Maintenance

As with all motor vehicles, Motor Homes require periodic maintenance. Ours, after approximately 2 years on the road, had just turned over 26,000 miles and we had scheduled to go to Lazy Days RV while in the Tampa area to get that done. In addition, while boondocking in Alexander Springs, our generator started acting up (no power out after running for a couple hours). We had also had a couple of minor problems over the past few months which we wanted them to look into.

We camped in their adjacent campground for the first couple of days, and then put the RV in for maintenance. We were hoping all would get done in one day and then we could move back to the campground for the night and head to Sarasota the next day, after taking their free Driver Confidence Course. Ellyn especially wanted to take this to allow her to be able to share in the driving a bit and to be able to take over in an emergency (G-d forbid).

while waiting for the work to be done, we got to sit in the large waiting area with other people, watch the Olympics, and talk about our experiences with our RVs. Sadly, one couple had a brand-new fifth wheel which was giving them a lot of problems. They had a list of about 90 things that had to be fixed. Ugh. We feel so fortunate that we seem to have a coach with very good workmanship. Most of the problems we have had are very minor and most of them our own fault (like breaking a door off the pantry twice while opening or closing the slide. I was able to fix it both times). As bad as their trouble was, they knew of others who had been there for weeks trying to get things right.

Well, they got through most of the work on Wednesday but had to do a little more debugging of some of the issues. So we had to stay in the coach in the repair bay overnight. That was ok, except that there were air compressors running in some of the garages around us, so it was kind of a noisy night.

On Thursday morning, we had to get out of the RV by 8:00 (yawn) and then we went to Lazy Days free breakfast. At 9:00 we went to the class and learned some interesting techniques for driving and parking an RV. In the afternoon, after the free lunch, Ellyn went back to do the driving part. I did not, as they were a bit overloaded with drivers.

We finally got out of there around 5:00 PM and headed to Sarasota, reaching Sun ‘N’ Fun by about 7:30 PM, after a (not too) quick stop at Costco. Yay!

2010 Travel Plan Changes

In the past couple weeks, Geoff and I have made big changes to our 2010 travel plans. Here's our current plans (God willing):

Now til early March - Florida with Geoff attending Datona 500 on Sunday Feb 14

Mid-March - Start north! Jekyl Island (hope there isn't a Noreaster this time), Day at NCJW's Washington Institute, Visit Ellyn's Brother and his family, Visit New Jersey Cousins, etc.

End of March - Arrive in Foxboro, MA, Geoff to attend Penny Arcade Expo, Passover Seders with "Kids" & hopefully cousins, too

April and May - Remain in Foxboro (great late spring camping deal at Normandy Farms), Geoff help with Logan's and Maureen's kitchen remodel, catch up on Dr. appts, Mah Jong, visit friends & NCJW in Danbury, Worship/Study at Shir Tikva, Visit Geoff's Mom on Easter and each week or two

June - Go where wind takes us

July 4th Weekend - Camp with FMCA Chai Chapter at Rally in Essex Junction, VT - visit with IBM friends there

July and August - Travel to Maine and Canadian Maritimes

August thru fall - No Plans, yet - perhaps go to Newmar Rally in Indiana

Thanksgiving and Chanukah - In Boston Area with "kids"

Mid Dec 2010 to Mid Mar 2011 - Three months at Sun 'n Fun in Sarasota

April 2011 - Looks like current date for Brian's and Katherine's wedding :-)

Remainder of 2011 - Trip to west and northern half of USA

After that, we may settle down or who knows?

Hope we'll get to see lots of you during our travels.

Resort Living!

I'm going to skip over our time in Venice, FL and our visit with Greg and Janet to do those in a later post so that I can tell everybody about our enjoyment of Sun 'n Fun RV Resort in Sarasota, FL. First, the resort is in a great location - only 10 minutes from Sarasota's cultural venues, shopping and incredible beaches. Plus, it's only 20 minutes from the natural beauty of Myakka River State Park. However, that's only if we want to escape what they call "the bubble".

The bubble is the incredible activity filled life within the Resort that is so busy that it's tempting never to leave the park. There's every activity you could possibly imagine: jewelry, stained glass and wood workshops, every summer sport, a huge gorgeous pool, mah jong and other games, weekly folk music jam session, craft activities, dulcimer lessons, etc. etc. Plus everybody is very friendly.

