After the obvious notion that our age has slowed us down just a bit and we don’t have to be “doing” every minute of the day comes the rest of the stuff.

As I was making plans with a friend for a get together in Cleveland, he reminded me that Pesach (Passover) was that night – oops. I guess we will be enjoying that in a campground someplace. Someplace then became a question.  I had forgotten that we were entering the Northeast a land where camping is very seasonal and the season starts either April 15 or May 1. Most of the places near Cleveland that I tried do not open until May 1. The one that is opening April 15 has only 7 sites and is fully booked. 

There is no reason to stop in Cleveland if our friends are not available so we will move on to Erie PA. I don’t think we have ever stopped there. It is a KOA, not our preferred venue, but mid week while schools are open it seems safe. This puts us within a short day to Rochester if we choose to do that. 

After some more working with my trip planing software and the phone I have gotten way ahead of myself and have booked almost all the stops we need for the rest of the trip. I just added a side trip to Fallingwater, the FLWright house. Its only 176 miles out of the way. We have promised ourselves a stop there many times but never had the time. We just made the time.

Another thing I forgot. This planning takes time, especially booking reservations, something we seldom have done. Also I needed to debug the windshield and front of the coach after 2,000 of driving. 

Tomorrow We will join a bunch of Kansas City Cornellians for a Gangsta Tour of Kansas City. Our friends, the Lustigs, are both Cornellians and they invited us. Another thing I forgot, Look up Brown Clubs as we travel.

If you have read these messages you know we get “into” highways, that’s US highways, not interstates. As we left Las Cruces on US 70 we eventually transitioned to US 54. Typically US highways run N/S or E/W For some reason when they laid out US 54 which is designated E/W (even number) they actually ran it NE from Las Cruces, that is on a diagonal. 

It was fun as we traveled across NM on that diagonal for 3 nights. The road traversed many grades as we climbed to the High Plains.  Then today we crossed from NM to TX and then on into OK across the Panhandle to KS where we spent the night at Mid-America Air Museum, our third time stopping there. Today we continued on US 54 which eventually merged with US 400 into Wichita KS. Tomorrow we will bid farewell to US 54 and get on I 35 to KC. I could post a boo to taking the Interstate,  but there really is no better route to get us there for a get together with Dianne and Marty, friends from sometime in the 70’s 

Even more than our addiction to highways is our addiction to keeping up with friends from forever ago. We will stop to see a college roomate, Lee, who we actually have known almost as long as we have known each other (first grade) and a friend from Rochester who moved away to FL many years ago and recently moved to Cleveland so we can visit. Visits in FL required a trip to a state we choose not to enter. That has nothing to do with politics!!! It is flat, crowded and humid.

I’ll report on highways and friends as we go.

The coach was in and out of the shop in about 4 hours. We hit the road – again. As we began the long climb the engine temperature stayed right where we hoped and we crested the grade to Chiriaco Summit where we paused for lunch. With a fuel stop in Quartzsite we pulled into our favorite piece of desert, Hi Jolly, where we set up for the night.  In the morning it was a simple matter to pull in the slides, retract the levelers and keep on moving.

Mid afternoon we stopped at South Forty RV Ranch and did nothing but a bit of shopping while we took a down time. Other than missing our Tucson friends we were back on the schedule I had laid out months ago. The next day brought us into Las Cruces NM and Hacienda RV Ranch which is our new go to place in Las Cruces since Siesta has closed to short term stays. Assorted reactions to medicines resulted in our staying in Friday night with Miriam DG who had flown in from Los Angeles. Saturday was not very Shabbat like as we crammed in some touring of the area so Miriam could get an idea of what Las Cruces is like. 

Sunday, after a brief family Zoom and lunch with Leorah and Stu we headed out for a Sefardi concert at Temple Beth El. We met up with Leora and Stu again at the Temple. We had decided to double down on music so as 6 PM approached we ventured into Double Eagle Restaurant on Mesilla Square for a perfomrance of Cammerata Del Sol  string quartet founded in part by their daughter Amalia who is a splendid violinist. We said goodbye to Leorah and to Amalia who is off to a program in Israel this summer. 

We drove back to the coach where Miriam packed up almost everything in preparation for a shuttle pickup at 7 AM. Later that morning we rolled out for what is planned to be the shortest day of the trip, 90 mile to Tularosa Winery, a Harvest Host stop in Tularosa. I’ ll let you look it up on Google Maps for yourself if you are so inclined.

