2020 Camper Trip started at our home in Milpitas CA with a first short stop at Pittsburg to meet up with our Nordic Tug friends than all the way out too Stuart and the Tampa area in Florida.
Here is a Google my maps link showing out route out east downloaded from our Garmin GPX files.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=16oOokOGcSU-YMerQgoacWeViAI1VJBpx&usp=sharing
December 31st to January 1st– 2020 Pittsburg to Allensworth Historic Park, CA
Made it to Pittsburg Yacht Club (PYC) around 2:30pm where we camped out in the parking lot for one night. Dinner around 5:30pm. Cocktails, some dancing and we made it to midnight (Svendt/Ulla Vince/Pam and Us).
PYC planned a 1 hour cruise /parade to commemorate their new Commadore. Five Nordic Tugs joined. We hitched a ride with Vince and Pam. Nice little cruise up a slough and down river. Then nice big brunch around 11:30am.
Headed out right about 1pm. Hwy 4 east til we picked up 99 south. Ended up stopping at Colonel Allensworth Historic Park as we did last time going out east. It is a bit out of the way but quiet and good for dogs.
January 2nd To 3rd 2020 – Davis Camp, NV
South on 99, then east on 58 which was a nice scenic drive. Stopped at Tehachapi to do a hike. Hiked 4 miles on Tehachapi Mountain Trail Association single track trails in the foot hills. Was a nice break and dogs got to run around.
Continued east on 58, then at Barstow went north on I-15 to get to Colorado River area. Stayed on I-15 for 60 miles or so then turned SE on Nipton Road. Nice road through desert, lots of Joshua trees. Stopped at Nipton to stretch legs. Funky town with an old hotel that used to be frequented by Clara Bell (the “it” girl, silent film actress). She bought a 400,000 acre ranch Box Camera Ranch east of Nipton as their retreat from Hollywood.
Carried on to HWY 95 and go to the Davis Camp campsite at 5pm but just getting dark.
Two nights at Davis Camp which is a very nice developed camp ground along the Colorado Rive.
When registered for night two we talked to ranger who said we could walk the loop up this side of river, cross dam and done Riverwalk Exploration Trail on other side, back over Laughlin bridge and then back at Davis Camp park. So we did this with the dogs. Got back around 12:30 pm. 8.1 mile hike!
No OTA TV, good cell
January 4, 2020 McHood Lake County Park, AZ (Southeast of Winslow)
Drove east on 93 to Kingman and then picked up I-40. When got to Williams lots of snow on ground, nice views on drive. Ate in downtown Willimas at El Corral (highly rated café/Mexican). It was good but average. Went to Meteor crater at about 4:30 for a quick visit. Drove another few miles to Winslow and McHood Lake park 5 miles SE of town on HWY 99. Next to muddy lake. Got there just at dark. We think its free.
No OTA tv reception, very good cell reception
January 5th, 2020 Red Rock Park Campground, Church Rock, NM (near Gallup)
Got out of campground about 9:30AM. Since driving by Petrified Forest we decided we should see it.
So went east on 40, south from Holbrook to southern entrance with plan to go from south to north back to I-40. Well they just closed middle 7 miles of park road so that plan thwarted. Nice though dogs allowed on trails (the two we did were paved). Did the long logs Agate house trail near Rainbow museum and then Big Logs trail out the back of the museum. Cool to see.
Agate House Trail 
Agate House 
Long Log Trail Logs
Back tracked to Holbrook and then made a ½ hour detour or so to see Painted Desert and Painted Desert Inn (historic, built early 1900s). Pretty to see with some snow on the painted desert hills.
Painted Desert Inn 
Painted Desert
Carried on east I-40 to campground. Got to Red Rock Park Cpg around 4:30pm. Set up camp. Let dogs romp in snow of rodeo/balloon launch field.
Camping in 1-2 inches of snow. Very Cold in AM! Plan to hike some or all of Church Rock trail tomorrow AM.
Got on Church rock trail around 9 or 9:30am. Awesome trail but scary as first part was along a shelf with big deadly drop off. Trail was icy to boot. It was wide and I tried to contain my fear of dogs falling off.
Church Rock Trail 
Church Rock Trail 
church Rock Trail
We got to base of the main rock ie the granite/sandstone smooth rock with steps cut out of it. Terra was not using steps and slipping on rocks so we turned around. Got back to camp around 12:30pm and set off on 40 east for Albuqueque.
No OTA TV, free wi fi, good cell. Lots of permanent residents but all were quiet.
January 6th, 2020 Albuquerque, NM Midtown/Univ Hampton Inn, visit Kara and Kristoff
Checked in to Hampton Inn. Went over to Karas around 5pm and saw the house and visited. Met Eddie. Christoff got home around 6pm and Eddie was up from her nap.
January 7th and 8th, Cap Rock Canyon State Park. TX
Goal was Caprock Canyon State Park. We stopped a few times to stretch legs, get dog food and then at Lowe’s grocery in Tulia, TX. Very small town. Onward on Texas east 86. Arrived around 5:30pm. Visitor center closed so self-registration.
Cap Rock Canyon State Park 
Cap Rock Canyon Camping Site
We took sight 35 but then had to make sure it was the best so we drove down the park road to the tent camp grounds. They had no view and were walk in so not an option. Our site 35 was the best with partial view. The one across from us 34 would be good too. No bison to be found and this is the park that is home to the Texas Bison Herd? Found out Bison where herded up in pens for vaccinations etc so never saw them.
We had a hike from 1pm to 3:15. Parked at North Prong Primitive camping area lot and hiked a long loop.
Out from parking lot, up steep/ switchback trail called Haynes Ridge Overlook Trail, turned right on Upper Canyon Trail then down a bit of switch backs then long wide gully trail back to Canyon loop which returned us to parking lot.
Cap Rock North Prong Spur Trail Head 
North Prong Trail 
Haynes Ridge Overlook Trail 
Haynes Ridge Overlook Trail 
Upper Canyon Trail
All did well on hike but tired 7.8 mile walking per iphone… likely most was the hike. Got back to camp around 4:30pm and chilled and had dinner. Plan to get a good day of driving in tomorrow. We shall see ?
January 9, 2020 Daingerfield State Park site 7, TX
Long day. Got out of Caprock Canyon at 9:30 AM. Drove through Quitaque, Turkey (had an old restored phillips 66), continued east on 86.
Went past Paris TX and picked up 271 south to Mount Pleasant and then 49 south/east to Daingerfield and just 3 more miles to the state park. Lots of wind and some rain today.
Texas 5th largest producer of wind energy in world! 40% of their power. Got here just at dark and drove through two camp areas on lake. All a bit dirty, not much grass. We decided on site 7.
January 10th 2020 Roosevelt State Park, MS
Got in Just at dark. Took a site on the lake and walked around camp. Cold and rainy and a bit dirty so no fire. Chill night. Had 2-3 TV channels and cell phone ok. Next AM rainy and tornado warning so sat tight until after tornado warning and then headed to peters.
January 11th – 16th Peter Hamilton Point Clear, AL
Visited with Peter, jogged, worked out once at planet fitness, super club twice (once with Bill, Ty and Kathy), visited with Edith. Good times.
January 17th Suwanee River State Park, FL
Easy 230 mile drive. Got to park at 3pm, cool but not cold temperature.
Had a nice walk with dogs on Balance rock and Lime Sink trails.
River was low so saw small spring and dogs swam in it.
We lucked out and got last campsite (9) which was cozy with bunches of neighbors but not too small. Site 14 at inside middle of loop had probable satellite view as guy had his out.
Early AM hike across old bridge to townsite of Columbus and old Governer’s mansion.
The mansion burned down in 1971 so not sign of it. Saw another little spring which we assumed was the near sit of mansion. This was at the junction of Suwanee and Withlacoochee river. Dogs had picked up fleas at Dad hamiltons so we stopped in Live Oak Walmart to get frontline plus.
January 18th Bob’s House Gainseville, FL
On to bob’s with a stop for coffee and a short walk about High Springs (to kill time) and arrived at Bob’s around 3pm.
We chatted, med Eric and his sister Andrea’s family( hubby craig, daughter Jenna and a boyfriend) and Anne’s good friend Kieth from Honolulu. The family left and we all hung out by Bob’s pool and chatted. Alex and Kieth went in hot tub. It was a nice evening.
January 19th Danny’s Deland, FL
Left Bob’s around noon. Slept in due to some being hungover. Chatted a bit and had showers and headed out around noon. Leisurely less than 90 minute drive to Danny’s in Deland.
Alex napped and Danny and I took a 3.5 mile hike on impounds (I’d call them Dikes) in Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge. Nice cool evening. We saw and Inhinga in breeding plumage, some egrets and great blue herons. Ate leftovers and guys watched football. Off to efficiency at Sailfish Suites in Port Salerno Florida tomorrow.
January 20th – 26th Sailfish Suites in Stuart/Port Salerno, FL
Nice place! On the manatee pocket so lots to watch, birds, manatees and boats. Across from Shrimpers.
