Lovely, light, luscious, delectable.......

7:46 am - Sunday - March 10th - Wittmann, AZ - 40º F, 67% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the north......sunny today with a forecast high of 69º F.

Saturday was a lovely, light, luscious, delectable day (from the 'The Duchess Bakes A Cake', substituting 'day' for 'cake')....hahaha....I've always wanted to use that phrase in a sentence!  The air was crisp....the sky was blue, and there was almost no breeze.....a decidedly t-shirt, shorts and flip flops kind of day.  So what kind of outdoor activity might be inspired by such great weather?  It seemed to me like a great day to finish wiping down the Newell exterior.  It was so good to finally have the energy two days in succession to do something physical that I took up the challenge and did just that.

I was expecting it to take me a couple of hours, or more to finish, but in reality it took just an hour and all that remained to do was to polish my ALCOA wheels, which I will do on Sunday.  I think the last time I got out the Mothers Aluminum Polish was two years ago when we were also here in Wittmann.

After finishing the exterior of the Newell TLE and I drove into Surprise to first visit the local Autozone where I would buy an extra can of Mothers for my ALCOA project, and then over to Walmart to do a 'big shopping'....the cupboards are getting bare!  On the way home we stopped off at Wells Country Store to get my 5 gallon propane tank (the one I attach to our Sea-B-Que) filled.  The last time I filled it was when we were still working at Smuggler's Den back in July.  It felt light to me, but it only took 2.8 gallons.  At $2.64 a gallon it only cost $7.41 to fill it up.  I think we'll stop there in the Newell on our way out of town to top off our on board 6o gallon propane tank.....it will never be cheaper to do at $2.64/gallon!

Wells Country Store....right across the street from the Wittmann Post Office

We were back home by 4:30 pm, and another day was in the books.  The time is flying by here in Wittmann, and in just a couple of days we will be rolling our wheels once again.  Two of my three surgeries are behind me, with just the cataract surgery remaining, and I already know what to expect from that.  Soon we will be heading northward to Washington State, and entering British Columbia around June 1st for our Alaska adventure.

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The last 87.......

6:48 am - Saturday - January 12th - Gonzales, LA - 55º F, 90% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the east by southeast.....cloudy today with a forecast of rain today, and a high of 71º F.....as I write I am beginning to hear the gentle 'pitter pat' of the rain on our aluminum roof.

We only had 87 miles to cover to our destination for the next days, but we are both glad we saved that last 87 miles for Friday, because as you leave Slidell you are pretty much on elevated road surfaces over water 75% of the time until you get close to Baton Rouge.  I cannot imagine how much fun that section would have been at the end of a 220 mile day in the late afternoon!  In many cases you are below sea level.  These elevated road surfaces appear to be quite old and they are not smooth......think 'bebump, bebump, bebump, bebump' for about 100 minutes as you are simultaneously snaking your way through post 9 am NOLA traffic in lanes that are considerably narrower than the typical Interstate lanes.  Add all that together and you feel your blood pressure rising as the tension, predictably, rises.

But, alas, we finally exited Interstate 10 in Gonzales, LA and found our way to the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center where we will spend the next three days visiting with our friends Forest and Cindy talking about, and planning our trip to Alaska this summer.  The site we had been initially assigned (50-B) was full of water and mud so TLE and I walked over to the office to explain our problem and see if there were any alternate sites in which we could stay.  When I gave my last name so they could look up my reservation the nice lady said "Oh, you're Clarke Hockwald.....we have a package for you...".  I'm thinking how would someone know to mail me a package here?  Well, it turned out the address I had given our son to use to forward our mail was the Expo center, and not the address of our friends.....doh!  Thankfully they held on to the package for a few days!  At any rate, she also gave us 6 alternate sites to check, which we did.  We settled on a site a few down from 50-B which was a pull through site, and quickly moved into it.  

Since the utilities for our site are at the very rear of the site I had to deploy about 45' of sewer hose, my 50' water hose and a 25' extension for our 50 amp cord, and that is why we carry so much extra stuff for just this situation.  It comes up very infrequently, but are we ever happy we have the extra when we need it!  We only have 30 amp service in our site, but it's all good.  By the time we were set up it was about 12:30 pm and time for some showers now that we are connected to a sewer once again.  When we arrived our friends were up in Baton Rouge at an appointment, so by the time we finished with our showers Forest and Cindy had arrived to welcome us.  We talked for about an hour before they headed home. We made arrangements to drive over to their home for dinner at 4:30 pm.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and settling into our digs for the next three days, and were in the VW headed for Forest and Cindy's home by 4:30.  We had a lovely evening talking, and a lovely dinner before heading home around 8:30 pm.

