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November 8, 2007 - Preparations

We are running down the last of the "to-do" list of items to prepare for our departure to the sunny southern climate of Arizona and Mexico next week.

What we didn't expect to see before we left was SNOW!!

The following images remind us that it's time to leave.



Only Kasey seems to be enjoying the snow:



Thursday November 15/07

On the road!!

We left home this morning, and we are in Pinery Provincial Park in Grand Bend. Tomorrow, we cross at Sarnia and we head for Monroe Michigan.

It was cold and rainy on the way over(it still is), We also ran into light snow on the 401 between Guelph and London.

Here is a picture of the camp site in Riverside campground, there are about a half dozen brave souls camping here right now.



Friday November 16/07


Harbortown RV Resort - Monroe Michigan


We had an uneventful crossing at Sarnia/Port Huron today and we decided to de-winterize the RV here. It's going down to almost freezing tonight, but is going to be warmer in Indiana tomorrow (we hope!) so we should be OK. The diesel prices here are about the same as Ontario. We did some shopping to fill up the fridge, so we are good for a couple of days. The cable TV isn't working (ether that, or I am technically challenged) and I'm too lazy to put the sat dish up, so we are on wifi and getting the TV signal off the antenna.


We met some great folks last evening at Pinery, they are actually heading north to camp!!


Saturday November 17, 2007

Auburn KOA near Garrett Indiana


We made the easy 250 Km. drive from Monroe and got here after noon today. We probably could have gone on to Columbus (tomorrow's stop), but we are taking it easy, besides, snow is in the forecast!

It's a good stop, we put out the internet dish, so we can also have Canadian TV tonight! No pictures taken, because it's rainy and cold (nothing to show).


Sunday November 18, 2007

Woods-n-Waters RV Resort near Columbus Indiana


We arrived at this campground around 1:00 pm this afternoon. The sun was shining for a change, we got out of the RV for some walks and picture taking:


The weather is starting to improve, Bowling Green should be better tomorrow!


Monday November 19, 2007

Bowling Green KOA


We made it into this campsite around noon (central time) today, and we are enjoying the warmer weather. It's around 19C during the day, it's great to be in light clothing! It would be better if the sun was out, but you can't have everything.


Some pictures:


The leaves have not dropped from the trees yet, and there are still birds around!




This is a picture of the camp site, we actually spent time sitting outside.



We are off to Natchez Trace in Tennessee tomorrow, we bought steaks in the hopes of having a BBQ!


Tuesday November 20, 2007

Natchez Trace State Park Tennessee

We are following our 300 km. daily mileage drives, we arrived  here around 1:00 pm central time today.

The temps were around 20 C all afternoon, so we had a couple of steaks on the grill for supper. It's a nice park,  full services for $17.50 per night.

A couple of pictures:

These are some of the unused sites (we will try one of these in the spring!)



This is our site, Kasey is looking at the camera, I'm hiding behind the BBQ!



Tomorrow, it's off to a state park in Arkansas!


Wednesday & Thursday November 21/22, 2007


Village Creek State Park, near Wynne Arkansas


We got into this very nice state park on Wednesday afternoon after a bit of a difficult drive. We encountered some heavy rain on the way in from Natchez Trace (we packed up in the pouring rain!).

Just before we got into this state park, we took a rock hit on the windshield exactly in front of my eye, luckily we found a auto glass repair shop in Wynne. The repair looks good, now the spot looks like a bug smear, at least it is less noticeable.

On top of that, we broke a moulding in the RV, caused by one of the reclining chairs fouling the slide-out when we extended the slide.

To top off the evening, we sat out a tornado/severe thunderstorm warning ( I think it's the same storm that is hitting Ontario and Quebec with snow).

All the above (and the fact that the roads are busy today, it being the American Thanksgiving) made us decide to stay another day to relax and do some minor repairs. It's a great park to stay at, although we could do with some warmer weather (it's only about 3C outside after the cold front went through).


Suzette took some pictures:

This is our site, it backs out onto a valley and a lake in the distance





The sites are great! All paved, full services and some pull-throughs:




Another Rv'er has a good looking unit and an internet dish:


This park actively welcomes horse owners, they offer a campground with stalls and other facilities, and they are being used!



Tomorrow, it's another day in Arkansas, then we hit Texas!


Friday November 23, 2007

Hot Springs KOA, Hot Springs Arkansas

We stopped at this KOA to do some laundry and search out a Chinese food take out to extinguish a craving!

This community is the birth place of Bill Clinton, we covered some of the downtown area in the search for the take-out. It appears to be a bit of a depressed area, lots of closed stores and properties for sale.

We didn't check out the nearby national park, we are trying to head south to get into warmer weather. Today it's off to Texas, we hope to get through Dallas/Fort Worth before the weekend is over.


Saturday November 24, 2007

Lake Bob Sadlin State Park near Mt Pleasant Texas


We made it into this state park in east Texas in the early afternoon and got thoroughly soaked setting up the camper in the site. The weather is thoroughly SHITTY for Texas, it's in the low single digits C and some told us that Abilene Texas (we head there on Monday) got 3 inches of wet snow. We are wearing out our sweaters and jeans, we expected to be in shorts and T shirts by this time. This is being written from Mineral Wells state park as we were in the trees and couldn't get on-line.


Sunday November 25, 2007

Lake Mineral Wells State Park, near Mineral Wells Texas

We passed through Dallas and Fort Worth today en route to this park about 50 miles west of FW, there was a tractor-trailer accident in Dallas that caused about a half hour delay, and we took a wrong exit on I-30, but Jill our trusty GPS navigator got us back on-track.

