Adventure Since March!

OMG, I can't believe I've let 4 months go by since my last posting. As I have said before, getting motivated to keep up the blog is a major issue for me - as you all can attest to! Once I get on the computer and start, it's hard to stop. Wish I could promised to be more timely and consistent but I've given up on making promises I can't seem to keep. Y'all will just have to accept me as I am - warts and all!

OK, since we returned to Austin in time for Easter, we have been quite busy. Spent three weeks in the Dominican Republic celebrating our 45th wedding anniversary. The trip there was great as always. We so love our LHVC family there and seeing old friends and making new ones. Spent some really great time with Anne and Blaz and also Angela and Barry from the UK. Our anniversary dinner party at the villa was super - food and company excellent! Didn't really do any excursions while we were there, just sat around, read several books, spent a lot of time socializing, napping, eating and drinking.

Returned to Austin and went to several of Gracie's volleyball games. Got to see her team take first place for their age group in the playoffs.

We left Austin for Medina Lake in the Texas hill country and spent almost three weeks there. During our stay there, Kevin, Angie and the kids spent a weekend with us and we had a really fun time. Went swimming in the pool (a little cool), played volleyball, had a big campfire, ate camper pies and fed the deer. They were as gentle as a dog and were eating right out of the kids' hands. Thought I had a photo of that but obviously was too busy feeding them myself. I'll have to get some pictures from Kevin and Angie to post.

The next weekend Brian, Heather and kids came to the campground and we introduced them to our lifestyle along with camper pies, feeding deer and a lot of other fun stuff.

We left Texas at the end of May. Our original plan was to be in Yellowstone Park for two weeks in mid-May. After talking with some other campers and really checking out the weather situation in Yellowstone, we came to realize that mid-May is a really questionable proposition due to weather. Usually there is only one road definitely open at that time and the other roads into the park are oft times closed due to snow. Discretion being the better part of valor, we choose to drop Yellowstone from our itinerary this year and see that park at another time - July or August of another year. We started our trek toward Colorado Springs taking 4 days to drive there. We did one overnight in Morton Texas with Greg and Shawn and had a great visit. Luckily we missed 85 MPH winds that they had a few nights earlier. We've had 65 MPH gusts while in Memphis and the camper was really rocking then. I can't imagine what 85 MPH winds would have been like. But we did get to experience 45 - 55 MPH gusts while driving across Wyoming. Go through it - don't need to do it again!





Finding the Garden of the Gods campground in Colorado Springs was quite interesting. It was even more interesting getting to our campsite - quite a tight campground with lots of trees to work around. We did get to our site with no mishaps! Other than an scary drive to the site and really questionable internet, it is a great campground. Perfectly located at the edge of town and really great staff! They even had a good barbeque cafe on site. We so fell in love with Colorado Springs! There was so much to do - hiking the Garden of the Gods, hiking Red Rock Canyon, horseback riding in the Garden of the Gods, taking the cog railroad up to the summit of Pike's Peak (over 14,000 feet), going to Cripple Creek, seeing the cliff dwellings, attending both a brew dinner and a wine dinner, several hikes on the Midland trail. Here are some of the photos of our stay there.

 Rock formation in the Garden of the Gods Park. These lands were donated to the city of Colorado Springs under the directions that they will never be sold off and will always be free to the public.

The mountain in the background is Pike's Peak

The cog railroad to the summit of Pike's Peak

This is the cog that powers the railroad

This is for our friends from Minnesota - Minnehaha is a loving reference that folks make to Minnesota

Snow on top of the peak! Didn;t see any bighorn sheep - very disappointing!

Can you believe that it was in the upper 90s in town and we had to put on jackets at the summit. The altitude really bothered Ernie but thankfully he didn't pass out! Don't know what I would have done if he did.

The smoke in the valley is the Black Forest forest fire. 15,000 acres burned in this fire, over 300 homes were destroyed, two folks died.

This is the balancing rock formation at one of the entrances to the Garden of the Gods

Yet another balancing rock - even more spectacular than the previous shot!

This is road lead up to the balancing rock. We were able to drive the truck through - but only after we turned in the side mirrors. I definitely held my breath while driving through!

These were the sights on one of our hikes through the Garden

Absolutely breathtaking!

Every turn on the trail took us to these kind of sights!

