We made it to Chick and Kathy's on 9 Jan and have been feverishly preparing for our departure tomorrow morning (13 Jan, which happens to be Bessie's 4th anniversary :)).  Time flies when you're having fun.

We had a bit of a problem negotiating the water dispensing station and, while Kathy warned me about taking pictures, I was busted again!

This was the river that flooded last year and took the lives of so many young.  The community is still trying to recover from the devastation.  You can see the height that the river reached  by the red flowers and the flag high up on the tree.

We stayed at this campground a few months earlier.  The flood waters surrounded the area of the row of trailers you see here.  This picture was taken 6 months after the flood and the area between the river and trailers was covered with vegetation and trees.

It was cold the day we visited here and Wendy is caught enjoying a little cup of hot chocolate :)

Last year ​we had 3 flat tires on our truck in 10+ months of travel.  This year we've encountered 2 flat tires and 1 missing in action, on our trailer, in the first 6 days!  All is good on day 7...so far.  We're currently in Texas after 1 night in SC, 1 in AL, and 1 in LA.  This has been a fast paced dash to Ingram, TX.  We hope to be there tomorrow.

After a night-over in Andersen, SC, we stayed here at a Cracker Barrel in Tuscaloosa, AL.  It's not often that we run into a level parking lot at a Cracker Barrel!

Vidalia, LA for one night  We've been here before.  Was very quiet despite the large number of overwintering campers.

The Mississippi was quite low!

Our latest challenge...grrrr!

​Lake Conroe, New Waverly, TX.  All tires and spares are still with us and in good shape!

Here we are with our camp host...Jesse Tiffany.  He is retired Army with 2 years of service in the Marines.  He traveled across almost every state in the U.S. (including Hawaii) raising money for Project Recover.  It was quite an honor meeting and talking with him!

​Project Recover is a collaborative effort to enlist 21st-century science and technology in a quest to find and repatriate Americans Missing In Action (MIA) since World War II in order to provide recognition and closure for families and the Nation.

We started this year as we did last year.  We traveled to North Carolina to celebrate Veston and brother-in-law Frank's birthdays for two nights..2 and 3 January.

We left for a campground by Clemson, SC and fell 10 miles short of our goal.  We turned off onto our last highway and a passing motorist rolled his window down, as we were on the off ramp, to say something that we never heard.  We thought he was just inquiring about our trailer.  We stopped shortly after, for gas, and Wendy did a quick walk around to check for anything amiss.  Something was indeed amiss!  "We only have 3 tires!!!" was her report.  "One of our tires is gone!!!!!!!!!!!"  All of the mount bolts sheared off of one tire the tire departed on its own adventure!  After several minutes of careful thought we elected to drive across the street to a hotel and figure things out.

We decided to start with a 2 night stay at the hotel as it was already late and we had many phone calls to make the next day to figure out how to handle this dilemma.  We figured to backtrack along our route we took to get here in hopes of finding our wayfaring wheel.  We weighed our rig at a CAT scale some 40 miles back where we knew we had 4 tires and work our way back those same 40 miles on the other side of the Interstate.  Within 1/2 a mile from our exit to the hotel we sure enough saw a tire resting upright against the guard rail on the side of the road. It was 45 minutes after sunset and we could barely see but surely enough IT WAS OUR TIRE !!!!!!!!  NO DAMAGE DONE !!!!!!  Unbelievable !!!!!!!!!!!  It apparently sidled up to the guardrail and coasted downhill to a stop....upright!  We were very happy campers again.  Finding that tire was such a blessing as it saved us a lot of time and effort to locate a replacement.  We had a spare but it developed a leak in the valve stem the day we left Pinopolis.  We found that out the day we left on our most excellent 2026 adventure and intended to have it fixed soon....but not soon enough!  Now we had 3 tires and a flat spare, a real bummer.  Fast  forward, we coordinated with 4 experts across the country and formulated a plan to find some new wheel mount studs, take off the brake drum, have the sheared bolts driven out and new ones pressed in, and put the fixed spare put on.  And now I have a 3/4 inch drive torque wrench capable of delivering the 150 foot pounds of torque needed to reinstall the brake drum retainer nut.  Oh boy!  I hope to never use it again!  All is fixed for the moment and we plan to continue onward after a 1 day delay.  We'll keep a close eye on things the next few days.  Wish us luck :)

Back to Gwen and Veston's  beautiful home.  We've missed them dearly!

