Traveling West

I departed Alton, IL, at around 10AM on Sunday, May 2nd with plans to at least get through Topeka, Kansas, before stopping.  This way I would not have to worry about Monday morning traffic jams.  I made it to Paxico, Kansas, which is about 20 miles west of Topeka and stopped for the night in an RV park.  It was as far out in the country as you can get, but I was amazed that they had high speed internet service.  Here's a picture of the park and Paxico, Kansas.

On Monday, May 3rd, I departed Paxico with a plan to drive to Pratt, Kansas which is in the south central part of the State.  Kansas is very flat with nothing but grain fields for as far as the eye can see.  I can see why it is called "America's Bread basket."

I made Pratt at around 5PM and checked into the Evergreen Motel and RV park.

On Tuesday morning, May 4th, I departed Pratt with the goal of reaching Walsenburg, Colorado by evening.  Here is a picture that represents my view through the rest of Kansas.

My final leg to Walsenburg was a 62 mile jaunt across Colorado 10 from La Junta, CO.  Talk about desolate, I stopped in the middle of the road about 30 miles into the drive and took these four pictures.  The first is looking west, the second is looking south, the third is looking east and the fourth is looking north.

I arrived in Walsenburg, CO, around 5PM and gassed up.  The attendant said that she didn't know of any RV parks in the area, but thought that Lathrop State Park just west of town might have some camping sites.  I drove out to LSP and was surprised to find that they had 83 RV sites with hook-ups for electricity and water and they also had an RV dump station.  I checked in and found a site with a magnificent view of the snow covered mountain tops; however, the wind was blowing at 40mph and I could not keep my water heater pilot light lit so I moved to a spot nestled in the "One Seed Juniper" bushes native in this area.  They helped block the wind and I was able to get hot water.

On Wednesday, Morning May 5th, I awoke to find myself in a beautiful park with two lakes, hiking trails and only 5-6 other RVs in the park.  I hiked up the Cuerno Trail to the visitor center and checked in for a second nights stay.  Two days of driving have left me stiff, so I needed some exercise.

Having hiked the Cuerno Trail in the morning, I hiked the "Hog Back" trail in the afternoon.  Here are a couple of pictures.  If you're interested in seeing all of them you can view a slide show at this link:  Hog Back Trail

After completing this hike I decided to relax and have a camp fire in the evening.  I was also blessed with a magnificent sunset.  Nice day!

On Thursday morning, May 6th, I departed LSP and headed west on HWY 160 toward my next camping spot in Mancos, CO, near Mesa Verde National Park.  I plan to stay in mancos for five nights and visit MVNP and find other hiking trails in the area.  This leg was very beautiful, but I faced a 40mph head wind the whole trip which also required climbing several mountains.  During the first leg of the drive I could only average 5mpg, ouch!

My next post will cover Mesa Verde National Park and the hiking trails around Mancos and Cortez, CO.  See Ya!

Alton Relatives

On Sunday, April 25th, I rolled through St Louis, Missouri, and their Gateway Arch.  We have visited this before so I didn't stop this trip.

I was on my way to an RV park in Bethalto, Illinois, which is close to all of my relatives in the Alton area, but when I arrived I found that it was less than satisfactory.  Since there were no other parks listed I drove over to my cousin's (Cathy Czarnecki) house in Dorsey, IL, and discussed the situation with her and her husband Jim.  They offered to let me park in their driveway, but Jim has a lot of projects going and has to be able to get several vehicles with trailers in and out.  While we pondered the situation, my cousin Larry Card (Cathy's brother) arrived with his wife Jan.  My cousins Jackie Dalton and Freda Rae Maher also came to the house and we sat around reminiscing for several hours (Larry, Kathy, Freda Rae and Jackie are brothers and sisters whose dad Ray Card was my mother's brother).  Confused yet?  Larry is a gentleman farmer with approximately 60 acres nearby and said that he had plenty of room to park my rig at their place and so we settled on that plan.  I was originally going to stay in my camper, but Larry and Jan convinced me (it wasn't too hard) to use one of their spare bedrooms during my stay.

On Monday morning, April 26th, Larry and I wandered around some of his wooded acreage hunting for morel mushrooms.  While we got some hiking/walking execise, we got skunked on the mushroom front.  I remember as a kid hunting these mushrooms with my parents.

After lunch of fish sandwiches (they were delicious) at Larry and Jan's favorite pub (Dick and Barbs) we drove up to the river road and hiked along the Mississippi River for about three hours.  Sorry, but I didn't take any pictures.

On Tuesday, April 27th, Larry, Jan and I met Jackie and her husband Gary in Grafton, IL, for lunch and wine tasting at the Grafton Winery.  Grafton is a small Mississippi river town that has become an attraction for all the local yuppies and tourists.

