goin goin (gone)travlin'

On the move!

2010-05-17T08:03:00.000-05:00

I have recently transfered goin travlin' to a new blog site with Word Press. To continue following our travel stories this is the link to the site www.elainethehill.wordpress.com I hope you continue to enjoy our tales and like the new format where you can easily sign up to receive an e mail each time I post and post comments which we love to receive.

Along the Mississippi and the Natchez Trail

2010-05-08T21:46:00.002-05:00

Leaving New Orleans behind we drove over one of the longest road bridges in the US. Crossing Lake Pontachtrain on a grey morning it delivered us to the north shore and a campground there to take a couple of days rest after our busy days as tourists in the big city.
Recuperated we made our way north following the mighty Mississippi river, we could however only snatch glimpses of it as it is safely tucked away behind the levee’s.

We did stop for lunch at one of the very large locks which allow the barges to travel down river towards the port of New Orleans. We were lucky enough to be able to see the boat in the lock as we passed over the bridge, you are not allowed to stop on the bridge so this quick shot was taken as we passed by.

We made our way to Vidalia on the Louisiana side of the river, to enable us to visit the town of Natchez on the Mississippi side. We stayed at Riverview RV Park ,a lovely campground overlooking the Mississippi and just below the bridge, with easy access to the river walk for an evening stroll. Unfortunately there were rather a lot of insects flying around while we were there so the air conditioning came into its own as the temperature fell little below 75 degrees overnight.

In the years before the Civil War Vidalia was a Cotton farming area, however on the lower bank of the river it regularly flooded, to avoid disaster the well to do farmers built grand homes on the Mississippi bank in Natchez and moved there at times of bad weather. Natchez became an elegant and prosperous City. Many of its beautiful homes still exist, after stopping at the visitor centre we took ourselves on a walking tour of the streets.

Huge magnolia trees line many of the streets and the scent of white jasmine was constantly in the air, lovely for me….. it made Robert sneeze!

This three tier fountain in the Memorial Gardens(it stood about 20ft tall) was a pleasant cool spot under the trees not only for us to stop and enjoy but while I waited for Robert to take the pictures I watched as birds flitted in and out of the water catching insects and taking a drink.

On the outer edge of town the National Park owns Melrose, a beautiful Greek revival style house presently undergoing some major restoration work. In the grounds the slave quarters and other outbuildings were open for viewing giving a view into the life of those who once lived there.

A big part of Mississippi both then and now is Cotton and to get a better understanding of this fibre we know so well, but so little about, we visited the Frogmore Plantation to the west of Vidalia. The original Plantation house is still occupied by its present day owners who have gathered together from across the State both buildings and artefacts to display the history of this plantation and cotton too.

This old building houses the cotton gin and press

Small wooden buildings like this were the home for 6 to 8 slaves who worked on the farm, the overseer had much grander abode, but called the Dogtrot!!

Inside were displayed all manner of things from the lives of these people, the one which fascinated me most being this early washing machine. I am sure I could make use of this if we could just fit it in one of haRVey’s lockers.

We were shown two films narrated by the present owners, the first an excellent explanation of historical facts about the cotton plantations and the slaves. The second by her husband gave an insight to modern farming of cotton and it uses. In all an informative and entertaining place to visit and learn.

While in the Natchez visitor centre we had discovered information about the Natchez Trace Parkway. In the mid 1800’s Flat bottom boats would float down the Mississippi river taking all manner of commodities to New Orleans. The strong flow of water prohibited these powerless vessels from returning up stream so they would be sold or broken up leaving their owners in need of a method to return north. Natchez was easily accessible due to goods being delivered there for the cotton farms, from there to Tennessee or Illinois was more difficult, a trail used by Indians became a walkway for their return journey.

Today a tarmac road criss crosses the old pathway, not destroying it but as part of its preservation. No commercial vehicles are allowed on the parkway, leaving the woodland and verges free of signage and pollution. The road runs over 400miles from Natchez in the south to Nashville in the north, we decided we could take a ride in that direction. Vicksburg around 70 miles north was the next place we wanted to stop and this would be a good route for us. Our first 20 miles on the parkway took us to Natchez State Park campground for the night and those twenty miles were enough of an insight into the beauty of the road to get us hooked!

Our first stop next morning was the Emerald Mound, an ancient Indian ceremonial ‘construction’. A natural hill was developed with earthworks to form a flat topped mound some 50ft high. We climbed the steps to the top and viewed the smaller mound a short way off and wondered about the ceremonies performed here. We later learned burials were amongst them.

After this we drove to mile marker 15.5 and stopped to visit the Mount Locust property. What was once a small farm became a regular stopping place for the increasing travellers on the trace and eventually the family prospered with the development of an Inn and the production of Cotton on the farm. Not like the grand house of Natchez, this was a true working plantation and seemingly quite rustic.
With temperatures around 90degrees Fahrenheit in the daytime (30 C) , and not dropping much below 75 (24 C) at night, we have been glad of the air conditioning in haRVey to use this however we need a power supply, the National Park Campgrounds do not have have hook ups, but, they are free…

After a lovely mornings driving the very quiet road and lulled by the beauty of the surroundings we made the decision to stay at the Rocky Springs Campground. It was 87 degrees but we were in the shade of the tallest of trees so hoped we would cool down naturally and not miss our air conditioning!

We took a trail from the campground towards the ruins of the old town site, this would take us along parts of the original trace – this sign got us thinking! we appeared to be the only ones along the wooded walk, it was serenely quiet, I spotted a great horned owl, spying on us from a branch, he was huge, and my first sighting of a real owl. We disturbed a small herd of deer who took off into deeper woodland and all the while the numerous birds chirped and called around us.

Back at the campground we melted away the evening waiting for the temperature to reduce and as darkness fell were mesmerized watching fireflies dancing in the dusk and on into dark. Like little sparks from a fire they darted all around us and we were pleased we had kept the windows open to view their entertainment.

New Orleans – Geeez Louise!

2010-05-02T17:23:00.002-05:00

Foot sore and weary we arrived back from our days excursion to the French Quarter of New Orleans. Staying at the KOA gave us the opportunity to ride their free shuttle into town but when we boarded the mini bus at 9am we did not allow for the running commentary we were going to receive. So much information to take in all at once from our driver with a wealth of local knowledge. He dropped us off right on the banks of the Mississippi river just down from the Jackson Brewery building (converted to a shopping centre). One of our first sights was the St Louis cathedral and the horse and carriage rides lined up to take tourists around the city.

A few steps along the road we came to the French Market, obviously well restored after the 2005 hurricane Katrina had passed this way. It was still early and quiet, the stall holders dressing their stands waiting for the days visitors to arrive.

We walked back a block from the market and began to see the properties the area is so famous for, many still empty or needing repair others beautifully restored to perhaps better than they were.

Really the only way to see the sights is on foot, unless of course you take a horse drawn carriage tour, even then they pass by the alleyways so quickly you would not get to glimpse the courtyards hidden away behind the buildings.

This looked oh, so inviting, however, they had lovely salads or coffee time treats, we wanted something a little more substantial to avoid cooking in the evening, so sadly we walked on.

As the day wore on, our camera groaning with the captured images we got on a trolley bus to give the feet a rest. We took the route along St Charles Avenue riding into the outer suburbs of New Orleans. This area was largely untouched by Katrina, its grand properties some which date back to pre Civil war times sit behind huge oak and magnolia trees. The tram cost $1.25 a ride or for $5 you can get on and off all day any of the three routes around the city. An excellent way to see beyond the immediately obvious and tourist hotspots.

Back in the main part of town we took a walk out to the levee to catch a breath of cooler air.

As we had walked in the French Quarter earlier in the day a ‘musical’ sound had caught our ear, I thought it was coming from one of the upper floors and described it as children practicing the recorder. The music seemed to follow us around without us ever getting to the source, it was everywhere but from no where in particular.

Now we found its source, the paddle steamboat moored on the banks of the levee awaiting passengers to take a ride up the Mississippi, had, right on the top deck an instrument (it has a proper name we cannot remember) it looked a bit like an organ.
It played tunes like Swanee River, The Entertainer and of course Mississippi, with each note a puff of steam rising from its pipes, captivating even if it did regularly hit bad notes.

We watched as the passengers boarded, many school children and students excitedly hanging over the rail and watching the paddle going around as they waited for the mooring ropes to be cast off. Eventually it set sail along the muddy waters in a strong breeze.

Our first day almost over we caught our return shuttle bus at 5.45pm wondering if the feet would take another day but knowing there was plenty left to see. The return journey was equally as entertaining as the mornings had been our driver continued to bombard us with snippets of information only a resident would know. Our brains by now were so numb I think we took in even less of our lecture than in the morning, however his regular expletive of geeez Louise! at the other drivers or construction congestion or whatever took his dislike I found very amusing.

It is amazing what a nights sleep can do, at 9am on Friday morning we again boarded the shuttle bus. A new driver today and a new commentary, a little more sedate thankfully and we were able to take in a few more details. We wanted to visit the Jean Laffite Museum for information on the history of New Orleans but first we thought we would treat ourselves to coffee and beignet's at the Cafe Du Monde, a local favourite. We found a huge queue waiting to be seated, this being 9.45 we were very surprised, the previous day there had been very few people around until after lunchtime. We passed over the coffee.

The museum was interesting and well laid out with history of how Louisiana changed hands from the Spanish and French to the English and eventually became a part of the United States. Cultural history about sugar and cotton plantations and of course the slaves and their fight to become free. We later visited the State Museum too, a little more formal in the way the information is presented but containing some fascinating artefacts like Napoleon’s death mask!

Again looking for lunch we thought we were going to a vegetarian restaurant we had found down one of the side streets late the day before but there were no tables free. Around the corner we found Bacco, the restaurant of Ralph Brennan a well known chef here. As it had been recommended by our driver, it did not take long to make a decision that this was the place to eat. We were not disappointed by the food and pleasantly surprised at the cost, a 2 course lunch special for $15. We passed on the desert but did not miss out as later in the afternoon we managed to get seats in Cafe Du Monde for that coffee and beignet treat we missed first thing.

A great experience to visit New Orleans, to see how it has largely recovered from the bombardments of hurricanes, but so sad to think that while we were enjoying ourselves another disaster was inching its way towards the coast in the form of the oil slick from the broken well in the Gulf. From the fishermen through to the restaurants and all associated trades everyone will feel the impact. The wonderful wildlife and natural areas of the coastal inlets which we have so enjoyed are all in danger of being spoiled for many years to come.

Houston and around.

2010-04-29T06:24:00.001-05:00

There are times when I don’t realise how much we have done in a week until I begin to write it up. It is not much more than a week ago we visited NASA but we have done so much in between which I have to tell you about. Our entrance fee to NASA covered all of the exhibits inside the museum and a mini train tour of the complex too including Mission Control, the training area and the hanger housing the Saturn five rocket. I will not go into great detail as that is Roberts forte and a visit to his blog SKI-ing across the pond on 4 wheels will enlighten you further if you would like all the nuts and bolts. The shuttle had landed the day before we visited leaving the control room empty as the staff took a break after the mission. We could view on a screen the mission control for the Space Station where all looked very calm. We had not expected to need more than half a day for the visit but we could have stayed longer, if you were planning a visit in the busier periods a full day would definitely be necessary as the queues for each segment would be lengthy.

We checked in for an overnight stop at Bay Shores RV in Clearlake Shores and discovered we had unusual neighbours! We were staying on this side of town to enable us to take a trip to Kemah and Galveston which we did next day. We parked alongside the moorings in Kemah, strolled along the boardwalk past an empty fairground, watched the school children playing in the water fountain and strolled back to our parking space. I think night time and week ends would be when this area comes to life as it was it was quiet and quaint.

On to Galveston, I had romantic notions of what this would be like from songs of my 70’s youth, How disappointing. We were unable to park in the historic area of town, we were too large for the parking places we found or they were charging $5 – we never have to pay for parking and certainly did not feel what we had seen warranted our paying it for an hour or so today. We rode through the streets to the ocean front road passing by the Bishops Palace and other grand old properties, also some not so grand and not so quaint ones too. Everywhere we went the traffic was very busy, we finally parked beside the ocean for lunch, with trucks and traffic passing close by our side – however we did have a great view out to the water from the opposite side!

A little disappointed in our day we made our way back to the campground, as we turned in to the driveway we noticed the other side of the road there was a side road and beyond an area which looked vaguely interesting. In need of a walk we parked haRVey up and set out for an explore. What we discovered was a small residential area of mixed age properties adjacent to the waterfront in some cases. A quiet little backwater with so much character, we walked for an hour or so, taking in the various properties and the water side around them, putting us in good spirits once more.

Texans celebrate their state history by commemorating the battle of San Jacinto, we had planned to visit the monument and museum associated with it and it was only on our arrival at the park I realised it was 23rd of April, (the battle was 21st) and a re enactment and other celebrations were being prepared for the week end celebrations. It was a little grey and damp after overnight rain so we decided not to go to the top of the 567ft high monument (there is a lift) but to just view the exhibits in the museum, helping us piece together a little more of the early US history we had begun to learn about at the Alamo in San Antonio. We did wonder about returning next day for the re-enactment but heavy rain was forecast which could mean it would be cancelled.

Within the same State Park is the present mooring for USS Texas, the only remaining American ship to have fought in both World Wars. The ship looked huge as we approached, showed our park pass and began our self guided tour. It did not disappoint, it was huge, we wandered around four of its floors, up and down stairs and along wide passageways below deck.

At one point 1800 sailors were berthed aboard this ship and finding them all room to sleep obviously proved difficult. In even the smallest nook drop down berths were crammed, the post room, the doctors quarters even the old coal bunkers when the ship converted to oil were fitted out for sailors to sleep there. How they could sleep in those conditions I cannot begin to imagine except from sheer exhaustion of their day. Again for the engineers take on the ship I will pass you over to SKI-ing across the pond on 4 wheels, where Robert I am sure, in due course, will be writing about it in greater detail.

This was our last stop in Texas . Louisiana was to be our next port of call and for our first night we pulled in to a lovely RV Park with a fishing pond complete with fountain as its centre piece. It gave us easy access to highway 27 leading down to the coast, crossing through Louisiana wetlands and nature conservation areas. We stopped off en route to walk some of the nature trails looking for alligators and birds but I think it was just too hot for them to come and see us. We carried on through Lake Charles to visit the Sam Houston Jones State Park for two nights. The weather had turned very warm and humid again so after an early walk through the park and by the river we spent most of the next day trying to keep cool!

Pelicans on the coast to Alligators in the Park

2010-04-21T20:42:00.002-05:00

A rain storm on Friday morning provided us with a wet journey the 70 miles or so along the coast to Palacios, a fishing port with one of the largest fishing fleets in the area catching mainly shrimp. Bayside RV gave us a lovely site overlooking the water to the front and the harbour to the rear, almost immediately we had a fly past from my good friends the Brown Pelicans.
Looking up on the internet I discovered this area, or at least the off shore sand bank, are one of the areas these birds breed, we presume there must be a good supply of food for them there were just so many to see.They delighted us with their fishing dives and slow gliding fly pasts, usually followed by a gull or two who try to steal the pelicans catch, the pelicans in turn follow the fishing boats trying to steal an easy meal from the fishermen.

There was a constant hum from the boats behind us as one after another they were readied for a trip out to sea. There is little tidal change in these waters enabling them to set out almost any time from the harbour across the inner water and through the sand bar out to the ocean beyond.

The sun went down and still the hum of the boats continued

Sunday morning another rain storm this time accompanied by thunder
awoke us after a very humid night. By 11am the sky was brightening and we were ready to move on.

The stormy skies however seemed to follow us around all day and when we arrived at Brazos Bend State Park we had driven in and out of the rain for almost a hundred miles. This State Park is just over 40 miles south west of Houston, the fourth largest city in the US, and yet this huge area of water, wet land and park could be a million miles from civilization. Admittedly we arrived at a quiet time and with more rain forecast weekenders were not staying around late.

We delighted in watching deer graze close to our site while we ate tea, we spotted rabbits nibbling grass too and many birds called to one another from the huge old trees all around us. Shortly after dark the first pats of rain began to fall on our roof, the storm had once more caught up with us, within a short time the rain was so heavy and so loud we were shouting to hear each other although we were only a few feet away. Just as you thought it could not rain harder – it did – we were thankful to be in haRVey and not a tent!

Monday arrived grey, damp and cooler but still warm enough for us to only need thin shirts as we prepared for a hike around the lakes. The ranger who checked us in had recommended a loop of Elm Lake and 40 Acre Lake connected by the Spillway trail around 5 miles plus the bit too and from the campsite.
The recommendation came with an over rider that we should spot lots of wild life along the way. At the trail head warning notices are posted regarding this parks numerous Alligators, we joked it would be like our bear sightings, lots of warnings but no bears. However, in the green murky waters not far to the side of the path a pair of eyes were watching us!

Coots, moorhens, white egrets and herons were everywhere, we could not believe how many birds were all around us and with little fear of us too, not tame just quite happy for us to get within 30 feet or so before they flew a short distance further from us. The trail paths are well made and walking is easy, grassy banks at the side of the water allow a hinterland for the wading birds to stand and catch there prey, ducks were squabbling as they pair up for the breeding season and dragonfly's darted around our feet.

All the while we were being observed…

In the middle of the path I almost stepped on a green frog, snoozing, presumably after a night on the town in the rain

There was a lot of green algae on the water and bits of logs floating around too, good places for wildlife to hide as they hunt or are hunted…

Alligators, well yes, we saw a few…. small ones and….
the odd larger one too!

To be truthful, they were many, we began by thinking we were luck we had spotted one, and then another and another. One in particular was huge, we think around 10 to 12 feet, which is about as big as they grow here we are told, males being the larger animal. We watched as he stalked a water bird who initially was oblivious to becoming a lunch meal, but, just before it was too late squawked and flew out of reach of the lucking ‘gator who sank into the mud in a sulk. He then turned around in the water sliding closer to us and poked his head out unnervingly staring right at us as we stood chatting to a local lady and her two friends. We decided it was time we moved away.

(click on moving pictures at top right of blog to enter the web album for more )

It was quite disconcerting how close to the path the alligators were lying with just heads out on the bank, we had been told though that they run, rather than attack humans and there have been no reports of attacks in Texas. It is the beginning of mating season and the booms of the males competing for dominance in their territory echoed all around the lakesides as we walked, The noise reminded me of snoring, but It seems the female alligators find it attractive.

We walked just over eight miles in total calling in at the office en route to extend our stay to 3 nights it was obvious there was so much to see and enjoy around the park.

,

Gulf Coast of Texas

2010-04-15T19:28:00.001-05:00

All along our route as we journeyed from San Antonio following the 181 towards Corpus Christi the array of wild flowers continued, we had thought they would slowly peter out as we left the Hill Country behind but much to our delight as mile passed mile the colours flowed by too. We stopped for lunch in a picnic area near Beeville and this was the verge between us and the main road! So many flowers, when you look closely the tapestry is compiled of a variety of different, similar coloured, flowers which from a distance merge to give the impression of a solid colour.
At Aransas we used the free ferry to cross onto Mustang Island. I was delighted to receive a fly past from my favourite sea birds, six brown pelicans slowly glided in front of us as we waited to start our short passage. So unexpected was it the camera did not get a chance to capture the view. The State Park is 13 miles from Port Aransas, the campground tucked behind the dunes does not give a view of the sea but was sheltered from the strong wind.
I was disappointed that the sun was not shining but even more so when I discovered the forecast was for grey sky and a chance of rain most of the week! Thankfully as is the norm, the actuality was some broken cloud for the sun to peer through while we walked on the beach on Tuesday morning. Not the best beach we have been on I have to say but it feels good to be by the sea again. As we walked the almost deserted sands the sea birds were busily poking in the weed for whatever it is they like best and once again my friends the Pelicans put on a fly past, first in two or threes then several flocks of ten to twenty birds slowly glided, occasionally flapping their wings, lazily making there way down the shore line.

Our afternoon stroll, the opposite way along the beach, bought even more pelican viewing. A breakwater of huge stone boulders not only made a bay for the peli’s to gather and fish in, it gave us a viewing platform to watch them at close quarters without bothering them. They seemed to be having quite a feast constantly filling their beaks tipping there heads back and going in for more! The stiff wind blowing up the waves also allowed us briefly to get Roberts kite in the air however we cut the flight short as threatening black clouds seemed to be heading our way. We later discovered that around six inches of rain had fallen in areas south of us, we did not see a drop!

Leaving Mustang Island State Park behind we crossed and re crossed the water taking the Ocean Drive Road through Corpus Christi. Alongside the road are some very grand homes with wonderful views out to the ocean. There are several huge bridges and two long causeways which connect Mustang and Padre Island to the mainland with the ferry crossing making the final link, having used the ferry to get onto the island, we eventually completed the full 360 degree circuit. The traffic was light thankfully although I guess at other times the roads would be like any other city we have travelled through.

Another Island, this time Goose Island (not a real island but a promontory of land) and its State Park was our next stop. We checked in for two nights and set ourselves up in a site overlooking the water. It was however blowing stronger than ever, we may not have had any rain but it certainly is very windy and also very humid, the daytime temperature is around 76 degrees Fahrenheit (night time around 63) but with 75% humidity it feels warmer and everything feels constantly damp and sticky.
Apart from Pelican and sea bird watching we decided to take a walk to visit an elderly local resident. About 2 miles along the road is the home of a live oak said to be over 1000 years old. Zoom in on the photo below for the full statistics but it certainly is a big tree. I like the bit to the right of the stats written as if from the tree!

We walked back via the coast road alongside St Charles Bay, very few cars passed us, it was exceptionally quiet giving us chance to observe the water birds out looking for lunch. With a slightly lighter wind today they will probably have more success. Last night I watched for around 5 minutes a seabird constantly flapping its wings and not move one inch, I am not sure if it was enjoying the exercise (bit like a static exercise bike ride) or just too dumb to realise he had not moved, who knows!

Hill Country (part two) wild flowers in Texas

2010-04-11T12:54:00.001-05:00

It has been a real eye opener for us to see how green and lush this area of Texas is, we almost could feel we were back in England with the rolling fields and leafy trees. We certainly chose a good time to be here, Spring is in full swing and the wild flowers are blooming everywhere, making for a very colourful drive from Fredericksburg to Inks Lake State Park. Once again we had a view over the lake, or a small part of it at least enabling us to watch the water birds including a heron stalking for one of the numerous fish we could see making ripples on the water.

Several hiking trails run out from the far end of the campground and we chose to combine two of them. Again the wild flowers were everywhere, each turn brought a different colour and mix of flower, many of which were new to us. The Texas Blue Bonnets – we would call lupin’s – mixed with small pink phlox and tall prickly poppies, Indian paint brush and purple Tradescantia

Photos can not do justice to the many pretty views we had, and certainly there is no way the delicate smell could be conveyed, wafting on the breeze as it did, just enough to be interesting without being overpowering.

Some of the trail was a little rocky and our walking shoes proved to be the correct footwear to scramble along the sometimes not too well marked bits of the route.

