#44 - Coveys Great Adventure – April 2018 – Florida to Virginia

April 2018 – Florida to Virginia      

April turned out to be one of the busiest travel periods that we can remember. Nine campgrounds across five states was way too fast. The places started to blend together after awhile. We (I) felt like we “only” had two months to make our planned rendezvous with Charlie and Mollie at Casa Kendrick in June, so we (I) pushed harder than we really needed to. Still, we had fun and saw lots of new places, we just didn’t spend enough time in any of them.

Settled in at Clearwater RV Resort

 Returning to Clearwater RV Resort felt familiar because we stayed there for a couple of weeks on our 2016 trip. The warm feelings evaporated, though, when the coach wouldn't start after we pulled into the park. The engine wouldn't even turn over. About an hour later something I tried finally worked and it started. My blood pressure slowly returned to normal, but cocktails came early that afternoon. The park is located several miles north of St. Petersburg and just south of Dunedin and Tarpon Springs. On our last trip we visited many of the top attractions in St. Pete like the Chihuly Experience glass exhibition and the Dali Museum.

Excellent! Southern Fresh in Safety Harbor

This trip we planned around people. Spending time with Kayeanne’s

brother Grant is always fun. He knows St. Petersburg like a native and is an excellent guide. He was packing up and getting ready to sell his condo. He also just bought a turbo charged Honda Civic R pocket-rocket that he let me drive: zowee!

Busbouy

Ed Woznicki arrived in Dunedin in January and spent three months exploring the coast from Clearwater to Tarpon Springs. He delayed his departure to meet up with us. By the time we arrived he was ready to give us in-depth guided tours. With his newfound local knowledge it was easy to see why he is so enthused about that stretch of coast. It is always great to spend time with Ed. Occasionally we even get to see Christine, too, but unfortunately not this time. We miss you, Christine!

Sharky's on Venice beach

Kayeanne’s aunt Garnet and cousin Corby recently moved from Ohio to Venice, Florida. I’d never met Corby and couldn’t remember meeting Garnet about 25 years ago. Kayeanne hadn’t seen them in many years, so one day we picked up Grant in St. Pete and headed down the coast to meet them for lunch. Corby suggested going to Sharky’s On The Pier, right on the beach in Venice and we had a great time exchanging stories. They are hoping to plan an RV trip to Alaska, so we may see them again in the West, soon.

Before heading north we wanted to make one more visit. We had enjoyed meeting Kayeanne’s cousin Tracy (Corby’s brother) and his wife Shelley on our last trip and looked forward to another visit. They live on Marco Island, about 200 miles south of Clearwater so we moved south to Collier-Seminole State Park for a few days. The park is a few miles inland of Marco Island on the edge of the Everglades.

As you may recall, south Florida was hammered by Hurricane Irma last year. Several months later, the worst of the damage has been repaired, but there are still many buildings on Marco Island with blue tarps on roofs waiting repair. The trees throughout the area look like a giant hedge trimmer cut them all off about 30 feet above the ground. Luckily their house escaped serious damage. Tracy and Shelley are gracious hosts and fun folks that we hope to see again, soon.

We passed through the Everglades on the way to the Keys on our last trip, but didn’t really spend any time looking around. This year we did. Collier-Seminole proved to be an ideal base to visit Everglades City, Chokoloskee and Shark Valley.

The small one-room Museum of the Everglades was a real find. The history of the Everglades and the larger-than-life figure of Barron Collier was quite interesting. At one point he owned over one million acres in southwestern Florida, making him the largest private land owner in the state. Among many other accomplishments, he is credited with constructing most of the Tamiami Trail. Building a road across the Everglades was considered impossible by most engineers at the time. The pictures showing what they encountered and the conditions they worked in are impressive. The museum building was damaged during the hurricane last year but the staff moved the exhibits to safety.

Original walking dredge used to build the Tamiami Trail

The next day we took a guided boat tour of a very small section of the Ten Thousand Islands located along the coast where the Everglades meets the ocean. The tour left Smallwood Store Museum at the tip of Chokoloskee Island, a local landmark that has been in the same place, run by the same family since 1906. The museum proved to be a fascinating window into a way of life totally isolated from the rest of the country. Fortunately the store is built on high stilts, because Irma’s storm surge actually came right to floor level, the highest ever. Our guide was the great, great granddaughter of Mr. Smallwood, the store’s founder. We really enjoyed watching the flocks of birds and listening to her stories. We didn’t see any manatees, but the dolphins showed up and gave us a rousing welcome.