We're here for 17 nights and trying to take advantage of as much as possible. Yesterday, I was one of 65 at the 10:30 water exercise session. Then I went to a craft session that had a choice of 10 different crafts. In the evening, we first went to an hour of "bar bingo" then we went to the folk music jam session. This morning, I'm up a bit early to one of the two weekly Mah Jongg sessions. This afternoon we're going to check out the Pickle Ball and then we'll probably go to the pool. In addition to all the activities, this is a huge park (800 sites) so just riding our bikes around the park is a nice activity.

The price for all this fun - only $5 more a day than the boring campground we were last at. It's a bit above our average site cost but works out well for the budget because we're not paying for RV gas like we do when we're traveling.

We're seriously considering coming here for 3 months next winter. Oh yes - another advantage is that we're only two hours from Disney World so we could meet friends there!

Yikes time to have breakfast and get to Mah Jongg.

The Florida Everglades

We only had two days in and around the Everglades but they were pretty good ones. Our main objective was to see some alligators. We had been promised some at a couple other places we visited down here but we had not had any luck. It seems most of them are hibernating this time of year when the weather is cool and the water is warm down deep.

The first day, we went right into Everglades National Park and made our way to the Royal Palm area. There they have some boardwalks which go out over the swamps and you can see many birds and alligators. However, before we even got there, we ran into a very large number of small birds, some sort of swallows, I believe, but they were moving very fast and in a huge swarm. I got out to take some pictures and discovered they seemed to be swirling around a water hole and taking turns diving down into it. I think they were just getting a drink of water.

As turned out, the alligators were out in force. Along the water they were up on the grass getting as much warmth as they could, although there was not much that we could feel. I guess it must have been better than being in the water. As we went along, we saw more and more, some in the water and some on the land. In one place there were 5 or 6 big (about 20 ft) ones stacked up on some logs. About that time the sun was beginning to peek through the overcast.

As many alligators as there were, there were many many more birds. Egrets, storks, ibises, cranes and lots of Black Vultures. In fact, they had had trouble with the vultures damaging cars in the parking lot to the point that they had hung a couple of dead ones up as a deterrent. I am surprised that the others did not just eat them. I mean, that’s their job, isn’t it?

The second day, we moved on the Shark Valley. Here they have a tram that runs through the park or you can walk or bicycle. We opted for our bikes but only went a couple of miles in one direction before turning back. It was really quite uninteresting. We did see one alligator and lots of birds, but they were mostly off the road and frankly, we were getting somewhat “birded-out”. We went back and down the other loop, where we saw more alligators including some youngsters, only about 1-2 feet long. Very cute.  All in all, it was a very good time, although still a bit cooler than we would like in Florida.

‘09 Close Out in the Keys

It is a dream place to finish out the year, the Florida Keys. We cruised into the Grassy Keys RV Resort on December 23rd for a two week stay. It is very nice, right on the Gulf side, only two years old after an old trailer park was gutted and refurbished. They have a nice little club house, a swimming pool, and docks on the water’s edge for all the fisher’s with their boats.

We found out as soon as we arrived that they were going to have a potluck dinner on the 25th, with the park managers providing a deep fried turkey and everyone else bringing other dishes to share. It was a delicious affair and we met a very nice couple from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Laurel and Michael. We hit it off right away and ended up playing the game of Sequence with them. Ellyn and I had played this same game in Michigan with our “next door” neighbors. We had so much fun, we went back the next evening for a rematch after we went out for a nice dinner with them.

On the 28th, Ellyn and I went to Key West to take a sunset sail that Logan and Maureen had gifted to us for Chanukah. It turned out to be a real adventure as it was a pretty windy day, which is a good thing if you are on a sail boat. They took us out and sailed for about an hour before sunset. They us help with the sails, if we wished to, which I did. They even brought out some little canons and fired on one of the other sailing boats, which fired back.

The next day, we traveled in the other direction on the Keys to Key Largo to meet up with our friends Lynn and Rob from Alabama, who were down to visit with their son, Dan, who works as a dive instructor. We had a great time with them, got to see Dan’s work place, went to a bird sanctuary where we got to feed the pelicans, and had a couple of great meals.

On New Years Eve Day, we took to the water at Curry Hammock State Park. It turned out to be a perfect day for it. The sun was out, it was warm enough for swimming suits and getting mildly wet, and it was one of the last calm days we had. After that day, it got very windy, especially at night. We had some nights that the RV would rock from the wind and the slideout covers would be rattling in the wind. I had to tie down the flag on the back of the RV to get some sleep. We had a couple of days lazing on the beach, riding our bikes on the bridges, and walking on a nature trail. We collected lots of little shells, but not too many larger ones. We saw dolphins, crabs, a sea hare, many birds, a dead Portuguese Man-Of-War, other jelly fish possibly alive and spiders. It was a relaxing time for us.

