Wild West day 7

We had another terrific day. We left Moab this morning in the wind, and I do mean wind. We'd forgotten just how windy it can get out here. And dust! Most of the rocks and soil around here are red and now, so is much of the inside of Lil Pumpkin. When I washed the windshield, it was red mud. The dust has stuck to the fresh kill bug splats. We headed south on hwy 191 down to just past Blanding where we took hwy 95 west. Just before Blanding we passed Wilson's Arch. What a specimen! Initially, after turning onto 95, we thought maybe we had made a mistake. We had driven miles and miles and all we were seeing was sparse land covered with scrawny looking cedars. We decided to stop for a snack and found a place to pull off that was obviously used mainly for ATV riding and shooting guns. In the photo, I had picked up a 9mm shell casing. It was just about then the wind kicked up a red dust storm and I scrambled back into the RV. But, it did not take too long after my dust bath for the scenery to change and begin to grab our interest. As before when we had taken the less traveled roads, there were hardly any other vehicles on the road. The world we saw was ours, for the moment at least. And it stretched out before us. We could catch glimpses this beautiful twisting and marvelously carved gorge running along side the highway, sometimes close, sometimes far away. Eventually we came upon a bridge crossing it and discovered it was Glen Canyon. I tried to get some photos, but the only access I had was on a rock overhang beside the bridge that was very scary in the wind. So, my photos aren't as good or informative as they could be. But then, further down the road we came to another bridge. It was over the Colorado River. We were crossing the upper end of Lake Powell. Photo opportunities here were a bit better. After passing the Colorado we hit hwy 24 and headed west through Capitol Reel National Park. We made a rest stop at a pretty little picnic area. Just as we were leaving, a couple of cyclist flagged us down and asked if we had some water. While I filled their bottles, Joyce asked them where they were from and where they were going. They had ridden out from Ohio! They were heading in the direction we had just came from. Holy Cow! There was a 10% grade waiting for them and lots of hard pedaling. I think sometimes I'm glad I'm old. We stopped for the night at Wonderland RV Park at Teasdale, UT. Too late for a photo tonight. Maybe I'll remember to take one in the morning.

Wild West day 6

Leaving Ridgeway, we took Hwy 62 down aways and caught Hwy 145 across to Utah. The highway choice was perfect! It was a good road and we may have seen 10 other vehicles the entire way until we hit Utah Hwy 191 into Moab. Lunch and nap time as we leave Colorado. We hit Moab early so being a short distance to Arches National Park, we opted to tour it today. It was pretty much like we remembered it from our last visit in 1970...except there were a lot more people...especially Orientals in tour buses. Here's the old standby, the Three Gossips. Then a few more shots as we toured around. Delicate Arch Here's a shot of the path up to view Delicate Arch. I started up and after quite a walk and huffing and puffing, I looked up and saw this sight. If you look close, you can see people waaay up there still hiking to the overview. I decided to just take pictures of the beautiful scenery around me and head back to the RV. Then we finished our tour and went to look for a campsite. Found one at Spanish Trail RV Park. Nice park with all the fixin's.

