"From Sea to Shining Sea"

SUNDAY, AUGUST 9th - We're HOME!!!!

2009-08-11T17:46:00.008-04:00

Hi folks,
We arrived home around 3pm Sunday and was immediately greeted by the family. Blake (Grandson) was the first and couldn't wait to see us. He climbed into the MH as soon as we opened the door.
After some hugs & kisses, he told us, "Come see little brother - we still have him!" That brought a few chuckles right away.

Here are a few pictures - enjoy and I will comment at the bottom of page.

Sharon and new grandson "Connor" born July 17th, 2009.
You can tell how proud and excited Sharon is to be holding her new grandson. She anxiously waited 23 days from the day he was born until we finished our adventure! She said it was a long 23 days but well worth it!

Connor and Blake. (Blake turned 3 on June 19th)

Blake showing off his new Corvette shirt.

It says "When I grow up I'm driving a Corvette. Lookout!"

Guess I will be taking him for a spin around town next week!

We have a lot of catching up to do!

Blake & I sitting in our favorite recliner. He said he was the only one that got to sit in the recliner while I was gone!

Saw this sign as we left the Turnpike and started the last 28 miles home.

Well, what an adventure! 44 days, 28 states, and 9210 miles of fun, excitement, amazement, and astonishing scenery & sights that we will never forget. We were blessed with clear skies with the exception of one day.

I'm positive that this trip has brought Sharon & I even closer than before. We have learned that we can get along just fine even when sharing very close quarters 24 hours a day. We know that we have a lot of the same interests and really enjoyed what we did.

Both of us are grateful that so many of our friends and family followed along with us while we made a dream come true. Your emails meant so much to us as well as the many comments relating to your past adventures along some of the same trails. We are very happy that we decided to do the blog for it now will be an everlasting record of this great adventure.

America, the beautiful! Even though we traveled a lot of miles, we barely covered the surface of the states we visited. But, what we saw, we loved and appreciated the fact that this is our country and it is definitely the most beautiful place on Earth!

Thanks for sharing this with us! May your tales be happy ones and your trails be safe ones.
Denver & Sharon

AUGUST 7th & 8th - Alabama, DeFuniak Springs, Fl.,Paynes Prairie

2009-08-09T01:32:00.008-04:00

Friday, August 7th, we all were up early. Denny and the grandchildren were leaving at 7am. With tears in our eyes we said our goodbyes and watched as they drove away. Sharon, Linda, Don & I went back into the house and talked about our good time with Denny and the grandchildren.
Don had written and copyrighted a couple of songs which he played for them. Patrick asked Don for a copy of the songs and Don gave them to him.

When families are spread out around the country it is so hard to get everyone together. We were all thankful that our trips worked out that we could get together even for a short time.

We finally said our goodbye to Don (brother) & Linda (sister-in-law)and left for Jim & Betty's (friends)home in De Funiak Springs, Florida. This is where we left the TOAD (Honda CRV) on the first day of our trip.
When we crossed the Florida state line around 3:30, Sharon was just receiving some good news on the phone and saw the Welcome to Florida sign.. I don't know if the tears in her eyes was from the good news or making it back to Florida or both but she was excited!!!

We arrived at Jim & Betty's home right on time. Betty had fixed a great supper of fried pork chops, okra, peas, & fried cornbread. Dessert was homemade lemon pie. You know I have to be blessed because regardless where I go there is always a wonderful cook in the house. It is no wonder that I have the shape that I have! (round)
We enjoyed and talked the evening away - finally hitting the bed around 10pm.

Saturday, August 8th, we were ready at 9am this morning and went to a country style breakfast north of DeFuniak Springs. Too much food!!
Jim gave us a tour of the old homes situated around the lake in town. They were gorgeous and some were quite large, too.

Around 11:30, we said our goodbyes to Jim and Betty, hooked up the TOAD, and away we went. It was kind of strange to look at the monitor and see the Honda tagging along back there. I had to keep reminding myself that she goes where she is towed but I need to make room when necessary!

Our next stop was south of Gainesville at 5:30 EST. Paynes Prairie State Preserve. Full hook up camping for less than $10. This place is beautiful with a herd of buffalo and a herd of wild horses roaming free not to mention the deer and turkey that shares this habitat.

While Sharon was fixing cabbage rolls for dinner, I ran out and snap a few pictures. Enjoy them..........

Young Buck in velvet with a Doe.

He was curious, especially when I opened the door and got out of the Honda in hopes of a better picture of him.

The Does kept looking up to see where I was and then would go back to browsing.

Finally the Spike walked away and the Does soon followed.

I climbed back in the car and went to the MH for another fine meal prepared by Sharon. I wasn't disappointed either!
Tomorrow, we will make the final leg of our journey and home. Instead of driving straight in today and being tired from the trip, we decided to spend the night here at Paynes Prairie and drive the 3 hours home after breakfast tomorrow. That way, we will be rested and ready for those grandchildren, as well as other friends and family that will be dropping by.
So this time, I wishing that our last leg of the trip to be uneventful, safe, but still one of the HAPPY TRAILS!!

AUGUST 4th, 5th, & 6th - Don & Linda's Home

2009-08-09T00:26:00.015-04:00

Hi Folks,
We arrived at Don & Linda's home yesterday. I didn't spend much time taking pictures because we were too busy visiting and catching up on things. Over the next three days I did take a few pictures and they are below.
Enjoy the pictures and the comments.................

Tucked in behind two beautiful Bradford Pear trees on the rear left side of their 5 acres is Don & Linda's gorgeous country home. One of the projects he started after he bought the property was to build a fence all the way around it. This did take a little while to complete (just under 2 years) and I did say it was a project not a job. When you are retired you can work at your own pace and make the project turn out really nice like the fence did. That's a lot of fence, Don!

This is a side view of the house and where we made the turn to get Dusty backed around to the other side.

After getting Dusty parked by the other garage, we hooked up the water and electric, knowing, we were going to be here for a few days and some fun times.

We spotted the Hummingbirds on the feeder. Sometimes there were as many as five trying to get on the feeder. Don said they empty the feeder usually in 3 days.
NOTE: They emptied the feeder on Wednesday and one of the birds was looking in the back door trying to let Don know the feeder was empty.. I think he is spoiling his birds! (Heh heh)

This is one of their three cats and he is patiently waiting for Don to open the door and let her back in the house.

On Wednesday, I gave Dusty her bath and she looked a lot better. Made me feel better, too.

While I was pouring out a lot of sweat washing the MH, Don was busy cutting and vacuuming his lawn. I surely didn't miss this high humidity while we were gone.

Sharon & Linda in the kitchen preparing another great meal! Yum Yum!

On Thursday, August 6th, Denny (son) and the grandchildren arrived. They didn't know we would be there and we only found out they were coming just a couple of days earlier. This was a really special and happy day for all of us!!

In this picture from left to right starting in the front row is:
Patrick, Brianna, & Denver.
Back row is Denny and yours truly.

This picture is 3 generations of Denvers!
Left to right
Denver (that's me-known as PAPA), Denver II (Denny), & Denver III (Denver)

#2 hasn't accepted the fact that the Florida Gators are the best college football team but as he gets older he continues to get smarter!

Don kept the family entertained with his many funny stories!

Sharon & Denny looking at some family pictures.

Tomorrow, Friday, will not be a happy day as we all will be leaving Don & Linda's home, and will continue on our respective journeys. Denny and family will be going on to Tennessee and we will be leaving for DeFuniak Springs, Fl. to see Jim & Betty. Join us as we hit the road and some more HAPPY TRAILS.........

MONDAY, AUGUST 3rd - Alabama - Don & Linda's home

2009-08-04T00:38:00.003-04:00

No overnight parking in the Rest Area, huh? We slept until 8am. (nice) Got up, showered and dressed, then hit the road. We exited I-65 just south of Huntsville, Al. and pulled in at a Waffle House for breakfast. We ordered hash browns & pecan waffles for breakfast, enjoyed the meal, and then we started down the country road to see some family we haven't seen since April. It was a short drive but very relaxing due to the lack of traffic and the slower speeds.

Route 67 south east of Huntsville, Al.

Route US 231 and south to Union Grove, Al.

We arrived around 12 noon and was happily greeted by two smiling faces. We backed Dusty around the house to the other garage, hooked up the water and electric, and promised Dusty she would get a bath this week!
We had a wonderful day with Don & Linda, topping it all off with everyone helping to cook dinner and cleaning up afterwards. Steaks were great but the fresh bread made in the bread machine topped off the whole meal!
I promised myself that I would go on a diet after we get home!
Remember "Promises made are promises kept" HAPPY TRAILS.........

SUNDAY, AUGUST 2nd - Bowling Green, Ky - Nashville, Tn.

2009-08-03T23:05:00.019-04:00

WOW! We are definitely on the east side of the Mississippi River. The humidity was a little high last night but fortunately the temperature was bearable. After a nights rest in the parking lot of Walmart, here in Bowling Green, we decided to stock up on some groceries and do some other shopping . Since it was just across town to the National Corvette Museum, we knew we had lots of time to browse.

We drove the short distance to the Museum and once there we decided to look for a 12" X 12" brick. We belong to the Indian River Corvette Club in Vero Beach, Fl. and in 2004 the Club had decided to purchase a brick at the Museum.
This couldn't have been placed in a better location. It was almost directly in front of the main entrance to the museum.
Enjoy the pictures below as we tour the Museum.

The main entrance to the Museum on Corvette Drive.

Sharon pointing to the Indian River Corvette Club's brick just right of the checkered walkway to the entrance of the Museum.

Always my favorite - a 1953 Corvette. this was the first year of production and 300 Vettes were hand built in Flint, Michigan. All were white with a red interior and a black top.

1954 Corvette - check out the sign indicating the price per gallon for gasoline back in those days!
Starting in 1954 through 1982 models all Corvettes were produced in the St. Louis, Mo. plant.

Get your Kicks on Route 66! Remember those shows. Here are the two guys who starred in the shows and made Route 66 famous. From Chicago to Los Angeles, even today, you can still travel Historic Route 66 in broken segments across the country. Most of the highway have been replaced by Interstates.

Here's what the car looked like that help make the show a success.

The only lady inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame, our friend and fellow Club member, Betty Skelton. They were re-modeling the Hall of Fame and we waited until they put Betty's picture back up before we left. Google "Betty Skelton" and you will be amazed at what this marvelous lady has accomplished in her lifetime.

This is the only 1983 Corvette left. 43 were assembled in Bowling Green, Ky and GM ordered them to be destroyed. Thanks to the wisdom of some plant employees, this one was hidden from view and finally ended up in the Museum. 1983 became the first and only non-production year for the Corvette. The decision to destroy the cars was made because GM demanded defect free & the highest quality attainable. The 1983 Vette had so much new technology in the car and most was not fully developed for production. In 1984 the new Corvette was introduced and all Corvettes since them have been assembled in the Bowling Green, Kentucky plant.

We left the museum at 1:30 for the short drive to Nashville, Tn. We had boarding passes for the 6pm cruise and could start boarding at 5:15. We found a good parking place behind the Opera Mills Mall and was on board the Showboat at 5:15.

Sharon at the entrance for boarding the Showboat.

300' long - 4 floors and a big paddle wheel. This is a big boat!
The boat left the dock promptly at 6pm and returned at 9pm.

Sharon holding our pre-dinner drinks. This was perfect weather for a beautiful river cruise. We cruised up the river, turned around and cruised down the river to downtown Nashville. They again turned around and went back up stream for a long way.

We opted for the buffet on the Texas Deck because of the food selection. We were not disappointed.

After dinner we casually strolled about the boat from front to back on each floor.

There is always someone who volunteers to take our picture together and we certainly appreciated it.

