RV Search Diversion

1-18-10

Last evening we crossed the Texas Louisiana border at 5:31pm. We had finally made it. We stopped at the Hitchin Post RV Park in Hallsville, Texas for the night. The folks there were so friendly and they really made us feel special when they used their golf cart to lead our little Roadtrek into this huge pull through campsite. As we pulled into the RV Park EJ noticed that the store next to the office sold pizzas. So we had fresh hot pizza for dinner that night.

This morning I was out walking around the Park talking to fellow RVer's one asked me if our rig was the big fifth wheel over there and I said no, our's was the little guy hidden on the other side. Stealth mode once again!

We took a break at one of the Texas I-20 rest areas and saw this emu at the end of a nature trail.

Instead of just blasting straight through Dallas, we drove around the north side to check out a couple of RV dealers. I guess it's just a sign of the times, but inventory is way down and used inventory is practically non-existent. However we did see another 2010 Winnebago 34Y we really liked. Too much money!!!

We made it to Mineral Springs State Park where we spent the night. Camping fees for Texas State parks have gone from $15 to $25 since May of last year. On a more upbeat note, being so far away from any metropolitan centers meant the star viewing was exceptional. It's been a long time since we were able to see that many stars.

Upon entering the camping area, it was unnerving to note that we were on a road that was below water level, and that the wall holding that water out was leaking. However we couldn't resist stopping to take a picture.

Rainy and dreary then sunny, bumpy and boring

1-16-10 to 1-17-10

It began raining late in the evening Friday night. Breaking camp in the rain Saturday morning was a soaking experience to say the least. Our neighbor in the Prevost was long gone. I guess he wanted to avoid the embarrassment of any comments such as "Looked like you were stuck pretty good last night."

On the way across the Florida panhandle on hiway 98, the road suddenly took a turn away from the coast. This diversion was not on the map. Wanting to continue along the waters edge for as long as we could, we turned towards the gulf at the first opportunity thinking we would find a secondary road that would eventually join back up with hiway 98. What we found instead was a barricade on the old coast road with a sign stating that it was the property of the Marriot Beach Club. We turned around and rejoined the diverted 98 where it eventually joined the old coast road. I'm guessing that after one of the recent hurricanes, Marriot made a deal with the state that allowed it to acquire all that property including the old US98 to relieve the state from having to repair the hiway every time the water came up. By the way, we never did see any signs for the Marriot Resort, or Hotel, or whatever it was. Only the Marriot "Keep Off" signs.

We arrived in Saucier, Mississippi about 6:30 Saturday evening. The rain had stopped at about 6pm allowing to set up camp without getting wet.

On Sunday we took advantage of those "American Reinvestment and Reconstruction Act" dollars and used the newly paved US49 to get from I-10 to I-20. About the time we got on I-20 the sun came out and the bumpy ride began. And it started to get boring. Each mile of Interstate looks pretty much like every other mile of Interstate. Miles and miles of concrete ribbons surrounded by trees punctuated by the occasional cell phone tower.

Our goal is to make it to Texas tonight.

(Note: We made it)

Tampa RV Show

January 12 to 15:

We arrived at Jim and Shelley's around 8:30 in the evening. Shelley had prepared a wonderful dinner with Chicken catchatori as the main course. It was real tasty.

The next morning we headed for the Tampa RV Super Show. As we headed dowwn I-4 towards Tampa, we saw the news crews out hyping all the sinkholes (some had closed lanes on I-4) caused by farmers sucking up so much water in such a short period to protect their crops from freezing.

Even though it was a Wednesday, and we (as a people) are in hard economic times, there was a huge crowd at the show. We got into the show at 11:30. It opened at 9. Only a couple of hours later when we worked our way around to the Newmar Motorhomes (very pricey units), two already had sold signs in their windows. I guess not everyone is experiencing hard economic times.


We left Jim and Shelley's Friday morning after a great few days. it was time to hit the road. We still had some unfinished business in Orange Park (home) the needed some long distance attention. As it happens, McDonalds has just recently started offering FREE wireless. So we stopped every couple of hours to check back home and make sure things worked out the way they were supposed to.

