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Last summer we took a break from our permanent vacation to go to Orcas Island in Washington for a week with friends and family. It was my first time in this part of the world and I loved it. The week was filled with fun…hanging on the porch watching the light on the water and islands, visiting with one of Patti’s friends from back in the day who happened to live within walking distance of our rental, eating well, walking, and going to view whales. Spoiler alert: we didn’t see any and I still believe they are mythical creatures. We must be the only people in the world to have spent time in not one but two prime whale watching areas (French Polynesia and the Pacific Northwest) and never saw so much as a fluke. Maybe next time.
So, here’s a handful from that trip. It was awfully nice.
Hello. Anyone there? Yeah, it’s been awhile. Sorry. The writer decided to take a break. Artists. We’re about to come out of winter hiatus so I thought I’d step in to catch this up before starting a new season of travel.
The last post is from Wisconsin. We were there in June of last year. There are a lot of miles (and time) between then and now so here’s a list of where we’ve been since.
- Wabasha, MN (for July 4th; lovely little town)
- Sioux Falls, SD (another ER trip)
- Belvidere, SD (overnighter)
- Spearfish, SD (like this town a lot)
- Sheridan, WY (rodeo and polo)
- Garryowen, MT (next to Little Bighorn)
- Reed Point, MT (took a road trip to drive a bit of the Beartooth Highway)
- Bozeman, MT (almost like home now)
- Orcas Island, WA (left the trailer in Bozeman and spent a week here with family and friends in a beautiful house with a stunning view)
- Livingston, MT (more family time)
- Billings, MT (overnighter)
- Cody, WY (Buffalo Bill Museum)
- Casper, WY
- Cheyenne, WY (feeding bison!)
- Longmont, CO (Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park)
- Woodland Park, CO (Garden of the Gods)
- Alamosa, CO (Great Sand Dune Nat’l Park)
- Santa Fe, NM (Georgia O’Keefe Museum)
- Tucumcari, NM (fighting bulls)
- Shamrock, TX (nuthin’ much)
- Shawnee, OK (horses)
- Sallisaw, OK (Fort Smith)
- Hot Springs, AK (hot springs)
- Memphis, TN (MLK and Blues Hall of Fame)
- Starkville, MS (overnighter)
- Tuscaloosa, AL (beautiful COE)
- Auburn, AL (nice little college town)
- Bainbridge, GA (nice COE)
- Mayo, FL
- Melbourne, FL aka winter quarters
We’ve been in Florida since the end of October with a 4-week interlude in January/February. We spent a couple of days in Myrtle Beach, SC, then 10 days in Hatteras, NC with family. Followed by 2 weeks on the west side of Florida for more family time.
We are about to pull up stakes again, starting with a trip to France. The trailer will go into storage while we’re overseas. When we return, we hook up and hit the road for some more adventures. Stay tuned!
(Well, I think that about sums it up. Over the next few days I will post some random photos from those travels prior to our trip overseas. Hopefully I will be able to post from there, also.)
After New York, we quickly moved west in order to meet a family obligation later in the summer. Quick stops in Ohio, Indiana, southern Illinois, and near Chicago had us suddenly in Wisconsin. A quick word in how we generally travel. We choose destinations to explore (think Mount Rushmore or the Grand Canyon) and then fill in the blanks with stops in locations that are appropriate travel durations apart. We sort of choose these based on campground reviews that point us to decent places. Somewhat random. Which is how we found ourselves staying at the Wisconsin Dells for several days. The Dells, as it turns out, is the “Water Park Capitol of the Upper Midwest.” It is very touristy. It is also incredibly pretty. We took a boat ride into the Dells proper and were surprised at the gorgeous scenery. It really was something to see and was somewhere that, had we been vacationers, we would never have stayed.
This happens to us all the time. We choose many stops strictly because they’re on our way and the right distance and, because we pretty much always stay multiple nights and can explore, we find cool things to do and sights to see. Everywhere we go. See here. Or here. Or here. It’s the payoff we’re looking for and we love it. And as long as we keep having such success, we’ll keep at it.
The Wisconsin Dells. A dog leaping the gap. 6/22/21
The Wisconsin Dells 6/22/21
The Wisconsin Dells 6/22/21 
The Wisconsin Dells 6/22/21
The Wisconsin Dells 6/22/21
This pizza place had a whole fleet of these for deliveries. They even delivered to the RV park. 6/23/21 
A blast from the past. I used to see this, and get very excited, as a small boy when we lived near Chicago. 6/24/21
After the Shenandoah, we headed to Gettysburg for two weeks. This post is not about the battle itself, which was horrific, or the private horseback tour we took, which was an experience we’ll remember for an awfully long time. Rather, it’s about my personal connection to those events.
