Grants Pass, Oregon May 4, 2018

After saying farewell to beautiful Mount Shasta, we headed north towards Oregon.

We passed over Siskiyou Summit which at 4,310 feet is the highest point on Interstate 5 in the United States. Immediately everything was greener and just gorgeous.
We arrived in Grants Pass, Oregon, population 34,500. Located along the Rogue River, the town was named after General Ulysses S. Grant.

The town’s motto is “It’s The Climate”, a reference to this region’s Goldilocks climate: not too hot, not too cold but just right.

I loved the huge lilac bushes around town as well as the gorgeous white and pink dogwood trees which reminded me of my home state of Virginia. The dogwood is Virginia’s state tree and state flower so Grants Pass reminded me so much of home.
While in Grants Pass for three nights we did a lot of geocaching around the town, including one found at the site of the town mascot, a caveman.
One day we drove to Valley of the Rogue State Park for some hiking and geocaching.

This Mural was found in the city of Rogue River

This bridge crosses the Rogue River where a ferry once ran.
Next stop: Salem, Oregon

Paradise & Weed, CA APR 26, 2018

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We left Nicolaus and made the drive north to Paradise, CA. We were excited to visit Paradise because we were going to visit Sara, a former coworker of mine from my teaching days in Charlottesville, VA. Sara and I last saw each other twelve years ago.

The Elks Lodge was almost full and was a nice place to stay with full hookup sites. After settling in we met Sara and her family to attend Sara’s daughter’s violin recital. Lucy played ten pieces she had memorized. She is so talented and it was amazing for someone her age to memorize so many pieces.

The next day we went on a hike on Table Mountain in nearby Oroville. It was a great day that included waterfalls, beautiful wildflowers and even some kite flying!

We finished the day at Sara’s house where her husband Ross showed us his excellent barbecuing skills! One of the many wonderful thing about this lifestyle is being able to catch up with dear friends around the country. Thank you so much Sara, Ross, John, Lucy, Oliver and Franki! We can’t wait to see you again down the road!

Our next stop as we continued north was Weed, CA. After almost three months in California, this was our last stop before crossing over into Oregon. As we traveled north we were excited to see Mount Shasta in the distance.

We were last in Weed in the fall of 2014. A week after we left, a catastrophic wildfire burned hundreds of acres and destroyed more than 150 structures including 140 homes, two churches, the library and community center. But most important, no lives were lost. It has been a long recovery for the town and we were told many people took the insurance money and left instead of rebuilding.

We settled into our campsite with an amazing view of Mount Shasta, elevation 14,179 feet.

Last time we were here was in September and most of the snow on Mount Shasta had melted. This time was very different. Mount Shasta has seven named glaciers.

One day we drove up Mount Shasta but discovered the upper road was still blocked by snow. We still managed to go up almost 7,000 feet. Last time we were here we were able to drive all the way up to the Alpine Lodge.

We stopped throughout the day to find many geocaches. One geocache took us to the headwaters of the Sacramento River. A really neat and unexpected place which reminded us of the headwaters of the Mississippi River we visited last summer at Itasca State Park in Minnesota.

At one point on a beautiful pedestrian bridge a man stopped to ask Bill if he needed any help since Bill appeared to be searching for something lost. Bill decided to take the opportunity to introduce him to geocaching. He thought it was pretty cool.

Next stop: Grants Pass, Oregon

Lodi & Sacramento, CA APR 12, 2018

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Leaving the Hollister area we drove to the town of Lodi for a stay at the Elks Lodge. Lodi is a major wine producing region with more than 80 wineries located in the area. The town has nicknamed itself the “Zinfandel Capital of the World”. We enjoyed doing some geocaching and found the people to be very friendly.

Beside the road was this exchange library where we found a geocache hide

Next up was the town of Nicolaus about thirty miles from Sacramento, the capital of California. Even though we drove on major highways, the roads were really rough in some places. California really needs to spend some money repairing their roads!

On Saturday we drove into Sacramento to visit the state capitol building. It is our quest to visit every capitol building in the country. I will start with the bad comments first. You may have heard on the news that California has an alarming number of homeless people living on the streets. That fact was very evident in Sacramento. I am not usually frightened by this, but in Sacramento wherever we were there seemed to be several people arguing loudly, cursing, and in one instance approached me for money. It is common to see people wandering the streets with suitcases or carts with all their belongings or sleeping along the roads and in parks. In and around the city, bathrooms in restaurants and stores are locked and you must ask to use the facilities. Their situation is very sad, very disturbing and a little frightening.

California has a lovely state capitol building and we took their tour with an exceptional tour guide.

