June 18 – 19 , 2020

Like the rest of most of the world, we have been home bound and social distancing since we returned to Florida from our Out West Trip back in March 2020. We used the down time to do some repairs to the RV, repairs to the Ft. Myers, FL condo, and way too much drinking. Hey, we were bored.

As various states started to open up, and especially state and national parks, we decided to head out. First on the agenda was to visit our new grandson, Hari, with my daughter, her husband Vijay and dog Mars, in Baltimore, MD.

We left Ft. Myers and stopped by to see our friend Chuck in Orlando. He is using the down time to do some renovations to the Destiny Palms Hotel, where we have a business interest with him. We determined that he could finish the project with out our assistance (he never asked any way) and we headed out to I-4 and I-95 to travel north. We made it to South Carolina the first night and spend the evening in a lovely Walmart parking lot in Ridgewood, SC.

We made it to Columbia, MD late that night and saw the family the next day. I had not seen Hari since he was only a week old. So, at 3 months old now, he had basically doubled in size.

We had some great family time and headed out to Pittsburg the next day.

Map progress – Ft. Myers, Fl to South Carolina, day #1, then on to Columbia, MD day # 2 by RV.

March 27 – 31, 2020

After working with the new General Manager, Mark, at the Days Inn Hays for a week, it is time to return to our home in Ft. Myers, Florida. By now, the Covid-19 virus has hit the US very hard and travel restrictions are starting to be put in place. The governor of Florida actually put road blocks on I-95 and I-75 to screen people coming into Florida from the New York and New Orleans area where the Covid-19 virus has spread dramatically. We were a bit concerned about states stopping travel between the state borders and the availability of fuel due to the crash in oil prices and the restrictions on businesses being open. But, the intrepid travelers that we are, we decided to make the best of it and just figure out how to get home, and see a few sights along the way.

In preparation, we purchased an additional storage unit that fits in the tow hitch of the RV (Tin Tin). It is a truck tool box that we secured onto a new tow hitch rack. We bought a 5 gallon diesel fuel can (then filled it up of course) and stocked up on food, toilet paper, and other items in case we ran into shortages along the way. It worked out great, although we have to be a bit careful driving on sloped driveways and parking lots as we are now 3 feet longer than before. Let’s just say there might have been a scrape or two on our new tow hitch rack as we figured this out.

It turns out that Hays, KS is very close to the geographical center of the continental United States. Some how they calculated the land mass of the US, including all the various shore lines and triangulated a point in Kansas as being the geographical center. It is only about 90 miles north of Hays, so what the heck? Might as well see that on our way out. It’s an interesting thing to do, but we certainly would not have planned an entire trip around it.

Now, one other interesting fact about the geographical center of the US is that it is only 13 miles south of the Kansas-Nebraska state border. Neither Andrea or I have ever been to Nebraska. Oh well, let’s head up the road a bit and put another US state on our list of states we have been to.

We crossed the border, made a U turn up the road and started heading south to Florida. We spent at least 15 minutes in Nebraska. Hey, it stills counts!

As we have mentioned in previous posts, we discovered that State Parks are great, inexpensive, places to spend time in in RVs. They are really pretty, out in the nature, and lot’s cheaper than typical RV parks. They don’t offer all the amenities of full service RV parks like free WiFi and cable TV, but who cares? We have a hot spot that ties into our cell phone account if we need to access the internet and the HD antennae on Tin Tin can pick up local stations if we want to watch TV. However, as these state parks are in the middle of mountains, forests, by lakes, etc. it is fun just to relax and commune with nature for awhile.

Our first night out we landed in Kanapolis State Park in Kanapolis, KS. We were virtually the only people there. It was nice, quiet, and totally tranquil. Even the few people living in the area had turkeys for neighbors.

By the way, due to the Covid-19 restrictions, all of the welcome centers in the state and national parks are pretty much closed. Here in Kanapolis State Park they use the honor system. We literally just drove up, filled out a registration form, and put $13 into their cash box. A lot of the parks use this system for after hours and during the times when the park offices are closed for what ever reason (lunch time, etc). They use a first come – first serve system also. This time of year we knew there would not be a problem getting a site. In the summer it would be totally different though.

