A Full-time Life

HOPE

April 13, 2008

We hope everybody is enjoying beautiful spring weather. It is so lovely here in Port Aransas. We came across these funny pictures about Hope when we were browsing photo files for animal and bird pictures for the albums.

This is the name of a very nice Idaho RV resort where we stayed for a few days one fall. (Probably I should have stood under the sign for full visual impact.) The resort is in a woodsy setting and is actually just a few miles outside of the tiny town of Hope, near beautiful Pend Orielle Lake. So the name isn't really a comment on anyone's state of mind. Here's a picture of what the RV spaces look like at the resort:

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On another trip, somewhere in Kentucky, we passed by this sign. If I had to pick a cemetery, I'd want one that offered more than just a little hope, wouldn't you?

I hope we don't have to worry about that for quite a while though!
ANIMAL AND BIRD WATCHING

April 13, 2008

This week, when we’re not outside playing here at the beach, I’ve been working on sorting pictures and making photo albums. So instead of putting pictures on this post, I’ve put in some quick album links.

We get to watch animals pretty often in different settings. We don’t always get pictures (once we had a bobcat right at our window, but of course no camera close by). But the pictures we do have are fun reminders.

http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/photos/the_animal_album/index.html

(Click on the gray bar at the top of the albums to get back to the main blog page.)

We’re often treated to pet shows from our RV window. There’s a park kitty here in Port Aransas who likes to sit on our porch in the evening. Where we stay in Coburg, Oregon, there’s a cat who goes on a deliberate slow patrol of the whole park every morning. We suspect it’s on the payroll. At breakfast nearly every morning wherever we are, we get to watch the RV dogs taking their masters for a walk. (And often, we feel like we’re the only RVers who don’t travel with a pet.) Most of the time, the dogs are well-behaved and a pleasure to watch–on rare occasions, the masters are less so, when they pretend not to see the pile of poop their dog just deposited!

In any case, since we had already been pet-free for several years when we started RVing, we continue to enjoy our animal-watching without any of the responsibility of the owners.

We always used to feed birds when we had our house and loved watching them — we still watch, but now we don’t have to clean the feeders.

Here are links to the bird photo-albums.

http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/photos/birds/index.html

http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/photos/bird_watching/index.html

http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/photos/birds_of_louisiana/index.html
OUR TEXAS ROAD TRIP, 2008

April 6, 2008

We take our road trips slow and leisurely. After we left Arizona on March 11, the next major stop we had planned was Port Aransas, on the Gulf Coast of Texas. We arrived at Port A on Tuesday, April 1. It was 1,600 miles in 21 days — just about right, we think!

The first night after Tombstone, we stayed in Vado, NM, halfway between Las Cruces NM and El Paso TX. We love New Mexico, but not this part of it. There was nothing really to recommend the park either, except that it was there when we wanted to stop and we had a pull-through site, so that we didn’t have to unhook in order to park.

The next afternoon we arrived at Balmorhea State Park (Texas), the home of San Solomon Springs. It’s an oasis in the desert flatlands. There is a huge V-shaped swimming pool, built by Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, said to be the biggest spring-fed pool in the world. At about two acres in size, it’s certainly the biggest swimming pool of any kind that we’ve ever seen. And what a lot of fun to swim in. A little cool at 75 degrees, but really worth it. The CCC also built Spanish-style overnight tourist cabins in the park. The cabins have been upgraded as a motel and the State Park now operates it along with the RV Park/Campground. Pretty fancy for a State Park! We stayed a couple of nights here. There is a wetland restoration project and therefore a lot of birds. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us

Our next stop was in Alpine Texas at the very nice Lost Alaskan RV Park. http://www.lostalaskan.com We stayed three nights. It got terribly windy while we were here and so we didn’t do too much exploring this time. Alpine is one of the funky little places where we also stayed stayed a couple of years ago on our way to Big Bend. You can drive from here to Marfa, an old Texas town where you are supposed to be able to see alien lights in the distance. We never saw them, but it was fun to watch the true believers. This is a very interesting part of Texas with a kind of liberal old-hippy vibe. You are far more likely to see political signs urging you to vote for Kinky Friedman than for George Bush. Being old Eugeneans, we feel quite at home here.

