We finally got a chance to get out and see some of the area around us! Like everyone else, we have been pretty much shut-in due to COVID-19, but as things are starting to open up we are looking forward to being able to get out and see the area surrounding Denver.
For our first outing we drove the Lariat Loop Scenic Byway. It is about a 40 mile drive that starts about 10 miles from where we’re staying in the charming town of Morrison. Unfortunately, Morrison’s main attraction, the Red Rocks Amphitheater and Park, is still closed.
From Morrison we drove west on the loop and through a few other small towns. There are several County and Municipal Parks along this drive that we want to come back to, but for today we really just wanted to drive the whole loop so we decided not to stop, which turned out to be a good thing, since they were all full!
Next was the town of Evergeen, which is really cute and looks like a great place to come back and spend an afternoon.
We did stop at the top of Lookout Mountain to see the view and take a few pictures. The view from here was amazing!
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Driving down Lookout Mountain was fun, but a little creepy. It was pretty steep with a lot of switchbacks and hairpin turns. One thing that amazed us was the number of bicyclists we saw going UP the road.
About a third of the way down the mountain was a pulloff that overlooked the city of Golden. We stopped to appreciate the view of the Coors brewery!
It was great to see some of the area around where we are staying and get some ideas of places to visit in the future. We sure are glad we didn’t make this drive with the trailer in tow!
Well, we had a slight change of plans due to COVID – 19. We decided to head out of Texas a little early and drive straight to Denver (with overnight stops, of course!).
We left Fun N Sun on Monday, April 20. Although we were ready to move on, it was really sad leaving. We made so many great friends there that we will really miss. We both had tears in our eyes as we pulled away!
Just a few of the many friends we will miss dearly!
Since it is about 1200 miles from San Benito to Denver, we had divided the trip up into about four and a half days. We made reservations ahead of time since we weren’t sure how many parks would be open due to COVID – 19.
The first day we drove to Kerrville, Texas and stayed at Kerrville KOA, a really nice, small KOA Journey. It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed sitting outside and reading for a little while and we got to play with our drone a little.
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The next night we stayed at Burton RV in Lubbock, Texas. It was a very small park but it was great for an overnight stay. We even managed to get in a short bike ride to get some movement back into our legs!
Wednesday, we crossed into New Mexico and arrived in the mountains! We drove uphill for hours and stayed at Capulin Camp and RV Park, which is at 6800 feet elevation!! The truck did great with all the inclines, but we were a little concerned about the steep decline coming the next day.
Thursday, we got up early and drove to Pueblo KOA, about 2 hours outside of Denver. This was a really nice park and they even had Hunt Brothers Pizza! It was nice to skip cooking for one night, and have a pizza delivered! We were relieved to find out that the truck and trailer did great on the long, steep declines. We are definitely glad we had the hydraulic disk brake system put on prior to leaving Baltimore! This system absolutely proved it’s worth on this trip. (See our previous blog article)
Finally, on Friday, we drove the rest of the way to Chatfield State Park, our home for the next 4 months. We met with the Park Ranger we had been working with and still had enough time to get set up on our sight. This park is beautiful!!! More to come, but this is the view lookin’ out our front door (too bad Creedence liked to look out their back door!).
A quick update on how we are dealing with the Coronavirus. We are still in San Benito, Texas and will probably be here for a little while yet. The county has issued a ‘shelter in place’ order so we are spending a lot of time in our rig reading, studying, watching movies. When we feel the need to get out, this is a nice, big resort to walk around in.
Our workamping jobs here were scheduled to end April 1. Candi’s job ended early since the season here came to an abrupt halt when things started closing down. Mike worked a bit longer in maintenance but now is on ‘on call’ status. Fortunately, we are able to stay here as long as we need to and it’s not a bad place to be!
We had originally planned to leave our rig here in storage and fly to Baltimore to visit friends and family for a couple of weeks in April. We especially wanted to be there for Easter and Candi’s mother’s 80th birthday. Due to the restrictions around the country we decided to cancel that trip and plan for a visit after this is all over.
Once we got back from Baltimore our intent was to take three weeks to travel to Denver, visiting places and friends along the way. As we get closer to that time it’s looking like we may not be able to do that either.
Our next workamping gig is in Denver at Chatfield State Park. The park is open for day use only. We’re in regular contact with Park Management and although the campground in the park is closed, we’ve been assured that, as volunteers, we have a site and a job. The job might be different than what we originally planned for but that’s ok with us.
We still intend to be in Denver by May 7, but we may just drive straight there with no visiting or sightseeing on the way.
