More Tiny Towns

I could probably write this blog entry with one sentence because we are in Palisades, ID and our campground is the only thing here :)  Just joking, but close.  Not sure of the population here, but I'm thinking it's in the teens.  The gas station here is the hardware store and the grocery store. :)



We drove up from Bear Lake with a dip back into Wyoming and returned to Idaho.  Country roads and small towns were again the theme of this drive.  Those are my favorite kind.

Cave, Lake, and Crepes

So the plan was to avoid extreme seasons.......snow and intense heat.  We should have researched a little more thoroughly because the intense heat won't let up.  We have done all kinds of research and reading about why it's colder at higher altitude when it seems it would be warmer cause you're closer to the sun and why is the sun so intense and ready to burn your skin at such high altitude.  This weather has inspired all kinds of learning opportunities :)

So from the beautiful luxury of Mountain Valley Resort we headed north through Utah and even dipped into Wyoming briefly and back into Utah up to Bear Lake.  It's amazing how much of this country is land as far as the eye can see with the occasional house, farm or trailer.  We have seen so many signs similar to "Welcome to _______.  Population 121"  And so many times we have said "who is living here?"  I want to knock on their door and hear their story.  Not just because it's a microscopic town without a grocery store, but because some of the towns look abandoned.  Like a scene out of The Walking Dead.

So as we arrived to the Bear Lake area, things started looking more lively.  There was a cute little town called Garden City on the southwest side of the lake and several boat rental places as we drove up the west side of the lake.

Garden City down in the distance and Bear Lake from top of a nearby mountain.

The water was beautiful.  Almost reminded me of the Gulf of Mexico on a clear, calm day.  I had just seen what the Great Salt Lake had in store, so when the lady at the campground told me the most fun thing to do in town was swim in the lake, I was skeptical.

Great Salt Lake......Not So Great

From Dinosaur National Monument we headed west on hwy 40 and continued our trip towards Heber City, UT.

It was Father's day while we were traveling and that morning we gave Diego his cards and in the evening drove to Provo, UT to see the new Avengers movie.

Week of Nationals

This was a week of National Parks and Monuments.  We hit three parks.................Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Arches and Canyonlands and two Monuments...........Colorado and Dinosaur.  Did I mention that we were in the high desert heat at about 100 degrees each day.  HELLO! We did not realize that we would be leaving the mountains so soon and entering those kind of temps.  We were not happy campers part of that week.  The humidity is low, so you're not sticky, but it was so hot!!  

We had left Glenwood Springs and had a short drive down the Interstate.  It was amazing how much the climate changed in that 1 hour or so drive. 

We stayed at James M Robb State Park (Island Acres Section) and were sandwiched between two mountains.  The mountains were beautiful however the interstate was sandwiched between those same two mountains, so that was a little weird.  It just became white noise and didn't bother us at all, but might have if we had been at a site closer to the road.  The campground itself was nice, but had a strange crowd of people.

Rocky Mountain High

After leaving St. Vrain we headed south and then west on I-70.  We have been avoiding interstates for the most part, but man are we glad we took this one.  Twisting and turning through mountains, some tunnels through the mountains and the final hour or two were through Glenwood Canyon.  It was just beautiful.

Glenwood Canyon

I Remember This Place

From Golden we traveled north to a state park called St.Vrain.  Ahhhh..... The space of a state park I had missed so much.  State parks are my favorite and we had not been to one since our last stop in New Mexico, so I was very excited.  The park itself was pretty, had nice lakes for fishing, and a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains off in the distance.  It was quite close to the interstate so you didn't quite feel remote, but it was a pretty nice place.  We had a fire pit and put it to good use a few nights.  Attempted cooking our veggies and some other things over the flame, but our wood was a little smokey from being in the back of our truck and exposed to all the rain.  The veggies were a little smokey :)  

Friends and Golden Arches

Keeping our northerly route we headed to a town to the west of Denver called Golden, CO.  We LOVED Golden!



I think it was a combination of reasons.........campsite had an awesome location right on the river and main bike path in town, awesome parks, cute downtown, tons of outdoor activities, sunny cool days, people outside enjoying, tennis courts nearby, and I could go on.  We had a great week and have put it on our short list of favorites.

The Incline

Heading north and avoiding interstates when we can, we took the pass through the mountains on our way to Manitou, Springs (just outside of Colorado Springs, CO).  Beautiful drive through the mountains and following the Arkansas River part of the way.

Manitou Springs is a cute little town and another great walkable place.  


The "springs" are not hot springs like in Pagosa, but mineral springs.  They are located all over town and several right in the middle of downtown.  Known for their healing qualities, they have a sweet taste.

They're Not White

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.  Swimming.  Zapata Falls  Swimming.  Sandboarding. Swimming. Sand Sledding.

Made it to Colorado

Kept heading north on Hwy 64/84 and entered into Rio Grande National Forest.  Another very pretty drive.  We arrived to our reserved campgrounds and after testing our internet and theirs decided that the connection wasn't strong or consistent enough for the work week, so called down the road and found a spot.  

Crossing the Rio Chama

After leaving Santa Fe/Cochiti Lake area we headed north to Heron Lake State Park near the New Mexico/Colorado border.  The drive up highway 84 was beautiful and just about the right pace for us at 55 mph.  We arrived and felt like the only campers in the park and we had trouble finding the lake at first because it was so far receded. 

The Turquoise Trail

We just left Cochiti Lake which is about 45 minutes SW of Santa Fe.  The campground where we stayed was an Army Corps of Engineers campground and was very nice.

