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03-22-2020, 11:48 AM
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#1
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Meandering the USA
As the summer travels of the American people are severely curtailed because of a vast worldwide pandemic, we that traveled this great country can reminisce.
Our travels over the past years were haphazard at best. We never had an agenda other than staying in comfortable climates like north in the summer and south in the winter.
In these posts, I’m just going to write stories as I remember them - with help from my picture files – and provide a brief glimpse of what we saw. This will not be chronological.
This may be different for many travelers that have not set meandering as a sort of agenda.
On this first post I’m picking out a spot in our travels that demonstrates just how rewarding RVing can be.
We had just spent 10 days near Rapid City, SD at the Ellsworth, AFB CG. It was early august and upon leaving SD we were heading south for the winter.
We didn’t travel Inter State highways to save time. We mostly traveled them in the vast wide open areas of the country. So out of Rapid City we took I-80 east to US-81. We had decided to go south through the Kansas & Nebraska heart land. On an afternoon just after crossing into Kansas, we saw a billboard advertising a free city RV park in Concordia, with FHUs. When we got to a road leading into the CG we were undecided about entering because we could not see the CG. However, the road was well paved and right next to a National Guard facility. When we drove around a corner with the CG in view we were flabbergasted. All of the parking sites were paved and some were very long. We stopped and read the CG instructions that just said to pull into any vacant site. There was no attendant and all they requested is to keep the place clean and suggested that donations at a drop box would be greatly appreciated. The city police regularly patrolled the CG and more often at night. There was a full service Wal-Mart within a mile and they had diesel fuel. We ended-up spending two nights there and left 20 bucks in the drop box.
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03-22-2020, 02:38 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Hemlock
Posts: 816
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I love these threads. I am younger than some in the group and I get new idea of places to go based on your threads lately.
Thanks
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R.J. and Ginger
2019 Ram 3500 6.7 HO, Aisin Trans 3:73
Reese Goosebox
2019 Sandpiper 379FLOK
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03-22-2020, 03:34 PM
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#3
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Iron Mountain, MI
Well, thank you tech740. I’ll do a Michigan for you.
One time after roaming around the eastern Michigan UP for about three weeks we headed west on US-2. We figured we had one more stop to make in MI and we were right.
Around 3 PM we started wondering if we were going to find a CG pretty soon. We like to stop earlier than most travelers. That’s because we like to stay-up late and check-out last. Anyhow, our next town on the map was Iron Mountain and sure enough there was a nice grassy CG with FHUs. Summer Breeze was the CG name and we got a nice long & level drive-in. We like to stay two nights, which gives us a day to explore the area we have stopped at. We were there on week days and it was very quiet and peaceful
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03-23-2020, 12:38 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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AZ – CA – NV road trip
Over the years we have wintered twice at Yuma, AZ; both times at the Arizona Sands, a 55+ seniors RV park on highway BR-8 just east of USMC Air Station.
This is just a short story about a bus tour to Laughlin, NV. The tour was arraigned by the RV Park so it started and ended there.
Our long time friends from our Navy days were wintering with us. Neither one of us wanted to take a trip that far with our trucks so the bus tour was a great answer to our dilemma of wanting to visit Laughlin.
The trip up would take us through CA then back into AZ and finally cross over the Colorado again at Bull City. On the return trip we would stay in AZ all the way with a beautiful drive along the Colorado. We would just spend one night at the Riverside Hotel & Casino.
Here is a brief glimpse of the Laughlin landscape
The bus route stating at Yuma and followed US-95/AZ-95 to Parker, AZ where we crossed over the river to CA and US-95 all the way back into AZ to Bullhead City where we could cross the river again to Laughlin, NV. On the return we followed US-95/AZ-95 all the way back to Yuma with a nice lunch/trinket stop at Quartzsite, AZ.
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03-23-2020, 01:06 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: nm
Posts: 1,833
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I rode cal 95 in January on the Harley it’s a fun road To Laughlin and spent 4 days riding the area. In the earlier years going to quartzsite Arizona the bus would pick up a lot of folks at the McDonald’s for an overnight stay in Laughlin. The cost was $15 included round-trip, five dollars in nickels and free buffet the buses were loaded. To be honest with you I don’t think the road has improved any over the last 20 years it’s still narrow and a lot of dips .
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2018 1 ton 4x4 c.c standard bed GMC Denali
Anderson ultimate hitch
2015 311 Impact Fusion toy hauler
2018 Milwaukee 8 FLRTU roadglide glide ultra
2018 800 Z force spot BUGGY.
500 watts of solar enough power for boon docking.
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03-29-2020, 10:35 AM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Grand Forks, ND
Because of my long association with aviation, I normally seek and take pictures of aircraft. Just about all military installations that have something to do with aviation will have some sort of aircraft on display. Because we stayed at a lot of military RV Parks/CGs, I have pictures of what’s at their entrances.
Upon entering ND traveling west on US-2 you will find the Grand Forks AFB. Because their primary aircraft provide in-flight refueling services the aircraft at the main gate is a tanker.
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03-31-2020, 09:00 AM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Theodore Roosevelt NP
Theodore Roosevelt NP
During a 10 day stop at Dickinson, ND we made numerous side trips. One of them was a ride through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
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04-01-2020, 03:57 PM
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#8
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Salt Lake City, UT
Out in the great Salt Lake you'll find Antelope Island SP. The causeway over is a nice ride now that it's paved.
