We've come to the end of another year on the road. We made our way from New Mexico to Texas last month, making brief stops in Amarillo and Wichita Falls before landing in Arlington. We are enjoying our usual extended stay here before our return to home base in Austin in a couple of weeks.
This past year was a very busy one, not staying in any one spot for longer than 2 weeks. We stayed in 41 different RV parks, and Roamin's odometer logged a bit over 7,000 miles. In addition, our 'toad' Cadillac, purchased last January, now has almost 11,000 miles due to all the side trips we took. We had actually started jokingly saying that, "Well it's time to leave." as soon as we could efficiently navigate our way over the local byways at our numerous stops. Staying put for a while is nice!
We've been asked what was our favorite stop this past year, and it was Yellowstone, without a doubt. There were many close runners-up--Bryce Canyon, Zion, Arches. We are very happy to have taken this opportunity to visit so many national parks. They truly are treasures.
A few 'musings' for this year:
-We continue to be distressed by the state of our nation's infrastructure, but construction is going on EVERYWHERE to improve it, and we're sure this will go on for a long time.
-Amazon Prime became a very good friend for us with its guaranteed 2-day delivery, especially valuable because of our short stays and frequent moves.
-The same cannot be said for mail-order pharmacies. #%*@#!!!!! There were way too many delivery misses/delays/frustrated phone calls. We will likely look into other options next year.
-Priority Mail often does not work anymore either. Getting our mail from our Austin address to our on-the-road address has always been a bit tricky, but was SO much worse this past year. Even though the post office proudly advertises 3-day delivery for Priority Mail, none took less than 5-6 days. Two envelopes were sent to us while we were in Cortez, CO. One took 8 days to get to us. The other arrived in 14 days--4 days after we had left Cortez! #%@#!!!!! This is another area where we will research other options.
-Wine club membership does, indeed, work while we're traveling. We no longer need to deprive ourselves of some of our favorites. :)
-We enjoyed family and friends joining us on parts of our journey this year, and look forward to more such opportunities.
We're giving this lifestyle one more year. We want to cover the Atlantic coast before hanging up our full-time status. That gives us only 1 more year to figure out what comes next...but we won't think about that today...we're sure that 'tomorrow' will be soon enough. In the meantime, we'll see what the East Coast is like, and we'll continue to report in the blog. Happy and safe holiday wishes to you all!!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Our last stop before crossing back into Texas was Santa Fe, a short drive from Albuquerque but at 7,000 feet, another 1,000 feet up. For the past month, we've spent very little, if any, time below 6,000 feet above sea level. And our lungs have reminded us of it any time we've exerted ourselves.
The weather was rather chilly at night (SheM would say 'cold') and the days were pleasant for the most part. The aspen were turning, and we took a mile hike along Aspen Vista in the Santa Fe National Forest to enjoy them. (Once again, we were hiking at 10,000+ feet above sea level. What is wrong with us??)
Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico, and we visited the capitol building. We found this one to be the most unique of all we've seen so far. Quite unassuming in its stature, one can almost miss it if not looking for it.
The outside appearance belies the very modern look and feel of the interior. Artwork is everywhere--very colorful and interesting (some REALLY 'interesting').
Downtown Santa Fe is the picturesque Southwest.
We drove to Taos, and found its plaza to be very much the same, not surprisingly.
While in Taos, we wandered through artist shops. We found one that featured furniture pieces made of steel treated with chemicals and/or heat to create really pretty color patterns. Most of the pictures we took in Taos were in that shop. We're thinking that we may want to add one of these tables to the decor of our next house.
We're glad we stopped here. We're also really looking forward to getting down to lower elevations. We'll head to Amarillo where it's only 3,600 ft. Ahh, we're breathing better already just thinking about it.
The weather was rather chilly at night (SheM would say 'cold') and the days were pleasant for the most part. The aspen were turning, and we took a mile hike along Aspen Vista in the Santa Fe National Forest to enjoy them. (Once again, we were hiking at 10,000+ feet above sea level. What is wrong with us??)
Santa Fe is the capital of New Mexico, and we visited the capitol building. We found this one to be the most unique of all we've seen so far. Quite unassuming in its stature, one can almost miss it if not looking for it.
The outside appearance belies the very modern look and feel of the interior. Artwork is everywhere--very colorful and interesting (some REALLY 'interesting').
Downtown Santa Fe is the picturesque Southwest.
We drove to Taos, and found its plaza to be very much the same, not surprisingly.
