Blog update starting Aug 1 2010

To the blog,

I have also posted pictures here with descriptive captions.
Here is another picture link with descriptive captions
Please view these as they will help understand just where we have been.

I have used links to some of these locations because I do not have the time and the talent to properly describe them.


Aug the 1st found us in Bennett Springs state park, a Missouri state park located about 20 miles north of Lebanon MO built by the CCC during the 1930's. Along with us was our friends Paul and Jean McClure from Lake Livingstone, TX and Jim and Fonda Hatfield from Shongaloo, LA. We had a nice site with services and a private front yard. We were planning to spend 5 days at the park. In the evening hours we would attend the 42nd annual Brumley Sings at the convention center in nearby Lebanon.
Bennett Springs is a popular fishing lake that has a fish hatchery and is fed by one of the many springs in MO. Many folks come from all around the US for the Fly Fishing school held on the river.

Aug 9th we stayed at the Lake Michigan State park at Zion, just north of the Great Lakes Naval Base. We spent a few minutes at the navel base visitor center. At this point we were traveling north on the west side of Lake Michigan through Chicago, Il Milwaukee Sheboygan, and then toward Green Bay Wi. Our target was the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the home of the YOOPERS'. There we would spend about a week. Our overnight stops were Green Bay, Carney Lake State Forrest near Iron Moutain, Marquett, and then the National Forrest Bay Furnace campground for 6 nights. We met up with friends and visited historic Christmas, MI, and Munising. We really enjoyed our 6 days around this area. We met several folks in the Bay Furnace campground that became our special friends. These were folks that know the area well and gave some of the secrets of the area. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is full of scenic waterfalls, museums, and things to do. The town of Iron Mountain was the home of a Ford Motor assy plant that converted during WWII to building the CG4A cargo glider, one of the only remaining ones is at the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock. We spent the morning touring the Iron Mountain attraction. We went down into the mine shaft for a close inspections. I spent the afternoon at the Cornish Pump Museum, featuring the largest Cornish pump in the US and many other exhibits. We also took a trip south on park road 13 to the historical town of Fayette, MI. Fayette was founded in 1867 by the Jackson Iron Company. It was once a busy industrial town that produced pig iron from raw iron ore. It is now a Michigan Historic site.

We had the pleasure of meeting Peter Bensing and his friend Melody. Peter has worked at the local hardware store for 40 years and has a talent for great outdoor nature photography. He also has connections all over this area, therefore he can go anywhere to take these pictures. He gets up early and works late for some of the special shots. I will place, with permission, some of his pictures on our Picasaweb site at a later date. We met Ron from Tennessee. He fell in love with the UPPER early in life and still comes back each summer to spend time in his playground. We met Kathy and Mike from Florida who grew up in the Detroit area, buts come back to the UPPER to fill up on the magic found in this area. Mike and Kathy picked a lot of wild blueberries around the area and made a blueberry pie. In addition to the blueberry pie they made an apple/rhubarb and an apple then invited us to their site for pie and ice cream. The pie night was enjoyed by all. We met Tom who retired early from working at a Chicago Power Provider and has since found life on the road very satisfying. Tom has an mailing address at the Escapees in Livingstone TX, but winters in Mexico and travels the UPPER during the summer.

Munising is a interesting port town on Lake Superior that served as a iron and coal port during during the early 1900's. We spent time there visiting the local sights and points of interest. Great Lakes shipping was important then, as it now.

From the Munising area we traveled to Andrus Lake State Forrest where we met up with Mike and Kathy again. She had saved a great camp site for us on the Andrus lake. The next day we attended the annual Wild Blueberry Festival in Paradise, MI. We traveled to Whitefish point to the Shipwreck Wreck Museum and spent most of the day there. Then off to the blueberry patches for more berry picking, what a day.

That is all for this update...
The next update starts at Sault Ste Marie, Michigan... (Sue St. Marie) The location of the Soo Locks...

new blog updates for friends and family from John and Barbara Harris

To the Blog. update from April to July 30th 2010

I have a lot of catching up on past vacation days. So lets get started.

