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1 to 15 November 2018   16 to 30 November 2018



Thursday November 1, 2018


We had pretty heavy rain over night.
We leave the campground at around 7 this morning.  We want to put more miles behind us and get out of this rain.
It is very rare we leave when it is still dark outside.
 

A few miles later, we are back on the Interstate and the rain.
 
 

Made it to Kentucky and it is still raining.


We even refuel in the rain.


But, we keep-on smiling.
 

The plan when we got out of Cincinnati was to take I-71.  But an electronic billboard advised us the I-71 was completely blocked.
So we kept going south on I-75 towards Lexington and then head west towards Calvert City.
Versailles?  Are we in France?
 

Again, the stuff we see while driving.
This is not an actual bridge, just a painting.  Is it a real cattle?
 

The area around Lexington is all about horses, racing horses.  We will have to come back and visit this area eventually.

After leaving Lexington, we followed the Bluegrass Parkway.


If the sun could be out, the leaves would be very beautiful.
 

We stopped at a Walmart along our route for lunch.  When we tried to get back on the parkway, the GPS sent us in a dead-end.
We had to un-hook the car, turn the MH around and hook-up the car again.


Going left?  Or right?  Up or down?


By late afternoon, we arrived at our new home for two nights.
This park is a Passport America Park, so we are only paying 50 % of the regular price.
 

This is the map with the route we were supposed to take...


This is the actual route we took.  Notice the way we went around Cincinnati.  My mistake.  Wrong turn.
Also, the detour because of the I-71 closure.


Tomorrow we will drive around the local area a little bit.  Those two nights will give us a break from driving in the rain.



Friday, November 2, 2018


We took it easy this morning.  In the afternoon, we went to the little village of Grand Rivers.  It is a small village for the tourists in the summer time.  It is the gateway to the "Land Between The Lakes" National Recreation Area.
 
 

After driving around the village for 5 minutes, we head to the Recreation area.
 

We did stop for a few minutes at the welcome station.


A young deer looking at us.


We took the drive mostly to stop at the Planetarium.  The show was good.
 

The visitor center has a small museum relating the history of the area.


We decided to drive the circle road where the elks and bisons are.  It cost only $5.


This is a gigantic, fenced-up area to keep the animals from roaming too far out and into towns.


Some of the locals.
 


The two black dots are elks.


Kentucky Lake.


We see all kinds of bridges when we travel.


It was a good day.



Saturday, November 3, 2018


A few photos of our park and site.  All the sites have a concrete pad.
 

Michele will be driving out of our site.


The Tennessee River.


Husband road?
Will there be a wife road?
No!


We left I-25 behind and now we are traveling highway 60 west.  It is a good thing we are not raveling small road like this one for very long.
 

First, we cross the Ohio River to be in the Illinois.


After less that 2 km in the Illinois, we are crossing the Mississippi River and enter Missouri.
 

That bridge was so narrow.  I am glad we did not meet any big trucks.
Missouri, here we come.


Lots of cotton crops in this area.
 

Every time I see this kind of tractor, I think about driving a small car underneath to scare up the driver of the tractor.


You want a Coke?  Funny looking horses.
 

Our home for the night.


As usual, I ask permission to spend the night in the parking lot.  No problems.
The only signs I saw were these.  They cannot park here overnight.


They don't seem to worry about it too much.  Four trucks spent the night here without a problem.


The route we did today.


We drove a little more then intended because the other Walmart had a very small parking lot.  Way too small for us to spend the night.



Sunday, November 4, 2018


Surprise!  We woke up to... rain!


This is the first time we saw a road sign like this one.  It flashes only when the light is red.
 

The last 30 km before Branson were from one valley to the other.  Like 6 valleys in a row.  The hills are very steep and long.  We are burning gasoline at a good rate right now.
 

In one of the valleys, we saw this information center, off we go.
We come out of there with tickets for 3 shows, one museum and a voucher for $30 for a meal for $150.00 US.  A good deal.  But!
Always a but.  We have to attend an information session about time-share with Windham.
 

Once installed on our site, we get the car washed.  It really needed it.  Our RV Park is the Pea Patch RV Park in Branson.


The map of Branson with all the stuff you have to see.


Our RV Park is just behind this water tower.  With a clean car, we drive the "strip" where all the attractions are located.
 
 
 
 
 

With more than 40 theaters in Branson, the strip is like a small Vegas.

