Observations From the Road....

Next week marks the beginning of our 6^th year on the road! Five years ago we had no idea what to expect as we left Spring Valley Wisconsin on our great adventure. Over the years we have been from Alaska to Mexico and California to Florida, discovering and exploring along the way.

Some things were as we had expected, others not so much…..

Our favorite state - Alaska. Not only the scenery, the fishing, the hunting, the hikes but the people. We met some great people up there who we hope to go up there and see again.

Daisy overlooking the Salmon Glacier in Alaska

Our favorite National Park - Zion. Again for the scenery and hikes, we have yet to find another park that tops Zion.

Zion Campground

Our favorite fishing spot - It’s a secret and we cannot tell you. Actually it is Onaman Lake in Ontario. The numbers and size of the walleyes in that lake are second to none. We have made several videos while fishing this lake. If you have not seen any you can click here to see this years.

Although salmon fishing in Alaska is a close second!

Kenai River Salmon!

Our favorite friends - Any friends with cold beer!

The Jordan's are buying!

Beer and friends, does it get any better?

What was not expected? The great people we met along the way. We knew we were going to meet people but did not expect to make lifelong friends. The thing about fulltime RV’ers is that they are always happy, I mean who wouldn’t be?

Good friends out for a beer at the Desert Bar in Parker, AZ

It does not matter what state or country you are from, it does not matter if you were a multimillionaire or dirt poor, your political and religious beliefs matter not……., everyone seems to get along. No judgements, no drama, no expectations, just have a good time. Only once have we had someone try to push their political views on us and the nice thing about being in an RV……it has wheels!

With each of our kids on opposite sides of the U.S. it has been a little more challenging to see them as much as we would like but being able to spend weeks with them at a time is a definite bonus! We still have hopes that they will one day live closer together so we can see them more often!

Forrest, Somer and Lily at Crater Lake NP

Jessica, Shane, Dylan and Kendall picking out their Christmas tree

The other unexpected thing is that we bought land. We had no intention or timeline but we fell in love with the Black Hills and just knew we wanted to call it home someday.

What’s in store for the next 5 years? We have absolutely no idea. We will undoubtedly travel less as we build the house but we also want to get back to Alaska, tour the far east of Canada including Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland and the upper east coast of the U.S. The past 5 years has just flown by and by all accounts the next 5 years will as well!

In the meantime we are enjoying our journey from Florida back to South Dakota. Our journey from Fort Myers to Junction Texas took 5 days with a 2 day layover in Gulf Shores. We had heard of the hurricane damage in northern Florida and the Alabama coast but you cannot really understand the damage and force of the hurricane until you see it first-hand. Mile after mile of downed trees, road signs and destroyed structures. For the most part the trees fell to the north, inland. Then a few miles down the road they fell to the south. You could follow the rotation of the storm as you went down I-10.

Arriving at Gulf Shores State Park we found our site and got tucked in. We had booked two nights here at a little over $100 with taxes and fees. Unfortunately it was either misting, raining, or foggy our entire time there but all was not lost. We managed to get out for a long walk on the boardwalk and took the dogs to the dog park.

But our real reason for the layover here was to see my old boss. We both left the company about the same time in 2013 and had not seen each other since. Brian and his wife Kaiva have a beautiful home in nearby Orange Beach. There are few things I miss from my working days but Brian is one of them. Brian picked us up at our rig and took us back to his place on Ono Island and then to dinner at Cobalt. Unfortunately Kaiva was out of town so she was not able to join us. After a great dinner (Thanks Brian!) he dropped us back off at our rig for some much needed rest before another long travel day.

Barb, Brian and I on the beach

 I say long as our plan was to drive from Gulf Shores to Winnie Texas; 8 hours, 460 miles. What makes it even longer is the ungodly excuse of an interstate that is I-10. There are sections through Louisiana that would rival some of the worst sections we encountered in Alaska!

The city park in Winnie allows RV’ers to stay for free (I think it was 3 days), no hook ups but a nice place to spend the night. The next day we traveled another 360 miles to Junction Texas. Junction also has a great city park that allows RV’ers to stay 3 days for free but we were staying at the Beer’s Ranch (or what Barb and I refer to as “Camp Cinchzasup”) about 30 minutes outside of town. This 100+ acre ranch is owned by the brother of one of the lifelong friends mentioned above Red and Pam. We had stayed here for a few days last year with Red and Pam, this year they were in Arizona but Red’s brother Greg was nice enough to let us stay with him for a few days.

Our spot at Camp Cinchzasup

Not only that, he let me hunt for Axis deer that are running wild on his property. Although a license is required, you can hunt Axis year round as they are considered an invasive species in the area. I saw a few Axis but no shooters.

Whitetail season was not open but I saw some nice deer!

Two Axis and a Whitetail

When I was not hunting (and Barb when I was hunting) we were helping Greg with various projects around the place. It was nice getting to know Greg better and had a great 3 days at his place.

Barb helped Greg build a bench like this while we were there

From there we drove 4 hours north to Slaton Texas where they too have a city park that allows RV’er to stay for 3 days for free. If you stop by this town the Slaton Bakery is a must stop!

Not bad for free!

Our original plan was to stay 2 days in Palo Duro Canyon State Park and head north arriving in South Dakota on March 1^st but after looking at the revised weather forecast and talking to our friend Kevin we are delaying our arrival to March 5^th when the lows are at least above 0. Even that will be sketchy but we can handle single digits, below 0, no thanks.

So we are going to lay up in Palo Duro Canyon State Park for 6 days and wait for the cold front up north to blow through, there are certainly worse places we could be laid up!