January/May 2020
The Color Green
We Return to North America Once Again
Well, we’ve been back in the United States for six months already, so guess it’s time to let y’all know how we’re doing, what we’ve been up to all this time, and where we are now. Some of you haven’t heard a word from us in all that time, while others have kept pretty much up to date. Like everyone else, since March we’ve had to focus on coping with the coronavirus, and our wings have been clipped in terms of travel. We know we are very fortunate that our lives are still able to proceed in their normal fashion and that our inability to just pick up and go anywhere, anytime is a small price to pay in comparison to what so many others are experiencing. Happily, we remain healthy.
So, to bring you up to speed, we dropped the Tiger off in Durban for shipment home from Africa late in November and we landed in Portland, Oregon in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Daughter and son-in-law had just acquired a pair of miniature goats as the start of the lambing operation on their small farm in the northwestern part of the state. The tiny kids joined the dogs, cats, and chickens already in residence and it was great to have all the animals to pet, along with catching up with Lauri and Scott. After most of three years of drought conditions in Australia and Africa we certainly enjoyed seeing the lovely green pastures and mountains of the area around Nehalem, which is just north of Tillamook and just inland from the coast. When we left, we were back in our little Honda CR-V towing our small cargo trailer containing our limited non-Tiger belongings behind.
As always seems to be the case, in scheduling our California medical appointments to begin at the earliest date we thought reasonable, we found ourselves trying to string together too many visits with friends and family up and down the West Coast in what suddenly seemed to be much too short a time frame. We had only about five weeks to do everything we wanted to do and get to Florida to meet La Tortuga, so our schedule was tight and we had to keep moving every couple of days. Throw in unpredictable December weather in Oregon and the result was that we didn’t get to see several people we’d hoped to, including son Aaron and his family. So that was a bummer. Otherwise the time went well. Shortly before Christmas we left California, squeezing a trip up to Reno to see Jason between snow storms, then a meander down to the edges of LA to catch Rick and on to Arizona for visits to friends and our first great-grandchild (!), and then on across the country.
The Tiger was scheduled to arrive in Jacksonville early in January, which continued to keep us moving at a pretty rapid pace because yes, it’s a long way from Reno to Jacksonville. We got a real emotional boost just before Christmas when out of the blue came an email from the chief mate of the ship La Tortuga was traveling on - the Alliance Fairfax. This was a real treat as he told us the crew had developed a great interest in us, was enjoying looking at our website, and most importantly that our truck was safe and sound and being taken good care of. On this, our seventh shipping experience, we really weren’t worried about anything, but still, how nice it was to hear from him! We shared a nice little correspondence and he sent us this photo of the crew posing with LT.
Jacksonville is a nice town, with plenty of good places to eat and lots of movies we wanted to see, and we’re familiar with the port there as we’ve now shipped in to JAX three times and out once over the past eleven years. So we were fine, despite some hassles that developed in getting the truck through customs and caused us some delay. Eventually we found ourselves free to get back on the road and we headed directly to Tigertown (what we fondly call the factory in Columbia SC) for some overdue repairs. Nothing unusual or all that difficult — just stuff we couldn’t get taken care of in Africa. We ended up having things done at three separate shops plus the Chevy dealership. While the Tiger was in the shop, we took the car up to see friends in the DC area and in Raleigh and made a nice week’s trip of it.
Once back in the Tiger, off we went down to Florida to see bunches of people we’d not seen in a coon’s age, scarf up the splendid local Plant City strawberries, and grab some local jams and honey. We’re no fools. It was a good trip and a good time reconnecting with folks, although we didn’t get to see them all. You never do; it leaves more for next time. Oh, and we cannot forget the museums. Many moons ago we’d visited the St Petersburg Dali Museum and loved it; they’d moved into a brand new museum space since then, and we finally had a chance to see it. We were blown away; it’s a stunning, amazing place to see, both inside and out. We also found time to visit a couple of car museums in the Tampa-Sarasota area and had a good time with them as well. Florida in February was a pleasure. Car museum pics can be viewed at Motor-Museums.com if you’d like.
We finally trucked ourselves back up to Columbia for one last set of stuff to be done, and then headed down through Georgia and into Alabama. We stopped off at a pair of Civil Rights museums in Montgomery that we hadn’t seen before. They were excellent, and had so much to share. We enjoyed being in Montgomery at that point.
