Sunday, October 27, 2013

Correction to Waylon Jennings Home

I was in Littlefield, not Littleton at the Waylon Jennings RV Park. Sorry about the error but I am sure it isn't the only one I've made on this trip :)


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Last Day on the Road

Here are pictures from the drive through New Mexico. Desert and rock formation I liked.








As I mentioned yesterday, it was so great to find the Waylon Jennings Free RV Park last night. I was the only one there and it felt safe - although I did sleep with my Wasp Spray beside me! Pictures of the RV Park. It looked better in person.










When I was driving near Slaton, Texas I saw a sign that read "Aspire to Inspire before you Expire". If I was a tattoo type of gal, I would get that.

We then stopped in Post, Texas. It was a very clean and cute downtown area. I like their slogan "Sit a Spell in Post, TX" and then they had various painted lawn chairs sitting in the grassy areas around town.






We stopped a few more times and at one rest stop, I was a bit surprised to see the Pet Area. Really, was it only a 4X4 space with a fire hydrant?


Neither of my dogs would go near it. They preferred the grassy area nearby.



But the big news is - I am home! I decided to drive the 460 miles today since I went to bed last night by 8:30 and got up at 6:15. Even with cleaning the camper and walking the dogs, I was on the road before 8:30.

I have one more post tomorrow, for anyone that is interested in my additional notes from the trip. I did find my notebook. The dogs are thrilled to be home. I am too tired to realize I am home,


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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Two Good Things Today

We stayed in Albuquerque, NM last night and my good old GPS took me thru side streets to save miles. I saw an oil change place and got oil changed, fluids filled, tires aired and a safety check of all lights - of course that didn't include my non existent dash lights. So I felt good about my camper, Meryl.

Then the GPS took me on I 84 thru some dismal parts of New Mexico and Texas. I was starting to worry about finding a place to stay when I arrived in Littleton, the birthplace of Waylon Jennings. I saw a camper sign on the highway and followed it to - "Waylon Jennings Free RV Park". No one is here except a trailer with the Waylon RV Park on the side. I was surprised that it has electric hook ups and water. I will take a picture. There is no wifi so I am writing this from my phone. Pictures on next blog if I have wifi.

I am so happy tonight!


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Friday, October 25, 2013

Utah

I am in another Casino campground I happened to pass when I was getting pretty sleepy. I think it's called Sleeping Ute. Perfect name! I had a free shower and am doing laundry right now. They have wifi but I will need to go into the office to use it.

Here is a picture of the last AAA Park we stayed in. On top if it all, I think I lost my camper keys there. Luckily I have one other set!



Yesterday's journey was beautiful. I really need to think of some other adjectives for the scenery! We drove through the desert and I could hardly keep my eyes on the road for looking at the landscape.






The town of Moab is a place I could have stayed for awhile. Very rustic and made for sports enthusiasts. You could zip line, take a balloon ride, hike, canoe in the Colorado River, and lots more. I would just like to walk around the town some day.

Then I decided to stop and go through the Arches National Park. This is the world's largest concentration of natural stone arches, over 2000. You can drive, bike or hike through it. Even driving would take over 4 hours. We drove and didn't go all through it, but what we saw was amazing. I recommend going here. I saw arches but didn't see the famous one. Nor did I get a picture of them, but here are some other views.













It was another scary drive up through the hills on narrow roads and drop offs, while trying to get around crazy people on bikes! I can't imagine riding a bike on those hills.

Anyway, I am going to try to post this from the office and check on my laundry. I am not sure where we will end up tonight, but I think we will be in Colorado.

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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

What a Day, Part 2

First, people have been telling me that they have tried to post comments and couldn't. I am not sure what the problem is.

Skip this paragraph if you don't want to read about a medical problem. I have been fighting a UTI for almost a week. I drank cranberry juice and took cranberry pills but it didn't help much. Let me tell you that driving with a UTI isn't fun or easy. Rest areas are way too far apart and there is nowhere along the highway to pull over to use my little on board bathroom. By the time I got to Heyburn I was really miserable and was looking up nearby medical clinics. I also checked other home remedies and saw that blueberries are better than cranberries and drinking a teaspoon of baking soda in water could also help. So this morning I went back to Walmart and got their last package of blueberries and some baking soda. I spent the drive going between drinking baking soda water and looking for rest rooms. I am feeling a bit better but have not ruled out a medical clinic yet.

