I'm Awake Now

I realized early this morning (5:00 AM PST) when we were talking about what road songs we'd be singing today, that I completely forgot Mississippi as another wine-find stop.  You know what I mean - like Get Your Kicks on Route 66, Roll on Down The Highway, Long & Winding Road, On the Road Again, Take it Easy (Winslow, AZ) and then Tupelo, as in Mississippi ..... Glad you're not in the truck with us aren't you :-)  Anyway, I also need to clarify Bill's Change of Command Ceremony, this is his outgoing C "Charlie" Company Commander ceremony.  They have a nice gathering to honor a Commander and his wife for a job well done.  He has had his command for a year now and just learned he will pin on Major this Fall.  Where they go from here will be up to the Army, like Jennifer says "Home is Where The Army Sends You".  Do you think if I wrote a letter they might send them closer to So Cal?  More tonight the "bus is ready to roll".

Are we there yet?

Well, another beautiful day today and we only logged 336 miles.  Can you tell we're getting tired?  Or maybe it was the detours to get Oklahoma and Arkansas wines.....  We started in 2005 visiting wineries in different states we traveled through and were charmed by all the little places we found.  Now we're hooked.  We have to find some in Tennessee and Alabama tomorrow, that will be fun.  We need to be in Georgia by Thursday afternoon to get a good nights sleep for son-in-law Bill's change of command ceremony Friday at 10:00 AM (that's 7:00 AM PST).  We decided to save driving through Little Rock for tomorrow morning, so we're staying at Lake Dardanelle tonight.  Another beautiful State Park, this one with 34,300 acres of water......  We sure do wish we were just goofing off!  We're lakeside and lovin' it.

Sooner or later.............

We were blessed with beautiful weather yesterday, just a little windy.  We made it about 400 miles through the last of New Mexico, across the corner of Texas and into the Sooner State before we decided the time changes were catching up with us.  We stopped at Red Rock Canyon State Park, near Hinton, about 7:30 PM.  What a surprising find in the plains of Oklahoma!  In the 1800's it was a respite from the cold winds for the Gold Rush travelers on the "California Road".  We picked a spot at the back of the campground next to a stream.  What a peaceful place!  We hated to leave this morning, but today we're on to Arkansas, where we stop tonight - who knows........

Santa Rosa Lake Campground Photos (Day 2)

Forecast = Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Rain

Right....We awoke on Day Two and found frosty conditions with a temperature of 32 degrees.  Once we hit the road the weather radio forecast seemed almost perfect.  A little drizzle and mostly cloudy, then things started to change.  The winds picked up, drizzle changed to rain, rain changed to sleet, sleet to heavy hail and then snow.  Blowing snow.  For the first time since we've owned the trailer, we had to put the F250 in 4X4 High to tow safely.  Fortunately Chuck has experience driving in snowy conditions but other drivers were not as savy or just chose to disregard the conditions.  We passed numerous accidents and lost 2 hours travel time but arrived safely at Santa Rosa Lake (Santa Rosa, NM) just after sunset.  We logged 479.8 miles but drove just under 11 hours.  Today is sunny and beautiful and we'll be staying somewhere in Oklahoma tonight.

Photos from Day One

Cataract Lake

Just a couple of hiccups.......

Well, we didn't make it all the way to Flagstaff - 10 hours and 448 miles on the road was enough.  We left Montebello at 5:45 am and made pretty good time most of the way.  After stopping in Hesperia (Smart & Final) and Barstow (Shell gas) we kept forgetting to stop at the bank and get some cash.  Finally, coming into Needles I remembered and we went to the bank there.  As I was walking past the trailer I noticed we had a right rear trailer tire going flat - what a blessing we found it then.  A Big-O Tire was across the street and in about an hour we had it fixed and were back on the road.  Chuck said we picked up a nail shortly before we stopped and if we had kept going we would have paid for more than a flat repair.  On into Arizona and our new destination of Cataract Lake County Park Campground in Williams, Arizona.  After finding the road washed out, a few snow flakes on our windshield and an interesting detour, we arrived - only to find, due to County shortfalls, the campground has closed.  On to plan B (really C) and we followed the road around to the other side of the lake where there is a Kaibab National Forest Campground.  We're at 6800', have a beautiful site right on the lake, no hookups (we're used to that) and no one else camping here.  Perfect!  We are so grateful to be able to travel this wonderful country we live in and see the amazing sights along the way.  Goodnight... (I'll post photos tomorrow)