Home again, or at least our other home. After spending almost 5 months and 14000+ Kilometers in our trailer we forgot where we put stuff in our home here in Hastings. It is nice to use a full size keyboard and monitor again.
We started out on November 21, 2009 heading south through Gananoque into New York state, then Pennsylvania, a bit of Maryland and West Virgina then skirting the Appalachians through Virginia and Tennessee, a few miles of Georgia, into Alabama where we arrived at Rainbow Plantation park on the 24th of November. We stayed in LA (lower Alabama) for Thanksgiving (American) and Christmas, then on the 27th of December we moved to a park called Betty's in Lafayette Louisiana, where we celebrated the arrival of 2010. From there we traveled into Livingston, Texas and stayed at the park that is the headquarters for the Escapees, one of the camping clubs we belong to. After a week there we dropped down to Rockport, Texas on the Gulf of Mexico where we were joined by our friends Terry and Barb. We stayed there about 5 weeks then headed over to Big Bend National Park. On the way there we stopped at another National Park that encompassed Lake Amastad, a lake formed by a damn of the Rio Grande River that forms the boarder between the US and Mexico. We also spent a few days at a state park called Seminole Canyon where we went on a guided tour of the canyon to see areas where aboriginal people have lived for thousands of years. Their rock paintings are amazing. Big Bend covers an immense area of the Chihuahian Desert and completely encompasses the Chisos Mountains. After a spectacular week in what I like to call "Gods gravel pit" we traveled north into the Davis Mountains where the highlight was a tour of the McDonald Observatory, home of the 4th largest reflecting telescope in the world. We also had to get the front left wheel bearing replaced on our truck. Luckily it didn't happen in Big Bend because there were no repair shops for many many miles.
We started to think about our journey home at this point and headed north again to a disappointing place called Pecos where we were told nothing ever happens. While we were out on our first day there was a shoot out between the police and one of the long term campers at the park. The policeman was wearing a vest so he survived but the bad guy in this case didn't as he shot himself. The park was evacuated during a short standoff and we missed everything.
We went further north into New Mexico staying at another Escapee park called The Ranch for a week. We liked it there and probably should have stayed another week. Roswell, the home of flying saucers and the US government top secret aircraft test center "Area 51" was one of the places we visited. I know because I bought a T shirt.
Now we turned east stopping at Abilene Texas (bad weather and poor campground) continuing east to a very nice campground north of Tyler, Texas. We stayed there a couple of days then moved NE to Hot Springs, Arkansas where we also stayed a couple of days. The main street of the town of Hot Springs is surrounded on both sides by Hot Springs National Park. The area has many bath houses (only two are still being used as bath houses). In the late 1800's and early 1900's many people traveled to the baths hoping to cure any number of ailments. The Veterans Administration built a huge hospital overlooking the town to care for injured armed forces personel. Today many people still come to the baths to relieve aches and pain. At several spots on the main street you can fill your water bottle with hot water fresh from the ground.
Still heading ENE we stayed in Natchez Trace State Park in Tennessee then on to Raccoon Valley, another Escapee park in Tennessee. We had to decide at that point which way to proceed, north through Detroit, northeast through Buffalo or return up I 81 to Gananoque. North was the shortest but we have never liked going through Detroit. We also wanted to stop in Mississauga and see Kevin, Sarah and the grand kids, so we went north. The weather had been quite warm and I had always wanted to see the Air-force Museum just outside Dayton, Ohio so off we went. The closest campground to the museum sounded nice and probably was once upon a time. It is terribly run done now and sits between 2 major highways and a railroad level crossing. Talk about noisy. The museum though was spectacular. 4 hangars full of any kind of aircraft you can imagine. All the planes used by previous US Presidents are there as well as the experimental planes I remember from when I was growing up. I had no idea there were so many different aircraft involved in WWII.
The passage through Detroit would have been uneventful except we wanted gas, so we took an exit sort of at random. Big mistake. Before we even got off the ramp the road deteriorated to large cracks and potholes and all the surrounding buildings were closed and boarded up. Of course there were no gas stations in sight. Luckily our GPS was telling us how to get back to the highway. We found gas just before the on ramp to I 75 and filled up. Canadian customs was smooth as well with almost no wait. We spent the night at the Flying J Truck stop just south of London then on to Mississauga the next day. After a nice visit we left the next morning (Good Friday) for what we thought would be an easy drive across Toronto. Not so. It was by far the worst drive of our whole trip. Bumper to bumper from Young St. all the way to Oshawa then still very heavy to Highway 45 where we went north again to HOME! All in all a great trip. Thanks for coming along with us.
I'll try to put together a picture slide show in the next few weeks that I can share on line.
Till next time, happy trails.
Pat and Carolyn
