See the USA the Mystery Shopping Way

HOW WE FIND THE INTERESTING FRUGAL PLACES TO VISIT

2017-08-28T19:01:00.002-07:00

I recently had someone contact me wanting to know how we found so many free or near free places to visit. It was suggested it would be a good blog post for the new and not so new travelers who would prefer to visit this type of attraction. The same could go for some of the campgrounds we visit.

The campgrounds are located basically by research. We want clean, inexpensive and preferably with some utilities, all though we do boondock (camp without utilities) some.

For us boondocking is usually done in parking lots with the manager’s permission or truck stops for a single night stay. Although we have, due to breakdowns spent several nights in one Wal-Mart parking lot while our truck was being repaired. We did this with permission from the store.

Although we do plan on staying on some Bureau of Land Management sites in the future.
Boondocking is of course the cheapest of camping because it is generally free, although I am told some BLM land may have a small fee.

Our preferred campgrounds are Corps of Engineer (COE) or National Parks. With our Senior Pass we can camp at those for half price. So generally around $9-$14 per night.

Even if you aren’t a senior you can purchase an annual pass for around $80 that will get you the same benefits. There is also a free annual Military Pass.

The Senior Pass is a lifetime one and it cost us $10. There are other benefits to the passes, like free entry into the parks that make it well worth the investment if you are going to be doing much camping in COE or National Parks.

COE and National Park campgrounds are generally water and electric with an onsite dump station. However, we have ran into a few with no dump station.

We find these parks mainly by visiting the National Parks website. Although Gary does use RV Parky anytime he is looking for our next campground, because it generally has most of the types of campgrounds we are looking at.

At one COE we stayed at we were given a cd that contained a state by state breakdown of the campgrounds for all the COE in the US. Quite handy in its own right because RV Parky doesn’t list all the campgrounds.

Truthfully I never knew many cities maintain campgrounds until we started traveling full time last year. These campgrounds are generally inexpensive, have water and electric with either a dump station or sewer hook-ups. A few we have stayed at this last year have even had free wi-fi. These campgrounds usually run in the $20 per night range. Again we use RV Parky and the town’s website to locate them.

State campgrounds are similar to all the previously mentioned, but generally run just slightly higher. Generally $20-$25 at the ones we have stayed at. Often times a state ran campground will have a list of all that states campgrounds. Every state also seems to have their own website with a list of them as well. Although some state websites are easier to navigate than others.

State road maps also generally have campground icons on them to help you locate them.

Sometimes it pays to buy a state annual pass if you are going to be in the state much because many states also have a daily park use fee PER PERSON and those fees are waived if you have the state pass.

We currently own one for Texas and one for Minnesota for that very reason. The savings on our first Texas State Park stay paid for the pass. It actually came with four free nights of camping after you used it for a certain number of nights and at different parks. We have used it several times over the last year and our savings has been great.

Our Minnesota one paid off quickly because we have gone to see many things in Minnesota parks that have a per carload entry fee that is waived if you have the state park pass.

Then of course there are the privately owned campgrounds those can be small and nice with frugal prices of around $25-$30 all the way up to $100. Yes, we have paid $99 a night for one week, just to be on site at Walt Disney World, but no longer. We have found a much less expensive campground nearby that actually allows us to get into the parks faster. Blog post on Stage Stop Campground follows shortly.

We find out about all these campgrounds by the means I have already mentioned, plus word of mouth, doing google searches for the area we want to be in with the word campgrounds in our search, Woodalls (picked up at a AAA office for free as part of our membership) and at tourist information centers.

We always ask if there are discounts including, but not limited to: AAA, Senior, Veteran, Good Sam’s, Sam’s Club, Weekly/Monthly stays, our auto insurance company, and internet specials. You can also get discounts through AARP, KOA and many camping membership clubs, if you are a member, we are not. You should always ask about a discount, not only in camping, but whenever visiting an attraction. All they can say is “no” and you just might be surprised at how many discounts they are out there.

Especially if you are staying 5-6 days in one place be sure to ask about weekly discounts. A prime example of this was a conversation I overheard at a campground we frequent often. The man in line ahead of me did not have a Good Sam’s card or other item to receive the discount at the campground. The woman at the counter said “so you want the weekly discount” he replied no they were only wanting to stay 5 nights.

She went on to explain to him. “Sir the nightly rate is $35 so five nights will cost you $175. The weekly rate is $150 and you do not have to stay the full week if you don’t want to.” He took the weekly rate and kept $25 in his pocket. I on the other hand paid the monthly rate of $350 and saved even more because I knew we would be there the full month. Always ask.

Another discount to check out is one for annual passes for any park, museum or other attraction you may own. When we have a Silver Dollar City annual pass it includes discounts for certain campgrounds and motels in the area. Same for Dollywood and sometimes Disney World.

Now for the fun stuff.

Finding unique places to visit for free or near free.

1. Tourist information centers. Grab every pamphlet, book or piece of paper you can at these free locations that looks the least bit interesting to you. Then when you have time look through them, google for more information if you need to. What you don’t use leave in a campground laundry room for someone else. What doesn’t interest you may interest them.

N I am not just talking about the ones as you cross the border into a new state. Seek out the Chamber of Commerce of any town you are visiting, even the very small ones, because often this is where the really good brochures on free or near free locations hide. Sometimes there won’t be an actual brochure, but a knowledgeable clerk behind the counter.

No Chamber of Commerce? Check the local grocery store. Yep the grocery store. In the tiny town of Lindsborg, KS I found a free standing display, like highway maps are often displayed in, that had all sorts of local information. If you read my posts on our stay at the campground near there you know we found much to do and can truthfully say it was one of our most interesting visits to an area.

2. Word of mouth is still one of the best methods of learning about unique places. We talk to campground hosts, other campers and friends that have previously been to an area. We also speak to the volunteers at various establishments and express interest in finding similar places in the area. If you have places you think would be of interest to us we’d love to hear from you.

The Lindsborg, KS area was suggested to us by a friend, Cliff Chism, and we thank him greatly for sending us that direction.

Blogs and vlogs are a good source as well. Hopefully, you have already found some different places that you had previously never heard of before you started reading my blog posts.

Road Atlas often have points of interest listed before or after the maps Along with little snippets of history for the area.

Historical markers can lead you to do more investigating. An example of this is part of our visit to Chanute, KS. At a historical marker just before you enter town in a rest area we learned about the "Bloody Benders". This story prompted us to do more research.

3. Books, movies, history and genealogy. Ever read about something, saw a movie or wonder about the area your ancestors came from. Go to the area and see what there is to see. Even if it is not a frugal place per say, books can lead to a better enjoyment of the area.

We are huge Disney fans, as you probably already know. We have been to Disneyworld more times than we can remember, traveling from Oklahoma to do so. However, the last few visits have been different for us because of a series of young adult books by Ridley Pearson called Kingdom Keepers. I have reviewed a couple of these books on my “Outside a Dog” blog.

Mixed into these sci-fi books are behind the scenes glimpses of all the parks, cruise lines, night time spectaculars and more. Hidden doorways, how the tigers in the Animal Kingdom are safely fed, bits of park history and much more. Now we look for the things mentioned in the books to see if they are true or just used to add to the book. We have found many of the hidden doorways and other items as a result. These searches add to our enjoyment of the parks.

Traipsing through old cemeteries can be far more interesting than you might realize. While we do genealogy research we often find beautiful old cemeteries that we know none of our family is buried there, but we stop anyway, because of the history and beauty of the place.

As I type this, June 23, 2017, I think of the cemetery we drove through yesterday. Mt. Vernon, Cemetery near Atchinson, KS. A large beautiful cemetery with many old headstones, large tombstones and monuments on a hill with a great view.

You can learn a lot about the history of a town by reading dates. Things like whole families dying within days of each other in the 1800s generally meant an epidemic like typhoid. Mothers and babies dying close to each other generally meant a bad birthing.

Military, Masonic, Woodsman symbols as well as crosses and stars tell you about the person. Graveyards can be very interesting.

Don’t forget, even the famous generally get buried somewhere. Mt. Moriah Cemetery near Deadwood, SD is a prime example of that.

Did you know there is a circus performer cemetery in southern Oklahoma with unique tombstones. It is on our list to visit on one of our trips back home.

Or how about the pyramid shaped monument for the camel driver from the Calvary in the cemetery near Quartzite, AZ. Until visiting that cemetery just because we stumbled across it in our travels neither of us had given much thought to the camels and what happened to them, or even really thought about that part of our US history at all. That turned out to be quite educational. We have found many unique monuments in cemeteries across the nation.

We did historical re-enactments of the Fur Trade Era, pre 1840, for many years. So going to a Hudson Trade company historical site many years ago was great to us, and cheap.

In 2017 we have already visited both Jamestown and Historic Jamestowne, Yorktown and Newport News. All are blog posts waiting to be written and will be soon.

4. Road signs, even small faded ones. Keep your eyes open. The first time we went to the Little House on the Prairie home site of Laura Ingalls Wilder near Chanute, KS (yet another post in the queue to be written, did I mention I am very far behind on posts) we only learned about it because of a small road sign that pointed the direction.

While generally we won’t take off down a road on a lark like that pulling the fifth wheel, we did that time and had to go way out of our way to get turned around. We learned our lesson, now if the point of interest is in an area we are planning on parking for more than one night we will unhitch the trailer and go check it out. If not we will make a note of it to visit on another trip through the area.

An example of this was the Windmill Museum in Shattuck, OK.

This month we have been loosely following the Lewis and Clark trail following the road signs showing us the trail. In Virginia we followed a Civil War Trail, again based on signs.

Libraries. I know the Tulsa City County library has a monthly newsletter they hand out that list all sorts of free classes, travelogs, book signings, and activities for children.

Our visit to Chanute, KS included a wonderful travelog and small museum right in the library.

5. Penny Hikes, as we call them. Camped in an area, with seemingly nothing to see. Take a Penny Hike. Come to an intersection, flip a coin heads one direction, tails another. You never know what interesting old buildings, ghost towns or small museums you might stumble across doing this. Of course, make sure your gps is working well so you can get back to your lodgings for the night, just in case…

6. Free Factory Tours is a website we frequent because we like to see how things are manufactured. Although any more most of the “factory tours” are actually a hospitality building with displays, videos, and sometimes free samples, they are still interesting and educational. So far we have visited two such places, Bush Beans and Florida Natural Juices (blog coming soon). But will visit more as we travel.

The website Only in Your State has many interesting sites to visit on its pages. Campgrounds too.

7. Television programs can prompt you as well. Ever hear of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives?” Did you know there is a list on the web for all the places Guy has televised. So far we have only located one, by actually looking for it. We ended up not eating there because the line was around the block.

We did eat at Ree Drummond’s, aka: Pioneer Woman, Mercantile. Delicious! The day we visited we saw her husband Ladd and were given a free ticket to go tour the lodge where most of her programs are filmed. That post will be in the near future as well.

Then of course there is always travelogs either on tv or dvd. Basically if it looks interesting we check it out.

I know it sounds like we spend a lot of time researching locations, but then as the quote goes “Planning is half the fun of the trip.”

If you have other suggestions on how to find unique places to visit please leave a comment below.

