Merry Chrisrmas from Arizona

Merry Christmas everyone. We are in a Thousand Trails preserve in Cottonwood Arizona. We started our Christmas morning with church services and just returned from Christmas dinner with approximately 75 fellow RVer's. I have to share with you some pistures. This first one is the view we see from our front window every day. If you look closely there is a red clay structure in the center of the photo This is the ruins of a "Kiva" or ceremonial-type dwelling inhabited by the Sinaqua Indians and dates back to around 1300 to 1400 A.D.

Next is a photo of the red rocks of Sedona just a few miles away. This is the most beautiful area we have seen yet. The views are spectacular everywhere you go.
Yesterday we went 4 wheeling in a jeep with friends, Dale and Linda Francis, through the Prescott National Forest. We were on all dirt and rock roads that meandered through the hills. In Linda's words.."How can anyone see this, and not believe in a God". And what a better way to celebrate his son's birth than by admiring and sharing his handywork.

We wish all of our family and friends a very Merry Christmas.

Texas Route 90 drive

We spent a week traveling along route 90 enjoying beautiful scenery. We spent a few days in Alpine,Texas. From there we traveled in several directions.
I hope you can read the inscription on this stone about the mysterious Marfa Lights. We watched these lights come and go... up and down. We saw red, blue and white ones. 

                                                                                  We visited the McDonald Observatory which is run by the University of Texas and Penn State. It houses the 5th largest telescope in the world. We were able to go right into the dome, see, touch and manuver the telescope. It is housed outside of Fort Davis Texas, which is the highest point in Texas. Beautiful views and scenery.    We also went to the Fort which defended this area from Indian attacks and raids from the Mexicans prior to the civil war.

Eventually route 90 rejoins interstate 10, so we left Texas and spent a night in New Mexico. Las Cruses to be specific. Nice community and growing. we are due in Cottonwood, Arizona on the 20th to meet up with friends for Christmas and New Year's, so we didn't spend time here. Maybe next year..... I want to go to Roswel

SanAntonio..... a rose

We went with some friends into San Antonio. We visited the Alamo, the old mission, had lunch at a deli and did the river walk. It was a very plesant day and we both enjoyed ourselves. It was a cool (low 50's) day.

Our time at Medina Lake seemed to fly by. We were busy every day taking scenic drives and learning more about Texas history and culture. The state is so big and rich in our nation's history that it is impossible to do and see everything in one visit. We will definately be returning to Texas to spend more time. But for now we bid a temporary good-by to new found friends and headed out for the mid-South region.

Unfortunately John drove a little too far to the right on the way out of the park, so we will need to shop for another antenna (Number 3)...soon.

Lake Medina, North of San Antonio

I normally wait until we have completed our stay in an area before I write about my thoughts and experience, but I have some pictures to share. This campground is practically a nature preserve. And you know me and critters... meet my new best friend. He is standing at the door of the RV staring at me through the window waiting for me to give him something to eat. He eats apples from my hand. He follows me around the campsite when I take Sydney out to walk.... even the dog doesn't keep him away.... the distance is further but not much.

And John has made an impression with the ladies too..... the minute he walks out the door of the RV, they come running....  in herds.
The deer here are smaller than in PA.... but the rabbitts make up the difference. I have never seen such huge rabbitts....jackrabbitts. Much to Sydney's dismay they are VERY FAST.
I have a flock of Cardinals in the trees outside my window. I also saw a roadrunner yesterday. I am told the park is usualy full of them in the summer months but right now there is one left that didn't migrate yet.
We met 2 other couples here that will be in the same Arizona park over Christmas that we'll be in. We were invited to join their parking area in Quartzsite in January. That's a story for another day.
Today we found another gem.... Boerne. The town came straight from a Dickens story. Tomorrow is San Antonio and the river walk with our Arizona bound friends Dale & Linda Francis.

Coastal Texas

From Houston we made our way to the Texas Gulf Coast. We had planned to go to the  Corpus Christi area and some one suggested a place called Rockport....  so off we went. This was the first time I could complain about the weather. We had drizzle and misty rain on and off the whole time.... but the place was so quaint you really didn't mind.
We met several former RVer's here who discovered this area while traveling and came back to stay. We visited the Meritime Museum and learned all about the port and the offshore oil drilling and platforms. It was surprisingly interesting. This is the site of an old Spanish ship find. It went down in the port and most of the wooden hull was recovered.
There is also a National Wildlife sanctuary for migrating birds here. This is where they worked to save the whooping cranes and brought their numbers back up. We were unable to visit the interpretive center because of the weather, but put it on our list to do next time.
We next planned to complete our Gulf Coast journey with a trip to the Brownsville area which is right on the Mexico border. However EVERYONE from this area counseled us against it, stating it wasn't safe. So we changed plans and headed back north to San Antonio and the Alamo....  an attraction high on John's must see list.

