Still at Gulf State Park

Not much new,  It turned colder here and some wind.   There is no clouds in the sky and it may get to 70 today. Yesterday we did the same as before, rode bikes, hiked on trails, and walked the beach.   We went to the beach downtown,  Gulf Shores, AL.  There is more people and palm trees there.  Had pizza at pizza hut.  Here are the photos.  Tomorrow we leave Gulf state park after having been here 5 nights.

Gulf State Park, Gulf Shores, Alabama

Made it to one of our favorite places.  We are at the same campsite we were at last year.   We have mocking birds, butterflies and a couple of stray cats.   Spent the day riding bikes, walking on the beach and just reading.  We are going to be here at least 3 days,  maybe more.  The weather is beautiful, and we have a white sand beach. Here are a few photos.

North Toledo Bend state park

No this park isn't in Ohio,  it is in Louisiana.  Saturday we drove to North Toledo Bend state park and when we drove around to find a campsite, the truck started making strange noises.   We picked our site and paid for it and after we set up I looked for the noise problem.  Sounded like water pump but turned out to be the serpentine belt tensioner pulley.   GM uses a plastic pulley to keep the belt tight.   After 180000 miles on the truck the pulley gave up and melted.  I really did not want to use my towing service to have the truck towed to the nearest GM dealer, 20 miles away on Monday morning probably paying over $200 to have it fixed.   I called   Autozone on Sunday and they made the 40 mile round trip bringing me the pulley and a new belt.  I did the work and saved some money.   This is a beautiful state park,   but very few campers on Saturday night. Sunday night there are 3 campers.   I guess it is because of the dried up reservoir that you can see in one of the photos of cypress trees showing where the water level was at one time.   Also one of the pictures shows the new part and melted old one.

Tyler State Park, East of Dallas, TX

Could not post last night due too very bad signal conditions, blame Verizon.  So to catch up, Wednesday night we stayed at Abilene state park outside of Abilene, TX.   We were in a pecan grove, but no pecans falling.  Usually they hit the roof all night.  Thursday night we stayed at Mineral Wells state park west of  Fort Worth, TX.   In the photos you will see penitentiary hollow where stone steps laid more than 70 years ago wind thru a lakeside labyrinth of giant boulders with stunning views of a 646 acre lake.   Friday we moved on to Tyler state park east of Dallas. All we could get was overflow camping being Friday night.  Beautiful weather, close to 80 degrees.   Hiked trails then settled in for the night.  We are driving less than 150 miles per day as we are in no hurry.   Here are the photos.

Monahans Sandhills State Park, Texas

Last night we camped at Brantley Lake State Park near Carlsbad, NM.   It is supposed to be a lake on the Pecos river, but it is just about dried up and also the wind was blowing terrible because of being near the dust storm at Lubbuck, TX.  I also forgot to take any photos.   Tonight Tuesday night, it is much better. We are camped at the Monahans Sandhills state park near Monahan, TX.  Here are some of the photos of us playing on the sand dunes.

Click on the video

Oliver Lee state park Almaogorda, NM

Today, Sunday we traveled down the road about 70 miles to Oliver Lee state park.   We are moving slowly now.   It has been hot, 90 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. Our campground is close to the mountains and not too far from  White Sands National Monument.   The campground is on a hill so it would be too much effort to walk so we read all afternoon.  Not too much elso to talk about so here are the photos.

Valley Of fires, Carrizozo, New Mexico

We left Taos, NM and visited the bridge over the Rio Grande river gorge about 5 miles out of Taos.   We drove all day to reach the Valley of fires in Carrizozo, NM.  We made it to a spectacular campground.  It is  a National Rec area campground and at half price for golden age cards is $9 per night with electricity and showers.  The weather is terrific, we signed up for 3 nights.  It has a paved trail thru a lava field that was formed 3000 years ago.   It was formed by lava flowing from a vent in the earth not a volcano.  The black lava rock covers the whole valley.   Here is the photos of the Rio Grande and the Lava field.

Find our camper in the campground

Taos, New Mexico

We are tired of the cold weather so we are running south looking for warmth.  The first picture is snow along I25 in Wyoming, for our neighbor at home.

Stayed at Lake Pueblo state park near Pueblo, Colorado.   These are the photos with Pikes Peak in background.

Tuesday night we stayed at Trinidad lake state park near Trinidad, Colorado in the following photo.

Wednesday which is today we headed for Taos, New Mexico.   We walked around the town,  took a tour of   Kit Carson's home, and walked to his grave site.

Tonight we are staying at a commercial campsite outside Taos.

Custer State Park

On Sunday we went on the wildlife loop road in the park.  We saw many critters.  We got stopped by a buffalo jam blocking the road.   We sat there and got quite a show by one of the buffaloes.   Barb had just got done taking a few photos of this one and he circled our truck and decided  he wanted back on the other side of the fence and avoiding the cattle guard  he jumped the steel gate.  Most of him made it over but his leg got caught in the fence.   Someone got help and a park worker used a saw in two places to cut the gate.   That did the trick and he got loose and limped away happy.  We have a video of the whole ordeal but too long to show here.  Sunday night we camped  in Wyoming by a railroad track.  After we had paid the $20 and set up camp, we found that trains were running about 10 min apart all night long.  Kinda hard to sleep.  Here are the photos of the animals,  buffalo, burro, prairie dog, and pronghorn.

Minuteman missile and Mt. Rushmore

Friday we fought a terrific wind trying to drive around to see the sights.   We toured a Minuteman missile command center and also the missile silo.  The photo of the missile is the actual missile underground with the nuclear warhead deactivated.   The command center shown is 90 feet underground with 4.5 feet thick concrete around it.  They were taken out of service in 1993 with one of the treaties with Russia.    It was very interesting.   Today Saturday,  the weather turned worse with cold and rain.   We seen Mt. Rushmore and headed to Custer State Park where we are camped.   Here are some photos.  The indian photo was taken at Wall Drug.

Badlands National Park

Last night we stayed in a Lake Vermillion state rec. area near Montrose, SD.  It was a beautiful campground on the lake and we were the only ones there.  Temp was again near 85.  Today we fought a side wind all across SD to the Badlands.  Speed limit was 75 on I90 but had to drive 55 a lot.  We had left the campsite early to avoid the wind, but in the late morning the wind picked up speed.  Not good when your driving a truck camper.  In the badlands we did a lot of hiking to the scenic views.   The highlight was when we climbed a log ladder.  Got a National park campsite for the night.  Electricity and all for $14 per night for us with National park golden age passport.  There are thunderstorms coming thru the area now.  It has been dry here for quite some time.   I guess we brought them Ohio weather.  Here are a few of the many photos we took.