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The Jello has the last laugh......

6:37 am - Friday - January 11th - Slidell, LA - 36º F, 77% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the northeast....clear skies again today with a forecast high of 60º F.

It was very, very cold overnight in Quincy, FL, and I was up by 6 am to turn on our three Suburban gas heaters to take the chill off the coach.  It was 39º F outside, and 55º F inside....a nice differential considering we didn't turn the heaters on at all the night before.  Although we had no plans to drive more than 200 miles Thursday we were on the road before 8 am.....wait, what?  We never get on the road that early!  

The day began with kind of wispy clouds and finished with clear blue skies, and virtually no wind.  The road was flat, and straight as we cruised at 60 mph westward on I-10 at 100-200' above sea level, then as we approached the Alabama border just feet above sea level......

 A lot of trees blown down by the hurricane back in October....the cleanup continues

 Leaving Florida.....very few states thank you for visiting

 Almost at sea level!

.....our Jello plan had us ending our driving day in Daphne, AL, just before Mobile Bay, but as we approached Daphne I just could not see myself stopping so early (11 am, because we gained an hour back when we reentered the Central Time Zone), and so we set a new goal......Moss Point, AL....another 40 miles.  But, as we approached Moss Point I still could not see myself stopping for the day so early on a day when the driving was just magical.  At this point we had driven some 230 miles, a typical driving day for us, but I asked TLE to see how far Slidell, LA was. She quickly reported it was another 100 miles.....that sounded about right, so I reset the Garmin Truck GPS to Slidell, LA and we continued on our way westward.....

 Entering the Mobile Tunnel

......soon we were entering Mississippi.........

.....and just a few miles later we entered the state of Louisiana......wow four states in one day......Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana! 

Our original plan at the beginning of the day was to drive another 200+ miles to Daphne, AL which would give us just 200+ more into Gonzales, LA.  When the driving is as good as it was on Thursday and there are a plethora of Rest Areas to choose from (we stopped at three this day including a 1 mile walk in the 3rd one of the day....it was finally warm enough!) why not drive 333 miles, right?  By the time we pulled into the Walmart Supercenter Parking lot in Slidell, LA it was just coming up on 3 pm......perfect!

We spent some time relaxing before walking into the Walmart to do some shopping.  About 5 pm we walked over to the Cracker Barrel to have 'breakfast for dinner'.  The parking lot in which we are parked has a Walmart, Lowe's, Murphy Gas USA, and a Cracker Barrel.....how much better does it get?  Almost 7 years ago when we had just begun our full time journey we overnighted in this same parking lot on our way to Florida for the first time.  I have to be honest.....it does not seem like 7 years.

So, as I write this morning we find ourselves just 88 miles from our destination today where we will spend 2, or 3 days planning our trip to Alaska with our good friends Forest and Cindy.  The weather today, Friday, is the same as Thursday.....clear with blue skies.  We are now less than 5 months from the date we will enter British Columbia and begin our journey to our 49th State (49th in our Newell, as well).

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Westward Ho!

6:38 am - Thursday - January 10th - Quincy, FL -  39º F (feels 33º F), 52% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the north by northwest.......cloudy today with a forecast high of 54º F.

What a wonderful travel day Wednesday was!  The skies were clear, and blue, the temperature was in the low 60's, and the roads were straight and flat as we cruised westward across the Florida 'panhandle', but I get a wee bit ahead of myself.

We were up a little after 7 am Wednesday thinking about our departure preparation.  Our goal was to be on the road by 10 am, but sometimes life intervenes, and it takes a little bit longer.  TLE ran to the store about 9 am to pick up a few things whilst I finished putting away the very few things we deployed during our two day stay in St. Mary's, GA.  Around 9:30 am Roscoe and Geni dropped by while on their rounds of the State Park to say their 'until next times', and we ended up talking for about an hour.  They are thinking about upgrading from their travel trailer to a class A motorhome, and wanted to take a tour of ours.  We talked for over an hour, but, alas, it was approaching 11 am and we really needed to get moving. 

