Tag: Food

Winslow & Meteor Crater AZ

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Food, Friends, Ham Radio, RV'ing, Sightseeing, Touring, Traveling

As we continued our trek back to Arizona for the winter, our final leg would be heading west on I-40 between Winslow and Flagstaff (and ultimately down to Casa Grande)

Winslow Arizona (you’ll remember “Standin’ On The Corner” by the Eagles) is a great stopping point as you’re heading west. The town is a few blocks long and has only a handful of tourist trap type souvenir shops and another handful of restaurants. Canned music plays from loudspeakers mounted on utility poles at the downtown square and there’s always other tourists checking out the corner while you’re there.

The famous “Standin’ On The Corner“

A short walk from an easily discovered parking spot got us down to the historic La Posada Hotel and to walk through the lobby was worth it. This is the last Fred Harvey Hotel built along the Santa Fe rail line in the ’30s that’s still in operation. The architecture and interior design are beautiful. You can read more about the Fred Harvey story here.

The La Posada Hotel

After our stop at Winslow we traveled west to Exit #124 and visited “Meteor Crater”. This crater is the largest and best preserved on planet earth.

The crater was produced as the result of a falling meteorite traveling at an estimated 26,000 miles per hour.

Meteor Crater measures 0.75 miles (1.2 kilometers) across and about 600 feet (180 meters) deep. The size of the asteroid that produced the impact is uncertain—likely in the range of 100 to 170 feet across—but it had to be large enough to excavate 175 million metric tons of rock.

You can still see the remains of mining operations that took place during the 30’s through the 50’s. The owner of the crater (Barringer) at that time was looking for anything of value that might have been left as a result of the explosion caused by the meteor.

This is where my Canon SX-60HS digital camera with it’s 1500mm zoom lens really came in handy!

The large picture below shows the overall view of the crater as seen from up on the observation deck at the rim. The smaller photos at the top of the gallery below show close-up views of two of the mine shafts that were dug during explorations. The steam boiler in the right-hand picture generated pressure to operate the lift winch (located behind the boiler). The winch was used to bring materials up out of the shaft and take men and tools down into the shaft.

Clicking on any of the thumbnails in the gallery will open a larger view for you to be able to see.

  • Fencing over one of the mine shafts
  • Another mine shaft at the bottom
  • Steam boiler machinery
  • The view from the top with the naked eye
Short video of the crater (panoramic view)

We finished up our visit with WHAT ELSE but food? We found what appeared to be a popular watering hole in Winslow and we decided it was time for lunch before moving on down the road to our final destination of Rover’s Roost at Casa Grande AZ.

It was a great decision. Both couples split a meal and we’re so glad we did — the portions were HUGE (as Bernie would say)

This is a half order of our Chicken Fiesta Salad
The RelicRoad Brewery in Winslow Arizona

We finally made it back to our “winter home” and have been settling in. The park club functions will officially start Nov 1st but some of us early birds have been keeping busy in the meantime.

  • Parked until January
  • Giving the coach a well deserved bath
  • Getting our cracked windshield replaced
  • An evening outdoor gathering
  • Spooks at the Halloween Party
  • Enjoying (NOT!) our new pet tarantula
  • Enjoying each nights sunset
  • Repairing the water heater
  • Playing a little ham radio (in the shed)
  • A nite out to our favorite Chinese restaurant

All in all, it has been a great trip across the northern plains and down through Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona. We’ve seen a lot of beautiful landscape, hooked up with old friends along the way, met new folks that we can now consider friends, and continued to learn to love and appreciate each other as we continue this life adventure.

Thanks for riding along, we will look for you on down the road. I’ll be documenting some of our adventures while we are her for the winter, so there will be more to come.

In the meantime, be safe, be healthy and take care of each other as you travel this journey we call life.

Herb and Kathy

Tourist Review – Hot Springs SD

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Food, RV'ing, Touring, Tourism Review, Traveling

Our stay at Angostura gave us the opportunity to spend some time in Hot Springs visiting the local grocery store, the post office, one of the local barbers, the Pioneer Museum, the ACE hardware store, and at least three of the local restaurants more than once each during our stay.

We enjoyed visiting with the locals while we patronized their businesses and sought out opportunities to visit with other “travelers” along the way.

