This morning we headed east again on I-10. This will be our last day on the road for this trip. We entered Florida just to the west of Pensacola. Stopped for lunch in Tallahassee and then turned off on US-19 about 25 miles east of Tallahassee. US-19 will take us the rest of the way home as it passes right in front of our development.
Pulled into our development and arrived at our home at about 6:00 PM. Proceeded to unload the perishables from the RV, drove the RV to the storage lot across US-19 from our development and called it a night. Tomorrow we will have to restart our newspaper and mail and then over the rest of the week get the RV cleaned up as after all this time on the road, it's pretty dirty.
We had a great time on this trip and really enjoyed having our own RV. We were on the road for 69 days, covered 8,151 miles and used 1,036 gallons of gas averaging 7.9 miles/gallon.
Hope you have enjoyed the blog. Got a little behind on it as it seemed there was always something else to do
Thursday, September 22, 2016
On the Road, Robertsdale, AL - 8/28/2016
Today we said goodbye to Texas. We followed I-20 into Louisiana, passed thru Shreveport, crossed into Mississippi just south of Vicksburg and then left I-20 at Jackson, MS and followed US-49 southeast to Hattiesburg, MS, where we switched to US-98. And yes, this is the same US-98 that if you stuck with it would take you to Palm Beach, FL, but we're only taking it as far as Mobile, AL, where we will pick up I-10.
Then just east of Mobile, but short of the Florida border we came to Robertsdale, AL, which is our destination for today. This was our longest day's drive, about 470 miles. You can't make as good time in an RV as speed limits are lower than for cars. Tonight we will be camped in the Azalea Acres RV Park. Here is a photo of the entrance to the RV park.
Very nice place and friendly staff. Just outside the entrance was a pizza restaurant so we decided to have them deliver us a pizza. Price was reasonable but have to say it probably was the worst pizza we ever had.
Tomorrow will be our last day on the road for this trip as tomorrow night we will be home.
Then just east of Mobile, but short of the Florida border we came to Robertsdale, AL, which is our destination for today. This was our longest day's drive, about 470 miles. You can't make as good time in an RV as speed limits are lower than for cars. Tonight we will be camped in the Azalea Acres RV Park. Here is a photo of the entrance to the RV park.
Very nice place and friendly staff. Just outside the entrance was a pizza restaurant so we decided to have them deliver us a pizza. Price was reasonable but have to say it probably was the worst pizza we ever had.
Tomorrow will be our last day on the road for this trip as tomorrow night we will be home.
On the Road, Marshall, TX - 8/27/2016
Today's driving is going to be all in Texas. We left Goodlett and continued southeast on US-287. Passed thru Wichita Falls which was a fair size city and then just north of Ft. Worth we left US-287 to proceed east over the top of Ft. Worth until we picked up I-635 just north of DFW Airport. This took us around Dallas and we ended up on I-20 on the east side of Dallas and continued east.
Our destination today is Marshall, TX, just short of the Shreveport and the Louisiana border. We will be staying in the Laguna Vista RV Park just south of Marshall. Not sure why it's called Laguna Vista as there are no lakes around to have a view across, just a small pond in a cow pasture just south of the park. The park itself is nothing to look at, just a gravel parking lot with hookups for RV, Here is an overhead shot I was able to download showing the park.
Oh well, it was convenient, had full hook ups and was quiet. Tomorrow we leave Texas.
Our destination today is Marshall, TX, just short of the Shreveport and the Louisiana border. We will be staying in the Laguna Vista RV Park just south of Marshall. Not sure why it's called Laguna Vista as there are no lakes around to have a view across, just a small pond in a cow pasture just south of the park. The park itself is nothing to look at, just a gravel parking lot with hookups for RV, Here is an overhead shot I was able to download showing the park.
Oh well, it was convenient, had full hook ups and was quiet. Tomorrow we leave Texas.
On the Road, Goodlett, TX - 8/26/2016
This morning we left Kirtland AFB and Albuquerque behind and continued east on I-40. Not much to see along the interstate. We continued on I-40 until we got thru Amarillo, TX. On the east side of Amarillo we split off towards the southeast on US-287 which will eventually take us to Dallas where we will pick up I-20. But for today our destination is the town of Goodlett, TX. Don't get out your map and try to find it because unless you have a really detailed map you won't find it.
