What the heck? I thought we were in Arizona?!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this picture is the exception.  It's what you can't see that actually tells the story.  You can't see the wind that is howling at about 40 mph.  You can't see the mountains in the distance, that are there, and absolutely beautiful.  You can't see the snow, that has been falling for an hour or so now, and you can't see the temperature, which is in the low 30s and is expected to bottom out at 14°.  Welcome to Arizona.

We left El Paso Tuesday and hit the road for Benson, Arisona.  We are staying at  an Escapees RV Park here for a week.  The Escapees is an RV club that we belong to, a lot of whose members are full time Rvers, like us. My Escapees friends are the ones who usually post comments on my blog (Thank you!).  We arrived yesterday and I was so tired I actually took a nap.  We had gotten up early so we could try and get to Benson before the wind kicked up too much, and we did actually beat it.  

At happy hour, there was a Polar Bear Party at the clubhouse, serving frozen Mudslides.   While we were there we met Loralie and Lee, finally!  We've been pretty much following 2 steps behind them for the last few months, so it was great to be able to finally catch up to them for a bit!  I'm sure we'll be spending some time with them both here, and in Yuma in the coming weeks.  We were also chatting with another couple, discussing our recent adventures, and realized that they had been parked next to us while were were at Guadalupe National Park.  What a small world!  They like to hike quite a bit, so we are hoping to get together with them some day, and go for a hike.  If the snow ever stops.

Caves and Mines (El Paso, 12-23-10)



Hiking to the Aztec Caves

 



In the last couple of days Paul and I have done several hikes in Franklin Mountain State Park.  We hiked up to what's called Aztec Caves, but I don't know why they are called that.  Getting there wasn't too bad, a little steep, but once we explored the caves, Paul went around them, to go up the trail further.  I told him I might wait for him, which I did for a couple of minutes, then got bored and started to follow him.  Around the side of the cave was all rock, and really steep.  I managed to make it to the top (much to Paul's surprise- when he came back and found me there.) I thought I had gone the way he did, but it turns out the way I went was much steeper and more difficult. Oh well, no wonder why I was nervous the whole time.     

The challenge of a steep trail



Inside the tin mine



Yesterday's hike to the tin mines- supposedly the only ones in the U.S.- was much longer and more challenging. In the end, we hiked about 8 miles, and I can't wait to have my GPS so I'll know more accurately how far we hiked, and how much elevation gain we had. It was our favorite kind of hike- physically challenging without a huge possibility of getting hurt, with a destination of interest. There were several openings to the mine that we (he) could explore.   After leaving the mines, we made a big loop so that we returned on a different trail, which led us past several outcroppings of rock that contained a few fossils.   We were beat by the end of the day, but in a good way.

Today is Christmas Eve and Paul is fixing a few more things around the house before we head to the store for a few last minute items.  Its tacos and Margaritas tonight for a Christmas Eve celebration!









    





Eclipse

my best pictures of the eclipse last night.  We had to get up at 1 AM, but it was worth it.  The skies were clear and the temperatures were reasonably warm.

Hiking Franklin Mountain, El Paso, TX (12-18-10)

Since we've been in El Paso, I have been trying to stay active by walking down and back up the hill that Paul's mom lives on.  Its a 2 mile hike straight down, then 2 miles straight up. I try to find something I need to buy at the store, to make it feel like I have a purpose.


View from the ridge

   Yesterday though, Paul and I took off to go hiking in Franklin Mtn State Park.  The trails here are not that well marked or maintained, but we did make it to the ridge, which was almost straight up.  I felt like we were mountain goats, and there were a lot of times I didn't want to turn around and look down.  I just kept climbing.  Once we got to the ridge, we were supposed to walk along it to get to a higher peak.  However, within 3 minutes the wind had almost knocked me over twice, and the windchill factor was not at all pleasant.  We elected to turn back and head down the mountain.  In the end, we only hiked about 2 hours, but since it was straight up, I felt like we got a bit of a workout.   Once we left there, we did more more shopping, although we had already bought, wrapped and shipped the kids' gifts.  Paul already has his gift from me, which is one of those "does everything"  multi-purpose tools- apparently it saws, grinds etc.
My gift will be a handheld GPS, which we ordered but we have to pick it up in Tucson AZ.  I have been wanting to try geocaching and there are a lot of times, like yesterday, when I would love to know how far we hiked and how much elevation we gained.  Yes, its a toy, I guess, but it isn't big, and it doesn't weigh much, so we can have it in the trailer!   I really wanted the Garmin, but you have to buy the Topo maps separately, which for us, since we would need maps for most of the country, would be about a $1000 investment.
Delorme's GPS isn't as user friendly, but its only $30 a  year for access to ALL their maps.  So, we'll buy it and try it out and have 30 days to return it.

