Traveling Dorothy

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Nevada

Thursday – June 21 – We made the four plus hour drive from Pine Valley up Hwy 93 to Great Basin NP. This place has been on our bucket list for years. You really have to want to come here as it’s not on the way to any place else. After all the effort, we are disappointed. It wasn’t what we expected. It’s high desert and I guess we were looking for mountain terrain. But there are trees and the campsite is fine. It’s very private and there are wild rose bushes that provided lots of privacy (at least that’s what I am calling them). We took the scenic drive up the mountain. I am sure it offers plenty of scenery to those who able to hike long distances with significant elevation gains. For those of us that can not do that, it’s a bust. Regrettably, I know of no way to reliably ascertain such information in advance.

When we arrived we were tired, so we napped before filling out the campsite form. That got us a lecture from a gun toting ranger who checked my driver’s license for wants and warrants. Nice welcome.

Friday – June 22 – We enjoyed the tour of Lehman Cave. It was unlike any cave we have toured.

How some mountain roads seem to us

Saturday – June 23 – Breaking our tradition, we decided to move camp on Saturday figuring no crowds, no worries. We planned to stay near Ely, but the campground was closed. After a quick visit to the Northern Nevada RR Museum, we continued west on US50 to check out two other places to overnight. One was on a reservoir and would have been fine, but we found it was full after a trip down a very dusty road made all the worse by the high wind. We wound up in a private CG in Eureka.

Not a lot to see on The Loneliest Road but we did see Chuck & Beverly that were on the Baja trip with us in February 2008. It’s a small world.

I had planned to spend two or more weeks crossing US50. It’s not at all like I thought it would be. Plus The Loneliest Road is not all that lonely. It’s been absolutely the worst few travel days we have had since we retired. In addition, the engine is starved for fuel or air. No power. We will get it checked out when we get to Fallon. Meanwhile we limp along running in third gear getting 5mpg.

Sunday – June 24 – Nevada is looking better today. As we got closer to Austin, the terrain marginally greened up. We found the FS Bob Scott CG to be to our liking. Trees! Our site must have been a host site once as we have water and sewer. Weather is prefect. The well water here is the best tasting water we have had in a long time.

Austin is also an old mining town. I don’t know how people that live there now make a living.

The engine was normal for the first 45 minutes, then ran in 3rd gear to maintain 57mph.

Monday – June 25 – Another Lazy Day surfing and reading. A low of 41.

Tuesday – June 26 – We finished crossing Nevada on US50. We will not need to do it again. The funny thing about is that every Nevada resident we have talked to about it had never heard of US50.

[Great Basin to Ely 67 miles, Ely to Eureka 78 miles, Eureka to Austin 70 miles, Austin to Silver Springs 111 miles. Four hops, five days]

No problems with the engine today. It cured itself again.

We landed at Lake Lahontan SP, west of Fallon. It’s a large lake with beaches all around it that you can camp on. Some of the beaches will support RV’s, some not. We scouted one and nearly got the Jeep stuck. Finally saw a ranger and flagged him down and found they have a developed beach, number 7, which translates to paved parking. We took it.

Our general plan for the area is to visit friends, see the sights in Virginia City, see the capital in Carson City, camp on the south end of Tahoe, and also near the entrance of the Rubicon Trail.

An LD couple, David & Mary, we met in Canyonlands in April took our picture. He is a professional photographer. Today he advised us: “I've entered the shot I did of you and Dorothy into a juried exhibit in Fort Collins in CO. If it gets chosen, you will be hanging in the gallery in September.” I think hanging may be the operative word. See his remarkable shot of the Golden Gate here.

Wednesday – June 27 – Headed into Carson City we passed a street sign for Pinenut Road. We both said there are no pines around here. The name of the next road was No Pinenut Road, followed by No Rainbow Road.

We arrived at John and Mary Jane Van Emmerik’s home in Carson City, NV. They had a sign out to welcome us and direct us where to park. That made us feel very welcome indeed. We met them in Rockport, TX in 2010 and enjoyed each other’s company, so here we are. They took us to a delicious Mexican restaurant and we will have to go back before we leave the area.

Thursday, June 28 - I have been having considerable pain in my leg, even began to worry if I had a blood clot. Mary Jane took me to the Carson City hospital. What a great experience. I filled out a form at the reception desk which was just my name, address and phone number. About 15 - 20 minutes later, they called me back and I gave the nurse my medical history and what my problem was. She took me back to the examining room and a RN came in and got further information. No one had asked for my insurance information! The nurse said they treat the patient first and then get insurance information - what a wonderful experience. The doctor came in, talked with me and finally said that there was nothing that he could do for me except give me enough pain pills to get me home. He said I really needed to get with my doctor and then he could recommend a doctor to help me, but he thought that I probably need several weeks of physical therapy. Of course, it’s all related to the polio I had when I was a baby. John & Mary Jane cooked us a delicious dinner. Of course, we talked all day.

