Busy week in Los Alamos

(L-R)Rae Anne, Marcus, Evan, Millie, Dave

I haven’t written to the blog since our arrival in Los Alamos and I’ve actually had reader feedback saying they missed it, well actually two people but that is enough to inspire me.

Millie and I have been busy working in and around Dave and Rae Anne’s house and we wanted to get the bulk of the work done while the house was empty. The Kolman’s left two days after we got here for a vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey. That made it very convenient for us to work but I’m sure raises a few questions with you readers, like you drove 1800 miles to see them and they left?

The original plan was we would be here in the end of Sept and part of October well after they returned from the Jersey vacation. When Millie got on her Ophthalmologist's schedule for cataract surgery it meant we had to return to Myrtle Beach by early October. We moved the Los Alamos trip up and decided to get there by the 23^rd of August even though we knew they were leaving because the 23^rd is Rae Anne’s birthday. We will be here for a week after they return so will still get to spend time with them.

Why were we working on someone else’s house while we are on vacation? We’re always on vacation and the answer is because we wanted to. Dave and Rae Anne both work full time jobs and are raising two energetic youngsters, we left Myrtle Beach knowing we wanted to help them in any small way we could. Besides Millie and I are both workers and always have to be doing something, neither of us lets any moss grow under our feet. Millie is a Virginia farm girl and was married to and worked along side a master furniture builder, believe me she can do anything. Me, I’ve been around a project or two.

We did all sorts of things, from building a sand box for the kids to washing windows. I did a little electric work, Millie did some sewing, we worked in the yard, it was a fun week for us.

We did take one day and visited the Bandelier National Monument located not far from Los Alamos. The almost 40,000 acre park preserves both the unique geographic landscape and the history of the Pueblo people. It is a fascinating place and one that merits its own blog posting, which I will write about next.

See you down the road.

 

Marcus (L) and Evan (R)

A brief recap of the trip from Myrtle Beach to Los Alamos.

We spent our first two overnight stops in Wal Mart parking lots, the first night in Augusta Georgia and the second just southeast of Memphis Tennessee. They are very convenient rest stops when traveling; they welcome RV’ers, the lots are as safe as anywhere with video surveillance and usually patrolled, you can buy anything you need right there, easily located everywhere, and free. We left home with full fresh water tanks and empty holding tanks. We have a fine running generator for power. We don’t need to be hooked up to utilities every night.

Our third night we picked a campground with cable TV because we didn’t want to miss a program we have been following. The Overland RV Park in Van Buren Arkansas is right off I-40, convenient but with some highway noise. After we got hooked up in our site I discovered the cable TV was so fuzzy you couldn’t see much of anything. I carry spare cable parts and quickly made repairs to the campground system, we got to see the episode of Under the Dome.

The next day, Tuesday we ran to our planned stop which was in Arkansas at another Wal Mart. We got there at 2pm and didn’t want to stop driving that early in the day. As we drove further west on I-40 Millie started researching stopping spots ahead of us. We reached the next proposed Wal Mart in Oklahoma; again it seemed too early to stop so we crossed the border into Texas. Millie’s internet search found a campground right on I-40 with resort like description, rave reviews and reasonable price. We found the Oasis RV Resort in Amarillo Texas to indeed be far nicer than campgrounds located along highways and catering to overnight travelers. I learned that it was built as a destination Resort because there was going to be a racetrack on the adjoining property. The racetrack never got built and the Oasis now caters mostly to travelers.

Amarillo to Los Alamos is easily drivable in one day and we arrived at our destination early in the afternoon. The only mechanical problem we had the entire trip happened on the last leg, driving down the interstate we got a warning that one of the leveling cylinders was down. It had crept off its retracted position, just enough to set off the alarm.

That’s enough about the express run across the country, we’ll write about New Mexico in future postings, it truly is "Tierra del Encanto". The Land of Enchantment. 

Wow, What a Ride!

What a ride! BTW that’s exactly what I want to say when my time here on earth is over. As I said before, the trip out would be just driving as we where pulling the U-Haul. It wasn’t a hard trip but something came up everyday and I never took the time to post to the blog. It worked out that we drove a long haul of 400+ miles every other day and about 300 on the shorts days.

We arrived yesterday at Dave and Rae Anne’s in Los Alamos, New Mexico and are parked at their beautiful home with a view of the National forest out every window of the bus. It is good to see the family again, the kids have grown and I can understand most of what they say.

Today we will unload the U-Haul, details of the trip to follow.  

On the road again!

