Our Traveling Lifestyle

UTAH - MAY 2011

2011-06-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

We decided to make our way to Salt Lake City to check out that capitol. Our first stop was actually in a small corner of Arizona in the Virgin River Gorge between Nevada and Utah at the Cedar Pocket campground. In 1973, that section of Interstate 15 which runs through the winding and scenic gorge was the most expensive to build at a cost of $100 an inch.

A reason we like Cedar Patch Campground

Another reason we like Cedar Pocket Campground

Ray, the camp host, attracted tiny squirrels that looked like chipmunks and All Kinds of birds to his site. He showed us the morning dove in the tree below. He thought he was fooling us until we noticed the bar code on the bird's tail.

Ray told us to take the dirt road across the bridge if we wanted to see a Joshua Tree forest, a gypsum mine, cattle and perhaps some campers. We did.

Driving Cedar Patch Road

Joshua Trees and a lone camper

Cattle on an open range

Desert Color

As we followed Hwy 91 which was once the main road into St. George, this tree caught our eye.

In Santa Clara this fine building caught our eye.

This was once the home of Jacob Hamblin, an explorer, pioneer and peacemaker with Indians. The slanting front porch was used to dry fruit and herbs. Jacob grew apricot and peaches to supply the cotton-producing families who had been sent South to this area by Brigham Young. This area thus got the nickname Dixie. We had passed remains of homes and a fort that had been deserted due to drought or ravaged by torrential floods from the Virgin and Santa Clara Rivers.

Another day we toured St. George’s Historic District with its well-preserved brick buildings. Several were open with free tours available.

Brigham Young’s Winter Home

Another day trip was to Zion National Park. We had a picnic lunch under a tree that must have been the home for the several caterpillars that were attracted to Mike’s jacket. The shuttle was a relaxing way to see and hear about the sights in the canyon. We walked as far as the Riverside Trail was open seeing falls, squirrels and water-loving plants hugging the rocks.

On the Riverside Trail

These delicate blooms were hanging from the wet rocks

The high water made going into The Narrows impossible

Squirrels, tadpoles and throwing rocks into the stream made the trail fun for kids

The tunnel on road to the upper canyon

The sliprock of the upper canyon

Coming down we tried to spot the windows cut out of the rocks for the tunnel

The look of spring in Springdale -- bright new leaves glowing against the dark

Continuing our way north, we drove across Hwy 14 from Cedar City into Long Valley Junction. This was the first of many reminders that Spring had not yet decided to stay or come in parts of the country. We passed dripping icicles, deep snow banks, downed trees, and overflowing streams along the climb up to 10,000 foot elevation.

The wildlife made the 2-mile dirt road into Camp Lutherwood worth while.
Cotton-tail deer?

We do not know the names of these yellow and black birds that liked our mirror.

We made our way along the meandering Sevier River and Hwy 89 to beautiful Red Canyon. The Forest Service campground and the weather were ideal.

Hiking along a trail in Red Canyon

Having been to Bryce Canyon twice, we just looked at the hoodos from above at a few overlooks and did not hike down any trails as we did in the past.

A great description of the sights in Bryce

Bryce Amphitheater from Sunset Point

Some hikers seen going off the Queens Garden trail

An arch or bridge? Arches are carved by rain and frost erosion;

bridges by water erosion

What name would you give this?

The story of the 10-mile ditch that was hand dug across the plateau to bring water from the Sevier river down to Bryce Canyon and the town of Tropic again impressed us.

Part of the Ditch at Water Canyon

The Kissing Rocks

We drove out to Tropic and then to Kodachrome Basin. In Tropic we had lunch and Mike got on the Internet. The ranches beyond Tropic appeared so desolate as they stood, small and insignificant, below the huge rock plateau looming beyond them.

Getting on the Web at the city park

Kodachrome Basin has towering sandstone spires or chimneys jutting up from the desert floor that change in color and shadow as the day progresses. Because of the colors and contrasts the park got its name in 1949 with permission from the Kodak Film Company. What would its name be today if named for today’s photo technology? Because of the heat we only walked the short nature trail, enough to get a feeling for the place.

We passed this sign enough times to get this photo. Unusual signs, which we see a lot, are just too hard to stop for in the RV.

We visited Panguitch (Big Fish) as we remembered its vitality and its odd name from our last visit. There were fewer shops open than last visit but we enjoyed the cowboy memorabilia in and outside Cowboy Collectibles. As the shop owner said, “Panguitch is on its way back.” She sells lots of her “vintage” cowboy boots to European visitors. We learned of the Quilt Walk story and why there are so many large brick houses. During the first brutal winter here back in 1864, settlers were starving. Men laid one quilt then another over the deep snow to walk the 40 miles to the nearest other settlement to get food. Later, people who worked in the brick factory were paid in bricks not money; thus enabling them to build such large homes.

Downtown Panguitch

Mike and Friends

Donna and Friend

Quilt Story Memorial

Our next stop was in Utah Lake State Park, five miles west of downtown Provo. The sunny days while in Red Canyon turned dark and gloomy all the time we were here. However the fruit trees and spring flowers in bloom made it brighter.

Lake Utah

This tree was in FULL bloom

We visited the campus of Brigham Young University and chose the Art Museum. to visit out of several other notable museums open to the public. The sculpture dominating the central spot in one gallery was especially intriguing as it was made from 80,000 lbs. of books stacked like bricks, held together only by the compression of their weight. Its shape and size were such it would fit precisely into one of the alcoves of the gallery. The facades, some straight and some slanted, resembled rock strata of different colors and textures. When the exhibit is over the books will be returned to Worldwide Book Drive to be distributed all over the world. The artist, Alan Bateman had volunteers help him create the sculpture. No photos were allowed.
In town we spotted the burnt ruins of what was the Provo Tabernacle. Its old wooden interior fueled a Christmas-time fire.

Only the walls are left standing

Many of the scenic drives were still closed due to snow but we did manage to see the Bridal Veil Falls, a double cataract falling 607 feet. We drove up the narrow road to Robert Redford’s Sundance Resort, which at this time looked deserted, cold, and unattractive.

Bridal Veil Falls

On another rainy day we drove to Salt Lake City to visit the Capitol. In 2004 the reconstruction and renovation involved lifting the millions of pounds of concrete onto new foundations and devises called base isolators which will help protect the 1916 building from extreme earthquake damage. Seagulls, the State bird, adorn the ceiling on the Rotunda dome as they, according to lore, appeared to eat the crickets that were devouring the crops of the new settlement. This was taken as a sign that this was a special place.

Rotunda was finished in 1936 with WPA murals

One of 4 allegorical sculptures illustrating important values and ideals fundamental to Utah’s culture: Arts and Education, Immigration and Settlement, Science and Technology, Land and Community

Unique mirror-like patterns in granite

At the Temple Square we were greeted by two Temple guides that were eager to show us around and answer our many questions. One was from San Bernadino, the other from Brazil. Only young women are selected to be guides at the Temple.

The Temple (no visitors allowed inside)

A model of the interior of the Temple

Statue of Christ - A very awesome sight!

Some children were so excited when they spotted the statue, just like they do when they see Santa.

One of the many tulip beds in and around the Square

The organ inside the Tabernacle

Inscription along walkway expressing Morman beliefs

We never made another trip to Salt Lake City so we did not get to see some of the many more attractions of this interesting city. Since many of the campgrounds further north were still closed, we decided to go south. We passed by a huge power plant near a narrow rock outcropping and then a sign for a town called Helper.

Castle Gate and steam from the Carbon Power Plant

Parking for the night at Walmart, we drove back to see the little town of Helper.
In the 1880's the railroad saw the potential of coal in eastern Utah so they purchased the land that became Helper. The coal trains were so heavy there always was a need for a helper engine, thus the name. Many people immigrated from other countries to work in the mines and on the railroad. We learned about the many mining camps that once existed in the area and the life and work of the miners at the Western Mining and Railroad Museum which was in the process of being reorganized. The museum had 3 floors of exhibits including Large Model Trains, Butch Cassidy and Outlaw History, Artifacts and Photos of Italian Immigrants, Mining Disasters and a Simulated Coal Mine.

Museum

Main Street - Helper

NEVADA - APRIL 2011

2011-06-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

We headed for Las Vegas thinking to spend only a couple of days there seeing some of the new sights before deciding what our route would be for heading east. Route 93 from Wickenburg to Wikieup was very scenic passing through a Joshua Tree forest and an area of balancing boulders and mini hoodoos.

We crossed over the new bridge at Hoover Dam into Nevada on April 11th. Because high-profile vehicles had to drive on the inner lanes, the crossing was not as impressive as we had thought.

We found a good site at the Boulder Beach campground in the Lake Mead Recreation Area. Mornings we were awakened by the sound of helicopters starting the day’s tours of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. Evenings, we watched the lights of airliner after airliner coming into Vegas.

Boulder Beach Campground is in the trees

Quiet until Easter week brought lots of families

We extended our stay as Nick decided to visit us during some of the time he had to be out of his apartment for mold removal. Also, Donna wanted to visit with her friend from Montessori Bowling days, Sally Skinner and with her niece, Ausrine, who was working at a health convention.

Nick

Ausrine and Donna

We would rate a visit to the Hoover Dam Visitor Center and the walk onto the Mike O’Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge as a MUST SEE. The sight of those two magnificent man-made wonders sitting in that very dramatic natural setting is breathtaking. The stories of all that went into their creation are fascinating. A teacher and now docent at the Boulder City Museum gave us some personal views about the people who worked on the dam as well as some of the happenings while the bridge was under construction.

Walkway up to the bridge

Bridge statistics and info are posted on signs along the way--no museum yet.

On the bridge looking towards the dam

Hoover Dam and the new visitor's center on the left

Depression art panel depicting Hoover Dam’s generation of electricity as creating development and settlement of the Southwest

Bridge from the Visitor Center

In Vegas we walked through the gardens at the Palazzo and the Bellagio and the Lake of Dreams at the Wynn. The aroma from the 2 tons of melted chocolate in the Chocolate Fountain at Jean Philippe Patisserie tempted us to indulge in one of their designer crepes.

The Atrium at The Palazzo

Coins looking like mosaic tile in fountain pool

Gondoliers at the Venetian on way to the Bellagio

Bellagio Conservatory

Flowers interpreting art

While heading for escargots for lunch at Paris, we volunteered to go to the Wyndam Resort Hotel to listen to their spiel. In exchange we got dinner and the “Legends in Concert” show at Harrahs that evening. We had a few words with Elvis as our photos were taken with him. Unfortunately Donna threw away the receipt for the photo. Walking on the Strip that Friday evening was like being on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Scantily-clad dancers and loud music were almost out on the sidewalk. Lots of tall drinks in exotic containers were being carried by young people in exotic attire.

We also walked through Crystals and Aria at City Center. We took a break and rested among crystal beading in a lounge in the Cosmopolitan on way to City Center.

Found a monorail that ran from the Bellagio to City Center

This is a restaurant in Crystals

Buildings at City Center

A fountain wall outside Atria

After spending over 2 weeks in Las Vegas, we finaly decided that was enough and we headed up I15 to Utah.

MESA, AZ - MARCH 2011

2011-05-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

We decided to return to Ambassador Downs RV Park as we found lots to do in the area last year. Our site backed up to one of the myriad of canals that run through the area.

Our space at Ambasador Downs

The system of canals and projects on the Salt River made a big difference in the development of this desert land. We had some noise from the paving project along the canal. The paths along the canals and in the many parks in Mesa make it a Mecca for bicyclists

One of many sculptures in downtown Mesa

In downtown Mesa we visited two of the “3 for Free Museums” sponsored by Target on the 1st Sunday of each month. In the Arizona Museum of Natural History we viewed Dinosaur Hall and its flash flood amid hordes of children and their parents.

Watching the kids working with the interactive displays was the most fun. They were putting a dinosaur skeleton together, then immediately trying to take it apart; stacking rope-like discs of different sizes attempting to form a traditional native pot; panning for gold; and unearthing fossils hidden under sand. We learned about Arizona’s historic 5 C’s: Cotton, Citrus, Copper, Cattle, and Climate.

At the Mesa Contemporary Arts complex, Mike listened to a concert taking place on the patio while Donna scouted the art inside. We will attend a concert with the Symphony of the Southwest at the Ikeda Theater, also part of the Mesa Arts Center.

While experiencing the artists and vendors downtown, we came upon a most unusual store for us, Milano’s. The inside was an explosion of musical instruments.

We were surprised at the different metals and the cost of the saxes

Guitars come in all sizes, shapes and colors

The bongo room

One day we decided to try Pete’s Fish and Chips for lunch because we always saw lots of people in lines outside. We like to try local places as sometimes they do common dishes in a different way. The price was right, but the food was disappointing.

Fish and Chips, Fried Oyster plate with Pete’s red sauce

Donna read about the Sonoran Dog (a bacon-wrapped hot dog with onion, tomato, avocado, jalapeno chiles, cotija cheese, mayo, mustard and pinto beans all inside a Mexican roll) being a popular creation. We will be on the look out for a place that serves this different version of the standard hot dog.

The beautiful building and surrounding gardens we spotted turned out to be the Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had never seen it from this angle.

At the visitor center the charming Sister Mc Kee greeted us and answered all our questions, mostly about her family and her mission here in Mesa and in Jerusalem.

A visit to the Gilbert Museum gave us a glimpse back in time in one of Mesa’s neighboring cities which once was known as “Hay City”. The museum is located in what was Gilbert’s elementary school. We were reminded of our own school days when we spotted wooden desks with inkwells, 3 walls of chalkboards and a cloak room at the rear of the intact classrooms.

Donna spotted her favorite paper dolls among the playtime displays.

