Rolling into the Southwest

We've had a busy week!
When we left New Orleans, we drove to Galveston, TX  and stayed in a resort park at Jamaica Beach right across from the Gulf of Mexico.  I was able to get Bill into the salt water, which wasn't much colder than the air.  Delicious.

When we left there, we drove along the gulf and checked into Choke Canyon State Park in Calliham, TX.  We had a very secluded site with views of a lake.  Very tame deer came out to feed at dusk and in the morning, rabbits were munching on the grass. 

We had one very long travel day and stopped for the night at a rest stop populated with tractor trailer rigs.  There was an impressive thunderstorm while we were there.

The next morning Peggy and John went their own way and we went ours to Carlsbad Caverns.  What a treat!!  The caves where enormous, and not at all what we expected.

Click here to check it out!

The next day we drove to Roswell, NM and visited the International UFO Museum and Research Center which was definitely on my BUCKET LIST. Very informational and exciting for a UFO/alien buff like me.

We drove west after that to Valley of Fires Recreational Area. 

"Valley of Fires recreation area is located immediately adjacent to the Malpais Lava Flow. Approximately 5,000 years ago, Little Black Peak erupted and flowed 44 miles into the Tularosa Basin, filling the basin with molten rock. The resulting lava flow is four to six miles wide, 160 feet thick and covers 125 square miles. The lava flow is considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the continental United States.

From a distance, Valley of Fires appears as barren rock but when you walk through the nature trail there are many varieties of flowers, cactus, trees and bushes typical of the Chihuahuan desert. Animals include bats, roadrunners, quail, cottontails, mule deer, barberry sheep, and lizards. It's also a virtual birdwatcher's paradise with great horned owls, burrowing owls, turkey vultures, hawks, gnat catchers, cactus wrens, sparrows and golden eagles."

This place was surreal.  We camped on a small island of untouched lad, smack in the middle of a lava field.

  Click this picture for a slide show.

We joined Peggy and John at Elephant Butte RV Resort in Elephant Butte, NM.

Our next adventure will be Albuquerque!

New Orleans

N'Orlins
NOLA

We stayed at the New Orleans West KOA, which was very nice, a bit away from the hubbub of the city, and was full of friendly people.  We stayed for 3 nights and 2 days.
We went on an airboat ride in the bayou, which was pretty exciting.

Captain Gary fed a whole chicken to an alligator that lives near their dock!

Tom Sawyer RV Park

This was our home away from home while exploring Memphis.
This place has all of its sites slap dab on the Mississippi River.  All day long you can watch the barges go up and down Old Man River.

I got a big load of laundry done and the next day couldn't locate one of my 2 pairs of khaki shorts.  I had left the laundry unattended for a while, so I figured:  Lesson Learned.

I ordered a new pair of shorts on Amazon and specified delivery to the campground in  New Orleans we knew we were staying at next.

The next morning, just as we were getting ready to leave, it struck me that sometimes things fall out of the drawers in the RV and end up on the floor behind the drawers in hiding.

I checked.  And there they were.... they'd never made it to the laundry room.

So now I have *3* pairs of khaki shorts!

Beale St., Memphis

No trip to Memphis is complete without a visit to BealeSt.  

The street is blocked off and at night is filled with pedestrians, street performers, and the sound of blues music. We partook of refreshments outdoors, Memphis barbecue, and Voodoo Chocolate Passion.  We even took a ride in a horse buggy!

Graceland

Yesterday was definitely a bucket list day for me. We arrived at Graceland to see Elvis Presley’s home.

Although he wasn’t there in person (although a guy exiting Graceland told us there had been a sighting) the place was soaked with his presence.  The kitschy décor, the hundreds of awards, the meditation garden, the crazy car collection, the music in the background… just a very full afternoon.  Even if you aren’t an Elvis fan, his music shaped our American music culture.

Great Smoky Mountains

We spent 2 nights totally “off grid” in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We stayed at Elkmont campground, situated along beautiful Little River. Had a chance to kick back and enjoy the nature around us and chat together by the fire at night.

We took a tour of Cades Cove, where we saw gorgeous mountain views, but also learned about Appalachian life.  The first Europeans settled in the cove sometime between 1818 and 1821 and scattered along the loop road are three churches, a working grist mill, barns, log houses, and other restored eighteenth and nineteenth century structures.  The area has a large population of black bears.  We managed to see just one at a distance, but I’m sure there were more peering at us from the woods along the way.