We struck out at our usual time 9:30 ish which usually gets us to our next stop mid afternoon. The weather continued to be beautiful and without difficulty made it to Denver.

I thought we had seen traffic but even though it was Sunday the roads were packed. But no fender benders or near misses and despite a few left on ramps now get off on the right in 0.2 miles we made it to the entrance of Cherry Creek State Park. It was very well marked and had a nice winding road to the gatehouse who told us where to go to register and off we went. Cherry Creek State Park is on the banks of the same named reservoir built by the Army Corp of Engineers. The reservoir is massive and has a boat launch and allows fishing for all types of fish from Trout that are stocked, Bass and pike, and Walleyes! which I’ve never caught but would love to someday. I didn’t bring my pole this trip trying to pack less.

I was also a little taken aback by the language used to describe reservoir access roads.

The campground was huge and spread out so we had more privacy than recent campgrounds. Lots of places to walk Mocha. And all this in Aurora within view of the Denver skyline and the Mountains. Absolutely a gem of a state park with all sorts of spaces for picnics, a swimming beach that was huge and 4227 acres of fields and trees. Very nice stay.

Our first morning at Cherry Creek we headed to the Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine in the mountains west of Denver. We had recently watched a movie about her truly remarkable life battling prejudice and hardships to provide homes for needy children starting in NYC where there were hundreds of orphaned Italian immigrant children many of whom didn’t speak English yet and lived in basements and sewers being taken advantage of and often dying from malnutrition and disease. Her story is too long and amazing to adequately hear. One of her miracles was curing a baby whose eyes were burned by medical malpractice where a solution of silver nitrate used to prevent eye infections in newborns was not diluted as instructed and was given at a 50 times stronger concentration. No medical malpractice lawyers just faith in Sister Cabrini who cured the badly burned eyes. Even if you don’t believe in miracles (which Jo and I do for so many reasons) her work that expanded from NYC despite incredible anti-Italian American prejudice (sounds similar to today) to Denver and other areas around the world was simply awe inspiring. All this despite a small stature and chronic debilitating lung disease. You should see the movie about her. It is definitely worth your time no matter your faith.

Stones placed by and with Sr Cabrini at the top of the mountain

Walking up the 370 steps to the statue of Jesus and a heart shaped display made by Saint Cabrini was a challenge at almost 8000 ft above sea level. Not sure why they don’t have AEDs on the trail. One man in particular thankfully turned around. He was pretty grey and out of breath but refusing help. Hope he is OK.

One complicating factor to my climb and stay in general was my unbelievable allergy attack. Even Jo’s nose was runny. I had been in Denver once before years ago and had the same experience. When I looked the pollen count sage was at the top of the list and mentions it as highly allergenic. That coupled with smoke from the wildfires in California made us both decide that despite its beauty Denver will never be on our list for a new home.

We did not see any Venezuelan gangs crazy rumors of which have gone around about Aurora where we stayed. People were friendly and it looked like a vibrant community as long as you don’t have my allergy prone respiratory system lol.

We only had a two day stay so packed it in early (aside from the altitude we also needed to get used to not just Central time but now Mountain time. Eight o’clock at night felt like 10 PM bedtime and Mocha was not happy about his new dinner time).

Next stop Grand Junction on our way to Bryce Canyon.

The beautiful weather followed us and with days in the 90’s behind and before us we headed out to see the famous of infamous Dodge City. The road wasnt bad in most places but like everywhere on this trip lots of construction and narrow lanes. Looking at some of bridges being replaced I am happy so much infrastructure is being replaced and that we made it over some of the bridges with rebar showing and crumbling cement before they collapsed. Our combined truck and trailer weight is usually just under 7 tons so I ask Jo to lift her feet and I do mine on some of these lol.

