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We are in Escondido, California, visiting our daughter and her husband Andrew. We are staying at the Escondido RV Resort, which is one of the nicer sites we have visited.

We will be staying here until after New Years when we will head back to Las Vegas for some doctor appointments. Unfortunately, there is not enough room to raise my ham antennas so I am using our Jeep mobile antennas.

While here, we are about 9 miles from the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, so we did visit and enjoyed our tour. This park is part of the San Diego Zoo, where they try to make larger enclosures for the various animals. The animals are placed to place aggressive animals away from the none aggressive. The largest enclosure is over 60 acres.

One of the enclosures is the aviary, which is quite-a-bit smaller then it’s counter part at the San Diego zoo.

They no longer have the train which tours the 60 acre enclosure, but we were able to capture pictures of some some of the free roaming animals from our seats on the park’s tram. They do not allow visitors to walk in the enclosures, though, you can purchase tickets to ride in a duce-and-a-half open truck inside the enclosure.

Once leaving the tram, we were able to view other animals in 3 and larger acre enclosures.

We belong to Harvest Host, which is comprised of various locations throughout the US and Canada. Self-contained campers can stay for free at places such as vineyards, distilleries, brewery’s, and museums. While we were heading west, we stayed at an entertainment center for two days which even had free 50 amp power for us. We spent the day an the Air Zoo, a nice air museum at the airport.

AND OF COURSE, THE GUARDIAN OF THE CASTLE, DUCKY

AIM is the All Inclusive Motor Home club. This years life member rally was held in Petoskey, Mi. We stayed at the Hearthside Grove Motor Home Resort which is probably the nicest resort we have been too. At the AIM rally’s, everything is supplied including the camp site, all meals and transportation to various sites. We went to some local sites including the Perry Hotel where we had a delicious lunch and the Gypsy Distillery where we tasted the spirits and had a delicious catered dinner. The highlight of our trip was a visit to Mackinac Island. They took us to a ferry for our trip to the island. There are no cars or electric bikes allowed; we toured via horse drawn carriages. They do allow motor vehicles for emergency services and for construction vehicles which need special permits and must stay on the construction site. We had a fantastic lunch at the Grand Hotel and then a carriage tour of the island.

LUNCH AT THE GRAND HOTEL

8/28/25

We took the train from Dover, NJ to Penn Station, NY. We went to the Anne Frank House Exhibit at The Center For Jewish History in New York City. Once entering the exhibit you were not allowed to take pictures. The exhibit was extraordinary, and well worth seeing. It not only went through her life and death, their life in hiding, but also the history of Hitler and the rise if the Nazi Party. They were hiding in the factory that Mr. Frank formally ran behind a wall and bookcase. They could only use the bathroom when no one was in the factory. Unfortunately, after being arrested Mrs. Frank was put to death at the camp she was sent to. Anne and her sister, Margot, both died of Typhus in their camp just before liberation. Otto Frank was rescued after the fall of the Nazis.

8/30/2025

We took a Hop-On Hop-Off Bus around Manhatten. We got off the bus and we went to lunch. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Katz’s, a Jewish Deli. Then we went back to the bus.

8/31/2025-9/7/2025

We remained at Panther Lake Campground and watched various activities such as Karaoke.

Karaoke campground style

9/7/2025-9/9/2025

We left Andover, NJ and we started our trip to Nappanee, Indiana. 9/7/2025 we spent the night in Clearfield, PA in a Walmart parking lot. 9/8/2025 we left Clearfield and drove to Sandusky, OH and stayed at a KOA. On 9/9/2025 we headed to Wood Design in Nappanee, IN.

The lazy dogs, Ducky and M olly

9/9/2025-9/12/2025

We arrived at the Wood Design parking lot where we stayed through Friday. Wood Design and JSC RV Repair put a dishwasher in our motor home. The dishwasher is wonderful and looks like the motor home came with it.

9/12/2025-9/14/2025

We left Nappanee and drove 60+ miles to Angola/Hogback Lake KOA. We visited with Michelle and Duane Sheffield. It was great seeing them again. Michelle made a kick-ass chuck roast with veggies for dinner.

9/14/2014-9/20/2025

We left Angola, IN and drove to the Wayne County Fairgrounds in Belleville, MI. We toured around the area until we went to a fantastic restaurant called The Grand Traverse Pie Company in Ann Arbor, MI on 9/18/2025. Dave’s cousin, Laurel Federbush, played her harp there. Friday, Laurel came to visit us at the motor home. We had a great visit. She joined us for dinner at Ruby Tuesday.

