Post Script

July, 22, 2013

We've been home for a week today. It was an amazing trip, but we're really glad to be home. A friend of mine emailed me asking why we were returning to central Florida in the middle of July. My best answer to this very good question is that it's home. Our neighbors Bob and Betty, also RVers, have their house on the market and are planning to live full time in their RV. One thing that being on the road so much has taught me is that I don't want to live full time in an RV! After four months on the road, home seems like paradise. Don't get me wrong, we were very comfortable in our new RV, but to quote Dorothy, "there's no place like home." My mattress feels like a cloud, the shower has wonderful water pressure, I've got all the room in the world to cook in my kitchen, and we've been out in the hot tub every night watching the stars, listening to the frogs and crickets sing, and hearing the gators grunt!

SiSi is also glad to be home. She ran around like a crazy dog when we first arrived, so excited to be home. She is particularly happy to have real grass in which to do her business. She never quite got used to the southwest where nobody has any grass, and when they do, they don't want dogs peeing on it.

The Liberty has been thoroughly cleaned from stem to stern and been put to bed for a well deserved rest. I have been busily catching up on housework and throwing myself into some cardmaking projects which I missed so much while on the road. Rick has been trying to make a dent in the four months of yardwork that he found waiting for him, but has managed to find some time for golf.

Our next trip will be much shorter. In mid-September we'll be heading for Ohio in anticipation of the arrival of one Avery Grissom, whose due date is September 19th. We'll be attending another CHOC rally in Mystic, CT, spending some time in Baltimore, and visiting my daughter Emmy's new digs in State College, PA.

Here are some closing statistics:

Total Miles Traveled: 9365
Highest gas price paid: $3.92 at Grand Canyon South Rim
Lowest gas price paid: $3.19 in Tucson
Best Golf Course: Dave and Anna's country club in Tucson
National Parks Visited: 9
State Parks: 7
National Monuments: 4
National Historic Parks: 4
Presidential Libraries: 2
Private Historical Sites: 9
Sally's favorite National Park visited this trip: Grand Canyon - South Rim
Rick's favorite: Zion
Sally's favorite big city visited: Tucson
Rick's favorite: Dallas
Least favorite: Las Vegas, NV
Most Expensive Campground: $89, French Quarter RV Resort, New Orleans
Least Expensive Campground: $8: Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Best Campground: TenX NFS campground at Grand Canyon South
Runner-up: Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort, Las Vegas, NV
Worst Campground: Coachlight RV Park, Las Cruces, NM

And a bit about my readers:

Most popular posts gauged by number of times read: 1) Cajun Country 2) Grand Canyon South
Countries where greatest number of readers were from:  (In order) 1) USA, 2) Russia, 3) Germany, 4) Canada, 5) Brazil, 6) Romania, 7) Singapore

See you in September!

TTFN,
SCG

New Orleans

July 12 - July 15, 2013

New Orleans' Jackson Square

We stopped in New Orleans for two nights. The 13th was my birthday, and we spent it with my daughter, Abby, who lives in New Orleans. 

Abby is about to begin her third year of law school at Tulane. She has had two 6 week clerkships at two different law firms this summer, and has enjoyed them both.

Abby is engaged to be married. The wedding will be September 29, 2014. While I was in town we shopped for wedding invitations and "save the date" cards. It's amazing how many different options are available. The prices are pretty amazing too.

Kita and Abby

We had my birthday dinner in the French Quarter at a restaurant called Stella! (exclamation point, theirs). We had a most enjoyable evening.

When we left New Orleans, we knew we would be spending a night on the road. I was advocating for the half-way point, Tallahassee. When we went to New Orleans for Thanksgiving last year we had stayed at a park in Tallahassee called Tallahassee RV Park and had found it to be convenient and quiet. Rick was advocating for a longer drive and later stop time, hoping to have a shorter drive the next morning. While we were debating the question, Rick suddenly started honking his horn and waving. We had just passed our friends Carole and Terry from the Coach House Owners Club. Carole and I began texting and discovered that they were planning to stay at the same RV park in Tallahassee that we were discussing. That did it! We stopped for the night in Tallahassee and had dinner with our friends. We enjoyed a nice dinner at a Japanese steakhouse and had fun catching up with Terry and Carole.

