A Full-time Life

Category: The Whole USA

FALL/WINTER 2007-2008

During the past few years, we've traveled fairly heavily in the Fall and then settled down in one spot for a few months during the Winter season. This year, we have itchy feet and plan to do doing things a little bit different by staying a few weeks or a month in one location and then moving on. Here's where we stayed from mid-November to mid-December.

Winchester Bay RV Resort — on the beautiful Central Coast. This is the view we had from our window. Situated between Reedsport and Coos Bay, this little park is only 100 miles away from the Eugene area and was our transition spot for 10 days after our visit with family and friends in the Northwest (as always wonderful and too short). We've stayed in this park quite often (even back before we sold our house) and have always loved it.

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On the way from our stay at Winchester Bay, we stopped for a weekend in Brookings, which is supposed to be the Banana Belt of the Oregon Coast. Not this time though. We experienced two days of the worst downpour ever, ever. At least it was a good reminder of why we sold the house and why we don't want to be in Oregon during the winter. We are so tired of rain!

And so we were really glad to get to California — it seemed like just as we crossed the stateline the sun came out. Getting to our destination, RiverWalk RV Park in Fortuna, we drove through the Redwood State and National Parks. Beautiful — hard to get good pictures.

RiverWalk RV Park http://www.riverwalkrvpark.com is situated across a quiet street from the Eel River and there's a lovely walking path along the bank. Fortuna is just a few miles inland from the coastal towns of Eureka/Arcata, which we've always loved. Birding is wonderful in this area. There are lots of easy-to-get-to places to walk and explore along the beach and at the wonderful Arcata Marsh.

There are a couple of colleges in the area, which we feel always adds a good vibe. There are great little counter-culture shops, food stores and restaurants, but there are also good supermarkets and a mall, so we had all the usual necessities of life. There was even a good brew-pub within walking distance of the RV Park.

Lots of great places to explore in this area. We drove along the Avenue of the Giants and marveled again at the ancient Redwood Trees that line this section of highway. Stopped for some strolls in the forest along the way.

We spent a couple of days browsing around the nearby town of Ferndale — This Victorian town has a wonderful old general store with all kinds of old-fashioned merchandise that you never see anywhere else. Also in the area is Loleta, an old farm town where there is a wonderful family-owned cheese making facility. You can watch the cheese being made, sample to your heart's content, and, of course, buy some of your favorite varieties.

We drove a few miles to visit Trinidad (it's the village that "played" Cabot's Cove Maine in the old Angela Lansbury series Murder She Wrote). We walked on the beach and had coffee in a funky little shop. The commercial crab season was beginning the next day so we walked out onto the docks and watched the fisherman loading the boats and getting ready to go out. We used to take our little boat out into Winchester Bay to do a bit of crabbing for fun. But here on Humboldt Bay, the ocean is a little bit wilder, at the best of circumstances. A heavy storm moved in a couple of days later. I'm still worried about those crabbers.

Yes, just as we were almost beginning to think that Fortuna was the kind of area we could enjoy for a little longer, the rains arrived — and with a vengeance. This was that Pacific Northwest "storm of the century" that brought all kinds of problems to the coast. We were situated just enough inland to be perfectly safe as long as we hunkered down inside. We stayed until the storm lifted and then headed south. Did I mention that we're tired of rain?

http://www.sommervillervpark.com I wouldn't even try to begin to write about most parks where we we just stay overnight. But Almond Tree Park in Coalinga is worth an exception. We stumbled on it on our way south, the second night after we left the coast. This park is right off the freeway, but was sheltered enough to be very quiet. We got in about six (really late for us), but the manager was very helpful and found us a level pull-through spot. On checking in, he gave us a couple of little post-it note type calendars for 2008. I really like keeping these in our travel journals — and they're hard to find. In the morning, we found a free newspaper delivered to our door. What could be nicer? A highly recommended over-night spot.

