12/14/2019. Sedona Arizona

We have spent the last 3 nights in Sedona.  During our stay we have done multiple hikes:

• Slip Rock State Park - .7 miles
• Red Rock State Park - 3.02 miles
• Devils Bridge Trail - 4.5 miles

Visited Jerome Arizona which is a real ghost town.  In the 1920s there was 10,000 people in Jerome due to the Billion Dollar copper mine.  By 2010 the population reduced to 444.  I took pictures of some of the old copper mine equipment.  For my buddies at Square D check out the electrical master switch that controlled the locomotive.  It looks like the old EC&M Crane Control Master switch we used to sell.

Visited Montezuma Castle National Monument which has housing built into the mountain from 1300 AD.

We are staying at Distant Drum RV Resort which is at 3277’ above sea level.  The campground is very nice and we will consider coming back in the future.  

The challenge for Sandy and I growing up in Ohio is acclimating to the elevation.  Anything above 1000’ is a workout for us since we are truly “flat-landers”.  The hiking is very aerobic in that it pushes our heart rate up very quickly, the trails are rocky, the air is thin, and everything is up, up, up, including the increase in elevation.  It has been fun.

Sedona is also a great place for Jeeps, 4 wheelers, dirt bike etc...

Tomorrow we head out to our winter destination of Mesa Arizona.

Here are some pictures:

12/7/2019. Palo Duro Canyon State Park Texas and Cadillac Ranch

Who would have thought that the 2nd largest Canyon in the United States is in Texas?  It is located just south of Amarillo and consists of 27,173 acres.  It was also the sight of the Decisive Battle of Southern Plains Indians Red River War 1874-1875.

There are two campgrounds for RVs, additional campgrounds for tents, as well as rental cabins. 

We spent two nights in the Canyon and hiked the lighthouse trail which was approximately 6 miles (3 miles in and 3 miles out) off the road.  During our hike we heard wolves howling in the Canyon and saw a family of long horn sheep.

We also drove to the Cadillac Ranch which is west of Amarillo and spray painted our names on the Cadillacs.  It is the tourist thing to do.  Cadillac Ranch consists of 10 old Cadillacs buried vertically in the middle of a farm field within sight of Rt 40. 

12/5/19. A little to close for comfort & chipped $3000 windshield

Just North of Memphis Tennessee we were traveling along at 63 mph (which I have found to be the best speed for the Motorhome.  Same speed many truckers cruise at) in a 70 mph zone when a Nissan mini-van started to merge in front of me. The mini-van was going to slow to successfully make the merge.  In order to let him in without him side swiping the motorhome I pumped the brakes to slow down.  He merged 10’ in front of me, then immediately slowed down further and put on his flashers. I hit the brakes to bring us to a crawl and layed on the air horn.  I couldn’t go around him as traffic was flying past us in the passing lane at 70 mph.  

To make matters worse his mini-van was missing the rear clip (including the wrap around bumper) so as he merged his rear tire kicked up a stone creating a chip in the huge $3000 windshield on the Motorhome.

I have read of people purposely looking to get into an accident with a Motorhome  just so they can claim insurance.  Just like this guy did to us.  They pull in front of a Motorhome and quickly slow down or jam on the brakes so that the Motorhome will hit them in the rear-end.  I truly think this guy was setting us up.  After all he did need the rear clip replaced (or did he purposely remove the rear clip so that there would be extensive damage??)

Little did he know I have a dash cam and recorded the whole event.  Although after reviewing and saving the camera video, I did realize that my current camera is not clear enough to allow me to zoom in on his license plate.  It did do a good job of recording this clowns actions.

After the traffic cleared I was able to get around him using the passing lane while laying on my air horn.  Wouldn’t you know it he was looking at his cell phone while driving 35 mph on a busy 70 mph highway in Thanksgiving weekend traffic. 

To bad I couldn’t get his license plate I may have called the Missouri State Police and reported this clown.

12/5/2019. We are on the Road Again

We have been on the road for 6 days.  We are on our way to Mesa Arizona for the Winter.

