2/17/2024 Wintertime Chillin’, New Mexico Style

Time to flee Kalifornia once again, we went jacks-up and headed east on our usual path of escape – the Tehachapi Pass on Hwy. 58. The temperatures have been cold to start the new year and we are in “weather watch” mode so as to not get hit with a lot of snow while traveling. I will never be a big fan of driving Rosie through snow and ice. We buckled down and pushed on into Primm, NV, and an overnight dry-camp stay at Whiskey Pete’s Casino. Then it was a short hop into our next stop, a return stay with the Boulder City Elk’s Lodge. The temperatures were absolutely frigid, but the mountains around Vegas had the very lightest dusting of snow. This stop was mostly for the purpose of getting chores done; Costco, Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Jeanne’s hair cut, a quick tire rotation at Discount Tire, and, OK, a small donation to the local economy (hey, Sin City, what else can I say?). We also made a return visit to Hoover Dam to check on the status of Lake Mead compared to our last visit.

Moving on down the road, we conquered the battle of icy roads through the Flagstaff area and into an overnight stay at a defunct truck stop in Winslow, AZ. Up and at ‘em early, we motored our way to yet another return visit to the Enchanted Trails RV Park outside of Albuquerque, NM. A few days rest and on to our leased lot at The Ranch (SKP park) in Lakewood, NM. 

We got settled in for a bit of an extended stay, mainly to wait out the winter weather. I took the opportunity to do a few fixes on Rosie, at least the ones within my limited skillset. In all the cold weather our fresh water hose that is mounted on a motorized reel keeps freezing and snapping off small sections as I reel it in and out, so I had to replace the hose, not a difficult task. One of my more apprehensive endeavors was a clogged backflush spray head inside Rosie’s black tank (that would be sewer for you non-RVer types). A quick look on-line in the Tiffin RV Network (tiffinrvnetwork.com) and a huge leap of faith got me into the “belly of the beast” (Rosie’s guts) where I found the access to the backflush spray head to be very easy. I also tore into the (3) heat/ac units on the roof to clean the filters and hopefully discover the source of an interior water leak, the jury is still out on that one…

We utilized some of our time doing a little yard work around the casita. Being in the desert “yard work” consists mainly of playing with rocks. So we managed to kick our own butts, moving a total of (12) tons of rock that we had delivered by Southeast Redi-Mix from Carlsbad. The long dormant muscles that we both gave a rude wake-up call to are still screaming at us!

Rosie developed another coolant leak from the low coolant sensor, necessitating a road trip to the nearest Freightliner shop in Odessa, TX. A couple of nights camped out in their lot and, since we were there, what the heck, it was north to Lubbock for more big box shopping. We returned to the Lubbock Elk’s Lodge for a few days stay. Unfortunately for us, those few days included a pretty good dump of SNOW! It created some fun time (NOT) on our day of departure, it took me almost 3 hours to thaw the icicles and clear the slide toppers just so we could fold up the slides. Success attained, it was jacks up and back to The Ranch.

Clearer weather at The Ranch, we completed the finishing touches to our landscape project. Our backs and shoulders were happy to see the final placement of rocks! 

We have been meaning to pay a visit to nearby Sitting Bull Falls, just haven’t had the time/opportunity to venture out. With the yard done for now, we caught a nice weather day and headed out to the falls. New Mexico did a really nice job on the infrastructure/facility at this tiny little podunk-nowhere natural attraction. It is REALLY way out in the middle of nowhere, 32 miles off the “main” highway near the megalopolis of the “town” of Queen (basically, a cafe, a tin barn fire department, and a whole lot of nothing). The hike to the bottom of the falls was short (a couple hundred yards…maybe) and mostly concrete walkway. The water pools at the base of the falls was crystal clear beautiful, reminiscent of the clear waters in Montana. We also discovered the existence of a trail straight up the mountain which takes one to the spring headwaters for the falls. We were not prepared for a more strenuous hike at that time, but hey, now we have another activity to look forward to.

So this catches you up for now. I’ll leave you with a photo that represents the stressful lives of full-time RVers.  Until next post…

1/1/2024 Happy New Year 2024!

Working our way north from Santa Barbara and continuing with our little “Elk’s” tour, a  short return visit to the Santa Maria Elk’s Lodge was next. Chad & Crissy (our son & daughter-in-law) wanted to provide us a little Christmas cheer, so they treated us to a family overnight stay at the Cambria Pines Lodge in Cambria. The lodge does a yearly MASSIVE display of Christmas lights that we enjoyed with granddaughters Hailey, Ellie, Chad & Crissy.

Another really huge (NOT!) travel day moved us up to another return visit to the Oceano/5 Cities Elk’s Lodge. This lodge is right at the entrance to the Oceano Dunes State Beach (commonly referred to as Pismo Dunes). We spent a few quality days taking walkabouts down the beach, gawking at some of the spectacular left coast sunsets, stumbling all over the many live, washed-ashore Pismo clams, strolling the Pismo Beach pier and surrounding area, and otherwise enjoying the sunny December weather of the Central Coast of California. 

Having to burn a couple of days before we were due back at the Atascadero Elk’s Lodge, we returned to the San Luis Obispo Elk’s Lodge to fill that gap. Then it was on into A-Town Elk’s for a few days prep work before we road tripped with Chad’s family south for a Christmas stay in Big Bear, CA.

Christmas Eve required a family drive to check out the various Christmas lights on neighborhood homes. It might be just me, but there was a sad lack of participation in the Griswold Christmas Vacation tradition of exterior home illumination. We did find a “crown jewel” which had a walk path through and among the various lighted decorations, that homeowner had the right attitude!

