Allspice Westward

 3/31- Chestnut Ridge Park, Bruceton Mills WV    Remember how I was talking about abandoned towns the other day well West Virginia has its share also. In fact a couple of the towns we drove through today probably should be abandoned. Siri took us on another road that was a single lane. I was praying that we wouldn’t meet someone on one of the hair pin turns as there was no where to go. This road led us through some of the most dilapidated areas we’ve seen. Houses falling down roofs collapsed and trash filled yards made this an experience to be missed.      I have to say once on the interstate things improved. The road itself was a marvel twisting and turning with long uphill climbs followed by the rush of 7 miles downhill. The amount of dynamite they used to make this road must have been impressive. The terrain is all hills as I don’t think there is a flat spot in the whole state. The road winds around one hill then climbs over another only to plunge down t...

 3/30- Summer Wind RV Park, Dawson WV    I was reading on Facebook today about ghost towns in Virginia. It said there are 19 towns that have been abandoned in the state and it went on to list them. The other day I commented on a town we went through that didn’t have a single business on its Main Street. Well guess what that was one of the towns listed as abandoned. Of course this all depends on how willing you are to believe anything on Facebook.     It started raining on us almost immediately this morning so Ms Allspice got a well deserved bath. We crossed up and over several mountain passes on narrow winding roads even before crossing into West Virginia. So far WV has been nothing but up and down these long hills. The rain kept up most of the day until we pulled into our campsite which we got to fairly early in the day.     The campground is just off the highway so trucks are barreling by and will be all night. We struggled a bit to find a ...

 3/29- Blue Ridge Barrel Brewery, Arrington VA    It was another chilly one this morning as we had to break the rv out of glacier that surrounded it. I exaggerate a bit but I was glad I was not in a tent like the folks behind us.      We quickly passed into Virginia and the road rolled up and down the hills. We passed a lot of pasture and hay fields. Some of the grass was already knee high. We passed through a bunch of small towns and almost without fail the downtowns were all but deserted. In fact one town I didn’t see a single open business on the whole strip. This is actually pretty common all across the country that most town centers have moved out of town.     As we had a relatively short way to go today we were looking for something interesting to stop at. Sure enough we found it at Appomattox. This is where RE Lee surrendered to US Grant to end the Civil War. It’s interesting that it was so well recorded that they know right where ever...

 3/28- Kimball Point Campground, Henderson NC    It rained pretty hard last night and then this morning was a bit chilly. I went out for a stroll and the wind was howling. The lake was whipped up to a frenzy and waves were crashing on the shore. As I walked out to the point I met several campers who were packing it in as they were very exposed to the NW wind.      The wind eventually calmed down but the temperature didn’t rebound that much. We managed a bit of a walk around the whole campground which was an exercise when heading into the wind.      Not much else happened. I have been carving some spoons out of wood I collect along the way and so I worked on one for a while before nap time.     I think this will be the extent of our southern travels this year as we turn north tomorrow. We are kind of like the old horse once it has turned towards the barn and we are kind of anxious to get back. Hopefully there won’t be much snow ...

 3/27- Kimball Point Campground, Kerr Lake State Recreation Area, Henderson NC    We chatted a while with our neighbors this morning as I think they were sad to see us go. They were a nice couple and today was their 27th wedding anniversary.     From there we bounced down a number of roads that I was beginning to wonder if they were real roads. You know you’re in trouble when there are 4 digits to the road number.      Any way we finally popped out of the back country in guess where. Mayberry RFD. We didn’t actually go through the town but we went by the Andy Griffith museum, the Andy Griffith theater etc etc. I did see Barney Fife in his patrol car.      The campground tonight is in Lake Kerr State Park. Lake Kerr is a huge lake formed by a dam somewhere and it has many arms reaching out. There are seven different campgrounds within the park and they are so far apart that we needed to get on the interstate to get to the next o...