Shark Valley is formally known as The Valley of the Shark River, one of the major out flows from the Everglades. And, yes, there are no sharks, but there are tens of thousands of alligators, millions of turtles and snakes, and zillions of birds. We saw many of them during our visit and tour. The Everglades is a significant ecological asset that we are just now understanding. We’ve come perilously close to destroying it by decades of irresponsible development. It will take many, many years to restore what's

left. It was a great tour, well worth the time and cost.

As nice as it had been to see Kayeanne’s family and Ed and southwestern Florida, the time had finally come to head north. We wanted to move quickly to places in North Carolina and Virginia where we wanted to spend some time, so we stayed briefly in:

Buffalo at Payne's Prairie State Park

- Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park, just outside of Gainesville. Originally a large ranch, the park is now a wildlife sanctuary. There is a tall observation tower that gives a panoramic view of the miles of grasslands, forest and, if you are lucky, some of the buffalo that have been introduced to the area.

- Fort McAllister State Park in southern Georgia used to be a family ranch on an island that became a state park in a beautiful setting. The campground really isn’t set up for large RV’s, though, and we had a challenge getting into our site. The Fish Tales bar and restaurant in the local marina is recommended.

- Bass Lake Campground in Dillon South Carolina was a good place to stay, but it was right next to the freeway and very, very noisy. It had excellent dog walking, though.

- Hagen-Stone City Park Campground in Pleasant Garden, North Carolina was a “pleasant” surprise. We needed to visit Greensboro to get some work done on the coach. We picked Hagen-Stone for low cost and proximity to the city. We ended up liking the campground, and Greensboro turned out to be a pleasant place to visit.

Lexington Glass Works

Asheville was one of the places that we bypassed in 2016 and we both wanted to explore this trip. We wanted to tour the Biltmore mansion and explore the city and surrounding countryside. Lake Powhattan NFS campground turned out to be perfect for us. Located south of the city in rolling hills close to a main highway, it is just 20 minutes from the Biltmore. Maybe just as importantly, it is also close to a Trader Joe’s. Clearly, it checked all of our boxes, it even had great dog walking. It is also just up the road from

Discount Shoes, the largest shoe store either of us have ever seen. I’ll bet they have over 100,000 pairs of unique shoes on display. Yes, Kayeanne bought a pair.

The Biltmore is …. unique. It costs $65 a piece just to enter the grounds. That gives you access to the house and gardens, and the privilege of shuffling in line from room to room for a couple of hours with hundreds of other gawkers under the watchful eyes of scores of staff, some of whom do seem to know what they were talking about. The gardens were fabulous, of course, too. The best part of the tour was driving four miles to Antler Hill, a winery, hotel, restaurant, creamery, etc., complex where we enjoyed a glass of good wine in pleasant surroundings.

Unfortunately, you can’t go to Antler Hill without paying the entrance fee.

The best of Biltmore

Thinking about it later, I guess I missed the point of the Biltmore. I'm glad I didn’t miss seeing it, but I certainly won’t go back.
Built carefully at great expense but with no purpose except to impress others it seemed cold, humorless and garish. By contrast, Hearst Castle is exuberant and fun.

One of the high points of our 2016 visit to Charleston, South Carolina, was touring Fort Sumter, where the opening shots of the Civil War were fired. Our next stop this year was James River State Park in Gladstone, Virginia, to visit Appomattox Court House, where the war ended.

McLean House where Grant and Lee met

The National Park Service has done a good job preserving this site, and telling the story of the events leading to the final days of the war and the historic meeting between Grant and Lee that ended it. There are certainly ghosts in those fields.

It says "Bruce & Stiff"!

When planning this stop, I hadn’t given any thought to the town of Appomattox. All of my focus was on the historic events that transpired here 153 years ago. The town turned out to be an attractive, pleasant place. Many 19^th century homes have been kept up or recently renovated. The historic downtown area is small, but worth the time to check out. We were a little ahead of the tourist season and some shops were either not yet open, or only open on weekends.

We are big fans of food truck dining. We’ve discovered some gems and the Taco Wagon in Appomattox was a real find. It was so good that we drove 40 miles round trip to visit it twice. The al pastor (marinated pork and pineapple), and barbacoa (barbecued pork) tacos were outstanding. Kayeanne’s fish tacos were great, too. The next day I had a gringa, a large tortilla stuffed with al pastor and cheese served on a bed of rice: absolutely delicious. My mouth is watering just thinking about this place.

One of Kayeanne’s must-see stops was Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia. I am very glad she insisted that we stop here. History classes 60 years ago made me casually aware of Jefferson’s role in the formative years of our country. Visiting Monticello opened my eyes to just how important his many contributions were. To my mind, he is the creator of most of the core values that we aspire to as Americans, today. Monticello is a fraction of the size of Biltmore, but is so much more impressive in every way.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has done a great job preserving and restoring the buildings and grounds, and presenting a balanced and thoughtful story of this truly fascinating man.

