Eastbound to Westbound Redux

 After leaving Boone, NC and the headwaters of the New River, we arrived in short order to Blacksburg, VA and Virginia Tech (VT). I have not seen VT since graduating in 1980 and man has the campus and town changed. All of the growth seems to have been handled very well as the new buildings on campus are spread out amongst beautiful landscaping, trim lawns and handsome pedestrian/bicycle paths throughout while the town's improvements have seemed to have kept an historical perspective to the local roots. It is very nice. Now, this is May, I'm sure my opinions on the beauty would be a little bit different in February! Entrance to VT near the football stadium, on Beamer Way. Our first order of business was to check in with Parking Services on campus to secure a permit to park the RV in a campus lot over the weekend. Filled out the paperwork...name, domicile, license number kinda thing... and as she is running it thru the computer it suddenly dawns on me that back when I left in 198...

Had a long travel day going from the Great Smokies over to Asheville, NC where we met up with sister Holly and her husband Glen for 3 nites. The trip over went thru the most beautiful countryside of western NC on very, and I mean very, narrow country lanes...so narrow in fact, thought I was going to take out a dozen or so mailboxes with the LD! It was all in all a very pretty ride but a bit stressful at times and pushing 8 hours which is an extremely long road day for us. We try to keep it to 2-4 hours max. We settled in at the Bear Creek RV Resort with Holly and Glen, a nice place just a few miles west of downtown Asheville, would recommend it if you ever get to these here parts. Found Ashville to be a very cool town with a high slant towards tourism. So you see all the touristy trappies that you can imagine but it also has an underlying artsy/folksy scene which is pretty well done, even appealed to this old fart who usually scoffs at these types of places. They have converted their o...

 The great Smokey Mountains that is! Wow, what a time we Arnold's had in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park (GSMNP). It was so fun to meet up with sisters Sue, Holly and Amy along with their stellar mates Bill, Glen and Mark. We managed to catch up and then some. Amy and Mark rented a posh cabin high above Wears Valley just a click or so out of Townsend, TN and Sue/Bill and Holly/Glen parked in their driveway for the first nite and we posted up in an RV park just down the way. Me and my sisters, from l-r, Amy, Sue, Holly and me. Amy's hubbie Mark is partially in the foreground doing a magnificent job of holding down that fine glass of red!  The next day we packed up the wagon and headed out to our campground at the GSMNP. Drove thru the town of Gatlinburg, TN which was absolutely hillbilly heaven. Mobbed with people, thought I was going to take out some pedestrians ambling out into the street with my side view mirrors. If you've ever seen the movie "It's a Wo...

 After N'ville we traveled to Mammoth Cave National Park in KY, the Bluegrass State, to meet up with my sisters Sue and Holly. No, I didn't see any grass that was blue but the locals swear I'm not looking at it correctly. Shit, I don't know, isn't grass green?  Honestly, with Deb's knee replacement a mere 5 weeks ago I thought our prospects of making this meet up were maybe 50-50. But, by God, Deb is a gamer! She is doing so well with her rehab and owes it all to the hard work she's putting in, very proud of her. My oldest sister Sue, the best big sister a guy could ask for by the way, just purchased a brand spankin new Pleasure Way RV with her fiance Bill and are kicking the boots and cruising! We are on our way to their nuptials in Boston mid June, can't wait. Sue and Bill, we had such an epic time with you guys, love you both! And Bill, thanks for the fine bottle of Woodford Malt Whiskey, very smoove! My sister Holly and her husband Glen have been tra...

 Last left you all in the fantastic Ozarks. This post will not contain many photos, I'm having some photo uploading angst but will have it resolved soon. Wanted to post this to get you up to date on our whereabouts. Upon leaving the Ozarks the beeline to N'ville brought us thru the bootheel (pronounced boothill by the locals) of Missouri (MO). If you check out a map of the State of MO you'll notice a rectangular shaped parcel of land in the southeast corner of the state jutting into the State of Arkansas (AR). It appears as if the State of MO has a boot heel on it's southeasterly extremity. It looks very odd as the southerly border of MO runs as a straight east to west line except for this 50 square mile rectangular shape that pops southerly into what is now AR...hmmm.  Apparently, back in the day, MO was a State and AR at the time was a Territory. There was a fellow in around the 1830's named John Walker who was a big time cotton grower in the boot and argued that ...

