March 2019

Time to be RVing nomads again…for a bit anyway. We’re headed easterly, towards a beach cottage “vacation” the end of March in Alabama. Our time in Port Aransas was…well let’s just say that although it is not paradise, it sure was better than shoveling snow and hunkering down by the woodstove 🙂 And we’ll be back next winter.
In Port A, we played lots of pickleball in lots of wind, made some friends at our RV park, worked on the camper and truck, walked the beach and channel, watched lots of birds.

Springtime is beginning here- many roadside and campground wildflowers to be seen.

We went up to Livingston, TX- home of Escapees RV Club. They have an RV Park there as well as a Medical Care Facility and the Mail Center. They also have a program- SmartWeigh- which will weigh all your wheels on your truck and trailer, and the hitch weight to help you determine if you are overloaded and if the loads are distrubted correctly across the wheels. Even though we were in good shape, we did make one small adjustment to the hitch to balance things out.
Cajun Country- Eunice, LA. Interesting area! This is where many Acadians were deported to back in the mid-1700’s from Nova Scotia. History we learned- the French and British fought over Nova Scotia and surrounding areas (including eastern Maine) many, many times. Each victor insisting the locals swear allegiance to their country. Many Acadians were deported to British colonies, the Carribean, and back to France over time, then some from France to Louisiana, inland from New Orleans to prairie lands. “Cajun” comes from the way southern French speaking Acadians said “Acadian” ( think about it :-). The Acadian lands included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, parts of Quebec, and Maine east of the Kennebec River (who knew that?) We went to a live radio show concert of Cajun music, which included some Zydeco, as well- great fun!

Feb. 2019,

Port Aransas is a nifty little town- in the winter. Plenty of restaurants, good local seafood, a community theater, pickleball, a community pool, lots of fishing, and miles and miles of beach. It is on Mustang Island, which is part of the barrier reef- a big, long sandbar, essentially. Mostly locals and Winter Texans here this time of year. soon it will be spring break partiers and then the summer tourists.
Fog and wind are the predominant weather features this month! Highs in the upper 60s. We’ve moved to Pioneer RV Park- it’s behind the dunes behind the beach. Big RV park with lots of Winter Texans and lots of activities- cards, Mah Jong, dances, ice cream socials, etc. We have met some folks here through pickleball- we’re teaching them and they are including us in some of the social activities. We hope to be back here for 3 months next winter.

 

Our site is next to a “birding pond” and we have had at least a dozen different species to watch. We think these are Ibis.

 

We both made the local paper- The South Jetty- not much news around here! lol

Although this is much controversy over a dredging proposal for the channel to allow HUGE tankers in- sounds like home 🙂

Jan. 2019

If you stay in south Texas for even a few weeks in the winter, the locals call you a Winter Texan…and like you…’cause you spend money! So, we are Winter Texans and we’re starting to say “y’all” but with a Maine accent!

This is how close to the bay we were camped at Bird Island, Padre Island National Seashore, when we moved there at the beginning of the gov’t shutdown. They left this campground open because it offered no services.

Some local wildlife:

The weather in Port Aransas has been so much better than last winter! Last winter was gray, cold and damp. This winter has been mostly sunny or partly sunny and warmer, some days up to 70. It is super windy here though- rarely is it calm and usually it blows 15mph or more- 25mph+ happens a couple times a week. Pickleball is a different sport in wind like this! But good for flying kites!

 

Speaking of Pickleball- we have three courts nearby and 10-30 playing 3-4 times a week, even with all the wind! We have met a lot of people from the Midwest and some north Texas that winter here.

From the RV park we are at in January we can see ships in the channel, walk to PB and a nature preserve and up to town. The Gulf beach is just over a mile away. Nice place, but a tight RV park.
We follow the weather back in Maine, and are ever so grateful to be missing the snow and cold…maybe some year we will want to be in it again…wait…shoveling again? maybe not.
We’re working on the camper; fixing and upgrading, cleaning and re-organizing, etc.

December, 2018

 Well, that wasn’t taken this  December, although it does look wintery! July, 2018, in front of the Columbia Glacier, near Valdez, Alaska!

South Padre Island- super built up tourist beach town- looks a lot like coastal Florida! We spent enough time to assess whether or not it might be a good winter destination- it is warmer than North Padre Island, windy a lot, and not much to do- lots of bars and restaurants.

