Short trip for a quick look at spring 2018

We left on March 15th .  New England snow storms have been terrible this March so we found a window between storms that was warm enough to pack.  The week before we had 18 inches of snow that pulled down our electric wire into the driveway entrance for 3 days.  The electric company took 3 days to remove it.  We could not get out of the driveway. We have a generator so we were comfortable but thank goodness for our next door neighbor, our son.  He gave a gas ride  for the generator every day.  We are rural and surrounded by stone walls on 5 acres so it is not easy to get out except through the hole in the stone wall.  The suggestions of the electric company of just going out the backyard does not work.  Also if no electricity, no water.  I do not think  people understand and because I complain about our age (now in our 70's) it does not seem to matter.  I was very upset.  John and I have medical problems and emergency help could not get to us if needed because of the wire as well!  We cleared another storm's 12 inches of snow off the camper and finally left.

We traveled to Tennessee stopping at Woodstock, VA to spend the night.  It was cold but easily comfortable.  John had an extra blanket.  We visited TN friends and de-winterized the RV finding the pump did not work.  Our friends knew where to call to buy a new pump & John & Bob put the new pump in.  Off we went on our way after 3 days. It was warm in TN until the week we got there.  We must have brought the cold weather. 

We traveled over mountains on Route 26 to SC and visited other friends. We stayed at Hunting Beach State Park in Murrell's Inlet right on the ocean.  It was also cold and windy there and very expensive.  We paid $18 for a SC State Park on the way east from TN but arriving on the coast it was $53 a night.  What a difference March makes.  Snowbirds RVs are headed north again! 

We left after viewing houses where our friends live.  We want to move to warmer weather and they live in a 55+ community and love it.  We found a rental but it was just, just rented.  I liked the house so if that does not work out they will let us rent it.  It was backed to a golf course and a block from the communal pool--perfect and a small house.  I want to downsize!

Georgia was our next stop.  It was a little warmer but still not warm until we stayed at Seminole State Park in SW GA on the FL & AL corner boarder.  There I stayed out in the sun beside the lake reading and received sun burn on my nose that peeled!  I wanted out of the van, or my back did, so we did not head further west or south.  I had seen redbud, pear, daffs, dogwood all in bloom, green grass, wildflowers, etc. so we headed north. 


The lake at FDR State Park and below John the next day unhooking the electrical

We stopped at TD Roosevelt State Park and the Little White House in Warm Springs where FDR died.  That was very interesting and completed FDR's life for us.  We have visited where he was born in NY, where he contacted Polio in Canada and where he died in GA.  He was our longest presidential leader, elected 4 terms.  After that it was changed to just 2 terms.  Now history has pictures in my mind.


Our deck after an inch or so.  It looks lovely but really--APRIL!
Below can you see the covered B??

John in his usual place with Emma!

Back we came and arrived on Easter night quite late.  You can always tell when you arrive in Pa to CT.  The roads are terrible-teeth and RV jarring!  The house was warm thanks to a daughter who turned up our heat.  On Monday it snowed again about 8 inches.  It also snowed in CT during the time we were traveling.  In April we usually do not winterize again but this year, yes!  What a spring!!??!!

Summer Trip 2017

We spent July in Woodstock but found the weather hot and humid.  It had been a very rainy spring.  So in August we headed to Arizona arriving in Green Valley below Tucson in !07 degree weather.  We had been thinking of maybe relocating there but I wanted to experience the hottest time of year.  That is in June but August was terrible also.  We had an appointment with a realtor but after just one night I said "Get me out of here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

We headed north and Bryce Canyon National Park was our second stop. We stopped at Glen Canyon NRA first. After 3 days I said my goodbyes to Bryce and we headed north again.  Bryce Canyon is over 8,300 feet so it is much cooler.  And it was just as beautiful.  Then I wanted to stop at Salt Lake City, UT for the monument to people and settlers of the area.  It was sculptured by a grandson of Brigham Young and I learned about the artist and the monument when I was volunteering at Weir Farm in CT.  I was impressed with the monument.  From there we headed north and west to Washington State and Oregon.  We accidentally followed the Oregon Trail in Idaho and Oregon and we saw Mt. Rainier NP and Olympic NP before heading to Oregon and friends who taught us to crab from a dock in Bandon.  The smoke was terrible because of the fires and terrible dry summer.  East thru burning national forests we traveled out of our way for roads were closed. What a long day!!!!!! I had a last night saying goodbye to the Rocky Mountains and we saw Grand Teton NP again, then traveled east thru Casper, WY and into Nebraska following the Oregon Trail east thru Scotts Bluff NM and Chimney Rock.  When the emigrants saw Scotts Bluff, they knew they were 1/3 into their journey west. We spent 6 weeks roaming and completing missed parts of history arriving back in Connecticut September 17th.



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Our campsite in North Campground near the rim.

Beautiful as always



Crabbing with our friends

This is the Place Monument, Salt Lake City, UT



The Pacific Ocean at Olympic National Park

The very dry rain forest I had come to see.  (Terrible, very, very dry summr!!!!!!!!)

