So, we've arrived at home, officially ending our 2015 Fantastic Voyage.
The final statistics ...
7874 miles driven ... 21 states visited ... 11 national parks visited.
It was a great trip, though in all honesty, I think both Josh & I enjoyed our prior trips more. The main reason for that was the places we visited on our prior trips were just more interesting than the places we visited this time.
The trailer made the trip a whole lot more comfortable, especially considering that we spent a lot of time in some very hot and humid places, and having the air conditioner, even though it leaked a few times, was really great. It was also so much easier to set up and break down our camp each time we had to move.
The only question that remains now is, what's next? We've now visited 48 of the 50 states, so we'll definitely be making a trip to Acadia National Park in Maine at some point in the near future so that we can tackle the final two states remaining for us, New Hampshire and Maine. After that ... we'll have to wait and see. A trans-Canada trip, covering all of the Canadian provinces has been mentioned, but that would be quite an under-taking. I'm guessing that at some point, that's something I'll do ... but Josh may not be on board for that one!
Signing off.
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Friday, August 7, 2015
Day 24
Today we drove from just South of Louisville, KY to Streetsboro, OH. We arrived at our KOA campground late in the afternoon. This campground was the same one we stayed at on the first night of our original "Excellent Adventure" four years ago. We've come full circle.
When we arrived, as usual, we got the trailer set up, and because it was a bit earlier in the evening than our usual arrival times have been, we were able to play several games of ping pong. As had happened back in Carlsbad, NM, I had no trouble beating Josh.
We then moved on to a giant chess board they had. We've played quite a lot of games of chess over the past 23 days, and to Josh's dismay, he had not been able to beat me. Today, he was finally able to beat me, fair and square. He played a great game and I was really proud of him for sticking with it and continuing to play me, even though he hadn't had much success. He really did play a great game.
After that, we ate dinner, and then, so that I could regain some of my pride, we went back and played a few more games of ping pong, where I once again beat him without much difficulty. Then, it was back to the chess board. I took a different approach than I had in previous games and employed a "BlitzKrieg" strategy with my Queen, wiping out a huge number of his pieces. Once again, instead of getting frustrated and giving up, he continued to work at getting an advantage over me and he was successful. He beat me again, this time despite an enormous disadvantage in terms of pieces on the board. This was not my day!!!
We returned to our campsite and I lit a campfire for our final night. Josh was more interested in sitting in the trailer watching TV and playing with his iPad, but I sat out by the fire and read for quite a while.
Tomorrow, we'll head out for our final drive of this adventure. We have about a seven hour drive ahead of us to get home. While this trip hasn't been quite as great as our last one, I still had a good time and really enjoyed our time on the road. Back tomorrow night with a final post from our Fantastic Voyage.
When we arrived, as usual, we got the trailer set up, and because it was a bit earlier in the evening than our usual arrival times have been, we were able to play several games of ping pong. As had happened back in Carlsbad, NM, I had no trouble beating Josh.
We then moved on to a giant chess board they had. We've played quite a lot of games of chess over the past 23 days, and to Josh's dismay, he had not been able to beat me. Today, he was finally able to beat me, fair and square. He played a great game and I was really proud of him for sticking with it and continuing to play me, even though he hadn't had much success. He really did play a great game.
After that, we ate dinner, and then, so that I could regain some of my pride, we went back and played a few more games of ping pong, where I once again beat him without much difficulty. Then, it was back to the chess board. I took a different approach than I had in previous games and employed a "BlitzKrieg" strategy with my Queen, wiping out a huge number of his pieces. Once again, instead of getting frustrated and giving up, he continued to work at getting an advantage over me and he was successful. He beat me again, this time despite an enormous disadvantage in terms of pieces on the board. This was not my day!!!
We returned to our campsite and I lit a campfire for our final night. Josh was more interested in sitting in the trailer watching TV and playing with his iPad, but I sat out by the fire and read for quite a while.
Tomorrow, we'll head out for our final drive of this adventure. We have about a seven hour drive ahead of us to get home. While this trip hasn't been quite as great as our last one, I still had a good time and really enjoyed our time on the road. Back tomorrow night with a final post from our Fantastic Voyage.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Day 23
We woke up to a rainy morning as expected. It rained all night and the forecast was calling for rain all day. We took our time getting out this morning and then headed to the visitor's center at Mammoth Cave National Park to book a cave tour. We booked a tour, but we had about an hour and a half to kill before our tour time. We decided to head into town so that we could get online.