Here we are parked at Orange Grove RV Park, Bakersfield, where we arrived on the 7th of December. http://www.orangegrovervpark.com

It's a lovely park and a perfect stopping place on the way to or from southern California — we've stayed there many times through the years. This time we spent a little longer than we might have wished. While the park is lovely and well run (and the oranges are best we've ever tasted) the city of Bakersfield is not the most interesting one in California. We had to get some work done on our heat pump/air conditioner and Bakersfield had a Camping World that could do the work. So we stayed long enough to get an appointment and get the work done.

It was sunny all the time we were there, but there's a haze of pollution. Still it was great fun to step out the door and pick oranges for our breakfast. "Our" crop is at its peak and we even took a bowl-full with us when we left. (The management really does encourage you to pick the fruit, even providing long-handled pickers once the reachable parts of the trees are bare.)

We rented a small car for the last weekend we were in Bakersfield and took a side trip to Long Beach (about 150 miles) to visit my aunt and cousins. We had a wonderful visit and were lucky to be there the weekend of the Christmas boat parade along Naples Canal. It was amazing to see the decorated boats and homes — and we got to go to their parade-night party. Lots of fun with great people and gorgeous decorations on the boats and in the neighborhood.

January 16, 2008
A short visit to Selma (2005)

For the winter season of 2004/05 we stayed on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. We saw some wonderful country on our way and had a great time while there. (I’ll do a post next month about the RV resort where we stayed and some of our very fun Alabama Gulf Coast adventures.)

But watching current political news and “discussion” about who was actually responsible for voting rights legislation reminded me of an overnight sidetrip we made while our home was parked near Mobile. We went to Selma because we wanted to see this place where so much civil rights history took place. It was amazing to see “in person” (“in-place”?) the Edmund Pettis Bridge and the Little Brown Church, where the 40-mile March to Montgomery began. Of course we had watched these events unfold as on the nightly news, but it really doesn’t come close to standing on the spot where history happened.

Below is one link for a quick overview of what happened on the three Selma to Montgomery marches.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/selma_to_montgomery_marches

The Bridge’s location is obvious — because you have to drive across it to get into town. Whenever we go to any city or town, we go first to the visitor center for literature and directions. But when we went to one in Selma we were given information only on the “white history” of the area (about the Civil War, cotton, agriculture etc.) and met with a kind of polite evasion when we asked about the Little Brown Church and the MLK monument. Apparently, the visitor center felt like the “Black History” was separate and apart. Unbelievably sad in this day and age.

So we walked around town and located the Church and the Monument on our own. And, we found that there is a very interesting Voting Rights Museum quite near to the Bridge. (No mention of this had been made at the visitor center.)

I wanted to hope that this attitude might have changed some since we were there, but fear it has not. This morning, when I went to Google to check my memory, especially about the Museum (because we didn’t take pictures in it) I found that the official Selma web page gives the museum — and indeed the whole Civil Rights/Voting rights issue — only the briefest of mentions. The Museum has no official web-site.

Anyway, once we located the Museum and went inside, we talked to Joann Bland, the museum founder. (I’m sure that she meets pretty much everybody who comes — and in any case there were hardly any other visitors at the time). As a child, she was at Bloody Sunday, where her companion was wounded, and then she later marched to Montgomery.

The museum’s displays include a good overview film and still photos taken during the marches. These pictures were actually taken by FBI agents who were keeping an eye on the participants — the Museum obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act. The room that I remember most clearly is the one full of shoe-casts of many of the participants in the March to Montgomery (from kids to grandparents). There was something so poignant about seeing those feet and thinking about the miles they walked to support this cause, under circumstances I can barely imagine even after watching the news and seeing again the film and pictures. These were just regular people willing to take a huge risk to get to do something we have always taken for granted. While they certainly had a charismatic leader, nothing would have happened without these ordinary people.

This visit was so worth the time and effort . Selma’s definitely not a top tourist destination, but I feel like it should be. Our country’s history was changed here. Anyone who has the chance should go.

