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So we arrived here at Pilot Knob on the 8th of December and its been some time time since I posted, so I let you know what we’ve been up to.  The first couple days were spent doing a little grocery shopping and some relaxing and some more shopping….

Pilot Knob is a nice little resort.  The park is clean and has the usual amenities.  It has a clubhouse with a nice size hall for various functions.  There’s also a Big Screen TV, a billiards room and a card room.  There’s a heated pool next to the clubhouse and a shuffleboard court.  There’s another small building that houses the laundromat and a puzzle room/library.  There’s a small park-like area that has a Bocce ball court and horseshoe pits.  The park is surrounded by desert on 3 sides.  There are some regular activities every week that you can take part in if you’re so inclined.  Monday and Friday evenings is Poker night in the clubhouse.  Monday mornings is Bocce Ball.  Friday is burger night at suppertime and $5 gets you your choice of one of a hamburger/ hotdog/ chicken burger, and brown beans, a bag of snacks (potato chips etc.) and pudding.  Not a bad deal for $5.  Sunday afternoon there is an Ice Cream Social.  $1 per scoop of chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry.  There’s usually Karaoke on Saturday nights in the clubhouse.  I usually play poker and bocce ball.  We’ve been to a couple of the ice cream socials and one of the burger nights

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On Thursday the 12th we went to the Arizona Market in the morning.  This an open air market with quite a few vendors.  The Market runs from Thursday to Sunday each week.  The vendors are quite diverse.  You can buy clothing, food, RV supplies and accessories, artwork, crafts, flags…quite a wide variety of things.  There is one store that I particularly like that has a little of everything.  We like to come here a few times during the season.  While at the market we met up with Bill and Patsy who were there with Bob and Jo-Anne.  Bill gave us directions to Yuma Lakes RV Resort where they were staying, so after we finished up at the market with drove out to their park.  This is a nice park also, a little larger than Pilot Knob.  It is also a Membership park, but we would have access to it through our Adventure Outdoors membership.  We may try this park at some point but we do like Pilot Knob. We stayed only a short time at Bill and Patsy’s before the six of us (Bob and Jo-Anne included) headed back into Yuma to go to Lin’s Buffet for a birthday lunch for Bob. I like Lin’s, quite a good variety of foods and of course all you can eat.  This price is right also… $8.95 for seniors for lunch.  Nice….  After lunch, back out to Yuma Lakes for happy hour and birthday cake.  After lunch at Lin’s, not a lot of room for cake I’m afraid.  

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On sunday the 15th Bill and Patsy and Bob and Jo-Anne arrived after their stay at Yuma Lakes.  

On Thursday the 19th the 6 of us (Bill and Patsy and Bob and Jo-Anne) travelled to Los Algodones in Mexico to have a look around and have a late breakfast at one of the restaurants there.  Bob and Jo-Anne were looking for presciption glasses so we stopped at one of the optical places to have a look around.  If you read my blog posts from last year I talked about Los Algodones.  They are known for their inexpensive Dental and Vision care and Prescriptions. There is a small shopping area in Los Algodones called Snowbirds Alley and there are 3 different artist painters who paint signs with spray paint.  Many people buys signs for their RV’s with some kind of landscape scene on it (usually desert) and with their names on it.  Bob and Jo-Anne were having a sign made and they would pick it up later.  We went and had some breakfast.  Omelets for Kim and I.  I can’t remember the name of the restaurant but I do remember where it is.  We were there a couple of times last year too. 

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Tom and Deb Duchaine arrived at Pilot Knob on Thursday as well.  When we got back from Mexico they were parked across from us.  We got back in time to join them for Happy Hour. 

I brought some of my LED Christmas lights with us in the motorhome.  I packed up my light controller and lights and wires and various other equipment in a small case so that I could have a nice Christmas light display at our site.  I got it all set up and got the bugs ironed out fairly quickly.  Looks pretty good but I should have brought more lights.  I have had quite a few people stop by to say how much they enjoy the lights.  Kim decorated inside the Motorhome with a couple small Christmas trees with lights and ornaments.  Tom and Deb have a nice display at their site and Bill and Patsy do too.  There are quite a few people in the park who decorate outside for the Christmas season.

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Sunday morning Tom and Deb and Kim and I drove into Los Algodones to do a little browsing and to have lunch.  Not too many people on a Sunday Morning.  Many of the vendors were open and a few of the vision and dental places were open.  Our restaurant of choice was closed so we went to the Paraiso restaurant.  This time it was Mexican food.  Kim and I had a combination plate with a Tostada, an Enchilada and Burrito.  I liked the burrito and enchilada but not big on the tostada.  Kim liked all of hers.  Margaritas and Cervezos were also enjoyed.  

On Monday the 23rd we did a group facetime with George and Sue back in Tavistock.  Bill had set it up with Sue a couple days before and George only knew that Bill and Patsy and Kim and I were going to be in it.  George was very surprised and pleased to see so many more people there.  There were actually 12 of us gathered around the computer to say hi and chat a bit.  You could tell that George was very happy and touched by this time that we all had with him, even though from a distance.  We’re all missing George and Sue this year.

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Christmas Eve in the afternoon, Kim and I hosted a small happy hour buffet.  A scaled down version of our traditional Christmas eve celebration.  Each couple brought a little something for us all to enjoy.  Patsy’s sister Gayle and her husband John were boondocking in the BLM area behind Pilot Knob and came and joined us for Happy Hour.  They’re moving into the park tomorrow morning to stay for a couple days and to join us for Christmas dinner.

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Christmas day I woke at about 6:45 and got up and had some coffee and turned on the heat to warm up the coach.  Kim wasn’t far behind me and we turned on some Christmas music and opened our gifts.  Not too many under the tree this year with it just being the 2 of us.  We did a facetime chat with Josh and Tammy and the Boys at about 9:00 am our time, 11:00 am back in Ontario.  The boys showed us some of their Christmas presents but it was really nice just to see them as they bobbed in and out of the screen a few minutes at a time.  I’m not sure how long we chatted together but it was very nice.  Later in the morning we had some traditional Christmas Mimosas and some snacks to tie us over until our Christmas dinner at the clubhouse at 3:00.  We did facetime with Sarah and Jacob just before noon to catch up with them.  They were getting ready to head to Jacob’s parents place for Christmas dinner.  Christmas dinner was very good.  Mashed potatoes, Turkey, Ham, Dressing, Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Buns and Pumpkin Pie for desert.  And even seconds.  So much food…. I know ate way too much.  I think there were well over a hundred people there for dinner together. There were 12 of us in our group.

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Bob and I have played pool a couple of evenings while we’ve been here and Tom and I played some pool a few days ago.  I’ve played bocce ball a couple Monday mornings and Bob and Tom and I are regulars for the poker nights.  I’ve had some good nights at poker and some bad ones ones but I’m fairly close to even, averaged out.

On Friday we drove west on I-8 to Holtville.  We wanted to check out the BLM there to see what it was like.  Our plan is to leave Pilot Knob on Jan 5th and travel to Holtville and stay for a week or so.  That will give us a jumping off point to travel to Borrego Springs and the Salton Sea area in California.  We haven’t been to that area before so this will give us that opportunity.  Across from the BLM campground is a hotsprings.  There’s a nice pond area surrounded but thick tall palms.  Really looks like an Oasis.  The actual hotsprings looks a little rundown but I may try it out when we back there in January.  We drove on from Holtville to another small city called El Centro.  We just made a quick pass through the downtown area.  Lots of Art Deco influence in the architecture of the downtown area.

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On Saturday we had a Happy Hour Fish Fry at Bob and Jo-Anne’s.  Bob brought some Walleye from back home on Lake Erie.  Bob fried up the fish and I made some home made French Fries in the deep fryers.  It was a feast and happy hour continued on into the evening.  Lots of good eating and storytelling.  We all stayed until about 8:30 in the evening.  As Patsy said…. The longest happy hour ever.  

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The weather here over the past weeks has been mixed.  We’ve had some really nice warm, almost hot days, and some rather cool days.  We had some rain a few days ago.  The wind most days has been brisk so we tend to try to find a place out of the wind when we’re sitting outside.  Today is prabably the coldest yet, 11ºC or 52ºF and a cold wind.  Bocce ball was cancelled this morning cause it was too cold.

Bill has had his RC plane out a few times over the last few days.  Yesterday and Saturday, there were times when the wind was fairly light.  He flew it for a bit at sunset last night.  He has LED light strips on the wings, so it looks rather cool flying, all lit up, when the sun is setting.

Dave and Cheryl from Alberta are friends with Bill and Patsy and Tom and Deb.  They’ve been coming to Arizona in the winter for a few winters.  They pulled into Pilot Knob a few days after Bill and Patsy.  We’ve gotten to know them over the past couple of weeks.  A very nice couple.  Spent many happy hours with them.  It’s a great way way to get to know people.  They pulled out yesterday on their way to San Diego to spend some time with family.  We hope to meet up with them when we’re in Quartzsite in a few weeks.  

Yesterday Kim and I went into Yuma for some groceries and shooped at Fry’s.  Kim has a Fry’s card that gave us some really good deals.  We’ve shopped at Walmart, Albertson’s and Fry’s now for groceries and it would seem that Fry’s has the best prices and selection.

Well that brings you up to date with us here on Dec 30th. I just gave you a brief rundown on what we’ve been up to. We certainly enjoying our time in the southwest. Its really nice catching up with all our Rv friends and meeting new ones on the way. We hope you have all had a wonderful Christmastime, and we wish you a great new year in 2020.

I’ll leave you with a few sunsets to end your year and a sunrise to begin a new one.