El Paso, TX (12-15-10)

    Well, we left Guadalupe Mountains a couple of days ago and arrived in El Paso and since we've been here, life has been a whirlwind of activity.  We actually had a list of things that needed to get done, so that we could do the most time sensitive things first.  We wanted to order several things online and since we'll only be here for 2 weeks, we had to do that early to make sure we get them in time.  Then of course we had to buy the kids' Christmas gifts so we could get them shipped.  We did that and shipped them yesterday.  My passport expired, so I renewed that today.   There is a lot of paperwork stuff that we have been working on, since we have great (and secure) internet.  Plus, Paul has started on the list of projects that his mother had ready for him.  He's working through the list at a pretty good clip.
   The day we got here was the most stressful. Although we got here early in the day, we are storing the Everest, so we had to empty the refrigerator, and take everything with us that we'll need for the next 2 weeks.  The trailer is having an issue, which is what stressed Paul the most.  In August, Keystone, the trailer manufacturer added some struts to one side of the trailer  because the floor was sagging, and we began to notice the same thing happening to the other side now- and its near the refrigerator, so that is sagging, as well as our main slide.  Hopefully it's a reasonably easy fix, and Keystone has said that they will work with us on it.
   We'll be here for Christmas and will head for Arizona a few days afterwards.

Guadalupe National Park, TX (12-11-10)

December 11, 2010




         We have passed by Guadalupe National Park, TX several times in our travels and this time I wanted to stop in and check it out. The “campground” is interesting- it’s essentially a parking lot with wide spaces. We filled our tank with water and we are running on battery while we are here. The ranger suggested that we take it one night at a time because the winds kick up pretty fierce here, up to 70 mph and he said that when they do, its pretty uncomfortable. Our first night here was pretty nasty, but luckily the winds calmed down by morning, and have been fine ever since.
       Since we got here early in the day Friday, we did a 4.5 mile hike to a place called Devil’s Hall. It was in a canyon, and there was one part that’s called the hiker’s natural staircase that was pretty cool. Other than that it was good exercise with some nice views. We found out after the fact that had we kept going a little further, we would have entered into the territory of the local mountain lion. Although we didn’t catch a glimpse of him, we have seen some elk, Javelina, and some mule deer- one of which had the biggest set of antlers I’ve ever seen on a deer.



sea shell fossil



We were using that hike to sort of gear up for Saturday’s hike, which was 8.5 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain, and was challenging for a variety of reasons. First, the trail was loose rocks almost all the way up the trail, which is the most difficult terrain for my foot right now. Luckily I had pumped myself full of my prescription pain killer, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I am still ramping back up with the hiking, so I’m not in the shape I was before the surgery. On top of that, we forgot that we are at an elevation of 5000 ft- plus the 2000, so we ended up at 7000 ft by the end of the day. Our bodies are not acclimated to that so we were huffing and puffing a bit by the end. All in all we did ok though.

      Guadalupe National Park is home to a Permian Reef. The seashore was here 250 million years ago, and as it disappeared, it left behind a lot of fossils. We saw quite a few of them along the trail. It’s always nicer to do a hike if there is something of interest to see along the way.

      Today’s hike was 4.5 miles to an old lodge that was built in the 1930s. I can’t even imagine having such a remote cabin, but to each his own I guess. A park ranger happened to arrive just after we did, and he opened up the cabin and let us in so we could look around. He told us that in it’s day it was state of the art, and the owner used it as his “party house”. We had lunch on the back porch and were joined by another couple. While chatting, we discovered that they are full time Rv’ers as well, and have been for 9 years. It’s always interesting to hear people’s stories- if they full time, how they travel etc. Some people spend a long time in one place, some people move quite a bit, like we do.

        One of the things that Paul and I enjoy are the people we meet along the way. This morning we met up with “the guy from Wisconsin”. Paul met him in the campground yesterday. He is staying in his SUV- no tent, just the car. He has a small cook stove and a sleeping bag. He has some interesting theories about vapor trails from planes actually being something being sprayed down to earth. Anyway, this morning he had his binoculars out, and we stopped to ask what he was watching. It turned out he was watching some elk, so we spent a few minutes chatting with him and watching elk. The people next to us are also from Michigan, but they only travel a few months of the year.

       When we were in Monahan Sandhills we met a neat couple from Alaska. They were both young, and retired from public service jobs. She was a police officer, but I am not sure what he did. They were the kind of people that you click with right away and the conversation just keeps going. They travel about 8 months a year, to escape the long winters in Alaska. They are also avid hikers and she has a cool saying- “motion is lotion”- she likes to keep her body moving. While at that campground we also met the campground host- or should I say hostess. Her rig is bigger than ours and her story is sadder than ours. She and her husband were fulfilling his dream of full timing, but his cancer had returned so he has been back in Kansas undergoing treatment for months, and she is doing all the traveling, hosting, and driving, while she waits for him to return to her. She hopes that will happen in January. Everyone has their own unique story, but the common idea seems to be that they are all trying to live their lives to the fullest. Not a bad idea.




Hiking the Permian  Reef trail



Monahans, TX (12-9-10)

     The small town of Monahans TX,  population about 7,000 has a different problem than most towns and cities in this country right about now.  There are plenty of jobs here, but not enough housing. Jobs go unfilled because there are no available houses and apartments.  In fact, we checked, and there are only 3 houses for sale in this town.  I am not sure why no one builds more houses, but I guess there must be a reason.