 

But they have Christmas sand castle sculptures:

 

 

Lake Corpus Christi State Park- halfway between the dealer where we bought the truck and the cap dealer north of here. Here is our NEW truck, at Bird Island Basin, Padre Island National Seashore:

Why did we buy a new truck? Well, let me explain- the old truck, which we loved and it served us well, had dual real wheels and a crew cab which meant it was longer and wider than we now need. Plus we put a lot of hard miles on it in Alaska. The new truck is 16″ shorter because it is an extended cab, only a F250, single real wheels which is about two feet narrower. So, now we actually fit in a normal parking space (without the camper on :-).
Padre Island National Seashore- we’ve returned with hopes of better weather than last winter and so far we have had a week of sunny and 70 degrees, however it does look like things will be degrading.

The gov’t shutdown threw us a bit of a twist. They closed the campground we were in and kicked us all out on Saturday morning, including locking the bathhouse (which we didn’t need, but others did) and the dump station, which we did need. Fortunately, they left a smaller, bayside campground open because it has NO facilities. About 20 rigs moved over to Bird Island Basin Campground and surprised the handful of quiet windsurfer RVers! The one up side is that there are no park staff around to collect fees so they said we could all stay for free- which only saves us $7/night, but we’ll take it for the inconvenience of hauling the camper up to a county campground to use their dump station.

Christmas was quiet- good food and sunshine. The campers here gathered around a “Charlie Brown Christmas Tree” for conversation and mosquitoes- we didn’t stay long 🙂

Late Nov. 2018
After Phoeniz, Tucson seemed like a small town…kind of. We stayed at an RV park that is part of the Pima County Fairgrounds. There was a car raceway in one direction, a shooting range in another and equestrian events going on within the fairgrounds…interesting. And we heard coyotes quite close each night.

We went to the Pima Air and Space Museum- the second largest to the Smithsonian! Over 80 acres covered in planes with 5 big hangars full as well.

An amazing collection of historic planes and super knowledgeable guides and docents-many who were pilots in Korea and/or Vietnam. We had hoped to go to the Military Plane Boneyard- 100s of acres, where old planes go to die or be scavenge for parts, however one needs a security clearance reservation 10 days in advance to go on that tour.

Oh, and this area is where lots of Saquaro Cacti live– we felt like we were in an old western movie!

 

Bisbee, AZ- off the beaten path. There were lots of copper (and silver) mines in those whole area way back. Queen mine, a mine that produced more copper and other mineral ores that almost any still operates a mine tour into the old mine, even though it went open pit in a big way in it’s later years.

Our RV park was on a slag pile overlooking the open pit mine and beside the shaft mine we toured (one can just see it in the right pic, near the top). And our RV park owner also owns the Lavender Jeep Tours in town. Bisbee is tucked into a very steep canyon and the roads are CRAZY, narrow, windy, steep and blind; many two way, but with room only for one! The Jeep tour took us all over town through all those roads with a running dialogue of history and stories of old and present Bisbee. They have a runners’ race each year which in essentially up 1000 steps of stairs down them! Many people walk 100 stair steps a day just to get their mail as the USPS will not deliver to them! Bisbee, apparently, has been voted as one of the “quirkiest” small towns in America- and we would agree.

Boondocking- three nights, off grid, essentially on the side of the road. A roadside pullout behind a granite outcrop, BLM land outside of Las Cruces, NM, and a picnic roadside stop i in TX. Beautiful, quiet and free!

 
Our first DUST STORM! Wow! Two areas of RT 10 near El Paso were heavily marked for wind, dust and visibility! And we got the wind- it actually boosted our mpg for a while. And then we got the DUST! The dust was kind of like fog back home- our visibility dropped to about 1/4 of a mile and the highway was 75mph there!
Speaking about El Paso- Juarez is just across the border. In Mexico, the minimum wage is $8 US….per DAY!!! Many people Mexican and US, live in Juarez and cross the border everyday to work in the US. However, for US companies, manufacturing in Mexico is definitely cheaper. The whole area is massive sprawl of houses for as far as one can see.
Another best kept secret- Fort Davis TX The tallest mountains in Texas at about 6000ft. so scenic and cooler in the summer. The actual fort of Fort Davis is a partly restored fort from the calvary days of the 1860s-1890s. Fascinating history for an easterner. The Chihuahuan (we now have been in all four deserts in the US in the past month) Desert Nature Center has a botanical garden walk with well labeled native plants

and a hike up to a bluff where the geological history of the 360 view of mountains is well explained. And add in McDonald Observatory and a night time Star Party- we looked through some very large telescopes at star cluster, nebulae and the galaxay Andromeda. We have had days near 70, but cold nights- lows of 21 and 27!!! Time to move!
Headed down to South Padre Island for a few days to check out that part of the Gulf Coast.

Nov. 12- 29, 2018

Time to start moving east and then south towards Texas- we have a reservation at an RV park in Port Aransas for January. We have ordered a new truck and it should be in Corpus Christi when we get there!
We are in The Desert…at least it’s fall and not summer, so our temps are really nice- mid-70s and very very dry- 20% humidity.

Do you remember, 20 Mule Team Borax and Death Valley Days? We visited the borax mine!

Sawtooth Canyon- a little BLM campground mostly for rock climbers- quiet and scenic in this harsh west style.

Joshua Tree National Park- where two deserts meet. The Mojave is distinguished by Joshua “Trees- one of the largest “forests” of them is here.

The Colorado Desert to the east and has Ocotillo and Cholla. There had been 6 inches of rain in 30 mins about 2 weeks  before we were there and so many plants were blooming!

And from a 5500 ft viewpoint we could see the San Andreas Fault and the Salton Sea which is 235 ft BELOW sea level!

Dome Rock Mtn. BLM land near Quartzsite. 100s of acres a mile from Rt 10 of barren desert open to camping for free.

During the winter, Quartzsite hosts a RV Gathering every year in the winter and thousands of RVers show up for a week, or two, or a month! There are over 25 RV parks in this tiny town, and a dozen or more BLM dispersed camping areas. Many Rvers that we have met have encouraged us to attend, we have yet to find ANY reason to be with that many people, that many RVs and that many generators running.
Civilization again- we are outside of Phoenix and wish we weren’t. 3 million people live in greater Phoenix. Highways and roads everywhere, construction everywhere, dust everywhere. We found a really nice RV park though- spacious sites, nice friendly people, even a pickleball court, so we played! Time to re-stock, do laundry, make plans and do some business before we head back out. We were invited to join the snowbirds at our RV park for T-Day dinner and we accepted- mmmmm, a real T-day dinner!

 

July, August, Sept. 2018

While we were in Alaska we set an amazing record for ourselves – 66 nights in a row totally off-grid, unplugged, unhooked! Our previous record was 11 nights.  We were at an RV park with hookups  in early July. We used state and federal campgrounds, and boondocked some. NO electric hookup/shore power, no water hookup, no sewer hookup. Our solar panels, lithium batteries and generators kept us powered up all that time! And the part that is actually amazing is that some weeks we would only see the sun one day! We only used our generators about a dozen times!

Now that we have done that- unintentionally- we are so very grateful for full hookup campgrounds and feel spoiled when we stay at one 🙂

btw, our rig holds 80 gallons of fresh water, and we can make it last 5 days and take showers every day! The average American uses 80 gallons a day!!

Late October into November, 2018
Crescent City, CA
An RV park on the ocean in Crescent City! Time to restock, do laundry, relax and enjoy warmer days.

Then on to Eureka, which means “I found it” – google Archimedes and Eureka to learn more 😉 We visited Blue Ox Millwright- and words can not describe the interesting and discombobulated place we found. However, our tour guide was amazingly knowledgeable. In the late 1800s, Humboldt Bay was all about Redwood Timber- 500 sawmills dotted the shores and 100s of sailing ships took millions of board feet of lumber out. And in the 1900s it all started to dwindle away. Starting in the 1970s, Eric scavenged and collected old logging, sawmill and millwright equipment- much of it foot pedal powered!

And he began doing custom wood millwork the old fashioned way for Victorian home restorations. Blue Ox does millwork, teaches vet and kids, offer classes, and continues to collect equipment from those old timber days.
We both can not say this enough- to ourselves and to you our readers- poverty and homelessness is so evident in any place we visit where the weather is temperate all year round. We, in New England, should consider ourselves very lucky for the homes, jobs and support we have compared to many people around the country.

