Bowling Green, Kentucky (GA482)

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.

Because we have 5,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 23rd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort in Seaside, Oregon. I’m scheduled to depart October 22nd.

 

 

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

  In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

This entry was posted May 6, 2013…

Yesterday I drove the motorhome the about 65 miles from Clarksville, Tennessee to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Along the way we passed though the main intersection of the small town of Russellville, Kentucky…

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

Arriving in Bowling Green we were going to park at an American Legion but due to Bingo no space was available. We continued on and parked at a Wal-Mart because it is close to where Mary needs to pickup some papers from a State Farm Insurance office this morning. For a Wal-Mart we had a very quiet night…

 

 

 

 

 

The usual dinette window shot…

 

 

We will move along this morning.

 

 

Enjoying an occasional quiet night at a Wal-Mart is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

 

 

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Kentucky. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

 

 

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW!

https://otrwjam.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/crossed-into-kentucky/

 

 

 

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Forecast for today is mostly sunny and 65 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Oregon. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

 

 

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

 

 

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2018

Manteca, California

Yesterday I drove the motorhome the 67 miles from Murphys to Manteca, California. After a grocery shopping stop at a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Costco I arrived at Thousand Trails Turtle Beach RV Resort. Mary and I are members of the Thousand Trails system…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

As always, I like to show a photo of the random view out of the dinette window…

I’ll continue my journey south later this morning.

Yesterday was a mostly sunny day at 67 degrees.  Forecast for today is partly sunny/cloudy with a passing shower and 62 degrees.

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 500 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrvzqm8-IKGdA

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013

CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA

We arrived in Clarksburg, W. Virginia, a busy city with lots of hilly areas and one way streets- no streets made for a wide bodied motor home. We had two other options, The Elks and the Eagles. We never did find them but the VFW appeared to have a huge parking area. When Jim pulled between the narrow yellow stanchions to enter their lot, I held my breath. The Commander happened to be sitting on the porch. He told me later he was sure he wouldn’t be able to get that rig in.  The VFW parking lot is miniscule.  But, it was Saturday and you can see us parked in a bank’s lot that runs right next to the VFW building. The commander assured us we would be okay for the weekend.

This old cannon has an interesting history, as does the post. Here they accept “Guest Members”, the first time we’d heard the term.  We had lunch at the VFW, a gulllinos  sandwich for me. I always like to try a local specialty and it was stir fried hot peppers and onion with melted cheese, and a beef patty onTexas toast, which turned out to be the first sour dough bread I’ve had since I left California. I asked her to substitute a chicken breast for the beef patty and she did. I don’t know where they got the name, but the sandwich was excellent.

The forecast was rain. While it was still overcast, we took a walk around a four block area and just took some pictures. This lovely church with the bells, we heard play music at 5:00 while we were reading.

Other lovely churches with stained glass windows. No longer open like the refuges of the 1950’s where you could walk into any church. They were always open 24 hours a day.

Would have liked to have a look inside.

Built in 1863. The plaque says, The Lord Is In His Temple.

You can get a sense of the beautiful glass.

And old town;  there was a cemetery that looked interesting as we came into town.  Stopping with the rig is not always an option.

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An old empty theater, a broken window,  looking sadly uncared for.

A beauty of a building that looks worth saving. A woman I spoke to on the street, when I asked her what there is to do in Clarksburg replied, “Walmart went in a few miles down the road and sucked the life out of this city. So many local shops closed, it is not a place you want to live anymore.” I was stunned to hear that condemnation for a city of this size.  The population is 16,798 from the 2010 census.

There are some signs of degradation, closed up buildings, for rent signs on storefronts.

Graffiti.

This is not the kind of beauty shop I would choose.

You don’t hear or see much about the International Order of Odd Fellows. The historic sign has been retained. The building now houses a couple of shops on the ground level.

Fire escapes up the side of an old building, a rare sight for westerners along with the narrow streets and alleys.

We made it back to the motor home just before the rain started. It cooled off and we spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing.

The City has beautiful buildings, and cities have been known to reinvent themselves. I’m sure Clarksburg will survive to see another economic upturn. I wish we could have spent another day here to look it over, but it was nice to have a day of relaxation, too.

 

Port Isabel & South Padre Island, Texas

Yesterday we drove the motorhome the about 50 miles from Harlingen to Port Isabel, Texas.

We spent the night parked at Wal-Mart in Port Isabel because of its convenient location. Parked at the far edge of the parking lot made for a relatively quiet night’s sleep. We’ll move on this morning to Brownsville about 25 miles distant..

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

As always, i like to show the view from the dining room window…

It ended up being a full day exploring the local area. The Google Earth image below shows Port Isabel as PI and South Padre Island as SPI. The Rio Grande River enters the Gulf of Mexico from the lower left…

Because I took so many photos yesterday…in this Blog entry I’m going to show you only a couple from each location. To see the rest of the photos you will have to click the provided Picasa Web Album link.