Catch-Up Time, Again

We're behind, again, on our blog. Here's a quick update and then we'll fill in any missing details in a future post.

Walt Disney World We had a GREAT time in WDW with Marie, Dave and friend Mark. Although, rain had been forecast for the whole week, it held off until our last afternoon and evening. We camped in Fort Wilderness right next to a pretty creek and really enjoyed the over-the-top Christmas decorations put up by some of the RVers. Several of them had music-timed lights like the viral YouTube video of years past. As usual, the meals were a highlight of our Marie and Dave WDW "tour". In fact, I'm getting hungry, now, just thinking about the great meals. Favorites were Tusker House, Sushi from Yakitori House, and the new Iron Chef Cat Coura restaurant, Kouzzina. Other highlights were the shows - Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Nemo. The favorite ride, of course, was Toy Story Mania. I'm not sure it would work out for us to meet-up in WDW with Marie and Dave in 2010 but it would be great fun to do it, again! And, many thanks to Dave, who plans the great (and detailed) itineraries and makes the dining reservations.

Sunrise, FL Today, we wrapped up five nights at Markham Park in Sunrise, FL which is just west of Fort Lauderdale. It's a Broward County park and has great spacious RV sites PLUS a great lake to kayak, a model airplane field & landing strip, and a huge Rifle/Pistol Range. The bike ride around the park was almost 5 miles and took us past the Range which shooters were aiming at targets and flying clay pigeons. One of the guns we saw was a HUGE automatic weapon probably larger than most marines use in wartime. We also stopped by to see the model airplanes which included helicopters, models up to 3 feet long/wide and one jet that looked like a miniature Blue Angels jet. Sometimes, it was hard to tell which were the model airplanes or the aircraft flying from Miami Airport.

We were able to see some former Danbury friends while we were in Sunrise, We attended Erev Shabbat Services at the synagogue of Rabbi Bradd Boxman who had been our Rabbi in Danbury, and helped Geoff with his choice of Judaism. We also had lunch with Jodi and, her son, Jacob. We went on a walk in a great Nature Preserve with them to look for alligators. We didn't see any alligators but we did see MANY beautiful birds. In fact, I called it the birdie-est place we had visited. It's such a great perk of our travels to catch up with so many longtime friends.

Our most touristy day was a trip into Miami. First, we had Cuban Sandwiches in Little Havana. We sat on stools at a street side cafe where it seemed like we were visiting the cooks' home kitchen. Then we drove to South Beach to look at the Art Deco Architecture. We walked about 3 miles around the downtown area and through the Lincoln Road mall area and Espanola Way, and all the way to the Holocaust Memorial. We even walked a short distance on Miami Beach, although it was somewhat deserted.

From “D” to Shining “D”

Orange County, California to Orange County, Florida. 4518 RV-miles. 2 1/2 months. Disneyland to Disney World. What is the constant? Dave and Marie Cole, of course.

Acadiana Pit Stop

Hi! It's Ellyn, tonight. Geoff is already asleep - usually we write the posts together and he posts the photos but I wanted to get something posted so it's just me and no photos.

We're camped in the heart of Louisiana Cajun which is nicknamed Acadiana and a blending of Acadian and Louisiana. Acadia is now known as Nova Scotia and the French Catholics, there, were expelled by the British back in the 17th century. They were dispersed and then, ultimately, resettled in Louisiana. They became known as the Cadians which evolved into being called Cajun. It's an amazing story of cultural survival that, after 300 years, their culture, language and cuisine have survived - well, actually thrived.

We had intended to stay here only 4 days but our car is in the dealer service center awaiting brake parts so our stay is extended to at least 8 days. It's not a bad place to stay. The food in incredible in this area and we've only been eating in the local small places....more on that, below.

And Betty's RV park is the smallest and funnest campground people, ever. Last night, 12 of us went out for a crawfish dinner and tonight Betty made YUMMY Chicken Sausage Gumbo for us all PLUS she brought in a 3 piece band made up of a guitar playing vocalist with a bass and a lead guitar player. The vocalist was incredibly good and the guitar players were fantastic musicians. We both had wished the music was a bit more cajun instead of country-ish but we loved it and it was great to be part of the enthusiastic audience in Betty's RV Park gathering room. The gumbo was supurb - very much a long simmering rich chicken soup with cajun but not too spicey flavors.

