This blog is to document my life and adventures living full time in a motorhome. Volunteerism has always been a big part of my life. Join me as I highlight my trips, adventures, work for California Department of Technology and enjoying life with dogs.
As I look at the destination number above, I marvel at its meaning, and hopefully it will help those who might be new to my blog.
Since 2009, I have driven this motorhome has been to 91 destinations.
With all the numerous RV's I've been in during my life; I have been to 171 RV destinations.
I've been to 29 different RV destinations since I became single again.
This week finds us in Tucson Arizona as Remi and I make our way back to California. The RV park we are staying at this week is the "South Forty RV Park" in Tucson. Like just about every other RV park along the I-10 here in Arizona, it is a 55 and older park only. Though I fit into the category of being over 55, finding a park that allows dogs over 30 pounds none the less proves to be a challenge. Fortunately, this park doesn't have any size or breed restrictions. They only have concerns about aggressive individual dogs. The park is one of the cleanest ones I have ever stayed at. A lot of mature Saguaro cactuses and other plants. The roads can be a little tight to navigate, but they have someone in a golf cart that will help you to get into your spot.
Our travel day was on Sunday, this time and I decided I wanted to treat myself and Remi by going out to a restaurant that Remi could join me at. I ordered a Black and Blue Salad. Sadly, the steak that came along with it was one of the toughest I had ever eaten. I think Remi's size was scaring the waiter cuz he never came back to ask if everything was ok, or if I needed a drink refill. In fact I had to go find the bartender just to ring myself out. But that is ok, Remi's company was wonderful.
Also, today was Remi's Adopt-a-versary, so we went by Petsmart and picked her up a pup cake to celebrate! :-)
Though Tucson wasn't really what I considered a destination spot for me, I did manage to visit three locations while I was in Tucson this week. Because I had a software upgrade scheduled for Friday night and Saturday of this week, I took Wednesday off to go explore three great locations. And fortunately, I didn't have near as many challenges with "Spring Break" visitors as I did last week. Of course, that may be due to the fact that I went on Wednesday instead of Saturday or Sunday, but either way it was a win for me.
My first stop on Wednesday was a visit to Kartchener Caverns South of Tucson. I was especially looking forward to this stop because I had missed out at Carlsbad Caverns when I was in Las Cruces. I knew making this trip that dogs were not permitted at all at this State park, so I left Remi at home this day. Because of so many people dropping cell phones, binoculars, cameras and other items into the caverns in the past, the folks at Kartchener prohibit you taking anything other than your wallet, car keys and glasses (if needed for distance) into the caverns. They had a number of great exhibits in the visitors center to give you a sense on what you are going to see. The caverns DID NOT disappoint, though I think they have taken some editing license with the coloring in the caverns from what you see in real life. The caverns were beautiful, but not quite as colorful as what I saw on some pictures. None the less, this tour is very much worth while! Before you go in the caverns, there are several examples of rock quarry tools that are used in breaking up rock.
The caverns get their name from the fact that the caverns were found on the Kartchener Ranch back in the 1970's. The caverns were found by a couple of explorers who then reached out to the property owners about preserving the caverns for historical purposes. The owner of the property remarked that they are not surprised the caverns were down there because he thought the ground sounded hallow when he rode his horse over it.
Kartchener Caverns was the furthest out location that I planned to visit, the other two were along my way back to the campground. My next stop was Saguaro National Park where there is a huge reserve of Saguaro Cactus on display throughout this park. Most of the visitors center is closed still due to COVID Concerns, but, there is a great 8 mile loop drive that you can drive through the Saguaro by car or ride a bicycle. There are also a couple of trails through the park as well to walk among a few of the Saguaro, but really the best way to experience this is either by car or bicycle.
My last stop this day was the Pima Air and Space Museum. I've always heard of it, but never been to it. If you come and want to go on a tour of the "Bone Yard" where old plane go, you must go on Thursday through Sunday. The tram tour does not run on Monday through Wednesday. So, again, I missed out on that. Oh well. The rest of the museum is well worth the price of admission! The number of aircraft here has to be without equal. There are 5 hangers that have various aircraft in them, as well as a whole tarmac of various aircraft parked outside. This is a place you could easily spend 4 hours or even an entire day. The three hours I spent here were not enough for someone who grew up wanting to be a jet pilot. They had everything from a replica of the Wright flyer and just about every flying vehicle made after it.
