Brrrrrrr! Even though Santa Fe is at about 7000 feet, we didn’t expect temperatures down into the teens! Off we went our first evening there to Home Depot for heat tape for the water line, antifreeze for the holding tanks and plastic covering for the windows. Beside burning through a lot of propane for the heater, we were comfortable after all that.
In our longest consecutive drive so far, we blasted from New Orleans across Texas and into New Mexico in 2 days, boondocking at a truck stop in Dallas overnight. That overnight provided us with the absolute worst dinner out we’ve ever had – other truck stops included! Always good to have a bottom line. Nothing against Texas – I’m sure we’ll go back there, but we’re on a deadline to hit some spring skiing in the rockies. 
The highway we took (20) had absolutely nothing around it but oil pumps and the occasional quarry. There was so much of that, the landscape felt almost violated. We did pass through Roscoe, which has the largest windmill farm in the country. Continue reading Carlsbad, New Mexico
Wow! Its hard to think of any other word for this experience…just Wow!
We arrived in New Orleans about 2.5 weeks before Fat Tuesday. We wanted to experience it without getting involved in the truly crazy final weekend. The parades start on this weekend and run daily through Fat Tuesday.
We are heading west! After traveling down the east coast of Florida and up the west coast, we stopped in Pensacola for 2 weeks so I could renew my motorcycle license before leaving the state (we are technically Florida residents). Jeff was surprised we were already west of Ohio and in Central Time! 
Continue reading Pensacola, Florida
For the first time that Jeff can remember (maybe never?) we are spending the holidays in Naples, FL. Jeff’s parents spend their winters here (and before that, Jeff’s grandparents have done the same since the ’60s).
We’ve been on the road for over 6 months now, and have pretty well covered the east coast, covering I-95 from Houlton, ME to South Miami.
Naples was wonderful! We were spoiled by Jeff’s parents and the warm, sunny weather we’ve been chasing after all fall. Continue reading Naples, FL for the Holidays!
We made a quick stop in Miami so Sue could help at the Miami office for a couple of days Christmas week. Larry and Penny Thompson Park is a county run park near the Miami Zoo. We were a bit skeptical considering the low price and location. It was a very pleasant surprise! Lots of friendly people! And very quiet!
This park was set up differently than most. Instead of row after row of RV sites, there was one road down the middle and ‘pods’ – circular areas with the sites spoked out from the center – off of each side. Some of the winter residents would ride their bikes in and around each pod every day – it kind of reminded me of how a polar bear paces his cage in the zoo.
We’ve also noticed that half of Florida’s winter RV residents are from Canada. In many parks you can reserve a spot permanently, so large groups come down every year and stay in the same spot, which is cool because you know all of your neighbors just like home.
The highlight of the stop was Ziggy, a 250lb pig! He lives with his owners full time in their RV! They had to build a ramp to get him up the stairs and every day they take him out for a walk around the park. Apparently when Ziggy was young, they took him to the Bahamas for a few months due to a contract job. He grew so much that they had to charter a plane to get him back to the states – costing thousands of dollars!! If you look closely at the picture, you will see that Ziggy’s owner is holding a football! Talk about ironic!?!?
Sue was traveling to San Diego for work, so we moved closer to Orlando. As we got settled in, we realized that we were being watched… Not by the other RV owners, but by the 3+ foot long alligator floating in the pond right behind our rig!!
Sue needed a paddling fix, so we headed out for a paddle on the inter-coastal waterway in Cocoa Beach. Sue got to use her Christmas present – a foldable ORU kayak. It was a perfect afternoon with flat water and lots of sun. Pelicans diving into the water and even a dolphin! Sunday we explored the Merritt Island National Wildlife Preserve before heading to the airport…
When I was growing up we used to drive from New Hampshire to Florida to visit my grandmother in Deland. We always stopped at the welcome center and got a plasic orange filled with fresh Florida orange juice. We had to stop to see if they still did that. You now have the choice of orange or grapefruit juice, but in a paper cup rather than the plastic orange with a straw – delicious!
We were on our way to Jacksonville, FL where Jeff was attending a convention for work. Hoping to finally get some warmer weather – Not!
Continue reading Jacksonville, FL
We thought the dragster maintenance in Delaware was loud… But then we arrived at our campground in Virginia Beach. Yeah, it seemed to be near the Naval Air Station Oceana, but we had no idea! The first few days you could hear jets flying around but it was nothing crazy. Then they must have switched runways! We were apparently on the final approach, and even while landing, they are LOUD! On Friday, the George HW Bush aircraft carrier returned after a 9 month deployment, so the entire air-wing flew over our trailer! Even Jeff, who generally likes airplane noise, got overwhelmed!
It was a year almost to the week that we took our first “trial” trip in Monty to Delaware. Then, we had Shadow, and stayed in Rehoboth Beach. This time our goal was to spend some time with Julia and Mike as we made our way south. Finding open campgrounds north of the Mason-Dixon line after mid-October has been a bit of a challenge. This led to one of our sketchier locations, the Delaware Auto Court Motel and Trailer Park, which is at the junction of 2 busy roads, a railroad track (luckily not as busy) and a fire station (complete with call-out siren). The single story, 1950’s style motel itself does not advertise hourly rates, but I bet they would give you one if you ask! (Of course, you would have to get through the language barrier with the owner and pass your money through the little slot at the bottom of the bullet-proof window!)