For images of the entire trip click here For images from just this post click here

Nova Scotia, we still are not sure when we were here last. We were tenting and staying in B & B’s. The car was my Jeep and it had a car phone, some time after ’94 but not much after. We crossed from New Brunswick with the thought of going straight through to Cheticamp, the western entrance to Cape Breton National Highlands Park where Cheticamp Campground was to be our initial base of touring. The advisor at the Visitor Center said it was another 7 hours, and we had already been on the road for 4 hours. We reset our sights for Thursday night on Pictou, another 2 hours up the road. We found our way to Harbour Light Campground just outside of town. The facilities were complete and the WiFi was mostly high speed. The place was “comfortable” not particularly neat but well kept. The entrance was scary, sort of like falling off a cliff as we came off the highway. Once we leveled out it was fine. Getting out was easier.

We toured Pictou and remembered touring it on our first trip and not being particularly impressed. It is a fishing town and its big claim to tourist fame is the PEI Ferry landing. After walking the waterfront and visiting a couple of galleries we stopped to share a kiddy size Wild Blueberry Ice Cream dish. That was indeed the highlight of the day. We returned to Gee 2 for dinner and our various projects. We befriended the RVers on either side of us. One couple was celebrating their 50th Anniversary and the others were of similar or somewhat younger vintage. They were both full timers, having no home but there very nice 40 foot Diesel Pushers. We parted in the morning headed our individual directions Cape Breton. I expect we may run into them out here, although they are working around from the Baddeck side first.

It started to rain lightly as we drove and continued to do so on and off most of the way. As we finished setting up in the drizzle I put up the awning to provide us some dry space outdoors, but the wind kicked up so I stowed the awning and it really started to rain hard as I closed the door. We decided to sit tight. Have dinner on board and get some projects completed. We had a lot of phone calls all day starting with an early call from Yechiel to say that he had resubmitted his paper for publication on deadline just minutes before. We looked a the clock and realized it was 6:15 AM in LA where he lives and he had been up all night finishing the rewrite. Ten hours later he called to say the publisher had accepted it as is (a bit too long) for publication. We all will sleep better tonight. He needs to have this in line to be published for his tenure review.

The trip continues to be enjoyable, the views are glorious and the people friendly. I am sorry to disappoint those who are used to the “Perils of Paul(ine)” in these journals, but we are getting better at it and the coach is well broken in and behaving fine. How’s that for putting the evil eye on myself?

It is Sunday evening as I write. It has rained on and off for the past two days while we have been here. Yesterday we went to the laundromat for some excitement and clean clothes. Most of the people in the Cheticamp Laundromat were tourists. We all got talking and we somehow got talking the most to Roberta and Isaac Hantman. We parted after agreeing not to go to lunch together. We met again at the Coop Food Market and we invited them back to the coach to eat their lunch and continue talking. We got to the coach and the gnats and other small flying things were so pervasive we could not stand outside. As such things seem to happen we took a nice long hike from the coach away from the insects up to some salmon pools (fishing sites) and continued talking.

On the way back they said there was a French Arcadian Music Review they were planning on going to. Carol and I thought that was a capital idea and agreed to join them for dinner before the review. As we waited for the show to start, it became clear that the four of us might well be the only non French speakers in the arena. The entire review with a couple of minor exceptions was in French. Fortunately most of the action was broad and clear Gisele the husband could not be bothered with the music and dancing in his living room. How he was able to avoid foot tapping, or other reaction to the very lively music and step dancing I will never know. He even participated in two square dances, without missing a beat or a turn while appearing to be totally disinterested. That was the action, the rest was great music, dancing and singing. A special guest fiddler showed up and performed at the intermission. How he was able to get the music he did out of his electrified fiddle with his clearly self taught approach I will never know. He clenched the neck in his left hand in a manner that did not permit him to move up the neck and he held the bow several inches up from the frog. The fiddle was perpendicular to the ground and the bow seemed to go up and down. It was a painful sight, but the sound was grand.

After the review was over and the bows were taken, the fiddler came back on stage and began to perform again. The cast began to reappear in street clothes and took turns step dancing to the music for the fun of it. It was a sight to see them dancing in thong sandals and sneakers, but it did not seem to limit them in the least. During the performance we were seated in front of the hostess of the B and B where the Hantmans were staying. After the show she invited us to join them for breakfast as her guest. We accepted with alacrity. The breakfast was delightful, French toast with home made syrop (French spelling). We parted from the Hantmans once again and set off to pack up lunch and get out on the trail. We took our time making several stops along the way until we came to Skyline trail head. This was promised to be at 2 to 3 hour hike. We took three and a half hours, but that included a a couple of stops to stare at a moose and her calf alongside the trail and other stops, especially at the headland where a boardwalk has been built to protect the environment. This overlooks the road and the Gulf of St Lawrence. While there we had another unplanned stop as we ran into the Hantmans again, they were returning from the headland as we were still on our way out. We parted, again. It was worth the trek and then some. We took the back trail of the loop which was much less well manicured than the trail out. This took a bit longer as the trail was rough and muddy in places not to mention 50% longer. We are moving to Baddeck tomorrow. I hope we will have internet service so I can post this, otherwise it will just keep getting longer.

We have not made plans for the Labor Day weekend (or is that Labour Day up here in Canada). We may end up dry camping whether we chose or not.

To see family images for this posting click here.
For pictures from the entire trip here and from this post after leaving NJ here.

