Well, our sleepover in the Flying J Travel Plaza didn’t work out so well for Mimi. Papa slept great! A swig of NyQuil and earplugs was all he needed to zonk right out. Mimi, on the other hand, laid awake for hours listening to trucks, the generator of a RV next to us, people talking, traffic and then the blaring announcement for professional drivers that there was hot shower available for them to use.  Over and over and over again. 

It was a restless night for Mimi as she wrestled between giving  thanks to God for providing a place to park and complaint for the place we were parked.

Bright and early we were up and motoring on out of Ohio and into Pennsylvania where we would hop on to Interstate 90, which would lead us right into New York. We reserved our parking place for the rig at Great Grandma and Grandpa’s earlier in the morning and arrived safe and sound around 1:30pm. 

We’d done it. Papa drove and Mimi navigated over 7,000 miles across the country in 21 days and we had a good time doing it. We saw parts of the country we’ve only heard about and we met wonderful people we’d never heard about.

We noticed the leaves were beginning to change the closer we crept to New York. Once we hit Western New York we noticed more color changes. We arrived back to Great Grandpa and Grandma’s house in time for a surprise 60th birthday party for Mimi’s brother, Kevin on Sunday. His children had worked hard to organize and pull off the surprise and we were there to see it and celebrate his 60 years! A fun day, for sure. 

One more sleep in the RV and then we made our way down Interstate 90 to Parish. It really felt great to pull into the driveway. Papa and Mimi received a text in the morning from Emery that said, “ I can’t wait to see Mimi and Papa. I am going to see them and hug them and never let go.” She’s so precious. 

We made it home and began unloading and cleaning the RV. We will be calling Gander this week to get the water heater fixed… grrr…. 😉 It’s been a great adventure and we feel blessed to have been able to take the journey. Thanks for tagging along. It’s a very true statement that it’s great to travel and it’s nice to roam but honestly, there is really….

no place like home. Thank you, Lord for a safe journey. 

​Day 20. Wow, I can’t believe we’ve been away from home for twenty days. We began our day in the little park just outside of Nashville and are resting for the night at a Flying J Travel Plaza just outside of Cincinnati. We’d pulled into a RV Park a few miles back and found they were full. Cheers to our first attempt at spending the night in  a parking lot surrounded by trucks and one other RV. 
 
We filled our day with a stop at Antique Archaeology, the store of one of Papa’s favorite shows, American Pickers. No, we didn’t see Mike or Frank (aka, The Bearded Charmer), but we did see a few items on sale that were purchased on the show. The store is housed in a magnificent old brick building that we spent a few hours walking through. It was once home to the Marathon Motor Works. As you walk along the hallways of the building, you can read about, as well as see, the tools they used to build these motor vehicles way back in the early 1900s. Picture after picture of hard-working men using machines powered with steam using ginormous belts to move them.   
 
We also went in one store that had been destroyed last Christmas Day from a bombing. Pictures on the wall told their story, and there was also a bench that had survived a fire in 2015 and the bombing in 2020. Forty-one stores were destroyed in that bombing. We will never be able to understand why anyone would want to do that, will we? 
 
We met a gal in one store whose husband grew up in Cortland, NY. She said they’d been up for Christmas in 2019 and was disappointed that there wasn’t any snow. We assured her we weren’t disappointed by that. 😉 They plan to come up again this Christmas and she said, “I’m praying for a lot of snow this time.” “Well, we are sorry, but we will be praying for your disappointment!” We told her. Lol
 
After visiting the Marathon Museum, we walked over to the Museum that showcased five of the vehicles. One of which, was won at a county fair by two brothers ages 12 & 15 in 1911 who each put in 50cents for a $1.00 raffle ticket. How would you like to win a car for a dollar raffle ticket? The story is a pretty amazing one. It’s a good argument for never throwing anything out. ;)
 
We left downtown Nashville and headed over to Cooter’s, which is a museum of all things, Dukes of Hazzard. This was a tv show Papa and Mimi used to watch back in the 1970’s and early 80’s. We saw case after case of items from the show. Dolls, lunchboxes, board games, poster after poster, plates, cups and more. Each case held items from the personal collections of the actors on the show. They even had a pair of the short shorts Daisy Duke wore.
 
