Author: davesaari

As past readers know, we sold our RV last fall. However, that doesn’t mean my travel blogging is over. A funny thing gradually happened as I wrote all those posts documenting our RV travels from 2018 through 2021. While the initial intent was simply to document the trips for our family and friends back in Minnesota – so they would know that we were still alive and (hopefully) well – I came to realize that the blog posts also served two other purposes. First, they turned out to be good for remembering what we had actually done, which is great for memory-challenged senior citizens like Pat and me. And second, I actually had a great time writing them. So, why can’t I write travel blogs for non-RV trips? I can see no reason (although perhaps some readers can).

At any rate, as 2021 drew to a close, I was getting set to write a travel blog during our upcoming Viking Ocean Cruise trip to Greece and Turkey. But then, the Covid Omicron variant reared its ugly head and, as nightmarish visions appeared of being stuck in Athens trying to get a Covid test so we could get back home, we cancelled the trip. This led to some serious moping in the Saari household. We were still moping as February rolled around when Steve Aldrich, my friend and golfing partner from Grand Marais, sent me an e-mail about a Road Scholar program called “The Best Golf of Your Life,” a week of golf instruction and play at several courses in St. George, Utah, in late April. Just the thing to lift my spirits. But what about Pat?

“You could come, too,” I said hopefully.

“And do what?” she replied – a very logical question since she has no interest whatsoever in golf.

“There’s a one-day trip to Zion National Park included in the program. You could come for that,” I said, trying not to wheedle.

“Been there, done that,” she said, since we had visited Zion on our Excellent Adventure in 2019.

“But remember how nice the bike trails were in St. George when we were there back in 2019? You could bike your brains out while I’m golfing,” I suggested. Pat’s brow furrowed slightly as she considered this option.

“What, you mean I could rent a bike out there? That might be expensive if I did it for several days,” she said. “And I certainly couldn’t bring my own bike on a plane.”

“No, that’s not what I was thinking. We do have a bike rack, you know. And the Tesla has a hitch receiver.”

We spent a few moments exchanging meaningful glances before excitement began to build in both our minds.

“Yes!” we shouted simultaneously. “Road trip!!!”

Suddenly our lost trip to Greece and Turkey was forgotten as we began to plan a Tesla road trip. I found a great app called A Better Route Planner (ABRP) which can search out the best way to get from any point A to any point B with an appropriate set of stops for charging an electric car. We plotted a route from Minneapolis to St. George that would get us there in four days, by early afternoon on Sunday, April 24. We booked overnight stays at three Airbnb locations – renting entire premises, since we were still having a fair amount of Covid anxiety. We even bought new tires for the Tesla, since the originals weren’t rated for much more than 20,000 miles and we were already approaching that milestone. The excitement continued to build until 9 AM on Thursday, April 21, Pat’s 65^th birthday, when we hauled our luggage down to the garage in our Condo building, loaded up the car, checked our e-bikes, which I had mounted on the bike rack the day before, and backed out of our parking space. That’s when the first issue popped up.

“Why is our brand-new front left tire flat?” asked Pat, noting the warning message on the car’s display screen.

“Beats me,” I said. “It wasn’t flat yesterday.”

“Are you sure?” she replied. “Did you actually check the tires yesterday?”

She had me there, of course. So, we pumped up the tire with the air compressor in the garage and headed to Discount Tire to have it checked. By the time they had discovered and repaired the problem (a leaky valve stem), we were already three hours behind the first day’s schedule, which called for 6 hours and 36 minutes of driving and two charging stops. But at least we were on our way.

As we drove through the countryside toward our first planned charging stop in Worthington, MN, we were serenaded by a melodious tone from the rear of the car, perhaps similar to the sound of those fabled sirens, the Lorelei, who enticed witless sailors to their deaths in days of yore. As an engineer who has studied fluid mechanics, I of course knew that this sound was the result of vortices formed by the airflow across the bikes and bike rack on the back of the car, known as Aeolian tones. I hate to admit that I was just as witless as those sailors, despite my study of fluid mechanics, but we were saved from doom by the Tesla itself.

As we approached within about 60 miles of our first planned stop, the Tesla Supercharger in Worthington, Gerty Google, the nice woman in the Tesla Navigation app, suddenly told us to turn south. At first we were puzzled by this, but then we noticed that a much closer Tesla Supercharger in Sherburne, MN, had popped up on the display screen as our next destination. Then the proverbial shoe dropped with a resounding thud. The bikes on the car were not only making seductive music, they were also significantly increasing the aerodynamic drag on the car, and we didn’t have enough juice left in the battery to make it to Worthington. I had failed to account for the increased power consumption when I laid out our plan with the ABRP app. (I had a sudden mental image of Professor Ephraim Sparrow smirking at the other professors on my Ph.D. oral examination committee back in 1974. “I told you we shouldn’t have passed this moron,” he was saying in his most pompous manner.)

Anyway, that was the second issue in our rocky start to the Eclectic Electric Road Trip. The entire plan was obsolete, as we were going to have to make a lot more charging stops than I had planned for. By the time we reached the first Airbnb in Winner, SD, it was 8:20 PM. We had been travelling for 11 hours and twenty minutes, including an hour and a half at Discount Tire and two extra charging stops. At least the Airbnb was a nice, four-room building with a comfy bed, and we enjoyed a good night’s sleep (though the heater didn’t work) before departing at 9 AM Friday morning. Little did we know that things were only going to get worse.

The great plan called for us to reach the second Airbnb, in Douglas, WY, at 4 PM. Having adjusted our charging stops to match the increased energy consumption due to the bicycles, we again made two extra charging stops along the way. One of those was in Wall, SD, where we took advantage of the break to have lunch at the iconic but kitschy Wall Drug. (I had a buffalo hot dog, which was surprisingly tasty.)

Our last charging stop for the day was at Lusk, WY, some 52 miles from the next Airbnb. As we headed westward, we began to notice an ominous looking cloud ahead. We had just passed the town of Manville when there was a startling clunk on the glass roof of the car. A minute later there was another, then another, and suddenly we were being pelted by marble-sized hailstones. Pat urged me to turn back to Manville, but I couldn’t see any advantage to that, though I did slow down a bit. But within minutes the road surface was thick with hailstones and driving was impossible, so I pulled off the road into a farmer’s driveway to wait out the storm. The hailstones seemed to get larger and the noise was deafening. We were certain that the car roof was going to break and that our troublesome but beloved e-bikes were going to be wrecked.

Luckily, the hail stopped after about fifteen minutes, replaced by a steady but happily non-threatening rain, and the roof remained intact. I crept back onto the road and headed toward Douglas again, but there was a thick layer of hailstones covering the entire road and we could only move at about five or ten miles an hour. Eventually we drove out of the hail-covered area and were able to resume normal speed, completing our trip to the Airbnb in the rain. Our arrival time was 5:46 PM, so our travel time was 8.8 hours, only about two hours longer than planned. Oops, there was a time zone change as we were now on Pacific time, so make that three hours late.

The second Airbnb was also nice – a stand-alone cottage with kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and two baths, located in the back yard of the owners. Once we got settled in and determined that the car and bikes were essentially intact, we drove into the town of Douglas for dinner at a decent steakhouse. As we left the steakhouse, we noticed a nearby Hampton Inn with a Tesla destination charger, which turned out to be significant as things were about to get even worse.

I woke up at 5 AM Saturday morning, which is not unusual for me, and saw a message on my phone from the third Airbnb we had booked. At 3 AM, the host had sent a message canceling our reservation, as she had to rush to the hospital experiencing pre-term labor. I then looked out the living room window and saw that our car was covered in four inches of snow, and that it was snowing heavily. As I searched for another Airbnb to book, Pat emerged from the bedroom to inform me that there was a blizzard warning in effect to the west. We spent an hour or so looking at weather maps and the Wyoming Highway Department website and trying to decide what to do. Eventually we decided to start driving west and just stop somewhere if the conditions were too bad, opting not to book another Airbnb.

Shortly after 8 AM, we began loading up the car again. I had to brush the snow and ice off with my hands because the snow brush/ice scraper was buried at the bottom of the stuff in the car. By 8:30, after about four trips from the cottage to the car, we were on the road again. Driving wasn’t too bad in town, with a few roads already plowed and only three inches or so on the unplowed ones. But as we neared the highway toward Casper, the wind was blowing and visibility was poor.

“Now bear right to take the westbound highway entrance ramp …” Gerty Google intoned.

“Do you see a ramp?” I asked Pat, as I crawled along at 5 mph.

“No,” she replied. “Do you see a highway?”

We continued driving slowly, finding ourselves creeping along on an eastbound highway, with periodic wind gusts blowing the snow and reducing visibility to five feet or less. Every so often, the left lane would have a windblown bare spot and a 4×4 pickup would roar around us and disappear again into the blowing snow. After about fifteen minutes, we came to an exit back toward Douglas. Wending our way through the blowing snow, we eventually found ourselves near that Hampton Inn. It seemed like fate was telling us something, so we stopped to see if they had a room, which they did. The clerk told me where the two Tesla chargers were located, so I drove the car over to find a large pickup truck parked in front of one and a space just wide enough to squeeze into in front of the other. After plugging in the car, I unloaded the luggage and schlepped it into the hotel, but not before chasing down my cap after it blew away in the wind.

So, there we stayed for the rest of the day, periodically checking the weather maps and wondering if we would ever make it to St. George. It was clear we would not get there by early afternoon Sunday, since we had at least 16 hours of travel time yet to go, so I was going to miss the Road Scholar program orientation meeting. But, dear readers, don’t despair. While we indeed had a rocky start, things could only get better from that point. Stay tuned for more blog posts as my tale of Pat and Dave’s Eclectic Electric Road Trip continues.

NOTE TO READERS: Based on the title, you may have jumped to some conclusions about the topic of this post. It is not a divorce or separation announcement (that might have been titled “Farewell to Our Union”) since Pat and I are still very happily married and living together in harmony. It’s also not a rant or screed about the sad state of affairs in our country – not to mention the rest of the world, as well – though those who know me may well have expected such a thing. Since it is neither of those things, what is it? Feel free to read on and find out …

Pat and I have long been interested in RVs, perhaps inspired by her parents’ travels during their golden years. Every winter, they would escape the brutal Minnesota climate and journey to the southern US, towing a fifth-wheel trailer behind their pickup truck. Starting back in the 1980s, we would attend the annual RV Show at the Minneapolis Convention Center and ogle the various show models, vowing to own one someday. Over time, we honed in on smaller, self-contained motorhomes, with the idea that we would wait until our kids had left the nest to actually buy one. One particular Canadian manufacturer, Leisure Travel Vans (LTV), captured our fancy around 2010 or so, and our plan solidified around that choice. We were impressed with the LTV designs and craftsmanship, and especially with the claim that they held their value much more so than other RV brands.

I retired in July 2016, and by the end of that year we had decided to take the plunge. We were living full time in Grand Marais at that time, so our travels to the Twin Cities were relatively infrequent, but we made a trip down in February 2017 to begin the process of purchasing an RV. We attended our last RV Show in Minneapolis on February 10, after which we visited the only Minnesota LTV dealer, a relatively small operation called Lake Region RVs in Ramsey, MN. After looking at various LTV models, discussing options with a friendly salesman named Seth Pasch, and taking a test drive, we decided on a model called the Unity Corner Bed (one of four layouts for the Unity line), and drove back to Grand Marais with a pile of literature and a plan to order one once we decided on the various options. We submitted a purchase agreement via email and made a down payment in early March, with the expectation of taking delivery in April of 2018.

