Visiting Friends In the Mile High City - Denver Colorado

Denver, Colorado (86 degrees, clear blue skies)

There are some people in life that make you laugh a little louder, smile a little bigger, and live just a little better

                                                           Unknown author

Linda and Alan 

Jann with her grand daughter Zoe (Barry is not present)

We had a great time checking in with some friends while visiting Denver Colorado for a few days. One of the many great things about fulltiming is being able to catch up with friends as you travel. 

Our friends Linda and Alan from J. N. Ding Darling were staying at Estes Park for a couple of weeks. They came down specially just to see us for the day. We packed a picnic lunch and met at Cherry Creek State Park. 

Cherry Creek State Park

It's a huge and very scenic state park. We had a little bit of trouble finding each other. The weather was perfect. Afterwards we took them out to the Buckley Air Force Base military campground where we are staying in Aurora. This is a relatively new, well maintained campground. It has  well space sites on concrete pads with full hook ups.  There is not very much shade but we liked it very much . An added bonus was a free MYFI given to each camper with a refundable deposit of $50. It had unlimited GB's which is simply unheard of in a campground. Sweet! I managed to update everything including my Garmin. 

Our site at Buckley AFB (Jimmy is in the foreground)

Linda and Alan with their dogs Zoe and Pheadra

Buckley Air Force Base represents a joint Task Force which has "air operation, space-based missile warning capabilities, space surveillance operation, space communications operation, and support functions". Check out the huge satellite domes. They were located all around the base. 

We were treated to a spectacular sunset on our second night. A storm was coming in and lightening flashed through the clouds. What a sight.

We also met up with our friends Barry and Jann. They belong to our FMCA camping club Cuatro Estados (Four Corners) and we have met up numerous times. Last summer we visited Newfoundland with them and two other couples. They are staying for a while with their daughter in Denver. This time we also got to met their grand daughter Zoe, Jann's Mom and sister in law. 

We went downtown to the Aquarium. It was interesting but very crowded and way too loud. They did see some really cool fish and sea life.. We also had a nice lunch together downtown. 

Great place to cool off

We would love to return to Denver again soon for a longer visit. Our next stop is the Great Sands National Park. We will also get to see some friends we worked with at Grand Teton National Park. Check back soon. Some hot springs will soon be in our future. 

Thanks again to our friends for taking the time to get together with us. It was priceless! We look forward to seeing you again soon. Happy Trails!

Nice Surprise - Omaha Nebraska

Bellevue NE (76 degrees, sunny, blue skies)

"I still can't shake the Nebraska off of me"

Andrew Rannells

Lauritzer Botanical Gardens

At first we were going to only spend two days visiting Omaha Nebraska. However, the weather was so lovely and we planned some great things to do after researching the area with AAA tour guides. So, we quickly changed our plans and extended our stay. We stayed our first two night at Base Lake Campground which is located 15 minutes outside of Offutt Air Force Base in Bellevue. It was a pretty lake campground for active and retired military. The lake was stocked and we saw lots of people taking advantage of the good fishing. Our site was spacious with full hook ups. Reservations are recommended due to its popularity and small size. We feel very privileged to be able to stay at these military campgrounds and try to include them as often as possible in our travels. 

The Offutt Air Force Base is the  U.S. Strategic Command Headquarters which "provides reconnaissance and precision awareness to national leadership and war fighters at any time and any place". You can feel the power!  President Bush was brought here right after 9/11. Much of this base is underground and very secure.

Lauritzer Botanical Gardens

The next day we really enjoyed our visit to Lauritzer Botanical Gardens. Throughout the extensive grounds there are lovely gardens which branch off in different directions.

The rose garden has over 2000 bushes. You can take a tram tour here but we decided to walk it instead and enjoyed the leisurely pace. One of our favorites was a train garden. There were multiple tracks with trains scurrying around among the plants and trees. I was intrigued by the amazing detail.

Train Gar

The next day we went to the Dunham Museum. Bill and Chris you would really love it here. Omaha is all about trains. President Lincoln in 1858 designated this city as the place for the first transcontinental railroad to go westward. 

Dunham Museum

This museum is located in the former train station  of the Union Pacific. Its in a art deco style and is a very beautiful and unique place. 

