A Full-time Life

LIST MANIA – THE NATIONAL PARKS

January 12, 2008

Geoff included a list of all of the National Parks in his comment on our Big Bend post. And he is right — to our surprise, we actually are on our way to seeing all of them. Counting up, we found that we’ve visited over half (31 of 58). This picture is from Joshua Tree NP. We’ve talked to a lot of people who don’t understand this park at all, but we love it for the serenity and the fanciful desert atmosphere. It’s quite a little bit different from the Northwest.

There are a few Parks we’ve missed, even in those states we’ve visited often. And we really do want to take the Northern route to pick up Minnesota and North Dakota and the East Coast. And then there’s Alaska and Florida. Not so coincidentally, since we’re talking about lists, those states are among the dozen that we haven’t “lived in” yet. And then there are the ones in Hawaii and Samoa (probably not RV adventures, those last two).

Some of the Parks we can “check off” we visited years ago on camping trips, but not since we started on our retirement RV travels. We’d like to go back to those again (as we did with Yellowstone a couple of trips ago). It would be nice to have pictures too — those earlier camping trips were definitely before the days of digital cameras (or any camera at all usually).

So many beautiful places still to see (or to visit again), but how fortunate we are in the memories we have! Here are just a very few of our favorite National Park pictures.

Canyonlands and Arches (that’s Bill gazing out at the mesa landscape and Geoff with me at Keyhole arch — he met us for a long weekend when we stayed near these two amazing parks.) We were on our way back to the Northwest from Texas in June of 2006.

Saguaro National Park, near Tucson AZ – Winter 2005-06

Yosemite, Spring 2004.

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And below, with Geoff and Lisa, on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, on one of our trips to beautiful Colorado.
BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, April 2006

January 6, 2008

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.
TEXAS GULF COAST, WINTER 2006-07

December 30, 2007

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!!
Our London Adventure

December 29, 2007

In April 2007, we stored our RV and flew to Gatwick Airport in London. For three months, we lived in a flat in Sydenham (in Southeast London). We’ve always wondered what it would be like to live in a Big City and we had always wanted to see London. We accomplished both goals — saw everything we’d always dreamed of (and more) and enjoyed learning about city life. We had the time of our lives.

For us, staying in one central location worked. We’re just not "tour" people — we liked discovering the wonders of the city on our own schedule and pretending (when we weren’t carting the cameras) that we actually lived there. We got away with it sometimes too! By the end of our three months, people on the street were asking us for directions.

This blog is about our London adventure — to see the beginning of it, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on archives.
New Mexico – Fall 2006

December 23, 2007

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.
New Mexico

December 13, 2007

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.
More from Colorado

December 4, 2007

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.
Colorado – in the Fall, 2006

November 29, 2007

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!
Convection ovens are my life

November 14, 2007
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.)
Autumn in the West 2006 — Yellowstone

November 13, 2007

Last year, we almost stayed too long at Yellowstone National Park and Autumn morphed into what comes next. (This was taken in mid-September, 2006, on the Upper Loop.) The snow wasn’t permanent yet though and we had mostly sunny, cool days.

We had been to Yellowstone a couple of times previously on summer camping trips with our four kids. That was way back when (in the 60s and 70s). This visit brought back lovely memories of our camping trips — we wouldn’t want to have missed seeing the park with the kids. The park has changed some in the intervening years — better roads, fewer bears. And certainly it’s a different experience in the fall, when the park is relatively quiet.

Since our retirement, we’ve been to several other National Parks for the first time. We’d love to be able to visit them all and we were really happy to get to come back to this one.