The title sort of says it all. This trip began with a plan to visit a nephew and his wife and three children in New Jersey. We studied the map, a relatively futile endeavor as we have stared at it so long for so many trips it is unlikely we will find any real surprises, looking for just that sort of serendipitous surprise. Well from NJ you can go south, not in the summer again, especially with hurricane season looking to spoil any such plans. You could go west, but why go west when we have just come so far east, besides, how far west can you go in three weeks and see or do anything. TN and KS did not appeal at this time. Ah, there is always North. We adore Maine and we have not been in NB and NS for so long it seemed like a good idea. All good ideas have problems, this one had us south and west of New York – the city. Getting around/past NYC is definitely a problem. I rerouted the trip several times, the last being as we were getting ready to roll. The Tappan Zee Bridge and 684 to 84 it was to be.

But I get ahead of myself (did I steal that line from someone? Maybe myself). The first stop after 6 hours of driving was Fla-Net RV Park in Flanders, NJ. I promised them a good writeup because they had been written up as terrible a couple of years ago. We were in section P which is for families with children and those who don’t mind them. As we had Josh, our 15+ year old grandson with us we had little choice. It is farthest from the mall and Chili’s both of which border the park. It is very near the exit which does not seem to make for a lot of traffic, at least this August. The internal roads are pretty poor, but it appears that work is being done and some of the bumps and rocks are a result of the general improvement in progress. Our area was well maintained grass and far quieter than we had been lead to expect. Minimal traffic noise, actually surprising anyplace in New Jersey, a far away train, no planes overhead and the people were quiet. I cannot comment on the shower/toilet facilities as we prefer to use our on board shower and toilet. It is why we are self contained.

Friday night, shortly after arrival we had Shabbat dinner on the coach and set off for Temple Hatikvah where Moshe Rudin, Carol’s nephew, officiates. It was a surprisingly short five minute drive from the RV Park. We enjoyed the service and the participation and met everyone present at the oneg following the service. Moshe and family, Joyce, Yonaton, Shimrit and Sophie came back to the RV Park to hang out and add to the dinner they had had to rush to get there on time. Carol cooked up a storm and they ate, not nearly as much as Carol would have liked.

Saturday morning found me retracing the previous night’s track to the Temple where the service was under way as I arrived. There was a scant minyan that grew as time passed. After receiving an aliyah (a call to pray before the reading of a portion of the day’s readings), I assumed I had been honored more than sufficiently as a guest of the Rabbi and sat back to relax. Moshe had something else in store that even he was not aware of until just before time for him to speak about the meaning of the days portion, Shoftim, justice (The portion Yechiel read for his bar mitzvah). As he began to speak he mentioned that I was a member of the board of the American Jewish Joint Distribution committee (jdc.org) Would I come up and tell the congregation something about the history of the organization and what it does. Fortunately I have heard the short version of the speech many times and given it myself several times.

We went back to Joyce and Moshe’s home for Shabbat dinner and play and in my case a bit of a nap in the middle of the chaos. Late afternoon the action began to resume and we set off for a play in the park. It was community theater production of Thoroughly Modern Millie a big musical and I was in dread of what we would be subjected to. What a surprise, after a nice diner dinner we settled into our lawn chairs for what turned out to be a fantastic production of the play. So much so, that I still do not believe that the performers had day jobs. I could have been convinced that this was a Broadway production. We had an hour drive back to the RV Park and we were very tired when we arrived after 12:30 AM.

Sunday morning we had breakfast, just Josh and us and then we drove to their house in West Orange for a day of adventures. The weather had squashed the original plan to go tubing in the Delaware Water Gap, it was sunny but too cool for some adults. We went instead to Glenmont the home that Thomas A. Edison maintained for his second wife and their three children. Following that tour we went back to Moshe and Joyce’s for lunch and then off to the birth home of Grover Cleveland, 22^nd and 24^th President of the United States. We returned to the house and played some more before we had to return to the coach for a light dinner, just the three of us, and to prepare for Josh’s departure in the morning. By 10 AM Rebecca had arrived to pick up Josh and we began our long pull that will eventually bring us to Nova Scotia.

Miraculously we encountered minimal traffic on I 287 over the TZ Bridge up I 684 to I 84. I will not say we were unscathed. The roads are beyond terrible. I had to get up to reclose doors and drawers and to rescue other items that were being hurled about as we careened from pothole to divot to broken roadway for over 100 miles. I fear that much more of that kind of road will significantly shorten the life of my coach. I suspect Alaska will not be as bad. When we arrived at the LL Bean store in Freeport, Maine we had to be careful as we opened cabinets and drawers as we had no idea what kind of mess to expect or what would fall on our heads if it was an overhead cabinet. We settled in to a parking lot with several other RVs and went off to shop and have a lobster dinner (for me). I have bought a replacement for HAL. The computer takes too much of a beating on the dashboard being on all the time and we cannot move it to the car conveniently. So after a lot of research I bought the Garmin Nuvi 350. We have been using it and I like it a lot. It will take some getting used to and the DeLorme mapping software on the big laptop screen has its advantages for planning a route, but the little Garmin is really great for on the road directions once the route is set.

The next morning, Tuesday the 21^st we drove up I 95 to Bangor and then took 9 to Calais where we crossed into to Canada two hours later we were in St Martin’s NB at the Century Farm Campground. We liked it so much we decided to stay an extra day and tour the Fundy Trail and relax. Tomorrow on to Nova Scotia.