Christmas Day, after Hailey & Ellie plowed through their family (and Santa) presents, the whole clan loaded up and drove to Big Bear Lake for a 4-day stay at a local cabin and some snow time fun. Oh boy were we surprised…absolutely NO snow on the mountains except for the limited resorts’ man-made variety! It was certainly cold enough, just missing the requisite storm activity to completely blanket the area.

Still, we were able to take the family skiing at Bear Mountain Resort; it had a couple of their ski trails open. Hailey & Ellie got their first timer ski lessons and had a blast, Chad & Crissy did their snow board thing on the growed up slopes.

Another day found us watching Hailey & Ellie do some tubing at the Snowplay park. They had a blast rippin’ down the hill. Hailey was hilarious at the end of the day. Worn out, she came off the hill carping angrily about “having to drag Ellie around” while sitting in her tube and not helping with dragging the tubes back to the lines. Just thinking back on that brings on a little chuckle…

One night we did a walkabout in the area of Big Bear Lake called The Village. They definitely embraced the Griswold tradition of exterior lighting and even without any snow it was very nice scenery.

All good things must come to an end and it was time to head back to Atascadero, just in time to enjoy the New Year’s celebration. Jeanne found California Coast Brewery that had a “Noon Balloon Drop” on NYE, so it sounded like a good idea for lunch and a couple of cold ones. In all the years of coming to the area, we were unaware of this little gem of a brewery (it had been there for 4 years). The place was packed, the Juicy IPA was good, the smoked brisket sando was outstanding, the band was pretty good, and the balloon drop was fun.

We followed that up with a NYE “Bonfire Concert in the Park” in downtown Paso Robles. Also packed, the Fire Dept. put on a huge bonfire of flaming pallets amid all the Griswold decorated trees while the Lucky Devil’s Band played their sort of Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire-ish style of music (guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, trombone, trumpet, sax). Local food and drink outfits had vendor tents to quench that hunger and thirst throughout the night.

So welcome to 2024. We hope you all have a healthy & prosperous year. I’ll leave you with a photo that perfectly sums up what happens when a body has more fun than is humanly possible. Until next post…

12/5/2023 Caution: Lots of Family Stuff and Grandkid Photos

Jeanne’s brother Dave survived his eye surgery like a champ and it was time to head south for grandkid time. Our first stop was back to Atascadero and a couple of weeks at the Elk’s Lodge there. And first on our itinerary was one of 5 year old Ellie’s soccer games. There is no forgetting soccer at that age…it should be called “Herdball”. Nevertheless we did get the opportunity to watch Ellie score a goal. 

Grandparent’s Day/Veteran’s Day Celebration at Hailey & Ellie’s school was next up on the agenda. We have not had the pleasure of attending one of these yet. They did a touching presentation for both.

Both girls enjoy rollerskating so Jeanne found a roller rink in Santa Maria. One weekend we loaded the kids up and took them skating. I was just happy they survived with no major mishaps or injuries! And I have to say, roller skates have certainly evolved over the years (*decades*!) since I was a youngun’ sporting my skates (worn over my shoes) and adjusted with a skate key! Sorry about the pics, low lighting, moving targets, and my horrible camera skills do not mesh well.

7 year old Hailey is currently taking horseback lessons at a local ranch, so we tagged along to watch. She seemed comfortable in the saddle and was pretty capable of controlling her beast.

Mom & Dad celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary while we were there with a weekend away while Oma & Opa watched the girls. We took them out to Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Viewing area near Moonstone Beach just below Hearst Castle. This time of year is when the adults start returning for mating season and they were due any day. They had not arrived yet, but the beach was full of the juvenile males who precede the adults’ arrival. Besides the seals we got views of the Piedras Blancas Light House and of Hearst Castle.

Next up was a (very short, not by choice) stint with grandson Max back in Santa Rosa, CA and a return stay at the Petaluma Elk’s Lodge. Max celebrated his 12th birthday and being so close to Christmas we took him out on a combined shopping spree. He made out with a couple of video games as well as some new duds and shoes. We did not have time for sightseeing activities with Max, but we did get a few days of quality time with him, at the expense of nearly blowing out my shoulder throwing the football with him. Getting old really is a drag…

More sad good-byes and it was southbound and down once again. An overnight stop at the San Luis Obispo Elk’s Lodge, then on to our destination stop at the Santa Barbara Elk’s Lodge for a few days. This was our first time staying at this lodge, which has (16) RV sites, flat gravel with 50A/water and a dump site in the parking area. The name is misleading, the lodge is actually in Goleta which is just south of downtown Santa Barbara. Besides the lounge and dining areas, it had a fairly nice (small) gym, laundry, and shower area.

We wanted to pick up some liquid refreshments for an upcoming visit to Big Bear, so a short road trip was in order. Solvang is home to a very nice beer/wine store and taproom called The Backroom at Valley Brewers. As is our usual custom, we arrived in town just in time for an unexpected, massive downtown Christmas parade. Once we found parking out in the wilderness, a short walk landed us smack dab in the middle of Main St. and the tail end of the parade. A quick bite to eat, then it was on to The Backroom. For you who are unfamiliar and have not read my previous post about a prior visit to Solvang, it is a quaint little Danish styled hamlet, they even claim to be “the Danish capital of America”.