The weather is still cold and rainy, the only bonus is that there are a lot of deer in the state parks, Kasey is having a great time on his walks.

This is pick up truck country, when replenishing groceries at a Wal-Mart super store, a lady came through the lot in a new  GM crew cab dually and navigated the monster right up to a parking slot close to the entrance, these folks know how to handle their trucks!

We are hoping for some drier weather once we get further west into the desert area of Texas. We feel sorry for Kasey, as he is getting some walks, but is doing too much sleeping!

Monday November 26, 2007

Abilene State Park, Abilene Texas

We got here just after noon today, a shorter run on good interstates, less than 200 km.

We were told about the snow in Abilene, on the run over from Mineral Wells there were a lot of car tracks off into the ditch and medians and some debris left from accidents. Snow was evident at the higher elevations.

This park is south of Abilene, it got more snow as shown in the following pictures taken by Suzette when I was putting up the dish:





As you may note, Kasey has been "shaved" in anticipation of warmer weather down south. We are not sure if he is cold, but true to tradition he rolled in the wet snow!



We thought this picture of cacti covered in snow was neat.  They have a fire ban posted  (I guess it was dry before the snow)





This is a sign in the campground! When we first came across it, we came to a screeching halt!

We took the right fork and found our campsite!



Tomorrow morning, we need to find propane, then it's off to the west Texas desert.

Tuesday November 27, 2007

Monahans Sand hills State Park near Monahans Texas

We are officially in the desert!!

We arrived early this afternoon and after settling in, we shopped in Monahans, didn't get a lot of stuff and we couldn't find a propane filling station.

On our way over we noticed that most of the oil pumping rigs were not operational east of Midland Texas, but the rigs were active around Midland and Odessa. Looks like the US is running out of domestic oil. We also note that Midland set a new record for receiving an inch and a half of snow over the weekend!!

Our campsite is in the desert, as shown in the following pictures taken by Suzette:







Kasey enjoys the sand (and so do we!), it's off to Carlsbad tomorrow, for some R&R and cave exploring.

Wednesday and Thursday November 28-29/07

Carlsbad KOA - Carlsbad New Mexico

We are now on Mountain time (another adjustment!!) and in this nice KOA just north of Carlsbad. It got into shirtsleeves temps on Wednesday afternoon, we set up and then shopped in Carlsbad.

The owners here indicated that they got about 6 inches of snow last weekend, must have been a record.

Today (Thursday) we head for the caverns National Park for some exploring.

Some initial pictures:







Thursday - Carlsbad Caverns

We took the run down past Carlsbad to the Caverns National Park to take the self guided tour. The Caverns are amazing, I'm sure that hundreds of thousands of rolls of film have been taken (with not many pictures turning out because of the darkness!).

Fortunately, with the digital camera, I had better luck. The pictures are a little grainy because of the correction required (I'm sure with a top end Nikon, the results would be better - hint, hint Suzette!).





I couldn't resist taking a picture of this particular formation!



Outside, the scenery was almost as good as inside the Caverns:



The Caverns were awesome, well works staying around for the extra day.

Friday and Saturday Nov 30/Dec 1, 2007

Rock Hound State Park near Deming New Mexico

We arrived at this state park about 4:00 pm on Friday after leaving Carlsbad. We broke 2 of the 3 "Rule of Two" edicts  - we went over 400 km., more than the max 200 mile limit, and we arrived in the campsite after 2:00 pm.

As a result, the driver was somewhat "crusty"  considering that we went through El Paso and had to  stop for fuel en route. As a result, the navigator was also "crusty", but after a nights sleep (This is being written on Saturday) we are more relaxed. Note to self - DON'T BREAK THE RULE AGAIN!

Overnight there was lots of rain and wind, enough wind to move the sat dish off the assigned bird (but it didn't blow over). Today, we head for the hiking trails and later we have dinner with Chuck and Dee.

Some hiking pictures:

The scenery is fantastic, and as can be seen, the weather cleared.



More of the same:



With the rain, I'm sure the desert will be in full bloom in a short time:



On Saturday evening, we had a great dinner with Chuck and Dee in Deming (thanks for the great restaurant selection Dee!).

Today we head towards Roper Lake SP in Arizona, the temp looks a little warmer there (not that we are complaining considering the snow and freezing rain that the Toronto area is receiving right now!).

Sunday/Monday  December 2/3, 2007

Roper Lake State Park near Safford Arizona

We arrived in Roper Lake just after noon today, an easy run from Deming.

The temperatures are warm, we are heading for a trail around the lake.

We like this park because of the abundance of waterfowl and other wildlife around the campsite - it is an adventure taking Kasey for walks, particularly the last walk of the night and the first in the morning! This morning, there were 3 rabbits just outside the door - you get your leash arm stretched in these situations.

Some pictures of Sunday's walk around the lake:





These guys swam close to the dock, even though Kasey was within a few feet, I think that they have been fed by the locals:





On Monday morning we took a hike up to the Mesa, this is what the lake looks like in the distance:



We are off to Tucson tomorrow, and we prepare for the run into Mexico later in the week.

Tuesday to Thursday December 4/6, 2007

Beaudry RV Resort - Tucson Arizona

We arrived here just before noon today, today is laundry day. We will go out for dinner later this evening.

It's officially warm, I'm sitting in the RV with the A/C on for the first time this trip, it's short weather outside!

We had a great time at Beaudry, the Jacuzzi was used by Suzette at least a couple of times and we provisioned and dined out.

On Friday morning, we hit the road for Mexico (see the latest web page), looking for warmer weather!

To continue on the adventure, Click Here , you will be taken to the Mexico page.