MAGIC KINGDOM FALL AND CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS

2017-08-24T12:05:00.001-07:00

I really can’t decide which of these holidays I love the most at the parks. Fall is my favorite time of the year and who doesn’t love the Christmas holiday season?

When we arrived in October the Fall/Halloween decorations were out in full force. Then on November first it was magically Christmas! The Christmas decorations grew and grew more every night, right up until we left.

The Magic Kingdom is the theme park most associated with Walt Disney World. Our touring of this main theme park was at our pace. Which is the pace of a seasoned annual pass holder who has been to the park enough times they have lost track of how many times it has actually been.

Over the years we have experienced “rope drop”, the opening of the park each day. Even doing the early morning and late evening “Extra Magic Hours” that are reserved for on-site guests and enjoyed them, but not enough these days to make it worth it to us to get up early, eat a hurried breakfast and fight the crowds to get on the transportation system. We do still on occasion stay during the late hours.

Instead we now prefer a leisurely breakfast at the camper, thus avoiding paying for a high dollar one in the park. Then strolling to the appropriate transportation hub and riding near empty conveyances to the park of choice.

We also prefer to leave the park before the main crowds do in the evenings. While we love the fireworks show we generally only remain around for them one night, if that, each visit. We have found great viewing areas outside the Magic Kingdom to see the actual fireworks, just not what is projected on the castle and of course you can’t hear the background music and story.

Our planned trip for fall 2017 will include a night to see the new Happily Ever After fireworks show that is replacing Wishes in the spring of 2017.

Once at the park the main bottleneck of people rushing to get into the park is gone. By combining our policy of carrying no bags and entering at the annual pass gate it is almost a straight walk in for us rather than the long lines to get in had we gone earlier in the day. I recently read they have instituted an annual pass bag check as well, which will speed up things for folks who do take in bags of all sorts.

On the subject of bags. When we were first visiting WDW as much younger people we all wore belt bags, carried camera bags or backpacks. These you either rent a locker for or are constantly having to take them off to store them in the required bins on rides then dig them out of the bins and put them back on.

Instead I carry my ticket, id and debit card in a well covered pocket with my cell phone in another one. Gary wears cargo pants into which he puts spare camera batteries, battery packs for the cell phones, keys etc.

Periodically we will be asked to empty our pockets and go through a metal detector (maybe it has something to do with Gary’s long hair and beard but it isn’t a problem because we carry so little.

The freedom of no bags is great. We feel it is worth paying for a meal or snack to split rather than putting up with the hassle. It doesn’t work for everyone, but it works extremely well for us.

One request please, if you truly feel you MUST carry a backpack or a purse, watch where you swing that thing. I cannot tell you how often I have received major hits from people paying no attention to who they conk with those things. Same goes for scooters and strollers. People we are in the USA, we drive on the right side of the road here.----rant over

By eating at the camper before we go we then have the luxury of eating a late lunch (which is generally cheaper than supper prices) or early supper, which allows us to once again avoid a crowded line.

More importantly, it also allows us to stop and truly see things along the way. While we do still take photos and videos of parades such as the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

rides

We get to enjoy the ambiance and take photos of things many people often over look. There have been volumes of books written about Hidden Mickey’s, the names on the main street windows and such, but it takes slowing down to look for these things as well as at the detail the behind the scenes artists have put into every inch of the parks.

We love this slower pace and have discovered so many “hidden treasures” as we tour the parks now it is almost like visiting the parks for the very first time.

interesting dressed non-cast members

Not to mention all the various little pop up shows that aren’t in any buildings, but are viewed from the street.

One such show is in Liberty Square near the Hall of Presidents. There a few different versions of the show. This is just one of the Muppets "Great Moments in History". Click the hyperlink for the complete show.

One hidden Mickey that many people will most likely never see can only be seen from the air. As my post “Kudos to Mickey Mouse”, which is yet another Disney World post mentions Disney does a lot toward conserving our environment. This hidden Mickey is huge, very huge. It is a solar panel farm that helps provide some of the energy for Walt Disney World and is located just outside the main gates leading to the Transportation Ticket Center parking.

We try to visit the Magic Kingdom on traditionally less busy days. In the past Mondays and any day that the Magic Kingdom has “extra magic hours” or a special party like “Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party,” Or “Mickey’s VeryMagical Christmas Party” are the busy days. So we check the online calendar for these events and try to go on days that such events are not happening.

We plan ahead of time on what rides we do want to ride in each park and if they are a popular ride, like Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, we try to get fast passes for them before we ever leave the camper. Sometimes even days ahead. Although we will skip rides or add rides as the mood hits us, we are still go with the flow type travelers and have no qualms about cancelling a fast pass if we decide not to use one.

We also try to make reservations for any specialty meals like supper at “Be Our Guest” as far ahead of time as we know we will be going to that park that day.

Both of these cut our wait time down considerably.

The rest of the time we do stand-by lines if the line is less than 20 minutes. We do not do long lines, there really is no need to. If you pay attention you will find many lines in all the parks have peak times and then times where the stand by line is 10 minutes or less.

Want to ride Space Mountain without a fast pass? Go during a parade or even better during the fireworks. Lines virtually disappear then. Also consider single rider lanes. While riding with your buddy is fun, if you want on certain rides quickly go with the single rider line.

Over the years we have also learned to stay off the main thoroughfares of the parks and look for the path less traveled. Often that path is only a few feet from the main one, but because it curves away from what the maps show as the main pathways many people do not take them. Sometimes these paths are a little longer, but due to the lighter foot traffic you will actually get there faster, or find a bench to set down and rest, or a table to eat your meal at.

A prime example of such a path in the Magic Kingdom is the one going off Main Street toward Tomorrowland where you turn by the ice cream shop. If you turn directly right at the ice cream shop you will be dealing with the people all trying to find a spot at the provided tables to eat their ice cream. However if you go back one street down a dead end there are tables there as well that are often empty.

To get to Tomorrowland you can also take the main pathway across the bridge near the castle. That is generally very congested. However, between the ice cream shop and the bridge streets there is another path going near the gardens. It is only a few steps away from the one at the ice cream shop and comes out at exactly the same place, near the restrooms at a restaurant that is only open during peak times. This path is usually not busy at all.

In fact if you go up through the restaurant walkway and through the seating area you will come out at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor and miss most of the traffic going to Tomorrowland.

Every park has several less traveled areas that can save you a lot of time and steps. So study your maps.

Another time saving hint. It is the nature of most people to go to their right when entering a park. If you are getting there with the main crowd, go to your left. You will find that the crowds are less and therefore the lines are shorter.

We of course have certain rides we really enjoy riding each time, although the herky jerky ones are quickly falling out of favor with us. While others we just don’t feel like our visit is complete unless we ride certain rides.

In the Magic Kingdom the must rides would be Pirates of the Caribbean, People Mover, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin(how is it I always manage to get the one with the non-operative gun?), Haunted Mansion and a few others.

The People Mover (Transit Authority) and Carousel of Progress are our favorites on hot days when we are tired. Both provide a long cool ride and in the Carousel of Progress it is dark and you can even catch a quick cat nap if you need one.

Then of course there are certain shows we like to see if time allows, as well as the Festival of Fantasy Parade.

For a video of the Festival of Fantasy parade you can view it here.

Unless you arrive late enough in the day that you are near the train station when the 3:00pm parade comes by, at approximately 3:30pm, I recommend that you try to be at the beginning of it near Frontier Land. The crowds are generally smaller and your wait is much shorter to see the parade.

Not much had changed since our visit in 2014, so we tended to spend more time enjoying the fall decorations.

And then in November the Christmas decorations

Not to mention taking advantage of the new annual pass perk of free photos taken by the Disney photographers.

No matter how many times we go, there is always something new to see and enjoy. Some of the rides and areas had undergone refurbishments since our last trip. We spent a lot of time pointing out the changes to each other.

Even more had been done by the time we were there in the spring and when we go back in the fall of 2017 Pandora the World of Avatar will be open in the Animal Kingdom. So that will be a whole new area to explore.

Because I started my review blog, Outside a Dog after I had already read the "Kingdom Keepers: Disney after Dark", book 1 of the series written by Ridley Pearson I haven't yet created a blog post review on it. You can, however get a brief description of it in the second book review.

FLORIDA’S NATURAL GROWERS VISITOR CENTER, LAKE WALES FL

2017-08-14T20:45:00.001-07:00

Learning how things are grown, manufactured and delivered is interesting to us. When we learned that the Florida’s Natural Juice Company had a visitor center that covered these topics we were more than ready to go see this free exhibit.

From Winter Garden it was a little bit of a drive, but not too bad. It let us see an area of Florida we hadn’t really visited before and gave us an outing.

The brochure had said we could see a citrus grove and learn various things. There were of course free samples as well.

So when we pulled up and saw that the “grove” was just a few trees near the citrus center with big signs telling us to leave the fruit for the workers to harvest we were a little disappointed. Not to mention the fruit didn’t look all that good that was on them. Definitely not what you purchased in the grocery and definitely not what they show as the “grove” on their television commercials. But then “home grown” produce is never that pretty anyway.

The tour starts in the gift shop with the free samples of their juices to drink. From there you go through a doorway where there are several exhibits, videos and narratives to view. It was interesting to us, but a much smaller set up than the similar one we had seen on Bush Beans. The movie that was shown in a small separate theater was interesting. Seeing how commercial citrus growers planted and cared for their trees was educational.

One of the things I learned is citrus does not continue to ripen once it has left the tree. It simple gets old. The flavor does not get better or sweeter like it does on so many fruits.

I also learned it takes over a year to produce a single crop of citrus fruit from pollination to ripe. That might explain part of the cost of citrus fruit. It definitely explains why one really bad frost or freeze can ruin crops for more than a year.

There were displays on canning and equipment that make you realize how far we have came in food preservation and samples of War World II rations that included Donald Duck orange juice.

All in all the drive was well worth the effort.

151

GALVESTON ISLAND STATE PARK, GALVESTON, TX-Camp 33

2017-08-14T19:35:00.002-07:00

After all that had gone on while we were in Gonzales, TX and since then we were very content to just sit and relax through the weekend. We didn’t even go walking on the beach.

We did research on where we could get a tire for the fifth wheel and Gary took apart the landing gear on the camper to determine what was wrong with it. Luckily appeared to be just the leg, but it would have to be ordered.

We checked, via telephone and online with rv dealerships and soon found it was far less expensive to order it from amazon.com and have it shipped to us. Only we had to be out of our campsite by Monday due to reservations.

After much discussion we decided to head straight for Stage Stop Campground back in Winter Garden, Florida and not chance any disconnection from the trailer, for fear the leg would fail completely, until we got there and got the part.

But we still needed a tire for the trailer. I refuse to travel any distance on a spare, especially one as old as the four tires that had already gone bad on us.

We made arrangements with Wal-Mart to have the right size tire there on Monday and went straight there when we left the campground.

By the time they got it on and the proper air in it. Luckily Gary checked the air when setting the tire minder despite the fact it was raining, they hadn't put near enough air in it.

By the time we got to the Point Bolivar Ferry, with the trailer in tow it was raining so hard we had trouble even seeing to get on the ferry. The rain continued with extreme low visibility for several miles after we got off the ferry.

