Rocky Times

Almost exactly two years and one month ago Denny and I drove into the Rocky Mountain National Park expecting to spend a long day there.  We arrived on Memorial Day weekend, expecting big crowds and traffic tie ups.  That didn't happen, basically because Trail Ridge Road, the main loop of the park, was closed due to snow.  Our exploration was limited to Bear Lake Road which was the only road open to us at the time.  I chronicled that trip in photos here. Two years ago we walked along a lake that was still frozen, this time around there was barely any snow at all on any of the mountain peaks in the park.

This year there still weren't a lot of people at the park when we arrived mid-morning but I attribute that to the wildfires that were still out of control at Fort Collins and Colorado Springs; the area in Rocky Mountain N.P. was extremely hazy in many areas.  Denny and I were able to take our time driving up to the Alpine Visitor Center where we chose to turn around to head back to our campground so we could meet up with my friend Shelley in the evening.  It was hard to imagine that we were literally two miles up in the air at Alpine; I guess we had finally acclimated to the higher elevations from our recent weeks of travel in northern New Mexico and Colorado.  While at the overlook at the visitor center I offered to take some photographs of a group of Harley riders from Iowa; three couples and one gal on a trike who had spent the past two weeks traveling around Colorado before having to head back to their farms in Iowa.  Denny and I told them of our stint as rides operators at Adventureland Amusement park in Altoona, Iowa and how much we enjoyed the state and one of the men started talking about his farm equipment and how now farmers simply program the length and breadth of their fields and how much seed/fertilizer/weed control needs to be laid and the computers and GPS system take care of all the rest; the farmers don't even need to drive the equipment anymore--the machines do that for them.  Denny told him about having to stand in the hot sun tossing hay bales by brute strength into the back of a truck to take it to the barn for storage getting covered with itchy chaff in the meantime and how miserable that was when you're covered with sweat.  Times have changed, for sure.  Of course I just had to remind Denny that he was talking about an experience that occurred almost sixty years ago--the young man we were talking with wasn't even a glint in his father's eye at that point.  

Sometimes what we learn in our travels isn't quite what we expect, but it's always fun.

The Many Parks Overlook, looking towards the Alluvial Fan.

The waterfall in the Alluvial Fan area of the park.  This section was created in 1982 when an earthen dam broke releasing the waters of Lawn Lake.  29 million gallons of water were released which swept trees and giant boulders down hills and into the valley.  Fortunately a worker heard the water coming and notified park rangers who were able to clear out the campground that stood in the path of the raging waters.  Today you can climb up those boulders left behind and wander along the path of the falls.

The damage caused by pine beetles is evident in this photo; the thousand of dead and dying trees are what fuel the wildfires that are rampaging though the western states currently.  Notice the lack of snow on the higher peaks of the mountains within the park.

So many of my photos were hazy with smoke that I didn't bother to show them here.  Although Denny and I kept our eyes open for the bears, elk, antelope and big horn sheep  the only critters we saw were ground squirrels.  We enjoyed our day none the less and marveled at the difference in the park conditions between our two separate visits.  Perhaps the next time we swing by we'll try the autumn season--pre-snow, of course.

Lunch Among the Gods

One of the most visually striking areas we've explored is the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Denny and I had visited here years before when we stayed in the area for a week making sure we hit the tourist spots: the Air Force Academy, Manitou Springs, Pike's Peak and of course the city park known as the Garden of the Gods.  Donated to the city by the family of Charles E. Perkins, this four hundred and eighty acres has been, for the most part, left in its natural state.  In the summer tourist season it can be difficult to find a parking spot here but it's worth it to wander the grounds while ogling the many varied rock formations.  Here you can rock climb or take a trail ride or even explore the park by Segway if you want to be a bit more adventurous.  What you might find it difficult to do is find a picnic bench to enjoy your lunch while here; Denny and I ended up finding a hidden rock outcropping while we ate our lunch looking out towards Pike's Peak while a someone playing a bagpipe in the red rocks behind us serenaded us.  You just never know what you'll find while out wandering.

Busy Being Vagabrauns Vagabonds

We've been wandering.  That's what we do.  Nothing special, but we've been moving around.

Denny and I made our way to Las Vegas from Tonopah because I had promised my mother that I'd scatter some of her ashes there.  She loved the beach and she loved playing the slots.  Blazing 7s was her machine of choice.  So we hit a casino and played the Blazing 7s in her memory but due to the nature of our visit I  didn't feel like doing much in the triple digit heat.  We did find out that the heat was indeed quite different from the humid heat of Ohio and it was much more bearable being outside than we thought it would be.  Of course, RV air conditioners are only capable of cooling the interior air to 20 degrees less than the outside air, so we weren't "chilling" by any means during our stay.

We were greeted by the sight of this young woman riding her Arabian horse up Boulder Highway in the middle of Las Vegas.  You just never know what you'll see here.

Leaving Las Vegas we headed into the cooler elevations, landing in Williams for what was to be one night.  Our site overlooked the town of Williams.

Before we left Las Vegas I had gotten an email from a Phoenix based realtor who has been sending us notifications of homes for sale.  There was a yet unbuilt home that looked interesting so Denny and I decided to rent a car and drive to Apache Junction to look at the model with the idea of perhaps buying the model home itself and renting it back to the builder for a year or so until we were ready to settle down.  So we drove to Flagstaff to rent a car for the 220 mile drive (cheaper than buying diesel for the trip with the truck) and this is what we ended up with instead of the Malibu I originally rented.  Fun, huh?  It's been twelve years since we gave up our convertible when we traded in the motorhome for a fifth wheel and it felt good to be behind the wheel with the top down.

This is the style of home we would like to purchase if we bought something in the southwest; a Santa Fe style home.  Unfortunately, it turned out that the Santa Fe styling was mostly a false front and the rest of the house was basic stucco with a sloped tile roof.  Attractive inside, but not set up very conveniently for easy access to the kitchen from the garage plus the master bedroom and patio backed right up to Broadway Ave which is a six lane very busy thoroughfare.  This particular development has already gone under once and has been taken over by another builder so Denny and I decided that it might be better just to keep looking.

But it did have the view of the Superstition Mountains that I wanted.

Our stay in Williams was extended yet another day when the weather forecast along I-40 in Arizona and New Mexico was for winds at 45-50 mph gusting to 60 mph.  Plus when we woke up that morning it started sleeting so an extra day's stay sounded better and better.  Sunday morning's winds had changed to breezes and the sun was shining brightly so we packed up, pulled the slides in and headed east once more, landing in Red Rock State Park just east of Gallup, New Mexico.  When we step out of the door and look left we see this:

Turning our heads to the right we see this:

And this is what we see as we look straight out the door; Church Rock itself.

The view from our living room window.  The rocks looked like they've been scoured with steel wool and the ground is soft red sand.  There are some ground squirrels and a few small birds but for the most part it's very, very quiet here.  Next week however, people will come with 800 horses for an annual rodeo event.  A good time to be leaving, I think.

Next up, Albuquerque.  Home to Denny's sister and Linda from New Mexico and Trader Joe's.  Yay, yay, and yay.

A Few Weeks of Firsts

This part of our travels has garnered several firsts for us; the first time we've been three weeks in a row without cell phone service, the first time we've gone two weeks without Internet service, the first time we've been this far north into the heart of California.  I have to admit we found the no cell phone/no Internet tough since at times we were far from towns and medical services--something we've become more aware of since we're much older now than when we started our travels.

We've had some interesting firsts:  while sitting outside enjoying the sunshine one day I was tossing bits of crackers to this scrub jay and that's when we discovered that scrub jays eat their fill and then take the extra food and "bury" it in shallow holes in the ground or thick tufts of grass and then the birds find a small rock or pebble and cover over the area where they've place the food, much like a squirrel buries a nut.

Our campground in the Napa Valley area ended at the base of the dam at the southern end of Lake Berryessa, which was ultimately why we left early.  Denny had visions of an earthquake occurring and the dam letting go which would have washed the entire campground away.  Our first time of running from a campground.  But it was a beautiful setting on Putah Creek.

That same campground provided another first; a handicap accessible swimming pool.  This seat apparently swivels and lowers into the pool.  Hey Penny--ya see this?

This was our first visit to the St. Helena/Napa Valley area.  A stop at the Sutter Home tasting area was mandatory as trying Sutter Home wines was my first venture into something more sophisticated than Annie Greensprings.  We also discovered the palacial wineries of the area were as much art form and garden displays as makers of fine wines.

We saw our first tiny grapes on the vine and talked to our first self-taught vintner, enjoying a very educational wine tasting at the Van der Heyden Winery.

We discovered that like so many states, California is a land of contrasts and beauty.  And that lakes come in all colors including this gorgeous teal blue of Lake Berryessa.

For the first time we watched remote controlled boats race on a lake on the grounds of our campground in Nicolaus, California.  Men and their toys! RC boats sound a lot like lawnmowers.  A lot of lawnmowers.

While in the area Denny and I stopped to visit one of his cousins who moved to Calfornia from St. Louis several years ago.  We discovered he had trained (no pun intended) to become an engineer and now had a route that passed through Sparks, Nevada. New(s) to us!

Denny and I drove on Interstate 80 for the first time, going up and up and down and then up and up again as we headed east towards Nevada.  The closer we got to the Donner Pass area the higher the snowbanks were that lined the roadway but fortunately the day was sunny and the roads were clear.  Because we do not carry chains since it is not our intent to be where there is snow on the roads while towing The Beast.  Ever.

Our first time in the area of Donner Pass--when your ears are popping and the speed of the truck drops down to 45 mph going up the steep inclines of the well paved interstate highway it's amazing to think of the hearty breed of people who traveled thousands of miles from the east with their covered wagons and oxen or horses in the extreme temperatures and rugged terrain.  Denny and I agreed that we wouldn't have one tenth the fortitude of those folks.

Our first time in Reno, Nevada.  It's not Las Vegas but it's an interesting little town. There's another one of the Diner's, Drive Ins and Dives restaurants here that Denny and I will sample after playing some golf this week.

And our final "first" for this segment of our journey is that this is our first campground where the primary mode of transportation is that of electric scooters.  It seems that one of the residents (most everyone in this campground/trailer park seems to be permanently ensconced here) who was injured in an automobile accident received a large insurance settlement which he promptly used to buy himself and eleven other people in the park who have disabilities electric scooters. The place is pretty ticky-tacky but the people who live here are friendly and have big hearts.  Plus they have a great view from the western edge of the property where the owners have created a little BBQ pit and seating area for watching the Truckee River.

From here we'll head to Vegas and then on to visit friends and family in a more familiar route but towards the end of summer we'll venture into northern Minnesota and Wisconsin for some new scenery before turning the nose of the truck towards New York and Ohio to see our kids.  I'm hoping there are still a lot of "firsts" out there for us.

Rain and Sunshine in Yosemite

Today's post is simply a pictorial blog of Yosemite.

First, a tribute to Ansel Adams.

The Big Meadow.

Bridal Veil Creek.

On a good day you'll get soaked by the mist at Bridal Veil Falls but on a rainy day it's truly difficult to get a good photograph because you can't keep your lens dry for more than a fraction of a second.

And so you return on a sunny day and stand farther away.  Actually, after a couple of days of rain the sloped footpath to the falls was awash with running water.

This is where Denny and I chose to eat our picnic lunch; Cathedral Beach with a side view of El Capitan.

Distant Half Dome.

Approaching El Capitan.

Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls.

Denny and I spent a lot of time taking photographs of couples and groups (especially for the foreign tourists) using their cameras and in return had our photo taken a couple of times.  After once or twice Denny says "enough!"  This is Cascade Creek.

Glacier Point Road was opened about five weeks earlier than it was last year so we had the opportunity to drive it.  I must admit, there are times I wish we had a small vehicle and driving this road as we neared the Glacier Point overlook was one of them as the road narrowed to the point that we were straddling the lane lines.  Certainly the view is worth it, agreed?

El Capitan in the clouds.

Half Dome from the Tunnel View overlook.

The Nevada and Vernal Falls with Half Dome.

A group of teens was having a snowball fight in this patch of snow along Glacier Point road.

According to our GPS the highest elevation we reached on our drive on Glacier Point Road was 7,755 feet.  This is definitely "ooooo--ahhhhh!" country.

Just some highlights of a couple of wonderful days in Yosemite.  This is why we travel and why we're not quite ready to settle down; there's so much more out there to see.