CEDAR POINT, OHIO

We're on the road again, this time to take Ariel and Nicole to Sandusky, Ohio, to Cedar Point Amusement Park.  This place is like Great Adventure on steroids.  There are about 15 roller coasters, live entertainment, a museum, arcades, a beach, hotels and a water park.  It's located right on Lake Erie, with an adjacent marina, offering fishing charters.  The weather is great and we have three solid days to spend here.  Think we'll need every bit of it to see everything.

Our Chef tending to our steaks

There is a vertical ride called The Dragster, which jettisons you to a speed of 120 mph in less than 4 seconds, then ascends 420 feet in 5 seconds, and descends in another 5 seconds.  (Great Adventure in NJ has a similar ride called King Da Ka).  On our first day here, everyone went on except me (too chicken), but as they waited on line over an hour, I repeatedly watched the ride over and over, and desensitized myself to the absolute horror of it. By the second day, I took my inaugural ride on this nightmare. It's hard to describe, but I'll try:  the acceleration is instantaneous, if you can imagine - I mean, think about it......in 5 seconds you're clocked at about 120 mph.   5 seconds!!  Then, during the ride up, all you see is sky!  Just straight up!  You spend about one second at the top, then - whoosh - you drop so fast that your brains are scrambled.  And in no time, it's over!  People wait in line for HOURS for a 17 second ride.  This one is strictly for the thrill-seeker.  And often, the operators suspend operations, while the switches cool down, or whatever.  This can happen repeatedly throughout the day, adding to your wait.  And......once in a while, it gets to the top, only to stop and slip back down .......backwards!! Ah....... I don't think so....once was enough for me, thank you very much. Here are some short videos of The Dragster;  Click the arrow below to see the ride:

Click the arrow to see a shot of how fast it takes off from a dead stop:

Click the arrow to see a shot of it passing me at it's top speed before it ascends:

Click to see the ascent:

We took a high speed ferry to nearby South Bass Island, and rented a Golf Cart to check out a few spots. 

One of the attractions was Crystal Cave, which is actually a huge geode!

Tony was able to get in one of his famous naps on the way home:

GETTYSBURG 2011

Left on our first trip of the spring with Mike & Pam -

Meeting up with the RV.net group over the next few days. The four of us rolled in a day earlier than the rest of the group.
We explored the Battlefield with a Civil War expert who gave us insight on this great battle at Gettysburg.  Although the first shots fired to start the Civil War were at Fort Sumpter, SC, the Battle of Gettysburg was the greatest battle of the war. In the 3 days of this horrific battle, 10,000 died -bodies scattered in 6,000 acres of rolling meadows.  The battlefield is dotted with 1,300 monuments of the participating states, some large, some small, but all very powerful.  

Gen Rbt E Lee, on Traveler

Pam and Mike, with our Guide

A Virginia Snake Rail Fence

We had a great trip and enjoyed the company of our RV.net friends as always.

HEADING HOME

We landed in Forked River, NJ, where Tony's sister, Loretta, and Greg live.  

They have a wonderful home on a canal, and have a couple of boats and a jet ski, so this place is definitely rockin' in the summer. 

Greg restores old wooden boats, and outboard motors.  We spent a couple of days here before ending our trip.  
The last stop on our winter trip was at our favorite restaurant,"Rhodes North", in Sloatsburg, NY, to see Tyler and Doreen. 

We had a delicious lunch and headed home, at last.  
We arrived in Connecticut to see some lingering snow scattered around (!).  We put over 5,000 miles on the motorhome, and almost 4,000 on the Jeep.  It was a great trip, but we can't wait to see our family!  Thanks for following along - Stay tuned for the next trip, and Ciao!

THE CAROLINAS

We landed in Myrtle Beach for a few days. Weather here is cool and windy, with some light rain.  We met Tony's childhood buddy, Richie, and his wife Karen, who have a home here.  Richie's sister, Marie, and her son Bob were in, visiting from Long Island.  We feasted at Umberto's at Barefoot Landing, and a good choice it was.  This eating has got to stop!

Our campground is adjacent to the 'famous' Apache Pier - the longest wooden pier on the east coast. We took a walk on it and the sights were wonderful: gentle waves kissing the sandy beach, the sun glistening on the water, the sea gulls anxious for a treat, and fishing lines dropped, waiting for the season's first catch.

The view back to our campground

We drove north to Hampstead, NC to see my friends, Maryann & Mark.  Haven't seen them in a few years, so it was nice to get back together.

We have never used the DVD player in our center console, because there was no sound, and Mark fixed it in a matter of seconds - now Tony can watch a movie, while I drive.  All the comforts of home!
It's raining so hard, that we delayed leaving another day. When we leave NC, we'll take a couple of days to arrive in Forked River to see Tony's sister, Loretta, and Greg.

ALABAMA

Our front step has been broken for over a month, and we've had to use a folding step which we had available.  On our way into Red Bay, Al, we missed the turn, and pulled into a service station to get directions.  However, 'the last person' who came into the coach forgot to take the step in, and left it in the middle of the service station. So, we had to then use blocks of wood for the next two days. We spent two nights at the Tiffin campground, and were able to get our front step fixed, but the other repairs will have to wait until the next time we come down here.


We gave our neighbor Linda a call, to ask how much snow was left on our back deck....she took a look and discovered that the cover on our hot tub has blown over. Tony called our other neighbor, Vinny, who went to get a first hand look, and informed us that the water in the hot tub had just about evaporated. Since strong wind is common in this area, before we left, Tony had used a bungee cord, as well as a plank of wood on top of the cover to keep it in place.  The problem is that the heater and circulating pump were still on, but there was only about a foot of remaining water, in the hot tub, and the air jets had ice on them.  Not good.  We probably blew out the motors.  We'll have someone check it out fully, and soon!


