Arizona Again

Petrified Forest National Park

Some of the many logs scattered throughout
Petrified Forest National Park

This was an eagerly anticipated stop at one of our favorite places. Who can resist petrified wood? Certainly not us! We decided the trip from Ute Lake in New Mexico was too far so we decided to do an overnight in the parking lot of Route 66 Casino. Parking lot stays are not my favorite but this was a much better experience than our Pilot truck stop earlier on. Keep this stop in mind as it plays a role in an incident described later.

Pearl on one of the logs at the National Park

There are no campgrounds in Petrified Forest National Park but we stayed about as close as you could get. There is a tourist stop with shops on either side of the road just a few hundred feet from the entrance to the park. Crystal Forest offers free overnight camping or there are a few sites with electricity for $10.75. This is Arizona in August so we decided on electricity for the three nights. First time we ran the AC it promptly tripped their circuit breaker. Turns out the weather wasn't that hot so did w/o the AC anyway and could have got by with the free camping. Keep this in mind as it shows up in an incident described later.

We spent a few hours at a site nearby to collect small pieces of the beautifully colored petrified wood. While there a rancher stopped by to see what was going on. His great-great grandfather had been sent by the Mormon church in Utah to settle in the area. Delightful conversation and ended with an invitation to go ahead and go through the fences onto surrounding property for our search for petrified wood. Interesting that having lived his whole life in that area he had never seen the Petrified Forest nor the nearby Jim Gray Petrified Wood “store” that has some of the most beautiful petrified wood products that could possibly be imagined. Some items costing tens of thousands of dollars.

The Petrified Forest is located in the Painted Desert

Our daughter, Bert, had asked me to check out a Do Bell place near the park. My Internet search turned up half a dozen Taco Bell's in the region and one reference to Dobell. It was only a few miles away so I checked it out. The Dobell family had dug for petrified wood there for decades and currently offered individuals to dig on their property to fill a 5 gallon bucket for $28. What a delightful few hours I enjoyed, digging in the banks and in the piles of earth that had been dug out by machine. I ended up with far more than my bucket would hold of beautiful pieces ranging from a few tens of pounds to pebble size. Definitely want to return there.

A Lost Day

Pearl and Bert talk frequently on the phone. Pearl never calls Bert at work but often calls on Wednesday, Bert's day off.

Pearl calls and is chatting away with Bert but I can tell from listening in that something is amiss as Bert reveals she is at work and Pearl asks why she is working on Wednesday. After Pearl ends the call we look at the calendar, not convinced that it is Thursday instead of Wednesday. We carefully recount our departure from Ute Lake on Monday, our arrival at Crystal Forest and what we have done each day—every time we come up with Wednesday but surely Bert knows what day it is at work.

We know we have paid for three days at Crystal Forest so Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday nights means if its really Thursday we need to depart. Its already mid-afternoon so we rush around and are on the road within thirty minutes or so, still trying to figure out where the missing day has gone.

Somewhere down the road we remember. We often, even usually, depart on Monday and arrive at our next camping spot the same day to stay for a few to several days. We were thinking, leave Ute Lake on Monday, arrive at Crystal Forest on Monday—completely forgetting the overnight stop at Route 66 Casino.

The humiliation of completely loosing a day was bad enough, reinforcing the knowledge that we are getting old. But what really hurt was that we left our campground at Crystal Forest a day early! That was $10.75 down the drain. :-)

Homolovi Ruins State Park

Every evening had a beautiful sunset

This stop was second choice. A county park in Joseph City was our late afternoon destination from Crystal Forest. Unfortunately Gertrude led us to a residential area where the roads were getting smaller and deteriorating rapidly. When we stopped we soon had a line-up of native-American children and young people who had no clue where we were trying to go but were interested in watching. We ended up detaching the toad (the towed Subaru), maneuvering the motorhome to turn around, re-attaching the toad and heading on down the road to our second choice.

We've been very fortunate so far regarding storms. Not so fortunate this time. We were late in the afternoon and eager to get to our campground and thought the dark clouds and lightning might be just to the south of our route. That was not the case. Soon we were right in the midst of it with lightning all around us, the accompanying booming thunder, strong winds and torrential downpour. Glad we haven't had much of that!

Homolovi Ruins State Park features archaeological sites of native-americans who lived in the area from time to time. There was a little museum and several sites to visit. Also enjoyed visiting with a small herd of burros that roam the area. The campground was well-maintained and provided a beautiful overlook onto desert scenery. Definitely should have been our first choice!