In the backroom of the store we found matchbox cars that were replicas’s of the vehicles that were driven in some of our favorite television shows. Mimi always wanted to drive a Cobra11 Mustang like the ladies of Charlie’s Angels. She never owned one, nor did she ever drive one, but she held one in her hands on day twenty in Nashville, TN.
 
We enjoyed lunch in the parking lot before we drove out of Tennessee and into Kentucky. We found a gas station right next to a Culver’s, which has really tasty ice-cream and indulged in a mid-afternoon snack. Before we knew it, we were driving over the Ohio River and right into the state of Ohio. Cincinnati at rush hour was not fun, but we made it through with only one questionable moment of confusion caused by the GPS.  
 
We weren’t paying attention to the time change and waited too long to call an RV Park before they closed for the day. There also seems to be far less on our route through Ohio than we found out west. Papa always likes to park this rig before dark, so it is Mimi’s task to find a nearby campground as we drive along. The APP RV Parky has been a tremendous help for that. However, tonight, that didn’t work out so well for us. After driving to one we’d found in the area, upon entry we learned they were full. Papa and Mimi spent their first night in the parking lot of a Flying J Travel Stop amongst many Truckers, and a few other Motorhomes. 
 
At 9pm we thought we’d get a bite to eat at the Denny’s as a way to support them for allowing us to park there only to find they were closed. We, weren’t the only ones disappointed, there were a few Truckers expressing their displeasure, too. Denny’s, along with so many other businesses, lack enough help to be open 24/7 like they were. There are “Help Wanted” signs all across the Nation. Back out to the RV we went for a feast on leftovers.
 
Papa turned on the generator and Mimi pulled the shades down, hung up the front curtain, and then we called it a night. Hopefully, a good night with sleep. It’s very noisy and bright in this Flying J. Scratch that, no generator. It’s too loud. 

Once we make it out of Ohio, it’s on to Pennsylvania and then back in New York! That means we are only a few hours away from H.O.M.E. 

We love and miss you, 

​Papa and Mimi ❤️
 
 

Here we are - day 19! All the days are running together, so it’s a good thing Mimi’s been keeping track or we might be totally lost. 

We had a mission to get some laundry done today so, thanks to the work crews, we were up bright and early to make sure that could happen. This morning was not going to be a relaxing one for us. We went for a nice walk over the walking bridge and found these huge bugs laying near death on the walkway. I was happy they seemed to not notice us. We left them alone and they left us alone. I liked it. 

When we returned to the RV Park, we went to the office to prepay for the washing machines. It’s interesting how different every park is. This is locked after 4pm and you must prepay. The other parks are open 24/7 and you just need to pay with quarters at the machines. We walked to the office and the door was locked. We thought that was odd because the website said the office was open from 8-5. Then, I saw a woman come to the door and asked “what can I help you with?” “We’d just like to use the washer and dryers.” Thankfully, she let us in even though it was before nine.

The morning was full of laundry, showers in the Park showers because, of course, Mimi and Papa don’t have a hot water heater and the further north we go, the cooler the water becomes. Ha! ☺️ We pulled out of the park right at the 11am cutoff for checkout. I must say, it feels good to have an empty laundry basket. 

We drove out of Arkansas and right into Tennessee. Papa and Mimi think Tennessee is a really pretty state, it reminds them of New York. The wind was pushing the RV a lot today. Mimi feels bad that Papa has done so much driving, but she’s also so grateful to have him behind the wheel in the wind. She was thinking about how important it is to have a good balance between what you can control and what you can’t. And then, what you should control and what you really shouldn’t. It is true that you don’t want to be controlling, there are things that you must keep under your control. Papa must keep this RV under control or we will crash and someone will get hurt. In the same way, we need to keep ourselves under control or we might also cause a crash that hurts someone. But, we always want to remember that God is always in control; He never loses control. You can count on that. 

We made a pit stop at Walmart to stock up on some food for dinner and ate our lunch in the parking lot. We were surprised to find that there are very few Walmart’s that allow you to park overnight. Years ago, when Great Grandpa and Grandma had an RV and travelled, they always stayed in a Walmart parking lot. Not anymore!

