Summer of 2011

We had a good trip across the country to the Mid-west. We would travel a day or two and then sit for a day or two.  One of the places we stopped for several days was on the Arkansas River in Arkansas.  We stayed in a Corps of Engineers park right on the river.

We were able to watch the barges and other boats go through the locks just behind our site.

We discovered that Arizona and New Mexico are not the only places that have beautiful sunsets.

We traveled to Nashville, TN to attend our first wedding of the summer and stayed at another Corps of Engineers  park near there.

Did you notice that I said the "first" wedding of the summer?  We got a twofer.  Two weddings, one trip.  After the wedding at Nashville we went to visit my brother in Southeastern Indiana.  We were delighted to discover that one of my relatives was getting married in just a few days.

Both weddings went very well.  They were both in beautiful settings and, to my knowledge, no one fell down, spoke at the wrong time or made any rude noises.

After the second wedding we went to the farm in north central Indiana to visit Pat's mother and other of her many relatives.  One day, Pat, her sister Sally and I drove to Auburn, Indiana, just north of Ft. Wayne to visit the Cord, Duesenberg Museum.  These cars were made in the 1930s and were affordable to only the very rich.  In my opinion they are the most beautiful cars ever made.

We are now in the upper part of the lower peninsula of Michigan looking for cooler weather.  We have been in hot and humid uncomfortable weather from the time we left New Mexico. In the last few days we have had highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s and 60s.  It feels so good.

We are off again

Howdy?  We are once again on the road.  We are headed toward Nashville, TN for THE BIG WEDDING.  For those of you who do not know about "THE BIG WEDDING" (is there anyone on the planet?) it is one of Pat's relatives.

Before we left AZ we did have one of our famous sunsets.

We left Surprise and went to one of our favorite places, a campground near Cottonwood, AZ.  This campground is only about two hours north of Surprise but it is about 2000 feet higher and therefore cooler.  Our stay there gave Pat a few days to rest after the work of getting ready to travel. She is doing very well and feeling better all the time.

While in the area we just had to go to one of our favorite restaurants, the Haunted Hamburger (there is supposed to be a ghost but of course, you have always just missed her).  It is in the old mining town of Jerome, AZ.  Jerome was built on a steep mountain side.  The buildings on one street look over the roofs of the buildings on the next street.

No ghosts but great hamburgers.  We took a short drive above town and found this agave blooming.  The buildings in the background are the remains of the Gold King mine which is now a tourist attraction.

Once we got on I 17 just north of Phoenix I have to make one right turn to get to Nashville.  The right turn at Flagstaff put us on I 40 which goes all the way to Nashville.  I think I will throw away my GPS.  We usually do not travel interstates but with Pat's condition we thought we should get there the quickest and eastest way posible.

We are now in Amarillio, TX taking a rest day and waiting out an east wind.  We will leave tomorrow and see if we can keep from getting lost.

Winter 2010-11

Sally, Pat's sister, came for a visit in Feb.  She got out of Indiana just in time to miss the big storms there. We had a great time showing her around.  We headed north out of town and stopped at an overlook along I-17.

She had always wanted to see a cliff dwelling so we took her to Montezuma Castle near Camp Verde.

Of course, Montezuma Castle in neither a castle nor does it have anything to do with Montezuma but it is a great name anyway.

Yes, no matter what you have heard, Arizona does have some water.  Not much but some.

This is Lake Pleasant, just north of our winter place.  After touring around the lake we drove a dirt road through the mountains and came out near Wickenburg.

One very nice day we went to a park just south of us.  We had a nice hike and a picnic lunch. 

 The time Sally was here seamed really short so we hope she will come back next winter.

I tried gardening this year.  I planted some tomatoes and had some success.  At least they are much better that what we can buy.

I got to go.  It is time for a big BLT.

Later

John

2010 Summer Travels part "the last"

There are two sections of Capitol Reef National Park, creatively called the south section and the north section.  The two sections are separated by highway 24.  In this post we will be traveling in the north section. This is  vast, wild, desolate, lonely, big and beautiful country.  My kind of place.  Even though we were here at the height of the tourist season, we saw a total of two other vehicles all day long.  It is the kind of area that you always carry several gallons of water, extra food and extra gear to spend several days if you break down.  The nearest cell phone service may be 40 miles or more away.

 

 

The mountains in the far background are the Henry Mountains; the last mountain range added to the map of the lower US.

This hill reminds me of a bowl of ice cream.  Of course,  most things remind me of ice cream.

There are strange rock formations called hoodoos.

Can you see the Indian?

The ridge in the background is the northern section of the Waterpocket Fold;  the formation in which the rock layers are folded back over themselves.  Up here in the north it is more eroded than the southern part.

Can you see Pat? 

She is standing on the white shelf in the lower right.

When we left Capitol Reef we traveled Utah Route 12, one of the most scenic roads in the US.  We made our way to St. George, UT where there is a big pickleball tournament every year.  After two weeks there we went to Las Vegas for a few days and finally found our way back to Surprise, AZ.  We put on a lot of miles last summer, saw a lot of interesting stuff and enjoyed every minute of it.  We will probably be here until mid April when we will be off for another  Irwin adventure.

Later

John 

2010 Summer Travels part "almost done" part two

In Capitol Reef National Park and the surrounding area there are hundreds of miles of back country and four wheel drive roads.  I still have not found a rattle in our Jeep that developed on one of these roads.

In every mile there are interesting things to see.  This is a geologic formation called the Waterpocket Fold.  It is a giant fold in the in the rocks that is over one hundred miles long.

There are lots of fun hikes like the one through this canyon.



 

While walking it pays to look down sometimes to see plants that look as if they should not be able to grow in this place.

And some interesting plants grow along the streams

Later

John

2010 Summer Travels part "almost done" part one

We drove across Oregon and traveled part of route 50 in Nevada, said to be the loneliest road in America. We followed route 50 into south central Utah and headed toward Capitol Reef National Park.  Just before the park we drove up into the mountains in the Fish Lake National Forest to see what we could see.  What we found were aspen trees.

Lots of aspen trees

Inside the park we camped in a beautiful valley.  The early settlers planted many fruit trees in this area and the National Park service still maintains the orchards.  They allow you to pick one apple to eat or you can pick a bunch of them and pay for them by the pound.  They use the money to pay for the upkeep of the orchards.

Along the face of the cliffs in the park and all over southern Utah it is possible to find much old rock art left by the early indian cultures.  Some look like space men to me and some are just weird.

I will continue our travels in Capitol Reef National Park in my next post.

2010 Summer Travels Part 4 or 5

We crossed the border a Sumas, WA and went to one of our membership RV parks near Birch Bay.  We stayed there for 3 weeks just resting and eating and enjoying the coastal area.  One day we went to Peace Arch State Park in Blaine.  This park is on the border with Canada and is in both the US and Canada.  It is noted for its flowers and sculptures.

This sculpture is somehow disturbing but I cannot quite put my finger on how or why.  I guess that is the mark of a good piece of art.

We moved down to another of our membership parks near La Conner, WA which is near Mt. Vernon.  There is always a big pickleball gathering there at that time of year so we had a great visit with many of our friends.  After a few more days of rest we were looking for something to do.  We were driving down Whidbey Island and decided that some target shooting would be fun.

I missed.  After 3 weeks at La Conner we headed to Bend, OR , spent a week or so there and then headed southeast.  One of our overnight stops was at Lake Abert.  Southeast Oregon is a vast, high desert with wide open spaces, beautiful big skies and very few people.  One of my favorite places.

We continued on southeast  toward our next destination of central Utah.

Later

John

2010 Summer Travels

I hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving.  We have been just soooo busy that I have not finished my account of our summer travels.  Well,  it is only almost Christmas.  I don't want to rush into anything.

 

Anyway, I left you near Jasper, Alberta.  We traveled to Hinton, then Grand Cache, Grand Prairie and then, just north.  A long way north.  There is not a lot of great scenery up north but there are a lot of rivers.  Unfortunately,  there are not a lot of bridges so ferry crossings are common.

 

There is about 6 weeks in the fall and 2 weeks in the spring when it is impossible to drive to Yellowknife.  The ferry across the Mackenzie River cannot run while the river is freezing in the fall and thawing in the spring.  After the ice gets thick enough, they build an ice road on the river and traffic resumes.  It takes about 2 weeks in the spring for the ice to break up and the ferry can run once again.

 

One good thing about having a lot of rivers is that you have a lot of waterfalls ( one of my favorite things).

 



I told Pat she needed to take one more step back,  just one more step back.  These falls are just across the Northwest Territories border.

 

 

  

We stopped in Hay River on the shore of Great Slave Lake for a week of R and R and some sightseeing.  We left the motorhome at the park and drove to Fort Resolution and Wood Buffalo National Park.  There was not much great scenery but, out in the middle of nowhere,  there was something interesting to see.

 

 

Please, don't ask me.  I don't know.

 

 

 

I guess there is just not much entertainment that far north.  We traveled on to Yellowknife, an interesting city of about 40,000 people when they are all there.  Most of the work is in the gold and diamond mines some as far as 300 miles north of town.  They are at the mines for 2 weeks and are then off for two weeks. The only roads to the mines are the ice roads which are built in January and last for about 3 months.  The town sits on the shore of the lake and there are some interesting floating houses there.

 

 

 

These houses are easy to walk to when it is 50 below.  

 

Unfortunately, the only other road out of the Yellowknife area is gravel and having no desire to drive the motorhome over 300 miles of gravel road ( it is still too new, perhaps if a few years I may try it) we retraced our way back to Peace River and then drove over to Dawson Creek, B C.  By the time we got there we decided that there was just too much to see in British Columbia and we would save it for another trip.  We decided to just ease our way back to the Northwest US.  On the way, we spent the night at several scenic pullouts along the road. 

 

 

This is a great view, but if you looked out our windows or were to stand by the concrete barrier you would see

 

 

 



It almost wants to make a person move to B.C.

 

I have cluttered up your computer enough. 

 

Later

 

John