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We left Mabank on Monday morning and drove to Big Spring, Texas that day.  We stopped overnight in the Walmart there.  There were signs posted saying no overnight parking without permission so I went inside the store and talked to the staff in customer service.  They said it was alright to stay overnight and directed me to park at the side of the store.  It was actually a nice spot.  By morning there were 4 other RV’s around us. 

Tuesday we drove to Horizon City, which is a suburb of El Paso on the east end.  During our stop for lunch I called Quail Ridge RV Resort in Huachuca City, Arizona to see if they had a spot open for us on Wednesday.  Stayed at the Walmart in Horizon City overnight.  This store was very busy so it was a little tough finding a big enough open area for us to pull into.  We managed though and throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening a few other RV’s joined us.  We’ve stayed at this Walmart twice before and we knew it would be a little noisy with busy roads all around us.  Not too bad though overnight.  While in the Walmart we bought a small electric heater that we could use to warm up the MH in the morning instead of using the furnace and propane.  This will come in handy when were in parks with electrical hookups.  For such a small unit it works quite well for our small space.

Wednesday we drove from El Paso Texas through New Mexico and on through Arizona to Quail Ridge.   We arrived about 2:30 and got all setup by 3:00.  We stopped at this park in particular because we knew our friends Bill and Patsy would be here and it would be nice to spend a couple of days with them.  Bill and Patsy were on their way back from Tuscon when we arrived so when they got back they came over to say Hi and stayed for Happy Hour.  It sure was nice to see them and catch up a little.  They are travelling with some friends of theirs, Bob and Jo-Anne. They also came to Happy Hour.  It was nice to meet them.  We made some plans to do some sightseeing with them over the next few days.

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Thursday morning we all left the park at about 9:00 to go to Tombstone.  When we arrived we were about the only tourists there.  The streets were practically empty.  This made it nice for picture taking.  Last year when we were here it was quite busy. 

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We strolled around for a while chatting and shopping and then we decided to go see the gunfight at the OK Corral.  This is a little drama reenactment of the famous shootout between the Earp Brothers and the McClaury gang.  The acting was a little cheesy but it was fun. 

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At lunch time we went to Big Nose Kate’s Saloon for some grub.  The food was quite good and they had some live music as well.  After lunch we did a little more wandering and shopping and Bill and I decided to buy Cowboy hats.  Mine is a brown Stetson.  We began our drive back to the park around 2:00 and agreed to meet up for Happy Hour a little after 3:00.   

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Friday morning the 6 of us headed off to Bisbee to go to the Queen Mine tour.  Bisbee is a mining town south of Tombstone, and the road to the town winds through a long canyon and then through a tunnel before ending in another canyon which is Bisbee.  The town at one time had a population of 20,000.  Half of these people worked in mines around Bisbee.  The Queen Mine was the biggest.  The Queen Mine tour is a guided tour and our tour guide was once a miner in Queen Mine until it closed in 1985.  He was very knowledgeable.  We assembled for our tour and had to don safety vests and hard hats and we each had a light.  The lighting in the mine is minimal so the lights would help us see things better.  We all sat on a mine trolley that the miners would have used to enter and exit the mine each day.  We travelled back into the mine about 1500 feet with a few stops on the way.  There was much to see and our guide explain the entire mining process.  There were examples of the various tools used.  What a great tour. 

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After the tour we drove into the downtown area of Bisbee and found a place for lunch.  We ate at a place called Bisbee’s Table.  Great food.  After lunch we strolled around and the girls did some shopping along the way.  It was late in the day when we got home so we decided to skip Happy Hour.  After supper Bob and I headed over to the clubhouse to shoot some pool.  Bob is quite a good player and I was very rusty.  I think we played for a couple hours and chatted all the way through.

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Saturday morning Bill and Bob and I drove into Tuscon to go to the Pima Air and Space Museum.  This is a huge museum with 100’s of aircraft on display.  Most of the aircraft are military  and they had pretty much everything you could imagine.  Some the aircraft were inside hangars but most were outside.  We toured the main building for a bit and got tickets for a guided tram tour of the outside aircraft.  The outside is very large so this was an easy way to see many aircraft in a short period of time. Some of the more notable aircraft to me were the B-17 and B-29 bombers and SR-71 Blackbird.  There were lots of fighter aircraft and transports as well.  I think the neatest thing about this display is that there were no rope barricades to keep you away from the aircraft.  You could walk up to them and touch them and many of them you could look inside.  You could look up into the bomb bays and look into cockpits.  That was a very enjoyable day. We had our last Happy Hour at Quail Ridge in the afternoon at Bill and Patsy’s site.  

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Bill and Patsy and Bob and Jo-Anne headed out Sunday morning around 9:00 am headed for Yuma Lakes RV Resort in Yuma.  Kim and I also left and headed for Yuma.  We had a slight delay though.  When checking the RV tires pressure (a routine I do everyday we travel) I noticed our right side inside rear tire only had a few lbs. of pressure.  That’s not good, so once we were set to leave and after I started up the motorhome I used the air system on the motorhome to add air to my tire.  We’ve had to do this a couple times before.  It seems to be caused by something preventing the valve stem cores from completely sealing and air just slowing leaks out.  Anyway I filled the tire then got the car on the dolly.  I checked the tire one last time before heading off and it was fine.  Sure is nice to have our own air system for these situations.  We made a fuel stop on the way and when we stopped for lunch I called Pilot Knob RV Resort to see if they had a spot for us.  We had a reservation at the park starting the 14th of December but we decided we would just head there early.  They had a spot available.  We arrived at Pilot Knob at about 3:30 and got checked in quickly.  We were able to get the same site we had last year.  We like this spot because it’s on the outside of the park and we have an open view to west.  Now we’re all setup here for a few weeks.

The weather for the next week or so looks great. Lots of sun… temps in the low 70’s F (21or 22 C). Got some lights to put up on the motorhome and probably a little shopping to do. I’ll keep you posted.

Last evening (Tuesday) it was very mild outside. Somewhere around 20ºC (70ºF). About 10:30 or 11:00 pm the winds picked up. Very strong gusts as well. By morning the temperature had cooled off drastically. While I outside getting everything ready to travel our neighbour RVer was doing the same so we chatted for a bit. They are also on their way to Arizona. They are staying at another campground in Yuma just down the road from Pilot Knob. I think they were spending some time in Texas as well before heading further west. We were on the road around 9:00AM and with a little sun to start out. Travelling west on I-30 the traffic was noticeably lighter than the day before. We headed west to Sulphur Springs and then southwest on Hwy 19 towards Canton. Just past Canton we pulled off into a church parking lot and had some lunch. Only about 20 miles left to travel. Wes and his friend Steve met us at an Exxon Gas Station just down the road from his place and they led the way into Mabank to the Municipal campground. Steve made arrangements for us to stay there with the local Police department. This spot is also a municipal park. There is a huge gravelled area with full hookups for Rv’s. I think Steve arranged for all the services to be turned on for our visit. Such a nice thing to do for us. Steve modestly calls it “Texas hospitality”. So we have this huge area all to ourselves. We could have huge gatherings of RV’s here. Mabank is a neat little town. Its about 30 + minutes from Dallas has a nice small town feeling about it and is situated near a fresh water lake. It definitely is a friendly town. We stayed here on our way home in March and when we were getting ready to leave the Police Chief stopped by to wish us safe travels.

We spent the afternoon and early part of the evening at Wes’s place catching up with all the news. Last year when we were here it was quite wet but much dryer this time around. Wes took us on a hike around his place. He has a large beautiful wooded area at the rear of his property that is pretty much undisturbed. Very nice!

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In Canton this weekend is a huge Flea Market called “First Monday Trade Days”. It happens over the first weekend of every month of their season. This is the last show of the year and it’s usually the biggest. It looking like the weather may not cooperate this weekend though. Some cooler temperatures and some rain in the forecast. Wes has become a scrap metal artist in the last few years. He’s made some really neat pieces and he is usually a vendor at First Monday. Hopefully the weather will improve a little and we’ll all head up to the sale on the weekend. It’s known as the world’s largest flea market with as many as 5000 vendors. We’re looking forward to seeing it first hand.

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Thursday we headed over to Wes’s after lunch to watch some Thanksgiving Day Football. Well Wes and I did but I think Kim was a little bored with that. Wes made us some homemade Chili for supper. It was very good.

Friday morning Wes, Kim and I headed off to the Canton Flea Market. We spent a couple hours wandering around checking things out. Kim found a few things she was interested in and made a couple purchases. We stopped for lunch part way through and had some street tacos and fresh made curly potato chips. The market was a little light on vendors. Could have been that it was Thanksgiving weekend or it could have been the weather. There were a few light sprinkles in the morning. Later in the afternoon Wes and I gave his neighbour Steve a hand to get his well working. There was a broken pipe, so with a quick trip to the local hardware store for a couple parts we had the pump working just as dark was setting in.

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Saturday, Wes suggested that we go for a drive into Arlington and Fort Worth. Steve joined us for the drive. We drove by Wes’s old workplace, the General Motors Arlington Assembly Plant. It’s a huge operation, and it makes Cami Assembly in Ingersoll look rather small. Also we passed by AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. Our next stop was the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. This museum is the home of many Frederic Remington and Charles Russell paintings and sculptures. A very nice stop. Of course there were other artists featured but those were the ones we went to see especially.

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Our next destination was to go to Fort Worth to the Stockyards. I had no idea what the Stockyards were. It’s actually a very neat part of town. Old streets, old buildings, cobblestone roads and bars and restaurants and shops. I had never heard of it before, but if you’re ever in Fort Worth I would say it’s a must see. We stopped for some refreshments in the Stockyards Hotel. Next, on our way back to Wes’s we stopped for some Texas BarBQ at Rudy’s. It was very good but I would rate it second to the one Wes took us to in January when we were through here last winter.