We made the relatively easy drive home the next morning, arriving home on Monday July, 15th, 5 days short of 4 months after we had left on March 20th. It was a great trip. I'll have some closing thoughts and observations up in a few days. 

Bush Forty-Three

July 11, 2013

On our last day in Dallas we drove up to Southern Methodist University to see the recently opened George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. No matter what your opinion of "W" was as a president, you'd probably enjoy this library. It's a state of the art facility which uses artifacts, documents, and audiovisual and interactive exhibits. We found it to be a fascinating way to spend a few hours.

There's a full-size reproduction of the oval office where you can have your picture taken behind his desk. The "Decision Points Theater" takes visitors inside the presidential decision-making process. Gifts that had been given to the president and first lady by foreign dignitaries were also on display. There was a sweet film clip made by his daughters about Bush-the man. And there's much information about Katrina, No Child left Behind, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the most compelling exhibits are about 9-11, which was probably Bush's finest moment as a leader. It would be difficult to leave those displays and film clips unmoved.

Mangled wreckage from the World Trade Center

Bush is informed that America is under attack

Replica of the Oval Office

In the lobby of the museum, there was an amazing 360 degree video montage, projected just below the 67 foot ceiling, that orients visitors to the museum, and includes images of all 44 US presidents as well as the security photos that were taken of each visitor when they entered. Rick took this video of part of the presentation.

After our theater visit we had a delicious lunch at the lovely "Cafe 43" next door.

We were both a bit surprised about how much we enjoyed our visit to Dallas and Fort Worth. In our travels this summer we have seen many communities that are really struggling from the recession. But Dallas seems to be booming. I'm sure there are parts of the city that aren't so nice, but the parts that we saw were clean and bustling. There seemed to be construction going on everywhere.

Dallas - Sixth Floor Museum

Dallas Skyline

July 10, 2013

We drove into downtown Dallas and went to the Sixth Floor Museum, which is dedicated to telling the story of the Kennedy assassination. The museum does an excellent job of relating the timeline and circumstances of the events of November 22, 1963.

My children will always remember where they were and how they felt on September 11, 2001.  And my generation will always remember where they were on the day that JFK was shot. I was home from school, recovering from an illness, and my mother had taken me along with her to the hairdresser in Towson, MD. I was only 8, but I remember everyone at the hair salon was crying.

The Sixth Floor Museum is located in the old book depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald lay in wait for the motorcade from his sniper's perch. The museum does an amazing job of presenting, in excruciating detail, a minute by minute account of what happened and where. One particularly chilling exhibit recreates the exact scene at the corner window where Oswald fired those three shots. You can look out the window and see his exact view. There's even an X painted on the street outside in the exact spot where the president was killed. Eyewitness photos, the famous Zapruder film, and audio clips lend amazing depth to the exhibits. No photos were allowed in the museum, so I can't show any of the exhibits, but I got a few shots of the outside.

The spot where JFK was shot

Top right window: where the shots were fired

The grassy knoll

The book depository building on the left

 Oswald, of course, was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner, while he was being transported by police. The museum confronts the various conspiracy theories head on. Was the squirrely Oswald killed to prevent him from identifying his co-conspirators? Was there a second gunman on the nearby grassy knoll? Was Oswald working for Castro whom Kennedy had twice tried to kill? Was he working for the mob, which had been targeted by Attorney General Bobby Kennedy? Were the Russians behind it? Was he assassinated by his own FBI or CIA?

I've never put much stock in any of the conspiracy theories. But, I confess, that I came away from the museum with some doubts about the lone gunman theory. After looking at all the evidence, it really does seem more likely than not that Oswald wasn't acting alone.

After the museum, we walked about 12 blocks to the Nieman Marcus department store. I remember that my Mom and a friend of hers used to make a yearly trip to a place called "The Greenhouse" which was a combination spa, retreat, and fat farm. The Greenhouse was founded by one of the original owners of Nieman Marcus as a way of attracting well-heeled ladies to Dallas to shop at his flagship store. Mom always raved about her visits to the original Nieman Marcus here in Dallas. I'm not sure what I expected, but I found an expensive department store that wasn't much different from Saks, except for some unusual art exhibits here and there throughout the store. I dragged Rick into the fancy lunch room, Zodiac, where we had an elegant, expensive, and delicious lunch. Little touches like a "free" demitasse of consomme and popovers with strawberry butter added to the experience.

