What a long 3 days. We have been driving until late in the day so I have been ready to turn in as soon as we have settled. It has been an interesting 3 days.
Sunday: We woke up early to pack up and head to an Episcopal church in Moab. We arrived very early for the 8:00 service. Really about 2 hours early. There was no 8:00 services. Churches would be better off without a website if they are not going to keep it current. Oh well...all dressed up and no place to go. We decided to head on to Mesa Verde. We were so excited about seeing the cliff dwellings and since it was about 20 miles into Colorado we could add another sticker to our state map. When we arrived we purchased two tickets for the easier tour. We arrived at the overlook and waited for the ranger. This would be a tour group of about 25. I was very excited until the ranger started describing the tour. "If you are afraid of heights you should not go on this tour", he said. "You will have to go up 3 ten foot ladders", he said. "There is no turning back once you start", he said. And finally he pointed to the ladder across the way and said we would not have to worry about falling because you would be between two sides of the rocks. That was enough! I turned to Chris as everyone was lining up to start the tour and begged him to go without me. I am so glad I did not go. I am afraid of heights and I am very claustrophobic. Sunday we drove until 9:00pm and pulled into a very iffy campground. We were only there to sleep so it was not a problem. However, we had now moved into a string of iffy campgrounds for the next two nights.
Monday: We woke up early to go to a volcano site in Blue Spruce, New Mexico. Chris has been wanting to see a volcano and I read that New Mexico had lots of them. We found the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano. It is privately owned. We walked a lava bed about 1/2 mile to the overlook. It was not what I expected because it was 10,000 years since it had erupted so the inside of the cone was smooth and had trees growing in in. There was plenty of lava rocks, tubes, and you could see where the volcano blew out the side of the mountain. Then we took a second short hike to an ice cave. That was also formed when the volcano erupted. After the morning visit we headed to Tucumcari, New Mexico. This was a big town during the days of route 66. It sounded like a good stopping place with things to see. Well, it is a dying town. When interstate 40 by passed the town, it took their life blood. You can see the remnants of the old hotels and the broken neon signs. Most of the old gas stations are shut down but the old tyme pumps remain. The campground we planned to stay at was worse than the night before but the one next to it was ok. It was surround by a very old, run down, wood/brick motel. The campground was a giant gravel parking lot with a few trees and a few patches of grass. The owners were very nice. The wife was American Indian and the husband was Hindu Indian. Quite the combination. They were trying to fix the place up but have a long way to go. The waitress at dinner said the town was slowly dying. They are trying to get a casino to help the town come back. It was pretty depressing.
Tuesday: A few days ago I mentioned to Chris that our vacation was over. There are no more colored rocks or unusual rock formations to see. It was going to be 5 days of boring driving until we reach Little Rock and visit Deacon Johana and Robert. So...we have decided to make it a road trip and see the quirky things on the way. Today we saw Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, where about 10 cars are half buried in the ground. People come with spray paint in hand to do their art work. It was not as impressive as we had seen on TV. After that adventure we headed to Big Texas Steak Ranch, home of the 72 ounce free steak. In the movie Road Trip, Barbara Streisand goes uninvited on a trip with her single son. They stop at a steak place and she takes the challenge of eating a whole 72 ounce steak dinner. It is free if you can eat all of it. We saw the signs on the road for this place and had to stop. It is another Route 66 original establishment. It started out as a cowboy restaurant and the real cowboys would show off how much they could eat. It got into a real competition. When we were seated we asked where Barbara Streisand sat during the movie. She did not film the movie there. It was really a good meal anyway. We had a hard time finding a good campground for tonight have found a pretty good place in Elk City, Oklahoma. It is just different out west.
Peace and love to all, Barbara
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Greetings from Arches National Park
Yesterday was a day of laundry and resting. We had dinner out and walked around downtown Moab. Everything went well till we drove home and saw the blue lights in the side mirror. Oh no....what did we do now. We had no tail lights! Chris tried all evening to find the fuse that was blown with no success. This morning we got up early to drive to the Ford dealer. A wonderful young man took care of us right away. He checked all the fuses but they were all good. He was perplexed! Then he started looking for a second fuse box. The night before I researched the problem on the internet. So I told them there were two fuse boxes under the hood...not one. It was hard to find but they kept looking till they found it and found the fuse. We asked for the bill but George did not charge us. Unbelievable! What a nice young man.
