Dunfey Alaska Journey

Trip from Slowlow, AZ  to Santa Fe, NM

We left Slowlow, AZ in White Mountains on the morning of 7/3 to head for Santa Fe, NM.

We were really impressed by the New Mexico mountain rock formations!

Santa Fe Visit

After we arrived in Santa Fe, we contacted our friends, Ian and Marshay Artig, to finalize plans for dinner. They used to live in our community in Vail, AZ and belonged to the Liberated Minds Group there. They moved to Santa Fe last year because they couldn’t stand the summer heat.

We eat and conversed at The Ranch. This was a wonderful restaurant! It had excellent food with great decor. Milly has a pulled meat combo plate and I has an outstanding full plate of baby back ribs. These ribs had more meat on them that I have ever experienced. Great meal and even better conversation.

We stayed at the Santa Fe Skies RV Park, high in the foothills overlooking the city. We were told to be sure to attend  the  Annual Pancakes on the Plaza, Santa Fe’s favorite July 4th event!  When Ian also mentioned they planned to go for the pancakes, we made arrangements to meet them there.

You could say the Pancake Event was a zoo. There were three lines of people winding all around waiting to get there breakfast. People were all over the place eating. The lines moved quickly. The food was surprisingly good – pancakes, ham, strawberries, juice and coffee for a $8 contribution.

When we met friends of Ian’s and Marshay, they invited us to the annual 4th party at Fred’s House. We went. It took a while to warm up to the party and meet people. We had good conversations. The people were musicians and artists most of whom were our age.

That night, we watched multiple sets of fireworks from our camper site overlooking the city. We couldn’t hear the bangs and the view from afar wasn’t the same as being at the actual fireworks display.

Show Low, AZ in White Mountains

Milly and I left Vail, AZ on the morning of June 29th heading for our 1st stop Show Low, AZ in the White Mountains.

We are staying at Fools Hollow Campground run by AZ State. Here are the pictures we took on the way to Show Low AZ:

Pickleball and Kayaking at Lakeside-Pinetop 7/1/2014

After our arrival at Fools Hollow Campground in Show Low,  Bob and Barb Merow came over after supper. They are friends from Vail. They frequently stay in Lakeside-Pinetop near Show Low. They are new to Pickleball but invited us up to Show Low to show us the local Pickleball scene.

We played Pickleball the next morning starting with a group of A-level players at 7:30 AM in a Lakeside-Pinetop Gym. There were three quality courts. We were welcomed and introduced to their open play board signup rotation system. The Pickleball Club there in Lakeside-Pinetop had renovated an abandoned gym. The Gym was now used primarily just for Pickleball.

We had a good time playing Pickleball with players of various skill levels.

We went to lunch with a bunch of Pickleball players at a Taco “Palace” up the street from the gym. After lunch, we kayaked on Rainbow Lake with Bob and Barb. Then, we visited with several of Bob’s friends on the shores of Rainbow Lake.

Kayaking at Show Low Lake 7/2/2014

On our last full day in Show Low, we went to Show Low Lake to Kayak. We met Bob and Barb there. They planned on taking their sailboat out for a spin.

Show Low Lake is a deep water lake. It is fairly large. It took us about an hour and a half to paddle around it. There are no homes on it. It is nestled in the pine forest.

When we unloaded the kayaks at the boat ramp, a fish and game truck loaded with rainbow trout  arrived. They dumped about 900 trout into the lake. These poor fish were clearly stunned by the processed of being flushed into the lake. We saw people in fishing boats scooping up some of the stunned fish with nets, We also saw a heron swoop down to snatch one of the newly arrived fish.

We stayed at the Fools Hollow Campground last year. We loved both our stays here. The camp sites are nicely set in the woods and rocky terrain with lots of privacy. There is a man made lake and “river” that almost surrounds the public beach and campsite areas affording many camp sites with excellent water views. On this trip, we spent most of our time appreciating what the local towns in the area had to offer for recreation.

We arrived home at Eastman on Sunday night at about 5:30 PM on October 18th. We had left for our Alaska Trip on May 11th.

We made a bad decision to park our trailer in the opposite direction from the way we had planned. We got stuck between two trees! After some cursing and maneuvering back and forth, we were able to get the trailer back on the road. We parked it as planned originally and went in the house to watch the Pat’s football game. By that time, the Pat’s were ahead 59 to zip.

We were in Rochester NY area over the weekend. We visited Fred’s brother, Pete and our daughter, Colleen and families. Fred also got a chance to visit an old work buddy from Xerox. Milly and Fred met in Rochester in mid 70’s.

On Tuesday October 13th we dropped our camper off at the Trailmanor Factory in Lake City, Tennessee. We had an appointment to get maintenance and have certain repairs done. We went for a hike in state forest near the TVA’s Norris Dam and then did laundry. Trailmanor was done by 4 PM. We headed north on route 81. We stopped for the night at Walmart in Bristol, VA just across the Tennessee border.