We drove for a few more hours and decided that we’d spend the night in a little RV Park in Dickson, Tennessee, about 45-minutes from Nashville. We met the owner, Rick who was such a kind man. He and his Grandson, Harrison came to greet us and get us registered. They have a horse, Trixie, who is the camp mascot, Rick said. He told us, “She likes to eat anything you give her, but when the food runs out, she’s been known to bite. She doesn’t like it when the food runs out.” ☺️ (neither does Mimi).  

Papa asked Rick if he had a shady place to park and he put us in site 100, right under a beautiful, shady tree. We prepared the RV and enjoyed a chat with Avery and Nolan. Papa was pretty happy when he was able to get the tv working enough to get most of the football game. Y’all know how Papa likes his football. He already had to miss the Fantasy Football draft - not the game, too. Whew. He was able to watch it!

Our next time zone will be EST and that’s going to be fabulous. We’ve had a really fun time, but are travel-weary. 
Home soon!

Love and Miss you, 

Papa and Mimi

We woke up this morning to a terrible Texas thunderstorm. Downpours, lightening and many kabooms kept Papa from taking his usual morning walk and Mimi from taking our growing laundry pile to the laundry room. We pulled out right at 11am with Camping World Fort Worth as our destination, hoping they would be able—willing—to check the hot water heater for us. They could not, but they did let us know the fuse was not bad.

Our good friend, Mr. Bill had been doing a little research on the type of water heater in our RV and found out that it is the White Elephant of water heaters. A few pictures to Bill and he determined it is the same issue as others have reported - a bad circuit board. Frustrating. Why would you continue to put something in a RV that is known to not work after two-weeks? Sounds like a perfect example of insanity to me—doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Thank the Good Lord we can take showers at the RV Parks. 

There was a lot of traffic as we drove through Dallas, but nothing like what we drove through in California. Then we were in Arkansas. There is quite a bit of construction going on in Arkansas, and my goodness, the lanes seem very narrow. Papa is tired of driving, but neither of us are all that comfortable with Mimi behind the wheel, either. 😂

Papa did mention that he was “over this” adventure and ready to get back home. We are happy for the experience, and the trip has been great fun, but it’s hard to travel every day and not stay somewhere and just enjoy that area. That’s what we’re looking forward to next time. We will pick an area to visit and park the RV and stay put for a week. 

We pulled into a beautiful RV Park in North Little Rock, Arkansas that is right on the Arkansas River. It’s a tad bit noisy, but there is a beautiful pedestrian bridge within walking distance that we’ve journeys on twice. At night it’s lit right up with colored lights. They’re doing some work on the bridges so we see eight cranes. There is also a Coast Guard Building on the grounds, which makes us think about Auntie Rosie!  We intended to park early enough to get the laundry done, but as is typical for Papa and Mimi, this laundry facility is only open from 9am-4pm. We arrived at 6pm. 🤪

While we were at Camping World in Texas, Papa bought a converter for the electric. We need 30amps, but a couple of times the park has 50amp electric. When we arrived at the Park and Papa was connecting the electric he realized he had bought the wrong one. Oh my – I thought he was going to throw himself into the river! 😂 BUT, we saw the Lord’s faithful provision once again by placing a kind man across from us who had what we needed and said, “Just pay me what you’d pay Camping World for it and keep it. Take that one back and get your money back.” Whew. Otherwise we only had approximately 40 minutes to get to Camping World and make the exchange before they closed, and it was twenty minutes away. Not a quick trip with this big rig. 

Well, tomorrow is another day of driving as we move closer to home in New York. We’ve been watching the RoadTrippers App for fun places to stop along the way. I’m not sure what fun and adventure it will bring to us, but whatever it is, please pray it is a safe one!

Have a fun day!

love and miss you, 

Papa & Mimi 

On the seventeenth day of our adventure, Papa and Mimi adventured into the showers at the campground first thing in the morning. Mimi was pleasantly surprised to find they were nice, big, and sparkly clean. Papa said, “That hot shower felt great!” Mimi agreed.

We pulled out of the park early knowing we had a long day of travel ahead of us. We’d decided to take a detour from Amarillo and drive down to the Fort Worth, Texas area to visit our niece, Kourtney and Forrest, her soon-to-better-be-fiancé. 😜 (What’s a five-hour detour among family? 🥰)

Driving down 287S was much different than many of the roads we’d been traveling on previously – so little traffic and no mountains to twist and turn through.  Just flat land everywhere. Around 1pm, Papa asked Mimi if she could find a place to stop for lunch and he preferred we stop at a Mom & Pops Diner rather than fast food. Mimi found the town of Clarendon a few miles ahead and a local diner called the Clarendon Outpost Diner. Upon arrival we found it also had gas, so while Papa filled up, Mimi went into the diner to get a table and order a hungry Papa a burger and fries. 

