no computer = no posts

Sorry, folks. Left my computer at my daughters in Toronto, therefore no post until the weekend. Suffice to say we are back in Ontario and it is freezing cold.

Home but not home.

Where are we?

Cedar beach Park, Stouffville, Ontario

Welcome to new readers, Sassy and Bennie.

We arrived back in Ontario on Thursday afternoon to find our site at our home base has not been leveled or graveled. I emailed the manager about 2 weeks ago about what we wanted done and, of course it hasn't been. The site is very muddy and soft and we are afraid that we will sink into the mud and not be able to get out. I really want to get going with getting the deck and garden sorted out. So until we are on our site and have access to our cable internet, there will be no posts. :-(


View Larger Map

Snow tonight?? You sure?

Where are we today?

Max Meadows, VA

Firstly, welcome to the blog, Bea and her hubby (??? J.P.???). New readers.

The weather report for tonight and tomorrow is not too good (rain and maybe snow), so we decided to cough up the money to stay at a campground. There being no Coast to Coast resorts around here and all the Passport America Campgrounds, in the area, have terrible reviews, we found this campground, called Pioneer Village Resort, on our Camp & RV app on the iPad.

The reviews were good so we decided to give it a try. It is close to the I81 and in a very pretty location with a river running past it's north edge. The trees are still small as the campground has only opened in the past couple of years. The staff have gone out of their way to make sure we had a nice site that suited our motor home. One of the owners came over to our site to give us information and to take the payment. They even gave us a discount as they do honour memberships with a 10% off. The internet is free and good (I am picking it up via my Wifi Ranger). We have full hookup with 50 amps. I suggested they become a Passport America campground to increase their traffic, especially with all the snowbirds traveling to and from in the shoulder seasons.

Tonight we will have the electric heater and mattress cover turned on. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Site is on a slope so the front is jacked up really high.

This campground is almost empty. They could have a whole lot more RVs if they were a Passport America campground. 

Here is our route thus far.
Remember to use the controls in the upper left to see the whole map or zoom in on any particular point.

View Larger Map

Winery overnighting.

Where are we today?

Del Monaco Winery, Baxter, Tennessee.

Another day of driving. We have not been able to do the 2X2X2 Rule, but we have been camping for free. Tonight's camp is at Del Monaco Winery in Tennessee. This is part of the Harvest Hosts program. If you decide to sign, please add our names (Mike and Dee White) in the "Referred By" field and you and we will get an extra month added to our membership.

This place is so quiet and peaceful. Such a change from Walmarts!!

Today has been cloudy and cool all day and there has been a fine misty rain falling since late in the afternoon. Thank goodness we are toasty and warm in our little house on wheels.

Del Monaco Winery. There was a wedding going on while we were there, so we could not park in the parking lot, so the manager put us out in the "sub-division".

The inside of the winery is sparkling clean and modern. Nice to see the South African flag up on the wall.

There we are out in the back 40. Very quiet and peaceful. Right in among the vines.

View Larger Map

About to cross over.

Where are we today? 

West Memphis, Arkansas

Tomorrow we cross the Mississippi and will truly be in the "east". We are camped at the Walmart right next to the I 40 and I think the highway noise will be "white noise". Not much will keep us awake tonight.

As soon as we drove in, the Walmart Security officer drove over to us and told us where to park and said "Stay as long as you like!" Now wasn't that nice of him!

Thank you, sir, but we will be leaving here in the morning and going to Flying J down the road and filling this hungry beast!

I wonder where we will be tomorrow night??

Here is our route so far.

Remember to use the tools in the upper left corner to navigate around the map.


View Larger Map

Walmart in Checotah, Oklahoma

Filled up at the Flying J and then went over the road to the Walmart for the night. 2 miles off the I 40 but quiet. That is, until the lot sweeper started doing his thing at midnight. I don't know if he has a grudge against RVs, but he sure made certain that the area, around the 2 RVs parked here, was spotless. What a noise!

Then at about 1:00am a storm came through. The thunder and rain kept us awake until 3:00am. Not a good night.

We have been using Rest Stops with Dumps for emptying waste tanks and filling our fresh tank. Using the AllStays App, Camp and RV, we are able to find whatever facilities we need. Oklahoma has Rest Stops with Dumps. We have yet to see what is available in Arkansas, but may not need one for a few days.

I just wish we had been able to get solar installed. Maybe next winter.

Nothing exciting for today.

Where are we today? 

Amarillo, Texas

We came back down to the I 40 and along to Amarillo, Texas. Fill up at Flying J and are now parked in the Walmart Supercenter, just east of Amarillo. Blazing hot and windy. Tomorrow, into Oklahoma.

Us now

Us when we win the lottery

Santa Fe and Pecos National Historical Park

Where are we today?

Santa Fe, NM

Our trip into Santa Fe was most enjoyable. We wandered around the town centre looking at all the lovely adobe buildings, wandering the streets around the central plaza. We saw the Palace of the Governors, the Basilica of St Francis, Georgia O'Keefe Gallery and then had a lovely lunch at Cafe Pasqual's. I had a Breakfast Quesadilla and Michael had the Smoked Trout Hash. Very nice.

After lunch we jumped back in the car and headed north on I 25 to Pecos National Historical Park. This is a place where there are ruins of an old Indian adobe pueblo and ruins of an old Catholic Church.

Here are an assortment of our pictures from today. (Can you believe that we both forgot to take a photo of the Palace of the Governors).

Firstly Santa Fe - I just love the architecture.

Crazy sculpture

Attractive walkway

Row of shops in a very old building

Inside the Basilica Cathedral of St Francis

Sculpture in the Cathedral Gardens

Quirky bench

Pasqual's Cafe where we had brunch

Interesting courtyard

I have a thing for doorways

Just love the adobe architecture

More interesting buildings 

We almost ate here. Place called The Shed

So interesting

This was the only picture we took of the Palace of the Governors

Inside Pasqual's Cafe

Michael's Smoked trout on potato cake with poached eggs and salsa

My Quesadilla

Looking out

Hemp Store

Pictures from Pecos National Historical Park

Ruin of the second church

Picture of the Palace of the Governors as it was.

Michael comes out of a Kiva

Just what I needed to know

Michael in the church

Diorama of an inhabited Pueblo 

A little further east....

Where are we today? 

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We never did get over to the Casino last night and decided to just have a healthy breakfast in the RV before setting off. These pics were taken this morning just before we left.

Dancing Eagle RV Park

Pretty much a parking lot with hookups

Gravel

Hooking up to leave this morning

A few pull throughs in the center

Bleak and uninteresting

Our site was back against the wall next to that old motorhome

That's the Casino in the background. We did not even go in.

It was just a short drive to Santa Fe Skies RV Park just south of Santa Fe. We were going to stop at the San Felipe Hollywood Casino for $10 a night, but after seeing that it was about 40 miles from Santa Fe we decided to cough up the $$$$ for a spot here. The park costs way more than it should. No pool, no hot tub, but we do have full hookup. We are on the side of a hill overlooking the town. The view of the mountains is quite beautiful. Todays weather is cool and very windy. I hope it is better for our day in Santa Fe.

The view from the dinette window

Snow capped mountains

The administration building

Lovely views

Some of the sites

More sites

Site 8

Okay, what was this?

Part of the exhibition of old vehicles and farm implements

Just a little over the top!

Snow on the peaks

Wanna buy it?

Add caption

OK, so what is this about??

Solar array to help with 50 amps on every site