Train Lobby and Waiting Area (soda fountain is in the back)

There were actual train cars you could walk through too. 

A fun traveling exhibit is here telling the tales shipwrecks and their recovery by Odyssey Marine Exploration.  There are some stunning displays of the actual  bounty discovered. There were lots of gold coins, silver bars, porcelain  treasures (amazing how they survived) and pirates too. Beware!

Glass bottles and perfume containers

Some of the coins in this case were worth over $25,000

Silver bars

Captain John Blackbeard

We had these sinfully delicious treats at the antique soda fountain. Yum!

We moved to another campground down the street due to a big event going on at the military park. Haworth Campground is a county campground along the Missouri River its good location is reasonably priced. Most sites are 30 amp sites. A few have 50 amp and water. 

Haworth Campground

When we were traveling in Canada last summer our friends Carl and Vickie  told us about how they loved to find Volksmarch walks and in-cooperated them in their full time travels. We tried one with Vickie in Quebec. I checked the website- see link -and found there were several in Omaha. The definition of a Volksmarch from their website is -" a non competitive 5 or 10 km walk. It's not a pledge walk, its not a race, it is a fun activity with your family, with your pet, or all by yourself. Volksmarching got its name from its origin in Europe. Today there are thousands of volksport clubs around the world."

On the website it tells you where to go to pick up the detailed instructions for the walk and how it is rated. This one was supposed to be well groomed with few obstacles. Sweet! In Omaha the walks are sponsored by the Nebraska Wander Freunde Trailblazers. We drove to the Comfort Inn and asked at the  desk for the "walk box". I found detailed instructions, map, and a stamp to be used if you want to obtain credit for the walk. We were soon on our way to the start point. It was a beautiful day for a walk. You can find a list of all the walks in the U.S by clicking this link.  Choose the state you are interested in walking and YRE/Seasonal Events drop down boxes. 

Lewis and Clark National Historic Visitor Center

Along the route we made a quick stop at the National Park Headquarters to get a stamp for our National Parks book. It  was a nice center. 

The highlight of this walk was passing by the park commemorating the pioneers and history of the westward movement. The life size statues are amazing. We spent a lot of time here walking among them. 

Check out how this buffalo which was incorporated right into the corner stone of a parking garage.

A 10K walk is a little bit long for us but we did better than expected. John's knee replacement really slowed us down for awhile but he is feeling better with each passing day and tolerated this walk fairly well. We did stop for lunch downtown for a break. 

There were bike rental racks everywhere What a cool idea. The first hour is $6 and each additional hour is $4.

Rental bicycles 

Our walk ended right along the Missouri river. There was a Taste of Omaha Festival going on which was a nice surprise and very well attended.

I think some more AVA walks will be in our future. Thank you Carl and Vickie for indroducing us to them. Why not try one yourself.

We are now heading further west to another Corp of Engineer Park in Nebraska. A side trip into Kansas to see the Worlds Largest Ball of Twine is on the agenda!

On The Road Again - Westward Ho!

"Goin' place that I've never been,

Seein' things that I may never see again,

I can't wait to be on the road again. (Willie Nelson)

We are now back on the road again and heading to Wyoming for the spring, summer, and fall.  Over 1900 miles are ahead of us and we have to travel quicker than usual in order to arrive in time.  

Our resident volunteer friends at Ding Darling held a nice going away dinner for us at Grandma Dot's.  We will miss them very much and plan on keeping in touch.

We use Microsoft's Streets and Trips to help plan our route.  It's SO helpful.  In the route planner you can enter where you want to start and end.  Then you add start and stop time for each day, how often you want to stop for a rest/meals, mileage per gallon and it then shows you on your route where an estimated stopping point is for each day, mileage, and total cost for fuel for the trip.  I use these breaking points to help find nearby places to camp.  

Here is an outline of our trip and stops.  

What I really like is the ability to import pin sets for all types of options.  For instance, you can drop in a pin set which shows you where the nearby Passport America discount campgrounds are located.  Or, I can drop in Elks Lodges which offer camp sites at their lodge.  Some of the other options are Military Campgrounds, Walmarts, Escapee Parks, Casino's with RV parks. Flying J's, and all kinds of restaurants. The software comes with many campgrounds and National Parks already built in but the additional pin sets are easy to add on and so helpful.  

