Going Home From California (8/16 - 9/19)

Today is 9/18/2018 and we will be home tomorrow to face whatever Hurricane Florence dealt us. It has been a stressful week or so because we didn't know for sure which way it would go and getting information has been somewhat difficult. Our thanks to Steve Haggerty for keeping us up to date the night of the Hurricane and the days after and clearing my driveway so I can hopefully get the bus in tomorrow. I'm still amazed that our boat is still there after seeing the pictures of the Sound at it's worst. Tomorrow we find out about 8904 and hopefully by the end of the week we will be able to get to Pennies to find out the extent of damage on the Point.

I think the best way to cover our trip home is to list the itinerary and highlight the places we enjoyed the most. Our stops we at the following places:

Sparks Nevada  -Boogie Nice campground Sparks Marina RV (Hard to find)
Ely Nevada - KOA  Base camp for Great Basin NP
Cedar City UT - Cedar City KOA (Nice people clean campground)
Page Arizona - Wahweap Campground (North of Page, Nice Campground, Nat'l Park Service Run
Sedona, AZ- Rancho Sedona RV
Grants, NM -  KOA   El Morro National Monument
Santa Fe, NM- Trailer Park RV
Angel Fire, NM - Angel Fire RV Resort (Highly recommend)
Alamosa, CO KOA - Great Sands Dunes NP
Limon CO KOA - Boogie OK
Wakeeney KS KOA - Boogie OK
Lawrence, KS KOA - Boogie OK
Springfield, MO KOA - Bass Pro Aquarium and Wildlife Museum (MUST SEE)
Marion, AR KOA - Boogie (Good Pizza)
Nashville, TN Smokey Bear GS - Boogie (Don't like this campground) Recommend KOA Nashville
Sevierville, TN Two Rivers Landing RV Resort (One of our favorites) Rained this time.
Statesville, NC Midway Campground - Boogie (Convenient but not really nice)
Home tomorrow we hope

Our first major stop was Ely, Nevada. We used this town as our base camp for Great Basin NP. We had a nice view of the mountains from this site. The town is the closest "major" town to Great Basin about 60 miles away. We drove the "Loneliest Highway in America" US50 from I80 across the state of Nevada. A beautiful ride and pretty desolate. Next day we headed up to the park. This is a hiking park with interesting beauty and high mountains. The thing about Great Basin is that it is a very large land mass in Eastern Nevada where all of the rain and snow melt from the mountains runs into a lower area and does not run off to either the oceans or larger bodies of water. We drove up a narrow road for about 12 miles, took a short hike in the Alpine forest until the elevation got to both of us. I think we were around 9000 feet which gets to both of us. Beautiful woods and expansive views from the road up the mountain.
We went to church and then to dinner. The restaurants were jammed because there was a horse show or rodeo in the town. Lots of people. We were not real impressed with this NP but we really didn't hike to much. They do have a Grove of Bristlecone Pines near the top of the mountain that we didn't get a chance to see.


When we left Ely we boogied to Cedar City Utah. Small campground, nice people. Next Day we headed Southwest on Rt 14. The road was a little tough we climbed a few thousand feet and had beautiful ride. Great vistas. lava flows. a large lake formed by lava, and a beautiful high meadow. This was one of the best rides on the trip really beautiful. Our ride ended in Lake Powell. Wahweap Campground. This beautiful campground is on Government land and managed by a resort company. We took a wonderful boat ride on the lake the next day, had a great dinner at the resort, and experienced super heavy rains after our boat ride. This is a neat place worth visiting. The views are spectacular.

After two days in Page we headed for Sedona. I've said much on Sedona in the past this visit was interesting. We saw a few nice houses and had a marvelous/expensive dinner at Mariposa Restaurant. Fabulous and worth the bucks. We love Sedona.

8/26 we moved on the Grants NM. This KOA is near a Lava field and close to a lot of things to see. We drove to El Moro National Monument. This is a place in the desert where Native Americans, Spaniards, and Western settlers stopped by this natural waterhole. The interesting thing is that many of these people carved their names, sayings, and even political statements on the walls at the bottom of the monument. Very interesting to see hundreds of years of signatures. We took a three mile hike here and I'm proud to say Eileen made it all the way around even across the large boulders at the top of the mountain. She was scared but made it through. Beautiful place, fun day.

We moved on the Santa Fe. Trailer Ranch RV is a fun place. We kicked around Santa Fe, Shopped, ate nice dinners, Took a bus tour of the town, but most of all we relaxed. A nice stop.

On 9/2 we moved on to Angel Fire NM. I took a chance on this one and scored big. Not an easy place to get to but a beautiful ride, a super nice resort, and a really nice mountain area. We visited Red River nearby, stopped at a Viet Nam Memorial, and hung around with nice folks we met. We will return to this park if we ever get back to this part of NM. Look at the pictures we had a double rainbow the first night there and saw elk in the field on night two. Great place.