He clearly loves his job. California became the 31st state in 1850 and construction on the capitol building began in 1860 and concluded in 1874. Sacramento was chosen as the capital during the gold rush era because it was located near the highly populated gold rush areas. The capitol is modeled after the U. S. capitol building and has a beautiful 120 foot high rotunda.

A page boy, Queen Isabella and Christopher Columbus

We loved the statue of Ronald Reagan and seeing the legislative chambers.

George Washington portrait overlooking the State Senators

We heard an interesting story about the portrait of former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had the portrait commissioned by an artist in Austria, his birth country. The artist chose not to give it an ornate frame or nameplate like the portraits of other past governors and it was hung that way. Not having a nameplate may not be a problem now, but 100 years from now will people recognize the governor without a nameplate?

We went into the gift shop and this bumper sticker caught my eye.

The capitol building is located on a 40 acre park. We always look for the Liberty Bell located at all state capitals.

Next we visited nearby Old Sacramento, a four block area that was the city’s commercial district during the gold rush era and pony express.

The area has cobblestone streets and wooden walkways which give it a feeling of yesteryear. It is very much a tourist area today with restaurants, souvenir shops, carriage rides, paddle boat tours and train rides. We visited the Wells Fargo History Museum.

The Sacramento River is crossed by this yellow bridge

Watch their train here:

We finished the day at Sutter Fort State Historic Park, site of the first European outpost in California.

It was established by Swiss immigrant John Sutter with a land grant from the Mexican government and was known as New Switzerland.

After the discovery of gold the land were taken from Sutter by prospectors. We were surprised to find that the original structures were made by men from Hawaii.

On Monday we made the long drive from Nicolaus to visit Donner Memorial State Park. In order to get there we had to drive over Donner Pass using I-80 and the Lincoln Highway, elevation 7,227.

The snow was beautiful on this bright sunny day.

The state park had a very nice visitors center with displays and a movie about the Donner party, a group of pioneers who set out from Missouri for California in May 1846 in a wagon train.

The trip usually took four to six months, but due to mishaps and bad decisions they found themselves snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the winter of 1846-1947, a record breaking snowy winter.

Of the original 87 pioneers, only 48 survived. It is one of the most famous and tragic tales of pioneer journeys, which included cannibalism to survive.

On the state park grounds is a monument to the Donner party.

Next stop: Paradise, CA to see a former co-worker from my teaching days

Yosemite National Park, APR 11, 2018

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We left the Hollister area and traveled toward Yosemite National Park. Along the way we passed through more of the California Central Valley agricultural area with fields of crops, pistachio trees, strawberries, many vineyards, sheep and dairy farms with large cattle pens. After stopping for fuel and supplies and dealing with rough roads and steep, curvy mountain passes we pulled into the Mariposa County Fairgrounds. A long day!

When we last visited Yosemite National Park in September, 2014 we stayed in a campground west of the park which required taking the RV up a very steep curvy road. We chose not to do that again and instead stayed in Mariposa about an hour from Yosemite. Also since the park is at a higher elevation, it is colder in Yosemite with the forecast of snow one night and temperatures in the twenties and thirties.

Our main reason for visiting now was to see the many waterfalls in the park. When we were there the last time, all the waterfalls had dried up from the summer heat and California drought. We were determined to see the waterfalls this time. Ideally it would have been better to wait until May since some of the roads and trails were still closed from the winter snows. But April was the best time for our 2018 travel plans. Another benefit of visiting in April is a lack of tourist traffic and crowds.

It was a little over an hour drive to the park but two road construction delays made the drive longer. It took us all day to drive around the park, stopping often to gaze in awe at the waterfalls and of course take pictures. The recent rains and spring thaws were obvious as we saw high water levels white rapids and gushing waterfalls. Beautiful!

Our favorite waterfall is Yosemite Falls, which has a drop of 2,425 feet and is the tallest waterfall in the United States. The following pictures are taken of the upper and lower Yosemite Falls.

No visit is complete without pictures of El Capitan and Half Dome, both famous Yosemite rock climbing landmarks.

We also watched again the movie about the park at the Visitors Center and took a hike to the amazing grand view of Yosemite Falls. We were able to catch the park shuttle bus back to the car.

Here are several other waterfalls for your enjoyment.

Yosemite is an amazingly beautiful place and I am sure we will return again someday.

After leaving Mariposa we will continue to make our way through northern California on our way to Seattle.

Ridgecrest, Buena Vista REC Area, Hollister, CA MAR 30, 2018

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After leaving Death Valley National Park we traveled back to Ridgecrest for three nights. Bill visited the China Lake Museum whose mission is to preserve the history of the Navy’s spectrum of weapons research, development and testing. Formerly located at the China Lake Naval Weapons Center, the museum is being relocated off base to make it more accessible to the public. China Lake was started to develop missiles and also was involved in the Manhattan Project.

