Sunday, May 3 – Tuesday, May 19: On Sunday night we joined Walt and Kathy at their site for “popcorn Sunday”, a tradition they have followed for many years. Thing is, neither Kathy nor Ron eat popcorn so Walt and I had the bags to ourselves. No other sites were occupied and the campground was eerily silent as we walked back to our van by the light of a full moon. After packing up and saying a final goodbye to “our” big horned sheep and house finches, we left Riverview at 9:00 am Monday morning, just after our hosts. We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds (one of the only places in town), did a final laundry at the super-clean, super-friendly Station Laundromat in Safford and drove 150 miles to the Lost Dutchman SP where we had reserved the last available site for the night. Before leaving the next day, Kathy returned from the bathroom to find a fat, slow rattlesnake crossing the site pad just a few feet in front of the van. Ron grabbed the camera (in response to wild gestures from Kathy who couldn’t get to the van without crossing the snake’s path) and took a few pictures just before it slithered into the underbrush. We love this park!
Drove another 250+ miles to Kingman, where we made an overnight stop at one of the nicest wineries ever, the Stetson Vineyards and Winery (and event center that was under the same restrictions as the rest of the state) located 12 miles or so east of the town just off Route 66. Our host Don made us comfortable and left the bathrooms open for us – a real perk that one doesn’t find at most Harvest Hosts. We were able to have our dinner (frozen grain bowls) on the covered deck while watching – and being watched by – western scrub jays perched nearby. Also spotted numerous Gambel’s Quail rushing back and forth beneath the vines. An aside: Don started this winery as a lark. He and a friend were sitting on the porch of his nearby retirement home, watching the sun set, fantasizing about sharing the view with others. The event center idea was hatched, and now weddings, graduations and other major life events take place in this lovely venue year round. Just about all the wine produced is consumed at these events; some bottles are sold over the counter and at wine tastings. We bought a few to add to our Harvest Host cache.
Our next destination was LG II’s desert retreat project in Nipton, CA on 1100 acres right in the middle of the Mojave Desert Preserve. The site was formerly used as a retreat center by a European businessman and philosopher, but had recently been allowed to languish as its owner became increasingly involved in projects overseas. The property has palm trees, joshua trees and a fruit orchard, as well as many deciduous trees that house a black vulture roost, all of which are maintained because of the four onsite wells that tap into a large underground aquifer – and a full time caretaker that keeps the sprinklers and hoses going. The house itself is a three bedroom prefab that contains the owner’s magnificent collections of Hopi artifacts including dozens of kachinas, pottery and knives. Thousands of books line the many bookcases, and hundreds of wine and liquor bottles are stored in coolers and on open shelves. The house is surrounded by a wooden deck in the shape of a star; Ron estimates it to be well over 10,000 square feet of decking. Lou and friends spent the better part of two weeks sanding and re-painting said deck to ready the house for use as a bed and breakfast by the end of the summer. The pool in the yard has an endless waterfall and an attached hot tub. While we were there we lunched on the deck, took a few “inspection” walks and did some birding. Bird highlights included the dozen or so black vultures that roost here, a (confused?) spotted sandpiper that landed on the deck and foraged for a while before realizing it was not a mud flat, and a Bullocks Oriole which – of course – landed on our mirror to check us out. Twice.
We left the desert retreat on Friday as planned, heading straight to Best Time in Vegas to get the Zioness ready for the voyage home. Rented a car, checked into the Henderson Hampton Inn and hunkered down until Monday, existing on fast food and air conditioning, only punctuated by a brief visit to the Clark County wetlands where a roadrunner greeted us at the entrance and we saw black-chinned hummingbirds, common gallinules, a few rabbits and some verdin. Oh, and Saturday we decided to have ice cream for dinner from Freddy’s, just a few steps from the motel. First we walked up but they were only doing drive up service so we returned to get the car. Got on the car line, maybe 15 cars back, and waited 32 minutes to order, another 9 minutes to pick up our sundaes and drove back the motel in less than an minute to consume said sundaes. Definitely worth it, though.
After checking out on Monday we were on our way to kill some time back at the park and decided to call Brian for an ETA on the van. It was ready so we picked it up, dropped off the car and headed on our way back to Kingman to stay at the Desert Diamond Distillery for another Harvest Host overnight. We stopped to buy Subway sandwiches, but when we arrived at the DDD the cafe, a 100-year old restored Pullman car had just opened for business following the months long delay for Covid related restrictions. We were the first people to eat there, besides the owners, ever! Food looked excellent so we stashed the Subways in the fridge and ordered from the brand new menu. They took our picture to post on their web-site and gifted us with a plaque depicting the distillery.