    We are staying at Monahans Sandhills State Park, which has amazing sand dunes.  We have seen the most amazing sunsets the last two nights.  In fact, I heard that photographers come here from all over to photograph the sunset and I can see why. 
    This afternoon we went for a walk on the sand dunes.  Walking in sand is very tiring but fun, especially since the weather was perfect for it.  The Visitors Center has snow saucers that you can rent to go "sledding" down the slopes, but we didn't do it because the weather has been too dry lately, and the sand is not as hard packed as  you would need for a fast run.  It's similar to snow- if its soft and fluffy, you sink into it ( Paul's foot disappeared at one point!) but you'll fly down the hill fast if it's hard packed.

Where's Waldo

My version of "where's Waldo", or for us pre-Waldo folk, it's one of those pictures that has hidden pictures in it that you have to find and circle.   I was going to post this yesterday but didn't have fast enough internet.So the question is: how many deer are in each picture?

Internet- or lack thereof...



Sunset at Monahans Sandhills State Park, TX



Well, it took me about 15 minutes to upload this one picture, but I thought it was worth it. It hasn't been altered~ that's the sunset that we saw last night.  We have moved further across Texas and are at Monahans Sandhills State Park.  There isn't much in the way of hiking trails here, the ranger said, "Yeah, just climb as many sand dunes as you want."  We are going to head out and go for a walk in a bit.  The cat has been going a little crazy with all this sand around.  He keeps thinking he sees something moving- sometimes its the sand, sometimes its his shadow,so he has been chasing ghosts in the sand.  I got some cute video of him doing that and I might try to post it when we get better internet.

In the meantime, I did have some pictures to post, but those will have to wait, as well.



    While we were in Jacksboro, Paul and I went into the town of Loving Texas, population 300.  Its where his dad was born and part of the reason we came this way was so that Paul could visit the cemetary, where several of his relatives are buried.  The last time he was here was about 40 years ago and his great uncle had a store here.  The store is gone now, as is his great grandfather's house, so that was a little disappointing.



~38~

That's how many deer we saw this evening while driving through the state park we're staying in.

We are working our way across Texas, having left Hot Springs a couple of days ago.  We are trying to stay mostly in state parks, since we just bought the yearly pass and want to make sure we get our money's worth. Plus, I am trying to get more hiking done, and sometimes the state parks are a good place to do that.
Right now we're outside of Dallas, in a small town called Jacksboro.  Tomorrow we're going to a town called Loving.  Its the town that Paul's dad is from.

Hot Springs, Arkansas




walkway to the 7th floor of the Arlington Hotel

 

   Whenever possible, Paul and I have decided we love to adhere to the 2-2-2 rule.  That is, travel no more than 200 miles a day, finish driving by 2 pm, and stay 2 nights.  Once we left Memphis, it was a little over 200 miles to get to Hot Springs, and we got there early enough in the day so that we could do some exploring.  We checked out the National Park Visitors Center which is in a restored bath house and is a museum of sorts, giving people an idea of how the bath houses operated back in the early 1900s.



Yesterday was one of those absolutely perfect days.  The weather was perfect- about 65 degrees and sunny and everything went just how we wanted it to go.  We started off by hiking about 6 miles or so in Hot Springs National Park.  Basically we walked through the woods, over the hill and into the town.  This trail actually ends at the 7th floor of a hotel! The hotel is built into the hillside and at the7th story, there is a walkway.  That's also where the pool and hot tub are. If we had only known, we'd have brought suits. 



      We ate lunch in town (another strange thing to do on a hike) before trekking the 3 miles back over the hill.  Once there, we got the truck and drove it back to the Arlington Hotel.  By this time it was 4 pm and at 4:30 there was going to be Christmas caroling in the hotel lobby.  The lobby is huge and set up with small bar tables, so Paul and I ordered Margaritas and waited for the music.  The hotel really does it up nice, providing free refreshments- coffee, hot chocolate, cookies, etc.  The music was great- they handed out song sheets so everyone could sing along.

      After the music died down we headed outside.  The hotel is right in the middle of the town, where all the shops are and it was "Gallery Walk" night, which means all the stores stayed open later.  We strolled around the town, wandering in and out of stores, and also got to see the town Christmas lights light up.  We never did eat dinner that night.

So, Hot Springs is, of course, known for its hot springs.  They were used years ago therapeutically, mostly before the modern  medicines and antibiotics we have now.  The water, when it comes up to the surface from deep in the earth, is about 140 degrees and about 4000 years old.  Its full of minerals that are supposed to be good for you.  Obviously the water has to be cooled down to a usable temperature, but its illegal to cool it with non-hot springs water.  Many of the springs have been capped to protect them, and the government controls the water, supplying the bath houses and anyone else who wants to drink the water.  The bath houses are all in a row on the same street. Beautiful old buildings. There are also several dispensing fountains throughout the town, and everyone is free to fill up whatever containers they bring. 

