Monday Jan 17 Doswell Virginia

 After a very wet 3 days in NC in the most dull campground we have experienced we got a few inches of rain there and drove up I95 this morning to a little town just North of Richmond. Once we arrived we got the motor home all winterized-for once we get home it will be too cold. We were able to order dinner and we are waiting for it to be delivered- homemade Italian yum. There is a coating of snow here and our neighbor said it was 20 F last night and is from the Deep South and had not seen snow before by the sounds of it. 

We will leave in the morning and we are aiming for the Wilkes-Barre area to a hotel, that will put us close enough to get home on Wednesday we are ready to be home. It has been fun for the most part, we are re evaluating our camper choice once again it’s hard to know everything about a camper without trying it and they all have some little quirk or something you have to live with but this is not the one we want that’s easy to maintain and that’s part of what we are looking for...

Friday Jan 14 Lumberton NC KOA

 Friday afternoon and we just arrived inn southern coastal NC where we will stay the next 3 nights, Monday will be in The Richmond area then Tuesday 1 hotel night somewhere in the NE where all the campgrounds are closed, home on Wednesday after 52 days on the road. It was an amazing gift to be with 3 of the grandchildren and baby Jack for Christmas as well as extra Phoenix time even though I am 99% sure I got covid after being fully vaccinated and boosted it goes to show how powerful the virus can be. When we get home we will do a rapid test before going near anyone and the symptoms are mostly gone.

We have learned allot on this trip so here are some highlights: Not in any order

Products of all sorts are moving across the country 

Trucks dominate the roads in most states

Most people are very friendly

We don’t want to travel cross country again

We will be selling both the Scamp and RV when the spring comes

We still want to travel but not in a camper

We don’t like winter camping

We appreciate our home, friends and family

We appreciate real hugs not FaceTime hugs

Travel takes longer than you think

America’s highways are in bad shape

The country looks tired and worn out except for Arizona where new roads, houses and communities are being built so fast there seems to be little regard for the resources needed.

The sides of the roads in every state ( where we went about 20 states) are covered with trash

Texas and New Mexico have the best state parks, Arizona has awesome county parks 

There’s no place like home...

Thursday Jan 13 Kingsland Georgia

 Jan 13 Thursday Just North of Jacksonville FL. Seven days ago today we left Joshua Tree National Park since then we have crossed 3 time zones and 8 state borders, Arizona,New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Georgia. 7700+ miles so far we have seen allot, some days we don’t take pictures most days we find something interesting, yesterday we marveled at the white sands on the coast Mississippi at Henderson Point, Gulfport and Bay St Louis on Rte 90 that went on for miles and miles with no other people. we really like Mississippi and we didn’t expect to like it. But will probably go back to spend time there in the future.

Across the street are beautiful big McMansions mostly empty this time of year but they are impressive. 

* NOTE 2 days ago John was able to fix our broken skylight enough to get us home. today we drove across the Florida Panhandle on Highway 10 was very woodsy but not much to take pictures of. Tomorrow we head to another KOA in North Carolina...we are carefully watching an upcoming winter storm scheduled for Monday the 17th back at home so we may have to delay out return...more to come

Monday Jan 10, Galveston Island Texas

Last night was at Palmetto State Park in Gonzales Texas a nice park with actual trees! We haven’t seen trees in a while so we were delighted. It’s been windy again and we have decided we are not fans of constant winds, here are some pics...

This morning we headed down the road towards Galveston Island KOA and again the winds are relentless, average 25 mph and we heard a loud noise and our skylight got torn off the roof, the metal hinge broke and it landed on the side of the highway so we turned around and went back and found the cover pretty broken up and time to make lemonade! We went to Walmart and got screws, caulking and duct tape and when the winds die down John will go up on the roof and fix it temporarily until we get home. We will be selling the Navion when  we get home...

Here are some local pictures from Galveston Island

Tomorrow we will be in Louisiana, Wed Florida briefly then we head North

Sunday Jan 9 Fort Stockton Texas

We stayed at City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico again for a night and it was an overflow sight so cool next to a windmill.

City of Rocks NM

 Fort Stockton Texas RV Park located just off I 10 was our home for the night after a long day on the road we didn’t arrive until about 5:00 CT, we had to find DEF first thing in the morning it’s an additive that you have to use in a diesel motor having to do with emissions etc and so in our Navion you get an alarm on the dash when it’s getting low and at that point you can only start your engine 10 more times then we don’t know what happens but it’s not good so we managed to add the DEF ( and bought a jug for next time) fuel up and go to Walmart for supplies. That left the rest of the trip to be pretty uneventful, not really even picture worthy just allot of flatness. But we were greeted with wars sun and breezes and it was 78 a welcome change.

Fort Stockton Texas RV Park

We are headed south and today we are going to Palmetto State Park for the night and tomorrow night will be at Galveston Island KOA, we’ve never been to that part of Texas so why not, we are staying behind some rain and tornado warnings so from here on out the weather may get a little more interesting we are headed straight across to Florida to on I 10 and I 90 then connecting with I 95. On the road again as the song says...

Thursday Jan 6, 2022

Thursday Jan 6, 2022 so the weather has been cold 30s-40s most nights the heat gets used. On Sunday we left our 2 week campsite and headed south to Quartzite to meet up with some boon docking friends from Ma, we camped a night on BLM government land and free camping. We were greeted warmly and we had arrived finally off the grid😀! Here are some pictures of the area it’s literally just gravel, stones,sand and some cacti and a whole lot of boon dockers, we have met a few people wha have sold their houses to boon dock full time year round and we just don’t share the allure? it’s been cold all but 2 nights but hey to each his/ her own we just don’t get it and it’s safe to say we won’t be doing that!!! 

Plamosa Road Quartzite Arizona

The town of Quartzite grows from 3000 year round die hards to about 70,000 during the month of January and there are several rallies held RVshow, rock and mineral show, ham radio rally “ Quartzfest” fiberglass camper rally, Winnebago rally, you name it it happens here in winter and the Wild Wild West atmosphere attracts allot of rv-ers from all over the country the energy is high.

We are just back to Arizona today from California, Joshua Tree National Park. The first 2 nights were good the site was great but out parking space was so narrow we could not put out the slide- a luxury problem to be sure.  This side of the park is totally different then the other side, this park is over 792,510 acres! It’s where the 2 deserts meet the Colorado and the Mojave. It’s hard to even fathom the vastness while here looking at it never mind the pictures. We finally got to see the Joshua Trees in the upper part of the park( day 3) and just as special as the Saguaros are to Arizona the Joshua Trees are to California. Here are some pictures of the campsites.

There must be a story here

Campsite 7 Joshua Tree 

Breakfast anyone?

Snack for later

This concludes the slideshow but not the trip long story short we are headed back East due to family here in Arizona having covid one grand daughter, her baby son and her boy friend all tested positive in the last few days as did one of our friends from The boon docking community. Both John and I have been having symptoms of fatigue, low grade fevers, head cold, chills and body aches, we tested negative yesterdayJan 5 and are experiencing low or no home test kits available and testing sites are very limited on appointments and also our daughter and grand daughter in NH have been having health issues as well so it’s time for us to make our way home. Please keep us all in your prayers and send good energy our way, it can always be worse and we will be ok but may be slowed up with winter weather or sickness and have to take a little more time getting home. I will keep updating the rest of our trip. Our cell phones are always on so send a text or call if you wish. 🌵❤️🙏🏻