Through some miracle of mismanagement we arrived at the Perry Fairgrounds for the Rally without credentials for the coach and car. This meant we had to go to Will Call to pick them up. This put us in the Holding Area, from which we expected to be moved to a General Parking area. It was not to be. There we stayed and after three hours the word came that we were “home” for the week. We repositioned a bit to make everyone have necessary space and set up for the week. It was meant to be. Our neighbors, Dan and Val on one side and Phil and Rose on the other, became friends who we will probably run into again someplace in these United States.

The big news was that it did not rain. It has not happened before that there was no rain during the Rally in Perry. The weather started warm and clear and improved to hot and clear with great cool sleeping nights. We had several gatherings with the CHAI gang who were mostly in the Volunteer Electric area. The pot luck dinner was fun as always and dinner at Preisters was fun although the food was, as expected, awful. The Chapter decided to make a significant gift to the Whitville, TN Paper Clip Project with part of the surplus in the treasury. I can’t wait to see the minutes so I can include them in the Secretary’s book I keep.

Carol’s seminar on photographic composition had the expected glitch. This time we could not find how to dim the lights so the slides could be seen. The second session, work sharing, went better as we were able to get everything working and the lights were dimmed for us. Only two people brought work in a format we could project. One, Ronni Silver, had some very nice work and we spent a fair amount of time with alternate cropping and some change of contrast. She and her husband Rob are full timers and I am sure we will spend time with them again in the not to distant future.

We depend on serendipity to provide our entertainment. We had reservations in Forsyth, GA at the KOA we stayed at 2 years ago to do laundry, empty our holding tanks and recover from the 5 days dry camping with 4600 other coaches. When Carol went to the office to get quarters for the laundry she was greeted by Dan who had just arrived with no advance knowledge that we would be there. Naturally we got together for happy hour a couple of times. Friday, right after arriving, Carol and I drove into Macon for a look around at Cherry Blossom Festival. We took the well mapped scenic drive and then wandered around thee downtown area. When we went to the festival site we decided that there was nothing doing there that interested us enough to warrant the $6.00 parking investment so we went back to the coach. On Saturday we drove to Juliet. GA the home of the movie Fried Green Tomatoes and then on to a nature preserve that advertised some nice hikes. We set out on a 2 mile loop hike and only realized that the directions were misleading about half way though, the hike in to the loop was a mile, so the total trip was 4 miles. Instead of an hour hike we were on the trail over 2 hours.

On Sunday the 25^th we headed for the Wilmington NC area to visit with Cousin Mimi and Joe and to see Uncle George. We stopped at Sesquicentennial Park outside Columbia, SC. It is a gorgeous park but designed with much smaller units than ours in mind. We maneuvered through the park with one of us walking ahead and providing guidance for the closely spaced trees and low hanging branches. We managed to avoid disconnecting the car and doing any damage. While there we got a call that my mother had fallen at the Jewish Home and needed to go to emergency at Highland Hospital for another saga that overlapped our travels. We pulled into Mimi and Joe’s farm yard mid day on Monday to a wild greeting by 4 dogs, 4 geese, 2 Guinea Game Hens and assorted other farm animals. I continued talking with people about Mom who was left unattended on an ED bed and fell IN EMERGENCY and broke her other hip. As we were at least 12 hours away, our son Dan flew in and was joined by my sister to be there for surgery. We made plans to move the coach to Dan and Malena’s where, after an overnight stay, we detached the car and drove to Rochester to relieve them. Two nights overnight in our house and back in the car for the 500 mile run back to the kids, with Mom stabilized and back in her room at the Home recovering with round the clock aids. Whew!

We made it back in time for Sedar on the farm and spent most of Pesach there, the kids were off school and we played with them and did a lot of work on the farm, I roofed the rest of the enlarged chicken coop, did some pruning and assisted in catching chickens and picking up fresh eggs. There is no need to detail the endless rounds of conversation about Mom’s condition and care, it has been continuous.

Monday, April 9, we left the Covesville farm for Rochester and the end of our Winter Hegira, two days earlier than planned, just because enough is enough and there is much to do before we leave for Turkey and Israel on April 28. There was one more adventure to be experienced. We decided it would be wise to stay in a campground rather than a Wal-Mart as that would provide the opportunity to take the time to clean out the holding tanks before going into storage. It is still early for most campgrounds in the northeast, but we located one that claimed to open on April 1. When Carol called, Wayne, of RV’s Mountain Top Campground said he was there and we could come in, but his water supply was frozen. We still had plenty of water in the fresh tank so we said that as long as there was sanitary sewer and electric we were happy. For those who know the Mansfield, Tioga PA area this place advertises a 180 degree view of the Tioga Valley. The turn off of 287 is one block before the road to Ives Run. What Wayne failed to mention is that after 1.5 miles the pavement ends and the climb continues for 3 more miles. The place makes rustic look up-to-date. The views are magnificent and the fact that it backs up against the Tioga Game Hunting Preserve adds to the interest as there is a field of Elk and other game animals just over the fence to shoot with the camera.

Tuesday morning I once again added air to the new tire on the left front and we set out for our non mobile home. . .

We have now been in Rochester almost two weeks and preparations for departure to Turkey are moving along, we have our visas, flights and packing list. We just need to execute. I will post from Turkey and Israel as the opportunity presents.