So much for relaxing, our nerves were super tight again. We drove short distances each day and boondocked every night all the way back to what we felt would be a good place to lick our wounds.

We made it safe and sound back to Florida, where we stayed for two months relaxing and celebrating the fact that Murphy had apparently given up.

We enjoy our new truck, but not the payments. We had gotten very use to being debt free and are now working fast and furious to be debt free again. We hate debt.

But as always we see the silver lining. There should be no break downs with this truck, or if there are they will be covered by warranty. The trailer has all new tires on it, we are budgeting for a brand new spare too, I really don't want to trust the one we have.

Another bright spot is Gary and I are learning to do the mechanical repairs on the fiver ourselves.

Our health is good and we are still free to travel.

Up next, more on Florida.

PALMETTO STATE PARK, GONZALES, TEXAS-Camp 32

2017-08-14T19:27:00.001-07:00

My brag rag from this campground is a glow in the dark Swamp Thing t-shirt. I fell in love with the thing when I first saw the campground, with its low hanging Spanish Moth, walking trails and beautiful laid back atmosphere. It is a good thing we liked the campground, because we ended up staying there much longer than planned because Murphy called in recruits for his next bit of mischief. More on this in a bit.

Our first day there we popped into the truck and headed to the Alamo 55 miles away in San Antonio, Texas. If we had known how the day would turn out, we would have never gone. As it was we will always “remember the Alamo” for certain.

We had found a city parking lot on the web within a decent walking distance of the Alamo and River Walk, our plans for the day, and at a reasonable parking price. When we arrived there it was a clean, well lit parking lot under an underpass with a self pay box.

Something about the place didn’t feel quite right to me and we should have listened to my instincts, but hey, it was a city lot right? I mentioned to Gary a pickup and white car whose occupants were watching us as we left, saying they made me uneasy.

At the last minute he took our camper keys out of the truck and stuck them in his pocket jokingly saying “Just in case the truck gets stolen”.

We had been to the Alamo once nearly 30 years earlier, but we both wanted to see it again. The story of the Alamo is still very moving and the historic spot reminds us of how our ancestors fought so hard to gain freedom in all areas.

We wandered the grounds for about an hour then went over to the River Walk, ate a good meal at Waxy O'Connors then rode the boat through the river before going back to the truck.

It had been a very pleasant day, but it was starting to get dark and we wanted out of town and back to the campground as early as possible.

Only there was no truck. Our feelings had been right, we should have listened to them. But it was a good clean well lit parking lot. Besides who would take a 12 year old truck with nearly 250,000 miles on it?

According to the officer dispatched to help us all it had to be was a diesel dually, or simply even a dually. We had been gone less than three hours and were told it was probably already in Mexico (In fact that is where it was found 4 months later, in a river).

I am certain Murphy was having a pain in his side from laughing so hard at us at this point. It was now full blown dark, we were 55 miles from our camper in a strange city, with no transportation and to say I was not amused would be an understatement and neither was Gary.

I called both AAA and our insurance agent immediately. While we have AAA RV that supposedly has trip continuance insurance on it a rental car was not included. Remind me to discuss this contradiction of terms on trip continuance insurance if a rental isn’t included with my local office.

Nor did our truck insurance have rental car insurance on it, we both thought it did under our complete coverage umbrella, but noooooo.

This meant we needed to pay for a rental, only how to get a rental. The wonderful police officer volunteered to take us to the airport where all the rental car companies were. Bless him.

No where on my bucket list did it ever list “ride in the back of a police car”, but there I was scrunched up in the back of one as Gary rode up front with the officer. Trust me they do NOT make it comfortable for “passengers” in the back of police vehicles. I am only 5’1” tall and the leg room was too short for me. Having the “cage” around me was also a bit unnerving.

Luckily it wasn’t that far to the airport. The officer walked us in told the clerk behind the desk what we needed and why then left.

Murphy started laughing right away.

You see we don’t use credit cards, haven’t for years. National Car rental will not accept debit cards. So now we were further away from the campground, still no transportation. One of the clerks suggested we take their shuttle to the main airport and try Dollar Car Rental. Bless them.

As we approached the Dollar desk the first thing we saw was a big sign that both them and Hertz take debit cards! Take that Murphy!

The clerk was very helpful and apologized for what the thieves of San Antonio had done to us. She upgraded us from the cheapest car possible to a full size for free and sent us on our way. We finally got back to the campground about midnight.

We stayed up until nearly dawn searching for used trucks on the web, as well as dealerships for used ones. We had to be out of the campground by Friday and this was Wednesday, I swear I heard Murphy snicker.

We soon found there were ZERO trucks within a 200 mile radius of where we were at that could handle the fifth wheel to be purchased for used. One place even joked they had all been stolen.

In fact EVERYONE we talked with were some body, or knew somebody that had their truck stolen in San Antonio. The bigger the truck, the faster it disappeared and they all went straight across the border.

We finally found a single one ton dually truck in Luling, TX at the GMC dealership and it was brand new with far more whistles and bells than we ever wanted in a truck. We ended up buying that truck and I have to say the Luling Chevy and GMC dealership went above and beyond the call of duty working with us and our insurance company to get us back on the road. After all we not only needed a truck, we needed a hitch.

Then there was the matter of registration, insurance and on and on. Every roadblock Murphy through up we climbed over. Some were harder than others, but all were surmounted. The dealership even had us return our rental car early and gave us a brand new loaner for free for the 10 days it took to get all the details worked out.

The folks at Palmetto State Park came to our rescue. When our time was up at the campground the first time the volunteers moved our fifth wheel from the state campground to the Elks campground nearby and then back on Monday for us.

The rangers honored our state park pass free nights not once, but twice so of the ten nights we were there two of them were free instead of just one, even though the free nights were suppose to be at different parks. They said it was the least they could do to help make up for the theft.

When we finally got our truck, paperwork, and hitch all taken care of on that final Friday it was well past check out time. The camp host told us they had a cancellation and we would not have to move back to the Elks campground but could stay that final night. It was such a relief.

The next morning we paid our fee and then discovered that Murphy was not waving the white flag yet. One of our landing gear legs on the fifth wheel would not retract.

Gary, finally hammered it into submission and we pulled out around noon.

We headed back toward Galveston because we had both lost the desire to travel the southern border anywhere near Mexico. We were headed back to Florida.

Murphy went out with a bang, just as we crossed the Galveston bridge AGAIN—I was beginning to hate that bridge. This time it was our final trailer tire and this time there was no warning. The tire minder went off at the same time the tire did.

By the time we found a parking lot to pull off into safely the tire pieces had fully wedged themselves in the brakes and done minor damage to the trailer fender.

As Gary worked to change the tire himself an angel of mercy and his son appeared. The gentleman took over changing the tire, sawed and tugged with more strength than Gary and I would have had together to get the jammed pieces loose. Checked the brakes for us and absolutely refused to let us pay him anything. All he ask was that we would pray for him. And we did.

Once we were back to the Bay campground at the state park there at Galveston we were seriously in need of some down time. We had the spare on the trailer and knew we needed a new tire. We couldn’t disconnect because of the landing gear being broken and the tornado sirens were going off.

We walked over to the shower house and waited to see if Murphy would take the brand spanking new truck and limping fifth wheel. Luckily Murphy was done for. To be continued on the Galveston post for campground #32

BISHOP’S PALACE/GRESHAM’S PALACE, GALVESTON, TX

2017-08-14T18:31:00.001-07:00

One of the few surviving buildings of the 1900 hurricane was Gresham’s Palace, later to become known as the Bishop’s Palace.

The Gresham’s took in hundreds of survivors of the hurricane in the lavish four stories of the ornate stone house.

Now a museum that you can tour for $12 each. A bit high by shoestring standards, but so worth it. The $12 includes the use of a hand held recording that leads you on yur self guided tour.

You start your tour in the sub-basement of the home in the gift shop, from there you climb the stairs to the upper three levels of the home.

There are many of the original furnishings still in the home, some very unique including a postcard box storage box.

I think it would be best just to let the pictures speak for this beautiful home.

620, 622, 812-814, 818-820, 822-825, 828-829, 831-833, 837, 839, 840, 842-846, 848, 851-52, 855, 866-67, 871-72, 877, 880, 882, 896, 898, 899, 902, 905, 909, 924, 950

PIONEER WOMAN’S (REE DRUMMOND) MERCANTILE, PAWHUSKA, OK

2017-06-25T18:59:00.001-07:00

Did I mention I have a wonderful husband? He indulges me my whims a lot. When I saw that they were allowing free tours of the lodge where they film the Pioneer Woman cooking program and mentioned I would like to do it he offered to take me for my birthday in the first week of January.

He only winced a small bit when I reminded him that the lines to get into the restaurant were often five hours long and wound around the block outside in the bitter cold. Told you he is a wonderful husband.

We took the two hour drive from our campground to the small town of Pawhuska, OK early on a very cold morning. It had been below zero the night before. Since we had been warned about the long lines we both dressed warmly.

We arrived for an early lunch and were surprised to see the line was fairly short. Maybe 20 people crowded around the free standing heaters on the sidewalk, thoughtfully provided by the Drummonds, waiting to get into the queue inside to be seated at a table.

I am told they give out infused ice water and have fans stationed down the side walk in hot weather. Nice.

To our amazement we were inside in less than 15 minutes and seated within an additional 15 minutes. I guess the bitter cold kept a lot of folks away.

During our wait we chatted with the hostesses who told us that despite how cold it had been during the week before they had people actually stand in line for EIGHT hours outside.

While I am a fan, I am not that big of fan. In fact if the queue had been very long when we arrived I would have picked up my free tour ticket and left. Gary and I simply don’t do lines if we can avoid it. We have too much to see and do in this world to stand in long lines.

We were told that Ladd and Ree had tried to buy a nearby building to turn into a hotel with a second restaurant in it as well as the Mercantile one, but the owner was set on turning it into apartments.

They have been checking out other buildings as well. They have done a lot for the town economy, that is for certain.

Standing in the indoor queue we couldn’t resist snapping photos of the deli and the restaurant tables beyond.

Once we were seated our service was quick, friendly and attentive without being overly so. The food, delicious just as you would think, with generous portions. Judge for yourself on the portion size by the photos below.

While eating our meal I was surprised to see Ladd Drummond walking around and personally handing out the free tickets to the tour. A server brought us our ticket, shucks.

Ladies, he is more handsome in life than he is on the show. He was laughing and teasing several of the restaurant guests as he walked through. Unfortunately we did not see Ree that day. Oh well I got to see her at a book signing in Tulsa a couple of years ago.

After we finished our meal the server bagged up the half of sandwich and chips I hadn’t even touched because I filled up quickly on the “Marlboro Man Sandwich” and we went into the actual Mercantile part of the building.

Fun, fun, fun things to look at and buy if you are so inclined. Everything from old time candy and toys to her exclusive kitchenware. Most of which you will never see at Wal-Mart.

Love the blouses and jewelry she wears. The Mercantile carries them. Buying an item as a gift? They’ll gift wrap it for you. It was a fun place to look through, but not very shoestring budget. But then I didn’t expect it to be.