Fall River (also the name of the county) runs right down through downtown from north to south along the main drag. There are very few “new” buildings in town with most having been built in the early 1900’s and many including City Hall, the County Courthouse, the old Evans Hotel, the town school, the old hospital and a host of others were built in the late 1800’s.

These buildings are not only old, but beautiful as well for they are made of the brown-pink colored sandstone mined from one of the local quarries back in the day.

As always, click on any of the thumbnails below to see a larger picture.

  • Check out the fire escape
  • Pioneer Museum, former school
  • Old hospital
  • Union Train Depot
  • County Courthouse
  • Former Evans Hotel
  • Union Train Depot

Here below are some pictures of the inside of the former Hot Springs School (used until 1963). It is now the home of the Fall River Pioneer History Museum. It’s three stories of classrooms plus a fourth floor attic that they are currently working to rehab into an art studio and gallery for community use. This school is up on the hill overlooking the town and the students had to climb up a couple hundreds steps (I’m guessing) to make it to class.

And today we see Moms and Dads all over the country driving their kids down a hundred foot driveway to sit in temperature controlled comfort while waiting for a school bus to come and pick them up! Remember when our parents would say “Quit complaining, when I was your age we had to walk 5 miles uphill both ways to and from school!” We were led to believe that we had it lucky, but now these kids today got it lucky even more so!

  • The spiral slide fire escape
  • Period furnishings
  • Vintage dental office
  • Antique laundry equipment
  • The former Hot Springs School (until 1963)

There are a lot more buildings to marvel at in Hot Springs as well as some nice neighborhoods to drive through as well.

With regard to any of the springs in town, we did not take advantage of a visit personally. The Evans Plunge is the largest, oldest, and most popular boasting a 70′ x 200′ indoor hot mineral spring fed pool that is tempered by cool fresh water from the Fall River. Another newer spring and Spa called Moccasin Spring caters to those that desire spa type treatments in addition to their outdoor multi-level soaking pools.

The following paragraph is taken from https://hs-sd.org/history (history of Hot Springs web site)

“The biggest development in baths was the Plunge, built by Fred Evans in 1891. The building was constructed of wood, iron, and glass, and covered a pool approximately seventy by two hundred feet. Various slides, diving boards, rafts, and other accessories were provided for the enjoyment of the guests. Evans Plunge is still operating at the same site. In 1893, our sandstone City Hall (still used today), and an impressive sandstone public school building (now the Fall River County Museum) were built. By the end of 1893 the population of Hot Springs was estimated at 3350, and the city had laid more than five miles of sidewalk and graded more than three miles of streets in the preceding three years.”

And what’s traveling across the country without experiencing the local “Mom’n Pop” diners and cafes? I mean “Ya Gotta Eat” right?

We ate breakfast or lunch at; Morning Sunshine Cafe, Upper Crust Diner, Winners Circle Bar and Casino (at the bowling alley), Taco John’s, and the (new) Chicago Street Cafe that’s inside WillieJax Antiques and Pawn Shop.

  • 1/3 pound Patty Melt
  • Turkey Bacon Wrap
  • Breakfast scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and gravy
  • Bacon Blue Burger at The Winners Circle
  • Two Cows Creamery (Rasberry Chocolate Chip)
  • Indian Taco @ Upper Crust
  • Chicken Noodle Bread Bowl @ Upper Crust
  • Upper Crust Cafe
  • WillieJax Antiques and Pawn

We enjoyed our stay at Angostura Recreation Area and our frequent visits into Hot Springs (only about 4 miles away) but it’s time to move on down the road and meet up with our friends David and Susan. We will be traveling tandem for about the next month as we make our way back to Arizona for the winter.

So long for now, thanks for riding along and please feel free to leave a comment down below. If you’re not already getting automatic email notification of our new posts, you can look over in the right margin (sidebar) and enter your email address. Then you’ll get a brief email anytime we post an update.

Be good, take care of each other and if you’re on the road … safe travels to you. See you next time.

Herb and Kathy

Our First Harvest Hosts Overnighter

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Camping, Food, Traveling, Volunteering

We left friends and family in My Gilead about 9:00 this morning and slowly meandered our way down U.S. Route 42.  We deliberately took the U.S. Route instead of the interstate.  After all, we’re retired and not in any hurry, right?

