St. John, USVI

Thursday, Mar 29 thru Thursday, Apr 5

Thursday

We travel to St Thomas, USVI from Raleigh, where we spent the night and left the car at La Quinta Motel. It was a long day with 3 legs flying via Orlando, Miami, then finally arrival in St Thomas - about 11 hrs including layovers. We stayed overnight at Sunset Gardens, a small older motel in Charlotte Amalie way up on the side of the mountain.  Adequate for a nights sleep and a great view.

Friday

A hectic start with every thing working perfectly. We called a taxi and it shows up in 2 minutes (before I was even ready to go), we arrive at the Red Hook ferry 2 minutes before the ferry leaves for St John. Then, we arrive at Cruz Bay and are met near the dock by the car rental representative (L&L Jeep Rentals), who has the contract with him and a portable credit card scanner and we are in a Jeep Wrangler in 5 minutes, driving on the wrong side of the road. All before breakfast.

First stop is breakfast at Jakes, a great little restaurant in Cruz Bay, then to the grocery store for wine and rum. We call our hosts, Pat and Dave Poole and arrange to meet Dave so we can follow him to their house. It's a good thing he did. We could not have found it otherwise. Their home is in the rain forest about 3,000 feet elevation (the highest point on the island is only 3,177 feet), up a dirt road, seemingly miles from civilization - a perfect place.

Bordeaux Mtn on Centerline Road, where we turn to go to Dave and Pat's

After settling in, Dave (Pat is volunteering today for the Friends of the St John National Park) goes with us to show us the island and all the great places to go (and snorkel).

Tonight we had a special treat. We all go out to dinner at Maho Bay, which is whole story in itself.

Maho Bay

After a great dinner overlooking a beautiful sunset over Maho Bay, we were treated to a demonstration of glass blowing, which is about the most unexpected thing I could imagine doing in the Virgin Islands. A pretty incredible start for our 3 week visit.

Saturday

Today we were introduced to a taste of what it's like to live here. A good part of the morning was spent on the upstairs deck drinking coffee with our hosts, meeting the neighbor, Gary, and just relaxing.

Around 10:30 we headed for Francis Bay for a couple of hours of snorkeling. Saw a couple of big turtles and a ray of some sort and lots of beautiful tropical fish.

Lunch in Cruz Bay at Jakes (their breakfast is a lot better than their lunch). Then picked up some items at the grocery, filled the Jeep up with gas (at $5 per gallon - or maybe it was per liter) and came back to the house and napped.

Tonight we went with Dave and Pat to a party of mostly people who have worked or currently work at Maho Bay. Great and very diverse and interesting group of people. The hosts, Fred and Renee are the couple with whom we are going out snorkeling on their sailboat Wednesday.

And we've only been here 48 hours. Wow!,

Sunday

The morning started slowly with coffee and breakfast with our host. Around 11:00 we headed to Great Lameshur Bay in the national park for snorkeling. This was probably some of the best snorkeling we've done ever. For about 1 1/2 hours it felt like we were swimming in a tropical aquarium. Visibility was probably 100+ feet. After resting for a while we went to Miss Lucy's for lunch. What an incredible location sitting on the edge of the bay watching the boats moving across the bay.

We were pretty tired so we spent the afternoon napping and enjoying talking with our hosts.

Tonight we went to Skinny Legs in Coral Bay for dinner and listening to a great band.

We gave up the night life around 7:30 and returned to get ready for tomorrow. 

A little about where we are staying this week.

Pat and Dave have a lovely little post and beam cottage located in the rain forest near the highest point on St John. The house is about 12 x 24 with a sleeping loft and a 8 x 24 porch. Below the porch is another porch which is the guest quarters where we are staying.

The guest quarters is a screened in porch where we can see and feel nature at its best It really feels like we are living in a tree House. It almost seems that the house was dropped among the trees. There are trees and plants growing within inches all around. It is perfectly delightful.


It seems that the house is dropped in the forest



The "porch" living quarters



The porch where we lived in the trees




The walkway to the house.  The entry to our "porch".




