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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
As you can tell, it’s been awhile since we’ve posted. No special reason … just busy traveling and having fun. I’ll try to do better for the rest of the year.
No, really.
Since we left Gettysburg, we’ve been busy: north to Watkins Glen, west to Bozeman (and then the San Juan Islands without the RV), down through Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, and now heading east towards Florida in a meandering sort of way. We’ve had a great time, as you will see in future posts.
Watkins Glen and the Finger Lakes in New York were beautiful. I wish that I had taken advantage of the area when I lived in Baltimore, but better late than never. The biggest attraction was Watkins Gorge. I had no idea that this was here. Wow.
From there, we hunkered down in western NY state for Memorial Day. Yes, that’s how far behind we are. While there, we got another surprise by visiting Letchworth State Park. More fantastic beauty. Man, we really love state parks.
Having survived Memorial Day, and a power related failure on the Friday evening of that holiday weekend, we ran west. I won’t go into the details since we were essentially just moving across the country, but we did stop in the Chicago area so that I could show Patti where I grew up in small town America. Oh, and we bought a couple of eBikes which have proven to be lots of fun. Here are a few representative photos.
I’ll try to get more posts out in a timely manner. I have lots of cool photos from our summer in the smoke out west. Stay tuned.
Watkins Glen Gorge, 5/19/21 
Watkins Glen Gorge, 5/19/21
Watkins Glen Gorge, 5/19/21 
Watkins Glen Gorge, 5/19/21
Watkins Glen Gorge, 5/19/21 
Watkins Glen Gorge, 5/19/21
Watkins Glen Gorge, 5/19/21 
Montour Falls, 5/25/21
Letchworth State Park, 5/31/21
Letchworth State Park, 5/31/21
A small town theatre that happens to be where I saw my first movie, a long time ago. Barrington, IL 6/14/21
Next big stop: Luray, VA and a bit of the Shenandoah National Park. I have spent a lot of time in the park over the years and even a couple of visits to the town of Luray. One of my closest friends lives very near there so we booked this spot so that we could walk the park, hit the famous Luray Caverns, and visit people we haven’t seen in too long. Mission accomplished on all counts.
We spent 10 nights at the Luray KOA. We chose it based upon two criteria: it was close to my buddy’s house and it had good ratings. It blew us away. One side of the RV faced a farmer’s field where a grain crop was just coming in. It was a beautiful shade of green, particularly in the morning and evening light. The other side faced a huge, open lawn. Very nice indeed. The park has several nice walks and drives, always enjoyable. Surprisingly, this was my first visit to Luray Caverns and all I’ll say is that it was worth the trip.
So, a good time was had by all. We visited with our fully vaccinated friends (no masks! hugs all around!) and actually had dinner out (no masks! food we didn’t cook!). Jeez, normalcy (at least a version of it) seems to be lurking just around the corner!
The view from our site. Luray, VA 4/23/21
Big moon. Luray, VA 4/26/21
The Shenandoah River. 4/30/21
The view from the Shenandoah National Park into the valley. SNP 4/26/21
An underground lake in the Luray Caverns. 4/29/21
The organ in the Luray Caverns. 4/29/21
Our original plans had us wintering in Tucson with a planned field trip in the truck back to Florida for a couple of weeks to have some long overdue doctor visits. We are of an age where scheduling doctor appointments is not an option but a necessity. The on-going Covid unpleasantness prompted us to change those plans and take the RV east with us. We made arrangements to rent a condo in Cape Canaveral for a few months and we were able to store the coach in our old storage facility, so after Bryce we headed east at what was, for us, a rapid pace. Our initial goal, other than a quick stop in Albuquerque for annual maintenance for Sybil, was to stop near Baton Rouge to visit family.
So, off we went. Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas fell into our rear view mirror. We saw trees that were millions of years old here, just missed getting caught in severe winter conditions in North Texas, camped with alpacas near Dallas, and rode out Election Day on a bayou in East Texas. Which is a story in its own right.
