March 29, 2017

“Places We Have Been and Where You Should Go Too”

 As most of you know I am a really like visiting places that have had a large impact on American history.  One time in our history that I like to study is the American Civil War and specifically the battles that took place during that time.  No other battlefield is more iconic than the one that took place at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

 Joyce and I toured the Gettysburg National Battlefield in September 2012 while on our way to Boston, Massachusetts.  On recommendations form friends we hired a tour guide who went along with us in our truck and will drive your vehicle if you like.  Joyce and I highly recommend you hire a guide as well.  Our guide Erick brought the three days of July 1, 2 and 3, 1863 to life with his extensive knowledge of the battle.

 Some of the highlights of the tour were:
 The area where the battle first started on the morning of July 1st.  Erick outlined where the Northern and Southern Army's were located and how they were used on that first morning.  He also told us that all the battle monuments in the Battlefield are places so that the fronts face the enemy.
- The Eternal Peace Memorial.  This is the only memorial in the park that is dedicated to peace.
- The North Carolina Memorial.  From this area General Robert E. Lee ordered the attack on July 3rd against the Union forces commanded by Army of the Potomac  General George Meade and which became known as Pickett's Charge.
- The Virginia Memorial.  Here you will find the famous statue of Gen. Lee mounted on this favorite horse, Traveller.  A mile straight across the battlefield and inline with Gen. Lee stands the statue of Gen. Meade.
- After driving through The Peach Orchard and The Wheatfield, we made our way up the hill passing Big Round Top to Little Round Top.  This is where Union Brigadier General Gouverneur Warren, Meade's chief engineer alerted Union officers to the Confederate threat and brought Federal reinforcements to defend this position.
- The Pennsylvania Memorial.
- High Water Mark.  From here Meade's army defended against Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863.  This was the climatic moment of the battle.  On July 4th, Lee's army began retreating.

You really need more than one day to see all the area has to offer.  In fact, I wish we had planned to stay for at least a week.

While in the Gettysburg area you will also want to visit:
    -  Battlefield Museum and experienced the Gettysburg Cyclorama.
    -  The Soldiers National Cemetery.
    -  General and President Dwight David and Mamie Doud Eisenhower's home.

 Joyce and I stayed at the Artillery Ridge Camping Resort that was very nice.  Using our Passport America discount the rate was under $30 a day, very reasonable for the area.


March 21, 2017

 The weather here in the Central Valley has been going crazy today.  In all my time living and visiting this area of California today is the first time that I can remember seeing tornado warnings posted.

March 26, 2017

 We had a really nice visit with my mother and two of my brothers.  We didn’t do too much, just relaxed and enjoyed being together.  We did go out to dinner a couple of times, one place being Me-N-Ed’s Pizzeria.  The first pizza I ever ate was at one of the original locations on Blackstone Ave. in Fresno back in 1958.  That’s been a while ago folks.

 Yesterday we hooked up and headed up Hwy 99 to the Lodi Elks Lodge that is actually located just north of Lodi in Woodbridge, CA.  They have 11 RV parking sites with 30/50 amp electric and water hookups.  After getting setup we walked over to the lodge and had a couple of adult beverages.  For you traveling Elks, this lodge takes reservations.

 On the way up we stopped at a Valero truck stop near Chowchilla to top-off of our fuel tank.  The $2.70 a gallon that we paid wasn’t too bad considering we are in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia where everything is cost more.

March 27, 2017

 We left Lodi about 9:30, jumped on Hwy 12 headed to the Calistoga RV Park in Calistoga in the Napa Valley.  Every time we get on that highway I swear it will the last time but, we did it again anyway.  This is one of the roughest and hard to drive highways in the state and it just gets worse every year. But, the alternative after leaving Lodi is to go up through Sacramento which adds a bunch of time.  OK, one more time.  I am never going up Hwy 12 again!

