New York State Biking and Barging to Chebeague Island

We sadly said goodbye to Robin and Vinnie on July 23rd and thanks to them left beautiful Pennsylvania with a fully functioning RV! We had originally planned to drive to Niagara Falls, but cancelled due to the RV issues; we will visit in the future. We now had a few extra days and could take our time heading through New York state. We still had over 700 miles to drive before arriving in Portland, Maine for our barge reservation to Chebeague Island. 

We drove north to Chenango Valley State Park, New York for the night and then stopped at Stysh's Brown Barn campground, Boonville which is 70 miles north east of Syracuse. The campground used to be a diary farm, and is now a large campground mostly for seasonal renters and ... a large brown barn rented for events. The area is very rural and peaceful and we had a great site in the trees which the cats loved. The next morning (Saturday July 25th) Sara took all three cats for a walk. Zeke and Rocket spontaneously started to run up the steep wooded hill, with Rocket shooting up a tree and then jumping across to another tree. We certainly named him correctly! Flash decided to also join us, all three exploring up the hill with their leashes trailing, and waiting for Sara to untangle them. We spent an hour exploring, except for Zeke who found a log to sit on and watch out for unsuspecting prey!

That afternoon we rode up the road 1/2 mile to the Black River Feeder Canal path. The canal was completed in 1855, connecting to the Erie Canal and still holds the world record of 109 locks. It was a peaceful ride through the woods and fields, with some scary obstacles and surfaces at the many rural road crossings. We were relieved to return to the campground unscathed!

We had a lovely drive to Meadowbrook campground outside Lake Placid. We were now fully in the Adirondack mountains of New York, and it was a beautiful drive past lakes and through small towns. We loved the campground which was grassy and surrounded by trees. Even better there was direct access to the Adirondack trail, the reason for our stop. We went for a quick ride that evening and rode to Lake Placid. The trail was amazing, past lakes surrounded by trees on a wide crushed stone surface. It was definitely our favorite so far. 

The next day (Monday July 27th) we rode the trail in the opposite direction, past Saranac lake and almost to Lake Clear. It was stunning scenery, past lakes covered with lilies and over bridges all while listening to the many birds in the trees and on the water. We ended the day with bar-b-que and shrimp at the restaurant right next to the campground. What a great day!

The next day we left early for a long hard drive to Portland Maine. The first 120 miles to Bethel, Vermont took over three hours on steep windy roads, including a road closure and subsequent diversion. Between the rain and tense moments we did enjoy the beauty of Vermont and plan to explore more on the way back. We stopped in Bethel for a fuse to replace the one that was preventing our solar from charging the batteries; and then got on the interstate for the next 180 miles to Portland, Maine.

Wednesday July 29th was barge transfer day to Chebeague Island. We arrived at the east end boat ramp early as our ability to get on and off the barge was dependent on high tide. We were nervous because our RV doesn't have great ground clearance and we didn't want to get stuck or rip something off the undercarriage. We were using Lionel Plante, a local company who specialize in moving large vehicles between the mainland and the islands. Our boat captain Amery and his loading assistant Brian did a great job getting us on the barge without any issues. There was a comment of 'hope we can get you off ok on the beach at Chebeague", which we thought was a joke. Turns out we were actually driving off the barge and onto the beach at a small cove! Everything went great and Laura (John's sister's daughter) and Tina (John's brother's daughter) were there to greet us. It was the start of a magical week with family and enjoying island life which will be the next update!

Click here to see the photos!

Summer 2026 - Maine and the Canadian Atlantic Provinces

For our summer trip this year we are adventuring east for a change. Our first big stop is Chebeague Island just off the coast of Portland, Maine to stay with our nieces and their families. Our plan is to take two weeks to drive the 2,400 miles from Texas to Maine, stopping along the way visit friends and ride our bikes on famous hall of fame rails to trails rides. After a week in Maine we will explore the Canadian Atlantic Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland for a couple of months. We are ending the trip in mid October in Charleston, South Caroline at John's Citadel college reunion. Should be a fun trip exploring a totally new area for us both and what is now three black cats! We adopted Rocket from our RV Tech in Houston and he did well on our short Texas trip in April.  