My last blog update was from the Casita Rally held Bandera Texas

I have posted pictures with descriptive captions here

After the the Bluebonnet rally we moved to Canyon Lake Corp of Engineer campground called Potters Creek. It is a campground where can use our Golden Age pass, therefore $8.00 per night was a good deal. It was a convenient stopping point on our way to Houston where our friend Jack Reed was going for his annual eye checkup on the 4th of May. We used Potters Creek for a base camp for visits to several towns around the area. We stayed here until Friday the 30th.
We had reservations at Stephen F Austin state park on Sunday the 2nd of May.
After leaving Stephen F Austin we headed to the Dallas area to visit Keith and Beverly Sims in Grandview and then to Jay's house in Dallas. We had a great time with Keith and Beverly.



June 16th 2010
Next we decided to beat the heat and head to Red River NM. We stayed at our favorite campground, Columbine. We had good weather and a very nice site within 10' of the river. Brad and Bev joined us on the 19th, spent the night and left Sunday evening. Jean and Tony Boeckman from Medford OK came by on their way to Santa Fe and camped across the road. They followed us to Brad and Bev's house in Santa fe. We had a delightful 3 days visit with them all. We left for Lubbock on Monday the 28th.

Now fast forward to July 30th 2010
We packed up the trailer and head out for the north east and south east Canada. Our first night is a 450 mile trip to Hugo Lake COE in southeastern Oklahoma. We are headed to Queen Wilhelmina State Park near Mina Arkansas. We were camped in QWSP on monday when we noticed some friends that we know from near Livingston, TX walking up to our camper. They saw our rig and came by to say hello. Just a by chance meeting. They were in route to Bennett Springs State Park in Missouri to attend a gospel music event called Brummley Sings in Lebanon. We left Lubbock in triple digit temperature and all the way through Arkansas we drove in record breaking temps.

I think I will end this update and start the next on August 1st... More to follow

John n Barbara on the road

Our Texas Hill country rally and adventure

For more updated pictures click here

Hi to all,

We left Lubbock on the 8th of April heading to Bandera, Tx in the middle of Texas Hill country. Stopped by Chuck and Susan Lewis's new home in San Angelo very near the State park there. We spent several hours with them talking about old times. Chuck and I worked together for 30 years.
We spent the next 4 days at South Llano State Park south of Junction, Tx. This is a very nice park for hiking and birding.
Next we went to Garner State Park near Uvalde and spent 3 night there. This a old CCC park built in the 1930s. This park feature over 500 sites an has been a generational rec spot for many. The Frio river flows through it.
From there we went to Lost Maples State natural area. Features a big grove of Big Tooth maple trees and a lost of scenic hiking trails. While we were there, it rained very hard and closed all the roads outside the park. Mostly the low water crossing but the road to Bandera was closed by a rock slide. We left on Sunday for the 45 minute scenic drive on highway 337 to our annual rally at Bandera. Our 7 days went quickly at the rally. We renewed friendships and met new people as well. We also visited our neighbor from Lubbock Donna who now lives in Kerrville.
At the present time we are camped at Potter Creek Corp of Engineers Campground on Canyon Lake about 45 minutes due north of San Antonio. Very nice place so we decided to extend to Sunday the 2nd of March. We then head to Stephen F Austin State park.
Will try to update when I have time.

John and Barbara on the road again

Caught in Homer Alaska by the Google Camera and other

To our blog following friends,

Some of you may remember a picture of the Google camera car that I took while in Homer Alaska. Barbara and I were walking in downtown Homer and the Google car drove by, so I took a picture of it. We later passed it on another road. I was sure that it was taking pictures, so I checked the street view and I found myself.

Just to do a quick update...
Our last outing was the first of November 2009 at Davis Mountain State park. We had several home projects and then a trip to Dallas for Thanksgiving.