Today’s trip was 279 miles of decent roads though still a lot of noisy cement roads. We arrived mid afternoon at the “Gunsmoke RV Park”. If you havent read my first trip blog you should to check out Bucks Lake the hidden Gem that should have remained Hidden lol. To date on this trip this RV park though rated the best in Dodge City was similar. We pulled in to a paint peeling faded entrance sign park to major trench digging. The person checking us in ran over to the office when he saw us arrive and apologized for all the construction but a pipe broke the day before and he was repairing it. “But your part of the park and water supply is safe to drink! He proceeded to mark on the campground map where to drive to our site away from the construction and then proceeded to tell me not to go where he marked but in the out lane. We headed off in a cloud and I mean a big cloud of dust to our site which as it turns out was one of the best sites. And as Jo said “we even had a wagon wheel” and a tree. I dont think we have ever been in a dustier campground that combined with first a breeze then a steady wind kept our equipment covered in sand. Have you ever seen cowboys wear bandanas over their face even when they werent robbing a bank. Now I know why.

We soon discovered that aside from the busy intersection we were at that we were across the street from an active train track. I think the engineer liked his train whistle as he blew it many many times. Oh and the trains out west are verrrry long. Luckily the only came through a couple of times a night.

First stop the next day was the Boot Hill Museum. Boot Hill, as you probably know, was where poor or here do wells were buried usually with their boots on. The slope of the hill was supposedly good for letting the water run off so the bodies were preserved and supposedly gave them a boost up to heaven which many needed. Fun fact was that the local dentist O.M. Simpson (not O.J.) a very well trained dentist from out east pioneered gold tooth inlays by laying gold on the train tracks to flatten it! He reportedly had one of the best dental equipment offices in the country inventing many of the tools he used. He nearly killed a man he covered in plaster to create a statue of a cowboy to place at the base of Boot Hill. He accidentally pinched the straws he put up the models nose! The model later became the chief of police. He also made replicas of faces and boots to place on the graves of the Boot Hill interred people. I think he was just a little too into dead people.

One of the fascinating things in a great museum a Boot Hill was a diary of a man Henry Raymond. He chronicled his work hunting buffalo with Bat Masterson and his brother Ed Masterson. I found it fascinating for what they endured, the fact that Bat wasnt a socializer (see diary picture) and that shooting someone was just another day in the life.

We went to a bar, had a bottle of sarparilla and I got a little crazy and ended up in the hoosegow

The local people wanted to save the local Fort’s historic jail for the Boot Hill museum. The state etc said they couldnt donate or give the building to the museum but if someone stole it they wouldnt press charges lol. Soooo a group of local Jaycees went out under cover of darkness and moved it to the museum where I ended up residing for a bit lol. It was a two person jail very small so moveable.

We went to see the Santa Fe trail National Park site to see the ruts made by masses of people using the same trail. Underimpressed by the site but found it interesting that unlike the Oregon Trail and others this trail was more for commerce rather than migration.

We wanted to go to church Saturday evening since we were leaving Sunday AM for Aurora, CO. What a beautiful church and nice Mass. Cathedral of Guadalupe.

As an aside we were tired after the museum and decided to order a pizza from Godfathers having not tried their pizza before. While at the Santa Fe National Park site I put in a mobile order for a cheese pizza with Mushrooms and Onions one of Jo’s favorites. While on the way to Godfathers I missed a call. I went in to the store a little early wondering if they needed to see my credit card etc to complete the order. When I went in the woman at the counter asked are you William? Answering in the affirmative she said she had called to be sure we really wanted those toppings lol! No meat or green peppers??? I cracked up because those toppings werent my favorite but Jo had ordered pepperoni for me the last pizza so it was her turn to pick Cracked me up she actually called to check.

We got back to the campground and watched a bit of TV before crashing early to get ready for the trip to Colorado and the mile high city suburb of Aurora.

Well we left St Louis for an overnight in Topeka on the way to Dodge City. We had beautiful weather for our travel day but both Jo and I must be allergic to soy bean pollen as we were both sneezing. Unusual for Jo not for Allergy Bill. I even broke down and took Allegra despite my resistance to taking antihistamines. That said the rolling prarie and fields of Soy Beans and Sorghum were beautiful. I thought all the Midwest was flat but Kansas had lots of rolling prarie.

