This was one of the quietest spots we have ever spent the night, campground or not, and before we knew it, it was Monday morning and time to get going again for some more NY and finally Vermont.

Here is a picture of Bobbi that I wanted to share; Does she look like she owns the place or what?

More later...

Niagara Falls

2006-09-30T22:48:00.000-04:00

We are finally going to get to see Niagara Falls!

After a restful night, it is time to get going so that we can get to Niagara Falls. Our original plan called for us to get to Niagara Falls yesterday, take the Peace Bridge into Canada and stay at an RV park along the river just south of the falls. However due to the driving and all of the scenery in PA and along Lake Erie, why rush?

So as 9:30 rolls around we disconnect the electricity, reconnect the Tracker and head East. We decide that since it was such a nice drive along the Lake Erie coast last night, we should continue that today. We head up route 5 retracing our track from Dunkirk last evening. But the drive is pretty slow so we decide to cross the NY Thruway and get on Route 20. It is a little faster and will take us to Buffalo a little quicker. Looking at the map it looks like we should stay on 20, to around the east side of Buffalo, then head north. There is a campground I found in the campground guide in Lewiston NY just north of Buffalo. I'm thinking that we should not waste time trying to take the RV into Canada. Lets just find a RV park near the falls on the US side then take the Tracker over to view the falls.

As we get nearer to Buffalo, I decide to get back on Route 5 which will lead us to I-190 back across the river and Grand Island, then north to Lewiston and the Niagara Falls North KOA. The weather is nice today with no rain. Headed north we pass Buffalo with the Niagara River on our left and soon we are out of the city and near Lewiston where we soon locate the KOA. It is on a back road that backs up to an Indian Reservation.

We check in and get settled, have some lunch, then back in the Tracker for our trip to visit the falls. The Robert Moses Parkway follows the river all the way to the Niagara Falls State Park. It is a beautiful drive and just before the State Park entrance is the Rainbow Bridge to Canada. We don't have passports, but according to all the information we could find, a valid picture and original birth certificates to prove citizenship is all we need. I understand that that will change at the end of 2007 and passports will be required. But we have what we need for now so here we go.

The border crossing was simple; a few questions about what we are here for and when we will be leaving, and a "Welcome to Canada."

The falls are awesome! The parkway winds along side the river heading south. Even this time of year there are a lot of people here! The mist from the falls is heavy, and since the wind is blowing from the east, it is like a hard rain as you are just passing the falls. We drive on a little, about half a mile from the falls and find a parking spot. Hourly parking fee listed in both US and Canadian dollars.

We spend the next couple of hours walking around the falls area. It is really difficult to take your eyes off of the site. As we approach the falls from the upriver side the sheer volume of water rushing down the river toward their eventual crash into the chasm below leaves you speechless. This is so much more than just a tourist attraction, it is truley a natural wonder of North America, if not the world. Check our some of our pictures at our Dotphoto.com site.

Pam at Niagara Falls, with the falls in the background.

Looking down into the falls, an unbelievable sight!

I would NOT want to be on that boat, but it was full of people (that paid a lot of money) to take that ride. And just like they show on TV, they were all wearing their blue plastic rain ponchos. Wonder why?

After a walking to the falls we decide to cross the street to the gift shop and food court. There is a large area of the park with flower gardens and a building housing the food court, gift shops, rest rooms, and the tick window to buy tickets for the Maid of the Mist (picture above) and the "wind cave" tour. This is a cave that takes you down to an area behind the falls. We decided to forgo that little trip in favour of some ice cream and some souviener shoppping. We found a few tee shirts and of course, a set of Niagara Falls thimbles to add to Pam's collection.

Soon we were on our way back across the bridge, birth certificates in hand. What a surprise with the US border guard only asked us for picture IDs. We gave him our driver license and our license tag number. "Have a good day!", and we are back in the US. Soon we are back to the campground. It is dark and getting a little chilly, so instead of going back out to eat, we finish up the tuna casserole we started last night and call it a day. Ummmm , now I have to decide where to to tomorrow. We'll have all day Sunday and Monday until 3:00 PM before our friends from Texas meet us in Vermont. We'll just take it easy tomorrow and not try to drive too late in the day.

Campground Review:

Our campground is the Niagara Falls North KOA. Here is there website: Niagara Falls North KOA. All in all, it was a nice if a little overpriced, overnight stop. It is located very close to the Robert Moses Parkway that goes right to the falls. The parkway is like the Blue Ridge Parkway in that it doesn't allow commercial traffic.

The campground owners were very friendly and offered information on the area and touring the falls. They also pointed out local stores and gas station where we could fuel up. The campground was a little tight though. We had a pull through site that made it very easy to get in and out without unhooking the Tracker. The trees were very close though, and I had to drive very slowly and carefully to avoid the trees. Anyway, it didn't take long to navigate through the campground and into our space. Getting out the next morning was a little worrisome. The road in front of us was very narrow and there were campers in the site across from us. With a tree right beside us on our site, I wouldhae to pull straight out as close to our across the street neighbor as I could before making the left turn out to avoid the tree. With a little careful watching and not getting in a hurry, I made it just fine. This really is a convenient spot as a base for touring the falls and I would definitely consider it again if in the area.

Home to Lake Erie.

2006-09-29T22:24:00.000-04:00

Well, it is finally Thursday evening and time go get going. We both had to work today, so we didn't get started until about 7:30 PM. We already had everything loaded into the camper, and I hooked the Tracker up behind the Bounder last night, so we really are ready to go.

Pam got home at about 6:30 so after getting a bite of supper we loaded the cat, locked up the house and off we go. We had planned on going up I-77 into West Virginia, taking US-19 at Beckley WV to I-79, then staying on I-79 all the way to Erie PA. Depending on the time we arrive on Friday, we may go into Canada and stay at a campground near Niagara Falls, or if we don't make the time that I think we should, we can stop before getting to Niagara Falls, then go there on Saturday.

It took an hour just to get through Charlotte and northbound on I-77. Rolling north on the interstate we finally feel like we are really going somewhere! By 10:15 PM we are passing through Fort Chiswell and were going Northbound on I-77 AND Southbound on I-81.. really.. check the map! Finally after a slow uphill pull into West Virginia, we were near Princeton WV. I was hoping to get a little farther tonight, but it is about 11:00 or so, and we are tired. There is the sign of a Wal-Mart supercenter just up ahead right off the exit. Pulling in there are a couple of tractor trailers parked but we are the only RV. I check with the manager on duty just to be sure it is ok to park for a few hours to be greeted and assured that it is no problem, just park out in the front of the lot where we will not interfear with customer parking. With that, we hit the sack and wake on Friday morning to a cool West Virginia morning.

Through WV, PA, and into NY

2006-09-29T21:23:00.000-04:00

Friday was a full day of West Virginia Mountains (wheew!) and through Pensylvania. With it raining off and on during the morning, we pulled up and coasted down the mountains through WV. Our route took us up I-77, US-19, and I-79. US-19 had some pretty steep hills with plenty of 6% and 7% grades. Just don't get in a hurry when you are driving a gas powered motorhome in those conditions. We frequently slowed down to around 45 on the steepest areas.

We pretty much took our time going through PA. Around Pittsburgh on I-79 was pretty uneventful. We didn't really have any side trips or interesting things we wanted to see in the area, and we were trying to get all the way to Niagara Falls if we could. But after lunch breaks and a fuel stop, we made it to Erie PA at about 5:00 PM.

We pulled off the interstate and took Route 5 into NY right along the Lake Erie shore. Comming over a large hill we saw Lake Erie in the distance merging with the cloudy horizon in the northern distance. Well, it is decision time. Push on past dark to Buffalo and make a border crossing at night without knowing how long that will take, or find a place soon and go the next couple of hours to Buffalo/Niagara Falls tomorrow morning. After a little discussion and consulting the campground guide, we make our decision.

We decided to stay near Erie PA that night instead of pushing all the way to Niagara Falls as I had planned. Lake Erie State Park in near Brocton NY looked like a nice stop and it was. A beautiful park right on Lake Erie.

Lake Erie at Sunset

The drive into Lake Erie state park was a beautiful drive. Large vineyards in the large fields bordering the lake, large cattle farms, and fruit orchards. The homes and villages in the area are very scenic. As we approached within a few miles of the state park we saw a detour sign ahead. So here we go back down a little side road with our little Chevy in tow, hoping that the road is wide enough to accomodate us. Finally we get to Hwy 20, a four lane road that takes up closer to our destination.

Low Bridge.. Everybody Down - remember that song from Captain Kangaroo when you were a kid? Well maybe you do if you are as old as me! I kept humming that song as we rode along Lake Erie. Lake Eric State Park is actually close to Brocton NY. We enter Brocton and at the light on Main Street we see a sign pointing left directing us to the state park. But I also notice that the sign says "No Trucks". Ummm.. wonder why? Before committing to the left turn I look down the road and see a sign saying "Clearance 11Feet Ahead". Whoops!... our Bounder is 11 feet 6 inches. I wouldn't want to leave our roof AC units stuck to the bottom of that bridge... so we keep headed north looking for the next truck route to take us back over to Route 5. Finally a few miles up the road we reach Dunkirk NY with a sign pointing north to Route 5. Half mile later we were turning back south on route 5 headed back to the Lake Erie State Park about 6 miles down the road.

It's nice and chilly tonite and it has really rained a lot today before we got to the State Park. Water is standing everywhere, and the wind is blowing right off the lake, making it seem even colder. We check into the campground and get an electric hookup. We didn't realize that the there were no water hookups at this campground, only electricity. There are a few water spigots located randomly around the campground so if you have a long hose or happen to be near one, then you can hookup. But otherwise, you better have a tankfull of water or be prepared to shower in the very cold showers at the bathhouse. Fortunately, we had plenty of water in our tanks. After a short walk around the campground and dinner,we hit the sack after a long day of driving.

OBX!

2006-07-31T22:00:00.000-04:00

We just returned from a week at the NC Outer Banks. We stayed all week at Camp Hatteras Campground near Rodanthe NC. What a great place this is. The area in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is very different from the northern communities of Nags Head and Kitty Hawk. I have not had the time to write about this trip yet, but will try to provide more information on our trip in the comming days. In the mean time, here are a couple of pictures. All of our pictures are available at our dotphoto.com web site: Our Dotphoto.com OBX Pictures.

Our Sound Side Campsite at Camp Hatteras.

Pristine Beaches at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Edisto Beach

2006-05-24T22:38:00.000-04:00

We have been wanting to try Edisto Beach State Park for quite a while. Back in February I tried to make reservations for a beach campsite and was only able to get a few week days. Thats when we decided to go to Charleston for the weekend then move to the beach.

Edisto is a beautiful place. As you enter the campground ther are many sites that are suitable for tents or small campers. Then the campground opens up and there is a loop with a number of campsites that are near the beach. Even the sites that are not on the beach, are no more than a hundred yards away, so you can't go wrong here.

We left OPC at about 10 AM and arrived at Edisto SP at about 11. But check in time is not until 2:00 we were told. The registrar let us unhook the Tracker and go check out the site we had reserved; #44. Yea.. it was empty. The previous campers were already gone, so we could move in.

Backing in was no problem and in no time we were on the beach trying out our new umbrella. Pam bought it at the Umbrella Factory near Rockingham NC and it worked great. Hopefully it will last quite a while.

It was rather windy so late afternoon brought a slight chill with the wind comming off the water. We decided to go ride around the island a little and check out a place to get some seafood. Again I call on Roadfood.com and Michael Stern's strong recommendation of the Old Post Office.

This is an outstanding upscale restaurant with top notch food. Crabcakes were great! It is a meal to remember.

After another cruise around this beautiful island, it was back to our campsite for a late walk on the beach and watching the sunset over the salt marsh right behind our camper. What a beautiful campground this is!

Tuesday was another beautiful day, and we literally spent the whole day on the beach. Reading, watching the Dolphins, talking to other campers, looking at the shrimp boats fising. That night we fired up the charcoal grill for hamburgers and a veggie burger for you know who.

I haven't said much about Bobbi on this trip. Edisto is such a natural place, there were birds of all kinds in the air and on the ground that kept her occupied all day. Her spot is in the front window where she can keep an eye on everything going on. At night, she likes the same spot but she is between the window shade and the window so she can see the activities in the campground.

Wednesday morning we spend as long as we could on the beach, then packed up, unhooked, dumped our holding tanks and were on the way home.

Can't wait to go again!

Charleston and Edisto Beach SC

2006-05-21T20:56:00.000-04:00

Plan Early and Often!

Finally, It looks like we will get to Edisto Beach State Park! Several times in the past we have tried to get reservations at Edisto, a beautiful SC State Park right on the beach about 35 miles south of Charleston. But with the new online reservations system, it is so easy to book these beach side campsites, that most of them are booked an entire year in advance. That doesn't leave much space for us folks that have to plan trips around work and other events. After the FMCA rally in February of this year, I decided to see if I could get a site at Edisto in May. Our wedding anniversery is May 25, so we always like to do a little something special on that date. So after 31 years of maritial bliss(?!) we decided on Edisto.

(Some pictures are posted here. View all of our pictures for this trip at our Dotphoto.com site.)

But even in February no weekend spaces were available that would accomodate our Bounder unless we opted to stay back in the woods a mile or so from the beach.. which is not where we want to be. Checking out the reservations system I did find a beach area site that looked reasonable and it was available on Monday and Tuesday. So why not go back to Charleston for the weekend and stay at Oak Plantation Campground, then move to the beach and head home Wednesday? Sounds like a plan to me, so Edisto and OPC were booked.

Getting Ready to Go.

I am not going to go into all the prep that had to be done to get ready for this trip. After the trip to Florida in February, we did decide to upgrade the toad, so I bought a 2004 Chevy Tracker from Helms Auto Sales in Monroe. The Helms' (Cousins Brad, Bennett, and Uncle Dub) had just what we wanted at the right price. The Tracker is 4X4, 4 Door, and easily towable behind the Bounder. I added a Blue Ox base plate to the tracker and a Blue Ox Tow Bar that is soooo easy to use. It stays on the back of the Bounder when not in use and is almost invisible when removed from the front of the Tracker and only takes seconds to remove. I'll try to write about that on our Miscelaneous page at a later time. I also added a rock guard skirt to the rear of the Bounder to keep road derbis and rock from chiping the paint on the front of the Tracker.

The Tracker is very easy to tow.. just put the 4 wheel drive in Neutral and you are ready to go!

Friday Departure.

Late Friday, May 19 after work we were able to hit the road about 5:00 PM. I was hoping that daylight saving time would give us time to get to Oak Plantation before it gets too dark. Our planned route from Monroe, is US 601 to Sumter SC, then US 521 to I-95, then I-26 and I-526 to US 17 south of Charleston. Oak Plantation Campground (OPC) is about 5 miles south of i-526 on US 17.

With the water tank sanatized and partially filled, gas tank about half full (gas is about 17 cents less in SC), groceries, summer clothes and bathing suites, and the cat loaded we were on the road again. It was a much slower trip than I anticipated. It seemed like every elderly person in Camden and Sumter was out visiting or going to the Golden Corral for dinner. During one segment we followed a big ol' Buick that would not dare go over 35 miles per hour. And of course with the Bounder pulling the Tracker and traffic being what it was, I could not pass, so just settled in for the ride.

We pulled into OPC at about 8:30 PM. The office was closed but they left the directions for out site taped to the door with instructions to come back to the office in the morning to check in and settle up. The sites are very large - spacious is the right word, so we were able to quickly pull in, connect the water and electricity and settle in.

Here we are at Oak Plantation GC in between a couple of diesel pushers.

Beautiful sunset through the old oaks at Oak Plantation, Charleston SC.

Saturday we slept a little late, and took our time getting out. About 9:00 I went to the office and checked in and paid up. OPC has what I think is a good policy for reservations and returns. They get a $20 deposit to make the reservation so if something happens and you can't make the trip, you are only out $20. A lot of RV parks get your entire fee up front and may or may not refund if you have problems getting there. I really like OPC. Here is their web site: http://www.oakplantationcampground.com/

Later we took a ride down to a little place called Rockville on the mainland west of Seabrook island, then up to James Island area. We then rode up the Ashley River Road, Hwy 66 past several plantations on the Ahley River. We decided to stop at Drayton Hall Plantation, the oldest continuously occupied plantation in America, according to the tour guide. (http://www.draytonhall.org/. This is a beautiful old place right on the river.

We were able to hear a short program on how slave labor was used to build the plantations and suport the economy of the area during the rice planting era. Then we took a guided tour of the house. The house has not been restored and is being maintained in original condition.

Drayton Hall Plantation on the Ashley River.

Chillin' on the Ashley River at Drayton Hall Plantation

Later we headed back toward Charleston and thanks to the recommendation of Roadfood.com we checked out the Anchor Line Restaurant. This spot is on the Folly Beach road just before crossing the waterway bridge from the mainland to Folly Beach. I say thanks to the recommendations because it does NOT look like a place you may stop without having some advanced knowledge.

See what I mean? The tables are picnic tables on the deck out back. 3 or 5 guys are inside cooking up some of the best fresh fish and shrimp you can imagine.

Sunday morning we went to Fort Sumpter National Park. With all the trips we have made to Charleston we have never made it to Fort Sumpter. This was a great boat trip across the harbour with a beautiful view of the houses along the battery and the awesome new Cooper River Bridge.

Here I am at the ready, waiting for the Yankee's to return...

whoooops, they are already there! Lots of 'em.

After the few hours to Fort Sumpter and back, we walked around the historic district for a while. We decided we should have a late lunch/early dinner in town then head back to the CG. We tried Hank's Restaurant, but he was closed until 5:00 PM.. and it only 3:00! So we walk back down to Cumberland on Meeting Street and stop in at Diana's for a good flounder sandwich and we had to try some of her Peach Cobbler! Man.. I'm glad we have a lot of walking to do for the rest of the day. Great meal!

FMCA Rally

2006-02-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

During the last week in January thru February 5, 2006, we were able to take a week to attend our first Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) South East Area (SEA) rally. This was the first time we have been able to attend one of the FMCA rallys. Since the rally offically started on Wednesday February 1, we decided to leave home on Friday afternoon January 27. This would allow us to spend several days exploring some of the Gulf coast for a few days before checking into the rally. The rally is held at the Hernando County Airport near Brooksville Florida. My Dad and Mom attend this rally regularly, so we thought this would be a good oportunity to go RVing with them for a change.

Leaving Homosassa on Wednesday morning, we said good bye to our spot on Halls River and headed for Brooksville and our first FMCA Rally. This rally is the FMCA SouthEast Area (SEA) Rally. http://www.fmca.com Mom and Dad have been to this rally many times, as well as other larger national FMCA rallys, and wanted us to join them for this one.

FMCA is the Family Motor Coach Association, and with over two hundred thousand family members, some of the rallys can be quite large. The national rallys held two times per year may have as many as 5000 - 6000 coaches. The SEA rally in Brooksville is the largest area rally. Since it is in Florida in the winter, it attracts about 2500 - 3000 coaches. It is held at the Hernando County Airport.

This airport is an old military facility that was given to Hernando County in the 1980s. It is a very large facility and the County only uses a small part of it for their General Aviation facility. It it is pretty awesome to see thousands of RVs parked on the two 5000 foot runways that are no longer in use.

We met Mom and Dad there on Wednesday afternoon and checked in and parked.

Here we are parked with the Civic next to us. Thats Mom and Dad's Southwind right behind us.

Here is a view up a row of motorhomes.

The rally was lots of fun. It reminded me a little of an old time county fair with vendor and craft booths under a very large tent. And of course, there were lots of motorhome dealers showing the latest and greatest in new coaches. We looked at coaches of all sizes, from $1.3 Million Prevost conversions to very small van conversions and everything in between.

If we were retired........

We are all 3 looking forward to going to another rally in the future.

Crystal River,Homosassa Springs, Cedar Key

2006-01-31T20:44:00.000-05:00

While in the Homosassa area we made a couple of side trips. One of note was to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. This place is kind of like a little zoo but not quite. It is home to hundreds of species of birds and fish, as well as several "resident" manatees. There is also a underwater viewing area. This is built right over the natural springs that feed the river and in the deepest part of the river. You go down a couple of flights of stairs and look through the surrounding glass to see into the clear water. Thousands of fish and several manatees can usually be seen.

This place is also a manatee research and rescue facility and is definitely worth a trip. The flock of pink flamingos was wild...and I thought you could only buy them to stick up in your front yard!

Manatees at Homosassa Springs

Pink Flamingos! (Really!)

According to Jimmy Buffet - "Travis McGee went to Cedar Key". Well, so did Chuck and Pam.

We decided to take a ride up to Cedar Key. It is about an hour north of Homosassa then about 30 miles west. Be prepared to see nothing much but birds and water. It is a beautiful area that is not developed at all. It is what Key West must have been like 40 years ago.

We stoped at a little place called Annies for a lunch of Crabcake sandwich and a cheesburger (inparadise). Here' s a picture of Pam standing in front of Annies front door. Its definitely not your chain burger joint!

Here is the view from the end of Cedar Key looking west across the Gulf.

Tarpon Springs....

Next day it was raining so we decided to head down to Tarpon Springs and see what was in that area. We drove through a little place called Hudson Beach and found a cool little resturant right on the beach (Hudson Beach Inn and Restaurant) for lunch.

Further on down in Tarpon Springs we found a place to park..no free parking so bring $ for parking in private lots. There are plenty of gift shops with all of the little tacky souviners, but there are also LOTS of sponge shops. The sponge boats unload right there on the streets and many of the shops sell local sponges.

And of course since Tarpon Springs in rich in Greek heritage....Greek Pastry Shops!

Sponge Boats

Sponges and MORE Sponges!

Homosassa Florida

2006-01-29T22:21:00.000-05:00

Saturday takes us down I-95 toward the Florida border. I was looking for that Flying J near Brunswick GA to get fuel. GA fuel is 23 cents less that in NC. Fuel in GA looked to be in the $2.10 range, while in NC it was $2.33.

But we were talking about something or other and the next thing I know we were crossing the FL state line. Oh well.. we'll look for fuel further down the road.

I planned on turning west on route A1A; taking it over to US301 and staying on 301 until Gainesville. I figured that there would be plenty of fuel opportunities where 301 crosses I-10. In this part of Florida you really get the feel for the farming and agriculture that is still a major part of the economy. Most think of Florida as nothing but beaches and giant theme parks (Orlando). But Florida still ranks very high in fruit, vegetable, and cattle production. And you see many horse farms in this area.

Approaching I-10 in Baldwin FL I see several truck stops that will give us an opportunity to fuel up. I pull into the giant Travel America (TA) plaza to find that there are NO RV FRIENDLY GAS PUMPS!!! This crazy place has acres of space for diesel trucks to fill up and park. And even though they advertise to the RV community, their gas pumps were so close to the front of the store that there is no way that an RV could pull into the pumps and turn back to get on the street. Next door is a Pilot truck stop that is the same way. Looking on down the road I see nothing else and I do need fuel, so I do a U-turn and go back to a small BP station/convience store. It is a small lot but the pumps are parallel to the road, so I can pull in, fuel up, and pull back on the highway. $147 later, we are back on the road.

On south through Gainsville, onto Hwy 24 and south we continue. Finally we begin to see some of the lakes and springs for which this part of Florida is known. And the temperature was warming up too. Nice! Getting back up about 75degrees or so really feels good.

Making a left turn onto Hwy 19 we are almost to Crystal River and the Homosassa area. THe traffic is heavy indicating that we are finally in a tourist area. Halls River Road, our last turn before finding the Natures Resort RV Park.

Natures Resort http://www.naturesresortfla.com/ is a quiet kind of place located on the Halls River. The camp store and office is located near the main entrance. A winding road takes you through the cg down toward the river where you find a lagoon (pond), clubhouse and activity room, laundry mat, and a marina store with a little cafe.

We chose a site (there were only a couple to choose from this time of year since it is peak season) that is about 150 yards from the river. We unhooked the car, backed the RV in, and in no time we were in our Homosassa home.

The next thing is to find some fresh seafood. I had spent time on Roadfood.com (http://roadfood.com/) to try to get some recommendations for this area. One of the places is Charlies Fish House in Crystal River. So that was our first stop. It is right on Crystal River and the view was great, as well as the food.

Over the next couple of days we'll explore the area.

Headed for Florida

2006-01-27T17:30:00.000-05:00

We have spend most of the week during our "Spare TIme" to get the Bounder ready for our trip to Florida. Last week I was able to get the coach back to Tom Johnson RV in Concord for some warranty service. This included finding and fixing a leak under the kitchen sink, working on the slide mechanisms (they seem sluggish and require you to push the slide switch several times in order to get them completely out), plus several other small items that needed to be taken care of. Most of the stuff was done well, but they still didn't get the slides fixed. My concern is that that will cause something else to go wrong with the slides, but they assured me that its ok. A part has been ordered from Fleetwood that is supposed to take care of this issue.

