(Too) late fall trip from Upstate NY to Albuquerque NM

[Tom&Shelly]

After three weeks on the road, we arrived back at our New Mexico home on Thursday afternoon, both sporting colds that we think we picked up in Abilene.

Due to family matters, we couldn't leave Upstate New York until 9 November. Our goal was to keep away from the mountains and try and hit the warmest route we could, take our time and enjoy the sights, and avoid the foul weather that included a hurricane, snow, tornadoes, and mosquitoes.

We started from around Binghamton and drove to the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. We planned lunch with friends near Philly, but they backed out, so we simply had a 4.5 hour drive. We stayed at Belleplain State Forest in New Jersey, but discovered it wasn't really all pine; there was a lot of oak which, by that time, had shed their leaves.



No problem, we spent two days investigating Wildwood and Cape May, and had low 70's with sun the first day. Changed to rain and mid-50's the second, so we investigated the Cape May Nature Center (small) and the NAS Wildwood museum. (OK, but they didn't have placards correctly placed for most of the airframes, which seem to be whatever they could get cheap.)



After that, we took the ferry from Cape May to Lewes (pronounced Lewis) Delaware




(That first shot is the Cape May Lighthouse, from the other direction.

Once we got to Delaware, we found there was nothing to do, in the entire state! I almost colored it black on the map! We stayed at Cape Henlopen State Park, and did walk around the old (WW II) fort that was there. Found this guy evidently knows there is no hunting on the reservation



But the temperature had dropped to the low 50's, so we did laundry. We also established our eating routine, which I won't recommend to others: We had the coffee maker ready to go the night before, and some sort of pastry (or even canned bread from New England) ready to go for breakfast. We would eat that in our (electrically heated) cabin. We would find a restaurant to eat an unhealthy lunch (MacDonalds counts in this scenario) and then have junk food, like peanut butter filled pretzels, while watching a DVD, for dinner.

Continued...

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

After Delaware, the hurricane had looped around and was heading further north than originally predicted. We drove to Norfolk VA over the bridge/tunnel across the Chesapeake Bay. (About a 3.5 hour drive.) We camped at First Landing State Park. There is plenty to do around Norfolk even on cold damp days. (And even more along the route in, say, May, when the weather is warmer, so we may take this route back to New York next spring.)



We visited the Chrysler Art Museum, which had great paintings, and isn't as pompous as, say, the Philadelphia Art Museum. In the latter, a docent came up to talk to me because I had pointed at an art work (4-5 inches away, I swear). At the Chrysler, there were no ropes, and photography was encouraged (but I don't usually bring my camera to art museums).

Unfortunately, we only stayed one day, or we would have toured the USS Wisconsin, and several military and naval history museums. (The Wisconsin is the same class as the USS New Jersey, which we toured last year.)

From Norfolk, we drove onto Jordan Lake Campground, which might be the prettiest of the places we stayed on this trip.



It's just west of Raleigh North Carolina, and near a friend of mine from childhood. (We made Eagle Scout togeter.) Great dinner with them, and then the next day we toured an art museum in Raleigh ( All of the placards had a definate political bias which may or may not reflect the artists' views. Let the art speak for itself for Pete's sake!)

We also toured the science museum which was better. Ran out of time before seeing the history museum, which was right across the street in downtown Raleigh.

Oh, on the second morning, we set what may have been the record low for us this trip: 24 degrees F. I should mention, most of our winter clothing was back in New Mexico. We were wearing what we had bought up in Algonquin in September.

Continued...

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

From Raleigh, we had several options. Perhaps we should have gone to Savannah, which was predicting warmer weather and was on the Atlantic Coast (probably still is). But it would have increased the length of our trip by several hours. Instead, we drove to Red Top Mountain State Park near Atlanta, but nearer the Kennasaw mountains. Again, we were in cold weather. We planned to stay two days, because there was much to do around there, but we caught the Friday afternoon rush-hour on the way in, and decided we wouldn't drive back to downtown Atlanta on this trip.