After 290 miles and about 6 hours with stops to stretch we arrived at Deer Creek RV Park. The gentleman who checked us in apologized for not putting us with the “others” and commented about us coming from Utah. I was tired and as long as we had a site I said yeah yeah and went to our site. About an hour later 4 Airstreams pulled in with Utah plates and parked next to each other lol. So that’s what he was talking about. Since leaving Airstream we have had many. Comments and questions about us going to “The Rally”. There must have been many Airstream clubs having a Rally which they do but we were lone wolf Airstreamers lol. It was fun to see bigger and smaller and newer and older Airstreams at every campground though.

This campground was nice with cement parking pads and covered shelters with sun shades at every site. Very nice for an overnight. One thing I dont think Ive mentioned that all the Midwest RV campgrounds have is a storm shelter. They dont want us flying over Kansas and landing on witches I guess. And your little dog!!!!

We had a nice meal at the campsite and headed out early the next AM for the Gunsmoke RV Park in Dodge City.

We left Indianapolis a little later than usual because the day’s trip was only 4 1/2 hours. Feeling rested and raring to go we set off with the weather forecast for our next stop showing sun! If accurate it would be the first day in about a week that we would get to see that beautiful orb. The roads at the start were back to cement roads with lots of asphalt patches which brings me to a question I’ve had for years. If even new cement roads are rougher, need to be grooved since they are dangerously slippery when wet or icy, and are repaired with asphalt why not just pave the roads to start with. The patches are never level with the road and are incredibly bouncy particularly when the patches have a repetitive pattern that makes my truck and trailer start to porpoise (up and down swaying). Would love to know why cement roads are still being made especially in northern climates. Anyone know?

Well eventually the roads returned to more asphalt roads and the bouncing and road noise settled down and we got to look at the scenery as the rain slowly decreased. One of the crops I noticed was short corn. I wondered if the farmer forgot to fertilize or had a bad growing year. And then we would see fields with healthy tall corn just a short way done the road. Well we had heard from neighbors from Florida that they were back home in Illinois and planning to be in St. Louis while we were there and we arranged to have dinner tonight. They are very nice people and we always find plenty to talk about (and they are great card players too…..sweeeep). I mentioned my allergies were going crazy and they said many of the farms were harvesting crops so there would be a lot of allergens in the air. They mentioned that one of the crops was sorghum and described it as a crop looking alot like corn but shorter. Sooo not a defective crop that I had seen but a healthy sorghum crop. Sorghum is a member of the grass family believed to have originated in Africa and migrated with ships to Australia and Asia and to Latin America as food on slave trade ships. It is a crop than grows well in harsh drought prone soil and doesnt require fertilizer. I suspect here it is a good animal feed crop but is also used as human food in porridge and flatbreads. In the Midwest apparently it is used to make the ethanol in our gasoline. And it is gluten free with all of you that have a gluten free diet!

We arrived at our campground on time and found our first pull through site easily. This campground was not a destination campground but a parking place to explore from. Lots of cement and close together but clean and safe.

We had a day to explore and having driven by St Louis on our last cross country I planned this trip to have time to stop and go up in the arch. The trip up the arch involved going up in one of 8 cars on each side of the arch (North and South. The cars held 5 people but we were fortunate to ride up with another couple headed back to their farm in California after 2 months on the road. The have over 200 acres of nut and citrus trees. When i asked about any issues with the warmer weather and climate change she opened up saying they are seeing insects they have never seen before and instead of spraying monthly now have to alternate sprays every week. I hope we can through conservation and renewables decrease our impact on the environment and frankly save money with decreased energy cost through less wasted energy and decreased CO2 production. We will always have some impact no matter renewables etc but less would be good.

The arch view was nice but even more fascinating was the museum. The design was picked from 5 finalists that had different water features and structures Washington monument like in some cases. Third place actually went to three college students. The arch itself was not just a design unlike others but was an engineering marvel that only took 2.5 years to build in large part due to less regulation. We dont need no stinking OSHA lol. None of the workers had harnesses despite being as high as the arch at 630 feet. They had a net halfway down! The underwriters thought 13 workers would die but not one person died! Cost was 13 million and was built 1963 February to Oct 1965. It is the tallest monument in the US. The two legs of the arch were built separately and had they been off by 1/64 inch the could not have been joined. The tram we rode up in was designed by a college drop out with no formal engineering training Dick Bowser who worked at an elevator company. And he did it in 2 weeks. I only learned this after I rode up. And the arch is as wide 630 feet as it is tall despite it not looking that way. It was built to honor Thomas Jefferson and his promoting western exploration. I could go on but wont. Definitely check it out if you are in the area.

