Sunday.. We Are Home!

We made it home just fine. We arrived home at 7 pm tonight. We didn't have any problems along the route and traffic was again not very bad. Our total mileage for the trip was just a little bit under 7,000 miles. We did not get delayed due to construction or an accident anytime on the trip. When we go to Little Rock (which we do every 4 months) it is common to be delayed due to either an accident or construction.

We are very, very thankful to have had a safe trip, and overall, a wonderful trip. Sometimes it was difficult due to cold, rain, snow and other circumstances but it was still a wonderful trip.

Thanks very much for following along with us. It has been good to have you here and made it really worthwhile doing the blog. I hope each of you have gained something from it. Who knows, I may do another blog on another trip we go on.

I worked on the video I posted yesterday. I got it working just fine by uploading it to Youtube. The snow had some really big flakes as you can see in the video. I am not sure I have seen any that size before. When you click on the following link, it will take you to Youtube. If an advertisement comes up in the video window, click on the little "X" in the upper right window of the advertisement. Click right here to see the video.

Saturday.. to Fort Payne, AL

Tonight we are at Fort Payne, AL. We had a good drive today and the traffic was not bad. I had expected it to be heavy since it was the weekend but it was not.

I have been working on some video tonight to post showing the snow in Yellowstone on our drive out. I have not had time to work on it before tonight. The date in the video is not correct. The quality in the other video I uploaded of the Indian doing the ring dance was very bad compared to what it looked liked before I uploaded it. I guess Blogspot that hosts my blog is changing it by compressing it so it doesn't take up as much space. Please excuse it if the quality is bad. It is good when it leaves my computer. I hope it is ok.

I finally uploaded the video to Youtube and it works just fine. Click here to see it.

Friday.. Moving Toward Home

Tonight we are in Forest, Mississippi. We got kind of a late start on our drive today because we were waiting for it to stop raining. When we woke up this morning we had some thunder and rain and we had rain most of the day. It was an uneventful drive with no problems. We miss the freedom to stop and sightsee like we have been doing all during the trip but we must make it home soon.

Thursday.. East of Dallas for the Night

Tonight, we are at Wills Point, TX which is east of Dallas. The drive today was nice. It was about 72 degrees on most of the drive without any sun. We drove about 400 miles today. We didn't do any sightseeing like we have been doing on many days.
I said last night I would share some photos I made at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. They are below.

Near Carlesbad Caverns National Park visitor center

This room, in the cavern, is located at the bottom of the 750 foot elevator ride

Wednesday.. Carlsbad Caverns Today

We're in Midland, Texas tonight as we work our way back home.

We said we're not going to go to Carlsbad Caverns National Park but we ended up going today anyway. We really enjoyed it and had never seen caverns like this. We took one of the elevators down which goes down 750 feet or 75 stories to start seeing the cave.. Reta Is claustrophobic but this did not bother her. It is really beautiful inside and I think the most beautiful cave I've ever seen inside. We were told that it had been chosen as the most beautiful caverns in the world. One thing that amazed me was the area they call the Big Room.The length extends for one quarter of a mile. We are very glad we took time to go. I took lots of photos and since we got here late tonight, I will not post them tonight but I will at a later time if they are worthy of posting. The caverns were discovered by a 16 year old boy in 1898.

Tuesday.. UFOs? We are in Roswell, New Mexico

We went to White Sands National Monument today and we were pretty impressed by it. It seemed as if it had snowed or reminded us at times of being at the beach. The drive into the dunes is about 8 miles in and 8 miles out. As we drove through, we were surrounded by white. It seemed like we were in a winter wonderland but the temperature was 86 at the time. The white is actually gypsum and is the material used in sheet rock and plaster.

Tonight, we are south of Roswell, NM. Roswell is famous for a crash of something that people called a UFO in 1947. There is a UFO museum and research center here related to that crash and UFO incidents around the world.

Today, on the drive here, we saw the temperature go to 90. The humidity was very low so it didn't feel uncomfortable.

On the drive today we passed through the Mescalero Apache Indian reservation. It was really pretty country.

Just a reminder....if you want to make a photo in this blog larger, just click on it.