From Angel Fire we moved onto Alamosa, CO. This was our base camp for Great Sand Dunes NP. We pulled into the campground and a guy in an identical bus pulled in behind us. Twins. Believe it or not we had a double rainbow in this campground. It was so close to us that I couldn't get it all in the picture. The NP was super interesting. It has the largest sand dunes in the United States. What happens is that the sand is washed down with rain and the snow melt and then the winds blow it back onto the dunes. The dunes are up against the mountains with the prevailing winds coming at the mountains. They say that the dunes aren't growing because there is no more sand being washed out of the mountains. It doesn't have to grow because it's an enormous area. We walked out to the first big dune but didn't try to reach the top. I met a couple from Swansboro NC, believe it or not. They had walked to the top of the visible dunes. When they got to the top all they could see was two more major dunes with no end in site. A very interesting place. Worth the visit. The ride from Alamosa is beautiful as well. Mountains that go up beyond 10,000 feet.

From Alamosa we boogied to Limon, Co, Wakeeney, KS. ,Lawrence, KS. and then to Springfield, MO. We had stopped in Springfield last year and went to Bass Pro but we had to leave the day before they opened up 500,000 square feet of aquarium and wildlife museum. The trip back was totally worth it. Both venues are totally amazing. We have been in many major aquariums over the years. I totally like this one the best. If you get a chance to go there don't miss it. Totally cool.

From Springfield we boogied to Marion, AR, then to Nashville, TN then to Two Rivers Landing in Sevierville, TN This campground is one of our favorites. We waited out the hurricane here, then headed home today. We will leave early tomorrow morning and hopefully have the bus in the driveway by mid afternoon.

We are anxious to get home because of the uncertainty of what awaits us, but as always, I wish we could keep right on going. After we clean up EI of course. The campground we are in tonight was our first campground heading west with Jen and the grandkids. I wish I could have gone exploring with Sofia as I did that first night. My, how life zooms by. Love you all. Keep on traveling.

                Trip Summary:    Campgrounds:  30
                                            Total miles: 7600 bus 1450 Car
                                            States: 14 some more than once on return
                                            National Parks: 7 total 5 with the grandkids
                                            National monuments: 1 El Morro
                                         
Here are the pic of our return trip. Enjoy!!

Loneliest Road in America. US 50 in Central NV heading toward Ely and Great Basin NP!

Heading up to Great Basin NP

The Jeeps GPS!

Bristlecone Pine in Great Basin NP Welcome Center!

I'll give this selfie a B!

Alpine Forest in Great Basin!

The air was thin but delicious!

Turning 20k miles in the bus near Great Basin!

KOA Ely Nevada! Site #2

Great Basin hike at 9500 feet!

From the campsite in Ely!

Some old ones are still on the road!

A C+

This weapon was found in the park leaning up against a tree. It had been there for many years!

View from Great Basin mountain!

Ride on the way to Utah! Lake formed by lava flows a few years back!

This was a beautiful ride.

Lake Powell AZ. Boat ride and a nice dinner.

On the Lake!

Above the Lake!

Damn right!

It's harder this way! Beautiful day on the lake until the rains came!

Lunch after the boat ride. Heavy rains came five minutes after this picture!

Dining room in the evening. Nice waitress who teaches school in Page!

Yes it's that pretty!

On to Sedona!

Nice house. A different dream for us!

Dinner at The Mariposa Grill. Pricey but delish!!

Catching the lightening at Grants NM KOA

It was a fantastic display over the distant mountains!

Trail along the lava flows at Grants KOA!

Look at that sky!

This monument is about 40 miles SW of Grants NM!

Many generations used this natural spring in the desert!

The pool is here all year long even in the desert. Unique place.

Resting before the long hike!

Carving from 1853!

They think this guy might have carved headstones for a living!

These carvings go further back!

We ended up on the top near that little tree!

Lunch break on the hike!

Made it to the top of the mountain!

Fun day. Eileen was glad to be back at the Visitor Center!

A model of ZoZobra! A burning festival that benefits kids in the community. Big deal!

Music at the Farmers Market in Santa Fe!

Lunch at the market. 

Mass at the Cathedral!

Beautiful building.

On the road to Angel Fire northeastern NM!

Our greeting party at Angel Fire Resort!

The lodge. We were just in time for ice cream!

Beautiful site. Beautiful place high in the NM mountains!

View behind the campsite.

Our ride to Red River about 30 miles north of Eagles nest and Angel Fire! Beautiful ride!

Lunch spot!

Found a very nice Viet Nam memorial between Angel fire and Eagles nest. In the middle of nowhere!

The road between Angel Fire and Eagles nest NM. Beautiful valley!

Downtown Red River NM!

Twins! 

We were so close to this rainbow I couldn't get the whole think in my picture! Beautiful!

So close but I still didn't fine any gold.

I stopped the bus to take this picture! Near Alamosa Co. 

Bass Pro Wildlife museum Springfield MO. Non Typical!

Trophy Room! Amazing!

Amazing Place. This was the only area we could take pictures!

Moving on to the aquarium at Bass Pro. This place was amazing!

Does this look real?

I guess that says it all!

Celebrating this beautiful country! I'm going to keep going as long as I can!

We are home and the boat made it. It was a miracle.

See Y'all next trip. If you get the chance head west!