The next day we are heading to Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Along the way we drove through Missouri and stopped briefly in Carterville, MO (in the Joplin, MO area) where Andrea’s mother grew up. After seeing this little town, we realized why she got out as soon as she was able. Marrying Andrea’s Dad and following him around as an Air Force bride was heaven compared to this little town. We also got to drive on the historical Route 66 for a few miles. We plan to do the whole route sometime when things get back to normal.

Shortly after leaving Carterville we cross into Arkansas.

We spent the night in Devil’s Den State Park in West Fork, AR. Another great park on the banks of a large lake.

The next day is back on the road again. Just a few miles and we are in Mississippi. The first thing we had to do was cross the giant Mississippi River.

We wound our way through the highways and byways of this very southern state and made it to Lowndes State Park in Columbus, MS at night. Another pretty spot in the forest. We were surprised to see that the state park was very full of families. As all of the schools have been closed for a while now and a lot of parents are either on furlough or laid off, it seems logical that they would want a break and take a bit of a vacation. However, none of these people were practicing social distancing (except us of course). I just hope they didn’t spread the Covid-19 between themselves as they tried to have a good time.

Our next to last day on the road took us through Alabama into Georgia to spend the night in the Reed Bingham State Park in Adel, GA. This was another surprisingly busy park and in another very pretty location on the banks of a large lake. It made for a very nice sunset.

Our last day on the road brought us back to Florida.

We had to stop by Orlando to pick up our car that we had left with our friend Chuck at the Destiny Palms Hotel in Orlando at the beginning of the journey. Then Andrea and I headed south to Ft. Myers and our condo to hunker down and try to stay safe during this Covid-19 pandemic.

We are in a 55+ community that features a golf course, tennis courts, bocci courts, card rooms, fitness center, restaurant, bar, and all the amenities that retired people want. The problem is; right now these great features are all closed because of this stupid virus and social distancing regulations.

Anyway, we made it home safe and sound. We no problems crossing the state lines, even into Florida. All of the gas stations were at least open for fuel (we use diesel). A lot of them were restricted in that bathrooms were closed, food areas, things like that. There was a fairly normal amount of traffic on the roads but everywhere we went restaurants, schools, churches, most businesses were closed. It seems to be that way pretty much around the world right now.

So avid reader; stay safe at home. Don’t take any chances. Wash your hands a lot and even wear one of those masks (if you can find one to buy or make one).

We had to cancel our European trip that was scheduled to start April 15, 2020. We were going to go to the UK, hang out with our friends Mike and Stephanie. We were all going to explore Portugal and Cyrus together. That is all gone now. Our next planned trip is a Viking River Cruise in Russia up and down the Volga River from St. Petersburg to Moscow. We had pre and post trips planned to Helsinski, Finland and Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This are supposed to be in September 2020. Hopefully we will be able to do these. We are really looking forward to it!

Map progress – Hays, KS to Salina, KS by RV

Map progress – Salina, KS to West Fork, AR by RV.

Map progress – West Fork, AR to Columbus, MS by RV.

Map progress – Columbus, MS to Adel, GA by RV.

Map progress – Adel, GA to Ft. Myers, FL by RV.

February 23 – March 28, 2020

After spending time with family and seeing the Denver Travel and Adventure Show, we are heading east. Along the way up from San Antonio, TX a few weeks ago, we got a phone call from my friend Tom with an offer for Andrea and me to babysit a hotel for a month. Avid readers will recall that Andrea and I are retired from the hotel business and are “old pros” in the biz. Tom has called us a few times to help with some management transitions for his hotel management company. This job will be for a month and earn us some more traveling money. So, it is off to Hays, KS to work at the Days Inn Hays for awhile.

Our contract at the hotel starts March 1st, so we have some time to kill before we have to be on site. We wanted to head north to see Mount Rushmore, Wyoming, and more of the northern states. However, the weather is just too bad. Snow storms are coming in and the temperatures are forecasted to be below 10 degrees on multiple days. As we are now fairly seasoned cold weather RVer’s, we know the limits of our RV (Tin Tin). Tin Tin can handle below freezing weather, but not by much. Anything below 20 degrees starts to have repercussions with the plumbing and interior components. We already have installed heating blankets on our grey and black water tanks, but these blankets (as we learned very quickly) do not protect the drain lines. They can, and did, freeze up. Also, the insulation on Tin Tin’s walls are not very good. On really cold nights they are not thick enough to protect the plumbing even though we have the heat on. We already froze, and broke, one water fixture. We don’t want to do that again.

