Well, now that we're here, the real adventure begins.  Internet will be an issue - a single bar (sometimes) of 3 G wireless service means, for all intents and purposes we will be on a text-only basis at the "rancho" an d will come into town (20 miles or so) for any "real" internet activity.  So don't expect to see frequent emails or blog posts.  And things might get a little boring for a while, anyway.

The convoy (with the Subaru + trailer w/motorcycles behind all that)

 

Total distance, with the swing over to Helena, was 1157. 

And, of course, it looks like it's going to rain again this afternoon.  I'm ready for some dry weather one of these days.

To be continued

Damn it! It did rain - buckets!

Well, after thinking we'd ended our day with a baby thunderstorm, we got a real one.  Wind, lightning, thunder and gobs of rain.  The RV felt almost like it was rolling down the highway.

Unfortunately, we'd left the windows open on the Honda.  After all, it was warm, sunny, and nice when we pulled in.  Had to get it on a charger since the tiny battery can't go a day without driving it when we tow it.  Now the seats are soaked, the dash it wet.  I did get the windows up for the night - left a bit of opening at the top, under the protective covers, in the hopes some of the wet will evaporate overnight.  But, those seats are going to be soggy for quite a while, I'm afraid.

But to cap off the day, there was a glorious sunset, with a bonus sunset in the east, complete with rainbow.

Sunset in the west

Sunset in the east, with rainbow

Almost there . . .

Today was a fairly easy day, except for the unintended side trips.

Here's a look at our cheap RV park.  We were in the corner - if still there we'd have blocked the view of that short school bus.

First, as we left the little RV park Tom sat quite a while at the edge of the street.  I began to think he wanted me to signal left or right, then, he took off to the left.  Wrong way! What I couldn't see was a tow truck to the right, making multiple attempts to back a tow into the garage.  So, Tom figured he could go left, and find a place to go around the block or turn around.  I told him I'd scout.  At first I thought around the block wasn't going to work - it looked like the side street ended smack up at the railroad tracks, so I scouted away from the freeway, hoping there'd be a big parking lot to turn around in.  Nope, all too small. Then I realized the side streets did go to a street along the tracks.  So we did the round-the-block, almost, and came out on the cross road back to the freeway.

I forgot to check the gas gauge before we took off.  I was just under a quarter tank, not enough to get as far as Tom could.  I flashed lights & signaled "right" as we approached Dillon, MT.  I wasn't down to fumes, but it wouldn't be long.  What I didn't know was that all the gas stations were at the other end of town, so we had an unintended "tour" of  town.  Then, while I filled, Tom missed the turn back to the freeway and found himself on another highway.  Luckily the "sometimes weigh station" was not being used and made a great meet up and turn around spot.

For the first time in weeks we had a day mostly without rain, mostly sunny.  There was a short thunderstorm late this afternoon, after we were set up here in Clancy.

A bit after 4 we arrived at Clancy and our last en route stop.  The land is sloped - the house is at the top of the hill, so we needed to put the RV's left wheels on blocks (2 in the back and 4 in the front to get "close enough" to level for one night.  To get it closer we'd have to go up high enough to take a wheel completely in the air.  No-no.  Better a little off level than swinging in the air.

Assessing the lay of the land.  We wound up next to the 2 cars up by the house. 

 The Subaru & bikes were parked in the grass

The guys have gone to get a trailer to move their mom's stuff back to her house for the summer.  Tomorrow the convoy grows to 3 rigs towing something; RV+car, car+motorcycles and SUV+cargo trailer.  Whee!

And the Honda is on a battery charger.  Its little battery can't take more than a day without being driven when we tow it - the brake unit uses the power to run the compressor that pushes the brakes, and to light up the signal, tail and brake lights.  Tom's planning to add a power wire to keep it from dying if we run multiple days on the road.

Four State Day

This trip is one where a four state day is not hard to accomplish.  Evanston, WY is almost directly on the Utah border, so minutes after getting on the road it became a two state day.  We started our day with a trip to the fireworks store (one of the family obligations since we come through where you can get the "good stuff") and we were on the road just after eleven.  We had a lot of cloudy weather, a little rain, and a few moments of sunshine.  Luckily, the wind was much less.   But, then, we were out of Wyoming.

  Three hours later we crossed into Idaho. 

 

The part of Idaho we cross on this route is potato and grain country

. 

 

And very volcanic.  You can see broken lava flows all around, and at times, in the distance you can look at a hillside and see that it is a lava flow over the top of previous flows.  Some areas along the interstate have blocky ridges, and some look like collapsed lava tubes.

Just before seven we crossed into Montana, and a few miles later, pulled over at a small, cheap RV park. 

