9-28 Home

Home again- Sat. a.m. saw we were just 350 miles from home. No reason to go halfway to a FL area where we've been many many times, so we took I-75 all the way home. only time on whole trip we took an interstate by choice. 10500 miles, 16 states, 3 months, 7 family visits, temps 38 to 108. Elevation 12500 to minus 250 ft. A good time.

9-27 update

Blog-delinquent, but to catch up:

9-13 mt nebo st park, Ark. Turned out to be a mountaintop 19th cent. summer resort spot. Extremely steep 2 mile road to top with 10 sharp switchbacks.
9-14 Took a short but difficult hije along the rim of the mountain. Trail dates from 1890.
9-15 to mtn view Ark. for week-long mountain dulcimer festival. Spent next  5 days learning, playing, and enjoying music. Thos. and Valerie (from the motorcycle rally) were there, too, and we became good friends.
9-21 leaves starting to turn in the Ozarks as we drove E. Saw our first cotton and kudzuo of the trip. To john kyle state park, MS, part of an immense Corps if Engineers rec area. Maybe 250 campsites, 6 occupied.
9-22 After church intended to go canoeing but too windy. Hiked a nature trail through a cypress swamp and uplands. Explored by car and stumbled on a bayou shanty settlement of maybe 20 bldgs.
9-23 to Lake Lurleen st pk AL near Tuscaloosa. Almost full of Univ of Ala fan RV's parked for football season. Beautiful lakeside campsite.
9-24nice canoeing on Lk. Lurleen.
9-25 to Columbus GA. Will visit Karter tomorrow.
9-26 picked up K from school and had fun with him rest of afternoon. Out to dinner with him.
9-27 took K to school and said goodbye. Drove to site of infamous Andersonville civil war POW prison where 13000 of 45000 prisoners died in just 14 months. They're buried there- natl cemetery.

9-12 Update

M starts work at 5 a.m., when kids start arriving at her day care ctr. Her charges are preschool and kindergarten age, so she goes with them on the school bus. Once they are discharged, she does paperwork and then goes home about 10:30 for a break. Her day ends at 5:30 p.m. when the kids are supposed to have all been picked up. A tough schedule, about which she does not complain.

Monday we packed up and then waited for her to come home on break before we hit the road. A short drive to Chickasaw Natl Recreation Area and a campsite beside a large reservoir. The park dates from the early 20th century when the land and its mineral springs were bought from the Chickasaw Indian tribe. The CCC did major construction and improvements in the 30's, and the park still has pavillions and buildings in the distinctive CCC architectural style.

Tuesday we tried canoeing in the reservoir, but the strong wind made it a short effort. We did visit the nature center and took a 1.2-mile hike to two beautiful springs.

Wednesday we slept late and then drove 5 hours to Queen Wilhelmina State park just over the border in Arkansas. It was interesting to watch the transition in the scenery from western prarie into eastern broadleaf and pine forest. The park, where we've stayed twice before, is on a high ridge in the Ozarks, with a good view and cooler temperatures plus a cooling breeze.

We learned that the campground will be the site of a motorcycle rally this weekend (BMW's and dirt bikes, not Harleys). We met Thomas and Valerie, our next-campsite neighbors, and immediately hit it off with them. A pretty good dinner out at the nearby lodge restaurant.

Wednesday night was finally cool enough to do without air conditioning. Got down to about 70 overnight.

Our larder was about empty, so after a late breakfast we drove 17 miles to Mena for grocery shopping. Too hot to ride the bike, so a lazy afternoon.

Thomas is from S. Louisiana, so he was drafted to cook gumbo for the early arrivers to the motorcycle rally. We were invited to partake, and I didn't want to mooch when the event is a charity fund-raiser, so we registered for the rally. Now we're real bikers. The  gumbo was excellent.

9-6 to Elk City, Okla.

Only 1/4 mile from the start today, I made a scary bonehead move, running right through a stop sign and crossing a major busy highway. No traffic; we're lucky to be alive. Later I thought about the tables being turned: all the roads which intersect our route and all the drivers who could just as easily make the same mistake I did. Life is fragile.

The route today was oil and gas country. The terrain changed from flat desert (except where irrigated) into rough broken ground, rolling hills, and low red mesas.

Stopping point is a nothing-special RV park in a nothing-special town. Getting lots of reading done, including all 3 books Daniel Mason has written- good writing but slow-moving. Tomorrow to daughter M's house.

9-5 Short drive, 4 states

Route today started in Colorado, cut the SW corner of Kansas, down thru the panhandle of Oklahoma, and into the Texas panhandle.

Of note: not much. A very very large wind farm in Oklahoma, just north of the Texas border.

We stopped at Perryton TX, at a mom-and-pop RV park. The dog which greeted us was a huge, ugly bull mastiff creature. Turns out, he had been a stray that adopted the park's owners. Despite his appearance, Brutus was a pussycat, and a sponge for affection. The RV park was well maintained,  the owners were friendly, and the bath/shower facility was clean and neat. Couldn't ask for more. And it was cheap.

9-4 Goodbye to the Mtns

Lots of lightning and thunder last night, finally rained for a couple of hours after midnight. Bright and sunny  in the morning, 45 deg.

Fine drive through sparsely settled area of varied mountains, canyons and open valleys as we descended from 10,000 to about 6000 feet. About 10 miles north of Canon City, bingo- flat desert. One we passed Pueblo the temperature quickly rose to 97 degrees.

I was able to buy the needed plumbing part in Pueblo, with good instructions, but I will wait until we get home to do the repair: Don't want to make a mistake and leave us without a working toilet.

Heading east across the high plains of eastern Colorado, at least the driving was easy and we made good time. But we do love the Rockies and will miss them.

Drove to John Martin Reservoir State Park about 40 mi. from the CO/KS border, with a campsite right on a nice lake. But too windy to consider canoeing. 220 campsites here, and about 5 occupied, including us. I guess the season really is over.

Update thru 9-3

We spent Labor Dayl weekend at Lakewood and Golden, Colo. visiting sons M and P and their families. They rolled out the red carpet for us even though we saw them just 2 months ago when they visited us in FL. We had a fine time.  Five of our (regular and step) grandchildren made the effort to see us, which was a special pleasure.

Late Monday we received a call from the RV Park where the camper trailer was parked, reporting that they saw water pouring out the door of the the trailer so they turned off the water supply. Returning to the campsite later we found that the water valve on the toilet had ruptured (water pressure too high). The flood wasn't too bad and we called to arrange mobile RV service for Tuesday, when we had planned to leave.

Tuesday, Sept. 3: Checked out of the RV park and parked at P's house to await the RV service man, who came at 2 o'clock. He didn't have the part needed so he plugged the leaking hose and we were good to go: just need to flush the toilet from a jug of water. We'll get the needed part and do a permanent fix somewhere down the line.

We were reluctant to leave the mountains just yet, so we headed south for three hours on small roads, ending up at the "World's Highest KOA" campground, 10,000' at Cripple Creek, on an open mountainside with a great view to the west.  Of note: an elk grazing peaceably in the middle of the town of Evergreen, winding mountain roads through canyons and valleys, mostly wooded but with many mountains denuded by past fires. A chilly evening with a colorful sunset and also lightning in the distance to the north.

Summer is over: school buses on the road and businesses going on off-season schedules. Campgrounds should have lots of room. We'll head south to Pueblo then strike out across the plains, heading for Oklahoma.