The last time Mark and I crossed the United States from East to West was in October 2016. We attended the sailboat show in Annapolis as vendors with our marine WiFi and cell data product and invention, The Wirie, before driving to Northern California in our Prius. We had five days to cross this massive country in order to start our first housesit on the West Coast. We lasted a few years “out west,” house and pet sitting and exploring in our camper van Zesty, before making our way back east in the summer of 2019.
The Southwest is where our hearts lie. The vast, open spaces, low population, incredible natural sites, and sense of freedom trump the mountains and greenery of the East Coast. We think…
Our Route
If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you are familiar with our lack of planning. We pretty much take life as it comes, one step at a time; something that is evident in the title of my forthcoming travel memoir: Plunge. Anything can influence our route, our destination, our timing, our moods.
Here’s how we ended up in Arizona, this time around…
Idea one
In the fall – after my memoir arrived at a stopping point (never) – we would drive to Kanab, Utah, to visit with Jeff, who was Maya’s caretaker at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and became a good friend. We’d boogie to Colorado, visit a truck camper manufacturer we are interested in, spend a couple of weeks camped along rivers in the mountains, stop at a few National Parks again in Utah, and reach our destination by November 28th, for my book launch.
What actually happened
“Mark, you should make sure this truck camper manufacturer is, indeed, in Denver, CO, so we don’t drive all the way out there for ‘nothing.’”
“Hmmm. It appears that they are not located in Colorado, but in California!” Sigh.
Maya created a habit of eating paper products when left alone in our room above the garage, so we closed the bathroom door, put the paper towel roll up high, removed receipts and Census paperwork from a shelf at dog-height, and called it good. But… Maya found our atlas on a little table. Upon our return from the grocery store one day, every state between C and K – including Colorado – had been demolished. Plus, what were we thinking… camping at an altitude of over 8,000 feet in the fall?
Then, we learned our good friends Karmen and Tom had left the Annapolis area on their sailing journey to warmer climes. If we wanted to see them, we had to drive south first. Colorado was off the table. We drove westward from North Carolina along a more southern route than initially anticipated.
Idea Two
We could still drive to Southern Utah, but we didn’t want to rush. Plus, we had to sit for periods at a time to keep working on that memoir.
What actually happened
After a few weeks of no-rush and have-to-work mentality, we discovered that nighttime temperatures in Kanab, UT, were already well below freezing. Plus, we had two sets of friends, keen to meet us for Thanksgiving in Southern Arizona. We looked forward to catching up with them and having fun after months of stress, dedication, commitment, and focus. Southern Utah was off the table. We worked and stayed a week in Arkansas, in one of the most pretty and comfortable free campsites ever, before more western progress ensued.
Idea three
We needed to order a proof copy of Plunge (and receive and review it!) before release date on November 28th. Where should we get it shipped to? A map and a calendar were needed. We picked El Paso, Texas, for a general delivery address at a post office and as our next destination, within a week of ordering the copy.
What actually happened
We expected the book to ship by USPS, but it didn’t. It left the Amazon facility by UPS, which doesn’t deliver to post offices. The package had to be held at a UPS distribution center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, which became our new goal. And, we’d better get there whenever the proof arrived, in case we needed to order another one. We were running out of time! More driving, more stress, more work. But we snatched up the copy and are still on track with the launch of Plunge.
No sightseeing?
As you might have noticed, the focus during our first month back on the road has been my travel memoir – we needed internet every day to be able to work and it sucked up most hours of the day. After we left the crowded, Covid-prone Great Smoky Mountains, we drove a bunch and arrived in Arkansas. We stopped in Little Rock (we bought Zesty in this area in 2017) for an hour.
Our next stop was Hot Springs, AR, where we slept at a Walmart parking lot and hiked most of the trails in the National Park. RVs park for free next to the local visitor center. Bathhouse Row was worth the stroll to check out the architecture of these stately, old-fashioned bathhouses. The interiors were off-limit, due to Covid. And, we splurged with a margarita to end our one afternoon of leisure.
Once we entered Texas, we briefly stopped in Paris, to check out… the Eiffel Tower… replica. Nothing special but it felt good to be a tourist for a few minutes. In Bowie, we also made a quick stop at their claim to fame – a Guinness Book of Records statue of the Bowie knife.
We needed to leave the crowded towns of Texas, because… see the next topic. We found and enjoyed another lovely free campground with views, trails, and wildlife in a place called Possum Kingdom. We wish we could have stayed longer, but my proof copy awaited in the next state.
Our trio stopped in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, to stroll the small historic center, which was more like one street. It was very quiet – we didn’t see anyone out and about – but we did decide, despite the woodsy surroundings and unlimited hiking opportunities, that this town would be too cold for us in winter to consider living here.
How about Covid?
In Arkansas, we pretty much lived in our little bubble along the shores of Lake Ouachita after visiting the two towns mentioned above, where mask wearing seemed prevalent.
When we entered Texas, however, scenes appeared worse than in North Carolina. Sure, locals weren’t wearing masks outside (we did and/or stayed six feet apart, not that we encountered many people when walking Maya), but our biggest shock came when we visited two Walmarts.
In Paris, as well as in Bowie, we picked up a few supplies in this chain store. Less than 50% of customers INSIDE Walmart sported a mask! We were baffled and appalled. We believed Walmart as a business requires mask-wearing country-wide. But if the rules aren’t enforced… We didn’t even see a sign at the entrance of these stores about the requisite use of masks. We felt stressed and annoyed inside the building (especially since some employees didn’t take this virus seriously either) and left as quickly as possible, not to set foot inside again anywhere in Texas.
Enter New Mexico… where the presence of Trump signs faded and the pandemic is taken extremely seriously. Everyone around us, even in cars, along sidewalks, and on parking lots, wore a mask. We drove to a Walmart to observe the situation. There was a ¼-mile line of people outside, so we gave up on that idea. Instead, we shopped for produce on sale in a Sprouts grocery store. The line was short, a two-cart distance was recommended, mask-wearing proved mandatory, two security guards at the entrance enforced the rule, disinfectant was omni-present, the store had low occupancy, the cashier wiped her check-out area in between customers, … We felt safe and didn’t mind breathing behind our face coverings here.
Having crossed quite a few state lines, only visiting grocery stores and fuel stations, we now have a pretty good impression of how this pandemic is being handled in the US. In some places, it isn’t pretty. Those are the regions we shall avoid in the future – and will never inhabit – for multiple reasons!
I wish my American friends and family a happy Thanksgiving week and all of you a decent winter season (or summer season in the Southern Hemisphere)!
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