It has been a while, a year to be precise, since we last posted. As usual we spent the last few months of 2021 in the Dallas area with family, enjoying time with the grandkids and continuing my golf education. For the first time, we booked all three winter months, January through March, in one place. We found a lovely (expensive) resort called The Tides in Palmetto, Florida, near the St. Pete’s and Tampa area. Beautiful pools, great workout room, and the weather was awesome. We did a few touristy things, visiting the Dali museum, the Chihuly Museum, the Florida Botanical Garden, St. Pete’s Pier, and seeing the manatees at the TECO Power Plant. They had a nice AMC Theater in St. Pete where we caught up on lots of movies, and we played golf at least twice a week although the prices were pretty steep. We enjoyed the Tides so much, we booked next year at the same place, another first for us.
Back home for April and May, we planned a dive trip to Roatan, Honduras, but sadly a few days before we were scheduled to leave my mom had a stroke and passed away a few days later. We were grateful to have been home and able to visit with her before it happened. (She was 92 and died peacefully and with family around – not a bad way to go). After making the arrangements and having a memorial service in Greenwood, Arkansas, we flew to Honduras, once known as the “Murder Capital of the World”, for our rescheduled dive trip.
The Airbnb we booked was on a mountain side with a small pool overlooking the ocean. It was clean and spacious, BUT it had enough decorative crap to fill a store. Every surface and bit of floor and wall space had something adorning it. The beds and sofa must have had 100 pillows and there were twice as many chairs as could possibly go around every table. The patio was huge, but again…way too much furniture. Bill and I live a very uncluttered life as you might imagine. If we can’t put it away, we can’t have it. The “stuff” that was everywhere was oppressive. The kitchen was the same, usually Airbnb kitchens are fairly spartan to the point of it being a struggle to cook and store food, but this one was packed. They could have hosted a couple of dozen people with the dishes, and every drawer and cabinet was overflowing. The photos on AirBnB did not reflect this overstuffed situation or I would never have picked this house. Clearly, they were advised to remove all that clutter before they took the photos they posted.
We moved as much crap as we could into the extra bedrooms, and tried to ignore the rest. It was otherwise a lovely house. The diving was by boat so we were on a schedule every day for our two dives (which meant getting up at 7am to make it to the boat in time – one of the reasons why we prefer shore diving), and for the first time ever, they restricted me to a maximum depth of 60′ because my certification is only open water and not advanced. With over 300 dives and and spending at least some time below 60′ on at least half of those, we were surprised they cared. At least until they tried to sell me the advanced certification course. We spend the majority of our diving time at less than 50 feet anyway (better light, more little critters, …), so it was fine. The water was warm, the weather sunny, and the sea-life good, but not especially exciting. I think we have done so much Caribbean diving that we are a little jaded by seeing the same things over and over. I’m not saying we don’t enjoy diving in the Caribbean anymore but we need to get back to the south Pacific (I agree but I can’t say I’m looking forward to getting packed into a coach seat on American Airlines for 18 hrs).
Our first attempt at the grocery store was alarming. We always check to be sure there is a “decent” store in these developing countries since we don’t like to eat out much, but we could barely put together a meal for one night with the options at this store. Apparently, we had gone to the wrong store, so the next day, after using the Wi-Fi at the house to search, we found the store Bill had found before we booked the trip and we were able to stock up. Honduras is like most South American countries; except for the Ex-Pat’s, everyone seems to live in poverty. It was a good trip, but I think we will go back to Grand Cayman next time.
