03-20-2019 Crossing the Country

Current Location: Peregrine Pines Family Camp, USAFA Colorado Springs, Colorado

Full moon clear at 29 degrees F at 4:00 AM

The days are starting to all run together.  When traveling east on I-10, crossing Texas, it seems like it goes on forever.  I can’t remember how many days it took us to get across that state, but I am sure it was at least four.  What I have discovered, is that the name of the state doesn’t matter, one state, five states, whatever, it takes days and days to get back west.

1620 miles, 5 days driving, with one down day in Palestine, AR, looks like our 300 mile per day routine is about right with a little bit extra

When we left Okefenokee, our main focus was heading home, taking I-40 back west as an alternative to I-10.  It helps to have a bit of different scenery, new landscapes to wake up the eyes and heart.  I know there are many sights we haven’t visited along the 10, but my ache to see new sights is waning a bit as our trip exceeds two months.  I am sorta ready to be home.

The annual Home Show in Eufaula, Georgia would have been a fun stop if we weren’t in travel mode

We left our little campground in Albany, Georgia on Thursday morning the 14th of March, traveling west and north.  Our original plan included driving toward Nashville, where we had a reservation at Arnold Air Force Base for two nights.  We thought it might be fun to see a little bit more of Nashville than we saw back in 2007, and to continue west toward Memphis.

We did have an important destination.  My mother, deceased in 1952, was born in Palestine, Arkansas.  I have spent several years attempting to track down my mother’s father and relatives on that branch of my family with little success.  With the help of Ancestry DNA tests, I discovered that I truly do have family connections right there in Palestine.  We had been invited to park at my cousin Rita’s place as long as we wanted.  Our visit will get a post of its own, but that will come next.

My cousin Rita and her husband Johnny in Palestine, Arkansas

No matter where you travel this time of year, weather can get in the way of the best laid plans.  The huge “bomb cyclone” that hit the upper Midwest was coming east in a long red, orange and yellow band that stretched from the lower southwest corner to the upper northeast corner of our route, spawning flooding, and scariest of all, tornados.  There was no escaping it. Should we hunker down and wait somewhere for it to hit us, or simply drive fast through it and hope it misses us.  As my daughter Deanna said, you are moving and the tornados are moving, no matter what you do, it is a crap shoot.

We decided that we should take the most direct route possible to get to Arkansas, skipping the sight seeing and cancelling the Nashville reservations.  All I had to do when calling the office was mention the tornado watches we were traveling through and we got a full refund.  Nice.

Our goal on the 14th was to simply get through the line of tornado watches.  We crossed Georgia in lovely sunshine, entering into Mississippi and some of the most kerthunkety roads we have traveled since I-10.  We passed Montgomery and Birmingham, navigating the freeways without much trouble.  I thought a lot about the important historical locations in both of these cities.  I have read great stories about visits to both cities and wished I had the weather, the time, and the energy to stop and spend some time appreciating the changes we have experienced in our country since the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.

Did I mention I was a bit burned out on city sights?  I found myself a bit glad that I had the excuse of tornado warnings to keep us moving north and crossing Mississippi in record time.  I joked that there would surely be a tornado shelter at the Cracker Barrel.

There were only a few scary moments, as we watched the swirling black clouds north of Birmingham building, and fought the erratic wind gusts.  The sky never did turn green, and the warning system app never sounded an alarm for tornado conditions going from watch to warning.  There were a few intense downpours, but no hail, for which I was extremely grateful.

That night, once again we overnighted in the free parking lot of a Cracker Barrel in Tupelo, Mississippi, safely on the other side of the tornado watch.  Nickie teased that we must love Cracker Barrel food, but not so much.  We do love their free parking lots however, and so far at each one we have used, the lot has been quiet.  In Tupelo we were the only rig in the lot, as we were previously in Florida. 

On the morning of the 15th, we continued north and west, crossing the Mississippi River mid day and arriving at my cousin’s place early afternoon.  We stayed two nights, and as I said, the story of that visit will come in another post.

Lots of high water on the Mississippi Delta

On Sunday morning, the 17th, once again we pointed the rig west along I-40, crossing Arkansas and most of Oklahoma before settling in once again at another Cracker Barrel, and another night alone in a quiet parking lot.  There were a lot of hotels surrounding the restaurant, but it seemed perfectly quiet and safe, even on the fringe of a big city near the airport.