After three days in Ridgecrest we headed north to Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area near the tiny town of Taft, California. Along the way we passed field after field of solar panels and occasionally wind turbines.

The terrain changed from a dry rocky landscape to the agricultural California Central Valley. We passed field after field of crops, citrus trees and grapes.

We could see aqueducts helping irrigate the fields as well as political signs from farmers asking for more dams instead of the proposed funding for the high speed rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

We had a campsite with a view of the lake and enjoyed a peaceful weekend even though it was Easter weekend and the park was full of families. We enjoyed just relaxing and some walks around the park with beautiful sunsets.

We left Taft and headed to a campground near Hollister, California for a nine night stay. Hollister is one of three towns in California claiming to be the “Earthquake Capital of the World” because it was built directly on the very geologically active Calaveras Fault, a strand of the greater San Andreas Fault. One evening we felt the earth gently shake and later learned it was a 3.0 earthquake. No big deal.

Our main reason for visiting this area was to visit Pinnacles National Park. Formerly a national monument established in 1908, it became a national park in 2013, the 59th national park and our newest national park.

The pinnacles are eroded leftovers of the western half of an extinct volcano that was once part of the San Andreas Fault. The park is divided by the rock formations into an east division and a west division with no road connecting the east and west sections of the park.

The park has numerous unusual talus caves that are home to more than thirteen species of bats. Talus caves are not like the typical limestone underground caves. In fact they are not really caves at all. They are formed when steep, narrow canyons are filled with a jumbled mass of boulders from the cliffs above which happened during the ice age. There is no known evidence of the existence of any Native Americans ever living in the talus caves.

One day we drove to the eastern section of the park which was more easily accessible from our campground. We stopped by the Visitors Center for trail information.

We discovered there are not a lot of hiking trails in the park, and the trails they have are either rated moderate or strenuous. After talking with a ranger we chose the Bear Gulch Cave and Moses Spring Trails after her assurance it was not a difficult trail. The hike started with a fairly uphill walk until we reached the cave.

Upon entering the cave we had to rock hop over a series of rocks to keep our feet from getting really wet. Hmm, don’t remember the ranger mentioning this. As we continued on the cave was so dark we had to use a flashlight and light from our cell phone as we began to climb a series of steep steps cut into the cave walls.

Hmm, don’t remember the ranger mentioning this. To our left we could hear, but not see running water. Illuminating the area the best we could with the flashlight, we could see a series of waterfall.

Our path continued either over rocky terrain or steep steps with occasional very narrow passageways we had to squeeze through. At the end of the cave the exit was so low we had to get down on our knees and crawl out. Hmm, the ranger didn’t mention this!

Once out of the cave we continued on the trail to the reservoir. Once again we climbed steep rocky stairs and at the top emerged into an oasis of water and a few trees.

After resting a while and enjoying the view we went back down the steep stairs.

Luckily the trail back to the parking lot didn’t not take us back through the cave, though we noticed some people choosing that option. Once was definitely enough. On the way back we passed along some high rocky walks where Bill heard growling from above. This made us nervous since the area is known as home to bobcats.

We arrived back at the car hungry for our picnic lunch and a rest.

Another day we visited the west side of the park which required a much longer drive from our campground to access the west entrance.

This side of the park was much quieter and appeared to be less visited. We enjoyed chatting with the friendly park ranger who suggested a brand new trail. This easy one mile loop gave us great views of the pinnacles.

Next up we head to Yosemite National Park to see the many spring waterfalls.

Death Valley National Park, CA MAR 23, 2018

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Death Valley National Park has been on our bucket list for a long time. After three days of wind and rain, we woke up to sunny skies as we left Ridgecrest and traveled to Death Valley. It was not far, but not an easy drive as we passed over two mountain passes, with the second pass at an elevation of almost 5,000 feet. It was then quite a drop down to sea level, a real workout on the brakes!

Death Valley National Park is made up of 3,336,000 acres, making it the largest national park in the lower 48 states and one of the biggest expanses of protected warm desert in the world. There are four National Parks in Alaska which are larger.

Death Valley is the lowest point in North America and the hottest, driest weather in the country. It is officially the hottest place on Earth and holds the world record for the hottest air temperature of 134°F. The valley’s steep mountain walls trap the rising hot air and recirculates it down to the basin for further heating. It has the lowest average rainfall of any place in the country with less than two inches per year, with some years no rain at all. Once again the mountains are to blame. The mountains capture moisture from passing storms before it can reach the valley.

Several people have asked us what the weather was like while we were there. This was a great time of year to visit with daily temperatures in the low 70’s with a nice breeze. At night we slept with the windows open.

One day we stopped by the Visitors Center and saw a twenty minute movie about the park. We then drove through the south end of the park, stopping at Zabriskie Point with beautiful views. There are many times in our travels over the past five years where places have surprised us with their beauty and exceeded our expectations. Death Valley was definitely one of those places.