I also was able to get up to Rowells RV and Customizing last Saturday to get some valve stem extenders added to the rear dual tires. This has taken care of the tire pressure check issues I wrote about earlier.

Most of the evenings this week were taken to load up the Bounder with our clothes and other supplies. Pam cooked several cassaroles that she put in the freezer so we have several meals ready to eat. But I am looking forward to getting some fresh seafood in Florida.

6:10 PM Friday we pull out of the drive way and head south. Since the FMCA rally doesn't start until Wednesday, Dad and Mom will not leave until Tuesday, so we will meet them in Brooksville Wednesday.. so we have several days to explore the West Central Gulf Coast of Florida.. the Nature Coast.

Headed south down Hwy. 601, we intend to stay on US 601 to Camden SC, pick up US 521, then I-95 to FL. After that, I want to take Highway US 301 south to Gainsville then cut cross country to Homosassa. We have reservations at Natures Resort in Homosassa FL from Saturday through Tuesday.

Traffic was light, so the drive was easy. Bobbi was her ususal nervous self the first hour or so, but after that she settles into the routine nicely. Camden is a pretty town, and there we found our way to US501. Sumpter is a little further down the road. The last strech of 501 before getting on I-95 had some major construction going on, but eventually it will be a 4 lane road from Sumpter all the way to I-95.

It was dark when we turned onto I-95, but when you first get on the interstate you really feel like you are traveling! We pulled off at a rest stop just south of I-26 for a very short break and then back on the road again.

By about 10:00 were getting near Savannah and had to decide what to do for the night since I don't drive all night. I did want to leave early so we could get to Homosassa by mid day Saturday. The last thing I wanted to do was pull into a strange RV park after dark. But by 10 we decided to find a place to get some sleep. I knew that Brunswick GA has a Flying J truck stop that we could use for fuel and rest... but that is still well over an hour away. A friend with Savannah coonnections had told me about a Wal-Mart parking lot at the airport exit in Savannah. We found the exit and pulled off. The Wal-Mart had a small parking lot, but the Home Depot next door had plenty of room... and there were already over 20 RVs pulled in there.

We had to circle the lot a couple of times to find an out of the way place to park, and I wasn't sure when the Home Depot opened on Saturday morning, so I wanted to aviod taking any space that early morning do-it-yourselfers might use getting an early start on their weekend projects.

It was a rather noisy place, with trucks in and out all night, and at about 2:00 AM the parking lot sweeper started work, but all in all, sleep was accomplished and by 8:00 AM we had had our coffee and were back on the road.

Editorial: There seems to be quite of emotion in discussions and on the internet forums about spending the night in a public parking lot as opposed to paying for a campground space. I understand all of the sides to that discussion... but for me it is not a matter of money.. it is a matter of convience. Why spend the time finding, getting into and out of, and paying for a space to spend a few hours resting? If the campground owners want to provide that service, then they should have an area within their property that is esentially a parking lot. For a very small fee ($5 - $10), you could park - no hookups, generators ok, in and out. If you need it, for another couple of bucks take water and use the dump station. I think a secure area like this within the CG property would fill that niche.

We Are Home!

2005-10-22T22:07:00.000-04:00

Over the past 6 days we have traveled from New Mexico back home by way of Austin Texas. Some of the highlighes are:

Traveling from Las Cruces to Carlsbad Caverns via El Paso
Seeing the bats (300,000 of them) leave the caverns at sundown
Walking down into the Carlsbad Caverns and through the "Big Room"
Traveling through central/western Texas to Austin Texas
Visiting the Lyndon Johnson boyhood home in Johnson City TX
Drive through east Texas to Shreveport LA.
Drive through Philadelphia Mississippi and the Neshoba County Courthouse, sight of the "Mississippi Burning Trial"
Night in Tuscaloosa Alabama that just happens to be the night before the Alabama/Tennessee football game.

I am not going to write the complete trip report for this week, but here are some of the pictures we made along the way.

Here we are at a roadside picnic table in west Texas with the Guadalupe Mountains in the background. This is on Highway 62/180 between El Paso Texas and Carlsbad New Mexico.

The Guadelupe Mountains span the border of Texas and New Mexico. Our route will take us over these mountains and on toward Carlsbad Caverns NM.

Here is the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns. The 'theater' in the foreground is where we sat to watch the 300,000 bats exit the caves at dusk. These bats make their way over the desert to the Pecos River miles to the south to feed on insects, then return at dawn to their roosting place inside the caves.

Monday night's camp spot in the Rio Conchos State Park just north of San Angelo Texas

This is the homestead of the grandfather of Lyndon Johnson in Johnson City Texas. I visited LBJs boyhood home near this site.

Headed back east, here is the Mississippi River and I-20 in Vicksburg MS.

One More Day in Las Cruces & Road Trip To White Sands

2005-10-15T23:51:00.000-04:00

We woke up this morning with rain pounding on the coach roof. It was really coming down, and it continued until about 10:30. Even after that the sky was covered with heavy blue looking clouds and it continued to drizzle/rain off and on. With all that going on we decided to stay here another day and see if it cleared up a little later. Then maybe we would take the Civic over to White Sands.

I went to the office and paid up another day and soon after that it began to clear a little. It was really warming up some too.

By about 11:00 we were in the Civic headed up Hwy 70 toward the Organ Mountains and San Agustin Pass. Then we head down into the Tularosa Basin. This vast desert is surrounded by mountains to the east and west, and is the site of the White Sands National Monument, and the White Sands Missle Range.

White Sands is a 300 square mile area of gypsum sand dunes in the middle of this desert. There is a paved road that turns off of Hwy 70 at the visitors center where you can see exhibits of the geology and history of the area.

The paved road goes a couple of more miles into the edge of the dune area, then the roads are hard packed white sand. The reason for that is the sand dunes are constantly shifting and moving through the area. The roads are continuously scraped and cleared. The white sand piled on the roadside looks like snow that has been plowed onto the roadside.

Here is a picture of the Civic parked in a picnic area in the middle of the dunes. The little picnic shelters have a cover over the tables.

What really looked wierd is all of the standing water after the heavy morning rain. The gypsum sand is so dense that water stands in flat areas and in the parking pull offs and picnic areas.

We went as far into the dune area as the road took us , and then got out and walked up to the top of one of the large dunes to take a look around. There is white sand as far as the eye can see. Thats Pam coming up from the parking area.

There were families playing on the dunes, with kids and those little saucer shaped sleds sliding town the dunes.

After we left White Sands, we continued north on Hwy 70 to Alamogordo. Sitting at the base of the Sacramento Mountains towering over it, Alamogordo is home to Holloman Air Force Base. It is a neat town with a large park in the center of town.

We stopped at Blake's Lot-o-burger for a quick lunch, ( I finally got a green chile cheeseburger) and then rode a little further north before turning on Hwy 82 toward the mountain town of Cloudcroft. It is a very steep road that winds up into the mountains. There are numerous pullouts so slower traffic can get out of the way of faster traffic. We got out of the way. At the top just before entering a tunnel through a part of the mountain, there is a scenic overlook with an awesome view back toward the west. From there you could see all the way across the Tularosa Basin back to the west and the peaks of the San Andres Mountains. You can also see the huge field of White Sands dunes streching miles and miles in the distance.

Over the pass and into the mountains we soon get to the small town of High Rolls. Up ahead we see red lights of emergency vehicles flashing. There has been a rock slide and the westbound lane is completely covered with slabs of large boulders. Several sheriff deputies were there directing traffic. Slowly we moved through and continued.

That area remided us a little of the NC mountains. There are plenty of green trees in the area, and valleys with ranches. Apples are grown in the area and there were numerous apple stands and antique shops. After going over the pass, we thought we had seen enough and decided to turn back. This area of high desert and rugged mountains is very isolated with few roads through the area, so it is difficult to make a "loop" back to your starting point without traveling hundreds of miles. So we turned back to retrace our track back to Las Cruces.

Back past the rock slide area, we see that they are still waiting on some heavy equipment to move the giant stones. (We did meet a large truck with a bulldozer blade on the front heading up as we were on the way down.)

Back down on the desert floor in Alamogordo, we had a sweet attack and stopped at Sonic for some ice cream. Then it was back on the road to the RV park where we arrived about 6:00 PM.

We did a couple of loads of clothes in the laundrymat, and I put the tow bar on the Civic so I wouldn't have that to do in the morning.

Dinner tonite was leftovers from La Posta last nite.

I don't know when I will have internet access again, so this may be the last post for a while, possiby even until we get home. I have heard that some of the rest stops in Texas have internet access. Our plan is to leave Carlsbad on Monday and go through west Texas about half way to Austin, then get to Austin on Tuesday afternoon. While Pam visits and shops with friends on Wednesday, I want to visit the LBJ Ranch and Homeplace near Johnson City TX. Then we plan on leaving Austin Thursday and getting back home sometime Saturday. That way if there any delays, we will have Sunday as a extra day.

My real goal, is to try some authentic Texas briskett BBQ and see what all the fuss is about.

Las Cruces all week

2005-10-11T23:20:00.000-04:00

We are in Las Cruces NM now. We arrived on Monday afternoon and are staying at the Hacienda RV Resort. This is a beautiful place and one of the nicest RV Resorts we have ever stayed at.

I am working from the RV. Hacienda has on site phone, and wireless high speed internet. I work on Eastern Time to be in synch with those that I normally work with, so I start my day at about 6:30 AM. The commute takes about 6 to 8 seconds depending on traffic. We do get out in the evenings, so if there are things of interest about which to write, I will keep this post updated by labeling an additional section of this post with the day of the week.

Our Parking place at Hacienda RV Resort, Las Cruces NM.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Today is the last day we plan to stay here in Las Cruces. We have really enjoyed the weather which is much milder than it was up in Santa Fe, and this location. This RV park is nice and it is close to everything of interest.

This evening the RV Resort has their weekly "Margarita Party" reception on their common area patio. It was nice meeting some of the others here in the park.

There is a retired couple in an Alpha 5th wheel trailer that we met Monday while we were doing our laundry. They call Jacksonville Texas home, but have not lived there in 2 years. They bought the trailer to live in while they found the perfect retirement community, and so far they are still looking.

Another couple have Safari Trek motor home and are from California near Los Angeles. They dont full time, but do go on extended trips. They are 3 weeks into what they think will be a 3 month trip.

There are several RVs here with rather large satellite dishes on top that I could only assume were some sort of 2 way hookup. One couple in a 2001 Airstream trailer have such a dish on top. I asked him about it. He is an engineering consultant and the dish is a TV and Internet service called Data Storm. Anywhere he is with a open view to the south to connect with the satellite, he has high speed internet.

After that we went back to La Mesilla to La Posta resturant. This is supposed to be one of the best spots in the city, so we saved it for Friday night. We should have realized that others would be there on the weekend to, including a lot of students from NMSU. The place was PACKED, and they told us it would be an hour and a half wait! We talked about leaving, but what else do we have to do so we stayed.

La Posta is in an old building that was built back in the 1800s and was once a stop on the overland stage route. It was a restaurant and boarding house then. Now it is the resturant and several shops. The waiting area was in the old courtyard area, and has a tree growing in it with several large enclosed cage type areas with large birds and a parrot.

The wait was only 40 minutes, so I am glad we stayed. I decided to go for a Mexican steak, which was ground beef patty with green chilies on top and cheese. Pam ordered a chimychanga with beans, cheese and red chile sauce. We ended putting over half of all that in a take out box so I guess we'll have it for lunch tomorrow. Since its our last night, we decided to splurge on desert. I ordered Flan; a custard type of pudding covered with a caramel sauce. Pam ordered the Sopapilla, which is a fluffy flat bread type of tortilla that you put honey on. (At most of the "mom and pop:" type places we've been to, they have a jar of honey on the table for your soppapilla.

We waddled back to the Bounder and began to think about what we'll do tomorrow. The forecast says rain, but we will wait and see. I would like to go over to White Sands and then head to Carlsbad.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Nothing much to report today. I worked all day while it was overcast and a little rainy. Not enough to make the water stand anywhere, just cloudy.