While we were there, a thought occurred to me. Our plan for tomorrow was to leave Mammoth Cave National Park in the morning, stopping at the Jim Beam Distillery on our way to our destination for the night, Streetsboro, OH. All along, the idea of going to the distillery in the morning didn't really appeal to me. Our cave tour was scheduled to begin at 12:00 and was expected to be 2 hours long. I suggested to Josh, that we could take the tour, and then pack up the trailer and go to the distillery today. Then, we could find a campground to spend the night, which would shorten our drive for the next day.
Since it was raining anyway, and there wasn't going to be much to do in the park, we both agreed this would be a good idea. So that's what we did.
We went back to the visitor's center and took the cave tour.
It was amazing to see how different Mammoth Cave is than Carlsbad Caverns. The two caves were formed completely differently and it showed. There were minimal "decorations" in Mammoth Cave ... it was formed by an underground river and the flow of the water was evident.
After the tour, we went back to the campground and packed up the trailer as quickly as we could and then set out for the Jim Beam Distillery.
We got there at about 3:45 and went to the visitor's center. Unfortunately, the last tour had started at 3:30, so I was out of luck!!! We left and went to a campground we found just South of Louisville, KY. The good news, is that we've reduced tomorrow's drive to Ohio by almost 90 minutes.
Things are really winding down now ... tomorrow night will be the last night of our trip. It's hard to believe that 23 days have gone by. As usual, it will be nice to be back home, however, it will also be sad for our trip to come to an end. Back tomorrow night from our final destination, Streetsboro, OH.
While we were there, a thought occurred to me. Our plan for tomorrow was to leave Mammoth Cave National Park in the morning, stopping at the Jim Beam Distillery on our way to our destination for the night, Streetsboro, OH. All along, the idea of going to the distillery in the morning didn't really appeal to me. Our cave tour was scheduled to begin at 12:00 and was expected to be 2 hours long. I suggested to Josh, that we could take the tour, and then pack up the trailer and go to the distillery today. Then, we could find a campground to spend the night, which would shorten our drive for the next day.
Since it was raining anyway, and there wasn't going to be much to do in the park, we both agreed this would be a good idea. So that's what we did.
We went back to the visitor's center and took the cave tour.
It was amazing to see how different Mammoth Cave is than Carlsbad Caverns. The two caves were formed completely differently and it showed. There were minimal "decorations" in Mammoth Cave ... it was formed by an underground river and the flow of the water was evident.
After the tour, we went back to the campground and packed up the trailer as quickly as we could and then set out for the Jim Beam Distillery.
We got there at about 3:45 and went to the visitor's center. Unfortunately, the last tour had started at 3:30, so I was out of luck!!! We left and went to a campground we found just South of Louisville, KY. The good news, is that we've reduced tomorrow's drive to Ohio by almost 90 minutes.
Things are really winding down now ... tomorrow night will be the last night of our trip. It's hard to believe that 23 days have gone by. As usual, it will be nice to be back home, however, it will also be sad for our trip to come to an end. Back tomorrow night from our final destination, Streetsboro, OH.
Day 22
We drove from Hot Springs, AR to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky today. Along the way, we drove through Memphis, TN, so the thought was that since we were there, we might as well stop off for a quick look at Graceland.
When we got to Memphis, we detoured slightly to get to Graceland. When we arrived, the first thing I found out was that I was going to have to pay to park the car & trailer. Unfortunately, at that point, I didn't think to ask the girl at the parking booth about what it would cost to actually see the mansion, etc. We parked the car and started walking to the ticketing area.
When we got there, we discovered a few things ...
First, it was going to cost $68 for the two of us to go on a tour to see the mansion. That price included the mansion only, not the King's jet.
Second, we couldn't even see the mansion from the ticketing center, so if we just wanted to grab a couple of quick pictures of the outside, we couldn't even do that.
Third, even if I did want to pay the money to go on a tour, we were going to have to wait quite a while, as there were a lot of people already waiting.
So, after getting our picture at the entrance to the ticketing center, and a partial picture of the King's jet behind the fence, we left. Elvis, if you are still alive, you owe me $15!!! That will teach me to do my homework!
After leaving Graceland, we got back on the road and continued our journey to Mammoth Cave National Park. When we arrived, not surprisingly, we discovered that we didn't have any cellular connectivity. It looked like it was going to rain, and the forecast was calling for it, so we got the trailer set up and then drove about 10 - 15 minutes to the town of Cave City, KY, where we were able to get online.