The first week of June, we packed up and headed north for our four-month summer trip (during the peak of the gas prices). After an overnight in Amarillo, we made a beeline for the cooler climes of Cherry Creek State Park in the Denver area. We did not sightsee much since Bill had lived here at the beginning of our relationship and I visited him almost every weekend during those years. We did take in the Rino District to view the street art, and the Denver Botanical Garden, which luckily was free the day we visited. We played golf and I discovered that I do not like the lush grass on Colorado courses that kills the bounce and rolls on my shots. It was not at all like the dry, hard ground we have in Texas, or even in Florida during the winter, that allows my ball to keep moving even if it is not on the fairway. After a few days at Cherry Creek, we moved to a park up in the Rockies, so we could ride the motorcycles without driving through the city to get to the good roads. They had been in storage for eight months so it was great to be back on them and the roads and weather were perfect. One day we rode to Estes Park, but did not go over the pass this time (we previously learned that cold and snowy lesson the hard way). Another day we rode to Boulder, where we discovered they are so crunchy they hardly have any gas stations. In Dallas there is one on every corner, but in Boulder, after driving around on a couple of the main roads, we finally stopped and searched for gas on our phones. It is a different world here.
Our next destination, was Twin Falls, Idaho. We only put this on the schedule because Idaho is one of only three states in the lower 48 that we had not visited. We did not have high expectations, and have been very surprised at how beautiful it is here. A lot of the mountains here are more like big hills at about 2000 – 3000 feet, but they are plentiful and beautiful, covered in tall pines, with rivers running through them, and wide valleys of farmland between. One of the only two things on our list for Twin Falls, Shoshone Falls turned out to be a bust because it is controlled by a dam that was not flowing at all during our visit, so instead we played golf at Canyon Springs Golf Club, a beautiful course in a small canyon with a river running through it and several waterfalls cascading down the canyon walls.
The second thing on the list was City of Rocks National Reserve for a hike. We had not been on a hike for many months, but I picked a 6.3 mile “moderate” loop that I knew was a bit aggressive for a first hike. We went early so the temperature was great when we got there although it was expected to go up to 90 later in the afternoon. Some of the reviews for the hike said the path was not marked at some of the splits, so Bill took 14 screen shots of the route – rather than pay the $30 for the All Trails Pro App. We started our hike on a path that led us down into a valley that was covered in some kind of yellow sunflower that stood about three feet tall. It was so pretty! We eventually came to a dirt road that was obviously used for farm trucks, and eventually we chose a group of boulders to stop at to rest and have our picnic lunch. When we started off again it became clear that Bill‘s boy scout navigation skills had failed him and we were off course…way off course. He will claim it was only half a mile but don’t believe it!! (It was an extra ½ a mile to the boulders for lunch and ½ mile back to the unmarked turn that I had missed). Fortunately, I was able to get a signal and open All Trails so we could find our way back to the trail (she didn’t trust me anymore when I found the missed turn and had to verify it. A little bit of our relationship died on that hike.) We should never have left the field of yellow flowers and gone down the dirt road. The hike back to the truck was mostly uphill of course and tough. Both of us were dying by the time it was over and according to my watch we had hiked 9.8 miles. That is 50% farther than it should have been (I accept that 1 mile was my fault but the other two were the result of the description of the hike being wrong). Not True!! I was so sore I could barely walk for the next three days. Needless to say, I purchased All Trails before our next hike.
From Twins Falls we headed to Boise, where we rode our bicycles from the RV Park to downtown to see the street art at Freak Alley and the Capital Building. We played golf at a couple of amazing courses down in the valley. The fairways were far from the mostly flat Texas fairways I’m used to, which posed yet another challenge for my golf skills. Every shot was off sloping ground and the greens were tilted too. They were beautiful, expensive, and hard for both of us. It was about this time that disastrous flooding from rain and snow melt hit Yellowstone and Red Lodge, Montana, both of which were our next two destinations. Yellowstone was completely closed with major damage to roads and bridges, and the interstate to get to Red Lodge was closed as well with serious damage to the tiny town. (Seems like revising our plan every year is the new normal.) Since Idaho turned out to be better than expected, we changed our plans to spend a few days in McCall, a resort town with a huge lake, and Grangeville, Idaho. We took fantastic motorcycle rides with perfect temps, and almost no traffic on the winding roads. We will definitely come back to Idaho.