Pictures of the early town marshals had their duties listed. In addition to patrol duty days and nights, they also were ordered to shoot vagrant dogs, enforce curfew, sweep streets and sidewalks, turn street lights off at night and on in the morning.

When did he sleep?

In one memoir about early farming days called Chicken Every Sunday, the writer wrote that the greatest invention that rivaled the wheel was when, in the 30s, the hatcheries perfected a way to tell the sex of the chick and could guarantee a 10% or less rooster count. That meant his family did not have to eat as many of the useless roosters on Sundays as they did before!

The quilts exhibited throughout the museum were part of an annual event hosted by the museum with quilts brought from all over the U.S. and Canada. A favorite for Donna was the "I Bee lieve" quilt.

The stories of who, what, and why attached to the quilts make the quilts more interesting.

We revisited Old Town Scottsdale to see what we missed last year; the Schoolhouse Museum, the Old adobe Mission , and many art galleries.

Winfield Scott, Wife, Mule and Mike

One day we spent 3 hours riding on the Metro. We started at the last stop on the east which is in Mesa. We traveled through downtown Phoenix to the last stop on the west and then all the way back. It was entertaining to see the sights along the way as well as viewing the passengers. A man brought his bicycle as well as the trailer hitched to it carrying recycling trash. With orders from the security police not to bring his business back on the train, he left leaving a sticky mess on the floor. As we approached the station across from Central High School, we saw a humungous throng of teenagers waiting. The street was lined with dozens of police cars and there was a big presence of security officers on the platform with the students. Somehow everyone got on without much ado. Here are some the sights caught on camera as we whizzed by.

The wedding cake house near the red buttes in Papago Park

Home of the Diamond Backs

We took the Metro the next day to Tempe for the Festival of the Arts held in the Mill Avenue District.

It is the largest festival of its kind in Arizona with more than 400 fine artists and crafts persons from all over the U.S. and Canada. The train let us off right across the street from the festival--no hunting for that close-by parking spot. Mike enjoyed some of the street entertainers while Donna looked at the booths that had unique items not seen much elsewhere.
Jazz next to art

Fascinators have come to America

On March 19th we went to the air show out at Luke Air Base in Peoria. The Golden Knights, the Strategic army Command Parachute Team, opened the show. A helicopter that did acrobatic stunts was an awesome first-time sight for us, especially the inverted flight. The Heritage Flight was impressive. With the different era planes flying together, one can see the change in shape, size, and capability.

Clockwise from top: F18 Hornet, Worthog, F4 Phantom and P40 (WWII)

Thunderbirds

After waiting 45 minutes after the designated time for the Thunderbirds’ flying performance, we decided to get on the bus back to the parking lot to get a head start on the departing crowd. Soon as the bus left, sure enough the Thunderbirds were flying! However, we did get a good look at how they get into position for their runs over the crowds and airstrip.

This year we drove the Apache Trail from Apache Junction all the way to Roosevelt Dam. The Apache Trail was constructed so that supplies could be hauled to the dam site. After coming to the area to dedicate the dam in 1911, Theodore Roosevelt said, “The Apache trail combines the grandeur of the Alps, the glory of the Rockies, the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and then adds an indefinable something that none of the others have”. We found he was not exaggerating. Our camera could not capture the awesome sights that our eyes saw. Here are some of the stops along the way.

Here we were told some fact and fiction about the mountain

One can cruise Canyon Lake aboard a paddle wheeler to view the canyon and its wildlife

One of the larger of the six one-way bridges along the Trail

Tortilla Flat (Population 6) The last remaining stage coach stop on the Trail and a fun rest stop for visitors today

Can you spot the road below?

Road down to Fish Creek - Steepest winding descent on a one-lane gravel road

A little rest at the bottom after the very dramatic descent

A mini forest grows along the creek

One of the canyon walls along Fish Creek. Mike spotted 2 cars, one old and rusty, the other one still shiny, on the opposite vertical wall.

Apache Lake is more remote than others along the Salt River but we encountered boats being towed to get here.
Roosevelt Dam was the highest cyclopean-masonry gravity arch dam in the world at the time and was also among the last of the stone masonry dams built. A modification finished in 1996 raised the crest elevation by 77 feet.

Roosevelt Lake Bridge - The original bridge only allowed two Model-T Fords to pass abreast --- not enough for today’s RVs traveling to the many recreation sites along the lake.

Mining around Globe on the US 60 return to Mesa

On a hot 90+degree day we headed up scenic Hwy 87 to Payson. The desert showed more of its bright yellow and magenta colors on this trip. Payson, with a mingling of pinyon, juniper, and pine, sits at the base of the Mogollon Rim at an elevation of 5000 feet. When storms run into the great stone barrier of the Rim, they release the moisture they carry. The Rim drains much water through the Salt, Gila and Verde Rivers south for use in Phoenix. Zane Grey described the beautiful landscape of the west in his novels; some seen from a cabin he owned in this very area. On the highway what was first thought to be an ordinary junk yard, turned out to be a museum and resting place for all kinds of bikes.

We decided to return via the Apache Trail. At Pumpkin Center we saw hundreds of motorcycles parked and encountered still more heading toward that rendezvous. Bike mishaps on the miles of back roads, trails and highways up in Rim country must help keep All Bikes stocked.

While in Mesa we had another recall on our fridge done and had our dining chairs reupholstered.

Before

After

WICKENBURG, ARIZONA

After a short delay in leaving Mesa to await the parts for our fridge recall, we headed for the North Ranch in Congress, AZ. This Escapee park is located about 9 miles from Wickenburg, a city dedicated to celebrating the cowboy. At the park we listened to a well-done jam session and met up with Brooke, a solo lady RVer who we met rockhounding in Quartzsite last year. Here, she was into identifying birds and learning to play drums so she can join in the jams.
In Wickenburg we took the historical walking tour starting at the old wooden Santa-Fe Depot. One can stop and listen to the stories told at the bronze statues found along the way.
Here is Mike with Mrs. Elizabeth Smith outside the Vernetta Hotel she built in 1905 to accommodate passengers from the nearby railroad depot.

Here Donna and a newly-arrived school teacher look at directions to her new domicile

We went inside the drover caboose at the rear of the Old 761 Santa Fe Steam Locomotive. The Basners told us how the caboose served 8 or 9 cowboys taking 30 cars filled with cattle from Wickenburg to Chicago. High above some of the bunks were windows, the precursors to those in today’s observation cars. There was, along with the necessities for cooking, eating and sleeping, indoor plumbing which consisted of a pail hidden inside a wooden bench. When refrigeration came into use, the cattle could be slaughtered hereabouts and then sent to markets; no more need for cowboys and cattle cars.

A 200-year old mesquite tree served as the town jail

One has to look out for desert critters along the sidewalks too.

We had to try the chicken liver omelets served at the Twin Wheels Café. We found a nice city-sponsored campground out by the Rodeo Grounds. Along the scenic drive out to the Vulture Mine we spotted campers on the desert.

CA & AZ - JAN/FEB 2011

2011-04-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

NOTE: Our travel blog is now replacing the albums Donna kept each year. They are too heavy and cumbersome to store in the RV. As such there may be more than you may want to know about our travels on this blog, but sometimes Donna thinks a thousand words is better than just a picture.

After an uneventful cross country trip, we arrived at Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside CA on January 3rd. The sun shining on the snow in the San Gabriel Mountains was an awesome welcoming sight. Southern CA had just had a spell of torrential rain and snow.

Donna was here for a reunion with four of her teacher-friends. They were all part of the first faculty at the new Beckford Avenue School in Northridge back around 1967. They met at Sandy’s home in Claremont. The “women’s talk” at this reunion reminded Donna of all the inspiration she has gotten through the years from her women friends.

clockwise from upper left: Sandy, Michelle, Gayle, Donna & Trish

We drove up to Pasadena to spend the weekend visiting family and friends. Gene and Brian are great at entertaining and welcoming family. Here we are at dinner.

Jay and Linda

Rebecca and Martin give everyone a chance to amuse 4-month old, Ava and Connor.

Nick has a new job and new car. Ramon is organizing another seminar. We watch the Eagles go down in defeat.

We get to talk with Luke the dog while visiting Dick and Janice. JPL techies, Ann and Michael now have a cactus garden, a rose garden, an eating garden and a chicken coop in their yard.

After having “cabin fever” in Kentucky and then the hubbub of visiting, our spot at Lake Skinner near Temecula, offered a serene place to enjoy. We drove over the narrow twisting Ortega Highway that bikers love, to visit Pat and Lefty in Mission Viejo. Steve and Beth joined us there for a first-class steak dinner.

Steve and Beth's kids Jack & Tessa

We drove down to San Diego and spent much of the day roaming through Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. We were reminded of our trip here with Amy and Samantha three years ago. While in the 1865 Mason schoolhouse, Donna told some children there on a field trip about the coveted job of filling the ink wells, one of the classroom jobs students helped with. Another was using castanets to mark time for lines to march into the building. Mike pointed out the dunce cap that was used for bad behavior.

La Casa de Estudillo, a social and political center of San Diego during CA's Mexican period.

Woman making colorful artificial flowers

A quick drive along the harbor and through the heart of the downtown gave us enough of the flavor of San Diego for this visit.

Along Harbor Dr. in the Embarcadero is the "Star of India", the oldest active tall ship. Also in the background is a modern cruise ship and the aircraft carrier USS Midway.

The Gas Lamp Quarter - 100's of restaurants and shops.

On another beautiful day we drove to Oceanside. We had fish tacos at the harbor then walked out to the end of the city pier where we had a grand view of the hotels and condos along The Strand. The clean, wide sandy beaches were very accessible and had many surfers and people sunning themselves. AH! California in the winter.

We spotted these two apartments in a residential area.

Other day rides from Lake Skinner took us to see the old mission at San Ysibel, gliders at Warner Springs, the avocado-covered hills of Fallbrook, a cheese factory in Winchester, and the dramatic, steep, rocky descent down to Palm Desert on the way to visit with Dave and Cheryl. Some brave soul had managed to climb up a steep outcropping and paint a rock green to look like a frog .

Mission San Ysibel

YUMA, ARIZONA This was our 5th time in Yuma so we were challenged to discover some of its new as well as its familiar secrets. On the way we drove diagonally across the Anza-Borrego Desert on S2. We passed through what could only be described as Bad Lands yet somehow they have an eerie beauty. Our first night was spent alongside some of the Imperial Sand Dunes off of I-8 as our journey took longer than expected.. The sunset gave a wonderful color and glow to the sand. The shadows made the dunes look like a whipped topping.

The next night we were camped at the free BLM site next to the VFW on HWY 95, about 9 miles from central Yuma. More protected from the winds that blow out in other BLM camp sites, this one has the rumble of trains and traffic that pass next to it. Long trains going north and south went by almost every half-hour. Another noise on a few nights was from an unidentifiable flying object that made many passes over us. We surmised it was a border patrol drone. We recognized that a fellow Boondocker, Doc was parked near us. His rig is easily identified because of all the solar panels and aerials on the roof. He was traveling with a lady friend and now has a condo in Central America.

Can you find us and Doc?

Five engines means over 100 cars and sometimes there are one or two engines in the rear.

The familiar sight of the rugged brown mountains beyond green lettuce fields is still awesome.

At the Quartermaster Depot we learned more of the story of how Arizona was settled due to Colorado River traffic from the man that re-creates the character of steamboat entrepreneur, George Johnson.

The mission across what's left of the Colorado river. By the time the Colorado gets to Yuma, it has been sucked almost dry.

A visit across the border to Los Algodones, Baja California for new eyeglasses resulted in a 1½ hour wait in line to cross back into the US. No slow-down of tourists here! Algodones is touted as having the heaviest concentration of physicians, pharmacies, dentists, and opticians of any 4-block area on the planet. This year the vendors favored the sales pitch, “ How about something for you honeymooners?” This year the “newest” style of purses had flower-like shapes. Flower-jewel encrusted cuff bracelets were “new” too.

We have yet to discover a great place to eat in Algodones. However, on a tip from the Yuma Visitor’s Guide we had some interesting and delicious tacos from four different Taco Trucks located in the Foothills. If you go to mmm-yoso.typepad.com and search “Yuma Taco Trucks”, you will get mouth-watering descriptions and photos of what we experienced. Our favorites were the chipilones (asada meat with melted cheese and roasted green chili) at Taco El Cosistas and the chile rellenos at Tacos Durango. We drove out to the Boondocker Rendezvous on Ogilby Road to say hello but could not find anyone. A visit to the nearby Gold Rock Ranch resulted in a purchase at a yard sale with lots of interesting antique items for sale as well as looking around the museum that describes the Tumco Gold Mine and local history. We found the “Bridge To Nowhere” just up the road from our campsite. Purportedly the Golden Gate bridge was designed after it.

We saw part of a model plane air show taking place at the nearby RC field. A young man did a great show flying his helicopter. Another flier had his plane blow apart when it took on too many G’s. We saw a 3 point landing; a nose, a wing, and one wheel. There were some big planes, a Piper Club and a Russian test plane about 1/4 scale.

With our fuel transfer pump replaced (it started leaking) and an oil change we are off to Mesa, Arizona. 　　　　　　　　　　

KENTUCKY - Sept. 24 to Dec. 22, 2010

2011-02-27T09:57:00.001-08:00

Welcoming us to town

Welcoming us to the RV park

Our RV “city” in Sept.

Our RV “city” in Dec.

Campground Office with a typical Autumn display

We arrived in Campbellsville, Kentucky to be part of the seasonal work force known as Work Campers at Amazon.com. Our home for the next 3 months was in the Heartland RV Park, just one of the six campgrounds housing us Work Campers. Work Campers are people who travel the country seeking seasonal work either in return for a free site or salary. Amazon offered both. We learned the Amazon slogan of WORK HARD, HAVE FUN, MAKE HISTORY and that our jobs existed, as Tammy, one of our bosses put it, “Because the customer says so”. Amazon.com wanted us to see that the customer gets what he wants, when and where he wants it, without any hassles, mistakes or damaged goods.

