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Heading Southwest

October - December 2024
We've been full time rvers for almost 2 years. This year we're going Southwest instead of to Florida. New adventures await. Read more

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4x4, Camper, Camping, Couple, Hiking, Nature, Photography, Sightseeing, Wilderness, Wildlife
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  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest

    Nashville TN

    October 17, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Spent 4 nights at Cages Bend COE campground. It's cheap with the senior card ($15 noc) and fairly close to Nashville (30-60 minutes depending on traffic). It's also just a mile from Johnny Cash's Homesite which we visited, and his grave. The traffic is crazy downtown so we didn't stop there this time. We did the Tennessee museum which was free and the farmers market one day (had a good brat there are Picnic tap). We had latte's at Crema which wasn't as good as I remembered. We went to Cheekwood estate and Botanical gardens which cost only $6 for the mansion tour and the garden was free with our AHS membership. The estate was owned by the family that developed Maxwell House coffee and the house inside was very nice and unique. There are a lot of decorations made from metal spoons! We split a triple pepper sandwich and a pumpkin cranberry Muffin and hot a cup of coffee (of course) at the cafe there. We also visited Fort Negley which was free but not worth it in my opinion. Kind of run down. Mid October and the campground was almost full! And there's a lot of campers cheering going on as the Tennessee and Alabama college football game is on TV (and they're all rooting for TN of course). We are having our first 'chimney log' campfire since back in the campground days and it's so warm and nice!Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 4–8

    Piney Grove, MS

    October 20, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Got to this COE campground which is supposed to be awesome but right off the bat the site we had wouldn't work for us.... It's so unlevel. I'm upset and crying. I put so much effort into researching the perfect site, looking at pictures on multiple sites, reading reviews and I feel like it's all for nothing. Half of this park is very unlevel. We switched from #99 to #116. It's a beautiful site and views of the lake but it is still so unlevel that we just cannot get level at all. It's because the wheelbase on the motorhome is so long. Just another reason to get rid of this thing. I was sweating after making the long trek in here. I'm tired of being anxious and sweaty just trying to get to the campground and then get into the site.

    A few days later: well, we put the RV away and moved it a bit and were finally able to get level! It's so peaceful and quiet (other than the squawking black crows!) we went to the dam and learned some history about the TomTen waterway and met a couple doing the Great Loop tour in their boat. Then we did a short segment of the Natchez Trace and viewed some ancient Indian mounds. Other than that, there is pretty much nothing to do here but camp and relax. One day I ended up with what I thought was heartburn, but after it kept getting worse especially with eating, I decided maybe it was gallbladder! I almost went to the hospital. I slept and it was bothering me in the morning today but I took one of Jerry's Omeprazole and it's good so far. It was a really bad burning, squeezing pain in the center of my abdomen around to the back. The heating pad helped. I have enjoyed the peace and quiet though.    Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 9–16

    Red Bay AL

    October 24, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Made it to "Tiffin Town" to have a few things done on the RV that we are still talking about getting rid of. Jerry's again been voicing his dislike of living like this. When we talk about where to go or how to make the change is where we come up with no idea. I'm still dealing with this stomach pain which comes and goes and seems worse in the middle of the night. Is it gallbladder or h pylori? Or something else. Being that our deductible is so high I'm reluctant to go to the ER or urgent care. This makes me feel like I need a home base and a job. I told myself today that if I get a fever or nausea or the pain cubes back for at least an hour, I will go to the ER. In the meanwhile I'm hoping it goes away on it's own and I'm trying to eat less crap.Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 8

    Cane Creek Canyon Preserve

    October 26, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Privately owned 700 acre parcel with 25 miles of hiking trails, waterfalls, canyons and views. It was transferred to a land trust last year. We talked to one of the employees who have us the history. There have been fossils of a saber tooth tiger and giant sloth found here along with a sharks tooth. The property was owned and developed by two scientists/geologists. Only open Friday-Sundays and it's free. This was one of those things I just randomly saw on Google maps and said "let's see what this is!". We both enjoyed it although it was a hard hike for me. I'm still not feeling back to normal since the stomach thing, which I'm still worried about. We also venture into muscle shoals, tuscambia and Florence AL for a look around, lunch at Sweet Peppers deli, a DD and some groceries at Wal Mart and Aldi. I liked Florence a lot from what I saw. I guess I'm looking for a place that has stores and restaurants and things to do!Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 20

