HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Thanksgiving Day, November 24

Keith was concerned that he'd be eating a turkey sandwich today, so when we stopped at WalMart earlier this week I bought a turkey breast, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie to serve along with stuffing, and green bean casserole (of course), so he'd feel like he didn't miss the holiday.  Then, when we arrived here at the campground, they invited us to join in their Thanksgiving dinner.  The campground provided the turkey and stuffing, and everyone brought a covered dish.  There were about 40 other couples.  Yum!

Tuesday, November 22

We arrived at the Desert Palm RV Resort, our home for the next four months.  We were so amazed to find this beautiful oasis in the desert. 

The weather is perfect -- mid 70's and breezy.  The campground is pretty empty now, with most residents coming after Christmas. 



This little oasis is so different than the desert landscape that we drove through during the last two days of our journey. 

Typical landscape for western Arizona

What really intrigued us was the 25 mile long Salome Road going from Rt 10 to Salome.  It was desert, and about every mile there was a sign like this (or painted on the highway itself) warning about the free-range cattle.  But, we didn't see one cow.  We're told that it's not uncommon to find dead cows along this road, hence the nickname "Dead Cow Road"

Monday, November 21

We're taking our time today and tomorrow, driving only about 200 miles each day.  The scenery has changed since Texas, more desert and mountains surrounding us.  All of the rivers that we've crossed were dry, including the Rio Grande which really surprised us.  Today, driving through Arizona, we began seeing a lot of cactus.

The ground looks so dry

Scenery we had only seen in pictures till now

Mission accomplished...another pun (I couldn't help myself)

Thursday and Friday, November 17 & 18

We're at Braunig Lake RV Resort, about ten miles south of San Antonio.  The park is full of travel trailers, many of them are construction workers from Louisianna who are here for the jobs. 

We drove in to San Antonio and signed-up for the Alamo Trolley Tour.  While we waited for the next trolley, we walked through the Alamo and listened to a narration of its history.  It's amazing how much you forget from those high school history classes.

Our first stop on the tour was the Mission of San Jose', the "Queen of the Missions" established in 1720. This is the finest example of a completely restored mission in the US.  (Our tour guide at the mission looks and sounds just like Richard Dreyfuss.) 

By the time we had finished this tour, we were ready to eat.  We took the next trolley to Market Square, the largest Mexican Market in the US.  Lunch was beef enchiladas at Mi Tierra Cafe'.

The food was great, but we thought the market was underwhelming.  Store after store of the same thing; could we interest anyone in a sombrero??

I can never get him to smile for a picture.  Maybe he's worried about the guy beside him!

Later, we took a cruise on the River Barge at San Antonio's famous Riverwalk.  It's amazing how the city wraps around the river. 

While we originally planned to leave Friday morning, we decided to stay another day.  I could tell you that it's because Keith has been fighting a head cold all week and I thought he should rest another day, but the real reason is that I wanted to find a theater so I could see the new Twilight movie that came out today.



We're on a roll now...no pun intended!

Saturday and Sunday, November 12 & 13

We are at Little Ocmulgee State Park in McRae, GA visiting with Joe & Sue.  They live in Maine during the summer and have been Park Hosts here during the winter months for twelve years.  What a great park; there's an 18-hole golf course, hiking trails, a lake, and a lodge and restaurant.  We can understand why they like it here.  You could once canoe or boat on the lake, but unfortunately, in the last few years it's become completely overgrown with some water plants. They've tried to get rid of it but to no avail.

The 265 acre lake

On Sunday, we enjoyed a dinner buffet at the lodge...everything was delicious, especially the southern fried chicken! We both agree that we'd like to come back here again.

Monday and Tuesday, November 14 & 15

Yesterday, we drove from GA to DeFuniak Springs, FL (east of Pensacola on Rt 10) passing lots of cotton fields.  It's hard to imagine that at one time people actually picked all this by hand; the plants were only about 12-15 inches high, so you'd really have to bend over.

Instead of litter along the roadside, there were cottonballs


Today, we travelled almost 400 miles from FL through AL, MS and into LA, spending tonight in Lafayette.  We decided to try some authentic Cajun food at Fezzo's Restaurant near our campground --gumbo, frog legs, crawfish, shrimp, oysters, crab cake, stuffed potato and salad -- too much to finish but spicy and delicious.