We left on Monday July 13th and after a quick overnight in Oklahoma arrived in Boonville, Missouri. Our first ride was the Katy trail and we started early due to the heat. It was a very  enjoyable riding under shady trees, thorough a tunnel and alongside rocky cliffs and the Missouri River. We were having a lovely time until John got a flat tire about 7 miles from where we had parked the RV. We changed the tire but had a failure with the both our portable CO2 inflaters. We were standing there in the sticky heat being attacked by bugs when a guy from Austin stopped to assist and pulled out a tiny electrical pump - definitely getting one of those!  Feeling more optimistic we started  back and John got another flat tire! Out of options we started walking, until some more folks stopped and shared a manual pump to inflate enough for us to complete the remaining 2 miles. Turns out John had a tiny thorn in his tire that caused both flats. We were glad to get back to the campground, get a cold shower and relax after the 27 miles. 

We had realized on our first night we had a water pump issue which we thought was just air in the system. After some troubleshooting we determined we had a small leak in the water pump itself which needed fixing. We also had an inverter that wouldn't turn on unless we had electrical service at the camp site. Needless to say when we left Missouri on Thursday July 16th we were rather stressed!  We stopped in Columbia for extra bike tubes (can’t find our backup spares) and plumber putty to try and fix the water pump leak. It was long drive mostly on Interstate 70 to Indiana before we arrived at Summit Lake state park. 

The next morning we drove 10 miles to a trailhead and had great bike ride on the Cardinal Greenway trail. The trail was wonderfully paved, so no thorns, and very shaded by trees curving over the trail, so cool temperatures. We really enjoyed seeing the rolling farmland and fields of never ending corn and soybeans. The cats enjoyed exploring the trees and nature area before we all got hot and headed back to the campground for some air conditioning. 

We left Indiana Saturday July 18th and spent a delightful evening in Cincinnati with Sara's friends Ronny and Mike. They are great hosts and it was wonderful to spend time with them. We had shipped the fancy miniature electric bike pump and a new water pump to their house, so if our application of JB Water Weld didn't fix the leaking issue we could install a new pump.

After a relaxing morning with Ronny & Mike we set out for our next stop, driving through Ohio and briefly West Virginia before arriving in Confluence, Pennsylvania about 80 miles south east of Pittsburg. It was a really pretty area, very green with rolling hills and lots of trees. We had a great evening ride and were all relaxed until we got back to the RV and found we have an electric issue when connected to the campground power, and the water pump fix didn't work! The electrical issue was getting dire as no power from either batteries or when plugged in was a showstopper.

The next morning the core of engineers repair guy determined our 30amp campground pedestal was worn out, so yeah not our RV! We had a wonderful ride on the Great Allegheny passage trail, a crushed limestone surface, flat and shady running alongside the river with trees full of singing birds. The temperatures were much cooler and the cats enjoyed getting out of the RV to explore. We spent the afternoon calling some RV techs, using ChatGPT for troubleshooting and the multimeter to confirm voltages. We think the inverter issue might be corrosion on a post and a blown high current fuse. Hopefully we can fix these issues at our next location. We decided to skip the two days in Niagara Falls, in case we needed to stop in Philadelphia at an RV service center. 

Our next step was with Sara's friend Robin and her husband Vinnie who live about 50 miles north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Sara worked with Robin in England when Robin was living there for a few years. They had lost touch for a while and it had been 30 years since they last saw each other. We had a wonderful time catching up, and enjoying the peaceful town where they live. We had no idea Pennsylvania was so pretty, full of rural communities, lakes, rivers and forests. Definitely worth a more detailed exploration in the future. 

We had planned to explore the area the next day (July 22nd), but really needed to work on the RV issues. Turns out Vinnie used to work for Thor RV building RV's, and was an expert at fixing problems so he and John spent the day working while Robin and Sara caught up on 30 years of life! The inverter issue was related to a corroded post and blown fuse, and after a lot of effort the connection was moved to a new post and voila the issue was fixed!  After installing the new water pump we ended the day with local ice cream - the trip was back on!

Click here to see the Photos & Videos!