The evening's festivities capped a day of driving in the country side. We had hoped to do some bird watching but we only got to see egrets which still do delight us. It was a sunny sunny day but chilly (starting out at 34F!). We did see a lovely little cemetery, had a great lunch at Suire's Grocery and Restaurant. We met one of the owners as we were walking in. She asked where we were from which happens with everybody we meet, here, and we answer "Connecticut" even though that isn't quite accurate, anymore. The owner went on the to tell us that a TV crew had been at the grocery just a few days earlier - I think she mentioned that the chef with them was Chef Besh and that he told her that when he was done being a chef in New Orleans that he would come there to work. We shared one crawfish and one shrimp etouffee stuffed pirouette (fried dough). Here's an article from the NY Times from 2002 that is a great description of where to get the good food here and mentions Suire's.

We also stopped in a Cajun jam session at a small cafe, in Erath, for about an hour. There were six musicians including an incredible acordian player playing incredible music. Plus we stopped by Delcambre to see the shrimp boats, which we saw, but there was no action on them as it's the weekend. We love driving by the countryside - seeing horses, cattle, crawfish fields and the occasional egret. It's very very flat here as it is all part of the deltas from the Mississippi and its offspring.

All in all, today was a heavenly day - beautiful sunny drive through the countryside, two venues of incredible live music and great food. Ahhhhh....the RV life! Now, if only our car is fixed on Monday! 


Update by Geoff, 12/9/2009: We have left Acadiana and headed off to Florida and the rest of our lives. But we would be lying if we did not say that our time in Abbeville had not changed us. When we arrived, I thought "Gee, this is a pretty basic RV park" as all was gravel, the sewer lines were above ground, the electric connection had no local breaker and the box door would not close over the connection. However, we did get right off to a fast start because there was a "happy hour" going on right as we arrived, so we got to meet most of the other campers. The camp owner, Betty, was hosting the party, had snacks out, and everyone brought their own drinks. This went on every night from 4:30 until about 6:00 or whenever people decided to head back to their rigs. We quickly learned that it was something to also show up for because everyone got to share what they had done that day and we could get ideas of other places to go and, especially, places to eat. Also, Betty was always planning outings for whomever was interested, usually to go for dinner or lunch. One evening she made gumbo for us and invited in some local musicians who were wonderful. We had a great time that night.

Between the great times with Betty, all the cultural things we got to see, we even met the mayor of Abbeville, and listening to a radio station with lots of Cajun music in both English and French, we feel like we have truly experienced Acadiana.

Houston and Acadiana Visits

We had a great time in Houston visiting with all four of Ellyn's cousins from her Father's side of the family and her Uncle Lou plus "new" cousin, Abbey, and her family ("new" = recent connection through family genealogist, Fred). Many thanks to all of them for all the food and laughter and good times during our visits. In addition to family, we visited the beaches on the Gulf two times, had a great bike ride, visited the beer can house, and bought cowboys boots & hat. Plus we did do some just plain relaxing and paperwork including finalizing the refinancing of our RV.

On Sunday, we resumed our eastward travel. Our first stop was in the beautiful little Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles, LA. It was great to be camped right near a swamp including water fowl, Spanish Moss, and Cyprus tree knees. It's amusing to see the ducks on the Gulf because there are white ones with red faces and other which have cow-like black and white coloring.

Our next stop was Jennings, LA where we went straight to Boudin King for boudin, a Louisiana sausage stuffed with spicy pork, onions, rice and herbs. The woman at the counter could tell we were visitors (our accents?) and offered us two inch samples of our choice of mild or spicy boudin (we chose mild). It was great tasting but there was so much else good on the menu that we decided to take one pound of boudin for dinner and to eat something else for lunch. Geoff had rice & beans with sausage and Ellyn had fried giblets and okra. Yummy.

We next went next door and visited the W. H. Tupper museum. What a wonderful time capsule of a rural store from the late 40's plus a telephone museum! And an extra treat was that the woman who showed us around was the Great-Granddaughter of the first mayor of Jennings so she knew a lot about the town history and people. Third stop was the Visitors center which had three big alligators and a baby alligator that we could hold. We remember us stopping to see the alligators with Logan and Brian, in '93, when we four drove around the US in four weeks.

Our next destination was Abbeville, LA, where we are currently parked in Betty's RV Park which is only 17 spots. A funny  thing is that our friends, Norm and Shelley, also camped here but we didn't even know that until after we had made plans to come here. Betty is the owner and there's a BYO happy hour each evening. Today, Betty provide home backed banana bread that was fantastic.