Anyway, I decided to see if I could cut down the miles home by looking at a shorter route. The fastest route was over 2600 miles. This morning I was at about 1960 miles. I changed the setting to "Shortest route" and it came up the same as the fastest route. So I figured there was only one way home per my GPS.

I drove the rest of the way through Idaho and the scenery got much nicer. There were mountain ranges on both sides. BTW, the speed limit was 75. We then got into Utah and the mountain ranges were even more majestic. The speed limit went up to 80! I can barely get my van to 71 and driving up and down the mountains, we were lucky to hit 60. It was a bit stressful. Just as I was getting into Ogden, Utah, I saw a flash of a sentence on my GPS that said "Alternate route can save you 250 miles". What? I tried to hit it and the sentence went away. I finally pulled over and went into my settings and it already said "shortest route", but I pushed the Save button and now the new, shorter route displayed. I guess I hadn't Saved it! So it took me on the public streets through Ogden and Salt Lake City; red light after red light. But I wasn't in a hurry and enjoyed seeing the towns and the mountains.






Finally we got to I5 which was a highway and it was rush hour. I do not like Salt Lake City rush hour traffic. It took over an hour to get out of town.

Now it was getting late and I wanted to find a place to stay. I asked my GPS and it directed me through subdivision streets to a kids playground! It was getting later but it didn't look like there was another place to stay for at least 50 miles - up and down steep mountain passes. Finally, the GPS told me there was an RV park in Helper, Utah. I followed the stupid GPS again, through all unpaved roads, past a statue of the worlds largest coal miner and ended up stranded in a muddy, unpaved street. The streets looked like the Wild West. I have never seen anything like it. I saw a man and got out to ask about an RV park. He looked bewildered. He said that some people park by the side of the highway. I thanked him and bounced down the dirt roads out of town.

I was starting to look for my flashlight so I could see my dashboard lights. I continued driving and saw another RV park sign. Should I believe it? It was Regency Inn and RV Park in Price, Utah. It had AAA on the sign so I took a chance. I will have to take a picture tomorrow. It does have electricity, a bath house and wifi and cost about $29. I am just happy to be parked, and not along side of the highway! Oh, and now I think we are about 1,375 miles from home.


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Location:Price, Utah

What a Day!

As you can see I finally have wifi. A little recap and it will be little, because I can't find my notebook with my tidbits of info I write.

I-84 from Washington border to the Dalles, Oregon was my favorite. I wish I had gone that way toward the end of the day because I have never seen so many State Parks on one road. Everything was scenic but there were no scenic overlooks to stop and take pictures.

I don't know if this was Mt Rainer or Mt St Helen but it was exciting seeing this as I was driving.




This was at a rest stop in Oregon. Sorry, no notes as to which.




It was a long, desert drive through Idaho. I couldn't find a place to stay so I finally stopped at a Walmart and asked if I could camp overnight in their parking lot. They were really friendly and said "certainly", but I decided to check the Allstays app and found a place a few miles away. I wasn't in Boise as I thought yesterday in my tired stupor. I was in Heyburn. The RV park looked like it was part of the city park. There was a sports field on one side and a picnic area and walking trail on the other. The bath house was in the city park and had a sign that said the showers were for RV customers only. It felt a little weird to be taking my towel and shampoo into the city park restroom but I really needed a shower.

The Snake River was next to the city park and we had a really nice view.




This morning I met a sweet old couple coming out of "my", I mean "the city park" restroom and I asked them if there was something I should see around there. They told me to go to Twin Falls and see the bridge where a lot of people bungee jump and the falls. I had missed the exit the night before and had to back track for over 40 minutes, but it was worth it. The Hansen Bridge was originally build in 1919 for $100,000 but only was wide enough for 2 buggies. It was replaced later. Before the bridge the only way to get across 'twas by row boat. Looking at the depth of the gorge, I can't imagine crossing in a boat to even building this bridge. It was awesome; so worth seeing.











We then went on to the Twin Falls. Getting to it was scary because it was a narrow switch back road with a drop off on one side. I didn't go the whole way down but I walked the dogs most of the rest of the way. Another beautiful sights. There were small waterfalls coming out of the rocks as well as the larger twin falls. Oh, I just saw that my "automatic camera setting " didn't get the picture of the twin falls! Seriously!




