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Day 12: Take it easy

Up early and showered! These time zone changes are making getting up early easier and easier. The showers at our campground were rating 3/10. Lots of hot water and a private lockable shower room but that’s it. Dirty, dilapidated, hard to set the perfect temp water. It got us clean, best possible outcome given the conditions.

The campground was very quiet and the sites are spaced nicely apart. A great place to stop for a night if you’re near or passing by Winslow, AZ.

Speaking of Winslow, you might have guessed from yesterday’s blog that today we are starting our day by visiting Winslow to stand on a corner and admire a certain flatbed Ford. All of course references to the Eagles song “Take it Easy” in which Winslow is referenced and now visited by tens of thousands of each year from around the world.

We started our visit to Winslow by parking the van almost immediately behind ‘the’ flatbed Ford. It was early and the town was still quiet. We went to enjoy breakfast at “The Flatbed Cafe”. Barb ordered Enchiladas & Eggs while I orders Eggs Benedict. This was a treat and it was delicious.

Afterwards we went to take some pictures around the towns main attraction, the flatbed Ford. The town has made a very nice space for visitors such as us to take pictures including piping Eagles music throughout the area. As it was early we had the place almost to ourselves but we were assured that within an hour our so it would be bustling with people all trying to get the perfect picture. The only other people there were a couple originally from Markham, ON (small world) that now live in Los Angeles, CA.

Leaving town I realized that Winslow is a rarity for US-66, it’s prospering. Could this really be because it was referenced in a song some 52 years ago? Do/did the Eagles have that much of an effect? One wonders.

We head a little further West and take a detour to visit the Meteor Crater. This crater was formed almost 50,000 years ago when a huge meteor crashed into the Arizona landscape. It’s estimated the explosion equaled 20,000 tons of TNT.

Today the crater is 550 ft deep and almost a mile across. It’s privately owned by the family that owns bar T bar ranch, the Barringer’s. There is a $27USD entrance fee that includes access to the observation walkways, a museum, theatre & guided tours. We did not take the guided tour or watch the movie in the theatre but did walk about on our own and visited the museum. This is a great place to visit, but in my opinion should not cost what it did. Maybe I’m just cheap. We both really enjoyed the visit.

Returning to I-40 we headed towards Flagstaff and then onto Kingsman, AZ. Here we stopped for groceries at Bashas’ supermarket before heading out and turning away North from I-40 towards Lake Mead. We stopped for the night in the Lake Mead Recreational Area and are staying at the Willow Creek Campground & RV Park. Our site (D3) has a fabulous view of the Colorado River canyon as the river flows South away from Hoover Dam.

All for today, good night one and all.

P.S. Our mouse guest checked out last evening.

Day 11: When is wood not wood?

We awake to look out across a lava field left by a volcano some 10,000 years ago. It seems alien in what can already be considered by many an alien landscape.

Oh, and we discovered that we have a mouse in the van as evidenced by buns having been nibbled as well as a banana. Traps were procured.

Argh, we have a mouse! Not happy campers.

New Mexico is harsh. It gets hot, very hot in the Summer but we awoke to 1C this morning. The sky is almost always bright blue, clouds just don’t seem to form here and yet when it does rain torrential floods can wash away bridges and towns. It’s dry today, no floods to worry about. As we drive we wonder what life is like day-to-day in this environment, one that doesn’t seem to have seasons where trees leaf and then fall, where every road seems to lead to the horizon and the only evidence that anyone knows about it is the large plume of dust they leave as they traverse the landscape. Harsh.

Our first stop today was the Continental Divide, the place in the Rockies where water either flows towards the Atlantic or the Pacific. There’s a small plaque that we stopped at to commemorate our passing from East to West.

Soon we crossed into Arizona, another time zone change. This time from Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) to Mountain Standard Time (MST). Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings Time. So, we are now at the same time as those on the West coast but not yet in the same time zone.

A little ways into Arizona we make a stop at the Petrified Forest National Park. We entered at the North gate and followed the 28 mile road through the park to the South Gate. In the North you get to explore the Painted Desert from overlooks that expose a wonderful array of colors in the hillsides.