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Sunday was just a relaxing day. In the afternoon we drove to Wes’s and just kind of hung out. Watched a little football and visited with each other. Kim did a load of laundry and we left to go back to the RV late afternoon. We always enjoy spending time with Wes. He’s a great host. Thanks Wes!!

Well Monday we’re back on the road. So I’ll wrap up this post. We’re headed to Arizona now. I’ll catch y’all up on the next post.

After getting home from Sarah and Jacob’s, Kim had some busy work days. She was trying to finish things off in order for us to get away earlier this year. On Sunday the 17th we had an early Christmas with Josh and Tammy and the boys. I think the boys thought it was great getting early Christmas presents. And of course we had our traditional turkey dinner. The week leading up to our departure we tried to tidy up loose ends and Kim finished up work on Wednesday. Thursday was appointment day for Kim and Friday we began packing the motorhome. Josh and boys came over Friday for supper.

Saturday morning we finished packing up the motorhome. As we were getting the car on the dolly our neighbour Bill came out to see us off. We were on the road a little later than planned but it was a nice sunny start to our journey.

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When we arrived at the border crossing into Port Huron there was a fairly long line ahead of us at customs. There were 2 other Motorhomes in the line beside us . As it turned out, we picked the wrong line. The border patrol officer in our lane was taking forever to clear vehicles. It took us about an hour from the time we got in line to finally clear customs and be on our way. The other 2 RV’s were long gone by the time we got through.

We made our way south on I-94 through Detroit and continued out past the airport to I-275 and went south. This seems to us to be a better way to get to I-75 as it misses a lot of bad road south of Detroit. Our sunny day soon became a cloudy day but the drive was pretty good once we got south of Toledo. Our intention was to get as far as Lima, Ohio and then stop for the night at the Walmart. South of Findlay it began to snow big flakes with a little rain in the mix. We pulled into a Flying J to fuel up in Beaverdam, Ohio. It was nasty out. Rain/snow, windy and cold. It had become slippery as well and we decided that we would just spend the night in the RV parking area of the Flying J. Another fellow RV’er in a motorhome decided to do the same.

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It was a cold first night with temps below freezing and the motorhome was c c cold in the morning. I put the furnace on and it took a good hour to warm up the motorhome. We managed to get on the road in good time and drove down I-75 to Cincinnati and then went west toward Louisville, Kentucky. The temp was starting to rise and we stopped at a rest area south of Louisville for lunch. We drove on down through Bowling Green, Kentucky and into Tennessee. We skirted around the outside of Nashville and headed west on I-40 and stopped for the night at a Walmart in Dickson, Tennessee. It was a nice mild 13ºC (55F) when I stepped out of the MH and sunny. Since this was our first Walmart stop we did a little grocery shopping and picked up a deal on a rotisserie chicken and some mac and cheese to have for supper. This was a big Walmart and had plenty of parking around the outside of the parking lot for RV’s and trucks to park. We were the only RV but there was another truck stopped for the night.

The temperature didn’t drop as much overnight but it was still chilly in the MH in the morning. I was up early and turned on the furnace. Kim got up a little while later and while she was having her breakfast she noticed some guys outside trying to load a pickup truck on a trailer. She watched as this truck shot up on the trailer and seemed to go sideways and up on 2 wheels before coming to rest on the trailer. I looked out and saw the pickup had overshot the trailer and into the back of the truck pulling the trailer. This was all happening just a few feet from the front of the motorhome. I went outside to have a look . The pickup they were trying to load had indeed overshot the trailer and crumpled in the tailgate of the towing pickup The front end was hung up in front of the trailer with the front wheels hanging above the ground. Well that was going to be a situation. I chatted with the guys with the trucks and it turns out they thought the pickup they were loading had a clutch problem. They had it idling out of gear behind the trailer and all at once it took off and loaded itself and kept going. Luckily for these guys no one got hurt. We chatted for a bit.. They were very friendly. We thought we would get out of their way so we got things packed up and set off down the road.

We continued west on I-40 and stopped for a break at a rest stop just down the road a ways to call and make a reservation at a campground in Little Rock. We needed a place to fill our water tank and de-winterize so that we could begin to use our own water. We passed through Memphis, across the Mississippi and into Arkansas. The temperature was starting to get quite nice.

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We arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas about 3 PM on Monday afternoon. It was very nice outside, about 20ºC (68ºF). We are staying at Downtown Riverside RV Park. It’s on the north side of the Arkansas River that separates North Little Rock and Little Rock. It’s a nice spot for us. We have a massive pull through lot with a cement pad and full hookups. We found out about this park from reading Paul Whistlecraft’s facebook posts. We know Paul and his wife Judy from Rock Glen. Paul had posted they would be here for a few days so we thought we might see them. Turns out that they are parked in the row behind us. They didn’t seem to be at home when we arrived. Shortly after we arrived and got hooked up, 2 motorhomes pulled in next to us with Ontario plates. These were the 2 MHs we saw at the border crossing at Port Huron on Saturday. Once they got set up we chatted. We actually chatted for quite a while. Both couples are on their way to Arizona as well. While we were chatting Paul strolled by and was surprised to see us. We chatted with Paul for a bit and it was soon time for supper. Our original plan was to just stop here overnight but we thought we might stay and extra night and see the sights.

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Today (Tuesday) we awoke to cloudy skies and rain was in the forecast. We decided rather than stay another night we would head off late morning. We did take the car off the dolly for a couple hours and drove to the local Camping World. Then we decided to do a little sight seeing. We drove to the Bill Clinton Presidential Museum and took a few pictures outside. We then toured past Little Rock Central High School. If you remember your history this was the location of the 1957 desegregation incident in which 9 black students were denied entry to attend the school. A showdown occurred between the Arkansas Governor and President Eisenhower. The President ordered the 101st airborne division to escort the students and federalized the Arkansas National Guard. There’s more to the story but that’s the real short version.

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Next we drove to the Governor’s Mansion and got out and took some pictures and also of some of the homes in the area.

When we got back to the campground we put the car back on the dolly and prepared the motorhome to leave. Our neighbour Al stopped by to say goodbye and Paul and Judy came over to wish us a safe trip. We were on the road a little after 11:00AM and drove on down I-30. Not far outside of Little Rock our GPS started warning us of delays up ahead. We had stopped for fuel shortly after leaving Little Rock and later stopped for lunch at a rest area. Just down road from the rest area, traffic came to a complete standstill and eventually began to crawl along. We were probably delayed about an hour. Traffic on I-30 was very heavy and lots of transports. We eventually passed through Texarkana and in to Texas. Did you know that Texarkana is on the border of Texas and Arkansas? Half the city is in Texas and half in Arkansas. Hence the name. Just a short while later we pulled into the Walmart in New Boston, Texas. There is 1 other motorhome here tonight. A couple from Kentucky on their way to Yuma, Arizona. They are staying at an RV park just down the way from Pilot Knob RV resort where we are headed to in the middle of December.

Well that brings you up to date. Tomorrow we will arrive at my cousin Wes’s place and we’ll be spending some time with him.

We just arrived home after spending 2 weeks with our daughter Sarah and son-in-law Jacob in Puyallup, Washington. While on the west coast Kim and I did a little site-seeing and a little shopping. Actually Kim was shopping and I was the chauffeur. Now on the other hand Kim and Sarah did a lot of shopping. We spent our evenings with Sarah and Jacob since they were working during the day. We had a great time just hanging out together. I received a very nice surprise from Sarah and Jacob. They had tickets for Jacob and I to go to a Seattle Seahawks game on the first Sunday we were there. We had great seats just a few rows from the field in the corner of the end zone. The Seahawks were hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. What a great experience. The fans are very loud and I tried to do my part as well. Of course everyone wears their Seahawks jerseys and such. And by looking at the names on the back of the jerseys it was obvious that I had lots of relatives in the crowd. It definitely is a different experience to see a game live rather than just seeing it on TV. Thanks Jacob for taking me along. I loved it. Another special event was a Michael W. Smith concert that Kim , Sarah and I went to. The concert was in Bellingham, Washington, so it was a bit of a drive and the venue was an beautiful old theatre called Mount Baker Theatre. We’ve been fans for quite a long time so it was a treat to see him in concert again. For those of you not familiar with his music, he is a songwriter and performer in what used to be called Contemporary Christian Music. I’m not sure if it’s called that still. We started listening to him back in the 80’s when he was touring with Amy Grant (also a Christian Artist). After the concert we were groupies hanging out by Michael’s touring bus to see if we could get a picture with him. We waited about 1/2 an hour and Michael came out of the theatre and stopped to say hi and we got a picture of us with him. Mission accomplished. Kim and Sarah like to do these things. A couple years ago Kim and Sarah went to an Amy Grant concert and waited for her outside by the buses and Amy came over and chatted with them for a bit and they had a picture with her too. There’s actually another time when Kim and I waited outside after a Donny and Marie Osmond concert in Toronto, but that’s whole other story in itself. The 2 weeks went by fast and now we’re home again.

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When we left Ingersoll it was a coolish 13ºC and we returned to -6ºC and about 6 inches of snow on our car. Its time to start making our way back down to the southwest for the winter. Actually I’m thinking it was time 2 weeks ago. Not liking the cold and snow this early in the season.

This spring, summer and fall has flown by. We spent much of it at home. Got some projects completed around the house and did manage to get to Rock Glen (our home campground) a few times through the summer. I’ll try to catch you up from where I left off in my last post.