 I mentioned in an earlier post that I had discovered a new part of my family a while back that I didn’t know existed.  My GGG Grandfather, William Enoch York Senior was born in the territory that became Alabama back in 1790 and died at Ider, DeKalb County, Alabama in 1883.  One of his sons and my GGG Grand Uncle John, was born in Grainger County, Tennessee on 15 June 1820.  In April 1845 John left Dade County, Missouri, with the Captain John Grigsby’s company bound for California in a wagon train.  He arrived in what was to become the Napa Valley later in the year.

 As many of y’all know Joyce grew up in Saint Helena, California and low and behold, John and many of his descendants are buried in the Saint Helena Public Cemetery.  The cemetery association has mapped the cemetery and posted a list of those buried there, including their grave locations with the date of burial.  So this morning armed with my camera, computer and lists that I downloaded, I headed over there to do some exploring.

 It didn’t take me long to find the grave of John, his wife Lucinda Hudson and several of his children along with other descendants.  I took a lot of pictures of gravestones that I will be posting on FindAGrave.com soon.  Read more about John here:  https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5698851  In that article about John and his wife on the page, the writer talks about the Bear Flag War (Revolt).  Read about that here: http://www.history.com/topics/bear-flag-revolt.  Here is more about the California State Flag:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_California

Had to throw a picture of Travis.  Growing like a weed.

That’s probably enough for now.

Barry & Joyce

March 20, 2017

March 15, 2017

 On Monday morning we hooked up our towd and left the Elks Lodge about 9:30 AM.  Despite the heavy traffic on I-10 we made pretty good time.  After stopping for some $2.49 diesel fuel we headed to toward Golden Valley, AZ west of Kingman.  The drive up was mostly uneventful with light traffic.

 We arrived at the Tradewinds RV Park about 1:30 and then called our friends Keith and Joann Taylor who came out to the park to lead us to their house out in the desert.  When I say it’s out in the desert I mean just that.  Most of the drive was on gravel/dirt roads with a lot of dust to go with it.

 Keith & Joann have a nice home that is completely off the grid.  Ninety-nine percent of their power comes from four large solar panels they have installed that are coupled to huge battery banks and all of their water is from a well.  They use a generator only to run the well pump to fill up the 1000 gallon water tank and if he has to do any welding.  They fixed us a delicious chicken dinner and since we haven’t seen them in about four years we then we did some catching up on our travels.

 On Tuesday Keith and Joann fixed us breakfast and then we drove over the mountains to the old mining town of Oatman.  This little town is known for the wild burros that roam around town begging for something to eat and generally hang around for pictures.

 Their Solar System

They do have some beautiful views.

 The town was named to honor Olive Oatman, a young girl from Illinois who was taken captive by Indians and forced into slavery.  Founded shortly after a gold find was made near there in 1915, the town grew to over 3,500 in just one year.

On Old Route 66 to Oatman

Oatman, AZ.

Chow Time

Now it's siesta time.

Come on Keith.  Give the little guy some.

 After spending time walking around we then drove up to Laughlin, NV.  Our first stop was at the Riverside Resort where Keith and I toured the Don Laughlin Classic Car Museum while the girls played for a little while.  The cars in the collection are amazing,

I love old cars.

Here ya go Jeff Bright!

This one's for you Jim Glaspey.

 We then went to Harrah’s where we had dinner at the buffet.  And yes, we all ate way too much.

March 16, 2017

 Yesterday morning we left Golden Valley and made our way to the Elks Lodge in Needles, CA.  The Lodge is small but they do have six full-hookup RV sites.

 Joyce decided to drive up to Laughlin, NV. to make her donation to the state’s welfare fund.  Me?  I just hung around the house for a while then checked the lounge.

 This morning we headed on down the road toward the Sierra Trails RV Park in Mojave, CA.  This is another Passport America affiliated park that we have stayed in the past.  We got a pull-through site with 30 amp electrical and water for $20.  Nothing fancy here but it works for us.