We left home yesterday and drove to the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) campground in Cincinnati, Ohio. The drive was very easy. The campground was very nice with full hookups. The member price was $15.00. We went to Mango Tree for for dinner. Wonderful Thai food and Sushi! Today, 8/25,

We drove to the Mercer/Grove City KOA in Pennsylvania. Very uneventful drive. When we stopped for diesel, the storm clouds we had been trying to catch up to all day caught us. Dave started pumping fuel and there was a torrential downpour that lasted about 10 minutes.

The check-in person at the campground recommended a burger restaurant called Black Out. It was absolutely wonderful.

We drove from Grove City, Pennsylvania to Andover, New Jersey. The drive was beautiful. We are at Panther Lake Campground. We stayed here eight years ago and it was a much smaller campground, but it is still beautiful.

We went to dinner at the Hampton Diner. The portions were huge! The food was excellent. We had matzah ball soup with our dinner. The specials came with cake. The cake was Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

Today, 8/27, we are taking the day off. We did our laundry. Our lunch was yummy. We both had large turkey sandwiches from my leftovers. Dave is making burritos for dinner tonight.

FMCA campground

Panther Lake

Bandelier is a newer national monument located outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ancestral Pueblo people inhabited the canyon from approximately 1150 CE and 1550 CE. There are cliff dwellings as well as ground built dwellings. The people farmed the land and consumed small animals such as rabbits and squirrels. They left the land due to drought and the land was not able to support the people. We walked a little over a mile to and handicap accessible trails to see most of the main dwellings.

Canyon where the people lived

Dwelling built into the volcanic walls

Giant Kiva used by the Pueblo people for religious and other gatherings

I did climb the ladder leading to a small room

We took a ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad. This is our second trip. The railroad was first opened in 1990 on old freight lines used for copper mining. Much of the railroad was hand built including several bridges and one 734 foot tunnel. We were able to see cliff dwellings built by the Sinagua. These were built approximately 1130 AD through 1300 AD. The only wildlife we saw today was a blue heron in the river adjacent to the tracks. The ride began in Clarkdale, Arizona, goes about 25 miles to Perkinsville, an abandoned town. The engines are then moved to the front of the train for the ride back. The engines were used by the Alaskan Railroad until the late 1980’s when the Verde Canyon Railroad took control of the engines.

EACH PAIR OF PASSENGER CARS HAS AN OUTSIDE VIEWING CAR

SLAG PILE AS A RESULT OF THE COPPER MINING

SINAGUA CLIFF DWELLING

BLUE HERON

OLD TELEGRAPH POLE

We left Las Vegas yesterday for the Distant Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde, Arizona. We left Vegas several weeks later then we anticipated since NIRVC had to replace our shower door under warranty. The new door finally arrived last Thursday, they installed it Monday, and we left for Camp Verde Wednesday.

Distant Drums is on the Yavzapai-Apache reservation and is one of the nicer RV parks we have been too. We plan to do some sight seeing, visit my cousin Jason, and take another scenic trip on the Verde Canyon Railroad.

Our last stop on our current trip was the Great Smokey Mountains which is located in Tennessee and parts of North Carolina and Virginia. We stayed for two weeks at a KOA in Cosby, Tennessee which was probably one of the nicest KOA’s we have stayed at. The Great Smokey Mountains was beautiful and the weather did cooperate for most of our stay. We did quite a few drives in the park and we were able to see bears, wild turkeys and elk. This is the first time we watched a bear in the trees going from tree-to-tree about 20 feet off the ground; I’m glad we had our telephoto lenses with us. We even saw a bear walk past the window we were sitting next too when we were having dinner at a steak restaurant.

Though some of their research and their bike shop was located in Dayton, OH. The Wright Brothers flew their experimental plane in Kill Devil Hills, NC. They made four flights the shortest being approximately 120 feet and the final test flight at approximately 820 feet. The actual runway and flight path are marked by small rock markers showing the four flights.

Monument on a hill overlooking the runway and work buildings of the Wright Brothers

The large stone marker on the left is where the engine was started and the flights began. To the right, you can see the markers for the first-three flights.

This marker indicates the fourth flight approximately 820 feet from the start.