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Our Travel Adventures
Welcome to the Adventures of Larry and Connie Farquhar.
Road Trip to Arizona
It was time to get to Arizona and help manage my Dad's house. We usually don't like to "rush" anywhere, but it was important we get back to the west soon. We planned a 12-day trip to get from Massachusetts to Arizona. Not really "rushing", but a pretty quick trip for us. Normally, we like to keep our travel days under 5 hours. We also wouldn't be driving everyday.
Since we couldn't get our last minute reservations to take us through the holiday weekend, we left Stow, Massachusetts on July 3rd after visiting with Michelle and Ken for a couple weeks. We drove to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and spent the holiday weekend at the Mohegan Sun at the Poconos (casino and horse track). This casino graciously provides an area for RV's to park and spend a few nights. We parked in the designated RV area and it was nice and secluded. We greatly enjoyed the local residents fireworks show. There were dozens of locations shooting up large fireworks. The "show" lasted for hours. We were parked on a hill and had a 180° view of fireworks all around us. It's was pretty amazing.
Mills Creek COE
Our next stop was at the Mills Creek Corps of Engineers campground on Berlin Lake, Ohio. This was a very nice, and large COE campground. We were VERY glad we had 50amp electricity, as this allows us to run all 3 air-conditioners in the high heat and humidity. Well worth the $9 a night. If we weren't in a rush this would have been a great place to spend a couple weeks at. We were assigned a large grassy site near the lake. A fantastic family campground with water activities.
USS Cod
Since we were here for a couple nights, we made a day-trip to Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They had recently opened up again with some COVID-19 precautions being taken. Personally, I was a little disappointed in our visit. With a senior discount, it was $50 to visit the museum. The museum was nice, with lots of displays of items belonging to various bands and singers. However, 1/3 of the place was closed down as part of their COVID-19 precautions. On their website, they don't mention that the theaters and interactive displays were closed. I would have liked the entry price to be lower due to the closures.
Nearby was the World War II submarine, the U.S.S. Cod. It was tempting, but we declined going aboard since we had recently toured another World War II submarine.
Indiana Grand Racing and Casino
The next stop on our road-trip was at the Indiana Grand Racing and Casino in Shelbyville, Indiana. They allow RV's to spend the night in a far corner of their parking lot. We just used the place for a night's rest. We didn't even bother to go inside. It was after this night's stay that we decided we needed to make sure we had electricity for the rest of our travel stays, as it was a very HOT night.
Dam West COE Campground
Moving on, we headed to the Dam West Corps of Engineers campground in Carlyle, Indiana. Another nice COE campground. Since we were about 90 minutes from Saint Louis, we made a day trip to visit "the Arch". Unfortunately, tours inside the arch were closed. We opted to take a short boat tour on the Mississippi River. There weren't many people on the boat tour, which lasted about an hour. It was a nice tour, learning a little more about Saint Louis. We also drove a little around the town, looking for lunch. I may be hard to impress, but what we saw of Saint Louis failed to impress me. My biggest impression of Saint Louis was all of the graffiti. There was a TON of graffiti everywhere!
Saint Louis, MO
Saint Louis, MO
Saint Louis, MO
Saint Louis, MO
Carbolyn Park COE
Brandon, Lyndsay, Connie, and Larry
From Indiana, we drove across Missouri and stopped at the Carbolyn Park Corps of Engineer campground in Lyndon, Kansas. This is a small, very quiet COE campground for $9 a night with the senior discount. We had 50amp electricity and water here, with a dump station. We were surprised that there were very few campers here. Spending a couple night here gave us time to visit with our nephew, Brandon Davidson and Lyndsay. They recently purchased a house in nearby Missouri. We met them for a delicious BBQ lunch. Lyndsay is three months away from having their first child. It's always nice to be able to stop and visit family while criss-crossing the country.
