We're Back

All is well at the house. We are going to have to adjust to the semi tropical coastal summer.  We missed it last year. Davejennyjournal will take a hiatus for awhile. This pic was taken during our homecoming, sunset, bike ride.

Home tomorrow

Seth & Courtney have made great strides in the process of moving in. Of course, they had the benefit of years of moving experience that Jenny and I gave. My 2 jobs were occupying the girls and hauling trash to the green boxes. Tomorrow will be nearly 10 weeks away from home. We will have some weeds to pull.

Day 2 festivities

Made it to Tega Cay

I've been given the unenviable task of entertaining the girls while the adults unload boxes.

Deer Run RV Resort, Crossville TN

What is an RV Resort? People own parking spots. There is a swimming pool. This one is over 200 acres and has a lake. Some people obviously live here. There are children being raised here. It's a place to live but I consider myself lucky not to. It's a nice campground though. We are a little west of Knoxville. Tennessee is a wide state. Tomorrow we will be in Tega Cay. Seth & Courtney closed on their new house today and they are going to spend night # 1 in it tonight. We are going to spend several days in a KOA near them and maybe be of some help. We saw this moth yesterday.

T.O. Fuller State Park Tennessee

We are just west of Memphis. This park has an unusual history. It was the first state park east of the Mississippi open to African Americans. The park was constructed by an all black unit of the CCC In 1938. During the construction of the park, specifically, the swimming pool, evidence was found that the site was an ancient Indian village. There is a large mound of earth and evidence that the area was inhabited for many millenia. Sadly, we need to move on. We will be gone tomorrow.

2nd day at the lake

Today was a bike ride on a good trail, a 2 1/2 hour hike followed by lunch. Since the  athletic activity we have been trying to stay relativity comfortable. It ain't easy. It is hot and humid. I'm not complaining but let me say I prefer dry heat. I can't post pics using the visitors center WiFi so I'll try and do it tomorrow. We should be near Memphis tomorrow.

Lake Ft Smith State Park Arkansas

We are now in the south for sure. I was soaked in sweat while making camp and there is a bumper sticker on a pickup next to us that reads "Obama and Democrats don't like America". We have our satellite set up so I was thinking of inviting him over to watch MSNBC tonight. We have limited cell in the campground so I'm using the WiFi in the visitors center. They close in 10 minutes. Let's see if this works.

Oklahoma is OK

One of the reasons we stopped here is that their Web site mentioned 17 miles of trails. I got on one of them yesterday and was soon riding through waist deep weeds. I had to stop a couple of times to clear the foliage that had become wrapped around my hubs. I thought that maybe I had picked a unused trail or something so today we drove around to some other trailheads. They were all overgrown. Rain can really screw things up. There is a disk golf course here. We shared it with the local fauna. After golfing we walked to the marina for a cool one. This is Oklahoma marina humor.

Foss lake state park Oklahoma

Not much to report today. There was a lot of standing water where there shouldn't have been any. That was evidence of the tremendous amount of rain that has been dumped in this area in the last 3 weeks. I think Jenny read that this park has the official state Bison herd. This one was wading in a muddy pond at the visitors center.

Tucumcari NM

After driving into town to buy groceries we have determined that Tucumcari has but one claim to fame. The old "Route 66" is its main street. The businesses appear to in a 60s time warp. K-mart is the big department store. Nuff said. We are in a KOA. Jenny called her dad.

Malpais day 2

Since this was going to be our only full day here, we hit the ground running. The big hike today was an 8 miler on a sandstone ridge 500 feet above the edge of the lava field. This was an out and back that turned around at an overlook that gave us a view of New Mexico's largest arch. Tomorrow we continue the march eastward.

El Malpais national Conservation Area

Jenny tells me that Malpais means "bad country or bad land". We are in New Mexico near Grants off of I 40. There is a huge lava bed near here and we are sure that is why this area is El Malpais. We are in a free BLM campground. If you use your imagination you will probably guess what amenities there are in a free BLM campground. A place to park, a pit toilet, and a picnic table. Luckily it's fairly cool otherwise this probably wouldn't work. There are some things to see and some hikes to take so we will stay here 2 nights. I climbed up above our camp and took this pic.

Day 2 in Durango

I found a bike trail not far from this campground that was rated  intermediate. It was a 9 mile loop. Jenny drove me to the trailhead and off I went. Of the 9 miles, 4 1/2 was up hill. Since there is very little oxygen up here and I have sea level lungs I thought that my heart might explode. It was a thigh burning climb but it was one hell of an exciting descent back to the trailhead. We went into town and ate lunch and then rode our bikes along a trail that parallels the Animas river. The trail is very well done. Outdoor recreation, in all its forms, is a big part of Life in Durango. We're outta here tomorrow. We'll end up probably in New Mexico.