First stop of the day was at the Port Isabel Historical Museum…

To see the other 18 photo I took at the Port Isabel Historical Museum, click this Picasa Web Album link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/PortIsabelHistoricalMuseumTexas

The second stop od the day was at the Treasures Of The Gulf Museum…

To see the other 21 photos I took at this museum, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/TreasuresOfTheGulfMuseumPortIsabelTexas

Third stop was at the Port Isabel Lighthouse which provided a nice view of South Padre Island…

To see the other 7 photos, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/PortIsabelLighthouseTexas

A combination ticket to all three museums for seniors was only $5, You can read about theses museums by clicking their website link…
http://portisabelmuseums.com/mopi/

After the lighthouse it was time for a late lunch at Joe’s Oyster House…

Where we both had…naturally…the delicious grilled shrimp plate for $8.95…

Now it was time to cross the Queen Isabela Causeway to South Padre Island. Here’s an aerial view I picked off of Google Earth…

You can read all about South Padre Island by clicking this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Padre_Island,_Texas

First stop  was at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center…

To see the other 23 photos, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/SouthPadreIslandBirdingNatureCenterTexas

You can read all about this place by clicking their website link…
http://spibirding.com/

Then we drove “up Island” to see the beaches…

To see the other 5 photos, click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/SouthPadreIslandTexas

Enjoying beautiful area locations is another joy of the full-time Rving lifestyle!!!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Albuquerque, New Mexico – Day 4

Mary remains at home in California tending to medical issues.

I’m still in Albuquerque making preparations to depart the area. For the last few months I’ve been in rather remote northern New Mexico. Albuquerque is the largest city in the state and the only location where certain things are available.

Yesterday morning I departed the Sandia Casino where I had spent the previous night and headed downtown about 10 miles distant, The first stop was to get the RV washed. It had not been washed since January and really needed it. I pulled into the huge truck stop near where two major Interstate Highways (40 and 25) intersect. The facility where they wash the huge 18 wheel tractor trailers made the RV look rather small…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

One half-hour and $50 later the RV and Bronco were once again nice and clean. Next was a two-hour, $300 stop at Costco groceries and gas. I paid the lowest price for gas ($3.46.9) than in the last few months.

Then I needed to decide where to spend the night. It’s been a long time since I overnighted at a Wal-Mart, but this one has a really convenient location and a really large parking lot. I got way over in the back adjacent to a side street with little traffic. With a roving Wal Mart security car, I enjoyed a peaceful night’s sleep.

I always like to show a photo out of the dinette widow of the RV wherever I park overnight. This view is of a high school across from a little used side street…

Today it’s finish my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, then to then local Workhorse Chassis dealer to to have the RV ABS light re-cycled. If I’m finished by 2:00 PM I depart Albuquerque, if not I’ll spend one more night here.

My next planned stop is at Santa Rosa Lake State Park about 100 miles east of Albuquerque. The consensus of opinion seems to be that there is about a six degree difference in temperature for every 1,000 feet of elevation. I need to maintain a degree of awareness about this fact. Here’s why. My last night in Santa Fe at 7,000 feet only four days ago was 29 degrees. Brrr! Albuquerque has an average elevation of 5,200 feet of elevation and it was 76 degrees here yesterday. I spent about three weeks here in Albuquerque last spring and explored it quite thoroughly so I need to move on.

When you head east from Albuquerque you start leaving the Rocky Mountain chain and begin heading for the plains. Go too fast too means excessive elevation drop means hotter temperatures. Santa Rosa Lake elevation is 4,800 feet and the weekend forecast is for the low 80’s…getting kind of warm again! That’s why a traveler needs to pay attention to elevation.

Enjoying the freedom to decide when to get back on the road is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Albuquerque, New Mexico – Day 3

Mary remains at home in California tending to medical issues.

The motorhomes is still parked at the Sandia Casino about 10 miles north of Albuquerque. I plan to move to another section of Albuquerque this morning.

Yesterday was a routine business day, I drove the Bronco the about 10 miles into Albuquerque to get a new prescription medicine for my occasionally returning sinus infection at the VA Hospital, refurbished my reading supply at the only good used book store I’ve been able to find in New Mexico, lunch at VFW Post #401, a stop at Wells Fargo Bank, a brief stop at Wal-Mart for nasal spray and the last stop was at a UPS Store to ship Mary’s shaman stick to her.

It’s a clumsy awkward device that has been in my way since she bought it more than four months ago and she’s happy I finally found a way to get it to her in California. Here’s the Blog entry link that describes the hilarious event. Don’t miss it…
http://wp.me/pDCku-4LA

In yesterday’s poll, about 70% preferred the regular photo mode.  I took the following photos from a small rise adjacent to the casino parking lot at about 7:15 PM…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

Enjoying beautiful evenings is another joy in the RVing lifestyle!

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust