Category Archives: RVing

Maintenance, Miscellaneous, Non-cruising travel, RVing

Pandemic

May 17, 2021 Ron Leave a comment

I started writing this post in early 2020, during the pandemic. I originally intended to make it a quick post about quarantining, but instead of publishing it, I just kept adding to it. Then I forgot about it until now, so it’s a gigantic post covering over fourteen months of living in a pandemic.

Like most people in this world, we practiced social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was easier for us because we’re retired and don’t have to worry about going to work to get a paycheck.

There were many changes for us over the last fourteen months. Some were good and some were bad, but most were good.

We were on Questeria, in Marathon, FL, when the pandemic started. We stopped going out. We ordered everything online and had it delivered to us at the marina. We passed the time catching up on boat projects, walking and taking dinghy rides.

Florida to North Carolina

Keeping six feet from people was challenging in that environment. We are close to our neighbors in boats and townhomes. There are people in the marina who we have to walk past when we leave the boat. We also have to interact with someone to pump out our holding tank twice a week.

We tried to get some exercise by walking. There is a nice path across the street. Most people we passed kept their distance, but not everyone. So we stopped walking. One of the reasons people were not taking it serious in Marathon was that the cases of Covid-19 were much lower than in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, to the north.

We decided to leave the Keys and drive the RV to Ernul, NC. We prepared the boat; We filled the water tank so the watermaker can flush every five days. We added extra lines. We setup the dehumidifier to drain into the sink. We packed all of our stuff in the car, including clothes, food, paper towels, toilet paper and our portable water softener.

We drove the car to Southern Comfort RV, in Florida City, where the RV was stored. When we passed the checkpoint on the other side of the road, at the 18 mile stretch, they were stopping visitors from entering the Keys.

We got to the RV, and transferred all the stuff from the car to the RV. We attached the car to the towbar and headed out on the turnpike.

We stopped for gas in Fort Pierce. The gas station was empty. We drove on until 8:00PM and stopped in a rest area for the night. We stopped again for gas in St. George, SC and drove to Ernul, NC and parked the RV in its usual location.

On the way up there, we noticed much less traffic than normal—it was mostly semis. We also noticed that gas prices were way down. There were signs in SC saying all visitors must quarantine themselves by law. In NC the signs said stay home. We did—we just took our home with us.

Waiting

One of our reasons for coming to NC, was to help Katie and Adam when their new baby comes in May. We can babysit Jameson, while mom and dad are in the hospital with the newborn. We decided that we would isolate ourselves for two weeks before visiting anybody.

We can watch local TV in Ernul. We start watching news instead of taking dinghy rides—we prefer dinghy rides. We have a few RV projects, but most of the time I spend working on the website and reading.

Road Trip

After two weeks of isolation, we were ready to visit Adam, Katie and Jameson in Wilmington, NC. We had not come in close contact with anyone. Katie and Adam were considered high-risk for Covid-19 because she was pregnant. So they have both been working from home and taking precautions.

On Sunday morning we drove our car to Wilmington. It’s was a two hour trip. On Monday, we watched Jameson while Katie went to a doctor appointment and Adam worked from home. On Tuesday, we ordered pickup from Agostino’s pizza. We got two large pizzas; Eggplant Parmesan (our favorite) and Buffalo Chicken. We also got an order of Garlic Knots. After lunch, we left some pizza for Katie, Adam and Jameson, and drove back to the RV. We had enough pizza for supper, and shared some with James.

Road Trip 2

After another week in the RV, we went back to Wilmington to babysit for Katie’s doctor appointment. She does better, when she is getting more rest, so we decided to stay and help until the baby is born.

More Waiting

We continued helping Katie and she does well and takes advantage of being able to rest.

On Mother’s day we walked on the beach. All public beach parking was closed, but we parked in a Coast Guard lot, because she is active Coast Guard. Restaurants were closed, so for Mother’s Day we bought some fresh flounder, and fried it, along with shrimp, for dinner.

A few days later, our 10 year-old granddaughter, Ava, joined us. She was on vacation in Virginia and her mom drove her to Raleigh, so Adam could bring her back to Wilmington. Her school in Rhode Island was on remote learning, so she could attend classes from North Carolina.

New Baby

On May 16 we have a new grandson. His name is Grady Knox. They come home two days later.

Back to the RV

Katie’s mom flies in from Florida for the weekend. The house is already pretty crowded, so we decided to drive back to the RV—about two hours away.

A few days later, we decided to drive the RV to Wilmington. It’s more expensive than our free spot in Ernul, but it’s closer to our grandkids.

There are two places in Wilmington where we keep the RV; the KOA and the Elks Lodge. The KOA is nicer and has full hook-up sites, but it is expensive and less convenient. We are members of the Elks and can get a water and electric site for $25 a night. They also have a dump station. Amenities in both places are limited due to the pandemic.

We stay at a premium site at the KOA so we have room to cook out for visitors. Our granddaughter, Ava stays with us a few nights. Unfortunately, the pool and other facilities are closed due to Covid.

Later on, we move to a cheaper site, and then to the Elks Lodge.

Fort Myers Camping World (again)

We have tried to get the RV fixed from the damage caused on May 28, 2019. We have been to Camping World in Fort Myers, FL multiple times. They assure that this time they will fix it.

On the way, we stop at one of our favorite campgrounds, Ortona South. This Army Corps. of Engineers campground is taking all precautions possible to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Camping World finally has the front-end cap. Our insurance company, SafeCo, refused to pay for a new piece, even though Camping World said it could not be repaired and must be replaced. They even sent pictures to the insurance company showing that the damage was too great to repair. The insurance company didn’t care, so we had to pay out of pocket to get the RV fixed. SafeCo also refused to go after the woman that rolled into us, so we ended up paying the deductible as well.

No more SafeCo for us.

We leave the RV at Camping World and drive our car to Questeria in Marathon.

Marathon, FL

The boat has been closed up for twelve weeks. The water tank is empty and there is no water hose. The A/C filter plugged up weeks ago and was shut off by one of our friends in the marina. At least we had a dehumidifier running.

We get things back to normal, and do some boat projects.

Four and a half weeks later we close up the boat and drive to Fort Myers to get the RV. This time we pickled the watermaker so we didn’t have to worry about running out of water. We also left a dehumidifier running.

The RV looks great. We have mixed feelings about Camping World. They didn’t fix things they said they would, and things weren’t ready when they said they would be. But, the body shop did a great job. They never got the right awning, so we ordered one from somewhere else and will fix it ourselves

Next we take the RV to Springfield Campground, in Townville, SC. This is an Army Corps. of Engineers campground on Lake Hartwell. We spend four nights, leave the RV and drive the car to the lake house that we rented for Lake Week.

Lake Week

Every year we have a one week family vacation. It includes our six children (three from each of us), their six spouses and our eight grandchildren, ranging from 15 years to 3 months. That’s 22 people, including us. This trip used to be “Beach Week”, but last year we started going to a lake house instead.

This year we are in Martin, Georgia, on Lake Hartwell.

We thought about canceling Lake Week because of Covid, but we decided we would go even if it was just the two of us. As it turned out, we had 14 out of 22 people show up.

Everybody had a great time. We rented a pontoon boat for the week and went swimming and fishing. Of course there was eating drinking involved as well.

After Lake Week, we went back to the RV, in Springfield campground, for three nights. Then, it’s time to move on.

Fort Mill, SC

Our next stop was the KOA in Fort Mill, SC. This is close to our grandchildren, Jackson and Oliver. We have just seen them at Lake Week, but this gives us a chance to spend some one-on-one time with both of them.

Gambrills, MD

Katie and Adam move to Gambrills, MD. They bought a house sight-unseen. They had to pay above the asking price to get this home.

We drive the car up there to help them move in. We get there the day before the movers. There is no furniture. We sit on camping chairs. The adults sleep on blow-up beds and the babies sleep in pack-n-plays.

More RVing

Next, we go back to Ernul, NC. We gave up on Camping World installing a new awning. They kept ordering the wrong part, so we ordered one online and had it delivered to Ernul. The first one was damaged, but the second one was okay. We watched a YouTube video and installed it ourselves, with help from James.

It turns out great. It looks better than when we first bought the RV five years ago.

Next, we go to Holden Beach RV Campground in Holden Beach, NC. This is a very nice campground. It isn’t right on the beach, but it’s only a short drive away.

Erika and Johnny joins us for a night and we go to the beach.

We wanted to go to the beach, but we also wanted to look at houses in the area.

