County Road J

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Diggin The Blues

Still making our way toward Seattle, we camped in Salt Lake City for a week in order to drop in on one of Trevor’s co-workers one evening. After making a stop at Macaroni Grill for take-out, Dave and LaVaun took us to their beautiful mountain cabin in the woods. We had a great time with this fun-loving couple as we enjoyed tasty food and lively dinner conversation in the sweet ambiance of their quaint, cottage style cabin.

Their cabin is a writer’s dream. Rich with history, ambiance and fresh mountain air, it’s perfect for getting the creative juices flowing. I was not at all surprised to hear that someone wrote a book there. The following week, we met up with our friend Penny at her home in Incline Village, NV. We really got to digging the amazing blue water as she took us on a tour of Lake Tahoe. We’d never seen anything like it. Many of my friends have often raved about Lake Tahoe. I was finally able to see why!

Traffic around the lake was really something, though. We were glad we stayed at a KOA in Verdi, NV, where it was nice and quiet. We made another trip out to the lake that week so we could hike on the Rubicon Trail. We arrived pretty early in the morning in order to beat the traffic, but by the time we finished our hike at 10 am, traffic was already jacked, stacked and backed.

The area between Verdi, NV and Truckee, CA is so cool! As we drove along Interstate 80, we felt like we were part of a toy train set. There were mountains with high and low train tracks, rivers, rocks, bridges, and old wood flumes that they used to send logs down the river on. I wanted to get some good photos, but high speeds and traffic along the route, made it difficult to pull off in the right spots. There was an emergency rescue behind the RV Park on the 4th of July. Some of the photos I took of the scene will give you a tiny hint of the toy train scenery I was telling you about. But take a look at the rescue chopper! Isn’t it a beaut?

We visited Virginia City one day, which, due to traffic and road construction was about an hour’s drive from the KOA. It’s a very touristy town made up of little shops in old west buildings. The mountain views around that town are pretty nice!

On the way to Salem, Oregon to visit Ron and Sugar, we stopped to take a look at Crater Lake. Our friend Christy told us it was beautiful, but oh, my! We thought Lake Tahoe was blue! Take a look at Crater Lake! Have you ever seen anything like it?

Trevor enjoyed playing in the huge amounts of snow on the way out of the park. When we lived in Minnesota, there weren’t too many occasions we could enjoy the snow in just a t-shirt and jeans.

Our new campground’s only an hour from the ocean, so we plan to check that out one of these evenings. Being by all of this water’s been truly enjoyable after being in the desert for so long! We only wish that you were here to enjoy it with us. We love you guys! Love, Trevor & Roni

Monday, June 25, 2012

Go West

If you’ve never been and you get the chance, I highly recommend that you go west. I’ve known about and have longed to see the Grand Canyon since I was a child. Neither of us had ever heard of Bryce Canyon or Zion until two years ago, when other RVers began to tell us we needed to visit these places.

We’ve tried several times to get to there, but have always been rerouted for one reason or another. What an awesome answer to prayer when Trevor announced he was going to Seattle this summer! The Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion were all on the way! Trevor took a week off so we could spend a couple of days in each area. We had so much fun! Our first stop was the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in Williams, Arizona. We caught a Wild West show early in the morning on our way to catch the train that would take us to the Grand Canyon.

Before we knew what was happening, Trevor was dragged into a poker game by outlaws and then accused of cheating! They were going to shoot him because of it, but while they allowed me one last photograph of Trevor alive, the Sheriff showed up and rescued him. It was a good thing too, because we needed to be on that train! We should have known it wasn’t going to be that easy to escape those guys. They must have escaped the Sheriff, because as the train pulled away from the depot, there they were, taunting Trevor on the side of the tracks!

We did have a peaceful and enjoyable ride to the Grand Canyon, saw the magnificent, big, beautiful hole there, and caught the train back several hours later.

Not long before we reached Williams again, I could see the outlaws hadn’t finished with us. This time, bandanas covered their faces as they boarded the train and proceeded to rob the passengers in each car. When they got to us, Trevor gave them what they wanted, and they finally left us alone.

We left early the next day for Zion River Resort in Virgin, Utah. It’s a really nice resort, but we didn’t spend a lot of time exploring the amenities there. We explored instead, Zion National Park, another beautiful place with lots of big, beautiful rocks.

We had a great time there during the day despite the high temperatures, and enjoyed evening visits with our friends, Jack and Mary whom we hadn’t seen in two years. It was sad to have to leave them, but we have high hopes of seeing them again before too long. On our way to Ruby’s Inn and RV Park in Bryce City, Utah, we passed through Red Canyon; another place we’d never heard of. Wow, were those rocks ever red. Nice area!

