A Mississippi Road Trip for Christmas

Adventurer and SunCruiser at Mid-South RV Park

We were so pleased to take a road trip through much of Mississippi as our 2009 Christmas experience; more so since friends Dick and Judie were able to join us on the trip, one of the few vacations they have been able to take since openening their Eagle's Landing RV Park here in Holt, FL, some 8 years ago. On top of all that, they were able to exercise their Winnebago Adventurer on the first trip beyond Pensacola since they got it more than two years ago.

Our trip took us first for a night in Biloxi, then on to the next night in Vicksburg and finally to 5 nights in Tunica. One of our objectives was a nice Christmas Dinner that we would not have to cook; however, the eating establisments that were available to us that day were so busy that we opted for pizza, french fries and the like - postponing our nice dinner until a couple days later. We finally had an excellent meal at one of Paula Dean's places - Ok, my personal favorite, the grilled oysters, was not quite traditional Christmas fare but everyone knows that I enjoy uncommon food and the rest of the group went for the turkey, etc.

The weather was not quite what we had hoped for - plenty of wind, rain and cold; however, even though we had taken no car in tow, we were able to get most everywhere we wanted to go using the shuttle service provided by Harrah's (with only a few missteps when trying to interpret the schedule).

Conditions were not ideal for any sort of sightseeing or photo ops, but I'm including a few shots of our trip (click here).

Thanksgiving on the Gulf Coast

Just Love to See the Moon Rising

We spent most of Thanksgiving week on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, from Biloxi to Gulfport. We stayed mostly at the Palace, enjoyed some new views and joined up with friends in Gulfport at the Island View for Thanksgiving. While our dinner was perhaps not quite traditional, it was very nice, not too crowded [not like the hundreds upon hudreds we saw lining up at the Beau Rivage] and delicious! Now some of our meals at the Palace were very traditional, but only if you are a native of this part of the country.

Anyway, we had a great week and you can click here for some views from the Palace.

Gulf Coast in October

We are now back in Florida (mostly) for the Winter, but will continue to explore here and there while keeping a base here in Holt where we enjoy the company of friends and the temps that are an improvement over those in PA for this time of year. Since our arrival here a bit over a month ago, we've managed a number day trips here and there, including seeing a portion of "Crusin' the Coast" an event that takes place along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi each year at this time - a gathering of custom cars from all over the country. We've also flown to Las Vegas for a few days to meet up with some family and friends who migrate from Alaska (also each year at this time).

Naturally, we've made the obligatory trip to Pensacola for some minor attention to the RV and we've pitched in here and there with some of the activities here at Eagle's Landing RV Park. Even though we are not exactly warm and toasty here at this very moment (a cold front rolled through the area a few days ago), we know this is only temporary and we are very happy to be far from some of the more severe approach of Winter that we've been observing in other parts of the country.

Ok, this may not be the most exciting blog you've ever seen from us, but hey, we're retired and enjoying every minute!

Click here for photos. Note: Slide show controls and captions are now located in the lower part of your screen.

As the Summer of 2009 Draws to a Close

NOT an Image from the Upgraded HubbleWe rest tonight at the Aquia Pines Camp Resort - just a few miles to the South of Quantico, VA, home of the US Marines and the FBI Training Academy. Yes, we departed PA today and are on our way to points South. Today's trip was very comfortable, both in terms of the weather and the traffic. Considering we negotiated the I95 corridor from Philly, through Wilmington, Baltimore and DC, it was really a rather pleasant trip. Once again, we spent very much more time in PA than intended, but we've attended to a whole list of items and even managed to take a very nice trip to the West and a bit North as reported in previous blogs. If you've missed any of our adventures to date you can catch up by visiting http://www.debandty.blogspot.com/ any time you like.

For now, we'll continue on to (as yet undetermined) points South - with an ultimate intent of arriving in Holt, FL, some not TOO many days down the road. Sorry, no photos to share today, but you can be assured there will be some soon. Oh, the above photo is someone's (very distant) fire here at Aquia Pines.

Five Days Among the YooPers

So you've never heard of a yooper? Neither had we until we embarked upon our trip across Michigan's Upper Peninsula, taking us from Northern Wisconsin, along the shores of Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie, then South to St. Ignace. YooPers (U.P.ers) are the inhabitants of this part of Michigan. To give you a paraphrase of a U.P. "Creation" story I read - God created the U.P. (think Garden of Eden) and the YooPers. He also made trolls who lived in the land below the U.P. (all the rest of us). He then built a bridge to the U.P. so the trolls could visit Paradise. Finally, on the 7th day, God saw it was good and He went huntin'. Get the picture, eh?

Other things to know about the U.P.:

One day it's warm, the rest of the year it's cold.

If you fly a straight line from Sault Ste. Marie to Ironwood, you'll see a lot of trees. Dollar Bay in the U.P. was named after the annual salary in the area. The U.P. is the supplier of mosquitos to the free world. There are two seasons in the U.P. -- Swat and Shovel.

