Plans Change!

We've Moved!  We left Mt Hood Village on June 16th, and after a week in Medford at my parents house, we have settled into our camp host site and job at Smith Rock State Park in Central Oregon.

This is a Day Use park, so it is very quiet for us at night.  We are in 1 of the 2 host sites next to the District Park Office, which is a house.  Jeff mows and waters the lawns, and it feels a bit like being back at our house. 

The Crooked River Canyon is in our back yard.

If you like to hike or rock climb, this is the place to be! 

We should be here until the end of August. 

Give us a holler if you get over this way!

Mt Hood Village Resort - Mt Hood National Forest

We seem to have disappeared from blog land.  And this is not even a post really... just updating our whereabouts.

We began our Summer Workamping job here on May 16th.  We knew that the Portland, Oregon area rains alot more than other areas, but we didnt realize that the Mt Hood National Forest IS a RAIN FOREST!  We're really wanting our Warm Sunshine back!

But here we are for awhile.  We are doing our best dealing with it... mostly by leaving alot!  We've been away for almost half the time that we have been here.  We've made trips to Southern Oregon and to Central Oregon.  At least we are able to get away.

Hope you are all well and finding some Sun!

Phoenix to Wickenburg to Lake Havasu to Vegas to Tonapah to Fallon...

It's easier to just not post when I wait too long... but here it goes.  At my last post on April 9th, we were enjoying our time at Cave Creek, Arizona.  We continued to enjoy our time there for a few more days. 

Then on to Wickenburg, AZ where we stayed at Constellation Park.  It is a campground with developed sites but no hookups, for $5 night.  Its very worth it.  We stayed 3 nights.

 While we were there we met up with Duane and Louise for a ride on our Harley's to Prescott.  Jeff and I had never been there, and the ride was awesome!

From Wickenburg, we moved on to Lake Havasu City, AZ for a few nights at Cattail Cove SP.  It was SO hot!  We spent some time at the lakefront beach at the park, but we spent most of our time exploring the area.  One day we rode to Parker then over the border into California to check out an RV park there for a workamping possibility.  The other day we rode to Lake Havasu City to see the sights.

Next Stop on our journey back to Oregon, was Las Vegas again.  We intended to stay one night parked for free in the Fiesta Henderson Casino parking lot, since we had heard that they allowed overnight parking... but that was not true.  They advised us to move to Sams Town, which has a parking lot for trucks and RVs... so we did... but they too told us we could not stay overnight!

I was SO HOT and exhausted from the ride in the 100 degree sun, this was very frustrating... but with no other options, we moved on to an RV park, where we ended up staying 2 nights due to heat exhaustion and the need to do some laundry.  We stayed hooked up again, and rode to see some sights that we missed when we were here last time, like Fremont District (Old Vegas Strip).

Yesterday we drove and rode to Tonapah, where we found a lot that advertised Free Truck and RV Parking on the North side of town next door to the Blanc Casino.  And they really meant it... they let us stay overnight with no problem.  It was safe and we slept great!

Today we drove and rode to Fallon, NV where we are parked at the Bonanza Inn Casino in their "RV Park".  We stayed here on our way through last time, and its a no frills parking lot but with full hookups.

So there you have it... the last 2 weeks.  We will move on to our destination of Rogue River, OR in the next few days.  We will be there 2 weeks before going North to our Workamping job near Portland for the Summer.

Hope you are all well... Enjoying Life and Staying Safe and Healthy.

Cave Creek, Arizona

Another quick update...
I seem to have lost interest in blogging.  But I can handle a short update.

Lets see... We were in Ruidoso, NM at last post.  From there, we were headed to Payson, with a nights stop somewhere along the way since Payson, AZ is 400 miles away.  It was a beautiful day, and we were enjoying the drive, so at each place that we could have stopped, we kept going... just a little further.  But a few "just a little further"'s took us to the land of no options it seemed.  We were tired and it was getting dark... all we needed was a good pull-off for the night.  There had been so many earlier, but no longer.  At 340 miles, near the place of Heber, we managed to find an RV park.  It definitely wasnt worth the money, except that we were desperate.

The next day we had only a 60 mile drive to Payson.  At Payson, we stayed 2 nights in the parking lot of the Mazatzal Casino.  It was another great "boondocking" experience!  It was quiet, not many other vehicles around, and we even had wi-fi.

April 2 we had a 5-day reservation at Cave Creek Recreation Area, which is at the North end of Phoenix, AZ.

We have friends in the area, so we've enjoyed lots of good times with them.

AND.... Guess what else?? 

We bought another Harley!

It's a Heritage... with the same Thunderheader pipes that I have on my Heritage.

So now we have His and Hers Heritages.



There are alot more used bikes for sale here and at better prices... so we took advantage of that... and we get to finally enjoy this great riding weather!

