 
First posted Feb 1, 2009 |
Our Camping Travels
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2009
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February 2009 | Special educational pages from this month Adapt or Die, animal adaption in Death Valley Borax, the White Gold, What is borax? |
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 546K |
| View year's Camps |
33K |
| View this month's route |
88K |
Sunday, February 1
Tom's back is improving, but very sore. Frank spent most of the evening installing speakers for the new Blue Ray player and rebuilding the truck navigation notebook computer with Windows XP. Vista kept crashing and losing our GPS mapping place. I forgot to add that we have noticed that Aiken seems to be an affluent horse community. We have seen loads of expensive horse trailers, and all the street signs have a horse's head on them. Lots of horse crossing signs too. However, except for one trailer, we didn't see any horses.
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Monday, February 2
A long drive of 245 miles today. We are trying to make some time in getting across the south. This is a nice campground that appears to be under new ownership. Lots of recent upgrades. It rained heavily today so things are a bit muddy. We went through Atlanta in the middle of the afternoon along with a rain storm. Even with early rush hour traffic and rain, the highway was nothing like the highways around Washington DC.
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Tuesday, February 3
Nice campground, but at $30.10, a bit on the pricey side for a non-franchise park. We got a CampClub discount which brought the price way down. After setting up, we drove to a local emergency clinic where Tom had x-rays taken of his chest. Turns out he has 2 broken ribs from falling on the ice Thursday. The doctor gave him a prescription for pain meds, wrapped his chest with a chest band (a stretch wrap which goes around the chest) and told us to keep traveling. The doctor said ribs need six weeks to heal. Tom needs to get another x-ray in about 3 weeks.
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Wednesday, February 4
Tom is feeling better today, but still in pain. The chest band is working very well. Frank is beginning to get tired of driving 200+ miles a day. We will begin to slow down some in the next few days. While trying to extend the office slideout, a piece of wooden trim broke. The entire trim was replaced last summer. We need to schedule a visit to the trailer factory again this spring. I realize these day to day entry's aren't very interesting at the moment. We are just trying to get west as quickly as possible. Once we finish with IGRA University in Las Vegas, things should get more interesting.
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Thursday, February 5
Our first time in a Texas State park in many years. They are still very good places to camp. We stayed in this park January 18, 1990, a little over 19 years ago. This morning, while still in Louisiana,we hooked up the trailer, then remembered we needed to get diesel fuel. We also needed propane. So we drove the camper to the office to fill up the propane tank and were told it would be 20 minutes before someone could help us. So we dropped the trailer (un-hooked) in front of the store and drove across the street to get diesel fuel. Worked out fine. Not as long a drive today, but tiring. Some of the roads in Louisiana were terrible with humps that gave the trailer quiet a ride. Not a thing moved inside the trailer. Last night Frank mounted a cowboy statue
 above a window so it wouldn't fall. We bought this little statue at the Signal Mountain shop in Grand Teton National Park on May 27, 1990. He (Mr. Cowboy) has traveled with us in our 3 trailers for many thousands of miles since then.
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Friday, February 6
We skirted around the south end of Dallas and Fort Worth today. Heavy traffic, but not anywhere near as busy as Washington DC. This is a beautiful campground with fantastic tiled bathrooms. The only drawback is it is right on the Interstate and traffic is noisy. Tom is having some trouble with coughing which hurts his ribs. Frank twisted his foot last night so he is hobbling around today. Guess we are just a couple of crippled old farts. The scenery has changed dramatically. There are still trees around, but things have gotten much drier and open. There are several horses in the field next to the campground. The campground has very good high speed Internet, but they are using the same IP configuration as our trailer server which caused lots of trouble. After a long search, Frank found some proxy server software on the Internet which seems to solve the problem. We will test it a few days and decide if we want to buy it.
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Saturday, February 7
We're in another Texas state park tonight. Abilene State Park near the tiny town of Tuscola, Texas (population 725) Last night was rather noisy because it was on the Interstate, here we are about 20 miles from the nearest major highway so it should be very quiet. We are seeing more and more horses along the way. The temperature today is in the upper 70s, quite a change from earlier in the week when we had to disconnect our water each night to keep the water hose from freezing.