  3/26- Stone Mountain State Park NC      Yesterday when we were driving and missed our turn we stopped at an overlook. The view that made us turn around was Stone Mountain. This is a huge granite dome stretching 600 feet down with no trees. Today we hiked to the top.      It took a while to find the trailhead but the path was well used and we climbed to the    top of this gigantic dome of rock. You can walk out on it a ways before it turns into a steep cliff. It was interesting at the top there were all these formations in the rock that had been formed by water. It looked just like potholes you would see in a stream but they were on top of this 2500 foot high mountain. The view of the valleys stretching out in the distance was incredible. You could see Mt Rogers that we drove around the other day and looking out you could see the Blue Ridge Parkway where we had turned around.       We just hung around the camper the rest ...

  3/25- Stone Mountain State Park, Roaring Gap NC      Today’s trip was as scenic as they get as much to Siri’s regret, we hopped onto the Blue Ridge Parkway right off the bat. For some reason Siri does everything she can to keep you off of the parkway. It doesn’t even show as a road on the map. We tortured her as we kept ignoring her persistent commands to turn off.        It was a beautiful drive with almost no other traffic. Of course most of the stops aren’t open yet but then neither are there any crowds. We did stop at Rock Knob and took a nice little hike which got the blood flowing. It was a blue haze looking out over the surrounding mountains as we passed over the continental divide of the east coast. There were several overlooks that gave us a panoramic view.       We did pass through a couple of towns with interesting names. Meadow of Dan was one but my favorite is Mouth of Wilson. Look them up on a map. Imagine putti...

 3/24- Floyd Family Campground, Floyd VA    We took Siri right off the rails this morning. After driving on 81 for about ten miles I’d had enough of big trucks at 70 mph. We decided to take a back road that led by Mt Roger’s, the highest point in Virginia at 5730 ft. It took Siri almost an hour before she got on board with us. The road was narrow and twisty and went up and over numerous passes. It was pretty though as we followed mountain streams as they cascaded along side the road. In fact one stretch it seemed like the road was all but in the stream.     It was during this stretch that we saw what looked like a Christmas tree farm. But then rounding the next corner there were acres and acres of Christmas trees. Eventually we began to realize that these were tree farms that were planted to replace  logged off trees. The sides of all these hills are steep and they plant the trees to hold soil and to have a harvest in the future. It is interesting that...

 3/23- Ace Handle Distilling, Pennington Gap VA    Meanwhile it cold and rainy when we departed this morning so the scenery lacked a little pizzazz. Actually this one road we went down could be classified as the anti-scenic route. It wound down this long hollow and was lined with single wides ramshackle huts and just generally dilapidated buildings. The ditch on the side of the road was literally overflowing with trash. I was glad to see the end of that road.    We stopped at Cumberland Gap National Park and then went through the tunnel to the town of Cumberland Gap, TN. There we took a hike and climbed up to the top of the actual gap. Daniel Boone walked here along this same path.   Daniel Boone was a childhood hero of mine. Of course I idolized the Fess Parker version as I watched the tv series Daniel Boone. It turns out the real version didn’t quite live up to the hype.     Our next stop was Axe Handle Distilling which was a Harvest Host s...

 3/22- Natural Bridge State Park KY    Well it certainly felt like summer here today. Temps were well into the eighties and there are supposed to be thunderstorms tonight. We did a quick hike this morning to try and beat the heat and then we settled down to a fine siesta after lunch.     The crowd at the campground has thinned out considerably as has the smokey haze from all the campfires. It seems everyone feels if they are camping they need a campfire so almost every site has a fire going. This wouldn’t be too bad if people could build proper fires. Instead they build this smokey fire that finally gets going just as they lose interest and head inside. The place was so hazy it was like being in a fog bank.     We are debating where to head next. We will head south for the time being toward Cumberland Gap. After that it’s all up in the air. 