Continuing our travels thru the magnificent Ozarks, we literally stumble upon the quiet hamlet of Hardy, AR. Picked this spot only because it was the terminus of a 3 plus hour drive and we were ready to stretch out. Right next to the shoreline of the Spring River in Hardy sits a City owned park with campground right on the river. Looks cool, let's cruise in...City Public Works employee mowing the grass (man, that's all folks do around these parts is mow grass, they actually have grass mowing competions in their spare time! wild as all get out!) saunters up and asks if we want a site, yep, sure do. That'll be $25 and my husband will be around in awhile to collect...fair enough. Big time mowing here in the Ozarks. Now that's a man that ain't bothering no one! What we didn't notice was the BSNF railroad tracks about 100 yards from our site. Let's just say that the trains came thru so often we didn't notice them. Man o man, every hour, 24/7 with horns blasti...

 First off, KS highways have been the best we have seen on our trip. Whatever gas taxes you Kansans have been paying it has been put to good use, cheers! Well, where to start...let's start at the beginning. We pull into Aunt Glenda's ranch a few klicks north of El Dorado, KS. Her family has owned these 1000 plus acres for generations. She greets us with a smile and a wave of the hand from the highway, we have arrived. Glenda asks, you guys hungry? Hell yeah we're hungry...off we go to Willie's Sports Bar in downtown El Dorado, KS. Friendly hang and we meet up with her good friend Darlene. That's me, Darlene and Glenda at Willie's. We greatly enjoyed our visit at Willie's and really loved spending time with Glenda catchin up and having some laughs with Darlene. Darlene, enjoy your travels this summer with your family and if you ever get to San Diego please look us up, we'd love to return the hospitality, you gotta promise, OK? By the by, Glenda knew most ...

 Spent the nite in Dodge City KS last Saturday where we made the obligatory visit to the Doc Holiday sculpture in old Dodge. Here I am playing low card stud with Doc. Notice he is reaching for his pistol with his right hand but I think I may have the draw on him, probably not, as Doc is saying to me 'you're a daisy if you do'. Stayed the nite boondocking in the Boot Hill Casino parking lot outside of town and had a nice Kansas City Filet Steak and lobster there and caught the KY Derby. Deb won a decent amount of money wagering, enough to cover dinner and drinks so Dodge City was a good stop for us. This will be a brief one today due to a slow wi-fi connection here at Table Rock State Park in the Ozarks...bee-u-tiful place by the way. I'll give you a nice write up on our wonderful stay at Glenda's ranch in KS in the next day or so. Peace out, Debbie and Howard

 After Walsenburg we headed, a bit out of the way, to visit a spot we had targeted in our pre trip planning...Boise (pronounced Boys) City, OK, the epicenter of the great dust bowl in the early part of the 20th century. If you've seen the Ken Burns documentary or the movie Interstellar many of the interviews with survivors of the Dust Bowl resided in Boise City. It was also the scene of an infamous murder which we'll get to. We posted up at a really funky RV Resort that included an 18 hole championship miniature golf course! and prairie views that went as far as the eye could see. Entrance to Wild Bill's RV Resort, Boise City, OK. You can see hole numbers one and two of the championship tract to the left...didn't play and never saw wild Bill...bummer, wanted to meet the wild man. So as to this murder business. Back in 1986, 3 - 18 year old scumbags steal a car in Waco TX and it breaks down on a rural highway outside of Boise City at 2:30 AM. A traveling salesman named R...

After Taos we moved to Walsenburg, CO to visit the town where Deb's mothers relatives lived long ago. Her grandfather Joe Giro was the son of a Czech coal miner (oh, coal mining was a big time industry in Walsenburg back in the early 1900's) and her grandmother's family, the Cory's, ran a mercantile selling supplies to the miner's families...at least to the ones who didn't work for script and company stores for the big mining companies. We stayed at Lathrop State Park, the oldest State park in CO, which was a beautiful park in the hills with a couple of lakes right next to town. We spent a day touring town, stopping by the Huerfano Heritage Center and visiting some of the local businesses. While at the Heritage Center we met John a very knowledgeable man who lived in Walsenburg all his life. One of the best heritage center's we've seen with original newspapers from the early 1900's neatly arranged and organized by date and in boxes. From this researc...

 We've just passed one week on the trip and have made it about halfway across the country. Man, there is so much beautiful open space in this Nation it defies description! I know, I know...the blog has taken a bit of a back seat but worry not followers, I'll get her crankin' along in due time. Whew, where to start....last left you guys outside of Phoenix last Monday and from there we moved the wagon train on towards Taos, NM where we spent a coupla nites. On the way we cruised thru the Mogollon (pronounced Mow- gee (ryhmes with key)- on) Rim country. I worked on a large water supply project for a huge golf course development there many years ago so I was somewhat familiar with the area but it is much nicer visiting it without having to concentrate on work, you know you can take it in a little better when you're relaxed and cruising. Picture of info board at the Rim. Google it...this rock escarpment stretches from Utah thru AZ and into NM, impressive country and quite be...