This is the front of the boat on the 2nd floor.

The show started right on time at 8pm and like dinner, we were not disappointed. This group was not only talented but they were marvelous. They performed non-stop for 60 minutes with a variety of country music songs. Actually - they were awesome!

After walking to the MH, we found out that we could not stay in the Mall parking lot overnight. We changed clothes and let Rhoda (GPS) take us across Nashville to I-65 south and to a Rest Area. The first one we found was at the Alabama Welcome Center and the first sign I read was "No overnight parking".
It's 12:30am and half the night is gone - Staying here for the rest of the night, in my book, did not qualify for being OVERNIGHT. We parked up-wind of the semis who were not parking overnight (?) either.
GOOD NEWS! We had planned on spending a night at my brother Don & his wife Linda's home in northeast Alabama on our way back to Florida. Since some of our plans were canceled, we will be able to spend several days with them. On top of that, they informed us that my three grandchildren and son Denny will be stopping by on Thursday for a short visit on their way to Nashville. This surprise visit with the family will top off this wonderful adventure that Sharon and I have enjoyed so much.
Tomorrow we will travel on down to Union Grove, Alabama for some family time. Until the next adventure stay safe and HAPPY TRAILS....

SATURDAY, AUGUST 1st - Meramec Caverns, Mo. to Bowling Green, Ky.

2009-08-03T22:19:00.008-04:00

Hi everyone & welcome back,
It's a new month and we are still on this wonderful excursion. We left the KOA campground in Stanton, Mo. at noon, the temp was 69 degrees, and it was raining. 75 minutes later we passed through St. Louis and the rain was really coming down. Our plan was to tour the Gateway Arch and have dinner on a riverboat on the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis.

We scrubbed those plans after I told Sharon we could have dinner on a showboat in Nashville which would be much more enjoyable. I think she was very happy that we didn't do the Gateway Arch since she doesn't do heights very well. She may have done a rain dance to help me make up my mind! (haha)

We drove across Missouri into Illinois and the rain was still coming down. We pulled into a Rest Area and decided to wait it out while taking a short nap. If you haven't tried taking a nap while it is pouring down the rain, you need to do it. It is so relaxing - we slept about an hour and the rain had stopped.

On the road again, we stopped in Evansville, Indiana for dinner. YEP! You guess it! The choice was the Cracker Barrel, chicken & dumplings, country fried steak & gravy with corn bread and beans. Doesn't get any better than this!
When we left the restaurant, I fired up the laptop in the parking lot and decided to check on a tour of the Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green for Monday, Aug. 3rd and then a short visit to the Museum. MORE BAD LUCK! The tours at the plant were discontinued for three weeks starting (You guess it) August 3rd!

Okay we decided to tour the Museum during the morning and do the Riverboat in Nashville that evening so I made the reservations.

We left the Cracker Barrel parking lot and drove to Bowling Green, Ky. where we spent the night at the Wal-mart Campground (parking lot). This time we made sure we didn't park where any semis could park.
Busy day tomorrow, it's late and we went to bed as soon as we could get settled.

Enjoy the few pictures taken (because of the rain).

It was raining so hard on the way to St. Louis, the wipers could barely keep up.

Sharon did her best to get a picture of the Gateway Arch between wiper strokes.

She shot this nice picture of the Mississippi out the side window as we drove across the bridge.

The rain had stopped in Illinois after we left the Rest Area. It didn't matter which way you looked the land was pretty flat along the I64 corridor.

I couldn't resist this sign from the window at the Cracker Barrel restaurant. I'm having country fried steak & gravy here and they are tempting me with cheeseburgers in paradise.

That's the update for this day in history. Not too eventful today, but there is always something special waiting for you when your plans don't always work out.
Until then.................HAPPY TRAILS!

FRIDAY, JULY 31st - Missouri

2009-08-02T00:26:00.014-04:00

Hello everyone,
We spent the night in a Rest Area on I-70 at mile marker 58 in Missouri. We were not alone. We must have had an army of 18 wheelers all running their engines or reefers all night. Dusty is well insulated so the noise was not the problem. It was the vibration I felt when lying in the bed. I eventually fell asleep.

When I got up and finished getting dressed I went to the kitchen table to have my coffee and Sharon was sitting on the sofa ready to hit the road. I said" Aren't you fixing any breakfast this morning?" I guess I had that deer-in-the-headlight look because she smartly reminded me that I promised to take her to a Cracker Barrel restaurant for breakfast. I must have been pretty tired when we stopped last night. Oh well, promises are promises kept!

I turned on Rhoda (our GPS) and told her to find a Cracker Barrel somewhere east of here. We started Dusty and hit the road. Breakfast is being served 60 miles down the interstate.
Enjoy the pictures and comments.........

Cracker Barrel breakfast for me is the Old Timer Breakfast. Florida orange juice, 2 eggs, biscuits & gravy, 2 sausage patties, fried apples, and grits. Yummy!!!!!
Sharon usually eats the grits and helps me with the apples while she enjoys biscuits and gravy and one of my sausage patties. I love this place for breakfast.
This is the first time we have ate at Cracker Barrel since we left Florida.

We finally drove out of the flat country even if it is just for a little while.

Weight limit on this bridge over the Missouri River was 20 tons. They had that much weight with the construction equipment that was parked on the bridge not to mention the steady line of traffic due to only one lane open.

This is a beautiful country drive along the Meramec River.

We finally made it to the caverns. By the way, Sharon doesn't do caves very well at all. She held her feelings in check and pushed herself through it all. She didn't say much and she squeezed my hand a lot. I'm really proud of her for pushing herself as hard as she did.

The 3 sided Visitor Center uses the cavern for the back side. The entrance to the cave provides a constant temperature to the Visitors Center all year.

Most caverns has the same similarities so I will only post a couple of the pictures we took.

We watch a light show here while we listened to a recording of Kate Smith singing "God Bless America".

We drove back to the interstate and pulled into a KOA campground for the night. Since it was early I took a nap while Sharon did the laundry. (I know - a womans work is never done)
The steaks on the grill turned out really great as we sat outside and enjoyed the cool evening.

Our plan for tomorrow is to tour the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis and then have dinner on a river boat on the Mississippi.

Join us again on our next adventure. Happy Trails!

THURSDAY, JULY 30th - Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri

2009-08-01T23:35:00.012-04:00

We are rested up from our two day stay at the campground in Iowa. Today we are traveling southwest into Nebraska, south to Kansas and then east to Missouri, with a two or three stops along the way.

Enjoy the pictures as we continue on this great adventure.

As we traveled through Nebraska, the terrain pretty well look the same as South Dakota, Minnesota, & Iowa. Corn and soy bean fields every where.

Oh yes, If I haven't already mentioned it, the stimulus money must be getting distributed because every interstate that we have been on since we left Florida has been under construction.

Our first stop was the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska. That is a SR71 jet behind Sharon. It is capable of Mach 3 speeds.
We enjoyed a 90 minute tour of the facilities narrated by an experienced WWII Wing Commander who had some interesting stories to tell.

This is a picture of the left wing of a B36 bomber. It has 3 pusher props and 2 jets on each wing. 284' wing tip to wing tip and the whole aircraft was in this building.
All of the aircraft on display have been meticulously restored and the displays around the aircraft were very informative.

After the tour, we left the museum and turn south to Beatrice, Nebraska to tour the Homestead National Monument.
This is located on the very first land parcels claimed under the Homestead Act of 1863. It was filed by Daniel Freeman and the property was made a National Monument in 1936.

Here are some of the tools used to farm with. As the farms continue to grow, the need for farming machinery to help with producing the crop was needed. Some of the earlier tools were powered either by people or animals.

Sod house - Nebraska 1887

We left Nebraska and continue going south to intercept Interstate 70 where we turned east towards Kansas City. The country side at this point was rolling terrain and a welcome sight after all the corn fields.

Downtown Kansas City from I-70

The sign stating "welcome to Missouri" appeared as we crossed the Missouri River while we continue to negotiate the traffic in town.

AND THEN, in all the excitement, we missed the Welcome Center and forged onward to the next Rest Area 50 some miles away.
This is the 4th state we had been in today and I was ready for a back rub or a glass of wine (which ever shows up first).
This is where we will spend the night.

Not a lot of excitement today but then again we are not in the old west. Tomorrow we plan on going to the Meramec Caverns south of St. Louis. Sharon does not do caverns too well, so this should be interesting.
Until then HAPPY TRAILS!

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29th - Onawa, Iowa

2009-08-01T23:28:00.003-04:00

Greetings:
Today is a day of rest for both of us. We are in a very nice campground surrounded with 40 year old cottonwood trees. One of the owners stopped by and gave us some tomatoes and cucumbers out of her garden. Nothing like fresh vegetables for a good salad.

Tomorrow our plans are to drive down into Nebraska to the Stargetic Air & Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska and then south to Beatrice, Neb. to the Homestead National Monument.

Other than some good relaxing time and dinner on the grill - that will be all for now.
More later.

TUESDAY, JULY 28th - Mitchell, SD to Minnesota & Iowa

2009-08-01T11:23:00.027-04:00

Greetings and Welcome Back.
Camping at the Rest Area here in north central South Dakota we noticed that they had dump stations set up for the RVs as well as Wi-Fi. This was a small rest area so truck traffic was minimum giving us a great nights sleep.
Sharon usually gets up first, showers, and starts breakfast while I'm getting ready.
After breakfast I usually will start getting Dusty ready to hit the trail while Sharon cleans up in the kitchen. We both have certain jobs to do to ensure we have covered all areas and we can safely drive away without losing or breaking anything.

We went shopping at Cabelas so I could buy some ammunition for the pistols. I have tried several places before and everything is on back order. Cabelas wasn't any different. They said they would back order it for me and ship it to me when they received it. I'll just wait until I get home and place an order.

After leaving Cabelas, I noticed a self service RV wash across the street and drove to it. I talked to the attendant and she said it would probably cost about $20. for me to be able to wash Dusty. I thought about it for a minute and decided to watch for a truck wash along the interstate. That didn't take long because we found one not 30 miles down the road. We were 4th in line so we had lunch while we waited. As we drove away, not only did Dusty look better, but she seem to be quieter, and rode much better, too.

We pull off in Worthington, Minnesota to tour a Pioneer Village. Wow! This brought back some memories for this old man. If you are every in the the southwestern part of Minnesota this is a must see. We spent about 3 hours and could have taken longer.
I posted some of the many pictures of the village. Enjoy them and the comments!

A welcome site since we will be looking at my favorite kind of products!

Gray Wolf - This picture and the next 5, show some of the best mounts that I have ever seen. They capture the spirit of the animal, too.

Gorgeous mountain lion.

Check out the grizzly. If I have to get up close and personal to one, this would be it!

Same applies to this Bull Moose.

Beaver. We saw several large beaver dams in Yellowstone as we were leaving the area. these guys work really hard to build their habitat but they cause a lot of problems for the land owners when they dam up the streams.

Big and masterful Elk. Maybe one day I will be able to go hunting for one of these guys!

Okay, back to the real life as we continued on our adventure and to Minnesota.

We stopped at the Pioneer Village in Worthington, Mn.
Time well spent and enjoyed!

Sharon enjoying her favorite ride (next to Dusty) with the grade school behind her.

Classroom in late 1800 and early 1900s usually had grades 1-8. As the kids got older and bigger they move to the left in the classroom to enjoy larger desks.

This "Pledge of Allegiance" banner was before the words "under God" was added, which was in 1954, and was the second time the pledge was changed in history.
The first time was when they change the original words "I pledge allegiance to my flag" to "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America". I don't remember the date, just the history lesson that it did happen.