But we made it without too many mishaps. Here are a few shots from along the way. Next time: east of the Mighty Mississippi for the first time in a while!
Dinner at Wahweap Campground on Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, 10/13/20
Night sky over Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, 10/13/20
Petrified Forest NP, 10/16/20
Petrified Forest NP, 10/16/20
Petrified Forest NP, 10/16/20
Petrified Forest NP, 10/16/20
Petrified Forest NP, 10/16/20
Petrified Forest NP, 10/16/20
Alpacas are silly. Denton, TX, 10/29/20
What a goofy face. Denton, TX, 10/29/20
Early morning on the Big Cypress Bayou. Karnack, TX 11/3/20
Early morning on the Big Cypress Bayou. Karnack, TX 11/3/20
Wow, it’s been way too long (again) since I posted. We’ve been a bit busy, what with driving across the country, moving into a condo for a few months, many doctors appointments, and implementing major changes in our lifestyle. That latter item is a subject for a later post. Patience, grasshopper.
Our next stop was Bryce Canyon National Park. Beautiful Bryce. This place is awesome and the pics you’ll see below don’t come close to actually capturing the natural wonders that make it up. It needs to be seen to be appreciated. So we went, spent a week, saw beautiful things, and left wanting more. As it should be.
We also took a couple of side trips while there, specifically to Red Canyon just outside the park, and Kodachrome Basin State Park just a short drive away. Both were well worth the time, particularly Red Canyon. It is literally directly on the way to Bryce from the west and has insane (and easy) walks straight from the parking lot. It’s a “must not miss” stop for anyone in the area. (Note from the editor: The hike at Red Canyon is one of my top five fave hikes so far.)
On an “RV’ing isn’t for sissies” note: when I was setting up at the campground, the water intake attachment on the RV blew up when I turned on the hose. This is a one way hose attachment and is, obviously, critical to our getting fresh water. I took two quick actions. One was to order the part and to have it delivered to our next stop. The second was to drive to the thriving metropolis of Tropic, UT, population 530, where there was an Ace hardware store. I bought four (4!) adapters to convert the H2O input piping to directly connect a hose. There was a small amount of dripping even with the use of plumbers tape, but it would do. The lows overnight were forecast to be about 36 degrees, so no danger of freezing. No problem.
At 3AM I got up to answer the call of nature and checked the outside temperature from my weather station. It was reporting 28 degrees. Crap. So at 3AM, this Florida boy found himself outside disconnecting an already partially frozen hose and capping the icicle-encrusted half-assed connection. Good times. Fortunately I got to it before any of our interior pipes were affected. Two lessons were learned: 1) always keep your eye on the actual temp vs. the forecast one and 2) the furnaces on our RV were able to easily keep our basement storage area (where our tanks and water lines live) nice and warm. Both of these are good to know.
Enjoy the photos and stay tuned. I hope to resume posting more regularly over the coming month to catch up with actual real-time events. Stay safe y’all.
Bryce Canyon NP 10/6/20
Bryce Canyon NP 10/6/20
Bryce Canyon NP 10/6/20
Bryce Canyon NP 10/6/20
Bryce Canyon NP 10/6/20
Bryce Canyon NP 10/7/20
Bryce Canyon NP 10/7/20
Bryce Canyon NP 10/7/20
Kodachrome Basin SP 10/8/20
Red Canyon UT 10/9/20
Red Canyon UT 10/9/20
Red Canyon UT 10/9/20
Red Canyon UT 10/9/20
After a too short stay in the Moab area, we slipped a bit east for a week stay in the Grand Junction area in SW Colorado. We stayed at Palisade Basecamp right on a bluff overlooking the Colorado River. Very nice. Anyplace where we can walk to a vineyard is okay with us.