 3/21- Natural Bridge State Park, Slade KY    We had to go right through the heart of downtown Cincinnati this morning, ugh!  Fortunately it was Saturday morning and the traffic wasn’t too bad and we made it without incident.    This part of the trip was nothing special and in fact it was kind of boring. There was nothing particularly impressive about the landscape until we got to Paris.      Paris is the thoroughbred horse capital of the world. Secretariat was raised here. The road was lined with tens of miles of 4 board fences. I cringe at the number of trees that had to die to fence these horses in. At least this fence was black instead of white so you didn’t have to paint it as often as that would be a full time job. We probably saw the next Kentucky Derby winner grazing as we drove by.     We entered the Red River Gorge and made our way to our campsite. This is an impressive landscape of limestone pinnacles that the Red Ri...

 3/20- Cincinnati OH   The trip this morning took us across the Ohio and into Indiana but not before we drove down this industrial boulevard. It was interesting that the road was lined with these various industries such as a stainless steel manufacturer and some scrap steel recyclers. There was the Scotts Miracle Gro factory also. I would have thought the grass would be 10 feet high around that. We also drove by this huge power plant fired by coal. The interesting thing is the industry was all on the Kentucky side of the river while the Indiana side was mostly houses.      Once crossing the river I had made the mistake of leaving the avoid highway button on for Siri. She took us on some of the backest roads I have seen. At one point I refused to go the way she wanted as the road didn’t seem safe. Anyway we eventually worked our way to a road that had a number and we could find our way from there.     We are visiting with our old friends Doug and M...

 3/19- Two Rivers RV Park, Carrollton KY    We headed out for a bit of a hike this morning before taking off. As we dropped down the hillside it was interesting to think that about 200 feet to our right people were walking through the cave. We walked by a big spring with the water bubbling up out of the ground and further down the trail was a cave that had the river flowing out of it. The water levels were all quite low and I couldn’t help wonder when the high water season is. Unfortunately there was no one around to tell us. We also got to walk in the main historic opening a ways before we ran into the paying part of the system.     At this point I got to thinking. We are walking on and through some 400 feet of limestone. Limestone as you probably know is made up of the  remains of ancient sea creatures. Can you image how many of these tiny creatures it would take to make 400 feet of limestone. And don’t forget this same limestone covers a huge sectio...

 3/18- Mammoth Cave National Park     Last night was a little chilly again. I don’t think we lost  any of the tenters but the visitor center was filled to overflowing this morning. Everyone was in trying to savor the warmth.     The place really was mobbed. The thing is the Park service is pretty experienced in dealing with crowds. I was impressed by how smoothly everything went. We had over 50 people on our tour and yet we were on time and it didn’t feel rushed. It was also warmer in the cave than outside.      We hopped on a bunch of buses and drove a ways and we entered the cave at the bottom of a sinkhole. This is one of 29 different entrances to the cave. Then we walked down some 500 stairs twisting and dropping through very narrow passages. I had to turn sideways a couple of times and walk hunched over for a ways. The ranger was good and he had a good knowledge of the history of the cave. The cave was not as spectacular as lik...

 3/17- Mammoth Cave National Park, KY    It was awfully chilly this morning but at least it was sunny. We got moving early just to stay warm.     Our first stop was the Fort Donelson National Monument. This was the site of a crucial battle early in the Civil War. Ulysses S Grant was the Union general who took this fort after several blunders by the Confederate side. This fort looked out over the Cumberland River which was a main supply route for the south. It was one of the key moments that turned the tide of the war. We have been to this site and also to Moores Bridge NMonument which was a key battle in the Revolutionary War.      We slid up the road a piece to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers both flow northward here and there is only about 20 miles separating them. The rivers are both dammed and formed large lakes with the park in the middle between them. It was a pretty drive through...

 3/16- Cumberland City,TN    We did a whole lot of nothing today. Temps were in the 30’s this morning so I slept in as long as my bladder would let me. We turned on all the heaters to try and make it comfortable in here. There were even snow flurries dancing past my window as I ate my breakfast.     The day didn’t get much better from there. We or rather Alayne ventured out into the arctic wasteland to do some laundry. Other than that we stayed huddled around the heater. I might have tried to take a walk but the only place was alongside the road and it didn’t really go anywhere.      We did near the end of the day trek up to the restaurant on site and had a nice and very inexpensive dinner. The sun had picked this time to make an appearance so we were able to navigate the frosty tundra without a problem.      It turns out that there actually was a tornado that touched down last night. It was further south in Tennessee and it to...

