Safe Harbor in Memphis (UPDATED)

How lucky are we? We arrived in Memphis yesterday afternoon, before rush hour, and before the severe weather: high winds, thunderstorms, and tornado alerts. The trifecta! And we are happily ensconced in a beautiful brick home with family. Off to play tourist in the weather....

UPDATE: Here are a few photos of the fun we had this time.




The "formal" living room (as opposed to the "casual" Jungle Room, which was too dark to photograph well...at least for me. No flash allowed in Graceland.):

The surreal basement pool room:

Walls and walls and walls full of hit records. Can't believe Elvis only ever had one Grammy.

In the "meditation garden"--

One of Elvis's two planes, which we got to tour. 211 trips flown in this puppy.
One of the plane's two gold-plated sinks.
We also had fun at the Williams Sonoma OUTLET (who was a very happy girl shopping for 30-50% off cooking items right before Thanksgiving?!?) and a most wonderful cupcake shop, started by a recent grad from Dana's daughter's high school.

There was only time for a quick game of Hearts (to 50), but I'm happy to report that I finally won a game. So great to see all of the Buford family, including oh-so-cute Scout, who made us want a puppy very badly.

On the list for next visit: R&B spots, like Sun Records, and perhaps more BBQ....

Makin' Miles (and Some Smiles)

Three days into our adventure we find ourselves on the eastern side of OKC, perfectly positioned for an early AM departure to miss rush hour. We have traveled about 1580 miles in 3 days--not my brother's clip (he's a professional driver who regularly can do 900+!), but much more than we typically like to do in a day. And we've still managed to have some fun--mostly by way of entertaining Podcasts and delicious one-hour breaks from the road at lunch time. (Joe & Aggie's again in Holbrook, AZ,
and a new dive in Amarillo today on a very cute artsy section of old Route 66.)


We are very much looking forward to getting off the road tomorrow afternoon in Memphis at Lisa's sister's beautiful home. I've even put in a request for a Graceland visit, since I resisted it during our last visit ;-) So, yay for upcoming tourist fun. As we pass favorite places (ABQ!) and new ones (so many cool state parks), we keep reminding ourselves of our current cool itinerary and its demand that we get ourselves across country PDQ. We can always come back to explore Roman Nose State Park and revisit Palo Duro Canyon and the very cool shops on 6th street in Amarillo....

No photos--yet. The gorgeous hot-pink sunrise this morning in Albuquerque (with full moon at our backs) just didn't come out on the iPhone as we were driving. Soon, I'll have full use of the real camera!

The Next U.S. Sojourn

We've been tending to Rocksie's maintenance--sanitizing the water tanks, cleaning the solar panels, checking the appliances, replacing alarm batteries (it's that time of year to do it in your house, too, hint, hint), cleaning, stocking up, etc., etc., etc., because we are hitting the road in a few days.

Highlights of this year's fabulous fall odyssey:

A dash to the East Coast, with a rest and recreation stop with Lisa's sister's family in Memphis, before we meet up with a slew of college friends to attend

Then southward through Raleigh and Charleston and down to Orlando to visit
before we spend a week with my parents in St. Augustine. Then, it's north through Atlanta, Chattanooga, and

By Beatrice M (http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/152399860/)[see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons

Northward for an Indy visit with Lisa's parents before we move on to a big Cason Thanksgiving (at least a dozen of us) in central Illinois.

And then it's (yikes) time for my 30th high school reunion!
If time allows, we'll make a cousin stop in St. Louis, but then we've then got to make the mad dash back across the country (please think warm thoughts so that the weather cooperates) to get home a day or two before my cooking class starts.

Only about 7000 miles in 6 weeks. Shoot, we've done that before. We expect to be able to make more miles this trip without (sniff) Nick....

Our African Adventure Photos

What a trip! An amazing place, South Africa. We simply must go back to experience more of this inspiring, beautiful country. And, there are a lot of "caravan parks" and easy RV rentals on the coast. (I don't think we'd be brave enough to camp where there are lions, leopards, et al, although we saw people doing it in Botswana.....)

A selection of photos, categorized by place and subject matter at our Mobile Me Gallery.

A Non-RV Adventure: AFRICA!

Some of you know that we are soon to be off on a once-in-a-lifetime sojourn to South Africa (with a few days at Victoria Falls/Zimbabwe and a few in Chobe/Botswana). Because Rocksie can't come with us, we shan't be blogging here. We hope to be able to post a photo a day on Facebook (wifi connections willing), but our group has a blog here.

The name, BTW, is a little something I came up with to name our group, which was initially a group of 8 folks from all over Northern California (wine country) who wanted to go on safari (the rhino part). Here's our group's logo, which we've all put on various articles of clothing, luggage tags, and traveling cards to give out:

Babe Boondocking at Mammoth Pool

I don't know what it is about blogging right now, but I've not been into it. (My blog buddy Nancy is going through the same doldrums, so perhaps it's something seasonal, astrological, or just a simple malaise.....) I'm thinking that it might be Facebook's fault. On that site, the feedback is so immediate and so chatty. Here, it's kind of a one-way street--posting off into the ether.... But, I do know that I have a few readers, and I've been called to task for not sharing last weekend.... What a blast we had at Mammoth Pool NFS. Terrible campground, as campgrounds go, but fabulous experience nonetheless. (The detail-laden campground review can be found here. If you're up for boondocking in a totally off the beaten path place, this is it for you.) The best part was the great group of gals we were camping with. 9 others, plus us, plus 4 dogs and 2 kayaks and 2 fishing poles made for an always-interesting experience. We had a lawyer, real-estate investor, social services worker, marine biologist, retired police chief, physical therapist, home inspector, college professor, etc., etc., etc. Good campfire stories and good fodder for playing storytelling games like: Tell 3 things about yourself, but one is a lie. It's always fun to get to know cool people. Somehow, we never got a whole-group photo, but here is part of the contingent: We sure missed our Nicky boy, but were actually rather relieved he wasn't there. It was too hot and there were waaaaay too many other dogs (most of the time off leash) for him. Plus, he hated getting wet and that was pretty much all there was to do. And the Pomeranian was actually the best doggie camper of them all! Tuckered out at the end of the day.... We basically spent 3 days taking turns making meals, dipping (sometimes skinny--hence the few photos posted here) in the pools made by the enormous granite boulders in the river to cool off (temps were close to 100 each day), kayaking/fishing, and hiking. Oh, and having an adult beverage or two..... And catch a few crawdaddies (yes, Louisiana kinfolk, we have them in California, apparently, too!) All the other gals of "L Troop" were tent camping, so they HAD to go to the river to cool off/clean off. We finally broke down Sunday night and showered in our RV. We took our ration of grief for smelling good. The big hit of the weekend was our first attempt at cooking with a Dutch oven in the campfire. We made a "Dump Cake," which is basically 4 cups of berries with a box of white cake mix (the kind with pudding in it) dumped on top, and a 20-oz 7-up poured over the whole thing. (I forgot the 7-up and used diet Ginger Ale to great effect.) Then hot coals on top (20 or so) and just a few underneath for about 1/2 hour. Whipped cream is also crucial. The pot was empty in a hurry. No pictures because it was pitch black by dessert time. There's talk of making it an annual event. Sign us up!

Looking Forward

I realize we haven't posted in forever, but that's because we've been staying close to home or, in my case, using the #*$& airlines to visit my folks in Florida this summer (goodness, but I hate flying) and this blog is supposed to be reserved for our RV travel....

We were staying off the road this summer because (a) we aren't keen high-season campers and (b) our big trip to Africa this fall is where we're focusing our resources.

However, we've been invited to join a very nice group of gals on a camping trip to Mammoth Pools National Forest up in the Sierra Nevada over Labor Day. From the NFS:

We'll be boondocking as the sole RVers, while the rest of the gang will be tent camping. I'll finally get to test out my Dutch oven since there'll be a crowd to cook for AND someone handier than I to start and tend the fire. And we'll be traveling relatively lightly--no dog, just weekend provisions--so I can justify bringing the cast iron ;-)

Then, we are lining up the following trips:

Napa Valley for Halloween (Boethe State Park) with our friend from Chicago. We've never camped 3 to the coach, but we'll give it a shot. Think we'll drive up our Honda Element separately so we can do some mountainous touring/tasting.

Another visit to my parents' home in Florida, with a possible detour in Illinois for my 30th HS reunion, if they decide to hold it over Thanksgiving. Dicey weather, but what the heck. We haven't decided what we'll see on this trip (our 4th?) to the East Coast and back....

And, if the 3 to the coach trip goes well, we promised another friend (as her 50th birthday present) to take her to the Grand Canyon; it's on her bucket list. Thinking Feb/March....

And we keep looking at next spring/summer: Alaska or all the way over to New England/Maritime Provinces? So many considerations. An Alaskan cruise, with rental car/hotel extension to see Denali sure sounds easier. But then there's the 4th of July bash in D.C. we don't want to miss--our college buddy's returning from yet another tour of Iraq. Can't miss that.

So much to think about! In the meantime, we did take Rocksie on an exercise tour that got out of hand--just meant to make a little country Sunday drive, but we forgot that our road (Carmel Valley Road, or G16) takes many, many miles to reach Hwy 101. Our little loop was over 100 miles, but it was a beautiful drive,

we got to fill up Rocksie's tank (since we were recently reminded to store her full to avoid algae growth!), and we tried out driving around without Nick.

On that note, we are starting to investigate sources for a new German shepherd to come into our home around the first of the year....