January 16, 2008
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, April 2006

It would be fun someday to say we’d visited all of our National Parks. Even if we don’t ever get to all of them, we are glad to have spent time in the most remote and least visited one in the lower 48 states. This is Big Bend in southwest Texas. There are 800,000 acres within the Park’s boundaries. The scenery provides wonderful contrasts. It is in the Chihuahuan Desert, surrounded by the Chisos Mountains.

The Rio Grande River forms an international boundary along the south edge of the park (for 118 miles). The River is narrow and you can see Mexico on the other side. We really hope that by the time our grandchildren get to visit the park they will still be able to see this view instead of a fence or wall.

We hiked down the spectacular Boquillas Canyon. It’s a narrow section formed by the River when it meandered through the desert eons ago.

The river level was low when we were there and we easily explored the bottom of the canyon by foot.

Before 9/11 there was a soft crossing here into the Mexican village of Boquillos Del Carmen. Tourists could be ferried across the river and experience a bit of what was like to live in a remote village in Mexico. That’s no longer possible because of security concerns. By road, the village is 100 miles from the nearest legal crossing to the US, so these changes have almost completely cut off the village’s source of income other than subsistance farming. While security is certainly a problem at some more metropolitan border cities (such as El Paso), it is hard to imagine how it could really be so serious way out here.

Vendors still wade across when they can get away with it, keeping an eye out for Border Patrol. The stand shown here is on the Mexican side of the river. We purchased these walking sticks. Made from stalks of the sotol plant which grows wild everywhere, they are light and quite strong.

Humans have lived in the park area since prehistoric times. The little dwelling in the picture below is called Luna’s Jacal. It is a rare remaining example of a building from the region’s early settlement period. Luna was a Mexican sheepherder and he and his wife raised a large family (10 or 11 children) in this house. A jacal is a type of dwelling with upright posts chinked with mud. It had a thick mud roof that kept it cool in the desert heat. You can see that the roof is disintegrating. This points out a major problem with all national parks and especially this one, I suppose because it is so remote. There isn’t enough funding and staff to keep up the archeological sites in the park or even to properly catalog all of the historic sites and structures.

Big Bend Park is in Brewster County which is one of the most sparsely populated areas of our whole country. Only about 13,000 people live within its 6,000 plus square miles. We stayed in Alpine, which is 100 miles northwest of the park headquarters and then moved to the tiny village of Terlingua which is a gateway community to the park. These are both remote, quirky communities. We had fun exploring around the towns as well as within the park.

January 6, 2008
TEXAS GULF COAST, WINTER 2006-07

Last winter was our second stay on the Texas Gulf Coast. We spent four months, staying at Waters Edge RV Park in Fulton. http://www.watersedgervpk.com/

In this picture, you can see our Texas home, where we were just a few steps to Aransas Bay. We liked this little park a lot and we loved the area. The RV Park is not too large and had activities that kept us busy with new friends when we were not out exploring the area. Pelicans and other water birds swam by every day. The picture on the right is the Water’s Edge fishing dock. Fishing wasn’t very good while we were there, but it was nice just to walk out and watch birds and occasionally dolphins.

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Fulton Harbor is within easy walking distance of Water’s Edge. It’s a working harbor, mostly for harvesting oysters (during the months we were there) and shrimp.

We always enjoy watching other people work and oystering is fascinating. I wouldn’t want to go out on the ocean in a boat like the one in the third picture, but it is typical. There will be a crew of three men and a pile of sacked oysters on the deck when it comes in. Then,the buyer will pay the boat’s captain, and the sacks will be moved off to waiting reefer trucks to be transported back east. (But sometimes, the sacks stand around for quite a while in the warm weather–that kind of makes you worry.) The guy at the fish market told me that all of the oysters sold in restaurants on the east coast come from here. Would he lie?

Moon Dog at the Harbor was our favorite “dive”. More a local hangout than a tourist place, it served good, fresh seafood. It was very pleasant to sit out on the deck and watch the boats and water birds. Especially on a warm sunshiny winter day!

Our very favorite place to explore was the Aransas Wildlife Refuge.

