Holiday Weekends

The first of three big summer holidays is upon us. RVers know it is necessary to get reservations far in advance for these weekends. Knowing we wanted to be in a Colorado State Park over Labor Day, in January I made our reservations at Ridgway State Park. Planning ahead, I was so proud of myself. So why didn't I make reservations then for Memorial Day and July 4? I knew we would be staying in commercial RV parks over those weekends. We will be in Colorado Springs for the 4th and planned to stay in the KOA there. It is huge. Was I ever surprised to find last week that the only had 1 or 2 nights with 50 amp hookups available during the last week of June and first week of July. And they won't allow 50 amp units with 2 air conditioners to stay in a 30 amp site.  I was a little panicked as I made call after call before I found a spot to stay. Whew!  That was close.

But Memorial Day was even closer. Where would we go? We finished our visit to Doug in New Hampshire and moved on to a park outside Boston for a few days. But where would we stay this weekend? I had made a one-day reservation in Rhode Island to check this state off our bucket list. So I tried several locations in Pennsylvania and all were full for the weekend.  What do you suppose people do in Stroudsburg, PA, over Memorial Day?  A number of calls later, I called the park in Ashaway, RI, and was able to extend our reservations till Memorial Day. That was really too close to call. Walmart parking lots don't appeal to us at all. Glad we are here.

So, where is here? Ashaway is certainly a town we had never heard of. We know nothing about Rhode Island, in fact. But as we set up and looked around we found the setting somewhat familiar. We spend our winters in Gold Canyon, AZ, and know what seasonal parks are like. People come to see their friends, returning year after year. This park has lots of seasonal residents. But here the majority of the RVs are travel trailers, not 5th wheels or motorhomes. Obviously, this is the first big weekend of the season and people are just setting up all their outside equipment, which will probably stay in place all summer. The families will come on weekends and whenever else they can get away from work. The park is full of younger families with children. It truly is a resort, not just an RV park. Everywhere yesterday we saw people giving hugs to friends they probably haven't seen since the fall. There were a number of communal meals around us.

We saw parks like this when we traveled in New Brunswick several years ago, as well as in the Midwest. They are the mobile version of a summer cabin community. We stayed in one New Brunswick park where one family had created a large fire ring and benches all around it. Every evening people gathered for a campfire and laughed and joked together--right across the road from our RV.

Up until this weekend, we have seen RV parks with very few campers. We even stayed in a Yogi Bear Jellystone campground and resorts in Hagerstown, NJ, Massey's Landing, DE,  and Littleton, MA, with numerous activities and facilities for both children and adults. We enjoyed those places especially because the children were still in school and the parks weren't crowded. This weekend brings that circumstance to an end, I imagine.


These photos will give you an idea of what this resort I like.  It is has raining here a lot, so their are puddles around but this track for radio controlled cars will probably get lots of use when it dries out.

I wonder if the people in this RV intend to have a campfire 24 hours a day all summer or if they will share it with their neighbors?  (Barbara--we aren't parked close to this RV, thankfully).

This is the train that takes young children around the park.  The driver looks like he is having a good time.  The speedbumps here are those yellow metal strips that really make RVs slow down.  But the train takes them at full speed.  The kids really enjoy that part of the ride.

This is a view from a hill that overlooks about half of the park with a very wet bocce ball court in the foreground.  They also have a tennis court, basketball court, volley ball, horseshoes, a soccer field and shuffleboard. We also saw a game room with arcade machines and a large pool.  Lots of fun.

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.

Holiday Weekend

As all full-timer RVers know, it is important to plan ahead for holiday weekends, especially Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.  These holidays are very popular with recreational RVers and campers, as well as those of us who live on the road.  We made reservations in March for the July 4 weekend.  I knew we would be in Ohio, where we are doing more genealogy research.  We decided on Delaware State Park north of Columbus, a park we had stayed in several years ago.

The park gave us access to the Columbus Public Library, which has a large genealogy and local history section.

They even have rental bicycles out front.  The cost is $6 an hour.  We didn’t take the time to bike around downtown Columbus, though it looked as interesting as Cincinnati.

On the 4th, we needed to do laundry.  We hadn’t been to a laundromat for 10 days, so the supply of clean clothes was about exhausted.  We found one in the nearby town of Delaware.  As we drove down the main street, it was lined with chairs.  Obviously, the town had a parade.  After washing and drying our clothes, we ended up in a line of cars stopped for the parade.

We saw a few parade entries, before making a u-turn and making our way out of town.

Surprisingly, we have heard absolutely no fireworks over the weekend.  We didn’t see any information about local fireworks shows and there wasn’t any here in the state park.  The campground is completely full, but it has been very quiet.

Yesterday, we visited two cemeteries.  On the way, we drove through the town of Mechanicsburg.  Since the local Chevrolet dealer was open, we had the truck serviced.  While the work was being done, we walked around the pretty small town.  There were lots of neat old houses.  Almost every one had a great front porch.

 

One impressive house didn’t have a front porch, but we enjoyed looking at it.

In the downtown area, we saw a small park with this nice gazebo.  The building next door had a pretty mural..

Each of the downtown buildings had interesting fronts and roof lines.

Holiday Weekend

Certain things full-time RVers have to consider in their travels. One is where to spend long weekends. Those weekends are when the most recreational RVers hit the road, filling up campgrounds. So, when we look ahead, we have to plan where we can go that won't be booked up weeks ahead (such as state parks). We also try to pick a location where there won't be campfires or large family gatherings with lots of children.