We left the dealer and headed to Arches National Park. The weather prediction was for rain but since this was our last day we took a chance. The park was packed because today was free entry. We could not find parking at any of the view points. We headed to the very end of the park in hopes of hiking a trail there. We were lucky. We started the hike with dark clouds overhead. I said to Chris, "if we hear thunder we need to head back" . He agreed. Two minutes later we heard thunder. But we trekked on because there was no lightning. Glad we did. The trail was almost empty and we had a wonderful hike. We saw landscape arch which is over 300 ft span. We alo saw double arches but my favorite was pine tree arch. It is the one were chris and I had our picture taken without the backpacks. This arch was on a side path. We walked into this tiny cove that opened into the arch. There was a log that provided us a place to sit and rest. No one was there. It was beautiful and so quiet. I just wanted to stay forever. A couple our age came along and Chris offered to take their picture. Then there were two young men that came along and I offered to take their picture. However by now the sky was darkening and the arch would not show up. One of them showed me some tricks on the iPhone to lighten the picture. I got a great shot and they took a picture of us. The rain had stopped so more people came to my sacred spot and before you knew it we were taking everyone's pictures in front of the arch. I thought we would be there all day. Finally we saw a break so we headed out. You may see in the pictures a rock climber and a man repelling. The pictures did not upload in order this time so it is a bit confusing,
Tomorrow we head to 8:00 church and then to MesaVerde to view Indian Cliff Dwellers.
Peace to all my family and friends, Barbara
We left the dealer and headed to Arches National Park. The weather prediction was for rain but since this was our last day we took a chance. The park was packed because today was free entry. We could not find parking at any of the view points. We headed to the very end of the park in hopes of hiking a trail there. We were lucky. We started the hike with dark clouds overhead. I said to Chris, "if we hear thunder we need to head back" . He agreed. Two minutes later we heard thunder. But we trekked on because there was no lightning. Glad we did. The trail was almost empty and we had a wonderful hike. We saw landscape arch which is over 300 ft span. We alo saw double arches but my favorite was pine tree arch. It is the one were chris and I had our picture taken without the backpacks. This arch was on a side path. We walked into this tiny cove that opened into the arch. There was a log that provided us a place to sit and rest. No one was there. It was beautiful and so quiet. I just wanted to stay forever. A couple our age came along and Chris offered to take their picture. Then there were two young men that came along and I offered to take their picture. However by now the sky was darkening and the arch would not show up. One of them showed me some tricks on the iPhone to lighten the picture. I got a great shot and they took a picture of us. The rain had stopped so more people came to my sacred spot and before you knew it we were taking everyone's pictures in front of the arch. I thought we would be there all day. Finally we saw a break so we headed out. You may see in the pictures a rock climber and a man repelling. The pictures did not upload in order this time so it is a bit confusing,
Tomorrow we head to 8:00 church and then to MesaVerde to view Indian Cliff Dwellers.
Peace to all my family and friends, Barbara
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Greetings from Moab, Utah
It has been two days since I posted. On Tuesay we had no internet and last night we were just plain tired from having so much fun. My granddaughter called when we got home and needed some math help. We skyped the whole lesson. This was a first for me.
On Tuesday we explored Canyonlands. It was just a day of driving and stopping at view points. When we arrived at our campsite in Dead horse state park we took forever to level. After about the seventh try, and three boards, we were as close as we were going to get. We decided we would find a new campground for Wednesday. I really liked the state park because it was so quiet. The park got its name a long time ago. Some cowboys rounded up some wild horses and corralled them at the point. It was a large area with a small opening so they only had to fence off a small amount. Something delayed the cowboys from returning. When the arrived, the horses had died of thirst within 2000 feet of water below them in the Colorado River.
Wednesday we drove with our new friends through the La Sal Mountains. I posted those pictures yesterday. The Aspens were bright yellow and covered the mountain side. We hiked a little and stopped a lot for pictures and geo-caching. We found a great restaurant for dinner and then Chris found us an ice cream shop.
Today we met up with friends from Gulf Shores. Sue had been reading our blog and thought we were ready for a hike to Fishers Tower. Now it was only about a mile long and we had certainly hiked more than that so it should have been no problem. Well....we never hiked a trail like this! It was a rock trail through, around, and up. We were use to parks that had maintained trails. This was more like some one found a way to get from point A to point B and left some rocks to mark the path for the next person. They stack three rocks, called carrins, to mark the way. I did it but I have never done such a difficult trail in 95 degrees. Of course I needed lots of help but we made it. After lunch some of the group wanted to go further, some rested, and Chris and I headed down so we could take our time. At one point we lost the trail. We could not find anymore carrins and it was hot and I knew we were going the wrong way. I was sure that we were going to cook ourselves in the heat and perish in this desolate place. However, we backtracked a little and waited till some of the rest of our group came and we found our next carrin and got back on track. I saw how easy it is to get lost in this environment. Glad I did it--glad I am done.