There are a lot of people in worse situations than we are. We consider ourselves fortunate that we have a flexible lifestyle that allows us to adapt our plans as needed.
The resort we are staying in is about a half hour drive to Nuevo Progresso, Mexico. We made a few trips there, mostly for curiosity. The first time we just went over and walked around to see what it was like.
We had been told that it is better to walk across the border than drive and after our first trip we definitely agree! We didn’t try it, but it sure looked ‘painful’ to get in, and especially out, by car.
There is a parking lot on the US side of the border that costs $2. From there you walk to the bridge that crosses over the Rio Grande River into Mexico. As you approach there is a turnstile that takes 4 quarters to get through. Walking across the bridge you can look out over the Rio Grande and see some parts of the border wall. Once you are on the Mexico side of the river there are a lot of beggars under the bridge asking for handouts. You can’t see them, but you can hear them and some of them stick their hats through the bridge to get your attention.
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Once you are on the Mexican side, there is something that looks like customs, but there was no one there, so we just walked through and we were in Mexico! The main street is Av Benito Juarez and it is lined with stores, dentists, pharmacies, eye doctors, and vendors selling jewelry, clothes, and bags. Every block or so there is an open bar or a food stand. The sidewalks are under cover for the most part and you feel like you are walking thru a tunnel at times.
The whole experience is congestion everywhere, vendors and hawkers on the sidewalk trying to get you to buy their trinkets or to come into their store or doctor office, sell you a piece of gum or a bag of aloe, or roasted crickets. It was thrilling! We walked down a few blocks and wandered in a couple of stores, then got lunch at an outdoor food stand that had excellent lonches.
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The turnstiles to leave Mexico cost 30 cents each and then we walked back over the Rio Grande to the US. On the US side of the river you have to stand in line and wait for customs. We probably waited 15-20 minutes each time. The agents looked at our passports and asked us if we were bringing anything back and we were free to go.
The second time we went into Mexico to see a dentist and eye doctor. The dentist’s office was clean and the employees spoke good English. We paid $40 each to have our teeth cleaned and checked. We felt they did a good job and were happy with our nice, clean teeth.
Then we walked down a few blocks to get an eye exam and order new glasses. Again, the facility was clean and the doctor was nice and spoke good English. Our glasses were a little on the expensive side for Mexico, we paid $190 each. Mike’s were more expensive since he uses progressives, and Candi ordered sunglasses with an amber tint which had to be sent out. We still wound up paying less than we usually paid in the US with insurance. We ordered the glasses and were told that Mike’s would be done in about 2 days, and Candi’s would take about 2 weeks.
Then, it was on to a pharmacy a friend had recommended to pick up some muscle relaxants and antibiotics to have on hand if we need them later. We paid about $40 for several rounds of antibiotics and a couple of packs of muscle relaxants. Again probably paying about what our copay would have been in the US with insurance, once we hit our deductible. The pharmacy was clean and the pharmacist was knowledgeable and helpful.
Once we were done taking care of business, we decided we were ready for a drink. And, of course, since were in Mexico it had to be a margarita, right? We went to Pancho’s bar and had lunch, which was okay, and margaritas, which were great!
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We did find a small little reminder of home, celery salt from of all places … McCormick … which is headquartered in Baltimore!
Bringing the medicines across the border was no problem. We just told the customs agents what we had and they waved us through.
By the time we went back to pick up the glasses, we felt like old pros at crossing the border! Here’s our “old pro tip” for future first timers: Go the the bathroom on the American side!!!
American side bathroom!Mexican side bathroom!
We would definitely feel comfortable going in to the border towns in Mexico that cater to Americans and are glad to know we can get less expensive dental care, glasses, and medications.
Since we ARE in Texas, we decided we should go to a rodeo! Fortunately, there is a nice, small one in Los Fresnos, about 20 minutes from San Benito.
We’re going to include a ton of pictures in this entry, words just don’t do it justice … we kept thinking … “They do this on purpose?!?”
Before the rodeo there was a Banana Derby. The racing monkeys were hilarious! There was even a tightrope walking dog, how cute is he?!?
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The rodeo itself was fun, but somewhat shocking! It started off with Bareback Riding.
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Next up was the Mutton Bustin’. WHAT?!?!? They really let kids do this! They wore helmets and protection and (hopefully) didn’t get hurt, but still!!!
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Then there was Team Roping, Steer Wrestling, and Tie Down Roping. The cowboys were great, but the horses amazed us. They were so well trained and knew exactly what to do.
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Some light entertainment with the Loop Rawlins Wild West Show.
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Saddle Bronc Riding.
