More AR Caravan

From Hot Springs, we moved on to Petit Jean State Park near Morrilton, AR. (Oct. 25-27) I remember being fascinated with the Petit Jean story as a child and the mountain with its boulders is lovely.

Our evening meal was accompanied by rain.  It was cold, but we all managed to enjoy our food.

Petit Jean is a  beautiful place.
The story is sad.  A young woman did not want to be left in France until her fiance returned.  She hired on in disguise as a cabin boy.  Her identify was undiscovered until the trip home was being prepared.  She developed a fever. The trip was postponed temporarily.  Her identity revealed, before she expired,  she was able to apologize to her intended and to ask that she be buried on this mountain.  
Petit Jean's grave.

While in the area, we visited the Heifer International.  This is a non-profit organization that provides animals to poor families with the stipulation that the first born of that animal is to be given to another.  It is an impressive place.  We toured the ranch and I got a kiss from this handsome guy.

Our next visit was to Mountain View, AR.(Oct. 28, 29.)  We and the Berdans provided dinner on Sunday night.  We had peppered pork, coleslaw, potato salad, beans and rice, and chocolates for desert.  On Monday night we were treated to a "Parlour Party" featuring three musicians who played a variety of instruments and sang in harmony.  This is very enjoyable.  The next morning, we lined up the Airstreams in the parking area and did a fast tour of the Folk Center. 
Cecelia and Paul tried out new headgear while we waited for the shuttle.

 That primed the pump.  Cecelia and I had a great time shopping together.  
We were remembering all that cold weather from the last few days.

Day 10 of the Caravan was the longest drive day of the trip:  168 miles.  One of our group commented that it was like driving through a postcard--enjoyable for the passenger, but not necessarily for the driver.  The roads were steep and winding.  At day's end we arrived at Cave Springs, AR.  
Wednesday, Oct 31 was dedicated to Wal-Mart.  We went to the Walton museum at the original 5 and dime, then on to Crystal Bridges, Museum of American Art, for the afternoon.

This is quite an interesting place.  It was developed by one of the Walton children and surprisingly is admission free.  The variety of art is quite interesting, and the architecture fascinating.

One of my favorite pieces is the silver tree outside.

After the museum, we headed over the Fred's Hickory Inn for the Caravan's farewell dinner.  We had a wonderful meal and a chance to thank Jimmy and Marque Mooney for their excellent leadership.

Next day, Nov. 1, we were on the road to Durant, OK.  There we stayed at the Choctaw RV park at the casino.  We enjoyed an over the top buffet and managed to loose all our comp $10.  very quickly.   On Nov. 2, the end of the caravan, everyone dispersed in many different directions.  We took advantage of the laundromat and another buffet lunch before heading south.  We made a stop near Rhome, TX and called Paul Mayhew who drove over to look at our Airstream damage with the intention of providing an estimate for repairs.  We then drove on to Mineral Wells where we stopped for the night.

Overall, this was a great caravan experience.  We certainly took in sights that we would never have thought to do on our own.  The company was fine and new friendships were forged.  Isn't that what caravaning is all about?

Fall in the Ozarks Unit Caravan

After leaving "Camp Davidson" with new tires, we headed for Hillsboro, Tx and the North Texas Airstream Club (NTAC).  We enjoyed a lovely parking site, a pot luck dinner, and meeting up with some of our THLU members, the Spruills, who are in the process of moving to this park.  

We spent some time with Sue who showed us some of the properties available in this park.  Then we took some time to do a bit of necessary cleaning, inside and out.

After we left, we realized we were going through Hamilton, TX.  We gave Colin a call and enjoyed a wonderful Mexican food dinner with him, Ella Faye, and Mike.  

Next day, the 15th, we made it on to Rusk, TX and the Airstream Rally.  The KOA host, Walter, was wonderful and provided entertainment and a great dinner on Saturday night.  We really enjoyed visiting friends we had not seen for months.

On Sunday, we took off on our Fall in the Ozarks Unit Caravan.  Everyone was excited to be "On the Road Again" and we enjoyed the music Marque and Jimmy had provided for us to get in the mood.  Our lunch stop at the Pony Express Truck Stop was interesting.  We first had to adjust to the "rockin' chairs".  We warned everyone to check the chair  before sitting.  The waitresses here tried very hard to please.  Food came to one couple at a time, but we finally got everyone fed.  We pulled into the campsite at Texarkana, TX early in the day.  Once again the Baileys had difficulty with their (new I might add) CB radio.  We could receive just fine, but not transmit.  After our arrival, we went into Texarkana to purchase an antenna.

Next morning, everyone attended getting ready to leave chores and soon the line up was ready to roll.

We do love seeing those silver units in a row!
At one point, we thought our leaders, Marque and Jimmy were bailing on us...

but they did return and the first group pulled out on schedule.
Our CB still will not transmit, even with a big antenna. Oh well.....Harvey to the rescue once more!
The planned rest stop for lunch was delayed due to road construction closure so we pulled into Cloud 9 RV at Hot Springs around 12:30.  This is a lovely park with great club room facilities and an awesome view.