We hugged, and promised each other to reunite over New Years day at the end of this year in the SoCal desert.  Once we were rolling we had one more task......empty our black and gray tanks as we will be dry camping for the next few days.  By the time we finished with that it was almost 11:30 am.

We initially cruised south on I-95, then I-295 and finally merged on to I-10 west bound.  In all we covered over 230 miles Wednesday before landing in Quincy, FL at the local Walmart.  We'll be on I-10 until just after Baton Rouge, LA where we will begin angling up to I-20 via secondary roads, which will take us to Ft. Worth, TX where we will again angle northward up to I-40 for the balance of our journey westward.

We stopped at a couple of Rest Areas along the I-10 corridor during our drive, and at one we got out of the coach and walked for about .75 miles before continuing westward to our day's destination.  Typically most Interstates have Rest Areas every 60-80 miles, but along this stretch of I-10 (Jacksonville to Quincy) they are spaced about 30-35 miles apart so you have plenty of options for taking a break.

We arrived at the Walmart around 4 pm, found a spot to park, and by 7 pm we had been joined by several other RV's for the night.  We'll be under way in about 2 hours, or less, so time to sign off for today.

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The deluge......

7:37 am - Saturday - December 29th - Hahira, GA (just north of Valdosta) - 62º F, 96% humidity, wind  - CALM......cloudy today with a forecast high in Hahira of 71º F.....WOW!

I think many of you know how we avoid driving in the rain, or in the wind to the point we have paid for extra days at RV parks to get beyond rain and/or wind.  Sometimes there is nothing one can do about the weather and it is necessary to drive in it, and this trip south from Nashville is one of those times.  We needed to be in Cedar Key by the 29th, which is when one of our very rare reservations begins.  We don't make reservations as a rule, and where we are this morning (December 29th) is a great example.....we just drove in last night and managed to snag their last site, which alsoha ppened to be a 100' pull through site.  It always works out for us, but if you want to stay in Cedar Key, FL reservations are a must.  Even in this case we waited until the last minute to make the reservation and, once again, got the last site.  Anyway, in order to get to Cedar Key without pounding out two 350 days we had to leave Nashville a few hours after arriving home from SoCal.  By driving 150 miles Thursday we only had 500 miles to go to Cedar Key......two 250 mile days give, or take a few.

It rained all night Thursday, and was still raining Friday morning when we departed Chattanooga, TN at 9 am.  Within minutes of merging on to I-75 we entered the lovely state of Georgia.....

.....which also boasts some of the worst Interstate traffic in the nation.  This is our thrid time traversing the I-75 corridor through Georgia on our way to Florida, and each time the traffic has been worse......no matter what time of day we pass through.  It rained all day long with the exception of a few 15 minute segments where it was not raining........

 In between squalls....entering the Altanta traffic corridor

 See all the red?  Stoppage due to dozens of accidents on I-75, I-675 and I-475

....within 2 hours we were entering the Atlanta Traffic Hell......traffic in and around Atlanta is always bad, and then add in heavy rainfall most of the day and you get dozens of accidents on the various Interstates in and around Atlanta.  It took us 2 hours to traverse about 30 miles of heavily congested roads.  At one point our Garmin Trucker GPS re-routed us off the Interstates and on to surface streets to get us past most of the accidents......  

.....at last we came to a much needed Rest Area south of Atlanta and exited with scores of other vehicles to take a break from the rain and traffic.....

......as we moved south along the I-75 corridor we were smack dab in the middle of the storm front which stretched from far north all the way to the Florida panhandle.....

.....near the end of our 356 mile driving day (I know, right?) the rainfall intensified.....

.....at times visibility was reduced significantly.....

.....at last we arrived at Cain Creekside RV Park in the lovely, welcoming town of Hahira, GA, just 15 miles north of Valdosta.  When we were getting ready to leave Chattanooga TLE and I had discussed the need to be plugged in that night, so I had checked ahead to see if there was a Passport American park (50% off) near Valdosta.  Cain Creekside came up, so we made that our destination hoping we would get a site.....no reservations....and it worked out.  We arrived just before sundown, got our site paid for ($20), parked, hooked up to the 50 amp electrical pedestal, and began to relax.  TLE was amazing all day long checking out alternate routes, checking ahead for traffic accidents, and getting water, and snacks as needed.  In all we stopped at 3 Rest Areas for 15 minute breaks,  and our travel time was about 7.5 hours to cover 356 miles.  That's one of the longest driving days we have had in years, but now we only have 145 miles to Sunset Isle in Cedar Key where we will spend time with our very good friends Krash and Karen.