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Proving once again that women have more sense than men, the only women in the rodeo participated in Barrel Racing. (You can tell Candi wrote this 🙂 )
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Finally, there was the bull riding – wow!! Those are some crazy cowboys!
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Now we can honestly say “this ain’t our first rodeo”!
We recently took a day trip to visit the Texas facility for SpaceX, the rocket and spacecraft company founded by Elon Musk. Luckily, we got there before the rocket exploded!! There are three main areas, the launch site/landing pad, the test facility, and the tracking station. To get there we went to Brownsville, then turned East and drove forever on a road with almost nothing on it. Good thing it was the middle of the day, since it would have been dark and creepy at night! The facility itself is not overly photogenic (actually, Hollywood “B” movie-ish), but since we were nearby it was worth the trip.
From there we continued to where the road ends at Boca Chica Beach on the Gulf of Mexico. You can drive on the beach so, of course we did! Once we got on the beach we made a right to head toward the Mexican border and the mouth of the Rio Grande River.
The river is pretty narrow and we could see people fishing from the Mexican side of the river. There were even some people standing in the middle fishing.
On the way home we passed a Border Patrol/Inspection station. We stopped and they asked if we were US citizens, when we said yes they waved us through.
This was the last stop on our way to Texas for our second workamping gig.
To get here we had to take the Galveston-Port Bolivar Ferry. We were a little nervous, but it turned out to be fun. We did learn that you can’t take containers of gas or diesel on to the ferry, so we, um, didn’t … (that’s our story and we’re sticking to it).
The RV park we stayed at, Dellanera RV Park, was right on the beach, giving us a front row seat to some incredible sunrises!
Of course, we had to eat! One of those meals was lunch at Jimmy’s on the Pier with a great view!
We have started making our way to our next Workamping gig in San Benito, Texas. Since we had to travel around the Florida Panhandle to get there, we wanted to take our time and see some sights on the way. The first day we drove to Tallahassee, FL and used our Harvest Hosts membership to park overnight at the Tallahassee Automobile Museum. The museum is right off of I-10 and was easy to pull in to and out of. The admission to the museum was $15 per person and we were ready for the opportunity to get out of the truck and walk around for a while. The museum has a very unusual collection of many different things. The highlight is their cars, which includes models from 1894 through the present. The museum also has an impressive collection of knives, cash registers, pedal cars, and many other items. Our timing was great since it poured down rain while we were walking around inside and the rain stopped by the time we were ready to leave!
There wasn’t much within walking distance, but there was a Farm to Table restaurant, Backwoods Crossing, right across the street. We walked there for dinner and are so glad we did. The restaurant was nice and the food was excellent! We walked back to our rig for the night and the next morning we got back on I-10 to continue our journey.
Our next stop was Miramar Beach, which is a few miles east of Destin. We stayed at Camp Gulf, a really nice RV resort right on the beach. We couldn’t get a site on the beach, but were only a few feet away from it. We got up early the next morning to walk on the beach and got this beautiful shot of the sunrise!
That day the sun was shining and it was beautiful so we thought we’d spend some time on the beach. Sadly, it was breezy and a little too chilly to enjoy the beach (although Mike did manage to get in the water, which was surprisingly warm).
Later in the afternoon, we decided to visit the Destin boardwalk to get some walking in. That evening we took a lovely walk along the beach to Surf Hut for dinner. Candi got the Shrimp and Grits and Mike got Stuffed Shrimp. We really enjoyed our dinner and for dessert we got a piece of their house-made Key Lime Pie. Mike enjoyed it but Candi confirmed that she really doesn’t like Key Lime Pie!!!
The next morning we went to Another Broken Egg Café for breakfast. They have a huge selection of breakfast items and if you are a first time visitor they give you a complementary order of their ‘biscuit beignets.’ They were good, but we are withholding our opinion of them until we get some ‘real’ beignets in New Orleans! For our meal, Candi got the seasonal Banana Bread French Toast which was topped with apples and raisins, and Mike got their Bacquezo Omelette, which had just about everything in it! Both breakfasts included a side of their house-made sausage which was really good.
There was a small tropical storm moving into the area that day. Since the storm was mostly east of Destin we decided to drive a little west to Pensacola to do some sight-seeing. Candi’s all-time favorite movie is ‘Contact’ and she has always dreamed of visiting Pensacola since it sort of plays a big part in the movie. It is a cute area with a nice beach.
We found a bar and restaurant that was undercover but was open to the beach. The food was just okay, but the view was spectacular! The storm caused enough of a surf to make the waves fun to watch and there were even a few surfers taking advantage of them.