The plan is to sell our Ultra Classic when we get back to Oregon.  It is a great bike, but just too big and heavy.  But since we dont have our Swivelwheel carrier with us... I will be riding the bike home following Jeff in the 5er.  It will be another experience!

We have other friends, fellow RVers, who are camphosting out of Congress, AZ... just 60 miles from where we are here.  Duane bought his first Harley 6 months ago, so we were anxious to join up with him for a ride.

With all that...  We were having just too much fun to leave after our 5 day reservation.  So we are still here... although we had to change sites.  We will leave here this Saturday... with 2 weeks to get ourselves back to Oregon.

Ruidoso, New Mexico

Good Morning Everyone...
This is a simple post to update our location.

When we left San Angelo, Texas we turned West rather than traveling further North in Texas.  Although we were looking forward to seeing Palo Duro Canyon, we decided we wanted to stick with the route we had originally planned for traveling through New Mexico and Arizona.

We were looking forward to traveling routes we had not yet been.  So we took a new route into Carlsbad, where we stayed a week at Brantley Lake SP, in the same site we had been in February 2011.  The weather was scorching hot, mid 90's several days.

From Carlsbad, we took a route new to us to Ruidoso, NM. 

Ruidoso is a mountain town.  It's a ski town in Winter.  Yesterday we drove the Billy the Kid Trail route.  (and wished we were on our Harley(s) of course).  We had just watched Young Guns last week, so the story of Billy the Kid and the towns that they traveled to, were fresh in our minds.  So as to not have only the Hollywood version of the story in our minds, we read up on the facts on the internet.  It was a great day.  We spent hours walking through the town of Lincoln, which was full of historic buildings, all marked with their place in the story. 

From here, we will continue West, in order to reach Oregon by April 28th.
Our cell phone service has turned off our data plan because of all our roaming, so we do not have internet access unless we find wi-fi.  We will need to change providers so this is not a problem.  Until then, except for being unable to check email or do travel research, I have been thankful to not have the internet distraction. 



looking out from our campground

That's all for now.
Hope all of you are good... wherever you are.

San Angelo State Park

Will we ever get out of this stuff??  We are here in Texas in that Severe Storm picture!  Hopefully it wont really happen... We already have the high winds, and we can handle some thunder and lightning... we just don't want one inch size Hail or a Tornado!

We arrived at San Angelo State Park, in San Angelo, Texas on Friday afternoon, after an uneventful 104 mile drive from South Llano SP.

As you can see from these pictures, our site is huge!  But besides the spacious sites and the quiet, there isn't alot exciting here at the park.  We put up our wind screens, and they do wonders... the wind has been howling but inside our shelter we are all cozy.

We are looking forward to visiting areas of San Angelo, but haven't yet.
Yesterday morning (our first morning here) we were startled by a loud knock at our door.

  Jeff looked out the window, and I heard him say "You're kidding me" then he opened the door. 

At the door, were Alan and Phyliss!

Some people just cant get away from each other!  Since meeting at Sugarite Canyon in New Mexico in June 2010, we have run into each other at San Antonio TX, Custer SD, Silver City NM, San Marcos TX, and now San Angelo TX! 

We enjoyed playing games in our wind shelter last night.  A variety... Mexican Train, Golf, Skip-bo, and LRC.

Al and Phyl left this morning, but we expect to see them up the road at Palo Duro SP near Amarillo.  We've also met another couple from Michigan.  They are leaving tomorrow for Caprock Canyons SP, and we plan to meet up with them there in a couple days.

That's all for now folks!

Still Enjoying South Llano SP!

We're enjoying it SO much... we extended our stay another week.

WHY do we like it here so much??

Take a look...

All that is just outside our window!

We've had a fire nearly every night. 

We have been at this full-time RV life for 2 years now, and in those 2 years...

Anytime we COULD have a fire, and we WANTED to have a fire, we DID have a fire.

AND... We have NEVER Paid for firewood.  We always go out and find it.  At the park here, like most campgrounds, they sell tiny bundles of firewood for $4. But with just a little effort, here is just a little of what we fetched down the road a few miles.

It's been great firewood... lights up easy, burns hot and doesn't smoke.

The 18 miles of Trails are helping us to get back to our daily walking and bicycling again.

and walks along Rivers are always a favorite.

No permit is needed for Fishing within Texas State Parks, but Jeff hasn't yet thrown a line out.

Do you see all FOUR Turtles?

Do you see why we like it here?



South Llano River SP - Texas

So much for continuing my last post the next day, huh!  I will get back to that, but first...

