Good endings

After showers at the campground, we leave at 8:45AM.  It is cloudy, cool and grey.  Today, like the horse to the barn, we’ll run to home.  We’ve enjoyed this latest Advanced RV model.  Still, from this 5,000-mile, 18-day and 12-night (including 3 off-the-grid) trip, plus countless conversations with other RV users, we’ll return with a list of ideas for improvements on this and future Advanced RV Sprinter motorhomes.  We stop to see a covered bridge in Greenup, IL but pass up Abraham Lincoln’s Log Home that is 20 miles out of the way.  We stop for breakfast and later a quick lunch but push to Cleveland.  About 7PM, just a few miles from home, we stop for a quick dinner at our local Middle Eastern restaurant.   In the parking lot, a couple comes over to ask about our RV.  This happens a lot, but this couple was serious.  We spend about a half-hour with them, exchanged contact information and inviting them for a visit to Advanced RV, not far from where they live.  After this long trip out west and back, here is a potential client so close to home!  Into the restaurant, I take the book I have been reading aloud to Mike when he drives – “Transatlantic” by Colum McCann – so we can finish the last few pages.   Over a glass of wine, we savor the ending of both a great book and a great trip.   

Sleeping in Peace Among Trucks

Although the trucks idled and moved in and out all night, we slept soundly for 9 hours.  This whole trip we have heard stories from other RVer’s about their RV beds:  too small, too many gaps and ridges, and too hard to set up and take down. Many carry a foam pad to make the RV bed more comfortable. They complain that they wrestle with sleeping bags because the bed can’t be made up with sheets.  Some stay in motels for a good night’s sleep.  We appreciate that our Advanced RV bed converts from a sofa bed to a queen size-plus with the press of a button; it is perfectly comfortable with just a king size fitted sheet– no extra padding needed – and a down duvet; and the coach is sound and light proof.  As Mike likes to joke, I would choose to move to a hotel only if it was 5-star and free!  At the McDonald’s at the rest stop, we eat our first Egg McMuffins in years. I drive for the first 3 hours while Mike does emails and phone calls.  For a break we walk around the campus of the University of Missouri at Rolla.  On through St. Louis we drive, picking up I-70 east into Illinois.  About 60 miles past St. Louis, at 7:30PM, we pull into the Okaw Valley Campground.  Immediately, we recognize that this must be a former KOA, but the A-frame office needs paint and the whole place has slipped into near ruin.  Old, dilapidated permanent campers ring the pretty lake.  But, the young woman who checks us in is welcoming and the bathrooms are clean and bright.  We walk through the campground and around the lake and Mike talks about what he would do to bring this place back.  We hope the young couple running it now can do it.   We microwave the last of the soup from home, read a bit and go to bed.  

More friends and family in OKC

We push over to Oklahoma City to meet friends and Advanced RV owners for lunch at Toby Keith’s restaurant in Bricktown.  We enjoy their company and her latest paintings that she is delivering to a local art gallery.  We show them the newest Advanced RV model and they share their ideas for future designs.  From there, we hurry north to meet another couple who are traveling back to Phoenix in their new LTV Class B+.  We look at each other’s motorhomes and share travel experiences.  With them, we take a quick tour of the National Cowboy Museum, especially the Walter Ufer Exhibition. We regret not having more time, but hurry off to pick up our son just south in Norman, OK.  With him, we walk the campus of the University of Oklahoma, where the red bud, tulips, and daffodils are opening.  For dinner, we meet our son’s business partners at the Ranch Steakhouse in OKC for the best steak dinners we’ve ever had.  The company, food and service were outstanding.   After dinner, Mike drives I-44 east about an hour.  Midway between OKC and Tulsa, we pull off at a turnpike rest area where we park in a line of at least 50 tractor-trailers, with drivers sleeping and engines idling.  We pull the curtains, make the bed and are asleep in 10 minutes.

Billy the Kid Country

Deciding to stick to state roads, we push northeast on Rt. 70, through the mountains and lush valleys, leaving the jagged Guadalupe Mountains behind. We stop in Ruidoso at the Billy the Kid National Scenic Byway Interpretive Center and view their displays, but decide to forego the half-hour trip back up to Lincoln for the actual walking tour.  The sky and horizon open up as we cross into Texas, where we pick up Rt. 60 into Amarillo. We take I-40 into Elk City, OK, where we stop at the KOA after an 11-hour driving day.  We take a short walk from the campground to a lake.  We watch the movie “Nebraska” – very good – and turn in early.  

Tucson, Mesilla and Why We Travel

We check out of the Courtyard Marriott in Scottsdale and happily set off south in our Advanced RV.  We meet friends in Tucson for brunch.  Our friends’ house is perched on a hillside with easy access to hiking and biking trails.  We enjoy their desert garden and spectacular views.  We head west on I-10, arriving in Las Cruces, NM about 5PM.  We check into Hacienda RV Park, a welcoming place with an office, laundry and bathhouse in a clean, southwest adobe building.  For dinner we head to Historic Old Mesilla on our Tucson friends’ recommendation.  We park our Advanced RV on the central plaza bordered by with low adobe buildings and a large Catholic church. At one corner is the small adobe courthouse where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang in 1881, history that confirms we are in the old, wild southwest.  We are pulled across the plaza by the sound of live music in an open-air bar.  We join a small, diverse group, listening and singing along with an eclectic rock band with an amazing singer. We enjoy margaritas and the last few songs of their Sunday evening set.  We find Double Eagle Restaurant and Peppers Café in the oldest structure on the historic plaza, dating to the late 1840’s.  This former home to a series of Mesilla’s prominent families is now decorated with turn of the century crystal, art and antiques, with the pressed tin ceilings preserved.  We eat at Peppers Café, a former open courtyard, now called Billy the Kid Patio, where I enjoy my shrimp stuffed rellenos and Mike likes his bacon/ham beans and tortilla soup.  This is why we travel:  unexpected delights in out-of-the-way places.  

Musical Instrument Museum, hiking among saguaros

At 8:15AM, our group convenes at the Musical Instrument Museum, where we get a private tour of “the most extraordinary museum you’ll ever hear.”  The building, just four years old, is bright, open and graceful, done in desert colors. In the Experience Gallery, we, along with a group of school kids, bang the drums, play the harps and strum the guitars.  In the Artist Gallery, we cannot pull ourselves away from the piano on which John Lennon wrote, “Imagine.” We get goose bumps watching the video of people around the world singing the song.  We spend the rest of our time enjoying the videos in the North America room.  The next visit, we’ll have to experience the rooms of artists, instruments and cultures from around the rest of the world.  We have ceviche salads at the museum’s Café, where they serve a wide range of international foods.  We drive up to Desert Mountain for a guided 3-hour hike, enjoying the vistas, saguaros and desert flowers.  We eat dinner on Desert Mountain, where we view the sunset and the deepening colors of the evening.  

Hot air ballooning, Old Town Scottsdale and the Desert Botanical Gardens

We are in Scottsdale for a meeting organized by a business group Mike has belonged to for over 20 years.  Hot air ballooning is the first of many activities they have organized for the weekend.  About 5:45AM, as our ballooning group convenes, we open our doors to several people who want to see our off-the-grid Advanced RV.   Clear skies and a light wind make a perfect morning for ballooning.  The crew inflates the colorful balloons and we tightly pack ourselves into the baskets.  Off we glide over Deer Valley, gently climbing to 7500 feet for panoramic views of the desert and surrounding mountains.  Later, Mike and I check into the Marriott Courtyard where the business group is staying.  The room is fine, but we appreciate how carefree our RV life is, without the packing, schlepping, and unpacking of hotel stays.  We go to Old Town Scottsdale for lunch at the Mission Restaurant and walk through the Old Adobe Mission next door.  Built of adobe brick by hand by the Mexicans who settled in Scottsdale in the late 1910’s, this peaceful mission is the first Catholic parish and oldest standing church in Scottsdale.  Next, we tour the Desert Botanical Gardens, where we Midwesterners learn to appreciate the unique beauty of the plants of the southwest.  As an added delight, there is a Dale Chihuly installation of glass art throughout.  For dinner, we go to the lovely winter home of a member of our business group.

Dry camping at the airport

We leisurely depart from the guest Casita.  It is still cold with snow on the ground.  We drive down to Scottsdale and meet potential clients who drove from southern California to see an Advanced RV.  A fun couple, who want to pull a boat and barbeque when they camp, they had done a lot of research and had a long list of questions.  We meet friends for dinner in north Scottsdale and then drive out to Deer Valley Airport to dry camp before our 6AM hot air balloon ride.  Mike calls airport security to let them know we are parking here and sleeping overnight.  

More Red Rock Country

In the morning, Mike and I have breakfast in the motorhome and catch up on emails and blogging.  We are comfortable in the Advanced RV, with its spacious and elegant interior, like a cozy home.  Right out of the campground, we drive less than a mile drive up Snebley Rd. and park at the head of Mund’s Trail.  We take a one-hour hike, enjoying the silence, the blue sky and more red rock vistas.   Back in the motorhome, we stop for groceries and then head south on 89A to Jerome, AZ.  We cross a valley, then start winding around Mingus Mountain, climbing steeply on a two-lane road, with gorgeous overlooks.  Even with this Sprinter 4-cylinder engine, Mike easily stays with the traffic on the uphill, and on the downhill, hardly uses the brakes as he smoothly down and upshifts for changing grades and hairpin turns.    Finally, we reach Jerome, an old copper mining town, now trendy arts center, literally hanging on the edge of the slopes near the peak.   At 7,000 feet it starts to snow.  The snow continues as we descend to Prescott, where we are staying with Mike’s cousin and his wife.  

Vortex, Hiking and Collapsible Bikes

Peter and Bev come over early to look at the 2014 Advanced RV motorhome and then they take us on a hike called “Airport Trail.”  We start at a vortex on a hill where the wind is fierce and then take the 2- hour hike around a flat-topped mountain with a small airport on top.  The views are spectacular. They take us back to their gorgeous mountainside home, with a panoramic view of the valley and mountains, where we enjoy cold beers.  They show us their Brompton bikes, which collapse into carryon/stowable bags and then magically transform with a few twists and turns, into comfortable, full size bikes.  We thoroughly enjoy our time with them, talking about RV travels and lifestyle, past and future.  After a rest in our motorhome, we walk the tourist strip in downtown Sedona.  In the evening, we walk ten minutes to Tlaquepaque, a little shopping area in the Mexican style, and enjoy margaritas and dinner at El Rincon.  We are proud to have walked 10 miles today.