From Inks Lake we drove to Pedernales Falls State Park, we could only have a site for one night as the weekend was fully booked. Having chatted to the ranger when booking in we decided to try to walk from the campground along the river to the falls. There was not a marked path but the ranger thought it should be ‘do-able’. The afternoon was sunny but with a breeze to keep us cool it was great walking weather. Apart from more wild flowers our first encounter on the trail was this little guy and his small friend who kindly posed for our pictures. We looked him up later and discovered he is called a zebra lizard because of the stripes on his tail. I wanted to call him a scorpion lizard as when he ran off he curled his tail up over his back like a scorpion. The bars on his side looked like flaps or gills and made him look much bigger than he was.

For some of the time we were able to walk by the sandy banks of the river, the water was quite deep in places, flowing swiftly with many swirling currents. After a while we ran out of proper trail and began making our way through the tallish grass and wild flowers.

There could have been a path there for all we know but the lushness of the vegetation would mean it would grow over within a day or so. At one point we disturbed a Turkey Vulture feeding on a fish he had caught, he flew to a branch on the opposite bank and waited for us to pass before returning to his kill. Eventually we had to admit defeat, we probably had another 2miles before the falls and with no clear path the walk was not so enjoyable. We returned and took a short cut across the group camp area, in all we walked about 5 miles, feeling further because of the unevenness of the terrain. Robert maintains this does not add to the journey – I think otherwise and so do my muscles.

Not to be out done our view of the falls, next morning we took the easy way out and drove to the car park to walk the short path to the overlook. A nice set of stone steps led a way down to the rocks, then promptly stopped in the middle of no where leaving you to find a route across the rocks. Robert and his long legs were able to jump over a gap I would not attempt, bringing back pictures of how the water has scoured and shaped the rock.

Flash flood warnings are posted all over the walks beside the river, it is obvious greater volumes cascade over the rocks at times and would be a sight to see.

From the peace of the State Parks we headed towards San Antonio, staying one night near San Marcos to break the journey. The KOA at San Antonio is on a bus route which would enable us to visit the city without parking haRVey in the centre – not a good idea. For $1.10 each we rode into the centre on Saturday afternoon, the bus stopping in the heart of the river walk area. Steps took us down to this cool lush manicured walkway where river boats convey the visitors between the old historic buildings mixed amongst the newer hotels and bars. Each boat ‘driver’ gives an account of the surroundings, bits of which, as you are not too far distant on the bank, you can pick up for free as they pass by!

We strolled around the loop of river with many others, enjoying the atmosphere and old buildings then did a little people watching with a glass of wine at one of the waterside bars before taking the return bus back to the campground.

Hill Country (part one)

2010-04-11T11:22:00.001-05:00

Big Spring welcomed us with a goodie bag at the tourist information centre, as well as all our literature we were provided with a reusable bag, a large bulldog clip, a safety cutter a paper clip and best of all two hand fans, ideal for the extreme temperatures we were not accustomed to! Texas RV ranch also welcomed us and found us a site for the night, we delighted in the shade of a real tree, one with leaves on, there was grass too, we were not quite out of the desert yet but almost.

Next day we drove to San Angelo and the State Park just north of town. The campground was a very well spaced flower meadow, we also had a view of what remains of the lake, 5440 ft surface area of water has diminished, in our estimation, by at least 90%. We walked to the waters edge past a boat ramp now isolated from the water by 500ft of weedy waste land.

A short drive allowed us to visit the town of San Angelo itself, it was Good Friday and we had expected some hustle and bustle but apart from a few tourists it was extremely quiet. The attractive building which houses the visitor centre was the start of a shady stroll along the river bank to the old historic part of town where restored buildings now house shops and commercial premises.

Eggemyer’s General store being the most interesting, if a little touristy. A train set running around above the goods on display was an immediate attraction for Robert.

We continued our journey into the Texas Hill Country and had intended to stay at Brady overnight, the campground was very full and did not appeal to us so we drove on a little further to Mason pulling into RV park beside the Llano River. We do like being beside the water, this spot did not disappoint, tranquil and quiet, not too many others and an uninterrupted view of the water. We took a stroll to the river bank after tea and spotted huge bass swimming in the shallow edges along with some smaller fish and what we think was a pike. Several of our fellow campers were fishing. Next morning we witnessed one catch of around 15 inches long, a lovely fish proudly shown off and then put back for a second chance

In preparation for the holiday week-end we had booked ourselves in to Fredericksburg RV. The highway from Mason to Fredericksburg became greener the further we travelled along it and either side were colourful wild flowers to brighten our journey, the blue ones we would call Lupine but over here they are Blue Bonnets and proudly herald Spring. The weather was also becoming more humid so whilst the temperature was lower we felt even hotter.

The campground was about a mile and a quarter from the main street but our walk there took us through some picturesque back streets with older style property which we enjoyed observing. Most were on good sized plots and seemed in good condition for there obvious age. The town seems to have held on to the majority of its older houses and looked after them which gives it a quaint feel, however we did not perceive a great deal of what we would think of as German architecture. Most of the stores in the main street were closed on Easter Sunday allowing us to potter and window shop, many had a German theme to them with Wellkomen over the door, this seemed to make them German in the eyes of the Texan proprietors.

I had been unaware that this part of Texas had a long history of wool production from sheep and goats, I began some research to see if there was an interesting visit to be had and discovered Stonehill Spinning in East Ufer Street. My conversation with the proprietor there, Dorothy, revealed that the wool industry is sadly in decline in the region, the fleece being sent off to Russia, the Middle East or Mexico for spinning and processing. The lady herself however does own a flock of merino sheep and has her wool spun in Michigan, bringing it back for sale in her quaint Fredericksburg store. Along with yarn sales the store holds items for rug making spinning and weaving, classes take place in the lovely big room at the back.

Having kept me company while I pursued my interest it was only fair that the next stop was specially for Robert – Guess what – a microbrewery! No pictures today, it must be getting boring by now watching us consume beverages you cannot try yourself! (By the way, I had Texan wine, something else they produce we were not aware of, a very nice Chenin Blanc) .

Before we finally left Fredericksburg we wanted to visit the Pioneer Museum to learn a little of the towns historical past, a display of old fire engines and the complete history of the towns volunteer fire brigade were on display.

Also, some interesting and weird household objects. The picture to the right shows a small pram, not sure if it was for child or doll, but the contraption hanging from the ceiling seems to be either a baby seat or swing, as there was no information regarding its past uses we were a little in the dark and can only assume, however it looks very dangerous to me whichever use it had. (A grandmothers nightmare!)

The reconstruction of the barbers shop was just like a scene from a wild west movie.

I love this old chair too which looks like it was for the show shine boy!

But best of all I could, just for a moment, look to a future dream, all I needed was the shawl…. that’s a work in progress ….. it may take some time…..

A variety of natural forces.

2010-04-04T11:15:00.001-05:00

As I was writing the last time we were experiencing our first wind and dust storm. Little did I realise that all my hard work cleaning and making haRVey spick and span would be for nothing when the dust settled the next day! Around 5.30pm the power went out taking with it the internet and TV connections. We were pleased to be on our way next morning in the hope we would leave behind the wind.

Before we left the Alamogordo area completely however we visited the White Sand national Monument where the gypsum white sands were gleaming in the sunshine. We stopped of at the inter dunes area and took the short board walk and nature trail giving us an insight to the extent and height of the sand.

The road was quite bumpy and sandy after this point, presumable after the previous days winds carried the sand a little further south west on its journey. It was however a little too rough for us and we returned to the main road to continue our journey into the hills.

The twisty route to Cloudcroft did not disappoint, the tiny village at the top of the mountains still had plenty of snow and a few hardy souls out snow boarding. In the hills to the side of the road were some lovely cabin homes, presumably winter week end retreats for some, for others I imagine it could be their permanent base. I spotted more than one vehicle half submerged in snow, overcome at some point by the winter weather and now beginning to thaw out.

Our next chosen stop was another New Mexico State Park at Brantley Lake where a dam forces the Pecos River to expand into an expanse of water for pleasure of the visitors. The camping sites were once again well spaced and we stayed two nights enjoying the sun and solitude.

Oh yes – and the children’s playground, well, there were no other interested visitors!

There was one last thing we wished to see before we left southern New Mexico, Carlsbad Caverns. We arrived at White’s City, named for Jim White, who was not the first to enter the caves, however from 16 years of age he was the boy and man who promoted them to the wider world until his dream that as many as possible would know of their splendour became a reality. We were greeted by an official, due to construction on the 7miles of road up to the caves and at the visitor centre itself parking was limited, so larger vehicles were being asked to park, the occupants then shuttled, free of charge the rest of the way. Our National Park pass once again paid for our entry and after a veggie burger for lunch in the cafe we set out to walk into the cave rather than take the lift down.

Original visitors to the cave were lowered through the ‘hole’ in a bucket, later wooden stairs were constructed, then eventually the CCC constructed the zig zag pathway into the dark depths of the caves which we were to walk on. Believe me it was steep, I may have made fun of the sign at the top but by the end of the trek my knees were wobbly just as it warned! What you see in this picture is only the beginning, we could not believe how it kept going down and down.

At the bottom of this first section and to its right is the bat cave, where a nursery of Mexican Free Tail Bats ‘hang’ out for the summer and produce their next generation. An amphitheatre of seats above this opening gives a viewing area for the evening display later in the year when the bats emerge to feed. The bats flight was the thing which drew Jim Whites attention to the area as a 16 year old in the early 1900’s and led him into the caves. We carried on down into the 57 degrees of darkness, very little artificial light is provided in this area and while we could see to walk we wished we had a flashlight to enable us to better view the speleotherms all around us.

It took around an hour and a half for us to walk through the first chamber and arrive at the central area where the lifts arrive bringing other visitors the alternative way dawn to the Cathedral chamber. Here a cafeteria and gift shop along with restrooms are provided for the convenience of those visitors who need refreshments part way through their visit, a far cry from Jims first exploration with his pack of sandwiches and kerosene lamp. Another hour later we had toured the grand main chamber, our previous cave visits had educated us to be able to identify and name the various types of features we could see but these caverns were so vast they bore no comparison to what had gone before. Less clinical than Kartchner with its daily de-fluffing and constant misting of visitors, much more extensive than Lewis and Clarke, more of a tourist destination than either of them, however a grandeur and uniqueness not to be missed.

We emerged via the lift to the book store and began to browse when the fire alarm went off. We assumed it was a drill or false alarm however as it turned out it was for real. A transformer on one of the lifts had burnt out…… thankfully stranding no one mid flight (it could so easily have been us) .

Back at the campground that evening we found it rather warm but decided that as we had been at a constant 57 degrees all day we were just not acclimatised, what we did not realise was we were on the verge of a few days of record temperatures for the area.

Next day we took our leave of New Mexico and crossed the border into Texas travelling through Kermit, Robert wanted to see if he could spot the frog – we did, on the door of the fire depot. The immediate area is part of a vast oil field, in every direction ‘nodding donkey’ oil pumps and their associated storage tanks fill the fields

The thermometer reached 93 degrees and we arrived at the Monahan Sand hills State Park, we really felt like this was desert as we all think of it, dunes of golden sand and blistering hot sunshine. We stayed indoors with our air conditioning on until the evening grew cooler, then just before sunset we took a walk onto the dunes to enjoy playing in the sand and watch the sun go down. The picture was taken by Drew who with his wife Kathy we met on our walk, they were also taking in the last sun,we later enjoyed an evening with them in their trailer swapping travel notes and campground info.

Pecans, Parks, Petroglyphs, then to outer space….

2010-03-29T18:46:00.001-05:00

With the week end storm over and the promise of some sunshine our journey took us north from Las Cruses along the Rio Grande river. I was expecting Grande, and I suppose in comparison to any other water course we have seen for a while it was Grande…. but until we arrived at Caballo Lake State Park where the river is dammed it was perhaps only 40ft wide. Along the way we passed through areas planted with Pecan trees, recently trimmed the ground around them was well manicured. In some places the irrigation channels, which draw from the river, had been set to flood the roots providing much needed water.

We found a lovely spot at Caballo Lake State Park with a view overlooking the lake, we took a short walk as far as the trails allowed and sat back and enjoyed the scenery and the sunshine. Further along the Rio Grande again behind a dam is the much larger Elephant Butte Lake State Park, reputedly one of New Mexico’s most visited state parks. Unfortunately the visitors had left there mark with rubbish strewn along the waters edge. A site overlooking the lake again was to our liking, with the promise of more extensive trails we thought we may stay a couple of nights. As it turned out we decided there was just not enough to keep us there, the forecast was taking a downturn and a beautiful sunrise seemed to confirm the imminence of rain. We had not been on the road long before we saw the first raindrops, it was chilly too and eventually the raindrops had snow in them. We had taken the I 25 towards Socorro but turned off onto a road running parallel, it ran through the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, just south of San Antonio. The wildlife seemed to have taken refuge from the storm and little was to be seen. San Antonio is a small cluster of buildings on a four way junction, this is the major town for 60 miles or more if you are travelling west, east or south, to say this area is sparsely inhabited is an understatement I think.

We drove eastwards along highway 350 which borders the north edge of the White Sands Missile Range, famous for being the first place an atomic bomb was exploded at the Trinity Test Site. This road took us over a ridge of hills and down into the valley near Carrizozo. A few miles before the town, the terrain either side of the road suddenly became black and volcanic, we had entered the area of the lava flow around the Valley of Fires State Recreation Area.

The park is under the authority of The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) once more we found the camping facilities to be excellent, unfortunately we missed the last electricity hook up by about 5 min. but decided we were happy to dry camp for a night – the charge $12! (£14 for a hook up). A BLM volunteer was managing the office and visitor centre where we called to pay our due’s, as usual a conversation was struck up about where we were from and what we were doing. I asked the gentleman if he was from Carrizozo, he confirmed he had been born there, lived there all his life and not seen the need to travel anywhere beyond where his work on the railroad had taken him in the last 93 years! I was truly amazed to discover his age (if asked I would have put him around 70, a woman of 70 would have been very happy to have his complexion) and thrilled to chat to him about his life and how ‘things’ had changed

Later the weather brightened and we were able to take a walk along the nature trail laid out with interpretive boards to explain the variety of volcanic lava formations. This flow was not as we usually think from a volcano eruption but from the earth splitting open allowing the lava to ooze from fissures, tumbling along forming a black deposit over 40miles long, 5miles wide at its widest point, over 300ft deep. All this took place relatively recently, in geological terms, less than 5,000 years ago. Large bubbles formed and as the lava cooled and crusted they burst and collapsed, folds and twists in the lava can be easily seen as can cavities and caves where bats now find a home.

In fact the flow area is remarkably green, over the centuries pockets of earth have built up in the hollows of the lava crust allowing seeds carried by birds and small animals to germinate and grow.

We drove through the town of Carrizozo next day, it was very quiet. When the Railroad routes were diverted from the town in the 1940’s, 150 men from the 1000 inhabitants lost their jobs, further hardship was felt by the farmers when the government took over their land for the White Sands Base. The land was freely loaned initially to help with the war effort however, after the war, the government found a way of legally holding on to it for their own requirements, local farmers to this day still feel cheated from what was rightly theirs.

More Ancient history awaited our exploration at the national Petroglyph site near Alamogordo. We felt very lucky to be able to take one of the two RV camp sites available next to the trail for the petroglyph’s. Again a lovely spot and well kept by the BLM, this time we had snow capped mountains for our view rising 9,000 ft in front of us.

The volunteers were Bruce and Kathy who have been on the road full time in their RV for 5 years, they were standing in for the full time volunteers while they took a well earned day off. It transpired that volunteering is the summer job for Bruce who really is one of Santa’s helpers. With his wonderful long white hair and beard (It takes Kathy an hour to prepare him when he is doing his proper job) jolly personality and way with words I am not entirely sure if he is a helper or actually the real Santa!

The site of the petroglyph’s is small but packed with examples of the ancient art. Unfortunately in some places modern graffiti artists have tried to emulate the ancients and the weather is also taking its toll on the rocks which stand open to all elements splitting rocks and shattering pieces from others. There are still so many to look at in places it is hard to know where to look first. Some designs appear over and over like the various forms of circle, we later learned, it is thought, this site was possibly used for sun worship or for astrological reasons.

Other pictures show animals, maybe being hunted or stalked, some have spears in them, birds are prevalent too and their are several mask drawings with oval eyes staring out from the rocks

From Three Rivers Petroglyph site it is just a few miles down the road to Alamogordo, this town serves the Air Base on White Sands Missile Range. Covering a vast area the range takes in not only the air base but facility for the space shuttle to land, missile testing area, and Space Port. In Alamogordo itself is the Space Museum and Hall of Fame, which we visited on Thursday afternoon. Exhibits over four floors include actual space suits worn on various missions, the pre packed food the astronauts had to eat, which has improved greatly over the years and is now far more ‘earth’ like. There are various missiles and satellites, an exhibit about the European Arianne rocket which deploys satellites for commercial operations. For me the most memorable exhibit was a piece of moon rock. Encased in a glass pyramid it was small and black ( I joked it came from the dark side otherwise it would have been white – OK, bad joke) probably something you would pass by quite easily if it was out in the street, however while contemplating where it came from I found it amazing.

From the outdoor exhibit area looking over Alamogordo to White Sands Monument

Across the outdoor exhibit area down some steps and over the car park we arrived at the Imax Theatre and Planetarium for the 3pm showing of a new film about the Hubble Telescope. I find Imax a great experience, this film only recently finished recorded last years fantastic achievements by the space team to repair various parts of the Hubble Telescope before the space programme is suspended. The pictures of the space walks as they carried out the repairs left me truly in awe of the astronauts bravery, tethered to the space ship but floating thousands of miles out in space. The difficulties they overcame in these extreme conditions to repair and maintain the telescope will enable it to continue to lead scientists down fascinating paths of discovery for years to come.

The film also showed pictures taken by the cameras on the telescope, it took us back in time to one of the stars in Orion’s belt, a star system commonly identified in the night sky and then inside this stars cloudy atmosphere to a place where new stars are being ‘born’ – quite incomprehensible!

So, today is Friday and as I write we are still in Alamogordo sitting out yet another storm, this time a wind storm. We are being rocked vigorously, the wind blowing across the front of us diagonally and the air thick with dust. It is not cold, on the contrary it is 75 degrees, we have the air conditioning on as we cannot open the windows for the dust. It is due to be over by 7 or 8pm tonight, so all being well should be calm before bedtime. We intend to take a road into the mountains from here and today was not the weather to do it so we have washed, cleaned, baked and passed the time writing, actually its nice to have a day off!

A change of State

2010-03-20T21:03:00.001-05:00

It was time to cross the border from Arizona into New Mexico, it is always exciting, wondering what a new area is going to be like, it also surprises us that you really can see a change. Sometimes it is just the state of the roads which highlight it but today it was definitely a change of surroundings. From flat dessert valley’s we rose into mountain terrain along the winding 78 road. As we rose higher in the hills we could see in the far distance even higher ground with snow caps. The scar on the landscape was the huge mine area around Clifton, another copper mine we presumed, it covered a vast area of land.

As we dropped down the other side of the mountains the landscape was more undulating, in many of the ‘bottoms’ shallow washes flowed across the road from the recent rains, the surrounding countryside however was still parched and brown, fire hazard warnings set to moderate.

While in Bisbee a couple of people had recommended Silver City to us, we thought this would make a good destination and chose Rose Valley RV for our overnight stop. The local Tourist Information Centre car park made a good parking place for us to take a wander around the old part of town. This is really old Wild West Territory and the stomping ground of Billy the kid. Rose Valley RV is situated on Memory Lane, at the end of the lane is a cemetery where, amongst others lies the Mother of Billy the Kid who died when he was 14.

Unlike Bisbee we did not find a great deal to keep us any length of time in Silver City, a great deal of the commercial property was run down and empty, such a shame as we have experienced how a town can thrive with tourism as its front.

Wednesday and on the road again, the weeks do fly by, we had to fill up with fuel before we left Silver City, the gas prices are rising almost as fast as the £ – $ is changing and we now are paying around $2.70 per gallon with forecasts that it will rise still further. haRVey drinks around a gallon per 8 miles very bad for our carbon footprint and our pockets!

Near Deming in the South West corner of New Mexico we found Rockhound State Park. With only 26 camp sites we were unsure if we would get a place for the night but when we were met by the camp host (Charlie) on his John Deer cart, he assured us he had a spot to put us in. The volunteer had left that morning and we were allotted their vacant site, right at the edge of the campground with great views out over the surrounding flat valley and to the mountains far beyond, what a lovely spot, especially with a glass of red and a sunset!

Complete quiet and peace seemed to surround this State Park despite it being full, rockhounders are obviously too engrossed in there rocks and minerals. We walked the trails and enjoyed pretending to understand some of the rocks we saw, gathering some we were attracted to for our collection. You are allowed to gather 15lbs of rocks and take away with you, we just had a few ounces but were happy.

The view from the trail looked down over the campground and far out to Deming. In the far distance we could see the ridge of the Continental divide around 7,000 ft high. With water and electricity provided on site the $14 nightly fee we felt was a bargain and hope that this will be the standard of State Parks in New Mexico. If it is we will be using them regularly.

A winter storm warning was issued for the week end and we felt it would be an idea to take a little shelter as far south as we could. Las Cruces and Mesilla looked interesting, a campground with wi-fi and a laundry would be useful for the weekly catch up, we were pleased with our choice but the $46 fee seemed extremely excessive in comparison to where we had just been.

A walk into Mesilla on Saturday morning was chilly but interesting, this is the town where Billy the Kid was tried for murder and imprisoned awaiting the death sentence, but broke out of jail. The building now houses a gift store.

The church dominates one side of the square where many of the old buildings have a colourful past but have been preserved well. We had a look around one gift store just to look at the building which is the oldest brick structure in New Mexico I believe we have seen far more modern buildings in worse condition.

We had done the right thing in coming down here though, while we experienced very high winds and a chilly night not too far north cars and trucks had been stranded in snow and very wet and windy conditions. Today is the first day of Spring!!!

Long week-end in Bisbee

2010-03-20T08:31:00.001-05:00

We arrived in Bisbee just before lunch Friday and were lucky to get a site in the only campground, perched high next to the Copper Queen Mine, overlooking the town which spreads itself up the hills and along the valley. Bisbee grew up around the copper mining industry which is still very profitable today. The buildings are mainly American Victorian, some quite grand in their construction others still show the signs of their original miner shack beginnings.

The town is designated a Heritage Site so thankfully its character will remain preserved for the future. Many of the towns main street stores are now antique or curiosity shops interspersed with art and craft stores, a book store and several restaurants. In all a great place to
spend a week end just browsing around.