Then, we go to Paynes Creek campground in Hartwell Georgia. This time we want to look at some lakefront property. We don’t see anything that we like, so we just hang out at the lake.

Then, we go back to the Fort Mill KOA to visit Jackson and Oliver again.

Next, we go back to Wilmington, NC and stay at the Elks Lodge for three nights.

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Then we drive the RV 22 miles to Winner’s RV Park, in Carolina Beach. It’s our anniversary, and we thought in would be nice to be close to the beach. This RV park is about a ten minute walk to the beach. This is perfect for us.

On our anniversary we drive to Good Hops Brewery, about a three minute drive in the car, and have some craft beer. This is the first time we have gone to a brewery or bar in a long time. Masks are required unless seated at a table. We get a table outside.

After that we order flounder stuffed with crabmeat to go from Cape Fear Seafood Company and bring it back to the RV.

We find a house in Wilmington, NC that we like. We make an offer and it’s accepted. We take the RV back to Ernul, and park it for a while.

Back to Marathon (for a bit)

We leave the RV and drive down to Marathon to check on the boat. We pack food so that we don’t have to stop except for gas and restrooms. We leave early, so we can get through Miami before the traffic is too bad.

We don’t plan to spend much time here. We are just here to check the boat and get some stuff for the house. We get a free dining room table and chairs from our friends. So we install a trailer hitch and rent a small covered U-Haul trailer.

Tropical Storm Eta is expected to pass through the area. We ask friends to keep an eye on Questeria and leave in a hurry, a couple of days before we planned, so we don’t want to drive a car, towing a trailer through a tropical storm. There is one important thing that we forgot which will come back to bite us later.

We make it to Ernul with the U-Haul trailer. The storm passes through the Keys, turns and becomes a hurricane, but thankfully, doesn’t do much damage to Marathon.

CLODs

After 15 years of living on a boat and RV, we move into a house. I read somewhere that “once a cruiser, always a cruiser”, so now we are officially Cruisers Living On Dirt, or CLODs. We have not given up the boat or the RV. We just added another option, which happens to be closer to all the grandchildren.

Speaking of grandchildren, we find out that my son and his wife are expecting twin girls in May.

Our main reason for wanting a house was to have a place where family could visit. But the pandemic is not letting this happen as much as we want.

They are asking people not to gather in large groups for Thanksgiving. We drive the car to Maryland and stay with Katie, Adam, Ava, Jameson and Grady.

The weather in Wilmington is nice on Christmas Eve. Erika, Steve and Johnny come over and we sit on our screened-in porch wearing masks. Erika is extra cautious because she is working with elderly Covid patients. We exchange gifts and they leave. We spend Christmas day by ourselves.

A couple of days later we drive towards North Myrtle Beach and meet Audrey and Ryan at a park. Again, we wear masks and exchange gifts. They are not working directly with Covid-19 patients, but Audrey works at a bar, serving people who may have Covid-19.

We have our final Christmas celebration on New Year’s Day. Adam, Katie and the kids drive down and stay with us. Alicia and the boys drive up and stay with Shannon. We have all been careful to not get exposed to Covid-19 and everything turns out great.

Vaccines

Our next goal is to get vaccinated. We are both over 65, so we are in the second category, after healthcare and frontline workers. We want to make sure we are fully vaccinated before the twins are born.

Appointments are filled quickly, but we both get appointments on January 27. We get our second dose on February 17.

Marathon (Again)

We want to check on Questeria, in Marathon before the twins are born. We leave Wilmington on the morning of March 17. We have packed food and drink for breakfast and lunch. We don’t have to stop, except for gas and restrooms. We plan to stop on the way for dinner.

We are over halfway there and we get a message from Greg that the twins were born. Tiffany had preeclampsia and was admitted to the hospital. She had to have a C section at 33 weeks. Arie Grace was 3 lbs. 12 oz. and Zoe Arabella was 3 lbs. 13 oz. They were both put in the NICU, but were doing well. Tiffany was also doing well.

We look for a place to stop for dinner where we can eat outside. It is spring break and St. Patrick’s day and every place is crowded. We end up driving all the way to Marathon and waiting for an outdoor table at Sparky’s Landing. We have corned beef and cabbage, and Irish beer.

After that, we go to the boat. The topside is filthy so we have to cover it before we can bring stuff from the car.

Once we go below, we find the one important thing that we forgot the last time we left. We left food in the freezer, and the circuit breaker tripped. There wasn’t anything really important in there, but now it smells really, really bad.

Fortunately, the weather is good and we can open up the boat and air it out. We get most of the odor out by rinsing with bleach water. The bleach water soaks through and ends up in the bilge, where we vacuum it up. We also use baking soda and Non Scents Refrigerator deodorizer.

We stay for a couple of weeks. We visit with some friends, who are not vaccinated, but have been careful. We also do a little work on the boat.

We drive back to Wilmington on April 1.

New York, New York

Greg and Tiffany bring Zoe home on March 31. Arie comes home on April 2. They have purchased a house in Connecticut, but won’t close until May 7. They are in a one bedroom apartment in New York City. We decide to take the RV up there so we can see them. We make reservations at Liberty Harbor RV park for five nights starting April 16. We also make reservations at the KOA near Adam and Katie, so we can stop and visit on our way back.

We get the RV ready. We get the oil changed and the propane tank filled. We start the refrigerator and freezer and pack up our stuff.

We are ready to leave the next day, when we hear from Erika. She says that Johnny’s preschool teacher was exposed to Covid and that Johnny has to quarantine. We are vaccinated, but we are concerned about holding premature babies that soon. We change the Liberty Harbor reservation until after Maryland.

On April 20 we drive the RV from Ernul to the KOA in Doswell, VA. We leave the next morning and get to the KOA near Katie and Adams around noon. Perfect timing for meeting Jameson after preschool.

We have a good time visiting. Ava is on spring break and we go to the aquarium one day and walk around Washington, DC another day.

On Saturday, April 24 we drive the RV, with car in tow, to Jersey City, NJ. It is quite stressful. The streets are crowded with traffic, but it’s even worse with the makeshift outdoor dining areas on both sides of the street.

We get to the RV park around noon and it’s pretty vacant. There are only about three other RVs there. The last time we were here was July 2017, and it was packed. At that time we did not tow a car, but that was fine, because we used public transportation.

We don’t want to use the subway this time because of Covid. We drive our car into Manhattan, where they live. It is $16 toll through the Lincoln or Holland tunnels. On the weekend we find parking on the street. Fortunately our Honda CRV just barely fits in the spaces we find. On the weekdays there is no free parking to be found. We pay $23 to park for ten hours, or less.

Driving in NYC is pretty stressful at first. But by the fifth day we know our way around pretty well.

We spend most of our time holding and feeding babies.

Adjusting to Pandemic

Everyone has had to make adjustments for Covid-19. Our anxiety decreased as the pandemic went on and more information was known about the virus.

Grocery Shopping

Many grocery stores were already set up to provide delivery and curbside pickup before the pandemic started. We never used these services because we prefer to pick out our own stuff. When the pandemic started we were terrified of going into a store so we started taking advantage of these things.

At first, in Marathon, we ordered our groceries online from Publix, and had them delivered to the marina. We would wipe down tables in the common area with sanitizing wipes. Take everything out of the bags, wipe them down and put them in our own bags.

In Ernul, we were 13 miles from the closest grocery store. Even farther from one with online ordering. We were too far for delivery, so we ordered our groceries online and picked them up curbside. Our choices were Harris Teeter and Walmart. We chose Harris Teeter the first time.

At first, Harris Teeter’s online system had a lot of problems.

With the increased demand in online orders, time slots could be several days later. This means the apps should be flexible—let you, add delete and make changes to your order. The Harris Teeter app did not allow for that at first.

Most of the time the stores don’t have everything on your list. The Harris Teeter app did not allow for substitutions. Sometimes the shopper would call you to ask about substitutions, but other times they would just leave things out.

Our next online order was from Walmart. It’s no surprise that Walmart is better equipped to do online shopping. We didn’t have to wait as long for our time-slot, and we were able to make changes until the morning of the time slot. They notify you through the app if they are out of an item and have to substitute it.

Walmart sends an email and text message when the order is ready. You respond through the app and tell them you are leaving. The app uses the GPS on your phone to notify them where you are and estimate an ETA.

In Florida, we even bought our liquor online and had it delivered. North Carolina law does not allow for that, so we had to go inside the store.

Eventually, we became comfortable shopping in the stores again and gave up on online ordering.