Truth or Consequences, Hatch Chilis and White Sands

We left Bosque del Apache midafternoon after a final drive to look at the sand hill cranes who were now in the fields eating. We will definitely be back! We then drove about an hour south to Truth or Consequences, a laid-ack town known for it numerous hot springs. The original name of the town was Hot Springs, NM. Ralph Edwards, who had the well-known radio show Truth or Consequences from the 1940s said he would host the 10th anniversary show in the first town to change their name to Truth or Consequences. The town got together and voted to change their name and the anniversary show was hosted in town. Every year there is a festival to commemorate the name change.

We enjoyed the GlampCamp with its own outdoor soaking tubs which could be filled any time you wanted. Downtown T or C is on top of a fault system providing access to naturally heated mineral water. There are numerous public bath houses, and privates homes can apply to be connected to the mineral water.

Wednesday November 19th, we soaked at River Bend mineral springs which is a beautiful bathhouse on the Rio Grande. We really enjoyed the views across the river and the peaceful environment. We were also lucky to get there and back to the RV between the many rain showers of the day!

By Thursday we were well warmed up and relaxed and we headed to our next location. We stopped for lunch in Hatch, NM, known as the Chile capital of the world. You can get a huge variety of dishes with red or green chilis. You can also order Christmas which means both red and green chilis. They are quite delicious, and we enjoyed a tasty meal at Pepe's Cocina.

Our last place to visit was White Sands NP.  We arrived in the afternoon and found a quiet spot to park and take the cats out for a walk. We were surprised to find they hated the place! We tried picking them up and taking them to different locations, but no luck. Flash managed to slip his harness and ran back the RV as quick as his paws could take him. Zeke flatly refused to move. We finally figured out they felt vulnerable because of the wide-open area with no bushes or trees for cover. We however, had a great time sledding on the dunes! It was a spectacular sunset, and we stopped numerous times for John to take photos before finally driving to Oliver Lee State Park for the night.

The next day we had a leisurely morning, enjoying the warming sun and views from the campsite of the dramatic Sacramento mountains and the Chihuahuan desert. The cats much preferred this location and recovered from the trauma of the previous day by exploring the many paths between all the campsites. We were pleased the cats had quickly settled back into traveling. When starting the trip, Flash would still burrow under the duvet, between the towel we folded up to try and contain the ever-present cat hair. Zeke spent most of his time up front on the floor between the driver and passenger seat. Surprisingly by the end of this trip Flash took over the coveted front spot a lot and poor Zeke had to squeeze into a smaller space - They generally don't sit that close to each other, so it is quite unusual to see them that close.

We spent Friday November 21st in Ruidoso and Saturday afternoon decided to head for home instead of staying the planned extra night. After a terrifying few hours of night driving on a narrow two-lane highway we stopped at the city park in Tatum, NM. Normally night driving is fairly easy, but it was a busy Friday night and no one seemed to want to dim their lights! We were home and unloaded by Sunday evening before the rain storms the following day. It was an excellent trip, and we found many areas we want to explore again. Now it's time to winterize and make some improvements so we are ready for next year's adventure!

Click here for the photos!

New Mexico Hot Springs, Stars and Birds

We decided to take a final trip before the end of the year, and on Wednesday November 12th headed out for a two week exploration of New Mexico. We spent the first night at the city park in San Jon, a tiny town just inside New Mexico. We love these small city parks when traveling, they are often free, sometimes have power and water and are quieter than an interstate rest area. 

We arrived Thursday afternoon at our favorite mineral hot springs spa - Ojo Caliente which is just an hour north of Santa Fe. We thoroughly enjoyed our evening soak in the many mineral pools. We have previously only visited Ojo in July, and it was a lovely to experience the hot waters when it was chilly weather. We really liked the RV park at the spa, nestled in the trees and just a short walk away from the main property. The weather was warm during the day and yellow leaves were still fluttering on the trees. 

Friday was a perfect day! Sara hiked above the spa to explore the high desert area and we soaked in the pools after lunch. We had an early dinner at the restaurant and John enjoyed the excellent buffalo short ribs he had been talking about for months. We had a magical evening soaking in the pools which we often had to ourselves. After several hours soaking and gazing at the stars we walked slowly and contently back to the RV.

The next day after a delightful breakfast we sadly said goodbye to Ojo and headed south. We took the Turquoise Trail south of Santa Fe through the tiny town of Madrid (scene of the Wild Hogs movie) before rejoining the interstate. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday and we enjoyed the drive, stopping for the night about an hour south of Albuquerque at a small farm RV park. The owners, Albin and Deb were the nicest people and Deb who also runs a baking business gave us two plates of cup cakes which we enjoyed for the next few days! 

