April 24, 25 - Jacksonville, Fl

Well we continued down the road to Jacksonville then carried on over the Florida/Georgia Line (Country Group does "This is how We Roll")......seems fitting, I must admit...anyway....we checked into a camp ground called "Walk About Camp" run by a young couple from Brisbane, Australia.....man have they ever had a lot of rain...standing water everywhere!  The "shiela" says they had eight inches in the last week...has flooded lots of their campground....glad we missed it!

Next day, we took a trip to a great little town called St. Mary's...quite quaint and of course, waterside which always adds to the experience.          

From this location we headed back South of the campground and discovered Jekyl Island....home of some of America's oldest family "cottages"....names like Goodyear, etc.  Amazing location and the beaches are home to a number of species of sea turtles that use the area for spawning/incubating.  Sand for miles!

                                                                                            

This days outing was followed by a trip down to St. Augustine just out of Jacksonville......what an amazing area with the Fort and protected sheltered harbour area...this is an area worth coming back to as a destination.  

Jacksonville is just another big City, but short strikes out from there uncovers some great beaches and area to enjoy the sun....yes it was hot this day...got to 84 degrees!!!

         

April 20 - Carrabelle, Florida

Just a one night stay here on our way to Jacksonville.  Another good beach area, but then hard to compare with what we just left along the Gulf Coast!....actually still on the Gulf Coast, but then this is Florida!

We toured the area a bit in the evening and checked out King George Island after taking a long 12 Km bridge out into the Gulf.  Cool area and lots more "bird houses" of various shapes and sizes!  Lots of Kingfishers in the are fishing....fascinating birds to watch.  Caught a group of them taking a rest on an old scow!

April 15-19 - Continued - Pass Christian

This has been one of the best areas to explore around.  We have had a few days of great warm "beach" weather and actually spent some time on the beach.  I guess the best part of this area is the lack of commercial properties!  Very charming with new houses along the waterfront opposite the beach.  Most built in the "Birdhouse" style with long pillars and the house structure perched on top...some of them have to be 20-30 feet above ground!  Don't know if that will work if another hurricane comes along, but as one local stated, "The elevator companies are making a killing!"

Another great thing we have learned while in the area.....the "Live Oak" trees in the area are specially adapted to the climate and have their own salt water filter system built in so are not affected by the storm surges!  The other characteristic is the interwoven grain of the wood.  It gives incredible strength and in all areas, the houses are all gone but the groves of Oaks still stand!  Simply amazing!

That being said, some of the trees closer to the waters edge were broken apart, but much of the tree trunks remained.  An artist from up state came shortly after the storm and "transformed" most of these trees into carved sculptures.  The details are amazing as you can see from the photos!  He did this as a gift to the locals and many stories are told about how locals fed and housed him during his trips to the area in spite of their own hardships!

Not actual birds perched!!!!!Carvings!!!

A very beautiful area that has taken a huge hit, but people are coming back.  The town of Pass Christian is one mile wide and seven miles long along the beach.  Of the 8,000 homes in the area, only 500 were NOT touched or damaged by Katrina!

April 15 to 19 - Pass Christian, MI

We arrived at the Wolf River RV Resort in Pass Christian after a short hour drive from New Orleans.  Got away from the hustle and bustle of that City and now in a much quieter area along the Gulf Coast.  The beautiful sand stretches along the coast for about 28 miles and there is NO commercial development  along the water's edge.  An amazing drive.  It is hard to believe that the cool temperatures do not keep people away from sunning on the beach!  The temps have been un-seasonally cool in the mid 60's.  We still quite enjoy it, but go figure!

Shell seekers!!!!

Still quite a bit of construction being done after Katrina's devastation. Some of the marinas further down in Long Beach have been completed and are absolutely gorgeous!!!

What a deal...says they will take trades!  It just a cool quarter mil......get out the cheque book!

April 13 & 14 - New Orleans

Another pleasant surprise here....we camped at Lake Pontchartrain on the edge of the City and managed to get a shuttle into New Orleans in the afternoon.....Maye was great when she read about the Music Festival going on in the French Quarter, so off we went.  GREAT Jazz bands playing on a number of stages along Bourbon Street and we spent the afternoon and into the evening looking at art and listening to some great bands!

