Serendipity

Traveling across the country, we seldom really know what we will get into when we choose an RV park in a new location.  We use RVParkReviews.com and Trailer Life to help us choose, but we still wonder what we will be getting into.  The last couple of campgrounds before this one were OK but not good or great.  At one park, the site wasn't level, the wifi non-existent and the office area a real pig sty.  The  next park family destination with children everywhere and lots of seasonal campers with golf carts who drove up and down the dusty road in front of our site all afternoon and evening.

So yesterday when we checked into the Sauder Village Campground in Archbold, Ohio, we were delighted to find large, grassy sites, good hookups, peace and quiet and a living history farm on the grounds. What a serendipity!

This is the candy counter in the Country Store.  We were glad we didn't have our grandchildren along.  We would have had to buy candy--and I, at least, would have helped them eat it.

The garden has a creative trellis in the vegetable garden.

This is a very old building.  I imagine it was moved to the living history village from somewhere else.  Click on the photo to enlarge it and see how old it is.

The nearby fields are used to grow corn and the birds who built this nest used dried corn husks in their construction.

We checked in to the campground in the lobby of the Sauder Heritage Inn.  This beautiful light fixture hangs from the high ceiling.

Everyone, it seems, has a cell phone today.  However, there are Amish and Mennonite settlements nearby.  Perhaps those folks don't use cell phones.  We used to see phones like this in campgrounds when we first started RVing.  Instructions say use for local calls or use your calling card.

When we drove into Archbold to mail some letters and get fuel for the truck, we walked around the pretty town. I especially like this attractive, well-painted house.

State Park Camping

We love staying in Colorado State Parks. Many of them have 50-amp, full-hookup sites and your neighbor is a long way away. There are two very nice parks on the south side of Denver, Chatfield and Cherry Creek, and we have stayed in them each year since we started full-time travel in 2009. In the past, we usually came to Colorado in September. To get our favorite sites, we had to make our reservations in March. This year, our plans called for a visit in June. On the last weekend of January, I went online to make our reservations. Would you believe our favorites sites weren't available and at Chatfield we couldn't even stay in our favorite loop for 10 days straight? We had to settle for an electric-only site over the first weekend we were there.

Obviously, these parks are so popular in the summer, that every weekend is reserved months in advance--you can reserve sites 6 months in advance.

We like state parks because of the large sites, because there are lots of paths for walking and biking and there is lots of grass and flowers around. Even deer and other wildlife. Often, there is a lake or stream. Great!

Some people think Colorado State Parks are too expensive. A full-hookup site in either of the parks here near Denver costs $26 a night. Daily park admission is an additional $9. Since we are Colorado residents, we purchased an Aspen Leaf Pass for people age 64 and older. It covers our daily pass and it saved us at least $200 for the 24 nights we were in state parks. It also gives us $3 off each night in the campground, Sunday through Thursday.

For non-residents, our campsites would have cost $35 a night, including the daily pass. Expensive, but nothing compared to the $64 a night we are paying at the commerical park Dakota Ridge in Golden. The park is neat and clean and we have green grass out front. Unfortunately, they are side-by-side sites and we share the grass with another RV. We needed a reservation in the area for the 4th of July and couldn't get anything in a state park, so we settled for this. As anyone who lives in an RV or travels extensively knows, Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day weekends require advance reservations.

Today, we drove on I-70 away from the mountains. The traffic going west into the mountains was three lanes of slow moving cars. Every motel, camp site and probably even boon-docking site must be taken for the weekend. We're glad we have a place.

These are the trials and tribulations of RVing. Isn't it awful? We could have stayed in our house and always had some place to stay. I think even $64 is better than that, at least for us.

Great RV Sites

With views like this, who wouldn't like this spot in Cochiti Lake COE Campground west of Santa Fe, NM,

or this in the Whittington Center campground near Raton, NM?

At Cochiti Lake, we only had an electrical hook-up. The web site said to bring 100 feet of hose because the water hookups were shared. We learned that meant we had to string the hose across the road to the water in another site, fill our tank, then roll the hose back up. That wouldn't be bad, except we never use our fresh water tank and we hadn't sanitized it for over a year. We could use the water from it, but had to fill bottles for drinking water. We learned our lesson. And, since we think we had the best site in the whole campground, we will do it again. But we will prepare the tank in advance.

We like our site at Whittington Center. But we learned we will be sharing the area with families of 600 young people participating in a shooting competition over the weekend. We will probably learn we like this campground better in spring and fall, rather than summer.

What Are They Thinking?

Most places we park our home on wheels, almost everyone understands basic campground etiquette: Don't walk through someone else's site. About the only people we see doing that are children. But it seems the tourists here in Nashville, at least those in Two Rivers Campground, never got the message. Maybe they don't RV very often. I'll bet they don't walk through strangers' yards back home, wherever that is.

This morning, in the matter of about 30 minutes, one couple with two dogs walked through our little piece of green grass, looking for the dog walk. Another man walked through on his way to the restroom and back. Then two couples passed through with items they had purchased at the RV dealer next door.