We took a drive down the Twenty Mule Team Canyon Road which was named for the twenty mule teams which pulled wagon loads of borax across the desert. The mule teams pulled loads weighing up to 36 tons. The rear wagon wheels were seven feet high and the entire mule team was more than 100 feet long.

We also drove the Artists Palette Drive with magnificent colors that are impossible to catch with a camera.

We visited the Borax Museum where in 1881 borax was found nearby. The Pacific Coast Borax Company mining was done in the area from the 1880’s until the 1920’s when mining slowed down and the area started to become a popular tourist area. Death Valley became a national monument in 1933 and a national park in 1994.

We hiked a nice trail to Natural Bridge. It seems like almost every park we go to has a natural bridge!

A highlight of the day was visiting Badwater Basin, which at 282 feet below sea level is the lowest elevation in North America. Up on the mountainside was a sign showing sea level.

As we drove around the park we would see signs showing sea level and various places below sea level.

Badwater Basin is made up of salt flats. Sodium chloride, or table salt, makes up the majority of the salt at Saltwater Basin.

Another day we continued exploring by visiting the Harmony Borax Works, the site of one of Death Valley’s first borax operations from 1883-1888. While searches for gold yielded little success, borax became known as the “White Gold of the Desert “ and was the valley’s most profitable mineral. Borates, or salt minerals, were deposited in the ancient lake beds where water dissolved the borates and carried them to the floor of Death Valley. Here they recrystallized as borax which was used by blacksmith, potters, dairy farmers, housewives, meat packers and morticians. Many Chinese laborers were recruited from San Francisco to scrape the borax off the salt flats and carry it to wagons to be sent to the refinery. They were paid $1.30 a day minus the cost of lodging and food. They lived in crude shelters and tents.

Next we walked the beautiful Gold Canyon Trail and enjoyed every second of the hike.

Because we hiked at least two trails in the park we each earned a Death Valley decal.

After lunch we stopped by Salt Creek Interpretive Trail where we walked on the boardwalk through the marshes. Imagine our surprise to find a stream with numerous pupfish. The water originates from brackish springs and marshes more than a mile upstream. The water becomes increasingly salty due to evaporation as it flows downstream. The stream flows alongside the boardwalk in winter and spring and is more salty than seawater. Soon the stream will be dry up until next winter.

The water is too salty for human consumption but manages to sustain life for many plants and animals, including the pupfish. The pupfish have a lifespan of one year or less so they use this time to quickly feed and breed. They are one of the toughest of all fish and are able to survive in salinity several times that of seawater as well as extreme temperatures.

On our last day we drove in the northern section of the park to the amazing Ubehebe Crater which is only about 2,000 years old. The Crater is a half mile across and about 500 feet deep. If it hadn’t been late in the day we would have walked the trail around the rim.

We had a wonderful time in Death Valley and can now mark it off the bucket list. We are currently back at the Elks Lodge in Ridgecrest. Thursday we travel to a recreation area in Taft, CA.

Yuma, Palm Desert, Hemet, Acton & Ridgecrest, CA 2018

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After our fun time in Quartzsite we headed back to Yuma, AZ for two weeks so Bill could attend the Yuma Hamfest in mid February. He had a great time and we enjoyed a sort of reunion picnic get together with a large group from the Quartzsite Hamfest as well as a banquet the last night of the Hamfest.
Leaving Yuma we spent a couple days at a casino on the Arizona, California, Mexico border with free RV parking. We were amazed at the large number of RVs camped out there. We went inside and signed up for a free players card with $5 loaded on it. Because it was my birthday I was given an additional $5. It didn’t take us long to lose that $10 at the slot machines. I was very content to walk away at that point. I am glad neither of us have a gambling desire! We actually enjoyed parking at the casino. It was quiet and very secure with lots of roaming 24 hour security.
On February 20 we continued on to Palm Desert, CA. Along the way we passed by the Salton Sea which we could see in the distance. We visited the Salton Sea in 2014. It is a shallow lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault. Its surface is 236 feet below sea level. The lake’s salinity is greater than the water in the Pacific Ocean. We also saw agricultural areas with citrus trees and plants. I loved the tall palm trees in the distance.

As we drove we noticed the elevation levels on our GPS fluctuating from below sea level to just above sea level. We are in the desert now!

We arrived at the Palm Springs Thousand Trails RV Resort where we stayed in 2014. It is a beautiful area, part of the greater Palm Springs area with streets named Frank Sinatra, Gerald Ford and Dinah Shore. You can see billboards advertising such services as the ability to freeze your fat and then re-sculpt your body.

