Means to an End

In all of the planning that Becky and I put into the trip, I some how failed to schedule our arrival in Phoenix to coincide with the time when the Indians would begin spring training. I'm not proud of it. It was a ground out to third with the bases loaded in the ninth, trailing by two. This is something I've done, just ask my softball team. And yet, out of this cloud of disappointment comes my wife with a brilliant idea. This is something she's done before.
Rather than miss spring training, let's stay for the whole thing. Not only stay for the whole thing, but be a part of it as well. So we will. We will work at one of the spring training facilities, Camelback Ranch, and camp not far away. And then on the days when I'm not working...I'm watching baseball. It's what I would like to do anyway.
I've never been to spring training before, and I have always wanted to go, I have never worked in a baseball stadium before and now I will have that chance. Even though the Cruiser will be parked for most of March, our trip will continue. It won't be a glamorous job, but it will allow us to do another unique thing. I just hope that I don't spend all my earnings at the Indians team shop.

I've Got 20 Feet of Hose

At our most recent stop, Big Bend National Park, I was forced to pull myself away from some of the views. The mountains, desert and canyons were beautiful. Beautiful enough to help me get past the unpleasantness of the campers around us.
From the moment we drove into the camping area, I could feel a sense of uneasiness. As usual, each resident stopped what they were doing to see who was pulling in or driving past. It's just human nature I suppose, but in this particular camp ground, Rio Grande Village, there was a real feel of unwelcome. The kind of feeling you get when you show up 30 minutes late for mass, or ask the teacher if she forgot to tell the class about the homework assignment.
One particular gentleman stared at us with squinted eyes, and a wrinkled face that said, "Get on outta here! Get!"
We took our usual cruise around the grounds to find the best of the remaining sites, and after we had our site picked out, I made another lap so that I could wave to him again. He had decided on his face, and he stuck to it.
It was the next day when I met my favorite of the these crusty campers. Since he was too busy talking about all the things he knew to introduce himself, I will call him, Buck. I encountered Buck at the dump station. I was already in the process of emptying the tank when he and his wife pulled in.
Trying to be helpful I motioned for him to pull forward so that he could line up his valve with the station. I find a straight shot on these kinds of things to be important. He stopped short, maybe to prove a point, maybe because he was tired of me motioning.
His first words to me, as he hiked up his pants were "I've got 20 feet of hose." My instinct was to say something like "Everybody likes to brag about the length of their hose.", but I refrained. It was clear to me that this was going to be a less enjoyable dump visit than most, and they are never fun.
Buck continued in a condescending voice, "I think I saw you drive in yesterday pulling a trailer!" I replied that he was right, but he already knew that. He began to tell me how many miles he had covered pulling a similar trailer. He commented on the weight of the trailer and made it very clear that I was crazy for having it. I just smiled and laughed, he didn't seem to care if I was interested or not.
Before, I was able to get away he told me how long the trailer was, he told me the length of my trailer.
"That thing's 24 feet.", he told me.
"17" I said.
"No! That's 24 feet. I don't know what ruler your using, the one for selling or the one for buying."
Right about now, I had a list of things I wanted to say in response..."I guess you would know better than me.", "Maybe you could bring your 20 foot sewer hose over and we can measure it!" and "How about I see how much of that hose you can swallow?" Wisely, I maintained the smile and walked away.
As we took a walk around the camp later, I watched as Buck drove slowly by our campsite. I don't know if he was checking his measurement, or just wanted to stop by and give me more knowledge.
I'm just thankful that Big Bend is 800,000 acres, it cut down the chances of talking to him again.

Dan

Earning Our Stickers

It took us a while, but we finally got the map of the US with all the little stickers of each state to put on as you visit them. We didn't get it until we were in South Carolina, and didn't put it on until Florida, but it is up. Proudly displaying all of the states that we have visited.
I don't know how other RVers do it, but we do not take this sticker placement lightly. We do not put a stick up until we feel we have "experienced" a state. We don't just slap them up any time we cross a state line.
Sometimes this has brought us a little challenge. We will occasionally review the activities we did while in a particular state to make sure that we got the true feel for the state. In Florida it was easy, Everglades, Keyes and gators. The same could be said for our current state Louisiana. I've eaten gumbo, jambalaya, and drank beer in the French Quarter. So it will be easy to hang those stickers with pride.
However, there are some states that we feel like maybe, by our standards we have not quite "experienced". Delaware was a challenge, we tried for a couple days to find an event to go to, or a certain place to visit. If it had not been for the Horseshoe crabs on Slaughter Beach, we may not have been able to post that sticker. The weather and schedule did not allow us to ride a river boat in Mississippi, but we did walk along the river, drive the Natchez Trace and take in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Natchez.
I guess the important thing behind each of those stickers is the memories that we have from those states, and the RV that took us there.

My New View of U-Haul

In a town near where we live there is a U-Haul dealership. All of the trucks are plastered with huge decals that look like postcards. Each postcard is from a different state and has an illustration of something that represents that state. It used to be a habit of mine to look at the pictures and see if they were states that I had been too. Most of them I had not visited.
Yesterday, I was passed by one of those trucks. This particular truck had gigantic horse-shoe crab painted to look like it was flying right at you. It struck me that I knew exactly which state that "postcard" was from, Delaware. Abby had held a crab just like that one and we had walked along Slaughter Beach and seen hundreds of dried up shells of those same crabs littering the sand.
The thought that I will be able to spot U-Hauls all over and have those states checked off made me smile. The fact that my kids will have experienced 48 states before they are able to drive is awesome to me.
In Ozark, MO we ate dinner at Lamberts Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls. It may become Abby and Carter's favorite stop on the trip, and all because they throw dinner rolls at you if you raise your hand. As we sat at the table, we talked about their memories of the trip so far. They have astounding memories, both in number and detail. I told them that I hope that if they have children, that they will bring them to some of the same places we visited. Maybe this experience will affect not just Becky and Me, but Abby and Carter and their children as well. Maybe someday I will throw a dinner roll at my grandkids, and my daughter will know why.

