#45 - Coveys Great Adventure – May 2018 – PA, NY, MA, CT, NH

May 2018 – PA, NY, MA, CT, NH  

April’s frantic pace continued into May. Seven campgrounds in five states made another very hectic month.  

In 2016 we visited Fort Sumter where the Civil War started, and in April we toured Appomattox where it ended. One of our main goals this trip was to see Gettysburg, the turning point of the war.




Pine Grove Furnace State Park in Gardners, Pennsylvania is really nice. The Appalachia Mountain Trail runs through the park and the Trail museum is located there. The park had just opened for the season and we had the place almost to ourselves during the week. With the A.T. running right through, hiking and dog walking were terrific. The only negative was the complete lack of cell service for miles in any direction. About 20 miles from Gettysburg, the park is centrally located to also tour Mechanicsburg, York, and the river towns of Lemoyne, Wormsleyburg and Enola. If you are in the area, the York Agricultural and Industrial Museum is worth a visit.

I have read about the battle at Gettysburg for decades, but I wasn’t prepared for the impact of the place. If ghosts do exist, many of them must live there. The amount of blood shed on those hills is almost incomprehensible to me. The town of Gettysburg is a marked contrast to the sobering memorials that surround it. There is so much to see and to try to understand that we came back a second day and could have easily filled a third. If we hadn’t been pressed for time to get back for the dogs, we would have spent more time enjoying the many shops and historic buildings.

Camp Elmbois was a real find

Neither of us knew anything about the Finger Lakes region in central New York. We wanted to see the Corning Glass Museum and I picked Camp Elmbois because of the moderate cost and proximity to Corning. It turned out to be a gem. It’s a small campground that has been slowly developed over decades by two generations of one family. We were the first campers of the season to arrive and the resident owners couldn’t have been more accommodating. No AT&T cell service and no TV, but lots of grass to walk the dogs and two ponds with a resident flock of geese for the dogs to pine for.

I’ve probably been to dozens of museums in the past 10 years because I like them. The Corning Museum of Glass is the best curated museum I’ve ever seen. Each aspect of every exhibit is flawless. The layout, lighting, mounting, accessibility and even the labeling were meticulously done. Their collection is so big that the 10,000 objects on display at any time represents about 10% of the material available. The glass technology exhibits are also exceptional. I wish we’d had the time to spend two days there.

Hammondsport turned out to be one the best places we have visited on this 

trip. It is the archetypal “small town on a lake”, with many lovely, immaculately maintained older homes and no fast food chains allowed!  If you go, plan to visit the Village Inn; the bar is a great place to while away the evening.

1911: First amphibian; first retractable
landing gear,first dual-control trainer

Hammondsport is also home to two great small museums: the Glenn Curtis Museum and the Finger Lakes Boating Museum. Curtis is considered by many to be the true father of flight rather than the Wright Brothers. The museum is an eclectic collection of Curtis memorabilia and lots of “stuff” from the local area. One of the highlights is touring the restoration shop where they are working on a WWll P40 fighter that they resurrected from a swamp.

The Finger Lakes Boating Museum was recently gifted by the old Taylor Winery property and is expanding as quickly as they can into twenty buildings that they now own. This region was one of the major pleasure boat building centers in the world from the 1900’s to the early ‘60’s when fiberglass displaced wood construction. The museum has many fine examples by the dozens of small and large boat builders working in the lakes area. Like the Curtis restoration shop, the Boating Museum also has a large work shop and offers many boat building classes. If we lived there, I’d be an avid student.

Bully Hill Winery Art

Did I mention wine? There are literally hundreds of wineries in this region turning out many award winning varietals. We only managed to visit two of them. Fortunately, we can only carry a few cases, so restraint was called for.

From Hammondsport we headed to Cape Cod, but decided to spend a few days in central Massachusetts to break up the drive into manageable chunks. It’s been 45 years since I spent time in this area. In those days my focus was on racing motorcycles, but this time around the beauty of the area really struck both of us. Travelers Rest RV Campground in Bernardston gave us a good base to explore the small towns like Greenfield and Deerfield that dot the area.

The improving economy is evident in the growing number of RV’s that we see on the road  compared to our 2016 trip. It is getting harder to find camp sites, especially when we don’t like to make reservations too far in advance. For people with jobs and families, Memorial Day marks the start of summer vacation and travel season. We wanted to spend a couple of weeks on Cape Cod but soon realized that we were several months late in our planning. Every place we called was booked for the Memorial Day weekend.

We were able to get space for four nights at Scusset Beach State Park, right on the Cape Cod Canal, but had to leave Friday morning to make way for the holiday campers. Scusset Beach was more expensive than any state park we have been to, but the location was pretty great. We walked the dogs along the canal as far as we wanted every day, and talked to the fisherman casting for striped bass in the canal.

I haven’t been to the Cape in over 50 years and it certainly has changed. Many year round residents rent out their houses for the summer and move off the Cape rather than deal with the traffic and crowding everywhere. I’m glad we couldn’t get reservations on the Cape for Memorial Day weekend as it marks the start of “the season”. Judging by the traffic we saw Friday morning coming over the bridge from the mainland, I am glad we were leaving. The back-up was already over five miles long at 9 AM! 

We did have a great time, though. We spent a day driving all the way to Provincetown on the very tip of the Cape, and climbed the Pilgrim Monument tower. The hike was certainly worth it for the panoramic views of the town and the bay. The pilgrims actually landed at Provincetown five weeks before their famous landing at Plymouth. It’s hard to grow crops in sand, which P-town has in abundance.

We spent another day at Hyannis and Hyannis Port, took a harbor tour, visited the Kennedy Museum and ate great fish ‘n chips on the wharf where the fishing boats dock. I can’t imagine what the crowds must be like in July, but in May we had a ball; great weather and no crowds anywhere. If you plan to visit the Cape, go in May.

Four days weren't long enough to even scratch the surface of all the great places to visit on the Cape, but we had to leave. Luckily, one of the parks that we had called to get reservations for Mem-Day had a last minute cancellation, sparing us a holiday weekend in Walmart parking lots. That was the good news; the bad news was that it was really expensive and in Connecticut. Beggars and choosers, etc., so off we went to see what Griswold, CT had to offer.

Countryside RV Park is another family owned and operated park. Family owned parks are usually great places to stay, but all reflect the personalities of the owners in small ways. Our coach was clearly the largest one they could handle, but with careful maneuvering we settled into a spacious site for the weekend. Like Camp Elmbois, the same family has been developing this park for almost 50 years. The showers had been “updated” several times, way beyond the point when they should have been torn down and replaced, but aside from that it was fine. There were a few trails in the woods that the dogs enjoyed, too.

We had a day to kill before we were expected at Casa Kendrick. A quick search and a phone call confirmed that Camp Wally World (Walmart) in Lunenburg, Massachusetts was accepting guests. One of the motocross tracks that I raced on in the ‘60’s was in Lunenburg, but I couldn’t recall anything about the town. In those days all I was interested in was getting to the track in time for practice. The Walmart lot was not packed with truckers running refrigeration units and had a reasonable amount of grass for the dogs, so we all had a good night.

We have been looking forward to seeing Charlie and Mollie Kendrick again for two years. Faithful readers will remember our last visit with them in 2016 when we set out together for the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Their coach broke down i Maine and while waiting for parts we got a call from Liesa that sent us back to Utah at a hectic pace. Rolling back into “our” spot at their place in Campton, New Hampshire felt like we had finally closed the circle. On June 25, we’ll once again set out together for New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Quebec City.

#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.