Final Post to Indiana trip (5/6/14)

Tuesday.  Some welcome sights at home -- the saguaros are just starting to bloom, so we were glad they waited on our return.

Windy today, and lots of dust in the air, but the temperature climbed into high 80s then dropped below 80 when the clouds moved in.  I thought for sure I would miss my Easter cactus blooming, but it looks like those blooms will pop in the next day or so.  (They actually opened up Wednesday morning, when I went out to take my final pictures).

And we have another cactus just about ready to bloom.  May is a very lovely time of the year out here.

The back patio looks pretty empty without Lucille sitting out here, so tomorrow we'll have to get the swing back out and the cushions back on the glider.

And we still have all the baby cows.  I took lots of pictures of them this evening so I hope Lucille can see some of them.  I don't know if they will still be here when she gets back here on the 17th -- the owner is supposed to move them up into the mountains into cooler weather for the summer.

I think if you click on the picture, you should be able to enlarge it.

We went to dinner tonight with Jeff and Brenda.  It was fun catching up on all the news with them, and we even saw a coyote on our way home from their house.  

We bought 566.22 gallons of gas on this trip, which averaged about 6.8 mph, for a total cost of $1.863.96.  Looks like we will be staying home for a while!

This concludes the 2014 Spring Trip to Indiana Blog.  We have no definite plans for our next trip, so I will happily sign off the blog for a while and get busy getting ready for Lucille and Dixie's return on the 17th, then John, Bridgette and Andrew's arrival on the 21st, then Cody's graduation on the 22nd, then Andrew's first birthday party on the 24th (a month early), and Cody's graduation party on the 25th.  After that, you can probably find both of us in some mental hospital.  Busy days ahead.

Monday, Arriving Home (5/5/14)

Monday.  We got up on Arizona time, even though we were 20 miles or so from the Arizona border, and we only gained one hour yesterday.  But I was anxious to get home, and when Joe opened one eye, I got him on the move.  We had scoped out our options for this morning, so we knew we were going back to Kranberries (which was very good) for breakfast, and across the street to fuel, and then straight up that same street to Highway 70, which would take us into Arizona.  We had all that done by 7:20 Arizona time!  We crossed the Arizona state line at 7:55, moving right along.

 We drove for a couple more hours, then Joe was really getting tired (after getting up so early) and his hip was hurting, so we stopped at the casino in Globe and he took a nap while I checked out the slot machines.  But after just an hour, I came back out, and he had just gotten up, so off we went again.  (I donated $15 to the Indians here).

We stopped at the final fuel stop just 1 1/2 miles from the house, so we unhooked the car and I drove on to the house.  Home Sweet Home!  It was a welcome sight!  It was 1:00 so we got our miles in in good time today.  By the way, we paid $3.339 in Lordsburg, NM this morning for gas, and at this last stop the price was $3.479. 

 We took a couple loads in, then rested up to go to Kaylee's basketball game at 4:45.  She has one more game after this, but at least we got home in time to see her play.  She's no. 12 below, the last girl in the first picture, and she scored 2 points.  (They lost badly).  We sat all the way up on the top bleacher so I didn't get very good pictures.

 We stopped for dinner on the way home, and were happy to call it a day.  We changed into our jammies and I seriously considered going to bed at 7:30 (it would have been 10:30 in Indiana), but managed to stay up.  Then Cody stopped by, and we are always happy to see him so that woke us up a little.  But we were in bed by 9:30, and our bed felt mighty good.

We need to have a sign painted on the back of our RV -- like those ones on trucks that says "Stops at Railroads" or "Makes Frequent Stops."  Ours needs to say "Makes Frequent Left Turns Out of Right Lane."  (I'm pretty sure he learned that move from Collins.)  Might take some of the shock off the faces of the drivers behind us from time to time.

Oh well, we made it home safely, the tire held up, and weather was great all the way home except for a little wind, and we saw some wonderful sights. A total of 3,883 miles -- 1,765 to Indiana and 2,118 returning home, and we did the return one day shorter, thanks to Joe putting in two 400+ days.  A good trip.  I haven't had the nerve to add us the gallons of gas, but I'll post that in one last post.

Saturday - Driving Across Texas (5/3/14)

 Saturday.  We left the campground about 8:30 but by the time we fueled, got sodas, got oil at Napa, and got breakfast sandwiches it was 9:00 by the time we got underway.  We saw some domestic buffaloes this morning (at least we assumed they had been domesticated since they were fenced in), and throughout the day we saw quite a variety of domesticated animals -- lots of cattle, horses, goats, burros, and sheep.  In addition, we saw some deer or antelope behind a fence, so we don't know if they were wild or not, and a roadrunner crossed the road in front of us.

 Wildflowers. We saw lots and lots of wildflowers today.  We came upon fields of bluebonnets, and some other small patches for a little while, mostly east of Waco.

 The orange flowers that nestle with the bluebonnets are Indian paintbrush.