Pat and Clara prepare dinner

The bathroom is a delightful separate structure with all the amenities

 



The upstairs porch



Beautiful trees grow right beside the house


The home is very self sufficient. All the water supply comes from rain which is collected in a 10,000 gallon cistern. All the gray water is piped into the forest , and the black water is composted in composting toilets. The electric come from the grid as well as the cable TV.

The cabin is located about 1 1/2 miles from the main road that runs down the center of the island. The last 200 yards is a "very" unimproved dirt path. We get all our daily stretching exercises going in and out on this path. The jeep gets a pretty good workout also.

It is a great location getting the cooler temperatures and breezes and makes for some great sleeping. The highest elevation on the island is 1277 feet, and we are very close to the highest point on the island. It is reported that the temperature is typically about 10 degrees cooler at this elevation compare to sea level. I slept over 12 hours last night - and probably will tonight.

Monday

This morning we went into Cruz Bay to get a few items and to let Clara do some looking around at the stores.

Dave (our host) had made arrangements with a friend of his, Phil, to spend the afternoon on his boat (a 26 foot power cat) going to his "secret" snorkeling spots. We met at a marina (actually a dinghy dock) behind Skinny Legs to go out to his boat which is on a mooring in Coral Bay. A couple other interesting characters joined us, Collin, a former Alaskan fisherman, and Roy, who had formerly been a rodeo cowboy. Phil had been a corporate attorney with one of the large TV networks.

We first went around to the northeast side of St John to Newfound Bay. The entry is a narrow channel between reefs opening into a wide bay. We snorkeled on the reef in great underwater visibility. Then we up anchored and went to Flanagan Island which is between St John and Norman Island. Here we had the best snorkeling we've ever had in incredibly clear water. It is hard to believe that the visibility can be that good underwater. Where the visibility ended, the water turned to a beautiful blue. There were an amazing variety of fish and coral. We swam and snorkeled until we were totally worn out.

We took a tour of all the hurricane holes around Coral Bay on our return trip. After dinner at Shipwreck Landing, we were ready for bed.

Tuesday

Today we're on our own again, so we decide to go snorkeling at Salt Pond Bay, the place we are most familiar with on the island. We had first come to Salt Pond Bay several years ago and stayed at Estate Concordia overlooking the bay with Bill and Jan. And we've visited here on charter boats several times when we chartered out of the BVI.

Rams Head, St John, near Salt Pond Bay

The snorkeling was nice, but after yesterday, everything pales in comparison.

We stopped by Miss Lucy's for a late lunch and relaxed the rest of the day back at the house.

Coral Bay

Wednesday

Sailing on "Pepper"

We get an early start because today we're going out with Fred and Renee on their island skiff "Pepper" for a day of sailing and snorkeling. We had met them at the party Saturday night at their home.

Unfortunately, it was a rather cloudy day, but the snorkeling was excellent at Whistling Cay. Fred was very helpful in pointing out various fish and Coral. Their was another couple and their two teenage girls on the boat, which added to the fun. Renee had a nice lunch prepared when we returned to the skiff, followed by a nice sail back to the mooring.

This makes our fifth day in a row of snorkeling. We are beginning to feel like fish.

Tonight Pat fixed a delicious dinner of pork chops. Dave left this afternoon to fly back to WNC. Pat will follow in a couple weeks.

Thursday

This morning we drove to Cruz Bay and the Virgin Islands National Park Headquarters to catch a shuttle to the head of the Reef Bay Trail for a hike.

The hike was led by a park ranger who provided interesting narration about the history of the island and the variety of vegetation.

We hiked 2 1/2 miles down the mountain stopping at petroglyphs that are estimated to be 1000 years old and a sugar mill ruins which were the last to be abandoned in the early 1900's.

Petroglyphs

We were met at the beach by a boat for a ride around the south side of the island to Cruz Bay and the Park headquarters. Pat met us there and she and Clara went shopping and I came back to the house for rum.