During our rides along the Snake River we saw lots of white-water rafting, so booked a trip after we arrived in Missoula, Montana. I was worried about the water temp more than the white water, but we all were given wet suits, and it was quite comfortable. The Lochsa River rapids were rated a three out of five, which turned out to be pretty tame, but still fun. Next time I think we will look for a level 4. It was nice to be back in a mid-sized town, and we continued our golfing, riding and hiking. Halfway between Missoula and Spokane, Washington we stopped to ride our bicycles on an old railway path called The Route of the Hiawatha. The path is 15 miles long and starts with a 2-mile-long tunnel that is as dark as a cave and was probably 20 degrees colder than the outside temp. It was also dripping water, slippery in places, and seemed to go on forever. When we emerged, I was covered in mud that my fender-less rear tire threw up onto me. The rest of the path was nice and wide with great scenery. A highly recommended ride.
In Spokane we spent 10 days at a really nice RV Resort, riding and golfing, and then moved on to Seattle for 10 days. Our first weekend in Seattle happened to be during the Indian Days Sea-fair Pow Wow and a Seafood Festival. The Pow Wow was colorful, and well organized with shuttles provided for remote parking. The Seafood Festival was the opposite. We didn’t even try to park very close, since we are accustomed to parking farther away with our giant truck, but found ourselves driving down impossibly narrow streets with solid lines of cars parked on both sides. They were (supposedly) two-way streets with absolutely no possibility of two-way traffic, we could barely fit as it was (at one point halfway up a street someone turned onto it coming the opposite direction. You couldn’t fit a bicycle between us and the cars parked on either side of us but this idiot kept coming. Dessa back up the 150 yds to a side street so she could let him through. I’m not that nice). We got the hell out of there as fast as we could, and skipped the Seafood Festival. We had visited Seattle a few years ago but we still found some new sights to see and others worth a second visit.
A few years ago, we had a great time at the Highland Games Festival in New Hampshire, so we decided to go to the Washington State festival in spite of the three-hour round-trip drive. It turned out to be small and disappointing, more like a carnival than not. Watching the competitions was still fun, but I guess this was a lesson teaching us not to try to recreate past experiences. Near Pike Place Market we found a cool art gallery called Fossil and Stone filled with beautiful mixed media pieces by a wonderful artist named Eddie Lee. We couldn’t resist buying a piece called “Three Hungry Bears”, a large Amethyst geode, sitting on a walrus jawbone with three white selenite bears holding fish carved from fossilized buffalo horn. Not the most sensible purchase since we have very limited space and it weighs about 40 pounds, but we love it. If you are in Seattle we recommend a visit to this store just to see his amazing work.
On the way to Vancouver, we stopped in Mt Vernon, Washington to see North Cascades National Park, but did not take a single picture. We rode the motorcycles through the park, and when the road is traffic free we tend to avoid stopping for anything, lest someone gets in front of us and ruins the curves. Bill’s parents joined us in Vancouver and we visited with one of his cousins and his uncle there before taking the trailer on our first ferry ride to Vancouver Island where we spent a week in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. The island is almost 300 miles long and 60 miles wide with a population of 864,000 people. The tourist area of Victoria circles the harbor with the Parliament Building on one side and The Hotel Fairmont Empress on another. We took a four-hour whale watching tour one day and only saw Harbor and Stellar seals, except for a glimpse of a humpback’s tail as we were coming back into the harbor on the return. Fortunately, they had a “no whale” guarantee.
After Bill’s parents left for home (Kitchener, Ontario), we drove 70 miles north to Nanaimo (Vancouver Island’s only other “large city”) and stayed at a park called Living Forest, and it was definitely in a forest – no satellite, no Wi-Fi, and no cell service (it also had very narrow, hilly and rough roads – getting in and out was horrible). Ugh! This area is so famous for the “Nanaimo Desert Bar” that there is actually a Nanaimo Bar Trail with 39 stops. A Nanaimo Bar has a chocolate crunchy crust, a custard middle, and melted chocolate top (in other words – Delicious), we only tried 3 stops, one being for a milkshake that was not great. It was lovely country and we hiked at Englishman’s Falls Parks, and stopped at Old Country Market where they have goats on the roof, and sell all kinds of specialty food items. We were supposed to stay a week before catching the ferry back to Washington but the ferry left pretty early in the morning and with construction on the highway, it was likely to take us up to 2 hours to get back to Victoria. Given that and no “entertainment” services, Bill called an audible and decided we’d leave 2 days early. We enjoyed Vancouver Island but probably will not be back since the ferry ride there and back cost $600 (not to mention the highest cost Diesel – $8.80 US a gallon that we found anywhere – yes even more than California even with the exchange rate).