Instead, we did our laundry in camp that morning, and then visited the Museum of Western Art just up the road that afternoon. I wanted to see the Civil War Museum in Kennasaw the next day, but didn't notice until Saturday evening that it is closed on Sundays.

That evening, we noticed the cold snap along the Gulf Coast had abated, and so we decided to find a state park, or similar, near Mobile, and leave Georgia a day early. The site we found was wonderful: Shepard State Park Mississippi. Half price for veterans! (Oh, I should mention, all of the places we stayed on this trip have shore power. We didn't want to take a chance of being cold at night, even though we didn't always use our electric heater.)



Biloxi Mississippi had a fairly poor reputation among some of my Air Force colleagues in the 80's and 90's, because Keesler AFB is there, and we had a training school on base. One person told me that the folks didn't keep their beaches clean, and so every few years God sent a hurricane to clean it up for them. Can't verify that, but the beach was gorgeous! Temperatures in the high 70's and maybe even the low 80's.



My uncle, who had been in the Air Force, but is a Yankee transplant to Texas, suggested the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library as something good to do in Biloxi. Afraid I can't concur. I'll just say that this Yankee, albeit with a love of civil war history, seems to know much more about the history than the staff at that facility. Disappointing, particularly since folks I've known from the South tend to get it right. But, I don't mean to start an argument here!

Whatever else there is to say about Mississippi, Shepard State Park is wonderful, and I hear there are some really nice state parks in other parts of Mississippi, and we hope to see some of them in nice weather.

The next day, we drove to Mobile, and saw the USS Alabama. Now, unlike the USS Wisconsin, which we missed in Norfolk because it is like the USS New Jersey which we saw last year, the Alabama is a different type of battle ship entirely, being built earlier in World War II. Sure, it also has three turrets with 16 inch guns, but it's different. Well, the point was lost on Shelly too, but she was a good sport. There is also a WWII era US submarine, and several aircraft at Memorial Park.




We hung around the area an extra day, partly because the weather was so nice, but also because we would rather be driving on Thanksgiving Day, rather than the day before. So we went back to Mobile and saw the History Museum and Fort Conde. My notes say it was 75 that day.



Hard to notice when on a three week trip and it's 75, but the tree in the park suggests what's coming...

Continued...

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

On Thanksgiving Day, we drove across Louisiana without stopping, except for a late breakfast at Waffle House, and so, along with South Carolina, I color it gray on my map. More or less a prod to go back and see something in the state some day.

We had plans to meet my uncle for dinner in Elgin Texas, near Austin, that Sunday, and so we had to plan this out. Unfortunately, we had a little trouble finding spaces available at the Texas state parks, and I completely underestimated the driving distances to places like Houston, which have many things we want to see someday.

But, on the Gulf, and right at the Texas/Louisiana border, there is Sea Rim State Park. OK, it was at the end of a 6.5 hour drive, it was cold and raining, we had to drive through a refinery to get there, and the state park ranger at the gate warned us about alligators.



What she didn't mention are the mosquitoes. I got up at 4 am, after the worst of the rain, to answer nature's call, being careful to avoid walking in the grass which is protected by the Texas state wildlife folks, and also possibly by the alligators, and then spent the next thirty minutes killing the mosquitoes that got into the teardrop! In hindsight, there was a truck at Shepard State park Mississippi spraying insecticide. Probably a good thing!

By the way, did I mention we had our cat with us? She's normally good with travelling. She sleeps in the tear, but twice a day we would take her to the truck to use her litter. On the other hand, she's been known to go two days without using the litter box. So we took her that morning in Mississippi. When we got to Sea Rim, she didn't want to go out in the rain, mosquitoes, alligators, and, my wife mentions, wild boars which were also out there somewhere. At 4 am, I tried to catch the cat to take her to her litter, but she didn't want to go. After killing the mosquitoes, around 5 am, she went. All over the far corner of the bed, on Shelly's side. We decided at that point it was time to leave Sea Rim, drive through the refinery in the dark, stopping only for gas in a bad looking part of town.

Every trip has to have a low point.