As time went by, we eagerly anticipated the arrival of our new toy. In September, we went on our final tent camping trip, which involved driving to Winkler, Manitoba, as well, where the LTV factory is located. We had a great tour of the factory, which convinced us even more that we had made the right RV choice.

(I was going to put in some photos of the factory, but I can’t find them. Maybe I’ll come back and add them later if I can locate the photos.)

In January 2018, I received a call from Lake Region RVs informing me that our Unity Corner Bed model had arrived. I reminded them that we were not planning to pick it up until April, since we had no place to store it in winter weather. And pick it up we did, on April 17, 2018. I drove it straight from Lake Region RVs to the cabin and parked it in a spot I had picked out among the trees on the east side.

We started out slowly, taking baby steps to learn how everything worked and getting comfortable with RV living. Our first RV camping trip was to Tettegouche State Park, a whopping 62 miles down Highway 61, where we were visited by our friends Gordon and Michele who at that time lived in nearby Silver Bay, MN.

The Tettegouche trip went very well, so we took a bigger step by travelling with the RV around Lake Superior and Lake Huron, also stopping for a quick visit with my eldest sister Ellie and her husband Richard in Dundas, Ontario.

In late July, Pat and I took the RV for a weekend trip to Scenic State Park near Bigfork, MN, with a stop along the way to play golf at the Wilderness at Fortune Bay, near Tower. We camped overnight at the Fortune Bay RV Park before heading on to Scenic.

In early September, I drove the RV to the Twin Cities for the ASE Annual Golf Tournament and the Saari Family Picnic, where I showed it off to assorted relatives.

In early October, my friend Steve Aldrich and I drove the RV to Biwabik, MN. We played golf at Giants Ridge (The Legend and The Quarry) on October 2 and stayed overnight at an RV campground in Biwabik before playing The Wilderness at Fortune Bay the next day.

Then came the first REALLY BIG trip, during which we spent the entire winter from October 2018 through April 2019 away from the harsh winter climate. I’ve thoroughly documented that trip previously in a 12-part series titled Pat and Dave’s Excellent Adventure.

During the summer of 2019, we continued to store the RV at the cabin, and I used it fairly frequently to go golfing at Gunflint Hills. In July, we took the RV to the Jergensen Family Reunion in Dubuque, IA, stopping along the way at Governor Dodge State Park near Spring Green, WI. We also visited Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright estate, while there.

In September 2019, Steve Aldrich and I again took the RV to play golf at Fortune Bay and Giants Ridge. This time we stayed overnight at the Fortune Bay RV Park.

From October 2019 through April 2020, we stored the RV at an outdoor storage facility called Surelock RV Storage in Inver Grove Heights, MN. (This was the only time we had it winterized.) Then it was back to the cabin again for the summer, again using it frequently for golfing at Gunflint Hills.

In September 2020, we took a 3-day trip with the RV to Lake Itasca State Park, in large part to judge how safe we might feel travelling with the RV during the height of the Covid Pandemic.

The Itasca trip went well enough, so we decided to go on another winter trip, from October 2020 through April 2021. Again, this one has been documented in detail in a 10-part series called The Saaris’ (Sorta) Safe Sojourn.

During the Sojourn, we discovered that storing the RV at the cabin had resulted in some issues, notably tree sap accumulation and damage to some wiring by mice or other critters. Also, we were not planning to use it during the subsequent winter. So, starting in April, we stored it at an indoor facility called Airlake Self Storage, in Lakeville, MN.

In August, we took it on another big trip, this one also documented in detail in a 4-part series called Pat and Dave’s Eastern Escapade.

But a funny thing happened on the way back home. On September 24, I got a call from Lake Region RVs, asking us if we’d like to sell the RV on a contingent basis, because they were desperately looking for inventory, given the backlog that had developed due to Covid issues. At the same time, demand for used RVs had skyrocketed, again due to Covid, since many people feel more comfortable RVing during the pandemic than traveling in other ways. Given this situation, they offered to pay us 98% of what we bought it for, if we could get it to them within a week or two. After some teeth gnashing and agonizing, we decided to take them up on it, and dropped it off at Lake Region on October 1.

And now it has been sold. Seth Pasch, now the President of Lake Region RVs, closed the deal and personally gave us our check. After a grand total of 30,200 very enjoyable miles, we’ve said farewell to our Unity. When we bought it, we didn’t intend to keep it for more than a few years, but it still feels like a great loss. We had wonderful times in it, and it truly did hold its value, even more so than we could have expected.

And now we will cherish the memories as we continue to travel in different ways. One specific result of our RV travels is that I learned to enjoy travel blogging, so “watch this space” as Rachel Maddow says, for more travel-related posts in the future.

This is the final installment of our Eastern Escapade, having concluded Part 3 with our final stop in Canada on September 23, a delightful visit with my sister and brother-in-law. So, as suggested by the title, we crossed the border while that classic Beatles tune played in my head: “Back in the US, back in the US, back in the US of A!!!!” (I know that’s not really how the song went, but the USSR doesn’t exist anymore, and I certainly would not be singing about it if we were going there, especially as Vladimir Putin continues to revert to the old authoritarian ways. At least his best US buddy is gone for now …) But enough of that. Let’s get on with the Escapade, shall we?

Sep 24 (Friday): We left my sister’s place under cloudy skies and encountered a few sprinkles as we drove toward the border crossing at Sarnia, Ontario. As I approached the border, I came to a closed gate-arm and a booth occupied by a man in a uniform. I rolled down the window and extended my hand, holding my Minnesota Enhanced Drivers License to prove I was a US citizen worthy of re-admittance. I was met by a blank stare, before he said, “I don’t need that, just the toll, please.” Silly me, we were still in Canada, yet to traverse the massive Blue Water Bridge across the St. Clair River. I sheepishly dug out my credit card and tapped the card reader, trying to act as if I’d known all along that this was a toll booth and not the border, then trundled off again after the gate arm rose. Once on the bridge, I recognized the scene, since we had crossed this same bridge and entered the US once before, back in June of 2018. (That was when we made our first extended trip with the RV, a journey around Lake Superior with a side trip to my sister’s place.) As I recall, in 2018 there were five or more lanes in use, with backups of dozens of cars and trucks in each lane, and the process took something like 30 or 45 minutes. This time, I drove right up to the border agent manning the only open lane, handed him my license (yes, this time that was the proper procedure), answered two questions, and was on my way in less than a minute. Pat later told me she didn’t even need her license when she pulled up directly behind me; the agent just looked at the computer, asked one question, and waved her through. At least there has been one small benefit from the Covid travel restrictions.

After clearing the border, we stopped at a Tesla Supercharger in Port Huron, MI, a 10-minute drive from the border crossing, where we ate lunch in the RV as it charged up for 20 minutes. We then drove to Holly, MI, to the Holly Recreation Area, a lovely state park where we had stayed back in 2018 as well. We took a brief stroll around the campground before dinner, then listed to the raindrops as we were inundated yet again overnight. At least the rain tapered off to a light drizzle by morning.

Sep 25 (Saturday): On Saturday morning, we left the campground in the continuing drizzle and headed north to the Tiki RV Park in St. Ignace, MI. We had booked a two-night stay at this park due to its proximity to the Mackinac Island ferry terminals – we planned to ride over with our bikes on Sunday morning and spend the day exploring the island. When we arrived at the RV Park, however, it didn’t exactly fit with our preconceived notions. The office was closed early, but we did find paperwork in a waterproof box confirming our reservation, including the first night’s deposit and a request that we return in the morning to pay for the second night. We then followed the instructions to drive along a rutted, very bumpy dirt road to our campsite, passing dozens of occupied sites along the way, many of which had one or more 4-wheel ATVs parked alongside the RVs. Once we were settled in, surrounded by an almost continuous roar of ATV engines coming and going past our site, I eagerly took the bikes off the rack and plugged them in, to assure we would have a full charge for our day at Mackinac. Then I sat down to study the ferry schedules and discovered to my chagrin that Mackinac Island bans electric bikes! So much for our great plan. Oh well, we thought, we can still go over there and rent bikes on Sunday. So, I set about re-stowing the bikes on the RV rack. No sooner had I finished tying the rain cover over the bikes when the skies opened and rain began to fall in torrents … yet again. As I grumped away in the RV, I noticed that the loud buzzing of ATVs had diminished somewhat but was now joined by the sounds of loud partying a couple of sites to our east. So poisoned have we become by the divisive atmosphere in our country since 2016 that my only thought was: “Here we sit, surrounded by rowdy yahoos spoiling any enjoyment we might have hoped for. They’re all probably Trump supporters.” I’m not proud of such prejudicial musing, but that’s the way I felt.

Sep 26 (Sunday): By morning, we’d had enough. It was still overcast and drizzly, ATVs were still roaring around, and the promised Wi-Fi did not work at all. Having agreed it would be best for our mental health to just leave, we reserved a spot at a nearby state park that held greater promise. I went to the office to tell them our plans had changed, and they graciously agreed to waive the fee for another night. As we drove off, I realized I hadn’t taken a single picture in St. Ignace, not even of our RV site. I suppose that says it all. But we were soon out of the city and having a pleasant drive along a lovely, forested highway on the north side of Lake Michigan, and within an hour or so we had arrived at the Indian Lake State Park near Manistique, MI. We had a very nice site next to the lake for which the park is named, and the sky had even cleared up by the time we were settled in. We took a nice 2-mile walk along a trail that circled the campground, first along the lakeshore and then through the woods and next to a small creek.

As evening approached, I realized we would probably get to see a nice sunset, so went out to sit by the lake with my trusty camera. (It’s actually just my Samsung Galaxy smartphone, but that’s the modern world, right?) I was rewarded by this beautiful display put on by Mother Nature:

The pleasant day and restful night erased the frustrations of our stay in St. Ignace, to the point that I can’t really remember much about that lousy day. Wait, now which day was I talking about?

Sep 27- (Monday): On Monday morning, we headed off for our next stop, the Pioneer Trail Campground in Gladstone, MI, where we had a lovely site overlooking the Escanaba River.

Once we were set up, it was time for another personal visit, this time with a longtime friend of Pat’s named Holly, who lives in the adjacent city of Escanaba, MI. (Does she spend her time “in da Moonlight,” you may ask? I’m going to have to watch that movie, assuming I can stomach some Jeff Daniels slapstick, to see if I recognize any of the locations.) Holly is a very talented artist and seamstress (to use an old-fashioned phrase), and about 5 years ago, Pat had promised to give her a sewing machine she no longer uses. So, we had been lugging that machine in the back of the Tesla, including a fairly large cabinet that rattled around with every bump and turn, for some 4,500 miles since departing from Grand Marais on August 24. As a result, the first thing I did when we pulled into Holly’s driveway was to wrestle that cabinet out of the car, and the three of us had to set up the machine in her basement before any serious visiting was allowed. Once that was done, we had a great time catching up on the years since we last met, and Holly fixed us a delicious dinner (including absolutely the best meatloaf I have ever had in my life). We also got to meet her dog and cat, who were probably glad to see us leave after several hours. As we drove off at dusk, it was eerily quiet in the Tesla, which brought smiles to our faces.

Sep 28- (Tuesday): The next morning, we drove to the Union Bay Campground in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, another place we had stayed during our Lake Superior circumnavigation back in 2018. Our site was right next to Lake Superior, only a short walk away on a stony path through the trees.

We were thrilled to have our third consecutive rain-free day, which we spent primarily relaxing by the shore. We retired early so we could get up and watch the sunrise in the morning, which was glorious.