They had a whole hanger dedicated to the B-17's which were pivotal to the battle of World War II. I didn't get any Picures of it, but I did get video so check that out below.
This is a German V-I buzz bomb. One of Hitlers many Wonder Weapons. Kind of a predecessor to a drone.
An old Lockheed Constellation, also called a Connie back in the day.
This was Air Force one that served for John F Kennedy and Lydon Bains Johnson in the 1960's.
The "Guppy" was used by NASA to transport some segments of the Saturn V rocket, that when assembled were used to fly men to the moon.
I got out and did my exploring on Wednesday of this week, primarily because I had to work on the weekend on a software upgrade. The software upgrade of this software always ages me about 10 years each time we do it because it is a three part process. Each part takes at least 2 hours to complete with a spinning wheel that gives you no idea how long the process will take. And, you don't know if somewhere along the way it is going to fail or if it is hung up. One process is notorious for taking 6 or more hours to run. In my case, it had run for 12 hours, and I reached out to tech support twice for guidance. The first time the analyst (on the night shift) said, just let it run. The next day, the analyst on the day shift took a bit more of an investigative approach on the issue and we determined that the "Indicator" was stuck on "Running" but the process had in fact completed sometime earlier. After about 38 hours straight of baby-sitting the upgrade, it was done. I still have a few cleanup issues to address, but I'll get those taken care of this next week.
Here is the video from this week's exploration and also a sampling of what the RV Park looks like.
Here is a video of the actual interior of the Kartchener Caverns.
Hard to believe it, but Remi and I have been on the road for 11 weeks since the first of the year when we departed Yreka. This week, as we continue to make our way back to California, we still are having amazing adventures. Though this week lead to some amazing destination, sadly we didn't get to exploit those adventures quite as much as we might have liked, but let me not get ahead of myself. :-)
This week, we anchored down in the New Mexico town of Anthony. The RV Park, interestingly enough is called "El Paso West RV Park", presumably because it is just west of the city of El Paso, but more on that proximity in a moment. This RV park, is the polar opposite of the RV Park Remi and I stayed at down near Houston. This one has lots of Full time residents. About half of the rigs don't look like they have rolled in 10 years at least. But, that's ok, everyone I have talked too seemed very nice, just maybe not as fortunate as some. And, there are lots of just plain working folks here that probably work minimum wage jobs just trying to get by. One thing I will say about this RV park, the water pressure will take your hide off. As a result, I put the pressure regulator on the hose so I didn't blow out my plastic pipes and cause a leak somewhere that I couldn't get too. Fortunately, any such disaster like that was averted. However, crossing from Texas to New Mexico meant that I went from Central time to Mountain time, Oh, and the day lights savings time change thrown in just to make everything interesting.
Keep in mind, I needed to always sign in and work from 7:00 AM to 4:30 PM pacific time, regardless of what the local time was. In order to keep my head glued on straight, I kept my big desk clock always on pacific time. :-) I will admit, when I was in Central time, I could sleep in until 7:00 AM and start work at 9:00 AM because Pacific time, it was just striking 7:00 AM. :-) I kind of got use to sleeping in. :-)
Now, the town of Anthony New Mexico, borders right up against Anthony Texas. These two towns probably don't mean anything to you, and I can't blame you , they didn't mean anything to me either. But, their nearest big cities are Las Cruces New Mexico and El Paso Texas. Also, the line that separates mountain time from Central time runs right along the state line. Let me tell you, as I went to various stores and stuff to do shopping or to grab a bite to eat, and return to the RV park; my phone was always changing what time it was. The RV park was in Mountain time. One day at 11:30 AM Pacific time, I took my lunch and drove to Subway. I knew I had a meeting at 1:00 PM pacific time, so I knew I had to be back by 1:00 Pacific time (2:00 PM Mountain time), which shouldn't be a problem because the Subway was only 6 minutes away. The Subway was just down the street in Anthony Texas and as I stepped away from my desk, I checked my phone and it said it was 12:32. I hoped in the car, and drove to the Subway. I got stopped at a railroad crossing for a super long freight train. Once I arrived at the Subway, and ordered my sandwich, I looked at my phone and it said the time was 1:58 PM.