We were still in petrified wood country and took advantage of collecting along a road a few miles away. After finding quite a few smaller pieces we decided to turn around and head back to the campground. We came up on a place where the recent rain had washed across the road and saw a car parked there with a young man carrying large pieces of petrified wood. We stopped, chatted a bit, and then invited ourselves to join in the search. It was a wash where flooding takes place during the rains and brings and/or uncovers the petrified wood. Very productive. Only concern is the weight we are heading for our motorhome to carry up the hills yet in our path. May regret not having a burro to help.

Almost daily scene at our current campsite at
Grand Canyon National Park

Oklahoma / Kansas / New Mexico

Washington Irving South Campground

From Murfreesboro AR we traveled to Tulsa OK, camping at a COE campground on Keystone Lake about 15 miles west of Tulsa. My brother had warned me that we should be expecting 100+ temperatures in our travels in Nashville, Memphis, Murfreesboro, Tulsa, Pratt (KS). We are thankful that most of the time the temperatures have been low to mid-90's. In Tulsa we had two days of all-time record low temperatures for the high of the day! Nevertheless we have appreciated the electric hookup available in most of our campgrounds.

Chelsea, Chase, Chaney, Traci, Charlie

One of the highlights of our time in the Tulsa area was a visit from Traci Epps Morris and her family. Traci was a staff member with us at International Christian Academy in Cote d'Ivoire. We had previously met her husband, Charlie, when he came out to ICA to visit Traci before they were married. The whole family came out to the campground to spend a few hours with us.

Cousin Dorothy and Ray Doll

Pearl has many cousins and one remaining Aunt who live in Kansas / Oklahoma. While in Tulsa we were able to visit and share a meal with two of her cousins and their spouses. We have the picture of Ray and Dorothy Doll. Dorothy is daughter of her dad's (Bob Reeves) brother Frank Reeves. Unfortunately an unexpected downpour during our restaurant excursion resulted in forgetting the camera to get a picture of the other couple, Joe and Loretta Reeves. Joe is the son of her dad's brother Clarence.

Cousin Danny, Aunt June, Pearl

From Tulsa we headed north to Winfield KS to see Pearl's 99 year-old Aunt June who is the widow of her dad's brother Clarence. Aunt June's son Danny lives with her so Pearl got to see another one of her cousins.







Flowers' Home

Vernon & Becca Flowers' home west of Pratt

Then we proceeded to Pratt KS for the main cousin event. We had a very special campground. Becca Flowers is Pearl's 2nd cousin as the daughter of her cousin Dona Cochran (daughter of her dad's brother Chet). Becca and her husband Vernon are recently moved into a large home on a 20 acre farm out in the country west of Pratt. They graciously offered a parking place for our motorhome on their beautiful property, watched out for us and treated us to a wonderful meal in their home..

2nd cousin Becca and Vernon

Cousins
front: Tom, Phylis, Pearl, Dona, Jim
back: Mel, Bob, Bill, Jerry

Dona and her husband John prepared well for our visit, gathering almost all of the other cousins (and spouses) for a get-together at their home.
       
     
           

Cousin Dona and John

 As usual John and Dona were gracious hosts showing us Pratt, treating us to meals, worshiping with us at their church, taking us to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, and just looking for opportunities to spoil us.

A note on the Cosmosphere: don't miss it! We had seen several aviation and space museums and thought this might be redundant. It was not. I especially enjoyed learning more about the history of rockets and the competition and contributions to rocket science by Germany, USA, and Russia.

Mississippi & Arkansas

John Kyle State Park

John Kyle State Park on Sardis Lake MS

After a few days near Nashville TN we traveled west to Memphis TN and then South to John Kyle State Park just over the border near Sardis, Mississippi. Beautiful park, nearly empty and with rather unique hookup arrangements that required us to purchase a 30 Amp extension cord and an extra water hose.

Our campground was just below the huge earthen dam that creates Sardis Lake. The lake beside our campground fills the depression made in creating the main 3+ mile dam.

Tom and Zoe Bozeman

A main attraction here was the opportunity to spend a few hours sailing on Sardis Lake with Tom Bozeman.in his boat. Tom was one of our students at Dalat School in Malaysia. He lives in Memphis TN where he teaches in a public elementary school.

Tom, his wife Zoe, and son Tyler made our visit memorable visiting us at our campground, worshiping with us at their church in Memphis, treating us to a Memphis BBQ lunch and, of course, the sailing. Thank you.





