This is just to briefly catch you up on our first two months here so that I can continue with regular entries. After our arrival in Tampa, we enjoyed a pleasant two week sojourn with friends Rainie & Tom. It gave us time to celebrate our official retirement, call in on childhood mate Disney (world) and attend to servicing the RV prior to hitting the roads again.
Our route took us along the Gulf coastal strip still showing evidence of the devastation caused in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Despite some gusty winds, we drove our RV onto a ferry and crossed the bay over to Galveston, Texas and continued north to visit friends on their ranch in Texas hill country to the East of Austin. We then made our way south of Albuquerque where we had a much appreciated visit from my daughter Kim who is working in Nova Scotia, and meet her beau who she was visiting in Albuquerque. Our location was 1300 metres above sea level; the weather was hot, and the air was very dry with humidity only 4% at one stage– skin, nasal mucosa and eyes needed constant lubrication!
Continuing westwards, we entered Arizona. Driving through the Wild West wouldn't be complete without a visit to the town of Tombstone. My admiration for what those cowboys endured in the dust and heat went up several notches! Our visit gave us a glimpse of life in the town back in 1881 when silver mines were springing up everywhere and Tombstone was the largest city between San Francisco and St Louis. Memorabilia from that era are housed in the original 1882 courthouse which is now the museum. Before leaving Arizona we visited the red, picturesque city of Sedona, and one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon. Awesome scenery.
Our memories of USA will never be complete without recalling our 2 weeks drive through Utah. The unusual rock formations that we first encountered in Monument Valley were simply spectacular. We visited Canyonlands and Arches NP as well as Bryce and Zion NPs. While each National Park was amazing, our favourite was Bryce - those Hoodoos...fantastic. The history of Mormon settlement in Salt Lake City depicts the intestinal fortitude and commitment used to convert the barren valley they decided was 'the place' into the irrigated, productive and economically viable region it is today.
Further West we found ourselves in Reno, Carson City, then Lake Tahoe and Sacramento. In Sacramento, we spent a night with a couple we had met previously at Lake Powell, AZ. We caught up with them again in Utah and spent a fun day hooning around the bush in their 4 WD and seeing Monument Valley from a different view point. We stayed with them and met more of their family at their family cottage in Utah where they took us riding all terrain vehicles (ATV's) on a peak behind the town. Our last visit with them was at their own home where they introduced us to tandem bike riding. They added some very enjoyable 'firsts' to our RV adventures.
We finally hit the coast in San Francisco where we enjoyed the culinary delight of crab chowder in a sourdough bowl followed by a sweet treat of Ghiardelli chocolate! Next stop the Sonoma & Napa Valleys - we stopped in and had a picnic lunch at a local winery before continuing north and eventually winding our way back to the coastal Hwy 101. We thought Mendocino was very quaint and would have loved to linger longer, but the frenzy of weekend tourists convinced us to move on up the coast and brought us closer to the amazing Redwoods. Our drives through the various Redwood Groves imparted a sense of peace and tranquility that is hard to find in today's hectic world. Encounters with Roosevelt Elk while admiring the surrounding Redwoods reminded us how far away we were from our Australian fauna and flora, namely kangaroos and eucalypts.
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