We had a great trip. I wish it could have been longer. We went to the Smoky Mountains, Pensacola, Galveston, San Antonio (twice), Big Bend National Park, and Hot Springs, with stops in Columbus, Atlanta, and Bloomington (Indiana) to see family.

This is the second time we stayed at this campground. We love it. It is wooded and well-maintained, the showers are amazing, and it's right next door to the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Right behind our spot was the back of the campground and the entrance to a path leading to national park trailhead, 1/2 mile down the road. 

We had a fabulous hike, the same path we took the last time we were here. This time, temperatures were in the 60s. No snow on the trails!

We loved Fort Pickens! The campground was very nicely maintained with lots of trees. It is located on an island and is part of the Gulf Island National Seashore. On one side of the island was Pensacola Bay, and on the other was the Gulf of Mexico.

We hiked the beaches and the Blackbird Marsh Trail. A beautiful, white-sands beach surrounded the island, and through the center of the island there were old dunes covered with bushes and trees. Blackbird Marsh Trail runs through the island's center. There are newer dunes closer to the beach with short trails through those.

We saw an armadillo on the path!

We saw a huge snapping turtle, too, a huge heron, and lots of mockingbirds. 

We visited the fort and one of the hideous "batteries," which were structures for defense that housed guns and provided protection for soldiers.  There were about four spread over the island. The one we climbed up was the least hideous. The last one in the picture below was especially gruesome. We came upon it by accident on one of our walks. We needed to go past it to get to a beach path, and I could not look at it as we went by. Look at it! It's repulsive. Even the photo of it gives me the creeps.

It was a nice campground. Campers packed in as per usual for a KOA, and the campground was packed! But there were some palm trees around and nice grass. I liked our spot.

One warm day we stayed in the hot tub for a couple hours. I know they say "limit 30 minutes." But we didn't care and we didn't die. We did have a jolly good time. We chatted with a couple other campers who popped in and out. 

We hiked a couple times on the beach. The beach here was easier to walk on than the Pensacola beach, but I found it kind of boring. 

One cool thing we got to do is tour NASA Johnson. A friend's son works there and he gave us a personal tour! We were very lucky because he only got the request a day before we arrived but he made time for us, and he was transferring back to Ohio in just a month. He drove us around the base and took us into a couple cool buildings. One was where an enormous space holds loads of exact models of various International Space Station structures. People from different countries are working on them, testing things out. 

The other thing I loved was Mission Control. You go into a room overlooking the actual mission control where technical specialists are manning various stations while they are keeping an eye on the astronauts on the International Space Station. It's operational 24/7. There are large screens at the front of the room and the one in the middle was dark when we got there. But as we were watching, the space station was heading to the light side of the Earth and the ship came into view. It was a lot like being on the starship Enterprise.

My husband loved the models. There are some big ones when you drive in, one of the shuttle on top of an airplane, and one of the Space X rocket that transports astronauts to the space station. The other set of models he liked were these that showed comparisons to scale of different rockets through the years.

Here's a shot of everyone in the camper having a cozy time of it.

The White Ingrate got a little antsy on the drive. He loves to look out the window, but even when he could get close, he wouldn't sit still. So Scott made him this shelf and it worked really well, keeping him (the dog) content enough to tolerate.

We had a very nice campsite.

Right in front of our site was an entrance to a city path that ran miles and miles through  a number of city parks and out through fields and woods.

The campground was nice, with lots of trees. There was a pretty pond.

We walked along the city trail one day and rented bikes the next and went a lot farther. Both days were very bright, warm, and pleasant.

One day we went to Mission Concepción and then walked the River Walk. It was fun but very hot and we didn't bring water. Toward the end, I was spent and close to having heat stroke. But did I learn my lesson? No. Stay tuned for San Antonio #2.

We stayed at ​Marathon RV Park and Motel. It's pretty barren, but that's par for the course in this part of Texas from what I can tell. It was a nicely run, nicely maintained park. Here's our site.