We then drove back to the campgrounds, made dinner just before it started raining, and then played games for a while. In the morning, we're going to go and take a tour of Mammoth Cave. Unfortunately, the forecast for tomorrow isn't too good. The good news, is that for the tour, it won't matter ... we'll be in a cave!!! The bad news, is that after the tour, it's going to be tough to find much to do in the rain. We'll have to see what we can come up with.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Day 21
When we arrived at our campground in Hot Springs, AR last night, the guy from the campground who brought us to our site mentioned that it looked like we had a problem with the bearings on one of the wheels of the trailer. He pointed out a lot of black streaks on the one wheel while the other wheel was relatively clean. He said there was probably a bad seal on the hub. He explained that he does RV repairs at the campground, which as it turns out, is pretty standard for the KOA campgrounds we've stayed at. He offered to re-grease the bearing and fix the seal for $30. Having no basis for comparison, I decided to have him do it. He said he'd come by in the morning and take care of it then.
After having the wheel bearing worked on, Josh and I headed into the town of Hot Springs and to the National Park.
In reality, Hot Springs National Park isn't much ... it's more of a museum of the old bath houses than anything else.
We went to the visitor's center, which is actually one of the old bath houses, and has been turned into a museum. We walked through it, watched a short film about the history of the hot springs and that was about all there was to do. There are some hiking trails on the two small mountains that make up the park, but there didn't seem to be any compelling reason to do any of these hikes.
We then walked along the main street where all of the bath houses are and stopped into one of them, which has been converted into a brewery, for a snack and a beer for me. Josh had a root beer float. We then stopped to fill some bottles with water from the hot springs. The National Parks Service has several "filling stations" along the main street where you can fill containers with the natural spring water for free. Due to it's high temperature, the water is drinkable directly from the spring without any filtering or treatment.
After that, we went to a "family fun place", which had go-karts & miniature golf. We took a ride on the go-karts which was a LOT of fun, and then we played a game of miniature golf. We made a quick stop at Wal-Mart for some ice and then headed back to our campground, where we played a few more games of miniature golf.
We made dinner and now we're just relaxing. It was a VERY hot and VERY humid day, so we're both pretty beat. Tomorrow, we drive from Hot Springs, AR to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Along the way, we're planning to make a short stop at Graceland. We'll see how that all goes.
After having the wheel bearing worked on, Josh and I headed into the town of Hot Springs and to the National Park.
In reality, Hot Springs National Park isn't much ... it's more of a museum of the old bath houses than anything else.
We went to the visitor's center, which is actually one of the old bath houses, and has been turned into a museum. We walked through it, watched a short film about the history of the hot springs and that was about all there was to do. There are some hiking trails on the two small mountains that make up the park, but there didn't seem to be any compelling reason to do any of these hikes.
We then walked along the main street where all of the bath houses are and stopped into one of them, which has been converted into a brewery, for a snack and a beer for me. Josh had a root beer float. We then stopped to fill some bottles with water from the hot springs. The National Parks Service has several "filling stations" along the main street where you can fill containers with the natural spring water for free. Due to it's high temperature, the water is drinkable directly from the spring without any filtering or treatment.
After that, we went to a "family fun place", which had go-karts & miniature golf. We took a ride on the go-karts which was a LOT of fun, and then we played a game of miniature golf. We made a quick stop at Wal-Mart for some ice and then headed back to our campground, where we played a few more games of miniature golf.
We made dinner and now we're just relaxing. It was a VERY hot and VERY humid day, so we're both pretty beat. Tomorrow, we drive from Hot Springs, AR to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Along the way, we're planning to make a short stop at Graceland. We'll see how that all goes.
Day 20
We had some really bad thunderstorms in Amarillo last night that went on for hours. I woke up at around 2:00 and decided to check to make sure nothing was leaking from the air conditioner ... unfortunately, there was a slow drip. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad at that point, so I put down the small tarp that I had brought along for just this purpose, along with a plastic bag and a towel. When I woke up in the morning, the towel was soaked, and the small rug that had been dripped on before I woke up were wet, but that was the only "damage".
We made breakfast, packed up the trailer, and headed out for our "long" drive to Hot Springs, AR. According to Google Maps, the trip was expected to take about 9 hours. With a couple of gas stops, it took about 9:15.
We got set up, made dinner, and then watched a movie on TV. Tomorrow, we're going to spend the day in and around Hot Springs National Park.
The good news that I got when we arrived here, is that my camera appears to be working again, at least to some degree, so I'm hopeful that with a little more drying out, it will be back to 100%.