During the course of these days, Dan called a few times trying to catch us with a minute to talk. He finally caught us and got to tell his news, they have just bought 240 acres of good farm land on the otherside of the Blue Ridge from their current location. They have a long route to go to get from farm land to house and facilities for the horses. It will be fun for us to watch. I’m sure there will be a nice RV pad if we are still able to handle the coach.

Three days of nonstop rolling should have us in Kansas City area by the 12th. I am still attending various board meetings for Jojoba Hills as we keep rolling along. 

We settled in to the Salt lake City KOA which we last stayed at in 2015. It hasn’t changed in the past eight years in any noticeable way. It is still close to the Temple District and it turns out to be very close to Azriel’s apartment, maybe 7 minutes away. 

I guess I’m not a great picture taker. Carol has many pictures and has posted them on Facebook. This was a special visit. He is our second grandson to get out on his own. He is much further from family than Josh and he is living in his own apartment with a job that is great for him maintaining regional jet aircraft. We had him at the coach two afternoons – he works 9 pm to 7 am 4 days a week – and had dinner with him before taking him back to his apartment to get ready for work. On Monday his girlfriend (I’m not sure anyone use that term today) came in by train from Grand Junction to spend the week before her class on diesel mechanics resumes in July.

We took a drive together to the Salt Lake State Park at the soouthern  end of the lake right next to a major copper concentrating plant. Then we went out to dinner at Laziz Kitchen. If you love Mediterranean food in a simple atmosphere, this is the place. I would love to go back and eat my way through the menu. I had a Mediterranean Salad plate with Kafta as an added protein. The salads were fresh and tasty –  but enough this is not a food blog.

Carol and I spent two two hour sessions with superb guidance in the Family History Library working through one brick wall I have run into in my geneology work. We know the family name was Sklarof (SP) before it was Goldberg. We know my grandfather’s mother came over as Mary Goldberg (or took that name upon arrival). There is a big space between saying “we know” and collecting documents to prove it. I’m closer, but not there yet. What I learned were techniques and the need for persistence. 

Today, Tuesday the 27th, we began our trek back to Jojoba Hills. We were on the road just about 5 hours and there were no events worth mentioning. We stopped for fuel, propane and lunch and to change drivers in Filmore and we are now at Temple View RV in St George UT. We have barely left the coach beyond the need to setup, it is HOT. I expect in the morning our prep for departure will also minimize time outdoors. The plan is to get to Barstow where we will stay at Slash X Cafe, a Harvest Host site. Supposedly they will be closed so we will just pull into their large yard and stay the night. It there is anything different I will report. 

Not your standard tourist stop for us. The primary reason for coming here was to spend some time with Azriel, our grandson, who has been working here for a couple of months. Since his normal hours are 9 PM to 7 AM Wednesday through Saturday (Sunday morning) we have been seeing him from about 4 PM to 7 PM. Carol is seeing to it that he is well fed. It is really great to have this uninterrupted time with him. So far he has come to the RV. It turns out that the SLC KOA is less than 10 minutes from his apartment. 

The other bucket list item for this trip was to take some time att the Family Research Library, a genealogy project of the LDS Church. I knew I needed a “brick wall” to bring to get some help. Tracing my paternal grandfather’s immigration and verifying which set of parents in Russia are his – my ggrandparents – has been a great exercise and a major learning experience for me.  Both experienced researchers gave me over an hour and plenty of new tools for me to work with. I have food for several hours of research on my own (more like days).

One other lesser goal was to replace a pair of very worn out shorts. I hate shopping and seldom ask Carol to do it for me. I found an REI not to far away and bought a new pair of shorts and new shirt.  

This is hardly the kind of exciting travel we are following with so many of our friends touring in Europe and other places far far away, but it is our travel for this part of the summer.

We have been married 59 years, today.  An oft told story, my roommate Jon Kerner was supposed to be my Best Man, but he chose to marry Peggy on the very same day, 400 miles away. He is no longer with us but we cherish the memory and the continued connection to Peggy.

We celebrated last night, the 20th, in Las Vegas, maybe the last place we would choose, but there you have it. We decided to visit our grandson in Salt Lake City and the way the schedule worked a stop in Las Vegas made some sort of sense. We pulled into las Vegas midafternoon coming from Redlands Truck and Motorhome. It would have been an easy 4 hours were it not for some major construction which added at least 15 to 30 minutes. We set up and had a snack before calling for a Lyft to take us to NY NY for the show. It was an anniversary trip so I paid for front row VIP tickets. The stage is a thrust design so we were right next to a stair that the cast used to get on and off the stage and often to perform right there on the floor in front of us – not more than 2 feet away! It seemed that no one really escaped that kind of closeness as the entire hall seemed to be the stage. 