Let’s see now, Manistique: sunset … Lake Superior: sunrise … I can hear Tevye singing in my head just to think of it: “Sunset, sunrise,” or something like that …

Sep 29-30 (Wednesday-Thursday): Our original plan for the next few days was to camp near Bayfield, WI, and take the ferry to Madeleine Island for some biking. However, we had not been able to find a single campground in the vicinity with vacancy during this time period. So, we decided to head back toward home a bit earlier than intended. Plan B ended up as a two-night stay at St. Croix State Park near Hinckley, MN. We learned that St. Croix (33,985 acres) is the largest state park in Minnesota, and it certainly felt big as we drove for about 5 miles from the entrance sign to the park office. We found the campground to be only about 30% occupied, and we had a large, partly shaded site. We took a short hike along a trail near the campground, then spent much of Wednesday afternoon sorting through everything in the RV and storing as much of it as possible in the Tesla. On Thursday morning, we went on a 5-mile ride along an excellent bike path that wound through a diverse landscape of forest and prairie land, passing by structures built by CCC workers in the 1930s.

After some more sorting and packing, I drove around the park on tree-lined, gravel roads to visit sites of interest, including the St. Croix boat landing, the Kettle River, and a very impressive, 100-ft tall fire tower built in 1937. I was surprised to see that the tower was open to the public, so I had to climb the 134 steps and enjoy a spectacular view from above the trees. Perhaps the most amazing thing of all was that we had two more days without rain, for the longest run of dry weather since we started the Escapade.

Oct 1- (Friday): On Friday, we put the bike rack on the Tesla and stowed the bikes, jammed a few more items in the car, and headed off to Lake Region RVs in Ramsey, MN, the place where we bought the RV back in April of 2018. It was overcast as we packed up to go, and, fittingly, it started to rain cats and dogs during the drive. Mercifully, the rain stopped before we arrived, allowing us to deliver our beloved machine without getting soaked. But why were we delivering it to the dealer, anyway? I’ll explain all that in a future post.

So, we have successfully concluded Pat and Dave’s Eastern Escapade. Here’s a map of the journey, which amounted to a total of 4,880 miles during the five weeks and two days since departing the condo on August 25.

I hope you have enjoyed my little chronicle, and maybe you’ll enjoy reading about our future travels as well. Good day for now!

This is the third installment of our Eastern Escapade, having concluded Part 2 on September 10 in a state of limbo (actually in the state of Maine, but what’s a little hyperbole among friends?) wondering if we would be allowed to cross the border into Canada. Based on the title of this episode, you’ve probably guessed the outcome, but feel free to read on anyway!

Sep 11-12 (Saturday-Sunday): We awoke Saturday morning and immediately opened our email apps hoping to find the results of the Covid tests we took at the local Walgreen’s on Thursday. We were delighted to see that we both had received notification of our negative results, meaning we still had 24 of the hours allowed by Canadian authorities to enter their beautiful country. Since we were only a half hour away from the border, we were in like Flynn. So, we packed up the RV and headed east. As we neared the border crossing located smack dab in the middle of Interstate Highway 95, it felt rather eerie. There we were, driving along in our RV and our Tesla on a 6-lane freeway, and were literally the only two vehicles on the road. When we reached the border crossing, there were three cars waiting in the automobile lane and none in the RV lane. We each presented our supporting documents, received some instructions about the requirements for visiting Canada, and were waved through within a few minutes. In short, the requirements for getting into Canada were: 1) be fully vaccinated for Covid-19, 2) show proof of a negative Covid molecular test within the previous 72 hours, 3) agree to wear a mask and social distance in all indoor public spaces, and 4) agree to quarantine for 2 weeks if either of us came down with symptoms after entering. Since we are not Republicans, these all seemed to be reasonable requests rather than existential threats to our personal freedom, so we each thanked our respective border agent and happily drove into the lovely countryside of New Brunswick. After about three hours of driving, we arrived at an RV park in Quebec called Camping le Rayon de Soleil, or (roughly translated) Campground of the Ray of Sunshine. The drive through the pretty countryside was very pleasant, though it was a bit disconcerting that all the road signs were in French only, so we often had no idea what they were telling us to do. C’est la vie, … when in Rome, … er France, … er New Brunswick, … er Quebec …

The campground was nice enough, but rather than rays of sunshine, we mostly encountered drops of rain. We stayed for two nights, and it rained fairly steadily for at least 80% of the time we were there. We did have a brief interlude of non-rain on Sunday morning, so we took the Tesla for a spin around the area and found a lovely little park with some spectacular views of the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River. There was also a nice hiking trail at the campground itself that wound along a small, adjacent creek. The only real disappointment was that the 50-amp circuit did not work for charging the Tesla, so we had to use the slow, 15-amp circuit on the side of the RV. Nevertheless, we had enough time to charge it up for the next leg of the trip.

Sep 13-15 (Monday-Wednesday): On Monday morning, we left the Campground of the Drops of Water and drove a couple of hours southwest along the St. Lawrence to Camping Juneau, a large RV park in a southwest suburban area near Quebec City. The friendly man at the camp office gave me a nice map and explained how to go into the city, which we did on Tuesday, an easy half-hour drive along a good freeway that led directly into the city proper. We spent a wonderful, sunny afternoon in the old city, or Vieux Quebec, walking around on the old 18^th century walls and the modern walkways, admiring the beautiful buildings, stunning views of the St. Lawrence, and a lovely fountain by the Parliament building. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Bistro 1640, a nice café with outdoor seating, where we needed to show our vaccine cards and wear masks to gain entry. The only sour note was a small but vocal crowd of anti-vax protesters near Parliament, who can be seen in the background of the last photo below. The good news was that the crowd was small and did not attract any attention from the vast majority of the Quebecoise, who were clearly taking the pandemic seriously while getting on with their lives.

By Tuesday evening, the sunshine was long gone and it was raining again, so we puttered around in the RV all of Wednesday morning. Luckily, the rain stopped by midafternoon, and we drove to the nearby Montmorency Falls Park, just east of Quebec City. At 272 feet, Montmorency Falls is more than 100 feet higher than Niagara Falls. We spent a couple of hours walking around the park, riding a cable car from the upper parking area to the bottom of the falls, climbing 187 steps up a walkway for a nice view of the area, then down again, then up and down 44 steps again to get a photo of the cable cars, then back up in the cable car to admire the view from the top. (Full disclosure: I myself climbed up and down the stairs, but 187 steps only amounted to about a third of the way due to excessive huffing and puffing. Pat didn’t get winded at all, because she didn’t even try to climb the steps.)

After visiting Montmorency, we stopped at Buche Cuisine Quebecois, a nice restaurant in Vieux Quebec, for dinner. Pat had a delicious salmon meal while I enjoyed the national dish of Quebec – Pate Chinois – which is basically a local version of shepherd’s pie. The story goes that this meal was named Chinese Pie when developed as an economical way to feed the mostly Chinese workers building the railroads in the late 1800s, but soon became wildly popular throughout all of Quebec. I gave it two thumbs up, causing me to spill some on my shirt.

Sep 16-20 (Thursday-Monday): We departed from Camping Juneau on Thursday morning and headed for the Montreal West KOA RV Park. We had decided to stay there for five days because it was somewhat near to both Montreal and Ottawa, and we figured we could travel relatively easily to either city for day trips without having to worry too much about moving the RV around. That decision was made before we learned about traffic in the Montreal area. By the time we waded through the sea of cars and trucks on the Montreal freeways, my poor knees were aching and my head was spinning. The total trip was supposed to take just over three hours. The first 80% or so was smooth enough and took about 2 hours, but then we hit the beginning of the Montreal traffic and it was stop and go for another hour or more for the next 10% due to an accident somewhere in the vicinity – at least that’s what I think the French language traffic alerts were telling me. The final 10% was better, taking about a half hour to get to the KOA. The campground itself was nice and fairly sparsely occupied. There was a short “nature trail” that made for a nice evening walk, and good restroom and shower facilities suitable for a long stay.

On Friday we made our first foray into Montreal and discovered that the traffic back into town was just as miserable as the traffic coming out of town had been on Thursday. We eventually made it into the Old Port, or Vieux-Port, where we walked around for several hours. This part of Montreal was pedestrian-friendly, a welcome relief from the stifling traffic on the way there. We had a nice lunch at a café called the Vieux-Port Steakhouse, which again required proof of vaccination and masks for entry. We visited a wonderful square across from the Notre Dame Basilica, where two statues outside the Banque Nationale du Canada featured a pair of whimsical statues: a haughty man carrying an English Pug at one corner and a fashionable woman with a French poodle at the other. The people are looking in opposite directions, but the dogs are focused longingly on each other. We saw the remnants of a hospital founded by nuns in the 18^th century alongside modern business establishments. We strolled through an amusement park, where we had an ice cream cone, before driving to Mount Royal Park where we found some lovely views of the St. Lawrence. Best of all, we once again had sunshine. Fully refreshed, we were able to handle the grueling traffic on our way back to the KOA.

Saturday was somewhat rainy again, and we just didn’t have the gumption to face that awful traffic again. There was a decent laundry facility at the KOA, so we decided to make use of that instead. I had a little difficulty explaining to the French-speaking woman in the office why I needed so many quarters for the machines, belatedly realizing that $1.50 Canadian in a washing machine or dryer required only 2 quarters, plus a dollar coin, instead of all quarters like US machines. Duh.

On Sunday we opted for a trip to Ottawa. Even though it was twice as far away, the trip was much more enjoyable due to the lack of traffic and rural setting for most of the way. The traffic in Ottawa itself was also less congested, and we easily made our way to a parking ramp in the CF Rideau Center near Parliament Hill. The ramp conveniently had a Tesla Supercharger on its lowest floor, so we stopped for a 12-minute sip of electricity (just to have a comfortable margin for the return trip and to try out a Canadian Supercharger) before parking and heading off to explore Ottawa. We spent several hours there, walking around Parliament Hill with its impressive array of Government buildings, enjoying beautiful views of the Ottawa River, enjoying lunch at an outdoor café, and exploring the upper locks of the Rideau Canal, a 126-mile canal to the St. Lawrence River opened in 1832. We watched a couple of small boats pass through the locks, and it was interesting to see the lock attendants manually opening and closing the water gates to let them pass through five or six drops down to the Ottawa River, a process that took about half an hour to go 500 yards or so. We concluded our Ottawa visit by strolling through the ByWard Market, where Pat bought some tea and we enjoyed watching a bevy of dogs attending some sort of pet event.

On Monday, we psyched ourselves up for another trip to Montreal, this time to visit the famous Botanical Gardens. We were pleasantly surprised to find the drive in much smoother, taking only an hour to make it the whole way. The Botanical Gardens were absolutely fantastic, with sections devoted to various habitats and cultures, including a very large exhibition greenhouse with various exotic plants, a First Nations garden, an Alpine garden, a Chinese Garden, a Japanese garden, an Aquatic garden, a Rose garden, and more. We spent four hours exploring the various gardens, with an outdoor lunch at the appropriately named Garden Restaurant to sustain us halfway along, and left totally satisfied.

