Utah

Utah!  Wow!  We have seen lots of beauty in just about every state we've passed through on this trip but Utah was on a whole different level.  I had picked out a campground that was a reasonable distance from our last stop in Colorado.  Camelot Pinnacle Resort and RV Park was located just west of Duchesne (pronounced Dooshayne), Utah and had a website that described the campground as “Perfectly nestled in a majestic canyon and encircling mountains, our campground provides a spectacular setting of sheer cliffs, lush green trees and breathtaking scenery.”  Well, I never believe everything I see on a website but this description did not come close to describing the beauty of this place.  I’m taking credit for finding us some incredible places to stay on this trip, though I will admit a lot of it was luck.  Here are a few pictures of the campground and Bob’s 360 degree panoramic video.

This is the Strawberry River that passed right behind our campsite:

Approaching this campground was an adventure.  I had spoken to the owner on the phone and she told me it was 6 ½ miles off Highway 40 but that’s all she said.  The first four miles of the approach road were spectacularly beautiful and then the road became a dirt road, narrowed up and the rest of the trip was just awe-inspiring.  Bob said on the way in, “I’m going to videotape this road sitting on top of the truck” and two days later he did exactly that.  He videotaped most of the 2.5 miles but I’m just posting the shortest video to spare you J.  I am also posting a picture I took of him sitting up there when we got to the campground entrance.

One time as we were driving down this road to the campground, we saw goats lying on a ledge about 40 feet up the cliff.  Here are a couple of pictures.

If you look carefully, you can see four goats on the ledge in the picture below.

When we got to the campground, we had the whole place to ourselves.   The owner came down to greet us.  Her name was Barb too and she had a black lab named Scooter who towered over Poppy (Poppy weighs 95 pounds).  Barb told us we didn't have to put Poppy on a leash while we were there.  Between no leash and playing with Scooter, Poppy pretty much thought she was in heaven (and so did we). 

We, of course, set up the R-dome and spent our evenings sitting in it, having cocktails, dinner and watching the sun drop behind the cliffs.  During the day we visited two local reservoirs.  First we went to Starvation Reservoir (I have no idea why it’s called that).  It was about 14 miles away.  We went canoeing with Poppy and had a great time.  Canoed to a beautiful beach and let her swim after the ball for a while, then paddled across the lake and back.

 We did that in the morning, then drove into nearby Duchesne to get a few groceries and had lunch at a little Mexican restaurant with outdoor tables so we could bring Poppy with us (it was too hot to leave her in the truck).  

The next day, we went in the other direction to Strawberry Reservoir State Park which was a little further away and a little bigger than Starvation.  We brought a picnic lunch with us and stopped at the Visitors Center to get some info on where to launch our canoe.  There was a young man standing outside the Center and we started talking with him.  He was running across America (for the second time) to raise awareness of Batten disease, a rare genetic neurological brain disorder of children.  He had stayed in the park the night before and had lost his iPhone somewhere in the park.  His name is Noah Coughlin (www.battenjourney.com) and he was pushing a jogging stroller holding all his stuff.  Bob offered to drive him back through the park to try to find his phone.  I stayed at the visitors center because there isn't room for three people in the truck.    I had a great visit with the Visitors Center volunteer  while I waited.  They were gone for about 90 minutes but returned victorious.  Bob, the non-techy, had suggested he use the “Find My iPhone” app and they went to the marina office where there was a computer and tried it.  It showed them a satellite picture of exactly where the phone was.  Noah had gotten a ride with someone back to the highway and had left his phone on the back bumper of the truck and it had fallen off.

By the time that was done, we were hungry for lunch so we found a picnic table and ate.

We decided it was too late and too windy to canoe that day so headed back to our spectacular campground.  A local guy named Jim had come by our campsite every evening on his ATV  and had a beer with us and gave us the benefit of his local knowledge.  Jim came by on our last evening to remind us to be sure and visit the Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, Nevada and we promised we would.

