Cheyenne, Wy.

We are south of Cheyenne a few miles and just 2 miles into Wyoming.














Terry Bison Ranch is a real ranch raising bison and they have a campground and several building to replicate the frontier experience.













They offer train and horseback rides through the ranch and try to be a mini Six Flags but that part of the business seems to have fizzled out. Could be a different story during Cheyenne Days.

The feed lot for the ranch sits several hundred yards (thankfully) behind the compound but I thought there might be bison grazing in the pasture beside the highway.













No bison in the pasture close enough to take pictures, just a couple camels.

Taos

We are camped at Raton, New Mexico for a couple of days so we drove over to Taos for the day. Lots of antelope, mule deer, and goats were beside the highway and the Boy Scouts of America own 137,000 acres (no, that is not a misprint) in the area with a large compound that looks like a small college.

Taos is your typical tourist trap town but still an interesting place to visit, but the real reason we went was about ten miles out of town on hwy 64.












The Rio Grande Gorge Bridge is very unassuming as you approach it. Just looks like a 1280 ft. bridge over a shallow river like so many others you cross out west.













Walk on the bridge and look over the end and these little mt. goats are playing.













The real attraction is the 650 ft deep gorge the bridge crosses. The bridge has apeared in several movies including Wild Hogs and Natural Born Killers.

New Nexico

We are finally out of Oklahoma. I never thought of Oklahoma as being so wide but the narrow strip of the panhandle seems to go on forever.

We are Raton, New Mexico at a private campground for a couple of days as we want to drive over to Taos (yes, I know it's a tourist trap) tomorrow.

Fort Supply Lake, Ok.

We are camped at Fort Supply Lake in western Oklahoma just east of the panhandle. We have a nice covered picnic table on a concrete slab with paved camper and truck spot.

At about 1,800 acres this is not a large lake but it sure is a nice one. We are about 20 feet from the water. A breeze has been blowing the whole time we have been here.

There is a historical Fort Supply but it is closed. This will be our third night here and we will be moving westward tomorrow as this spot has already been reserved for the weekend.

We have just kicked back, played on the internet, watched satellite and local tv, and grilled.

Remember we are fulltiming and not on vacation so there is no urgent need to be going and doing.

Fort Gibson Lake

We are nestled in at Taylor Ferry South CG on Fort Gibson Lake just east of Wayoner, Ok. We signed up for 8 days to be off the road on the 4th of July weekend.

Our sight is lower on the slide (left looking forward) side and I plan to purchase 2x8 lumber tomorrow to augment my leveling blocks. 30amp with water, our satellite tv and internet air card are working fine.

We are just outside Wagoner and it should provide all our needs for the next week.

Time to kick back, rest, read and play on the net for a few days.

Beaver Lake

We are a few miles northeast of Fayetteville, Ar. on the southern tip of Beaver Lake.

Camped at the top of a hill over looking the lake with 30amp electricity and aircard internet service. The trees are positioned so I can't get satellite tv but the local channels are great.

Our fresh water tank is full and our waste water tanks are empty. War Eagle Park is an older COE park with smaller sites but ours is one of the larger ones. Plenty of room for the Cardinal (about 39ft. hitch to bumper) and our Dodge 2500.

We plan to leave on Monday but those plans at set in Jello.

Westward Swing

We picked up our Cardinal today and everything is back to factory specs. Leaving Little Rock and heading west was very rewarding.

We are spending the night in Alma, Ar. before heading north to Fayetteville for a couple of days and try to figure out where we are going to spend the 4th of July weekend.

C.O.E. parks

U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Parks, a.k.s. COE parks are always nice and a bargain for older or disabled people as we get 50% off the normal camping fees.

Camping for 14 nights is allowed before you have to move out of the park. Not a problem as most areas have more than one park and you can alternate between them.

This 2 week limit is generally extended during off season to 4 weeks. Most sites have electricity and water. You will find a few parks without individual water hookups. A few COE parks will also have some sites with sewer hookups.

Maumelle Park on the Arkansas River in Little Rock is a park that we consider our "home park" as we have stayed here numerous times over the years.