While in Taos, we wandered through artist shops. We found one that featured furniture pieces made of steel treated with chemicals and/or heat to create really pretty color patterns. Most of the pictures we took in Taos were in that shop. We're thinking that we may want to add one of these tables to the decor of our next house.
We're glad we stopped here. We're also really looking forward to getting down to lower elevations. We'll head to Amarillo where it's only 3,600 ft. Ahh, we're breathing better already just thinking about it.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Balloon Fiesta 2013
We arrived in Albuquerque a couple of days before the balloon fiesta began. That gave us a chance to get settled and to see any other attractions that interested us. Our friends arrived, and we all stayed in the same RV park. The weather started out quite mild, but on the morning of the first day of the fiesta, a serious cold front made itself known.
Between the freezing temperatures and the higher than optimal winds, it was unknown if the balloons would be allowed to launch. The normal procedure is to send up a handful of balloons first to check both the surface winds and the upper winds. This group is called the 'dawn patrol'.
If all is good, a green flag is raised indicating that all balloons are cleared to fly at will--a mass ascension is what everyone hopes for. Even though the dawn patrol gave the 'all clear' that morning, the direction of the wind was not ideal for good landing spots, so some balloon handlers opted not to go at all, or to wait a while hoping the conditions would improve. The net result? Balloons did go up, but only in small numbers and in spurts rather than in mass. Nevertheless, we did see LOTS of balloons on the ground and some in the air, and we were glad we came.
We could have scheduled going to the launch site another morning, but one morning of getting up at 3:00 and standing around in freezing temps was enough. Besides, it was televised on a local channel each morning, and that was a much more comfortable setting. You know, like a football game.
Before the Balloon Fiesta, we visited 'historic downtown Albuquerque'. In our travels we've come to equate anything labeled as 'historic' to just mean 'old' and not necessarily historically significant. Albuquerque's historic downtown is old, but it is also infused with quintessential southwestern architecture and is an enjoyable area to visit and, of course, shop.
Before leaving Albuquerque, we took a ride on the Sandia Peak Tram which took us up to an elevation of 10,000+ feet.
At the top of mountain, there was a trail that led to a cabin that was built by the CCC in 1936 and sat on the highest point at 10,600 feet. The round trip was 3 miles. We took it. It was a trek, and the elevation taxed our lungs, but we're glad to have done it.
Next stop is Santa Fe. Our friends are accompanying us.
Between the freezing temperatures and the higher than optimal winds, it was unknown if the balloons would be allowed to launch. The normal procedure is to send up a handful of balloons first to check both the surface winds and the upper winds. This group is called the 'dawn patrol'.
If all is good, a green flag is raised indicating that all balloons are cleared to fly at will--a mass ascension is what everyone hopes for. Even though the dawn patrol gave the 'all clear' that morning, the direction of the wind was not ideal for good landing spots, so some balloon handlers opted not to go at all, or to wait a while hoping the conditions would improve. The net result? Balloons did go up, but only in small numbers and in spurts rather than in mass. Nevertheless, we did see LOTS of balloons on the ground and some in the air, and we were glad we came.
We could have scheduled going to the launch site another morning, but one morning of getting up at 3:00 and standing around in freezing temps was enough. Besides, it was televised on a local channel each morning, and that was a much more comfortable setting. You know, like a football game.
Before the Balloon Fiesta, we visited 'historic downtown Albuquerque'. In our travels we've come to equate anything labeled as 'historic' to just mean 'old' and not necessarily historically significant. Albuquerque's historic downtown is old, but it is also infused with quintessential southwestern architecture and is an enjoyable area to visit and, of course, shop.
Before leaving Albuquerque, we took a ride on the Sandia Peak Tram which took us up to an elevation of 10,000+ feet.
At the top of mountain, there was a trail that led to a cabin that was built by the CCC in 1936 and sat on the highest point at 10,600 feet. The round trip was 3 miles. We took it. It was a trek, and the elevation taxed our lungs, but we're glad to have done it.
Next stop is Santa Fe. Our friends are accompanying us.
A Corner of Colorado
[Bloggers Note: We are AGAIN behind in posting to our blog. We'll try to catch up over the next few days.]
We took a couple of weeks to swing up into the southwest corner of Colorado, setting up camp in Cortez. We found the town of Cortez to be very comfortable--small enough to feel cozy, but big enough to have conveniences we appreciate. The town's planners have certainly done a great job in creating recreation facilities. The town is full of nice parks for outdoor activities, and it has a huge indoor recreation and fitness center. If it weren't for the cold winters, we could certainly see the appeal for living there.