Shortages

Like most people, we experienced shortages. We don’t watch the news, so it came as a surprise to us. We first noticed it when we looked for sanitizing wipes. The shelves were empty, but we found a package hidden in another part of the store.

We use special quick dissolve toilet paper on the boat and RV. We had already ordered some in bulk, so we were okay. We had paper towels stored on the boat from our Bahama trip, so we were okay there too.

We had a small supply of hand sanitizer, rubber gloves and sanitizing wipes on the RV. We were careful not to waste them. We even had some N95 masks that we had purchased for sanding and painting.

Ordering Take Out Food

At first, many restaurants shut down completely. Some of them opened up with some kind of take-out service. Some allowed for ordering online, others required you to order by phone. Some, but not all, provided curbside pick-up options. At first, we were very nervous about going inside to pick up our food. We eventually adjusted.

Getting a Haircut

I generally wait too long between haircuts. I was thinking it was about time to get a haircut in March, when they asked everyone to stay home to flatten the curve. By August, my hair was really long and I was ready to cut it all off. But instead, I ordered a hair cutting kit on Amazon, and had Fran cut it. She did it once more, then hair cutting places started opening again.

Now, I don’t have a good excuse to let my hair grow too long.

Getting Back to Normal

The other day the president and most governors lifted face mask requirements for fully vaccinated people. We have been fully vaccinated since mid-February, and most adults we know are now fully vaccinated.

I feel odd walking into a crowded store without a face mask—just the opposite of how I felt a year and a half ago.

The pandemic has been stressful for everyone, and I’m glad we are starting to get back to normal. We feel like we missed a year out of our grandchildren’s lives. We missed holidays and birthdays and even the ones we didn’t miss, were not a hundred percent of what they would been.

It has not all been bad. We have three new grandchildren and almost all of our friends and family have survived, and are healthy.

RVing

Returning South

April 13, 2020 Ron Leave a comment

We spent the holidays in the Carolinas, visiting family. We have an appointment at Camping World, in Fort Myers, FL on January 27. We have a week and a half until then, but it’s getting colder so we start heading south.

Savannah, GA

Our first stop is Savannah, GA. We stay at the Elks Lodge No. 183. They have one 30-amp plug-in and one 50-amp plug-in. The 30-amp outlet is not working, so we plug into the 50-amp outlet. We are the only RV here.

We luck-out and come on the night of their fish fry. There are a lot of members and one other guest here. We have a great dinner, and meet lots of wonderful people. They have no fee for RV parking, but we leave a donation.

The next two days we drive the car to the waterfront area, park and walk around. It is the weekend and there are lots of things happening. It is crowded, but we have lots of fun.

It’s supposed to get colder, so we head south again.

Faver-Dykes State Park

As we get into Florida, it gets warmer, but it’s harder to find a place to stay. We see a couple of walk-ups at Faver-Dykes State Park in St Augustine, FL. We get a spot for the night. This is a huge park, we take a nice hike. We would stay longer, but there is no availability.

Sebastian Inlet State Park

We luck-out again and get three nights at Sebastian Inlet State Park. This place is great, but the weather is not. It is cold, rainy and windy.

Ortona South Campground

We have four nights at Ortona South Campground. This is an Army Corps of Engineers park, so we get it half price with our senior pass. It is also a very nice place. We can watch the boats go through the lock,

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After we get settled, we see on Facebook, that our friends, David and Brenda are staying nearby. We get together with them for dinner in LaBelle.

One of the reasons we chose this place is that it is pretty close to Camping World, in Fort Myers. We want to get there early Monday morning so we can get the RV fixed.

Camping World, Fort Myers

On May 28th, we were waiting in line at US Customs, entering Alaska. The driver of the RV in front of us left the driver’s seat, and the RV rolled back and damaged our RV. (click here for details.)

In November, we took it to Camping World, Fort Myers to have the collision damage and other items fixed. They fixed some items, but they had to order parts; the front-end cap, a replacement awning and parts for the slide-out. Now it’s January 27 and plans have changed. They are going to repair the front-end cap because the insurance company won’t pay for a replacement.

The awning and slide-out parts are in. They can finish those things. But, the body guy still insists that the front-end cap is unrepairable. They will take more pictures and send them to the insurance company.

We leave the RV and drive the car to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. After that we drive to Fort Myers Beach, park the car and walk around. We have a really good time.

We get back to Camping World and the tell us they ordered the wrong awning. Now we wait again for the awning and collision repair.

Southern Comfort RV Resort

We need to find an RV site close to the boat, in Marathon, so we can transfer all of our stuff to the boat. Once again, everything affordable in the keys is filled up. We a find a site at Southern Comfort RV Resort, in Florida City. It’s about 1½ hours drive from Marathon. They also have RV storage there. We get a spot for a week, and pay for a month of storage after that.

We have stayed here in the past. In is a nice park. It even has a Tiki bar. We don’t spend much time here because we are back-and-forth to boat almost everyday.

RVing

2018 Summer and Fall RV Trips

April 13, 2020 Ron Leave a comment

When we started planning our trip, I called it Summer 2018, but I should have called it Summer and Fall, because ran past October.

T. Y. Campground

In May, we take the RV to T. Y. Park (Topeekeegee Yugnee), in Hollywood, FL. Alicia and the boys are visiting and we think this this place will be fun because it has a waterpark.

Bahia Honda State Park

After T. Y. park we go to the boat, and then to Bahia Honda State Park. The park is not completely rebuilt after hurricane Irma, but it’s still one of the best state parks in Florida.

We take our guests to the airport, and head north.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Our next stop is Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound, FL. We explore the park and surrounding area. We tour the Jupiter lighthouse and walk on the beach. We do a turtle walk and get to see a sea turtle laying her eggs. We also get a chance to meet up with our friends Robert and Angela, who have their RV in Juno Beach.

McKinney Campground

Our next stop is McKinney Campground in Acworth, GA. We enjoy Allatoona Lake with our inflatable stand-up paddle board/kayak.

Chester Frost Campground

Our next stop is Chester Frost Campground, in Hixon, TN. We visit our friends, Gary and Ellen. We also stop and see Fran’s brother Jerry and his family in nearby Athens.

Canal Campground

Our next stop is the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. We stay at Canal Campground in Grand Rivers, KY. There are lots of of attractions here, such as an elk and bison prairie and a working 1850s farm. One of them is Patti’s 1880 Settlement. They are known for their 2″ pork chops. Unfortunately, the restaurant burnt down, but they have a food truck that sells pork chops.

Camp Reinberg

Our next stop is Camp Reinberg in Palatine, IL. This Cook county campground is ideally located between my mom’s and two sisters’ homes.

We spend time visiting with family. Erika, Steve and Johnny fly in and things get even better. We go to the Volo auto museum, Lambs Farm and more.

Camp Reinberg only allows us to stay six days, so we move the RV to Illinois Beach State Park.

Illinois Beach State Park

Illinois Beach State Park is a very nice campground, but not as convenient as Camp Reinberg. We have a cook-out with my mom, my sisters, their families, my aunt, uncle and cousin.

Door County

Our next stop is Potawatomi State Park, in Door County, WI. My family always talked about Door County, but this is our first time here. We enjoy a fish boil, wineries, and more. We go to Al Johnson’s twice; once for dinner, and again for swedish pancakes. Unfortunately, there are no goats on the roof these times.

St. Ignace, MI

We stay at the St. Ignace Moose Lodge. We take a ferry to Mackinac Island for the day. We were hoping to see our friends come in from the Port Huron sailboat race, but there was no wind and everybody is later than expected.

Niagara Falls

We drive to Four Mile Creek State Park outside of Niagara Falls. Our campsite fee allows us to park at Niagara Falls for free.

Niagara Falls is really crowded, but we have a great time. We buy the pass that lets us into all the attractions and ride the shuttle. We take full advantage of this.

We also enjoy some hikes and other attractions in the area, like the Schoellkopf power station, the aquarium and Whirlpool State Park.

Watkins Glen

Next we go to Watkins Glen State Park. We have a great time walking through the falls and other attractions here.

Virginia and North Carolina

We head south again. Beach Week is August 4-11.

We stop in Weems, VA to spend a few days with our friends, Bill and Lynn. We park in their driveway and stay in the RV, even though they invite to stay in the house. We visit a winery and farmers market and have a great time seeing our friends.

Then we go Fran’s brothers house in Ernul, NC. We park the RV in his yard and get ready for Beach Week in Ocean Isle Beach, NC.

