The Final Post

So I am shedding a tear as this will be my final post on the TaylorRVTrip.  I hope everyone enjoyed it and I did not put to many people to sleep.  Well here are the stats for the trip.  We were on the road for 55 days (June 4th - July 28th).  We traveled through 38 states (CA, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, SD, IA, NE, MO, IL, IN, KY, OH, WV, PA, NJ, NY, CT, RI, MA, NH, ME, DE,VA, MD, NC, SC, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, CO, UT, AZ, NV).  We traveled 11047.7 miles.  We saw many great National Parks, State Parks and other wonderful sites and cities.  This was definitely a trip that I do not think any of us will ever forget.  Till our next great journey, this is GOODBYE!!!!!!!

Map after day 1 of our trip

Map after day 55 of our trip

The path we took

Day 55 : We did it!!!!! 55 days in an RV and we all survived

After 55 days in an RV traveling around the US we arrived home today at about 2pm.  It will definitely be a trip to remember.  I will publish stats tomorrow.  Time for a good nights sleep in my bed.  Life is good!!!

Day 54 : All good things must come to an END

So it is hard to believe that this is our last full day of our epic journey.  I am definitely a little sad that is must come to an end but unfortunately I am not filthy rich and we have to go back to work.  So today we spent most of the day hanging out at the beach, where the girls hunted for sand dollars and made bull whips our of Kelp.  It was a very nice and relaxing day and just the right way to end 54 days on the road.  Tomorrow we will be getting up and packing things in for the final time as we will be traveling home.  We have about a 3 1/2 hour trip to Folsom so we will probably be arriving around 1pm.  Tomorrow or Monday I will fill everyone in on the details of what we cover in this epic journey.  Thanks to everyone who has been reading the blog as we made our way around the US these last 2 months.  I am almost as sad about ending the blog as I am about the trip ending.  It has actually been fun logging for everyone this wonderful journey my family has taken.  Well I hope everyone has enjoyed my monologues and I have not bored you to much.  Adiós

Day 53 : To our final Destination

Well this epic journey is almost over.  Today we headed to our final destination before heading home on Sunday.  Our final destination is Marina CA which is a little north of Monterey Bay CA.  We decided to make a quick detour to another winery that was recommended to us when we were at the Tobin James winery in Paso Robles.  We headed up Highway 1 to Sans Sebastian to Hearst Estate Winery.  We have to say we enjoyed several of their wines and bought a half a case.  We are an easy sale for wineries that have good wine.  After our wine tasting, we headed to Highway 101 to head up coast to Marina.  Colleen absolutely refused to allow me to take Highway 1 the whole way and after the episode in St Louis, I did not argue with her to much.  We did stop by the coast to take a quick jaunt on the beach before heading north which was quite nice.  We arrived at our RV site in Marina around 3pm and got settled in.  The RV resort is right next to the beach path so we took a hike to the beach to enjoy the beautiful and amazingly tranquil beach in Marina.  For a good while we were the only ones on the beach for a good 300 yards.  I am still amazed how cold it is on the coast, as we traveled north and got on Highway 101 the temperature rose by probably 25-30 degrees and as soon as we got back on the coast the temperature drop again to the mid 60s.  Weather is an amazing thing that I will probably never understand, but neither do most meteorologists.   Well we will being resting here for two nights before we make our trek home to Folsom on Sunday.

Beautiful CA coast, too bad the water is so cold!!!

No it is not Bo Derek, it is Mel

The Taylor beach babes

Day 52 : A little R & R in Morro Bay

So today was a nice relaxing day in Morro Bay.  We slept in a little till about 8:30am which has been sleeping in on this trip.  Then we had breakfast and took a walk around the bay and visited the Morro Bay museum of Natural History which explained the history of the bay here.  After that we came back to our site and played some cards and hung out in the wonderful cool weather till dinner where we headed down to the Bayside Cafe and had dinner.  After dinner we walked around the tide pools since it was low tide and harassed some crabs.  Any time you moved a rock 20 or 30 crabs would go scurrying across the beach hoping not to be bird food.  Tomorrow we head up coast a few hours to Marina around the Monterey Bay area. 

