2010-05 Back in Orlando Florida

Orlando Fl, Moss Park

Moss Park.  A county campground.  $17 senior rate.  Elect and water.  35 over the air TV stations.  Campsites are large and can accommodate any size rig.  Restrooms are large and spotless (they cost one million dollars each).

My impressions driving across the country are much different than in the past.  With the faster pace of driving to Florida, I’m seeing everything with broad brush strokes.

The palm trees planted along businesses fronting I-10 through eastern Texas and Louisiana are all brown.  Frozen in this years heavy freezes.  Much of the south has finally recovered from past droughts.  The full rivers, bayous and land are well soaked.

When I hit the Florida boarder, things started to green up and the palm trees have survived beautifully.  Perhaps because I’m seeing many that are native to the area.

I rested a few days in the Panhandle and had planned on stopping in St Joe for a couple of days, but after being stopped by a detour (a bridge was torn down), I became a bit frustrated with the campground I had planned to stay at.  You see, when I had called a few days earlier to verify they had room for me, they didn’t bother to mention the detour or provide information regarding the detour.

I ended up driving down the road a bit further than planned and stayed in a state park, Ochlocknee State park.  I’ve stayed here before and it’s surrounded by the “Real Florida”.  Tall Pine trees and winding twisting oaks.  The water is black as can be from all the tannin in the water.  While at the park, a camper came in after dark, something I would never do as I hate to try and back into a site in the dark.  The camper was obviously a newbie,  as he was attempting to back a 40 ft 5th wheel into a site that could barely hold a 30 ft camper and it was directly across from my site.  Another clue was that the entire left side of his camper was torn up.   Yikkees, hope he doesn’t hit my truck.

He tried and tried, finally pulling out and coming in from the opposite direction.  That didn’t pan out either.  After driving around, he was finally able to get into a site further on around the loop.

As I headed down my favorite route into Florida, along hwy 19, it’s a rural county road with little traffic and the four lane road is divided by a grassy median, I enjoyed seeing the quite side of the state.  Before one hits all the big cities.
I stopped over in Chiefland Fla. A true old Florida cracker town.  Found two great places to eat.  Billy’s BBQ and The Black Diamond.  At the Black Diamond I had a wonderful Fla. Shrimp and baby scallops.  And Chiefland is close to a number of famous springs, like, Manatee and Fanning Springs.

As I drove south along hwy 19, I crossed the start of the original Florida barge canal.  One of those very bad ideas that fortunately got stopped before it went all the way across the state.  Could have destroyed many of the natural springs and aquifer in the state.

I hopped onto the Florida turnpike and was back in the world of heavy traffic.  As I got closer to Orlando, the highway construction added to the congestion.  They’re building huge concrete walls to block out all the road traffic, as Orlando continues to fill in every last space of green with cookie cutter houses in tight subdivisions.  

I arrived at my favorite campground in the area, Moss Park, and was instantly enveloped in a scene of southern country charm.  Moss park has two lakes, huge stately oak trees and tall pines.  Two squawking sand hill cranes greeted me on my arrival and were in no hurry to get off the dirt road leading to my campsite.

While setting up, I was greeted by more sand hill cranes along with their two baby cranes.  How cool.  Black masked squirrels, an armadillo, raccoon and three deer all came to visit throughout the day.

I have limited internet coverage and no phone service from my campsite, but I’m as happy as can be.  I’ll be visiting friends and family in the area over the next two weeks and will then head down into the keys.

From Tucson to Florida, On the Road

On the Road

I headed out this morning after hitching up the 5th wheel.  Had a few minutes of angst as the hitch would not completely close.  Discovered a  bracket that had swung in front of the bar that locks the pin in place.  I corrected the problem and before you knew it, I had swung out of the campsite and onto Bopp Road.

After merging into traffic on hwy 10, I was heading east and towards my final destination Florida,  2,000 miles away.  The truck and camper purred as we drove along at 70 miles an hour.  The traffic was light with a fair amount of semi-trucks as well.  Did you know they still flash their headlights when it’s safe to merge back into their lane?

It’s very chilly out, barely reaching 48 degrees today with a stiff wind as well.  I reached Deming NM around 12:30 and proceeded to not find the campground I’d planned on staying at.  Checked  out my Passport America book and found a couple other campgrounds in the area, finally settling on one for $10 a night.

