Home Again, Home Again jiggity jig...

We are currently south of Atlanta - so that run for home I referenced earlier is a real run.  We spent last night north of Atlanta in Calhoun, GA and the prior 2 nights off I-55 (recuperating) in MO at the Hawn State Park - 50 mi south of St, Louis near the historic town of St. Genevieve (oldest town in MO).  We saw our first real flood gates, you know, those big metal gates in the levees that towns use to keep out the mighty Mississippi when it floods -  but those pics are on Bruce's camera

Driving Miss Linda ....

I am sitting in the passenger seat of The Beast enjoying the views out the big window (remember it is called the big screen when we are parked) of blue skies and cumulus clouds (that I am sure will bear rain later this afternoon) and the landscape of southeastern SD and now western Iowa - farming country for sure - corn (lots and lots of corn,) cattle, hay - and much more I can't see.

The Run for Home - Not our normal exercise!

First - I must apologize to my all friends and family following our journeys this year.  For over a month I have been a slug, a well meaning one, but still a slug.  I have not kept up my blog  and now we are making a run for home.  Why, you say, are you running for home?  Since inquiring minds want to know, I will expound.

Sun,Water, Baby Backs, Coleslaw- Ahhhhh - 4th of July!!!

Yes, today is the 4th of July.  I hope all of you had a great day - I can attest to the fact ours was wonderful.  The weather has been perfect - sun with a light breeze to keep you cool, great food on the grill, time to just read a book in the shade and a view of the river and all of the crazy boat people.

Today - Summer from the John Day

It is the first day of summer, the longest day of the year, the summer solstice and today we definitely experienced summer.

On the Oregon Trail and over to the Coast....

We left California and moderately warm weather over a week ago to arrive in Oregon to what we in Florida would consider WINTER, rain predicted 60% or more every day, nights in the upper 30s/low 40s and days hovering between 50 and 60s.  We had to break out pants and long sleeves again, along with sweatshirts and jackets.

No Campee in Yosemite...

We are on our way again, just left hidden View Campground outside Madera, CA.  We never did take The Beast to Yosemite

Hidden From View.............

I know- I am very, very  late in updating my posts.  I will work on that tonight and update soon, but right now we are hidden from the view of most of the Verizon 3 G upload capability- so this will be short and sweet.

Wind, Wind and now even More Wind?

Wind - the most consistent part of this April trip in the Southwest (and probably some other places too).  Some wind is fine, but 35-40 mph starts to get a little old when you are camping  - OK, I admit it is not really camping but more like living in an RV

A Big Data Hole.......

Did you miss me?  Well, Coleman, TX is in the middle of a giant data hole, the type that is labeled -  Don't even think about trying to connet.  So, for all purposes we have been incommunicado - at least via computer, unless I wanted to find a wi-fi hook-up in Coleman and then have to put up with Bruce's figiting while I tried to get something done- just not worth it. But right now I am back so will do a quick update while we remain on I-20 moving W from Sweetwater to Big Springs- because  once we leave the interstate, who knows if I will have connectivity for the rest of this leg of the trip.


I am pretty sure I added mucho information about Coleman on our 2009 trip - as we stayed at the Lakeside Park at Hord's Creek back then too, but obviously later in the season, so won;t spend too much describing the area.  This time we stayed on site #1 - right down the hill from the newest bathhouse in the park - only to find that it was locked.  Apparently, to our surprise, since neither the park hosts or the web site offered any information,  they don't have a contract to have any of them cleaned until May 1- so only 3 in the whole park were open and of course none within walking distance to us.  They offered to move us to another site once we questioned the Park Ranger about the problem, but since it had taken more than the average time to get The Beast level and we were already set up, we declined. We were only staying 7 nights and could use our own facilities until then - but we had to relocate the cats' bathroom in the meantime.  Just inconvenient, not a show stopper.  The bathhouses that were open were in bad condition, in fact at one time Bruce said that the shower on his side of the one closest to us looked like had someone stood across the room and threw whole boiled potatoes on the walls where they spattered everywhere and  it was never cleaned up while we were there. So using The Beast's facilities was the right decision.  Note to self- when arriving before May 1, be prepared to use our own facilitates and try to find a site with sewer hook-ups where The Beast will fit. 