Home Away From the Road

Coming home for the holidays was something we all looked forward to. We had very little planned outside of spending Christmas with our families, but our schedule quickly filled in on its own.
The great part about our stop home has been the amount of time people have found to spend with us.
From the moment we pulled into the driveway, until today we have been surrounded by people we have anticipated seeing.
Some have stopped by only briefly, others have been able to stay for an extended chat. We have maintained contact with most of them all along our trip. For those we have lost touch with it has been great to reconnect. For those that we talk to regularly, nothing replaces the casual conversation and connection of an evening around the diner table.
The holidays can cause a lot of stress, with gifts to buy and food to prepare, but I find that the time I get to spend with people I care about makes that tension fade and positive feelings flow.
Thanks to all our friends and family for their thoughtful gifts, generous helpings of holiday snacks and most of all their time.
I hope everyone had a great holiday and we wish you all a Happy New Year.

Top 5

Well we finally have it. We have the map on the side of the RV with the little stickers for each state. It seems like something we should have had before we left, but for whatever reason it took until now to put it up.
The kids took turns putting the states on in the order we had visited them. I was allowed to put on a few and Becky placed Ohio where it belonged. It reminded me of a question that comes up often when we talk to people about our trip. What is your favorite place so far?
We have visited every state east of the Mississippi except one, sorry Mississippi, and a few west of it too. In total we have travel through 26 states.
So for the sake of argument I posed myself the question, "If I had to pick another state to live in for the next 15 years, and I could not leave it's borders, which state would it be?" In making my list, I took Ohio out, because I have lived there, and probably will return there when the trip is over. So below is my list from 5 to 1. I hope that if you don't agree, that you will email me and let me know why you think I'm wrong. danhirn@ourtriptakesus.com

#5 Massachusetts - I think any state I pick has to have a major city in it, and Boston is pretty amazing. We didn't spend enough time in Boston, but being there on the 4th of July was a great experience. I still don't understand the Neil Diamond obsession, but I liked the city. Then there is the Cape. We debated driving all the way to the tip, but enjoyed every mile. Massachusetts has coast, big city clout and some great interior natural beauty as well.

#4 Maine - This is something about Maine that separates it. It is green, and bold and rugged. The people of Maine respect the wilderness, and they work within it. The city of Bangor seemed quiet for a town of it's size, but still had a lot to offer. Although the summer is short, the coast of Maine isn't. I think I liked the pure toughness of Maine from the lumberjacks, to the fisherman to the moose.

#3 Florida - If we had stayed strictly in beach towns, Florida might not have made the list. I can only look at brightly colored t-shirt shops for so long. I think what really made me connect with the state was a visit to Everglades National Park. Standing next to alligators, and watching 10 different kinds of birds feeding all around you is remarkable. Sitting on the beach drinking margaritas in November doesn't hurt either.

#2 Minnesota - Spending a week in Minnesota is not nearly enough. We feel that way about most states we visit, but our time in Ely near the boundary waters was truly eye-opening. Just the drive north up the coast of Lake Superior was worth the trip. One majestic tree lined cliff after another, and then we turned left into a national forest that consumed us. I will never forget the sunset that we happened upon while driving past a lake in the middle of the forest. The colors of that sky and purity of the setting were like nothing I've ever encountered. I didn't even mention the Twine Ball.

#1 New York - Aside from a desert, this state has everything. Niagara Falls in one corner, New York City in another and every type of landscape in between. Mountains, lake fronts (Erie and Ontario), a city that contains more than you can explore in a lifetime, and plenty of area to escape the city when it gets too loud. For me it was surprising the variety of natural surroundings contained in this state. I hadn't thought much about what I would see after we left Niagara Falls, and I was really impressed.

I know that there will be a lot of people that don't agree. I hope that you take a minute to tell me why. I'm sure my list will change after we visit the next 22 states on our tour.

What's the big idea?

There is a point in the evolution of an idea when it passes from a funny preoccupation into larger than life reality. In the case of our road side stop today that point passed many years ago.

Over 50 years ago Alan Schafer had a beer stand just south of North Carolina on I-95. Today when you near this exit at night you are greeted by an unusual glow in the sky. Part of that blaze emits from the 200-foot tall Sombrero Tower and from a 100-foot tall neon clad Pedro who welcomes guests to the South of the Border Motor Hotel. Mr. Schafer created a destination where there was no destination before.

South of the Border is somewhere between unique and tacky, and at some point was just a crazy idea. It's exactly the kind of offbeat attraction that makes my wife light up. If not for her I would have marveled at the glowing collection of t-shirt shops, arcades, rides and hotels (yes, more than one) from the highway and kept driving. Instead, we stayed at Pedro's campground, walked passed his car wash, walked through his many souvenir stores and mailed out postcards at his post office. All the while laughing at the sheer improbability of the whole place.

The short stop makes me appreciate people like Alan Schafer who follow through on ideas no matter how bizarre. It also makes me thankful for a wife who expands my horizons, even if that means paying a dollar to ride an elevator to the top of a hat.