Other than our meal my sole purchase was a brag rag, my term for a branded piece of clothing. After all who wouldn’t want to brag they have been to the Mercantile?

Btw, it was reasonably priced and is so soft and comfy I wear it often. Not to mention it was packaged in this lovely gift bag.

The ticket for the tour also included a turn by turn explanation on how to get to the lodge, complete with landmarks to warn you when to turn. That’s the way we Okies give instructions, mileage AND landmarks.

It was further out of town than we expected, but not too far. We passed a pasture with these beautiful horses in it as we traveled the last bit. We were later told these are wild horses that the Drummonds had “adopted”.

It is back off the highway a bit and larger than we expected.

We also figured out quickly that the camera crew is very good at their job. Because Cowboy Josh’s place is just below the lodge at the base of their driveway and there are other worker homes in the area, none of which you see when they are showing shots outside of the lodge.

The roping dummy is right off the porch instead of out in a large open area like the show leads you to believe. As is Ladd’s grill. There isn’t really a lot of parking either.

Another thing we learned from Ree’s assistant was at the lodge when we were there is the “house” is actually a decent distance away and not fancy at all. It is Ladd’s boyhood home.

As you enter the front door one of the first things you see is the pantry they often show Ree gathering food in. We should all have a pantry like that! It is long and narrow and fully stocked just as they show on tv.

The large kitchen area is to the right.

A seating area is to the left of the door. We were greeted by Cowboy Josh’s Dog as we entered. He had free run of the house along with a few of the family dogs. Sadly no Charlie who died shortly after we were there.

There is a large family area with a double face fireplace just past the kitchen. It is all pretty much and open floor plan.

We learned a lot about the show and the behind the scenes action that was going on during a filming. Here are a few tidbits we learned.

While Ree does create and use the recipes regularly during the show there are actually several people creating the exact same dish in, at that time five mobile kitchens in semi trailers (more on this in a bit). They use the best looking dish for filming. Then afterwards they have a crew that cleans up, after everyone eats.

They film several episodes at a time because bringing the mobile kitchens in is a little tough.

The lodge is used mainly as a guest house and did not originally belong to the Drummond family.

There are at least three cook stations in the HUGE kitchen, but you can tell that yourself by our photos.

Now about the mobile kitchens. Like I mentioned bringing semis in on the dirt roads to the Drummond lodge is a bit difficult, so the lodge was under construction while we were there.

Guest rooms, another large pantry, a huge commercial kitchen and bathrooms were being added for the film crew to use when they were filming. You access this area by going down a hallway just off the family area.

The photos pretty much tell it all.

It was definitely worth the drive out to get a better idea how the show is put together. Very interesting, and educational.

Oh, for you fans. This was not a one time only chance to visit the lodge for free. They apparently do it periodically between filming. I know they had free lodge visits available in early June of 2017 as well. The information appears on the website for the Mercantile when the tours are available.

BACK TO TULSA RV RANCH, BEGGS, OK—Camp 29

2017-06-25T17:22:00.001-07:00

As we left Kilgore, TX Murphy jumped in the back seat of the truck and decided it was time to create another little bit of mischief. It was a trailer tire going flat this time.

Luckily the tire minder warned us and we were able to pull over before it blew.

Once again it was on the drivers side, and this time we were on a fairly narrow stretch of highway.

A call to AAA got us help in due time, but this time we had to use Gary’s card because Murphy had maxed mine out for the year. We really need to get rid of that hitch hiker.

We had planned on going on in to Tulsa RV Ranch that night, but with the delay of the flat we pulled into the Choctaw Travel Plaza and Casino near Hugo, OK to boondock.

It was Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and we were pretty certain we would have to wait until Monday until we could get a trailer tire.

Instead of even trying to find one that late in the evening on a Sunday of a holiday weekend I called my long time friend and fellow rendezvouer Linda Lou Alexander, who lives near where we were camped for the night.

I have mentioned Linda Lou in another post, one that is a true story of the events at one rendezvous. You can read “Be Careful What You Ask for” by clicking the hyperlink to refresh your memory.

Besides being a good friend she is also an excellent basket maker. So of course I have written a review of her baskets, complete with some photos on my “Outside a Dog” blog as well.

Linda Lou came right over that night to chat with us for a while and then again bright and early the next morning to take us looking for a tire so we wouldn’t have to unhook the truck from the trailer. She knew just where to take us.

She also took us to look at various campgrounds in the area. Many were beautiful, the prettiest one of all, one we had previously considered for camping instead of the Truck Plaza. We had decided against it at the last minute because we hate arriving in campgrounds after dark.

We definitely made the right choice. The campground was fairly full and would have been a very tight fit to work our fifth wheel into any of the available spots .

If we hadn’t already been late getting back to Tulsa we would have stayed another day or so to visit a few things in the area like the circusperformer cemetery at Hugo, OK Linda Lou mentioned to us just before dark. We definitely have it on our list to go back and see.

I have already written about the Tulsa RV Ranch on our previous visits, not too much had changed except we noticed that they were paving the rodeo arena and had signs up that they were instead installing a Pick ‘n Pay auto parts place, read salvage yard. We were not amused.

They were paving part of the roads in the park, so that was a good thing.

Neither were we amused that the campsite we were given was not the one we had requested months earlier and it was heavily littered with dog poo. Before we could complain to management about the dog poo another camper arrived to camp next to us with her two dogs and immediately cleaned both our campsites with her handy pooper scooper because she didn’t want her dogs in another dogs droppings. Thank you kind lady.

We love dogs, but ours do not travel with us. They are farm dogs that are happy having the right to run free on our 90 acres. They would not be happy on a 6 ft leash for certain. Therefore we do not want to clean up after other campers’ dogs. Not to mention our labs are a little big to haul the two of them with us, as you can see.

We paid the monthly rate plus a one week rate to stay this time because we were home for Thanksgiving, our son’s birthday, Christmas, and into January as well as the usual doctor’s appointments.

Oklahoma seldom has below zero temperatures. We are native Tulsan’s and we were banking on the normal temperatures while we were there. More than one Christmas I have worn shorts on Christmas Day.

Boy did we get a surprise. We suffered through several below zero night time temps and nearly 10 days of frozen pipes despite having heat tape on our heavily insulated water hose and insulating the faucet at the campground. So much for that spigot being frost proof. Not to mention our Montana has the arctic package on it.

Luckily we did not get any burst pipes, other campers were not as lucky, nor was the campground.

A main line burst and the water, after the repair, the rest of our stay was very brown, most likely we thought, from dirt in the lines. We did not cook with or drink it and it did stain our toilet. Again, not amused, but burst pipes happen.

The holidays were fun with our son and I particularly enjoyed my birthday gift from my husband. He took me to Ree Drummond’s, aka: the Pioneer Woman Mercantile. I love watching her show when I can. I use many of her recipes, especially her Hot Crash Hot Potatoes and FriedPork Chops.

They even had a special event going on that if you went by the Mercantile you would get a free ticket to tour their lodge for free. For those of you who don’t watch her show the lodge is where they film most of it. The lodge was huge I will post photos of it and the restaurant in a separate post.

By the way, to show you how splendid of a gift this was the lines were known to be FIVE HOURS LONG to get just inside the restaurant, mainly outside and remember the temps were below freezing during the day and below zero at night. Yet my wonderful husband was willing to endure it for me.

Then there was of course all our pets to love on the two dogs pictured above and our three cats. The grey one, Gypsy, traveled with us as a kitten, but she has made it very clear she has no intention of going on the road with us again.

She prefers to stay home with Oliver, the black cat that was missing for two months in the summer last year, to battle the calico, Lizzie.

All five animals were glad to see us, but made it clear they were now Sean’s animals and had no desire to travel with us.

To make up for the cold was the great health news both Gary and I received. We are both in excellent health and the doctors now only need to see me every six months instead of every six weeks or so. YES! Freedom to travel further was a great Christmas gift.

HARRIS STREET RV PARK, KILGORE TX-CAMP 28

2017-06-24T17:25:00.001-07:00

We only stayed at this small park one night, not even bothering to disconnect as we were in the get home mindset.

City owned and operated the city park is easy access, but the sites are a little short for a 38 ft fifth wheel, but since we didn’t disconnect from the truck we barely fit on the pad.

For $15 per night you get water and electric and a dump station. There is a nice walking trail in the park which allowed us to stretch our legs from the hours of being in the truck as we traveled.

The one drawback to this campground is where you have to pay, at City Hall in downtown Kilgore.

Take our advice and don’t pull your fifth wheel to go pay. The place has minimal parking and the parking lot is two layered with a drop off from one section to the other. We pulled in what we thought was a flat lot and realized, nearly too late that there was about a 10 inch drop in the middle of the lot.

Luckily we stopped in time, but we then had to back out into the main street traffic with a fifth wheel that would of blocked all lanes coming and going. Gary sat and contemplated our best plan of action while I walked the rest of the way to City Hall to pay our one night stay.

It was the weekend, so it was locked up tight with no drop box or mail slot. Hmmm, now what.

By the time I got back to the truck it had been decided that backing out into to traffic was our only course of action. Not good. Hopefully I would be able to get traffic to stop.

Instead we were blessed by a couple of angels. They saw our problem and blocked traffic for us by standing out in the middle of the road. It turned out they were two volunteers with the local police department. Thanks to them we got out into traffic and safely on our way.

We explained to them why we had got in that situation to begin with and they told us to not worry about paying and to have a safe trip. It seems that more than one camper had found themselves in the same situation, as evidenced by the broken curbing a scrape marks. Lucky for us we stopped in time.

So we did as we were told and headed on out of town. Thank you to those kind souls.

DISNEY SPRINGS, FORMERLY DOWNTOWN DISNEY

2017-06-20T15:06:00.001-07:00

Why would I, as a non-shopper(I really don’t care to shop), write about a shopping/entertainment complex? Because just going window shopping in this massive center is an experience in itself.

There is free parking available, but it is a good distance from the main action, crowded and after you have walked the entire shopping complex and back to your car you might wish you had rode the transportation system from the parks or one of the resorts to get to it. Especially considering the traffic.

We drove over on this fall trip, but wised up in 2017 and parked for free with our annual pass at the transportation ticket center.

There are no direct buses from the transportation ticket center to Disney Springs so you will either need to take a boat or monorail to a park or resort and catch the bus for Disney Springs from there.

In the past we have rode a boat from one of the resorts to the shopping complex, but I am not certain that mode of transportation is still available.

To say Disney Springs is breath taking in just its sheer size and design would be an understatement.

What other shopping complex do you know of has not only all the top brands, but dinosaurs, a volcano that erupts periodically, a giant Lego sea monster, giant tinker toys, The House of Blues, Disney Quest, Circque du Soleil and the Earl of Sandwich?

There is also an amphitheater where free concerts are performed.

Right after we left Florida they had a holiday drone show in the air over the lake that we would have loved to see. Hopefully it will be going on again in 2017.

We spent all afternoon and most of the evening there in the fall just walking around and trying to soak it all in. It had grown immensely since the last time we had spent any real time at all there so we were gob smacked at all the new construction. Including two, soon to be three parking garages.

