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Jackhal49

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  1. Jackhal49

    Summer in Maine!

    By Jackhal49,

    Wow! Can’t believe it is almost August! Time sure does fly when you’re having fun! Since my last blog entry we have traveled from Kartchner Caverns, Bensen, AZ to Phippsburg, Maine. Had a pretty good trip across country even though we took a dog leg route to Forest City, Iowa to Winnebago Industries to have a few things checked out on the new to us motor home and a had few items worked on. The Horizon had a dishwasher which we really didn’t need so we had it removed and had two more kitchen drawers installed to take its place. Being full-timers having extra storage is always welcome. We also had the roof inspected and all the sealants checked and replaced where needed. One does not need leaks and Maine is not like AZ it actually rains here in Maine a lot.
    We sold our house here in Maine to our son and daughter-in-law so we are staying at a campgrounds right down the street from the old homestead. Really nice to visit family and see how fast our little grand daughter is going. Also we came to see our son off as he is deploying with the Maine National Guard so we will be nervous parents for the next year until he returns. It is hard to see your son leave for a war zone and I know how hard it was for him to leave his family. I spent 21 years in the Navy so I know how hard it is to deploy and leave your family behind. We got to go on family day that his guard group put on and got to meet a lot of his comrades in arms, a great bunch of dedicated people who are very proud to serve their country. We are really proud of them all.
    We are really enjoying being back in Maine again and so far the weather has been really good. Some days are very humid though sure different than the hot dry weather of AZ and TX where we spent the winter. Have been really scoffing up the Maine seafood especially the lobster and clams! Yum! We are loving the Horizon more than ever as it is so roomy and homey. The dogs love it too as they have plenty of room to spread out and sack out as well. LOL! The campgrounds we are staying at are really nice with quite a few summer residents that are really friendly and lots of fun to be around. Lots of fisherman here as well and I have been enjoying fishing along the coast as well. The stripers aren’t running too well as yet but it is still fun to get out there and enjoy the coast. It is really hard to beat the coast of Maine in the summer and early fall; however, I do not want to be here in the winter anymore. Winters seem to drag on forever here so being full-timers and traveling to the south in the winter is really the way to go. The summers just seem to go by so fast here but I am going to enjoy every minute of it while we are here. Hope all is well with everyone out there and you all are enjoying the summer!
  2. Jackhal49
    New to us coach! Well so much for buying your last coach first. We had some work done on our Journey at La Mesa RV in Tucson, AZ and while we were there waiting for the service to be completed and of course we started looking at all the motor homes, 5th wheels, etc. At first DW thought she really wanted a 5th wheel but then decided she did not want to drive a large pickup all the time. This got us thinking (a dangerous thing) about wanting more living space, so now the wheels are in motion. We started looking seriously at the used coaches and a few Phaetons we looked at were sold before we had a chance at them, then we looked at a 06 Itasca Horizon and really loved it! So we did it! We traded our 05 34H Journey for a 06 40KD Horizon and Wow what room we have now! Lots of really neat extras on the coach and features our Journey did not have. The staff at La Mesa has been totally awesome and has been quick to correct any minor problems we have found on the coach. I can’t say enough about how honest and caring La Mesa RV in Tucson has been to us. They gave us a good deal all around and are still there to help us with our needs.
    The coach itself is really nice looking it has full body paint in silver frost. The insides are so nice with real tile floors and great looking wood work. We really do like the Winnebago/Itasca motor homes and after owning the Journey most of the interior workings are the same on the Horizon. One feature we really like are all the nice large windows that give us excellent views which are pretty awesome here at Kartchner Caverns. We will miss our Journey after living in her for so long, but we really do love the Horizon. All and all we are pretty happy campers!
  3. Jackhal49
    Wow! It is hard to believe that it is the 1st of April already and the last time I added to this blog was in November 2011! As they say time flies when you’re having fun and we have definitely been having fun. The full-timing and volunteering life style is really awesome. A lot has happened since my last blog entry. We really enjoyed our stay at Goliad State Park as the staff and the park itself is so great. Christmas time at the old mission is so special. The mission is lit with lights and different silhouettes are placed in front of lights to cast unique shadows on the mission walls at night. Lights, garland, and bows decorate the inside of the chapel and it looked so pretty. It is truly a magical time at the mission. We stayed at Goliad State Park right through to the 1st of the New Year and left for Bentsen/Rio Grande Valley State Park in Mission, Texas. It was hard to leave all our friends at Goliad to head south to the Rio Grande Valley, but new adventures awaited us there.
    Bentsen/Rio Grande Valley State Park is one of the worlds best birding centers. It is not unusual to see 60, 70, or more bird species in a single day there. Birding being one of our hobbies we couldn’t wait to start at the park and get out birding. Two of my favorite birds there are the Green Jay and the Great Kiskadee both being very pretty birds and having unique personalities. Many of the bird species there are only seen in that area of Texas and very rarely travel much farther north. The are several ox bow lakes that attract many shore birds as well and three species of kingfishers can be seen there on any given day if you are lucky. The park is truly a birder’s paradise! People travel from all over the United States and many different countries just to see the birds there. One bird in particular, the Black Vented Oriole, had birders coming in from all over as it is rarely seen north of Mexico or Central America. Unfortunately the Oriole disappeared suddenly after being a daily visitor at the park for almost a month. We saw lots of border patrol there at the park as they used the park as a staging area on a daily basis. One can really appreciate how hard the border patrol personnel work by living at the park. We really loved this park and the staff here is awesome and very knowledgeable on birds, butterflies, etc. We really learned a lot there and enjoyed our two month stay immensely. It seemed we just barely arrived there and it was time to leave again.