From Galveston we drifted east bypassing Houston and stopping in Lafayette, LA at a KOA just off I 10. We set out to have dinner at PreJeans, famous for Cajun cooking and live music. It is considered one of the must restaurants in the area. The food was fine. The musicians looked as if they were some place else. They played fine, when they played, but they appeared to be totally bored with the whole show. Our Red Stick Ramblers CD is quite a bit better.

By now I had booked a flight back to Rochester to see my mother and we were drifting on a schedule so we headed for the Biloxi, MS area to see more of the destruction wrought by Katrina and Rita. We stayed at Magic River CG in Long Beach (MS not CA) and it was rustic. There were full hookups and everything worked, but the sense was that most of the people staying there were doing construction work in the vicinity and there was not a lot of “camping” being done. We drove all the way to Biloxi along the gulf and then tried to come back along the bay side, but military establishments kept getting in the way, so eventually we found our way back to Magic River CG and made dinner there as we had not seen any place we would consider stopping for dinner. Nothing was open except for seven of the twelve casinos and the other five had big construction crews working to get them reopened. Nothing else seemed to be progressing with any speed..

In the morning we set out for Gulf Shores, AL and the Gulf State Park campground. Our departure was marred by a series of fits from HAL, the GPS and my computer. They did not want to communicate. Carol was driving and I thought I had memorized the rather convoluted route to I 10 so we drove on while I did battle with the computer. Naturally the key turn was not where I expected and we wandered rather aimlessly as I rebooted this and screamed at that. Finally I got everything working together just as we both spotted the I 10 sign. That was only the second time in 6,000 miles and 2 months that we didn’t have the mapping software running when we needed it.

We found or way to Gulf State Park right on the Gulf in a twenty mile stretch of Alabama between Mobile Bay and the Florida line. We stayed in this park in 2004 before Hurricane Ivan devastated the area. We tried to return in 2005 but were told they were not open. There was a major change from the storm. Before it was not possibible to see how big the park was as the sightlines were blocked by masses of trees. Today there are almost no trees and many of the activities have not been resumed. We had two other reasons for going there. I had learned that I had a cousin living in Fair Hope, AL not more than 30 minutes from the park and we would be an hour from Pensacola which is a reasonable airport for me to get to Rochester for a couple of days. Besides, who can pass up a chance to eat at Lambert’s, the Home of Throw’d Rolls. I wrote about this place in’04.

We had Joy and Shaul Antar bring their children Simcha and Ariel out to the RV on Sunday, Purim. It was more exciting than we knew as Ariel is totally enamored with RV’s from the movie of the same name. I can now sign R V quite fluently. Carol went to Simcha’s school on Friday, while I was in Rochester, and enjoyed bing there when she was tapped for Junior Honor Society (she is almost 13). On Saturday we went to their home in Fair Hope and then out to dinner at the Marriott Grand where Shaul is emplyied.

My visit with my mother was reassuring. She seems to be content and rather more communicative than she was when we left. We continue to face challenges, but I guess that is just the way it will be for now. It turned out that my timing brought me into Rochester when the RPO would be playing, conducted by Pinchas Zuckerman. I thought to take my grandson Josh to the dinner and the concert and by the time we got it together there were 9 for dinner. After intermission Josh wanted to know if I had introduced him to everyone in the hall. We both enjoyed the concert. This is not the place for a full review. I especially enjoyed having the time with Josh. I know that the visit he had with his great grandmother had to be hard for him, but he said he wanted to visit more often with his mother.

My flights worked far better than I had hoped. My USAir connection in Charlotte, returning, was 30 minutes which leaves no leeway for anything. I was at the gate for the connection with time to spare and my luggage was in my hands!

On my return to Gulf Shores I learned that the Topfs had caught up with us and were on a nearby site. We have crossed paths with them three times this winter. Naturally we got together for activities during the day and had happy hour together. We were not in the mood to dine out so we dined on our own coaches and got together for dessert. They moved on to Montgomery, AL while we decided to stop in Seminole Lake SP in GA. You can find it on a GA map by looking at the south western corner where GA meets FL and AL.. We remembered stopping here two years ago and thought we could remember the campground. As we pulled in we agreed that it was the place we were thinking of. We are on a site on the water with room to spare and the inflatable kayak is inflated and sitting on the shore for the first time this winter. We were warmly welcomed by Anita and Larry, the campground hosts, who remembered us from two years ago. We have seen nesting Osprey and had a Blue Jay perch on our picnic table while we were sitting there.

We also have witnessed the stupidest piece of human behavior by campground management we can remember. Some complaint was registered against the hosts, apparently by another volunteer couple and Anita and Larry, who have been here several years, were fired on the spot leaving only a first time volunteer couple who are leaving for the FMCA rally tomorrow. There will be no hosts here for the weekend when the park will be full. Anita and Larry were so hurt that they pulled out within a couple of hours. I guess their biggest sin was working too hard to keep the place nice and make people welcome. Money cannot be an issue as they were volunteers, receiving nothing but their campsite and hookups in return for their effort.

We will continue to retrace our steps on Saturday when we move to Paradise Lake Campground in Tifton, GA. This is 80 miles from Perry where we will enter the fairgrounds on Sunday for five days of togetherness with more than 5,000 other coaches and Carol will present her Seminar on Wednesday at 1:30 and her workshop on Thursday. Then we are off to who knows where on route to Charlottesville, VA.