      Our venture into a Bath House took place this afternoon, after going for a long walk in  a local state park.  We chose to keep it simple and just utilize the main "hot tub" rooms at one of the bath houses.  They have 4 huge hot tubs, all set to different temperatures and you can move from tub to tub as much as you want.  That really is the simple route.  The bath houses mostly cater to people who want private massages, tub soaks  and whatever, but I wasn't really interested in going that route.

The weather here has spoiled us and caused us to change our plans for our next destination.  Well, actually, the weather forecast for Oklahoma City did that.  The temperatures there will be in the 20s at night, with possible snow on Tuesday, so we are bypassing OK and heading for the Dallas area instead.

Memphis Tennessee



Duck Walk at the Peabody



   Day 2 of Memphis.  Somehow I was just as interested in seeing the "Peabody Ducks" as I was in seeing anything else in Memphis.  The Peabody Ducks ride down the elevator in the very sophisticated Peabody Hotel every morning at 11 am.  They run down a red carpet towards the waiting water fountain, where they spend the next 6 hours before repeating the red carpet run back to the elevator and up to their temporary (3 months) home.  We lined up, along with about 50 school children, to wait for the ducks to arrive. The Duck Master explains the history, then rides up the elevator to retrieve the ducks. He warns the audience to snap pictures as soon as the elevator doors open, because the ducks do not Walk down the red carpet.  They run. Boy was he right.  I took a movie of the "walk" and was barely able to blink before they were in the fountain. After the Duck Walk, a high school choir sang Christmas carols and it was quite lovely.

    Once we watched the 3 second show duck show, we headed over to the main attraction of Memphis.  Part of me didn't really want to go see "Graceland", just because. But I also figured it's a once in a life time experience.  And after seeing it, it will be.  Once in a life time, that is.

    There were two sort of opposing impressions that I got at Graceland.  My first impression was that  the house was not what I expected.  I was expecting a very fancy, huge mansion, and really, Graceland looks more like a home.  It is still decorated in the style of the 1970s, complete with shag rugs.  The rooms are big, but they aren't enormous. None of the private rooms upstairs are open to tours, but the downstairs and all the out buildings are.  Graceland sits on 13 acres and has a stable for the horses and a building just for playing racquetball, as well as other buildings. 
By the time we left, I was tired of the seemingly dozens of little museums with their attached gift shops. Which leads to my second impression.  WAY over done. And overpriced.  The house and grounds tour was kind of neat, seeing Lisa Marie's swing set, which looked like the same one I had growing up.  But there was one museum for his cars, one museum for his clothes, one museum dedicated to the year 1968, his two private planes etc etc.  It was all those added on features that were too much. 
Although there is not much information there that focuses on Elvis's private life (only one wedding picture that I could see), I still came away with a better understanding of him and the impact he had on his generation. I just missed the "Elvis" generation growing up.  Of course I knew who he was and liked his music, but I was more in the Rolling Stones/Beatles generation.
Yesterday we left Memphis and landed in Hot Springs Arkansas.

Memphis TN

Home of Elvis Presley, some of the best BBQ in the country, and the birthplace of Rock and Roll.  Oh, and the original owner of Piggly Wiggly lived here, although he didn't own the store for long.  He lost it and went bankrupt about a year after he opened the first store.

   I am not a huge Elvis fan.  I like his music well enough, but was never interested in all the hoopla about him personally.  And yet we will visit Graceland tomorrow.  Today we found Beale Street, which is "the" street in Memphis. A lot of the action is there, with lots of restaurants and live music. This morning we visited Sun Studios, where Elvis and Johnny Cash both got their start.  It was interesting to realize that Elvis was only 18 when he started recording songs here, although it would take a couple of years for his style to develop into something that caught on like wildfire.  As part of the tour they play recordings of some of the early recording sessions, back when they were live, and every band member was in the room together. Ray Orvis was among the people who recorded here. In fact, this studio saw many, many stars come through the doors over the years.  It is still used as a recording studio at night, and many big names like to record songs here, looking for the good "karma".   It was a small building with a lot of history attached to it.

        After strolling down Beale Street and eating lunch at one of the many BBQ places, we headed to the Pink Palace, a museum housed in a mansion originally owned by  Clarence Saunders, the owner of the original Piggly Wiggly.  There is a full scale replica of his first store in the museum.  I was amazed to see some of the brand names on the shelves: Procter and Gamble, Ivory Soap, Bertolli, Quaker Oats, Kellogg, and Lea and Perrin. Clarence never lived in the home, since he lost everything to bankruptcy before it was finished.  On Tuesday afternoons, admittance to the museum is free, so we saved $20 by coming today instead of tomorrow! 





Rend Lake, IL



Sunset over Rend Lake



    Sadly it was time to leave Jessica and Muncie Indiana.  Next time we go to visit the kids, we'll have to do it at a time of year that is warmer, so we can stick around longer.  We had a great visit with her, and made some decisions about the wedding, including the DJ and the venue (Waldenwood, for those of you familiar with it).