Dave and Pat Lodge

We have thoroughly enjoyed our week's stay with Pat and Dave and look forward to getting with them when we get to our mountain home. They have a home near Linville only a few miles from our home.

Friday


Today is a transition day. We start phase 2 of this trip, leaving Dave and Pat and head for St Thomas and 10 days of sailing. We drop off the car, have breakfast at Jakes and get on the ferry.

Island Yachts is only a couple hundred feet from the ferry dock at Red Hook. We meet Suzan and Skip at Island Yachts, get some lunch and the start briefings and boat checkout?

We're on a 37 foot Island Packet "Sea Dog". It's a spacious beautiful boat and we look forward to sailing her.

Clara does the grocery shopping, about $500 worth, and Bill and Jan arrive around five. We put the provisions on the boat have dinner and settle into a restful evening, except for the "Puerto Rican Navy" that has settled in on the docks.

El Paso to Spruce Pine

Thurs, Feb 23 we got an early start and were headed North from El Paso to Albuquerque.

One thing we have not experienced so far driving the motorhome is strong winds.  I had read some stories about driving in strong winds and today, we had the experience.  The winds were generally out of the West about 20 to 30 mph - and we were headed North, so we had a strong crosswind.  The motorhome sometimes felt like the sailboat in a strong wind with the rocking (except for the heeling thank goodness).  It was trying to go all over the road.  We slowed down and eventually got use to it, but it was a harrowing ride for 280 miles.

We arrived at Kirkland AFB, settled into a space at their RV park and then took the RV to a truck wash and cleaned it up.  By the time we had finished that and started getting the motorhome cleaned, our clothes packed, it was the end of another long day.

Fri, Feb 24 was a full day.  We took the motorhome to Tom's RV service early to have them winterize it.  While there, we left the Tow Dolly with them on consignment to sale.  We've decided that towing with a tow dolly is not the best way.  We had continuing problems with the brakes on it overheating, and the wheel tie down straps were wearing badly.  We had lost confidence in the system, and will switch to a standard "four wheels down" towing system when we come back out next summer - which means we'll have to buy a car that can be towed in that configuration.

We spent a good part of the rest of the day cleaning and closing down the RV and putting it in storage where we had it stored before.  It's a good, secure facility and we are comfortable with it.

The motorhome is safely (I hope) in storage in Albuquerque, NM

The best part of the day was a late lunch/early supper at Sadie's, our 4th or 5th time eating there.  It is the best Mexican food we've had - and the Sopapillas are fantastic.  We bought two boxes of their mix and hope we can repeat their performance.

Sat, Feb 25 we got up early and drove the 580 miles to Wichita to Tony and Jill's home.

It wasn't a bad drive.  The speed limit most of the way was 75 mph.  However, in Oklahoma and Southwest Kansas, we drove a couple hundred miles through a dust storm.  We later learned that the winds were gusting up to 55 mph.  We would meet big trucks that looked like they were heeling about 5 degrees as well as crabbing into the wind.  We heard that it is not uncommon for the wind to actually blow trucks over occasionally.  After seeing the trucks and experiencing strong winds in the RV, I can understand how it can happen.

Driving in a dust storm

Sun, Feb 26 through Wed Feb 29 we had a great time at Tony and Jill's relaxing, going out to eat and just having fun.  Tuesday morning we left early (7:15 am) and headed East.  I had hoped to make it to Spruce Pine by 1 am Wednesday morning, however, we followed the GPS, which took us off course (or at least not the fastest route) and we had some traffic delays and ended up in Lexington Kentucky at 10 pm with another 5-6 hours to Spruce Pine.  So we stayed in a Motel 6 (which was completely adequate for sleeping) and had a nice, leisurely drive back to Spruce Pine Wednesday, arriving in early afternoon (1,100 miles).

Thurs, Mar 1 and Fri Mar 2 we enjoyed some quiet time at the Mountain Home, went swimming and Thurs night went out to dinner with Bill, Judy and Kit.  Saturday morning we'll get up early and go to Raleigh and spend the night with the kids, then back to Beaufort.

