Coming home is never fun

Coming home is never fun. Boxes of mail to sort, dusty house, overgrown yard riddled with sticks and leaves left over from the winter storms; in short, lots of work. We've been home for three days now and slowly but surely things are falling into place. The Jeep is home from the shop with new inspection sticker, fresh oil , rotated tires and a couple of minor repairs, most of the yard work has been sorted out, and now it's time to go to Portsmouth to see Carolyn's parents. We'll leave tomorrow and return early next week.

We must hurry! Mann has a "honey do" list a mile long and it's not long before we need to hit the road again. We have Motor Home rallies starting April 25 and granddaughter Sara has a cheer leading competition in Hershey, Pa May 3 that we plan to attend. We enjoy PA Amish country in the spring so this will be a good opportunity to visit the PA Amish country and combine the visit with attendance at the cheer leading competition, visit friends Rufus and Susan Barbour in DE and hopefully a visit with our Keys friends Lynda and Al Barone in PA.

Spring and Summer will be busy this year filled with lots of Motor Home activities. We have a Dogwood FMCA Chapter rally at Rockahock April 25 thru 27, a Geocaching rally April 27 through 28, and the FMCA GEAR rally in Richmond June 5 through 8. Mann is a National Director for FMCA so we'll need to be in St.Paul, MN for the International rally and FMCA Governing Board meeting July 14 through 17. By the time we add in a few days for travel and a few more days for fun, it looks like we're scheduled for most of the summer.

Back Home In Virgnia

Three long days on the road bring us back to our home in Virginia. The drive from Little Rock happened faster than planned but as we all know, the best laid plans...................
The weather was beautiful while we were in Little Rock but prior to our arrival there had been massive amounts of rain in the area and and also upstream in all of the surrounding states to the north and west. The area around Little Rock had almost ten inches of rain. We got to watch the Arkansas river rise over a period of four days. By Sunday when we left Arkansas, there was a huge flood in progress, particularly along the White River. Fortunately for us, Interstate 40 was built well above the flood plain so we weren't personally affected. By the time we arrived in Nashville, TN temperatures were dropping. Monday morning brought snow which we drove in all day. The snow finally stopped well past Bristol, VA. We thought we were going to spend a few days at Claytor Lake on the way home but found there was no water in the camp ground due to damage sustained as a result of freezing weather. We decided to travel on toward home rather than deal with the water issues.

As we all know, prices at the pump have started to seem awfully high. The worst (highest) diesel price we paid since leaving home in December was $4.15 per gallon in northern AZ. You can only imagine the concern our credit card company feels when we fill our 100 gallon tank. Feeling the squeeze, Mann decided to see what could be done to improve the situation. The first step was to slow down believing this would likely improve fuel mileage. Given that we were already one of the slowest vehicles on the road, we weren't sure how this slow down would be perceived by others. The good news is that only a few people are honking and we're getting record high fuel mileage now thanks to reduced speed (about 60 on the interstate). We're up to over 9 mpg. This may not sound like much but will represent a savings of over a thousand dollars a year in fuel cost. We're thinking of slowing down some more. Is it legal to drive 55 on interstates?

William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library

We visited the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library today. The building is magnificent and sits beside the Arkansas river (currently at flood stage) in downtown Little Rock, AR. The library offers a detailed view of the accomplishments of the Clinton administration. As might be expected, President Clinton has a recollection of his Presidency that varies a bit (only by omission) from the recollections of this writer. This was a very interesting place to visit and time well spent.

Road Time to Little Rock

We arrived in Little Rock, AR yesterday after a couple of days on the road and some down time in Amarillo, TX and Oklahoma City, OK. Travel across North Texas was trying thanks to fog and wind. We spent a night in Amarillo waiting for weather to clear then on to Oklahoma City where we stayed two days waiting for the torrential downpours to stop. Oklahoma City to Little Rock on Interstate 40 made for a long day on the road thanks to windy conditions. We're in Maumelle Park, a beautiful facility operated by the Corps of Engineers. We'll stay here for a few days and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. Today we did some geocaching and visited the State Capital building, the Governors Mansion, Little Rocks Central High School and the National Park Service facility across the street from the school that documents the desegregation of Central High in 1957. We also visited the Big Dam Bridge.