    Memphis, TN

    November 7, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    It was 153 mile drive to make it here and it seemed we were heading the wrong direction, North instead of South... But there route to Texas is shorter heading up to Memphis first then down 40 to Little Rock and through Texarkana so that's how we got to Memphis. We are at Tom Sawyer RV Park which is actually in West Memphis Arkansas, about 15 minutes to downtown Memphis. The park is right on the Mississippi River and we have seen many barges being pushed up and down the very low river. It is overcast and rainy. It reminds us of the grey winter days in Illinois but it is at least 65-70 degrees still so just light jacket weather. We explored the downtown area yesterday and I most day....I was pleasantly surprised. Memphis is supposed to be the most unsafe city in America so I expected it to be rundown and scary. There are large areas that have been completely rebuilt with new condos and parks, old industrial buildings changes to lofts and businesses. It was easy to drive around and find parking. We walked the Tom Lee Park on the river which has cool playground equipment and places for people to do stuff. We went to Beale Street and into the shops and heard some music although it was a bit early in the day. We had barbeque ribs (which were nothing to write home about but the potato salad was great!) at Cozy Corner. We passed by Sun Studios where Elvis recorded his first records. All in all it was a fun day!Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 32–46

    Longview Texas - Daisy

    November 12, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    We made it to Texas! Right back where we started from two years ago!! We are staying at Fernbrook RV Park which is a nice park about 20 minutes from Daisy (Jerry's cousin). She was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer last year. She's continued to work through the surgery, chemo and radiation. She's so strong! We visited with her tonight and found out her one cat lost his leg this past March due to cancer! Both her and her cat were undergoing cancer treatment at the same time. Crazy. She's going to get me into her clinic tomorrow and do an EKG and hopefully get me seen by her ARNP so I can get some answers.... Hopefully good answers. Not sure what the rest of our visit will look like but at least we didn't have any plans set in stone. And maybe we'll get to do some fun stuff here too.

    Day 2&3: EKG is normal, labs, CT of the chest and ultrasound of the abdomen has been ordered to be done next week (unfortunately I couldn't get it any earlier). Jerry was able to get into the knee doctor and had his first hyaluronic acid injection. Everyone has been so nice and accommodating! I'm so grateful for Daisy's help. Tomorrow we will go have pizza and watch the Tyson vs Paul fight on TV at her place. I think we will be staying here another week until I get all my results. My back feels a bit better today. I sure have been scared and anxious about this all and especially since we are in a motorhome and not near our doctor. It's made me think a lot about getting a permanent home and also about being near one of the boys at least so we have a little support when needed. You think about things but you don't understand the emotions and the logistics of it all until it actually happens. And... If we were already on Medicare I think this would also be easier. We are paying out of pocket for all this stuff here so that we can get a discounted price.

    Week 2 - all my tests are now complete. The CT chest looks fine and I'm just waiting on ultrasound results. I'm beginning to think I really need an EGD to diagnose this. It's probably just gastritis but the fact that I feel crappy a month later makes me wonder...We watched the fight at Daisy's. Actually it was 4 flights. I've never watched boxing before but I really enjoyed it! We also had lunch with her entire family at a Mexican place (Papacita's - not the greatest) for a grandsons birthday and we had a game night with her and Caitlin playing catch phrase which was really fun. We drove the Old Stagecoach Rd in Marshall which is supposed to be haunted. It was a pretty cool road but during the day it didn't feel spooky at all. Marshall has a nice downtown area and beautiful old courthouse. I had an excellent chai latte at Joe Pine coffee shop. We drove to Karnack where Jerry lived for 9 months as a child and took a 15 minute drive through Caddo State Park which looked cool. We got a staple in a tire and they can't repair it. That's the second tire this year so now we're looking at tires. Low temps are in the 40's and highs have been 65-75. I think we're both ready to move on.