The Tetons and Snake River  in Grand Teton National Park

Mt Rainier NP gas  pumps from the past.



The mouth of the Columbia River and the Washington State side in the distance

The Nebraska light house dedicated to Hope (Beacon of Hope) build by CCC in 1930's

View from Scott's Bluff.  The Immigrants knew they were 1/3 to Oregon at this point.
 

A view of Mt. Rainier coming into the national park.  It was cloudy so when the mountain appeared it was a shock and impressive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Early Spring

We decided that March was a terrible month in Connecticut so we headed for an early Spring somewhere else.  We left just before a snow storm and came back in April to a wet but warmer month.  We traveled first south ASAP for I wanted water in the house on wheels.  Then we headed west to Arizona and New Mexico.

We stopped in TN at our friends home and we stopped in GA at Cloudland Canyon State Park to take on water and do laundry.  We like the GA parks for they are clean, have a laundry for a reasonable price and state parks are always much more roomy than private parks.  We saw Bradford Pear trees in bloom and green grass.  We headed thru AL & MS to LA where we spend another night in a LA state park where we did laundry again and the next morning had no water.  We were told the main water main broke by workers doing something so we ended up at a horse camp in the state park that had better showers.  Life is always an adventure and we seem to always make out better by just winging it.  Then we arrived in the huge state of TX.  We never went thru the lower part of the Texas  panhandle so this time we entered NM in Clovis stopping in TX at Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway.  At the park we took a ranger tour of the former railway turned trailway and stayed at the park for a night.  The tour was great  (Ranger Piggs leading the tour-love the name and I am not kidding!) and it just happened (again) that we were in the right place at the right time.  We asked and the tour was full........ but one couple did not show up and on the tour we went.

The next day we stayed in Oasis State Park, NM crossing through Clovis.  John missed signs and stopped at a Sherriff's office for directions to Oasis.  We were impressed for we actually got a police escort right to the entrance of the park. That's service!!!!! Or were we strange people who he had to keep an eye on?  We stopped in Alamogordo, NM at another state park (good find, Oliver Lee State Park) and we questioned the visitor center in Alamogordo about housing there.  I love the southwest non humidity!!!!!

We ended up in Arizona and learned all March in AZ = school break somewhere and state parks are full.  We traveled to Chiricahua National Monument in the middle of nowhere but on a Sunday night that was even full (we never make reservations).  I had never been there.  The Class A was too large for the monument.  I recommend the place if you are ever in southern AZ below Wilcox.  We visited a former ranch, (part of the monument) called Faraway Ranch.  Wonder where the name came from?????

Back at ORPI and beautiful as ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flowers everywhere in this green desert!

Next we stopped at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (OPR)I where we were volunteers twice, We stayed 2 nights and visited people we knew.  Then we headed to Lake Pleasant where friends were volunteering.  After a stop we headed north to I-40 and east again stopping at Cottonwood near Sedona on a Sunday night.  Dead Horse State Park was also full.  We stopped at Tizigoot National Monument in Cottonwood (ancient people ruins).  That was an interesting stop.  We never plan anything and things always work out!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the sunshine and low humidity of the southwest but back we came over Route I-40 stopping in the Texas panhandle at Palo Duro Canyon State Park.  We had been there before.  We rested there then traveled on. In GA we went directly to I-95 and north again.  We saw flowers blooming, trees and green grass arriving in Connecticut.   So we traveled many, many miles to enjoy warmth and color and then we were back in CT coming alive for the spring.  We stayed the night at the Danbury, CT Welcome Center which has reopened with a new free dump station.  We arrived home in time for a grandson's 17th birthday party.  A quick trip for an early spring!



Palo Duro Canyon, TX panhandle
Below grumpy John walking

Tale #2

We were so close but I decided I did not want to volunteer in the beautiful Sonoran Desert so back we came to cold Connecticut after calling our supervisor at Organ Pipe.  I was sooooo close but we are back in New England for the December holidays. 

The weather held for us so we arrived in the beginning of December not having to winterize and we had a chance to empty the rig and winterize it properly.  It is sad to see the rig all set for the New England winter as we are looking out from our home.  Oh well, all things happen for a reason!

Off to AZ

We finally left on election day. We voted by absentee ballot.  The weather was warm and we left about 10AM.  We spent the night on the road and traveled towards southwestern PA.  I looked at the map of PA to discover the Flight 93 Memorial was near so we stopped.  It was cold and cloudy in the coal mining part of western PA but the memorial to the 54 passengers and crew was very well done.  Of course I remember 9/11 very well and remember the plane crashing into a field in PA instead of somewhere in Washington, DC.  I was extremely impressed with the national park service
finished project.  It is well worth the stop. 

After the NPS memorial stop, we traveled on into Ohio joining I-70.  We stopped at our grandson's place in Lake St. Lewis, MO for one night, then we all visited the Western Expansion Arch.  We went to the top of the arch showing a grand view of the area and the Mississippi. John and I had been there before but never to the top of the arch.  The museum was closed for repairs but we had been there before.  Nevin had never been to the Arch before so it was great for all!