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After Beach Week, we go back to Ernul for 12 days, before heading west for our next adventures.

NC, TN, AK, OK and TX

We start heading west on I-40, stopping for the night in Marion, North Carolina and Nashville Tennessee. We stop at Willow Beach Campground, in Scott, AK and take a side trip to Hot Springs National Park.

We have a fun time touring the national park. We continue heading west on I-40, stopping for the night in Checotah, Oklahoma and Amarillo, Texas. We are stopping at rest areas and running the a/c on the generator, trying to cool down the RV.

In the meantime, our friends, David and Brenda are travelling west on I-70, to the north of us. They are staying cooler than us. Labor day weekend is coming up and we have to find someplace cooler. We decide to go to Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs

We drive to the Colorado Springs Elks Lodge No. 309. They have 13 RV 30-amp hook-up sites. No reservations, first-come, first-serve. We get there just as the last site is taken. But they have plenty of space for dry camping.

It is cooler here so we are comfortable running our a/c on the generator a little bit in the afternoon.

We have a great time in the area. We walk around Manitou Springs, tasting water a various locations. We visit Garden of the Gods, take a train ride in Cañon City, go to the top of Pikes Peak and more.

Taos, NM

We drive to Taos, NM for the Big Barn Dance. We have a site for one night at Taos Valley RV Park. This location is nice, but it’s far from the Big Barn Dance. Tomorrow we’ll move to Kit Carson Park. We meet Robert and Angela and visit the town.

The next morning we move to Kit Carson Park. These are temporary, dry camping sites, setup just for this event. We are joined by our friends Phil and Deana and Steve and Anja. We have a great time.

Pagosa Springs and Durango, CO

We have some time before the next scheduled event, so we go to Robert and Angela’s house in Pagosa Springs, CO. We go on hikes around Pagosa Springs.

Next, we go to Navajo Lake State Park, We hike to the top of Chimney Rock. We are close to our friends Phil and Deana. We call them and they invite us do go on a color run. We don’t know what that is—it means driving through the mountains and looking at the aspen leaves changing color.

Next stop—Red River, NM.

Red River, NM

We drive to Road Runner RV Resort in Red River, NM. This is a beautiful RV park. There are some cheaper places, but this is very convenient to walk or take the shuttle downtown. Our main purpose here is the Red River Folk Festival at Aspencade. But this is a fun place, and we would come back just to visit.

We have a great time in Red River.

Mesa Verde, Moab and Santa Fe

We don’t have any plans for the next eight days. We go Mesa Verde National Park for one night. Then we go to Big Bend BLM (Bureau of Land Management) in Moab. There are several BLM sites in the area that are suitable for a 31′ RV. They are all first come, first served. We find a site and pay for three nights of dry camping at the self-serve kiosk.

This is a beautiful campsite, but our main purpose here is Arches National Park, a few miles away.

Next, we go to Cochiti Lake Campground, which is near Santa Fe and Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks. We go into Santa Fe for our anniversary and hike Kasa-Katuwe the next day.

We drive the RV to Los Sueños De Santa Fe (about 30 miles) and meet up with our friends Robert and Angela. The next day we drive to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta. David and Brenda join us on the way so we can be together.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

We drive to Balloon Fiesta Park, in Albuquerque, NM. We made reservations for the Balloon Fiesta a long time ago. We line up behind other RVs and get three spots together. The RVs continue to come in for days. We reserved dry camping sites, so we have to run our generator sometimes. There are no water and sewer hookups, but there are trucks that come and fill our fresh water tank and dump our black and gray water tanks.

The balloons don’t go up everyday, it’s highly dependent on weather. That’s why we made reservations for seven days. We get to see balloons a few days, and have an awesome time.

Returning

We head back east after the Balloon Fiesta. We stop in Tega Cay, SC and visit with Alicia, Jeff, Jackson and Oliver. We Leave the RV in Ernul and drive the car back to Marathon.

We come back in December to visit family and stay in the RV. We take it to the Wilmington Elks lodge for the Christmas holidays.

The leveling jacks stop working again. We winterize it and bring it to Tony Hobbes and Son RV. They can’t work on it right away, but they say it will covered by our extended warranty since we brought it in before it expires

RVing

Miami Everglades RV Resort

April 11, 2020 Ron Leave a comment

Our daughter in-law is coming to Miami with our 14 month-old grandson, and we are babysitting. The original plan was to bring him down to Marathon and stay on the boat, but we decided it would be easier to take the RV to someplace in Miami.

They are flying into Miami on March 4. We have to find a campground near the airport for four nights. It is not easy finding campsites in south Florida in the winter. We find a spot at Miami Everglades RV Resort. On paper, or should I say on screen, it looks good. It’s not far from the airport and has a playground and pool. It’s pricier than the county and city parks in the area, but they are all filled up this time of year.

In actuality, it is a long drive to the airport in rush hour traffic. It does have a playground and pool. The playground has a couple of slides, but nothing else for a toddler. The pool does not have a kiddie pool—it is mainly for seniors. But we can make it work.

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We get there the day before so we can set up and get groceries. The RV park is in the boonies. We have to drive a ways to the grocery store, We see a number of farm stands on the way, so we buy eggs and some produce there.

It works out good. There is a nice, paved walking trail. He likes the playground, but not the pool. The people here are very friendly and helpful, and they have balls we borrow for Jameson to play with. They also have a nice laundromat on site.

This is a nice RV park, and is not far from the FL Keys. We may come back again. Of course, we enjoy babysitting and visiting with Katie.

Cruising, Maintenance, RVing

Update

February 9, 2020 Ron Leave a comment

It’s been a while since my last post, and I thought I would share an update of what we’ve been up to in the past five months.

Return to the East

My last post, in mid-September, was about returning from our Alaska RV trip. After that, we left the RV in Denver, CO and flew to Charlotte, NC for our annual “Beach Week”, which was actually on a lake this time. We flew back to Denver and stayed in the Colorado/New Mexico area for a while. We left the RV at Cochiti Lake Campground, near Albuquerque, NM, and flew to Chicago, IL for Labor Day weekend. We got together with family, and buried my mom’s ashes. We flew back, and went to Taos, NM for the Big Barn Dance. After that, we stopped to see our friends, Gary and Ellen, in Chattanooga, TN. Then we drove to Florida.

Boatyard

Questeria was in need of a lot of work. She was closed up for six months, and needed lots of help. She was also way overdue for a bottom job. What started as a few days in the boatyard ended up taking a month. We stayed on the RV, flipping back and forth between Curry Hammock State Park and Bahia Honda State Park. They were both pretty busy, but this time of year there are cancellations. We lucked-out and found a spot in one park or another the whole time. We got the boat back in the water, and it looked great on the outside, but was torn-up on the inside.

RV repair and Maintenance

We had an appointment at Camper’s World, in Fort Meyers, FL, to get the RV repaired. Besides the repair for the collision damage from our Alaska trip, there were several other things that need to be done. After a week, we got some of things done, but then we had to wait for parts. The remaining items would have to wait until after the holidays.

Thanksgiving

After that, we drove to Jonathon Dickinson State Park, in Hobe Sound, FL, and then to John Prince Park, in Lake Worth, FL. We spend Thanksgiving with some family in Delray Beach, FL.

Holidays

Then, we drove to North Myrtle Beach, SC, to see Ryan and Audrey. Then, Wilmington, NC for Johnny’s 4th birthday, and Jameson’s 1st birthday a week later. We hung out in the North Carolina for the rest of December.

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Waiting

We called Camping World, in Fort Meyers to find out the status of the parts needed to finish the job. The insurance company would not pay for a new piece, and said it had to fixed. Also, the wrong awning was delivered. They would reorder the awning. We made an appointment for three weeks later.

While we waiting, we drove to Tega Cay, SC for a few days, to spend time with grandsons Jackson and Oliver. Then to Savannah, GA for some sight seeing. Then we drove to Faver-Dykes State Park in St. Augustine, FL and Sebastian Inlet State Park, in Melbourne Beach, FL. Then, to Ortona South Campground, in Moore Haven, FL.

Second Time

We drove to our appointment at Camping World, in Fort Meyers, FL. We talked to the body repair guy and he said the damaged part needed to be replaced. We asked him to send more pictures to the insurance company to justify it. We left the RV there so they could fix the slide-out and replace the awning.

When we came back that afternoon, they had taken more pictures of the collision damage, and fixed the slide-out, but they didn’t replace the awning because they got the wrong one again.

