Greetings From Roswell, A Bit Of A Recant

After looking back at my last post my opinion of where we are has changed.  I'm realizing that first impressions are frequently inaccurate.  I'm still not living here, but have found some really nice things about where we are.  One is that we are very fortunate to be where we are.  We started off on a hike yesterday that initially we were both thinking it was going to be very hot and uninteresting.  We found some really cool spring fed pools and craters.  We also met a really nice family that was there for the day.  We spent a little time with the Park Ranger who was talking about the area and was very friendly.  Paul Borchardt asked me yesterday what we had learned so far and my only response was "don't depend on GPS", after further thought I've realized a few other things.  Chris and I are much kinder to each other being totally dependent on each other to make this work.  Also, initial impressions can frequently be deceiving.  I think sometimes I did that more than I would like to admit.  When I was out walking the dog this morning an older man pulled up in a truck and held up a smile sign and told me to have a good day, as we was pulling away he flipped the sign to an alien face.  It really made me snicker for awhile. We leave tomorrow and will be stopping at White Sands Memorial Park on our way to City of Rocks State Park.  Had fun getting the "Greetings from Roswell" photos below earlier today.  As we were coming back from town, it looked like a storm might be rolling in.  Had a brief discussion about what might happen if our metal house was struck by lightening, Hmmm.

Campground is way down below on the left.

Dead Deer And Dirt

We made it to our site at Bottomless Lakes State Park outside Roswell, NM.  It was about an 8 hour drive thru the most unappealing landscape we have ever seen.  We saw at least 2 dozen dead deer being eaten by vultures.  Those vultures are a little unnerving.  It was just dirt and scruffy bushes.  Our campground was a ways off the main road.  We were kinda laughing about what we were going to find.  It's actually much better than we were prepared for.  It's only $14 a night with electric and it's a State Park.  We back up to a rocky hill, as you can see in the picture and have our own little shelter.  There is a spring fed lake that is super clean as well.  We are only here two more nights so it's going to be fine.  There are a few hiking trails that we will do while here.  It will be mid 80's during the day and cool at night.  We went in to the grocery store in Roswell and I can confirm that Roswell is not on our list of potential places to live.  On our way to the grocery store we did see a small herd of Pronghorn Antelope, which are only found in the southwest U.S. (thank you Google).

Adios Texas

Today is our last night in Texas.  Yesterday we went to Austin for a few hours.  The weather was rainy so it limited what we could do.  We visited Zilker Park, 6th St. and Rainy St., as well as drove around the city.  I really like Austin!  I would have to visit in the summer to really see what the heat is like.  It would definetely be a good long weekend destination.  It's been great getting to use the kayak.  For some reason I didn't want to use the air conditioner, you hate to appear weak in a campground, but have now reassessed my decision as it has been very hot here.  It is nice and cool at night.  We are leaving for New Mexico early tomorrow morning.  As you can see from my pictures, Chris is still my traveling partner!  My entire family are very quiet in the morning, which is the exact opposite of me.  I get out of bed talking and planning "our" day.  When Matthew lived at home with us and I peppered him with my early morning chatter, he used to say to me "Mom, you get one more question".  Honestly, he said that to me this past December too.  May need to start making some early morning calls to friends as this morning I sensed Chris would have liked to send me swimming with some concrete water shoes.

Things Are Getting Rocky

We arrived at Inks Lake State Park yesterday.  Just on our one hour drive north the landscape got much rockier.  The dirt is red and there are now red rock formations starting to appear along the way.  Our site is nice and the park is pretty empty, which is always nice.  Today we went for a hike and then took the kayak out for the first time. Yesterday when we were out checking out the area, we met the nicest couple from Tucson.  They have convinced us that it's a place worth looking at so we may do a drive by on our way to Phoenix in early May.  Last night we were sitting outside and something black ran through the trees right next to our campsite, which Lilly took off after, fortunately she did not catch it. No idea what it was.  Lots of signs about leaving the rattlesnakes and cottonmouth snakes alone.  In this case I will follow all the rules!  I have to give a shout out to my niece Elena, who helped me set up this blog, she won an award for her IT talent for the state of Wisconsin.  She is only a sophomore in High School!  We will stay here for 4 more nights and then it's off to New Mexico.

One Coop Down The Road

Today we left Guadalupe River State Park and moved one hour north to Blanco State Park.  State and National Parks really seem to be the way to go.  They are always clean and the people working there are super nice.   We also meet very friendly people who share their travel stories with us.  We decided I would just drive the car and Chris would follow...dramatic pause...close call for him almost rear-ending me when I almost hit the people in front of me.  Lilly got a little tossed around but no damage.  We have really only had one argument/altercation since we hit the road, true statement, it involved assistance with directions that were not welcomed.  Let's just say a zippy u-turn rerouted us back to the direction giving persons recommendation (yep Chris was assisting me with where he felt I should be going).  Not bad for 29 days on the road.  We did really like the Boerne, TX area and is on our list of potential places to land... Louisiana remains off that list.  We are only staying at Blanco State Park two nights and then will move to Inks State Park which is north west of Austin.  We will stay there longer.  We have now seen two armadillos, both times when we did not have a camera!  They are wild looking little creatures!  Chris said he saw a commercial where Charles Barkley called them "turtle-rats"  After Inks we will be heading in to New Mexico.