This is getting long so I will put the rest of my "fun day" today on Part 2.

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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Quick Update

I have not had wifi in a few days but figured out how to write using my iPhone. We are currently in Boise Idaho in a nearly empty RV Park on the Snake River. This is the only pretty place we have seen in Idaho. The rest looked like it could be on the surface of the moon.

My favorite drive has been on I 84 East going from the border of Washington to the Dalles. I think this was the most beautiful road I have been on in the USA. I don't have many pictures but hopefully can post some the next time I have wifi access!


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Sunday, October 20, 2013

Not much to say today. I can't believe I slept in until after 9:30 which would be 11:30 Central time. By the time I got everything ready to leave it was 11:30. We drove a short distance and Seymour was acting like he needed to "go", so I walked the dogs near the Shelton park and now have stopped in a preferred Casino RV Park for the night. This is Little Creek where I have gone with my sister and Art. It is $24/ night with free bathroom and shower privileges.

I am making a late lunch in the camper and will for sure go to the casino later. I am not in a hurry to get home, but if I go this slow every day, I might get home by Christmas. It is 2560 miles to home! I don't even want to think about that!


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Location:Sunday

Saturday, October 19, 2013

One More Day in Shelton, WA

Yesterday, my sister and I took her dogs to be boarded and hit up a couple of casinos. It was my lucky day. I won $300 at one and over $800 at another playing slot machines! Yes, I did put some back in the machines but came home with a fuller wallet. The thrill of the win - finally!

I took a few pictures of our dogs but didn't get a family picture of my sister, her husband and her dogs.

This is little a Skipper. 18 years old and sweet as can be.



Here are Abby, Penny, Seymour and Zooey wondering around my sister's bedroom. It is where we all gather in comfy chairs to drink coffee and read the paper in the morning. BTW, my sister heated up my cup for coffee and put my bath towel in the dryer to heat it for my shower. I have been spoiled!




Here is Abby sitting up for my sister. I am not sure she wants anything except a little attention.





My sister and Art left this morning on a trip and I decided to stay here one more day. It is nice to relax, do some laundry, clean the camper, etc. before we start out tomorrow. Art gave me a book light to use if I end up driving at night because it looks like the switch to my dash lights is broken. Hopefully it will be rare for me to drive at night.

I do want to try to get some pictures of the lake/ Puget Sound near their house. It really is a pretty area.

Now I just need to look at a map to see how to get home!


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Thursday, October 17, 2013

Washington and stuff

Here are some of the pictures I took from Northern California to Washington.

This is the highway through the Shasta National Forest, looking at Mount Shasta. It is the snow capped mountain in the distance.



A closer but blurrier view of Mt Shasta through my dirty window!



This is driving through Shasta National Forest. Doesn't do it justice.


This was a really nice doggie area at a rest stop in Oregon.



While going through Oregon, we passed a sign that said "45th Parallel Halfway Between the Equator and North Pole".

This shows some of the leaf colors we saw in Oregon. The whole drive was fantastic. I could almost move there; well, anywhere south of Portland.



Driving through Washington, I saw a sign that said "ecology crew". Then noticed that it was the trash pick up crew. I like "ecology crew" much better.

Mari-med store near my sister's house. They legalized medical and recreational marijuana here and are now trying to figure out how to control the recreational part of the law.



Because of the rain, everything here is green and lush. My sister's yard is filled with fruit trees, flowers, shrubs and exceptionally high pine trees. This is just one section of her yard. Beautiful and relaxing. The dogs like walking around in it.




I will try to get a picture of some of the tree lined streets here because the colors are beautiful. The lake here is also big and picturesque.

We have been taking it easy the last couple of days. Did a little shopping yesterday then went to the casino for awhile. Today we are resting and going out for Chinese food tonight. I will take a picture of my sister's dogs. Seymour gets along ok with them. Zooey is a bit frightened. Penny, one of her dogs is a barker and scares Zooey. Seymour actually growled at her, as if saying "back off", when she got too close, and she got the message. She has 2 other dogs, Abbie is a sweet dog and Skipper is an 18 year old dog who is blind and deaf and had one leg amputated. Skipper mostly sleeps so my dogs ignore him.

I think I am now caught up!

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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Catching Up - Shelton, Washington

I made it to my sister's early this evening and am catching up with my blog while lying in a real bed. I will add pictures tomorrow. If you ever want to take a trip west, the area from just north of Redding, CA to Weed, CA (yep, and I didn't ask) was breath-taking. You go through the Shasta National forest where miles of pine trees are covering the mountains and you see snow covered Mount Shasta in the distance. Everywhere I looked was like a postcard.

The other beautiful place I saw was Oregon, from the California border to Portland. I was afraid that I wouldn't see fall foliage but Oregon had all colors of leaves. The reds were vibrant. The trees linen the rivers and reflected in the water. I wished there were scenic overlooks where I could stop to take pictures. I will add a few tomorrow.

Last night I stayed in another casino parking lot. It was free but had no electricity. They did have a nice dog walk that Seymour mainly appreciated. Zooey was happy to be carried. I met some nice folks who were camping there and planned to go crabbing today. Yumm.

I was finally getting pretty tired today and about 1 1/2 hours from my sisters, I really had to push myself to go the rest of the way. It will be nice having a few days off the road.

Odds and ends-

I still haven't figured out why my dashboard lights don't work. I turned every knob I found. One man told me to just use a flashlight, and I probably will have to, although my sister's husband said he will look at it.

My rear view mirrors still flop around but at least I can keep re-adjusting the one on the driver's side. I had a couple of close calls changing lanes but normally I am very cautious. That's not bad for a 2500 mile road trip - so far.

The highest price gas I paid was $4.29 in Southern California. That hurt!

It was nice stopping for coffee or a meal in Oregon and not having to pay tax. That is the place to shop for big ticket items. Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn't have the room or the finances to do that.

In Oregon, you cannot pump your own gas, unless you buy it on an Indian Reservation. They just changed that law to exempt Indian Reservations last year. And the gas on those Reservations is less expensive.

More tomorrow.










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Monday, October 14, 2013

Goodbye to Van Nuys

Goodbye to Aaron, Calvin, Lars and Otto. Love their cute house.




And will miss Calvin talking about his Dad's "Beemer", but we are off to Washington. My son texted me this morning and said Calvin is still asking for Seymour. He doesn't seem to remember mine or Zooey's names, though ;-)




So, Aaron aired up my tires and we headed out at about 10 am. Traffic in the Van Nuys area wasn't very heavy. It seemed that it wasn't long before we were climbing some big mountains. I knew they were going to be high when I saw a sign that said "Radiator water 1 mile ahead". It was a bit scary because I didn't know how Meryl (my van) would do since she was from Florida! She did great. I watched the gauges and the water temp barely increased.

The terrain was desert and mountains but there were were also acres of citrus farms and cattle ranches. Again, there were very few cities. It is strange to know that there is so much open land when our population is more than 315 million people. Spread out, folks!

Tis was the view from the Tejan rest stop. They had nice grassy areas for the dogs to walk.



I started looking ahead on my GPS ( yes I have a map but haven't looked at it) and saw that I would be driving through Redding, CA. I used to consult there and I knew there was a pet friendly casino nearby. When I first started writing my blog, I talked with them and found that they had a campground and dog kennels. I decided to drive a little longer to get to it last night. The sun was setting before I arrived there and I noticed that I didn't have dashboard lights. I knew I was almost out of gas, but I couldn't see that gauge, or my speedometer. I am sure there is a way to turn them on, but I haven't figured it out yet.

The campground at Rolling Hills Casino is OK. They planted shrubs between the sites but there are no restrooms here. You have to go to the Clubhouse for bathroom and showers. I packed up my shower supplies and headed there this morning and found that they charge $4 to shower for people who have already paid $28 to camp. I am pretty pissed. This is the only Casino campground I have been to that does that. So stupid! I won't be coming back here for that reason. I might as well have parked for free at one of the other Casino parking lots in the area because the only thing I got for my money was electricity and wifi. I am taking a deep breath now . . .



We are a little over 600 miles from my sister's house and we should be there by tomorrow afternoon. I wish the national parks were open so we could enjoy one tonight. Not sure where we will end stay tonight.