This is the view from our front door and out our living room window. Our site for this stay is A17 and is a pull-thru site about 75 feet from the water with 50 amp service and water hookup.

We chose a 50 amp site we can run both a/c units as it is near 100 degrees here. 30 amp sites are $22.00 and 50 amps sites are $26.00, so this great spot costs us $13.00 a day total.













COE parks are great because the sights are so large, our neighbor in the Airstream is about 100 feet away,













our other neighbor is at least 150 feet away and the position of our camper makes the distance seem greater.














I am standing by the bathroom and shower house just a short walk from our camper.

We have a shower and bathroom in our camper but our holding tanks will only last 7 to 10 days max, then we would have to hookup and head for the dump station. With the bathrooms and showers across the road we could extend to our 14 day limit if we so desired.

We are here for just two days as our Cardinal goes in for repairs tomorrow morning.

Alternative energy

Nice home and garage with a pool in the back yard owned by a gentleman that has worked at a coal powered electric generating plant for decades.















What makes this home "special" is the wind turbine and solar panels in the front yard.














He has nine TriStar 210watt solar panels with a vertical and horizontal tracking system producing approximately 2000 watts,













and a 10,000 watt Ventera wind generator on a 100ft. tower,













all controlled by this panel in the garage. It is set up for net metering.

Net metering means his system is tied to the electrical utility grid and will make his home electrical meter run backwards when he is producing more electricity than he is consuming.

He has had the system for almost 11 months and has zeroed out this utility bill. He does expect to use more energy this summer than he produces as it will be his first full summer of a/c usage and his pool was installed late in the summer last year.

Litchfield, Illinois

We are in Litchfield, Illinois for a week and the weather is cooperating. Mid 70's and a gentle breeze.

We are staying in a nice campground far enough off the Interstate to be quite and right on old Route 66.

A small park with mostly overnighters.

I am not a bird watcher and I know these are not the best photos as they were taken thru a window but these little Yellow Finch birds are beautiful.

They are at a bird feeder and spend more time eating upside down than right side up.

Cape Girardeau, Mo.

We traveled over 200 miles today and are now staying the Cape Camping & RV Park in Cape Girardeau, Mo. for one night and plan on moving to a C.O.E. park in Illinois for 2 days.

Plan B

We are pulling out Thursday (tommorow)morning for Litchfield, Il., Judy's family reunion is on Saturday the 18th.

We had originally planned to stay the whole week leading up to to reunion and then head west on Sunday or Monday.

It's a little over 400 miles and I can but don't plan to drive it in one day. The soonest our camper could go in for repairs was Tuesday of next week with repairs taking two or three days. That is cutting it too close and if problems arise then all bets are off.

Since our camper is still livable with only the slightest inconvenience, we have decided to just take it to Litchfield for the week and put it in the shop when we return.

Fulltiming added flexibility to our lives.

Still Waiting

We are just sitting and waiting for the second insurance estimate to hit our agents desk.

Things could be a lot worse. We are very happy to be in an area we know and at one of our favorite campgrounds.

Happy Camper, NOT !

I washed the camper over the weekend for our move on Memorial Day to Little Rock, Ar. for a week or so.

Our Cardinal TT came with Karrier Load Star 10 ply tires, made in China!!!! Before we started out west in the heat of the summer I intended to change them out for a national brand. The tires looked great having traveled about 4500 miles since new. I washed the tires and wheels, checked them over for problems, and made sure they were aired to the recommended 80 psi. I know what to look for when inspecting tires having worked and later owned a tire store in my earlier life. Everything was OK to make the 100 mile trip to new and better quality tires.

Forty miles into the trip, BOOM!!!, I have a blowout. Tears off the plastic fender, puts a hole in my water line and rips out some 12 volt wiring. I call Coach Net, my road service provider and was back on the road in about and hour and half.

The wire on the floor inside the door is what was ripped out ( all that I know of).

This photo shows how the tread shredded from the carcass before or after it blew. It did not damage the tail or stop lights.