Wild West day 4 & 5

OK, OK, I know I'm cheating logging two days at once but... Now I've got to put my brain in reverse which some might say is a gear my brain should be accustomed to. Let's see, we spent Friday night at a RV park in downtown Cripple Creek. Linda was right, not much there but gambling and beautiful scenery. Oh, there was a rodeo starting Saturday, but we couldn't stay. Saturday morning I had to wash the windshield. The bugs were getting so thick I didn't need my sunglasses. Anyway, while working at it, the couple next door to us were in and out of their trailer cleaning it like crazy. I spoke to the woman (very native American) and she said she and her "other" worked at the gold mine, then pointed up the hill behind us. She said many in the RV park did, also, which explained the large propane tanks, trailer skirting and "permanent looking" stuff around their RVs. Made me feel almost naked. All I had was a satellite dish. Here's some parting shots of Cripple Creek. Mom says don't ever say she has poor taste. Both these shots were taken from the RV park. The 2nd one directly across the street. I finished the windshield and we packed up and left, heading north toward Pikes Peak. Looking back at Cripple Creek as we climb out. Pikes Peak is by far the greatest highlight of our trip so far. It's roughly 19 miles seemingly at times straight up! The road is virtually carved out of the mountain with no guardrails or anything between the edge of the road and NOTHINGNESS! If you haven't made the trip to the top of Pikes Peak, we highly recommend it, but it is not for the feint of heart, going up on coming down. It's not for a questionable vehicle either. Going up you could overheat, going down could kill the brakes. In fact, going down, you must stop at a checkpoint halfway down where a guy uses an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of your brakes. Going up! On top of the world. You are warned to take a heavy jacket. They aren't kidding. The wind cuts through you like a knife when up on top. And the air is very thin at 14,000 ft. so don't plan on jogging much. Then, you drive back down. And this is what happens if you drive too far up. When we got back down from the mountain, I was exhausted. I guess between the thin air and scary road and wrestling Lil Pumpkin in the wind and along the obstacle course of a road, it just did me in. I knew there was no way I could make the next several miles to my intended next campsite. So, shortly after leaving Pikes Peak and heading west on hwy 24, we started looking for a home. I saw a sign that said something about trail rides and other horse stuff, but it also said "RV park". I pulled into the gate onto a dusty dirt road and not being too sure this was what we wanted, I pulled over to the side of the lane to check the map and Internet to see if there was anything better nearby. About then, a truck came in pulling a nice, rather long camp trailer, so we decided to just follow him. It was a little over a mile down into the M Lazy C Ranch. As we followed along, the guy with the trailer stopped and moved some pylons that had been placed across the road at a turn. We just followed and as we approached what appeared to be the office, there were pylons blocking access to the office, so we kept following the trailer on past the office. Then I was beginning to get concerned we were not where we should be. So, as we approached another building with some cowboys hanging around, I pulled up and a young cowboy came out to help. I told him we were looking for a campsite for one night and he called back to the office. We were granted access and the kid had us follow him in his Jeep back to the RV sites. As it turned out, the reason all the pylons were in place was to direct traffic for a big 50th anniversary bash being held for someone. I guess we sort of crashed the party. But, we got parked next to a huge 5th wheel and settled in. Before we knew it, there were other trailers and 5th wheels pulling in. Interestingly, most were pulling horse trailers with living quarters and most were older women. The only man I saw in a camper was the guy in the big 5th wheel next to us. And, these were some rough tough looking old broads. Two parked a big 5th wheel next to us and instead of horses, they unloaded a couple of mules. Here's a couple of shots from our campsite. Then, this morning Ditto and I watched Mellisa Harris Perry while I shaved. Today is Father's Day and I have really enjoyed it. We stopped at the office to pay for our night at the ranch. While talking with the lady running the office, she told me the ranch often had the military there. Then she said they were expecting some Special Forces next week. They came to learn to ride and shoot from horses. Holy cow! What a place! The rest of the day was a pleasant drive west on hwy 24 then we dropped down to hwy 50 and on into Montrose, Co. Some beautiful scenery all the way. We're now camped at Ridgeway State Park just south of Montrose. Nice park and amazingly good Internet service - otherwise, you wouldn't be reading this. They have two levels of campsites here, some down along the shores of a small lake and some up high above it all among the trees. We chose the trees. Tomorrow should be Arches National Park.

Wild West day 3

We survived Kansas only to endure East Colorado. However, following along the Arkansas River all the way to Pueblo was somewhat better than feed lot after feed lot.  We stopped for lunch in Las Animas CO. before we got to Pueblo. Joyce learned all about the history of Bent’s Fort, and the surrounding area.  Interesting thing about that town is they converted to reversed osmosis water softening for their city water because their water was so hard. Then all their water pipes collapsed because the filtered water cleansed the system and all their old water pipes collapsed because they were only held together with years of mineral deposits.   Once we arrived at Pueblo, we decided we were so close to the Royal Gorge that we would head on up there. It's still there in case you were wondering. However, it about burned up in a big fire in June of 2013. Consequently, access to the bridge was blocked. Supposedly they will reopen in August. We couldn't wait that long so we took the freebie road (dirt path) to the edge of the gorge. Neither Joyce nor I were fit to traverse the rock strewn path out to the "good" view point, but rocks are rocks and water is water. I managed a few photos to satisfy my photographer's urge. Then there was a fire... Sadly, it will take several years for the area to recover. In the meantime, the tourist industry is suffering and there may be a lot of places go out of business. The commercial area leading up to the gorge might look like a ghost town soon. Anyway, when we left the gorge we started looking for a home - for the night. In contrast to the impact of the fire, all the campgrounds close by were full except for "tent" sites (no elect.). It was still early, though, so we looked up a few campgrounds up by Pikes Peak, which is our victim for tomorrow. The first one we called said he had space so we took it. It was about 40-50 miles away, though. We took a nice county road up through open range country to get there. It was a pleasant drive with only an occasional car truck to share the road with. Arriving at Cripple Creek, tired but relaxed, we found the Eagles Landing RV Park. It was not pretty, but served the purpose well enough. It seems a big part of the campers here are here for the long haul. Many even have large propane tanks sitting out beside the camper.  The campground is open year round. Can you imagine spending winter months here? Tomorrow we're heading up Pikes Peak. After that, we should be able to find nicer Federal parks. We have to prepare for "dry" camping though as we have to trade convenience for beauty.

