The Long Road Home - Part II - and Around the South

We left the motor home in the Ft. Knox campground for a side trip in the truck to see friends in Dayton OH. They are a fun couple with seven (7, yes) dogs. Each personality in the house is interesting. Our friends are the center of our fantasy playing (football, racing, and hockey). We enjoyed a trip to a local establishment for trivia. (Sally won more than her share, while Tom did not get shut out.) We enjoyed live music and college football on Saturday. Sunday we watched pro football and watched as our fantasy scores accumulated. Tom lost again, so what else is new. Thanks for a grand weekend.

We hit the road back towards Alabama early Monday, September 22nd. Our trip took us through Paris TN, home to the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge. The manager of the Eufaula NWR has recently moved up to this refuge and we stopped by to say hello.

We filled our fuel tank just outside of Nashville. We thought it would be a good idea; as we had heard that gas was in short supply the further south we went. This turned out to be true, as the first gas station we stopped at in Alabama limited customers to 10 gallons. This is not much for a motor home. We hope this situation eases soon.

We have now parked the motor home in Eufaula. The summer trip was a little less than 9100 miles for the motor home. We enjoyed ourselves, ate far too well and just had a grand time meeting new people and saying hi to family and friends.

So what have we done since the end of September?

Well we parked the RV and headed straight back up to Anniston to visit friends and family, sharing pictures and tales of our travels.


Went to a fight and a hockey game broke out...


Indian dancing



And friend Sandi participating too


We spent the first weekend of October in Atlanta, where we attended an Atlanta Thrashers game. While Tom watched football, Sally shared a day with a friend at an Indian pow-wowin Gwinnett county. It was interesting - the drum music and dancing were very entertaining.



Skyline of New Orleans from the Pontchartain Bridge

Our first trip to New Orleans was the next weekend in October, to attend a baby shower for our expected grandbaby. We don't know what it will be yet, but it's going to be here in a day or two. The shower was a lot of fun. Tom and Stephen went to a New Orleans Saints game, so everyone came away happy!


Seafood and music in Cedar Key


And the Yankeetown Festival


We've visited Sally's Dad in Florida twice - once in October and again right before Thanksgiving. We took advantage of a seafood festival in the Cedar Key the first time and then another one in Yankeetown in November. The first was very crowded, even though the day was cloudy with some rain. The second had better weather and was less crowded. We really enjoyed the seafood chowder at Yankeetown (from a restaurant in Cedar Key!)



The Mast Brothers plus Sally's brother


The second visit, we got to hear Sally's brother sing a Southern gospel concert with the Mast Brothers, a great group. They have been singing as a trio and asked Sally's brother to sing bass with them.


An RV in progress at Tiffin Motorhomes



Anda guy driving the chassis


We also went to the big city of Red Bay, Alabama, to get our RV serviced at Tiffin Motor homes. They do tours of the assembly plant. Very interesting. You can see guys driving just the chassis and all the steps to putting one of the big RV's together.



Sally with her winnings!



Finally, we joined Tom's Dad and wife in Philadelphia MS at the Silver Moon casino. Tom did OK (didn't lose any more than he planned). Sally had a run of beginner's luck on the penny slots. She used her $10 Player's Club bonus dollars to win $21!

Whew!


A baby cottonmouth on the refuge road.

In between, we've been doing volunteer work at the Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge again this year. Since we were at work earlier in the fall, we got to help put together the waterfowl quota hunt information and do a little painting before the rainy weather sets in.

And right now, we're in New Orleans awaiting the birth of the long-awaited grandchild. The next post will answer the big question - boy or girl!

The Long Road Home - Part I

We are on the road to Alabama. We plan family and friend stops in Peoria, Elizabethton, Dayton, Nashville, Birmingham and Anniston.

The first thing to be done is to cross the Rockies. We stopped our first day in Boise Idaho. We had a little work on the motor home there and Tom’s fantasy football draft was held while we were in Idaho.

We followed the route of the Oregon Trail for a little way on I84 and I15. At one of the rest areas you can see the trail ruts still.

The Oregon Trail in Idaho

Oregon Trail Ruts

We then drove two hard days, crossing Montana and North Dakota in two days. We did stop at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora North Dakota. It was a good stop in the Badlands in ND.

Scenic view in Teddy Roosevelt NP

TR's cabin on his ranch

TR's Bedroom

We then drove over to Duluth MN and spent a couple of days (well, one full day off the road.)

Duluth Skyline

Sally took the day and rode to Grand Portage National Monument. That's on the shore of Lake Superior way up by the Canadian border. It's where the fur traders brought their furs to the Northwest Company. The principals of the company met them and brought their pay and goods for them to trade with the Indians for furs. The portage is an 8 mile trail from Lake Superior to the river that the fur traders/trappers used to get into the wilderness.

Map of the Grand Portage

The monument has several reconstructed buildings; volunteers and staff re-enact

Preparing Wild Rice

The canoe repair shop

We moved in to Wisconsin stopping at the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior first. There is a National Park there and volunteers run lighthouses, serve as interpreters and other duties.

