The HANDFUL

We have been in Colorado this week. It's been too long since we have been footloose and fancy free. It feels good. It's all gone too quickly, in fact we are actually making our way back East today. It's been a good trip. The Blue River was a great place for a getaway. No hustle and bustle but if you are looking for that sort of thing you are just a short drive away. We did take a day trip into Breckenridge. Rode the gondola up the mountain, strolled the town, got the T-shirts, had lunch and then returned to our quiet little riverside spot. And yesterday we made our way through Hoosier Pass so we could make a stop by Bailey, CO. Found some neat things in this cute little town. IYKYK...

Campsite view night #1.

Campsite view nights#2 & #3

Night #4 was another awesome view but I failed to snap a picture. The real picture would have been the road getting there...yes, yes it was quite a ride! But we made it in and out unscathed. Though I do not wish to repeat such trip.

Here's hoping to be able to get out and do this again soon as when the weather cools. Chose our destination specifically to escape the Midwest heat. It worked as there was snow in the higher elevations while we were there and the overnights were quite chilly. It was a welcome change and made morning coffee taste that much better! While we might have had bigger plans like paddleboarding and hiking, We mainly enjoyed the scenery, good food and bourbon.  Cheers to our last night in the mountains.

Wild & Three Thursday!

We are in Joshua Tree National Park! WOW! Neat, neat little place. We snagged what we thought was the last spot, then as we are walking back to the iron ranger we notice a spot with people but no tag. After inquiring, no they aren't camping, they just stopped to picnic. Really, in the campground? There are plenty of picnic stops, I just don't get it. We moved to that spot since it was a bit bigger and move level for sure. Sweet!

And those Joshua Trees, well, you might get a Dr Seuss feeling while looking at them. But fun fact...they are not really trees! I know! Google it, it's true! Since I was so underwhelmed at Big Ben National Park last week it was good to be impressed again. Part of my poor assessment could be weather related. It was windy, really, really windy. And due to rains and foggy weather we were unable to do some of the major hikes we were planning. However, the reality is we will probably not make a return visit to BBNP. Park staff was not very helpful or friendly and the park itself seems tired. Back to Joshua Tree...lovely park. Though not a fan of their new all reservation campgrounds. At least two of their larger campgrounds have gone the route of must make a reservation to get in. Not good, not good at all especially for people like us. We were fortunate to snag a spot at White Tank which is still a first come, first serve. We ended up staying two nights. As we made our way through the park we checked out one of the reservation only locations. Nearly empty! Ugh, that really makes me ruffled. we encountered this reservation only type campground in Michigan earlier this year and we are just not a fan. Especially when the walk in sites are ALL full and the reservation sites are going unused.

Anywho, as I mentioned in another post we are making our way to California to meet up with the Daughter. We were fortunate to get a visit in at Guadalupe National Park. However, due to high winds we were unable to hike.That was a real bummer for MiRV as he had hoped to hike the high point. Speaking of campgrounds, GNP has one....well they are calling their parking lot a campground which IMO is stretching it. What you really have is a semi flat parking lot that they call  a campground! LOL It most certainly is not. But at least you get to stay right in the park. And in all honesty we were thrilled to snag one of only two spots open when we rolled in. While we were there we trekked on up the road to visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park. How cool is that place? FYI you can go on your own self guided tours. So don't fret when you check the website and it says all the "tours" are sold out. Those are the park guided tours and you can still go on your own self guided tour during park hours. You set out and just explore on your own on the designated paths or grab an audio guide for $5. It's pretty awesome. Disclaimer: It does stink at the natural entrance from all the bat droppings!

We also stopped by White Sands National Monument, twice. Even rode down the dunes a couple times! Then we headed on into Arizona where we made a little side trip up to Saguaro National Park. It was incredible. The number of saguaros was totally overwhelming. I have never even seen that type of cactus in person before so to see so many in one spot was WOWSA! The coolest thing there was seeing the little Mexican elf owl in the abandoned woodpecker hole.What a treat that was. So cute. We really enjoyed the drive through this park and the friendly staff. Another impressive stop has been Organ Pipe National Monument. The campground here was quite nice. Not crowded at this time of year...even though there are 200+ sites. There had solar showers and a beautiful sunset as well as sunrise on our stay over. I would return here in a heartbeat. Though it's quite a drive to get down there I think it was worth it. In hindsight we probably should have done more then one night. Make sure you leave the light on and the hood up for pack rat deterrence! Seriously!

Still looking forward to seeing the Daughter and family in a few days for a week of beach life. Meanwhile we are gonna enjoy a little more time at Joshua Tree before meandering on that direction. Looking forward to the night sky tonight, they say it is quite the view. I'll let you know.

South bound...

It's soooooo stinking cold, like in the single digits cold. I don't enjoy cold. And then there is the wind. So we have a few days and decided we are fleeing to the south. It was a grand flybytheseatofyourpants trip. We thought we were going to LA as in Louisiana, then looked at perhaps Biloxi but here we are tucked away in Galveston, Texas. 