We bypassed the group dinner to meet my cousin, Judy, at The Porterhouse restaurant in Hot Springs.  We enjoyed a lovely visit and were so happy that Judy was willing to drive over to meet us.

Next day we had a leisurely morning.  We were not on schedule until 2:30.  After a brief confusion, we boarded a WWII amphibious vehicle for a tour of Lake Hamilton. 

It was certainly a different experience--and fun.  
After the ride, we wandered down to the Brickhouse Grill for dinner.  We were escorted upstairs to a long table.  After our orders were placed, the management appeared and declared that we were not the group that were expecting and we would have to move.  Our food showed up in our new location in disorganized fashion.  After the last of it was consumed, the management again appeared and declared that the error was theirs and our meals were all complimentary!   Some apology!!!

After dinner, we went to the Vienna Theatre and enjoyed the banter and singing talent of the owner, Ken Goodman.  

On Wednesday, Oct. 24, our group went to Garvin Gardens.  Jim and I were met by Laverne and Ray, (another cousin) who happen to be members.  They helped us find our way around the lovely property.
We enjoyed Arkansas crystals,

beautiful blossoms,

holiday lighting preparations,

and the fabulous chapel.

  We had a great morning, then went to Rolondo's, an Ecuadorian restaurant.  We sat on an upper deck and had a fabulous meal.  Jim and Ray went off the the Mountain Spring Water tour with the group while Lavern and I just continued our visit in this great setting.  Overall, just a wonderful day!

During Happy Hour tonight, I played my harp on the outdoor deck at the club house.  Don't know about anyone else, but I thoroughly enjoyed this experience!

This has been a very rewarding visit to Hot Springs.  I am so pleased that Judy, Laverne and Ray came over to meet us.  That just made our time here so very much richer!

Don't forget, Halloween is coming soon.....

New Mexico to Texas

We left Albuquerque and drove to Bottomless Lakes State Park near Roswell, NM on October 9.  After our overnight stay, we headed south to White's City and a short tour (Hour and 1/2 tour of the Great Room) of Carlsbad Caverns.  
I did take lots of photographs, but this one is representative.

We did come back in the evening for the bat flight.  The bats were not on the same time schedule as the park had indicated and we almost missed them.  As we were walking to the mouth of the cavern, the bats were leaving.  By the time we got seated, they were nearly done.  Even so, it was still impressive.  Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed as the rangers believe that the electronics negatively impact the bats.

From Carlsbad, we made our way back to TEXAS.  We stopped for lunch in Orla and were astounded by the amount of traffic on such tiny farm roads.  It was all oil field related.  After we left Orla, we headed to Wink, via Mentone.  When we got to Wink,

 we drove down two streets and Jim looked back and said, "our water compartment is open."  When he got out to close it, he discovered that one of our trailer tires had lost its tread.  The side of the trailer was damaged.  We drove to a stopping point and ended up taking off the tire and driving into Kermit for a new tire.  That ended my nostalgic visit to Wink!

In Kermit, we put on two new tires, replacing the two that were of the same vintage.  We headed on to Monahans Sandhills State Park and more nostalgia.

Hobbes enjoyed getting to run on his favorite terrain, sand.

We enjoyed a lovely evening.  Next morning, Jim came in and announced that we had a flat on the trailer.  Upon closer examination, we discovered that we had two flats!  Once more, we took the tires off and drove slowly back to Monahans.  We were assured that the nails in the tires were small and they could be patched.  Soon we were on the road again and headed toward Robert Lee and the home of Sherry and Davy Davidson.  Sherry was a student in my fifth grade class in l970-71.  She has kept in touch and has called me every year since on my birthday.  Quite a record!  We drove to their ranch and enjoyed a great venison chili meal.  Next morning, Jim came in after walking Hobbes and announced that we had a flat.  Difficult to believe, but true!  Flat again!.  This time Davy aired the tire and we drove into San Angelo.  There we replaced both the tires that had nails.  This makes a grand total of 7 new tires since we left the valley in May!
We got back to the ranch in time to watch the family work calves.  We had a great dinner and visit.  There is never a dull moment around this group!

Jordon, a natural musician, tried his hands at the harp....

he was pretty good!

The whole clan posed for pictures....

Jordon, Davy,  B, Brandon, Lacey, Sherry with Grace, and Janelle (Davy's Mom)

Of course, the center of attention was always Grace.

She is a sweetheart!
We had a wonderful time at Camp Davidson!  The food was awesome!
Thanks Sherry and Davy for being such great people and wonderful hosts!

Fenton Lake State Park, Jemez Mountains and Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

October 1 we stopped at Aztez, NM.  We knew that the RV park there was adequate.  We did not do much other than spend the night as we had visited the ruins and the river last year.