We knew about it because we've stayed here once or twice before.  $15 (plus tax, of course) gets you full hookups, $10 gets you an electric site.  I had forgotten we needed to dump our black tank before we settle for the summer, but he let us dump for no additional charge.  Can't help but wonder if the lower fee is really because the water connection broke and he can keep using the site anyway.  $10.70 total for the night.  Regardless, it is one of the bargains out there.   Don't expect much, some gravel driving paths, some grass and hookups.  There is a school right behind it, home of the Lima Bears, and the field (track football, what have you) is right next to the site we were in.

There's a café across the way, so you can walk to dinner if you want.  Not great food, but reasonable.  We celebrated "monthiversary" number 392 (that's 32 years and 8 months, all celebrated at least a little bit) at Jan's with sirloin steaks and an add-on of shrimp to make it surf-n-turf.  One of the potato choices was twice baked, and you get soup or salad.  This morning, the leftover twice baked potatoes, with added sour cream to alleviate their dryness, and the dinner rolls that sopped up the steak juice, will be our breakfast.  Lunch will be my leftover steak, split into two thinner slabs, on sourdough bread.  So, three meals, and Max's dinner, too (Tom's leftover steak cut into bites).  We had "12-ounce" sirloin steaks, but they were both much larger than what I've been served as a "12-ounce" steak in other places.  I think their twelve ounces might be after cooking instead of before.  It could have used some salt, and garlic, but in Lima, Montana there aren't many choices and it was good enough.

To be continued

I am sooooooo tired of rain!

Not long after we arrived, it began to rain here in Evanston.  Then it picked up.  Then it rained harder.  Eventually it stopped.  Then, this morning, it started again, and picked up and got harder and got harder. At the moment it's not so bad, but we've been in the rain for over a month.  Maybe there were a couple of dry days, but I just don't remember.

Looks like weather up the road will be much like yesterday's.  Mostly clouds, but some more rain in places.  Damn I'm tired of the rain.

Heading North

Today was the big day.  We cleared out the old freezer and defrosted it and unplugged it yesterday.  Today we cleared out and unplugged the refrigerator.  Then the drama really began. 

May has been wet.  There MIGHT have been as many as 3 days without rain this month - in Denver.  At our place, by the time I realized it was noteworthy, I couldn't remember IF we had any days without rain.  Very possibly not.  It probably started raining in late April and hasn't stopped yet.  And a lot of those days had some snow, too.

I mention this because when we came home from the Shake Down cruise, Tom tried to park the motorhome partway on the driveway.  Unfortunately the low spot is low enough that to level it, at least on corner was left with the tires off the ground.  Not good.  So, it went in the low spot.  And, when he tried to pull out so we could hook on the Honda, it wouldn't move.  I just spun tires and slung mud.  Tom put plywood in front and back of the rear tires.  It would touch the edge and spin and sling.  I was about the call our friend and neighbor to ask his help, when wife came over, saw what was going on and offered to go get him.

.

They brought over some gravel and I went down to town for a couple bags of kitty litter.  It took 4 people, the plywood, the gravel the kitty litter and anchoring the plywood to get the Spotted Dog out of the driveway.  We ARE going to fill that low spot with gravel.  No question about it.

 

Video by Leigh BD

Once we were on the road things went much better.  I detoured to fill my gas tank and we met at the first pass of the trip - Willow Creek Pass.  Tom pulled over and had a snack during his short wait.

 

Of course we encountered rain.  It looks like Wyoming has had the same wet weather as Colorado - it's really strange to see water between the sagebrush and full, running rivers.  And, of course, it's raining pretty good right now as I write this.

We also saw a couple of pretty scary things.  Luckily, they were both on the other side of the freeway.  There was a truck making an awful sound - worse than when they've been running on a flat dually tire and it's flopping an shredding.  I glanced in the rear view mirror thinking tire and what I saw suggested he'd run flat so long it was his wheel that was disintegrating - it looked sort of like when a big chunk of snow hits the pavement and explodes.  But there was no snow, no accumulated ice on any of the vehicles on the road.  The other one, was also sad.  There was an Airstream motorhome that was folded in the middle and had a big hole right in front of the door.  Tom thinks it may have hit the guard rail.  When I saw it I thought that being metal it came out of it better than a fiberglass unit - one like ours would probably have disintegrated instead of folding like that.

So much for the first day of what should be an interesting summer.  We'll be living in less than 300 square feet all summer.  We've done it for a month, so it shouldn't be any kind of problem.

To be continued.

Memorial Day Parade

Memorial is on of the days Grand Lake hosts a parade.  And for Grand Lake, it's pretty good sized parade.  And on a day when Trail Ridge Road is closed, like today, there can be fewer people in the parade and watching it.  Add rain and/or snow, and there's another potential drop. 

Today they weren't lined up 4 and 5 deep, but there were few, if any, gaps along the parade route -- all 5 blocks, or so.  You'd be surprised how many vets were in our parade.  Our whole county has fewer people than many of the smaller towns on the other side of the "hill". 