The town was founded in 1889 and its original name was Gypsum because there was a lot of that mineral in the area. Its name was changed to Goodlett in 1909, named after the J.B. Goodlett Ranch which was located nearby. In 1940 the population was 300, in 1980 it was 205, in 1990 it was 80 and today is is estimated to be around 138. In its heyday this was cotton country and the RV park where we will be staying is the Old Town Cotton Gin RV Park just north of the town.
This turned out to be a very nice RV park with a very friendly manager on duty. Here is a photo of us set up at our campsite.
This is central Texas and it was flat. This RV park as you could tell from its name is the site of the old cotton gin that serviced the farmers in the area and they still have the gin.. The original building now serves as the office for the RV park. Here are photos of the building and the old gin.
Prior to the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney, cotton lint had to be separated from the seeds manually and it was a slow and tedious process. The gin uses a spinning cylinder covered with small spikes to pull the lint thru a comb like filter that blocked the seeds. The white bag was made by the Bemis company out of St. Louis, MO, and they manufactured feed bags and similar products starting in 1858. They are still in business today making seam tapes and plastic packaging products. The other bag is for the Quanah Cotton Co. Quanah is a larger town just to the east of Goodlett.
The marking on the side of this gin state that this is a Munger Double Rib Huller Gin. This is a brand of gin that was manufactured in Dallas in the mid 1880s and was distinguished by its use of fan driven pneumatic systems to move the cotton. Here is a photo of some of the remains of the pneumatic ducting.
Just to the right of the gin is a drier that would dry the cotton lint before it was made into bales.
There was also some old equipment left over from the days of the cotton gin including this old Burroughs adding machine that probably dates from the 1920s.
This enamel lined wooden ice chest. The label says that it is a Bohm Syphon Refrigerator made by the White Enamel Refrigerator Company in St. Paul, MN. Their claim to fame was that they had a ventilation system that kept the interior of the refrigerator dry and that they were used by all of the great railroad systems. Probably dates from around 1910.
And finally this Bucks gas range that dates from about 1920.
Interesting historical items.
Tomorrow we continue our way east but will not get out of Texas as our next stop is on the east edge of the state.
The town was founded in 1889 and its original name was Gypsum because there was a lot of that mineral in the area. Its name was changed to Goodlett in 1909, named after the J.B. Goodlett Ranch which was located nearby. In 1940 the population was 300, in 1980 it was 205, in 1990 it was 80 and today is is estimated to be around 138. In its heyday this was cotton country and the RV park where we will be staying is the Old Town Cotton Gin RV Park just north of the town.
This turned out to be a very nice RV park with a very friendly manager on duty. Here is a photo of us set up at our campsite.
This is central Texas and it was flat. This RV park as you could tell from its name is the site of the old cotton gin that serviced the farmers in the area and they still have the gin.. The original building now serves as the office for the RV park. Here are photos of the building and the old gin.
Prior to the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney, cotton lint had to be separated from the seeds manually and it was a slow and tedious process. The gin uses a spinning cylinder covered with small spikes to pull the lint thru a comb like filter that blocked the seeds. The white bag was made by the Bemis company out of St. Louis, MO, and they manufactured feed bags and similar products starting in 1858. They are still in business today making seam tapes and plastic packaging products. The other bag is for the Quanah Cotton Co. Quanah is a larger town just to the east of Goodlett.
The marking on the side of this gin state that this is a Munger Double Rib Huller Gin. This is a brand of gin that was manufactured in Dallas in the mid 1880s and was distinguished by its use of fan driven pneumatic systems to move the cotton. Here is a photo of some of the remains of the pneumatic ducting.
Just to the right of the gin is a drier that would dry the cotton lint before it was made into bales.
There was also some old equipment left over from the days of the cotton gin including this old Burroughs adding machine that probably dates from the 1920s.
This enamel lined wooden ice chest. The label says that it is a Bohm Syphon Refrigerator made by the White Enamel Refrigerator Company in St. Paul, MN. Their claim to fame was that they had a ventilation system that kept the interior of the refrigerator dry and that they were used by all of the great railroad systems. Probably dates from around 1910.
