Guernsey State Park in Wyoming

I was looking at the map to find a good place between Denver and South Dakota. Guernsey State Park, which I had never hear of looked interesting and so that is where we headed. What a great find. It is on a large reservoir and the North Platte River. We knew that they have a number of first come first serve spots and as we were going to be there for the long Memorial Day weekend, thought this would be a good place. We got there on Thursday afternoon and came in the south entrance. We were told all the reservable spots were taken but we could find some spots at the north end. We could have gone back out and made our way to the north end entrance but decided to go through the park which was windy and narrow. Luckily no one else was on the road and we just went slow. The scenery is beautiful. The south end has the largest campground area. However, as you drive through the Park, you will see spots here and there on the side of the road on the banks of the lake. There are small areas that may only have one, two or three sites. We got to Long Canyon East that had a number of sites but were all reserved. We drove up the road to Long Canyon West. There were again spots along the river, with usually two or three sites. Some were tent only with parking for your car on the other side of the road. We found a great single spot. It was level and was the only one we saw in the area with a concrete pad. It looked like a handicap site but was not marked that way. We pulled in forward so as to have views of the water from there as well as both side windows. Holiday weekend and we have no neighbors. After the weekend we got one neighbor but with all the foliage could barely see any of their camper.

We have lots of trees around us but still got a good satellite signal to watch the Hockey games. We have had mostly cold, cloudy and rainy days but the views are great and that always makes a difference. We did go out a few times to check out the area. This Park is also an historic area. One day as we checked out the rest of the park, we stopped at a CCC Museum right in the Park.

As a historic district the park was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997 for its Civilian Conservation Corps buildings and structures. It contains 60 contributing resources: 14 buildings, 3 sites, and 43 structures, as well as 46 non-contributing resources   per Wikipedia

We also checked out the Oregon Ruts.on another drizzly day.
Oregon Trail Ruts is a preserved site of wagon ruts of the Oregon Trail on the North Platte River, about .5 miles south of Guernsey, Wyoming. The Oregon Trail here was winding up towards South Pass. Wagon wheels, draft animals, and people wore down the trail about two to six feet into a sandstone ridge here, during its heavy usage from 1841-1869.^[3] The half-mile stretch is "unsurpassed" and is the best-preserved set of Oregon Trail ruts anywhere along its former length.
Wikipedia

We also went to Register Cliffs which is a large 100 foot high sandstone cliff. Pioneers stopped here to camp and left their names engraved on the rock. The first engraving was in 1829. You also see sections that have more current engravings from the 20th century done before the site became a historic site.
We spent another cloudy day at Fort Laramie National Historic Site which is less than a half hour drive from the Park. It is located at the confluence of Laramie River and the North Platte River. It was a 19th century trading post as well as a military base.

 A lot of the buildings are original while some have been restored. 

The sign below was at the entrance to the Visitor Center. Later on the drive home Joe got a tornado warning on his phone but it was for a different area. That was kind of weird. It was interesting though most of the building were closed. 

We had a few nights of rain. However, we do get some sunshine. Next blog will include a paddle on the lake. Stay tuned.

A Little Time in Oklahoma and Texas

We want to get to Santa Fe before Labor Day and so we just made a few stops of two or three nights each. Plus the weather is in the high 90's and 100's and we really want to get to some little cooler weather which Santa Fe will be. We had a long drive to Oklahoma which turned out longer than we thought. We were going to stay at Red Canyon State Park near Oklahoma City. However, when we got there the office had just closed and there was a sign saying only motor homes under 40 feet can go down the steep road to the campground. We decided not to try it and I quickly looked for another place to stay. We headed west to Fort Cobb State Park. Gracie, our GPS, directed us to the far side of the lake on some narrow country roads. We ended up at a dead end at a boat launch but luckily there was room to turn around and we figured out how to get there. Our GPS has mostly been great but we do have problems it seems with some of the state parks. We got to the park and it turned out to be a very nice spot where we were right on the water.

We just stayed two days and just relaxed at our site, mostly in the MH with the air conditioner going. We had s thunder storm while there. In fact, we had just gotten out of the motorhome to go to the office to register and there was a loud crack of thunder. There wasn't a lot of rain but thunder for hours and some lightning in the distance.



Our next stop was Palo Duro Canyon State Park, near Amarillo, TX.  We stayed here a number of years ago and it was very nice though we did have a big thunderstorm while we were there.

Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the US behind the Grand Canyon of course. It is 120 miles long and 20 miles wide at points. It has a depth of 800 feet. The office is at a high point and you then drive down a steep windy road to get to the campground. Last time we stayed at the far campground. However we couldn't stay at the area this time. There are a number of areas on the road that flood when it rains. In fact, when we were here before that was the case the day after the big storm. They are in the midst of building bridges over the low spots. Unfortunately they made a small area and the road is about 2 inches too short for large motorhomes to get through. Oops :(  I guess they will be fixing that problem eventaully. So we stayed at the first campsite loop which was also very nice. We have 50 amp electric again and so can still use the air conditioner as it is still very very hot. We drove around one day to take some pictures. There are a lot of nice hiking trails but just too hot to even think about.