Deming is a small town on a desert plain.  Hwy 10 and a rail line streaming commerce past the town.  The train line appears to be continually busy transporting all those Chinese containers east and west across country.

Wonder what we actually produce anymore.  Paperwork?

The next day I headed out early and got as far as Fort Stockton Tx.  Settled into another passport America campground, cost $14 total for hookup w/cable tv.  Woke up in the morning to a couple inches of snow on the ground and 26 degrees.  Along with ice.  I’ve got snow on the roof and slide outs and will need to get it off before heading out.  By 10:30, I was able to close the slides and head on south towards hwy 90, sort of a bypass of hwy 10 at least as far as San Antonio.

As I was traveling along 285, a most desolate road that I’ve ever been on.  The scenery was dry desert plains coated with a light dusting of snow, the sky and landscape a dreary gray, making everything look more dead and bleak than usual.  The only signs of civilization along this lonely road were a couple gutted stone buildings, abandoned many years ago.  A few trucks passed on by.  A few cars and the rest was silent travel along the wet back asphalt.

My gas gauge continued to go lower and lower, as I traveled deeper and deeper into this no mans land.  Finally signs appeared for Sanderson Tx.  Hard to read as snow was covering most of the signs.  But I made it with less than a quarter of a tank of diesel.

On down the road a few days later and I’m still in Texas.  Found a nice small campground in Luling Tx.  After unhitching the camper, I headed into the small oil town.  What makes it an oil town?  How about 184 oil wells within the towns city limits.  An artist has created some unique art and citizens have attached it to the pumping units throughout town.  I had a fun time driving around town trying to find all of them.  The town is a throwback to an era when railroads were king, as the railroad goes right through the main street of town.  Or should I say main streets, as a road parallels each side of the railroad tracks.  With grass and trees along the train tracks and town buildings on either side of the tracks.  

A true southern town with tons of charm.  It’s an active working mans town with just enough historical sites and shops for the tourist.  Along with a river for canoeing.  By the way, the campground I stayed at has a race horse training course and I watched as they were training a horse early in the morning before I headed out. Even a small petting zoo.  I never know what I’ll find at some of these small campgrounds.

Yep, this is one of those gems I’ve found by getting off the beaten path. Lunling Tx, just off hwy 10 east of San Antonio.

Back on the road (hwy 10) through east Texas and Louisiana, I’ve seen just a ton of police cars.  They’re spaced about every other mile it seems and even are in groups of 3 and 4 patrol cars off to the side of the highway.  Handing out lots of tickets as well, though how anyone can get up much speed through this part of the country is beyond me, as the traffic is quite heavy.

Stopped at a flying J truck stop and had lunch.  While sitting there, they had the Tv set on the health care debate.  So I asked the waitress if she had health insurance?  She said yes, but it wasn’t as good as when she worked at the Dollar Store.  Flying J makes you work for 9 months before you can get insurance and the cost is very high.

The next day I was having a free breakfast at the Bay Hide-a-way Rv park.  The gal preparing the breakfast setup was all in a dither.  She’s under a lot of stress.  Less work hours, her mother recently passed away, her ex-husband won’t let her see her young son and with the medications she’s taking her blood pressure is too low and she feels depressed.  Not having insurance doesn’t help.  Amazing how people will share their lives stories at the drop of a hat.

I arrived in Bay St Louis, Miss. And found out that there has been a lot of construction going on in the past two years since I was in the area.  Apparently either Gov help or insurance companies have finally broke loose of some money so these folks can start to rebuild.  Lots of homes being built, most all raised up on stilts, even miles inland.  The shore line is still pretty much empty.  How many years ago was the hurricane?

I’m making good time on my progress to Florida, though this is not the typical pace I prefer going.  There are so many places to explore along the way and I’m whizzing by so many of them. Till next time, your roving reporter…. On the road..

03-2010 Leaving Tucson Arizona

What I thought was going to be a week of winding down has turned out to be a whirlwind of activity before heading out on the road again.  For those of us who travel in our campers, whether full time or part time, anytime we stay in an area for more than a couple of weeks, we often get to know our neighbors and fellow Rv’ers.  The hard part then is leaving all these new friends.

Monday brought friends together for a Mexican shrimp boil.  Kathy and Randy had purchased fresh shrimp from Rocky Point, Mexico and decided to share it with half a dozen of us.  Glad I was included.