On Wednesday we left early and stayed on Route 66 through Williams, Seligman and Winslow to Homol’ovi SP where we wanted to stay the night. The wind was roaring, with gusts over 40 mph so we were anxious to get off the interstate and away from the semis that were blowing from side to side in front of us. Although the campground was pretty empty, it wasn’t easy to secure a site. First we called the number posted at the entry, then we went to the visitors center where the gloved and masked ranger slipped us a different number through the closed door, then finally reached the AZ Parks call center who assigned us a random site. It turned out to be quite a nice site and the bathrooms were open and clean, so we were able to relax before hitting the road once again. Quite literally because on our way out the next day, Ron ran right over a BIG piece of truck tire in the middle of I 40. No telling what damage it caused until we get the van to a shop back home.
With national parks closed and no state parks open east of Arizona, Harvest Host has been the best thing ever. Our next HH stop was at the Windrush Alpaca Farm in Clovis NM where our host greeted us with freshly made oatmeal cookies and a bag of food to feed the alpacas. The animals had recently been shorn and were pretty funny looking but were friendly and curious, coming right up to their fence to say hello. The gift shop was opened for us and the other HH guests, social distancing was respected and we spent a very peaceful night. We were up and out at 8:00 am the next morning, anxious to get through the Texas panhandle and to our Oklahoma Harvest Host before dark.
The Native Spirits Winery is in Norman OK, just southeast of Oklahoma City. Our host Rick moved his car so we could have a flat spot in the parking area, off the grass as rain was forecast. Woke to a cloudy sky but no rain, and pulled out at about 8:30 heading for Arkansas by afternoon. The rain caught up to us before the border, pelting us with hail and buckets of water for over two hours. We had decided to stay off the interstate to avoid the big trucks but our scenic route was poorly drained in spots, especially through the small town intersections. We drove through flooded roads, over fallen branches and into areas where the visibility was down to a foot or two in front of the windshield. But we got ahead of the storm as we entered AR and finally relaxed when we pulled into the Post Winery in Altus. We bought two bottles of sherry and took a spot next to a small pond, where the Canada geese strolled by with their goslings and kept Ron awake with their cackling all night long. We debated sticking it out until the weather cleared but finally decided we could beat the front and left early the next morning.
Saturday was a long drive day, covering 450 miles before landing at Amber Falls Winery and Cellar just south of Nashville TN. To our surprise there was a band playing, people gathering at picnic tables (although keeping a suitable distance from each other) and a food truck parked nearby. With some misgivings we visited the gift shop (restricted to four shoppers at a time) and bought our token wine before ordering from the food truck and snagging an isolated picnic table for a relaxing dinner. Our assigned parking spot was up the road near a small outbuilding labeled the Water House where we were soon joined by fellow HH members, a couple from nearby Nashville in a similar rig, a custom converted RAM that they had recently bought.
After leaving the next day we decided to take a side trip, traveling about 45 miles on the Natchez Trace Parkway that runs from southern Mississippi to Nashville. It was scenic, reminiscent of the skyline drive with picnic spots and pull outs all along the way. We had an outdoor breakfast and took a short walk before the rain started and we got back on the road again. We may have to do the entire 445 miles some day. As we drove we saw a sign for the Seven Islands Bird Park – how could we pass it up?? It was the only state park we’d ever seen specifically set aside for preserving bird habitat – in this case to restore grasslands that had been paved over, cut down and turned to commercial agricultural use. It was a brief but pleasant stop and we walked one of the short trails through the wooded area, hearing oven birds, wood thrush, pileated and downy woodpeckers and common yellow throats.
Eager to make time now that we were within striking distance of home, we pulled into the Cracker Barrel in Abington VA just before dark and spent Sunday night before heading for our last Harvest Host, the Back Room Brewery just off I 81 in Middletown VA, just outside of Front Royal . Big disappointment. We had looked forward to bringing home growlers of local beer for the family, with names like Shenandoah Sunrise and Reliance Road Red Ale. Unfortunately, none of those were available, the growlers were $26.00 empty and an additional $20.00 to fill and there were only three varieties of bottled beer, already chilled so we had to empty the fridge to keep them cold until we got home. Oh, well. But on our way up we did do a few miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway. When we first planned our return trip we thought we’d spend more time there, camping along the way but, as a national park, it was only open to drive-through traffic. No camping, no visitors centers, no open bathrooms. But, although we missed the rhododendron bloom by a week or two, the orange and yellow azaleas were out all along the drive.
So after 131 days and 9926 miles, we pulled into Hart Boulevard at 3:45 Tuesday, May 19th, only 6 weeks later than originally planned, tired, tanned and anxious to see our family and friends again.
The Ultimate Road Trip 