It is a beautiful area with blue skies and tall palm trees. On the downside, the traffic is frustrating and since we are now in California, gas is well over $3.00 a gallon. When shopping you need to remember to take in your own bags so you don’t have to pay for plastic bags; aluminum cans and plastic bottles all have deposits which adds up quickly.

While in Palm Springs we visited a college friend of Bill’s he hadn’t seen in over 40 years. We had a nice visit and dinner with Leo and his wife Kathy.

Also while in Palm Springs we drove over to Hemet to Hemet Dermatology to have a skin cancer spot removed from my leg. On the way we went through a mountain pass where they had snow during the night. It was beautiful. After the surgery I had to take it easy and wear a tight ace bandage on my leg for 10 days. Unfortunately the rest of our time in Palm Springs was spent with my leg elevated and wrapped.

Next up was Hemet for a week at an RV resort we stayed at twice before in 2014. We really like Hemet and the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. I continued to recover there and one day we drove over to Menifee to meet Bill’s friend Bob for dinner. Bob and Bill worked together in 1980.

We visited the Hemet Public Library to use their free internet. I was very impressed with their library, including a way to check out books after hours using an outside library access. You just reserve the books ahead of time and the carousel lets you retrieve your book without going inside. Really impressive!

Across from the library at the fire station was a pretty mural.

Our time in Hemet went by quickly and we headed to our next stop at a Thousand Trails Resort in Acton, CA.

While there, we left the RV and flew to Florida for the wedding of Bill’s youngest son Sean in Vero Beach on St Patrick’s Day. We took the red eye flight from Los Angeles to Orlando. We arrived early in the morning pretty tired. We picked up the rental car and met our friends Peter and Beth for lunch in Bushnell. We last saw them at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October. It is always great to see them. Sure wish we could have spent more time with them but this was a short visit to Florida.

We enjoyed our stay in Vero Beach with Bill’s sweet Aunt Charlotte. We took her to dinner one night to celebrate her 88th birthday. She is truly amazing.

It is always great to see the Atlantic Ocean and the beautiful Florida beaches!

Saturday, St Patricks Day, we attended the wedding of Sean and Cathy. A beautiful wedding and joyous day. We wish them many many years of happiness.

The next day it was back to Orlando and the long flight back to L. A. One reason we chose Acton was because it was only an hour from the L. A. airport and we could safely leave the RV.

The next day we drove into Hollywood to Sunset Boulevard to tour the CNN building.

Bill’s cousin Jeff works there and graciously offered to give us a private tour of the building. Picture taking is not allowed in much of the building for security reasons so we have only a few pictures to share.

Jeff did take us to the roof of the building for a great view of Los Angeles and the Hollywood sign.

We had planned on staying in Acton and visiting Bill’s cousin George in nearby Castaic, but we saw alarming weather forecasts for torrential rains, flooding and mudslides from all the recent fires. So we quickly packed up and moved early to our next destination of Ridgecrest, CA. We passed by some really cool rock formations on the way. We plan to be back in the Acton area in the fall and will have to check out this area some more.

We are currently at the Ridgecrest Elks Lodge, a great place to stay with full hookups for $20 a night. We have had some rain and the winds are gusting up to 40 MPH. All should be much better tomorrow (Friday) when we head to Death Valley National Park about 100 miles from Ridgecrest for five days. We are both really looking forward to it since neither of us has ever been there before.

Quartzsite, AZ January 20, 2018

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After a fun and busy seven weeks in Yuma, Arizona we headed north to Quartzsite. Each January and February more than a million RVers converge on this desert community to socialize and enjoy the warm climate. We were last there in 2015 and had such a wonderful time we have been looking forward to returning ever since.

For much of the year Quartzsite is a very small community of less than 4,000 people in the hot Arizona desert, but for a couple months during the winter the area swells with visitors in RVs. There is more than enough desert for all the RVers to have plenty of room to spread out. Quartzsite is nicknamed the RV Boondocking Capital of the World and the Rock Capital of the World. During January and February there is a Gem Show, RV show and vendors with anything and everything an RVer could possibly want or need.

Quartzsite was the site of an experiment in the late 1850’s and 1860’s by the U.S. Army who purchased camels and transported them to Arizona to be used as transport animals in the American desert. The experiment failed mainly because horses and mules feared the camels and panicked when around the large animals. The camels were eventually auctioned off. The camel trainer and scout is buried in Quartzsite.

Our first day in Quartzsite we attended a large Escapees RV Club Happy Hour event with food and music.

The next day we moved to a different area where we would spend more than a week at Quartzsfest, a large amateur radio event. Bill was in his glory with all the amateur radio people, including some friends he had made in Yuma. A total of 850 amateur radio enthusiasts attended the event with approximately 400 RVs during the week. They had over 118 seminars for Bill to attend as well as daily Happy Hours with door prizes, pot luck dinners and a Hobo Stew. It was a fun filled time and the days passed very quickly.

