Not The Painter

April 25, 2024 – Day 41 Mayflower County Park, Blythe, California to Leapin’ Lizards RV Ranch, Ocotillo Wells, California We had a short drive planned to Ocotillo Wells, CA. Most parks are checkout by 11 with a few at 10 or 12. This one’s checkout time of 1PM. This meant that the morning could be filled with sightseeing! Usually we string a few long drive days together and don’t get to adventure much. It’s not a lot of fun. This trip we’re trying to grab bits of adventuring when we can in addition to the longer planned stops. Today was one of those moments. We were up early and headed…

April 24, 2024 – Day 40 Lamplighter RV Resort, Payson Arizona – Mayflower County Park, Blythe California After gassing up we headed out of town. We had a medium travel day today, but it wouldn’t be easy since it was the dreaded, but very beautiful, Route 87 from Payson all the way down to Scottsdale. You’ve seen this road before since this isn’t our first visit to Payson. It’s still beautiful. This trip you get only one photo of the beauty. (susan here: holler if you want more. We can accommodate. It’s insanely gorgeous up by Payson. We took a LOT of photos but we didn’t want to bore you…

April 22-23, 2024 – Day 38 &39 Lamplighter RV Resort, Payson Arizona We normally don’t blog when we are visiting family and friends. But yesterday and today were so much fun and so filled with spectacular views we felt we just had to share and give you this bonus entry. We won’t go into every detail of every day only cover our visits to Tonto Natural Bridge State Park in Pine, AZ and Tonto National Monument in Roosevelt, AZ. Tonto Natural Bridge Tonto Natural Bridge is a natural arch in Arizona, United States, that is believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world. The area surrounding the…

April 21, 2024 – Day 37 White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell Arizona – Lamplighter RV Resort, Payson Arizona Today is just a quick travel day from the Phoenix area to Star Valley to visit with our good friend Jay. It was only 123 miles but they’re a difficult 123 miles that we’d driven in the spring of 2023. We knew we’d have to climb back up in altitude on a very twisty and steep mountain roads. Paul seems to enjoy taking pictures of Clifford on the road. This is Susan on her way out of the campground heading towards the exit. We’ll hook up the Jeep down there since…

April 14-15, 2024 – Day 27 & 28 Homolovi State Park Campground, Winslow Arizona – White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell Arizona We got up early trying to escape the forecasted high winds. We had more than enough gas to get to Phoenix but when Paul checked the prices he found about a $0.60/gallon difference between Winslow and Phoenix. We were also going to need to fill the propane and suspected it would be equally as expensive in Phoenix. We topped up both tanks and headed off to Phoenix hoping to be parked before the winds picked up. We headed west on I-40 toward Flagstaff where it meets up with…

April 13, 2024 – Day 26 Homolovi State Park Campground, Winslow Arizona Finally, we don’t have to drive today. Sure, we could have but the last 4 days have been a thrash. It was almost 1,400 miles in 4 days, the last two of which were very windy which is fatiguing when you’re driving an RV. Taking a cue from that famous song we took it easy this morning. Later we went off to see the Homolovi II ruins. Somehow we didn’t see these when we were here last time. Neither of us can remember why but likely it was too hot for much outdoor activity.a Around A.D. 1330, a…

April 12, 2024 – Day 25 Sierra Blanca Brewery, Moriarity New Mexico – Homolovi State Park Campground, Winslow Arizona It was a fast and easy departure. That’s one big advantage of Harvest Hosts. We rarely bother to unhook the Jeep and there are no utilities to connect to. We just pull in the slides, retract the jacks, then drive off. We needed to get gas before we headed out. From a previous trip here we knew there was a Denny’s inside the Flying J station. We were tempted to get a half decent breakfast. But we had looked at the weather forecast and it was wind, wind, and more wind.…

April 11, 2024 – Day 24 Route 66 To Go, Elk City, Oklahoma to Sierra Blanca Brewery, Moriarity New Mexico Not much happened, except for the one unusual thing. We left Elk City not knowing where we would sleep that night. If we could make almost 400 miles we’d stay at a Harvest Host in Moriarity, NM. Otherwise, we could stop about 75 miles earlier at a state park. There just isn’t anything out here. So we drove and drove! We saw windmills, lots of them. At one time Susan, who was driving, said, “Is that a gusher?” Paul looked and he was also uncertain. When we got closer it…

April 10, 2024 – Day 25 Cracker Barrel, Joplin Missouri – Route 66 To Go, Elk City, Oklahoma We woke up fairly early in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel, did a quick check (all kidneys intact) and headed out. Today was a much shorter day at 335 miles, but still not a short day. But with an early leave time we could make it to our Harvest Host in Elk City OK, hit up the Route 66 Museum, and grab what we needed at a grocery store ending with dinner at our Harvest Host, the Route 66 ToGo diner. Suspenseful music plays. It wasn’t a diner. One nice…

April 9, 2024 – Day 24 Giant City State Park, Makanda Illinois – Cracker Barrel, Joplin Missouri Today we were going to break camp and hit the road. It would be a long 374 mile day from Makanda, IL to the Cracker Barrel in Joplin, MO. You don’t want to get there too early and take the space of paying customers. The goal is to get there after the dinner rush so the parking lot is empty. It’s also easier to navigate the lot and to park. But first there were morning things to get out of the way which included showers and dishes. We had “breakfast and a show”…