It's Thursday that must mean we're in New Mexico

Giddy up go. We have traveled through Texas and into New Mexico. When we drove through here 6 months ago we came from Roswell New Mexico so after we drove through Amarillo Tx everything is new to us. We stopped in Tucumcari Nm the first night and stayed at a "quaint" little road side Rv park that offered Passport America club people full hookups for 18.00 a night, so we stayed. The town of Tucumcari is trying to survive like all small places that Route 66 left behind. 

A section of the old hotel at the Rv park in Tucumcari

After a couple of weeks of "normal" or should I say "usual" landscape, driving through northern Texas and into New Mexico is a big change.

About 30 km west of Tucumcari

We are still on I-40 heading west at an elevation of about 4500 feet. I-40 replaced most of the old Route 66 and you can still see quite a few places trying to capitalize on it. 

The red earth reminded us of  PEI

Some of them are right up beside the Highway

We stayed in a casino Rv spot in Sky City, Acoma NM, and it wasn't half bad. Very reasonable price and the Buffet was great. June proved again that it would be easier if she just gave her money to the door man when she goes into the casino, it would last longer.

Back on the road we carried on to Arizona.

At the Arizona New Mexico border

I think they wait for the vehicle to be the same colour as the rocks.

The colours get me every time

Just liked the shapes of the clouds and all

We are now in Williams Arizona. We have some touring to do here including the south rim of The Grand Canyon and we want to checkout a place called Bearizona. It only took about 2.5 hours to do this blog as the internet sucks so hopefully we can do a Grand Canyon blog in the next couple of days. Take care and thank-you for checking in on us, we are behaving ourselves most of the time.

Junkel

Its just a little wind

The night before we were scheduled to leave Little Rock the park attendant came around with a sheet of paper with the location of the storm shelter in case of a tornado. Well this did little to help us sleep and in the morning the wind was a howling and it was raining about 2 inches an hour. Around 11 am the rain dropped off but the tornado warning was still in effect so we checked the weather maps and decided to get out of dodge while we still could. What can we say, when you live in a trailer and there are tornadoes around you leave. Tornadoes have a tendency to find and destroy trailers. 

  

Pentecostal Church outside North little rock

The drive from Little Rock Arkansas to Checotah Oklahoma took us just over 4 hours. We were down to 40 miles per hour several times as the rain was relentless and then after 2 hours poof it stopped. The thunder clouds and the odd bit of lightning carried on for another half an hour but nothing outrageous. During this lull in the action we stopped for lunch at one to the rest areas and took these pictures.

June looking at a Mulberry tree

A Sassafras tree

We had heard of Mulberry and Sassafras trees but had never seen them until today. It was a tiny bit strange as the Mulberry tree had three graves at the base of it from 1899. The tree was planted beside the grave of three family members who were buried there, not something you see at every rest stop. 

A half hour after crossing into Oklahoma the rain returned but not as bad as before and by 6:30pm it stopped all together. We had a restful night without visions of Tornadoes in our heads. The next day was laundry and grocery day, what fun. Our late day walk took us to a nearby lake and we caught these two photos there.

Tiny Frog not much bigger than a quarter

A Huron at Sunset

We quite liked Checotah and will come back here again. It is the home town of Carrie Underwood but we didn't see her here, not that Kelly would know who she is he doesn't do Country or Western. We are out of Wifi range for the next couple of days so we will try and update again soon. Take care and we thank you for reading our blog.

Junkel

Heading West ...Half way ....And Billy's Town

Hi one and all, long time no talk. Since our last post the weather has taken a bit of a wet twist. We drove south through New York,Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia before turning right (west) in Tennessee. The traffic has been heavier than 5 months ago and the rain has slowed us down but we have enjoyed the trip just the same.

Thunder Cloud outside Knoxville

The Nashville Skyline

We stopped in Nashville on the way out so was didn't stop this time. We continued on through Memphis and into Arkansas.