Friday, June 29 - The pain pill really worked, because I am feeling no pain. Don & I went into Carson City to tour the capitol and do some sight seeing. We went to Lowe’s and as we were leaving, Don saw the LED Light Store, so of course, we went there and bought LED lights to replace the fluorescent that we have in the kitchen. Then we went to grocery store to buy food so Don could make spaghetti for dinner. The spaghetti was a hit! Again we chatted with our hosts for a long time.

Saturday, June 30 - We went to Virginia City, NV. You remember Virginia City, it’s the town that the Cartwright's of Bonanza would go to. It’s also an old gold and silver mining town. At one time there were 40,000 people living there in the 1870’s. There was a Catholic school and four public schools, plus lots of churches. We toured the remaining Catholic church which was beautiful. We learned a lot about the church and town from a man working in the museum at the church. The Episcopal church closed in 2011. We walked the main street stopping in some of the saloons and shops. We had a good lunch in one of the saloons - thank you John and Mary Jane. Ever the big gambler, I lost $1 in the quarter slot machine. I very much enjoyed my hours spent there.

Virginia City during a rat rod show

Sunday, July 1 – We gave John & mj a break from us and drove 60 miles south on US395 to Topaz Lake. Anything around the Lake Tahoe area is crowded and expensive. Dry camping on the beach here is $18 a day.

Monday, July 2 – Had breakie at a casino on the lake. Steak & Eggs for $4.95. We moved to a site distant from the loud folks next to us.

After lunch the place starting filling up and we got Taco and Mama Seta next to us with a yapping dog. Dorothy spoke to them to no avail. They pulled the no response routine. I went to the park ranger to get the number of the sheriff. The ranger said he would handle it. But right then hot-headed Cochise drove up and said he saw the whole thing and that we were racists. Rather than battle and still listen to a yapping dog , we decided to move camp. So we crossed the Sierra Nevada via the Monitor Pass and came down to a place we have been before, Indian Creek CG. It is close to full, but very quiet and no entitled assholes in sight.

The engine had no power when we started it. So we went up the pass at 26mph. So that’s four days of limping, two days of no problems and then it rears it head again.

Tuesday, July 3 – Laundry and grocery shopping day. The main reason to go to Gardnerville was to go to a Basque restaurant. We’ve never eaten Basque food, so this was a first. The Basque stew was like Cajun rice with chicken. Our entrees were lamb chops (4 each), french fries, and salad. The lamp chops were good and we brought half of them home for another meal.

Wednesday, July 4 – Back to John and mj’s in Carson City. Seems cooler here. Best CG in Nevada. Carson City puts on a fine fireworks show. We had a picnic dinner in the HS parking lot before the fireworks started.

Thursday, July 5 – Took the Jeep in for service. Talked with the Ford Dealer about the loss of power in KoKo. They will try to diagnose it Friday.

Friday, July 6 – Ford found 8 updates concerning loss of power and re-flashed the computer. Fingers crossed this will solve the problem.

Don had a life-long dream fulfilled – he went gliding. He had a big smile on his face and saw Lake Tahoe from the air. Looking at the plane made me start to hyperventilate.

Saturday, July 7 – Our 9am appointment at the Jeep dealer turned out not to be an appointment at all. Rather a leave it all day deal. We wasted an hour driving there and back. Will get it done someplace else.

Small world continues - we had lunch with John and Heidi from Reno that were on our Baja trip. We missed seeing Terry & El as Terry has pneumonia.

Sunday, July 8 – Installed new LED strip lights in kitchen fixture. They put out plenty of light. Went to the gun range with mj & John and fired a lot pistols. Dorothy can hit someone at 25 feet. We had garlic shrimp for lunch.

Monday, July 9 – Took KoKo for a test drive for an hour or so, dumped, filled up with propane, stopped by the library. Power was fine. Fingers still crossed. Ate too much for dinner.

Tuesday, July 10 – The new TV arrived and I got it installed. After dinner we toured one of the local ranches. Lotta of nice girls out there.

Leaving Carson City Wednesday. Going to miss mj and John.

Headed toward San Francisco

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

In A Continual State of Erosion–Part 10

Saturday – June 9 - Let’s see, we left Calf Creek, drove 10 miles and parked in the Petrified Forest SP at Escalante. We did not hike or do anything outside the rig. We surfed and surfed some more. Then we watched TV for several hours.

After watching CBS Sunday Morning, we managed to rouse ourselves and drive 30 miles to Bryce Canyon. We parked and surfed. After dinner we will drive to Sunset Point and attempt to get some good pictures. We already have hundreds of OK pictures of Bryce. Maybe the new camera will make a difference?

Bryce at Dawn

Monday – June 11 – We made it 10 miles from Bryce to Red Rock CG, near the end of UT12. This is one of our fav CG’s. It was designed right from the start. And such a difference it is from Bryce.