After our goodbyes we headed thru MO into OK and the Texas panhandle joining I-40 in OK.  I wanted to go north around the Santa Fe area in NM so we found a state park called Villanueva State Park, and took a break for a few days.  We went to Fort Union NM, the biggest fort in the west long ago.  It is just ruins now but spread across the plain.  It was very, very windy.  The fort was nicknamed Fort Windy and I could see why so.  It was a supply fort for a whole network of smaller forts in the territory.  You could see the old road and wagon wheel tracks from the time when oxen pulled all supplies wagons. 

The B was pushed around by the wind on I-25 and a large plastic barrel blew into our rig so we headed back to the campground to wait out the wind in NM. The winds of the west are very different from the east and wind warnings are best to be listened to!!!!! The next day it was colder but no wind.  We headed towards Petrified Forest and stayed at Holbrook, AZ before doing the tourist thing, hiking the Blue Mesa trail. We stopped at the Painted Desert Inn in Petrified and talked to the volunteer who was there.(We volunteered there in 2013)  Then we visited the visitor center and got to talk to one of the rangers we had worked with. We headed south towards Globe, AZ for I changed my mind about going to Death Valley National Park.  I did not think we had enough time before volunteering at Organ Pipe National Monument in December. 

We toured Tonto National Monument, another cliff dwelling, (very good stop) talking to the volunteers there and then headed to Globe where we spent the night.  It was cactus country right next to a very low Lake Roosevelt.  It was part of Phoenix water supply and very low.

Since it was almost Thanksgiving we decided to spent it in Poncho Villa State Park, right on the border of Mexico and New Mexico.  It was a great historic find.  The park was on land that was an army base in 1915.  Poncho Villa raided Columbus, NM and killed 18 people in 1915.  The army sent a force into northern Mexico to capture the bandit but they never did catch him.  That was before the US entered WWI and the technology of warfare was changing quickly.  In the force that was chasing Poncho Villa they used airplanes and trucks to carry the troops but the gasoline had to be carried by mule train.  I thought that very funny.  Anyway, there was a museum at the state park that was interesting for it had local pre WWI artifacts.  History came alive for me that was before only a tale in my high school text books.

Then..................I felt funny and I decided I did not want to be so far from civilization for the month of December so after Thanksgiving, I called our ORPI supervisor and told her we were headed home.  The EZ up she had received that I bought for us to use at ORPI I donated to the park.  I was soooo very sad and made my apologies but back we came to cold New England.  Bah Humbug....and I was looking forward to a Ajo Christmas.  We have been there at that time of year before and I wanted to do it again.  Oh well, you plan and then life happens.

Winter plans

We went to Maine for 5 days in September in between doctor visits.  Boy, I sure hope we can get to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in December.  We know even with our tiny rig we can live easily in the beautiful Sonoran desert.  It has a great VIP campground.  See below.


The Sonora building houses laundry, bathrooms ,freezers, dining/game room &
 covered patio with grill

The only campfire ring in the whole park is in the VIP campground

Acadia NP and Cobscook Bay, Maine

We traveled to Maine to see the new addition to Acadia and hopefully meet Linda and Howard from RV Dreams.com who are volunteering there.  They held a boondocking rally in AZ several years ago which we attended.  We met them in Acadia and we met a ranger we knew and worked with from Organ Pipe Cactus NM, AZ.  Sardius is a Texan who worked in ORPI the 2 years we were volunteering there.  What a surprise to meet a westerner ranger this far east!!  So 3 people in one day in another national park whom we just bumped into with no meeting plan.  It is amazing how small this world is!!

 

We went to Cadillac Mountain & the very top was soooo busy for a mid week September day.
  We were told the mountain road was closed for 3 hours just before we traveled it. 



Yup, it looks like the Maine coast!

I wanted to visit the new Schoodic Woods Campground on the Schoodic Peninsula which has been opened just a year. (Sorry, no pix!)  The national park campground is fantastic.  It does not have showers but the roads are paved, the sites are level gravel, private and beautiful.  There is a walk-in tent area, a section for small RV's or tents with electricity and great bathrooms and a section for large RV's with electricity and water at each site.  It is very well planned with a dump station also. As always we just arrived and got a site midweek. We never make reservations. On the weekend we were not so lucky so we headed home stopping at a Walmart on the 8 hour travel home.  We also stopped at a business called Humble Abodes (we're beekeepers) which makes wooden ware for hives.  It being Maine we ordered and paid for the frames during the week heading to Acadia and on the way back on the weekend when they were closed, we picked up our purchase that was left out for us.  Where else could you do this?
  Love Maine & Humble Abodes!!!

We went to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, to see FDR's summer home, which  is an international historic site.  It was an easy over the border trip at Lubec, ME.   We stayed at Cobscook Bay State Park that has lots of beauty but no amenities and we watched the huge tides from our private site.  I even walked the dog in the AM in my PJ's because it was such a quiet place.  We did not see another person the whole time we were there.  The tides were quite high going from mud flats to very deep pools of ocean.  Lubec is at the start of the Bay of Fundy.  Beautiful place!!!!!