One of my great-grandfathers was Orlando Porter. On August 22, 1861 he enlisted in Company I of the 7th Regiment, Michigan Infantry on the day it was formed. The 7th Michigan got around quite a bit during the war, fighting at most of the significant battles in the Eastern Theatre, including Gettysburg. Today at Gettysburg, there are monuments to virtually every unit, northern and southern, that was present during those three days. While we were there, we found the monument to the 7th Michigan and I, of course, took some photos.
Orlando went on to have an interesting time. He was eventually made a sergeant and acting sergeant major in another Regiment. And on August 22, 1864 (three years to the day of his enlistment) he shot a private of the 11th Maine Artillery dead. The shooting took place on a train platform in Beltsville, MD and occurred in the line of duty while defending soldiers and civilians from the rowdy, and possibly drunk, private. He was incarcerated in the Central Guardhouse in Washington, DC, and eventually exonerated of all charges. He mustered out of the service on December 20, 1864 at the age of 32 when his enlistment expired..
My family has a bunch of documentation, including 5 witness statements, his acquittal letter, a letter of recommendation from the Commandant of the prison, and various other documents from his life but unfortunately no photos of him are in my possession. Reading these documents provide a strong link for me to the historic events that took place so long ago.
If you get a chance, visit Gettysburg. If nothing else, it’s a beautiful spot for long walks on cool spring days. And a beautiful spot to remember awful events.
Orlandos Mustering-in Certificate
The Monument to the 7th Michigan
The letter releasing Orlando from confinement.
Our travel style is such that we look for a destination, for example, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and then work our way there with random stops along the way. Often we don’t research those intermediate stops but rather plan them based upon travel time. We’re retired so we generally aren’t in a hurry. Therefore we base our stops on making our travel days comfortable, meaning a 3-4 hour drive. When you throw in the time to tear down and set up our site this makes for a pleasant journey. And since we’re not in a hurry, we stay at least several days in each location.
A by-product of this strategy is that we look for cool things to do in places that would normally not be, at least for us, a “destination” location. This is one of the great things about traveling as we do; we have always found interesting things to see and do, interesting people to meet. Our recent stop near Newberry, SC was a typical example. We discovered that a Revolutionary War battle, The Battle of Musgrove Mill, took place nearby. Fun fact: there were more Revolutionary War battles fought in South Carolina than in the surrounding states combined. Who knew? Anyway, we checked it out and it was informative as well as a nice walk on a cold blustery day. We also took a field trip to Greenville, SC. Nice little city with an awesome downtown area. We would never have seen either of these had we not been moving slowly.
Just a few pictures this time. Prepare for a bunch more since we leave this area to spend 2 weeks nestled against the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Life can be rough.
Funky mushrooms. Clinton, SC 4/2/21
Old ford across the Enoree River. Clinton SC 4/2/21
Downtown Greenville, SC. 4/3/21
Downtown Greenville, SC. 4/3/21
After our brief run-in with the medical establishment and a bit of cardiac plumbing maintenance, we finally headed up the road. Prior to leaving, we got up before the crack of dawn and drove over to the FEMA vaccination site in Orlando. They were advertising the availability of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and no wait times. I had only become Florida eligible a few days before and the J&J vaccine was very attractive since being on the road presents difficulties obtaining the second shot so off we went. Got there as they were opening and discovered they did not receive the shipment of the J&J vaccine. Home we went.
Our first stop was in Brunswick, GA just for a few nights. While there we tried getting me vaccinated again. Jacksonville had a FEMA site so off we went, again at the crack-o-dawn. Same result: no Johnson & Johnson. This time, after a bit of googling, we decided to go with the “bird in the hand” school of thought and I got the Pfizer first shot. Since I already had the antibodies and it seems I have at least 12 weeks to get the second shot it seemed like the thing to do.
From Brunswick, we moved up to a lovely park in Hardeevile, SC. We were close to Savannah, Hilton Head, and several old, quaint South Carolina small waterfront towns. We hit up those spots as well as Hunting Island State Park. It was great to be getting back into the swing of things by taking walks, taking pictures, and even enjoying a socially responsible lunch on a deck overlooking the water in Beaufort, SC. Wow, a small return to normalcy!
