Map Tracks

Day 82 - (10/08) NW Trip Reflections/Notes

This was our longest trip to-date.  We saw family, friends, states, provinces and many wonderful sights.



Summary
11,527 miles driven (13.8 mpg)
8,573 miles towing the trailer
16 states
2 provinces
Dick had never been in North Dakota, Montana, or Alberta.
Carol had been in all 48 states, Alberta and British Columbia


Preparations - pretty simple
Trailblazer - new tires
Trailblazer - oil change and filter
Trailer - wash and wax
Trailer - check and lube wheel bearings
Trailer - check tires and brakes


Things Fixed - stuff happened, but not much
07/30 - replaced Trailblazer ignition switch in Livingston, MT
08/30 - Trailblazer oil change and filter in Portland, OR
09/22 - replaced LED light over sink in Monterey, CA
10/01 - replaced trailer tires in Tucson, AZ
10/03 - replaced trailer hitch lift fuse in Amarillo, TX


Notes
(1) Atwood propane gas detector stopped working in OR, it isn't fixed.
(2) 4 internal rivets need to be replaced
(3) Each 7 gallon propane tank lasted about 4 weeks.
(4) Trailblazer brake issues seem to be caused by trailer weight and terrain.
(5) Canadian travel is expensive (gas $5/gal).
(6) It's hard to update the blog every day, but even worse when we get behind.
(7) Verizon's Mobile Broadband service was a great trip accessory.
(8) The original Goodyear Marathon trailer tires lasted 20,932 miles. (tread wear, not damage)

Day 81 - (10/07) Home Again

We awoke to another beautiful day and decided to enjoy the campground a bit before leaving.  This is our last day on the road.  

As mentioned earlier, this is a very nice campground.  We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in their restaurant.  The total cost for both of us was $6.  It's not a typo ...  $6 for a full breakfast, made to order.  There was even a real fire in the restaurant fireplace.

The pictures below provide a peek at some of the campground amenities.

Main office and camp store

Campsites in the woods

They provided this old west street-front to
hide their storage area

Donkeys and a farmyard for kids

Covered bridge

Water wheel

Getting ready to leave sit #49

We've been out of Ohio for 80 days.  This was a welcome sight as we got closer to home.

We arrived at the storage lot at 4pm.  It took about two hours and two trips home and back to unload.

Map Tracks

Start:  Terre Haute KOA Campground - Terre Haute, IN

East on I-70 to Columbus, OH

End:  250 miles @ Lee's RV Storage - Hilliard, OH

Day 80 - (10/06) Terre Haute, IN

This was an extra long drive day.  The effort was rewarded by a beautiful KOA campground in Terre Haute.


This is the Springfield KOA.  We're getting ready to leave.

Site #53 at Springfield/Route 66 KOA campground

Here's a little treasure.  Try The Hen House, it's a fun little family restaurant off I-44 in Bourbon, MO, southwest of St. Louis.  We stopped there for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed it.


We drove the I-270/I-255 outer belt to avoid St. Louis traffic.  The Jefferson Barracks Bridge and views of the Mississippi River offered quite a welcome to Indiana.

Jefferson Barracks Bridge (at St. Louis) - Mississippi River

Barges on Mississippi River

We arrived at the KOA campground at around 7pm.  It's nicely secluded, located in a woods off I-70.  They have a small restaurant (very unusual) and many amenities.  We ordered pizza from the restaurant (made from scratch, not a box); it was excellent!  This campground joins a growing list of great ones we've found on the way home.


Map Tracks
Start:  Springfield/Route 66 KOA - Springfield, MO
Northeast on I-44 to I-270 at St. Louis
East on I-270 to I-255
East on I-255 to I-70
East on I-70 to Terre Haute, IN
End:  402 miles @ Terre Haute KOA - Terre Haute, IN

Day 79 - (10/05) Springfield, MO

The "smell of the hay" (e.g.. desire to get home) seems to be getting stronger.  We're willing to drive further and stop less than in past days.  There are no pictures for today.


We drove from Oklahoma City to Springfield, MO.  The route passed Tulsa and Joplin ... both with lots of tourist attractions.  The route followed Historic Route 66 much of the way.  There were no touring stops.


We spotted a Marie Callender's Restaurant from I-44 in Tulsa.  We exited and tried to find it, but got tangled up in construction detours.  We finally found it and had a lovely lunch (including pie).  It was our only excursion of the day.


The day ended at a very pretty and highly rated KOA campground.  Somehow we seem to attract trains.  There were active tracks next to the campground and the train whistles provided background music well into the night.


We had a light supper of peanut butter sandwiches and chocolate ice cream (see, we don't eat out all the time) and played several games of Bananagram before bed.


Map Tracks
Start:  Twin Fountains RV Park - Oklahoma City, OK
East on I-44 to Springfield, MO
End:  279 miles @ Springfield/Route 66 KOA - Springfield, MO

Day 78 - (10/04) Oklahoma City, OK

Ooh!  It's 55 degrees this morning.  We must be headed north.


We stopped for gas and saw this cool Conoco gas station in Shamrock, TX.  What a beautiful restoration!  It houses the Shamrock Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Information Center.

A step back in time in Shamrock, TX

Yes, we stopped in Shamrock for gas ... but, not here

The soil in Oklahoma turned red with clay.  The terrain was flat and fields seemed to stretch to the horizon.  Oil wells began to appear and Carol spotted this wind farm.  She tried to hear the "whoop-whoop-whoop" of the blades, but couldn't.

Oklahoma wind farm along I-40, west of Oklahoma City

We stopped at the Cherokee Trading Post (80 miles west of Oklahoma City) for lunch and gift shopping.  They had very nice jewelry, pottery and clothing.  The staff was very helpful.

Another unreserved campground turned out to be a "home run".  The Twin Fountains RV Park is one of the best we've seen.  Their sites and services are excellent and reasonably priced.  They get extra brownie points because the pool tables are free.  

Twin Fountains RV Park

We had dinner in the trailer and played pool (or a form of it) until bed time.  Great fun.


Map Tracks
Start:  Amarillo Ranch RV Park - Amarillo, TX
East on I-40 to Oklahoma City
East on I-44 in Oklahoma City
End:  267 miles @ Twin Fountains RV Park - Oklahoma City, OK

Day 77 - (10/03) Amarillo, TX

It's cloudy today.  This should be a good day for travelling.

The route from Santa Rosa passed Tucumcari and ended in Amarillo.  The trip was uneventful except for wind and trucks.  We had a stiff cross wind most of the way and this section of I-40 has very heavy semi-truck traffic.  The combination made for a lot of trailer sway.  We made it in time to shop at Lowe's for fuses and a hand crank extension for the hitch.  The replacement fuse fixed the hitch problem.  We now have a working hitch lift!

The Amarillo Ranch RV Resort is located just off I-40.  It's very nice and well run.  Some of the sites are a bit strange because the place used to be a mobile home park.  There was no problem getting a site without a reservation.

It seemed very important to get a steak dinner while in Texas.  So, we went to the nearby Big Texan Steak Ranch.  This is one of the biggies.  You can get a free 72oz steak dinner ... if you can eat it all in an hour.  Otherwise, they charge $1 per ounce.  They will even pick you up in a limo if you need a ride.  So much for the "ifs".  We had 6 oz steaks (note: no dessert) and were quite full.

Sorry - we have no pictures for today.

Map Tracks

Start:  Santa Rosa Campground - Santa Rosa, NM

East on I-40 to Amarillo, TX

End:  185 miles @ Amarillo Ranch RV Resort - Amarillo, TX

Day 76 - (10/02) Santa Rosa, NM

This was another beautiful morning.  We took our time getting ready to hook up, then had a surprise.  The electric hitch stopped working.  Dick had to raise and lower the trailer with an emergency hand crank.  It worked, but it was a very slow process.

Space #63 - Elephant Butte State Park
(includes a covered picnic area and table)

We lost an hour to the Mountain Time Zone because we just realized it changed when we entered New Mexico.  Oh well, the clock seems less important when you're retired and having a good time.

It turns out that we're close to Albuquerque at the same time the International Balloon Fiesta is being held.  There was no plan, it just happened.  Our friends from CheckFree days (Carl and Vickie Eckert, Daniel and Jane Dillon) were there.  Though it would have been fun to try and connect with them, we decided to avoid the traffic.  Here's hoping they're having a great time.

The drive on NM-60 offered beautiful views of open range away from interstate traffic.  By 4:30pm we had climbed to 7,000 ft elevation.  The temperature dropped to 73 degrees instead of the 106 degrees we had experienced previously.

Unbelievable open landscape views along NM-60

NM-60 was a good, scenic, low traffic route

Trains add action to an otherwise desolate area
(you can see them coming for miles)

We stopped for the night at the Santa Rosa Campground.  It looks like an old KOA campground that had been revived.  It was OK.


We decided to leave the trailer attached to the car because of the broken hitch.  It seemed like a good idea until we decided to eat out.  We walked 1/2 mile to a McDonald's and arrived just after a bus-load of Texas Tech students.  The wait was long, but we got to talk with some of the students about their geology field trip.


A downpour hit just after we got back to the trailer.  It rained for hours.  The morning report said there was more than 3" of rain.  The bad news: you can hear every drop in an aluminum trailer.  The good news: it didn't start while we were at McDonald's.


Map Tracks
Start:  Elephant Butte State Campground - Elephant Butte, NM
North on I-25 to Bernardo, NM
East on NM-60 to Vaughn, NM
Northeast on NM-54 to Santa Rosa, NM
End: 248 miles @ Santa Rosa Campground - Santa Rosa, NM

Day 75 - (10/01) Elephant Butte, NM

It's another beautiful day ... sunny, clear skies.  Dick has been inspecting the trailer tires for the past weeks, decided they needed to be replaced before we get home, and picked today to do it.  We got a tire store reference from the Tucson campground staff and left the campground at 9:30.  

We stopped at the Western Tire Center on the way out of Tucson and got great service.  They replaced all four Goodyear Marathon tires with Gladiator tires in an hour.  We had put 20,932 miles on the Marathons and the street-side set were very worn.

The desert views across Arizona and New Mexico were desolate, but very beautiful.  We're going to miss these sights as we angle northward.

Desert view

Desert view

We stopped at Kranberry's Family Restaurant in Lordsburg, NM for lunch.  This sleepy, out-of -the-way town is working hard to present a fresh look.  The restaurant was new, clean and very well run.  The meal and service were great.  They helped our travel plans by suggesting an alternate route (NM-26) that provided a shortcut around Las Cruces to I-25.

Though unplanned, our route took us by one of our favorite campgrounds from last year's trip.  We were there on 09/14/09.   We decided to stay there again and weren't disappointed.  

The Elephant Butte State Campground is just off I-25 a few miles north of Truth or Consequences.  Our campsite is set on a hill with a beautiful view of the lake, mountains and desert.  We had watter and electric service and a dump station.

Elephant Butte lake from front window

Desert sunset from back window

We had a pleasant salad dinner in the trailer and played a few games of Bananagram.  What a pleasant way to end the day!

Map Tracks
Start:  Rincon Country West RV Resort - Tucson, AZ
South on Mission Rd. to Valencia Rd.
East on Valencia Rd. to Western Tire Center
East on Valencia Rd. from Western Tire Center to I-10
Southeast on I-10 to Demming, NM
Northeast on NM-26 ti Hatch, NM
North on I-25 to Elephant Butte, NM
End:  311 miles @ Elephant Butte State Park - Elephant Butte, NM

Day 74 - (09/30) Tucson, AZ ... day 2

We woke to a beautiful, quiet day at the RV park and set out for a tour of the "Aircraft Boneyard" and Saguaro National Forest.

Morning at Rincon Country West RV Resort
(The park will be packed in a few weeks)

The "Aircraft Boneyard" is located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.  It's proper (and preferred) name is Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG). Surplus and retired aircraft from all branches of the military are stored here due to the ideal climate (warm and dry). Aircraft sent to AMARG are processed for long-term storage in the Arizona desert. Sensitive instruments and high-value items are removed for safekeeping, and the airframes are drained and purged of fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluid. Windows, doors, and hatches are sealed with protective material, but vents and aircraft undersides are left open to avoid condensation. Most aircraft transferred to this facility are "cannibalized" (stripped for spare parts) and eventually scrapped, but some of the transport aircraft such as the older C-130s are made available to other federal agencies for nonmilitary purposes such as firefighting.

We took a 1 1/2 hour bus tour of AMARG.  The tour started and ended at the nearby Pima Air and Space Museum.  The storage area is HUGE.  It's filled with more than 4,000 obsolete aircraft.  Approximately 20% of the aircraft are returned to service. 


Notice that the aircraft aren't just parked here, they're placed in formation with precision.  You can sight along tails and noses for 100s of yards and they are perfectly aligned.

C-130's

YC-15
(experimental, never went into production)

B-52s

B-1s

T-37s (Tweet)

T-2s (Buckeye)
(built in Columbus by North American Aviation)
Dick worked on these in the late 60s

T-38s with B-1 in the background

F-15s (Eagle)
(being upgraded for return to service)

B-1s being disassembled
(each will save the military $1 million in parts)

The Saguaro cactus is only found in southwest Arizona near Tucson.  We drove to Saguaro National Park West.  The route took us by Old Tucson Studios and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  We stopped at the museum, paid the fee and started viewing the outside exhibits.  It was 106 degrees ... we quickly retreated to the car and cool air conditioning.