Charlottesville also marked a small first for us: the first time in four years and over 200 campgrounds that we stayed in a KOA campground. Those who don’t camp won’t understand, but to have been traveling as long as we have without setting foot in a KOA is pretty surprising. Anyway, the Charlottesville KOA was a slightly expensive but pleasant and convenient introduction to the KOA camping experience. The dogs really enjoyed hiking in the heavily wooded area surrounding the park.

Next month we continue our Civil War explorations at Gettysburg, visit the Finger Lakes region of western New York and then on to Cape Cod.

More soon,

Bob

#43 - Coveys Great Adventure – March 2018 – New Mexico to Florida

March 2018 – New Mexico to Florida

There is a little-known condition called “hitch-itch” that hits full-timer RV’ers that have been sitting in one place too long. By the time the 1st of March rolled around we both had the bug, badly. Our mail finally arrived and we quickly packed up, said our goodbyes and headed East.

One of the folks staying at the Co-op recommended visiting Caballo Lake State Park near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. We really wanted to see someplace new, so we made a 150 mile detour to spend a few nights there. Lynn was right, Caballo Lake was worth it. The lake is a man-made reservoir in the desert. The desert landscape extends right to the shoreline and contrasts starkly with the blue water of the lake. The dogs certainly were excited about all the new smells.

Crossing Texas is a chore rather than a pleasure for us, especially the section of I10 through El Paso.  We’ve been through the city three times in four years and large sections of the freeway are always under construction. I’m sure there are parts of the city that are very nice, but none of them are visible from the freeway. It was a long day from Caballo Lake to our overnight stop at Camp Wally World (Walmart parking lot) in Fort Stockton, but we made good time droning along I10.

I think I’ve mentioned before that neither of us like traveling on most interstate highways if there is a reasonable alternative. About 45 miles beyond Ft. Stockton, US 190 continues roughly due  east when I10 dips southeast toward San Antonio. A little study on Google Maps revealed that it continued all the way through Livingston, Texas, then across Louisiana and Alabama avoiding I10 altogether. Plan!

The first section of US 190 to our next overnight stop in Lampasas, Texas, was a pleasure to drive. The road was smooth (with 120 psi in the coach tires, smooth roads are really welcome). The scenery was interesting and the towns were many miles apart, allowing us to maintain decent speeds. Unlike the interstate, traffic was virtually nonexistent. I timed one stretch where we didn’t see another vehicle in either direction for 11 minutes!

This section of central Texas is pretty sparsely populated. There are some ranches and a few farms, but most of it seems pretty deserted. There are places we passed through where folks must have to drive 100 miles round trip for bread or fuel, and maybe a couple of hundred miles each way to Walmart or a hardware store. Interestingly, we never lost cell service. The towers were very, very tall.

Lampasas turned out to be a pretty town set in rolling green hills about 50 miles north of Austin. Camp Wally World had plenty of space for us, in fact we were the only RV in the lot. Like many Walmarts, this one is nicely landscaped. The dogs appreciate the grass and the trees after being cooped up all day in the coach. No OTA TV, but AT&T delivered Gray’s Anatomy and Doc Martin on Netflix. Add wine and it’s a fitting end to a nice day.

We decided to stop for a few days and made a reservation at Rainbow’s End, the Escapees park in Livingston. This park is the Escapees club HQ and where our mail accumulates until we ask for it to be sent to us. We had Amazon packages waiting, so pushed a little to be sure to arrive before the post office closed for the weekend. Site 86 is a large pull-through with full hookups shaded by a big tree, so we were set up for the weekend shortly after we arrived.

There are three sections at this campground. Two years ago we stayed in the newer one that borders route 146, a busy road that generates a lot of noise. This trip we asked for a site in the old section near the pool and clubhouse. The sites are larger but a little more rustic. There is much less road noise in that section and the dog walking is better, so everyone was happier.

Livingston is a pleasant small town without a lot to distinguish it from hundreds of others. We shopped, did laundry, walked the dogs and generally relaxed for a couple of days. We discovered La Casita, a good family-run Mexican restaurant for dinner one night. Kayeanne was pretty happy with her margarita, and the food was very good. Sunday afternoon we drove around the whole perimeter of Lake Livingston, which was pretty interesting.

Louisiana was our next stop. On our last trip we spent several days exploring New Orleans and promised ourselves that we would see more of the state. Poking around on Google Maps one night I stumbled across Intracoastal Waterway Park. It isn’t a great RV park, but we could park right on the edge of the canal, facing the water. The view through the windshield was outstanding.