I found the front tire on the other side to now have a knot on the side wall. With no spare we managed to make it to Maumelle Park and get setup for the night.

Now we see the extent of the damage. No ceiling lights, no outside lights, slides will not operate, and several other 12 volts circuits in the command panel have no power.

I am hot, tired, my nerves are shot but we are safe and unharmed. After calming down I was able to jump across the terminals on the hydraulic pump that activates the slides and get them to open. The pump is fine just the wiring is ripped out.

Tuesday we head out with the blown tire and wheel to have a new tire mounted so we will at least have a spare should another tire blow on our way for the other tires. Sounds easy doesn't it?

Having already done research on tires, I knew the choices were slim. I knew they had to meet my criteria; name brand, 10ply, and Trailer Service Only.

I considered GoodYear G614 tires as they are 14 ply and the same tire used on 18 wheelers only in a 16 inch size. Costs nearly as much too, after checking my wheels I knew they were not rated for the 110 psi the G614 tires needed to carry maximum weight.

So I knew the GoodYear Marathon 10 ply Trailer Service Tire was the only thing left. Damn, there are none in Little Rock and will have to be ordered.

I already have an appointment where I bought my Cardinal to have an insurance estimate written on Thursday. No way I am moving the Cardinal without a spare and then only to have tires put on it.

Camping World gave a great price on the tires and could have them Thursday about noon. As fast as anyone as they had to come out of the Ft. Smith or Memphis warehouse.

I called and had my estimate appointment moved to Friday because the place is 25 miles south and again I am not moving without tires.

Camping World called Wednesday morning and said the tires had been delivered ( they made it on the truck even thou the warehouse said the truck had already left).

I drive the 25 miles east to Camping World and have one tire mounted and came back for the Cardinal. Can not believe we made it back to the store without another blowout.

They mounted the tires and wrote an estimate for the damages, over $2,300. Now I just need to get the other estimate tomorrow and fax them in to the insurance company and should have the OK in about 2 or 3 days.

Then made an appointment to have it fixed. Should take 2 or 3 days.

As for now, we are still able to live in it as we can work around the 12 volt issues and I made the repair to the water line.

On the move, almost

We are moving to Maumelle Park in Little Rock, Ar. for a week before we resume our travels. We still have an item or two on our "to do list" to get accomplished before heading out west after a side trip to Illinois.

It really has been an enjoyable two months spent with the inlaws and a very productive time as well. Several needed repairs and upgrades were completed with the two largest being a generator box to help get it out of the weather and stop a lazy thief and slow down a determined one.

Also put new tires on the pickup (ouch!). At 64,000 miles the Michelin LTS A/S 10 ply tires still had life in them but we will be heading west in the hottest part of the year and I felt it prudent to replace them while I could shop around with tire dealers I know.

We have spent quality time with the inlaws while living in our own camper in their yard. It constitutes the best of both worlds.

Long time no see

I know it has been awhile since I last posted. We did the Williamsburg tours and moved on to DC for an amazing week and then to State College, Pa to see my son.

Bad weather (freezing rain and snow) plagued us the whole way and we went 14 days in a row with no hookups. Most campgrounds in the area didn't open until May 1 because of freezing weather. With my battery pack, inverter, and generator we didn't even notice.

After visiting with Zac, we headed to Illinois to visit one of Judy's aunts for a week and back to Arkansas via Tunica, Ms.

Lots to do before we head out for a least a year after May 20th.

Williamsburg, Va.

We arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia yesterday after a three and half hour drive from Medoc Mountain State Park. We are staying in Anvil Campground near Colonial Williamsburg.














This is entering the campground.














Office and store looking back.













The family home is across from the office.














The founder was a blacksmith and made the original wrought iron work for Colonial Williamsburg from 1929 to 1935. This part of the office complex was his blacksmith shop.

He also owned a motel on the main highway thru town (directly behind the campground just across the railroad track).

People were constantly asking at the motel, "where can we put up a tent for the night?"













So he let them camp beside his blacksmith shop. These tent sights today are the same place they were back then.













Our campsite is across from the tent sites.

