We made it to Alexandria, Louisiana

We thought that as we moved south it would get warmer. Not the case! Today's high was 43 and it rained on and off through out the day. So tonight we are holed up in a Hampton Inn for the third night.

After breakfast at the hotel this morning we got back onto the Natchez Trace and drove over two hundred more leisurely miles on the parkway. This is the third time we took this route through Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi either to get back to the Midwest in the spring or to get to the southwest in the wintertime.

The parkway follows the route that the early settlers used to return home to their farms and towns after floating their crops and furs south on the Mississippi River. The roadway was used in the early eighteen hundreds and by the Civil War was pretty much abandoned. The federal government bought up all the land along the route and built a modern roadway for 440 miles. There is not a single stop sign or traffic light for the entire length of the parkway.  The speed limit is 50 for the majority of the way on a two lane highway through the country side. Imagine driving 440 miles from home how far you could get and then imagine never having to stop the whole way unless you needed gas or a break! (There are numerous pull outs for historic sites and scenic views as well as Indian mounds and picnic areas).

We made it to the end of the Trace at Natchez, Mississippi and drove further southwest to Alexandria, La. One more night at a hotel and tomorrow we should be able to make it to San Antonio and we will set up the camper and spend a few nights. Hoping for sunshine!!

A view through the windshield on the Natchez Trace Parkway. This was the typical view for four hundred forty miles of roadway. It's a totally relaxing drive. Just set the cruise at 58 MPH and steer! 

At one point in Mississippi we had a reservoir along the highway. Most of the rest was either forest or farmland.

Crossing the Mississippi River from Mississippi into Louisiana late this afternoon.

Hopefully this is the last night the camper sits in a Hampton Inn parking lot!!

The Start of Another Great Winter 2019

We left Ann Arbor on Thursday morning after spending two nights in Romeo with Mike, Lisa and the kids then two nights with Becky, Dave and the kids in Ann Arbor.
We spent a night in Bardstown, Kentucky then hooked up the camper from storage and drove to Nashville, then onto the Natchez Trace to Tupelo, Mississippi.
It's nice to get to much warmer weather here. It was 60 degrees today and sunny on the drive. We left the snow behind us even though Leelanau county was 45 and rainy today. We're looking forwad to a great winter vacation this year. Three months will be in Texas and then across the Florida pan handle and finally to see David in Johnson City, Tennessee for the final week.
Stay tuned...

Still at It!

We're still camping and I apologize about the delay between posts. We have been on the move and have not had a Wi-fi signal anywhere.
 We left the Phoenix area and moved to Roper Lake State park in Safford. There was a mountain across the highway form the park and we drove to 8,000 feet and did some hiking. The views were spectacular! Next campsite was back south to Columbia, New Mexico to Poncho Villa state park there. We made another journey into Mexico and explored a bit more of Palermo. From there we went to Davis Mountain near Fort Davis in Texas. We were in the Davis Mountains and the hiking and scenery were awesome. We even went to the top of the mountain one day for a guided tour of the McDonald Observatory which has the second largest telescope in the world.
After Fort Davis we moved to Inks Lake State Park north of San Antonio and stayed for a couple of days. The lake here was huge and we had a site right on the water. Now we are at Bob Sandlin Lake State Park in north east Texas and will be heading north east to Memphis Tennessee from here.
The trees and grass are green and alive and we have temperatures in the seventies during the day. We are noticing more ands more humidity as we head northeast and today we are supposed to get some rain! Not like we were used to in the desert!!
Here are some pictures from the past two weeks...

Mount Graham near Safford. We had some great views on our hike here.

Another look at Mount Graham.

Poncho Villa at Palermo, Mexico.

Here we are back at the pink store in Palermo for shopping and lunch, oh, and maybe a free margarita or two.

Columbia,New Mexico.

The Davis mountains. Camp below and Indian Lodge in the background.

McDonald Obvservatory owned and operated by the University of Texas.

Inks Lake State Park. Our view from the camper!

Picture Ketchup

Here are some pics since the Colorado River...

After leaving River Island State Park near Parker we camped at Alamo Lake S.P. for several days. Fishing here was good for Large mouth bass and Crappie. The park was 30 miles from nowhere!

Burroughs roamed the desert here and we saw them every day. In the evenings the coyotes and Burroughs would serenade us.

The Bill Williams dam created the lake and the river below ran to the Colorado. 

A view of Bill Williams dam

Pancake clouds floated in the sky one afternoon while we were camped at Dead Horse S.P. in Cottonwood, Arizona.

Tuzigoot was one of the old dwellings in the Verde Valley area. Ancient people lived here 8-10 thousand years ago. It is estimated that the Native Americans built these dwellings in the 1300's. 