There was a man sitting at a table who said, “I’m sorry, we are closed.” Oh, that’s not good, Mimi thought. “You are? Really?” She asked. “Yes, I can’t get anyone to work so I am taking this opportunity to give the place a face-lift.”  “That will be nice.” Mimi said, but she was thinking, ugh. We are hungry. “You don’t happen to want a job as a waitress, do you?” He asked. “Well, I am afraid the drive would be too long for me” Mimi replied. But, now Mimi knows there’s a job as a waitress if she ever decides to move to Clarendon, Texas. What do you think? Should we all move? 

We settled on cheese and crackers for lunch as we continued to drive. We’re out of bread or Papa would’ve had his regular – PB&J. 

We did have one of the scariest moments of our travel when a gust of wind hit the passenger side of the RV and pushed it over into the passing lane of the highway. We fish-tailed and rocked as Papa held tight to the steering wheel frantically working to keep control. Never experiencing anything like that before, we were both pretty shaken after that moment. Mimi said, “Oh my gosh! It’s a good thing there was nothing in that lane passing us.” And Papa replied, “There was. A truck was in that lane passing me. I don’t know how we didn’t hit him. I don’t know how he avoided us.” We both knew without any doubt that we’d just had a holy moment of the Lord’s protection. Wow. Thank You, God. This makes us even more grateful for the prayers of our family and friends. Before we’d left our grandson, Nolan had prayed for us at dinner one night. Keep praying, Nolan!!

After nine hours of travel, we were thankful to arrive at the Settler’s Haven RV Park in White Settlement, Texas. Papa called our friend, Bill who tried to help him with the water heater and within the hour, Kourtney and Forrest drove in, picked us up and wished away for dinner. We ate  HG SPLY CO in Forth Worth and there was a little boy at the next table who loved chatting with Papa. In fact, his name was Patrick and when Papa told him that his name was Patrick, too, little Patrick said, “No, my name is Patrick.” It was cute. He even snuggled up and asked what games Papa had on his phone - just like all the grandkids do at home! His mother stepped in at that moment to pull him away and his dad took him outside. 🤣

After dinner we enjoyed a stop for some ice cream; It’s been weeks since Papa’s had any! We enjoyed a great visit with Kourtney and Forrest. It was great to see them and hear about their life here in Texas. Then it was back to the “box on wheels” as our friend, Chris put it and bed! Tomorrow is another day of travel as we begin the journey northeast. 

We can’t wait to see y’all again soon. 

Love and Miss you, 

​Papa and Mimi ❤️
​

Day 16 began with Papa going to the office of the RV Park to get a receipt since we arrived after hours. We’ve discovered that RV Parks leave packets, or instructions for late arrivals. As it was, when I called this park the recording said we could drive around and find a site and then pay in the morning. Papa found a couple on his walk this morning and said, “We stayed here last night. Do you know if the office is open?” Turns out they were the caretakers and they didn’t even know we had stayed. And the park had recently sold and the recording is old. And no, you are not supposed to find your own site anymore. Whoops. Who knew? They didn’t care and were happy that we stayed and gave us a good deal. 

We haven’t been able to figure out why yet, but we don’t have hot water. It was a cold shower for us this morning. Well, like Papa said, it wasn’t New York cold; water in the desert doesn’t have the same chill as at home. It was a cool shower. We’ve got to figure that out though, and soon. Mimi would like a hot shower again. 

We were back on the road and the journey included going through mountain ranges that climbed up to elevation levels of 7,000’! Our ears were poppin! And what goes up, must then come down. Once we were back on Interstate 40, we made a stop at Walnut Canyon National Park. Once you are in the park there is a trail that takes you down 726 stairs (yes, you must take them back up, too!), and you walk past cliff dwellings. It was amazing to witness the dwellings where many Sinagua people lived over 800 years ago. It’s also crazy to imagine how they survived within that area. Can you imagine building your home in the side of a cliff?  Can you imagine having to hunt for your food every day? Can you imagine waving to a neighbor from one side of a canyon to another? 