A visit to SoCal is never complete without seeing some Pacific Ocean once in a while. We headed into Santa Barbara and took a stroll around the area of Stearns Wharf. At Chase Palm Park next to the wharf there was a kind of “Art in the Park” thing going on with various artists displaying their works for sale alongside vendors of custom made jewelry. There was also a big outdoor skate park that was fairly busy. We took a walk out to the end of the wharf, taking in the sights, then a short spin around the seaside businesses in that area. We have been somewhat surprised at the low number of homeless visible in this area, but we came across one who was loitering and trash can diving next to the outdoor seating area of one restaurant. Jeanne almost gagged watching him pull out a half full cup of some discarded milky colored drink from the trash can and down it lickety split. 

One last outing took us to downtown Santa Barbara and a foot tour down State St. It is a similar set up to Fremont St. in Vegas, sans the freakazoids dressed in character and those in various states of dress and undress. State St. is closed off to through traffic, however you have to watch out for your life as the throngs of yahoos on E-bikes go scooting along with the pedestrian traffic. It is quite the urban palm tree setting, with the usual types of mall shops and a plethora of eateries and such. It was a daunting task to simply find public parking lots within the maze of downtown one-way streets, but the walking was good.

That’s all for now, we hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and stay tuned for the next “exciting” installment of “the Recreational Wanderers”…

10/23/2023 Sad Times And Life Goes On…

The area of Kanab, UT was our next temporary home. We found Country Rose RV Park in Fredonia for a couple of night’s respite. There is a popular trail in the area to access Peek-A-Boo slot canyon (AKA: Red Canyon Slot). We fully intended to conquer said hike…until we stopped by the visitor’s center in Kanab. There we were regaled with horror stories about the 4WD section of said trail winding through nothing but soft, pillowy, thick sand and the $1,000 cost of getting towed out after getting stuck, even in 4WD. Time for Plan B. Jeanne found the Best Friend’s Animal Sanctuary just north of town. It was a large stretch of land used as a sanctuary for various animals, as well as a large pet cemetery, and the road through provided some nice scenery.

Onward and upward, we were off to a few days stay at the St. George (UT) Elk’s Lodge. They have a nice lodge parking area with 13 power pedestals (30/50A) and the lot overlooks a 9-hole municipal golf course. The course was a beautiful deep green which was an awesome contrast to the bright red rock formations surrounding the lodge.

We found Pioneer Park nearby and thought we might avail ourselves of some of that hiking. It was a bit disappointing, there really were no trails of any significant length, but the scenery was great. There is a “slot” canyon of sorts called St. George Narrows which we got up close with. I say “slot” a bit facetiously, it would only function as a through and through slot canyon if you have a waist line measurement of 2”. Jeanne and I had just been extolling the virtues of the area and its lack of homeless freak bums when by golly I stumbled upon a thrashed campsite inside a small windcave type crevice in the rocks. Such a pitiful eyesore…

Good-bye once again to St. George, we were pushing on towards the left coast. We discovered there is actually an Elk’s Lodge in Ely, NV so that seemed a good stop off for a couple of days. They share a gravel parking lot with the Hotel Nevada Casino, so in we went, dry camping only. It promptly came to our attention that we were coincidentally in time for The Great American Eclipse on 10/14/2023. Oh joy. 

Once we “got eclipsed”, it was “On The Road Again” to another Country Rose RV Park, this one in Fernley, NV, for a couple of days getting shopping chores done. Then we opted to head over the mountains through Susanville and on to Redding for a stint helping Jeanne’s brother Dave while he underwent some minor eye surgery. We split our time between the Redding Elk’s Lodge and Win-River Casino. Deep sadness struck again. Woodrow Wilson has not been doing well for the past couple of years, firmly in the grasp of what we believe was Cushing’s Disease. We made the difficult decision to end Woody’s suffering at the Cottonwood Small Animal Clinic since he had been a patient of theirs several times over the years. Those people are top quality there, very respectful and compassionate. Vaya con dios, little buddy!

With Woody now in a way-better place, we chose to honor his memory with a lengthy day of hiking. No more limiting our away time to a couple of hours, we drove up to Mt. Lassen National Park. We picked out Brokeoff Mountain Trail to “break the ice” so  to speak. Oh my, with a long period of only short hikes, this was tough! The trail is listed as “strenuous”. It was. Very. Strenuous. It is ALL uphill, some sections pretty steep, 3 3/4 miles to the top, with a 2,600’ elevation gain. It got a little windy and cold near the top as well. I say “near the top” because we ended up pulling up about a half mile short, out of gas and out of will. The views were still spectacular. After the knee-cracking, quad-burning, calf-burning return downhill, we headed for a little more torture. The trail to Kings Creek Falls, albeit a little less elevationally challenged, was about a 2 mile round trip. The poor ol’ legs barely held out but we made it to the falls. The downfall to enjoying Mt. Lassen Nat’l Park is it was severely scarred by the 2021 Dixie Fire, so a lot of the hiking is through burned out forest areas.

Now, you’re caught up. Until next post…

10/6/2023 Time For a Little More Utah Scenery

Our next goal was to head up to the area of The Goosenecks State Park in southern Utah. We found our new home site at said park for a mere $10 per night fee for boondocking only. The very tiny park only offers a few covered picnic table sites, some scattered garbage cans, and a couple of pit toilets. Other than that, there is a considerable amount of open space along a pretty rough dirt road to pick your poison from. The big plus is it is all along the bluff top looking down into the canyons of the meandering (in “gooseneck” formation – get it, “Gooseneck State Park”?!) San Juan River. The “park” tended to nearly empty out early each morning, but by dinnertime was increasing in population quickly. The scenery here was spectacular, as is usual in Utah.