The drive back to the KOA took a little longer than the trip in, about an hour and a half, but it was nowhere near as bad as our previous trips through Montreal. We knew we were still in Francophone land, though, when we saw this sign for that well-known fried chicken restaurant, Poulet frit à la Kentucky:

Sep 21-22 (Tuesday-Wednesday): On Tuesday morning, we departed the KOA and drove to the Sandbanks Provincial Park just north of Lake Ontario. Our campground was near West Lake, which was formed when a huge sand bar, apparently the largest freshwater baymouth barrier sandbar in the world, worked its way across a bay of Lake Ontario, completely sealing off the bay and forming a contained lake. The park area consists of massive sand dunes and regions known as pannes, which are at times completely filled with water and completely dry at others (as they were during our visit). We had an excellent site, very remote from any other campers, with easy walking access to a multitude of hiking trails. We walked along the Dunes Trail on Tuesday afternoon and planned to do more hiking on Wednesday, but – you guessed it – it started raining shortly after our hike, coming down in sheets and buckets at times, and rained all Tuesday night and all day Wednesday. So, instead of hiking, we drove to the nearby town of Picton for groceries on Wednesday and hunkered down in the RV until it was time to move on.

Sep 23- (Thursday): On Thursday morning, we headed for my sister’s home in Dundas, Ontario. We drove through rain for about the first half of the journey, after which it finally cleared up in time to make our way through the massive multi-lane freeways in the greater Toronto area. At one point, my phone’s GPS gave up the ghost so I was following Pat in the Tesla. When she moved a lane to the right, I couldn’t immediately follow due to cars whizzing by in the right lane, and by the time I got over there she was completely out of sight and I was completely lost. It took me about five miles to find an accessible freeway off ramp, but I finally did, stopping to reset my Google maps app and reestablish the route to a Tesla Supercharger in Burlington, Ontario. When I got there, Pat was halfway through charging up the car. We ate lunch in the RV while the Tesla finished charging and then took off for Ellie’s place. She and her husband, Richard, are octogenarians in excellent health, and they did a fine job of feeding and entertaining us Thursday evening, as we caught up on each other’s lives and shared tales of each other’s escapades. We spent the night in our RV, parked in their driveway.

This stop essentially ended the Canadian portion of our Escapade, as our plans called for returning to the US in the morning. Here’s a map of the journey so far:

So, this epic post has finally come to an end. All is well. The Eastern Escapade will conclude in the next episode, so stay tuned …

As I sit down to write the second installment of our Eastern Escapade, Pat and I are holed up in the RV at the Houlton / Canadian Border KOA in Houlton, ME. She’s engrossed in one of her consulting projects, while I’m just uselessly twiddling my thumbs (or at least I was before I started writing.) The weather outside is miserable, with a steady rain that has persisted for more than 24 hours with nary a break, punctuated by extended periods of drenching downpours – apparently due to the presence of Hurricane Larry in the nearby Atlantic Ocean. Our journey has ground to a halt as we wait. What are we waiting for, and what have we been up to until now? Read on, and all will be revealed.

Sep 5-7 (Sunday-Tuesday): On Sunday we departed from the Forest Ridge Campground in Ellsworth, ME, for our much-anticipated visit to the Acadia National Park. Before describing Acadia, I need to clarify something I wrote in Part 1 of this narrative. When we started looking into possible dates for this trip back in July, we were thinking of going in late September or early October, but we quickly learned that the demand for RV camping spots at Acadia is very high. They take reservations up to 2 months in advance (not 6 months), but were nearly fully booked for that entire window. While a few sites were open for a day or two, we could find only one site available for as much as three days and decided to reserve that one before it, too, was gone. We would have loved to stay longer, but there was simply nothing available.

In short, Acadia is AWESOME. We had a fantastic RV site at the Schoodic Woods Campground, located in a newer portion of the Park on the Schoodic Peninsula, across Frenchmen Bay from the main part of the Park located on Mount Desert Island. Here’s a rather poor photo of the park map indicating the various roads and trails we drove, biked, and hiked on during our stay.

The Schoodic Woods Campground is a recent addition to the Acadia National Park, opening in 2015. As such, it is the only campground in the park that offers electric sites for RVs. The main part of the park on Mount Desert Island was designated as Sieur de Monts National Monument in 1913 and was soon upgraded to a National Park in 1916. The contrast between the two parts could not have been more stark. While both offer stunning views and ample opportunities for hiking and biking, the main park was teeming with people; most parking lots were overflowing, and the hiking trails were jammed with park visitors. The nearby town of Bar Harbor has lots of hotels and motels for visitors who don’t want to camp. We made a brief pass through the town for a grocery stop and the traffic was unnerving. Over on Schoodic, on the other hand, we encountered very few people, and the RV sites were so widely spaced we were barely aware of any other campers, even though the campground was filled to capacity. Any readers care to guess which part Mr. Introverted Finnlander preferred?

Shortly after arriving on Sunday, we headed off on our bikes to Schoodic Point, the southernmost tip of the peninsula. There we found a fascinating rock outcropping that reminded us a great deal of our beloved Lake Superior North Shore, although the colors of the rocks were generally much lighter. The bike route was a combination of wide, gravel trails and the park road itself. The gravel trails were not very well packed and felt quite treacherous when winding down steep hills, but the two-lane, one-way road was excellent for biking since cars could easily pass in the left lane without bothering the bikers. The complete biking round-trip was just over 10 miles, and it felt good to be riding again after the long drive from Minnesota (although my knees didn’t feel so grateful that evening.)

On Monday, we drove from Schoodic Woods to the main park sector, where we had reserved a 10 AM time slot to drive up to Cadillac Mountain. Even though all we were doing was going from one part of the park to the other, the drive was 42 miles around the bays and took well over an hour. We had reserved this time way back in July, and the NPS does not allow one to make a second reservation on the same day, so there was no opportunity to change the time – we just had to go. The reason I’m lamenting this inflexibility is that Monday morning came with pea-soup fog and intermittent drizzle. As I drove the Tesla up the winding road to Cadillac Mountain, there were places I could not see ahead more than 100 feet. So, when we got to the top, the expected spectacular views of the ocean and surroundings were, well, not exactly spectacular. All we could do was adopt a Zen-like attitude and imagine what we were missing. At least there were some nice signs with pictures of what we could have seen on a clear day.

Despite the weather, we did enjoy some nice hiking on the trails at the top of the mountain. The rock formations and vegetation were particularly interesting. Cadillac Mountain granite has a pinkish tint, and prolific lichen growth gives it a unique appearance. And, at the end of our visit, I did get a cool T-shirt at the gift shop.

After Cadillac Mountain, we drove around the perimeter road, stopping occasionally to admire the coastal views, and eventually made our way to a beautiful inland lake called Jordan Pond. We had another nice hike there, followed by a late outdoor lunch at a very good restaurant where we enjoyed enormous popovers, seafood chowder, and lobster stew.

As the afternoon wore on, and especially as we drove back toward our camp site, it was only to be expected that the sky cleared, leaving us sadly wishing we had scheduled Cadillac Mountain for the afternoon instead of the morning. C’est la vie!

On Tuesday morning, I took a quick bike ride to Frazer Point and back and then stowed the bikes on the RV’s bike rack once again. I then drove to the nearby town of Winter Harbor for an excellent takeout lunch from a place called Chase’s Restaurant (lobster roll for Pat, and something called a lobster BLT for me). Once properly fueled, we took a hike along the Lower Harbor Trail, just across the main access road from the campground. This was a great trail that passed through the woods and alongside the waters of Winter Harbor to the east of Schoodic Peninsula. However, in contrast to the easy, open trails we took at the Jordan Pond on Monday, this one was rough and rugged, with lots of small hills and many sections that were strewn with roots and rocks. The return leg of the hike followed the wide, gravel paths I mentioned above, but my knees were not in any way happy when we got back. While it was only a little over 5 miles, it felt like 25 to me. It’s no fun getting old, dear readers.

Once we had recovered from the hike, we took to the car again and drove to Schoodic point, where we enjoyed a lovely sunset, our last memory of a wonderful stay at Acadia.

Sep 8-10 (Wednesday-Friday): On Wednesday morning, we sadly departed Acadia, wishing we could have stayed several more days. Oh, well, we’ll just have to come back again someday. We proceeded to a KOA located in Houlton, ME, where we had scheduled Covid-19 tests at the local Walgreen’s for Thursday morning. Why do we need Covid tests, you may ask? Because we would like to go to Canada next, and in order to do so we need to show proof of vaccinations as well as a recent negative test. The test must be a molecular test (PCR or NAT or similar), not a rapid test such as one typically gets at Walgreen’s or CVS, and it must be done no more than 72 hours before crossing the border. Since it takes 48 or more of those hours to get the results, this poses a bit of a logistics problem. We spent a fair amount of time back at Acadia trying to find a test site and eventually determined that the regional hospital in Houlton would do the tests for us. But by the time I called them on Saturday, no one was available to schedule anything and I was told to call back Tuesday (after the Labor Day holiday). And then when I called on Tuesday, I was told we needed a referral from a doctor to get the test. So, no joy there. By then, we had booked the site at the Houlton KOA, so we were in a real dilemma. Pat eventually discovered that Walgreen’s now offers PCR tests as well as the rapid tests, so we were able to schedule those for Thursday morning. Thus feeling guardedly optimistic, we drove to Houlton.

During the night, it began to rain. In fact, it poured buckets before easing at dawn. But, as we drove to Walgreen’s Thursday morning, it began to rain again. The testing was quick and easy, only taking 10 minutes for both of us, after which we returned through the rain to the KOA, where we still sit this Friday morning, patiently waiting for our test results. Wait a minute, is that the sun I see? We seem to have a respite from the rain. How long will it last? And will we get our test results in time to enter Canada? I’ll let you know in the next installment.

One final note: Several readers have expressed dismay about the fact that I haven’t done any golfing. (Apparently my links exploits in past blog posts have been appreciated more than I would have thought.) Just to put your minds at ease, I wanted to mention that I did go golfing last Monday. I played 18 holes on a nice course with lush, green fairways and a spirited creek running through it. I had a good round, with 3 birdies, 7 pars, 6 bogeys, and 2 lousy double bogeys for an overall, fairly impressive, 7 over par. And Pat played well, too, with 14 over. Wait … what? Pat played golf, you gasp! Why yes, I had 42 and she had 49. Oh, did I mention that it was a pretty short course?

But seriously, though my clubs are back in the garage at the Cabin, I’m doing fine with no golf on this trip, so don’t look for any golf stories going forward. That’s our story of the Escapade so far. Here’s a map of the trip to this point:

All is well. Stay tuned as the Eastern Escapade continues.

Dear readers: It’s time for another in our series of travel blogs. As some may remember, I’ve documented two winter trips to the southwestern US through multiple blog posts, each covering roughly a two-week period. The blog posts were great fun for me and also provided records of the trips for posterity. As with most things Saari, having done this a couple of times means that it now must be done every time we go travelling. Doing something twice makes it an absolute requirement for all future Saari activities of a similar nature.

This time, we will be travelling to the Acadia National Park on the coast of Maine, which is something we had wanted to do back in 2019 but put off due to an annoying medical issue. When we started looking into possible dates for the trip back in July, we were thinking of going in late September or early October. We quickly learned that the demand for RV camping spots at Acadia is very high. They take reservations up to 6 months in advance, but were nearly fully booked for that entire window. We did find one site available from September 5^th through 8^th and decided to reserve it before it, too, was gone.

So here we go with our next big RV trip: Pat and Dave’s Eastern Escapade!