We chose Cortez because of its proximity to several sightseeing venues. Mesa Verde National Park is just 10 miles west of the town. We, of course, visited the park. We took a short hike to the cliff dwelling Spruce Tree House.
We also took a hike to see the petroglyphs there. The trail did not have a classification (easy, moderate, difficult) as we've seen in other parks. Having taken the trail, we would probably define it as 'difficult'.
It's possible that we may have opted against taking it if it had been designated as such. That would have been a mistake because we had no real problem navigating it and we would have missed the petroglyphs.
Four Corners National Monument is an easy drive from Cortez. The landscape around it is filled with interesting rock formations.
The monument is not only at the intersection of state lines for 4 states, it is located on the boundary of the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain tribe. The monument is managed by Native Americans. The monument itself is well done, but the parking lot is in very rough shape--dirt with deep potholes. We wonder if some of the entrance fees shouldn't be spent on needed improvements. Nevertheless, we took the obligatory picture of us standing in 4 states at once.
Cortez is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet. We drove up another 3,000 feet to the town of Silverton. We hoped that the aspen would be turning at that elevation, but we were a bit too early. The scenery was still beautiful.
The town of Silverton is much smaller than we had expected, but we enjoyed walking around the streets for a while before heading back down to a more 'lung-friendly' elevation.
Our last outing was to drive back into Utah to see Arches National Park. We decided to take a longer, scenic route through Monument Valley en route to Arches.
Many western movies were filmed in Monument Valley. A few days after driving through the valley, we ran across the old movie "Stagecoach" on TV. Knowing that it had been filmed there, we had to watch it to see if we recognized the scenery--and we did.
Our visit to Arches National Park was on the weekend immediately before the impending government shutdown. We had intended to get a hotel room in Moab so we could spend an entire day leisurely exploring the park. We don't know if it was the threatened park closure or the Gay Pride Festival going on that brought so many people to Moab that day, but there was not a single room available anywhere in town. We tried to make the most of it, and decided to see as much as we could of the park in the waning hours of daylight before driving back to Cortez. We weren't disappointed.
Taking some hikes would have been nice, and maybe we'll be back some day to do that.
We enjoyed our stay in Cortez, but it was time to move on to Albuquerque. We had a date with a bunch of hot air balloons and friends that were meeting us there. (The 'hot air' adjective applies only to the balloons, not our friends.)
We took a couple of weeks to swing up into the southwest corner of Colorado, setting up camp in Cortez. We found the town of Cortez to be very comfortable--small enough to feel cozy, but big enough to have conveniences we appreciate. The town's planners have certainly done a great job in creating recreation facilities. The town is full of nice parks for outdoor activities, and it has a huge indoor recreation and fitness center. If it weren't for the cold winters, we could certainly see the appeal for living there.
We chose Cortez because of its proximity to several sightseeing venues. Mesa Verde National Park is just 10 miles west of the town. We, of course, visited the park. We took a short hike to the cliff dwelling Spruce Tree House.
We also took a hike to see the petroglyphs there. The trail did not have a classification (easy, moderate, difficult) as we've seen in other parks. Having taken the trail, we would probably define it as 'difficult'.
It's possible that we may have opted against taking it if it had been designated as such. That would have been a mistake because we had no real problem navigating it and we would have missed the petroglyphs.
Four Corners National Monument is an easy drive from Cortez. The landscape around it is filled with interesting rock formations.
The monument is not only at the intersection of state lines for 4 states, it is located on the boundary of the Navajo Nation and the Ute Mountain tribe. The monument is managed by Native Americans. The monument itself is well done, but the parking lot is in very rough shape--dirt with deep potholes. We wonder if some of the entrance fees shouldn't be spent on needed improvements. Nevertheless, we took the obligatory picture of us standing in 4 states at once.
Cortez is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet. We drove up another 3,000 feet to the town of Silverton. We hoped that the aspen would be turning at that elevation, but we were a bit too early. The scenery was still beautiful.
The town of Silverton is much smaller than we had expected, but we enjoyed walking around the streets for a while before heading back down to a more 'lung-friendly' elevation.
Our last outing was to drive back into Utah to see Arches National Park. We decided to take a longer, scenic route through Monument Valley en route to Arches.
Many western movies were filmed in Monument Valley. A few days after driving through the valley, we ran across the old movie "Stagecoach" on TV. Knowing that it had been filmed there, we had to watch it to see if we recognized the scenery--and we did.
