GA Gypsies – Fulltiming

Yesterday we hung out at the campground and grilled chickens. Megan & Josh spent the day with us. We met them for a late lunch today and Megan came back with us to spend the night. We are watching Quigley and sitting out a rainstorm in the camper. Megan shared some news with me at lunch that I will share later when I have pictures. Planning to leave in the morning and try to make it across Indiana. Looks like we will be dodging thunderstorms as we go across the midwest next week – Indiana, Illinois, Iowa.

Yesterday we made it to the campground in North Bend, Ohio. It is not a state park, so we do have internet, although the internet was down yesterday. Megan came and stayed with us last night. We drove about 5 miles and had a late lunch/early supper in Indiana yesterday. Planning to meet Megan later this evening to eat. Tony went with Megan this morning to take Rachel (Josh’s sister) to school and then they did a Sam’s run. Just chilling for awhile. Nothing picture worthy yet.

Well, we left Statesboro yesterday around 10:00 AM and by the time we made Millen, Tony decided he was hungry. So we stopped and ate at Honey Cafe (with all those cheesecakes calling my name) but I did NOT give in to temptation. Sugar is my enemy. Sugar is my enemy. Not long after getting on the interstate, a big truck slung a big rock on the windshield and made a pretty good sized crack.  Stopped at a church along the way and walked around it in the shade. We made it to Spartanburg and stopped for the night. I was really tired, but I have to remember that my body is in recovery still. Since October, I’ve had two knee replacements, an upper & lower GI, and gall bladder surgery – 4 times being put to sleep, plus a blood transfusion after knee surgery and now finding out that I have NASH – non alcoholic steatohepatitis and a treatment plan to follow. Not to mention the fatigue I normally have from MS. So we made the decision that after we get to Ohio on Thursday, we will not push past my fatigue level and the plans are the same as last year – mostly stay off interstates and enjoy seeing small town America at a leisurely pace. We also are not making plans for specific places more than a few days out – we are pretty sure that when we leave Ohio (visiting Megan) that we will head west across Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa – I want to go through Madison County to see the bridges, then on to South Dakota to Custer State Park and to Devil’s Tower (again) – this time to stay a couple of days and explore and HIKE – yes, I can walk about 2 miles now! This morning we didn’t get out until about 11:00. Caught our first glimpse of whimpy mountains as we came out of Asheville. We made it through Knoxville and are staying in a fairly nice, wooded campground north of Knoxville in Heiskell, TN. I sure hope there are enough trees here that the mockingbirds choose to sing somewhere other than over my bedroom slide. This morning, a very chipper chirper woke us up at 5:00 AM and we both had to put earplugs in to go back to sleep. That was pretty much the excitement for the day. We had several nice state parks to choose from, but none of those have cable and I really want to watch SEAL Team and Code Black tonight! Not worth putting up dish satellite for just one night. I think we are staying in a state park in North Bend, Ohio tomorrow through Monday, so we probably won’t have internet either. No pictures so far. The real adventure will begin after we leave Ohio.

Finally – catching up from the past week. We left Crater of Diamonds State Park on Tuesday morning and made it to Farmerville, LA for the night. Stayed at a very nice LA State Park – D’Arbonne. Left Wednesday morning and made it to Morton, Mississippi, staying at Roosevelt State Park, another really nice state park. Stayed here two nights – on the lake. Took out the hammock and just chilled out. Friday we made it to Selma, Alabama and stayed at A Gathering Place campground. The owner was a really nice older gentleman. Saturday we left for Georgia and made it to Columbus – stayed at Lake Pines Campground. Sunday morning we left around 11:00 and made a stop for peach ice cream in Fort Valley. Made it to Portal around 4:30 and got settled in. We are staying at our neighbors’ place for now, waiting to see what we need to do to hook up to his power pole. Got ready for our fur babies Monday and we picked them up Tuesday. Camper is smaller with two more babies! Getting used to acorns falling on the roof! Haven’t been under oak trees in quite some time. We drove a total of 12,617 miles. Left on June 30th, staying in Perry, GA; Opelika, AL; Clanton, AL; Columbus, MS; Lake Village, AR; Lake Greeson, AR; made a trip to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, AR; Kirby, AR; Siloam Springs, OK; Pahuska, OK; Wellington, OK;  Dodge City, KS; La Junta, CO; Brush, CO; Wheatland, WY; Buffalo, WY; Big Timber, MT; Deer Lodge, MT; and arrived in Bigfork, MT on July 18th. Whew! Made a three day trip to the east side of Glacier when Megan visited us. For our anniversary, we drove into Canada to Bannf and Lake Louise. The fires were out of control, very smoky. Left Bigfork on September 6th and made it to Cardwell, MT; Cody, WY; Lander, WY; Craig, CO; Ridgway, CO. We were going to stay there 2 nights, but ended up staying for a month! My new favorite place. Made a three day trip to Mesa Verde, CO. Left Ridgway on October 10th to Westcliffe, CO; Raton, NM; Shamrock, TX; Witchita Falls, TX; Sherman, TX; Murfreesboro, AR; Farmerville, LA; Morton, MS; Selma, AL; Columbus, GA. Whew again! How many states? Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta & British Columbia, Canada, New Mexico, Texas – 11 + Canada. Not a bad trip. Signing off the blog for now. Will be back in the spring for round 2!

Some final pictures:

Very comforting sign as you walk into a Texas Welcome Center!

