Author: Easin' Along

When we finalized all of the plans for our RV trip, I realized that my birthday fell during our visit with some dear friends from our Army days in Germany over forty years ago. Things couldn’t have worked out better. Helen and I both looked forward to returning to Cortez, Colorado, and celebrating the big day with Paul and Dayna.

Cortez, Colorado, is in the four corners area of the state. Paul and Dayna have a lovely home and farm with a magnificent view of the Mesa Verde mountain range and the National Park. We toured the National Park and the remarkable cliff dwellings two years ago and came away impressed. We bypassed that opportunity this time, but I recommend it highly.

We arrived late in the afternoon after a long drive from Albuquerque, NM, and greeted warmly–it was great seeing them. Only my friend Paul would have a full-hookup RV site adjacent to his home, complete with water, electric, and sewer connections. We plugged in the RV and reconnected as friends.

My friend Paul is one of the greatest (and most unique) guys I have ever known. We first met in the halls of the Third Infantry Division Headquarters in 1972. He was very outgoing, and I was pleased to learn that he lived in a house next to ours in a small village outside Wurzburg, Germany. Over time, we developed a solid friendship.

Paul had and still has the energy of a ten-year-old. He attacks every challenge with great gusto. When I first met him, he was always fixing things, making things, or making things happen. Paul adores animals and has a great passion for the outdoors. He is outrageously funny, can swear with the best of them, and yet, a heart of gold beats inside that chest. I’ve never met anyone like him.

As much as Paul is rambunctious and non-stop, Dayna is gentle, sweet, and lovely, both inside and out. She spends hours gardening, raising almost anything that grows in a sizeable garden and her greenhouse. She has a passion for western art and artifacts which adorn the walls of her spotless home. Dayna loves anything with four paws.  Together, they make a wonderful couple.

For our first full day, they planned a trip to Telluride, Colorado, for us.  Helen and I grinned broadly at hearing the plan since we had heard good things about the town but had never been there. We left Cortez in mid-morning for the hour or so drive to Telluride, where we would tour the area, have lunch, and return.

Once underway, it didn’t take long to reach snow-covered ground.  Southwestern Colorado is facing drought conditions and, although this appeared to me as a lot of snow, it was nowhere enough for relief this year. Nevertheless, it was pretty to drive through.

After Paul retired from the Army, he spent several years working in the area around Telluride, overseeing the reclamation and redistribution of soil and the tailings of mineral mines prevalent in the past several decades. He took us to several projects and gave us some history of the mining industry and the work necessary to restore the area, preventing chemicals from leaching into the streams and destroying habitat.

In Telluride, I was impressed with the Victorian architecture of the homes.  I felt confident that, although the houses seemed small, they commanded steep prices. I felt the same way about the condominiums at the ski village. Thankfully, the hoards of visitors had not yet arrived, and we could move around well.  A clerk at one of the resorts told us that visitors begin arriving around Memorial Day.

We chose to have lunch at the Cornerhouse Grill. A couple of local contractors sitting at the table next to us recommended the Cheesesteak Sandwich and the Fish Tacos.  That was good enough for us.  Helen and Dayna had the tacos. I had the cheesesteak; Paul had chili.   All said their meal was delicious. On the way back to Cortez, we passed a herd of elk.  They looked as sleepy as I felt.

For our final night with our friends (that afternoon, Paul replaced a defective toilet seat in our fifth wheel), Paul grilled marinated chicken thighs, and Helen prepared cheese grits. After an excellent meal, we had a (low key) birthday party.  Birthday parties for me are usually events I avoid like the plague–never wanting to be the center of anything. My reluctance notwithstanding, I enjoyed myself immensely.

Besides the sumptuous meal, Helen and Dayna found a cake consisting of four quarters–chocolate, red velvet, carrot, and caramel. I sampled all.  Dayna gave me a “potato” cactus (Opuntia Fragillis) from her greenhouse. My challenge will be to keep it alive, but, thankfully, it is a hardy species.

After the party, Paul and Dayna helped us carry everything back to Dora. We needed to turn in early for the next day’s drive to Bryce Canyon. We hated to leave but left with good memories of a great time.  I can’t thank them enough for the hospitality, but it’s time to be Easin’ Along.  Join us next week in Bryce Canyon…awesome doesn’t begin to describe it.

Helen and I were all a-twitter about beginning our road trip to California and the Rockies. The plan was to leave very early last Friday, make the long drive to Memphis, and arrive at a decent hour. The plans of mice and men often go astray. The restrictions in our neighborhood only permit RV’s in for a maximum of twenty-four hours for loading and unloading—which is fine with me.

Helen had worked very hard before Thursday to have all the food organized for loading, and what little clothing isn’t already in Dora (trailer) was neatly folded and would go into the trailer in minutes. I drove to the facility where Dora remained between trips and touched the power button for the controls that raise the nose of the trailer to allow me to hitch it to the truck.

