Westward Bound –
Summer 2013

We’re off!  Anna and I loaded ourselves, the dogs, and everything we thought we couldn’t live without onto the “Tiger Bus” for our long awaited summer excursion out west.  Our first stop was an overnight rest at the Two Rivers RV Resort in Sevierville, Tennessee.  We had a great site looking over the river, did a little outlet shopping, and took care of a couple motorhome maintenance items.  From there we traveled to Nashville, were we stayed two nights at the KOA so we could visit with our daughter, son-in-law, and our grandson at their new home before continuing our westward journey.  We plan to spend more time with them on our return trip home.

We met up with our good Floridian friends, Curt and Cathy, in Memphis and continued to the Little Rock, Arkansas area.  We stayed near the city on the Arkansas River and visited the river walk area (dirty and destitute) and the Clinton Presidential Library .   It was very disappointing.  It was the least presidential of all the libraries we have visited to date.  Not only was the factual data skewed to make Clinton look like an alter boy, but there was a fashion show for what appeared to be hookers taking place in the special events area of the museum.  Monica was never mentioned by name, and there was no display box holding the infamous cigar.  Goodness!

Our first planned vacation stop of the trip came next in Oklahoma City were we stayed at the Twin Fountains resort on the northeast side of OKC for several days.  While here we visited the Oklahoma City Bombing National Memorial and Museum site, and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.  The bombing memorial was both sobering and historical.  You could literally sense the pain and loss of everyone involved in the terrorist attack.  The Cowboy Museum housed a phenomenal display of our country’s western heritage.  While in the brickyard section of the city we visited Toby Keith’s Bar and Grill… Yum Yum.  Don’t miss this restaurant if you are visiting OKC.  Prior to leaving the area we witnessed the devastation of one of the largest tornados ever recorded as we drove through Moore, Oklahoma, just south of OKC.  It was very sad and made us very aware of how fortunate our circumstances are compared to that of others.

We next had a real quick stopover in Dumas, TX, and we were then quickly on our way to Alamosa, Colorado.  After turning west off Interstate 25, near Walsenburg, we witnessed the beginning of one of many intense wild fires that have plagued Colorado this summer.  The following morning we visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Zapata Falls.  The winds were intense at this location, causing forest fires to burn out of control and turning the sand at the national park into a large scale sand-blasting experience.   The smoke from the fires were visible for hundreds of miles.  All of the commercial parking lots in Alamosa looked like campgrounds as the forest service evacuated thousands of campers and homeowners due to the wild forest fires.  The valley in Alamosa was literally locked in from the east (Walsenburg) and the west (South Fork) due to the wild fires causing the forest service to block off all mountain passes in our direction of travel.  When we were ready to leave, we detoured south through New Mexico and then headed west before returning to Colorado west of the fire locations.

Our second stop in Colorado was Durango were there was much to do.  We stayed at the Alpen Rose RV park which was centrally located to our activities.  We toured north on the Million Dollar Highway with stops in Silverton and Ouray were we had million-dollar mountain vistas with a photo op around every corner – along with great food, music, and shopping in the mining towns.  The next evening we enjoyed the Bar D Revue in Durango were we were entertained with music and a comedy show that would be hard to beat.

From Durango we headed to the Four Corners region near Mancos and Cortez.  We stayed at the Mesa Verde RV Park just across from the entrance to the Mesa Verde National Park.  Here we viewed the remains of the Ancient Puebloan rock houses now known as Long House, the Balcony House, and Cliff Palace.  The Balcony house was adventurous with a 32′ ladder climb, shorter ladders, and a tunnel crawl to traverse.  Great fun!  Prior to leaving this area we traveled to the Four Corners Monument of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona.  This is a landmark Anna has wanted to visit for some time, fulfilling a wish that her mother once had.  We also traveled north on the western leg of the  San Juan Skyway through the mountains to the ski town of Telluride – another beautiful drive.

From Colorado we headed west into Utah, were we are now located.  That’s all the news for now.

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As always, we hope to see you down the road.