We have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit family this past week. First we visited Erik’s brother Derek and his wife Maureen who live in Petaluma which is in the Sanoma area. We went wine tasting, ate yummy food and relaxed in their house in the cozy Read more…
We made it to the west coast! We may not be wearing bathing suits and swimming, but the coast of California is beautiful! We stayed at Hearst San Simeon State Park for four nights and soaked up some beach time. We also visited the Big Sur area. One of the Read more…
In preparation for our journey and change of venue we got rid of most of our stuff in Miami. It is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate over time. We didn’t have too much of a hard time parting with our belongings thanks to good friends who took some Read more…
One of the pleasant surprises on this trip has been all the nice people we have met in the campgrounds along the way. I have really enjoyed speaking to so many people who have retired early and/or have sold their homes and are traveling full time. It is inspiring to Read more…
We made it to California and spent three nights at Anza-Borrego State Park and another three nights at Joshua Tree National Park. We went hiking every day and enjoyed the scenery. We stopped at the Salton Sea. This is an inland salty “sea” that was created from water from the Read more…
It has been interesting staying so close to Mexico. The border patrol presence is significant with helicopters, atv patrols and signs warning of smuggling etc. There are vehicle checkpoints on most roads within the USA that lead from the direction of Mexico. We have had to pass through many. We Read more…
Spent the last three nights at the Organ Pipe National Monument which is in southern Arizona on the border with Mexico. Really enjoyed the landscape with the cactus. One of the things we have been enjoying is the educational talks by the park rangers. There are a lot of creepy Read more…
Spent 3 nights camping and hiking at Aguirre Springs Recreation area near Las Cruces. We stayed at an amazing BLM campground for $3.50 per night, in the organ mountains overlooking some fantastic scenery. There were two fun hikes from the campground.
Went to the White Sands National Monument which was way cool! Had a picnic and went for a hike. It was fun seeing the jets from the nearby Air Force base zoom past. They have to plow the roads here. Kids and adults alike were sledding on those round saucer Read more…
We headed south from Albuquerque and took a detour to visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array. This place is in the middle of nowhere. It has 27 huge dishes measuring 82 feet across. They are mounted on railroad tracks in a y configuration and can be moved Read more…