Veston's replacement truck quickly sold.  It was quite a vehicle...even with a steering wheel on the wrong side!

A nice dinner with their family :)

I finally drummed up the courage to clean our air conditioner.  After a year of use it really needed some attention.

Veston had a couple of jobs lined up and I had a chance to help out with my deck building skills.

What a treat it was seeing old friends Bob and Carroll.  We've enjoyed their music for many years :)

Time goes by so fast when we come up for Christmas every year.  I found this helpful device to slow things down a little :)

Preparations for Christmas dinner are complete...let the "filling of the bellies" begin :)

'Til next year...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's been about 25 years since we've attended this biennial event.  Some old friends have changed so much I barely recognized them...until I saw the smiles and then the memories come flooding back :)

Some of these guys are legendary :)

An evening around this group will have your sides hurting for days from the constant laughing!

Supposedly (lol) this was an eagle!!!  There were witnesses so I believe it.  Rain throughout the weekend didn't keep us from getting in a couple rounds of golf.

We'll try to not miss these events in the future :)

Our Church celebrated its 50th anniversary and we were able to be there...YAY!!!  Many people volunteered over many months to make this celebration a huge success.  It was such a wonderful blessing to see old and new friends :)

One more night before we stop for the year.  This is Indian Springs campground in Hickory, NC.  We were in the back hills of NC and had great difficulty finding places to stay as our options for campgrounds proved to be unsuitable for us. This was our last chance to avoid our first Walmart parking lot overnighter.

Shadows were long by the time we plugged in.  The next morning Wendy discovered our entry steps had a broken mount bolt.  We'll order a part and continue on... :)

We delayed our trip at this point as a hurricane was headed toward our next destination!  The outer banks of North Carolina will have to wait until another time.  Coneross Park is in Townville, SC.

We decided on this diversion to Kentucky.
Another flat tire.  Ho Hum...#3 this trip.  This park was infested with stinkbugs.  They would gather together in very large numbers during the cool nights.  We unknowingly transported several hundred of these hitch hikers for the duration of our trip and are still finding them 3 months later :(

Trail to Eagle Point on a beautiful day :)

These babies hurt after falling 100 feet...ask Wendy!

4 nights here.  Caught up on some trailer maintenance and laundry.

These are probably the best caverns we have visited in the past 5 years.  Beauty with every step on this 2 mile path.

This area served as a stage prop for "Tom and Huck" (a Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn) movie.

Harold and Tess' barndaminium.  We were here for 4 nights.  We always enjoy time with them but come away with our belts let out another notch because Tess is such a wonderful cook!

I don't think this walking stick moved at all!

They had this pond dug after a long delay because of rain.  And have been in a drought since.  Seems Harold has my kind of luck :(

Creekside RV Park and Campground in Chappell, Nebraska on 11 Sept.  Downside...train track very close to the park :(  Otherwise a decent stay.

Cedar Bluff State Park in Ellis, KS on 12 Sept.

Lucky Star Casino in Concho, OK on 13 Sept.

Wonderful friends, Jack and Mary Ann, invited us up to South Dakota when we were together in West Yellowstone so we thought "why not?"  They have a really, really big rig!  We enjoyed a few days together before finally heading towards South Carolina to finish up another year of travel.

Wendy is always on the lookout for rabbits :)

Of course we had to revisit Mt Rushmore.

One of our favorite campgrounds to visit!  We were there from 28 Aug to 8 Sept :) 
On out way there we took out a few Quail...not much I could do :(

We scored a really nice spot for the time we were there.

