LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Well, what can I say? it's been 3 years, but who's counting!
Obviously some of you!  Back by "some demand" is ole Juan and his travel blog.  I've had to give some serious thought (if and when) I whould woo all of you again with my magical words that I am sure brings a grin or frown to those who take the time to read about our magnificent travels and encounters...so this is for all of those who keep reminding me that they want more, more, more of the blog!  Like our President, I'm going to make the blog great again.  Keep reading. This is better than shoveling; or am I shoveling?

Nancy and I left the Lake Leelanau area in late October and headed south to Frankenmuth, MI for a month.  We always stay in Michigan for the month of November so I can go deer hunting with my band of family hunters.  Of course, we had a good time as usual; but the only thing I shot was a

a game of pool.  For the past few years now I would have done better to leave the gun at home and head north with a cue stick.

In Frankenmuth we stayed at Yogi Bear Jellystone Park.  I've always been a BOO BOO fan, but usually I get them versus see him.  In any event we saw no bears due to hibernation, but had a good time at this very nice RV park (hot tub included).  There are a ton of places to see; and, of course, if your a chicken fan where else would you go?  I can eat chicken and do the chicken with the best of um.

 We stayed in MI to have Thanksgiving with Nancy's sister, Debby, and then pointed Brownie (our truck) south to the sunshine state.
Made a couple of stops on our way to Mt. Airy, North Carolina Then we stopped for a week in St. Augustine, Fl.

St. Augustine is a beautiful old city to visit during the Christmas Holidays.  The entire town lights up with Christmas lights.  This year we took an evening boat cruise to see the town at night from the water.  They allow you to take along your own booze and snacks so it is truly a booze cruise.  Maybe that's why the town looked so different that night..

After several days in the St. Augustine area we headed down to Silver Springs, Fl.  We spent a month at a favorite RV Park called Wilderness.  Our friends Dale and Karen from Lake Leelanau live there during the winter months.  The town of Ocala also does a great job of decorating for the holidays.





Oh by the way, while at Wilderness RV Park we somehow managed to have the winning ticket for Christmas Music night.  That's Nancy on the left....opps!

While in Ocala we flew out for Christmas to be with our kids and grandkids for 2 weeks.  We had a great time, but it was COLD!!!
Here I am with 2 out of 3 good lookin chicks off the street in Old Town, Fort Collins.  Baby girl spent her Christmas in Bradford, PA.  We missed Laura and Tim!!
Had a wonderful time during Christmas and New Years in Colorado.  Ate way too much and drank way too little...huh girls?

We did a little hiking while in Ocala/Silver Springs area looking for Jody and Flag.  Some woman named Rawlings took over a "yearling" to write a book about a boy and a deer.  We hiked 5 miles one day chasing that deer through what's known as "The Big Scrub" where the movie was filmed in Florida.  We found the area but no Flag.  We also took a ride to Cross Creek and walked through ole Marjorie's cottage where she wrote the book.  We had dinner at the Yearling Restaurant just down from her cottage.  Great food...but no venison.  We will go back..

After Silver Springs we showed up at Lake Magic RV Park west of Orlando.  Uneventful week as we were wearing pants, not shorts most of the time; and I do not do well in pants so I pouted and stayed inside. This has been a cooler year in Florida especially at night.  Low 30's to upper 20's at night  Yuk.  That's snow bunny weather without the snow!  Glad it was at night...I slept through it.
Since then we've been to Lake Louisa State Park where the weather was nice, and we biked every day. Very nice park.  We are now back at Lake Magic for 15 nights and Nancy's bugging me as usual to go to you know where...We are only 6 miles from the mouse house.  Good grief...

That's about it from the Juan blog.  According to my kids, the tarot cards say I am in my 8th and final year to make it big, and then I start all over again from scratch.  That's why your receiving this blog update cause I know it's gonna be big and lord knows if it's not, your gonna be reading all these again from the beginning next year!

Save your copy, it's gonna be BIG!  or re-shuffle that deck girls...

WHERE'S THE BLOG??? JUAN IS FEELING THE HEAT!!!

