More Gulf State Park

1. 

I spent this morning on my bike. There are a lot of trail miles here. We went into town for a sea food lunch followed by a walk on the beach. We did another afternoon bike ride and are now in the process of cooking black eyed peas in the instapot for consumption tomorrow. Jenny took that first pic behind the MP as the sun was setting. We leave tomorrow for Louisiana.

Gulf State Park

We are in Gulf Shores Alabama. Today we dodged a wooden bullet. During the drive we got a message from one of our neighbors that a large tree branch had fallen near our home. The house was not damaged but it was close. Apparently, water soaked Spanish Moss, weighed down the branch, and it broke. No harm done but it could have been ugly. We are, obviously, camped on the Gulf. This park has 25 miles of bike trails. Jenny and I rode 10 of those miles today. We are here for 2 nights.

Last day at Veterans Park

Today was a busy day. The exploratory bike ride took 1 1/2 hours. We did the disc golf course. The course is mostly in a pine forest and miraculously I only hit 2 trees the entire 18 baskets. Then we did the parks museum and walked among the weapons of war on static display. We then drove into the small town of Cordele (pronounced Cordeal) and visited their Walmart. That sucked but we can't have nothing but fun. We move to Alabama tomorrow.

Jimmy Carter

The weather this morning was sort of ok so I pumped up my paddleboard and did some exploring. After that we went to the lodge for lunch and then we drove 30 miles to Plains GA to visit our beloved 39th president's hometown. We visited his school and then his campaign headquarters. That building was an old train station. It was chosen as his headquarters in Plains because it was the only public building in town that had a bathroom. That should tell you something about Plains GA. Our last stop was the farm that was his boyhood home. That property is administered by the National Park Service and was extremely well done. We left Plains with a very positive view of Jimmy Carter. He came from a pretty challenging background and rose to become president. A pretty amazing story.

Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park

We are on our way. Our route planning was done six months ago so I don't remember anything about the parks we reserved campsites in. This park has a golf course, a disc golf course, a lake and marina, a clubhouse with a bar and restaurant. It's better than Mar-a-lago. We are here for the weekend. I took this pic during a tour of Christmas lights around Tega Cay.

Christmas 2019

We have begun our 2 month winter trip out west. Our first stop was the Williams home in Tega Cay for Christmas. We are here for a few days and then we will be on the road until the end of February.

Thanksgiving 2019

This is the 5th year we have celebrated Thanksgiving at Pat & Steve's house. We rented "The Cider House" for the second time. The crowd was pretty big this year as there were a number of relatives we hadn't seen in a while.

Grandfather duties in Charleston

Jenny and lindsay are in S.A. with Sidney. They are there for a few days to visit with Papaw. Jamie is working, so someone needed to be here to welcome the boys home from school. Yesterday, I took the boys trail riding in a local park. The girls return here on the 8th.

Jean and Jarome come for a visit

Jean and Jarome are the last of the Everetts to visit us in South Carolina. It doesn't hurt that we are close to Charleston and Savannah. They left today for Savannah. We enjoyed the visit.

Pagosa Hot Springs

Today is our last full day here. We figured that since we were in Pagosa Springs we probably should go for a soak. We chose the largest resort in town because they had about a dozen different hot pools to choose from. We found an unoccupied pool and monopolized it for a couple of hours. The temp was 104 degrees. I'm not sure if we benefited from what is supposed to be the therapeutic water but we did enjoy the experience. We split up tomorrow. Alan & Donna will drive with us to ABQ for the flight home and the other 2 couples will head for Texas. That will be it for davejennyjournal for awhile. Going dark.

Fishing and hiking

Alan is a fisherman. He brought his fishing poles in a long PVC tube. We absolutely had to get him to a place where he could get a line wet. There is a lake near Wolf Creek Pass where he and Donna have fished before. The Continental Divide Trail crosses the Pass so the plan was this: I drive Alan and Donna to the lake, everybody else goes to the pass. Fishing occurs at the lake, I bushwack around the lake and everyone else hikes an out and back portion of the the CDT. That group reached 11,600 ft. I stumbled over numerous blow downs and did my lap around the lake in 2 hours. Alan and Donna didn't catch a fish. That was our Thursday.

