All fulltime RVers have experienced it. We will be talking to somebody about our life on the road, and invariably they will ask us where our favorite place in the country is. We always reply that just as we could not choose which one of our children is our favorite, it would be just as impossible to choose just one favorite location. But, we sure can tell you some our least favorite places!

While this list reflects just our impression, and we know RVers that love some of the same places we dislike, here are our Top (or actually Bottom) Ten, in no particular order.

1. The Rio Grande Valley in Texas – Most RVers just refer to it as “The Valley,” a stretch of land that begins down in southwest Texas at Brownsville, and stretches north past Mission. This is a popular snowbird roost, where you can find RV parks in every price range, and with every kind (or lack of) amenity. A lot of people love it, but to us it was just crowded, lacking in scenic beauty, and unappealing in every way. What grass there is was full of thorns that stab your feet, and the general RVer population is so old that people joke that “every time you hear an ambulance siren, another RV site just became available.”  

2. West Texas – Just because you drove north out of the Rio Grande Valley doesn’t mean you’ve entered the land of milk and honey. West Texas is endless miles of boring scenery, road kill, and not much else.

3. Chicago, Illinois – We’ll drive 75 miles out of our way to avoid Interstates 80 and 90 through Chicago, and have, many times. The traffic is always hectic, and it has some of the most aggressive drivers in the world.

4. Utah – How can I dislike an entire state? Well, easy… it is Utah, after all! Yes, there are some beautiful places, such as Zion National Park, but overall, my impression of the Beehive State is pretty negative. I remember a trip to Saint George years ago, when Miss Terry cut her arm on a broken rack in a supermarket. When she went up to the Customer Service counter to get something to contain the bleeding, the manager and his staff were more worried about who was going to pay for the paper towels than they were about the woman bleeding all over their store. Things like that leave a permanent bad taste in my mouth.

5. Southern California – With the possible exception of the coastline at La Jolla, I’d have no problem if we gave the rest of California, south of Pismo Beach, back to Mexico. It truly is the land of quakes and flakes.

6. Montgomery, Alabama – When we visited Montgomery a few years ago to gather some stories for the Gypsy Journal, we were amazed at how consistently rude so many people were. At the Rosa Parks Museum and Dr. Martin Luther King’s house, now a memorial to the Civil Rights movement, the people on duty absolutely refused to allow us to even take the standard tour of their facilities once we told them that we were there to do a feature story for our publication. We managed to get a few stories in Montgomery, but we would have loved to hang around longer and cover all that the city has to offer. But, we kept hitting brick walls at too many of the places we wanted to write about.

7. El Paso, Texas – I lived in El Paso for a short time as a kid, and I didn’t like it then. Time has done nothing to change my mind. Traffic is always terrible, the city has no aesthetic charm, and I would not be comfortable staying anywherin the city overnight. However, if you like truck stops, fast food restaurants, strip clubs, and rundown strip malls, your opinion may be different than mine.

8. Billings, Montana – Even before a local campground owner convinced the city to ban overnight RV parking (a move that was quickly rescinded when RVers from across the nation let the city fathers know that we would all boycott their town), I have not liked Billings. We have stopped there several times, and received anywhere from poor to rude service in restaurants, shops, and even motels when we were traveling without our motorhome.

9. Houston, Texas – This is another big city with nothing to offer except heavy traffic and rude drivers. It’s always a pleasure to be driving away from Houston, instead of toward it, and it’s even better when we can avoid the city all together.     

10. Lewiston, Idaho – While the surrounding area is beautiful, with some of the most impressive scenery in the West, we found Lewiston to be a dumpy little town, with the nauseating smell of the local paper mill permeating the air.

Okay, that’s my list of my 10 Least Favorite Places. What about you? What are some of the places you have visited and are in no hurry to get back to, and why?

While I was working on this list, which I admit some may find to be a bit negative, Bad Nick was on a roll, putting together a fun little Bad Nick Blog post titled I Need Therapy. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Worrying works! 90 percent of the things I worry about never happen.

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What better way to start the New Year than spending it with good friends? Yesterday Greg and Jan White drove over from Friendswood, Texas, south of Houston, to spend the day with us. What a treat!

We last saw this fun couple exactly two months ago, when we left Elkhart Campground on November 1^st. Greg and Jan are fulltimers who are spending a few weeks in their old hometown for some family time, but Jan admitted yesterday that hitch itch is really setting in, and they’re really looking forward to getting back on the road. We know that feeling all too well.