Basically the best view we got of Morro Rock

Cool Rock we found while exploring Tide Pools

Mr Crabs

Day 51 : From hell to heaven in a day

So this morning we got up early to leave the hell on earth in the Mojave Desert.  We were up at 6am packing things up to be gone by 7am and at 7am when we left it was over 90 degrees already.  It took us probably 5 hours to get out of the Mojave desert and we have no desire to go back.  Death Valley will be one National Park we will not plan on visiting unless it is the dead of winter.  In our travels through the desert we passed a huge Wind Mill farm, must have been a 1000 wind mills, at least California is trying to be green.  There were more Wind Mills in that one farm than I saw throughout the rest of the US on our trip.  I think we probably saw 100 at the most in all the other states we passed through.  So on our way to Morro Bay we pass through Paso Robles a big wine area (we love wine).  So we decided we had time to stop at two wineries and chose Tobin James and J Lohr.  They both had some really good wine so we ended up with about a case of wine (Tobin James was better of the two) and headed out to Morro Bay.  When we arrived the temperature was about 65 degrees and it was wonderful.  Even though it was quite foggy (we only have seen half of Morro Rock) it was wonderful compared to Needles.  Colleen and I took a walk around the bay and had a wonderful, peaceful and COOL evening in Morro Bay.  This is a beautiful area and look forward to a day of exploring tomorrow.

Day 50 : A day at the River in Hell

So I can not understand why anyone would live in the desert, sorry for those in Phoenix that includes you too.  So it was over 100 degrees most of the day and right now at 8:30pm it is still 97.8 degrees outside.  If there was not a very refreshing river right next to us we would be out of here.  The kids spent almost all day in the river and we have some very nice neighbors in our cove.  They brought two jet skis with them and allowed the girls to go out with them a couple of times.  But I still have to say I am very happy that we are heading to the Pacific coast tomorrow where the high is showing 67 degrees so from one extreme to the other.  But it is much easier to warm up than cool off, my wife only allows me to take off so much clothing to cool off (probably a good thing she has those rules).  Well the end is coming on us fast only 5 more days and we will be home.  Sorry for the lack of pictures but nothing to exciting to take pictures of.  Till Mañana.

Day 49 : Back to home turf

Well after being away from CA for 48 days we finally crossed back into CA while making a short crossing into Nevada from Arizona.  Today we landed in the Mojave Desert in Needles CA right on the Colorado river.  It is quite hot here (I know we are in a desert!!!) I think it was around 108 today and suppose to be about the same tomorrow.  The amazing thing is that even though we are in a desert with a 100+ degree days the Colorado river is cold.  It must be in the upper 60s maybe low 70s.  We arrived got set up and the girls headed for the river since it was so hot out.  I got my suit on and decided to join them and boy was I surprised when I stuck my foot in the water.  Lets just say I did not make it much higher than my waist.  Now being away from CA for so long I thought I would be so happy to be back in my home state but that joy was dashed as we were quickly reminded about what an uptight state CA is compare to the many states we went through over the last 7 weeks.  Let me paint the picture, are campground is on the beach of the Colorado river.  Each area has parking for 4 RVs and there is a beach on each side of the sites.  Well since we are on the Left hand side of the circle the girls went to the beach right next to our RV and the left side.  Well security quickly arrived to inform us that we were on the wrong beach and we were only suppose to be on the right side beach.  Now really there was no one on the beach and we heard the people in the other sites complained we were on their beach but they told us they did not complain.  But only in CA can you find such uptight people and such crazy rules.  So maybe I am not really happy to be back into CA.  Well other than the stupid rules and the very hot weather it is a pretty nice area and we will enjoy the cool Colorado River tomorrow before we head off to Morro Bay in two days.  Hasta La Vista Babe!!!!

Day 48 : Hard to believe 1 Week to go

So today was a day of relaxing, doing laundry and swimming.  We had no agenda so we could take it easy.  We had breakfast and then collected laundry to do what will probably be our last day of laundry on the road.  Yes it is hard to believe we have been out on the road for almost 7 weeks and we only have 7 days remaining before driving up in front of our house in Folsom.  The girls went over to the hotel and went swimming in the Pool and then we went for lunch and walked over to Safeway to get a few groceries for the final week of our trip.  In the evening we walked to downtown to watch the daily evening Gunfight and then headed out for dinner.  We had probably one of the best dinners on the trip (no counting the Lobster) at a restaurant called the Red Raven.  I had the Spicy Shrimp and Pasta and Colleen had the Duck.  They both were fantastic.  Well with clean clothes and refilled fridge we will pack up in the morning and head to Needles CA.  Back to our home state, Needles is in the Mobi desert so looking at the forecast we will get to experience the hot California weather with a temperature of about 105 each day.  Lucky our campground is right next to the Colorado river and they have zip lines and all kind of fun stuff to do to take our minds off the heat.  Sorry no picture, till tomorrow.