My lunch at Nieman Marcus' Zodiac restaurant

Strange sculptures at Nieman Marcus

Fort Worth

July 9, 2013

Yee Haw!

In the late 19th century, Fort Worth gained fame as a stop on the Chisholm trail. Cowboys would drive their herds down the streets of Ft Worth to be sold.

The old stockyards are mostly gone now, but Ft Worth has maintained its old west image. The historic stockyard area is now home to western wear stores and steakhouses. Many of the old buildings are still there. You'll see cowboys on horseback, and twice a day they drive a herd of longhorns down the street to amuse the tourists. On weekends they also have rodeos.

After watching the cattle drive, we spent a few minutes in the Stockyards Museum, and drank a cold one and checked out the immense interior of Billy Bob's Texas, the world's largest honky-tonk. We enjoyed dinner at Joe T Garcia's, a famous Ft Worth Tex-Mex restaurant.

We're staying at a nice park called Cedar Hill State Park, just south of Dallas. Full hookups and a lake view for $30. One more great Texas state park!

Las Vegas, NM

July 2 - July 8, 2013

We spent six nights in "the original" Las Vegas: Las Vegas, New Mexico. The Las Vegas of today is a sleepy working class town, but it has had a colorful history. The wagon wheel ruts still visible outside of town attest to its importance as a stop on the old Santa Fe Trail. During the 1880's it was known as one of the roughest towns on the frontier, harboring such desperados as Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday.

We were in "the original" Las Vegas to visit with family. My Parents have owned some land there for quite a while. They have a cabin that has served as a wonderful retreat for them over the years.  My brothers, Denny and Pete, have now also built a lovely adobe "cabin" on several acres of the same land. When Rick and I discovered that all three of my brothers would be vacationing at the newer cabin this week, we decided to join them. And when we persuaded my sister, Emily, to join us, it was a party.

Rick and I arrived in Las Vegas on Tuesday and had fun with Denny and Pete. My brother Bob arrived on Wednesday night, and my sister Emily, her daughter, Lucy, and my parents arrived on Friday. We had a great time hanging out, eating together, and catching up. It's not often that all of us are together.

Bob, Pete, Emily, Sally, Denny

Las Vegas, NM, is at 6,430' elevation, so we have enjoyed considerably cooler temperatures than those we were experiencing in Arizona. It has rained, at least for a little while, every day since we arrived. New Mexico has been suffering from a drought that has lasted for several years, so everyone has been delighted with the rain. But take a look at the pictures below. We had an incredible hail storm while we were here. These pictures were taken at my brothers' place. This was the first time that I have ever seen so much hail at one time. A nearby town had a full foot of hail laying on the ground after this storm. It was so bad that they had to call in the snow plows to remove it.

When we leave here, we will be beginning to move south and east, towards home. We still have a few stops left before we actually make it back to Florida, but the end of this adventure is now in sight.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

July 1 - July 2, 2013

Carlsbad Caverns National Park was a short drive from Guadalupe. We found an RV spot in the parking lot, and left SiSi to hold down the fort while we toured the caverns.

Carlsbad Caverns is a series of enormous rooms that make up one of the world's largest caverns. Much of it is still unexplored. The natural entrance is 90 feet high and 40 feet wide. You can take an elevator both ways into the cave, but we elected to walk in through the natural entrance. This route is a mile long paved trail that descends 750 feet under ground following steep and narrow trails. There were many interesting things to see along the way, including an abandoned bat cave.

Natural Entrance

The trail down

This formation, which resembles a whale's mouth, was visible on the walk into the cave

At the end of the trail was the largest room in the caverns. We took another mile long walk around the perimeter of the 8.2 acre room where we saw many unusual formations. When we had finished touring the cave, we took the easy way out and caught a ride up on the elevator.

The park service has done a good job of lighting the cave. The light is low, but adequate. Important formations are individually lit. And they ask everyone to keep their voices low. This helped to preserve the cave's eerie atmosphere. Our little camera and my cell phone have done a pretty serviceable job of recording our trip thus far, but they were not up to the job of photographing Carlsbad Caverns' low lighting. I had to delete about 75% of the pictures that we took. Here are some of the better ones.

