It turned out that the site we chose with no orange cone was indeed the last “walk-in” site available to suit our coach. We are in north central Arkansas, not far from Missouri. We have had some beautiful weather and it has rained. As I am writing we have just cleared a tornado watch, and a severe Thunderstorm watch is on as is flood watch. The weather map suggests at the very least we will have rain soon – whenever soon is, but clear in the  morning when we prepare to leave. I doubt we would have stayed so long, 6 nights, here if it weren’t for the Memorial Day Holiday. We had our doubts about finding a campsite from Friday and Saturday night with all the camping families looking to get out for their first camp out of the season.

The TripAdvisor list of attractions has three items, Bull Shoals Dam, Ozark Folk Art Center and a cavern. Other interesting activities included wine tasting at Raimondo’s Winery. We headed for the winery first, as the website said the wines were grown and pressed in California and shipped in tanks to Arkansas for aging and bottling. We had a blast. Gil and Joanne Rainmondo are lively hosts and love to talk. We agreed to the complete wine tasting, expecting the flight of five wines to taste and some biscuits to clear our palettes. We had a surprise, they sell olive oils, Balsamic vinegar, and several dips and spreads. The tasting encompassed all those categories. After an hour we were full and had drunk more wine than we expected, we did slow down the pour by saying we were more interested in tasting than drinking 🙂 We enjoyed the wines, buying a couple of bottles of a blend and a bottle of a port like drink. The balsamic vinegar and the oil were also exceptional leading us to buy some of those too. We have to be careful with these purchases as storage space is at a premium. We tottered back to the coach after our tasting to relax over our books and then head out to the highly rated Thai restaurant in town. It is actually run by a Thai immigrant and is surprisingly authentic for its location.

The next day we decided to head for the Ozark Folk Center. Uncharacteristically we did not check it out with the GPS. We had seen a sign on the road pointing toward it and figured we would just follow the signs. We thought we would like to arrive around 2:30 or so to have time to tour the crafts and then have dinner followed by the show. After driving for 15 or 20 minutes it became clear that we didn’t have a clue where we were going or how far. We got out the GPS and learned we still had 36 miles to go and to expect it to take up to an hour! these mountain roads do not go in straight lines. We arrived shortly after 3 PM and the artisans and gift shop close at 5. Even though we were given tickets for the next day we decided to make the best of it and get around to the artisans whose work we would most enjoy. Dinner at the Skillet followed and it was better than we had expected and surprising given the very low prices. Part of the savings was due to the fact we were in a dry county 🙁 There seems to be a lot of that in the South. We had plenty of time to repark the Jeep in the shuttle lot and take the shuttle to the music venue. This is a large round hall that seats 1,000 and it was about 2/3 full for Willy Watson, a solo folk singer with pretensions, actually almost as good as his hype, he was formerly with old Crow Medicine Show. The opening group were Lazy Goat String Band Trio. We enjoyed them greatly. They were joined by a dancer for two numbers, one a hornpipe and the other not particularly a dance.

9 o’clock saw us heading out to the parking lot for the hour plus drive back to Gee Whiz. The mountain road was pretty empty by then, but the campground was jumping as we pulled in at 10:15. The site next to us was crawling with kids, dogs and somewhat inebriated adults. They went on past quiet hour, not unexpected on a holiday weekend, but come our bedtime they were quieting down.  The impending rain and storm has caused several people to move on a day early. We are hoping to let the storm roll on by as it is forecast to be taking the same route we plan on. Maybe by tomorrow we will be behind it, just need to go slow enough not to pass it.

We will be sure to include Arkansas in our travel plans in the future. We did come through another part of the state in 2002 and I think again before we figured out we needed to go further south in January.

Maybe that will make sense as you read this, or not.

We drove into Independence in fair weather with threat of rain. We stayed at Autumn Falls on US 40. the most it has to say for itself is it is almost level, it had a spot for us and the services worked. On US 40 fairly describes the spot we stayed in, a rest area might not have been as close. Dinner Thursday night with Dianne and Marty at Jax Fish House was superb and so was the company. We made it back to the coach and fell asleep, well I did anyhow. Friday we fussed around in the coach until after lunch then we rejoined Marty and Dianne at their house for conversation, a walk and a light dinner, a blessing after after the previous nights large meal. Saturday found us worshiping in a wonderful public market where we stocked up on supplies for the future. Then we gathered again with Dianne and Marty to talk some more and prepare some wonderful Alaskan Halibut we had picked up on a trip to Whole Foods. The rains began in earnest during dinner on the deck, being well prepared, Marty unfurled a gigantic umbrella that covered the table and seating area. We finished dinner and adjourned to the house for dessert.