You’re too young to know this but years ago we used to listen to a song by The Eagles called, Take it Easy, and there’s a line that says, “Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona…” Papa and Mimi drove by that town today and we were going to stop and stand on a corner for a photo, but somehow Papa drove right past the exit. So that was an epic fail! Nice thought but nope. ☺️

We drove to Tijeras, New Mexico and if you are on Route 66, there is a section in the highway that was created to  play America the Beautiful if you go 45mph and get your wheels just right on the strips. And guess what? It worked! It’s called the Musical Highway. We weren’t exactly sure where it began and right after the GPS said we were nearing the destination the music began to play. That was really pretty cool to hear.

We found an RV Park just up the road on the musical highway and pulled in after-hours. This time we found a box with Open Site Packets inside. We can stay on one of the open sites and then pay before we leave in the morning. Perfect. Our site neighbors were stationed in Watertown at Fort Drum while he served in the military and now they are full -time RVers. They’ve been in New Mexico for a few months. I overheard he and Papa talking about the snow fall totals. When our site didn’t have much water, they let us hook up the water at theirs. Super nice people. We’ve met really great people along the way. 

We are losing hours as we travel East, so Papa’s Fitbit is only an hour ahead of the time now. We’ve got another day of travel tomorrow so it’s goodnight from Tijeras, New Mexico. 

We love and miss you, 

​Papa and Mimi ❤️

The morning of our 15th day was busy packing and loading the RV back up with all of the belongings we’d carried in on Friday. I discovered the refrigerator was warm and the freezer lukewarm, which meant most of the meat in the freezer was beginning to thaw. That’s not good. It still has some freeze to it, but we’re going to cook four pounds of beef to save it. 

We needed to return the car to the Garrett’s before we left, which meant Mimi needed to drive something. She chose the RV and made her way safely down El Camino Drive to the place they were renting. There was one problem, however, there was no place to park and she couldn’t see the numbers to know which one was theirs.  The only place to pull over was on the bend with the “No Parking” signs. (She doesn’t recommend you ever do this). Thankfully, the Garrett’s made their way to us, we hugged, said thank you,  Steve retrieved the car and Papa hopped into the driver seat. We were off again, this time headed East. 

We still weren’t certain which way to come back, but Papa was adamant that he did not want to go north, so we went south. And south we were. Right at the edge of the Mexico and California border—headed toward Tucson, Arizona. We cut right through the Cuyamaca and Laguna Mountains of the Peninsular Range mountains (I looked it up) with signs revealing our elevation level: up 2,000, 3,000 and then 4,000. But, what goes up must come down; Papa was in his glory, but Mimi felt like she was on a rollercoaster ride. I can tell you, she was happy when the ride was over. 😬 The next one was the Cucapah range. 

The mountain areas were pretty neat to see, though. One area that we drove through was just rocks; the mountain was covered in all different sizes of rock. Then there were mountains covered in green bushes, and some covered in trees. We also drove past sand dunes and we’ve seen our first cactus trees. Three times, as we were driving through the desert we had wind gusts hit the RV hard. THAT is a bit unnerving! Papa had to grip the wheel hard to keep it steady. Mimi was so happy he was driving because she’s not sure she could have kept control like he did.  At one point Papa asked Mimi to check the temperature in the desert – it was 108! When we stopped for gas it felt like 108, too!!

As we drove we made the decision to drive up through Phoenix, Arizona and get back on Interstate 40 so we can stop and see some of the sites we wished we’d had time to see on the way out. That’s where we parked for the night, in a little park in Black Canyon City, Arizona. We’d called to see if there was a place for us and the recording said “arrivals after 6:00pm can drive around and if there’s a spot you can pull right in and square up in the morning.” So, that’s just what we did. We drove around, found a place to park, did a load of laundry, ate dinner (pray we didn’t eat spoiled meat), and played Quixx. Papa beat Mimi both games. 

Papa had gone to check the laundry and when he came back in the RV a grasshopper joined him. Mimi was hanging the front privacy curtain when something hit her in the face. She thought Papa had tossed something, but when she looked down, there was a grasshopper on the edge of the curtain. You should have seen Papa and Mimi chasing a grasshopper in the RV to get it out! Those little creatures sure can hop—fast and far. It took us a few hours to find it and get it out and when we tried one time a moth flew in. Pesky little things. There are rabbits everywhere we walk here, too. 