Pyramid Building in Memphis

The Muddy Mississippi 

Burning field in Arkansas

We made it to Little Rock Arkansas and decided to Shut down for a couple of days. We stayed at the same Rv park as last time, in downtown North Little Rock. The park is right beside the Arkansas river and a short walk to downtown Little Rock.

An interesting home made unit

We spent a day exploring both Little Rocks using the local trolley system. Not bad $2.00 for a day pass and we used it well.

Inside the trolley

The Trolley on the bridge

Little Rock Public Market

We got off the trolley downtown and wondered the streets for awhile. We had "Chicago Style Pizza",walked the public market, and a couple of parks. We came across a wildlife museum and went inside. They have a different idea of wildlife instruction than we do. There were multiple displays of how to hunt and fish with furs on the walls of raccoon's,foxes,squirrels and skunks.

Game wardens teaching children to shoot

One of the courses you can sign-up for.  I like the part about it being a workshop for Families and Kids.

It was overcast and cool a great day to hike around. Little Rock is a great place to spend a couple days to sight see. Unfortunately we found out to late that it was Fall Fair weekend, I guess we will have to wait a little longer to try deep-fried butter balls(my arteries harden just a bit when I hear that).

We are half way to Desert Hot Springs and have had a great trip so far. We are looking forward to warm DRY weather of southern California but we have several days of driving ahead of us. We hope that you all are doing well and had a Happy Thanksgiving

Junkel

Just Like Willy.......On The Road Again

California here we come right back where we started from....or something like that. We crossed over into Maine on September 30th making it to Bangor. We have since traveled through northern Maine and into New Hampshire. We are currently in Epsom New Hampshire, Just outside Concord, which is in the south eastern corner of New Hampshire. You have got to love the licence plate motto for here "Live Free, Or Die" it kinda gives you that warm feeling doesn't it. 
The border crossing once again was without incident and only took about 2 minutes. The leaves are about 2/3 changed to their fall colours which made for a colourful drive. We stayed at the same place in Bangor that we stayed in on our way north. They are right "familiarity does bread content". After a day of shopping for groceries and others we hit the road for Hanover Maine. We arrived early enough that we went for a couple short hikes in Grafton Notch State Park.
Our first stop was Screw Auger Falls.

Kelly getting a little bit closer

The Falls

The next stop was Moose Cave.

It was interesting and I think our friend Jerry who we hike with would like to splunk the cave.

We googled scenic drives in New England and kept coming up with the "Kancamagus Highway" so we went there. The "Kanc",as the locals call it, is 37.7 miles long and goes through the White Mountain National Forest". The leaves were spectacular! There were multiple pullouts to take pictures from but on this gorgeous sunny Friday they were all packed. There was no place to park 40 feet of truck and trailer so all of our pictures were taken from a moving passengers seat.

Some of the reds were wow.

Some places the trees were 50/50 others they were done

37 miles of this........Hard to take

 

The only place we could pull over

Not bad from a moving truck

The Reds ...The Reds..

At either end of the "Kanc" is Conway and Lincoln. These two towns are like miniature Whistlers. There are endless motels hotels and spas. On the "Kanc" there are 4 ski hills so the two towns are winter and summer destinations. It was a regular Friday as we drove through the towns and they were packed. We thought that there must be a state holiday or something but alas no its just always busy in the fall. We headed south from Lincoln and ended up in Epsom for two nights. We picked up  the last of our supplies as there is no sales tax in New Hampshire. We will be in Oneonta New York tomorrow and the Lebenon Pa the next. I know there is no wifi for a few days so we will update when we can. Take Care........ Junkel  

"Farewell to Nova Scotia"

Hi one and all. This blog has been a little harder to write as we prepare to leave Amherst. We have been in the Maritimes since April 22 and have had the time of our lives. We will look back on this time with the fondest of memories. The people we have met and the time spent with relatives can never be replaced.