The first day we were at Mustang Island State Park February 25, we had taken a drive south to Padre Island National Seashore to see what that is all about. The area is gorgeous seashore with plenty of birds and miles of hard beach to drive on to camp on and to just sit on. Here is Carol dining by the car. The next time we come this way we will camp out on the beach.

A quick correction. The Ploessers had gone on home to Kentucky. Shelley and Norm Topf joined us mid day on February 27 as the stock market was headed for one of its deepest point slides ever. Fortunately, in percentage terms, it was just awful not disastrous.

We sat around the coaches and caught up with each other and our thoughts on many things. The women decided we would get together for dinner on the coaches rather than try to find a decent restaurant. Since Shelley was definitely not able to do any work, Carol volunteered host onboard G2. We prepared fajitas with chicken for three of us and lots of grilled veggies so Carol had plenty to eat as well. The food and wine enabled us to forget the market and go on to other things.

Later when I checked email, it turned out that the Hoggs had driven right by Mustang Island SP in the early afternoon while we were in Port Aransas birding. They had thought about stopping to see how the park looked for future reference, but decided to drive on. They were staying at a campground on route 35 and we planned to drive that way on our way. Can’t say on our way where as we had no clue where we planned to stop, but we are sort of headed for Gulf Shores, AL eventually. Anyhow we agreed to pull up on the wide shoulder of TX 35 outside their resort and have a get together right there. As it turns out the local highway department had other plans and they created a work zone for a mile either side of the entrance and there was no place left to stop. When Pat called with this news they said they would stand in the entrance to their campground and wave as we went by. We checked in by phone as we cleared the ferry at Aransas Pass and 20 minutes later we slowed on the shoulder of the road, now serving as the main right-of-way and waved and honked to the Hoggs as they returned the waves. Thus we now have a new kind of get together a “Wave By.” We hope to see the Hoggs next a year from now as we crisscross our wanderings in the southwest of the US. We also have a tentative plan to meet them in Calgary in the summer of 2008 as we head for Alaska and they join up with us on the way.

We left Shelley and Norm in Mustang Island SP and made tentative plans to see them in Gulf State Park, AL. For sure we will see them in Perry, GA at the rally in mid March.

At some point I looked at Carol and saw she had a passenger:

We are getting very comfortable making friends and meeting them in the middle of no place as we all seem to circulate in the same region. In our case, if there is someone we want to spend time with, it is not difficult to modify our driving schedule to make it possible. We can always vamp for a day or drive an extra couple of hours if it will enable us to meet up with someone. We have even been known to go 200 miles in a different direction for the same reason.

Just for a refresher; we seldom want to drive more than 250 miles in a day. Six hours of driving is more than enough and although that sounds like over 300 miles it usually will take us that long to cover 250 miles. We almost never go faster than 64. We stop every two hours at least to change drivers. Anything that looks interesting can initiate additional stops. Oh yes, some fuel stops can take 30 to 45 minutes if there is a line at the RV Island or other errands that need to completed while stopped. The other thing that slows us down is the use of many lesser highways. Since we don’t choose to roll at 70 MPH, we are much happier off the interstates. Also there are many more interesting things to see on the old Federal and State routes.

Given those parameters it is easy to see that we can extend our range from the normal plan rather easily by sticking to Interstates and limiting our stops. Books on tape or CD are the greatest way to extend range. If the reader is great, who wants to spend time stopped with the story off?

At the moment we are in Galveston Island State Park (19 consecutive nights in Texas State Parks) getting ready to move on in the morning. We have eaten well, toured well and gotten to see Galveston. We will be back

We parted company with the Bob and Pat and set out for Falcon State Park on the Rio Grand River where the Falcon Dam creates a large reservoir. It is midway between Laredo and MaCallen, if that helps at all. The Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) extends from Brownsville on the gulf to McCallen. It is called the Texas Tropics. It is the home of who knows how many winter Texans. Sort of Florida for the Midwest. The tropics dry out north of McCallen and so do the number of people. The nearest towns to us are Zappata and Roma with fewer than 10,000 each. The BIG city is Rio Grande with 11,000 and a Wal Mart and a HEB (not quite Wegmans). We have been here two weeks, reading, birding and schmoozing. If you are interested in the birding et me know and I will provide more information, we have seen many interesting birds, many of which you woujld have to go into Mexico to see if you were not here. They include Brown Jays, Green Jays and Kiskadees among others.

Tomorrow, Sunday February 25, we are finally moving out. It seems a shame as the weather has been marvelous this past week with day time temperatures in the high 70’s to low 90’s and the evenings cooling off to the mid 60’s. Other than deep into Florida we don’t see those kinds of temperatures, especially with the low humidity here. We will be descending into the LRGV and then following the gulf coast north to Port Aransas. Port Aransas has very little to say for itself, especially as we are not fisherman, but there is a county park on the beach and it will be a pleasant couple of days and then the plan is onward to Gulf Shores, AL where I can catch a flight out of Pensacola to Rochester and we may be able to visit family in Fairhope.

All plans are always subject to change. We actually got to Mustang Island (north of Padre Island and where Port Aransas is) but we stopped at the Mustang Island State Park because we had been talking with the Topfs and this is where they had decided to head. We are not directly on the beach. We are sheltered the frontal dunes from the wind and sand that is part of the beach experience. We still think we want to spend a couple of nights directly on the beach. Another year!