Sunday November 16th we changed our plans a bit and headed west to Cosmic Campground. We had intended to go to Bosque Del Apache wildlife refuge first, but there was some rainy weather coming and we needed a clear night at Cosmic campground for night photography. We drove across a very disserted highway 60, passing the National Radio Astronomy - Very Large Array - an area in the desert with 27 massive telescopes used to monitor a wide range of celestial objects like galaxies, black holes, and pulsars. 

We stopped for lunch in Pie Town, following a tip from one of John's army buddies. The tiny town of less than 200 inhabitants is on the Continental Divide trail and has two restaurants providing great food. We stopped in both restaurants, one for lunch and berry pie, and the second to get food for later. The chicken pot pie and green chili quiche were both excellent the next day!

We continued west on what was now a wet rainy day, enjoying the increasingly mountainous scenery of the Gila National Forest, finally arriving late afternoon. Cosmic Campground is the first International Dark Sky Sanctuary in the northern hemisphere and provides exceptional opportunities for star gazing. John has wanted to check it out for ages and although we arrived in the rain the skies cleared and he was able to do some night photography late into the night. It was wonderful looking up at the skies while listening to the coyotes singing around us. The campground was particularly popular with the cats since it was so remote and quiet.

Monday, November 17th we returned east, enjoying the scenery and a surprisingly large number of trees with yellow fall colors. We arrived at Bosque Del Apache late afternoon and explored the gravel roads around the refuge before settling at a location called the Flight Deck for sunset. Bosque is about 85 miles south of Albuquerque and the wildlife refuge is well known for the tens of thousands of sand hill cranes, geese, and ducks who winter there each year. John has visited several times and it has been on Sara's wish list for many years. It was an excellent end to the day, with a great sunset and the sights and sounds of the sandhill cranes, geese and ducks flying in to settle overnight on the water for protection from predators.

It was another chilly night, but we were warm in the RV. John had made insulated covers for all the windows, and once we put them up each night and turned on the small oil heater we were very comfortable. We got up at 5am on Tuesday and drove to Bosque for the main event - the sunrise flight of the birds who leave together to search for food in the nearby fields. 

It was an amazing sunrise and an incredible sight to see the geese leaving in a massive group. Right after the geese flew off the sand hill cranes started to leave in smaller groups, along with other groups of ducks and black birds. We spent hours at the Flight Deck, before finally driving to a different location for a large cooked breakfast and a warmup in the sun. It was a magical morning. 

Click here for the photos and Videos (Increase the volume if you want to hear the birds!)

Grand Tetons & Dazzling Fall Colors

After spending two days in Yellowstone we drove 50 miles south to Grand Teton national Park, definitely one of our favorite areas. We had managed to get into the Colter Bay campground which is at the far north of the park. It has always been full on our previous trips, and it was great to have access to a part of the park we don't normally explore. We arrived early evening and on an impulse enjoyed a great meal at the local ranch house. After cooking in the RV for weeks it was nice to have someone else prepare a meal. Tuesday (September 16th) was a chilly morning, but it warmed up quickly and we enjoyed a lovely sunny day driving through the park with some great views of the stunning Teton Mountain range. We stopped for the night at the Gros Ventre campground which we have stayed in before and enjoyed relaxing in the afternoon sun - very pleasant after several cold days. 

Wednesday September 17th, we got up early in hopes of seeing moose who apparently hang around the campground in the mornings. No luck this time, but it was a pretty morning. We had a long day of driving through Wyoming into northern Utah, staying again at Lodgepine campground in Flaming Gorge, Utah. We had stopped there in July and it was a good halfway point between the Tetons and Colorado. We also remembered some stunning fall colors from a previous trip. We had a great evening with the whole campground ourselves. This is the cats favorite location since it is right on the side of the forest, and even better when there aren’t other campers! The trees were starting to change color, but it was still a bit early for the views we saw a few years ago.

We finished the trip how we started, staying with great friends in Colorado. The fall colors were peaking and John finally got the photos he had been hoping to capture.