Wednesday, November 15

We drove another 400 miles today to San Antonio, TX.  It's a  bit farther than we like to drive (and it was a lot of miles of the same scenery -- very straight and very flat), but we've decided to spend a day or two here touring the area -- the Alamo, the Riverwalk, the missions...and, hopefully, get some good Mexican food.

On the Road and heading South

November 11, 2011  -  Veterans Day

It's our third day on the road and we're enjoying the changes in scenery.  We took I-66 from Winchester VA to I-95 toward Selma NC.  It was overcast but the colorful foilage was beautiful. 

This was taken through the windshield and doesn't do the colors justice

We've been unhitching at the campgrounds each day and then going for gas.  This way, we don't have to find as many gas stations that we can easily pull through with the camper;  it's sooo much easier.  We've been fortunate to find some easy in-easy out stations when we needed to refuel on the road.  (Makes Keith a 'happy camper')

Tonight, we're staying at New Green Acres RV Park in Walterboro, SC.  It was very windy for most of the drive today but the sun was hot.  It was only in the 40's this morning but almost 70 degrees when we got here.
    

The colorful foilage gave way to pine trees in SC

Our first palm on our trip South

We decided to take a detour to Little Ocmulgee State Park in McRae GA tomorrow and Sunday to visit a couple we met in Maine.  They're full-time campers too.  They're work-camping at the park for the winter.  We're anxious to talk with them about their experiences in work-camping.

On the Road...Finally!

Wednesday, November 9

Hitched up to the new truck and ready to leave

Yes, we're finally on the road.

You'd think that nothing else should go wrong, but when we called to find out if the new refrigerator had been installed since we hadn't heard from the dealer, they told us that they had left a message earlier saying it was in and working.   We hadn't gotten any messages.  Would you believe they had our phone number transposed?

It was a beautiful sunny day, nearly 70 degrees.  Keith decided that we should take the turnpike west to Carlisle and pick up Interstate 81 South through MD, WV, and into VA.  He wants to avoid I95 around Baltimore and DC.  Traffic was light and it was a nice drive.

Calvin had a good day too.  When I checked on him at our first rest stop, I found him sleeping in our bed "under the covers." 
 
After 3 1/2 hours, we arrived at Candy Hill campground in Winchester, VA.  We planned not to drive too far on the first day since we didn't know how early we'd be able to leave.  At 3 p.m., we were one of the first campers to pull in, but by 4:30 we had a lot of neighbors. 

Tomorrow, we'll pick up Rt 64 East to Interstate 95 South.

It's been a Rocky Road to Arizona...and we haven't left yet!

It's the beginning of November, we're still sitting in Bowmansville, and we're not sure when we'll be able to begin our journey to AZ.

First, when we got back from Maine, Keith decided that we should get a new truck; he didn't think ours had as much power as we might need.  So we bought a new F150 (and, he's right, it does have a lot more power) but we had to order a cap for it and that would take 2 to 3 weeks.  To allow plenty of time for it, we set our departure date for 11/4.  But then it came in early and we decided to leave this past Monday...but that didn't happen.

When we got back from Maine, the RV dealer was supposed to fix the frig in our travel trailer.  They told us that they checked it and it worked???  They said to let them know when we planned to leave and they would plug it in a few days before so it would be cold when we put our food in.  On Friday when we were putting stuff in the trailer getting ready for our Monday departure, I opened the frig and found that it wasn't cold; it wasn't working.  They couldn't find the problem and said that they'd have to order a new one.  The warehouse in NJ was out of stock, so our dealer had to order one from the manufacturer.  It came today but was DAMAGED...what are the odds?  Now, we have to wait for another one to be shipped.

And, as if that weren't bad enough...we had that freak snow storm on Sat and lost the electric at the campground.  We decided to go to a motel because branches were snapping and falling all around.  On our way out, someone stopped us saying that large trees had fallen and were blocking the roads out of here in both directions.  We spent the night in our neighbor's camper because they have a propane fireplace...we had no electric or water but at least we were warm. 
We heard that forty-some large branches fell around the campground, but luckily none of the big ones fell on campers.   Many of the smaller trees just bent like this one.  I shook the snow off and it went back up.

On Sunday, they cleared the road and we went to a nearby motel for 3 nights.  Finally, yesterday the power and water were restored and we came home.  Now, we just have to wait for the new frig.

I'm thinking these may be signs that we're not supposed to go.  But my "the cup is always half full" husband says that all the bad stuff is happening now and we'll have smooth sailing once we hit the road.  Hopefully, the frig will be here and installed by Mon or Tue, and then we'll leave.