Our late lunch that day was at the Earl of Sandwich where we each got a very good sandwich. The sandwiches are large enough we could have done quite well with splitting one. I ended up taking half of mine back to the camper to eat the next day.

The prices are not that bad, especially if you have an annual pass because they do honor it for the discount. I may be wrong, but I believe this shop is also on the various dining plans.

The sandwiches, custom t-shirts for us (more on these in a minute) and new parts for our Mr. Potato Head collection at Once Upon a Toy, were our only purchases that day. The rest of our time was just walking and taking photos. Considering neither one of us is big on shopping and it took us a full day to visit the complex you can imagine how long it will take you if you are into shopping.

Of course you might not be the photo bugs we are and that would speed things up considerably.

About the Mr. Potato Head parts. Whether you collect potato heads like we do, or you just want a single one Once Upon a Toy has a different approach to how you purchase your potato head and/or parts.

You are given a box that you can pack as tight or as loose as you want and as long as the top closes, even if it is just barely closed, it is $20 plus tax, and in our case less the annual pass discount.

The cast members there will even give you hints how to get the most for your money. Over our many visits here is what we have figured out. Think the grains of sands concept.

You know the one where you fill a jar with rocks, but you can still fit in grains of sand.

If you are buying a Mr. Potato Head body, take advantage of the fact the body is hollow and there is a trap door on the back of the body. Fill this cavity with smaller pieces nestled inside middle sized pieces inside larger pieces.

Then when you have that packed as tight as you can get it you place the body in the box that you have filled the bottom corners in the same manner. Fill the entire box all the way to the top around the body until you can barely latch the slotted tabs that form the top. It doesn’t matter if your box bulges and is mishapened, as long as you can latch those tabs. You will be amazed how much you can fit in that small box.

Don’t need a body, even better. Use the smaller to middle, to larger concept for all the parts and fill the box entirely with parts. It is all the same price whether you get a body or not.

The challenge of getting the most parts as possible for your $20 is actually kind of fun. Be prepared to unpack and repack your box a few times to get it as tight as possible. There is no rush, take as long as you like.

Don’t need a lot of parts? Just need to replace an ear or an arm, or other part? You can do that too, for $2.50 a piece. No need to tell you which is the better deal.

We did of course go into the Christmas shop, and the huge World of Disney Store, but found nothing we absolutely couldn’t live without at these locations.

The Disney photographers are there too, so be sure and get those special photos that your annual pass includes.

Now about those custom t-shirts. There is a store, Design-a-Tee just across from the Christmas store at the far end of the complex where you design your own custom t-shirts. We tend to do this at least once every trip. The shirts run about $25 each and during the time we were there we did get an annual pass discount on our purchase.

Here is how it works. Inside the shop are individual computerized ordering stations. They are self-explanatory, but there is always a friendly cast member nearby to help you if you have any questions.

You start by choosing what type of t-shirt you want, long sleeve or short sleeve.

Then you choose your size. Never fear, they have example shirts there in the shop you can try on if you are unsure of the size.

One of the reasons we love doing this is they carry the larger size t-shirts in this Disney shop. While t-shirts are sold everywhere on the Disney properties what few XXXL or larger shirts they get in sell out quickly. We have never had any trouble getting the larger shirts here.

Next the color (I may have two and three reversed, but both steps happen before you choose your design.)

Once these decisions are made the real fun begins.

You choose your character or your theme that you want in your main design.

I went with Christmas and Chip ‘n Dale. Gary chose Carl from the movie UP!

Then you add your lettering. This can be a lot of fun. As long as you keep it clean, the staff does have the right to refuse to create anything objectionable, you can put whatever you like, in whatever format, lettering and color you like.

Once you are satisfied with your design you have the option of either placing the order or cancelling it.

A cast member goes over your order, checks your spelling and grammar (we had a question about the spelling of a word on one of ours), takes your payment and gives you a receipt.

You are then free to leave the area for the time it takes them to produce the exact shirt you ordered. Generally less than an hour. This is usually when we go look through the Christmas store across the way and/or visit the adjacent restrooms.

Once you come back they show you the shirt and make certain you are happy with it. Then they bag it up in a t-shirt material drawstring bag similar to the oh so popular drawstring backpacks, one for each shirt if that is what you desire (they have the store logo on them) and you are on your way.

These are our 2016 t-shirts. There are no others on the planet exactly like them, and that makes us very happy. BTW they are quality t-shirts, not cheapos.

So whether you like to shop or not, if you want a day of doing something away from the parks there is a lot to see and do at Disney Springs.

IS A WALT DISNEY WORLD ANNUAL PASS WORTH IT FOR YOU?

2017-05-26T20:10:00.002-07:00

I will be the first to admit that when someone first suggested that we, as Oklahomans, get an annual pass for Walt Disney World I thought they were certifiably NUTS!

Then I started doing my research and we soon purchased our first annual passes. That was over 30 years ago and we have never regretted our purchases of an annual pass (AP) every few years.

When you first see the cost of an annual pass you are very likely to gasp and say “this is definitely NOT shoestring budget travel”, but it will all work out IF you are a frequent visitor.

Because I am writing this in the spring of 2017 I will use the current prices of the various tickets, although our most recent passes were purchased in the late fall of 2016 at a slightly lower rate and with a few extra benefits. Those benefits I will mention as I go along so you can see why we purchased it when we did.

Say you are going to go on a two week vacation to Walt Disney World and plan on going into one park or another for 10 days of the 14. Hey laundry has to happen sometime right?

Disney now has a number of ticket options. What ticket works best for your family only you know.

Gary and I no longer do the water parks, so the water park option is not one we even consider when purchasing tickets. You on the other hand may want to do mainly water parks, so your numbers will vary from the scenario I am building. They do have, I believe it is two, water park add on options for the annual passes

Park hopper is mandatory as far as we are concerned. Many a day we start in one park and end in another.

No black out dates, is another biggie for us. We want to go, when we want to go. If we are foolish enough to be there during super peak times. That is our choice. We simply do not like being told we can't use the AP on certain days. You could of course go those blackout dates, but you would have to purchase tickets for those dates and it would defeat the purpose of the AP. So we just go with the no blackout dates option.

Based on these options a 10 day pass with park hopper and no blackout dates would be, according to the website, is currently $548.48 each.

An annual pass good for 366 days from the day of first use. You can purchase the pass ahead of time and the days do not start ticking off until you actually use it. This is particularly handy if you are making your plans early in the year and you aren’t going until after the annual rate hike later in the year. Or if you want to pre-pay all you can before you hit the parks.

The annual pass currently, May 14, 2017 costs $829.64. Don’t gasp there is a whole lot more to the annual pass than just admission. Even at that you are paying less than $300 more for 356 additional days.

When we purchased our 2016/2017 ticket they were running an anniversary special and we got 13 months for the price of 12. Considering the fact by today’s date, May 14, 2017 we have already gone into the parks over 20 times that has paid for the price difference right there and we still have five months to go on our pass. However, the argument can be made that if we didn’t have the AP then we wouldn’t have gone in that often. So you need to consider that in your planning as well.

Before retirement we would make a minimum of two ten day trips almost a year apart so that right there would pay for the price difference of the two tickets (two ten day tickets vs the annual pass). We often also made one or two long weekend trips down from Oklahoma, just the two of us by catching air fare on sale and using pre-purchased gift cards at a discount (see Paying for Your Magical Trip post) to save more money.

The AP includes FREE Memory Maker downloads, this was new in 2016 but it appears they have decided to keep this bonus, which is a wonderful one. These are photos taken by the Disney photographers throughout all the parks, as well as photos from the various rides that snap your photo. Some of the photos have animations on them.

Some with add ons

While most are normal still photos

Then there are the ones from rides.

Because of the purchase price of $169 it is not something we normally would buy, but are so thrilled to have it with our AP that we use it constantly. This lets Gary actually be IN the photos of our trip, rather than the camera man all the time.

If this is an option you would use then add the $169 to your 10 day ticket price. $548.48 + $169= $717.48. Of course you only need to add it in for one person because you can download and share the photos. So either divide the cost up between the number of tickets or just add it on to one for your calculations. If not, then leave it out in your calculations.

Depending on where you eat the annual pass has a 10% -20% discount on meals. Not all restaurants and quick service food venues offer it, but many do and the savings can add up quickly depending again on your personal preferences.

A simple burger meal at a quick service can run close to $15 and if it is one that takes the AP discount (Cosmic Rays does not) then you save $1.50 to $3 per meal per person.

Periodically they do run free meal plans with the staying on site reservations, but then your rooms will cost you more. You have specific places you have to eat and a limit on what items you can eat with those dining plans, so again it all depends on your personal preferences.

We personally prefer the discounts because we often split a meal and saving $2-$3 off that meal each when we aren't splitting a meal ( the meals are generally large at the park, so we often split the meals) is better for us.

There are also shopping discounts, and hotel room discounts if you are staying on site. They can range from 10% to 25% depending on the deal. Alas, it has been a long while since I personally have seen a discount on Ft. Wilderness.

If you are staying off site the next AP bonus is a huge savings that can add up very quickly. It is parking. Parking is $20 per day for your basic parking. That parking is free with the AP.

So if you are staying off site and paying for parking for 10 days that is a $200 savings right there. Again, that would only apply to one ticket, because you pay by the car not by the guest.

If you are staying on site then parking is free.

We also enjoy the speed we can now get into the gate by entering through the Annual Passholders only gate. This combined with the "guests with no bags" security check point, which I have recently read now has an AP entrance for that as well, can save a lot of time on getting into the parks.

With the AP there are also discount tickets for recreational rentals, special events, special merchandise (I am wearing an AP holder Figment t-shirt right now), special pins if you are a pin collector, and so much more.

Whether or not the AP is the best purchase for you all depends on your wants and needs. Oh and by the way only one ADULT member in your party has to have the AP to qualify for all the discounts for up to a certain number of people in your party.

So if you want the photo pass, room discounts, shopping discounts, etc then one AP could do your party. However, the passholder has to be the present when the pass is used. Everyone, but the passholder, will have to purchase their tickets separately and there is no discount for getting those. But if you are only going into the park x amount of days one ap and tickets for that number of days for the other members in your party may be the way to go.

For us an annual pass each is the only way to go because we simply don’t know how many days we will go in and there are times we will purchase separate meals and separate locations so we each need a pass to do that. Not to mention gift shopping for each other.

One more thing. If when your annual pass does expire if you need more Disney, then you can get a discount on the renewal if you do it within a certain time period. We are already doing a sinking fund for our renewal this winter, because we are going to spend part of the winter in Winter Garden, FL again and we love the lazy pace an AP allows.

Oh that is another bonus I hadn’t mentioned that is HUGE in our book. A slower pace. With a limited number of days you tend to go, go, go from rope drop to when they run you out of the park. With an AP we go in around noon, stay until we get tired, then leave because we always have another day to go in.

Now that you have read all these options and comparisons you can generally use this same type of information for any amusement park as they all have similar discounts and options.

Hope this helps someone make their decision and maybe get more amusement park fun for less money.

