RV ALASKA - North to Alaska - Finally!

Five years ago, in celebration of our 40^th wedding anniversary, Alan and I planned a trip to Alaska, just the two of us.  Our airline, car rental and hotel reservations for a week were in place, plus we had booked a sweet little balcony cabin on a cruise ship for a one-week trip down the Inside Passage.  Then, we had to cancel for business-related reasons.  SO disappointing!  COVID followed, and we ended up canceling an extended trip to the Oregon coast, too, leaving our travel calendar in even worse shape.  Here we are, five years later, with the 49th state back on the schedule and our 45th anniversary just ahead.

Back to the Coast after a Disappointing Visit to Crater Lake National Park (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

Whenever we visit a National Park, our preference is to camp within the park itself – assuming there’s a campground that will accommodate our 32’ travel trailer.  On this trip, though, we had planned a one day visit to Crater Lake, and it seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth to haul the trailer all the way east to the National Park for just two nights.  So, I decided to look for a campground west of Crater Lake, trading a longer drive on the actual day of our visit for a shorter one during which we’d be towing the trailer.  It wasn’t ideal but, as with any trip of this magnitude, concessions were inevitable.  As it turned out, this particular concession proved to be beneficial.

A Day Full of Alliteration - Bandon, Bakery & Bullards Beach! (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

The next stop on our West Coast National Parks trip was Crater Lake National Park.  Our destination on this Day #22 was Griffin Park, a county park about 14 miles west of Grants Pass, Oregon, that would be our base camp for a visit to Crater Lake.  Trip planning for this expedition was like working a jigsaw puzzle.  There were quite a few irregularly shaped pieces that needed to be fit together to successfully complete the picture.  From Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park campground, it was a straight shot to Grants Pass which was about an hour and a half to the northeast.  But we had no intention of missing anything along the Oregon coast that had made the trip’s bucket list.  So, back to Highway 101 it was for another jaunt up the coast on a circuitous route that would, eventually, deposit us at the campground in Griffin Park.

Falling in Love with the Oregon Coast (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

Day #21 of our expedition dawned clear and sunny.  Alan, Kyra and I were looking forward to crossing into Oregon and exploring along the coast.  We couldn’t have asked for more beautiful weather.  Looking back on our photos of the trip, I realized that we were extremely fortunate weather-wise.  With a tight schedule to keep, we wouldn’t have let bad weather derail our plans; still, it was such a pleasure to be out and about on so many gorgeous days.

Before we headed up the coast for the day, we had planned on a short and easy hike over to Stout Grove – accessible directly from our campground in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.  Kyra decided to sleep in and skip the hike.  Whether she was well and truly tired or simply needing a break from being with her parents 24/7, we’ll never know.  You can’t always tell what lurks in the minds of teenagers.   On to Stout Grove!

I Digress: Another Rant About Customer Service

I just couldn’t contain myself, so I’m jumping up on my customer service soapbox.  Please note that I am not receiving compensation of any kind from the companies mentioned favorably below; I’m simply sharing my opinions and observations.  The photos accompanying this post were taken at the Missouri Route 66 Welcome Center Rest Area located at milepost 111 (eastbound and westbound) on Interstate 44 in Conway, Missouri.  The picnic table shelters are all miniature versions of Route 66 buildings, and they are ADORABLE!  In case you’re interested, we enjoyed our picnic lunch in the Texaco gas station.

Customer service has been a frequent topic “around the campfire” here lately.  Regular readers might remember that Alan and I are sticklers for good customer service.  Over the course of the past several weeks, we’ve had an exceptional run of bad customer service experiences, mitigated by a couple of shining stars.  It boggles our minds that management at so many companies does not stress the importance of good customer service with their staff.  Alan and I are favoring two main reasons for this inattentiveness to customer service and satisfaction.

Adventures in Redwood National and State Parks (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

As I’ve noted in the past, this National Parks trip was intended to be a “sampler” trip – as were our two previous cross-country National Parks trips.  When vacations were constrained by work and school schedules, we squeezed as much sightseeing and as many experiences into our travels as possible.  The theory was that when we stumbled on a place we really enjoyed, we could always return in the future.  Our schedule allowed just two days to explore Redwood National and State Parks and the coast of southern Oregon, so we planned to pack those two days with as much adventure as we could.

A Whirlwind Tour of San Francisco (National Parks Trip #3)

Jump aboard for a little bit of time and space travel from our New England adventures of 2023 back to 2017 and the National Parks of the West Coast.  This post marks a return to the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.  Although we had a brand new Outdoors RV travel trailer at home, we had decided to take our older Jayco on this trip because it had bunk space for Kyra.  That would preclude having to make up the bed in the ORV every night we were on the road.  Plus, with our son, Ryan, having aged out of traveling with us, his empty bunk provided a bit more space for Kyra’s clothes and gear on this extended trip.  Truth be told, this mama’s heart would have been much happier if it had been Ryan in that bunk instead of extra camping paraphernalia.  I absolutely loved traveling with our kids, and I still miss having them along.