Sunset at Cochiti Lake Campground

The Mother Road

We spent this past week in Albuquerque and it was pretty nice.  Besides the cold snap that hit a few days after we arrived the weather is very nice.  Warm sun with a fresh mountain breeze.  The cold snap was tough though, dropping below freezing one night.  It was 20 degrees warmer in Haddonfield one of the days I checked my phone.  Crazy.

We arrived, did our usual check out of the city after setting up camp.  That checking out includes grocery shopping.........Trader Joe's stop.  YAY!  Big city stops tend to be half for getting to know and visiting the city and half about restocking.  We have been seeing a Target and Trader Joe's about once a month, so we gotta get it while we can.

We took Route 66 to the Museum of Natural History on Monday.  We have become museum experts and the girls love it.  I had several other stops planned that afternoon, but I had what I am pretty sure were altitude issues.  I started to feels nauseous and had a splitting headache.  All plans were derailed, but these girls are so LEGO crazy they might have been glad we were headed home.

Decided to take a tour of the city.

ABQ Trolley Tours

Sand Dunes and Sunsets

Monday, April 6, 2015

We arrived to Alamogordo, NM yesterday evening and are staying at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, south of the city.  The sunset that was going on during set up was beautiful.  

Star gazing in New Mexico

I have never considered myself a "star gazer" nor have I paid much attention before to the stars and constellations.  However, since we started this journey, we find ourselves surrounded by these beautiful deep dark nights, with millions of amazing bright stars showing off.  It's hard to ignore the magnificence of the galaxy and avoid start getting all cheesy, wondering about those deep questions of our own nature we seldomly ask ourselves.  But I went ahead and ignore the anyway.

Air is so dry, the fire will keep burning without having to mess with it at all.  Thanks Mr. Mac for the wood!!

Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains (National Parks)

Monday, March 30, 2015

We left Marathon, TX and headed northwest to an area between Carlsbad and Artesia, NM.  I'm not even sure what the town is because we are staying on a ranch that has an RV park for members of a club called ESCAPEES.  We happen to be members because when we left NJ we joined two groups.....Passport American and ESCAPEES.  This particular place came up on our app when we were looking for places in the area and we decided to give it a try.  It is very cute here.  I forgot to mention that all members of ESCAPEES are fulltimers, so that puts the majority of them in a age bracket.  So this "ranch" is actually located on a real ranch and is a little community for people who full time travel.  Many of these people live here most of the time, but take off when they can or want I suppose.  We are on someones "plot" who is away on a trip. Everyone is very sweet and we were greeted with the ringing of a bell and a big hug :)  I went to the exercise class this morning.  Happy hour is everyday at 4pm in the main house, as well as bingo and other activities throughout the week. Cute little community in the middle of nowhere.

Today the girls and I went to the Living Zoo State park located in Carlsbad, NM.

Marathon, Texas and More Big Bend

We just left Marathon, TX and while I already posted a little bit about the park I didn't mention Marathon much. This was a very, very small (population 420) town and had it's own little charm.  Ironically, there is a hotel, The Gage Hotel, in the middle of the 2-4 block downtown area that is quite fancy and has a long history in this town.  The hotel has a restaurant with a pricey menu and apparently enough of a clientele to keep it going.  Across the railroad tracks are the Gage Gardens, which are maintained by the hotel and are quite lush and beautiful especially when everything is so parch in the desert.

Big Bend National Park

Today the girls and I went to Big Bend National Park. We are staying in Mararthon, TX so we had about a 45 minute drive to the park entrance. It is such a big park there is a lot of driving involved.

Dallas with Toño and Neelima

After leaving Austin we headed north to visit Toño and Neelima in Dallas.  Yeehaw!  It had been at least 3 or 4 years since we had seen each other and we finally got to meet Arjun :)  Such a cutie!

The girls had a great time carrying him around all over the place.

Artsy Austin

Austin was a fun city!  We arrived on a Sunday and stayed for a week.  We stayed at McKinney State Park just outside of the city and once we arrived we set up camp and then took off to explore.  We had our bike rack clips on hold at REI and wanted to get a feel for the city before our work week started. It was rainy that night though, so mostly we just did some errands and spent a good few hours in a book store called Book People.  It's always great when we find a good bookstore because we leave with a new list of things to check out at the library on their nooks.  It is so cool that they can check out books through their nook just like they were at home.  Thank you Jordan!!

Stephen Austin State Park

We left New Orleans on a Friday afternoon and headed out not really know where we would stay that night.  Our only point of reference was that we had a reservation in Austin, TX on Sunday.  We drove for a bit and reached Baton Rouge.  Stopped for a Trader Joe's fill up and made some dinner in the RV before heading back out.  

We made a plan to reach the Texas Welcome Center rest area.  This would be our first rest stop sleep over and went pretty well.  There were several other RV types there and of course truckers.  

We slipped in beside another RV and slept like babies.  

Flying through New Orleans

We spent one day in New Orleans because of our delay in Pensacola.  That was okay because we know that city, at least the french quarter, pretty well.
We stayed with family friends, the Lively's, who live in Slidell and commuted into the city during the day.

Back Home

We made it back to Pensacola!

We spent 3 1/2 weeks in Gulf Breeze and Pensacola and just left a couple of days ago.  A lot happened over those days, so I'm gonna do my best to remember.

St. George Island State Park

St. George Island State Park is in the Panhandle of Florida and after a longer than expected drive, we made it.  The park was on the far eastern side of the island and pretty far removed from the community.

Fort Wilderness Disney

We met a family back in Savannah, GA that assured us that the Disney Fort Wilderness was worth the stop so we decided to make a reservation for a few days.