Driving to Beautiful Verde Valley, AZ

We arrived last night at Zane Grey RV Park in Camp Verde, AZ. For the first time in a while, we are surrounded by trees and there is a lovely creek on the campgrounds property.

Our drive here from Albuquerque had a few diversions. We stopped in a really nice, friendly campground in Holbrook, AZ for two nights and spent a day in the incredible Petrified Forest National Park (PFNP). The PFNP is more like two parks in one - the northern half is the Painted Desert whereas the southern half has many areas with petrified logs. Also included in the park, were ruins of the original inhabitants more than a millennium ago as well as outstanding petroglyphs. So, there was really a lot to see and photograph. We'll add lots of photos to this post as the photos will save me a thousand words of typing.

As we headed toward Flagstaff, we stopped at Meteor Crater. You sci-fi movie fans may remember that the ending of the movie "Starman" was filmed there. It's the size of 20 football fields and is where a 150 foot meteor struck the earth millions of years ago. The museum had very interesting meteor and crater exhibits.

A smaller item we saw in the garden, a the crater, was a lizard that appeared to change colors as we watched move from the plant to a rock. In the parking lot, we met the transport driver of a Seattle hydroplane. The driver of the hydroplane, he was hauling, is Kayleigh Perkins who, in Aug, was the first woman to be the unlimited light Seafair champion!

We then drove on through Flagstaff to our current campground in Camp Verde - about 30 minutes from Sedona. We plan to spend a week, here, relaxing and touring the area. First task is to grocery shop after we send out this post.

Playing Catch-up Again

Ok, let's see, where are we now. Oh, yeah, back in Arizona after a week in New Mexico. The balloon fiesta in Albuquerque was fantastic. We sure are glad we parked right on the park grounds because the traffic trying to get into the facility in the early morning was backed up for miles, according to the local news stations. Also, the early morning events started at 5:45 AM. Ouch. But we did not shirk them and we are so glad we did not.

The morning started out with the Dawn Patrol, a group of balloons which would launch before dawn to "prove" the wind direction and speed before the mass ascension. This was more than just balloons in the dark, because they would do some "all burn" and "flicker burn" maneuvers  to light up the morning sky. It was quite colorful.

At 7:00 AM the rest of the balloons would begin inflating and launching into the sky as soon as they were ready. By this time the sky was light and by the time the last balloons lifted off, the sun would be bright over the Sierra Madre mountains. The best thing about these balloon launches was that the public was able to mix and mingle with the balloons and launch crews right on the field as they wished. It was quite something to see these huge balloons inflate, rise over you head, and then rise into the morning air. Each time one lifted off there would be a cheer from the crowd right around it.

The first morning we saw the mass ascension, it was just the special shapes balloons. The other balloons were at another site to the northwest of the field. After the special shapes were all launched, they clear the field and set up targets for the other balloons, which then flew into the filed, dropped markers into the targets, and tried to retrieve envelopes form tall poles. This was the "keygrab" competition and it was quite something to watch. It is amazing show the pilots can actually do some fine controlled maneuvering of the balloons. It would get really interesting when there were several balloons really close together over the field jockeying for position and "kissing" each other to get to the targets and poles.

The after noons would be relaxed and the balloon crews would do maintenance and rest up. Then in the evening, they would get back onto the field and inflate, but not fly. They would then do a "Glodeo" in which they would light their burners all at once or in a flickering pattern to make everyone "oooo" and "aaaah". It was very colorful. The evening would then be topped off with a fireworks show.

On the second full day there, we got up early to see the dawn patrol (5:45 AM!) and then to watch the mass ascension of all of the balloons, both special shapes and the “regular” balloons. I set up the video camera and shot 90 minutes of the activity. Then I put it all on

Mass Ascension

my computer and compressed it to run in 2 minutes. It is pretty cool and you can see it here on YouTube. We had 3 days of great fun, until the last evening, when the winds decided to kick up and they had to cancel the balloons. They still did the fireworks, so all was not lost. The last morning, they were supposed to do another mass ascension as a farewell but the winds were still too high. We were so glad we did not wait until the last day to see that.

Good-bye Pacific - Hello Desert

Yikes - we're behind, again.