Today we took the car to Padre Island National Seashore and after a stop at the visitor center we drove on down the beach to find a place to enjoy our lunch and do some birding. We got to make a couple of new entries in the book and saw two Great Blue Herons sitting on the dune looking over the beach and out to sea. (Out to gulf just doesn’t scan). The day was clear and bright and the temperatures in the 70s, not to rub it in to much.

We hope the Topfs and Ploessers will be joining us tomorrow. Shelley had a painful experience injuring the shoulder she recently had surgery on and they had to delay coming north a couple of days. We are still playing with our schedule. I do not want to arrive in Gulf Shores on a Saturday as they may well be full, but by Sunday we ought to be able to get in. So we play around with the schedule each day.

Here is the route from Falcon to Mustang Island and beyond: just click on it.

The last posting had us preparing to leave behind the Anza Borrego Desert and head towards New Mexico and beyond. We are beyond already. To get here, “here” being Falcon State Park, Texas, we drove through Arizona stopping in Benson for an overnight. While sitting in Benson I checked into the Hogg’s itinerary and realized that they were in Karchner Caverns, just 30 miles from us and both of us were headed to RV Doc’s Campground in Las Cruces. My reason for going there was two fold. We wanted to visit Leora Zeitlin and Stuart if possible and RV Doc’s can provide service such as the Lube, Oil, Filter change we needed.

We spoke to Bob and Pat and agreed to meet at RV Doc’s and get together for dinner. We already knew that Leora and Stuart had crazy schedules for Monday night it didn’t seem likely we could get together with them. At noon on Monday we pulled into a New Mexico Rest Area for a driver change. As we pulled in we realized they had free wireless internet access so we logged in to receive and send email. While Carol was waiting for her email to send we heard a beep and looked over to see the Hogg’s ’03 Southwind pull up alongside us. As that moment the email went out. Had it gone 30 seconds earlier we would have missed them. During our greetings we discovered that we had a 2 PM appointment and they had the 3 PM for the same service at RV Doc’s so we skedaddled after a very quick lunch while they took their time.

Carol got on the phone with Leora and we learned that there was a faculty concert with percussion and tuba at the New Mexico State University campus in Las Cruces that she was planning to attend. The program was avant guard and the Hoggs came along with us. The second piece on the program was written by and Eastman faculty member, Sydney Hodkinson, performed by two Eastman graduates, James Shearer, Tuba and Fred Bugbee, Percussion. The piece “Omaggio” is an homage to Rayburn Wright. We went with Leora to the green room after the concert to meet Fred Bugbee and congratulate him on a wonderful concert. His performance of Marimba Fantasy Suite, Keiko Abe, in three parts, gave a new meaning to the instrument. We had never heard it played that way and I would love to hear it again.

We decided to stay on Wednesday night as we only needed two days to cross Texas and the Hoggs were staying on as well. We offered to take them to White Sands National Monument since they had never been there. It was cool and sunny and the last four miles of the eight mile road in the monument were closed because of excess moisture from the past summer’s and fall’s rains. We did go in to the nature trail and had a grand hike in the dunes. We also participated in a small rescue as a German tourist couple had locked their keys into their rental van along with their 6 month old infant. Fortunately, it was not hot and the baby seemd fine with all the attention. I had phone service (thank you Verizon Wireless) and got a call to 911 which brought out the Park Rangers with tools for opening locked cars.

Dinner that night was at the Paisano Café, a real treat if you are in Las Cruces. They do not have a license to serve wine. After dinner Stuart and Leora joined us for dessert and Bob and Pat left. We brought Leora and Stuart back to the coach since they had never seen it.

The only bad news from this stay is that RV Doc’s is closing, the land has become too valuable for development into condos to stay as a campground. We have stopped their almost every year and will miss it.

The next day (Thursday, February 8) we set out in a two coach convoy for Fredricksburg, TX with a planned stop in Ft Stockton giving us two 4-5 hour days on the road plus gas and food stops. Mid afternoon on the 9th we rolled into the Fredricksburg KOA

Friday February 2 we awoke to bright sun and warming temperatures as we bagan preparations to leave the LA region having said goodbye to the kids the night before. We took our time preparing for the road as we did not plan to travel more than 4 hours and hence did not need to commit to fighting rush hours traffic on the 405. Finally by 9:30 we had full freshwater and a full propane tank and the holding tanks were empty and clean(?) well flushed with clean water any how. With HAL reporting our route we set out for the Anza Borrego (I have been misspelling this until now) down the 405 to the 5 to 78 through Julian, CA and on to the desert.

As we rolled I remembered back to the last time we did this route and HAL had misguided us to the wrong exit for 78. I thought I had caused the problem by how I set the waypoint for the exit. This time I was extra careful about letting the software pick the exit. Aaaargh, same wrong exit, I knew it as soon as I got to the top of the ramp. HAL said go right so I went left. Still wrong. We wandered through some residential roads until I spotted a delivery vehicle and flagged him down for directions. He said “follow me” easier said than done I could not make the 180 in the intersection so had to go around the block to find him, there he was just before the overpass waiting for us. He lead us back on to the freeway and then off at the next, clearly marked, exit. Without even waiting for a thank you, he got back on going back north and we continued.