We are now at South Llano River State Park in Junction, TX.  We're about 350 miles North and West from where we were, near Galveston;  and we are SO happy with our decision to get out of that area, and postpone traveling further East right now.  Here we can RELAX without the constant storm watches.  I don't know how people live in areas that experience those severe seasonal storm threats.  Maybe they are stuck there, but we thank God we aren't!  Our home is on wheels, so there is no reason for us to risk being there this time of year.

When I got up this morning, and opened the bedroom door, what I saw out all of the windows almost took my breath away.  I saw Stillness... I saw Peace.

This is what I saw out the back window, and this is all there was out the side windows, too.

I could finally breathe.  I saw nothing... I heard nothing, but the stillness of the trees and grass.   "Wow"  Thats all I could say... and Smile.

Our decision to turn back West was for reasons more than our poor timing with the threats of severe thunderstorms with baseball sized Hail and Tornadoes.  Our plan had been to visit the Southern States, then make our way up North, via the East Coast, zig-zagging back and forth to take in the more inland states like Tennessee.  But we need time to do that, and we thought we had it.  But there are too many uncertainties out there right now.  Fuel prices are rising, our country is very unsettled right now, and in our own little world, we own a house in Oregon that is currrently rented out, but some things have changed with our tenants that have made us not so comfortable with being across the country right now.  We can wait until things are a little more settled.

So instead... we have accepted a work camping job in Oregon, out of Portland, at Mt. Hood Village RV Resort.  We will be working 2 days a week from May 15 to Sept. 4.  We will have 5 days a week to play... and we will have both our Harley's with us!  After that, we may venture across the Northern States to the East Coast... but this time in better Seasons.  

As happy and comfortably "at home" as we are now that we are gone from there and settling into here... We did enjoy our stay near Galveston. 

We stayed at a park in Dickinson.  We were 45 miles from Houston, but never went.  Cities just arent our thing... we couldnt come up with a good reason to go.  We were only 6 miles from Kemah, where there is a boardwalk along the Galveston bay.  We visited there twice. The first time we just walked around.  The second time we stopped on our walk for Happy Hour at Joe's Crab Shack.  Seafood stuffed Jalepenos was one of our choices, but unlike the stuffed jalepenos at a place in Galveston, these were way too hot for me!  Jeff thoroughly enjoyed them.

 Galveston Island was about 18 miles, and we visited there several times.  As I had started telling about in the last post, we enjoyed the old historic buildings... and more.  On our first visit, we walked around the historical downtown, then found Happy Hour at Fishermans Wharf... where we met some chatty locals, and Jeff discovered another really great IPA, and I enjoyed a tall Pina Colada.

Then when we got back to our truck, we found that we got a parking ticket!!  $17!!  So much for HAPPY Hour!  We couldnt figure out what we had done wrong.  

We finally saw this sign up the block a ways.

Can you read it?

It says "NOTE SPACE NUMBER AT METER STATION"

We looked all around but couldnt see any sort of pay station, and we forgot to look, but we hadnt noticed any space numbers.  So even if we had seen that sign, we wouldnt have had a clue what to do.

Another day, we walked up and down Galvestons Sea Wall, and stopped for a refreshing beer at Captain Jacks Beach Bar, where I discovered Shock Top Belgian White... that was the best tasting beer I have ever had.  From the Sea Wall we drove to where the Ferrys board.  The ferrys provide a free ride to Port Bolivar.  We wanted to take the ferry ride, but I had no motion sickness pills, and without them I would be puking overboard.

Another day, we unexpectedly timed it just right and were able to watch 2 Cruise Ships board and depart.  I've never been on a Cruise, but I was thinking it may be time as I watched these enormous boats float by... how excited I thought those people aboard must be feeling, embarking on this trip at Sea in this beautiful resort on water.

  In the West Bay, between the mainland and Galveston Island, is Tiki Island.  I spotted it on the map, and had to check it out.  Here it is on the map.  See why I wanted to see it?  Every street is almost like an island of its own.

 Tiki Island

An Island Village of streets and Canals.  Everyone has a front door they can drive to and a back door they can row to... or motor to on a Jet Ski, Jet boat, Pontoon boat... whatever floats!  Amazing!  But not for me.  One house was for sale, so we looked at it... $445,000!!  I dont think so!

On our final visit to Galveston, we found the Municipal Court to talk about our parking ticket.  We were allowed an immediate "hearing" where we stated our ignorance.  Our ignorance case was understood, and the entire ticket was thrown out!  After she took the time to explain what we were suppose to do.  Now we understand... but when there, we will still continue to park in the parking lot where we can park for free by getting it validated at a visit to Fishermans Wharf.  That is what we did all the days after our ticket.  Live and Learn.

There you have the gist of our time near Galveston, Texas. We enjoyed our visit, but we are glad it was just a visit.  We are more in our comfort and enjoy zone where we are now. 

We will enjoy life here for another week or so.

Happy Trails to you...

and be careful out there!