Texas Thanksgiving

We are in a Thousand Trails Campground north of Houston Texas called Lake Conroe. This place is large and really nice. The lake is 22,000 acres big and the campground is 128 acres. The dogs have been swimming every day and have a huge field in which to run and play. We have met such nice people on the road. I always ask about neet places to visit, see and stay.

John was unpleasantly surprised at the highways and size of Houston. He was driving the motorhome on highways with 5 lanes of traffic going in each direction and a speed limit of 70.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with about 75 other people. The campground provided the turkey and dressing and everyone brought a side dish and a desert. It was very pleasant.
We are thankful for the ability to be doing the traveling, meeting such great people and the support of our family and friends.

We pray for health and happiness for all. Happy Thanksgiving

Louisiana Wetlands

As we entered Louisiana, I saw a sign that called the state "America's Welands". I can certainly attest to that. Our only stop was an overnight in a WalMart parking lot.  Our drive was on roads elevated on stilts over miles of byou and wetlands. I think we drove a good 50 miles before the highway hit the ground. But that didn't last long before we were back on an elevated surface over water, of course. The northern part of the state is drier, I'm told. It was pretty, in it's own way, and I saw a lot of wetland birds.
John is anxious to get to Texas. Since it is a large state it will take us some time to traverse. There are things he wants to see and do. I, on the otherhand, am looking forward to Arizona.
Onward...

MISSISSIPPI

We had a short 3 day stay in Mississippi. The place we stayed at was 12 feet underwater during Katrina. They were still repairing and rebuilding. 
We drove to Pass Christian and Gulfport to see the changes.There is still signs of the devistation everywhere. I found this very friendly Pelican watching over the pier that had been rebuilt.
It was the first day of Oyster season so we watched the boats coming and going to the oyster beds, off shore, and bringing back bags of fresh catch. Needless to say we had seafood for dinner.

Sweet Home Alabama

 Since our journey was coastal this year, our time in Alabama was short. We stayed 20 miles east of Mobile, in Robertsdale, but discovered the cutest small town along the Mobile bay called Fairhope. It has flowers on every street corner, artist and craft shops sprinkled among restaurants like Panini Pete's and a small pier and bird sanctary.
I walked out on the pier to talk to a couple fishing. It turns out that he is a truck driver whose favorite place to go is Towanda, Pa. He drives past our Pa house frequently. They were fishing for white trout, so I invited them to stop in Pa next summer to fish in our back yard for rainbow and brown trout. I'll be looking for the "Alabama Fat Kids", their CB Handle, to pay us a visit

The Florida Gulf

Some decisions are good ones and some are not. Our decision to travel west through Florida instead of South was definately one of the good ones. Basically we traveled Route 10 all the way over to DeFuniak Springs Florida. We stayed at a large campground that typlified the "snow-bird" destinations of Florida. We stayed 3 days and that could have been 3 days too many if it hadn't been for our day trip down to sceanic route 98 and Navarre Beach. To quote John, "the place is filled with old people".
Our drive along the coast was really nice. I prefer the Gulf coast to the Atlantic coast. The sand is so white and very fine and there are much smaller waves. It was just beautiful. We had lunch at a small place on the beach called Sailor's Grill. A gas station clerk in North Carolina told us we should stop there, so we did. Food was okay but the view was spectacular.... we were on a deck 50 feet from the water. Navarre Beach is more open, unconjested than other places we saw. However, a typical 1,000 square foot beach house was selling for $355,000.
Westward ho....

Georgia.....Sweet Georgia

Our first stop in Georgia was Savannah. I didn't know Savannah was sooooo square. Square after square after square, each named after a person or event. I enjoyed the harbor best, cobeled stone street and all. I still like Charleston better.

Next was the Okefenokee swamp. What an amasing place. I was concerned about the bugs and small prior to arriving but I was thrilled to find out that there are NO BUGS in October / November in the swamp and that because the water is so acidic there is no foul odor. Just the oposite, we smelled flowers in bloom. Here are just a few of the allegators we encountered. Our guide was a Native American who gave us the history and topography of the area. He also cautioned us not to try and pet the wildlife.

Next we visited an old rice plantation. The main house was very simple and well preserved. The trees on the plantation have been dated at 800 years of age. 

Finally, we went to Cumberland Island. This is a part of our national seashore. The only access is by Ferry. The Carneige's built summer retreats here before donating the island to the government. The ruins of the estate are impressive, I could only imagine what the place looked like in it's hayday. Our guide, Renee Noe, really made history come alive.

