This page contains pictures and information about camping trips and other travel within the US. It also includes visits that family members and others made to our area and home. It is arranged chronologically starting with the most recent trip/visit. Scroll down to see all the entries. One of my lifetime goals has been to visit all the national parks in the US. When Donna & I travel, we also go out of our way to visit national monuments, seashores, memorials, battlefields, preserves, parkways, recreation areas, rivers, scenic trails, lakeshores and national historic sites. So, you may wonder ‐ why have I chosen this as a goal? The answer is simple – as a citizen of this great country, I, like you, am one of the many owners of these national treasures. As such, I consider it a priority to go visit what I own and enjoy the scenic wonders, the incredible memorials, and the cherished wilderness that so many have fought and died to give us this privilege. Having said that, I dedicate this section of my website to my parents, my kids and grandkids; and the rest of my family, especially my wife, who have honored and participated in my traveling addiction over the last several decades.
Donna’s aunt Jonny and cousins Joanne & Vicki came to visit us. We took them to White Sands, San Elizario Mission and the Rose Garden as part of their tour of the El Paso/Southern New Mexico area. The final day we hiked up the mountain to Crista Rey, then stopped for a margarita at Rosa’s Cantina.
I visited the VLA on the way home from a Rotary conference in Albuquerque, NM. The Very Large Array, one of the world’s premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter. Click on their website to learn more about it. http://www.vla.nrao.edu/
We took this trip with our camper to 17 National Park areas and two Rotary RVF Rallys, in the west and northwest parts of the USA, traveling over 6,300 miles. This was our second National Park trip in 2014.
This is the first of two National Park trips in 2014. We started at home and drove to Big Bend NP, then to Seminole Canyon State Park in Texas on our way to South Padre Island National Seashore. From there we drove through several states, visiting the home/library of Confederate President – Jefferson Davis (in Beluxi, Mississippi) on our way to the Everglades, Biscayne and Dry Tortugas NP’s in Florida. We spent a couple days in Key West then headed toward Pennsylvania, stopping at the Kennedy Space Center, Congaree NP in South Carolina and Shenandoah NP in Virginia where we saw our first bear. From there we headed to PA for a little more than 3 weeks. On the way home we stopped for an RVF Rally in Bowling Green, KY. From there we visited the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and then on to Branson, MS for a show, before heading home.
Donna & I attended Jon & Kelsey Penn’s wedding in Plano, TX. We also visited the George W. Bush Memorial Library during this trip and spent time with the Penn & Mannino family at Jan & Steve Penn’s home in Dennison, TX. We took Mimi & Beamy with us on the drive to Arlington and dropped them off at my sister – Carole’s home for the 7 days we were at the wedding.
This trip was with the camper on an RVF (Recreational Vehicle Fellowship) rally. There were a total of 14 rigs. We visited a working copper mine, several museums, Tonto National Monument, Roosevelt Lake and Dam, and Besh-Be-Gowan National Monument. We enjoyed the fellowship with the group, including the daily happy hours, meals and touring. We had Tim’s dog Sassi along with us on this trip, She kept Josie company. We also visited the Gem & Mineral Show in Globe. Our campsite was in the Globe, AZ fairgrounds, next to the Arizona State prison.
Here are pictures we took while on our trip to Pennsylvania & Delaware for the Christmas holiday season. We drove over 5000 miles total and had an opportunity to see all the kids and grandkids.
This was a three-week camping trip which began with a family visit to Donna’s brother Carl’s home in Vista, CA. We stayed at Guajome Regional Campground and visited several places in the area, including the USS Midway. From there we drove to Peggy Sue’s Dinner near Barstow, CA where we met our traveling companions from the Rotary RVF group. We all had dinner at Peggy Sue’s then traveled to Death Valley for a week at the 49er Encampment. Death Valley was an incredible place this time of the year and we saw as much of it as we could. The group disbanded on Monday after a week of fellowship and sightseeing. Donna & I headed east toward Chaco Canyon and spent two nights seeing the wonders within this National Historic Park. Getting to it was a real challenge, because the entry road is 18 miles of washboard dirt. The temperature at night hit 25 degrees but we had a great time.
This was a trip we took with the Las Cruces Southwest Environmental Center as part of their “Back by Noon” outings program. The trip included a hike into some of the most interesting areas of Hueco Tanks State Park.
This was a trip we took with the Las Cruces Southwest Environmental Center in conjunction with their “Back to Noon” outings.