Last week we went for one last adventure with Kelly's Aunt and Uncle(Ann and Anson). We traveled straight south of Amherst and drove through Joggins Shulee Apple River Cape D'Or Advocate and Parsborro. All these places have a story to tell. At one time people could pick up coal right of the beach at Joggins. Joggins is also the home of The Joggins Fossil Cliff's which is an UNESCO world heritage site. Three years ago when we were here last we spent several hours exploring the beach and cliffs checking out the fossils. As we drove along telling lies and exploring, pictures were taken here are some of them.

This guy had about 75 of theses for his fence.

Yup that's ironing boards for fencing and they were every colour you can imagine. 

The brown waters of the bay of Fundy

Good times and Bad

Cape D'Or Lighthouse

Junkel and the lighthouse

The cliffs of Cape D'Or

Cape D'Or is and interesting spot where three different water currents meet causing some spectacular wave formations. It is a steep climb down to the lighthouse but worth it. It was quite windy while we were there but still enjoyable.

I think Ann and June have had enough of my picture taking.

We had a light lunch in Advocate and carried on our way. We saw 4 deer 3 squirrels possibly a porcupine and a couple of grouse. We took Anson's Ford Focus places they don't recommend and had a great time doing it. We stopped for supper in Parrsboro at one of Anson and Ann's favourite spots. Anson couldn't get enough of the scallops and we all had a good meal. After supper we walked to the beach and found these chairs and a nice person to take our photos.

It only took us 10 minutes to get out of the chairs

It was another great day and a fine example of our time here. Kelly's family had a big dinner for us last night at Saint Muriel's house(Kelly's cousin and if you met her you would understand the name) and we played cards till late.

On Tuesday we head to Moncton for an overnighter then on the 1st of October we cross the border heading for Bangor Maine. we plan on spending a week in New England checking out the leaves then California here we come.

Take Care we are thinking of you all and thanks again for reading my ramblings.

Junkel

Time Flies and Spud Island

Hi one and all, welcome to our anniversary edition of our little blog. On August 30 June and I celebrated One whole year of retirement. Yup a whole year has passed us by. We have been very busy ,but it still went by like nothing. It seems not long ago I was saying good-bye to fellow workers and moving all on the same day. We have enjoyed ourselves immensely and can't believe how lucky we have been. We have met many new friends and tried hard to stay in touch with the old ones(I know I should be careful how I word that). We tell everyone we meet that we have worked for a living and we have been retired and retired is way better. I have had jobs in the past that I have had a hard time being excited about, but I find I can give this retirement gig 110% every day. The only person enjoying it more than me is June.
We are presently on Prince Edward Island and we have decided that after B.C. comes PEI as our favourite. Don't get me wrong I like them all it's just that PEI is just that little bit better than the rest. 

We were at Cavendish Beach about 4 years ago and I got one of my best wildlife photos ever. It was an Osprey landing on a nest with its mate already there. We went back to Cavendish and took this one.

Same nest still in operation

Lighthouse at North Rustico

Indian River Village

We were here last just before the may long weekend and all the fields were Red, just the dirt. Now there is green every where. If you can sell it they grow it not just potatoes.

All the white is floats for a Mussel farm

Oh ya they have red/brown beaches here.

June beside "The Darnley Tea Cup"

The beaches that we have been to are hard packed sand beaches. Most of the beaches you could drive on without any worry. The Darnley Tea Cup is named after the nearby town of Darnley. If I zoomed out you can see where the cup use to be attached to land. The sandstone is very smoooooth and I am not sure how many more winters it will last. We have also enjoyed many great sunsets and moon rises here as the moon is full.

The day is done

The night is coming to life..........yup that's the moon

The internet is sketchy here so I will finish this up. We want to thank all of you that have made our first year of retirement so great. Special thanks go out to Marshall Berkin whose leadership caused a surplus of bodies so we could then retire. A very special thank-you to our family who have tried to understand the need we have to explore and have supported us this year. Take Care we love you all.

JunKel