From Green to White Overnight

Well hello everyone, and welcome back to the old blog with the ole blogger Juan.  I know it's been a 
while since you've had a good read, but heh...so what?  Maybe it's been worth the wait and then again...well?  This will be our kickoff of the 2015 blog season although we did leave the mitten shortly after the 2014 unsuccessful deer season.  As you can see from what's left of my truck back then, we probably waited a little too long before leaving.  Ya gotta love Michigan, and we do....in the summer!  Now I know some of you "snow bunnies" loooove that white stuff, but for me....well I do too and it does start with an S and it has 4 letters but it ends with a D instead of a W.  Now I'll let you fill in the remaining 2 letters.

2 old Farts and 2 Yearlings



We headed south from Lake Leelanau the end of October where Nancy spent a week in Davison, Michigan while I sat in the woods waiting for "Flag" to come by and pay me a visit.  Needless to say, Ole flag never came by for young Jodie (old Juan); and I could have spent that week in Davison with Nancy in our warm RV while it was 16 degrees outside!  The picture of the guys, is my hunting party; and while we are all smiling on the outside - we are freezing on the inside...This group is what keeps me in Michigan in November; a family affair...
 After leaving Michigan we headed south to Delaware, Ohio and spent a week at a very nice RV park.  Cross Creek RV park was decorated to the hilt for Christmas.  They had a drive through display setup at the state park just down the street, and did a great job.  The drive took about 25 minutes to see everything.  A real "Fantasy of Lights".

We continued to head south to daughter Laura's house for Christmas.  We spent 3 nights in Mt. Airy, NC at Mayberry RV Park.  This small town is where Andy Griffith was born.  The town theme is....yep you guessed it, Mayberry.  I did need a haircut, but Floyd's was closed so we went to the "Snappy Lunch" to eat.  It's been there since Andy was a sprout.  An interesting artifact from Juan about this RV park is that the people who own and operate this very nice park are the descendants of the original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker.  These two put their heads together and had 21 children!  Go figure!!!  A real Juan 'believe it or not'...  Note: Friends, Frank and Gail, can attest to my strong interest in State Fair research...

On to Durham, NC to see our cute daughter Laura's house & her boyfriend, Tim.  The four of us started out the first week with a walking dinner tour of Chapel Hill and Carrboro over a 4-hour period.  It included 5 restaurants - sampling the food (fares/cultures) with a tour guide.  We would highly recommend this to people visiting the area, but advanced reservations are needed.  Nancy as usual, was right on top of this and had set it up in advance.  They only take 10 couples.
During our second week Laura and Tim took charge and planned a 3-day weekend at Carolina Beach on the ocean.  Laura has a pottery student & they exchanged free pottery lessons for use of the condo on the beach!  Did I say FUN?  Well I've said it.  We had great weather and great sunrises and walking the beach in shorts! 
We also visited the Carolina Beach Aquarium while in the area.  This too is a neat place to visit.     

 Back at Laura's
 house, Tim (our personal chef) continued to create excellent meals keeping us well fed with meals prepared from scratch!  Nancy took notes, but can't remember where she put them so we are out of luck.  Looking forward to the next visit!  I did leave with a self imposed headache.

We spent the Christmas Holidays with Laura and Tim. Then New Years Eve and New Years day with Tim's family who came in from Bradford, PA; Long Island, NY and Greensborough, NC.  They had quite a crowd for several days, but did an excellent job at entertaining and feeding everyone.  It was a GREAT month!

Heading out we said our thanks and goodbyes to everyone, and continued on our quest for more sun.  We spent 3 nights in Brunswick, Georgia.  Then we finally arrived at our first destination in Florida.  We spent the first two weeks at Orlando RV Park in the Clermont/Orlando area, and then to Hillsborough State Park in the Tampa/ Zephyrhills area.  Time has been flying along with the cooler nights.  We are currently back in the Orlando area for two weeks at Lake Magic RV Park, and are winding down our stay here as we speak.

This Thursday we head to Nancy's Aunt and Uncle's house in Port Charlotte to store our RV for two weeks while we take off for Mexico!  Puerta Vallarta to be exact.  Now I don't want to hear any whining out there cause Nancy and I aren't complaining.  We just have to go with the flow.  I always get told that so I am only passing on to you what I've been told.