Back in Victoria, we took advantage of the guarantee and got back on the Whale Watching boat. This time our trip was a success as we got to watch a pod of Orcas for almost an hour, then found a humpback that swam right under our boat at one point. No fantastic breach but still exciting. The next day Bill felt lazy so I ended up going to Butchart Gardens alone (lazy may be a bit strong – not excited about a few more hours looking at flowers is a little more accurate. However, it appears that I may been wrong this time). I was here once before about 20 years ago with my Mom and Aunt, but did not recall just how lovely it was. Absolutely the most beautiful garden I have ever seen. They of course had a huge variety of flowers, and the Dahlia’s were as big as dinner plates, but it is the landscapes that are so amazing. I’m sure the mild summer weather helps because the blooms were flawless.
The ferry took us back to Washington State where we arrived at Port Angeles, just north of the entrance to Olympic National Park. We rode the motorcycles twice out to Neah Bay (a ride that we had done the last time we were on the peninsula and highly recommend), the northwestern most tip of the continental US, and hiked to a few different waterfalls, as well as a misty evening hike to Hole-in-the-Wall on the west coast to see the tide pools. Olympic National Park is huge at 922,000 acres (but still does not make the top ten largest list), and has three distinct environments. We visited a few years ago but did not see the rainforest side of Olympic since it is a three-hour drive from Port Angeles. This time we moved to an RV park in La Push, two hours west of Port Angeles so we could visit the Hoh Rainforest. After driving yet another hour into the park, we came to a line of cars waiting to get past the Ranger Station. After 15 minutes in a line that wasn’t moving, Bill walked up to a sign that said “metered entry” and wait time at least 90 minutes. WTF!! Talk about a waste! Needless to say, we did not wait, and won’t try again. The extra 2 days to try to see the rainforest weren’t a complete bust as we enjoyed the hike to Hole-in-the-Wall and although we aren’t Twilight fans this is the area where parts of the trilogy were filled (it was interesting to see all the Werewolf and Vampire signs).
Next was a week in Portland and then a week near Bend, Oregon. We did no sightseeing, instead golfing, riding, and hiking. One hot day we decided to hike Misery Ridge. Smart right? It was aptly named, rated extreme, and had a 1000-foot gain, unfortunately all of that climb was in the first mile, of the 4.5-mile hike. I must have stopped a couple dozen times, to bring down my heart rate and try to catch my breath. Meanwhile, Bill was joking with every person that passed us – I was not amused. The first part of the hike was brutal, but totally worth it. The views were just beautiful, except for the forest fire smoke in the valley.
The smoke from the Mosquito fire was even worse when we got to Reno. Bill discovered that the International Camel and Ostrich Races were taking place only 45 minutes away in Virginia City, Nevada. It turned out to be a beautiful drive that would have been great on the motorcycles, but it was also hot, so sitting in the sun in jeans once we got to the races would have been a no go. The races have taken place here since 1959, and they actually a lot of were fun (although given the size of the event, calling them the International Camel and Ostrich Races may have been a slight exaggeration). More than half of the riders never made it across the finish line, since they either got thrown off (Dessa’s favorite – she also prefers the fights in hockey and the crashes in Nascar) or couldn’t get the beast to go where they wanted. The Great Reno Balloon Races were also happening during our visit but we decided not to go because our previous balloon festival in Albuquerque required us to get up at 3am to fight traffic in order to see the morning burn and the group launch. Then I woke up one morning to find Bill had taken off without me. As it turned out, he didn’t leave till after 6am, and there was no traffic, so he was there for the burn and the launch…without me. Rude! (she says that now, but she was pretty happy to have been left to sleep in).