Wild West day 2

We got away from Fall River Lake right at 11 am, the precise time I plugged into my trip planner. We went straight through Wichita instead of taking the bypass around it. Wasn't bad at all. Of course, it was after lunch but before rush hour. From there it was pretty much Kansas, feed lot after feed lot and rolling hills gradually flattening out as we approached Dodge City. Made a brief stop at Walmart in Pratt to get a new road atlas. Our old one soaked up a bit of water some weeks back and was a little unruly. When I returned to the RV, I decided to rest a bit. An hour later, after I woke up, we continued on west to Dodge City. Dodge City was somewhat a disappointment back in the eighties when we were there last and it has not improved a bit. Just another tourist trap like so many other used to be historical sites. We continued on to Garden City and just the other side is Deerfield where we have stopped for the night. We're in a private campground, Deerfield Beach Campground. It's a Passport America campground where we get 1/2 off and that part was good. The campground itself, not so much. Seems this part of Kansas has had only about 1 inch of rain since last year. Consequently, the local wheat crop has failed and the usual crop harvest followers aren't following. It's just all dried up, including the campground's pride, their fishing lake (thus "Deerfield Beach") and campers, too. The comparison with last night's campground just ain't fair...apples to oranges.  Or maybe apples to prunes. If you look waaay back to the back of the park you can see several dead trees.  This green one here in the foreground and one up by the entrance are all that have survived. Our next door neighbor came riding in on his motorcycle.  Another younger fellow (turned out to be the motorcyclist son) came putting in on an ATV. He began working on it, revving up, shutting it down and then starting it up and revving some more.  Oh boy, this could be a pleasant night.  But, in a while, the older man came dragging up with a trailer behind his pickup.  They loaded the 4-wheeler and were gone. Then came the poor little pooch.  He was so hungry but so timid. I was busy washing the bugs off the front of the RV and filling the water tank and he would come up fairly close, but would not come any closer. If I made a move toward him he'd go scooting off, only to circle back around and re-approach. I finally set out a bowl of water and he came to that...still not very close. Then I poured him a little pile of dog food on an old board lying on the ground. When I backed away he pounced. He was a cutie and if we had been heading home instead of the other direction, I would have been tempted to try to gain his confidence and take him home. But alas, we left him there.

Wild West day 1

The "wild" part began with trying to meet our self-imposed deadline of high noon. Didn't happen. But, 1 pm wasn't too bad. However, we left without eating lunch so we decided to stop at the Subway in Forsyth. Can you believe it? They were out of bread! How can you make a subway sandwich without bread? You can't, so we left. We stopped, very hungry, at the El Taco in Ozark and had a couple of burritos. Worked out well. We had more gas to get us down the road. And down the road we went. We headed out from Springfield (James River Fwy) and west on I-44. Not being "Interstate" travelers, we jumped off and took Hwy 96 toward Carthage. Once into Kansas (oh boy, oh boy), we worked our way over to, of all places, Oswego...Kansas, not New York. Took US 169 north and caught US 400. Down the road a piece and we stopped for the night at Fall River Lake. It's a Corp lake. We stayed at Dam Site below the dam. No, no, the park name was Dam Site Campground and it was very nice. Here's the scene from very near our camp site. There had apparently been recent rains because the dam had several floodgates open and the roar was near deafening.  Well, maybe not that bad, but it was loud...and wet.  It was almost like been in the mist below Niagara Falls.  Well, maybe not that bad, either, but it was wet. And here we are, parked for our first night on the road to our big adventure.  Joyce is pretty happy except the roastin’ ear corn is not ready yet.  Too early in the year. We were the only campers at this campground except for the camp host. Really nice park...even for Kansas.