A replica of a Gas station which we refer to them as "Service Station". That name covered the operation really well since they offered not only to pump your gas, but clean your windows, check under the hood and air your tires. Now-a-days they are gas stations where you do your own thing!

I believe you can figure this one out!

Bicycles from the days gone by. Check out the one in the center with "Knee Action" suspension, a horn, & a big light on the front fender. Remember, we only had "D" size batteries which took more room.

Lawn mowers have come a long way since I had to use one of these. There's wasn't any need for a gym to get a good workout. Using one of these definitely would give you all the exercise you needed!

The telephone was not a dial up so the local town had a switch board with an operator who usually knew every one's business. After all she could listen to whatever conversation she wanted to. (haha)

When you picked up the receiver on the phone, the first thing you heard was not a dial tone, but an operator asking you "Number please" so she could connect you.

Here's an old "Iron Lung" used for polio victims.

This village is a must see for anyone in the area or passing through.

There were at least 3 streets with businesses, churches, and homes located on them.

I mentioned a couple days ago about the lack of trees and that the homesteaders had to build houses out of sod for shelter from the heat and cold. Walls were 2' thick and the rood was usually sod too.

Here's a picture of an original sod home. Picture taken in 1885.

The City Hall houses the Visitor Center.

We finally made it to Iowa and found a "Good Sam" campground named "On Ur Wa". It was really nice so we decided to spend two nights.

Iowa, home of corn, soy bean, and more corn and soy bean. The weather was cool so we left the windows open during the day and slept comfortably during the night with a vent open. This was a very peaceful place and deserved to have us spend two nights enjoying the tranquility.
Until the next adventure - stay in touch - and HAPPY TRAILS!

MONDAY, JULY 27th - Mount Rushmore to Mitchell, SD.

2009-07-31T23:43:00.019-04:00

Hello friends & family,
We spent the night at the Holy Smoke Campground. I rinsed the motorhome off and then we left for Keystone to do some shopping before we went to Mount Rushmore.

While in Keystone we went to the Borglum Museum to learn more about Mount Rushmore and the sculptor dedicated to this magnificent monument. Pictures were forbidden in most of the museum so we just enjoyed the self guided audio tour.
This was well worth going to see!

We left the museum (a little smarter than when we went in) and hit some of the jewelry shops along the street looking for some Black Hills Gold jewelry and anything else that sparks an interest. Sharon is a good shopper so I never worry about how much she will spend.

After we were tired of seeing the same things in different stores we left for Mount Rushmore and then on to the Crazy Horse Memorial. The parking lot was full with people just driving around trying to find some place to park at Crazy Horse. The rain & lightning moved in and it looked like it was there to stay for the day so we went on to Wind Cave NP. The temperature had dropped to around 60 degrees and the rain became intermittent as we traveled south to Wind Cave.
This is where we saw a big herd of Buffalo. We took a lot of pictures even though they never were really close to us.

While traveling across the lower western half of South Dakota we ran across many farms. Corn and soy beans seems to be the mainstay crops. There were miles of land which was void of any trees. Building houses during the mid to late 1800's must have been made from mud & grass due to the absence of trees. The land is still covered with grass as far as you can see. Another sight along the way was seeing a Casino when there wasn't a house, barn, or mobile home anywhere in sight for many miles. We were on a state highway, too.

Anyhow enjoy the pictures and comments, too.

I wasn't kidding about the name of the campground and that wouldn't be my way of describing it either. (Just the price)

Welcome to Mount Rushmore sign comes up on you really fast. To go to the Visitor Center you need to stay in the right lane. If you don't, the traffic backs up at the entrance, and you can't get back in the lane.

As soon as you see the monument and the size of it all, it is just breathtaking. How does one stay focused on the end result of a sculpture that will take many years to complete?

Here is another good view and a little closer.

This is an excellent view of the front of Mount Rushmore.

Here is a view from the side as we started around the mountain.

AND here is a view from the back side! (haha - just kidding)

There were many of these rock formations along the road as we left Mount Rushmore and drove to Crazy Horse's Memorial.

When the sculpture for Crazy Horse is complete it should look something like this sign at the entrance.

After several years the face is nearly complete.

As you can tell the rain has been coming down so we left without seeing everything.

At Wind Cave National Park, we spotted this herd of Buffalo off at a distance. With 2 trips into Yellowstone we only saw one buffalo. I guess they like the grass better in South Dakota.

This large bull must have weighed over a 1000 pounds.

The terrain across southwestern SD was pretty bland. Not much to look at but it is what we came to see regardless.

The rain stayed with us most of the day.

Sharon posing in front of this old farm car which gets driven annually in some kind of parade that they have in this area.

We had dinner at the diner close by.

When we finally reached I-90 we went to a diner before getting on the interstate.
Dinner was steak, potato, & a salad. Yum Yum!

We drove east on I -90 until we found a Rest Area where we spent the night.
It was a long day and we lost an hour when we crossed the Central Time Zone - sleep will come fast tonight!
Until the next adventure - stay tuned and HAPPY TRAILS!

SUNDAY, JULY 26th - Sheridan, Wy to Mount Rushmore NP, SD

2009-07-30T21:33:00.025-04:00

Hi everyone,
We spent a restful night in the parking lot of Wal-mart in Sheridan, Wyoming. This is just across the border from Montana. Sharon replenished the grocery supply from Wal-mart last night and we just finished eating breakfast at McDonalds which was located inside the Wal-mart store.

It's 8:30 and our goals for today is to find a truck wash to get "Dusty" all pretty again, visit the Devils Tower Nat'l. Park and drive to Keystone, SD to spend the night. Let's see how this day unfolds!

Here's some info on Sheridan, Wyoming.
The town was platted in 1882 and named after the famous Civil War general Phillip Sheridan. The arrival of the railroad in 1892 cemented Sheridan's permanence as a thriving business center. The town's population exploded from a mere 280 in 1890 to 5000 in 1907. Sheridan became a center for trade, commerce, government, and politics. Today only a few wooden buildings remain on the historic Main Street with most structures dating to the prosperous times of the early 20th Century.

Enjoy the pictures and comments as you join us on today's adventure.

The terrain, rugged and beautiful, as we traveled through northeastern Wyoming to Devil's Tower National Park.

Sharon spotted a huge herd of antelope as we crest a hill. We found a place to turn Dusty around and went back for some viewing pleasures. We were not disappointed!

We spotted an additional herd on the next hill beside the first. There must have been at least 70+ antelope just hanging around by the fence.

We were getting close to the Devil's Tower. This part of Wyoming is different than the western part but both are beautiful.

Wow! Devil's Tower! What a rock.
Dusty is outflanked by the towering beauty in the background.

Even though it is miles away I zoomed the camera in for a better view. This is incredible and no other big rocks nearby.

DEVIL'S TOWER is a striking and unique geologic formation that has attracted people and captured their imagination since prehistoric times. President Theodore Roosevelt designated it a National Monument in 1906.

As we drove closer the Devil's Tower you could see how gigantic she was!

While driving on up to the Visitors Center, we stopped to watch the Prairie Dogs.

Some of them watched us, also.

Sharon and the Devils Tower in the background.

You know there are things in nature that engender an awful quiet in the heart of man - Devil's Tower is one of them.

We wanted to get closer so we decided to tackled some big rocks.

The Tower, once seen so singular and unique, that it can never be forgotten.

Sharon standing on a big rock so I could get the Devil's Tower in the background.

The answer is NO! I wasn't born under a rock - I was merely climbing out from this one.

Notice the folks on the left side of the picture. They are doing what everyone did as they approach the Tower. Staring in amazement!

This is the extent of my rock climbing today!

What a background shot for the KOA Campground!

We had lunch in the restaurant attached to the KOA building. It took an hour to get to salads for lunch. While we waited we watched the folks coming in, some sat down, waited for while, and then gave it up and left.

We were amazed at the Cow mount on the wall. Is that a trophy or some cowboy's pet????

There were plenty of cattle ranches in this part of the country, too.

We finally made it to South Dakota and passed right through Sturgis on the way to Keystone. Sturgis is well known for their famous Bike Week which starts next weekend. Glad we missed it - we would not have been able to drive through town or any towns nearby because of the motorcycle traffic.

We arrived at our campground named "Holy Smoke" in Keystone. When we get up in the morning we plan to visit Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse National Monument.
By the way "Dusty" is still dirty and the owner of the campground said "No washing" of the RV in the park. I will still rinse some of he dirt off in the morning before we leave.
Until then - drive safe - play safe and HAPPY TRAILS!

SATURDAY, JULY 25th - Cody, Wy. to Billings, Montana

2009-07-29T22:52:00.020-04:00

Hi Folks,
We spent the night in Cody, Wyoming waking up to a nice 66 degrees this morning. The sun is already up and bright and right after breakfast we plan on visiting the Buffalo Bill's historical Center.

We drove "Dusty" over to the RV parking area and received our morning exercise by hiking to the front of the Museum. They definitely need a rear entrance since that is where most of the parking areas are located.

This is a big museum and we started with 3 short films documenting some cowboy heroes since this was National Cowboy Day. Pictures were forbidden in many areas of the museum so all we could take away from there were nice memories.

After we visited the museum we went back to the MH for lunch before starting our trip north to Montana to visit "Little Big Horn" battlefield and memorial.
Enjoy the pictures and comments!

Entrance to the Historical Center. Cody, Wyoming

William Cody earned his nickname "Buffalo Bill" by his skill as a hunter. In 1868 he earned $500 per month supplying meat to the workers on the Kansas-Pacific Railway. His style was to ride to the front of the herd and kill the leader with a .50 cal single shot rifle. He could then turn the herd in to a milling circle and get the days supply of meat one by one.

The taxidermists who is responsible for the following full size mounts are true artists as you will see in the following pictures.

This buffalo family is just incredibly life like.

U S Mail stage coach beautifully restored.

This caribou full body mount is so realistic.

A white-tailed deer ready to jump.

How about this full mount of a young bull moose?

Early Yellowstone NP transportation wagons for the tourists.

A real chuck wagon cooking in front of the Museum made me hungry!

We went to the parking lot and had lunch in the MH before taking off to Montana.

North Central Wyoming on the way to Montana is gorgeous.

This country is rugged but still beautiful.

We made it - Montana. Now we will continue north to Billings and then east to Little Big Horn.

Little Big Horn National Monument. (Little Big Horn is a river)
Here you will find a memorial with about 220 soldiers, scouts, & civilians buried around the base. The marble tombstones scattered around (see picture below) the battlefield denotes where the slain soldiers were found and originally buried. In 1881 they were re-interred into a single grave on this site. The officers remains were removed in 1877 to various cemeteries throughout the country. General Custer was buried at West Point.

This is the monument with the names of the 220 people engraved on it.

There is also a monument dedicated to the horses that fell during this battle.

Tombstones located where all the troopers remains were originally found.

This is another memorial to the famous Indians who were killed during the battle of Little Big Horn.

Here's a view of one of the cattle ranches dotting the landscape in Montana. We are now on our way to northeast Wyoming.

We traveled to Sheridan, Wyoming and found a nice, big Wal-mart Campground. The parking lot to the north of the store was our campsite for the night and we shared it with 9 RVs, 5 semis, & 4 travel trailers. It was quiet & secure enabling us to sleep very well.
When we find a Wal-mart that we are allowed to stay overnight in the parking lot, then we do our shopping at the store. This is our way of paying back for their kindness & support of the RV travelers.

NOTE: We hope you are enjoying the "Tales from the road" as we continue our journey across America. This country is massive but seems small when you go from point to point in an airplane. Each place that we stopped, we are reminded of the pioneers that walked, rode wagons & horses to travel this great land. Their adventures were death defying every mile of the way. Fortunately, ours is just trying to avoid some bad drivers on the highway every now & then.
As you can tell, I love American history and have a great respect for the places now being preserved for all future generations to enjoy.
Thanks for joining us again on this wonderful adventure! Until the next update, HAPPY TRAILS!!!