While in Dallas for a few day, I got the opportunity to go for a ride in Scott Carter's new experimental Extra EZ airplane. Very nice and a ~200MPH 4 seat plane. For pictures and descriptions of the plane click here. Some of the first pictures were taken by my son Jay, from a chase plane. Jay took this one for the cover of October 2009 Contact Magazine. His plane won Reserve Grand Champion at the Oshkosh flyin in October 2009. Scott started his Extra EZ in 1997. This was his second home built with his first be a Long EZ that began around 1980.

After that, we were back in Lubbock and back to the home projects. I finished a long standing tile project, did some painting in the utility room and repairs to a backyard deck. I still have several remodel projects but they are not pressing. The end of 2009 has come and gone and we are making plans for 2010. We have plans to spend time on the road again, maybe traveling to the eastern part of the country. Our first trip will be to the annual Bluebonnet Rally in Bandera and then to Dallas for a few days.

I have a hard time with the idea that I have been retired for over 13 months. The time has disappeared very quickly. I just don't know how I ever had time to work a full time job.

I've been upgrading the suspension on the Bigfoot, along with replacing the tires. I figure I had around 28K miles on the Marathons. I also replaced the worn spring shackles with heavy duty ones. I also replaced a broken window glass and a rearview camera.

We look forward to the Bluebonnet rally this year and visiting with friends from all over the country.

John and Barbara from Lubbock

Our Davis Mountain State Park week 1st issue

To the blog

It has been a few days since I updated everyone, so here I am, back to blogging.

Click here to view pictures complete with descriptive captions

Friday Nov  6th  2009
Barbara and I returned from our wonderful Alaskan adventure on October the 11th.  We had already planned this Davis Mountain trip last year while at Davis Mountain with Keith and Linda Turner.  On this trip we are pleased to have Jack and Booty Reed joining us.  Barbara and I are thankful for the friendship of Keith, Lynda, Jack and Booty and for good times shared in campgrounds around the state.  I worked with Jack and Keith at SPS. When all of get together as we are now at Davis Mountain State Park we gather around the campfire in the evening and cook out.  We build a nice big fire and stand or sit close so as to knock the mountain air chill off.  Of course we engage in story telling, table games, and planning other events.
 

Davis Mountain state park is a great place for a visit during November because of the nice weather, cool nights but warming into the 70s during the days.  The park is about 280 miles (5-6 hours) from Lubbock south of  Interstate 10 very near Fort Davis.
The park also has a good variety of wild life.  Each evening we are treated to the parade of deer, wild hogs, foxes, skunks, and many other 4 legged animals that come wandering through the campsites, and a few even stop to visit.  Starting about sunup, hundreds of birds flock to the area to check out the many bird feeders hanging from the trees.
Another feature of this area is the bonus of clear view of the heavens at night.  On most any night one can travel 15 minutes to the McDonald observatory for a "star party" along with looking through some very nice telescopes. 

Sunday Nov 8th
Today started with nice clear morning with a temp of 37 degrees.  We had decided to go up the hill to the Davis Mountain state park Black Bear restaurant next to the historic Indian Lodge for Sunday lunch.  The lodge was built in the 1930s by the CCC and is still operated by the State of Texas.  The lodge has undergone a recent restoration that restored some of the rooms back to the original look along with the CCC crafted furnishings. After a good lunch we did a short hike back to the campsite to watch the Nascar race from the Ft Worth track. After supper we gathered at Keith and Lynda's site for desert and a campfire.  We had a visit from a gray fox and a skunk.  The two got somewhat close and scared each other each leaving in the opposite direction.

Monday Nov 9th
Another beautiful day at Davis Mountains, early morning is cool and crisp, but quickly warming into the mid 70s and clear blue skies.  During a hike to the bird watching building, Barbara and I visited with a fellow traveler that was having a problem returning his slide out to its stowed position.  The Keith Jack and John campsite repair service was able to resolve the problem.  That enabled them to travel on to Big Bend.  The problem turned out to be an electrical  interlock that was not made up.  It was a lazy day around the campground with the girls playing table games.  I worked on a few repair items on our trailer and did a little waxing and cleaning. We did a few more nature hikes around the area during the mid afternoon.  After supper we settled in around a campfire to end the day.