As you travel South the landscape becomes more barren and moon-like before depositing you into the petrified forest. As you look about you see what appears to be rocks strewn about the landscape, but when you get close you realize that they are all petrified wood from trees that died 10’s of millions of years ago. We stopped in a few places and walked amongst these ‘logs’ and were amazed by the variety of colors of crystals that had replaced the original organic wood fibers. Some look like a lumberjack had recently felled the trees and cut the logs into short lengths but then left the logs instead of taking them away. To look at, it’s wood. To touch, it is rock.

After leaving the park we continue westward and stop for the night at Homolovi State Park near Winslow, AZ. A quiet spot in the desert to spend the end of the day amongst the sagebrush & tumbleweeds.

Tomorrow a certain flatbed Ford will be sought out and then onto western Arizona and into Nevada.

Day 10: Trains, Plains & Automobiles

In the canyon we were sheltered from the sun’s earliest rays and the morning was brisk. We completed our morning routine, vacated our campsite and dumped the tanks (no mess on me).

Our route took us North into Amarillo where we again joined I-40West towards New Mexico. We soon passed the ‘Cadillac Ranch’ where we had stopped last year. The winds were light being early and there were many people adding to the spray paint on the cars embedded in the field.

We stopped again in Adrian, TX to visit the Midpoint Café and enjoy an early lunch. A 50’s style roadside café, they serve the BEST homemade hamburgers we’ve ever tasted.

As we leave Adrian, the landscape begins to change rapidly towards open rangeland. There are very few trees and endless expanses of grasslands.

We head towards New Mexico but stop just before entering at a small mostly vacated town called Glenrio, NM. It technically just across the state line and has 1 visibly operating business, a cannabis shop (now legal in NM).

We didn’t stop for that however, we stopped to look at a now abandoned Post Office and Cafe. Ghosts of a simpler time along old Route 66.

As we head across New Mexico’s barren landscape the temperatures rise and hit 29C by early afternoon. The A/C is deployed. The pictures below don’t do the vastness of the spaces justice and at times you really wonder if you’ll reach to ridge on the distance and what could be beyond? Yep, more trains, plains & automobiles.

Below is a collection of pictures from the day. The sixth picture is of a mountain that we felt reminded us of ‘Jabba-the-Hutt’ from Star Wars. Yep, it was a long day in the sun.

We stopped in Grants, NM at the KOA Journey as a place to rest for the evening. To remind us that we are now at a higher elevation, the chip bag has puffed up due to the lower air pressure. Must remember to be careful opening other containers! (ask me how I know!)

Tomorrow we head into Arizona and make a few more Route 66 stops.

Day 9: Amongst the Mesquite

A short post today as we are staying in Palo Duro State Park for another day; however, we have to change sites as this one is booked by someone else for tonight.

We slept in, a little, until 7:30am and started the day with a cup of coffee as we gazed out upon the canyon walls. It’s 4 degrees outside and sunny. As the trails in the park are closed due to recent heavy rains I went for a short walk along the park roadways. The birds were singing and the breeze was gently blowing (the reason it’s so cold).

We decide to have a full egg, bacon, fried potatoes & fried bread breakfast. A real treat from the yoghurt and banana we have been starting each day with. It was delicious.

Out of the wind the sun is warm, the views spectacular. I’m writing yesterday’s blog post when Barb reminds me that we need to go to the gatehouse and get our ticket for tonight’s site. The drive takes about 20min, we get the ticket and turn around to drive back down into the canyon to our new site (#007) in the Hackberry campground.

The site is a drive through intended for longer rigs than our van but it’s again level and dry. The biggest difference is that we are now near a river lined with Mesquite trees that are just leafing out and we don’t have the majestic views down the canyon we had from yesterdays site. The red stone cliffs still tower above us and we hope the sunset will be as stunning as last night.

I tried the showers in the park and rate them a 4/10. No private change area and shower curtains past their prime. The water temperature and supply was plentiful and the shower itself moderately clean. I used it in early afternoon ahead of the influx of new campers that can’t check-in until 3:00pm as this gave me the best chance of having no-one join me in the shower room. It worked.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent reading at our campsite and enjoying the warmth of the sun out of the still cool breeze.

A quiet evening lies ahead and hopefully a restful night. Tomorrow we head into New Mexico.

