Post 125: Final Summary of the past 6 months!

Final summary of the past 6 months!

Mid Oct 2017 to Early May 2018

Sitting here thinking back on the 25,000 klms we drove, the sights we saw, the people we met – the phrase that comes to mind is “It was a Hell of a Ride :))” This blog will be a Final summery of the past 6 months of such a fantastic trip. We won’t go into great detail, just hit a few highlights lol.

Leaving Canada in Oct was a little sad, we knew we would miss our kids and our friends we left behind. But then, we were excited about having a new adventure. We had no set plans, only to make it to Quartzsite, Az by winter. Bill had it in his mind to spend winter in Quartzsite, Az.

Along the way

Along the way, we meandered quite a bit, did some site seeing, hiking, stopping to smell the roses in a few places. If we liked a campground, we stayed longer in one spot then we initially intended. One perfect example was when we got really lost (thanks Google!) and ended up asking two very interesting gentlemen in the middle of a forest at the very top of a mountain for directions. They sweetly gave us perfect directions to where we needed to go in such a thick accent, we really hoped we understood them well enough to find the campground lol.

We were searching for Corinth Recreation Area, Double Springs, Alabama. Surprisingly enough, we did find it with their directions and we were sure glad we did. This Recreation Area was so beautiful, we decided to spend 3 nights.

This was the pattern of our “GRAND ADVENTURE” :)).

New Orleans, La

New Orleans was a planned stop over and now we have stayed in this same park twice Bayou Segnette State Park Westwego, New Orleans. We love New Orleans so much, we have made 4 trips there now. 🙂 This State Park is quite decent but it pays to book ahead and pick your own spot out on line.

Magnolia Beach, Texas

Magnolia Beach, Texas was a great place to Boondock (dry camp). You can camp right beside the water on a really pretty hard packed white sandy beach for free. Joy won’t forget this one lol.

While we were there, we were aware of the 1 ft tides. But one night the winds became very high and the tide rose considerably more than one foot. We were well away from the edge of the water and we were actually up a hill from the edge of the water. Unfortunately, Joy was a worry wart and spent the whole night watching the waves coming up the beach wondering if she should wake Bill up to move the trailer.

Bill had offered to move the trailer before he went to bed, but Joy tried to be brave and said “No, she was sure we would be fine.” lol Then she worried all night long. Of course we were fine. Just a lesson learned. If in doubt, MOVE THE TRAILER lolol.

Haystack Mountain OHV Area, Roswell, NM

Haystack Mountain OHV Area, Roswell, NM was another unique boondocking experience. We really loved this site. Camping on the corner edge of a cliff over looking a beautiful desert just out side of Roswell, NM.  The dogs were able to roam free under our supervision until one day, Lucky, the pup (Lab) saw a Jack Rabbit. Well that is a whole different story haha.

We loved being so close to Roswell, we found the city and the people were really interesting. The UFO museum was great fun to visit. We again extended our stay here night by night until we ended up staying 7 nights.

Tyson Wash, La Pasa, LTVA, Quartzsite, Az

We eventually did make our way to  Tyson Wash, La Pasa, LTVA, Quartzsite, Az. We arrived November 30th and stayed until December 31st. By December it was just becoming too busy for us and we decided to move to Midland LTVA, Calif. where we stayed until February 23, 2018. That was when we started to make our way home. In Midland we met some new friends, Patty and Ron. We were maybe a few hundred feet apart from each other and we had a great time with them. We went out for dinner every few weeks and our dogs loved to visit them for treats lol. Here is a link to the youtube video of Midland LTVA area.

The return trip’s adventures

On the return trip, we had a few things planned with our new friends Tim and Terrie. We were meeting up at Joshua Tree BLM National Park. We camped on the BLM land there for free for 10 days or so and explored the Joshua Tree National Park. With Tim and Terrie along, who wouldn’t have a great time?? 🙂

Hitting other National Parks

From Joshua Tree, we just had to see a few other National Parks, so Tim and Terrie joined us once again at Death Valley. Death Valley is quite amazing and an area that would take more than the 3 days we had to visit to really experience the whole place.

Zion National Park, Utah

Zion National Park was another national park that was totally incredible. It was smaller as far as National Parks go, but so beautiful. This was another one, that once we got there and set up, we changed our plans from 1 night to 2 nights immediately.

Petrified National Forest

Petrified National Forest Az was one of the last really cool National parks we stayed near. You could not camp in the Petrified National Forest however you could just out side of it. The good thing, was camping was free. We were dry camping in a parking lot of a gift store for the Petrified National Forest, but it was set up for campers and trailers so we were quite comfortable.

The rest of the trip

The rest of the trip home we stayed  MOSTLY in some really nice places, several wineries  and one Fulton Farms Fruit which were all dry camping :). There was the odd  not very nice place, but those were rare and were only for 1 night.

Because we did our homework and read reviews of other campers and RVers, we never once had to stay over night at a Walmart or Cracker Barrel.

We have learned a lot over the year we have been full time RVers and we hope in all our blogs, that we have been able to pass along some helpful information to others who may be starting out or who are looking for a place to stay. For now, we are home again in Ontario and will be for the summer. Enjoying our family and friends, until it is time to go adventuring again:).

Thank you for reading our blogs, and we hope you have enjoyed them as much as we have enjoyed writing and adding the pictures to them.

Safe traveling and don’t be afraid to contact us for information or just to say hello!