Any fan of old Route 66, or anyone who has ever traveled through the Texas Panhandle on Interstate 40, is familiar with Cadillac Ranch, a collection of vintage Cadillacs buried nose down in the earth on the south side of the highway. Generations of travelers have stopped to look at the old cars and adorn […]
It was darned cold when we woke up at 7 a.m. yesterday morning, and when I poked a foot out from under the covers, all I really wanted to do was pull it back in, roll over and spoon Miss Terry, and sleep for another two or three hours! But alas, duty called. Once I […]
America really is a land of contrasts, and probably no more so than in the American West. That fact was brought home to us yesterday in our drive from Williams, Arizona to Bakersfield, California. We left Williams, at almost 7,000 feet, about 9:30 in the morning, and before long we had begun to drop down […]
As I reported in yesterday’s blog, firefighters were hoping the wind would hold off and not make battling the Eagle Rock forest fire that is burning northeast of Williams, Arizona any more difficult. But Friday evening, the wind began blowing and it still hasn’t stopped. Yesterday the winds were steady at 35 mph, with gusts […]
We pulled out of our RV site at the Show Low Elks campground just before 9:30 a.m. yesterday morning, stopped in the lodge’s large dirt parking lot long enough to hook up our Blue Ox tow bar to our Ford van, did a light check, and put our old hometown in our rear view mirror. […]
During the second half of the 1880s, entrepreneurs set up trading posts on many Indian reservations to supply everything from food staples and tobacco to farming equipment. Many times the traders accepted animal furs, Indian artwork, and crafts in lieu of cash for payment. One of the most famous of these trading posts was the […]
I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of far off rain, and then I realized that it wasn’t rain after all, but rather the sound of the wind in the tall pine trees here at the Show Low Elks lodge campground. Yes, it was windy again in northern Arizona, as it is all too […]
It’s windy again here in Northern Arizona, go figure. Yesterday, for the fourth time in four weeks, Interstate 40 east of Flagstaff was closed due to high wind and blowing dust. Will it ever stop? The wind blew hard all day yesterday, with gusts over 60 miles per hour. It never let up all night […]
In a blog last week, I took you on a tour of Two Guns, Arizona, a relic of the glory days of historic Route 66. Across the highway from Two Guns, and three miles up a gravel road, lies what is left of the ghost town of Canyon Diablo. You have probably never heard of […]
Yesterday was a weird weather day. When we woke up we had about an inch of snow covering everything, but at least the wind from the day before had stopped. We left for Flagstaff about noon, and bucked a headwind most of the way, but nothing the van couldn’t handle. About fifteen miles east of […]
On our way back to Show Low after dropping the new issue of the Gypsy Journal off at the printer in Flagstaff yesterday, we took a break to explore the ruins of Two Guns, which was once a Route 66 icon. There isn’t much left these days except stone ruins, but you can just feel […]
My father always told me that he never made a wrong decision in his life, given the information he had available to him and the circumstances when he made that decision. He said that sometimes, looking back with 20/20 hindsight, he could see where a decision went wrong, but that he never consciously made a […]
We really enjoyed our time in Mount Airy, and we know it’s an area we’ll return to again. The people are friendly, the scenery is beautiful, and there is a lot to see and do. Mayberry Campground is one of the nicest places we have stayed, and if you are passing through the region, put […]
We got wrapped up in some projects that have delayed our departure for a bit, but with most of the things wrapped up that we wanted to get done before we leave northern Indiana, we hope to be on the road by the weekend. Now we just have to decide where we’re going, and how […]
We spent Wednesday night dry camping in the designated RV parking area at the Route 66 Casino, and thought we might have a problem with our Onan 5500 generator. We fired it up to run our rooftop air conditioner and all was going along fine, with the generator putting out 123 volts according to the […]
Never underestimate the power of the Internet! When it was announced a few days ago that Maine state legislature was sneaking through a bill that would prohibit overnight RV parking in any commercial parking lot, such as a Wal-Mart or truck stop, that was being promoted by campground owners, RVers sent a flood of e-mails […]
I have to admit that I am very pleasantly surprised at the reaction to our new Digital Edition of the Gypsy Journal. In the first 24 hours after I wrote in yesterday’s blog that subscriptions were available, we received 30 orders. I can see my pal Chris Guld over at Geeks on Tour just simpering […]
With the Affinity rally over, yesterday morning we said goodbye to several of our vendor friends and made ready to pull out of Albuquerque. We were both more than ready to be somewhere else. I don’t like cliques. I didn’t like them in high school, and I find them even more childish in people our […]
As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I wasn’t sure if we could get out of Show Low Campground because the weekend storm had made the roads so soft. But with very high winds predicted for today, we decided to give it a try. Dee, the new campground manager, and I walked over the soft patches, […]
I sure am glad we made the drive across Interstate 40 on Thursday, instead of waiting until yesterday! The storm that was headed for Arizona hit hard, and for several hours yesterday the interstate was closed between Flagstaff and Winslow due to high winds. The news reports showed long lines of eighteen wheelers, cars, and […]