After our hike we were invited to a cookout with Sue, Mark, and her family. We had a great time and had lots of laughs about our hike. I guess we are still novice hikers. Miss C is spending the night with them so I guess we will get to sleep in.
I do not know what tomorrow will bring. Maybe we will see Arches National Park. Maybe we will do laundry.
Peace to all of my family and to my friends who have followed us on this journey. Barbara
On Tuesday we explored Canyonlands. It was just a day of driving and stopping at view points. When we arrived at our campsite in Dead horse state park we took forever to level. After about the seventh try, and three boards, we were as close as we were going to get. We decided we would find a new campground for Wednesday. I really liked the state park because it was so quiet. The park got its name a long time ago. Some cowboys rounded up some wild horses and corralled them at the point. It was a large area with a small opening so they only had to fence off a small amount. Something delayed the cowboys from returning. When the arrived, the horses had died of thirst within 2000 feet of water below them in the Colorado River.
Wednesday we drove with our new friends through the La Sal Mountains. I posted those pictures yesterday. The Aspens were bright yellow and covered the mountain side. We hiked a little and stopped a lot for pictures and geo-caching. We found a great restaurant for dinner and then Chris found us an ice cream shop.
Today we met up with friends from Gulf Shores. Sue had been reading our blog and thought we were ready for a hike to Fishers Tower. Now it was only about a mile long and we had certainly hiked more than that so it should have been no problem. Well....we never hiked a trail like this! It was a rock trail through, around, and up. We were use to parks that had maintained trails. This was more like some one found a way to get from point A to point B and left some rocks to mark the path for the next person. They stack three rocks, called carrins, to mark the way. I did it but I have never done such a difficult trail in 95 degrees. Of course I needed lots of help but we made it. After lunch some of the group wanted to go further, some rested, and Chris and I headed down so we could take our time. At one point we lost the trail. We could not find anymore carrins and it was hot and I knew we were going the wrong way. I was sure that we were going to cook ourselves in the heat and perish in this desolate place. However, we backtracked a little and waited till some of the rest of our group came and we found our next carrin and got back on track. I saw how easy it is to get lost in this environment. Glad I did it--glad I am done.
After our hike we were invited to a cookout with Sue, Mark, and her family. We had a great time and had lots of laughs about our hike. I guess we are still novice hikers. Miss C is spending the night with them so I guess we will get to sleep in.
I do not know what tomorrow will bring. Maybe we will see Arches National Park. Maybe we will do laundry.
Peace to all of my family and to my friends who have followed us on this journey. Barbara
Monday, September 22, 2014
Greetings form Dead Horse State Park, Utah
On Sunday we had two options for church in Torrey: Church of Latter Day Saints or Baptist. So we looked to the next closest town which just had one option--Church of Latter Day Saints. I guess we are in Utah so that is to be expected. So we did not go to church but we have the next two Sundays planned. It rained all day so I just vacuumed the whole place and 15 minutes later I organized all the baskets and then made soup for dinner. My wonderful husband listened to the Dolphin football game on the radio while watching some other game on the tv screen. It was quite confusing at times when I would forget that the sound did not match what I was seeing.
Today we headed to Moab, Utah. There were two routes. One was shorter on two lanes most of the time and the other was longer but we would get to the interstate quicker. We chose the longer because I could help out with the driving. Our drive could not have been more beautiful. What a surprise. It is hard to explain how different rock formations can look but they do keep changing. I would have taken pictures but I was driving and Chris was sleeping. I went up and down the steepest grades ever. It was like driving in the grand canyon, with canyon walls reaching to the sky.
It is amazing what erosion can do. In the gulf coast we consider erosion as a negative thing. It is destructive to our beaches and our dunes. But here in Utah, erosion has created magnificent sites. Wind, water, and ice have created masterpieces. We are now in a state park that overlooks Canyonland National Park. We can't wait to start hiking tomorrow.
Tonight I saw my first shooting star. The stars are plentiful and the Milky Way is visible with the naked eye. It is very quiet here. Hope we don't get kicked out because of the dogs. We will be here three nights and then move to another campsite closer to Moab. We have electric here but no other hookups. The campground looks like a movie set for a John Wayne movie. The cactus and all desert brush are new to the dogs. I keep trying to keep them away from the cacti. I will take better pictures tomorrow. We arrived here late and took about an hour to level. It was only 158 miles from Torrey but somehow it took us about seven hours by the time we had lunch, grocery shopping, rv dump and fill with water, and maybe a few amazing pullouts.
