Our Trip West

For the second year in a row, we spent the 2 weeks following Labor Day weekend camped at Southwoods RV Park in Byron, NY. This location is very close to where we lived before retiring and allows us to visit the grandkids, their parents, and our friends from our years in the Rochester, NY area. We spent three consecutive weekends with the grandkids and filled our weekdays visiting friends and recovering from the weekends.

Like last year, one weekend activity was apple picking with the grandkids at Whittier Fruit Farm. We had gorgeous weather for the event and Leo was able to pick his own apple without anyone lifting him up. After picking more apples than we knew what to do with (it always happens), we headed back to the parking lot. Leo chose to ride the wagon pulled by the tractor while Willa rode in her stroller with Grammie and Mom.

We spent some time helping our friends, Jim and Corinne, get their RV ready for winter storage. They are usually out on their fall camping trip about the time we pull into Southwoods, but this year was different. Dan even rode with Jim to their indoor storage facility south of Cleveland. Helping to winterize and store their rig was a good lesson for when we store ours for our planned Appalachian Trail hike starting in March.

As the last day of summer came and went, it was time to pull up stakes and make a (relatively) quick dash across the country to New Mexico. There are a few states in the middle of the country that we have not stayed in yet, so we wanted to spend a few nights in both Missouri and Oklahoma. We need to be in Hobbs, NM by the middle of October so we traveled 5 out of 6 days upon leaving Southwoods. Our only two night stay was at Alum Creek State Park in Ohio. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice this park just north of Columbus is. At the end of this sprint, we found ourselves on the shores of Table Rock Lake with a gorgeous site in Old Highway 86 Campground.

Old Highway 86 Campground is just south of the touristy town of Branson, MO. Our site backed up to the lake and was very spacious. We were here for only 3 nights and ended up wishing we had booked more. We spent our first morning taking a 6 mile hike in Table Rock State Park. We spent our second full day smoking some ribs to celebrate the third anniversary of our retirement. It is hard to believe we’ve been retired for over three years now and have stayed in over 200 locations with our house on wheels.

We left Missouri to head to our next new state and set up camp at Belle Star COE campground in Eufaula, Oklahoma. We had a nice long pull through site and enjoyed a nice view of the lake from the front yard. There was unusually warm for October as temperatures climbed into the low 90’s during the day and only dipped to the low to mid 70’s overnight. When the cold front came through on our last night here, it brought with it some dangerous weather conditions and forced us to experience our first tornado warning and had to evacuate to the campground bathrooms. We were sequestered with fellow campers for about an hour, from 10:30 pm to 11:30 pm. The locals were much calmer about the whole ordeal than we were and told us that this was very unusual for October. We have a knack for bringing the unusual, and usually unwelcome, weather with us as we travel. Luckily, other than some heavy rain for about 20 minutes and gusty winds of no more than 20 mph, it was uneventful. We did learn later that a tornado touched down about 50 miles north and did some damage.

We had overnight stop in Calumet, OK at one of the worst KOAs we’ve ever stayed at but they had inexpensive laundry and easy off/on I-40 so we can’t complain too much. Back on the road early the next morning got us to Amarillo, TX just past noon for our final stop before heading into Hobbs, NM. We checked out the Big Texan Steak House for dinner that night. The steaks were pretty good but neither of us were up for the 72 oz. steak challenge.

The next day was spent hiking in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. We got up early in order to start our hike shortly before sunrise so we could be at the park’s marquee landmark, the lighthouse, for early light. On the 3 mile hike to the lighthouse we watched a pack of coyotes walk along the ridge line in the distance. We didn’t take an accurate count but there were at least 5 or 6.

Only two other hikers were at the landmark before us and we had the place to ourselves after they left. On our hike out we met several other hikers, indicating the place would be crowded soon. When we made it back to the parking lot we decided to do another hike that started from the same location. Always a bonus when we don’t have to move the big truck.

During this second hike, as the trail came close to the park road, we saw several people milling in the middle of the road where something had caught their attention. A spider, a Texas Brown Tarantula, was trying to cross the road. Dan took some pictures and a short video, none of which give a true sense for its size. It certainly was the biggest spider either of us have ever seen and we were glad it was out in the park and not in our RV.

As mentioned, our next stop is Hobbs, NM where we will participate in an Escapees Hangout centered around a Habitat for Humanity build. We will spend two weeks doing this activity that we both have on our bucket list. Look for a post on this in early November.