Day 8: Texas bound

It rained last night. Not a light Spring shower, nope, a Midwest rolling, windy, thunderstorm. Welcome to Oklahoma folks. The wind jostled the van and woke us both several times throughout the night, but by the morning a light shower was all that remained. The rain was supposed to last the day in El Reno, luckily we were heading West into Texas and would drive out of the rain mid morning.

We were on the road by around 10:00am, enough time for a relaxing breakfast as we watched others depart.

Out on the highway the spray from passing vehicles was bad but as stated above, the rain wrapped up mid-morning and the sun started to appear through the breaks in the clouds showing us the magnificence of the plains.

The temperature climbed into the low 20’s as we headed further West and we found ourselves turning down the heat closer and closer to the point of turning on the A/C. We didn’t, but it was close. The sun blaring in the windows on the South-side of the van really warmed the vehicle.

Nearing the Texas border we took a short detour off of I-40 and onto the historic Route 66 through the towns of Erick, OK and Texola, OK. Erick is still fairly well populated, as a small town but we couldn’t see much in the way of an active commercial district, just many boarded-up buildings.

Texola however is practically a ghost-town. Wikipedia lists the town as having 42 residents in 2022, we saw none of them.

We stopped in Texola as Barb had read that an old one-room jailhouse still survived from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. We found it on a back street made of concrete blocks and a concrete roof. It’s as unspectacular as the town, but here it is with some other pictures. The list of names is evidently the school graduating class list from 1938; however, no sign of a schoolhouse remains and one wonders why it was engraved in stone and now stands besides the jail.

Returning to the I-40 we soon entered Texas and stopped in a rest stop to have lunch in the van.

Arriving in Amarillo we took the ring road around the South of the city to Canyon, TX to top off with fuel and groceries before heading to Palo Duro State Park where we will be camping for the next two nights. We had visited last year and did some hiking but this year have been able to successfully snag a couple of sites courtesy of the Milddogs and their Campnab subscription.

Our first night is in the Mesquite campground at the Southern-most end of the canyon. The site (#090) is perfect. Quiet with amazing views (see below) and level-enough that we don’t need to add blocks to level the van.

We enjoyed a quiet afternoon relaxing in the hammocks and made a Texas steak dinner before watching the sunset and the stars appear overhead. We’re both looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow before moving to a second campsite within the park.

‘night Y’all.

Day 7: …insert witty Oklahoma-ism here…

After enjoying a very quiet night and the wonderful shower facilities at Cook’s RV Park, it was time to dump our tanks (no faecal matter on me 😎) and head back out onto the road.

Heading Southwest along US44 we soon arrive in Joplin, MO where we stopped to looked at a a Rt66 mural park that the city has installed.

US44 beckoned and we returned to our Southwestern drive. The highway undulated with the landscape and soon we were nearing Tulsa, OK. The freeway had become a tollway and we were charged $5 to drive into Tulsa and then $5 to drive away from Tulsa towards Oklahoma City. The trees are fully leafed out here and the grass is starting to dry off as the sun is getting hotter as the days get longer.

After stopping for lunch in the van in Tulsa at the Route 66 Historical Village, we continued to Oklahoma City and then onto El Reno where we are staying at the Lake El Reno RV Park. This is a municipal park and is first-come-first-served. We had no issues getting a great campsite for the night. It is supposed to rain steadily tonight, but as you can see below we got to see a wonderful sunset from our site.

Tomorrow we head into Texas. Good night all.

P.S. if you can think of a witty Oklahoma related catch-phrase for this post, send it my way & I might replace my placeholder above with it (giving you credit of course).

Day 6: Solar Eclipse

Despite reports of coyotes howling in the night, we slept well and did not hear any sounds at all. The Milddogs were up early and on the road by 9:00am heading toward their eclipse viewing location in Indiana. We departed the campsite shortly thereafter and headed towards St. Louis, MO.

The drive along the shore of the Illinois River was beautiful and in Grafton, IL it converged with the Mississippi River. Together these two waterways had created a wide fast following watercourse that from here winds its way Southward to New Orleans, LA. We soon spotted the bridge that we would take across the Mississippi into Missouri from Alton, IL.