So for now I've given you a quick highlight of our comings and goings and wheres and whens.  I had been advised many times to get going on the blog so for those of you that have been asking....here you go, and for those who have not ... well here you go.  Today was Nancy's Disney Day, but because of rain and storms today we had to cancel.


And on a rainy day what are ya going to do to occupy your time?  Write a blog!  If it keeps raining you folks will be kept busy reading...Ha!   Pray for the Sun Gods eh?  Adios for now Amigos and Amigas..... Like Willy says, "on the road again".



Ya'll come down and visit us, ya hear?

I KNOW- I KNOW...MIA RIGHT? BUT WAIT...WHERE ARE THOSE APRIL FOOLS?

Well,  it' been quite a while, I know. Would you believe our little travel blog  is now 7 years and counting! But hey, what the heck else do you have to do besides reading our travel memoirs on the road?  It has to be the spice of your life and an uplifting experience reading about where in the world is Juan as it is for me to write about it right?  HA!  Now that I have your attention, this little update blog is dedicated to a select few who keep asking about it.  Namely GC and CD and all the other ABC's and D's.  You know who you are...oh and yes family members who have been patiently waiting - this is for you. For those who
 did not know, Nancy and I left Michigan Nov. 29th and headed to North Carolina to stay with our daughter, Laura.  We did this because we are now homeless as we sold our house in Linden last September.

Laura & Tim

  I had to stay in Michigan through Nov. to deer hunt, but with the end result we could have left in October. But...we were able to visit with great friends while we stayed in Monroe. Meeting with friends at their homes or for dinner in Ann Arbor & Southfield.  We are blessed to have so many great friends!  

Our Friends Frank & Gail

As most of you already know, we spent the holidays in Colorado with all the girls and their families, and as usual, had a great time.  We did have some upsetting news though while in Colorado. Nancy's Mom passed away on Dec. 21st while in a nursing home.  Even though it was unexpected, she had been in a nursing home for several years with Alzheimer's and had actually been gone long before then.   While still a very sad event the family knows she's in a better place now.  Nancy had the advantage of having all her girls and grand kids with her and, of course, me during this sad affair.


Moving on, we spent 3 weeks in Colorado and returned to North Carolina for another week with Laura before leaving and heading south to Florida.  We stayed in Georgia for a few nights outside of Heckle and Jekyll Island and then on to Florida.

Our first stop in Ocala, Florida proved to be very exciting and very hectic.  We arrived at our RV park, and the next day went to the Tampa RV show.  We were on a mission, and we ordered a new RV (5th wheel) at the show!  Whew...!  We ordered what we wanted on the new unit and planned to trade in our Crossroads Cruiser when the new unit arrived in March.

It just so happened that while we were at Myaka State Park outside of Sarasota, we sold our Cruiser RV to a family from Michigan who were visiting next to us.  Talk about luck!  They were willing to wait a month until our new RV came in and  then drive 2 hours to pick it up. We were very lucky to sell it ourselves versus trading it in, and in finding someone who was willing to wait for it!  It was meant to be!

While on the road we met up with our friends, Mike and Carol and family from Gainesville, Florida. Also, Dale and Karen from Traverse City while in Ocala.  As usual, always a hoot!  My hat's off to the Elks Club in Ocala!  That's not all that was off but we won't go there!

Carol, Mike, & Grandkids

Oh, did I mention family?  We also met up with my brother, Al and wife, Mary, while in Florida.  They just happened to pull in on the same site we were pulling out of on the same day!  We did meet for dinner a week later in Punta Gorda.  Cigars anyone?  Smoke em if you got em...and we did.

We met up with Nancy's Uncle Jim and wife, Ruth, 3 times during our travels in south Florida.  As usual, we always have a great time with them and really enjoy their company.  Nancy's cousin Alan and wife, Danielle, (Uncle Jim's Son) met up with us at our RV while in Miami.  We spent the day with them, dinner in Coconut Grove and drinks on their 36 ft. sailboat.  I know this sounds like a broken record but another great time with family!

