Summer of 2015 - NC to Tucumcari, NM - RV Cruise Number 2 Begins

July 8, 2015

As of July 4^th we are on the road again for our second annual summer RV cruise! I hope to do a  better job of blogging this year as we should have good WiFi this summer.  For those interested in learning more about the campgrounds we are staying in I will be reviewing them in RV Park Reviews. Our bucket list is to visit and stay in each of the 49 states while enjoying the sites and then take a cruise around Hawaii.  Last year we stayed in 15 states and 2 Canadian Provinces (they are just a bonus).  This is not a short term project !

In my last update I told you about Ernie, our new to us, Holiday Rambler Endeavor.  Ernie was our home away from home while Wayne worked a contract job in NC from September until June.  On June 18^th,   Wayne retired for the 7^th time, will this be the real retirement?  Only time will tell if he will go back to work, but he has no plans to work for the rest of 2015, of that we are sure.

We have made a few improvements to Ernie in the last 9 months.  We added a new faucet at the kitchen sink and also installed a water filter with a dedicated spigot for the filtered water.  Most of the light bulbs have been changed to LED bulbs.  Shelves were added to several closets to improve storage. We also replaced the toilet. The biggest addition was 4 – 120 watt solar panels and a controller.

Over the winter Wayne studied destinations and campgrounds and routes.  He planned a great trip and has it all organized on a spread sheet.  Our theory for this year is to pick a central location to camp and stay there for a week to take advantage of discounts and this will also put less miles on Ernie and more on Bert, the Jeep.  Bert gets much better gas mileage. This week after starting our trip we have also decided to limit our travel days to 300 miles or less. 

July 4^th we left Chapel Hill, NC headed west on highway 40. (Note: It has been 4 days and we are still on highway 40 headed west!)    The night of the 4^th we stayed at Tana See Campground in Newport, TN. (State number 16.)  It is a small family owned campground.  It used to be called TMC. The new owners have done a lot of work since buying it and have made a very nice family campground. It is near the highway so an easy stop.  We just missed the bluegrass band and hamburger cookout they had that afternoon.  That evening they had fireworks and did a great job.  The most exciting part of our stay was getting permission to wash the RV.  Ernie was in desperate need of a bath.  It is good to be clean.

July 5^th we drove to Columbia, TN to the home of our friends Ken and Carolyn McArthur.  I joked that we were staying in McArthur Park.  They have a beautiful home with a REALLY long driveway that was great for parking Ernie.  It was a fun evening catching up with friends and making plans to get together again, next time at our home in Florida.

July 6^th we stayed in the Downtown Riverside RV Park in North Little Rock, Arkansas. (State number 17). This was an unplanned stop on the trip and was added when we decided to keep our days to 300 miles.  We got lucky and found a neat place.  The park was just gravel with hook ups but the area was great.  The park was just across the Arkansas River from the Clinton Library and Museum and The River Walk Park.  A railroad bridge that was scheduled to be demolished was revamped into a pedestrian/bike bridge.  It led from the edge of the RV park over to the museum.  The area is full of bike/pedestrian trails.  The Riverwalk area included shops, restaurants, an amphitheater, trolley stop and on a Farmers Market on Tuesday and Saturday.  We walked the bridge Monday afternoon to explore.  We will come back to this area when we can have longer to explore.  Tuesday morning we rode our bikes over the bridge and bought fresh veggies and some blueberries from the Farmers Market.  After dark on Monday we expected the bridge to be lit.  We were very surprised when it was actually lit with red, white and blue lights that scrolled along the bridge.  A friend told us that they change the lights for the seasons and when they were here it was purple for ovarian cancer awareness and also pink for breast cancer.  It was a nice surprise.

July 7^th on to Oklahoma.  It was a pretty miserable day for driving because of the rain. So we did not really see much of Oklahoma.  We spent the night in Seminole, OK (state number 18)  in a place called the Catfish Roundup.  It was really just a place to pull off the road and park that had hookups.  It was next to a restaurant called the Catfish Café.  If you like fried catfish it is supposed to be the place to go.  We did make a trip to Walmart.  This seems like a poor area. Maybe it would look better without all the rain.