This time we decided to succumb to the big country breakfasts that they are famous for.  Mo had French Toast for the first time on this two month trip, and I had some kind of great scramble thing, with biscuits and fresh squeezed orange juice.  We don’t eat out a lot, and this was our first breakfast out on the entire trip. 

Texas Rest Areas are sometimes as big as everything else in Texas

Our lovely breakfast kept us satiated through the rest of Oklahoma into the Texas Panhandle toward Amarillo. We haven’t traveled the Panhandle since 2010, and we were still unsure if the weather was going to cooperate with our plans to turn north toward Colorado.  There were inklings of snow in Colorado Springs, and if that continued, our plan was to spend the night in Amarillo, and continue west toward Albuquerque.

Gorgeous informative displays at the Gray County Safety Rest Area

Checking the weather, messaging with Erin, and looking at options for routing, we finally decided that it would be OK to make the journey north.  Instead of stopping in Amarillo, we continued north along highway 87 toward the little town of Dumas, Texas.  Using All Stays, we found the Dumas City Park, called Texhoma Park, a free camping spot with free electricity.  Free?  yeah, it really is free, with a limit of 24 hours only.  There is a donation box if you wish to help keep the place available. 

Once again we were almost the only rig there for the night.  Our only company was a gray RV with signs all over it in Spanish, basically advertising their travels from Chile to Alaska.  I did a bit of sleuthing, I found a photo of the same rig on Facebook, and ended up messaging with the person who posted that photo who had seen them in Chile.  Crazy world.  He and I did some more hunting, and actually found the Facebook page of the family, who have been on the road for two years. 

I had a lot of questions about that entire process.  Do they have to get visas for each country they pass through? Their facebook page says they are supporting themselves by selling things, but how do they do that in the US? It is a mom and a dad, two kids and a dog. They left their ordinary lives and ordinary jobs of teaching in Chile to travel all the way to Alaska.  I guess the RV dream is everywhere.

When we woke up and planned a leisurely 200 mile drive to our next destination, we were shocked to see that the plug-in voltmeter  was showing 18 volts and we were on store! It dropped down to 14 part of the time, so we really didn’t understand what was happening.  We tested a few things before deciding that we needed to find some help.  I found a mobile RV repair guy, Bob’s Mobile RV Service, who was back south of Amarillo, but he was so kind and helpful.  He said it could just be the meter itself, but that driving between 14 and 15 volts might not be a problem to get us to a repair service.  He then made some calls and set up a visit for us at the local Ford Dealer.  What a sweet guy.  He even called back a few hours later to be sure that we were OK. If you are ever in the vicinity, and need help I would highly recommend his service.

After driving to the small Ford dealership in Dumas, we waited a couple of hours for a technician to check our batteries, and alternator. Everything was fine, and as Bob had suspected, it was our voltmeter that had failed. The Ford dealer didn’t charge us for the service and we were on our way just a few hours later than planned.  Nice that we had a shorter mileage day ahead.

Eroded limestone at a rest area near Two Buttes, in far southeastern Colorado

Speaking of the RV dream, I am definitely not a full timer.  We have been traveling for 2 months now, and it has been wonderful.  I am so glad we can do it.  I am also so glad that we are heading home.  I have lost a bit of the excitement, and the thrill of exploring new places has taken a back seat to the thrill of once more getting back west.  The thrill of returning to our little town, and our green lovely acre, and our comfortable home is overshadowing the thrill of seeing more brown barren trees and brown barren grass on the high plains of the United States.

The Texas Panhandle isn’t completely flat.  We might have liked to explore Palo Duro Canyon, the Grand Canyon of Texas, second largest canyon in the United States

Following the snow predictions for the east side of the Rockies, we knew that it would be cold but not snowy for a night at John Martin Reservoir State Park.  We stayed at this park back in 2010, even spending an evening kayaking.  It was September then, not March, and wasn’t as cold. We knew the temps on this night in March were going to drop to the 20’s.  I discovered by pure chance that the park is now reservation  only, and made a reservation at the last minute as we drove north.  When we arrived, signs on the posts said do not occupy without a reservation, but same day reservations were allowed. Only problem, there is limited cell service at the park and one would have to return to the little nearby town of Hasty to attempt to get service.