We had planned on staying 5 nights, because it's like really far from home. But several things combined to compel us to leave after two nights.

First and foremost, it was cold. The first night it got into the teens. Hiking during the day was very pleasant, but part of the fun is hanging out at the site, too, and it was too cold for that. Plus, that's no fun at this type of campground.

Second, there was one bathroom. It was a very nice bathroom, but that's all there was and it housed the shower, too. But then on our second night, the park hosted a music festival. That is cool and all (though we stayed in our camper), but still there was just the one bathroom. The music festival was going to happen on the second night, too.

And third, the drive to hiking in Big Bend was over an hour. For some locations, it would have been closer to two. The drive was actually beautiful and it went by fast. But we had to leave the dog in the camper and including time for the hike, he would be have to be left alone for 5 to 8 hours. Five is pushing it, more is not possible. ​

So we hiked for one day. It was a splendid hike.

​We drove to the Chisos Basin Campground and walked the Window View Trail. It was spectacular. I was surprised by the number of other people on the trail.  The mountains are cool. They're volcanic.

The window view at the end of the trail.  There is a crazy person in this  photo. You can see his arms and head as he's getting a picture. Admittedly, it's a better picture, but not worth death in my book. Do you see those shiny, slick rocks you have to cross to get to this perch? He said it was less dangerous than it looked. But he's always saying that.

Here's the view you get when you risk your life.

As we were leaving the park, we stopped at another short trail and exhibit. Eocene-era horse-ancestor bones had been uncovered here and there was an exhibit dedicated to that, other fossils, and the geology of the area. It was interesting.

So we cut Marathon short and added three more days to the next San Antonio stop we had planned. I'm so glad we did. I still feel guilty leaving Big Bend with only one day in the park, but we had a blast in San Antonio the second time. And it was warm. Very warm. Upper 70s and low 80s. You can't beat that.

This time our site was next to the pond. The sites were close together, and while one large camper was on our right, no one ever came into the site on our left. We had a big space behind the camper where the dog had his area and we had our campfires overlooking the pond.

For the second hike, we started out on the same Joe Johnston Trail, but then we decided to make it a long hike and add some other trails (Cave Creek, Sendero Balcones, Overlook Trail). Looking at the map, I thought we were pushing it, but I guess I figured if we got tired, we could double back. 

Well, we did the whole thing but it was monumental. It turned out to be 11.6 miles. It would have been a challenge in any case, but stupid us, we didn't bring water. We were extremely thirsty when we got back to the visitors' center. OMG. But it was mostly shaded, and for that reason I think we are not dead or rescued by local law enforcement.

The next day we rented bikes at a nice little shop in San Antonio, Blue Star, and went for a long ride on the River Walk. The bikes were reasonable and very comfortable. This time we brought water. We had a terrific ride.

We drove in at night and couldn't see much. We were pleased when we woke up and saw the campground in daylight. It's a nice little campground. We were close to the bathrooms. No one took the site next to us and that's a bamboo patch behind us.

We had only one day and we drove to the trailhead for Hot Springs Mountain Trail in Hot Springs National Park. It was under 10 minutes from our campsite. The trailhead was in the campground, and that campground looked very nice. 

The hike was beautiful. A couple nice climbs and lots of beautiful woods. We saw plenty of other people on the trails. We hiked the Hot Springs Trail and the Peak Trail up to a fire tower. I don't like heights, but Scott really wanted to climb it. I agreed and we went inside to pay.

We had forgotten to bring money! So we finished the hike, went back to the car and got his wallet and my America the Beautiful pass, and started the trail again. 

Our trip started at a Cracker Barrel in Columbus. Our daughter came to visit and we played some cards. Our favorite game these days: Poison.

We stopped in Atlanta for a day and night to visit my husband's father, who was in a rehab facility, and stepmom. 