July 8^th.  So good to see the rain had stopped!  We were still on Hwy 40.  All along the way Hwy 40 needs repair.  They are working on it but most of it is sad, especially around Memphis.  Today in Texas it was improved and with no rain it made driving so much easier.  The original plan was to stop in Amarillo for the night but we made good time and decided to go on.  We are in Tucumcari, New Mexico at a place called the Cactus RV Park.  It is on Old Route 66.  After dinner we walked down Route 66 for about a mile.  It is sad to see the buildings and motels closed up.  There are a few that continue to stay open but not many.  The shops and motels that are open have murals painted on the sides of days gone by.  I guess many towns have been bypassed by the super highways. 

Meet Ernie and his pal Bert

Here it is almost February and we are planning for our travels during the summer of 2015 !  Where does the time go ???

If you happened to notice I changed the picture...we would like to introduce you to Ernie our 40' 2002 Holiday Rambler Endeavor.  You have already seen Bert our 2004 Jeep Liberty, who just got named after we got Ernie !

We enjoyed our summer travels in our class C Forester.  It served us well but we kept thinking it sure "would be nice" if...

When Wayne started working in September, we decided to live aboard to be able to put more of his earnings in savings.  The Forester just didn't seem big enough to be our space to live in while working.  So we decided to look at other possibilities.  We found Ernie and fell in love !

Wayne could not believe how much smoother a Class A pusher drives than anything else we have had.  We were able to work a deal that we were happy with and Ernie was ours at the end of September.

It is so nice to have all the "would be nice" things on our list and the extra space.  We have a real living room, real chairs in the dining area, a nice kitchen, large bath, nice bedroom with a queen size bed, and a washer/drier !!!   We also do not have to be as concerned with how much stuff we take because Ernie can handle the weight.

We have made a few changes: put in our favorite mattress, changing light bulbs to LED, adding a special filtered water faucet to the sink and upgraded the kitchen sink faucet.  Wayne is exploring solar panels and determining what is needed to keep the batteries topped off in storage vs the needs for staying off the grid while boon docking.  We have a nice diesel generator so that will factor in to his solar calculations

It will be a busy 5 months before we hit the road again.  My goal is to Blog better for the 2015 trip than I did for 2014...Facebook was easier in 2014 than the blog with our lack of internet.  This year we will be in the US the whole summer so internet will be easier to come by.

We are back !

So I am not the best blogger...

No we did not fall off the planet or get eaten by bears !  We did however, find that internet is not as available in Canada as it is in the US.  Our cell phone company wanted to charge us LOTS of money for just a few minutes of data time so we just did without.  I did send a few pictures via Facebook that would often take HOURS to download.  If you would like my Facebook ID please ask Wayne or I for it.  I can always use a new friend :)

We have had requests to complete the blog of our trip, so over the next few weeks I will go back and create blog entries with pictures to share our trip with you.

Just some numbers for you of our trip....

Days out:  June 3 to August 22, 2014 for a total of 81 days

States we stayed in : 15
Provinces we stayed in: 2

Miles we drove in RV:  8,551
Miles we drove in Jeep: 3,122

Pictures taken: somewhere around 17,000

Summary:  We live in a beautiful country, go visit it.  You will not regret it :)

Wayne started work again in New Hill on Sept 2.

We both had a great time and are already planning our trip for next summer !!!

Smoke from the wildfires...

On July 13th as we traveled from Calgary to Banff everything was in a haze.  Wildfires were burning near Saskatchewan Crossing and the smoke was causing a haze over the mountain tops.  Even in the haze the views were breathtaking. After arriving in Banff and getting the Land Yacht set up, we went into town to the visitors center.  Two good things about the visitors centers in Canada, they have great information and a WiFi signal that you can borrow to check email.  We are finding WiFi to not be available in many places and if it is, they want to charge a premium for it, so free WiFi is a real find.  The coffee shops have WiFi but it is slow because everyone is trying to use it...I will admit it, I miss WiFi.