Amazon.Com’s SDF-1 Facility

WORK HARD:

We worked 4 - 10 hour days, (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) from 5:00 PM to 3:30 AM. As receivers we opened cartons coming off the delivery trucks. On the computer above our table we would enter information by scanning the bar codes outside and on each item within the carton. If there was something not correct or damaged, we would have to correct the problem before we could press the Enter button. Once that was done that item would appear as part of Amazon’s inventory. Putting too many, too few or not-ordered product into that computer makes big problems down the line. We then placed the product so that we could easily verify the exact count on each of the 3 shelves called totes on a juice cart which we moved to an area for the people who stowed or put these items in the cubbyholes throughout the 4 floors of the massive warehouse. As the peak shopping season approached, 11 hour shifts became the norm and overtime was almost mandatory for the regular employees. Work Campers however could voluntarily take overtime or not. Amazon does 70% of its business during the holidays. Everyone was drafted into working in areas not part of their regular positions whenever there was a need. Donna was sent to out-going to do gift wrapping and Mike got to be part of a relief team to give lunch and break time to the employees who work the 8 lines of cartons being prepped for shipping. Staff members worked along side us ready to give us tips and directions for keeping us safe and to improve the quality of what we were doing.

HAVE FUN:

We shared in all the activities that the regular employees were offered. There was a golf tournament, several meals serving pizza, barbecue chicken, chili and rib-eye sandwiches. We were given Thanksgiving pies, and chocolates and candy canes near Xmas. When our team made the night’s goal we got to pick $5 coupons out of a hat, good at local stores and restaurants. Emerson, our boss, brought in some of his Brazilian music to replace the one tape that we had been hearing night after night after night. During our breaks we would regale each other with descriptions of the best and worst boxes or problems we encountered and give opinions as to how we would run this operation! During the beautiful autumn we toured the countryside to discover Kentucky’s charm.

MAKE HISTORY:

Our team received 2.2 million items in one week during peak season which beat the last record of 1.6 million. We were told that our excellent attendance, minimal attrition and 60% working overtime helped in having to hire fewer temps and eliminated the longer hours and shifts put in by the regular employees in the past. Our work ethic had a positive influence on them as well.

KENTUCKY CHARM

Lincoln Days in Hodgenville

As well as celebrating the life and legacy of Hodgenville’s most prominent citizen, Lincoln Days is also a home-coming event to entice onetime citizens to return and visit with friends and family. There were Little Abe and Sara and Lincoln look-a-like contests, a Pioneer Family costume contest as well as a Lincoln oratory contest held early in the day. The winners got to ride on the floats in the afternoon parade.

A Lincoln look-a-like

Quilts on display for People’s Choice and Sale

With antique car and tractor displays, a quilt show, local country music, and Pioneer games such as log splitting and log riding as well as a cornhole tournament (tossing a corn cob through a hole), the event draws much participation from near and far.

Danville’s Constitution Square

The frontier and Civil War historic places, Constitution Square, Fort Harrod and the Perryville Battlefield did not have their visitor’s centers open so we did not get full appreciation of them.

However traveling to them we did appreciate Kentucky’s changing landscape. We drove through valleys, some flat, some with rolling hills, usually dotted with farms. The hills that rimmed the valleys made the horizon look lumpy.

Quilt Squares and hanging tobacco - a common barn sight

Many black barns in Amish areas

Sometimes we could be looking over the tree tops to the wide landscape below. We would have to zigzag down and up roads with limestone cliffs hugging the roadside or with tangles of trees and brush so thick that the eyes could not see through.

A surprise coming around a curve

A visit to Loretto and the Maker’s Mark Distillery gave us a look at the famous Bourbon culture here in Kentucky. Chase, our droll tour guide, told us that Mabel Stanley told her husband that she knew her pewter was made by different artisans because they each had a maker’s mark on the bottom. Thus came the name and the signature red wax bottle cover. The grounds, the family home, the other structures as well as the tour of the small distillery made it worth the effort to go there.

Stanley Family Home

Inside this Building is the whole operation

Old drive-up liquor store

Huge ricks store the aging bourbon

Fine arts and crafts are found in Berea at the Kentucky Artisan Center and in the local shops. We had a taste of the southern classic dishes of Brown Betty and spoon bread at the historic Boone Tavern on the Berea College campus. Students work at the inn and make furniture and instruments for sale in return for their tuition-free education.

Boone Tavern

Walking around The Kentucky Guild Arts Fair held under tall trees made the looking more pleasurable.

Kentucky Guild Arts Fair

Music under the trees

With the first dusting of snow we attended a performance of Christmas in Renfro Valley. Held in a big barn, it was a delightful mix of talents with old-fashioned country sensibility. The story line referred to an Appalachian tradition, the Christmas Train. Each year around Christmas a train brings toys and entertainment to the children living in the remote areas of the Appalachians.

Cast of Christmas in Renfro Valley

A Village Shop in Renfro Valley

December in Campbellsville

Christmas brings an end to our work and time in Kentucky. We are heading for warmer weather, California, and 2011.

VIRGINIA TO KENTUCKY - Sept. 3 to Sept. 26

2010-12-12T08:26:00.000-08:00

Our last update had us bidding farewell to Reston VA and the Mossoffs. We now are at Heartland RV Park in Campbellsville, Kentucky working at an Amazon.Com fulfillment warehouse. Our schedule hasn’t given us as much time as we expected for working on our updates and other leisure activities. Most of our off-time is consumed by catching up on our sleep, eating, and household chores. More about Amazon.Com later.

FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL SITE

Our first destination after leaving VA was the Flight 93 National Memorial Site near Shanksville, PA. We found ourselves on another section of the Lincoln Highway; this time going through a scenic mountain area called the Laurel Highlands.

Museum at Flight 93 Memorial Site

Presently, a temporary museum is set up in the old mining shack that was used for the collection and investigation of bodies and debris evidence. Inside there are some history boards and a small display of tokens left on the fences by the first visitors. There also is a place to write your sentiments about your visit or about the 911 attack. It was moving to read the new messages as they remain strong and deeply felt even nine years after the attack. Local residents volunteer to man the site so you hear their stories as well. The crash site now covered by fill, is still under construction and from the design plans will look totally different from what we saw.

PITTSBURGH

We were delighted to find our stop in Pittsburgh, a city that we had never visited, so interesting. The city at the confluence of the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers makes a striking picture from high atop the opposing steep banks of Mount Washington where two remaining funiculars still take citizens up and down.

Coming through the Fort Pitt Tunnel from the suburbs, Pittsburgh suddenly bursts into view, surely a stunning sight at night. As we entered the city it was immediately evident that there were a multitude of bridges here (not surprisingly, almost all of them were made of steel). On the Just Ducky tour we passed some of the many old and new architecturally important buildings that cluster around the area that once was a kind of Wall Street for oil and gas investment interests. The tour guide told us that Pittsburgh had more bridges than any other city in the world, four hundred and something (can’t remember the exact number). On the river we could see the influence of Carnegie and Heinz on the signs for the major attractions lining the shore.

Carnegie Science Center and Heinz Stadium

We stopped to see the wonderful stained glass windows in the Heinz Memorial Chapel on the U of Pitt campus after having Pittsburgh’s version of a steak and cheese sandwich in Little Italy.

Courage was theme of this window

We had tried eating in the trendy historic market area known as The Strip but it was so abuzz with activity that there was not a parking space to be found, as well as lines out front of most of the restaurants. Driving through we saw all kinds of retailers, seafood and produce merchants, specialty shops and sidewalk vendors.

OHIO

Our self-guided tour of the capitol building in Columbus began in The Crypt or basement and then was mostly spent opening the warren of doors connecting the 1901 Judiciary Annex with the 1861 Statehouse trying to find the right doors leading to rooms we wished to see. When found, those rooms were locked and any openings looking in were covered up. The rotunda was being used for a wedding. We don’t have much to remember about this capitol.

Replica of the Nina in a pleasant park along the river

Our next stop was the birthplace of American aviation, Dayton, Ohio. Beginning with the Wright Brothers, the inventors of powered, heavier-than-air, human controlled flight, other aviation milestones occurred here; the first military airfield, the first emergency parachute jump and new technology tested at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
We chose to tour the National Museum of the Air Force and the John W. Berry Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center from the listing of aviation places one can visit in the area. We took the special tour including 4 Presidential planes plus some experimental planes, never heard of or seen by the public. Kennedy’s plane was the first to be called “Air Force One’’. The earlier planes were given names such as Roosevelt’s “Columbine” or Truman’s “Independence”.

Our next stop was in the “Norman Rockwell” little town of Grand Rapids, Ohio to visit Mike’s niece and nephew, Tim and Tracey. We were invited to park on Tracey’s ranch property. The property abuts a canal towpath along the Maumee River which we walked one morning. Donna spotted chestnuts not often found anymore. If we walked further we would have reached the landing where one can still take a boat ride through the locks as once much river traffic did. There was a whirlwind of activity with Tracey’s 3 children, Evan (8), Claire (11) and Blake (12). They had to be picked up from school, to get to and from sport games, practice and riding lessons, and to attend the first junior-high school dance. There was also Tim’s 10-month old, perpetual motion, son Cole to be tended to in the mix.

John Schaff Sr and Jr, Blake and dogs getting breakfast ready

We learned about horse care and horse business with a visit to the riding stable owned and operated by Leslie, Tim’s wife. We learned the difference between hay and straw, between a paint and a pinto. Later at Tracey’s, a newly-purchased horse arrived with a severe head cut so there was an unanticipated vet’s visit and an overnight medication vigil for Tracey. Such is the life for horse or livestock owners.

Tim has one of the best jobs in the world. He is a corporate pilot and ferries the company brass all over the country in a 2010 King Air 350. He is also responsible for seeing to the maintenance and repair of the plane. They had just completed some avionics repairs and Tim wanted to take it up for a test flight. It was a special treat for Mike to be invited to go along. Mike was amazed at how much avionics has changed since his flying days. No more little round dials. The panel is made up of several LCD displays that provide all of the data necessary to fly the plane. Tim made a couple of ILS (instrument landing system) approaches which allowed Mike to observe the panel displays and on-screen charts in action.

INDIANA

We then headed to Goshen, Indiana where we would meet up with the Brennemans to attend the 50th Escapee Escapade. The first get-together or escapade of Escapees took place in 1979 in Bakersfield, CA with Kay and Joe Peterson at the helm offering advice and support for those interested in full-time RVing.

Donna with Joe and Kay Peterson

The Petersons and the Escapee Club have been greatly responsible for the respect and acknowledgement that full-timing now has as an admirable life style by the RV industry and public alike. We ourselves have learned and been helped by this RV club and its members. So many people we meet are fascinated when we tell them about this lifestyle. Most say they would love to do it themselves but this lifestyle is not for everybody. Mike’s usual advice to those contemplating life on the road consists of two essential preconditions - you have to be able to fix things in the RV yourself, and you have to get along with your spouse. Of course, there are many other considerations but those are essential.

It was a beautiful time of year to be in this area. The Amish/Mennonite farms seen in the countryside gave a sense of well-being and orderliness. The flower gardens, barns, quilts, horse buggies, produce and baked-goods stands and even laundry out drying on lines are the magnets that attract lots of visitors here and to other Amish conclaves.

Staying one night in the local Wal-Mart parking lot we got to see the Amish carriages and carts more closely. Wal-Mart has provided a barn in their parking lot with water and shelter for the horses, plus shovels and barrels for the horses’ droppings. The carriages symbolize Amish values of separation, simplicity, tradition and community. A speaker from the Menno-Hof Center in Shipshewanna told us the interesting history of the Anabaptists and the differences between the Amish and Mennonites.

As we had some time to spare before we were due at Amazon.Com we decided to try camping at Lake Patoka. Carmen, our GPS voice, took us there by a narrow, winding, desolate county road. From there we took some car trips. On one of the hottest days ever, we went to visit Santa Claus; that is Santa Claus, Indiana. The holiday décor throughout the town looked a bit bedraggled as we did in the heat.

The museum offered the story that back in 1856 when the town was founded, the founders wanted to have the name Santa Ana but was refused as it already had been taken. Therefore, they opted for something close, Santa Claus. There was a scrapbook someone had made with post marks from all the places they had visited with holiday names. How many can you name?

Another day found us at the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial near Gentryville. The park tells how Abe‘s boyhood here, from the age 7 to 21, made him into the man he became.

Washington Panel "The Years of Command"

On the memorial building are 5 sculptured panels that depict the steps in Lincoln’s life that brought him from a cabin to the White House and 9 inscriptions illustrating some of Lincoln’s beliefs. A beautiful cabinet stood amid the other crude furnishings inside the farm cabin. The docent said that Tom Lincoln made a decent income from making furniture for others and that probably the inside of the Lincoln home was much more refined than the way it was being depicted.

Tom Lincoln’s Farm

On the way back from viewing the grand Ohio River we passed the Saint Meinrad Archabbey. The church, sited atop a hill, looked very impressive so we stopped to have a look.

The primary work of the Abbey is the education of future leaders of the Catholic Church. The other works at Saint Meinrad are the retail operations of the Abby Press and Abby Caskets. The church was constructed by the monks and townspeople using the sandstone quarried on the property. The quality of the stone work, art and stained glass were a surprise find in such a remote place. The monks’ work must bring in much revenue.