WAIT, WHAT, 1:58.. OH CRAP, I'm supposed to be hosting a meeting in 2 minutes. How the heck (not the word I actually used) did that happen? That train was long, but not that long and yes I had been reading e-mail while waiting for the train to pass, but an hour??? CRAP! The blood drained from my face and I was in full panic mode. The sandwich maker saw in my face I was in distress and finished up my sandwich rang me out and sent me on my way. Of course to make things worse, I fumbled the credit card reader twice before I finally got it right. I dashed out to the car and started it. The dash clock said "12:05 PM" (The dash clock on the jeep is still in Pacific time). I'm like "What, what is going on here? (STRESS FACTOR MAXIMUM!) I am so confused. I rush back to the RV park and run into the motorhome and the desk clock says 12:13 PM. WHAT? I wanna cry. :-( I look at my phone, it says 1:13 PM... Huh??? I swear, not 20 minutes ago it said it was 1:58 PM.... "What the hell is going on?" I checked my work computer and it said 12:15 PM. So, with that, I gave up, sat down and enjoyed my sandwich. Sigh... (and the color slowly returned to my face.)
It took a while for it to dawn on me that I had traveled into Central time to go to the Subway to get my sandwich. 1:58 PM Central time was 12:58 Mountain time, or 11:58 Pacific time. "Ohhh, I get it." I'm such an idiot. :-(
The rest of the week was pretty un-eventful. I marvel at all of the different locations that Remi and I have traveled too. This area is flat plateau land with mountains to the west of it. If you can look past all of the highways and traffic and take in the scenery, it is very pretty! :-) Also, there is a jogging path just east of the RV park, Remi and I went out there twice a day to get some exercise and I can tell I'm slowly getting in better cardio shape by Remi and I getting out regularly. :-) Also, just down the road is a Camping World, I always love going into that place just to look around and see if there is anything that I MUST have. Fortunately, on this trip, I came out empty handed! :-)
Its funny, I'm not very far from White Sands which I was at earlier in the trip, but I forgot to grab a badge for my hiking stick when I was here the last time, so I was able to drive by White Sands National Park and pick up a badge since there is no telling when I will be in this part of the country again.
As Saturday arrived, I get all excited to explore a new area and some of the sites around it. This Saturday, Remi and I hit Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe mountains National Parks. I like to take Remi to as many outings as I can because so much of the week, she lays on the couch and watches me work away. I checked the internet and it said that "Dogs can not go into the caverns, but as long as it is below 70 degrees you can leave your dog in the car. Or, if you prefer, you can leave your dog in the dog kennels at the visitors center." This gave me the perfect alternative to take Remi and include her where I can. With my reservation in hand for the Cavern tour, Remi and I set out for our 2+ hour trip to Carlsbad caverns.
Once we arrived, I found cars for as far as the eye can see, and it's 9:00 AM. What is going on, Ughhh, "SPRING BREAK". Sigh. as I drive through the parking lot, saw several signs that said "Under no circumstances may dogs be left in cars un-attended..." "Uh-ohh". I was already nervous because with all the cars and people here, would there be space for Remi? Sadly, there was not. With the forecast for the day being 61 degrees, I talked to a Ranger about my plight, and he said, "Well, you are welcome to leave and come back later in the day, maybe a kennel will open up?" Great idea, except all of the tours of the caverns today are full, so if I'm going to go, it would be at my scheduled time of 9:30. Sigh.... The ranger allowed me to go into visitors center for a few minutes to check out the displays and get any souvenirs I might want, but he warned me he would check on Remi in a half hour and I should be back to the car by then. After exploring the visitors center, which is huge and very nice by the way, I returned to Remi and we went exploring around the rest of the park. Therea are lots of great pull-outs along the road to the visitors center where you can explore and Remi did our fair share. :-)
I especially liked the display shown below that showed the visitors center perspective to the caverns, The visitors center is up against the wall, those white blocks, and then you may be able to see a clear tube that depicts the elevator shaft down to the massive caverns below. I so wish I could have seen them.
As Remi and I explored the surrounding grounds at this national park we explored several trails around the park. This path took us to a trail that allowed us to look out on the Walnut Canyon which you drive up to get to the Caverns, and we also got a chance to overlook the valley below the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Our next turn out and trail hike took us to a very interesting nature made shelter area warn over the centuries by flowing water.
After we left the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Remi and I headed to the Guadalupe Mountains National park. It is a very pretty drive through this part of the country. Actually, every part of the country we have visited has a very interesting beauty all their own.
When we arrived at the Guadalupe Mountains National park, we found that we had a similar problem as at the Carlsbad Caverns.... "SPRING BREAK". There wasn't a parking space to be found, so I had to go about a 1/4 mile down the road from the gate, and park at a Stage Stop parking area. Though the ranger said it was only a 100 feet or so from the visitors center, with the 1/4 mile drive and the winding path, according to my walk-fit app, it was .51 miles to visitors center from the car, but that's ok, I can always use the exercise. :-)
As Remi and I went for a walk, we found the remains of the Butterfield Stage Stop in the area, called Pinery Station. It was interesting to see, that this station, one of many such stations that occurred every 20 miles or so, along a long route from St Louis to the pacific Ocean.
You can see in the picture below, what remains of the Pinery station that was built back in the 1800's. And, if you take a good close look at the picture, you will notice in the distance a far wall that marked the far end of the station. By looking at that, you can see just how big the station truly was.
Remi and I hiked the rest of the way up to the visitors center. I didn't think my luck was good enough to have them let Remi into the visitors center so I could buy a badge for my hiking stick, and i was right. But I stood adjacent to a line of people waiting to get in and asked "If I provide the needed money, would anyone be willing to buy me a hiking badge for my hiking stick?" The ranger standing outside said, "well, you know there are several styles that we have, so how will they know what one you want?". His helpful insight rendered my request a silent reply from the 5 people standing in line. So, I took Remi back to the jJep and then returned without her to get the badge I was in search of. Interesting... there was only one style of stick badges in the visitors center. Sigh. Oh well. At least I got my exercise in for the day! :-)
Regardless of the challenges, Remi and got to see some pretty sites around the visitor's center and enjoyed the experience very much. :-)
Here is my video for the week... This one was a lot more difficult to pull together than previous weeks because depending on which cell tower I got, my phone thought I was either in Mountain time, or Central time, and kept timestamping all my video segments very randomly. Not to worry, for your viewing enjoyment... I got them sorted. out! :-)
Here is a great video on the Carlsbad Caverns experience provided by a local travel organization.
Our next stop will be Tucson Arizona where I hope to go check out, Kartchener Caverns (definitely no dogs allowed, so Remi will be staying home that day), Pima Air and Space Museum as well as tram tour of the bone yard and Saguaro National Park to look at a huge preserve of Saguaro Cactus. So, tune in next week for that installment.
Remi and I are making our way back to California so that I will be back in compliance with the States Teleworking Policy. We made a one night stop on our way from Houston to Fort Stockton Texas in San Antonio. I've been to San Antonio before and I need to be back to California by April 1st, so I couldn't really stop in San Antonio for a week. None the less, the one night here was good. I even got to meet a friend who I've made on Facebook that is a Workcamper here at the RV park. That was a first, and it was nice to meet someone new "Face to face"! :-)
The RV park wasn't bad, though you gotta watch the slope, a couple times I almost tumbled into the neighbors site. They have been working on some of the infrastructure around here. The work out room and the pool are both in good shape! :-)
Destination number: 89/169/27
On Tuesday, the 8th of March we made our way from San Antonio to Fort Stockton Texas. The RV park calls itself a resort and RV park. I think the concept of it being a resort is a stretch, except that there are a LOT of RV Spaces that are covered, which would help to keep your RV cool in the summer time, so that the sun isn't beating directly down on the rig. Otherwise, the location is a parking lot with full hookups. however, this is the first time I've stayed somewhere that the water pressure and volume were so low. :-( But, hey, it's quiet and easy to navigate around the spots, so it was a good place to hang out for the week. No Over the air TV, so I had to hook up to the cable. Though they didn't have a dog park, they did have a drainage basin that I was able to take Remi off leach to and throw the ball for her a couple times every day. That made her happy! :-)
By the way... a dear friend of mine asked about a comment I made in my last weeks post about some RV parks only allowing RV's that are 10 years or newer into their parks. The reason is, some parks want to appeal to those who are more well-to-do. In order to do that, they want to make sure that only the nicest looking rigs are in their RV park. So, the implement this rule where your RV must be 10 years old, or newer. Though the Allegro is 19 years old, it still looks pretty good, and I was able to get in. I was not made aware of the rule when I made the reservation in Houston where this issue came up, but I was asked to sign a form when I arrived. When I saw this, I asked the manager about it, they took a look at the rig and said, my rig was just fine.