Tuesday – June 12 – Laundry, groceries and hair cut day.

Wednesday – June 13 – Lazy Day.

This is the fifth time we have driven US12 and it is the first time I have it recorded correctly in my mind. While it is a scenic road there are less than 20 miles of scenery that really does it for us. There are three scenic sections a) from Boulder to Escalante, b) the short section by Powell Point and c) the very short section here in Red Canyon.

Scenes In Red Canyon

Since Cap Reef we have been in rental RV land. They dominate the traffic. The Europeans invade this area each year. I think we should charge them $1,000 per person just to land in the US. Call it partial payback for protecting them from Russia for 60 years. When we leave here, we will leave most of the rentals and Europeans behind. WooHoo!

The Europeans, (soon to be the Eurarabians), like to photograph US auto tags – a collect them all deal. I try to park to protect our plates.

Dorothy’s brother says we have been in Utah so long we should buy land. Fine with me. It’s nice to have someone comment on our Blog. We don’t get any comments from Montgomery.

Thursday – June 14 – We managed to break camp by 10 and drive south on US89 and west on UT14 to Duck Creek. 30 miles in all. We have an extremely weak cell signal here and no TV. Poor us.

We are killing a little time waiting until it’s a tad warmer to arrive at Great Basin NP. Duck Creek is 8,200 feet, a thousand higher than Red Rock and so a little cooler here. I thought we might put the yaks in Navaho Lake, but it does not look at all interesting.

Friday – June 15 – We read that the view from Strawberry Point was supposed to be good, so we took a flyer down a 10 mile dusty road to see. Every so often you get a lot more than you expect. This was one of those times. From the 9,000 foot point, you have a 235 degree vista and can see three national parks. Cedar Breaks, Kolob Canyons and Zion. [OK, OK, Kolob is a discrete part of Zion and Cedar Breaks is a monument, not a park]

Cedar Breaks Is In The Background

All along Strawberry Point Road are seasonal home sub-divisions, especially near the point. A few of the homes date from the 60/70’s, but most were built during the last boom. Interesting to us was how many were occupied on a Friday morning. Water trucks fill your water tank and all electricity comes from PV arrays.

Saturday – June 16 – Lazy Day

Sunday – June 17 – Got away early. Skipped breakfast. Got down the mountain to get a cell signal. We are hooked on surfing this year. Bought groceries at Smith’s. Dorothy had been wanting green beans for weeks and there are no supermarkets in Escalante country.

We went to Home Depot looking for a door mat to replace the one we left somewhere. As we parked, a guy came over to the rig. He had seen us in Escalante a week or so back, had done some research on Lazy Daze and wanted to chat. After awhile, he decided he wanted his wife to see KoKo too, so he went home and brought her back. Meanwhile, we had lunch. When Chris and Kelly returned we had a nice visit about all things Lazy Daze.

We decided to head to St. George and stay in Snow Canyon SP. On the way, we made an impulse decision to stay at Quail Creek for one night. Nice lake with great views. Sadly, they had no more electric sites, so we went a few miles and got a site in Sand Hollow SP. Pricey! $28 with full hookups. But with the temperature over 100, it was the only option. We need to get the oil changed and pick up some things at Costco and of course Wal*Mart.

Quail Creek SP

Sand Hollow SP

Monday – June 18 – We moved to Snow Canyon SP in St. George. It is one of the prettiest parks that I been to. I love the different colored rocks, bushes, and lava flow all at one place. There are a lot of trails to hike. The level camp sites have a ramada, small trees, a view of the rocks. If it were in season, then this park would crowded because the sites are close together, but now, without anyone next to us, it's very nice. Around 6:00, the rental RV's start coming in.

Snow Canyon SP

We saw several vans today for The Biggest Loser Resort. [The road had a few dozen woman hiking who seemed well qualified for the show] Yep, it's a fat farm - wonder if it has anything to do with the reality TV show. If I had internet I would look it up and see how much it costs to go there. Bet it's not cheap.

Some thoughts on tourists (those from foreign countries that rent RV’s). If it's not yours, then you don't have to take care of it. The people next to us wanted to raise the front of the rig. First they put down a board, but that wasn't enough, so they put rocks on the board - never ever seen anything like that before and probably won't again!

People talk about dry heat/dry cold as opposed to humid weather. It's hot in St. George, around 104 degrees which is normal for this time of year. 104 is hot, I don't care whether it's dry or not, it's hot!

Tuesday – June 19 – We got our shopping and errands done. We also visited the VC at the Temple here and had a long talk with one of the elders. Had a rather unusual, but tasty, enchilada meal for lunch.

We are headed into the dark zone. We expect no TV and only occasional cell coverage for the next few weeks.

