Pining for the Fjords

Did you see Part 3 ? Chris, Aubie, and Zelda in Scott, Louisiana We woke up in Scott, Louisiana at the Lafayette KOA Holiday after our first night in the new rig, Zelda, feeling pretty good; although the KOA wasn't too far away from the 10, the large trees blocked out most of the freeway noise, so it was a fairly restful night.  Our next reservation was for two nights at the San Antonio/Alamo KOA Holiday , 415 miles away, so after cleaning up and putting together a light breakfast, we hit the road. Taking off the X-chocks. Arlene was a single axle rig, so this was a new thing for us Bye, Scott! Your boudin was excellent! Scott isn't too far from the LA/TX state line, so before long, we were back in Texas once again (total nights on this trip spent in Texas: 4; total nights spent NOT in Texas: 2).  We took a break at the welcome station, as it offered some great photo opportunities: That's our rig you can see through the  bottom of the star Back in the truck, we finished ...

Don't forget about  Part 2 ! After 2 1/2 days of driving and 1500 miles, we made it successfully to the Great American RV Superstore location in Hammond, Louisiana, where on Saturday at 11am, we kept our appointment to do a walk through, sign all the paperwork for, and finally get the keys to our new travel trailer, Zelda!   At a rest stop, somewhere in Texas As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, Zelda is an Imagine XLS 23 LDE , made by Great Design.  We really liked the layout of this trailer, as it had a residential queen size bed (most "queens" in travel trailers are shorter than the ones in a real house - not so great when you're 6'2") in a separate bedroom, which could be closed off from the bathroom and living area by two sliding doors.  This meant that when I got up way earlier than Chris on our adventures, I could sneak out of bed and into a comfy reading nook without bothering him.  This model also has a rear kitchen with a large window.  ...

But what about Part 1 ? There were several straight days of this on the trip As you read in the last blog, Day 1 of our trip to Hammond, Louisiana to bring home Zelda, the new travel trailer, was uneventful, taking us from Phoenix to El Paso, Texas and into the warm embrace of the Fairfield Inn near the airport.  Of course, I woke up earlier than necessary, so I got in a run on the hotel's treadmill before barging back into the room to find Chris already awake and starting to move around. So many clouds - also, so many bugs. Yum. Day 2 would be our longest driving day, moving us 830 miles further east, to yet another Fairfield Inn, this time in Beaumont, Texas (like I mentioned in the last blog, it takes a hot minute to get out of this giant state).  Since this would take us around 12 hours (and we'd lose an hour when we changed from Mountain to Central time), we hit the road by 7am, after enjoying the hot breakfast sandwich option at the Fairfield and spending a few minutes c...

  New Rig Alert! As you've seen on the blog over the past few years, we've gone on tons of great adventures with our travel trailer Arlene .  We were lucky enough to acquire the trailer (and the towing vehicle, a white Dodge RAM) right after the COVID lockdowns started in earnest, and it gave us an opportunity to travel even when flights, cruises, and other ways to escape weren't an option.  After my heart scare in June 2020, I really needed a way to get out of town and blow off some steam, and Arlene gave us an incredible method to do so (you can go all sorts of places when you can take your own bathroom with you). Fast forward to two years later, and while we still loved going on adventures in Arlene, she was starting to feel a bit tight - a little cramped, if you will.  If you read even a few blogs about RVs or travel trailers, you'll often see experienced owners saying don't wait to purchase the perfect RV; you'll likely always find something you want to ...