Weather was warm during the day but very, very windy except for Satruday.  Night temps were perfect and we didn't use the AC until late yesterday evening and to sleep last night- 90 is getting too hot, even with a heavy wind and the cats were complaining audibly.    Eating outside was limited, especially since picnic ware doesn't stand a chance of remaining in the vicinity of the camp site with 35-4 5mph gusts and the grill even had a hard time staying lit. I must admit, instead of cooking we sampled most of the Coleman restaurants instead. 

The deer were prolific int the park and would graze nearby without even worrying about the dog.  There were feeders placed around the area, so it was apparent they had a good, safe home in which to live for the time and were making the most of it. 

Terrie drove down to see us Friday, leaving to go home early Sunday morning.  We had a beautiful day on Satruday with a morning filled with garage sales, a comfortable afternoon at the park, a wonderful dinner where we could even eat outside, culminating in a dessert trip to the Dairy Queen.  The weather was so nice that evening she opted to sleep outside on her puffy mattress covered with a comforter and was very happy.

We just left the interstate and I want to get this update out before I am conectless (or down to dial-ip speeds) so will conclude now.  All in all, it was a very nice stay at :Lakeside Park (even with the winds and bathroom issues) and we enjoyed Coleman.  I will post all of our new pictures once we get situated in Carlsbad (I hope).

Until then - Drive safely and Retire early.

Texas - here for a couple of weeks

We are currently staying outside Jefferson, TX again at a COE Lake -Lake O' The Pines and at a COE campground, Buckhorn Creek, to be exact.  Wednesday, after another GPS malfunction (Bruce said we need to have that thing updated or rebooted  but I think it will work awhile longer)

We are Officially On Our Way

My first real entry for this trip- and I did most of it sitting in The Beast experiencing what MS calls a line of weather bringing" afternoon thunderstorms, some severe" along with high winds and a tornado watch.  The dog was hysterical and The Beast moved about a bit with the winds - just the kind of evening I looked forward to in a motorhome.

At Last - The Beginning of Another Trip (You know you can hardly wait!)

We are only one week away from the start of another journey westward.  This one will take 6-7 months and cover all of the western states and yes, the itinerary is pretty much drying in concrete as I type - at least for the first 2/3rds of the trip. For you footloose and fancy free travelers, I offer this in our defense.  When you choose to camp in the Federal and National Parks with a larger motorhome (oh yeah and want water and electricity if possible, at a minimum) and most of those parks were in existence BEFORE motorhomes so are geared around pop-ups, small Class Cs, truck campers and tents, you want to be assured of a spot that will fit your rig when you finally arrive at some of these off the beaten path campgrounds we like to use.  For us that means reservations.  Electricity matters to us most of the time because, remember folks, 3 months of this trip will be in summer in the high desert - and the cats are wimps and need that AC (OK, so they make perfect scape goats and we can act like we would not need it it if it wasn't for them and could just show up or dry camp.)  Also, with more and more of the state and federal parks taking (and often requiring as in the Grand Canyon during the summer) reservations, you might as well get them early when you have the pick of the sites. So I have been working on this trip for quite awhile, as federal campgrounds will only take reservations 6 months in advance.  September reservations could only be made this month- so the summer months were made in late December and on and most people can't think that far in advance to make any plans nowadays, giving old more structured people like me the pick of the parks and the sites within those parks. Recreation.gov (Federal campgrounds and tours/things to do in them) and reserveamerica.com (Used by states and some private campgrounds) internet reservation sites are great and many of the campground sites include pictures. Pair those tools with Google earth where you can almost see the actual site from above and the surrounding areas with respect to traffic (guess that only matters if you are staying for more than a night or two), trees/rocks in the way of slide-outs, winding roads, and more, and reservation making is not bad.  In fact, it has become an art and I, for one, think I am well on my way to being labeled a Master (Guess the site reviews as we  move through this massive itinerary will be the real test of whether I am just good or actually GREAT!). 