Wednesday – June 20 – We drove 17 miles north to Pine Valley RA. It is one of largest Forest Service campground complexes. There are six camping areas. At 6,700 feet it is cooler, only 90 in the afternoon. I had thought about going to Cathedral Gorge SP, but it’s only 4,800 and the web site does not mention electricity.

We found excellent an cell signal at the entrance to Pine Valley, so we will post this in the morning and head to Great Basin Park for the weekend.

This means we are leaving Utah after 12 weeks.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

In The State Of Erosion–9–Capital Reef

This is our ninth week in Utah. We started in the southeast, spent several weeks in and around Moab in the far east, then around SLC, then the north end at Bear Lake. We are now back in southern Red Rock country at Capital Reef for eight days.

It was chilly, stormy, and windy last week. Now the whole state is pleasant. Temps here are upper-80’s and low 60’s.

We saw a store the other day when we passed through Wyoming on the way down here named Liquor and Fireworks. I always wanted a drive-thru that sold Liquor and Ammo.

Freedom and Zoning. There is very little evidence of zoning laws here that would prevent a shack being built next to a mega-mansion or vice-versa. Most people would trade a little less freedom for more restrictive laws to protect themselves. Folks here seem happy with the way it is.

All Utahans have an ATV. Kids get them by the time they are 8-10. Yes, girls too. Families spend a weekends camping and riding. The governor rides.

This irritates the heck out of the greenies. They don’t want people free to ride the back roads. Since Utah, and most western states, are mostly federal land the greenies get their way by suing the BLM and Forest Service to close roads and create wilderness areas. It’s an on-going war.

After WWII, the AEC carved roads all through Red Rock country to encourage prospecting for uranium and transportation of ore. Now the greenies are suing to have these roads closed. Those on the other side see the roads for recreation and tourism.

Factoid: All of the uranium needed to construct the nine weapons built during WWII was taken from tailing piles from old mines used for other ore. The uranium boom came after WWII in two stages, first for more weapons and next for power generation.

This is our fourth time at Capital Reef. We like it best of all the parks in Utah. Seems we have talked too much about it as it has become popular. The campground has been full for over a month.

The main reason Dorothy wanted to come here was to eat at Café Diablo. And so we have. Twice.

Thanks Dave for the sign picture!

My hors d’oeuvre Rattlesnake Cakes and Empanadas

The sauces are divine

Dorothy’s entrée – Mayan Tamale

Dessert

My third attempt to photograph the Circle Cliffs. Finally the light was right. The tops look round from this angle.

Lots of LD’s here. The park host from Port Townsend has a red one. A couple from Seattle were here for one night in brown MB. Nancy and Brian are parked next to us. There is a green 31 parked on the Notom Road and Bernie and Martha will be here in BluCon.

We really enjoyed getting to know Nancy and Brian.

We hiked an hour up the Golden Throne trail. We knew we would not go all the way. We went about 20 minutes too far as Dorothy was in pain before we got back. The next day she was still out of commission.

I took Bernie to see the Circle Cliffs and he agreed that they were worth of painting. In less than an hour he had made what I would call a reference painting that he will use to make a gallery version when he returns home.

Just to say we had done it, we took Pleasant Creek Road at the south end of the Scenic Road. This becomes a true 4WD trail called South Draw Road that goes up the side of Boulder Mountain. We made it as far as where you start climbing rock ledges. We could have continued, but I decided it would get worse as the trail got steeper and we had had over 2,000 feet to ascend to get on top. Either Discretion over Valor or I wimped out.

Bernie painted, Martha took pictures of birds and we chatted in the afternoons. We may be able to see them in Santa Fe later in the year. I decided that I like the new LD paint scheme.

The geologic story of Utah is depositation, uplift and erosion. Here you can see both un-even uplift and erosion. They say it was twice as high and it will be a level plain another in 5 million years.

Dorothy finally “got” the geology ranger talk. Now she knows Wingate and Chinle formations. Maybe next time, she will “get” Moenkopi and explain it all to me.

Leaving Cap Reef, we turned on the ever popular UT12, climbed over the 9,500 Boulder Mountain and descended again into red rock country. They call it Escalante country after the river I suppose, which was named for Father Escalante who walked all over this area looking for souls to save or Indians to enslave or both. The Escalante was the last river in the US to be named. The little town of Boulder was the last town in the state to be connected to civilization when dirt version UT12 was completed.

It’s a remote area because the Navajo sandstone is 30 miles wide and heavily eroded. Roads can be built on the ridges, not in the canyons, they would wash away or across the canyons, way too expensive. So the only roads through this area run north/south in the direction of the drainage.

It would be tremendously expensive to build bridges across the several canyons in this picture that was taken out our back window along UT12. That’s Bryce in the background. Only 20 air miles, over 60 by road. Further hindering transit in the area is Colorado River. There are very few places to cross it.

In places, UT12 has a narrow shoulders, only a few feet on each side. Deep canyons await the unwary driver.