After Quartzfest ended we joined the Escapees Geocaching Club for a four day rally. Once again our time was filled with daily seminars and Happy Hours, socials, and pot luck dinners. Each afternoon we did some geocaching in the desert, including this one where we searched for “Shorty”, a poor guy whose life ended on the desert while geocaching.

Unfortunately during my last couple days in Quartzsite I came down with the flu. By the time we arrived back in Yuma, Bill had caught it from me and had to visit our Yuma doctor. We have spent the last few days resting and recuperating. We will be here until February 21st when our time in Arizona comes to an end and we head to Palm Springs, California.

2017 End of Year Review

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We are still in Yuma, AZ and wanted to do an end of the year blog recap. We have been traveling around for four and half years. This blog helps us stay in touch with family and friends but also serves as a diary of our travels for us to look back on.

We began our summer travels in Florida, moving the first of May north to Georgia where we visited some of Bill’s cousins. Then on to Alabama where I was bit by a tick while hiking. After passing through Mississippi and a corner of Tennessee we reached Little Rock. At that point the tick bite caught up with me and I became very ill, resulting in a visit to Urgent Care and several weeks of medication. In spite of my misery we managed to tour Little Rock, visit the Clinton Presidential Library, the Arkansas state capitol building, and made a day trip to Hot Springs.

Then it was on to Bentonville to spend time with my dear Aunt Shirley and her family.

After Bentonville we continued on to Missouri where we stopped for several days in Branson. We enjoyed the Missouri state parks, including a tour of Onondaga Cave. We really enjoyed our time in St Louis, so much so we extended our stay. We loved visiting the Gateway Arch, the Anheuser Busch Brewery where we saw the Clydesdales and the fabulous St Louis Zoo. We visited Grant’s Farm where we both rode a camel for the first time and toured the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site and Museum.

We enjoyed visiting Hannibal, Missouri and seeing all the Mark Twain stuff before heading to West Branch, Iowa to tour the Herbert Hoover Birthplace and Presidential Library. While in Iowa we stopped in Forest City at the Winnebago factory to have some repair work done and tour their factory. While in Forest City we drove to the site of the Buddy Holly plane crash, “the day the music died”.

Next up was Minnesota, a new state to visit for us. We toured The Spam Museum, an Eagle Center, some Locks and Dams along the Mississippi and enjoyed many of Minnesota’s beautiful state parks including seeing glacial potholes in Interstate State Park.

We found Duluth to be an interesting city on Lake Superior and enjoyed walking along their waterfront.

From Duluth we drove north along Lake Superior, enjoying the amazing scenery of three state parks, two lighthouses and beautiful waterfalls. We also made the short drive into Wisconsin to see Big Manitou Falls, the highest falls in Wisconsin and fourth largest waterfall east of the Rockies.

The beauty of Grand Marais exceeded our expectations and while there we saw High Falls, the tallest waterfall in Minnesota, learned about the Grand Portage and visited the Grand Portage National Monument.

In Ely, MN we toured the Soudan Underground Mine State Park, our first underground mine tour where we descended 2,341 feet below the surface of the Earth. We also visited a Wolf Center and Bill attended the Ham Radio yearly Field Day.

Next up was Voyageurs National Park, the only national park in Minnesota and only accessible by boat. We had a great, but chilly boat tour of the park. We stopped at the Kettle Falls Overlook, one of the few places in the continental U.S. where you look south to Canada.

While in Baudette we made the long drive to Angle Inlet, the northernmost point in the contiguous United States. It was quite a day, passing through Canada to get to this small Minnesota village. We checked into customs remotely by phone entering and leaving!

In late June we visited Itasca State Park where the mighty Mississippi begins its flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Bill walked across the Mississippi!

Hard to believe we have covered what you just read in two months. We amaze ourselves sometimes!

After the Fourth of July we visited the Mall of America, Minneapolis and St Paul. The traffic was terrible and the one way streets difficult and confusing to maneuver. I will remember those two cities as having some of the unfriendliest and impatient drivers we have encountered. We enjoyed seeing the statue of Mary Richards, St Anthony Falls Lock and Dam, Viking Stadium, the state capitol building, Peanuts cartoon statues, and Minnehaha Falls made famous in Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha”.

Then it was back to Forest City, Iowa for their annual Winnebago Rally where we enjoyed attending seminars and spending time with other Winnebago owners.

After the rally we drove to Des Moines where we visited the Iowa state capitol, one of the prettiest we have ever visited. While in the area we made the drive to Winterset to visit the John Wayne Birthplace and Museum. Winterset is also the setting of the novel and movie “The Bridges of Madison County”.