    We left Bentsen on the 1st of March and we did not have to be at Kartchner Caverns until the 15th of March so we decided to do some sightseeing on our way across to the caverns. So we headed off to Davis Mountain State Park near Fort Davis, Texas which is another really great park up in the mountains with really awesome views. However, before getting to Davis Mountain we stopped at Fredericksburg, Texas. A must see at Fredericksburg is the WWII Pacific War Museum. It takes about a full day to see all the museum has to offer and it is well worth the time spent. After touring the museum one really leaves with a greater appreciation for the “Greatest Generation” and all the sacrifices they made to preserve the freedoms we enjoy everyday.
    We stayed an extra day in the Fredericksburg area as the winds in the Davis Mountain area were really high and gusting to 60 mph. Due to the high wind delay we arrived at Davis Mountain State Park a day late but with still 7 days to explore the area. The park is high up in the hills and there is lots of wildlife roaming throughout the park. We had several mule deer stroll through our campsite and also a group of 10 Javelina. One does not want to leave any coolers out as the Javelina is more than happy to help themselves to your food as one of the campers found out. We had a great time hiking the hills and visiting the local sites. We especially liked Fort Davis which is an old cavalry fort where the Buffalo soldiers stayed. The history of the fort is quite impressive and we really enjoyed touring the fort. Another great place to visit in the area is the McDonald Observatory. The observatory sits high up on a mountain and has five very large telescopes, the largest being the 107” telescope. They give daily tours of the observatory and they also have night programs where they have several smaller telescopes to view the night sky. What really makes it so amazing is the sky there is so dark which no real light pollution. Being an amateur astronomer I was in my glory to say the least. The weather turned really cold at the end of our stay there and it spit snow there one night and got down to 28 F so it was really chilly and then some. We felt sorry for the people in tents there as they must have really frozen and the park was full with spring vacationers many in tents.
    We arrive here at Kartchner Caverns on the 15th of March as scheduled. This place is pretty amazing and our campsite is really nice. We are up on a mountain side and we can see what seems like forever. There are mountains surrounding us with a large expanse of plains to the east before more mountains. At night we can see the lights from Bensen and Tombstone and it is quite pretty. On of our duties here is to tail the tours into the caves which is really fun and exciting. The caves themselves are something else with lots of stalagmites, stalactites, flowstones, columns, etc. We have just stated to explore this park and the local area, however, what we have seen so far we really like. What is really nice there is an Army base not too far away and being retired military we get to used all their facilities. So with this I will end part one of this blog as we have more excitement to tell you all about in my next installment which I should be adding next week.
  4. Jackhal49
    We have now been at Goliad State Park in Goliad, Texas, for a little over a month and are really enjoying our stay here. This is our second fall at this wonderful state park and we feel like we have come home. The staff here is great and really makes us feel at home and is so appreciative of our volunteer service.
    Volunteering is a great way to spend retirement. It gives us something helpful to do and we enjoy meeting so many interesting people that this lifestyle provides.
    There seems to be more wildlife here at Goliad this year. I can’t help wondering if it has something to do with the drought Texas has been experiencing over the last year. We have seen more whitetail deer, gray foxes and raccoons.
    We are also much more aware of the bird migrations this year than last year. We saw a flock of whooping cranes fly over the mission on October 16. It was an amazing sight! It only happens one day out of the entire year as the Whooping Cranes migrate to the Gulf Coast of Texas to their winter quarters. Most of them migrate to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and Matagorda Bay. We took a day trip to the refuge last week and were lucky enough to see four of the cranes and many of the other bird species that winter along the Texas coast. Unfortunately, the elevated walkway and viewing tower was closed for renovations, but we still had a very enjoyable time bird watching.
    The weather here in Texas has been really dry still -- we had only one day of rain since arriving here on the October 1. The temperatures have been cooling off somewhat compared to the 100-degree heat Texas experienced over the summer and early fall.
    It is interesting to see how fast the weather changes here with the passing of a cold front. It can be in the high 80s on day and the next the high temperature is only in the low 60s with low humidity. It has been cloudy and humid the last few days and we have a chance to get some rain tomorrow, which would be welcome, indeed. We are sure glad we were not in Maine for the Halloween snowstorm!
    We had quite the trip coming here from Maine. It was pretty hot across the country on our way to Forest City, Iowa, home of Winnebago Industries. We had a great time visiting Winnebago and touring the factory. It was amazing seeing how the Winnebago motorhomes are put together!
    At Winnebago, we had some work done on our motorhome. Even though we did not have a service appointment, we signed on the standby list to have our work done. We arrived on a Monday afternoon and Winnebago had our motorhome in for service at 7 a.m. on Wednesday. All of the work was completed in just one day.
    Winnebago's customer service and service department staff were excellent and extremely helpful. It sure made us feel fortunate that we own a Winnebago!
    On our way south to Goliad, Texas, from Forest City, we passed through Bastrop, Texas, and were saddened to see all the destruction caused by the terrible wildfire of September. We spent five months at Buescher and Bastrop State Parks from December through April last year and really enjoyed the beauty of the area. It will take a long time for Bastrop State Park to recover to its natural state.
    Fortunately, all the major buildings built by the CCC in the Bastrop Park were saved from the wildfire. It was lucky that Buescher State Park escaped the fire and the Loblolly Pines there were saved. Hopefully the Bastrop area will get some much-needed rain which will help the area start to recover.
    I hope all is well with everyone as we head for the holiday season. We wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!
  5. Jackhal49

    On the Road Again!

    By Jackhal49,

    Like the song goes we are “On the Road Again”! We had a great stay in Maine with our Son and family and Nana had quite the time with the little grand daughter. We arrived there the last week of July and the time just seemed to fly by. I guess the saying is right “time flies when you are having fun”! We love Maine, however, after being in the dry Southwest it was hard to get use to all the rain and moisture, especially the humidity! It was really nice to see everything so green. It is too bad we could not send some of the rain we had to Texas where they really need it! We were so saddened to hear about the very bad Bastrop fire and to hear Bastrop State Park was burned so badly. Our hearts really go out to all the wonderful staff of Bastrop and Buescher State Parks that have lost their homes and all their possessions. The Loblolly Pine Forest of Bastrop County was such a gem and now most of it has been blackened. We spent five months at Buescher State Park as camp hosts and really loved it there. We led many hikes and bird walks through Bastrop State Park and will always have fond memories of the area and its wonderful and friendly people. Thank goodness there were only two casualties with such a huge fire that took over 1550 homes, though even two is two too many. Hopefully, Texas with get some very badly needed rain soon.