The town of Fort Stockton still has some buildings from a fort from the 1800's, called... "Fort Stockton". Unfortunately, we visited the fort on a Sunday, so the exhibits were all closed, but thankfully, there were lots of windows to look through and get a sense of the exhibits. I really enjoy checking out these old fort locations and read about life back in the 1800's. Though I don't take much joy in the purpose (Helping the white man defeat the Native American Indians.), it is still helpful to read about how they lived back then.
Just about every week, I've been breaking out the crockpot. This time, I made a really yummy roast! The Christmas after Carol and I split up, my sister Karen and I were talking about if I needed anything. I said "Yes, a Crockpot would be nice!". So, she hooked me up with a Crockpot and a cookbook and I've been cooking with it regularly. It usually leaves me with lots of tasty leftovers! :-)
On Saturday the 12th of March, Remi and I got an early start and headed down to Big Bend National park. The park gets it's name from the fact that the park (as well as the state) are bordered by the Rio Grand river, and it forms a "Big Bend" in the geography of the park, (as well as the state and the nation) where the river boarders between the US and Mexico. It was about a two hour drive from Fort Stockton to Big Bend National Park, but it is always a nice drive to see what the surrounding country side looks like. There was a lot of high desert here as we are at about 2,600 feet in elevation. There was a lot of cool Geology from the melenia of seismic thrusting and water erosion.
As always, they have a great visitors center here at Big Bend National Park. I must say, I'm very impressed with every visitors center I have been to on this trip. I'm glad to see how constructively my tax dollars are at work! :-) After checking out the visitor's center, Remi and I went on a hike near the visitors center checking out the flora and fauna! :-)
After we were done with our hike near the visitor's center, I needed to top off the gas tank. I was surprised that the price of gas at the nearby Alon gas station was 30 to 50 cents cheaper, over 120 miles south of a major interstate than up close to the interstate. The state and federal taxes were the same at both locations. Capitalism at its best!
These two shots are from the Fuel station outside the visitors center.
This is the same brand of gas 120 miles north, right off the interstate.
Our next stop was supposed to be at Dog Canyon, but it turned out that this trail did not allow dogs. I didn't want to leave Remi behind in the car for a protracted amount of time, so I went on a brief hike to see how close I could get. I only left her in the car for about 5 minutes and quickly returned because even at 58 degrees with the windows open 2 inches, I didn't want her to get too warm. As you can see though, the canyon gets its name from the dog-leg shape in it.
When we were done at Big Bend National park, we headed back towards Fort Stockton. Remi and I took a bit of a side trip to Fort Davis which was slightly west of the original path we had gone down.
Fort Davis was very interesting. There were still a few buildings still standing from when they were built in the mid-1800's. Every weekend day, at 2:00 PM, they do a demonstration with gentlemen dressed as infantrymen from the 1800's. It was a very fascinating historical presentation. There were probably about 50 or so folks there to listen to the presentation and see their demonstrations. The gentleman who did the presentation was quite the historian talking about how and why the forts were established and how they allowed the US Government to establish and expand the frontier as the nation expanded west-ward. Though the history parallels what is going on today in Europe, there was a family there with young children who sought out a ranger I had been talking to after the presentation to ask why the historical presenter had to talk about the Native Americans being displaced by the military. The ranger very politely explained that what was presented was true and factual, and that they are just presenting history. The parent was concerned that their children might have difficulty processing all this new information. The Ranger later explained to me this happens all the time.
Here is a fun little demo video that they provided the visitors a link too.
There were a lot of great exhibits throughout this fort. We were able to walk through one of the old Barracks buildings as well as one of the officers' quarters and even parts of the Post Hospital. This area back in here was really beautiful and even if there were no artifacts back here to check out, just the backdrop was amazing.
This is the officers quarters.
I had not realized how much "Frontier Medicine" had made such advancements in Medicine over history. But I guess it stands to reason that severely adverse conditions would dictate advancements in medicine.
I have truly enjoyed every single national park that I have visited on this trip, and there are still more to see. If you have the opportunity to visit any of our national parks, please make a point to do so, as they are so worth while. Though I am headed back to California, there are still National Parks for me to visit on the way, and I'm going to do my best to make the most of each and every visit.
Here is the video from this last weeks adventures.