It was the best temperature option for the timeframe we had and besides the lady at Grand Isle said the noseeums were still biting there. I definitely wanted no part of that. So here we are and its 64* and we have the windows open as we head to bed. I just had a biggerthenIneeded cup of peach ice cream and there is peach bread for breakfast in the morning. Tomorrow will be a little different ballgame weather wise but it will still be warmer then MO or NE. Enjoy life while you can...

#TEXASiswarmer

Hanging in Harlingen

While it's not been super sunny every day we have seen the sun and it's at least been warmer...this is good! Our stay in Harlingen has been fun, they have lots to offer. We easily found free overnight spots from a TX Wildlife Management Area on the outskirts of town to the Bass Pro. Hey, they ALL work for us! Incredible what just changing sides of the parking lot does for a little too much road noise. But the trains, oh they have trains and lots of 'em in this area!

We've checked out most of the city parks, I'm happy to report they are all in use. It's good to see the locals enjoying the outdoors! Loved the people watching...some of our imaginations run a little wilder than others...huhmmm.

Observing the local activity at Dixieland. Playing Frisbee while at the Sports Complex. 

We've also visited a couple Starbucks and quickly had a favorite! We explored the downtown area, went to the farmers market, found a little bakery, toured the Marine Academy, home to the model sculpture for the Iwo Jima in Washington, DC. It's all interesting! The local walking tour was a large group and unfortunately the guide left something to be desired, but we met some nice people! The farmers market was really small but still neat to walk around and see the local flare!

Iwo Jima Memorial.

On the downtown walking tour.

We were really thrilled to find an indoor aquatics center online and for $1 we thought we could "swim" and use the facilities. Awesome except it reality there were not 'facilites' as in real showers (just rinse off stations)/ Boooo! One of the issues when you don't campground camp, is that  you have no facilities so it is a challenge to get a shower! Of course Roada has hers but we try to minimize water usage when not sure where our next dump station and water fill will be. MiRV actually did end up swimming laps at the pool and did use the rinse offs so it was fine overall and well worth his dollar to do it!

I do believe Harlingen is a pretty neat little town, quite diverse and has an interesting history and we have enjoyed our time but we are ready for a change of scenery so we are heading west! Stay tuned for our next adventure taking place tomorrow afternoon as we travel into the Texas countryside to attend a bullfight in the Santa Maria Bullring!

The other Big News around here is the capture of 'El Chapo' and the lottery with it's BIG jackpot! Guess we should get a couple tickets...

On a side note I must say we have about a gabillion Customs & Border Patrol agents floating around down here. They are active, VERY active. We saw them in a full on chase with a K9 unit on our way from Kingsville to Harlingen. We passed multiple stations and there were hundreds of cars parked there. We were passed by one on the wrong side of the road going really fast, we have seen them just standing outside their cars observing the traffic flow, just going with traffic up and down the roads and in the drivethru lane at Starbucks!. It's impressive; while I remember seeing them on our last visit in 2012 I don't quite remember them having this much presence and I'm not really sure how that makes me feel.

#OWT

Middle Creek State Fishing Lake

It's been a looooong week. Since we can, we did. After we had Roada worked on today it was late in the day, we were tired and it had been a rainy drive so we were spent. We were going to mosey on down to our MO landing pad which is about 75 miles south; however, we decided to check out one the boondocking sites we had spotted instead. Again, since we can, we did, isn't that pretty darn awesome. I love not having to keep a rigid schedule, it's glorious.

We went west just a few short miles, stopped in town for a few provisions, then settled in for the night. I think we were just ready to be still and enjoy the quiet for a bit with no interruptions, expectations or interactions. Spending the last week and a half cleaning, packing, loading, moving, etc, etc has taken its toll and we just needed some downtime. I think it's safe to say Middle Creek State Fishing Lake fills the bill. it's a little gem. There are boats out on the lake, but we are the only ones camping.

Nice view...IMO

While we knew there were no hookups, nor onsite water, it had also been reported there were no facilities. Update the books folks as we were pleasantly surprised to find there are vault toilets. Jackpot in our book, cause we while we are good for no hookups and have our own onboard water we do prefer toilets be available. Win, win! We will be keeping an eye on the sky as there is some weather expected overnight but otherwise I think we are in for a very nice stay.



 #boondockingiseasyinaRT



Quilt Museum and a Veteran's Memorial

I have several friends who are quilters, I love quilts so when I saw that there was a quilt museum near where we were I thought we should go. Upon further investigation it is the ONLY quilt museum in the state of Florida. I did not know there hours so we set out to go one afternoon. We arrived and they were closed. Since it was a bit rural and there was plenty of parking we just spent the night and waited for them to open the next morning.

It was a pretty nice quiet night!

We were greeted by the volunteer staff and invited in...

 

 

 This was a quilt sofa...quite unique!

 

One of my favorites was  that star, MiRV liked this star one best.

So many beautiful pieces and really such works of art. While I do think this star one was one of my favs; it was hard to have only one favorite. I mean seriously these things were just beautiful. Some were so very different and extremely unique that there really was just no way to choose only one favorite! Can't do it!