Friday afternoon we walked the old town streets to get our bearings and I was delighted to find two places to explore the local fibre art scene. Part of the old YWCA building has been utilised to provide a community space for those wishing to weave and spin and take part in other fibre orientated crafts, a small area given over to sales of hand made goods and hand spun and dyed yarn provides an outlet for the local craft workers. I enjoyed chatting to the lady in attendance while a second lady busied herself weaving at one of the looms. Just the next street along we found another weaver in her own store surrounded by cones of yarn and lovely pieces of hand woven cloth, again we chatted for some time, I came away quite enthused by my conversations.
Our third ‘find’ was within a building which houses a coffee shop a gift store the tourist information point and the retail store of Kate Drew Wilkinson who makes exquisite lamp glass beads. While browsing her lovely creations the lady herself began a conversation with us, asking the usual first question ‘where are you from?’. We replied Northumberland and watched her face light up. Kate was born in Oxfordshire but her grandparents had a house and farm in Morpeth, Northumberland where she spent happy holidays as a child.
In Brewery Gulch (where else) Robert had spotted a micro brewery. Unfortunately it said closed on the door, however he saw someone was inside so, opened the door to ask when they were open. It transpired the first ever day of serving the new brew would be Sunday!
As we had not booked and the 25 site RV park was very busy the manager had said she would let us know on Saturday morning if we could stay another night, with the opening of the micro brewery Robert was pleased when she said she could take us for not only Saturday but Sunday evening too. Saturday afternoon we walked past the main part of the old town and discovered more lovely old buildings which were just as diverse as we had seen the previous day. The one on the right is a Hotel, the one below was for sale, we decided not to buy!
We were lucky, the sun shone on us but the breeze was cool which made it pleasant. We browsed the curiosity stores, poking in corners and finding all manner of things from old Cowboy paraphernalia to household objects, antique glass and jewellery, videos, records, musical instruments, you name it I think we saw it…. but, left it where it was, just enjoying the experience of browsing.

Bisbee seems to be a town where there is always something happening, live music in the bars, craft or art shows, outside the mining museum an impromptu band of drummers were enjoying the sun and beating out a tune. The community seems to be made up of a diverse group of people all with a desire to keep the town alive. It would seem from looking at images on old photos in the Heritage Centre, this has always been a town with spirit, maybe it comes from the mining background although some of its present folk appear to have arrived in the late 60’s and not realised its now 2010.

After spending Sunday morning with chores we were ready for our outing to The Old Bisbee Brewing Company, micro brewery, the only problem was I don’t usually like beer, I am a wine drinker, red, best if its Merlot…. not beer, I actually have (had) never drunk a glass of beer, so when we arrived at the bar Robert presented this issue to the young lady serving. I was offered a taster of the Scottish Red Ale she had brewed. Being the polite person I am I accepted and Robert decided on a glass of the Stout. We chatted to Mindy and discovered that some of her training to become a brewer was done in Sunderland, just a few miles from home…what is it about the people of this town and there English connections! I surprised myself by finding I liked the beer so much I had a proper glass after my taster while we talked with fellow drinkers in the small bar area, ate popcorn and whiled away the afternoon. It so often seems that the best times we have are the ones we don’t expect, we had no idea what Bisbee would be like but from the campground, to the surroundings, and definitely the people, I would recommend it as a great place to spend a long week end!

Highs (points) and lows (temps) in Arizona

2010-03-12T17:17:00.001-06:00

At the appointed time on Thursday afternoon a smart mini bus pulled up on the campground at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument for the afternoon drive into the mountains. We joined a group of eight others and along with our driver and guide, strapped our seat belts and began the trip. Our guide, Ed, was very interested in the wild flowers and plants of the area so his talk was heavily biased toward this subject, we did learn a few new facts however and were delighted to see the first orange poppies in bloom, very much like California poppies but only 2 – 3 inches tall, a large carpet on one hill captured all our attention.
Further on we stopped to observe a natural rock arch high up on the hillside, Its dimensions of 36 feet high, 90 wide and 720 feet long surprised us, it must have been a good deal further away than it appeared!
Friday we hit the road again, we intended to stay in Tucson overnight but en route stop off at Kitt Peak Observatory. The flat Arizona landscape we had become used to began to change and high mountains came on to the horizon. Standing high on one of these the observatory is visible many mile before you reach it. A steep twisty road gives access to the mountain top, plus extensive views of the desert. We had almost forgotten what it was like to be high up and looking down we had been on flat land so long, one of the disadvantages of height however is temperature, as we neared the top we began to see snow at the side of the road on getting out in the car park we also discovered a very strong wind!
There are several telescopes at the facility, three open to the public along with the National Solar Observatory, unfortunately due to the cloudy weather there was no observation happening. We browsed the information in the visitor centre and climbed to the observation tower on the 4 meter Mayall Telescope, enjoying the views as much as the observatory itself.

An ‘arty’ view of the Solar Observatory.

Clouds over Kitt Peak National Observatory

The storm clouds continued to gather for the rest of the day,
overnight wind and rain left a grey start to the next morning, we moved on to the other side of Tucson and a RV Park in Benson with thoughts of maybe staying a couple of nights as one of its very special features was its own small observatory with evening viewings. Unfortunately two things caused us to pick up our feet and ride next day, more clouds, so no chance of observations and TRAINS….. all night hooting at the nearby crossing, this must be our pet hate about campgrounds, we are not sure how others cope with it, maybe earplugs. A train every hour or so was bad enough but around 4am I counted 5 within thirty minutes…no fun – we run!
Today our destination was to be Kartchner Caverns, one of the newest State Parks it just celebrated its tenth anniversary last year. We found the campground very spacious as usual and the facilities all very new as you would expect. As we arrived before lunch we had plenty of time at the visitor centre to view the film about the discovery of the caverns in 1974, how they were kept secret for eleven years to protect them and then how, with the State help the facility came to be what we can enjoy today. There are two tours around the caverns and we were unsure which one to book for but eventually decided on the Rotunda and Throne Room, our tour was to be 11.20 next day.
We were surprised how many people were visiting, the campground was around 75% full and each time we passed through the day area parking it was also very full, lots of people enjoying the visitor centre facility. While chatting to the guide on our tour we learned that a tour every twenty minutes enters the caves with around 20 people on each, this begins at 8.30am and continues until 4pm, the tours were fully booked most of the time, that makes for a lot of visitors!
In Montana we had visited the Lewis and Clarke Caverns and could not help but compare the two, Kartchner is huge, well laid out with modern walk ways and facilities. Its features are also grand but we enjoyed the ‘scramble’ at Lewis and Clarke and felt it was more intimate, the features in closer proximity. Kartchner’s limestone shields, stalactites and soda straws impressed us and Kubla Khan, stands a proud 58ft high in its huge cavern while each feature around is illuminated to sympathetic music, very theatrical. We found the guided talk very informative and very worth while the visit.
We enjoyed the walks around the campground although they were not extensive, they were enough to stretch our legs and enjoy the view. The storms for the time being had cleared and a blue sky afternoon was very pleasant. Late afternoon however it all changed and yet another storm blew in, this time bringing hail and snow leaving a white covering before dark. After a second chilly night we were pleased the campground had hook ups and we had been able to use our heaters to keep warm.
We learned a while back that temperature and altitude strike a fine balance, the Kartchner campground was at around 4,700 ft, snow levels are around 5,000 in this area, too close for comfort. Next day we began a short journey south and a little west, again taking us very close to the Mexican border and a destination of Patagonia Lake State Park, and a thousand feet lower!
The small town of Patagonia is fifteen miles from the State Park which lies in a hollow of several mountains, such a change of scenery again. The blue lake surrounded by trees was bathed in sunshine when we arrived, luckily we managed to get a site which overlooked the lake one of the last hook ups available, the campground was busy. This park is a haven for birds and bird spotters, also fishermen and boaters, a short bird trail leads from the end of the campground allowing visitors to meander around the far end of the lake and catch glimpses of numerous birds. Not being familiar with US birds we managed to spot lots of grey and brown jobbies, Martins swooping low over the water were easy to name and we did identify a bright red bird with a crest as a Cardinal (we had been pleased with a sighting of a Vermillion Flycatcher at Kartchner) also we were fortunate to spot a hummingbird close to our site but it did not stay around long enough for us to name it!
It delighted us to discover that when the lake was created in the 1930’s a portion of railway which ran close to where the campground now is, but on the lake bed, was completely covered! Touché….

We’re back!

2010-03-06T18:57:00.001-06:00

Two blissfully uneventful flights found us at Phoenix airport waiting in a long line to clear immigration. Our new visas had not yet been tested and we hoped there would be no issues. When our turn came we answered the few questions from the Border Officer who stamped our passports and wished us well. On inspection we found our departure date to be six months hence, more than enough time for our intended visit, what joy to have no time constraints on our US stay.

We picked up the hire car and drove across town to Verrado and the lovely US home of our UK neighbours Helen and Peter to spend the night with them. As usual jet lag woke us early but after a shower and breakfast we were eager to get across to Leaf Verde RV in Buckeye and check on haRVey, open him up and unpack our cases. haRVey really feels like home now and we were ready for our return despite the sadness we always feel on having to leave the family behind.

It was surprising how quickly everything got stashed away and we sat having five minutes and a cup of tea when Helen and Peter called over to visit and be introduced to haRVey. As the evening drew on the jet lag once again took its toll and very early we hit the pillows for some welcome rest.

We drove over to Helen and Peters after lunch and met their friends Jill and Peter, Helen was keen to take us to a local bar to experience a bit of Arizona ‘culture’. The Cowboy bar (it probably has a proper name) looks like a run down shack from the outside but once over the doorstep the interior is absolutely fascinating. Odd artefacts adorn every bit of wall and ceiling space, from a Halloween decoration to large Santa figure, and many adverts for drinks etc. Just inside the door Robert was taken by the life size figure of a Cow Boy but in almost every direction there was a huge television screen. A group of bikers were playing pool in the games area to the rear, we sat around a table and were served our drinks, mine a VERY large Sprite with gallons of ice, Helen had her favourite Chardonnay, the rest had beer, bottled beer is expected to be drunk from the bottle but draft beer is served in glass jars reminiscent of preserve jars, Ladies drinks are always served in jars!

Saturday was Founders Day in Verrado and big celebrations were planned in the town for the evening. A friend of Helen and Peter was having a porch party to which we were invited. Arlene lives in a house overlooking the beautifully landscaped town square where a huge stage had been set up for the swing band, when we arrived around 7pm the square was full of families and couples some with their blankets laid out on the grass, others strolling around greeting friends and a few dancing to music being played by a local taking part in the talent contest presently on stage. Such a lovely atmosphere, the town has only existed for around five years and yet it has a comfortable settled feel and a great sense of community, we were impressed and understand why Peter and Helen like it here. Our little UK community of Bridge Island could be a mini version of this.

The rain which had been forecast kept off until around 10pm allowing the locals to jive in the street to the swing band and most to get home in the dry. Rain pattering on the roof all night does not lead to a very restful sleep, we were up early Sunday when we were due to return the hire car. The day was cool and grey but after dropping off the car Peter collected us and we picked Helen up to drive to the local golf club restaurant for some different Arizona culture.

Verrado town centre has two towers one is on the community centre outside which the previous evenings entertainment had been staged, the other, across the square and through the picturesque shopping court, belongs to the golf club building. Inside a formal restaurant and bar/lounge area allows for comfortable relaxation and on a better day tables and chairs on the exterior patio overlooking the golf course and the nearby mountains are very popular, especially for watching the lovely sunsets which happen often in this area. After some lunch Helen took us for a stroll around the neighbourhood showing us the communal pool and gathering area around a fire pit (gas fuelled!) and the lovely houses. Again we were very taken with this newly built town which has an individuality to be envied.

haRVey was booked in for his 15,000 mile service on Monday morning, the Ford garage was across town so we upped legs and drove over for the 11am appointment. It felt good to be on the road again even if we were only going to the garage, our jet lag was much better and we were beginning to feel the itch to move on. After 3hrs sat in the waiting area we had just about exhausted our reading material when haRVey reappeared, all fit and ready for action. More groceries taken on board on the way back to Leaf Verde readied us further, however, we still needed the generator service completed and to replace two awning clips blown off in high winds before Christmas. These had been on order with a mobile RV guy with whom Robert had been exchanging e-mails for weeks, a phone call reassured us all was in order and the mechanic would be over early Tuesday morning to complete both jobs.

Browsing maps and brochures we had decided to travel south from Buckeye almost to the Mexican border and stay at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, it was around 11am before we were ready to roll and another hour before we had LPG and fuel on board and were finally properly on the road. A long straight road at that, but the sun was shining and we were very happy to have started our adventure in 2010.

After recent rains the desert has turned green, vegetation taking advantage of the Spring moisture to produce leaves and soon flowers too. The Organ Pipe Cactus differs from the Saguaro Cactus in that is sends up several 'arms' from the ground rather than branching out from higher up, Saquaro had been plentiful all the way along the journey but now in all directions we saw Organ Pipe Cactus of varying sizes interspersed with Cholla and Ocotillo, Pancake cactus and Palo Verde bushes. The campground is very well laid out with flat concrete pads spaced nicely apart to give each one space around filled with the various cactus. There are no hook ups but we were fortunate to be given a site right next to the tap, so water is not far away! We ate tea and watched the sun set over the hills a pink edge on a small wisp of cloud before complete darkness and total silence took over for the night.

Dawn the next morning was almost as pretty, pale blue, pink and beige hues greeted me when I lifted the blind just before 7am. A trail from the campground through the desert leads to the Visitor Centre so after breakfast we set off for a walk. It was only 10am but I soon took off my thin jacket, the sun was warm, a light breeze very pleasant on our faces. Views of the nearby craggy mountains and cactus everywhere kept us occupied until we came to the modern visitor centre. Apart from reading the information on plants and animals of the desert we booked ourselves on a mini bus trip into the mountains for Friday afternoon. The road would not be suitable for us to drive ourselves and our experience of previous Ranger led tours gives us the hope this will be an interesting trip. Back to haRVey for lunch and relaxation in the afternoon heat, we feel like we have been catapulted from Winter to Summer, this time last week we were in Durham and snow!

UK winter.

2010-02-21T14:17:00.001-06:00

I have just re read my last post and realised it was even longer than I thought since I brought the blog up to date. Our internet connections have been just as intermittent here as back in the US and we really appreciate the times when we are able to use a broad band connection. Time to actually sit down and write has been thin on the ground too, between travelling and visiting we have filled our days to the brim!
Apart from spending as much time as possible with the family and meeting up with friends in the North, we did get down to the quayside to book tickets for a concert at the Sage, while there we spotted the millennium ‘eye’ bridge lift for a small craft to pass underneath. Newcastle is famous for its bridges, the Tyne Bridge, a replica of the Sydney Harbour Bridge perhaps the most famous, with the High Level Bridge and the Swing Bridge make a much photographed cityscape. These were joined by the new foot bridge in 2000 linking Gateshead and Newcastle Quaysides. Its shape is simple and yet sophisticated, the whole structure tilts to raise the deck high in the air to allow boats beneath.and providing easy pedestrian access to the Baltic art gallery and the Sage. This is the home of the Northern Symphonia, also the venue for music events of various kinds in its two large halls and other smaller ones. After dark the view changes and the ‘eye’ bridge takes on a new dimension, its lights change from purple to blue and red, highlighting its contemporary framework.
Twenty two years ago when Robert and I moved to the North East the quayside still bore the scars of it’s almost redundant shipbuilding career. There were still a few boats being built along the banks of the Tyne but the empty shipyards and associated industrial buildings were a blot on the city landscape. It was not without opposition that the redevelopment took place, however what we have today I feel is a credit to the City. I love to look at the scene from the Baltic’s viewing platforms or the square outside the Sage. The new buildings have been so sympathetically blended to match the old or as with the Sage (which I like to describe as a glass armadillo) stand out in their own right as modern pieces of architecture, landmarks for the future.
A trip to the US Embassy in London on the 4th of February provided us with tourist visas. We will no longer have to rely on the Visa waiver programme and be restricted to 90 days visits to the US. The duration will be at the discretion of the Border Officer on duty where we cross however, so we still have to be nice and behave ourselves, but for the next 10 years we may be allowed to stay for up to six months at a time! Will that be long enough to see all the sights I wonder?

In London on a very wet cold day we walked from Euston Station to Grosvenor Square and the Embassy. I was disappointed as I expected to arrive at an architecturally grand old London building, I had imagined myself walking up some stone steps and into a large high hallway, being interviewed by a severe looking man behind a big old wooden desk. He would ask us lots of questions which we would have answer carefully before he stamped our passports and allowed us to have the freedom to roam!

.As it turned out the outer buildings reminded me of any of the border crossings we have been through in the States, modern square, hut like structures, we did climb some steps but I believe they were concrete, we then sat in a large 70’s style waiting room, which made me think of a DHSS office where the unemployed ‘sign on’! A number of hatch style windows along one edge of the room and a further six or seven similar ones in a rear room were the interview areas, the staff were business like but pleasant and the whole process took around two hours.

The route we took both too and from the Embassy passed along some old quaint streets, we had coffee in Moulton Lane quite close to Wimpole Street and Wigmore Hall, lunch in Oxford Street bustling with traffic, walked along Gower Street passing RADA and the University College London, along with upmarket Dr’s and dentist practices. We whiled away the afternoon in the British Museum viewing artefacts from early British history, I was surprised to read that a large silver plate on display had been found in the 1700’s in our very own Corbridge, Northumberland by a young girl on the banks of the Tyne. For many years after its discovery it was the property of the Dukes of Northumberland being bought from them for the Museum in the 1980’s.

We escaped the grey North East again towards the middle of the month, travelling south to Devon and Cornwall. Just for a change Plymouth was bathed in Spring sunshine when we arrived. We spent Thursday with Elizabeth Alistair and Melissa who is now pottering around very capably and calling everything ‘og’ (dog) !
Our next port of call was Penzance to visit our friend Linda and her partner Derek in their lovely home overlooking Newlyn Harbour.
Our last visit this far south was marred by the wet weather, so as we were blessed with sunshine we broke our journey in the pretty village of St. Ives. Sunny it may have been but the wind was bitingly cold. Getting some sunlight on our faces made us feel very good though.

St. Ives is very much a summer holiday destination however we were surprised how busy it was for the time of year. We spotted para gliders over the far side of the harbour who must have had a great view as they descended on the light winds. They looked like they were going to land on roof tops but I am sure they must have had an open space in view to drop in to.

After a feast of home cooking and a good nights sleep Linda and Derek took us to the famous Minnack Theatre, built into the rocky hillside of the Cornish coast. Built in the 1920’s by Rowena Cade and her gardener the setting is stunning,

Open air productions take place in the summer with the audience being seated on carved stone seats in the steep auditorium. I would love to return to see a performance at some point. A cushion and warm blanket are an obvious requirement!

Our whirlwind tour also took in some lovely Cornish coves along the costal path, down twisty lanes just wide enough for two cars to pass. Clusters of snowdrops and yellow daffodils were everywhere, it felt like the Spring had really arrived.

Back in Plymouth on Sunday with Elizabeth and Melissa we visited Bigbury on Sea and Salcombe.Melissa enjoyed riding in her new backpack on Granddad's back and having a walk on the sand before we had lunch in a local tea room.
The time passes so quickly and Monday morning bags packed we made the most of the good weather to take a ride over Dartmoor, spotting lots of ponies looking for food. I made the mistake of winding down the window to get a better picture of one who spotted a chance and almost poked his head in the window. I just about took off his whiskers as I swiftly rewound it. I prefer the ponies at a distance!

A few more days in Nuneaton with Mum and Dad Hill then north once again to wet grey Durham. Now into our last week before we fly we intend to see as much of the family here as we can. Jennie and I had a lovely day out in Newcastle on Thursday, after shopping we saw Pride and Prejudice with Susan Hampshire at the Theatre Royal.

We would have liked some better weather while home, like many places we have had the worst winter for many years, as I write it is yet again snowing, its been good to catch up and spend time with everyone but as each day passes now our thoughts are on returning to haRVey and our travels.

Home for Christmas

2010-01-04T09:39:00.000-06:00

Thanks to BA, the British weather and the UK inability to cope with the slightest bit of snow,our homecoming was an extended affair. Rather than arriving in our rented accommodation on Friday night we finally touched down on Sunday afternoon, just in time to greet the NE half of the family arriving for Birthday celebrations for Jennie, our youngest daughter. Whatever, it was great to have the family for tea, we all chipped in and soon were enjoying the treat. The grandchildren played together quite beautifully Robert and I delighting in seeing how they had grown up in the time we had been away.

On the 22nd we travelled to Nuneaton to stay overnight with Mum and Dad Hill before another day on the road to Plymouth and the home of our eldest daughter Elizabeth her husband Alistair and our youngest granddaughter Melissa to enjoy the Christmas holiday at their home. Snow was still causing problems around the country and as we arrived a hail storm left a festive white carpet on the local roads and footpaths

Christmas day was spent educating Melissa in the art of ripping paper off parcels and introducing her to the family Christmas traditions, including some new foods like Brussels Sprouts (she wrinkled her nose and refused). She rewarded us all by taking her first few independent steps marking another milestone in her young life. Again a joint effort on the kitchen front produced a meal for us all to enjoy, Alistair excelled with his Yorkshire pudding (being Yorkshire born and bred he should!) and Elizabeth cooked up some great roast potatoes!

By Boxing Day we needed some exercise, a walk on the Hoe was prescribed and we popped Melissa in her car seat and headed for the sea. As soon as we stepped foot out of the car the heavens opened, a plastic bubble on the push chair kept Melissa nice and cosy the adults however were cold and wet. Somehow whenever we visit Plymouth the weather takes a turn for the worst. Our travels in the US have sharpened our senses to historical connections between our two countries and on the Barbican we found several plaques commemorating those links, probably the most famous was the sailing of the Mayflower, however the first transatlantic flight and sailings to the colonies also received recognition.

All too soon it was time for us to make the return journey to Nuneaton and we sadly said our goodbyes to this section of the family for the time being.

The traffic north was heavy, the journey should have taken around 3 and a half hours but actually took around 5and half hours. Once again refreshed at our half way home in Nuneaton and having collected Mum and Dad Hill, Monday found us on the road again heading north.

We had arranged to rent a property in the small Northumbrian village of Corbridge for the new Year, we were surprised to find quite a covering of snow there on our arrival. After our hectic two days of driving a potter around the village on Tuesday and a fairly relaxed day were most enjoyable. Some retail therapy at Royal Quays on Wednesday, bargain hunting in the post Christmas sales and a visit from Christopher and Kai in the afternoon soon found us waking on New Years Eve. Jennie popped over for a visit and we discussed the forecast for snow which by tea time had begun to fall and settle.We had planned a family gathering on New Years Day for a second Christmas and exchanging of gifts but soon realised this may not be possible, overnight a thick blanket of snow had turned the stone buildings of the village into a Dickensian picture card. Robert and I enjoyed a walk in the snowy streets, what a change from Arizona and the desert sunshine we had been basking in just over a week ago!

Corbridge Village Church and the river bridge over the Tyne looking towards the hills south of the village

The family had a very snowy journey on slippery roads but braved the conditions for our celebrations. Once again everyone contributing a little brought together a feast, the children opened Santa’s second bag of presents, not yet old enough to question why and how, we delighted in their pleasure.

Kai and Ebony ‘reading ‘ behind the sofa!

More snow fell overnight fortunately the village of Corbridge has good amenities, plenty of restaurants and pubs, lunch at the Black Bull left us with full tummies as we slithered on the slippery footpaths the short distance back to our little holiday home. The temperature had risen slightly and the road had become quite slushy, we hoped by Sunday the roads would be suitable for us to get out in the car to visit the children in their own homes. A quick peek out of the window in the early hours revealed yet another snow fall, and it was still falling, by day break a further 3 to 4 inches had covered the previous days, now frozen, slush. We estimate overall we probably had around 9 inches of snow in the 3 days.