Notice the old ladder that was once used to enter the caverns

 

 

Our schedule didn't permit us to attend Carlsbad's popular nightly bat flight program. An amphitheater has been constructed at the mouth of the cave. After a ranger talk on bat biology and behavior, several hundred thousand bats emerge from the cave on their nightly search for food. We would have loved to have seen this program, but, unfortunately, our campground was too far away from the park. 

 

 

Bush Forty-One

Note: This post should not be here! I edited its title today, and, for some reason, it jumped to the top. Please disregard it and scroll down to my newest post below.

March 28 - March 30, 2013

We are in College Station, TX, home of Texas A&M University, which is home to The George H.W. Bush museum. I have always been interested in presidential history. On our various trips we have visited a number of museums dedicated to our presidents as well as the presidential libraries.

George H W Bush Presidential Library, College Station, TX

The presidential libraries are a relatively recent phenomenon They are administered by the National Archives. John Adams' is administered by the National Park Service since it is part of his home and Lincoln's is administered by the State of Illinois. Other than those, all of the achives-administered libraries are from Twentieth and Twenty-first century presidents. We are making it a point to visit as many of these museums as possible. All three of the libraries that are located in Texas are on our "to-do" list for this trip.

Like the other libraries that we have previously visited, Bush-41's library is excellent. It does a wonderful job of making the man and his life interesting and accessible. I particularly enjoyed the exhibits about his childhood and college days while Rick enjoyed the part about his experiences as an aviator during WWII.

   Here I am giving the President a piece of my mind about the mess he got us into with Desert Storm.

 Rick, thinking deep thoughts in the oval office.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park

June 30- July 1, 2013

Seeking lower temperatures, we again headed for higher ground. Our next stop was Guadalupe Mountains National Park, a relatively small and unknown national park. It is located in northwest Texas, just south of the New Mexico border.

We arrived at the park around lunch time, and checked into its "campground." The campground consisted of a blacktop parking lot with lines, a few scattered picnic tables, no hookups, and a restroom. Except for the fact that the heat was intensified by the blacktop, we really didn't mind the lack of amenities. The views of the mountains were gorgeous, the location next door to the visitor's center was very convenient, and we had the place completely to ourselves. There wasn't another RV in the whole place. There were a few tenters, but they had campsites far enough away from the RV's that we felt completely alone.

We spent the afternoon hiking the beautiful Smith Spring trail and touring the interesting Frijole Ranch Museum which did a good job of depicting the life of a frontier rancher in this desolate mountain area. Unfortunately, we both forgot our cameras, so I can't share any pictures with you.

After a simple supper in our RV, we took SiSi for a walk down the only trail on which she was allowed: the Pinery Trail, which led to the ruins of a Butterfield Stagecoach station called The Pinery. A forerunner of the pony express and the transcontinental railroad, the Butterfield Overland Mail Coach was the first successful attempt to link east and west with a reliable transportation and communication system. Its route was from St Louis to San Francisco. The stages carried passengers and mail, traveling an average of five miles per hour, twenty-four hours a day. The stages would stop approximately every 20 miles to change horses, and perhaps, get a bite to eat. The Pinery stop was located at the 5,534 ft Guadalupe pass, and was the highest stop on the route. It only operated for 11 months, though, because the Butterfield Stage's route was changed to a new route that took it nearer to Forts Davis and Stockton. The threat of attacks by the Apache Indians necessitated changing the route to one that was closer to the chain of military forts along the southern military road to El Paso.

The Pinery stage stop

One of the views from our evening walk on the Pinery trail

We spent just one night at Guadalupe and moved on the next day.

Tombstone

June 28 - June 29, 2013

Have you seen any of the "Tombstone" movies? Not being a big fan of "westerns," I don't think I've ever watched one all the way through, but Rick has watched them all several times. His favorite is the one with Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell.

Tombstone is a real place and the movies are based on real events in 1881. The shootout at the OK Corral actually happened, though there is some debate about who the real "good guys" were. There's no debate that police chief Virgil Earp duputized his brothers Wyatt and Morgan along with Doc Holliday in order to help him disarm the "cowboys" Frank and Tom McLaury and Tom and Ike Clanton, who were waiting to confront Doc Holliday.