FRIDAY, JULY 24th - Yellowstone to Cody, Wyoming

2009-07-29T17:28:00.025-04:00

Hi there - welcome back!
We are south of Yellowstone NP and we will be leaving via the East Entrance to the Park. In not much of a hurry this morning, we left our no frills campsite for a dusty ride (#3) through Yellowstone NP. Our motor home, (nicknamed Dusty) has lived up to her name and collected all the dirt in Yellowstone. Even though she has been dependable, and very comfortable, she certainly is embarrassing to look at! Maybe no one will recognize us out here!

The weather this morning is very light rain and little to no sunshine. Very dreary for pictures but we will find the sun a little further east. We are headed for Cody, Wyoming.

As you might remember, I mentioned earlier that I would like to get a couple of horses, go trail riding somewhere, and have a picnic on the way. That's kind of what happened today, well almost!

More later so enjoy the pictures and comments..................

A final view of Yellowstone as we left the Park.

The forest fires and the pine bark beetles took their toll on the forests during the last 2 decades.

Of course, Mother Nature has a way to help other things survive, including the trees. With the fires burning off the ground cover new life begins shortly after.

The wild flowers were abundant and added beauty to some of the burned areas.

I don't know the name of this flower but it added beautiful color to the landscape.

Here's another one of the many beautiful flowers growing wildly as we passed.

It's 54 degrees and mid-July. We have frozen snow on the terrain beside us.

Wow! This road is just right for the MH and maybe a small car to pass. Sharon will have to keep her fingers crossed!

Just 40 miles west of Cody, we stopped at Buffalo Bill Cody's original hunting lodge. Next to the lodge was a building (Pahaska Tepee) which included a gift shop and a nice restaurant. Outside the window I noticed many saddled horses. This is the place! I asked Sharon if she would like some lunch and of course this became "our picnic."

After lunch and on the way to the corral, I couldn't pass up a picture with this wooden bear.
Sharon laugh and took the picture of me holding back this ferocious bear!

We went to the corral and asked to have a couple of old horses so we could go on a trail ride.

Our trail guide, Jerry, (a lifelong cowboy and rodeo rider) Sharon, & I embarked on a 2 hour trail ride.

Jerry's horse was reluctant to cross the river but that is where Jerry wanted us to go and off we went.

As for me, I kept telling my horse, "Don't dump me in the water".
There were some big rocks in the water but the horse understood and pick his way through very carefully. Good Horse!

We crossed the river and rode down through a meadow, where we crossed the river again. Now it's time to go up the mountain and see the view from there.

At our first plateau we took some pictures of the scenery. I continued to be on the lookout for bears (grizzly) while trying to enjoy this ride.

It was nice to ride the level ground but that was short lived. We rode even higher up the mountain.

Did I mention that for the last 20 years all I have ridden is a golf cart, an office chair, a Corvette seat, and a Lazboy recliner? None of which required me to straddle them. This horse felt like it was 5 feet wide by now and we were still going up the mountain. Was this my idea?????

Finally we reached the top of our travels and the view was spectacular! I tried really hard to enjoy this great ride but I was hurting in places I didn't know I had!

Now we have to go back down the mountain! Oh boy.......

We finally reached the bottom of the mountain, the horse didn't fall and I didn't fall off the horse!

When we get to the corral someone will have to help me off this horse and carry me to the motor home!

As you may have noticed, I didn't take any pictures coming down the mountain. I was too busy holding on & talking to the horse!

This is Buffalo Bill Cody's hunting lodge (Circa 1912). No one was present to give us a tour of the inside so I took whatever pictures I could get.

Stick benches on the front porch. The windows must have been original because the clarity of the glass was very poor & wavy. This would have been representative of standard glass used at the turn of the century.

I took this picture through the window. Lighting was very poor but it will give you some idea of what the inside looks like.

We left the lodge, sore butt, thighs, and all. We are on the way to Cody where we will spend the night and take some Ibuprofen!

We continued to see beautiful sights like this all afternoon and all the way to town. Unfortunately, the battery on the camera died. (probably the horse ride did it in) and we didn't capture the beautiful ride.
I can attest to the fact that it was gorgeous enough that I gave serious thoughts to going back the next day and photographing the scenery.

We arrived in Cody, Wyoming around 6pm & pulled into a campsite. Plenty of activities in Cody. They were acting out a shootout down at Irma's Hotel at 6:30. Also at 8pm there was a rodeo, too.
After discussing our condition after the horse ride, we opted for two Ibuprofens and chased it with some Crown & ginger ale. It took about 3 hours before one of the remedies kicked in.
Tomorrow we will visit Buffalo Bill Cody's museum and then travel to Montana to visit "Little Big Horn Battleground Nat'l. Park.
We sure could use a hot tub!

Happy Trails!

THURSDAY - JULY 23RD - Grand Tetons & Yellowstone Nat'l Park, Wy.

2009-07-27T00:03:00.019-04:00

Welcome back!
We spent the night at a very nice campground in Swan Valley, Idaho, 24 miles from the Wyoming state line. They have only 8 sites in the campground so there was no advertisement! We saw it by the road and managed to slow "Dusty" (our motorhome) down so we could make the 2nd entrance.
"Rendezvous at the South Fork", Swan Valley, Id. Tel: 208-483-camp
Big rig friendly campground.

Today we are touring the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone Nat'l Park.

Our first stop was Jackson Hole and a liquor store. Sharon says "Yoohoo!"
We stocked up on Crown, Jose', Vodka, and wine plus the mixers. This should do us until we get home unless we have to cross some very big mountains again!

We continued the drive to the Tetons and saw a lone buffalo on the right side of the road. As we continued to look for more, Sharon glanced past me on the left side of the motorhome. The view just took her breath a way. It's the Grand Tetons and grand they are. What a beautiful sight!

After visiting the Visitors Center we left for Yellowstone 43 miles north of where we were. Yellowstone was quite congested. We booked a campsite for the night. (No hookups & don't use the generator) CG located at Colter Bay Village.

We checked out our campsite and put a reserved sign on the site, then left for Yellowstone and Old Faithful. We encountered a 30 min delay due to construction. The road was completely removed and we drove over 13 miles of rocks and dirt to get to the south entrance of Yellowstone. I told Sharon we will have to cross this same dusty road 2 more times before we leave Yellowstone for Cody, Wy. REMEMBER - I washed my motorhome last night and it is filthy. I was pretty PO'd but kept it to myself.

WE made it with 10-15 minutes to spare and watch "Old Faithful" do her thing. It was not as high as we expected but anytime Mother Nature is at work it will be spectacular.
We had dinner at the cafeteria in the lodge. Sharon had a glass of wine which she thought she would need for the drive back to the CG. She said she has learned one thing on this trip. "When she leans away from the edge of the cliffs, the MH doesn't lean with her"
We stayed and watched Old Faithful again and this time she was magnificent.

Check out all the pictures below!

Our campground last night. Excellent over nighter!

Only thing is that it is located down stream from a big Dam!

We finally left Idaho and arrived in Wyoming.

This is the Grand Canyon of the Snake River in Wyoming!
This place is totally gorgeous!

Another view of the Snake River and the mountains.

The Grand Tetons was made a National Park in 1929 and 80 years later we visited. Check out the Tetons behind us!

One word says it all - Breathtaking!

This mountain range is incredibly beautiful!

We spotted our first and only buffalo! Where's the herd that holds up the traffic??????

Sharon and "Dusty" with the Grand Tetons in the background.

Another view of a majestic mountain range.

This has to be the most photographed and painted mountain range in the US.

"We made it YOGI!"

Sharon informed me that Yogi is in Jellystone NP.

The big fire of 1984 and the pine beetles killed many of the white bark pines in Yellowstone.

Everyone looks forward to seeing this spectacular site created by Mother Nature. As you can tell, we were patiently waiting for the next eruption which happens every 90 minutes (give or take 10 minutes)

After a lot of false alarms - FINALLY - "Thar she blows". A breathtaking view of Old Faithful!

Hundreds of tourists fill the boardwalk and benches every 90 minutes to watch this amazing eruption and display.

Getting Sharon to take her eyes away from the action in front of her was hard but she finally cooperated.

We left Yellowstone and returned to the CG via the dirt road. We arrived shortly after dark. I ran both air conditioners to get Dusty super cold before we got there because we can't run the generator in camp. It didn't take long to get in bed after we turned the motor off.
Tomorrow we will travel the dirt road again as we pass through Yellowstone on our way to Cody, Wyoming.

Remember I mentioned Cody a couple of weeks ago. Tune in on our next update to get the lowdown on this adventure. (heh heh)
Happy Trails!

Wednesday - July 22nd - Garrity to Swan Valley, Idaho

2009-07-26T22:39:00.012-04:00

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for visiting us again today.
We spent the night in Nampa, Idaho at the Garrity Campground which is 38 miles inside western Idaho.

We are making a loop down the west side of Idaho and back up the east side to Wyoming. This will prevent us from crossing major mountains in Central Idaho & Montana. We changed our travel plans while in Washington yesterday.

Our goal for today is to make this loop so we will be ready to visit the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone tomorrow. Our travels will take us southeast on I-84 to east of Twin Falls where we will pick up I-86. This travels northeast to Pocatello where we will pick up I-15 and go north to Idaho Falls. There we will leave the Interstate system and travel US26 east to Wyoming.

Enjoy the pictures as we travel across Idaho.

Garrity Campground, Nampa, Idaho. Cost $21.38
Got in late and never saw the manager. We put the money in an envelope and dropped it off in a mail slot at the office as we were leaving this morning.

Idaho, in this area, was pretty desolate, as you can tell by the picture.

After 150 miles, the terrain starts to change.

That's the Snake River in the background. We must have crossed it at least a dozen times.

This area of Idaho had many rocks and gulches as far as you could see. It looks like it is impassable, even on foot.

As we neared the Wyoming state line, the scenery, look a lot more inviting.

Beautiful ranches dotted the landscape.

Another small hill - the MH did remarkably well on this adventure. Even in the high elevations and steep grades, it was faster than the 18 wheelers and never overheated.

No secret - I set the cruise control for the acceptable speed for the terrain and let the computer manage the gears and RPM.

We located (by luck) a nice campground in Swan Valley, Idaho which is about 24 miles from the Wyoming state line. We introduced ourselves to our overnight neighbors. Gary & Joyce from Kansas. They were driving a Country Coach with a Honda Gold Wing on the back and towing a Jeep Liberty. I helped Gary unload the Gold Wing so he could clean it up. They had planned on touring the valley on it that evening. Gary said if we wanted to go out and tour the area or run some errands, here's the keys to the Jeep.
As I have mentioned many times before - "You meet the nicest and friendliest people in a campground regardless where you are".

We stayed in and when they returned from their dinner and ride we spent the evening telling tales and drinking wine.

Our view from the living room in the motorhome. Unlike being at home in Florida - in the MH we can change the view or our neighbors by driving a few feet or a few miles!

Well while it was still daylight and I had a little extra energy, I washed the MH. The last two times we stopped at a truck wash and let them do it. Of course, if I could have found one I would have let them do it again instead of spending 1 1/2 hours doing it myself.
Tomorrow, we will tackle the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone NP. Buffalos, deer, sheep, bears, and Old Faithful. I'm looking forward to this!

Tune in on our next update to hear the latest about these two areas.

Until then - Happy Trails!