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Sunday, February 8
A very windy day, difficult driving. Tom drove about 50 miles for the first time today since we started the trip. This is a pretty campground in the middle of a bunch of sand dunes. We stayed here back in 1990. The wind was stiff with gusts up to 30 or 40 miles per hour. Sand was blowing across the parking lots. Later in the day the clouds came in and we had some rain, but not a lot. It was just windy and the trailer shook. It is now about 10PM in the evening and most of the rain has passed and the wind has died down. I think this will be another peaceful night. We drove into Monahans, about 8 miles away to get fuel. The only station open had some problems with the pump and the diesel fuel was filling at the rate of about 2 gallons a minute. Took almost 20 minutes to fill the tank. This region is called the Permian Basin, W one of the most productive oil fields in the US, and is full of active oil wells and refineries. There's even a functioning oil rig right inside the park next to one of the picnic areas.
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Monday, February 9
We are in our first New Mexico State Park tonight, which is fitting since this was New Mexico's first state park. There are a series of pits running along the bottom of a mountain ridge which form small lakes. It is said the cowboys tried to find how deep they were by tying their lariats end to end and didn't find a bottom. The deepest lake is actually only 90 feet deep. This park is just a few miles from Roswell and Frank actually got beamed up by some aliens.
but luckily they put him back a bit later. But seriously, Frank had some fun taking special effects photos. The campsite picture as well as the one of Frank and following gallery which look like they were taken in broad daylight were actually taken at night under a full moon using 30 second time exposures. Notice the stars in the sky. This photo shows the speed limits on some west Texas Interstates.
Then in the evening we enjoyed a magnificant sunset as we settled down to a quiet night in the park.
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Tuesday, February 10
Today started out sunny, cool and windy. As we headed north toward Albuquerque, it got colder, cloudier and the wind picked up. The elevation increased as we traveled which added to the cold front which was coming through. We passed through several snow squalls and it was even snowing in Albuquerque. Tonight the temperature is supposed to reach 19 degrees. We are in our first military campground for this trip. We got the truck washed and went grocery shopping.
 We will stay here at least two days while we rest and get the oil changed in our truck.
Wednesday, February 11 |
Thursday, February 12
A pleasant drive today, but later on the wind picked up again. This campground has full hookups, cable TV and free Internet, but it is basically a parking lot. We went to the El Rancho restaurant for dinner, our first restaurant this trip. Food was good, but not anything special. This hotel and restaurant was built by the brother of D.W. Griffith, W one of the early silent movie directors and one of the most famous.
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Friday, February 13
Today's drive was lovely with lots of high desert. Most of the trip was through arid lands before entering snow around Flagstaff. We began to see the mountains around Flagstaff more than 100 miles before reaching the town. Here are a few webcam images of today's trip.
We were planning on staying in Flagstaff, but the only campgrounds that were open were several feet deep in snow, and they were expecting another foot or two tonight. So we just stopped long enough to pick up some meds for Frank who had called them into a pharmacy a few days ago, then continued on another 60 miles to this very tiny town. Campground is nice, but they have had just enough snow in the last few days to make things muddy. We have decided to move on to Las Vegas tomorrow and stay in Sam's Town casino RV park. |
Saturday, February 14
We started out today with about an inch of snow everywhere. Rather than getting back on Interstate 40, we decided to drive a section of historic US 66 which we were camped beside last night. At about 85 miles, this is the longest portion of old US 66 that is still intact with no breaks. As we headed west, the snow got deeper as can be seen on these webcam captures
. After crossing a set of mountains we moved out of the snow and on toward Laughlin, NV where the temperature was quite a bit warmer. Today being Valentines Day, it was appropriate that we found ourselves going through the two building hamlet of Valentine, Arizona. After setting up camp, we drove into town and had the truck washed again, to get rid of the road salt accumulated from the snow areas we passed through.
Sunday, February 15 |
Monday, February 16
We started the day by getting the trailer washed at a independent washing contractor next to the casino in Laughlin, NV. For $80 they did a great job which took about an hour. We then headed north toward Las Vegas. The sky was cloudy all day and we had some scattered light rain. Figures, we had the trailer washed this morning, and it rained. That must have caused the desert rain storm. We passed a solar array called the Nevada Solar One, the third largest concentrated solar power plant in the world.
W We stopped for lunch at the only spot that had any buildings for the last 50 miles. I love visiting the desert, but I don't think I would want to live here, especially in the summer. The temperature frequently reaches 110 degrees and has been as high as 120 degrees. This evening we ate at a buffet in the casino which was quite good, but of course we over ate. This is a nice casino campground.
Tuesday, February 17 Wednesday, February 18 |
Thursday, February 19
For the next four days we will be staying at this hotel while Frank attends meetings and teaches web design classes for IGRA University. Friday Frank will be webcasting the IGRA board meeting. Tune in if you are interested. The trailer is parked in the hotel's back lot so it will be close by. Tom will be taking various classes just for fun. While in the hotel's parking lot, the hotel's Security Staff will keep an eye on the trailer. Our travel log will continue on Monday, February 23.
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Sunday, February 22
We moved back to Sam's Town Cassino today instead of tomorrow as originally planned. The weekend at IGRA University was a tremendous success with 120 students and 25 instructors. Frank had some of the best classes he ever had. Tom won his associate degree in rodeo arts, meaning he acquired at least 16 total points over the last 2 years. Frank also got the same degree, but it took him 4 years because since he is teaching most of the weekend, he can only take one other class in a year. Later in the evening we went to see "Mystere" a Cirque Du Soleil production at Treasure Island casino. Fantastic show with a huge cast of talented acrobats and clowns. At one point there were 14 handsome muscle-bound studs swinging on a huge bar structure 50 feet above the stage. Two brothers went through a stunning display of strength as they did a slow motion act holding each other up by their legs and arms. Check the Cirque Du Soleil website for a short video of the show.
Monday, February 23 Time was spent today doing laundry and cleaning the trailer. We went back to Fry's to get some relays and a visit to Whole Foods. In the evening we went to the Rio Hotel and Casino to see Penn and Teller and had a ball. |
Tuesday, February 24
We had breakfast at Sam's Town, then tried to go to Shepler's, but they were closed. So we hooked up and headed west. We are now in Pahrump, NV the middle of the desert, but around a man made lake and loads of green grass and trees, all kept alive by irrigation. Makes me think of Dave Stamey's song, Somebody needs to go back home. Just look at the arial view of the campground on Google Earth above. The area though is beautiful. As the sun set, Frank got some photos of the mountains and the fantastic colors. We filled our propane tanks also.
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Wednesday February 25
This morning we awoke to a strong wind coming from the south. Before leaving Tom and Frank took a little walk to view the campground lake in the middle of the desert.
We then packed up and headed west into Death Valley. The scenery is spectacular. The high today was 81 and the weather was beautiful. We were lucky in getting one of the two last full hookup sites at Stovepipe Wells where they only have 14 sites with hookups. There is no cell phone service in the valley so these updates may have to wait a few days. There is limited internet in the lodge, but it is slow. Will update these pages as I can.
Thursday, February 26 Friday, February 27 Saturday, February 28 This morning we struck out on an all day journey. First stop was the actual location of Stovepipe Wells. Next we traveled north to Ubehebe Crater which was created by a volcanic steam eruption about 2,000 years ago. Molten magma had welled up into the water table, which fills the valley as far down as 8,000 feet, at which point the super heated steam exploded spraying rock and debris as far as 6 miles away and as deep as several hundred feet. Next we visited Scottie's Castle, W a grand home built by a wealthy Chicagoan in the late 1920s. Finally we drove to Beatty for fuel and reentering the Park, took the Titus Canyon dirt road |
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