Once at the park, my choice of a site seemed really stupid.  On the website it is very nearly impossible to get any kind of idea of what a site might be like.  There are no photos.  We ended up all alone in a loop over by the dam.  It turned out nicely, however, since it was completely quiet, and I could take Mattie out running off leash without any problems.  It was too cold to be on the lake anyway!

Yesterday morning we got up to a windy 24F degrees, that quickly warmed to 34F degrees but the wind was biting cold. 

Yup, that’s me trying to take phone photos at 24 degrees in the wind.  Stupid selfie camera comes on when I don’t know it

On the road by 9, we knew we had a short day ahead driving west toward Interstate 25 and our final miles toward Colorado Springs and the USAir Force Academy Peregrine Pines Family Camp.

We have read about this beautiful camp over the years, and seen beautiful photos from Erin’s blog about the trails and the chapel, and knew it would be a good place to stay.

Settled in at Peregrine Pines with the bluest skies we have seen in a long time

Erin and Mui loved this area so much, it called to them when they made their choice to end their full time lifestyle and settle down once again to a sticks and bricks home. (You can read about it here). We look forward so much to seeing their new home and spending time with them here in Colorado Springs.

Still not quite sure about our return route.  Once again, weather will be the determining factor. Mo isn’t too excited about returning back south to the 40 and I am not that excited about traveling over the mountains on the 70 or through the cold windy country  of Wyoming on the 80.  That route on the 80 is actually 400 miles less than my choice of returning back to the 40 and then having to go back north.  Ah well.  As I said, the choice will be made next Sunday morning when we exit Colorado Springs.

Hoping that a few extra miles going back south will be rewarded with warmer temperatures and maybe even some desert flowers as we continue our run home west toward Grants Pass.  Either way, home is the prize waiting at the end of the journey.

3-14-2014 Bookin’West through Tornado Alley

Current Location: Foss State Park, Oklahoma: still dark at 7am and 41 F

Yes, yes, I know.  I still haven’t written about the Natchez Trace, Vicksburg, and Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Way too many thoughts and photos of these amazing visits to manage, so the writing will have to come later.

We had good reasons for moving northward as we traveled west.  We watched the weather diligently and prayed that the Polar Plunge events that have plagued this part of the country all winter would let up enough for us to make it to Joplin without mishap.  My son John, and his wife Shannon, live near Joplin and I don’t get to see them often.  They are in the busy time of life with a high school kid and a couple of daughters and grandkids that need them.  Both are working, and not at the kinds of jobs that give much time for play.  Every time I see John, I wish that I hadn’t waited so long to get back to Missouri.  I am so glad I didn’t miss it this time.  Thank you, Weather Gods.

After some truly wonderful family time, and sharing morning coffee with John while we packed up, Mo and I headed southwest.  When leaving Joplin, there are options, some including tolls.  Looking at the map, we decided the $19.50 total cost of the tolls was less than the cost of the fuel avoiding them and within minutes of our campground in Carthage, we were on I-44 heading toward Tulsa.

I can’t believe I didn’t take a single shot of the campground, The Big Red Barn RV Park, in Carthage.  I guess because it was actually simply another privately owned campground, quite nice but still only a place to park.  Actually it was also a place to do laundry, wash the rig and the baby car at the nearby car wash with a big RV bay, shop for some essentials, and plan for the time with John and Shannon.

We also learned something new at this particular campground.  In spite of its flat screen status, and its fancy Sony Wega Gate programs, our MoHo TV is NOT digital.  This park has digital-only cable television and we couldn’t get a signal.  Sigh.  For the first time in a month or more we thought there might be a bit of TV in our life after family visits, but it was not to be.  Researching on the internet, I found out that there is no way to tell if your TV is digital or analog, but if it was purchased before 2008, it will be analog.  Ok then. 

Satellite signals and most cable signals are broadcast in both digital and analog bandwidths, and we knew that local broadcasts were digital only.  Mo tried to install a digital converter to our antenna but various roof thingies didn’t allow the space for the thing to retract, so we know that we don’t get digital signals from local broadcasts.  However, with all the tv hookups we have had over the months of travel since the digital thing happened, we had no clue our tv wasn’t digital.