I saw a stunning picture of the Escalante Bridge in a guide book. I wanted to make my own picture. I had no maps of the location, but all I needed to do was follow the trail. And so I did.

After hiking for two miles, this was the last sign I saw. It promised a lot. About a mile south of the sign, the trail disappeared into multiple washes of deep sand. I could no longer even tell where the hikers I knew were ahead of me had walked. I back tracked, but still could not pick up a path out of the wash. No bridge for me. I did not see another human on the hike. Thousands of lizards tho.

Dorothy has a new problem, pain from her hip to her foot. So she could not make the hike today. Just as well, some of it would have been a challenge for her. She waits to tell me about the new pain until we are safely away from medical care.

Last night we parked on the edge of a canyon. We had a dozen TV stations. We watched an hour each of Adam 12 and Dragnet, the news, and then three hours of network fare. I think that is a record for this trip.

Friday morning we moved five miles down the road and into a canyon where we have no TV, but we were in position for the aforementioned hike.

It’s been 10 days since we have had Internet where we were parked. We stopped at a lunch place where we had way too large sandwiches with high-speed Internet. Dorothy has gone from being a casual surfer at the start of this trip to being addicted.

Wednesday, May 30 - We have arrived at Capitol Reef National Park. It has been a favorite place since we first saw it and it still hasn’t changed. Our campsite is the same one that we had before, so we have green grass, cottonwood trees and beautiful red rocks and because there is a field behind us, there are no campers. The ranger talk was on geology given by a young ranger from Mobile. It was the best we have ever had. I actually begin to grasp what he was saying and retaining it. I must admit that one of my favorite restaurants is Cafe Diablo in Torrey.

The next day Nancy and Bryan arrived. Nancy has a Lazy Daze and is a full-timer. We had a great time getting to know these wonderful people. They left Sunday, but as they were driving out, Bernie and Martha drove in. They also have a LD and had meet Nancy previously. So Nancy and Bryan turned around and we had an LD GTG where everyone contributed something for lunch. It was lots of fun.

We met Bernie and Martha a couple of years ago and have kept in contact since then. Don took Bernie out to a spot that we thought was beautiful so he could paint. Bernie is a very talented artist. Martha is a very good photographer and also a published author. I have a signed copy of her book at home. We were sorry to see them leave on Wednesday. But hope to see them again before we get home.

Thursday, June 7 - We said goodbye until next time to Capitol Reef. We love it there. We found a parking place on the canyon cliff for the night.

Friday, June 8 - We arrived at Calf Creek where we have been before. We arrived early and Don went for a hike. I am sorry to say that I am having a lot of trouble with my foot, knee and hip so I am unable to walk.

Saturday, June 9 - Don got up and went for another hike and once again, I stayed at the RV. I just can’t seem to recover from whatever is wrong. But we got lucky today. Our plan was the spend the night at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. We know that the chances of getting a campsite on Saturday is not great. And the campground was full when we arrived. We were told that we could stay in the overflow area. Of course, there are no hookups, but we never need them so it wasn’t a problem. We parked along side the lake and there is a big breeze. It’s much better than the campground. We have a dozen TV channels and fast wi-fi.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Bear Lake

It’s not Crater or Tahoe, but Bear Lake is one of the scenic lakes in the country. 8 miles wide, 20 miles long and over 200 feet deep. The intense turquoise-blue water is due to the reflection of limestone suspended in the water.

When we arrived I said, Finally we will get to paddle the yaks. The camp host said the breeze would pick up in the afternoon and it did. Fine, we would go out in the morning. That was Monday and it’s been blowing like stink since then. And so it goes. The upside is that it’s like being on the Gulf or in Baja. The waves roll in and crash on the beach. The seagulls, pelicans, grebes and other web footed critters paddle back and forth. Very peaceful.

Our primitive campsite

The Week In Review

Monday, May 21 - Today we moved to Bear Lake State Park near Garden City, UT. The park is located in several areas. On the west side is the full hookup area and each site has a ramada. But they do not have views of the lake. The east side of the lake is much more scenic, but no hookups which is fine with us. We are at South Eden but all of their sites are reservable and they are all reserved for the Memorial Day holiday. We will stay here for three nights. They also have the only water on this side of the lake. We drove along the road and into Idaho just because it was a mile north. That makes three extra states we have been in this month for a few minutes.

It’s easy to relax here overlooking the beautiful lake in the pleasant weather. Ideal for sitting outside, propping your feet up and reading.

Thursday, May 24 - We moved into the non-reservable campground today - Rainbow Cove recommended by the campground host. Our site is very large, probably four buses would fit. After finding our campsite, we drove to Logan, about 50 miles away over the front range. We needed to go to Wal-Mart, pickup a light switch for the refrigerator and do some laundry. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and got a lot of information. Every year the University and the city host Summer Citizens for six weeks. You can take courses at the school that are very inexpensive. People come back year after year, especially those that live in very warm climates. We have wondered what we would do next year and this may be it. Also, Logan is a pretty town with lots of stuff to do.