 3/15- Elk Harbor RV Park, Cumberland City TN    Well the whole story today is the tornadoes. Reading Facebook and you would believe that we could have never survived the storm. It depicted the area we were driving into as one of the most dangerous for tornadoes and damaging winds. It’s not quite over here yet but it was a pretty good lightning storm and it rained quite heavily but we survived. The campground people were nice and they volunteered to open their restaurant in case of a tornado so we could all get in there. Now though the temperature is projected to drop and continue dropping all day tomorrow. There is also snow in the forecast so we have opted to hang here tomorrow.     The ride over this morning was very windy. Whenever the wind was on my side I had to be alert for those sudden unexpected lane changes. In Missouri it was mostly all plowed fields of rice corn or cotton. Apparently the soil in the Missouri heel is better for cotton than the Ar...

 3/14- MO’s Mini Golf, Kennet, MO     I just want to say Happy Pi day to all you nerds out there.       We got off to a later start this morning as it was such a nice day we decided another walk would be more appropriate. The scenery today was not stunning to say the least least. We were driving on some real back roads and got to see a lot of what the Arkansas tourist board would rather you didn’t. There was a lot of broken down houses and junk filled yards but there were still some nice sights.    We stopped at this huge dam after driving over it. The canyon beneath it was at least 3-400 feet deep. There was this pretty field of blooming daffodils there also.      The roads were winding and rolly. It was like if you flipped a a rope imagine following those curves and hills. We eventually wound our way out of the hills and the land turned flat as a pancake. We went by many rice and cotton fields before entering the heel of Miss...

 3/13- Woolly Hollow State Park, Greenbrier AR    We drove down out off the ridge top this morning and it didn’t take long to get to the bottom. It was a nice drive from here as we thought it looked a lot like being in New England. Except of course for the 6 different kinds of poisonous snakes that live here. We drove down windy roads with mountains on either side and hard wood forests climbing the sides. It could have been anywhere in New England.      We did enter this road that followed a river. You would have thought that as many times as we crossed this river I would remember the name of it. The road sort of mirrored the river. When the river turned right the road turned left. We zigged and zagged across this river 20 or 30 times. Every mile or so we turned crossed a bridge and then turned again repeatedly.     We did at one point go through a town called Y City. Don’t ask me it was barely a town never mind a city. I just thought it was ...

 3/12- Queen Wilhelmita State Park    Well we didn’t get blown off the mountain top last although the wind gave it a good try. The morning dawned sunny and calm with blue bird skies. It was a chilly start to the day so we hung under the covers a bit longer than usual.      Once we got up and moving we took a short hike to an overlook. Lovers Leap it was called. It was a platform built on top of a knife edged rock formation with very steep dropoffs. The view was fantastic. You could see most of Oklahoma from here I think. This is the second highest mountain in Arkansas. The ridge that we are camped on and that the road goes on is not much more than 100 yards wide. And the dropoffs on either side are steep. If they had any snow this would make an exciting ski area.      We headed back to Allspice for some lunch and then we set off on a longer hike. The trails here circle the park mainly because it is too steep to go too far down. In total it wo...

 3/11- Queen Wilhelmina State Park, Mena AR    In case you were wondering we survived last night just fine. It was a hell of a lightning show and it sure did rain but we were snug in our sturdy camper. The campground didn’t fair so well as they lost power at some point in the evening.     We started out into a freshly scrubbed Oklahoma as the grass seemed to burst from the ground after the rain. This part of Oklahoma is really quite pretty as mountains start to rise covered with pine trees. It is still cattle country as we saw lots of cows even a herd or two of long horns. Why anyone would get into a field with those horns is beyond me. Apparently they have characteristics that make them quite easy to herd.     We climbed steadily into a more mountainous terrain of the Ouachita Mountains. We opted to take the Talimena Scenic Drive. This is a lot like the Blue Ridge Parkway as it climbs to the top of the ridge. There are vistas off to either s...