The misdirection was not over. We were headed into the desert expecting to dry camp so I wanted enough gasoline to be able to run the generator for several hours. We got off the 78 to get into a Shell station we had spotted from the road. Could not make a left turn into the station so we took the left just past the station only to find we still could not make a left into the station. We drove a mile or so up the street looking for a place to reverse course. Finally I saw a parking lot on the left and prepared to pull in to swing around. Darn, the entrance was chained, I changed the left turn into a U turn and with an inch to spare completed the turn and returned to the Shell station and then back on to 78 with a full tank (and empty bank account $2.67/gallon).

We drove on through Julian with out stopping as there was no place to park our 55 foot rig. After one wrong turn we started down the Banner Grade on 78. The last time we drove this 10 mile 8% descent, with more turns than a snake with a stomach ache, Carol was at the wheel, this was my turn. We made the turn on to County S2, one of the main highways through the Anza Borrego, and began looking for a place to spend the night. Agua Caliente County Park looked promising so we pulled into this desert paradise. I hesitate to publish this as I want to be able to find room here the next time we traverse the area. We are perched on a bluff overlooking mountains and desert. As we are at the edge of the campground, wild life is continually crossing next to us. We are in what is called the Hollwood Area and the row we are on is The Strip. We took a glorious 1.75 mile hike into Moonlight Canyon right from the campground. After returning from a four wheeling drive on the Overland and Butterfield Stage Road to the Canyon Sin Nombre dirt track we returned to Agua Caliente and went to the mineral water spa located there – true to the name the water is at 104 F – and soaked our bones and made some friends.

The next day we returned to the Canyon Sin Nombre and parked at the base of the slot canyon we had noted the previous day. We hiked up the slot
and following footprints and guidance from people we met we continued up onto the ridge and followed the trail to an overlook that gave us a vista of the S2, the Canyon Sin Nombre road and the Carrizo Creek area. The return to the car got a bit exciting as we did not want to retrace our steps and had been told about a wash we could descend to the road. After several false starts that led us down washes that ended in long drops into the unknown we found the trail that led into another slot canyon that did indeed bring us back to the road and our car. Along this descent we encountered a passage that we could only negotiate after removing our back packs and our hiking sticks. I left mine with Carol and descended first through a twisty slot with a vertical drop of 4 or 5 feet. There was footing and hand grips so it was not a fall, just a vertical descent with no idea where the next such descent would be. This turned out to be the last difficult passage. Carol handed me the bags and sticks, mine and hers, and made the descent easily. There are no pictures as we had other things on our minds. We returned to the campground after a stop at Palm Spring (an oasis, note the singular Palm), Further note keep all the way left on the road in and look for the left turn.

The hot mineral water and shower were even more welcome this day and after we cleaned up I turned on the TV to catch the last 9 minutes of the Super Bowl. At least our friends David and Bobbi in Indianapolis are happy!

I will catch up with our meeting with the Hoggs and Leora and Stuart in my next writing.

The forecast continued nasty and we determined to continue on west, but Sunday seemed like a reasonable day to do some exploring as we moved on. An article in Motorhome Magazine discussed a couple of “living” ghost towns in New Mexico that seemed worth visiting. They are Hillsboro and Kingston along State Route 152 which goes from no place to Silver City (almost no place). We cruised up I 25 after a stop at Stahmann’s Pecan Shop near Las Cruces to pick up necessary supplies, and way to much Blue Belle Ice Cream. Each of us ordered a single in a dish and ended up putting half our portion in the freezer for after dinner. We exited on to 152 and headed west, no choice as there is a large lake to the east.

We visited the Barbershop Café in Hillsboro and bought a couple of items. The proprietor told us that the road was closed at Kingston, but there was plenty of room to swing around. Oh, he also told us that the 12’6” overhead warning was wrong. He was half right. The low clearance bridges, two, were posted on the road as 12’6” but on the bridge they were posted at 12’8” and there was plenty of clearance if we stayed to the center of the road. At the fork for Kingston the continuation of 152 was closed as promised and the fork into town (population 25) was covered with snow and ice. In order to make the turn we had to disconnect the tow’d and do a K turn keeping the drive tires on pavement. We returned to Hillsboro and took 27 south toward Deming, NM. There we found the Starlite Motel, Café and RV Park with plenty of room and we setup just as dusk was falling.

In the morning we discovered something else was falling as well. We woke up to find the road passing the RV Park closed and the grounds covered with white frozen stuff. Further inquiry lead to the information that I 10 westbound was closed to the NM border and from the AZ border through the Dragoon Mountains. We changed plans and Carol did laundry and I went out and made some friends.

Monday morning we were in touch with Norm and Shelley Topf. They were in Quartzite and heading toward Yuma. If you look at your map, Deming to Yuma is an easy (?) 8 hours on I 10 and I 8. With an early start from Deming we rolled steadily west all day. The Topfs and the Ploessers were settled into Pilots Knob RV Resort, a membership resort where, with a coupon which we had picked up at a fuel stop, you could get 4 days 3 nights free along with a free meal. The cost was listening to a 90 minute pitch to own a piece of the desert. We elected to bypass the sort-of-free for really free. Just down a desert road there is a Free STVA (government speak for a Free Short Term Visitor Area). The only requirement is that we obey the signs about where camping and driving are allowed. Thank you to the American Taxpayer. We enjoyed our stay there for 3 nights free with no sales pitch and no other amenities.