It's been another great adventure seeing more of this great country.  Right now we hope to go back to the RV in late August for some more traveling the Western US - hopefully getting to Utha, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho before the cold weather runs us back South.

El Paso, Texas

Feb 21, 12 we arrived in El Paso at Fort Bliss RV Park - a nice RV park except for being next to a major highway.  We arrived before lunch, so immediately Clara seeks out the best Mexican Restaurant in town, Tiki's.  And it was great.

After lunch, we go to a big import/export shop, supposedly two acres under roof and all Indian and Mexican stuff.  However, it appears that most of it is made in Indonesia.

Then we went by what has to be the largest BX in the country on Fort Bliss.  It's like a huge shopping center.

We aren't very impressed with El Paso.  And we've been warned by everyone we ask that we "definitely" should not consider going across the river to Juarez, Mexico.  In fact, we heard that a lady was shot on this side of the river and there was a car jacking just today.  As much as we wanted to go to Mexico, we heeded the advice and kept our butts safely away from the border.  It's a real shame.  We really enjoyed going to Mexico when we were in pilot training just down the Rio Grande River in Laredo, Tx.

Feb 22, 12 after a good swim at the local YMCA, we had no plan in mind, but had found a State Park about 30 miles out of town (away from Mexico), so decided to take it in (after lunch at another great Mexican Restaurant).

After a couple months of traveling in the desert Southwest, it seems that every town we visit, whether large or small begins to look the same.  They all have the same fast food restaurants, motels, gas stations.  Everyone looks the same when you enter them (just like at home).

The only thing that distinguishes one area from another are the protected lands, National Parks/Monuments/Lands and State Parks.  This is the thing that really distinguishes one area from another.  Thankfully, our forefathers (i.e. elected leaders) had the forethought to protect those areas that distinguish one part of this great country from another.  (It is a real shame we do not have these kind of elected leaders today).

Today, we had the opportunity to visit another one of these special areas, the Hueco (Way-co) Tanks State Historic Site.  It's another one of those places that we expected little and were very pleasantly surprised. The name tanks from the the weathering processes which eroded the rock to form hollows (bowls) in the rock which retain any rain, making them a "watering hole" for the natives and a stopping point for stage coaches.

It is another of those places that geology created and left for us to marvel  at.

Pictorgraphs on the rocks

It rises above the Chinuahuan Desert as an oasis of nature and culture.  Due to its geology, relatively abundant water, and unusual structure, Hueco Tanks has served as a refuge for plants, animals and people for over 10,000 years.  Thousands of pictographs have been left by prehistoric and historic native Americans.

As with a lot of our treasures, there are those who will defile anything they can, and that is the case with this area.  Before the Park Service took it over (and after), people who have no respect for history have written on the rocks, often right over the historic pictographs.

Graffiti is nothing new however, some of the writings on the walls date back to the 1880's when stage coaches were stopping here.

Mimi enjoys the rocks

We pay close attention to the signs

We find ourselves at a place where, no matter which direction we take, we will continue to be in the desert.  The only National Park in the area is Great Bend NP a day or so South.  We want to get back to Beaufort in early March, and going to Great Bend will probably take a week or more.

So we've decided to head back to Albuquerque to leave the RV and then drop by and see Tony and Jill in Witchita and go back to Spruce Pine and then Beaufort.

If everything goes as planned, we'll leave Albuquerque Saturday morning.

Alamogordo and White Sands National Monument

Sun, Feb 19 we departed Las Cruses for Alamogordo. We want to see the White Sands National Monument while close by and Hollaman AFB is only a few miles from there. So tonight, we are boondocking (without hookups to water or electric) on Hollaman AFB.