We loaded up Woodrow Wilson and day tripped out of the park to check out Natural Bridges National Monument, about 45 miles away. Hwy. 261 took us up over the steep bluffs with only about a 3 mile gravel road section with hellacious switchback turns against sheer granite cliffs. No, Rosie will never make that trip, Jeep only… Natural Bridges Nat’l Monument has a small visitor center and then about a 9 mile one-way loop drive to access the 3 big natural bridges. Each had a parking area/trailhead with short (less than a mile) trails to their scenic overlooks and down to the bridges themselves. Horse Collar Ruin is the remains of an indian dwelling area of sorts and is also visible from the trailhead viewpoint. If one had no dog to have to deal with and was feeling a little frisky, there is an unimproved trail through the canyon floors to access all 3 bridges, at least 8 miles worth anyway. Unfortunately, we were limited to the short versions – Woody rules.

A quick trip (5 whole miles!) outside Goosenecks S.P. found us staring up at Mexican Hat Rock in the “town” of, you guessed it, Mexican Hat. There is actually a boondocking campground surrounding the rock, they want you to register/pay on-line, I haven’t a clue as to the fees they ask. 

Our grand finale for the area found Woody, Jeanne, and I on another day trip back into Arizona to Monument Valley and the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. The stretch of Hwy. 163 leading into the area was famous for a scene in the movie “Forest Gump” with Tom Hanks jogging down the middle of the deserted highway with some of the monuments in the background. Go ahead and try to recreate that one if you ever visit…there were all sorts of us tourist/sightseers parked along that stretch getting our own pix on the highway whilst dodging cars. The entire valley is vast and scenically rugged, but you can get a little more up close and personal if you pay the $8 per person fee to enter the Navajo Tribal Park. There is a hotel, visitor center, numerous offers of tour guides, and the 15 mile loop dirt/gravel nearly 4WD road that wanders through numerous “monuments” with cheeky names such as the Mitten Buttes, Elephant Butte, Camel Butte, Three Sisters, Merrick Butte, etc. It was pretty spectacular. I would say the area is a good pre-cursor to some of Utah’s other N.P.’s just a bit north of here. I’ll try my best not to screw up too many names on these pix.

That’s all for now, until next post…

9/29/2023 Southwest Shuffling

We were able to wrangle another appointment with a Cummins shop for Rosie’s yearly service, this time at the Odessa, TX shop. We buttoned up the casita and headed out on the road looking for, among other things, a little cooler temps. Our first stop was Odessa for said service. My buddy, Murphy, made his presence known once again. We got in bright and early at Cummins, hoping to be on the road to Lubbock after lunch. Those hopes got dashed quickly. Rosie’s service went swimmingly well. The generator’s service, not so. We had issues with the generator starting and immediately shutting down, I was thinking maybe a clogged fuel filter and the service should have resolved that. Oh, no, not according to Murphy. The culprit was a failed fuel pump on the generator but, hey, let not your heart be troubled, they had the part in stock. Yippee! But the tech found out to be able to access the fuel pump, the generator would have to be dropped from the chassis. It being the end of the day already, they were going to have to keep Rosie overnight and since she was partially dismantled, we would not be able to stay in her. #*&@%$!!! We loaded up Woody and headed out to look for a dog-friendly motel. We found a strip of motels nearby which I would later describe as “tweeker’s row”. We were overly maxed out tired/stressed from the long day and not real motivated to find a suitable motel, but on our third stop, we decided to stay at a Baymont/Wyndham motel. Reader’s Digest version, this was a dump like all the others, what I would classify as a “no-tell motel”. Our next door neighbor wasted no time stepping out on the balcony in front of our room and firing up his crank pipe. Cranksters racing in and out of the parking lot all night long made for a long night’s non-sleep. Like I mentioned before, #*&@%$!!!

We got out early next morning and returned to Cummins. We found they had stayed for a little OT last night and had already swapped out our generator fuel pump. The generator was pumping away and had been for several hours prior to our arrival. Service being completed, we were ecstatic to hit the road. I would not refer to Odessa, TX as any kind of vacation destination.

Lubbock Elk’s Lodge was next on our stop list. We got there just in time for a few days of forecast rain & thunderstorms (non-triple digit temps, hooray!). We took the opportunity to avail ourselves of the cornucopia of shopping options such as Costco, Sam’s Club, Cabela’s, etc., as well as Jeanne being able to get her hair done at a real hair salon. As a little bonus she also got in some range time at a local indoor shooting range to celebrate her successful trips around the sun. In between shopping trips and torrential thundering downpours we got to check out the Buddy Holly Center museum. It was a little disappointing that they did not allow photography inside the main exhibit hall, hence, like the Soup Nazi in a Seinfeld episode (sorta) said, “No (pix) for you!” But I got a few from the areas that they did allow photos.

One day we wandered into a local sports bar/taproom called Little Woodrow’s. It was a non-game day so there were few patrons. This is a pretty impressive sports bar, TV’s EVERYWHERE, including a monster screen out in the “play” yard (outdoor seating area with numerous areas of entertainment/bar games.) Little Woodrow’s has (50) beers on tap (well, a few were ciders, seltzers and meads), but as I find common in Texas, if there is not a nearby craft brewery of even a smidgeon of notoriety, the majority of offerings are from my least favorite brewers (you know, the corporate boys like Coors, Miller, Bud.) We were curious about the atmosphere on a game day and it just so happened the hometown team Texas Tech had a home game on the next Saturday. Soooooo, guess where we were at kick-off on Saturday? The crowd was pretty loud/raucous every score. We stuck it out for a quarter and called it a game.