Just last Friday Tom was talking with the organizer of many of our parades and he asked Tom to join the other veterans in the parade.  This is his first time marching with the other vets.  The guys in uniform did a better job of marching in step, the other group had a marching song to help keep them nearer to being in step.

Color Guard

 

First the active duty military

then veterans from many decades, mostly without uniforms

If you look on the far side of the street, in the black jacket, with a white candy bag ... it's Tom!

 

And, the rest of the veterans

And a tribute to those still missing

 

 

To cap off the parade, the color guard and special guests present a ceremonial raising of the colors.  The flag they raised was originally presented to Nursie Young, a Pearl Harbor survivor.  Each part of the ceremony is presented by a vet or someone closely related to the vets.  One touching moment was when the MC asked all veterans and active duty service members to raise their hands and keep them up so the rest of us could look around and identify one or more to shake hands or give a hug later, to thank them for their service.

 

I'll keep the photos to just the veterans, but every parade we see local businesses of every size, local clubs, and it's an excuse to ride your horse in town, or walk your dog down the middle of Grand Avenue.  And, the sheriff, fire and other emergency services; even the dog catcher was in the parade today.

Bye Bye Dandelions

A week or two ago, on Facebook I saw a recipe for "weed be gone".  After a while I looked it up for additional information, then tried it.

The recipe was:
1 gallon vinegar
2 cups Epsom salts
1/4 cup Dawn (original blue formula)

I worked out a 2-cup reduced size recipe for use in a regular hand spray bottle (like window cleaner, etc.)
2 cups vinegar
1/4 cup Epsom salts
1/2 teaspoon Dawn

I went out yesterday morning while the sun was out for a change.  I squirted all the dandelions I could with what I'd mixed.  Within 2-3 hours it started to rain & snow again.  So, I figured it wouldn't have a chance to do much of anything.  This morning, Tom told me it had worked.

This afternoon I got a gallon of vinegar and mixed up a bigger batch for the garden sprayer (1-gallon capacity).  I had just finished mixing it, stepped out on the deck to pump it up and the rain & hail started again.  Once it let up I sprayed every dandelion I could, until I ran out.  I'm hoping the next squall will hold off long enough for the stuff to work.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Here are a couple of the ones I sprayed yesterday morning.

Memorial Day Weekend Weather

Memorial Day in Grand Lake is celebrated regardless of weather.  And that's important.  The weather on major summer holiday weekends can be almost anything.  By major holiday weekends I mean Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.  Sometimes we have beautiful sunshine and calm and warm weather.  Sometimes we have cold, snow and wind.  Sometimes it's only unending rain.  So far we've seen most of those this Memorial Day weekend.  Saturday morning was in the 40s and 50s, sunny and calm.  Later in the day it rained, with the occasional snow-blob mixed in.  Then in the evening it snowed.  Not just snow flakes falling, but snow stacking up on the ground.  It was only a half-inch to an inch, and is melting as the temperature slowly creeps up above freezing.  This year, though, it's not just the holiday weekend, it's been pretty much the entire month of May.  At least in Denver, it's been the wettest May on record.  I have little doubt that applies here in Grand Lake, as well.  Not only have we had rain pretty much everyday, it's been much of the day, not just an afternoon shower.  And, as we prepare for departure on our summer trek, there's no end in sight.

Snow in aspen branches

Looking across deck, to hill, to Shadow Mountain (it's across Grand Lake, hidden in mid-ground)

Moose Close Call

This afternoon, we put Max out for an afternoon relief break.  As I started to busy myself with something I heard a woof from the side of the house (his trolley runs along that side of the house).  Before I could get to him he started barking more seriously.  I went out to bring him in and ...

Oh CRAP!  Not more than 20-30 feet from him, in the next yard (remember the only fences in our subdivision are low and open to allow flow of wildlife.  Of course, I yelled "Max!"  Of course he wouldn't/couldn't hear me.  Then the moose started moving toward him.  Still on the other side of the fence, but we're talking a fence almost low enough for me to cross over and an animal whose belly hangs well above that same fence.  It is not an obstacle to a moose.

For about a tenth of a second I thought about going down the stairs to grab his tether and bring him back, then survival kicked in.  I yelled, I clapped my hands.  I yelled some more.

Since yelling was doing no good, thank goodness I remembered the air horn, a portable canned air boat horn.  By the time I grabbed it from just inside the back door to when I got back outside, the moose had come closer. 

At least it was only a bull.  This time of year it's the cows with calves that are the most unforgiving. 

At one point Max was within less than a foot of our fence and the moose was within 2-3 feet of it on the other side.  I blasted that little air horn.  At first the moose didn't react.  Then he moved a little past Max and squatted the tiniest little bit and peed a little bit.  Maybe that was his bookmark for unfinished business, maybe it was a message to not stop here.  Then he moved on. 

Whew!  For years I have been terrified that one day we'll get out there too late, or not be able to do anything but watch.  This was probably the closest we've come so far.  As much as I love Max, I'm not going to go down and do hand-to-hoof combat with a half-ton pissed of powerful animal.