Crossing the Ohio from Indiana into Kentucky

KENTUCKY

Our next destination was Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. As we approached the entrance on another 100 degree day, we were treated to some of the natural air-conditioning coming out from the cave. We took the Historical Tour which ended in a spiral staircase going up 155 steps with an elevation change of 300’. Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave in the world with 325 miles of mapped passageways and is one of the oldest tourist destinations in the U.S. Like Carlsbad Caverns, early exploration of the caves was done by young men eager for adventure, unmindful of danger, and equipped with primitive self-made ladders and lighting. We enjoyed Carlsbad Caverns much more because the enormous rooms and decorations make it seem like you are visiting a fairy-world. Also, the ways in and out are much easier for us seasoned citizens.
The friendly new owners of the Singing Hills RV Park, Beth and Eldon Brown, gave us a recommendation for a lunch stop in Glascow which was on our route to Campbellsville. Beth is writing a children’s book about the animal critters that live in the park, 6 geese, a cat and a lizard. If her book is as entertaining as her conversation, it should be a success. Before lunch at A Little Taste of Texas, we roamed the 30,000 square feet of artifacts that tell the story of the people and events that makeup the “Barrens” at the South Central Kentucky Cultural Center. When commenting on the derogatory name of Barren, we got two explanations of why the county and area are so named. In 1784 the name was applied on an early map of Kentucky denoting this South Central Kentucky area as a vast treeless, grass-covered prairie with little water. The other view was that no one could come up with a name that depicted something about this area, so they simply said it was barren. Long-time residents have been interviewed for some interesting oral history exhibits. They also have contributed possessions that are used in the exhibits that include a 40’s kitchen, a one-room schoolhouse and a log cabin.

Rural Kitchens before electricity was readily available

NORTHERN VIRGINIA, August 1 - September 3

2010-10-21T09:47:00.000-07:00

On August 1st we reported for our one month camp host position at Lake Fairfax County Park. From this park it is an easy drive to Amy and Adam’s home in Oakton. So we now would have a free spot with all the amenities while visiting with them. The park was heavily used by locals on the weekends; especially the Water Mine and the group- reserved picnic sites at the front of the park. A mile back at the campground it was quieter. Our job required us to be “on duty” at our site from 8 to 10 PM on Friday and Saturday nights and to clean the camp bathhouse/restroom on Tuesday thru Thursday, which rarely took us an hour to do. Samantha thought it very funny when she first heard Mike say, “ It was time to go on duty”. Evidently she associated “duty” with what their dog, Toby, went outside to do. Sam would delight in asking Donna (Grandee) to ask Grando if he was on duty so she could hear him say the “duty” word.

Getting ready for an evening fire at Lake Fairfax

The campground offered Samantha lots of things to do when visiting or over-nighting with us. She liked to walk and visit the other camp sites, especially those with kids and tents. She got herself invited to go inside and jump on inflatable beds and play flashlight tag. She was disappointed when her new friends were not there the next time she came. Mike even got his bathing suit on to swim ‘The River” on some hot sultry days when we took Samantha to the Water Mine. It was a treat to sit in the cool water under a shade umbrella watching Samantha playing and experimenting sliding on her back, bottom and stomach into the water. The water park offered her and us more things to do than just swimming.

We had lots of time off to explore. Driving to Dover, Delaware, we crossed the Chesapeake Bay at Annapolis over a long bridge, getting a glimpse of all the boating that goes on there. We of course had to stop to get some crab cakes. Delaware is a small state and the part we drove through was mostly farm field with little population. We were surprised at all the tours and talks offered at Dover’s Heritage Park and its resemblance to
parts of Boston and Philadelphia. Dover is not someplace one hears much about.

We were about to learn much about Delaware’s role in the founding of our country not learned in our schoolbooks in the very thorough tours given in both the new and old State Houses. In 1682 Delaware came under William Penn’s providence when King Charles II gave it to Pennsylvania in order to give Penn‘s colony land access to the ocean. In 1776 Delaware declared itself free from British rule and established a state government separate from Pennsylvania.It was here in Dover at the Golden Fleece Tavern that Delaware delegates were the first to sign and ratify unanimously the United States Constitution, thus earning Delaware the moniker, “The First State”. One of the Bicentennial murals in the Legislative Hall ( as the new State House is called) depicted what we thought to be Paul Revere‘s ride. “Everybody in Delaware knows Caesar Rodney’s name and fame”, chided the docent at our mistake. In 1776 Caesar Rodney rode to Philadelphia to break a tie vote on Independence. We also were informed that the chicken seen atop the steeple of the Old State House is no ordinary chicken but is a Blue Hen and acts as a memorial to the courageous Delaware regiments in the Continental Army. The men became known as the “Blue Hens’ Chicks” after the bluish brave fighting cocks that they often carried with them for amusement during lulls in battle.

The OLD STATE HOUSE on DOVER GREEN

On another day trip to Annapolis we spent most of our time at the Naval Academy as the Maryland State House was under renovation and one could only see posters of what was or will be seen someday. We saw the state flag everywhere after being told its history and some tall tales by the State House docent.

Maryland's State Flag

Maryland's State House

Annapolis has trolleys and other vehicles to take you where you want to go. We parked at the Navy-Marine Corps Stadium to avoid finding parking in the crowded historic and marina areas downtown. Annapolis attracts many visitors as it offers lots of shops, restaurants and historic places all in a beautiful setting. The Academy tour we took was focused on explaining how and where the Academy’s mission of developing the midshipmen morally, mentally and physically is accomplished. Of course they pointed out all the famous people who were graduates of the Academy. The fact that all 4,400 midshipmen are housed in one gigantic dorm was impressive.

Bancroft Hall
We also learned interesting lore and traditions at the Academy; how Bill, the goat became the Mascot and how the Tecumseh statue often appears in different disguises.

Donna and Amy went to the Washington National Cathedral for a gargoyle tour given by a friend of Amy and Adam. The gargoyles were added sometime during the 83 years it took for the Cathedral to be built as a way of raising money. Donors were allowed to choose the design of their gargoyle so there are many unusual and whimsical ones with interesting stories for their design; Darth Vader being the best known and looked-for. One has to use binoculars to see their details on the upper facade, as gargoyles are actually used as downspouts to protect the stone walls from water damage. the lecture with photos prior to touring outside was essential. The cathedral offers a variety of free self-guided tours for those who admire gothic architecture, impressive stone carvings, stained glass windows and medieval gardens. It attracted many local families looking for a place to go on a not-so-nice weather Sunday.

Very fanciful decorations - gargoyles too high to photograph

Creation of Humankind - one of the 3 carved creation -tympana over the 3 massive cathedral doors
Our visit ended with Samantha’s 4th birthday. Adam arranged the fun party with Sam’s friends at Tumbles, a children’s gym. The kids enjoyed all the games and activities presented, especially experiencing “flying” on a zip line as a finale.

Pizza Time

I have to blow all these out?
The Birthday girl gets to fly first

We had a family party on Sam’s real birthday, September 2nd. Sam decided four candles was not enough to fill her Wishasaurus (The little Princess cake was not made for candles). It was hard to convince her just to open her presents and not play with them, so opening took awhile. Then, it was time to say our good byes.

Sam with her Princess cake, Brownie and Wishasaurus

I'll start with the smallest!

The MOSSOFF FAMILY

MAINE, VERMONT and UPSTATE NEW YORK JULY 8 thru JULY 28

2010-08-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

The lure of visiting two more state capitals and of seeing the world’s largest rotating and revolving globe, EARTHA, made us settle on our path for the rest of the month before our commitment as camp hosts in August.
Eartha was designed and built by employees of De Lorme, a computer map-making company in the little town of Yarmouth, Maine. The 140 gigabytes of map data needed for Eartha to be developed was obtained from satellite imagery, shaded relief, colored bathymetry (ocean-depth data) and information about road networks and urban areas. Most people are probably impressed by the sight of oceans and continents rotating past them but Eartha also gives one a feeling of the awesome nature of our beautiful, blue planet, Earth.

Along with the better known Maine cities of Portland, Augusta, Bangor and Bar Harbor we experienced the smaller towns of Searsport, Belfast, Bucksport and Ellsworth. Travelers to Maine are told to expect to see a rocky, rugged, pine-rimmed coastline punctuated with inlets, islands, harbors and coves; to spot colorful fishing boats and windjammers quietly moored or briskly afloat; to view majestic sea captains’ mansions in towns that evoke the spirit of their maritime roots; to sit under a shady umbrella on a pier while lunching on delicious local seafood. We managed to see and do all these and more.
The Penobscot Narrows Bridge at Bucksport with an observatory at the top of the 42’ tower.
Along the Shore Trail in Bar Harbor

View from fishing pier in Freeport

Along the road near Ellsworth

Victorian building in downtown Belfast

We vied at spotting the “MAINE-LY ____ ”or “MAINLY MAINE _____ ”signs that are
popular on shops. There must be a Maine tradition that towns display the American flag all summer. No town or township matched the number we saw in Dorrington. The flags, attached to every other telephone pole, went on and on for miles, even where there were no longer any homes or businesses.

The Maine State House in Augusta was designed by Charles Bullfinch and closely resembles the Massachusetts State House but is built from local granite. The Maine State Museum was located in the same complex as the State House and was well worth the $2 admission. The social history on the top floor was especially interesting.

Mike remembering having a car just like this.

Our stay in the hamlet of Newburgh enabled us to take many day trips around the Bangor/Arcadia area. By invitation our RV was parked on the Piper Mountain Christmas Tree Farm. Our hosts were owners Jim and Norma Corliss. We were treated to fresh raspberries from their garden each morning. Jim is a retired air traffic controller and a private pilot who lands in the grass fields when he flies about Maine. He and Mike talked about their adventures. Jim was the president of the National Christmas Tree Growers Association for several years so he got to deliver a couple of the National Christmas Trees to the White House. On one visit, George W. Bush invited Jim and Norma into the Oval Office for a visit and photo op (a picture he proudly displays). Jim remembers commenting that never in his wildest dreams did he ever think he would be in the Oval Office. Bush quickly responded “me too”.

We encountered many logging trucks as we followed the Androscoggin River into New Hampshire. We still find ourselves wondering at all the rivers, lakes and water we see. Guess that is because we lived in dry and arid Los Angeles so long. We set out to drive to the top of Mount Washington, the highest point in NH at 6,288 feet, but decided the visibility was not going to be good enough for such a trek. Mike was amazed to learn about the record wind velocities recorded at the top of what is not a very tall peak.

The scenery changed as we headed into Vermont and approached the Montpelier region. The forest opened up to lush, rolling, green pastures dotted with barns. We did not see many cows as they were probably inside the barns keeping cool. We were told on the tour at the Cabot Creamery, cows are delicate creatures. Vermont dairies provide milk for the famous ice-cream and cheeses made here.

Vermont’s State House is located in the smallest capital city in America, Montpelier. The intimate size and the exacting restoration of its interior made it one of the jewels among the state capitols we’ve visited. Montpelier’s downtown has a very casual, hippy-like atmosphere. Donna’s birthday was celebrated at Rainbow Sweets Bakery and Café in Marshfield. The owner gives a witty and unique spiel that acts as the menu. Most items come from the huge black oven that dominates the café’s space. One of the signature pastries is a duo of warm caramel encrusted balls filled with custard, sitting on a whipped cream covered pastry shell. The owners have been known to call this “balled” desert after tough guys, Sean Connery, Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt.

Nestled between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondacks of New York is Lake Champlain. It is the 6th largest freshwater lake in the U.S. We crossed the lake by way of the string of Lake Champlain Islands from Burlington, VT. The Chazy Reef, the oldest known fossil (coral) reef in the world, is near these islands. The road took us by fields of corn and hay and very low-key villages with no fast-food or brand-name stores to be seen. Boating and biking seem to be the main attractions for vacationers here. After crossing the bridge to Rouses Point, NY, we came within eyesight of the Canadian border.

From our campsite along the AuSable River we set out to explore some of the vast Adirondack Park. Lake Placid was our destination but a wrong turn at Au Sable Forks took us over some high country to Saranac Lake instead. Finding our way back to Lake Placid we explored some of the shops on its Main Street with hordes of other tourists looking to do the same thing --- not very placid. A stop at the Wilmington Flume Area enabled us to have a brief experience of walking high above the rush of water that still is carving its way through the stone underground. Out of the High Peaks the AuSable River is joined by numerous streams as it spreads out and empties into Lake Champlain. The river was once the principle highway and power source which helped the towns along it to grow. But, as late as 1999, tremendous floods caused by ice jams in the river’s bends, have wiped out bridges and businesses in this area.

From Mount Defiance we had a great view of Fort Ticonderoga and its strategic location above the narrow choke-point between Lake Champlain and Lake George. No wonder this fort saw many battles for control by French, British and American forces.
In the town of Ticonderoga one can view the system of dams, falls, and canals along the La Chute River that were built to support the mills operating there. One of the mills was the American Graphite or Lead Mill which made plumbago from a nearby graphite mine. This plumbago was used in the manufacture of lead pencils by the Dixon Company of Jersey City, NJ. To sell more of its pencils, the historical exploits of the Green Mountain Boys at Fort Ticonderoga were used in Dixon’s advertising promotions thus linking the two names, Dixon-Ticonderoga. The small Ticonderoga Heritage Museum offered excellent displays and information about this and the pulp and paper industry so important in the town’s industrial history.

During a stay in the outskirts of Schenectady, we drove through Amsterdam into the southern area of the Adirondack Park around Speculator. A later trip to Albany and the New York State Museum explained the cool and misty nature of that Adirondack wilderness. The World Trade Center exhibit showed how the distinctive steel pieces were interwoven to build the internal skeleton for the Twin Towers. The jagged silhouettes of those pieces are what make photos of the aftermath of 911 so poignant.