Our stay in Orange County, CA was great (don't we say that every time?). One treat was that Orangeland Campground had citrus trees throughout the park. They even had fruit picker tools to borrow so we helped ourselves to some of the ripe oranges. Since they were too juicy to eat, we juiced them. We still have a dozen or so in the fridge.

I had a great visit with Ellyn's longtime friend, Henry, who was her first boyfriend (at 15) and she's been dear friends with him now for 42 years! We went to Yom Kippur services at his Conservative Synagogue which were very, very nice for Kol Nidre and a bit more dull for YK morning. Ellyn got to also go out to lunch with Henry in Laguna Beach.

At Henry's suggestion, the two of us spent an afternoon on Balboa Island and taking the itsy-bitsy ferry to Laguna Beach. The ferry is similar to the Essex Ferry in CT. It was an incredibly beautiful day and it was great riding our bikes along the beach, walking on the pier.

Another treat in Orange County was meeting up with our friends Marie and Dave for dinner. Also at the dinner was Dave's sister and partner (who we had met in WDW last Jan) as well as an IBM colleague of Ellyn's that she hadn't seen in years. It was a great dinner at the Disneyland Hotel's Steakhouse 55.

Next, we headed to San Diego where Geoff's Brother Wes and family live. It was great hanging out with them at their house. The youngest niece is now graduated from high school and the great-niece is now a very active and precocious 5 years old. An extra treat was that we saw the Navy's Blue Angels fly over the house as they were doing a nearby Air Show.

On Sunday, we had a great kayak paddle in Mission Bay nearby the RV park and in the afternoon, Wes, Pat and little Trinity came to join us in Mission Bay Park. It was a beautiful day. I have read that San Diego has the best weather in the world and our few days there seemed to bear that out. We also flew our kites but the wind was a bit variable so we didn't do that for long.

Yesterday, we said good-bye to the Pacific and started driving east to Arizona. Our drive was great - not much traffic and we passed interesting views of rocky hills and valleys and then into the desert where we passed through blowing dust and saw a real tumbleweed tumbling. Geoff made an unannounced stop in Dateland, AZ to get a Date Shake. Ellyn was too full from eating pumpkin seeds in the RV.

This morning we headed further east to leave the RV at BEAUTIFUL Gilbert Ray Campground near Saguaro National Park. Then, we drove about an hour more east in the car to go the INCREDIBLE Kartchner Cavern. We've been to 8 or maybe more caverns around the country and this one was unique. It was discovered only 35 years about by two college students. They kept it a secret and finally told the landowners (the Kartchner Family) about it four years later. They decided that it should be made a State Park so it could be protected. It took a total of 14 years, after it was discovered, before it was made public, and then another 10 years until it was opened in 1999. The discoverers and the state did research on problems other caves had had to put as many protections in place to preserve the cave features and atmosphere such as dim lights and triple door chambers to maintain the humidity. The utmost care was taken in the building the wheelchair accessible pathway and entrance. So, as far as I could tell, there weren't any broken off stalagmites or stalactites and there were incredible "straws" (one 21 feet from floor to ceiling) and columns (one dubbed Kubla Khan is 60 ft tall!). The tour was a delight so kudos to the discoverers, the Kartchner family as well as the State of Arizona!

Our plans for tomorrow are to tour the Saguaro National Park in the morning - maybe even get up for sunrise over the mountains. Then to drive some more towards Albuquerque where we plan to be on Thursday to go to the Balloon Fiesta over the weekend.

Our kids make us so proud!

There they are! All three of them completed their first 1/2 marathon. Logan, Maureen and Brian have been training hard for weeks for this and, on Saturday, September 26th, they ran the "Wicked 1/2 Marathon" in Boston, MA. It was a fantastic achievement and Ellyn and I are both very proud of them. Our boys have not looked better since they were just little tykes. Maureen has been Logan's inspiration for more then 7 years now for his slim-down and Brian has been playing Ultimate Frizbee for several years but recently started on Weight Watchers and training for this run and has lost most of another person. They are all inspirations to Ellyn and I, we love them very much, and I hope I have not embrassed them too badly.

