January 10, 2021 Visiting Friends

Catalina State Park Day 2

So, we had no hookups last night…it was 35 degrees…in the RV at 5 this morning it was 40 degrees…BRRRR!!!  We turned on the auxiliary heat at 5 and then at 8 we started the generator and the furnace!  We decided we might switch to a full hookup site if there was one available…we got the last one.  We moved this morning and then I walked 3.5 miles on park trails.

This afternoon we had an invitation from our good friends Lee and Claudia.  We went to their house and enjoyed a wonderful meal of elk steaks.  It was so nice to visit and chat and spend time with kind and gracious people.  We are hoping that our schedules collide and that we can camp together in southern Arizona/California this winter. 

Thank you Lee and Claudia for “getting us” and for amazing hospitality!

Go RAVENS!

January 9, 2021 Catalina

Catalina State Park Tucson, Arizona

We got a late start.  We took advantage of the hookups and did more laundry first thing in the morning.  While I was on my walk, I scoped out the nearby carwash.  The other day on 10, we followed the Texas DOT truck that was pretreating the road surface and our RV.  The carwash was able to accommodate the coach and so big baby got washed!

We arrived at Catalina State Park and settled in.  We went for a nice bike ride, enjoying the beautiful scenery.  I love it here!  It is hard to believe that we are in the city of Tucson.

We made a nice turkey chili and then took our showers early because we are in a no hookup zone and generator hours are over at 8.

January 8, 2021 ARIZONA!!

Grande Vista RV Park Willcox, Arizona

It was 30 degrees as I started my morning walk.  The sun was out, the air here is dry, and there was no wind, and so it was a pleasantly invigorating walk.  I did my laps around the campground and out to the road. 

We left to finish our drive across Texas.  Our breakfast spot.

In El Paso, there is a crossing into Ciudad Juarez.  From the highway, you can see the border fence and the houses on the Mexican hillside.

We had our lunch in New Mexico at the Welcome Center.

Our ride today was sublime.  The weather was perfect.  The sky was a pale blue with wispy clouds, the mountains in muted colors were our backdrop.

We arrived in Willcox shortly before 4.  Tim waited in the Safeway parking lot while I gathered groceries.  We then went across the road for diesel fuel.  We found a 4.5-star Mexican restaurant, La Unica Tortilleria y Taqueria.  We ordered carryout and then headed to our campground.

We enjoyed our meal and the first Arizona sunset of the trip!

I had breakfast in Texas, lunch in New Mexico, and dinner in Arizona. I am a very lucky girl! David called and we had FaceTime with the boys…who miss us and we miss them! It was nice to share bedtime stories…

January 7, 2021 Still in Texas

Van Horn RV Park Van Horn, Texas

I had a great walk through the Kerrville Park and onto the River Trail.  I wish we had known about this 6-mile paved hiking/biking path yesterday.  It would have been a nice place to cycle.  I saw a few deer and only saw one other person out enjoying the cool, crisp morning. 

We rode/drove 373 miles today…our fourth big driving day in a row.  Route 10W in Texas is 880 miles.  It crosses the very widest portion of the state.  We have been in Texas for days…but we will cross the New Mexico line tomorrow.

Up until today, Tim had driven all of the more than 1,000 miles from Atlanta.  This afternoon, he suggested that I take an opportunity to drive for a while, to practice.  The road was good and straight and the traffic was light.  I contributed 85 miles today!  I wasn’t nervous this time and I think I did just fine!  I even passed a tractor trailer!

The Texas DOT was pretreating the roads.  They are expecting wintry weather this weekend in the higher elevations in Central Texas.

The landscape began to change today.  It was more mountainous, rocky, and scrubby.

We arrived in Van Horn after 4pm. We took an evening walk.  The alligator was in the middle of his pond.  He has a chilly night coming.  The forecast is for 31 degrees.

We passed this bush full of house sparrows.  They are plain brown birds but they engage in social singing we could hear the music of beautiful birdsong as we walked by.

A simple eggs and toast and applesauce dinner and that is the end of this day!

January 6, 2021 Middle of Texas

Kerrville-Schreiner Park Kerrville, Texas

Last evening, after I posted the blog, the lights came on at the brand new arena in the park. We saw horse trailers being unloaded. I decided to go and watch!

As I walk back home…the Rv was bathed in Christmas lights.

I had a nice morning walk around the campground.

Today we spent all day getting to the middle of Texas.  We passed through Houston.

We had leaden skies for most of the day with intermittent rain showers.

We took the loop around San Antonio and in late afternoon we stopped at a rest stop to make a plan for tonight.   We found the Kerrville-Schreiner Park not very far away, a city park with plenty of spots available.  We set up and started a load of laundry right away.  We are going to make an effort to stay out of laundromats and so we will use the RV washer anytime we have hookups. 

I was able to talk with a good friend today…with all of the craziness and chaos in this world…it’s important to stay in touch with the people we love!

We took a nice walk down to the Guadalupe River.  We saw these Egyptian geese.  They are likely ancestors of escaped ornamental birds.

Some wine and an easy dinner of smoked salmon and raw vegetables.  We are starting to relax into our camping routine.

January 5, 2021 Winnie

Winnie-Sowell County Park Winnie, Texas

I did 5 big laps around the Walmart/Lowes parking lots while talking on the phone with my sister-in-law, Dana this morning.  The time passed quickly and I got three miles done.  Tim had finished his morning exercises and had started the RV and was pulling in the slides as I finished.  We topped the RV off with 60 gallons of diesel fuel and got back on Route 10W. 