With our trailer disguised in the background, here's a look across a massive prairie dog colony that has doubled in size since our last visit.

Rock climbers are always here :)

Next up...Bridgers Brewing, an Harvest Host in 3 Forks, MT.  Just a quick 1 night stay at a place we've been before.

They have made many improvements to their parking areas and now host quite a few travelers stopping through the area.  The staff is very friendly :)

We thought we were going to find a place in Two Medicine CG...a park in Glacier NP, Montana.  When we arrived it was full of campers.  It was advertised as "first come, first serve" but in reality had become "reservation only" and was filled to capacity and the empty spots were reserved.  It was so busy that we would have moved on even if we had found a spot.  We treasure the times we had last time we visited but will probably not go back there.  We ended up staying a few miles down the road in the town of East Glacier. We stayed at a residence that opens their back yard to RVers, capable of accommodating 2 RVs.  We were the only campers for the 3 nights we were there.

We played at the golf course less than a mile from were we were staying.  We did that the last time we were here but we both hit the ball very badly this time...no worries, we still had a wonderful time.

Back to Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, a park we stayed at 5 years ago.  It has not changed much at all...a good thing in our opinion.  The owner, Sharon, is still running things the way she used to.  We felt very welcome and enjoyed the 4 nights we were there.

Veston, this one's for you :)

We stayed at Bakers Hole CG in the Gallatin National Forest, 3 miles from the town of West Yellowstone, Montana, in a spot we scouted out 2 years ago.  No water or electricity at the site but the weather cooperated wonderfully.  

This was SOOOO relaxing with the river constantly flowing behind us and no sites close by :)

We stopped in town for a meal and were blessed with this double rainbow afterwards :) :)

This was a bit of a close call in Yellowstone NP.

We stopped here 25 years ago but things have changed so much!  This is Mammoth Hot Springs.

This might have been the staircase we used back then :)

From 30 July to 2 August we stayed at Warren Bridge CG, BLM land outside of Pinedale, Wyoming.  ​An interesting fact about the area is that it was named after a wooden bridge that was constructed in 1889 and was once the only bridge over the Green River in the region. The bridge was replaced in 1978 with a concrete one, but the area still bears its name.  Believe it or not...we saw Dennis and Nancy, a couple we met and played music with in West Yellowstone 2 years ago.  They were on their way back there and so were we....small world!

As you can tell from the flag it can get pretty windy here.  And the tire leaning against the trailer is yet another truck tire repair.  We seem to be a magnet for nails this year :(

I've not seen this before...the winch on the post is loosed to allow a flexible barbed wire fence to open and you clinch it back in place after you go through.  We went through to go on a hike.

This mama Osprey was tending to its 3 babies on top of the old bridge that is no longer open to traffic.

From 21-29 July we visited Firefighters Memorial CG overlooking Flaming Gorge in Ashley National Forest.  ​The campground serves as a memorial to three firefighters who lost their lives in the 1977 Cart Creek Fire.

Our next door neighbors...quite a friendly group of experienced campers!  We were very fortunate to meet them :)

Our back yard for a week.

Wendy led us on another hike...

...but we were not alone :)

Here is a 1 night stay in Rifle Gap, Colorado.  Expensive and hot but the view was very nice.  This was back on 20 July.

I am adding just a couple of pictures I missed on my previous post.  Just in case you are ever in Telluride...the following info may be useful :)

We met a couple who were playing music in the town square and after talking for a bit this lady proudly displayed her 1952 Kay bass...that's a year older than yours truly :)

Today (Sept 5) I'm finally starting to catch up on the past few weeks as we have been pretty busy, so more to follow soon :)