We finally arrived home Wednesday 24th September having spent 86 days traveling 7,400 miles. We had an incredible time and it is hard to pick our favorite locations. We are already planning next year's summer trip to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, with many stops along the way. We have some upgrades to make to the RV, and we leaned a lot on our first big trip so the next one will be easier. Our big unknown had been how the cats would adjust, and it was great to find they are adventurers too!  

For now we are all enjoying being home for the cooler weather and enjoying more space and unlimited water!

Click here to see the photos

Bears and Geysers

We left the Kootenay mountains on Monday September 8th, it was time to start heading south. The campgrounds were starting to close for the winter, and the nights were starting to get cold. We stopped for lunch in the tiny town of Invermere and enjoyed the warm afternoon and the numerous flowers around town. Our stop for the night was Crowsnest, an area still in the Canadian Rockies. We had the campground to ourselves which was lovely and another sign of the end of summer. 

We were starting to wear down after 2 ½ months and just over 5,000 miles. It had been a wonderful trip, but we were ready to start the 1,800 mile drive home. Last time we visited the Canadian Rockies we had managed to drive home in two very long days; this time we wanted to take it slowly and continue to enjoy the journey.

We spent two nights at Waterton Lakes National Park, an area north of Glacier National Park, Montana. We hadn't been able to get a campsite at the start of the trip and were glad to be successful on the way back. The weather was still hazy from the forest fires, but we enjoyed a bike ride through the main area of the park and exploring the side roads. 

We crossed the border back into the US on September 11th at Chief Mountain the original start of our Canadian adventure. We were finally able to get into the Glacier National Park Apgar campground for one night and enjoyed seeing the area again. Sara attended a great ranger talk about the life cycle of forests.

After stopping in Kalispell, Montana for groceries and pet food we drove an hour to the CSKT Bison Range. John had been given a tip from a customer about the nature reserve which focuses on bison conservation and has a herd of about 350 bison. We enjoyed driving around the reserve and the cats were transfixed with the bison; we got a few good photos of them staring out of the window. We spent the night in the tiny town of Drummond, Montana (population 294) at their local campground. We've found these campground are basic, but great value for a quick overnight stop. 

We had managed to get two nights at a campground in the center of Yellowstone National Park. We hadn’t visited the park in over 20 years and since it was on the way home it made sense to stop for a few nights. We arrived late Saturday September 13th and while checking in got a tip about a location for bear viewing. We got up early the next day to a chilly 45F at 6:30am, but we were rewarded with some stunning morning light over Yellowstone lake. 

Our tip was about an elk carcass on the side of a small lake that was attracting bears. We found the location but the small parking pullout was already full, so we had to drive further up the road to another pullover. We were pondering our options since we couldn’t see anything from that location when a local who had a spotting scope said, “look there’s a bear over there”. 

There was a larger male grizzly bear at the other location guarding the carcass and two younger female grizzlies were hanging around hoping to get their turn. Since they were about 200lbs smaller they weren’t having a lot of luck and started wandering our way. All the local photographers know the bears and their names, and we were told the two female bears were called Jam and Snow. We were delighted to watch Jam for about 45 minutes while she ambled around searching for grubs under the rocks in the hill below us.

We enjoyed touring the west side of the park before returning to the campground for the afternoon and mundane tasks of showers and laundry. We will never take our washer/dryer for granted again!  Yellowstone is a popular park and is very busy in the summer. It was still busy in September and a bit challenging driving the narrow roads and finding parking spaces at the main locations.

We spent most of Monday September 15th driving around east Yellowstone, including a stop at the Old Faithful geyser, before heading to Grand Teton for two nights.

We have been home for a few days now and will have one more post with photos from the Tetons and some great fall colors from our return through Utah and Colorado. For now enjoy these photos!

Click here to see the photos and Videos

Travel Challenges & Sparkling Lakes

We left the Revelstoke area on Monday September 1st and traveled east on the Trans Canada highway to Glacier national park an area surrounded by steep mountains and glacial alpine rivers. There was potential for northern lights that night and we thought this might be a good location for photography. As we were driving around the campground looking for a site to pick there was a loud grinding sound – we had hit the front right leveler on a sneaky dip in the road. The RV has four automatic jacks that are great at leveling the RV, the downside is reduced ground clearance. We were pretty dejected when we looked at the jack and realized it was bent. Little did we know it was about to get much worse. 