Tuesday Nov 10th
The big news of today is that our hummingbird feeder was knocked from the tree last night and damaged.  Maybe a raccoon, but we are not sure, it could be almost any of the many visitors that come each night.  We will do a day trip to the Fort Davis National Historic site and visit the town.  We spent several hours at the Fort looking at the many exhibits including a film presentation and the many restored buildings. The Fort was open from 1854-1891 and served to protect the interests of the pioneers traveling west between San Antonio and El Paso. 
After that, we went down to the Jeff Davis Court house area and did a walking tour of the town square area.  Some of the old buildings were the Limpia Hotel  and the bank. 
We returned to the campground and had a wonderful pot-luck dinner around the campfire.

John and Barbara along with Keith, Lynda, Jack, and Booty at Davis Mountain State Park




 

Starting our 4th month on the road and homeward bound... then computer failure.

To the blog

Link to the pictures with informative captions

We truly had a wonderful time, and adventure of a lifetime in Alaska, "The Last Frontier".  It's hard to describe, but we felt some of the magic in the land of the "midnight sun" and the "northern lights".  We originally had planned for just the scenic value and the Denali adventure, but we found out quickly that their was much more than that.  We found history, geography, geology, really good restaurants, museums, visitor centers, glaciers, flowers, fish, birds, planes, trains, bears, moose, caribou, reindeer, wolves, but I think that the best were the many people that we met along the way from all parts of the world. Many showed interest in us and we of course, were interested in their stories and lives. Never before have I seen the number of tourist and RVs heading to all parts of a state as I saw in Alaska. They walked, rode bikes, motorcycles, RVs, buses, trains, small boats, ferries, big ships, and airplanes.  We drove for days on the Alaskan Highway, also called the ALCAN because of the construction during WW2.  Each day, around every bend in the road, was another bonus or a WOW.  It was truly a pleasure and an honor to live in a country where we could travel like we did.  Other than fuel we were able to control costs most of the time.  The usual  for a campsite was $15 or less, except the night we were in Prince Rupert, and that was $27 with full hook ups.  Some nights were free and yes, we had unbelievable nice campsites.  The National Park System and the US forest service was usually around $5 to $8 with our half price senior discount. 
We traveled in 10 US states and 3 Canadian Provinces during the last 100 days.  We logged ~12,400 miles on the truck.  The trailer was about 300 less than the truck.  I think that Barbara and I walked about 50 miles on the many trails, just a guess. We felt that on some of the trails we walked the footsteps of some of the Goldrushers of the late 1800s.  We had mostly perfect weather with little rain.  We had very few bugs and almost no mosquitoes. We had no mechanical problems other than a  windshield wiper motor control board and a balky heater in the trailer, both of which I repaired on the road with no expense.  No flats or broken glass.  Not too many wrong turns, but than there are not many roads up there..  And the roads for the most part were just fine if you took it slow. 

You might enjoy these two Youtube links.  We had a short cut on the desktop for easy access to these mp3 files.  We would play them many times before our adventure ended.
Springtime in Alaska Johnny Horton
North to Alaska Johnny Horton

Thanks to all the friends that wrote and followed along on this blog as we traveled those many miles.  Thanks for the many friends we met along the way. I am still getting a few email asking questions about the Texans.

Much has happened since my last posting.  On Tuesday the 6th my trusty laptop booted and then went dark.  It was dead and remained dead for the rest of the trip. We rely on the laptop for mapping, blogging, and it also serves as the display for the rear camera on the travel trailer. I will try to update you. 

We spent 4 days in the Arches national park and the Moab, UT area.  Moab is a tourist city and We traveled US 191 south toward the  Canyonland Needles National park.  The Needles park is about 30 miles west of US191 at the junction of State road 211.  We stayed in the Needles park for 2 nights in the Squaw flat camping area that has 26 sites.  The first night was in a group area because the park was full when we arrived.  The next day we did a self guided tour of the park.  We walked several of the trails and spent some time at the visitor center where we watched a video about the park. We attended a ranger program that was about the different early ranchers that were the pioneers in the area.  One of those persons was a interesting woman named Marie Ogden.  She took over the local newspaper called the San Juan Record and also established a cult following called the Home of Truth.  Many of the buildings are still standing on the road 211 going toward the Needles park entrance. You can read about Marie here.  This area was the also the center of the uranium mining boom of the 1950s. 

