RV information

Sacred Devils Tower

/ Roadtirementvintage / 36 Comments

Remember this from the 1977 “Close Encounters” movie?

Close up shot of the columnar structure. Each “column” is about 8 feet across!

The Devils Tower is a sacred site to Native Americans and is an NPS National
Monument. Located in the Black Hills of northeastern Wyoming, this remarkable geologic butte stands nearly 900 feet tall from it base to the top. The rock is igneous and was formed when the molten lava intruded into layers of sedimentary rocks. Those rocks weathered away, leaving the Devils Tower that we see today.

There is interesting history of both the geology of the tower, as well as the history of human involvement of the site. This was the first National Monument, so designated ten years before the National Park Service was founded. Study the Devils Tower website for details about the park, its history and current covid restrictions.

We visited Devils Tower back in 2015.

The Falls in color

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After sunset the Canadian Falls, sometime called Horseshoe Falls due to its curved shape, become a display in color. Bright lights from the Canadian side of the river provide the spectacular effects.

We had a great time on a trip to Niagara Falls with one of our granddaughters in October 2019. If you ever go to see The Falls, we strongly suggest that you take a Grey Line Tour. They’ll pick you up at your hotel, or in our case our RV park. No problem with waiting lines for the Maid of the Mist or any of the other attractions on the tour. You don’t need to be on a honeymoon to enjoy Niagara Falls.

A whale of a sight

/ Roadtirementvintage / 28 Comments

This life size statue of an Orca killer whale is in the entrance way to the Tulalip Casino off of I-5 north of Seattle.  We have been patrons of the casino several times when we traveled to the Seattle area to visit family.  When we were last there you could park your motorhome for 3 days in the designated RV lot. No services, but a patrolled and safe place to stay.

It seems that there is a brand new, additional casino on the same property. There was a Grand Opening  February 3rd. It is listed as being twice as large as the first casino. We will definitely check it out the next time we travel to the Pacific Northwest.

 

What’s in that rock?

/ Roadtirementvintage / 22 Comments

As we normally do, Sher and I were outside on the stone pad sitting and enjoying the end of the day in an RV park in central Ohio. My undergraduate major was in geology, and I always look at rocks, be it outcrops along side a highway, distant mountain ranges, or in this case, the rocks on which our RV was parked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love finding fossils, and low and behold there on the ground at my feet I spotted some nice fossil crinoid stems in the 2 to 4 inch sized rocks.  OK, you say, what in the heck are crinoids? Reader’s digest version: Crinoids first showed up about 500 million years ago and some 600 species are still around today. The drawing show how one looked living in shallow seas.  The fossils in the rock are pieces of the stalk.

Wild looking critter

/ Roadtirementvintage / 5 Comments

I had just got back from my morning walk and was sitting outside at the table enjoying a cup of coffee when I noticed something on Sher’s bike.


I have never seen a caterpillar quite like this one before. Not sure why it liked the soft plastic handlebar grips on the bike.

We are back on the road again enjoying a few days at this very nice park that is part of the Thousand Trails system. The weather is just delightful today. It was cool this morning and the temps now at mid day are in the low 70s. It is so nice that the heat has finally broken and there is a hint of fall in the air.

Relaxing and enjoying

/ Roadtirementvintage / 15 Comments

We’re at another RV park for a few days. This one is in Ohio between Columbus and Cincinnati. This one is gated, with the code provided so the checkin was contactless.

There are lots of rigs, but few people. Probably real busy on the weekend.


The weather is very nice, great for windows open sleeping and comfortable during the day for walking or riding bikes. We’re still being very cautious and doing the “social distancing” things.

This year has been a wreck. Coronavirus, the economy, protests, fires, hurricanes and of course “Political Stuff “. Sher and I are grateful to be able to get back out on the road. Our spirits are raised and we’re feeling more optimistic about things…

Stay safe friends!

Back to longer stays at RV Parks

/ Roadtirementvintage / 20 Comments

Sher and I have been pretty much staying at home, wanting to avoid that COVID-19 virus. We took a trip a few days ago and walked around in Vincennes, Indiana. We were anxious to get out and on the road again, however, and decided that we’d try out staying in an RV park see if we felt safe being in that environment.

We found what looked like a very nice park not that far from our home base. It was part of the Thousand Trails, a membership program where you pay a yearly fee and are then able to access RV Parks without any further fees.  We felt that by having only 10 nights of stays at these parks, we’d pay for the membership, anything beyond that would be no charge.

