Fayetteville To Moab

Monday we drove from Fayetteville AR to Wilson State Park Kansas (about 50 miles west of Salina). The park is about 7 miles off I70 and is really quiet and clean.  I imagine that during the summer it has lots of boaters/fishermen, but it was almost vacant for our weekday visit. It only has 3 full hookups at $26 per night but they also charge $5 entrance fee. It also has a lot of tent and rv sites not full hookups.

Wednesday we drove from Wilson State Park to Aurora CO and camped at Cherry Creek State Park. Aurora is a southern suburb of Denver. The park is really nice, with camping spaces having plenty of room/ Camping fee for full hookup is $24 per night but they also charge $9 park fee per day, so the fee is really $33. The park is active with bicyclists and tent campers as well as RVs. We made a run over to camping world and found it in the GPS, but when we got there (24 miles through rush hour traffic) we found another RV dealer. They said they haven't been camping world for 2 years. We found most of we needed there anylway at a slightly higher price. Upon leaving Denver we saw the real camping world on the far west side of Denver.

Friday we drove the remaining distance to Moab UT through some of the most beautiful terrain in the country. The Rockies are indeed fantastic and we didn't have a bit of car trouble. We beat the trucks up the mountain but they usually passed us going down. The last time we drove through Vail CO was on our honeymoon 52 years ago, we almost couldn't believe the change. It is now a little bit like LA. Back then we stayed in a little old rustic motel (I think there was 2 in town).

We'll be driving to Capitol Reef on Monday. We hope to make at least one trip to Arces NP before we leave Moab.

Fayetteville (Razorback Heaven)

We enjoyed visiting with Joe and his family, picnicking on Saturday and Sunday. Josh led us a tour of Fayetteville. We started by going to farmer's market but it was really crowded and we couldn't find a parking place within walking distance. Then we toured the University of Arkansas campus. Old Main was dedicated in 1892 and stands today a symbol of the search for higher education. Josh is a freshman this year but plans on going on a mission before next year. Bernard recently returned from his mission to Denver and will start at BYU next year as a Sophomore.

After a picnic in a Siloam Springs park we walked through the annual Dogwood Festival and viewed the many shops. The wood furniture and other items were very interesting.

Tomorrow we leave for a state park outside of Salina Kansas.

Vicksburg

Made it to Vicksburg today. Very nice day all the way. Tomorrow we'll take in the National Military Park and downtown Vicksburg, tonight we're going to hang low. Staying at Magnolia RV Park on Miller Ave, it's not a beautiful park but it's nice and clean, filled up our propane tank.

Really enjoyed the Vicksburg Military Park. Hundreds if not thousands of  monuments. We started to take pictures of all then but soon decided that was fruitless, so just photoed the big ones. Grant spent 3 months trying to capture Vicksburg but in the end was able to cut off their supplies and patiently waited for their supplies to run out. Pemberton finally surrendered on July 4 1863, thus the Union grabbed control of the Mississippi and cut the Confederacy in two. Many say it was the turning point of the war. Twenty thousand Americans lost their lives in the battle.

We also visited the Coca-Cola museum, home of the place that Coca Cola was first bottled. After going into the shop we decided not to pay the $3.50 for the museum but did buy a souvenir bottle, which didn't take long to drink (8 oz),

1st Day in 2015 US Tour

We drove 365 miles today for our first day out on our 2015 US tour. Had a little bit of rain and wind but it was mostly just a cloudy and cool day. We didn't have to use our AC at all. We filled up at a Flying J in Tallahassee for 2.299/gal. We are settled in Eagle's Landing RV Park for the night. Getting here was kind of a fluke. We had called River's Edge RV Park, which is just down the road, and told them we were coming. The GPS had different ideas tho and brought us here for a savings of about $5/night. We plan on staying here a couple of nights, cause we just don't like to drive 2 days in a row. The sky cleared up this evening and it's now beautiful. Our new 1997 Saturn towed beautifully, It didn't seem to make much difference in the driving at all.  If you see us on the road stop in & say hi. The plan is to visit the Utah National Parks, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, Nauvoo and Upper Mich as well as our 3 kids in Arkansas, Utah and Virginia.

Busch Gardens and Sea World

We bought an annual pass for Busch Gardens Tampa/Sea World Orlando and have really enjoyed many trips to both parks with family and friends. Busch held a nine week concert series and we were able to catch Herman's Hermits with Peter Noone, Fernando Valera, Memory of Ricky Nelson by his twin sons Matthew and Gunnar, Shirley Jones, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Exile with Juice Newton.We took several tame rides and one roller coaster ride (Pat didn't breathe for 3 minutes so we didn't take any more rollercoasters).

We will attending the South East Lazy Daze get to gather at Crystal River in a couple of weeks and the head for Utah in latter April for a 7500 mile road trip. We should get back home for the last 3 months of our Busch Gardens pass.

Luray Caverns

What a wonderful coujle of days. Jerry and family met us in Massanutten Friday night and we spent Saturday in the waterpark going down the big slides. Today we drove back to Richmond, stopping off in Luray to go thru the Caverns. It wasn't until we got down to the bottom and saw the Organ Room did we remember going thru these caverns in 1997 our first year of RVing. Of course back then we didn't have a digital camera so we didn't take as many pictures of the beautiful formations that we did today.

The drive from Luray to Richmond was exceptionally beautiful - broad green pastures and fields. We drove over the Blue Ridge Mountains close to the Shenandoah National Park, very beautiful.

The Shenandoah Valley, VA

We got here Sunday after 12 hours on the road and were plumb tired. Monday we laid low to recuperate. Pat hasn't felt really well so we've taken only short walks. The area is beautiful with lots of wildlife: deer, woodchucks, rabbits, birds.

Jerry and family will be here tomorrow night . Sunday we'll go back to Richmond and spend a couple of nights then return home, probably Tuesday.

The Massanutten Resort is very, very nice. They have a great waterpark and lots of things to do including: golf, kayaking, zip line, bungee jumping, hiking, etc. We have a great 2 bedroom condo that sleeps 6. It has a large jacuzzi tub in one of the bathrooms..