I took a two hour trail ride through the Garden of the Gods - actually turned out to be closer to three hours. It was amazing! While this ride was rated for beginners, the trails were quite steep and you literally had to lay forward on the horse when going up and lay back when going down. My horse liked to jump up rocks which proved to be a bit unsettling the first time he did that. After that, it was simply a matter of reminding the horse who was boss by really holding the reins back. He got the message!

I had to add this picture because it was the first time we ever saw diesel prices lower than gas prices. While that is truly the way it should be, unfortunately that's not the way it is in the real world.





















After two short weeks in Colorado Springs, we headed to Boise, Idaho to visit Karla and Tom for 11 days. What a busy and fun 11 days!!!! While there, we went white water rafting on the main Payette River (first time for both Ernie and I), went to the horseraces (another first time for me), went to the War Hawk air show (WW II planes), visited their amazing farmer's market on Saturday, attempted to go hot air ballooning (flight cancelled because temperatures were too hot and wouldn't get enough lift - the cancellation was a good thing. Would not want to be in the balloon and suddenly find out were had no control). Around all this, spent a lot of time visiting with Kar and Tom, playing cards, hiking along the river path and Ernie getting a new hairdo.

This is a cottonwood tree that was just outside our camper. It was in full bloom and we had cottonwood blossoms all over the camper and inside the truck. What a mess!





















The horseraces were so much fun but oh what a headache trying to learn to read a racing form. We bet a few dollars and came close - but no cigar!

One of the things we never expected for our Boise trip was 100+ degree temperatures. We just happened to be in the mid-West during that incredible heatwave. We had higher temperatures than Austin!!!!



The air show at the War Hawk Museum was so much fun. We went to the early morning flights and were so glad we did. Temps that afternoon were around 104!

The absolute highlight of the visit was the white water rafting. OMG what fun. We are hooked! We were on class II and III rapids and that was just fine with us for the first time. Of course, the water felt good because it hit 109 degrees that afternoon.

The class III rapids that we went through were named Go Left (to avoid that big rock in the middle), Constriction (because we went through a severe narrowing in the river, thus a constriction) and Mix Master (because you felt like you were going through a blender). What a RUSH!

Left Boise with mixed emotions. Didn't want to leave our friends but were anxious to get down the road. We spent three days driving to Nicklaus, California. The drive was a bit boring when going through southern Oregon and we pretty much decided that southern Oregon was not on our list of possible future homes. While camping in Burns Oregon, we got to spend some time in the natural hot springs at the campground. Really neat! We expected Oregon to be heavily treed and on the cooler side. Boy were we wrong! It is high desert and was almost 100 degrees every day.

The big challenge on this drive was going over the Donner Pass at 7200 feet. We crossed over and then had to go from 7200 feet down to 200 feet above sea level in a span of about 40 miles. While that doesn't sound particularly bad, try doing down a 6% grade with a 34 foot, 14,000 lb. camper behind you. Not exactly nail-biting but definitely not a walk in the park.

OK, that's all for now. We're going for a swim in Lake Minden. More to come!

OH, forgot one more thing, photos of Ernie's new do!

He should have done this years ago! I really like it - except for the really pink head that now shows through his non-existent hair! He's got to work on getting some sun up there! Y'all have a great day and be good to each other!

Thanksgiving to present!

To blog or not to blog....that is the question. Just realized my last post was in November and so much has happened since then. My plan was to be really vigilant about staying current on the blog - well you know how that plan went.

So back to November. We went to South Padre for Thanksgiving and a week of fishing. Chris came with us and we had a really good week staying in a condo and fishing off the jetty or wade fishing in the bay. I caught the first flounder on our first day out. It provided a great dinner for us all. The next day, Chris caught the second flounder and we had another super meal. Well Ernie was getting a little miffed because he had yet to catch a flounder - even with the lucky fishing cap and the lucky cigar! Needless to say, Lady Luck finally smiled on him and gave him a 26 1/2 inch flounder. A whopper of a fish!

 He was mighty proud of this fish - and rightly so! Danny joined us later in the week to spend Thanksgiving and do some fishing.

The four of us went out on a bay charter and caught a pretty hefty mess of fish. Took our fish to a local restaurant and they cooked the fish 3 ways - fried, grilled and blackened. Between the margueritas and fish and fixins, we were very happy campers that evening.



















Went to Boise to visit Tom and Karla in mid-December and spent my birthday with them. They moved there in September and were homesick for friends and we were eager to see their new home and new city. Had a great time with them and got snow on my birthday. What a great birthday present! We also went to the Potato Bowl to see Utah State play University of Toledo. I know, not quite UT level of play but it was really fun. Got to see the really blue and orange Boise State University Bronco stadium. It is really blue!

Spent Christmas with Angie, Kevin, Chris, Gracie and Turner and had a great time. Stayed in town for New Years and got ready to head on for our road trip. We left on January 8th and headed to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Our first foray out was one that we will never forget. Boy have we learned sooooooo much since January 8th. The first campground (Southern Leisure) we stayed at was a disaster. Hindsight said we should have stayed in Buda for a couple more days but we were so eager to get started and just knew that all would work out. We drove all day (and a long day at that) to Many, Louisiana. We arrived in pouring rain, at night and the campground had no lights. The roads in the campground were very hilly and broken. We managed to get into a site and level the camper (2 boards on one side - so much for level sites). Unfortunately we couldn't get the truck unhooked because it was also not level but in the opposite direction from the camper. We stayed hooked and opened the slides and spent the night. Next day, we got an angel from an RV place to come help get us unhooked and figure out what the problem was. Turns out it was a perfect storm situation that included bad site, bad weather, new operators, etc. He got us squared away and we also moved to a more level site. Spent 3 days there and then moved on. We're not really sure why we stayed for three days other than that was the plan and the plan was not to be messed with! OK, one of the early lessons was that the plan is always flexible!!!! Another lesson is that if a campground is dicey, move on down the road and stay in a parking lot if necessary.

When we bought our truck, a good friend recommended we get 4-wheel drive. His thinking was that we would probably never need it, but the time or two that we would, we would be very glad we had it. Well, while trying to find a site in Southern Leisure, we had to go up a really steep hill and it had been raining all day long. Halfway up the hill, we started sliding back. We being the truck and a 34 foot 5th wheel camper. I stopped, changed to 4-wheel drive and made it up the hill. I have thanked Brett and our boys (in my mind) numerous times for recommending 4-wheel drive.

As we drove to Gulf Shores, the flooded houses, rivers, streams that we saw just broke your heart. Wound up staying in Gulf Shore for 3 weeks because we so enjoyed it. Went fishing on the pier one day. I dropped my line (pompano rig with shrimp) and Ernie was still putting his rig together. Ernie finally dropped his line and got a hit within 10 minutes. When he started to reel in, he realized he had a problem - a really big fish and no drop net. I got to run down the pier to find someone with a drop net while he worked on tiring out his catch. Imagine our surprise when he and a really nice lady with a drop net brought up his 18 lb, 36 inch black drum! We also went out on a charter and brought in 5 really nice sheepshead. In fact, we have one filet left in the freezer.

Did I forget to mention the flat tire we had on the camper as we were driving to Gulf Shores. We were going to stop for breakfast on our drive to the campground. After two tries to get to a Waffle House, we gave up on that (short entrances, small parking lots, basically impossible to get into with the camper and no large parking lots nearby). Driving down the road, we spotted an I-Hop in a shopping mall. BINGO! Really big parking lot and lots of space to turn around. When we got out of the truck - back in the south 40 - we notices that one of the camper tires was going flat. While waiting for breakfast, Ernie called the road service - thank goodness for emergency road service! Finished breakfast and went to the truck and camper that now had a totally flat tire and waited 10 minutes for the tow truck. He jacked up the camper and replaced the tire and our spare. Thankfully it was good. Got to Gulf Shores and arranged to buy a new tire and get that taken care of. While driving from Gulf Shores to Charleston three weeks later, we had a blow out on another camper tire. God was watching out for us and we were able to get off the road and never lost control of the vehicle. As luck would have it, there was a campground just the other side of the fence and we arranged to drive there and stay for a few days while we got all new shoes for the camper. As I said, God was watching out for us. Not exactly the way I would have liked Him to - with no incidents - but rather with no injuries. I guess He was sending us a message with the flat tire and we just didn't get it. So rather than cause a major accident, he sent another message - basically - hey stupid, what didn't you understand! What is so surprising to Ernie and I both is that he is usually right on top of anything having to do with the tires and we both just totally overlooked that whole aspect of this lifestyle. Major DUH! Made it to Charleston and enjoyed two weeks there. Great seafood, plantations, a pub crawl. Forgot how really beautiful this area is. We also visited the only tea plantation in the North America. We also forgot about things like boiled peanuts (you can even buy them in the 7-11 type gas stations), Huddle House restaurants, Bi-Lo and Ingles grocery stores. Lots of memories from the past.

From Charleston, we moved up the cost to Rodanthe on the Outer Banks. As we started this whole trip, we never thought about the fact that a lot of things would be closed because it was out of season. Oh well, live and learn, and learn we did! While in Charleston and dealing with out of season, Ernie decided to call some of the piers at the Outer Banks to see if they would be open while we were there. Imagine our surprise when one of the piers had a message that said "Come on down! Highway 12 is now open and we can't wait to see you." To those of you unfamiliar with the Outer Banks, Highway 12 is the only road down the barrier islands from Nags Head. It seems that Hurricane Sandy not only left destruction in New Jersey and New York, she also decided to take out some of the middle eastern coast. Parts of Highway 12 were washed out and they just reopened 2 1/2 weeks before we got there. Between Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012, the Outer Banks has really taken a hit. In fact, Irene opened a new inlet between the existing Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe. Sandy took out the bridge over the new inlet and part of the road leading into Rodanthe. We got to drive on the temporary military bridge over the new inlet. The highway department built up dunes on the left side of of the road - literally just on the water side of the road! As you are driving, you see the paved road and a dune leading up from the road. Guess what, the water is just on the other side of the dune.

While at the campground there, we had really strong winds and a storm came through. There were high tide warnings and when we went to Nags Head the next day, we had to drive through the water that came over the road from the storm the day before. We knew there were high tide warnings and flooding in low areas so we walked to the beach closer to high tide to see how bad it would be. The photos below were taken from the top of the path over the dune to the water and we were still 2+ hours from high tide.

A couple of days later, we walked the beach. It was so sad to see the destruction from Irene and Sandy. Passed a dozen houses that had condemned notices nailed on. Six of the homes had the first 2 rows of pilings in the water - at low tide! The others would have some of the pilings in the water at high tide. There were at least another 14 houses that will be in the water at the next serious storm. I didn't have a camera with me when I passed one house that had pilings in the water and the name of the house was Front Row Seat. How very sad!

Yes this house is leaning - and it is condemned. This is actually on the sound side of the road and was flooded by the backflow from the sound when Sandy hit.

We left the Outer Banks a week and a half ago headed to Fair Play SC on Lake Hartwell. This is were we used to camp when we lived in Simpsonville SC. We spend many weekends and summers here. On the way to Fair Play, we wound up driving through a winter storm and had us going through snow. Thankfully none sticking on the roads but that did nothing for my comfort level while driving. We have now spent the last week strolling down memory lane, visiting our ole home, where the kids went to school, going to Helen Georgia (a beautiful Bavarian town in the Georgia mountains), going to White Water Falls near Cashiers NC, stopping at Calhoun covered bridge.

 Had to stop to buy some moonshine. They were giving samples and I was surprised at hos smooth it was going down and then it hit down and lit a fire in my gut!

Where's a gun when you need one. Saw these wild turkeys near White Water Falls

 So Ernie and I have been talking a lot about our life style choice and whether it was all that we thought it would be. We had been a bit disappointed because it didn't feel like the camping we remembered. After thinking about it, we realized it wasn't that the campgrounds or campers had changed and it wasn't that we had changed, it was simply seasonal. The weather we have encountered has been cold - much colder than we expected and much colder that normal for these areas. With cold weather, you don't get out as much and don't sit outside, you tend to hunker down in the camper. The last week has warmed up nicely and we've been able to sit outside and have campfires and YES it is all that we remembered and wanted.

So my final words for this posting are happy trails to you and your yours, til we meet again!

After the Australia Trip

Wow, I can't believe it's been 6 months since that trip. So much has happened since then. Let me catch you up on life since then. We returned to New Zealand to finish out the next month and a half before our return to the U.S. Easter with Joelle and family was great! It's been so long since we celebrated that holiday with them. Folks in New Zealand do not color eggs at Easter but we did! Of course since that it our tradition. Joelle invited some friends  over and we had a great time doing the eggs. It was a bit trickier and messier since we had to actually use food dye but what fun. We also celebrated our traditional Polish Easter. Made kielbasa and placek for our meal. We ate outside and had a marvelous time. During our remaining time, we also spent a weekend at Pine Valley. We rented the lodges and had the entire camp to ourselves for the weekend. Several other families joined us. While this camp is usually used for various school outings, the playground equipment is really geared for all the big kids too. I rode my first flying fox (several times). It was really fun. Had a big bonfire and roasted marshmallows and had s'mores. They also had a water slide built on the side of the hill. It was a wooden chute covered with heavy plastic. They had a hose at the top of the slide that provided the water and you had to put dish soap on the slide so you actually slid down. Everyone was having a great time until two of the girls collided at the bottom of the slide. A visit to the hospital for both of them and several weeks recuperating but a damper on the weekend but it was a great way to end our year in New Zealand.

We knew it was going to be hard to leave Joelle, Jasmin and Trevor but didn't realize how hard! Really do miss them! The flight to San Francisco was uneventful. We spend three days there with friends that we had met while in Fiji. They are beautiful folks. Had a great dinner that night with some of their friends. Spent the next day sailing in San Francisco Bay. What a treat! Arrived back in Austin to outrageous heat and traffic! We were just getting into Fall and Winter in New Zealand and San Francisco is cold any time of the year. We step off the plane into 100 degree heat. What a shock to the system!

We planned on spending 3 days in San Francisco and arranged flights accordingly. As we got closer to the date, we began to regret that schedule because we were eager to see everyone in Austin. In hindsight, that was the best decision. We got a chance to get over a good portion of jetlag in a quiet, calm environment with no demands on us. Once we got to Austin, it was a whirlwind of activity - good activity - but activity nonetheless.

Since we returned to Austin, we've had several trips - Baton Rouge, Port Aranasas, Sea World in San Antonio with Gracie, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands Monument, Albuquerque, Tent Rocks Park, Petroglyph Park, Grand Canyon, Dominican Republic. About 2 months ago, we bought our camper, Didn't stay in it right away since our granddaughter from Illinois came for a visit. It was only 4 days but we packed the days with activities. Once she returned, we started working on the camper - getting stuff out of storage and store runs to pick up all the other stuff. We finally got everything set up in the camper along with satellite TV. Finally we were ready to head out on our own to the first of many campgrounds. We closed everything up and Ernie was flushing out the black water tank and water was gushing out of the bottom of the tank. We knew that was not right but didn't know exactly what was happening. Since we were still at the dealer campground, checked with them and they said they would have to put this beheamoth of a unit on the lift and see what was happening. That would take a day. So off we were to stay with Chris for the night while they fixed the problem. Turns out it was a backflow safety valve in the black water tank and they fixed it for only $800. Thankfully it was covered by the extended warranty. Next day we take off and I drive 4 hours til we are north of Fort Worth. Can't believe how easy it was to pull this 34 foot monster. Most of the time I didn't even know it was behind me. We stopped for fuel about 14 miles from the campground. Well, I pulled into the gas station and forget this monster was behind me until I hear a noise. It was the passenger side of the camper scraping along the left rear edge of an 18 wheeler trailer. The only thing hurt was my pride! Major hurt!!!! We were sure if we would be able to open the door to the camper since it was pretty caved in. I also took out the canopy. Drove on to the campground, parked the trailer and plugged it in so we could keep the food cold. Tried the door - no luck! The campground put us in a getaway cabin while we talked with insurance and camper repair folks and got all that squared away. The camper is now back at the dealer waiting for a new canopy and frame, new door and frame, and some cosmetic work to the camper skin around the door. Thanks God for insurance. The lesson learned is that when pulling 34 feet of anything behind you, you need to make very very very very wide turns!

We're getting ready to go to South Padre for Thanksgiving with our son Chris for a week of fishing and lazying around (is that a real word?) Hopefully the flounder will be running. When we return, the camper should be done and ready for us and we will give this another go. Can't wait for Ernie to try hauling our home.

Anyhow, that's all for now folks! I've said it before and will probably say it again, I will try to be more diligent about keeping up with this blog. Once I get started, everything just seems to pour out. It's is just getting started. Take care and have a great Thanksgiving. Oh, I am so very thankful for all my family and friends and all good fortune bestowed on us.