Ft. Davis, Texas

March 31, 2011 - We had a full day today.  This is a really nice state campground, with full hook-ups.  Each campsite has a covered picnic area. 

We had another visit by wildlife this morning.

We went over to the office here this morning and paid our camping fee.  They said they had a wifi hotspot there, but I went back later and could never get online.  Then we walked over to their pool, the world's largest spring-fed pool covering 1.75 acres and staying 72-76 degrees year round.  This pool is crystal clear and scuba divers come here.  It has a depth of 25 ft.  Actually, there was a class of scuba divers here getting their certification today.

It even has a diving area, with a depth of 20 ft. here.  We could see a few catfish swimming around, and lots of minnows.

After I gave up on posting my blog, we broke camp and headed down the road to Ft. Davis, to the state park there, another really nice campground.  This was only a 38 mile drive, but later in the afternoon we took a 127-mile scenic drive in the Explorer.  We set up camp and went over the the Indian Lodge in the park for lunch.  This Lodge was built by the CCCs in the 1930s, and they still use a lot of the original furniture, which was also built by the CCCs.  We went back to camp and rested, and I finally have Wifi at the RV, so I was able to post my first blogs.  A little before 5:00, we took off on our scenic drive.  This drive took us past the McDonald Observatory, one of the major astronomical research facilities in the world.  They had just closed for the day, and their "star parties" are held on Tues., Fri., and Sat., (today is Thurs.), we we missed that as well.  We drove up the hill and turned around.

We continued on our drive, with scenery much like Arizona's high country.  We had mountains, canyons, a lot of dried brush so we don't know if it hasn't greened up for the spring, or it is just that dry here.  The Texas have their own language, and I thought this sign was humorous.

Most states just say "range cattle" or something similar.  But we did come across some loose cattle on this drive.  We passed Sawtooth Mountain, elev. 7,718.

And another mountain, Mt. Livermore, 8,831, but we didn't get a picture of that one (we weren't sure which one it was).  We are pretty close to the Mexican border here, and there was a border patrol balloon flying overhead.

Our destination for this drive was Marfa, Texas, famous for its sightings of strange lights.  We stopped at the Dairy Queen for a treat and information, and the waitress said they are usually seen around 10:00 or 10:30, when it gets completely dark.  There was a viewing center a few miles out of town, so we drove out there about dusk. 

We spotted 4 antelope along the way, so that was exciting.  We stayed until 10:00 (past our bedtime) but never did see anything, so we drove back to the campground, weary from our long day.  There was a pretty sunset, though, and it is said that this area has one of the darkest night skies in the U.S.

March 30, 2011 - Day 2 - Balmorhea, Texas

March 30, 2011 - Day 2 on the road.   Our start time seems to be 11:00 a.m. this trip.  I did see wildlife this morning, a bunny rabbit hopped by the front of our RV.  The only other animals I saw today was roadkill (a few undetermined species and one deer).  Our neighbor had an interesting cat cage out -- we had never seen one like this before.

But I really wanted to go for a short hike here at this park this morning, so we drove down to the Visitor Center to get some information.  Joe decided I needed a walking stick, but we didn't bring wallets with us, so we drove back to the RV and Joe got his wallet.  We went back to the Visitor Center to pay for my walking stick, and Joe then saw the sign, "no debit or credit cards."  He only had $10 in his wallet (my walking stick was $15), so back to the RV we went again, and we both got our wallets, and some money.  By this time, he decided he should get a walking stick for himself, just in case he ever gets to do any walking, so he picked out an $18 one, and we finally got out of there, and up to the beginning of the trail.




This is a half-mile trail, mostly downhill after the first part, one I carefully selected!  A lady had just finished the 1.5 mile trail and was doing push-ups leaning on the rock wall, getting ready to hike the same trail a second time.  Joe thought I should follow her example.  She did take some pictures of us, just in case I didn't survive my hike.

Although Brenda did not return our rock collection box, we did find a Brenda rock here.

So off I went, with my sack to collect rocks.  You can take 15 lbs. of rocks from the park.  By the time I got back, I decided my sack must weigh 25 lbs.  But as I rounded the last curve, a welcome sight awaited me -- Joe was coming to meet me, using his new walking stick!

The Visitor Center had a display of the rocks that could be found here.

Here's my collection (which remains unidentified).

While I hiked, Joe got the RV ready to travel, so we hit the road, heading to Texas.  We hit the Texas state line about 12:50 and made a fuel stop, and I picked up Subway sandwiches that we ate while Joe continued driving.  We are trying to offset the increased price of gas this year by camping at state parks (and Walmark parking lots, with an occasional casino parking lot thrown in if I can talk Joe into that).  Our first day we averaged 7.59 mph, which is pretty good for this RV.  Fortunately, we've had a tail wind most of the time, so that helped some.

Joe put in 290 miles today, about 6 hours driving.  We lost an hour yesterday, and a second one today as we changed time zones again, so it was 7:00 p.m. when we got to the campground.  We are staying at the Balmorhea State Park tonight, heading to Ft. Davis and Big Bend National Park tomorrow.