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Saturday, October 12, 2013

Visiting Family in Van Nuys, CA

On Friday, we mostly hung around the house. I did go with my son to take Calvin to school on Friday. He cried when he was dropped off, but was perfectly happy when he was picked up. My son, Aaron is great with his son and the dogs. It's nice to see.




His crazy dog, Otto (and he really is crazy) has been better this trip. He only tried to attack me once. But he has been fine with both Zooey and Seymour. He just periodically growls and bares his teeth and it scares the heck out of me. Lars, his other dog is very sweet and will put Otto in his place, when he feels he needs to.

My grandson Calvin is almost always happy and asks to watch Futurama quite a bit. So, we watched a lot of that show.

Here he is with me during one of the few times he wasn't running around.




And here he is having fun with his Dad.



I started cleaning out my van, but it is not close to being clean yet. I don't know how I got it so cluttered in less than a week. But the good news is that I did drop off Christmas gifts for my son and his family, so I have a bit more space in the back. Once I get to Washington the rest of the Christmas gifts will be delivered. Not bad for October!

Today I asked my son to take us to Grauman's Chinese Theater because I wanted to take a picture of my dogs with Lassie's star. I didn't realize that the stars probably go a couple miles down Hollywood Blvd but we happened to park about a block away from Lassie's star. There were no paw prints, unfortunately.



And here is Jack Benny. Seymour was not impressed.




Unfortunately, we never made it all the way to the theater because it was 11 more blocks from Hollywood and Vine and Zooey was acting like a she-devil the whole trip! I have no idea what was wrong with her, but she kicked and tried to get away from the time we got in the car until we finally got home. She is now sleeping next to me like nothing happened. Grrrrr.

By the way, Grauman's now houses the worlds largest IMAX theater and is now owned by a Chinese Tech company. And it's now called the TCL IMAX Chinese Theater.




We did see this cool mural on the side of a building. It is supposed to be of famous movie stars in a theater but it's difficult to see. I recognized some of them.




Tonight we are eating at home and I want my son to check the pressure in my tires before I leave in the morning. We didn't get the mirrors fixed but I got this far with them flapping around, so I am used to it. I might at least try to replace the lock on one upper cabinet once i get to Washington so I can again put my cups and glasses in it.

I'll write more once we hit he road tomorrow unless something exciting happens.

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Thursday, October 10, 2013

We Have Arrived!

This morning when we left the Casino, the weather was beautiful, for about 30 minutes. Then the winds started up again and there were signs to watch for sand storms. Mountains of sand were everywhere along the road. In fact we passed a place called Imperial Dunes and it consisted of high sand dunes and a small man made canal on one side of the road. It looked like a place people would do 4 wheeling. I took a picture out of my van window. It doesn't do it justice; it was really pretty.





The winds got stronger and I saw hundreds of wind turbines, so I am assuming the winds are high, at least in this part of Southern California year round. Here are some of the turbines we passed.




Finally we got out of the wind and into the California traffic. More gripping of the steering wheel as crazy drivers passed me on both sides. Speed limits don't seem to mean anything here, even those posted in work areas. I forgot to mention that my rear view mirrors flip in to the van as I drive so I pretty much have no visibility at least on my right side. I open the drivers side window to flip the mirror out but it only stays for a few seconds. I will ask my son to see if he can fix it.

We made a rest stop and for the second time on this trip I have ordered breakfast for lunch at Jack in the Box. The dogs are happy to get the bacon and I am happy to eat the rest.

Finally, we made it to my son's house. I was nervous at how alpha Seymour would do with my son's dogs. After initial growling all around, I put Seymour down. He pranced around he yard leaving his mark where ever he could and my son's dogs Otto and Lars followed behind him doing the same.



Zooey didn't want down so Aaron and I took turns carrying her. Yes, she is spoiled!





My grandson Calvin warmed up to me and my dogs pretty quickly. He is quite the cute little boy and has his daddy wrapped around his finger. Calvin also really loves all the dogs and kept asking where each was when he couldn't see them.





He also loves cars, and sun glasses, just like his dad.



It was a fun day. The dogs and I are now enjoying being in the camper in my son's driveway. We have electricity and Internet, so it will be a good night. Very happy to not be driving for the next few days. But then we are off to Washington State.


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