    We are once again migrating with the birds; however, we are headed west first to visit Winnebago Industries in Forest City, Iowa. We are going to have a few items worked on like having the roof checked out to make sure it is completely sealed properly. I did tackle some of the job myself, but I’m not overly happy with the way the Dicor hardened on the roof around the vents. Any leaks on a motor home roof are not good so far no leaks and we want to keep it that way. After Forest City we head south to Texas again as we really love wintering there. Our first volunteer host position is at Goliad State Park at the mission. It was our first ever volunteer host position and we really had a great time there and really felt so welcome by the staff there. The first of the year we will be at Bentsen-Rio Valley State Park which is a major birding center. We are really excited to volunteer there and see lots of new bird species. Volunteering is a wonderful way to spend one’s retirement years, very rewarding.
    It is nice to be on the road again and seeing new places. However, traveling on the nation’s highway really brings home how much the highways need to be repaired. The country's infra-structure really needs some serious work and hopefully something will be done to improve it all. I-84 from western NY through eastern PA was so bad we lost a hub cover to one of our dullies and several chrome lug nut covers, which did not make me a happy camper. Hopefully, we can get replacement parts at Winnebago. One item I did not replace this summer was our house batteries and unfortunately they are pretty much spent so that will be another item to replace when we are at Forest City, IA. I swear we have a picked up a few gremlins along the way, have to hunt those buggers down and get rid of them! LOL!
    It is amazing how much we love the full-timing life style after living in a stick and brick home for so long. The coach has become our home and we are completely happy living in it and are so glad we have chosen this life style. We love seeing this wonderful and beautiful country of ours! The greatest asset this country has is its people! We just love meeting new people going across this country. Tomorrow will be another wonderful day of exploring and seeing new things, how very exciting!
  6. Jackhal49
    Well we have come full circle and are currently back in Maine where we started from last September. It is amazing how fast time seems to fly since we have retired a year ago. We have seen some really amazing parts of this grand country of ours and had some amazing experiences as well. We truly enjoyed wintering in Texas and really enjoyed our volunteer experiences at Goliad and Buescher State Parks and met some very wonderful people along the way. We have been so very fortunate and blessed.
    We really enjoyed our volunteer time at Goliad State Park and Mission and learned so much about Texas history. The park is a wonderful place with great camping areas that have lots of shade and are well spaced. The park staff was so friendly and welcoming. This was our first volunteer position and it was so rewarding and enjoyable. We highly recommend this park for anyone visiting this part of Texas, I promise you, you will really enjoy the park and local area. There were lots of wildlife here and we saw our first armadillo and javelina here which was really cool.
    Our second volunteer position was at Buescher State Park which is located about 30 miles east of Austin, Texas. This is also a great camping area with lovely grounds. The park is connected to about Texas State Park, Bastrop, by an 11 mile park road which is a great biking road. We stayed hear for five months and had a great time. The staff here was also wonderful and very welcoming. The park itself is in the piney woods with lots of trees and a great little lake for fishing. The really neat thing about Texas State Parks is that you can fish in them for free, no fishing license is needed. The lake at the park is stocked with Rainbow Trout in December and there is also great Large Mouth Bass fishing as well. There is plenty of hiking trails at Buescher and Bastrop as well as lots of great birding. Lots of wildlife live in the park including mule deer, rabbits, javelina, etc.
    Red Rock State Park in Sedona, AZ was very incredible with all the awesome rock formations and the wonderful staff at the park that made us feel right at home. The area is a great place for hiking and mountain biking and we enjoyed every minute of our stay there. The park is not a camping area and is a day use park only so we were really fortunate to be able to have a host site at the park. However, for those who would like to camp in the area there is Dead Horse State Park in Cottonwood which is located on the road to Clarksdale. Dead Horse has some really great campsites and the whole park is really great and well maintained. Red Rock has some great hiking trails with lots of views of the red rock formations and also a great hike along Oak Creek. We saw lots of wildlife here including mule deer, javelina, rabbits, and I even got to see four otters swimming in Oak Creek one morning. This is a great birding park with lots of species of birds both local and migrating through the area. There are lots of snakes here in the summer months but we only saw a few nonpoisonous snakes the two months we stayed there. Sedona is a real tourist mecca with lots of shops and restaurants. The area is known for all its great hiking and mountain biking trails which we totally enjoyed the whole time we were there. We really loved it there to say the least!
    After leaving the Sedona area and Red Rock SP we headed to Colorado to visit our daughter and family which live near Telluride. We stayed about 30 miles south of Telluride at Priest Gulch Campgrounds just north of Dolores on route 145. What a beautiful campgrounds that has the Dolores River running right through it. This area of Colorado is extremely beautiful with scenery that is just breath taking! The mountains here are just incredible and amazing. Driving up route 145 to Telluride is such a beautiful trip with lots of mountain views and meadows which are sometimes filled with herds of elk. We stayed here two weeks and had a great time. For those who are fishermen, especially fly fishermen, the mountain streams have lots of trout and Trout Lake north of Rico has wonderful fishing. This is another area that has plenty of hiking trails and biking here is also very popular. When you visit Telluride be sure to take the gondola up to mountain village and check the village out. By the way the gondola is free which is a rarity these days.
    It was sad to leave our daughter and family as we headed back to Maine to visit our son and his family. We took our time coming across country which took eight days right during the heat wave that was hitting the middle of the country. Traveling through Colorado was quite the trip especially traveling along route 160 and climbing up and down Wolf Creek Pass. The pass is really something else with an eight mile climb to the top and a long winding road over the other side which got pretty narrow in some places. However, it was very scenic and a beautiful trip though the Rockies.