Tight quarters

An endless procession of tugs and barges passed day and night less than 50 yards from the front seat. I like all forms of commercial shipping, so I had a great time. On occasion there were five 700’ long tows in sight.

While staying there we visited Lake Charles, a significant petrochemical production and distribution center that is also a pretty charming small city. The downtown area was small but easily accessible and well worth visiting. We enjoyed a terrific Cajun-style lunch at the Pujo Street Cafe, and walked and drove around much of the city.

Baton Rouge was our next stop. We couldn’t find an RV park near the city that we wanted to stay in. Lakeside RV Park in Livingston, LA, about 20 miles east of the city proved to be a great find. Large spaces and wide roads surrounded a pretty pond stocked with fish. Geese, ducks and a couple of resident swans certainly got Lucy and Schroeder’s attention on every walk.

Frozen daiquiris spiked with Everclear ready at all times

A large Fudgsicle daiquiri to go, please

Customs and laws vary a lot as we travel, but we’ve never seen a drive-through bar. Crazy Dave’s is across the street from the RV park. Dave’s is a great place to have a drink and a snack, but it also has a drive-up bar window. Dave’s is well known locally for frozen daiquiris. They have 12 different flavors in machines that keep them blended and frozen, ready to go. They sell them in sizes from 12 ounces to a gallon (yes, really) to go. We discovered that Louisiana law says that the beverage is not “open” as long as the top is on the container and the straw is still in the paper sleeve! The daiquiris all contain Everclear, a 190 proof moonshine, just to be sure that no one complains about them being weak. We stopped at Dave’s every night. My favorite was Fudgsicle.

We enjoyed Baton Rouge. We walked around the downtown area, along the Mississippi River and toured the Old State Capital Building, which frankly told us more than we ever wanted to know about notorious governor Huey Long. Parrain’s Seafood Restaurant really lived up to its reviews; the shrimp Po-boy sandwich was outstanding.

Across the bay from the museum
a new Nay ship nears completion

Three years ago we passed straight through Mobile, Alabama, and promised ourselves a return visit. Shady Acres RV Park is the antithesis of Lakeside: it’s old, slightly seedy and close to downtown Mobile. And, yes, it is very shady.

We had fun in Mobile. The brand spanking new maritime museum was a little short on “museum” and a little too “interactive” for my taste, especially when several exhibits had software glitches. It did have a great view of the harbor, though. 

The locals claim, with good reason, that Mardi Gras originated in Mobile and they have the museum to prove it. The pictures don't show the scale of the outfits, or the detail and hand

work that went into them.

Downtown Mobile is small and easy to navigate; I think we saw most all of it a few times as we drove around. Lunch at The Spot of Tea was recommended by the lead docent at the museum and was great.

One day we took a ride south along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island, which really is the end of the road. There is a ferry to Port Morgan on the west side of the bay, but we passed on it this trip. Dauphin Island is a beach community that has few restaurants. We picked one without a line and should have known better: avoid Capt’n Snappers.

On the way back to Mobile we stopped at Bellingrath Gardens, a former family estate where development began about 90 years ago. It is now maintained by a trust. The extensive grounds reminded us of Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC. The sweeping views of the Fowl River must have been one of the main reasons the family chose the site.

Late one night before we left Benson, I was doing some route planning on Google and saw Sopchoppy, Florida. I decided that any place with a name like that merited a visit. The town park is along a river and has several RV sites, so we decided to visit. It turned out to be just fine. The sites were very narrow, but no one pulled in on our door side, giving us plenty of space. The sites along the river were nice, but too small for us. The price was certainly right, just $15 a night for full hookups. The only drawback was that one of the neighbors must have been raising dogs, because several barked all night.

Sopchoppy is on Florida’s “lost coast”, which stretches for a couple of hundred miles from Port St. Joe to Cedar Key. On our last trip we stayed right on the water in Carrabelle and really enjoyed the area, especially Apalachicola. We both looked forward to a return visit to that town. The baked oysters at Captain Jack’s were just as good as we remembered. I even enjoyed touring several of the shops as Kayeanne shopped. Be sure to stop at Millender and Sons Seafood in Carrabelle for delicious locally caught fish, shrimp and oysters. 

We are staying in a few places in Florida for a couple of weeks, then we start working our way north.

More soon,

Bob

#42 – Coveys Great Adventure – Feb 2018 – Arizona

Feb 2018 – SKP Saguaro Co-op, Benson, Queen Creek and Yuma AZ

I never get tired of the desert

Well, we got another call from the office. The owners of lot 9 decided to return early, so we had to move, again. Our friends think we are the park gypsies; they aren’t sure where we will pop up next. We were happy to learn that lot 280 would open up before our deadline to leave 9, and we were assured that we wouldn’t have to move again.

