Tony
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Champions Landing Stop then Home
For our final stay of our epic 2026 Snow Bird Trip, we had intended to overnight at the Strataca Salt Mine in Hutchison, Kansas after our tour there, since they are a Harvest Host. However, it was still in the upper 90’s and after running the AC in the van during our mine visit we…
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Two State Park Overnighters
As this year’s snowbird trip is ending, we have found ourselves in the midst of record breaking high temperatures across the southwest and far up into the central states. We left Moriarty, New Mexico on Wednesday with the goal of reaching central Kansas by Friday and then home on Saturday. Ute Lake State Park We…
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Petroglyph National Monument and a Brewery
It’s that point in our snowbird journey when it’s time to start pointing Usain toward home. Our points of interests will become fewer, not because they aren’t interesting, but rather they become more familiar as we will be overlapping past journeys (there are only so many ways to get back to Iowa). For now, though,…
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Homolovi State Park
We stayed a couple of nights at Homolovi State Park located a couple of miles north of Winslow, Arizona. The Hopi spelling of the word is Homol’ovi, which means “place of the little hills.” Before 2011 the park was named Homolovi Ruins State Park, but the Hopi petitioned the state parks board to remove the…
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Standing on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona
“Well, I’m a standing on a corner in Winslow, ArizonaAnd such a fine sight to seeIt’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed FordSlowin’ down to take a look at me” — second verse of the song “Take It Easy” by the Eagles It’s funny how a single verse from a song can put a…
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Grand Canyon National Park
Lisa and I hit up the Grand Canyon for the first time back in June 2017. We were in a rental car from Tucson then. This time, though, we rolled in with Usain. The Grand Canyon wasn’t even on our radar for this snowbird trip (not that we really had an itinerary) since it’s usually…
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From the Valley of Fire to a Winery
Can’t say enough good things about the Valley of Fire State Park as we leave it behind. Before we do though, we had a couple of more hikes to do as well as a few more stops to see the remaining points of interests. Petroglyphs Seven Sisters Lone Rock and CCC-built Cabins Clark Memorial Elephant…
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A Long Dam Train Trail Bridge Hike
One day on the Las Vegas strip was enough for us. We needed another hike! We left the Vegas KOA for a day trip out to Lake Mead to walk the Historic Train Trail that sits within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Lisa had read about this trail online. She told me it had…
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Viva Las Vegas!
Las Vegas. Home of over 160 casinos, 2,500+ restaurants, nearly 40 museums, and hundreds of shows. So, what’s the first thing that we do upon rolling into sin city? That’s right. We find a strip mall with a hair salon so Lisa can get her hair trimmed. Just another not so glamorous part of van…
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The Road to Death Valley
Before departing from Palm Springs, we checked the weather to ensure that temperatures at our next destination would remain within a tolerable range. After all, it is called Death Valley. We found that the temperatures were indeed acceptable, so that was where we would head next. Most of the campgrounds in the park are first-come-first-serve,…