Our first travel day in a year!

We stopped at the T/A Truck stop near London to fill our diesel since we have a discount card that saves us a good chunk in the Big Truck lanes at T/A, Loves, Pilot, Petro, and a few others.  Besides, in the truck lanes the nozzle is at least twice the diameter of those in the car lanes and we can fill this 94 gallon tank in a jiffy.

With our TSD Logistics card we save sometimes as much as 60 vents a gallon.  Today the pump price was $3.17 and we paid $2.70 … That’s a good price for diesel — we saw other stations on the way down that were as high as $3.35/gallon for diesel.

Our net price was $2.77 / gallon
Receipt shows pump price of $3.199 / gallon

If you drive a diesel motorhome or pull a trailer with a diesel truck, you can find out more about TSD Logistics and their RV diesel savings program by reading my earlier post covering the subject. We’ve saved hundreds over the last couple of years.

After fueling up we stopped and grabbed a late breakfast at Bob Evans, then rolled on down the road to Valley Vineyards at Morrow, Ohio just north of Cincinnati.

I had left a phone message for them before we left this morning and owner Rodney called me back when he opened shop and welcomed us to come on down.

We’ve got a nice spot parked alongside a green grassy field and a small stream.

Our spot for the night at Valley Vineyards @ Morrow, OH

Rodney retired from General Electric a few years ago, then got a call to manage worldwide operations for PayPal.  He did that until a little over a year ago when he bought the winery.

Rodney tells me he knows a lot about wine from the bottle to the lips, but admits he knows very little about what it takes to get it in the bottle, so he’s fortunate to have hired talented staff to help him with that end of the business!

They have indoor seating along with a large patio, a large buffet on weekends as well as LIVE music. The kitchen has a pretty varied menu, and of course LOTS of wine.

  • My Chicken Bacon Siracha Wrap
  • Kathy’s Blanco Pizza
  • Kathy’s Flight
  • Owner Rodney
Click on any of the thumbnail photos above to open a larger view

Harvest Hosts offer their farm, museum, distillery, brewery, or golf course to HH members to park for the night, learn about their operation and their way of life, and of course take advantage of whatever the host might have for sale. Although there is no charge to stay at a Harvest Hosts operation, it’s certainly appreciated by the host if we eat, drink, or otherwise help in the commerce of the operation.

If you’re an RV’er, we recommend Harvest Hosts property owners as providing a wonderful alternative to the typical campground or RV park. You might give it a try!

Thanks for riding along, and once again if you’d like to follow along with all our travel posts, just sign up with your email address to receive regular updates.

By the way, we’re on our way to Burkesville, Kentucky for 3 months to volunteer as Camp Hosts at Dale Hollow Lake State Park – then after July 4th we’ll be changing directions!

Take Care, stay safe, and be good to those you care about

Herb & Kathy

Bike Week at Sturgis

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Camping, Food, Friends, Sightseeing, Traveling

Well, here we are at Spearfish South Dakota nestled in the cradle of the northern Black Hills. The DC Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives actually sits in Ames Canyon at the south end of town right next to the beautiful Spearfish City Park and across the street from City Campground.

We’re continuing to enjoy our stay here and as the end of our time here nears, I thought I had better share with you some of our experiences here.

As I’ve said before, the friends we’ve made here and the relationships we’ve developed will stay with us as we continue our travels and we look forward to meeting up with these great folks again “on down the road”.

As non-bikers (motorcyclists) we weren’t really all that excited about visiting Sturgis during Bike Week. It’s only about 20 miles down the road, but the thought of fighting all the traffic (both road and foot) didn’t really get us enthused.

But … since we work at the hatchery 3 days on and 3 days off, what’s a person to do during the 3 off days? Matt and Sherry had been there last year, convinced us to go along with them, and after all … no grass to cut, no house to maintain, … so what the heck … go have some fun!

Estimated attendance was about 500,000 people over the 10 day time span of the rally with an economic impact to the area of over $800,000,000! (yea, that’s $800 MILLION!)

The pictures below show just SOME of the sights (and bikes) we saw along the way on Wednesday (mid-week) of the rally. There are other sights that we saw that would not be appropriate to share here on a public forum.