We chose Anvil Campground because the city bus stops at the campground and we can even transfer to another bus that will take us to Jamestown and Yorktown. We rode the bus around to get a feel of the three different routes and were planning to start seeing the sites today.

Mother nature had other plans as it rained off and on all day so we just shifted gears and did the mondane chores of everyday life like shopping, banking, and doing laundry.

Since we have no schedule we can just wait out the rain and not worry about it. Fulltiming is great because we can stay as long as we need to explore and then we can hit the road for more adventure.

A bateau ( also spelled batteau and batteaux for plural ) was a flat bottomed shallow draft boat pointed at both ends used to transport goods along the rivers in the late 1700's and into the 1800's. They were propelled by using long poles
over the side reaching the bottom.

This system worked great and these batteaux could carry 5 to 8 tons. They came in all sizes but generally about 8 feet wide and 60 feet long for the larger ones and a cross between a canoe (easily navigational) and a raft (great carry capacity).

Being pointed at both ends, they didn't have to be turned around exposing the long sides to the rivers current. They could "poled" up river by keeping to the side of the river with less current.

Rapids posed two problems, going down stream the boats could become uncontrollable and damage the cargo, and going upstream over the rapids was sometimes impossible.

The Roanoke river had such rapids located in city of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina (go figure) and to alleviate the problem the Roanoke Canal was began in 1819 and built using mostly slave labor. The canal diverted water thru locks ( same as today but on a much smaller scale) to raise and lower the boats over the rapids.

The canal was 8.5 miles long and was in operation until 1875.













One of the locks survived and now has a museum to preserve its history. As you can see in the photo (click it to enlarge), the lock could be filled or emptied in less than 5 minutes and operated by one man when the water levels stabilized.














They have a bateau in the bottom of the lock. There was two locks at this location that raised or lower a boat a total of 38 feet.














A power plant was later constructed to make use of this abandoned lock.

I find this stuff very fascinating as I can relate to the technology used.

Medoc Mountain State Park

We spent a couple quite nights in this state park just south of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Electricity only, and we needed it to run our electric heaters (rv furnaces run on propane and 12 volt but they are very noisy) as we had a frost last night.

We are heading north a little sooner and faster than I would like but we have sights to see and miles to travel before we have to be back in Arkansas for a few weeks in April or May.

I have filed an extension on my taxes and we have to be back in May for a graduation. I would prefer to be back in time to file by April 15th as filing later is just another excuse for an audit.

Boondocking

"Boondocking", does not always mean you are out in the boonies. The rv term generally means you are camping without hookups, etc., electric, water, and sewer.

You may recall I added 4 six volt golf cart batteries, an inverter, battery monitor, battery charger, and generator to our standard rv equipment so we could "boondock" when we want to.

The last two nights we have stayed on two different Wal-Mart parking lots. Don't laugh, when it gets dark and you close the shades you really don't know you are in a parking lot, except for the traffic and night lights.

We pay nothing in parking fees but it is not totally free. Our little upright freezer runs off the inverter when we are traveling (or any time we are not hooked to 115 volts power). The inverter pulls power from the 4 six volt golf cart batteries.

When we stop with no hookups, we can watch satellite tv with the inverter also. Depleting the batteries means they have to be recharged. We can get by about one day and one night before the batteries need charging.

If we stayed in a campground with electricity every other night we would be just fine. When staying two nights without electricity we just run the generator.

Our inverter is not large enough to run our coffee pot, so I crank the generator in the morning to make coffee and at the same time it powers the battery charger to recharge the amps we have pulled out of our batteries.

Sounds simple enough but we are power hogs with our 32inch LCD tv, satellite, freezer and lights in the camper. Then we are using everything at night we are pulling about 25 amps out of the batteries.

I have 450 amps in the batteries but only have 225 usable amps because one should not regularly use more than 50% of the battery capacity if one wants the batteries to last. I prefer to use even less when possible.

After running the freezer all day the batteries have about 85% remaining and if we watch tv for three hours, the batteries are about 71% by next morning (remember the freezer is running 24 hours a day).