In our everlasting search for possible landing sites, we did a little surrounding area road trip, checking out some properties for sale. Real estate prices are fairly reasonable here in the Lubbock area, you can pick up a nice sized single family residence in the 300K-400K range, and there definitely is not a big shortage of 10-20 acre tract lots for sale. The drawbacks at this point in time are the crappy economy (high rates particularly), the isolated nature of Lubbock in the flatland area of Texas, and the Texas high property tax rates. But hey, it never hurts to look…

We left Lubbock for the cooler climes of Ruidoso, NM. Casino Apache provided a parking lot for a couple of night’s dry camping while we checked out the area. We even road tripped up to the megalopolis of Capitan, NM. The Ruidoso area is a ski area in the mountains and was utterly unimpressive, so much so I found nothing worthy of breaking out the camera. It evoked thoughts of a run down very tiny Truckee or Lake Tahoe area, complete with no less than 8-9 dispensaries (hint: 420). 

One of our rare short travel days found our next temporary home back at the Las Cruces Elk’s Lodge. We were kinda burning time since we had ordered up our mail to be sent to Deming, NM. While stalled for a couple of days here we made our way down to the big “Farmer’s” Market which we found was very little “farmers” and more  local arts and crafts.

A return one-nighter at good ol’ Dream Catcher SKP RV Park in “scenic” Deming, NM for mail pickup bright and early Monday morning then onward and upward. North of Deming right on Hwy. 180 in the Glenwood area we found our next temporary home. Big Horn Campground on National Forest Service land had (6) boondocking campsites with fire rings and one pit toilet. It took several tries in different sites to find a suitable site where we were not squished by the thick trees and were able to achieve level status, but we finally found one in site #1. 

Glenwood is not much of a “town”, more like an area along the highway. Our site was, however, 5 miles from a local attraction known as The Catwalk. The trail is a tad over 2 miles round trip and includes a large stretch of steel catwalk constructed over Whitewater Creek and winding through some slot canyon areas. It was not heavily used when we were there but we did get to see a couple of fishermen catching what looked like brown trout.

Not real far away from camp we found the mining ghost town of Mogollon. It was a pretty steep narrow paved road up the mountain to get to it and we found that Mogollon was what they call a “living” ghost town in that a few folks actually live there among what old buildings still exist there. I was underwhelmed with this “ghost town” as far as ghosties go, but it was still neat wander/drive around.

We’ve always wanted to go see the town of Show Low in AZ, so being in that area it was our next destination point. We said good-bye to Glenwood then drove the short 130 miles into Show Low and a few days stay at the Elk’s Lodge there. $20 per night was hard to say no to, and we found the Elk’s campground unique, comparatively speaking, to most other Elk’s RV lots in that it was actually within a thick stand of pine trees and resembled any other wooded campground, actually geared toward “real” outdoor camping.

In our exploration of the Show Low town and area we happened upon a quaint little hub of entertainment called “The House Yard Bar & Eatery” and “Red Barn Creamery”. We were looking for the ice cream shop (the Creamery) and discovered they share the play yard with The House. What better way to chase down some of that sickly sweet & gooey ice cream than with an ice cold hops beverage? The yard had a small stage for their occasional music entertainment as well as various game areas and the whole shebang is family friendly. 

We noticed an extremist right winger mega MAGA swag shop, appropriately named The Trumped Store. Sadly, being the epitome of the aforementioned extremist right winger mega MAGA deplorables that we are, we made the illegal U-turn, cut off half a dozen cars and trucks on the extremely busy main thoroughfare, jumped the curb and slid into the parking lot of said store. Yes, we stocked up on some new MAGA swag and I even got my picture with 45/47 (OK, it was a hokey statue set up inside the store). It seems we are easily amused…

Time for jacks-up, off with the wind. Where to…?

8/25/2023 A Break in RV-ing

Well, it’s been a while since last post. We have not had much opportunity for sightseeing travel since arriving at the Ranch in Lakewood, NM. We’ve been chillin’ on our newly leased lot (okay, that was really really really facetious since we have had nothing but triple digit temps since we got here). Our time has been consumed with some minor construction touch-ups to the exterior of our leased casita, as well as meeting what co-leaseholders we could, considering the circumstances. It seems the extremely smart ones disappear from the Ranch, and in fact the whole dang state of NM, during the summer heat waves. We chose to stay a while to work on the casita. Painting the exterior was a daunting endeavor with the excessive heat, so paint days usually started between 4-5 a.m. under the illumination assistance of a flashlight and ending before noon. We also had to bolster the framing of the front covered porch in order to screen it in and add a screen door. Replacing the two “wilted” ceiling fans on the porch was a must (or take the risk of getting beheaded by the fan blades, victims of the New Mexico summer heat). Add some cheap Lowe’s peel-n-stick outdoor carpet squares and voilá, the porch was ready for use. With the solar screening Jeanne found on-line and the 2 ceiling fans, the porch became surprisingly tolerable in the peak of the day’s heat. We resolved ourselves to wait on redoing the interior of the casita until we returned sometime next Spring. Here’s a few before and after pix.

Since we have been here, there has been no real shortage of critters. We have not been graced with the presence of rattlesnakes or scorpions yet, nevertheless there have been visits by vinegaroons, centipedes, and a whole host of creepy-crawler-flying things what I have termed my new “porch pets”, as represented by the following pics.