And finally this Bucks gas range that dates from about 1920.
Interesting historical items.
Tomorrow we continue our way east but will not get out of Texas as our next stop is on the east edge of the state.
Monday, September 19, 2016
On the Road, Albuquerque, NM - 8/25/2016
This morning we left Flagstaff and headed east on I-40. We will be stopping at the Kirtland AFB FamCamp in Albuquerque, NM. Today we will drive about 330 miles and it is I-40 all the way and not much to see but the high plains and a couple of Indian reservations.
We arrived at Albuquerque and checked in at the FamCamp. The price was right as it only cost $18.00. Here is a photo I downloaded from the web showing the FamCamp.
It is a good size camp with 72 standard sites and 24 overflow sites (no hookups). Nothing special but it was neat and clean, had full hook-ups and the price was right. Our next stop will be in Texas.
We arrived at Albuquerque and checked in at the FamCamp. The price was right as it only cost $18.00. Here is a photo I downloaded from the web showing the FamCamp.
It is a good size camp with 72 standard sites and 24 overflow sites (no hookups). Nothing special but it was neat and clean, had full hook-ups and the price was right. Our next stop will be in Texas.
Lowell Observatory - 8/24/2016
This morning Pat's knee was giving her a lot of trouble so she decided to take a day off and so I headed thru Flagstaff by myself to visit the Lowell Observatory on the edge of town. As you drive down US-66 thru the center of Flagstaff you can see the old observatory dome on a hill just to the west.
Here is the entrance to the observatory at the top of Mars Hill. The symbols on the post on the left side are the symbols for the planets in their orbital order with Pluto at the top and Mercury at the bottom. The symbol for Pluto is made from Percival Lowell's initials as Pluto was discovered by an astronomer at this observatory.
Percival Lowell was born in Cambridge, MA, on March 13, 1855 and was a member of the wealthy Boston, MA, Lowell family. He was educated at Harvard University where he graduated with a distinction in mathematics in 1876. After graduation, he worked in his families textile business in Lowell, MA, but after six years decided that was not what he wanted to do with his life. He then joined the Foreign Service and was posted to Japan and Korea at the time those countries were first coming out of their isolation and was involved in negotiating some of the first trade agreements with them. He returned to the US in 1893 and shortly thereafter dedicated himself to the study of astronomy in particular the study of Mars. In 1894, he had a friend survey a number of possible sites for an observatory in the west, and Flagstaff was selected because of its elevation and clear skies.
Lowell looked for someone in Flagstaff to build a dome for his telescope and found a pair of brothers running a bicycle shop who claimed they could build or fix anything and so he contracted with them to build the dome for the 24" refractor telescope he had Alvan Clark and Sons of Cambridgeport, MA, building for him. The dome was built and telescope delivered and started operations in 1896. Here is a photo of that dome.
And inside the dome you can see the original telescope. This it the top end of the telescope and you can see the wooden construction of the dome.
And here is the bottom end of the telescope with our guide who was explaining the construction.
When the dome was originally built they had these metal wheels that allowed the top half of the dome to rotate.
However, they were very noisy and made the dome hard to rotate. In the 1940s, one technician bought a bunch of these wheels and tires for a Ford sedan and installed them in place of the old metal wheels. He also installed a motor drive and that made the telescope and dome much easier and quieter to operate.
During Percival's lifetime the telescope was dedicated to the study of Mars as Percival believed that there was life on Mars and spent many hours mapping the "canals" on Mars. After his death the telescope was used for a lot of important research including pioneering studies on the expansion of the universe. In the 1960s this telescope was used to create detailed maps of landing sites on the Moon for the Apollo Program. It is still operational, but today it is only used for education.
In 1909 a much larger 42" reflector telescope and dome was built, also by Alvan Clark and Sons. It remained in use until the 1970. It was removed from its dome and set up as an exhibit in 1999 and here is a photo of the steel frame of that telescope.
The other important telescope at this site is the 13" refractor that was used by Clyde Tombaugh in the search for a predicted ninth planet. On February 18, 1930, Clyde made the first recognized sighting of what would be later be known as Pluto. Here is a photo of the dome of the Pluto telescope.
And here is a photo of the telescope.