We arrived at our southern Alabama destination, a nice campground down near the Gulf Coast, in early March. We were planning — remember when we all had plans? — to meet up with some German friends who were flying into Atlanta late in March; we were going to spend a couple of weeks together touring around the South in early April. So we got busy surfing maps, making plans and organizing visits for our time together. Then of course the virus hit and we were stopped dead in our tracks, with our friends having to cancel their flights and motorhome rental and we having to sequester in place for what would turn out to be the next two months.
We could have done a whole lot worse. The park in Summerdale is very nice in the spring, complete with magnolia trees in bloom. Too, southern Alabama at that time had been lightly touched by the virus and we were free to move around the area as we chose. Early on stores and restaurants were still open, we discovered the delicious Biscuit King near Magnolia Springs, a neat used DVD store in Foley, and living in the campground with electricity(!), water(!), laundry facilities(!), and places to walk where you could still be alone, was a nifty treat for us.
Since we are totally accustomed to living in our very small space we didn’t feel particularly inconvenienced. We spent the two months staying close to home, catching up on stuff, baking cakes and cookies and making soup, and working on an eventual departure plan.
While we were getting organized, we didn’t ignore springtime in the south. We wandered over to a nearby wetlands area, Weeks Bay, to enjoy this arm of Mobile Bay, with its resident bog and pitcher plants in bloom; and took drives through the ever more lovely countryside and made good use of the drive thru at the local Culver’s. Finally, on May 8 we left southern Alabama and started a meandering, slow, careful route that, over a three-week period, took us to South Dakota, where we are now. It was an incredibly lovely, peaceful trip.
Why South Dakota? Some of you will recall that we are actually residents of this state, and as such, we are required to renew our driver’s licenses once in awhile. Without going into all the hoo-ha that’s involved, this action required us to come on up and spend a bit of time here, which we’re always happy to do.
So what was so special about this journey? Okay — map time. In a very general sense, we’re talking about the middle part of the country. Going north, we left Alabama and entered Mississippi (which is such fun to type), then across the river into Arkansas, then on up through western Arkansas to Missouri and a bit of Iowa, and finally into good ole’ SD. And in May, with all the rain and spring growth and wildflowers, the area is lovely and green and full of fat and happy creatures. To repeat our comment from earlier in the message, after the aridness of much of our southern hemisphere journey these past years we can’t seem to get enough of the wonderful green we are experiencing here in the south and mid-west. The areas we’ve been passing through, you may know, have had more than enough rain this Spring, to the extent of a great deal of major flooding all through the Mississippi River valley. We’d intended to camp along the river in the delta region south of Memphis, but were unable to reach our destination due to the flooding around Arkansas City.
Away from the river, we have found some beautiful spots for camping. Western Arkansas was particularly nice. We worked our way north through the Ouachita and Ozark National Forests, staying for a few days in one little forested spot or another, and then moving on to the next one. We often saw signs warning us of bears in the area; never had the pleasure, but we did see lots of turtles crossing the roads (why, one must wonder), and more than a few dead armadillos decorating the roadside in their characteristic posture — flat on their backs with all four legs in the air.
Arkansas had also seen a lot of rain recently, and the rivers were very full. We’d head out onto a dirt road, then cross a stream, go past a pretty green meadow, then back into the forest again until we came to the next water crossing. It was nice to put the Tiger through his paces again. (We suspected he thought he was all done with this 'gettin’ my feet wet' business, but we straightened him out on that score.)
A couple of times we came to rivers, not streams, and had to figure out a different way to get to our destination. At one point we had decided to reverse course back to the paved road, but a couple of nice guys (retired military, they said) came along in a funky ATV of a sort popular in the area and said they’d lead us on in by an “easier” route.
Well, that was partly successful. It was a pretty long detour but ultimately they helped us get to the really pretty open meadow next to Cave Creek where we’d been heading and had planned to stay for a few days, and then they went on their merry way. We wanted to move the Tiger a little bit away from the track and closer to the water, but hmmm… suddenly we couldn’t get it to start. Turn the key and nothing. Bah!
It was getting dark by then so Rick said he’d have a look in the morning. Nothing doing; tried everything he could think of. He was pretty sure it was a problem at the starter, but he couldn’t wiggle under the truck to check that out. Well, do we have any cell coverage so we can try and get help? No, nada. Guess we wait for someone to wander in. Shouldn’t take too many days. This may sound a bit cavalier, but we are well equipped for this sort of thing. We had a full water tank and had just stocked up on groceries, as we’d planned to stay a few days anyway. So no big deal.