    After driving 300 miles, we landed at Rend Lake in Illinois, which is a really pretty area.  Since the weather warmed up a little and the sun was going to shine,  we decided to stay an extra night and spend a day biking.  It was a cool but beautiful sunny day. We spent most of the day biking but we checked out the local artisans shop as well. I was really impressed with everything they had for sale there, so I guess its a good thing we have no room for anything!  Once we got back to the trailer we built a huge fire and watched the sunset. 

We closed up the campground on our own.  We were the only ones there, and they closed for the season the day we left.  Today we drove the 250 miles to Southaven Mississippi, just outside Memphis TN, and we'll be here for a few days.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Muncie, IN

As I type this I realize that once again I blew it.  We have been in Muncie for 2 days, had dinner with Jess and David, her fiance, twice, and I don't have any pictures to show for it! When I am with people I forget to get the camera out. I did take more pictures of Jess when she was trying on her wedding dress though.  It's been a busy 2 days. We spent some time at Jess's apartment with her and her roommates and played some games after dinner.  Yesterday we cooked for David and Jess at the trailer.
   Today it's pouring rain but its about 15 degrees above normal, so at least it isn't snow.   We are going to do some shopping- Jess has to work until 10:30 pm.  Tomorrow we all leave bright and early for Michigan.  I have a doctor's appointment and Jess is coming so that she can take a look at our favorite potential wedding venues before making a decision.

Morgantown, WV

   Hiking in the fall does present a few challenges.  First of all, it's cold outside.  It's been in the low 40s the last two days. Hiking on rocky terrain with leaves on top is another challenge, especially when the leaves are wet, as they were today.  It's also hunting season, which could be pretty challenging, I would think.  We are hiking in the safety zone, but I hope all the deer hunters know that! Every once in a while we can hear shots in the distance. Poor Bambi.


Rock City, Coopers Rock State Forest



        We pulled off the road 2 days ago because the name "Coopers Rock State Forest" sounded intriguing, and we decided to stay for a few days because there is some hiking to be done here, and because we are in Morgantown, home of West Virginia University, so we thought we'd stick around and explore the town.

Our hiking in the forest led us to an old iron furnace that was built in the early 1800s and was used for about 40 years.  Our other destination was Rock City, which was more interesting to me.  There were interesting rock formations, with deep crevices and lots of nooks and crannies.  All in all we hiked about 5 miles today and it felt really good to push it a bit.

Gettysburg, PA



Paul, me and Steve in Gettysburg



Gettysburg was what I call a "Twofer".  Two for the price of one, so to speak.  We got to do sightseeing here but we also got to visit a friend, so we won on both counts.  We met up with Steve, a good friend of mine from high school, and spent the day  at a museum, and viewing the Gettysburg battlefield.

  Viewing the battlefield doesn't really describe what we did very well. The battlefield here was absolutely enormous and we drove around all afternoon checking out different areas.  The Battle at Gettysburg lasted 3 days-July 1-3, 1863, and was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.  A total of about 165,00 men fought here and about 40,000 men were killed or injured. General Lee was in charge of the Confederate army and at one point in the fighting, it seemed as though they would be the victors.  Unfortunately for them, on the 3rd day of fighting, they advanced across an open field, making several tactical errors along the way, and their troops were decimated  by the Union Army.  Soon after, it was clear that the Union Army would win the day but at a huge cost on both sides.



This wall was as far as the confederates got before essentially
giving up the fight and withdrawing. 

        Left behind afterwards were over 20,000 injured men, that were cared for by a town of only 2500 residents. Most public buildings and many private ones were used as hospitals and the townspeople, including children,  did what they could for the injured soldiers in the weeks following the battle.

      The amount of information here is overwhelming and the stories are endless.  There are over 1300 monuments in this area, all representing something important to someone. One blog entry can't really adequately convey what I have learned about the war, the battle and the people, and I was only here for 2 days!

    Today we took a tour of the Shriver home.  The Shrivers lived here during the civil war.  Mr. Shriver was away serving in the Union army and his wife and two young daughters were left alone in the family home.   As the town started buzzing with the information that the confederate army was closing in, Mrs Shriver decided to take her daughters to her parent's farm outside of town, where she thought they would be safer. Unfortunately it turned out that some of the fiercest fighting took place at the farm, and the farmhouse was quickly made into a makeshift hospital, exposing her and her children to the horrors of the war first hand.  Meanwhile their house in town was taken over by Confederate sharpshooters and although no damage was deliberately done to the house, holes were punched through the bricks, (to shoot out of) there are many bullets still in the walls, and bloodstains are still on the floors.

   Of course I have known about the "Gettysburg Address" since I was a child, but only vaguely, as a speech given by President Lincoln during the Civil War.  After the battle at Gettysburg, the North wanted a proper burial for their lost soldiers so the bodies were all moved to a  new cemetery.  President Lincoln was invited to attend the dedication and say a few words, and on November 14,  came to Gettysburg and gave his famous "Address".  The war didn't end until April of 1865, and President Lincoln was assasinated just 2 weeks later.