People have died on the dunes like this couple from France.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/08/us/new-mexico-french-deaths/

For most of the 16 mile drive, you drive on the gypsum sand and no pavement.

Monday.. To Alamogordo, New Mexico

Previously I had said we were not going to White Sands National Monument. Since I am not running a fever now we decided to go ahead and go to White Sands. Tonight we are in Alamogordo New Mexico. We passed a sign as we got closer to White Sands that said it was a bombing range. I don't know if there is any of the bombing range in use now or not. White Sands Missile Range is also located here. We hope to visit the museum there tomorrow.

We saw the temperature today go to 80 so we are in warmer country now for sure.

Sunday.. Feeling Lots Better on to Petrified Forest National Park

Thanks for the nice comments and well wishes related to me not feeling well. I am feeling much better today and tonight. Thanks to Kim, the nurse practitioner I see, for sending me off with a prescription of Azithromycin for this trip. I was feeling well enough that we went to Petrified Forest National Park and The Painted Desert today. I think that antibiotic must work miracles. I am not now running a temperature. I was actually getting pretty concerned myself fearing that it could lead to pneumonia. The problem is not gone yet but much better.

Just a mention of the problem I had with my phone and the SIM card..... A couple of times today, I got the error that the SIM card could not be found. I guess the problem is not fixed long term. I got it going again by turning it off and back on a couple of times.

Tonight we are about 50 miles west of Albuquerque, NM. It is much warmer here than places we have been in the past few weeks. It is warm but comfortable.

Below are photos I made in Petrified Forest National Park and The Painted Desert. Immediately below is a photo of a petrified tree. Some of the area reminded me of Bad Lands National Park where we were earlier in the trip.

Friday and Saturday....North Rim and On to Winslow, AZ

After I had the failure of the SIM card in my phone, I looked to see if there was a Verizon store anywhere in the region. I was surprised to find there was one in the small town of Kanab where we were. I guess that is a big benefit in being a Verizon customer. They have lots of offices. I did not see any other wireless provider offices anywhere in the small town. I went there and they replaced the SIM card and that seems to have fixed the problem. Afterwards,  we entered an area on toward the North Rim where there was no cell service so I have not been able to do a posting to the blog. We have actually not had cell service since Friday morning.
Friday, we went on to the North Rim and spent the afternoon. We took the drive to Cape Royal Point where Angel's Window trail is located. I would highly recommend going to this area if you visit the North Rim area. It is very scenic as you can see in the photos below.
Friday night, we spent the night in a beautiful area in the Kaibab National Forest under pine trees and with no one else around. In the literature, it is called dispersed camping where you pick out a place you like and there is no charge. We have not done this before. I don't know of any places like this in the east. The area where we spent the night is about 30 miles north of the North Rim.
Tonight (Saturday), we are at Winslow, AZ It looks like we are going to have to change our trip plans. We had planned to go to White Sands National Monument in NM and Carlsbad Caverns National Park but I have picked up some sort of a bug and we are afraid it might lead to something more serious. I am running a slight fever of about 100. We plan to just start our journey home tomorrow. We are over 1700 miles from home now so it will take several days. We just don't drive the long days like we did when we were younger. It was common then to drive 600 or more miles a day. I really hate not to carry out all of our plans, but I think this is the smart thing to do and very thankful to have been able to make this trip and see all the beauty. I also don't want to worry Reta more. I have already started on an antibiotic. The doctors office at KHO had provided me a prescription for me to bring along on this trip.

This is where we spent the night in Kiabab National Forest north of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

 Angel's Window- note you can see the Colorado River through the window.

It is a 210 mile drive to get to the south rim from here by car. 

Phone problem

This morning I am getting an error on my phone of invalid or missing SIM card. I use my phone to provide internet service when I don't have Wi-Fi. I do have Wi-Fi in this campground so I'm able to post this right now. I will not be able to post as frequently as I have in the past or make telephone calls. I will go to a Verizon store when I can find one. After looking up the problem on the internet it seems like it may not be a problem that is easy to solve. It sure is not a good time for it to go out of commission.