The facilities on Mars Hill are currently used for research studies and administration as all of the new telescopes have been built at sites southeast of Flagstaff as the light pollution from Flagstaff was impacting observations. There are currently four telescopes up to 72" in operation at Anderson Mesa 12 mile away and a brand new 169" telescope at Happy Jack 40 miles away.
Approximately 50,000 years ago a chunk of nickel-iron about the size of a commercial airliner slammed into the Colorado Plateau about 35 mile east of Flagstaff. It left an enormous crater 3/4 mile in diameter and 570 ft. deep and it the best-preserved meteor crater on earth. Here is a panorama shot I took when Pat and I visited the site back in 2011.
In the visitors center of the observatory they have on display the largest piece of the original meteor that created this crater. It weighs 535 lbs. and was originally found in the late 19th century and for over 80 years was displayed outside a souvenir shop at the Grand Canyon. In 1988, it was moved into the shop and then in 2008 when the souvenir shop closed, the Verkamp family that had run it for 108 years donated the meteor to the Lowell Observatory. It is now on display in the gift shop. Here is a photo of it.
Percival Lowell died in 1916 and he is buried in a mausoleum on the observatory grounds. Here is a photo of it.
Today the mausoleum is encased in a protective dome. Originally it was not enclosed but exposure to the ultraviolet light from the sun damaged the glass of the dome. The color of the glass tiles was originally the same color as the planet Neptune, a rich blue. Today as you can see from this photo looking up thru the mausoleum dome, the color is badly faded.
The observatory is still owned an operated by the trust that Percival Lowell set up in his will and is overseen by a single trustee who for the last 100 years has been a member of the Lowell family. The current and fifth trustee is William Lowell Putnam, IV who is Percival's great grand nephew.
Here is a photo I took as I was leaving the observatory showing downtown Flagstaff at the base of the hill.
Pat's knee has been giving her so much trouble that we have decided to cut this trip short and tomorrow we will start our trek home with a stop in New Mexico, two stops in Texas and a stop in Alabama.
Here is the entrance to the observatory at the top of Mars Hill. The symbols on the post on the left side are the symbols for the planets in their orbital order with Pluto at the top and Mercury at the bottom. The symbol for Pluto is made from Percival Lowell's initials as Pluto was discovered by an astronomer at this observatory.
Percival Lowell was born in Cambridge, MA, on March 13, 1855 and was a member of the wealthy Boston, MA, Lowell family. He was educated at Harvard University where he graduated with a distinction in mathematics in 1876. After graduation, he worked in his families textile business in Lowell, MA, but after six years decided that was not what he wanted to do with his life. He then joined the Foreign Service and was posted to Japan and Korea at the time those countries were first coming out of their isolation and was involved in negotiating some of the first trade agreements with them. He returned to the US in 1893 and shortly thereafter dedicated himself to the study of astronomy in particular the study of Mars. In 1894, he had a friend survey a number of possible sites for an observatory in the west, and Flagstaff was selected because of its elevation and clear skies.
Lowell looked for someone in Flagstaff to build a dome for his telescope and found a pair of brothers running a bicycle shop who claimed they could build or fix anything and so he contracted with them to build the dome for the 24" refractor telescope he had Alvan Clark and Sons of Cambridgeport, MA, building for him. The dome was built and telescope delivered and started operations in 1896. Here is a photo of that dome.
And inside the dome you can see the original telescope. This it the top end of the telescope and you can see the wooden construction of the dome.
And here is the bottom end of the telescope with our guide who was explaining the construction.
When the dome was originally built they had these metal wheels that allowed the top half of the dome to rotate.
However, they were very noisy and made the dome hard to rotate. In the 1940s, one technician bought a bunch of these wheels and tires for a Ford sedan and installed them in place of the old metal wheels. He also installed a motor drive and that made the telescope and dome much easier and quieter to operate.
During Percival's lifetime the telescope was dedicated to the study of Mars as Percival believed that there was life on Mars and spent many hours mapping the "canals" on Mars. After his death the telescope was used for a lot of important research including pioneering studies on the expansion of the universe. In the 1960s this telescope was used to create detailed maps of landing sites on the Moon for the Apollo Program. It is still operational, but today it is only used for education.
