We left home on Wednesday, January 24th, with several inches of snow still on the ground of our Virginia home.
Our month-long trip to the UK ended in early October, and much of the time since had been spent on Jeannette's recovery from shoulder re-replacement surgery. By January 23rd, the last doctors' approvals and physical therapy sessions were done, and we could get back on the road.
That first day we drove to Charlotte, NC so we could spend the next day with our son Mace. We stayed at the campground at Carowinds (a large theme park) just south of the city, right on the North Carolina/South Carolina border.
It was nice catching up with Mace.
In the evening, we were invited to a group dinner organized by one of his friends, bringing together people who would all be going to a concert later. Many of the young people there had not met each other before, and we were impressed by their easy rapport, with everyone helping to pull together the meal. People planned to wear cat ears to the concert, and they shared a pair with Jeannette.
We continued our journey with a couple long driving days southwest to the Gulf of Mexico, overnighting in Cracker Barrel parking lots. By Sunday mid-afternoon, we'd arrived on Galveston Island in Texas, and were able to take a walk on the beach before dinner. That day, the Gulf of Mexico's waves washed gently ashore, although during storms and hurricanes swells can reach up to 30 feet. It was fairly deserted except for some folks who had driven onto the beach and set up fishing poles. Unfortunately, they said, fish was not likely to be on their dinner menu that evening.
The next day we drove about 20 miles to Galveston city and lunched on seafood with our daughter-in-law Allison's mother Angie Dubke and her husband Larry, who'd driven down from their home to meet us.
We walked along The Strand, old period buildings that reminded us of New Orleans architecture. We also came upon this wonderful outdoor mural celebrating Juneteenth, the new Federal holiday. Juneteenth commemorates the arrival of the U.S. army in Galveston where they issued orders enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation, signed more than two years before by Abraham Lincoln, finally freeing the last slaves. The mural is painted right at the spot in Galveston where General Granger issued those orders.
We were back on the road the next day for three more long driving days which finally brought us to Tucson, AZ, the first major destination of our winter trip, on February 1st.
We checked into Desert Trails RV Park, one of our favorite campgrounds. We'd stayed here for six weeks when COVID first hit in 2020. We arrived early enough to take a hike from the campground directly into the desert in the late afternoon. Gotta love those cactus!
More about our time in Arizona and the first part of our visit to California in our next blog post!
NOTE: Our blog posts often lag current reality by a few days or weeks. Check out the "Maps" tab on our website, which we try to keep up-to-date. You can see our progress to-date on a 2024 map (as well as maps of our annual travels from 2019 on), our current location, and a preview of upcoming locations.
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