The End

Well it was a "long and winding road" and I had fun seeing old friends, family and I met some good folks along the way. I got home on Sunday June 14th. Its good to be home. All in all I was out and about for 5 weeks and traveled about 5578 miles through 16 states. I think I have taken care of my travel bug for a while. I would like to thank my 1998 Ford F150 for being an awesome truck. She has 136,000 miles and did a great job hauling me and my home.

This is the end of my road trip blog. I hope you enjoyed it.

Tuesday and Wednesday

Didn't get to post yesterday.
Tuesday I got up at 6 and left Devils Tower. I decided to take Interstate 90 home. There is a lot less traffic on this compared to I80. I stopped in Sturgis and also Wall Drug on my way through South Dakota. After that there is not much to look at and I was in a driving mood. I slept in the trailer at a rest area near Sioux Falls SD. Woke up at 1AM and decided to start driving. Drove across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Stopped at a Walmart in Oshkosh. Took a shower and started driving again. Got tired driving across the UP, so I pulled over in a roadside park and slept for a half hour. Got up and made it to the Cottage around 5PM today (Wed). Pictures below are from Devil's Tower.

Devil's Tower

Drove from Denver to Devil's Tower Wyoming.  Saw it before but wanted to see it again. I think it's one of the coolest things to see in the U.S. Staying at the D T KOA. They play the Close Encounters movie every night outside.

Trail riding

Sunday. Craig, Cindy, Robbie, Ashton, and I went trail riding on our ATVs. We got rained on. That's me in the picture. I'm leaving Monday morning. Going through Wy, S. D., Mn., Ws., then Mi. via the UP.

Day of Rest

Saturday. Taking a day off. Slept in and watching Motocross on TV with Craig and Robbie. Picture below is the view of Pikes Peak out the kitchen window.

Stingray

I got to drive Craig's Stingray today. Nuf said.

Night Drive

I woke up at 1AM and I could hear that hardly any traffic was on the highway. Couldn't get back to sleep. I kept thinking it would be nice to cross the mountains without traffic. So I did. I went as slow as I wanted. Arrived Craig's at 8:30 AM

Long. Day

Its Thursday and the weather man says it will be a very wet week end in this part of Utah. I took a early ride over to the Natural Bridges State Park, but found it was a fee area. I forgot my wallet. So I returned to camp. I packed up and headed for Colorado. Its 9PM and I have a camp site at a Colorado State State Park, just south of Montrose. Tomorrow I am heading to Craig's place.

Bears

Its Wednesday and I decided to just hang at camp. I got out the generator and charged up all the batteries. Used the microwave to heat up some chili. Well, now the subject story. Another group of bear hunters came by camp. Their dogs were on a bear right in the area. They were trying to locate the dogs/ bear. So, all day I was on the edge of the canyon listening for the bay of the dogs.

Back on the Honda again

Its Tuesday and I got an early start. Rode the bike 15 mi to the Gooseberry Ranger Station. They give away maps of the area. A older guy was there. He is a volunteer host for the station. He says they can't afford to pay rangers/ Got my map and returned to camp. I planned an afternoon ride to Milk Ranh Point (no ranch). I leave a note in my car window about my route for the day. Safety first. Im going to try a picture today. What I look like after a days ride. Helmut hair. The scar over my eye happened when I ran into a tree. Not on my bike. Just walkig around camp. LOL.

Utah Hammond Canyon

I got to my camp site in the Canyon Lands yesterday.  Today I went for a 5 hour ride on my dirt bike. It is perfect out for that. Hi 60s and partly cloudy. The Honda ran well. I met some guys hunting for bear with dogs. He said there are a lot of them in the area. I didn't know that. I did see three elk while riding. Two were right in the road running away from me. No pictures. Doing this from my phone with data. Pictures don't work well with the data.

Grand Canyon

I arrived Friday at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I drove along the south rim looking from every view point. Got a lot of walking in also. The Elk here are almost tame. They don’t seem bothered by the cars and people walking around. The crowds were not bad. I hear it can get very busy during the summer.

Saturday I took one of the rim shuttles and walked 2 miles of the Grand Canyon Rim. Just awesome views.

Today is Sunday and I am in Tuba City New Mexico at the McDonalds using the WiFi again. Heading to Hammond Canyon in Utah. I should be heading into the Canyon Lands area around 1PM. Will be there for about a week...maybe more if Craig comes. No or little contact during this time. Sometimes I can find cell reception on a high point out there. Yes I will be careful. : )

Made it

I got a camping site at the Grand Canyon National Park.  Arrived at noon. Just in time. Almost full. Gonna have lunch then go hiking.

Big O

I stopped at the meteor crater and when I got back to the parking lot the trailer tire was flat. Put the spare on and got a new one at Big O Tire. Flagstaff, Az.

In good shape

Thursday 5/27/2015

I left the Bottomless Lake State Campground and went into Roswell to try and get my stabilization jack fixed. They didn’t have the one I needed. They recommended trying in Albuquerque. So I headed that way and used my phone via google search to find a shop. I called the first one that came up. They said they could get it and have me fixed up the same day. By gosh they came through. They also fixed my fridge. It needed cleaning. So thing are looking up. Right now its Thursday night and I am staying at a Walmart in Gallup New Mexico. I went into the store and everybody be me and one other person were either Hispanic or Indian.  Tomorrow I am heading for the Grand Canyon Desert View area. From there I am heading up to Blanding / Hammond Canyon to camp and dirt bike for a bit. If it’s nice I will stay for a while. I won’t have cell or wifi access so you may not hear from me (or get a hold of me).