We spent two months in lot 280 last winter and liked it. It is across the driveway from the dry camping area where folks are rotating through all the time. It is handy to the shop where I made the drawers last year, and it is close to several access points to the desert trails for the dogs. About half the traffic in the park goes by 280, so the view through the windshield is constantly changing. That said, there is no view of the mountains, something Kayeanne really liked about #9. The sunsets on lot 9 were pretty spectacular, too. 

A howling gale broke out for about 30 minutes

One day it snowed. In the desert. On the cactus. For a few minutes we had blizzard conditions with snow, hail and a howling wind. Nothing stuck for long, but the mountains were very pretty the next morning. 

We love this place but it can certainly wear you out. There is so much to do and so many activities to get involved in. Kayeanne volunteers on the Bingo, club house and Helping Hands committees, and regularly goes to beading, yoga and polymer clay workshops. I volunteer on the landscape and facilities committees, and occasionally wash dishes after dinners in the clubhouse. We are taking dancing lessons, too. When you add the dinners every week, movie night, entertainment every Saturday night, and lunches and dinners and card games with friends the schedule can get a little hectic. Retirement is certainly not for the lazy.

Ugly old bald guy really scored!

One Saturday turned out to be the annual Prom Night, complete with lavish decorations that Kayeanne helped design and install. Fancy dress-up and a good, loud band that played too much Motown and bebop, but did squeeze in some real R&R really made it a good time. Way too many old folks stayed up much too late trying to recapture what they really never had several decades ago. Everyone certainly seemed to have a good time, and we had a ball. I had a LOT more fun than I ever had at school proms! I was also amazed that the only suit I own and haven’t worn for five years actually fit, sort of. Kayeanne was a knockout in her skinny blue dress and designer shades.

Kayeanne flew to California to spend a few days with our very old friends, Karen Mohr and Patty Nash, in Kernville. All reports indicate a great time was had by all. The dogs and I managed to get along without her, but we were happy to see her come home.

Best RV park in Queen Creek

When we pulled into the Co-op a couple of months ago it seemed like we were there for a long stay. Time certainly flew by and on March 2^nd, we packed the coach, hitched up the car and drove north to Queen Creek near Phoenix to see close friends Cheryl and Chet Baffa. With their usual foresight and flair for timing, they just moved from Colorado to a lovely house in Queen Creek that has a side yard that easily fit the coach. For two days they overfed us while we caught up on almost two years since we last saw them. We stayed just two days and that wasn’t long enough. I hope this is the first of many visits.

Dental, optical and
limitless tourist junk

Sunday morning we found our way to I8 and headed west, back to Yuma to finish up some dental work begun in December. Once again, we camped out at the glamorous facilities in the  dirt parking lot of the Paradise Casino. Monday morning we crossed the border into Los Algodones, the mecca for snowbird dental, optical and plastic surgery. While there, we loaded up on inexpensive drugs and Kahlua. We hoped we would be finished on Tuesday, but had to return on Wednesday morning, too. We returned to the coach, loaded up and got on the road by 11:30. We rolled back into Benson just before the office closed. No sites were available so we moved into one of the dry camping spots; the next morning lot 191 opened up and we moved in and hooked up.

Monroe Crossing

We originally planned to spend just one night in Benson to rendezvous with important mail forwarded from the Escapees mail room in Texas, but the shipment didn’t occur as planned. Since the town post office is closed on Saturday, we had to delay departure until Monday. That wasn’t unwelcome news because we got to see Monroe Crossing, a great bluegrass group, and to spend more time with our friends who, sadly, we won't see until next year.

More soon,

Bob

#41 – Coveys Great Adventure – Jan. 2018 – SKP Saguaro Co-op, Benson AZ

Jan. 2018 – SKP Saguaro Co-op, Benson AZ

As we rolled down the long hill from the I10 freeway into Benson, it felt like we were returning home. The plan is to stay here for two months before heading east. We look forward to returning to the SKP Saguaro Co-op all year.

This is our fourth year here and everything is now familiar enough that we immediately notice the small differences as we pass through town. A couple restaurants have closed, a new car wash (lousy) has been built and the neon pricing sign at Benson Fuels is still broken. Maybe you really can come home? As we approach the park turn off the new electric sign really jumps out, especially because of all the brush and trees that I helped clear out along the road last year.