August 25 (Wednesday): I played the last match of the 2021 Senior Golf League at Gunflint Hills in Grand Marais on Tuesday and then immediately took off to join Pat at our condo in Minneapolis (she had already gone down a few days earlier). We spent an hour on Wednesday morning loading up the Tesla with stuff for the trip, which wouldn’t have been that big a deal except that the elevator in the condo had died, thus requiring half a dozen trips up and down the five flights of stairs between the condo and the parking garage. Totally soaked with sweat and feeling very much like a rickety 71-year-old, I was almost ready to cancel the trip before we even started. But I couldn’t bear to disappoint my lovely bride, so I screwed up my courage and soldiered on. I did make her drive the Tesla, which was overflowing with stuff and carrying our bikes on the bike rack, to Lakeville, where we grabbed the RV from the Airlake Self Storage facility and headed to Whitewater State Park in Altura, MN, for our first night’s stay. The park was not very full, and we did some exploring on our bikes before transferring the rack to the RV and stowing away the stuff we had brought along for the trip. We charged up the Tesla overnight at our campsite (the RV uses a 30 amp outlet, leaving the 50 amp outlet available for charging at those campsites that include one) so we were ready to head off again in the morning.

Aug 26 (Thursday): On Thursday morning, we took off for the Mill Bluff State Park in Wisconsin. As always, I drove the RV and Pat drove the Tesla. The park was sparsely occupied, with no other campers in our vicinity, perhaps because it’s a no-frills campground, with pit toilets and no showers, and only 30 amp and 15 amp outlets. The 15 amp outlet can only charge the Tesla at a rate of 5 miles per hour of charging, so we plugged it in right away and left it on all afternoon and all night to add enough miles for the next day’s travel.

Aug 27 (Friday): On Friday morning, we left Mill Bluff and headed for the SS Badger Ferry terminal in Manitowoc, WI. It had been sprinkling on and off since Thursday afternoon, and the rain intensified to a steady drizzle as we drove eastward. Before boarding the ferry, we stopped at a small lakeside park in Manitowoc for lunch in the RV, at which time a downpour ensued. It continued to rain as we drove to the terminal and left the RV and the Tesla in designated parking spots for the crew to load on the ferry. By the time we had boarded, we were quite wet, and the rain persisted (though more lightly) for almost the entire 4-hour trip across Lake Michigan. Thankfully, it stopped before we arrived at the Ludington terminal in Michigan and held off as we drove 6 miles to the Ludington State Park. We managed to find our campsite and get settled in, though it was dark by the time I had plugged in the RV and the Tesla (again only a 15 amp outlet was available). We could tell that our site was quite nice, though it was hard to fully appreciate it in the dark. And then it began to pour again, coming down in buckets for several hours, during which time the 15 amp circuit breaker tripped. As a result, we only managed to add 20 miles to the Tesla, clearly not enough to get to our next stop. This was the first time we had any problem charging the car at a campsite, but it proved to be only a minor glitch in our plans.

Aug 28 (Saturday): In the morning, we drove to a Tesla Supercharger located about 10 miles from the Ludington State Park, charging up the Tesla at a high-speed, high-voltage DC charger in about a half hour before heading off for the Groveland Oaks County Park in Holly, MI. We encountered only intermittent sprinkles along the way, but the park roads had some very large puddles from the previous night’s downpour. The park was very spacious, with large sites, and our neighbors were having a family outing with about five tentfuls of exuberant campers. It was so hot that we ran the RV air conditioner for the first time in ages, and that drowned out the noise. Meanwhile, the Tesla was happily charging at 30 miles per hour from the 50 amp circuit, and we were ready to go again in the morning.

Aug 29 (Sunday): We took off in the morning for the Geneva State Park in Geneva, OH. Though the Tesla had enough charge to get there, we stopped along the way at another Supercharger in Sheffield, OH, to top up because our site at Geneva again only offered a 15 amp circuit for the car. The Geneva park was located next to Lake Erie, and I took a nice walk to a place on the shore where a funky looking creek entered the big lake. We got a good night’s sleep while charging the car with the slow circuit and were once again ready to go in the morning.

Aug 30 (Monday): We left in the morning for the Darien Lakes State Park in Darien Center, NY. This was an out-of-the-way park established on former dairy farm back in the 1960s. We again had only a 15 amp circuit available, but I was rather annoyed when I realized that the campsite right next to ours had a 50 amp circuit – I had not understood the legend of the on-line map when I made the reservation for this site. At any rate, we charged the car with the slow outlet and were ready to go in the morning.

Aug 31 (Tuesday): On Tuesday morning we departed for the Villages RV Park at Turning Stone in Verona, NY. Due to my faulty reservation skills at Darien Lakes, we once again stopped at a Supercharger, this time in Victor, NY, to make sure we had enough juice. (Hopefully, this is the last time we’ll need to do that at least until we leave Acadia.) The RV Park is operated by a local casino and was quite nice, with a scenic pond winding among the RV sites. It also had the best showers we’ve seen so far on the trip. Our site even had cable TV so Pat could watch the US Open Tennis. We handily charged up the Tesla with the 50 amp outlet and once again were ready to go in the morning.

Sep 1 (Wednesday): On Wednesday morning, we drove to the Kampfires RV Campground in Dummerston, VT. This turned out to be a relatively small campground nestled among towering pine trees, but it had a nice laundry which we (the Royal we, that is) used to wash a week’s worth of stinky clothes. It also had cable for Pat’s tennis and a 50 amp circuit for car charging. Big surprise, we got more rain, and in the morning the vehicles were covered in pine needles, necessitating a bit of cleanup.

Sep 2 (Thursday): Next, we drove to the Wassamki Springs Campground in Scarborough, ME. This turned out to be an enormous place with hundreds of RV sites located around a man-made lake. It was a bit incongruous, in that the roads were very crummy – rutted and dotted with puddles – yet there were dozens of very fancy, permanent RV sites with all sorts of decorations and attached buildings. More cable TV for Pat, a 50 amp circuit for the Tesla, and even a store for me to buy some unneeded but delicious chips. Pretty nice!

Sep 3 (Thursday): Next up was the Pumpkin Patch RV Resort in Hermon, ME. We had originally planned to spend two nights there, since it is close to Acadia and we thought it would be good to rest up a bit after our mad dash across half the country. However, they were so busy with the Labor Day weekend coming that they could only offer us one night. Oh well, what’s one more one-night stand at this point? Our site was in a grassy area at the very back of the property, probably used for short term reservations. But that left us very close to the restroom, so we had no complaints. No cable here, and the wi-fi was off more than it was on, but all in all it was OK. Since it was such a short drive from Wassamki Springs, we didn’t need to do any car charging.

Sep 4 (Friday): On Friday morning, we drove to the Forest Ridge Campground in Ellsworth, ME, for our final night prior to reaching Acadia. Again, no cable TV, but the wi-fi is excellent, which prompted me to write up this blog post. We also got to listen to a nice concert by a local pop/rock band that played 60s and 70s hits. We went into the town of Ellsworth to have an excellent dinner at the Union River Lobster Pot – Pat had lobster pie and I had clam chowder and crab cakes, both accompanied by a Maine wine called Buoy. Now we’re back at the campground. A bit of a top-up for the Tesla and we’ll be ready to go in the morning.

So that’s the story so far. Here’s a map of the Escapade to this point:

All is well. Stay tuned as the Eastern Escapade continues.

As some of you know, I’ve been writing a travel blog of sorts over the past six months, documenting a wonderful trip that Pat and I took with our Leisure Travel Vans Unity RV and, for the last half or so, our new Tesla Model Y that we bought in Las Vegas. We were at first hesitant to go on this trip due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but we took care to wear our masks and maintain social distance in public places, and we always felt safe in the private bubble of our RV. In retrospect, we are very glad we made the trip, and the Covid cautions did not diminish our enjoyment to any significant degree.

All in all, we put 5,600 miles on the RV (starting from Grand Marais, MN, on October 13 and ending in Lakeville, MN, on April 17) and 5,400 miles on the new Tesla (starting in Las Vegas on January 14 and ending in Minneapolis on April 17). We stayed at 18 state and regional parks in Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma – of those, I rate the Arizona parks the best in terms of overall quality, although Palo Duro Canyon in Texas was the most spectacular. We stayed at 10 private RV resorts and campgrounds, all of which were quite nice, but many of which made us feel somewhat claustrophobic due to the closer quarters (as compared with the state and regional parks). We visited 3 National Parks, a National Monument, a National Recreation Area, and a National Conservation Area (again making excellent use of my Lifetime Senior Pass) as well as a National Wildlife Sanctuary and a National Wildlife Refuge.

Here is a map of the complete trip, noting all the places where we stayed with the RV and a couple of the other places we visited with just the Tesla.

It’s pretty hard to see the details in Arizona and Nevada, but maps in the individual posts make things clearer for those portions of the trip. Here’s a list of the ten Parts of the Sojourn story, listing the places identified on the map that I described in each post:

• Part 1: The Cabin (1), Baker Park Reserve (2), Blue Mounds State Park (3), Louisville State Recreation Area (4), Webster State Park (5), John Martin Reservoir State Park (6), Questa Lodge and RV Resort (7)
• Part 2 – Winterlude: Mountain Meadows RV Park (7), also including White Sands National Park, Wolf RV Park (9)
• Part 3 – Sunny and Warm: Wolf RV Park (9), Kartchner Caverns State Park (10), Rincon Country West RV Resort (11)
• Part 4 – Tarrying in Tucson: Rincon Country West RV Resort (11), also including Saguaro National Park
• Part 5 – On the Road Again: Catalina State Park (12), White Tank Mountain Regional Park (13), Lake Havasu State Park (14), Pirate’s Den RV Resort (15), Lake Mead National Recreation Area (16), Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort (17)
• Part 6 – Vacillating in Vegas: Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort (17), also including Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area)
• Part 7 – Mellower at Lake Mead: Lake Mead National Recreation Area (16), Valley of Fire State Park (18)
• Part 8 – Ambling Back to Arizona: Nevada Treasure RV Resort (19), Death Valley National Park (20), Cal-Nev-Ari (21), Tradewinds RV Park (22), Point of Rocks RV Campground (23), Dead Horse Ranch State Park (24), Leaf Verde RV Resort (25)
• Part 9 – Easing Eastward: Leaf Verde RV Resort (25), Ajo Heights RV Park (26), Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (27), Picacho Peak State Park (28), Patagonia Lake State Park (29), Rockhound State Park (30), Boot Hill RV Resort (31)
• Part 10 – Heading Home: Santa Rosa Lake State Park (32), Palo Duro Canyon State Park (33), Boiling Springs State Park (34), Salt Plains State Park (35), El Dorado State Park (36), Worlds of Fun Village (37), Griff’s Valley View RV Resort (38), Airlake Self Storage (39)

Feel free to click on the links above if you want to read more about these places.

Thanks to those readers who followed us along the way, and I hope you enjoyed the journey! Stay tuned to the blog, as I plan to write about additional travels that we will (hopefully) be taking in the future.

Our last episode ended at the Boot Hill RV Resort in Alamogordo, NM, on April 2. This post picks up the narrative from there.

April 3 – 6 (Saturday – Tuesday): We left the Boot Hill park Saturday morning and travelled to the Santa Rosa Lake State Park near Santa Rosa, NM. The park is situated around a large lake formed by a dam in the Pecos River, constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the early 1980s. There is a nice overlook, also built by the Corps of Engineers, that provides some interesting views of the lake and the surrounding terrain.

Our RV site was very nice – well spaced away from the other campers and only a short walk from the restroom facilities. There is a nice hiking trail that leads from the campground to the lakeshore, passing through forests of juniper trees. It seemed to me there were two types of junipers as illustrated below, but I’m not enough of a horticulturist to tell if they are actually different species. (Perhaps brother-in-law Dennis Arthur can tell – we used to call him “Horti Culture” due to his extensive knowledge of all types of flora.) We hiked on various parts of the trail on Monday and Tuesday and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the area.