With family time the priority, TV watching would have been minimal anyway, but it was a good thing to discover.  Most parks have a dual signal, but if your park specifically states, digital TV’s only, pay attention.

Friday morning we were on the road by 8:20, knowing that we had another 358 mile day ahead of us.  Our destination was Foss State Park, nestled into the low brown hills surrounding a lake/reservoir that is the largest in western Oklahoma.  We camped here long ago in December of 2007, on our route east in the baby MoHo.  It was a sweet little find back then, and we decided that once again, the pleasant, quiet park, eight miles off the interstate on a decent paved road, would be a good overnight stop.

I-44 is a direct, fast, and for the most part smooth route across most of Oklahoma, circling both Tulsa and Oklahoma City. It is part of the Oklahoma Turnpike System, which at first I found very frustrating, because all the routes are named but the turnpike website doesn’t have a decent map of the routes and the names so it can be easily figured out.  Frustrating, but we did manage to get across the state on the system.

I am sure that there is a lot to see in Oklahoma.  We have visited the memorial and the museum at Oklahoma City and didn’t need to stop there again.  I am sure Tulsa might have been interesting, if we had time to meander and research, but we didn’t choose to stop.

Tulsa, Oklahoma is tucked away in my own family history in an almost mythical way.  My mother was born when my grandmother was barely 15, in Palestine, Arkansas, as small a town as you can imagine.  Nine months later, my grandmother left my mother with her mother and ran away to Tulsa.  It was 1926.  Times were hard even then, though the Depression had yet to come in full force.  My grandmother searched for work, and finding none, resorted to being a photographer’s model.  My most treasured photograph of her was taken in Tulsa, and for the time it was a bit risque. 

If I had more time, perhaps I could have wandered the streets of old downtown Tulsa and found the locations of my old photos of my grandmother with the husband she married in Tulsa.  They played cards, gambled, danced, and partied during the heyday of the late 20’s and I have some pretty cool photos of the “Duke and Duchess” as their friends called them, sitting on the running boards of their old Packard.

Instead, we traveled at close to the speed limit all day, and I could find not one thing in the brown low flats and hills of Oklahoma to inspire me to pick up the camera even once. With crazy winter ice storms, and a late spring, Oklahoma is still simply many shades of brown, and windy, and the skies are a bit blue, but with a murkiness to them that wasn’t particularly inspiring.

I suppose I could have photographed the traffic jam around construction in Tulsa, or managed some kind of creative treatment of the leafless cottonwoods along the highway.  Instead, I navigated, and found our campground, and with the great, fast road, we landed just a little before 4pm, with plenty of time for me to make our favorite Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup for supper.

We took a nice walk along the trail toward the lake before supper, but even then I wasn’t inspired to take any photos.  After so much verdant green and vivid blues and gorgeous architecture, I can’t get excited about the simple brown landscape.  Of course it is lovely in its own way.  Another time I might have a great time shooting photos of this place.  Maybe I am just a bit tired of processing photos, and needed some down time from the camera.

Foss State Park is as quiet a place as you will find anywhere, and we slept well.  Today we will cross the Panhandle of Texas with the same focus and determination.  Our goal is to get west of the infamous Tornado Alley.  No matter what kinds of lovely sights are here, I have no desire to linger.  There are high winds and thunderstorms predicted through Amarillo, and as the sky lightens this morning, I can see some interesting cloud formations building.

Tonight we will rest in Tucumcari, at the New Mexico border.  Searching weather pages, I found that the possibility of tornados in Tucumcari is close to zero.  A good number, unlike the moderate to high rating for the landscape we will cross in the panhandle of Texas.  

After dinner last night, Mo and I reviewed our jello plans for returning west, and completely shifted our focus.  We were trying to decide if we could stay north on the 40 rather than dropping back down to the 10, and instead decided that we will go north from the 40 when we leave Albuquerque and wander west toward the Four Corners region.  Weather predictions seem to be in our favor, and once again we have a chance to explore new country rather than following the same tired interstate routes that can get so repetitive.  

I am beside myself excited about this plan for more than one reason.  The Colorado Plateau is one of my favorite places in the world, and Antelope Canyon near Page is on my bucket list.  I have artwork in my home depicting that famous ray of light, and if things go the way we are planning, before long I will have my very own photos of light and shadow in the world famous slit in the earth.