It's really nice working from the Bounder. I actually think I get more done here than in the office; No one to drop by and chat with, no need to walk around to the other side of the building to go the bathroom, and no need to go out to lunch. And there is no other buildings to walk to for meetings.

And I do have a pretty good view from my office window looking out over the computer screen at the big rigs coming and going.

And the big rigs do roll through here. As I sit and see new arrivals pull into the office lot here, most are large diesel pushers, with the occasional gas coach. And a lot of them are towing full sized pickups or SUVs. One big Country Coach was even towing fully enclosed trailer with their Infinity SUV inside. I think our Bounder and maybe 2 other coaches here are gas, with the rest being diesel pushers or large 5ers. There are two hugh 5th wheel rigs here towed by by Freightliner tractors, customized with 4 doors, rear seats and a storage area behind the cab. It also seems like most of the diesel coaches that come through here are Monaco. They must have a very good value for the dollar compared to the other brands, because there sure seem to be a lot of them on the road.

Pam went out today for a couple of hours to ride around this end of Las Cruces, browsing through some neighborhoods and checking out some more shops. She bought Bobbi a cat toy that hangs from the ceiling and has a fuzzy toy on the the end of an elastic string. Of course Bobbi totally ignores it and prefers a balled up paper towel.

When 6:00 PM rolled around it was time so shut down the office. We went for a short walk around the RV Park then took a ride over to the New Mexico State University. NMSU is just around the corner from where we are staying here. They have a pretty but urban campus. They don't seem to have any high rise housing or classroom buildings, but quite a lot of small flat roofed apartments for student housing.

We passed the "Green" where the band was practicing. It reminded us of all the times we went to band practice, football games, and marching band contest with Addie and Tristan.

Marching Band Practice at NMSU.

We drove a little north of the city and turned back through some nice neighborhoods back to the RV park, and had dinner in the Bounder.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Pam went back to some of the shops in La Mesilla today, but didn't spend too long there this time. I think (from the looks of the bags she brought in, she ended up at Wal-Mart... surprise, surprise.)
Speaking of Wal-Mart, I know I'v been making a big deal of the "Free" camping in the Wal-Mart parking lots. But I did get on-line today to do a little personal bookkeeping, and checking our bank accounts. Y'all know that we almost exclusively use debit cards for nearly everything now. Even when you use a check at many places, they convert it to a debit transaction so that is immediately transferred from your checking account to theirs.

Anyway, what I see when I check our account activity is Wal-Mart: $67, Wal-Mart $104, Wal-Mart $46, Wal-Mart...... Well you get the idea. So much for "FREE" camping at Wal-Mart.

Tonight after work, we drove up Hwy 70 East of Las Cruces. Hwy 70 connects Las Cruces with Almagordo and the White Sands NASA Test Range. Several thousand people work there and live in Las Cruces. Hwy 70 crosses the Organ Mountains. This is a mountain range just west of Las Cruces that kind of sets the tone somehow for the town. What I mean by that is that these mountains are awesome in their size and their ruggedness. They were named Organ because the hugh rock spires and pinnacles look like the pipes on a pipe organ. I'll try to make some pictures later.

Hwy 70 crosses the San Agustin Pass at about 5710 feet and is part of the old Chisholm Trail. At the top of the pass, there is a turnout where you can stop and take a look. It is an unbelievable view across hundreds of miles olf desert toward Alamgordo and White Sands. Here is a view from San Agustin Pass.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005.

Pam took the afternoon and visited historic La Mesilla. She spent a few hours walking around the Plaza and visiting some of the gift shops and scoping out the restaurants in the area. There are several that come highly recommended, so we may give them a try.

She also took a drive out through the country checking out the pecan groves. They flood the groves with water from the Rio Grande to irrigate the trees. This looks kind of strange, like a grove of pecan trees in a swamp. Apparently they flood with just a few inches of water, then let it soak in giving the trees a good drink on a regular basis. We are not sure how often they do that, some of the groves would be completely flooded, while others are just damp looking or completely dry.

After my work day was done, we drove back down through that area and then continued south toward El Paso TX on NM Route 28. This is a small road that runs down the Rio Grande valley roughly parallel with I-26 several miles to the east. We crossed the Rio Grande 3 or 4 times, through fields of red chilies, cabbage, lettuce, cotton, and pecan groves.

Everyone here seems to have a horse or two, and seem to keep them in rather small fenced in areas.

We kept going until we were in the town of Anthony, then saw a small sign "Welcome to Texas". Route 28 approaches I-25 at this point, so we got back on the interstate to quickly make the 20 miles or so back to Las Cruces. Getting off at the La Mesilla exit we went back to the plaza and had dinner at Peppers Cafe. Peppers is a kind of upscale place serving Mexican/New Mexican dishes in an old supposedly haunted house. It actually shares the house with the Double Eagle restaurant. Our table was in the old court yard area of this southwestern style house with a fountain in the center. Chile Rellenos and a veggie enchiladas were ordered and thoroughly enjoyed.

To Las Cruces

2005-10-10T22:40:00.000-04:00

We reluctantly broke camp this morning...barely morning as it was nearly noon... but we only have about 50 miles to go to get to Las Cruces where we will stay for the next 5 days. Leaving out of the main entrance from Elephant Butte Lake State Park, we took the state road down to Truth or Consequences New Mexico, just 4 or 5 miles away.

Truth or Consequences (T or C as it is referred to locally) was called Hot Springs when the Elephant Butte Lake Dam was built. But in the 1950s, the Truth or Consequences TV show came to town. Ralph Edwards, the shows founder and host, offered to do the show live from any town in the country that would change its name to Truth or Consequences. Obviously, this was in a time where TV was a new novelty, and doing a TV show remote was a hugh deal. So after consideration by the citizens and a referendum for approval, the show came to town. T or C still has a Ralph Edwards day each year with a parade and other events.

We rode through the main street of the town in the hills a mile or so west of I-25, then turned south.
I did notice a Blakes Lot-a-burger restaurants.

Tristan and I stopped at one of these on our trip out here in 1999. We had never seen one before, but they are all over the place in NM. Pam and I are enjoying this trip as our 30th anniversary present to days other, but so many times we are looking at things and thinking about how much Tristan and Addie would enjoy it. Both love to travel and see things. Maybe they'll have a chance to do some traveling ont heir own.

I remember when Tristan and I were on the first leg of our 1999 trip alone, we came through this area, Carlsbad and Roswell and he was using the video camera to make movies set to the latino music he could find on the radio. What a trip that was, seeing all of this for the first time. Seeing these Blakes Lot-A-Burger, brought back many good memories of that and other camping trips with Addie and Tristan.

In fact, we were talking to a retired couple from Texas that full time in their 5th wheel trailer. They were talking about going up to Yellowstone park and looking for bears, and saw none. When we were there with the kids, we could not see any bears either. So on the way back as we approached Rapid City South Dakota, we started seeing signs for an attraction called "Bear Country USA". We decided to stop and see the bears there. It was a drive through attraction.. a large fenced in field that must have had 500 bears in it. We drove the old Coachmen RV through it, we got our fill of bears.. finally.

But no bears to be seen here in the New Mexican high desert.

When we were in the Sante Fe area we saw signs at farmers markets and roadside stands advertising Hatch Green chilies. We didn't know what that was, but soon, here north of Las Cruces in the Rio Grande valley we come to Hatch: Chile Capital of the World. We decide we need to take a closer look so we get off the interstate and go through the small town with a Chile vendor on every corner...actually it didn't take a corner, just a wide spot on the shoulder of the road. Red and Green chilies everywhere. Ristras hung all over the place. (Ristras are those hanging chili bunches that you see in some of our pictures,, they are everywhere in NM). We even saw one store that had the roof covered with chilies drying in the sun.

My apologies for not getting any pictures, but I had left the camera in a bag in the Civic. Maybe we'll get back up there sometime later in the week to get some fresh Green and take a picture or two.

Speaking of Green, you have to get used to that down here. Everything comes with your choice of a Chile sauce made from either Red, Green or Christmas (Red and Green). Honest. I thought someone was pulling my leg when they told me to order a Christmas Cheesburger, but you hear that everywhere out here. Even MacDonalds here has a Green Chile Cheesburger on the menu!

Down through Hatch we turned south on NM Hwy 185 and began a trip down through the Rio Grande valley with large irrigated fields full of lettuce, chilies, and groves of Pecans and pistachios.

Soon we are in the vicinity of Las Cruces and begin to see sub divisions and stop lights.

Soon we rolled into Las Cruces, made the turn on I-10 west for a couple of miles, and then to the Hacienda RV Resort that will be our home for the next 5 days.

The Hacienda is a very nice place, set up to be a resort similar to a hotel. They have a breakfast each morning, a spa, and exercise room. They also have wireless high speed internet access.

Las Cruces is a border town, but also very much a college town. New Mexico State University is a very large school and there are lots of students everywhere. And wherever there are lots of students, there will be lots of good and reasonably priced restaurants.

A young lady named Emily checked us into the RV Resort. She is a recently graduated student from NMSU with a major in Psychology, and was looking forward to going to work at a local hospital. I asked her where is the best place in town to get a good Chile Cheeseburger. She recommended Dicks Cafe which is just down the way from the RV Resort.

We completed the check in and Emily escorted us to our parking site. After getting things set up, we go explore a little. Historic La Mesilla is just down the road less than a mile from the Hacienda RV Resort and it has a dozen or so restaurants, and shops with local and southwestern art, pottery , and gifts.

We found Dicks Cafe, a very small down home type of place that reminded me a little of gin's Cafe in WIngate. I know I came in there with the idea of a green Chile cheesburger, but the burritos and enchiladas looked great. I decided to get a roasted chicken enchiladas "smothered green" meaning covered with green Chile. I wasn't disappointed. Pam had a veggie burritto that was filled with green chilies, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, and other veggies and cheese. I think we'll need to walk back to the RV resort.. ...matter of fact, we'll probably have to walk back to North Carolina after all these tortillas we've been eating this week.

And we have another week to go! Addie and Tristan: do us a favor and hide the bathroom scales!

Elephant Butte State Park

2005-10-09T22:53:00.000-04:00

Sunday dawned with the sound of rain pounding on the Bounder. I lifted the window shade just a bit to look outside to see a welcoming warm glow rising on the horizon. It said "Wal-Mart Supercenter - Lower Prices Every Day".

The trucks that were sharing the parking area with us were all gone now. Only a couple of coaches and a pick up truck with a 5th wheel camping trailer, along with a few early shoppers. I decided I'd wait until the rain stopped, then got up to make coffee and plan the day.

When I walked out to check on the Civic, I was shocked.. It was covered head to toe, bumper to bumper with mud, muddy water and dirt. I guess the little trip up the muddy road construction last night was rougher than I thought, and I didn't notice it in the dark.

Fortunately, there was a car wash next to the parking area. After coffee and breakfast, I went over to wash some of the mud off, and re-hitched the Civic. Ready to go.

I had originally planned to to down through the country to the Acoma Pueblo, but found out that they are closed for tribal ceremonies of some sort one weekend each year, and that happened to be now. And with the rain added to the experience of the road construction last night, I was a little concerned about taking any backroads. So we backtracked east on I-40 to I-25 and headed south toward Las Cruces.

I-25 is quite different from I-40; not as wide and not nearly as heavily traveled, particularly with regards to the trucks. As we moved south, we began to encounter steeper grades up over hills then down into canyons. In fact, several we went through had a airport style wind sock so you could be forewarned about any strong winds that may be rushing down the canyons across the road. Here is a picture, but I'm not sure you can spot the windsock at the bottom of the hill.

Also you can see in the picture that the road is still wet. We did continue to encounter showers off and on all day. While I am responsible for the driving, Pam provides occasional navigation assistance. Here she is busily navigating:

It's so flat here, that you can see the thunderstorms and showers miles away. As in the picture on the left, with the cloud dumping its water several miles up ahead.

Lunch time found us near Socorrco NM. We pulled into a rest stop for a quick pit stop, then back on I-25. Pretty soon it was time to feed the Bounder, so we found a fuel stop, a small truck/auto fuel stop/convience store at exit 156. It had big lanes for the trucks, but only one lane that would be easy to get the Bounder and Civic through. I decided I'd better walk all the way around just be sure it was clear, then pulled around and back through the fuel lane. 46 gallons later we were underway. I'm keeping in mind the lessons of our elders on this stop: never leave a town in the desert without a full tank.

I had been hearing about the quality of the New Mexico State park system, so we decided to spend the night at Elephant Butte Lake State Park near the town of Truth or Consequences NM. This proved to be a real oasis in the desert.