Greg is one of those techie guys who can fix anything, from a stubborn generator to a cantankerous computer, so once the greeting hugs were out of the way, and we had some of Miss Terry’s delicious homemade cinnamon rolls, I put him to work hooking my new netbook computer to the Silverleaf engine monitoring system. I was just getting hooked on this great addition to our Winnebago motorhome when the burglar(s) who broke into our rig stole it, and I missed it in our most recent trips.

Jan loves animals, and she was looking forward to seeing some of the deer who live here at the Thousand Trails campground that I had written about. Though there is a huge herd of deer on the grounds, when Greg and Jan first arrived, they were off hiding somewhere, maybe sleeping off deer hangovers from whatever deer do on New Years Eve.

But, a couple of hours later a lone deer stepped out of the trees across the field from us, followed soon after by a second, and then a third. Before long we had a dozen or more grazing their way toward our campsite. I guarantee you that by the time the afternoon was over, Jan saw plenty of deer! They were munching away right outside our windows, and we enjoyed watching them from such a close vantage point.  

About 6 pm. We drove into Columbus for dinner at Nancy’s Seafood Grill, and the restaurant changed my mind about there being no place decent to eat in this little town. Everything was delicious, and the service was very good. About the time we finished our meal, we had some excitement when one of the portable buffet tables collapsed with a huge clatter. We all looked to see what had happened, and saw flames as several of the little Sterno cans used to keep the food hot rolled around on the floor. Greg and I hurried over to see what we could do to prevent the fire from spreading, but a couple of restaurant employees poured water on them and quenched the fire before it could get out of hand. Once everything was under control, I couldn’t help but quip to the other diners “The good news is, the buffet is now half off!”

It was great to see our friends, and we said our goodbyes with promises to see them again in Arizona in a few weeks. Thanks for driving so far to visit with us, Greg and Jan. We had a great time!

We have hitch itch too, and today we plan to hit the road, headed west. We’ll stop for a night or two along the way to visit our friends Mike and Pam Steffen at their place in Salt Flat, Texas, but we won’t tarry long. We’re eager to get to Arizona to see our family, and there are some grandkids that need spoiling! Depending on where we’re at, we may or may not have internet access the next couple of nights. West Texas is one of the few places in the country where we have had problems getting online with our Verizon air card. So if I miss a blog entry or two, don’t worry, as soon as we get a signal I’ll be back.

Thought For The Day – Life is a grindstone…it can polish you up or wear you down…what’s it gonna’ be?

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Christmas morning we were up early again, and it was chilly enough that we really had to force ourselves out from under those warm covers. We really need to break this new habit of getting up so early! Mark and Sue Didelot were getting ready to go to a family Christmas celebration, and we wanted to see them off, and then get on the road to take advantage of the light holiday traffic through Houston.

In spite of the cold, I walked down to the boat launch at White Oak Park to take a couple of photos of the Calcasieu River. I’d love to come back someday and kayak here, but only when it’s a lot warmer! I quickly took my photos and headed back to the motorhome.

We were on the road by 9:15 and enjoyed an easy drive west on Interstate 10, crossing into Texas and sharing the road with only a few cars along the way. I always dread driving through Houston, but this time around it was a piece of cake. There were a handful of cars and a couple of other motorhomes, but not enough to even mention. I don’t think we encountered one eighteen wheeler all day long.

On the west side of Houston we pulled into the Flying J truck stop for fuel, and wondered again who designs their RV islands. Whoever it is, he or she obviously has never driven anything bigger than an SUV! I wanted to get propane, but the only way to do so would have been to pull so far past the fuel island that we would have had to back up to get to it, which is not recommended when towing a dinghy. I decided (again) that we’d wait until we get someplace more convenient to get propane.

Back on the road, it was only another forty miles or so to Columbus and our turnoff. We took State Route 71 north about four miles, turned left on a local road, and arrived at the Colorado River Thousand Trails Preserve about 1:30 p.m. We chose a full hookup RV site with 30 amp electric and got settled in. They have a few 50 amp sites, but none are full hookups, and we wanted to be able to take long showers, and Terry needed to catch up on laundry.

This is our third visit to this particular Thousand Trails campground in three years, and as much as we don’t like falling into ruts, it’s beginning to feel that way. But if you’re going to be in a rut, this is a pretty nice one! The campground is located on the bank of the Colorado River, and pecan trees at many of the campsites give visitors the opportunity to collect enough nuts to make some delicious treats.