Before I begin my trail story I have to tell you of my "bird" story this morning :)  We downloaded a free phone app, called "Merlin," last year.  You just start recording and it lists every bird it hears with a whole lotta information about each one it identifies.  It is an impressive program, IMO.  This morning I  caught a very large bird flying from the ground to the top of a tall tree in my peripheral vision.  I then heard it make a weak call out and heard a return call from another location.  It was as big as a hawk but the call was unfamiliar so I went in, got my phone, and started a recording.  As my luck would have it, by the time I had the app running....no more calls.  I never did find out what it was, but while recording, other calls were detected and Merlin started doing its thing.  By the time I finished my cup of coffee, Merlin had detected 23 different types of birds!  Western Flycatcher, Black-headed Grosbeak, American Robin, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Pine Siskin, Northern House Wren, Lincoln's Sparrow, Northern Flicker, Western Tanager, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, European Starling, Song Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Goldfinch, Northern Mockingbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Fox Sparrow, White-breasted Nuthatch, American Barn Owl, and a Violet-green Swallow.  Later, on our hike that day, we recorded a Mountain Chickadee and a Hermit Thrush.  I do not proclaim to be a birder, and I did not see very many of these different birds, but it is so nice to get away from "noise" and hear Nature sing :)
​
Well now.... we decided to try hiking the Magic Meadows trail.  We'd heard there was a huge and beautiful meadow, full of wildflowers, as your reward at the end of your hike. The trailhead is a very short distance from our campground.  On the way to the beginning of the trail we passed this lovely collection of  wildflowers.

At the trailhead we came to this sign.  The trail we wanted was traced in yellow and we discerned it was 8.5 miles with a loop approximately halfway.  Was it 8.5 miles total, or just to the meadow?  We decided we would re-evaluate at the far side of the loop, and if that was 2+ miles, give or take, we figured 8.5 would be the total length.  So we started our journey:)

The Aspens were big and beautiful!

And tall.

We came across 3 young National Park workers and asked them how far Magic Meadows was from our, now 2.5 mile, point.  They pulled out their devices, that didn't show the loop, and guessed it to be another mile or so.  Yay!  But where was the loop we should have passed by now?  Maybe the trailhead sign was wrong!  So we plugged along for another half mile or so and came to this meadow.  We were at the 3 mile point by now and decided that if we didn't find any help at the end of this meadow we were turning back.  We finally found the beginning of the loop and, according to the All Trails app, it was .8 of a mile to the turn around point and a little longer back to the sign.  We went on.....and came back the other side of the loop.

I didn't realize the uphill slope for the first 4 miles was ALL UPHILL!  I rate the trail on the challenging side of a moderate slope with a climb of 1250 feet in altitude, according to the altimeter app we have.  So we attained an altitude of 10,300 feet and were "pooped" at the halfway point.  As you can see with this last picture, DOWNHILL IS A GOOD THING!!!!
​Sorry for the shouting!  We still got in 8.4 miles :)

While it was a little disappointing to not reach our goal, it was still very magical along the way!  We're so very thankful to enjoy our journey together!!!

We left Devil's Canyon Campground after 30 days there...  the longest time we've spent boondocking anywhere since we started this camping/traveling life.  It was soooo relaxing and although the days got a little warm we had marvelously cool nights :)  We have marked this as a place to return in the coming years.  Next we went back to Sky Ute Casino CG in Ignacio, CO, for a little vehicle maintenance and stayed there for 4 nights.  We like it there!

On the way to to Sunshine CG, close to Telluride, CO.  The scenery is spectacular in spite of the smoke from distant wildfires.

Our spot in Sunshine CG.

The next 4 photos were taken about 100 yards from our site on a short scenic path.

We traveled about 4 miles to Mountain Village, a big ski resort, to catch a gondola ride down the mountainside to Telluride (I think there's a poem/song in there somewhere :)

We are currently in Manti-La Sal National Forest at the Devils Canyon campground close to Monticello, Utah.  Elevation is approx. 7100 feet, so our lungs are getting a good workout.  Red rock mountains, deep blue skies, puffy white clouds, and the rich green Ponderosa Pines provide us with so much beauty every day.  50s to 80s for temperatures and a fair amount of wind requires a long sleeved garment in the mornings.  We have been here for the better part of 2 weeks and intend to stay for another 2.  That will put us to 9 July and help us avoid looking for accommodations over the 4th of July weekend.  The sunshine is plentiful and easily keeps our solar panels energized.  We do have a water spigot across the street to fill our water bladder tank when we need to resupply our trailer.  We are very content and thankful to be here for a month :)

A few trips were made to Canyonlands NP...you can see why!