BOLDING MILL COE CAMPGROUND, GAINESVILLE, GA-Camp 24

2017-05-14T20:18:00.002-07:00

As we pulled into this beautiful campground we knew we were in for a pleasant stay. The camp host greeted us immediately and suggested campsite #1 that offered a newly created beautiful view. They had just cleared the area a few hours earlier of some undergrowth that had previously blocked this gorgeous view from our camper.

Of course we had to drag the fall decorations out to match those of the various campers in the campground.

I do have to admit our closest neighbor, Mr. Squirrel did not take kindly to ghost on his tree. He in fact chatted with Gary about it for awhile, as shown in this video.

Plus, I must admit I wanted the campsite to look nice because my facebook friend, Sharon Hudson was going to come for a visit during our brief stay. I was very excited to meet her face to face.

I was not disappointed, she was so much fun and brought the most delicious cake with her. One of her own making I might add. She is the owner and baker of AKAKery and ships her beautiful cakes every where.

This little gem was key lime in flavor and oh so good! I would highly recommend her cakes to anyone.

After our too short visit with Sharon we headed out after just a couple of days at this very well maintained and beautiful campground.

We had been hoping to get into Ft. Wilderness at Walt Disney World, but had been told they were booked solid. Stubborn soul that I am we headed that way anyway once we were certain all threats from Hurricane Matthew and the storms that followed him were over.

We weren’t certain where we would stay, but we were certain it was time to go back to the Mouse House.

HAGAN STONE CITY PARK, PLEASANT GARDEN, NC—Camp 23

2017-05-14T19:54:00.001-07:00

We were in North Carolina for around a week, which was long enough to get to meet my facebook friend and steadfast cancer support buddy, Lea.

She was the person I leaned on the most besides family when I was going through those scary times. It was her I shared the news with that Christmas Eve that the doctors had been successful and I was cancer free.

Until our visit to NC Lea and I had never met face to face. It was a joyous occasion for me. We had a wonderful meal at Cracker Barrel halfway between our two base locations.

Our home base was at the Hagan Stone City Park in Pleasant Garden, NC. The campground was a basic simple campground.

Our first night there we were told to set up wherever there was not an orange cone and we would be fine to stay for several days. So we did just that, in a nice level graveled spot that was plenty big enough for our long fifth wheel as well as an individual water spigot. We got completely set up and settled in for the night.

The first thing the next morning the staff had changed their mind and told us that despite the fact there were no reserved signs or cones we had to move because there were others who had plans for our site. They never used the words, “reservation” when we were discussing moving. The staff carefully worded their statements to not include the word reservation. Instead they said things like “We have someone else who wants this spot.”

We try not to rock boats with anyone, so we moved to the campsite they told us we needed to move to. A short, sloped, grassy/muddy spot that was so short we had to park our truck in the middle of a grassy area across the road from our camper. Our water spigot was a shared one, the park did not provide a splitter connector either. Luckily, we had one.

You can see by the first photo on this post how close our trailer was to the road in the park, where the dirt is showing is the road.

Having to move was not a big problem, but it did irritate us that we had been told we could park there because it was not reserved and the people who “wanted” that site did not come in for five days. When they did it was a group of tent campers on an rv site, that blocked paths around their campsite with signs you were not to walk on the park paths while they were there.

If there hadn’t been two LARGE designated tent site camping areas we could have understood better tents with no rvs being in the rv area.. In fact that weekend the tent campgrounds were fairly empty, while they were turning away rvs due to the large number of tents on the rv sites.

We were told by permanent residents there that what happened to us had happened before because that group tent campers were locals that were friends with the staff.

If they had reservations, that is fine, but why were they not in the tent area that was just one loop over either direction? Why on rv sites?

Other than that our visit at the campground was pleasant, our very close neighbors were friendly and helpful, we had some charming evenings with them.

We also enjoyed walking the nature trails in the campground and seeing the marathon runners.

Other than taking long walks in the park and seeing Lea we just chilled in this area without visiting any local sites.

We would stay there again, but we would make certain that we had a guaranteed reserved site.

DOUGLAS DAM HEADWATER CAMPGROUND, SEVIERVILLE, TN-CAMP 22

2017-05-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

We were lucky that the town we were directed to after our throwing a wheel not only had a trailer building business, but it was open on a Saturday. While they didn’t have an exactly matching to our other trailer wheel rim they had one that was so close you had to look twice to realize it was a different rim. Even better they had a trailer tire the right size AND a brass valve stem. It took them no time at all to take off the temporary fix lug bolts and put new properly fitting ones on all the way around.

We were soon on our way and arrived at the Douglas Dam Campground near Sevierville, TN in the late afternoon of that same day. However, it was late enough that since we did not have a reservation we were put in a campsite that was just slightly too small unless we left the truck hooked up.

Which we did because they said they would have several available the proper size the next day.

This is a pleasant campground ran by some very nice folks who work very hard to keep it clean, even keeping the leaves blown off the pads every day in the fall.

Since the camp hosts had decorated the campground for the impending autumn holidays we decided that Malecifient Dragon should make her campground debut, along with Snoopy and the gang, and Jack Skellington, once we were in our campsite #31 for the duration of our stay.

The neighbors all enjoyed the huge dragon stopping by to see where we had purchased it and just to chat in general.

The “camp cat” was just more or less bored by it. He did come over periodically to check out the inflatables, but never offered to be “naughty” around them.

That first full evening and a few others we walked around the campground to take a few photos of this laid back campground.

Of course being that close to Dollywood, we had to spend some time there as well as visit the Bush Bean Visitor Center.

We did spend time just driving around Gatlinburg and through the Great Smokey Mountains National Forest too.

There are numerous shows, restaurants, and shops we could have been tempted by, but our time there was limited and there were certain things we really wanted to do.

One, for me, was visit the Scrapbook Superstore in Gatlinburg, not once but twice.

That place is HUGE. It is a good thing I had just reassessed my crafting budget before going in there or I could have done some various serious damage to that sinking fund for certain.

They had just about everything you can imagine for paper crafting. Next door to it is also their clearance center, although by the time I went in there I was tired enough I just sort of just did a quick look thru and then decide to come back another time when I had more time. After all Gary was aging greatly out in the truck in the heat as I drooled all over the die cuts, stickers, stamps and papers of this huge shop.

We would definitely recommend this campground to others. If we were to have a complaint at all it is a minor one. Their public restrooms are so well lit the outside light on them can temporarily blind you at certain angles if you are coming in after dark. That is such a tiny thing we feel this campground deserves a very good rating.

DOLLYWOOD

2017-05-14T19:33:00.001-07:00

Is there anyone in the USA who doesn’t know who Dolly Parton is? I seriously doubt it, but maybe there are a few people left that haven’t heard of the petite blonde country singer and humanitarian. Even as a fan I had some questions about her life, and family.

Dollywood, is just that, all about Dolly. From a museum that holds memorabilia of her life including wigs, dresses, movie clips, awards, records and much, much more to a show saluting her songs put on by her friends and family it is all there. Rather than show you hundreds of photos of the park Gary put this video together of some of the goings on all over Dollywood

There is a live stage production that has nothing to do with Dolly there as well that was very good and moving.

Then there is her Bald Eagle Sanctuary. If I hadn’t already been a Dolly Parton fan the sanctuary would have made me one. Roughly 90 bald eagles who have been harmed in one way or another to the point they may never be able to safely live free again have found a home in this large beautiful natural enclosure. We were mesmerized just watching and listening to these beautiful creatures for the longest time. All appeared to be in the best possible health despite the injuries that had originally brought them here. The main group is together, but a few are separated out because they are crippled too severely to be in the general population.

Again it makes more sense to show the video then to let you imagine their sound and movements.

Weeks later we heard of the fires surrounding Dollywood and our first thought was the eagles. Not just because of the flames, but because of the dense smoke that filled the area and the harm it could do to the birds. There were news stories everywhere about evacuating the people, but the media said nothing about all of our nation’s symbols that were in the enclosure.

A quick web search turned up the www.eaglecams.org at Dollywood that was shut off, but had a wonderful notice on it that all of the eagles had been evacuated safely. I immediately became an even bigger fan of Dolly.

After the fires Dolly not only came through on getting the eagles safely rehoused, she came through for “her people” of Sevierville and helped them get rehoused as well. She is a true humanitarian.

These are not the only humanitarian things Dolly has done, including free books for children, helping with education and much more. Many of her kind works are shown throughout the park.

Of course there is the usual assortment of fast food stands, thrill rides, street shows and live entertainment. All in all it was a nice theme park with a few drawbacks, like the fact you have to pay $16 per day parking, unless you want to park a few miles away for free and take a fifty cent per person each way trolley over to the park.

The free parking is rather limited, in fact between some sort of show going on in a tent at one free parking location and an event going on at the other at the convention center we had zero chance of finding a parking spot for our one ton dually. Therefore we ended up paying for parking both days.

While we only purchased one day passes, using our senior citizen discount, we arrived after 3pm on that first day and begrudgingly paid the parking fee, hoping that the second day free would apply to that as well. No such luck, only the re-entry to the park itself was free the next day. This made this shoestring traveler a wee bit unhappy, but as soon as we actually got in the park my mood lightened.

The park was all decked out for fall, and anyone who knows me knows fall is my favorite season. The hills were just starting to turn color and the air was crisp. In fact crisp enough that my “brag rag” for Dollywood was a sweatshirt instead of a t-shirt. (Are you starting to see a theme here about my wardrobe?)

Notice the last photo is a little different? That's because he was a living statue that was a lot of fun.

While Gary and I are not fans of thrill rides Dollywood does have them.

It also has rides for the less adventuresome as well. A peaceful train ride through the country gave us a cool respite mid-afternoon on our second day, although because it is a coal fueled train (think old time melodrama train) you will get soot in your eyes if not careful. In fact we happened to be walking near the train tracks at one point when the train came through and we both sprouted instant dark spots on our face and hair. It gave both of us a laugh.

One other thing that caused our shoestring travelers to twitch a bit was the price of food at the park. It was high, higher than food at Silver Dollar City in Branson, higher than the same type of quick service meals at Walt Disney World and you are not allowed to bring food or drink in, something that is allowed at the other parks. So if you don’t want to pay high prices for fast food that lacked variety from stand to stand pack an ice chest in your car, leave the park and eat in the parking lot. Or eat a big meal before you go and after you leave.

Of course they do have some annual pass discounts, but unlike the other two parks I mentioned we didn’t feel we would be in the area enough to justify the cost of an annual pass.

Depending on how big a Dolly fan you are you could spend an afternoon to a week or longer just seeing and doing everything in this former Silver Dollar City theme park.

BUSH BEANS VISITOR CENTER, CHESTNUT, TN

2017-05-14T18:50:00.001-07:00

In case you haven’t figured out already Gary and I are weird people. We consider amusement parks fun, but not the be all, end all of vacationing and traveling. Nor are we big on casinos. We are easy to entertain and enjoy simple pleasures. We also like to learn things in our travels.

So when we realized we were in the area of Bush Beans and they had a visitor center that told how the manufacturing of our favorite canned baked beans was done we wanted to go. Especially when we learned our educational visit would be free. Free works well with our shoestring travel budget.

Even better is when the free is well done, and this location was well done.