A large herd of deer live at the campground, and they have little fear of humans. They graze around the RV sites and pretty much ignore people, unless they get within a few feet of them. I couldn’t resist grabbing my Canon Digital Rebel and getting a few photos of our four legged neighbors.

We really, really need some downtime, and we don’t plan to do much the next couple of days except sleep late, watch TV, cruise the internet, and relax. Lucky me, Miss Terry considers baking peanut butter cookies, pecan pie, and her world famous cinnamon rolls very relaxing!

Thought For The Day – A man has reached middle age when he is cautioned to slow down by his doctor instead of by the police.

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We pulled out of the Camping World in Robertsdale just after 9 a.m. yesterday morning, took State Route 59 north through Loxley to Interstate 10, and turned west. A few minutes later we were crossing Mobile Bay on the causeway, past the impressive bulk of the battleship U.S.S. Alabama, her big guns looking mighty intimidating.

On the west side of the bay we entered the George C. Wallace tunnel, and came out the other end, with the downtown area behind us. Every time we drive through here, I think every American city should be laid out the same way. No traffic hassles, just drive under the darn town!

Traffic was light, and we scooted across the lower edge of Alabama and crossed into Mississippi with no delays. We stopped at the Flying J in Gulfport, and I wanted to get propane while we were there, but the way the RV island is laid out, we had to stop just inside the RV entrance to the parking lot at the propane station, and as I was waiting for the attendant to come out and fill our propane tank, a big motorhome towing a car tried to pull in and was left hanging halfway out into the road because we were blocking the way. An eighteen wheeler was right behind them, so I pulled forward to the fuel pumps so we didn’t have a huge traffic jam. We have enough in our tank to last a while, so we’ll wait until we’re somewhere more convenient to get propane.

Back on the highway, we rolled past miles of flooded countryside, with a long line of billboards sticking up out of the water, advertising one headliner after another who will be appearing at the local casinos. We entered Louisiana, and took the Interstate 12 route around the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, avoiding the traffic in the New Orleans area.

We ran into a traffic slowdown in Baton Rouge, and managed to thread our way through to come back out on Interstate 10, where we crossed the Horace Wilkinson cantilever bridge over the Mississippi River. This is the highest bridge on the Mississippi, and Miss Terry commented that I really seem to be handling bridges much better, because I didn’t snivel. I told her I was too busy trying not to run over four wheelers and hoping an eighteen wheeler wouldn’t run over us to have time to snivel!

We made good time all the way across Louisiana, and the promised stormy weather held off, although we did get some stiff wind around Lafayette, and just a sprinkle or two of raindrops. The Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway is an eighteen mile long elevated stretch of Interstate 10 that bridges the Atchafalaya River and its accompanying swamp, where trees stuck out of the water for as far as the eye could see. The roadway is narrow, and about as bumpy a stretch of pavement as you’ll find anywhere in North America. We shook, rattled, and bounced our way along, and I commented to Miss Terry that as nice as our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage is, our old MCI bus conversion handled this rough piece of highway a lot better. Interstate 10 across Louisiana has a reputation as a terrible roadway, and it is much deserved. More than one RVer we know has had things shake off their walls and out of cabinets as they bounced along.

Eventually the road smoothed out, and at Exit 36, on the east side of Lake Charles, we turned north for three miles on Pujol Road, a good two lane that passed a couple of RV parks. The road ends at a T intersection, and we turned right and went another mile to White Oak Park, a nice little Calcasieu Parish park on the bank of the Calcasieu River. The park has eight pull- through concrete RV sites with good 50 amp electric, water, and a dump station. At $12/night, or half price if you have a National Parks senior or handicapped pass, the park is a heck of a deal.

There was one fifth wheel trailer, which is unoccupied, and the beautiful Tiffin Phaeton motorhome of our friends Mark and Sue Didelot. We unhooked the van and pulled into the site next to theirs. Mark greeted us, and a few minutes later Sue returned from town and came over, and then she excused herself to go back to their coach, where she prepared us a wonderful dinner of salmon from their summer trip to Alaska, along with shrimp, and all the trimmings. Yummy! Thanks for the great welcome and the delicious dinner, Mark and Sue!

We had originally planned to push on to the Thousand Trails in Columbus, Texas today, but we can’t pick up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal until Monday. So we decided to stay here two nights, and drive through Houston on Christmas morning, when hopefully, there won’t be as much traffic.

We have three bars of EVDO on our Verizon cell phones, no problem getting a signal on our TV dish, and it’s not cold. Life is good.

Thought For The Day – A friend is someone you can see through and still enjoy the show.

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