Our next stay was at Del Rio, near the Amistad Reservoir (on the US/Mexico border). Our RV park was old but adequate and the new owners and managers are working hard to upgrade it further. www.americancampground.net Because there were so many people out and about for the Easter Holiday and Spring Break, we ended up staying here for 8 nights.

Del Rio is a not a bad a little town — it is smaller than it’s neighbor across the border, Ciudad Acuna in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, but has everything you need in a city. We like to visit Acuna because it is safe and not touristy at all. (Because not many tourists go to Del Rio.) Most of the shops and the places to eat are those the people of Acuna patronize — not so much of the touristy stuff you see on the Mexican border towns near Tucson or San Diego.

On Good Friday, we walked there from a Del Rio parking lot across the International Bridge. (It’s about a two-mile walk across and into the downtown.) Although we hadn’t planned it, we arrived during the Good Friday procession, part of the Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebration.

We followed along with the procession for a time, until we got thirsty (being the Heathen Vagabonds that we are) and so then we headed for a nearby cantina.

We had fun just people-watching in the Plaza. There were a lot of visitors from the surrounding countryside in the big city for the Easter Weekend holiday. We ate at a good restaurant (for a very reasonable price) before heading back to the bridge for the two mile walk home.

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Our next stop was Falcon Lake, between the tiny towns of Zapata and Roma. Falcon Lake is about 60 miles long, formed by damming the Rio Grande. This is another nice Texas state park (50A electric, sewer connection at each site) and one where you feel more eccentric for not carrying binoculars than you do carrying them! It really is a birding paradise. This picture shows two Caracaras (Mexican Eagles). The desert was in bloom and it was lovely to walk on the many paths around the campground.

We stayed a week. It would be fun to have a boat here, because Falcon is such a good fishing lake. (But there’s essentially no culture, no town, no shopping — so not a place we could stay for a long time.) A huge bass fishing tournament was going on while we were there. There is a lot of money in this sport — lots of fancy rigs. One fisherman said he had traveled over 18 hours the day before and almost as long the day before that to get to Zapata for the tournament. He has a different definition of road-trip than we do!

it was beginning to get quite warm by the end of our stay at Falcon Lake and we were glad to move on to the Coast. Right now the weather here in Port A is perfect.

If we had to choose only one spot in Texas to stay, it would definitely be in this area. (Last winter, we stayed just across the bay in Fulton.)

But we had a lot of fun exploring on our way and, after all, that’s the reason we drag our house behind us.
OUR SOUTH DAKOTA STORY

March 29, 2008

This is the State Capitol and grounds at Pierre in our home state, South Dakota. Since 2003, we have licensed, banked, insured, and voted (absentee) there. But we don't own any Dakota property and never have. Our legal address is a box in Sioux Falls, a perfectly nice little city, but one which did not present many photo ops. Like many full-time RVers, we chose South Dakota as our domicile for practical (tax-saving) purposes. There are three or four other states that may provide similar advantages; Bill did a lot of research before we decided to choose SD. Here are a couple of web-sites that were helpful in our planning:

Alternative Resources: http://www.alternativeresources.net

Escapees: http://www.escapees.com

We use Alternative Resources, which provides mail-forwarding services. ("How do you get your mail?" is one of the most frequent questions we get.) We simply call or e-mail AR with a current physical address and they forward all of our accumulated mail. Because we now do all of our banking (and pretty much everything else) on the Internet, we get our mail only once a month. The very nice people at Alternative will also take care of annual license renewal for our truck and 5th wheel. I'd be willing to pay their reasonable fee even if we were in Sioux Falls. Who wants to go to any DMV if someone else will do it for you?

But this summer, we will put in a physical appearance, because our drivers licenses will expire in August. (For this purpose, of course, they need to see our bodies and eyes.) The state issues five-year licenses. In 2003, this year seemed a long while off. Now it seems like the time has flown since then.