The following morning we decided to move on to Golden, a small mountain town about an hour away. Sara has a skydiving friend there who owns a café (Papa Bears) and we wanted to pop in and say hi to her. About 5 minutes outside of town we got a scary warning on the dash screen saying 10 starts remaining for the RV. We had been warned that if you get too low on Diesel Emission Fluid (DEF) the engine shuts down and you have to be towed to the dealership. We never received the low DEF warning - just went straight to the countdown. 

We stopped at Papa Bears and had a great lunch and quick catch up with Veronica and her finance Rob who have created a wonderful coffee shop and café. Next up was trying to work out what was going on with the van. After John called our Dallas Mercedes service rep. and tried a few things it was obvious we had to find a Mercedes Benz dealer. We were parked on a side road outside a house and the homeowner came out to see if we needed any help, offered us cold drinks and a ride to the local repair store – Canadians really are great people!

Wednesday September 3rd we were up early and headed to Calgary which was 160 miles and about a 3 hour drive. We had luckily found a dealership who had availability and told us to get there asap and don't turn off the engine on the way. We had no idea what was wrong, or how long a repair would take. John’s birthday was the next day and we had visions of celebrating it in the Mercedes service center waiting for parts. The drive took us past what was meant to be our next location Yoho national park and Emerald Lake, then past Lake Louise and Banff. The haze from forest fires combined with the rising sun created some stunning pastel-like views as we drove through the mountains.

The dealership was great and diagnosed the issue quickly. When we hit the bump in Glacier the front leveler bent and severed the DEF hose. Luckily the part was in stock and all was fixed, including the bent bracket by 3:30pm! The trip was back on!

We decided to get out of Calgary before the traffic got worse and drove 1½ hours to the Kananaskis valley. The cats were not happy about the day’s activity and clearly were unsettled about being locked in the RV bedroom as the van was repaired. Flash who has started to sit on our laps and look out the window loudly meowed his disapproval of the Calgary traffic instead of the mountain and forest views.

As we were backing into the campsite a red engine coolant light came on with a message saying shut off engine. Really, what else could happen? Turns out the shroud around the radiator wasn’t connected correctly – that was an easy fix for the two of us to manage so thankfully we didn’t need to return to Calgary. Phew that was a long day.

Thursday September 4th – John’s Birthday! We decided to stay in the Eau Clarie campground another night. It was really peaceful with only 5 campers spread across the 50 sites; just what we needed after the crazy previous days. We had planned to visit the Kananaskis area so the diversion worked out. We enjoyed the mountains and lovely lakes, although haze from forest fires was an issue,  

Our approach of not planning ahead very far does cause a bit of anxiety about whether we will find a place to stay. We have noticed it always works out and our next location was a great example. On Friday September 5th, we drove north again past Banff and Lake Louise, returning to Yoho national park. We pulled into Kicking Horse campground and asked if they had any availability. There had just been a cancelation, and if we could fit the van into site 13 we could stay the night. Perfect, and yes, we fit!  We were excited because we wanted to visit  Emerald Lake which was just 15 minutes from the campground. The lake is a very beautiful and popular and we have wanted to return since visiting 25 years ago. We spent a delightful evening at the lake, wandering around the shoreline finding different spots for photography. The lake wasn’t quite as turquoise as we remembered, possibly because of the smoke haze and the late afternoon sun not shining directly on the lake. It was still a magical time.

The next day we stopped for a great lunch in the tiny village of Field. The Truffle Pigs Bistro is a small family-run restaurant recommended by John’s college friend Alex. Apparently, people come all the way from Calgary just to eat at the restaurant. It was a great meal! 

We drove east back past Lake Louise (those spectacular views never get old) and then went south on highway 93 into Kootenay National Park. We keep thinking we will run out of beautiful scenery and mountains, but they just kept coming and coming. We camped next to the Kootenay river and loved the turquoise color of the water. The turquoise color comes from "rock flower" which are minerals deposited in the water as the glacier scrapes the rocks. 

Sunday September 7th we drove further south and stopped at Radium hot springs for a relaxing soak. On the way to the next campground we drove through the small town of Radium and stopped at a great Austrian restaurant. We’ve been cooking in the RV most days, so it was a treat to eat out two days in a row! 

Click here for the photos!