TLE was in bed by 9 pm, and I followed short time later....it continued raining throughout the night, but as I sit here this morning composing the skies are clearing and it promises to be a rain free drive to Cedar Key....fingers and toes crossed.

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Home Sweet Home.....

7:02 am - Friday - December 28th - Chattanooga, TN - 52º F, humidity 92%, wind - CALM.......heavy cloud cover with continuous rain all night long and this morning. Forecast high for today in Chattanooga is 65º F, but we will not be here to see it.  We are continuing our drive southward to Cedar Key today.  We will probably get as far at Valdosta, GA today where the high will be 72º F, but we'll see how far we get with all the rain along our route.

In yesterday's 'Homecoming' blog I really covered Wednesday and Thursday in a 'Reader's Digest' kind of way......I'm pretty sure most of my readers know about, or have read Reader's Digest, but in case you have not I have provided a link.  Anyway, I took a 55 second video of Christmas morning at our son Chris' home which I just rediscovered this morning.  This video really gives you a flavor of what Hockwald gatherings are like......

.....there are typically '19' conversations in progress at all times!  Being home for Christmas this year was very special since we missed Christmas last year while working at the Grand Canyon.  So funny that we missed Christmas last year when we were only 300+ miles from home, but managed to get home when were over 2,000 miles from home this year!  

As TLE and I age being around family for these special times of year becomes more and more important.  Our children's families are expanding, and their children are growing so quickly.  The last time we were home two of our youngest grand children (Brayden and Jolene) did not even speak, and now they talk in complete sentences.....lol!

I really do not like to drive in the rain, but it appears that for the second consecutive day it will be so.  We could just sit still for another day, but sunny skies and warmer, drier weather await us in Cedar Key, so we will press steadily onward to arrive there by Saturday the 29th.  

It began raining about 15 minutes after we arrived in Chattanooga, and never stopped all night long.  TLE had left me setting up the DirecTV to go shopping in Walmart, and she did not know it was raining.  I sent her a text message while she was in the store to ask if she had worn a coat, and she replied she had not.  I advised her it was raining hard, and did she want me to bring her hooded rain jacket to her to which she replied "YES!', so I trundled into the store to find her just passing through the checkout line....perfect timing.  As we walked across the puddle covered parking lot with rain pelting us all the way to the Newell I put my arm around TLE and told her how much it means to me to have her with me on this journey.  Here we are walking in the rain in a strange parking lot to our home on wheels.......and, as strange as it may seem, it does feel like home no matter where it may be parked at the time.  Here we are in a place we have never been before, and yet it all seems so familiar.  The view may be different, but it still feels like home.  We go inside, close the curtains and we are home.....it's as simple as that.

We watched a recorded English Premier Soccer game, then a recorded Fraser (they make me laugh out loud) and were in bed by 8:30 pm.  We both woke up 10 hours later at 6:30 pm feeling refreshed and ready for a 300+ mile drive down to Valdosta today.  We are presently just over the border from Georgia and within minutes of leaving this Walmart parking we will be in that state for the rest of the day.

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Road to Campbellsville.......

8:29 am - Saturday - October 13th - Hagerstown, MD - 48º F, 86% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the west by northwest......heavy overcast.....rained all night, and is still raining as I write.  The forecast high for today here in Hagerstown will be 58º F.

After 3 days in New Castle, DE it was time to begin our westward trek to Campbellsville, KY and our next seasonal job.  It has been one month since we left Southwest Harbor, ME, but it seems much longer.  We have covered over 1,100 miles since then, and seen our 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, and 48th states during that time.  Maybe that's why it seems much longer than one month?

Our goal was to drive 150+ miles to Hagerstown, MD where we would spend the night in a Walmart Supercenter.  Essentially, from New Castle to Campbellsville, KY it is just under 700 miles, and we could cover that distance in two, or three days, but we've got 8, so why rush it?

After 3 days of overwhelming humidity, we woke up Friday to temps in the high 50's, and humidity in the mid 60 percentile......big, big changes!  In addition, we had sunny skies for the first time in almost a week.....a perfect day for driving!