Passing through the Susquehanna Heritage Area, we got to see several historic wood carousels. The word carousel originally referred to the tournament in which knights participated. The knights would train for spearing contests by lancing rings as they rode wooden horses that revolved around a center pole. These training devices also became known as carousels. Here in the greater Binghamton area there are six of the 19 remaining Allan Herschell wood-carved carousels known to be operational. George F. Johnson, a local shoe manufacturer, along with his family donated them to the community because he felt carousels provided a recreation that contributes to a happy life. Along with the joy of riding a “jumper” and hearing the Wurlitzer Band Organ music, carousels are works of art, each offering unique details to discover.

Up at the Kopernik Observatory in nearby Vestal, there was a hubbub of activity. This observatory is dedicated to introduce young people in grades 1-12 to astronomy. We were shown around by the manager of programs at the center. She, a mathematics major who wants to teach at the high-school level, was enthusiastic about being able to work with the 1st and 2nd graders who were there that day and was proud of the spirit of the people who work to have such a resource in their community. The Polish Cultural Society of Binghamton provides the funding for this observatory that started as one man’s interest and obsession. This was quite a different experience from our visits to the noted Kitt Peak, McDonald Mountain and Palomar Observatories.

In the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania we had nearly reached our August destination in Virginia. A resident in the town of Tamaqua ,where we were staying for the night, said we should go to Jim Thorpe if we were looking for an interesting place to visit. The town’s location on the banks of the Lehigh River between several steep mountains has kept it the “best preserved 19th century town in Pennsylvania”. Coal and the Lehigh Railroad brought prosperity and tourism to this place called the “Switzerland of America”.
I9 of the country’s 26 millionaires at that time had a residence here.
The town’s original name of Mauch Chunk was changed in 1954 to Jim Thorpe when his widow brought his remains from Oklahoma to be enshrined there. The citizens thought the name change might help revive the lively and thriving spirit of the town.

THE GREAT RIVER ROAD and BEYOND - JUNE 3 thru JULY 8

2010-08-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

It was now time to set out for the east coast. Crossing into Louisiana we went across the 25 mile Breaux Bridge. It is a four lane road raised above the Atchafalaya River and its watery surrounds. It gives one a sense of what lies in bayou country, a wild and unforgiving place. This is the area where exiles from Arcadia were allowed to settle. They were able to survive because they were hunters and fishermen. Hopefully, we will be able to explore this area more fully someday

Mike had thought the Great River Road would give us a sense of how the Mississippi River affects the places along it, much like we experienced when following the Natchez Trace. It turned out there were very few places to really do this as the road bypassed the towns, museums were closed on the days we wanted to visit and there were not many places to view the river itself. In Louisiana the look of the land was that of plantation country with stately tall oaks draped with moss, old lichen covered gravestones, and lots of vegetation. There were grand homes once former plantations, small wood cottages and ornate Victorian houses and businesses to be seen around St. Francisville and Port Gibson.

Our trip into Baton Rouge and the state capitol was done in the pouring rain. But southern hospitality was not dampened any. The security guard in the capitol building told us to look at a new bicentennial display showing the first Lone Star Flag that flew over what was then part of West Florida for 74 days. The observation deck up on the 27th floor of the 34 story building was closed due to the rain. The building resembles the Empire State Building, which was built the year before. We talked with Peggy, the clerk at the gift shop on the 27th floor, about herself and her travel dreams. We left with gifts of our visit with her. The officer outside the legislature escorted us in to sit near the pages to hear the business being done.

Baton Rouge on the Mississippi - Capitol in background

After the capitol visit it was time for lunch. We ate oyster Po Boys and crawfish etoufee to sample some Louisiana cuisine.

Traveling on through Mississippi the land turned to corn and cane fields. We found the Great River road to be mostly boring so we left it just north of Memphis, Tennessee. We drove through Kentucky on a previously traveled route to West Virginia.

As we traveled through West Virginia we marveled at the sight of houses and roads in the hollows far beneath us as our roadway took us across bridges spanning hill after hill. Why did they choose to live at the bottom and shadow of the hill instead of on its top? We thought we would stop and walk around downtown Charlestown as we missed doing that when we last came through. However we missed the exit and again missed seeing if Charleston was as interesting as advertised. But, that gave us time to later see Clarksburg’s historic district and to have dinner in a home turned into a spaghetti restaurant. The Italian miners who came to work in the coal mines took salami, pepperoni, or bologna with hunks of hearth-baked bread down into the depths of the coal seams in their lunch pails. The Pepperoni Roll, a Clarksburg favorite was thus invented and has endured till today!

In Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire we visited with family and friends. A high-school graduation celebration, two christenings and several cookouts were main events. We had 8 year old Kate Levesque with us traveling from Yardley, PA to Nashua, NH. Her first trip in an RV was made longer and more exciting as we had to take several detours on the way. The detours were reminders that sometimes bridges on back roads can be too low or cannot support our 16 ton RV.

Kevin’s graduation party

Kristen, Tim and Charlotte Wood

Paul, Fran and Granddaughter Kate Levesque

Mariah, Kira, Erin, Johnny and Johnathan Baranowski

We drove into Trenton, New Jersey to visit the State House. Close by, in Hamilton, NJ, was Grounds For Sculpture. Here, more than 250 sculptures by renowned and emerging artists are installed in a marvelously varied landscape of exotic trees, flowers and waterscapes. Seward Johnson founded this parkland of art and nature. His life-like sculptures are scattered in sometimes hidden pockets of the park. In fact, when we were having our lunch at an outside table tucked in a corner beneath some bamboo, a woman stared at us for awhile and then apologized because she said she thought we might be one of his sculptures. Here are examples of some of the sculptures and their settings.

One hot day while in NH, we decided to drive to Providence, Rhode Island to visit the State House. The white marble façade and the many stairs leading up to the building were dazzling in the hot sun. We then learned that the public entrance was on the opposite side. Once inside we found it was not air-conditioned. We, needless to say, did not spend much time on our self-guided tour.

The steps and white granite façade of the Rhode Island State House

Though the downtown looked interesting we decided to stay inside our air-conditioned car and drive down to Newport where along Naragansett Bay and the ocean it might be cooler. Rhode Island is aptly nicknamed The Ocean State.

KERRVILLE, TEXAS - May 6 thru June 3, 2010

2010-07-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

Having been here before, we like the Texas “Hill Country” and the town of Kerrville. We decided to stay at Los Robles RV Park which was recommended by friends. It was very nice with very reasonable rates so we signed up for a month.

Mike decided that this was a good time and place to replace our TV. Our old TV had been going downhill for quite some time and Mike wanted to replace it with a larger TV. The cabinet was not big enough for a larger TV so it would have to be removed and replaced with a larger cabinet. The question was, could we live with a larger cabinet intruding into our very confined living space? Let’s find out, says Mike. So about a month ago, he used cardboard and masking tape to enlarge the old cabinet (see photo below) which we have been living with ever since. We found that the larger size was not objectionable so it was a go to build the new cabinet.

This was a big project. A lot of research was done to select and buy the new TV. We purchased a 40” LED flat screen to replace the old 30” LCD flat screen. Since it would take weeks to build and finish the new cabinet, we needed a plan to be able to watch TV during the transition. Mike designed and built a skeleton plywood frame that would hold the new TV. He then removed the old cabinet and installed the new frame in one day. We were watching the new TV that evening.

The new cabinet was designed to be built in modules and attached to the skeleton frame as they were completed. This allowed Mike to break the whole project down to several smaller projects. Having the use of the TV allowed him to take his time and not “rush” the job. The back of our car served as a “garage” to store wood and assembled sections during the project. The wider cabinet also allowed Mike to design and build a more appropriate surround for the fireplace.

Our time in Kerrville was not all work. We did find time to take a couple of day trips and do some socializing at the park. When we left Kerrville, the project was not quite finished. It took about another 4 weeks, working part time, to finally complete everything.

OLD CABINET WITH CARDBOARD ON LEFT AND NEW FINISHED CABINET ON RIGHT

LOS ANGELES TO KERRVILLE, TX - April 12 to May 5, 2010

2010-07-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

We left L.A. on April 12th (Mike’s birthday) and headed east. In western New Mexico, traveling along US 60, we happened upon the “Very Large Array” located in the middle of nowhere. This prompted a stop at the visitor’s center to see what’s what. It is a radio astronomy telescope operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The array is comprised of 27 antennas, each of which weighs 230 tons and has a 82 ft. dish. They are all movable and can be positioned in different configurations. Astronomers use this instrument to study the radio waves emitted by celestial objects. Here area couple of pictures:

Note Donna standing near the antenna.

We continued on to “The Ranch”, an Escapee RV Park near Carlsbad, NM to spend a few days. The few days stretched to 2 weeks because our frig quit and we had to wait for parts. We used the time for some day trips and to revisit Carlsbad Caverns. Even though we had been there before we were still awed by the caverns. We took a lot of pictures but with the low light they came out dark so we won’t include any here. After we got the frig fixed, we continued on to Kerrville, Texas.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - April 5, 2010

2010-07-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

When our time was up at the RV Park in Mesa, AZ we decided to go to Los Angeles and visit. We found that there was a space available in an RV Park in Van Nuys for one week. We booked it and took off for L.A. It turned out to be a busy week and we had a wonderful time visiting friends and relatives. Since we lived in the San Fernando Valley for 32 years and owned 3 homes there, we knew a lot of people and places to reminisce with. We did find one day when we didn’t have any plans so we decided to take a nostalgic ride and check out the three houses we used to live in. We found that they hadn’t changed much except for the size of the trees around them. Here are some pictures:

Woodland Hills - 1966 to 1970

Chatsworth - 1970 to 1983

Chatsworth - 1983 to 1998

While visiting with relatives, we were encouraged to attend graduation activities with other relatives on the east coast. These activities were occurring around mid June which was about 2 months away. Since we had planned to spend the month of August in Virginia near Washington, DC, we decided to go early and attend the graduation. Since we had 2 months, we planned to go to Kerrville, TX and spend a month there, then on to eastern PA.

Mesa, Arizona - Feb. & Mar. 2010

2010-05-03T09:07:00.000-07:00

January 30, 2010 - April 3, 2010

We have been enjoying a couple of months here in the Phoenix area. We are parked in a small, older mobile home park called Ambassador Downs right on Main Street in Mesa. Our windshield had slipped from its gasket and the authorized repair place turned out to be just down the street. While there Mike saw the way the company, RV Restorations, puts in laminate flooring. Now we have dark wood floors instead of the old carpeting. Mike decided he could do it himself in a way we could live in the rig while the work progressed. Being in a big city offered lots of places to supply materials to get the job done.

Although there is the hustle and bustle of a big metropolis, there are also areas with orange groves, stretches of rocky desert terrain with stately saguaros and other desert vegetation, plus many walking trails along irrigation canals. We experienced the pleasures of both big city and small town places.

BIG CITY PLEASURES

We took the Metro Rail from Mesa into downtown Phoenix to see the state capitol. The building that served as the Arizona Territory Capitol and briefly as State Capitol is now known as the Arizona Capitol Museum. Since the guided tour was mostly museum exhibits, we elected to walk around ourselves. The extensive displays dedicated to the Battleship Arizona were worth the visit. The workings of the state is done in three non-descript buildings surrounding the smaller museum building. We briefly sat in the gallery for the raucous opening of an afternoon session of the legislature. There was a lot of joking around between the members. On the free shuttle bus that took us to and from the metro rail station we sat among people sleeping alongside bags of personal belongings . Evidently the area near the capitol is full of transients looking and waiting for social services. Code Pink and other activists were out protesting the local sheriff for his tough illegal immigration policies.

Eleven major league baseball teams hold their spring training in the Phoenix area. Although we did not go to see a game, a visit to the Arizona Museum for Youth told the history of how these teams, now known as the Cactus League, were lured to Arizona.. Most of the Red Sox, then starring Ted Williams, preferred Florida as it was more familiar to New Englanders and offered more opportunities for fishing. Another player said he couldn’t feel the sweat of the game in the dry climate of Arizona. The exhibit also had a fun video of dogs playing baseball. Phoenix is a sport-fans’ Mecca. Among the many venues for sports, we took a fascinating architectural and technological tour of the University of Phoenix Stadium - home to the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and the Fiesta Bowl. The barrel cactus- shaped concrete building has both a retractable roof and a roll-out grass playing field. No one gets inside the Cardinal’s locker room except team members. Neither of the Super Bowl teams did either.

An evening performance of the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra at the beautiful Mesa Arts Center was a treat. Our seats gave us an overhead view of the agile hands of the pianist as he played Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op.43. Many winter visitors volunteer here at the Mesa Arts Center and the several museums in town as well as at Hohokum Field where the Cubs play.
Another treat was the dancing at the annual manager’s dinner and show for residents of our RV park. The manager, Valentino, used to be a crooner in the style of Dean Martin and knows many musicians and performers hereabouts.

Mesa, we were told, is the dance capital of the west. A tango and the mambo were performed by couples from the park. A group from the Chinese Cultural Center did several ethnic dances. The movements during the Peacock Dance mimicked the strutting and neck jerking of the peacock but were made more beautiful by the gracefulness of the dancer.

Every so often a parade of people carrying torches and chanting would walk through the park. They turned out to be avid fans of the TV program, Survivor, and were carrying out a ceremony given when a resident portraying one of the show’s participants was voted off.

We found new places to eat. One was a Vietnamese restaurant called Un-pho-gettable located in the Mekong Plaza. It was one of several located around the gigantic central market which featured all kinds of exotic Asian foods and specialty items. Both the market and the cuisine were fun experiences! Our waitress helped us pick what dishes we were willing to try and then assisted us in putting on the appropriate condiments and herbs. Their specialty is Pho or soup, a consomme with selected additions of noodles, vegetables, meat or shrimp.