This has been a longish blog so I will wrap it up but not before sharing that we had a wonderful dinner with good friends that live across the street from us in Naples in the winter and live in Peoria in the summer. We were able to get our schedules to match and had a great dinner and catch up. Thanks Tom and Sheryl for reaching out and making this happen.

We are so blessed in so many ways. Next stop Topeka, Kansas.

With the swamp creature in our rear view mirror (actually the Airstream is in my rear view) we headed out in rain showers for our next stop…Indianapolis, Indiana.

The effects of Helene on the weather even in Western PA all the way to Indiana were very apparent with lots of rain. Im getting old clearly as the drivers didn’t seem to be bothered by slick roads with standing water. I stayed in my lane and forged on being passed at 80-90 mph by drivers on their way to the Indy 500 (did I mention we were on our way to Indianapolis). That said I had good company and Sirius XM so we listened to CNN until my ears were bleeding from all the political back and forth and then switched to Beatles and 80-2000’s music. Hoping for sun or at least no rain at some point soon.

I was amazed at how hilly Ohio was. Pennsylvania sue but for some reason I thought Ohio was flat. Not where we were. But on some of the plateau’s we started to see more and more farmland. Very green and big. Not Big Sky Montana mind you but big enough even with the clouds and rain. Another beautiful state. We have friends that live in our old condo complex in FL that have a farm in Ohio but it was just out of the way enough we couldn’t stop but would have loved to. Sorry Terry and Jona.

We arrived in Indy with a break in the rain just as we arrived to our next stop a KOA Holiday. Im slow to catch on but it seems that KOA journeys are more geared to quicker stays and KOA Holidays are geared toward family vacations. The entrance and entire campground was very nicely landscaped and we were greeted by very friendly front desk people who were efficient and has us on our way to our site in minutes. Disappointing to Jo there was no Lagoon this time but she did think the fields behind us were a “bit creepy“ at night. No bunny this time though and the last walk of Mocha was uneventful.

The entertainment available was amazing with horses, goats (two of Jo’s favorites) as well as dog parks (big and small), a water park and pool, pan for gems sluice way (can buy panning material in the store) Jo was sad I didn’t keep the shark tooth she found….I should have oh well.

There were also free bike/trikes hard to describe they are low to the ground like some athlete training bikes Ive see. And they had really cool Glamping tents/cabin like structures you can rent. Im sure Ive missed some stuff but trees and grass and lots to do. One of the nicest KOA’s we’ve ever been in.

Despite being not far from I-70 we were able to sleep without the AC on and no real noise til AM.

After mailing a postcard to the grandkids as promised we headed out.

Next stop St. Louis…arch tour and dinner with friends tomorrow. They live across the street from us in the winter and live in Peoria in the summer. Looking forward to seeing them and going up in the arch.

Another one in the books.

Having grown up in New England, where you can visit all the New England states in a day, it always amazes me when we drive all day and end up in the same state for our next stop but that’s Day 2 in a nutshell.

Our day one heading west started out in the rain again. Our last trip west didnt involve more than a few hours of rain for the entire trip so it’s only fair we should get some this trip. The rain does make for interesting driving in Philly traffic with so many of the roads under construction and the absence of shoulders or any extra space between jersey barriers. I white knuckled drove for the first hour until we were out of the Philly area with only inches on each side of the trailer. As I was taught in my motorcycle course years ago I just kept my eyes fixed on where I wanted to go not where I didnt want to go lol.

Jo commented during that first hour that I was sighing or taking deep breaths a lot lol. I thought I was just holding my breath. 🙂

The weather was misty rain off and on until we got to our overnight in Charleroi, PA. Pine Cove RV resort. On arrival there was no one at the well marked office with several envelopes with names and site #s. There was no Brewster envelope?! I hadnt brought my phone so had to get it from the truck quite a walk away then back to the window to dial the number for help. The very nice woman said she had no record of me calling in my credit card to finalize my online reservation despite my having documented doing this on May 16 on my reservation email. Fortunately there were plenty of sites and we got a site similar to what I had asked for on the “water”. It was at this point my PTSD kicked in as the waterfront was somewhat underwhelming and similar to our worst experience camping on our last trip at Bucks Lake Ranch. That said the site was clean, surrounded by nice grass, easy hookups and very quiet so not a Bucks Lake experience. See a Hidden Gem that should remain hidden post from our last cross country trip blog.