Here is an example of Passport America campgrounds near one of our stopping points.  You just pick one of the locations and  the software puts your route together.  It has helped us find so many great campgrounds.  I have found campground guidebooks to not be very helpful because they are organized by a city.  It's very hard to know the exact city where you want to stop and many great campgrounds might be nearby with a different city address.

I use Streets and Trips for planning only.  You can also buy it with GPS navigation, but I find the navigation with my Smartphone and paper maps are a better option.  

I keep a map of our route each year with all the campgrounds.  It's a great reference for finding a campground you really liked in the past.  There is a bit of learning curve involved with this program and I found Geeks on Tour tutorials to be very helpful.  Geeks on Tour offer quick 5-7 minute how to videos which walk you through how to use this program and add additional pin sets.  If you don't know about Geeks on Tour, be sure to click this link.  I have learned so much from them and it keeps me up to date on blogging, Picasa, cell phones, and technology of all kinds.  

Another great tool I use for planning and finding campgrounds is Allstays.  It's an app on my IPad and its has filters which help you find your favorite type of campground. We tend to like state parks, county parks, and Corp of Engineer Parks. How about you?  

Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway

We're the best of friends,

Insisting that the world keep turning our way.

Our first stop after leaving Sanibel was to have some RV repair done.  Our lock to our door was not working properly and was getting harder and harder to open.  John had looked at the mechanism and decided it was above his pay grade.  A mobile RV repair person recommended Alliance RV repair in Wildwood Florida.  They have a free campground in the back if you are having repairs completed.  They quickly diagnosed the problem and replaced the lock and cable.  We were very impressed with them and would stop there again if needed.  

This facility is outside a very famous retirement community called the Villages.  We drove through parts of it while we were waiting on our repairs.There is housing of all types and price range and it even has it's own zip code.  Golf carts were zipping around everywhere. and some of these were pretty amazing.  There were some beautiful golf courses and homes.  

Alliance RV Repair

Our next stop was in Ocala at the Cummins South facility.  We stop here every year to have routine maintenance for our diesel engine.  They also have a free campground in the back.  We met Leonard and Sondra who are considering the full timing lifestyle.  They had lots of questions and the time flew by quickly as we waited for our service to be completed. We wish them success in selling their home this year and getting on the road soon.  

Getting ready to leave Ocala

Georgia was our next stop.  Spring was in full tilt and the flowering dogwoods were lovely.  We stayed at a military campground called Navy Lake Site in Allatoona.  It was NOT big rig friendly.   I had read the reviews and website and John had talked to the staff.  No one mentioned how difficult it would be to stay here in a big rig.  The roads were very steep, windy, and there were lots of over hanging limbs.  John is a great driver but he found it very stressful.  The site we were assigned was basically along a steep hill and impossible to level. We did not extend our slides.  We arrived after the office was closed, however, there did not appear to be an alternate site which would have worked  It was a very pretty campground but not for rigs our size.  At least we were only there for one night.  Our usual length of stay is at least a week.  

Our site at Navy Lake

The next two nights were spent at Passport America campgrounds.  Do you use them?  We have found them to be great when you need a quick over night stay.  The price is reasonable (usually around $15-20/night) and the campgrounds are usually a nice place to stay.  

Little Grassy Lake Campground was located near Carbondale Illinois in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.  It was very nice and the campground host was so friendly after a long day of driving through four states.  We would have liked to have stayed longer due to great kayaking opportunities.  

Little Grassy Lake

Missouri was our next state and we stayed at Lake Paradise Resort in Lone Jack. It is a large campground with five lakes and the largest pool in Missouri.  It was pretty much empty this time of year but it looked very nice and well kept.  Our pull through site along one of the lakes was very pleasant.

We are making good time and on average have been driving about 400 miles a day.  We try to always be in a campground by 4pm.  Driving into a unknown campground at night is not a good idea.

So check back soon as we continue to travel  down the highway.  Thanks for stopping by.

and our way is on the road again!"