We searched for a site for a Saguaro/Airstream picture
(no luck ... this is the best we could find)

Saguaros lined the road leading to the national park

Carol tries to find a little shade at the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Entrance to Saguaro National Park West

 We took the 6 mile Bajada Loop Drive.  The views were outstanding.  The road was narrow and rough.  The drive was slow going; it took nearly an hour.  Thankfully we weren't towing the trailer. 

Many types of cacti live here

The scenic road was pretty rough

The road was narrow and one-way in some parts

We went home to rest and cool down.  At around 6pm we went to Tiny's Saloon for dinner.  The place was an old-west bar (e.g. "dive"), but the hamburgers were great.

Carol tried out the campground pool when we got back from dinner.  She was the only person around.  She loved the private swim.

Map Tracks

None for today.

Day 73 - (09/29) Tucson, CA ... day 1

We left Yuma at 9:30 today and made a Wal-Mart stop on the way out of town.


The drive took us through typical old-west desert scenery ... scrub, cacti, sand, rocks, tumbleweed, dust devils and dry river beds.  It sprinkled briefly.  Precipitation actually fell from a cloud that wouldn't have produced anything back home.  Maybe the single lightning flash we thought was heat lightning scared it.


It was 104 degrees when we arrived in Tucson.  We're staying in a fantastic RV park (Rincon Country West RV Resort).  There are 1083 sites.  The grounds and facilities are beautifully tended.


Carol connected with her cousin Jim Holtshouse (from Bucyrus).  Jim and his wife Marlene are retired and live in a beautiful home in the mountains above Tucson.  We drove there for a visit.  Unfortunately, we arrived after dark and only have a few pictures to share.

Jim, Marlene and Wyatt
(Wyatt is a Portuguese Water Dog)

Marlene shows off Wyatt
(and Wyatt shows off Wyatt)

Artwork in the Holtshouse Great Room

Holtshouse Kitchen

Back patio overlooks pool and valley

We had a wonderful time catching up on family history then went to dinner at a delightful Italian restaurant.  The meal and service were excellent.  We talked until closing time and regretfully had to say goodbye.  Jim and Marlene may visit us in Columbus next fall.

Jim and Dick at dinner

Map Tracks
Start: Villa Alameda RV Resort - Yuma, AZ
East on I-8 to I-10 south of Phoenix
East on I-10 to Tucson
End: 239 miles @ Rincon Country West RV Resort - Tucson, AZ

Day 72 - (09/28) Yuma, AZ

Today we took a "left turn" at San Diego and started driving east for the first time in 10 weeks.  


We enjoyed a morning breakfast visit with Maralee Blain before leaving town.  Maralee is one of Dick's co-workers and a dear friend from his days at FASPAC.  It was wonderful to share stories, remember earlier times and catch up on happenings over the past 8 years. 

Breakfast with Maralee Blain

We left San Diego at 11:30 ... travelling east on I-8.  The sky was overcast and the temperature was 86 degrees.  We passed through the Cleveland National Forest, climbed to about 4,200 ft, then descended to sea level in the Imperial Valley.  The temperature reached 100 degrees by the time we got to El Centro. 

I-8 mountain drive east of San Diego

Barren mountain landscape along I-8

Imperial Valley - approaching El Centro

I-8 took us very close to the Mexico border.  The US Border Patrol was present and very active.  We were waved through the inspection point without a sniff.  We obviously didn't fit their "bad guys" profile.

Dunes along I-8 near Yuma.
(these hills are covered with dune buggies on weekends)

RV parks have sprung up all over the place as we travel toward Yuma.  This place looks like the snowbird capital of the universe.  Fortunately, the folks from up north won't arrive for a few more weeks.  We should have no problem finding a nice place to stay.


We stopped at a highly rated RV park in Yuma.  It's OK, but not deserving of their published Woodall's 5W Rating.  Granted, it's hot (100 degrees) and we're tired.  Maybe the park will look better tomorrow.


It took a while to find a place for dinner.  We finally found an Applebee's, had dinner and went back to a cool trailer.


Map Tracks
Start:  San Diego RV Resort - La Mesa, CA
East on I-8 to Yuma, AZ
End:  175 miles @ Villa Alameda RV Resort - Yuma, CA