Oh, Mimi also seems to have popped a blood vessel in her finger somehow. She was carrying the laundry to the laundry mat and noticed her ring was feeling tight on her finger. Had to use lotion to get the ring off as it swelled right up nice and big. We also discovered we don’t have any hot water. It remains a mystery as to why but that’s a problem we need to solve soon. 

Well, I guess that’s about all of the adventure for today. We hope you’re all enjoying school and for Mason and Emery, ready to get back to it! Tomorrow is the first day for them! Have fun!

We love and miss you, 

​❤️ Papa and Mimi

It’s Wedding Day! Our entire dream of “one day traveling across the country” became a reality with the invitation to attend the wedding of Rachel Garrett, who is the daughter of our dear family friends, Steve and Chrissy Garrett. Chrissy is also my ministry partner in Activ8Her. We’ve known the Garrett’s for 20+ years and have journeyed together through many trails, whether we were going uphill or down, of whatever life brought us. 

But, on our 14th day of a travel we rested. We didn’t realize how nice a day of rest would feel. Chrissy’s husband, Steve and son, Steven were kind enough to bring us one of their rental cars to get us to the wedding and back to the hotel.  We also needed to go to the store and find Mimi a pair of shoes.  When Steve called Papa to let him know they were at the hotel, we walked out to find they had brought us a Camero Convertable. Steve said, “Yeah, I decided to upgrade.” Oh wow. (No, we didn’t take the top down. We didn’t know how and we afraid to just push buttons! 😂)
 
Google told us we were close to the San Clemente Outlet Mall; it was less then three-miles from the hotel. Mimi has come to the realization that driving in unknown areas with lots and lots of traffic gives her a bit of anxiety. And it would be great if the GPS gal gave a few more details in her directions. What girl doesn’t give all the details? 😜

We turned into the mall and pulled right into a car parade. Who knew? There were people were everywhere! We had no idea where to go or what was going on but, suddenly, we were in the midst of a line of cars, a crowd and cameras. Mimi rolled her window down and asked a couple in the crowd, “What is happening here?” The lady said, “It’s a car show and parade.” “Where should we go to park?” “Go all the way around the back.” Papa said, “Get me out of here!”  That’s just what I did, “Turn here.” “Go left.” “Drive back there.” At least we were driving a pretty nice car. Perhaps people thought we were part of the parade! 
 
We shopped for a little bit, Mimi found a pair of shoes and a gift for the happy couple. We may have also found something for a few family members for Christmas. But, shhhh… don’t tell your parents. 
 
Papa kept talking about wanting to go out to the pool and swim, but he never left the room. Instead, he relaxed on the bed and watched sports. I think he’s been missing his tv/sports time as we’ve rarely been able to get anything connected. I bet he will buy a cable device for next time. We saw many people have them they just set outside. Mimi did some reading on the balcony. It was nice to rest up in preparation of the journey home. 

Before we knew it, we were getting ready and driving over to the wedding. It was held at the Ole Hanson Beach Club which overlooked the ocean. It was stunning. And the sunset?? Magnificent! I am certain Rachel and Phoenix will have some gorgeous photos to remember their day. I tried to capture some with my phone, but they just didn’t do it justice. It was spectacular. Papa asked Mimi if I’d rather be at the ocean or in the mountains. I wasn’t really sure. Perhaps on a mountain overlooking the ocean? Which do you prefer? 

Now, it’s time to turn around and begin the long journey back East! We’re not sure yet which route to take now that we know we can’t go to see the Redwood’s. Papa doesn’t want to go back through Los Angeles again. (Can’t blame him).  There were many areas we weren’t able to stop and see on the way out so we might go back the same way we came. I guess we will all be surprised to discover where we end up. We will let you know where in the world Papa and Mimi parked tomorrow. 

Love and Miss you, 

​Papa and Mimi

Well, today was an eventful day! With one stop left in California to compete that state’s portion of the passport book, we pulled out of the RV Park around 9:30 and headed for Santa Monica, CA. The drive was like nothing Papa and Mimi had ever done before. 