In 1909 a much larger 42" reflector telescope and dome was built, also by Alvan Clark and Sons. It remained in use until the 1970. It was removed from its dome and set up as an exhibit in 1999 and here is a photo of the steel frame of that telescope.
The other important telescope at this site is the 13" refractor that was used by Clyde Tombaugh in the search for a predicted ninth planet. On February 18, 1930, Clyde made the first recognized sighting of what would be later be known as Pluto. Here is a photo of the dome of the Pluto telescope.
And here is a photo of the telescope.
The facilities on Mars Hill are currently used for research studies and administration as all of the new telescopes have been built at sites southeast of Flagstaff as the light pollution from Flagstaff was impacting observations. There are currently four telescopes up to 72" in operation at Anderson Mesa 12 mile away and a brand new 169" telescope at Happy Jack 40 miles away.
Approximately 50,000 years ago a chunk of nickel-iron about the size of a commercial airliner slammed into the Colorado Plateau about 35 mile east of Flagstaff. It left an enormous crater 3/4 mile in diameter and 570 ft. deep and it the best-preserved meteor crater on earth. Here is a panorama shot I took when Pat and I visited the site back in 2011.
In the visitors center of the observatory they have on display the largest piece of the original meteor that created this crater. It weighs 535 lbs. and was originally found in the late 19th century and for over 80 years was displayed outside a souvenir shop at the Grand Canyon. In 1988, it was moved into the shop and then in 2008 when the souvenir shop closed, the Verkamp family that had run it for 108 years donated the meteor to the Lowell Observatory. It is now on display in the gift shop. Here is a photo of it.
Percival Lowell died in 1916 and he is buried in a mausoleum on the observatory grounds. Here is a photo of it.
Today the mausoleum is encased in a protective dome. Originally it was not enclosed but exposure to the ultraviolet light from the sun damaged the glass of the dome. The color of the glass tiles was originally the same color as the planet Neptune, a rich blue. Today as you can see from this photo looking up thru the mausoleum dome, the color is badly faded.
The observatory is still owned an operated by the trust that Percival Lowell set up in his will and is overseen by a single trustee who for the last 100 years has been a member of the Lowell family. The current and fifth trustee is William Lowell Putnam, IV who is Percival's great grand nephew.
Here is a photo I took as I was leaving the observatory showing downtown Flagstaff at the base of the hill.
Pat's knee has been giving her so much trouble that we have decided to cut this trip short and tomorrow we will start our trek home with a stop in New Mexico, two stops in Texas and a stop in Alabama.
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Sedona, AZ - 8/23/2016
This morning we headed off on a day trip to Sedona. Sedona is a small city located about 30 miles south of Flagstaff and is famous for its red rock scenery and energy vortexes. As we headed south we had to descend from the 7,000 ft elevation of Flagstaff to Sedona's 4,300 ft. elevation and most of this was accomplished by a steep descent into Oak Creek Canyon. Here is a photo of that canyon.
The cliffs you can see on the right (west) side of the canyon are made up of a top layer of limestone over five layers of sandstone. The fourth layer from the top is known as the Schnebly Hill Formation. It is about 700 ft thick and red in color from iron oxide coating on the sand grains. This is the layer that gives the Sedona rock formations their red color. The east side of the canyon is 1,000 ft. lower then the west side as there is a vertical fault line running down the center of the canyon. Here is the twisty road that descends into the canyon
Here is a photo I took at Slide Rock State Park in the canyon. You can see the red color of the Schnebly Hill sandstone in the cliffs. This is also the location where the first white settler built a house in 1876. They raised peaches and apples and some of the orchards still exist and there were signs advertising apples for sale.
Here is a photo I took looking back up the canyon as we are about to leave it.
As you leave the canyon you cross this neat looking bridge that crosses a side canyon.
And here are a couple of photos from the exit of the canyon looking down into Sedona. As you can see it was kind of rainy and dreary and things weren't looking too good for sight seeing.
Here is a photo I took from the restaurant where we had lunch looking up the main street in a very soggy town.
However, after lunch the weather cleared and I started getting some decent photos. To get the very best and most colorful photos you need to take your photos close to sunrise or sunset. Unfortunately, we will not be here at that time so we had to take what nature gave us. Still looked pretty good. These are a sample of some to the photos I took that show some of the interesting rock formations.