Cummins continues to try really hard to be my least favorite corporation on the planet. The time for Rosie’s yearly service being upon us, I found the closest service center was in Hobbs, NM. I had to make my appointment with them over a month out, so I did. When our time rolled up on us, we packed up and drove the 90 miles to Hobbs on the day before the appointment so we could be on their doorstep bright and early. Well, the Hobbs Cummins shop saw fit to send me an email at the end of our travel day to let me know they were cancelling my appointment and wanted to reschedule a week later. “Hello! Full-time RVer here who drove all this way solely for this appointment made over a month ago!” I had no desire or intention of rescheduling, staying in dumpy-doo Hobbs, NM, or driving any more than necessary. So it was “Thanks for nothing!” Seeing the lemonade at the end of the tunnel, we just happened to be a mere 90 miles or so from Lubbock, TX. We turned the Cummins failure into a successful shopping trip into Lubbock, home to, among many other things, Costco. Loaded up with groceries, we returned to the Ranch. Rosie’s yearly service was going to have to be put off until later, when we go jacks up and head back out on the road, doing the things full-time RVers do. 

I know, this has been boring as all get out, but hey, you’re caught up now! Until next post…

7/20/2023 Base Camp Established!

One of our “bucket list” entries has been to hit as many National Parks as possible. It just so happens we were hop-scotching in a southeasterly direction and wouldn’t you know it, Rocky Mountain National Park happened to be smack-dab in the middle of our  path. It being the middle of the summer season, we found it a great challenge to find an RV park with FHU’s and availability. Reservations have become more and more of a necessity, anywhere from weeks to a year in advance. Lady Luck found us space at another KOA (yuck) in Wellington, CO. This was the closest we could find to the NP and was still an hour’s drive away from the gate. We jumped on it for a few day’s respite while we hit Rocky Mountain National Park.

Our day came to visit the NP. This park is still plagued with entry limitations for whatever reasons they have. There is a limited timed-entry system you have to go on-line (recreation.gov) and get a permit for entry during a specific time frame. I am continually frustrated with all these on-line systems and searches that are messed up. I went on line and found they offer (2) types of passes, the Park Access and the Park Access+, the plus giving exclusive access to certain parts of the park, like the Bear Lake area. I clicked on the Park Access+ button, completed a purchase ($2), then upon arrival the ranger lady said I only had the non-plus Access Pass. I guess we didn’t want to see that section of the park…

Rocky Mountain National Park is overwhelmingly geared toward hiking trails, some miles and miles and miles. Entering from the Beaver Meadows gate outside of Estes Park, we found the bulk of “sight-seeing” along the (48) miles of park road to Grand Lake is best from Estes Park up to the Alpine visitor’s center (the 12,000+’ elevation level of the park). After that there are not many stops other than trailheads along the rest of the park road to Grand Lake. The mountain views were very nice, a touch of snow here and there. On this trip we got critter time with herds of deer, a small “herd” (5 or 6) of bull elk, a couple of bighorn sheep, a hungry marmot chowing down on some tundra grass, and another marmot sunning itself on a cliff edge. We left the flatland (relatively speaking since we were in an area of Colorado commonly referred to as being “mile high”) of Wellington with projected day’s temperatures in the 90’s. In the area of the Alpine visitor’s center we found the winds were blasting ice-cold air, air I might add was pretty thin for breathing.

National Park visit completed, it was southbound and down. We did an overnighter at the Las Vegas (New Mexico) Elk’s Lodge, then landed at “The Ranch”, the Escapees co-op park in the “bustling hub” of Lakewood, NM. It just so happened that The Ranch had a couple of lots for lease with no waiting list. We made the command decision to jump on one of the available lots and become official leaseholders to a location we can now call a “base camp” for our full-time RV lifestyle. At the risk of boring you (even more than I may have already), I’ll explain the Escapee co-op system. 

There are 11 parks of 19 that are considered SKP co-op parks, scattered in a Nike swoosh pattern from Washington to Florida. Co-ops are parks that make individual lots available for lease to members of Escapees RV Club. Most parks have waiting lists of prospective leaseholders, some of those lists are estimated to have wait times of several years. The individual parks establish a set dollar amount + a minor processing fee for members to be placed on the wait list. The processing fee is non-refundable, the rest is rolled over once the lease is established. The leases consist of a lease amount, plus yearly maintenance fees, and then are subject to additional assessments for specific park upgrades/expenses as may arise at any given time. Once you establish yourself as a leaseholder, there is no set term or term limit, you can remain a leaseholder as long as you abide by the all the rules, regulations, and by-laws established by the corporation. For example, a park may have a lot available for the lease “price” of $14K. That park may have yearly maintenance fees of $1,400. Assessments vary dependent on the improvements needed. Parks occasionally need to upgrade or repair water/electric/septic systems, interior roadwork, clubhouse/facililities repair or upgrade, etc. So, out of all of that, the maintenance fees are non-refundable. The initial lease “price”, plus any approved improvements a leaseholder may perform on their individual lot, plus any assessments that leaseholder has incurred during the life of their lease are all refundable upon the leaseholders termination of lease. In this example, the leaseholder’s bottom line: it costs $116 per month to maintain the lease on the lot (add in the metered power usage, of course). You can see the savings opportunity of being a leaseholder when using the lot as a base stop for several months out of the year, particularly since we are currently encountering an average of about $50 per night in RV park rates.

We are still going to continue the full-time lifestyle despite holding the lease here. Things will just slow down a little for us as we spend a little more time here off and on over time. That also translates to these blog posts may become a bit sporadic. Or shorter. Or both. Time will tell. I’ll leave you with the “before” photos of our newly leased RV lot. Our improvements, particularly to the casita TBD. Until next post…

6/28/2023 Washington State in June

We decided to take a little break in our visits to gas stations and stay put for a month. Being members of the Escapees RV Club, we have not experienced a stay at the Evergreen Coho SKP Park in Chimacum, WA, so that is exactly where we chose to call home. We can now say we have stayed at 18 of the 19 SKP parks, scattered between Washington and Florida. This was 1 of the 11 coop parks in the SKP system. The park itself was very nice with well maintained landscaping and facilities. It is in a good location, within striking distance of Port Townsend, Sequim, Poulsbo, Bremerton, and Quilcene, as well as having access in Port Townsend & Port Angeles to ferries to places like Victoria, BC and Coupeville (Anacortes area), WA.