Back to the Boat

We were ready to go to the boat, but at that point it was torn-up inside and had been closed up for three months—it was unlivable. It was the end of January, and the affordable state parks near Marathon were fully booked. We booked a week at Southern Comfort RV Park, in Florida City. It’s about a 1½ hour drive to the boat.

We spent the week driving back and forth between Marathon and Florida City, but we got the boat in shape. We paid for a month of storage at Southern Comfort RV Park and moved to the boat.

There is still a lot of work to do on the boat, but we are here now, trying not to work too hard.

RVing

2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 15

September 14, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

This fifteenth posting of our Alaska RV trip is about our time in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Our original plans were to leave the RV in Montana and fly to Charlotte, NC for our annual family “Beach Week” (Which is at a lake this year.) But, we found that flights from Denver were way cheaper than flights from anywhere in Montana. So now we will leave the RV in Denver.

Montana

We cross the border from Alberta Canada to Montana, USA with no problems. Neither of us have ever been to Montana. We enjoyed our time in Canada, but we are happy to be back to regular cell phone service, miles, feet, fahrenheit, gallons, and US dollars.

Shelby, MT

We drive to Lewis and Clark RV park in Shelby, MT. We fill up with propane and get a nice site. After we get settled in, we drive into town and go to the grocery store. We buy a lot of things we have been missing in Canada. We go back to the RV, plan for the next few days, and cook dinner.

The past few days have been rainy and cold. Now we are hot and dry. We have electric here, and run the A/C.

Greycliff, MT

The next day we dump and top off our fresh water. As we drive southeast, through Montana, we are in hilly plains. The roads seem better—that’s probably because we’re used to a lot worse. Great Falls is a big city, but most of the way is rural. We drive to Pelican Montana Fish and Wildlife Preserve, in Greycliff, MT. This is a no-fee campsite. We are on a river, in a beautiful site. We are the only ones here! We have cell phone service. This is one the best campsite we’ve ever been in. We make plans for the next few weeks.

Pelican Montana Fish and Wildlife Preserve

We need to do laundry pretty soon. We had planned to stop in Kaycee, WY tomorrow, but there aren’t any laundromats there. It looks like we have to go to Casper, WY to find a laundromat—tomorrow will be a long day.

After dinner, we sit outside, but the rain comes. We go inside and watch through the windows. We see a rainbow. The sky turns red, and we see it reflected in the glacier to the east. We see some more awesome scenery from our “private” campground.

We wake up in the morning, and we still have the place to ourselves. We hook up the tow car and take off.

Wyoming

I drove through Wyoming when I was in my twenties, but this is the first time here for Fran and the RV.

Casper, WY

We drive through hilly-plains. We go through Billings, MT and a few small towns, but there’s a lot of space in between. We get to Casper East RV Park, in Casper, WY, a little after 4:00. We get a nice pull-thru site. The first thing we do is plug into the 30-amp and turn on the AC. It is 98°F here.

Casper East RV Park is nice, but it’s pretty tight. We probably should have made reservations, but it turned out okay.

We need Color Grabbers, so we have to go to Walmart before the laundromat. We put the dirty clothes in the car and drive to Walmart. We get Color Grabbers, and the other items on our list, and then we drive to Bubbles-R-Us Laundromat. This is a really nice laundromat.

We are really hungry by the time we finish our laundry, so we drive around the corner to HQ Southern BBQ. It’s close by and gets good ratings from Google. We get there at 8:00, and there are people waiting for tables. We get two seats at the bar. We order ribs and brisket. Pretty good!

As predicted, it’s been a long day, but we got a lot accomplished and we are making our way southeast.

A lot of RVs head out ahead of us on Wednesday. We plan to stop at the dump station on the way out, but there is another RV getting propane. There isn’t enough room to go around them, so we go back around and use any vacant full-hook up site to dump. When we’re finished, we still have to wait for the RV getting propane. No hurry—we don’t have far to go today.

Cheyenne, WY

We get a latish start, but that’s on purpose, because we don’t have far to go. We want to go to the Moose Lodge in Cheyenne, WY and they don’t open until 2:00.

It’s a pretty nice drive. A little hilly and the roads are mostly good. We stop several times and get to the Moose lodge at about 2:15. We get a nice site with electric. The people here are very helpful and friendly. It turns out that this is a big weekend in Cheyenne. The Pioneer fest is happening this weekend, and things should get busy. We will only be here one night.

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They have hamburgers at the Moose, but we have a steak in our refrigerator that needs to be cooked tonight. We cook it inside, on a cast iron frying pan. It’s delicious.

Tomorrow, we plan to drive to Olive Ridge campground. It’s in the Arapaho National Forest, right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. All the reservable sites are taken, but they have some walk-ups. We hope there is something available on a Thursday morning.

Colorado

We’ve been in Colorado with the RV a few times, but not this far north.

Estes Park, CO

We get to Olive Ridge campground a little before noon, and there are people driving around looking for sites to pitch tents. We disconnect the tow car and drive around, but all the sites are taken. We have no cell phone service here, so we can’t call any campgrounds. We set the GPS to the KOA in Estes Park. We figure if they are full, they can at least make some recommendations.

There is a lot more traffic as we get to Estes Park. We pull into the KOA and go inside. They are booked through Sunday, but they suggest some other campgrounds. We try calling some and they don’t answer. We call Manor RV Park. They have one spot for tonight only. We can’t find anybody else so we take it. It is a premium site, on the river so it costs a little more. Full hook-up for $74.

We need to figure out where to go next. We get in the site, plug in to power, and run our AC. The RV park has WiFi with good signal, but it is overloaded, and too slow. We have Verizon cell service, but it’s also overload, and slow. We call the office here and ask if there is anything available for the next two days. They say there’s nothing at the moment, but they will check. They call us back. We have to move in the morning, but we have a site, $122 for two more nights.

Manor RV Park is very nice. It is pricey, but this is a resort town and everything is pricey. The sites all have electric, water, sewer and cable TV. The people are very friendly and helpful.

We drive to the Rocky Mountain National Park Beaver Meadows Visitors Center and get some information.

We get a late start today. We have to move to our next site by 12:00, or after the occupants leave. We see them leave, and we move. Then, we clean the dirt off the concrete pad. After that, we cook bacon and egg on the outside griddle, and grits on the inside stove.

We eat lunch, and drive the car to Rocky Mountain National Park. There are signs that say there is limited parking at Bear Lake, but they let us drive through. We find a place to park at the Glacier Gorge trailhead.

We walk about three miles to Mills Lake and come back. It takes us about three hours. It is a great hike, even though it rains a bit. A lot of the trail is near a river, with rapids and Alberta Falls.

We get back to the parking lot at about 5:00. We drive to the Estes Park Brewery. They offer free tastes. Then, we go upstairs to the bar and have our favorite—the Samson Stout. We also have a stuffed fried jalapeno appetizer. Very good. We go back to the RV and cook some salmon on the grill.

The next day, we drive the car back to Rocky Mountain National Park.Today is Saturday, and the park is even more crowded than yesterday. We plan to do more driving than hiking today. Our plan is to drive on Old Fall River Road, but when we see it is a gravel road, we decide to turn around. Instead, we drive to Lily Lake and take a leisurely stroll around the lake. Then, we go back into the park and drive on Trail Ridge Road. It starts raining, and we can’t see that much. There are lots of people here. We go back to the RV, and cook hamburgers on the grill.

Denver, CO

We get up and get ready to leave Estes Park. Our plan is to drive to the Elks lodge in Westminster, CO for a couple of nights and then move to the Elk Lodge in Northglenn, which is a little closer to the Denver airport.

There is a lot of Sunday traffic, but we get to the Elks at around 12:00. They have some nice RV spots. In fact, there are RVs that stay here all summer. We check in with the campground host and she says we can stay leave the RV here for the next 2 ½ weeks, while we are in South Carolina. We aren’t far from the airport, so we find a hotel with a shuttle, where we can park the car.

The next day, we move the RV to a different site and pay $289 for 17 days. We get ready to leave the RV for two weeks.

Somewhere along the way we picked up a hitchhiker. We heard a scratching sound the other day. We had a lime on the counter that is now on the floor in the back of the dinette and we have seen what might be mouse droppings. We put mouse traps on our shopping list. We look online and see that mice like sweet chocolate and peanut butter.