But here's the interesting thing about SD – we really like the state! We chose it for practical purposes and knew that after our initial visit to set things up we wouldn't have to go there often. But there is so much to see. We made a return visit in 2004 and actually look forward to being there again. Needless to say, we never plan to visit "home" in the Winter (those snow marker posts along all the residential streets are downright scary). We certainly hope to avoid tornado and hail season as well and both years we were there, were fortunate to have only beautiful weather. (This picture is a typical prairie scene, where there's a monument to Chief Sitting Bull. It's lovely in the summer, but easy to imagine how it would look in the dead of winter — or what would happen when the wind swept across.)

We visited the Badlands and Mount Rushmore and spent quite a bit of time in Custer State Park, which has more wildlife than most National Parks that we've seen.

On our second visit, we stayed in Sturgis (but not during the motorcycle rally weeks) and that was our headquarters to visit Pierre and other surrounding parts of the state.

Both times, we visited the monument to Crazy Horse, which is an all-time favorite place — in South Dakota or anywhere else we've been.

We look forward to seeing the progress when we're there later this year.
TRAVEL — REAL AND FICTIONAL

March 22, 2008

JA Jance writes an enjoyable mystery series that's set in Cochise County. Her main character, Joanna Brady, is the County sheriff. Jance's descriptions of the country-side (and the passages about the length of time the officers spend in their cars) are spot-on. The author lives in Tucson and in Seattle (where she has set another mystery series). But she grew up in Cochise County and obviously knows and loves the area. One day when we were driving around looking for the post office we happened on the sheriff's office complex at the outskirts of Bisbee. You almost expected to see Sheriff Brady and her deputies. We wondered what the real-life officers think about their fictional counterparts. So this got me to thinking about other places we've been where favorite books are set.

This is the "Little House on the Prairie" in DeSmet, South Dakota. In September, 2004, we actually drove quite a few miles out of our way to stay in this little town, where there is the church that the Ingalls family attended and a little museum dedicated to Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books. It was a pleasant little town and a nice drive out to "Laura's Living Prairie" the homestead claim where the family lived. (This was the second place the family homesteaded — maybe the last five or six books). Bill didn't mind the trip and enjoyed looking at the old home and farm tools — but it would have been a good place to be with somebody else who remembered reading about and loving the family; the Little House series really is kind of a a girl-thing.

Later on that same Fall — across a few states and after several other interesting stops– we stayed at the Mark Twain Caves RV Park in Hannibal, Missouri. The park is located near the cave that Mark Twain is said to have visited and written into his story (the Becky Thatcher cave). From Old Town Hannibal, we took the Mark Twain River Boat Excursion for beautiful views and an overview of river history from the guide. The next day we toured Sam Clemons' boyhood home and a museum in the old Hannibal drugstore. In the visitor center, we bought new copies of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer to re-read and then to give away, because it had been such a long time since we'd read those wonderful books.

Bill really likes the Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke — those are set in the Bayou country of Louisiana, an area which we both love.

Pre-retirement, we spent quite a bit of camping time in Steinbeck country in California — and he's one of our favorite authors still.

It's fun to see places that you've only read about and interesting to realize that the fiction we enjoy most is regional — we get travel books and good stories all in one that way.

And then, of course, there was our trip to England. Here's where there are people who plan all their travels and recreational time around their favorite authors. We just stumbled across these places by accident. We saw where Jane Austen lived in Bath. And a whole lot of places where Charles Dickens hung out and wrote. The Trafalgar Tavern here is one of them. And then there was that other guy, William, whats-his-name … oh, Shakespeare!

So, that's the end of the post because I've worked up from books we read now to books we read in the past, to books we re-read, to books we should read someday, if only we live long enough!
COCHISE COUNTY AZ 2008

March 18, 2008

We wanted to spend some time in Cochise County to visit Tombstone and Bisbee. We had a good time and — as often happens — we found places to see and things to do that we didn’t know anything about until we got there. We stayed at Tombstone Territories RV Park in Huachuaca City. http://www.tombstoneterritories.com

It’s a clean and friendly little park with great mountain views from every angle — and tons of backyard birds. It’s just 10 miles from Tombstone and 16 miles the other way to Sierra Vista, which is not a tourist destination, but has all the things you need for living. (A good supermarket, of course, and at this particular time a place to get our hair cut and a place to get the oil changed in the truck.)