Our final stop was at a Cracker Barrel in Bloomington, Indiana. We visited our son who is teaching at a charter school and has an apartment nearby.

We took my mother-in-law for an RV experience to Salt Fork September 23 to 25, 2022. My daughter joined us for a day. I brought my daughter a present and a cassata cake from Baraona's bakery in Middleburg Heights and we celebrated her birthday. The cake was delicious, but she was not surprised because she went in the cooler to get something for me and she saw the box it was in and suspected!

Do you see the goosebumps on her arm????

Mostly pics from this trip, little commentary. Yay for you.

​One thing we did differently this year was to set up the Clam as our tent. We had to use the back side of the island again because the deck is under (ish) water, and there is a large, flat (ish) rock on that side. The upside is we could leave the panels down most of the time because the weather was fine, and we had splendid views and a breeze.

We set our kitchen up on the big rock on the front of the island. Why front? I guess because that's where we park the boat.

This is the view from the kitchen. That's the little Clam on the left.

This trip began with a bit of disaster. We got our boat in the water, went about a hundred yards, and the motor died. For evah. Fortunately, a passerby towed us to the nearby marina, and they had a motor we could buy and they could install that weekend. 

​Here we are outside the marina.

Another thing different about this trip was that my brother-in-law was up there the same time with his two kids. He towed us out to our island, we unloaded, and then they towed the boat back to the marina.

Oh, here are a few more. They are either fishing or playing BB golf.

The White Ingrate was an okay Canada-camping dog.

Morning coffee.

Island views.

The daily swim around the island.

Fishing. 

Kayaking.

Annual Burning of the Trash.

​We planned to take our first big RV trip in February 2022, a nearly month-long trip out west, February 7 to 28. I tried to plan it out ahead of time. I bought a subscription to RV Trip Wizard and was doing some research there and on Google, but my husband was so busy with work he didn't have a chance to give me key pieces of info like how far each day he wanted to drive so I didn't make any progress. A few days before we took off, he and I sat down with RV Trip Wizard, planned out our route, and I went online and booked the sites.

​We were heading basically to New Mexico and Arizona, ending at the Grand Canyon. We were going to make a beeline out by driving lots and staying overnight at Cracker Barrels. The first night we were at a Cracker Barrel in St. Louis. The second night a Cracker Barrel in Amarillo, Texas. That was a long drive. We had planned to stay at a rest stop in between, but as we were driving, we were like, what the hell, let's get there.

The Silver City KOA was close to the highway, but it wasn't too noisy. It was clean and well-lit. We had a nice spot on end of the premium spots. The bathroom was close by and clean. There was a nice utility sink in which I could do the dishes. The dog park was right next to us.

On our first full day in Silver City, we hiked the Dragonfly Trail. It was beautiful and so-named because of the 900 year-old dragonfly petroglyphs carved into stones along the trail. ​

On our fourth day we went into Silver City, had lunch, then went to Gomez Peak in the Gila National Forest and hiked. We went into Silver City thinking we could look around the "historic downtown" and grab lunch at an authentic southwestern restaurant. Downtown was depressing: many crafts stores that were closed because it's Sunday, lots of defunct businesses, and only one open restaurant, which served American food. We had Philly steak sandwiches and fries. Okay, not great. Tortilla chips and the hottest salsa evah.

We had stopped in at a Visitors' Center and the woman on staff recommended Gomez Peak. The hike was beautiful. The trail was very badly marked and someone we met on the trail said we should take Angel Point. I said we didn't want to go to the peak, just the loop around the mountain, but she looked like she didn't know what I was talking about. We took that trail, and it was clearly going to the peak. Once it got narrow, with a nearly sheer drop on the one side, I got nervous. When the path ahead was covered in snow, I refused to go higher. My husband would have done it no question, but I was done with danger. We walked back and then took the trail around the other side of the mountain. It was nice but eventually got too steep and narrow for me so we walked back. In general, a nice hike. 