No photos - it was much too important to convince that bull moose to move along than to get his photo.

Weather - again

Even after more than twenty years here, the weather can be fascinating. 

We needed a couple of items to finish some of our preparations for our next trip.  So, with a check on road conditions (most of the CDOT still cameras were blank this morning, but the list of road conditions had nothing scary.  The Denver Metro area was not on "accident alert".  So, there was no reason not to go, and Tom can get the items installed and make sure we're ready to tow the bikes.

As we crossed Berthoud Pass on US Hwy 40, the weather got more intense.  It went from light rain, to rain to rain/snow to snow.  As we got down closer to I-70 it let up a bit, but then as we were on next-to-final approach to the Metro area it started snowing hard, with big flakes.  We were hoping all the time we were doing our shopping that it would turn to rain or even stop before we had to come home.

Luckily, as we headed home it was raining lightly.  But as we left Fraser (on our side of Berthoud Pass) it was snowing and blowing.  I was actually steering a little bit left of straight to keep a straight path, and the snow was blowing across our path.  Normally, rain or snow will look like it's coming straight at you when you look out the car windows, then when you stop you find out which direction it is really blowing. 

 

 

Over all, Colorado is having a very wet May.  After dry warm months when we should have been getting lots of snow, now rain and snow are falling.  On the Front Range it has been more days raining than clear this month, and the last week or so it's been heavy rain.  Creeks are reaching their limits.  Places that had serious flooding back in the fall of 2013 are reaching flood stage again.  At this point it's "normal" flooding, not the flooding "of biblical proportions" of 2013.  People along those streams and rivers are getting very nervous.

Back Home

After hunkering down at the Island Acres Section of James M. Robb State Park for 3 nights, we finally had a break in the weather and headed home.  We had stopped at the park for a night so make the final leg of trip home an easy day's driving.  Then we looked at the weather forecast and paid for a couple more nights.  Vail Pass was expecting both snow and gusty winds.  Either one could be bad for driving a motorhome, but the two together could be a disaster.  Finally, on Sunday the forecast still included snow, but not inches or gusts.  At one point the rain started turning to snow, and there were a couple of gusts, but none of it was bad enough to need to pull over and wait out the weather.

We had a good trip.  What started as a 2-5 day "shake down cruise" tuned into a 10-day mini-tour of southeast Colorado with a touch of Utah.  You could call it a Snowmobiles and Red Rocks Tour (since the trip started with the quarterly meeting of the Colorado Snowmobile Association on behalf of our local club). 

As a shake-down cruise it was a success.  All the systems we used worked as expected.  (We didn't need the air conditioning or generator, so those remain to be tested).  We also learned how accurate the gas gauge calculator is.  Our odometer/trip meter/miles-to-empty read-out told use we were down to 9 miles to empty as we approached our second gas stop of the trip.  We'd underestimated the distance from the state park to the Costco in Eagle.  There is a little bit of leeway built in apparently, since it "only" took 72.24 gallons for an 80-gallon gas tank.  This was our biggest fill-up ever.  It's really good to know that when it says we'll run out of gas in 9 miles we need to get to a gas station right away, but we can go a bit more than 9 miles.  And that is a good thing to know if you miscalculate or if you find the gas station in the tiny town in the middle of nowhere can't accommodate our rig, or it's after 5 pm and all the gas stations are closed (been there before).  Of course, it's better to not need that cushion in the first place.

One of the best things about this trip was being able to make and change plans as we went, and most especially, not having to be back at work on a particular day/date.  We decided to stay another day at the first state park because a storm was coming in.  We decided to stay 2 days in Monticello so we'd have a full day to go out to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, and we added 2 additional nights at Island Acres to wait out the snowy weather & road conditions over Vail Pass.  What a freeing experience.  I think we're going to like our retirement life!

I'm sorry there are few photos from this trip -- I was playing with a video camera we've had for years.  I decided to take mostly video and put it together as a series of short video on YouTube (one per significant stop) and a full length video on a DVD of the trip as a whole.  That will be a chance to really play with my video editing software.  Then next riding season we can try to film/edit/post more videos for our snowmobile club's web site.  I'll post links to the YouTube videos as I get them prepared and posted.

Now, we've got a little more than a week to prepare for our next trip.

Naturita to Island Acres

Thursday we woke early to a variety of sounds.  There was a periodic metallic “braap” (the vent was open all night and was vibrating in the occasional wind gust).  The heavy trucks and the birds were up and active before 5 am; the doves picked up where the “one note bird” and robins left off.  I surrendered and got up around 7.  Tom resisted for another hour or so.

We decided to skip a cooked breakfast.  I’d had some Shredded Wheat miniatures and coffee and we both munched snack bars to ward off hunger.  The road from Naturita south toward Grand Junction continued to be a narrow 2-lane country road, up and down and around.  A reason for this route, besides avoiding some big passes, was to see a bit more of the Gateway country.

