Looking back we had a very busy 2019, and we covered a lot of ground. Among other things, we returned to the east coast for the second time since we moved into the RV in 2013. This post will attempt to capture a little something from each stop along our 2019 way. We find it impossible to capture in this blog all of the "little things" that make life so rich, but they are happening all around us, nearly every second of everyday, if we will just stop and see....
We started our 2019 in Yuma, Arizona as we have for 6 of the 7 winters spent in our RV. The first winter we split between Maryland and Florida. The Maryland part of that winter has helped us to more greatly appreciate the winter weather in Yuma! Below is a shot at Salvation Mountain just outside the famous RV area known as Slab City. This was one of our day trips out and back from Yuma. Salvation Mountain sure gives you a great feeling after a visit.
Here we are back on the Yuma lot with Alan and Janice of Arkansas establishing the new activity known as Cabana Time; which by the way we are taking full advantage of already this year 2020!
We headed out of Yuma in early April on I-10 East bound, and we stopped at the coolest rest area overlooking the town of Las Cruces, New Mexico. You know the rest area, the one with the giant Roadrunner!
We made it to our first major destination of Waller, Texas to visit with pals Chris and Beth down on their ranch. We were there for a week, but the time goes so fast. Below Beth and Gari prepare to tack up Dino for a ride around the ranch.
Below Beth on Tango and Gari on Dino closing the gate behind. Sadly Chris and Beth lost Tango last year sometime after our visit. Tango was a good horse and was fortunate to find himself with Beth and Chris on the ranch; he lived the last chapter of his life with wonderful care and love.
Sadly leaving Chris & Beth on the ranch in Waller, Texas, we headed north to Elkhart, Indiana. We stayed for almost three weeks in Elkhart and while we were there we had time to take in three RV factory tours. The tour below was at the new Grand Design factory. We all know that quality control is lacking in the RV industry in general, but we give Grand Design the highest marks in that category; they run an organized and thoughtful operation. We also took Romeo our Ram 5500 back to the manufacturer Utility Bodywerks while in Elkhart. Tom and Kevin at Utility Bodywerks spent a few hours making a few adjustments and inspections for us, then sent us on our way without a bill! Our custom hauler bed is among the best things that we have ever purchased, and talk about support after the sale, these folks are second to none!
The other main reason we stopped in Elkhart was to rework our MorRyde IS axle systems. We spent two nights in the MorRyde shop bay seen below. In that time the team at MorRyde replaced 90% of our axle systems with new equipment; we went away with new Kodiak hubs with grease-able bearings, completely new disc brake assemblies, new torsion springs, new shock absorbers, and new torque arm brackets. Many thanks to Brian, Brinton and Sergio, I am sure we will return to MorRyde Elkhart before our RV adventure is through!
After Elkhart, Indiana, we hopped straight down to Mt. Airy, North Carolina and set up in the Mayberry Campground just outside of town (seen below). This area has all the charm of the legendary Mayberry from the Andy Griffith days. We feel so safe there, we left our Camper Penelope for the first time in the 7th year since moving in. We decided to just drive our truck Romeo to the Eastern Shore for a visit with family & friends. When we returned from the Shore we got lucky and crossed paths with an old high school buddy of Steve's and we got to hang out with Bob & Peggy at the campground for a couple days.
We arrived at Steve's mama Kitty's place in Salisbury, Maryland and anticipated a peaceful and quiet week long visit. Instead sister Judi called on day two and asked us to help mom move to Kentucky and could we find a realtor and set up a sales contract on mom's house? We sprang into action for the remainder of our visit and incredibly enough we were successful in all tasks! There was even enough time for a couple of driveway sit in sessions in the late afternoons. Below is the big driveway bash that Kitty's wonderful neighbors threw, they were all so sad to see Kitty move. :( But just like with the chickens, everybody knew that Kitty's move to Kentucky was Judi's fault! lol
Below we see a thorn between two roses... Kitty with her good pal Lynn. Sadly Lynn left this world late in 2019 and is now resting peacefully with our Lord.
On the way out of Maryland and into Virginia we caught most of the family of friends at Tonya's new home. Steve worked with Tonya for many years at NASA. Tonya is a single mom and was striving to purchase her own home while Steve was working. Her dream is reality today and we were so happy to visit with her entire family thriving. Being all in the family, mama Audrey (right) checked Steve in on his first day at NASA so many years ago as she did for so many new employees. We remain good friends to this day. We missed Amaya on this visit, oh they grow up so quickly, but the littlest Aubrey let Steve hold her! :)
Continuing on down the road south on the good old Eastern Shore of Virginia we stopped for the evening at our good friend Kathy's house. Kathy pulled together a Horse Barn Reunion on the schedule that we had planned to pass through the area so Gari could be included. Gari reunited with dozens of friends that rode horses at MaryAnn Bradley's Barn. Kathy even included Steve in the celebration. What a wonderful day and many thanks to Kathy!
Below is a commemoration of most of the gals that were available to attend the Barn Reunion. What fun the ladies had reconnecting, reminiscing and in general just enjoying a wonderful afternoon together again.
