A (adventure) + 20 days
We’re three weeks into this adventure, but nothing exciting has happened this past week and I have to admit it – I feel almost bored. Not that we haven’t still been non-stop busy, but it doesn’t seem like much of an adventure.
We got settled into our campsite – a whole week in the same spot – in my hometown of Tulare, CA. Sun & Fun was nice – not too cramped, but still an RV park. The kind of place where your neighbors can’t carry on a phone conversation outside without you hearing every word. The kind of place where your neighbor can hear you sneeze inside your home when the windows are open. Which they were because we were lucky to have nice weather the whole week. Only had to use the AC once. But I have to say, I was a little unsettled while we were there.
Maybe it’s because we pulled in on Easter Sunday and didn’t have any family plans on what is normally a family gathering holiday. Maybe it’s because being in my old stomping grounds brought up memories of my past life there. Maybe it’s because I vegged out on cable TV at night and felt so unproductive. Maybe it’s because we were all set to get started on our adventure and now were stuck doing mundane things like going to the dentist.
It wasn’t all bad: We were able to have some great family time with some of the families while we were “home”. Son’s races and daughter’s bridal shower, 
and dinner with mom (our first houseguest after being houseless!), and we even had a nice day-trip to Kaweah Lake in Three Rivers. (That’s the River in the cover shot)
But we were very excited to pull out on Sunday morning. Heading South!
We have almost two whole weeks until our next commitment (picking up college daughter in Tuscon), and Tom has a route all planned out with free camping all along. Which will be nice after the budget breaker of a week at an RV park! The route will take us through the Northeast part of Arizona, an area we haven’t experienced yet.
Sunday we only drove about three hours (a short day from what we’ve been used to) and even stopped at a roadside attraction Tom found: Shoe Tree (apparently the original place burned down and now there are just a bunch of shoes on a fence).
While I’m happy that Tom is willing to stop and checkout weird things, I must admit, I was less than impressed with this one!
Then we spent the night at Stoddard Valley OHV, just South of Barstow. It wasn’t exactly a beautiful area, but I was so happy to have some space around us and be able to have all the blinds open. 
We got there early enough to do some jeeping to explore the area, but found out there’s not a lot there.
We left pretty early the next morning to beat the wind which was picking up and can make driving an RV pretty miserable. It really buffeted us all night and we even had to pull the slides in. Luckily, as we left, the wind was at our back and we had a pleasant drive to Parker, Arizona.
We dry-camped at a nice area on the California side of the Colorado River, another night with no once around – which was nice! Because it was another short travel day, we did some more jeep trailing before dark.
Tom found a cave to hike up to, and we couldn’t find our trail back, so it was a nice time.
But again, we got hit with wind all night and ended getting up at 4:30 AM. It was the first sunrise we’ve been awake for since our adventure began – which was nice actually. We took the morning to drive around the river area checking out campsites, and drove across the Parker Dam. They have wild burros out there, so of course I had to get a photo! The other two pics are Parker Dam (top right) and a view across the Colorado River to the Arizona side (on the left). It was a nice drive, but I was not in the best frame of mind I guess.
Now we are on our way to our next camp spot, south of Sedona, and this one I’m very excited about! We’ve been to Sedona before, albeit briefly, so I’m really excited about getting to explore the area – and actually getting outside and hiking around. I think some Sedona energy is just what the doctor ordered!
Happy Travels,
Peace & Love, Joy
You’ll get your groove–those first few weeks were an adjustment for me, too (I had recently retired, my husband did not). I kinda liked the shoe tree–very interesting spot. 🙂 I can’t wait to read about Sedona. I want to go there, but think that’s going to have to wait until next year for us. I hope the energy IS exactly what the doctor ordered! Safe travels. Dawn
Thank you Dawn. I think it is an adjustment period – and it’s all in the attitude. The Shoe-tree es exactly the kind of thing I would normally like – but I just wasn’t feeling it because I wasn’t in a good place at that moment.
I know you’re in Texas – are you headed east or west? up or down?
We are currently in the process of leaving Oklahoma for Missouri. We had a week in Dallas and a week on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma (visiting friends). I’m so behind on my blog writing, but hoping to catch up in the next few weeks. We’ll be still in Branson for a month or so at a campground near our daughter. I’m finding I don’t like the constant on-the-go traveling. I prefer to stay at least a couple weeks to really enjoy an area. I hope you are enjoying things a little more–it takes some getting used to. Dawn
I’m trying to get caught up on my blogging – it’s not the writing that takes time, but the pictures – Oi! We’re on our way to our hometown where we’llbe a couple of weeks. But it’s familiar area. I hope to find an adventure or two while we’re there. When you live someplace there is never enough time to explore it!