    It is nice to be in Maine for a change with its interesting weather. We hardly saw rain the whole time we were in the southwest and no fog except for some in the mountain valleys of Colorado. We have had quite a few days of rain showers and some thunderstorms with pea-size hail. It is taking us a while to get used to the humidity especially on cool days when it just feels plain damp. Several days we have had pea soup thick fog where you could not see the water from the beach. It is quite a switch from the dry climate of the southwest and I have to admit I like the dry climate better. However, we are surely enjoying lots of seafood and especially lobster! Nothing better than fresh Maine lobster right from the ocean! Yummy! We are very close to Popham Beach, which is one of the prettiest areas along the Maine coast, just totally breathtaking views.
    We will be here in Maine until mid-September when we will start heading back to Texas, migrating south with all the birds. What a wonderful way to enjoy our retirement years! How Lucky We Are!
  7. Jackhal49
    We are here in beautiful Sedona, AZ. The Red Rock State Park here in Sedona is such an awesome place. The views of the red rock monoliths are incredible! Everywhere you look I'm just totally amazed by the splendor of the geology here and how breathtaking it all is. We are so fortunate to be able to be volunteer hosts here at the park. The staff here is wonderful, helpful and very friendly.
    We have played the tourist bit as we took a Pink Jeep Tour called "Broken Arrow," and wow, was that ever fun! I couldn't believe where that driver took that Jeep and the views were awesome! Today we took the Clarkdale train tour along the Verde River, which is a four-hour tour and lots of fun for any of you train buffs. There is so much to see and do here at the park and throughout the Sedona area. There is plenty of hiking (easy through difficult) here in the park and the local area. The hiking trails in the park are easy, well-groomed and marked. None of which are difficult and the best views are from Eagle's Nest and Coyote Ridge Trails.
    There are some RV parks in the local area, but I have not had a chance to check them out. Dead Horse State Park in Cottonwood has RV sites and is only 10 miles away. The Coconino National Forest has some really nice places to visit and there are some must-see National Monuments as well. Tuzigoot, Montezuma Castle and Well are among the interesting Native American sites to see. To go to Tuzigoot, you have to go through Clarkdale. If you like true Mexican food, stop at Su Casa Restaurant ... great food! If you come to AZ do not miss this beautiful area. Make sure you do not travel from Prescott north on 89A, because coming through Jerome has some really tight switchbacks and steep climbs and descents. Instead, take I-17 either north from Phoenix or south from Flagstaff. However, it is worth the trip to take your toad vehicle to Jerome, the old mining town and now artist community.
    We had a nice trip across Texas, New Mexico and into AZ on I-10. We stopped over one night at Fort Stockton, Texas, and stayed at the Fort Stockton RV Park. A really nice stopover as they have nice FHU, pull-through sites and a nice café. We had supper and breakfast at the café and the food was really good and yummy! It was pretty close to I-10, but we heard very little traffic noise, which was pleasantly surprising.
    Another nice overnight stop was at Buena Terra Campground, Casa Grande, AZ. Really nice park, well-kept, great pull-through sites with FHU and 50 amp service. It is not too far from I-10 and train tracks, but it was still quiet enough to sleep with the windows open and the AC off. The people at both parks were very friendly and most helpful.
    The ride into Sedona from I-17 along route 179 was very scenic and winding so take it slow. When you get into Oak Creek Village there are quite a few round-abouts to get around, but very manageable. We did make a navigation error coming to Red Rock State Park as we came in the Upper Red Rock Loop Road, which is steep in places with narrow switchbacks and turns to gravel road just barely passable for a DP motorhome. It looked like a scene out of Robin Williams's movie RV. We should have come in on the Lower Red Rock Loop Road, which is all paved and wide. One has to be careful believing the good old GPS! As they say, half the fun is getting there!
    By the way, Peg was driving so I owe her big time! The important thing is we arrived safely and learned a bit of a lesson along the way. Right now it is just past 9 p.m., the moon is almost three-quarters full, the crickets are chirping, and you can here the gentle babble of Oak Creek flowing by just a short distance from our site. Does it really get much better than this?! We are fortunate, to say the least. What a Journey!
    Hope all is well with everyone. Enjoy Life!
  8. Jackhal49
    Wow! Does time really fly when you are having fun! It is hard to believe we have been here at Buescher State Park for almost five months. It has been quite the experience living here in the park through the winter months and now early spring. We actually had snow here back in January, but not that much just enough to cover the ground and make us realize what we were missing back in New England. I can honestly say I haven't missed the snow and cold of the Northeast! We did have one four-day period where it just barely got above freezing and we thought maybe we haven't gone far enough south for the winter. The Texas weather is most interesting to this retired meteorologist and to watch the temperature swings when a "Northern" comes through is really amazing. However, the sun here is really warm even when the air temperature is really cold. It has been extremely dry this year so far and the whole area is in a fire ban. There was a 25+ acre wildfire last week, which was a bit scary. Hopefully we will have some rain soon, but it doesn't look too promising. Bad wildfires have been ragging throughout parts of Texas, which makes us really watchful of any fires in the campsites that are currently banned.
    We have enjoyed the two Texas State Parks, Buescher and Bastrop, which are connected by the park road 1C. It has been wonderful to watch the transition from winter to spring here seeing the trees turn green again and hear all the birds sing the joys of spring. There has been a little cute Carolina Wren that has tried to build his nest in just about any space he could find around the motor home and when that didn't work out he tried to build it in our water bottle case on the picnic table. The males build the nest and try to attract a female; so far this little guy isn't having any luck. We have also had a male Cardinal attacking our mirrors on our car and if there is a camper in site 5 he attacks their mirrors as well. He thinks he owns site 5 and our site as well! Another interesting animal adventure is we have a crow and a cottontail rabbit that seem to hang out together which is really funny to watch. In fact our rabbit friend is hopping around our campsite as I write this blog; cute little bugger. We have certainly had lots of wildlife here at the park with a large herd of deer and a large pack of coyotes that amuse us with their comical howling some nights. When leaving the park for Austin very early one morning we had a horned owl fly across in front of our car with a snake in its talons. Quite a sight to say the least! We haven't seen any snakes while hiking or walking and Peggy isn't too excited about seeing one either. However, the other evening we did see two crows having a fight with a copperhead snake about 100 feet from our motor home!