We reached our destination, Holiday Campground in Panacea, Fl, at around 6:15pm. The big excitement this evening was watching a big 45 foot Prevost Motorhome trying to get unstuck. It had gotten highcentered, and it's rear wheels couldn't get any traction. A little tow truck was dispatched to handle the situation and it was great fun watching him slide all over the road trying to pull out the Prevost. Think ant trying to pull a brick. Next they sent out an old army surplus deuce and half truck. Well this guy knew what he was doing. He hooked up a tow line that had a lot of stretch to it. He got a running start and stretched that rubber band to the point where we thought it would surely pop. All of a sudden, that Prevost shot forward like a rocket. We thought it was going to hit the deuce and half it was going so fast. But it didn't. The entertainment was over.

Eureka!! - June 6, 2009

Eureka, California, a tourist town and fishing village. Also the name of a interesting but cancled weekly scifi show. And no, we did not find Sherrif Carter's underground house, Cafe Diem, or any sign of Global Dynamics.


What we did find were lot's of young people, apparently homeless, looking through trash cans for aluminum cans to turn in for a cash refund. Thinking back on it, we saw quite a few people there that seem to have fallen on hard times.

We saw this neat old house off in the distance. Off we went to see it up close. Turns out it's a private club. Members only. So we didn't get to investigate up close.

Schmoozing with the Redwoods - June 5, 2009 (Cont'd)

Today we drove the "Avenue of the Giants". It's an old curvy narrow section of California Highway 101 that goes right through the Redwood groves. In many places you have to steer towards the center of the highway to avoid the trees right at the edge of the pavement.


We went on several hikes to get out into the forest and surround ourselves with the trees. Here's a picture of EJ next to two giants to give you some perspective for the size of the redwoods. Actually these are Coastal Redwoods and they only grow around the 2000 foot level within 40 miles of the coast. They need the coastal fog in the summer to meet their water needs as there is very little rain at that time of the year.


At the visitor center Frank found a 1920's camper that was built out of a redwood log. It was installed on a Nash-Quad truck chassis.


And finally, Frank did NOT fall over backwards taking this picture of the top of a redwood.

Update from "off the grid" Putnam's - June 5, 2009

Well, we are not in Texas as last reported. Frank's dad's surgery is not scheduled until June 22, so we had a few weeks to continue on our original route. We spent 5 days with EJ's brother and sister-in-law and headed to the northern CA and the Redwoods on Wednesday.

As we mentioned earlier, our little laptop suffered what turned out to be terminal damage on the roads of Lousiana. We ended up buying a new laptop (hereby named Nomad2) at the Costco in Sand City, Ca. We've spent several days setting it up with new software and learning the new Vista operating system. Old dogs don't like learning new tricks.

We decided since we are so far behind on updating the blog that we would let you know where we are now and plan to fill in the rest later. It's amazing how fast the time goes by. We're having a great time.

Today we're headed for "Avenue of the Giants" then Eureka where we'll probably spend the night. From there we'll begin our eastward trek to Yellowstone.

San Francisco - Our nerves are shot - June 4, 2009

After spending a wonderfully quiet and peaceful night at the Uvas Pine RV Park south of San Jose we hit the road, the 101 to be specific, and continued heading north. Our goal today was to see the Golden Gate Bridge and get past San Francisco. Around 1:30 the traffic started getting really heavy and we had our first dose of gridlock. All traffic had come to a complete stop...somebody had dropped a case of styrofoam cups on the highway. Apparently a 3,000 pound vehicle is no match for a styrofoam cup as it brought all 4 lanes of traffic to a complete halt.

We approached the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB) from the north as we had gotten on the 880, 580 and so on and worked our way around the east and north sides of the bay. As we approached the GGB we could not figure out how to get to the GGB park without crossing the bridge and turning around. We're finding the signage in California to be less than helpful for out of towners.

Using Streets and Trips software we managed to work our way to Fort Baker which is at the bottom of the GGB. It turns out the fort had been a cannon emplacement during WWII. It's called Battery Yates at Fort Baker.

After we left there we went through Sausalito to look at the house boats. There are literally hundreds of them. They range from million dollar homes to derilicts and is quite a community.

Then it was back out onto 101 to continue north. Traffic was bumper to bumper with instant slowdowns for no apparent reason. This continued on until 4:45 when we were far enough north of Santa Rosa to leave it all behind us. Some observations...more people were getting on 101 than getting off and when the traffic subsided it was instantaneous. We never did figure out where all those cars went.
The rest of the drive to Leggett was great. Driving through the forests, the hills and best of all, hardly any traffic. We arrived at our destination about 7:15 at the Redwood River Resort. Cool and damp, but really beautiful.