November 14, 2013 Lorraine’s report
Howdy folks from us here in Laughlin, NV. We have been far, very far, and now we are getting quite close to where our daughter lives. Yea!!! When we started back from Bar Harbor, Maine, we were 3700 miles away from Sunnyvale, CA. Feels like a long, long way, and now we are just a short distance away from seeing our granddaughter, Kaitlyn, and her mommy, Susy, our daughter.
When we left Pennsylvania, the Hershey area, and started back, we weren't sure how long it would take. We had that stop in Red Bay, Alabama for service and such to our rig. What a fiasco that was, losing all that oil out of the rig. Finally, after taking the rig back for the oil leak from the diesel engine, we were able to leave. We were there 2 weeks and 3 days.
When we left on this trip, we figured we would go through 19 states. Even though we been full timing for the past 6 years, it was our first time in 9 of those states. We have now been in 48 of our states with the motor home, 48 states, WOW you say. Yup, 48, we haven't been to North Dakota and we aren't going to Hawaii in this rig, even though Chuck took us for 3 weeks there in Hawaii one year.
I loved going through all the different areas, but I don't know which part I like the best. It was all wonderful. We live in a big country, and there is still so much to see.
It was getting time to leave the northeast, and we got out just in time. A cold front moved in there and in a week or so they had S N O W. I'm so happy that we moved on, before the really cold, wet snow.
Since we left Red Bay, AL again, we stopped by and saw Dan & Wanda for a short visit in Oklahoma. Of course, all their hospitality was incredible. I loved Wanda's pot roast we had and she also planned leftovers that she sent along with us, it was so great again. Thank you both, and we hope we see you this winter.
Farther west, we stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas and went to Bill Clinton's Presidential Library. While it was good, I think I enjoyed President Dwight D. Eisenhower' Library better. Ike had so much more, more leadership, more working with other people during battle, etc. We lived in an amazing era.
One thing I learned was that Bill Clinton was raised by a step father. He was born a Sykes but was raised by his stepfather and his Mother, who lost her husband when Bill was born.
Oscar De Le Renta had a show going on on the top floor of his library that had a some of Hillary’s clothes as well as Chelsea’s clothing. Was fun to see it all. One more thing off our bucket list. Yea!
Clinton's library was nice, and when we finished it, we went on over to the Outdoor Museum right next door. There were lots of school age children, about 8 to 10 year olds, so we didn't stick around too long.
For this trip, once we got through the Clinton museum, we took off ahead of a storm where we heard there was going to be snow. We kept pushing on through so we wouldn't have the snow getting on us. We kept it behind us all the way through to here in Laughlin, NV.
The next day we were off to Amarillo, Texas. We got there by 4ish, set up and went to dinner at Big Tex's. It was all decorated for Christmas; my steak was nummy, Chuck's said he's had better steak.
We were up the next day, heading to Casa Blanco, NM. They had a casino there and we went over to eat. The Lucky Eagle Casino was nice, we had a good meal, no free anything for Veteran's Day; but I had a tiny bit of luck. So far so good, no snow or rain.
From there we took off again, and headed clear through to here, Laughlin, NV. We hope to stay a week and just rest up. Joe and Alice came in the day after we arrived, and we are having a nice visit with them. It was so good to see them!
This was a hard trip for us, loosing time, then the time change and then the weather. It sure made for long days for us, and we are still getting used to Nevada time, not East Coast time. We needed a break, that is why we are resting here in Laughlin, NV.
We have spent time with Joe & Alice, and of course we have had lots of fun visiting and just catching up with them and their family’s happenings. The grandkids, they just seem to grow and grow…
So that's it for me. Hope everyone is good. Take care and we'll see you on down the road.
Hugs to all,
Lorraine
11/14/13 Chuck’s report
We have slowed down enough, finally, that I thought I would start on our blog for last two weeks. We haven’t done a heck of a lot but sure have driven a lot of miles in a short amount of time to get here. So much for taking our time traveling back across the country on our return to the West.
Last week we wrote and finished our blog on Monday so I’ll start with our activities on Tuesday. The mechanics finished changing the new front main seal on Monday afternoon but wanted us to drive it for an hour or so the next morning then return so they could check everything out before sending us on our way. So we got everything put away for traveling and headed out. We made a stop at Swamp John’s restaurant for breakfast and no Dave/Sandy, we didn’t have chocolate gravy.
After our test drive, the mechanics gave us a CLEAN bill of health, no sign of an oil leak, yeah! We headed over to have the coach washed before we left as it still was a mess from all the leaking oil. The guys did a great job washing it, we may have had it waxed too but we were short of time as we wanted to get on the road. As it was, we didn’t get going until 2 pm, that’s usually our normal time to get off the road. We were planning on making a stop along the way but the forecast was for heavy rain overnight and we didn’t want to drive the in it the next day so we kept on going.
We made it to Little Rock, Arkansas the first night, a long trip for us especially since we didn’t get on the road until late. It was one of the few times we’ve pulled into a campground and set up after dark. It wasn’t long after we got set up that the heavy rains started, we figured we made a good decision to get there before the storm.
On Wednesday we had a sort of quiet day as it rained hard most of the day. Lorraine did some laundry, we drove through Little Rock a bit and making a Wal-Mart run was the highlights of our day. .
Thursday morning the rains had stopped so we wanted to do some sightseeing. We were staying just across the Arkansas River from President Bill Clinton’s Library. We could get there by walking across an old railroad bridge that was converted to a pedestrian bridge. But we drove over there instead as we wanted to do more touring later.
We had been to one other President’s library, Dwight Eisenhower’s in Kansas and really liked it, so much so that we decided to see more whenever we could. Ike’s library was really interesting, it had lots about his childhood life, his life in the military and of course, about his presidential life. Bill Clinton didn’t have much of a life except for his political one so there was a small section on his childhood and most of the rest was about when he was governor and president. The main part of the museum was set up with a panel for each year’s highlight while he was president and a large part was showing all the “gifts” other world leaders gave him and Hillary. They also had a large exhibit on the third floor with Oscar De Le Renta fashions, mostly fancy dresses.
Afterwards we found the Arkansas Outdoor Museum and went inside it. This seem to be set up mostly for children but it was interesting about all the wildlife and such throughout the state. And it didn’t have an admission charge either, always a good thing when you aren’t sure what is inside.
Friday morning we got loaded up and ready for travel, this time we were heading to the Tulsa, Oklahoma area to visit with our good friends Dan and Wanda. We saw them this spring when were were headed East and wanted to stop back on the way back. We found a Passport America membership park about 30 miles away, got set up and drove over to meet them. Dan called and suggested we meet them at a school parking lot then follow them back to their home. We had a good visit and continued it over dinner that evening. We headed back to our rig after dinner and they headed home with a promise we would meet at their place again the next day.
After we got back to our place, I checked the weather forecast for the area we were planning on traveling and found there was no rain, and more to the point, no snow, along our planned route for the next three days. We decided to leave on Sunday instead of spending another day and possibly running into snow in the Flagstaff area, been there, done that before.
Saturday we drove to their place then headed out for breakfast with them. Wanda had been busy already, she had a large pot roast on for our dinner later. After going out for breakfast, Dan drove us to a casino where we played for a couple of hours, Lorraine and I should have stayed home from the luck we had, ha. But we did have a good visit with them and continued that at their home. It wasn’t long before Wanda was putting out the roast and such for dinner, there was plenty and lots left over too. We even had homemade apple pie and ice cream after, yum.
But all to soon we had to head back to our place, I didn’t want to drive through the country in the dark because of all the deer, luckily we didn’t see (or hit) any on the way home. Thanks to Dan and Wanda for spending time with us once again, we really enjoyed it and hopefully you head West this winter and we can meet up once again. And as we were leaving, Wanda had a big take out full of pot roast for us to take with us, we ate it a couple of nights later after a long travel day and it was sure appreciated and enjoyed.
Sunday morning we got set up for another day of travel, this time we were planning on making it to Amarillo, Texas. We stopped here on the way East and had a good steak at the Big Texan and wanted to do that again. This is the place that has a 72 oz. steak with shrimp cocktail, salad, potato and if you can eat it all in under an hour, it is free. They have an average of one or two folks attempt this feat everyday, we sure didn’t try.
That night the temperature started dropping a bit, just as forecasted and when we woke up the next morning there was a heavy fog. We were glad it cleared up by the time we were ready to travel, the fog was too heavy for me to feel comfortable driving for sure. So Monday was another travel day, this time we made it to past Albuquerque, we stopped at a casino in Casa Blanca, the Dancing Eagle. The cost for full hookups with 50 amp electric was only $10/night if you got their player’s card so that’s what we did. Lorraine had a good run of luck there and they had their senior menu where everything on that menu was $4.99 or less so we had a good meal too.
Tuesday morning we headed out once again, this time we were going to stop at Williams, New Mexico. But as we were traveling, we listened to the radio for the forecast and they were talking possible snow on Wednesday. We quickly made the decision to continue West until we got out of the mountains. We knew there was a 12 mile, 6% downhill run just after Williams that would get us out of the higher elevations.
But after we got that far, we decided to continue on a bit more, it was only about 2 1/2 hours to Laughlin and we were gaining another hour due to time getting to the Pacific time zone. Lorraine called the park and made a reservation for our normal site, on the top tier right on the edge overlooking the town and river. It is really nice especially at night when all the casinos have their lights on.
We had originally planned on getting to Laughlin on Friday and here it was Tuesday, we made lots of miles in the past three days, once again very unusual for us but we didn’t want to get caught in the possible bad weather that was forecasted. I did hear that the temperature in Red Bay dropped below freezing and they even turned off the water to the camp sites due to the cold. Oklahoma dropped to below freezing two days after we left and there was a bit of snow around the Flagstaff area the night after we left so we were glad we pushed on in three days vs a possible 5 or more as originally planned. We hope to not see freezing weather again until possibly during our Quartzsite stay in January.
Wednesday Lorraine started some laundry and then we made a trip to Wal-Mart to get some supplies. While we were there, our friends Joe and Alice from Washington called to let us know they were in town. These are the folks who rented us their extra lot back in Blaine when we were there and we’ve managed to spend some time with them almost every winter since we’ve been on the road. We didn’t even go home to put stuff away, instead we drove straight to their place and had a short visit with them. Later we picked them up and we headed out for dinner, the gals had decided on a buffet at one of the local casinos. Joe and Alice will be here a week also, we leave the day before they do so we will spend more time with them over the next 5 or 6 days.
Thursday Lorraine wanted to wash/dry our throw rugs and seeing as how Joe and Alice were already at a laundromat we loaded up and headed over there. They had good machines and it wasn’t too long before we were headed back to our rig with clean throw rugs. Later that afternoon we went to the Black Bear Diner with Joe and Alice for dinner then stopped by one of the casinos for some slot activity.
We had a rock chip the front windshield on the rig while driving through New Mexico. I called our insurance company and they contacted a local glass company to come to us to repair the crack. A few minutes later, we got a call, they were cancelling the appointment, seems they had “tech” problems. I don’t know, maybe they fired someone but whatever, we didn’t get our chip repaired.
I called the insurance company with that news and they called a different glass company, they also cancelled. I think I was on the phone for more than 10 calls before we finally got someone willing to travel to our site and repair the chip. At least it didn’t cost us anything except for time and aggravation but it is done and looks better than the other chips we’ve had repaired in the past. At least we didn’t have to change out the whole windshield, we carry a high deductible and would have had to pay our portion.
It was Friday morning that the glass guy came and after Lorraine had a hair appointment; she took off and left me at the coach. I managed to find enough “stuff” to keep me busy, the biggest job I finished was to touch up all the woodwork as needed with stain I had bought when we were in Red Bay.
Later we picked up Joe and Alice and went down to the river to walk the river walk. It was a real nice day, temperatures in the low 80s with a slight breeze, very nice. We spent a couple of hours enjoying the day/afternoon before we went into one of the casinos for some slot play and dinner. Another nice day spent in the company of our good friends!
Saturday morning I called Joe to let him know of our plans to head over to a casino that had 2 for 1 buffet for an early dinner. We also wanted to return to the new RV subdivision we had visited this spring when we were headed East. We like this place and think it will be a success for those who purchase lots/houses here but we just aren’t ready yet and are not sure this is THE place either.
After touring the subdivision, we drove over to AVI for some slot play and dinner. We got there around 2 and the buffet started at 3 but there was already over 100 people in line. Joe finally saved a spot in line for us but there must have been 250 in front of him by that time, this was a popular buffet I guess. It was steak and crab with all the normal buffet foods. With the large number of folks inline, there was also large lines waiting in the food lines. There were a couple of folks who thought they didn’t have to wait in line like the rest of the common folks and it almost came to fist fight. But the food was good, the company better and Lorraine and Alice both won some on the slots.