The Saguaro totems viewed thru the windshield at site 9

As the economy improves more people have taken up RV’ing, making it harder to get space in the best parks like Saguaro. Reservations are not accepted here, so I’ve been nervous about arriving after New Years and getting a vacant lot. As I feared, no lots were available when we pulled in on January 2nd, so we had to dry-camp until one opened up. Dry camping means we were assigned a space in a large parking area without any utility hookups. That isn’t an issue with our coach, so we set up, walked the dogs and, it being Tuesday, went to Bingo at the clubhouse.

Lucy and Schroeder clearly share our feelings about this place. They were up and alert as soon as we hit the driveway and couldn’t wait to get going on their walk after we set up. As I’ve described before, Saguaro is surrounded by desert that is crisscrossed with miles of trails that are used extensively by the park dogs and the native wildlife. Lucy and Schroeder wanted to sniff it all, and pee on most of it, right now!

We were pleasantly surprised when one of the office team knocked on the door

Lot 9: home, sweet home, we hope

the next morning to ask if we were ready to move onto a lot. You betcha!  An hour later we were set up on lot 298 and connected to water, power, sewer and cable TV, all the comforts of home. We were there about 10 days when the office staff again told us we had to move because 298 was going to be transferred to a new lessee. A couple of days later we settled into #9, one of the nicest lots in the park, with a terrific view of the mountains. I hope we can stay here until we leave on March 2. The lot holders have to give the park seven days notice if they plan to return, so we'll have a week to find another site if we have to move again.

Saguaro, like all the cooperative parks, owes its existence to volunteers. Volunteers conceived of the park, and designed and built most of it. 28 years later the park still thrives because volunteers continue to shoulder most of the tasks required to maintain the infrastructure and make improvements. There are only four paid staff, so volunteers put in thousands of hours every year. I work on the landscaping and facilities crews, and Kayeanne volunteers on the clubhouse and Bingo teams.

It is certainly nice to see so many familiar faces. After four years, it seems we are now  recognized as part of the community. That’s a good feeling. Weekly dinners, Bingo, movies, entertainment and lots of activities and nice people make us look forward to coming back every  year.

We plan to leave here in early March. After a short detour to Phoenix to visit old friends and a slight backtrack to Yuma for a couple of days, we will head to Florida to see Kayeanne’s brother and cousins.

More soon,

Bob

#40 – Coveys Great Adventure – Dec. 2017 to early Jan. 2018 – Jojoba Hills CA, Yuma, Organ Pipe and Benson AZ

Jojoba Hills CA, Yuma, Organ Pipe and Benson AZ

Dec. 2017 to early Jan. 2018 

We got lucky: Jojoba Hills SKP RV Resort near Temecula CA had a site opening up a few days after we arrived that we could stay in through Christmas. Like all of the sites at Jojoba, #317 was spacious, close to the shop and the laundry, with easy access to lots of places to walk the dogs. Lucy and Schroeder recognized the park as soon as we pulled in and seemed excited to be back. Unfortunately I got distracted while pulling into the site and cut a corner too close to a large bush. We now have 20 feet of scratches on the side of the coach that I need to try to buff out. If there is nothing to work on I’ll invent something. Damn it.

As much as we love staying at Jojoba the 50 mile round trips to Hemet to visit with the family and take part in all the Christmas events wore us out. Next year I think we’ll swallow hard and stay at a large commercial RV park in Hemet. It costs roughly twice as much as Jojoba but the reduced wear-and-tear will be worth it.

Liesa was able to get time off from work and flew into San Diego on the 23^rd.  Traffic was almost eerily light and her flight was actually on time, so we arrived in Hemet hours before we were expected. Christmas at Paul and Brenda’s was very nice, capped off by a terrific dinner. Liesa’s cousin, Ed Wiklund has recently returned to the LA area and we were all pleased to see him, again.

Anxious to get moving again, we packed up and pulled out of Jojoba on the 27^th to visit the dentist in Los Algodones, Mexico, just over the border from Yuma. 

Sunset at Organ Pipe

Organ Pipe Cacti

We originally intended to go directly from Yuma to the SKP Saguaro Co-op in Benson AZ, our winter home for the past three years. On the spur of the moment we decided to spend a few days at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Why AZ, right on the Mexican border. We’ve wanted to see Organ Pipe since we met the head ranger at the Quartzsite RV show in 2014. He was recruiting camp hosts and spreading the word that the campground had reopened after a long closure.

Camping at Organ Pipe requires a little forethought. It is about 25 miles from anything resembling a town, so checking provisions and doing a little meal planning is a must. The campground

has no power, water or sewer hookups at the sites, but water is available and there is a dump station to empty tanks. Ordinarily we don’t think about power because we can run the generator to recharge the batteries, but OP restricts generator usage to two hours, twice a day. I didn’t realize that was a problem until the batteries were not fully charged when it was time to turn off the generator. We discovered that we use roughly 160 amps of battery power during the evening “quiet hours” from 6 PM to 8 AM. The problem is that we can only replenish 120 amps during the two hour generator period.