No power to the controller. I hooked the trailer to the battery connection on Ruby and let the truck run for about 30 minutes, thinking the batteries would charge sufficiently, and I would hook up and move on. That never happened.

I removed the batteries and took them back home, and put them on the battery charger in my garage. When I checked the batteries after two hours, they had only reached half charge. The batteries are almost brand new. I loaded the batteries back in the truck and drove to the retailer that sold them to me. They agreed that something was off-kilter, but they wanted to try charging them on their super-duper charger before they could honor the warranty.

At around 5:30 that evening, the technician agreed that the batteries were defective and needed replacing, but…he didn’t have any in stock. I pitched a fit and demanded that he find some somewhere—now. He called around to some other stores and found two at a store in a small town 30 miles away. I took off and made it to the store ten minutes before it closed. Now, I had to drive back to Dora’s storage facility, install the batteries, and pray that the controls worked. Prayers answered. I arrived home at around 7:30 and loaded my clothes, ate dinner, and hit the sack.

We finally made it out of Knoxville around 10:00 am on Friday and reached Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, Arkansas, in less than seven hours. This park sits right on the Mississippi River. After the harried events of the day before, I welcomed the soothing effect of watching towboats and barges float by while savoring a glass of fine red wine. I captured an image of a barge floating toward a brilliant sunset, putting an exclamation point on the end of day one.

We enjoyed two nights at Tom Sawyer Park. Two dear friends that I shared a house with in my college days came by to spend the afternoon with us on Saturday. Both are Memphis natives and know Memphis barbeque. They treated us to a lunch of ribs and pulled pork. We had a grand time catching up, and the events of Thursday were erased entirely by now. I owe them for that.

From West Memphis, we drove to Roland, Oklahoma, a small town near Ft. Smith, Arkansas. We discovered our campground on one of our return trips from the west. Cherokee Casino in Roland has five campsites with full hookups on a first-come-first-served basis, free of charge. Free is good, but they manage to collect in other ways. After two days, I did well in the casino, but Helen paid for our campsite. Oh well, we had fun. Roland, Oklahoma, sits in the middle of farming country, with not much else there except the casino and adjoining hotel. As soon as we set up n the campsite, five deer came to greet us. The sunrise on the first morning was stunning.

The third stop I’ll share is the campground at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The campground is nice but relatively small and is another that takes no reservations. We called ahead and learned that three spaces were open, but the manager recommended that we hurry. We made it with time to spare. This campground is a bargain at twenty dollars a night. We took advantage of the laundry facility and walked around the lovely lake for exercise. The “Tinker Turtles” were out and soaking up the sun.

Today (Thursday), we drove to Amarillo, Texas. This is a one-night stop. We will drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico Friday morning. Fifteen weeks to go…thanks for Easin’ Along with us. Please come back!

If all goes well, Helen and I should be on the road to Memphis on the first day of our summer road trip when this post is published. After almost a year of planning, Campsites are reserved, an itinerary prepared, Dora (our fifth-wheel) is loaded, and Ruby (new truck) is eager to lead the way. We both received the second of two COVID vaccinations more than two weeks ago. The vaccines don’t make us bulletproof, but we do feel safer than we did when embarking on RV trips in 2020.

We will travel a lot of the ground we covered last summer, but much of that ground was closed due to the pandemic. On the positive side, the pandemic reduced the crowd in the National Parks. We had no trouble finding parking and never encountered long lines; nevertheless, there was limited access to some of the attractions and points of interest we hoped to visit.

We spent three months on the road last summer but added a fourth month to this journey. Canada opens its borders after shutting us out in 2020, and we secured reservations in the campground on Lake Louise in Banff National Park in late June. I held my breath while making this reservation.  When reservations opened this past Monday, we were number 32,239 in the online queue.  I spent five hours waiting for my turn to reserve a spot. Persistence paid off. We’re in and looking forward to the experience that everyone who has visited Lake Louise says is incredible.

We begin this trip by heading to California (by way of Las Vegas), with stops in Utah and Colorado on the way. Once in California, we will spend some time hugging our grandchildren while camping with them at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Next, we move north along the coast to the northwestern tip of Washington before turning east toward Canada, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. I have posted a map of the route below. It’s not very clear in pinpointing each stop but does show the direction and the states we visit along the way.

I look forward to the photo opportunities as much as I do exploring the new places on the itinerary. We fell in love with the unique landscape of Yellowstone and Glacier National Park last summer, as well as the wildflowers on Mt. Rainier. Photographs from that trip serve as wallpaper on my desktop, and I never tire of seeing the scenery.  Some of those pictures are shared above and here.

Hopefully, we will share our journey with weekly updates. Please join us and know that we would love to have reader suggestions of places to visit along the way. Use the comments section of Easin’ Along.  We will read them all and reply. Wi-Fi is a bit iffy in some parts of the road less traveled, but we’ll get back to you as soon as we recover a signal.

Although we’re in a hurry to begin the journey, we’re still…Easin’ Along.