The comic, a throwback to the Catskills made his standup by picking out audience members. When he picked on Carol he got what he was looking for, a 59th anniversary and some fund stories. Some of his stuff does not bare repeating.  We loved the show and would certainly recommend it to anyone who has not seen 14 variants on Circe du Solei. We cabbed back to the coach and after a good nights sleep set off for Salt Lake City.

I misjudged and misread my mapping software. We were on the road for 8 hours and 7 hours was on the move. Mostly we were moving right along although naturally there were some construction slowdowns. We rolled into the SLC KOA at 7:30 Mountain Time. and  by 8:30 we were set up and had eaten something – peanut butter and jelly for me. 

We violated our drive time standard of  two 4 hour shifts and done. After each of us did 2 hours, I took the wheel for the what turned out to be 4 more hours. Somehow I was energized and did not fell exhausted as we pulled into the KOA.

Good Night

We have stopped in Las Cruces to visit Leora and Stuart as has been our custom over the years. After three days without pause it also has given us a chance to clean up a bit and restock groceries. Hacienda RV Resort is an acceptable campground. I can see I 10 traffic out the windshield from our site and the rail crossing nearby is quite audible. 

Last night as we were preparing dinner neither of us wanted to turn on the election day news. We went to sleep in ignorant bliss. This morning we both hesitated about turning on the local NPR station not knowing what to expect. We are still breathing evenly. I’ll let it go at that.

Our major topics of discussion are planning the next 700 miles of travel which will put us on our site in Jojoba Hills. When to stop; where to stop; how long to drive each day. I do know we will stop for fuel in Yuma, our last fuel stop before Californian. With careful planning we may be able to avoid paying California price for diesel at all. Our next planned RV outing is in Arizona and we should have enough fuel remaining to easily return there.

Our next planned travel is the cruise to Mexico from San Diego in December. That is a 7 day “practice” cruise. We continue to explore other trips for Spring after the RV trip to Escapade in Tucson AZ in March.  

I expect my next post will be from Site 801 in Jojoba Hills SKP Resort.

Our next stop after the winery was 3 nights at Tom Sawyer RV Park on the banks of the Mississippi. They claim that they are so close to the river they are sometimes IN the river. Not so much now. With drought north of Memphis the river is much less mighty than we have seen in the past. This link  will take you to two pictures of the river taken from the same place. The first was taken in May 2022 and the second was taken this month (November 2022). 

Our trip continued on I 30, I know we don’t love interstates, but we really want to get back to Jojoba Hills this year. Because we now limit travel time to about 4 hours we are stopping at new places. Last  night we chose a Boondockers Welcome place that is very highly regarded by many visitors. I still have to write a review, but WOW. Lots of room for RVs of any size and full or partial hookups available for most. The couple are older than us but are leading a very active life. The forecast included a serious threat of tornados and they warned that they might come knocking at the door at any time to come into the sheltered part of the house to wait it out. The knock came at about 7:30 as we were preparing dinner. We sat in a row with them and 4 other RVers who came in to shelter. We were listening to the TV in the other room warning that it was close, then the TV quit and lights flickered! Using our phones we could see the track as it passed 3 miles to our north! In the morning Ginny told us that one of their neighbors, just 3 miles away, had had their property destroyed. We were grateful to have escaped unscathed. 

We rolled on along I30 through the middle of Dallas, losing no more than 10 minutes to traffic slow downs. The alternative was at least an hour longer and many miles of expensive diesel. We have traversed Dallas at worse times and our experience has been similar, lots of traffic, a period of 20 mph backup and no significant loss of time. I will admit to some scathed nerves. A bit over 4 hours brought us to Coffee Creek RV Park. It seems to be a mix of longer term RVers, workers and transients like ourselves. We are just a couple of miles off I 20. Road noise? What road noise? 

Tomorrow our plan is to stop at Monahans Sandhills State Park along I 20. This is one of our favorites camping in what looks like ocean sand dunes where the ocean (Permian) left eons ago. From there on to Las Cruces NM. We won’t be staying at Siesta RV. When I called I was told the park had been sold and the new owner was looking to fill it with monthlies. I won’t miss the cramped worn out site #13 we usually stay in. We will miss the location within walking distance of Mesilla and  the shops and restaurants we enjoy. We’ll just have to drive from Hacienda RV, a couple of miles further.

 After a four night stay we will take three overnights to get to Jojoba Hills, unless we get crazy and do it in two – not likely.