So, we decided to stay relatively south of the really cold weather and slowly make our way to Hays, KS. The only problem with this plan is that there is absolutely nothing interesting to see on the way from Denver, CO to Hays, KS, unless of course you really like to see miles and miles of open farmland, empty grain elevators, and lots of oil wells. So, we did what any adventure loving RVer would do. We just picked a point on the map. Yep, I closed my eyes. Andrea stuck a pen in my hand and spread out a map in front of me. I stuck the pen down, and that’s where we headed off to; Scott City, Kansas.

So, we broke down Tin Tin and headed east out of Denver, towards Kansas.

Scott City is a lovely little town of about 3,800 people really stuck out in the middle of nowhere. There are farmers, a few shop owners, a bank, and a gas station. I think the rest of the people are just lost.

Oh, by the way. Did I mention it is still snowing? Here is the view from inside Tin Tin looking out to see our RV park being covered in snow.

We had another mechanical problem while in Scott City; the electrical switch that turns on our tank heaters died. As this is very important in this kind of weather, we were a bit concerned. Luckily we were able to find a RV repair shop in an even smaller town than Scott City about 30 miles south of us. The owner fixed it with very little issue in about 20 minutes and charged us a whopping $25. Take that Camping World!

One other little interesting side note about Scott City. I have a brother named Scott. I sent him the pictures above and informed him that he must be a really famous guy in this part of the world. He replied that he was, and wondered why it took me so long to find out about his secret life in Kansas. BTW, we are from New Jersey and now both of us live in Florida.

The next day it is off on the road again to get to Hays, KS. We saw that there was a Kansas State Park on the way and decided to stop in. It is Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park. Quite a mouthful. It features prairie land that used to be the bottom of an inland sea. This prairie land was also home to the giant herds of buffalo that roamed the area hundreds of years ago. Their hooves literally dug up the earth and allowed plants and vegetation to take hold and cover many, many, thousands of square miles.

Later that day we made it to Hays, KS. Hays has about 23,000 people and is actually the big city in this middle part of Kansas. It sits directly on I-70 about 340 miles east of Denver, CO. It has a few hotels, shopping centers, a historic downtown, some banks and lots of oil and agricultural business. It has been around for hundreds of years and some of the old families were homesteaders back in the 1800’s.

As I mentioned previously, we got to Hays a few days before our contract started. So, we took it easy. We finally got to wash Tin Tin and explored the town a bit. Believe me, it did not take long.

Hays has a historical section they call the bricks. The streets are paved with bricks and the area has very nice restaurants, bars, and shops. A little art work also.

On March 1st, it was time to get to work. Tom and Ron from the management company showed up as well as GR the hotel owner and his friend, PB, from San Francisco (who was thinking about getting into the hotel business).

All of us spent the week getting to know the property and doing the management turnover from the previous manager. He was relocating to San Antonio, TX to be closer to his son.

During the week we had a few good times going out to dinner and one Friday night out to a local farm with an old fashioned Moonshine Party with the farm’s owner, Mike, and his whisky making father, Curtis . GR has known Mike for about 5 years as a result of GR renting some signage for the Days Inn that sits on Mike’s farmland adjoining I-70. Mike and his dad like to invite folks over to hang out in the barn, or in a very cool bar they built inside a huge garage, and socialize like they used to do back in the old days. We had a great time sipping home made whisky and learning about the locals. We, on the other hand. provided them with some new faces to talk to and some stories about our travels in other parts of the world.

Just outside of the bar area in the giant garage was a painting being finished by a local artist. They planned to display it for the next 4th of July celebration in town.

After Happy Hour with Mike and friends, it was off to dinner down in the Bricks at Gella’s Diner and Lb Brewing Company. Great local food and drinks.

Later that week, Tom and Ron returned to Florida, PB went back to San Francisco and GR stayed a few more days with me and Andrea to finish the General Manager transition with the departing manager. GR then returned to Ocala, Florida where he lives with his family.