While there, we took two major outings. One was for a scenic drive and some walks along the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway. This is a very nice drive up the Mesa where we hiked around a small lake and took in the Fall colors. Side note: these were the first foliage colors I had seen in almost 4 decades. Florida doesn’t count. Palm trees are pretty boring trees. The hiking was at elevation, but no problem, we did fine.
Our second excursion was to Colorado National Monument. This was another very nice trip on the Rim Rock Drive which offers a bunch of vista viewpoints as well as some hikes. Another good time.
Otherwise we just hung out as usual, living this rough life we’ve chosen and looking forward to our next stop back where the idea of going full-time was planted.
The view from our RV. That’s the Colorado River in the foreground. Palisade, CO 9/28/20
Colorado National Monument. 9/29/20
Waiting for our lunch crumbs. Colorado National Monument 9/29/20
Fall colors! Off the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway. 10/1/20
On our walk Grand Mesa Scenic Byway. 10/1/20
On our walk Grand Mesa Scenic Byway. 10/1/20
View from our lunch spot off the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway. 10/1/20
We didn’t spend all of our time in Arches, just most of it. We took several nice drives including a couple of trips on Rt 128 as well as the La Sal Loop Rd. which was literally right outside our RV Park. Officially the La Sal Mountain Loop State Scenic Backway, it is a beautiful drive into the mountains SE of Moab that takes you down Castle Valley and spits you back out onto Rt 128. Think windy mountain roads with nice drop offs (and views!) with a bit of cattle in the road every now and then. Keeps you on your toes.
We did a quick drive through Canyonlands, but that place is so vast it really needs more time than we were willing to give it this time. Shockingly, we didn’t make it to Dead Horse State Park. Next time, for sure.
And after this, it just keeps on getting better.
View from the La Sal Loop Rd, 9/23/20
Mesa Arch, Canyonlands NP, 9/16/20
Canyonlands NP, 9/16/20
Trucks navigating White Rim Rd., Canyonlands NP, 9/16/20
Sculpture on the Colorado River pedestrian bridge in Moab. 9/22/20
The view into Arches NP across the Colorado River from just off RT 128. 9/23/20
Back in 2012, I had a bit of a health issue (see here for those posts). Following my recovery, or at least a good portion of it, we went to Utah and a bit of Arizona for what became known as our “I’m Not Dead Yet” tour. We hit many of the big parks for three night stays in their lodges or nearby and had a blast. Those posts start here if you’re interested. One thing that we learned is that just a few days in these types of locations is not enough. There is a direct line from that lesson to our going full-time in the RV last year. You can’t say we’re slow learners. At least in this instance.
So now we find ourselves back where it started. We booked a 2-week stay just outside Moab and it still wasn’t enough to even begin to see everything there is to see, but we saw a lot. Our lifestyle (ie: staying at a destination location in our own home) allowed us to take our time, but still go see cool stuff. If we decide to take a day off for laundry, chores, naps, and perhaps a bit of Xbox, no sweat.
Obviously this is a target-rich environment for photographers. This post will cover Arches National Park since it was our most visited destination with five separate trips (thank you once again America The Beautiful Pass!). It’s hard to pick just a handful, but needs must.
Sunset view of Balanced Rock, Arches NP, 9/21/20
A closer view of Balanced Rock. Arches NP 9/18/20
Sunset in Arches NP, 9/21/20
Early morning in Arches NP, 9/18/20
Early morning in Arches NP, 9/18/20
Landscape Arch, Arches NP 9/18/20
Pine Tree Arch, Arches NP, 9/18/20
Tunnel Arch, Arches NP, 9/18/20
Navajo Arch, Arches NP, 9/18/20
Arches NP, 9/18/20
Fiery Furnace, Arches NP, 9/17/20
Broken Arch, Arches NP, 9/17/20
The Fiery Furnace, Arches NP, 9/21/20
The Courthouse Wash Rock Art Panel. Arches NP, 9/22/20
Sand Dune Arch, Arches NP, 9/21/20
Broken Arch, Arches NP, 9/21/20
Skyline Arch, Arches NP, 9/21/20
We felt like Randall Flagg was following us around. #TheStand Arches NP, 9/17/20
Skyline Arch, Arches NP, 9/21/20
The plan was to leave the coast and spend a couple of days just east of Portland in order to check out the Columbia Gorge, then go to ground in Boise (with a quick overnight stay en route) for the Labor Day weekend, and then dash to Salt Lake City (with another stop on the way) for several days. Which is what we did. Sort of.