Cut-up, Wine, and Exit South

(Note: Ellyn and I did not confer and both wrote on the same subject. Hers is below. There is some duplication, but mine has pictures)

After Yosemite, we were back to Pacifica for 6 more days to Rosh Hashanah and to look after Ellyn’s sister Laura, who is recovering from surgery. Ellyn made us all a New Year’s meal which could not be beat and her Father and Liz also joined us. First, they stopped by the RV for a look see and to enjoy some hors d'oeuvres, and then to their house for the main course. Ellyn and attended services on Shabbat Evening (Erev Rosh Hashanah) at B’nai Israel Judea in San Francisco. We were attracted there because Ellyn found out that a friend of hers from her camp days is the Cantor there. The Friday evening service was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot. We also went to the Saturday morning Rosh Hashanah service there and, although it was also nice, it was very long (3 1/2+ hours!). We had to tear out of there and get some food right after it was over. Too bad but we were glad we hung around Friday night to schmooze a bit. One surprise was that when we arrived Friday evening, a gentleman at the door overheard us say we were from Alabama and he said “Not Dothan, Alabama?” and we said “Yes!”. It turns out he knows one of the most prominent families in that congregation. We only caught his first name, “Zef”. 

After Pacifica, we headed up to wine country, Napa Valley. We had reservations for two days at the Napa Valley Expo Fairgrounds at the RV Park on the grounds. It was very nice, not at all like other fairgrounds we have stayed at, but paved slabs to park on and nice grass and other landscaping touches. We were supposed to meet our friends Brian and Nina, who were going to show us around and be able to talk “wine” lingo with our friends up there who are in the wine business. However, the day we traveled up there, Nina had an accident at her workplace and had broken her nose and dislocated her shoulder. Ouch! Travel the next day was out of the question, but we still had a nice time visiting Joel and Jenlea, who own property with grape vines on it, which they hire someone to tend to and harvest, and Tom and Beverly Porter, who own the  Porter Family Vineyards, which was featured on an episode of “Dirty Jobs” when they had a wine cave dug on their property. We got a nice tour of the winery and cave and got to sample some of their wines. We also toured around the area and saw some very beautiful grape-growing country. It was a fun day!

Now we are on our way Southward. Yesterday we were in Capitola, CA north of Monterey at the New Brighton Beach State Park and then today we drove into Monterey to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They had some nice displays featuring Sea Horses, Jellyfish, and Kelp. We also enjoyed watching them feed their Sea Otters. We even saw some wild ones frolicking and feeding in the bay as we ate our lunch. Afterward, we went to the end of a pier near where we parked the RV and saw about 1000 seal (sea lions?) sunning themselves on the rocks of the breakwater.

Then we took a leisurely 3 hour drive down California Route 1 to Morro Bay where we are parked for the night. Tomorrow we head into L.A. to visit with friends there and attend Yom Kippur services.

Lotsa California

Yikes! We've fallen behind on the blog, again. Here's a quick summary of the weeks since Yosemite.

We returned to Pacifica - just South of San Francisco, where Ellyn's sister and husband live. Ellyn had lots of fun hanging out with Laura while Laura recovered from surgery. We went to Rosh Hashona services at B'nai Israel - Judea in San Francisco where Ellyn's Camp Swig friend, David Morgenstern, is now the cantorial soloist. The services were great and David's voice was a joy. It was also great to see David's sister, brother and father. We had Rosh Hashonah dinner at Laura's and Jay's with Ellyn's father and his wife also joining us.

While in the Bay Area - we had fun seeing: Lorna, Brian & Nina, Wendy as well as Ellyn's family.

Our next destination was Napa where we visited the incredible "dream home" of Joel and Jenlea as well as the Porter Family Vineyard owned by Geoff's former IBM boss, Tom and his wife, Beverly. Their son gave us the winery tour and we had a delightful wine tasting in their wine cave that had been featured on "Dirty Jobs." It was a nice reunion with old IBM friends and a beautiful day in the Napa Valley.

Yesterday, we headed toward Monterey and were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful New Brighton Beach State Park. The beach was great to walk on and we were suprised to see dolphins just offshore. We had a great campfire using our newpurchased enviro-logs. Ellyn found these at Home Depot and they solved several of the drawbacks we had with using regular wood - smoke getting in our eyes, restrictions on carrying a supply of wood due to insect risks, and concern about the "carbon footprint" of smokey fires. The enviro-logs burned very wood-like and are the same cost as a bundle of wood. Now we have a box of them in the car ready to use whenever we get the urge to have a campfire.