That week, Andrea and I received some very happy personal news from our daughter Jessica and her husband Vijay. Their first child, and our first grandchild, was born on March 3rd. His name is Hari. After GR left Hays, I left Andrea in charge of the hotel and went to Baltimore to visit my new grandson. Remember how Hays is in the middle of no where? Well, not only can you not get there, you can’t get out either. I had to fly from Hays, KS to Denver, CO to Charlotte, NC to Baltimore, MD. It took all day. I left Hays from the smallest airport I have ever flown out of. One gate and one flight a day.

After a few great days hanging out with the family, it was back to Hays. This time it was Baltimore, to Chicago, to Denver to Hays. Still took all day.

Oh, by the way. Did I mention it was snowing again? Here is a view of the park behind the Days Inn.

We spent the rest of March working at the hotel and then transitioning with Mark, the new General Manager Tom hired for the hotel. By now, the Covid-19 virus is really getting serious and we have to head back to Florida. Hopefully we can make it back without too much incident.

Map progress – Scott City, KS to Hays, KS via RV.

February 18 – 24, 2020

After the fantastic sights at Royal Gorge, we take a short hop north from Canon City to Denver, CO. Andrea’s Mom and sister live in the suburbs of Denver, so we visited with them for a few days. Also a great reason to visit Denver at this time was the annual Denver Travel and Adventure Show in the Denver convention center. We were very interested in seeing the show, especially as one of the guest presenters was Josh Gates of the Discovery TV show Expedition Unknown. Andrea and I have been watching this show for years and really enjoy seeing the different parts of the world he travels to and the local customs, myths, and mysteries he shows us. We went to a couple of places on our 2019 European trip because we had seen them on his show. These include; Houska Castle in the Czeck Republic, the live volcano on the Greek Island of Santorini, and various Dracula castles and locations in Romania.

We had to detour a bit on our way north due to heavy snow and marginal roads. We finally got settled in Golden, CO with our RV, Tin Tin.

On Saturday, we drove into downtown Denver, finally found a parking spot and walked through the city a bit on our way to the convention center. Denver is a cow town and mountain town and has a very interesting vibe about it.

Oh yeah, they also make money there.

We came across a few interesting sculptures on our walk also.

We made it to the convention center, couldn’t figure out how to get it, snuck in through a door as someone left, wandered around inside of the center for awhile (hey, it’s a big place) and finally saw a sign that pointed to the Travel and Adventure Show. Who knew there were different halls in the darn thing. Well, there are.

We saw a lot of great exhibits about places we would really like to go to, and some of places that we had already been to. Then it was show time and Josh was up.

It was pretty interesting to hear Josh speak. He is exactly the same person we see on TV every week. I found that refreshing that the charming guy we see on TV is really him and not some made up personae.

We wanted to do the meet and greet with Josh and get a few things signed. Unfortunately, we did not realize that the line to meet him in person was limited. We tried to get in after his talk, but it was already full. That explained all the people that I thought were leaving his talk early. They were going to get in line. Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

We did manage to see him up pretty close. He signed autographs and took pictures with folks for a good 2 hours. He had a little help. Notice the bottle of beer (Heineken) by his side as he signs away.

After spending the rest of the afternoon wandering around the show, we headed back to the car. Along the way we saw a very unusual sight, at least to us Florida folks. They had set up a snowboarding ramp and stage, complete with real snow, in a park. Take a look, it was pretty cool (ha ha, get it – cool?).

Map progress – Canon, City, CO to Denver, CO via RV.

February 17 – 18, 2020

After the White Sands National Monument, we head straight north, looking to wind up in Denver, CO for awhile. Andrea’s mother and sister live there. So, we wanted to visit with them for awhile.

Along the way is a very nice spot in Canon City, CO called Royal Gorge. It is the site of the highest suspension bridge in the United States and third highest in the world. It was the highest in the world until 2001 when the Chinese built the Liuguanghe Bridge.

The bridge sits 950 feet above the Arkansas River through a 10 mile stretch of canyon formed over millions of years as the river cut through the mountain. People walk over the bridge and there is a cable car and zip line to get back and forth also. Overall, a very unique and interesting place to spend a day.

As we were winding our way north we saw a sight that you don’t see very often in our highways and byways. We saw this as we stopped for fuel along the way.