The closer we came to Los Angeles the smoggier and foggier it became. Papa said, “They are worried about insects coming in on produce but the pollution is so thick you can’t even breathe.” 😂 Then there’s the traffic! Yikes! Three lanes soon became four and then five, six, seven and sometimes eight – southbound and northbound lanes all completely full of vehicles. Cars are bobbing and weaving, and weaving and bobbing.  Mimi realized during today’s drive that she and Papa are completely out of sync using our brake leg to slow down. I push mine long before he begins to actually press the brake. ☺️ All kidding aside, he maneuvered that RV masterfully in all that traffic. 

Even when we missed the exit because we couldn’t see where it was due to construction. We got off the wrong road and that completely confused Miss GPS. She was recalculating and recalculating and Papa becoming pretty irritated with her confusion. When we finally made our way to the right route we discovered it was nearly impossible to find a parking space down by the Santa Monica Pier.  We drove around and around, up the street and then down, until we came upon a public parking lot. We pulled in and Mimi walked to get a parking ticket. It was a bit surprising to see that to park the RV was going to be $60.00! It didn’t take us long to decide that we weren’t going to pay that for a stamp. So, no Santa Monica stamp for us. That will have to wait for another time when we have a smaller vehicle. 

We continued on to San Clemente! Our final destination for the wedding. The hotel let us know that parking was limited behind the hotel for the RV and it was a “first come, first serve” type of deal. They also said it fills up fast. We’d been praying the Lord would save us a place – and He did! There was a spot right behind the hotel and next to the door that went right to our room down the hall. It was perfect. 

We ate lunch in the RV and then brought a few of our things into the room. This is when Mimi realized she didn’t bring any nice sandals to wear to the wedding. Whoops. 😬 Then Mimi suggested to Papa that we go for a walk down to the ocean. Mimi’s  been waiting for a long time to see the Pacific Ocean! We asked the clerk at the front desk and he gave us direction on the best way to go. 

We walked and walked and walked until we came across a mail carrier who assured us we were almost there. And then, we finally were. When we left the hotel it was overcast and a cool 70 out. We found the ocean and Mimi put her feet in but that’s the only part of her body that will enter the cool waters. 

As Papa and Mimi walked along the beautiful shores of the ocean Papa said, “We should check and see if there is a shoe store within walking distance around here.” So, Mimi got her phone out to check and found one that was 1.3 miles away. Easy-peasy, Mimi thought to herself. She and Papa walk a mile at home with no problem. Off we headed, down the San Clemente Beach Trail to find the shoe store on Del Mar. Walking in sand is exhausting, even if it is cool out. When the GPS told us to turn right, we turned right. When she told us to turn left, we did that, too. As we crossed road after road … the sun came out. Did I mention we were walking up steep hills? We also didn’t think to bring any water with us because, remember, it was cloudy and cool when we left? And we also didn’t think we’d be gone long. 

Then Papa put doubt in Mimi when he said, “Are you sure you didn’t bring your shoes? Because, if we walk all this way and then get back to the RV and find you did – it might not end well.” 😂 That’s when Mimi said, “Let’s just wait until tomorrow for the shoes.” So we asked GPS to recalculate and take us back to the hotel. 45 minutes later we were walking into the room and plopping down on the bed for a moment of rest. The good news is, Mimi was able to get over 10,000 steps in!

The night was spent relaxing in the hotel room. We’re excited to celebrate with Rachel and Phoenix tomorrow as they say, “I do.” We feel tremendously blessed to be able to be here for their big day. 

We do, however, love and miss you, 

​Papa and Mimi 

Wow! It is incredibly hard to believe that we have been RVing it for 12 days now. What a beautiful country to explore—and explore we are!

We took some time this morning to do some laundry at the Calizona RV Park before pulling out to continue our journey west. Thank you, Lord for placing us right next to the laundry. 😂 We had four more stamps to get to complete California. So, across the desert and onward to Oro Grande, California we pressed. The views of the mountains are spectacular and like nothing I can recall ever seeing. They fill the entire landscape for mile after mile with their massive beauty. 

We made our way through those mountains to the itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny town of Oro Grande. As we drove into the town, we noticed the entire landscape was made of rocks. All of it—rocks.  In fact, I’m pretty sure there was a park, or trail, we passed called National Rock…something. Less than 1,000 people live here. The town is in the Mojave Desert and it was h.o.t. There was a little row of shops and when the GPS said “you have reached your destination” we weren’t quite as confident as she was. We walked up and down the little row of buildings, and just when we were ready to give up, we saw a note on the door of one that said they’d moved. We hopped back in the RV and drove down the street. 