Here you can see some of the rain clouds that were still in the area.
I thought this was an interesting rock formation.
Some of the formation reminded us of Bryce Canyon.
This photo was taken from an overlook next to the Sedona Airport. This is the location of one of the major energy vortexes that Sedona is famous for. These are, supposedly, swirling centers of subtle energy coming out from the center of the earth. The subtle energy that exists at these locations interacts with who a person is inside. The energy resonates with and strengthens the Inner Being of each person that comes within about a quarter to a half mile of it. This resonance happens because the vortex energy is very similar to the subtle energy operating in the energy centers inside each person. If you are at all a sensitive person, it is easy to feel the energy at these vortexes.
I guess I'm not a sensitive person as I never felt anything either that or my "Inner Being" was totally oblivious.
One of the sights you need to see if you visit Sedona is the Chapel of the Holy Cross that was completed in 1956, long before anyone had heard of Sedona. Here is the view you get of the chapel as you approach it.
And here is the entrance on the other side.
And a photo taken inside the chapel looking out the front window.
Looking down from the chapel I got this shot of a pretty regal house. According to Zillow it has 10,713 sq. ft. and estimated to sell for $2.6 million. Even had a little waterfall and pond on the side.
I thought this was an interesting rock formation. Looks to me like a bird's head.
With that we headed back to Flagstaff. The area around Sedona was spectacular but the town itself was pure tourist trap.
The cliffs you can see on the right (west) side of the canyon are made up of a top layer of limestone over five layers of sandstone. The fourth layer from the top is known as the Schnebly Hill Formation. It is about 700 ft thick and red in color from iron oxide coating on the sand grains. This is the layer that gives the Sedona rock formations their red color. The east side of the canyon is 1,000 ft. lower then the west side as there is a vertical fault line running down the center of the canyon. Here is the twisty road that descends into the canyon
Here is a photo I took at Slide Rock State Park in the canyon. You can see the red color of the Schnebly Hill sandstone in the cliffs. This is also the location where the first white settler built a house in 1876. They raised peaches and apples and some of the orchards still exist and there were signs advertising apples for sale.
Here is a photo I took looking back up the canyon as we are about to leave it.
As you leave the canyon you cross this neat looking bridge that crosses a side canyon.
And here are a couple of photos from the exit of the canyon looking down into Sedona. As you can see it was kind of rainy and dreary and things weren't looking too good for sight seeing.
Here is a photo I took from the restaurant where we had lunch looking up the main street in a very soggy town.
However, after lunch the weather cleared and I started getting some decent photos. To get the very best and most colorful photos you need to take your photos close to sunrise or sunset. Unfortunately, we will not be here at that time so we had to take what nature gave us. Still looked pretty good. These are a sample of some to the photos I took that show some of the interesting rock formations.
Here you can see some of the rain clouds that were still in the area.
I thought this was an interesting rock formation.
Some of the formation reminded us of Bryce Canyon.
This photo was taken from an overlook next to the Sedona Airport. This is the location of one of the major energy vortexes that Sedona is famous for. These are, supposedly, swirling centers of subtle energy coming out from the center of the earth. The subtle energy that exists at these locations interacts with who a person is inside. The energy resonates with and strengthens the Inner Being of each person that comes within about a quarter to a half mile of it. This resonance happens because the vortex energy is very similar to the subtle energy operating in the energy centers inside each person. If you are at all a sensitive person, it is easy to feel the energy at these vortexes.
I guess I'm not a sensitive person as I never felt anything either that or my "Inner Being" was totally oblivious.
One of the sights you need to see if you visit Sedona is the Chapel of the Holy Cross that was completed in 1956, long before anyone had heard of Sedona. Here is the view you get of the chapel as you approach it.
And here is the entrance on the other side.
And a photo taken inside the chapel looking out the front window.
Looking down from the chapel I got this shot of a pretty regal house. According to Zillow it has 10,713 sq. ft. and estimated to sell for $2.6 million. Even had a little waterfall and pond on the side.
I thought this was an interesting rock formation. Looks to me like a bird's head.
With that we headed back to Flagstaff. The area around Sedona was spectacular but the town itself was pure tourist trap.
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