Well, we are back home from our 7 week road trip. Spent a total of 9 days on the Oregon Coast at Jesse Honeyman and Nehalem Bay SP. Had a great time visiting and camping with our DS, DIL and Grandsons. Very nice Oregon parks. Then we traveled across the top of Oregon and the bottom of Idaho to visit with my SIL in Jarbidge, NV (we stayed/parked the trailer at Cactus Pete's in Jackpot.) Discovered a broken trailer spring when we arrived at Jackpot. With the help of Good Sam's Roadside Assist we were able to have a mobile repair service come out to the campground and replace the spring. Spent the next 4 days visiting my SIL, but we were resigned to cancel the rest of our trip and just head home. Visiting my brother's grave (we lost him unexpectedly this past April) reminded me that there are no guaranteed tomorrows. We had traveled this far - why go back without seeing what we had set out to see?
So, from Jackpot we angled over through Salt Lake and Provo then on down to Green River, UT where we stayed for 3 days while we toured the Moab area. From there we headed to Albuquerque to see the balloons fly. What a sight. They start their ascent just before dawn and they light up like Chinese lanterns when the pilots hit the burners. Hundreds of balloons all taking off at once was spectacular.
From there we dropped down to Alamogordo for 3 days so we could visit White Sands and the missile museum and then we spent 5 days in Carlsbad so we could visit the caverns and the surrounding area. If you have never been to the Caverns, it is a must see in our opinion.
Then it was down to Terlingua, TX for 4 days so we could tour Big Bend NP. Some fantastic scenery. (We could still view the border as they haven't put up the wall yet
). Then we headed to Las Cruses, NM. Visited the old town of Messilla and stayed at the KOA on top of a hill outside of town. Awesome view of the town and the mountains to the east.
Then we headed to Tucson. Wwhile there we visited several RV dealers that we had been reading about. We just went to "kick tires" but, when the DW saw the Laredo she had been looking at online, well, we ended up leaving our Cougar there and bringing the Laredo home with us.
Left Tucson after about 6 days and stopped in Salome, AZ and then Needles, CA on the way home. Visited the town of Oatman outside of Ft. Mojave, AZ. Got to see the wild burros roaming the streets and watched a staged bank robbery/gun fight. All good fun.
Fifty days and nights and 6300+ miles. Now we have to get busy and plan our next trip. BTW we love our new 5er!