We departed Kathy's house on the Eastern Shore of Virginia the next morning, along with a snack kit for the road thanks to Kathy and drove back to Mt. Airy, North Carolina to move back into Penelope our RV. By now it's late May and we are almost half way around the horn! Upon returning to Mayberry, we soon left again to go and visit with Gari's "sister from another mother", Michelle and Jim in Vilas, North Carolina just an hour away from Mayberry. Below, Michelle and Gari check out the charming old barn recently purchased. This adjoins Michelle & Jim's home property and was a recent purchase as they continue to acquire larger and larger areas of the mountain there in Vilas.
We spent several lovely days with our friends, taking walks and just being together. It was a long awaited reunion. The picture below is from a walk we took from their home; certainly beautiful up there in Vilas, North Carolina.
On the day below son Keith had joined us and we all went up to Blue Knob for a hike.
We enjoyed many wonderful meal times with Michelle and Jim and let me tell you it got serious around feeding time, as you can see below! hahaha
As per plan we returned to Mayberry, secured our RV for the next leg of travel and then met up with Jim & Michelle again, on the road this time. We met after our first day of travel somewhere in Ohio. We each took a different path dictated by the mountains, us starting from Mt. Airy and them starting from Vilas only 100 miles away. We then traveled together dodging large thunderstorm cells through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota on our way into Rapid City, South Dakota. That 1,600 mile trip was an adventure in itself! As we continued to change our route realtime in order to avoid weather we found ourselves going down a dirt road or two with our trailers in tow as we negotiated our route back onto more major roads. Below, back on major roads somewhere in South Dakota, we catch up and pass to take the lead once again.
Finally in the Rapid City, South Dakota area we take in some of the sights. Below we are at one of the carved out tunnels that look directly at the Mt. Rushmore Monument. WooHoo!
The gang from another vantage point with the monument in the distant background.
Buffalo birthing time in Custer Sate Park. Mama with her "Red Dog" below. Michelle and Jim departed after a couple of weeks in Rapid City and we were sad to see them go. We continued to stay for a couple more months and for the first time we stayed for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, what a "Show" that was! We had some fun fishing the streams and lakes there too as we like to do in our spare time.
Then something unanticipated happened... we found a 4 acre property in Idaho that we thought we would like to purchase. We packed up camp in South Dakota after 3 months and headed to southeastern Idaho to see it. The lot we were considering turned out to be something that we did not want to take on. There we are below with the seller and realtors looking over the spectacular property. The reason we ultimately decided no was the elaborate water feature and the remaining excavation that appeared necessary on the lot to us, so it turned out to be a no.
So we decided to look around the area while we were there and see if there was anything else for sale that we may be interested in purchasing. Below we are up on "the step" in the Snake River Valley looking at 3-5 acre parcels in a subdivision... This was beautiful land, but ultimately also a no for us because of the restrictions in the subdivision.
We even looked at a tiny place in town... nope.
Back we went to Sleepy Bear Campground and dreamed of the area views...
Next stop Yakima, Washington where we would visit Gari's side of the family. Gari's dad Jerry sold all his homes in 2019 and moved himself into an Independent Living Facility in Yakima. This is the first visit we have had at Jerry's new place. We liked Jerry's new home and below Gari helps dad with his new smartphone at his new place.
We also had a few nice visits and meals with sister Sandi and Sam at their cattle ranch home. Below Sandi & Sam cook up a fine steak dinner. They were so kind and generous to take time from their busy lives to entertain us while we were in town.
Sam took time out of his busy schedule to take us to the Livestock Auction in Toppinish, Washington. Sam's cattle ranching family has been doing business there at the auction for generations, everybody there knew Sam and he knew them too. In fact Sandi grew up in Toppinish and that's where the two love birds met. Below Gari & Sam observe the hands sorting the herds in the yard below. It was quite an exciting show, those cowboys know what they are doing and earn every penny they get! We now look at every steak differently from that day forward.
We left Yakima, Washington midway through September with an October 1st reservation looming in Arizona, but first we wanted to see western Utah. Below we met up with RV friends Cheryl & Paul from Nebraska and went to see the sights of Bryce Canyon together. We love it when we cross paths with these two Nebraskans! We stayed in Panguitch, Utah for just one week. While there we discovered that our battery bank was half dead, so we elected to roll on to Sun City, Arizona a week early and replace the batteries there where supplies were plentiful and nearby.
Finally we arrived back in Sun City, Arizona. We have spent the 3-month Holiday Season (Oct-Nov-Dec) near Gari's mom Shilo for 6 of our 7th year on the road. We always have a fine time in Sun City and eat much too well while visiting with Shilo, who loves to cook and has high level skills in that department! We always find home and RV projects while there to keep us busy and homes operating properly. In our spare time we usually shop and test restaurants. This year Gari helped to set Shilo up with her first smartphone, an Android pad and a new computer with a new and current operating system. Shilo even learned Bluetooth to play her music whenever and wherever she wants. Shilo dealt with the learning curve very well, but we know it had to be overwhelming at times.
And the loop is closed as we arrived back in Yuma, Arizona on December 27, 2019 where we are staying with Alan & Janice on their new incredible view lot in the Yuma Foothills. For later this year we have reservations at three different locations across Idaho. We plan to get non-resident fishing licenses and fish the summer away. See ya down at the river or out on the lake....
Update: This was the 2019 Loop. It was a big one for us; we pretty much covered the country from east to west and north to south last year!
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