Many of you had said that reading the blog is like being on the trip with us. Well, I feel that writing the blog and reading your comments is like sharing my adventure while it happens instead of waiting till we return and bore you to death with hundreds of pictures. I think it is easier this way. Thanks for coming with us. So far we have just over 10,000 miles on our new Rollin Ace.
Peace to all my family and all my friends, Barbara
Today we headed to Moab, Utah. There were two routes. One was shorter on two lanes most of the time and the other was longer but we would get to the interstate quicker. We chose the longer because I could help out with the driving. Our drive could not have been more beautiful. What a surprise. It is hard to explain how different rock formations can look but they do keep changing. I would have taken pictures but I was driving and Chris was sleeping. I went up and down the steepest grades ever. It was like driving in the grand canyon, with canyon walls reaching to the sky.
It is amazing what erosion can do. In the gulf coast we consider erosion as a negative thing. It is destructive to our beaches and our dunes. But here in Utah, erosion has created magnificent sites. Wind, water, and ice have created masterpieces. We are now in a state park that overlooks Canyonland National Park. We can't wait to start hiking tomorrow.
Tonight I saw my first shooting star. The stars are plentiful and the Milky Way is visible with the naked eye. It is very quiet here. Hope we don't get kicked out because of the dogs. We will be here three nights and then move to another campsite closer to Moab. We have electric here but no other hookups. The campground looks like a movie set for a John Wayne movie. The cactus and all desert brush are new to the dogs. I keep trying to keep them away from the cacti. I will take better pictures tomorrow. We arrived here late and took about an hour to level. It was only 158 miles from Torrey but somehow it took us about seven hours by the time we had lunch, grocery shopping, rv dump and fill with water, and maybe a few amazing pullouts.
Many of you had said that reading the blog is like being on the trip with us. Well, I feel that writing the blog and reading your comments is like sharing my adventure while it happens instead of waiting till we return and bore you to death with hundreds of pictures. I think it is easier this way. Thanks for coming with us. So far we have just over 10,000 miles on our new Rollin Ace.
Peace to all my family and all my friends, Barbara
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Greetings from Torrey, Utah #3
Did you miss me? Thursday was a day of rest so I should have had time to write but we met a very nice couple and went to a stargazing program and did not get home till very late. Chris had a chance to look through the telescope and the stars were incredible.
On Friday we took our jeep rental and our new friends to Gobblin State Park. It is a very interesting place with thousands of rock formations that look like toadstools or gobblins. We took lots of picture and had a great time roaming through the formations. Children were allowed and encouraged to run and climb through the rocks. Then we went out to dinner and again got home very late. I never thought I would enjoy meeting people in the campgrounds but it was really nice to spend the day with other people. It turns out they are going to be in Moab while we are there and we plan to get together then.
We were busted again--this time for the barking dogs. We had left the windows open so the dogs were barking all day. We were called while at dinner. Seems like the dogs take after our children only instead of the principal calling it is the camp host.
Today we went real 4wheel driving on a trip through Cathedral Valley. This 60 mile loop is 4 wheel drive only. There are so many warnings that I was afraid to go--take food and water for two days, no cell service, and no way to get help if you break down. But everyone at the camp ground said the view is incredible and they were right. The trail was dirt, sand, and boulders. We only saw three cars the whole time. Chris had a blast but the dogs and I held on for dear life. The trip was awesome, I am glad we did it, I do not want to do it again.
By the way...when we returned the jeep we got busted for the dog hair. We took the dogs so they would not bark but we could not get all of the dog hair up so they wanted to charge $40. Can't win!
Tomorrow is another off day.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Greetings from Torrey, Utah #2
Just a short note to let you know we survived our back road adventure. Our 3 hour drive turned into an 8 hour journey going 20 miles an hour at times. We found a slot canyon where there was just enough light to let a few trees grow. I will post that picture and others. I am getting tired of sight-seeing so tomorrow we with take a day off from vacation. The lady in the RV next to me said she didn't think she could look at another rock. I am beginning to feel the same way. Tonight we went for a walk to see the stars and they are quite majestic. It looks like twinkling Christmad lights when looking through the trees.
We will be in Torrey until Monday. We have several hikes and two more jeep days ahead of us.
Peace to our family and to all of our wonderful friends. Barbara
We will be in Torrey until Monday. We have several hikes and two more jeep days ahead of us.
Peace to our family and to all of our wonderful friends. Barbara
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