On the way back to Miramar Beach we stopped at a beach area
to enjoy the sand and waves and take some pictures. The sand in this area is
very soft and light colored. It is also cool and nice to walk on. And the water
is amazing, now we understand why they call this the Emerald Coast.
After spending one more night in Destin it was time to move
on and start heading toward New Orleans!
After spending 6 months in Florida establishing our domicile and completing our first Workamping gig, it was time to start moving West! From Miramar Beach we headed toward New Orleans. We had two days to get there and planned to stop overnight somewhere along the way. After driving for a few hours, we noticed billboards for casinos in Biloxi, MS. Although we don’t gamble, we like staying near casinos since they usually have decent restaurants and entertainment. We called ahead and found out that Boomtown Casino offers full hookup sites for $35 a night if you are a member of Good Sam.
Getting through Biloxi with our rig wasn’t much fun, but we made it to the casino RV Park and did a light setup. There were two casinos within easy walking distance and we walked to the closest, Boomtown Casino. As we were walking through it, we passed the Stadium Sports Bar and Grill. We had timed it well since our beloved Baltimore Ravens were playing the Seattle Seahawks at the time! When we got there the game was at half time and the score was tied. We ordered some drinks and appetizers and sat down to watch the Ravens win! (Sorry, Annette!)
After the game we walked to IP Casino to check it out. It is much larger and busier than Boomtown and we spent some time walking through and watching some of the tables. The next morning, we went back to IP Casino for their breakfast buffet, then got on the road to New Orleans.
When we were planning our trip people in some of our online groups had suggested not traveling on I-10 in Louisiana and Texas. There were many comments about the horrible shape the road is in as well as heavy traffic and no shoulders. One commenter said the road was so rough their slide came out, another one said their fireplace fell out of their wall! Besides that, there was an incident and part of I-10 was shut down. After doing a lot of research we decided to take Route 90 most of the way. We got to see a lot of the country we wouldn’t have seen on an interstate and the road was mostly good. However, there were some sections that were very isolated and others that were really rough. We were a little nervous about what kind of shape the inside of our camper would be in when we got there. Mike swears if we ever go back east , we are going AROUND Louisiana! Another part of the drive that was very nerve wracking was driving through New Orleans, which is bad enough on a good day – we were doing it pulling our 5r … in the rain. We were very happy to arrive at the RV park when we got there! And even happier to find no damage or broken items inside the rig.
The resort was expensive, but definitely worth it in our opinions. The French Quarter RV Resort is a small park but the spaces are large. The sites are close together with no real separation, but they’re paved and level. The main attraction of the park is definitely their location! It’s an easy 3 block walk to the French Quarter, where we spent most of our time.
The person that checked us in was very helpful. She gave us
a map of the area and suggested a few places we might be interested in. She
also told us that the French Quarter was safe to walk around at any time and
walking from the resort to the French Quarter was fine during the day but at
night we should plan to take a cab or an Uber back.
The next morning, we set off to see the sights (and eat, of course!). Everyone knows you have to eat beignets for breakfast at least once while you are in New Orleans, and the place to get them is Café Du Monde on Decatur Street. A beignet is sort of a cross between a donut and fried dough and is served with a ton of powdered sugar! The beignets were great and the coffee was okay. After that, we knew we had to do a lot of walking to counteract at least a few of those calories!
We spent the morning walking along Decatur Street and went through the French Market.
The historic houses with the balconies were fun to see and many of them were decorated for Halloween.
Lunch was a muffuletta at the Central Grocery Company, an Italian Market right on Decatur that claims to be the home of the original muffuletta. It is the only sandwich they serve and they only serve it two ways. We got half of a regular one to share and ate it at the counters in the back of the store.
After resting up at the camper for a while we headed into town for dinner and some night life. We had dinner at the Gumbo Shop. We had intended to get Gumbo there but oddly, neither of us did! A gentleman we were sitting next to said their Crawfish Pasta with Tasso sauce was the best pasta he’d ever had, so Candi decided to try that while Mike got a sampler dish with Jambalaya, Shrimp Etouffee, and Shrimp Creole. Both dishes were excellent!
After that we went to Pat O’Brien’s on Bourbon Street for one of their famous Hurricanes. They were very good and VERY big and they came in a souvenir glass and were accompanied by a small bag of popcorn. Of course, since we live in an RV, we don’t have room for souvenir glasses so luckily you can turn them back in for $4.
Next up we walked around Bourbon Street and went into a few bars where we saw some good bands and even got to dance a little!