We did, in fact, have a great time briefly exploring the Gorge. Impressive views and several waterfalls kept the “Oh, wow!” factor alive and well. Many of the trails that are acceptable to us (ie: easy-ish) were closed due to the pandemic but we were able to see the sights and take some walks. Lived up to all of the hype. We’d love to revisit in the spring some year in order to see the waterfalls at their best. A common phrase worth repeating: we’ll be back.
As it turns out, we got out of Dodge at just the right time. Wildfires kicked up in the Portland area in a big way immediately after we left. Our run east to Boise was uneventful as was our stay there. Between Covid and holiday crowds, we felt it best to just hunker down, which we did.
One of my trip planning tools is a website called Windy. It provides a nice view of upcoming weather, particularly wind speeds. Wind is not my friend since we are effectively driving a large sail down the highway. Broadside gusts can make life interesting. Looking at Windy showed some strong winds on our travel days due to a front moving through, starting just at our overnight stay in eastern Idaho as well as in Salt Lake City the next day. So we decided to stop for a couple of nights a bit earlier than planned. Twin Falls, ID looked good so I found a park near there and off we went.
This turned out to be a great decision for two reasons. First, the winds were indeed crazy with 90 mph gusts in SLC. Forty-nine semi-trucks were blown over right when we were to arrive! Bullet: dodged. Second: Twin Falls rocked! Beautiful canyon which Evel Knieval tried to jump on his motorcycle, lovely waterfalls, charming downtown area. Significantly better than muscling Sybil and the truck through high winds.
After our layover we headed to SLC for a few nights. Three words describe our stay: lousy air quality. We were happy to move on and start our time in Moab, Grand Junction, and Bryce. More on that next time. Meanwhile here’s a handful of shots from the Gorge and Twin Falls.
Multnomah Falls. Nice trails here but they were closed. You supposedly need a reservation to park and see the falls. Columbia River Gorge, OR 9/2/20
Latourell Falls, Columbia Gorge, OR 9/2/20
The Columbia River Gorge, 9/2/20
Your choice of golf courses in the bottom of the Snake River Canyon. Twin Falls, ID 9/9/20
Twin Falls, ID 9/9/20
Before we left the area, we made another trip up to Mt. St. Helens and took a couple of nice walks. It felt great to be out again, seeing sites and taking photos. There are lots of great hiking trails and photo-ops. It was good for our morale to be back in the woods again.
We finished up our quick visit to Washington with a short hop to a nice rv park on the Columbia River. We had a pull-in site that allowed us to sit in our front seats and watch the traffic on the river floating by. It was a bit jarring to see large, open-going vessels gliding by so far inland but we quickly got used to it. My neighbor turned me on to an app called Vessel Finder that I found to be pretty cool. I was able to identify the boats I was looking at or see when a big boy was going to come by easily on my phone for free. Fun. After a week or so I was actually recognizing the specific tugs shoving barges up and down the Columbia.
Southwest Washington is a beautiful part of the country. When some semblance of sanity and safety have returned to the world we will be back to more fully explore this region.
Coldwater Lake, WA. 6/14/20
Spring in Washington. 6/14/20
Hummocks created by the volcano. 6/14/20
Cedar Creek Grist Mill & Covered Bridge 6/19/20
Cedar Creek Grist Mill 6/19/20
Party at the river on a random weekday. 6/24/20
Watching the traffic go by. 6/17/20
Looking for a meal. 6/17/20
The World as We See It 