The red rocks near Sedona, an easy drive from Cottonwood. 

Every time we come to Sedona it is busier and more developed.

Montezuma's well was another site with dwellings from early desert people. They had water here and land for growing food.

A look at the cliff dwellings at the well.

The old town of Jerome, built on the side of the mountain near Cottonwood, is always a hoot to visit. Each block is the next higher level on the switchback road that runs through town. 

On the other side of the Minghus Mountains is the Prescott Valley and the old town of Prescott. 

Prescott was the original capital of Arizona before it was moved to Phoenix.

The Goldwater family (Barry Goldwater was a son), resided here and owned businesses for Generations.

Hiking in the red rock area the views were awesome.

Everywhere you looked!

Another cliff dwelling near Camp Verde, this is Montezuma's castle.

The desert sunsets from Lost Dutchman S.P. were beautiful. We are now in Apache Junction near Phoenix.

Hiking near Roosevelt Lake north of Apache Junction.

Tonto National Monument, site of yet another ancient cliff dwelling.

This one we actually were able to go inside and see individual rooms and compartments.

Another desert sunset.

We took the kids to Goldfield Ghost town one afternoon. 

Got-em!!

Inspiration for an old Eagles tune. We stopped here on the way to Grand Canyon N.P.

Our overnight trip to see the Grand Canyon with Mike, Lisa, the kids and Lisa's parents. We stopped to see Meteor Crater, an impact site south of Flagstaff. It is three quarters of a mile wide and can hold twenty football fields on the bottom.

The gang on our road trip at Meteor Crater

Mike, Lisa and the kids at the Grand Canyon..

We took a hike on the Bright Angel trail for a couple of hours.

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We finally made it to the rim. It's always a rush to see this magnificent and awesome canyon.

Kodak moments everywhere. We rode the trolley and got off at several places along the rim.

The Colorado river runs through it. This is what formed the canyon we see today. 

Another view.

A new Post a Long Time Coming

I know it's been a long time since my last update, but we haven't had Wi fi and with Mike and Lisa and the kids here the past week we've been quite busy. I'll try and catch up today since we're doing laundry and I have signal...

March 30

We are in Cottonwood, Arizona, camping at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Telephone reception is good but this camp as well as Alamo Lake State Park where we spent the prior week do not have Wi-Fi service. In fact Alamo Lake (which is west of Phoenix), was 35 miles off the highway and did not even have a cell phone signal or radio reception or TV channel reception! Talk about off the grid!

Alamo Lake was a reservoir created by the Bill Williams dam. It was a large lake with excellent fishing for large mouth bass and crappie. Every time we went by one of the fish cleaning stations there were people filleting fish! Many of the campers had boats with them and they were obviously here for just one thing. Alamo Lake was a nice area in the high desert with rolling hills and lots of hiking and kayaking. There were wild burros and deer here and the burros were constantly baying, both day and night.

We moved from there to Cottonwood after a week and set up camp for a week here. This is a great location for day trips as we are near Sedona and Jerome as well as Prescott over the Minghus Mountain to the west. We took a ride to Sedona on Monday and found it to be busier than ever. No parking left anywhere and the main route through town very slow and congested. The town sprawls further each time we visit. This is the third time we have been here in the past fifteen years and the develp[ment is moving further in every direction each time we come.

Yesterday we drove over the mountain and through Jerome, which is an old copper mining town built on the side of the mountain above Clarksdale. Jerome doesn't change much simply because there are no more flat spots to build on. It seems like one good earthquake and the whole place will slide down the slope and into the valley below!

Onward into the valley and then into Prescott itself. This is the first time we have been there and were impressed w ea and the old homes surrounding it were all maintained and cared for. The weather in Prescott was a bit cooler than areas at lower elevations as Prescott is at 5200 feet, the same as Denver, Colorado.

Second post, Sunday April 8,

We have been at Lost Dutchman State Park east of Phoenix for the past week. Mike and Lisa and the kids flew in on Tuesday and are spending the week with Lisa's parent's in Apache Junction. They are about ten minutes away from our camp and we've been spending a lot of time with them at their palce and at ours. On Friday we all loaded into two cars and headed north. We drove through some new territory for Nancy and I through Payson and into the higher elevations. We passed Saguaro Lake Rec area and stopped in to see the marina and lake there. This is just north of Phoenix and quite a nice area. Further on we drove through the Payson area and the pine forest there. Slightly higher elevation than Phoenix and cooler and out of the desert valley. The area was very picturesque and looked more like home. driving further we came back into high desert area and came to the Meteor Crater Natural Monument. We stopped and went through the visitor center then out to view the crater. It was formed 50,000 years ago when a huge crater slammed into the earth. It is the best preserved meteor impact site in the world. #/4 of a mile across and 1/2 mile deep it is huge!