    3 weeks were spent in Longview. I ended up having a 3rd CT scan. I was scared to death I had pancreatic cancer. I was an emotional wreck planning the end of My life. It was awful. All that was found was a dilated common bile duct. I have set up an appt with a GI doc in Tucson after the 1st of the year and changing our health insurance so that it may not cost as much.

    We spent Thanksgiving at Carrie and Trent's (Daisy's rich daughter) which I didn't really enjoy as we waited an hour and a half to eat and there were so many people there and no one really talked to me even though I tried. The food was meh. I offered to bring something and Daisy told me to bring a pie. She says there would be lots of pies and to bring something different like coconut cream. She told me the bakery to go to. I went and got the coconut cream. It was not good. And then I was so disappointed because nobody brought apple or pumpkin pie. I was really looking forward to that. I guess in Texas they do sweet potato pie and buttermilk pie. I tried both. Yuk! I felt very anxious. I also had the anxiety from not knowing what was going on with me too. Ughhhh. We did enjoy our time with Daisy though. We played Catch Phrase with her and Caitlin several times, watched the Mike Tyson fight which I actually really liked, watched Landman several weeks with her and many Christmas movies as it's her favorite time of year.    Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 46

    Bandera TX

    December 3, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Made it to John's place. It's very pretty here with lots of hills and horses and bushy shrubby trees. I'm so glad to be moving on towards Arizona. We've never been in this part of Texas and being in New places always excites me. It's like a breath of fresh air! More to come..

    We spent about 11 days here. It got boring at times but I got a lot of me time as Jerry was out chit chatting with his brother quite a bit. Karina cooked a wonderful prime rib dinner for us complete with sweet potatoe pie (I've had it twice now - it's a Texas thing - but I'm not a big fan. I like pumpkin pie better). We watched a season of Yellowstone with them. We went to the German town of Fredericksburg and had lunch at Auslander (which means "abroad"). The food was good (I had jaegerschnitzel) but the town served like a big tourist area with nothing but shopping. We also went for lunch in Utopia at the Lost Maples Cafe. We had watched a golf movie that John and Karina told us about-Seven Days in Utopia-which was filmed there so it was neat to see the town and cafe. The food was average. The town of bandera was cute and we got pizza and coffee there (both good) and did a little window shopping. At Texas salt company we bought some smoked salt and paprika and some dipping spices for bread. The town North of John was Kerrville which seemed very nice. It has the HEB grocery stores we liked and a wall mart and lots of other stuff. John's is about an hour from San Antonio also making it an interesting place.    Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 54–55

    San Antonio Texas, Lou and Lee

    December 11, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    I used 15000 Hyatt points to get a one night stay at the Hyatt Regency in San Antonio on the Riverwalk. I wanted to see some Christmas lights and also we wanted to visit our old workampers and good friends Lou (86) and Lee (78) who live in San Antonio. They haven't changed at all other than a little older! They have a cute cottage at an independent/assisted living place. We had lunch in their cafeteria with them which I was a little nervous about, but it was wonderful. It was just like eating at a restaurant and the food was good. We stayed about 4 hours with them and then Lee got very anxious and basically said it was time for us to go which was fine by us. I understand completely how she feels. It was so good to see them and reminisce. They still have their geese, George and Gracie, that they used to have outside their camper and she would dress up.

    The hotel was wonderful. Walk right out the back door and you're on the Riverwalk. We had and Craig y Mexican food on the river and walked a bit. I was a bit disappointed in the lights. Sure it was lit up but it didn't feel very Christmassy. The next day we visited the mission San Jose. We did a tour there which was interesting but too long and too much standing around and after the tour Jerry's knee was done. I was hoping to get to one more mission but because of his knee we opted not to. We made the mistake of stopping at Costco (mistake because it's Christmas time and it was crazy busy!). We finally tried their rotisserie chicken and I think it's the best I've ever had. And only $4.99,

    A quick and disappointing stop at Cigars intl and we were then back on the road to John's. We didn't even know there was a Cigars intl in Texas. The employees were not friendly or helpful at all like they are in FL or PA and they didn't have the cheaper ones Jerry usually gets. He walked out empty handed which is amazing!