This is BIG country! We put about a thousand miles on the truck, criss-crossing the area. The drives were beautiful, though, with the mountains seeming to float on the horizon. We really enjoyed hiking around the Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains. Cochise was a chief of the Chiricahua Apaches and these rugged mountains served as a fortress, home, and base of operations for him and his followers. They would have been able to see for miles. Cochise was said to be a master strategist in planning raids of ranches and stagecoaches and was never conquered in battle.

Tombstone (The Town Too Tough to Die) was fun in the hokey sort of way that makes people our age recall a childhood spent playing Cowboys and Indians. The shootout at the OK Corral hapened here and there are a lot of actors everywhere in the town, putting on re-enactments as Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and others from the 1880s — the town’s heyday. There are “shootouts” everywhere and such added touches as people in old west clothes being thrown out of real saloons on a fairly regular basis. Big Nose Kate’s is a pretty good place to eat and watch the action. (It is named after Doc Holliday’s girlfriend — or one of them, anyway.)

The Birdcage Saloon is the only entirely original building in town. It was a saloon, honky-tonk, gambling house and “house of ill repute” — entirely legal then. The “birdcages” are the tiny rooms that were occupied by the working women. The town was a major stop for famous Vaudeville entertainers; there was a lot of money floating around here back then.

Bisbee, about 30 miles south of Tombstone, is an old mining town, a mile high in the Mule Mountains. It’s all built in narrow canyons and the old Victorian-style buildings are pretty well preserved. We toured the now-closed Queen Copper Mine. It’s been left as it was when copper prices dropped and it ceased operation. I thought about my grandfather, who had been a mining engineer and used to tell me stories about working in the mines. I really hadn’t understood very well what it would have been like until this underground tour. The town part of Bisbee is very counter-culture, a real throw-back to the (19)60s.

We drove into the mountains to see the Chiricahua National Monument and did some short trail-walks from off the road. The scenery was magnificent but we’d like to come back sometime to see more of the back-country. There’s a bus that takes you to the top and then you can hike down. We didn’t get there early enough in the day to do that — we drove both ways. This was the area that we hadn’t really heard much about until we got to Cochise County. I’m glad we found out about it.
WHITE DOVE OF THE DESERT (one more from Tucson)

March 8, 2008

San Xavier del Bac Franciscan Mission (the White Dove of the Desert) has been an active mission since 1692, when it was founded by Father Kino, the Jesuit Missionary who founded missions all over the southwest. It has been a Franciscan mission since the 1700s. I think that the restoration and renovations have been going on since 1700 as well. It seems a never-ending project and we like to check on the progress whenever we’re in Tucson. (We have a special interest in long-term remodeling projects.) The part on the left, where you can see the construction, is supposed to be finished by this summer.

The Native people of this area called themselves the Tohono O’odhams, which means that they were descended from the ‘old ones’ who lived in what is now Sonora, Mexico. The missionaries renamed them the ‘Pima’ (now that is the name of the county in which Tucson is located).

According to a sign in the Mission museum, when the Europeans first came to this area in the 1600s, they “failed to understand the people’s nomadic lifestyle” and condemned their mobility as “heathen vagabondage.” Really, the nomadic lifestyle was a sensible adaptation to the harsh semi-arid environment. But the missionaries worked at turning the ‘Pimas’ into farmers. If they stayed in one place, it made their job easier. Today, the people have their own real name back. The mission is the parish church for the Tohono O’odhams. But they never did get back their real life as nomads.

So the history of the Mission causes us to have mixed feelings, but it is the best place we have found in Tucson to learn any history of these early inhabitants.

This is the altar dedicated to St Francis Xavier. People pin tokens onto the statue that represent something for which they wish to seek special blessings. We have seen medals, report cards, snapshots, letters and even sonograms.