 3/10- McGee Creek State Park, Lane OK    Today’s trip was not particularly scenic as it traversed rolling hills and many small communities. The grassland slowly got infected with actual trees. Only a few at first but then real forests on the side of the road. Many were starting to leaf out and the grassland slowly was turning green on the side of the road. We took back roads and made many turns but still the speed limits were rarely under 65.     About halfway there we stopped at the Chickasaw Cultural Center. This was a very nice and well done place. They offered us a ride from the parking lot to the center but we declined as it was only a 100 yards or so. They had a recreation of an Indian village and there were some demonstrations going on. We liked that they had craftsmen there explaining their trade and doing demonstrations.     The campsite is very nice and sits overlooking a big lake. There are only about 3 other campers here tonight....

 3/9- Rising Eagle Brewery, Elgin OK    Again we dallied this morning as the sun deigned to make an appearance until almost 8:00. We took off finally and drove through endless grasslands and flat prairie. Ahead we saw curves in the road and a sign saying slow to 30mph when we were in a 75mph zone. Sure enough we found where Palo Duro canyon opened up. Down we went winding through more rocks and cliffs.     This is the Red River and you can see why by looking at the red dirt under the water. This is like the rolling hills of Texas covered in forests of junipers intermingled with cotton fields and grass. The road undulated through these small hills giving us spectacular views on the summits.     We are staying tonight at a brewery through Harvest Hosts. We met several other travelers there and all went in for a great meal and a cold beer. We sat and chatted and compared adventures with these fine folks.     Today was very windy b...

 3/8- Silver Wind RV Park, Silverton TX    Yesterday we crossed into Central time and then last night was day light savings so this morning when I looked out to see the sun just creeping over the horizon I was surprised to see it was 9:00. It was a little rude.      We did manage to rally ourselves after all we are retired and have nowhere to be. We got in a nice hike that took us around some beguiling rock formations. Yesterday we hiked the east side of the canyon which was nicely lit by the setting sun and today we hiked the western slope which was lit quite nicely. It was cold last night getting into the low 30’s which made hiking this morning quite enjoyable.      We headed up out of the canyon and once on the top got blasted by the wind. If you didn’t know this canyon was there you could never tell as the landscape was flat as could be. The wind screamed all day pushing and tugging on the camper. Fortunately we only had an hours drive....

3/7- Sagebrush Camp, Palo Dura Canyon, Canyon TX We said    goodbye to William Bonney this morning as we drove out of town past his grave. The road was straight and the landscape unending. It was just grass as far as you could see with a few cows thrown in.       Once we crossed the Texas line there was more green as some of the field were irrigated. We saw cotton and corn growing. We came upon what looked like piles of tires spread around. Once we got close it turned out they were black cows. We saw lots of stockyards and beef processing plants. I’ll leave you to figure what happens to the cows.       We have driven through loads of small towns or villages. They all seem to be similar in that the main road through town is tree lined. These are usually the only trees around. There are several bombed out buildings which have the roof caving in and the doors falling off. Of course there is junk in the yards. See nothing rots out here so th...

 3/6- Valley View RV Park, Fort Sumner, NM    It was all downhill this morning. We skipped through Albuquerque without any problems. The wind was howling today but fortunately it was all behind us so we got some great gas mileage. As we left the foothills surrounding Albuquerque everything just flattened right out and we were once again in the desert.    We got off the highway and headed south. This was a tricky 40 miles as now the wind was on our side and it made keeping the van between the lines challenging. Once we turned east again it was fine. Here it was just miles of grassland with very few if any trees. The only place to find shade here was behind some cow. The vegetation slowly started to Peter out and we drove through a series of salt lakes. These are depressions that will hold water but it can’t flow out. So the water evaporates and leaves behind the dissolved limestone and salt.     The road went straight for over 60 miles with nothing...