Day 47 : Train Ride to the Canyon

So this morning we got up and ate breakfast preparing for our train ride to the South rim of the Grand Canyon.  Before the train ride we got to enjoy and western gun fight.  We boarded our train the Coconino and started our 2 hour and 15 minute journey to the South Rim.  It was a quite scenic ride and the girls enjoyed the train ride a lot.  Once we got to the Grand Canyon we got on our tour bus and went for lunch (not very good).  After lunch we took a two hour tour of the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  I have to say it was much larger than I imagined.  I think they said it was about 10 miles on average wide.  We got some gorgeous views of the canyon on our different stops and some great pictures.  I even got Colleen to look over the edge several times which were quite a feat.  We boarded the train for our trip back at 3:30pm.  On our way backed we got robbed by some bandits on horses.  The cowboys were quite entertaining as well as the Western singers entertaining the passengers.  There was a father and his two sons who made quite the trio when they sang together.  After we got back we headed downtown to do some shopping, eat dinner and watch the gun shootout downtown.  I think Colleen is living out here fantasy of being married to a cowboy as she has gotten me to buy a cowboy hat and cowboy boots.  Well tomorrow we will be hanging around Williams probably go swimming in the Hotel pool and do some laundry.  Till tomorrow!!!

Morning Gun shootout before the train ride

The train car we rode to the Grand Canyon

Riding to the Grand Canyon

Beautiful Scenery in the Grand Canyon

The family at the Canyon (Like the Hat?)

Beautiful Scenery in the Grand Canyon

Beautiful Scenery in the Grand Canyon

Beautiful Scenery in the Grand Canyon

Can you tell Colleen is nervous

What a handsome couple

Beautiful Scenery in the Grand Canyon

Beautiful Scenery in the Grand Canyon

Family enjoying the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon Depot

Beautiful Scenery in the Grand Canyon

I think we are being robbed

The Girls with the Sheriff

Kids in Jail, Mom happy

Gun fight downtown Williams AZ

The girls with Turtle

Day 46 : 4 Corners and Back to Route 66

So today we traveled from Cortez CO (Mesa Verde) to Williams AZ where we will be taking a train to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.  On the way to Williams we stopped at 4 corners, which is the only place in the US that you can be in 4 states at one time (AZ, CO, NM and UT).  It is pretty cool place out in the middle of no where on Navajo Land.  We actually did a good bit of shopping while we were there as there were a lot of Indian craft tables setup around the 4 Corners monument.  As we left we drove the RV around the circle to cover 4 states in under a minute.  Then we headed on to Williams AZ where we will be staying the next 3 nights.  The drive to Williams was quite scenic with several Monolithic stone mountains on the way as well as a lot of Wild Horses roaming the AZ land. Main street in the small town of Williams is actually part of the historic Route 66.  We arrived in Williams around 3:30 pm (and yippee we are back on PST).  We took a walk downtown did some souvenir shopping and had dinner at the local pizza shop.  It was delicious since we had not had pizza since we left over 6 weeks ago.  Also in yesterday blog I mentioned what a nice day it was with no rain, well last night we got one rather large Thunder and Lighting storm.  I truly think the Thunder was so loud it shook the RV several times.

Monolithic Mountain

Four Corners Plaque where the four states meet

Picture of us stepping in the Four corners

Four Corners Plaque

Wild Horses in AZ

Beautiful Scenery

Beautiful Scenery

Beautiful Scenery

Route 66 sign in Williams AZ

In case she forgot her name

Melanie meets a friend

Me and my friend Elvis

Car outside the Pizza Restaurant

Day 45 : A visit to Ancient Hi-Rise Apartments

Today we made our way through New Mexico heading towards Mesa Verde Colorado.  The drive through New Mexico was wonderful with some views of very colorful mountains from Red to White.  It was some very nice scenery very similar to our drive through Wyoming.  We arrived at Mesa Verde National Park around 1pm.  Colleen decided the 32 step ladder tour was not for her so we settled for the Cliff Palace tour.  The Cliff palace tour only had 4 ladders all under 10 feet tall and she handled all 4 very well.  The cliff dwelling Pueblo indians were quite amazing, not only did they build some amazing structures they built them in cut outs in the sides of cliffs hundreds of feet off the ground.  The Indians, men, women and children had to be quite strong to climb in and out of their dwellings.  The tour guide said they were quite short also with the average male being 5'4" and the average female about 4'9" and they had an average life expectancy of 29 for females and about 38 for males.  So even though they were quite fit they still had pretty short lives.  They build these dwellings around from 1100 - 1200 so with very basic tools available at this time for such amazing buildings.  Tonight we are hanging out in Cortez CO before we head off for Four Corners and Williams AZ tomorrow.  Also today was our first full day on blue skies.  We have not seen that in probably 3 weeks.

Entrance view to Mesa Verde National Park

Cliff Palace

Cliff Palace

Closer view of Cliff Palace

Closer view of Cliff Palace

Closer view of Cliff Palace

Spruce Tree House

Girls inside a Kiva (Pueblo Family Room)

View of Spruce Tree House from afar