Alan & Danielle

I won't go on and on even though this is the only blog we've put out this
trip.  All I can say is

it's been a real treat meeting so many family and friends and we've been so busy taking delivery of our new RV that we've been blog less!
We are currently in Hobe Sound and will be heading back to North Carolina to spend Easter with Laura in a few weeks.
 I'll leave you with the little quote that sums it all up...

Keep smiling, life is too short to take it seriously!  Oh, and before I forget...


Don't put all of your eggs in one basket without a chocolate rabbit!  HAPPY EASTER








Now aren't you glad you stuck it out and read this whole blog?

EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!

May 9, 2013
  Juan (alias "Harry") gets 43 to life for being married!

 Ok.. so I couldn't 'resist' (pun intended), but I had to include this picture.  Since our last blog we landed in Napa Valley, CA for several days.  We actually had to cut our time short while at the RV park.  The campground we were staying at was directly next door to the Napa Expo area.  They decided to host a 5-day rock concert called "BottleRock".  After the 2 semi beer trucks rolled in we rolled out!  Since the stage was about 50 yards from our campsite, and they were expecting 80,000 people we figured we'd better scoot.  (I knew I could fine something to wine about.) They actually ended up having 120,000 people (good for them).  We had a great time while we were


Nancita visiting her Juan!

John & Michael

in Napa; and, of course, the wineries speak for themselves, but we also had a great time with an unexpected guest who stayed with us one night.  Our son-in-law, Mike, just happened to be working in San Francisco for a few months.   After a few cigars and a few drinks and, of course, a bottle of wine with Nancy's homemade catfish dinner, we were able to solve the worlds problems in just a few short hours...we had our own "bottlerock" so to speak.

Now... after Nancy finished up her visit with me at Alcatraz; which by the way is a must see if you ever visit San Francisco, we continued to explore the many things to do while in the area.  We moved over to the Sonoma Valley in Santa Rosa and spent the next several days touring/tasting wine at the many wineries throughout the area.  Had a great Italian dinner at Cafe Citti

Of the 2 (Napa and Sonoma) Sonoma would be our favorite as it seems to be a little more remote and not as commericalized as Napa.  The downtown area of Napa is very cute though with lots of resturants, and we perfer the town of Napa over Santa Rosa.  The vineyards in both areas are the most picturesque you'll find in the country.  In the valley nestled between the mountains are vineyards as far as you can see.  Simply put...Beautiful!
Unlike Leelanau Country in Michigan, most of the wineries in this part of California charge for tasting and no, you don't keep the glass!  The wines are exceptionally good, but also pricey at the wineries.  A lot of the wines are found in

local stores, but many you can only purchase at the winery.  There are no "2 buck chucks here"!

We did do more than just drink wine while we were in the area.  We visited San Francisco two days and had lunch in Chinatown.  This was unique and brought back my Asian days when I was just a young pup in the Air Force. We walked the streets of San Francisco and never did find Karl Malden and after 6 miles gave up.  Harry never showed either, even though I felt lucky....
When we visited San Francisco, we took the ferry into the city both times.  Parking is at a premium and the ferry fee was cheaper than the parking garages and more fun.  It is a nice city to walk around.






While in Santa Rosa we visited the infamous Highway 1 and the town of Bodega.  For those who remember the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds", this is where it was filmed.  Oddly enough, after having a short lunch, I had to use a water bottle we had in the truck to wash off my windshield and hood.  All this looking around makes me a little 'Tippy'.  If you have to ask why then you need to see the movie!

We packed up our wine, picked up some cheese and headed to our next destination - the Redwoods.  We drove about 360 miles north from wine country and San Francisco to the town of Arcata.

You might think that once you've seen one tree you've seen them all...well not quite.  The redwoods are in a world to themselves, and in fact they are the tallest trees on earth!  Some of these trees date back to 900AD and earlier.  They are soooo big that if you'r not careful you'll drive right through them and not know it!  The scenic drive called "The Avenue of the Giants" is one of many scenic drives along highway 101 in northern California. 