What bugs me most is that these people are too lazy to walk to the end of the row and back up another road. Instead, they cut through where they don't belong.

What a Name

Can you imagine staying in a place named Toad Suck? Well, that's where we are now.



Despite the name, it's really a very pretty location, right on the Arkansas River within sight of the Toad Suck Ferry and Murray Locks and Dam.

This is our view from the back (driver's) side of the RV.







But why the name? The first river crossing here was in 1823, when a postal route to Hot Springs was established. A skiff large enough for just the operator and a horse and rider was propelled back and forth by a pole. Near the skiff crossing a tavern was located on the west side of the river sometime between 1830 and 1850. It was a favorite gathering place for steamboat roustabouts, passengers and local folks. Heavy drinking at the tavern caused a traveler to remark, "Those fellows suck at a bottle till they swell up like toads!" So the name of Toad Suck came into being and remains today. The ferry was replaced in 1956 by a highway bridge. Nearby Conway, Arkansas, celebrates Toad Suck Days in early May.

The headwaters of the Arkansas River are near Leadville in our home state of Colorado. Several membeers of our family live in Canon City, Colorado, on the Arkansas. The river flows through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas before emptying into the Mississippi in southeastern Arkansas.

The water has been smooth in the evening and early in the morning. Here, you can see the dam with the highway bridge above. The lock is on the far side of the river.

This morning, for the first time, we saw a tug boat and barges go through the lock. Here is the Brother Wilson tug, sitting in the lock, waiting for the water level to go down (or maybe the lower portion of the lock is filling with water) so the boat and barges can move below the dam.



The lock rises or lowers 16 feet. When the tug is ready to push the barges forward, it starts putting out smoke.



Here is is, going by the dam.



Here are the tug and barges emerging from the lock, at least 45 minutes after the previous photo was taken.



The whole process is very time consuming and must be very boring for the tugboat captain. I think it took way over an hour from the time we first saw the boat in the lock and the siren sounded, indicating the water level in the lock would be changing, to the time when the entire packet came out the other end.

Here is another view of the boat and barges.



We have stayed in a COE campground on the Mississippi near Davenport, Iowa, a couple of times and watched lots of barge traffic. But this is the first time to be right next to a lock and dam. It is very interesting.

The underside of the bridge is lined with mud swallow nests. Every time a vehicle crosses the bridge, a large number of cliff swallows fly out, then settle in again.



We are always looking for interesting or unusual RVs and vehicles as we travel. Look at this tow vehicle that is in the campground this week. They found a way to make it from parts of several trucks and a 5th wheel hitch.

A Small World

On our last day at Cedar Ridge COE Campground on Lake Belton, we spent some time talking to the couple in the 5th-wheel trailer next to ours. Who would guess that we would be next door to another couple that, just like us, had owned a funeral home? Ken grew up in his family's funeral home in Belton and owned it for several years. John grew up in his family's funeral home, then we owned it for nine years. Ken and Karen had experiences much like ours.



We have had lots of small-world type encounters during our years of RV travel, but this has to be the most unusual. After all, how many people own funeral homes and RV?

After six months in one spot, and that spot was in the Arizona desert, we were glad for a change of scenery as we started our summer travels. It seems, however, we have become even more attached to the advantages of full hook-ups. While were we glad to see trees and water our our rear window,



we found that we really missed having a sewer hook-up after two weeks without one in corps of engineers campgrounds. I know, many of you spend weeks, even months, without sewer, and often without electrical or water hook-ups. You don't mind conserving water and storage tank space, then finding a dump station. But we have come to really like all the amenities of home, wherever we park our home. So we are spending four or five days in commercial parks. For one thing, it was good to have a laundromat close by. We hadn't washed clothes for 11 days!

Today, we rode our bikes on the Legacy River Trail in Arlington. It was THE place to be on a sunny Saturday morning, I guess. The paved trail had families walking and biking, individuals jogging and walking, and lots of serious bike riders. We enjoyed our hour-plus ride for 6 or 7 miles through the beautiful forests along the Trinity River.







The river isn't exactly clear and bubbling.

Tracing Family

Cedar Ridge Corps of Engineers Campground in Belton, Texas, is a great place to spend a few days. Belton Lake, which was constructed between 1949 and 1954 to provide flood control and water storage on the Leon River, is visible right behind our RV.



But we aren't here for the fishing. John's dad was born nearly 105 years ago at Evant, a very small town, now nearly abandoned, about 50 miles from here. This is the main street of town.



Texas has done a wonderful job of installing signs all over, tracing the history of the state.



We had been here before, researching the family history. We are especially interested in two counties, Bell and Coryell, where John's grandparents and great grandparents had lived. In 2005, we spent time in the Bell County Courthouse in Belton. The counties in Texas take great pride in their courthouses and they are very attractive.



This year we also visited the Coryell County Courthouse in Gatesville.