Today wasn't one of our better RVing days. First off, it is cold and rainy. Second, our car started making a loud clacking noise when we heading out for Avery Island, this morning. We were hesitant to continue driving it so we called a tow truck and then the car stayed in the shop the rest of the day but they couldn't find the problem. So, Geoff retrieved the car and when we drove it to dinner, tonight, it stopped making the noise. We had a great dinner at Shucks! I really liked the vinaigrette which had a nice sweet and tart taste. When I saw bottles of the Shucks Cane Sugar Vinaigrette at the cashiers and asked how much they were, she said I could just take one. A fun end to a day that started pretty gloomy.

So, we'll head for Avery Island, again, tomorrow. Hope the drive goes better than today's did.

Ellyn's Eyes - Only if You're Interested

Some of you might be interested in the my eye appointment so I've decided to put it into the blog instead of retelling it multiple times. Feel free to skip over if you're not interested.

One challenge, when fulltime RVing, can be following up on specialized medical problems. It's pediatric ophthalmologists who treat the adult strabismus that I have and, typically, it takes more than a month to get an appointment with one. I had surgery, in Maryland, on my strabismus 9 months ago. Yesterday, I had a follow-up appointment with a doctor, here in Houston, at Childrens Hospital because my eyes seemed worse than when last seen, six months ago.

The net of the visit is that my eyes started, before the surgery, pointed OUTwards by 12 diopters and the unexpected outcome of the surgery is that they are now pointed 8 diopters INward. I knew that they hadn't healed straight because I still had double vision when not using the prisims in my glasses but I hadn't expected it was that much.

The good news is that I now have a new eyeglass prescription with prisms to correct my vision. The bad news is that we came to Houston 10 days early so that would give time for me to get the glasses before we leave but now I learned it will take 2 or 3 weeks to get the new glasses. Fortunately, they can be mailed to me.

The ongoing treatment plan for the strabismus is that, once I have the glasses with the correct vision, that I will, gradually, start to use a 1 diopter stick-on prism to weaken the correction in the glasses so that my muscles will strengthen to pull the eyes out and then proceed to 2 diopters, etc. The goal is that when I have my next follow-up visit, in 6-12 months, that my eyes will not drifting more inward and, maybe even, will be better aligned.

Fredericksburg, Texas

What started out to be a 4 day visit in Fredericksburg, TX, on our way to Houston for Thanksgiving, turned out to be twice that. When arrived at Fredericksburg RV Park we quickly realized that it was very nice and so were the people. So we extended our stay to 8 days and will have to “hoof it” across the state to get to Ellyn’s eye Dr. appointment.

The next day after we arrived was the first rainy day we have had since Colorado in August. We even could have counted the cloudy days we had on one hand. So the rainy Sunday was the perfect day to do our laundry especially since we were both running out of underwear. With 8 washers and 8 dryers and no one in the laundry room when we arrived and with it only steps from our RV, the situation was perfect. Also, the dryers were very inexpensive. 50 cents would dry anything you had.

The RV Park had a schedule of events starting out with an Ice Cream Social the evening of our second day. It was great and everyone who came to it, mostly "winter Texans", were very nice and inclusive of newcomers. We have found this to be the norm for most of the RVers we have met on our travels. The guys mostly sat together and talked about their RVs. One of them had recently gotten new tires for his motorhome so this was of interest to everyone. The women mostly talked about their travels, crafts, and grandkids (we're decidedly younger than the others).

We drove into town the next day and window shopped in the downtown. There are several blocks of store fronts on Main Street and many of the buildings have historic plaques attached explaining when it was built and its original purpose. Fredericksburg was founded by people who emigrated from Germany and there are many German themed restaurants in town.

We found that the downtown was so close to the RV park that, the next day, we walked to the downtown area for lunch. We went to one of the German restaurants and had schnitzel and warm German potato salad. After lunch, we walked a few blocks to a bicycle shop to get a new inner tube for Geoff’s bike. We walked the rest of the way back by a new route which took us past a stockyard. It didn't surprise us to see it as, we had heard strange sounds from that direction the night before and Geoff thought it sounded like cows. Well, he was right because the stockyard was teeming with them as well as sheep and goats. We stopped to watch them unloading cattle from truck trailers and one of the “hands” came over to us. We told him we were just curious and he told us many of the animals would be going to packing houses but that some of the younger ones would go back to farms for grazing and for refurbishing of their livestock. I guess this helps prevent too much inbreeding. Ellyn said, about the experience of seeing the cattle in the stockyard on the way to processi, that as meat eaters, we need to accept/understand that this is what happens to animals on their way to being the food in our link of the food chain.