It's time for bed now - I'll finish about Monterey and the thrilling ride down the coast of CA in my next post sometime soon.

Yosemite National Park

Ellyn and I have arrived back where it all started. We spent our honeymoon here in a Curry Village cabin. We took a look today and it may be #220. Sadly, due to some rockslides, it is now roped off and all of the cabins may be demolished.

We got here on Thursday afternoon and pulled into what we thought was our parking site because of the way I read the list at the gate. However, we found out the next morning we had to move. Fortunately, we did not have to pull up many stakes because there are no services here. Just keep stuff from falling all over and pull in the slides. In addition to no services, we have very tenuous cell phone voice coverage and no data. Plus too many trees to get a satellite signal. So, a lot of hobby work and reading.

Today we did finally find one of the free internet signals in the valley and I was able to upload some pictures to Flickr. We also saw some climbers on El Capitan and water coming over Bridal Veil Falls. We have done some bike riding around the valley and toured by car a bit today. We are trying to decide if we will go to the high country tomorrow or not. It is getting late here and we should get back to the RV. More later…

Well, we confirmed, based on a picture that I took of Ellyn from a window, and trees and a rock, that this is the cabin we stayed in on our honeymoon in 1978. It looks like they eliminated the problem we had with the kerosene heater by installing natural gas.

This was one of our longest times with no electrical power other than our generator and batteries. Unlike in Charlotte earlier, we were more reluctant to run the generator here. However, the 6V golf cart batteries worked wonderfully and kept their power very well, even when running the inverter for our laptops. When we did run the generator, the new charger performed flawlessly and the exhaust up-stack we bought before we went to Charlotte helped keep the noise and exhaust out of our neighbor’s campsite. As I was pulling out of the campsite, one of our neighbors stopped me and asked about the stack and where he could get one. He said it really made the generator quieter, although I think it really just helps with the exhaust, as the generator is pretty well sound insulated under the coach.

I loved taking pictures in the valley. There is not a bad picture you can take. I was able to concentrate on working on composition and lighting because the subjects are perfect. I have also had a little fun in post-processing, using the IBM Perfect Photo program, and doing some experimenting with dodging and contrast.

Summer 2009 Trip Map

Here is a map of our trip across the US from Bethel , CT to Pacifica, CA in the summer of 2009. I have tried to get pictures at each place we camp but sometimes that does not happen. So I have included other pictures taken in the area of friends or scenery.

Place the mouse pointer over any picture on the map to see the name of the location, and click to see a larger version of the picture or a link to information about the location.

From Sea to Shining Sea

Yay! We made it to the campground just south of San Francisco in Pacifica, CA and our site overlooks the Pacific Ocean. We've now made it across the whole country from sea-to-sea having left Danbury at the end of July. California has a special place in our hearts. Ellyn lived here from '57 to '60, '65 to '69 and '73 to '78. Geoff was stationed in California while he was in the Navy and then sent by IBM to here for one year in '77 to '78 when the two of us met and married. We'll be seeing lots of family and friends, here, as well as lots of beautiful places.

Despite Pacifica being known for its fog and overcast, it's a beautiful sunny day, today. We're resting a bit this afternoon before we meet Ellyn's sister, Laura and husband, Jay, for dinner.

We'll post photos of Pacifica and our visit to the Bay Area in a later post. First, here's some from ofur first stop in CA which was Truckee where we stayed in Granite Flat Campground right on the Truckee River which was only about 10miles from incredibly beautiful Lake Tahoe. We spent two days there and had fun biking in a couple locations and taking short hikes. We had our first sighting of the huge California trees.

Here's some photos:

This is a huge tree...you have to look very closely to see markings on the photo pointing to 5ft 3in. ellyn standing next to it....not sure how many times larger the tree is but no doubt that it's tall.



The two of us at an overlook of Lake Tahoe.



Our RV backed onto the beautiful Truckee River which is the only outlet from Lake Tahoe.



Photos of each of us as we walked around the various Lake Tahoe paths.