Left Sherman, Texas headed to Arkansas. WE made it to the Crater of Diamonds State Park around 5:30 and got settled in. Easy to tell we are back in the deep south. Pecan trees and squirrels. Beautiful campground. Got up late this morning and then rode to Billstown to the Campbell Family Cemetery to pay respects to Glen Campbell. His grave marker had not been put up yet, but it has only been a few weeks since he passed away. We explored Murfreesboro, Arkansas – smalled than Metter. Came back and enjoyed laying in the hammock at this state park. Will be headed into Louisiana tomorrow, hopefully on towards Vicksburg, Mississippi. Should be in Georgia over the weekend.

We left about the same time today  – around noon. I forgot to say yesterday how much I have NOT missed heat, humidity, and sweat! It was nearly 90 yesterday and the same today. They say it is supposed to be cooler tonight. We made it to Sherman, Texas. Checked into the campground and while I still felt like it, did some retail therapy. There was a Lifeway bookstore here! Oh, how I’ve missed you. I bought two new books and spent a lot longer looking than I should have. Then we ate an early supper and went back to the camper. I took a long nap and we are just chilling for the rest of the evening, washing a few clothes. Tony made a run to Sam’s while I napped. We saw a lot of horse ranches today coming east across north Texas. I have been surprised at how large Witichita Falls and Sherman are. There are some skyscrapers here. I have really enjoyed seeing all the different small towns and cities as we’ve driven cross country and back. We come across so many things that I would like to take time to see. We plan to make it to Delight, Arkansas tomorrow and probably stay two nights, then it’s on to Georgia.

Thursday we left Clayton, New Mexico and drove across the panhandle to Shamrock, Texas.

We missed a turn and ended up going through Amarillo, but we saw beautiful, different country, ranches, and lots of real cowboys. The terrain changed – all of a sudden there were no more mountains and we were in flat high prairies, then we began seeing some small mesas and deep ravines that were mostly dry. Then cows. Then the trains, always the trains and the grain bins and the miles and miles of tracks. Stayed in a campground right next to a steak house – imagine that!

Tony Puckett slept until 10:00 this morning, but we did lose an hour when we hit Texas. Driving is hard work, almost as hard as being the designated “second” GPS, plotting courses on the map that look better than what “Betty” (our GPS) tells us to take. (Lessons learned the hard way.) Left around 12:00 again today and made a change – instead of going through Oklahoma, we dropped down south about 30 miles and have been skirting the northern border of Texas. We saw standing water in fields left over from the hurricane, this far north. We only made it to Witchita Falls, Texas and checked in the campground. Then we made a quick stop in a nearby quilt shop and went to a “really good” authentic Mexican restaurant not too far away. NOT a “really good” Mexican restaurant. Oh, how I miss you, El Sombrero! You would think in Texas you could find good Mexican food, but it looks like we’ll have to drive all the way back to Georgia for that. Tony made a run to Walmart for supplies and we are chilling. Our destination is Delight, Arkansas – we’ll have a long drive tomorrow to make it all the way there, but we may stop somewhere along the way and make Delight on Sunday. We will see. Not many pictures today. Sometimes the pictures don’t do justice to what we are seeing. But this one is a good one – seen when we stopped at a Texas Visitor Center.

We will see where we end up tomorrow evening. Thank you, God, for keeping us safe and for giving us this wonderful opportunity to travel and see Your beautiful creations.

Our campground hosts from the past month, Sam and his wife Heather.

We didn’t get on the road until noon because Tony & Sam (mostly Sam) had to scrape the ice off the slides so we could retract them. Note – blow the snow off before it freezes overnight into a solid sheet of ice. Drove south and then east crossing Monarch Pass at 11,312 feet. Beautiful, beautiful. The Sangre De Cristo Mountain range was to our west. Pictures of them this morning from our campground.

We headed from Westcliffe, Colorado through New Mexico and had lunch at K-Bob’s in Raton, New Mexico. The terrain changed immensely from the lush mountains to high dessert with sagebrush. Ranches with dry gullies all in them. It is easy to see why it takes so much land for grazing cattle out here. We started seeing pronghorn again and I saw the rack of a huge elk in the back of a hunter’s truck. We arrived in Clayton, New Mexico around 5:00 PM, staying at the RV Park. We are about 10 miles from the Texas border. Tomorrow we will head across the panhandle of Texas into Oklahoma.

Sometimes it hard to take pictures from the inside of the truck driving 60 mph!

Started snowing during the night and when we got up, we had about 2 inches. It continued to snow until mid-afternoon. Drove into Ridgway and there wasn’t as much snow there, just 2 miles away. It was so pretty, watching it snow in the pasture behind us with the mountains behind the pasture and the black cows making their tracks. Plan to head east tomorrow. Cows in the pasture yesterday.

Cows in the pasture today.

Couple more snow pictures and me in front of the fireplace, snug as a bug, watching it snow.

And finally, “our” mountains looking towards Ouray yesterday before getting more snow. We haven’t been able to see them today at all.

Octoberfest was a bit of a bust. It was in the community building and they had a German band playing polka music, German food – you just bought a plate of whatever the stuff was, and they had some desserts that weren’t German. We stayed about 45 minutes, then headed back home. Has been really windy today and warm, in the 70’s. It is supposed to start raining tonight, then turn into snow early in the morning and snow through lunch. We’ll be putting things in travel mode tomorrow and plan to head east on Tuesday.