Lake City, FL

Yesterday it was east on I-10 out of Miss. into Ala. through Mobile, AL and on into Fl. past Pensacola and Tallahassee to the junction of I-10 and I-75 where we have spent the night at the Oaks & Pines RV Park. Today it will be a 250 mile drive south on I-75 and US 27 to Buttonwood Bay in Sebring, FL for the winter.
The drive across LA, Miss, Ala, & Fl the last couple of days makes one marvel at the ability to build elevated roads across so many miles of swamp and water.
Our trip since leaving Hazen Bay on Sept. 9th. has taken us nearly 6000 miles through some very magnificent and beautiful country in this great United States of America that we are so privileged to live in. We have seen many relatives and friends and made many new friends along the way. It will be nice to be home for the winter, however we do have several rallies to attend in Florida this winter so won't be setting at home.

Gautier, MS

This morning we departed Eunice, LA around 9 AM about 25 miles east we turned south on I-49 traveling about 25 miles before we turned east on I-10 traveling through the swamps of lowert LA. before arriving at Baton Rouge. Leaving Baton Rouge we traveled I-12 to Miss. where it became I-10 again. When we were going up inclines today we kept getting a check engine light and poor performance so we pulled of at Gulfport and went to Empire Truck They checked it out and installed a new fuel filter and performance is back to normal. We decided to stop at Gautier for the night as we still have over 600 miles left to Sebring so we won't arrive there until sometime Sun.

Eunice, LA

After spending the last 3 days at the Thousand Trails Preserve on Lake Conroe north of Huston his morning we departed about 10:30 driving north on I-45 about 30 miles to Huntsville, TX where we turned east on US 190 driving through the rolling tree covered hills of east Texas. Leaving Texas at Newton driving into LA we soon were driving by vast fields of pine trees that soon turned to flat irrigated rice fields. Most of the rice has been harvested but occasionally we did see a field that was still waiting for the combine.We are at the Cajun Campground about 50 miles west of Baton Rouge tonight. Since this is our 49th. wedding anniversary we went to a restaurant for supper. I decided to try Cajun so I had seafood gumbo. Nancy tasted it and said it tasted like dirty dish water. I have never tasted dirty dish water but it did have a taste that made me glad that I had only ordered a cup of it, however it wasn't to bad after I got past the oyster that was in it. Nancy had shrimp with french fries but the french fries were to spicy for her taste. Well so much for eating Cajun we will stick with Mexican.

Conroe, TX

This morning we started out driving SE on I-10 in a light drizzle. After about 20 miles we turned east on US 290 traveling through the Texas hill country covered with pecan trees and seeing some cattle and a lot of goats. We traveled through Johnson City home of LBJ population under 1200. Nearing Austin the terrain became flatter with green grass covered hills, with lots trees and cattle. Traveling east from Austin on US 290 it became somewhat flatter with green grassy hills sparsely covered with trees and cattle & goats grazing. At Brenham we turned NE on TX 105 to Conroe, Texas where we are staying at the Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Preserve. We will stay here until Tropical storm Ida clears the coast of Louisiana & Florida. I commended to Nancy that it seemed really good to see green pastures and lush growth as we really hadn't seen much since late Aug. in ND.

Junction, TX

Today was a long drive of 400 plus miles with nothing but sagebrush, mesquite, hills and then flat land and hills again and trucks, trucks, trucks. The most exciting things we saw were the border patrol checking cars & people along the road after we left El Paso. East of Fort Stockton we began seeing oil wells as well as lots of wind generators. Tonight we are at the KOA Kampground in Junction, TX

El Paso TX

This morning we traveled south on AZ 80 through Tombstone into the Mule Mtns to the town of Bisbee at an elevation of 5300 ft. Bisbee is the location for copper mining. Mining began in 1877 and continued without interruption until 1975. Hundreds of millions of tons of ore have been removed from 2 open pits and nearly 2000 miles of under ground workings. All within a zone of about 2 by 3 miles and 4000 ft. deep. This has produced nearly 8 billion lbs. of copper ( a cube of copper 241 ft.deep the length of a football field). They are still producing copper by a process of leaching the pits and the underground mines. Leaving the Mule Mtns east of Bisbee we entered into a broad valley that had some irrigated fields in it. At Douglas, AZ on the boarder of Mexico AZ 80 turned northward traveling through a broad valley with the Chiricahua Mtns to the west and the Animas Mtns in New Mexico to the east. After traveling about 80 miles to the north east (about 1/2 in AZ and 1/2 in New Mexico) through grass lands and ranches we turned onto I-10 east bound passing through mostly flat desert until nearing Las Cruces, NM where we began to see some farming. Today we actually saw a few herds of cattle and lands that would support them. Tonight we are at an RV Park on the south edge of El Paso, TX.

Tombstone, AZ

Yesterday we went to Tombstone, AZ where we toured the historic Cochise County courthouse. There we learned about the famous gun battle at the OK corral between the Earps and the Clantons. We also learned about the silver strike and mining as well as copper mines in the area. There was a section on the cattle barons in the area at the turn of the century. They had huge spreads and had herds of cattle that numbered as high as 25000 head. I don' think I have seen enough grass in the whole state of Arizona to support that many cattle, maybe they ate the leaves of the mesquite trees. One of the barons had 700,000 acres in Mexico as well as 200,000 acres in the states and reportedly had 75000 head of cattle. This area was also the home of the legendary Indian Geronimo. We also walked the historic town area looking into some of the many shops that are housed in the historic buildings such as the Bird Cage Theater.
Later in the afternoon we went to Sierra Vista where we had a nice 4 or 5 hr. visit with my cousin Bill Miller and his wife Susan. Bill & I reminisced about our childhood growing up living 1 mile apart in Nebraska.
For some reason I can't get any pictures down loaded from my camera so I guess we won't include any more pictures until I can get that fixed.

Huachuca City, AZ

On Mon. we drove to Sun City Grand on the north west edge of Phoenix where we enjoyed a nice visit with Lee & Leola German a couple that we knew from our years in Imperial. We watched a CD about the straw house that their daughter has built in Colorado and also one on their time in the Philippines as a missionarys and bush pilot for the New Tribes Missions. Both were very interesting. We then stopped by new friends David & Beverly Simmons at Sun City where we got a tour of their nice house and then we went out for mexican food. We arrived back in Cottonwood about 9:30 PM. Tues and Wed. we just relaxed and then this morning we left Cottonwood heading south on I-17 at Phoenix I-17 joins I-10. Driving SE we passed through a huge irrigated valley with lots of cotton that mostly had been harvested. After traveling through Tuscon and heading east the terrain becomes more rugged with mesquite covered hills and sparse grass, the Santa Catalina Mtns on the left and the Santa Rita Mtns on the right. Near Benson, AZ we turned south on US 90 for about 30 miles and then east on AZ 82 at Hauchuca City to the Tombstone Territories RV Park. We have a beautiful view of the Dragoon Mts to our east and the Santa Rita Mtns to the west.

Camp Verde, AZ

Yesterday after enjoying an eggs Benedict breakfast we went to Fort Verde State Park. Fort Verde was established in 1865 to protect the farm in the Verde valley from the Indians who were stealing their crops and livestock. Last evening we enjoyed a very delicious BBQ and then a Halloween costume party. This morning after a continental breakfast we said goodbye to new friends as well as a few old ones. We will be moving to the Thousand Trails Park about 10 miles away for a few days before we start east toward Florida.