Tuesday, July 21st - Oregon, Washington, & Idaho

2009-07-23T00:50:00.020-04:00

Hello folks,
We left the Oasis RV Park in Umatilla, Oregon and drove to Walla Walla, Washington. We saw the Walla Walla University whichs is a Seventh Day Adventist College.

We stopped in town and bought some fresh fruit and vegetables at a fruit stand and then continued our trip along US12 (Lewis & Clark trail)

Sharon & I started to discuss our planned route through Idaho and Montana. We decided that this route would involve too many big mountains. I quickly planned another route back into Oregon and then make a large loop down and around southern Idaho and then back north to bring us to northwestern Wyoming. This will add about 250 miles to the trip but will be more relaxing for Sharon, the MH, and of course, yours truly.

We turned the MH southeast and hooked up with Interstate 84 which took us to Nampa, Idaho on the border of Idaho/Wyoming where we decided to spend the night.

This was a lazy day on the road with stopping at 2 rest areas, taking a short nap, getting the MH washed, and still drove 335 miles.

Naturally, we took a lot of pictures and we will share some of them with you.

Oasis Campground in Umatilla, Oregon

Strange rock formation don't you think?

Welcome to Washington. We didn't stay long here!

This is a fun name to say really fast. I didn't mean for you to try it. Didn't you sound like a baby?

This city is known for its wineries and the home of the sweet onion.

The terrain changes fast in this area.

Washington wheat fields are every where.

Everybody is in the wheat business in this area.

Harvest time - Combine machine doing its job.

This machine picks up the wheat and then transfers the load to a waiting truck.

Welcome again to Oregon!

One of the scenes in Oregon along the way to Idaho.

Our road followed the valleys which kept us out of the mountains.

From the wheat fields to the barren mountains.

We noticed that most of the trains pulled double stacked containers on the railroad cars.

Also some of the big trucks pulled three (3) trailers!

Well we made it to Idaho. It was a long day with many breaks.

Here's a beautiful picture of the Snake River on the border of Idaho/Oregon.

At mile marker 38 we found a campground for $21. The campground was nice and it is late. No time for TV just computer time and sleep.
Tomorrow we will continue the loop in Idaho and should make Wyoming by late afternoon.
Good night and Happy Trails!

Monday, July 20th - Gold Beach to Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

2009-07-23T00:28:00.023-04:00

Greetings,
We left Gold Beach, Oregon after leaving the Indian Creek Cafe & Campground. We had a good breakfast at the cafe and slept soundly at the nice CG where we stayed for two nights.
The MH is fueled and we are ready to take on the Columbia River Gorge later today after we drive some more on US101 along the Oregon coast. When we get to Bandon we will turn our sights northeast and say goodbye to the Pacific Ocean.

Here is today adventures pictured and defined as best as we can. Enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed seeing the sights and trying to capture the feelings with pictures.

Indian Creek Cafe where we loaded up with a great country breakfast. Can't find any Cracker Barrel restaurants out here.

The campground was very nice, shady and had all the amenities except a hot tub and pool. Oh well!

These rocks protruding out of the water seemed much bigger than the ones in California.

I took this picture just south of Port Orford, Oregon

Another one in the same location - this place is gorgeous!

Sharon & I said our goodbyes to the Pacific Ocean. 15 miles north of here we will be in Bandon, Oregon. This is where we will turn northeast and start our journey back to the east coast & home.
We have traveled 4720 miles at this point.

We love traveling through Oregon because of the diversity of the environments.

Sharon & I both admired the perfectly shape trees along the way.

Next comes the farm land. The countryside is alive with its own picturesque beauty.

Some of the roads are pretty narrow and some are worse than that. You have to get on these roads to see the beauty of our country.

More beautiful farm country.

Regardless of the mode of transportation just picture yourself traveling down this road.

Now back to reality.......rush hour in Portland. The red car in the emergency lane nearly took the rear end off the car in front of him. I know what he feels like, I did the same thing not 30 minutes before. I learned real fast to put a big gap in between you and the car in front.

Look at the background! That is Mount Hood, the highest point in Oregon standing majestically at 11239 feet.
We are not going that way!

We decided to drive the Columbia River Gorge across northern Oregon fortunately Interstate 84 is the road beside the river.

It doesn't get much better than this! The river must be at least two miles across.

The interstate had light traffic and was in good shape. The sights was exciting and the drive was relaxing.

The landscape continues to change as we get further east.

Now there isn't any grass or trees on the mountains.

Couldn't resist this picture. My thoughts is that with trying to find alternate energy sources, this may be Florida's future landscape. Ugh!

We arrived at our campsite for the night. Oasis RV Park, Umatilla, Oregon at 8:30. Cost $10 for full hookup.
When we leave tomorrow we plan to travel northeast through Washington on the Lewis & Clark trail US12 into Central Idaho and then on into Missoula, Montana.
Idaho is rich with biggggg mountains and they continue on into Montana. This should be fun.
Until then "Happy Trails"

Sunday, July 19th - Gold Beach, Oregon

2009-07-22T21:34:00.018-04:00

We are at the Indian Creek Campground where we stayed last night and will stay again tonight. This is located in Gold Beach, Oregon, a small town on US101 in the southwestern corner of the state.

We made arrangements to take a jet boat tour of the Rogue River for 64 miles. This will be a scenic tour with some fun. Our boat captain will do some 360 degree turns at high speed and a few people may get wet. The boat is power by 3 Chevy Vortex 496 CID engines. I was told the top speed is 60 mph with 45 people on board. But first - remember this is a scenic tour not a race!

Enjoy the pictures.......

This is the boat. Long, wide, flat and all the weight down low. Captain and engines are in the back. The jet pumps are tunneled and do not extend below the bottom of the boat. This boat can operate just fine in 12" of water.

We saw these seals just as we were leaving the harbor.

Nice big bridge. We crossed this bridge when we left town to continue on our adventure.

Osprey high up in a tree which was pretty high up on a hill.

I was informed that Ospreys build their nest in the top of a structure. The Bald Eagle will build it down a little lower to get some shade from the trees.

Picture yourself, retired, wealthy or not, sitting here looking down at the river. Peaceful!

A nice home situated on a bluff overlooking the river.

My first sighting of a Bald Eagle. He was high up on a hill overlooking the river. More eagle pictures to come!

We had lunch here at Cougars Lane Lodge. Food was okay but the service was pretty bad. This is in a town called Agness, 32 miles upstream on the River. They get a captive group from the boats who have 2 hours to spend here. Since this place depends on tourism you would think the service would be top shelf.

Agness, Oregon - Population 75

This is where our boat will pick us up after lunch.

Sharon posing with the boat Captain. He might have been 23 years old but he knew how to handle this jet boat.

This is one of the two Bald Eagles perched in the same tree about 20' apart. They were pretty high up.

Got a good snapshot of this Bald Eagle while he was down by the water. Unfortunately I didn't react fast enough to catch him in flight as he flew away.

Our boat captain decided to wet down the tourist. He did this 3 or 4 times. After you get wet the first time all you can do after that is get wetter, so enjoy it! HINT: Do not sit in the first 5 rows.

The Rogue River is famous for the King Salmon run which happens twice a year. This guy caught a 20+ pounder and was very proud.. I was told the record for this area is 44 pounds.

My camping neighbor had a beautifully painted satellite dish. The painting gave good representation of our surrounding area.

Saturday, July 18th - Redwood Nat'l Park & CA101 Scenic Drive

2009-07-19T00:27:00.003-04:00

Greetings,
We slid out of bed early this morning to drive to the Redwoods National Park and then on to Oregon after we have visited the park.
Our route is US101 all along the coast of Northern California and Oregon.

It didn't take long before we were in the Visitors Center of the Redwoods National Park. This park is made up of a lot of state parks & National Monuments totaling about 40,000 acres of some of the oldest and largest Redwoods in the state.

To continue protecting the ancient Redwoods, President Nixon signed the bill in 1968 making this a National Park.
The trees grow from a seed, about the size of a tomato seed, into a tree that reaches 370'. Of course that would take about 2000 years. The bark is about 12" thick and is impervious to fire & insects. The base can reach 22' diameter and the cone that it drops is about the size of an olive.
Walking through this forest would make Paul Bunyon look the size of an insect.

Sharon was snapping pictures one after the other after we left the forest and drove along the coast. As you will see in the pictures, this is a beautiful place.

Yes - this is my birthday cake (on the road).
Sharon said she had all the letter candles to spell out "Happy Birthday" but the cake would only hold two letters.
Really - it's the thought that counts!

Okay here we go. California to Oregon on US101 along the Pacific Ocean coast with a stop at the Redwoods National Park.

The Fog was still pretty thick! If the sky had been blue this would have been a beautiful picture.

Lots of folks stop along this busy highway to view the beach areas.

At the Redwood NP visitor center I took this picture of a poster. Read the statement to get a perspective of how big a Redwood tree can be.

Everyone shows up to drive the US101 scenic highway regardless of the vehicle. Motor home, motorcycles, class B camper, Corvette, and there's a Mustang in front of the Vette.

Check out the trees right on the edge of the roads. Scary!

Now this is a BIGGGG tree!

See the truck in the picture - now look at the trees.

Nothing goes to waste - there's a tree growing on the cut tree trunk.

This BIG Redwood is 23' in diameter.

Same tree - different view! What do you think? Big enough?
Just think of all the redwood furniture you could make with this tree.

Everything survives on the fallen giants.

We left the Redwood National Park and continue to head north on US101 into Oregon. Every mile we go the view gets better.

Every time we would get close to the water - the fog was there.

It kept getting worse. I thought we would never get a blue sky for some nice pictures.

Sharon shot this picture out the front windshield of the MH at 55mph. I think she likes this new camera!

This is the real thing! I didn't take a picture of a postcard.

Sharon said "this is an incredibly beautiful place".

I may have to drag her away from here if we are to see anything else today!

Okay! One more picture!

We both enjoyed the view and taking the pictures. We are so lucky to be able to see this great land of ours in many different environments as we have experienced during our adventures.

See the two people on the beach on the right side of the picture. That would have taken me all morning to walk that far..

We arrived in Gold Beach, Oregon and made reservations at a beautiful campground in called "Indian Creek Campground". They had everything you could want at a campground so we decided to stay two nights. We made reservations for tomorrow to ride the Mail boat (It's a jet power boat) 64 miles on the Rogue River. This should be wet & fun!
Until then "Happy Trails!"

FRIDAY - JULY 17th - Campground at Garberville, Calif.

2009-07-17T15:58:00.003-04:00

At 2am PDT, Whitney (daughter) called and said she was leaving for the hospital. Her water had broke and it is time for the baby to arrive.

We quickly decided that we will stay here another night and not take the chance that we may or may not have cell phone service in the Redwoods national Forest.

Our morning was kept busy with the many phone calls while we kept track of the events back home.

As others called and wished me a "Happy Birthday", I was thinking that this will be an even more special day if my grandson is born today.

At 1:55 EDT Connor was born. He weighed 7 lbs. & 6 oz. He was 21" long. Both the Mom and the baby are doing great!

Sharon and I are relieved that it is over but are very sad that we are not there with them. Phone calls, pictures, and text messages have been coming in steadily since the birth. All in all - we are very happy, blessed, and grateful grandparents.

Tomorrow, we will continue our adventure and will leave for the Redwoods National Park. So stay tuned there may be more surprises ahead.

THUR, JULY 16th - Traveling Scenic Coastal Hwy 1, Calif.

2009-07-17T15:33:00.005-04:00

Greetings,
It is 53 degrees (no more complaining about 100 degrees) and we have left SF to drive the famous CA1 scenic route for 200 miles up the coast.

We talked to Whitney (daughter), she was having contractions so she went to the hospital around noon EST. They stopped later and she went back home.