Enjoyed some authentic Creole cooking downtown and found it fascinating doing some people watching....there certainly were ALL KINDS!!!

The music was great and would be the only reason to consider another trip during their annual Music Festival event...this one was their 31st Annual.....

A POLICE Observation Tower for crowds!

April 11 & 12 - Natchez

We arrived at our first true "camping" experience at the State Park just outside of Natchez.....Beautiful spot with big sites and water and power at the site.  It was so peaceful!  We did our own tour in Natchez the next day and drove by a number of Antebellum Houses that have been preserved and survived the Civil War days.  An interesting study of the life and times along the Mississippi River.  Great lunch sitting by the river and watching the barge traffic and resisted the urge to drive across the bridge into Louisiana....save that for our next leg!

April 9 & 10 - Memphis

Well, we had a great trip down to Memphis stopping along the way in Hot Springs, Arkansas for a quick visit to the boyhood town of Bill Clinton....he grew up there from the age of 3 and graduated from high school there...actually just missed him.  He had been in town three days earlier giving a talk!

Amazing hot water coming out of the ground everywhere in fountains throughout town at temps of 140 degrees......

One of many Bath Houses

The rest of the trip went without problems and we arrived in Memphis during rush hour...oh joy.  Managed to get through the City and out to our campsite in Big Buck about an hour away.  Did a day trip next day and visited Graceland for the Elvis experience.  It was actually a very well done tour and experience showing the many human sides of Elvis in spite of his fame.

The displays of all his records and movies along with the aircraft he used and all his vehicles was very interesting.  We managed to buy one of his Christmas albums....you know me and Christmas music...my favourite!  He had a great voice in his early years!

Sedona

After our visits to Jerome and area, we took a trip into a most amazing area renowned for its "Vortices".  These areas are known to contain magnetic convergences and some New Age thinking that these areas will bring balance and harmony in new ways!  Could not prove or disprove that, however we were very impressed with the colour of the rock....some of the deepest reds imaginable.  A real tourist town as the traffic was bustling everywhere....tons of little shops and eating establishments...too busy for us.  We headed back along the road to Camp Verde and entered the small town of Oak Creek...definately more our style....nice little golf course and clean and tidy...Will likely return to this area for further visits!

From Sedona (Camp Verde), we were off again and spent the night in Benson as the gateway to Tombstone.   Now that is an area that has benefited greatly from the old west legends....Wyatt Earp, Ok Corral, all the romance of the cowboy era.  Stagecoach rides, shootouts, bank robberies all as events you could witness in a  show seting.  Colourful to say the least with everyone dressed in period garb.

Of course the hype glamorizes the time when the fastest gun solved all the worlds problems...we know where that got us!

From here, we headed to the Kartchner Caves in the hills by Benson....one of the largest caves discovered in the 1970's and developed as a tour as early as 2003!  As unassuming as the hills are out side, the interior caverns were amazing!  The two geologists that made the discovery kept the location a secret for 17 years in an effort to have protection for the area!  The tour did not allow any photos to be taken in an effort to preserve its content.  The measures taken to clean and protect were amazing.  The structures inside the main cavern were nothing short of stunning!

Our next journey took us to New Mexico where we stayed at the Hidden Valley Ranch for two nights just outside of Deming.  Surprising gravel road into the ranch and a great spot with the friendliest group of "campers" yet.  A Pot Luck dinner on Friday night and there were about 40 people show up!  We had traveled up to Truth or Consequnces (actually a tow name) after a round trip that took us through the Worlds Chili Capital of Hatch, NM. 

April 05 to April 07 - Ashdown just out of Texarkana

Our trip to Texarcana proved a little interesting as well.  We blew a tire on the freeway and by the time we stopped, it was pretty much shredded!  We managed to change this one out on the side of the road without incident and continued on our way....lost a whole 20 minutes thanks to Darwin's help and the use of the Trailer Aid we purchased just before leaving Washington....best investment we made yet...a real time saver.