We left Iowa and entered Nebraska, another new state for us. We visited Bill’s cousin in Papillion and toured Omaha. Omaha was great and we visited the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Headquarters, the Pioneer Courage Park and the Gerald Ford birth site. In the nearby town of Ashland, Bill was amazed by the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum, the largest collection of Cold War aircraft. Lincoln was another interesting city and we toured the Nebraska state capitol building, another beautiful capitol. We made the drive to Homestead National Monument of America where we learned about the Homestead Act and early homesteaders.

Upon leaving Nebraska we hopped over to Independence, Missouri to tour the Truman Presidential Library and Museum. While staying in Independence we made the short drive to Kansas City to tour the very impressive National WWI Museum and Memorial. We finished our day in Kansas City with what else but some great Kansas City barbecue!

Another new state to us was Kansas and during our stay in Topeka we visited yet another state capitol building and also toured the Brown v Brown Board of Education National Historic Site, the only national park named for a U.S. Supreme Court case.

While in Kansas we continued exploring presidential libraries by visiting the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home.

One highlight of our summer was making the drive from northern Kansas back into southern Nebraska to see the total eclipse of the sun. We had a very long drive that day as we dodged the clouds and chased the sun to get a good view, but it was well worth a day of driving.

After the eclipse trip we next spent time in Hutchinson, Kansas where we visited the excellent Cosmosphere and Space Center with one of the largest internationally acclaimed space artifact collections in the world. We recommend this space museum for all to see.

After Hutchinson was Dodge City, once nicknamed “The Wickedest Little City in America”. As we continued through Kansas we found a geocache at the tri-state point where Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado meet. Cool! The next day after crossing into Oklahoma we found another tri-state marker where Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico meet. Cool again!

It is now the end of August and we are in Raton, New Mexico where we stayed several days at the NRA Whittington Center, enjoying the New Mexico scenery and Bill used their firing ranges.

After Raton, we drove to Eagles Nest, elevation 8,238 where even in early September we had nightly temperatures in the upper 30’s and low 40’s. We drove the beautiful Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway and visited the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument. The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, used in several movies was magnificent. Also while in Eagles Nest we drove to Angel Fire where the TV series “Lonesome Dove” was filmed and had an emotional tour of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Next, in northern New Mexico we marveled at the gorgeous red rocks and geological beauty of this area. Truly breathtaking!

In Los Alamos we visited Valles Caldera National Preserve where we drove around a caldera and visited the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

As we continued heading back south we visited Santa Fe and its capitol building as well as the nearby Pecos National Historical Park with fascinating archaeological excavations. We also visited the amazing Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument where we hiked in a slot canyon.

October brought a bucket list item and the highlight of our year, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. We camped with the Escapees Boomers, worked really hard helping crew a balloon and both enjoyed our first hot air balloon ride. Our good friends Peter and Beth from Florida flew in to join us, adding to the fun.

While in Albuquerque we also visited the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History and toured Old Town Albuquerque.

After Albuquerque we needed a rest so we stopped at Valley of Fires park, possibly the youngest lava flow in the continental United States. We also visited several Pueblo mission ruins as part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. We also had a nice visit with Bill’s cousin Julie and her daughter.

We hadn’t originally planned on visiting Carlsbad Caverns but since we were already so close we decided to drive over for several days and toured the massive cave.

After Carlsbad we stayed several days in Alamogordo where we toured the New Mexico Museum of Space History and beautiful White Sands National Monument. What an awesome place!

The end of October found us in Arizona with a short stop in Willcox. While there we made the drive to Chiricahua National Monument where we took some amazing hikes with beautiful views. We really loved this place!

We spent a week in Benson, AZ where we drove to nearby historic Tombstone. We took a stagecoach ride and enjoyed the Old West town.

In November we settled in Tucson for a week where we drove through the east and west sections of Saguaro National Park, enjoying the magnificent saguaros. The Mount Lemmon Scenic drive had amazing scenery.

Bill met up with two amateur radio friends in Tucson, we visited Old Tucson where many movie and TV shows were filmed, and visited the nearby Titan Missile Museum, once an active intercontinental Ballistic Missile complex.

We spent Thanksgiving in Casa Grande and while we were there we drove to Phoenix to tour the Arizona state capitol. Bill celebrated his birthday in Casa Grande.

Late November we spent several days at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We enjoyed hiking in the desert and earned a neat pin for hiking five miles. We drove along the Mexican border, amazed at the lack of a border wall between our country and Mexico.

December 1st we drove to Yuma where we had our yearly physicals and met up with some members of the Escapees Boomers for several dinners. Bill has been enjoying getting together with the Yuma Amateur Radio Club. Christmas Eve we had a social at the park and I fixed Christmas dinner for us Christmas Day.

We are in Yuma until January 17th when we head to Quartzite AZ.

It has been a great year! We feel very blessed to travel this wonderful, amazing country. We can’t wait to see what 2018 brings!

Happy Happy New Year to all!!

Yuma, AZ DEC 1, 2017

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After leaving Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument we drove to Yuma, AZ on December 1st for a seven week stay. This was our third trip to Yuma so we were already very familiar with the area. Along with the typical name brand stores and restaurants Yuma has three Walmart Supercenters. It is a thriving snowbird community.

Our first couple weeks we were super busy with yearly medical exams, dentists and eye doctors. We are just about finished with all the appointments, follow ups and lab work. We feel extremely blessed that we both received good results. Now we can take a big breath and relax for the remainder of our time here.

Along with the medical stuff we did manage to have a little fun and social time. Bill met with the Yuma Amateur Radio Group and helped them one Saturday with testing for those trying to receive their amateur radio license. He also met the group for breakfast one morning and attended one of their meetings another Saturday.

There is a very active Escapees Boomers group here in Yuma. They meet every Wednesday afternoon for a movie then an early dinner we have joined them three times so far.

The South Western Area Geocachers are also an active group in Yuma and we met them at an area park for one of their events. We plan to join them at a breakfast get together in January.

Our RV park, Mesa Verde RV Resort had a welcome back snowbird ice cream social one afternoon and we had a chance to meet some of our neighbors.

Bill even won a door prize which he shared with several people at our table.

They invited us to join their Happy Hours but we just haven’t had time yet! The RV park is having a Christmas Eve Hors d’oeuvres get together which we plan to attend.

As snowbirds often say, if you are bored, it is your own fault!

We have taken advantage of being in one spot for a while to order to complete some things we need. Bill ordered a camera to mount on the front of our Honda. I love our rear backup camera. We ordered a new mattress and Santa brought me an Instant Pot for Christmas. I am used to my crockpot so it will take some getting used to.

We made several trips across the border to Los Algodones Mexico where we both got new eyeglasses for less than half the price quoted in Yuma. I got a haircut and a new hat. Bill enjoyed some shrimp tacos and we both enjoyed the margaritas. During one visit we ran into some Escapees Boomers from our Wednesday movie and dinner group and joined them for some margaritas and music. The central plaza was full of snowbirds eating, drinking and dancing to the music.

And there are always plenty of people walking among the throngs selling jewelry and just about anything you can imagine. I was plenty happy with just a new hat!

We have been attending church here in Yuma. The First Methodist Church had a social one Sunday after church and had on display over 300 nativity scenes owned by church members. All beautiful!

We wanted to get this blog posting done in time to wish everyone love and a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for following along in our travels and taking the time to read our blog!

Yuma facts:

In the Guinness Book of World Records, Yuma is called the sunniest place on Earth, with an average of 339 days of sunshine a year. It is the country’s driest and least humid city, but not the hottest. Miami wins the prize for the hottest.
Yuma sits near the end of the 1,400 mile long Colorado River in Arizona’s southwest corner and shares borders with Mexico and California. It is about halfway between San Diego and Phoenix.
Spanish explorers first visited the Yuma area as early as 1540 and over the years many have passed through the area on their way to California including 60,000 gold rush prospectors in 1849. In the 1930’s thousands fleeing the Dust Bowl passed through Yuma.
Yuma was acquired by the United States from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase in 1854.
The first railroad bridge across the Colorado River was built here in 1877.
Yuma is home to one of the world’s largest reverse osmosis desalting plants to ensure the United States could meet treaty obligations for water delivery to Mexico.
Yuma is the winter lettuce capital of the world. If you eat a salad anywhere in the United States in the winter, there is a good chance the greens grew in Yuma. Yuma’s winter produce production is the main reason Arizona ranks second in the country in production of head lettuce, leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli. It is the world’s top producer of gourmet Medjool dates and the major exporter of durum wheat to Italy to be made into premium pasta.
Movie makers have been making movies in Yuma since 1913.
Yuma’s population doubles in the winter when the snowbirds arrive.
The number two economy in Yuma is the military with both the Marine Corps Air Station and the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground located here.

Through the Eyes of the Selphs

Bill and Diane's travel notes and pictures

Grants Pass, Oregon May 4, 2018

Paradise & Weed, CA APR 26, 2018

Lodi & Sacramento, CA APR 12, 2018

Yosemite National Park, APR 11, 2018

Ridgecrest, Buena Vista REC Area, Hollister, CA MAR 30, 2018

Death Valley National Park, CA MAR 23, 2018

Yuma, Palm Desert, Hemet, Acton & Ridgecrest, CA 2018

Quartzsite, AZ January 20, 2018

2017 End of Year Review

Yuma, AZ DEC 1, 2017