Friday, May 25 - I had a stomach ache Wednesday afternoon and all day yesterday. Today, Don has a stomach problem. So we are staying inside which is fine since it’s cloudy, windy and cool.

Saturday, May 26 - The weather forecast for today was 70% of rain, cold and windy. However, it was very nice this morning and we had our coffee outside under blue skies. We puttered around the RV, had nice lunch and a nap. The sun woke me up coming in the window. And then it changed, but not before the batteries were charged. Finally the rain came, so now it’s cloudy and much cooler.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

In The State of Erosion - VI

Sunday, May 13 - We did not do much today, except recover from two days of sightseeing and resting up for more sightseeing next week.

Monday, May 14 - Once more we got up and hit the road. First thing was to go to the Apple store to get my computer fixed. Didn’t take long and it wasn’t anything serious, just operator error. Since it was too early for lunch, we went to Temple Square and toured the upstairs area of the museum and then we went to the LDS Family Research Center. They have lots of records on ancestry and people can also research their families on line, including my brother and our family. Then it was lunchtime and we went back to Red Iguana and had another fantastic lunch.

One of the things we like to do is visit State Capitols. It was probably the best one we have visited - sorry Louisiana. The interior has no furniture, except for a few display cases. No seating, no flags, portraits. Quite bare. That makes the variety of stone used in construction really stand out.

Tuesday, May 15 - Not too much today. We went into Ogden to Forest Service Office but it was closed (they took at really long lunch) and we didn’t wait around to see if or when they would return. The Forest Service Office is located in the old Union Pacific Railroad Station. We looked at several old trains that they have. They even have a caboose - I miss the caboose! The station is very nicely restored. There are two museums there so we will do that at at later date.

Wednesday, May 16 - Today was museum day. First we went to the Hill Air Force Base Museum. They have a room dedicated to World War II and prior planes and another for more modern planes. We spent two hours touring in there. When we came out, there was a blue LD parked in the lot. After we finished our picnic lunch, they came back to their rig. A very nice couple from Montana with a 26 1/2 Island Bed. We had a nice chat.

Our first stop back at the Union Pacific Station was the Forest Service Office. We had a very nice and helpful chat with the Ranger. Then it was on to the Browning Gun Museum. There are lots and lots of guns. The ones that interested me most were the miniature guns - very small and they actually work. Downstairs we went to the Automobile Museum. A very nice collection that had belonged to the Browning’s. Most are 1920’s and 1930’s, restored and they run. Browning was a prolific designer, turning out over 150 designs or one every few weeks.

Thursday, May 17 - Another lazy day. We don’t feel badly because we do nothing. This is our home for many months of the year. When we are at home, there are many days when we do nothing, so we don’t see the difference.

Friday, May 18 - Morning rain - guess that’s why there is green grass and trees. Afternoons activities were laundry, groceries, and gas. Don’t we have fun!

Saturday, May 19 - We took a scenic drive today, but it was a little hazy. The views of the basin would have been fantastic on a clear day. At least, we got an idea of what the basin looks like from above.

We have enjoyed many casual conversations with those in the LDS faith over the years. They are always gracious and outgoing. Their children are always well mannered. No temper fits, no whining about wanting a toy or candy in a store, no I’m bored, can we go now.

This trip we got the opportunity to have more serious conversations with several couples. We remain impressed. It is obvious to us that their lives are guided by their faith. They are very family oriented.

We think that the first thing that most people think of when they hear ‘Mormon’, or the more correct term LDS, is plural marriage, even this was formally repudiated over 100 years ago. It’s about time to quit persecuting them for that.

I have heard some say that they don’t think that Mormon’s believe in Jesus Christ. The name of the faith is The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. They have three books of scripture, the Old and New Testaments and the Book of Mormon. Jesus is depicted in art and word. While I am of the unwashed, I can not but think that they believe in Jesus.

You don’t just join their church by indicating some interest and sit in a back pew a few times a year. You first prove you understand the faith and you make a life commitment to serve the church.

In a bookstore, I saw a book titled something like 12 Documents for Mormon’s. It had the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, Gettysburg Address, etc. Do you know of any other faiths that consider the core principal’s of the US to be so important?

Utah is the Beehive State. This week I found out that it refers to the industriousness of bee’s. And everywhere you look here you see industriousness. The infrastructure here is top notch.

Here’s what is all comes down to for me. Utah, founded by LDS, has what is left of the best of American principals and ideas. It’s a place where John Wayne would be comfortable.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

In The State of Erosion - V

This has been our sixth week in Utah. Our latest thinking is that after we finish SLC, we drive back to south end of the state and spend some time at Cap Reef. Perhaps the last week of June we will get to Great Basin NP and after that head west on US50.