Parker Creek Campground

Lake Greeson from the viewpoint where we detached
the Subaru to search for the campground

From John Kyle State Park in MS we retraced our steps back to Memphis TN, crossed the Mississippi and headed for Arkansas. Our campground was located on Lake Greeson near Murfreesboro AR. We had a little trouble finding it. Some signs talked of the entrance to the campground being closed. We parked the motorhome and looked for the campground in the Subaru. Eventually by trial and error we found the road that took us to the campground, retrieved our motorhome and settled in. The camp host seemed convinced there shouldn't have been any confusion in finding the campground!

View of edge of Lake Greeson in front of our campsite

This was another beautiful site right on the lake. Especially enjoyed watching a blue heron and several geese that showed up each day right in front of us.

Searching for a diamond in the plowed field at
Crater of Diamonds National Park

We had two main rockhounding expeditions while camped here. Murfreesboro AR is the home of Crater of Diamonds National Park. We spent a morning here. Picked up a few pieces of jasper but no diamonds. On average two diamonds are found each day and the average size is about the size of a match head. Most of the searchers are one-time visitors but there are others who are there every day to pay their fee and hope they will find one of those larger diamonds of a few carats size.

The other expedition was to a quartz crystal mine. We paid a fee which allowed us to collect all the crystals we could get in a 5 gallon bucket in a two hour period of time. The "mine" was a surface mine where equipment has exposed quartz seams in the rock where crystals may be found. The ground surface sparkles with pieces of crystals and the guide quickly found a few whole crystals with just the point exposed. Although we found some nice crystals, a five gallon bucket was far more than we needed for our finds!

Kentucky - Tennessee

Cumberland Point

We are getting used to the huge cumulus clouds but learning to watch to be sure they stay white and beautiful! These are at Cumberland Point Campground in Kentucky. Cumberland Lake is a huge, multi-fingered lake near the border of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Lots of high powered speed boats but also party boats, fishing boats, skiers, jet skis, and just swimmers -- busy place.



QT knows how to handle a busy place. When it gets too hot she loves to stretch out on the mat in the shade outside the motorhome, usually with us nearby. She still feels each campground is ours alone and faithfully fulfills her duty to warn us of all intruders (everyone else in the campground)!











Blue Heron

Blue Heron was a coal mine near Stearns KY and at the southern end of one of the fingers of Cumberland Lake. Our campgound was named for that nearby mine. One of our excursions while there was to visit the mine via a train traveling the rails formerly used for the coal mine.

We spent several hours exploring part of the Big South Fork National Recreation Area, part of the Cumberland Plateau and located on the KY / TN border. Gorgeous scenery everywhere and plenty of steep, twisting (and often narrow) roads that are fun to drive in the Subaru.

Cades Cove 

Cades Cove Campground is located in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is one of the most popular national parks and was a priority in our planning. It lived up to all of our expectations. We enjoyed it so much that I almost forgot about our arrival.

Sometimes I enter latitude/longitude coordinates for Gertrude to use. Usually that is no problem but this time it was. We got a little mixed up in Maryville, about 25 miles from the park but thought we were doing OK and that Gertrude was happy. We were definitely in a rural area with a narrow road but that's not unusual. I was a little concerned when we saw a sign suggesting trucks might want to use an alternate route. I should have been considerably concerned. The road quickly became very narrow, full of hairpin curves, and extremely steep. We were committed now with no turn arounds for even a car, much less a motorhome towing a car. Low gear at 25 - 30 mph was necessary much of the time and definitely the whole road for the hairpin curves. Once on top of the plateau going down was the same, using low gear to prevent overheating the brakes. We ended up in Happy Valley and Gertrude wanted us to take Abrams Creek, a gravel road with a Dead-End sign. We told her no. We stopped to get directions from a utility worker and he confirmed that Abrams Creek would take us to the park boundaries but with no entrance.

I will still use latitude/longitude coordinates but take greater care to be sure how Gertrude is getting me there.

The park is large and would take weeks to see all of it. We were especially interested in the wildlife and bears in particular. It was fun to see the one Pearl got a picture of. There was a mother and two cubs eating blackberries in a field of high grass. Periodically one would raise up high enough it could be seen. On another day, near dark, we saw a mother and two cubs up close in the forest right by the road and crossing the road in front of us.









There were two hawks that kept us entertained at our site in the campground, perching on low branches of nearby trees and even flying close to us from perch to perch.

The park has one of the nation's best collections of log cabins, barns and other structures. Most are located right where they were used by families in the Cades Cove community before the park acquired the property. Some are located at the Heritage Center in nearby Townsend.





A special treat for us was to spend an hour or so talking with a gentlemen camped next to us who was born in the Cades Cove community. His family moved out when he was a small child but he continued to visit his grandparents in Cades Cove until he was 18. Some of the log cabin structures we had looked at belonged to his relatives. He returns each year to spend some time camping in the park and lives only 25 miles away in Maryville.