Up to now, we've been stopping a few times for a two-night stay. Not anymore. The next four days were spent driving each day, sometimes up to 7 hours (a long driving day for us). From Lyndon, Kansas, we drove down to Dodge City, Kansas. We originally planned to dry-camp at Casinos along our way, but we didn't enjoy the heat, especially trying to sleep. We decided to get campgrounds with electric for each stop along the way. In Dodge City, it was a small, run-down campground called "Blue RV Park". It met our goal of being able to run the air-conditioners. Since we only had half a day to tour Dodge City, we caught the tour trolley from the visitor's center. Dodge City is a small town and we were the only tourist on the trolley. We enjoyed our personalized tour and learned some interesting facts about Dodge City. There's no (or very few) of the original and historic buildings left, but we're in the center of the old cowboy action.
Dodge City, KS
Dodge City, KS
Dodge City, KS
Part of the trolley tour took us to the cattle feeding areas and pass the processing plants. Dodge City was always a cattle town. Today, there are tens of thousands of cattle as far as the eye can see. They are shipped here to be fattened up, then processed. The meat plants process over 10,000 cattle a day! The tour also goes to Fort Dodge, but it was closed to tourist because of the COVID situation. We enjoyed our slow-paced tour and visit to Dodge City. We never walked around town (too hot) and it was all tourist trap stuff. Nothing original there, other than the location.
The Big Texan Steak Ranch
Day 10 of this road-trip brought us to Amarillo, Texas. Although we'd been here before, we wanted to have dinner at "The Big Texan Steak Ranch". We spent the night at the A-Ok Camper Park. This is another old, run-down RV Park, but for $14 a night with Passport America, we got our 50amp electric again. We first visited the free "Jack Sisemore Traveland RV Museum". There was some pretty interesting old RV's and motorcycles there. A pretty good museum, especially since it's free.
For dinner, it was steak and shrimp at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. If you're brave enough, you can get a FREE 72-ounce steak dinner! The catch is, you need to eat the entire meal (steak and all sides) within 60 minutes. We shared a 27-ounce steak and still took half of it home for breakfast, Yum!
The next day was to Albuquerque, New Mexico. This state recently announced a "mandatory" 14-day quarantine for all new visitors to the state. At first, there was some "dumb" news stating if we came into the state even for 1-night, we were required to stay 14-nights in quarantine. Huh? They even gave the example of a trucker passing through the state and stopping for 1-night. They stated the trucker would be required to stay 14-nights in quarantine! Huh? I know the COVID-19 situation has created some pretty stupid policies, but this didn't make any sense!
We planned to drive over 10 hours straight though New Mexico. We heard from friends of an RV Park near Albuquerque that would allow us to spend only one night. After contacting the Enchanted Trails RV Park, we learned that the various news agencies were reporting incorrect information. We were NOT required to stay 14-nights! We also heard from another friend that the Hatch Green Chili's were in season and available again. Connie couldn't resist herself and broke self-quarantine to visit the recommended store and get some green chili's. We picked up a 40 pound bag of mild green chili's and had them roasted on the spot. We'll freeze them in small bags and enjoy them for the next year (or more).
Finally, 12 days after leaving Massachusetts, we had our last driving day to Prescott, Arizona. We arrived at my Dad's house around mid-afternoon and started transferring all food, fridge and freezer items to the house. We'll probably be here for at least 6-months. We left the RV parked on the street for the night, but knew we needed to find a storage lot for her. The next day, we transferred our clothes to the house and found a nice RV storage lot nearby. The motorhome is now securely tucked away in her new parking area. We have lots of decisions to make for the future. We'll just see how it all pans out.
Our travel plans for this year were changed due to the COVID-19 issues. We also had HUGE travel plans for next year that are also now cancelled (or postponed?). I'll save discussing those cancelled travel plans for our next blog, which should be published in about two weeks.
Happy and Safe Travels!
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Comments 4
Guest - Sue Augustus
on Tuesday, 21 July 2020 10:00
Larry Farquhar
on Tuesday, 21 July 2020 11:00
Guest - Joyce
on Thursday, 23 July 2020 14:10
Connie Farquhar
on Thursday, 23 July 2020 16:39
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