Back to the drive up the coast, the fog had moved in, and hanging along the coast, as we drove north. This road is great for sport cars, motorcycles, & bicycles but it is not friendly to motor homes. Thousands of twists and turns, up and down the terrain, as we followed the coast line with the elevations changing from 13' to 650'. I could just imagine the both of us riding our Gold Wing through these curves. This would be a great ride.

When we got closer to Highway 101 and the end of Hwy 1, the elevation climbed to almost 2100' with the curve warning signs posted as low as 10mph. Either the cliffs or the big rocks were on the edge of the road. That of course didn't deter us from driving the length of this scenic road. It took us 8 1/2 hours to cover the 200 miles and we did stop a few times to take pictures and eat lunch.

I think everyone should drive part of this road at least once in a lifetime. I think I would prefer to do it on a motorcycle the next time. The beaches are nothing like what we are used to in Florida. Most of the beaches is where the gulches drain to the Pacific. The rest of the coast is cliffs and huge rock formation in the water. In spite of the weather, we noticed surfers in different areas along the way.

We made it to Garberville, Ca. and found a nice campground to stay in for the night.
Tomorrow we will leave early and travel to the Redwoods National Park.

Like the Blogger title "From Sea to Shining Sea" says.
We left Vero Beach, Fl. which is on the Atlantic Ocean and here we are on the Pacific Ocean at Jenner, California.
As you can tell the Pacific is not too shiny with all the fog on the coast today. It's still a great site to see.

Oh by the way, the MH made it too!

We didn't expect any less.

The fog moved in yesterday while we were in San Francisco.

This is definitely a different kind of coast than we are used to in Florida.

This is the lighthouse at Point Arena. It is situated on the closest point of land to the Hawaiian Islands in the Continental United States. The point is surrounded on 3 sides by the Pacific which keeps the area cool. Set in one of the most spectacular yet peaceful surroundings on Calif. northern coast, the Point Arena tower is the only West Coast lighthouse of significant height (115') that you can tour and climb to the top.
The first Point Arena Lighthouse was constructed in 1870 and in April 1906, a devastating earthquake struck the tower. It was damaged so severely that it was torn down and 18 months later in 1908, the new lighthouse began operations. It features a 1st order Fresnel Lens which is over 6' in diameter and weighed more than 6 tons. In June 1977 the lens was discontinued and it was replaced with an automatic aircraft type beacon.

The road (CA1) follows the cliffs and the gulches, with lots of curves and many ups & downs.

This is a rock formation in the water - through the fog you can see many different colors on the rock.

A group of large seagulls taking a bath.
Since I'm retired and traveling, I made myself useful by counting how many times a particular seagull put his head under water before moving to the beach. 11 times

Now how many times can you do that before someone has to haul your carcass to the beach? (haha)

The gulls are quite larger than the ones we have in Florida.

Sharon took this picture of the surf and the fog - on the right you can see the curvy road ahead.

Many motorcycle riders travel this highway.

We passed quite a few bicycle riders whose bikes were loaded down with gear. I don't see how they climbed some of those hills along the beach.

200 miles of curves and very slow driving. It took 8 1/2 hours to cover the 200 miles. That equals about 23mph. The bicycles were going faster than that.

The big trees are Redwoods.

The hills were only 2000' high but the road made it feel like you climb 4 times as much.

We camped at a nice campground (Richardson Grove CG) in Garberville, CA. on US Hwy 101. This is a much better road than we were on and we will have some better views further up the coast. Redwoods National Park is next on the agenda.
Until then......Happy Trails!

Wed - July 15th - San Francisco, California

2009-07-17T14:44:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone,
We are in Larkspur, Ca. across the Bay from San Franciso. The first thing this morning as I was stepping out of the shower, Sharon is happy and crying, "I found my rings!" I hugged her and was excited to see her this happy. I was glad to see the worrying was over. Whew! That was like lifting a large load off our backs.

Whitney (daughter) called shortly after and said she was experiencing labor pains. Her baby boy is due the 18th or 19th. I sure hope it is the 17th, which is my birthday. We kept in contact with her during the day.

We wanted to leave to catch a Ferry boat to SF around noon, but at 10:30 we decided to lie down and take a nap. We woke up at 1:30! All I can say is we must have been really tired.

We got dressed and walk 20 minutes to catch the ferry. The ride was great and once we hit SF we jumped on a trolley t0 pier 39. We walked about 2 blocks to catch an open top tour bus for a tour of SF. When we left the MH the temp was in the mid 70s, warm enough for a short sleeve shirt. After an hour in the open top bus and the fog moving in we realized we didn't have enough clothes on. We moved down to the bottom of the bus for the rest of the tour.

When we arrived back at Pier 39 we bought a hooded sweatshirt for Sharon and a jacket for me.
We ate dinner, walk the pier, and watch the seals. We finally boarded a trolley back to the Ferry and enjoyed the night views on the way to the MH.

Overall this was a great day and a great way to see SF while leaving the driving to someone else. This was the last tour of the day so the driver spent an extra 1/2 hour fighting the rush hour traffic. As you will see in the pictures, this tour covered all the popular areas of SF plus crossing the Golden gate bridge twice.

Traffic was light as we drove into Larkspur, Ca. where we had reservations at a campground. Cost $55. per night.

When we arrived I thought this was a parking lot for RV storage.
Surprise! It's the campground!

Sharon posing in front of the Ferry that we boarded for San Francisco. We were impressed by the power and speed of this boat. 7800 HP - 41 mph.

Skyline of SF from the Ferry as we were nearing the pier.

Pier #1 - this is where we will catch the Ferry back to the CG tonight.

Here comes our trolley that we will ride to Pier #39 (the most popular tourist site in SF)

After we left the trolley, we walked 2 blocks & took an Open Top bus tour of SF. Did I mention it was 4pm and 59 degrees with fog moving in. We were not dressed for this! The white stuff in the sky was fog - not clouds!

Many motion pictures have scenes shot on this famous street.

Trans American bldg in downtown SF. (That's where one of my retirement checks comes from)

One of the restaurants in Little Italy. There were many more with sidewalk dining. Wow! The air was filled with Italian cooking scents and it made me hungry.
The signs says "We season our garlic with food"

A quick glimpse of China Town.

Wells Fargo museum in the financial district of SF.

The court house and many other government bldgs.

The Golden Gate bridge was fogged in & it was COLD on the top of this bus! Sharon & I moved to the lower level of the bus for the rest of the tour.

No visit to SF is complete unless you go tour pier 39.
Check out all the seals behind me and YES - it is cold and wet here!

Some were aggravated & fighting

And some were posing for the cameras.

Some were doing the cat walk thing!

Some were fast asleep.

The one thing they all did was smelled really bad!!!!!!

Sharon on the pier where we bought some warm clothes.

Finally our trolley ride to Pier 1.

Looking back from the Ferry, we said "Goodbye" to San Francisco. We had a wonderful visit!

We sure hope you enjoy the tour of San Francisco with us. We took over 100 pictures on the tour that we kept and a few more that we erased. The best way to get around in SF is with public transportation. Parking a car cost an arm & a leg not to mention driving in all this traffic.

Tues - July 14th - Modesto to Napa Valley, California

2009-07-17T13:56:00.004-04:00

Greetings from California
We left the campground at Modesto Reservoir and instructed "Rhoda" (our GPS) to take us to Napa Valley. Like most women, they can be stubborn at times, so I supplied a little more detail and she became very cooperative. Beringer Vineyards, St. Helena, Ca. here we come. We have a tour appointment for 4:15 and a 4 1/2 hour drive to get there. We should make it between 1 & 2pm.

This morning, Sharon told me that she has misplaced her wedding rings. She has been trying to remember the last place she took them off and she is pretty sure it was in the MH. She has looked everywhere she normally puts them and areas close by. This has bothered both of us all day leading to not much communication and a lot of thinking. Sharon has promised these wedding rings to Whitney (daughter) in her will and I was wondering how we would tell her that they are lost.

I don't know if I could ever replace them because we had them made special for us.

We tried really hard to enjoy the tour. Beringer Winery has several tours and the one we took was for 90 minutes. There was only 12 people in our group and our tour guide not only like the wine she tasted but she was very informative, too. We sampled two wines at the start of the tour, another bottle in the vineyard, and 3 more bottles plus a keg while in the cellars. Marissa, our tour guide, sampled all the wines that we did and she does 3 to 4 tours a day. Nice fringe benefits to this job, huh?

Overall this was an excellent tour from Beringer.

Here's some facts I bet you didn't know.
Beringer is owned by Foster (Yep - the beer guys from down under)
For those Merlot drinkers you will be as surprised as we were to find out that White Zimfandel is the most popular wine ordered.
Of course, you will not catch me ordering a PINK wine in a bar. (haha)

We left about 7pm for a short drive to Larkspur, Ca. which is just across the Bay from San Francisco. Enjoy the pictures & comments.

Napa Valley - the valley of grapes.
Of all the California vineyards, less than 5% of the grapes come from Napa Valley.

Beringer Vineyards was founded in 1876. When other wineries were shutdown do to Prohibition, Beringer continued to operate through Prohibition by selling sacramental wines under a federal license allowing wine to be made for religious purposes.

We took many pictures of the Rhine House which was built for Frederick Beringer as his residence.
The 17 room mansion was completed in 1884.

There were several rooms with fireplaces with different designs and beautiful wood carvings.

Beautiful scenes made from stained glass enhanced the lighting and accented the doorways & windows.

One of the scenes above the door.

The main entrance door to the house.

Sharon cooling her heels on the front porch and looking forward to some wine.

Another great view of the house.

The vineyard behind us bears the grapes for Beringer's Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve.

A trip through the cellars - all under ground.

We sampled wine before the tour, in the vineyard, and in the cellar tasting room we sampled 3 more bottles and 1 keg. I was feeling pretty good when the tour ended.

It was 56 degrees in the cellar where we did the most wine tasting. It felt great after a walk through the vineyards.

Beringer Vineyards , the oldest continuously operating winery in Napa Valley, was the first to offer public tours. If you take the $35 tour you can experience the Beringer Brothers’ vision from vineyard to bottle. With a glass of wine in hand you will tour the St. Helena Home Vineyard, part of the original estate vineyard site from 1875. This tour then proceeds to the Old Stone Winery and wine-aging tunnels for a barrel tasting of a pre-release wine. The tour finishes with a sit-down tasting in the Cellar Room where we sampled 3 current-release wines.
Sharon & I have been to several wine tastings and tours. We both agreed this was the most informative and creative tour we have ever done.

Cheers and Happy Trails!

Monday, July 13th Camping at Modesto Reservoir, Ca.

2009-07-16T02:04:00.007-04:00

Howdy!
We arrived at this County Park campground last night just east of Modesto, Ca. Since it was Sunday afternoon when we arrived there were plenty of day users nearby. Loud Spanish rap filled the air but disappeared when we shut the windows and turned on the AC.
However, today it is quiet with only a few campers still here. This is going to be a nice & relaxing day.

We have full hookups for the RV and our cost was $20. for two nights. Sharon likes it when we are settled for a couple of days because she can cook some really good meals. Sometimes, I even pull out the grill for some specialized cooking! (haha)
This also gives us a lot of one on one time where we can sit, talk, and relax without TV, radio, or other interruptions. This is so nice because most of the time people are preoccupied with their TV shows, computer time, and other time eaters that they just don't take the time to just sit and talk, hold hands, and take long slow walks with their love ones.

That gives me an idea - just maybe when we get to Wyoming, we will go on a picnic by way of horseback down by some little stream. Doesn't that sound nice?
Guess I will have to Google Wyoming to see what I can find.

Our campsite - lots of shade trees, no grass, but what a view. Water all around us. This is a small piece of heaven along the way!

