An RV Odyssey to Daytona’s Bike WeekSally
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to ride a motorcycle. There’s something about them that’s just so . . . cool. Like you don’t need anything, it’s just you and the road, and nothing more. And I’ll tell you something else. My brother in-law’s a good guy, but I always kind of dreaded our visits to see him and his family. They’re my in-laws, after all. But all that changed when Tom suggested we visit for Bike Week - that’s the big motorcycle extravaganza they have in Daytona every year in late February and early March. Now I’m Tom’s biggest fan!
We arrived a couple of weeks before the big event, which turned out to be a good thing. I don’t have any actual biking experience, and neither does Sally. Tom’s a serious bike-buff, though, so he told us just what to do. First, he signed us up for a motorcycle safety class. It only took one long weekend to finish, and we came out with our biker’s licenses, a good grounding in motorcycle driving and rules of the road, and a new appreciation for how hard it is to be seen on a bike.
Sally was pretty nervous about motorcycles to begin with, but the class instructors made her feel a lot better. Tom told us, for instance, that 90% of serious biking injuries happen to people who never had any formal training, who just learned from a friend or taught themselves to ride. I don’t know that Sally will ever be ready for a long motorcycle cruise, but at least she feels ready to drive the Loop, the famous course through Daytona that everybody takes during Bike Week.
Tom wanted to show us some bikes, so he had some of his biker friends over. These were some seriously tough guys, and boy did they know their bikes. I learned all about engine size, the differences between street bikes and cruising bikes, and that bikes come in different sizes and heights. I’m on the tall side, so I couldn’t ride Tom’s wife’s bike, for instance. Tom also set us up with rented bike gear - stiff boots, fitted helmets, and leather jackets and pants, complete with armored plates. Then we were ready to hit the road!
Steve
Sometimes I don’t know how Steve talks me in to these things. We hadn’t been one full week in Florida, and there we went, off on a motorcycle drive into the Florida countryside. With me driving my own bike! I’m shocked that I’m even writing the words. But you know, it was so exciting - I felt as free as the wind. And once I got over the strangeness of wearing that leather outfit, it started to feel pretty cool. Who’d have thought I’d be feeling cool at my age? Riding a motorcycle wasn’t even on my life list, but I felt so brave, conquering this new thing. And, of course, it all came together just in time for Bike Week.
We took our first ride to Blue Spring State Park, to look for manatees in the warm spring water. No one else believed me, but I’m pretty sure I saw one! The next day we went to the Ponce DeLeon Inlet Lighthouse for a picnic lunch and some beautiful views. All four of us climbed the 203 steps to the top so I could take pictures of the ocean and the beach below. Another day, my sister-in-law Molly suggested we try the Sugar Mill Gardens that are set on an old English mill. It’s a little goofy there, since about forty years ago they tried to set the place up as an amusement park for kids called Bongoland - you can still see the massive dinosaur statues. But the gardens were stunning with lots of flowering holly and magnolia trees.
The next week, Steve and my brother Tom did some golfing and went to the Daytona International Speedway, giving Molly and me a little peace and quiet. We went (in a regular car) to the Daytona Flea and Farmer's Market, where I found some amazing bargains. There was a little lamp that’ll be perfect in the RV, and some vintage jewelry that we can give our daughter for her birthday.
And now, after weeks of getting ready, it was finally time for Bike Week. We went to Riverfront Park for the grand openings, and you should have seen the crowds - tons of people, all sporting their best biking gear. I was proud to have my biking jacket on. There were booths and stands up everywhere, selling all kinds of biking equipment, gear, and accessories, not to mention amazing food. We’ve only been through one day, but we’re all ready to go back for more. Maybe we’ll see you there!
Something for Everyone - RVing the Texas Gulf Coast
Sally
Traveling with family can be tricky, so our motto is that if something works one year, it should be repeated the next year. Last spring we had such a nice visit with our son Mike and his family that we decided to do the same thing,a beach vacation,on the Texas Gulf Coast. This part of the country is pretty new to us, as Minnesotans, and I can tell we're going to need to spend more time here. The birds are just incredible. In the first day alone I saw a beautiful rust-colored egret, a white ibis (much larger than I'd expected), and a stork. A stork! Imagine, I've heard of them all my life and had never seen one until now.
Mike and Norah flew into Corpus Christi from Denver, and they couldn't stop gasping over how sunny and warm it was. I helped them get the grandkids, Callie and Alex, into shorts and jumpers, and we all set out to have some fun. You could just see the stress and tension falling off of Mike and Norah as they sat sipping iced tea outside our RV, watching the kids. Steve and I were full of plans for things to go and do, but those two just wanted to sit still and not move! I guess after running from work to home and back again for months on end, they could use a break. And that, I'm proud to say, is exactly what grandparents are for.