Make Mine 14 AWG

Although the Great Wall of China can not really be seen from space, there is a man-made object in Northern Utah which can. It is the Kennecott Copper Mine near Herriman, UT. As we approached from the east, I commented on the hills we could see as being the “largest landfill project” I had ever seen. I did not realize they were tailing piles from the mine until Ellyn said they were from the copper mine. I was astonished. (I would have been less so if I had studied up on where we were going but I like to be surprised)

So 20 miles or so later, we arrived at the entry gate and paid our $5.00 entry fee and the drove the 8 miles and 873 ft. up to the visitor center. We looked around at the exhibits in the center to learn as much as we could about mining, refining, and smelting copper. An amazing by-product of the process is a large enough quantity of gold and silver to pay for the operation. Wow! They have been mining this particular vein of copper for 110 years and have plans for possibly mining it from underground after surface mining is no longer feasible, in another 5 or 10 years.

Like the Grand Canyon, the scale is almost impossible to grasp by looking into the pit, except for the machinery moving around in there. It can be deceiving until one of the dump trucks comes close enough to see how large they are, like when they are near a recognizable object, such as a pickup truck. Then the mind starts to boggle. (photo on left: In left lane, the tiny dot of a vehicle is a pickup truck followed by a "small" mine dump truck. In the right lane is the "large" mine dump truck. As you can see, it could carry many of the pick-up trucks! Now, that's huge!) As we were getting out of our RV, we noticed a car nearby with people pointing and taking pictures of us. So we walked over to talk to them. It turned out they were tourists from Israel. They were going to meet some friends and go to Yellowstone, Brice, Zion, and some of the other western parks. It was funny that they thought our little RV was big enough to take pictures. With the car in tow it is 50 ft. but they had just looked at 100 foot long dump trucks and 30 billion cubic feet of hole. I guess this was just too real to pass up.

Arches until our arches have fallen arches

Arches National Park near Moab, UT. What more can I say? A picture is worth a thousand words so here are 12,000. Click on a picture to see it in as much glory as your computer screen resolution will allow. Go!

         

From left to right, top to bottom, Visitor Center Sign, the campground at sunrise, some cool buttes, Skyline arch, Geoff at Broken arch, Sand Dune arch, Turret arch, North and South Window arches, Ellyn in North Window arch, Delicate arch, Factory Row (named as such by Geoff), Laughing Dolphin (again by Geoff), the valley floor.

Colorado!!!

There's lots of good things to say about our trip to Colorado.

We had a great time visiting long time friends from when we worked at IBM and lived here from '82 to '86 plus lots of tourist time. It was so nice to pick up where we left off and to catch up with everybody!

Geoff has posted some photos on flickr - the link is to the left.

Here's a summary....

• A great dinner in an airplane (really!) restaurant with Amy and her family.
• A bike ride surrounded by red rocks spires in Colorado Springs followed by sips from the nearby springs.
• A Walnut Brewery lunch, near the Pearl Street Mall, with Yuma Circle neighbors John & Jamie. Plus a quick chat with one of Logan's and Brian's first pals, Nick. who is newly engaged and in the midst of planning a New Year's Eve Wedding.
  
• A relaxing visit with Andy who is the only person to have attended our wedding as well as the Bris of both Logan and Brian. We also met his delightful daughter, Sarah, who is an Art student in San Francisco.
• A visit to Margaret's and Dennis' 15th floor condo that overlooks Denver & the Rockies' stadium. Had fun dining with them in a nearby sports bar/cafe while the game was playing and the Rockie's comeback from being down 3-6 to win 14-11 delighted everybody.
  
• A great dinner with Diane and David. Jamie, Diane and I were charter members of a book club that they still belong to more than 25 years later! Ellyn received a nice list of recommended reading from Diane! :-)
• A tea-riffic tour of Celestial Seasons with yummy tea tastings!
  
• Really enjoyed two days in Rocky Mountain National Park with breathtaking views. After huffing in the high altitudes, I'm more appreciative of the oxygen we have at lower altitudes!
  
• Enjoyed a bike ride along Boulder Creek Path and, today, a bike ride along the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon.
  
• Had a most relaxing swim in the enormous and renowned Glenwood Hot Springs pool. Of course, we couldn't help but remember back Brian's first swim, there, at the age of 3 months.
  

In a few minutes, we'll be leaving Glenwood Springs for Utah's Arches National Park. We'll be in the SF Bay Area in less than a week!

We, in fact, ARE in Kansas, Dorothy

And it is turning out to be a somewhat more interesting place than we expected. Of course our expectations were quite low, since you expect to see nothing but flat and cows in this state after you pass Kansas City.