Actually our wait was only about an hour. A guy named Kevin on a tractor getting ready to plow the meadow came by with his equipment and he was happy to help. Couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but as soon as he finished his plowing, he needed to go back and get more stuff for tomorrow, and he would call for help. Which he did. It took awhile, and we were just about to sit down to dinner when a mobile repair guy showed up to see what he could do. After talking to Rick about what had already been tried and trying a jump start with no success he scrambled under the truck — ah, to be young and thin again — found a broken wire at the starter solenoid, held the wire to its contact, and Tiger fired right up. The wire would be easy enough to fix, but as it was getting dark, and we wouldn’t be able to start up in the morning if we turned off the engine for over night, we all agreed we’d best follow him into town. So we slept in his parking lot that night — no camping by the stream this time.
Next day repairs were made, and we were on our way by mid-morning. Shortly, we passed by the town of Flippin, AR, (yes, really) and then crossed into Missouri, a land of rolling green hills, gentler slopes, and fewer streams to ford, at least on our route. We spent the next few days parked in a lovely conservation area near a stream, in an open meadow, surrounded by grass and trees, with fireflies in the evenings; one strong nighttime storm came through, complete with lightening and lots of rain, but otherwise it was sunny and cool. A great visit.
As we went further north in MO, we ran into more and more people. Arkansas had been pretty well shut down, and we were in remote areas, but in Missouri they’d left lockdown behind. We were closing in on the Memorial Day weekend; people were “getting out” and getting together. We passed right by the Land of the Lakes area — you may have seen the photos in the news about the huge gatherings there over the weekend. We’d had a premonition this might happen, so we’d gone on by and were glad to be a ways away as we settled into a very rural and out of the way spot for the night.
We’d now been on the road for a couple of weeks, and were thinking perhaps we should pick up the pace, get to South Dakota, take care of business, and try and get ourselves lost in the rural plains, away from all these folks who’d decided it was OK to return to normal. We spent one last night in a city park near Jefferson City, MO, then took a charming, winding road that crossed the Missouri River three times (!) during the day. The next day we crossed the state line into Iowa, picked up the Interstate and beat feet up to Vermillion SD.
Vermillion is, quite frankly, our kind of town. It’s a small city, home of a campus of the University of South Dakota, friendly and casual, a typical midwestern farming community. Looks a lot like Washington State University (I had seven years there, says Kathy), only flat. All the facilities were closed, of course, but it’s a nice place to hang out, and has a free campground in town that’s within walking distance of the Hy-Vee Grocery Store. What’s not to like?
After a few days we moved on, and since then have been zig-zagging across the state, stopping in several of the myriad small town parks the midwest is famous for. We’ve been enjoying the open land, too, and spending time parked near wetlands and rivers as we putter along.
One of our favorite spots has been the area around the little village of Carthage. It’s close to Lake Carthage (well, duh!) and has an area that’s open camping right along the water, where we stayed for several days while other campers and day trippers came and went. It was quiet, with deer coming by twice and even a rabbit in the grass once, lots and lots of birds, and we’ve been told the fishing is very good. We were surrounded by yellow dandelions; as the days went by, the heads turned to fluff and flew off. On our last night two young fellows who were camping nearby came by with some excess barbecue; they’d made too much and had no way to preserve it. It was delicious.
Carthage isn’t much, one restaurant, a shack that has a few groceries, a fuel pump — about what you’d expect out here in the open farmland. But it’s only 28 miles from Huron, home of the SD state fair, so that’s pretty cool.
Three weeks after leaving Alabama, we can see the lush “new green” is losing some of its spring freshness and going into a more mature summer color. The weather is getting hotter — 98˚ for one icky day and then more pleasant since. Summer is approaching, but we’re still getting plenty of thunder storms and rain, and most days have some pretty reliable breezes to keep things comfy.
We are happy in our tiny home and content to move slowly across the plains secure in the knowledge that the Rockies lie ahead of us to provide comfort when it gets too hot. Right now we are parked near the Missouri River, right where you see us above, on open land which we are sharing with some locals of the cow persuasion. The huge moon hung over the river last night in all its glory. We’ll stay here until we run out of food. Oh, yes, and our new licenses are in the mail. Life is good.
Rick, Kathy and LT Himself, wishing you all well.
You can see more photos, mostly green, on the Photo Page for this story.