Places
We’re waiting for Siskiyou Pass to clear…
WAITING ON THE WEATHER. Traveling north on Interstate 5 to reach Oregon requires traversing the Siskiyou Pass and its 4,300 foot elevation at the summit. We’ve driven this route a half dozen times during the summer and enjoyed the scenery and the drive. But wait, it’s winter…an unusual weather condition largely unknown to a lifelong Southern … Continue reading
From cacti to fruit trees…
WINDING DOWN. We’re winding down our Great American Adventure. Our journey has been about the places we’ve seen, the people we’ve met and the surprising, quirky, and serendipitous things that have happened. As we depart Laughlin, we’ve set our sights on Oregon, but first we must cross the Mojave Desert. It’s the driest in North … Continue reading
Laughlin: The second time around…
ANOTHER STOP IN LAUGHLIN, NEVADA. We’ve been on our Great American Adventure a long time and now we’re on our final leg of the Journey. We’ve come full circle and are back at Laughlin, Nevada where we stopped about four years ago. Since we have so many happy memories about time we spent here over the … Continue reading
Arizona for the winter…
CASA GRANDE RV RESORT. We’re not exactly snowbirds, but we can see why lots of them spend the winter in Arizona. Since our drive to Oregon was delayed due to the early winter and lots of snow on our intended route, we decided to spend a couple of months here. It’s outside of Tucson and the weather … Continue reading
Lights Out at Rusty’s RV Ranch…
RUSTY’S RV RANCH. The ranch is located in New Mexico’s high desert, with 360 degree mountain views. This is a captivating land of hallowed mountains, red rock canyons and vast serene plateaus. The Native Americans who reside in the many reservations here present a vision of hope for humankind’s relationship to the natural world by … Continue reading
Deming and Hatch…two little towns in New Mexico.
TOWN OF DEMING, NEW MEXICO. People don’t come to this area for the city life, that’s for sure. Deming is a rather depressed town and only about 14,000 folks call it home. It’s located 65 miles from Las Cruces and 33 miles from the Mexican border. The town is named after Charles Crocker, one of the … Continue reading
Hidden Valley Ranch RV Resort…
WAS THIS A GOOD IDEA? As we drove the seven mile road to Hidden Valley Ranch outside the little town of Deming, New Mexico, we wondered if we’d made a mistake. The spot is a working cattle and horse ranch located far, far off the beaten path. The dirt road leading to the ranch is so … Continue reading
A Drive to Remember…
WHAT IF I TOLD YOU. What if I told you we took our Jeep on a drive over the mountains shown in the first picture of the series? Would you believe me? What if I told you that we found about 30 big horn sheep climbing precariously on the cliffs at the side of the … Continue reading
Santa Fe, New Mexico…
OUR VISIT TO “THE CITY.” We’ve been in the Santa Fe area for a couple of weeks, but where we’re staying is at Cochiti Lake, a CoE park located about twenty miles south of Santa Fe and surrounded by vast Indian reservation lands. For those of you who missed my description a couple of weeks ago … Continue reading
Cochiti Lake, New Mexico…
SOMETIMES WE WANT TO BE TOURISTS. Since we left home more than four years ago to begin our Great American Adventure exploring America, we’ve more often that not wanted to be tourists…to see all the places in this great country that we’d never had a chance to see until now. But having been on the road … Continue reading
Las Vegas, New Mexico…
BREEZING THROUGH LAS VEGAS. Today is our second short stop in the little historic town of Las Vegas, New Mexico. We were here briefly in October of 2014, when we were in the area to explore Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands National Park and all the UFO sites in Roswell, New Mexico. This time we’ll just be here … Continue reading
Driving through Colorado into New Mexico…
KANSAS IS BEHIND US. Kansas is behind us and as we enter Colorado we find ourselves in a vast and sparsely populated area called the Comanche National Grassland. In the distance we see the snow covered mountains around Denver and we’re glad that we made the decision to change our route and avoid the severe weather … Continue reading
Leaving America’s Heartland…
IT’S WINDY! If Chicago is the “windy city” then the state of Kansas must be the country’s windiest state. Wow! A day or two ago the wind was so strong on the highway that we were forced to stop driving early in the day. We were fortunate to find a beautiful lake near the little … Continue reading
America’s Heartland, Part II
WE’RE MOVING ALONG. A few days ago we put Missouri in our rear-view mirror and traveled west to Kansas, in search of Dorothy and Toto. We didn’t find them, but we did find more interesting spots in mid-America. The seasons are changing. There’s a chill in the air. Leaves fall from the trees and a red … Continue reading
America’s Heartland…
MANSFIELD, MISSOURI. As we trek across America from East to West, we find ourselves today in Mansfield, Missouri. Only about three hundred families live here. We’re still in the Ozarks. Highway signs blare: “Abortion is murder!” Streets have names like Hickory Hollow and Cemetery Road. A gunmetal water tower announces the town’s name. “Rick’s Quality Used … Continue reading
Welcome to the Ozarks…
WELCOME TO THE OZARKS. We’ve arrived in southern Missouri’s Ozark Mountain Country, also referred to as “the Ozarks.” It’s a highland geologic region of the country’s central states of Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, extending in Missouri all the way northeast to the suburbs of St. Louis. Although sometimes referred to as the Ozark Mountains, the … Continue reading
The Solar Eclipse…
SOLAR ECLIPSE ON AUGUST 21, 2017. Not since 1979 and not again until 2024 will there be a solar eclipse like this one. What a big deal! I don’t know where you were during the eclipse, but in this part of the country seeing it was supposed to be a real “happening.” We’re staying at Wappapelo … Continue reading
