Slab City, California… a Slice from the 1960’s

It was early March, 2019… and a great time of year in the sunny Southwest to take a Road Trip!   Therefore, Alice & I, along with good friends Duane & Becky Sutherland, decided… lets go check out the Salton Sea!  So we planned our trip, traveling from Yuma, Arizona, heading to the East shore of the Salton Sea… and as we discussed our trip, we noticed on the map – Slab City is on the way!   Slab City… 640 acres, 120′ below sea level… with no local laws, no local governance, no services, and described by some as an ‘Enclave of Anarchy’… and to we Children of the 60’s…(at least some of us) vaguely reminiscent of the 1960’s.   View the pictures… and see what you think!

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An ‘Old Plank Road’… that connected Oceans.

Imagine a time… when America had no coast-to-coast Highways… only railroads, waterways, and ‘National Trails’ from earlier Westward expansions.   It was not that long ago – only about a hundred years or so.   This post is about one of the very first coast-to-coast highwaysUS Highway 80… and its legendary 6½ mile stretch of road called ‘The Old Plank Road’.    This 6½ mile stretch, located in the extreme southeast corner of California, was passable by only the most hardy & persevering of drivers… indeed, this stretch of road was literally built on ‘shifting sands’… and accordingly assembled out of portable 8’x12′ road sections constructed of wooden planks that could be, and often were, ‘shifted’ over the sands… as the roadway routinely became unpassable under the shifting sands of California’s Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area.   Continue reading

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Observations on Retirement and Motorhoming… Conclusions

Jim & Alice LaPeer… 2013, getting started, Black Hills, South Dakota

Hello, Folks. It is March 2018, and  Alice and I are again starting out to travel the country in our 36 foot Dolphin RV Motorhome.   This post will be the sixth we’ve done along the topic of ‘Observations on Retirement & Motorhoming’… And while we certainly plan on continuing our travels in the coming years (new posts to be forthcoming), this post will be the last in this series… in essence, a summary of our ‘getting started’ years.   

When we started RV’ing back in Feb 2013, we had no (zero) experience in an RV.   We figured we would learn as we go… and we did.   This blog post series started in response to friends back home who would ask, what was it like starting out… what is it like now?... what did you learn?and how did you…??? and a few observations on Retirement, tossed in for fun – Enjoy!

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Chasing a Darkened Sun…

Monday, August 21The Great American Eclipse of 2017... Alice & I, and several of our friends, really wanted to see the Darkness of Full Totality that would come with this Eclipse.  The problem? The Line of Totality would be 160 miles away, and we had commitments to be elsewhere the day before, and the day after.   So… if we were going to see Full Totality on Eclipse Day, we would have to leave early in the morning, drive the distance, find a comfortable spot, get set up, and only then… sit back and relax to enjoy the event (10:27 AM, MST) . And that is just exactly what we undertook to do.

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A Gentle Trail to Roughlock Falls

Alice and I have been ‘Summering’ in the Black Hills of South Dakota for several years now, and have come to really love the Mountains, Canyons, Creeks & Lakes found here.   Recently, we undertook a pleasant short hike on the Roughlock Falls Trail, located in one of our most favorite back-country areas – Spearfish Canyon. This post is about that hike…and to also share some recent Regional news that we just learned… that evidently this area is designated to become South Dakota’s newest State Park – “Spearfish Canyon State Park”.   Excellent news, as this post will show why. Continue reading

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First Dam… on the Colorado.

Alice and I have long enjoyed roadtrips into the back country. Recently, during one of these trips along California’s CR S24 in Imperial County, we came across an old Dam located on the lower Colorado River… that somehow looked familiar.   Sure enough – turns out just the night before we had watched an old 1936 Gene Autry Cowboy movie titled ‘Red River Valley’… about a ‘new’ irrigation Dam in the old west… Yep – it was the same Dam!   We were intrigued… and made plans to come back.

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Desert Flowers… & Petroglyphs

Winter 2017 in Southern Arizona has been a relatively wet one… and the desert shows it.   During a couple of recent return exploratory hikes at the Sears Point Petroglyph site, not only did we come across some new (for us) Petroglyphs… but we also found a desert in bloom.   This post, mostly pictures, shares the contrasting beauty we saw… 

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Observations on Retirement & Motorhoming… Year 5.

Jim & Alice LaPeer… Black Hills, South Dakota

Hello, Folks. It is February 2017, and Alice and I are back on the road again.  Over the last 2½ months we have been living in ‘sticks & bricks’, staying with family in Ohio, Texas and our house in Michigan. Now, with the Holidays behind us… and a new Grandson in the world… we are back in our motorhome, recently completing an 8-day, 1525 mile trip from Texas to Wellton, Arizona.   This will be our 5th year of Fulltime RV’ing.   And once again, in response to requests from friends back home in Michigan (and elsewhere), we’ve updated our annual post about our experiences. Here it is – Enjoy!

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Where Steamboats used to go…

Hello, folks.   Alice and I are ‘back down home’ again, in the Deep South of East Texas.   A few days ago, we had an opportunity to take a Fall Boat Trip up an old historic waterway of mid-1800’s America… Big Cypress Bayou with our destination being the historic Steamboat City of Jefferson, TX.   And what a trip!   This is the Ark-La-Tex area, full of history that centers around Texas Independence, French Cajuns, the Louisiana ‘Neutral Strip’, bad Outlaws, and… music, like KWKH’s 1950’s “Louisiana Hayride”.

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Finding Elva’s Grave…

Alice and I enjoy exploring American History…and our retired traveling lifestyle fits well with this hobby.   Recently, we made a weekend visit to a very historical segment of the Oregon Trail  located in Southeast Wyoming… a 12-mile stretch between Fort Laramie  and Register Cliffs (Guernsey), about a day’s travel for the Emigrants.   This short blog update comes as a result of an interesting side trip that we made while on that visit, one that unexpectedly grabbed our emotions… and prompted this brief post.   It serves as a lasting visible reminder of the hardships that the early Emigrants faced while traveling the Oregon Trail… and what strong people they, and therefor we, Americans must have been.

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