Florida Winter 2015-16

Well, another great Florida winter has come and gone and I'm waaaayyyy behind on updating the blog.  We started the winter at MacDill as usual, first in the annex but then moving into the sandpit.  The park was in utter turmoil because of an electrical power upgrade taking far too long and many spots weren't open for the season. The big event while we were at MacDill was selling our sailboat we'd owned for 8 years, the Laurie Lee.  It was truly strange watching her leave the dock with her new owner at the helm, but I wasn't getting enough use out of her to justify the cost and effort.  Without a boat to tie us to the dock at MacDill, we left for the season just prior to Christmas to spend it with Mom and the boys in Sebring.  We were in Key West for New Year's Eve again this year, which is getting to be a pretty cool tradition.  After Key West, we spent a couple weeks on Key Largo at John Pennekamp State Park and a commercial park.  We really enjoyed that, something different.  While we were in Key Largo, Keith, Abby and Madison came down from Miami for a visit.  We then moved up the coast just a bit and stayed in Lake Worth, then Jupiter Florida.  Jupiter was a significant find.  We stayed at Jonathan Dickinson State Park for 2 weeks and it was great.  Keith and Abby came to see us again and brought friends this time.  There was a lot to see in the area, the weather was great, the camping spot was huge, and Jupiter has a great music scene.  After that, we went up and stayed near Mom at Wekiva Falls campground for a week.   Then back down to Key West for a week just in the car this time to celebrate Laurie's birthday.  We then went up to Bushnell, FL for a couple weeks and stayed at Paradise Oaks with our friends Fred and Loretta.  We were also able to visit Larry and Teresa at their new home in the Villages.  The next big trip was storing the RV for a couple weeks in Sebring while we took off on a cruise with friends John and Phyllis.  In the personal development arena, I got a haircut (big deal) and enrolled in a doctoral program (back to school).  As the time of this writing, we're camped near our house at Highlands Hammock State Park.  The plan for this summer is Alaska.  Since we finished the lower 48 state map, it only makes sense, right?  Here are a few pictures from the winter:

The Laurie Lee under new ownership, bound for Clearwater, FL.

Poolside at Point of View RV Park in Key Largo.  Nice!

Sunset in the Keys.  Gilbert's Resort, Key Largo.

Keith, Abby, and Madison

I threw a karaoke party at Seascapes for old time's sake.  Here are the girls jamming in a group sing.

Intrepid travelers touring Dominica.

Great friends John and Phyllis.  We cruised to the Bahamas, St. Thomas, Dominica, Grenada, Bonaire, and Aruba aboard the Royal Princess.  10 days in paradise!

Jupiter Light House

Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island.  You don't often see limestone like this on the east coast.

Laurie learning to play the dulcimer at Ft Zachary Taylor on Key West.  We visited on a day when they had civil war reenactors on the grounds.

Contemplating getting a trim.  I posted this photo on FaceBook and asked my friends if I should cut it or keep it.  The results were mixed.  I got a hair cut.  It's a lot easier to deal with and it's amazing how differently people talk to me.  When I was in Kindergarten, they taught me you can't judge a book by its cover.  Wrong.

Home Again

Well, we've come full circle.  We're back at the Ho Hum where we started this summer's road trip 2 1/2 months ago.  After Sedona, we did 3 days on the road spending just one night then moving on.  We overnighted in Grants, NM, Amarillo, TX, and Checotah, OK before arriving back in Little Rock for time with Laurie's family and a reunion with my old military buddies at Little Rock AFB, my first assignment.  On our way to the Gulf Coast, we stopped in Hattiesburg, MS and stayed at the Paul B. Johnson State Park.  Hattiesburg is a nice town and the park was beautiful, set on a lake.  We head back to MacDill for our 4th winter.  We think we are, anyway.  They're renovating the electrical power and are not yet ready for the influx of us snow birds.  We might have to stay somewhere else for a month until they finish, but regardless we're back in the Sunshine State just as they start to report the first snows of fall up north.

Lots of gray hairs on us, 30 years after most of us served together.

Sedona, AZ

We have not been "everywhere."  Even in a 30 year military career being stationed across the country, and 3 years full time doing nothing but sight seeing, we still haven't even come close to "seeing it all."  I was talking to a fellow RVer at our most recent stay, just outside Sedona, AZ.  She'd been RVing full time with her husband, also a military retiree, for 6 years.  I made a comment about not knowing when we'd ever grow tired of the lifestyle and come off the road.  She said she wasn't sure either, because there's so much to see.  She also mentioned talking to someone once that was trading in the gypsy lifestyle for the more conventional world.  That person claimed in 3 years of RVing, they'd "seen it all."  Poppycock.  Whatever you have to tell yourself, but I don't care who you are, please don't tell me you've seen everything this great country has to offer.

So, that leads me to this post.  We'd heard rave reviews of Sedona, and we missed seeing it the last time we were out west in 2013.  After Las Vegas, we made sure to drop south of I-40 just a bit so we could check out this much acclaimed destination.  We've seen a lot, so our bar is set pretty high.  I have to say that the area lived up to its reputation.  It's one of those gorgeous red rock areas we have out west, perhaps a place they would have declared a national park under other circumstances.  As it stands, it's a very conscientiously developed town in the middle of a natural paradise.  They did a great job making sure dwellings and buildings merged with the landscape.  We had a good time and intend to return so we can spend more time checking out the outlying communities.  Arizona is awesome.

One of the local Sedona residents

A typical view from Main Street Sedona.  The red rock formations are really spectacular.

Castle Rock, I think?  There were too many beautiful formations to remember.

Good Bye Charlie

Well, most of my blog entries are about nice places and pretty pictures.  This one is just about misery.  Our little buddy, constant companion and mascot was diagnosed with kidney disease earlier this year.  The only treatment they offered were surgeries like kidney transplants, or a "kidney friendly" diet.  He wouldn't eat the kidney friendly food.  Over the past few months his weight dropped, and his appetite and energy level slowly dropped to zero.  When he quit drinking water and showed no interest in his morning walk, we knew it was time to drop the denial and take him to the vet in Las Vegas.  I haven't cried that hard since my father died.  For a little dog, Charlie had a ton of personality.  Those of you who have had a shoe stolen by him know what I'm talking about.  We had him since 2007, but he was a daily fixture in our lives since I retired in 2012.  He was always there, always happy to see us, always coming up with some new neurotic behavior to make us laugh and shrug.  I held him tightly in my arms when the Vet put him down and I bawled like a baby.  We will really miss that dog.  Here are some pictures from his better days.

He was a little heart breaker as a puppy.  How can you not love this guy?

Awkward teenage years.  Yes, he'd help himself to whoever's bed he wanted to lay on.  

Our first summer in the RV.  

Happy as a clam hanging out by a stream in the mountains somewhere.  Anywhere.  Charlie in his prime.

I hope this video works.  Charlie was a huge licker, part of his...charm.

Las Vegas

Well, I would not advise driving all the way from Yosemite to Las Vegas, but I did it.  I must have been reading the map wrong, because I thought I was half way there by noon, but we didn't arrive until after 7pm.  Oh well, all's well that ends.  We stayed 3 nights at the RV park at Circus Circus Casino.  Didn't gamble a dime.  We did see 2 good shows though, and took advantage of the Nellis AFB commissary and ticket office.  We saw a La Reve - The Dream, which was one of those very well done Cirque du Soleil kind of shows.  Google it, too hard to explain.  We also saw a classic rock revival show featuring members of Heart, Survivor and a few other bands.  No pictures this stop, not too much scenery to shoot on The Strip.

Yosemite

Huge, epic, awesome.  I run out of superlatives to describe the Yosemite valley.  After Bend, we made a fairly epic drive up CA120 west of the park.  We missed Yosemite in 2013 because of fires, but it was all clear this time.  After hours of boring driving on I-5 through the San Jauqine Valley, you climb up the Sierras.  I have ever increasing respect for Cummins and the engines they build.  This was way worse than any climb we've ever done on the interstate, and we've been over the continental divide dozens of times.  Lots of switchbacks and about 5000 later, we were safely tucked away at the closest park to the entrance.  The campgrounds in Yosemite National Park are a little small and even harder to get to, so we used the Chevy for touring.  The national park is enormous, maybe 50 times as big as the valley with El Capitan and Half Dome that you see all the pictures of.  We toured the valley, but we tried to see some other parts as well.  I think the hikers have the best of it.  With 800+ miles of trails, they get to see sights that you never experience sticking to the roads.  Overall, wonderful.

El Capitan.  There were climbers on the left hand side we could see through our binoculars.  The were tiny, invisible to the naked eye.  These pictures are great, but like most, it's just not like being there.

A panorama of the granite faces on the north side of Yellowstone Valley.

Half Dome.

One of the less explored areas of Yosemite National Park.  The Hetch Hetchy (that's right) Valley made a likely candidate for a dam and reservoir after the 1906 San Francisco fire.  Even though it was a National Park at the time and the naturalists fought it, they built the O'Shaughnessy Dam to form the Hetch Hetchy reservoir.  It provides 85% of San Francisco's drinking water.

Hetch Hetchy reservoir from the hiking trail.

Redding, CA

We left Harris Beach and turned inland, through the Jedediah Smith Redwoods and down to Redding, CA.  It's just south of Mount Shasta.  We only got one free day, thanks to an oil leak in the Chevy.  We must have kicked up a rock with the motorhome.  It was leaking pretty good when we got to Redding, so I spent the next day at the Chevy dealer getting a new oil pan.  Luckily, full coverage covered the repair and I only paid the deductable.  Ouch.  A set of tires and an oil pan in the same month.  Anyway, we spent our one free day seen a snow capped mountain outside of town, Lassen Peak.  It was a long day driving, but we drove the loop up and over and around before heading back to Redding.  We'll have to come back to see Mount Shasta.  The whole area was nice, worth a return trip.  Here's some pictures:

Lassen Peak.  It wasn't quite fall yet, pretty cool seeing that much snow in summer time.

One of many lakes up in the high country.  I thought the double image was pretty.

More snow

The ever present reminder that you're driving on a volcano.  There were a few hot mud pots and steam holes, just like Yellowstone.  These were right next to the road.