To ease the leaving a bit, Christine and Tom organized a tour of a local open pit copper mine.  Our tour guide had a most unusual cadence to his voice, causing much of what he said to blur from one sentence into the next.  I sat in the back of the bus between tour stops and at one point the guide was describing the holding tanks where the copper is separated from the chemical liquids.  I piped up that all I could see was a green out house, as the driver had parked right in front of it.  Everyone in the back of the bus began to snicker and giggle.  May as well have fun eh.  Amazing the amount of stone and rubble that has to be removed, crushed and separated to obtain a pound of copper.  The mine operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and is one of the better paying jobs in the area.

On Wednesday I attended my last Writers Club meeting and heard more great stories from many folks who have been writing for more years than I can claim.  Great inspiration to continue my quest  to write better stories for you to read.

Thursday, Chris and Tom and Laurel organized a Farewell party for me.  Gosh what a huge crowd of fellow campers that came out to wish me well on my journey.  Tom said by the end of  March when they leave, they will have gone to over a half a dozen of these get-to-gethers.   We campers do like to party and what better excuse to get together  than sending our new friends off on another adventure in life.

The campfire was lit, the tables were filled with snacks, appetizers and drinks.  The conversations were flowing.  All making it harder and harder to say good bye.

I’ll attend a going away party lunch today as well as a dinner party tomorrow evening and then I head out.

Dropped by a McDonnell’s  today and saw a number of young boarder patrol officers ordering breakfast before heading out on their patrols.  The driver of the Wackenhut bus, a commercial bus operator,  that transports all the illegal’s back across the boarder was also in line.  The young clean cut white boarder guards looked happy to be doing their jobs.  One of them said on a good day they catch about 1,000 illegal’s coming into the U.S.

I dropped in a bit late to the photography club.  One of the last questions asked, was directed at a picture I had taken in Ruby, the ghost town we had gone to the other week.  The photographer asked how I captured the image of the kids slide so well.  I described how I often go around a particular scene taking a number of pictures along the way.  When I saw the slide, I already had an image in my mind of the composition I wanted to capture.  That being the slope of the mountain mimicking the slope of the slide.  When I finally was positioned correctly to capture the image, it all just fell into place.  It was also important to make sure the kids slide was not obstructed by anything, hence the angle of the slide so that it appeared above the slope of the mountain.  The photography club has really helped me in composing a picture.

I’m hoping to be able to capture many more great images to share with you.

Ruby Arizona, A Ghost Town

02-2010

Two weeks and counting.

Ruby, A Ghost Town, AZ

I’ve been working on my project a day schedule and have completed most of my prep work for getting back on the road.  A new tire installed on the 5th wheel camper, Checking air pressure in all the tires, topping off the batteries in the camper, oil and filter change in the truck and defrosting the fridge.

With all that done, it was time to join the Photography club for our outing to Ruby AZ.  It’s considered the second best preserved ghost town in Az and is only about 4 miles from the Mexican boarder.  We piled into about a dozen trucks and started our caravan down Ajo hwy to three points and headed south on 286.  A lonely road through dry desert landscape with brown bare mountain peeks off in the distance, including the famous Kitt Peak with it’s National Observatory on top.

We passed a number of white boarder patrol vehicles, a check point and even saw the Wackenhut busses used to collect all the illegals crossing into the U.S. before bringing them back across the boarder.  A helicopter landed on an desert outcropping overlooking a deep wash, probably spotting a group of illegal’s hiking through the desert.

I was in the lead vehicle and providing directions.  Didn’t bother to turn on my GPS because we only had a few turns to make.  Opps, we missed the turn off and almost ended up in Mexico.  After a quick turn around, with all the trucks following us, we found the right road leading into Arivaca, A T-tiny town with a bar, local artisan shop, gas station and Mercado.  After a quick stop, we continued SW on 5th Ave which eventually became Ruby Road… we were almost there.

The pavement ended a couple miles out side of Arivaca and we were on a surprisingly smooth dirt road.  Actually we passed the grader along the way so we were in luck to have such a nicely graded road.  Well as much as is possible as the road dipped up and down and around hills, following the old wagon train route.  At most every dip in the road, we crossed over running water as it had rained out in the past couple of days.  The washes were all hard gravel and our trucks had no trouble getting through even the bigger washes filled with running water. Water and mud splashing up and over everything.   I’m sure the illegal’s were happy to see running water, as many die out here in the desert on their way to finding a better life.