The trip here was only about 1 1/2 hours, but it proved to be interesting. We had to go over a pass, which of course requires a drive down an incline. I had thought that we wouldn't need the lockout on the brakes for the tow dolly, but we found out otherwise. The brakes started smoking (again) on the way down the incline, so we had to install the brake lockout to keep the brakes from engaging coming down an incline. Not what I like to do (I like having brakes everywhere I can get them when driving 15 tons of machine), but necessary to keep the tow dolly from erupting into flames - which ain't good.

We rode around Alamogordo this afternoon. This place doesn't have much going for it except for the military base and the White Sands Missle Range. We did go to a Pistachio (nut) orchard. They grow a lot of them here. Clara bought some, but I don't care for them.

Pistachio Orchard

Here at Hollaman AFB there is a Squadron (20 planes) of the most interesting and probably most secretive aircraft in the Air Force, the F-22. 

F-22

Mon, Feb 20 we started early with trip of a few miles to the White Sands National Monument.  We weren't sure what to expect, but once again, our country has preserved a unique geology that is totally different from anything else. 

Located at the northern end of the Chihauahuan Desert in the Tularosa Basin ringed by mountains is one of the world's great natural wonders.  The glistening white sands of the White Sands National Monument encompass 275 square miles of gypsum sand, the largest gypsum dune field in the world.

The mineral, gypsum, was deposited in the region in a shallow sea 250 million years ago.  Eventually, it turned to stone and was uplifted 70 million years ago when the Rocky Mountains fored.  Eventually, a portion of the mountains collapsed, forming this valley.  The mountains remaining around the valley were filled with gypsum, which has been washed by rain into the valley.  There is no outlet from the valley, so the water saturated with gypsum forms into shallow lakes, which dry up in the summer, leaving the gypsum.  The wind blows almost all the time across these lakes from the Southwest, blowing the gypsum into the dunes we see today. 

It looks like we are driving on snow

It's looks like Mimi is standing in the snow



Visitors to the monument can rent slides and go down the dunes



When the wind picks up to 15 mph, it starts moving the gypsum forming the dunes

The sand is like wet talcum powder - and it sticks to your shoes and anything else.  Our car floor is covered in it and I would think it is hard to get out.

We went on a Ranger led tour at sunset



Sunset on the desert



Las Cruses, NM

Fri, Feb 17 on the way to Las Cruses, Clara did some research on her new IPAD and found a nice campground for the night, Hacienda RV Resort.  What made it even better was their free margarita happy hour this evening for all the campers in the park. 

Sat, Feb 18 we were off bright and early for a downtown market and craft show, which apparently is a weekly (or maybe twice weekly event).  There were probably a 100 vendors of every variety selling everything from farm fresh vegatables to works of art.  Then we were off to the largest pecan farm in the US, Stahmann's.  They have 128,000 pecan trees and have been in operation for 80 years.

Pecan orchard

This afternoon we went to Old Mesilla, a Mexican settlement that was established in 1850.  It is now a shopping and restaurant area, but maintains much of the flavor of an old Mexican village.

Interesting artwork in front of a shop

I house in Old Mesilla being remodeled

I enjoyed the afternoon in Old Mesilla listening to music



Chiricahua National Monument

Thursday, Feb 16 we left Tombstone rather early and vaguely had the notion to go to a National Monument further East that we found on the Arizona state map.

We went back North to I-10, drove East a while and then headed 35 miles South of Wilcox, Az across the desert to Chiricahua (Chi-cow-wah) National Monument, not having any idea what to expect.

Well, once again, we've stumbled into another beautiful place.

Chiricahua NM is an isolated mountain range rising above the surrounding grassland.  The Chiricahua Apache Indians called the area "standing up rocks".  These originated with volcanos 27 million years ago that spewed ash over the area.  These superheated ash particles melted together, forming layers of rock.  Cooling and subsequent uplifting of the area created joints and cracks in the rocks.  Millions of years of weathering by ice and erosion by water washed away weaker material leaving behind an endless variety of spires, balanced rocks and beautiful formations.

The rock formations are beautiful

Some of the rocks and formations seem to teeter on the edge of falling any minute. 