The next day, we visited the LBJ Ranch about a 1/2 hour away in Stonewall, TX, named for General “Stonewall” Jackson. It was interesting to see it. Ellyn and I were both teenagers when Johnson was President and, although we had seen pictures taken at his “Texas Whitehouse”, it was interesting to visit there. They have restored most of the house to the way it looked in the 1960s since “Lady Bird” Johnson passed away in 2007. Although his presidency was overshadowed by the escalating Viet Nam War, he did many good things while in office, like starting the “Head Start” school program and pushing for and then signing Desegregation and Voting Rights acts. Ellyn can still remember, vividly, her glee when LBJ Johnson announced that he would not seek a 2nd term.

Another day in Fredericksburg, we took a drive up to Inks Lake State Park about an hour away. We saw many turtles sunning themselves on logs and rocks around the lake, We pulled into one little lagoon to have a lunch we packed up for the trip and then we paddled to the highlight of the lake, The Devil’s Swimming Hole. This is a lagoon surrounded by granite rock. A stream flows into the lake over a little stone waterfall at one end. It was very peaceful back in there with just the murmur of the water to break the silence. It's possibly the most beautiful little portion of a lake we've kayaked and made it well worth the drive!

We took one other trip into town on our bicycles for shopping and sight seeing. It was a nice day but ended with a flat tire on Ellyn’s bike. Geoff peddled back to the RV park and brought back the car to pick up the bike and Ellyn. He tried to repair it, and though it was successful, but after we peddled to the grocery store and back on our last day, the tire was soft again a few hours later. Try, try again, I guess. As far as the grocery store, it was a great one. H-E-B was the name. Apparently they are only in Texas, but they have everything. And at very good prices too, at least for us. I guess the cost of living is generally lower in Texas, except for gasoline. I would think gas would be dirt cheap here, with all the oil wells around, but I guess it doesn’t work that way.

On our last evening, we took in The RockBox Theater, a local venue in Fredericksburg which is popular with people as far away as Austin. They have 4 shows each weekend, except for Christmas Season, when they add another show. They have a new show each weekend, performed by resident actors, a team of about 8. They do all kinds of classical rock music numbers some comedy, and a few more mellow numbers. They end the evening with some patriotic themes, as can probably be expected in middle America. All the cast were incredibly good musicians and singers and we were thoroughly entertained. It would be fun to be able to see them, again.

So, with the nice RV park, shopping/eateries within walking/biking distance and the great entertainment plus some lakes to kayak, Fredericksburg was a great place to stay for eight nights. Perhaps, we will plan to come back to Fredericksburg next year.

Down on the Rio Grande

November 3rd to the 6th, we were in Big Bend National Park, on the southwestern edge of Texas. Ellyn had a desire to go there for her birthday on 11/3. We parked in the campground at Rio Grande Village with no hook ups, and made ourselves comfortable for 3 days. As with most of our travel since August, it was 3 days of very good weather.

On our way into the park, it looked like there was miles and miles of nothing. The route down US 385 from Marathon, TX goes through some very flat and very sparse Texas desert. Big Bend National Park is probably the most remote place that we'll be at during this trip. Even with Verizon, there wasn't any cell phone coverage.

Once in the park, we did start seeing some different terrain, as there are some hills and rocky mountains on the western side of the park. On the way down to Rio Grande Village on the east side, we could make out the Rio Grande valley with trees along the river and some shear cliffs on the Mexico side. But most interestingly, when we looked at the desert floor, we found an incredible variety of cactus and other plants...some with flowers and fruits.

The Chihuahuan Desert became more and more beautiful to us as we got to know it. We took a short hike to overlook the Rio Grande and one of its canyons. While there, we saw the Mexican border town. Before the days of "homeland security", visitors to the park could very by row boat over to the village to buy crafts and eat in the restaurants. The border is now totally closed but we found that some village residents sneak over to put their crafts and cash jars along the riverside trails. The US government had signs that we could get prosecuted if we bought some of the crafts. One resident, we learned his name was Victor, sang from the other side of the river and had a tip jar in the trail. He came over to our side and we took his photo. It made us sad that world events way out of this little town's control, now made it so that their tourist trade was eliminated. The Park Service tries a little by having some of their stuff in the shops but twice as expensive.

Other things we did in the park....