We bypassed New Orleans by taking 12W to Baton Rouge.  This saved a lot of time.  We crossed the Mississippi River.  Just this summer we were at the headwaters of the river in Minnesota.  Today we were fairly close to the end. 

Parts of the highway are elevated over swampland.

As we approached Lake Charles, we began to see storm damage.  Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm, landed just south of this town on August 27thwith 150mph winds.  “Trees were shredded and houses were cracked open like eggs.”  20 days later, Hurricane Delta made landfall less than 20 miles away.  There are hundreds of house roofs with blue tarp still in place.  These poor people…

We stopped at the Texas Welcome Center and walked the boardwalk nature trail over the Blue Elbow Swamp.  It was great to get out and walk around in warm sunshine.

We arrived in Winnie in mid-afternoon.  We have camped here at the county park a couple of other times.  There are no hookups but it is free and away from the highway.  We rested and then rode bikes though the park and the surrounding neighborhoods.  It was still warm enough and light enough to take our beet salad and cold roasted chicken and eat outside. 

We are looking forward to a quiet night in this small town.  Tomorrow westward ho!

We bought the boys a magnetic map of the US so that they can follow our journey. Yesterday Ollie moved the heart to Louisiana and today he will move it to Texas.

January 4, 2021 Heading West

Cracker Barrel Slidell, Louisiana

One last morning helping the children to get ready for school with lots of hugs and kisses. My heart was a little heavy as we fetched the RV from the storage facility in Atlanta. We parked in front of David’s house. We filled with water, and loaded all our groceries, clothes, and other stuff and by 9:30, we were on our way.

Today we just drove…437 miles on highways through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and into Louisiana.

We stopped overnight at a Cracker Barrel and ordered salads for our dinner. We spent the evening unpacking and organizing. Now we are stocked up and ready to go!

January 3, 2021 Christmas In Atlanta

We arrived in Atlanta on December 8th. We had such a wonderful time preparing for the holidays and spending time with David and his family. We had so much fun! The boys waited for Christmas to come, opening Advent calendars filled with Lindt chocolate and opening wooden drawers to find dinosaurs and coins and kisses. We made pumpkin bread and painted ornaments and decorated a gingerbread house. We played puzzles and playdoh and colored and read lots and lots of books. We read the Grinch and then watched the movie about eight times. The boys made PopPop made forts with couch cushions and had tickle fights, squeals of laughter echoing through the house.

We baked gingerbread men. The boys each took a cookie and acted out the story…”Run, run as fast as you can…you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man!

PopPop and I also took the boys for several hikes at the stream nearby and then also at Stone Mountain. The boys loved being in the woods and throwing pebbles and pinecones in the water. They walked the trails and each day, gained more confidence, scrambling up rocks and over logs. We really enjoyed sharing this with them!

We were so grateful to be here to share Christmas. We went out on Christmas Eve to ring the bells and call Santa. We also sprinkled oatmeal in the yard for the reindeer. There is nothing like the magic of Santa and little boys!

As our time in Atlanta came to a close, we were sad once again to leave. We will savor the memories of cuddles and hugs and playing, playing, playing!!

Happy New Year from us to you!!

December 7, 2020

Northern Florida

Stephen Foster Folk Cultural Center State Park White Springs, Florida

I took my early morning walk and at the end it began to drizzle.  We had rain then most of the morning.  We rode on 75N, an ordinary highway without much scenery.  It was a great time to get the Christmas cards ready to mail!

We arrived at Stephen Foster State Park in late afternoon.  There were no rangers at the entry station.  I walked all the way to the campsite to see if it was vacant.  Then, I walked to the camp host to inquire.  I called Tim and he met me with the RV.  We were finally able to get settled.  We got on our bikes to explore the park.  This is actually a really neat place…but because of COVID many of the park features were closed.

The park museum…closed.

The Festival of Lights…not on Mondays.

The Carillion Tower…closed.

The gift shop and craft village…closed.

This park is named for Stephen Foster who wrote the song “Old Folks at Home” or “Way Down Upon The Swanee River.”  It’s actually the Suwanee River. 

We rode down to the river.

We rode to the town of White Springs and saw the springs.  This sulfur hot spring was used by Native Americans for healing.  Later, this town became a tourist destination and an inn was built and people would come and soak in the springs. 

Tim continued on a tour of the town and I took myself back to the campground.  He found Adams Country Store established in 1885. 

The old truck out back.

This will be the last blog entry for a while.  We are headed to Atlanta and will be there for the holidays.  We plan to resume our traveling on January 4^th as we head west to Arizona for the winter.  Check back with us in early 2021! Until then, may you find joy this holiday season!

December 6, 2020

Aunt Mary and Nabi

Sun Lake RV Resort Ruskin, Florida

Good morning sunshine!

We stopped for groceries along the way and then arrived in Sun City Center in early afternoon.  We were here to see my Aunt Mary.  She took us to a local orange picking outfit, Dooley Grove.  We picked sweet smelling honey bells.

We returned to the house and chatted with she and Nabi all evening.  We had great food and drinks, and a masked, socially distanced visit.  It was so nice to be with them.  I have always valued my relationship with her, also a nurse, she has always been my mentor and inspiration.