The countryside around Corbridge looked quite picturesque as we drove east towards Gateshead. The tree branches edged with an inch or more of white and the fir trees bowed low with the weight. Many people have been getting out to enjoy the ‘white stuff’, Christopher and Kai were on the nearby field with the sledge and building a snowman when we arrived. We do get this quantity of snow in the north east but it is unusual for it to linger so long, the first fall was on the 18th December with significant additional snowfalls since, it has thawed and frozen but we have never been without some snow for all that time. We have lived in this part of the country for 22 years now and cannot recall prolonged snow like this before.

Freezing temperatures are forecast again for this evening and probably some more snow showers, tomorrow we hit the road again to take Mum and Dad home to Nuneaton. Presently there is little or no snow in that region, hopefully we won’t take it with us!

Soon it will be Christmas!

2009-12-16T16:41:00.001-06:00

Two days in Buckeye near Phoenix and a day in Mesa sitting out a storm left us longing for countryside. Lawrie and Monica had passed us details of a campground at the Usery Mountains Regional Park, we headed for the hills leaving behind the huge residential sites of Phoenix.

Just a few miles from the hub bub we found beautiful desert and mountain scenery and a good wide site with the lights of the city in the distance, far enough away to look pretty. A wide variety of cactus surrounded our site and stretched out in all directions, multiple trail heads began just over a mile from the campground so we chose one for an afternoon walk. The sun was warm on our backs but the wind was still cold, remnants of the recent storm which dropped 20inches of snow not that far north of us and was now causing havoc further east.

In England I have always maintained that bad weather on the east coast of the US usually takes two weeks to reach the UK. This storm may revisit us.

We visited the Nature Centre on our second morning and made the acquaintance of Elvis the snake, a tarantula and several other creatures of the desert housed there then chatted to the volunteer about our travels and theirs too. Friday was bright and clear and the cold wind seemed to have blown itself out, we decided to walk the Pass Mountain trail, 7.5 miles long plus the mile and a quarter to get to the trail head. This would be our longest hike in a while and well overdue.

As the trail began to rise from the desert floor we were treated to a view of the city laid out in the valley to the west of us, the huge urban sprawl seemingly endless. We however, were much more interested in the mountains and the desert plants which not so long ago we had been unable to identify. Now we named many with ease and marvelled at the size of some of the pipe cactus trying to guess just how old they might be. Cholla or teddy bear cactus were also abundant with lots of small pieces having been blown off in the recent storms lying ready to root themselves and form new plants. As the trail led higher still ( but below 2500ft) we rounded the mountain to the shadier side we were surprised to find in one small area moss and ferns growing, not plants we had associated with the desert climate. This lonesome pipe cactus growing on the edge of a rocky precipice fascinated me. How long had it stood there, weathering the heat and the wind storms looking out over the valley below and the mountains beyond? It was only later I saw how much it looked like a hand with the thumb bent in towards you!

Before we began our decent we had to negotiate the saddle between two high points on the trail, the description had indicated this was a scramble and we were unsure exactly what we might find. The photo actually makes it look like there is no path but we found one. After this part the surface became loose and steep causing us to tread wearily, but we like a challenge every now and again! We rewarded ourselves with a Trail bar and water while sitting on some rocks and taking in the view from the other side of the mountain.

In all we walked around 10 miles and were quite foot sore when we arrived back in haRVey. We made a note not to have such big intervals between our longer walks.

Saturday we had to make our way back down into Mesa to pick up a hire car for the remainder of our time in Phoenix. haRVey was due to have the very last warranty job fixed on Monday and we had a few days spare to do our Christmas shopping, cleaning and packing in readiness for our travels home on the 18th. We drove over to Scottsdale hoping the retail premises there would be able to inspire us and help fill Santa’s sack. We were not disappointed with the Fashion Square, in fact we felt quite at home as it reminded us of our own Metro Centre, it even helped us feel more festive. We ended the day far more weary than after our mountain hike!

As I write this we are back in Buckeye, haRVey is going into storage here until our return. I have just completed my longest US lone drive (in the hire car; still to drive haRVey any great distance) across Phoenix from east to west, quite traumatic. The slip road on to the Highway 10 was perhaps the most daunting, the view of the very busy six lane highway in front of me and the knowledge that I had to negotiate 50 miles of the same brought home the fact that I have not driven much in a while!

Now for the cleaning and packing, we are excited to be going home to see the family and know they are looking forward to seeing us too, especially the little ones.

Guess what? they are forecasting snow in the UK.

It is my intention to keep the blog up to date while we are back home. We hope our new friends this side of the pond will enjoy our view of Christmas with the family. As we travel around our little island we will attempt to give you a flavour of England as we have tried to pass on a flavour of Canada and the States to our UK followers. So, watch this space!

Salton Sea and Joshua Tree

2009-12-13T07:15:00.001-06:00

Varied information had been given to us regarding Salton Sea, a large body of water, actually a lake, just north of the border with Mexico.The thought however of viewing many thousands of migratory birds which flock to the sea between October and the spring encouraged us to see for ourselves. We took highway 78 and for mile after mile expected to view the water but non appeared we did see irrigation channels and as we got closer to where we thought the west coast should be, agriculture in the form of fruit and vegetable cultivation became very apparent. The town of Brawley existing it seemed on the packaging industry for the surrounding areas, it was actually nice to see at last some of this vast expanse of empty land being utilised.

We had chosen a campground with hot springs for our overnight stay, it was also not near the sea, it looked close on the map but at this point we had only had a distant glimpse of water. We enjoyed a soak in the mineral pool with out door temperatures around 70 degrees at 3pm. The water was hot bath temperature, it rises in an artesian well at 190 degrees then is cooled before being pumped into the six outdoor bathing pools plenty big enough for two people, at a squeeze 4 maybe.

Next morning we set off to find the lake and the birds, we had only to travel a few miles to find the Salt Creek State Beach campground, it was only 10.15 am but the spectacle of birds filling the water and the sky made for an easy decision to spend the day there. The campground is very informal, we parked alongside the salt crusted shore line maybe sixty feet from the waters edge, a great vantage point to view the gulls ducks and my favourite, both brown and white pelicans. The sea is receding due to the lack of water flowing into it from both rain and agriculture run off, hence our inability to view it before this point. Many fish are dying as a consequence of the greater salt concentration in the water, there are still however, enough to support these many many migratory birds for the 5 or 6 months they live here/

I spent most of the day watching them through the binoculars, observing the patrols of white pelican fishing as a team and the brown pelican diving head first into the water to catch their prey. Occasionally a gull would manage to catch a fish only to have it confiscated by a pelican before it could be consumed. As the light started to dim many birds flew in groups down the sea to spend the night on the shore in an inlet area to our left, a great blue heron came to fish at the waters edge near to us we also spotted a white egret. I sat out until dark virtually had taken over, but still a few pelican swam around hoping for a final catch of the day

From Salton Sea we made our journey north back to Joshua Tree National Park. Cottonwood Creek campground was virtually empty but never the less it was not easy to find a spot big enough for us to fit in. Eventually we decided we would have to hang over at the rear of one of the largest sites enabling us to just fit in at the front. As we had arrived early in the day we had some lunch before walking out to the Mastodon trail. The first thing we noticed in Joshua Tree Park was how much colder it was, the wind really was very chilly and we needed two layers on when we went out, we soon warmed however as the trail led up and down and through gravelly washes, these are quite hard to walk in, like walking on soft sand which moves quickly from beneath your feet as you put weight on it.

The view from the top was well worth the effort however, we looked back to the Salton Sea and the surrounding mountains, slightly shrouded in mist and sat a while to take in the beauty of it all.

A cool night with temperatures around 40 degrees Fahrenheit made us think twice about a second night in the park. The road through the park travels north then north west. We stopped to read the various makers along the way also taking a short walk through the Cholla cactus garden where you are surrounded by these wonderful plants so well adapted to desert life, they have a nick name of teddy bear cactus but are anything but cuddly being endowed with many very sharp long spines.

Further along the road and higher in the desert we found the trees the park is named after. The Joshua Tree it seems has been described in many ways most of them negative, I may be different but I find them quite beautiful and was very pleased to see in this area some young trees growing, an image I found quite uplifting as a symbol for the future. Joshua Trees are very long living so these miniatures will hopefully be around for our great grandchildren to view when they are grandparents too.

The campground in the north of the park would probably reach an overnight low in the 20’s and we felt to cold to dry camp, the day had been dull and grey not something we are used to any more. It would be a long drive but we decided it was time to leave California behind. I am sure one day we will be back here, we still have some exploring to do in this State of many landscapes and the coast will always draw us west to renew the pleasures of our first months out on the road.

A change of environment.

2009-12-06T17:43:00.001-06:00

Idyllwild, a small community, sits amongst the pine clad mountains around 50 miles by road west of Palm Springs. The journey along a twisty and steep mountain road, with greenery either side and ranches dotted here and there, was refreshingly different from both the desert and Palm Springs environment we had experienced recently.

We had discussed campgrounds with our friends at the Thanksgiving celebrations, Marsha and Tony live in the town and Malgosia displays her pottery at a gallery there. The County Park sounded a good choice but no one was sure if it would be busy or not. It was not! In total there were around 95 sites, we were the only vehicle in an area for around 15, a few groups of hardy tent campers were present and a scattering of other RV’s around the park but in all it was very peaceful. We settled ourselves in before taking a walk into the town area after lunch, a selection of stores enticed the visitor to browse a while. The post Thanksgiving holiday had brought quite a few day visitors it seemed and we enjoyed the atmosphere. We found Malgosia and her pottery stall at the far end of the main street, the wonderful lustre on the Raku pottery catching our eye before we realised who it belonged to. We chatted a while and discussed the fact that it was turning chilly, apparently there was snow in the forecast. Having enjoyed the warm summer like conditions in Palm Springs this did not seem possible, we had however risen several thousand feet and should realise by now that makes a difference.

Just as we were settling to sleep that night we heard the sound of rain on the roof and it disturbed us a couple of times through the night too, however drawing the blinds at daybreak we discovered the rain had actually been the threatened snow and we had a small covering, it looked pretty and I actually thought it might help to get us into the Christmas spirit. By the time we had breakfast the snow was falling thickly and we decided if we were moving we should do it quickly. A quick chat with the ranger as we left the campground confirmed that once we got out of the higher ground the road was wet the snow turning to rain.

The twisty road was not so inviting in the slippery conditions and we were both relieved when we reached lower ground, large amounts of rain had obviously fallen here and the gullies at the side of the road were struggling to cope, shallow floods covered many intersections as we drove through the more built up area of the highway.

We were heading for the coast south of Los Angeles and had thought of stopping off at Lake Elsinore but on arriving in the area it did not appeal to us so we drove on. We had started early and had plenty of time to make the coast before evening and in fact pulled into the Information centre near San Clemente around 12pm. We gathered a fist full of literature and a wealth of verbal information from the lovely volunteer in the office before driving on to the State Park, where we received a surprise. We had heard the cost of camping in State Parks had increased since we were using them in April/May time, a site for the night was now going to cost us $60 for a hook up or $35 to dry camp, as we needed to recharge our batteries and empty our tanks we opted for the last hook up available and paid, rather reluctantly for the pleasure. The other surprise was the close proximity of neighbours, in the past state parks have pleased us with the spacing, we found this campground to be different and on a busy Saturday night not really to our liking.

The best part however was the beach, we love the Pacific Coast, it has a rugged charm even here close to a large population we could still walk on uncrowded sand, daring the waves to catch us out and enjoy the peace of the Ocean.

A beautiful sunset closed the day for us, darkness falling before 5pm, however daylight arrives again before 6.30am providing ten hours of mostly sunshine and around 24 degrees centigrade. We are finding it hard to realise it is Winter and such a short time to Christmas.

Next morning we were not sure where we would end the day, we were reluctant to pay the price of the State Parks campgrounds but really wished to stay by the ocean. We drove along the coast road through Oceanside and Carlsbad stopping for lunch at Encinitas. Three miles further on the coast road brought us to San Elijo State Beach, again $50 to camp, but this time it was a dry camp so even more expensive, the sites however were lined up along a shallow bluff with an uninterrupted view out to sea, we could not resist, so paid our fee!

After another beach walk we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the many surfers ride the waves right up until sunset, next morning as soon as there was enough light they were out there again, we are still not sure when they slept!

Yet another beautiful sunset, another thing we enjoy on this coast

Monday we drove to San Diego, not to visit the city but a promontory of land called Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument.

The monument is accessed through a naval base and the waters below the point were busy with naval vessels, the sky equally as busy with aircraft and helicopters, the military and civilian airport being just the other side of the water.

The visitor centre explains that the first European to achieve landfall on the western coast arrived at this spot in 1542, it seems whether he was Portuguese or Spanish is in question, he did however claim the land for Spain.

Being a promontory of land also led to a lighthouse being built here first on the top of the cliffs and lit in 1855 but 36 years later it was moved to lower land as the light was often masked to shipping by fog or low cloud. The first lighthouse and keepers quarters have been restored and are open for viewing. Anyone who was reading the blog earlier in the year might remember how we became fascinated with the lighthouse on the coast, so, we obviously had to visit this one too.

A third order Fresnel lens was the original light at this point, today a light of this type can be viewed in the assistant keepers quarters, now a museum. They make a great photo opportunity! A very insignificant beacon now guides the way to mariners around the coast, probably very efficient but not so picturesque I think. Within the museum I read information on the surprising number of

women lighthouse keepers there had been including two here at Point Loma, they were often it seems assistants and the wife of the keeper however many were keepers in there own right, I find it interesting that at a job thought of mainly as a masculine occupation had such a large contingent of women and I had not seen this written about previously. Further research required I feel.

Driving away from Point Loma we spotted a large ship sailing down the channel, I thought it was an aircraft carrier Robert informed me it was a smaller craft - amphibious support craft! It was still big, dwarfing the boats around it but setting a pretty scene with San Diego in the background.

Across the city we parked at a campground near Imperial Beach where on our afternoon walk we still found it difficult to come to terms with sea, sun and a Christmas tree amongst the Palm trees!

During our chat at the tourist information centre in San Clemente we had heard about the town of Julian, famous for apple pies. It seemed it could very easily be a part of our route and with some extra info from Jennie and Google regarding wineries in the area it was a must. Around twelve miles before Julian we decided to call ahead to the campground we had chosen hoping for a more direct route than the one indicated in Good Sam. This however it seems was the correct route but skirted Julian in a 32mile detour, apple pie would have to wait! On questioning the guy checking us in at the campground we were told a twisty steep road led to the small town, it was not advised for vehicles over 40ft (we had already seen this posted – we are 36ft so ignored it) and the road was described as challenging. Hmm, apple pie and a challenging route, Robert had no issues getting up early the next morning.

He got his reward in the lovely surroundings of the Julian Pie Shop, with coffee too and of course I had to join in just to be sure of the quality and standard.

A pretty mountain town to browse around but most stores did not open before eleven and we had arrived around 9.45am. We walked the main street to settle our pie and then drove the twisty road back again. Yes, it was worth the effort!

Thanksgiving!

2009-11-30T16:40:00.001-06:00

Palm Springs is the present home to our friends Mark and Linda and we were invited to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with them. However when we began to ring around for a campground we found them to be either extremely expensive, full or both. No worries after a quick phone call to Mark he spoke with the church authorities next door to the resort where he works, who have a large mostly unused car park and we had a parking space for the holiday!

Following Mark through the gate of the resort, we entered a green oasis, a central pool and hot tub were surrounded by lawns and beautifully planted borders all bounded by the self contained holiday units. We were introduced to Ron and Norma the owners and their daughter, Alexei, home for the Thanksgiving holiday, then went to find Mackie, Linda and Marks Westie, who was waiting in their accommodation to greet us like old friends. We later retrieved Linda from her place of work and enjoyed an evening together catching up and eating Marks ‘delicacies’.

Whilst this is one of the biggest holidays in the calendar many people work through or have to take it as a part of their annual allocation. Linda had drawn a short straw she had to start work at 7am on Thursday (Thanksgiving day) and 5am the day after, both days working until lunchtime, but had Wednesday as a free day. Mark works flexi hours and put in extra every day to allow him to have Thursday off, but was still on call. So with Mark left behind working Linda, Robert and I all headed for downtown Palm Springs which surprised me. I had expected a City centre environment instead of which we found a small town feeling to the shops and cafes along the main street. We saw the paving stones with stars names embedded in the centre, me being the non film buff did not recognise many and much to Linda's amusement was not even sure who the bronze statue was we stood in front of until she told me it was Lucille Ball

After browsing a few of the stores we enjoyed a pizza lunch and another long chat before returning to A Place in the Sun for the pre Thanksgiving evening get together for residents and friends, around the pool, to which we had been invited. More chat more lovely people to meet and talk with, including a couple who even knew and had visited our home City of Newcastle upon Tyne!

Mark was determined the traditional bird would play a large role in the feast, despite four of the eight guests at the gathering we were to attend in their friends home being vegetarian and Linda not liking Turkey. We joined him mid morning and as we walked around to their unit the air was heavy with the smell of many cooking turkeys. Mark was busily preparing stuffing and potatoes to accompany his masterpiece. On TV the Macy’s parade was in full swing, never having seen it before I was delighted to see all the floats and characters parading in front of the New York store. (Dora the Explorer and a huge Buzz Light year were my special favourites)

With Turkey and trimmings well cooked and Linda home from work we loaded their car and drove the ten mile or so to Malgosia and Thomas home in Desert Hot Springs, joined their by Marsha and Tony their friends we enjoyed wonderful hospitality. Everyone had brought along a little something for the feast which I thought was a much better idea (family please take note here!!) than one person doing all the cooking. We also had lots of recipe swapping, other peoples cooking is always seems so much tastier than your own!

With Linda needing to get up at 3am we did not have a late night and having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves had to say our thanks and Goodbyes.

Thanksgiving is not a festivity we celebrate in England but I feel this is a good time for us to express our thanks to the many friends we have made over this last year. From brief contact to lasting friendships made, we have been truly touched by the warmth of the welcome and our experiences have been richer for meeting you.

Out of Death Valley and more (Mojave) desert.

2009-11-24T11:42:00.001-06:00

The route today would be south and out of Death Valley but along the way we had some landmarks to investigate. The first was a display from the days of Borax Mining in the valley, teams of twenty mules pulled carts of processed borax to the railroad 165 miles away. Chinese labour earned $1.30 per day less board and food to extract and refine the cotton ball borax. Some lived out in the desert others close by the mine. A hard life in a harsh environment for little reward.

Slightly farther along the road another canyon, Golden Canyon called to us to take a walk. No scrambling today, a pleasant uphill climb along a wash from the cathedral cliffs high above us, again we were intrigued by the rock formations more investigation and research required when eventually we get an internet connection.

Then our final stop, the lowest elevation in the valley and one of the lowest points below sea level in the world, the salt flats at Badwater basin. I was very amused by the fact that a marker for sea level had been put high above us on the cliff face!

We walked out on to the salt flats and looked back down the valley, stark but beautiful landscape, very enjoyable at this time of year but unforgiving in the heat of the summer. A place of many faces, mountains and canyons salt flats and sand dunes, we had enjoyed them all.

The name of Death Valley had puzzled me before we arrived, was it that so many people had died their or perhaps because nothing grew there. I had my answer very soon after we arrived in the National Park. A group of 49ers on their way to fortune in California became stranded in the valley almost starving to death, they were eventually rescued and, as they left the valley, turned to say their farewells allegedly ‘Goodbye Death Valley.’ I too turned to say goodbye but not with the same sentiment, I was strangely sad to leave this place.

An overnight stop at Tecopa Hot Springs gave us opportunity to do some washing, the desert is dusty, it gets everywhere, I would like to turn haRVey inside out out wash him down with a pressure washer, but then I would rather have dust than mud and sun rather than rain! We have been enjoying at least 70 degrees Fahrenheit and overnight temperatures no lower than 40, can’t be bad for mid November! The campground had hot springs baths, private ‘cabins’ where you could immerse yourself in a pool around 8’ x 4’and 4’ deep, the water had a high salt content amongst other minerals and left my skin feeling very soft and silky. I don’t normally enjoy springs but I could get used to this one.

We knew we had a long drive ahead into the Mojave Preserve but we had so much maintenance to catch up on it was 11am before we left. Driving through the desert landscape close to Kelso we began to see Joshua Trees and more Yucca by the side of the road. Cinder cones from ancient volcano and a lava flow gave indications of how this area became the landscape we see today.

It was 2pm by the time we arrived at the beautifully restored railway station at Kelso, a real oasis in the Desert. This Park is very young in National Park terms, only 15yrs since its designation and they have recently celebrated that fact with the reopening of this building. It houses three floors of displays including a gallery and shop, natural and social history about the area and reconstructions of rooms which housed station workers, to how they would have looked in the hey day of Kelso.

We took advice from the Rangers on whether the gravel road was graded and suitable for us to access the campground, or, if we should go the long way around via the highway, we took the highway route and arrived at the Hole-in –the –Wall campground just as the sun was setting on another desert scene.

Our campsite had its own little natural desert garden area, with Yucca and cactus, I was delighted to spot a barrel cactus. It made a change from dry dust we have had recently all around us. There were obvious signs of animal life too, something had burrowed under one of the plants and left a mound of earth closing the hole. I was not sure if it was still inside whatever it was!

The Ranger outpost at Hole in the Wall opened at 9am and next morning we were one of their first visitors, to gather information for a hike we knew started near by. The ranger was very helpful in providing not only this information but telling us about the various Ranger led activities over the week end. The three mile ring loop trail would be just about the right distance for a morning walk then we could have lunch and be ready to take part in the petroglyph talk at 3pm. The trail took us from the visitor centre around the east side of the rocky outcrop known as hole in the wall, the sun was shining but a cold wind kept us moving along, we did however spot a rock with some petroglyphs just to one side of the trail and felt quite pleased with our find.

Quite soon we came to the rocky features the area is named after which were formed when a cloud of super heated steam and molten lava exploded from the earth gathering dust and debris with it, as it cooled the gases escaped and left behind the holes in the contorted rock. The trail took us right into the rock formation, and then gave us a challenge to climb out again.

The first crevice was around eight feet high there was then a short scramble to the second around six feet high. It would have been great to have had the rings for assistance on the Mosaic trail in Death Valley, I may then have been able to get up what was only half this height. (OK I am still miffed that it defeated me!) It was great fun and a sense of achievement, that is until we met some young people who were going to attempt to climb down rather than up!!!!

Ranger Glen led us back along the same trail in the afternoon and back to the rocks where we had spotted the petroglyths , Being the Ranger however he knew better than us and took us up the slope to view the back of a rock not too far from the trail with great images engraved on the surface. A debate took place regarding the interpretation of what the artist had drawn, we were then informed the experts have no idea, maybe the medicine man on a high or maybe the artist was an impressionist. Only he knows what he was trying to capture in his pictures

This one however is clearer, a big horned desert sheep is fairly recognisable, we were sceptical about its age, but who are we to argue with the experts?

With the promise of a cup of coffee if we arrived early there was no problem getting to the geology talk at 8.30 am on Sunday morning. This time the Ranger led us to sit in the amphitheatre in warm sunshine, no wind today. We listened and sipped coffee as he gave us some basic geology information and then a description of how the rocks around the desert came to be. We are still piecing information together and I came away with some extra understanding but also more things to think about and puzzle over, the more we learn the more fascinated we become but, we realise the less we know.

The sun was shining early and we were up with it, so, ready to set off around 8.20am to drive further south towards Joshua Tree National Park. There is an Interstate which would get us there quickly but, we don’t need quickly and see far more sights on the minor roads.