Elephante Butte Lake, New Mexico

We paid our $14 for an "electric" sight for the night at the entry gate. The ranger told us to pick any site that was open. Since this was off season, there were not many campers here. I didn't want to have to unhitch the Civic to back in to a campsite, so he directed me to an area containing mostly pull-through sights. We made a couple of passes throught the area and decided on a spot with the best view. (Picture Right)

The open spaces in the desert really seem to compress the distances. Looking at the picture you can see Elephant Butte in the distance. It's about 8 or 9 miles to the butte from here, and about one mile to Lions Beach, the beach just below our campsite.

We decided to walk down to the lake to take a look. Elephant Butte Lake is a man made lake on the Rio Grande river. It was built in the 1920s in order to provide irrigation for the farms in the fertile Rio Grande valley, and for flood control. It is one of several lakes on the Rio Grande in this area. Other than the campground, there are several very large marinas on the lake, but no lakeside development as we are accustomed to seeing in our part of the country. I think part of the reason is that there is just not the population in this area for lakeside homes. And the opposite side of the lake is protected by mountainous terrain so rough that there are just no roads in the area.

Lions Beach, Elephant Butte Lake New Mexico

Much of the state park consist of primitive camping areas with no water or electricity hook ups. You can camp anywhere you wish in these areas. It was obvious from the sandy roads and tracks that a lot of campers in the area use this during the summer months. Here are a couple of RV's camped right on the beach.

After our little hike, we fired up the grill for a couple of Bubba Burgers, and a fake chicken (Veggie) patty and watched the sun set behind us providing a beautiful setting here in the desert in South Central New Mexico, followed by one of - no make that THE quietest campsite we have ever had.

Navajo Country and beyond (UPDATED)

2005-10-08T01:50:00.000-04:00

All of the pictures we made over the past few days are on the photo site. CLICK HERE to see them.

We left Sante Fe on Saturday morning and drove to Grants NM found a campsite, then took the Civic to Canyon de Chelly Arizona. Pronounced Canyon de SHAY, it is located about 70 miles northwest of Gallup NM.

Grants NM is in the middle western part of the state of NM about 50 miles east of Gallup. Grants is a cross roads for rail traffic. We saw freight trains on a regular basis. Of course, you can see for ever in that part of the country. It wasn't unusual to see a entire train, locomotive to caboose, miles away moving across the desert with the red rocks as a backdrop.

We were going to stay at either Red Rocks State Park, or at Blue Water Lake State Park. Both are nearer Gallup than Grants, so we decided that instead of driving all the way over there in the Bounder (at 7mpg) we would find the next available campground and take the Civic. We sere just approaching the exit with campgrounds when lo and behold - a Wal-Mart Supercenter appeared. Looked like a nice place to park to us! There were already a couple of other RVs and a few trucks there. I went in and asked permission from the manager and again were welcomed with a smile.

I guess its a good thing we did not go for the Red Rocks State Park. Later I talked to another RVer that did stay there. He said the park is located between 2 rail lines and approximately 100 trains per day pass there.. all blowing their horns.

With the Civic quickly unhitched we headed west to Gallup. This is really Navajo Country. Hwy 264 runs north and then west out of Gallup. Soon we are officially in the Navajo Nation. The next town, Window Rock, just across the border in Arizona, is the Tribal Headquarters for the Navajo Nation. We passed the tribal offices and kept going west toward the Hubbell Traiding Post. This trading post was one of the first trading posts in the area, established to sell general merchandise to the Navajos. In fact, Hubbell was one of the first to recognize the skill of the Navajo weavers, silversmiths, and potters, and encouraged them to make items for trade.

After passing the trading post, we turned north on Hwy 191, and began a 6-7 mile climb up to the top of a large mesa, where it runs near the eastern edge of the mesa top. In several places along this road, you can catch a view off of the mesa top out into the broad desert valley below. I have no idea how far you can see across this area, but in must be many, many miles. The top of the mesa was green enough that we saw areas where sheep were grazing. Once we saw a flock of sheep atteneded by a lone Border Collie.

Eventually we reach the mesa end and begin a quick steep drive down into the valley below and before long we are in Chinle Arizona, near the visitors center for Canyon De Chelly.

We arrived there just before 5 PM (they close at 5) so we were able to get in and pick up a map. I also wanted to avoid returning around and re-tracing our 60-70 mile route from Gallup, so I asked the park ranger about the road that loops around the north of the canyon and then heads back south toward Window Rock. Tribal Route 36 runs along the north rim of the canyon, then connects with Tribal Route 12. The ranger assured me that these were both scenic drives and good roads. There was some road construction on Route 36, but other than that, we would be fine.

We drove several miles down the south rim of the Canyon de Chelly stopping at a couple of the overlooks. This place is awesome: Sheer red rock walls several hundred feet high. Just as with the Grand Canyon but on a much smaller scale, it is a large gorge carved out of the flat desert by the Rio de Chelly.

On the canyon floor is peaceful green farmland watered by the river, farmed by the Navajo families that have lived there for generations. You can hike down into the canyon using several trails, or if you have a 4X4 vehicle you can hire a Navajo guide to take you for a tour.

Here is a picture of Canyon de Chelly. Those sheer rock walls are about 600 feet straight down.

It had been raining most of the day, so the canyon farms looked very green and peacful as we viewed them from our purch way up on the rim.

In some of the cliff surfaces you can see areas where the rock had been worn away, forming a kind of shelter. Inside some of these were ancient cliff dwelling ruins. These were not built or occupied by the Navajo's but by a tribe that lived there thousands of years before the first Navajo's moved into the area. These first occupants were the Anasazis. Anasazi means "the ancient ones" in Navajo.

We decided we needed to move on before it was too late, so we headed east on Tribal Route 36. About 20 miles down that road, we saw a sigh up ahead warning about the road construction the ranger had mentioned. Then we saw another sign that said "Pavement Ends". Then another sign that said "No Pavement next 11 Miles"! Well, that shouldn't be too bad, maybe just a little bumpy? But the heavy rains earlier in the day had turned it into a quagmire! Cars were comming through from the other direction, so we kept going. I was thinking that surely this would not be this bad the whole 11 miles. But the further I went in the little Civic (about 8-9 inches of clearance over the road), the worse it became. We could see ruts that had been pushed in by large trucks, standing water in some places...what a total mess. About a mile of this and we had to do a U-turn. Fortunately the Civic has such a small turn radius we were able to get turned around and get moving pretty quickly, without stopping any of the cars behind us. So here we are 100 miles from our Bounder forced to return down the same road we spend the entire afternoon comming up.

By the time we got back to Chinle it was dark, and by the time we got back to the Wal-Mart in Grants it was 10:00 PM. Man, what a day!

The Turquois Trail

2005-10-07T10:24:00.000-04:00

Due to internet connection problems I may not have time to finish this posting. I could not convince this laptop to talk to the wireless connection at the campground at all last night, so I am trying to do a brief update this morning before we leave the Trailer Ranch here in Santa Fe.

Just in case the connection does away again, here is the link to all of yesterdays pictures: Click Here.

First thing was a trip back to the Honda dealer to turn in the rental Taurus and pick up the Civic. The were able to get the part yesterday afternoon and had it all fixed up and ready to go. The folks at Premier Honda in Santa Fe were very accommodating and did everything they could to get us back on the road quickly.

We took a little time yesterday to go back to the Plaza in Santa Fe. That is where a number of Native Americans sell there art and craft work. We wanted to buy a few things but also wanted to be sure that it was work that was done by real Indian craftsmen. A couple of the shops we visited had pottery and other items that were made in India or Mexico.

On one side of the Sante Fe Plaza many Indians from the area spread their paintings, jewelry, and weavings on blankets on the sidewalk for sale. We talked to one Native American that was selling his paintings. They were abstracts of southwest and Indian symbolism. Colors were absolutely beautiful. He was proud of the fact that he was going to have a show at the Santa Fe Art Institute. These shows are usually reserved for art students, and he was self taught. But his work was so good that they had invited him to a showing.

We bought a couple of sand paintings from a Navajo lady named Nancy Price (sounds like a Union County gal doesn't it?). She picks up various colors of rocks in the desert, grinds it up into a very fine powder, and uses a paste solution to make "paints" out of them. Then she uses these colors to paint her pictures.

Later we took a drive down New Mexico Hwy 14 from Santa Fe to a little town east of Albuquerque. This road runs to the east of the Sandia mountains that we rode the tram up to last Wednesday.

It is called the Turquoise Trail because of the Turquoise mines located along the route. We pulled off the main road to visit the town of Cerillos. It has one paved street and the rest are dirt. A few artists shops, saloons, and a gift shop interspersed with the old houses and mobile homes are scattered among the pines and aspens. Cerillos was at one time a very important mining town with 21 saloons and 4 hotels.

Next we climb up into the mountains, and come to the town of Madrid. (Pictures on right and below) It is pretty much an artist haven now, with galleries, shops, cafes and coffee shops in the old houses. Madrid had a large coal mine that produced thousands of tons of coal for the railroads. After WWII when most of the railroads switched to diesel, the mind shut down and most of the town was abandoned. In the 1970s many of the artist and others moved in, refurbished many of the old shacks and took up residence. It is an interesting little place to say the least.

Further up the road we went through a lengthly section of road construction where the pavement had been removed. We were forced to slow down to 15-20 mph through this rough section. In front of us I saw something small crossing the road. As we got closer I could see it was a giant spider! It may have been a tarantula, I'm not really sure. I have never seen a spider big enough to see as it is crossing the road. Possums, Frogs, Chickens crossing road, but NEVER a spider that big.

On the way back we passed the site of the Albuquerque balloon Fiesta. The weather has not cooperated this week with the balloons but there is still quite a crowd there! We didn't see any but we sure saw the traffic.

After a stop at the grocery store on the way back to the RV park, we decided we needed to catch up with our laundry. The facilities at this RV park are very well maintained and absolutely spotless. We rounded up enough quarters to wash and dry 3 loads, so I guess we'll have fresh underwear to explore the desert. Here's a picture of Pam outside the laundry mat at Trailer Ranch RV Park.

As soon as I save and publish this post, we'll pack up, hook up the Civic and head west. Tonight we'll probably be in Grants or Gallup or someplace in that general vicinity.

I am not sure when I'll get Internet again. It may be as late as Monday so If you don't hear from us for a few days don't worry, we are just on the road.

The High Road to Taos

2005-10-06T22:59:00.000-04:00

We woke up this morning to the sound of wind and rain beating down on the roof. During the night a cold front moved in and it really chilled things down. All the way down to 39 degrees. We had the electric heat on in the Bounder so we didn't realize that it was so chilly out. But here in Santa Fe it begins to warm up as soon as the Sun comes up.

I began the day at the local Honda dealership to get the Civic checked out. The Santa Fe Honda dealer is just down the street from the RV park in a large auto park that has about 5 or 6 dealerships in it. They were very accomodating and got me right in. Before long they had diagnosed a bad temperature sensor on the radiator fan. It wouldn't take that long to fix, but the part had to be ordered and would not be there for about 4 or 5 hours, then another hour to install it and check it out. They could be done by 4:30 or so.

It turns out that the local Hertz rental agency has a desk in the dealership, so I proceeded to get a 2006 Ford Taurus at the special rate of $25 per day. Looks like we'll make it to Taos after all.

All set with the car and back to pick up Pam and off we go. I had planned to call Maria, the daughter of Huey Simpson's Army buddy that lives here in Santa Fe. Jim had been kind enough get her phone number for me prior to our departure. I tried a couple of times to call her but there was no answer. Jim had said that she was ill, so maybe she could not get the phone. Later she did call and leave a message, and her son Andrew called too. I was finally able to connect with Andrew later in the day. It's nice to have a connection in town in case we need recommendations or directions.

Instead of taking the quick route to Taos, we decided to take a series of back roads that go up through the mountains and part of the Carson National Forest. This "high road" (Picture on left) takes us up through a couple of small towns and pueblos.

Soon we are in Chimayo. (Picture right) This small town is known for its weaving crafts people and as the location of the Santuario de Chimayo.

The Santuario de Chimayo. is a small church was built in 1813.(Below Left) It is known worldwide for the healing miracles that have been done there. The small area is covered with shrines, crosses, and other artifacts that have been left there by thankful worshipers.

Nearby is a little cafe, Leona's Resturant. It is a small place where you place your order for home made Mexican food at the counter. After our tamale, veggie burrito, and a slice of banana bread, we were back on the road.

