Documenting Our Escape

I’ll pause here a minute and give you all a recap of our Pre-retirement plan.  We have a 5 year mission to see all 50 states. We set criteria that defines what “seeing” a state is.  We can’t just drive through. We have to; first spend the night, second see at least one attraction, and then either eat local or visit with a local person about the area. We set our goals in 2019 while in Hawaii. By the end of 2020 we had seen 11 states.

We were able to do some side trips while in Houston and Galveston with family. Then we went on couple trips to New Mexico. And we managed a trip to Palo Duro Canyon before setting out for new territory.

Houston Botanical Gardens and a day in Galveston with our daughter and her husband

Junction City Park, Junction, Texas. It was a lovely, FREE place to park. It sweet, old school downtown area and a laundromat. We stayed an extra day to wash and walk around town.

New Mexico The Capulin Volcano is a dry cinder cone. but the views from the rim trail allow a panoramic of four states. Nala was only allowed in the parking lot not on the trails here and the wind hounded us the whole time. We did not get to do this little state park justice. Sugarite Canyon was a great hiking day. Nala was allowed and Maloya Lake was still frozen this time of year. The miners used it for ice in the old days. For me, It was the first time I have seen a whole lake frozen over. It was amazing, with the silent currents under the surface

We’re on the move again. And excited to share another year of adventure with y’all.

Thanks for checking.  Stop by when you can and see how many states we can add to the map this year.

I read a quote somewhere that, “life is what actually happens, while you’re making other plans”.  I think that is what happened to us these last few months. The plans for this Holiday season were: spend six weeks from mid-November through Christmas, run to Mexico for a quick beach vacation, and fulfill a commitment we had made for February and then head to Joshua Tree National Park. Life gave us a bit of a tumble but we still came up smiling.

We figured six weeks was plenty of time to see everyone and enjoy the Holidays with friends and family. And then move on.

What really happened: We came in early in November because the inspection on the truck and motorcycle were up in October and we were concerned about getting a ticket. We did get to meet up with a few friends and had a great time with family.  We didn’t get to fit everyone in because of schedule conflicts.  And then immediately after Christmas our whole household contracted Covid-19.   My Mom was severally affected, but the rest of us (my sister, her husband and Mark and I) had mild and varied symptoms. So that was 14 days without leaving the house. I’m NOT whining, I know y’all have been through all this and more, in varying degrees …

When our quarantine was over, we are afraid to fly to Mexico in case we couldn’t get back home. And then we had the “Snowpocalypse” of 2021.  So in all; my Sister and her husband, who had agreed to house us for 6 weeks, graciously let that stretch into 4 months.  It was an awesome bonding experience for Shawn and I. We laughed, we had quiet mornings over coffee, we tried new recipes, we did battle with the snow and ice and power outages, just like y’all did but that meant I didn’t get to see all y’all. For the Marks, it was a couple of trips to the Limestone lake house, to keep the water pipes from freezing. It hit 3 degrees and that house was also without power.

Our daughter got a new job also, and we are hanging around the north Texas area; so that we can help her and her husband move to a new state. For the next leg of our journey, we found and accepted a job for this upcoming summer.  And we are excited to be able to share that new part, of our journey.

Thanks for checking in on us. This year looks like a lot of fun. Stop by when you have a minute to see our progress and let us know how you’re doing post Covid and post Texas Snowpocalypse days.

While Mark and I have truly enjoyed our first season as camp workers, we have looked forward to coming ‘home’ for the Holidays. The RV is where all our physical stuff is but our hearts still call north Houston home.

We have waited in anticipation for a reunion with family and friends and getting back in touch with those people closest to our minds during our travels. The folks our minds would go to when a particular beautiful vista would unfold in front of us. “Wouldn’t Mom love this.”, or “Isn’t this something Matt would enjoy?”

And our homecoming has met and exceeded our expectations, we’ve enjoyed quiet morning sharing stories over coffee with friends, and crazy loud Friendsgivings.  We’ve had fireside chats and work days on the RV. We’ve Skyped and Zoomed; shared fun adventures and gentle reflections of times spent together, and of the times we have been apart. Like so many of you; we are doing whatever it takes to meet with everyone, however we can and as safely as we can.

We wish you all the very Best, this Holiday season.  Hoping y’all find joy and blessings, in every moment that you can and in any way that you can.

Thanks for checking in on our adventures.

The Celebrations in 2020 have been as unique as the year itself. As you look back over this year. We hope you find fond memories and realize your blessings in spite of, or because of the Covid 19 virus. Whether your family celebrates though Zoom or other media; or if you are fortunate enough to actually come together; we wish you a joyous and blessed Thanksgiving.

Thanks for checking in on our adventure. We hope to see each of you around town as the year winds down. Check back as we figure out where we will be next season.