Thursday.. to Kanab, Utah

The temperature where we stayed at Heber City, Utah last night got down to 25 degrees. So far, I think that was our coldest temperature on this trip.
Tonight we are at Kanab, Utah. We are in a private campground tonight with full hookups. This is the first time we have had hookups (electricity, water, and sewer) since we were at Custer, SD on September 13th. We are about 560 miles now south of Jackson, WY.
We had a beautiful drive on some of the trip today. We came south on Interstate 15 but after we left the Interstate and came on highways, 20, 89 and other roads is where the beauty was at. We were running behind schedule to get to our reservations at the campground so we did not stop to make photos along the way. There were lots of oohs and aahs along the way remarking at the beauty. My brother had told me about a canyon drive he had been on and we tried to find it by taking roads that were marked Kanab Canyon. There were two of them several miles apart but each of the paved roads turned into an "unimproved road" so each time, we turned the camper around and continued toward the town of Kanab. I am including a photo where the pavement ended showing the red rock in that area.
Tomorrow, we will continue to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon where we plan to spend most of the day.
I am including a couple of photos from yesterday that I had not downloaded from the camera until tonight.

The view from our camper toward the Medical Center when we woke up yesterday morning. We stayed in the overflow parking lot. 

 We look back toward Jackson, WY. We really hated to leave. We really enjoyed being in that area. 

 Unusual decoration in Afton, WY made of Elk antlers.

 One of the roads that were marked to go to Kanab Canyon. When the pavement ran out, we turned around and didn't go any farther. 

Wednesday.. Finished Treatment and Headed South

Tonight we're in Heber City, Utah. We changed roads several times on the way down to this point. We traveled alongside hills or we would call them at home mountains that had snow about half way up to the top of them and it was just absolutely beautiful. I think that was Highway 16 and Highway 30. I hoped it would get warmer as we came South but it's 31 degrees as I write
this. I suspect it is much colder in Jackson tonight.
My last treatment went real well and I even got two hugs when we left. The nurses were very nice.
This morning we woke up to a white ground with everything covered with snow. The snow was beautiful falling and we even watched it during treatment. I took some video on my telephone but I can't upload it now due to my data restrictions on my cell phone.
Tomorrow we move on to Kanab, Utah. We will then go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park. We have never been to the north rim. That is located in Arizona. When we are in Arizona, the time is three hours behind EDT since they do not do daylight saving time.
I am writing this and posting it using my phone. I hope it works ok.
I make the photos below in front of the medical center.

Tuesday.. Fifth Treatment Out of Six Went Well

The treatment went well today and I got some more of that good hospital food. No kidding, it is really good. We  have not done any exploring today but did get a few supplies since we will be driving after treatment tomorrow heading south. At this point, we don't know how long we will be at the Medical Center so we don't know what time we will be able to leave Jackson.
It has been a little warmer here than we had expected from the forecast. I think the temperature got to about 48 with some periods of sun (thank goodness).
I thought I would include some photos for you at Mammoth Hot Springs since we were not able to go this time. I made these in 2013 on our trip here when we stayed in the park for 10 nights so we had many more opportunities for photos on that trip.

Monday..Snow On the Way Back to Jackson

We had an unexpected snow on the way back to Jackson from Madison in Yellowstone. It was quite unnerving at times. We knew snow was forecast but not expected in the middle of the day. At first the snow was light but soon became heavy with big flakes. We drove in it for about an hour before we finally got out of it as we left Yellowstone. At one point, a vehicle was stuck cross-ways in the road and we had to stop on a hill. Fortunately, we were able to get our truck moving again without any trouble. The road was totally covered with snow. We were very thankful to get moving again. I really don't want to get in snow again anytime soon like we did today. The whole experience seemed hard to believe since it came so fast. It did make me pretty nervous at times especially since it was getting worse the farther we came and we had no idea if there would be snow all the way to Jackson. Thank goodness it did not extend that far.
We were going back to Gros Ventre campground tonight but we are afraid there will be snow tonight and we could not get to the medical center tomorrow. We plan to just stay in the overflow parking at the medical center tonight. That way, we will be there if there is snow, and getting the treatment is main priority now. The forecast is for colder temperatures tonight and tomorrow night. I will admit, it would be nice to have electric hookup for next two nights.
Wayne, I agree with your suggestion on keeping warm. Good idea.

On Our Way Through the Snow

This What the Truck Looked Like After We Got Out of the Snow