Check out the sign

Cool art on bldg.

Taken thru blue tint on windshield

Change in plan

I decided to camp more than drive.  Instead of going further west, I will go north. I'm going to go to the desert view of the Grand Canyon. From there I will go to Utah.  At least that's the plan for now. Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my stabilizer jack fixed. Bent it.

Roswell

Got into Roswell New Mexico today at 4PM Mountain time. Its way bigger than I thought.
 It took me two whole days to get across Texas. It was no easy feat either. Got caught in a really bad storm Monday night. There were Tornado watches and flash flood watches. I was on the back roads going kitty corner south east to central north west. At one point I couldn't see where I was going and ran through a couple of big puddles of water. I found a high part on the road and sat it out. No other cars came by. I used my smart phone to check the weather map and when I figured the worst was over I slowly moved on. I didn't stop until midnight in Waco at a Walmart. Slept like a baby. West Texas was miles and miles of tilled up red dirt. Im staying at Bottomless Lake State Park, which is just outside of Roswell. The lake has a swimming area. I found another place on my free camping web page called Salt Creek Wilderness area. I can camp there for free. Im going to check that out tomorrow to see if I can dirt bike the area. Feel like staying put for a bit after all that driving.

One week down

Well the first week went pretty well, except for the fridge. Camping World looked at it first thing this morning. They said that it looked OK to them. I think its still not working. Didn't check to see yet today if the temp was OK. I am in Texas heading for Roswell NM. That's going to take a few days. Texas is big.......no.....duh. I changed my route. I was getting tired of interstate route 10. Too busy and too fast. I'm taking a more direct route via state highways.Right now I am in Woodville, Tx. No pictures today.

Sunday 5/24/2105

I took a side trip today and drove to Avery Island to tour the Tabasco plant. It’s not an island with water around it. It is a large piece of land that is raised higher than its surroundings. They had a food booth outside of the plant. I got some Crawfish Etouffee.  It was tasty. After that I drove to New Orleans. It was really busy and parking was hard to find so I didn’t stick around. Cities aren’t my thing. I’m ready for the wilderness.

Saturday 5/23/2015

Stopped at a rest area on Rte 20 in Alabama for the night. Got up early Saturday and headed south. Needed to look for someplace I could get WiFi and look for an RV repair shop. Using McDonald's WiFi again I found a Campers World in Hammond LA. Arrived at Campers World and made an appointment for my trailer for Monday morning. Check out the guys name that made my appointment. See card below. (Leave it to Beaver fans will get it). I was surprised that they would be open on the Holiday. They have camper spaces for RV’s waiting on service and I was able to get one. I have electric service so I can have the air on. Pretty nice and no charge. I'm an hour from New Orleans. I plan to go check it out Sunday.

Friday 5/22/2015
Good and Bad
First the good. Stopped and had a visit with the Taylors in Alabama. Had lunch and went on a hike with Bri and the kids up on Green Mtn.

Now the bad. After leaving the Taylors I noticed my refrigerator is not working well. Looking for a RV store that can fix or replace it.

Southward Thursday 5/21/2015

I got up early and headed for Nashville. I reserved a spot at a Nashville KOA. Not really pleased with spending three times the amount per day as compared to my Ohio campground. Plus the one in Ohio was much nicer. This KOA has them packed in like sardines. I don’t see anybody outside of their campers with campfires. Cheaper is better all the way around. I drove into Nashville and motored down the main drag. It’s full of people and music. I would have liked to park and walk, but didn’t see any attended parking lots. I didn’t want to leave my dirt bike unattended in the back of the truck.

Wednesday 5/20/21015

Wednesday morning I drove into Cleveland to have a look at how things changed. I had lunch at Beardens. They still have the train running around the dining room. On the way back to the camp ground I washed the F150. I got back to cap and waxed it. It looks much better. I found a leak in the trailer and Mike my neighbor helped me fix it. That's him below in front of his trailer. I’m at McDonalds now. It was the closest place with WIFI. Planning on heading out tomorrow morning. Right now I’m thinking maybe Nashville.

Aunt Jo

Tuesday 5/19/2015

I visited Aunt Jo today at her place in Berea. She made me lunch. We drove over to the Deb and Charley’s place in Avon Lake. Or is it Avon? Then we drove by the old house on Canterbury. Aunt Jo bought me dinner at an Italian restaurant in North Olmsted. I took her back home and we said our good byes. I had to get back to the camp ground so I could meet the park ranger and register my trailer. Later that night I hung out at my trailer neighbor’s camp fire. His name is Mike and he is a regular camper there.

I'm off

I started my road trip Monday morning. I set the Garmin to avoid everything, so it was back roads and 55mph all the way. Arrived at Schmieler's at 2pm. He and I took the trailer to a campground in Stow. (Ohio) . Then returned to his place and stayed overnight. Had fun talking about all our old hitchhiking adventures. Good 1st day.