    All in all it was a fun one night away from the camper.    Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 58

    Big Bend National Park Texas

    December 15, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    I didn't know what to expect from Big Bend. I asked some friends who didn't sound impressed and I couldn't find much information on it. We got to the RV park (Paisanos in Terlingua) and I immediately regretted that I didn't stay in the national park. There have been only 5 campers here and I've yet to see anyone who works here. It's a small smash piece of property that had neighbors on both side that look like garbage dumps. However.... Having said that, we just completed day 2 in the park and it is absolutely gorgeous! The mountains, the purple cactus, hardly no one else here, the Jeep trails... It's just beautiful and feels like you're really in nature!! I was a little bummed we didn't sit in the hot springs but there's only one smallish tub and there were several people in and more coming with cases of beer. Not my scene. Also, this place is so big that there is a ton of driving which has been kind of tiring. Several times I've thought of how much it reminds me of Iceland. I think because many areas have no trees, there are areas of boulders and places that look like another world. It is also one of the least visited parks so there are times we drive miles and miles and don't see a soul. So Iceland but without water. We have one more day here. I would come back for sure but I would camp in the park. And I would definitely do the hot springs.

    Day 3-we finally met the owner of the campground who was very nice and we chatted about running campgrounds. He also gave us a tip to take the "most scenic drive in Texas" from Lajitas towards Presidio so we did. It was amazing! Almost better than the National Park. There are some steep hills and it follows the Rio Grande. There are some great campsites in several little state Park areas for boondocking if only we had a smaller camper. I'm glad we did that drive though. We also checked out the ghost town of Terlingua where we had dinner the first night at Starlight Theatre. It's a cool old theatre and they had some musicians playing during dinner. I had the brisket which wasn't great but Jerry's burger was awesome.    Read more

  • Carol HammondsHeading Southwest
    Day 64–67

    Deming, NM

    December 20, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    Drove through Marfa to El Paso where we overnighted at a Harvest Host -Three Missions Brewery (where I had a Barbie beer). We then arrived at the Dream Catcher SKP RV Park in Deming, NM. It's a big gravel parking lot right off I10. There's not only some road noise but lots of trains that run along I 10. There's hardly anyone here. Maybe 25% full. It's sad to think that this was such a thriving park that mom and Dad stopped at many times. Escapees sold their club last year and are now selling all the parks which I think might be part of why it's so empty. We did go to the ice cream social with about 10 other people and then watched Die Hard in the clubhouse with about half a dozen of them.

    I have been sad about the SKP sale. Escapees was a connection that I had with Mom and Dad. They shared their love of it with me and we joined then. They made so many friends and had their own community with the escapees. We were an escapee discount Park for 11 years. It's like another part of me is gone. I'm sure I'll experience a lot more of those feelings as I age.

    I read Mom's journal about her first time here in 2000. We visited two subdivisions they looked at, and I thought of Mom each time we went to Wal Mart knowing that she walked through those same aisles all those years ago. We went to the Museum in town (Las Mimbres) which she mentioned was a must see... It has so much stuff in it that it was a bit overwhelming. We also visited the City of Rocks State Park 30 minutes north which has a really cool campground with the sites tucked in amongst the giant boulders. Then we headed to Silver City, NM to get ice cream and coffee (chai latte for me). That town is in the hills which we both really liked. There's a lot in New Mexico that I would like to come back and see sometime. We talked to a couple from MN that converted a Red Cross ERV into a camper. I think we both have thought that something like that might work for us (after cats). Speaking of cats, we stopped at Wal Mart and bought Purina one sensitive stomach food to add to the cat food as there's still way too much puking going on here.    Read more

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