The drive took a little longer to get there than we expected, but the countryside we drove through was beautiful, so we had no complaints. As we rounded the curve going into to Chestnut we smelled, then saw the huge canning plant on the left side of the road and the visitor center on the right side.

We already knew we would not be allowed into the actual plant, that our “tour” would be in the visitor center. Following the road around to the guest parking lot we were pleased to see they were all decked out for fall with harvest decorations.

The visitor center has actually three sections, a restaurant, a gift shop and the “tour” area.

We were told by various people in the area that the restaurant is good, but alas we were too late for service that day. We have got to quit being so slow in the mornings getting around. Perhaps another time.

The gift shop was interesting with a variety of items, but wonders of wonders I did refrain from buying a “Bush Beans” brag rag. I was already feeling the need to thin out my travel wardrobe and we weren’t scheduled to be back at the ranch for nearly six weeks.

From the very beginning we enjoyed the self-guided tour through the museum. At the very beginning there is a display for “children of all ages” to pick up a game of sorts to help you learn as you go through the displays. A treasure hunt so to speak, you watch for questions and answers and then fill those in on a your playing page with a provided pencil. The answers have numbers and letters associated with them. You match the letters with the numbers on your playing page and put the appropriate letter in that spot to spell out a phrase.

Being a child at heart, I played the game. Don’t worry I won’t spill the beans on the answer and spoil your fun.

Instead we followed the route through the tour starting at a spilled can of beans, sort of.

As you walk through the large can display you not only gather a clue, but you can watch a series of videos that tells you something on the history of the company, how the beans are grown, processed and delivered to you. The videos are short and well done.

From this and other displays I learned that while Bush only cans beans at this time at one time they canned a large variety of vegetables.

I also learned that Showboat Pork n Beans were canned by Bush Beans. Something I previously did not know.

There are interactive displays throughout the large display area that help you load delivery trucks, learn the history of food canning, the part played by Bush Beans during the war via videos, and a plethora of other interesting things.

At the end you turn in your completed game page and win a reward. Of course I won’t tell you what the reward was, but here’s a hint.

The fun continued outside where you can view the Bush Bean truck from some of the commercials and take a photo with you “in” the truck via a mock-up of it.

I know the burning question is “Did we get the secret recipe from Duke”. The answer is….

MAY 6, 2017, ON THIS DAY ONE YEAR AGO….

2017-05-06T19:01:00.001-07:00

We hit the road for the adventure of a lifetime.

So much has happened, so many plans have changed and we have learned so much it is all hard to put down in words, but here goes.

People have asked me if traveling full time is what I expected it to be, the answer is yes and no. How is that for an answer? We have done and learned so much it is hard to sum it all up.

One thing is for certain with traveling full time, if you don’t like a travel plan wait five minutes it will change.

From the very first day, when instead of getting away early in the day as planned we didn’t do it until mid-afternoon life has been basically go with the flow. That is okay though, because we are retired and have no set place we have to be at any certain time. We make as few reservations as possible so if Murphy of Murphy’s Law pops up from his place in the back seat to misbehave we aren’t out a deposit or stressing about getting to a campground on time.

A prime example is our plan to spend quality time at Williamsburg, VA. We headed that direction last fall, only to be met by Hurricane Matthew and turned away.

This spring we decided we would head directly up there from Florida and we actually are at Newport News, VA right now, and have been for around two weeks. We leave first thing tomorrow and have yet to make it into Williamsburg due to weather and all the other site seeing we have been doing. So Williamsburg and Washington, DC are on our travel plans for this coming fall. We will see if we get there then.

Murphy hits in the form of flats, a lost wheel, a lost truck rear end, a stolen truck, trailer repairs, broken eye glasses, sheer exhaustion and so much more have changed our travel plans on numerous occasions.

Some of those visits from Murphy were enough to make us consider for a nano second tucking our tails and going back to the farm to hide for the rest of our lives. Like I said for a nano second. We aren’t quitters and for the most part enjoy all that we do as we travel.

So far we have proven ourselves to be time travelers of sorts. Thanks to museums, amusement parks, and archeology sites we have visited from 900 AD at the Mitchell,SD Prehistoric Indian site

to far in the future at Walt Disney World.

In between we have gone to school with Laura Ingalls Wilder,

fought in all the wars our nation has participated in,

visited with Andrew Jackson in his home,

listened to Dolly Parton at Dollywood.

We even tried to get the secret recipe from Duke at Bush Beans.

One of our biggest entertainments is enjoying the diverse landscapes as we travel the country. From the green hills ofArkansas

to the Palo Duro Canyon of TX,

the stone bluffs of the Badlands,

to the beaches of Galveston, TX.

Let’s not forget the Great Smokey Mountains.

The landscape is constantly changing.

We have yet to do the Little Sahara and the Great Salt Flats in Oklahoma in our retirement travels, nor the great southwest. So there is much more to see.

Another great thing we have done is visit with friends, both old and new. There are no words to describe how much delight this has brought us.

Of course there have been some down times. The biggest of which was the sudden loss of my brother in law.

Luckily we were close enough to Oklahoma at the time we were able to scoot home for the funeral. While when my cousin passed we weren’t able to do so.

Nor were we there to say good-bye to an ancient beloved cat as he took his last ride to the vet.

These times were hard, but life happens when you least expect it and so does death.

We have learned so much in our travels. Not only about camping life but about unusual things and words.

Before this last year of traveling we never knew there was a point in history a ten hour watch. Nor had I pondered the meaning of toothsome (tasty). Yet touring two different museums these two items and many more were made known to us. Travel is educating.

Speaking of toothsome, we have created so many tasty meals traveling and using dried foods it is amazing. I know Gary was a little reluctant when I suggested we fill our cupboards with dried foods instead of can goods to save on weight and space, not to mention money.

Now he is very adept at creating such meals himself and wonders why we hadn’t been using dried eggs for baking all our married life, or at least all the camping we have done throughout our 44 years as husband and wife.

One year on the road and we have barely made a dent in our dried food storage, where we would have had to purchase massive amounts of canned and frozen foods in that same time period.

Another thing we have learned is less is more. We have learned to cook for just two now without leftovers to worry about squeezing into our tiny refrigerator.

You can get through cooking a meal without having every single appliance, pot, pan and utensil that Bed Bath and Beyond sells and do so quite easily.

Teamwork is essential when you are together 24/7, whether it is cooking a meal or replacing the landing gear on the fifth wheel.

Working together we can accomplish just about anything. We can even survive driving through Houston, Texas!

I have been asked more than once what would be the one piece of advice I would give anyone starting out on this adventure. My response “have a large emergency fund and then double what you think is big enough and you might get close to what you need”. We had a huge one thank goodness. We are now in the process of rebuilding it to an even larger amount, just in case.

While you may not have the same breakdowns we have had, you will have them. Every camper we have spoken with on that subject says they were in no way prepared for all the “little” things that popped up their first year, and even subsequent years on the road. Having an easily accessible emergency fund is essential while traveling. Don’t leave home without it

With all our ups and downs this last year we discussed this morning whether or not there would be a year two of travel. We both agreed whole heartedly that as long as we can physically and safely do it we will keep moving on down the highway learning, seeing and enjoying all this great country has to offer.

To quote Gary this morning “We’ve barely scratched the surface of all the things there are to see and do in this United States of America.”

MURPHY JOINS US AT LEBONON, TN

2017-04-25T19:54:00.001-07:00

“Life happens” I cannot begin to tell you how often in our travels I have said this. If you have been following my blog since we set out on our journey of a lifetime you know we had already had many visits from Murphy of Murphy’s Law, so we weren’t really all that surprised when he jumped in the back seat of the truck as we left Seven Points COE Campground near Nashville, TN.

We hadn’t gotten very far on down the road to get to Williamsburg, VA when Gary noticed a wheel, yes a wheel not a tire but a wheel, bouncing down the other side of the road.

He said “Wow, that was close someone just lost a wheel. Luckily it has missed every one,” Then “It’s OURS!”

Sure enough, we had lost an entire wheel off the fifth wheel. Apparently when we had the tire work done on the trailer at the same service center that did our bad rear end repair on our truck they had partially broken our lug nuts off. The travel on I 40 and other roads had added stress to those lug nuts and now our new tire, with the even newer brass valve stems, and new tire monitoring system on it was traveling down the highway without us.

Thus began a six hour wait in the heat for a proper sized tow truck sent by AAA to show up. Five hours into the wait it dawned on one of the various tow truck drivers AAA had contacted trying to get us trailered to a place that could take care of our problem for us that the bridges between where we were and where we could go for help in any direction were too low for the fifth wheel to be trailered, as it needed to be due to the missing wheel.

Further complicating the matter was the fact it was a driver’s side wheel that was missing and we were on a very busy highway. Any onsite work would be dangerous for the person doing said work.

Research on Gary’s part discovered just a few miles down the road was a former weigh station. It was then decided we would creep down the shoulder to that parking area where repair work could be done safely.

I must admit that was the longest five miles in history, especially when we had to pull back out into traffic on the various bridges on our route.

Once we finally got to the rest area it was another hour before a wrecker showed up. However, he had brought the equipment and parts needed to do a safe repair that would get us to where we could get a new wheel the next morning.

After he got us put back together the wrecker driver volunteered to help us look for the missing wheel and to see that we got to a place to sleep overnight safely.

We all walked the woods where we had seen the wheel go, we even tried locating it with the tire minder, but it was not to be found.

I know that six hours sounds like a long time, but considering where we were and all the specialty wreckers they tried to send us, we really couldn’t complain.

After all we had food, drink and a toilet while we waited. We even had air conditioning in the truck we could turn on during the heat of the day.

Most of all we are thankful that our runaway tire didn't cause any wrecks or harm anyone.

We knew this wouldn’t be our last visit with Murphy but that day we left him sitting in a truck parking area on the side of the highway. Just wish he hadn’t found away to find us again, and again, and again the next few months.

THE HERMITAGE, ANDREW JACKSON’S HOME

2017-04-25T12:16:00.001-07:00

For those of you just joining our travels I should warn you we visit a lot of historical and natural sites, although we do also visit amusement parks.

In all our years together Gary and I have often visited various historical homes. This was our first visit to the Hermitage and we were not disappointed.

We scheduled a whole day to visit it properly and were certainly glad we did. In fact toward the end of our walk around the grounds we were offered a ride on a golf cart back to the main buildings by a docent and we gladly accepted it due to the heat and quite frankly we were tired.

From the parking lot you enter the information center where you purchase your tickets. It is a self-guided audio tour that allows you to move at your own pace. The ticket price for adults is $20 or for seniors age 62 and up $17. Active military and children under five are free. This is a privately owned historical site so your national parks pass will not get you a discount.

We started our tour in the information center reading the displays prior to buying our audio tour tickets. Doing so refreshed our memory on the events in Andrew Jackson’s life and in what was going on in the world in general at that time.

Once we had finished the displays we paid for our tickets and were given instructions on how the unit and the audio tour worked.

Quite frankly I loved how they had the audio tour set up. As you came to different sign posts or information kiosks you put in the appropriate number for adult or child and listened to various voices portraying different visitors and residents of the Hermitage telling you not only what you were looking at but information on the history or use of the item and/or location.