Bet I don’t have a problem picking up the camera then!

 

Oklahoma City and Foss Lake

Driving east on I-40 again after a great night at Foss State Park in Oklahoma. Windy is the theme for today. I am surprised in a good way about the number of windmills generating power in this part of the country. Yesterday approaching Amarillo there were miles and miles of huge windmills. Bigger than the ones on the road by Livermore in California, if not quite as many. Now this morning we are passing many more and this time they are all generating. Good for the system, not so great for Moana trying to keep the moho on the road. Feels just like Nebraska again, and big trucks passing us throw us all over the road. She’s back to one hand on the steering wheel though, so maybe that’s a good sign. More trucks on the road today as well, since it has been fairly light for truck traffic until now.

We are approaching Oklahoma City and plan to go to the national memorial there. Even though we think of Ground Zero in New York, this incident in our history is every bit as terrifying, reminding us that terrorism isn’t just something that comes from outside, it’s all around us,

But last night in Foss State Park, any kind of terrorism or violence or problems with the world seemed very far away, unimaginable even. The park is in the rolling plains of western Oklahoma, just a reservoir really, but 8000 acres of lovely water that reflected the setting sun. The campground was very nearly empty, with big wide level paved sites with water and electric right next to the lake. We went for a walk and Abby got to finally swim, first time on the trip. The water was so calm and lovely in the reflected light, luminous and magical, changing shades of pink and lavender and brilliant orange. I managed to get that star moment of the setting sun in a photo. It was warm, too, in the 60’s, and still. The skies were dark during the night with lots of stars and silence, no traffic noises. Sometimes for convenience we park in RV parks near the freeway, and I have become accustomed to the sounds, but last night was pristine. That is a word I might not have associated with Oklahoma in the past. Even though the trees have lost their leaves and the grass is brown, the skies are still clean and the colors have a sweet clarity.

After dinner last night Moana worked on her Christmas cards and I surfed the internet. The broadband card was slower than dialup, but I still managed to find a place for us to park tonight near Fort Smith. I also got caught up on many emails on my work webmail site. Nice to be able to clear that out before I get back in January. Nice also to get the email from Thor telling me that Chad plans to advertise the MLRA positions in Redmond and Salem in January and hoping that I would apply. It’s encouraging since Chad talked to me about this last September and said he might not hire anyone from the last advertisement so that he could advertise again. A good sign. I will apply, and hopefully I will not spend another tough year in California. Maybe I will really be done with it. I am so ready for that, so ready to be home, close to my kids again, close to Moana, back in Oregon. I’ll trust in the Universe as I always have, but I do hope that things go this way.

The winds are really strong now, and Moana is working really hard to keep us going forward. Big gusts throw us sideways into the rumble strips and the moho is doing some serious back and forth kinds of movements. Tornado country, of course we aren’t in tornado season, but geez, winds are the main thing here I guess, and blizzards. Glad we aren’t dealing with a blizzard!

Johnny is planning to drive down to Fort Smith tonight to meet us for dinner and a visit. He said it’s only a couple hour drive for them. I’m looking forward to seeing him.

Later
The day has been really windy, no let up at all as we continue east. There is no sign of a real storm, but there are clouds that look like a weather front is blowing by very high in the sky. We stopped in Oklahoma City this morning to view the Oklahoma City Memorial of the federal building bombing in 1995. 167 people. Funny, more people die in airplane crashes, but this touched the psyche of the American people so strongly, and the memorial is rather lovely, and very dramatic. Got some good photos. My Picasa web photo albums are going to be all filled up before I get through with this trip for sure.

We stopped for lunch and gasoline just outside of Oklahoma City and now have just a couple of hours to go before we get to the Arkansas line. The landscape is rolling plains, with a lot of brown hardwoods that have no leaves. There are lots of green patches of grass that seem to be greening up from the fall rains, but the fields are all brown. Here and there are some winter wheat fields that stand out brilliant emerald. I said to Mo that I wouldn’t mind having no leaves on the trees since we don’t have to deal with the kinds of bugs and mosquitoes that would be in this country during the summer, but even in this brown state, I can imagine how green the summers must be.