Sunday, May 6 - Time to move on although we will miss looking at Split Rock Mountain. We’ve really enjoyed our stay at Dinosaur. We moved east to Strawberry Reservoir which is very nice. You can get long term camping spaces there. Also there is a marina. There are a lot of large homes built on the hills overlooking the water. They are nice, but there are not any trees at all, so the houses looked naked. Ed & Carol are here and we chatted with them for a while. Who knows where we will see our next LD people.

Monday – May 7 – The low last night was 27. I think that is the lowest we have experienced for the trip. We are at 7,500 feet and there is still snow above 10,000 on the north faces.

We hoped to paddle the yaks today. The wind was calm until 9 and then it started blowing. And so it goes.

Looks like we will just be lazy today and figure out where our next hop will take us.

Two things about Utah streets. 1) Downtown, they are wide enough to make a U-turn in a four-horse drawn wagon. Brigham Young declared this requirement. 2) The addresses are logical, but maddening. 1847 East 5010 South.

Tuesday, May 8 - Our goal was to get to Payson, UT. We entered the basin at Provo. It is the home of Brigham Young University. The part that we saw indicates that it is a lovely campus. The off-campus housing seems to be exceptional. The town is clean and upscale. Our goal here was to visit Utah Trikes. It is a good size store selling only recumbent trikes. I test drove two and had a great time. Wish I could have brought one on the spot, but we don’t have room for it. I selected a Catrike Villager. We will have it shipped home.

We landed at the Payson Wal*Mart for the night. There are some fine FS CG’s in the nearby canyon, but there is no cell or TV coverage there and tonight is Dorothy’s TV night.

The CBS station started pixilating during the 5:30 news. When we cut it on at 7 for NCIS, it was not watchable. It was perfect again at 8. And so it goes.

Wednesday – May 9 – We moved north 15 miles to a state park on Utah Lake to make spaghetti sauce. It takes five hours to cook and that is a little longer than we care to run the genset. It spoiled our record of being off-the-grid for 49 consecutive days.

We are in the Lakeshore Campground, but none of the camp sites have a view of the very large lake. There is a marina and quite a few sailboats.

We have not been near a Costco since El Paso and that was mid-March. So we made a run this morning. We had a good time and bought things I did not plan to buy, of course. But, we did not get the haddock and salmon fish that we wanted. They did not have either one, but the fish they did have were extremely expensive.

Thursday – May 10 – We drove two hours north on I15 to Ogden. Lots of traffic due to road construction and lots of grit in the air due to windy cold front moving in. After we cleared the road construction, the traffic cleared out. My first view of Salt Lake City is nothing like I remember it from 1965 - imagine that.

We are in a really nice FS CG called Anderson Cove on Pineview Reservoir. We have green grass, trees and a lake - what more could you ask for? We excellent cell and TV signals. Ogden, 15 minutes down the hill, is rather upscale. We plan to do a lot in SLC, which is an hour away.

Having not been here before, I only had a fair idea of the terrain. The glacier sculpted Wasatch Mountains bound the basin on the east. Homes are built on the lower slopes, just like in LA. Everything is located between the mountains and the desert to the west. This is prime ski country.

We have seen several new 10,000 square foot homes and very few for sale signs. Unemployment is 5% in Utah. Every town, large or small has nice parks. The infrastructure, physical and social, seems sound here. Plus, all over Utah, are cute blond 5 yo girls.

Friday, May 11 - This morning we went to Salt Lake’s Hogel Zoo. It’s not as big at the San Diego or St. Louis Zoo, but still nice and we saw some interesting animals.

We walked around for two hours so then we need to find lunch. We were looking for a Middle Eastern grocery store and what better way to do that than go to a Middle Eastern restaurant and inquire. We went to Mazza’s. We had potatoes harra for appetizer and I tell you I had the best baked eggplant over rice ever! I will try to copy that recipe. Don’s dish was good, but nothing like mine. I am going to Google Potatoes Harra now.

Saturday, May 12 - Our goal today was to get me a pair of comfortable shoes to wear while we are walking on trails. We went to New Balance shoe and found a pair. After walking for a while, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t been aware of my feet. It has been years since that has happened.

After our shopping excursion, it was lunch time so we went to the Red Iguana, a highly recommended Mexican restaurant. Their specialty is moles. They have seven of them, they gave us a sample of each and they are very good!

Next we went to Temple Square. While at the Visitors Center we were lucky enough to chat with two LDS members who were also touring. They gave us a lot of information about the Temple which non-LDS members cannot enter. I think the most important information was the basis of their religion. They feel that they are Christians and the basis of their religion is Jesus Christ. No, they did not proselytize. Hopefully, Mitt Romney will be our next president and I think that it is interesting to know about his religion. We then toured the Tabernacle where they have their annual Christmas music that many of us have seen on TV. The organ is huge - the largest of any I have ever seen. There was a gentlemen playing the organ. Next we went to the Assembly Hall. This is a very old building and it also has a very large organ. The last place we went was the museum which detailed the Mormon’s travels from when they were run out of Illinois until they arrived in Salt Lake City.