The Thousand Trails Indian Lakes Resort in Batesville, Indiana turned out to be a good choice for our first time out for a park. We had reservations, and did have to go into the gate house to get the dash board slip and the gate “key”. I would have preferred a no contact check in, but the lady did not let anyone else in while I was taking care of check in. Yes, she and I both had masks on.

We easily found an open site (sites are first come, first served). Back in on a level gravel drive with a nice shade tree. There was a concrete pad and permanent State Park style grill. The power pole and the water bib were  clear at the back of the site. It took almost all of our electric cable  to plug in, and both our water hoses.  Our T Mobile service was not very strong, but at least we could open email and access a few web pages.

A colorful sunset is a good way to end the day

We found that we felt safe at this park. We could hike around the park, and there were never so many folks that you could not keep the proper social distance. We chatted with some fellow campers, at a distance of 20 feet at least! By bringing all of the supplies we need, there was of course no need to go to any stores. We think we have found a safe way to travel, at least until there is a treatment or cure for the coronavirus. Oh yeah, we’re heading out again next week.

Cautiously getting back to traveling

/ Roadtirementvintage / 26 Comments

I guess we had had enough of the isolation, staying at home, watching the RV sitting in the driveway and general boredom. We decided that we would venture out for a short duration trip to see what the world was like in person. Sher and I knew we could not just take off without preparation. I’m in the age and underlying health issues related group. Neither of us want to get the virus. We wanted little or no physical contact with either things and/or of course people.

Preparing the RV

We had plenty of fresh water, the gray and black water tanks were empty.  We planned our daily menus, and had more than enough food and drink on board, so there was no need to go to a store. And of course we started with a full gas tank. The RV had not been used other than a couple of day trips since we got back from Texas in February (Before COVID seems like years ago…) so we dusted the inside, put up a new shower curtain, and added a new bedspread and loaded supplies.

Roadtirement back on the road

The RV Park

We found an RV Park about 10 miles north of Vincennes, Indiana, our first destination. They accepted Passport America for half price camping. That was good. But how to interact with the office? I did not want to have to go into it. I called and the park owner completely understood my wanting a “no contact” payment. No problem, they had a mail slot at the office, great for depositing our check. The park layout also was great, as there was plenty of room between sites.

Yep, that’s us being COVID tourists

Sightseeing

We were out and about mid week, thus avoiding what might have been large crowds on the weekends. As it turned out, there were very few people around where we walked about. We saw very few people wearing masks, which is now mandatory in Indiana. Social distancing was not really a problem, as there were only a couple of times where we moved away from nearby pedestrians.

In conclusion

We so enjoyed getting back on the road and staying in an RV Park. Sher and I both had a great time seeing the historic sites and monuments in Vincennes and then in French Lick on the second day. We do not yet feel safe going into for example any restaurants , wineries or antique shops. The frustrating part was seeing some places open and not feeling safe going in.  But, we had our own bathroom, food, and our house on wheels made for a very safe  “No Contact” outing. We’ll add some posts about the neat stuff we saw, complete with pictures soon.

Souvenir from a Jellystone Park

/ Roadtirementvintage / 10 Comments

A while back Sher and I met a lot of our family members at an RV campground near Cleveland, Ohio. We stayed at a franchised campground with a Jellystone Park theme. Yes, right from the cartoon series with Yogi Bear, BooBoo, Cindy and the hapless Ranger.  We had a wonderful time as this was a perfect place for family activities.

Souvenir ornament

Souvenir photograph

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “Airstream” style ornament , while Christmas themed, is now permanently hanging from the window over our table in the RV. This souvenir is cute, lights up and reminds us of that fun time we all had at the Jellystone Park RV resort.

Do any of you collect souvenirs from your travel adventures?

Please Remember to  Stay Safe and Stay Healthy 

Home is where you park it… What?

/ Roadtirementvintage / 12 Comments

We received this cute towel as a nice gift this past winter from our Austin family.

“Home is where you park it” is a clever pun, really, referring to those who travel in RV’s. We have been in self isolation for the past eight weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Twice now I’ve started and run both the RV’s engine and the on board generator. Best not to let the rig set idle for too long. The cute thing is that our towel is still correct in what it states: The RV is in the driveway next to our house, our home.

Sher and I are really looking forward to the day when our “Home” will be parked in an RV parking spot that is not the driveway of our home base house.