Disc golf + other assorted stuff

We really know how to kill a day. The guys rented some discs and attempted to play a course I have played before. That didn't work out too well. The course was hilly and confusing so we only got to # 8. We did a walking tour of downtown that we only got a couple of hundred feet into before that fell apart. (Too much stopping to shop) We did have a good meal. Weather has been spectacular.

Chimney Rock National Monument

Today the group visited the NM. We booked a tour. It was excellent. We all didn't make it to the top because the climb is somewhat daunting but the volunteer tour guide was excellent.

Pagosa outdoor adventure

We headed up the mountain to Wolf Creek pass (10,200 ft) and exited the pavement, drove on a closed road, were told to leave, did, found the right road, parked at a lake, did a hike and took some pics. On the way back we did another hike to a waterfall. That pretty much ate up the day. That last pic is an example of Aggie ingenuity

Aggie Reunion Pagosa Springs CO

This is our mostly annual get together. We decided to come to Colorado so that the Texans could escape the heat, of course South Carolina in pretty hot also (except it's a wet heat) we are here for 1 week.

Summer 2019 stats

We have safely arrived home. We were greeted by an abundance of overgrown everything. Weeds and overgrown shrubs have made our house look abandoned. Next summer we are going to have to hire a landscaper to take care of things. Now the numbers: We put 6226 miles on the MP2. 25 stops for gas. Prices ranged from $3.39 to $2.14. A little bit of trivia--the $2.14 was paid at the only Buc-ee's outside of Texas. It was on I-10 in Alabama. We transited through or stayed in 18 different states. We camped in 13 state parks, visited or camped in 3 National parks, 2 KOA's, 4 independent campgrounds and 2 Corp of engineers campgrounds. Another bit of trivia, the 3 fuel stops we made in the houseboat cost a whopping $1310.80. That must have been some really good gas. This trip is complete. The MP2 is comfortably parked in it's storage spot and we are trying to return the house to livability. Davejennyjournal is going dark for awhile.

Crooked river SP Georgia

We got on I-95 in Jacksonville and are now barely in Georgia. We have stayed in this park more often than any other park. It's pretty close to home and the campsites have sewer so that we can flush both tanks real well before we put the MP2 in storage. Today is the 62nd day on the road for us. I'll put together some statistics for the final post tomorrow.

Blackwater river SP

We are near Milton Fl. not far from I-10. No excitement today other than hitting Baton Rouge during the morning rush. We have been here maybe 3 times. We continue on I-10 until we hit I-95 tomorrow. We will spend the night in Georgia just a few hours from home. More tomorrow.

On the road home

We are a little east of Lafayette La. We left S.A. at 7 AM and as soon as we got on the loop we came to a complete stop. So much for leaving early. Our stay was productive. We saw all of Jenny's brothers and I had 2 good bike rides on the trails in McAllister park. Oh, and I spent some time with Alan & Donna. This place is a sauna. The humidity is in triple digits and the temp is pictured below. However, we are surrounded by cajun restaurants. We'll be in Florida tomorrow.

Seminole Canyon SP

This park is another one that's a usual stopover for us. It's on Hwy 90 near Comstock. I like Hwy 90 instead of I-10 because there is virtually no traffic. The park also has a terrific bike trail that follows the canyon rim. We have made it to San Antonio. I couldn't post at the park because our phones thought we were in Mexico and the parks wifi seemed to be hallucinating. We are parked in Jenny's dad's driveway and will be here until Monday.

Guadalupe Mountains NP

Jenny and I started coming here in 1984. A stop here is always on our itenerary when we take the southern route home.
This place is famous for its high winds. I had a short talk with a ranger after we arrived and he told me about a 105 mph gust in the spring that blew over a semi that was driving on Guadalupe Pass. The RV campground is just a parking lot. No electrics, water or sewer. There is no dump station. An overnight is all we'll do here. Tomorrow we move deeper into Texas and stay in another state park.

Last day in Santa Fe

I had a really fine birthday bike ride this morning. The trails I rode today weren't particularly difficult and they were extremely well marked. Since I was relatively sure my heart wasn't going to explode I was able to enjoy myself. For lunch, Rick and Chris Arkus (our friends from Habersham) took us out for a birthday lunch. Good food and a good time -- thank you Chris & Rick. We leave tomorrow. Our plan is to camp at The Guadalupe mountains NP. It will be a long day but we will be in Texas. We are headed home.