...♫...on the trail again....♫.

Boy did it feel good to start hiking again.  We did a 3.5 mile hike today, which isn't much, but its a start. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the high 50s- perfect.  My foot handled it ok, but I am tired.  It's been so long since I've been active, and I have lots of "restaurant" pounds to take off.  It was even warm enough to have a fire when we got back to the trailer.  We are at a campground on the PA, NJ, NY border.  Its nothing to write home about, but there are not many campgrounds open this late in the season this far north.

The hike we did was in High Point State Park NJ, which contains, of course, the highest point in New Jersey. There is a Veteran's Memorial at the top of the hill, but strangely enough (since it's Veteran's Day) it wasn't open. Tomorrow we leave here, but we have no idea where we are headed.  Maybe Gettysburg?
       I have spent the last couple of days playing with my "new" phone.  Its been about 10 years since I've really had a brand new phone.  Somehow someone always wants the latest and greatest (Iphone etc) and I get the castoffs.  Usually I don't really care, and thats true this time as well.  My son had a nice smart phone, a vast improvement over my old flip phone. I got to have his phone because of a dilemma he had.  As he said, its similar to when I married Paul, who, at the time, had been working for Ford for 20 years.  Unfortunately when we got married, my car was a  Buick.  He was patient, and waited a few months, but then said it was a little difficult to have a Buick in his driveway, and all the neighbors were teasing him unmercifully.  Since my new car was a brand new Taurus, I didn't complain too much.
       Well, Stephen started his new job with Verizon Wireless, and has been leaving his AT&T phone at home gathering dust. He has no need of a personal phone and in fact it's annoying having two phone numbers, so he gave me his phone and made the move to Verizon.  Of course he is trying to recruit us, but we'll be under contract for quite a while yet.

the view from our window that we never wanted to see...

I guess the good news is that apparently West Virginia, our original destination for last week, got even more snow than we did.  We were originally going to leave MA this morning, but we had decided to stay 2 more days so we could spend tomorrow with Stephen since he has the day off.
Looking out the window this morning, and watching the trees bend in the breeze, I am sure glad we did!
   Its always bittersweet to come home.  I love being here and we have spent a lot of time with friends and family, but the time always feels too short, I never want to leave, and its so crammed with activity, that we are officially exhausted and heartily sick of eating out!  I am thinking that the next time we come, we should try to stay for a month, so we can spend more quality time with everyone.
    We spent some time this week getting Stephen moved into his new apartment, taking advantage of the truck to pick up a new bed and some furniture for him.  Its been a lot of driving for Paul, since Foxboro, the town we are staying in is not all that close to where my friends and family live.  In fact the other night we went out with friends and ended up spending the night at their house rather than drive the hour back to the trailer.
   Yesterday we played tourist and headed to Patriot Place- home of the New England Patriots.  We picked up Stephen and his friend Al and first headed to a restaurant in the complex, to eat lunch and watch the Patriots play.  Unfortunately we watched them lose, but it was still fun to be at Patriot Place to see the game.



View from the CBS Bar- we could see the game on the jumbotron as well as all the TVs.



    After lunch we headed to the "Hall"- a museum full of Patriots memorabilia and interactive exhibits.  It was pretty fun, and informative.



A special Dome dedicated to the "Snow Bowl". (January 19, 2002)- a game that no Patriots fans will ever forget. Although the screen appears white due to a snowstorm, you can see the football flying through the air as Adam Vinatieri kicked a 45 yard field goal. 



Stephen huddling with Tom Brady and the Patriots.  You can hear Brady talking to his teammates.



the footballs from the 21 consecutive games won by the Patriots.



Boston, MA- visiting

    Not much is going on right now that is blog-worthy. We are settled in at our very nice RV park in Foxboro MA, one of the best (and most expensive) we've been in. We spent Sunday with my brothers and sisters, out to lunch at a restaurant, then we went back to my brother's house and watched the Patriots win. 
   Our son Stephen spent the weekend with us in the trailer, so he got to see his best buddy, the cat. Part of the reason I wanted to head to MA right now is because Stephen is transitioning into a new job, and a new apartment, and I wanted to give him a hand getting set up at the new place.



my family-(from the left around the table) my brother Richie, son Stephen, husband Paul, me, sister-in-law Dawn, brother Ray, and sister Debbie

 


the two boys, reunited





  Today is a quiet day- we are hanging out this morning, then doing some errands before meeting up with Stephen again.

Stephen and I at Ray's house

rollin', rollin', rollin'..............