Next day, we decided to go to the Jemez Mountains.  There was a state park up the mountain past Jemez Springs.  The road was quite steep and curvy.  The transmission began to heat by the time we reached the summit.  There were only 5 sites with hook-ups, but we were fortunate to be early and getting a site was no problem.  Getting to it was not easy over a rutted road, but we managed.

The lake was small, but well fished.  We enjoyed a relaxing three days.
Jim talked with the camp host quite a lot.  He tried to sell him on the Wally Byam International Caravan Club since he had a square stream.  I asked him if he told him about courtesy parking--which triggered Jim to look in the book for parking around Albuquerque. When he drove down the mountain to get to a phone connection, he found that he had a missed call from Colin.  Seems Mike had seen a facebook post I had made from Jemez Pueblo.  Colin said they were on the way to the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque.  Why didn't we join them?
We got very lucky with courtesy parking.  The son of the man at whose home it was, just happened to have his (deceased)dad's phone and answered it.  We were invited to park as long as we needed. 

We connected with Colin and Mike on Friday night and got a "Toad" pass from them.  We got up at 4:30 on Saturday and very, very slowly made our way through the traffic to the site.  We missed our crucial turn and ended up way across the field.  We finally got frustrated and parked and walked to the balloon field.  Of course, it was pitch dark.  We walked around and around, but noted that nothing seemed to be happening other than people, lots and lots of people meandering around.  No one was unloading either balloons or gondolas.  Not a good sign.  Finally, just as the sun began to lighten the horizon, it was announced that the wind was too strong.  No balloons would fly on Saturday.  Darn!  We went by where the guys were parked just to see where we made our error.  We gave up for the day and went back to our spot about 5 miles away. 
We once again set the alarm for 4 a.m., but when I awakened at 2, I told Jim to turn off the alarm.  I just couldn't stand the thought of being in all that traffic again.  Sooooo, that's how we came to miss the "mass ascension".  My bad!  We did see a few balloons in the air from our location.  Sunday evening though, we went over to the field and were treated to a wonderful bison burger dinner before we headed down to the field for the "balloon glow" and fireworks.  It was great!

Watching the balloons inflate was entertaining.  There were soooo many to see!

I located a trio of "B's".

and found one guy to be avoided......

It was interesting to be surrounded by so many, many giant balloons.
As darkness fell, the balloons were lighted by the flames.  It was pretty special.

Then, after the excitement of all these glowing balloons, there were fireworks.  Not bad for an evening's entertainment.

How does one follow up on that?  This is what we did.  Jim cooked a wonderful Dutch Oven dinner for our host's  family.  We enjoyed Steve and Bonnie, their grandson, Beckham, and Steve's brother Murray.  We were a bit delayed in getting dinner on the table, but the company was delightful.  Jim's great dinner was followed by Steve's homemade ice cream.  Yummy.  Thanks again everyone.  You were great!

Natural Bridges National Monument

After Capitol Reef, we drove to Natural Bridges Natural Monument.  The campground could not accommodate us, but we found a horse corral that substituted quite nicely.

We visited three bridges, Sipapu

Kachina,

and Owachomo.

We did the hike down to this bridge.

Beautiful!

The sunset was also quite wonderful.

Next morning, we were on the road once more.

Capitol Reef NP

We decided to stay in Torrey another day and "do" Capitol Reef today.  Good decision!  We made the scenic drive almost all the way to capitol dome.
The scenery was gorgeous!

One of the things we really like about this park is its accessibility.  Like Kodachrome and unlike Brice Canyon, one can get up close and personal with the scenery.

The colors are just amazing...

and the variety of rocks impressive.
We had a great day, complete with picnic lunch under giant cottonwood trees.    Life is good!

Across Utah

From Cedar City, after two more wonderful plays, we made our next stop Pink Coral Dunes SP.
We really enjoyed this park.

Our site was lovely and the weather was fine!

We took a walk through the dunes....

which really suited our little "king of the mountain"!

Hobbes enjoyed running in the dunes, digging, and yes, eating sand!

Fortunately, faces do wash!

Our next stop was one of our all time favorite parks, Kodachrome Basin.

Another great campsite in a beautiful setting.

After two days of hiking and enjoying the great setting, 

we moved on.  Jim decided we should take Route 12, a scenic highway across the Escalante Staircase.

Our next two nights were spent at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park.

We lucked into another great site.

We did the petrified forest trail, even the extra loop, labeled strenuous.  It was beautiful and we were amazed at the size, number, and colors of the "once upon a time" trees.

Today we made the breathtaking drive over to Torrey, Utah.  We were above canyons,

deep into the canyons, then up, up, up into aspen groves at 9800 feet.

We made it over to beautiful Capitol Reef Nat'l Park only to have our luck run out--there was no room at the campground.  The landscape was lovely

and we managed a quite adequate commercial camp in Torrey.  After a nice dinner, we are content to sit and think about all the fabulous scenery we have viewed today.