Our visit to Arches National Park was on the weekend immediately before the impending government shutdown. We had intended to get a hotel room in Moab so we could spend an entire day leisurely exploring the park. We don't know if it was the threatened park closure or the Gay Pride Festival going on that brought so many people to Moab that day, but there was not a single room available anywhere in town. We tried to make the most of it, and decided to see as much as we could of the park in the waning hours of daylight before driving back to Cortez. We weren't disappointed.
Taking some hikes would have been nice, and maybe we'll be back some day to do that.
We enjoyed our stay in Cortez, but it was time to move on to Albuquerque. We had a date with a bunch of hot air balloons and friends that were meeting us there. (The 'hot air' adjective applies only to the balloons, not our friends.)
Monday, September 23, 2013
A Hop & A Skip Along Route 66
We drove from Las Vegas, NV to Cortez, CO, making a couple of quick stops along the way. We drove on I-40 which follows the old Route 66, stopping in Williams, AZ and Gallup, NM. Both of these towns tout their Route 66 history, but that's where their similarities end. Williams is a cute, 'hopping', little town. Gallup could just be skipped, in our opinion.
Williams proudly proclaims that it was the last town on Route 66 that was by-passed by I-40. That happened in October 1984.
The town has created a destination for itself with cute shops, restaurants, and bars all along Route 66.
Gallup, on the other hand, has no such attractions along its stretch of 66. It's full of trading posts and pawn shops. In fact, when searching for 'things to do' in Gallup, the first 5-6 'attractions' we found were trading posts/pawn shops. They do have a nice memorial to Route 66 with a John Steinbeck quote engraved.
Both towns have a railroad track running right along their main street, and both towns have quite a bit of commercial train traffic. Williams has capitalized on this and its proximity to the Grand Canyon by establishing the Grand Canyon Railway.
For a fee, folks can park in Williams and hop on the train for a ride to the canyon. This is a popular adventure for RV'ers. If we had not already seen the Grand Canyon, we may have considered doing so. In November & December, the Grand Canyon Railway becomes the Polar Express. Kids get to ride the train in their PJ's, drink hot chocolate, and meet Santa. We know a couple of young boys in Austin that would go nuts for a chance to ride it.
Gallup's train tracks are very busy and noisy, and are only used for commercial purposes. We're not knocking the busy train traffic, mind you. We do appreciate the increased use of trains over trucks. We only bring this up to highlight differences between the two towns.
We've found that RV parks are often situated for easy access to/from busy highways, without a lot of concern about nearby noise. Neither of the two RV parks that we stayed in were exceptions to this. We stayed in the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park in Williams, and were within 100 yards of the railroad track. Fortunately, there wasn't much train noise throughout the night. In Gallup, we were further from the train tracks, but clearly heard trains all night. In addition, the park is situated right at the end of the runway for their local airport.
Even though the air traffic was limited to small planes and helicopters, the noise was loud when they flew directly overhead landing or taking off. This went on both day and night.
We've jumped off Route 66 now and will spend a couple of weeks in southwestern Colorado. The weather forecast is very mild as we pass into autumn. We hope to see some fall colors in the higher elevations, but we may be a little early.
Williams proudly proclaims that it was the last town on Route 66 that was by-passed by I-40. That happened in October 1984.
The town has created a destination for itself with cute shops, restaurants, and bars all along Route 66.
Gallup, on the other hand, has no such attractions along its stretch of 66. It's full of trading posts and pawn shops. In fact, when searching for 'things to do' in Gallup, the first 5-6 'attractions' we found were trading posts/pawn shops. They do have a nice memorial to Route 66 with a John Steinbeck quote engraved.
Both towns have a railroad track running right along their main street, and both towns have quite a bit of commercial train traffic. Williams has capitalized on this and its proximity to the Grand Canyon by establishing the Grand Canyon Railway.
For a fee, folks can park in Williams and hop on the train for a ride to the canyon. This is a popular adventure for RV'ers. If we had not already seen the Grand Canyon, we may have considered doing so. In November & December, the Grand Canyon Railway becomes the Polar Express. Kids get to ride the train in their PJ's, drink hot chocolate, and meet Santa. We know a couple of young boys in Austin that would go nuts for a chance to ride it.
Gallup's train tracks are very busy and noisy, and are only used for commercial purposes. We're not knocking the busy train traffic, mind you. We do appreciate the increased use of trains over trucks. We only bring this up to highlight differences between the two towns.
Even though the air traffic was limited to small planes and helicopters, the noise was loud when they flew directly overhead landing or taking off. This went on both day and night.