We drove back to the coach in the rain and managed to find a brief moment between waves of rain to get into the coach almost dry. We were just settling down when we heard sirens. We had just been talking about the tornado sirens and this seemed ominous. Turning on local TV we found all channels broadcasting direct weather reports and localizing the threats. And it rained. And the wind blew. And we were assured that the storm was to our north and east and going in that direction. We fell asleep to the sound of the rain.

We headed south to Bentonville AR the home of WalMart World Headquarters, the WalMart Museum and most importantly Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I suggest you follow the link for more information about this museum which was created by Alice Walton to house a very broad collection of art, not all of it is American by any means, and to introduce grade school children to the idea of a museum of art, over 50,000 children a year with transportation, admission and food covered by the Walton Foundation. Admission for all is free.There was a charge for Vangogh to Rothko, waived for National Museum Day, fortunately for us. As I turned into the special exhibit hall I was stunned to find myself staring at the Jackson Pollock that I am so familiar with from the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo. Then I remembered reading that there was a major touring exhibit of pieces from there and we had run into it in a place so far off our normal paths. We had a nice lunch at Eleven (the name of the cafe) and resumed our tour and it began to rain. It rained and it poured. In most galleries this would not be an issue, but Crystal Bridges, designed by Moshe Safdie, is made up of several units not all of which have indoor connections. By the time we had run out of energy, both physical and mental, the rain had stopped and we could find our way first to the gift shop and thence to the Jeep and on to The Walmart Museum which is an ode to Mr Sam and a replay of the timeline of the company from a single Ben Franklin Store to the mighty giant it is today. Although there are several other industries in Bentonville, WalMart is indeed the big dog with four stores, one exclusively for Associates and all the ancillary departments necessary to oversea the worldwide operations.

Replica of Sam Walton’s truck in front of the Museum, the original truck is inside.

Soon we were back in Prairie Creek Park – hmm – from Prairie Village KS to Prairie Creek Park AR where it wasn’t raining. We began preparations for departure. I failed to describe this park experience when we got here so I’ll insert it now. There was no one at the gate to greet us so we found our own way into the campground without even a usable map. Most of the sites were most unsuitable for our 36 foot motorhome, either to short, too narrow or impossible to get into. We found a site that was reserved for Memorial Day Weekend which was of no matter to us, I saw a way to maneuver onto it with Carol at the wheel and me giving ground guidance. It wasn’t quite as level as we prefer, but we got close enough. There was no one to take our money the next day, when we left for the day, nor when we returned. Finally as we were departing the booth opened and we were the first customers of the brand new volunteer couple manning the booth. They took our money and we left for a long drive through the Ozarks. At one point our GPS – actually the on board GPS and Google Maps – suggested that the route should go down County Route 98. I was doubtful, but Carol began the turn and as we were fully committed there was a sign, “Historic Bridge, Limited Height and Weight Restrictions”. There was no height stated nor was there a maximum weight posted and there was no place to turn anyhow. Quick online research turned up no more information than that it was a one lane bridge, not good. As we got within a 1/4 mile a new sign informed  us the maximum height was 10’6″ and I was in no position to question the number. I left Carol and the coach blocking the road and walked ahead to survey the options. There were no good ones. The bridge deck was wood plank and we could not clear the overhead in any event. There was a field to our left that seemed to be set up for fair parking and I walked in and found a route through the field for the coach to turn around without disconnecting the Jeep and without sinking in up to the axles. After this jaunt I became more determined than ever to explore every route with Google Earth before committing to any more unknown back roads.

We have always said that we look ahead at the weather and try to find the “good weather” route. Or at least the least bad weather. As we were sitting in the KOA in Salt Lake City our neighbor mentioned that there was severe winter weather along the I 80 corridor where we planned to go. I looked it up and began to realize that May is still too early to be that far north. Laramie at over 7,000 feet was calling for lows in the teens when we planned to get there. No Way!