 3/5- Hi Desert RV Park, Albuquerque NM    We started today off with a bang heading into Los Alamos to check out the town. The whole place is perched on top of a mesa and is filled with different laboratories. We even at one point had to pass through security. A town looks very new and everything is neat and tidy. The best thing in the town though was the Bradbury Museum.     This place was astonishing. It had so many facts and displays I just couldn’t keep up, my mind was so boggled. It had the whole detailed history of the Manhattan Project as well as full sized replicas of the two bombs. There were sections on all the different areas the lab is working on now. There was displays on alternative fuels and nano technology as well as super computing. Everything was done in such detail you could spend days looking at it all. We were exhausted after a couple of hours.     We decided to take the long way out as we went by the Valle Caldera Nation...

 3/4- Juniper Campground, Bandelier National Monument, Los Alamos NM    We decided this morning to try out the San Juan Scenic Skyway. This is a road that completes a circle in southern Colorado. Unfortunately we only lasted on it until Durango and then it went north. It was a bit chilly this morning so we thought we’d stick to lower routes. Well we got that wrong also as we went over 9000 feet even before we got to Durango. We did cross the continental divide at some point.     The scenery and views were awesome. I broke out my online thesaurus to get more adjectives and I’m starting out with the A’s. We traveled through pine forests up and down steep grades. Then there were the huge mountain meadows finally coming to the plains dotted with junipers.      We headed for our campsite for the night in Bandelier National Monument. We’d never heard of this place before so we decided to hit the visitor center before going to our site. To get there you ...

 3/3- Cortez CO   We spent most of today at Mesa Verde National Park. True to form the National Park Service did a fine job presenting this amazing place. This is definitely off season and thus many opportunities were not available. In season you can go on a guided tour in which you can climb right into these structures. The upside to this is we almost had the place to ourselves.      Even before you reach the Pueblos the drive in is _____ (fill in the superlative). It a winding switchback road but at least this time it’s mostly wide enough. The view out over the valley is incredible. The best is yet to come as about ten miles into to this you take a short spur and climb to the highest part of the park at 8500 feet. There is a fire station up there to watch for fires. You can see four states and it seems as if you can see all of the four states.      Once you get on top of the mesa the drive levels out. We pulled over at the museum and started to ...

 3/2- Sundance  RV Resort, Cortez CO    Today kind of blew me away. There was not any specific sight or vista that wowed me but just the whole experience taken together just amazed me. I have officially run out of adjectives to adequately describe some of what we are seeing.     To start the day off we drove out of a pine forest and onto a long downhill ride. From pine trees to fields dotted with junipers to the slow thinning of the junipers until there was nothing. There is a plant that I call sage brush because it is the color of sage that covers the ground as far as you can see. In between these are the dried grasses which look like blond highlights in the hair of the grass.     Then it is just this same color scheme backed by the ever changing color of the rocks and canyons. Vistas that are almost featureless as far as you can see. Next thing you know you are dropping into this long canyon which is striated in various shades of red. ...

 3/1- Coconina National Forest, Flagstaff AZ    We thought we give Sedona another shot as we could get there a little earlier. No such luck I’m afraid as every parking area we pulled into was full. So we continued on and went right through downtown Sedona. There was supposed to be another vortex on our way. This one, if we indeed passed it, only amplified my feeling to just get out of there. Downtown was full of tony shops which were filled with stuff I could neither afford nor desire.      After passing out of town we headed up Oak Creek Canyon. The road wandered along what was presumably Oak Creek at the bottom of this huge gorge. Even here it was hard to find a spot to just pull over so we just kept going. At the end of the canyon the road switchbacks up a pretty steep grade until we reach the rim. There was a National forest view park.     The view was impressive and it was scary just walking to the edge of the 1000 foot drop. You could l...