Once we got to Ashdown and set up, we parked the truck in just the right way to see that one of the front tires on the truck had also separated.  Off we go into town and hit the first tire shop that got us a new trailer tire and a pair for the truck!!! Ouch!

This park was a great location and we took a roadtrip from here to explore the Arkansas Diamond Mine State park.....another great place for rock hounds of a different flavour.  We saw the display of a "perfect" diamond found at this site and watched a countless number of people "mucking about" in search of there own "rocks".

Also did a side trip to Washington, AK and saw one of the oldest Magnolia Trees and early settlement houses.  The blacksmith shop had been restored and is the home of the famous "Bowie" knives where they were first made for General Bowie during the Civil War!

April 03 Deming

An interesting campground off the beaten track in a Hidden Valley about 8 miles down a gravel road.  Very cool family run ranch with some interesting local long time residents in the park...mostly rock hounds exploring for petroglyphs in the hills...some venture down into Mexico just for the adventure.  We were there for a Friday pot luck dinner in the clubhouse and a games night that followed.
We used this a  launch point to explore another few places....we took a trip through the Chilli pepper capital of the WORLD (Hatch, New Mexico) on our way to Truth or Consequences.  The trip back over a very twisty mountain range proved quite the adventure in preparation for the next days trip to see the Cliff dwellings at Gila.  Hard to believe native cliff dwellers found some of these cave areas to reside!

April 02 - Tombstone

This is a part of Arizona that always fascinated me growing up with all the "Western" TV shows.  They have taken the entire town and capitalized on that era of American history.  Really cool to walk into a Hotel of the day and have the guide pointing our bullet holes in the walls and art work!  "This here is a 44 cal giving the lady in the picture an extra navel......"  and the sound bites continue through the whole town.  Stage coach rides and invites to see a Bank Robbery and shootout.  Displays of Wyatt Earp's guns and the list goes on!
If you are a cowboy fan of the period, this is the place for you.  Everyone in period costume wearing gun belts and cowboy hats of every shape and size.

No photos from the next place...it is a State Park in the middle of no where in the Arizona desert with a couple of hills BUT one of the most amazing CAVE discoveries imaginable.  We took the tour and due to the sensitive nature of the cave interior, no photos were allowed inside.  Some of the greatest calcite structures imaginable.  One masterpiece called Kubla Khan.........we purchased some post card photos, but on this little junket, I did not bring my scanner....go figure!

March 30 to Apr 02 -Sedona Area

Well, I know it is now the 14 of April, but a few things have been happening here on our trip....some bad but mostly GOOD!!   The biggest hiccup so far has been having access to consistent internet at all our places!  I guess it is an "emerging technology" that is taking a while to catch on....go figure....there are more folks my age that are challenged with technology and this age demographic are the ones travelling in "the rigs"  around the country! That being said, at one point during an update on the blog, I had a number of pages just "drop off"....kind of sets you back a bit!  Sorry about that.
We had a number of day trips out from Camp Verde and really enjoyed the area.  Its an area we will go back to and explore more....we did not do it justice on this trip with the understanding we will be back!
We traveled and visited the Toozigoot settlement near Cottonwood and were fascinated by the structures on the hill.  Hilltops chosen they believe so as to not take any valuable crop producing land away for residences.

Camp Verde Adventures - Continued

So are you still with us....Grand Canyon was amazing....can't say that enough....so it was time to just do a little driving around the area. We headed up to Prescott and again, very impressed with the area.  Beautiful mid size town with lots of amenities and a great historic downtown area..

We kept going and headed over another mountain range with the twists and turns one would expect to find in Europe along some steep Italian seaside!  What a lot of fun!  Mind Pat was a bit nervous at some of the quick corners and sharp drop offs!  As we started down the other side, we came into the little town of Jerome.  We commented on how the houses were right on the curbside just like England in spots!  One more hairpin turn and noticed a road to an old Gold Mine....naturally, we had to explore so off we went...
the most amazing collection of old Studebakers I have ever seen!  Not to mention the collection of just about everything you could imagine.  This would be a junk yard to end all junk yards and both Darwin and I had memories flood back from our youth about areas on the farm that were magical because of old relics!