Up through the mountains through Truchas, Las Trampas, Picuris Pueblo, and Penasco. These small villages include some awsome scenery on the way up and down. At higher elevetions, the Aspens are beginning to change to their fall colors. Some sooner than others. We could see areas of the bright yellow in the high mountains.

Soon we were in the town of Taos. This high mountain town is surrounded by ski slopes and ski resorts, and is a center for art galleries, shopping, and resturants for the skier and the visitor.

We walked through the historic Taos Plaza (Picture Above) going through some of the shops looking at the art, pottery, and jewellry.

Back on the road we take US 64 to the west. Yep, its the same US 64 that runs through the heart of North Carolina from Murphy to Manteo. Pretty soon we are out of the mountains and back in the high desert. Its a long straight road across the desert.

A few miles down the road we spot a bridge in the desert. Why is there a bridge in this flat, flat desert. Obviously you can see many miles past the bridge and the landscape is the same. Wrong!

Can you find an 800 foot gorge in the picture above?

We are getting ready to cross the Rio Grande River Gorge. Here the Rio Grande River has cut a gorge through the desert that is over 800 feet from the desert to the bottom of the gorge. The bridge was designed with walkways across its length with several places along the way to stop and look our over the rail down to the river below. The river rapids can barely be heard so far above.

Here is the view from the bridge. You can see the flat desert floor on each side with the river 800 feet below.

Continuing our way west on US 64 to Hwy 285 south headed back to Santa Fe. We pass through the high flat country and begin to descend down to the Rio Grande Valley. For several miles the road runs through the valley along the river. Finally we begin so see homes marking the outskirts of Santa Fe.

On the way back to the Trailer Ranch, we stop at Adelitas Mexican Resturant for dinner. You'd think we would get tired of Mexican food, but not here!

Pulling into our parking space Bobbi greets us by pawing on the front window of the Bounder. I guess she slept all day as usual and is ready to roam around the RV all night.

Tomorrow I'll have to get up and take the rental car back, pick up the Civic, and decide what to do on our last day in Santa Fe.

All of todays pictures are available if you CLICK HERE. And remember, when you are viewing the pictures you can click on a picture to make it larger.

Albuquerque and Sandia Peak

2005-10-05T23:06:00.000-04:00

It looks like the car may be ok. I still don't know exactly what happened, so I call Ronnie at the Honda Doc in Monroe and ask his opinion. He says it may be a sticking thermostat, and as long as the temp gauge is ok, keep some water handy and keep on going. I filled a gallon container with water and we move along. I decide to stop by one of the mechanics that the RV park owner recommended just for safety.

George, the mechanic, was happy to provide some consultation on the subject. He listened and said it didn't sound like anything internal and concurred with what Ronnie said. So we moved on to Albuquerque.

Albuquerque is quite different from the areas of Santa Fe we have seen. We stopped at a Subway for a sandwich for lunch, and decided to check out the Sandia Peak Tramway.

The Tramway is the worlds longest and highest arial tram. It travels from the valley where there is a visitor center and resturant near the parking area, up the mountain to nearly 12,000 feet at the top of Sandia Peak. The Sandia Mountains overlook the city of Albuquerque to the west and also have a ski area that is accessed from the east side of the mountain.

We purchased our tickets and waited about 20 minutes for our boarding call. The tram carries 50 people each trip. There are 2 cars going opposite directions: one going up, the other going down, and meeting in the middle.

Pam ususally does not like altitude or motion, so was a little concerned about getting on the tramway, but she really enjoyed it and had no problems. Here is a picture of Pam taking in the awesome view from Sandia Peak.

Click Here to check out all of our pictures.

We walked around the peak for about 45 minutes then got in line to go back down. Standing in line, we talked to a local Albuquerque couple. They had WALKED up the trail from the valley to the top of the peak. It had taken them 3 hours and 45 minutes. They said that there were several trails to the peak and a number of people actually run up the trail a couple of times each week.

We also talked to the wife of an artist from Colorado that was selling her husbands watercolors at the Albuquerque Baloon Fiesta this week. It attracts a large crowd and was the reason we had to wait in lines for the tram... so many folks from the fiesta sightseeing.

Back toward Santa Fe, we decided to eat in tonight. We had planned to ride up to Taos tomorrow, but I am still worried about getting stranded in the Civic. I think I'll get up and get to a Honda shop and get it resolved one way or another. If we have to rent a car for the rest of the week here.. then thats what we'll do.

Touring Santa Fe

2005-10-05T22:14:00.000-04:00

We decided to take it a little easy this morning, but our bodies are still on Eastern Time, so we were awake at 6:00 AM. We made coffee and took a little walk around the RV park. It is an interesting little place tucked here on a main highway on the way into Santa Fe. Daily RVers are located in the front of the park. We are about 50 feet from the street separated by a adobe type wall, but we could still hear the traffic during the night and early this morning.

The back part of the park is all full time residents or retirees that spend part of their time here. Most are double-wide or park type trailers, but all are very well kept, clean and neat.

The bus stops right in front of the RV park, and many of the retirees use it to get to the mall or to get downtown to the historic plaza area of Santa Fe. It was suggested that we use the bus, but we decided to drive and take our chances on finding street parking. We found a parking place but only had enough quarters on us for an hour, so we fed the meter all we had and took off on a walking tour of the historic Santa Fe Plaza.

But we may have a little problem on our hands. When we parked, I smelled coolant from the Civic radiator, and sure enough, the overflow resivoir was spewing out on the street. We decided to let the Civic have its little fit and go ahead and walk around. It was kind of confusing because the temperature gauge on the Civic showed nothing abnormal, and there appeared to be no leak other than the water overflowing from the overflow resivoir. We'll just handle that problem when we get back.

Santa Fe is an interesting place. It is a strange mixture of artists showing their work in high end galleries, Native Americans hawking their crafts (weavings, jewellry, and art work) on the street, and the history of one of the oldest towns in the USA. All that added to the fact that it is the capitol of New Mexico with all of the government offices, make it an unusual place. We made several pictures of the area CLICK HERE to see our picture album web site.

There also seems to be a lot of homeless types on the streets. The desert landscape gives things a sort of unkempt appearance. But on the other side of the coin, there are a LOT of resturants serving all kinds of food, but many specialize in the New Mexican food that includes green and red chillies.

Even the hamburgers get a dose of chilli, either red, green, or "christmas" (both red and green).

Back at the Bounder for lunch and then back downtown to finish our walking tour. The afternoon included a trip to the St. Francis Cathedral, the Chapel with the "Miraculuous Staircase" and a visit ot the Oldest House. It is really the oldest structure in the USA.

The Oldest House was built originally in the 1640s, but it was built on the foundation of an old pueblo that was built in 1200 AD.

The "Miraclacuous Staircase" is an interesting story. The staricase is a double spiral with no support in the center or on the outside spirals. The legend has it that when the church was being built in the 1800s, the builders had no skills to build the staircase going up to the choir loft. They held a prayer service to ask for devine intervention to provide help to complete the job. The next day an unknown carpenter showed up at the site with a bag full of tools and began work on it. He worked for weeks to complete this structure, then left without asking for pay, and was never heard from since. It is called a Miracle because it has no support but still stands and has been used for 200 years. In recent years it has been analyzed by engineers, and supposedly is an engineering marvel and should be "Impossible" to stand on its own.

After completing our walk around the plaza and a short walk out to Canyon Road, an exclusive art gallery area, we went to Maria's New Mexican Kitchen. This must be one of the hot spots in SF. We got there a little early and still were seated at the last table un-reserved for the evening. And it was a hoppin' place. After a combination plate of Tamales, Chili Relleanos, beans and rice with both red and green chili sauce, we were ready to call it quits til tomorrow.

Back at the Bounder, the wind started blowing and the temp began to fall. Warm days and cold nights seem to be the norm here in the high desert.

To New Mexico

2005-10-03T12:06:00.000-04:00

Moving across West Texas past Amrillo, things really begin to change. You move from rolling farmland in OK, to the cattle country east of Amrillo, into the high plains west of Amrillo. And it is a steady climb up to the high plains.

Mid afternoon we crossed the NM State line noted by the big "Welcome to New Mexico" sign on I-40.

Here the road is long and straight, and it begins to go over long ridges, with the view at the top spanning out across the broad valleys and plains for miles. Here is a picture of I-40 heading west.. it just keeps going and going, and going...

Grain elevators mark the towns on either side of the hwy, with the old "Historic Route 66" visible as a weed covered access road with old motels and gas stations that look like a ghost town from the 1950s. Looking at that narrow road, it is hard to imagine the traffic from the 1930s through the 60s using that road as a major highway. The highway that Steinbeck called "Americas Mother Road", that carried thousands of dust bowl Okies from their failed farms in the midwest to a "better life" in California, is a mere afterghought to the busy I-40.

Finally, at exit 218 in New Mexico, we pull off the coast to coast highway, and follow NM hwy 285 (picture on right) toward Santa Fe. Still climbing this 2 lane road takes us through some of the open ranch lands of this part of NM. Passing dirt roads with elaborate signs overhead with "Cross Bar Ranch" or other ranch names. Look as hard as you can, you cannot see the end of the dirt roads or anything that looks like life down them. But there must be something.

Getting into the outlying areas of Sante Fe we begin to see sub divisions and houses. But not what we are used to in NC. No, these are flat roofed, adobe looking houses with no yards. The desert brush grows right up to the house. I think I'd like that aspect of living here.

Finding our campground, it is right in the middle of town. It is not so much a campground as an RV Community. (Entrance pictured below)

No self parking here, you have to be assisted by the manager. And I see why; it is very tight. They have made every effort to get as many people in here as possible. The place if full though thanks to the Baloon Fiesta going on in Albuquerque this week. (We forgot his name so we just call him Mr. Parker.) Mr, Parker directed us into our spot perfectly.

By the way, on the way out to the resturant we were in a hard rain storm with some lightning. Wouildn't you know it, its the desert but we are here in the rainy season. And its cool and breezy too, temps in the 70s day and 50s at night.

So after 3 long days on the road, we have arrived! We'll find some New Mex food tonight and take it easy tomorrow morning before going into the Sante Fe Plaza to explore and see the sights.

Across Arkansas and Half of Oklahoma!

2005-10-02T23:07:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I let the cat out of the bag (not Bobbi) with the title of this post. I started to call this one "Across Hell and half of Oklahoma", but I didn't want to offend any Arkansans that might read this.

Actually Arkansas was pretty interesting for a while. Cross the mighty Mississippi first thing this morning, and then through RICE FIELDS!. I should have known more about our great country, but I didn't know Eastern Arkansas was a major rice producer. Miles and miles of I-40 through the rice fields.

Little Rock was our first little issue with regards to missing a turn and having to make up for it. The intersection of I-40 and another freeway was under major construction, with a very small sign pointing to the temporary ramp to stay on I-40. No problem, we just proceeded until we were able to get out of the construction, exit and re-enter the other side, then watch CLOSELY for the I-40 West marker.

Back on track and to Fort Smith trying to figure what mountain range this is we are passing through and finally realize it's the Ozarks. (The town of Ozark was a dead giveaway.) For some reason though I was thinking Branson MO and the Ozarks were further east.

We stopped at a Flying-J Travel Plaza in Russellville AR for fuel and some lunch. Flying-J is relatively RV friendly with many of them having large parking areas for RVs separate from the truckers areas. This one had a separate fuel pump for RVs from the cars, but the parking area was kind of small. Flying-J is supposed to have cheaper fuel prices but this one was $3.05 9. The Citgo across the street was 10 cents cheaper but I didn't notice it till we pulled out.

On across Arkansas and into Oklahoma. Moving west out of the Ozarks things began to change to more rolling farmland, cattle and grain production. So what kind of time are we making today? Pretty good it seems. No traffic to speak of and no unplanned stops or slowdowns like yesterday.

Stopping for a mid-afternoon break we pull out the CG guide and notice that there are several options for the evening depending on how far along we get. El Reno OK just outside OK City has a Best Western Hotel with a RV lot. Some of you know that Pam has a preference for Best Western's when it comes to staying in a hotel/motel. Then another 30 miles west in Elk City are several campgrounds right on I-40.

We get to OK City at about 7:30 PM and decide we need to make the closer stop in El Reno. But going through OK City we pass by a super Wal-Mart that is right off the exit ramp for I-40, and it is full of big-rig RVs.