There is no way to recover this deficit, so it compounds. The math is irrefutable: we will kill the batteries in four days unless we significantly cut consumption. Luckily we planned to stay only three days, but I want to figure out the best way to eliminate that limitation on our independence.

The power issue aside, Organ Pipe was well worth the effort. The setting is one of the most unique desert landscapes in the world. The eponymous cacti are, to me anyway, pretty fascinating. We have been all over the deserts of the southwest and haven’t seen anything like it. The night sky is truly spectacular, maybe the best I’ve seen since our visit to Kodachrome State Park. There is no light pollution at all and the stars are impressive. The best time to visit the monument is supposed to be late February through mid-April when the wildflowers and cacti of all kinds bloom. The pictures at the visitor center are beautiful, so we want  to return one day.

No lots were available when we arrived at the SKP Saguaro Co-op in Benson, but the staff assured us that one would open up soon. We pulled into the dry camping area and prepared to wait it out. The next morning just after breakfast we were pleasantly surprised to be told that a lot had opened up and we could move in as soon as we were ready. An hour later we were right at home on #298 where we plan to stay until early March. While Lucy and Schroeder seemed happy to return to Jojoba; they were clearly excited to be back at Saguaro.  And so are we.

I’ll update our plans in the February edition. By the time that comes out we should be crossing Texas, headed to Florida.

More soon.

#39 – Coveys Great Adventure – Nov. and early Dec. 2017 – Deer Creek, Moab, Thanksgiving, Simi, Anaheim and Jojoba Hills

#39 – Coveys Great Adventure – Nov. and early Dec. 2017 – Deer Creek, Moab, Thanksgiving, Simi, Anaheim and Jojoba Hills

Deer Creek campground

Near Sundance.
Look closely: gate says "Go Away"

After the pummeling that we took in Eugene, we were ready to reconnect with why we are living this life. Liesa seemed to be getting along fine without us so we decided to take a little “back to nature” time. The weather in Salt Lake was expected to be much colder than usual, into the low twenties and teens at night, so we looked around for somewhere a little warmer. We looked hard at eastern California south of Reno but that forecast included snow, something we are just not interested in. Looking to the south we discovered that Deer Creek State Park near Heber City and Dead Horse Point State Park near Moab were supposed to be considerably warmer than Salt Lake. Plan!

Although Heber City is a nice town that seems to be growing by leaps and bounds, it’s main attraction is that it is located about midway between two more famous places: Park City and Sundance. We do like Park City and would happily visit again, but had just been there a few weeks ago. We both wanted to see Sundance, home of Robert Redford’s world renown film festival, so that was high on our to-do list.

Sundance turned out to be much smaller and more rustic than we expected. The lodge isn’t huge and, at least in the off season, very approachable: just park and walk around. There are several modest studios, performance venues and cottages scattered in the trees around a picturesque pond, and a row of artisan workshops behind the lodge. We watched several guys blow glass cups, bowls, vases and knickknacks to be sold at the gift shop. As you would expect, the prices in the restaurants and shops were sobering, so we had some great soup at the snack bar and moved on to the murals that describe the history of the property going back to the early 1800’s. A very interesting place, and surprisingly not too tacky.

Old farts do trains

Our original plan was to spend three days at Deer Creek and then head down to Moab. Even in November Moab is very popular and we could only get a reservation for two nights at Dead Horse Point. We planned to fill in the time dry camping at one of the BLM campgrounds along the Colorado River north of Moab. But, then we decided to stay an extra day at Deer Creek to visit Provo, and then we added another day to explore Heber City. We discovered that the Heber Valley Railroad was still operating on Fridays, so we dropped another check in the park lockbox for yet another another night and took a train ride.

It was so beautiful and peaceful at Deer Creek that if we hadn’t had the reservation at Dead Horse we might have stayed even longer. We had the whole park almost to ourselves; I think one night there might have been just two other campers. Three nights turned into seven before we finally packed up and headed to Moab. 

Dead Horse Point

If you haven’t been to southern Utah, especially to Moab, you really do need to update your travel plans. Our camera and phones can’t do justice to the incredible sights in this area. Dead Horse Point State Park is about as spectacular as scenery gets, and it is surrounded by Canyonlands National Park, arguably one of the gems of the national park system. Note that we could only get a camping reservation for two days, in November! The campground is usually sold out six months in advance. They are tripling the size of the campground and I’ll bet it sells out, too.