We made breakfast, packed up the trailer, and headed out for our "long" drive to Hot Springs, AR. According to Google Maps, the trip was expected to take about 9 hours. With a couple of gas stops, it took about 9:15.
We got set up, made dinner, and then watched a movie on TV. Tomorrow, we're going to spend the day in and around Hot Springs National Park.
The good news that I got when we arrived here, is that my camera appears to be working again, at least to some degree, so I'm hopeful that with a little more drying out, it will be back to 100%.
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Day 19
Today we drove from Alamosa, CO to Amarillo, TX. It was a "moderate" length drive at 350 miles. There's really very little to say about today, other than our drive took us through some beautiful places. From the mountains of Colorado to the grasslands of New Mexico and the Texas pan handle, there were beautiful views most of the way.
Unfortunately, my camera is still not working due to it getting wet yesterday. It seems to be a little closer to working, but it's not there yet. Hopefully, with another day of drying out, it will start to work again.
Tomorrow is the longest drive of our trip ... we'll be traveling from Amarillo, TX to Hot Springs, AR. We'll be traveling Interstate 40 almost the entire way, so I'm not expecting to see anything of interest. Tomorrow is all about getting through the drive.
Unfortunately, my camera is still not working due to it getting wet yesterday. It seems to be a little closer to working, but it's not there yet. Hopefully, with another day of drying out, it will start to work again.
Tomorrow is the longest drive of our trip ... we'll be traveling from Amarillo, TX to Hot Springs, AR. We'll be traveling Interstate 40 almost the entire way, so I'm not expecting to see anything of interest. Tomorrow is all about getting through the drive.
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Day 18
We woke up very early this morning, and I drove Patty and Rachel to the Albuquerque Airport for their flight home. We let Josh stay asleep in the trailer. After dropping them off, I returned to the campground and spent some time cleaning the trailer up and re-organizing some of our gear.
Josh and I had a fairly short drive today from Albuquerque, NM to Alamosa, CO, which is very close to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The drive was only 220 miles and was expected to take about 4 hours.
As we were crossing the border from New Mexico into Colorado, there were some very ominous thunderstorms in the area. Fortunately, we only passed through one storm, very briefly. The rest seemed to find their way around us.
As we were getting close to Alamosa, it occurred to me that we would probably be able to go and visit Great Sand Dunes National Park today, rather than tomorrow morning. This would save us from having to wake up early tomorrow, pack up the trailer, go to the park, hike to the top of the dunes and then drive all the way to Amarillo, TX.
We decided that we would see what our campground for the night was like. If it was a "fun" campground, with lots of stuff to do, we'd stick with the original plan. If it was a "lame" campground, then we'd go to the park.
We arrived at the campground, dropped off our trailer and looked around ... it turned out to be "lame", so off to the park we went.
When we arrived at the park, the weather was pretty good. It was actually a bit on the cool side, which was definitely going to be a plus for hiking to the top of the dunes. There were some dark clouds over the mountains nearby, but it appeared that they wouldn't be a problem for a while. The Parks Service estimates that it will take approximately 2 hours to hike to the top of High Dune and back, so off we went.
We got about halfway up, and all of a sudden, the weather started to make its presence known. We were debating what to do ... should we turn back and come back in the morning, or should we keep going? We hemmed and hawed for a few minutes and ultimately decided to continue on.
At that point, the wind started to pick up and we were being sand-blasted. It was really quite uncomfortable! We continued on anyway. It's amazing how difficult it is to walk uphill in the sand!!! We got about 100 yards from the top and we heard the first sound of thunder. At that point, we immediately turned around and started making a dash back towards the parking lot.
Unfortunately, we didn't make it before the rain started. We were getting soaked, it was cold, the wind was blowing sand in our faces and then it started to hail. This was fun!!!!
We finally made it back to the parking lot. We were soaked from head to toe with no dry clothes to change into. Our boots were completely full of wet sand, that felt like concrete. We jumped into the car anyway, getting the seats and everything else all wet. Of course, as soon as we got into the car, I realized that we had our rain ponchos sitting in the console!!!
We drove back to the campground, and fortunately, it wasn't raining there. We got the trailer set up as quickly as we could, and then we both showered to get all of the sand off of us. Our boots are pretty messed up ... I'm hoping that once they dry out, all of the sand will just pour out ... we'll see.
Next, I did some laundry (including the clothes we were wearing today) and then we made dinner.