After lunch Larry, Jan and I went hiking at La Vista park.  This park is a nature preserve and the trail runs from the River Road up to the park.  The round trip is about two miles.

Jan fixed a delicious stir-fry dinner and we spent the rest of the evening reminiscing with Jackie, Kathy and Freda Rae.

On Wednesday, April 28th, Larry and I drove up to Beaver Dam State Park just north of his place and hiked around the lake for about an hour and a half.  During the hike we continued to look for morel mushrooms, but no luck.  We did run across several geese and their young broods.  The parents didn't seem to want us around so we gave them a wide berth, but I did manage to sneak a couple of pictures.

On Wednesday evening the whole clan helped Jim and Cathy celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary at Angus Bailey's Restaurant in Carlinville, IL.  A good time was had by all.

On Thursday, April 29th, Jim and I wandered around another part of his acreage searching for morel mushrooms.  We came up empty handed again so he and I drove down to Dick and Barbs and consoled ourselves with another fish sandwich.  After lunch Larry, Jan and I went to Pere Marquette State Park just outside of Grafton, IL, and hiked the trails in this park.  The trails lead up to several peaks with excellent views of the Mississippi river.  This area is also known for having morel mushrooms, but again we got none.

On Friday morning, April 30th, Larry and I helped his son-in-law set some roof joists on a home that he was remodeling.  In the afternoon we again went hunting morel mushrooms by the creek on the northeast side of his property where his daughter said that they had found them in the past.  Success!  We only found a few, but enough for a "mess" with dinner.

Jan made stir-fry for dinner and battered and fried the morels in butter, yum!  On Friday evening we all met at Cathy's house for homemade icecream and fresh strawberries.  Of course we bragged to everyone about how good the mushrooms had been.  There were tornado warnings all evening, but I don't think that any came close to us.

On Saturday, May 1st, we all gathered at Freda Rae's house for a family get together.  Freda Rae had invited some of my other cousins from around the area and we had a wonderful afternoon reminiscing.

Here's a picture of the whole crew taken when Sharon and I visited in 2008.

On Sunday, May 2nd I departed Alton heading west.  I'm not sure of my next stop, but I will miss all of the genuine love expressed to me by my Alton family.  See you on the next post.

The Ozarks

On Thursday, April 22nd, I headed for Mountain View, Arkansas, where I plan to hike in the Ozark mountains for a couple of days.  I stopped for lunch at Cranky Franks's BBQ in Eldorado, Arkansas and was not disappointed with their delicious chicken.

My route on Thursday, April 22nd took me through Little Rock, Arkansas, and for a brief moment I considered visiting the Clinton library, but I overcame my brief insanity and continued on to Searcy, Arkansas and spent the night at Wal-Mart because there were no RV parks available.

On Friday, April 23rd, I headed for Mountain View, Arkansas.  I have to say that there is a lot of beautiful country along the way and I enjoyed all of the back road travel.

I checked into the Sylamore Springs RV park just east of Mountain View.  It is a nice park located on Sylamore Creek.

After situating my rig I had lunch at a nice restaurant that over looked the White River.

After lunch I drove up to Blanchard Springs Caverns to get info from the park ranger.  BSC is similiar to Carlsbad Caverns and there is a trail system that runs from near my RV park all the way up through the Ozarks.  I didn't take the tour of the caverns, but they had a slide show that I watched, so I just took pictures of the slides.  If you're interested you can view them here: Blanchard Springs Cavern

I had planned to do a little hiking on Friday afternoon, but thunderstorms moved in and it rained heavily all afternoon and evening.

On Saturday morning I had planned to hike from the trailhead near my camp ground up to Blanchard Springs (approximately 10 miles round trip).  I began the hike at the trailhead, but after about a mile I discovered that you had to wade across Sylamore Creek to continue.  Apparently during the summer it is only ankle deep, but the recent rains has it running four feet deep and there was no way.

Having been thwarted on this hike I drove up to Blanchard Springs again and planned to hike from there on up to Cooper's Pool another 10 mile round trip that doesn't require you to cross the creek.  However, the thunderstorms moved in again and it began pouring rain in buckets and this part of the road was obviosly closed.

Between downpours I was able to visit some of the sites around Blanchard Springs.  This is a picture of Blanchard Springs. It is the water flowing out of the lower caverns that had over the eons carved out the beautiful cavern. If you're interested you can see all of the pictures for this area here: Ozark Trails

On Sunday, April 25th, I packed up and headed for Alton, Illinois, where I plan to visit my cousins and other relatives from my mother's side of the family.  Again, there were some beautiful views while driving through Arkansas.