So what did we do on Sunday, you may wonder? On the drive from Alamogordo, the RV had provided a warning message that it was time to add some DEF (diesel exhaust fluid), so on Sunday we drove the Tesla into the nearby little town of Santa Rosa to buy some. As we were driving to the gas station, my sharp-eyed spouse spied a sign for nothing other than a GOLF COURSE. I kid you not; I had no idea there would be a course in such a dinky burg. So, after we returned to the state park and I poured 2.5 gallons of DEF into the RV, Pat suggested that I ought to go back to town and play golf. She didn’t have to say it twice. When I got to the nine-hole course, not surprisingly called the Santa Rosa Golf Course, I found the small building that passes for a clubhouse completely empty. I stood around in my mask for five or ten minutes wondering what to do, and eventually an elderly gentleman came puttering over in a golf cart and came inside to greet me. In response to my query, he told me I could indeed play 18 holes, but all their motor carts were in use. So, I rented a pull cart – what the Scots and Brits call a “trolley” – and headed for the first tee. The course layout was quite interesting and the tees and greens were pretty nice, but the fairways can only be called a complete disaster. A local rule allows adjusting your lie, but even so it was sometimes hard to find a tuft of grass to play from. But I was undaunted, once again driving the ball beautifully and putting well, but hitting “fairway” shots that were at best indifferent and often just plain stinky. As I was preparing to tee off on number one for my second go-round, the elderly fellow puttered over and told me that someone had returned one motor cart, which I was welcome to use if I so desired. And boy, did my aching feet so desire at that point. The only trick was that I could not drive the cart in the fairways but had to stick to the cart paths and walk out to my ball to hit a shot. Even so, the second circuit was easier to handle, and I even shaved off a few strokes due to improved approach shots.

April 7 (Wednesday): On Wednesday, we departed New Mexico and drove to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, TX. We visited Palo Duro on our Excellent Adventure back in 2018 and found it so impressive that we really wanted to stop back for another visit. However, we weren’t so sure that going to Texas, where Governor Abbott had just demanded that everyone stop wearing masks and try to infect as many people with Covid as possible, was such a good idea. On the other hand, we knew from our previous visit that the RV sites are well spaced, and the park is located at the bottom of a huge canyon, far from any sizable towns. Also, when we looked at booking a site, we could only get one for one day. In the end, we decided that the risk of visiting was small, so off we went. On the drive to the park, we stopped at a grocery store in the town of Canyon, just southwest of Amarillo. We were prepared to just turn around and leave if the place was filled with maskless Covidiots. But, much to our relief, virtually no one was following the Governor’s reckless order – all the store personnel and all but one or two shoppers were masked and distancing.

But let’s move on to the State Park. Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the US, is billed as the “Grand Canyon of Texas.” After checking in at the main gate, there is a spectacular road with multiple hairpin turns and switchbacks that winds down some 800 feet to the canyon floor. Back in 2018, Pat nearly had a heart attack sitting in the passenger seat of the RV, but this time she quite enjoyed the drive in the Tesla. On our previous visit, we stayed at the Hackberry Campground, located about halfway along the north-south road within the canyon. This time, we stayed at the Mesquite Campground at the southernmost end of the canyon, in a wide-open site situated near a dramatic sandstone cliff. The campsite view alone was enough to justify a return to Palo Duro.

Once we were settled in, we took a long walk along some interesting hiking trails that provided good views of the widely varying terrain and vegetation. We intended to hike about 2 or 3 miles in deference to my tender feet, but the trail maps were so confusing that we ended up circling around on several of the trails trying in vain to get back to our RV site. In the end, we walked about 6 miles, and though my feet weren’t happy, it was an excellent experience.

Once I felt sufficiently recovered from the hike, I drove the Tesla back to the canyon rim to get a few snaps from two of the spectacular overlooks, which added another exclamation point to our return visit.

April 8 – 9 (Thursday – Friday): On Thursday, we motored northwards to the Boiling Springs State Park near Woodward, OK. This is another place we had visited back in 2018, and in fact, I booked the exact same RV site we stayed at the last time. (That’s sort of a Saari thing to do, by the way.)

Boiling Springs is a nice enough park, but the real attraction is – you guessed it – the golf course located just east of the park entrance. On Friday, while Pat tooled around the park on her bike, I played a somewhat frustrating game of golf. The first ten holes may have been the best I have ever played in my life, with excellent drives and approach shots and decent putting. But then I shanked one into a sand trap on hole 11 (from a perfect lie in the fairway), blasted the ball twenty yards over the green, and reverted to form again for the remaining holes. I ended up with a decent score, but what a round it could have been! anyway. I decided to give up the stupid game again, at least until we get back home to Minnesota.

April 10 – 11 (Saturday – Sunday): On Saturday, we continued our string of visits to state parks, this time the Great Salt Plains State Park near Jet, OK. Our site was very nice, located on the bank of the Salt Fork Arkansas River just downstream of a large dam built by the Corps of Engineers in the 1960s for flood control and water storage. The dam formed the 8,690-acre Great Salt Plains Lake, considered a saltwater lake as its salinity is about half that of the world’s oceans. We spent much of our time walking around the campground area and the dam, resulting in quite a few nice photos as shown below.

We set up our foldable Pico Chairs right on the river bank and enjoyed watching herons, cormorants, pelicans, and hawks as they soared, glided, waded, swam, and otherwise just looked elegant and marvelous. The river was chock full of fish, and the splashing sounds were nearly continuous as they leaped out of the water to catch the presumably tasty morsels flying by. I caught one of them on video as I sat by the river, as you can see below.

On Sunday, we drove to the nearby Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, where we hiked along a nature trail and took a leisurely drive among the marshlands.

We were hoping to visit the Great Salt Plains, remnants of an ancient ocean that once covered much of Oklahoma, but we couldn’t actually figure out how to get there. There is also a “crystal dig” area where one can find hourglass-shaped crystals, supposedly unique in the entire world. Maybe we’ll have to come back someday to look for these attractions. We enjoyed our stay, although it was quite windy and very hot (mid-80s) on Sunday afternoon.

April 12 – 13 (Monday – Tuesday): On Monday, we drove to the El Dorado State Park near El Dorado, KS. Did I mention that it was windy at Great Salt Plains? Well, the wind kept up as we drove away, intensifying as we drove, and I felt battered and beaten when we finally arrived at El Dorado, which turned out to be rather disappointing. While there was nothing wrong with the park per se, it had to be the most boring place we’ve stayed during the entire Sojourn. We stayed at the Bemis Creek Campground, about 5 miles from the park headquarters, and we were the only campers staying there. The campground is situated between a nice lake, unsurprisingly called El Dorado Lake, and an occasionally busy highway. There are about 30 RV sites with water and electricity, but other than walking around the two road loops and sitting outside on our foldable Pico Chairs, there is nothing at all to do – no hiking trails, no suitable biking, just nothing. Apparently, the place is big for fishing and hunting, and now is not the season for either of those activities. t was also about 30 degrees colder than it was in Great Salt Plains. Our big activity here? We went to El Dorado for lunch at Burger King (drive-through), bought wine at a liquor store, and stopped for a stroll at the city park on the Willow River. Whoopee!

April 14 – 15 (Wednesday – Thursday):

On Wednesday, we motored off again, this time to the Worlds of Fun Village near Kansas City, MO. With a name like that, how could we go wrong? The RV park gets its name from a giant amusement park, billed as the largest in the Midwest, situated right next door, and the place is probably an absolute zoo when the amusement park is open. Luckily for us, the amusement park is closed until May 22, most likely due to Covid. According to their website, operations were somewhat limited last year and the park closed immediately after Labor Day, apparently earlier than usual. As a result, only about 25% of the 83 RV sites were occupied, leaving us in a very well-spaced site. (None of the 43 cabins at the Village were occupied, presumably due to Covid restrictions.) The Village operators asked several Covid screening questions before allowing us to check-in, masks were required in the office and restroom facilities, and the laundry was open by appointment only for individual campers. So, we felt good that they were taking the pandemic seriously, and we felt very safe staying there. On the other hand, there wasn’t a lot to do other than walk around the Village, which we did a few times. We did drive the Tesla to a nearby RV dealer on Thursday to purchase a new support strut for the RV entry door – because the original one broke off in a fierce gust of wind back at Great Salt Plains.

April 16 (Friday): On Friday, we drove to Griff’s Valley View RV Resort in Altoona, IA, just northeast of Des Moines. The total drive was 200 miles, at least 190 of which were on the freeway (I435 and I35). Traffic was light for the most part, though there was a bit of a snarl in Des Moines itself. Griff’s, however, has a very rural feel, and our site was nicely located near a fishing pond and grassy area. A nice building with restrooms, laundry, and recreation room was located just a short walk away. The only problem with the place is that they have no interest in masks or social distancing whatsoever. But we’ve learned how to stay isolated, and we of course wore our masks in the office and restroom facility anyway.

The park office is located at a farm and feed store operation known as Griffieon Farms, immediately to the north of the park. My guess is that the owners decided to convert part of their farmland into the RV park to diversify their holdings. Whoever designed the place apparently has a thing for animal statues.

There was also an excellent bike trail adjacent to the park, and we would have loved to do some biking, but since we were only staying on night it didn’t seem worth the effort to get the bikes off the rack just to put them back on again in an hour or so. Besides, it was a tad chilly for biking. (It’s pretty pathetic that low 50s seems chilly to a pair of hardy Minnesotans, but I guess we’ve gotten soft from spending our winter in warm climates.) I’d have to say this would be a nice place to stay sometime in the post-pandemic future.

April 17 (Saturday): Our original plan was to stay at Griff’s for two nights, but I got an e-mail from the Minnesota Vaccine Team on Tuesday letting me know that I am eligible for a vaccination. (Pat hasn’t gotten the word yet, but hopefully she will soon.) After a half hour of poking away at the computer, I had scheduled a vaccination at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul at 6:10 PM on Saturday. Given this excellent news, we cancelled the second day’s reservation at Griff’s so I could get to St. Paul in time for my appointment. As a result, we drove off Saturday morning toward the Airlake Self Storage facility in Lakeview, MN. We’ve decided to store the RV there for the time being, for several reasons, including that we are not planning a winter RV trip in 2021-22. After unpacking the RV, leaving it behind to rest and recuperate, we departed in the Tesla toward our Minneapolis condo, still feeling safe and well, and looking forward to getting vaccinated.

So, dear readers, that brings us to the end of our (Sorta) Safe Sojourn. Look for one last post shortly, in which I’ll provide a final map and a brief summary of the trip.

Our last episode ended at the Leaf Verde RV Resort in Buckeye, AZ, on March 14. In this post, I’ll pick up the narrative from there. First, here is a map covering the locations described in this installment. The numbers are starting to look a bit jumbled as we double back near places we stayed earlier on, so you should just focus on location numbers 25 through 31. As you can see from the map, we are generally easing back toward the east as our Sojourn winds down toward the finish.

March 15 – 16 (Monday – Tuesday): After posting PART 8 of the Sojourn, we stayed for two more days at the Leaf Verde Resort (location 25 on the map). The highlight was a visit to the Estrella Mountain Regional Park, located about 15 miles east-southeast of the RV park.

Pat enjoyed a nice hike along the Toothaker Trail and the Crossover Trail, shown on the map above. Meanwhile, I seemed to be just gadding about in some random manner in a different part of the Regional Park. A closer look at the map explains all, though, as one notices that the Estrella Regional Park includes something called the Tres Rios Golf Course.  Here are some photos we each took that day – Pat’s illustrate the beauty on display from the hiking trails, while mine illustrates a different sort of beauty. I think she had the better of it in terms of healthful activity, but I managed to feed my addiction with a decent game while only losing one ball.

