Dateline May 21, 2018: Summer Fun, off in our 22 Foot Yacht on Wheels!!

We are finally off and out of the house, back in the Roadtrek for several months of touring our beautiful country and visiting many friends along the way.

We headed out to one of the most beautiful beaches in Florida is they town of Dustin, Henderson State Park. We had visited before and loved it. The drive was about 7 hours and it was time to fix a rum drink and head down to the beach and just enjoy the wonderful sand and calm water.

In the morning we continued heading west, our first destination was Sedona, Arizona to spend a few days with Janice’s dearest friend from high school, Marty and her husband, creative artist, Jeff.

The drive took us through the western part of Florida and through Mobile, Alabama. We crossed Alabama on through to Vicksburg, Mississippi, spending the night across the Mississippi River from Louisiana. As this was a full speed trip, we were off the next morning for Abilene, Texas for the night.

As we drove along, mostly on back roads we were able to see the true beauty of all these states. Meeting people as we stopped along the way, they were friendly and helpful always asking about where we lived in Florida. The Roadtrek is always a conversation piece as people come to look at it and we always invite them in for a quick tour. They are shocked as to how comfortable and well outfitted the Roadtrek is.

We left Abilene in the morning for Lubbock to visit the National Ranching Heritage Center at Texas A&M University.

This was great as many original ranch homes going back over the last 120 years have been moved from their original locations and placed on the property. From the small train station with the cattle loading stalls to the oil rigs used on the ranches the center was wonderful. The houses were simple but elegant for the time period.

In one of the large barns they had a collection of branding irons that had to number several hundred.

A great stop and worth the time we spent.

Palo Duro

We headed up to Palo Dura Texas State Park for the night. We visited the park before, but had not spent the night. The site we were given was down in the canyon and had sensational views of the cliffs that surrounded us. Palo Duro is considered in Texas as the little Grand Canyon. The evening came quickly and the views of the stars were nothing short of sensational. It was on to Albuquerque for the next evening. We noticed that the “house batteries” were not keeping a charge and fortunately we were near a Roadtrek Service Center. It was 4:45 on the Friday afternoon of Memorial Day Weekend! The Service Manager came out and checked us out, the batteries, he said were fine but we needed to replace a part that he did not have in stock. We fortunately were familiar with the part having replaced it on the previous Roadtrek we had. That’s easy, we will just order it and have it delivered to be installed when we hit Boise, Idaho. At least that was the plan.

Sedona

We arrived at Marty and Jeff Skelly’s in Sedona. Both Marty and Jeff recently had major surgeries. Marty had her back repaired and Jeff had his shoulder worked on. Jeff was in a sling over the next couple of months and Marty needs to be careful not to bend over to far or lift anything over 2 pounds. Just the fun of getting older!

Marty had set us up with a RV spot at the timeshare right next door to their community, which was very nice.  As usual, Marty cooked up a storm, so all the weight we had lost was back on, great food, great drink and of course great times! With Las Vegas playing for the Stanley Cup, Marty and Jeff are huge fans, it became our evening entertainment.

Of course, those of us that have had the pleasure of owning a boat, “that thing in the water that has a hole you pour money into”, well RV’s can be the same. After the battery problem we realized that the small refridge, that runs on outside electric, house battery and propane was not working with propane. Since the “house battery” wouldn’t work we needed help! To our rescue came the local RV repair guy. He tested and tested and tested!  “I have it, you need a special circuit board, I can have it the day after you are planning to leave Sedona! The great thing about planning RV travel during the summer, is all reservations are made in advance and little adjustments, well, they just cost money for not making your scheduled reservation.

Long story short, part arrives and does not fix the problem! n We called the Boise people and asked them if they could get a replacement refrigerator. They did and we had the installation scheduled

We bid a fond farewell to Marty and Jeff and departed Sedona late on Wednesday afternoon. We have realized no pictures,  but here is one from our 2017 visit..Per Marty and Jeff’s suggestion, since the fix for the refrigerator did not work, we bought a cheap cooler and threw our food in it and headed to Page Arizona. We had to cancel Zion National Park, no place to stay a day late so we missed a fabulous national park, but much to see in Utah!