SMALL TOWN PLACES

A stunning scenic drive through the Superstition Mountains in the Tonto National Forest brought us first to the old historic mining town of Goldfield. This popular tourist place offers mine tours, train and horse carriage rides, with a brothel, blacksmith shop or saloon to see as you walk around town. We asked and got the answer to the frequently asked question, “ How did the mountains get the name Superstition?” We only drove as far as Tortilla Flat, an old stagecoach stop, as the gravel road ahead to Roosevelt Lake was in poor shape. Here old-west roots are played up with wooden sidewalks, a dollar -covered café ceiling and country music for the enjoyment of the many travelers who make their way to this outpost.
Another trip took us to historic Florence. A purse made from license plates caught my eye at the Visitor Center. More such crafts and bakery goods made by inmates were to be found at the Prison Outlet Store. We walked through the True Value Hardware store to see its touted eclectic array of goods for sale. The most unusual item were the pink boxer shorts. Here, sold as a tourist item, pink underwear are actually used by the prison. Supposedly, since the color change, the loss of such items walking out of the prison has sharply dropped and saved the tax payers much money.
On a later trip following the Apache Trail, we drove along arrays of purple, orange and bright pink colored wild flowers. We walked along the Boyce Thompson Arboretum trail that took us through several different desert landscapes, along a lake and creek bed to see some desert plants that we hadn’t seen anywhere else. The strangest was a 25 foot tall Boojum. It was labeled as being of the ocotilla family but the only resemblance to an ocotillo were the thorns. On the way to Superior and Globe huge copper mining operations were evident.

Quartzsite - Jan. 2010

2010-05-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

January 13, 2010 - January 29, 2010

We next went to Quartzsite to join up with several RV groups we belong to. Each winter Quartzsite is the gathering place for thousands of RVers who come for the swap meets and the Big Tent RV and Travel Show among others. The rock and gem shows bring rock hounds, artists, and vendors from world-wide. The blue lapis lazuli and other gem stones from Afghanistan caught our eye as well as rabbits, turtles and fish made from stacked polished quartzite.

We first joined up with the Boomers, a self-claimed “casual social group whose members exhibit a youthful mindset”. About 90 plus rigs came and went during the two weeks that this Boom-a-Rang took place. Gretchen, the Rang hostess, did a yeoman’s job welcoming every new arriver and announcing all the activities at each Happy Hour. Several mornings she and her husband made pancakes for everyone. Donations collected for their efforts added to a grand sum donated to CARE, an ESCAPEE club charity. For a casual group, there was a plethora of events and activities scheduled which took place despite some bad weather. One fierce wind and rain storm had people joking about replacing the morning walk with rowing on the new creeks flowing through the campsite. In town saguaros and vendor tents were blown down.

We then moved to join the Boondockers and the Freethinkers who were camped in a more accessible area of free BLM camping surrounding Quartzsite. The Freethinkers held a wine and gourmet soup dinner followed by conversation by the campfire. Randy, a guest, recited a poem about Hi Jolly, one of Quartzsite’s famous residents. Hi Jolly or Haiji Ali came to the U.S. from Syria along with the first shipment of camels that the War Department was hoping would be useful in carrying supplies over the desert. After the camel experiment fizzled, Hi Jolly came to Quartzsite and became a prospector, miner and cattleman. Randy’s poem was a modern version of Hi Jolly’s spirit roaming the desert. Hi Jolly remarks about finding strange humans who live in mechanical homes on the desert floor.

A favorite attraction in the area is the Nellie B. Saloon or the Desert Bar. It is located about 7 dirt-road miles from Highway 95 north of Parker on the remains of an old mining site. Its owner has built a saloon, a small cathedral, stages for bands, and 6 stall restrooms with flush toilets all powered by solar energy. Only opened weekends, it was jammed despite its remote setting surrounded by BLM land. It was on such rides to out-of-the- way places, that one can appreciate the fantastical shaped silhouettes of the surrounding Arizona mountains.

Yuma, Arizona

2010-05-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

December 05, 2009 - January 12, 2010

This winter finds us in Arizona. We first returned to Yuma. It is our third time here and so the challenge in revisiting places is to capture excitement in the familiar. Our home park this time is Hidden Cove RV Park located next to the park we were in last year.

Yuma was founded and shaped by its location near the best natural crossing on the Colorado River. Many of the Forty-Niners crossed here via a rope ferry on their way to the California gold fields. It is hard to imagine that the Colorado of today was once navigable from the Gulf of California to the mouth of the Grand Canyon making Yuma once a bustling river town. In 1915 the historic Ocean to Ocean bridge was built. It was the only vehicular bridge crossing the Colorado for 1,200 miles. During the depression years many people used this bridge to seek a better life in California. The Los Angeles police chief sent his officers to try to stop the flow at one point. Many that were stopped decided to settle here. Yuma today is an agricultural town. The Colorado River brings green relief to the mostly yellow and brown desert landscape in the form of miles of agricultural fields, lush date palm groves and remnants of citrus groves. Fields of lettuce lie next to the largest shopping mall; tractors and farm worker buses with attached Andy Gumps add to the city street traffic.

We went to the Yuma Proving Grounds to take in a special NASA exhibit on the Constellation project. The Yuma Proving Grounds still is used to test military equipment for its ability to withstand brutal summer temperatures and difficult desert terrain. The base museum tells the history of the men trained and weaponry tested here for WWII. There is a Big Guns display of all types of cannons The museum curator told us that modern cannons were designed hundreds of years prior to their becoming a reality because the technology of making steel that could withstand the cannon’s heat and power had not yet developed. We were told that some of the military equipment seen in the film AVATAR (supposedly 150 years in the future) is very close to coming to fruition. A new Holocaust section was added since our last visit. The photos and interviews of the men from this base who were the first to enter the prison camps made this section very compelling.

Mexico - Mar./Apr. 2009

2010-04-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Mexico again. We crossed the border from Arizona into Mexico for our second major adventure here on 2-18-09. It’s been two years since our first trip where we entered from south Texas, drove through central Mexico to Guanajuato, then west to Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, up the west coast and back into Arizona. That trip was about six weeks. This time we are going the opposite direction. We’re traveling south along the west coast, crossing through Mexico City, and back up the east coast into Texas. We plan on about eight weeks for this trip. As usual we don’t have any reservations nor a fixed itinerary but plan each day as we go.

We spent 2 days in Organ Pipe National Monument in Arizona just before crossing. Organ Pipe is on the southern border between Yuma and Tucson. It is full of cactus plants most of which are Saguaros and Organ Pipes. This is a very unique park and well worth a visit even though it is remotely located. We toured the park by car and took lots of pictures of some unique shapes.

March 2, 2009

Our first couple of days in Mexico were uneventful in that we were just traveling to our first destination in Guaymas. This was the destination of an Escapee Club Rally of 50 RV’s that included many people that we know. We had pre-planned meeting our friends there, Richard and Pat, who will be our traveling companions for this trip. We spent a week in Guaymas with the Rally sightseeing and watching the celebration of their Mardi Gras which runs the weekend before Lent through Fat Tuesday. They had parades every day with music and lots of color. One day we went to a mini Sea World and watched sea lions and dolphins perform. Pat even got to swim with the dolphins which made her day.

On Thursday, Feb. 26, our caravan of two motor homes headed south to the beach town of Huatabampito where we spent the night. It would have been nice except that it was very windy there. We did walk the beach and did a walk around town but decided to leave the next day. We went to another beach town further south called Las Glorias and spent a couple of days there as the weather was much better. This is a big shrimp fishing area so we’ve been eating a lot of shrimp. We bought 3 kilos (about 6 pounds) of jumbo shrimp which are in our freezer. Yesterday we moved south again to another beach RV resort at Celestino Gasca which is about 45 miles north of Mazatlan. We met 2 other couples here who were at the Rally. We’re planning to join them tonight and build a fire on the beach.

We are finding as we did before that the Mexican people are friendly and helpful. We have seen police activity on the highway, usually truck inspections, but we have not been hassled at all. One major change that we have noticed was the inspection station for trucks headed north to the US border are thoroughly checking every truck. This has caused a backup of about 5 miles of trucks lined up waiting. There is a new inspection station being built to speed up the process and it looks almost ready to open.

Until the next update - Adios Familia y Amigos - Mike & Donna

March 21, 2009

Hola, Everyone!

We are about to venture into unknown territory to reach Mexico City and then to the Texas border. Much time has been spent getting advice as to which routes to take or NOT to take. Throughout our travels most of the people we have met and seen in the campgrounds and the towns have been Canadians from British Columbia, but some have been from Ontario and even Nova Scotia. The only Americans we’ve encountered have been those who we met at the rally in Guaymas, then at Celestino Gasca and now at Jocotepec. No matter where one wants to go, the discussion usually gets around to the question, “Use the LIBRE or the CUOTA?”. There are good arguments for each. The toll roads (Cuotas or Maxipistas) can be quite expensive especially if there is a free road (Libre) nearby. The Cuotas are like our Interstates as they are more direct and bypass little towns or pueblas on the way. Many RVers do not like to slow down and subject their rigs to the speed bumps (topes or vibradores) which always are found at the entradas and salidas of towns. There is also much more traffic on the Libres as the locals take them. One is sure at some point to have to follow a slow truck or two or three inching along the narrow and curvy roads with no easy or safe way to pass. So, it takes much more time to get places on the Libre. It took us over 6 hours to go about 200 miles; but we were going from sea level from Teacapan to about 4,000 feet elevation near Tequila on roads that had so many switch backs that it reminded us of the drive along Big Sur in CA! On the Cuota we would never had seen a man sitting under a tree talking on his cell phone while his horse grazed on the grass, the portraits of the Lady of Guadalupe painted on rock outcroppings, vendors selling goodness knows what by the inevitable tope, black lava rocks spewed from the volcanoes in the distance, and trucks piled high with sugar cane.

From the flat coastal roads with fields of wheat, corn and chilies we moved to vistas of blue agave and yellow sugar cane as we neared Tequila and Amititlan. A later visit, took us to the Mundo Cuervo distillery complex (producer of the Jose Cuervo brand of tequila) across from the Centro Plaza in Tequila. Because it was Sunday there was a big crowd at the plaza with vendors with balloons, wands with bubble mix, and plastic pull -toys for all the muchachos. A mariachi band played for a motley group of dancers who wended their way around the arched walkways. Because it was Sunday we did not see any production of tequila, but we were taught the ceremony to appreciate the drink, much like the procedures used for wine or bourbon tasting and got a margarita at the end of our tour. Tossing down a shot is not the Mexican way of drinking tequila. The rested or aged tequila, which has an amber color and is to be sipped from small glasses, is quite different from the clear tequila which is used for mixed drinks. We were also introduced to agave nectar or honey. It is touted as being very healthful as even diabetics can partake of it. A vendor was looking for a US distributor. Anyone interested?

We have stayed the past 2 weeks at Roca Azul, a campground on the shores of Lake Chapala, Mexico’s largest natural lake which is about 40 miles south of Guadalajara. We now understand why our travel companions, Pat and Richard Belanger, loved their stay here two years ago. The lake is surrounded by mountains, some of which slope dramatically down to the shore. Yellow and orange flowering trees and purple jacaranda are everywhere along with the fuchsia of the bougainvilleas. Three pools, one filled with water from the hot springs found hereabouts, tennis and basketball courts, and a shaded walkway along the lake can keep one occupied in the campground. But there are the towns of Jocotepec, San Juan Cosala, Ajijic, and Chapala, all of which have different personalities and attractions, to explore. Ajijic( (ah-hee-heek ) has a great gringo influence with its many boutiques, art galleries and restaurants. We enjoyed walking along the malecons catching the afternoon breeze in Jocotepec and Chapala, shopping at the local market days, and eating great food at great prices. We have bought pails of raspberries from the fields that surround the campground. Imagine a gallon of raspberries for under $2!

On our arrival to Roca Azul we were invited along with 18 others to come to a farewell dinner for one of the Canadians at a restaurant in San Juan Cosala (noted for its thermal spas). The fish tacos and the many ways we enjoyed shrimp (camarones) along the west coast are not as popular here. We thus began to try the different regional dishes offered in the western central highlands:
Chile en Nogada - mild green chilies stuffed with meat and fruit, served with a cream sauce, ground walnuts and cheese.
Birria de Chivo - steamed goat served in ceramic casseroles with chopped avacado, onions, cilantro, salsa and warm tortillas on the side.
Tortas Ahogadas - a baguette filled with chunks of pork then smothered with a searing chili sauce.
Mole - a complex sauce made with nuts, different chilies, spices, and sometimes chocolate to be served over chicken, turkey or pork.

We have gotten more confident about eating in the market places and stands and we are more at ease driving in the bigger cities as in old town Mazatlan and Centro Guadalajara. This may be because we have had more time to try these things than our last time in Mexico. Also, because we have been using our GPS which can tell us where to turn by watching the route on the screen. In Mexico the street names are hard to locate and read quickly if they exist at all.

We went into Guadalajara twice. We rode like sardines packed in with the locals on a high speed bus we boarded across from the Walmart where we parked our car. We ate and shopped at the huge three storied Mercado Libertad. Then we proceeded to view the Orozco murals at Instituto Cultural de Cabanas. The 57 murals painted in 1938-1939 warn of institutions (church and government) that subjugate humanity to cultivate power with images of fire, broken chains, blood and haunting “Star Wars” looking images. We walked up the bustling Plaza Tapatia with stands representing the tequila industry, to the Cathedral, Plaza de Armas, and the Palacio de Gobierno. Inside we came upon a volunteer who explains the history of Guadalajara and the Orozco mural of Miguel Hidalgo. Hildago’s Groto de Independencia launched the 1810 independence movement. (In 2010 Mexico will be commemorating the events of the 1810 and 1910 revolutions ). Since we didn’t have time to hear the history, etc.; he instead told us, in quite colorful language, his opinion of the current governor whose office was across the hall (he hates him). After walking through the Museo Regional de Guadalajara, we had an exciting and rapid taxi ride back to the Walmart. On our second trip we drove to the same Walmart but through a different section of the city than we went previously. (GPS does not know how many one-way streets there are in Mexico). We walked to nearby Parque Agua Azul where we saw parrots, an iguana, butterflies, orchids and The Casa de las Artesanias de Jalisco. It was a museum-like store that sold high quality Jalisco handicrafts. From there we drove to another section of the city to have a meal with a Mexican couple Pat and Richard had met at Roca Azul last year. It was nice to have a conversation with them as they spoke English quite well. The husband, Nick, has a company with 42 employees that sets up computer compatible environments for businesses. We learned that by law after 30 days of work, the employer is responsible to keep paying an employee even after he is no longer needed or is fired. He is grooming his 2 sons to run the business as they are preparing to leave the big city and have a farm with a few cattle to sell for income.