Yep, the Planters Peanut van. The driver just filled it up and kept on truckin’ to where ever he was headed. Pretty cool sight!

We were heading north, into the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) Mountains. The weather was very cold and we were dealing with various cold fronts coming through and dumping snow on us.

As we are traveling in Colorado in the middle of winter, we found it difficult to find RV parks that were open. There are not a lot of idiots like us that decide to go up north in a RV when there are freezing temperatures and snow on a regular basis. We had to go up in these conditions to fit the trip into our travel schedule before we headed off to Europe in April. So, we decided it was worth the risk and would be a learning experience of RVing in cold weather.

We finally found a RV park open in Coaldale, CO about 30 miles west of Royal Gorge. To say it was out in the middle of no where is an understatement.

After arriving at our site and getting set up, the next day we headed out to Royal Gorge. It is definitely worth a stop if you are ever in in the area.

Here is an overview of the Gorge and the cable car ride.

Once we made the death defying trip on the cable car, we were able to explore the other side of the gorge and walk back across the bridge. It is very windy and very high up there.

The next day after visiting the gorge, we decided to head into Canon City to take a train ride from Canon City to the gorge, along the Arkansas River. Check out this picture from the bridge and notice the rail road tracks on the left hand side of the river.

We are going to take a ride on the Royal Gorge Route Railroad on these tracks and enjoy the view of the bridge from 950 feet underneath this time.

That is, if we can make it to Canon City. Remember those snow storms we talked about earlier? Well, we got one.

We made it slow and steady into Canon City to the railroad train station. The Arkansas River runs right by the station, but is much smaller and tamer than up in the mountains.

View from the snow covered foot bridge over the river. Not quite as impressive as the suspension bridge 950 feet up in the air. We’ll see that in a bit.

We go buy some tickets and are off on the trip. We don’t have to worry about some snow stopping the great Royal Gorge Route Railroad!

Here are the highlights of our very fun railroad ride along the Arkansas River.

After another great day of exploration, it is off to Denver, CO tomorrow.

Map progress – Alamogordo, NM to Canon City, CO via RV.

February 14 – 15, 2019

After our adventure in Carlsbad Cavern, NM, we stayed in the state and headed west to Alamogordo, NM. This is the home of the White Sands National Monument and the White Sands Missile Test Range.

To get from Carlsbad, NM to Alamogordo, NM we had to cross across the Sacramento Mountains. We passed through the Lincoln National Forest which was a high as 10,000 feet in altitude in some places.

Once in Alamogordo we had our first disappointment with a stay in a RV park. The park was basically a trailer park with long term permanent mobile homes and a section for semi transient RVs. We checked in during daylight hours and told the front desk lady we would be using our RV as our primary form of transportation, so our spot would be vacant a lot as we went in and out during the day . We asked her not to double rent it on us.

She replied, no problem, but suggested we leave a chair or something in the site so everyone would realize that it was occupied. She said she got a lot of people checking in after hours and just grabbing a spot and coming down the next day to register. So, we decided to leave an old folding chair out every time we went out.

Sure enough, some low life stole our chair. I went exploring all through that park trying to find the culprit, with no luck. I actually think it was the guy next door with a very mean dog. He was obviously a long term tenant and had built himself a tent next to his camper out of tarps. I could hear him and his dog in there all the time. Every time I poked my head around by his tent to try to look inside, the darn dog growled at me. Oh well, better a lost chair then a new hole in my arm or leg.

Alamogordo is home to the White Sands Missile Range, operated by the US Army. So, the town is made up of military people and tourists attracted by the White Sands National Park. We explored the town a bit before we went to see the National Park.

From town, in the high desert at the base of the Sacramento Mountains, you can always see Sierra Blanca, the highest mountain peak in the area, pretty close to where we just drove through the Sacramento Mountains.

Another interesting aspect of Alamogordo is the fact that it is home to huge pistachio farms. The tree groves are every where. In fact, Alamogordo boasts the biggest pistachio nut in the world. Here is the proof.

Down the road a bit from the world’s largest pistachio is a very interesting space museum. As the White Sands Missile Range was home to a lot of the rocket testing in preparation for the space program and other aircraft technology; it made perfect sense to have The New Mexico Museum of Space History in town.