Our route took us around St. Louis and so we did not see the Gateway Arch. We will stop one day. Heading away from the Mississippi River you climb into hilly and treed country. It seems that Missouri has many caves in the limestone rock and they all seem to advertise using large roadside billboards. Many seem to also include zip lines and animal preserves, one assumes because not all people would like to crawl around in the dark underground.

Nearing Springfield, MO it was time to find a spot to stop while the solar eclipse reached its peak. It was supposed to be reaching 97% totality in this area and we didn’t want to remain on the road during the event in case others chose to take their eyes off of the road.

The eclipse came, the sky got dimmer, the lights in the rest area parking lot came on and then it got lighter again. The picture below was taken at the point in time that it was at its peak and as you can see, 97% totality is not nearly enough to really notice a change.

After enjoying our break (and lunch) we returned to the highway and continued on to Buc-ee’s in Springfield, MO. This one is smaller than others further South and in Texas, but it still had 63 gas pumps and a massive convenience store. It was however missing windshield squeegees at the gas pumps. Yep, not one at any of the 63. This was sad.

A few more miles down the road and we stopped for the night in Springfield at Cook’s RV Park. It’s a small family run park that has the best showers we have ever encountered.

Campsite at Cook’s RV Park, Springfield, MO

We spent the evening relaxing in the van catching up on some YouTube channels that we subscribe to. Tomorrow we head into Oklahoma.

Day 5: Life is too short to fight the wind

An early rise to the day as I watch the sun appear through the trees that line to Cracker Barrel parking lot. It looks like it will be a clear and sunshiny day.

A full host of campers spent the night at Cracker Barrel

We started with breakfast at our host location and were on the road by 7:45am towards Springfield, IL. The sun had disappeared behind a large and grey looking bank of clouds. The forecast was now showing rain moving in our direction from the SouthWest. A quick stop before Springfield for fuel and then onwards.

We had a reservation for 9:30am and we were cutting it close. Our route took us into Springfield past some lesser maintained residences and delivered us downtown. Waze (my preferred choice for GPS routing) let me down and tried to route us down a street that no longer existed. Barb with Google maps to the rescue & we soon were arriving at our destination.

Susan Lawrence commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build her a home in 1904. At the time it was audacious at 12,500 sqft and included running water & electricity. A first for Springfield. FLW designed the home in his ‘Prairie Style’ that he had been developing in recent years. It is a masterpiece.

The home was used primarily for the hosting of social events comprising of, at times, hundreds of guests. The dining table when fully expanded can seat 40 and guests were entertained by live music played from one of three musical balconies.

Susan Lawrence married and took her husband’s surname of Dana. when he died at a young age shortly after their two infant children had also died, Susan lived in the home with her mother. After her mother had died and the city stopped providing steam as a heating source to residences, Susan moved into an adjacent cottage deciding that installing an alternate source of heat would be too expensive and thus leaving the home empty for two decades.

After Susan passed away and there being no hiers, the city put the house up for sale and auctioned off all of the belongings. We were told that FLW designed dining chairs were listed for sale at 50 cents. Most of Susan’s jewelry and other personal items were purchased; however, luckily for us today, the furniture was not popular and did not sell.

Publisher Charles C. Thomas stepped in and agreed to purchase the home on the condition that all unsold household items be returned to the home. He ran his publishing company from the home for many years before selling the house to the State of Illinois for $1M.

The home is known now as the Dana Thomas house in recognition of the two individuals that owned the home. It is open to the public and tours are free (reservation required).

Being a fan of FLW architecture we just had to stop and take a tour & are both so glad we did, it is an amazing story and wonderful home to witness first-hand. Photography indoors was prohibited but I did snap a few pictures of the outside and purchased a small photo book that showed some of the interior spaces.

Leaving Springfield we provisioned at a WalMart and then head onwards towards our camping spot for the night near Grafton, IL.

The driving was hard today, winds were strong and persistent from the SE often with gusts catching us unawares and causing some swerving in the lane. Our route dropped us down into the Illinois River valley and out of the wind for the last hour or so of our drive. This was welcomed as it allowed us to enjoy the scenery and winding river road.

Arriving at Pere Marquette State Park we pull into our campsite and who do we find but Dave, Liz & Amy! The Milddogs.