We’d come to Gateway over Labor Day weekend last year to see the car museum  We got a taste of the red rock canyons that continued south from there and wanted to see more.  Hwy 141 runs for miles between the red rock cliffs and formations.  One idea that was put to rest, with finality, is that this is NOT a place to retire to.  There are no towns of any size between Grand Junction and Cortez.  Any property out there is either a ranch or a resort.  We agreed today on the terminology – we want to be out of town, but not out of touch.  The red rock country south of Gateway is out of touch.  A great place to visit, but we wouldn’t want to live there, even aside from summer heat.

We stopped at Clark’s Family Orchard, thinking they might be open to sell their preserved items.  But, like the other fruit stands, they were closed.  We had our cheese and cracker lunch, then headed to James M. Robb State Park, Island Acres Section (isn’t that a mouthful?).  Most of the sites are reserved starting tomorrow, but we found one with no reserved tags on the post, so if we had to stay another night …  There is a winter storm advisory for tomorrow afternoon through Sunday night.  (Sound familiar?)

While sitting here thinking about the story I want to tell when I start editing the video footage I took this week I looked up to see a bright orange bird.  A Bullock’s Oriole.  While the bird guide at hand shows the orange being the same all over the bird, the rest of the colors fit.  His head is a bit darker than the rest of his body.  It’s hard to miss this guy.  Then a flash or red caught my eye on the House Finch not too far from where I’d seen the Oriole.  I haven’t seen the Mourning Dove, but we’ve heard it.  I guess we can expect to hear it some time around 4:30 am tomorrow, too.

Update

Friday morning we woke up not to doves or robins, but to ferocious wind rocking the motorhome.  With a winter storm warning for Vail Pass that’s been moved up from this afternoon to 9 am today, we’re going to see if we can just stay here another night or two.  Wind is bad for driving a motorhome.  Snow is bad for driving a motorhome.  The two together … well, that goes beyond polite words.  As we pulled in to the campground we were told to look on the posts for the reservations (they stick a card in a window with the incoming reservation dates.  The site we selected had no reservation card at all, so we might be able to just stay here the whole weekend and let the storm pass on through.  Once we’re both up and have had our coffee, we’ll unhook the car and go over to the office  We got there before they started assigning sites to the folks coming in, so we're good for tonight.  We'll see what tomorrow's weather forecast brings.

Monticello to Hovenweep to Naturita

We left out of Monticello with a bit of plan.  We’d go to Hovenweep National Monument, then through Canyons of the Ancients National Monument toward Cortez.  Then we’d decide where next.

Once off the main road things got a bit interesting.  The smaller roads leading to Hovenweep were narrow, twisty, up and down and full of nasty potholes.  Luckily traffic was sparse and most of the time we could wander across the other lane to avoid the potholes.  The route we took was different than the route I’d taken years ago when I went out to Hovenweep between a training session at Mesa Verde and one in Flagstaff.  I had a whole weekend to get there, so I saw a few things.  This time it was the motorhome, towing the Honda, instead of a Dodge Caravan, so the road conditions made more of an impact.  The distance out to Hovenweep, though, was much like my solo trip – long stretches of lonely road, then a turn and another long stretch of lonely road.

We worried a bit about parking such a long rig, but figured they’d have some kind of warning in the “preparing for your visit” section of the web site, or we’d unhook to turn around, if it came to that.  They do have 3 “oversize vehicle” parking spaces and a separate entrance and exit for the parking lot.  There is a small campground, too.  Some of the sites are big enough for a rig like ours, as long as we unhook and park the motorhome and car separately.  Besides, most are back-in and you can’t back up with a car on a tow bar.  It would damage the car and the tow bar.

Each of the national park units with Anasazi (the preferred term now is “Ancient Puebloan”) ruins is different.  They differ in placement (cliff dwellings, stand-alone structures, above ground, below ground, etc.) and in architectural styles.  It used to be believed that nobody knew where they went.  The truth is Anglo culture didn’t know, but the Pueblo people, and other peoples of the southwest knew all along that modern Pueblo people are their descendants. 

Hovenweep probably has more variety of structures and styles than most places.  All are built on the edge, or down inside a small canyon.  In the time it was occupied, a seep at the head of the canyon provided water.  A series of check dams allowed the people to gather enough water for daily use and to grow enough crops to store the surplus for leaner times.  Over time, though, the seep produced less water, and they had to move on.  One of the most unique of the structures was built using a giant boulder as roof and partial wall, minimizing the amount of actual construction needed.  Other structures are round, square, D shaped, and one is of the “unit construction” seen in some other ruins.  The “unit construction” is a series of square rooms lined up next to each other.  Some connect to each other, some open only to the outside.  One of the Twin Towers still has original door lintels and they dated the logs back to 1277, using the tree rings.  They say the Twin Towers are some of the most carefully constructed structures in the southwest.