We decided to take US 50 through Grand Junction over the Rockies and down onto the High Plains. The last time we did that route was 2008. That was our first visit with Dianne and Marty in Prairie Village, also our first visit with Malena’s sister and husband, Simonne and Steve, in Glade Park CO. I guess after seven years it is okay to repeat a route 🙂 After some time on email and the phone we set out from SLC toward Grand Junction. Not wanting to press too hard we stopped for a night in a WalMart in Price Utah. Made some friends in an RV parked next to us in the parking lot, well, spent a couple of hours chatting about the RV lifestyle and such and offering them some tips on travel to Alaska  by RV. From there on to Glade Park. Access to the town is up the Monument Rd in Colorado National Monument. This road is a challenge, even for us. It is not really recommended for motorhomes as it climbs from about 5,500 feet to 7,400 feet in four miles and has the twists and turns of a snake with indigestion. To cap it off there is a tunnel that is officially listed with a 10 foot 6 inch clearance. we are 12 foot 4 at the top of the air conditioner. We had done it in G2 at 11 foot 6 with room to spare and the sign at the entrance booth said it was 16 foot at the center and 12 foot at the lane edge. I drove up and Carol drove down. The only problem was for the cars that had to follow us as we were in no hurry to see how close to the edge we could get. While there Steve’s brother Kurt and wife Pat were visiting from Kenai AK. So ee got to meet new people with interesting backgrounds.

From there I determined we were “three sleeps” from Prairie Village. We had allowed four or five in our planning. Our first stop was Bandera’s Bunkhouse just east of Salida, CO where we elected to stay two nights. We used the day to drive a 47 mile loop up into the mountains away from the main highway. Not too long after we turned off passed the Middle School in Cotapaxi the town fathers had decided that pavement was an unnecessary luxury. We were climbing from a base of 7,400 feet to 9,800 and the snow line was at about 8,500. We collected a bit of mud on Ruby:

This was the first coat we picked up in Glade Park

It was impossible to get in and out of the Jeep without taking some mud along. I wold love to write a book about Dave and Teresa, the owners of Bandera’s Bunkhouse. He has been a cowhand, is a trained geologist and has worked on drilling rigs all over the Americas and today they run a campground in CO in the summer and spend the winter in Arizona at an RV park where in addition to leading horse rides they entertain with cowboy song. I’m sure I have left something out and may have gotten some of the specifics wrong, but the idea is there. While I visited with Dave his wife was working with a horse that did not like to have his hind legs handled for shoeing and such. He shoes his horses himself.

We did move on again with a stop in Dodge City. We only stretched to reach there because I wanted to be able to write “we had to get of of Dodge” I would not recommend the RV Blue Campground for more than a one night stop. It had the water, sewer and electric and even cable, but I could not reach the water with a 25 foot hose and the place was unoccupied and did  not seem likely to get much better. On the other hand for $10 it was that much better than a WalMart which has no hookups.

As I am writing we are parked in a museum parking lot in Hutchinson KS. This is the Strataca Museum in a monstrous salt mine that is on a salt vein that stretches 150 east to west and 50 miles north to south. The primary vein is 50 feet thick and 650 feet below the surface. We rode the hoist to the bottom where the museum is located as well as the snack bar and the gift shop. I will admit I learned a lot about salt mining and the history of this mine. The other major business located in the mine is Underground Vaults and Storage. At least one major Hollywood Studio sends all their archival prints and material there as soon as they are done with it. They have an exhibit of some of the materiel. If you want to see the clothes worn in Giant or Men in Black or Superman they are among the items on display.

Tomorrow we will camp in Independence MO.

Recently we have been in territory that we didn’t know or had forgotten might be on our bucket list. In our minds we have reserved the concept of Bucket List for big things like the Great Wall of China or a drink at the Rex Roof top Bar in Saigon (excuse me – Ho Chi Mhin City) and Angor Wat, well you get the picture. Places a long way from the USA.

As we plotted our eastward trip, much later in the season than in past years, the idea of traversing the Lincoln Highway got into our heads. We have driven US 20 almost coast to coast and most of US 1 and all of US 90 and bits of Route 66. We have only come as far as Salt Lake City, but already we are overwhelmed with places that ought to be on any RVers bucket list (others too, but the road miles are great). We climbed out of Sacramento on US 50, a segment of one of the Lincoln Highway alignments, to a stop in South Lake Tahoe. We circled the lake and took a couple of wonderful hikes. Hurry now to see the gorgeous clear lake 6th in size in the US only to the Great Lakes before the developers spoil it.

From there we climbed the mountains and started across “The Loneliest Highway In America.” As we drove US 50 toward Ely NV we passed through Fallon and Austin and Eureka. Only Fallon was more then a blink as we passed. Ely was a major rail center and home to a large mine that has given silver, copper and some gold over the years. There we paused to spend time with Bev and Dan who we last saw in New Jersey in the Fall. They were westbound as we were eastbound and we decided that Ely would be an appropriate stop. For our major entertainment we road the Nevada Northern Railway behind steam locomotive engine 40 which has been running on that line since it was bought new in 1906.

Blowing down after the run!