Yes, there was a segment especially for the younger visitors, but I must admit I often listened to both the adult and children’s playback to get all the information.

It was well done and very interesting. It also had where you could sometimes click another number after listening to the main section to get more information. By doing it in such a manner your tour could be as long or as short as you wanted it to be.

I loved how they spoke of every day life things, or how the wall paper was chosen and so much more.

The grounds were beautiful and well maintained and the audio tour would often tell you of maintenance, and events that took place on the grounds.

Approximately in the middle of the tour you get a guided tour of the mansion itself. They take people in as a group and a docent tells you much of the history of the place. You are given sufficient time to look around in each section, for which we were thankful. You are free to ask questions of the costumed tour guides and will receive detailed answers to your questions. Again a major plus, there was no rushing around.

In fact you are even given a chance to view in closets and such at the original wall paper to see how well the restoration team had done on copying the wall paper to match in the public use areas, where they had for reason or another had to replace the wall paper.

One warning to those with disabilities there are a lot of stairs to climb and descend in the house tour.

The final part of the guided tour for the home takes you through a rear exit door where you can view the summer kitchen and other areas you did not see in the guided tour. It also allows you to continue on the other half of your self guided tour. Along the way are many kiosks, or signs that show where various buildings that no longer exist had been located.

These information centers, along with the audio tour help make the area come alive and realize how hard the slaves of the time worked, as well as how crowded some of their conditions were. Even the sights and smells are discussed.

It was very eye opening, even with all the early American history we have studied throughout our lives.

From the main house you go past the spring house then on back through the grounds along a long winding trail that leads you to where an encampment had been and much more. This trail slowly winds you back toward the main house.

Luckily there are benches and shade along the way to allow for you to sit and relax and just watch nature as it parades by.

It was toward the end of this trail we hitched the ride back up to the museum and parking lot. All in all we both felt we got our $17 each worth.

SEVEN POINTS CAMPGROUND COE, NASHVILLE, TN-Camp 21

2017-04-25T11:28:00.001-07:00

Because we only had about six weeks before we needed to be back in Oklahoma we decided to move a little quicker toward our destination of Williamsburg, VA. Therefore, we parking lot boondocked the first couple of nights as we traveled.

One stop wasn’t scheduled, but due to clumsiness on my part we had to stop and get my eyeglasses repaired. So that delayed our travels by one day.

Once we got to the Nashville, TN area we pulled into the Seven Points campground COE to stay a couple of nights using our National Parks Pass to get the half price rate and to visit the Hermitage.

In our rush to move on we forgot to take photos of the campground until we were already vacating the site. Slides all rolled in and everything.

It was a pleasant and clean campground, with very few campers there. I don’t know if it was the time of the year, or the fact we travel mid-week, but we encountered very few campers in all the parks as we were headed east.

Our two night stay there was just long enough to visit the Hermitage and then move on.

TULSA RV RANCH, SECOND VISIT-Camp 20

2017-04-25T10:47:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned after our visit to Sioux Falls we ended up just more or less going straight back to the Tulsa RV Ranch in Beggs, OK.

A few things had changed there since our previous stay. The saloon was closed, but the Silverado Steakhouse had re-opened. We have never eaten there, but a friend says the food is good.

More of the small cowboy cabins had been installed. Otherwise everything else seemed to have remained the same.

While we were there was a beautiful full moon.

During that full moon this fellow showed up in our living room.

Since he was so well behaved we let him leave town with us for our fall travels.

We were only there two weeks, bouncing back and forth between the RV Ranch and our farm doing basic maintenance while there.

Because the farm is in the woods and near a game reserve we have wildlife at home too. One evening as we were leaving the farm a doe and fawn crossed the road in front of us.

All in all it was a short stay and we were soon headed east our intended destination Williamsburg.

SIOUX FALLS, SD

2017-04-24T17:12:00.003-07:00

As we left Mitchell SD we had planned on making a few short visits to sites along the route home. It turned out that we made only one stop, other than parking lot boondocking until we got back to Tulsa a few days earlier than we had scheduled.

The one stop we made was at Sioux Falls, SD. Again this was part of our 2006 travels, but a place we enjoyed so we decided to stop, snap some photos and have a meal before we moved on down the road.

Because we were pulling the fifth wheel behind us we used the designated rv camping spot which was a little bit of a walk from across the road from Falls Park, but the weather was pleasant and so was the walk.

As we toured Falls Park we saw interesting statues

and of course the falls. I thought about posting several of the great photos Gary took, but then I realized he had taken some great videos that would show the beauty of the park better. To view the video click here.

The falls have a long and detailed history best told on this website better than me paraphrasing it.

The volume of water was lower when we were there this trip than in 2006. Yet the falls and the park were beautiful to see.

There are ruins from days gone by on the grounds,

as well as a modern observation tower that gives you a wonderful 360 view of the entire park.

We were there about lunch time and had not packed our usual picnic lunch to eat on the grounds because we knew from past experience they had a decent restaurant on site. Lunch was good and the weather was so nice we choose to eat outside.

I had the bbq baked potato and salad and Gary had a Cuban Sandwich.

Of course, being the folks we are we spotted the usual ducks on the water periodically and this little fellow in the grass.

After the visit to the falls we headed on toward home, where we would stay at the Tulsa RV Ranch.

FAMIL-E-FUN CAMPGROUND, MITCHELL, SD – Camp 19

2017-04-24T16:21:00.003-07:00

After our brief stay in Wall, SD we headed more to the east to another destination we had enjoyed so much in 2006. Our destination was Mitchell,SD.

Our chosen campground this trip was Famil-E-Fun Campground.

We enjoyed our stay there. The couple running the park were friendly and helpful. The facilities were all clean and well maintained.

There was free wi-fi in the laundry room that extended to the benches outside of the laundry room. The park manager guided us to our spot where we were able to pull thru with ease. Complete hook-ups with 50 amp service were the order of the day. Once discounts and taxes were included our rate was $27.50 per night for the four nights we were there.

It was a little more than the national and state parks, but then it had more to offer. We felt the rate was reasonable for the accommodations.

The sites are set up where they are double front to back sites, but during the off season they park only one rig per site, which makes it a pull thru.

Once again we were greeted with a beautiful sunset. It seemed like everyone in the campground was out snapping photos of it.

There were three sites we wanted to visit in the area. The Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead, the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village, and of course the Corn Palace.

We had previously visited the last two in 2006, but enjoyed them so much we decided to visit them again. Of course they will each get their own write up to help keep this post from being too long.

All three were an easy drive from Famil-E-Fun Campground. The expressway get on is not far from the campground, but traffic noises were not a problem. It worked out to be the perfect four night stay spot for us while we were there.

If we should venture to Mitchell again we both agree that this would probably be the place we would stay.

LAURA INGALLS WILDER HOMESTEAD, DE SMET, SD

2017-04-24T16:20:00.004-07:00

I doubt there are many who do not know who Laura Ingalls Wilder, aka: Half Pint, was. The “Little House on the Prairie” books and tv series have been popular for generations.

This is the second of the Ingalls homestead we have visited in all our years of travel together. The first was just a few buildings, no interpreter and very few information kiosks.

This one in De Smet, SD was far from that. It is an interactive location and well worth the rough ride down the dirt road to get to it.

We knew we were in for a fun and interesting day when one of the first things we saw from the parking lot were people riding in a covered wagon.

The modern guest services center, complete with modern facilities should you need them, is at the top of the hill near the parking lot and that is your first stop. They have a nice gift shop there where you can buy the usual gift stop stuff including “brag rags” as I call the t-shirts/sweat shirts I purchase as my souvenir as we travel. Of course I had to have one. I adored all the Laura Ingalls books as a child, including “Farmer Boy” which most people do not connect with the Little House Books, but it is the story of “Manly” Wilder as a child.

Once you pay your $12 fee per person to enter you are given a map on how the place is set up and are set free to wander the grounds as you wish.

We chose to start at the interpretive center near the welcome center and work our way around the grounds in a clockwise direction. To do so we walked past this watch tower.

The interpretive center contained some of the history of the Ingalls family, a covered wagon, excerpts from some of her books and photos. It was interesting to a Laura Ingalls fan such as myself.

Just below the hill from the interpretive center are two styles of structures, both are earth sheltered, one being a soddy such as the Ingalls had lived in for awhile.

The other was an one room cabin similar to another home they had lived in.

From the soddy you climb back up the small hill to a view of the barn, house and stable that Pa built for Ma in stages.

This is the area the interactive activities start. The farm does have animals, which you are allowed to interact with. One group of teens were busy petting the animals in the barn as we walked by and a cat watched them carefully through its own private window.

Examples of life during that era are everywhere on the grounds.

As we entered the different buildings employees filled us in on the history of the building or building replica. They explained how the house was built in stages, how various items were made and used and answered questions.

At the stable area you can learn how rope and corn cob dolls were made by doing it yourself. A visual demonstration of how long it took to grind wheat to even make a single biscuit and a lesson on making hay knots.

If you have read the series you know the family got snowed in with no firewood and they had to knot hay to keep warm until the menfolk got home.

To see the lessons given on site on these skills you can view our video here .
.

You get to take the product of your labors home with you.

This is also where you get to opportunity to drive a cart, ride a pony or catch the covered wagon to go to school.

At the school you are in a one room school house and are given a lesson on how classes were taught.

Once class is over you ride the covered wagon back to the stable/garage. There is a church off in the distance as well, but it was near closing time so we opted to not walk the long distance to the church.

In the various photos you might have caught glimpses of covered wagon like structures other than the covered wagon you ride to the school. These are overnight bungalows that you can rent by the night to stay on site. There were a few families there when we were that had done just that and said they were comfortable, but basic.

If you are a fan of Little House on the Prairie you will enjoy this location, or at least we did.

CORN PALACE, MITCHELL, SD

2017-04-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

In 2006 when we were planning our trip north a friend of our son’s, Heather, said we absolutely had to go see the Corn Palace, and so we did. We were fascinated by the art work on the building both then and now.

The art work is unique for two reasons:

11. It changes from year to year with a different theme.

22. It is all done with corn, grasses and grains that are individually placed on the murals.

So naturally we had to go back to see what the 2016 theme was and how they had interpreted it. “Rock of Ages” was the theme. When you view the photos I think you will be able to recognize all the artists they saluted.

The very first salute was an unexpected one when we went to park in a parking lot nearby. We have never seen such a parking spot in all our travels, but felt honored for Gary to be able to park there in a choice parking spot due to his Viet Nam service.

The inside of the Corn Palace also has corn, grass and grain murals, as well as a lot of historical information with photos of all the murals from days gone by. Even the pillars in the lobby are tiled to look like corn.

The Corn Palace is not just a showplace for the unique artwork it possesses, it is an arena where live performances and basketball take place. I am not a sports fan so I can’t tell you the exact name of the team that was playing that night, but I did like their spirit equipment. I’m thinking it is probably the Vikings, but then what do I know.

I do know they had several big name stars scheduled to do live performances throughout the remaining part of the year.

A little research on my part shows that the 2017 theme for the Corn Palace is not changing from 2016. They will replace the grasses used, but not the full murals. This was decided in May of 2016.

So if you wanted to see Willie and Elvis last year you still have the opportunity to.