The smoke in Reno from the Mosquito fire was expected to continue getting worse so we decided to head for the California coast a couple of days early. Not wanting to drive into the fire zone, we checked the map and given the prevailing winds, the recommendation was to go around to the north rather than the south. We would be driving about 10 miles north of the fire. That should be safe enough, right? We had no idea just how thick the smoke would get. It was quite a shock to find out that even when we were still 30 miles east of the fire zone, the smoke was like a cloud settled on the ground. We drove for at least an hour with all ventilation turned off to try to avoid breathing the contaminated air. The visibility dropped to a quarter mile at best with everything completely obscured except the very closest trees along the roadside. We were very glad to get out of the smoke as we neared the coast.
Pinnacles National Park is 90 minutes inland (even without traffic) from Monterey, and there are only smallish towns and farmland anywhere near it. We stayed at a surprisingly nice park, in the middle of nowhere, that had a 4.9 rating on Google. The only complaint in the reviews was that it was super windy, and they were not kidding. We had managed to leave the smoke behind, but it was replaced by dust from the mostly bare, arid fields. We were also attacked by a hoard of sugar ants, in spite of the fact that there was only concrete and crushed rock surface in the park. It took me two hours and a whole can of poison to check all our food, spray them, and clean up the dead. We put all the salvageable food in a sealed container, but they kept coming. They were even in the freezer, all dead, but there were hundreds and hundreds of them. We continued to find dead ants, less every day, for a week after we left. Pinnacles National Park was pretty, and we did another climbing hike up the High Peaks Trail. The elevation gain was 1800 feet up but it was spread out over 4.5 miles, therefore not nearly as difficult as Misery Trail.
We moved south to San Luis Obispo for a couple of days, so we could ride the southern part of Highway 1 and Highway 58, but the weather decided not to cooperate as it turned cold and rainy. At least we had left the ant farm behind. In San Diego the weather significantly improved and the resort was beautiful, and we had such a great motorcycle ride we did it 2 days in a row. (It was a great ride and I was enjoying every bit of it but apparently, I wasn’t enjoying it fast enough for some people. Dessa normally follows me but half way through the first ride, she sped around me on a turn and took off zipping through the rest of the turns doing 60+. When she finally let me catch up, she had a big smile on her face and said, let’s do this again).
The weather was supposed to continue to heat up reaching 100 in Joshua Tree National Park and in Tucson which were our next two stops. Obviously, that meant it was time to re-plan one more time. We decide to head north into New Mexico with a return visit to Albuquerque and another wonderful RV park. We played some more great golf (the course was great – our play not so much) and then headed home.
This summer trip took four months and was the longest we have been away without flying home to see our family since we retired. We had a good trip and for the most part Bill’s plan managed to keep us in good weather. We didn’t sight-see nearly as much as on previous trips since we had visited many of these cities previously.
We’re back in Dallas through the end of the year which allows us to celebrate holidays and birthdays with the family. We took a 1-week timeout in late October to go diving in Grand Cayman with Bill’s niece Dana and her husband Jared and although I didn’t dive as much as I would have liked (a story for another time), we all had fun. Thanksgiving, hosted by Alex and Ashlee this year was wonderful and Sami, Heath and Elderly are continuing to settle into their new farm. The excitement of Christmas is building as are the wish lists of each of the grand kids.
We will be headed to Florida for New Years and to avoid any repeat of the crappy weather that Dallas suffered for most of November – I know, it’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it…
We hope each of you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
…Bill & Dessa
Not sure how exciting the photos are….lots of garden, street art, and hiking landscapes, but you can find them and a few videos here.
Roatan dive photos here.
Grand Cayman dive photos and video here.
Love reading about your adventures! Safe travels and keep living the dream!!’
All the best,
Mike and Lori ❤️