We have covered many miles and states since we left home.  Tonight we are staying in the Palo Duro Canyon just outside of Amarillo Texas.

On Saturday last week we stopped at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.  It was well worth the stop.  As expected they have many corvette’s on display many of which are on loan from the cars owners.  The Corvette Manufacturing plant is just down the street, but unfortunately they were closed to tours due to tooling change for the production of the new mid-engine 2020 model.  They did have one of the 2020 test models on display which we were able to look at.  I think it is going to be a winner.

On Sunday we drove to Memphis and camped directly across the street from The Elvis Presley Mansion.  Monday we toured the Mansion and Graceland.  Then drove to and toured Sun Studio where Elvis and many other artist started their singing career.

On Monday we moved on to Branson Missouri.  We Prepurchased tickets on line for the Clay Cooper Country Express and Christmas Show for Tuesday morning.  At the beginning of the show some of the cast members pulled people from the audience to participate in the preshow.  A cast member walked up and down the isle looking for “suckers” to pull up on stage.  After many in the audience turned them down, he walked over to Sandy and I while motioning for us to come up with him.  I shook my head “No” and Sandy stood up.  Of course, in the back of my mind I am thinking “What is she getting us into now”.  Up on stage we go.  They  put a cowboy hat on me and a hat with a big plume on the front of the hat on Sandy.  Next thing we know they are giving us detailed acting instructions.  They expected us to perform in front of the crowd while they pretended to record us with a fake movie camera.  I rolled my eyes and thought here we go.  In the end we did fine and the audience loved us, but I am pretty sure Sandy will never volunteer us again :-0.  At the end of the show Clay Cooper offered Sandy and I free tickets for a 50’s/60’s musical show the next morning (Wednesday).  We called the campground and they offered to let us check out late so we could go to the show which we did.  I am adding Branson to my list of favorite place to return.  Of the places we have traveled to I would return to Camden/Bar harbor Maine, Golf Shores Alabama, Ft Myers Florida, and Branson Missouri.  The Tetons/Yellowstone were also on my list, but I have been to both twice now so they have fallen off the list.

See pictures below of our 6 days of travel.

9/2/2019. Homeward Bound from the West Coast

We decided to make a 5 day, 2400 mile drive home so that we could catch up with our daughter Andrea who is 1600 miles into her goal to backpack the entire the entire 2200 mile Appalachian trail.

After arriving home to weeds as tall as me, Sandy and I spent 3 full days cleaning up our landscaping.  In the end we filled eleven 37 gallon trash bags and 2 Garbage cans with weeds and landscape trimmings.  Needless to say our lawn guy is fired.  It is always interesting what you find when you arrive home unannounced.

We then took off in our toad to Vermont to pickup the hikers.  Sandy had rented a 2100 sq/ft home on VRBO so that we could spoil Andrea and three of her fellow hiking friends.

We picked them up at an opening in the trail close to Cavendish Vermont.  The four of them has hiked 21 miles and exited the woods/trail after dark.  I drove them back to the house where they spent two nights relaxing, showering, watching TV, and being fed numerous calories by Sandy in preparation for the final segment (600 miles) of their adventure.  Only 17% of the hikers that start the Appalachian Trail actually complete it.

Based on what I saw from Andrea and the other three hikers, they will finish.

Sandy and I will be home for 6 weeks, then we are off on a 15 day cruise through the Panama Canal starting in Miami and ending in Los Angeles.  

Then we will be home for approximately 2 weeks before heading out to Arizona for the winter 

8/6/2019 Crazy Sand Rail Ride

8/6/2019 Crazy Sand Rail Ride

Well Sandy did it again :-)

One of the reasons I married her is that she will do some of the craziest things, yet she wouldn’t ride on the back of a Motorcycle with me???

Today she decided we needed to travel to Dune City Oregon and ride a Sand Rail at 80 MPH a crossed the Dunes.   In addition, as we approached the driver of this beast, she started egging him on to give us the best ride that he has ever given.  She let him know that we are thrill seekers, that we have ridden 4 wheelers, go karts, speed boats, etc... in many different locations and this had better best all of the previous rides.