Wednesday we decided to visit a different area of New Orleans. We ate a light breakfast at home and went out around lunchtime to go to The Garden District. On our way there we stopped for lunch at Mother’s Restaurant. A friend had told us this was great place to get sandwiches and he was not wrong! HUGE Sandwiches!
After lunch we walked to a streetcar stop to get a ride to
the Garden District. The collapse of The Hard Rock hotel that was under
construction had occurred a couple of weeks ago and had somewhat crippled the
city. About four blocks right in the middle of town were closed. Traffic and
trolley lines had to be routed around it.
This meant the street car couldn’t pick us up at the usual
place. However, they had buses running as connections to the street cars. The
ride was fun and we got to explore a completely different part of New Orleans.
That night we decided to go to the Frenchman Street area for dinner since we had been told it is a little less ‘touristy’ and is where the locals hang out. We had another amazing meal at The Maison. We both got Shrimp and Grits are so glad we did. It was so good neither of us would have wanted to share it with the other!
After dinner we walked around for a little while then decided to head home – and get dessert on the way! We stopped at Muriel’s at Jackson Square and sat at the bar for coffee and dessert. This is a very nice restaurant and honestly is more expensive than we would usually do, but for dessert we thought we’d treat ourselves. We shared a bread pudding a la mode and each got a coffee (decaf!) with Bailey’s and Frangelico (one of our favorite campfire drinks!). It was honestly one of the best bread puddings we’ve ever had, and Candi considers herself to be somewhat of a bread pudding aficionado.
The next day we were big mealed out (if you can believe
that!). So we went to a coffee shop near the resort for pastries for breakfast.
As most of our friends know, we are both huge Doobie Brothers fans (and keep voting to get them nominated to the hall of fame (click here if you want to vote, you can log in with Google, FB, or Amazon)); one of their albums was shot in a house on Toulouse Street and also named after the street. So, one of the last things we did was walk from one end of Toulouse to the other in their honor. Unfortunately, we had no idea what house it was so we couldn’t pay homage to it.
Since we were planning to leave the next day and they were calling for rain we went back early to start packing up the camper. The next day we started heading toward Galveston.
Before you go, some of the sights we saw in and around NOLA:
Wow, it has been almost half a year since we went full time! We wanted to give some thought to how things have been working out so far.
One of the sunrise views along our morning walk
First the big question, yes, we love this life style and
have settled in much easier than we thought we would. We really don’t miss the
house much and are happy with the limited room we have in our trailer. Living
in it has been pretty comfortable. We have been able to cook most of our meals
and don’t mind the small kitchen and limited storage too much.
We also still watch movies and tv fairly often in the evenings. A few months ago we decided it would be worth the expense to purchase better chairs and bought these Lay-Z-Boy recliners. They are so much more comfortable to read or watch movies in than our old ones, and they look nicer! We also had one of Mike’s pictures printed on canvas and hung it in the space over the window. It’s nice to have a little more color in the trailer.
We have enjoyed our time in Welaka, but will be happy to move
to a more urban area for a while. There are a couple of restaurants close by and
we will definitely miss the Boathouse Bar & Grill, but we hope to have a
few more eating options at our next place. It will also be nice to have a
closer grocery store!
Speaking of our next gig, it is pretty much the opposite of where we are now. Our current campground is very small; our next one is huge. It has 1400 sites and a lot of recreational buildings. This one is family owned and operated and the next one is part of Encore Resorts. Here we work 20 hours combined and our next jobs will be full-time. It will be interesting to see how different it feels and find out what we prefer. One thing’s for sure, we will miss the people we’ve come to know here!
Some thoughts on northern Florida, there are a LOT of trees
and very long, VERY straight roads. We were so used to things being close in
Baltimore, but here it is a drive (usually a long one) to get just about
anywhere. Of course, Florida is also very hot in the summer! We knew we were
doing the opposite of what most full-time RVers do by coming here in the
summer, but we wanted to establish our domicile here before continuing on with
full-timing. Hopefully in the future we will be able follow the fair weather a
little better. Oh, and one more thing about summers in Florida – BUGS. We were
welcomed here by the love bugs. They don’t bite, but there are so many of them
that when you drive anywhere you wind up with several dozen (hundred?) of them
smashed on the windshield, and our F350 has a really big windshield! Fortunately,
they don’t last long, but they are followed by yellow flies that do bite. We
both still have marks on our legs from being bitten by them several months ago.
Add to that the mosquitoes and various other biting and stinging bugs and it
gets pretty icky and itchy!
All in all, it’s been a great experience. We feel lucky to have had such a great first-time workamping gig here and we are looking forward to our next one!
Fifth Wheel Journey 