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Around the 3rd week of June We drove the Motorhome up to Durham, Ontario to a place called ‘The Ridge’. Bill and Patsy spend their summers on The Ridge in their RV. It’s a great spot. There are wetlands and a pond on the property and it’s very quiet. There is also a fairly large grassy field that Bill can use to fly his RC planes. They have a huge flat gravel area around their RV that can accommodate the occasional visits from their RV friends. They have several out buildings. They invited us to bring the RV up and spend some time with them. We met Bill and Patsy for the first time in Quartzsite, Arizona back in January. Since then we have become good friends and this gave us a chance to hang out together and get to each other better. We all went on a trip to a flea market in Keady. It was kinda cool weather wise and there weren’t as many vendors as there might have been other days but it was quite large and there were many different kinds of vendors. A very nice market. One evening we went out to dinner at a place called Kettles. They had very good food…very nice. Mostly we just hung out for happy hours and evenings around the fire which was nice chatting and such. Rob and Pat joined us one day for happy hour, it was nice to see them again too. Bill was working on his ‘hangar”. He has built a small shop where he can build and work on his RC planes. It now has power and a big TV as well. It was coming along nicely at that point.

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Near the end of July, Kim and our oldest grandson Aden travelled out to Newfoundland with Kim’s Mom and Kim’s brother. Their destination was Hickman’s Harbour, a small fishing village on Random Island just a very short distance of the east coast of Newfoundland in Trinity Bay. Kim’s Mom grew up in Brittania, Newfoundland which is another tiny village on Random Island. Kim’s uncle Roy and aunt Lill live in Hickman’s Harbour, and that was where they were staying. Kim and I took Aden to Newfoundland a couple years ago in the Motorhome and he loved it and was very excited to be going back. Newfoundland is a beautiful province full of wonderful people. If you haven’t been, you should put it on your list. While they were there they spent some time down by the water gathering sea glass, one of Kim’s favourite things to do do when she near any body of water (except mud puddles). They also had the occasion to go out for tour of the sound on a boat owned by one of the locals. They did some of the touristy things too like going to Trinity and Bonavista. Their last few days were spent back in St. John’s and they took time to see the sites like Signal Hill and Cape Spear.

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While Kim was in Newfoundland I was busy painting all the exterior wood on our house. The front porch has a lot of exposed wood and it takes such a long time to paint. Also all of our windows are wooden so that means removing the aluminum storms from each before painting. And while I’m at it the windows all need to be cleaned. I think there are a total of 15 windows and 3 doors. Its was a lot of work but since we changed colour this time its looks really good.

In early August we took the Motorhome back up to Durham to Bill and Patsy’s place. We arrived on Wednesday the 7th and planned to stay until the following Wednesday. I mentioned earlier in the post that they had a nice flat gravel area that could accommodate other RV’s. Actually they were able to accommodate 4 other RV’s that week. We spent time with our hosts Bill and Patsy and friends Rob and Pat, George and Sue, and Ron and Lori. We spent our happy hours together and most evenings we all sat around a nice campfire. Lots of stories and lots of laughter. But we were all in on a secret except for Rob and Pat. There was actually a party planned for Rob and Pat’s 50th wedding anniversary and Rob’s 70th birthday. The party was planned and hosted by Rob and Pat’s son and daughter and was to be held at Rob and Pat’s house in Durham. Our job was to keep Rob and Pat away from their house and then get them to the party at the appropriate time. This proved to be no easy task. But all went well. Their were only a few fibs to be told in order to keep the ruse. The surprise was intact and Rob and Pat were very pleased to see many of their friends and family there to honour them.

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Some of the friends starting leaving on Sunday and Monday. We had planned to take a short trip up to my cousin Marg’s cottage up near Lionhead on the Bruce Peninsula for an overnight visit. Bill and Patsy allowed us to leave our Motorhome at their place. The drive was nice up around Owen Sound and through Wiarton on our way up. Nice scenic country along there. Because of high water levels on the great lakes this year the access road to their place has been flooded so we knew that Marg’s husband Chris would meet us with a boat to take us the final distance to their cottage. When we arrived at the place we texted our arrival and Chris said he would come get us……. in his rowboat!! We waited for a few minutes and soon Chris turned the corner and came down the flooded roadway… in his rowboat. We must have been quite the sight. Kim got in the back with the couple small bags we brought along, I was perched in the front with a big guitar case sitting behind me and Chris in the middle rowing us slowly along out across the water to their, now island, retreat. I think there’s a song we could have been singing.. Anyway, all was well and we arrived safe. Marg and Chris’s cottage was once a lodge and had a very nostalgic feel about it. Lots of bedrooms, a nice cozy living area with a fireplace and a large kitchen and eating area, The wooden table in the eating area was very large and unique. It was left by the pervious owners mainly because they couldn’t get it out the door. My cousin Wes from Texas and my cousin Andrew from Chicago were also visiting while we there. After our arrival and getting settled we sat around the big table and had some snacks and beverages and chatted about many things, not the least of which was telling family stories. The Wilson and Rawlin families are known for telling stories, and there are many. We spent the evening playing music. Wes is a fantastic guitar player and Chris is equally talented on Bass. Chris and I stayed up late into the night playing and chatting about music in general and the Beatles in particular. We’re both huge Beatles fans. The next morning we were not in a rush to leave but we were on the road by late morning heading back to Bill and Patsy’s. We arrived mid to late afternoon and enjoyed a last happy hour with them before our departure on Wednesday morning.

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Later in August we were at Rock Glen with our son Josh and daughter-in-law Tammy and the 3 grandsons, Aden, Ethan and Seth. Josh and family rented a cabin for a few days and we spent much of the days together. The boys like to come to Rock Glen because there are so many things for kids to do there. The favourites are the indoor play area with ball pits and climbing things, the indoor pool (because its nice and warm and shallow enough at one end so that even Seth can touch bottom) and mini golf. We had some nice days weather wise so that was nice too.

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Labour Day weekend we travelled up to Madoc, Ontario to Crystal Beach Campground on Moira Lake. Our friends Al and Mary have a trailer there and for the past few years we’ve been getting together on the Labour Day weekend with them. Al and Mary’s two daughters and their husband and fiance respectively were there as well. Much of our non eating times were spent together down at Al and Mary’s site. They have a beautiful spot right on the lake and Al has his boat tied to the dock in front. This is the same lake that we come to on the guy’s fishing time every year in May. On the Saturday there is a get together with Al’s family (brothers and sister and their families) as well as other friends in the campground. In previous years it’s been a fish fry but this year was a pot luck. It’s always a good time. We look forward to it every year. Al’s Dad passed away this past spring, I’ve known his Dad for quite a while. He was a great guy. Always full of life and laughter. He also had a trailer at the campground and would be there Labour Day weekend as well. He made us feel like part of his family. It wasn’t quite the same without Big Al this year.

Sarah came home in September for a short visit over an extended weekend. Arrived on Saturday morning and flew home on Tuesday morning. We turned it into an early Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend to surprise her. We had the traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings on Saturday late afternoon. Josh and Tammy and the boys came for dinner. Of course while she was here Kim and her did some shopping on Sunday, Ha.. While I watched football at home (good choice).

We were back in Rock Glen in September and met up with 2 couples we met last September at Lazy Lakes Campground near Newfane, New York. Actually we had met them briefly earlier in the year at Rock Glen. Bill and Barb and John and Wendy. We spent a couple happy hours and a couple evenings fires with them and a few others. They’re both great couples and we always have good fun with them

Several of my former coworkers at GM have retired this year, so we went to a couple retirement parties in September. The Cami Assembly plant opened in 1989, which is when I started, so this year many of the people who started working there at the beginning reached their 30 years and are eligible to retire. Many have retired already and quite a few more over the next year or so.

Well it’s a long post but i think that covers our summer and fall at home and about.

We have tentative plans to head south earlier this year. Last winter we didn’t leave home until the first week of January. This year were planning to head out November 23rd or thereabouts. Kim has a busy week and a half ahead of her and we’re planning to have early Christmas here this weekend, and if all goes well and we have a good weather window we’ll be on our way. Once we get back to travelling again I’ll try to keep everyone updated. But those of you who follow the blog know I’m a bit of a procrastinator 🙂 I’ll try to do better ;).

A last note before I close this post. Many of you know who George and Sue Yates are. Some know them personally and some may know of them because we speak of them a lot with our friends. We met George and Sue a year and a half ago at Rock Glen. We knew they were fulltime RV’ers and we had lots of questions for them about RVing. They were very gracious to share their knowledge with us. In many ways they’ve kinda been our RVing mentors. We have since become very good friends. We always look forward to spending time with them whenever we’re camped at the same location. We’ve been looking forward to spending another winter with them in southwest Arizona. George has been recently diagnosed with cancer and this year they will not be travelling to the southwest as usual. We did get a chance to visit with George and Sue before we headed out to Sarah’s house. We had a great visit and George was feeling pretty good. Was very nice to see the both of them before we head south. George and Sue, we’re going to miss our times together in the South. Take care of yourself, George, and we’re praying for you.

So here it is almost summer. Time has been flyng by and it has been quite a long time since I posted to the blog.  It’s time to catch you all up on what we’ve been doing.  If you remember we arrived back home the first week of April.  It was nice to be home again but there was much to do.  We live in a century home and old homes tend to require a lot of upkeep.  