Below is the road work they are doing. This  would be flooded if there had been a lot of rain and some of the dips are much deeper than the one below.

We just spend a few days here and our next stop is Santa Fe and weather than should be around 20 degrees cooler. Still warm but not nearly so hot as it has been this last little while.

A Stop in Rhode Island and a Long Drive to DC

We left wonderful Maine and headed to George Washington Camping Area, a state park in Rhode Island near Providence. It is a nice wooded small wooded park on the Bowdish Reservoir.

Can you see a little bit of our motorhome in the trees below.

We were not on the water but just a short walk from it.

We took a drive and made a stop at Trader Joe's. We hadn't been to one for awhile and were happy to get some of our favorites. 

Unfortunately while there at our no hook up site, we had what turned out to be a battery problem. Joe had called a Freightliner Dealer and he had Joe do a few tests to eliminate what would have been more serious and expensive problems. Friday morning we left early and got to the Dealer which is in Connecticut at 8 hoping they could get to it first thing. Well 3 hours later they were able to look at it and immediately determined we needed new batteries. They were in bad shape. They were the original batteries and we were lucky to have them last as long as they did. It was around noon when we finally left. We had thought about gong directly to Cherry Hill Campground in College Park, where we will stay while exploring DC. However, it is around a 7 hour or so drive and we would be getting there pretty late, especially if we hit traffic. So we decided to make an overnight stop at Elk Neck State Park, where we stayed four years ago when we traveled the east. It was suppose to be around 4 1/2 hours away. Or so we thought. OMG!!! What a mess. Traffic was horrendous.  As we were already pretty far south in CT and near the 95, we went that way. The closer we got to NYC, the worse it got. We tried to get off the 95 and take a different route but Gracie, our GPS, kept trying to direct us back to the 95 and New York City. Finally we followed her directions and did end up missing the City even if we got back to the 95 sooner than we wanted. Anyway, after being on the road for around 7 hours and still being a few hours from Elk Neck SP, we decided to just stay at one of the Service Centers off the highway. Their Service Centers are much bigger than the rest stops we have stayed at before. Lots of trucks and some rvs staying the night and just a lot of cars and people stopping for a break. They have a large area with many fast food stands.. We stayed the night and then stopped at another Service Center to get something to eat. What a zoo. Hundreds of people there and long lines at some of the food stands. We decided to head straight to Cherry Hill after calling to make sure we could get a spot for a week. 

Well, we made it to Cherry Hill and got a site for 8 days and got some relaxing in on Saturday. Starting Sunday we will be pretty busy as there is a lot to see in this area. Stay tuned for DC adventures.

Jordan Pond Walk and a Visit with Friends

We love Acadia NP and spent another day exploring. We went back to the lake we had stopped at the day before but this time had our lunch there.

We  drove on down the loop stopping at Jordan Pond for a hike. The Jordan Pond loop is 3.5 miles and is a leisurely easy walk on a gravel path along the pristine waters of the Pond.

What an idyllic place with beauty at every turn.

Part of the path was over some rocks with water on both sides as the above three pictures show.

The path ends at the Jordan Pond Restaurant which has lunch and tea time with their famous popovers. It was very busy and you should get reservations in advance. We will have to check it out next time we are her

Joe had been in contact with our friends Larry and Orene, whom we met and spent time with at the last two Mexican Connection trips we took to San Felipe and Ensenada. They live in Arizona now but they have a "camp" in Enfield and when they heard we were in the area, invited us over for the day. It was about 1 1/2 north of where we are staying.
They have a lovely cabin. Orene's grandfather bought the land which is right on the water and built a small one roon cabin. Later additional rooms were built including a bathroom as they once had an outhouse on the property. The house has been passed down among the generations and five generations have stayed at the cabin.

We had a great lunch of fried chicken, potatoes and peas and a pasta salad. We drank beer and some wine we brought that we got at one of the New York wineries. What a great afternoon. We all have a lot in common and could talk about any subject, including politics and religion which you can't always talk about with a lot of people.  We will see them again at the next Escapade in Tucson and the next Mexico trip next February.

We were happy to see Ella again. She is a beautiful English Setter who they have taken care of for the last two years while Orene's sister was overseas. She will be back in a few weeks and will be taking Ella home to Washington DC. Larry and Orene will sure miss her.

Our last full day in Maine was spent back in the part of Acadia that we went to on the rainy day. This time we had sunshine. We had lunch at a small restaurant and sat outside with haddock sandwiches which were good.

A lot of the houses in this area had a lunch of lobster traps in their yards.

We walked around at another lovely beach area. I loved the saying below. So true.

 We have really enjoyed this area and the National Park and definitely want to come back again and spent even more time in Maine. We now continue our journey, with a stop in Rhode Island and onto Washington DC.