Family, Hikes and Disc Golf in NC!

Yes, we are still in the Raleigh North Carolina area and staying at the NC State Fairground Campground. Our weekdays are still filled with morning walks around the NC State campus,afternoon disc golf and happy hours while our weekends are filled with family time at our daughter’s house. And,of course we are enjoying a lot of quality time with our newest 17 month old grandbaby Allie!

Raleigh NC has loads of wonderful disc golf courses so we have been playing nearly everyday at one park or another. A nice feature of the parks in the fall is the abundance of mushrooms we often stop to admire. We love to play at the Apex Nature Park disc course as it is one of our favorites but we also spend a lot of time at the Kentwood disc golf course because it is so close to the fairgrounds. Better yet it is also close to the Flying Saucer downtown.

The Flying Saucer is one of our favorite happy hour spots because it offers so many different craft beers on tap and has generous drink specials. Another favorite is the Backyard Bistro for its Wednesday NC draft beer specials. Yet another favorite is a neat little mom-and-pop gift shop which also serves craft beer called the Green Monkey. It is our go to spot on Tuesdays.

We have also discovered a drink special that surprised us. It is at the Lowes Food Stores, a grocery store, which offers half priced drafts on Thursday half priced flights on Fridays and half priced growlers on Saturdays.  Because the stores change out their beers often we have had the opportunity to try many new North Carolina craft beers.On many of the Thursday visits we have met brewery representatives who answer questions about their beers while also offering stickers, coozies or glasses to the patrons..

We have been playing so much disc golf that I even got a callous on my finger from flinging discs. Sharon’s game has improved greatly, to the point that she now makes par often and is making some nice long putts. Because our son in law is an NC State Alumni we have also really enjoyed exploring the campus and football stadium.

But then the weekends come and it’s Allie time. We are both savoring the time we  spend with Allie,her mom and dad. Our daughter has Wednesday off so often she is able to join us for a walk or some disc golf before leaving to pick up Allie from her day care (which she loves).

We actually left Allie one night with a trusted babysitter from her daycare for a Durham Bulls game (minor league baseball). What a nice night out on the town in Durham NC. There’s nothing like an evening of baseball, family, hotdogs, nachos and peanuts to feel totally American. We are down to our last week here at the fairgrounds and have started planning for our departure. But, hey, we still have the long labor day weekend to enjoy with family before departing…

Fontainebleau SP and Hattiesburg MS…

We packed up the RV and headed east to our next stop near Mandeville LA at Fontainebleau State Park. Fontainebleau SP is one of our favorite parks to stay at in Louisiana. The park offers nice sized sites in the woods with hiking and biking opportunities.

We hiked the trails in the park that meander through the Pine-Hardwood forest and lead to the picturesque pier at the end of the trail. The pier is one of the highlights of this park as it sits over the northern end of Lake Pontchartrain. At Happy Hour it is always fun to stop in Mandeville at the Old Rail Brewery for a cold one.

Our next stop after Fontainebleau SP was a stop in a new (for us) town in Mississippi. We will spend a few nights in Hattiesburg MS at the Forrest County Multi-Purpose Park which is basically your typical fairgrounds site but this one does have sewer hookups as well.

As many full-timers know securing weekend spots while traveling is getting harder and harder so stopping at off the beaten path places like fairgrounds can fill the need for weekend campsites. Here we are able to have full hookups, just outside of town  for only $20 per night which is pretty hard to beat.

Adjacent to the campground is Forrest County Lake which allows fishing and hiking within its confines. Better yet there is a boardwalk/pier bisecting the lake making for some fun gazing into the water, watching sunsets or simply enjoying nature’s reflections.

We walked into the woods on the other side of the boardwalk several times and there were numerous (unmarked) trails scattered all over the place. It would be easy to get confused of your whereabouts if you aren’t paying attention. Each day as we walked back and forth on the boardwalk we would engage in conversation with the local fishermen. They admit to catching fish here but we didn’t see a single fish caught in  the three days we were there.

Hattiesburg MS is an interesting town as it has a mixture of areas that look like they are on the upswing yet there are many other areas that look impoverished. We did find a nice disc golf course that was heavily wooded and quite challenging. It was here we found our first freely suspended basket which made for an interesting challenge.