We drive the car to the laundromat. There is a Safeway Grocery store nearby. We walk over to the grocery store after starting the wash. and buy some mouse traps. We decide to buy a bag of Reese’s mini cups for bait. It’s like 100°F outside, and even hotter inside the car and the laundromat. The Reese’s mini cups melt pretty fast. Of course we have to taste some, to see if they are suitable for our mouse. We get back to the RV and put the opened bag of Reese’s in the refrigerator. They are melted together. We put some in the mouse traps, and have no choice, but to eat the rest. We will see if our mouse likes them as much as we do.

We don’t catch our mouse. We don’t want to leave the traps in the RV for two weeks while we’re gone. All our food is packed in the refrigerator, freezer, microwave, or cooler—hopefully he will move on to someplace with something to eat.

We’ve rushed through Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. We did take a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park, but we didn’t get much time to relax. We’ve been on the road 134 days and driven 11,700 miles. We’ve spent roughly $6,000 on gas and $3,300 on campgrounds. Now it’s time to see our children and grandchildren.

RVing

2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 14

August 25, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

This fourteenth posting of our Alaska RV trip is about our time in Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta .

Yukon, Canada

The first province after Alaska is Yukon. This is the same route we used to go to Alaska, except we will not go Haines, AK. Also, when we get to Prince George, BC, we will take Hwy 16 through Alberta to Montana.

Haines Junction

It’s still smokey. We cross the border into Yukon, Canada and they tell us that there is a wildfire close to the road. A while later, we get stopped and he tells us that we can proceed, but to slow down for firefighters and not to stop for the next 12 kilometers. We can see where the fires are.

We drive to Haines Junction, YT and stop at Fas Gas RV Park. They don’t have any pull-thrus, but she tells us about Otter Falls Cutoff RV Park, about 30 km away. She calls and reserves a pull-through for us. We get a pull-thru, with water and electric for $38.29cad.

Watkins Lake

It’s still smokey in the morning. We see the sun, but it looks like a dull orange glow in a gray sky. Things clear up a little as we drive.

We stop at the Save-on-Foods grocery store in Whitehorse, YT. The last time we were in Whitehorse, we shopped at Walmart, but it wasn’t a Super Center (Centre), so it didn’t have a lot of grocery items. Save-on-Foods is a high-end Canadian grocery chain. Somebody in Alaska told us about the store in Whitehorse. It is very nice.

We drive to Watkins Lake, YT, and get a nice pull-through site at Tags RV park. This place has fuel, laundry and a store with groceries and more. If we had known they had all this, we would have saved ourselves a few stops today.

This is a full hook-up site so the next morning we spend time to clean our black water tank with our “swivel stick”. When we’re finished, it shows empty! Then we drive to Fort Nelson.

British Columbia

Our GPS does a lot more than tell us where to go—it tells us our speed, what road we’re on, if we’re close to a state or province border, and a lot more.

The border between Yukon and British Columbia is the 60th parallel north. The Alaska Highway twists and turns crossing the border several times. We get informed everytime we cross. Furthermore, the highway number changes from 1 to 97 when we are in Yukon versus British Columbia.

We stop for lunch at the Coal River Lodge for bison burgers. Very Good!

We see lots of wildlife today, including bears, bison, caribou and a golden eagle.

Fort Nelson

We drive to Blue Bell Inn & RV Park, in Fort Nelson, BC. It’s not as nice as the Triple G Hideaway, where we stayed last time, but it’s cheaper—$25cad for a pull-thru with water and electric. We had debated stopping somewhere without electricity, but it is getting hotter, and we want A/C until it cools off later in the evening. The reason it is cheaper is that there isn’t place to dump.

There’s some smoke today, but it isn’t bad. It looks like we won’t be able to avoid smoke for a while. We make some plans. Tomorrow, Dawson Creek and then, Prince George.

Dawson Creek

We get up and top off the fresh water tank. Blue Bell Inn RV park has no dump, so we can’t empty our holding tanks. That’s okay—we emptied them yesterday morning. We’re planning on boondocking at Walmart tonight, but we should be good for one more day.

We fill up with gas at the Blue Bell Inn and start driving to Dawson Creek. We stop at Pink Mountain Campground and buy two six-packs for $17usd. That’s a lot for a six-pack of Coors Light and Labatt Blue—not even cold.

We drive to the Walmart Super Centre and find a spot in the parking lot. We go inside and spend $140cad ($107usd) on miscellaneous stuff.

One Canadian dollar is currently worth about 76 US cents. We use a credit card for most purchases. The bank automatically adjusts for the exchange rate. Most credit cards charge a foreign transaction fee, but we have one that doesn’t. (As far as I can tell, the foreign transaction fee is just a way for the bank to get more money.) We also carry a small amount of Canadian currency. We use our ATM card to withdraw cash from our checking account, and the bank adjusts for the current exchange rate.

Prince George

We get up at 7:00, make some coffee, and take off about an hour later. We stop for gas, and then at the first pullout to make breakfast and more coffee. We stop for lunch at Bijoux Falls Provincial Park. We stopped here on the way north (See 2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 5).

We stop at the Husky station in Prince George. We pull into one of the large bays and wash the RV and car. This takes about an hour and $15usd (Not bad). The vehicles are not perfect, but much cleaner.

Then we drive to Hartway RV Park. They are full, but we get a spot on the grass, with water and 30-amp for $37cad. This is a nice RV park. Their WiFi works great and we back-up our phones.

We drove through Prince George on our way to Alaska. We didn’t stop, so now we want to do a little exploring.

We get settled in our site and disconnect the car. It’s after 5:00 now, and we drive into town. We stop at the BX Pub and have some local beer and prawns. Then we go to the Alpine Pub and have some local beer and wings. These places are nice, but we feel like we are missing the “True Prince George Experience”.

We stay one more day, and do our laundry. The RV park has a laundry, but there are only two single-load machines, and we have a lot of laundry to do. So, we drive to Spotless Laundromat and use four double-load machines. After that, we go to Save-On-Foods and buy groceries.

We get up and get ready to leave Prince George. After coffee, breakfast, filling the freshwater tank and dumping the holding tanks, we hook up the tow-car and drive to the gas station. On the way out of town, we see the Prince George downtown area we were looking for. It looks like we missed “Summer Fest”.

Alberta

On our way to Alaska, we drove through Oregon and Washington to British Columbia. On our way back, we are going further east through Alberta and Montana. Smoke is no longer an issue, so we decide to spend some time in Jasper and Banff national parks.

Mount Robson Provincial Park

We drive to Robson Meadows Campground in Mount Robson Provincial Park. Many of the campsites are reserved, but there are still some nice ones available for the night. We get a beautiful campsite for $28cad. It’s dry camping, but we’re good on water, sewer and power.

We drive the car a short distance to the Mount Robson Visitors Centre and talk to someone from Jasper National Park. Their biggest campground, Whistler, is closed this year for renovations, but he gives us lots of good information about others that are available.

Jasper National Park

Today we get up at 6:30 because the campground we want to go to is first come, first serve. The big campground, Whistler, is closed for renovations, so the other campgrounds are busy. The drive is supposed to take a little over an hour, but there is road construction, and we cross a time zone and lose an hour. We get to the park entrance gate at 9:50, and pay $66.40cad for four days in the park. We get to Wapiti Campground at 10:15. We get a nice site, with electric, for two nights for $64.60cad.

After we get settled in we drive to the visitors information center to find out about other campgrounds in Jasper and Banff National Parks, and about hiking.

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Then, we drive to Maligne Lake. We stop at Maligne Canyon trail and hike to the fourth bridge and back. Then, we walk to the restaurant to get some food. We split a beef brisket sandwich and local craft beer.

After that, we drive to Maligne Lake and walk the Mary Schäffer Loop. This is a nice easy walk, but it gets muddy and we turn around. Then, we go to the Jasper Brewing Company for craft beer, blackened salmon tacos and Canadian mussels.

We saw a lot of wildlife today, including several herds of elk, and sheep, and a few bears.

Today, we drive the car to Valley of Five Lakes trail head. We intend to walk the 5.1 miles around all five lakes, rather than the 2.8 miles around lakes 2-5, but it gets too muddy, so we double back and walk about five miles. It’s a scenic hike—nice, despite some rain.

Along the trail we stop and relax in red chairs. Red Chairs are placed at scenic areas of Canadian national parks, for people to sit and enjoy the view.

Then, we drive the car to Pyramid Lake. We stop at Pyramid Beach and Pyramid Island. This is also a very scenic area.

We drive into town and explore the shops. Then, we go back to the Jasper Brewing Company for a beer and poutine. Poutine is a Canadian dish, consisting of fries with gravy, cheese curds and green onions. It’s not the kind of thing we usually eat, but we decided to eat like Canadians today.