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My first job was to replace our old knob and tube wiring with all new wiring.  Before we headed off to Arizona in January I went to see our Insurance Agent to find out what they required in terms of someone checking on our house regularly while we were gone.  While I was there they wanted to update some information about our house.  Oh Oh…   The first question was “Do you have any knob and tube wiring in your house?”..  Umm… yes.  Well that was the wrong answer.  They told be that I would have to have it replaced in order to keep my insurance with them.  They gave me a year to get it done.  So that is now my first project.  For those of you who don’t know what knob and tube is I’ll explain it simply.  From the early 1900’s to about the 1940’s, homes were wired with this method.  All the wiring is just 2 conductors (no ground).  Instead of the wires being together with a plastic sheathing around the outside, the wires were separate and were attached to opposite floor joists using ceramic insulators. Most electricians will tell you it still safe but the problems occur when modifications are done to the wiring.  The other issue is that the receptacles have no ground prong.  Nevertheless most insurance companies are now requiring it to be removed and replaced by new wiring.   So as you can imagine this is a very labour intensive job in a house with finished walls and ceilings.  My job was to fish wires through those walls and ceilings.  Our house is 2 stories high so without describing in detail the difficulties I’ll just say the task was very daunting.  In the end of it all I think I ran about 400 feet of new wiring and replaced many old receptacles and electrical boxes.  At some points it was very discouraging, especially at the beginning faced with such a huge task, but with Kim’s encouragement I took it one step at a time and managed to get it done.  I think it took a month to do and I spent much time on hands and knees in the attic crawl spaces.  In the end of it all I’m quite pleased with what I accomplished.  In the beginning I was thinking I was gonna have to open up walls and ceiling to getting the wiring through but I managed to keep any damage to a minimum with only some damage to walls around the receptacle boxes.  A little patching and some painting still to be done.  I saved myself a ton of money doing this myself and I’ll have an electrician come in to inspect my work and make any corrections.

Once I was done working on the wiring in the attic, Kim began to reorganize it.  We have a walk up attic and sizable area of it is finished.  But like most storage spaces they get cluttered after a while so she wanted to sort through some stuff and clear some space.  Her goal was to clear a space as a play area for our grandsons when they come to visit.  

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On May 12 we attended the baptism of our niece Ashleigh’s son Robert.  The baptism was at the Anglican Church in Lambeth and quite a few family members were there.  We all went out to eat at the Mandarin Restaurant in London afterwards.  The Mandarin is very nice and the food is very good, but it’s a little pricey.  We found ourselves comparing it to Lin’s Buffet in Yuma Arizona.  We raved about the food at Lin’s in one of our blogs back in February or March. 

Next on the agenda was some outside bush and tree pruning.  Kim is the gardener so she has spent a lot of time getting the gardens cleaned out.  We have many gardens around the yard so it takes her quite of bit of time in the spring getting those ready.  We had an old yew bush in the front yard that had gotten very overgrown and this spring I cut it down to the ground.  I still have to remove the stump but that can wait a bit.  We had a Wisteria bush along one side of our front porch that had just gotten too big and woody so that has come down too.  I left the root so it will probably grow up again if we let it.  We like the Wisteria but they are very aggresive so we’ll see.  

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I bought a Polisher for the Motorhome to see if I can buff out the oxidation on the exterior of the coach.  I managed to do a very small section while I was learning how to do it.  It does make the Coach look nicer going by the small area I did.  I’m sure it has never been done before and its going to be a time consuming chore.  I’ll continue to work on that over the summer amoungst all my other projects.  

I got the pool opened up in the middle of May.  It’s not a difficult process but it takes time to drain the water off the winter cover before removing it. Then hooking up the filter hoses and the clorinator and refilling the pool.  The water was pretty clean this year so just a matter of adding clorine and cleaning up the dirt in the bottom of the pool.  It’s still been cool this this spring so even up to the point of doing this blog I still haven’t been in the pool.  Aden, our oldest grandson, wanted to be the first one in the pool this year so when they were here at the end of May he jumped in.  In and out, faster than you can blink an eye, well almost.  I think it was 10 seconds.  That’s a brave boy, I think the water was only 64°F.  I’m usually the first one in each year but he beat me this year.

In May, in Canada, we celebrate Victoria Day with a long weekend, which is the weekend before the US Memorial Day weekend.  It’s commonly referred to as May two four or May 24th.  I went on my annual fishing trip with friends from work. This tradition has been ongoing for me for about 13 years.  Some of the guys have been doing this trip for 25 years or more.  This year, like all the rest that I’ve gone on, we went to Madoc Ontario to fish on Moira Lake.  This is a great Walleye spot and we’ve always had pretty good luck.  This year there were 14 of us and we rented a couple cottages for 4 days.  Lots of great fun and lots of fishing.  We had pretty good weather again this year.  It was a little cooler than some years and very little rain.  Our last full day there I do a huge fish fry. When I say I do it I mean I do the frying and some of the other guys do all the prep work.  All the fresh cut french fries and beer battered fish you can eat, and 14 guys can eat a lot.  It’s quite a feast.  But like every year the weekend is gone in a flash and it’s time to head home. 

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While I was gone for the weekend Kim had 2 of our grandsons visit her for a couple days. We have 3 grandsons but only the 2 oldest came this time. We enjoy having them visit and they always jump at the chance to come. They always have a good time together.

We managed to get some time to take the motorhome to Rock Glen (our home park) for a few days after the long weekend.  George and Suzie Yates were there so we had some time together with them at happy hour to catch up.  The weather was a little cool but that was okay.  Nice to get out in the RV again and great to catch up with friends.

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We only spent a few days at Rock Glen because our daughter Sarah was coming to visit for a week. She arrived on the 24th of May (not to be confused with May 24th weekend), and we picked her up at London airport. It’s always great to spend time with Sarah. She came alone this time. Our son-in-law Jacob stayed behind in Puyallup, Washington. Kim and Sarah spent a few days shoping together which they seem to love….go figure. Our evenings together we spent binge-watching the TV series X Company. Kim and I had seen it before but Sarah hadn’t and we enjoyed watching it again with Sarah. It’s a Canadian show so she can’t see in the USA. Sarah was here for a week but the time flew by and too soon we were taking her back to the airport. Hopefully we’ll fly out to see both Sarah and Jacob in the fall.

Kim and I celebrated a milestone on June 2 this year. It was our 40th wedding anniversary. So many years it doesn’t seem quite possible. But if you were to compare our wedding pictures with what we look like now you would believe it. Not Kim of course, she’s hardly aged. Sorry no wedding pictures will be included in this blog, you’ll have to take my word for it.

Our house is brick exterior with wooden windows and trim and we have a large front porch with a lot of exposed wood.  It’s time to repaint it all so the first job was to clean the wood.  The porch especially, was very dirty and I started to power wash it.  That is until I blew up my power washer.  So I finished the rest scrubbing by hand.  Not fun!!  Next up is to do a lot of scraping and then the painting can begin.  That will be an ongoing poject throughout the summer.

This past weekend we attended the wedding of Alyssa Winegarden and Brandon Humphrey. Alyssa is the daughter of our good friends Al and Mary Winegarden. Al and I worked together a Cami Assembly General Motors for many years and have become great friends. We enjoy spending much time together with Al and Mary and have gotten to know their family quite well. The last few years we’ve taken our Motorhome up to the campground where they have their trailer for the Labour Day weekend. That’s always a lot of fun.

Kim has been working pretty much each week since we’ve been back from Arizona.  She is self employed as a bookkeeper and does the books for Maple Grove Christian campground just outside of Thamesford which is only about a 15 minute drive from home.  When we arrived home in April she put in many hours to get ready for the annual audit, but once that was over she is back to 1 or 2 days a week.  She makes her own schedule so it gives us time to do what we want, when we want pretty much.  She likes the work so for now she’ll keep doing it.  She likes the extra cash too.  

We’re back at Rock Glen for a week.  We’re here til Tuesday.  George and Suzie are here again too so we’ve shared a couple happy hours together.  Yesterday was a nice sunny day so we drove into Grand Bend for a short time and walked on the beach for an hour.  Kim was searching for sea glass.  Quite a few people on the beach but not many venturing into the water.  It would still be a little chilly in there.  So today has been on and off again rain.  It rained most of last night.  Right now though there’s no rain but kinda cool outside, so we’ll stay inside.  A good day for writing a blog I guess. 

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So you’re pretty much up to date with us now. We’ve got a busy summer ahead of us.  Lots of tasks still to be done around the house.  We have plans to be out and about in our Motorhome at various times throughout the summer. I hope you are all doing well and I hope you’ve enjoyed catching up with us.  Have a great summer and hope to see some of you soon.

Ken 

Well, we left Wolf River RV resort on Wednesday morning. Our destination for the day was Jackson Mississippi. Our plan is to stop for the night in Jackson and join the Natchez Trace Parkway just north of Jackson and travel it up to its northern end over the following 2 days.

We travelled up I-49 from Gulfport to Jackson and stopped at the Walmart overnight. There was a lot of construction on I-49 as we entered Jackson and the road was pretty rough for a few miles. This Walmart was reasonably quiet later in the evening. In the morning (Thursday) we made a fuel stop at the Flying J nearby and then drove north to Ridgeway where we got on the Natchez Trace.

The Natchez Trace Parkway extends 444 miles from Natchez, Mississippi north to Pasquo, Tennessee near Nashville. You’ve probably never heard of Pasquo before and neither had I. It’s just a four corners southwest of Nashville a short distance. It probably sits just outside of the City limits. The Trace is a two lane road that is “off limits” to transport trucks and commercial vehicles. That makes it a great road for RV’ers and cars and bicycles. It has limited access points along its route so once you’re away from any urban centres there isn’t very much traffic. In some parts you can go for miles without seeing any other vehicle. But it’s the scenery on it that people love. For its whole length it feels like you’re driving through a park. Lots of trees and rivers and fields. There are also many places to turn off the road to hike or take pictures. Rv’ers, though, need to use caution when turning off as many of the turnouts are not friendly to big rigs and anyone with a toad. We are pulling a car on a dolly so we had to have an easy off and on without having to backup. After a time on the highway and because traffic was light, we would just slow down at the turnouts and see if it would work for us or not. The speed limit on the Trace is 50 mph and it is enforced. We did see one car that sped past us pulled over by a state trooper a few miles down the road. For the most part though we didn’t see a lot of speeders. As you get closer to Nashville the speed limit actually decreases to 40 mph.