It’s a bit too dark inside to get great pictures, but clicking on these two will show some of the detail work, most of which dates back to the 1700s. The candles are a special, smokeless kind that do not cause damage. The candles that were used for centuries did smoke, and they are part of the reason that restoration is needed inside.

The missionaries always built churches as ornately as they possibly could. It was like putting on a good show to impress the locals. And, in spite of mixed feelings, the work and craftsmanship that went into the building are certainly impressive. The parishioners are very proud of the church and many of them have been and are employed in the ongoing restoration projects.

There is a very nice view from this walled garden at the back of the church.
TUCSON PART 2, 2008 (and 2005-06 and 2003)

March 5, 2008

We’ve been in Tucson three different times and certainly don’t feel as if we’ve exhausted all its possibilities. This was our second stay at Voyager RV Resort and it doesn’t hurt a bit that Voyager is a great place to live. People are friendly, the resort is well run and nicely located — easy to get to anyplace in Tucson — and there is so much to do that you really wouldn’t have to leave the resort at all to have a good time. You can read about some of the available activities at this website — it really has something for everybody. http://www.voyagerrv.com/home.html

But we still enjoy spending some of our time exploring the surrounding area. Here are a few more Tucson area attractions that we especially enjoyed.

Tucson Botanical Gardens: It’s a beautiful garden oasis in the middle of a lovely old residential part of downtown Tucson. The non-profit garden is dedicated to xeriscaping and natural plant education. In 2005, we visited when it was decorated for Christmas with luminarias. http://www.tucsonbotanical.org

Pima Air-Space Museum and tour of airplane graveyard: This is a huge and well-done museum dedicated to the history of flight, military and civilian. It includes a tour of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARG), also known as the Boneyard, which is on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. http://www.pimaair.org The airforce base and boneyard are located on the same side of town as Voyager.

Titan Missile Site: This is a short day trip from Tucson — located 20 miles away in Green Valley. During the cold war, Titan missiles circled the city of Tucson. When they were deactivated, the Pima Air-Space Museum received permission to keep one and to make the site available for the public to tour. You can also access more information about this slightly chilling but very interesting place through the the Air-Space Museum site above.

Biosphere 2: In Oracle, about 30 miles from Tucson. It was an artificial ecological system that had wetlands, oceans, plains, and people all living within the 3+ acre completely enclosed atmosphere. (It is called Biosphere 2 because Biosphere 1 is the Earth.) The purpose was to explore the interaction between life systems for ecological purposes and to gather information for possible space colonization. It functioned as a closed system from 1991 through 2005. After running into financial problems, the original foundation sold the structure. It was run for a while by Columbia University. It now serves as a huge research lab and has been taken over by the University of Arizona. http://www.b2science.org

Baseball Spring Training: When we stayed for the entire Winter season in 2005-06, we went to several games that the Seattle Mariners (our favorite team) played with the two teams that train in Tucson. (The Mariners train in Phoenix.) Great fun and we would do this again if we are in the area during the right time. We might even go to see some games that the Mariners weren’t playing in!

The Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum More a natural history botanical garden than a museum, it is pretty much all outdoors, with plants and animals in natural desert settings. We learned the names of many desert plants that we’d been lumping together under the all-purpose title of “cactus.” The bright colors in this picture of an agave plant have not been touched up at all. On a sunny day, this is what the desert looks like.

We had seen most of the desert animals before in real natural settings (even the mountain lion, although that was many years ago), but the cunning little coati was one we’d never seen before, so we took some pictures.

This Museum is a great place to walk and to observe and to learn about life in the desert. If we lived here, an annual membership would definitely be worthwhile.
TUCSON’S GREAT OUTDOORS

March 1, 2008

We like Tucson. The area is rich with things to do and see. It’s a good place to live, with all the big city amenities, but also many easy opportunities for getting out into the great outdoors — a perfect combination for us. Except that there’s no ocean in Arizona and after a while we miss being near the water.

