Leaving Phoenix

So we said goodbye to Phoenix and all her traffic, and hit the road on our way to Salome. Yeah, bye bye, traffic. Bye bye, road construction. Bye bye, airport landing pattern. Bye bye, motorcycle repair school and all those crotch rocket riding fools. We're headed for the desert.



I have had enough of the congestion, road work, noise, and airplanes flying so low overhead I could read the letters on their landing gear.




Our little Bluebird Of Happiness rides with us everywhere we go. I don't remember how ong we've had him, but he lives up there on the visor most of the time. Although sometimes he shows up on the rearview mirror, or inside the trailer. He is most happy when we are driving down the road.

There was interesting scenery today. This mountain was on one side of the road.

Highway 60 out of Wickenburg was very straight and flat.

This is what the desert looks like across the road from the RV park. I think it is quite beautiful in its own way. I'm sure not everyone thinks so, but I like it.
And at the end of the day, the sky was absolutely gorgeous. This is looking east from our campsite. Not exotic, but nice. Quiet. And they told us not to drink the water when we checked in. Oh, well, can't have everything, I guess.

My Horoscope For Today

This morning when I signed in to My Yahoo, I looked at my horoscope, and here is what it said:

"You could be travelling or perhaps planning a journey to an exotic destination. You may even have to decide at a moments notice..."

Hahahahaha!

Yeah, well, we ARE leaving Phoenix today, going on down the road about 100 miles to Salome. For anyone who may be in the area, we'll be at 3 Dreamers RV Park until April something or other. FabGrandpa and I would love to see you.

We're Not In Kansas Anymore

We left Wichita on our way to the Grand Canyon this morning. We had planned on going about 330 miles, and stopping early to rest up. We were making good time, so we stopped in Liberal, Kansas to visit the museum there that is dedicated to the movie, The Wizard of Oz. After taking the tour there, and getting our picture taken on the Yellow Brick Road, we stopped at a restaurant west of town to get a late lunch.

The two stops took about two hours, but we were still making good time. A few miles out of Liberal, a man passed us in a pick up truck, and honked his horn and motioned for us to pull over. We had had a flat tire on the trailer, and didn’t even know it!

Our Good Samaritan, Dave Christopher, said he was an insurance adjuster, and just happened to have a telephone book in his truck! How many times will that ever happen? Here is a picture of Dave and Jim:

When my cellphone wouldn’t work because it had no signal, he let us use his phone to call Guymon Tire Service. They sent out a service truck to change the tire.

Raul arrived in about 20 minutes and got right to work. He got us back on the road really fast, and only charged $50.

We stopped in Guymon, Oklahoma at Guymon Tire and bought a new tire for the spare.The whole episode only set us back $167. Not so bad, it could have been worse.

We finally made it to our destination for tonight, Dalhart, Texas. We pulled into the Corral RV Park about 6:30 p.m. The park is level and quiet, and only cost us $19 for a pull through site big enough to park a semi truck and trailer, and it even has cable TV. We hope to be in Albequerque, New Mexico tomorrow night.

Where I Have Been

The last time I wrote anything here was when we had just crossed over the Mississippi River and were stopped for the night in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here is a picture of our trailer home following us down the road: We traveled more than 1000 miles in three days, pulling our home behind us. We usually don't like to go that far so quickly. The main reason why is we get so tired doing it. But, we had to get to USI RV Park in Wichita for a temporary job, so we did.

Here is a picture of the flooding in Arkansas along I-40. I am sure the water is up even more than this because it has rained some more since we went through there.

I like to stop at all the welcome centers for the states we go through. The one in Oklahoma was nice. They gave us free coffee, and Jim took my picture with the Indian guy there:

The Oklahoma countryside is mostly flat. They have a lot of cows there. We even saw a herd of buffalo but I was not quick enough with my camera to get a picture of them.


We went out I-40 west to I-35 north, to Wichita.