     Rollin down Interstate 81 in PA- day two of our beeline to Massachusetts. I have a huge smile on my face in anticipation of spending time with my family and friends.   The timing appears to be good. We should be in time to help our son move into his new apartment.
  The weather over the last 2 days has been an improvement over earlier in the week.  I am sure most people saw or heard about the massive storm that came through the midwest on Tuesday.  Paul and I were watching the Weather Channel (the old peoples' MTV, according to some) that morning and saw that the storm was headed toward Muncie Indiana, where our daughter lives, so we called to make sure she was aware of it.  Within 30 minutes Muncie was under a Tornado Warning, and the Ball State University campus was in lock-down. 
    We continued to watch the TV until we saw that all of the counties to the west of us were gradually transitioning  from Watch to Warning. At that point we started packing up our"go" bag, the cat, etc., and as soon as the warning was called for our county, we headed for the clubhouse and spent the next two hours doing laundry.  That's what you call killing two birds with one stone!  We made it through fine, but the winds didn't diminish much for two days.  One night we got up in the middle of the night to pull the slides in, the trailer was shaking so much.
    We were a little concerned leaving on Thursday since it was still gusting, but once we were on the road it was a tail wind, so no problem for us and we didn't have to stop.  We put in 370 miles before calling it a day. 
Today we have gone 250 miles with another 180 to go before we get to MA. We may stop for the night if we can find a place to stop, but they are few and far between in New England. 
As for my foot- its doing fine and I have to go see the doctor one more time, in late November.

Change of Plans

I always say that we make our travel plans in jello, with plenty of wiggle room- we reserve the right to change our mind about our plans and our direction- its one of the perks of being on the road full time.
After looking at maps and taking all factors into account, including the fact that although I can walk, I am not really up for spending a day sightseeing, and the fact that I miss my family, especially my son, we are blowing off the Virginias and heading to Massachusetts. Assuming the weather forecast doesn't contain the "S" word in it before we leave here, that is.
Everything, of course, depends on what the doctor has to say on Wednesday, but unless something new crops up, he pretty much said I could leave for a couple of weeks on Thursday.

Happy Halloween, again



There are no real people in this picture



 A lot of RV parks have Halloween every weekend in October, and this one is no exception.  Apparently Paul is getting jealous of all the decorations.  I could actually see him trying to stop himself from picking up decorations in the store. Especially the 6 foot inflatable spider that moves it's head.  Three times he went to look at that thing.  Eventually he said he would wait until after Halloween and get it on sale.  We do have about 10 bins of Halloween decorations in storage, but who knew we would want them so badly while on the road?  He did buy some LED lights, as a compromise with himself.

This RV Park has a lot going for it, especially for families.  There seem to be a lot of activites for all


an absolutely adorable "Dorothy"

 ages.  We haven't done all that much, but we did walk the entire park to check out the decorations. It sure is a good thing they close the roads for the trick or treating, since there were hundreds of kids, and their parents, walking the streets on Saturday night.
  We got here on Thursday and will hopefully leave by next Thursday. I haven't been very active, but today I wanted to push it a little, so we went to Sterling State Park, which is on Lake Erie, and walked for about an hour. Afterwards we came back, put our feet up, and watched the Patriots beat the Chargers. All in all, a good day.

hoards of trick or treaters

Lake Erie

Inching our way away from Detroit...

     We moved to Monroe Michigan this morning, after another meeting with the doctor. I have to go back to see him again next week, but its less than an hour drive, so, no problem.  I can walk as much as is comfortable and I need to flex my foot as much as possible in order to avoid a round of physical therapy. I'll be working hard at it since the therapy would start in late November and last a month.  Not Likely. 
   Paul is happily ensconced in front of the TV, watching his favorite "how-to" channels now that we have cable TV. Tomorrow we'll head out and start exploring the area, which is minutes from Lake Erie.

Two weeks of recovery done....

I had my 2nd post-op doctor's visit this morning.  Every time we see him he seems to change the gameplan a little.  Originally he said I had to stay put for a month, and then I could leave for a couple of weeks. Last week he said I could leave for a couple of weeks after today.  Today he said I need to come in again in 2 days and again next week- then I can leave for 3-4 weeks.  No big deal but we have to keep adjusting our plans. So now we are going to stay here for another 3 days and then leave for the other Rv park that's not too far away.
      Overall though, the surgery went awesome and my recovery is going very well. The muscles in my foot seem tense, as if they aren't working quite right.  He said that's because I haven't had much range of motion in that joint for so many years, the muscles haven't really done much work in a long time, and now they are.
        So, Paul is finishing some projects and possibly starting another one.  He may build in an electric heater into the wall so we won't have to use the portable one we have.  We have a furnace with a full heating system but many times we just need a small electric one to take the chill out of the air.
The weather has been great, although its getting a little cold at night.  Last night it was in the mid 30s. Today its in the high 50s and the sun is out.

Dinners!

Last night we went out to dinner with friends and had a great time.  Tonight we went out to dinner with friends and had a great time. Tomorrow night we are going out to dinner with friends, and I am sure we'll have a great time!  I'll have to go on a diet, but it's worth it.
   Originally we were going to leave here this weekend and drive to an RV park about an hour from here for a couple of weeks, but we are going to stay here until my doctor's appointment on Tuesday instead.  Paul has been on a buying frenzy, buying "stuff" for the trailer while he has time order it, get it shipped and install it all. So far he has installed a water softener, but he wants to secure it better, so he has that project to finish.  He bought a heating element for one of our air conditioners so it can be used as a heat source, and he has that installed.  He ordered a part to install on  the awning to our largest slide so that water won't puddle in it, but it hasn't arrived yet.
In general he's been getting a lot done while waiting to be able to get on the road again.