As you can see, less atmospheric pressure can surprise you :)

Mother Nature can shape and paint these rocks in the most beautiful ways!

And now to continue the longest post I've ever made, I'll show you the 15 preceding places we visited to get to this point in time :)

Our previous stop was at KOA Holiday in Grand Junction, CO, for 2 nights (9-10 June) for a little more work on our trailer axles.

From 5 to 8 June we stayed at one of our favorites...Sky Ute Casino RV park outside Ignacio, CO.

We visited a local restaurant in Ignacio and Wendy insisted we take this picture :)

Wen was pretty lucky this time around playing 3 card poker...yay!

We stayed, for the night of 4 June, at Ponderosa Campground at the Cimmaron Canyon near Eagle nest, NM.  We had to part ways with Kathy and Chick as they headed back to Texas and we were bound for Colorado and unknown points beyond.

We do encounter tight spaces, on occasion, at some gas stations :)

The first 3 days of June had us at Big Arsenic Spring CG in BLM territory outside of Questa, N.M.

Not a very clear picture as we didn't have much time to hang around and focus!

This was a very peaceful campground and very relaxing.  We enjoyed our time here.

Wendy and I took advantage of the chance to hike to the bottom of this gorge.  Of course it started raining when we got to the bottom.

28-31 May...next destination was Rio Brave CG which is BLM land near Pilar, NM.  We took a day trip to Taos and did a little hiking with Chick.

We saw some nice sunsets here.

This fella and his family took our site as we moved on :)

We took a day trip to Taos, NM.  Inhabited for 1000 years continuously, it was very interesting as presented by the tour guide.  A link below will take you to Wikipedia's description.

A nearby restaurant had these homemade windchimes out back...pretty cool!  

A last day hike to another campground close to Rio Bravo CG.

We left for our next destination, Acoma NM

Here we are Sky City Casino RV Park on 26-27 May.  Clothes washing day :)

We left for BLM territory and stopped at a couple of interesting sites and for lunch. 

Wendy, it says "windy"  :)

I think they're talking about ME!

20-25 May at Datil Well CG (BLM) in New Mexico

We had a very relaxing stay at this campground.  We did a little metal detecting also and came away 22 cents richer :)

First responders from the US and other countries left these patches that adorn the walls of this restaurant in Datil.

Small world...North Charleston, SC!!!  (our old stomping ground)

Pastries and pies are well renowned around here and we had to purchase some to see what the fuss was all about.  Their reputation is justified!

We wore Chick out on a day trip to Butterfield Park, NM

We spent 2 nights (18-19 May) here at Hacienda RV Resort in Las Cruces, NM.  This is where we connected with Kathy and Chick while they were there for an Ukulele rally.  We then spent the next 3 weeks with them on our most excellent New Mexico adventure :)

17 May....we stayed 1 night at Desert Lakes Golf Club, an Harvest Host in Alamogordo, NM.  The course was crowded so we practiced up on our putting.

Our view for breakfast :)

On to Bottomless Lakes State Park outside Roswell, NM.  One night stay on 16 May.

Quite spectacular...

This guy's body is about the size of my thumbnail!

This path doesn't look like much but I'm including it to remind me of a significant spiritual journey I experienced :)

Brantley Lake SP, Carswell NM, 14-15 May

Not much reward for 3 hours of detecting :)

13 May Reagan City Park, Big Lake, TX.

Chick and Kathy's home in Ingram, TX.  5-12 May

We visited the Rives family cemetery.

Chick gave me quite an education on oil fields!

Bluebonnet Rally 29 Apr - 4 May, Kerrville, TX

We hope to attend next year :)

We are still in Manti-La Sal National Forest and will be here until 9 July :)