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The last 25 miles or so of the Trace at the north end were very hilly and curvy so it was not really enjoyable for the driver. There was no time for me to look anywhere else except the road ahead. If we travel on the Trace again I would bypass this part. That being said, just a few miles from the end there is a bridge that you travel across that is elevated very high above the valley below and the view is fantastic.

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So to back up a little: We drove from Jackson to Tupelo Mississippi on the first day of the Trace. There are some free campsites on the Trace in this area but they are very small and fill up quickly depending on the time of year. There are also some private campgrounds in the area as well but of course you had to pay there. So we decided to try something new…lol. We’ve never been to the Walmart in Tupelo so we went there. Perhaps you didn’t know but Tupelo is famous. This is where Elvis was born. His childhood home is still here and it is a tourist stop. We unfortunately didn’t visit. I was concerned about trying to park our rig there. Next time through we’ll have to see it.

This is a nice Walmart. Very large lot and there seemed to be a separate parking area just for RVs and Trucks. By early evening there were about 6 RVs parked in this area. But unfortunately for us we had a trucker pull in right beside us who had a reefer trailer and both the truck and the reefer ran all night. So, as much as we had a nice spot, I started up the MH and moved. We found another spot that was far enough away that we could only barely hear the noise. I felt for sorry for the other RV’ers who were left to listen to it all night. While I was out earlier I noticed a couple of the small Motorhomes that seemed to be travelling together. One was obviously a rental. They had parked with their doors facing each other. Unfortunately their Walmart boondocking etiquette left much to be desired. They had their jacks down and all slides out. They had their chairs out and were sitting around a campfire. Albeit it was one of those portable propane ones but that is an absolute no no. Walmart allows overnight RV parking in most of their store parking lots as a courtesy to travellers on the road, but it’s this type a behaviour that makes us all look bad. If we abuse the privilege like this we may lose it. It’s not a campground folks. If you want to sit around the campfire find yourself a site somewhere else!

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So after we finished driving the trace on Friday we checked into a campground on the east side of Nashville for a couple nights. Our “go to” campground in the Nashville area is Two Rivers Campground which is situated near Opryland. There is a KOA park and a Yogi Bear park all close together in that area. We’ve stayed at Two Rivers twice in the past and it’s a great campground but it is a little pricey. I’m afraid I waited too long to try to get a reservation and they were full for the nights we wanted so we had to go with plan B. We stayed an I-24 campground and although a little cheaper than Two Rivers it just didn’t measure up. The sites were very close together and somewhat un-level. Many of the sites were quite short so space for big rigs is somewhat limited. The campground is currently being upgraded so it may improve in the near future, but as it was, it served our needs for a couple nights.

Saturday, we toured the countryside around Nashville. We went through Franklin, Tenn. and it was extremely busy. They were having an Elvis tribute weekend with Elvis impersonators from around the country participating. We actually spotted Elvis in our campground in the morning before we left. We drove under the high bridge of the Natchez Trace that I have already mentioned. Then through Belle Meade and into Nashville.

We drove to the downtown area and parked, and then a short walk down to Broadway Street. We’ve only been downtown on week days before and weren’t expecting the crowds that we saw this day. It was almost wall to wall people. All the bars were packed and music was blaring out into the streets from all of them. We did walk around and stopped into a few shops. We always make a stop at Earnest Tubb’s record store and we stood in line to get into Jack’s Bar-b-que for lunch. We’ve had Jack’s before and so it was worth the wait. We both had the Bar-b-que brisket and it was gooo-oood (say that like Andy Griffith would it say it). Another walk around for a bit and we were done. We got in the car and drove through town to Music Row. This is the area where a lot of the music industry has their offices and studios. We just took a quick drive through and then we headed back to the campground.

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The rain came that evening along with colder air. In the morning (Sunday) we packed up and headed north into Kentucky, skirted around Louisville and east on I-71 toward Cincinnati. We stopped at a Walmart in Carrollton for the night. Monday morning we drove east to I-75 and then south about 20 minutes to see The ARK Encounter. This is located just north of Williamstown. If you’ve never heard of this place, it’s a full size Noah’s Ark. The builders tried to reproduce the Ark to the size given in the Genesis account of the flood. The Ark measures 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high. Until you stand next to this thing it’s hard to conceptualize how big it really was. This boat was monstrous. Inside it has 3 decks and there are areas with examples of what the animal habitat may have been like as well as accommodations for Noah and his family. It really is an interesting place. There are many displays inside that address many questions that people may have about this period in history and the story of Noah and his family. If you go, give yourself lots of time. We spent a little over 3 hours there and we felt a little rushed.

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We had planned to be back on the road a little earlier but after a quick lunch we continued north on I-75 through Cincinnati and Dayton with our destination being Arrowhead Lakes Resort in Wapakoneta, Ohio. We arrived later than planned but we were met at the gate by our friend Bill Richards. We connected with Bill and Patsy earlier after we discovered we were so close to each other. Arrowhead is a membership park but Bill and Patsy were able to make reservations for us as their guests through Coast to Coast. It was so nice to meet up again. Rob and Pat Aljoe were here too so it was nice to meet up with them again also. We last saw the 4 of them in Yuma at the end of February. One last get together before we all arrive home in the next week or so. The 6 of us got together on Tuesday evening for one last extended Happy Hour. We always have lots of conversation and lots of laughter when we’re together.

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Wednesday morning we left Bill and Patsy and Rob and Pat at Arrowhead and began our last driving day back to Ingersoll. I think it took us about 5 hours to get home and we rolled into Ingersoll and our driveway a little after 4 PM. Within just a few minutes our neighbour Norm came over to welcome us home and shortly thereafter our son Josh stopped by. We have a few really great neighbours and Norm faithfully kept an eye on the house and checked it fairly regularly to make sure everything was in order. Josh also stopped in every few days to check on the place and pick up our mail. It sure made it easy to be away in the south for the winter. It was good to see Josh. Even though we chatted on occasion and did some Facetime with Josh and the boys it’s not the same as seeing someone in person. We are looking forward to seeing our Grandsons Aden, Ethan and Seth on the weekend. Josh and the family are going to come over on Saturday or Sunday.

Well, we’re home. That concludes this years’ Odyssey. I could call this adventure “There and Back Again” but I think Bilbo Baggins already used that title. We had a fantastic adventure nevertheless. We drove many miles, met lots of people, experienced lots of new things and saw lots of new places. We’ve been waiting for the opportunity to take to the road, and now that I’ve retired at least we have begun the adventure. The Journey has begun. Kim has put a sign in the Motorhome that says “It’s Good to be Lost in the Right Direction”. I like that. Thanks for sharing our Journey with us. I’ll periodically be posting blog updates throughout the summer (by now you know how regularly to expect them). We look forward to many things throughout the Summer. Our calendar is already beginning to fill. And not least of all will be seeing many of our Winter friends here and there this summer. Have a wonderful season in the North and, God willing, we’ll all meet again next year in the southwest desert.

So I’m way behind in my blogging.  I’ll try to bring things a little more up to date with this blog and then I’ll maybe catch up on the next one.

When I last posted we were arriving at Wolf River RV park in Pass Christian, Mississippi.  Thursday was a bit of a relaxing day.  After lunch we drove to the beach at Long Beach.  That is just a little east of Pass Christian.  US 90 travels all along the coast from where we are to Biloxi to the east.  The beach on one side and homes and businesses on the other.  It’s interesting to see all of the newer construction (especially homes) being built on stilts.  After hurricane Katrina went through many of the buildings were destroyed.  If not by the winds, the storm surge was so strong and high it knocked over most everything.  There are still some older homes that withstood that storm, but most of them were on raised areas.  There are some beautiful homes all along the coast.  We stopped at a beach near Gulfport and Kim and I walked the beach for a while to do a little beach-combing.  It was a beautiful day and the wind was from the north so the water was very calm.  Kim managed to find a few things but there was no beach glass to be had.  If you are in this area at some point be sure to spend some time along the shore.

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We decided to venture into New Orleans on Friday, so we headed out relatively early.  It took about an hour to drive into the city.  The traffic wasn’t too bad on the way in.  Parking is at a premium in the city, especially near the French Quarter, and that is where we were headed.  I had tried to read up on the parking ahead of time so I knew approximately where to go.  We found parking along the river within a relatively short walking distance to the quarter and parked in a compact car spot.  We made sure we weren’t hanging over the lines designating the short space.  If you decide to park close to the Quarter be prepared to pay quite a bit for parking.  It cost us $35 to park for 3 hrs.  If you go over your time or you are parked in a no parking zone there are many parking attendants who are quick to give you a ticket. Your ticket will include a boot being applied to one of your wheels.  They don’t seem to tow vehicles very much.  But the boot is a quick money grab for them.  To have the boot removed you must call a number on your ticket and they will remove it for $98.  When we arrived back at our car we had about 10 min left and there was an attendant busily issuing tickets and putting boots on wheels.  We heard him on his radio letting his people know he had just placed 17 boots on in our little area alone.  There were going to be a lot of unhappy people when they returned to their cars.  A full sized pickup was parked next to us and his was also a compact car space.  I noticed his boot was on.  So if you park in New Orleans be aware of the parking police.  There are some alternatives.  There are parking areas further away where you can leave your vehicles and take transit in to the city but of course they are a little less convenient.