On wednesday the 7th  We left Needles and drove back to US191 and south to Monticello and then to southwest on 491 to Cortez.  Purchase propane at Cortez and drove east on US 160 to Mesa Verde National Park. We arrived at Mesa Verde national park  in the southwest corner of Colorado just west of Cortez on US6.  We spent the night of the 7th in the park at Morefield camping area that has 435 sites managed by Aramark. It is located 15 miles into the park. We went to to the Far View visitor center at  and did some of the self guided things.  Barbara and I have been to Mesa Verde back about 1981. We woke up on Thursday with the temp of 29 degrees.  This was to be our last camping of our Alaskan Adventure for our next stop would be in Eldorado, New Mexico at the lovely home of Brad and Beverly Cottingham.  We left Mesa Verde on thursday and drove through Durango and on to Alamosa where we would turn south on US 84 toward Santa Fe.  In the high mountain passes the temp would drop into the 30s and while driving through Chama, NM we got into a blinding snow and ice storm.  That didn't last long and the weather on to Santa fe was good. we arrived at Brad's about 5:PM. 

Oct 8th 9th and 10th
We camped out at Brad and Bev's in their driveway.  Only the second time we had been hooked up to electricity since July 1.  We visited and caught up on a lot of things.  Barbara and Beverly cooked some nice meals in the big fully equipped kitchen.  Remember, we have not been in a real kitchen since the end of June.  I helped Brad move his satellite dish up on the roof.  It was a 15 minute job, but it took us about 3 hours.  We drove 10 miles to Lamy, NM and ate lunch at the Lamy Station Cafe. It is also featured in this youtube video.  Enjoyed it very much. After lunch, some of the local historians gave us a personal tour of the Rail and Hotel museum.  Lamy is a historic town that was the rail center of Santa Fe and is the rail stop for Amtrack service.  The location is a few mile east of US 285 on highway 33.

Oct 11th
The long 300 miles home after 110 days on the road.  We had a uneventful drive back to back to Lubbock and some realities.  Monday was a holiday, then on tuesday a trip to the post office for over 3 months of mail. 

John and Barbara back in Lubbock

our stay at Mount Rainier National Park Sept 27th and 28th and on toward Arches/Canyonland National Park

To the Blog,

Link to the pictures and descriptive captions.

We left Olymic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula and drove toward Mount Rainier.  Olympic is just about as far north and west in the continous US as you can go.  Very enjoyable time in the rain forests and along the Pacific costal beaches. 

Again we find excitement as we come back to Mount Rainier National Park after being here with our son, Jay, 26 years ago.  This is an old park (around 1923 for  with the campground we are in) and it a few places it may look a little worn out.  We enjoyed two nights in the park and hiked some of the interesting in park trails. The best one was the Grove of the Patriarchs.  It is about two miles into a grove of old growth Doug Fir, Western red cedars, and Western Hemlock.  Some of the trees are 300' feet tall and 1000 years. 
When we drove into Rainier campground, a fellow traveler greeted us with a "Hey Texsan". He and his wife were camped in the site across the road.  They are  from Midlothain, TX.  He had lost his job do to the economic downturn, so they decided to vacation to the northwest.
The morning of the 28th as, we left Rainier, we were greeted with a snowstorm for a few miles along highway 12.  We are heading to Yakima, WS and beyond.  This takes us along the Yakima valley where all the apples and other tree fruits are grown.  The river is close by and is controlled by irrigation diversion dams used for the crops.  This goes on for a hundred miles.  When we get to Yakima we stop at the visitor center and get a free sample package of apples, pares, peaches, and tomatoes. 
We continued out drive toward Boise, ID and then to Salt Lake City, UT, and to Arches/Canyonland in the southeast corner of UT.

We are now at Arches/Canyon and heading for the Needles campground.