The Route to Utah

Prelude to Departure
This section is about things we did to KoKo. Probably of no interest to non-Rvers.

We did more things to KoKo during this interlude at home than ever before. We put the first holes in the walls. Not just in one place either – a magazine rack in the rear lounge, a spice rack behind the sink, a hat rack in the cab over and a wire shelf above the toilet.

But, that’s not all we did.

I replaced the converter with one that is supposed to charge the batteries more rapidly and be kinder to the batteries when we are hooked to shore power. I can not tell a difference.

I replaced the “surge protector”, twice. The first replacement was defective out of the box. The device is under the sink and almost impossible to reach It took me over two hours to remove and replace it each time.

I finished installing an inverter under the dinette table.

I added a 120v outlet under the dinette table for the computer and another outlet behind the TV for the DVD.

I put on a third vent cover. Now all the vents are protected. However, it cuts down on air circulation.

And we probably did some more stuff that is no longer in my memory banks. I am weary of improvements.

The Route to Utah
This section covers our week on the road to Utah.

The last few weeks have seemed to me to be an interminable wait until we could leave. We should have left no later than April 20, so we could get to Moab before the heat. I got confused about the date last Fall and never recovered from my bewilderment.

We decided to take US82, which we can access not far from home, and ride it all the way to Lubbock, Texas. A lot of it is four-lane with a smooth road surface and best of all, less traffic and few trucks. There are places where the speed limit is 70, but mostly it’s 55-60. That’s fine with us, as we drive 57-60 even on the interstate. It beats I40 in our never humble opinion.

We made it Wyoming last year with less than 100 miles of interstate driving, we will beat that record getting to Utah.

The odometer reads 24,960 after 19 months.

Sunday, May 10, 2009
It has rained the past eight days. The sun has been out every day for the past eight days. Saturday before we leave a new front appears, stretching from New Mexico to Alabama. This means we will get to drive in the rain. And so it goes.

The fields are muddy and the rivers are swollen. Farm implement dealers abound. Turtles are migrating across the highway - most will not make it.

The rain came to us at lunch and continued until dinner. We stopped at 3PM at the Greenville, Mississippi Wal*Mart. It is off the road and there is not much traffic, so sleeping should be no problem.

I originally planned to stay at the Mississippi Welcome Center, but I mislaid my itinerary and Wal*Mart was the best guess of my careful plans.

Doe’s Eat Place is closed on Sunday, so we will have to try their tamales another time.

Monday
It was raining when we got up and it rained all morning, sometimes intensely. It stopped raining after lunch, but remained cloudy. The forecast for Tuesday is clearing.

When we went to sleep gas was $2.04. It was $2.15 when we woke up. It was $1.79 only a week back.

We went from Wal*Mart to the Welcome Center just a few miles down the road to see what it was all about and have breakfast with a different view. The WC would be fine for over-nighting. There was no one there at 7AM, tho we did see a state truck leaving as we came in. Security?

We were supposed to stay in one of the city parks, that are prevalent in small northern Texas towns. We looked for it, but could not find it. I went back to the Internet source to verify it. If Dorothy had not noted Illinois on the page, I might have never figured it out. Paris City Park must be in Paris, IL, but is mis-filed under Paris, Texas.

We wound up at another Wal*Mart in Bonham, Texas. This one is very quiet. At 6, the parking lot is almost empty. We are the only RV.

Tuesday
We woke up at 5 and got away a little before 7. US82 improved as we got farther west, mostly four-lane. Near Whitesboro, Texas there are several quarter and show horse farms.

Tonight we are in Littlefield, Texas at the Waylon Jennings CG. Not
bad, being that it is free and has W&E plus a dump. We are officially "out west" having past the 100th parallel and seen tumbling weed this afternoon.

The temperature was over 90. Glad we had a/c.

Wednesday
We got to Bernalillo, NM for lunch with Bernie and Martha of Santa Fe, who are taking delivery of Blue-Con in June. We hope to rendezvous with them later on in the year in Utah.

After saying goodbyes, we found a half-ass car wash and removed most of the road grim from two days of driving in the rain. KoKo had never been so grimy.

We went up US550 and made a right on NM4 to Vista Linda CG. We got the same spot we had in 2007 when KoKo was a week old.

Of course, we had cocktails beside the babbling Jemez River overlooked by the red cliffs. We were sound asleep by 9 – dead tired after four long driving days.


See photo

Thursday
Another four hour push up US550 to Navaho Dam SP. I tried to find the BLM property Simon Canyon, but I could not find any signage for it. We did find BLM land, but it was covered by natural gas production equipment. The hills are filled with equipment, a well on each quarter section, and the roads are busy with work trucks, many with BP and Conoco logos.

We opted for the Cottonwood unit of Navaho Dam SP. It’s on the San Juan River. It is much quieter and more scenic than the larger unit on the lake.

We are a short day from SE Utah. That will make six days to get there. Every day has been over 5 hours, which is in our red zone. It’s time to SLOW down.

Friday
We were excited about paddling the San Juan River. We could put in three miles upstream and coast to the CG - an easy shuttle. We scouted the river to see if there were any places we would have trouble with. It turned out that most of the riffles were shallow, just right to get us grounded and sideways resulting in either our getting out or being rolled over. So we passed on paddling the attractive, but 46 degree river.

This was hummingbird day. We put out the feeder and within an hour we had customers. By mid-afternoon, we counted five at one time. Just before dark there were seven feeding. We have the feeder hanging a foot from the back window. They are great entertainment.

They are Black Chin hummingbirds - light brown with mottled green backs. The males have a black ring around the neck and iridescent purple feathers under the chin that flash when they raise their heads. I was close to the feeder and one came right up to my face and went in a U from ear-to-ear – twice. Checked me out good.

Not as good as Kate's, but I am not patient.

We are calling the lizard Dorothy discovered in the parking lot our Nat Geo lizard. You have seen the pictures they have of exotic colored lizards, well this one is ours, even if he is in a parking lot.


Saturday
We “found” Simon Canyon yesterday. It was a mile down the road from the CG. There was a sign at the trailhead ‘Simon Ruins - .8 mile’. Sounded interesting for some exercise. We hiked up the streambed this morning. Just as we got to head of the canyon, two men appeared, father and son. We chatted. In a moment, a woman, the wife and mother, came up the trailhead. We continued to chat. They told us the ruins were up on a ledge. So we all scrambled up the side of the canyon, no trail, then walked down the ledge. Finally we came to the ruins and the trail.

The Navajo built this sometime in the 1700’s, perhaps as a watchtower to spot the raiding Ute’s. Who knows? Had we not met the folks on the trail, we would have never known where the heck the ruins were. The hike back above the canyon was remarkable, easy walking and scenic.

We exchanged cards with our new friends and hope to see them again.

Sunday
We are in Cortez, CO at a private CG. We will wash clothes and grocery shop before making the last short jump to Utah. I have yet to decide where we will land. Perhaps a FS CG south of Canyonlands?

Gas is $2.44

Who is Delta Mike?

Delta Mike are my initials taken from the phonetic alphabet. I always liked it as my unofficial call sign.

Waiting it out

Still home, leaving May 10th, anxious, ready to go.

The Mayan calendar expires December 21, 2012. Dorothy’s drivers license, passport and handicap card expire the same time. Maybe the world expires the same time? So much to do, so little time.

Dorothy on Henderson Lake near Breaux Bridge, LA

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our last adventure was spending most of a week with Jeanne and Ed who are from our hometown. [They have an Anniversary Edition MB]

It’s Sunday and we are in a most wonderful park, Tickfaw SP near Springfield, LA. This is a CG with great facilities. The sites are not too close together, the pads are paved and level. Each pad has a large deck with a picnic table. It’s less than 6 years old, so the bathhouse is in good condition. There is even free WiFi. Around 5:30 our LD friends arrived, so after they set up we had happy hour and then dinner. I had cooked spaghetti and they brought ice cream and cookies.

Monday we all paddled Lizard Creek to the Tickfaw River. This is a swamp, but it was a fun paddle.

There was a threat of rain the rest week. And some days, the threat was made good. Wednesday, we went into Baton Rouge, about an hour away and toured the state capitol built by Huey Long to be better than the national capitol. We also toured the old capitol building. Both were interesting to us. We had a fine dinner at Mike Anderson’s.

We got home Saturday, March 28. A short trip for us, ten weeks.

The Alligator Tour

We should call this the Alligator Tour. We have been seeing them the whole trip.

We spent an idyllic two days at my cousin Stacey’s farm near Kentwood, LA. He has horses that race, cows that eat grass and boo-coo fire wood. He allows that the latter shows how much he is worth. A new colt was born while we were there and I took dozens of pictures of the colt. It was not like in the movies, no one attended the birth. It was fascinating to watch the new mother attend her colt as he struggled to stand. I spent several hours just watching them walk around the paddock.

Mother and Son

 

 

 

 
Stacey demonstrated that he can cook and plied us with far too much wonderful food. He also gave us an appreciation for Community brand coffee, which we had to purchase.

Tuesday we drove into Baton Rouge and had a fine dinner at my cousins Pam’s. Stacey joined us. It was good to catch up with both of them. It’s just us now; all of our parents, aunts and uncles are gone. We spent the night in Pam’s driveway. We got up “early” and Pam took us to a coffee and beignet place. Yummy! After consuming too much white sugar we drove west and then south into the Atchafalaya Basin to Fausee Pointe SP. We need a pronunciation guide to place names in Louisiana.