We took a day with the other two couples and drove into Algadonas, Mexico to buy glasses, meds (not for us) and lunch. With the new US protections against illegal immigration and other idiocy, the wait for pedestrians to cross has extended from an hour last year to 3 + hours this year. The wait for a car was just about an hour. They are reviewing passports now, although it is really unclear whether they are required, but they do not have scanners! This means that if they chose to review the passport they must key the data in for each one. It will get worse before it gets better. The only people being inconvenienced at this border town are US citizens and the business people in Mexico whose business is dropping like a rock as tourists learn how long the wait is to get back into the US. There is no wait at all getting into Mexico. Once back in the States we took a rest and went into Yuma for dinner at Brownies, claiming to be the place in Yuma where everyone eats. We spent Thursday doing some repairs and maintenance on the coach and going into Yuma for some groceries and some sight seeing.

We received a call from Yechiel at some point during this day that they would like us to join them for Shabbat with Les Duman, Miriam’s dad, who was visiting. A quick map check showed the drive was doable and a call to Malibu Beach RV Park secured a site for a week. Friday morning we got up really early, we were still on Mountain Time so our 6 am wakeup was really 5 am in LA. We drove back into Yuma to buy gasoline (for 30 gallons a $.50/gallon difference is worth going 16 miles out of the way). We spent the day driving across southern California to San Diego and then up through LA to Malibu. It was early enough in the day that the traffic was only dense, but moving. After setting up we got in the car to join them for Shabbat. Traffic was no longer moving on the I 10. It took over an hour to get to their house and we arrived just in time to leave for services.

We will be sitting here spending time with them and watching Azriel and Avtalyon so they can have some time off until Friday morning when we plan to leave for some place to be determined. Our site is grand and the rear end of G2 is hanging out over PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and we see the ocean from all but our windshield.

This is the view from the Ocean.

As I write we are in Ft Stockton, TX in the Parkview RV Park. We stayed here in 2003, 4 years ago and it looks as if no maintenance has been done since and it was in desperate need then. We may be here a while. Our plan is to move on to El Paso tomorrow for a front end alignment. I have noticed some unexpected wear on the front tires and have been informed that the alignment needs to be checked.. We may put that off until Monday as there are winter storm warnings with snow and sleet and ice pellets in the forecast for this entire area starting at 3 AM. I am not moving this rig if there is a likelihood of ice on the roads.

I am not sure how we happened to land here. As we left Birmingham it was clear that there was some severe winter weather in Texas. We figured to travel west through it as it moved east. With luck we might have to put up with a couple of days of lousy weather on the road until we got to the other side. The only problem I can see with that thinking is that the “other side” may be in Honolulu. It certainly is not between us and the coast and even if it were we are not moving out of a comfortable, albeit decrepit, campground until I can hope for clear roads.

Next day, Friday the 19th. We slept in, had no idea we would be able to move on and didn’t have far to go anyhow. When we got up it was clear that the predicted storm had not hit, yet. We fussed around about whether to drive on to El Paso or not. Finally as all the other transient units had moved on we decided to roll as well. By 10 we were fueling up and getting underway. As we got going it became clear that if the weather held we could make El Paso in about four hours. Our appointment was for 8 AM on Saturday, but they are a first come, first served shop. It seemed that between the clear road and crossing the line from CST to MST we would arrive about 2 PM with a stop for lunch and more fuel. And so it was that by 2:15 we had G2 under the Firestone canopy in El Paso. Upon close examination and advice of the tire specialists, we decided to swap the right front for the spare. I wanted to buy another new tire, but no Goodyear G670’s were available and I was not about to mix tires on the axle. The worst part of the entire job was getting at the spare tire. It is hidden behind a panel that carries the license plate. All of the bolts have to be reached by sitting under the rear of the coach. Naturally several of the six bolts were corroded. Now they are all rust resistant and have wing nuts instead of hex nuts. The alignment and tire swap were completed and we were under way by 5 PM. These guys were good and they were pleasant and I would recommend to anyone who needs chassis service in the El Paso area to consider them.

We pulled into Roadrunner RV park just a few miles from the Firestone and set up camp. My very expensive Surge Protector paid for itself as I was setting up. I plugged into the podium 30 amp connector and went to the electrical bay to see how the power was coming on and saw for the first time and error message that the wires in the campground box were polarity reversed. It means that any improperly grounded appliance would have its outer shell connected to the hot rather than the ground, NOT GOOD! Besides, the unit won’t turn power on in the rig if there is an error. I got out and extension and connected to the adjacent box which was properly wired. We informed the office what we had done and they took that site out of service until it can be repaired.

When we stuck our heads out on Saturday morning the storm seemed to have missed again. It is cold but no precipitation and the roads are clear. We got dressed and went to Temple Mt Sinai for Torah Study and services. We were greeted warmly and enjoyed the study group a lot. The rabbi, Larry Bach, has a fine voice and lead the service in the chapel with many interesting melodies, a couple of which we had not heard before. His teaching before the service and his words during the service provided some interesting insights into the portion.

After services we went in search of visitor information and lunch. We found a Mexican restaurant with a buffet lunch that was really quite authentic. We were among the few non Mexicans in the place. I ate too much and enjoyed every mouthful. After lunch we chose to take a long ride through the mountains since the sun was shining and it is not a road we want to drive the motor home on. It was a beautiful ride until we came down out of the mountains into the plain which is being developed in front of our eyes. After shopping at an Albertsons were returned to the coach and rested over a late dinner and it is soon to be movie time.

Tomorrow off to New Mexico or?