We woke up in another amazing dispersed camping spot thirty minutes out of Moab, Utah. I think next time we come to Moab we will take the dirt road further back maybe 4 miles more and sleep under the arches. This road backs up to the back side of Arches National Park. But since we are only staying one night here we decided to stay up towards the front of the road maybe a mile in. It’s still a beautiful spot with great views and serenity. There are a scattering of other Vandwellers but nobody close enough to be in our space.
The weather has been spectacular so the next day we just hung around and enjoyed the sun. We did a 2 mile hike and hung around some more. Then we headed into town. We got a room at the Days Inn for free with my Wyndom points. We showered, watched a little TV and then headed out for the Canyonlands by night boat ride.
It’s such an amazing boat ride that starts with a cowboy dinner and then a two hour slow moving boat ride down the Colorado River surrounded by majestic cliffs on either side. Then the night comes and the stars come out and they light up the cliffs. It’s just awe-inspiring!!
In the morning we had breakfast with some friends from Raquette Lake that are on a 5 week road trip. We were lucky that we could meet up with them in Moab and share the beauty of Southern Utah with them.
After breakfast we packed up and headed out. Heading back to the east coast. We had a little lunch just outside of town at the Hole in the Rock tourist trap. We bought a couple of more flattened Pennie’s for our collection.
Then we continued on to Durango, Colorado. Such a cute town. We will be back next year to spend more time in Durango. We spent the night at the Sky Ute Casino. I won and Greg lost. We had a nice dinner and a good sleep.
Headed another three hours to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We gotta drive 3 hours instead of our normal 2 hour days to get back to Florida in time for a weekend cruise that I booked with my friend, Lisa.
We arrived in Albuquerque and stayed at the Sandia Casino and Resort. This place was packed with people. Parking lot was full, machines were busy. There was a comedian performing at the outside amphitheater and a storm was coming our way. I went into the van right as the storm was hitting and Greg went back inside to listen to some live music. I woke up to 3 hot air balloons overhead. Albuquerque is famous for their hot air balloons.
From there we headed to Amarillo Texas. Along the way we stopped at the Cadillac Ranch.some millionaire buried a bunch of Cadillacs face down in a field and people come from all over the country to spray paint their names on them. It’s a pretty cool roadside attraction.
We stayed at the Cracker Barrel that night and all was well until the tornado warnings started to appear on our phones.
This area of Texas is getting hit with some crazy storms. Softball size hail and tornados so we headed out to try to beat the weather. We put in a few extra hours of driving just to get away from the warnings and wound up in Wichita Falls, again at another Cracker Barrel. We don’t want to be in a campground in this type of weather. The night was fine but in the morning, the warnings started again so we sat around for a bit waiting for these storms to pass before driving. The other issue is the flooding so we don’t want to wait around too long otherwise the roads might become impassable. We can’t seem to outrun this storm.
Our original plan was to stop in Shreveport, but the red of the storm just kept following us. We took a few pitstops to try to get the storm to move past us but we just kept catching up to it. Found another fun roadside attraction. The Eiffel Tower in Paris, Texas.
We never made it to Shreveport. Went down to Longview Texas because we saw a break in the rain down there and we did yet another Cracker Barrel. That’s three Cracker Barrel’s in a row. I wonder what the record is. They have a new campfire seasonal menu so I ordered the beef one. I used to make these foil dinners all the time when we camped. Maybe I’ll start making them again. They are so good. You just throw a bunch of stuff in a foil packet and throw it on the fire.
The rain and the storms continue to follow us for the next 3 days so we put in some extra driving time and made it to Florida with two days to spare. We arrived in Palm Harbor right on time to spend Mothers Day with Greg’s mom. We had a nice dinner and chatted the night away.
We stayed a couple of nights and then decided to do 1 night at Fort Wilderness Campground in Disney. If you stay within the Disney resort, you get to go to the Disney Water Park for free on the first day of your check-in at the hotel or campground. So we arrived at the Typhoon Lagoon Water Park and got free entry. Normally it’s $74 to enter and then of course as soon as we park, it starts raining and continued to rain for most of the time we were there.
We had lunch and then later had this awesome sand pail sundae. The thing was huge and delicious.
After that we headed to the campground and checked in to site 2002. We then hopped on the bus and did some hotel lobby hopping. One of our favorite things to do at Disney. It did finally stop raining so we took the boat over from the campground to The Contemporary. We did a little fake shopping in the gift shops and then jumped on the monorail.
From there we headed to The Polynesian and then another boat ride to the Grand Floridian. In the lobby of the Grand Floridian, they had a piano player wearing tails and playing classical music. It was so nice to just hang out there and listen to the music.
We decided to do the character dining at the 1900 Park Fair Restaurant. We didn’t make reservations so it was a 15 minute wait to get a table. While waiting I googled two of the characters, Tiana and Mirabelle. I had no idea who they were. I knew the other two, Aladdin and Cinderella. All of the characters were so amazing. They never come out of character no matter what you ask them. I wish I would have video taped my interactions with them because it really was so much fun.
After dinner we walked over to the Polynesian to watch the fireworks and then we took the boat from there to Magic Kingdom and then headed onto the boat that goes to the campground. A short bus ride later to loop 2000 and off to bed for us.
Next day, we checked out at 11 and headed to the campground pool to relax and swim a little. We had lunch at the pool snack bar. I didn’t take any photos at the pool. We left the pool around 2 and then headed to Fort Pierce to visit with my friend Lisa. I’m going on a weekend cruise with her tomorrow so the next blog will be all about the fun we had on the cruise. Greg is staying in Fort Pierce working on the broken heater. We were able to have the part sent to Lisa’s house that hopefully will be an easy fix for him. (Not that we need heat now, it’s 90° here)
We had a fun time playing Bingo with Lisa and John at the clubhouse.
I can’t believe that our road trip is almost coming to an end. I guess the next blog will be the last one. Time sure is flying.
The Van Stops Here 