The last time I posted about our third cross-country National Parks trip, the three of us had just finished up a three-night stay at Yosemite National Park.  From there, it was a quick (really quick!) one-day tour of San Francisco and Point Reyes National Seashore, then on to Redwood National and State Park in northern California.  Let’s pick up the story on the morning we left the Hodgdon Meadow Campground in Yosemite and headed for Lake Solano County Park in Winters, California.  This would be Day #17 in the five and a half week trip. 

The "Lunch in Maine" Trip - Five Stars for Five Islands Lobster Company!

When Alan and I spent a week in Maine last May, my only major disappointment was arriving at Five Islands Lobster Company in Georgetown to find it closed.  We stopped by on a Friday afternoon and the quintessential lobster shack wasn’t open on weekdays until June.  Unfortunately, we were heading back home early the next morning.  I was so dejected that Alan immediately starting working on making it right, and we returned to Maine “for lunch” on a long weekend that just so happened to include my birthday.  Was our Five Islands experience worth the return trip?  Come along and find out . . .

Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport Museum – An Extraordinary Lesson in Maritime History

The final stop on our Little States trip of June 2023 was Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, Connecticut.  Alan and I had been looking forward to fitting in a camping expedition to this park since we had discovered it a year or two ago while in Connecticut on personal business.  The park is located directly on Long Island Sound and the campground is huge and well-maintained.  There were a lot of things we liked about Hammonasset Beach – and one thing we didn’t.

Rhode Island - A Grand Time in the Smallest State

Why, yes, that is 2023 in our rearview mirror and 2024 peeking over the horizon.  Our family was blessed with a happy holiday season, and I hope the same is true for all of you.  We added a bunch of new memories to our cache of beloved Christmas favorites, and had a delightful time doing it.  During one of my gift shopping expeditions, I spotted an “Indoor Snowball Fight” – a box of 16 soft, fleecy, fabric “snowballs.”  Alan and I gifted one box to our son and daughter-in-law and one box to our daughter and her boyfriend as the last gifts of Christmas night.  Let’s just say that the expected ensued, no one was hurt, nothing was damaged and the “kids” finally understood why Alan didn’t want to light the fireplace that evening.

Now that the busy holiday season is rapidly coming to a close, I’m picking up where I left off on our Little States trip of June 2023.  Alan and I had already spent a long weekend at the quirky Winter Island Maritime Park in Massachusetts.  Our next stop was Rhode Island, and we set up base camp at Fishermen’s Memorial State Park in Narragansett for a quick, two-night visit.  We managed to pack a lot into our short stay but, before we get to that, let me tell you about a mistake I made.

Campfire Talk

Merriam-Webster defines the word “impromptu” as (1) “made, done or formed on or as if on the spur of the moment;” and (2) “composed or uttered without previous preparation.”  Welcome to an impromptu edition of Campfire Talk, a post consisting of the sort of things you might talk about around a campfire with friends or fellow travelers or even around the dinner table with your family.  It was composed with no preparation so, basically, I’m just winging it and you’ll be dealing with my “spur-of-the-momentness” regarding a variety of mostly unrelated topics.  Here’s hoping Mike doesn’t see fit to correct my grammer grammar.  Interspersed throughout the post are random photos from this fall’s tour of the southwest.

Regrets?  Ten days after we arrived home from our fall tour of the southwest (and well before we had worked our way through “catch up” and all the appointments I had scheduled), we found out from our sister-in-law, Joan, that Alan’s uncle was celebrating his 100^th birthday on November 28th.  Since Alan and Uncle Adolph share a November 28th birthday, and since Alan’s uncle is the last remaining aunt/uncle on either side of his family, Alan thought it would be a good idea to make a quick trip to Florida to wish his uncle a happy birthday in person.  The timing wasn’t the best.  We had Thanksgiving just ahead and Alan was scheduled for jury duty the week of December 4th. We talked about waiting until January, but that seemed like too far away.   Alan really wanted to go in November, and I agreed that it was the right thing to do.  So, with our camping gear still not packed away for the year, our Christmas newsletter not written, and virtually no holiday shopping or cleaning done, we told the kids that we were on our way out yet again, and we set off for Florida.  Since we prefer the pace of a road trip over an airline flight, it was three driving days down, four driving days back and three days to visit in Florida.  We left the day after Thanksgiving, and arrived home the night before Alan needed to report for jury duty.  Was it even worth it?

A Tour of the Southwest - 12,182 Miles of Adventure

A leisurely tour of the southwestern United States had long been on our bucket list.  Although Alan and I had visited the Grand Canyon at least twice, traveled to the Dallas/Fort Worth area for business and to check in on friends, attended an adoption conference in Houston and driven through the southwest on our way to the west coast during our most recent National Parks trip, we had never actually vacationed throughout Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.  Well, now we have.

Before we left home on September 4^th, I had scheduled a bunch of appointments between the date we planned to return home (November 2^nd) and Thanksgiving.  I was attempting to get the important stuff out of the way before the start of the holiday season.  Eight appointments – four medical, one dental, three auto-related - and one wedding were on the calendar even before we left home in September.  I thought I was brilliant.  I was not.  I forgot how much time it takes to process two months of mail and dirty laundry and empty the travel trailer for the season.  Plus, we wanted to catch up with the kids, which is always a priority.  We’re home, but we’re dragging.  Thankfully, the trip itself was amazing and we happily crossed off another major item on our bucket list.  Here’s the summary: