RV travels around the USA
We ended our month long stay at this popular winter resort destination in Cortez Florida. It has been a wonderful location. Close to family and walking distance to a dozen restaurants and bars. And we had a great visit from our three kids just before Christmas. It is hard to say goodbye, but it is time to move on to the east coast of Florida and a vacation. But, before we go there, here is a wrap up from the final two weeks at Cortez Florida – Part 3 of 3.
It has been a couple of weeks since my last blog update. We have been very busy with a new relocation and a vacation thrown in for good measure. After having gone this long without typing my thoughts and searching for some good photos, I have found that I miss the updates. Miss the composing of these short essays.
Well, I’m back now and will try to get caught up on the prior few weeks. Going back to mid-December, our three kids all flew down to our base camp near Anna Maria Island, Florida, just south of Tampa on the gulf coast. We had been looking forward to their arrival and spending three days with them just hanging out and enjoying the great weather.
Cortez Florida – Our December Home! We will be spending the entire month of December at the beautiful Buttonwood Inlet RV Resort in Cortez, Florida. We will be close to family, in walking distance to 20 or so seafood restaurants, and enjoying a tropical paradise. Finally, a chance to relax for awhile and enjoy!
It was good to be back home in Virginia! Back to see family, friends and all the annual doctor and dental appointments. Our two weeks at Claytor Lake State Park went by in the blink of an eye. I feel we accomplished much and got to hang out with our kids after a long absence due to our travels. Here is a recap:
Washington DC & Family: This was our third venture, since retirement, to this giant metropolis of people, autos, and many monuments. And the beltway drive with the big rig is still just as bad. Too many vehicles driving too fast. Just a bad recipe when you mix in the slower to stop vehicles like me. But, after a long driving day we arrived safely and had a great week with our son’s family. Our Eastbound journey is now over! From Alpine Wyoming (our westernmost spot this summer) it is 2,100 miles!
This will be my last post from Colorado as we are now well into Wyoming. Just getting caught up on some items. After leaving Littleton, Colorado (suburb of Denver), we traveled due north up I-25 for a couple of nights at Fort Collins. The drive was 151 miles and through the middle of two good sized cities, so not my favorite kind of drive. Although, on a Saturday morning it turned out to be no big issue.
This experience could very well be the highlight of our 2019 Summer adventures! The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Imagine being pulled by a chugging coal-fired steam locomotive through the western town of Durango, through some fields, then up into the mountains. Many times the train rails ride on a narrow rock ledge wrapping around a rock mountain with views several hundred feet straight down! I’ll describe the ride in some more detail later in this post, but first, here are some facts on this amazing passenger railroad…
Continue reading “Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad”
Pat’s brother Robert has a summer home in the mountains near Durango, Colorado (6,500 feet and 18,000 pop) and has been asking for us to come visit. It has always been high on our agenda, but we never had good timing until this summer while RVing through Colorado. So, we decided to leave the 5th wheel coach in Colorado Springs and drive the 303 miles in our new little Honda CRV instead of crossing the mountains with the rig. We had a wonderful week full of family time, activities and mountain vistas!
We are on the move again to Angel Fire, a northern New Mexico resort area after a very nice nine day stay in Santa Fe. Our RV resort is located in Angel Fire, New Mexico (pop 1,000 at 8,400 elevation!) that is about 30 minutes east of Taos, New Mexico. The tricky part is that we have a direct route via a narrow and twisty two lane road that is a 100 mile relocation. To make it even trickier is that snow and a frozen mix was in the weather forecast. Uh oh…
Continue reading “Taos/Angel Fire, New Mexico – More Mountain Roads!”
We really enjoyed our short nine day stay in this lovely small German town! Fredericksburg definitely made the “return to” list. Besides having a great and walkable downtown area (that was only 3-4 blocks from the RV park), the area has a multitude of wineries and great restaurants, the LBJ Texas White House and ranch nearby, and the surrounding hills are rich with abundant wildflowers!
Continue reading “Fredericksburg – Texas Hill Country and a Visit From Family!”