Hovenweep allows dogs on the trails (on a leash, of course) so we took Max on the trail along the canyon’s edge.   At a half mile his back leg started kicking out – spasms – so I stayed with him while Tom went on to see two more of the structures.  Then, on the way back to the visitor center, we’d stop and make him sit or lie down for a few minutes at the first “kick”.  Poor guy was pretty tired when we finally landed for the night.  Hours of standing at the front, watching the scenery roll by and a long walk.  Actually, he laid down several times between Hovenweep and Naturita.  He was really tired.  He’s passed 12½ and had several major health issues, so he’s entitled to get tired.

As we planned our route, we would leave Hovenweep by a different route, one that would take us through the southern end of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.  We expected to see some signs of either ruins or side roads to ruins or sites.  What we did see was interesting terrain, an end to pavement, farms and ranches.  We never saw any indication we had entered or left the Monument, much less any sites or turn-offs to sites.  We couldn’t tell if the road was normally without pavement or partway through an improvement project.  But, it was rough enough to start worrying about things in the motorhome as they banged around.

We knew we were out of the Monument when we entered Cortez.  So much for that exploration.  Now, which way?  Looking at the Colorado map we quickly realized almost any direction would take us over steep passes.  We had talked last fall about seeing the Gateway area in other seasons.  So, toward Gateway it was.  At one point, on a steep (7%) twisty grade, I looked ahead and knew we needed to meet the truck on a straight section.  It was a long low-boy with a heavy load and needed the entire road for some of the turns.  Luckily, we did meet on a short straight section.  I think it was one of the longest low-boy trailers I’ve ever seen.

We figured we’d stop at the first likely looking boondocking area (didn’t see any) or the first RV park.  As it turns out, there is ONE RV park between Grand Junction and Cortez.  The owner if a former Marine (flying the flag at the office was the first clue; his ramrod straight walk is another) who just recently purchased the place.  He’s really nice and helpful.

When Tom suggested we try to find a place to eat, instead of cooking, we headed out.  There’s a café in Naturita.  Good prices, large portions, decent quality.  We fed Max leftover chicken strips and a couple bites of chicken fried steak, saving the leftover baked potato for our breakfast.  Then supplemented the leftovers with pulled pork and brown rice.

The big trucks and the birds start early in Naturita.  By 5 am there were a series of trucks, birds and assorted sounds working on ending sleepy time.

Where to today?  To be continued . . .

 

 

Canyonlands National Park - the Needles District

When I first went to Moab for a training class I really wanted to see the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park.  But, I had a dinner date with a friend and soon realized there just wasn't enough time to do both, so I turned around and went back to Moab after a brief visit at Newspaper Rock.  That was 2002, I think.

On this trip when plans to visit friends in Montrose fell through due to illness, we decided to take the river route toward Moab.  We planned to find a campsite along the river, but when we started looking, we were close enough to Moab they were all full.  Perhaps the ones 20+ miles out were full, too.  And as we rolled through Moab we saw all the RV parks were full.  As we recalled they were very expensive.  As recent retirees, we don't like expensive.

So, on we rolled.  We figured out that we weren't going to boondock (just stop and stay without an official campground, services, etc.) south of Moab.  On we rolled.  In Monticello we found a nice little family RV park.  The family lives there, has their horses, goat, dogs, chickens and whatever else.  They sell real eggs (farm fresh) with really orange yolks and great flavor.  We'll pick up some more before we leave here.

So, finally I got to see the Needles District.  It is spectacular!  It's a long day drive, but well worth it.  We stopped a lot to take photos and videos.  The air was pretty hazy, so my camera had trouble with the autofocus.  But the eyes can cut through some of the haze and see the colors and patterns in the rocks.  We probably drove over 150 miles today, making a loop with some backtracking.  It's a long way from Hwy 191 out to the park boundary.  But it's a beautiful drive.  We took a picnic lunch with us since we were pretty sure there would be no place to buy a lunch.

Our campground owner had suggested we take an alternate route to the Needles that leaves out of town and goes through the mountains.  There were a couple of primitive campgrounds on the route.  The first one would work for us, the second one only had one, possibly two sites that could work.  The road met the "official" road into the district before the Newspaper Rock State Recreation Area.

Newspaper Rock is a sandstone bluff covered with ancient (and a few not so ancient) petroglyphs. (Petroglyphs are chipped into the rock, pictographs are painted on the rock).  The difference in color between the old desert varnish and the "newly" exposed rock beneath makes the pictures show up well.

After Newspaper Rock the road goes on for several miles, through BLM land.  The flat bottom country is green this time of year (at least this spring it is) and there are a few ranches.  There are lots of roads heading off to interesting sounding destinations, but they're not roads we'd take the motorhome on.  Eventually, you come to the boundary between the BLM land and the park.  The formations become more spire like and less wall like.  Everywhere you turn there are spires, canyons, rocks the will someday be "balanced rocks".  The colors are spectacular with layers of reds and whites, with the occasional darker layer in between.