The next day we headed to the Grand Canyon! Scott had seen it before; it was my first time. Even though I had read about the fabulous Bright Angel Trail, I feared it was narrow and scary and I had also read about the need for hiking crampons so I wasn't going to risk it. We walked the rim trail, starting at the geology museum, going as far as Mather Point, and then returning. We put The White Ingrate in the car and headed the other direction on the rim trail. We didn't go very far before it started to get scary, too close to the edge of the Grand Opening to Fall Into. We headed back. It was magnificent and very beautiful and I am glad I saw it in person, but after 45 minutes I felt I had gotten the picture. Maybe I was just tired. ​

There were a lot of crazy people at the Grand Canyon.

​The next day we drove from the Williams KOA to the Benson KOA near Tucson. The Benson KOA was a bit of a letdown from the other KOAs we'd been to, although nicer than many of the RV parks we had passed on the highway driving through Arizona. They looked pretty depressing: lots of RVs packed in like sardines, very little vegetation, and dust all around. The Benson KOA was smaller, but the RVs were pretty close together. The showers and toilets were fine. There was a laundry and a utility tub for doing dishes. The other campers were quiet.  

The next day we headed to Kartchner Caverns State Park. We took the Guindani Trail, which went about 4 miles around and up the small mountain. First it went up, pretty steeply with some narrow ledge-like bits and great views, then it reached the high point and went through the "saddle" and then we descended through a more tree-filled canyon, also beautiful. Once at the bottom, the trail went another 2 miles on flat and very rocky ground. It was a great hike, and we saw agave and prickly pear and some small cactuses that looked like budding mini saguaro.  We saw cows and lots of cow pies along the trail.

The next day we returned to Saguaro National Park and did a loop consisting of the Douglas Spring Trail, Carillo, Squeeze Pen, Kennedy, and Shantz. It was terrifically beautiful and a good workout. We started with a steep climb and then we were in the "mountain" tops and saw several peaks. Great views and not scary except the initial climb a tiny bit. I was tired when done. ​

The next day we did the Kartchner Cavern tour. It was interesting, and the cave was cool. I am not too thrilled by caves in general. I learned that the mountains in this area are all sedimentary, which surprised me! Then we went to McDonald's for lunch, let the dog out at the campground, then returned to the Guindani Trail again. We went same direction, clockwise, with the steep climb at the beginning, stunning views, and an easy descent on the other side through the beautiful canyon. The descent is longer, and the hike was 2 hours. 

Someone is not well-behaved when we are gone.

Took the RV to Salt Fork October 23 and 24, 2021 for our anniversary. We hiked during the day and played cards and walked the dog around the campground at night. It was nice. Not too many pictures though! 

We camped in the G area. We were near a toilet; proximity was nice. Electric only. Took and filled 5 gallon jug. Sully did well in camper when we were hiking.

Had some fires with wood we brought. Nice but not rousing. Wood not seasoned enough. Hiked horse trails. The ones near Morgan's Point (I think)--the Hocking Hills-like ones--were awesome.  

Camp was very full when we got there but it wasn't unpleasant. People were quiet. Another Vintage Cruiser in our G lot. Only one we saw.

Picked up a tick but didn't notice it for nearly a week. Ugh!

Cooked bacon on the grill. It was only ok.

Because the Canadian border was still closed in the summer of 2021, we had to find an alternative location to camp again, but this time we could take the camper. Also, my son was getting his MA at Western Michigan University and we went for something close to him so he could travel back and forth if need be. We decided on Fort Custer State Park.

It wasn't the greatest. The campsite was surrounded by trees and foilage, which was nice and gave you some privacy from neighbors. But these blue berries fell constantly, and it was very mosquito-infested. The campground was situated in the midst of industry, and while you didn't see the factories from the campground, but you passed them driving in. 