Millie and I are back on the road. After a busy week of packing furniture, getting the condo secure and the motorhome ready we departed MB on Saturday at 12:30. Our journey will take us to New Mexico where we will deliver some family heirloom furniture to Millie’s daughter. We will stay and visit with Rae Anne and Dave for several weeks before returning to Myrtle Beach.

We only covered 240 miles today but we weren’t in any hurry. We had planned on leaving on Sunday so we are ½ a day ahead of schedule. We usually like to travel with a very loose schedule so we can wander wherever our interests take us, but this is a different trip. We are towing a U-Haul trailer which limits where we can go. Our itinerary for the westward leg is to stay on the interstates and just drive everyday until we get to Los Alamos, New Mexico.

We are overnighting in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Augusta Georgia. Strange as that sounds, it’s a safe place to stop for the night and RV’ers are welcomed by Wal-Mart to do so. Tomorrow morning we will be able to quickly get back on the interstate and continue our westward journey. We hope to drive about 400 miles tomorrow, which will put us somewhere around Tupelo Mississippi tomorrow afternoon.

A few words from Millie

When we left Myrtle Beach in our motorhome, a light rain was falling. That did not dampen my excitement for I had looked forward to this trip since our wedding day of April 13^th. This was a combination Honeymoon/Vacation trip with a mixture of destinations planned. Our main objective was to visit family in the Maryland/Delaware area, attend the Syracuse New York RV Rally and then an onward tour of the New England States.

After 47 days and over 3500 miles our objectives have been met and our trip has come to an end. There were many memories made, too many to mention here, however the most special thing to me is the time we spent meandering along country roads. We tried to drive off the interstates as much as possible to view small towns and stop if we saw anything we wanted to visit. Once, in Connecticut we even drove on a dirt road to view a a scenic river.

 I will have special memories of our visit with family in Delaware and helping Larry’s dad celebrate his 90^th birthday, watching granddaughter Delaney play in a softball tournament, and also concerts with Reba McIntyre and Wayne Newton in Syracuse NY. Our ferry ride at Lake George, New York was great with views of the mansions along the shore, our nearby camp site was beautiful and I hated to leave.

What a treat to visit with our friends Clay and Rebecca Fingar on their farm in Stuyvesant Falls NY, they were such gracious hosts and I will have lasting memories of their family and beautiful farm.

Our tour of the Franklin D. Roosevelt library/home in Hyde Park New York was very informative. After seeing and hearing of President Roosevelt’s accomplishments, I am reminded of what a great leader he was in time of war and our countries Great Depression.

My first impression of New York City? So much traffic, so many people and tall tall buildings!

Our tour guide was an excellent source of information and history, I wondered if after 10 hours of almost nonstop talking how he could conduct tours almost everyday. I was very impressed with our tour agenda and the many sights that were included in our day.

Newport RI was most interesting. Again we were fortunate to have chosen a tour guide who was very eager to share his knowledge of the area with stories about the rich and famous who had summer homes there. I will always remember the huge mansions

of Doris Duke, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s and Jackie Kennedy’s mother and stepfather which was used only a few weeks each year. The town was very interesting, however crowded with summer tourists.

Cape Cod Massachusetts could have been any beach community; my mental image was of white clap board cottages and Patti Page singing “Old Cape Cod”  Another less than inviting characteristic of the area is the beaches, other than an occasional park, the ocean beaches are private and reserved for the rich waterfront owners.

The Kennedy compound at Hyenas Port was true to pictures I have seen. Joseph P. Kennedy’s home will soon be open to the public for it and its contents were willed to the state of Massachusetts after the death of Ted Kennedy.

 Provincetown Massachusetts was a HOOT; you have to go there to experience the

“Artistic Environment “ 

I loved Gloucester and Rockport Massachusetts. These waterfront towns were picture perfect with beautiful stone shorelines, sailboats, waterfront shopping and restaurants. We stayed a couple of days longer than planned to see more of the area.

Boston Massachusetts was celebrating the Fourth of July. As in years past the Boston Pops Orchestra was performing with the fireworks display which draws an estimated 200,000 people. Since this was the weekend we were in the area, we decided to skip our plan to go on a professional tour downtown and instead go to the JFK Library. It was a good decision for the library was state of the art with tons of information regarding President Kennedy’s presidency. 

I never thought about riding a Segway before. I have often seen tourists riding them in my neighborhood at Market Common, Myrtle Beach. When Larry told me he had made reservations for us at Salem Massachusetts Segway for a tour, I was a little apprehensive but willing to try something new. It turned out to be a great experience which I highly recommend.   

We had a wonderful Guide/ Segway instructor named Arielle. She was a cute young girl who had a great personality and mannerism for giving Witch History of Salem but with a modern twist. It was another great day….

On our way to Bar Harbor, we stopped at Gardiner Maine for a brief visit with Bob and Nancy Lamarre. Although our meeting was short it was good to spend some time with this nice couple.

Acadia National Park Maine was beautiful. I enjoyed our drive up to the summit of Cadillac Mountain to view the surrounding Atlantic shoreline and the vast stone crest of the mountain. We also stopped at the only beach in the area and were amazed at children swimming in the ice cold water. My only thought was “Kids you should see our beach”

My opinion of beaches thus far, nothing can compare to Myrtle Beach.  

Bar Harbor Maine was beautiful. The shops were very interesting; the Whale Watching Cruise boats were steadily in and out of the harbor. We decided not to take the tour since we saw two whales feeding close to shore when we were at Acadia Park.

Thousand Trails Camping Resort near Hershey Pennsylvania is one of my favorite campgrounds. It is part of our membership plan so we have stayed there often. I think the area is beautiful and the camping facility is as good as it gets. We always visit local Amish roadside stands and get fresh farm produce. Great place…

 It’s always good to get back to my home state of Virginia. For me the soft rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains are a welcome sight. Our visit with family was was far too short, however after a wonderful 18 mile bike ride on the Virginia Creeper Trail and accomplishing the feat of picking three gallons of blueberries from a family member’s farm, it was time to move on.

Pigeon Forge Tennessee should be on everyone’s list to visit. Something for everyone, from small kids to older adults. The live shows we saw were spectacular, showcasing very professional and talented performers. Great Smokey Mountain Nation Forest was beautiful with scenic overlooks and meandering rivers.  

With mixed emotions our long awaited trip has come to an end. We were successful in visiting most of the places we had planned to see. As with all trips you never have the time to see and do everything that’s available for tourists. We had to make some tough decisions to see what appealed to us and we accomplished that. Our next trip will be to the Southwest sometime early fall. But for now, we’ll have to settle on living across the street from the beautiful Atlantic Ocean, taking long walks with our girls (Maggie and Dixie) along the surf while we make our future travel plans.

Larry's post script

We drove the last leg of the trip from Dreher State Park to our home in Myrtle Beach on Monday the 22^nd of July. We were on the road 46 days, drove approximately 3700 miles and visited or passed thru 15 states. I’ll post the fuel and campground expenses as soon as I add them all up. 

Millie and I are both writing a few final words to close the blog postings for the New England trip. I know Millie is recounting the memorable places and people we visited along the way so I won’t repeat that.

I too will savor the memories of our New England adventure and the family and friends we met along the way. But all thru the trip especially in the last few days, this one thought kept coming back to me; how lucky we are to have found each other, to live at the beach, and to be out here doing what we enjoy so much. Life is good, very good! 

Dreher Island State Park, South Carolina

Friday July 19^th. In the evening we returned to the Majestic Theater to see the show called, “America’s Hit Parade”. In addition to four of the cast from the Soul of Motown show, the Hit Parade had four additional female performers and one male performer. The male was an Elvis impersonator and you could say the lead performer, but neither show billed any one of the cast as the headliner. The Hit Parade covered songs from the 50’s up to the 80’s. The performers sang and danced in costumes to match the songs, this made some skits like The Village People’s “YMCA” hilarious. It was a very good show, but after having just seeing the Motown show the night before this one seemed tamer. This is no refection on the cast; it was probably because the “white but polite” audience was silent except for the appropriate applauses.

On Saturday July 20^th we left Pigeon Forge and the state of Tennessee via I-40. The interstate passes thru the mountains just north of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It meanders thru the mountains rather than making a dramatic gap crossing like Newfound or the Cumberland but it is a very scenic ride just the same. Like a lot of mountain valleys this one has a wild river running down it and the road is adjacent to it most of the way. At the Apex of the mountains we entered North Carolina and drove the 90+/- miles thru the state to the South Carolina border without stopping.

Entering South Carolina we had to accept the realization that the New England trip aka the Honeymoon trip is almost over and we will be home soon. Not that living at the beach is any kind of hardship; we do consider Myrtle Beach to be pretty near paradise.

We decided not to spend the tail end of the trip as a long drive down the interstate so we deviated just west of Columbia and got a site at Dreher Island State Park. The park campground is on a small island; our motorhome is backed into a site just steps from Lake Murray. We will spend two nights here before running the remaining 150 miles to our home.