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About this blog

An account of our travels and tribulations.

Entries in this blog

 

The Quinault Valley - Land of Giants

The Quinault Valley of the Olympic Peninsula was our last stop visiting the peninsula. Arriving at the Rain Forest Village Resort RV Park, we located an open site. We arrived on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend so we were glad to get a site at this first come, first served RV Park. They do not take reservations. The park is more like a state park campground than the usual commercial RV Park. Upon arrival we were given several brochures detailing local attractions, most of these were related
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Enjoying Winter in Texas

While Gramps is fighting off the cold I thought I would highlight the joys of traveling south for the winter as do those of us fortunate to be free of the attachment to a job. It is Saturday and today I spent the morning getting our motor home ready for a trip to the shop. We blew a tire, outside dual on the drivers side, and it took a bunch of fiberglass off the left rear of the coach. It has been ten weeks since we got an estimate from the shop and they ordered parts. Ruby from Bert Ogden RV c
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There's an App for That

Anyone who owns a smart phone has heard the saying, there's an app for that. It's more than a cute rhyme. An app (tech talk for application) is a computer program which performs some function. Apps on smart phones are small programs that require very little memory and usually form a specific function or limited set of functions. In my last post I mentioned that we found an app for locating Wal-Mart stores, ALLSTAYS ONP Walmart, $2.99. There is a beefed up version that includes the Wal-Mart
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An Unusual Journey (Part 1)

I have driven the motor home without my navigator beside me before but never quite like this trip. There have been a few short trips to repair shops. The only long trip was from St. Louis to Houston. On that trip Louise was following me in the toad as I returned a tow dolly to its maker. On that trip we had radios for communication on the road and we stopped for rest stops, meals and overnights together. On Monday of last week I dropped Louise off at the airport. She was on her way to Den
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An Unusual Journey (Part 2)

In Part 1 I described the first day of a trip from Edinburg, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley to Dakota Ridge RV Park in Golden, Colorado. I spent the first night in Ballinger, Texas. My goal for the second day of the trip was Amarillo. I always prefer to park on the far side of large towns so I don’t have to start out driving through town in busy morning traffic. The weather was mostly cloudy until I got near Amarillo. Being just over a week from my last cataract surgery, I really apprecia
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50th Family Reunion in Gillette, WY

Our oldest grandchild turned 13 today. Ryan was born almost exactly a year after my retirement and almost exactly one year before we went full time in our motor home. I mention this because his age so nearly parallels significant changes in our lives. From the day we purchased our first motor home in 2001, we were FMCA members. In our 12 years of FMCA membership we have attended five rallies, Hutchinson, KS in 2002; Redmond, OR in 2004, St. Paul, MN in 2008, Bowling Green, OH in 2009 and now
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You Really Can't Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd

We took the Bison Ranch Tour at the FMCA Family Reunion, 50th Anniversary Rally, in Gillette, Wyoming. It turned into a real adventure, much more than expected. Our tour was Friday evening and was to include a meal before our return to the rally site in Gillette. We met the bus at the assigned location and boarded without incident. This was a nice commercial bus with comfortable seats and air conditioning. After the last passengers were on board we were on our way south on Wyoming Highway
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An Easy Drive Across the Prairie

We left Yankton, South Dakota, on Saturday morning on our way to Denver, Colorado. We have made this trip in one day many times in the past. This trip would be different. It is Labor Day weekend and we don't have reservations in Denver until Labor Day itself. So we have all day Saturday and Sunday and part of Monday before we have a place to park in Denver. We drove west on South Dakota Hwy. 50 until we reached US Hwy 18. This is a new route for us. I had set the GPS for Wounded Knee. We
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Fun With the Girls

After our blistering cross country trip to California, Louise picked up our two youngest granddaughters in Stockton at noon on Monday. I stayed at Paul Evert’s RV to have a spring replaced in the roller of our slide out cover. As soon as that job was finished I headed for Watsonville to meet Louise and the girls. I arrived about an hour after Louise but there is a playground at Pinto Lake Park where we would be staying so the girls had something to do until I arrived. Louise had checked in
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A Well Used Motor Home

Our motor home always has something that needs fixing. This has been the history of the coach since we bought it. This is not a complaint, it is the nature of a well used motor home to need things fixed on a regular basis. Call it upkeep or maintenance, it has to be done. I'm glad that I enjoy doing things myself because the cost of hiring someone else to repair all the minor things that can go wrong would be exceedingly expensive. We just reached the 120,000 milestone on our last trip. T
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Another Leg on Our Summer Journey

After a three week stay in eastern Missouri at my daughter's home we were preparing to leave. After unplugging the coach I started the generator. Just as it was switching the current over to the generator it died. The error code indicated an overheat condition. It was a very warm day but we could get by without the air conditioners running so I decided to let this ride for now and investigate at our next stop. While on the way to Independence, on the other side of the state, I pondered how
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These Are the Best of Times

We're back in our winter campground. Southern Texas calls us back each winter. It could be the warm weather. It might be the wonderful people. Maybe it is just the memory of winters in colder climes that makes us feel as though we are cheating mother nature staying where it is warm (remember, warm is a relative term). As I write this our temperature is 50oF while much of the central US is facing a night of negative temperatures. Here in our park we have an active group. I fell in with the
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Wounded Knee

