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Blog #1, May 2022, Arriving in US and Las Vegas It seemed like a big job putting our lives away in NZ for 5 months.  By the time we were ready to leave for the airport, we were both slightly frazzled and reflected on how long we had been preparing for our US trip, and whether we could go was determined on the very last day getting a negative Covid test.  It was all supposed to have been easy to head overseas each year but Covid grounding us for 2 years made it all seem harder.  We were very excited to get going but it’s also a lovely time in NZ.  The autumn this year has been so mild and dry.  I love the mornings in our house when the […]
Impressions of our 2nd year of travelling the USA
October 26th, 2019 3:39 am
As our 2nd year of travelling the USA comes to an end it would be fair to say that our impressions of American people have only improved.  American people are the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.  We are not so naive to think that everyone here is nice, but everyone we’ve met are, and that’s a lot of people.   This year of travel got off to a bad start for me with a torn meniscus in my knee putting me out of action for weeks.  We stayed in Florida much longer than intended, a whole month so we could be close to the surgeon, but we enjoyed Florida apart from the Yellow fly, we hope we never see another one of those blood […]
September 7th, 2018 2:33 am
The drive from Carlsbad to San Antonio was reasonably boring.  Flat scrubby land with oil derricks dipping into the ground to suck up more crude oil.  It was a long journey, we came down on 285 into Fort Stockton.  This was one of the worst roads we’ve been on.  Roadworks just about the whole way.  Truck tankers carrying the crude oil from one place to another and a bone shaker road with big pot holes.  Fort Stockton was not much of a picture postcard town.  It played a role in the civil war, otherwise it’s another oil and gas town.  The wider area reminded us of Queensland Australia.  We stayed in a reasonably nice park in Fort Stockton, it had more permanents than people like […]
August 15th, 2018 3:07 am
We had an uneventful day of travel from SLC to Richfield.  Richfield was a place we stayed at on the way to Bryce Canyon.  Richfield was a nice town and we stayed at a KOA, Kampground of America.  These campgrounds are all over the US, but so far we have avoided them as they are very family focused which can mean lots of kids and kids activities etc.  We would rather stay in a quieter place.  This KOA was actually very nice, and quiet.  As with St Anthony in Idaho, many owners of RV’s here at this park have ATV’s as there are 1000’s of miles of trails in the surrounding mountains. We left Richfield the next day for a short drive to Red Canyon.  […]
Crossing the Nevada Desert
August 11th, 2018 3:13 am
It was about a 4 hour drive across the desert heading for Elko-just past mid way.  I was surprised that there were scanty traces of civilization all along the interstate.  There were a few ranches, some very small communities, the odd house dotted along, but mostly the land is BLM-public land (Bureau of Land Management).  We drove along the interstate which in places had an 85 MPH speed limit which seems very fast. Elko was quite a large city with a population of about 20,000.  It sits on the Humboldt River so there is water!  Actually, that river runs parallel to the interstate just about the whole way.  There were a few RV parks to choose from at Elko but all close together-we chose the […]
August 6th, 2018 5:35 pm
We rode our Bicycles into Reno from Sparks which was only a couple of miles away.  We had to detour a bit not knowing how to get over the railway lines and interstate 5.  Reno was named after Jesse L Reno a Union General in the Civil war.  It’s known as the biggest little city and in the mid 19th century was bigger than Las Vegas as there was gold and silver found nearby and later the railway was laid through Reno.  In the 1930’s Reno boomed because it was one of a few places where couples could get divorced! Reno is high desert at 4500 ft, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  It’s in a fertile area called Truckee Meadows and gets […]
A list of the videos I’ve made that are on Youtube…
July 25th, 2018 10:37 pm
Hello.  If you are interested in following this blog, there are videos on Youtube too.  If you go to Youtube and type Carolyn Judge you should see my name appear-it should look like this: . Click on my name and then select Videos’s and you will see all the videos.  Otherwise, all the links are below: Taking delivery of the coach https://youtu.be/Se65GByVl9w A walkthrough of the coach  https://youtu.be/gEAL6bibGV8 Our first drive of the coach  https://youtu.be/jOCm08cAC8g Driving through Kansas  https://youtu.be/6amLyEFo98w South Hutchinson, still driving through Kansas  https://youtu.be/qP01JWBiF6o Kansas into Colorado  https://youtu.be/zjwT_JYqUkg Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs  https://youtu.be/A5CDLwZ9V9E Staying at Basecamp in the mountains of Colorado  https://youtu.be/FXHQQ7S8JGo A walk around BlackHawk, Colorado  https://youtu.be/_UhPBCGLrLQ A walk around Coldsprings, Arapaho Forest, Colorado  https://youtu.be/aKqpK4xw3dg Driving from Coldsprings to Grand Lake […]
In Idaho, land of the potato!