Once more we found ourselves on a part of Route 66, and again it was a long straight road with derelict towns scattered along its length. The monotony was broken by the low gravel bank at the side of the road where passers by had broken their monotony of the journey writing there names in pebbles. I considered we should stop and leave our mark, but we pressed on. In the distance we could see the Amboy Crater, a volcanic cone standing high in the landscape, it last erupted some 500years ago. Whilst taking in this view we suddenly spotted a very strange tree, it was covered in shoes, hanging from its branches like something in a children’s story book. We had to stop.

A car had pulled in too and the occupants were standing viewing the tree the gentleman, shoes in hand, ready to throw!

Having managed to place his unwanted trainers in the tree, he explained that he and his wife delighted in searching out weird places along their route. This spot on Route 66 is notorious but we just had not heard of it.

Along with the shoes items of underwear have been draped on the lower branches, and our acquaintance told us of another tree adorned with bra’s, it must be something to do with long straight roads and monotony! For more roadside oddities visit www.roadsideamerica.com

A chance to visit a real volcano crater was too much to pass by for Robert and we pulled in to the car park looking for interpretive boards. There were some nice picnic benches and a lookout pagoda but no information. A lady emerged from our right and asked if we were going to walk the trail, we asked how far she replied around a mile and half but to beware, there were no toilets up there and then rushed off to use the car park washroom! With walking boots on and water in hand we set off. I am not sure if it was the volcanic rock under foot absorbing the suns heat, but it was very hot. around 45 minutes later we arrived at the crater lower rim, I declined a scramble to the top, taking the easier option of walking into the lower middle area while Robert clambered up to view the surrounding desert from above.

It was interesting to observe the volcanic rocks surrounding the crater and try to remember some of the information we had learned from the Ranger talk the previous day. A very hot hour and a half later we arrived back at the car park, ate lunch then set off

On the minor road from Amboy we spotted small regular shaped hills on the very flat desert landscape and began to speculate if they were man made. Maybe wind breaks we thought as this was a very flat area, as we got closer Robert guessed correctly it was an area of salt mining, wide channels dug in the ground with white salty crusts on top, the hills we had spotted being the spoil from these holes, eventually we passed a sign telling us it was the premises of the American Chloride Company. Through the mountain pass and into another very flat valley beyond , this was Wonder Valley and left us wondering… miles and miles of flat dry land with many deserted and broken down small dwellings scattered the view for as far as we could see, there were a few habited properties and some for sale, a strange area we might ‘google it’ and try to find out more while at our overnight stop in 29 Palms with the luxury of electricity and mains water!

Viva Las Vegas! and so much more…..

2009-11-20T11:33:00.001-06:00

READER BEWARE – THIS WILL BE A LONG READ! A cup of coffee or something stronger may be required to sustain the reader to the end of the entry!

An overnight stop in Williams Arizona set us on course for a trip along Route 66. It just happened that we had the choice of driving the interstate or meandering along the old road, we like to meander!

It was just as you imagine, a long straight road seemingly to nowhere! An odd house or two and we did pass through a small town trying hard to keep the spirit alive.

Eventually we arrived in Kingman, a dormitory town for the distribution network of warehouses dotted along this part of the Interstate. Our good friends KOA took care of us for the night and we caught up on washing and produce shopping in preparation for the week end.

Our route to Las Vegas was to take us over the Hoover Dam, something Robert had been looking forward to for a while. A bridge is in the process of being built and when it is, cars will no longer drive over the dam itself. Security checks take place on the approach to the bridge and we were pulled over while two security guards looked both inside and outside our vehicle, this completed we drove to an overlook parking area but were surprised by the size of the dam, we had expected it to look bigger. The construction work above was fascinating and the view from the completed bridge I think will be spectacular. It would be good to come this way again in a couple of years to experience the new drive, we did not visit the exhibition centre as the road was so busy and parking made it difficult for us to stop any length of time.

After taking ourselves on a city mystery tour(we missed a turning) we arrived at the Circus Circus KOA campground around 3pm, well placed in the heart of the city to visit the lights but unfortunately we were backing on to a very busy city road.We also overlooked the Stratosphere Tower and watched the ride which climbs the upper tower bounce up and down a few times, making my tummy turn just watching it! With information from the office we set off to buy tickets for the Duce bus which runs the length of The Strip and through to down town and start our explorations.

There is so much to see we knew we would not see it all in one night. Surprisingly The Strip was not as busy as we expected, we rode the bus to the Mirage building and decided to walk from there. Entering the Mirage we were fascinated by the rows of gaming machines and tables, however lots of them were empty, the recession has hit Las Vegas pretty hard.

Caesar's Palace was one stop I wanted to make, it was vast, I had always imagined it being a theatre, that was what I knew it for, however we found the same huge gaming hall dominated the interior along with an up market shopping mall. Along the street we spotted high in the sky the top of fountains and moved towards their direction. Robert for some reason decided we had to go inside Bellagio to find them, we found more gaming tables… when we eventually found the area we think the fountains were in there was a large pool of water in semi darkness.. think we missed the show.

A huge new complex called City Centre being built including a Mandarin Oriental Hotel, long off finishing we had to negotiate the builders walkway to travel further down the road. Our aim was to get to the very new venue for Hard Rock Cafe, a favourite from visits to Japan and Hong Kong I knew we would get food there to suit our veggie needs. A two storey building only opened a month ago houses a retail area on the ground floor with all the usual Hard Rock souvenirs and on the first floor a huge dining area, walls lined as always with various memorabilia, a Roger Daltry fringed waistcoat took my eye as we waited for service, looking around their was an Elvis wall (of course) and a wall with computer images of various memorabilia tumbling down it and disappearing to reappear in a different place (you have to see to understand I think) fascinating.

We easily got seats although we were told we had arrived at a good time as earlier their was a huge line up. Our server introduced us to our interactive screen next to our table where a touch screen allowed us to vote for the music being played and view pictures of memorabilia owned by Hard Rock but held at other locations, a search facility allowed us to look up our favourite groups. Roberts favourite Van Der Graff Generator did not appear and he feels this should be corrected ASAP. We had great fun attempting to get our choice played and were successful a couple of times even if one was a cheat when our server went around the empty tables pressing all their buttons too, so we could here Eddie Grant, we gave her a good tip! Oh yes, we also had good veggie burgers and drinks, paying a little extra to take our glasses away as souvenirs, Roberts beer glass was a special opening edition which he is very pleased with.

Back outside we wanted to catch the Deuce to the downtown area and Freemont Street so waited by a stop for almost five minutes before the bus arrived, Robert checked it was going to Freemont Street, the driver looked back a little blankly then said ‘ Your on the wrong side of the street mate!’

On arriving at our destination we found we had timed it just right to see the free light show there, we did not know what to expect and watched a street artist painting pictures with spray cans while we waited for whatever was to happen. At 9am the lights darkened in the arcade and the domed roof became illuminated with a rapidly changing mural of pictures depicting scenes to illustrate the song played in the background which just happened to be one of my all time teen age favourites (sorry kids) American Pie by Don McLean – I was lost in a world of coloured lights and singing along with lots of other overgrown seventies teen agers! I would have loved to stay for the ten pm session which was a tribute to Queen with We Will Rock You, I am positive the singing would have been louder for that one! Another time maybe.

We rode the Deuce back to Circus Circus and wearily made our way through its interior to the campground. Too tired now to take in any more. We had a busy day ahead tomorrow and needed sleep.

Aviation Nation

Our ballooning friends have their homes in Las Vegas and had told us about an air show at the Nellis air force base just north of the city. An annual event Aviation Nation is one of the largest air displays in the US. I have to confess I thought I might be bored, but knew how much Robert wanted to go. We arranged to meet Aggie,George,Sandy and Jim there so took haRVey to the free parking at the Speedway Stadium. The parking was being marshalled by young military personnel who took one look at haRVey and did not know where to put him amongst all the cars on the huge parking space, initially ushered along the line the point came when we had to be dealt with and a slightly more mature young man instructed us to park in an open area while he consulted his superiors. We finally got parked on the edge of an aisle, an ideal position to escape from later in the day. A short walk then a security search led us to the shuttle buses which were rapidly filling and moving away to deposit their passengers a mile or so away at the air force base, an admirable operation carried out effortlessly, we were impressed.

It would be best at this point for me to direct those interested in the detail of various air planes etc to Roberts picture blog www.robertandelaine2.blogspot.com

He will do a much better job than I will to describe what we saw. I want to say however I was not bored for one second of the whole day and soooo impressed with the displays from the Patriots and Thunderbird teams. This was my favourite manoeuvre, this is the Thunderbirds climbing vertically into the blue sky in perfect line one below the other. Also a great photo from Robert, it is not easy to capture images when the subject matter moves so quickly.

Of course I should also mention the company we were with, the three men like little boys chatting about the various aircraft while Sandy Aggie and I enjoyed the spectacle and eating popcorn. George had been able to obtain tickets for the Thunderbirds VIP enclosure for us all where we mingled with family of the crew. We were delighted to be introduced to the Maintenance Superintendant of the Thunderbirds team, who despite being very obviously busy took time out to chat with us all. Great people, a great day!

The display over we queued for the return shuttle and despite what looked like a horrendous wait we were very soon on a vehicle and back at the car park. George and Aggie had kindly offered us a parking space for the night on their drive. The drive was JUST big enough for us to fit between the gates and thanks to careful instruction by Jim and myself Robert parked us up. We then realised there was not much room for people to negotiate around to the house, we emerged from the bush behind the shed without too much damage to us or the bush.Susie and John, friends of Aggie and George joined the party and we had a fun evening chatting together.

Sunday Fun Day!

George and Aggie had kindly offered to take us out to see the real Las Vegas, the place they call home. Red Rock Canyon a few mile from their home is a favourite hiking venue for them and other locals. It was difficult to believe this wonderful red rock landscape was so close to the neon lights of The Strip and George was able to educate us with some of the fascinating geology of the area.

We ate a great lunch of omelette and pumpkin bread at a local cafe, fuelling us for an afternoon drive over to Valley of Fire State Park, yet another wonder of this areas geology.

This rock took my eye, I am sure I see a pelican, his neck hunched down on his shoulders he is sitting looking skyward. Well he is more believable than the elephant we tried to find , we think he may be a little weathered over the years since he was named

Four friends had a great day out, lots of chat, lots of laughter, a learning experience together.

However this was not the end of our day, Aggie was determined we should see places she felt we had missed out on our visit to The Strip. Having already had a long day driving George took us to park at Bellagio. Walking towards the dark pool of water we had seen on Friday night we found lots of expectant visitors crowded around the edges. Quite shortly the music began and the water started to dance, a wonderful display, like fireworks with no smoke, shooting high in the sky and sparkling in the coloured lights of the surrounding buildings, fantastic, so pleased I did not miss this!

Then into Bellagio to see something we completely missed, we saw the wonderful coloured glass flowers on the ceiling while looking for the doors, but, just to the right was a magical garden, like a fairytale land decorated for the autumn festival of colour, I so wish the children could have seen the magic trees with eyes which seemed to follow us, I am sure they had a microphone listening to our conversation as the eyes seemed to respond to what we were saying. Giant pumpkins over 800lbs in weight surrounded by smaller gourds and decorative plants clothed the ground around the trees, hanging from the roof beautiful autumn coloured glass leaves. This scene changes with the season so soon it will be a Christmas wonderland a delight for all ages I am sure. We had one final look at the fountains before we left, taking with us great memories and a lasting image of a city I did not really want to visit.

Another evening with Aggie and George and a night on their driveway. We said Goodbye to them finding it difficult to know how to express our gratitude for all they had shared with us. We so hope that our paths will bring us all together again our lives are richer for the friends we have made over this past few weeks.

DEATH VALLEY

Highway 95 took us away from the city lights and past the outer areas of Nellis Air base. Our first glimpse of Death Valley was in the early afternoon and I felt a much bigger Wow than for the Grand Canyon. We dropped from around three thousand feet to not much above sea level into the flat bottom of the valley. As usual the information centre was a first port of call. We were able to use our National Park pass yet again, it has by now paid its way. With our sticker attached to the screen we drove to the Stovepipe Spring campground for the night passing through desert and sand dune areas along the way. Stovepipe Spring is a small cluster of buildings in the desert, no electricity or water hook ups on the basic campground but for $30 they were available at the private resort, as that was all that was different about the two areas we opted to dry camp.

Next morning we drove to a dirt track further north and the entrance to Titus Canyon where we parked haRVey and walked up the trail of the narrow canyon which becomes a wash in the rainy season. The coloured bands of rocks twisted and contorted by the massive pressures and heat exerted on them by the earths forces when the land was evolving are exposed within the canyon walls and we spent some time observing and wondering about them.

Large distances need to be covered between each area in the valley, after our hike we drove over ten miles to a vantage point high above the salt flats and had some lunch before taking the cut off back to Furnace Creek area and Sunset Campground.

We had seen some information regarding a Leonid meteor shower around the 17th November and thought being out here with no city lights we may spot something however the information centre knew nothing about it so we did not know what time to look out. We did have a look and the stars were far brighter, the milky way easily visible but no meteors.

There are so many trails to explore into the rocky canyons some only accessible by four wheel drive but Mosaic Canyon was 2.4miles of reasonable gravel road from the main route. We parked haRVey and soon were within the narrow walls of the canyon where the fun began. The trail was mainly a gravel wash but quite shortly the marble side walls reached down to the floor and a little clambering was required, the smooth surface was easy enough to negotiate going up at this point but I could already appreciate we could have some fun sliding back down again.

We walked on and the canyon opened up to a wide rough gravel floor, the conglomerate and marble rocks either side still fascinating us, smaller red green and grey rocks captured within a mud like cement now as hard as the individual pieces themselves. The rocks began to close in once more and another contortion of marble scrambling lay ahead. I managed to push and scramble my way up the first obstacle, Robert, with longer stronger legs easily navigated his way up. We stood chatting to another couple attempting the same route for a few minutes, all needing a rest, the gentleman like Robert was able to scramble up the next smooth uplift, the lady was having some difficulty and was about to slither back down when I gave her a little encouragement from ‘behind’ with my hands. She was most appreciative!

Robert also scrambled up, now my turn… much as I tried I could not get a grip high enough for me to push myself up to the top, the sheer rock was so smooth from both the water flows of previous storms and the countless hikers scrambling over it, that strong or long, arm and leg muscles were required, mine did not match the job and eventually I gave up. I even tried pushing up backwards wedging my feet on either side, but to no avail. Quite disappointed I let Robert walk a little further while I stood and built an offering to the gods in the hope that next time they would look on me kindly !

I still had the fun bit to look forward to at the bottom of the canyon, this would make up for my disappointment for sure, although Robert reassured me the upper part I did not see was just more of the same.

We have been surprised how fascinated we have become by the rocks and how the formations came to be, learning some, working out other bits for ourselves, the landscape here is so raw, by reading and going out and observing at close quarters it is so easy to begin to piece together the jigsaw, once again we are thoroughly enjoying a new learning experience.

A very late lunch followed, we were very hungry after all our exertions and our day was not yet over. We parked haRVey near to the sand dunes, for those who think a desert is all sand dunes, it isn’t here. The dunes make up a tiny part of the valley, but all the same are a very imposing feature, and we wanted to walk on them. We timed our visit to coincide with the last hour or so of day light when the shadows are at their best, quite quickly my shoes were so full of sand it was difficult to lift them (could be my legs were also a little tired) the sand was very inviting, I took off my shoes and socks and walked bare foot in the dunes, a lovely feeling, better than on the beach. It was only later I considered the fact that snakes, scorpion and other creepy bitey things could have been hidden below the surface! We stopped to look at the dried up pools of water with cracked mud on the surface, it reminded me of a potters waste pile

Animal tracks show that the cool evening brings out the local inhabitants

It was so tempting to keep going, just another dip, up another ridge, just to get a better view. We kept an eye on the time, I did not want to negotiate our way back in the dark. We made our way on to the ridge of a dune around the half way point and walked along the top, the view was ….. not describable with words!

As we made our way back we realised we had been joined by photographers who were setting up cameras to capture the sunset and others just taking in the view. The name Death Valley conjures up an image so far from reality of this beautiful if barren landscape.

I think by now you may have need for a break in our progress, I hope you have enjoyed this long write up as much as we enjoyed the experiences. As I write this we have left Death Valley and are en route to Mojave Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park. There is one last bit to relate to you about Death Valley, but that will have to wait until next time!

The Grandest of Views.

2009-11-19T18:22:00.001-06:00

With great expectations we entered Grand Canyon National Park, walking to the view point at The Watchtower with many other visitors, we waited to be wowed by the experience, and whilst I considered the natural feature amazing I could not find a WOW! Amazing, yes, difficult to comprehend the size, yes, but Wow, well, not really.

The beautifully decorated Watchtower gave panoramic views of the eastern part of the canyon and our first glimpse of the Colorado river deep in the rocky depths at the canyon floor

Designed by Mary Colter the tower is decorated with various Indian art pictures and artefacts found around the canyon. It was pleasant to just sit a while within the stone walls and take in the internal structure and decoration of the building. Without realising this was a place of worship and gathering it had a serenity and despite the constant flow of visitors who spoke with a variety of accents and languages there was an air of tranquillity there.

There are various view points along the road leading to the Trailer Village Campground where we had reserved a site for three nights, some we were not able to stop at either because we were too big or because the RV parking had been taken up by normal size trucks which happens all too often. On arriving at the campground we were pleased to find the shuttle bus stop was a very short walk away and this would be our link to trails and vistas while we camped there. We settled down to decide how best to fit in everything we hoped to do in the next few days.

A geology talk at 10.30 in the Canyon View Visitor Centre seemed like a good start to our first morning and Ranger Pat, as she introduced herself, certainly kept our interest with her down to earth analogies' of the time scale of the canyon’s geological features, taking us from display to display around the room and explaining in simple terms the scientific facts. We left with a better understanding of the rock formations and a desire to view them for ourselves if we could. We took the trail from the visitor centre along the rim, looking out to the North rim and attempted to remember the names of the rock layers and identify them. It was still difficult to take in the magnitude of the place, looking to what initially seems like the bottom and then realising that there is another several hundred feet below that point which, if you look carefully you can just make out!

The shuttle bus from the campground took us westwards in the afternoon to the Village area, here the historic buildings of the hotel and lodges dominate the rim along with the train station and the livery where the mules for the trail down into the canyon are housed. We took in the slightly different view from this point along another area of the rim trail and went into the hotel to access the internet. Built around 1900 and also designed by Mary Colter, the interior was log cabin style with a cosy feel enhanced by the huge open fire to one side of the reception area, it was maybe a little warm for a fire but still, there were some people huddled around it, maybe visiting from California!

We had a note from Monica and Lawrie when we got back to haRVey, they had arrived and were in the other campground, we arranged to meet them next evening for a talk on the California condor being given at the Shrine of the Ages Centre, the following morning however while riding the shuttle to the western area to walk the rim there, they climbed aboard too! We all got off at Hopi Point and enjoyed the view along a more rustic trail. The trail was more exposed along the rim here, enabling us to look down the sheer cliff walls, many places had no guard rails and for the fool hardy could be very dangerous. We kept well back but were still able to enjoy the rock formations

Including a feature Monica and I christened ‘the chiselled man’.

Monica and Lawrie rejoined the shuttle but we walked on to the Abyss, sheer cliffs of 3,000ft . A perfectly positioned bench gave us a place to rest and we were entertained by a Red Tailed Hawk who rose on the thermals from the depths of the canyon with a wonderful aerobatic display, effortlessly twisting and gliding close to the cliff face. We also re boarded the shuttle to Hermits Rest, the end of its route and enjoyed a drink there while sitting looking into the depths of the canyon

We were surprised to find Ranger Pat giving the evening talk on the reintroduction of the Condor, obviously a knowledgeable and versatile lady she again kept our attention with her easy style. She related to us how, when it looked like the last pair of breeding Condor in the area were under threat they were all taken into captivity, eventually with the dedicated help of the team working for their survival, Condor were reintroduced to the wild, first to California and then into The Grand Canyon area. Several breeding pairs now survive in the wild, there have been casualties and there is still a long way to go before the goals of the conservationists are reached but slowly this huge bird is again spreading its wings across the Canyon skies. Monica and Lawrie had been lucky enough to spot two numbered Condor at Zion National Park and with the information we learned will be able to check up on ‘their’ birds via the web site to the conservation group.

We said our Goodbyes to each other that night as this was where they would turn south while we headed west towards Las Vegas, our short acquaintance had been filled with adventures for us all and we hope to keep in touch and meet up at some point along the road.

We intended to spend our last few hours in the area below the rim on the Bright Angel Trail, the full trial is thirteen miles to the bottom of the canyon where you can camp overnight, then either return to the south rim or continue on to the north rim. Organised trips use mules as pack animals along the trail and many people hike with large backpacks full of overnight gear. We would have loved to be able to walk the full trail but this would need preparation and training to attain the stamina required. The trail descends around 4500ft into the canyon, its great going down, you’re fresh, no tired legs, what you have to remember is that coming out is all uphill, and you are walking at about 7000ft above sea level, so altitude takes its toll too. Many people fall foul of the hot weather in the summer and rangers treat twenty people a day for heat exhaustion, deaths on the trail are not rare but uncommon, unfortunately we did observe a helicopter airlifting a body from the bottom of the canyon. We carefully timed our decent aiming to reach the first rest point which the map indicated was a three mile round trip.

The path began reasonably but soon deteriorated, erosion caused by the many passing feet including those of the mules meant the surface was less than even, however it was easy walking down hill, the effort of those coming back up however was obvious to see and we were more than aware we had the same trip to do. We walked for an hour and could see the rest station was still far below us, determined not to over stretch our ability we turned around at this point. When we looked at how deep we had dropped into the canyon we had only descended a fraction of its depth.

I initially felt we had not achieved a great deal, we had not gone very far, but we did get below the rim and we also got back without feeling too tired or out of breath covering the return journey in exactly the same time.

It was a good experience to have visited a World famous location, to stand and view a scene most people only dream of, however for me, other locations we have visited held me in greater awe of their beauty and natural grandeur.

Kaleidoscopic adventure!

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Despite our attempts on the internet to gain more information about the Page balloon gala, by Friday morning we still were not sure where the launch site was. We had a flyer which told us the launch was 7am however, so we set the alarm and for the first time in a year arose at 5.15am. Still dark at this time we raised the jacks and drove to where we believed the golf course and the launch site might be. Everywhere was in darkness, we parked up and had breakfast. About the time we were drinking our very much needed coffee a car pulled in near by, the driver did not get out, a few minutes later a second car drove in, this gave us hope we could be in the correct place especially when this driver did get out and was carrying a camera. I decided best plan was to go and speak with him, “Good Morning” – in a very clear English accent back came the reply “Good Morning!” It transpired he, and his partner in the car, were also looking for the launch site, the door to the other car opened and a third gentleman got out, wandered over to us and in a fairly broad Scottish accent asked if we knew where the launch site was! After a fair bit of laughter and chat we observed between us several trucks towing small trailers driving along a road to our right, turning left at the junction and heading off along another road. We all got in our vehicles and set about following them.

