Snow Day: Our van was packed and we were almost ready to leave on our first RV trip in December 2015. Mother Nature had other ideas so we postponed our departure by one day. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Panhandle Plains: Late afternoon December light fades across the Texas panhandle as we near the end of our first day of RV travel. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Los Alamos Daily Post
As the clock ticks down the final few weeks of 2022 and we are at home with the RV parked and waiting for the next adventure, I began to reminisce about our travels since retiring in 2015. Since we are off of the road until after Christmas, the Post From the Road will feature trips from our travel archives.
It’s hard to believe that seven years ago this month we purchased and took ownership of our first RV. I had recently retired and we thought taking a few trips each year would add adventure to retirement and give us a chance to travel. Little did we know that the small Class B van style RV would change our entire outlook on retirement.
Since we purchased a used RV, I wanted to get the van fully serviced, new tires, and a few other things checked out before we took our first trip which was scheduled in mid-December of 2015 and returning home shortly after the new year.
The trip that started it all.
Everything seemed to be on schedule and the van was in our drive and ready to pack. We had purchased several necessary items needed to outfit the RV and even added a few holiday decorations to celebrate our maiden voyage in the van during the Christmas season.
With everything packed except for a few food items and personal items, we planned on a good night’s rest before beginning our journey. Mother nature had other plans as we woke up to several inches of snow on the morning of December 15. We made the choice to delay our “lift off” by 24 hours in hopes of clear roads and sunny skies following the winter storm.
On the morning of December 16, 2015, we awoke to clear blue skies although the temperature was rather frigid. The neighborhood streets were snow packed but it appeared from reports that major streets and roads were cleared. After loading a few last items into the van and, of course, taking a few photos, we were on the road.
Our holiday trip would take us south to see family and also find a warmer climate. We spent some time around Amarillo, Texas because we had never seen the infamous Cadillac Ranch just outside of Amarillo where 10 Cadillacs are buried nose first into the west Texas pasture land.
Following Cadillac Ranch we planned on a couple of nights at Palo Duro State Park which was another first for us. This state park is situated in Palo Duro Canyon, a beautiful canyon a few miles south of Amarillo that seems to appear out of nowhere in the plains of the Texas panhandle. The park is continually ranked as one of the top state parks in the country and did not disappoint.
We left the remainder of the trip open for whatever we wanted to see on our journey to Houston and then to the Austin area where family was located. We continue to travel serendipitously today. We love having a general destination on trips but we do not plan the trips in detail, we just go!
One unplanned stop was in Waco, Tex. where we decided to check out the Magnolia Silos shopping area which had just opened a few weeks earlier by HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines. The opening and popularity of this facility has created a “Silo District” of shops and restaurants in this former industrial area of Waco. It has been fun to return and watch the growth of the area.
We have been lucky traveling serendipitously in that we have never been stranded with nowhere to camp. Since COVID-19, we have had to be more cautious and plan a day or two in advance while traveling. During COVID, the RV industry and travel exploded in popularity and it became more difficult to travel and camp without reservations. That situation continues today.
What began as a casual way to travel occasionally during retirement has become our way of life during retirement. Beginning with that first trip in December 2015 we were hooked!
We traveled many trips in that used RV but after driving the RV over 75,000 miles, we decided to buy a new unit in October 2019. The new van is the same engine, drive train, and size as the first van but it is built out in a way that gives us a few inches more space on the interior which is huge when traveling small.
These two RVs have allowed us to travel in 39 states from coast to coast since 2015. Our goal is to travel all 50 states (Hawaii was not in the van) and we hope to travel through Canada when the time is right.
Come along for the ride through Posts From the Road published weekly in the Los Alamos Daily Post. The journey has just begun!
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Cadillac Ranch: A stop at Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas, was a planned stop on our first RV trip. We schedule some stops and find other unplanned stops as we travel down the road. We enjoyed walking around the buried Cadillacs but it was extremely cold during our visit. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Palo Duro State Park: Palo Duro State Park near Amarillo, Texas was our first state park visit during our RV trip in December 2015. In spite of frigid overnight temperatures, we slept well on the first of many nights in our van. Palo Duro is one of the most popular state parks in the country. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Cotton Fields: Another common December landscape in north Texas is cotton fields. Harvest season begins earlier farther south but can last through the end of the year in the colder Texas panhandle. We have enjoyed seeing the various agriculture crops throughout the country during our journey. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Magnolia Silos: HGTV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines bought the silos in an industrial area of Waco, Texas and opened Magnolia Silos shop in 2015. Due to the huge popularity of the project, there is now a ‘Silo District’ in Waco that features shops and restaurants. The Magnolia Silos had opened just a few weeks before our visit in 2015. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com