On Friday morning, Sept. 6^th, we sadly left Camelot Pinnacle and made our way up that magnificent road one more time.  We backtracked a little to Duchesne so that we could take what we had been told was a very scenic route down 191 to Rte 6.  Let me interrupt the narrative a minute to say that on this journey, we purposely try to avoid all Interstates and stay on the back roads and old byways of America.  The main reason is that they tend to be much prettier and more interesting but we also get much better gas mileage when we go 55 or 60 mph instead of 70 or 75.  And we’re not in a hurry.  We enjoy going through the small towns.

We were not disappointed in the route we took – the scenery was spectacular as we climbed and descended the mountains and then approached Delta, Utah near the west border of the state.  These two pictures were taken through the truck window on that route:

The campground in Delta was very nice and was right beside our route.   We went into town and visited another small museum that had lots of interesting information about the different types of rocks and gems in the area.  Many of the people that were at our campground were “rock hounds” who spent their days out in the surrounding hills, looking for interesting rocks.  There also had been a Japanese internment camp located nearby and the museum had some exhibits related to that.

We only stayed one night in Delta, Utah.  We were getting ready to start on what is known as “The Loneliest Road in America” – a stretch of Rte 50 across western Utah and Nevada that has very few towns on it and is only lightly traveled.  The few towns that we will pass have a rich history in mining and lots of original buildings from the old west so we are looking forward to traveling it.  We just have to be mindful of topping off our gas tank whenever we reach a town because we only have a range of about 160 miles on a tank. This picture was taken after we left Delta -- starting the Loneliest Road!

This one was taken a little further down the road.  Still straight and long but we can see mountains in the distance.

Soon after this picture was taken, we entered Nevada.  More about that in the next post!

If you have questions about the trip or the camping life, please email me and I’ll try to answer in my next post.  Thanks for sharing our trip with us.

Western Colorado

We left Denver on Tuesday, August 27^th and headed for Stagecoach State Park in Oak Creek, Colorado.  Let me step aside from the travel narrative here to explain how we plan where we are going next, which is probably somewhat unconventional.  When we get to one place, we decide how long we want to stay there and then we look at the map and figure out what route we want to take from where we are to where we are going (though we don’t always know where we’re going J).  Then we pick a town that is the right distance away – we only want to travel about 200 to 250 miles in a day.  Once we’ve picked the town, we google “Campgrounds near ___________” and see what comes up.  We look up each of the campgrounds on the internet and in our books, including reviews from other campers, and pick one.  Sometimes we make a reservation and sometimes we just show up and take our chances.  So far we haven’t had a problem with finding campsites available.  I will say that I prefer to make a reservation once we know where we want to go and Bob prefers to just show up – “just in case we pass a really cool campground on the way.”  We often alter our plans based on recommendations from other campers or natives of the area.

Denver

We reluctantly left our campground at Lake McConaughy on Saturday, April 24th to head for Denver.  We were looking forward to two reunions while there -- one with our niece, Rebecca, who we haven't seen since she was 4 or 5 years old (she is now 44!) and also with Maureen Jones (known as Moe or Moey), an old childhood friend of mine.  She lived across the street from me when I was growing up and, although she was a year behind me in school, we played together all the time and were close friends.  We reconnected a few years ago -- neither of us can remember whether it was through Facebook or a mutual friend or what -- but in any case, we have been communicating via email and a few phone calls since then.  I always said if we got out to Denver we would definitely visit her.

As we approached Denver from the east, we could see the beautiful Rocky Mountains on the horizon and also the ever-present fields of black-eyed susans all around us.  Our GPS led us to our campground with ease -- it was serious culture shock as we pulled in and saw what looked more like a paved parking lot than a campground.  The entire place was paved, with campers lined up close together.  No trees at all.  There was a dog walk on the other side of the campground from where we were staying -- a good long walk for poor Poppy when she had to go!  We couldn't put up our R-dome, even if there was room for it, there would have been no way to drive in the stakes.  So this is camping in a city and we vowed to avoid it in the future.  Still the campground had a nice laundry and bathrooms and was convenient to lots of shopping and we could put up with it for a few days.  I wish I had taken a picture so you could see it but it never occurred to me that it was "photo worthy" until I started writing this blog.