Our welcoming committee. Canadian geese - 100s of them all over the place. This must be their summer home because this place is loaded with them.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to the geese and hit the road for an appointment to tour the winery and vineyards of Beringer in St. Helena (Napa Valley)
We will get to sample some wine, too. (Yum Yum) More later............. Happy Trails!

Sunday, July 12th - Yosemite Nat'l. Park, Ca.

2009-07-16T00:53:00.019-04:00

Hi Folks,
We climbed out of bed early this morning because we knew we had to try a different route to get to Sequoia NP. We left the Corp Of Enginners lake campground and backtracked until we came to CA245. This road went around every grove for a 100 miles but we finally got close to the other entrance to Sequoia NP. Again we fell into the over the 30' length problem according to the sign along the road. Naturally we decided to give up on this park even though we wanted to see those big Sequoias.
We backtracked a little ways and then took a route west to CA99. We followed this to Fresno and took CA41 to Yosemite National Park. The mountains were not as high as the ones we traveled through in Utah. However, these were much worse. The grades, up & down, were steeper and the curves were a lot closer together and plentiful. We finally reached Yosemite National Park.

To say the least, this park was not tourist friendly. It is spread out all over the place with some commercial activities. The Visitor Center was very small. Even though the Park Rangers in the VC were friendly, they seem to lack knowledge of places to go with an RV.
We finally found a tour bus at a gas station (diesel $3.31) that was going to the Mariposa Grove which has plenty of large Sequoias. (Yippee!) We won't miss out after all. The bus seated 42 and they loaded it to 70. Talk about overloading. The drive had to negoiate the many curves and dodge the sight seeing oncoming traffic on a narrow two lane road. Sharon & I just watch the floor and never looked out!

When we reached the grove, we left the bus and spent about 2 hours hiking the trails to the different trees.

Here's a few pictures and comments from out day trip. Enjoy!

On the way to Yosemite NP. The curves were one after the other. We gave the MH a good workout through these.

Okay let's do it one curve at a time. Every now and then there was a turn out where you could pull over and let some traffic by. Sometimes I pulled over and let some by and sometimes others pulled over and let me go by. I don't blame them - I hate to keep looking at my mirror and seeing that motor home cruising up behind me.

As the sign indicates this place is spread out.

Here's a small sequoia along side the trail when we first started walking. Man, that is a lot of firewood!

This tree fell hundreds of years ago and is over 300' long. I won't go into detail (because I don't know why) but these trees don't decay enough to notice. The driver explained it but I couldn't hear him over the other 68 people on board the bus.

These trees are so tall that they seem to reach the Sun!

Two fallen giant Sequoias. Ends were cut to clear the trail.

They call these trees "The Bachelor and the Three Graces" They were HUGE!

A little more close to the Bachelor.

The original tunnel tree fell many years ago so this one is called the "California Tunnel Tree".

Here's the same tree with the people removed. (Just yell FIRE! and they all ran)

In this forest size does matter!

One of the trees by the road on the way back down to the tour bus. We were overwhelmed by the gigantic size of these trees.

The big trees were awesome and well worth the effort it took to get to see them. Pictures does not capture the feeling you get when you see these giants. Nothing can make you feel small as standing next to one of these. This part of Yosemite should be on your places to visit when in California.

We drove back down the narrow crooked road and hit CA99 to Modesto. We found a county campground on the reservoir. This CG was so nice we decided to stay a couple of days.

Thanks for traveling with us - hope you are enjoying the adventures!

Until we get on the road again - Happy Trails!

July 11th - Calico Ghost Town, Calico, California

2009-07-15T11:13:00.013-04:00

Hello everyone,
We spent the last two nights at the KOA in Yermo, Ca which is by one of the exits on I-15.
The Barstow KOA has a shuttle (mini-van) for their guests and we made arrangements with them to shuttle us to the Calico Ghost Town.

We left at 8am before the temperatures peaked out at the expected 106 today.
What we didn't know was that the buildings in Calico didn't open until 9am. So our first impression when we got there is....... "This place is still a ghost town!".
We didn't see anyone except maybe 3 people serving out their time doing community service (picking up litter).

We walked around looking at all the old buildings and replicas of others. There were only four of the original bldgs. left.
Calico was developed in 1881 during the largest silver strike in California. Located at the side of towering King Mountain, the town was named for the variety of colors in the mountain that were "as purty as a gal's calico skirt." Calico boomed during 1881-1896; but the end came to the silver rush in 1896 and by 1904 Calico had become a ghost town.
Today the historic silver mining town lives on as one of the few original Old West mining camps. One-third of Calico's original structures still stand; the remaining buildings have been carefully reconstructed to capture the Old West spirit.

Enjoy the pictures and comments below..................

What the ............? Sharon standing by a wagon with a tree growing through it. That wagon had to have been there for many years. None of the trees were much bigger than this one.

Post Office located inside the General Store. Yep! Not much bigger than the old stove in front of it!

Park Headquarters. This is one of the original buildings. The park ranger said originally it was a "House of ill-repute".

Here's a chuck wagon complete with cupboard on the back. Note the cooking equipment set up by the fire pit which was carried in the big wooden box.
Thankfully, camping is a lot easier today with gas grills, microwave ovens, and motor homes!

We finished our tour of Calico by having lunch at their restaurant and touring the saddle & leather shop.
We left the KOA at 1230 with plans to visit the Sequoia National Park.

Surprise! We drove to within 15 miles of the NP on CA198 just to find out the MH was too big to drive the roads in the park from this particular entrance.

We found a Corp of Engineers campground nearby and spent the night. Tomorrow we will try a different route further north.

View of the lake from our campsite at the COE campground.

Zion National Park to Barstow, California

2009-07-13T22:31:00.015-04:00

Friday - July 9th
We left Zion NP on UT9 which led us to Interstate 15. This will take us the 300 miles to Barstow, California. We need to be there before 9pm PST so we can get into the KOA campground at Calico Ghost Town. Our travels took us thru the Mohave desert in California. We didn't see a California Welcome Center until we were getting close to Barstow. Naturally, being on a time schedule, we just blew by it.

We arrived at the KOA at 850 and got a campsite for two nights. Temperature was 97 degrees when we got the MH set up for the night.

The pictures below covers the trip from Zion to the campground. Please enjoy!

Arizona Landscape. Sharon tried to take a picture of the "Welcome to Arizona" sign but we were cruising pretty good when the sign appeared.

Notice the landscape - color is solid "sandstone". Nothing else!

Skyline of Las Vegas.

Traffic at 7pm going thru Vegas. What was it like at rush hour??

Trump Tower!

Casino Bellagio flys by as we fight the traffic at 60 mph.

Nice! Casino, New York New York enhances the skyline.

Reflections of the late evening sun on Mandalay Bay.

Welcome to California. It looks like the rest of the desert country.

We will be leaving here on the 11th after a visit to Calico Ghost Town. Our next stop will be Sequoia National Park. Stay tuned, this could be interesting!
Happy Trails!

Glendale KOA to Zion National Park

2009-07-13T20:02:00.026-04:00

Thurs - July 9th
We spent the night in Glendale, Utah at a KOA campground. After visiting 2 National Parks yesterday we didn't spend much time looking for a campground. This one was near the highway and convenient.

This morning we woke up to 40 degrees. We went to bed with the AC running and I turn the heat pump on when I woke up this morning. It will be 40 degrees higher in 2 hours and will be in the 100s this afternoon. Getting used to it is a hard thing to do.

We are traveling from Bryce Canyon on UT12 and then south on US89 to UT9 which will takes us to Zion NP. This will let us enter the park from the northeast. The Visitor Center is on the southwest side.

When we entered the Park they informed us that there was a charge for an escort to get us thru the tunnel in Mt. Carmel. It is one mile long and only 13.1' high in the center. The tunnel was finished in 1930 and the top is oval shaped topping out at 13.1'. Our MH is over 12' and is not oval. We are concerned because it is many miles, if we have to go around, to get to the other side. We paid the $15. for the escort who were Park Rangers, one on each side of the tunnel. They stopped the traffic so we could go thru the tunnel down the center line of the 2 lane road.
I never heard anything hit the top but was really worried about it.

When we arrrived at the Visitors Center, parking was very limited, due to many visitors already there. We parked in the car & truck parking area since everything was full and they gladly gave me a warning ticket for doing this.

We opted for the tour bus so we could get to best places without driving the MH. This is the best way to tour Zion NP. We really enjoyed it. Zion NP elevations range from 3600 to 8700' and provide vastly different environments. Fir, aspen, & pine flourish in the high country while pinon, cliffrose and mesquite love the desert heat. This is a beautiful park but not a pristine park. Adding the free tour bus service gets a lot of visitors to places that they normally couldn't see. They do a wonderful job of moving the people from place to place at your leisure. The Virgin River runs thru this area and continues on to the southwest.

Enjoy the pictures below!

Check out the new hat. We both got one. Race car drivers wear helmets to protect their heads. Cowboys wear them to protect their head and neck. After getting sun burned on the ears, nose, and neck we decided to invest in head protection. They worked well.

Check out the rock formation. It is a checkered board pattern.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the MH with the big rocks in the background.

Sharon enjoying the view. We both are in awe with the outstanding works of Mother Nature.

If you look at the center of the picture you will see one of the side openings to the tunnel. We believe this is for ventilation. Looking at the size of the mountain, I can't believe we drove 1 mile thru this thing.

Here's a closeup of the 2nd opening in the side of the tunnel.

Here's a closeup of the 1st opening in the tunnel.

This is a view of the terrain after we left the tunnel.

Looking down, you can see the road we will be traveling, to get down off Mt. Carmel.

Whew!! we are at the bottom of the mountain.

This is a picture of the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.
Most of the rock formations have religious names compliments of the Mormons.

Tour bus in background

Bus stop with a view.

Here's the tour bus coming into Zion Lodge area.

Weeping rock is where the springs are continually dripping.

Sharon saw this sign and said "Let's go back!"

Instead, we took a different trail. We are glad we did! Look at the deer that was on the trail that we would have missed going the other way.

Sharon and other tourists enjoying the cool damp air under the weeping rock in Echo Canyon.

Weepin Rock water runs down the hill along with other drains forming the creek below the bridge. Several people had pulled off their shoes and were enjoying the water.

This rock formation is known as "The temple of Sinawava"

Over 100 degrees, Sharon is thinking about wading in the Virgin River. I encouraged her to get in the water.

Ther she goes. I guess I will take her shoes to her when she gets cooled down.

This is a park well worth visiting. Park your vehicle at the Visitor Center or a nearby town. Get on the tour bus and enjoy what Mother Nature has provided. We did and we are glad we did!

As we leave here we will be traveling thru the very nothwest corner of Arizona on Interstate 15. It will takes us thru downtown Las Vegas and into California.

Enjoy the pictures and until the next update......Happy Trails!

Bryce Canyon National Park

2009-07-13T01:07:00.019-04:00

Wed - Jul 8th
We left Capital Reef on UT12. This is a beautiful scenic highway. The elevation continues to climb up to 9600 feet. The vegetation also changes with the elevation.

The worse part was trying to drive our MH on a 22' two lane road that follow the crest of the mountain range. The road bed wasn't 35' wide with massive cliffs on both side. The MH felt like it was too big to even be on this road. The elevation climbed from 8860 to 9600' as I drove about 15mph.

Anyhow, sometimes (I said sometimes) getting there is most of the fun. We made it as you can tell, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this update.

We decided that we would go to campground and go to bed after this day was over.
We did just that, too!!

Enjoy the pictures....................

On the way to Bryce Canyon NP we passed many Ponderosa Pines.

As we climbed higher we notice more & more Aspens were filling the landscape.