Westport, CA gave us an old state park campground on a bluff with incredible views of the ocean and two beaches to walk and almost no other campers. However, the shore line is not stable. This campground road is 150 ft above the beach and has been discontinued because much of it is now in the ocean!And we do wonder about earthquakes, as there were over 40 of them the other day just 40 miles from here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bodega Bay- we are prepping ourselves for the trek down through San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge. As much as many RVers never hesitate to be on huge, busy interstates- we avoid them until we can’t- to go south along the coast we have to take the highway for a bit. We have learned that it is well worth the wait to do these drives early on Sunday mornings- no commuter traffic, few semi trucks and less traffic altogether. This campground had water on both sides- a big sand bar essentially. We were there for the first day of Crab Fishing- kind of like “deer camp” back in Maine 🙂
Golden Gate Bridge- we crossed at 8:30 on Sunday morning- heavy traffic, but the toll is so high, no trucks! $32 for our truck and trailer to cross!

And then an hour of city driving, down Rt 1 until we got to our next stop in Santa Cruz- on a bluff above the ocean and beach- pretty sweet!
Big Sur- it is spectacular scenery and a very twisty turny road- but Clare has driven so many of these kind of roads- many right here on the West Coast! A Forest Service campground on the bluff above the beach!

Cayucos, CA- apparently this is the last little tourist beach town in California. We have an ocean view of the ocean, Morro Rock and the town.

The traffic is so light we think Hope, Maine has more traffic. Yet the town is mostly hotels and restaurants. We watched whales and dolphins just off the shore. A group of sea otters where in the harbor, the moms were washing their babies- even though they swim every day, apparently they need a good washing, too!

 

 

 

And this zebra? Apparently Hearst Castle, which still has a working cattle ranch, still has some exotic animals, too. Zebras were all along the road with the cattle.

 

Late October, 2018

It should really be called Caldera Lake, just saying. We tried for about 4 weeks to get here last summer, but wildfires closed roads and obscured the lake for the time we were near here, but we made it this year – and the weather was warm and sunny! Some years the Rim Road is closed by snow in late October! And stays closed until late May into June- some years they get 43 feet of snow here!!

Crater Lake has a fascinating geologic history- Mount Mazama, a volcano in the “Rim of Fire” took millions of years to build itself into a 12,000 ft peak. Then, just 7700 years ago, the magma pool beneath the mountain started to build and build, and the mountain started to vent some of the magma and steam out- in many, many places that formed a circle around the mountain at about 7,000 ft. One day- literally in a few hours- all the vents started to spew ash, pumice and lava at once and the magma pool beneath the mountain started to empty. Then the top of the mountain – 5000ft of the top- dropped straight down into the void where the magma had been! The mountain was now only 7000 ft tall with a 4,000 ft crater. Everything within 30 miles was flattened and killed; ash was dispersed hundreds of miles away- through Montana and into Canada. Over time the crater filled with rain and snow- it filled about halfway up the crater. There are no inlets or outlets to this lake, so the water level stays about the same. The water, at it’s deepest in 1963ft deep! The purity of this water plus it’s depth is what makes it the “bluer than blue” color that it is famous for. So, a crater has no water in it- a caldera does 🙂

We spent the day driving around the 33 mile Rim Road, stopping at many, many viewpoints- It is an amazing lake and well worth the effort it took for us to get here.

Sept. 29, 2018 thru October 19, 2018
…finally…it’s been since May 25 that we have been in the lower 48, when we left Maine! And the road out through British Columbia was very scenic, much of it a long a deep river gorge.
We’re looking for warmer and sunnier weather, but haven’t found it…yet. Traveling around the Olympic Peninsula- some beautiful ocean views, and a lot of damp weather 😦
We can’t remember the last time we wore shorts….

Warmer and sunnier in Oregon! Short sleeve shirts, but not quite shorts weather, yet. Spent a couple days in Warrenton, OR- we hadn’t gotten our mail since May! So we had that forwarded here- our South Dakota re-registration plate stickers, some retirement docs- I am finally and officially retired and collecting- YAY!

 

 

 
Fort Stevens State Park includes the biggest campground west of the Mississippi- over 500 sites, miles and miles of sandy beaches, with an old shipwreck, beautiful views of the Columbia River and a large, old and defunct military base which was used from the Civil War through WII, and a herd of elk.

 

The weather has been unseasonably warm and sunny, so all the locals have come out camping, making it difficult for us to find a campsite! Had a beauty with an ocean view, right on the beach for one night…one night only. Shorts weather! And another campground above a beach in Coos Bay, quiet and scenic.