• Back Where We Started,  RV

    Trees, Lot of Big Trees, But No Diet Coke

    May 1,2 & 3 2024 – Sequoia RV Park, Dunlap California We’ve spent 3 days at this campground exploring all that Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park have to offer. It will just be 1 giant blog entry not 3. April 20, 2024 Bonus content! We missed a few photos from the drive to Dunlap. We passed through the little town of Visalia, CA. It was very tight driving through it but somehow we managed. We saw this fun mural as we made our way across town. The road up from Orange Grove to the campground was very steep in places and curvy and steep in other places.…

  • Back Where We Started,  RV

    Okie Pies!

    April 30, 2024 Mountain Valley RV Park Skylark, Tehachapi, California – Sequoia RV Park, Dunlap California Just a travel day today, but a travel day with Okie Pies! We pulled out of the Mountain Valley RV Park without fanfare except Susan spotted a life bird, the Western Kingbird when Paul was unhooking the power. She said, “Look, on that tree, a Western Kingbird.” and Paul saw it just before it flew off. But that’s a grab. Back to pretty scenery. We drove by another Keene. This was Keene, CA. Keene is always fun to find. We hope to some day visit all of them. We’ve seen Keene and Keene Valley…

  • Back Where We Started,  RV

    Trip Interrupted

    April 29, 2024 Leapin’ Lizards RV Ranch, Ocotillo Wells, California – Mountain Valley RV Park Skylark, Tehachapi, California Today was the day we didn’t get to where we expected to be. 15,000 miles under our belt in this RV plus another 8500 miles or so with the travel trailer and you’d think that we wouldn’t be surprised by anything. Right? You would be wrong. Today’s surprise was we didn’t make it to our planned destination. It was only going to be about 250 miles to someplace we can’t remember around Bakersfield, CA. It wasn’t a destination, just a place to park and sleep, that’s why we can’t remember the details…

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    Onions, Jesus, Birds & A Big Telescope

    April 26, 27 & 28 2024 – Leapin’ Lizards RV Ranch, Ocotillo Wells, California Yep. It’s a three day entry. We’re in Ocotillo Wells because it is midway between four places we want to visit; 1) the onions field is Brawley where Anastasia and John do their office jobs for part of the year, 2) Salvation Mountain, East Jesus and Slab City, 3) The Sono Bono Wildlife Refuge on the Salton Sea, and 4) the 200″ Hale Telescope at Palomar Mountain. So let’s get started. April 26, 2024 Onions We stopped by the Hall of the Onion King and Queen in Brawley, CA they gave us the Royal tour of…

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    Old Fun, Jeep Fun, Bird Fun, Gold Fun, Sand Fun, Wind Fun

    April 25, 2024 – Day 41 Mayflower County Park, Blythe, California to Leapin’ Lizards RV Ranch, Ocotillo Wells, California We had a short drive planned to Ocotillo Wells, CA. Most parks are checkout by 11 with a few at 10 or 12. This one’s checkout time of 1PM. This meant that the morning could be filled with sightseeing! Usually we string a few long drive days together and don’t get to adventure much. It’s not a lot of fun. This trip we’re trying to grab bits of adventuring when we can in addition to the longer planned stops. Today was one of those moments. We were up early and headed…

  • Back Where We Started,  RV

    Two, Two, Two Mints in One

    April 24, 2024 – Day 40 Lamplighter RV Resort, Payson Arizona – Mayflower County Park, Blythe California After gassing up we headed out of town. We had a medium travel day today, but it wouldn’t be easy since it was the dreaded, but very beautiful, Route 87 from Payson all the way down to Scottsdale. You’ve seen this road before since this isn’t our first visit to Payson. It’s still beautiful. This trip you get only one photo of the beauty. (susan here: holler if you want more. We can accommodate. It’s insanely gorgeous up by Payson. We took a LOT of photos but we didn’t want to bore you…

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    The Two Tontos

    April 22-23, 2024 – Day 38 &39 Lamplighter RV Resort, Payson Arizona We normally don’t blog when we are visiting family and friends. But yesterday and today were so much fun and so filled with spectacular views we felt we just had to share and give you this bonus entry. We won’t go into every detail of every day only cover our visits to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park in Pine, AZ and Tonto National Monument in Roosevelt, AZ. Tonto Natural Bridge Tonto Natural Bridge is a natural arch in Arizona, United States, that is believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world. The area surrounding the…

  • Back Where We Started,  RV

    Surprise!

    April 21, 2024 – Day 37 White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell Arizona – Lamplighter RV Resort, Payson Arizona Today is just a quick travel day from the Phoenix area to Star Valley to visit with our good friend Jay. It was only 123 miles but they’re a difficult 123 miles that we’d driven in the spring of 2023. We knew we’d have to climb back up in altitude on a very twisty and steep mountain roads. Paul seems to enjoy taking pictures of Clifford on the road. This is Susan on her way out of the campground heading towards the exit. We’ll hook up the Jeep down there since…

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    We Get the Knock

    April 14-15, 2024 – Day 27 & 28 Homolovi State Park Campground, Winslow Arizona – White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell Arizona We got up early trying to escape the forecasted high winds. We had more than enough gas to get to Phoenix but when Paul checked the prices he found about a $0.60/gallon difference between Winslow and Phoenix. We were also going to need to fill the propane and suspected it would be equally as expensive in Phoenix. We topped up both tanks and headed off to Phoenix hoping to be parked before the winds picked up. We headed west on I-40 toward Flagstaff where it meets up with…

  • Back Where We Started,  RV

    Ruins, Donkeys, Cows, Birds and a Lizard

    April 13, 2024 – Day 26 Homolovi State Park Campground, Winslow Arizona Finally, we don’t have to drive today. Sure, we could have but the last 4 days have been a thrash. It was almost 1,400 miles in 4 days, the last two of which were very windy which is fatiguing when you’re driving an RV. Taking a cue from that famous song we took it easy this morning. Later we went off to see the Homolovi II ruins. Somehow we didn’t see these when we were here last time. Neither of us can remember why but likely it was too hot for much outdoor activity.a Around A.D. 1330, a…