We had asked another couple from the campground to join us on our island adventure. Gary and Rhonda Hogan (no, no relation to the wrestler) are from British Columbia, Canada. The 4 of us had a picnic lunch in the gardens, with wild horses grazing 20 feet from us and a flock of wild turkeys nearby. I also saw an armadillo.
After speaking to many fellow travelers we changed our plans and have decided to bypass the mid to southern part of Florida. We are going to travel West through the panhandle and visit the rest of Florida on another trip. Because Tropical Storm Ida was palying around in the area we were headed we extended our stay in Georgia.

Sitting on the dock of the bay...

What a wonderful time !! The James Island area is beautiful and the county park is the nicest place we've stayed. Biking / hiking paths through the salt marshes and palm forests, a dog park with a swimming beach, fishing and crabbing docks and private, nice sites. We met a retired pharmacist who showed us all about crabbing. He's "been fishin these waters since the 40's".
The park was preparing for their annual festival of lights. There were thousands of holiday light displays being set up. They were beautiful. Unfortunately it didn't start until the 13th of November, so we didn't get to see the the finished product. Note to self- schedule James Island park stay between November 13th and January 2nd in the future.

We were spoiled rotten by John's brother, Jim, and his wife Terri. Southern hospitality lives on. Terri took us around the area, to the beach and the Morris Island lighthouse. We left Charleston with enough home cooking to last us for weeks. I had my cat fix for a while as they have 2 cats Mandy and Andy. Jim helped John wash the car. It was filthy from being towed up hill and down.

Since we were there on halloween, I was also able to do the "answer the door to trick or treaters" routine. I haven't done that since my nephews, Frank and Alex, came out to our house one year. Country living doesn't lend itself to visitors, even on halloween.

It's off to Georgia, Savannah and the Okefenokee. John is still waiting to see his first allegator in the wild.

Corinne and beaches

We detoured to Wilmington on our way to Mrytle Beach to spend some time with John's daughter Corinne. She had just returned from the Panther / Bills football game in Charlotte. She could barely talk after cheering on the Bills to a victory. We had a lovely dinner out and loked at all the great pictures she took.

After arriving at Mrytle Beach we took the dogs to see the ocean for the first time. To say they weren't impressed, is streaching it. They wanted nothing to do with that foamy stuff that chased them along the sand. We spent a few days just relaxing and enjoying the sunshine and warm weather before heading to Charleston South Carolina to spend some time with John's brother and his wife Terri.

The place is haunted

What a busy 2 weeks.
I couldn't look at the blue speckled wall paper beside the beige patterned couch and window treatments any longer. I sized and painted the walls a bright beige color in the living/dining areas and the bedroom a gray blue. I used the bedskirt that came with the bedspread and made bedroom curtains and recovered the window surround. Even John likes the difference.
We visited the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh. I especially liked the exhibit called "Village of Yesteryear". It was a building filled with artisians who displayed and demonstrated their talents in olden crafts such as rug hooking, tinsmithing, glass blowing, wood carving, pottery and many more. Very interesting and beautiful work.
We had several fireside dinners with our neighbors Diana and Harold Bowman from Maryland. I'm glad John didn't have his camera nearby when Diana and I went four-wheeling in the woods on a golf cart and ran out of energy. We had to push the thing up hill to get back home. We got our exercise that day.
Jessie, you would be proud of me. I played bingo one night and won 2 games for a total of $22.00.
Oh yes, the haunting...  The members of Sycamore Lodge create and run a "Haunted Forest" each halloween. They do it for 2 nights, Oct 30 & 31st. They charge $6.00 per person and all the proceeds go to Charity....  the Leukemia Fund to be exact. Working in the woods, creating the scary scenerios, and designing costumes takes a lot of time and dedicated volunteers. Today, everyone dressed up in costumes and drove to the surrounding towns handing out flyers advertizing the event. The place is full of witches and wizzards. The dogs don't know whats happening.
We attended another Pot Luck supper....  these are great ways to meet the people in the park and make new friends.
It really is a small world. At the dog park we got to talking to another couple only to discover Ed and Marla Keck live less than 6 miles from us near Cogan Station.
Monday we head out to Wilmington to see John's daughter Corinne and then off to Myrtle Beach for 2 days of ocean.