We also took a tour of the Hilton Head Margaritaville retirement community. It was…interesting. Nice floorplans, excellent workout facilities, very nice pool, and an acceptable bar/restaurant. You never know.
And so up the road we go, looking forward to seeing national parks, walking in mountains and across historic battlefields, seeing friends and family, and perhaps enjoying a good meal or two along the way. You know, just another season on the highway.
The free ferry in Savannah. 3/25/21
Funky downspouts. Savannah, GA 3/25/21
Riverside in Bluffton, SC 3/28/21
The lighthouse at the Hunting Island State Park. 3/29/21
The lagoon at Hunting Island State Park. 3/29/2021
A local looking to come on in. Hardeeville, SC 3/27/21
So here we are, back where we started. Since we made the decision to return to Florida late in the season, we had to put the RV into storage and rent a townhouse owned by a former co-worker of mine. We spent three months just a 10-minute walk from the beach in Cape Canaveral. Nice. It was very strange being back in a sticks-and-bricks house here on the Space Coast. We didn’t have to worry about if our tanks are filling up, there were hundreds of stations on the TV, peacocks were roaming around everywhere, and we once again watched rockets lifting off. The first time we watched a liftoff just a few days after we arrived we turned to each other when the roar hit us and said it was the sound of home.
And, of course, we saw friends and family. It was nice catching up with everyone, but very odd after the isolation of the previous year. Fortunately all were healthy and thriving. That’s not a given in this day and age. We also saw all of our doctors over the course of the visit and, for the most part, we confirmed that we are healthy and still kicking. More on that later.
The biggest change was that we sold our F150 and our 40′ Class A motorhome for a RAM 3500 dually and a 41′ 5th wheel. We had several reasons for this, among them ease of driving and more interior space. After several years in the motorhome we were on the top of the learning curve and were very confident in our skills in dealing with the day to day issues (and there are many) that pop up along the way. Now we’re back at the bottom of the curve looking up. I used to be able to back up the coach like a pro. I still have issues backing up the new trailer. But we’ll get there.
We were all set to start this new season of adventure (Smokies, Shenandoah, Gettysburg and Finger Lakes just to start) when the proverbial wrench hit the works. Because it’s been 9 years since I had the heart bypass, I took a stress test a couple of weeks ago to make sure the plumbing was still in good order. So instead of getting back on the road last week as planned, I went to the hospital for a stent. Crap. Since it’s impossible to find suitable campsites at the last minute in the Florida springtime, we stashed the RV back into storage and took a hotel room for 10 days. (I love overnight stays in the hospital, particularly since the last time I came home from one I brought COVID with me.) I’m healing nicely, we’re on track to leave next week, and we only had to make some minor tweaks to the schedule. This lifestyle isn’t for sissies, but it sure is worth it.
Stay tuned for our upcoming adventures.
The Beast
Our new rig. Now if I could only back it up. 2/15/21
SpaceX Booster returning to port. Cape Canaveral, FL 12/9/20
One of the neighbors. Cape Canaveral, FL 2/11/21
Cape Canaveral, FL 1/8/21
Cape Canaveral, FL 2/16/21
The strangest things wash ashore. A sea turtle corpse … the paint indicates that it has been identified for removal. Cape Canaveral, FL 1/26/21
We have a motto for when we are out and about having a good time. “No ER, No Bail” which means no matter how much fun we’re having we WILL NOT end up in the ER or jail. Our status on that is now 50 percent successful. <sigh> More on this subject later.
Our first stop after leaving Spearfish was Sheridan, WY. Sheridan is a nice little city sitting beneath the Bighorn Mountains. A really nice city center with lots of sculpture, great parks and recreation, and large enough to support decent groceries and shopping which we have learned to appreciate. We really liked it and will stop by again if we are ever in the neighborhood.
The major thing we did while here was visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. We really enjoyed the visit. The area is beautiful and the presentation of the events was interesting and well balanced between both sides of the events that took place. As a history buff I really enjoyed seeing the terrain. We walked the area of the “last stand” and drove the loop road that covers the overall territory. Fascinating. The Federal lands are actually in two areas connected by that road crossing Indian land which is used for grazing horses. Lots of horses. At one point a herd was crossing the road. What was apparently the alpha male blocked traffic (with help from one of his paramours) until everybody got across, then human and horse each went about their business. My horse-loving wife was thrilled.