The Big Dam Bridge is supposed to be the longest and most expensive pedestrian bridge in the world. It crosses the Arkansas River above the Murray Lockand Dam, thus the name.

Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park

What a fascinating place! The log I'm leaning against is petrified wood. It's Rock!!! I think we may have to take some classes to get updated on the geology and geography of this part of our great country. It seems that some 225 million years ago, this area was about where present day Peru resides and was a vast flood plain. The trees fell (or were knocked over by dinosaurs) and were covered by water. A mix of mud, silt and volcanic ash buried the logs thus cutting off the oxygen and delaying the decay of the logs. Silica laden ground water seeped through the logs replacing the original wood with silica deposits. The silica crystallised into quartz and the logs were preserved as petrified wood. In the ensuing 225 million years, thanks to continental drift, the petrified logs ended up near present day Holbrook, AZ. Petrified Forrest National Park is a must see for those visiting this area.

Another part of this park is the beautiful Painted Desert. In many ways, it reminds us of the bad lands of South Dakota. The weather today was very windy, so much so that the Ravens had a difficult time flying. We saw one that had a crash when trying to land. I've included a couple of photo's with this post. Lots more photo's are included in our photo album of the park.

Natural Bridges National Park

What's the difference between a natural bridge and an arch? The answer is water. Natural Bridges National Park has three bridges that were formed by flowing water.

We had an enjoyable day in the park and a quiet night in the park campground. This place is very remote. It's nearly 50 miles from the nearest civilization. It has to be one of the quietest places anywhere. There are no sounds of highways, trains etc. Even the planes fly so high here that you can't hear them.

Canyonlands National Park

Canyonlands National Park is a minature Grand Canyon and Arches National Park rolled into one. Check out the arch above. Click on it and note the snow covered La Sal mountains in the background. They're over 35 miles away. Yes, the air here is clear and smog free. Everything here is huge. It's so big that you can't take meaningful pictures of it but I tried. I'm including a few photos here or if interested you can link to our albums from our home page or use this link to albums this time .

Note the trail in the photo above. It runs along the cliff with switchbacks to the valley below. It's part of the Shaffer trail that leads across the valley back to Moab UT.



Click on the image to see it in a larger format. Like I said, things here are so big it's not easy to take it all in. If you look closely, you'll see the Shaffer trail heading across the valey floor.

Arches National Park

Arches National Park has got to provide some of the most spectacular scenery in the US. Photos can never do it justice. It's interesting how different things look at different times of the day.



The formation to the right is called Balanced Rock, Wonder why?

Moab Utah

Drove from St. George to Moab Utah. The scenery along the way, particularly some sections of I70, was spectacular. There was snow on the mountains.

St. George Utah

We spent a couple days visiting with our friends Harry and Sheila Pethoud in beautiful St. George Utah. The driveway of their new home was perfect for Shamu (our motor home....we name everything) We really enjoyed our visit and their hospitality - Sheila is a great cook! While we were there we visited Zion National Park and Snow Canyon - both of which have spectacular scenery.

We also took Harry and Sheila on their first geocaching adventure. Sheila very quickly found the first cache of the day and Harry found the second one. We think they quickly caught onto to the sport.


Harry with his cache

Hoover Dam

We took a drive to Hoover Dam. Along the way we stopped in Boulder City to do a little geocaching and at Lake Mead to enjoy a picnic lunch. We walked along the dam at Hoover dam - much more commercialized than when we were there in 1986. They are in the process a building a bridge over the waterway so that traffic will no longer cross the dam. The bridge is so tall; I'm not sure that I will have the nerve to cross it! Study the photo, it really is unbelievable! That's the Colorado River at the bottom and the ends of the new bridge toward either side at the top. Wonder how they'll build the middle section?