Oh and it was still raining making it somewhat spooky for Jo who was worried about the creature from the Black Lagoon or water snakes coming up to our trailer. See below.

And to top it off I heard a scream of sorts when Jo went out with Mocha in the dark before bed and almost stepped on a rabbit at the bottom of the trailer steps. Just a little scared. As a Monty Python character said in The Search for the Holy Grail “aww he’s just a little bunny” You can never be too careful. I dont think Jo soiled her armor but it was close.

Hopefully you can get to the Python link above where there was a killer rabbit.

After a nice quiet night, once the bunny episode was over, we got up to steady rain. Like I said we were due and so thankful we weren’t affected by the devastation of Helene just a little rain. Off to Indianapolis…….

I keep meaning to post this because of the great time we had and the great campground but stuff kept happening. This trip was a trip to Disney World and the Magic Kingdom at the end of February with My daughter Jess and her husband Brian and our grandchildren Conan and Ella.

As you may have already gleaned from my prior posts Jo approaches a camping trip with at a minimum trepidation. She is not a camper or even a glamper but does it for me and to spend time with family. Knowing that she isnt a camper I always try to make it a nice campground and Fort Wilderness at Disney World was that and then some. Our trip there seemed longer than it should have but thats always the way in Florida. It is an incredibly long state. That said our travel was uneventful with our new sidekick puppy Mocha and we found Ft Wilderness easily. I will say that there is a hiatus on the signs leading into Disney where Ft Wilderness isnt mentioned for a few exits which always makes me a little uneasy as I dont relish the thought of taking a wrong turn into a parking lot not made for trucks and trailers. But we soon saw signs and pulled into Ft Wilderness without any wrong turns. The front gate folks were very nice and unlike many campgrounds trusted us to find our way to our site based on a magic marker on a map. That said the campground was very well marked and without any wrong turns we found our beautiful site in the woods. We were informed at the gate we needed to pay a small amount more for the pet and that we would be in a pet friendly area of the campground. I am always a bit nervous about being put in a room or campsite that is “pet friendly” for quality and noise reasons but our site was just beautiful. The pads are level concrete pads with immaculate grounds. There are staff constantly cleaning newly departed sites and emptying bear proof garbage can that were everywhere making trash disposal easy. There was a nice fenced dog park and paved walking paths everywhere.

We rented a golf cart as the campground is massive and our site was quite a distance from the marina where we got the boat to the Magic Kingdom to meet the kids who stayed at a hotel on site. Plenty of parking for the carts wherever we went and enough seating to take the kids back to our site when they came over for lunch one day.

The campground was pretty full but very quiet at night. There were entertainment options every night as well as a communal campfire.

Checking out was easy as we just had to leave the golf cart at the entrance and leave with our trailer.

Ft Wilderness was the nicest place we have stayed to date and i hope to go back with the entire family at some point.

Still planning our next cross country trip between birthdays and other celebrations maybe next fall. More to come.

Well it’s been a while since I wrote but for a retired guy life has been very busy. I’ve been retired a little over two years and enjoying every minute of it. That said after the first 6-12 months I began to feel a need to do something. I was recruited to work at an health insurance company in Wisconsin to do case reviews and work with the Utilization Management team discussing patients that were hospitalized or in nursing homes to ensure they were at the correct level of care and that they had safe places to go to after discharge. I really like the team of nurses I work with and the mental challenge that keeps my medical brain refreshed. Very fortunate. Again.

