Mimosa Time?

south along interstate  25

Oct 29 & 30/17  Weather is so nice we thought lets stay a couple of days in Las Cruces.  78 high, low 44 then 80 high, low 47.  When you are located in Albuquerque it is pretty much a straight shot south on I25 to Las Cruces.  Easy 240 mile day.  Oh yes much more our style.  Not much along the way but we noticed it was the best leaf peeping day we had on the road this fall.  Kind of odd it is in New Mexico; that would not be the place you would expect.   The yellows and golds were effervescent!

golden bronze tree at the entrance to this ranch in New Mexico

Hacienda RV resort is a nice place to stay and it has a close proximity to Old Mesilla Village where the restaurants are great.  We unloaded the Harley and went for a ride out into the countryside through pecan orchards; on the way back we stopped at St. Clair Winery & Bistro.

St. Clair Winery & Bistro in Las Cruces

Billy just liked the name since we lived on Lake St. Clair for years.  As it turns out it was a fantastic lunch and we left with a bottle of Mimosa!!!  Didn't know you could get it bottled and we thought this will be great for brunch one day soon.

Mimosa from St. Clair Winery

Winnnnnnddddyyyy

Oct 26/17 Weather high of 78 today but wind is on the way, by late today gusts could be up to 50 mph. The night is bringing cold down to 34 by morning. Ugh!  That will not be fun.  Across Oklahoma we kept thinking what reason is there to stay, couldn't find one so Billy decided a big day behind the wheel would get us across the state.  380 miles later with a strong front wind most of the day turned into a bit of a nightmare the last 30 miles. We stopped for diesel fuel before getting to our Elk City KOA campground.  It was actually wicked.   We saw a poor RV fellow on the side of the road with half of his roof flapping in the wind!!! Oh no.   He ended up at our campground and Billy gave him our staple gun to staple what he had left to the roof.  It was an older unit but still sad to see.  Then a brand new Redwood fifth wheel came in with half the underbody dragging behind.  No good things happen in that kind of wind.  We did not put any slides out since you are just asking for toppers to be torn off.  Many campers that night did the same.  Some have no choice to open because they cannot get to their beds or kitchens.  We are good with it closed, its just like a sailboat inside..... all inline living!!!  And we had no damage.

cotton fields in the panhandle of texas

Oct 27 & 28 /17  Weather high of 70 and night 35 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We wanted to stop in Amarillo, Texas overnight but no stopping allowed since the night was forecasted to have 11 hours below 29.  Yikes.  Keep going.  That means another long haul day.  Gosh feel like truckers.  453 miles.  I know - really???  Can we make it.  This is unheard of for us.  We belong in the 230 club.  230 miles or off the road at 2:30 pm.  Billy put the coach in high gear and kept on rolling.  Wind died down and it was cruising weather.   There is nothing in the panhandle of Texas.   You can see for miles.   Stopped at one of our regular nice spots in Albuquerque, New Mexico - American RV Park.  When we registered we asked to stay an extra night.   Rosey and Billy need an extra day for R & R.

red, red dirt in the panhandle - talk about flat land you can see forever

Big Shout Out

Oct 25/17   This is a story you have to hear about the owners of the Springfield, Missouri KOA.
In the Fall of 2015 we camped near Charleston, SC at James County RV Park.  Great camping spot.  Our back in lot was kind of a buddy lot to the next lot which was a really friendly younger couple with 2 greyhound dogs.   The dogs really kept this couple moving, one time the lady came back with mud and dog poop smeared allover her legs.   They had take the dogs to the dog park and let them off then realized there was no fencing.   Apparently Greyhounds tend to chase a squirrel or whatever they see till they drop or catch the squirrel which is why they use these dogs in the racing circuits.  Both dogs were rescue from the racing.  The lady kind of went crazy calling and chasing her dogs to come back and get them on a leash.  She did get them but thus the mud and dog poop as she fell along the way!!!  It was hilarious and we had happy hour a few times with the couple.  Super nice people.  Turns out they own the KOA in Springfield, Missouri.
We wrote it in our KOA book and vowed to stop and say hello if we ever went by their campground.   When we checked in we said "do you still have Greyhounds? We camped beside you quite some time ago in Charleston, SC.   These people must meet hundreds if not thousands of campers.   They remembered us!!!  Billy said "well we have been on our way here since then".  Hahaha.  We had a good laugh.
Small World and once again you meet the nicest people living the camping life.