To start things off right, we took the grandkids to the Texas State Aquarium, so Callie could see the turtles and dolphins. Alex just shrieked with joy at the Living Shores touch pool. For a minute I thought we'd never get him to leave! But Callie drew him away with her chatter about the otters and seals that were yet to come. Next we went to Bob Hall pier for ice cream cones and to look at the water. The kids loved watching the people fishing from the end of the pier, pulling in everything from tarpon and trout to mackerel and a gigantic kingfish.
The next day, we sent Mike and Norah to take a lover's stroll through the Botanical Gardens and Nature Center while we took the little ones to the Hans A. Suter Wildlife Park where they could see the ducks and pelicans. We trotted around all the trails, then stopped off for a tour of the Ships of Christopher Columbus, full-sized replicas of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. You should have seen Callie's eyes pop when they hoisted an enormous white sail right over her head!
Steve
It gives Sally a lot of comfort to be able to take care of the grandkids, to give Mike and Norah a “break,” as she likes to put it. But after a few days of leaving them on their own, I could tell Mike and Norah felt rested enough and were anxious to spend some vacation time with their kids. So I proposed we all head to the Oysterfest festival in Fulton, Texas, which is just north of Rockport and Port Aransas. That's the beauty of an RV, as I explained to Mike. You can pick up at a moment's notice and change your base of operations.
Oysterfest was perfect, it had rides for Callie, plenty of great food, and an oyster-eating contest that Sally whole-heartedly took part in. Mike and I had a contest over the dart-throwing game, and in the end we both wound up winning a stuffed animal for the kids. Sally said we were ridiculous, but I couldn't help noticing the way she grinned when she said it.
Norah, our daughter-in-law, used to do some serious sailing off Nantucket where she grew up, so we decided to charter a small sailboat in Rockport so we could cruise north into San Antonio Bay. With Norah as our skipper, we had a terrific time. The weather was perfect, the wind ideal, and before long we were sailing alongside Matagorda Island, a 56,000-acre state park and wildlife refuge. We dropped anchor near the Matagorda Island Lighthouse and rowed ashore for a picnic lunch, watching the kids run around the lighthouse grounds. The scenery was unbelievable, and Sally got to see one of her prized whooping cranes. That's one more item off her Life List!
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RV Adventure to the Famed 4 Corners Region - Mesa Verde to Arches
Steve
Sally’s often told me about the trip her family took to Mesa Verde when she was a kid. I’ve never been, so I jumped at the chance to visit on our northward course through southwestern Colorado. I’ve spent most of my life in the Midwest, so I’m used to cornfields and soybeans—these desert landscapes make me feel like I’ve been dropped in somebody’s oil painting of Mars! It’s beautiful stuff, and the sky is so blue and full, it feels like it runs on forever. Sally says she thinks it’s the orange and red rock of this area that makes the sky look so blue, and I’m guessing she might be right. Aside from being in a striking part of the country, Mesa Verde’s pretty dramatic to drive up to. You can see the mesa from a long way off, looking like a broad cliff. We found an RV park that’s close to the park and set up camp for the night, and while I grilled hamburgers for dinner, Sally read to me about Mesa Verde from the guidebook we picked up. What makes the park so special is a series of cliff dwellings that are over 1,000 years old. This is where the Anasazi, the ancient people of this area, lived for more than 700 years. “Just think,” I said to Sally, “America hasn’t even been a country for 250 years yet. And these people managed for 700 years in the middle of the desert! Incredible.
We visited the park bright and early the next morning, to beat the tourist rush. It turns out that morning is the perfect time to visit, when the temperatures are pleasant and the light is good. At the visitor’s center, they suggested we start off by driving the Mesa Top loop road, since that gave us a view of the 600 cliff dwellings. These are almost like apartment buildings, made with bricks and set several stories high. They have window and door cutouts – there might have been wooden shutters and doors that have rotted away – and it’s all set under the overhang of the mesa, protecting the village from rain. You could just imagine a big group of people living here, all taking part in a tidy, thriving, ordered society. I have to say, I was pretty blown away. We spend three days there, visiting every house and taking every ranger tour we could. We also took some hikes and saw amazing petroglyphs. It made me wonder how much other art the Anasazi left behind that either wore away or got covered up by rubble and falling rocks!
Sally
After we left Mesa Verde, Steve’s head was so full of the Anasazi that I suggested we stop at the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, Colorado. That was great – it gave Steve a chance to learn about their hunting and farming techniques, while I lost myself in the displays of their gorgeous pots and bowls. And these tiny bone game markers, just an inch wide but carved with such detail!
Our route took us past the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, a brand new parcel of preserved land that’s protected by the Bureau of Land Management. I’d never heard of the bureau before, but here in the Southwest, the BLM holds acres and acres of desert and canyon territory. Canyons of the Ancients was full of ruins and petroglyphs. We saw big brick towers for holding grain, walled-off overhangs way up on the canyon walls that looked like houses, and painted pictures high up on the cliff faces. Heading northwest, we stopped at an RV park in Moab, Utah, a pretty little river town that’s set in a broad red-rock canyon. We ad a great dinner at Eddie McStiff’s Brewpub and I bought some beads for our daughter at the town bead shop. Moab is right next-door to Arches National Park, a place friends have told us we absolutely must visit. When we reached the park the next day, we both saw why. After taking a steep, winding drive up into the park, we parked and got out onto a short trail, and before long we saw our first of many arches. These are big slabs of rock with weathered-away parts underneath, so they look like bridges of stone. And the rock here is so gorgeous – it looks like giant hunks of chocolate. The shades vary from a pale sand-color to the deepest red you can imagine. I couldn’t stop taking pictures!
Apostle Islands, Wisconsin - Spring Breezes and Barefoot Beaches
Sally
A few weeks ago, my son asked me what I’d like for Mother’s Day. At that time, Steve and I were basking in the Southwestern sunshine, exploring Mesa Verde, while our son Mike and his family were at home in chilly Denver. Our daughter Jenny was living up in the Twin Cities. I looked down at our little dog Sheba (she always looks back with such an insightful face) and said, “I want to have the whole family together!”
Just like that, a plan was born. Steve and I would take the RV up to Minnesota, pick up Jenny, and we’d meet up with Mike, Norah, and the kids in Duluth, Minnesota. My family’s from Duluth, so this is a good chance to show the kids the house I grew up in and other family landmarks.
Duluth is a fabulous place to visit when it’s warm. It’s a hillside town that faces Lake Superior, so when it’s icy in winter, the streets can be pretty treacherous. But this time of year it’s absolutely perfect. Steve, Jenny, and I got our morning treats and coffee at Beaner’s on Central Avenue, then we met up with Mike and Norah. The kids had grown so much! Callie’s hair is long enough to braid now and little Alex is almost over the terrible twos. It was so great to seem them – my absolutely fondest mother’s day wish come true.
Steve and Mike spent an afternoon golfing while I took the kids to the park, so Norah and Jenny could go shopping in town. Jenny has just taken up knitting and she swears the yarn she bought is meant for a sweater for me. I told Steve, we’ll see it when we see it! We took a big tour of the town, past my parents’ house and the newspaper where my dad worked, then we all had a nice family dinner at Fitger’s Brewhouse. We all turned in early so we could set out first thing for the Apostle Islands.
Steve
The Apostle Islands are an archipelago, set off a large spit of land in the western part of Lake Superior, in Wisconsin. Each of the twenty-one islands is different. Some are purely wild with sandy beaches and woods that look like they’ve never seen a human footprint. They have great names like Cat Island, North Twin, Devils, and Rocky. I came here as a kid and I just loved the magic of the place with all of its lighthouses and ancient ruins, plus miles and miles of beaches and water to play in.
We caravanned to Madeline Island, the only island that’s reachable by car, and set up a home base there. The kids were clambering for a day at the beach, so Sally and I were able to slip off on our own to kayak to tiny Hermit Island and its bigger brother, Stockton Island. The weather was perfect for a day on the water – a light breeze, sunshine, and tons of seabirds flying around. Every time I looked up, Sally was hidden behind her binoculars, trying to identify one bird after another.
The next day, I took little Callie fishing – she loves to fish – and everyone else went to the Medeline Island Historic Museum. We had a great cookout that night with individual mini pizzas and a coleslaw salad. Callie very proudly passed out all the makings for s’mores to every one of us, and mine was delivered with a kiss on the cheek. Have I mentioned how great it is being a grandpa?
Sunday was Mother’s Day, so we started it off with a big special campfire breakfast that I cooked, full of Sally’s favorites – hash-browned potatoes and eggs. Mike had brought Norah’s favorite chai tea and scones. Callie pinned a little ribbon corsage she had made (complete with plastic rosebuds) on each of them, as their mother’s day badges. Sally would never be caught dead wearing such a thing normally, but you should have seen the happy look on her face when Callie brought it over.
Then we all took a “grand tour” cruise around the islands. It’s a 55-mile long trip, with a lot to see. The kids were pretty worn out and they were just starting to nod off when Sally spotted something with her binoculars. She was staring at the beach on one of the islands when she started up and called for Callie to come and look. “Sweetheart,” she said, “I got my Mother’s Day wish for you. Take a look – it’s a big, black bear!”
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