On-the-Road Again

On Monday, April 10^th, we drove up to Folsom prison to visit the small museum. It was interesting, especially learning about the concerts that Johnny Cash gave there. No he was never jailed there.

We headed out of Sacramento the next day on our way to San Antonio. We overnighted in Bakersfield and Needles. It seemed odd to be leaving California after spending five months there, since we first arrived on November 1^st.  

We overnighted in Williams, AZ and then spent 3 nights in Camp Verde, AZ. We spent a day and drove over to visit Sedona from Camp Verde. It was our first visit to Sedona. The red rock formations were pretty but the bumper-to-bumper traffic was terrible as Sedona is a major vacation and tourist destination.

We left Camp Verde and headed south through the Phoenix area and on to Tucson. We really like Tucson. It is a university town and there are lots to see and do. We spent three nights at the Davis-Monthan AFB FamCamp. We got an awesome camp site with a nice patio and landscaping.      

While in Tucson, we made our usual trip to Roma Imports to pick up some home-made Italian dishes and desserts for quick meals on the road. We highly recommend lunch there or just stop by for some Italian food to go.

We drove to Las Cruces, NM from Tucson for an overnight. We enjoyed dinner down the road at La Posta, one of the best Mexican restaurants in the country. We’ve been there a few times before and the food is really, really good.

The next day the traffic through El Paso, TX was congested with all the road construction. We stopped at a Texas rest area for lunch and saw this retired couple from Oregon.

We overnighted in Fort Stockton, TX, finally arriving in Castroville, just west of San Antonio last Saturday. We spent 4 nights in Castroville and visited Julie’s mom at Blue Skies of Texas (formerly Air Force Village). We celebrated Julie’s birthday last Monday with a movie and an early dinner.

We left Castroville on Wednesday and headed south to the Rio Grande Valley near McAllen. We are visiting Julie’s sister Cindy and brother-in-law Terry in Donna, TX for 5 days.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Taiwan

We left for Taiwan on Thursday morning, March 30^th, and arrived on Friday evening, March 31^st, after a 13 ½ hour United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Taipei. Our son Paul, his wife Ying, and our new grandson, Connor met us at the airport. We overnighted at the nearby Novotel hotel.

On Saturday we took the metro into Taipei and then took a shuttle bus to the Grand Hotel to spend one night. We met Ying’s parents at their home and later enjoyed dinner with them and their relatives.

After breakfast on Sunday, the five of us took the high-speed rail (HSR) from Taipei to Kaohsiung, where Paul and Ying live. It only takes about an hour and a half with a couple of stops and the train going up to 300kph (186 mph) at times during the 217-mile trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Paul and Ying and getting to know our new grandson this past week. On Tuesday, our nephew Jeremy from Lompoc, California came by to visit. He is back packing and traveling all over the world on his own.

We left Kaohsiung on Thursday and headed back to Taipei and the Novotel hotel at the airport. We flew back to San Francisco on Friday morning. We left Taipei at 9:50AM Friday morning and arrived in San Francisco at 5:45AM on Friday morning because we crossed the International Dateline. We are still recovering from the jet lag.

We leave Sacramento on Tuesday, headed towards San Antonio, about a two-week trip, with stops along the way.  

Steve & Julie Cornelius