Bruce and I spent time looking at most of the available sites in most of the campgrounds to make these reservations. OK - in reality I created the itinerary around the places we wanted to be at certain times, found the parks, located what i thought were the best sites and showed him them for his opinion AND to make this happen would open several windows so he could see the site map and the satellite overhead pictures at the same time so could make other suggestions besides my choices.  He would never spend that much time on a computer even if he was willing to learn and even then, after me doing this and then getting his recommendations, he says I come back and second guess those decisions in many of the parks.  Maybe I have too much time and too much information - no that would never be the case!   Anyway, we made decisions based on where the sun in July and August would be with respect to different sites, whether we would face north, south, etc., were there trees for shade, waterfront for view when possible and wide sites with no impediments, etc.  Why is this impediment issue important - well when we first camped at Cheyenne Mountain we ended up in a site with large rocks in the place where the slide-out and bins needed to be.  Those rocks were everywhere and we could hardly find a place to park in the site and access the amenities - duh, what was I thinking, Cheyenne MOUNTAIN.  This time I spent time finding a site at the same campground that had a wonderful day and night time view over Colorado Springs, plenty of space to sit outside and enjoy adult beverages while Bruce grilled in the evenings and room to maneuver around the rocks.with a long drive to clear any impediments.  I found one meeting my requirements and booked it yesterday (they have nice site pictures this time) and even then it was hard since many of the prime sites were already reserved for mid-September.  I am not the only one with this reservation fanaticism. . 

Finally I get to the Itinerary  (no I am not done yet!).  Our first stop after leaving Jacksonville will be Crestview, FL for a visit with friends and family.  Then we head up to just out of Meridian, MS and then on over to Texas.  We will be staying a few weeks in Texas and then heading to New Mexico again, (Carlsbad where I deleted all my pictures that year) and also Alamogordo (White Sands National Monument) where we really want to participate in the Lake Lucero Ranger led excursion on the 23rd of the month.  After that, we will be exploring (sound like we are up for lots of exercise - right?  No, just the walking tour for us- no crawling around in the dark for me!) a new cavern in Arizona at Kartchner Caverns State Park and finally will spend a few days with Bruce's sister, Charlene in Cave Creek right outside of Phoenix.  Leaving AZ will take us over the new Hoover Dam bridge through Las Vegas to a Forest Service campground about 20 miles NW of the city.  It was the only one in Nevada I could find with electricity by the way and it only has 15 amp service - so hope those cats don't really need those air conditioners at that altitude. Of course we will go in to Vegas to visit, maybe see a show and hit one or two of the nice restaurants, but gamblers we are not, and even in May, Las Vegas will be hotter than we like.  Once we leave NV we are in new territory for the The Beast  - California. (You remember The Beast - our 36' Fleetwood Discovery Diesel (ouch, diesel fuel is already $4/gal here and higher in some areas - well it is only money.) Class A motorhome, carrying us, the dog and 2 cats faithfully around the US.) 

So - California, the state of many drivers, many people, many earthquakes (please not while we are there), none of which make us happy - so why that state? This trip we wanted to see Yosemite and lucked out getting a few nights in the park, so will stay at some of the other federal areas in California before and after that short stay.  All in all, we are only planning about 2 weeks there and much of it will be off the beaten path.  Once we leave CA we are off to one of our favorite states - Oregon.  We should be in Oregon about 6 weeks and then will stop in Washington State at a few sites, move on to Idaho and then Montana.  In Montana we will stay outside Glacier for several weeks, just chilling.  After that - we are pretty loose for a few weeks until we head back South towards Zion National Park, a stay at Grand Canyon North Rim (in site 11 actually on the rim- but no electricity), and some extended time in Grand Junction, CO to visit Janet and family.  Leaving there we will traverse I-70 towards Denver (what a beautiful drive) and head south to Colorado Springs and Cheyenne Mountain.  then we are headed towards home, stopping for some time at my sister Terrie's home in Edmond, OK.  We should arrive at her place in late September.  How and when we come home after that is still to be decided.  So as you can see, just getting to Terrie's will take the better part of 6 months. 


OK - enough on where and how we got to this point - tomorrow or later this week I will let you in on what it is taking us to actually get out of Jacksonville in The Beast next Monday!!  Until then - Drive Safely and Retire Early!