We “snuck” into the state via US 50, I-470 and I-435 instead of the usual route from St. Louis of I-70. This was mainly because we stopped in Sedalia, MO for the Missouri State Fair (a great state fair). We love state fairs of all kinds and this was a chance to go to a real western one, not one of those wimpy eastern fairs, like the Big-E, where you have to get 6 states together to have one decent sized fair. No, this one had real cowboys.

Anyway, this put us 16 miles south of I-70 and close to US 50, so we opted to follow US 50, which put us closer to I-70 after crossing over into Kansas. Then we rejoined it and continued. When we got to Lawrence, KS, we stopped for lunch. We went all the way into the downtown area and found a BBQ place. We had to take up 3 parking spaces but the meter rates were reasonable. After lunch, we walked around downtown a bit and did some window shopping. Then back on the road.

We stopped again in Topeka to see the Brown vs The Board of Education National Historical Site. It was in an old school house which was one that the black children had to attend instead of the one closer to their home. The case was filed in Topeka to avoid deep south politics and because, in Topeka, the schools were separate but they were more-or-less equal. In that way, the case would clearly test whether segregation of schools should be constitutional. As we all know now, Brown vs. Board of Education was just the first step in the long (hard fought) path to end segregation in this country.

When we parked at a KOA in Salina, right off the highway, Ellyn discovered that there was a hamburger stand in downtown Salina which had sliders since 1922 in the same location. The story made then sound very good so we had to unhook the car and go check it out. They were yummy.

Missouri State Fair - Sedalia, MO

When yesterday began, we thought we would end up the day in Kansas but the lure of attending a State Fair was too strong. We took an 18mile detour off of I-70 to attend the Missouri state fair in Sedalia which is about 70 miles East of Kansas City. We parked/camped in the adjacent campground that had water and electric and then entered the fair at 5pm for on $5 each. The highlight of the evening was the Cowboy/girl Mounted Shooting Competition. The video (taken on my Palm Phone) is a bit fuzzy and it got smokey in the arena from the gunfire, but you can get the idea of the shooting course. They are shooting at balloons and had to go around the barrels using two guns each with only five bullets. So if they only get one shot at each balloon. They are timed and there is a (huge) five second penalty if they miss a balloon or knock over the barrels. The top competitors got all the ballons in under 15 seconds which is amazing consider they have to control the hourses and shoot. At the very end of the video, the women on the right side moves her head for a second and you can see the timing clock.



We also had fun going through the buildings, seeing the turkey calling contest, eating fair food, seeing the crafts (including some incredible quilts). The camping was good and now we're off to Kansas and points west.

Meet Me In St. Louis

The night before we arrived in St. Louis, we watched the great Judy Garland film, "Meet Me in St. Louis" to get us in the mood. Our main plan, here, was to visit our long time friends, Barbara and Joe. Many of you have heard the story of how we befriended them when Joe was our Rabbi in Rochester, MN when we first got married. Then they moved to Denver and the next year we were transfered to Boulder. Then we got transferred to Danbury and (this one was pretty amazing) then Joe became Rabbi of the small Conservative Synaogogue in Danbury. Unfortunately (for us) Barbara and Joe moved to Charlotte, a few years later, but we stayed on in Danbury. At any rate, we've been friends for more than 31 years so it's been really great to catch up with them.

Barbara and Joe hosted us for DELICIOUS gourmet dinners - first tuna steaks and then chicken breasts with a delicate sweet and spicey sauce. A highlight was meeting Barbara's and Joe's son-in-law and grandchildren especially since we met their mother she was just two years old.

During the days, we have played tourist a bit - visiting the arch, the zoo, the art museum. A highlight at the zoo was the penguins and also a mini-show by the St. Louis Muni Theater's kid's group. As always we made sure to have some regional food such Porter's Fried Chicken where Ellyn had favorite treats, fried okra and fried gizzards. Yesterday, we had hickory smoked BBQ and the heavenly treat, "Concrete" frozen custard at Ted Drewe's.

Today, we're taking the day off to hang around the RV but I'm hoping we do go out for more frozen custard! :-) We'll end Shabbat with our friend, Rabbi Josef Davidson, as he teaches during the Shabbat Third Meal proceeding Havdalah at B'nai Amoona.