We walked into a strip mall of antique stores and found that the woman who knows everything about the stamps for the passport book was out sick. (We were thinking we might not get a stamp at all). Thankfully, we found a nice woman who was willing to call her and ask where the stamps were and how to go about it. We discovered her brother works in Syracuse, so that was a cool connection to make. She also recommended that we eat lunch at the Crosseyed Cow and gave us permission to leave the RV parked and walk to it. It was a h.o.t. walk, but it was a really good lunch. They have very cool decor: a boxing glove tied to a rope with a rock attached moves when the front door is open. Knives are part of the booths backrest. An old bike hangs as well as many old photos. 

Next stop: WigWam Motel in San Bernardino. This was a rough ride for Mimi as we were now coming DOWN the huge mountain we had climbed. My-oh-my —it felt a little bit too fast for Mimi’s comfort but Papa didn’t seem to agree. 😝 My brake leg was working hard and is a bit sore tonight. There’s a rather large amount of traffic here in California. And while I am speaking of traffic, I just want to give a shoutout to all of the truckers who continue to drive across the country. We passed a lot of truckers and I think we’ve only been scared by two. 

The WigWam Motel was very well kept and updated. There was one in Arizona that seemed much older and original than this one. But, you can rent a room and stay there. There wasn’t a ton to see here so we didn’t stay long. On to our last stop for the night: The Cucamonga Service Station Visitor Center & Museum in Rancho, Cucamonga. We found it closed and surrounded by fencing. Papa pulled off on the side of the road, only to discover from a long beeeeeeeeep that we had pulled into a bus stop. Whoops. Bus driver not happy with Papa. We got out of there fast and found a safe place to park for a photo to prove we were there. We’re still not sure if that was a legal parking spot! 

We needed to stop at Walmart and while we were there we made a call for a reservation at a RV Park. (One of the items we wanted to get at Walmart was Kleenex and guess what we forgot? 😛) We drove to the beautiful Bonilla Bluffs RV Park in San Demas for the night. Papa backed into our site and, as he always does first, connected the electric. It tripped the breaker. We’d had this happen before so Papa knew the breaker was bad. He walked to registration and they moved us to a new site.

At this site, the same thing happened with the breaker and while Papa was working on it, I met the most precious woman, Carla.  We had the best chat! She invited us to come and join them for dinner, which sounded so yummy. Homemade Mexican food and pasta. But, after another failed attempt - we had to move again. Can you believe we moved to a third site only to have the same thing happen? The surge protector continued to show the breaker was bad and we could not get electric to work. The man across the street came over to see if he could help, Papa. Nope, even he couldn’t get the electric.

So, Papa called and they moved us again. Eventually, the man at the office said, “What can I do to help you, Pat?” “Find us a site with working electric?” It was a race against time as the office closed at 7:00pm and it was 6:45. Papa left to walk up to the office but I noticed he was walking in the opposite direction of it. Then, Papa came back to the camper and said, “I found three sites that have good electric. I am moving us to one of them. Pick the place you want.” So, we drove to a new site and then Papa walked to the office and said, “I am on site 132 and the electric works. Can I stay there?” “Yes! Stay there!” was the reply. (He’d never actually gone to the office, he was checking the electric on empty sites. ☺️) 

Whew. I thought for sure we were messing up something, but Papa said, “I always learned at work you need to trust the instrumentation!” That’s what he did – even though I was pretty sure it was something the newbies were doing. But, we’re now tucked in between a few hundred other campers on a beautiful lake in the Mountains of California. 

We’ve been informed that all of the National Parks in California have been closed, so we won’t be heading north to see the Redwood National Forest. We are bummed about that, but we already know we need to make another journey west to see friends in Washington and Idaho, too.. 

We’ve had quite a journey and will head to Santa Monica  in the morning for our final California stamp and then to San Clemente, We are praying for a place to park the RV while we stay at the hotel for two nights. Please, pray that Papa and Mimi don’t park in spaces that we aren’t supposed to! 😘

And that is another day in the journey of Papa and Mimi. 

We love and miss you, 

​Papa and Mimi ❤️