 We crossed the pretty Brazos river just as we came into Waco, but we drove right through that town without incident. We made a brief stop at a picnic area so Joe could wash the bugs off the windshield. I walked across the highway and took some pictures of the wildflowers. Not many bluebonnets but a lot of beautiful indian blanket flowers. 

 After lunch stop in Goldthbraite (a very slow lunch), we headed toward San Saba.  At lunch, there was an "inside sale" next door so I ran over there, and bought some books.  But I didn't need to run, it took forever to get our food.  We were there well over an hour.  We had parked across the street at a city park, and some of the trees there were wrapped in yarn.  I meant to ask the significance of that, but I forgot (although I had plenty of time to ask).

I'm thinking San Saba, Texas might be the pecan capital of the U. S.  There were lots of pecan companies, gift shops, packing sheds in town and lots of pecan groves on both sides of town.
 
We came upon a town in Texas named Rochelle.  I'm sure they meant to say "Rachelle," and I sent a picture to Rachelle to let her know she had a town named after her, they just mispelled it.

 We drove 438 miles today.  We ended up on I-10 at Ft. Stockton, Texas, at a really nice campground.  We got there about 7:00, got checked in, and went over to their cafe for a quick dinner.  I took over the wheel for about an hour during the afternoon but gave it back when we got to I-10, because I thought it would be full of trucks.  Amazingly, they had resurfaced it since we had last traveled it, and it was smooth, and not busy at all.

We are getting warmer temperatures now, so I can tell we are getting close to home.  It was in the 90s today.


 I meant to post this picture of the tobacco packages at the convenience store in Kentucky in an earlier blog, but couldn't get it to post.  So here it is.


Another thing I forgot in yesterday's blog was our debate as we drove across Louisiana about whether to turn North and head for West Monroe, Louisiana to check out the Duck Dynasty warehouse.  Joe really wanted to do that but finally talked himself out of the extra miles.  Maybe next time.

We still have lots of miles to go, so we don't know what day we will make it home.  But we are getting there!

Sunday. Last part of Texas (5/4/2014)

Sunday.  Well apparently I must have deleted yesterday's blog that I spent quite a long time on last night.  I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to try to create it again.  I keep hoping it will show up.  I've sent my blog expert, Cathy, a message asking for her help in resurrecting it, but it may be gone forever.

Last night we camped at Ft. Stockton, Texas, at a very nice campground.  We thought they served breakfast so we walked over to the cafe, but found out they didn't have a cook, so no breakfast was available.  We went back to the RV and got ready to leave -- Joe decided he had to wash the windshield again so that took a little while.  But by the time we fueled and got our McDonalds breakfast sandwiches, it was 9:20. 

Unfortunately, we had a bit of bad luck.  About 38 miles down I-10, we blew a tire -- the inside back tire on the passenger side.  But fortunately, Joe was able to change it himself (with a very little help from me).  Over time, we have bought everything we need for just such an emergency, and today, we needed it.  I should have taken a picture of all the stuff strewn alongside the RV.  It took about 1 1/2 hours, but the last time we call roadside assistance, it was 5 hours before they showed up, and that  was in Phoenix/Scottsdale, right on the freeway there, so Joe didn't want to risk that long wait today. 

There  was a frontage road right beside the freeway, so after Joe stopped and surveyed the problem, he limped over to the medium between the freeway and frontage road to work on it.  Which was fine, except there were lots of stickers in the grass, and we kept stepping on them.  They would go all the way through the soles of our shoes, and once I even drew blood on my foot.  So I had to do a little clean up just so we could walk around.

Just as I got back in the car to hook it back up after Joe finished, I heard a semi blow a tire on the other side of the freeway.  And later on, a semi in front of us blew a tire.  That apparently is a rough section -- as evidenced by all the tire "alligators" we saw.  We passed another semi that was limping along with a flat tire too.  I think he was trying to make the next exit.

By the time we stopped for lunch at a rest stop, we had only made 119 miles.  Joe kept his speed right at 60 mph all day since we were driving on a 15-year old spare, and didn't have another spare with us.  We left Texas at 3:50, changed time zones, and just kept on going.  We had a strong side wind all day, so Joe didn't make me drive, even though I did offer.  We had a long day, he drove all the way to Lordsburg, NM -- 407 miles.  We pulled into the campground at 6:50 (5:50 local time), which made a 10 hour day.  Yesterday was 10 1/2 hours on the road.  This is way past our comfort zone, on many levels!

It's heating up, was 92 in the afternoon.  Since we had our tire trouble pretty early, it wasn't too bad during all that work -- still in the mid-80s.  The price of gas here is $3.339 so we are going to top off our tank before we hit Arizona -- where we know it is higher. Looking forward to getting home, hopefully tomorrow if we don't have any problems.  Then guess what -- we get to go tire shopping.