We are using our voucher for the meal tonight and this is where we are going to eat.
 

Michele had the "Trio d'Italia" which is "Chicken Parmigiata", "Lasagna Della Casa" and "Fettucini Alfredo".  And for me, a "Salmon Trattoria".  All the food was very good.
 

With Michele's leftover, we will have enough to eat again tomorrow night.

The water tower viewed from our site.


Tomorrow we will be watching this show.


The road we traveled today..


Tomorrow, pictures of our campground.



Monday November 5, 2018


Our first show in Branson, Missouri.
It is "Legends in Concert."


Michele with the Blues Brothers.


We cannot wait to see this show.


The show was OK, nothing extraordinary.
They are not the real singers, but look-a-like.
We saw the Blues Brothers, Tina Turner, Elton John, Elvis and Brooks & Dunn.


Half of the show was a Christmas Show.


It was an OK show.



Tuesday November 6, 2018


Our RV Park and our site.  It is a very small RV Park.  A young couple just bought it, and they are working on making it better.  The sites are very narrow.


I would not come here with an RV longer than 40 foot.  The price is good, being a Passport America park.  There are only two streets in the RV Park.
 
 
 

This afternoon, we are visiting the Titanic Museum.  No pictures allowed...
We really enjoyed this museum.  They have many artifacts from the Titanic.
 


Tonight, we are going to this theater for our next show.  We will see the Haygoods.


Nice car!


The place is full.  We do not know who the Haygoods are...


When the show starts, one of the musicians "floats" from the back of the room, upside down and playing guitar.
The Haygoods are five brothers and one sister, all musicians and signers.
 
 

We had a great show.  They were good.



Wednesday November 7, 2018


Tonight we are going to our last sow here in Branson.
The show is at the "Dolly Parton's Stamped Dinner Attraction."


It is beautiful.


We went in early afternoon to pick up our tickets.  It was a very good idea.
This is the place to pick up your tickets, WOW!


Since it is early afternoon, we visit the stables.
Michele is in the Christmas Spirit.
 

The horses sure look well taken care of.
 

Happy couple.


Italian restaurant?


We came back at 4 pm for the first part of the show.  We are in this large room for a short half hour show.


The three entertainers gave us a very good show.  We kind of liked the toilette paper being unrolled with the fan.
 

Next, we entered the arena for the main show.


Once again, it is mostly a Christmas Show.


As the show starts, so do the meal.  First, a vegetable soup with small bread.  It was very good.


Very nice.


The main course consists of a small roasted chicken, a wedge of potato, a slice of pork and a small corn on the cub (everything eaten by fingers).
We were told to come here hungry.  It is a very big meal.  They even gave us a doggy bag to bring the left-over back home.
The meal was very delicious.


So colourful.


And of course, a Nativity scene.  Really nice.
 

The MC had split the room in two and each side had a team to score point and win.  We are the green team.  Here we have a piglets race.


This was the best of the three shows we saw here in Branson.


So, we paid $150 to see three shows, the Titanic Museum and a $30 discount coupon at a restaurant.  This was not expensive at all.
But!  Always a but, we had to sit through a 3 hours sales pitch for a time-share.  It was worth it for what we got at the cost we paid.  BTW, we did not buy a time-share.



Thursday November 8, 2018


We are back on the road this morning.  We are going back to Springfield, and we have to cross all 6, big, valleys again.


They sure want you to understand not to drive on the left lane all the time!


Really understand!
 

We drove a short while in Arkansas.


We were supposed to stop in Oklahoma City, but the weather forecast is not very good, cold and possible snow.  We are now heading south to escape the cold front coming our way.


Another Passport America campground.  No bad for $14 a night, full service and 50 amps.


It was a long driving day for us, and it was very windy.




Friday November 9, 2018


With that cold front sweeping the area, it makes for cooler (cold) night.  We had a nice 0° C la night.
Goodbye campground.


This is the kind of roads Michele does not like at all.


A Canadian town?


In some little town...


It is still on the cool side...


Nothing like a coffee to warm you up and keep you awake!


Welcome to Texas.  The wind is still blowing hard.
 

This is the cheapest we have seen gas so far this year.  About $0.72 CAN per liter.


One more night at a Passport America campground and for only $25 US per night, full service and 50 amps.


Our site for the night.  Notice the big transport truck in the background.  It is very close.  It is very noisy.
 