The museum contains actual missiles, space suits etc. and has an International Space Hall of Fame with pictures and historical information about the various astronauts, cosmonauts, and others that have flown into space.

The next day it is off to see White Sands National Park. Seventy million years ago this entire high desert area was the bottom of a great inland sea. Over millions of years, the sea bottom formed giant areas of gypsum, resulting in the existing 270 square miles of the Tularosa Basin and the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. It literally is like no other place on earth. When you think of a desert, you think of normal brownish sand. All of the sand in White Sands National Park is totally, glistening, white, gypsum sand. It really is quite amazing.

While exploring the park during the day, we found out that there was a twilight guided tour of the desert at sunset. We went back to town for awhile then returned to the Park for the show.

The sunset over the mountains and desert was a pretty amazing way to end a day. White Sands National Park is definitely a most unique place in this great big world.

Map progress – Carlsbad, NM to Alamogordo, NM by RV.

February 13 – 15, 2020

After hanging out with the aliens and spaceships in Roswell, NM it was time to check out the depths of the earth in Carlsbad Caverns, NM. I have known about these caverns since I was a kid (many,many years ago). Andrea and I both like to visit caves, caverns, and other spooky underground (or even underwater in some cases) sites so off we went to Carlsbad.

In Roswell, we had visited a couple of state parks and found that a lot of them allow overnight RV camping. They are also a whole lot cheaper than the commercial RV parks in town. Not only are they cheaper, they are in absolutely gorgeous locations out in the middle of nature, be it mountains, lakes, deserts, what ever. They are really a great place to camp and commune with nature.

Outside of Carlsbad is the Brantley Lake State Park. We stayed there for a couple of nights for $12 per night, with full hookups (electricity, water, and sewer). Commercial parks have cost us anywhere from $30 to $120 per night (the $120 was in New York City). Here was our view from our RV site the first night in the park.

Early the next day, it is off to see the caverns. We learned about the Senior Lifetime pass at the visitors center. As I am an old fart, over 62 years old, I qualify for a lifetime pass to every national park in the United States. This only costs $80. What is even better is that with this pass I can also bring up to 3 other people, or a car full with up to 6 persons. Basically, Andrea and I will never pay for admission for a US national park as long as I am around. One point though; they do not do replacement cards. If you lose your pass, you have to buy another one. I will certainly do my best not to lose mine. That might get me in trouble with my better half.

The Carlsbad Caverns are HUGE. Just to get in is a 1.25 mile walk down a very nice pathway into the main chambers 788 feet below the surface. They also have an elevator, which you can take either up or down. We walked down and took the elevator up. It was quite a hike with a pretty steep decline on the way down. We met a few hardy souls walking back up. They were huffing and puffing and looking like they had made a bad decision as we cruised pass them. See this video for scenes on the way down.

The following are a few of the great formations we saw on our walk down.

Once we got to the bottom of the path, we were in the main part of the caverns. They have bathrooms, a gift shop, and a sandwich shop at the junction of the different rooms and chambers.

The park offers guided tours that take folks off the beaten paths into sections that are basically cave climbs. We decided to stick to the established areas and did the 1.25 mile loop in the Big Room. This Big Room is the largest continuous underground chamber in the Northern Hemisphere. The largest underground cavern in the world is in Viet Nam. It is called Son Doong and is over 5.5 miles long and big enough to fit a 40 story skyscraper inside of it.

Here are some examples of the wonderful formations in the Big Room.

After a fun day exploring the underworld, it was back to Brantley State Park for another beautiful sunset and off to White Sands National Park in the morning.

Map progress – Roswell, NM to Carlsbad, NM by RV.

February 9 – 12, 2020

While we were in San Antonio, we had to decide where we wanted to go next, with Denver, CO as our goal in a week or so. Andrea’s mother and sister live there, so we wanted to go visit them.

At first we looked at Monument Valley and the Archs National Park in Moabe, Utah, but then we realized that they are on the western side of the Rocky Mountains. This meant that we would have to cross over the Rockies in the dead of winter to get into Denver. Not a good idea as those mountain passes get closed down all the time from heavy snowfalls. So, we decided to stay on the eastern side of the Rockies and head up to Denver via New Mexico.