Had good luck getting trust stuff done with Calvin. Visited mom’s/cal’s condo and took some things I wanted (mailed back to San Jose). We visited parks with dogs, worked out one day at planet fitness, cooked mostly in the unit and had calvin over twice, once with Christine a friend of his. On Saturday we rented a pontoon boat and Cal, Jocelyn, us and the dogs had a nice day on the water. Then we went to the seafood festival. It was a good visit. We left fairly early on the 26th and drove to Jenny’s.
January 26th – February 2nd Jenny’s Tampa, FL
Got to jenny’s and set up camp then walked the dogs and us at Morris Bridge. Monday we went out to Flatwoods, just me and Jenny and it rained a bit. We had nice meals cooked by Jenny and Leah. Leah brought food home from pure kitchen one night. January 31st was Ben’s 20th birthday. During the day Leah, Jenny Alex and I canoed Hillsborough river from the USF park. Was nice. That evening to celebrate Ben’s birthday we took the gang out to the local Thai place for a feast. It was a pleasant evening. Saturday the four of us went out to flatwoods(Dan, Alex, me and Jenny) and had nice walk. We started from a different entrance near trout creek so that was good…more variety.
Sunday Morning we got up early, had coffee and were off by 11am or so. Stopped at the Tervis tumbler store to drop off tumblers for repair (very convenient stop, they charge $4.99 to ship back to our home).
February 2nd through 8th Gary and Marcia’s Largo, FL
Arrived at gary’s and got the camper parked. We just lazed around Sunday walking around the neighborhood a bit and then superbowl! Gary was sick and we worked hard to not get it.
Noticed this sign again after seeing at the docks near Sail Fish Suits room in Stuart at what looks like private docks, think it is legal dodge for docks in FL but not sure.
Marcia was so sweet…daily we drove around and looked at potential homes and then took dogs to the park. We did not make it to the dog beach as she said they conveniently eliminated all nearby parking so you have to walk 6 blocks to even get to the beach! Wednesday Gary played hookie and we got a boat and cruised down to st pete and back, looking at many of the homes we had seen in the car from the water and checking depth.
Our last night, Friday, we drove to Bradenton and rendezvoused with Jerry, Melana, Paul and Jenie. Had a nice dinner at the Sea Hut/Crab Shack. Was nice to see everyone.
February 9th– 12th Janes Beach House Hernanado Beach
We left early from Gary’s around 9am. Got to Jane’s wonderful beach house by 10:15am. Danny had come the night before. Jenny and Dan arrived around 1pm or so. We had a nice day together! Before Jenny and Dan arrived we walked at the Weeki Watchee preserve which is a retired quarry so nice clear lakes and good trails. Short walk as we wanted to get back to see Jenny and Dan. We then went out on their deck boat. Had a minor delay with busted fuel line and limped back to dock followed by Jane and Alex going to get repair parts.
Sunday AM todd cooked an awesome breakfast. We took a longer walk at the quarry lakes and dogs swam. Jane drove us around a bit and then we went back to house. They left around 5pm and we planed to stay overnight.
February 13 Rainbow Springs State Park, FL
Never could get into manatee springs so ended up booking two nights at Rainbow Springs State Park. Left Jane’s house 10 or so and had leisurely drive to Rainbow Springs State Park.
The park was near full but we had a nice private site. Could go down to Rainbow river for swimming or canoeing (Dogs swam) but downside is can’t get to the spring from the campground. Had to drive 7 miles up to spring.
The spring was nice with old gardens with fake waterfalls. It allowed dogs. We took a walk through gardens and on a long trail through pine woods and it was HOT!
We then jumped in spring after this hot walk and had a nice swim.
Had lunch at a place in Dunnellon which was highly rated “southern comfort food”. Hung out that afternoon with some rain…very hot and humid.
Febuary 14th – 17th Gary’s Dekle Beach House
We arrived midday and had a nice long weekend with Gary and Marcia. We had stopped and eaten lunch and then they wanted an early dinner and wanted to have a Low Country boil the following day so wanted to get some fresh seafood for that.
We went to Kathy’s crab house and they had cooked stone crab (YAY!) and crawfish (ick). After securing seafood we went to Roy’s for a nice dinner (I had scallops and Alex had fried mullet and scallops). Saturday we went to the fiddler crab festival which was fun as we caught the “parade” before walking about the craft fair. Never did catch fiddler crab races. At some point we jogged and I biked with Holly to tire her out. Nice dinner and evening
Sunday we hung out doing puzzle and took a boat ride.
Guys also went fishing in AM. Sunday evening we went to Perry to have dinner with Gary’s family as it was his parents 65th anniversary. We ate at Mama’s Italian Restaurant and it was very good. Chatted with his mom and dad a bit at their house before dinner.
Returning To Dekle Beach House 
Sunset Dekle Beach House
Monday Alex helped gary work on a project to put sink on their mid level area. Marcia and I went kayaking