We all loved Dead Horse Point campground

Talking to the rangers, we
discovered that they hold four campsites off of the reservation system for walk-in campers. One of those sites was big enough for Ripley and might become available the day we had to leave. I made sure I was first in line to move to that site when the current tenant pulled out, so we were able to stay all week.

View from the windshield at Dead Horse Point

Filling time in Moab is not a problem, finding time is. We spent a day each at Canyonlands NP, Arches NP and Dead Horse Point, and two days in Moab. We wanted to explore the areas along the Colorado and south of town, but just never managed to get to it. Distances out there are deceiving: it’s 45 minutes each way to Moab from Dead Horse for example, which really eats up the time that we are willing to leave the dogs in the coach. We spent hours in the car but it certainly was worth it.

Ranger in charge

And I missed the peak of it

Arches NP

Our original plan was to be away from Salt Lake for a week. We stretched into two, but it really was time we headed back to get ready for Thanksgiving. It’s an easy 250 mile drive back to Salt Lake. Returning to Pony Express RV Park is now like coming home. I had the usual number of coach repairs to attend to, but nothing noteworthy or too expensive.

Liesa is enjoying her new job and they seem to be happy with her, too. She is working full time which certainly helps her finances, but her dog is clearly unhappy about it. She was able to get time off at Xmas, and will be flying to San Diego to join us and most of the family (we’ll miss you, Linda and Grant) in Hemet.

Arches, too

Thanksgiving was a little different this year. I think this is the first time in over 50 years (good grief!) that I haven’t cooked something for dinner. We decided that it didn’t make sense to cook for just the three of us and going out to dinner was much too expensive. Lee’s Market offered a complete, ready-to-eat turkey dinner with all the fixings for $89. It wasn’t my turkey, stuffing and gravy (ahem), but it wasn’t bad at all. We had the all-important leftovers for several days, too. Might do it again next year.

Canyonland NP

Colorado River through Canyonlands NP

It was getting colder in Salt Lake, and only a matter of luck that it hadn’t snowed yet. We wanted no part of snow, so we packed up on the 26th and headed for southern California. After our marathon trip across the country in 2016, I decided to limit driving to roughly 300 miles a day. We spent the first night in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Cedar City, Utah, and the second night at the Gold Strike Casino lot in Jean, Nevada. We stopped at Speedco (Jiffylube for trucks) in Las Vegas on the way to Jean to get the annual service done on the coach and generator. There were a few other RVs at Home Depot keeping us company, but I counted over 40 trucks and a dozen RVs at Jean.

Home for the night

We pulled into Tapo Canyon County Park campground in SimiValley, California, on November 28^th. It was 75° and it felt great. The week we spend in Simi is the busiest time of our whole year. We were out visiting almost every day, catching up with close friends we only get to see once a year. It is pretty tiring, but we are already looking forward to seeing everyone next year.

It turned out that the service folks in Las Vegas screwed up the generator fuel filter. It took me a while to figure out exactly what they had done and what to do about it because the access is so poor. They managed to damage the flare fitting that seals one of the fuel lines to the filter body, causing a small but steady leak. Taking it to the pros would be very expensive and we haven’t had the best of luck with them, anyway. I finally figured that I had nothing to lose by trying to fix it myself. So far the solution I came up with seems to be working.

We had planned to leave Simi on December 6, but then the smoke from the Rye fire started to pour over the hills the morning of the 5th. We knew the fire was miles away, but it was straight upwind from us and the only way out of the campground was a narrow road running through Tapo Canyon, not a route with any options. We really didn't want to spend the night worrying about it, so we called our next stop, Orangeland RV Park in Orange, California. The site we had reserved for the 6^th was open and we immediately packed up and headed south. That turned out to be a good decision. Although the fire didn’t reach Simi (yet), the freeways we used to get to Orange were closed the next day due to fire and smoke.

We stayed in Orange for three nights visiting and catching up with Ted and Judy Anderson, our friends of over 35 years, Liesa’s godparents and brand new grandparents. Phones are great and email is useful, but nothing is as good as getting together with friends over wine and dinner.

Schroeder really likes Jojoba, too

On the 8^th we arrived at Jojoba Hills Escapee Park in Aguanga, California, hoping to be able to stay through Xmas. Jojoba is one of our favorite places to visit and we were very happy to be able to get a site. Liesa arrives on the 23^rd and we’ll join the rest of the Wiklund clan in Hemet for Xmas.

Folks have asked me to add a section about our plans, so here you go:

From Jojoba we will return to Saguaro Escapees Park in Benson, Arizona. We'll stay there through the end of February or early March, depending on the weather outlook to the east. From Benson we will travel to Florida following a southerly route to stay warm. We hope to arrive on the Gulf Coast by early April.

More soon.