March 17, 2017

 Yesterday evening we drove into California City to have dinner at the Green Tea Garden.  One of the best Chinese meals we have had in a long time.
Mary 18, 2017

 We left Mojave around 10 AM and headed toward the Elks Lodge in Fresno.  Since we hadn’t dumped our holding tanks in a couple of days we stopped at the Flying J just north of Bakersfield to take care of that task.  We had a little hassle over the cost for using their dump station but we finally got it done.  We then had a late breakfast at the Denny’s there.

 The Elks here takes reservations and we’re glad they do.  When we arrived our site was the last one available.  Unlike the Tempe Elks, the Fresno Elks Lodge is not a very active.  Their lounge is only open when the have meetings and rare dinners.  But, they do have ten RV spots with water and 30 amp electrical service for $20 a night.  Very reasonable for Fresno.

Lodge RV Parking

That’s all folks.

Barry & Joyce

March 15, 2016

March 5, 2016

 Got up early this morning anticipating our drive over toward Tucson, AZ.  When I checked the weather out that way the forecast was for winds 20-30 MPH and gusts as high as 45-50 MPH with blowing dust.  Well, that ain’t so good.  So we’re going to hang out here at Fort Bliss for at least one more day.

March 7, 2017

 We had some high winds all of Monday night and when I got up it was still blowing hard with some very high gusts.  When I looked at the wether for places along I-10 in New Mexico and into Arizona the winds didn’t look too much better.  We then made the decision to stay here one more night.

 I’m sure most of you know that Joyce has been doing a lot of walking along with a lot of her friends.  The first thing she does every morning is get her phone fired up and look to see how much her friends have walked.  Her goal is to get at least 10,000 steps everyday and so far she has done darned good at it.

 So yesterday since the winds were blowing quite hard she wanted to go up to a mall north of here so that she could walk without being blown halfway to Mexico.  Heck, I even got in a few steps myself but mostly I sat on a time-out bench watching the world go by.

 After hanging in that mall for awhile we then drove up to the outlet mall where she could do some more walking.  On the way into there I saw a Discount Tire store so while Joyce walked, i.e. shopping, I had the tires on the car rotated.  We bought those tires in Georgia last year and there is already significant wear on them.  But not only do we drive the car a lot, it is also towed behind our motorhome as well.  I’m going to do some calculating today just to see how many miles are actually on the tires.

 It looks like mother nature is going to give us a break today so we’re going to head out of El Paso today.

March 8, 2017

 Finally got out of El Paso yesterday morning about 9:30, jumped on TX 54 north and then took the TX 375 Loop out to I-20.  This route bypasses all of the construction and crazy drivers on I-10 in the city.  After getting on I-10 it was pretty much clear sailing.

 While traveling we were passed by a brand new Newmar King Air and a beautiful Marathon coach.  On the back of the that one there was a logo with the name Petty painted in the middle.  We speculated where they were going and if the belonged to Richard Petty Motorsports.  Joyce checked the internet to see if there is a NASCAR race coming up in Las Vegas this coming weekend and sure enough there is one.

 Later on we pulled into a parking area to take a potty break and those two rigs were there.  Of course you know I had to get out and check these guys out.  Yep, they work for Richard petty Motorsports and were ferrying the coaches from Atlanta to Las Vegas.  i mentioned to one of the guys that we’ve been by the factory where Marathon’s are built in Coburg, OR and he said, “Y’all should stop in and get you one”.  Yeah right.  The really funny thing was the other guy was on the phone with the home base for Petty telling them that two windows on the Newmar had shattered while driving down the road.  Yep, even one of the most expensive RV’s in the country will have problems.

 We had planned to spend the night in Bowie, AZ but when we found out that we’d have to drive 25 miles to Willcox to do any shopping or for restaurants we decided to head there instead.  The Elks Lodge has 26 RV sites and we were pretty sure we could snag one since it was very early in the afternoon.  The lodge doesn’t open until 4 PM so we couldn’t call but what the heck, we’ll give it a shot.

 Well, that didn’t work out so good.  Not only we’re all of the parking sites full there were several folks dry camping as well and with not much room for anymore rigs.  So we called the Fort Willcox RV Park who had spaces available and with our Passport America rate it is only $23 with tax for a great 50 amp full hookup site.