The best conversations we have had were because the other party knew English and we could easily talk back and forth. The owner of the Viva Mexico restaurant in San Juan Cosala told us about the myths of earlier times at Lake Chapala and how he was able after 25 years to have such a good business. He said he learned English from speaking to his customers. A couple from Mexico City, who shared a table with us at the Cuervo margarita bar, gave us more insight on the lack of economic progress in Mexico. We thus have learned much about Mexican life and history. Regrettably, we still are not able to put enough Spanish words together to have a little conversation with many smiling people we encounter on the streets. The young children look at us so intently as they recognize we are different from themselves. On a visit to a local orphanage, it would have been more fun to engage with the children in their games and soothe them if a mishap occurred on the climbing apparatus, other playground equipment, and the many wheeled vehicles and bicycles that were in enthusiastic use. This orphanage is run by three nuns and have about 30 children under their competent charge. Pat and I visited and played while Richard repaired and refitted seats and handle bars on the bicycles and tightened screws on the tables and benches.

We are healthy, happy, tanned and sometimes well rested. Until next time, adios Familia y Amigos.

Mike and Donna

APRIL 1, 2009

Hola Everyone,

Our last update left us at the Roca Azul RV park on Lake Chapala. We left there on March 22 and drove the scenic road south of the lake to the charming town of Patzcuaro. On one stretch we went through several towns one after another so that you could see the Feliz Viaje (Good Bye) sign for one town and the Bienvenidos (Welcome) sign at the same time. We passed a large new building with a heliport outside with the name Driscoll’s. It is a name of the distributor of the raspberries and now the strawberries grown here. Patzcuaro had narrow cobblestone roads lined with buildings of white-washed stucco with brownish red at the bottoms. It gave the jumble of different buildings a cohesive and placid look. We did our usual touring routine of visiting the town plazas, cathedrals, shopping and lunch in a Mexican restaurant. We also visited the “Casa de los Once Patios” (house of 11 patios) where you can watch craftsmen work and buy their handiwork. Patzcuaro is nestled on a hillside next to a large lake where we took a half hour boat ride to the Isla Janitzio. This island is like the top 4 or 5 hundred feet of a mountain sticking out of the water. There is no flat land, no roads and no vehicles but it is covered with homes, shops, restaurants and bars. Only paths and steps lead you uphill where you have to continuously pass shops and restaurants to get to the top. There you are rewarded with the statue of Morelos. If you have any energy left, given the 7000 feet elevation, you can climb the 162 steps inside the statue to the top. Richard and Pat made it to the top but we gave up about half way. At our arrival at the island we were treated to a group of fishing boats who did what could be called a dance as they formed a circle and then gracefully put their huge butterfly nets in and out of the water as they recreated how they once fished here.

After a few days in Patzcuaro we drove about an hour to Morelia, a city of about 600,000. Morelia does not have any RV parks so we pulled into a Wal- Mart and got permission to spend the night in their parking lot. We spent the rest of the day exploring this colonial city by car, on foot and a tour bus (unfortunately the guide only spoke Spanish). We were impressed by the central square and the cathedral as well as the no longer used aqueduct which crosses part of the city supported by 253 arches.

The next morning we headed for Pepe’s Hotel & RV Park in Tepotzotlan. We haven’t talked much about our experiences while driving but we had an incident enroute that is worthy of mention. As you can probably imagine, driving a 40 foot motor home towing a car on these narrow roads is one thing but going through the small towns with narrow streets can be an adventure. We entered one town which appeared on the map and GPS to be a straight through drive. What we didn’t know was that the road through town split into two opposing one-way streets and we wound up going the wrong way. Most small towns use traffic cops (they’re cheaper than signals) and this was no exception. These cops saw our dilemma, knew that we couldn’t turn the tight corners and started diverting traffic so that we could continue through town. We were then committed to driving the entire way through town going the wrong way on a one-way street. The on-coming traffic just moved to the side like this was no big deal. We made it with no problems and note this as an example of how helpful the people and the police are. We later arrived at Pepe’s which is our base for exploring Mexico City about 30 miles south. We were advised not to try to drive into the city because of heavy traffic and crazy drivers (as we later observed, it is no worse than Los Angeles), so we decided to take a taxi into the city, stay in a downtown hotel for 2 nights and then a taxi back. Pepe’s is a very nice, modern and secure facility, so we were not concerned about leaving our RV’s there. The staff also made our hotel reservations for us.

CIUDAD de MEXICO

What image do you have of Mexico City? We had an image; all the bad things we heard about. It is probably the largest city in the world with an estimated population of 20 million (nobody knows for sure) and including the towns that make up the urban sprawl an estimated 32 million. With that many people, Mexico City must have everything bad that can exist in a city. After spending 3 full days exploring the city we have a new image. Mexico City may be the most beautiful city that we have ever seen. Even at 8000 feet elevation the city is surrounded by mountains. The downtown and central district has many large parks and plazas with beautiful landscaping and big old trees everywhere. The main boulevard is the Paseo de los Reforma which has 10 or 12 lanes and three wide tree lined dividers. It must be about a full block to cross it. There are many other wide boulevards and Grande Traffic Circles with statues, monuments and/or fountains in the centers. Architecture is a mixture of the colonial buildings over 300 years old and modern office buildings and skyscrapers, however the old buildings and cathedrals dominate the scene. We expected wall to wall people but it was really not that crowded. We expected it to be dirty but it was unbelievably clean. We expected to see poverty but saw very little of it. We maintained an awareness of possible crime but never felt we were in any danger. And topping it all off are the people. They are so friendly and helpful. If you ask directions they don’t just point the way, they lead you there. The exception is when they drive they become very aggressive. Being a pedestrian is the most dangerous thing in Mexico City.

We took our taxi into the city early Saturday morning, went directly to the hotel and were checked in by about 9AM. We decided to take the double deck (open seating on top) tour bus which had headphones for English narration. The bus followed a big circle of the attractions with about 20 stops where you can get off and catch a later bus. We got off at the museum of anthropology where we spent a few hours but spent the rest of the day making the circuit on the bus to get a feel for the city.

The next morning (Sunday) Richard and Pat planned to go to the Shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe. We wanted to do some other things so we decided to split up for the day. With the help and encouragement of a friendly man in the hotel lobby, we bravely set out on our own to explore Mexico City using the subway and light train system. Even though we had maps and train routes, it was a bit intimidating. In fact we got on the wrong train the first time and had to come back but we soon mastered the system. The subway system needs some comments here. We don’t know if this is new or renovated but everything looks new and modern. The trains and stations are absolutely spotless and clean - no graffiti. The train cars are guided by rails but ride on rubber tires. The ride is smooth and quiet. The cars are connected by rubber bellows that allow people to walk through from car to car. There are a few seats for the disabled but mostly it’s standing room only. They can be crowded in the central district but it thins out in the outskirts. It’s not uncommon to have vendors and musicians coming through looking for sales or handouts. The cost to ride is 2 pesos (about 14 cents). As someone said “For 2 pesos you get transportation, entertainment and a massage”.

Our day started with a visit to the Zocalo (Plaza de la Constitucion) second in size only to Red Square in Moscow. We visited the Palacio Nacional whose front fills the entire east side of the Zocalo. This is the office of the President of Mexico and various other government offices. The walls of the second floor around the courtyard are adorned with dramatic murals by Diego Rivera depicting the history of Mexico City from ancient times. We also saw the chamber where parliament meets. Next on the north side of the plaza we visited the main cathedral which is most notable for its massiveness. We saw Aztec dancers on the square next to the Templo Mayor where it is thought to be the exact spot where the Aztecs considered the center of the universe. A line of people with offerings of herbs and flowers awaited the blessing of smoke and incantations of a healer or priest in Aztec garb. We were having lunch on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Zocalo when the bells of the cathedral began ringing. We could actually see the bell ringers pulling the ropes on the many bells situated on several levels of the towers. This, along with the sound system being tested at the huge stage erected in the plaza, gave a cacophony of sound for 15 minutes until noon when the bells tolled the hour. Sunday was the last day of a month-long Festival de Mexico and el Centro Historico. Some streets were shut down on Saturday for special events and concerts. We had our picture taken in front of a replica of Le Angel which will travel around the world to herald the 2010 celebration of Mexican Independence.

After visiting the Palace of Fine Arts and viewing the city from the 44th floor of the Torre Latinoamericana, we went to Xochimilco. This network of canals flanked by gardens is a reminder of the city’s pre-Hispanic history when a great lake became a city from piled-up vegetation and mud. We were poled along the tranquil but yet very festive waterways, jammed with other gaily decorated trajineras (gondolas) with families and friends or just romantic couples. Mariachis, marimbas, and vendors offering beer, roasted corn, toys among other stuff hovered along side adding to the party atmosphere.

Altogether we rode about 50 miles on the subway, about 30 miles on light trains and a couple of miles each by bicycle taxi and on foot. A pretty grueling day but we got a lot done. Monday we returned to Pepe’s by taxi and rested up the rest of the day. We plan to leave Pepe’s on Thursday and start heading north to Texas. Until next time - Mike & Donna

NOTE

A few of our “Update” readers have replied to our last update expressing a concern for our safety. We have not heard or seen any news since we left Arizona but apparently there must be some bad news going on about Mexico. Whatever it is must be overblown as it is not apparent to us. We feel as safe or maybe even safer than in the US. Also there were questions about how we find our way around. We have a Mexico map book which has highway and city maps and we also use a Garmin GPS with a Mexico update. We would also not be without Mike & Terri Church’s book “Camping in Mexico”. This book is the “bible” for anyone RVing in Mexico as it describes almost every campground in great detail. Also many WalMarts and Pemex Stations allow free overnight RV parking.

April 7, 2009

Hola, Everyone!

We are now back in the U.S. spending a few days in a little town, Donna, in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

Our last days in Mexico went fast. Raphael, our favorite and only taxi driver, took us to Teotihuacan to see the Pyramid of the Sun, the world’s third largest pyramid (number one and two being in Egypt). It is touted as the number-one tourist draw in Mexico; but it did not rate that high with us. None of us had the energy or desire to climb to the top of the pyramid or walk the whole route to the Pyramid of the Moon. The most impressive part of our visit was the large scale-model of the greatest city in ancient Mexico under a transparent walkway in the museum, from where we could still see today, the Sun pyramid through a wall-sized window. The tour book was correct when it said it would be exhausting to fend off all the indefatigable hawkers. One hawker won the battle and sold us 10 clay turtle whistles.

Our plan was to take Mex 85, the old Pan American Highway north to Texas over the backbone of the Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains. We would have to look for a Pemex for our first night as we knew we would not be able to reach the first campgrounds listed on this route. We made better time than we thought as the short cut we took turned out to be a much better road than expected. After lunch the mountains became MOUNTAINS big-time! They rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell like a continuous row of letter Ms. The road would run along one side of a canyon till the end, then run back on the opposite side. The scenery was spectacular. Little towns could be seen perched on neighboring mountainsides or in the deep valleys below us. Cows, burros, pigs, and chickens roamed at will along the roadside.

At one place a group of school girls began waving at us very energetically and then a woman waved and yelled something which sounded like, No Passable!, No Passable! We got off the road to find that the road ahead was blocked by a car and grass fire. We watched as people from the nearby houses took barrels of water, hoes, and rakes in the back of pickups up to the fire. In a short while we were able to proceed due to the work of these people. Later we saw the police and ambulance coming the other way from the not-so-near town with these services. These are self-reliant people, accustomed to taking care of the unexpected. Road construction is signaled by the waving of red shirts or blocking off where autos shouldn’t go by placing rocks in the way.

At 3:30 we came upon a Pemex , but thinking it was a little tight, we elected to go on as there were some towns ahead. But, in each of them, we saw nothing on the narrow main road and no space to park to explore the side streets for an overnight parking spot. In the mountains, flat space is valuable and it was already being used. No empty lots. At 5:30 we finely found a flat space on the side of the road leaving the town of Tamazunchal in front of a couple of residences, a muffler shop and beer bar. A gentleman on his way to the bar took Mike & Richard to the police station to check out parking and later explained our situation to the nearby residents. Even though no English was spoken, we were able to communicate with each other. Everybody agreed that we were welcome to stay the night. We later joined our new friends in the bar for cervezas and music. There was electricity in the bar but no electricity or water in the shacks that were near the RV’s. The water was brought in buckets from a communal well down the road. We were told we only had 40 miles of the slow-going steep roads ahead. Whew!

We left at daybreak, as promised, so we wouldn’t be blocking access to the muffler shop and what also might have been a local bus stop. We were descending and driving through part of the northernmost tropical rain forest in North America known as the Huasteca. This area offers waterfalls, swimming holes, whitewater galore, caves, and miles of unexplored back roads. We were satisfied with viewing the tropical vegetation and the many fruit and flower stalls along the road. Later, there were very big and prosperous looking ranchos. As we approached Ciudad Victoria, we had traversed many barren mesas. There seemed little to offer us here, other than electricity and a night in a RV park.