On July 14th we went to Cave and Basin Historic Site, which is a site of hot springs that drew people to Banff for their healing power, but mostly because they felt soothing.  We also saw the Upper Hot Springs which are still open for use.  We enjoyed exploring all the little tourist shops in town. We toured the Park Museum which is in the same building it has been in since it opened in 1908.  We also toured the gardens at the National Park Office.

Museum

On July 15th, the four of us drove down the Bow Valley Parkway. We hiked the trail to upper and lower Johnston Falls.

On July 16th Wayne and Mark hiked to the top of Tunnel Mountain.  There is no tunnel in the mountain but it was a proposed site for a tunnel and the name stuck.  Sue and I went to the Farmer's Market and to the grocery store.  In the afternoon, Wayne and I rode our bikes around town and explored Bow River Falls and the Vermillion Lakes.  Banff is surrounded by beautiful mountains.

Vermillian Lake

From the campground

Bridge in town

River in town

Next Stop Lake Louise !

Alberta’s largest city, Calgary

NOTE:  I am doing blog posts as we find internet available, so I may do more than one a day.  Please be sure you have not missed a post!

On our way to Calgary we stopped at a World Heritage Site called Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump.  It is a very nice museum out in the middle of nowhere, but well worth your stop if you are going this way. The museum was designed and built into the side of the mountain so it does not detract from the surrounding plains.  The design guides you through the 5 story building telling the story of how for thousands of years the Indians hunted buffalo.  The most successful technique was to guide a herd over the edge of the cliff.  The Indians did not waste any part of the buffalo.

We never thought of Calgary as being large…there are over a million people and the area is growing.  Calgary was host to the 1988 Winter Olympics.  Our campground was not very far from Olympic Park.  Friday morning we drove over to Olympic Park.  Wayne and Mark rode what they call the Skyline Luge.  They are small “sleds” with wheels and steering lever/handle which also controlled the speed.  They run down what was used as the luge track for the Olympics. They ride a chair lift up and luge down.  They said it was fun.  We all took the chair lift up to the top and back down to enjoy the view.  It is great that they are using and maintaining the park.  They have mountain bike trails that runs down the mountain.  There was a camp going on for kids to learn how to ride the trails.  They take their bikes up on a special chair on the chair lift and the kids also ride the chair lift up the mountain.  Then they ride the trail down the mountain.  They all looked like they were having a great time.  You can pay to just ride the lift and trail and there is even a season pass.

After Olympic Park we took the train into town to the Stampede.  The Stampede reminded me of the State Fair in NC with some rodeo added to it.  Our favorite parts were the Peking Acrobats and the chuck wagon races.  No pictures were allowed of the Peking Acrobats.  They did dancing, balancing and juggling and were very good.  The chuck wagons are a team of four thoroughbred horses pulling a 1200 pound wagon with a driver that also has two men on horses called out riders.  Four teams compete at a time racing against each other and the clock.  Each chuck wagon does a figure eight around 2 barrels then race around a ½ mile track.  The outriders load a bag into the back of the wagon and cannot get on their horses until the bag is loaded and the wagon has gone around the first barrel.   The outriders must ride around the track and finish within a second of their wagon or the team is penalized one second.  If the wagon knocks down a barrel they are penalized several seconds.   We saw 9 races.  The horses were fast and beautiful.  There is LOTS of prize money involved.  It was late by the time we took the train and got back to the campground, all of us were tired after a busy day.

In the pictures below the first one is the chuck wagon parading by before the race. That same wagon is in the race in the second shot.

Saturday, Wayne and I went to the Calgary Farmer’s Market, which was more market than farm.  We then took a 12 mile bike ride along the Bow River in downtown Calgary.  They have a wonderful trail system throughout the city.  The bike path is a different path from the walkers so you do not have to worry about passing walkers.  We rode through a nice section of town including Princes Island.  The rest of the day was devoted to laundry and getting groceries.

Next stop Banff.

Welcome to Canada !

Welcome to Canada !