We really enjoyed our time in Kentucky. A few days before we left there; I took some time out to firm up our travel plans to Texas. It was at that time that we realized Tennessee was just next door. In fact, it just about 200 miles to get Mark’s sister’s house. I know I have mentioned that I am geographically challenged before.  Well that is just a little more proof, if you need it.

Mark’s sister and her family have lived in Tennessee of many years. They have been to Texas several times over the years but we figured out it has been ~35 years since we visited them in their home state. While we were right there in the neighborhood; we thought we would try to stop by.

We called; they were home and we had a wonderful visit. They took us to see the Raccoon Mountain Hydroelectric area and up to see local parts of the Smoky Mountains. Raccoon Mountain is a man made wonder. The mountain has been cored out and water is pumped up from the ground below it. Gravity pulls the water back down, through the mountain and through turbines to generate electricity for businesses and homes in the area. This relieves seasonal flooding and creates electricity. We also met two of Mark’s nieces and their families; as well as spend time with Mark’s sister and her husband. Though it was only for a couple of days; we really enjoyed the time with family; and plan to swing by their home again, when passing through that area.

Our first season has taken us through 11 states, from the Rocky Mountains to the Great Smokies and over 5700 miles. We’ve seen some incredible sights and met awesome people. We’ve made great friends and reconnected with family. Our “first rattle out of the cage”, as my Dad used to say, has been an absolute success. But we are ready to head home for the holidays and get back in touch with friends and family.

Thanks for check in on our adventure. We’ll meet you back in Texas next week.

Our Son and his family live in Kentucky. We haven’t seen them in over a year. We had a great time with the Kids and grand kids. We built a playhouse as an early Christmas present and spent that time getting to know them all over again. My son has an awesome family and watching the family dynamics was an incredible experience for us.

Our visit coincided with the monsoon season, so even though the pictures don’t show it we were rained out of construction one whole day and several afternoons. So we didn’t get the playhouse completely finished before our time was up but we had a great time and left supplies for them to finish it up.

In Kentucky, we opted to boondock to be closer to the kids. They live out in the country and their acreage is beautiful but the road to their house is very narrow, hilly, and winding. It is a lovely drive, but not with a 40’ rig in tow.  We stayed 10 consecutive days boondocking, our longest so far. Mark and I were very pleased with the rigs performance and it allowed up to stay closer to the kids and cheaper too. Win – Win. Extra side bonus . . . . . we also got fresh yard eggs from our kids, when we left.  And they are delicious.

Thanks for checking on our Adventure.   We’ll see you in Tennessee next week.

We have family in Kentucky and in Tennessee. So we left Utah and headed to Kentucky by way of Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. We hit snow at our overnight stop, at highway rest area in Nebraska.

We use a navigational program that gives us an R.V.  safe path; that helps us avoid bridges that are too low or streets that are too narrow. Which leads us to another learning opportunity, up to this point; I as the copilot, have pretty much trusted it. Well in Missouri, it lost that trust. It wasn’t a dangerous deviation just used up some of our time. The trip wizard had us enter Missouri at Kansas City, go down through Springfield, and then up to St. Louis and then on to Illinois. Now, if you’re geographically challenged like I am, you read right past all that and said okay so…

Note to self when the whole U.S. map is on a small computer screen; that route looks like a fairly straight route. However you need to zoom in to see the details; if you have no basic understanding of the state geography. There was a straight shot on a big highway, from Kansas City to St Louis. Keep Mark in your thoughts, he set out on this adventure with a geographically and directionally challenged co-pilot AND he knew that going into it the deal. BUT you work with what you have and move forward ; )

We boondocked (that’s living off generator power, on board water supply, and using the waste water holding tanks), through Wyoming and Nebraska; without stopping to see any sites. We wanted to see our out of state family, and yet still be in Texas for the Holidays. So we chose to blow through those states, and we will catch them another time.

Springfield, Missouri is home of the “best Aquarium of 2020” according to U.S. News, and I must say it was incredible. While it is in a good size building, they designers have created a labyrinth of trails inside that make it really seem huge. The displays and dioramas are amazing. There are not only aquariums but also mammals, birds and reptiles in habitats with unbelievable detail. Unfortunately the lighting was very subdued so my phone wasn’t up to the challenge for getting great pictures; but if you find yourself in Springfield you should add that to your list of things to do.

We also stopped by “The Park” in Springfield, which like is a mini Grand Central Park. It is an area that has many separate themed parks; all put together into one big park. It was a wonderful doggy day adventure and it was beautiful even in the fall.

Thanks for checking in on Our Adventure. We will see you in Kentucky.

We took the bike to Vernal, Utah and made a day trip to Dinosaur National Monument. The visitor center is out in the middle of the desert just north of Vernal, but the actual dinosaur wall is a mile stroll through the desert or a quick drive around. We choose the walk. We got to see several desert lizards scurrying about and different fossils marked along the trail. The dinosaur wall was incredible. The archeologist that found the extensive collection of fossils had the vision to try to preserve them in the side of the wall that they were found and they were able to “sell” that idea to the government. So at the end of the hike was this huge pavilion build over a partially excavated wall of dinosaur’s bones. It was very cool.