March 17 – 20 (Wednesday – Saturday): March 17 is not only St. Patrick’s Day, but is also our anniversary. This year was our 42^nd. After exchanging “Happy Anniversary” greetings, we motored off to the Ajo Heights RV Resort (location 26 on the map above). The RV park is considerably smaller than the Leaf Verde Park, with about 50 well-spaced sites that blend into the desert landscape. There is even a pretty desert garden in a low-lying area adjacent to the gravel access road leading to our site. We felt very comfortable there, glad to get away from the more hectic surroundings of the previous week.

The primary attraction near Ajo is the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (location 27 on the map). We drove down there on both Thursday and Saturday, spending several hours each day. On Thursday, we drove around the Ajo Mountain Loop and hiked the Arch Canyon Trail, and on Saturday we drove along a portion of the Puerto Blanco Drive and hiked a portion of the Red Tanks Tinaja Trail. Both days we encountered stunning desert vistas and a variety of plant life. The most unique feature of the National Monument is, not surprisingly, the Organ Pipe Cactus. This species is particularly well suited to high desert heat, and the National Monument is essentially the only place in the US where they grow. (There is a much larger range for these cacti in Mexico.) There are also a tremendous number of Saguaro cacti, even more than we saw in Saguaro National Park while in Tucson, and they looked much healthier to us.

One interesting thing happened on Thursday as we were hiking back to our car along the Arch Canyon Trail. Two jet airplanes appeared out of nowhere and streaked across the sky at an incredibly low altitude, perhaps 200 or 300 feet. One of them was flying so low it needed to bank sharply to fit between two low mountains as it disappeared from our view. Another thing, almost as exciting, was that as we drove through downtown Ajo on our way back from the Monument, we stumbled across a sign pointing the way to something called the Ajo Golf Course. Naturally, we needed to investigate. It was a little tacky and run down, but not surprisingly I ended up playing 18 holes there on Friday. I scored quite well, and didn’t lose a single ball. Looks like I’ll make it back home with golf balls to spare after all.

Since we got the Tesla, we have mostly been recharging it at our RV campsites using either the 15-amp exterior receptacle on the RV or the separate 50-amp circuit provided for bigger RVs. Charging with the 120 VAC, 15-amp circuit takes quite a long time, whereas the 240 VAC, 50-amp circuit charges about 6 times faster. However, for some reason, the 50-amp circuit at the Ajo Heights park did not work. So, on Saturday, after visiting Organ Pipe and returning to Ajo, we decided to drive 20 miles further north to Gila Bend, where there is a Tesla Supercharger station. The Supercharger, at 400 VDC, provides hundreds of amps and charges the car more than 10 times faster than a 240 VAC 50-amp circuit. Besides, Superchargers are often located at or near fast food restaurants – in this case Carl’s Jr. Thus, we were able to simultaneously charge the Tesla with healthy, life-sustaining direct current electricity, and our own bodies with unhealthy junk food. What could be better than that?

March 21 – 24 (Sunday – Wednesday): Our next stop was the Picacho Peak State Park (location 28) near Benson, AZ. This is another place that we visited during our 2018-2019 Excellent Adventure, and we were pleased to visit there again. We had a spacious site near the restroom building, but the park staff requested that campers not use the shower facilities – the park water supply is very limited due to some sort of water tank issue. We didn’t mind at all, though, because we have taken to showering in our RV to avoid unnecessary contact with potential Covid spreaders. We enjoyed our stay at Picacho Peak, including biking around on the park roads and hiking along the ridgeline of the mountain. On our previous visit, we hiked a trail on the east end of the park. This time, we hiked a trail that starts on the west end, but only went a mile or so and then returned in deference to my aching feet and knees.

On Monday, we drove into Tucson to a place called the A1 Mattress Factory, where we ordered a new custom-made mattress for the RV. This was all in accordance with a plan Pat had hatched based on info posted on a Leisure Travel Vans Facebook users’ group. The plan was inspired by the sadly sagging state of the original mattress (in-laws Allen and LeAnne can attest to this), and she just couldn’t stand it anymore. Amazingly, the A1 people were able to buy the materials, make the mattress, and install it in the RV as I drove through Tucson on Thursday on my way to our next destination.

March 25 – 29 (Thursday – Monday): On Thursday, after picking up the new mattress, we drove to the Patagonia Lake State Park (location 29) near Nogales, AZ, another beautiful example of the Arizona Park system. The park entrance road winds through a lovely valley and provides a bird’s eye overlook of Patagonia Lake.

We again had a site that was well spaced from our neighbors, providing a peaceful feeling even with the campground fully occupied. (Except for the loud partiers in a camping cabin on the hill behind us, but they only stayed one night.)

We spent our time at the park hiking along the so-called Bird Watching Trail that ran next to Sonoita Creek and walking along the campground roads to look at the lake and the various picnic areas. It was interesting to learn that there are over hundreds of bird species in the park. We saw several of them, and even some very large flightless ones that lolled around, free-range style, in the vicinity of the birding trail.

We did some grocery shopping in Nogales on Friday, and on Monday we drove to Tubac to have lunch with Minnesota expat friends Gordon and Michele. All in all, we enjoyed our stay, with one niggling exception. There was no WiFi and no cellular coverage anywhere in the park. As a result, we found ourselves up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings, something like Marlon Perkins on the old Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom program, driving out of the park, “stalking the elusive cell tower.” We eventually found a spot about ten miles down the highway toward Nogales, near the humorously titled Nogales International Airport (with naught but a dozen single engine prop planes and a pair of twin-engine ones parked on the tarmac), where we got a good enough cell signal to download some books, grab the daily New York Times crossword and Spelling Bee, and play a few Words with Friends games. While we truly did like Patagonia, I was happy to move on to someplace with actual internet access.

March 30 – 31 (Tuesday – Wednesday): On Tuesday, we departed Arizona (in the wake of Governor Ducey’s cancellation of the mask mandate) and drove to the Rockhound State Park (location 30) near Deming, NM. Readers may recall that we stayed at the Wolf RV Park near Deming on our way west. The Rockhound State Park is located about 5 miles southwest of that RV park, so we were quite familiar with the town of Deming. Like most state parks we have visited during our Sojourn, we were very impressed with Rockhound. Our site was very large and well isolated from the other campers, well-landscaped with interesting desert plants, and provided lovely vistas of the nearby Florida mountains and the desert terrain. There was a nice desert garden adjacent to the campground and a hiking trail that wound through the mountain foothills. Visitors were encouraged to collect samples of the rocks and minerals – agates, quartz, Jasper, thunder eggs, geodes – and several hikers carried rock hammers. It reminded me of my mother, who often referred to herself as a rockhound and had her own rock hammer. I’m sure she would have loved the place.

Did I mention that we were familiar with Deming?  Did that familiarity include the Rio Mimbres Golf Course? Yes, it did, so I was once again on the course on Wednesday afternoon. I drove the ball as well as I ever have, putted lights out, lost zero balls, and would have had a fantastic round except that my approach shots sucked. In a show of solidarity, several friendly fellows came to console me after I played another stinky one on the 7^th hole.

The only negative aspect of our stay at Rockhound was the wind. Each evening, it began to howl so fiercely that I thought the RV might roll over. The constant swaying felt a bit like our trip from Isle Royale in 5-foot waves several years back, and I couldn’t get a decent night’s sleep, even with the new, very comfortable mattress.

April 1 – 2 (Thursday – Friday): On Thursday, we headed for Alamogordo, NM, to stay at the Boot Hill RV Resort. Readers may again recall that we stayed at the Mountain Meadows RV Park on our way west, only about 5 miles from the Boot Hill park, and that we visited the White Sands National Park while there. Our plan was to stop at White Sands again on our way to Boot Hill. However, we again encountered events beyond our control on Highway 70. On the way west, we nearly skidded off the highway in a snowstorm as we passed over the mountains near Las Cruces, as I reported in PART 2 of this series. This time, we sailed smoothly through that mountain pass only to find the entrance to White Sands blocked by a bad traffic accident. I had to stop and wait in the RV for a half hour or so, along with dozens of other cars, as a helicopter flew in to evacuate someone who had presumably been severely injured. I even snapped a photo of the chopper taking off.

Traffic was then routed around the crash site on a gravel road adjacent to the highway, so entry to the National Park was impossible. So, we skipped White Sands and drove directly to Boot Hill. It’s a nice enough place; not nearly as nice as the various state parks, but it does have a laundry, so we were able to do a huge load accumulated since we last washed at Leaf Verde. With that chore completed on Thursday, we did go back to White Sands on Friday. This time we were able to drive the Tesla all the way along the unpaved road that was too rough for the RV back in October, and we hiked along a couple of trails that we didn’t get to the last time. Our experience this time was quite different, since there was virtually no wind, in stark contrast to our previous visit. I find White Sands fascinating and unique, so I had to take a bunch of pictures, but I’ll only post a couple since they look a lot like the other ones from PART 2.

So here I am, banging away at my computer on Friday night, and that brings us up to date. We are still feeling safe and well, and starting to look forward to getting back home (and getting vaccinated). Stay tuned as the adventure continues …

It’s been nearly four weeks since I posted the last episode of our Sojourn, shortly after leaving the Lake Mead RV Village and heading westward. My apologies for failing to provide a timelier update. To make up for it, this installment will be a bit longer than usual. Here we go with a summary of our experiences since February 15.

Maps: First, here are some maps of the journey so far, the first showing the entire Sojourn and the second zooming in on the more recent travels.

Feb 15 – 27: As reported previously, we scrapped our plans to stay in California during late January and February due to the severe Covid outbreak and reinstatement of travel restrictions there. As the situation began to improve, the state began to ease restrictions, and we started thinking about California again. While we were still unwilling to go near any of the big cities, one idea that seemed plausible was to visit Death Valley National Park, as we had back in 2018. (I must admit that this plan was driven in large part by my desire to play another round of golf at the Furnace Creek Golf Course in the heart of Death Valley.) However, we were unable to find any reservable RV sites at the campground during the period of interest. Moving on to Plan B, we decided to book a two-week stay at the Nevada Treasure RV Resort near Pahrump, NV, from where we could easily take a day trip to Death Valley. So, we packed up the RV, charged up the Tesla, and headed west.

Pahrump is a town of 37,000 located smack dab in the middle of the desert, an hour away from Death Valley and close to absolutely nothing else. When I looked on Google for things to do, the highlights included two wineries (tastings and wine sales cancelled due to Covid), a bunch of casinos, Death Valley tours, firearms training, ATV sales, a couple of museums, and a couple of golf courses. Further digging revealed that there are also legal brothels, but I assure you I made no attempt to track those down (although I did have an amusing mental image of a bevy of lounging, beautiful women clad only in their protective facemasks). The RV Resort, located a few miles west of the town limits, features 204 RV sites in a nicely landscaped, 40,000 square-foot, walled enclosure. The place has a sort of Polynesian theme, with thatched roof huts for the premium sites, waterfalls, tiki torches, palm trees, and assorted statues. There is a large recreational facility and pool, closed due to Covid, a small restaurant and bowling alley that were open for business, and excellent laundry, restroom, and shower facilities. Masks were required in the public areas, but the restaurant customers and some laundry users didn’t seem to care about that detail. Many of the other RVers spent hours congregating and chatting in close proximity, but in true hermit fashion we kept our distance and avoided any contact with the maskless. While the Resort was nice enough, there was basically nothing to do there except walk around while avoiding the other people. There were no hiking or biking trails, and we didn’t even take the bikes off the bike rack. We did get take-out from the restaurant twice – I was the only person in there other than the server wearing a mask, and I kept my distance from the diners while waiting for the food. As a result of the overall atmosphere, we spent a lot more time cocooning inside the RV than being out and about.