SKP parks are notorious for many extracurricular activities. We got wind of a group hike activity on Sundays and jumped right in. A group of 7 of us tackled a 3.5 mile hike within Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island. The hike took us by numerous battery positions that were built at the fort in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s and used for national defense. Parts of the trail took us up on the ridge/cliffs and afforded beautiful views of the various inlet areas in and around Puget Sound as well as distant looks at Mt. Baker and Mt. Ranier, both very snow-covered.

One of our hike-mates mentioned we were here just in time for the Ruckus event taking place in Port Townsend later in the day. Ruckus is the pre-race get-together in town for the annual R2AK – Race to Alaska. We learned R2AK is a watercraft race, about 750 miles in length, from Port Townsend, WA to Ketchikan, AK. I say “watercraft” because racers use all forms of floating devices including SUP’s (stand up paddle boards), no motors are allowed. We wandered around the Ruckus, taking in the festive atmosphere and viewing the “boats” that were on display. The race was to start early the following day but we took a pass on attending the start.

Anderson Lake State Park is located next to the SKP park and contains several trails, parts & pieces surrounding Anderson Lake. We hit the “B” trail for about a 2.6 mile circle around the lake. The trails were fairly well maintained and marked. Trail “B” did not stay real close to the lake itself, but did feel like we were hiking a rain forest since tree canopy covered it completely and we hiked through heavy vegetation. There were tons of ferns, nettles, and goofy growing trees but no critters of note on this hike. Poor ol’ Anderson Lake is currently off limits for water fun – it is afflicted with a toxic algae bloom. I guess swimming laps is out of the question…

Our next little adventure was a mild road trip to Lake Crescent west of Port Angeles. We chose the Merrymere Falls Trail to do a short hike to the falls. It was about a mile and a half trek, round trip, on a well maintained trail through the jungle. I’ll let the pictures tell the story…

One day we made a chores trip into the area of Poulsbo; Costco, CVS, etc. We got some nice scenic views of Hood Canal with snowy mountains on the horizon, courtesy of the Hood Canal Bridge which is a floating bridge made out of concrete (?). I guess I shoulda took engineering in college to figure that one out…On the way home we passed through the area of Port Ludlow, where Jeanne had discovered a very short trail to Ludlow Falls. It is only a little more than a half mile round trip and is an interpretive trail (aka: has lots of signs describing foliage, history of the area and its uses, and history of the formations of the area). Since it seems the overwhelming theme of this whole spin through Washington is waterfalls, sign me up! Again, it felt rain forest-y with a complete canopy of trees and lots of green ground cover. 

Another group hike found us meandering around Fort Worden State Park. I say “meandering” because it was basically a walk around the park on a paved, interior road. This particular 1.75 mile “hike” snaked its way in and amongst several battery positions more toward the interior of the park with not a lot of ocean views. Our walk was fairly level and easy but hey, any exercise is good exercise, right?

The Larry Scott Trail is a little over 7 mile long hike/bike trail we found nearby that snakes around the peninsula toward Port Townsend. One of the semi-clear, non-rain days we gave the bicycles a workout and biked the 14+ mile round trip. The trail is well maintained and well marked, crossing several roads and driveways as it winds through some pretty thick tree cover. There were a couple of pretty good, thankfully short grades but otherwise it was an easy trail. Unfortunately, the views were predominantly green growth with the only views of Port Townsend Bay appearing in the last mile on the trail.

On our previous group hike at Fort Worden we only covered a small portion of the hiking trails and by-passed the Point Wilson Lighthouse. We returned to the fort in between rain storms and did another walk to the lighthouse. As far as lighthouses go, Point Wilson is a bit underwhelming but still offers scenic views of Port Townsend Bay. We also explored another battery position that was close to the lighthouse, Battery Kinzie. It was interesting to learn that it required (51) men to operate  each of the (2) 12” cannons, from loading to aiming to firing. After all, the guns weights were not measured in pounds but in tons and the shells weighed in at a half-ton. The Battery Kinzie had a pretty cool feature in that I could enter a section and explore an eerie, very dark downstairs walkway that led to another section of the battery. Someone had even scrawled some ghostly graffiti at the top of the stairs, posing the question, “What’s below?”

Our final Sunday group hike took us to the Miller Peninsula State Park. This hike was a little over 4 miles, round trip, again through heavy canopy and thick undergrowth. Critters were pretty much non-existent, but we did get to see some neat fungi/mushroom formations along the path. The trail ended at a large beach area and we got a fantastic view of the bay…NOT! It seems we had traded the on & off rain for daily doses of heavy fog (kind of a left coast staple). Oh well, we should enjoy the cool temps while they last, since we have planned our next destination to be in the heart of the desert southwest, currently experiencing 100+ degree temps.