Day 1 - Getting out of town

3/29/11 - Here we go!

We still had a lot to do this morning and didn't leave until 10:50 a.m.  We are both glad to be on the road again.  It's warming up in Arizona, and Joe was barely out of Apache Junction when he said he just wanted to turn left and head straight north.  But he didn't, and we drove on through Superior and Globe.  We stopped in Bylas at a rest stop for lunch and had a short nap -- worn out already! We did have a view of snow-capped Mt. Graham in the distance (elevation 10,720) so we pretended to be in Alaska. 

Then we drove through Thatcher and Safford, crossed into New Mexico and spent the night at a real nice state park about 10 miles southeast of Deming, Rockhound State Park. We haven't looked for any rocks yet, I think that requires hiking.  We drove 286 miles (over our limit, and on the first day!) and I (myself) even drove about 50 miles on I-10 between Lordsburg and Deming.  Pretty straight stretch of road, not too much traffic (lots of trucks), and only one curve and one hill.  I managed to keep it between the white lines (although I think I took up the whole lane).  Joe probably expects more driving out of me in the future, but I'm not too sure about.  I think I can threaten him that he has to do more cooking if I'm driving, and that should take care of that.

Alaska is the page right in front of Arizona in the road atlas, so every time I look at Arizona, I keep seeing that and remembering our wonderful trip last year.  This year's trip won't be anything like that, but we are hoping to see lots of interesting things, spend time with family, and enjoy life on the road.  Right now we think we'll be back home in August, and that does NOT sound like a good idea, so we'll see what happens (when we run out of money).  Joe has to have surgery on his other foot when we get home, but it is not scheduled yet so we have no deadlines.  We have to be in Corpus Christi, Texas by next Thursday, 4/7, to pick up John and Bridgette at the airport, then attend Bridgette's defense on 4/8.  So we are heading in that general direction.

Hwy 60

I think she's pointing East. Maybe Globe?

Alaska 2010 - Wrap-up

Well, it's over.  We're home.  The house phone doesn't work.  The TV picture is fuzzy.  It's hot.  And I just started my first load of laundry.  Reality has set in.

But what a great trip we had.  Joe drove the RV 10,290 miles, and probably another 5,000 in the car.  We went through 7 states and 3 Canadian provinces.  We toured 8 U.S. National Parks and 3 Canadian ones, and one National Monument.

We went fishing for halibut and salmon (reds).  We soaked our tired bodies in 4 different hot springs.  We took scenic boat rides in Waterton and Moab.  We watched an awesome Air Show.  We toured two knife factories and two candy factories, 2 paddle wheel boats, two fish ladders, and a dredge.  We went to numerous museums and climbed on an oil derrick.  We went to a wine tasting, watched clamming on the shore, watched dip-netting for salmon in the Kenai River,  watched fishing boats being launched and retrieved by tractors at high and low tide.  We took a plane ride to Prudhoe Bay and a van ride back, a ferry boat ride from Skagway to Haines,  a dog-sled ride at the Iditarod Headquarters, and a street-car ride in Edmonton.  We went to a musical show and a vaudeville show, watched a rodeo, went to a zoo, and drove through a wildlife preserve.  We walked on three different types of tundra, 2 glaciers, and held glacial ice in our hands.  We looked at countless totem poles, saw beautiful wood carvings, hung a sign at the Signpost Forest.  We watched thousands of salmon swimming upstream to spawn, lots of eagles soaring overhead, and lots of wildlife (some in the middle of the road).  We got to pan for gold several times (all without success, but it was fun wading in the creeks).   And with wonderful traveling friends, who made the trip even better.

Wildlife count:
Buffalo - thousands
Caribou - hundreds
Antelope - approximately 90
Deer-154
Moose-40
Bears-32 (black and grizzly)
Elk-49
Wolves-5 (both black and gray)
Bighorn sheep-58 (including stone sheep)
Wild turkeys-4
Fox-2 (1 red, 1 gray)
Plus several grouse (some ptarmigan), beavers, snowshoe hares, some whales and sea otters, and even a herd of camels in a fenced lot.

So you can see we had a busy summer!  But we wouldn't have wanted to miss a single day of it.  Every day was amazing, from Day 1 to Day 137.  What an EXCELLENT ADVENTURE it all was!

Final Day of Travel

Friday, October 1 - Today was our last day on the road!  We got up pretty early and had breakfast, Joe washed the windows for a final time.  A deer wandered through the edge of the campground, and a coyote was out in the meadow, so that was a nice beginning for our last day.  I didn't think I would have much for our last day to blog about, but we ended up taking 37 pictures, and it was an interesting day, as all of the others have been.  We left Hannigan Meadow at 8:00 a.m. (we have changed time zones again, back on Arizona time), and started down off the mountain.

The road down from Hannigan Meadow is probably the steepest, crookedest road we have traveled this whole trip.  It took us 2 1/2 hours to go the 60 miles to Morenci, usually at about 10-15 mph.  The views were awesome, but it was almost a white-knuckle ride for me in some places, especially after I saw the sign that said "Vehicles over 40 foot long must turn around."  Joe, of course, just plowed ahead.