Crossing the MidWest

Oct 24/17  Tuesday the weather was blustery, rainy and cold .... almost freezing at night!!!  32 F.  We stayed overnight in Casey, Illinois at the KOA.  It's just a  small town but to draw visitors they have built some Guinness World Book of Records items such as Wind Chimes, Rocking Chair, Knitting Needles, Crochet Hook, Pitchfork, Golf Tee, Yardstick, Wooden Token, Dutch Wooden Shoes, Mailbox, Pencil and Birdcage.  Well it was so nasty out we put the furnace on and the electric blanket and stayed in where it was toasty warm.

casey, illinois

Oct 25/17 Wednesday the sun came out which was wonderful to travel in and we headed towards St. Louis.  Crossing over the mighty  Mississippi into Missouri we started to hit a fair amount of corner head wind and Billy had to hang on to the steering wheel !!!  The farther west we went the warmer the day became reaching a high of 70.

sunny warm in Springfield, Missouri

It felt great to camp in Springfield, Missouri at the KOA and have our dinner outside on the patio.  It was quite a change from the last two days. Low tonight only 47. 

crossing the Mississippi

Busy Border Crossing

Oct 23/17 Weather ~ Fall is here.  A cold front is coming and today will be rainy, windy and mid 50's.  Low about 47. 

Ambassador Bridge

 We are crossing from Windsor into Detroit and will take the Ambassador Bridge.  On a normal day this is a busy commercial crossing as it takes up to 25% of the trade between Canada and the USA.  Lots of transports.  Today for 10 days the tunnel is closed for maintenance so all the cars are using the Bridge as well.   We waited till about 10 am to cross hoping that the double traffic would be cleared by then.  As we came across we were right the car lanes were empty.  Oddly enough the RV's and Buses have a specific lane in the car lane area.  In the last 7 years crossing we have always been made to use this lane...... but not today.  One guard was waving us to the lane , another was pointing to the left and a third was putting up a big stop hand sign.  Billy was waving back.  Well where am I supposed to go????  They decided that we had to back up and cut across all the lanes to go between a couple of pylons and over to the truck lanes.  Oh great.  Yeah sure, we'll just back up this mini cooper.  Luckily there was no car traffic coming and we could do this.  Pulling up in the truck lanes which was packed - 7 lanes with at least 10 trucks in each lane.  Oh boy!  1 hour later we cleared with no problem and entered the freeway.  Now don't forget I75 is also closed in Detroit for 11 miles so you have to detour out I94 past the airport then catch US23 south to I475 and back onto I75 at Perrysburg.  It pays to check your DOT pages before heading out with a big rig.  Well a few hours later we had put in our 235 miles and it was 3:00 pm; time to stop for the day at the Wapakoneta KOA.  We really like this campground, so convenient and we had enough fun for today.

Wapakoneta KOA

Is it still Summer?

May 10 to October 22/2017  Great Summer in Ontario

Aerial shot of Wildwood RV and Golf Resort

Our snowbird winters are filled with such great RV resorts and coming back to Ontario it can be a challenge to find campgrounds with the same amenities.  Wildwood RV Resort & Golf is one of the nicest places to pull your rig into for the summer months.  Our site again this year was the first one into the park; with a beautiful view of the golf course.  It definitely adds a bit of risk to it though as we have taken a few hits from the golf balls.  When we are away for the day and return Billy's first thought is did we get hit today?  He especially worries about the windows.  We did get a few hits this season but nothing too severe.  It's just a really nice campground.

18th green; our site is just to the right in this picture

As it turned out we left after Thanksgiving and moved to the Farm.  We had some things to take care of and stayed a couple weeks longer than we normally do.  However; Mother Nature blessed us with an usually warm and extended Indian Summer.  I think we got the very last day in before packing up and heading south.  Crops are off.  Yard is fall cleaned.  Family is taken care of ...... And away we go.