 When you hike through these gigantic forests you feel like a hobbit.  Now I know how Nancy feels...  We came across an interesting site hidden on a bluff by the ocean that looked like an abandoned farm.  In fact, during WWll the two buildings were built to look like a working farm, when in reality they housed a radar site with generators and two 50 caliber machine guns.  The military used this site to watch the coastline for enemy submarines.  The old farm buildings still exist today.  How interesting to see and read about... 

 We continued to tour around the area of Arcata for 5 days.  We stayed at Mad River RV Park outside of town and the RV Park was exceptional!  We would rate it 5 stars.

All good things must come to an end, and so we are packing up tonight and getting ready to make the big turn east to start our return trip back to Michigan.  It rained yesterday, and after seeing all these warning signs along the road we felt it best to head for high ground!  Nancy said goodbye to her trees and tomorrow morning we are off to our next destination; Tahoe Lake and Donner Pass for 3 nights.
We did our shopping today and are all stocked up because I heard food is a little scarce up there!  If you don't hear from us after a week or so send food....

I'VE GOT SPURS THAT JINGLE JANGLE HURT

Tombstone, Arizona

Sah-Wah-Row Cactus

Howdy partners!  I'll bet a lot of you blog fans have been bitting your nails wondering where ole Juan and Nancia are, and so are we.  Whew..it's been a hard ride, and we are really behind in telling our tales.  It's been over 20 days, and I finally had to tell this guy to pull over so I could get my thoughts together after seeing Doc and Wyatt and write everything down. .. so now you know where we've been.   Tombstone was OK.  Actually it was great and OK was there!  Nancy and I rode the old stagecoach (153 yrs old) through town and stopped and had a cold one at the saloon.  On our way out of town we stopped and kicked off our boots at Boot Hill, where by the way most of the characters we've come to know and hear about are actually buried. (Even old sheriff Fred shot by Curley Bill!)  Tombstone was a great place to stop for a couple of hours on our way to Catalina State Park in Tucson, Arizona.  This part of Arizona is where the Saguaro Cactus grow, and it is the only area where they grow.  By the time they get their first arms we start having trouble raising ours (60 and 70 years old).  Now while I'm
talking about cactus, you'll have to ask Nancy about her experiences with her latest endeavors on protecting the little guys on trail.  I won't go into details here, but I will leave you with one of Juan's proverbs.  "She Who Touches Cactus Hair, Will Turn Into A Prickly Pear"!  Needles to say...she has a story.
The picture here of our little hiker was taken on the Romero Ruins Trail in Catalina State Park.  We then drove over to the Saguaro National Park for the day and hiked through the desert museum trails.  While we were in the area we visited Old Tuscon Studios.  The studio is an active movie set where over 173 movies have been filmed.  The movies Joe Kidd, Tombstone, Rio Lobo, Rio Bravo and Judge Roy Bean just to mention a few. Also, numerous TV series have been filmed here and most of the westerns with John Wayne. Who knows...maybe 'where in the world is Juan' could be filmed here?  That'll be the day...eh Duke?
Catalina State Park is a nice area with hiking and biking and lots to do but, hey..Forward Ho as there's a lot of
catch up for you to do.

Old Tucson

Tuzigoot

We broke camp and headed up the trail to our next destination which was Cottonwood, Arizona and Dead Horse State Park.  This was another great pick on Nancy's part as we again had a ton of things to do and see in the area.  You could see the town of Jerome on the side of a mountain from our campsite. For all you hippies of the 60's, you know that Jerome was your kind of town.  This was a unique place, to say the least, and the road getting there was unique too!  Needless to say, I only saw the yellow line on the road and the missing guardrails!  Not for the faint of heart or me....

One of the nice things about this park was again the biking and hiking areas and the fact that it was 20 miles south of Sedona.  If you ever have a chance to visit Arizona be sure Sedona is one of your stops.  The scenery is phenomenal!  We spent a few days in Sedona, and it would be a favorite pick for a place to live.  With Tuzigoot, Montazuma's Castle ruins and Camp Verde you just can't get enough pictures.  I know, because Nancy has her own camera!