So enough about parking.  We toured around the French Quarter for our time there.  It was a Friday but it was very crowded.  On the main streets it was wall to wall people.  We walked along Decatur St. which is the street that runs close to the River.  There are lots of shops along here as well as restaurants.  This is also where you will find Cafe du Monde which is popular for its Beignets.  We wanted to try some of them but there was a long line of people waiting to get in so we passed it by.  We walked along some of the side streets and checked out the buildings.  There are some really nice historic buildings in the Quarter.  Many with balconies overhanging the streets.  We also walked along the famous Bourbon St.  This is mostly all bars with a few eating places as well.  I know this is a popular area for visitors to New Orleans, but we found it very unsavoury, dirty and smelly.  Once down the street and we were done. 

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There is a parklike area in the Quarter called Jackson Square and there were lots of artists displaying their wares and also some buskers.  Right next to the square is a Tobasco Country store and we did go in to look around and buy a few items including some Tobasco Louisiana Steak Sauce for our friend George Yates.  There was a jazz band playing near the square that was very good.  It looked like it might have been a family group.  There was a Sax, Trombone, Tuba and Drums.  They played real dixeland jazz and they were good. 

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Before we left the quarter we did manage to try some beignets.  We went to Cafe Beignet..  The line at Cafe du Monde was still very long.  The line at Cafe Beignets was much shorter but it still took 45 minutes to get in and sit down.  Beignets are a square donut-like pastry covered in powdered sugar.  They were good but not what I was expecting.  Our parking time was just about up so we went back to the car and headed over to the Garden District.  Our impression of the French Quarter when leaving was a little meh.  Not real impressed.  We’re glad we went and saw it and some of it was nice, but overall it didn’t live up to all the hype.

The Garden District is fairly close to the French Quarter and is known for the large old homes that line the streets.  We had a walking tour map that we got at the visitor centre in the Quarter and so we toured around the neighbourhood on foot.  In the centre of the Garden District is an old cemetery that is surrounded by a high wall.  As were arrived they were closing the gates for the day so we didn’t get a chance to walk around in the cemetery.  I took a couple photos through the gate.  The cemetery is filled with large family crypts.  These are very old and this cemetery was used by the former affluent residents of the district.  The homes in this area are beautiful.  This is a must see in New Orleans.  There are many different architectural styles and they are all very unique.  Very Nice.  We spent about an hour and a half in the area.  Oh and the parking here is on the street and its free for 2 hours.

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So that was our day in New Orleans.  I had hoped to see the ninth ward which is where the brunt of the damage from the levees breaking during Katrina was felt.  But we had run out of time, so maybe if we’re here again we will see that.

We met a couple here in the RV park one afternoon.  Brad and Shelley were their names.  They stopped by one afternoon and we chatted together for quite a while.  They are from the Gulfport area and live in their 5th wheel full time.  They stay here in this park in the winter and then head north in the summer when it gets very hot here in the south.  They returned a little later in the afternoon and invited us on the back of their golf cart for a little ride along the river.  It was a short ride back to an area with a small beach where people like to have campfires and such.  During our conversations Kim asked them where the good local places are to eat and they gave us some suggestions.  Its always nice to ask local people where they like to eat cause you know they are the good places.  They actually invited us with them for lunch the next day at a small local restaurant.  We went to Martha’s with them.  It’s only open for lunch during the week and lunch and dinner on the weekends. Each day they have a different special.  Today the special was Red Beans and Rice.  Kim loves red beans and rice.  The restaurant was fairly small but large enough for probably 40 people or so.  It was almost packed.  And we were probably the only non locals there.  Martha’s probably doesn’t show up on search engines like yelp or trip advisor.  But the food was great.  Kim had the rice and beans and I was unadventurous and had a BLT with fries.  There are a fair number of choices on their menu with some southern dishes in the mix.  Probably one of the best places we’ve eaten at on this trip.  Thanks Brad and Shelley for inviting us.  We spent another evening with Brad and Shelley around their campfire.  Southern hospitality at its best.

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We went to the beach a couple more times during the week but none of the other days was as nice as the first.  The winds were blowing in from the gulf and the water was rougher and the winds stronger. We did stop at the Visitor’s Centre near the Lighthouse in Biloxi. This place is very nice. There is a display inside that gives some history of the area and talks about the damage done by Hurricane Katrina. It is well put together and worth seeing. When we entered the Visitor’s Centre we signed the guest register and listed our home city. As were walking around inside a fellow walked past me and I said “Hi” like I normally do. A few minutes later he walked past again and said… “Are you from Ingersoll?” He told me that when he signed the register he noticed our names from Ingersoll and when he walked by and I said “Hi” he knew that I was probably the one from Ingersoll. He said no one around here says “Hi” like that. LOL. This guy was from Otterville, Ontario about 20 minutes from Ingersoll.

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Of course we couldn’t leave the area without going out for a catfish dinner one more time.  As we did on the way west back in January, we went to Jenny’s Catfish restaurant in Ocean Springs, east of Biloxi.  Kim had catfish and this time I had the Southern Fried Chicken.  Both were excellent.  The portions were quite large so we had leftovers to take with us.

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Hope you enjoyed this belated post. I’ll try to bring it up to date on the next installment.

Friday started out like any travel day.  We wanted to get on the road fairly early.  I had the car on the dolly and ready to go on Thursday while all the wild wind was happening.  So I was doing my regular pre-trip routine of checking air pressure in the tires on the Motorhome and dolly.  When I checked the right outside rear tire the valve stuck open.  OH Crap!!  I fiddled with it to try to get it to seal but it was no good.  My mind went back to our trip last September when we had the same thing happen while we were staying at a winery overnight.  $$$$$ signs flashed before my eyes as I remembered that situation.  But there was no stopping the escape of air.  I remembered the tech guy at that time had removed the core and got a new one in before we lost all air and then all he had to do was fill the tire with air and we were good to go.  Ok,  I can do that.  I had bought some valve cores at a Walmart earlier just in case.  I removed the core and the air came gushing out.  I tried as I might to put that new core in but I wasn’t successful.  There was just too much air coming out.  So I waited until the pressure in the tire dropped enough and then got the new core in.  Needless to say there wasn’t much air left in the tire.  Now here’s a dilemma; tire fixed, still flat.  The thing is I drive a diesel pusher with a built in air compressor for the air brakes and air bags.  I just have to get that air in the tire.  Fortunately I had bought 2 lengths of air hose at Walmart and Harbour Freight in the past couple of months.  And on the from the coach is a schrader valve tied to the coach air system.  When I was at the Arizona Market Place a few weeks ago I found a fitting that would lock my air hose to the schrader valve.  Time to give it a try.  I had to add a couple fittings to the air hoses and then got it hooked up to the coach.  Kim helped me stretch the hose (the 2 hoses were 25′ each but were of the coiled variety and barely reached 25′ combined back to the tire) and voila it worked.  Within just a few minutes the tire was full again.  Yayyyy.  I have to tell you, I was a little stressed.  Back in September I had to call a Mobile Truck Tire Service to come and it cost around $500 CDN for the call.  This time the parts cost me about $30 and I was good.  If you own a Diesel Pusher you need to check into how this could work for you.  Some coaches are already equipped to do this and others need to have a connection installed but if you avoid one service call you’re way ahead of the game.

So we continued to get ready to get on the road and made a stop in Yuma at a tire service store.  I had them install a new valve stem on this tire.  This was the same tire that I had the problem with in September.   They got me in right away and I was on the road in about an hour.  They cleaned and remounted the tire with new balance beads and valve stem and the cost was about $72 US.  I was happier.

We got a late start but we did manage to drive to Benson, Arizona that day and stopped at the Walmart overnight.  This was a good overnight but we did hear a few sirens.  There were signs posted for no overnight parking but according to my Allstays App it wasn’t enforced and we had no problems.

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On Saturday we got on the road fairly early and headed further east.  Coming across New Mexico we were driving into a strong headwind with off and on rain and the temperature had dropped significantly.  I stopped in Deming, New Mexico for fuel at the Flying J and it was cold.  The wind was blowing and the rain was falling and the temp was 5C.  I was out there pumping diesel in shorts and a tee shirt.  The locals must have thought I was crazy.  And did I mention it was cold?  As we continued on the road we noticed snow in the fields beside the road.  It wasn’t a lot but wes enough to cover the ground.  Not exactly what you would expect in southern New Mexico.  We drove to El Paso, Texas that day and stopped at the Walmart overnight.  This is a nice Walmart but it was a Saturday night and it must have been drag night because the cars were racing up and down the street until quite late.  There was also a Fire Hall nearby too because we heard a lot of sirens during the night too.  We stayed here on the way west and then it was actually a nice quiet stay.

Sunday on the road again.  Was a nice morning for a drive.  Our intention was to stop in Big Springs to go to an Air Force Museum there but we discovered that it is closed on Sundays so we continued on.  We drove from there to Sweetwater, Texas.  We stopped at a… can you guess?  A Walmart.  This was a nice parking area and we had stopped here also on the way west.  We had a good spot and there were a few RV’s around us.  As it became dusk a fellow in a Diesel Pickup pulling a trailer of fabricated steel pulled in amoung us and parked.  No problem you might think, but this guy slept in his truck over night and left it running alllll nighttttt.  It was not a good night’s sleep for me.  If I got 4 hours that would be stretching it.  I thought a few times about getting up and moving but didn’t.  

