Sunday, 13 January, 2013 Let’s get caught up. We got to Mom’s in Miami Springs on Tuesday and afternoon and spent until this morning with her. Mom and I played a lot of Skip Bo, coming out about even. I learned to play cut-throat Skip Bo from her. We planned to leave early this morning, but only managed 8:45, which isn’t too bad for us. We saw very little traffic on the Palmetto Expressway and the Turnpike to Florida City. We stopped there at Walmart for a few groceries and to fill up with gas. As we were leaving, we saw Bob and Gena gassing up at the Murphy. They arrived at Long Key State Park a bit later than we did, but we had to wait for our site to be vacated and theirs was ... read more

Tuesday, 8 October, 2012 We had a lovely drive home yesterday from Chattanooga. It was raining when we got up; as it was 6 out of the 9 days we were travelling. The rain cleared as we left Chattanooga and the sun came out before we reached Nashville. The traffic was light, the truck had no problem pulling the camper up Monteagle, it was as uneventful a trip as we always hope. We saw new places and dear familiar faces and home looked good to us. We stayed only in national, state and county campgrounds and saved accordingly, averaging less than $16 per night in campground fees. You have to love that National Park Senior pass with free park entry and half price camping. For a dry run, which this trip was, it was surprisingly damp. ... read more

Wed, 3 October, 2012 We slept late and then took our time over breakfast. It was nice to have electricity, every cup of coffee was hot this morning, and we got to use the microwave. Today is sunny and clear, so welcome after the last 3 rainy days. We stopped at a Walmart in Oneida for a few things on our list (we forgot the pressure regulator.) We left Oneida on Hwy 297 heading west toward Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. A few miles down the road is a sign warning of 13% grades, twisty roads, and hairpin turns. No kidding. The road runs steeply down to the Big South Fork River then back up to the plateau with sharp hairpin turns on both the downhill and uphill sides. Kerry had some gluteal ... read more

Friday and Saturday were all Interstate 40. Just driving and driving, nothing interesting other than a higher concentration of trucks on the highway the further east we came. That is nothing new; I-40 is the main east-west trucking corridor. We stayed at two nondescript campgrounds, neither of which we would stop at again. Arkansas and Tennessee were both lush and green, but Tennessee’s roads were much better than those in Arkansas. I got the humidity I wished for and am now regretting it, as I knew I would. This morning loading the camper and this afternoon emptying the car were both sweat-producing activities. But we are very happy to be in our home, in our chairs and quite comfortable at last. We are thankful for a safe trip. We saw beautiful sights, some new to us, ... read more

We said goodbye to Gena, Bob and Milo this morning at the campground. They left ahead of us, on their way to visit El Morro and El Malpais National Monuments in New Mexico. We’ve been to both of those parks, so we got on I-40 and headed east. We stopped twice for fuel and once for lunch. Now that we’re heading in the direction of home, it’s hard to be patient about getting there. We heard from Gena when they reached Grants, NM, they were only about 40 miles behind us. There was the possibility that we would meet up at a campground tonight, but they stopped in Cedar Crest and we continued on to Santa Rosa. We did make one stop this morning at Walnut Canyon National Monument outside of Flagstaff. There are literally hundreds ... read more