As always, if you click on any of the thumbnails below, you’ll be able to see a larger view of the image

Here’s a video of our campground during the rally. Although it was at full capacity with over 80 full hook-up sites and host to hundreds of tent campers scattered throughout the grounds, it was really a pretty calm environment for us – even during Bike Week. We’d hear the rumble of all the powerful bikes coming and going during the days, but at night it quieted back down.

Spearfish City Campground during Sturgis (79th annual) Bike Week

The park quieted right back down after Bike Week was over and we had the park nearly to ourselves again.

All in all, it was a great experience to be able to go to Sturgis during the rally and see all the beautiful bikes, eat some great food, and watch all the “different” people walking the curbs and sidewalks.

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Honoring Our Veterans at The Park

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Food, Friends, Veterans

Today was another special day here at Pere Marquette Oaks RV Park.  It’s the Fourth of July holiday weekend and all our regular residents are here along with all the rental lots taken with first-time and return visitors.  Many of the guests are relatives of some of our full time residents.  Lots of little ones having tons of fun.

The day started out with our 2nd Annual 4th of July Bicycle and Golf Cart Parade.  Children started decorating their bikes last night, while Grandmas and Grandpas decorated their golf carts, scooters and such with all kinds of red, white, and blue banners, flags and other regalia.  We even had marching music blaring to keep the ranks in file.

We paraded throughout the park while throngs of on-lookers waved and cheered (and smiled) at the clever decorations.  Awards were given for the best entries in each class.

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After the parade, all the participants and spectators gathered around the new flagpole for the dedication of the plaques honoring our Veterans.  Both the flagpole and these plaques were donated by Bill VanDeVusse and Lee Presley and we all thank them for their generosity.

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And after the dedication, we all gathered in the pavilion for cookies, cake, punch, and Popsicles.  It was a wonderful cap to a great early afternoon.  I have to apologize for not getting any pictures of everyone during refreshments in the pavilion … I guess I was to busy stuffing my face with all the delicious goodies to think about picking up the camera, (duh!)

After the refreshments, many of the residents and visitors enjoyed some basking in the sun, playing in the pool, or relaxing in the hot tub.

A special shout out of THANKS goes to Chris for organizing the parade, Marianne and Mike for installing the plaques and the recognition of our Veterans, and finally Jean, Marianne, Sally, and Sue for getting all the goodies donated and the hall set up and serving everyone.

It’s always good when friends come together … can’t wait for the next opportunity!

How well is our fridge working?”

by Herb & Kathy, posted in Equipment, Food, Learning

When we started RV’ing we soon learned that the typical RV refrigerator could be susceptible to wide temperature variations and not real efficient at cooling.

We learned that it was best to “pre-chill” the fridge, letting it work at cooling down for at least 24 hours before loading it up with food.  We also learned that because it is not your typical household compressor fridge but rather an evaporation system that it’s best to put food that has been pre-chilled (from a conventional fridge) into the RV fridge.  Also …. DON’T stand there looking for something to eat with the door open!  Know what’s in the fridge and what you want BEFORE opening the door – that way you’ll be successful at keeping more of the cold air in the box instead of rolling down onto the floor and your feet.

OK, so we did all that …. but is it really working?  We installed a typical round-dial refrigerator thermometer and it kept showing 50 degrees or higher!  dial-thermometerThat’s no good.  We want to keep our refrigerated food somewhere between 34 and 40 degrees.  We turned the control on the front of the fridge to “Coldest”, but still showed around 50 degrees or so.

Finally out of frustration wondering if the fridge was working and if we needed to call a repairman, we installed one of those digital indoor/outdoor thermometers and “voila”, it shows us at a glance what the temp is inside at any time without us having to open the door to look at the grossly inaccurate dial thermometer that we hung on the shelf.

Since buying the digital indoor/outdoor thermometer for the fridge, we’ve also bought another one that I placed the outdoor sensor in the coach basement water compartment.  The water compartment has the fresh water supply piping so in that compartment I installed a 60 watt light bulb that is connected to a plug in thermostat that comes on at 35 degrees and shuts off at 45 degrees.  Now I can monitor that compartment temperature and be comfortable knowing my light bulb hasn’t burned out and the system is working and I can monitor this from my easy chair in the coach any time of the day (or night)