On Sunday we did some shopping and maintenance on the RV.  The campground was supposed to have wifi but neither my phone nor my iPad could even see it.  I was able to connect to it with my laptop but it was such a weak connection that it took forever for each page to load.  I know, I know, I am way too dependent on being connected to the internet!

Sunday evening we went to visit our niece, Rebecca and had a lovely time with her.  She is a go-getter software executive and was charming and so interesting to talk to.  She lives in a nice neighborhood in Denver and we were able to leave Poppy in her back yard and walk to a Thai restaurant for dinner.  Great food and conversation -- we hated to say goodbye.

Monday morning, Moe and her friend Nancy Roses came by our campsite early (7:45).  They had planned a trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park -- about an hour and a half north of Denver.  We followed them in our truck (with Poppy) and went through Boulder and on up to Estes Park, CO just outside of the park.  We stopped at an overlook to get some pictures.  Wow!

This is the group:

On the way into Estes Park, Moe pointed out this hotel which was where the movie "The Shining" was filmed.  I have't seen the movie (I don't do scary movies) but thought others might be interested.

We were able to enter the Rocky Mountain National Park for free, thanks to our Senior Passes.   Nancy had been to the park many times before so she was our guide.  She led us up Trail Ridge road, a steep and winding road that traveled up a mountain with a maximum height of over 12,000 feet.  On the way up we saw a herd of elk grazing by the side of the road and I got these pictures:

The views along the road were awe inspiring -- at times it was a little scary as you looked over the side of the mountain but the roads were well maintained and we did fine.  Here are a few pix of mountain views.

As we got toward the top, it got really cool and windy.  We had been warned to bring sweatshirts and were glad we did.

We turned around at the top and went back down the mountain and saw another herd of elk on the way down.

Stopped to climb on these rocks for a photo opp.  Bob wanted me to climb to the top but I was picturing the rest of our trip with a broken ankle so declined.

All day we were looking for bighorn sheep which are said to inhabit the park but didn't see any.  We did see lots of deer and many different types of birds.

When we got down to a mere 8,000 feet, we went to a picnic area to have the meal we had brought.  Moe and Nancy had brought charcoal and started the grill.  They grilled steaks, zucchini from their garden and a piece of salmon for Bob and heated up some baked beans.  We contributed potato salad, cole slaw and some dessert.

After we cleaned up from the picnic, we headed out of the Park.  Stopped in the town of Estes Park to see some of the shops. 

 It was a really pretty town but we were tired (not used to breathing at this altitude I think) and we didn't spend long there.  We said goodbye to Moe and Nancy and headed back to our campground.  We were leaving for western Colorado in the morning.  So glad we got to see Rocky Mt. National Park.  

Returning to Nebraska

We left home in North Carolina on Sunday, August 18^th with our pickup truck loaded and Poppy in the back seat, to reunite with our R-Pod at the Prairie Oasis RV Park in Henderson, Nebraska.  It took us two and a half days to get there and we arrived on Tuesday at about noon.  Coincidentally, our good friend Deb Williams from Kernersville, NC was driving her son to Colorado Springs to start college and was traveling the same route as us on the same days.  We communicated by cellphone and, though we apparently passed each other several times along the way, never saw each other until she stopped at our campground for a visit shortly after we arrived there!

We found the R-Pod just as we had left it – no mildew or mice, thankfully – and spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting it organized and ready to travel.  We got underway on Thursday morning and traveled about 4 hours to a Nebraska State Recreation Area on Lake McConaughy.  This lake is man-made and was created by damming the Platte River.  It’s 22 miles long, crystal clear and lined with white sand beaches.  The whole north shore of the lake is State Park and there are lots of beach access areas, boat ramps, picnic areas and both primitive and “modern” campgrounds.  The modern campgrounds have electrical hookups and a dump station and water station at the entrance – really all we need.  They are very inexpensive and the one we stayed at was absolutely beautiful.  Because we arrived on a weekday, there were only a few campers there and we were able to get a site overlooking the water.  What a treat!