Apostle Island Visitor Center

A detour into Michigan

Next on to Horicon National Wildlife Refuge in the center of the state. We are in the process of deciding where we want to volunteer next year and these were on our list to check out.

Horicon Refuge HQ and Visitor Center

We headed to Peoria to see Sally’s sister. While there we there we went to a great farmers market, Tanners, and bought good food fresh from the garden. We have been lucky this year with produce. We played games and generally visited. It was a grand time.

It's apple season at Tanner's in Peoria

Sheep grazing outside the front door

Off to Kentucky, Radcliff to be pretty exact. It is a town outside of Ft. Knox. We visited Tom’s brother and his family. We had a great visit, except for the wind. Ike made his presence known by throwing his wind around. Trees were toppled and power was knocked out for many thousands of people. A limb fell just outside of the Hall household on Post. Another limb (tree size) split off after the “local” crew of people had cleared the road. It lodged on the roof of the house next door. Luckily the housing is stout and withstood the falling branch. Like we said before it was a great visit with extra excitement.

Ike's aftermath

While near Ft. Knox, we toured the Patton Museum. It has a lot of war memorabilia, most dealing with tanks and the development and usage through Desert Storm. There is a great exhibit on racial integration into the army. It is free to the public. Drop by a see it sometime.

Tom playing WWI

"Patton" with one of the WWI light tanks

You could really get locked in here

Only a few more stops before we reach our winter home. Thanks for reading our blog. We’ll be back soon.

Boise and Burns

After and nice week of just hanging in the Burns area, we started out with little to report. Well, there was the great meal at the Diamond Hotel. And the trip up to The Steens on a day that lacked the fire effect from California wildfires. There is also the great meals we have made for ourselves with the fresh produce from the area. Oh, and the new neighbors who have moved in to the volunteer area at the refuge.


Dinner at the Diamond

First, let us welcome Mike and Sharon, Jerry and Shary, Jim and Randa and Helen. They have us spread out from the Sod House Ranch (more on this later), the visitor center and general maintenance.


The outside "guests" at the Diamond Hotel

The Diamond hotel trip was a suggestion from Roger. He is a volunteer who was already here at the refuge when we arrived. He is a photographer (among the many hats he wears) and Sally has been picking his brain about the use of a camera to get the good shots. Mike and Sharon, Jerry and Shary and Helen all went to enjoy the family style meal at the hotel. The pork loin and vegetables were fantastic. We’ll probably go back (maybe next year!)


Kiger Gorge, Steens Mt, Oregon

After getting up one morning and seeing the smoke was missing from the sky, we decided to take a trip up to the highest mountain around, The Steens. We had lunch at the Frenchglen Hotel (there we go, eating again) and headed up the mountain. We looked into Kiger Gorge, a perfect valley made by a glacier, it is beautiful. We ran into a group there, one of whom attended Auburn University and married a lady from Jacksonville (home of Tom’s college).


View to the east from Steens Mt (Mann Lake in the distance)

The next week saw us head out to Boise Idaho. We had several small projects in mind. One was to find the Camping World where we have scheduled another appointment to try to have our satellite dish repaired. Maybe we’ll get lucky this time. We also ate at a Basque restaurant. Basque is a region in the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain and France. The food is similar to Greek and Indian, and quite tasty.


Judging the salsa at the fair

The highlight of the trip was an adventure at the Western Idaho Fair. We saw stock animals and a bit of a barrel run. There were many breeds of horses, cattle, hogs and sheep. We witnessed a salsa contest. We saw canning and food preservation booths. We ate fair fare, and Sally took a ride on a large swing. It was a lot of fun.


Swinging at the West Idaho State Fair


Animal exhibits at the fair

We arrived back at the refuge for a volunteer pot luck supper. It seems we eat a lot, but isn’t that the way to socialize. The group here is an interesting mix of experienced volunteers and one newbie couple. One couple was in Alaska at the same time as we were last year.


Volunteer Potluck (taken by Roger)

We finally got to visit the Sodhouse Ranch. Everyone asks if you can still see the sodhouse, of course, and the answer is no. The refuge has a couple of signs explaining that the sodhouse was very near refuge HQ and was the first "structure" in the area, which eventually took the name of Sodhouse (as in Sodhouse School, Sodhouse Farms, etc.) The Sodhouse Ranch was actually the northern outpost of Peter French's ranch. They made sure to have people living there in order to maintain possession of that section of the ranch. There are several buildings remaining from the ranch's heydey in the late 1890's. The buckaroo's bunkhouse is actually where Peter French's body was taken after he was killed and where they held the inquest. There's a long barn for the horses, the original fenced corral for the cattle, the ranch office and the icehouse, plus several other old buildings. Very interesting...

This week is our last at the refuge. It is easy to believe in the song “Home on the Range”. The stars are very bright at night. The sage brush goes on for miles. We have seen deer and antelope. We missed the buffalo here, but we have seen them on this trip. We are looking forward to getting home to family and friends, but it is still a sad thought to leave such a nice place. We wish to thank the staff here at Malheur NWR. Our experience has been great.


Sally says goodbye to the BIG GUY at the Visitor Center

Next report is from the road home.