We went on a narrated tour of the Faraway Ranch and Stafford Cabin, who were the owners of a large part of the park.  They sold it all to the National Park Service in 1978 and is being preserved as an example of a homestead that started in the 1880's.  For years, it was a dude ranch and the owners were largely responsible for interesting the Park Service in preserving this for future generations.  The tour was an interesting insight into the lifestyles of the pioneers.

An interesting picture.  Mimi took this looking down into the reflection of the water at the bottom of a 80 foot deep well

Tour of the Faraway Ranch

The campground in the park could not accommodate our motorhome, especially pulling the car.  We talked to the Rangers and they said we could park just outside the park near their entry sign.  We're only a hundred feet from the gate into the park.

Our campsite just outside the entry to the park.

There's not a light visible anywhere, and not another soul in sight.  It is probably the most beautiful and most unique spot we have ever spent the night.

 A view of the valley from the Chiricahua Mountains

As we were leaving Friday morning, this is what had happened in the mountains we were in.  It had rained most of the night where we parked, but just a couple hundred feet above us, it was all snow.

Tombstone Arizona

Wed Feb 15 we finally broke the ties with Davis Monthan AFB and drove about 1 1/2 hours to Tombstone, Az.

We kind of expected a hyped up tourist town, and that's pretty much what it is.  It's interesting, and they've done a good job of maintaining their history and folklore.  But it seems to have gotten its notoriety from a the names of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and it's current fame from the movie of the same name "Tombstone" (which we purchased in a gift shop and plan to watch tonight).

There are about 3 blocks of a main street with one block either side that are the tourist attractions.

Our first stop was for lunch at "Big Nose Kate's Saloon and Restaurant", which was quite a novelty.  The whole restaurant seems to be a museum, with some rather unusual artwork on the walls, which can't be shown on the blog because I hope the Grandchildren are reading this.



The main street is closed off from traffic and the only conveyence is stage coach.

Some of the street names are interesting.

We are staying in Stampede RV Park just a couple of blocks from the center of town.  It seems we've gone from a 5 star hotel last night to a 1 star hotel tonight.  It's only redeeming grace is its proximity to town.  We won't be staying a second night here (and probably not in Tombstone - one day is probably enough).

Mimi gives this RV park a thumbs down.

Leaving Tucson

Tues, Feb 14 - Happy Valentines Day.  Today was mostly preparations to leave.  I've modified the tow hitch on the car so we can now (hopefully) carry the bikes on the back of the car, rather than on the back of the RV where they are always in the way anytime we need to check the engine or go on the roof.

I've tried to come up with a way to keep the spare tire for the dolly on the dolly, but we also have to keep the ramps on the dolly to get the car on the dolly and there isn't room for the tire.  So it sits in the back of the car.  Not ideal, but the best we can do for now.  The back of the car seemingly is getting fuller all the time with little purchases here and there.  By the time we park the RV and head back to NC, it will probably be packed tight.

We arrived here at Davis Monthan AFB Jan 26 and have enjoyed every moment.  The first couple of days, we had Kent and Betty Meyer to show us around, but since then we've been on our own.  I think we have seen or visited about every attraction of interest to us now, and we've enjoyed them all. 

But most of all, being back on an Air Force Base and hearing the hum of airplanes and the cleanliness and discipline of a military base.  It is so unlike a civilian community.  It is a town within a larger town, with all the shopping amenities and fitness facilities (which I have used just about every day) housing, medical and all the necessities.  But without the politics and discord and clutter.

The Agave Campground here on the base is definitely one of the nicest campgrounds we've ever stayed in.  It were recently voted as the best military campground in the Western US, and I can understand why.  I hope that we are able to come back next winter for a longer stay.

And seeing the old aircraft has rekindled a lot of memories of a past that I was a part of.

Home for nearly 3 weeks

Tomorrow morning, we hook up the car on the tow dolly and I think we are going to Tombstone, Az, just to say we've been.  The eventual goal is to get to West Texas for a few days.