This is the road on top of the mountain crest I described earlier. Check out the side of the payment. Road is broken off and fell down the mountain, no guard rails.........What are we doing here????

Sharon snapped a lot of pictures showing the side of the road and how far down you can see. I think this covered up the fear she was feeling.

We finally arrived at the Visitor Center. We took UT63 south from UT12 to get here. After a short visit and some shopping we climbed aboard the MH to take in the rest of the sights. I found out later that they have a free shuttle to take you in the canyon. That would have been nice!

Here is a view of one of the canyons.

The view is never ending!

At this overlook they had a sidewalk that went a quarter mile down the side of the canyon wall. On the right side of the picture you can see where it starts.

Each view is breathtaking! America the beautiful - no doubt!

This is really an arch but was mistakenly named "Natural Bridge". Bet they wish they could take that name back so they could have an arch in their Park.

Okay, I have to get in the pictures once in a while. Sharon keeps insisting so what can I do?

Ponderosa Point - Elevation 8904

Rainbow Point - Elevation 9115

We are traveling to Sandstone this evening to get a campsite at a KOA campground. After a couple of shots of something, we may be relaxed enough to go to sleep.

Tomorrow we will reach our final destination in Utah and that is Zion National Park. Naturally we will be enter the park from the wrong side so this one will be fun, too.

Until then - sleep tight and Happy Trails.................................

Hanksville to Capital Reef National Park, Utah

2009-07-12T23:44:00.017-04:00

Wed - July 8th
We left the Red Rock Campground after spending a couple of nights resting up. We drove southwest on UT24 which is a scenic mountain drive. The drive takes you from the desert to the mountains and the views are spectacular.

There are 3 more National Parks in Utah that we will be visiting and normally you would enter them from the southwest. We will be entering them from the northeast and there will be some surprises I'm sure. First on our list today will be the Capital Reef National Park.

Sharon and I are always amazed at the workings of Mother Nature as we look at the large rocks along the way. Some of them look like they could have been sculptured by someone. All in all, the shapes and colors are incredibly beautiful.

Please enjoy the pictures below and just click on them to view full size.

Scenery on the way to Capital Reef NP.

These mountains of rock just keep getting bigger & bigger.

Look at the unusual shapes that the rocks take on.

We stopped at a viewing area that stated there were Petroglyths on the face of the rock. It took several minutes to locate them. Here's a close up of the next picture.

The Petroglyths were on this wall in the center of the picture.

After several viewing stops and winding mountain roads we finally arrived at the Visitor Center.

Sharon is a little cold this early in the morning but she will be very warm this afternoon when the temps climb to the 100s.

We stopped at the Historical Gifford Homestead and I'm glad we did. Homemade bread, pies, ice cream, & candy. Yum Yum! All my belly stretching favorites.

This is an old wood burning cook stove found in the house.

A beautifully preserved Singer pedal-power sewing machine in an oak cabinet.

I stepped outside to take a picture of two does and a spotted fawn. Before I could get the lens cap off the camera, the fawn made a break for the brush. The two does acted like I wasn't even there.

This is one of the roads thru the Park. The view changes with every curve.

The sun is extremely hot out here causing the temperatures to get in the low 100s by 3 pm everyday. Here the horses are using some of their horse-sense to get in the shade.

Another picture while moving thru the Park.

Rock formations are surprisingly amazing as you go from one area to another.

We continued our slow drive, stopping and taking pictures every few minutes. The MH sure has been getting a workout with all the stop & go.

This is the barn at the Gifford homestead.

With the wipers in the picture, Sharon tried to get a picture of the homestead as we left the Park.

One mile south of the Visitor Center is the campground. It was very nice with plenty of room for the campers. Naturally it look as if it was full like most of them have been.

We are off to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Durango, Co. to Arches NP & Hanksville, Utah

2009-07-10T19:17:00.025-04:00

Mon - July 6th

It was a nice 69 degrees when we left the campground in Cortez, Colorado and turned northwest. Destination - Arches National Park, Utah.

We traveled on US491 with the mountains behind us. Most of the terrain was flat, farmed, and covered with Alfalfa. Numerous very large ditches were cut around the farms for either drainage or irrigation.

We enjoyed the peaceful drive along the country highways.
Once we crossed the state line into Utah it didn't take long before we started seeing the mountains again.

We turned north on US191 and started to see what looked like solid rocks for mountains. They continued with many different shapes and colors.

We arrived at the Arches National Park after a 2 1/2 hour drive. It was already in the upper 90s and the sun was HOT!!!!
Arches are formed by water & ice, extreme temperatures, & underground salt movement. They range in size from a 3' opening (the minimum) to 360' base to base like the Landscape Arch. (the most popular arch) As time goes on new arches are formed and old ones change or disappear with the effects of weathering and erosion.
More than 20 motion pictures have been filmed here and not all of them were westerns.

The road to the Arches zig-zags up the mountain behind the motorhome.

Also the walking trails will do the same to get to the viewing areas of the Arches.

A view back down to the parking lot shows the twisting road that we used to get up the mountain. Little did we know what was in store for us later.

Here is an outstanding view of the terrain.

Sharon, with the view of "Balanced Rock" behind her. This trail was only .3 of a mile

Native Plants - Juniper. they have a strong pungent odor about them. The roots grow very long digging into cracks in the rocks for water. The tree will cut off water to some limbs, letting them die, to preserve the rest of the tree.

Look hard and you will see me and quite a few others in the north Window Arch. It was very shady underneath with a strong wind. That made it worth while to hike to this Arch.

Here's a view back to the parking lot. The trail to the north Window Arch is 3/4ths of a mile.

We continued on the trail until we could see both the north & south Window Arches.

The most photographed arch is the Landscape Arch. We drove to the parking area near here, got our water bottles, hats, and determination in check then hit the trail. It was 102 degrees in the shade and we were looking at over 1 1/2 miles of up & down terrain, sanding trails, & very little shade to get there.

Sharon at our 2nd break in the hike.

Finding some shade to cool down under was limited on this hike.

The prairie is beautiful and fitting for any postcard.

Most of the time you're looking up and will miss some of the flowers and desert creatures that live here. Here's a picture of a Spotted Lizard. I tried to find out the name but all I can find is Spotted Lizard. Guess that will have to do.

Whew! What a hike! We finally made it and believe me, it was worth it. This fragile arch may not be here for our grandchildren to see.

Red face, hot, and sweating we asked another red faced person to take some pictures of us and he took about 5 of them. We thank him and took a couple of pictures of his group before we left.

Even though we were tired, hot, sweaty, & winded we managed to keep our tempers in check and enjoy what we came here for.

We left Arches NP & continued north on US191 towards I70. We stayed on the interstate for about 30 miles. We then took Utah 24 south to Hanksville, Utah. We were both pretty tired from the miles and the heat, so we nailed a campground in the desert.

Here's a view of the campground. We were surprised by the sand spurs that were in the gravel all over the campground. These little guys hook to your shoes and end up in the motorhome. Trust me, they don't feel very good when you are barefoot. It only took one lesson to get us to police the carpet in the MH and check our shoes from now on.

When Sharon was directing me into the campsite she heard this loud noise behind her. Cattle climbing on piles of pipes to get to a bush by the fence. They must have been pretty hungry.

Check our the horns on this baby. That would make anyone a fine hat rack or a hood ornament for their truck. (haha)

I couldn't pass this one up either. Another junk pile directly behind the campsite. I guess we are spoiled.
We have noticed that out here most people collect their own junk.
The more they have may say something for their status in the neighborhood. It doesn't represent their net worth but what they have spent, used, and discarded.
Arizona, New Mexico, & Utah will have an enormous supply of metal if we ever need it.

We stayed here a couple of days, no cell, & no Wi-Fi - just rest and relaxation. When we leave here we will travel to Capital Reef NP & then to Bryce Canyon NP.
Hopefully, not too many more trails but if necessary, we will tackle them too.

Stay tuned and Happy Trails.

Durango to Silverton, Colorado

2009-07-10T14:23:00.021-04:00

Sun Jul 5th
We climb out of bed early this morning, skipped breakfast, and drove 43 miles to Durango, Co. to catch a train. We had to be there to check in by 8:30 and since we arrived 10 minutes early, we decided to have breakfast at McDonald's.

We picked up our boarding tickets and climbed on the train. We opted for the San Juan car which was closed in, with good seats, and windows. We were 3rd car from the end of the train which is a good choice. This is a coal burning steam train and the soot, cinders, & smoke need time to blow away before it gets to us. Of course, as the temperatures went up, so did the windows. When we were at our highest point the temperatures dropped considerably and so did many of the windows.
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is coal fired steam engine that is enjoying 128 years of service. They have several restored cars from open air coach to the Victorian splendor of the Presidential Class. We opted for the Deluxe Class of the San Juan coach. A refurbished 1887 coach, which has a closed vestibule for viewing, and reversible comfortable seating. A narrow gauge train railroad tracks are 36" vs. 56 1/2" on a standard track. This enables the train to make sharper turns.

The train ride goes through spectacular canyons with breathtaking views of the Animas River & takes about 3 1/2 hours to reach Silverton. This includes about 4 stops, two of which are for water for the train. The elevation changes from around 5200 feet at Durango to 9300 in Silverton. We spent about 2 1/4 hours in Silverton, the train was reversed, and we got to see the other side of the view on the way back to Durango.

We both enjoyed the entire day including lunch and a stagecoach ride in Silverton. Check out their website: http://www/durangotrain.com

Okay, enjoy the pictures below, and the comments. Remember, you can view the pictures in full size, by just clicking on the pictures.

Train Station at Durango, Colorado

Sharon with the train in the background. See the black smoke! The Conductor will provide eye wash if you need it.

I'm leaning out the window, ducking the tree limbs, so I could get a good picture of the train as it rounds a curve. Naturally, after many pictures like this, I had to get some eye wash before we arrived in Silverton.

Check out the white water rapids in the Animas River in the canyon below.

The river started to look a lot smaller as we climbed to higher elevations.

The Conductor, while collecting tickets, did mention that it is a long walk back if you don't have a ticket.

When you are up high there are usually places a lot higher up than you are. Check out this beautiful scenery.

Silverton Train Station - Elevation 9273 - Est. 1874
After 3 1/2 hours we arrived in Silverton. This is an old silver mining town. Mines are now worked out & closed. The train brings about 140000 tourists to the town today. There is also two ski areas in Silverton. Using the Saloons for movie sets, several movies were shot here which include, True Grit, Run for Cover, & Across the Wide Missouri.

Sharon smiling and getting off the train. A long ride and a great experience.

We decided to take the stage coach ride to see the town.

Yep! That's me getting off the stage coach.

"That's one step for mankind and one "Giant" step for the old man.

Town Square - a 126 years ago there was a lot of fun on Blair Street. (developed as the red-light district)

Here's a good picture of the horses and stage coach driver. A little bumpy, but a good ride, on the dirt streets of Silverton.

Sharon posing in front of the Shady Lady Saloon.

In the good old days, there were 22 saloons. In the 1940s, most of the saloon ladies, citing competion, left after the local girls who "gave it away", in fits of patriotic fervor during WW II.

The old car blended well with the rest of the town.

Sharon boarding the train. I think she was ready to go!

Now here's a RV owner who has found his little piece of Paradise.

I mentioned in the last update about a couple of new friends. Larry & Trudy were camping at Mesa Verde and decided to come into Durango for dinner. After dinner they went to the train station to watch the DSNGRR train come in. When they went to the parking lot to pick up their truck they spotted us at the motor home getting ready to leave. What a small world this can be. Good to see you both, again!

We left the parking lot and said goodbye to Durango. Our next trip takes us to Utah and to the Arches National Park. Until then............
Happy Trails!