They are at the end of their Spring one month tour and we are just beginning ours. We enjoyed a walk together down to the shore of the Illinois River and shared stories and swapped tales well into the evening. Tomorrow we will each head our separate ways, but know that we shall soon meet again and enjoy each others company while reminiscing about that time in Illinois we camped under the trees.

Day 4: Bugs on the windshield

After a couple of nice days visiting family in S. Ontario it was time to really start our adventure.

10:00am and we’re on the road heading towards Sarnia and the Bluewater bridge as our entry point into Michigan.

My brother had suggested that I try jumping the small gap that remains on the Gordie Howe bridge currently under construction in Windsor. I gave that a pass and instead we find ourselves lined up at the end of the Bluewater bridge waiting for a US customs agent.

Trucks lined up for US Customs, our lane is empty

The traffic moved fairly well and the agent had no issues with letting us into his country. The journey was now really underway.

We headed towards Lansing, MI and witnessed too many outcomes of deer vs. truck. We lost count of how many deer lost their battles in the short 75 mile stretch we drove. 😞

We stopped at a restaurant stop for a quick lunch in the van and then returned to the highway heading towards Kalamazoo, MI. We turned South and made a detour into Elkhart, IN the home of most of the largest RV builders in North America. 🚐

We missed seeing the biggest of the factories because of how we entered the town, but did see one of the Thor assembly plants and Forest River facilities as we headed South out of town.

Driving the back roads allowed us to slow down and enjoy our surroundings, but it did add more than an hour to our overall drive time for the day. It was worth it. I mean, did you know that “Tippecanoe” is a real town in Indiana? Well it is & we’ve been there!

Our back roads drive resulted in us meandering along US25 towards Logansport which is part of the Historic Michigan Road that was built in the 1830’s to connect the Ohio valley to Lake Michigan.

Our day ended with a Westward jaunt along I-74 towards Urbana, IL where we stopped for the night at a Cracker Barrel restaurant (Yes, they allow overnight stays for RVs).

Arriving in Illinois at sunset. Apologies for the bugs on the windshield.

Our day tomorrow will be much shorter than today and will include a special place to visit and a meetup to conclude the day.

Nothing to declare

Awake at 6:30am following a nice night in the park. I head off to the shower hoping that I find hot water. I am mostly satisfied as the water is warm and pleasant enough to enjoy. Barb reports from her slightly later shower that the system was now up-to-speed and supplying plenty of very hot water. Just my luck to have been the first of the day. Showers get a 8/10 loosing points on general cleaniness and age. Security and privacy were very good as each shower is in its own room. Water supply was also very good, not a dribble as can be found in some campgrounds.

We depart our site at 8:45am and head to the dump-station. It is clean and well equipped with rinse hose. Heading out of the park we head East long US-5 and I turn to head toward Fredonia, NY only to find a railroad underpass with a signed 10’-1” headroom clearance. STOP! At a supposed 10’-0” height for the van I was not about to test either the factory spec or accuracy of the sign so I turned about and headed into Dunkirk, NY where I crossed over the railroad tracks in order to return to the I-90 East.

The drive into Buffalo and through the city is uneventful and before long we are heading East through Western New York farmland. As the long weekend is over the highways are busier with truck traffic than we have seen for the past day or so but in general everyone behaves themselves and before we know it we leave the I-90 and join the I-81 North towards Watertown, NY where we stop for fuel and a sandwich in the van. Barb drops into Walmart and picks up a set of new melamine bowls that she has not been able to find in Canada since returning from the US Southwest a few weeks ago.

We decide to not cross back into Canada using the Ivy-Lea crossing, but instead turn onto US-37 and head towards Ogdensburg, NY and use the quieter crossing. This allows us to slow down and enjoy the day more and avoid having to drive on Hwy-401. At the bridge I learned that having dually rear wheels costs $9.00CAD instead of $4.25CAD to cross the bridge. I’d not noticed this in previous crossings over the past year or so, but had read online that others had experienced an up charge for the same reason on other toll roads and bridges.

Canadian customs was not busy and the staff efficient and much more pleasant than their US counterparts that we engaged with just a few days ago. Yay!

Driving home along Hwy-416 we both agreed that it was once again nice to be home in Canada and that, at least for now, we were both USA’d out for a while. We are looking forward to the Maritime leg of this trip which we plan on starting in just a few days, so check back soon for more updates from the road.