Moving on toward our exit 20 some miles away, we get there and see that there is a Wal-Mart there too, with another large motorhome already parked in the outer portion of the lot. It is in a nice area with several restaurants around it so it seems safe. And after our experience from last night at that so called "campground" the Walmart looks great.

We pulled in next to a Monaco coach with a mini-van in tow and park. I went into the store to ask permission to park for the evening. Once in customer service I find the manager on duty, and ask if its ok that we park in the lot for the evening.

"Of course" she said with a big smile, "help yourself." And with that she began to give me a tour of things to do and see in the area as if we were going to be there for several days. She even indicated that if we got "tired of looking at their parking lot" there was a free city park with several RV hookups nearby.

Sounds good, so back in the RV, Pam is defrosting a couple of the casseroles that she made last week. After eating and getting take another trip back into the WM for a few grocery items. While we were in the store, we were joined in the parking lot by a big 5th wheel rig with Michigan plates.

With the windows cracked open for ventilation, it was nice and cool. It's breezy here in OK with cooler nights even thought he temperature earlier in the day was in the upper 80s. During the night I woke up when I heard a lawn mower outside our window! Peeking out, I see that it is not a lawn mower, but a parking lot vacuum cleaner. It looks kind of like a 0-turn radius mower but he was cleaning the lot,,, and from the length of time it took, he must have done a pretty good job.

Other than that, no problems. We awoke with the alarm clock at 6:00AM and found that another Motorhome had joined our little "Camp Walton" sometime in the wee hours. So we started the Bounder, pulled on the street, started the generator, turned on the coffee maker, and were back on I-40 west bound by 6:45 AM.

We're Rollin'!

2005-10-01T22:38:00.000-04:00

Saturday: 7:40 AM.
Here we go. Everything was loaded up last night, the Civic was hooked up and ready to go. We were aiming to leave at 7, but this is not bad for all the preparation we had.

Hwy 601 - Hwy 218 - I-485 - I-85, Hwy 321 North to Hickory, then the exit ramp to I-40. I-40 will be our home for the next 3 days or 1200 miles, which ever comes first.

Asheville rolled by at about 11:30, then the Maggie Valley exit, and finally some new territory for the Bounder. Progress was slow pulling up through the Blue Ridge Mountains and at times it seems like the fastest thing moving is the fuel gauge heading toward empty!

We made a quick lunch stop at a rest stop on I-40, and kept on trucking.

By the time we hit Lebanon TN, it was time to stop for fuel. I almost waited too long, and not knowing what was ahead I was forced to pull into a small Citgo station with barely enough room to get in to the pumps and out again. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to stop at the Taco Bell, we decided to pull straight back out on I-40 and keep going.

Nashville and a big traffic jam was next. In a construction zone there was a wreck on the eastbound lane. But of course it had our westbound lane backed up for miles. It took about 45 minutes to get through the next few miles.

Memphis is a LONG way from Nashville, and Tennesses is a LONG state to go through. Its getting dark and we are tired. Bobbi has spend most of the time on Pam's lap wrapped up under a blanket. I think it is Pam's idea to do that as much as Bobbi's. We start talking about where to stay, and I should have planned this stop more carefully. I was so focused on the New Mexico part of the trip that I am caught not sure of what to do our first night out. Yes we had talked about stopping at a Wal-Mart, but I was thinking we would be farther along than we are now.

Out comes the campground guide and I find a place East Memphis Campground. Looks pretty close to I-40. Its about 9:00 PM now so I follow the directions off the interstate, down a very narrow secondary road marked with a couple of very small signs (almost missed them) pointing to the campground.

Pulling in I see that the office is closed but there is a night registration box. Pick your site and leave money...no help necessary. (Kind of like staying in a Wal-mart would be without the money part.)

Fortunately all the sites were pull-throughs so I dont have to unhitch the Civic. Pull in, hook up and crash.

Next morning, I go to the office to settle up. $26.50 thank you very much. Tomorrow I will do better.

Almost Time to Hit the Road

2005-09-30T22:56:00.000-04:00

Its Friday night, almost 11:00 PM. Nearly everything is loaded in the Bounder, the Civic is tied tightly to the hitch, and the lights work. The slides are in and the jacks are up. The only thing left is to put some of our personal items in the bathroom in the morning and I hope we'll be on our way. We'll see. Our planned or "discussed" time to leave is 7:00 AM.

My Dad came to the rescue (again) today with the tire pressure check. I guess he knows me only too well. Knowing that I would NOT get home from work in time to get the Bounder to his shop and use his compressor, he loaded the compressor on the back of his truck and came to the Bounder. He did have to take the wheel covers off to get the air guage and chuck on the valve stem of the outside rear tires. As soon as I can, I am doing to have some other type of valve stem or exender installed on it so I can keep the tires properly inflated quickly and easily.

So now I am thinking about the trip, not in total as before, but one leg at a time. Tomorrow will be a long day and I do not have a good grip on how far we will actually go. I really want to get as close to Little Rock Arkansas as possible...but thats nearly 750 miles! Memphis would be acceptable depending on how tired we are when we get there. We will really just have to play it by ear. A few years ago we made it to Carlsbad NM in 3 days, and the days were not all that bad driving about 8 - 9 hours per day. But Sante Fe is a little farther away than Carlsbad.

Mom is worried that we are going to spend the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot. We have not done that before even though many do. Again, It will depend on how far we get and how we feel.

This may be the last post 'til we arrive in Santa Fe unless I can get the Wal-Mart manager to let us use his compter. As much money as we (Pam) spend there they should give us a full hook up site and a private office with a computer. In fact, I am thinking about getting my paycheck direct deposited at Wal-Mart and just letting Pam get the change at month's end. But who knows, maybe we'll be in a Flying J travel plaza tomorrow nite with the truckers checking email and posting the days events.

I'm tired, think I'll turn in. 5:00 AM will be here in a little while.

Deb: if you read this, tell HIII to do one of these Blogs on his next trek... it would be better than email!

Thursday (T minus 2 and Counting)

2005-09-29T22:47:00.000-04:00

OK, so I have been lazy the last two days and not really done what I should have. So I will make up for it tonight. But guess what: Its raning! It has not rained for a month and now that I need to get some catching up done, it is raining. That means I may have to mow Friday night if I have time.

I called Dad last night to see if they were going to be home tonight. I will use his air compressor to get all of the tires to the correct pressure. Lots has been written abou this in the forums and magazines, but I will stick with the recommendation on the motorhome specs: 82 lbs. max.

I had a nice chat with Norb one of my co-workers today. He is always very helpful in talking through problems and issues. Norb is on his 3rd (or 4th) coach with an Allegro Bus disel pusher. He mentioned that his research indicates that you can add up to 5 lbs more air pressure per tire than the sidewall max load specification.

When I got home though Addie was there visiting and the power was out at the house. Mom called and said that there was an auto accident a couple of miles from the house and a power pole had been hit. So we all ate dinner in the natural light on the back porch and watched the sun go down while Bobbi played with us in the twilight. She could see us much better than we could see her.

The power outage also knocked out the trip up to Dads for the air compressor... no power, no compressed air. I'll have to wait and do that tomorrow night.

About 9 PM the rain stopped, and I was out to the motor home loading my clothes. Pam had spent the day going to the grocery store and loading the fridge in the motorhome and laying in the supplies for the first part of our trip. Yesterday she went to the store to buy groceries to leave at home for Tristan. That boy does eat!

So with those chores done, I'm thinking I will quit for the night. I decided to check Email and this web site for comments. There is a comment from Margie in Tennessee. I met them through one of the internet forums when Margie responded to one of my questions with an Email. They are taking almost the same type trip we are - maybe a couple of weeks longer - and are a couple of weeks ahead of us. They also went as far west as Sedona AZ and toured the Grand Canyon. I have been keeping up with her blog "The Life and RV Adventure of Margie and Roger". (Click the link to visit their site). Looks like we will all be in Albuquerque at the same time for the Baloon Fiesta. Who knows, maybe we'll get to meet face to face.

OK, so one more day of work this week then we'll see what time we actually get gone -barring unforseen circumstances of course.

Time to Fuel Up!

2005-09-25T22:12:00.000-04:00

Today I have to do something about the tire pressure check situation, and get fuel.

I decided that I should check out the RV forums for advice and past postings on the tire pressure check problem. Sure enough I am not the only one to have this problem. The postings were numerous and of course varied in opinions. Just like being in a campground, going to the forums provides RVers that will definitely have an opinion on what to do. Some right - some not so right.

The postings ranged from "replace all valve stems with new longer valve stems" to "you must not be trying hard enough to get the gauge on the stem". Wrong. The gauge will NOT go on the stem through the small slot in the rim. And you know what? There were a relatively large number of people that had posted on the forum with that problem. And not just Fleetwood owners, but many brands, even the high end Diesel Pusher owners had this problem.

So I decided that I would make one more trip to a local auto parts store (Auto Zone) and if I didn't find a solution, that I would go to a truck tire service facility tomorrow and get long valve stems installed.

At Auto Zone, I found something that looks like it may work. They are 1 1/4 inch stainless steel valve extenders without caps but have the type of end that allows you to check the pressure or add air without removing a cap. Maybe they would be long enough to allow enough room to get the pressure gauge seated.

Sure enough, they work! I simply take off the valve stem cap on the tire, screw on the extender and check the pressure. Then I can remove the extender and put the original cap on. This takes a little longer that having a real valve stem that I can check whenever I need to, but it will work for now. When I replace the tires, or save enough money, maybe I'll invest in something more permanent.

That done, it's time to get fuel. I definitely don't want to save that until Friday night. Pam wants to ride with me for that so off we go to Fairview to McCoys Exxon; where gas is "down" to $2.84 per gallon. It only took 64 gallons. I make a note of the milage in my log book so I can check gas mileage on our trip.

While I was fueling up, someone spoke to me. It was Jerry Hinson, a friend of my Dad and Mom. He and his wife Georgia had a 5th Wheel and made a 9000 mile trip a few years ago. Some time back the sold it and bought a house in Ocean Lakes CG at Myrtle Beach. He walked around admiring our Bounder, talking about how he wanted a MH now that his fiver was gone. That made me feel a little better about the fuel bill.

Earlier in the day, while I was checking the tires, Pam was cooking. She cooked up several cassaroles and a baked spaghetti dish, put them in indivual serving containers, and put them in the freezer in the house. Now we will have ready made dinners for our first few nights on the road. We'll stop at Wal-Mart later in the week to complete the grocery buying, and stock up on all the items we'll need for the first week.

Now all that is left to do next week is add our clothes and bathroom stuff. Hopefully by Friday night all I will have to do is hook up the Civic and Saturday morning we'll be ready to ride!

I hope we can get fuel on the way out there!

Busy Saturday

2005-09-24T21:51:00.000-04:00

Today was a very busy day. I had a ton of stuff to get done, and on top of that it was a very hot and humid day.

First, I needed to get the Civic to the Honda Doc. Thats where I get all of the work done on both of our Hondas...the Civic and Pam's '99 Accord.

I mentioned before that there was some type of grinding sound comming out from under the hood. But I stopped worrying too much about it when I found that if I turn on the air conditioner, the noise stops. I figured that it was just an air conditioner thing. Then I started thinking about some of the isolated areas we may be visiting in New Mexico, and worried that a break down there could be a real problem. So, a trip to Honda Doc.

By 10 AM, the pully was fixed and I'm on my way. Then to Small Bros for a tire rotation. They are a tire dealer in Monroe, and also my Cousins and Aunt. That done, it was over to Outerbelt Lube to get the oil changed. And back home by Noon.

Now to install the MaxAir vent cover. All went as expected. It was really easy to install. Just put the vent cover over the vent you want to cover, mark the spot for the bracket holes, drill the holes in the vent, install the mounting brackets and then attach the cover. All done in about 20 - 30 minutes. Only one little problem - this big vent cover that I thought I had to buy wouldn't fit. It has such a large overhang to the rear of the vent that it was blocked by the AC cover next to the vent.

I ended up installing it over the bathroom vent, not the kitchen vent where I wanted it. It will work there and allow the bathroom vent to be used even when it's raining. And now that I know the secret of the self tapping screws, I will get one of the standard roof vent covers later.

Next comes the RV wash. Bucket, brushs, water hose, soap. One hour later, its done. And it was really dirty even though we have not really been anywhere. It has just been so dry here, and with all of the dust, it was really a mess. There was actually a lot of black grime on the slideout covers, and they looked 100% better when they were good and clean.