The next day like trail horses on their way back to the barn, sensing the border was within range, we drove straight to the Los Indios border crossing with only a stop at a Pemex to get rid of all our remaining pesos. It took us about 1½ hours to turn in our Mexican vehicle permits and visas and go through US border security. Pat and Richard elected to go to Pharr, TX as they wished to attend mass at the San Juan Basilica the next morning. We elected to stay closer to Progresso, Mexico as we wanted to visit the dentist there. By 7:00PM on April 4, 2009 we were watching our first TV news show in 2 months. What was the top news---recent shootings in New York and Pennsylvania and a review of all the shootings so far in March. The US must be a dangerous place to travel.

Los Vemos,
Mike & Donna

Disneyworld - Jan./Apr. 2008

2010-04-28T07:12:00.000-07:00

WALT DISNEY WORLD
January 15, 2008

Hi Everybody,

After a 5 month pause in the travel updates of Mike & Donna, we have decided, by popular demand, to resume the updates. The months of August through November were spent in Arizona and California mostly visiting family and friends with side trips to Las Vegas and Death Valley. In late November, after Thanksgiving with family, we decided to take advantage of an opportunity to work part time at Walt Disney World (WDW). We called them to confirm everything and then headed to Florida.

Friends had recommended Rainbow Chase RV Resort which is about 10 miles SW of Orlando, a convenient location for commuting to WDW. This is a small resort (about 100 RVs) but very nice and friendly. We attended a Christmas dinner provided by the owner and also participated in a golf cart Christmas parade around the park. We think we will enjoy being here for the 2 or 3 months we’ll be in Florida.

We had 3 days of Disney training before Christmas when our training had to be suspended. There were no trainers available during the very busy time from Christmas to New Year’s Day. We were asked to work during that week in low skilled jobs like greeters and crowd control. We worked 4 days that week including the night shift on New Year’s Eve. That enabled us to see and participate in the midnight show of spectacular fireworks. We were assigned a location that was in the very center of this fireworks show that completely encircled the park. Never have we seen such a lengthy display of such magnitude, with so many multi-colored unusual formations! It would have been a lot more fun if we were not so sick. We both came down with a bad cold right after Christmas which we are still fighting.

After New Year’s we resumed our training which is to operate three attractions in TomorrowLand: Astro Orbitor (rockets going around in a circle), Transit Authority (people-mover) and Stitch’s Great Escape! (animated special effects show). We have finished this training and are now working regular duty. Our training included not only the technical and safety steps in operating these attractions, but also stressed how to give guests excellent service by encouraging us to create surprises and Magical Moments. We also are trained to turn bad experience into a positive like giving a guest who has lost a balloon a complementary replacement. We are to acknowledge guests celebrating birthdays, weddings, or little girls who have been turned into Princesses. We originally committed to work 2 days per week but they have scheduled us for 3 days per week. We will try this for awhile before we complain that it is too much.

This is an interesting place to work. There are no “employees” at WDW. We are all “Cast Members” who work “On-Stage” where we play a role using lingo and wearing costumes that fit the assigned location. Our costumes are black, grey and silver costumes that resemble police uniforms. Our boss is a computer which gives us all of our schedules and assignments. There are managers but they only communicate with the computer so we have no human contact with a superior. There are also trainers and coordinators but they get all of their assignments from the computer also. Interesting but very strange!

The variety of people we meet, both cast and guests, are also very interesting . We encounter thousands of people per shift from all over the world. It’s rare to have a conversation because of time constraints, but we do have enough interaction with the guests to get a feel for their attitudes, behavior and other cultural aspects. When we are “Off-Stage“, we talk with college students from South America and China who work here and get college credits. We see Cinderella, Goofy and other characters in different stages of undress in the tunnels connecting the different sections of the park and in the Mouseketeeria.

Our cast member status allows us free access to all WDW parks and attractions. We have not taken advantage of this yet because of our illness. Now that we are feeling better we will get out and do the things we came to Florida to do. We are also looking forward to seeing another shuttle launch in early February.

WE WISH YOU AN INFINITY OF ADVENTURE, GOOD FORTUNE, AND HAPPINESS IN 2008!
Mike & Donna

GOODBYE TO MICKEY & MINNIE
April 6, 2008

Yesterday was our last day on the job at Disney World. Due to our part time, seasonal status; it was not necessary for us to quit. We applied for and received ongoing, unavailable status which allows us to continue to be employees for the remainder of 2008. That means that we will continue to have the benefits such as free access to any Disney park worldwide for ourselves and friends. It also means that we can return to work at any time during the year if we so desire.

When we originally applied to Disney they required us to verbally commit to working two days a week for two months (due to the training required). We found that 8 hour days were a bit strenuous for us (mostly on our feet) so we applied for and got three 6 hour days a week. This was much easier.

Our shift hours were exactly the same but we didn’t see much of each other during the day. We were trained to operate three attractions in Tomorrowland which resulted in 15 different working positions. Every 20 or 30 minutes we would rotate from one position to another which kept us proficient in all positions and made it more interesting. We stayed on the job for almost 4 months which was probably a little too long. Although we enjoyed the experience, there was a lot of physical work and responsibility which was a bit wearing at the end (after all we are retired).

On the plus side, the experience was extraordinary. We have been in large crowds before but we never interacted with large numbers of strangers. We have lived our whole lives interacting with a close circle of friends, family and business acquaintances. A workday at Disney involved interaction with hundreds of people from all over the world. Every day on the job resulted in different experiences. After every shift we would sit and tell each other stories about our different experiences. Some of those stories would make us laugh and some would make us angry. We could write a book about the insight we have gained into the human species.

Our Disney training helped us to handle angry or distraught guests. It’s called immediate guest recovery. We were allowed at our discretion to give away free passes and vouchers for items up to a value of $25. This worked most of the time but not always. Guests take their anger out on the nearest cast member and it is up to us to handle it the best we can. Donna always did a good job of this but Mike lost his cool a couple of times and yelled back (Disney would not approve). Donna was also very talkative with the guests and especially with the children. Give her a microphone in front of a crowd and she turns into a showman, adlibbing along with the spiel. Her weakness was in handling the switches and buttons for the attractions where she made a few boo boos. Mike on the other hand was good with the switches and buttons, but not very innovative with friendliness and spiels.

Another interesting part of the Disney experience is how it operates as a business. Under the Magic Kingdom is an unseen underground city which supports the whole operation. Cast members are not allowed to use park services such as rest rooms, restaurants or stores. In fact they’re not even allowed to leave their work area. A Tomorrowland uniform in Fantasyland would destroy the magic. Cast member services are all underground or “back stage” as they call it. There are numerous stairwells and tunnels to get “on stage” so as to minimize cast members from mingling with the guests. Most of the support for the park such as food service, maintenance, staging areas for parades and etc. takes place underground. Employees arrive for work by bus from the parking lot to the underground tunnel entrance, all unseen by the public. It is an amazing display of logistics and extensive computer use.

Now that we have ended this memorable experience we will be slowly making our way north to visit family and friends in Virginia, Pennsylvania and New England. Best wishes to all.

Mike and Donna

Mexico - Feb./Mar. 2007

2010-04-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

Mexican Update #1

We have been in Mexico a full two weeks and are still alive and well. Here is a list of the towns that we have visited on one day tours so far: Saltillo, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Dolores Hidalgo, San Miguel de Allende, Leon and we are presently on the outskirts of Guadalajara which we plan to tour this weekend.
Each town has its own history, character and charm but of all the places we visited so far Guanajuato is the most fascinating and our favorite. We camped near the town of Guanajuato for a full week and therefore got to visit there several times.

Guanajuato is a silver mining town and 200 years ago it produced 40% of the world’s silver. This made it one of the richest towns in the world at that time which resulted in a building boom. It has very elaborate churches, hotels, haciendas and other structures built in that era. The town is nestled in a small irregular valley surrounded by steep mountains. It has grown to completely fill this valley and up the sides of the hills as far as it is practical to build (and then even a little more). There are no parallel streets in this town. The surface streets run in all directions and make many small turns. There are many plazas surrounded by small stores and sidewalk restaurants. It has a very European look to it. In addition to the surface streets there are 6 miles of roads in underground tunnels right under the town. Some of these were originally mines that have been expanded upon. They are traveled just like the surface streets with intersections and sidewalks and stairs to the surface.

We ventured into town one evening with 2 other couples for a fine dining experience. We went to the San Diego Hotel second floor restaurant. It had an old world atmosphere with tables extending out on balconies overlooking the plaza below. We had an excellent dinner for a reasonable price. The table next to us had 3 Mexican businessmen who were entertaining 3 foreign businessmen. They hired an 8 man string only mariachi band to come to their table and play and sing for about an hour. Of course we had the benefit of this entertainment and we expressed our thanks when it was over. This resulted in a very interesting conversation among the 12 of us. We then walked around the plaza at night and watched the people, lights and atmosphere. The whole evening in a word was “Magical”.

Now it’s on to touring Guadalajara and then continuing to Puerto Vallarta. We will send additional updates when we can get internet access. Mike & Donna

Mexican Update #2

Hola,

The end of our third week in Mexico finds us in Mazatlan where we just arrived last night. Since our last report we have toured Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico, looks like a U.S. city except that all of the signs are in Spanish. It has noise, traffic congestion and millions of people. We sat in the open upper deck of the tour bus which gave us a good view of everything and we visited a lot of historic places. It is an interesting city but not memorable. Puerto Vallarta is a resort city, very crowded and touristy . There were 2 cruise ships at the dock which put a few thousand Americans on the streets. The food and service was very good but everything is more expensive in this city. English speaking Mexicans are common here which is not true for the rest of Mexico we have visited. Again, an interesting city but not memorable.

We also camped right on the beach in a couple of small towns along the coast (Las Varas and San Blas). These are much more interesting than the cities. Nobody speaks English and you get much more of the “flavor” of Mexico. We like this part of Mexico much better than the resort cities.

We are beginning to get a feel for life in Mexico. It is totally different from what we expected or were led to believe. If Mexico is a third world country, then the world is in pretty good shape. The cars are mostly newer models; you could not tell U.S. streets from Mexican streets by the age and model of the cars except maybe for Beverly Hills. People are mostly well dressed (much better than American tourists), they shop in malls, department stores and super markets, some of which would put their American counterparts to shame. Just as in the U.S. there are significant areas of poverty but Mexico has a large, thriving middle class. We met several Mexicans who had lived illegally in the U.S. only to return for a “better life”.

Driving in Mexico is no worse than driving in L.A. Mexican drivers are aggressive (for many reasons) but courteous. The key is to slow down. The roads are not great but there are worse roads in the U.S. We have not had a problem driving anywhere we wanted to here, however we do not travel at night. The roads are not fenced and the retained surface heat attracts cows and other animals. Some of these are deposited on the roadside by trucks that do travel at night.

The insight we have gained from this experience cannot be adequately explained in a brief email but we hope this will give a snapshot of our impressions. Until our next update, buenos dias amigos. Mike & Donna

Mexican Update #3

Hola from Alamos, Mexico,

That is our present location. Alamos is a small mining town east of Navojoa which is near the northern west coast. This is a charming old town and has a lot of history but it cannot compare with Guanajuato.

In our last update we had just arrived in Mazatlan which turned out to be another touristy city. After leaving Mazatlan we separated from the group of 4 other motor homes we were traveling with (they had earlier deadlines to get back to the U.S.). Since then we have been traveling alone for the first time in Mexico. That is not a problem but we miss our newly made friends.

Our next stop was El Fuerte, a starting point for the Copper Canyon railroad. Copper Canyon is the Grand Canyon of Mexico and is not accessible by road from the South. We took the 7 hour railroad trip which goes from near sea level to about 7500 feet. It was a very dramatic train ride with switchbacks, climbing loops, many tunnels and straight down views. The long ride was made more comfortable with access to a lounge car and a dining car. We wound up buying a tour package with 2 nights in Creel and one in Posada Barrancas. It included the train, hotels, meals and tours. Everything was really well done. We think the canyon views are comparable to the Grand Canyon. We really did enjoy the Copper Canyon experience as well as the town of El Fuerte. Our next stop is the beach town of San Carlos near Guaymas and after that, who knows. Hasta La Vista! Mike & Donna

Mexican Update #4

Greetings from Yuma, Arizona!

The final leg of our Mexican adventure took us to the west coast beach towns of San Carlos and Bahia Kino. They are both well known destinations for U.S. and Canadian Snowbirds (RV’ers who spend the winter there). They both have beautiful beaches and many RV parks along the beach. San Carlos is in a particularly beautiful setting with rocky hills near the coast and out in the water. Mike is not a beach person but Donna romped in the water a few times. We were surprised to see how many Mexicans came to these beaches; families on vacation and teenagers to “party”. They slept in tents on the beach or in their cars. We happened to be in Bahia Kino on a weekend that had a Mexican concert of some kind and the place flooded with teenagers. It was like a “spring break” atmosphere. The road along the beach was clean and neat on Saturday. Sunday morning it looked like a hurricane hit; it was covered with trash, beer bottles and etc. Things didn’t get quiet until about 4:30 Sunday morning.

We had planned on visiting one last beach town, Puerto Penasco, but we had to scratch that because of a tire failure. We got back on the road with the help of several Mexicans and a used tire that was almost the right size. Because of the mismatched dual tires, we decided to take the shortest distance back to the U.S. which was through Nogales to Tucson. We got some new tires in Tucson and then headed to Yuma. We will stay here at least a week to get caught up on housekeeping, laundry, shopping and etc. then on to California.

This trip has changed our impression of Mexico dramatically. The people we encountered were generally more friendly and helpful than Americans. We never felt we were in any danger. We never got sick. We never felt threatened by the police or the military. We were never cheated out of any money. We will go back to Mexico. Mike and Donna.