Unfortunately, in spite of my best efforts to keep the camera dry while we were on the dunes, it would appear that I was not successful. As of now, it's not working. I'm hoping that it will "dry out" overnight and will work in the morning ... I'm not too optimistic about that.
If nothing else, I guess it makes for a good story.
Tomorrow, we're off to Amarillo, TX. Hopefully it will be a bit less adventurous!
Josh and I had a fairly short drive today from Albuquerque, NM to Alamosa, CO, which is very close to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The drive was only 220 miles and was expected to take about 4 hours.
As we were crossing the border from New Mexico into Colorado, there were some very ominous thunderstorms in the area. Fortunately, we only passed through one storm, very briefly. The rest seemed to find their way around us.
As we were getting close to Alamosa, it occurred to me that we would probably be able to go and visit Great Sand Dunes National Park today, rather than tomorrow morning. This would save us from having to wake up early tomorrow, pack up the trailer, go to the park, hike to the top of the dunes and then drive all the way to Amarillo, TX.
We decided that we would see what our campground for the night was like. If it was a "fun" campground, with lots of stuff to do, we'd stick with the original plan. If it was a "lame" campground, then we'd go to the park.
We arrived at the campground, dropped off our trailer and looked around ... it turned out to be "lame", so off to the park we went.
When we arrived at the park, the weather was pretty good. It was actually a bit on the cool side, which was definitely going to be a plus for hiking to the top of the dunes. There were some dark clouds over the mountains nearby, but it appeared that they wouldn't be a problem for a while. The Parks Service estimates that it will take approximately 2 hours to hike to the top of High Dune and back, so off we went.
We got about halfway up, and all of a sudden, the weather started to make its presence known. We were debating what to do ... should we turn back and come back in the morning, or should we keep going? We hemmed and hawed for a few minutes and ultimately decided to continue on.
At that point, the wind started to pick up and we were being sand-blasted. It was really quite uncomfortable! We continued on anyway. It's amazing how difficult it is to walk uphill in the sand!!! We got about 100 yards from the top and we heard the first sound of thunder. At that point, we immediately turned around and started making a dash back towards the parking lot.
Unfortunately, we didn't make it before the rain started. We were getting soaked, it was cold, the wind was blowing sand in our faces and then it started to hail. This was fun!!!!
We finally made it back to the parking lot. We were soaked from head to toe with no dry clothes to change into. Our boots were completely full of wet sand, that felt like concrete. We jumped into the car anyway, getting the seats and everything else all wet. Of course, as soon as we got into the car, I realized that we had our rain ponchos sitting in the console!!!
We drove back to the campground, and fortunately, it wasn't raining there. We got the trailer set up as quickly as we could, and then we both showered to get all of the sand off of us. Our boots are pretty messed up ... I'm hoping that once they dry out, all of the sand will just pour out ... we'll see.
Next, I did some laundry (including the clothes we were wearing today) and then we made dinner.
Unfortunately, in spite of my best efforts to keep the camera dry while we were on the dunes, it would appear that I was not successful. As of now, it's not working. I'm hoping that it will "dry out" overnight and will work in the morning ... I'm not too optimistic about that.
If nothing else, I guess it makes for a good story.
Tomorrow, we're off to Amarillo, TX. Hopefully it will be a bit less adventurous!
Day 17 (Delayed)
Today was a "lazy" day ... since we had come to Albuquerque a day earlier than originally planned, we didn't have any ideas on what to do. After looking around a bit on the web, we came to the conclusion that there probably wasn't going to be much of anything to do that we would all agree upon, so we ended up just going to Albuquerque's "Old Town" and walked around a bit, did a little shopping and had lunch.
After that, we tried to visit an alpaca farm/ranch, but it was already closed. Josh was really bummed about that!
From there, it was back to the campground where we just pretty much hung out for the night.
Tomorrow morning, Patty and Rachel fly back home really early in the morning. The plan is for me to take them to the airport and leave Josh in the trailer sleeping.
After they leave, Josh and I will pack up and head for our next destination, Alamosa, CO, which is just outside Great Sand Dunes National Park, our destination for Sunday.
After that, we tried to visit an alpaca farm/ranch, but it was already closed. Josh was really bummed about that!
From there, it was back to the campground where we just pretty much hung out for the night.
Tomorrow morning, Patty and Rachel fly back home really early in the morning. The plan is for me to take them to the airport and leave Josh in the trailer sleeping.
After they leave, Josh and I will pack up and head for our next destination, Alamosa, CO, which is just outside Great Sand Dunes National Park, our destination for Sunday.
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