Ike Clanton ran away when the shooting started. The three "cowboys" who stood their ground were all killed. Virgil and Morgan Earp were both badly wounded and Doc Holliday suffered a superficial hip wound. Only Wyatt Earp walked away unscathed. The town was divided about whether the lawmen were "just doing their job," or whether it was an execution. The Earps were even arrested, tried, and acquitted. Tombstone does a pretty credible reenactment of the gunfight several times each day.

Tombstone has done its best to retain its old west feel in the downtown area. There are a number of original buildings and the sidewalks are still wooden. The road is paved, but closed to traffic in order to preserve the historic feeling.

Tombstone came into being because it was the site of a large silver mine which continued producing silver until 1889. We took a tour of the "Good Enough Mine." It was interesting to see how primitive and dangerous mining operations were in the 19th century.

 

 

 

 

Since Tombstone has a higher elevation than Tucson, we "enjoyed" temperatures that were about five degrees less than those in Tucson. That meant that it only reached 108 while we were in Tombstone!  

Tucson

June 24 - June 28, 2013

We couldn't hide from the heat forever. We spent 4 nights in Tucson seeing the sights and meeting my daughter Abby's future inlaws. We stayed in Catalina State Park in the Oro Valley area, just north of Tucson. Under normal conditions, we would have loved this park: long, wide, private sites, water and electric hookups, beautiful views of the Catalina Mountains, good Verizon mifi signal, the campground almost empty, what more could we have wanted? Well, a little shade might have helped! The high temperatures were over 100F every day we were there, with the highest high being 113! The Liberty has two air conditioners, but they really can't cool the inside more than about 20 - 25 degrees, even with all the window shades pulled and the awning out. Luckily, the heat quickly dissipated when the sun went down. We were even able to turn off the AC and open the windows every evening, once the temperature dropped below 85.

The heat didn't prevent us from enjoying our time in Tucson. It was a dry heat!  My friend Betty and I have had several "discussions" about that phrase. Betty, the scientist, derisively says 110 degrees is 110 degrees, whether it's "dry" or not. I have to beg to differ. One Hundred and Ten combined with 80% humidity in Florida or Baltimore would be unbearable. But 110 in Tucson is just HOT! When you sweat in Tucson, it quickly evaporates, while in Florida the sweat just soaks you and your clothes, compounding your misery.

The main purpose of our stop in Tucson was meeting Abby's future inlaws. My friend Debbie tells me that there is a Yiddish word for my relationship to Abby's future mother-in-law: "machatunem." And my sister-in-law, Carmen, tells me that in Spanish it's "consuegra." I wonder why we don't have a comparable word in English. But whatever you call them, Anna and Dave are lovely people and we had fun getting to know them. Rick particularly enjoyed playing golf with Dave at their country club. Since we arrived in the southwest, we've been trying to see the local wildlife. Between the state and national parks that we had visited we had yet to see a javelina. Rick managed to see three javalinas, a bob cat, quail and rabbits, all on the golf course! Apparently the animals frequent the golf course looking for water from the ponds and the sprinkler system.

While Rick and Dave played golf, Anna took me to visit the little border town of Tubac where we enjoyed browsing the shops and galleries. On the way back we stopped at the historic Mission San Xavier Del Bac which was built in 1783.

 
The four of us enjoyed a delicious and authentic Mexican dinner at Café Poca Cosa.

Rick, Sally, Anna, Dave

Rick and I found some time to visit Saguaro National Park which contains several forest-like stands of these cool cacti. Saguaro are the large, human looking cacti that are so closely associated with the American dessert. But, in fact, they are only found in southern Arizona, California along the Colorado River, and the northern Mexican state of Sonora. They often live more than 200 years and grow up to 50 feet high.

The saguaro were in bloom when we were there. The fruit is prized by Native Americans and many animals. The hole you see in the above plant is caused by a bird building its nest. To protect itself the saguaro builds a hard shell around the area where the bird has intruded.

We spent another interesting day at the excellent Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Part zoo and part garden, it showcases the plants and animals that are indigenous to the Sonora Desert region.

A blooming cactus at the Desert Museum

Rick and I really enjoyed Tucson. We'd like to go back again sometime when the weather is milder.