In the morning, we drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway just east of Roanoke, VA and took the scenic drive north. The rain prevented us from seeing the complete beauty of the parkway drive. We continued onto Skyline Drive as we went into Shenandoah National Park. We camped overnight at Loft Mountain National Campground. The rain continued with a few snow flurries. The temperature dropped to 32 degrees as nightfall came. We kept out heater on all night for the 1st time on our trip!

In the morning a thick fog and rain greeted us. By the time we finished getting our camper ready for travel, we were soaked and cold.  We departed towards Harrisburg on our way to Rochester, NY to visit our Daughter, Colleen. It poured most of the day. At points, the rain changed to snow! We decided to stop overnight at a Walmart near Williamsport, PA. In the morning, we headed to northinto New York  with rainy and snowy weather.

As we approach the Rochester area, there is snow on the ground. We will most likely leave this area for Eastman Sunday morning.  We should be there by late Sunday night or Monday at the latest.

After Santa Fe we headed east on route 40 across New Mexico and part of Oklahoma. We stayed overnight in Elk City, OK. In the morning, it was raining. We proceeded to complete our trip across Oklahoma to Arkansas .

We set up camp in the Ozark National Forrest about 15 miles away from the highway. The national campground was called Lake Shores near Boston Mountain. Before dinner, we went for a hike in the Forrest and noticed that we could feel the humidity. That night, it poured and poured. The noise of rain pounding on the roof all night made it difficult to sleep.

We headed across Arkansas in the rain to Memphis, Tennessee and then down to Corinth, Mississipi where we visited the Civil War Interpretive Center. This civil war center focused on the battles at Shiloh and Corinth. The Center is part of the Shiloh National Park. The exhibits there and their movies were worth the trip there!. We stayed at the “primitive” Battle Ground Campground right outside the park in the village of Shiloh, Tennessee.

In the morning, we visited the National Shiloh Battlefield Park. The vistor center showed an old movie of the battle which was well done. We took the auto tour of the battlefield. This was manificent. It gave you a good feel of the battle and the horrible slaughter of men that took place there.

That evening we arrived in Nashville and went to the Grand Ole Opry to see and particpate in a 2 hour radio show. Our participation consisted of singing along when asked. This was the Opry’s 84th Birthday Bash. The show participants were mostly older Opry members with a sprinkling of younger entertainers. It was interesting and entertaining.

The next day, we went to Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage outside of Nashville. In the evening, we toured downtown Nashville Music places (Bars). We ate at the Wild Horse Saloon and watched the Tennessee Titans/Colts football game.

On Columbus Day, we travelled from Nashville to the Mountain Lake Marina & Campground in Lake City, TN just north of Knoxville, TN. We have an appointment at Trailmanor trailer factory to have a list of items repaired and adjusted. It may take a couple of days. Then, we head for our daughter Colleen’s home near Rochester, NY before going home to Eastman. We hope to be in Eastman by 10/21.

Arrived at Milly’s cousin’s home in Tucson late in the afternoon of Oct 1st. We were greeted by Arthur Havemeyer and partner Kathy. We stayed 3 nights there parking our camper on the gravel in front of their home.

We had three wonderful evening meals with the meats cooked on the charcoal grill by Arthur. We relaxed each evening in the privacy of their enclosed back yard enjoying beer or good wine.

On our first full day in Tucson, Arthur drove us up to Lemon Mountain. It was about an hours drive each way. The road wound up into the mountains along many cliffs and switchbacks. We reached a small village just beyond the mountain which had recently been rebuilt after being destroyed by fire. We had lunch of chilli and pizza before heading back to Tucson.

The next day, we went to Saguaro National Park near Tucson to hike among the local desert cactus.

We left Tucson towards New Mexico. We ended up staying at Elephant Butte State Park near Truth or Consequences, NM. Our campsite was located on a hill overlooking the lake. We gave up on kayaking and went for a hike along the lake shore. The winds were horrendous. They howled all night making sleeping difficult.

We decided to go to Santa Fe, NM after stopping in Albuquerque, NM at the Indian Pueblo Culture Center/Museum.

We stayed two nights at the Black Canyon Campground in Santa Fe National Forrest above Santa Fe.    

We went into Santa Fe for breakfast. We ran into special event detours and saw about 12 police motorcycles escorting a bunch of cars. At breakfast, we asked the waiter what was going on. He checked and reported back that Spanish Royalty was in town for the 400th anniversary celebrations. We wandered into the Basilica just before the Spanish Crown Prince and his Wife arrived there. We were given the last 2 tickets and attended the welcoming service.

In the afternoon, we went up to the mountains to hike among the Aspens. We visited the Santa Fe Ski area and discovered that they ski there from Thanksgiving to April. 

We found the Santa Fe shopping area outstanding. It’s too bad that we are not shoppers. We could have spent a fortune there.

On the morning of October 7th, we headed to Amarillo, Texas on our way to Tennessee.

We stopped for lunch around 3 PM at the fameous Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo before continuing on to Elk City, Oklahoma.

We just confirmed our Tennessee factory appointment near Knoxville for the day after Columbus Day. It may last several days.

Santa Fe and Spanish Royalty