We were on the road by 10:30 am, and merging onto I-95 southbound once again.  Within 30 minutes we were rolling through a toll area using our new E-ZPass transponder, and 5 minutes later we entered Maryland.......

Within 30 minutes we were skirting around Baltimore, and entering the tunnel which would take us under the Patapsco River......

.....shortly after passing through the tunnel we passed M&T Bank Stadium, the home of the NFL Baltimore Ravens.....

.....finally we escaped the gravitational pull of urban Maryland, and spent the last part of our trip to Hagerstown driving through rolling Maryland countryside......

.....when we began our day we passed numerous Service Areas (Rest Areas), but it was too soon for me to stop and take a break.  I figured I would take a break sometime after Baltimore after we transitioned to I-70 westbound, but there were no more rest areas until 13 miles before our destination!  What's up with that?  In spite of how close we were I decided to pull off and take a break, and a short nap....you see, that little tickle in my throat was turning into a head cold, and I needed a short nap.

We ultimately arrived at the Walmart off I-81 in Hagerstown around 2:45 pm, found a nice spot to park for the night, and then took a long walk around the large shopping complex in which Walmart is but one of the many national chain stores (Bed, Bath and Beyond; Home Depot; Marshalls; Game Stop; etc.).  In all I thin we covered a little over a mile before making our way into Walmart to do a small shopping.  We always try to patronize the business in whose parking lot we are staying.

It looks like the rain has stopped (9 am) this morning (Saturday), and we'll probably be back on the road in about 2 hours heading for Morgantown, WV (actually just past)......about 156 miles.  Thanks for stopping by!

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The end of 'Island Life'.......

7:31 am - Saturday - September 15th - Ellsworth, ME - 54º F, 100% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the east by northeast.....foggy......

Fog in Ellsworth

.....forecast high today for Ellsworth is 73º F, but we will not still be here.....the high in Portland, were we are headed, will be 71º F, and it appears it is foggy there, also.

We were up before 7 am on Friday, our departure day.  As usual I woke up several times during the night thinking about what needed to be done before we rolled our wheels.  Our Jello goal was to be doing just that between 10 and 11 am, and our day's destination was Ellsworth.  Ellsworth?  Yup....the road between Tony's home and Trenton, which is just off the island, is quite narrow, and rough, and I knew by the time we covered the 20 miles to Ellsworth over those roads I would be ready for a break, so we just decided that would be it for the day.  We needed to do a BIG shopping, and there is a Walmart Supercenter in Ellsworth....perfect!

Amazingly, we were rolling our wheels away from Tony and Janet's home by 10:58 am, and on our way through the local maze of incredibly narrow roads.  Driving through Southwest Harbor at 11 am with all the cars parked along each side of the street can be difficult in the Beetle, but now I am doing it with an 8 foot wide, 62 foot long motorhome/trailer.  Needless to say, we took our time, and drove very slowly.  As far as we know no small animals, or children were harmed.

Once we were past the downtown area things widen out for a while, but then comes Somesville, with even narrower streets.  Once we get past Somesville the roads widen somewhat, but the problem is the outer edges of the road are very crumbly and rough, so even though the road is technically wider the usable portion of the road is, once again, quite narrow.  I find myself driving with my left wheels right on the yellow line.....not fun!

At last we come to the bridge which separates Trenton from Mount Desert Island......

 The 'Narrows' bridge......almost off the island.....

....and there is Trenton!

......and then we were entering Trenton, and much wider roads!  It's about 7-8 miles to Ellsworth from Trenton, and our first order of business would be stopping at the local Shell fuel station to take on propane.  We last filled our 60 gallon tank in mid May, and it was down to about 15 gallons left.  We had noted this Shell station a week, or so before when we were in Ellsworth and had both commented that the station provided easy in and out access, so we had decided that was where we would fill up our propane tank......

 I've only seen one of these propane stations once before, and that was in Flagstaff, AZ.....it's just like using a regular fuel pump, except one of the staff must operate it.

......we took on just over 38 gallons at a total cost of $134.80.  No need for diesel as are tank is still almost full....we last topped off our diesel tank in Portland, ME mid May....we'll probably make it into early October before it is necessary to do so again.  The Walmart is about two blocks from the Shell station and we were there and parked by 12:05 pm.  Just over an hour had passed since we left Tony and Janet's, but it seemed much, much longer......

Set up for the night....time to shop!