Of all the places we visited on vacation, to me, Bryce Canyon was the most beautiful! I never imagined such a place existed! We spent a lot of time in this park. I found myself taking the same photographs over and over, just in case I happened to miss something! Such awesome and breathtaking views!

The temperatures were much more comfortable at Bryce, so we were able to do a lot of hiking there. The Rim Trail is easy, with breathtaking views. If you want a slightly more challenging trail, try the Navajo Trail as well. You’ll get a different view of the canyon, because you actually walk down into it, and then back up again. Very nice, but very steep climb up!

We’re usually pretty bummed when vacation’s over, but this time, I feel kind of fulfilled and we’re both really exhausted! You know what they say, can’t wait to get back to work so you can get some rest! That’s us.

We have a couple of more stops to make on the way to Washington. A friend to visit at Lake Tahoe; another place I’ve longed to see, more visits with friends in Oregon and then our daughter and her husband will be meeting us for a weekend in Seattle. So looking forward to all of it! We love you guys! Take care! Love, Trevor & Roni

Monday, May 28, 2012

Poised To Strike

During our first month here in Albuquerque, Trevor and I were having a blast walking in the desert behind the RV Park. There’s about a 2 mile dirt loop out there; pretty convenient for a little exercise. It doesn’t look like much as you look out across the mesa, just a bunch of dirt and brush with mountains on the horizon. But it was a fun walk.

It was cool to see the cacti produce their buds and bloom, to watch little lizards run out in front of us and then down the road as if beckoning us to chase them and to wonder what lay beneath the many large holes that line the path. We’ve seen large insects, Yuccas, many species of small wildflowers, what appeared to be the ruins of an old ranch, and something that looked eerily familiar to pictures we saw at the UFO museum in Roswell, New Mexico.

Then the snakes came out! Most of the snakes we’ve seen slithered along the ground like a good snake should. But the first one we saw, looked as though it was poised to strike. We were taking our usual walk, enjoying the beautiful cactus flowers, and not paying too much attention to the path. I just happened to look down for a second and saw that if I were to take two more steps, I’d be right in line with the mouth of a snake. This one’s head was up! We don’t know what kind of snake it was or if it had any intentions for harm, maybe he just wanted to say hello. If that was the case, I have to admit I was a little rude to the poor little guy! We saw another snake that same evening. It was about 5 or 6 feet long. We think it came from underneath our motorhome. It crawled across the road, went underneath the fence, and then slithered into one of the holes we’d often wondered about. Not too far into the next day’s walk, another snake blocked the path where Trevor walked. After that we made the decision not to walk out there anymore. From now on we’re going to walk in the RV Park on weekdays and continue to hike in the Sandia Mountains and Petroglyph National Park on weekends. At least there are people in those places. Hopefully, they’ll scare the snakes away before we get there!

It was so cool to be here for the Annular Eclipse. Albuquerque was one of the best places to be for viewing and photographing it. The local visitor’s center was handing out free eye protection, so thanks to them, we got to do both! The sun continues to be of interest to photographers in the area this weekend. Smoke from the Arizona fires has reached us, creating another interesting view of the sun.

We’ve had a lot of fun here, even with all the sand storms that frequent this area. We will continue to clean what looks like the beach out of our house for two more weeks, then we’ll be off to see new places we’ve yet to explore.

We hope all is well with all of you. We love you! Love, Trevor & Roni

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Getting Our Kicks On Route 66

At one time I thought it’d be cool to follow the famous Route 66 sometime to see what that was all about. When I researched it on the internet, I was disappointed to learn the old route doesn’t exist anymore. There are signs that point to segments of the old historic route, but the original’s been replaced by the Interstate. When we pulled into New Mexico 2 weeks ago, we were amused to find that we’d actually be camping on a portion of the old route! The drive here was certainly exciting. I don’t remember driving through such heavy winds before! The whole time, I wondered how much more wind it’d take to completely blow us over. Trevor’s an amazing driver though and we arrived here safe and sound.

We’ve experienced some pretty heavy sand storms here that have included dust devils the likes of which we’ve never seen before, but most of the time it’s been pretty nice. You would not believe how much hiking there is to do in this area. We hike out in the desert just about every day, and then on weekends our hikes tend to take on higher elevations. So far, we’ve hiked in two different areas of Petroglyph National Monument and a little at Sandia Crest. I say a little, because we haven’t adjusted to the 10,678’ elevation quite yet. But we will!

We also spent a day in Santa Fe where there’s plenty of shopping, but man, you need a big bank account to shop there! I spied a pair of the cutest shoes while window shopping and just had to go in to take a closer look. Being that there are plenty of more important things (like diesel) I could purchase, I thought I’d pass on the $440 shoes!!!