This is probably our last blog entry for a while since we are now back in PA to take care of some business before heading off again. We're not exactly sure just where that will be or when, but you can bet it will be somewhere interesting and soon. Thanx for joining us and stay tuned.

Photos from 5 Days in the U.P. (119 Photos) - Be sure to see captions, upper left of most photos.

Oh Beautiful

Really Close to Canada

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain...

In truth, we saw no amber grain since it is not quite the right time of the Summer in this part of the country, but in driving through North Dakota it was not hard to imagine how such words could have been inspired. For at least 90% of our drive across the state (on US 2 - off the beaten Interstate), we saw nothing but spacious skies with fields, mostly of grain and sugar beets, stretching from horizon to horizon, North to South and East to West. We decided that ND must supply a very hefty portion of wheat, rye, corn, etc. that goes into our country's (or other parts of the world I'm sure) food supply. In the town of Ray, while stopped in a parking lot by a baseball field to have lunch, we had a nice chat with a local couple who were in town for a big local event including a parade and other such things, but the main attraction of the day was to run a car that had been empied of oil until the engine blew. Of course there were bets being made on how long it would run.

Only a few photos attached to this part of our story - some of the things OTHER than crops we observed along the way.

North Dakota (24 Photos)

A Wonderful Surprise

Greetings from the Great Forks Campground, just a bit outside the city of Great Forks, ND. We've now been in ND for a couple days, but thanx to some (no, a lot) communications difficulties in the area, I've fallen behind (again) on keeping you posted on our latest adventures.

So...before we give you the ND report, here's something from Montana.

We may have mentioned this to some of you before, but one of the pleasures of traveling around the country is discovering things that were not part of the plan. As we were rolling down the highway toward our next planned stop in Glendive, MT, Deb happened upon a description of a State Park which she read to all of us. We decided to book two nights in the area in order to have a day available to devote to this site and we were all so very happy to have made that decision.

Makoshika State Park is known as the Badlands of Eastern Montana and is the largest of all the Montana State Parks. It is the site of many archeological finds and the rock formations (mostly the work of the Yellowstone River and its tributaries) are just breathtaking. We spent hours exploring several areas where it was possible to do so without getting into any extreme conditions (no more 3 mile hikes in the wind and cold for now than you). There are not a lot of captions attached to these photos and there are a number of shots that are different views or exposures of the same formations - just an attempt to give you a better sense of what we observed.

As always, we're happy to have you joining us and we hope you enjoy the photos.

Makoshika State Park (78 Photos)

Big Horn and Little Big Horn

Medicine Wheel

Over the last couple of days we have traveled from Devils Tower to Buffalo, Wyoming then into Montana where we are now at an RV Park and Campground in Glendive, bringing us to within about 30 miles of the border with North Dakota. Yes, we've turned the corner at our westernmost part of the trip near Billings, MT, and are now heading East.

On Wednesday we took a sojourn of over 300 miles (by car) on a large loop through and around the Big Horn Mountains. We traveled from Buffalo, Wy, (the "Gateway to the Old West) and, winding our way through mountains, reaching altitudes of over 9000 feet at points, passed through towns like Ten Sleep, Basin and Greybull (some populations like 63 and 308). A major point along the way was a visit to a Medicine Wheel which required a 3 mile hike in some cool and very windy weather up to another 'top of the world' experience where over 80 tribes still conduct ceremonies at an ancient religious site.

Thursday's travels took us to the site of the battle of the Little Big Horn. After viewing a video describing the battle and the events leading up to it, we explored the area where the battle took place, a very desolate top of a bluff near the Little Big Horn River.

As usual, see captions on some of the following photos for additional information.

Big Horn Mountains (52 Photos)

The Little Big Horn (20 Photos)

Devils Tower - Wyoming

Welcome to Wyoming As you will tell by viewing most of the photos for today's entry, our main objective for this day was the Devils Tower National Monument near Sundance in Northeastern Wyoming. The tower is generally thought to be a monolithic igneous intrusion or volcanic neck. The top is nearly 1300 feet above the surrounding terrain (rising to about a mile above sea level). This was the first US National Monument (1906) thanks to a declaration by President Theodore Roosevelt. About 1 percent of the nearly half a million visitors to the monument each year actually climb to the top. Personally, I'll pass on that one. Devils Tower National Monument (24 Photos)

Exploring the Black Hills

Artist's Rendering - Wait Until You See the Real Thing

You'd think we have all the time in the world and I know in a sense we do, but over the course of this trip it seems the days go by so quickly that we frequently have little time left for such things as email and blogs. That being said, I will keep this entry short in favor of getting the photos published that we've taken over the last few days so that we can share more of what we've seen, rather than trying to describe things.

Just briefly, our Black Hills Experience has been punctuated by Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, the Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Road, Hill City, Keystone, the Three Flags RV Park at Black Hawk, Deadwood and a host of other side trips and byways.

Again, some photos are captioned while others are not. Try to catch the ones you can.