We took the walk to the Hot Springs right along the Rio Grande. On the way there, we saw swallow nests along the cliffs. A woman in the hot spring, said that sme people take the clear water, from the source, to drink. We just soaked our feet at the edge of the pool. There were several stone buildings in ruin left from the days a Hot Springs Resort had been at that location.

We drove up to the Chisos Basis which is like being in a large volcano with a rim of rocks all the way around. Despite the recent sightings of black bears and mountain lions, we took a hike around the basin loop. We are noticing that we're getting in a bit better shape for hikes and this one was a perfect length and challenge half of the trail was a steady uphill. We had lunch, that day, in the Lodge restaurant with a beautiful view and we used their wifi for a while. One thing notable about the hike is that the basin has an amazing diversity of vegetation - evergreens, trees and cactus all intermingled. The most amazing thing was the HUGE century plants that were just past flowering.

We went on a bird-watching walk with a ranger and several experienced birders. One funny thing was a Common Roadrunner came but and all the birders ignored it - I think they consider it as uninteresting as us northeasterners consider squirrels. With the birders, we did see sparrows, woodpeckers, doves, flycatchers, and more. It's amazing what you can see when you look closely.

As for wildlife, there is supposed to be an incredible diversity of wildlife in the park. Of course, we only saw a sampling of it but we did, in addition to the birds, see bats each evening in the campground, a snake on the road, a coyote running, a HUGE wasp, and little fish in the river. Unfortunately, we did not see any Javelinas.

The one thing that was most amazing experience at Big Bend National Park was that there were very few people there to interrupt the vast silence and wide expansive views to the horizon. No highway noise, no sirens, no trains. Just the occasional sounds and sights of birds and bugs.

Click below to play a slideshow of more of our picture from Big Bend National Park.

Follow the bouncing time zone

Ok, I'm glad I'm not too diligent about changing the clocks each time we move from one time zone to another.Here is the history of our time changes over the past few days.

10/30 - In Phoenix,AZ - MST (they do not do DST in AZ).
10/31 - In Las Cruces, NM - MDT (+1 hour)
11/1 - In Las Cruces, NM - MST (-1 hour)
11/2 - In Alpine, TX - CST (+1 hour)

What time is it now?

The Great Arizona/New Mexico Loop of 2009

After leaving California, we traveled through Arizona to New Mexico to attend the Balloon Fiesta and then backtracked to Las Vegas for the AARP Convention. Then we looped back to the south, caught up with some friends in AZ before continuing on through NM again to Texas. Click a picture on the map to see a larger size.

AARP Las Vegas@50+

Although it meant a 585 mile back-track, we could not pass up an opportunity to attend the 2009 AARP Convention at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, NV. Ellyn had heard that they had great speakers and an interesting show floor. So, after attending the 2009 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, we headed back to the west through Arizona to Las Vegas. We parked the RV at the Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort and headed in to the Expo Center to pick up our literature packages which included the schedule for the 3 days, badge holders, and bags to carry all our swag.

On day one, we got an early start (for us) by getting up at 7:00 and heading in for the 9:30 kick-off meeting. It was in the largest hall in the building and had about 9,000 AARP members in it. After an introduction by the CEO of AARP who spoke about AARP's Health Care Reform requirements, there was a great panel discussion on the Golden Age of Television with Penny and Gary Marshall, John Amos and George Takei. Although most of the questions from the audience were directed at the Marshalls, There were still some interesting anecdotes by George and John. Especially George Takei mentioning that Gene Roddenberry had chosen the name Sulu for his character because it was Asian sounding but not specific to any Asian nation/culture. This was a great start to the convention.

After that, Ellyn and I took off for different sessions. The days were packed with different topics on finances, aging, travel, connecting, and health. They even had some movies they were showing. Geoff opted for a movie called “Certifiably Jonathan”, about Jonathan Winters and his newest endeavor, painting. Although the documentary was definitely tongue-in-cheek, the paintings were wonderful and the cast in the movie was terrific. Later in the afternoon, we both went to another movie called “The Wrecking Crew”, about studio musicians who were behind many Rock and Roll hits of the 60s and 70s. This documentary was created by the son of one of the musicians who passed away in 1994, and is something that anyone who grew up in that era and listened to those records will want to see. The director spoke after the movie and he is still looking for funding for the release which he's planning for early 2010. This movie was definitely a highlight of the event for us and we STRONGLY recommend it to anybody who loves American music of the 60's and early 70's.

