We sold the house and hitting the road

[Xatlatc]

Junction,Texas has a park for free dry camping for up to three days and it has a nice view. I took a picture of cactus and just happen to catch two antelope.
Staying in Big Spring, Texas in a private park with 60 sites and almost filled with pipeline and oil workers in fifth wheels.

[Xatlatc]

]Whatever household goods we wanted to keep are in storage, the Chinook was packed and ready to go and as the ink was drying on the closing papers, we left our home of eleven years in the Upstate of South Carolina and hit the road to see America.
Last December my wife and I became empty nesters after 35 years of raising four children. All four are working and married and one son has provided us with two grandchildren in the Upstate. So as our daughter drove off to join her Army husband last December, I started to plot and plan a way to sell this “ sell the house and travel “ idea to Janet. Our longest trip was 28 nights in 20 different places mainly in New England last year but two or four months or longer?
We both have grown tired of home repairs, new roof, replace this and that and mainly, yard work. It was always something. We received a lot of rain this past spring which in turn allowed the already large bushes to really grow. We had to trim those things one too many times because while trimming in the heat of summer Janet agreed to sell the house and hit the road. We both agreed that if one of us gets tired of the road we will return to South Carolina or Georgia to look for a new place to call home, with no yard work of course.
We are now a week into our adventure with no real plans other than Florida in January. We may have Thanksgiving in St Louis, Christmas back in South Carolina, Florida in January and then the real trip starts if we still like each other, we’re going West. We just visited our daughter at Fort Stewart,Ga. then went to Green Cove Springs, Fl. to pick up some mail at St. Brendan’s Isle mail forwarding service. So now we’re heading to the Florida Panhandle so I can put my toes in the warm Gulf of Mexico and count my blessings.[/quote]

[Xatlatc]

Found another Chinook in New Mexico near Roswell. The land is starting to change and there is snow in the mountains.i found the Mothership.

[Xatlatc]

Just north of Santa Fe is Bandelier National Monument Park. Cave dwellers and ladder makers lived here. The scenery is getting better with a little bit of red showing in the hills. The weather was great considering it’s February, about 65 degrees and light wind. Steps, steps and more steps to get to the caves. Not far from here is the birth of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos.

[Xatlatc]

More pictures of the park.

[Xatlatc]

After Bandelier we went to explore Santa Fe. Very charming and artsy. I can only imagine how tough life was out here 200 years ago.

[Xatlatc]

More of Santa Fe. Supposedly the oldest house in the United States is pictured here.

[Xatlatc]

If anyone has a suggestion as to what to see along this adventure please let me know. The route from here is Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Tomestone, Arizona, Tucson, Phoenix, Sedona, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Eventually arriving in Seattle just in time to start back to the southeast to house hunt. But not before Yellowstone and the Dakotas and let’s throw in Utah and Colorado. I am extremely happy to say my spouse is really starting to get into this wandering thing we’re doing. That said, I believe she will need a ‘ children and grandchildren fix ‘ by the time we get to Las Vegas. That means I’ll probably stay put in Las Vegas while she flies to Atlanta and the Upstate of South Carolina for a recharge. And yes, that was my idea. Ha!

[Blue~Go]

I'm enjoying following along. SW weather has been ridiculously nice (almost too nice!).

BTW, I read a tip the other day (can't remember where) in which someone who was always having photos post sideways made them square and then they posted right-side up. Maybe it's the "portrait" oriented ones that post sideways (vs. the landscape ones) and that's why that worked? Not saying you have to change how you take photos, but just thought you might be interested.

[Rokrover]

The Tombstone area is in our backyard, so to speak. They have Wells Fargo RV Park right downtown:
http://www.wellsfargorv.com
Tombstone is not to our taste, being an overcrowded tourist trap.

We much prefer the quaint old mining town of Bisbee:
http://www.discoverbisbee.com
Queen Mine RV Park puts you right on top of the fascinating mine with tour and is an easy walk to the main street:
https://queenminervpark.com

Then Kartchner Caverns State Park is nice for an overnighter to explore the cave. Clean campground with hookups and local hikes below the Whetstone Mountains:
https://azstateparks.com/kartchner/

This is just a starter package to sample our amazing area with plenty more for those of the more rugged boondocking persuasion.

Cheers, Ted