Carolina Bound

We just arrived at our Coast to Coast home port of Sycamore Lodge in Jackson Springs NC. We will be staying here for 2 weeks. By this time we should know what changes in "stuff placement" need to be made. In other words, it's time to make the RV "homey". We have put off doing that until we knew how to work everything, what the experts do and what ensures safety. We discovered we are a little over weight in the rear. I heard that comment. We need to do some "stuff rearranging" to even out the weight distribution. I have the need to personalize it a bit. That scares John.... cause it usually means spending money.
You never know just where you may meet your new best friends. We stopped at the North Carolina welcome center coming from Tennessee. John initiated a conversation with a gentleman walking a beautiful sheltie dog. Fifteen minutes later we are making arragements to stay at the same WalMart parking lot for the night as we were both heading in the same direction.  
That's how, Wayne, Elaine and Shelly (the Shelty) came into our lives. We spent that evening talking and sharing. We shopped togeather, exchanged emails and phone numbers. They are headed back to Ohio, they're home. We tried to convince Wayne to retire, after all he is 70. We will be keeping in touch and hopefully meet up with them again.... on the road.

Kentucky Kaves

WOW...  We were 310 feet below the surface of the earth. What an experience....and NO BATS. We took a 2 hour ranger guided tour starting at the historical site opening. The system has 365 miles of surveyed passageways and they believe there may be as many as 600. We did over 250 stairs coming up out of the cave. We used our new National Parks Senior Pass and only paid half price. The cost of the pass ($10.00) was recouped the first time we used it.

Our campsite (Diamond Caverns Resort and Golf Course) was nice, but the people were exceptional. The host and hostess were wonderful. We went to our first "Pot Luck" campground dinner and met some nice people. It didn't take me long on the road to run into a fellow nurse. Kathy is an agency nurse in Trauma and Oncology. We also met another couple who have been full-timers (in their RV) for about 2 years. He is retired Army so they get to stay at army bases free of charge.

The campground is immediately adjacent to the federal park, so we did some hiking. Sydney and Holly found their own cave since they couldn't come on our tour.

We had rain every day but one. Only one of those days was a complete washout though. We had tornado warnings that day also... an interesting first for us. How do you prepare / survive a tornado in an RV?

Family Time

Saturday and Sunday were spent with John's sister Bonnie and 2 of her children, Kim and Dave. We were updated on all the news about the nieces & nephews, as well as the grand nieces & nephews. We brought some video tape for Dave, of his grandfather, Rev John Mostoller, doing his "Percy the Clown" program. Dave is very active in his church, with the food bank, and is considering adding some of his grandfathers clown routines into his ministry. Bonnie cooked us all dinner. It was nice sharing news with family members too long neglected. Note to self... keep in touch more. Other Note to self... make sure the camera is set on pictures, not video, when taking family photos or nothing records.
Cardinal sin number 2.. mind your tow vehicle when attaching and unhitching. As I was gathering items from the RV to take with us to Bonnie's, John decided to unhitch the car from the RV. While towing, the car must be in neutral with the parking brake off. When disconnecting it you sometimes have to move the car to change the tension on the tow rods to get them separated. When I came out of the RV, John had removed the rods and cables. I proceeded to place these in the storage bag when I hear..."Oh Crap"... and look up to see John chasing our slowing, backward moving, car across a WalMart parking lot. Thank the Lord there weren't any other vehicles parked near us.
Next stop.... hopefully... Mammoth Cave National Park in South central Kentucky.

Gyspsy Journal Rally

After 2 nights at Roaring Run and 2 nights at WalMart parking lots, we arrived at Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina Ohio for what we termed "Gypsy School".

About 230 others joined us to learn, share and HAVE FUN. Our friends John and Wendy Dreese were our first house guests in our RV. They came to the rally and bunked on the couch for 4 nights. The rally was sponsored and conducted by Nick and Terry Russell who live full time in their RV and publish an RV newspaper called the "Gypsy Journal". We went to classes, listened to stories and met some very nice people. One of the classes I attended was "Every RVer Needs a Blog", taught by "Geeks on Tour". I had intended to journal our adventures but they made blogging so easy that I decided to take the leap. I don't know how consistent I will be in adding postings, but I'm going to give it a try.

We thought we learned all the right things to do, but when leaving the fairgrounds John committed one of the basic cardinal sins. He pulled out without putting his antenna down. It caught in a tree branch 30 feet from our parking spot, so we didn't get far and we were still able to lower it. He had to tape it to the roof to make sure it didn't fly away while traveling and until we are parked long enough to repair it.

Next stop.. Hamilton Ohio... to visit with John's sister.

A New Beginning

Today's the day... the first day of our extended RV lifestyle. We closed up the house, hitched up the car to the RV, filled the gas tank and waved to Lynn, the Trout Run postmaster, on our way out of town. Our first destination is Roaring Run Campground in Champian, PA. for 2 nights. This is near Ohiopyle and Falling Waters (Frank Lloyd Wright's famous creation).
While there, John wanted to take a trip down memory lane so we went through the town of Sommerset where his grandparents, now deceased, lived and visited Camp Christian where he spent many a summer. John was pleasantly surprised to find the camp modernized and prospering