    We have kept busy with helping to run some of the programs here at the park. Peggy and I lead nature hikes and bird walks for the park visitors on selected weekends which we have really enjoyed. I also lead an astronomy night here at Buescher State Park about twice a month at the amphitheater. We usually have really good crowds for the presentation followed by star gazing of the constellations and viewing of planets and other celestial objects with my telescope. Last month we had an Adventure Fest during spring break and had many interesting activities for children and adults a like. A master naturalist led a "learn to fish" event that was really great and we had lots of fun with the kids watching some catch their very first fish. It was so great to see how excited these youngsters would get when they caught that first fish and how excited their parents would get. Peggy put on a campfire cooking demonstration which was quite the hit and tasty as well! Other events included craft making, archery, geocaching, introduction to the local wildlife, nature hikes, etc. It was a great day with a huge attendance. If you haven't had the experience of staying at a Texas State Park I would encourage you to do so as the parks are excellent with great staffing. The parks provide wonderful hiking areas and trails, great places to bike, some have great fishing that require no state fishing license, some have nice golf courses, and many put on programs that are truly amazing.
    What is really nice about this area of Texas is that you can get outside for exercise just about every day. There are some really nice hiking trails at both Buescher and Bastrop State Parks. Just walking the loop road around Buescher is a nice walk and great exercise for our two golden retrievers plus there is always plenty of wildlife to watch as well. We love biking through the park and taking the park road 1C that connects to Bastrop State Park. It is a nice winding road through the lost pines with very little traffic which makes for a very enjoyable ride. There are a few challenging hills on the road which gives you a really good workout but it is well worth the effort to bike. Smithville is a really nice place to visit as well with some nice shops and restaurants. The Smithville library is an awesome place to visit that has a great reading selection of books and CD/videos to borrow for those lazy days to just kick back around the motor home. The TV reception is really good here as well as we get 12 stations with just our antenna.
    We will be sad to leave here at the end of the month as we really do love this place; however, there are more amazing adventures just over the horizon waiting for us. We will be heading for Sedona, Arizona, area which we can't wait to explore. Yes, the retirement, full-timing lifestyle is good. In fact, it's really great! Enjoying life is what it is all about, we really are blessed. I hope all is good with everyone and remember to smell the roses and watch out for the bees!
  9. Jackhal49
    Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to All!
    We left Goliad State Park almost three weeks ago and left with mixed emotions. Goliad SP became like home to us and the wonderful park staff became like family and we will really miss them all. Goliad SP is a MUST SEE, and yes, they are big-rig friendly with pull-thru FHU (50-amp) sites and the nicest staff you’ll ever meet. We will be returning to the park next fall, if all goes well. The park is just an AWESOME place, we loved it!
    As I said, we left with mixed emotions as we were sad to leave Goliad SP, but excited to see what lay ahead over the horizon for our next adventure. Here we are at Buescher SP, which is just 30 miles southeast of Austin, Texas. The park is in the lost pines of loblolly pines with mixed hardwood forest. The landscape is so different from Goliad in that it is hilly and forested, where Goliad was mostly flat plains.
    In some respects Buescher reminds us of the woods of Maine and lots of the same wildlife as Maine has. We have seen lots of White Tail Deer and many of the birds here are the same as New England. It is very peaceful here with lots of birds singing every morning. All the RV sites in this section of the park are back-in sites with water/electric (30-amp) and well spaced. We are park hosts at one part of the park and, being hosts, we have a FHU site that seems to be the only one it the park.
    Our duties are varied with having responsibility for 35 campsites to maintain. We will also be giving hiking tours on the local flora and fauna, plus birding hikes. The bird life here is pretty amazing with lots of species that are local and many migrating birds as well. I also maintain the loner fishing rods to keep them in good working order and ready to go. The park here has a nice 25 acre manmade lake that has lots of fish for the campers and day visitors. There is no requirement for having a fishing license in the Texas SPs so it is a great opportunity. The lake has large mouth bass, sunfish, and is stocked in the winter with rainbow trout which all you anglers will love!
    The Buescher SP is quite large in area with the lake, 7.7 miles of hiking trails, and an 11-mile park road that connects to Bastrop SP. The park road is a favorite for cyclist and is a nice peaceful and challenging ride. There are some pretty steep grades on the park road, so it is not so much for the slight at heart but is a good day’s ride to and from Buescher to Bastrop and back. You may have to walk your bike on a few hills but it is well worth the trip. Having Bastrop SP so close and easy to get to is an added plus to Buescher. Bastrop has lots of nice hiking trails and guided hikes as well. Bastrop SP is better known park with 25 FHU (50 amp) pull-through sites and 10 FHU back-in sites. It is also a much busier park as well and sometimes filled to capacity. Buescher SP is like a well-kept secret and is usually easy to get into and much quieter than Bastrop. Both parks are well-kept gems!
    One great thing that both parks have in common is the excellent weather! Lots of RVers flock to Florida; Texas, however, is just as nice, if not nicer, and the prices on just about everything are much lower.
    The weather has been warmer here than in Florida as well. We are having a drought here and it has hardly rained since we have arrived in Texas the 1st of October. The days here are mostly cloud free and occasionally we will have a foggy morning. Temperatures vary with the direction of the wind. When the winds are from the south to east daytime highs will be in the high 60s to 70s with nighttime lows in the 50s. If the wind is out of the north to west the daytime highs will be in the mid 50s to low 60s with some nighttime lows just below freezing.
