As we were leaving Texas and entering Oklahoma we started joking about what there was to see in this state and said we’d make a one night stop and get through the state fast.  We have never heard anything about Oklahoma that would make us say we had to go there.  We were wrong.  Of course there wasn’t much difference at first between Texas and Oklahoma; flat fields and a lot of cows.   One of the first things we noticed about the fields was the dirt was red not black like in MN.  We saw the green alfalfa fields but you could see the red dirt between the green.  It was rather pretty.  We also started to come across the rolling hills and trees.  It started to look more like…

We have just stayed at one of the most beautiful state parks we have had the fortune to stay in.  Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, TX is called the Grand Canyon of Texas.  As you drive from New Mexico into Texas there is nothing.  Flat plains, no towns, no trees, but there are cows and of course that wind.  We had scheduled to stop for three nights at Palo Duro SP but never anticipated what we were in for.  As you pass through the gates and the flat countryside you start a descent of about 800 ft to the floor of the canyon.  The grade of the road is 10% which means it is very steep and there are several switchback turns that took me to watch to…

It seems like all we do lately is drive in wind.  Driving from Benson, AZ to Las Cruces, NM wasn’t any different except maybe the wind was a little stronger.  When we get up in the morning the wind is pretty calm but every day it picks up by the afternoon.  One day we got a few drops of rain and then the wind.  Do I need to say more?  Our truck looked more brown than black.  The truck got washed but the 5th wheel will have to wait a little longer. We decided to stop at Las Cruces, NM to get out of the wind.  Nice RV Park that had been converted from a mobile home park to an RV park.  Each site was nicely spaced and had grass…

As I mentioned in my last post we had stayed at Catalina State Park in Tucson.  While we were there we met a very nice couple from Salt Lake City, Utah, John and Jeanne, who had the site right next to us.   They are considering going full-time and already travel about nine months out of the year.  They are talking about selling their home in Utah and have been looking at a new/used 5th wheel.  We were excited for them and gave them some information that helped us when we first started off.  We always love to share what we know about full-timing to others since that is how we found out so much.  We were always asking questions to anyone that wanted to talk about full-timing.  We told them…

Heading south from Apache Junction/Mesa area was a short distance but wise decision.  Weather was beautiful and our first stay in the Tucson area was at Catalina State Park in the Coronado National Forest.  This desert state park was beautifully sitting in the foothills.   There were wonderful hiking trails that we explored and we were able to ride our bikes to a trailhead, take a great hike through Mesquite trees, cactus and up and down hills before a bike ride back to the campground.   Joe took many great pictures but he got some great bird pictures either right through our windows or just sitting outside our door.  We had several birds that were nesting in the Mesquite trees around us.  We enjoyed watching a Gila Woodpecker going in and out…

Our trip from California into Arizona was a nice drive although some of California’s roads needed a little work. We thought Minnesota was the state with the potholes.  California has their share.  Besides the drought they are broke so the much needed road repairs have to wait.  Our drive took us through the center valleys where the produce farmers have their fields.  We drove past acres and acres of almond trees that were blooming.  Beautiful!  We saw many fields that had nothing in them because of the drought.  We stayed at The Club Royal Oak RV Resort in Kingsburg, CA (much fancier name than the actual “campground”) that sat on the Kings River.  We looked at pictures on their website before going and thought we could park right on the…

January brought us back to the beautiful weather of California.  They are in a severe drought so we haven’t seen any rain and the weather has been sunshine and beautiful every day.  It has been nice for us but not the people who need the rain.    We were missing a few items in our new coach so we needed to go back to Sacramento when they came in.  So it was nice spending extra time with family in CA especially my dad.  He spent a couple nights with us so he and Joe could go for breakfast at the horseman’s café in the fairgrounds.  We spent some great days with my sister Nancy’s family but my January highlight was spending two hours in my niece Ali’s kindergarten classroom as a…