As we headed north from Texas to New Mexico, the sights became more mountainous and a more desert like environment then we had seen before. The oil fields were everywhere, very similar to Texas.

We made it to our RV park and got settled for the evening. No sightings to report, yet. The next day we went out and explored a great local nature park, the Bottomless Lake State Park. This area has been part of the rancher/cowboy legends in New Mexico for hundreds of years.

The next day we had a pretty severe snowstorm blow through our area, so we stayed in all day. Kind of nice just watching the snow fall and hanging out for the day. It built up to about 5-6 inches during the day and melted off the next morning. We got our first taste of freezing weather in our RV and it’s effects on it. The water hose froze up, as well as the valves on the black water and grey water storage tanks. We had to purchase some heating equipment for our rig to keep everything working and not getting any pipes ruptured from the freezing cold. We had installed heater blankets on the black and grey storage tanks in Florida before we left, but we did not know about taking care of the water lines, or tank valves and drain lines. More stuff to learn on the road. Other than these issues, our RV held up pretty good.

Now it was time to head into town and see the UFO Museum, a very interesting place.

As we were leaving the museum, we finally got a UFO sighting! Look at these pictures we got of the round, shiny, object in the sky over Roswell! Look to the right of the trees, over the buildings.

We got it, proof positive that the aliens are watching us, right?

Well, not really. Some kid let go of a silver helium balloon and I caught it’s flight. Really does look like a flying saucer though, don’t you think?

Oh well, off to the next destination, Carlsbad Caverns, NM.

Map progress – San Antonio, TX to Roswell, NM by RV.

January 30, – February 8, 2020

My younger brother, Dustan, and his lovely wife Angela, live in Ft. Worth, Texas. Their 3 daughters are grown up and have flown the coop years. We decided to drop in on them and hang out for awhile. We left New Orleans, heading for Ft. Worth when we experienced some mechanical problems with our 24 foot RV, affectionately known as “Tin Tin” (a name that Andrea and her buddy Stephanie came up with a year or so ago).

These lights indicate any myriad of things that could have gone wrong. The RV drives fine, but the cruise control became disabled, which is a real pain in the neck when you are driving 8 – 10 hours a day.

So, we made an appointment for 7AM at a Mercedes dealership near Ft. Worth, but it was about hour away from my brothers house. Therefore, we decided it was a good idea to drive straight through from New Orleans and camp out in a Walmart parking lot just 10 minutes away from the dealership in this little town near Ft. Worth, so we wouldn’t get hung up in traffic or anything to get our repairs done. We made the appointment on time, donated $500 to the coffers of this Mercedes dealership, as they fixed our issue (a bad sensor on the left front tire assembly), and merrily made our way to Dustan’s house.

Unfortunately Andrea picked up a virus somewhere in New Orleans, so she was kind of out of it for a week or so. Still, Dustan and I managed to have a great time catching up, playing basketball at the neighbors house, and going to the local gambling casino one day (he won $300, I lost $10 and the neighbor lost $400).

We all went out to dinner one night with one of my nieces, Paula, and her husband Byron. The next day the four of us headed down to San Antonio to meet up with Angela’s mother and her friends and another niece of mine, Sara, and her fiance Amanda. San Antonio is obviously known for the Alamo, but is a great little city all on it’s own. The Riverfront Area is full of great bars, restaurants, quaint shops.

Here is another great form of local transportation on the San Antonio River.

There are also some great art sculptures in the area.

The big attraction is obviously the Alamo, where about 250 Americans held off the Mexican General Santa Anna for about 2 weeks. The rallying cry “Remember the Alamo” was heard as Sam Houston’s army defeated Santa Anna a few months later.

Later that day Dustan and I went to shoot some pool in a great local dive bar called Tacos II ( I have no idea where Taco I is). We managed to stay out of trouble all the while interacting with the colorful locals. Then that night the four of us met up with Sara, Amanda, and Amanda’s high school buddy, Camilio, for a wonderful authentic Mexican dinner.

The next day was more of the same. More shooting pool with Dustan, some more sightseeing, and hanging out with the youngsters.

Then it was back on the road for me and Andrea as we started to head north. First stop New Mexico.