Back in early July, I made our reservations in the Denver area for September. The first consideration was to not try for either of the Colorado State Parks there over Labor Day. They were probably booked in April or May and, if we could get in, they would be full of campfires and children. So, where to spend this holiday weekend? A few days ago we decided the Ogden-Salt Lake City area would be good. It would give us 4 days to get to Denver for our Sept. 7 reservation and it probably wouldn't be full for the weekend.

Obviously, we aren't here because we have big plans for the weekend. So today was a perfectly ordinary day. In fact, though we aren't "home" yet, things are getting back to normal. After our exercise this morning, we went to WalMart for groceries. During the afternoon, John had time to work on his diamond willow hiking sticks.



I spent the time baking bread. Tomorrow we are having hamburgers. I could buy hamburger buns, but they only come in packages of 8 or 10. That means we have to use them for our sandwiches next week or freeze them for later. They are too much bread for sandwiches and I don't think they have a good texture after they are frozen. Instead, I decided to bake my own.

When our boys were young and I wasn't working, I baked all our bread, making at least 4 loaves a week. It must have rubbed off on our older son, Doug. Once during grade school, the students were asked what they thought their mothers were doing at home and he said, "baking bread." After he was married, he and Sherry bought a bread making machine and he asked for the recipe I used when he was growing up. I gave it to him, though I wasn't sure how it would work in the machine. (And, I never heard.)

Anyway, that is the bread I baked today. For several years before we went on the road full time, I owned a mixer with a bread hook. But I didn't use it very often. I really like kneading the dough. Here is the kneaded dough, waiting to go into a bowl to rise.



And here is the finished product, six hamburger buns and one loaf of bread. These buns will freeze well.

Alaska -- Day 49

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

We are in Fairbanks, Alaska, the furthest north we will go on this trip. The sun rises at 3:19 am, sets at 12:15 am. In case you are interested, this is what the Alaska sunset looked like at 12:44 this morning.



This morning we visited Santa Claus House and then watched the North Pole 4th of July parade. The murals on the outside of Santa Claus House are great.

Do you know how many shopping days you have before Christmas? Just subtract one day from what you see here.



There used to be an RV park right next to Santa’s house. It has been turned into a craft market. Maybe street signs like this didn’t sell to the RVers.



There are two military bases nearby—Eielson Air Force Base and Wainwright Army Base. This group of air force led the parade. Several candidates running in the fall elections were represented.





The VFW float was named most patriotic. A group of motorcycle riders came along just before the parade began. they included this father and son.





We love local parades. You see the most interesting people.

How about these roller derby girls.









All morning, we watched these little girls, who didn’t know each other before the parade, playing and enjoying the day.



The local fire departments were the last units in the parade. This truck extended its hydraulic water snorkel, at times shooting water into the air—and down on the folks watching the parade.








 Jets from the Air Force base performed a flyover at the downtown Fairbanks parade. We didn’t see that, but we did see them returning to their base.



We are so proud to be Americans and grateful to live in this wonderful country.

4th of July

It is shaping up to be quite a holiday weekend at Lathrop State Park. Busy, busy, busy. As I sit having my morning coffee, I can look out the window and see Martin Lake here in the park. I spotted the first boat out on the water at 6:10 am. And the boat ramp only opens at 5:30 am. It is hot all over the state, so I imagine every lake in Colorado will be busy this weekend. I saw the first water skier at 7:35 am.

The staff here at the park began the weekend with an ice cream social at 3 yesterday afternoon. I saw RVs still moving in at 8:30 last evening. Every campsite is full. And John, park manager, said he could rent 50 more camp sites if we had them.

Three evening programs are planned. Then Monday night, on the 4th, there will be a fireworks display across the road in the hospital parking lot. Many, many locals come to Lathrop to watch the display. And each one pays for a day pass--good income for the park, which needs it in these tight-budget times, especially.

John and I won't see much of each other for two days. Since he works outdoors, he goes to work as early as possible, trying to avoid the heat in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I work till 7 pm, selling ice cream and popcorn up until the evening programs. We'll get back together on Monday, working together a few hours and taking the rest of the day off.

Happy Independence Day to everyone. We must remember to be thankful for our freedom and all the people who have sacrificed to make it possible.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

What a wonderful way to begin the new year! Today we hiked 6 miles at San Tan Mountain Regional Park, south of Mesa. We shared the trail with folks on bikes



and others on horses.



This is the first time we have celebrated New Year’s Day with a hike. Most years in the past we would have had to ski, snowshoe or snowmobile to enjoy the outdoors. And it is one of the reasons we are glad we changed our lifestyle last year, one of the benefits of being in Arizona, not Colorado, in winter.

A year ago we were packing boxes and sorting our belongings, deciding what to put in storage, what to sell and what to give away. We look back and have no regrets about deciding to become full-time RVers. At the same time, we knew there would be trade-offs.

This was our first Christmas with no decorations, no Christmas tree. We didn’t host the Christmas dinner. That had its sad or difficult side. On the other hand, it was a quiet, unstressed Christmas. No hurry. We were able to focus on the spiritual meaning of Christmas. And we enjoyed a full day with our son Eric and his family on Christmas day without a lot of work to do.

Christmas wasn’t quite what we would like. And being on the road all the time means we lose out on a lot of family time. But when we think of winters past, with three to five months in our Colorado house, spending most of the time indoors and living in a rut, we don’t regret what we are doing a bit.