......we spent an hour slowly walking through Walmart buying what was needed, and were back to the Newell by 2:15 putting away groceries and relaxing for the rest of the afternoon.

So, our 4 months of 'island life' has come to an end.  We are on our way to new adventures, new views, new places.

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"Standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona...."

6:16 am - Thursday - April 19th - Winslow, AZ - 34º F, 19% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the east by southeast......looks and feels CALM.  Forecast high today in Winslow is 76º F, which, once again, we will not experience as we will be far down the road by that time.  Heading into New Mexico today!

It would have been nice to cross Arizona in parts of two days, but we just didn't want to drive any further than 200 miles so we set out sights on Winslow, AZ.  We were here briefly about 9 years ago, but had never spent the night, or walked around town to any extent.  I turned on the big Kohler genset around 9 am in order to turn on the 'block heater' so we could turn the big Detroit Diesel over.  When it gets below 50 degrees it will not start without being warmed up a tad.....kind of like myself.  Within 30 minutes I tried the ignition and she fired right up.  We were merging back on to I-40 within 10 minutes heading eastbound and down.

Winslow sits at about 3,300' elevation, and Flagstaff sits at over 7,000' elevation so we knew we would be gaining almost 4,000' in elevation in our first couple of hours of driving.  By the time we reached Williams we were at 6,800' and had been driving for over an hour so we got off the Interstate and found a place to park for about 30 minutes while we took a walk around the downtown area.....

It is a little over 1/2 mile from one end of the Williams downtown to the other, and it is quite the colorful place.....totally touristy in every regard.  Thankfully it is still early in the season, and it was not too crowded.  The temperature was in the mid 50's, and it was quite refreshing.  By the time we returned to the Newell we had covered 1.3 miles.  Time to move along!

We finally topped out on the long grade up to Flagstaff about 12:15....altitude 7,325'.....now we had about a 60 mile downhill run to Winslow which sits at roughly 4,800' elevation.  It was nice to just set the cruise control and hang on to the steering wheel.  The landscape quickly changed from heavily forested to high desert in just a few miles.

Like California most of the Rest Areas between Kingman and Winslow were closed.  The only one open was less than 20 miles outside of Winslow, so why stop, right?  The drive to Winslow was totally uneventful....just like we like it!  On this day we opted to park at the local Walmart Supercenter just north of the Interstate arriving there just after 1:30 pm.  There is an Elks Lodge in Winslow, which offers electrical hookups for $10/night (two 30 amp plugs, one 50 amp plug, and one 20 amp plug), but it is about 1.5 blocks from the busy railroad tracks......

.....the local BPOE # 536 Lodge is about one mile south of the Walmart, and a we passed it as we walked the 1.5 miles to the "Standin' on a corner" park in downtown Winslow.  It took us exactly 30 minutes to cover the 1.5 miles.....the skies were clear, and the sun kept us warm in spite of the mid 60's temperatures at the time.  There are quite a few wall murals all over town.....

.....at last we arrived at the corner made famous by the 'Eagles' many years ago.  Winslow has, obviously, made the most of this musical notoriety by turning this corner into a tourist attraction which is visited by literally 100's of thousands each year.  The corner was busy for the entire hour we were in the area.

From there we decided to walk over to the famous La Posada Hotel.....one of the famous Harvey Hotels, which are all located along the railroad lines.  This was the last of the great Harvey Hotels completed in 1930, and designed by, of course, Mary Coulter.....it is reputed to be "fanciest of the Harvey Hotels along Route 66".

We spent time walking through the hotel taking in the ambiance and wondering what it would have been like to stay there back in the 30's.  We almost stopped off in the bar to grab a beer, but we still had almost a two mile walk home and it was going on 4 pm, so with TLE's encouragement we turned away and began our walk back to the Newell.  I spied this very cool Studebaker Golden Hawk in the parking lot as we exited the hotel......these cars were produced between 1956 and 1958.

We were back at the Newell by 4:45 pm at which time I decided it was time to get up on the roof and clean the solar panels for the first time since late October when we were boondocking at Lone Rock.  Since we'll be dry camping most of the time as we head eastward they should be clean to provide maximum charge.

And that was pretty much our Wednesday.  Being able to explore places we overnight at is one of the things I love about moving across this country.  If you just get out and walk it is amazing what you will see!

Thanks for stopping by!

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