After we got back to our rig, we watched the Stanford/USC football game, unfortunately Stanford lost, they had too many bad play they just couldn’t overcome. Too bad as they were headed towards a possible good bowl game after the season.
Let’s see, the weather this past 2 weeks has really been a mixed bag. The temperature in Red Bay was nice, in the mid 70s with nighttime lows getting to the low 40s and twice down to the high 30s. The night we left Red Bay and got to Little Rock it started raining and rained most of the next day. But on Thursday and Friday in Oklahoma we once again had good weather but needed to run the heater at night, it got down to the upper 30s. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday was pretty much a blur for us, we got on the road early and stopped late. But we didn’t get any more rain and didn’t experience any freezing temperatures either. Once we dropped down from Williams, NM. we started seeing the temperature rise, it was in the low 80s when we got here to Laughlin on Tuesday. That night the low temperature was only about 65, nice. That’s been pretty much the same for the rest of the week, maybe a few degrees cooler but very nice. Lorraine did have me turn on the heat last night, she says she just can’t take any cold weather anymore. Sure a good thing I didn’t take a job back in Washington this winter, huh? The forecast is for a couple of days with cooler temperatures but nothing that requires me to wear long pants, I hope.
Our travel plans are pretty basic, we will stay here until Tuesday then head to California, getting there after one night on the road, probably in Bakersfield.
Whew, we’ve sure had some unusually long driving days and a couple of times more than two in a row since we left Bar Harbor, Maine. We spent three weeks in Red Bay, most of the other days have been travel days or resting/visiting days. We are both liking the fact we are staying put for a week and don’t have any early morning activities.
But one problem with traveling from Alabama to Nevada is we gained three time zone hours plus the end of daylight savings time. So we both find ourselves waking up earlier than we would like and getting tired before the clock says it’s bedtime. Misty is really having a hard time, she knows when she’s hungry and when she needs to go outside but doesn’t understand why are on a different schedule.
Now to go through the pictures Lorraine took over the past 2 weeks and pick out which ones to add here. I know there will be some scenery pictures even though the area we traveled wasn’t the most scenic on our trip. We find most everyplace has something interesting to see/do and we like the desert and the mountains and even the “barren” part of West Texas.
Swamp John restaurant on the left for those who have been to Red Bay and miss it.
A clean coach, all the oil cleaned off too. The guys did a good job.
On the road, going through Tennessee.
Now we’re going through Arkansas.
That’s some of the bugs we hit on the windshield on the right. I try to wash them off every stop.
Coming into Little Rock, Arkansas. An old railroad bridge that’s now a pedestrian bridge to the Clinton Library.
That’s the Clinton Library, some have compared it to a double wide trailer. Hillary was not happy about that, we heard.
A look back at the RV park where we were staying.
Some of the writing on the bridge and a list of sponsors for the library.
Clinton’s presidential car and the Cabinet Room.
The Oval Office.
Some of the campaign buttons for Clinton/Gore on the right.
The timeline displays and some of the president’s saxophones.
A table setting from the White House.
Oscar De La Renta dresses on display inside the Clinton Library. Lorraine liked this part; me, not so much.
Some of the buildings in Little Rock.
The Capital Building.
Now we’re in Oklahoma. We stayed at the Onapa RV park.
The only picture we had of Wanda and Dan.
Oklahoma City.
We can’t figure out this display, looks like a tower blown over in a tornado to me.
Speaking of tornados, that’s what caused the destruction on the left.
Now we are traveling though Texas.
We went to The Big Texan for dinner. Some of the chairs they have inside.
The 72 ounce steak dinner, if you can eat it all (shrimp cocktail, bread, potato and steak) in one hour it’s free.
Lorraine’s steak on the left, mine on the right. We both brought home leftovers for later.
Not a lot in West Texas.
A cattle feed lot with lots of cattle.
We made it to New Mexico.
Can’t read the Indian smoke signals on the left.
More wide open spaces.
Some long horn cattle.
A cotton field in New Mexico.
More wide open spaces.
Traveling through Albuquerque.
Yep, we’re in Arizona.
Two dinosaurs trying to cross the road.
Pine trees in the upper elevations, near Williams here.
Lorraine took some sunset pictures on the hills in the distance from our campsite here in Laughlin.
Ok, now to get this posted.
Thanks Chuck
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