We passed a few more white boarder patrol vehicles and even saw a group of folks doing some panning for gold in the fresh runoff streams.

Then after about 10 miles on the dirt and gravely road, we entered Ruby.  Started around 1854 as the Montana Camp, as it grew and became an official town, that’s when a post office is established, it was renamed Ruby.  You can check out the history by doing a search on Ruby AZ.

Our photography group, all 29 members, started off by listening to a gray bearded nomad that is the current caretaker of Ruby and goes by the name of Sun Dog.  After a lengthy (but informative) talk which was spiced up with dramatic descriptions of the bandits, killings, and daily life of the Ruby miners we were all eager to head out and explore the old mining town.

Check out my Picasa web site to see all the pictures I’ve uploaded.  What a great place for all of us amateur photographers to take some awesome and stunning pictures of adobe houses, mining buildings old school houses and wood planked structures.  We all scattered in every direction so no one had to worry about people getting in our “perfect” shot.

My favorite shots and views to just enjoy even without taking a pictures were of the long slide at the school house, the adobe structures and looking through windows out into open skies and mountain ranges off in the distance.  The two man made lakes were great to see in a dry desert community.

Really nice to be able to share a location with fellow photographers.  Pointing out favorite view points and perspective for shooting the perfect picture.

After a few hours of shooting pictures, each vehicle went their own way back to Tucson.  Our group went back through Arivaca and had a drink in the oldest continually operated bar in AZ.  It was once a barn for the Buffalo Soldiers horses before being purchased by a gypsy and turned into a saloon.  The town has the oldest continuously operating one room schoolhouse in AZ as well.

This is one of those experiences that make traveling and exploring this country so much fun.

14 days and I’m back on the road again.  Ready to send you all some great stories of places to visit and see along the open road.

2010-01 Tucson Arizona: Snowbird

Tucson Winter.

I’m wintering one more time in Tucson at Desert Trails Rv park.  The town is spread out over the valley and is surrounded by stark bare rock mountain ranges.  Mount Lemon being the highest and occasionally having snow on it’s higher elevations which leads to massive jams on the road leading to the summit.  Eager snow boarders and skiers in the lead followed by families wanting to see snow for the first time.

I’m camping on the west side of the valley about a dozen miles out side of the city limits.  The park backs up to the Sonoran desert.  Unlike so many other places I’ve wintered, this park is filled with activities.  Writers club, photography club, computers and Rv maintenance classes as well as all the evening activities. Usually entertainment twice weekly along with bingo, karaoke and weekend dances.

A couple new stores have opened up in the new shopping center on our side of town which includes a Target, Home Depot, Pennies, Kirklands, Ross, and Red Lobster and Olive Garden.

My stay is going to be a short one this year, as I have plans to travel back to Florida and get into the Keys by early March.  I’ll then travel back through the state visiting friends and relatives.

Our big event is coming up in a couple of days.  We’re traveling to the Ghost town of Ruby Az.  It’s south of Tucson and is only 4 miles from the Mexican boarder.  We’ll be checked by boarder patrols on our way to the ghost town since it is so close to the boarder.  You can find out more about Ruby by checking out it’s web site.

Also I’ve posted a couple albums from my stay here in Tucson at my Picasa site, so please check those out as well.

What a joy to meet up with fellow campers again.  Being a full time Rv’er gives me the opportunity to meet with so many new folks along the way.  Much different than living in one location where you may know a couple of your neighbors and people from work and that’s about it.  And I learn so much from meeting all these fellow campers.

But my time is running short and within a months time I’ll be back on the road again, traveling east.  Till then I’ve been working on small projects to keep the camper in good working order for the next leg of my Roving Reports.

Till then, I’ll see you down the road….

44-2009 Camp Verde, Indian Ruins: Arizona

Camp Verde

Exploring Indian Ruins (Off the beaten path)

I’ve had a whirl wind stay here in Cottonwood.  The work camping has gone well and I’ve enjoyed working with all of the staff and other camp hosts.  My newest bestest friends Bill W and John H (they wanted to be mentioned in my Blog) have been great hosts, having me over for dinner and giving me the opportunity to meet many of the locals in the Cottonwood and Sedona area as well.

