2007 In Review
The winter of 2006/7 was mostly spent on the Texas Coastal Bend - specifically Mustang Island State Park, Port Aransas, Goose Island State Park, and Rockport/Fulton. The winter there was colder than normal, so the locals say, but still quite pleasant. We always enjoy being near the Gulf of Mexico, walking on the beach, and photographing the birds.
Probably the highlight of our stay in this area was seeing and photographing Roseate Spoonbills (pictured here) and taking the Whooping Crane Tour through Rockport Birding and Kayak Adventures. We managed to get quite close to a pair of Whooping Cranes and took quite a few good photos of them from the boat.
Near the end of February we started across to join Betty & Garth (my sister and her husband) in Fort Myers, Florida. We made quite a few stops on the way, one in Louisiana where we met up with internet photography friends, Gayle and Breland. One of our favourite stops was at Dauphin Island, Alabama which is in the Gulf of Mexico and on a migratory bird path. Unfortunately at this time of year we didn’t see many birds but put this on our list of places to go back to.
We spent a great month in Fort Myers, Florida at a fairly reasonably priced RV park for the area, visiting back and forth with Betty and Garth who were staying in a condo at the Kelly Greens Golf & Country Club. There were lots of great places in the area to see alligators (pictured below) and birds, including Lakes Regional Park right in the city and not far from our RV park and Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve. Betty and I had a few shopping days together and quite a few dinners at their condo.
We also visited Gordon’s long-time friend, Bill near Bradenton, Florida, spending the night at his house. That was one of the first nights we spent away from our home on wheels. There was also a trip to Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park, another place we feel we’d like to return to.
On April 7th we started our trek northward, stopping to see Gordon’s family in Ohio and to have lunch with friends, Mel and Janice in Dayton before our usual stop at Erie, Pennsylvania on the last leg of our journey to Ontario.
We arrived at Rideau Acres in Kingston, Ontario on April 24th and from there drove to Ottawa on April 28th to sign our income tax forms, overnighting with my sister, Margie and family. While there we were able to see my nephew and godson, Nick and his wife, Becky as well. While in Kingston we had to replace the rear end in the truck (under warranty) and we also got new tires all around (not under warranty).
In early May we drove to Toronto to overnight at Betty’s condo and attend my friend, Laura’s wedding the following day in Kitchener. After the wedding we stopped at the Wings of Paradise Butterfly Conservatory at Cambridge, then on to Cobourg where we blew the budget at the Best Western Inn there. While in Cobourg, we found a cute little RV park on the beach and decided we wanted to return there.
We were unable to get a park in Ottawa for the month of May as we usually do, so called on our favourite park, Tranquil Acres near Carleton Place, where Dave and Shonagh let us come in even before the park was open. We spent the summer at Tranquil Acres and during the time spent near Ottawa, we visited with Margie and her family several times and I was able to get in a couple of visits with my friends and former co-workers at BreconRidge. It’s always good to go back for a visit. I do miss everyone! Also while at Tranquil Acres we met John & Jean who were just starting out on their first trip. We hope to meet up with them again.
In August, on Monday of the Civic Holiday long weekend, we left for Lindsay, Ontario to spend time again with Betty and Garth, however stopping first in Cobourg as planned, to spend a week in the RV park we’d seen there in May. Not a good plan as it turned out. The park looks much larger with no one in it. With wall to wall RVs, the spot they had chosen for us was way too small and contrary to what we were told, we couldn't have accessed the satellites, so a phone call to the Double "M" RV Resort & Campground, our favourite RV park in Lindsay, and we were on our way there a week early.
The following weekend was 'cottage weekend' and the family from Ottawa arrived at Betty & Garth's cottage. As usual we ate too much but had a great time. We did some little trips while there, north to the Haliburton area, once on our own and once with Betty and Garth again, taking more photos of the changing leaves. Betty and I made a trip to Toronto one day and met up with Betty's long time friend, Bonnie, whom I've also known for many years.
Both Gordon and I got sick while in Lindsay, so we wound up staying about 10 weeks instead of the usual 4 weeks. Due to cold weather from staying longer in Lindsay than planned, instead of going west through Canada and then south through the Dakotas as we wanted, after leaving Lindsay we went to a park near Fort Erie called Sherkston Shores. It’s a really nice RV park in close proximity to Buffalo, New York and Niagara Falls, although we hardly went to either place, having been at the Falls several times before. We did go to Niagara-on-the-Lake, a quaint little town where Sue, a friend of mine that I worked with at Nortel, has a B&B. Betty and Garth were staying with her so we met them there and I got to see Sue again. Betty and I had another day of looking around the quaint little town while Garth read the newspaper and Gordon photographed the local historic fort.
Sherkston Shores may be our future stopping off point before crossing into the U.S. as it’s a fairly easy crossing at Buffalo and a shorter distance to drive to our first stop, Columbus, Ohio on our way south. Again, visits with Gordon's family, brief this time due to staying ahead of freezing weather, before going west on I-70 with stops at St. Louis, Missouri where we stayed a couple of days to see and photograph the Gateway Arch.
We continued west, trying to stay ahead of the cold weather, with our final destination expected to be Arizona. While en route though, ten wonderful days were spent at Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle just south of Amarillo. The canyon is just a lovely stop with all the red rock and cliffs. Nature at its finest! Our RV site backed on these beautifully coloured rocks and except for weekends when people arrived with their families it was a very peaceful place to be.
Friends Gayle and Breland had been near San Antonio, New Mexico at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for over a month, so we stopped there for the Festival of the Cranes. Sandhill Cranes abounded and we saw thousands of them as well as many thousands of snow geese and quite a few other kinds of birds and little critters. While there, we also saw some of the area, including the VLA Radio Observatory. It was another wonderfully scenic place to spend four days, but again, cold weather moving in chased us onward.
We managed to get out of there about two days ahead of a cold snap coming through, overnighting on this final leg of our trek to Arizona at Deming, New Mexico where we briefly saw the nearby City of Rocks State Park.
We made it to Tucson, Arizona on November 20th. I had found a brand new RV park just west of Tucson called Justin’s Diamond J RV Park which backs against a huge desert park, the Tucson Mountain Park. The sites are huge and we could walk out our door and be in the desert park and on a trail in seconds not to mention the beautiful view of the desert and mountains from our back window. While here we were able to visit with Fred & Jo, another fulltiming RV couple whose blog I've followed since they started fulltiming, plus the RV bloggers Ellie & Jim stayed here at this park for a few days while on their way to California for Christmas. They, too, are fulltime RVers. This lifestyle is becoming very popular!
We extended our stay at the Diamond J until December 27th so we bought a membership to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. It’s a very interesting place so we spent a couple half days a week there. It’s a lot of walking though! But lots of birds, animals and desert scenery. We will probably be back here again before we head back to Ontario as well. We have no definite plans and that's the way we like it!
On December 27th, we moved from Tucson north to the scenic Usery Mountain Regional Park that’s a little north of Mesa, Arizona, which is our current location.
We have been enjoying our traveling retirement immensely. We’ve seen so many beautiful places, met some very nice people and done lots of interesting things.
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