The volunteer at the Refuge Headquarters said that if we saw an alligator lying across the path, we should turn around and go back rather than attempt to step over it. (Like I needed that advice!) We didn’t see any on the path, fortunately, but we saw a lot nearby. I wonder what this one was thinking.

Armadillos are supposed to be very common, but this was the first one we’d been able to get close to. I think they are probably nocturnal (and we aren’t). We took a tour boat out to the offshore islands to see one of the few remaining stands of Whooping Cranes. These birds are 6 feet tall — there’s nothing to compare them to out on these islands where they feed, so the pictures we have don’t really get across how amazing they are in “person” .

This turtle and bird pond is in Port Aransas on Mustang Island. You get there by taking one of the car ferries which are operated by the Texas Highway Department.

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We love the Gulf Coast of Texas. It makes us smile too, just like this guy seems to be doing!!

December 30, 2007
New Mexico – Fall 2006

This is the second post about New Mexico because we enjoy it so much. Just couldn’t talk about our most recent experiences there without first going “way back in history” to tell about our first stay, which was pivotal in our decision to become full-timers. The state is so full of great things to see. This post has more current information — from last Fall (2006), when we stayed in or near Albuquerque instead of Santa Fe. This is a view of the City from the top of Sandia Peak.

The Petroglyph National Monument right outside Albuquerque is the largest petroglyph site in North America. There are over 15,000 petroglyphs, mostly made between 1300 and 1600. (There are three separate sections of the monument — we hiked around just one and estimated that we saw over 100. )

There are different interpretations about what they mean and why they are in this particular area. They weren’t casual jottings. A lot of work was involved, as they were made by chipping away at the volcanic rock.

It’s quite a little hike on rocky ground to get around to see them and you can really get up close. We were kind of surprised that they were so open to the public, but there are so many I guess it would be impossible to fence them. And it was really nice to be able to get such a clear look.

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Then we spent a week at Bird Watcher’s RV Park in San Antonio, New Mexico, just a little bit South of Albuquerque. It is on the Bosque Del Apache Wildlife reserve. Thousands of snow geese and sandhill cranes winter over on this reserve. The morning and evening flyovers provide a spectacular birding show with the beautiful New Mexico landscape as a backdrop. It’s one of our all-time favorite spots. (Click for the full pictures — especially if you love looking at birds.)

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While we were “at home” on the Bosque, we took a day trip over to San Agustin, a tiny town with some very large radio telescopes. It’s the home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The 27 dishes of the Very Large Array radio telescope allow astronomers to study the overall structure of objects in the Universe. (Not so coincidentally, it is where the Jodie Foster movie “Contact” was filmed.) There’s a good visitor center there and you can see the astronomers at work and imagine that they are making contact with other universes.

It was an interesting contrast to see the petroglyph monument and the astronomy observatory within the same couple of weeks. Both the ancient past and the 21st century tours left us in a state of wonder and with the wish to learn more.

December 23, 2007
New Mexico

We fell in love with New Mexico on our first long RV trip. It really is, as their slogan says, the Land of Enchantment. Perhaps especially to people born and bred in the Northwest. Every place we visited was different and interesting. We knew very little about the Southwest, so we grabbed all the tourist pamphlets and literature we could and we felt like we knew a little more after our visit. I think it was during this time that we really began to realize what adventures we could have living the RV life. There is really no other way we could take this much time to explore so many different and fascinating locations.

On that first trip, Fall of 1999, we stayed about a month at Santa Fe and explored the city and surrounding area. We loved the City with all its wonderful museums, the turquoise sellers in front of the Palace of Governors, the (to us) exotic architecture and little byways to explore. We bought a reasonably-priced museum pass good for about 10 days. With it, we got to visit the Georgia O’Keeffe painting collection, the Palace of the Governors, the International Folk Art Museum, and the American Indian Museum.

We visited the Chapel of Loretto, with its inexplicable staircase that makes you wonder about miracles. (If you don’t know this story, it’s well worth a quick Google.)