I have a couple of simple rules:

1. If the vehicle has an engine that is hopped up on steroids, I want to be driving it!!  And I certainly am not going to egg-on the driver to make it his best ride yet!!
2. If it needs a 4 point harness safety belt and has a roll bar, I am not real interested in riding, unless I am driving.  If someone else is driving, I’d rather be a spectator.
3. If it has custom tires that allow you to go vertically up at 80 MPH, then do a 1/2 donut to flip around to go down at 80 MPH, I am not real interested.

The “DRIVER” after receiving Sandy’s heroics had a sh_t eaten grin (I knew this wasn’t good).  He said let me put you both in the back. Directly over the rear tires.  Hmmm??  I wonder what that means.  As we entered the dunes I figured it out.

Well first it means when he does the donut you get the most whiplash of anybody in the vehicle. Second, when you go airborne you get the full feeling of the landing.  

Also, the rear tires are custom designed for sand.  That is, instead of tread, they have 2” deep paddles (similar to a paddle wheel boat) that dig into the sand to lurch the vehicle forward.  These same wheels launch sand all over the people in the rear seat (which is us).  

It was a 30 minute ride for which I have sand in my mouth, eyes, ears, nose, face, hair, arms, and legs.  Of course, if you take a good look at Sandy’s picture, you will note that she has leggings (which we had to stop at a store and purchase for her prior to the ride), a complete face/hair snow baklava, long sleeve jacket etc....

You got to love it.  Yup most of the time my wife is calm and a non-thrill seeker, but every once in a while “HOLD ON”, I am in for a ride :-)

8/1/2019 My Pretty City Girl

We are in Northern California along the Pacific Coast just below the Oregon border. 

Today we went on two hikes. The first one was in a remote state park along a dirt road that abutted a large cattle ranch. The trail was to be 3 miles over to the beach and is shared with horse riders.  As we started down the path my beautiful city girl started to say I don’t no why the horse riders don’t have to clean up after their horses.  After all dog owners need to cleanup after their dogs.  I had to smile.  You see the horses had left horse crap all over the trail. As we moved along she was jumping back and forth across the trail dodging the deposits. I kidded her saying that we would be doing twice the mileage since we were zigzagging back and forth across the trail as we walked.  It was a fun hike and when we made it to the beach we found the beach to be completely undeveloped. As I looked along the surf I saw a seal feeding on fish.  The marine haze was in making it a little chilly but we could still see for approximately 1/2 mile in each direction.  We walked down along the beach.  Interesting thing is that we only came across one shell.  The balance were small rocks and driftwood that had washed up in the surf.

As we hiked back to the car much to our surprise a dozen Big Black Angus cattle had escaped their fencing and had entered the trail blocking our exit.  They looked at us as if they owned the trail and they were not interested in allowing us to exit to our car. As if to say, You are not getting by us until we are done eating. Needless to say the group was as tall as I am and my guess many 100 Lbs heavier. Initially we stopped in our tracks so that if they started to charge us we would have a head start.  

Of course, the rancher was no where in site!

Not sure why, but I started walking towards them clapping my hands figuring one of us was going to have to give and my car was beyond them.  The show down was on!  After the first 10’ I could tell they were hesitating and starting to think about turning and running. At the same time I turned to see if Sandy had followed. She was still frozen in place. I motioned for her to follow me as some of the cows were starting to circle around behind me getting between her and I. As I continued forward the cattle turned and bolted! Thank Goodness! We were able to get to the car. As I approached the car,the cows kept a close eye on me until I started the car and we drove away. 

Lucky guess on my part.  I am not sure what I would have done if they decided to call my bluff :-) 

As we drove away we came across a couple more cows that had escaped and had decided to take a casual walk down the road.  

We then continued further North along the Ocean road Rt 101 into Southern Oregon. The visitor center recommended a trail to the beach at mile marker 146. This trail turned out to be a little challenging because in some places it was 12” wide with a quick drop-off.  Sandy was in the lead as we descended along the cliff trail toward the beach when she did a quick about face when a black snake slithered across the trail directly in front of her. 

It was an eventful day.

Attached are some of our pictures of the hikes