Fayetteville, NC was our next stopover on the way to see brother and sister-in-law Tom and Joyce in Newport News. We didn’t have many expectations, but found Fayetteville quite charming in the spring. We drove along the Dogwood Trail, meandering through lovely residential areas where the dogwoods and azaleas were in full bloom. Ft. Bragg, a huge Army base, is nearby and home to Special Operations. We visited the Airborne and Special Operations Museum, tracing the unit’s history from World War II, where it evolved from the OSS, to the present day. All in all, we like the [View Full Entry]

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Our sojourn through South Carolina took us to Charleston, another beautiful and historic southern city. With a protected harbor, the city has been a trading port since pre-Revolutionary times. The Civil War began here, when Union troops fired the first shots from Fort Sumpter. Considering wars, fires, earthquakes and hurricanes, it is fortunate that so many historic buildings remain. Many have been beautifully restored and are now museums, tour destinations, bed and breakfasts, as well as single-family homes. Tourism is an important business here and restaurants abound. Diane ate her [View Full Entry]

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Hilton Head, SC beckoned us for a visit. We remembered the island as a tranquil place with tall pines, bike trails, golf courses, quiet beaches, and lovely homes. On a whim, Diane called her friend from Texas who has a home there. She just happened to be on the island the same time we were, so she joined us for window shopping and lunch at Harbour Town. We visited her lovely home, and she also visited Coco (our home on wheels). One highlight of our visit was a day trip to Savannah, GA. A website tip at roadfood.com led us to [View Full Entry]

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In December, we arrived at Riverbend Motorcoach Resort, east of Ft. Myers, FL. Located on the south bank of the Caloosahatchee River, the resort was a great place to spend the holidays and part of January. We enjoyed our time with local friends Janice and Bryan, met some new RV friends Bill and Patty, and played some golf. We used a saved timeshare week in Cancun, Mexico with brother and sister-in-law Tom and Joyce. Some highlights were: fine dining (including a conga line in a fun Mexican restaurant), snorkeling in an underground river, a Mexican history musical show, and a lovely [View Full Entry]

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Heading west from Leesburg, we spent some time in Crystal River, where it was warm and muggy during our entire stay. We visited Homasassa Springs Wildlife Park and saw our first manatees. We then parked the bus at Marathon’s facility near Tampa and flew to Aruba on a timeshare exchange. Arrival was on a bright sunny day with temperatures in the mid 80’s. The weather was the same through the week with only an occasional passing shower. Our resort was on Eagle Beach, a pristine white beach with no seaweed or jellyfish and crystal clear, beautiful turquoise water. We went in [View Full Entry]

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A little blog hiccup as we "lost" one entry and haven't posted for a while. We left Alberta in late September and crossed the border into Montana. After a 3-day drive, with nights spent in Montana and Idaho rest stops, we arrived in Las Vegas for a little playtime. The bus was washed and waxed and we enjoyed the desert heat after the Canadian chill. By coincidence, Alan’s nephew Michael was visiting a friend in town, so we all met for dinner one night. We then headed for Tucson to visit Alan's dad for a month. We had to have a [View Full Entry]

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We drove for two days on the Trans-Canadian Highway from Vancouver into Alberta. In most places, the Highway is two lanes and the scenery is beautiful. We spent one night at a rest stop in Revelstoke before arriving in Banff. A rustic campground in the heart of the Canadian Rockies was our base for a two-night stay. One morning in camp, we heard a "bugling" bull elk. When he finally came into view, he was the largest elk we ever saw, with a massive set of antlers. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the camera handy at the time. We did have the [View Full Entry]

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Vancouver, British Columbia--Another ferry ride, not as tough as the first one, as the boat was bigger and the drive in and out was easier. Vancouver is a large, cosmopolitan city with many residential skyscrapers downtown and lots of building activity for the 2010 Olympic winter games. We stayed at an RV park just across the Lion’s Gate Bridge, the only park near the city, in West Vancouver. Vancouver is an easy town to drive in; we had dinner in Chinatown and explored Gastown, with a large steam-generated grandfather clock on one corner. We shopped at a wonderful market on Gran [View Full Entry]

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Our journey into Canada with 3 other rigs began with a stop at Mount Saint Helens in Washington, site of the enormous 1980 volcanic eruption. Visiting the site and seeing the extent of the devastation makes one realize the overwhelming forces of nature. The side of the mountain literally blew out, creating blistering winds, enormous mud flows, and tons of volcanic ash that drifted around the world--a very sobering reminder that we are just a speck in the geologic timeline of our planet. From there, we traveled north to Port Angeles, Washington. All four rigs were driven (very carefully [View Full Entry]

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From Newport on the coast, we traveled to McMinnville, in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Home to over 100 wineries, fruit and nut orchards, this is the largest hops growing area (think beer) in the US. Oregon is also the only place in the US that grows hazelnuts commercially. The huge Monrovia facility is just down the road—over 1,000 acres of nursery plants shipped to garden centers all over the country. Located about 35 miles southwest of Portland, downtown McMinnville evokes “Stuckyville,” an old-fashioned all-American town, where a downtown street is cord [View Full Entry]

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