My wife volunteers at a therapeutic riding facility in Florida which she absolutely loves. The first time I went to pick her up all I could see was her famous smile as she walked along beside a horse steadying a child rider. She fights to get slots on the volunteer schedule before they fill up and is very disappointed when a session is cancelled though if there volunteers to muck stalls. I think it’s the horse smell that is her addiction. I kind of like it too so much so when we had our farm (another story for another day) we had multiple horses. Jo suggested I join her at the stable. Did I mention that while I like horses I am often put off by “horse people”, not all mind you but then again walking in a field of land mines not every step is a bad one. But the bad ones are really bad. Jo said that the people at this stable were nice but I’m still gun shy from prior experiences and have declined for now. But I do like that horse smell and grooming is kind of zen like with most horses. We will see.

Jo and I were talking about my volunteer quest and we had seen info about the local wildlife conservation organization. A great organization that lobbies for maintaining contiguous swaths of undeveloped Everglades, estuaries and other ecosystems. Those of you that know me know I am not a tree hugger that drives a Subaru with a save the planet sticker. I am however someone who has hunted, fished, hiked and would like for future generations to enjoy nature and its beauty like I have. This organization is doing great work to help SW Florida be recognizable well into the future working on compromises that respects and balances landowners and developers rights with habitat protection. Unlike the fringe groups who have the all or none stance this group tries to find a solution that works for everyone. I started volunteering in the hospital for injured wild animals at this organizations headquarters. My first day while cleaning a bird cage I looked up and was at eye level with a Pelican who had been let out to roam the room and was poking me to get the fish I was loading into what turned out to be his cage. They are hilarious birds but BIG when at eye level. The work there while rewarding was intense and tiring with lots of cleaning cages, squatting and remembering protocols to keep the birds calm and healthy. I hadn’t placed a feeding tube since my work in the ICU until passing one down the throat of a cormorant. Another BIG bird when close up.

The only usually relaxing time was when we walked gopher tortoises. Yup we walked the tortoises. These tortoises had been brought in as a result of Hurricane Irma that destroyed much of their habitat by pushing beach sand inland and over their habitats. To survive on the sparse feed they ended up eating sand with the few remaining sprigs of grass making the constipated. Yup I said it. The therapy for these tortoises involved warm sitz baths we volunteers made for them to sit in for 10 minutes, then 30 minutes of outside time on the lawns and then medication and a healthy diet prescribed by the staff vet. OK walking a tortoise should be easy right? Well first they are heavy so they needed to be put in Rubbermaid bins, placed in wagons and pulled to the assigned lawn. Then we were to document the amount of time the spent eating or sunning or walking. My first tortoise was into sunning and Im thinking easy peasy. Well shortly into my 30 minutes a fellow volunteer came running over saying he had lost his turtle!!! My turtle was still sunning and not at all bothered by the histrionics around him. Turns out the volunteer had probably been on his phone and “speedy” had taken off for home and made it about 100 feet across a travelled road over two high curbs and behind a guardrail where we finally found him. From my lazy turtle experience so far I imagined this guy had probably put his turtle down and not looked up from his phone for 30 minutes. That was until I was assigned “speedy” the next time I volunteered. This turtle’s legs started moving the minute I took him out of his container and off he went. He spent 95% of his time running (seriously he was fast) toward the same area he went toward before. Only stopping occasionally to eat. I tried moving him to other areas, spinning him around (gently) and redirecting him by getting in his way and he always headed North I assume toward where he was found. You had to see this guys determination and speed to believe it. I would love to have posted pictures of the critters maybe even a video of speedy but the Conservation organization has an agreement with the Florida Fish and Game that allows them to treat and in some sad cases euthanize wild animals many of which are endangered and protected. This agreement comes with stipulations that these arent taken for entertainment and they ask that we not take pictures. Below is a photo I found on the web.

Our leaving for our cross country trip put an end to my time at the Conservation Wildlife Hospital and Im not sure I am going back to that job as the bending to clean cages and the frenetic pace to get everything cleaned etc was a back killer. But it was an amazing once in a lifetime chance to see and handle wild critters to nurse them back to health and release them back into the wild.

Now that we are heading back Im trying to decide what my next adventure will be. There are so many retired people that some places have turned me down due to too many volunteers at least during snow bird season. But I have several ideas that should generate more stories.

I know this post wasnt the usual travel post but has been a fun part of my time between trips. Our next camping trip that Ive scheduled so far (Im hoping for more) is to Florida Horse Country for a rodeo. Yee ha.