Tomorrow, we start heading west with a goal to get into Kansas by the end of the day.

Gettin’ Our Kicks

After staying overnight near Springfield, IL, we had a short trip to St. Louis, MO and all day to get there. So we decided this was a great opportunity to get off the Interstate Highway grid and see some of rural America. Coincidentally, we were right next to old Route 66 which runs from Chicago to the west coast. We looked up some info on it and directions on how to get to it and found out that it was right across I-55 from the campgrounds. So we were off.

Ellyn got online and started reading about what we might see. In the next town we found an old gas station which had been refurbished but was not selling gas. We looked around for a restaurant she found listed but discovered it was really in the previous town. So we continued on.

Next we came to Henry’s Rabbit Ranch. Henry came out to greet us and we found out that, what appeared to be an old gas station was really built by Henry and decorated to look like an old gas station. He had pens of rabbits which he treated like his children and had little stories about each one of them and where they had been rescued from. He seemed like a very nice guy and we bought some souvenirs, petted the bunnies, and headed on down the road.

Henry had told us about a place to stop for lunch, so we hit Weezy’s Route 66 Grill. We parked across the street in front of a farmer’s stand, where we bought some fruit and vegetables after lunch. We had a nice conversation with the owner and his S.O. about our travels and he said it was his dream as well, and that they were going to take a trip at the end of the season.

As we approached the Mississippi River, we pulled off to go to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, which used to be the road over the river on Route 66 until the 1970’s, when the bridge on I-270 was completed nearby. Now it is a pedestrian and biking bridge so we parked the RV and got the bikes out for a nice 2 mile ride (1 over, 1 back). We also saw a beach down on the river near the “chain of rocks” across the river and so we drove down there to see the river up close. Ellyn got stuck in the silt and we talked with a guy who had been fishing, and had some down-home stories for us. Once again, the RV was a conversation starter.

From there, we got back onto the interstate and headed to Babler Memorial State Park and our 4 day camping spot.

Quilts, Flowers, and RVs in Indiana

We're now camped at Elkhart County 4H Fairgrounds in Goshen, IN for a Newmar Kountry Klub (NKK) Rally. NKK is the owners club for RV's mfg'd by Newmar. Ther's 400-some RVs here. Rallies are pretty much like a convention except the topic is RVing and the attendees are all living in RVs.

We've really enjoyed touring the area around the Rally - very picturesque farms - many of which are owned by Amish who can be seen riding around in horse-drawn carts or riding bicycles. We've enjoyed visiting the many shops...noodle, cheese, quilt, garden, etc.

What we like best at Rally's is exchanging ideas with others about travel destinations and RV living!

Oops!

Nuts! Forgot to get something at our friends house before we left. I did not discover it until after lunch 30 minutes away and was ready to hook up the car. I had to drive back to Bethel and pick it up. So we lost about an hour of travel time today. However, we did go about the same distance we had planned. Now we are in South Williamsport, PA at the Nittany Mountain KOA for the night.

Thanks, Danbury! California Here We Come!

We had a great week in Danbury. Caught up on some doctor appointments - Ellyn's semi-annual bloodwork was great and she got another shot of artificial cartilage into her trick knee. Our dear friend (and Rabbi) Lynne was visiting Danbury from Dothan, AL with her husband and it was almost like old times to attend Shabbat services with them and our other UJC friends. Ellyn had a great Rosh Hodesh Group outing on Mindy's boat - so glad the lightning almost held off 'til we were back on the dock. While, Geoff hung out with Jim and Rob. We had a wonderful dinner at Patti's and Gerry's and it was so wonderful to be parked (and neighbors for a week) at Debbi's and Peter's. They were terrifically gracious about welcoming our RV to their driveway and we greatly enjoyed their new shower!

And now the time has come for us to start our big trek to California. Our target is to be in the SF Bay Area on September 2nd. In the meantime, we are excited to be seeing many sights, having many experiences, and visiting with many long-time (and some new) friends. This entire journey, including wintering in the south is scheduled to end up with return to the Northeast for Passover. It should be really something special to be on the road (yet still be in our home) for that long. We really appreciate the support from our friends and family. We look forward to you keeping in touch and keeping us up-to-date with what's happening in your lives while we're on our journey!