Santa Fe day 4

Today we visited a street in Santa Fe that is wall to wall art stores. Near the end of that street is one of the oldest restaurants in town. We looked at the art and ate in that restaurant. We returned to Jim & Anne's house, visited for a few hours and that was our day. They begin their drive home tomorrow, we are here one more day. I took a picture of the art store's sign wondering what magical realism is. 

Still in Santa Fe

Jim and Anne fed us and our Habersham friends lunch yesterday. It ended up being a 7 hour, 4 wine bottle, gab fest. Jenny & I spent the night at the new house. This morning I rode some trails near the house and nearly croaked due to lack of oxygen. We returned to the MP2 because they have a hoity toity party to go to across their street. Tomorrow's plans are up in the air but I'm sure we will find a way to help support the local economy.

BBC

Santa Fe

We made it in abour 5 and 1/2 hours. After we got set up we headed up to Jim & Anne's house. They have fantastic views and pretty good wine. We headed downtown for Tapas and are now comfortably ensconced in the MP2.

Out there day 2

My attempt at a bike ride this morning was thwarted somewhat by the 8000 foot elevation, muddy trails (it rained last night) and the eye watering climb it took to get anywhere. Later we drove up hill to Rico, a mostly abandoned mining town, visited the museum and had lunch. That was 9000 feet. Then we continued on up to the pass at 10,000 ft, and took some pictures. The pic of me sitting was taken behind MP2 as I tried to aerate my lungs after my aborted bike ride. We move to Santa Fe tomorrow. Jim and Anne are currently there and we have a couple of friends who have moved there from Habersham.

Not close to any town day 1

We did something a little different today. We wanted to do a hike but we needed to vacate our site at the KOA in Cortez. So, we drove the vehicles to the trailhead and did the hike. After that we moved 50 miles to our current location on the Dolores River. We are literally backed up to it. This place is officially called Priest Gulch. Anyway, back to the hike. We hiked up Sand Canyon, which is in the Canyon of the Ancients NM. A lot of indian ruins. We did an out and back, turning around after lunch at the 3 mile mark. We are here for 2 nights and we are thinking about chilling tomorrow. Im not sure I'm capable of that but it's certainly a thought.

Cortez day 2

I started with a bike ride on some spectacular trails just a few miles from the KOA. After that we spent the rest of the day learning about and touring "Canyons of the Ancients National Monument". This important land was set aside by Clinton. It protects literally 100s of thousands of sites and artifacts that were left by the early Pueblo indians. We drove some and visited a couple of ruins and the museum and visiter center. Tomorrow we will do a long hike in a canyon that has several more ruins. The small sign was hanging near the bar in the restaurant where we ate lunch in Cortez.

Cortez Colorado

We are in a KOA about 7 miles from the entrance of Mesa Verde NP. After we got set up and had lunch we drove into the park. After we stopped at a few overlooks and spent some time at the bar in the lodge we were out of time and had to turn around without seeing any ruins. Oh well, been there, done that. We are here for 2 nights.

A few more pics

All of these photos were taken by Courtney

Lake Powell recap

Where to start. This weekend is a Utah holiday, it's called "pioneer days". That might have contributed to the lakes population. It was well populated. We motored north for the first 3 days. Day 2 we visited Dangling Rope marina for fuel. It's a little under $6 a gallon. Let's not discuss the fuel bill. We took the 60 ft. Boat into the narrow Canyon that has the Rainbow Bridge. That was a fiasco/near disaster. The only boats in there were regular type boats. There were so many of them that there was no place to park. We ended up scaring a few of them out of there and with some deft or daft maneuvering we got tied up and did the hike to the bridge. As our afternoons progressed we would send out a scouting party on the wave runner to find a suitable campsite. We needed a sandy beach and a place to play. The kids did tubing, cliff diving, water sliding (there was a slide on the back deck) rock climbing and frisbee throwing. There was not too much screen time and I didn't notice any withdrawal symptoms. The 4th day we turned south. There was a lot of motoring that day and another stop for fuel. We made it back to Wahweap and got things put back together in time for the parental units to begin there drive back to Vegas. They made it and I assume they are currently airborne in route to CLT. It was another great trip, alot of laughter, too much drinking, good food, and cousin bonding. That will be it from Lake Powell. Jenny and I have 1 more night here and then we head for Santa Fe.