Pinnacles to Peoria – 8/26/24 to 9/15/24 We were more than ready to leave Pinnacles after 2 days. After all, we had explored all 5 miles of road and taken the “big” hike in the park. Though we had told our AZ monthly camping friends we would not be camping…
Lake Tahoe to Pinnacles NP – 8/26/24 to 9/6/24 Though we really did not want to stay at another alpaca Harvest Host after our wonderful experience at Alpaca Country Estates in Terrebonne, CA with over 1,000 alpacas, (we knew we would be disappointed), after leaving Lake Tahoe we could not find…
Junction City, CA to Lake Tahoe – 8/25/24 to 8/30/24 After the freakiness of being followed for 50 miles by an unknown white van, life returned to “normal” as we made our way to our next NP. If you’ve never heard of Lassen Volcanic National Park, join a rather large…
Crater Lake to the 911 Call – 8/9/24 to 8/17/24 After seeing Crater Lake, it was time to drive the 138 miles to the Deschutes County Fairgrounds for our first-ever RV get-together, the Family Motorcoach Association (FMCA) 109th International “Adventure Peaks” Convention & RV Expo. Over 700 RV rigs parked…
Tillamook to Crater Lake – 7/25/24 to 8/8/24 It has been just about 2 months since we left home and since then, we have traveled 3,600 miles through 7 states, stopped at 42 overnight locations, visited 5 National Parks, and driven from 0’ elevation (yes, we drove on a beach)…
Alpaca Ranch #2 through Olympic NP – 7/14/24 – 7/25/24 From our second alpaca ranch, one of the most disheveled Harvest Host properties, we went to the most beautiful. Courter Country Farms – Wow describes the property! Kevin and Denise have owned and worked these 20 acres for 10 years. …
Click on any picture to enlarge Glacier NP, MT to Alpaca Ranch #2 06-30-24 to 07-14-24 After leaving Glacier, our next stop was at the East Shore Smokehouse in Polson, MT, another Harvest Host. But this one cost us more for dinner than any campground had previously. But we did…
Click on any picture to enlarge Yellowstone NP, WY to Glacier NP, MT 06-14-24 to 06-29-24 After departing Yellowstone via the 8,541’ Sylvan Pass, we spent a couple of nights in Wapiti Campground (with no cell service) before attending a Cowboy Church in Cody, WY. From there we made our way…
Click on any picture to enlarge In the summer of 2023, we took WOW on her maiden 2-month trip through 4 states, visiting 6 National Parks (Canyonlands, Petrified Forest, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Great Sand Dunes, and Rocky Mountain) plus Canyon De Chelly and Dinosaur National…
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Sometimes renting a car in Seattle is expensive and difficult. Reserving a car to pick up our friends, Mel & Maria, from the airport turned out to be impossible! There were none available. Tom’s solution, a U-Haul truck. Mel & Maria got a kick out of it and it became…
May 10, 2022 – The day we were supposed to fly from Phoenix to Seattle to get on The Secret and shortly thereafter begin cruising to Alaska. May 3 – The day we found out Canada would not allow unvaccinated people to cross their borders. From Canada’s Immigrations site: It…
9/10/21 – 10/16/21 – F-i-n-a-l-l-y, 9 days short of 1 year after purchase, we pushed off the repair facility dock and cruised out of Seattle. Day 1 began by moving the boat from Thomas Boat Repair to Fishermen’s Terminal (10 min away) to pump out and clean the fuel-coated bilge (see…
7/1/21 – 9/9/21 – We were able to return to The Secret on July 26 after Tom got released by his neck surgeon, allowed to do anything that didn’t hurt. So, it was time to go back to work on our projects to get the boat cruise-ready. The “to do”…
11/01/20 – 06/30/21 – Well, yes, the plan is coming together…just not as quickly as we had hoped. As we told you last (many moons ago), the plan was to leave the boat in Seattle and get the needed repairs done, then spend the summer cruising the San Juan Islands. But…
We hope you’re ready to come along with us on this new season of adventure and more of the Vail’s boating saga! Beautiful pictures are sure to abound. 08/26/20 – 10/31/20 – We’ve heard it said the two best days of your life are the day you buy a boat…
07/04/20 – 08/25/20 – On July 4th, we returned to the boat at Fort Meyers because there was a couple interested in seeing Life’s TraVails, which you might recall had been for sale for eight months with very little interest…but we were in the middle of COVID-19. Before leaving Marathon, Tom…
Click on any image to expand 03/29/20 – 06/02/20 – When we last talked, we were in Marlin Bay Marina in Marathon with tentative reservations through the end of April, but with plans to head for The Bahamas the beginning of April. Well, April came and went, and our reservation was…
08/13/19 – 03/28/20 – We imagine most of you have noticed we haven’t posted any cruising news lately. It got to be too much of a burden for Tom to format pictures to Paula’s writing, and we just decided to discontinue our blogs. But exceptional times call for exceptions, don’t…