The downtown area is reflective of the town as a whole. Some nice, and some not so nice areas can be found. We were looking for a brewery downtown but the building was so poorly marked we nearly missed it. We were certainly glad we found the place (Southern Prohibition Brewery) because their beer was both exceptional and very affordable.

We didn’t have a single beer that we were disappointed in and we met some nice people at the bar. Sharon was chatting with one fellow who was delighted to learn we were fulltime RV’ers as his mom was about to undertake such an adventure. We gave tons of tips for his mom and he was so appreciative that he gifted us four different beers from a mixed case he had bought. Wow, it really pays to be nice to people…

Gilbert AZ Riparian Preserve…

What a neat spot we found nearby in Gilbert Arizona. The Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch was once just a slice of the Sonoran Desert until the town of Gilbert converted it into a wonderful preserve. The preserve is a great places for visitors and residents alike to go walking, fishing, birding or picnicking. They have created a perfect slice of wildlife habitat within the city!.

In 1986, the Town of Gilbert made a commitment to reuse 100% of its effluent water which led to the development of the Riparian Preserve in 1999. There are 110 acres in this preserve and of the 100 acres 70 acres are part of  the 7 water recharge basins which are filled on a rotating basis with treated effluent in order to allow these waters to percolate back into the aquifer for future use.

While hiking on the over 4.5 miles of trails in the preserve visitors will be hiking through various vegetative zones ranging from marshlands to native riparian and upland vegetation areas. Here you may encounter some of the 298 species of birds which have been identified on the site. The hiking and the birding is what attracted us to this site.

The preserve is also used for community development and for educational purposes for the children attending schools in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. We have seen many people fishing, children learning, people walking their dogs and nature enthusiasts in the park on our many jaunts to the preserve.

On any given afternoon we will drive the 8-10 minutes to enjoy a nice walk. We have hiked all of the trails within the park and have seen many different species of birds. With fall migration in full bloom we have seen some birds one wouldn’t expect to see in the desert such as Whirl Pelicans and even a Roseate Spoonbill!

Another neat aspect of this preserve is the abundance of rabbits. While walking on trails throughout the preserve you will see 100’s of rabbits and even more Gamble's  Quail and Abert’s Towhees. These species have obviously benefited from this wetland oasis in the desert.

What makes this preserve even better for us is the proximity to the old downtown area of Gilbert AZ which has become quite the entertainment district. After hiking/birding in the preserve we can be found at one of three downtown establishments who offer up some of the best food and happy hours we have encountered during our travels.

O.H.S.O. in Gilbert is a brewery currently offering $7 32oz. pitchers of any of their Arizona craft brews until 5pm. Along with a nice selection of food on happy hour and some great burgers this is a must stop in town.

Another favorite is a wine bar called Postinos who offers $5 32 oz pitchers and $5 glasses of wine from 3-5pm. Wine lovers can also opt to have the whole bottle for only $20. On Monday and Tuesday evening they offer a deal of $25 for a bottle of wine and a bruschetta board with ample portions of various bruschetta choices.

Our favorite has to be the Joyride Taco House where we have become somewhat regulars during our stay here in Mesa. Their 3-5 happy hour offers $5 32oz beers as well as $5 margaritas (until 6pm). Even better a basket of hot chips and salsa is served to everyone for free. Finishing the evening with 2 or 3 of the street tacos at $2.50 apiece makes for not only an inexpensive dinner but a great night out on the town. Joyride is always an energetic, happy place to be.

We are certainly going to miss these locations when we leave this area on November 1st…

A Visit to Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens

Now that I am finished with all the repairs to our RV we started looking for something fun to do. After scouring the internet I came across the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens. It seems that once a month (the second Tuesday) there is free admission.

We have been burned on things like this before by showing up only to find out the offer wasn’t valid anymore, especially since Covid happened. I did call ahead to check and was glad we did since visitors are required to obtain a ticket even though it is indeed free on the second Tuesday of each month.

I check out their website and only one time slot was left (actually one of the times we  preferred) so we scored our tickets. It was only about a thirty minute drive over to the gardens from our RV park so we parked (also free) and walked to the main entrance.

We were certainly glad we had tickets because a lot of people (disgruntled people) were near the entrance booths complaining about the need for tickets and that none were now available. We showed our OCR codes from my phone to the ticket taker and in we went.

We walked the entire trail system within the Gardens. Our favorite was an unexpected exhibit – the Butterfly Pavilion. It really is pretty cool as it is a 3,200 square foot open-air structure. It features plush garden plantings along with a water feature and thousands of live colorful butterflies.

We spent a good deal of time enjoying the variety of butterflies before venturing back out into the gardens. There were several loops representing different types of natural gardens. The varieties of cacti were as abundant as anywhere we have ever visited. There were also lots of plants still flowering adding beautiful splashes of color here and there. Some of the unique features of the garden were:

• The subfamily Opuntioideae: The Garden features the world’s most complete collection of this group, displaying 208 of the 261 species and varieties recognized

• Over 2/3 of the total number of species in the cactus family are held in the Garden’s collection
• The Garden displays 186 of the 212 known species and varieties in the genus Agave, making this the most prominent agave collection in the United States and perhaps in the world.

We spent several hours enjoying the plants, butterflies and birds in the gardens. Upon leaving we decided to go to one of our favorite happy hours in Gilbert AZ called Joyride. They have one of the best happy hours in the area for sure and was the perfect ending to a great day…

NOTE:  We are currently in Mesa, Arizona until November 1st…

A Delightful Time in Texas…

And so it happened… my last day in Rockport showed up on the calendar. As morning dawned it was time to hit the road… but alas, this time would be different. Why? Well, with Sharon still in North Carolina, this would be first time I'd move without my trusty side-kick and navigator…

My stress level was a bit higher than normal as I embarked upon my checklist. I readied the inside of the RV for travel then it was outside to pull in the sewer and water hookups. With everything nearly ready I fired up the RV and let her run a bit as I pulled in the slides and brought up the jacks.

One final trip outside to pull in the power cord and the wheels were ready to roll. I pulled out of the site a bit so I had room to maneuver our Honda CRV in behind to get it ready to tow. After texting Sharon to verify what needed to be done to prepare the CRV I completed the sequence. Attaching the tow bar was managed by myself without issue so all that was left was checking the lights and turn signals.

It took a while as I had to do a little jiggling to get all the lights to work properly. I guess the salt air took a toll on the electronics so I made a mental note to clean them thoroughly at my next site. With the checklist complete I hopped into the driver's seat, put it in drive and off I went. I did pause to double and triple check the route to ensure there would be no surprises. About two hours later I pulled into the county park in Shiner, Texas!

Disconnecting the CRV and backing in by myself in the empty park with double wide slots was easier than I expected so it wasn’t long before I was all hooked up. After settling in I figured I needed a reward so off I went to the Spoetzel Brewery, home to Texas Shiner Beer. While we have visited the brewery many times before, things sure had changed.

No longer were free samples allowed but for only $5.00 I received two tokens which could be exchanged for two pints of any Shiner beer. My choice was the Black Lager which I carried outside where I found a fellow strumming his guitar and bellowing out some great lyrics. How nice it was to hear live music again!! It was a great way to unwind after a travel day.

The next day I had gone in the CRV for one more quick visit to see my son and his family in San Antonio. Our grandson Cameron wanted to show me his new skateboard. Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice time down in the Pearl District of San Antonio where we took in some people watching and enjoyed a nice craft beer while doing so.My son made a great dinner to finish the day off.

The next morning I left and on the way home I went over to the nearby town of Gonzales to check out the town and play a little disc golf. Gonzales is a town Sharon and I will have to visit again some day to check out its history. Before I got all the way home I stopped in Luling Texas and picked up some of the best BBQ brisket you will ever eat from City Market. Yum!

Once back in Shiner I had to check out a place I heard about called Howard’s. I couldn’t really believe what I had heard about this little dive so I had to see it for myself. I pulled into the front of what appeared to be a run down convenience store. As I walked in and looked around sure enough there were a lot of VHS videos for rent, Blue Bell ice cream for sale and yes beer on tap for sale!

I bought a large draft Shiner Bock for a pittance of $2.75 and sat in a booth by the front door. As I sat I saw one cowboy after another walk into the store, plunk down $2.75 for a draft of their choice then leave the store, get back into their pick-up truck and drive off. Yes, it was true! This little dive sells draft beer to people who plan to buy one for the road!!! It’s as if the clock had turned back in time which made for another entertaining day on this Road of Retirement…

NOTE:  While Sharon is in North Carolina I am now currently at in College Station, Texas until  June 15th…