Of course, I had to try out one of the golf courses on our first Friday in Pahrump, called the Lakeview Executive Golf Course. I’m not exactly sure which lake was supposed to be in view, though there were several small ponds scattered throughout the course. It was indeed an executive layout, with five par fours and thirteen par threes for a total par of 59. It was rated as a very easy course, but I felt it was a good challenge, with plenty of trouble to be had on almost all of the holes. I played probably my best round in recent memory, hitting excellent drives on all of the long holes and quite a few good iron shots on the short ones. Putting was a bit of a challenge since the green surfaces resembled fur coats, but I did manage to bang in a few and even made a birdie on one hole. I returned to the RV and booked a round at the Furnace Creek course at Death Valley for the coming Monday, feeling psyched about the epic round to come.

On Monday, February 22, we drove the Tesla to Death Valley, where Pat dropped me at the Golf Course and went off to explore the park. I started off poorly with a topped drive on the first hole, then recovered with a few good shots on the next two holes, then spiraled into the toilet for the remainder of the round. While it was enjoyable to play the course once again after my stinky effort there in 2018, I actually played even worse this time out, in stark contrast to my sterling effort at Lakeview three days previously. (Golf is such a stupid and frustrating game.) Pat had a better day than I did, driving around the National Park and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

After briefly giving up the game of golf following the disaster at Furnace Creek, I was back at the Lakeview course again on Wednesday, and once again on Saturday. Both rounds were good, with only two bad holes on Wednesday and one bad hole on Saturday. The last round would have been the best of all three at Lakeview, except that the greens had gotten so long and slow that I was unable to get the ball to the hole from any distance over about three feet. All in all, though, the Lakeview rounds were a good salve for the Furnace Creek wounds – I only lost one ball, made two birdies, and scored in the 60s all three times. In retrospect, I guess it must be a very easy course.

Feb 28 – March 3 (Sunday – Wednesday): We left the Nevada Treasure RV Resort on Sunday, February 28. I muttered “Harumph to Pahrump” as I drove off in the RV, heading south to the hamlet of Cal-Nev-Ari, where Nevada, California, and Arizona meet. I stopped for lunch in the parking lot of the Post Office before heading east to Golden Valley, AZ. Pat took the Tesla on a different route, back into Henderson, NV, to pick up some items at REI, then south into Arizona and back west to meet me at the Tradewinds RV Park in Golden Valley. The Tradewinds is a no-frills, all gravel park with 113 RV sites. The roads are demarcated by small trees and a few signs, and old ranch implements are scattered about as landmarks. There is one building with laundry and restroom facilities – the showers are very nice, but you have to go through the modest-sized laundry to get to them. With such limited facilities for the entire park, it was hard not to run into people in the laundry, and – you guessed it – no masks. As a result, we took to peering in the window to make sure no one was in there before entering the building. Once again, there wasn’t much to do at the park itself – the bikes stayed on the rack for another three days during our stay.

The nearest grocery stores were in Kingman, about 10 miles to the east. We went shopping there on Monday and once again encountered a number of people ignoring the posted requirement for mask wearing. In particular, one large maskless family was spread out throughout the store, bickering and scowling as they selected their items. We managed to stay away from them, though it required a bit of dodging and weaving, and I left the store feeling very angry about their lack of concern for the health and safety of everyone else in the store. As I thought about it later, I began to feel sorry for them – their lives seemed fueled by anger, with no room for the joy of living. Perhaps they simply have nothing to look forward to in life, and defying the mask requirement gives them some sort of perverse sense of control. I only wish they could find some other less destructive way to act out.

On the plus side, we saw a nice-looking golf course near the grocery store, so I promptly booked a round there for Tuesday. It was called Cerbat Cliffs Golf Course and proved to be a challenging and enjoyable layout. My round was quite decent, with one birdie and only one lost ball – almost as good as the Lakeview efforts and worlds better than the Furnace Creek debacle – so it felt as though I was back on track.

On Wednesday, we drove west, across the Colorado River again into Nevada, to visit an area called Pyramid Canyon. Within the canyon, just north of Laughlin, NV, the Davis Dam spans the river to form Lake Mohave. This dam was built in 1951 to re-regulate water released from the Hoover Dam and to facilitate delivery of water to Mexico. We certainly have seen a lot of Colorado River dams on this trip – it seems that the river supplies water to the entire southwestern US before trickling into Mexico, while providing a fair amount of hydroelectric power along the way. Gotta love those engineers! We hiked around the area for a couple of hours before heading back to the Tradewinds for the evening.

March 4 – 6 (Thursday – Saturday): Our next stop was the Point of Rocks RV Campground in Prescott, AZ. This place was unique and very cool – built on extremely hilly terrain with 96 RV sites situated around some fascinating rock formations called the Majestic Granite Dells. Biking didn’t work here, either, so the bikes stayed put. However, there were excellent hiking trails to the nearby Watson Lake Park, so we could hike to our hearts’ contents without having to drive anywhere. The Watson Lake Park is gorgeous, its blue water contrasting beautifully with the Granite Dells. I will mention, though, that my heart’s content did not translate into my feet’s content, or my knees’ content – I felt like a very old man after an hour’s hike on the rough trails.

But that didn’t stop me from trying another round of golf. The StoneRidge Golf Course was only a stone’s throw away (actually about 10 miles), so I went out there for a round on Tuesday. This one was truly a mixed bag. For the most part, I hit the ball quite well, even making one birdie. However, I lost about eight balls. Most of those were actually pretty good shots, but in retrospect I didn’t hit them where I should have been aiming. The course was just too bleeping hard for me. Also, I couldn’t make any putts. I didn’t putt badly, but the breaks were subtle and unreadable. So, while I shot the worst score yet this trip, primarily from all those lost ball penalties, I didn’t feel all that bad about how I played. Regular readers will recall that I purchased two dozen Titleist golf balls back in November in Tucson. I counted my arsenal after the StoneRidge round, and the Titleists are essentially ALL GONE. I’m now left with only nine balls that I had before buying the ones in Tucson. Will they last until I get back to Minneapolis???

March 7 – 9 (Sunday – Tuesday): Sunday morning we left Point of Rocks and headed for Cottonwood AZ, and our next destination, with the charming name of Dead Horse Ranch State Park. The state park is only about 40 miles from the Point of Rocks by the shortest route, which takes one on a winding road over Woodchute Mountain, with more switchbacks than a Finnish sauna. The elevation in Prescott is 5367 feet, and the elevation in Cottonwood is 3314 ft, but the road reaches an elevation of some 6500 feet near the summit. Pat elected to drive the Tesla on an easier route, south to I17, through a pass between mountains, then north to Cottonwood, which is 20 miles longer but only adds 4 minutes according to Google maps. After some debate about which route to follow, I decided to take the RV over the mountain, expecting the scenery to be more impressive. And was it ever! I must be getting pretty good at driving the RV by now, because I felt very much at ease navigating the multiple hairpin turns while trying not to gawk too much at the views. There was even a fair amount of snow on the mountainside at the high elevation. I sorely missed having my copilot along to snap a photo or two and vowed to come back with the Tesla to get some shots before leaving Cottonwood.

Dead Horse Ranch State Park is another excellent specimen in the Arizona State Park system. Our site on the Red Tail Hawk loop was well spaced away from other campsites, with a scenic view of the distant mountains, and the restroom and shower building was only a short walk away. There were many excellent hiking trails accessible directly from the campground, and the roads were smooth and safe, prompting me to finally get the bikes off the rack again after more than three weeks. It felt great to be tooling around, exploring the park’s three lagoons, multiple picnic areas, and the other campground loops. We also hiked the Mesa Trail which provided some scenic views of Woodchute Mountain and the old mining town of Jerome, which I had driven through on the way from Prescott.

On Tuesday we did take that trip up the mountain and back, and the drive in the Tesla was considerably more relaxing than my earlier trek in the RV. We would have liked to stop and explore Jerome, which has become an art colony and tourist hotspot with its winding main street and picturesque shops, but there were too many people milling about. To make up for not visiting Jerome, we stopped at a Sonic Drive-In for burgers in Cottonwood on our way back to the State Park, which was fun.

March 10 – 14 (Wednesday – Today): We departed from Dead Horse Ranch on Wednesday morning and drove to the Leaf Verde RV Resort in Buckeye, AZ, just west of Phoenix, where we will be staying until next Wednesday morning. The drive was a piece of cake compared with the last RV jaunt over the mountain, following freeways and divided highways essentially all the way. Regular readers with especially good memories may recall that we stayed at this same RV Resort in late November and early December of 2018, on our Excellent Adventure. Since this post is nearing Epic proportions, I won’t describe it again.

On Thursday, we drove a short way to the Skyline Regional Park, which we also visited the last time, and went on a long hike. At least we didn’t take the same trail (Turnbuckle), though perhaps we should have. This time we took the Mountain Wash trail to the Lost Creek trail to the Quartz Mine trail (see map), which involved a tremendous elevation change, multiple switchbacks, and rough walking over the rocky path. The whole loop turned out to be 4.5 miles, and my feet and knees were so sore as we neared the finish that I had to take a shortcut to the road while Pat went back to the trailhead to get the Tesla. What a wimp!

After that, we drove to Ciao Grazie in Verrado, the excellent pizza restaurant we discovered back in 2018. We were able to sit outdoors, well away from any other diners, drooling over a Pizza al Salmone – a pizza with smoked salmon, caramelized mushrooms, and capers. It may sound a bit weird, but it was absolutely delicious!

Unfortunately, it started to rain Thursday evening and has been raining lightly on and off ever since. As a result, we haven’t gone on any exhausting hikes again – I’m just sitting around like a bum writing this blog post. (On second thought, maybe that’s not so unfortunate.)

UPDATE: The sun is shining brightly this morning (Sunday), so we’ll have to get back to outdoor activities.

Now, I just have a couple more paragraphs before I sign off.

The new Tesla: In the previous post, I promised to report further on the Tesla in future episodes. Here is a quick summary. First of all, we absolutely love it. We were both comfortable with operation within just a few minutes, but we are still discovering neat little features as we use it more. It’s super easy and smooth to drive and has all the safety features an old fart like me needs to feel at ease behind the wheel. And when you need it, such as merging onto a freeway, the acceleration is unbelievable – 0 to 60 mph in just over 4 seconds.

The Model Y that we purchased has the so-called “extended range,” which supposedly provides 320 miles of driving on a single charge. So far, we have driven 2,181 miles, but only up to 188 miles without charging. On that occasion, the car had only been charged to 90% of full capacity, and it still had another 50 miles or so left in the “tank.” I’m keeping detailed records of our charging sessions, and I have concluded that it won’t really get 320 miles on a single charge. The actual range varies quite a bit depending on many factors, such as elevation changes, speed, temperature, etc. It seems to go about 90% as far as the theoretical range if we drive continuously after a charge, and about 80% if we drive shorter distances over several days. So, the maximum range is probably about 290 miles on a single charge. It might not be as much in Minnesota in January, though.

OK, that’s enough for this overly long post. We are still feeling safe and well. Stay tuned as the adventure continues …