Author: Thomas

We got into Cortez, CO early enough on Thursday to go to the Visitor Center at Mesa Verde and get the lay of the land for a full day at the park on Friday. Afterwards we settled into our campsite at the County Fairgrounds just outside the park. It was very quiet. We were the…

We were intending to spend Thursday and Friday in City of Rocks, NM before heading to Tucson for Easter with Mary Jo and Tom, but while talking to some fellow voyagers we learned about Balmorhea State Park in Texas and I just had to see it for myself. This park has the largest fresh water…

We arrived at our campsite near Carlsbad Cavern on Tuesday, about 2:30pm, the day before our scheduled tour. We decided to drive up to the park to have a look around, read all the exhibits, and watch the short movies about the discovery and explanations of the caves. The natural opening to the cave is…

With no plans for Friday, we saw there was a program at 8:30 am called “Coffee With a Ranger”. Once we found out it was free coffee and a free mug we got up early and drove 1 hour up into the Chisos Mountains. It was much higher and much cooler than where we were…

The days are becoming quite hot with late afternoons hitting 103° yesterday and 100° today. We got out early on Thursday to beat the heat and forgoed breakfast to hike the Boquillas Canyon Trail where the Rio Grande cuts through the Sierra del Carmen mountains. It was a pretty easy walk through the sandy bottom,…

On Tuesday we drove the RV a mile down a narrow dirt road, which was only half as far as you can go on that road in a car or truck. We then walked 1 1/2 miles through the Chihuahuan Desert to the Hot Springs on the Rio Grande. We didn’t see one Chihuahua, which…

This has always been the focal point of the trip for me. Everything else was just a means to get here. We have been here 6 hours and already we’ve seen two 4” long millipedes, Road runners, wild javelinas, free range horses, burrows, and cows walking right through the campsites. Adele is happy we gave…

We arrived at the gulf coast of Texas on a hazy day, which was a blessing because the sun seems very intense for our Yankee complexions. We are on a barrier island at Galveston Bay, called Crystal Beach. People can drive and camp right on the beach for a $10 yearly pass. We took a…

We drove to Lake Charles, LA and using the Campendium app, which we have used to plan the whole trip, we found a beautiful little county park (Parish) Campground in Lake Charles, LA. on Bayou Serpent. The campground is very clean and we had another nearly private stay. The campground hosts were quite friendly and…

We left Grand Isle, LA around 7:30 AM Saturday morning and headed to the World War II Museum in New Orleans. We found a parking lot within walking distance of the museum that would accommodate an RV. The fee for 4 hrs of parking was more than two nights of camping at Grand Isle with…

Ok, in order to dodge some pretty scary weather to the north and south of us, we ran an end play out to Little Rock. Our original plans were to run the length of Mississippi on the Natchez Trace National Parkway and end 2 days later in Natchez, MS. We ended in Natchez anyway by…

We took a guided paddle trip through the northern most cypress swamps in the United States, which happen to be in the southern most tip of Illinois. They were booked up yesterday, and since it’s now Monday we were the only ones there. We had our own personal guide. The trees grow knees that stick…

March 8 – we drove to Panthers Den for today’s hike. Pretty limited access as it was 1/2 mile of single lane gravel. When we got to the parking lot there was only a jeep and a Subaru there. Don’t think this was meant for a 25’ Winnebago, but we were undeterred. There were many…