July 23rd, 2018 4:38 am
I was very sorry to leave Yellowstone, we will go back there in a future year, there is still lots to explore.  It was a good departure from the campsite and a good drive out of Yellowstone.  We saw more bison as we drove out, one was sunbathing right beside the road and cars were stopping to photograph and film him-it caused a huge traffic jam-in all the 2.2million acres he could lay…we think he knew the chaos he was causing!   As we exited Yellowstone we were in Montana-this is a state I hope to see more of, it’s full on horse country with snow capped mountains all around.  In only 20 minutes we had driven the little corner of the state and we […]
Into Yellowstone, looking for Yogi Bear and Bobo-Day 2
July 13th, 2018 3:56 am
We didn’t bother with the early start today as it didn’t really gain us much yesterday given how cold mountain air and steam create fog.  We firstly went to Old Faithful as we pass it on the way to the Prismatic Spring.  Luckily she was about to blow within about 15 minutes of us being there.  Today the weather was hot and there were lots of people around.  There are seats all around Old Faithful and I suspect as many as 3000 people were watching.  The geyser was impressive but I think it’s on par with some geysers we have in Rotorua.  I’m glad we didn’t wait for hours to see it blow.     Then onto the Prismatic Spring.  This was so congested with […]
Into Yellowstone, looking for Yogi Bear and Bobo-Day 1
July 11th, 2018 4:17 am
We packed up camp at Flagg Ranch, Grand Tetons and moved to Grant Village, Yellowstone with no hassle. Grant Village Campsite is at a higher altitude and the whole enormous campsite is a dry camp, which means no facilities-power, water, sewer, so we filled our water tanks up before settling in our space. This is a pretty tight campsite and our coach is the maximum size allowed, we just squeezed in. There are about 5 campsites in the whole of Yellowstone and this one allows the biggest RV’s at 40 ft.   In the afternoon we thought we would have a quick drive into Yellowstone. We didn’t go far but what we saw looked very impressive-lakes, rivers, snow capped mountains, meadows, fir trees to the […]
In the Grand Teton National Park
July 6th, 2018 9:54 pm
We moved the coach to an RV park in the Grand Teton National Park, Flagg Ranch.  It was only 50 miles from Jackson and we arrived early so we parked the Coach and went for a drive in the car to do some filming and photography.  It was fun to explore this park.  The road that runs through the park is a good quality road and typically you are driving through fir trees, meadow or a river valley-always scattered throughout with wild flowers, and here in the Grand Tetons they are magical.    We called into a Visitor Center to find out if there are organized or group walks we can do.  This is a park with grizzly bear, black bear, wolves, bison etc all […]
18th June, Rocky Mountain High, in Colorado
June 18th, 2018 3:00 am
We left the RV park at Colorado Heights this morning.  We had made some friends there, Cory and Cheri.  A delightful couple that we just loved.  We had drinks with them on two nights and it seems we have known them forever.  Here I am below sitting with them as we look over a map to discuss where we are heading.  They think we have a great trip ahead. Pulling out of the RV park and then filling up with gas was pretty painless, then on the road to Basecamp. We had the route carefully entered in the Garmin as there are some routes up to here that you don’t want to take in an RV.  We took the route that we reconnoitered a week […]
16th June, Still at Colorado Springs, but getting ready to move on
June 16th, 2018 3:33 am
This is where we are currently parked: Since we left Pontiac this is the longest we have stayed in one place.  It’s Fri evening now and we are leaving this area on Sunday morning.  It’s been relaxing to stay for a while.  We’ve achieved a few jobs in the time we’ve been here.  We needed to get the plates for the coach and the car.  They had to come from our lawyers in Montana.  Lots of paperwork and beauacracy, but we finally got them and Stuart attached them yesterday.  Our temporary plates had expired so good to have them before we head off into the mountains. These are some shots of the inside of the coach that Stuart took: I had a few things I […]