Friday - Leaving the Trace (5/2/14)

Friday.  We woke up to another pretty day, and got another early start (yes, it's truly amazing).  Joe decided to top off the water tank and dump the holding tanks before we left our state park campground, since he really didn't know where we were on any of them because we hadn't dumped since before we got to Vincennes.  But after all that, we were still on the road by 8:25 (I'm hoping Joe has turned over a new leaf and is becoming a morning person).  We decided to drive the last 10 miles of the Trace again, in the RV.  No wildlife came to tell us goodbye.  We found our way through Natchez and across the Mississippi.  We drove across Louisiana, and hit the Texas state line at 1:37.  Today, we had to contend with traffic again, and stop signs and stoplights, and Hwy 84 makes lots of turns and intersects with lots of other roads, so we had to be on our toes.  We only lost it once, but after about a 20 mile loop we picked it up again.

 We can tell we are back in Texas when the Whataburger's start showing up.  Joe was hoping for one for dinner tonight, but there wasn't one in Fairfield, where we stayed.

Can't remember which town this was, but it definitely was in Texas.  We saw a lot more cattle and horse farms today.

Highway 84 has been designated as the El Camino East/West Corridor -- between Brunswick, Georgia and El Paso, Texas.  "It is a 1,729-mile roadway named "El Camino Real" or "The King's Highway" in Spanish and was named for the historic trail it will duplicate.  The oldest road in Texas, it extends down into Mexico."



There are a lot of state park campgrounds along this route but when I started calling for a place for tonight, I sadly learned that they were all full because it was the weekend.  We got lucky and found a campground (not listed in any of my books) right on the highway at Fairfield that had some openings, so we were glad to call it a day.  It was about 5:00, and we were both pretty tired.  After a little rest, we went into town to dinner, but got back to the RV pretty early, and I've been working on the blog ever since.

We drove 349 miles today, the weather was beautiful but a little warm -- high 70s.  We had our first roadkill today -- Joe hit a bird, or rather, a bird hit us.  I'm thinking he was suicidal.

We have really been lucky with the weather.  Every day has been nice, and only the first night there were some slight storms.  Vincennes has been cold and windy, and our Florida kids were under tornado warnings today (Shooter experienced his first tornado warning signal at day care today).  We apparently lucked into a little window in the weather to get in our trip home. 

Thursday on the Trace (5/1/14)

Thursdays.  After yesterday's marathon day, we got a pretty good night's sleep and a decent start today.  By 9:25 we were back on the Trace (since it was only about 2 miles), and saw 3 deer right away. I had just taken a photo of the pretty, empty road in front of us.  As soon as I put the camera down, those three deer jumped across the road.  Just by a minute or two, I missed getting them in my picture accidentally!

We had a few more stops on the Trace that we wanted to see, but Joe was worn out from yesterday and wanted to stop early.  Our first stop was the historic town site of Rocky Springs.  Here we encountered another very nice Mississippian, who stopped and told us about this site (we had driven on past because she was parked in our way).  So we went back and walked through it.  There was a pretty church that is still open and being used, along with cisterns and safes left from the days when the town thrived.

Down the road from that was the Owens Creek Waterfall, which fortunately was running a little bit.

 Our next stop was the Sunken Trace, a deeply eroded section of the original Trace that we could walk down into.

The last site we had marked to stop at was Mount Locust, a "restored plantation."  But actually it was an old inn.  It had a nice setting and was restored in good shape.

We decided to end our day so we found a place to camp, the Natchez State Park, just a few miles off the Trace.   We had about 10 miles of the Trace still to run, but we could save that for tomorrow. I called ahead and got directions, but we had to wait about 20 minutes for the park ranger to get back to the office to check us in.  The park was on a beautiful lake, and our site was very nice.  We hooked up electricity and took a nap!

We were off the road at 2:00, and set up camp by 2:35.  We only drove 88 miles today, and the weather was beautiful.

We finished the Trace in the car, and then drove around Natchez to look over the town and find some place for dinner.
 

 There are lots of huge churches in Mississippi -- of all denominations.  And Natchez has a Grand Hotel that takes up an entire block.  It is only 4-5 stories high, but it is quite impressive.

We considered trying to take a city tour tomorrow, but we found our way around sufficiently that we decided it was not necessary.  Here was another encounter with a nice Mississippian -- the Visitor Center was closed when I went up to the door, and this guy asked me if I needed a map.  I said yes, and he said he had a couple in his truck (he thought I wanted a state map, but he was more than kind, and willing to give me his).  He told me about the tours and recommended his favorite.

We then drove down to the river, and found a nice place to eat right on the waterfront -- Magnolia Grill.  We got some beautiful pictures of the bridge over the Mississippi River at sunset, and the poppies blooming along the riverfront.

After dinner, we drove out to the National Cemetery, then back along the waterfront.  We ended up at the Magnolia Bluffs casino right on the river for a little while (I broke even, Joe spent $20). On our way back to the state park, we saw two raccoons. We were back at the RV and in bed by 10:00.

The three Mississippi towns we drove through were nice, with beautiful churches and yards. And the people were just wonderful.  Mississippi gets high marks from both of us.