Apparently it’s too dry here for bugs as well. I’m sure this means something serious ecologically, but on the short-term, it’s a plus for people living here. You can sit outside or leave your screen door open during the middle of the day and on into evening (when it’s warm enough) and you get no insects at all. Nor do you see them much at all when you’re out in the parks walking.

Here are some of our favorite places to explore.

Saguaro National Park East and West . The two parts of Saguaro National Park border the east and west city limits. You can drive straight down Broadway from the main part of the city and end up at a trail-head to Saguaro East. Here are some varied descriptions of the giant saguaro cactus, from literature in the Visitor Center: “the monarch of the Sonoran desert, a prickly horror, the symbol of the American Southwest, and a plant with personality.” Their fanciful shapes can seem almost human. (Except that they can grow up to 50 feet in height.)

The desert grows on you and after a while and you really start to really appreciate it’s different kind of beauty. (The Sonoran Desert has the greatest variety of plant and animal life of any North American desert.)

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On one of our visits to Saguaro East, we saw a whole family of javalinas feasting on cacti. Their feeding habits are kind of harsh. It’s easy to see where they’ve fed, because you can see bent over, dying plants where they’ve been nibbling.

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The Sky Islands (Sky Island Scenic Drive in the Santa Catalina Mountains) Sky Islands are isolated mountain ranges rising from the desert the same way that islands rise from the ocean floor. Driving the 7,000 foot climb from Tucson to the top of the Santa Catalina Mountains takes less than an hour, but is the equivalent of going from the desert to northwestern Canada. You pass giant saguaro cactus, then oak woodlands. Then, about halfway up, there’s the first sign of a cooler climate, with ponderosa pines. There are plenty of places to get out and take short walks. You need a jacket by the time you get to the top.

Sabino Canyon. This oasis is located in the southeastern foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The canyon begins at the top of Mt. Lemmon. There is a lot of plant-life and birds and even some water (the river does actually have some, unlike most Arizona riverbeds).

For a small fee, you can board a guided-tour shuttle bus, which takes you into the deep crevice along the winding river. You can choose to hop off and on at any of several stops, but if you ride straight through to the top and back it is about a 25-minute ride. The presentation by the guide is informative. We got off at the top and then walked the 3.8 miles back down. All down-hill is our idea of a good way to go mountain hiking.

Madera Canyon, Agua Caliente, and Tohono Chul Parks : These are three different city or regional parks that are well kept up and have wonderful birding opportunities. They are easy drives from Voyager. We like that it is possible to drive to any one of these parks (or Saguaro NP for that matter), walk a little, maybe watch birds or wildlife for a while, and still have time to buy groceries — or go swimming or visit with friends and neighbors back home at Voyager.
NEAR VERNAL UTAH, 2004 (Part 2)

February 24, 2008

We went to Vernal because we had wanted to see Utah’s famous Flaming Gorge and the Green River and to visit Dinosaur National Monument.

So, our visit to the McConkie ranch (previous post) was a great example of serendipity because we’d never even heard of it until we got to the Vernal KOA where we stayed. It really pays to pick up that tourist literature and to talk to people in the parks where you are staying.

The Gorge was every bit as breathtaking as we had been led to believe. Breathtaking not only because of the incredible colors and formations, but also because you have to hold your breath as you drive into Vernal on a long 8% grade. There were actually roadsigns that read “Vernal, 10 hairpin turns ahead” then “Vernal, 8 more hairpin turns left” and so on. Always fun pulling your house behind you on that kind of road.

Here is just one of many good links to more information about the Flaming Gorge:

http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/flaming_gorge/nra.html

(the nra stands for National Recreation Association, by the way.)

Dinosaur National Monument was truly interesting. However, we should have had a young grandson with us. At that time, we had two of them back in the Northwest who were at the perfect age to be experts in the matter at hand, so we missed them here especially. Little boys and dinosaurs belong together.

For more information about Dinosaur National Monument go to: http://www.nps.gov/dino/

(Don’t think — as I did when I first heard of it — that this is one of the many dinosaur tourist traps. This is the real thing, where paleontologists have been working for many years. There are many acres of places still to be excavated where these bones lie buried.)