The cars were 20’s Pullman passenger cars with an open flat car in the consist for those willing to brave the cold. I spent 5  minutes out there. The ride included a tour of the machine shop and engine shop as well as the RIP (Repair In Place). For railroad buffs I will post many more pictures and provide the link here.

Looking back towards the shore

Center of the spiral

Passing white pelicans

We never made it to Bear River, we did make a brief stop at a missile display outside the plant at what was Morton Thiokol, the place where the solid state boosters for the Shuttle were manufactured.

A broken bolt that I replaced was a cute story. Many of you responded accordingly. Today we learned of lives in peril. We’ve been following and including in our prayers for healing BJ and Beth for some time. There are others as well but no need to extend the list here.

We noted that we were going to be passing through Kansas City in a few weeks and sent a message to long time friends who live there that we would like to get together and offered a fairly broad window for that stop. The response was that they were planning to be in Europe for the entire window, but Dianne had some malady that needed to be tracked down before they knew they could travel. So if the medical news was bad we would be able to visit. If the news was good, we would have to wait until next year. In this case the news appears to be good so as we pass through Kansas or near we will think of them and be grateful that they are traveling in Europe and not hassling with doctors and the medical support community which would enable us to visit.

Got another message yesterday from RV friends in Sacramento (close enough) who have been having a rollicking good tour in Arizona with a caravan that they were back home a week early was there a chance we were nearby and could visit. We were passed them by a couple of hours and on the phone we agreed to meet sort of halfway for dinner. Then Anna Lee got on the phone with Carol and the news was less than wonderful and there was no way they could make the 90 minute drive each way for dinner.

While we were planning to meet Anna Lee and her husband for dinner in Truckee, CA we figured we would drive around Lake Tahoe starting up the west side. I’ll leave the review and pictures for another post, we noted that the Donner Pass Memorial Park was just west of Truckee and determined that we would take some time to visit. OY! talk about bad planning, bad execution and failed leadership. Every peril they could face came to seek them out and they brought some on themselves. The monument, put up in 1919, sits atop a 20 foot high plinth so they would always be above the snow to see the pass they were headed for. The Donner party were doomed the moment they chose to follow an unproven route over the Sierra Nevada.

Tomorrow we hope to meet up with Bev and Dan in Ely NV on US 50. This meet up almost failed because Kiki got sick (the cat). Kiki is fine, continuing to make them crazy and with any luck we will see her and the two who keep her home on wheels moving.

The other get togethers we have on tap are in Rochester on the 30th and the 1st then we return to the coach which will be in Salt Lake City and continue doing what we do.

Some thing are made to break, others just break because they can. I am not sure which category this falls into, but it caused me a few minutes of aggravation and then some giggles when the fix turned out to be so easy. It started with my walking around the coach and just sort of looking at things to be sure everything was “okay” sort of “looking for trouble” and I found it.

This is looking up at the underside of the living room slideout room behind the driver. The very one that was repaired last Fall in Red Bay. That bolt lying on the ledge is a stop meant to prevent the mechanism from pulling in too far. It broke off the mount above.  Look at the next picture and you will see how it is supposed to look. This is the rearward arm of the mechanism.

I did it, I drove through San Francisco up 19th to the Golden Gate Bridge and over. We arrived in Marin RV park shortly after. Here I will give a brief review for any RVers who are interested. It is a nice if modest park. Adequate space for most any coach and plenty of room for 4 slideouts. FHU including cable which we have not hooked up. Location is wonderful. It is a 10 minute walk to the ferry to Downtown San Francisco, no need to drive and park. Less than 30 minutes to Berkeley in light weekend traffic and under an hour to Walnut Creek. Tourist attractions along the coast are not more than an hour away.

Having said all that we are delighted to be here. We have been very busy with people since we got here. First, on Thursday we had dinner with Marlene

Picture taken on GeeWhiz

at Il Fornaio. The food was fine, the service was a bit messed up. We had a lovely time with Marlene who we met over a year ago on an OAT tour. We do look forward to seeing her again as we transit these parts in the future. We may even take another tour together some day.

Sorry about your head Michael

On or way to services we left very early and stopped by John Muir National Historic Site and spent over an hour touring the house where he penned most of his work and lived with his family while ranching and then exploring. 

Saturday found us waiting to greet Minda and Will at the coach with Leo, our youngest grand nephew, now 6 months old. They arrived as planned and Carol made lunch for us so we could get out for some hiking. Leo was a wonderful trooper and hardly showed any signs of stress from the long walk we took in Samuel Taylor State Park. Nothing in these parts is level and he climbed the hills with great verve prodding his dad to keep up the pace. Of course his position in a carrier on Dad’s chest did give him certain advantages. We returned to the coach where Carol conjured up a lovely dinner from veggies she had been hording and we all were very relaxed, Leo actually relaxed into nap land. 