I found it best to run the generator at least an hour of our tv watching (remember with the generator running everything is on 115 volt power and the batteries are also being charged as opposed to being discharged). Running the generator for one hour while watching tv will have the batteries at the same state of charge (charging batteries as opposed to discharging the batteries) as watching tv and then running the generator for two hours.

Again if only off grid for one night before hooking to electricity, no use of the generator is needed as the battery charger is working when we are hooked to electricity.

When we swing back thu Arkansas in May, I plan to add solar panels to cut the use of the generator to a bare minimal.

There is no "free lunch" because our rv refriguator uses propane when we are not hooked to electricity or running the generator.

We used Wal-Mart parking to lower our over all monthly camping expenses, to test our equipment, and to save time.

Campgrounds are seldom close to the road and just driving 10 miles out of the way to camp overnight adds 2 hours when you consider the driving time and hooking and unhooking. Add in the added fuel costs and camping fees and it can amount to $20 to $50 dollars plus 2 lost hours. All for just a few hours sleep.

We can boondock about 4 days using our normal amount of water ( we carry 41 gallons of fresh water) and about a week if we really conserve. Should we need the air-conditioning, then we whould have to run the generator. At that point we might as well stay in a campground if one is nearby, if not, at least we still have the option of supplying our own electricity via our generator.

We are leaving Wilson, North Carolina heading north and plan to stay at Medoc Mountain State Park for 2 days. Most state parks are out in the boonies so we may not have internet via our our card or cell phone service. Out in the woods away from most everyone ( at least this time of year) and DARK at night. Hey, someone has to do it.

Charlestown, SC

I took my camera when we went to Charleston but then I put it my coat and then left the coat in the truck as we took the city trolley around the Market Street District as there was no way I would try to get our 3/4 ton Dodge in the little pay parking lots.

Several blocks around and including Market Street was crawling with people and just one large tourist attraction. Guess it's just a younger persons thing.

Had we done a little research we could have used the bus and trolley service more to our advantage.

Walterboro, SC

We moved north to Walterboro, South Carolina for a couple of days and plan to head over to see Charleston, SC tomorrow.

Walterboro's main claim to fame in the 20th century was that it supplied advanced flight training to about 500 Tuskegee Airmen and housed over 250 German POW's.

Tensions flared because the POW's had more privileges than the black pilots. Nice county museum with a whole floor dedicated to the Tuskegee Airmen.

Small town America holds its share of stories and Walterboro is no exception. Glad we stopped here for a couple of days.

Jekyll Island, Ga.

We have moved to Kingsland, Ga. for a few days and today we went to Jekyll Island. The island is about seven miles long and a mile and a half wide. It is now a state park and accessed by a causeway and bridge.














William Horton arrived on Jekyll Island in 1736 and started a farm.













This is the remains of his house,














the house used tabby construction.

The state of George has made a wonderful state park of the island,

we walked the boardwalk out to the beach,

the wind was strong causing the Atlantic to white cap.

Jekyll Island Club

The Jekyll Island Club was formed in December of 1885 by selling 100 shares to 50 individuals for $600 a share to start an exclusive hunting club for the very wealthy.





























The large club house opened in 1888 and soon the wealthy elite starting building winter homes on the island.

The Morgans, Pulitzers, and Vanderbuilts all has winter homes on the island,

This is the winter home built in 1891 for Gordon McKay and sold in 1905 to William Rockefeller the younger brother and partner in Standard Oil.

The rear view shows its three stories and twenty five rooms. His wife's bathtub had four faucets, hot and cold regular water and hot and cold salt water from the Atlantic to help with her arthritis.

When the club members all invade the island during the winter season one fourth of the worlds wealth was on the little island.

The first transcontinental phone call by Theodore N. Vail, president of AT&T, to Alexander Bell was made from the Jekyll Island Club.

In November 1910 on Jekyll Island the draft for what is now The Federal Reserve was written.

The rich loved the privacy they enjoyed on the island as the only way to reach it was by boat and they had armed guards on horseback patrolling the beach.