After our trip down memory lane, we continued to downtown Jerome and had a great lunch at the "Mile High Diner"  yes, you guessed it....it sits at 5,280 ft above sea level!  Some pretty incredible views from up there looking down towards Cottonwood at the bottom.

We loved this road so much, we took another trip over the other direction back to Prescott just for fun!

Of course, a tour of the area would not be complete without a visit to the Sedona area.....what incredible RED ROCK  !!!!  A busy little place with many folk seeking the "Vorticies"  hope I got that right.  A Vortex is an area where magnetic energy converges and there are all sorts of "New Age" theories about the value of finding these spots.....We just thought the area had an incredible beauty all its own!

The saying in Utah where Bryce and Zion were located....."Utah ROCKS  !"  Now we can say Arizona ROCKS as well.

Thursday,March 27

Off we go again headed for Camp Verde, Arizona where we will be set up for four nights...the longest "rest" that we have taken thus far.  Again, a very interesting Desert landscape with MANY hills to climb.  We went from around a thousand feet into the Flagstaff area at 6,000 feet, then back to Camp Verde area again around the 1500 foot level.  It was COLD in Flagstaff as we pulled in there for fuel....downright chilly compared to Vegas, Laughlin area.  It was a bit warmer in Camp Verde and this became the base camp for a few interesting day trips around the area.

Our first road trip took us to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon into the Park set up there.  What a wonderful experience there!  They have done such a great job at keeping the development down to reasonable levels.  The bus tour  to all the different lookouts took us pretty much the better part of the day!  Again, every stop was breathtaking!  Quite over whelming at times!

Just check at the bottom of the valley!  Do you see the Colorado River there?  I know...just barely visible!

Here we experienced areas where the valley bottom was over a mile down (5280 feet!)  We go back to using words like "awesome, incredible, magnificent" and still can't find enough words to describe the beauty.  It will certainly "raise the bar" in the future when using these same descriptors in our everyday language!

See the FACE with the bit of a hair "lid"......amazing!

Tuesday March 25

Our journey today took us from Vegas through more desert to a cute little town on the Colorado River where Laughlin, Nevada on one side of the bridge and Bull Head City, Arizona on the other side.  We pulled in to the campsite on the Bull Head City side and as we were getting set up, Maye wandered down to the washroom and spotted a familiar licence plate on a Motorhome parked three units down from us....turned out to be Joe and Linda Rivard from Salmon Arm....Joe worked as the Sherrif in charge of the court services in Salmon Arm and retired a few years back.  He and Linda hit the road and are still travelling South for most of the year!  Great to catch up on the news and they were able to share so many great experiences with us.

Wednesday, we took a road trip from here to Lake Havasu and got to spend some time on the beach as we ate lunch, then a quick visit to London Bridge as we left town.

Another beautiful spot that we have promised to come back to !!!!  It was Spring Break here, so the town was crawling with students and traffic!

Monday March 24th

Well, our last day and night in Vegas started with a VERY early morning (0545) at the Golden Nugget to meet our bus for the guided trip out to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon NS  visit to the Hover Dam on the way.  The tour included the one hour plus bus trip to the West Rim where the Skywalk was included and a nice lunch served up by the Hualapai Tribe. This was our first introduction to the Grand Canyon and WOW...was it ever impressive....could hardly stop snapping photos as every time you turn around, another amazing site!

It was amazing to see the helicopter tours taking off every 10 minutes (it seemed) and even more interesting to be looking DOWN on them as they flew the canyon!

Can't believe my Sister Pat, who has long suffered with vertigo, actually conquered her fears today and walked out on the platform suspended over 3,000 above the canyon floor and 70 feet out off the side of the cliff!  Could not get any "Grand..er" than that.  Truly a once in lifetime experience that we will always treasure  (as long as our memories hold out !!!!)

We got back to the Golden Nugget around 1830, so was really long day but well worth it.....