My husband changed gears so he would have more time off in the winter.  I took a week off in February 2021 so we could take our maiden voyage. We timed it so we could meet up with my in-laws who were in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains February 18–21. They said we could park our camper in the drive. Before we met up with them, we needed to find the warmest spot that was within driving distance to their cabin. 

We settled on Santee State Park in South Carolina. It turned out to be nice. Our site was on the water, and the campground was full of trees. The temperature was between 50 and the mid-60s.

Hiking turned out to be good. Several nice paths through different sorts of trees. 

After South Carolina, we headed to Cosby, Tennessee, where my in-laws were staying. We followed Google to the address we were given, arriving after dark. We turned off the main road and onto narrow unpaved road. We followed the road up a hill, passing a small sign ("quaint" I thought at the time) at the entrance to what looked like a walking path. The address numbers skipped the one we were looking for. There was no cell reception so we couldn't get a hold of my in-laws.

There were a few houses around, but we weren't keen on knocking on a door. I started to walk back down the road to look for the address. It was scary. Miraculously, there was someone on the road. I asked him about the address, and he told me the cabin was located in "the Garden of Eden," a collection of properties that was down that "road" I thought was a path. He suggested where we could turn the RV around, because he cautioned there was no way to turn into that narrow road going down the road we came in.  

So we backed it up into a field, headed out the way we came, and turned around at a nearby gas station. We headed up the road and looked at the sign and the inconceivably narrow "road" we were supposed to turn into with our brand-new RV. I argued for calling it quits right there and trying to call the relatives from elsewhere. My husband wanted to forge ahead. 

To make a long story short, we crawled along this road in the darkness and cleared trees, stone walls, and other obstructions by at most two inches. We arrived at the cabin and met my husband's stepmom. The driveway was at about a 30-degree incline. There was no way we could park our RV there. 

So we got to leave. I was more relieved and elated the moment we drove out of that Seven Acre Wood of Doom ​and onto a real road than than I can say. We headed off to a nearby Cracker Barrel and promised to return as soon as we found a place to camp our RV.  

At the glorious Cracker Barrel, I got online and found there was a KOA less than a mile away from the in-law's cabin. I reserved a site for two nights.

This KOA was absolutely beautiful. The bathrooms and showers were as good and clean as a hotel's. 

We  discovered that at the back of the park there was a path that led in a quarter mile to the entrance of a trail into Smoky Mountain National Park. C'mon!

The hike we went on was stunning. Amazing. Beautiful. Rejuvinating. Incomparable.

Quilts. His and her quilts. Mine is on top of the bed.

A picture of his before it was quilted (on our bedroom bed but here just for display).

Reading Lights. Scott moved the lights from where they were originally: under the cabinets. Had we left them there, I would have had a reading light, and my foot would have had a reading light. Scott would have had nothing.

They were there because that's where they make sense on a 19' Vintage Cruiser; they make zero sense in our 17'. In the 19', the bed is turned so that the head is under the cabinets, and the lights are over the sleepers' heads. It's just SO LAZY and LOWDOWN that Gulf Stream didn't put the lights under the head of the 17'. Geez, how hard would it be?

​Scott's fix is one of the most needed and satisfying of all his fixes. The shelf he added is super useful, too (later he added another above this one. We use them both.) 

Other Improvements. Shelves, hooks, curtains, backsplash, and a rug contoured to the front "hallway."

We bought our Vintage Cruiser in November 2020. After getting our rundown from the helpful Phillips RV representative (Adam), we drove it off the dealer's lot and into a nearby Lowe's-parking lot. We got in and had lunch.

We bought a small island in Pointe au Baril, Ontario in 2001. We have been camping there every summer since with the kids. Until Covid. In the summer of 2020, we didn't own the RV yet, so we went tent camping in Camp Creek, West Virginia. We had a great campsite, great family time, great hikes, and a great trip.

We pitched the tent right next to the creek.