Las Vegas

We spent several days in Las Vegas, however, took it easy as Mann was suffering from a virus (head congestion stuff). We checked out the sights along the Vegas strip. It is unbelievable how elaborate the casinos and hotels are. The water fountain show in front of the Bellagio is fantastic. We also checked out Frys, a huge electronics store where Mann could spend hours.

Pomona California - FMCA Rally

We attended an International FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) rally in Pomona California from Saturday, Feb 23 to Friday, Feb 29. There were over 3000 motor homes at the rally and lots of things to see and do - seminars, vendors selling everything you could dream of for your RV, new motor homes for sale (some for over $1 million), and entertainment. We enjoyed Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits fame. He is a great entertainer and still energetic after making his big hits in the 60s - "I'm Henry the VIII, I am" and "Mrs. Robertson you have a lovely daughter". The Bellamy Brothers performed one evening - their hits include "Let your love flow".

We had dinner at a Cuban restaurant with the Gourmonds Chapter on Sunday night. This groups primary focus is fine dining. Many of the members are also members of the Dogwood chapter that we belong to in Virginia.

Dr. Phil

We went to the taping of a Dr. Phil show. It was fun to see all the behind the scenes activity and, of course, the stars - Dr. Phil and his wife Robin. We don't know when the show will be aired (need to keep checking the schedule on the internet). We doubt that we will be in the audience shots as the cameras were focused on another section, however, Robin McGraw was sitting around 20 feet from us.

We also checked out the cars at the famous Peterson Automotive Museum.

While we were in Hollywood they were busy preparing for the Academy Awards which were presented the following weekend. We checked out the "stars" along the Hollywood walk of fame; saw the famous "Hollywood" sign; and checked out the celebrity homes in Beverly Hills and Mulholland Drive.

Soledad Canyon

We spent several days at Soledad Canyon in Acton California which is north east of Los Angeles. The canyon provides a nice view of the nearby mountains. Dark skys were perfect for viewing the total lunar eclipse on Feb 20.

Palm Desert

On our drive along I 10 west of Quartzite, AZ we saw lots (thousands) of wind generators. What a fascinating sight for those of us that are not from areas with enough wind to support wind generation . My photos can't begin to capture this sight. These huge turbines (each blade on these turbines is over 40 feet long) were on both sides of the road for what seemed like miles.

Palm Desert was our home for a few days. It's much nicer than Palm Springs which is just a couple of miles west. Palm Springs is older and not quite so fresh and new. Almost all of the housing here is in gated communities with lakes, golf courses etc. There are lots of Palm trees as the name implies.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Park

While in Gila Bend we visited the Organ Pipe Cactus Park. This is the only place in the United States where the organ pipe cactus grow. We saw lots of cactus - organ pipe, saguaro, ocotillo (some with red blooms), barrel, prickly pear - and Mexican poppies along the scenic drive. The southwest section of the park is closed due to the problems caused by illegal immigration and drug trafficking from the nearby Mexican border.

Casa Grande Indian Ruins

We visited the Casa Grande National Park where we saw the ruins of an adobe "big house" built by the Hohokam Indians around 1300 AD. Our visit was accidently timed perfectly. Loren Russell, Native American story teller and flute player was at Casa Grande for a special appearance. He told us the story of why bunny's hop and why Rattle snakes rattle and have fangs. He is an interesting man and his stories provide insight into the native american culture.

As we passed through the area around Casa Grande we saw lots of cotton fields. This area in Pima County is where "pima" cotton got its name. Native americans first started growing cotten in this area about 3000 years ago.

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show is a huge event. Multiple shows with hundreds of vendors throughout the city.

Mann has always had a passion for rocks, so had a great time checking out all the minerals. Saw some huge, beautiful geodes.

Kitt Peak Observatory

Friends Larry and Gerry Clark joined us for a visit to the Kitt Peak Observatory. Kitt Peak supports the most diverse collection of astronomical observatories on Earth. Click HERE for more photo's taken at Kitt Peak.