This is the view out the back window of our camper.

We are at a high elevation (at least to us who live at sea level).  It was about 3300 feet and we were amazed that though it got very hot during the day, the nights were cool (mid 60’s) and it took quite a while in the morning for the fog to clear off and the temperatures to warm up.  Of course, that situation was helped by the fact that we didn’t realize until the second day that we had crossed another time zone so we went to bed at what was actually 9:00 (we thought it was 10) and got up at 5:30!  So the morning was really long.  It did clear up and the sun came out about 10:30.

After lunch we hiked down to the beach with Poppy and we all went for a swim.  The water was great – cool enough to be really refreshing in the 90 degree temperatures but not so freezing cold that you turn blue.  Poppy chased her tennis ball for a while – I think she is going to lose weight on this trip as we are walking her a lot and she is swimming a lot – neither of which she does much at home.  Mostly she just lies around in the air conditioning at home.

One thing we really noticed about western Nebraska and eastern Colorado was the fields of blackeyed susans we saw along the road everywhere.  Wherever there wasn't corn growing there were fields filled with the beautiful yellow flowers, sometimes as far as the eye could see.  It was amazing.  You can see some in the picture above of the corner of our R-dome with the field and lake behind it.

We really enjoyed our time at Lake McConaughy but on Saturday, 8/24, we headed for Denver.  More about that in the next installment.

Back Home for a Couple of Months

Hi all:  I’m returning to my blog after an almost two month hiatus.  It was a great idea to break up the trip by going home for a couple of months.  It was a very busy time but we got to spend a lot of time with the kids and grandkids and that was the main reason we did it. 

A couple of days after we arrived home, they all came down from Maryland to spend the 4^th of July weekend at our house.  Those of you who have seen our house know it’s very small with only one real bedroom and one bathroom but we always manage and have a great time.  The kids/grandkids spent most of their day out at Atlantic Beach and in the evenings we sat out on the porch so we didn’t feel crowded.

After they left, our old friends from Maine, Rick and Gayle Perlmutter came to visit.  They have just retired and are doing the “retirement tour” of the country -- similar to ours except they are traveling by car.  We always have fun with them and this time was no exception.

One of the best things we did while we were home was to rent a house on Lake Gaston (it’s on the NC/VA border) for a week with all our kids and grandkids and my brother and sister-in-law, Ken and Bridget.  The house was really nice and perfectly laid out for the crowd we had.  We had lots of water toys --  a two man rowing skiff, Nathan's sailboat -- "Old Bay", and Mattie and Jon brought their power boat so there was lots of wakeboarding, waterskiing and rafting.

We also had the "Caribbean Island" of Staycation fame.  

Over the week we collectively did a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

 



The kids spent a lot of their evenings in the basement, watching TV and playing video games in the very comfy rec room.

 The kitchen was great and we took turns preparing meals and cleaning up.

And we finished off the week by going out to dinner at a restaurant with a Tiki Bar!

We did have one unfortunate incident while we were home.  On July 11^th, (the day before Bob’s birthday, no less) Bob and I were in an accident.  A young woman ran a red light right in front of us and we ran into the side of her car.  Airbags deployed and the front of our car was smashed but, thankfully, no one was hurt.

We got a rental car and spent the rest of our time home dealing with insurance companies and body shops.  In the end, on Thursday before we left, her insurance company decided to total our car and they were nice enough to expedite a very fair check, which we picked up on Friday.  We put it in the bank – will buy a new car when we get home again – and headed back to Nebraska on Sunday, August 18^th.

So that’s a summary of our time at home.  In the next installment, we’ll be reunited with our R-Pod.