Today, we also visited the Lena Armstrong Public Library in Belton and the Belton County Museum. Yesterday, we drove around the area that was once the town of Moffat, which John's great grandparents, Daniel and Colista Wiswell, helped found in the late 1860s. The town was no more than 2 miles from our campground.



We also visited Evant and went to the Pearl Cemetery nearby. That is where Daniel Wiswell is buried in an unmarked grave and where John's great aunt Oshea Stevens is buried.





These communities are not tourist destinations, but places, and their histories, really come alive when you know some of the people who lived here 100 years ago or 160 years ago. Between the family ties and the fact we have volunteered over 7 months at two state parks and a US fish and wildlife area here in Texas, we really feel almost at home here.

What a Difference

What a difference a few days make. This is what the Mueller campground looked like a week ago.



That was May 14. May 17 was the first day we accepted reservations here. That seemed to open the floodgates. The campground was full Friday and Saturday. This is what we saw last Saturday.



In addition, a number of folks brought their horses to Mueller for a trail ride.



Right now, we are back to a quiet, almost empty campground. But this coming weekend is Memorial Day, the real start of the camping season in Colorado. We understand the campground will be fairly full all week long from then on.

There are a lot of wild turkey at Mueller. Wednesday, as we driving out the entrance road, we saw these four hurrying into the forest.

Preparing for the Onslaught

We have used state parks, commercial campgrounds, national park and forest campgrounds for 25+ years, but this is the first time we have seen what it takes to open a campground after it has been shut down for the winter. Just like RVs have to be winterized when they are stored for the cold-weather months, campgrounds at higher elevations (anywhere it freezes for several hours at a time) are also winterized. Now is the time all of that is reversed.

Water has to be turned on to all of the faucets throughout the campground. Everything has to be checked for leaks. Each shower has its own instant hot water heater. Those have to be reassembled. Toilets have to be checked, as do sinks. Vault toilet facilities have to be opened and cleaned and the lights that are controlled by an electric eye must be checked. Every electrical hookup box that was turned off has to be checked—does the 30 amp outlet have power? The 20 amp outlet? And does the GFCI work to prevent shocks due to improper grounding and other issues.

Fallen branches have to be picked up. They may be blocking campsites. Besides, they may be used for campfires, even if they are six feet long and the fire ring is only three feet in diameter.

The campground registration building has to be cleaned and opened and extra seasonal staff trained for campground registration and maintenance. Signs indicating the hours the Visitor Center is open have to be changed and notices of programs put out.

There are always problems, of course. The power went out just as the vault toilet lights were being tested and the shower house was being prepared. Today, a concrete saw was rented to allow access to a broken water pipe in the dump station.

Campground reservations begin today. Somehow, that must give everyone permission to come camping. During the first 16 days of May, no more than 5 to 10 campers were here in Mueller State Park at any one time. This weekend, all but two of our 110 electrical campsites are reserved.

It’s like someone has turned on the faucet of trailers and vehicles and kids and bikes. Thank heavens all the water is running in the restrooms and showers and water spigots and dump station.

Crossing New Mexico

Last Sunday, we left Homolovi Ruins State Park and headed east into New Mexico. We spent one night in Gallup at USA RV Park. It is a good place to stay for a night or two, especially when you want 50-amp hookups. Monday it was on toward Santa Fe. We have stayed in two different commercial parks there, neither of which we liked. This time we tried Cochiti Lake Corps of Engineers campground a few miles southwest of the city. We really enjoyed the park. It wasn't very full and we had a really nice site.



There is a pretty no-wake lake nearby and we had a good view of it from our RV.



We saw one unusual RV in the campground. I expected some young hippie-types, but this morning I found the occupant was a gray-haired senior woman and her dog. Who would have thought?



The visitor center had a really good map explaining where the water in the Rio Grande River comes from and what causes flooding downstream. Cochiti Dam was built after Albuquerque suffered severe flooding in the 1950s. We wished we had understood more of the river's origins before our time as interpreters at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge along the Rio Grande in Texas last year.



We really liked that campground and will probably stay there again, either to visit Santa Fe or as an overnight stop between Denver and Mesa. But there isn't much to do there unless you boat or visit Tent Rocks National Monument, which we do not intend to do. (See previous post.)

We did drive into Santa Fe for a very good Mexican lunch at the LaFonda Hotel on the plaza. The hotel has interesting painted glass panels around the restaurant and other locations near the lobby.



There are murals on several walls.



This is what our burrito plates looked like before we attacked them. John had the beef and I had the chicken filling.



We were able to walk up to the mezzanine level and see the restaurant from above. As you can see, it was very busy at noon Thursday.



The trip to Santa Fe and good food helped get us back in harmony with our world.

Today we left there and drove to Raton where we found another great campground. We are staying at the NRA Whittington Center which has two full-hook-up capgrounds. The sites are level and very large. We have a great view of the pinon-juniper landscape here and we have been able to watch a small herd of mule deer. There is almost no one here right now. It is a great place to stop, just 10 miles from Raton.



Tomorrow we are headed north, back to Colorado after nearly 7 months in Arizona and New Mexico.