As we left Martin, SD it began to rain lightly. Radar showed rain between Martin and Wounded Knee. As we passed fields of sunflowers their heads were bowed, hiding their bright yellow ray flowers we had seen the day before. The sunflowers are much shorter than the ones I planted in my garden in the 70’s. Their heads are smaller than the 12 to 16” heads I remember from those days. I know these fields are harvested mechanically but I would love to see the equipment that does the job. The hea
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Our New Home

Arriving in Auckland, New Zealand, our first stop is of course to pass through customs. We filled out the arrival card answering questions about the contents of our luggage, etc. Then we face the agents and answer questions about our answers. It is all pretty routine. Next, we need to find a way to get to the rental agency to pick up our campervan. We inquire at the airport information desk and are assured that a shuttle will arrive shortly to take us to the rental agency. Within about 15
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Waipoua State Forest

We left the park at Russell headed west to cross the island to the west coast. We wanted to spend some time hiking in the Waipoua State Forest, site of the largest Kauri trees in the world. Kauri trees are a source of gum and an important economic export from the islands until World War II. Much of the forest is gone but several very large Kauri trees can be seen in this forest. The road to Waipoua State Forest was quite serpentine, travel was slow and we encountered frequent one lane bridge
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Sheep World

After our long drive from the Waipoua State Forest we pulled up for the night at Sheep World. We had seen this place on the way north, it is right on NZ Hwy 1. It looks for all the world like a real tourist trap but we were tired and it was late so there we’ll stay. The owner is a real character, elderly and quick with his mind. We had breakfast at their restaurant the next morning then stayed for the dog and sheep show at 11:00. We visited the many animals they had in pens and cages, every
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Gilmour Lake Park in Waihi - When life gives you lemons…

Gilmour Park was an impromptu lunch stop for us. Louise had purchased a chicken pot pie at the BP Connect Station where I fueled the campervan. While she fixed the rest of our lunch, I took a walk around the park. It turned out to be a delightful park with a nice lake, with paths around the lake and boardwalks over wetlands and a children’s playground, it was a really pleasant stop. In gathering information for this entry, I learned that the park also had hidden beauty that I didn’t apprecia
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Rotorua - Maori Ancestral Home

Rotorua is a good size town. Among its claim to fame is having a number of local boys playing on the All Blacks Rugby Team, the national team of New Zealand. The name comes from their original uniforms which were the least expensive available, all black uniforms, no stripes, no decoration, no names. The team has become a cause celebre for the nation and now are internationally ranked in the top rugby in the world. We had one objective in Rotorua and that was to learn more about the Maori pe
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Well We Missed Wellington

On Saturday, February 8 we woke to rain and heavy low clouds. Our plans had been to drive from Rotorua to the National Park and do some hiking and sightseeing around the mountain territory in the center of the North Island. Since the scenery would be hidden and hiking in a constant rain would not be our idea of fun, we decided to turn the day into a travel day. We needed to be in Wellington on Sunday night so we could get on the Interislander Ferry to the South Island at 9:00 a.m. on Monday
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Westport and the Seal Colony

It is now Tuesday, February 12 in this series that started on January 29 with our departure from the US. The actual date of this posting is later because it has taken me quite a bit of time to catch up with recording and posting these entries. The first few days kept my mind fully occupied with all the new things to absorb about this vacation. Then there were the internet challenges. We subscribed to an internet server that is common throughout New Zealand at the TOP 10 parks where we stay m
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Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier is the name of a town and the name of the glacier itself that lies just a few kilometers from the town. We stayed at the TOP 10 Holiday Park in Franz Josef Glacier, the town. It was a pleasant enough park, clean facilities. When we got ready to go in the morning, the campervan would not start. The battery had been drawn down by the headlights so we had to call for a jump. We called the 800 number the rental company had given us. After some discussion it was determined t
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New Zealand – The Culture and People

I shall attempt to share some personal impressions of the culture and people of New Zealand. New Zealand has a number of things that remind me of the US in the 1950’s. Traveling through the small towns and rural areas is a distinctively different experience than traveling in the larger cities. The larger cities have motorways which are similar to our limited access highways with high speed exits and entries onto the highway much like ours. There are even some access ramps in Auckland which h
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Finding New Friends

Leaving Haast, we immediately stopped to pick up a couple of hitchhikers. This isn’t something you’d do in the US but here in New Zealand there are lots of young people who are out and exploring. There were two young men along the road just as we were picking up speed so we stopped and took them down the road to their next destination. They were college students from Holland. Both were civil engineering majors. They have finished their third year and are taking a 5 month break before finish
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Glowworm Cave Tour

Glowworms are found throughout New Zealand. There are numerous glowworm caves. We chose this one partly because of the sightseeing and partly out of curiosity. I didn’t know what to expect. I think the mystery is part of the sales pitch. So if you don’t like people spoiling your suspense and surprise, turn off the sound right now. We were in Te Anau at the TOP 10 Holiday Park and made reservations as we checked in at the desk. The tour left from the Real Journeys tour office in Te Anau, j
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