We had dinner out Wednesday at Pat’s in Henderson. Red fish stuffed with crab. Not bad. On the return trip, we found a swamp where we must paddle. Near the entrance to the CG, Dorothy saw a Barred Owl on a road sign. A minute later one flew in front of the grill. When we turned in to the CG there was another one perched on sign. We stopped. We looked at him. He looked at us. He decided he could not eat us and he looked the other way. totally unperturbed by us being 10 feet away.

Thursday morning we drove back up the levee road and launched the yaks. We had an enjoyable paddle around the bayou; and then a wonderful Poboy at McGee’s.

We would stay the weekend here, but it’s booked. They say they are full most weekends. The Bayou country has none of the drama of the west, but we like it and we will be back for a longer stay.

Friday we drove back to Baton Rouge to hole up for the weekend. We had lunch at Cousin Stacey’s office. He has a couple come in and cook three times a week for the staff. He had them today “special” for us. They had fried fish, oysters, hush puppies, onion rings and cole slaw. It was all good, my fav was the oysters.

We found a CG near LSU designed for horse events. Only $16 and a decent CG. Quiet, gravel roads and wide grass sites. Only a dozen rigs here.

Winter in Louisiana

If our Blog is boring to you, keep in mind that we do it mostly for ourselves and we are easily entertained.

It is dark. [I think that is like “I am born”] Anyway, at 7:10 this morning, it was more dark than light. Freaking government. No detail is too small to mess with. When we started this trip, it was dark at 7:30 in the Eastern time zone. It was a month until sun time matched local time. Now we get to go through it again.

Sunday, March 8. We are the Fontainebleau SP on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain. It is a nice enough CG. Beautiful Live Oaks. It has W&E, wi-fi and sewer at some sites. $8 a night on the geezer card.

This is food land. Restaurants abound. Most are local owned. Everyone is a chef. We had BBQ for lunch. This consisted of too much BBQ, too much delicious fried okra, a cup of light brown gumbo and Texas toast. Nine dollars. Such a culinary contrast with Florida where restaurants are scarce.

We drove along Lakeshore Dr. in Mandeville and gawked at the splendid homes. We also passed by the Mandeville Yacht Club where I raced J22’s with my friends many years ago in the Adams Cup Semi-finals Women’s Regatta.

Wednesday, March 11. We are still at Fontainebleau SP. And glad to be here. We are not doing anything exciting. We are not exercising either. We are just being lazy, doing a few chores and listening to Radio Margaritaville.

The CG is going to be full this weekend and so will all the others in the area. We are in our second site already. After talking with Ranger Thomas, he will open another site for us this weekend. It has been off the reservation system due to construction. Construction was completed six weeks back, but somehow the site was not put back in the mix. Lucky for us.

A Lazy Daze from Wisconsin arrived. Maureen and Bruce. We have enjoyed cocktails with them.

The rain that was forecast to start Wednesday, started this afternoon and may continue for 48 hours or so. The CG is nearly full, mostly with LA tags. Great idea, let’s go to the CG and watch TV in the rain. The fellow behind us is typical. He bought every light and doo-dad that CW sells and he spent an afternoon and morning putting them all out. He is camping – inside of course.

I have now achieved Advanced Laziness - woke up at 8:45 this morning!

Sunday we will drive north to see my cousins. And after that? Maybe into the bayou country?

Winter in Florida - Crossing the Pandhandle

We rolled into a cold and windy Panama City Sunday afternoon. We chatted with our LD chums, Ted & Liz, inside the RV. It was much too cold to be outside.

Warmer, but still chilly, on Monday, we did marketing and errands. We should have paddled the boats as the wind was calm.

Tuesday the wind was back up, so we had a good lunch with Ted & Liz at Sweet Basil.

Wednesday morning, we did a few more errands, Dorothy cooked a marvelous new curry lunch and we paddled the yaks on the lee shore. With the water cool, there was little bacteria making the water very clear. We wanted to cross the channel to Shell Island, but the wind and waves would have made it work.


At the jetty in St. Andrews Bay

 

 

 

 

Thursday we said goodbye to Ted & Liz and headed to Perdido Beach, FL. This was our “Sentimental Journey”. Every summer from 1979 – 2004, we would make the trek to the Grand Lagoon Yacht Club for the Windmill Southerns. We camped at Big Lagoon State Park this time and drove to the yacht club looking at all the changes that had taken place since the hurricane in 2005. It seems like every time something is blown down, then a large condo takes its place. We had dinner at Interarity Point Original Oyster House where we ate many Sunday evening meals with our Windmill friends.

Friday we took the beach road to Gulf Shores, pointing out all the places we had stayed, places where we ate, and places where we had fun. The wonderful memories washed over us – Alecia at the beach, either enjoying being with other Windmill kids or babysitting, all the adults swimming in the pool on Sunday afternoon after two days of racing. This was wonderful for us to revisit our past.