Lots of eye candy and much history and a little bit of heritage mixed with some pride of their institution as it should be. And it all started with one lady's dream for a place that quilter's could come together, learn from each other and work together. What an enjoyable morning we had!

After a nice lunch with a wonderful water view we made our way to Perry, FL.

We stopped at the Forest Museum which was pretty neat and then drove through town and stumbled into the town Veteran Memorial. Well done, Perry, Florida, well done!

 Love the permanent yellow ribbon round the tree

Truly one of the nicest tributes to Veteran's we have ever seen.

#QuiltsNOTjustblankets
#Veterans

INCREDIBLE Adventure

I really, really like manatees. I think they are the most amazing creatures. I've always jumped at the chance to go see and just watch these gentle giants and I could just watch them for hours. They are so docile, they have no known enemies, they are not aggressive ever. they have no teeth. Many people compare them to elephants but they are really more closely related to pigs. Seriously! Learn something new everyday!

Anywho, we were going to be traveling through Crystal River and this is one of only two places that allow swimming with manatees in Florida so we popped on in and set up a tour. The bonus was that Captain Tim let us boondock at the marina, too! Which was really nice since we needed to be there super early. 

Our spot for the night was nice at Pete's Pier!

Captain Tim was a great guy and environmentalist who truly cares about the manatee and its habitat. He works hard to protect the manatee and also provide the close encounter experience that we had without negative impact on these awesome creatures!

 

Our day began with coffee and much excitement...let me mention it was cold, too. Which seems like yuck, but this is good. See manatees don't like cold water and since we were going to be going to The Three Sisters Springs and those are warm the manatee would be flocking in for the warm water on this cool morning! It was perfect!

When we set up our tour, we had to watch a video on the do's and don'ts of swimming with the manatees and also get a little education on these creatures which we did the night before we went since we were setting out on the early morning cruise. Which I am glad we did!

We met Captain Tim and boarded the pontoon boat and made our way to the spring. Only one other boat was at the spring before we were, we had already donned our wetsuits before leaving the pier so we were ready to get in the water upon arrival. 

 

 The baby we interacted with!!!

 Isn't he adorable?

 

 The manatees enjoy being scratched and you are allowed to do that, with one hand only. You cannot chase after them, they have to come to you and you cannot restrain them in any way or it's a big fine.

 

We were in the water no time at all when that baby calf was in our vicinity and playful, it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I was so enamored, it truly was a once in a lifetime experience. We stayed and played and scratched this little guy for quite awhile, his mother even swam through and he still stayed. Others joined us though and he seemed to shy away so we swam over to another area to check things out. This was where we interacted with a pretty big manatee near a dock. It was just us and him for a very long time. He enjoyed our scratching him and we had quite the time with him. He rolled and flopped for us. Eventually we worked our way back over to near our boat and guide and the baby manatee was back. This time he seemed to really enjoy MiRV cause he got a kiss and just kept nuzzling him, it was the neatest!

While the manatees enjoyed the springs warm waters, warm is relative as I was soon cold with blue lips and starting to shiver. Even though the water temp was around 70* the air temp was in the 50s, it was definitely chilly but worth every minute. However, that hot chocolate once I got back on the boat was some of the best hot chocolate I've had in a long time! This was definitely something I will not soon forget. 

The manatees in Florida are the West Indian manatee, they are susceptible to the cold but their biggest threat is boat motor propellers, getting caught in flood gates, swallowing litter, fishing hooks and monofilament line and getting caught in crab traps. They are also occasionally poached!

Manatees are soft and somewhat spongy feeling, they have sparse course hairs on their body. They can weight up to 3500 pounds and reach 13 feet in length. They also have a 50 year plus lifespan. They are vegetarians, too! I love the manatee!

#Ilovemanatees
#goprosrock
#threesisterssprings

Avon calling...

Avon Park that is...Avon Park Air Force Range to be exact. It's a hidden gem, another one of our priceless USAF retiree benefits. We have read about this location and since we were sort of in the neighborhood we felt like we should check it out.

For a VERY reasonable price we could stay for a whole week, we could also pay a reasonable fee for all year long access. We went with the week pass. This is not a glamping location and would really not even qualify as a campground in some eyes. However, it was just fine for us. There are no hookups...no water, no sewer dump, no electricity nor is there a bathhouse. That's was okay with us, though we did find it very convenient and considered it a boon when we found there was a portapotty on scene.
 
Another bonus was they allowed fires and the site we chose already had a start of a fire pit we could work with. MiRV cleaned it out, made it a little better and we were good to go! The nights were dark, stars were bright and it was quiet, awesome all the way around. We were pleased that the bugs did not eat us up as we star gazed and enjoyed our fire pit.

The last night we were there we had a neighbor, they were nice and not too noisy, our other neighbors during our stay were the cows. Yep, there were plenty of cows! We got in lots of bike rides and a few walks. With no cell service to speak of and using the electricity sparingly we both got lots of reading time in.

While it is remote and there are no amenities to speak of we enjoyed it quite a lot! It is NOT big rig friendly, it certainly worked for us and Roada! Now we are headed up to Lakeland to have some tweaking done on Roada, it's been a great trip!

#AvonPark