On a side trip while we stayed in Santa Fe, we drove to Bandalier National Monument and archaeological trail where you can walk into ancient ancestral pueblo dwellings. (You have to climb 140 feet on four sets of ladders. )

We used public transportation for the most part to get around the City. It was easy and fast — we caught the bus right outside our RV Park.

We drove the Turquoise Trail up into the Sandia Crest Byway with its amazing scenery. We visited Sandia Cave — the first known human dwelling in the new world. The trail at the summit of Sandia Crest is at over 10,000 feet.

We visited Taos with all its wonderful art and history and we went to the El Sanctuario Church at Chimayo. While in that wonderfully authentic Indian village we bought fresh-ground peppers right from the farmer. Wish I had some now.

After leaving Santa Fe, we stopped for a few days at several other New Mexico places and everyone of them was interesting. Lincoln, which is kept as it was in the 1860s, is where Billy the Kid shot a couple of deputies and escaped from jail — you can see the bullet holes. Roswell has its camp UFO museums, which you’ve gotta see once, but it is actually quite a nice little town. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is wonderful. The cave formations are so beautiful I even forgot to be scared while we explored.

The pictures are: Taos pueblos and cemetery, El Sanctuario Church, old Lincoln County Courthouse. and one of the formations at Carlsbad Caverns.

We didn’t have a camera on this trip. (Only the sunset and the Sandia Peak snaps are ours and are from a later trip.) It would be great to visit all these places again so that we could get our own pictures — and also of course because we love New Mexico.

It’s a prime example of a major traveler’s dilemma. So many new places to visit, so many old ones to go back to, and so little time! We did go back to New Mexico last year and spent more time in the Albuquerque area — that’s another post.

December 13, 2007
More from Colorado

This is Colorado's state flower, the columbine. We saw it last August, when it was still like spring up in the mountains above Denver. Wouldn't it be cool if we could get a picture of every State flower?

This visit to Colorado wasn't actually an RV trip at all. When we came home from our London stay, we flew into Denver and then spent a while with our kids in Colorado before heading back to the Northwest by car. (We had stored the fifth-wheeler in Oregon.)

On one of the days we were there, Geoff took us on a Jeep ride up to these mountains above Breckenridge. I don't think there could be a greater contrast than between living in the busy and crowded city of London and then just a few days later being up in these wide-open spaces. We were so lucky to get to do both!

This is the Jeep Trail up the Mountain. The pass is called Radical Hill(!).

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And here's some of what we saw when we got to the top. (Click on the pictures to get full views.)

There were so many great views and the mountain goats were so amusing. I could hardly stop taking pictures. These are just a sample. It was a great day.

December 4, 2007
Colorado – in the Fall, 2006

Loveland, Colorado is one of several places where we've "lived" as RVers. We like to pretend that we're locals whenever we stay in one place for more than a week. And Loveland certainly qualifies — we've stayed there a whole bunch of times. Our son and daughter-in-law, Geoff and Lisa, moved from the Northwest to near Boulder in 1999, about the same time we started RVing. We've visited there once or twice a year ever since.

Of course, with the kids there, we'd have visited often anyway, but it was a great bonus for us that they chose this beautiful area. We've always stayed at Riverview RV park, which is actually right between Loveland and Estes Park. The first time, we were kind of disappointed because the park wasn't closer to the kids' house — it's about 20 miles. But we found the distance easy to manage and we loved the park. It's well-kept up, has great views of red cliffs and the Big Thompson River, and, of course, besides being close to the kids it's also close to Rocky Mt National Park and is a good jumping off place for exploring the whole area.

We've experienced some interesting Colorado weather over the years. (Sometimes, you only need to stay a few days to experience two or three seasons — the weather can be very changeable.) But most of the time it has been beautiful, with crisp clear weather and blue skies. The altitude and dryness take a little getting used to, especially the first time, for those of us more used to the damp Northwest. But it's well worth it — the area is drop dead beautiful.

All of these pictures were taken in Autumn, 2006, around Riverview RV Park and at Devil's Backbone, a great little hiking spot, that's practically in downtown Loveland. We went from snowy Yellowstone in September to freezing-cold Casper Wyoming in October, and then on to still beautiful autumn-like Colorado, where we stayed until mid-November.

Later on in the fall and winter, there were record snowfalls in this part of Colorado. But by that time, we were down on the Gulf Coast of Texas. That's one of the nicest things about RV living. Wherever we live, we try to live there only when the weather is at its finest. And we love it that way!

November 29, 2007
Convection ovens are my life
Sometimes it seems that our life recently revolves around convection ovens. This is our little kitchen, with the fourth microwave-convection oven we've had in a year (three in this RV.)

Our new (October 2006) RV home came with a combination convection-microwave oven. Our other trailer had a gas oven, so this was a first for us. The microwave worked fine, but the convection part was a dud. For a while, I assumed it was me — just having an extra-difficult time with the learning curve. We kept following the directions, but the oven just wouldn't get hot enough. Finally, we tested it with an oven thermometer and decided it wasn't me after all! So, we got it replaced (under warranty, thankfully). The second one heated, after a fashion. We bought an inexpensive toaster-oven, which worked lots better (but took up quite a bit of precious counter space).

Then, we went to England. The flat we rented for our three-month stay also had a convection-microwave, but the mechanics of setting it were quite different. You needed to set the time of day to turn on the oven. The temperature setting was in Celsius and the timer in 24-hour time. So it was three different sets of instructions just to turn on the oven — a funny little balancing act! But we just don't like to eat dinner out every night, so it was worth the struggle.

Once back in our own little condo-on-wheels and with the cooler weather of fall, we needed to get back to trying out the oven again. When we did, it still took an hour to heat up to 350. Not satisfactory at all, so Bill spent a morning making the usual round of calls to the manufacturer (Dometic). Once again, they were polite and apologetic. To save a service call — which isn't covered by the warranty — we stopped by a recommended dealer when we were moving anyway. So we are now on our third oven (in a one-year old RV).

I don't bake much at all — we really do usually use the oven to make dinner — but yesterday I made these cookies (just to check out the newest replacement, of course). A good recipe because, in case the oven didn't work, the batter is yummy enough to eat raw (hey, it's only one Eggland's Best). But we didn't have to do that because the oven works, so far at least. But I'm keeping the George Foreman toaster oven handy just in case.

TESTING-THE-OVEN COOKIES (formerly known as Butterscotch Brownies).
- In microwave, melt 1/4 cup butter in glass measuring cup. Let cool slightly, then stir in one egg,1 cup brown sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Stir the following dry ingredients together: 3/4 cup flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt.
- Stir butter-sugar mixture into dry ingredients. Spray 8-inch pan and spread batter in it. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, just until no thumbprint remains. (Don't over bake. These freeze well.)
November 14, 2007
Happy Fall!

Autumn is our favorite season. Some RVers follow the sun, seeking an endless summer. Our ideal trip would be to follow the fall. The trick here, of course, would be to stay ahead of the winter. (Probably, at this stage, a good metaphor for life in general.)

This picture is from our trip to Vermont, in 2003. It was our first RV trip to the East Coast and we loved being leaf-peepers.

Bill had taken a fairly serious fall off of a barn (in Oregon) not too many years before this trip. It happened in November and we’d heard quite a few jokes about the Fall Season. So when we spied this Halloween decoration along a country road, it struck a wryly funny note. Fortunately (I think), Bill fell on his heel, not on his head like these guys are about to do.

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Here are some pictures of Vermont’s beautiful fall scenery. Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image.

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We stayed at Sugar Ridge RV Park, which is between Danville and St Johnsbury. One week during leaf season, all of the little villages in this area take turns hosting a fall foliage event. It’s a great way to get to know local people as well as to learn about their historical towns and (not least) to share their delicious food.

This is the Goodwillie House, in Barnet. It was built in 1790.

Thresher’s Mill , a restored grist mill.

The town of West Barnet held a European coffee hour in this old church on the afternoon of their festival day. They served every kind of baked goods and tea-time treats imaginable. We sure didn’t need any dinner that day.

November 9, 2007