Montazuma Castle

After 7 days we packed up and headed to Las Vegas, Nevada for 6 nights, and put the RV in storage for a little R and R.  I had to have a slide canopy replaced, and they just happened to have free storage for us so it worked out great while we spent time with our GREAT FRIENDS, Jim and Stu.  Now, we don't have to do anything to have a good time with these two, but we did everything, everyday.  After arriving I had to rework some of Jim's technical settings for Stu's new tablet.  I guess I have to mention (for those who don't know Stu) that HER name is Sue and not the Boy Named Sue either!  It's a long story and would need a blog of it's own so I'll leave it there.

Our Friends Jim & Stu

 While visiting we went to 2 shows, gambled, watch Stu win, gambled some more and watched Stu win...You get the picture?  Jim and I also shared a great day golfing and as usual, I kept him working on his game... While the time flew by we enjoyed every minute, but destiny calls and we had to pick up our wagon train and continue west.














Our next destination....Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon.  We stayed in Three Rivers, CA just outside the southwest entrance to the park.  Going into the park, ahh, remember I mentioned the road in Jerome, Arizona right?  Weeellllll... let me tell ya...can you say switchback?  When it comes to great heights...I've never been a great achiever as some of you already know.  This place is unbeliveable as long as you don't look down!  (I did miss some of the scenery, but that's ok.)  Driving up from 3,000 ft to, oh, 8,000 ft on a narrow, two-lane, straight-up road and then one lane due to construction with Juan is an experience you should all be a part of (can you believe it?).  Mother Nature was not afraid of heights for sure!  I already have a sore left wrist, and now I am back to wearing my brace!  Why?  Steerage neurosis...
I must say that seeing the giant sequoias was worth the fear.  The place is amazing and again another must see if you haven't yet.  The old General Sherman is the world's largest living thing.  The  largest


SSGT Juan salutes the General

sequoias reach 270 ft tall and are over 2,300 years old.  AMAZING! A majority of the large trees are named after presidents and generals.














We continued with our usual hiking in the great outdoors on the Middle Fork Trail with bear bells and snakebite kits...well at least in my pack.. and enjoyed the great outdoors.  It seems we timed it just right with the bears and snakes coming out of hibernation in the mountains, but so far so sad we've missed seeing any :)  One day Nancy and I were alone on a mountain trail for 5.5 miles and all you could hear was the rippling water and my bell.  How nice.  Nancy thinks I am getting better at heights, but time will tell.  (As long as I look down at her at 5 ft and me at 5 ft 10, I'm fine.)

 When going to Sequoia from our campground, you drive up the mountains into the park to get among the giant trees.  Now it's off again to our next great adventure, and it's Yosemite! Heading into Yosemite we found ourselves back tracking from where our GPS was telling us to go. Reason why.. when pulling a trailer you don't like switchbacks and narrow roads so we took the longer route to Yosemite and entered from the west.  Now the thing about Yosemite National Park versus Sequoia is that it's located in a valley.  Valleys are good!  Well, now think about this.  How do you get into a valley?  Well, gee, you have to climb a mountain first! Our campground is again outside the park entrance but.....at the top of the mountain.  Ya see where I'm going with this.  Now I know the old saying "there's gold in them there hills", but it wasn't gold in the back of my pants getting up there!  I am writing this while in camp outside of Yosemite, and we have to go back down that mountain tomorrow!  Nancy is washing as we speak!



All kidding aside (except I'm not really kidding), Yosemite is the most beautiful park we've seen yet for majestic beauty.  The waterfalls this time of the year are at their peak, and we have    enjoyed beautiful weather. We spent our first day in the park driving to all the sites, and taking way too many pictures.  Our second day we hiked about 5.5 miles round trip up to Vernal Falls.  The brochure told us it was a 400 ft climb, but found out it was actually 1,000 ft.  Whew!  When safely back at the camper, we discovered the majority of deaths in Yosemite are at Vernal Falls with drownings and falls into the Merced
River. Scratch these parks from our bucket list.



Vernal Falls, Yosemite

Yosemite Falls

We leave tomorrow for Napa Valley and will be there for 8 days.  Hopefully, I'll have something to wine about there too!?