Fortunately, it was only a 3 and a quarter hour drive to Lake Sommerville State Park, so we stopped along the way to do laundry, including the wool blanket, which did just fine in cold water. When we got to the north shore of Lake Sommerville, Birch Unit, we set up camp, dried out the mattress (which Shelly had washed with strong detergent while the clothes were being washed) using a hair dryer, and went to check in. That's when we discovered we were supposed to be in the Nail's Creek Unit. Oh well! That was another 40 minute drive to the south side of the lake. I wished I'd taken a picture of the Birch site, it was even better, although the Nail's Creek site was nice also. And back to reasonably warm temperatures!



The site used to be right on the beach, but the lake has receded, and so there are swampy reeds behind the site. Not many mosquitoes though, for some reason.



In fact, we decided it was time, for the first time since New Jersey, to do some of our own cooking, in the Dutch oven. That's when Shelly realized we'd left one of our water jugs back at the camp site on the other side of the lake. So, while she spent an hour and a half recovering it, I started, and finished, cooking dinner. When she came back, we ate. And that day was over!

The next morning, I'd realized it made no sense to drive all the way back to Houston. Instead, I noticed College Station less than an hour away, and found the George H W Bush Presidential Library is there. Many memories for me, as I was a junior Air Force officer in those days, and had things to do during Desert Storm, etc. Much more professional than the Jeff Davis Library, although I realize that's comparing apples to Confederate apples.

We could have driven to my uncle's place in Elgin from Sommerville (perhaps an hour drive), but we'd already made reservations at Bastrop State Park, and so drove there in the morning, and to my uncles that afternoon. Bastrop is so nice, we will be coming back!



Warm and sunny, I wished we'd spent an extra day or so there. But, by this time, we wanted to get home.

Continued...

Tom

[Tom&Shelly]

OK, 12 hours driving time from Bastrop State Park TX to Cedar Crest NM. After 6 months away, and 2 1/2 weeks driving, we wanted to get home, but we also knew we dislike driving more than about 4-5 hours per day. So we plotted a route to Abilene State Park (our 4th Texas State Park, not counting the mis-step at Lake Sommerville) then to Oasis State park NM, and home. We also dislike driving too many days in a row, so we decided to take one more day as a break. Shelly assures me there is nothing to do in the Clovis/Portalis NM area, so we spent a day in Abilene.

Abiline State Park looks like this



Warm days, but cold nights, especially the 2nd one, when a cold front came through. In Abilene itself, we enjoyed sunny short sleeve weather (high 70's), and saw the Grace Museum (art history) in the morning, and the 12th Armored Division museum (World War II history) in the afternoon. Somewhere along the way, we think we picked up colds, that began to manifest a day and a half later, as we drove home.

Honestly, I forgot to take a picture of the campsite at Oasis State Park. It was flat and windy. Like West Texas (only 20 miles away) but perhaps with a hint of New Mexico cactus. Highlight of those two days was brunch at Penny's Diner in Vaughn, a place I try and visit whenever passing through the area.

So, three and a half weeks, 11 state parks, and some wildly changing weather conditions. Next year, we leave by October! But it was fun.

I should mention, before starting this trip, I noticed some minor damage to our teardrop which I'll detail in our build journal.

Also, interestingly, Tony brought to our attention some pictures of our tear taken while on the road in North Carolina and posted to a Facebook page.

If we had it to do over, knowing what we know now, including the vagaries of the weather, I think I'd have skipped Delaware if at all possible, and headed more along the coasts, trying to find warmer weather. We also would skip Sea Rim at all costs, possibly trying to find a place in Louisiana and spending a day there. Then, nice as Bastrop is, an extra day in Lake Sommerville would have been fine for us. But, in fact, we made all decisions past New Jersey on the fly, judging the weather and our priorities as we went.

Tom

[Capebuild]

Nice, Tom! I enjoyed reading of your recent travels.... and sounds like you made it home (that's what counts). Reading this brings it all back to me. Glad to hear of your Eagle Scout status, says one to another