The Kansas welcome center is more than 20 miles inside the state line. I told Jim they want to be sure you're really coming to Kansas before they welcome you to their state. There was a McDonald's restaurant there, but they didn't give us anything free to eat or drink, just a map of Kansas so we could find our way out of there when we got ready to leave.

The Kansas countryside in early spring is much like that in Oklahoma, only a little greener.

We have enjoyed our stay in Kansas, but we are leaving tomorrow, because we got the telephone call we have been waiting for from the National Park Service at the Grand Canyon. We will get there sometime Saturday, and start working a day or two later. We are really excited about our new jobs.

We're Traveling Again

Jim and I left Unicoi State Park on Sunday, headed for Wichita, Kansas. Yes, we are still waiting to hear the final word about our jobs at the Grand Canyon, but we can't sit around waiting until we run out of money, so we arranged to work as temporaries at a campground in Kansas while we wait. Doing this is a win-win situation for everyone involved--the campground needed someone ASAP, we needed to be working, it will put us half-way to Arizona when we do finally get hired, and we will be making a little money while we wait. What a great deal. Oh, yeah, it also gets us halfway there before the price of diesel fuel goes up any more.

When I started planning the trip to Arizona, I figured our travel budget as if we were paying $4.89 per gallon of fuel. It is not that high, yet, so we are way ahead in the budget.

On Saturday, the price of diesel fuel in Helen, Georgia was $4.05 per gallon. When we passed by the same gas station on Sunday when we left there, it was $4.10 per gallon. At the Ingle's Grocery Store in Cleveland, Georgia, it was $3.96 per gallon if you paid with an Ingle's gift card (which saves you 3 cents per gallon).

On Sunday, in Douglasville, Georgia, at the station near my mother's house, diesel was $4.27 per gallon!!! We drove right on by. In Bremen, near the Alabama border, it was $3.99 per gallon. We filled up there.

Today, in Jasper, Alabama, fuel was $3.93 per gallon, and in Olive Branch, Mississippi, it was $3.92 per gallon. While these prices are insane, they are nowhere near the price I figured our budget on. We may just have some money left when we arrive in Wichita.

Sunday was a frantically busy day. We woke up in north Georgia, packed up the trailer, and drove 130 miles to Carrollton to spend the night at a campground there. We took the trailer off the hitch, then drove 35 miles back to Douglasville, where we had to go and check our post office box, go to the bank, get our hair cut at Becky's shop. Then Jim, Becky and I met Emily, Tommy, and Spencer at Longhorn Steaks for a yummy scrummy dinner. Spencer's birthday was on April 10th, he turned 6 this year. He has now decided he likes steak, which is a good thing. He posed for me to take some pictures. When he saw this one, he said, "I look like an ice cream cone!" (that's his Mommy, Emily, my youngest daughter with him). After dinner, we ran by my mother's to say good bye to her before we left town. We finally got back to the trailer around 10:30 p.m. What a day!

I checked the Weather Channel online before we left to see if the route we planned to take had any flooding, and found that the Mississippi River at Memphis was at 37 feet this morning, and will continue to rise until at least Saturday, if there is no more rain. Flood stage at Memphis is 34 feet. I took a couple of pictures when we crossed over the Mighty Mississippi this afternoon, the water was high, but I-40 is a high road so it was not flooded.

We got as far as Little Rock today, which is a long way for us to go in one day. We'll arrive in Wichita tomorrow afternoon. I have never been to Kansas, so I can't wait to see it. Don't have a clue what to expect, but I will post some pictures tomorrow. See ya later!

I Have Been Tagged, So Here Ya Go...

Froggi Donna at From The Lily Pad, one of my rver friends from the Escapees forum, has tagged me for a blog tag. To play, you have to do this:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
3. Share the 5 top places on your "want to see or want to see again" list.
4. Tag a minimum of 5 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Acck! Was my fist thought when I saw that I was tagged. I really don’t like to be tagged, because it makes me have to actually think. So, to satisfy this tag, here goes:

Five Random Weird Facts About Me: (Ha! Those who know me well probably are thinking anything I could say about myself is weird)

1. I like cheese and I like broccoli, but I hate cheese on broccoli. I also do not like broccoli casserole or green bean casserole.
2. I was once searched by the Secret Service while I was wearing a bathing suit.
3. I am afraid of spiders and once went to a laundromat to wash clothes because one was in front of my washing machine.
4. I have to make my own bread because I can not eat wheat. The gluten free bread available already cooked at stores tastes like cardboard.
5. My husband tells people I have such a heavy southern accent that I can make his name into three syllables, and his name is Jim.

The Top Five Places I Want To See:

1. The Grand Canyon (I did go there once about 10 years ago, but I really want to go again.
2. Yellowstone National Park
3. Alaska, but I probably won’t ever get there.
4. I want to go to Cabo San Lucas in my RV. I want to go next winter. I want to go with Charlie and Lynn and Russ and Liz and Gary and Faye, hint hint hint.
5. I want to go to Washington State and drive down the Pacific coast to San Diego.

And now, I am tagging:

1. That guy from The Camping Machine Blog

2. Marye at 7 Babes A Blogging

3. Playing With Soap, a lady who makes lovely soaps and blogs about it.

4. Michelle at One Day and One Coffee At A Time

5. And just for meanness, Ken, who has to post on his MySpace page

There you have it, my answers and the people I have tagged. I am done.

Yeterday Was A Travel Day...

OK, so we live in a travel trailer that is 30 ft long. There are AT MOST two steps from the bed to the toilet. Every night when I get up to go use the toilet, my husband asks me “Where are you going”? HUH? One of these nights I am going to answer him “I am going to Las Margaritas, do you want me to bring you a bowl of soup?” just to see if he is awake.


The trip to Georgia was uneventful, and took less than two days. It was 574 miles from Bathpage to Unicoi. We went through Westpoint to I-64 west, to I-295 south, to I-95 south, to I-85 south, to Georgia 17 north. We stopped for fuel at the Sadler Truck Plaza in Emporia, where diesel was $2.319 if you paid with cash, but they consider a debit card to be the same as cash. The price of fuel in North Carolina was the highest at $2.499.


We stopped for the night in Concord, North Carolina at Fleetwood RV Resort. I don’t know why they get to call it a resort. It is behind an RV dealership, and right next to the Lowe’s Motor Speedway, a NASCAR racing facility. Our site had an excellent view of the speedway stadium, but no cable TV and no Wi-Fi. It was $25 per night for a pull through on gravel and pavement. Oh, and they were running laps til after 11pm at the raceway, so if you stay there expect noise. I could close my eyes and imagine it full of NASCAR fans. I am so glad I don’t work there. We woke up at 4:30 am and decided to “Just leave”. (that is for Lynn and Mary, hehehe)


We arrived at Unicoi State Park around 11:30 am yesterday to begin our winter Volunteer Camp Host job. Even though the host spaces are first come first served, we go the space we wanted. It is right next to a little creek, Our view out the window is of the forest, very nice. We ran into Gary and Faye at the lodge when we went up to check in with Shirley, the retail manager. They have been here about a week. Shirley was as usual happy to see us. We go tomorrow for an orientation session. We didn’t have to do an orientation last year because they did not have an onsite volunteer coordinator. The new person in is Ellen. We met her when she came by our trailer to introduce herself to us.


We can’t wait to go to Doodle’s, the coffee shop in Helen. They have free Wi-Fi, and good coffee, but the owners, Stan and Linda, are really nice and we got to know them pretty well last year. We are looking forward to seeing them again. We also like to go to Betty’s County Store. They may be a little expensive, but they have good meats and a nice produce department. They make home made breads, and have a good selection of snacks. Yum!