    There are days when we get up in the morning we turn in the heater to chase off the morning chill and by afternoon all the winds are open. It sure does beat the cold winds and snows of Maine this time of year. Do we miss the snow? NO WAY!! We have had enough snow in our lifetime to last us the rest of our lives! LOL!!
    The closest town to Buescher SP is Smithville. Smithville is small and a nice, quaint town with a grocery store and a few other stores. The closest town/city with big stores like Wal-Mart, HEB grocery, Best Buy, Sears, etc. is Bastrop, which is only 13 miles away on highway 71. It only takes about 15 minutes to get to Bastrop, so it is really convenient.
    We have yet to explore Austin but will be doing that soon. It is great to be in the country/forest and have a major metropolitan city so close by. We also have lots more to explore in Buescher and Bastrop SP as well. It is so great to be able to go out and hike through the forest everyday!
    We are surely enjoying our retirement and full-time RVing lifestyle! It's really a low-stress lifestyle and very healthy as well. I hope all of you are having a Happy and Awesome Holiday Season and everyone is well and content. Peace and Good Will to All!
    Jack, Peg, and the two goldies, Oliver & Anne
  10. Jackhal49
    We have been volunteering at Goliad State Park in Goliad, Texas, since 1 October and we are still loving it! Full-timing and volunteering is such a great way to spend retirement. It gives us something interesting and constructive to do during retirement and still have plenty of time off to enjoy the area.
    I highly recommend volunteering at state and federal parks for full-timers. We have learned so much about the local history of the area in our volunteer positions as part of the interpretive staff at the Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga and the birth house of General Ignacio Seguin Zaragoza, the winning general of Cinco de Mayo.
    The staff here at the state park are really awesome and keep this park immaculate. I highly recommend this state park to anyone traveling in this area of Texas as it has great pull-through sites with full hookups. It has great walking/cycling trails and, for those who like to fish, they can fish the San Antonio River without buying a fishing license. Fishing is free at all Texas State Parks, which is a really great plus for those who enjoy the sport. You can also kayak or canoe the river here.
    Now and then there are special events at the park and the local area. Since we have been here there has been a re-enactment of the taking of the Presidio La Bahia during the Texas revolution, which was very interesting and fun to watch. Last weekend was the Fall Flotilla where people kayaked the river, and this weekend is Rio Rio. Rio Rio is held at the mission where many people re-enact the ways of the Native American culture during the time period of the active mission. There will be flint knappers, cordage demonstrations, Atlatl dart throwing, cotton spinning and textile making, ceramic making, etc. It should be an exciting and informative weekend.
    It is hard to believe how fast the time has been going since we have been here. As they say, “Time flies when you are having fun.†We only have three more weeks here before we shove off to our next volunteer position. Our leaving will be with mixed emotions as we will be sad to leave this park and its awesome staff; however, we are excited to go to our next adventure. It is always fun to explore new places and learn new and interesting things.
    Our next adventure will take us just south of Austin in the piney forest of northeastern Texas. Bastrop & Buescher State Parks have lots of fishing, hiking, and a great 12-mile biking road that connects to two parks. Biking is one of my best forms of exercise since I broke my right foot. I can usually bike long distances without pain, but hiking can be a problem at times. I really look forward to the long bike trail at Bastrop/Buescher and have been biking a lot here to build up my stamina and strengthen my legs for the longer biking adventures.
    Full-timing is really our cup of tea and we are enjoying it more than ever! Hope all is well with everyone and will write another blog entry once we get settled at our next volunteer position.
  11. Jackhal49
    Finally we have made it to Goliad State Park, Goliad, Texas! We had quite the adventure coming down here and spent some pretty long days driving. Unfortunately, we had to leave Maine late, so there wasn’t a lot of time to travel down here, and it was 6 days of some pretty hard driving.
    We just found convenient RV parks to stay at overnight and some weren’t the greatest, to say the least, but we are finally here! It really helps when both of us can share the driving and we usually took 2-hour shifts behind the wheel. That helped to break up the long days on the road.
    What a beautiful place Goliad State Park is! Texas really takes pride in their state parks and it surely shows here at Goliad! The place is beautiful and the staff is wicked friendly. We certainly could not have asked for a better place for our first volunteer position.
    The mission Espiritu Santo and its grounds are very beautiful. Peg and I host four days at the mission museum and one ay at the birth home of General Ignacio Zaragoza, who was the general who beat the French at Puebla, Mexico. The battle is now celebrated as Cinco de Mayo. The Goliad area is bathed in so much history, which has really kept us amazed and busy learning it all.
    The campgrounds at the state park are really nice. One section has 20 pull-through FHU sites that are well spacedand kept immaculate. The sites are situated around a very large common with lots of well-groomed grass and trees and very quiet. There are several other camping areas, some just for tents that are situated along the San Antonio River and one other area that has back-in sites with water and electric. It is a beautiful place to camp and if you are ever in this area it is well worth your while to come and stay here.
    The town of Goliad is very quaint and very western. The storefronts look like something out of a western movie and one could expect to see a couple of cowboys getting ready to shoot it out at noon. It is much too peaceful for that, however. The very center of town is the historic courthouse, even with a hanging tree outside the main entrance. Yes, the tree was really used for hangings in the old days.
    The weather has been fantastic so far with mostly clear days with temperatures in the 80s and nighttime lows in the mid-50s. I’m sure we will get some rain at some point in time, but for now it is just plain awesome. We are so happy here and our two golden retrievers are as happy as can be, too. We haven’t seen a lot of wildlife yet, but we did see our first armadillo the other night. What amazing and interesting creatures they are! We have also seen a few rabbits, and vultures are everywhere. I will post a few pictures later on if I can figure out how to post/paste them here. I hope all is well with everyone and, as they say here, Ya All Come Down, Ya Hear!
    Jack, Peg, and the two fuzzies
  12. Jackhal49

    Finally!

    By Jackhal49,

    Well, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are still sitting in our yard in Maine waiting to migrate south with all the other birds. Finally, we have all of our roadblocks completed and are now free to travel.