Long view at Dutch Shoe Arch pullout

Dutch Shoe Arch

 

One of the rocks at the Confluence Overlook

After driving to all the places we could reasonably drive to in a Honda, we headed out to the highway so we could drive a few miles north, then take a 22 mile road to the Needles Overlook.  Too bad the air was so hazy.  It may be hard to pick out any details.

Just in the lower edge of the are some tall formations on the valley floor below us.  In the distant haze are the Needles that give the District its name. 

 

I'll post more photos, when I can, on my Flickr account www.flickr.com/photos/mooseduds

Road Trip - Days 2 and 3

Day two was a mixed kind of day.  After we had our coffee, we did a quick tour of the whole campground to see what we liked and didn't like for future trips.  We took the video camera so we can use that with the map to mark off the “bad” sites and the best sites.  Some are plenty long, but not very level, so an actual view of them will be very helpful.

Then we made a quick run up to Rifle Falls State Park.  It has a campground, but only 13 sites.  And of those 13, one is the host site, one is the handicapped site, so realistically there are only 11 to consider.  Mainly we wanted to take a quick walk to see the falls and snap a couple of photos.  We'd been there years ago, before we got our first motorhome, and only partially remembered it.  We remembered there was small campground, but no details.

 

 

They think the cliffs behind the falls were formed a long time ago by beaver dams.  The limestone is porous and with erosion, the water fall (it used to be one big one) and caves were formed.  Then in the 60s when they put in a small hydroelectric plant, the falls split into the 3 we now see.  There is a loop trail that takes you to the top of the falls.  We hiked it years ago.

 

After that we dropped Max at the RV and headed to Glenwood Springs for the CSA (Colorado Snowmobile Association) quarterly meeting.  Without realizing the capital grants meeting was running over, we went in and wound up being “treated” to a scathing accusation that the Grand Lake Trail Groomers had been “negligent” when one of the grooming machines went through the ice.  The worst part was the group had ranked all the grant requests, giving the GL Trail Groomers third place in the list of projects submitted, then started talking about punishing them for their negligence and for keeping it all secret until the last minute.  What an eye opener.  Unfortunately, the two who had presented the request were already back in Grand Lake when this happened.  The main meeting was a lot less contentious and had a lot of good points, including a proposal for CSA to sponsor an effort to install avalanche beacon checking stations at at least 15 snowmobiling trailheads throughout Colorado.

After the meeting we came home to a pot roast; I love having a crock pot on board.  Just slice and serve.  Max got pot roast and rice for dinner.  Then Tom read and I wrote down some more memories until bedtime.

Sunday we took a drive over to the third state park in the immediate area, Harvey Gap.  The guys at the entrance station told us that if we weren't looking to fish there really wasn't anything there for us.  I told them I take a lot of photos and it was worth photographing.  That seemed to catch them by surprise.

We followed the road “down lake” toward the little earthen dam.  The road went on past it, through the gap and down in farm and “ranchette” country, eventually taking us back to Rifle.  There we made a quick stop at Wally World, McD's and the Starbucks parking lot (McD's didn't have WIFI or it didn't reach that corner of the parking lot) to check email, send a couple of text messages, etc.  A quick stop at the RV to drop off our acquisitions (one was frozen custard), then we took a short drive the “other way” at the Y intersection that brings us to Rifle Gap Reservoir's developed area.  At the end of the road there's a correctional institution.  That's all we needed to know.

For Mother's Day dinner: grilled pork chops (for a while we thought the wind might blow out the charcoal), fruit salad, and instant mashed potatoes (loaded baked potato flavor).  We just didn’t have room for the ice cream with brownie brittle crumbs.  That would have to wait for another night.

The campground host came to advise us the temperature was supposed to drop to below 30 and take care of any exposed water lines.  We watched a movie before we went to bed.  Another day on the road came to an end.

 

2015 Shake Down Cruise - Beginning

This year the shake down cruise is many times more important than in years past. We'll be gone for at least 3 month, maybe 4 or more, so we need to know what we forgot this time, what doesn't work, and so on. So far, so good. At least as far as the rig is concerned. We planned the first couple of days so we could attend the Colorado Snowmobile Association meeting in Glenwood Springs.  After that ... no plans at all.  What a treat!

So what's not so good? Let's start with the weather. Friday, May 8 started out with an inch of new snow and snowing hard. Not a good thing. Luckily, there was a break in the weather and by the time we finished packing the food and other last-minute items, it had stopped snowing and even stopped raining. Yay!

However, between Hot Sulphur Springs (30 miles from home) and Kremmling (45 miles from home) it had started raining again, it had gotten really windy and then the rain started turning to snow/slush and there was even a patch where the road was covered. Crap! That's not good for driving a motorhome. It's even kinda scary. Motorhome tires are NOT all season. Motorhomes are big and heavy and just not really suited to winter type driving. Luckily, with the “smart-ass phone, I could check the highway cameras and see that Vail Pass was clear. So, on we went.