Banff National Park

Our plan today is to drive the RV to the Icefields Centre RV park for the night. We were told that it is a big lot with 100 RV spaces. We get there around 10:00 and someone with a walkie-talkie tells us to wait. Then, another person with a walkie-talkie tells us to pull in behind another RV. We assumed that they worked for the park, but now realize they are part of a tour group. They tell us they are here for only four hours.

The view here is awesome, but it’s really busy and spaces are very narrow. There are a bunch of RVs trying to find a place to park—we aren’t sure we want to stay here overnight. We talk to two other RVers looking for spots. We maneuver the RV and car so they can fit in beside us and behind us.

We walk to the Columbia Icefields Discovery Centre. There are lots of people here, booking glacier tours. We watch a short film. There is WiFi here. We check the weather, and see that a wintery-mix is predicted for later.

We walk back to the RV for lunch. It’s still crazy here. With all that, and the weather prediction, we decide to drive to the Waterfowl Lake Campground. We didn’t stay here long, but we got some great pictures.

After the Columbia Icefield, we pass into Banff National Park. The drive is beautiful. We go from mountain passes with views of glaciers to wooded areas, with lakes and wildlife.

Waterfowl Lake campground is in Banff National Park, and has 116 dry-camping sites. There are several big enough for us. Many of them are unlevel. We find a good site and self-register for one night, using a credit card. It’s $21.50cad, about $17usd, for dry camping. It’s a nice, wooded campground and the sites are spread out. There is no cell service here. The road is terrible—full of potholes.

After we get settled in to our site, we drive the car to some places to look around. We stop at the Waterfowl Lake Lookout—beautiful! Mistaya Canyon—incredible! And Saskatchewan River Crossing—interesting!

We come back to the RV for dinner. We decide to stay here another day.

Lake Louise

It is cold and rainy today. We had planned to hike, but not in this weather. We cook bacon and eggs, and do some maintenance stuff. We pay for another night and some people tell us how all the campgrounds were filled last weekend. We drive the car south, towards Lake Louise. We stop and check out some of the other campgrounds. We see some nice ones.

We get to Lake Louise Visitor Centre and we have cell phone service. We start looking at campgrounds and see that there are some in Banff. We call and make a reservation.

We walk into the visitor centre to find out what to do here. He tells us that there is no parking at Lake Louise and that we should take a free shuttle bus. We take the information and walk around the shops.

We don’t really want to get on a shuttle bus, so we decide to drive there and take our chances. We luck out. There is a car leaving just as we get there, so we get a spot to park. We walk to the lake. It is very scenic, but there are lots of people here.

We are encouraged to see some sunshine the next day, but it doesn’t last. We get the RV ready, dump the gray and black water tanks, fill the freshwater tank, and hook up the tow car. We drive to Banff. We don’t follow the GPS route—we take the more scenic 1A. It would be much better if the skies were clear enough to see the mountains and glaciers.

Banff

We check-in to the Tunnel Mountain I campground, that we reserved yesterday in the Lake Louise Visitor Centre parking lot. Now it is really raining, so we get pretty wet disconnecting the tow car and parking the RV.

This is a nice campground. The roads look brand new. No potholes. We prepaid $38usd ($49.70caad) for this dry-camping site. We had to buy a fire permit, which we don’t need, and pay a fee for reserving it over the phone.

We eat lunch and drive the car into the town of Banff. It’s still cold (45°F) and raining—no hiking today. We stop at the Hoodoos on the way to town. The hoodoos are oddly shaped rocks. It’s a nice overlook, but too cloudy to see much. The town is busy, but we manage to find a parking spot.

We walk around, and window shop. We stop at the Banff Ave Brew Pub and taste some local craft beers. Then we go to Tommy’s Neighborhood Pub and have some dry-rub ribs. Very good. Then we go to the Rose and Crown, Banff’s oldest pub. We have the pizza of the day, bison, green peppers and onions. It’s delicious.

On the way back to the campground, we stop at Bow Falls. Scenic, but would be better if it wasn’t so cloudy. We drive to the campground and there is a bear right there. We get a few pictures from inside the car.

We’ve been in Canada longer than we expected. We had a great time, but we are ready to get back to the states.

We get up at 7:00 and start getting ready. We know it will be a long day, so we decide not to fill the water tank or dump the holding tanks. We get away from the campground about 9:00. We get to the US border around 3:00.

Canada has been fun. We expected to be here eight days, but it’s been ten. The national parks are really nice, but they are crowded and expensive. Everybody here is friendly, but these are resort towns. I’ve gotten pretty good at converting kilometers to miles in my head. I’m even starting to do liters to gallons, but we are ready to move on.

We’ve been on the road for 124 days and driven 10,400 miles. We’ve spent roughly $5,500 on gas and $3,000 on campgrounds. Next is Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.

RVing

2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 13

August 12, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

The thirteenth posting of our Alaska RV trip is about our last days in Alaska.

Last Days in Alaska

The wildfires are continuing and there are many areas of Alaska and Canada that are smokey. We have to be in Denver, CO at the end of the month to fly to Charlotte for “Beach Week” (which is actually at a lake). But we have plenty of time to get there, so it’s the smoke that’s driving our plans.

Worthington Glacier

On day 110, we leave Valdez and drive to Worthington Glacier State Recreation Site. There are pull-through sites for RV day parking here. We almost don’t go because of the biting flies. But we have masks, long sleeves and bug-spray. The first trail we try is too steep. We go back to the RV for lunch, and see that we went on the wrong trail. We find the right trail, and it is much better. There are signs warning that the glacier is unstable and dangerous. That turns out to be true. We see people coming back, whose dog was killed by a falling rock. We wish we didn’t see that and we are very, very cautious. Other than that, it is an excellent hike.

Glennallen

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After the glacier hike, we go to Squirrel Creek State Recreation Site. We pull in and realize there is no turn-around. We disconnect the car and back-out. We decide to drive on and get a campsite in Glennallen. We get a nice site at Northern Nights Campground. We have electric, which is nice. It is 88° and we can run the A/C. This is a great pull-through campsite, with water and electric. They even have WiFi that works. We back-up our phones.

Deadman Lake Campground

There are 36 wildfires in Alaska. Glennallen is looking smokey. We take the Tok Cutoff towards Tok. It’s getting smokier. We pass through Tok.

This is the second time we’ve been in Tok. Tok is the first town in Alaska, going west on the Alaska Highway. They say that when driving through Alaska, you pass through Tok twice—once on your way in and once on your way out. We stopped here on our way in to make phone calls and to buy groceries (See 2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 6). This time we don’t stop at all—we continue on to Deadman Lake Campground.

Deadman Lake Campground is part of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The gravel road into the campground is narrow, and we are glad we don’t encounter anyone coming the opposite way. We find a nice secluded campsite. Too bad it’s smokey outside.

This is our last night in Alaska. We would have stayed longer, but we need to get away from the smoke. We’ve had a wonderful time, but we have been on the road for 112 days and driven 8,500 miles. We’ve spent roughly $5,000 on gas and $2,700 on campgrounds—the adventures continue. Next, Yukon, British Columbia and Alberta…

RVing

2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 12

August 3, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

The twelfth posting of our Alaska RV trip is about our time in Valdez Alaska.

Valdez, AK

We have reserved Allison Point Campground in Valdez for seven days, but we have two more days to go. We drive to Blueberry Lake State Recreation Site and get a campsite for two nights.

Blueberry Lake State Recreation Site

This is a small campground, about 15 sites. It’s run by a concessionaire, but there are no attendants. We get the last suitable site, write a check for $50 for two nights, and deposit it in the slot. It’s a very pretty area. It’s all dry camping—there is a vault toilet and one water pump, there is no dump station. There is no cell phone service here, but lots of mosquitoes and biting flies.

We are about 25 miles from downtown Valdez, and we need to go to the grocery store. We drive the car into town. We stop several times along the way to take pictures of the waterfalls beside the road.

Valdez is known as the land of waterfalls. We stop at Bridal Veil Falls and Horsetail Falls.

After the grocery store, we decide to explore the town. We drive to Allison Point Campground, where we have a reservation in a couple of days. It’s about 15 miles from town. It’s low tide, and we see bald eagles feeding on salmon.

Then, we check out the Valdez Elks Lodge. They have a steak dinner tonight, but we drive back to the RV and cook salmon on the grill.

The next day, we cook breakfast outside, on the griddle. We use bug-spray and thermo-cells to keep the flies and mosquitoes at bay. For dinner, we cook blackened halibut on the griddle.