We spent a couple of day touring around Vernal, we also visited Fantasy Canyon and Moonshine Arch. Fantasy Canyon is an area of unique erosion patterns that was kind of like Mad Max meets Dr. Seuss. It was too windy for the drone but I hope you enjoy the pictures we did get.

Moonshine Arch was about a ~4 mile round trip hike through the plains, with a scramble over rocks for the last half mile. It was a challenge, but well worth the view.  We had the arch to ourselves and we rested there enjoying the vistas from the high ground.

Thanks for checking in on our adventure. We will be picking up the pace now. We are headed to Kentucky and want to see the Grand kids over Halloween and maybe have an early Thanksgiving.

Flaming Gorge, Utah: known for hiking, fishing, boating and rugged striking canyon vistas. We didn’t fish but man did we hike and enjoy the scenery. The Red Canyon rim trail gave us incredible views of the gorge and the flaming red rock where it gets its name. We ran into pronghorn sheep on the way back down from the rim. They watched us cautiously but didn’t run away.

Nearly every route around the lake is a designated scenic route, so we took the long way home to do the Sheep Creek Geological Loop. This road winds through beautiful rock formations. It has an alpine stream running along the winding road. We stopped along the way and walked along the stream. There was wild salmon swimming in the currents. It is late in their season and they were brightly colored and easy to see in the shallows. We stopped by a road side stand and bought fresh potatoes from a local farmer and his children. He still lives and works on his family’s property. We talked with his father-in-law that was visiting from Idaho. The farmer’s property has petroglyphs that the local college is studying. The glyphs have not yet been identified and the experts say they do not match this area’s known tribes. There is also another local man, who is working with the wildlife services to restock an endangered species of salmon that used to be indigenous to this area. He had a pond on his property, where they have flourished unknown for years. It was a brief encounter but we really enjoyed the moment and the potatoes were delicious too.

The wildlife has been abundant and we have seen a lot more than we were able to catch on camera. There have been innumerable large and small hawks, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope and cottontail bunnies. We have seen apple and what we think were plums. There have been groves of Aspen, Birch and varieties of Pine, Spruce, and Fir trees that created a early fall tapestry of greens and golds across the landscape. And of course, masses of different types of rock, which were pushed up from the valley floor.

And no trip to Flaming Gorge would be complete without a trip to the dam. It looks like a mini-Hoover Dam.

Thanks for checking in on our adventure. We will see more of Northern Utah before we move on.

First stop: Oregon?!? We booked a 3 day stay in a KOA, in Burns, Oregon. The main purpose of that stop was to get most of Crater Lake, out of the RV.  There was dust everywhere and we needed to do some laundry. We were blessed to have beautiful cherry trees all through out the park.

We crossed over the “high desert” of Oregon and into Boise National forest. The final bit of road, to our first boondocking location was a nail biting and heart stopping, very slow ride. It took us 45 minutes to go 2-1/2 miles.  The road was dirt and wash-boarded pretty badly. Mark was doing ok, but I’m pretty sure there are permanent grip marks on my side of the truck. The road was mostly a one and half lanes wide and followed the edge of the cliff, along the side of the Snake River canyon. There were two occasions where vehicles stopped and backed up for us, or waited at wider spots in the road. We also crossed over one of the dams; and camped in a pull off parking area, beside Lucky Peak Lake. I said a prayer of thanks for kind drivers on the road that night let me tell you. Once all 56’ of us got into our space it was awesome. The lake was very low, but still beautiful and we had the whole place to ourselves. The generator worked well and the batteries held up fine.  I would have loved to stay a couple of days but we had reservations for the next night so we had to move on.

Our reservations were on private property in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Our first day out, we went to Shoshone Falls. It is the Niagara Falls of the west. It falls into another Snake River Canyon some 300 miles downriver from where we camped in the Boise National Forest.  In the spring and most of the summer it is a truly awe inspiring falls, but this late in the year it is much smaller. We were treated to random small falls on the road side as we descended into the canyon. We Stopped by Dierke’s Lake and enjoyed the hiking trails all through the wilderness at the bottom of the gorge.

Our next venture out was to Perrine Bridge which is the only Bridge in the state where it is legal to BASE jump. There was a steady stream of jumpers and instructors heaving themselves off a perfectly good and solid bridge! We watched from the patio of Elevation 486 Restaurant. I had a glass of wine for the courage to watch. LOL. We dropped back down into the canyon to see Perrine-Coulee Falls.

All along the walls of the canyon were sprinkles of red and gold, as Autumn settled gently on the area.

Our last day in Idaho, found us at Malad Gorge State Park and Niagara Springs State Park. We had a picnic lunch beside a lovely stream that ran through the park. On the way to Malad we stopped by Balanced rock for a quick stretch of the legs and a photo op.

Thanks for following our adventures. Next stop Utah. See you there.