When we checked into the campground, the nice gentleman recommended a loop drive through the mountains. It was only “90 miles” and would just take a “couple of hours”. Cool. We set out one day to give it a shot. 90 minutes, 60 miles, and a couple thousand feet of elevation later we came across a road sign that explicitly defined our path. We still had another 180 miles to go. Having been doing a lot of driving recently we noped right out of that, went home, and curled up with our books. That’s what I get for not doing due diligence. Google later told me it was just under a 5 hour drive. As an aside: the part we did do was very pretty.
Back to my lead in: one morning I was roused from sleep by major back pain that I, unfortunately, recognized. Kidney stones, and it was the worst I have ever experienced. That’s how we found ourselves in the Sheridan ER at 6:30 AM on a Saturday. We had an excellent experience, if I can say that considering the circumstances. Everybody was very supportive and helpful, although you know you’re in trouble when experienced nurses are looking at you with pity in their eyes. After judicious applications of opiates and various other drugs they sent me on my way, happy and relaxed. Apparently while I was drugged and numb I passed the stone, since I’ve been fine ever since. Cross the ER experience off of our checklist.
We left Sheridan and moved on to the thriving town of Reed Point, MT, population 185. Nice little town with a very funky saloon. We attempted to drive the Beartooth Highway but turned around due to weather. We enjoyed a nice lunch in Red Lodge instead. There was also a lovely walk to the Natural Bridge Falls, a trip to a real grocery store and some downtime. A good time was, once again, had by all.
Locations of fallen Native Americans, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument 6/9/19
Locations of fallen soldiers, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument 6/9/19
Native American Memorial, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument 6/9/19
Reed Point, MT 6/15/19
Natural Bridge Falls 6/13/19
Natural Bridge Falls 6/13/19
8/23/25 – 6/11/19
March 17th: Leave rented house, move on to Sybil.
March 29th: Turn over rental keys, Sybil is now our “official” home.
April 18th: Drive out of Florida.
Florida had been my home for 37 years, Patti’s for more than 25, and a lot has obviously happened in that time, including an entire career doing something meaningful. Now I’m retired from that career and we’re not looking back. Crossing that Florida-Georgia line (huh, catchy) was a major step in our new lifestyle. We’re really doing it. (gulp)
White Oak Creek CG, 4/18/19
We stayed at a Corps of Engineer (COE) campground just south of Eufaula, Alabama (pronounced “you-falla”) called White Oak (Creek) Campground. (Why “Creek” is in parentheses is a mystery.) This is our second COE campground and we just love them. By definition, they are almost always on water. And they are cheap. With our America The Beautiful Pass, we paid $12/night for a water view. Seriously, Patti and I stood in front of our picture window just staring at the view many times during our four nights here. This is a big reason why we’re doing this.
We had a milestone while staying here. Overnight on our first night a significant weather event took place that affected much of the southeast. One of those strong fronts came by. Just like much of our history with hurricanes, it passed during the wee hours of the night. Also just like the many tropical storms and hurricanes we went through, the wind drove us crazy. Unlike those previous storms, the RV was rocking pretty good. Our house tended to not move too much during the storms. It would vibrate, but not roll. (BTW: a concrete block house vibrating like a tuning fork does not instill a sense of well being.) After all was said and done, we came through without a hitch, although we were a bit sleep deprived the next day.
On Friday, the place filled up and lots of the campers brought their boats … either fishing or pontoon party boats. Many of the campsites, including the one right next to us, could handle an RV/trailer, tow vehicle, boat, and it’s tow vehicle. All on one site. People would put their boat in the water and then just tie it off on the beach next to their site. Crazy.
What else was crazy was the balance of our time here. We took a nice walk through Eufaula and had a great lunch. We also spent time just sitting outside by the lake, watching the world (and geese) go by. It’s rough doing this RV thing. And we took a field trip that was awesome enough to justify its own post. Stay tuned for that! What a great campground.
Our best view (so far), White Oak Creek CG, 4/18/19
Lady Sybil, White Oak Creek CG, 4/18/19
A visiting family, White Oak Creek CG, 4/21/19
Nora’s evening walk, White Oak Creek CG, 4/18/19
A peanut processing plant, still in operation, Eufaula, AL, 4/20/19
A portion of the Creek Indian Trail, Eufaula, AL, 4/20/19
The World as We See It 