The Black Hills (89 Photos) Black Hills II (78 Photos) Both Galleries (You can add) Thanx For Joining Us!

Enjoying the Badlands of South Dakota

FINALLY, a chance to share with you our experience in the Badlands. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this part of our grand country, the Badlands are located in the SouthWest quadrant of South Dakota, surrounded by the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and the Pine Ridge (Lakota) Reservation. This stop was one of the primary objectives of this particular adventure and it revealed itself to be much more than any of us would have expected.

Thanks to our membership with Recreation USA (and its proprieters, our friends Dick and Judie Riblett), we were very pleased to spend 3 days and nights at the Badlands Ranch & Resort which is located near the town of Interior, SD, just to the South and East of the National Park. This tract of 1000 acres is owned and operated by Jake Sharp, quite a character and the friendly host of our stay. One of the pleasures we enjoyed was a late evening hike to the North end of Jake's property where high on a hill overlooking the White River, we had a spectacular view of a large portion of the formations of the Badlands which we observed as the sun set, providing an ever-changing vista of light, dark and colors across the formations and the valley below.

We spent our days here exploring the park as well as taking some side trips to Wall Drug (a famous tourist destination in these parts), and a Minute Man Missle Site (no longer active, dating back to the 60's), but greatest of these was the time spent driving and hiking the park.

Next stop...Rapid City, SD, and all the sites that surround it in the extreme West and SouthWest of South Dakota.

The following list of photo galleries will lead you share what we saw, as much as we were able to photograph. There is just no way to describe it so most of the scenic photos are without caption, but some other shots will contain some comments (upper left of the photo) about our locations, etc. Deb hopes you enjoy her excellend Buffalo sequence. We spotted this guy just as a dark dot in our view, then kept our eyes on him as he made his way to right in front of our car.

SD to the Badlands (15 Photos)

The Badlands Day One (30 Photos)

Badlands National Park (52 Photos)

Badlands Continued (59 Photos)

All of the Above (If you have lots of time)

Making Our Way to the Badlands

From our previous blog entry, you know that a need to replace our camera precluded any ability to share photos from the first couple of days of this trip. Since then, even though we've managed to accumulate a fair collection of photos, our ability to publish them has been limited by infrequent and marginal internet service. I'm going to keep this short in the hope that I can get it finished and updated while I have a medium WiFi signal available (NO cell phone or air card signals available here). We are currently living in a very pleasant location just to the South and East of the Badlands National Park. While I will be sure to share more on this and the Badlands later, for now I am publishing the photos from the days leading up to this point. Please refer to captions (at the upper left of the photos) for additional information. Of particular note is photos of the murals from the Corn Palace - click on this link for additional information. Thanx for joining us and we hope you enjoy the photographs. Photo List (Click on a title to view photos): Manufacturing the Cameo 5th Wheel at Carriage in Elkhart, Indiana (15 photos) RV Museum in Elkhart, Indiana (37 photos) RV Shopping (4 photos) Indiana to Iowa (20 photos) Wind Farms and Corn Palace (26 photos)

Good Fortune and Bad Fortune

We send you greetings from Elkhart, Indiana. We are fortunate to have started out on a new adventure, joined by Deb's sister Mary and our brother-in-law Bill. Unfortunately, our camera bit the dust after only the first photo of the trip. Fortunately, we quickly found a Walmart with a nice selection available, but (you guessed it) unfortunately, they had no inventory of the one we wanted. Ok, we paid a bit more than we wanted for a camera they had in stock and we will continue this blog with photos just as soon as we learn how to use it. Our best to everyone - having a great time in spite of the camera!

Late March to Middle of May 2009 Summary

Once again, it has been quite a while since our last blog entry. A bunch of activities, both planned and not, have kept us pretty well occupied. There was a trip to Disney World, followed by a bout with the flu, followed by a dash to PA, a trip to the mountains and valleys of the North and Central part of PA in Potter County (soon to be repeated), and visits with family. We will be 'camping' here in PA for yet another month or so but intend to head West after that time and from there... time alone will tell.

The following is a selection of photograph albums that cover the last couple of months and you can follow a bit of what we've been up to by the photo captions. Click on any of the following links to view a particular section or if you have more time, the last link is for the entire list (200+ photos):

BBQ at Disney World

Magic Kingdom

Light Parade

CampFire at Fort Wilderness

Epcot

Camping at Fort Wilderness

Potter County, PA

All of the Above

Greetings from Bee's

With the exception of a number of trips to Pensacola for a variety of repairs over the last 6 months or so, our SunCruiser (a.k.a. DV) has been pretty much confined to Site A-2 at Eagle's Landing RV Park in Holt, Florida. Our travels around NW Florida and the Southern extremes of Alabama and Mississippi have, in the main, been accomplished with our Suzuki X-90 (a.k.a. Putt-Putt) or in the company of friends; however, yesterday we left the car behind and traveled about 400 miles to Clermont, Florida on our way to spending a week in Lake Buena Vista.

What's that all about??

Stay tuned.