    In the next few days we will start our travels south to Texas and are really excited. We are more than anxious to start our adventure! However, the time we have spent in our motorhome in our yard has had its pluses, as well.
    I finally was able to track down our mystery water leak under our kitchen sink, which was driving us crazy. The leak would happen only once in a great while. What I found was that the leak occurred only when the hot water heater was first turned on. As the water heated, pressure built up in the system just enough for the water to leak at the fitting where the hot water hose joined with the hot water faucet. I just applied some plumber's gook to the fitting and ... problem solved!
    Waiting around to leave has been a bit frustrating, but we have accomplished a lot.
    We did have to change our travel plans quite a bit and were not able to drive out to Sioux Falls, S.D., or to visit our daughter and family in Colorado. We did fly out to Sioux Falls to obtain our driver’s licenses and become residents. In the spring we will leave Texas and head west to make our visit to Colorado, etc. But now, we will head south directly to our first volunteer position at Goliad State Park & Historic site in Texas and are looking so forward to it.
    The weather here in Maine has really turned very fallish and the birds are gathering in flocks heading south. Some of the trees are starting to turn color and, with the cool crisp air, it's a reminder that it's time for us to migrate as well.
    This summer we had a pair of Canada goose raise a family of five goslings and we were able to watch them grow and finally learn to fly and leave. We thought we would never see them again; however, just this morning they have returned as they, too, prepare to fly south for the winter. So our “Adventure†will finally begin! I will add to our blog as we experience our journey.
  13. Jackhal49
    Finally! We are done with dealing with our "stuff." We sold, donated or just plain dumped everything we had in the house -- except for a few items we couldn’t part with, or items we have stored in the house that our son and family are going to rent.
    Whew! What a relief! It really is surprising how much stuff you really do not need to live happily ever after. Mostly what we stored are pictures taken over a lifetime that I just haven’t had the time to digitize.
    We have found out that living in our motorhome for a month in our front yard has been very important. It enabled us to give all the systems in the rig a complete workout. If anything is going to break it will and you can fix it much easier.
    We found a leak over the passenger’s side windshield, which we hopefully have fixed. The very heavy rain showers and thunderstorms we had a couple of weeks ago drove water in and around the top windshield gasket. Had we not found the leak until later, it could have caused some real problems. I was advised to use Proflex RV and caulk in and along the entire windshield gasket. Hopefully, it has taken care of the problem. I’ll let you all know how it works out in a later blog entry; need a few heavy rain showers to give it a good test.
    So far we really love living in the motorhome. It suits our lifestyle quite nicely. We haven’t really realized that we are retired. Peg still feels she is on a long summer vacation and I keep seeing ads for back to school, which makes me think I only have three weeks left of summer vacation. I think by the time we really pull out for the West, we will finally come to the conclusion we are really retired. It's exciting, but still a little scary, but I really feel I can get used to this lifestyle pretty darn quick.
    We made a weekend trip down East to visit my middle-aged brother and his wife in Milbridge, Maine, which is an hour north of Acadia National Park on the coast. Very pretty area and if you haven’t traveled to the northern coast of Maine it is a must-see, totally beautiful. It was nice to be there when the annual Milbridge Days were taking place. They have a parade and other neat events, including a codfish relay race. If you are not familiar with that event, it is a relay race in which the runners have to dress in fisherman’s yellow rain gear and run with a big dead codfish. The funniest event is when the little kids do the race.
    We had a great visit and an awesome feed of fresh Maine lobster right from the local docks. Yummy! Sure will miss lobsters! Have to have one more feed before we head out West.
    Well, we are just about ready to go west ... just a few more items to get done. We need to have the transmission fluid and filters changed and test out the towing gear and we’ll be all set. Time is really starting to fly by and we are itching to get on the road. My foot is getting better slow but sure. I started physical therapy last week and have just started walking on the foot without crutches and even drove for the first time since the 16th of May. Hopefully, my foot will be fine for driving the motorhome in two weeks when we plan to leave. I’m still messing around with the exact route we plan to take and that is half the fun for me. Until the next entry, I hope you all are having an awesome summer!
  14. Jackhal49
    We had some preventive maintenance completed on our motorhome by Freightliner in Westbrook, Maine, and they did an outstanding job. Maintenance included replacing all the Cat engine belts, replacing the upper fuel filter, and changing the oil and all filters on the generator. We also had the ABS system checked out as the light came on and found out it was a loose sensor on the rear right. Just one more major PM to complete -- the Allison transmission needs to have its fluid and filters changed -- and then we’ll be set to go.
    We took a shakedown cruise to a three-chapter FMCA rally at Scussett Beach in Sagamore, Mass. What a great place right on the eastern end to the Cape Cod Canal. The rally was put on by the Cape Codders, Northeastern, and the Yankee Travelers. What a great time and a great bunch of people.
    The rally took place at the Scussett Beach group area, which is a fairly large field adjacent to the Cape Cod Canal. You have the entire beach there plus the canal, which is a great fishing spot for Striped Bass. On the Fourth of July the chapters put on a great cookout with chicken, salads and, of course, corn on the cob. Yummy! This bunch always puts on a great rally and they all love to eat!
    All and all, there were about 60 coaches there and fun was had by all. You can check out their Web sites for pictures of the rally from past years and probably soon to have pictures from this year's rally.
    The state park at Scussett Beach has a great campground as well, with water and electric hookups and a nice dump station that is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day. There is a paved bike/walking path that runs the entire length of the canal, which is lots of fun and always interesting with the boat traffic passing through to canal. The campground does have some sites for large rigs. Some of them are shaded and some are more open field type, but most are well spaced apart. The beach there is awesome as well, and there are good facilities at both the beach and campgrounds. If you travel through southern Massachusetts, Scussett Beach is a great spot to stop. If you like a nice, quiet and relaxing camping area this is the place for you.