Howdy Y'all

Our scenery has changed again!  We are in Texas staying at the Guadalupe River State Park.  I expected Texas to be flat, brown and ugly, and it is not.  It's not green like Asheville, but still nice.  Chris Klancic is a driving beast!  If you have an emergency and need to get somewhere quick, or get away from somewhere quick, he's your guy.  He can drive for 12 hours with no problem.  Me on the other hand, need to figure out a hobby to occupy my time on long drives.  I've been reading lots, which I love and researching areas we will be going, but I need something else to do.  Any thoughts???   All ideas will be entertained. 

 We are trying to learn from our mistakes, but sometimes you forget what that previous mistake was.  Depending on google maps for directions keeps rearing it's ugly head.  On our way in to the park we took a very bumpy slow route, gotta work on that.  The river in the park is clean, clear and beautiful.  Lilly and I were in it yesterday.  Today we are going to check out the town of Boerne, go for a hike and float in the river!  On a side note, it appears the state of Louisiana is under water.  All we saw from  I-10 was swamp.  Currently Louisiana has not made the short list of places to land!

Bye Bye FL, AL, MS & LA, Hello TX

Today is a travel day, a very long one at that.  We got up early to get on the road to see how far we could get headed towards San Antonio.  I've added a few pictures from our Florida visit.  That's right, I'm a fisherwoman now!  If we ever need to depend on fish for our meals, we are really screwed.  We have met the nicest people in our campground.  It's amazing how friendly people are if you just smile and say hello.  It's fun to hear everyone's story.   Getting out of the camp site was a little crazy this morning.  There was a 10k race being run through the campground.  Chris is trying to back out of a very tight spot around runners, we were an added obstacle on the course.  Of course we were not gonna wait for the race to finish, we have places to be.  Yesterday we got to see our good friend Mary who is in Florida on a girls trip.  Sorry Paul, it was beautiful out!  Might be another Walmart night near Houston.  Wine and Frito's just steps from our bed!

This was the view out our front window!

Day 19 - Sunshine And Wildlife

It's day 19 and Chris has not tried to leave me at the Winn Dixie, that's a big win for me.  We are really enjoying this.  St. Andrews State Park is very pretty with lots of wildlife and beaches.  Yesterday was rainy so we decided to go to a more remote area south of here.  Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe was an area that Jackie and Kelli stayed in when travelling.  We stopped at Toucan's for a drink and some fried oysters.  The sun came out and stayed out for the rest of the day.  Almost everywhere we go has a place we can bring the dog.  She is learning to lay by our table, but feels she must assist the cleaning people with any fries left on the floor.  We went on a long walk along the beach once we got back.  We finally saw our first really good sunset.  The park has a long pier where we saw the sunset.  While we were sitting and watching, an older couple walked up with two large conch shells.  They took turns blowing them when the sun was down 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and they blew at the same time when it went all the way down.  She had on cheetah pants, I'm thinking you can wear anything you want as a conch shell blower, this may be my next career.

Walmart, Yes We Did

Yesterday we left Asheville and ended up driving all the way to Panama City, even though we had no place to stay, surprise!  Chris was going to get us a hotel room with points but nobody would take Lilly...what are they thinking.  Walmart, why not?  For those of you who don't keep up on Walmart policy, which is hard for me to imagine, many of them allow overnight parking in their lots.  So we took our spot and settled in.  During the night all kinds of people were coming and going.  Nobody bothered us but people did appear to be using the area for extracurricular activities.  Are teenagers so lazy now they don't even have to drive to a remote area to partake?  Enough said.  We got settled in today at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City.  We will have our current site for 4 nights and then move to another one for two nights.  Not sure if we will extend or move on. 

It's a little chilly, I dare to even comment, that we were unable to swim.  Very excited that the world famous Mary Borchardt will be in the area next week!  For those of you that don't know her, she is a well know baton twirler : ) .  I've been asked a few times if Chris and I still like each other.  The answer is yes, may still be the honeymoon period...stay tuned.

Our Asheville Finale

We did our last hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway yesterday.  We hiked up to Black Balsam Knob to watch the sunset.  We felt well prepared for this outing...our history of poor hiking decisions precedes us.  Not this time!  We had headlamps, flashlights, hats...  It was a very rocky hike straight up.  The clouds rolled in and we were not able to see the sunset, the view was beautiful!   We decided to hike back down in the daylight that was left.  Wow, we finally made a safe decision.  It would have been really bad in the dark, not to mention that we were supposed to have bear spray with us, and of course we forgot it.  We have looked all around the Asheville area and really like Hendersonville and Flat Rock.  This area is definitely on our list of potential landing spots.  Tomorrow we will start driving south to Florida.  We are still struggling a little to just sit and relax but we are working on it.  Not really, we just talk about it.  Isn't that the first step to making change?

BEAR!

This morning we hiked a beautiful trail on the Blue Ridge Parkway.   The pictures below are where we sat to have lunch.   On our way out tonight to get Chris a new phone (that's right he no longer has  a 4S), this big boy was walking in the woods by the Arboretum.  Saturday morning we leave for Florida.  Life is good, feeling very fortunate for this opportunity to run wild in our RV!