As we wound our way down through these switchback corners and hairpin curves, we came upon a few cattle right beside the road.  A little more excitement than we needed.

 

We finally got down the mountains and the highway took us past the orenci Copper Mine, the world's largest copper producing mine.  It was huge, and deep!

 As we came on across Hwy 70 and then 60, I was reminded that Arizona is as beautiful as any state in this country.  

We have made this drive several times, but I'm always surprised at how pretty it is.  As we came through Globe, the high school was preparing for homecoming, and we saw some floats in town, then we met some more as we drove on toward Superior.  We didn't stay for the parade, but they were beginning to block off the side streets.

We stopped for fuel just a mile or so from home, then we drove down our dirt road (probably the roughest road of the entire trip), and pulled into our driveway.  Home sweet home.  It was 104 degrees, which felt awful, but we went in, turned on the air conditioner, and waited for the house to get cool.

I intend to write one more blog, as a final wrap-up to our trip, with total mileage, wildlife count, and whatever else I come up with. 

Hannigan Meadow, Arizona

Thursday, Sept. 30 - We stopped in Chinle this morning at the post office and Bashas (for donuts), then headed south.  Thankfully, this highway had been resurfaced through here, because when we came through last year with Jeff and Brenda, it was really bad, and we had been dreading this section.  We finally left the rocky canyon terrain and started seeing some pine trees.  We had to get on I-40 for 6 miles to jog east where 191 continued on south, and we came down through St. John, Springerville and Eager.  We found a nice campground in the Apache-Sitgreaves Forest in the Hannigan Meadow area, 2 miles off the road,  called KP Cienaga Campground,so we set up came for the night.  
4, 5
We had a little trouble getting into the first site we tried, and actually broke part of the fiberglass panel right behind the front tire when Joe hit a rock with it.


We moved on to another spot but couldn't get level at this one, so we moved to a third one, one with a view.  There are only about 8 sites here.

It was nice and cool up here, elevation 8970.  Joe said he wasn't camping below 8800 on our last night out, so that met his criteria.  We hoped to see some elk wander through this meadow, but none showed up.  There are 4 other campers in here, in tents; I think one group is hunters.  After a frustrating time getting settled in, Joe finally got to sit down and enjoy the scenery and temperature.

We drove 223 miles today, and probably have 250 to go tomorrow to get us home. Fortunately, we didn't have to go home by way of Wisconsin, so we should be home on October 1, Day 137 of this trip. Both grandkids have games on Saturday, and I intend to be there.

Our final route takes us down 191 to Safford, then across 70 to Globe, then 60 HOME.

Canyon de Chelly

Wednesday, Sept. 30 - We are back in Arizona!  We left Monticello this morning with about 70 miles to go to the state line, and we hit Arizona about 11:00 a.m.  The highway through Chinle (Hwy 191) is open range, which we remembered from our trip to Colorado with Jeff and Brenda last summer, and you have to really watch out for livestock on the road.  We came upon a small group of horses right by the road.  We don't think they were wild, because one had a halter on, so we assume they are just left to graze on this open range.

As we got to Chinle, we had to stop for a flock (or herd) of goats that were being herded across the road.  There were 2 dogs leading them through a hole in the fence, and a goatherder pushing them.
3
This is a pretty drive, with some rock formations (we saw one arch) and beautiful scenery in the distance.

We got to Canyon de Chelly, which is a National Monument, but is unlike and other national park in that the canyons are within the Navajo Nation and include a residential community, and not all areas are open to the general public.  There is a nice campground here inside the park, and it is free camping.


 We got set up in the campground, then went to the Visitor Center.  For those of you who have questions about how to see this National Monument, there are a few options.  You can drive the North Rim (34 miles roundtrip) and South Rim (37 miles roundtrip) roads in your own vehicle, by yourself, and there is one hiking trail you are allowed to take. The road is good, so that is not a problem. Or you can hire a guide to ride with you ($15 per hour), but still drive your own vehicle if it is a 4-wheel drive.  This tour will take you to the floor of the canyon.    You can also take jeep tours that take you to the bottom of the canyon.  We saw one of the jeeps, from the lodge here, and it was open top, probably seated 15 or so.  You can also tour the canyon on horseback.  We just did the self-guided tour of the South Rim.  There are several look-out points along both rim drives. This rock formation, at the end of the South Rim Drive, is called "Spider Rock," and is an 800-ft. sandstone spire that rises from the canyon floor.

From different viewpoints, you can see the canyon floor, and there are some houses down there.  You can also see some Anasazi ruins under the overhangs of the cliff walls.

 This is a beautiful canyon, with some spectacular views of rock formations, but after looking at rocks for 3 days in Arches, Canyonlands, and the scenic byway to Moab, it was a bit anti-climatic for us.  We opted not to drive the second rim road, but instead, drove into Chinle to check out the town (which didn't take long).  We did come upon a pick-up truck herding 4 horses across the road.

We stopped at the Bashas grocery store (they don't sell any beer here) and then went to Church's Chicken for dinner.  It was hot in the restaurant, so we took it back to the campground and ate at our picnic table.  We are finally getting closer to home!