Map progress – New Orleans, LA to Ft. Worth, TX then on to San Antonio, TX by RV.

January 28 – 30, 2020

After the fun New Year’s Eve trip in Baltimore, New York and Boston, we had to hang around Florida for a few weeks to take care of some personal business and primarily to get some repairs done to our RV. We have a 24 foot Coachman Class C motor home that we purchased about 2 years ago in preparation for another phase of our traveling around the world (or at least the US in this instance). We had a couple of minor (at least we thought minor) issues that we had tried to get fixed before the holidays. We had turned in the RV in the middle of December, expecting to get it back in a week or two. Wrong. We finally got it out of the shop on January 25th. Six weeks to replace a couple of little motors that bring the seat up and down. Absolutely ridiculous. These seat motors were pretty critical since these seats enabled us to set up the Murphy Bed at night. If they didn’t work, we didn’t sleep (at least in the RV). The only satisfaction we got out of the whole experience was that the repair shop fired the guy that we were working with. Turns out, we were not the only customers he was messing up with.

So, we decided to head out West. Since we live in Florida, West or North is pretty much the only direction you can go. So, West it was. We have family in Ft. Worth, Texas and Denver, Colorado and decided to go visit them and then start to head back East to Baltimore, MD for the birth of my first grandchild to my daughter Jessica and her husband, Vijay. This blessed event is supposed to occur the first week of March 2020, or so.

We started off the trip heading up to Pensacola, Fl. Andrea’s grandparents used to live there and are buried in town. We decided to check on them and revisit the area a bit. It has been about 10 -12 years since we had last been there for her grandmother’s funeral.

Pensacola is a very pretty town located directly on the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida northern peninsula. The beaches are large and white. The town is a mecca for college spring breakers around Easter time and family vactioners in the summer. Since it is now winter in January, we did not expect many people in town, which was the case.

After spending the night in a local Walmart, it was time to get back on the road. Yes, you read correctly. We spent the night in the parking lot of a Walmart. Many Walmarts and other local businesses, like truck stops and gambling casinos, allow RV’ers to spend a day or two in their parking lots. The concept is that we will spend money in their establishments, which we do. It is also very convenient to be able to just pull over late at night, set up the RV and get some sleep. This is called Boondocking, in RV terms. We pull up, put down the RV stabilizers, crank up the on board electrical generator and go to sleep. The RV people and truck drivers all coexist nicely in a remote park of the parking lot. Not all Walmarts allow this, so you just call ahead, get permission, and hunker down.

We headed out West to New Orleans. I had one tiny request on the route, to see a house I used to own 20 years ago when I lived in Lillian, Alabama. I was curious to see if it was still there and if the area had grown or changed much. When I bought it way back when, the scuttle butt was that the town was going to grow and all the real estates values were going to do up.

So, the answers are; the house is still there:

The town has not changed a bit in over 20 years, even though it is directly on the banks of the Perdido River, which is the dividing line between Florida and Alabama. Good thing I sold it when I did!

That afternoon we made it to New Orleans. We stayed in a RV park right on Lake Pontchartrain, a short way from downtown New Orleans.

We got settled early enough to head into town to see the sights. We like the Bourbon Street, Jackson Square area. We have been to New Orleans (NOLA) many times as Andrea’s father used to live there. It never gets old, wandering around the old historic buildings and seeing the characters in town.

After wandering (translation, drinking) around for awhile, it was time to go to Cafe Du Monde, another world famous NOLA landmark. Their sugared beignets and hot chocolate are the best!

The next day it was back to Jackson Square to see the locals up live and in the sunlight.

Of course, if you are in NOLA, music surrounds you.

We also can’t forget about the food in NOLA! Some of the best seafood and local concoctions in the world are here. Here’s where we pigged out on local gumbo. FYI, the restaurant kitchen was through the alley in the building next door. Only in NOLA!

One interesting sight we saw was the collapsed Hard Rock Hotel construction site. High winds caused a huge crane to fall onto the building during construction. Horribly, 2 people died and 30 were injured.

We made it back to Cafe Du Monde for a good bye beignet and then off to Ft. Worth, Texas the next day.

Map progress – Orlando, Fl to Pensacola, Fl, then on to New Orleans, LA by RV,