Further up we drove into Grand Canyon National Park which was our destination. We walked a bit of the rim and then checked into our rooms and went to dinner. Saturday we hiked the Bright Angel Trail for a couple of hours and then started off on the shuttle to the west end of the park. We got on and off at several spots along the rim and marveled a the views. We spent the morning and early afternoon at the canyon and then started off back towards Phoenix. On the way back we enjoyed views of the snow on the mountains north of Flagstaff, then Flagstaff itself. We drove south through Oak Creek Canyon and then through Sedona and the Red Rocks on the way back to Phoenix. Mike and Lisa and the kids got a whirlwind tour of some of the best that Arizona has to offer.

As I'm writing this my battery on the laptop is getting low, so I'm going to have to post pictures on the next blog. Needless to say we are having a great time and enjoying the last month of our vacation. The plan is to be home on May 2nd.

Lots of love to all...

Happy St Patrick's Day (yesterday), to everyone!!

Our last day on the river. Tomorrow we pack up camp and move east, not far, to Alamo Lake St Park. We have a few more weeks to spend around Arizona before beginning to head east in earnest to make our way back home.
On Friday we took a day trip south to the Arizona town of Quartzite. This is a huge snowbird destination in the winter and they get several hundred thousand campers spread out for miles in the desert on BLM land. We saw lots of campers still scattered around in the distance off the highway, but it is nothing compared to December and January when they are having their rock and gem shows and huge flea markets.
There really isn't much of a town here, just businesses along the intersection of I-10 and Highway 95. We found a big laundromat to wash clothes and a station to fill a propane tank and then continued south toward Yuma into California. We saw some of this area from the south earlier in the winter, but now drove to it from the north. There is a tremendous amount of wilderness here and a huge wildlife refuge. Also the US Army Yuma Proving Grounds that we visited earlier in February. North of the Army proving grounds we saw GM's desert proving grounds where they do their hot weather vehicle testing.
The last dam on the Colorado is here as well on the Arizona California border. It diverts water to the agricultural canals to irrigate the fields south into Yuma, California and eventually to Mexico.
Back at camp on Friday evening the motorcycles started coming in. We had about thirty bikes and their support team move into the group campo site in the park. These were the Sober Putters and they were doing a poker run on Saturday and a ride north to Lake Havasu. They were no trouble and the roar of the Harleys added a little excitement to the day on Saturday morning.
Saturday before lunch we took a five mile hike into the hills across the highway from camp. When we got a couple of miles in we came to a road that the dune buggies were using. It took them back into the boonies for miles and later looking at the map I saw it went to the desert bar that we visited last time we were in this area three years ago!

Off roaders in the hills. This was a popular trail going back to the Desert Bar.

We watched about a dozen dune buggies and a Jeep go by.

Cactus flowering in the park.

The blooms were gorgeous!

Still Enjoying River Island S.P.

We are at this campground on the Colorado River for eight nights. We are getting some R&R at this nice spot on the coast of Arizona. On Wednesday we took a ride across the parker Dam into California and drove first north to Havasu Landing on the west bank. It was about six miles up river from where we are and the road wound through the hills and mountains getting there. Lots of off roading trails for the OHV vehicles and we saw burros along the roadside. The camping there was way too tight for our likes with the campers crammed in side by side. They were on BLM land but the park was run by a concession outfit. They had two diners a boat launch and marina, even a gas pump! It was a beautiful spot, but just too crammed in.
From there we drove south along the river and checked out a couple of other BLM sites, but there were only two that were still managed by the BLM and the one nice campground was being renovated and was not open. Eventually we made it to the bridge that gets you back to Parker town on the Arizona side of the river. We picked up a few things at the grocery then drove north back to camp.
We have been kayaking in the river and have taken a few hikes in the surrounding hills. Yesterday was pizza at the Sundance Saloon. It was a western theme restaurant with seating right on the dock on the river. Good spot and good pizza!
This is a very scenic area and a nice place to hang out. Sitting for eight days we have seen a lot of turnover in the campground as people came and go. We are among the few campers that have been here for the duration.

Hiking into the mountains was awesome.

A whiptail lizard with part of it's tail missing.

Looking down on the river and campground from the mountain across the highway.

Parker dam creates the backwater that forms Lake Havasu to the north.

Wild burros along the highway. We saw quite a few but only on the California side of the river.

Kayaking on Thursday, The river was low below the dam with little current. We kayaked upstream for over a mile.

Sundance Saloon was a great spot for a happy hour and pizza along the river.