    This was Peg’s first solo trip, which was 4½ hours long down Route 95, Route 128 and Route 3, and there was plenty of traffic south of Boston headed for the Cape. She did a superb job and handled the traffic like a pro. For me it was the first time I could be the copilot and sit there and enjoy the view. I think I could get used to copiloting, because you get to enjoy the scenery instead of watching all the traffic.
    Peg was a bit leery of driving the motorhome in rain showers, and of course, we ran into them the minute we hit the Maine Turnpike. So she made it over that hurdle with flying colors. However, the passenger-side windshield wiper arm started acting up. We stopped and I had to extend the wiper arm straight out as I couldn’t find the problem and it was pouring rain. Just found out that the problem was the acorn nut that holds the main arm on is stripped, so it isn’t holding the arm on the shaft tight enough. Not sure how it got stripped as I have never touched it. I have ordered a new acorn nut, so we should be all set when I get the part. It’s the old fifty-cent part thing. LOL!
    We are still dealing with a bit more “stuff,†but the major stuff is all done. I still have bunches of pictures to scan and a few odds and ends. We have about four weeks to go before we head out on our great adventure and I have to admit I’m getting anxious to get on the road. Hopefully, this foot of mine will be good enough so I can drive and walk on it. Two more weeks and the doc will give me the go-ahead and have a week or so of physical therapy. I can’t wait to be able to be fully mobile again!
  15. Jackhal49
    Getting all our worldly stuff sorted out -- what to take, to leave, to give away, to sell, or to just trash -- is not an easy task. But that is only part of the battle. Where to store everything is the second part of the stuff battle, but we found that was easier than the first part and we are just about finished. Hooray!
    Now there are only tons of other things to get accomplished before the big day to shove off to see this Great Country of ours! Getting all of our bills and banking fixed so it will be easy to do on the road is easier than first thought, so that was pretty easy.
    On to the next item of getting the motorhome in tip-top shape to go on our Great Adventure. We have to make sure all the routine maintenance is taken care of, because we don't want any unpleasant surprises on the road; or, we at least want to minimize the chance. This calls for making a nice checklist with all the required maintenance and the proper scheduling. I love lists to make sure all is done and nothing is left to chance.
    Along with the mechanical maintenance, the inside and outside of the motorhome must be clean and protected. DW does the inside and I concentrate on the exterior. Get the roof washed and waxed (NuFinish) so the roof looks bright white. Next, wax and buff the sides, front and rear. This is time consuming but helps to protect the fiberglass and gelcoat.
    Oops! Gravity works! I fell off the ladder while waxing it and broke my right heel bone! It has been a month after the operation, during which a plate and some screws were inserted. So far, all is going well, but it will be at least another eight weeks before I can drive the motorhome. With any luck, we will be able to head out full-timing by the middle of August.
    DW now has to learn to drive the motorhome a little quicker than she thought, but I know she will be great at it once she gets over the initial nervousness of first driving it. We hired a professional driver/instructor, which made things a lot nicer for DW and she did an excellent job. It really helped bring up her confidence level and I gained a few good pointers as well. As they say, “Half the fun is getting there!â€
    I also had to retire from teaching a month early as I had to stay off my broken heel, which is not quite the way I wanted to finish my teaching career. Not being mobile is driving me crazy and not doing much for DW, who is doing all the moving of stuff into the motorhome. But all and all we are getting there.
    We did have the ABS light come on during the driving lessons, so our next step is to have the motorhome serviced a Freightliner this week. Hopefully, the ABS system will be fixed in time for our three-chapter rally over the 4th of July.
    Have a great and safe holiday weekend, all!
  16. Jackhal49

    How It All Began

    By Jackhal49,

    The Journey
    "To finish the moment, to find the Journey's end in every stop of the road, to give the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
    Jack and Peg's Great Adventure," Part I
    First, allow us to introduce ourselves. I'm Jack, a retired Navy chief and just now a retired high school chemistry/physics teacher. Peg is retiring from a 30-year career in federal service as a safety specialist for NAVOSH, which is the Department of the Navy's answer to OSHA.
    We are currently residing in mid-coastal Maine with our son and family and our dogs. We soon will depart on our "Great Adventure" full-timing across the country, mostly the Southwest during the winter months.
    The thought of buying a motorhome and going full-time started more than four years ago. It is one of those thoughts that just came to us out of the blue; at least it felt that way. We had seen around 7,500 coaches at an FMCA rally at Brunswick Naval Air Station about 10 years ago but really did not think about buying one. We were amazed, however, at what we saw.
    My father-in-law has had a motorhome for a while and had been wintering over in Florida and then Texas through the years. So when we began thinking of at least wintering in a motor home we started researching them online, visiting the few dealers in our area, and visiting motor home owners who were camped near us at the local campgrounds.
    We loved the friendliness of all the motor home owners we met and they were always happy to show us their rigs and answer our questions. We went to a few chapter rallies with my father-in-law and had a great time and, of course, looked at more motor homes and asked lots of questions. We also took the advice to buy our last motor home first.
    Our search for a motor home ended surprisingly enough when I found it on the Internet and it was within a fairly short distance from our home. A private party was selling this 2005 Winnebago Journey 34H, which was in primo condition and had been babied. It was love at first sight. We loved the floor plan and the size was just what we wanted. After having the rig inspected by a Winnebago dealer, we bought it and have been wickedly happy ever since.
    The hardest part has been getting rid of years of just plain stuff! When you start looking at all the stuff you have accumulated over the years it is just mind boggling! We are going to sell the house eventually, but for now we are renting it to our son and his family. With that said, all of our furniture is going, as well as our art work and everything else you can imagine under the sun!
    We have lots and lots of just plain junk to sort through and a lifetime full of pictures/slides to sort through. I intend to scan all the pictures/slides and store them on flash drives so we still can have them but they will take up very little space. Space is the valuable resource when you are going from a house with over 2,000 square feet to a 350-square-foot motor home with a weight limit to worry about as well.
    All and all, we have just about completed our downsizing and are moving our few possessions into the motorhome.
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