That is as good an excuse as any for my failure to keep this blog up to date. Somehow we managed to pick up the car on Friday afternoon and get the coach loaded and ready to roll on Saturday morning, once Carol’s doctor gave us the go ahead to leave town for the winter. As I write we are in Red Bay Alabama around the corner from the factory where GeeWhiz was built. Our sole reason for coming this year was to have the stove cover repaired and the counters polished like factory new by the man who does that all day long in the factory!

We arrived at Malena and Dan’s in Dyke VA midafternoon and soon were set up in the driveway for our stay. We celebrated my 80th the next day with lamb chops! and Red Breast Irish Whiskey. It was a great celebration and Alexander was there for the event. For the most part they were working during the day and we went about our own lives until dinner time. Of course I helped feed the horses, well I observed and stayed out of the way mostly. I swear Galopin and Tivoly are twice as big as the Iceland horses we saw. On Friday Dan took Carol and me on a wonderful walk on a trial off the Blue Ridge Parkway. As is true of almost all BRP trails it is “upside down”. It starts out with a long descent and finishes by climbing back to the trailhead. We made it!

Travel from there started out by backing out of the long not completely straight driveway we had driven in on. With Carol at the wheel and me talking on the handsfree cellphones (for the first time) this was accomplished easily. Once hooked up, we had an uneventful drive with a stop for fuel and arriving for a pleasant stay at Fort Chiswell RV Park. I cannot believe we haven’t stayed there before. However it is less than four hours drive and we used to travel for six hours in our youth. Another 4 hour day found us at Mama Gerties Campground outside of Asheville. Imagine taking a cliff and carving roads and level campsites on the side of the cliff. We had been there before but it seems steeper than memory. We were in G2 on that trip so more than 10 years ago. 

Our friends Leigh and Patrick moved to Asheville within the year and have bought a lovely house with glorious views.We had dinner out with Leigh on Tuesday night and with both of them at their home Wednesday night. it was a lovely visit and it gave us time to wander a bit in Asheville. We wandered around in Blue Spiral Gallery, as we do every time we are there and across the street to the Mast Store where Carol found something to buy. 

Early Thursday morning (for us) we set out for a two day run to Red Bay. Since the drive is about 10 hours we planned an overnight at a Harvest Host Winery we had visited before, Del Monaco Winery outside Nashville. Plenty of parking away from the winery itself which was good since they had a large crush of guests for a college reunion arriving about 5. By 9 PM they were all gone and it was peaceful for the night.

Now I must really start preparing my Treasurer’s Report for September 30.

We left Jojoba Hills 21 days ago. We have been “on the run” most of those days. We had three nights in Redlands and two nights each in Albuquerque and West Memphis AR. The rest of the stops were just overnighters, but since we got in early 3 or 4 PM we had time to relax and take advantage of the areas we were in.

Six nights we were in Harvest Hosts, Elks or other dry camp no charge places. We paid $398 for 8 nights of camping for an average of $49 per night. The last stop, Harrisburg East blew that number up at 84.60 (that was with a 10% discount). Diesel Fuel put in the tank cost $1,964 so far for 457 gallons. If I top off before storing it will take that number over $2,000. The fuel included fuel from Ehrenburg AZ to Jojoba Hills SKP Resort and return, I managed to avoid buying Diesel in California. Last year for comparison I spent $4,460 for fuel to go back and forth and covered 11,100 miles consuming about 1340 gallons. 

The quick trip was necessitated by our desire to attend a Bat Mitzvah in Boston, next week and the balancing desire to stay in Jojoba Hills longer. I am delighted that as we approach our 80th birthdays in the Fall, we are still able to do this fairly easily. Limiting speed to 62 mph and drive time to 4 hours really takes a lot of the stress off.

The coach has performed as well as I could have hoped. Our only “problem” was a rough road in TN claimed a hub cap. Really a center cap on the passenger side front wheel. A replacement will be waiting for us in Rochester, thank you Tiffin (not a gift, I’m paying, but finding a part for a 10 year old coach can be interesting).

The most interesting new place we found on this trip was the Metal Museum in Memphis TN. It is on the eastern bank of the Mississippi and is currently comprised of a campus with a collection of buildings to house the exhibits, the workers and apprentices as well as a forge and a foundry.  We spent a couple of hours there and were not surprised that our friend Thomas Markussen had shown his work  there in its early days. You may find it worth exploring  https://www.metalmuseum.org/ virtually or as a stop when in Memphis where there is much more to see.

The next post will not be On the Road, but I will be posting.