October 10 - Carthage, MO to Rhodes, IA

Barb - last post! Ed took a look at the weather in Iowa, especially along I-80, and decided we needed to put the RV in "go" gear and get home. Des Moines to Omaha was getting snow and we didn't want to be one of the vehicles that was unsuccessful with weather elements! We were lucky as the snow melted around Des Moines before we arrived there. We didn't do any siteseeing - not much more than one gas stop, actually. Nice to get home and notice that the leaves are changing - and it's sure cold!

A few statistics: We drove 6500 miles; went through 13 states; visited 6 national parks or set-aside areas; stayed in our RV 47 of 47 nights! Our average RV park/campground stay was $34. It may or may not offset the gas cost, but we had a wonderful time! We are planning the next adventure.

October 9 - Claremore, OK to Carthage, MO

Barb - We used the Will Rogers Turnpike/I-44 today to do our relatively short drive to Carthage. We have stayed in the RV park outside of Carthage previously and it is nice (but everything has been very wet here due to the 4 to 6 inch rains in the area on Thursday). After we put the RV in place, we had lunch in town and then went to the George Washington Carver Historical Site in nearby Diamond. We have also been here before but they have added many square feet of space to their visitors' center/museum. The new part is very student-friendly and has a scenic balcony overlooking the historical land areas. The sumac is quite colorful here and in Oklahoma - reds and purples. I tried to take a couple of pictures but doubt that I can win the Weather Channel's fall photo contest - but look at my luck last night at the Cherokee Casino!

Ed - We heard the rain all night in Claremore - don't know what the total was there, but it had to be at least 4 inches. Many creeks and streams were really out of their banks and filling the storm drains from our down-the-interstate viewpoint. I-44 was fairly scenic with changing tree colors.
The Carver Museum is very well-done with sophisticated, yet simple exhibits. Kids would have fun viewing the plant samples under the Wentzscope (think that's the name), trying to write in Carver's style, identifying bird and animal sounds, etc. That was all in the new addition, along with a nice small auditorium where we viewed the movie about GW Carver. Since we live close to the Harvester Golf Course (some of the streets are named after him), plus knowing his ties to Simpson College and ISU, we have some connections to his history.
Ike had a great time running amongst the trees at the Carver site (on his leash of course) - he is probably ready for running his 5 acres at home!
We have decided that we are missing an RVers party across the road from the RV park at a private residence. Two or three parties of folks have gone over there - two RVs there - a couple of smokers are going - we could just show up with the chicken we were going to cook anyway and pretend we know someone!

October 8 - Claremore, OK

Barb - We expected to have a rainy night or at least wake up to the 3 to 4 inches they were forecasting. We've had some rain, but the heaviest amounts may have gone north. It's still been gray all day. We ran a couple of errands in town and visited the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore. After we cooked a rib dinner in the RV, I visited the casino again for an hour or so. It was Ladies' Night so there were free beverages and drawings each hour. I didn't spend very much money and was about ready to leave for the across-the-parking-lot commute to the RV when I listened to the 10:00 winners and heard my name - good for $150 cash!

Ed - The rain caught up with us in the afternoon and evening. Our RV site was safe water-level wise, but the KOA folks are trying to grow grass plots next to each site, so ours was sprigs of stuff and mud. I took Ike out for necessary duties a couple of times and ended up carrying him back to our door so he wasn't total mud! I "Ike-sat" while Barb won her money at the casino.

October 7 - Vernon, TX to Claremore, OK

Barb - After checking with the staff at Crater of Diamonds State Park (where conditions to dig diamonds were "raining and muddy", but "we're open", we turned ourselves northeast to the Tulsa/Claremore area. We visited the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore several years ago and decided it was worth another visit. There is an RV park on the Cherokee Casino/Will Rogers Downs track property outside of Claremore where we have decided to roost for the next two nights. Ed had the idea to contact a fishing guide who works at Truman Reservoir in central Missouri to see if he had an opening for us on our way north. We are working that out for the weekend. Eastern Oklahoma is supposed to have heavy rain the next 24 hours. We have rain gear, a safe place to park, and a casino nearby. The casino had good sandwiches at its cafe/bar and a really good guitarist for live entertainment. I didn't repay myself for trip expenses at the casino, but it was OK to do something different.

Ed - Drive, drive and drive some more. We took our time getting to the West Coast and now we are really headed home. We are starting to see the end of this trip and already talking about what can be done in the future. We are getting to roads we have traveled before and smells of Iowa are in the air.

October 6 - Roswell, NM to Vernon, TX

Barb - We were good friends with the RV today - drove 300+ miles from Roswell to Vernon. We just wanted to get some miles done and didn't have any sites picked out in this section of the country. However, we enjoyed two different "local food" meals! Ed picked up some breakfast burritos before we left Roswell and they were plentiful and delicious - he says they are even better with salsa, but I had mine plain. For dinner, we found a local restaurant in Vernon (close to the Oklahoma border) that had great catfish dinners.

We are undecided about the direction for part of Wednesday - the state park we really like for camping at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas is closed for renovation, plus there is rain in the forecast. So tomorrow's blog will tell the story!

Ed - This was another travel day of around 300 + miles. We did not stop for lunch and just kept traveling until about 4:00 PM. Highway 70 was all good road, even if some of the stretches were a bit narrow. The wind was a factor a few times and did cause me to hold the steering wheel a bit tighter from time to time. I am still impressed by how well the RV holds the road even in higher cross winds.

October 5 - Las Cruces to Roswell, NM

Barb - I'm having a hard time making sure I type NM instead of MN for New Mexico - it's either familiarity with Minnesota or the occasional glass of wine... Today we did an average road day, but spent some quality time at White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo. We had tried to visit 13 years ago when we were in southern New Mexico, but the gates were closed and we couldn't drive the loop road. Today we did fine. The road is about 16 miles round trip from the Visitor Center (where we first watched the informative video) and we were sure we'd been transplanted back to Iowa with snowy icy roads - but it was finely ground gypsum! It's very different from the surrounding countryside and the gypsum/sand is very white. We moved on to Roswell, where they host the annual UFO/Aliens "thing" each July, but today happens to be the first day of the Eastern New Mexico State Fair - in Roswell. We did secure an RV site so are just relaxing, though the wind is gusty today. Will arise early tomorrow and see how far we go!

Ed - Today was uphill almost all of the way to Roswell, via the road to Ruidoso, a horse-racing and ski resort area. The RV surged along at the high rate of 40 miles per hour - except when we went slower. The 200-mile drive took almost 6 hours but we did stop a couple of times. The highway was 4-lane, divided all the way, which was helpful when going so slowly. The wind came up after lunch and had gusts in the 30 to 40 mph range. I guess I am getting used to that since the wind did not seem to bother me as much today.

October 4 - Las Cruces, NM

Barb - kind of a low-key day here. The weather is still mostly overcast, so we are trying to check the travel direction for the next few days. We are generally heading northeast but would rather avoid the rain that is supposed to move east also. The consensus at the moment is to get as far east as Ardmore, Oklahoma, and then decide - east to Arkansas or northeast to Tulsa and beyond? There is a state park in Arkansas that we really like - Crater of Diamonds - where you can pay a minimal fee to "dig your own". But the weather doesn't look too promising.

Ed - We did get together tonight for a pleasant walk along the Rio Grande River with Bess. There was a nice paved walking path and we enjoyed the mountains as background scenery as we walked.

October 3 - Las Cruces, NM

Barb - We spent the day in rainy Las Cruces, which is an unusual event for this time of year. We went downtown to the local Farmer's Market but found that most vendors were packing up by mid-morning because of the weather. We did buy a couple of items but would have like to have strolled through to see local artisans that are usually there. We did see sacks of the Hatch green chiles that are well known here! Upon arriving back at the RV, we trekked through the rain to catch up on laundry and were able to pick up the Iowa State/Kansas State game on Sirius radio - which didn't come out in Iowa State's favor - 24 to 23, with K State scoring during the last minute. Greg and some fraternity brothers had driven to KC for the game, so I'm sure they and all ISU fans were disappointed, but the Cyclones got to play at Arrowhead Stadium (KC Chiefs' home) so that had to be fun.

Back to us - in the late afternoon, Bess was our local tour guide and showed us many areas of Las Cruces. We enjoyed seeing her neighborhood, New Mexico State campus, and the Southwest-style housing. We briefly visited a Farm and Ranch Museum where they had some neat cactus gardens (along with the antique John Deere tractors in the front yard!)

Ed - The town is nice and appears to be well laid-out. The city is growing to the north and east with many new homes, businesses and shopping malls. The housing developments around here are all built using adobe style house plans - flat roofs and various tones of light brown paint. There is no (or little) grass around the homes which are mostly landscaped using colored rock. I think we might look into what it would cost to come back here sometime this winter. There appears to be a lot of things to do in the area.

October 2 - Gallup to Las Cruces, NM

Barb - Our drive through northern and central New Mexico was done on the two interstate highways - 40 and 25. This is the first weekend for the big hot-air balloon festival in Albuquerque. I have read about it in the past and with a school schedule in my blood have always thought, "That's in October! I can't get to that!" Well, maybe another year - with some advance reservations! We arrived in Las Cruces by mid-afternoon and located a pleasant RV park for the weekend. Bess Hobson, former Hoglan art teacher who has been retired for a few years, decided to make New Mexico her retired home. We have been in e-mail/Facebook touch during our trip and decided to come this way for a couple of days. We want to spend some time in the winter months in warmer climes, but aren't sure where. Las Cruces has pleasant winter weather, so this area could be a possibility. We went with Bess to Mesilla, an old-town area where we had dinner and a quick tour.

Ed - The day's drive was pretty easy, except for Albuquerque traffic and some road construction there. I found myself wondering how the settlers made it through this territory as we drove the 200 miles south to Las Cruces. There would have been no roads (still not very many across the desert areas) and little to no water resources. We noticed a reservoir or two on our way south, and also the start of the Rio Grande River.

October 1 - Williams, AZ to Gallup, NM

Barb - I feel like I should be quoting the Route 66 song, about "Gallup, New Mexico..." Plus we've at least seen interstate signs for Winslow, Arizona, Barstow, San Bernadino - all those great places in the song that was done so well by Manhattan Transfer. We left Williams (not quite as early as the day before!!) and after a couple of hours, enjoyed the drive through Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park areas in Arizona. We took a walk on one of the easy trails by the visitors' center so we could see the various types of petrified forest specimens.

The Painted Desert loop was very colorful (north end of the total loop) so we were glad we drove the whole route. Wouldn't want to do that road in a storm or have road trouble there! It wasn't a steep mountain road - there's just NOTHING there for 20 miles!

Ed - The driving today was easy. We had a few hills to climb and stayed above the 7,000 foot level even with all of the ups and downs. The old Route 66 road to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert had a big sign that said "no services, no police support, no snow plowing and no help after dark"- but we took it anyway. The road through the park was nice with nice turnouts and a very interesting museum.