Dick & Shirley

My brother and his wife joined us for a couple of days in the park. They drove over from their home in North Carolina and stayed in a motel in nearby Townsend. We traveled with them for a few weeks in New England and it was fun to be with them again.

Catching Up 2

View of ski runs from Sprague Park Campground, NY
Obviously high elevations are not necessary to ski

On to New York and Sprague Brook Campground in Erie County, about an hour south of Niagara Falls. You may be wondering how can you travel west through New York, New Hampshire, Vermont and continue West to New York. Check it out on the map. New York is a very interesting and beautiful state.

The Erie County campground was another beautiful site with all kinds of facilities beyond camping for picnics, sports, hiking, biking. The grounds had vast expanses of mowed grass, forests, natural grassland, and a small stream. We saw deer every day.

The highlight of this stop was a visit to Niagara Falls. We did not have passports so were restricted to the U.S. Side but spent several hours hiking a few miles to enjoy the different views of the river rapids and the falls. As our time was limited (QT again!) we passed up the Maid of the Mist boat trip. It was our first visit to Niagara Falls and we were duly awed and overwhelmed by this magnificent wonder.

I had recently read a biography of Tesla and enjoyed reading some of the displays about the early efforts to harness the energy of the river for electricity, especially the contest between Tesla and Edison to determine whether it was going to be AC or DC.

If Sprague Brook was one of our favorite camping sites then the exact opposite would have to be the Pilot Travel Center we stopped at next. Caesar Creek Campground in Ohio was too far for a one day drive so we decided to overnight at Pilot. We pulled into one of the lanes among the trucks beyond the pumps. We kept looking for the other RVs but saw nary a one. We did see LOTS of trucks of all sizes (but all big!) with a variety of cargo coming and going all night long and most with their engines continuing to run.

Days later we learned that many, perhaps most Pilot Travel Centers do not have RV parking. Oh well! It did help to keep our average campsite cost still close to $10 per night :-)

Edna and Ted Zabel

One of the main purposes of stopping at Caesar Creek Campground just south of Dayton, Ohio was to reconnect with Ted and Edna Zabel. They were classmates at Simpson Bible College in San Francisco in the late '50s. They were on the pastoral staff at Salem Alliance Church (Oregon) where we attended while teaching at North Salem High School. They came out as part of a singing ministry team for a Spiritual Emphasis Week at Dalat School in Malaysia. It was so good to spend time with them again.

They took us for a long drive around the Dayton area. One of the special treats was a few hours in the aviation museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. That's a museum that needs to be visited again and again!

David Smith, lead pastor of Fairhaven Church w/ Pearl and Elmer
Unfortunately we missed seeing Kathy

We went to church with them at Fairhaven Church where Ted and Edna minister to senior citizens in a variety of ways. An unexpected extra blessing was to listen to a great message on forgiveness by lead pastor, David Smith. David and his wife Kathy were students of ours at Dalat School. It was a joy to get to spend a few minutes talking with David between services.

We are constantly learning on this trip. Right now our lessons are about thunderstorms! Almost every afternoon/evening we are watching the news, looking at the sky, listening for the thunder and making decisions about the awning, the windows, and the possibility of a trip to the campground toilet/shower building. Lots of downpours, some thunder/lightning but so far we haven't experienced anything severe.

 One of the bothering thoughts: If we have to seek refuge do we go to the MEN's or the WOMEN's section? Or do we split up? Or do we go to one section for refuge and the other for normal use?

Catching Up 1

Wompatuck State Park was carefully selected for its location near Boston and fairly close to Nashua NH. A ferry operates from a nearby town which would take us right to downtown Boston and metro lines. Heather (Littlefield) North, a former teaching colleague with us in Africa, lives in Nashua. For months we had anticipated spending time with her and her family.

Mayflower replica at Plymouth Rock, MA

My brother and wife had been traveling with us in their RV. They arrived later at Wompatuck after a refrigerator fire in their RV. Then sickness began to strike each of us. Pearl and I had spent some time on Cape Cod and seeing the Plymouth Rock and Mayflower replica before we came down sick but Boston was written off—great disappointment!

Gary and Heather North with twins Ryan & Tyler and Abigail

Because of the illnesses plans with Heather and her family kept getting reduced and began to look doubtful but thanks to Heather’s persistence and the willingness to be around sick/recovering people we spent a delightful few hours with them at our campsite. Heather had taught at ICA with us and spent some time touring in Europe with us while at a conference. She is a home school teacher now for her children. Heather’s husband, Gary, is an engineer. They live in Nashua, NH.