There isn't much on the island. A nice trinket shop with a snack bar atop a knoll near the middle of the park. Great location for the photographers.
You have to be real careful driving the park roads. The island is nearly overrun with Bison that seem to like walking on the hot roads. (Maybe it helps their athletes feet...LOL!).
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04-01-2020, 04:13 PM
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#9
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Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: nm
Posts: 1,833
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CWtheMan
Because of my long association with aviation, I normally seek and take pictures of aircraft. Just about all military installations that have something to do with aviation will have some sort of aircraft on display. Because we stayed at a lot of military RV Parks/CGs, I have pictures of what’s at their entrances.
Upon entering ND traveling west on US-2 you will find the Grand Forks AFB. Because their primary aircraft provide in-flight refueling services the aircraft at the main gate is a tanker.
Attachment 25903 Attachment 25904
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Have you visit the air museum in Tucson ?
__________________
2018 1 ton 4x4 c.c standard bed GMC Denali
Anderson ultimate hitch
2015 311 Impact Fusion toy hauler
2018 Milwaukee 8 FLRTU roadglide glide ultra
2018 800 Z force spot BUGGY.
500 watts of solar enough power for boon docking.
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04-01-2020, 04:28 PM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roadglide
Have you visit the air museum in Tucson ?
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Yes and I have hundreds of pictures from the graveyard and those
displayed around the Davis-Monthan, AFB
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04-02-2020, 03:42 PM
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#11
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Provo, UT - Uinta, NF
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04-04-2020, 09:25 AM
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#12
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Al - i-20
Heading south for the winter months with our friends in the Montana. Of course we are heading west on I-20 in these phots but would soon connect with I-59 south because we were heading to the USN Seabee base RV Park at Gulfport, MS for a month before going farther south into Texas.
It was October and all the trees were changing colors.
A little side bar: Because our tow vehicles had completely different engines and gearing we could not both use cruise control. Don's Chevy was a V8 diesel 4WD with 3.73 gearing and my Dodge was of course a 6 Cyl. diesel 2WD with 4.10 gearing; so we would take turns leading from one rest area to the next. Our trailers were almost identical in weight. However, when using cruise control his rig would travel faster down hill than mine and I would travel faster up hill.
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04-05-2020, 04:43 PM
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#13
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: AKRON OH
Posts: 144
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Thank you so much for sharing. My retirement is coming due in just about 3 years, and the wife and I can't wait to travel. I was really leaning towards fulltiming, the DW was still not quite sure. But after all of this "stay at home" orders, that pretty much eliminated the idea of full time RVing for us. This may never happen again in our lifetime, but that's not the norm for us. I guess we need someplace off the road to hi-tail it to just in case. God has always been very good to us, but not everything we have done has been our original plan! I know, we plan, God laughs! But, we are still planning on many years of 6-7 month trips. And no more winters in Ohio if it can be helped. Talked with my friend and former co-worker earlier today about his traveling so far. He and his wife started their fulltime journey just last summer. They still have a place to stay in Yuma for now, which I was relieved to know. He's planning on staying as long as need be. I guess he's doing lots of hiking, but not much else. So keep the stories and pictures coming. It keeps us all focused on the normalcy that will someday return!
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04-05-2020, 11:45 PM
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#14
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Visitor centers
During the 4+ years we actually full time traveled around the country we had traveling companions about 75% of the time. So we highly recommend traveling companions.
Don and I met at the Naval Air Station Cecil Field, FL in 1966 and have been close friends ever since then. His wife Betty came aboard in the 70s and became close friends with my wife Linda. The plusses in our relationships far outweigh the minuses, making it comfortable to travel together.
When full timing we found that state run welcome centers found on or near interstate highways to be a wealth of information and never passed one up. Some provide free refreshments and almost all provide state maps and brochures free. Here are pictures of a few of our stops in southern states.
LA - MS - GA
Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them.
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04-06-2020, 08:47 AM
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#15
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Northville, NY
Posts: 374
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Thanks CW for sharing your memories and photos. We had hoped to get out west this coming fall. We will see how that shakes out. This thread has been a refreshing break from the all consuming Corona news.
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04-07-2020, 08:45 AM
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#16
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Nebraska Archway
When traveling I-80 in central Nebraska you’re surely going to see the Archway across the highway.
As we approached we decided to stop and see. Maybe get some lunch and a trinket from the Archway store.
We ended up taking the full tour. It’s quite interesting.
Here are some pictures as we approach the Archway. Click on them to enlarge.
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04-07-2020, 09:01 AM
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#17
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Liberty, Texas
Posts: 5,034
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Is there an actual purpose for the arch, or just a tourist thing?
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04-07-2020, 10:48 AM
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#18
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gearhead
Is there an actual purpose for the arch, or just a tourist thing?
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I didn't post a link because so many of them have "pop-ups" nowadays.
https://archway.org/about-us/
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04-07-2020, 11:24 PM
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#20
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Taylors, SC
Posts: 3,031
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roscommon48
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I have a number of blogs on Blogger.com. I share them with other RVing bloggers. I have one that has reports on more than 90 civilian RV parks we used over the years.
I've started a number of posts in various forums here because hardly anyone is traveling and bored with sitting in one spot. I have probably in excess of 5000 pictures taken of our RV travels that have been cataloged over the years in my computers.
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