One week of recovery done...

One week down, a few more to go....I had my first follow up visit yesterday and was very happy to hear that I will probably only have to stay in Michigan for another 3 weeks instead of 5 weeks.  Because this surgery was less invasive than the one originally planned, the recovery is faster. He did say that once the damage builds back up again (hopefully 5-10 years), my only option will be joint replacement.   I still have to wear the Cam Walker for another week, but that's ok, I really don't want to smash my foot at this point anyway.  I can walk around as much as I want as long as I don't overdo, so we are checking out wedding venues and making plans to go out to dinner with friends before we leave here this weekend (headed about 45 minutes south).  I think we may head to the West Virginia area for a couple of weeks before coming back to Indiana for Thanksgiving.

the view from my lounger

Here you go, Steve!

I won't dilute the message with extraneous words.

No voy a diluir el mensaje con palabras extrañas.

Post Surgery

Just a quick note to let everyone know I am out of surgery and back at the trailer. Everything went fine, although he couldn’t do everything he planned to do.
The original idea was to move the joint between my toe and my foot back a bit and rebuild it, so I would be able to flex my foot when walking, which  I couldn't do because of arthritis and bone spurs.
     There was too much cartilage damage to be able do that, so he just reshaped the bone, and removed the spurs, and he feels that I should have full range of motion and it should keep me for the next 5-10 years, at which time I will have to completely replace the joint.
The good part is that the recovery from this should be quicker…

Thanks for the good thoughts!

Michigan

Well, I am sure it wouldn't surprise anyone at Valassis to hear that I have a sore throat.  I went to visit my former co-workers and friends, and talked non-stop for about 3 hours.  It was so great to make the rounds and see everyone, although there we a few people I missed. I am hoping to see people again before we leave.
   We are at Haas Lake Park again- we arrived here after spending a couple of days in Muncie with Jess and her new fiance. I've discovered that I don't take any pictures when I am visiting people.  The only pictures I took in Muncie were of Jess trying on wedding gowns, and I can't post any of them!  Tomorrow we are checking out a couple of potential wedding venues for Jess since its the last day I'll be able to do anything for a while.  I had a doctor's appointment this morning, going over the details of my foot surgery that is scheduled for Wednesday.  I was pretty much assuming I would get crutches and be able to hop around as much as I want, as long as I put no pressure on my foot, but he tells me I need to pretty much stay home for  two weeks and keep walking to a minimum.  Ugh. 
Anyway, since I will be recuperating, and not exploring, there won't be too many blog posts in the next few weeks.

Plymouth and Caledonia, WI

The Kohler Co. is located, not coincidentally, in the small town of Kohler Wisconsin.  As seems to have happened quite frequently in years past, a town was created to serve the needs of a large corporation.  The Kohler Company is very involved with town life, and the company is still family owned 100  years later.

      We spent 5 hours at the Kohler Co., touring their facilities, which include the largest foundry in Wisconsin. They do not allow pictures to be taken, so we  of course have no pictures to show.  We toured about 4 different buildings and saw many products being built, including ceramic sinks, tubs, metal fixtures and cast iron products.  We learned the difference between a Pattern and a casting- a pattern is the mold that makes the mold, essentially.  The castings for toilets and ceramic sinks are made from sand, and are broken apart once the product is made.  Then they are recycled into another casting, which means that each casting is only used once before it is recycled.  Very labor intensive!  We also saw enamel painting being done.  Their 3 most popular enamel colors are sprayed on by robot, but the specialty colors are actually sprayed on by hand, and require 3 coats, with a firing in between each.  No wonder these fixtures cost so much!!

  They have a huge machine they call Herman and Herman builds their most popular bathtub.  This tub is never touched by human hands, which is great for the workers since it weighs in at 450 lbs.  From start to finish its a conveyor type system that casts it, fires it, and enamels it.

       After exploring the surrounding towns of Sheboygan and Sheboygan Falls on Lake Michigan, and Fond Du Lac and Oshkosh, which are on Lake Winnebago, we were ready to move on to our next location, Caledonia, Wisconsin.
Caledonia was a brief stopover to meet up with the parents of Jessica's boyfriend.  We didn't know when we decided to stop here that by the time we had dinner with them, they would be Jessica's future in-laws! It did make it very nice that the four of us were together when David asked Jessica to marry him, so when I got the call from her, we all got the news at the same time!

   While in the area we checked out the Jelly Belly "factory".  Its actually just a warehouse, but they have a short tour of the facilities, which drops you off at their retail store, of course.  We did buy a lot of Jelly Belly jelly beans, and some candy corn.  I will say that they do let you sample anything you want, and the candy corn is some of the best (but most expensive) I have ever had.