Day two started later because there was not as much happening in the morning that we were interested in seeing. The main thing for that day was not until the evening when they were having a dance party in the big hall. It had 4 bands doing different genres of music. First was Duke Ellington Orchestra playing big band music. When we arrived, the place was already pretty full. We had to sit near the back but the dance floor area seemed to be The Zippers     woefully small. Ellyn was a bit disappointed, as there did not seem like enough dance floor space for something billed as the “World’s Largest Dance Party”. The second band to play was a party band - The Zippers. Nice name but great group full of spirit and playing covers from the 50s through the 80s. They really got people up. This made us think that the demographic of the people at this conference was closer to our age or even a little younger. Many more 50s and 60s than 70s. Next up was the  Tito Puente Jr Band. Some great Latin music from this bunch and, although we sat it out from being exhausted from The Zippers, it was a great performance. The Zippers came on for a second set and then Kool and the Gang topped off the night. They were really good. They extended the stage out into the audience more and even had them take down the barrier that was out about 6 feet from the front of the stage so they could “get some lovin’” from the audience during their numbers. They really rocked the joint and were out shaking hands at the edge of the stage afterwards. Their last song of the night was the most memorable..It was totally thrilling to be there dancing live to the group whose song we had danced to at every Bar/Bat Mitzvah and many weddings we have attended..."Celebration!" The evening was an exhilarating 4 hour dance workout!

The third and last day, we slept in again and went to a few things in the afternoon including the movie “Mama Mia” and the introduction of the Chevrolet Volt with a talk by the CEO of General Motors. Ellyn attended an interview of Chef Anthony Amoroso who had, just last week, had beaten Iron Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America. Ellyn also took in a session with Dr. Susan Love who is a well known expert and activist working towards elimination of breast cancer. Along with Avon, she is driving to get one million women registered as an Army of Women for studies and statistical demographics to determine, not just a cure, but the prevention and elimination of breast cancer. She's a great speaker. If you haven't already done so, please consider registering for the Army of Women. In addition to the speakers, the expo floor was great - we picked up lots of travel brochures from Southern states  we're soon to visit. Geoff got a free harmonica along with a 30 minute group lesson. Ellyn picked up more free junk (swag) than she should have because there's not much room in the RV. We really enjoyed the 3-day event - a great combination of entertainment and learning. It was a very diverse group - perhaps the most diverse event we've ever attended (excepting our sons' high school graduations). We recommend it to any of you who are 50+ and who will be near the annual event. Next year it's in Orlando. And, oh yes - it only cost $25 for the registration so it's a bargain! And now, we have two more days left in Las Vegas. We've been to LV enough in the past that we're not forced to do a lot of sight-seeing. We're still considering what we're going to do - perhaps just lounge around the great looking pool area here at the RV resort - maybe a trip to a casino.

California, Summer/Fall 2009

Our tour of California from Napa to San Diego, September and October, 2009. Hover over any picture on the map to see the name of the location, and click to see a larger version of the picture or more  pictures from the location.

The Surprising Verde Valley, Arizona

We've already been camped here at the Zane Grey RV Park, in Camp Verde, for five days and it's been a beautiful five days. Here's some of what we've seen...

The hillside town of Jerome - former mining town, redlight district and ghost town now filled with shops and galleries.
The Mongollon Rim escarpment which, more or less, is a one edged canyon. We drove 30 min. on a bumpy, gravel road to get there.
Quail Country Quilt Show - reminded me a lot of Janet's Guild Quilt show but a bit smaller.
The beautiful red rock spires surrounding Sedona including a sunset view. There were two wedding parties at the river taking photos and one had a Native American flute player that added just the right musical atmosphere.
The planets orbiting Jupiter, the Ring Nebula, and a star cluster through the telescopes at Lowell observatory. It was a beautiful new-moon evening and we could easily see the Milky Way without even needing the telescopes.
Montezuma’s Castle and Well. Considering the fact that Montezuma never left Mexico, there are a lot of things here named for him. Early explorers mistakenly assumed the ruins they found were left by him, but they were actually much earlier inhabitants of this land.
Tuzigoot ruins of a 1000 year old town - rebuilt by the WPA in the 30's along with a beautiful little museum also built by the WPA.
Beautiful vistas and views in every direction along the beautiful Arizona horizon.

We also kayaked in one of the small-ish Dead Horse Ranch Lagoons as well as biked to get a closer view of Sedona's Cathedral Rock.  

Yesterday, we took a day off from driving around. Ellyn learned to play "Hand and Foot" cardgame with two of the women  from the RV park. We really like this small shady RV park - it's very relaxing and the people are very nice. Perhaps, we'll get a chance to visit, here, again in the spring.