Going through Fort Worth was uneventful.  The wind is still blowing hard.




Saturday November 10, 2018


Brrr!  It got colder last night, -1° C!


We love the stop sign.


Clear skies, but the wind is now blowing from the north all day and we are going west.


It is still on the cool side.


They have had lots of rain in this area  in the past few weeks.  Many secondary roads and streets do not even have bridges.  So the water is just flowing over the road.  On some of those roads, they even have measuring sticks by the road to let you know how deep is the water over the road.


Neat idea.


After we had filled up the MH, we bought two slices of Pizza for $6.  They are huge.


Interstate 20 is very nice, but the wind.


We saw many of those "convoy."  A car pulling two other cars.


Once out of the Fort Worth area, the speed limit goes up to 80 mph.


Our next home.  At one time this was a service town for the local ranches, but now it is for the oil industries.
 

Our new home.


It is not expensive and OK for the night.
 

Another long day on the road.




Sunday November 11, 2018


November 11th, Remembrance Day.
Thanks to all veterans that have served or are still serving.


Pretty sunrise.


WOW!  We are in Pecos, where they refine the oil and this is the most expensive place to buy gas!!!  About $1 CAN per liter...


The road is super nice, but the wind is now coming from the west and we are driving west.  Miles per gallon go down.


This area is all about oil.
 

The scenery is spectacular.


Going through El Paso was OK, but this city is narrow and long.


Shortly after El Paso, we entered New Mexico.


The Thing?  We did stop last time we were here, but not this year.


It was still windy today.
We like this message.
 

We saw a lot of feed lots in this area.


Deming, our destination for today.  We are camping at Roadrunner RV Park.
 

Our site.  It is a Passport America, so only $15 for the night.
 

Another good day on the road.  Tomorrow we should be out of this cold front.


We are staying here only for one night, but I think we will stay a little longer next time we are driving by.



Monday November 12, 2018


The Denny's restaurants are offering free breakfast to all veterans this morning.  We had a good breakfast before we left Benson.


Brrrr!  Still not warm this morning.


The sky is blue and we cross the continental divide.


It is kind of hard to see, but these are train car on there side after a derailment.
 

Welcome to Arizona.


I really love the sceneries in the south-west.
 
 

Why just have a plain fence when you can have a nice fence?


We made a short stop at the Walmart in Benson, AZ.


And we continue on the nice sceneries.


We will spend a few days in Tucson, Arizona.
They sure know how to make a bridge more pleasant to look at.


Our new home for the next five days.  Pretty nice place.
 


The spa is one street over from our place.


The route we traveled today.


We had the wind at our back.  Checking our miles per gallon for today, we got a super nice 10.7 miles per gallon, our highest so far.



Tuesday November 13, 2018


All the hills are covered with cactus.


I cook our steak like the chef on TV.  I keep the steak wet as it cook.


Nice sky.


Our first bingo of the season.  We did not win.
 



Wednesday November 14, 2018


We are visiting the open pit mine Asarco.
This is the "Asarco Mineral Discovery Center."


Around the center they have all kinds of items relating to mining in the region.
 

My pretty Michele.
 

Now, that is a big truck.
 

Where there are big trucks, you have the big tire for the photo.


This is cactus country.
 

We will have to remember to be careful.


Fool's gold.
 

This is the mine.



This is a replica of one of the big drums used to break down the rock to extract the copper.


One of the two finished products.
 

The other one.
 

We are only six peoples for the visit.  Our guide is Cynthia.


The mine is call "Mission mine."  It is 1/4 of a mile deep, two miles long, north to south and 3/4 of a mile wide.


Each "step" is 40 feet high.


They estimate the mine will be in operation until 2050.


The different colour rocks are the tailing from the extraction process after the have the copper out of it.
 

One of the big ponds that separates the copper for other materials.


They use Milk of Lime in the extraction process.


Two of the big drums used to breakdown the rock.


We really enjoyed the mine tour.

How to make a boring wall into a work of art.


We have seen this car in the RV Park.


Why not go to the spa before supper.


This was a good day.



Thursday November 15, 2018


A few days back, I noticed a bulge on the sidewall of one of the front tire.  The front tires were close to be worn out anyway, so we changed both tires just to be safe.


Spending some time at the pool.


We treat ourselves to a nice Chinese fondue for supper.


Until next time.

Life is good...



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