 We made a run to the local Safeway to get some provisions and then had some great Mexican food at La Unica Tortilleria y Tacqueria in downtown.  Excellent food and great service.

 So……we have got the Jello bowl out and stirred it up a tad.  We have decided to not visit Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, Las Vegas and Pahrump, NV on this trip.  Our good friends Ed and Cindy Kopic have purchased an RV lot in Florence, AZ so we’re going to to head over that way to see them and check out the area.  Then we’ll go on up to Tempe to visit my brother Mark and his wife.

 Our good friends Keith and Joann Taylor have invited us up to their place in Golden Valley, AZ.  We have been promising them for a long time that we’d get up there someday for a visit so that someday has arrived.

 Mark and Ronna are going to Fresno to visit Mom on the 17th so we thought it would be nice for us to be there as well.  So I called the Elks in Fresno and they said we could come in a few days earlier than we had planned.

March 10, 2017

 We left Willcox around 10 AM and after a quick stop at the Wally-World in Benson we arrived at the Rancho Sonora Inn and RV Park near Florence, AZ. around 2:30 PM.  Instead of running all the way up to near Casa Grande and then taking AZ 387 over to Florence and the south on AZ 79 to the park, we decided to take the scenic route.  Well, that didn’t work out so good.

 After getting off in Tucson we got on AZ 77 and for miles it was stop and go with a lot of stop lights and more traffic than we like to deal with.  That all smoothed out when we got to AZ 79 but   you can be sure we won’t do that one again.

 On the way up we ran into a huge swarm of bees that peppered the front of our rig.  So after getting set up in our site we had to clean off the front which took a while.  After taking care of that chore we drove just down the road to visit our good friends Ed and Cindy Kopic who we worked with Sunflower RV Resort in Surprise, AZ. a couple of years ago.

 Ed and Cindy have bought a RV pad in the Desert Gardens RV Park that they are in the process of improving to make it their own and plan on putting a park model house on the site someday in the future.  The sites in this park are huge and there are a lot of amenities for their use.

 Ed had smoked ribs in his new Traeger Grill that were delicious.  We spent the evening just sitting around talking and enjoying each other’s company.  Joyce and Cindy did go for a soak in the park’s hot tub.

 Yesterday we went back over to Ed and Cindy’s then drove into Coolidge for lunch.  Next on the agenda was to go to the Coolidge-Florence Elks Lodge so that Ed could have his initial interview to join the lodge.  For a really small lodge they have a lot of activities and serve dinners three nights a week.

 After making a stop at Wally-Mart we went back to their park and grilled some steaks.

 Today Joyce and I are heading up to the Tempe Elks Lodge to spend some time with my brother Mark and his wife Ronna.

March 14, 2017

 Before we left Florence I called the Elks Lodge in Tempe to make sure there were some sites available and was told they had several open.  That was good news so we packed up and left Florence about 9:30.

 When we arrived at the lodge at 11AM we got the last site available.  This is a very active lodge and the RV parking is full most of the time during this time of year.  The lodge offers 26 full-hookup back in sites that are all very well maintained for $25 a night and in this area of Arizona that is really cheap.

 Mark and Ronna came over after they got off work and we spent sometime visiting then had some supper in the lodge’s dinning room.

 On Saturday we drove out to Mark and Ronna’s home in Laveen and after we got some laundry started we drove around looking at model homes in the area.  Laveen is fast growing area south east of Phoenix near Goodyear and most of the builders are catering to the first-time home buyers.

 When we got up and moving on Sunday Joyce noticed a crack in the passenger windshield.  We have no idea what caused it but it’s something we will need to have fixed while we are in Oregon.

 The lodge was having their annual chili cook off so Mark and Ronna came over for that.  We tasted some outstanding chili and I even talked one gentleman to let me take some of his green chili home.  That stuff was the best I have ever eaten.

Abby & Skyler

 That’s enough for now.

Barry & Joyce