We've jumped off Route 66 now and will spend a couple of weeks in southwestern Colorado. The weather forecast is very mild as we pass into autumn. We hope to see some fall colors in the higher elevations, but we may be a little early.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Singing "Leavin' Las Vegas!"
Leavin' Las Vegas!
Leavin' Las Vegas!
Viva, Leavin' Las Vegas!
(Sung to the tune of "Viva Las Vegas!", of course.) We were very glad to leave Las Vegas after our stay there extended an additional, unplanned week. As is the way of life when full-timing in an RV, we are rather at the mercy of service providers and parts availability when anything needs repair or maintenance. Such was the case while we were in Las Vegas. Our HDMI matrix went bad, and getting it resolved resulted in our 1-week stay stretching to 2 weeks. Las Vegas is fine for a few days of fun, but it's much too hot for much longer than that. To make it even worse, it wasn't a 'dry' heat as the tail end of the monsoon season brought daily showers and kept the humidity very high.
For the most part, we did enjoy our stay and left less than $50 in their gambling coffers. Rather than gambling, we decided to spend our money on live entertainment. We went to see Penn & Teller at the Rio one evening. They put on a very good show, and afterwards made themselves available for pictures.
When we were looking for shows that were available during our stay, we had seen that Jerry Seinfeld was coming to Vegas. However, it looked like we would miss him since we were scheduled to leave a couple of days before he arrived. As it turned out, our HDMI matrix went bad, yadda yadda yadda, we bought tickets for Jerry Seinfeld. He performed at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace and we really enjoyed his show. As you might expect, there were no photo ops with him after the show, so this is the only picture we got.
We are big fans of the TV show 'Pawn Stars', so had to go see the pawn shop while we were there.
It's actually much smaller than it appears on TV--maybe a case of the camera adding 10 pounds AND 20 feet? We could easily identify the spots where the show is filmed, and we spotted several of the items we've seen them buy. We made a point of looking for the sports championship rings.
We made the drive down to Lake Havasu City to see the London Bridge. We were expecting something a bit bigger and grander, but were glad that we saw it.
Anywhere that we stay, we figure that once we're able to navigate around the city without the aid of maps or GPS, it's time to move on. We became very familiar with getting around Las Vegas. We understand that it's one of the fastest growing cities in the US, but truly we don't see the appeal. Maybe we're just getting old? In any case, we're heading for cooler climates. Our next real destination is southern Colorado, making a couple of quick stops along the way.
Leavin' Las Vegas!
Viva, Leavin' Las Vegas!
(Sung to the tune of "Viva Las Vegas!", of course.) We were very glad to leave Las Vegas after our stay there extended an additional, unplanned week. As is the way of life when full-timing in an RV, we are rather at the mercy of service providers and parts availability when anything needs repair or maintenance. Such was the case while we were in Las Vegas. Our HDMI matrix went bad, and getting it resolved resulted in our 1-week stay stretching to 2 weeks. Las Vegas is fine for a few days of fun, but it's much too hot for much longer than that. To make it even worse, it wasn't a 'dry' heat as the tail end of the monsoon season brought daily showers and kept the humidity very high.
For the most part, we did enjoy our stay and left less than $50 in their gambling coffers. Rather than gambling, we decided to spend our money on live entertainment. We went to see Penn & Teller at the Rio one evening. They put on a very good show, and afterwards made themselves available for pictures.
When we were looking for shows that were available during our stay, we had seen that Jerry Seinfeld was coming to Vegas. However, it looked like we would miss him since we were scheduled to leave a couple of days before he arrived. As it turned out, our HDMI matrix went bad, yadda yadda yadda, we bought tickets for Jerry Seinfeld. He performed at the Colosseum in Caesars Palace and we really enjoyed his show. As you might expect, there were no photo ops with him after the show, so this is the only picture we got.
We are big fans of the TV show 'Pawn Stars', so had to go see the pawn shop while we were there.
It's actually much smaller than it appears on TV--maybe a case of the camera adding 10 pounds AND 20 feet? We could easily identify the spots where the show is filmed, and we spotted several of the items we've seen them buy. We made a point of looking for the sports championship rings.
We made the drive down to Lake Havasu City to see the London Bridge. We were expecting something a bit bigger and grander, but were glad that we saw it.
Anywhere that we stay, we figure that once we're able to navigate around the city without the aid of maps or GPS, it's time to move on. We became very familiar with getting around Las Vegas. We understand that it's one of the fastest growing cities in the US, but truly we don't see the appeal. Maybe we're just getting old? In any case, we're heading for cooler climates. Our next real destination is southern Colorado, making a couple of quick stops along the way.
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