Still recovering from our illnesses we proceeded to Acadia National Park in Maine. Lots of warning signs about moose, likely looking environment for moose, but we didn’t see any L. Dick and Shirley came separately as they had an appointment to have a new refrigerator installed.

Rugged shoreline at Acadia National Park, ME

The park is scattered over a wide area, much of it on an island. We spent many hours enjoying the rugged shorelines, views from Cadillac Mountain, and near our own campsite. QT and I usually took the trail through the woods on our morning walk to a great vista where you could watch the boats tending the lobster pots just a quarter mile or so from our campsite.

QT enjoying some lap time and a beautiful view
near our campsite at Acadia National Park, ME

Of course we visited Bar Harbor to take in the tourist scene and have some Maine lobster. A fun place to be once you found a parking place. I thought it was crowded when we were there with one cruise ship in port. I understand there are sometimes two or more at one time.

On the way to our next campground in Vermont we needed to have the motorhome serviced which resulted in two overnight stays—unusual for us as we prefer several days in each spot. One in Maine we reserved ahead of time and one in New Hampshire we just drove in. Both were very nice and allowed us to take advantage of a Passport America discount.

Negotiating the narrow bridge
at Winhall Brook Campground in southern VT

Next stop was Winhall Brook campground at the Southern end of Vermont. The campground setting was beautiful with wide expanses of mowed grass, a river flowing through, and surrounded by trees. More fun experience with the motorhome as we negotiated a tight corner to get lined up straight for the very narrow bridge to the campsite—the mirrors are still intact. We liked this area so much that we extended our stay. Nice to have the freedom to do that!

This was one of our favorite driving segments traveling through rural New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont from Maine. Rolling hills with lots of 7% to 9% grades to challenge the motorhome, beautiful green everywhere, and always interesting little towns to drive through. Especially enjoyed the beauty and fragrance of lilacs everywhere along the way.

 
Not so enjoyable were some of the roads with frost heaves and potholes still not repaired after a severe winter.

Gertrude

Gertrude has accompanied us for the entire trip. We have come to look forward to her input and seldom fail to do what she suggests. Sometimes we question her advice but invariably she turns out to be right.

We have especially appreciated the way she often takes us off the freeways to enjoy seeing more of the U.S. than just the standard Interstate highway environment. The U.S. is full of interesting little towns and the lesser highways often take us right thru them to see what the homes and yards look like and provide some insight into the make-up of the town.

Gertrude doesn’t just give advice but she also is interested in hearing what we like and we have shared with her some of our route preferences.  So I guess I can’t entirely blame her for what happened.

We were at an RV resort in Tom’s River, New Jersey. We had a good stay there and enjoyed our first New Jersey Boardwalk experience.   Still early spring and early in the day so it wasn’t crowded and the beaches were empty other than areas where beach volleyball was in progress. We would have enjoyed walking on the neatly raked beaches but there were toll booths all along the boardwalk with signs telling how much you have to pay to walk on the beach.

Our destination, Wompatuck State Park, south of Boston MA was carefully entered into the GPS and we were on our way. Soon it was evident that Gertrude had some very special experiences in store for us including a trip through downtown Newark. Newark is not one of the little towns in the U.S. that we wanted to tour in our motorhome.

There ensued numerous instances where we were baffled at Gertrude’s directions. I remember one intersection in particular where her directions just did not make sense and we would go where we thought was right only to find that wouldn’t work and Gertie would patiently bring us back to the same intersection with the same instructions. The third time around we finally got it. She had been correct. Her instructions were right on.

But we were still in Newark and wanted out. At one intersection we ended up trapped in the lanes going across the George Washington Bridge. That seemed OK until we got to the toll booth and the lady said our toll was $68. She seemed sympathetic but didn’t offer to reduce the price.

Soon Gertie suggested a tour of the Bronx in New York including a pass by the Bronx Zoo. We were in downtown New York before we realized it. If it had to happen I’m glad it occurred after six months experience driving the motorhome. It was obvious from people on the streets that a large motorhome driving through the Bronx was not an every day happening.

Gertie is a dear friend but we were getting tired of the big city tours, consulted the map, found the first signs to Interstate 95 N and ignored all of Gertie’s advice until we neared our destination at the other end.

Gertie is still a best friend. We depend upon her but we have learned to be more careful about what we tell her about the kind of routes we want to take. We also are more careful to look ahead of time to compare where she is taking us with the map.

For a GPS we use an Android app called CoPilot on our Nexus 7 tablet. The app only costs a few dollars, regular updates are free, and the larger screen size is helpful for old eyes.