From there on it was fairly smooth sailing. We stopped for lunch at a scenic area with a small lake, just barely east of Copper Mountain (ski resort), then were back on the road.

The next hiccup came when we got to the state park. Our reserved site was occupied! There was a trailer in it, but no one around. Tom looked at the tag on the post – it had been filled out today, for one night, checking out tomorrow. Back to the office. They were pretty relaxed about it. The gal who had checked us in, if you can call it that, was just starting her season. The other gal in the office, and the ranger weren't too excited about the situation (“it happens a lot”). The site across from “ours” didn't have a reservation tag, but it was reserved. They did give us another site in the same loop (if it hadn't worked they'd have given us a “hold site”. They also mentioned there had been a guy in a site that was reserved who wouldn't move out because he “had a ticket” and he had an attitude.  We didn't want to deal with him if he was our "site thief". 

Their system leaves a lot to be desired. In other state parks we've been asked our name. Here we gave our name and were asked “which site?” They (kind of) keep track of reserved and occupied sites on a white board. They didn't check a computer or a printout, they just went with what was on the white board. Having worked a campground with reservations in the past (both of us) we know how it can be done, with or without computers, and this is not the way. We didn't make a stink because we got a site that works for us; it's just not the one I had carefully selected because it was off by itself on the outside of the loop.  (Update - when I went back to pay for one more night the gal (a different one) did check the whiteboard and a printout to be sure we really were OK staying where we were.) 

I haven't decided if I should write a letter to the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife or not.

For the first time this year, we Farkled after dinner. We Farlked by the lake. Doesn't it sound dirty? Farkle is a dice game. But we like the sound of saying “Let's Farkle in the woods, or by the lake, or on the beach, or whatever. Anyway, while we were passing some time Farkling, it started to rain. It blew some, too, but not like it did after we went to bed. We commented more than once that we are really glad we're not the folks in the next site – they're in a tent  (they must have had a heater - there was an electrical cord from the electrical pedestal into the tent). Been there, done that. I remember waking up and thinking the motion was somewhat like going down the road, and the rain was really pelting the rig. It wasn't as bad as some storms we've been in, but it was noticeable. When it got quiet later, I wasn't sure if it had stopped raining or if it had turned to snow. Luckily, it had stopped snowing.

Saturday morning we woke to light cloud cover, a glassy calm lake (we have a nice view of the lake from our windows) and no wind. I thought I heard something like a loon, but it was just a single note, not the “laugh” that is so distinctive. There are geese, small birds (wrens?) in the bushes and cottontail rabbits. Luckily, Max didn't see the bunny we spooked. He was too busy reading the calling cards and leaving a few of his own.

View from the RV across the Rifle Gap Reservoir

 

To be continued . . .

Max update

Today, we took Max in for the vet to catch him up on his vaccinations and do a "dental" (knock him out and scrape the tartar off his teeth).  Because of the problems he had from October to February, Dr. Brooks was pleasantly surprised to see Max on his schedule.  His last visit in February he had thought it might be Max's last.  It was great to see the happiness on Dr. Brooks' face to see how well Max is doing.  We joke that he's like a cat, on life #6 or 7 ...

So, he'll take longer to come completely out from the anesthesia, but he's coming around.  He can eat a little tonight, then work back up to normal feeding.  Tonight, he's starting with the Super Simple Chicken and Rice Dinner.  Every time one of us goes near the kitchen he watches us like a hawk, hoping for more to eat.  We're so happy to see he didn't lose his appetite.  That always worries us.  He's done it three times since October and each of those "hunger strikes" was a total rejection of all foods. 

For now, at least, he's still on track for a long life.  He's starting his 7th month since his spleen was removed ... and it's 5 months since his stroke ... so far, so good.

Way to go, Max!

Spring Storm

Today we had our first real spring storm.  Thunder and lightning - one blast had almost no time between the flash and the crash.  A little before the skies opened up the satellite TV went out for a while.  Once the storm got going we had a short power outage.  Then we had a lot of hail.  An hour or so after the storm was over the leftover hail was still 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch deep on the deck.  It had been blown against the house and piled up along the wall.

Foggy Morning

The 9 Health Fair was reason to get up early.  In fact, it was the first time in a little over a month that we got up as early as we used to do for work.  It had rained a bit yesterday (less than 1/4 inch) so there was lots of humidity.  The chilly temperature (27) combined with the high humidity caused big fog banks to rise up out of the lakes.  Our drive to Granby started in more or less sunshine, then dipped into the thick fog along the lake.  On the way home it had lifted just enough to see the some of the close-in docks and shoreline features.

Docks at Highland Marina

Rocks at mile marker 9

Stillwater Campground across the water