July 7^th we drove from St. Mary, MT into Canada.  We were bordering Glacier Park so the scenery continued to be beautiful.   I took a picture as we crossed the border because I thought it was kind of funny that there is actually a line.  The customs agent was very nice and we crossed without problems.  Our first destination was Waterton, Alberta where we stayed at the Waterton Townsite Campground.  It is a national park, the Canadian side of Glacier National Park,  and a very nice facility.  It is located in town within walking distance of restaurants and shops.  We really like Waterton, the views in every direction are breathtaking.

Our views from the campground:

After getting The Land Yacht settled in our site, we walked to town and checked out the local offerings.  Wayne and I decided to ride our bikes on the bike path along the lake and up to the Prince of Wales Hotel and then across the street to the visitor center. The hotel is on the national register of historic places.  It stands on the hill above town and can be seen from almost everywhere.  It is old and dark on the inside.  The views from the hotel were amazing, which is why it is so famous! On our way back to the campground we rode by Cameron Falls.

July 8^th was a catch up day.  I did some cooking while Wayne gave the RV and car a much needed bath.  In the afternoon the 4 of us drove up the Red Rock Canyon Road.  It was a very scenic drive with a red rock slot canyon at the end with a walk around it.  We also hiked the trail to Blakiston Falls.  The wildflowers in the area are blooming and add color to the roadside/path side.

On July 9^th Wayne and I took the hike up to the top of Bear Hump which overlooks the town of Waterton. It was mostly uphill,  but WOW what a view !!!  After lunch, the 4 of us, drove down the Akamina Parkway to Cameron Lake.  We did the walk at the lake.  The excitement of the drive was having a bear cub walk across in front of the car as we pulled into an overlook…not sure where mama bear was.  We took our pictures from the car.

Next  stop Calgary and the Stampede.

Glacier National Park - Part 2

On July 4^th, we moved over to Johnson’s RV Park, just outside the East Glacier entrance.  After lunch we drove over and hiked to St Mary’s Falls and continued up to Virginia Falls.  Less than 4 miles for the hike and much easier than the two mile hike the day before.  The wildflowers have been very pretty throughout the park but were very noticeable along this hike. Virginia Falls is at the top of the creek which flows down to the St Mary’s falls with several intermediate falls/cascades in the middle.  The campground owner told us there would be fireworks over the lake which the campground overlooks.  We were not sure what to expect.  Just a note, it does not get dark here until after 10:00 PM.  Around 9:30 we noticed little fireworks at different places along the shoreline.  So it seems that everyone brings there fireworks to the lake edge and shoots them off.    So for over 30 minutes we had splashes of color all around the lake.  At 10:00 the KOA across the street did some bigger and higher fireworks.  Not knowing what to expect we were not prepared to take pictures.  We went to bed and the fireworks and celebrating continued long into the night.

 St Mary's Falls

 Rapids along the trail to Virginia Falls

 Virginia Falls

On July 5^th, we slept in after our late evening.  Wayne and I rode the shuttle on the Going to the Sun Road from the St Mary’s Visitor Center back to the Loop where we had ridden to when the road was closed.  So we completed the entire road!  We spent the most time at Logan Pass.  The snow in the area was over 6 feet tall!  They had cleared the roads, sidewalks and parking lots.  The trails that started from Logan Pass were all covered with snow.  Wayne was disappointed to not be able to hike the Highline Trail, so that will be our excuse to come back.  Others were excited for the snow and were carrying their skis and snowboards up the hill.

July 6^th was our last day in the US portion of Glacier National Park.  We drove up to the lodge at Many Glacier where we took a boat/hiking trip.  You ride a boat across the lake, hike for a ¼ mile to another lake, ride in a second boat and then hike 1.25 miles over to Glacier Lake.  It was a beautiful day for the trip and the scenery was spectacular.

From the hill overlooking Many Glacier Lodge

Next stop Waterton, Alberta, Canada !

Note while in Canada we will have cell phone and texting but no data on our phone,  so we will be on the lookout for WiFi hotspots and will post blogs when we can.  We will be in Canada for about a month.