Learning so much about the 7 vortexes in the Sedona area and the 7 vortex areas around the world.  Sedona is a hot bed of spiritual retreats and awakening.  People pay thousands of dollars to find their inner souls and release from stress and past hang-ups.

The time has gone by so fast, I can hardly believe it’s been a month and a half already.  I guess all the little things that fill up a day really make the time go by quickly.  Just in the past week, I’ve gone to the Cottonwood Festival (great music again this year), out to dinner and cocktails, exploring Jerome (the old mining town up on the hill) and hiking to one of the many Indian ruins in the area. Oh and being a camp host too.

I was telling Les (the Dead Horse Ranch head Ranger) that I was interested in visiting some of the Indian sites not on any of the regular list of National parks.  He was able to give me some direction and off I went on one of my days off to explore and discover on my own.  As I headed over to Camp Verde, about 15 miles east of Cottonwood I decided to stop in the Forest services new building for more information and hopefully obtain some maps as well.  What a rude awakening I had.  When I asked for some information on nearby ruins I was told flatly, “No, we can’t give you that information”.  “We don’t want you finding any of the sites”.  Understandably the Forest service is trying to keep people off the public lands so we don’t destroy these sites, but the attitude of the staff was quite condescending towards me.  Assuming that I would go in and just start destroying these magnificent sites.  Kind of turned me off.  I’ve had similar experiences with the forest service in the past when I would ask for information on campsites or hiking trails.  Often, I would be given a poorly printed map, shoved on my way with little or no insight into the size of the campsites or any additional information that might be helpful.  But they sure do have a great new multi million dollar facility.

But getting back to my tale of exploration.  Les had given me enough info to start my search.  So as I drove along hwy 260, I was looking for evidence along the cliffs of possible ruins.  I found the road Les had mentioned.  Stopped, took out my trusty binoculars and was able to see some cliff dwelling within a short span of searching the limestone cliffs.

I headed back up the road about an 1/8 of a mile and found a small parking area right off of the highway with two vehicles parked (always a good sign indicating hikers or other explorers).  And there, a small sign attached to the fence indicating that this was an historical area containing Native Indian ruins.

I grabbed my water, camera and binoculars climbed through the fence and headed on up the path.  And I do mean UP the path, as it started to ascend the desert terrain almost immediately.  Crossing a dry wash, the path was well defined for the first leg of the journey, but as I continued to ascend the hill, it became rougher, more rocks and rubble and steeper with each step I took.   Three people were indeed ahead of me and much higher on the cliff which gave me encouragement to just keep on climbing.

At one point I was pretty much on all fours climbing up the steep side of the cliff.  It wasn’t a pretty sight, but I was determined to get to the cliff dwellings that I could now see quite clearly.  Hearing bits and pieces of the guide ahead of me explaining the various rooms created from layers of rock and mud enclosing each of the natural caves in the sides of the limestone walls.  there are so many dwellings like this along the Verde Valley.  It’s been estimated that there were easily 800 to 1,000 Indians living in this area over 1,000 years ago.  Les was telling me that in the 1920-30’s that there were more native American Indians living in Verde Valley that Anglo Americans.  We so often think that these Ancient Ones disappeared, but many of their ancestors still live in the area.

As I began exploring the site and meeting the other hikers, their guide (a forest worker on his day off) was pointing out the deep wells in many of the caves, a small ear of corn about the size of your baby finger, easily 800 years old, thin cut stones that were probably used as knives, fitting perfectly into ones hand.  The walls and ceilings were heavily blackened with smoke from the many camp fires that were burning inside of these cliff dwellings.  Outside, the breathtaking views of Verde Valley stretched out below us and as I walked below the cliff dwellings I came across hundreds of pot shards.  More than likely pots would have been thrown out below the cliff dwellings after they developed a crack or had broken in use.

It was a good hike and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.  Off the beaten path for sure.  The Forest service guy said I was the first person he’d seen on this trail in the many times he had come exploring this site.    Nice to explore a secret site, yet within full view of the highway that now passes far below.  How many other places do we pass each day and not know that there’s a secret waiting to be discovered.

I’ve posted some pics of the Indian ruins on Picasa.

I have one more day of work camping (Friday) and then I drive down to Tucson for my Winter stay at Desert Trails Rv Park.