But I am still wondering what I am going to do to check the tire pressure.

Toad Wiring (Continued)

2005-09-22T23:09:00.000-04:00

Tonight I got home early enough to get out to the Bounder with the test meter and try to figure out which wires do what with the turn signals and break lights. Doing this by myself takes a little patience, but it can be done.

First, let me say that I DID look in the owners manual for the schematic for the trailer wiring adapter. No luck from the Ford Manual or the Fleetwood Manual.

Next find the ground terminal. Find a clean bolt or something on the chassis for one meter probe, and then touch each of the blades in the trailer connector one by one. BINGO! Make a note of it. and go to the next step.

Start the Bounder and put on the left turn signal. Then back to the trailer connector, touch the negative probe to the ground and touch each of the blades in turn. Find it and note it.

Then go through each of the other turn signals, the break lights, and tail lights in turn. The hard part is doing this by myself. How do I push the break pedal and check the rear of the coach at the same time? Answer: the big Fleetwood satchel that contains all of the documentation and papers for all of the items that are in the coach. It must weigh 5 pounds. So I push the break pedal and put that satchel on top of it. It works! Now run back to the back and see which blade in the connector has the break light connection.

Ok, thats all done. The breaklights are run through the Center connection on the trailer adapter. Now I take the 5 wires from the 5-4 combiner, skin the wires and attach them to the 7 blade adapter.

Then, I take the 4 wire flat adapter and skin the wires back about 1/2 inch and connect them to the appropriate wires comming out of the 5-4 combiner. I used crimp style butt connectors to make the splice nice and neat, then wrapped it with electrical tape.

Plug it all in and IT WORKS! No more magnetic mouse ear lights to deal with.

Toad Wiring

2005-09-20T21:40:00.000-04:00

I stopped at Northern Tool and Equipment tonight on the way home from work. They pretty much have everything you need for trailers, towing, hitches, light kits, etc.

I ended up getting a couple of items that I thought would work for me. The first thing is a 5 to 4 "Combiner/Adapter" According to the package, it provides conversion and isolation for tow vehicles that have separate amber turn signals and red break lights. It is a neat water proof little package with 5 wires in and 4 out. Apparently it has a diode in it that keeps feedback from getting back into the MH wiring, while converting it to the 4 wire connector that is on the Civic.

The other item I bought is a 7 blade adapter that I can wire myself. Now all I need to do is figure out which blades on the Bounder's trailer connector operate the various lights. Then it will just be a matter of connecting the wires.

I will have to get my test meter out tomorrow when I have the time.

Getting Organized

2005-09-19T21:47:00.000-04:00

I am going to have to get things organized or we'll be sitting here at midnight before we go with all this stuff to do! I did manage to get the MaxAir vent covers exchanged for one that is supposed to work with the power vents we have on the Bounder. Know what? When I got it home, (it because the one made specifically for the power vent is 4 times the cost of the regular model) I found that the only difference in the mounting hardware is this: the one "designed" for the power vent uses self tapping screws and has a warning not to pre-drill the screw holes into the fan components! Thats it. If I had known that, I would have kept the original vent cover and just gotten the screws from Lowes.

Whats worse, I still can not check the tire pressure in the outside rear tire. I did get two of the littley 2 inch almost U shaped valve extenders. I do not plan on leaving them permanently attached due to the stories I have heard about the leakage problems with add on valve extenders. But at least I thought the small ones could be attached to check pressure and then removed. But NO. They dont work either. The slot in the wheel cover is so small that the U shaped extender would not fit through it. It is not really U shaped but a little less than that. I may have to resort to taking off the wheel covers to check pressure. I usually just check pressure before a trip, then check it by hitting the tires with a heavy plastic covered hammer that I have.

I did get my Civic light kit on today and will be able to do away witht he "Mickey Mouse Ear" magnetic lights that I have. A&B Truck and Trailer in Matthews NC installed the kit. I started by asking for a diode kit, but the guys at A&B convinced me that I should just add an additional set of lights inside the lens housing. I made sure that I told them that the Bounder has separate amber turn signals and red break lights. They said that I might be have to use some sort of adapter or just "play" with the wiring on the Bounder to get it to work with the 4 wire flat adapter that they wired the Civic with.

Sure enough when I hooked up the 4 flat connector to the 4 flat adapter that I had used with the old Coachmen MH, the Civic turn signals worked but not the break lights. Oh well, looks like another trip to Northern Tool to get the adapters I need.

Northern has anything you need for trailers, towing, hitches, and just about everything else you could possibly need for towing. Maybe they'll have some kind of valve extender that will work too!

Looks like tomorrow night I'll have to stop a Northern on the way home.

Trip to Camping World

2005-09-17T22:03:00.000-04:00

There is a ton of stuff to get done prior to leaving in 2 weeks. I have been pretty lazy in getting things organized. Last night I made a list of things that had to be done... It included getting the lights wired on the Civic so I don't have to use the "Mickey Mouse Ear" magnetic lights any longer. They work ok, but they just take too much time to put on, run the wire to the hitch, and hook up. Then you have to do all that in reverse when you arrive. Other things I need to do: Put a MaxAir vent cover on the Bounder vents, check my tire pressure, change the oil (maybe), and then there are several things the Civic needs too.. oil change, check the strange sound that has started coming from under the hood, rotate tires... seems like the list goes on and on.

I decided to go to Camping World in Statesville NC, about a 90 minute drive from home. I called my Dad last night and asked him to ride along with me. He just returned from a disaster relief mission in Gulfport MS after hurricane Katrina, so I thought he may be a little tired from that. But he decided he needed a trip to Camping World too. (He and Mom have a Southwind 32.)

The trip was a success, I purchased 2 of the MaxAir vents and a tire pressure gauge that looked like it would be accurate and easy to read. We also checked out the diesel pushers that Holiday Kamper center had in stock. They share the lot with the Camping World.

When I got home with the items, the reality set in. I had not done my homework! The Maxair vents would not fit on my vents... the vents in the Bounder both have power fans built in the upper part of the vent, making it impossible to mount the standard vent covers I bought.

Not only that, but I still can not check my tire pressure! The problem is this. The valve stems on the outside rear tires are hidden behind the wheel cover, and the small oval slots in the wheel covers to not allow the tire pressure gauge to get to the stem. I have now tried 2 different pressure gauges, one that is a standard truck tire type gauge, and the one from CW. I'll either have to take the wheel covers off or install valve stem extenders. But I have heard that some of the valve extenders do not stay secure causing air leakage. What to do?

I'll really have to get organized next week.

Trip Planning

2005-09-12T23:56:00.000-04:00

This is the first blog that I have attempeted to put together. When I was thinking about how it would look, I was thinking that the articles would be presented from first to last so you could read top to bottom in order. Now I see that the latest comes first. Oh well, I'll get used to it

I mentioned in the first post that I had a couple of books to help me plan this trip. When you only have a limited amount of time to be there, you want to get all you can out of it while not making it too exhausting at the same time. It IS a vacation, remember?

Here is our proposed route from Monroe to New Mexico and back.

The first book I looked for was one called "Scenic Drives of New Mexico". Previously on a trip to Arizona, I had come across this series of books, and it was a great help in seeing the things of interest in AZ. These little books show a number of day trips that range in length from 10 miles to over 100 miles in length. And the author describes the things of interest and places to stop, eat and in some cases places to stay and campgrounds.

Another helpful book is the Moon Handbooks - New Mexico. These books detail places of interest and things to do.. not so much the standard list of hotels, resturants, etc.

So here is a map of the state of New Mexico with the route we intend to take shown as the yellow marks on the map

Now I know that some of you reading this may be wondering whats the big deal here... it's only a 3 week trip to NM! Well, I am not retired and am not a fulltimer. For us this is a big deal.

I have been to the Southwest US a few times before.. both in RV and not in RVs. The Southwest is really a special place, expecially for a couple from the SouthEAST US. There everything is always green and humid. Going to the SW is a real change for us, and I want to make the most of it.

Besides that, I enjoy the planning aspect of putting together a trip like this. Reading, studying maps, finding out of the way places to visit, interesting places to eat interesting food is all a part of the fun of the trip.

There are several internet Forums that are quite helpful too. I have included them in the links section on the right side of this page. The RV Forum and RV Net are very helpful. Questions are usually answered quickly. And you know RVers.. they always have an opinion and don't mind sharing.

Getting Started

2005-09-12T20:30:00.000-04:00

Greetings!
This is the first post that I have added to this blog. I hope you all enjoy following us on our trip to the Southwest USA.... mainly the beautiful state of New Mexico.

Thanks for joining our trip.

Please feel free to add your comments or email us at the following address.

RV@Lomaxonline.com

This is a picture of our traveling home. It is a Fleetwood Bounder. The car we take with us is a 1990 Honda Civic.. our toad - because it is "toad" behind our motor home.

We have been RVing in one way or another for the past 15 years or so. If you want a little more background on our RV past, please click here for our RV History.

Here is a picture of Pam and Bobbi in the Bounder. This picture was made on the way home from our may trip to Savannah GA.

That trip was very enjoyable. We stayed at the Whispering Pines CG near Rincon GA. Here we are at the Tybee Island Lighthouse near Savannah.

Please be sure to check out some of our vacation pictures by clicking the "Chuck and Pam's Pictures" link on the right.

Traveling with Pets.

We have never had an inside pet that we would consider having to travel with us. About two years ago, our son rescued a tiny kitten that was abandoned by its mother during a severe storm. We nursed it back to life, keeping it warm and feeding it kitten formula from an eye dropper until it could eat on its own. As they say, "you don't adopt a cat, cats adopt you". This was the case with Bobbi. Since she is an indoor cat that always uses her litter box, we decided to take her on our camping trips with us. The first trip to Savannah was about a 5 hour drive. We had tried to get Bobbi accustomed to the Bounder by letting her start with short visits there, and getting longer each time. But when we began the trip to Savannah, she jumped on Pam's lap under a blanket and would not move, staying there the entire trip down. In the campground, she slowly got back to normal. On the trip back she was a little more comfortable. On subsequent trips she has gotten more and more comfortable. She is a little apprehensive at the beginning of each trip, but quickly warms up to the idea and has become a pretty good little Kamping Kitty (sorry KOA.)

The only concern we had about Bobbi in the RV is the open access to the area under the bed. Since the bed is a slideout, I was concerned that she would get under there and get into some kind of trouble. Perhaps it is nothing to worry about, but I did decide to make a minor modification to keep her from getting in there. More info on our Kitty Safe Bed Slide,modification is on our Miscelaneous stuff page

New Mexico

In May of 2005 we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, so we thought we would try to take a major trip in the Bounder. We decided to take a couple of weeks to visit New Mexico. I began planning the trip and trying to decide what we could see in two weeks.

Initially, I was thinking more "road trip"... moving from place to place on a daily basis. But with the climbing cost of fuel, and the narrow mountain roads that may be part of the NM visit, I decided to take the Civic and use a few spots as a base camp for touring the surrounding areas. Santa Fe seemed to be a good option for one stop. Additionally, we want to see some of northwest NM, southwest NM and of course Carlsbad.

Next came a stop at the AAA to pick up maps and AAA tour books for the area. I also purchased a couple of books "Sceinic Driving New Mexico", and "Moon Handbooks New Mexico". Both are very good in that they do not just list lodging and restaurants like some other books do, but actually provide a tour guide for things to see and do.

Another invaluable source are some of the RV Forums available on the internet: The Open Road Forum http://www.rv.net/forum/ and the RV Forum http://www.rvforum.net/ . In both of these forums, my questions about NM brought good and helpful responses (with a few exceptions!)

It was also a way to make some new friends. We have begun to exchange regular email with several people that responded to my questions on the forums. Thats the great thing about RVing: meeting new people and making new friends.

I was also able to spend an extra week in NM thanks to the wonders of Wi-Fi and cell phones. Most of my work is conducted over the phone and on the computer. By finding an RV park with Wi-Fi high speed internet access, I am going to be able to work from the Bounder. The second week of our trip will include the Columbus Day holiday, so I will only have to work 4 days that week. If we get to the RV park on Monday afternoon, we can stay there until Saturday morning and get in 4 days of work, then back to vacation. We'll see how that works.

Then after seeing some of the great blogs that RVers have posted on the internet, I decided to try this blog site. I thought it would be fun to keep family and friends up to date on where we are and send pictures as we go.

So thats about enough for an introduction - now lets see how this blog stuff will work out!