When we got up Monday morning we went to the gas station in the Walmart lot to get fuel.  When we pulled in on Sunday we were getting near empty.  The price on diesel was really cheap.  The only problems was the pumps weren’t working properly.  I spent about 20 minutes getting 14 gallons.  Well that was enough to get me on the road and I knew there was a Flying J up the road about 30 miles.  So on we went.  When we arrived at the Flying J we noticed that our friends George and Sue were still there (they had spent the night in their parking area).  While I fueled up Kim strolled over to their RV to surprise them.  They actually were quite surprised.  After fueling I pulled the Motorhome over beside theirs and we chatted for a bit.  We ended up going into Denny’s together for coffee and chatting before we parted ways and headed off in separate directions.  We’ve spent the last few days lagging behind George and Sue on the road east but we finally caught up at the Flying J.  Very nice to see them again. 

So we continue on east with a destination of my cousin Wes Wilson’s place.  He and his neighbour friend Steve arranged for us to park at the local Fire Station overnight.  It seems Steve has connections.  He’s actually a volunteer firefighter at that station.  We certainly appreciated his hospitality and that of the Fire Department.  We got the car unhooked, so to speak, and headed over to Wes’s house for the afternoon and evening.  We had a great time as usual visiting with Wes.  He had invited Steve to join us but he had a Firefighters meeting to attend to that night.  So early in the evening Kim, Wes and I are sitting on Wes’s front porch having our “tea”.  Steve pulls in the driveway.  Meeting was adjourned early.  It seems the Fire Chief’s cows had got out and were wandering the roads.  He was looking for volunteers to help him round them up.  Actually that’s not really a problem. folks down here are always willing to help their neighbours. Steve though, decided to come over for a vist instead.  Steve is a great guy and we were happy to have him join us.  There were lots of stories and lots of laughter too. The night was getting late so Kim and I said good bye to Wes and headed back to the motorhome.

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Tuesday morning arrived and we got the car on the dolly and headed off.  Our destination was either Shreveport, Louisiana, or if we were up for it, we would drive a little further to Alexandria, Louisiana.  We made it to Alexandria and pulled in a Walmart for the night.  Nice big Walmart and very large parking lot.  We picked a nice spot far from the store and parked.  We had a few other Rv’s join during the afternoon and evening and it was a pleasant stay.  I slept very well. 

Wednesday our travels brought us to Pass Christian, Mississippi.  On the way through the more eastern part of I-10 you travel about 19 miles on a raised causeway over the bayou. A really nice ride and the views are beautiful.

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We’re staying at Wolf River RV Resort for the next 7 days.  It’s a nice clean campground.  Nothing fancy, but the sites are level and the hookups are good.  We’re about 20 minutes to Biloxi and a little over a hour to New Orleans.  It was easy access from I-10 and a few miles away so there isn’t much noise around.  This is an AOR (Adventure Outdoor Resorts) campground, so because of our membership at Rock Glen Resort in Arkona, Ontario our cost is $9 US per night.  Pretty cheap camping.  The weather here for the next week is going to be 20C + each day and lots of sun. We’re going to use these next few days to relax and spend time at the beach.  The beaches along the gulf coast are very nice.  They are very wide and its nice white sand.  We also plan on taking a trip into New Orleans at some point.

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And now you’re caught up again. We’ll soon be making our way back north to Ontario. Not yet though; we’re holding off as long as possible. Hope you enjoyed the post and I’ll update you again soon.

Wednesday was a workday for Kim so I got busy on my blog post which was titled Quartzsite, Bullhead City, and Route 66 and was posted here last week.

On Thursday we decided to drive back to Kingman in the morning.  When we were here earlier we didn’t have much time to look about.  So this time we stopped in the old business area and walked around a bit to get a few pictures of some of the buildings.  It was a coolish day and a little windy but we did do a little walking.  There are still quite a few buildings from the golden years of Route 66.  You can tell by the style of the bulding.  A lot of Art Deco inspiration and originally there would have been lots of neon lights. 

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We stopped at the visitor centre again and toured the small Route 66 Museum they have there.  The cost was small Adults $4 and Seniors $3, and it also included admission to the the Mojave County Museum.  The display at the visitor’s centre was limited but interesting.  We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel and then went to the Mojave Museum after.  This is a must see if you’re into history.  The collection is quite expansive and covers a lot of different aspects of the history of the area.  We headed back to camp at Bullhead City mid afternoon. 

While we were sitting outside a guy stopped by while walking his dog and asked where we were from in Ontario.  He said he was from Grimsby.  They just arrived in the park today and are soon headed to the east coast and Myrtle Beach on their way home.  We chatted for a bit and a little later his wife and him stopped by and we chatted again.  Their names are Bjorn and Els Christensen.  They are travelling in a large 5th wheel and this is their first trip with the rig.  

Friday we drove across the river to visit a couple casinos in Laughlin, Nevada.  I got a players card at the Riverside Hotel to see if I would get any free stuff.  We got a 2 for 1 coupon for the buffet.  While in the Hotel we toured around a bit.  They had a big bowling alley and I think there was some kind of tournament going on.  Also in the hotel is a car display.  It cost $2 each to enter so we paid our money and had a look around (My admission was free with the players card).  It was an impressive display of vintage cars from the early to late 20th century.  I really enjoyed this;  lots of old cars from before my time and also lots of cars from 50’s-60’s-70’s.  There were also some late model cars on display as well.  Photography was allowed so I got lots of pictures.   

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It was now mid afternoon and too late for the lunch buffet so we went down the street to In-N-Out Burger instead…mmmmm.  We’ll maybe use that buffet coupon tomorrow.

Saturday morning was laundry time so we spent a couple hours doing that and touring around the park while waiting.  We decided to go back to the Riverside for lunch.  The cost was around $9.99 so with the coupon it was $5 ea.  Good price, and the food was good.  It definitely wasn’t as good as Lin’s Buffet in Yuma but it’s hard to beat Lin’s.  After lunch we drove back to the Arizona side of the Colorado River and looked for a place to park by the water.  We found a nice spot and Kim spent some time beachcombing.  The sun was warm and it was a nice day for stroll.  

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For a while now Kim has wanted to rearrange our outdoor storage compartments.  So Sunday was the day.  We pulled everything out and began to do a massive reorganization.  If you know Kim very well you know she loves organizing.  The trouble with storing anything in an RV is  you want to maximize your space and still be able to access things when you want them. It’s frustrating when the things you want are at the back and you have to take out everything in front to get to them.  The results after the exercise were good.  We tried to keep like things together and keep things accessible.  We saw Bjorn and Els early in the day and invited them over for happy hour if they had time later. They’re pulling out tomorrow so they had some things to take care of during the day Sunday.

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Early in the afternoon we set up a video chat with Josh and the boys.  It’s nice to be able to do that and stay connected to them.  It was Ethan’s birthday on Tuesday the 12th so that was one of the reasons to chat with him in particular.  Everyone is doing good and we’re looking forward to seeing them all when get back in a few weeks.

Bjorn and Els stopped by and we visited for quite some time.  Bjorn is a sailing enthusiast.  He owns a C&C 33 sailboat and they sail out of Port Dalhousie Yacht Club.  He and I chatted at length about sailing and racing.  Many years ago I used to sail with a family friend named Gord Clarke.  He had a Viking 33 which is a sister model to the C&C.  Both were made by C&C Yachts in Niagara-on-the-Lake.  We also used to race in Port Dover back in the late 80’s.  We seemed to have many things to talk about between sailing and RVing and things in general.  It was very nice meeting them and hopefully we’ll meet up again.

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Monday morning we also packed up and moved on.  This time heading back down to Yuma into the BLM area behind Pilot Knob.  This is a free area and we’re going to stay here until Friday and then start making our way East.  We had a little rain on the way but nothing too significant.

Tuesday we drove into Yuma to go to Walmart for a few groceries and also a couple other stops.  While in town the rain came pouring down.  We haven’t seen rain like that at all in Arizona and it was like a heavy rain storm back in Ontario.  The roads weren’t able to handle all the water and the sides of the roads became big puddles of water.  When we got back to the BLM it appeared as if there had been very little rain all day.

We drove down to Mexico for one last time on Wednesday for a Breakfast/ Lunch at La Tetilla Restaurant and while in Mexico I got a haircut for $4 plus a tip.  Probably not the best haircut I’ve ever had but was pretty good and it was fast and cheap.  It’s much better than it was anyway.  It took us about and hour and 45 minutes to get back through US customs and while in line we chatted with a young couple ahead of us.  He is a Border Patrol agent based out of Yuma.  He shared of his experiences on patrol.  There definitely is a serious problem here on the US/Mexico border.  The numbers of people who are crossing the border from Mexico on a daily basis is staggering.  Most are apprehended but there are many that get through.  It’s a very long border to patrol and not enough border agents to do the job.  Right now there are Marines and National Guard posted to border duties in the area.  So, anyway, we made our way back to camp which is only a few miles away from the border crossing.  We can actually see the border wall to south of our camp, maybe a mile or 2 off in the distance.

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So here it is Thursday and this morning we drove in to the Arizona Market Place in Yuma just for fun and picked up some bread at Walmart.  I’m sitting here in the afternoon, catching up my blog.  It’s quite windy here today and when the gusts pick up it’s very strong.  All of a sudden the motorhome starts to shake and the sound is like a huge vacuum cleaner.  Outside the sand is blowing wildly and so I rush to the front window to see what happened and there’s this rather broad Dust Devil travelling away from us.  I think it hit us almost dead on.  It was actually very freaky.  Just like a little tornado.  I grabbed my phone as quick as I could to shoot a video and by the time I got recording, the dust devil was off in the distance a little but I did get some footage of it.  That was a very interesting experience to say the least.  That wind had some power. The wind isn’t letting up at all and we’ve seen 2 more dust devils blow through around us.

Soooooo….. now the car is all hooked up and everything is put away. If we need to, we’re outta here. Other than the wind, it’s been a bright, warm sunny day. Anyway, I hope your day has been good. I’ll post again soon.

Ken