Our time at the Evergreen Coho SKP park came to an end seemingly very quickly. The month of June just screamed right by us. It certainly helped that we had plenty of chores and repairs to work on in between fun times, such as swapping out the kitchen sink hardware (leaky valve), replacing the coach’s water pump, wash/wax the beast and toad, painting another load of rocks (#RVersrock) for nationwide distribution, and numerous shopping runs to the big box stores. Now it was time to batten down the hatches and hit the road to…well, you’re just gonna have to wait, until next post…

6/5/2023 Cruisin’ Through the North Cascades

Jacks up in Entiat, it was onward and upward, northbound. Next up on our temporary home list was the Osooyos Lake Veteran’s Memorial Park in the massive urban development of Oroville, WA (ahem, that would be about as sarcastic a description as can be made). The lake is fairly large and is situated as such that 5 miles north from our  “home” at the park is the Canadian/U.S. border and the lake continues up into Canada. The park was not real big, but was a big time family campout location, being situated lakeside, and nearly filled up during our stay. I’m sure that it being the start of the Memorial Day weekend had something to do with the fill up, but one thing struck me as  a little strange. A lot of the campers brought their boats with them, all shapes and sizes. But during our whole stay we saw very few boats on the water, and then only one or two small fishing motorboats. That was a real poser…

The old town area of Molson caught our interest, so we ventured the several miles to take a gander. It was an old mining town in days of yore which succumbed to the follies of a good ol’ property dispute. It seemed a landowner claimed Molson was on his homestead property, so everyone abandoned ship and moved the “town” down the road a half-mile away. The old equipment and buildings are still scattered on the original site, I liken it to a very small version of the Bodie ghost town back in Kalifornia. You can walk amongst the “stuff” and even enter the buildings to get an upclose and personal experience. 

We took a short touring drive out to Blue Lake and Wannacut Lake. Both lakes were pretty isolated but appeared to be fishing type lakes vs. water toy lakes. Nice views and a few critters later it was back to town. One other little excursion took us up the mountain to view a property in our ever-continuing search for a possible landing zone. It seems what is called the 9 Mile Ranch is in process of being chunked up and sold in 20 acre pieces and we found one with a house and barn already built on it. It certainly had nice valley views, but it just didn’t scream at us.

As we casually headed toward and into the North Cascades N.P., our new home became the Winthrop/N. Cascade National Park KOA. This was a terrible park as far as KOAs go; not much room upon entering the driveway into a skinny choke-point at the check-in office, interior roads very skinny dirt/gravel with tight turns and trees overgrown creating top-side hazards for the MH roof, and thick tree cover which makes it hard to navigate into the sites and denies satellite/Starlink connection. The kicker was the WAY overboard excessively high nightly fees for this KOA. Yes, it was still Memorial Day weekend, and yes, there were non-stop things for the kids to enjoy. But for $110/night I would expect more of a resort type of park, a little more “refined” maybe. The prices did not stop the masses though, the park was packed, and hundreds of little “speed bumps”, I mean kids, shooting wildly out of control from behind cars and tents on bicycles (OK, stop it, that was a joke! I take my “speed bumps” seriously!)

The Hwy. 20 path through the Northern Cascade mountains seems to be popular with the hiking crowd, judging by all the hiking trails scattered throughout the National Park area. We thought we would make use of some of the trails, so our first outing was to find the trailhead to Rainy Lake, about 40 miles from Winthrop. We headed out (and up!) early one fine, clear morning. As far as the “and up!” goes, we climbed Hwy. 20 up and past the Washington Pass. The summit, Jeanne had learned, is the highest one in the Cascades at 5,477’.  We left Winthrop with it’s expected 80 degree temps and upon arrival at the trailhead, we were about 4 miles west of Washington Pass, temperatures in the low 40’s, and the snow was so thick the road guys had not plowed/cleared the trailhead parking areas yet. We got out and got geared up for a hike anyway…until I found a sign near what I suppose might have been the trailhead (covered with snow). The sign warned of the dangers of a hike in the snow, advising wanderers such as we to carry our ice axes, pick axes, spiked shoes, snow shoes, skis, etc. It also mentioned we should be prepared to “self-rescue”. Well, mammy & pappy didn’t raise no fool and common sense is a terrible thing to waste. We did the ol’ “NASA, abort mission!” and resolved this adventure to being a driving tour. The views in the area were actually pretty spectacular, water leaking out of mountains everywhere and the views from the Washington Pass Overlook were awe inspiring.

After our return to base from the above unsuccessful mission, we regrouped and settled on a short hike closer to home. There is a suspension bridge over the Methow River near Mazama we chose to hike to, only about a mile and a half round trip and extremely easy & flat. Like all the trails and trailheads we have seen here in this area, the Tawlks Foster Suspension Bridge trail is popular with numerous families hiking and biking. It didn’t have that “Wow!” factor for us, but it is spanning the Methow River for a pleasant view.

A little local research and we settled on another hike to Falls Creek Falls, just a short 14 miles outside of Winthrop. Falls Creek feeds into the Chewuch River and there is a partially paved trail up the canyon, mostly alongside the creek, until it turns to dirt and veers away from the water, making some long sweeping switchbacks to gradually gain the altitude necessary to reach the top of the falls. “Falls” is plural; there are several falls along the creek. For the less than avid hikers there is good news – the first and most spectacular waterfall jumps up on you at about the 1/4 mile mark and is easily arrived at. After that, you can scale some short, steep switchbacks straight up the hill or take the long gradual gain switchbacks to see the other falls. Falls Creek Falls is not a gargantuan of a waterfall, but there was a lot of water raging down the mountain and it is still stunning as far as waterfalls go.

Before pulling our jacks we had to take one last stroll, this time a touristy jaunt around the town of Winthrop. It is a very small town with a kind of old West vibe, and it certainly was nicer strolling after all the holiday craziness had gone. We even stopped by to see another suspension bridge in the middle of town, the Spring Creek Bridge. The people in these parts of Washington sure like their suspension bridges…

Well, that concludes another episode of “Recreational Wanderers”. Until next post…