Lubbock TX.

3/27/2017

Spent the night in Lubbock, TX.  Had windshield repaired, small rock chip. 

Nice campground on the edge of Lubbock, Mesa Verde RV Park.  No trees, hey it's TX not FL.  Very clean with reasonably priced on-site laundry and nice people in office. Oh yeah, and lots of hot water in the showers! 

Drove about 30 miles west to Levelland ,TX.  Has city park allowing 3 nights of free camping, with power & electric, WOW.

We've paid for campsites that weren't this nice.

There's at least 5 little towns around Lubbock with free camping for 3 to 5 days. Their spaced about 30 miles apart.  We checked out two of them on the way to Lubbock (didn't stay) and plan to stay in 3 others as we head north.

We'll report on campgrounds and the towns that provide them in a few days.

Waco Tx

3/21/2017

Spent a couple days in Waco to visit friends and see if it's as nice a town as it looks on TV.

We had a nice campsite at Midway Park, a Corp Engineers campground on Lake Waco.

One of our favorite  excursions was the Waco Mammoth National Monument.  Back in 1978 two teenagers, looking for arrow heads, stumbled across one of the most significant archaeological finds in the country. The resulting dig by Baylor University uncovered a nursery herd of Colombian Mammoths that perished in a single natural event over 65,000 years ago. Here's some pictures from inside the climate controlled "dig shelter"...

Image at upper left is life size.

Complete skeleton of male Columbia Mammoth

Colombian Mammoth is the largest.

Scientist believe Camels were the watch dogs for the eye sight challenged Mammoth herd. In return the Mammoths protected the camels from Saber Tooth Cats whose remains were also found in the dig. 

Waco did appear to be a nice medium size town in the "Hart of Texas".  The "HGTV Fixer Upper" show has definitely had a positive effect on the community. There's plenty for the outdoor enthusiast including Cameron Park, and a series of Corp of Engineers campgrounds around lake Waco. 

We enjoyed our time in Waco and would return again

Coming next, More Texas

Big Thicket National Preserve

3/19/2017

While on our way to Woodville, TX for the night, we noticed signs for Big Thicket National Preserve visitors center.  Having some time to kill we thought we'd check it out.

The unique feature of Big Thicket is it's combining diverse ecosystems from the northeast, southeast and west.

Can you see the Copper Head snake?

What's for dinner?

Moving on to Woodville, TX for the night

Next stop, Waco TX.

USS Alabama

3/18/2017
Joan wanted to see more museums this time.  First stop, USS Alabama museum in Mobile Alabama.  Not exactly what she had in mind. Rick had a great day seeing all the sites.  Joan stayed in the camper taking care of a few chores and relaxing.

USS Drum

USS Alabama 

On the road again... 2017

3/17/2017
This year the blog posts will be short and more timely.  It'll be more where we are and what we're doing.

Nothing to report so far, just a couple nights in Wal-Mart parking lots.

Joan wants to see more museums this year so tomorrow we're going to a museum!

Stay tuned!

Camp Hosting at Belle Isle State Park, VA

11/1/2016

The only plans we had for November was to spend Thanksgiving with Joan's nephew and his family. We'd been talking with the Virginia State Park volunteer coordinator about hosting at a park near their home but there were no openings.  So, we signed up for the nearest park that sounded like it would be fun.

Belle Isle State Park on the Rappahannock River about 2 hours east of Richmond, VA.  Our jobs would be to maintain the campsites (30), monitor the bath house, sell fire wood and man the Camp Store.  We both trained in the store but Joan had the knack for working with people and handling the money so she did that job and Rick took care of the campground.

Here's some pictures...

Our campsite on a foggy fall morning.

One of the very large pull through campsites.

Hard at work in the Camp Store and camper check in desk.

Sunset from the Camp Store.

Joan on the Camp-mobile (golf cart) in
front of the Camp Store.

Celebrating our 41st Anniversary
with dinner at the Lancaster Tavern.,
in continuous operation since 1790.

We enjoyed our time at Belle Isle State Park and all the wonderful people we met and worked with.

12/1/2016

Headed to Florida for the winter.

Mammoth Cave National Park

10-21

After Iowa, we headed for Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.  The plan was to make the trip in 2 days with a stop in a Wal-Mart.  That would have us arriving at Mammoth Cave (first come first serve) campground on a Saturday.  So we decided to drive through (8 hours) and hope we get a site on Friday.  That turned out to be the right decision, the campground was full on Saturday.

After seeing Carlsbad Caverns in the spring, Mammoth Cave was a let down.  There's a lot of history at Mammoth, it's basically just a huge cave system.  There's a few drip features (stalagmites, stalactites) but nothing like Carlsbad.

Unlike Carlsbad, you can only enter the cave system on a guided tour. We took two tours. Here's some pictures from the New Entrance tour (lots of very tight spaces) ...

The other tour was in the original entrance ...

Coming next, Camp Hosting at Belle Isle State Park, VA

Iowa

10/5

After a night in Cabela's parking lot we crossed into Iowa. Think CORN! As far as the eye can see CORN! Lots and lots of CORN! I'm told pork is a big industry in Iowa, but what you see from the road is CORN!

We were in Iowa to visit friends from Salt Springs: Dale, Bill (Hoss) and their grandson Caleb who's attending college at Iowa Central in Fort Dodge, IA and is their star quarterback.

We found a nice county park campground just north of Fort Dodge, John F. Kennedy Memorial Park.  The campground was very popular and we were lucky to find a site to accommodate our camper's size.

While in Fort Dodge, we stopped by a fall festival on a beautiful sunny afternoon.  Here's some pictures...

Heading down to the Pumpkin patch...

Our other stop in Iowa would be Cedar Rapids to visit good friends Dave and Mari Lu.  After a few nights at Morgan Creek County Park, we all headed to their lake house on Lake Delhi. 

The old Prowler at Dave and Marie Lu's lake house.

In 2010, the Delhi dam failed due to 10 inches of rain over a 12 hours period.  When we visited them last year, the re-construction of the dam had not been completed.  This year the lake was back to it's FULL glory. (Pun intended!)  

View of the fall colors from their lake house back yard.

The new dam.

We had some great weather for mid-October in Iowa.  Here's some pictures From a sunset boat ride on the lake.

The new dam from the lake side.

Dave and Marie Lu were fantastic hosts and we had a great time.  With winter rapidly approaching, it was time for us southerners to move on.

Coming next, Mammoth Cave NP.