At this point life is a road trip, but we have been staying put for a week or more and then moving on to our next stop in a day. As we left Malibu Beach RV and our family in Los Angeles we elected to turn what could have been one long looong day into three shorter days just because we could. The “normal” route from LA to San Francisco area is up I 5, about the same as Rochester to NYC on the Thruway. The next acceptable route would be to take the 101, especially since leaving from Malibu in a motorhome the only way to go is North on the Pacific Coast Highway/PCH/CA1 to Ventura. It isn’t even legal, much less safe, to take the motorhome over the canyons to get to the 101 directly.

Avoiding the reasonable and relatively direct we elected to drive as much of the route as possible on The 1. The other question was what stops to make and where to spend the nights. Having spent exorbitant sums for a site in Malibu (more than twice our average per night) we did not want another commercial campground or even a state park since California State Parks are now pushing the ceiling. I guess if you can’t raise real estate tax you get it from other sources. California makes New York parks look reasonable

Our first stop was the Elks Lodge in San Luis Obispo (SLO). I took the wrong exit and then took the wrong turn. After a turn around the block we found our way into the Lodge parking lot with 16 RV spots that back up against the 101 so we can enjoy the road noise right through the night. It isn’t quite as bad as it sounds, but it also isn’t the desert. We made a timely, for us, departure from SLO Elks at about 10 AM and promptly got on the 1 right out of town. I suppose I could recite the towns and the views we passed, but far better authors than I have written about them in novels and stretches have been seen in documentaries and movies. The road rises and falls seeking a foothold on the edge of the mountains that line the coast. sometimes you are almost at sea level and at other times the sea is far below as the road winds around yet another gorge that forms a cleft in the mountains. In places the road has been swept off the cliff by falling rocks and has been rebuilt either by clawing another foothold into the mountain or by building a bridge to carry the road along the face of the cliff. In places the road is so narrow that we felt we were going to demolish our passenger side on the rocks yet again and at times there were broad pull offs so we could let other drivers pass us.

Eventually we found a glorious pull off on the left, ocean, side where we could pause and have lunch and change drivers.

Looking back the way we’ve come

The road ahead of us seems tame

Eventually, with Carol at the wheel, we found our way into Monterey only to find once again that the GPS Navigation required us to make an illegal and impossible U turn to get to the lodge. We ended up disconnecting the Jeep on a deadend in a commercial strip so Carol could jockey the coach back and forth to get it turned around. Remembering the route from previous trips I guided her back out to the main road and up the hill to the Lodge with its beautiful windows overlooking the bay. We are set up here for one night only and chose not to venture into town as we have done that several times and the drive had tired us both. 

We are sitting in Malibu Beach RV Resort in one of our favorite campsites. Here is the view through the windshield:

We are wanderers. Have been since before we started RVing. For the past couple of years Carol and I have talked about where we might settle down “some day.” We had never found anyplace  we wanted to stay for more than a few weeks so the topic was moot. While we were at the Escapade we visited the “Row” where various SKP organizations and Coops had members present to attract new members. We stopped by the Jojoba Hills SKP Resort booth and spoke with John at length. We decided it would be a nice idea to stop there for a week before going on to Malibu Beach RV Resort since it is less than 3 hours from Yechiel and Miriam’s home in LA.

We have not considered a Coop until now. We have stopped at a few of them and they have been very nice, but the members did not seem very welcoming to guests and it seemed it would take some effort to become part of the group. The welcome at Jojoba Hills has been anything but cool. People walking buy have stopped to talk and we have been greeted by everyone with a nice welcome. The views from the site we are on are wonderful

and the facilities are second to none. We are planning on getting on the wait list and leaving a fully refundable deposit on Monday when the office reopens. The refundable nature of the deposit reduces the risk should we get cold feet, in fact the membership payment is also refundable when we decide to leave the coop so the financial risk is pretty small.

Things I never thought would be part of our life, California as a residence (not domicile), staying in one place for an extended period of time, owning a golf cart. We do not plan to give up regular travel, but it is nice to think of having a home base in the warm, away from the crowds, near our West Coast family, with access to fine culture to our north and to our south when we want to take advantage of it. I have no idea how this will work out, but I am looking forward to yet another change in our life style.

To our Rochester friends: we are not giving up the apartment, yet.