The halibut is part of what we caught in Homer. See 2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 10.

Allison Point Campground

On Sunday, we drive into town to dump our holding tanks, fill with fresh water and gas. It’s not very far, so we don’t bother to hook up the tow car. After that, we go to Allison Point Campground, about 15 miles from town. It’s right on the water. It’s a city campground with 61 dry camping sites for $20 a night.

We have pretty good Verizon cell phone service here. After we catch up on emails, and make some phone calls, we go back into town to buy groceries and explore.

We stop at The Fat Mermaid and have some smoked salmon dip. Then we go to the grocery store and buy some bison ribeye steaks to grill for dinner. Delicious!

Today, from our RV, we watch a couple of fishing boats pulling out nets full of salmon. Then, at high tide, we go to the Solomon Gulch Hatchery, about a mile down the road, and watch sea lions, sea otters, harbor seals, seagulls, and bald eagles feasting on salmon.

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After that, we drive the car to Glacier Lake Park, and walk around looking at the icebergs.

Then, we drive into town and walk around the waterfront. Next, we go to Peter Pan Seafood Market, and buy some fresh Rockfish, frozen Scallops and Halibut cheeks. We cook half the Rockfish for dinner. Excellent!

Today, we drive the car a mile down the road to the Solomon Lake Trail head. We hike to the dam. It’s very scenic, with some nice waterfalls. The trail goes underneath the Alaskan Pipeline at one point. On the hike back, we take a side trail to a scenic overlook of the bay. We talk to some people who saw a bear, but we don’t see any. We hike about four miles total. The trail is mostly gravel and steep in places, but it is very scenic.

We have scallops for dinner. Yum!

The 4th of July has a record high temperature, but we are still a little cold near the water. We drive downtown at around noon. We have lunch at a food truck called the Nat Shack. It’s very busy. We wait in line to order two halibut tacos, and then we wait about an hour until they’re ready. They are really good.

After we eat, we walk around town. There are festivities going on all day, but not much is happening at the moment. We walk back into town and shop in some gift shops. Later, we go back and listen to live music, and have a couple of beers. We watch a Coast Guard rescue demonstration. They start serving hamburgers at 5:00, but the line is very long. We decide to walk into town and eat at the Alaska Halibut House. Very good!

There are no fireworks here. I don’t know if that’s because of all the wildfires in the area or because it doesn’t get dark until after 1:15AM.

Today, we drive the RV into town to dump our holding tanks and fill our freshwater tank. Later, we drive the car into town and walk on the Dock Point Trail. This is a short, easy walk. After that, we go to the grocery store, and then, back to the Peter Pan Seafood Market. We are looking for fresh halibut, but they are out of it. They say we should come back at about 11:30 AM tomorrow. We go back to the RV and watch fishing boats catching salmon with nets.

There have been two or three fishing boats out here before, but now there are a lot more. We saw them come in last night and drop their anchor. They’ve been at it since before 6:00 AM. They use two boats to pull a net out and then pull it in to catch the pink salmon coming in to spawn. This has been entertainment for us. They’re all gone by a little after 8:00 PM.

Today, the bay is quiet. The only ones we see fishing are the sea lions, sea otters and bald eagles.

We drive the car into town, and go to the Peter Pan Seafood Market. They didn’t get any halibut in today. The king salmon should arrive after lunch. We go shopping. We go to the Old Town Burgers, but there is a line, with at least a 40 minute wait. So, we get chicken breast wraps at the Safeway grocery store. We go back to the Peter Pan Seafood Market, and buy 2 lbs of fresh king salmon, some frozen sockeye salmon and halibut.

While shopping, I find gear cables for my bicycle. The bike rack on the back of our RV has damaged the gear cables. When we get back from shopping, I replace the cables, and we go for a bike ride. We ride to the Solomon Gulch hatchery, and watch the salmon and sea lions.

We cook half the fresh king salmon for dinner. Delicious! We freeze the other half.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Valdez. It has an interesting history. The original town was destroyed in the March, 1964 earthquake, and was rebuilt in a more stable location. This week the town is overloaded with tourists, but there are lots of working people here—everyone is friendly. We didn’t get a chance to go fishing, because it’s four hours to get out to where they fish, and four hours to get back, and all the charter boats are full. But we have seen lots of wildlife and natural beauty.

We’ve been on the road for 110 days and driven 8,200 miles. We’ve spent $4,900 on gas and $2,700 on campgrounds. It’s time to start making our way back. Next—our last days in Alaska…

RVing

2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 11

July 29, 2019 Ron Leave a comment

The eleventh posting of our Alaska RV trip is about our time in the Seward area.

Seward

We leave Homer on day 93. We plan to go to Skilak Lake. As we are leaving, our neighbor tells us about a forest fire in that area—it may be too smoky. We start to see smoke as we drive, and decide to go on to Seward.

We stop at the Marathon Campground, and all the good sights are taken. We park the RV, disconnect the tow-car, and drive it through the other city campgrounds. We find a nice spot in Resurrection Campground. This is dry camping, with a fantastic view, for $20 a night!

After a while, we walk to the Seward Brewing Company for a beer. Then, we walk back to the RV and cook our Buffalo and Pork Bratwurst from Delta Meat and Sausage Company (See 2019 RV Trip—Alaska, Part 6.) They are delicious.

Today we move to a different spot, right on the water. The view is a little better than our previous spot, and our neighbors don’t run their generator all day. We walk to the Kenai Fjord National Park Visitor Center, and get some information about boat tours through the park. We watch a movie about the park and then book a 8½ hour tour for Tuesday.

After that, we walk around the marina to see what people are catching. We find out we are late for king salmon and early for silver salmon. We talk to some people cleaning red salmon. They say they are catching them across the bay, at Fourth of July Beach. One of them gives us a 5 lb bag of filleted red salmon.

It’s almost 10:00PM, and still light. a bald eagle is sitting on a pole in front of our RV. Fran runs out and takes pictures. I put my phone to the binoculars and take some pictures. He stays for a few minutes, until someone gets too close and he flies away. We get some great pictures.

The guy that gave us the salmon said he caught them at Fourth of July Beach. So, today we drive out their to see what’s happening. We watch people snagging salmon. We go to the store and buy some snag-hooks and two one-day nonresident fishing licenses ($50).

Then, we drive to the Exit Glacier Nature Center and hike to the Exit Glacier Viewing Area. The glacier has receded a lot, and we aren’t able to get very close. We can’t take good pictures, because the sun is behind it. But we have a nice hike.

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Fishing is a bust. Our licenses are valid for 24 hours, starting at 7:00AM. We drive out there and try, but we are not experienced enough. We watch people snagging salmon, and they give us tips. We aren’t having any luck, and the wind is cold, so we decide to leave and come back after lunch. We come back and there are more people than before. It’s just as cold and windy. We try for a while and give up. It was fun watching everyone and talking to people anyway.

On day 66 we go to the Alaska SeaLife Center. It’s a bit pricey, but we enjoy seeing Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Birds and Fish. We learn a lot about the local wildlife. Then, we walk to Thorns Showcase Lounge and have a halibut bowl—delicious!

Today we go on the Major Marine Kenai Fjords National Park 8½ hour boat tour. It’s fantastic. We see orca whales, humpback whales, sea lions, seals, sea otters, puffins, and more. We get close to Northwestern Glacier and a few other glaciers. It is well worth the money!

Glennallen

On day 99, we plan to drive to Portage for a few days, but there is a smoke alert from the wildfire. We think about stopping in Anchorage, but there is supposed to be smoke there too. We decide to keep going. It is a very scenic drive on Alaska Hwy 1, with a view of Harvard Glacier. As we come into Glennallen, we see mountain peaks in front of us.

We drive to Caribou Hotel (and RV park) in Glennallen. This place has a few RV sites, some with full hook-ups. We get a pull-thru with electric, water and sewer.

There is a restaurant here, called Ernesto’s Grill. We didn’t take anything out of the freezer for dinner, so we go there and have Chicken Nacho Supreme, Guacamole, and Halibut Tacos. The food is good, The service is slow, but they apologize, saying that they had a rush at the last minute.

We stay here for a day and do some maintenance. We try to flush out our holding tanks, but they are still not showing up as empty on our gauges. We also back-flush and regenerate our portable water softener, work on removing cracked decals and clean/organize the basement.

We have been on the road for 101 days and driven 8,000 miles. We’ve spent roughly $4,400 on gas and $2,400 on campsites. Next stop… Valdez.