So, I am driving, but fully immersed in this conversation between Tony and our neighbor, and I missed the exit for our campground.  I pulled into a service station, which was not meant for a 40 foot rig, towing a car.  After realizing we had to make a U-turn, I turned onto this two lane road, with a dirt embankment on the other side.  Tony was 'strongly encouraging' me to continue into the turn, but I choked, thinking the motorhome would either sink in the dirt, or slip down the embankment.  So now I am stopped, ACROSS THE ROAD, blocking both lanes of traffic, with cars building up on both sides.  You can't back up while towing, even though I tried a little bit, but the towbar and car looked jackknifed, so I bit the bullet and listened to my husband, and continued into the tight turn onto the dirt.  I held my breath and prayed, and ........yes! we made it!  I'm sure this was very comical for all of the onlookers, but I was not amused, and neither was Tony.  We both needed an adult beverage when we got to the campground!!


And if my nerves were not frazzled enough, after I checked in at the campground, the owner tells me that a bad storm is headed our way tonight ......and tells me if she needs to reach me, she has my number.  I asked,  "How bad??"....she replied: "Maybe a tornado".  (WHAT???)  "We had one in the next town last week", she added. (GREAT!)  She continues with: "Oh, don't worry - My house is 75% underground, so ya'll can come over and hang with us for a while".  All I could think about was the tornado scene in The Wizard of Oz, and instead of a house, our motorhome flying up in the sky. Hopefully, we'll get out of here in one piece tomorrow.  Stay tuned!


PS - No tornadoes......just lots of rain.
Heading to Myrtle Beach for a few days.


UPDATE:  The hot tub has been re-filled and is HOT!!   Woo-Hoo!

ARKANSAS

Our one night stopover through Arkansas was in Little Rock; our campground is right on the banks of the Arkansas River, facing the Downtown skyline - very pretty and all lit up at night.
We were recommended to try the "Flying Fish" Restaurant - it was crowded and we had a finger-licking good meal, with crawfish chowder, catfish and shrimp.  The theme on the inside was 'everything fishing', with trophies and photos posted, and on the outside of the building, there were five older outboard motors mounted high on the wall.  

These are for you, Greg!

Tomorrow we'll arrive at the Tiffin manufacturer, to see if they can fit us in for some work.

TEXAS - heading east

We're headed east and it will take 3 days to get to our next stopover, 90 miles east of Dallas, where Tony wants to look at some RV lots near Lake Fork. Today was a long drive, and the area was studded with cattle ranches, oil well drilling rigs and not much else.  

My Coach Butler had plenty of time to ........well, you know:

Notice the open mouth  :-0

We pulled into our campground, and had to search to find a site with running water.  Finally, we decided on a spot, but the overhanging tree branches were about to scrape the motorhome, so Tony had to get out the ladder, and assemble his trusty little saw, and cut down the branches.  It was about 80 degrees in the sun, and he was NOT a happy camper, but.........alas!  Success:

I must say, he has everything he needs in the rig. After this exercise, he needed a shower and a bourbon!
We found a very nice resort - Holiday Village of Lake Fork (hvfork.com), which offers building lots, condos, and an RV Park, with amenities of a pool, fishing ponds, clubhouse and a huge lake with what is called the best bass fishing in Texas - we saw photos large mouth bass of over 18 lbs!!!  (Are you getting this, Dick ?)  Tony settled on a great property, facing east, and in a nice quiet area with very friendly neighbors, who just happen to have a motorhome similar to ours.  Here he is with the paperwork officially making him a Texas landowner:

No more "TZ"....now it's "Texas Tony"

The following photo is of our new neighbors, and after we have the cement pad poured, the plan is to put up a "car port" like this:

Our next stop will be in Little Rock, Arkansas, on the way to Alabama.

NEW MEXICO-On the way east

We started driving east, but we're in no rush ........ Still cold and snowy back home in CT!  
Tony, the Coach Butler, found some time to catch some zzzzzz's, his favorite pastime.

We allowed a full day in Deming, to take the long drive to the Gila ("Hee-la") Cliff Dwellings.  Along the way, we came upon the Santa Rita Copper Mine - an open pit mine one mile wide and 1600 feet deep.  

The mine is active 24/7 - since 1910, 2 billion tons of material has been moved.  Each year, 200 million pounds of copper are produced.
We crossed the Continental Divide along our route - at this elevation, it was quite cold, and there was snow on the roadside.

We came to a small mountain town called Pinos Altos (Tall Pines).  Here, there were a number of attractions:

The site of Judge Roy Bean's Store

The Old Opera House

An historic Museum

And of course, a Saloon

The drive to Gila National Park and the Cliff Dwellings was named the "Trail of the Mountain Spirits" National Scenic Byway; here's a peek of the beauty we saw along the way:

The scenery was breathtaking, with rolling mountains and steep drop-offs.... and no guard rails.  It seemed we were on top of the world.
The Gila Cliff Dwellings are a group of caves and are some of the most spectacular archeological sites in the area.  It is believed that they were formed about 28 million years ago, as the result of two large volcanoes erupting.  Artifacts and studies on the wood used to form the wall supports suggest that Native American tribes (originally the Mogollons) lived here as early as the 1200's.  

We hiked along a half-mile trail to the caves, then 175 feet up to the caves, which sit at about 5900 feet elevation.  The trail was rough, uphill and grueling, and we utilized the benches along the way.  

Tony Z doesn't look too happy -
it was a long day,
and he missed his nap!!

We're smiling, because it's now downhill all the way!