Assembly Hall and it’s organ

The Organ in the Tabernacle

Today, we are going to take it easy. We have a lot of places to visit next week.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

In The State Of Erosion - IV

We are in dinosaur country. Lots of 150 million year old bones in this part of Utah [also in CO and WY] Most things are named Dinosaur or Split Mountain. The local football team is named The Dino’s.

We got bumper stickers I Love Drilling. This should make us popular in the liberal states. Wells are all over the place. Vernal has a mile long stretch of drilling related firms.

Sunday, April 29 - The Green Valley campground at Dinosaur NM has 83 sites. Half of them are closed because there aren’t many people yet. Of the loops that are open, at least half of the sites are closed due to “Dangerous Trees”. We can’t see anything wrong with the Cottonwoods - no dead branches or dead trees. And most of the best sites are the ones that are closed. But we can’t complain because we moved to a larger site and it has a good view of Split Mountain. We have cell phone, internet and television here. It’s been a month since we had TV.

In Our Back Yard – Split Mountain

Monday, April 30 - We can’t seem to get over how beautiful this place is and how much we like being here. Thanks to Terry and Betty for getting us to come here two years ago. It’s 1:00 and we are the only ones in the campground. There were six last night. We went to the Quarry. It is an ancient sandbar where a lot of dinosaur bones washed down and weren’t discovered until the 1920’s. These are the best that we have ever seen. The Quarry had been closed for about five years because the building was deemed unsafe. [Built on Bentonite]

Bones In The Quarry

Only Real Dinosaur We Have Seen

How about this one Patrick?

We went to the Visitor’s Center and had a nice chat with one of the Rangers. We mentioned that we had really noticed a difference in the National Parks from our previous visits - there are a lot less rangers. What that means is the parks that are supposed to be preserved for future generations to enjoy is probably not going to happen. There is more vandalism, such as Indian art being destroyed or having graffiti added, Indian ruins being destroyed and not obeying the rules. It’s very sad. So off I go on a political rant. Congress is planning to cut the park’s budget another 10% next year. These are the people that vote for worthless selfish shit for themselves all the time. I would be willing to bet that no more than 5% of Congress (and certainly not Obama & family!) ever spend time in our National Treasures. This is very sad! Theodore Roosevelt must be rolling in his grave.

Tuesday, May 1 - Wow, can’t believe it’s May! Today wasn’t too exciting. It was cloudy with very light rain. We did laundry and grocery shopping. Back at cg, we are still amazed at the beauty of this area.

Wednesday, May 2 - We drove to Island and Rainbow Parks yesterday. [Parks are another name for holes] From the overlook at Island Park you can see the islands in the Green River. When we got there we discovered that we have been there before. Old age is wonderful - you get to see everything once again for the first time.

Thursday, May 3 – It was overcast early, but cleared by 10, so we took a drive on Blue Mountain Road. We were not expecting much, but when the road climbed to 7,600 feet we had a drop dead gorgeous view of the entire Uinta Basin. I thought it looked somewhat like Cathedral Valley, only much larger.

We think the colors here are quite diverse and the rock formations are more varied than anywhere we have been.

After arriving back at the campground, two LD’s drive in. That’s a surprise! Even more surprising is that it’s Ed and Carol Daniels from Florida, Southeast LDer’s, that we met before we even got our LD. With them was John and Linda Leach from Colorado. We had a nice visit and then we cooked dinner together. It’s so much fun to spend a joint meal with friends. It’s great seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

Friday, May 4 - We took a really long drive today to Brown’s Hole. This is one of the places where the Wild Bunch hid out. [You know Butch, Sundance, etc.] To access the Hole, which is a basin of farm land, you have to enter through Crouse Canyon. The canyon is just wide enough for a one-lane road and the creek which runs through it. The 1st Armored could not get through the canyon unless they were invited.

A Swinging Bridge We Crossed Over The Green River

After dinner we chatted with Ed & Carol. The weather is wonderful and it was very pleasant sitting outside.

Saturday, May 5 - We took a drive to the middle section of the monument. We just love this place. We will be moving tomorrow after eight days here. Dorothy’s foot has been in pain the last three days.

Sunday, May 6 – We lounged around until 10:30, drove into Vernal did the weekly marketing and headed three hours west to Strawberry Reservoir. Ed had alerted us that this might be a good place. He was right. We are higher, 7,000 feet, so it’s cooler and we don’t have TV. We do have the fastest Internet we have had anywhere ever and a great view of the water below. We streamed 60 Minutes and a missed episode of Blue Bloods.