Cathy & Jan's Travels: December 2011

Our 5th wheel in front of the Pensacola, Florida lighthouse

And so the curtain falls on our 8th year of living and traveling in our 5th wheel. What a great year of travels this has been for us (our best year so far!). As we settle in for a couple of months in an RV park in Dickinson, Texas (between Houston & Galveston), we give thanks for all of the great places, friends, and relatives that we were able to visit, for safe travels (no breakdowns on the road – not even a flat tire), and for no health challenges.

We didn’t realize how time flies, but it has been 3 months since our last update when we were leaving Prince Edward Island (PEI). Here are some of the highlights of our travels during these 3 months on our way back to Texas:

· After leaving PEI, we spent a few days in New Brunswick mostly tracking down lighthouses. There are many rivers around St. John, NB and we got to cross many of them on small ferry boats (most of which are free). In addition, we rode ferries to Grand Manan Island, Deer Island, & Campobello Island. Grand Manan is a great island to vacation if you want to live in the slow lane for a while.

· We next crossed the border into Maine and headed for Acadia National Park. This is one of the best National Parks in the East (except that it is so popular that it is crowded). Not only did we drive thru the park and up to the top of Cadillac Mountain for great views, but we also took a boat trip out to see 4 lighthouses.

· After Acadia, we meandered down the coast taking photos of the lighthouses that we could see. Most of the lighthouses in Maine are on islands (some close to shore, but many are miles off the coast). Out of the more than 60 lighthouses in the state, we managed to photo only 40 of them. In order to see the others, we will either have to get a boat of our own or spend a lot for special lighthouse ‘cruises’ or charter boats [none of these options look real attractive to us].

· After leaving Maine on our way to West Virginia, we traveled and camped in 3 states that we had never been in before (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). It was in West Virginia that we reached one of long term goals – that of staying overnight in an RV in all of the 49 states that you can drive to. We haven’t found pontoons big enough for our 5th wheel to sail to Hawaii yet. Maybe we can fly there someday & rent an RV.

· While spending time in West Virginia, we made an overnight trip into northern Virginia to visit National Park Service (NPS) sites, visit Arlington National Cemetery and Mount Vernon. Most of the time we get 1 or 2 passport stamps at each of the NPS sites – but at one of the places (the headquarters for many of the DC area parks), we hit the jackpot and got 35 passport stamps. We could see the Washington Monument from Arlington, but did not travel into the city (we are saving that for next year). We even got a bonus when we found 2 lighthouses on the Potomac just outside of Washington, DC. One thing we found out is that traffic in northeastern Virginia is really congested (to say the least).

· After leaving West Virginia, we drove along the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park and about 3/4ths of the Blue Ridge Parkway with our RV. It was great to be able to drive the relaxing roads away from all the traffic. The speed limit was 35 to 50 mph and there were lots of curves and ups and downs, but it was worth it. We did not try to drive the part from Ashville, NC to Smokey Mountain National Park due to low tunnels and extreme climbs and descents totaling 9,000 ft. in this section. After not seeing any real fall foliage colors in the northeast earlier and thinking that we had missed it all, we were rewarded with fantastic colors while traveling on these highways.

· While traveling on the Blue Ridge Parkway we got off at Lexington, VA and took a side trip to the New River Gorge National River area in southern West Virginia (a place we had never heard of). What a beautiful area with multiple overlooks and the drive on Interstate 64 was also quite beautiful decked out in fall colors.

· We then headed to Florida to attend a rally in Bushnell where people with trailers made by the same manufacturer that made our 5th wheel (New Horizon) gathered for a few days of fun, to learn about maintenance items, new products, etc. This is the 7th one that we have attended since picking up our 5th wheel at the factory in Junction City, KS in September 2002. One of the highlights of the rally was open house where we could visit each other’s trailer and see all of the different configurations these custom built trailers have.

· On the way to the rally, we stopped at the great Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge to see the alligators, swampland vegetation, etc. We have just started our visits to refuges for passport stamps and have already collected over 60 of them out of the over 550 refuges possible.

· After the rally, we spent a week in Flagler County, FL working on a Habitat for Humanity build with 2 other couples from the rally. We had an enjoyable time, accomplished a lot, and felt a few muscles that we had not used lately.

· On our way back to Texas, we visited Florida State Parks and saw some Manatees and then camped on some of the barrier islands off of the Florida Panhandle (St. George Island and Santa Rosa Island where Ft. Pickens is). What beautiful sand there is here and we even got to see the Blue Angels out of Pensacola practicing over Santa Rosa Island.

· Then, we made it into New Orleans. After living so close for so many years in Texas, this was our first time to visit here. We spent one day in the city, seeing the New Orleans Jazz NPS sites (including, by chance being there for the Grand Opening of the performance hall in the Old Mint – with a band & dancers in Mardi Gras costumes – great music and fun). We then spent a couple of days outside the city visiting 4 sites that are part of the Jean Lafitte NPS site (this includes the Battle of New Orleans site, multiple Acadian Culture centers, and the Barataria Preserve with hiking trails etc.). We even managed to see 3 lighthouses bringing our total for the year to over 300 and our lifetime total of over 900 – It now looks like 1,000 is in reach.

· After leaving New Orleans, we meandered our way up to Hope Arkansas to visit the Clinton Birthplace Historic Site. With this, we reached another milestone of ours. This was our 85th NPS site visited this year and overall our 301st site (out of a total of 397 possible). We have now visited all of the sites in the continental US that are west of Indiana and south of Tennessee. This leaves only the northeast to complete (maybe even next year). We really don’t think that we will ever get them all, since some require extensive cost and travel (examples: American Samoa, Guam, and some very remote places in western Alaska).

· In review of our travels, we boarded boats 51 times during the year (some vehicle ferries, some passenger only ferries, and some tour boats) and we did not get seasick. We also rented a car 30 times to minimize fuel expense and have a more comfortable to ride in and easier to park vehicle. With a car, we could more easily travel to get to lighthouses etc.

Plans:

· 2012 - After ‘visiting’ with our doctors, dentist, etc and with family in Northern Texas and in the Denver area, we plan to head back next year to the far northeast for up to 3 months during the summer in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. We have visited these islands before, but only visited a small part of them – plus we hope to see some icebergs. We will then meander back thru the northeast of the US and try to ‘complete’ visiting the NPS sites there.

· 2013 - We are planning to slow down for awhile and try volunteering. At this time, we are leaning toward helping out in a National Wildlife Refuge somewhere. If we do, then we will have to learn a lot more about birds. During the year, we might even fit in a trip to finally see Hawaii (of course to see the lighthouses, NPS sites, & National Wildlife Refuges).

Hope you all have a great holiday time.