Not too far away we all turned into a side road where 20 or so cars were parked and small tents had been set up to facilitate the event. We parked haRVey and wandered over to where a crowd of around 50 or so people was gathering. Not being sure of what would happen next we began a conversation with two ladies who looked like they ‘belonged’, where the best place to view would be, they advised that almost anywhere was good viewing territory, just then our English acquaintance of earlier came over to us and offered us the information that if we put our names on a list at one of the tents we could volunteer to join a crew. We did not have to be told twice, with a quick word of thanks we rushed over and joined a queue of what we supposed were all willing volunteers and hoped we would be lucky enough to get a position.

We soon discovered about half of the queue were actually looking for volunteers, not trying to volunteer their services. Two ladies in front of us were looking for two volunteers, turned around saw us and (we still don’t know why) said we will take these two! Introductions followed, Aggie and Sandy took us over to meet their respective husbands George and Jim, George being the pilot of the balloon Kaleidoscope and Jim and Sandy regular crew for them. We all walked down to the launch site and our education in balloon activities began!

Tarpaulins, or tarps as they are called around here, were to be laid out on the ground, these covered an area around 5000 sq feet (rough calculation) and enabled the envelope to be spread out without damage. All hands were required to lift the bag containing the envelope and spread it, whilst this was being completed and the top attached with its numbered Velcro pads, the basket was being made ready at the other end and attached to the envelope. A large fan then filled the envelope with cool air and things began to take shape. The ropes which hold the two parts together needed to be held away from the propane burners which take over from the fan to complete the inflation by filling the envelope with hot air.

A third volunteer had joined us, this was Mary, today was media day for the gala; Mary represented the local newspaper and had been assigned to our crew for the experience. As the hot air continued to fill the envelope it rose from the ground and we were all instructed to put our weight on to the basket edge to keep it from moving, safety checks have to be carried out and walkie talkies tested for ground to air contact

George was by now standing in the basket and we helped Mary to climb in beside in him, I was then rather surprised when he instructed me to climb in too! We took some photos on the ground and then slowly we rose up into the air waving goodbye to those below. I think I was in sheer awe of the whole experience for several minutes and did nothing but stare at the view until George reminded us that photos might be good… some of the balloons had flown towards the canyon and Lake Powell dam, and whilst they technically should not have been there we got some great pictures! We rose high over the launch spot and looked out towards the power plant and down to the City of Page. I could have stayed there forever but unfortunately Mary did not feel quite the same, and despite the best efforts of George and myself to reassure her she could not overcome her fear of the height.

We landed very gently back on the launch field and as soon as possible Mary was helped out, I followed, put my feet back on the ground even if my head was still in the blue sky. Robert was asked to get in next and also had a short flight over the launch fields and surrounding area. When they landed it was all hands to the ropes again to repack the envelope, basket and tarps and load them back in the trailer. Once things were all packed away we expressed our thanks for the great experience we had had and expected to bid farewell, however it appears new fliers have to go through an initiation ceremony. After telling us a story about the first balloon flight and our repeating thanks to the gods for fair weather and wind a small amount of champagne was placed in a cup which we had to pick up and drink without touching with our hands, fair enough… as we did this George went around behind us and poured water on our heads….!

Much laughter followed and we drank a toast to new friends. As if all this was not enough excitement we were invited to join them all with other crews and pilots on an afternoon excursion to Antelope Marina and a gathering on houseboats on the lake with a side trip of a boat ride into a slot canyon. Sandy knows the lake very well as she has volunteered for many years to remove graffiti from the rocks around the lake. Her narrative as we slowly meandered through the canyon was wonderful giving us information and answering our questions. The water is exceptionally clear and our driver stopped to point out for us very large fish probably six feet or more below the surface. Back on the houseboats we chatted to the other guests and exchanged experiences and gathered yet more places we HAD to visit in the US!

At the end of the afternoon we arranged to be at the field for 7am next morning to help out once again with the balloon launch. We were determined to help all we could to show our appreciation for the days experience. On returning to the campground we discovered Monica and Laurie whom we had met in Zion Park had arrived ( we had relayed to them the details of the Gala) and were parked next to us, a fine evening allowed us all to sit outside and over a bottle of red wine catch up on what we had all been up to in the past 24hrs!

Another alarm call dragged us out of bed but we soon were ready for another strenuous morning. Monica and Lawrie added there names to the volunteer list but were quickly accepted into our crew by George when he knew they were willing to lend a hand. Down at the launch site test balloons were being sent up to allow the pilots to judge the wind, we were soon running around, being set tasks and remembering from the previous day how things went, we began to feel part of a team. The envelope aloft, today it was Monica’s turn to be awe struck and she and Sandy took a ride with George.The wind was tracking the balloons across the golf course and when the tarps were stowed in the trailer the rest of us set off in the truck to chase them and be ready to assist when they eventually came down. This sounds easy but the balloon can travel in diagonal lines and cross blocks of houses where a car has to go around the grid system of roads, always keeping the balloon in sight, hoping to keep ahead of it, and all of us ready to jump out as soon as we were needed. The first stop was just a touch down on the rough ground beside the golf course. George had expertly landed on top of a small outcrop of rock, he said he had not wanted to get sand on the basket! Here the girls got out and Jim and Lawrie got in, they all took off again and the rest of us piled back in the truck.

The next landing site proved tricky to predict, Aggie manoeuvred around the town streets and the rest of us carefully kept a watch on the balloon, at one point we thought a small park may have been suitable but from his look out above George had other ideas. To the delight of the children in a small back street the balloon gently touched down in the road, right next to a vacant lot which miraculously was exactly the size required to spread out the tarps, Genius George! We set to work to repack once again.

Saturday is the big day of the Gala with a street fair in the afternoon and an evening balloon glow. Laurie, Monica, Robert and I took a walk around the stalls before eating at the Mexican restaurant prior to helping raise the balloon in the main street for the glow. This being our third time of unpacking and Monica and Laurie’s second, a real team feeling was developing enabling the balloon to be raised fairly speedily. As the dusk turned to dark the street was transformed with the roar of propane burners and the light of balloons, hot air in the balloon meant we had to keep some weight on the basket to stop it from floating upwards into the night sky, we chatted to the many visitors and amongst ourselves, firing questions at George about technical points regarding the balloon and flying. After two hours of burning it was time to bring the show to an end, the balloon was lowered and packed away, it was during this time that Aggie tripped on a curb and fell, hurting her wrist and ankle and had to limp to the truck and instruct us from the side lines. Despite our concerns she protested she was fine and we all gathered back at the Mexican restaurant for further socialising and big Margaritas!

Sunday morning, our third early rise in a row…. but now we were old hands even experts!!!!! We drove to the launch field observing the flags at McDonalds and which way they were blowing…

At the field we were greeted by Aggie with her hand heavily strapped however still not having seen a Dr. We attended to the tarps and the raising of the envelope and George, I am sure wishing to keep Aggie in his sights took her in the basket for her first flight in a year. The wind was kind and they had a great flight, we gave chase and took some good pictures eventually catching up with each other in a retail car park again with good room for the envelope to be lowered and folded. This time however I knew would be our last, it was the end of the gala and the end of a wonderful weekend, seeing the colourful Kaleidoscope folded into its bag , I was so sad for it all to be over. I had taken great pleasure in the meticulous folding of the tarps and much to everyone’s amusement made great play of ensuring I got to do the last drag and fold.

We gathered together to say our good byes, Robert and I had experienced something money could not have bought, we had added to our circle of friends some very special people who delight in giving opportunity to others and we had deepened our friendship with Lawrie and Monica, fellow wanderers and kindred spirit.

P.S. Aggie had a broken wrist – get well soon!

Good Bye is only Au revoir, we met up with Laurie and Monica again at Grand Canyon and will rendezvous in Las Vegas with the others!

A hell of a place to loose a cow!

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And what a true description, if you were Mr Bryce who owned the homestead leading to Bryce Canyon. Apparently these were his words when asked about the land behind his home before it was explored in the late 1800’s.

We benefited from the intervening years and used the well made road and footpaths to view over the amphitheatres from the rim trail. A clear day gave us the benefit of far ranging views up to 85 miles away and great photo opportunities.

We spent an hour or so walking the rim then travelled twelve miles to the local KOA campground. The forecast was for the temperature in the Canyon area to drop to around 18 degrees Fahrenheit and being around 2000ft lower in elevation we hoped the KOA would be warmer. Our hope was to ride back to the Park next morning to enable us to complete the drive along the road to the southern most point and then take a trail from the rim down into the hoodoos to look up from below.

A wonderful clear blue sky started the day and yesterdays cold wind had disappeared. Driving along the Park road around 10am there were few others out as early as we were. On arriving at the far end of the drive we took the short Bristlecombe trail to view the expansive scenery once again. Returning along the road we stopped off at the lookout points and today seemed to be the day everyone wanted to talk to us. We met a couple from Kelowna BC, travelling in a rented RV, very interested in what life was like in haRVey, then a couple from Portsmouth UK out here on a two week fly drive vacation who are now going home to investigate RV rentals – what have we started?

Eventually we began our decent into the bottom of the hoodoos, we had wrapped up warmly as the previous day was so cold in the wind, we soon were peeling away the layers;

and enjoying the scenery!

Once the steep path down was negotiated the route was almost level and to be honest with all the stopping for photos I was not aware if we were going up or down.

We were sure we had seen this guy some place before (ET?)

The sky was so blue, the air around here is supposedly some of the clearest in the 48 lower States, it did not stop us getting out of breath however on theaccent back to the rim.

A rest under a shady tree was most welcome!

This central area is called the Queens garden and is named after a rock supposedly looking like Queen Victoria’s statue – judge for yourself

A miniature hoodoo garden had been created by passers by and it seemed a good idea to help it grow.

This rock balanced precariously upon the one below.

We took so many photos, just to try and capture what we could see, and hope it gives an idea of what it was like, as usual the reality is so much better. Moving on towards Zion we wondered if we could better what we had already experienced, was this not going to be just another rock scene. Highway 143 tookus toward Panguitch reservoir and we stopped off for coffee and were entertained by the fishermen actually catching a fish, not sure what it was but I did consider asking if we could purchase it, it looked a good size!

We planned to take the scenic route as usual, avoiding the highways. From the 143 highway 148 took us high up into the mountains and the snow, ever deepening by the side of the road but thankfully non on the road and the clearest blue sky above. The quaking aspens had all lost their leaves, their white bark now glowing against the green conifers.

Cedar Breaks National Monument, around 11,000ft above sea level was several inches deep in snow, we pulled in to the car park and carefully picked our way to the overlook. What a view!

Further along the road we found another pull in for lunch this time overlooking Cedar City and our next nights stop Zion National Park.

What a difference in temperature awaited us when we finally got down there, we peeled the layers off until we were back in summer time, and took a walk beside the river to experience the grandeur of Zion.

Next morning we took a drive the few miles to the museum to watch the film show explaining the geological forces which formed Zion’s giant peaks, and orientate ourselves. Following this we parked haRVey at the Lodge and began the trail to the Emerald pools, one of the moderate to easy trails described on the information we had received on entering the park.

The trail climbed steeply but the surface was good and we began to appreciate the view along the canyon from a higher vantage point. We stopped to catch our breath and admire a local character, also enjoying the view and the sunshine. The pools consist of the middle, upper and lower pool, in that order if you walk the trail the route we took. The middle pool was very insignificant with little water and just a small waterfall, we took a couple of photos and walked on, a sign told us it was 0.3miles to the upper pool, what it did not explain was how rough that 0.3miles would be! however we scrambled and pulled our way up, eventually being rewarded with a view of a small clear but green tinged pool. Robert scrambled down to the ‘beach’ I choose to sit on a perch high above and observe from a distance. Above me the sheer rocks rose to the still blue sky making me feel very small. The streaks on the rock we believe are where the water cascades down the face during the wetter times. Flash floods and thunder storms occur often in the summer months, a sight to see, and yet a little scary to be there too I would think. Having enjoyed the view we made our way back along the 0.3 miles of rough rock and sand, followed by another couple who we eventually fell into conversation with discovering they were from Ontario, Canada and on vacation. We separated and went in opposite directions, our trail led to the lower pool through a small gap in huge boulders and on to a narrow rock ledge beneath the water fall, again as this was a drier season we missed what would probably be the best spectacle, non the less it was an ‘interesting’ experience.

The rest of the trail was tame in comparison, we arrived back in haRVey and ate lunch rested a few minutes then off we went again!

We drove to the end of the Canyon taking in the views, a river walk extends from the car park at this point , further on than this is the famous ‘narrows’ walk which is completed in wet gear due to the fact that you wade and paddle through water. I was not up for this one…. we walked the riverside walk withmany others, took photos and pleasure in our surroundings especially a Peregrine who happened to perch on a tree top to eat a fish he had just caught.

How could you tire of the scenery, each area is so different, Zion has huge rock faces, Bryce had its hoodoos, Mesa Verde ancient houses and the scenery in between joins them together.

With another day booked at the campground and still great weather we took the opportunity for another walk, this time the Watchman trail. The huge Watchman rock looks over the campground, it actually is 6,300ft above sea level, at least 2000ft above us at the campground. In our information it advised to walk the trail early or late as it could get very warm, and whilst conditions were cool in the campground when we left at 10am on the trail we soon felt the heat of thesun on our back. Some of the trails like the famous Angels landing have long drop offs, we enjoyed this particular trail because whilst there were drop offs we felt secure enough on our rocky path. Lots of cacti grew along the pathway and some very small lizards scooted left and right in front of us, one amusing Robert by climbing a sheer rock and promptly falling off!

We reached the plateau at the top and received amazing views of the high rocks around us and the valley below

Our afternoon was spent with feet up contemplating the wonderful scenery we had taken in, downloading the pictures and enjoying the warmth of the Utah sunshine. All of the areas we have visited up to now belong to the Colorado Plateau, the Grand Canyon is the last link in this geological chain and on our list to visit very soon but first we have a rendezvous with the hot air balloons in Page.

Out of Colorado and into Canyons

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It was good to be on the road again, apart from the fact that not far from Manitou Springs we picked up snow. Our host at the campground had however

reassured us that once we got over Wolf Creek pass it would all be fine. Fortunately even before that the bad weather was tracking east of us, we could see VERY black clouds but we were in lovely sunshine. When we got to the top of the pass there was an overlook into the valley below with fantastic views. It was a long drive and a long day but worth it to get ahead of the weather.

It was very cold overnight but a beautiful morning drive into Durango, we stopped as usual at the visitor centre. I wanted to go into town to visit a yarn store, however as we got out of haRVey Robert thought the rear tire looked a bit soft, he quickly spotted a ‘foreign body’ stuck right in the edge of the tire! The lady in the visitor centre could not have been more helpful, making phone calls for us to be sure we could get help at a nearby workshop. haRVey’s tires not only are large and heavy they require a large amount of tightening (called torque) which only workshops which can deal with trucks can supply. We drove back the few miles to the Co-OP – a farmers ‘buy anything’ store to be inspected, we were sure a new and expensive new tire would be required. Robert was back inside after a short time to announce how lucky we were, the bolt had not penetrated the tire wall and all was well. Tire pressures checked and convinced we were fine, we set off again!

The forecast was for snow late Tuesday into Wednesday and we wanted to see Mesa Verde, we stayed overnight at a campground just opposite the entrance and set off early Tuesday morning up the twisty entrance road. We climbed high into the mountains our first stop being the highest point of the Mesa. It was wickedly cold, the wind hurt your face, we took in the view quickly and I wondered just how much we were going to see without getting frozen to death.

Amazingly,when we got to the Spruce Tree Terrace overlook and took the trail to the bottom of the dwellings it was pleasantly warm, it was understandable why the ancient people built in such a spot, although their access was not as easy as the route we took. To be able to stand in and amongst these ancient buildings was awe inspiring and very much a privilege. The inhabitants left here in or around the year 1200, but their buildings look like they will live on long after modern properties have vanished.

We visited the museum and bought tickets for the tour of Cliff Palace at 2pm, we drove the few miles to the car park and ate soup for lunch, nice and warm before we ventured out again. Our guide met us at the top of the trail to the Palace buildings and explained our route and a few do’s and don’ts. There was a steep but not difficult decent into the base of the Palace but the accent was via 5 ladders, he assured us all that there would certainly be some who would be out of breath before we reached the top! (Me, me, me! I was already dreading it!)

Again, standing amongst these buildings tucked under their rocky roof I wondered about the people who existed here so long ago, the Basket Makers being the first recognised inhabitants followed on by generations of ancient people improving their skills and techniques in living. They eventually made pots and wove fabrics on upright looms, moved from pit houses to making the upright stone buildings, the pits becoming ceremonial or communal areas. Every niche was utilised beneath the rocky overhang and on the top the mesa was planted with corn and squash providing food.

Eventually the dreaded climb out – it actually wasn’t as bad as I had expected and when we reached the top I felt sorry we had not more time to take in the land of the ancients.

The threatened snow arrived silently overnight and we awoke to a picturesque campground. We however wanted to get on the road and wondered if we could!

We took it steady and were pleased to find the main road mainly slushy, we had a long drive ahead we knew there would be no campground open until we got to Page. It took 5 hrs to get there, we did loose the snow for a time but a lot of the drive we were battling with ice on the windscreen and Robert had to stop several times to clear enough to be able to see. I think we maybe missed some views along the way…. the driving snow and misty conditions were not the best.

After an overnight rest everything looks better and once again the sun was shining, one thing about the storms, they don’t last long – thank goodness. We stopped briefly at the Powel dam just outside Page and picked up times for the visits. We will be back in Page in around a weeks time for the hot air balloon gala and hope to tour the dam then.

Before reaching Kanab we began to see the huge cliffs which are part of the Colorado plateau, vermillion, pink and white cliffs make up three parallel ranges, north of these is Bryce Canyon, the southern most and highest point of this range being the Grand Canyon.

The scrubby barren land around these cliffs has been utilized for western film sets over the years and it is possible to take trails and visit the remnants left for future historians to wonder over the people who dwelt there! We drove on….

Kanab to Bryce took us to a higher elevation and we were aware of the mountains ahead covered with snow, when the road arrived at red Canyon the rocks were highlighted with an inch or so of snow, giving them another

dimension.

Not far past the arch we entered Bryce Canyon National Park…. more of which in the next blog

Escapades around Manitou Springs

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We took a drive out from Manitou along a dirt road called Gold Camp Road, the track is partially an old railroad route which transported the gold ore from Cripple Creek and Victor, gold rush towns.Now the rocky canyons and abandoned tunnels make a wonderful dusty scenic drive.

We stopped off to walk the trail to Silver Falls and look back at Colorado Springs miles away in the valley. The water has worn the rocks smooth and we wondered what the cascade would be like with melt water flowing over it – quite spectacular I would think.

The town of Victor once was home to 17,000 people but now there is only one old mine and around 400 people are living there. We drove through on our way to Florissant but as the camera battery had died we decided if possible we would return to take photos of this deserted and yet picturesque village.

The fossil beds of Florissant hold thousands of insect and plant fossils along with a large number of petrified trees, all preserved thousands of years ago by the dust from volcanic eruptions. It is a small but interesting National Monument and we enjoyed the explanatory video and walked the trails to view the petrified tree stumps which are above ground.

Next day with battery recharged we set off for another dirt trail, Phantom Canyon Road, which to begin with disappointed us. After the previous days scenic route this one seemed tame until we got to the centre of the trail where the rocks grew higher and the road grew narrower. The rocks fascinated us, Robert was sure the shiny bits must be gold, after all the gold mines were not that far away! We spent some time picking up and examining quartz rocks and what we now think may be mica flakes – not gold however, we have still to make our fortune.

The road led us back to Victor to enable us to explore and take the photos we missed the day before.The land is barren from all the mining activity over the years and abandoned mines and mine buildings litter hills. One large mine now operates, extracting any gold left in the workings and restoring the area where possible. So many of the buildings are just sitting falling apart and bits of mine workings are everywhere you look.

The town itself needs major finance to restore some of its lovely old shops and historic buildings, I am sure in the summer they get quite a few visitors but on the day we visited its ghostly normality was obvious. We did however find one shop alive and very active. Victor Trading Company is housed in one of the old buildings in the centre of town and Karen, one of the owners was busy hand making brooms which they sell in the store and on the internet, her partner operates a printing press and they also make reproduction tin food cans,cookie cutters and various mining memorabilia, the shop houses all sorts of interesting bits and pieces both old and reproduction.

After two long days out driving, the weather warm and sunny if a little cool high in the mountains, Wednesday was due to be cold and snowy, we were hoping to have a little retail therapy at an out of town retail park. Robert was in desperate need of new trainers, he had walked through the soles of his old ones and now had stones coming up through them – I did say he was desperate!

In Manitou it was cold and a little snow was fluttering around every now and then, we decided that by lunch time we could venture out as the highway would be wet rather than snowy if there was any snow at all. We had not realised the road north, whilst a four lane highway also rose to 7,500 or so feet, height matters around here when it comes to weather and by the time we got to the retail park we had clods of snow on the front of the car and it was around two inches thick on the ground. The snow storm continued whilst we shopped, successfully, thank goodness and Robert drove home the proud owner of new trainers, the old ones getting binned the following day!

At last the day we had waited around for arrived and on Friday we took haRVey back to the RV Dr’s to get his parts fitted, we now hope the long saga with the fridge is over. We have a drain pipe to take the defrost water away and the turkey baster we have been manually extracting water with is redundant! The other parts were fitted too and our only outstanding job now is a small area of paint we feel needs attention, this maybe will get fixed in Pheonix if we can agree with Fleetwood, we will see.

We have enjoyed our protracted stay in Manitou Springs. The Pikes Peak Campground has been very comfortable for us and our hosts very accommodating and friendly. We are ready to move on and continue our journey, however an annual celebration in the town due to take place on Saturday made us decide to hang around one more day.

Emma Crawford came to Manitou in the late 1800’s for the air, she suffered from consumption but improved in the clear mountain atmosphere and grew to love the red rocks and the area. She was arranging her wedding to the engineer of the Cog Railroad when she had a relapse and died. She had asked to be buried on her beloved Red Mountain and so she was. Some years later construction on the mountain led to her coffin being moved and a later storm exposed it and washed it away down the mountain side. By this time she had no known relatives and the local people re buried her in the cemetery. There she had finally found peace until the modern community needed one more reason to party! The town is known for its strange events, and the Emma Crawford coffin race takes place every October,we felt this was a “must see”, a fruit cake hurling event in January being one of the others (record is over 1,000ft).

By the start of the hearse parade every vantage point in the small town was taken, many of the crowd, including local dogs dressed for the event! (one we spotted was a dachshund with pretend bread roll on either side and an imitation mustard squiggle down his back) The hearse were followed by a parade of the coffins, each one had an Emma and four pushers plus an entourage of followers, 45 coffins were paraded along the main street, each one should have raced but a few backed out before the start. The heat produced four teams to race off for the final winning positions, there was also a race between two local fire crews and their coffins, prizes awarded for the best Emma, best coffin, and of course the fastest team. Great fun to watch and the competitors seemed to enjoy themselves too, most of the restaurants and bars were holding after race parties and the sun shone continually for the fun! (lots more pictures in the web album

www.picas aweb.google.com/elainethehill/USSeptember

14,110ft Pikes Peak

2009-10-19T11:08:00.001-05:00

Colorado has 52 peaks over 14,000 ft above sea level. At 14,110 ft Pikes peak is one of the smaller ones, however it has one of the highest paved roads in the US.

On Sunday we took a trip to the top along the 19 miles of mostly paved road. The view was spectacular, just like looking out from an aeroplane but moving at your own pace! We left Manitou Springs at around 10.20 am to travel the short distance to the toll booth and paid our $10 per person, the temperature was around 16C, we knew it would be around freezing at the top. The first twelve miles there were few views as we were driving amongst the trees, occasional glimpses of the top of the mountain could be seen as the road twisted back and forth.

Once we reached the sub alpine area the trees thinned and the views became more apparent, the range of the Rocky Mountains, snow shining on their peaks, to the east and the plains of eastern Colorado, the City of Denver and Colorado Springs to the west. The summit is a bleak car park with a low, grey building which houses the cafe and tourist shop. Getting out of the car it became more obvious why it was so bleak, the temperature here was reading +2 degrees, however the wind chill probably halved that temperature.

Added to the cold was the height factor, Colorado as a State is very high all of it being over 5,000ft above sea level and we have become acclimatised to altitude of around 6000 to 7,000 ft over the last few weeks as Yellowstone Park also has very high spots. Today we drove from 6,300 to 14,110 in an hour so we felt a little light headed. We took in the views and headed for the coffee shop and the famous doughnuts for a warm and a treat!

An alternative way to get to the top is by the Cog Railway which leaves Manitou Springs and travels rather more vertically than the road up the other side of the mountain (more info in Roberts blog Ski-ing across the pond on 4 wheels in due course) a train arrived just as we finished our snack and deposited a ‘bundle’ of tourists into the shop, we headed out!

Another quick blast around the summit which inspired the words of the second National Anthem of the US, America the Beautiful, then back in the car for a decent to warmer and more oxygenated parts.

We were more able to enjoy the views on the way down as they were spread in front of us, the mountains we had previously thought of as grand now seemed diminished by the views we had experienced from the eyrie on the summit, they were non the less still beautiful.

Almost at the bottom we stopped to look down at the Ute Pass, around 7,000ft above sea level and 700ft above Manitou Springs, the temperature here had risen to around 20 degrees C, a lovely warm afternoon!

By the time we got back to the campground the thermometer was reading 26 degrees – this time last week it did not move above –4 !

SOME NERDY FACTS

The highest peak in the UK is Ben Nevis – 4,409 ft

The highest peak in Wales is Snowden - 3,560ft

The highest point in England Scar Fell Pike - 3,209ft

Newcastle’s Tyne Bridge is 84ft to the road deck and 193ft to the top of the arch

Mount Everest is 29,000ft

The Grand Canyon is 6,000 ft at its deepest - just to put it all in perspective!

Just waiting around in Manitou Springs

2009-10-17T20:20:00.001-05:00

Pikes Peak from the campground.

After such a lovely day on Friday the temperatures plummeted overnight, at one point we sat watching the thermometer reading falling by tenths of a degree per second and wondered how low it would go. Snow was also forecast and Saturday morning did bring a slight flurry but no more. We loved the campground and would stay longer but felt we should try and get to a warmer spot for the sake of our ‘equipment’! haRVey had other ideas however and when we were all ready to move we attempted to lift the jacks (legs which balance and help support us while stationary) one jack would not budge. To cut a long story short, there had been water where there should not have been and the overnight temperature of minus 8 degrees centigrade had frozen it solid, the manual process of releasing the brake on it, eventually worked after Robert and our host rigged up a heater and thawed the jack out. By this time it was too late to move on so we had to sit out another very cold night.Thankfully with a 50amp electricity supply we warm and toasty inside. The daytime temperature on Saturday did not rise above minus four degrees, when we watched the local news later we were actually glad we had not been able to move as the road we would have taken had been shrouded in freezing fog all day causing accidents, tail backs and general chaos! Some things are meant to be.

Sunday morning we tried again, and yet again heat had to be applied before we could lift the jack, we were very pleased we had an appointment with the RV Dr on Tuesday, we did however eventually get going and enjoyed the drive and the view of heavily frosted trees through the mountains.

Almost a hundred miles later we arrived at a sunny Woodlands Park below Pikes Peak mountain. We topped up with much needed fuel and descended into the valley of Manitou Springs where the freezing fog was still laying thickly and the trees hung with frost. Pikes Peak RV campground lies at the far end of the town so we were able to get an idea of our surroundings as we drove through, it looked quaint and interesting, enough we thought to keep us busy a few days. We were greeted warmly by the owner and soon settled into a site plugged in and switched on.

We took a walk into Manitou on Monday morning, it was just about ten minutes from the campground and we enjoyed the cool morning sunshine and window shopped around the various stores some were a little touristy, others curious; quite a few were closed it being an out of season Monday, we may visit again another day.

The all important appointment with the RV Dr at Pikes Peak Traveland was Tuesday morning, still foggy the journey across Colorado Springs took about thirty minutes, we checked in at 10am as planned, we left at 5.15pm after a long and tedious day sitting reading every magazine available, drinking coffee and attempting (and failing) to get biscuits out of a very unwilling vending machine. The result of the days investigation was that the parts would be ordered if Fleetwood agreed to the warranty claim and we would get a phone call next day to let us know how long it would be before the job could be completed. We felt a little frustrated that we were in the same position we had been when we left our dealer in Vancouver earlier in the year, we are learning this is the way it happens and we need to be patient wait around and get the job done here if we can.

On our way to Wal Mart next day we received a call to let us know Fleetwood Customer Service had been contacted to attempt to speed up the parts, a further call the following day confirmed the items Fleetwood had agreed to pay for and that the first of the parts would be despatched (RV dealer does not work Monday) and we will get an update Tuesday on when they will arrive and the job can be fitted in to the workshop. What needs doing? A small drain pipe on the fridge, which means the whole unit has to be removed for access; a seal on the fridge door, the whole door has to be replaced…;the mains electricity cable replaced, the sheath has become detached from its plug; the cover for the (frozen) jack, called a boot, needs replacing as it is cracked. Probably a day in the workshop!

We concluded we are going to be around for at least a week and decided to hire a car to get out and about, one of the reasons we chose this dealership was the locality, we felt there would be plenty to do if we needed to hang around. Robert arrived back from Budget car hire with a ‘fire engine’ actually it is quite a nice red, Ford Edge, so haRVey can rest his weary tires for a day or too.

One of the local features we had on our list to visit is less than a mile from the campground, ‘Garden of the Gods’, a rock garden rather than an horticultural garden the land was bequeathed to the city of Colorado Springs by its owner on his death bed and has been a popular tourist attraction since the early 1900’s.

We enjoyed being able to get out and walk in the sunshine feeling we had not moved much for a day or two, its amazing how you get used to a degree of exercise and miss it so quickly. The rock formations have been given names over the years appropriate to their shapes,

One is called kissing camels and we looked and photographed it from various angles but I still feel there is a lot of poetic licence in the name!

We spotted and named a buffalo rock and a scull like rock, take a look at the web album for others too, balanced rock which looks like it has been placed on two blobs of cement to hold it, white rock, very out of character to all the surrounding red rocks a strange but beautiful place.

Tomorrow we intend to drive to the top of Pike Peak, a 36 mile round trip on a toll road to the 14,000ft summit, we hope for spectacular views, watch this space!

Into the canyons of Colorado

2009-10-09T19:11:00.001-05:00

After a day of rest we were refreshed and so was the weather, still cold the rain had disappeared and we had blue sky again. Robert had found information on some old trains in Douglas downtown area so we stopped by on the way out of town to visit. I am not a train enthusiast but I found the diner car (called Silver Salver) which reminded me of an overgrown Airstream trailer, fascinating, not only that the tables were full laid for a meal but the beautifully preserved bar area at one end and beyond that a fantastic kitchen. I can’t imagine what it would have been like for the folk catering in such confined quarters, very hot I think, but they had more space than some modern restaurants!

Our enforced break had given us time to look at destinations for the next week or so. We have a booking in Colorado Springs on Tuesday 13th to get some outstanding warranty issues sorted and could meander towards it we thought via the Rocky Mountain National Park. Not wanting to travel too far each day, we average around two hours and somewhere between 80 and 120 miles, we decided our next overnight would be in Wheatland then down to Laramie. Robert liked the look of the nice twisty road through the mountains to Laramie and it proved to be very pretty, with views of the mountains in the distance. Laramie unfortunately did not appeal in the same way and after a brief stop at the local Safeway we carried on, crossing the state border into Colorado, passing through Walden, “capital of the moose” to overnight in Gould, breaking our average by driving 160miles!

Pumpkin display outside Safeway in Laramie.

Moose watching is best at dawn and dusk, dusk here is now around 6.15pm, so after a quick cuppa we decided to drive a few miles up the road to see if we could be lucky enough to spot one of the 600 moose in the area. We called at the closed visitor centre where a large replica moose was all that was on offer, then drove on a little further to sit in a pull off for about an hour with no luck, we did see a couple of mule deer but that was all. It was very cold overnight and we were up early and on the road. The visitors centre opened at 9 and we were their first customers. We chatted to the ranger there, got a little more information on what to look for and got back on the road scanning the willow beds as we went along. Within a few miles we had to stop for road construction, the flagger chatted while we awaited our turn to pass through the road works, he was cold and was contemplating the forecast snow and maybe a day by his warm fire instead of freezing on the highway. He eventually waved us on and we passed other workmen replacing the markers at the side of the road which indicate where the snow plough should work up to. Just as we emerged from the far end of the road works a huge bull moose crossed right in front of us, not only surprising us but the road crew too.

Our onward journey took us along highway 14 one of the States scenic byways, it certainly was beautiful, the remaining aspen leaves very yellow against the green conifer and rocky mountainsides. We stopped by a small river and strolled down to the water to try photograph the scene. Some of the pictures we see can only be captured in the mind, photos can’t do justice to the real beauty of the countryside.

We were now a day ahead of where we had thought we would be and arrived in Fort Collins thinking we might have a chance to spend a couple of days there. Having gathered information from the Chamber of Commerce we took a wander around the old town in the sunshine. There are several micro breweries in the town and ideas were hatching with the beer drinker on sampling a few! We were even able to sit outside for a cup of tea around three thirty in the afternoon when we arrived at the campground it was so warm and sunny, however the forecast that evening did not bring good news.

Overnight was forecast to be very cold and next day would see snow arrive, the weekend also was due to be wet and snowy, Rocky Mountain Park looked like a bad idea. We thought moving a bit further south we should be OK and set off just after 10am, the snow had already started to fall in Fort Collins. As the day wore on the snow got thicker, the main roads were wet and clear but, the ground around was quickly getting whiter. Some of this was due to the fact that we were at around 5,300ft above sea level, most of Colorado is over 4,000ft and it had many areas 10 - 14,000ft!

I made a quick phone call to Cottonwood RV in Idaho Springs, the very helpful owner informed me the roads were dry there, fifty miles down the road, I could not quite believe the weather could be so different, however we pushed on. Driving down Interstate 70, just west of Denver, the fog was very thick, snow falling a little and blowing across the road, but, yes the road was dry. We turned off the interstate onto the local road and drove a mile and half along a small canyon road to the campground which was situated behind the owners lovely wooden home. We were given a warm welcome and we apologised for bringing them the snow which was now falling quickly! Soon we were sitting indoors, heaters on, eating a candle lit tea and watching the snow fall outside on quite a perfect picture of mountain cabins.

Having missed out on his brewery crawl Robert was quite pleased to discover that Idaho Springs had its own micro brewery with pub attached. We hoped, if the weather allowed to walk the mile and half into ‘downtown’ for a look around. Friday morning was very cold but bright and after a while the overnight snow was completely gone, however this was to be a short respite before another storm on Saturday. We set out around eleven on our walk in winter boots and, my last years Christmas present from Elizabeth of fingerless mittens got its first airing.

The old town buildings all dating from the late 1800 and early 1900’s are mostly well preserved, this was a gold rush town and this year has celebrated 150yrs of the first gold strike!

We walked the main street, down and then back to the ‘Tommyknocker brewpub’ where we ordered spinach and artichoke dip with garlic bread and parmesan and garlic french fries for lunch. Robert chose 5 samples from the 10 listed brews on offer and I had my first taste of root beer!

Both food and drink went down well, the dip was very tasty and as this was our first indulgence in chips in weeks, they were thoroughly enjoyed! Root beer? – well, it was OK, perhaps a little sweet for my taste and I probably wouldn’t run back to order another one, but if you don’t try you don’t know!

Further along the main street we eventually found the Visitor Centre and looked around their interesting displays about the gold mining, how the land is now being restored and some local history and artefacts. These included the first fire engine, built by local men after the pub burned down as they realised how unprepared they were for fire! The reality was a house burned down too, the pub caught fire from the house, it was loosing the pub however which prompted the men to action. Why does that not surprise me?

On our walk back we passed a water wheel, part of the gold mining past, presently decorated for Halloween to look like a pumpkin. It was built by a guy called Charlie Tayler who attributed his good health to the fact he never kissed women or took baths – would the women have kissed him anyway, I wonder! The locals are proud to have restored the mill to its present condition and the bronze statue and plaque along with the wheel have a fund for their upkeep for the future.

The sun was now quite warm and the mittens were long ago tucked in the pocket, I took off my jacket too and enjoyed the sun. This is typical of weather here it seems it changes very quickly and tomorrow could be as different again, even as I type the temperature has dropped to 6 degrees and the clouds are building above the mountains to our left. This is why we still maintain the no plans regime, we will do tomorrow whatever we feel like and the weather allows.

Valley in the mountains and historic trials

2009-10-02T22:28:00.000-05:00

Leaving Riverton on the 135 our route took us south, the road passed through quite flat ground until ahead we spotted it snaking upwards toward the top of a high ridge. There was snow on the tops of the surrounding mountains and also on the ridge we were about to cross but as the sun was shining and the sky blue we were once again treated to fantastic panoramic views of the surrounding area.

We had expected that once we reached the top we would head down the opposite side of the mountains as this area is called the Sweetwater Valley, but we found ourselves on a plateau, open grassland and sage bush and outcrops of rock highlighted by the snow which was around two inches deep (not on the roads however) a few cows here and there but for around twenty miles this was it.

Sweetwater Junction turned out to be a roadside rest area and a small gas

station, we ate lunch watching the local cows and calves penned up across the road

Jeffrey City not far down the road was a little more extensive in its buildings however they mostly turned out to be boarded up, I later discovered this was once a thriving town dependant on a Uranium Mine, the mine closed and the town went down with it. A new mine has been opened in the area however the new workforce have not taken up local residence it seems.

This stretch of road to Casper has lots of historical landmarks as it is criss crossed by the route of the Oregon trail, The California Trail, the Mormon trail and the Pony Express, who were preceded by trappers, mountain men and of course the Indians native to the areas.

The Pioneers and Mormon travelled this way in thousands, the pioneers transported their belongings in covered wagons but the Mormon pulled hand carts weighing over 500lb, and the ruts left by their wheels are surprisingly still visible. Many of the pioneers died along the route from Cholera and other illness or injuries. Their journey was not one to be taken lightly walking as they did up to twenty miles a day a total of two thousand miles from Missouri to the West Coast and a new life.

Independence Rock was half way on the cross country journey, the huge granite mound was a way marker and resting place for the travellers, they attempted to arrive at the rock for the 4th July so that the grasslands beyond would be rich enough to support the animals they brought with them. The rock became a message board in that those passing it would carve their names on the rock face in celebration of their survival thus far. Later travellers were able to search the rock for relatives and friends names to reassure or otherwise of their fate. The few remaining names are very faint faded with weather and covered with lichen but still survive long after their scribes have departed.

This area of Wyoming is home to many Pronghorn antelope, pretty, small brown and white creatures with unusual horns, they were grazing in small herds all the way along the route, their numbers have increased after limitations to hunting were put in place, they graze on the sage bush and small amounts of grass, blending in with the background, just their white tails showing bobbing up and down as they run away.

We had located a campground beside the Alcova Reservoir, thirty miles from Casper, unbelievably a full hook up was only $15, we could not miss a bargain like that. The road wound down through red chugwater rock formations towards the reservoir, a sign indicated that the full hook up RV site was 4.2 miles along the road but the whole area seemed deserted. At the allotted mile point the campground was sign posted on the right opposite a deserted marina on the waters edge, there were three other RV’s on the small site so we chose our spot and parked up. Walking back to the marina area we chatted to two other campers from Michigan, over this way on a hunting trip, I thought about the lovely antelope we had seen…..there were Mule deer around the waterside here and what we believe were young turkey vultures flying over head, the animals taking back the playground of the city folk who have mostly all left for the winter.

A short drive next morning brought us to Casper and the Trails Interpretive Centre where we spent an enjoyable and informative couple of hours learning more about the journeys of those who travelled the trails. For us this is a huge learning experience, we were so ignorant of the history of the United States, it seems every time we come across something new it sets us on another course, more questions lead to more knowledge and discovery, well I suppose that’s what learning is all about. It is a part of travelling that we had not contemplated at the outset however but has become a big part of our journey.

Forty miles from Casper we turned off the Interstate to view a natural feature which has drawn travellers to it for over a hundred and fifty years. Natural Bridge is a perfectly formed stone arch over the river which has carved it by washing away the softer stone beneath. It sits at the end of a canyon whose rocky sides are a deep brick red colour. The road was quite narrow and twisty, like old times back on US highway 1, now I can relax and enjoy the view most times, only occasionally getting nervous about the drop! We strolled around the small

park area beneath the bridge and enjoyed a little late afternoon sunshine in the sheltered canyon bottom.

We arrived at Douglas just before 5pm and booked into the campground, surprised to see it quite busy. Logging on to the internet (good connection for a change) and checking the weather we discovered our lovely blue sky was going to leave us again and a couple of days cold and wet was to take its place. True to form Sunday morning was grey and before long rain set in, we decided to sit tight and have a day of cooking, washing and cleaning, all very necessary from time to time. It actually felt like an ‘old’ Sunday as I also had ‘conversation’ on the internet with friends and family catching up on all the news and gossip!

PS. This edition of the blog I have written with the aid of Windows Live Writer, it has enabled me to embed photos again, I can compose off line, edit photos etc then upload when we have a good internet connection! This is how I had hoped blogger would work when I first started writing, there are a few gremlins I need to sort but generally it has made the whole thing very much simpler! Hurrah for technology - hmmm but I havn't published it yet, maybe should not shout too soon.

Roaming in Wyoming

2009-10-01T22:27:00.000-05:00

What we did not take into consideration is that Parks have boundary’s which geography does not, and scenery on the drive from Yellowstone east to Cody came as a surprise to us. The rock formations shaped by wind and water fascinated us and again many pictures were taken. We had lunch beneath towering cliffs beside a river hoping nothing fell on us. The wind had been blowing steadily since we left Yellowstone but along this section it was buffeting us regularly. Early in the afternoon we passed Cody reservoir and dam and questioned why it was labelled an historic site. On entering the town of Cody we gathered information and checked in to the campground. Snow and overnight lows still forecast we opted for a 50amp site to enable us to keep warm with both our heaters however at this time the sun was still shining and bad weather looked a long way off. Cody is named after its famous “son” Buffalo Bill Cody, not being cowboy enthusiasts we thought we should educate ourselves and visit the very smart looking museum named after him in town. Our information had revealed why the dam was an historic site, built in the early 1900’s its design ideas were used for the Hoover Dam and as Robert is always fascinated by any engineering project we decided that it would go on tomorrows list for a visit too. Sometimes the weather forecast is wrong, and sometimes it is correct, the heavy clouds which arrived with daylight quickly covered a short glimpse of sunlight and the strong winds brought driving rain which got more and more persistent as we neared the dam. The car park seemed a long way from the front door and we were just contemplating getting a drenching when a golf buggy trundled towards us and a very wet gentleman offered us a lift, he was the courtesy transport. We had not realised today was the last day of the opening season for the visitor centre; it looked like being a quiet one! We watched a film which told of the ups and downs of attempting to build the dam in very difficult conditions the final ‘bucket’ of cement being tipped on January 16th1910 at a temperature of minus 10 centigrade. As usual the social history fascinated me, letters written between William Cole the chief engineer and his wife and family gave a very personal insight into the sacrifices made and the conditions endured by him and the men who worked to build the structure. Our friendly guide drove us back to the car park the rain still lashing down and we drove back into Cody to hopefully dry out in the Buffalo Bill Centre. The entrance fee of $15 each however changed our minds, we wanted to get on the road to Thermopolis before the weather worsened and did not feel we had the time to do the entrance fee justice. The electronic temperature display in town had dropped 3 degrees since we passed it in the morning and the rain was fast turning to snow, at 3pm we were on the road south and east but it being high and flat meant within a short distance the windscreen was all but covered with wet snow, thankfully it was not settling on the road. By the time we reached the campground in Thermopolis it had changed back to rain, we checked in and put the heaters on hoping the snow was not going to be too heavy overnight. What a difference a day makes… the sky was higher and far more promising and before too long glimmers of sunshine were visible, however at 9am it was still only 4 degrees centigrade. Thermopolis is a town of hot springs and our campground had its own pool, Robert took trunks and a towel and went for a hot ‘dip’…yes at 4 degrees.. We went to visit the Wyoming dinosaur museum before leaving town and I have to admit I was not too sure after the Museum of the Rockies information overload. We found the Thermopolis museum explained the evolution process in much easier language for us to follow, the exhibits of fossils found both locally and further afield illustrated the text in a way which kept us interested enough to stay nearly two hours. One of the young technicians stopped to chat to us in his lunch hour and we discussed how the bones were removed from the rocks they were found in and delicately cleaned. I was interested in the learning process for him as a technician and what happened if he made a mistake, he related an incident which had happened to him the day before when he had ‘dropped’ a piece of fossil on the floor, it smashed into lots of pieces which he proceeded to put back together as best he could (they use super glue). Driving out of town and further south the mountains were coated with snow, some areas obviously thicker than others, our drive took us through the Wind River Canyon where roadside markers show the age of the various rock formations which have been revealed as the water has worn away the rock layers earlier folded and heaved with the forces of the earths evolution. Our destination of Riverton is a convenient overnight location only, our next section of journey we hope will take us through areas travelled by the settlers on the road to Oregon and their new lives in the west, we are travelling in the opposite direction to them however, east towards Casper.

Yellowstone Park

2009-10-01T22:22:00.000-05:00

As we pulled out of the campground in West Yellowstone the sun, low in the blue sky dazzled us, it was a crisp morning, just above freezing outdoors, we reached the west gate to Yellowstone Park by 7.50am and showed our $80 pass brought the previous afternoon in readiness. We were full of expectation for the wildlife we hoped to spot, also full of jokes as to why they would not be around when we were, as usual. However before too long we were alerted by a group of cars parked in a turn out and a gathering of photographers with huge lens, pointing in the direction of the flat area of grass a hundred yards away, something was ‘about’. A herd of elk, a male with his harem were patiently grazing and keeping a weather eye on the observers. The male had a splendid pair of antlers; he probably had won a few battles with them to accumulate his females, and as the rutting season is in full swing may have a few more in the near future. Not much further along the road a bison was nonchalantly chewing grass, it would have made a great photo if only he would have left the grass for a minute or two and raised his head to look at us. We felt we were doing quite well, we had seen more wildlife in thirty minutes than in the last month. Whilst we had read the brochures etc. about the park, until you are in an area you really don’t know what it will be like and we were not sure what to expect of the landscape at all. As we progressed in the near distance plumes of steam were rising maybe fifty feet into the air, their source out of sight to us, the closer we got the more intrigued we became and when we pulled into the car park for Fountain Paint Pot were unaware we were about to get our first experience of the geysers and hot springs which would dominate our day. Writing this now at the end of our third day in Yellowstone I realise how difficult it would be to try and give a detailed explanation of the geological features we have seen, from the bubbling mud pools and steamy spurts at Fountain Paintpot we moved to the Old Faithful Geyser and spent five hours walking around the various geysers and hot pools there, we have seen hot sulphur cauldron (US spell caldron) and travertine layers (at Mammoth), each area awesome in its geological features, it would be wrong to by pass any of them and dismiss them as ‘another geyser’ they are all so different. Some pools are crystal clear with the odd bubble rising to the surface others bubble fiercely, the steam from most is smelly, hot and sulphurous. Some geysers play with you, gurgling and spurting giving the expectation of an eruption, then die away with nothing more to show, some spurt regularly a few feet in the air. Old Faithful as his name suggests regularly erupts around every 90 minutes, we saw it twice, the first eruption being around 100ft and over a couple of minutes duration, the second eruption was however much higher and lasted around four or five minutes both spectacular to view. A spectrum of colours exist, from the bacteria growing in the boiling mineral rich waters, amber, lime green, vivid yellow the mineral pools reflecting turquoise and emerald, bright white mineral rocks and crusty gravely earth but all this surrounded in the areas still able to sustain growth by the dark green pine and juniper trees. We have taken around four hundred photos, which need editing when we get a power supply again, but after taking out the rubbish photography ones we are going to have such a hard job deciding which to keep. The Yellowstone Canyon gave us more spectacular views, the short trail to the lower rim falls was well worth the effort of its decent to view the water gushing over the rocks and pounding into the valley below, the viewing platform is such that you are standing exactly over the point the water overflows and can look vertically down its flow – amazing! The rocky canyon around 1200ft deep we viewed from the upper area car park at a place called Grand View… it was. It was mid afternoon and the light was glowing off the yellow orange rocks, a clear blue sky contrasting above and the darker water flowing below. Of course the geological features are just a small part of this fantastic National Park, the area created around 640,000 years ago by volcanic eruption, also has its wildlife. Human habitation only exists in very limited areas and wildlife is king. Elk are numerous and we have also seen bison either as solitary specimen or occasionally in herds grazing happily by the riverside. The usual chipmunk and squirrel have squeaked at us but we were excited to catch a glimpse of two of the 300 or so wolf in the park, they were reintroduced into the park in 1995 and they obviously have thrived back in a habitat natural to them. A lot of this we very nearly missed due to another natural element – fire! The roads in the park form a figure of eight double loop, one section was already closed due to road construction but a forest fire between West Thumb and Fishing Bridge prevented us from getting to the campground on Saturday night, our reservation was switched to Maddison, not far from our original entry point. A Park Ranger we spoke with advised that it was a slight possibility the road could be open on Sunday morning, we took a chance and it was, the fire still some distance at that time from the road, later in the day closed it off again and it remains closed as I write, we are so pleased we got through and have been able to experience the north end of the park. Our final day in Yellowstone was a drive around the last part of the loop to the east entrance, we were out on the road before seven thirty thanks to the local elk who woke us noisily at dawn. It had again been very cold overnight and the forecast for the next few days was for snow and low temperatures, Yellowstone being so high (mostly over 6,000ft above sea level) was expecting a reasonable fall and we did not really want to see it! We had hoped being so early to spot some more wildlife, we would have liked to see moose but while talking to a ranger in Mammoth Albright Centre we had discovered there were only 200 in the whole park, we would be very lucky to see one. Driving across the Hayden valley we possibly sighted another wolf, but this one could have been a coyote, we beg to differ!!!! Lots more bison, herds and solitary beast, all heads down as usual munching grass. We stopped off at the Tower Falls, taking the short trail to the viewing area and afterwards started the long climb to Mount Washburn 10,243ft above sea level, the views from almost the top way back into the lower park were spectacular. We stopped for coffee beside the north end of Yellowstone Lake, looking back towards Fishing Bridge, the fire was still sending up volumes of grey smoke into the blue sky. From here another climb over the Sylvan pass and through a large area of previous fire damaged forest, young lodge pole pines, which germinate after fire, were beginning to grow but it will be many years before the mountain is green again. Each part of the park has its own features, and this route took us to the highest area of the park, the views as we passed over the mountains and through the canyon gave us a last wow before we reached the east gate at 12.30 having enjoyed every minute of our visit. A definite recommendation for the list of 100 things to do, but don’t try to do it in a day, we had three nights in the park and could easily have filled a week without getting bored (fear of the snow drove us out). Please have a look at the web album and also Roberts blog with less words and more pictures but more detail. www.robertandelaine2.blogspot.com enjoy, we did!

Crossing the border into Montana

2009-09-25T21:55:00.000-05:00

Despite all our reservations regarding border crossing we sailed through with no issues and a friendly border officer wishing us a happy voyage! Our internet investigations had led us to believe that some of our stock groceries, particularly rice, may not be allowed. As it turned out the only food stuff they were interested in were citrus fruits and corn. There appears to be no hard and fast rule as to what is permissible or otherwise and we feel this may be due to issues in the particular State being entered or the time of year when passing through the border. Whatever, we were happy to be across with no issues and on our way. Our very first impressions of Montana were favourable, we were travelling into green hills and distant mountains, the type of scenery which we have found suits us, the sun was shining and we were in the States once more. We arrived in Whitefish, a small town just forty miles from the border around lunchtime and took a short walk to the local Chamber of Commerce to collect a wealth of local information then drove a short distance out of town to the local KOA. We have decided to take out a KOA membership, we have used the groups’ campgrounds a few times and find there facilities to be reliable so it seems a good idea to get the discount offered by becoming a member. We pulled onto the campground and found our name on a board against site 70, drove around to find it and discovered another vehicle parked in the spot! Not what we expected. The campground was not very full and after a conversation with the occupants who had had confusion themselves on arrival the previous night, we chose ourselves another spot with a nice outside space and waited to speak with the managers when they arrived. The manager was happy with our choice of spot, friendly and helpful especially as the campground was supposed to be closed, KOA were still booking it and casual travellers were also being accommodated, they did however close after the last departures on Monday. After browsing our local information and conversation with others on the campground, we were looking forward to a trip to the top of the local “Big Mountain” resort on Sunday. The general idea was to take the chairlift to the top then walk back down, the views from the top were supposed to be spectacular so sounded worth while. Unfortunately the morning dawned with clouds and the first of the days heavy showers soon fell on our roof! We don’t do rain any more…. We took a drive towards the turnoff for the mountain and it rained even more heavily, we looked for a place to park up by the water to have lunch an reassess…there were no car parks suitable, the sky was brighter in the opposite direction so we decided to drive that way…seemed a good idea… we ended up at a retail park and took part in some retail therapy, Robert hoping to buy new shoes, me just having a good browse, then ate lunch while parked on the car park. Still the heavy clouds and intermittent heavy showers, the top of the mountain was on and off covered in cloud, there certainly would be no view today. We gave up and drove back to the campground and had a lazy Sunday afternoon! Somehow I feel we were not meant to do the mountain trip, Monday morning was bright Sunshine and blue sky again! It had been very cold overnight but the day was far more promising than the previous one, the chairlift however was only open weekends. Highway 83 took us away from Whitefish with a memo to return one day and conquer the mountain. The map showed a number of lakes along our route and we had information for a campground which looked like we might get a site alongside one of them overlooking the water, a favourite position of ours. Our first photo stop just before lunch was Swan Lake, serene and peaceful as its name would suggest, we later had a stroll beside Alya lake and arrived at Tamarack campground beside Seeley Lake early afternoon. Whilst checking in we were informed that a kayak was available free of charge if we fancied a paddle, life jackets available. Robert did not need much prompting and once we were set up he left me to enjoy the view and enjoyed a happy hour messing about in a boat. Seeley Lake proved to be very photogenic, it was blue and serene with the bright sunshine, but the evening brought a fantastic sunset and we enjoyed strolling beside the lake taking various shots as the sun went down. After another cold night we awoke to find the lake looking mysterious with light mist floating across the water and rising from it as the sun came up. We may have stayed longer but haRVey needs an oil change, again, we celebrated the arrival of 10,000 miles on the milometer en route to Seeley Lake and Robert booked us in to a Ford dealership in Butte for Wednesday morning. Again KOA would be our overnight stop. We took the scenic route to Butte, the route the pioneers would have taken and at various points along the way indications of there presence was obvious in the form of old ranch buildings and historical markers. Some of the small towns we travelled through looked like they hadn’t changed much in the years in between and were suffering from the present economical climate also. As we progressed the scenery changed, we moved from open plains into the mountains and climbed high over a pass which led us into the next broad valley, you can’t help but wonder and admire the families who set out to find new lives in the west, travelling as we do in quite luxurious conditions compared to the wagons and tents which gave them shelter from either the hot summer sun or freezing winter weather. haRVey was ready for action again around 12.30 and hoping to make the most of our day we took the Interstate 90 towards Bozeman then taking a side road, following the Jefferson river valley, to the Lewis and Clark Caverns. Conveniently for us there was a campground where we could stay after our visit. What we hadn’t realised was the Interstate took us right over the top of the Continental Divide at a point over 6,000 ft above sea level, the climb was not arduous and as we took note of the warning signs for truck at the top and kept to their speed limit we had a slow meander down the other side and plenty of time to enjoy the spectacular view of the huge boulders scattered alongside the road and the plain stretching out before us far below. After our unexpected ‘high’ we turned off onto the river valley road, narrow in places and twisting with huge rocky cliffs to the left and the stony river to the right before the land rose again to rocky hills and mountains on the opposite bank. We spotted, high up on our left a large opening in the rocks and thought this was probably something to do with the caves, the turn off to which was about half a mile along the road, however a three mile uphill twisty road to the Visitor Centre for the Caverns led nowhere near and left us wondering. We later discovered it was old mine workings. We were able to join the 2.30pm visit if we were able to hurry the lady told us, ¾ mile in 15 minutes, ‘yes, we can do that no problem!’ what we didn’t realise was it was uphill, in full afternoon sun all the way…. We did it in 14 minutes, hot and out of breath, but we did it! We now had 673 steps and a 2hr tour of the caverns, at least it would be cooler in there. I have to say I never once thought about being weary, the caverns were fantastic, I had never been inside anything like that before and I suppose the first time is always awe inspiring. The different limestone formations, popcorn, bacon, fountain, ribbon etc within each chamber of the caverns were lit carefully to show their size and structure, the walkways, sometimes overhung so low we were bent over and in one memorable spot we had to sit down and slide on our bottom a few feet into the next section, the stone was so smooth and polished it was like being on a playground slide. Of course I found the speed bump in the middle we had been warned about, I also was privileged to be kissed by the cave, a drip landed on me, contrary to what you might think the caves were very dry and in many areas it can take an hour for a drip to fall from a stalactite on the roof, the growth of calcite taking 30years to form 1 inch, only in the last wetter chamber does it grow at the rate of an inch in ten years. (Please look at the web album pictures to understand why it is difficult to fully explain) Thankfully over a seven year period in the mid 1900’s a band of Civilian Conservation Corps improved the access to the caverns, making an exit lower down the mountain so we did not have to climb back up the 673 steps but could take a leisurely stroll back to the car park taking in the magnificent view from high up in the mountains. Another lovely evening and we sat out until dusk to enjoy the cool air, the weather is still fantastic, much better than we expected and we hope it will last for our visit to Yellowstone at the weekend but before that we wanted to visit Bozeman’s museum of palaeontology and planetarium, there seems such a lot we could do in this area but our time is limited by the fact that Yellowstone closes down soon for the winter. The museum was well worth a visit to see the huge bones excavated by the University expeditions over a number of years, the surrounding area being rich with items waiting to be discovered. We learned a little about the dinosaurs themselves, however we felt it was quite an academic museum, more suited to those with a little bit more background understanding than ourselves, nevertheless as usual we felt we had gleaned a little knowledge and enjoyed our time there. Another KOA campground for the night, and a little topping up of the stores readied us for the weekend in Yellowstone, a eighty mile drive through the lovely Gallantin valley, again following the river between the rock outcrops which in places towered above the road. There was plenty of evidence of winter slides where rock had cascaded from high above and the river, although fast was obviously quite tame to how it would be with the melt waters teaming along it. The valley opened out, the high mountains receding to left and right of us and eventually we arrived at West Yellowstone, the gate to the park and another episode of our adventures.

Practical matters

2009-09-20T23:09:00.000-05:00

We left the lovely surroundings of Peter Lougheed park and spent Monday night in Cochrane, close to Calgary mainly to get some internet access, however we were pleased to find there was a riverside trail directly from the campground and we enjoyed a late afternoon walk. After a brief stop for a food shop we were able to dispose of our accumulation of recycling and redeem our deposits, in Alberta we were paying 25 cents on a litre liquid container, this included juice tetra packs and milk cartons, as a matter of principal we felt we wanted our money back! They don’t make it easy though, a well hidden bottle depot in the industrial area was duly located and Robert came back with a smile on his face and 2 dollars 10 cents in his pocket! (it probably cost us as much in fuel finding the place – but thats not the point!! - R). We headed back towards the mountains and had decided to stay in the Elbow River area, by lunchtime we had reached the Elbow Falls. We have by now visited quite a few water falls, and it is amazing how different each one can be, we have seen huge drops with hundreds if not thousands of gallons of water flowing over, we have observed water shooting through canyons and deep gorges, we have enjoyed wide shallow falls not much more than rapids, each one fascinating in its own right. Elbow falls was a combination of the shallow wide falls and a gushing canyon, one of the nice features was the viewing areas created on varying levels and allowing different aspects of the falls to be easily observed. Adjacent to the falls were beautifully placed picnic benches and quite a few people were enjoying the autumn sunshine and eating lunch, not having realised the tables were there we had already eaten ours sitting in haRVey in the car park and felt quite miffed we hadn’t seen them first. The campground was a couple of miles back down the road but a slight disappointment, we had a nice pull through site but noisy neighbours annoyed Robert (grumpy old man syndrome) with their music, and the surroundings just did not make us feel as comfortable as we had at the Peter Lougheed Park. I think we were really ready to leave Alberta and looking forward to being back in BC ready to head south into the States. A full day driving found us in Sparwood, at another Mountain Shadows campground, but now we were in beautiful British Columbia, despite the dry summer it seemed greener and far more hospitable. For a while Robert had wanted haRVey’s front wheels swapping left to right to help even the wear, as recommended by Ford. We had asked to get it done at the Ford garage when we had the oil changed, now almost 5000 miles ago, they were not able to apply the correct torque the wheels required (see how techy I am getting!) and advised a specialist tyre depot might help better. As we entered the campground a Kal Tire depot was situated on a small industrial park to the right and this gave us an ideal opportunity to book haRVey in. At 10am next morning he was standing on the forecourt, 10 minutes later he had three mechanics scratching their heads over how to get the wheel trims off, 25 minutes later they still had not got them off and admitted defeat. Hopefully we will not get a puncture (or we get a breakdown guy who is clued up) until we receive a reply from Ford to the e-mail Robert has sent asking for advice! For all our UK readers I will explain (hopefully simple version) a little about how tax and insurance works for us in British Columbia. As we purchased and initially registered haRVey in BC we renew our insurance and tax there annually, a compulsory third party insurance and road tax is paid to ICBC and we receive a decal for another years registration. Our ICBC is due end of October and we have to physically visit a BC office to renew, as we will be in the States by then we called in the Fernie office for ICBC on Friday in the hope we could complete the required forms etc a little early. We also pay a further private insurance to cover the comprehensive part of the insurance, but that’s another story. We both had a few reservations as to whether this would go smoothly and came out with a weight lifted, the lady in the office was so nice and so helpful I felt like hugging her…. Now we could think about crossing the border and heading south for the winter, not quite snowbirds but flying with them! Our tourist visa allows us to spend 90 days in US, our flights home for Christmas are booked for 17th December so we calculated, carefully, we could cross the border on Saturday and would do this on Highway 93 at Roosville, a small crossing south of Fernie which we hoped would be quiet. We spent Friday afternoon and evening at Kikomun Creek Provincial Park, around twenty miles from the border. The park is famous for its Western Painted Turtles and for once the wildlife was co-operative. Just as they were supposed to be, the turtles were sitting on logs basking in the warm afternoon sun when we took a stroll around Hidden Lake to spot them. The park has suffered badly with the heat of the summer and the grassland is yellow and parched, the leaves on the small bushes have prematurely turned to autumn colours for lack of water, however surprisingly, the campfire ban has been lifted and as the evening cooled down we decided to burn our last bundle of firewood, it is not allowed to carry it over the border for fear of carrying pests with it. There was not a breath of wind and we managed one of our best ever fires, no smoke following us around which ever way we turned, plenty of flame to flicker and keep our attention, lots of heat to warm our toes, and we sat on well into darkness enjoying our last night in Canada for quite a while.

2009-09-14T15:28:00.000-05:00

It was a very windy night at Bridge View RV, 60mph winds gusting through the Coulees (geographical term for small hills with water at the bottom and a predominant local feature), blasting us every so often and shaking haRVey vigorously. Monday morning, Canadian Labour Day holiday, was still very windy, we rang and booked a site in Henderson Lake RV before setting off to the trestle bridge, we hoped the lake campground would be more sheltered. Lethbridge was very quiet; the population seemed to have moved out of town for the long week end so we found no difficulty parking haRVey and enjoyed the walk along a well made path which brought us right underneath the 314ft high bridge. No sooner had Robert said he would love to see a train travel its one mile length than, as if by magic, we heard the unmistakable rumble, it looked like a toy train high above us even though we had climbed quite a few steps to a viewing platform so by now were half way up the height of the bridge. The bridge is celebrating its 100th year this year and we marvelled at the feat of engineering which replaced five smaller bridges with this remarkable one, shortening the train’s journey considerably and being more economical as heavier trains were able to cross the new bridge. We took a drive through the downtown area but chose not to stop, driving on to the campground next to the lovely Henderson Lake Park. It was still windy on this side of town but after setting up we set off for a walk around the manicured park and lake before tea time. On the far side of the Park from the campground is the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden and next morning we again set ourselves against the strong wind blowing directly down the lake and park to visit the garden. The garden was laid out in 1967 to commemorate and strengthen links between Lethbridge and Japan and at the gate we were greeted by a Japanese Lady who gave us background information pointing out the route to take for our tour. This took us briefly through a treed area with a wishing well and then into the two storey pavilion building where a Canadian young man (dressed in Japanese robe) gave us further information, the pavilion had been constructed firstly in Japan and then transported to Alberta when it was sure everything was perfect for it to be put in the garden. Looking out over the water and beautiful manicured garden around the pavilion there was little to see (to a lay eye) which could not be described as perfect, a landscape in miniature and very restful. Walking along the path from the pavilion the lake in the park beyond became a part of the garden too, creating a wonderful vista, Henderson Lake Park is also beautifully cared for and the two enhance one another. We had planned to walk from the garden a short way along the main road to where Google maps indicated the local ‘Real Canadian Superstore’ was situated, we only needed milk. After half an hour and no sign of the supermarket we asked a young lady walking in the opposite direction and were informed it was still some way off to the superstore (Don’t trust everything you read on the internet!) As there was a small garage supermarket over the other side of the road we crossed (dual carriageway) bought the milk then made our way to the Pizza Hut in the next block and treated ourselves to lunch, expensive milk! Next morning we drove to the supermarket for fuel and food and it was 3 miles from the campground and a good mile and half from its indicated position on Google! Fort Macleod, around sixty miles from Lethbridge is the historical town surrounding the site of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrival in Western Canada. We had a site at Daisy May Campground which was not as Wild West as it sounded, and thankfully the wind which had been blowing hard since Waterton almost a week ago seemed to have abated. The Fort Museum was almost deserted; in the whole time we were there I believe we saw around six other visitors. Now the children are back in school everywhere is very quiet it does however allow us to wander and take our time viewing the exhibits and taking in the history. (www.nwmpmuseum.com) While we do not underestimate the journey taken by Col. Macleod and his party, it seemed that quite a number of the men were seeking adventure and had an idealistic view of what was in front of them. We also questioned the reason they set off on an 800 mile journey with no provision for drinking water, rejected the well worn traders routes in favour of making their own, resulting in sickness for both men and the animals they were relying upon from either lack of water or drinking bad water they came across. They did however succeed in befriending and forming allegiance with the Native American tribes in the area they crossed. The area was notorious for the activities the illegal and murderous whisky traders who passed from the northern States into Southern Canada and the Indians welcomed the law and order to end the problems the whiskey caused. The week end weather was set fair and by now we had decided the Alberta Prairie landscape was not our favourite to date. We decided to head back to the mountains and drove along highway 22 north, stopping overnight at Chain Lake Provincial Park. On Saturday morning we continued our journey and were pleased to be once again climbing into the foothills of the Rockies, this time the Eastern slopes. This landscape certainly appeals to us both and the grandeur of the 10,000ft plus mountains never becomes as boring as the mile after mile of mostly flat ranch land we had left behind. The prospect of a nice week end had not escaped the locals either and our destination campground in Peter Lougheed Park was almost full, we were certainly lucky to get one of the last spots with electricity, necessary now the overnight temperatures are around 4 degrees C! We lunched at the Interlakes Panorama viewpoint while awaiting the appointed time for check in, a blue lake with majestic mountains and lovely sunshine allowed us to picnic and enjoy the fresh air. A trail from the campground (Whisky Jack trail and totally opposite way to the lake– but we did not know this for sure until next day) made an afternoon walk for us and a happy discovery for Robert, the forest was hiding a wealth of mushrooms and his foraging nose was well and truly exercised before I decided we should turn around as we were not heading for the lake as he insisted we were. Sunday morning was again a blue sky morning but very cold with it and at 10.30 am the outdoor temperature was still only 7 degrees C. Our days exercise was to be The Boulton Creek trail, so with brown paper bag (for collecting) and foraging nose primed and ready we set off in what we were fairly sure was the correct direction, en route to the trail head we spoke to a French Canadian couple, also out walking (and much more seasoned hikers than ourselves we perceived from the conversation) who were just as mesmerised by the lack of signage and poor map availability for the park as we were. We have come to expect a certain level of information when we visit the Provincial Parks and Peter Lougheed being such a popular place with lots of trails for hiking and biking seems very devoid of basic maps and way markers. We had not walked very far before an abundance of various fungi were apparent and Robert, who had been reading up in his Mushroom book overnight, began probing and identifying various species, some hopefully being edible. After a short uphill climb we were rewarded with great views of the mountains, standing out clearly against the blue sky’s, some areas showing small amounts of what appeared to be fresh snow and other areas having glacier like accumulations, it does not seem long since the last snows melted away but very soon these mountain tops will be white again. The trail carried on through the woodland and then dropped down to the creek running in the bottom of the valley. It was much warmer here as the sun was finding its way through the trees, we followed the creek back to Boulton Bridge then the final half mile or so back to the campground was uphill again and very much warmer than when we left around an hour and a half earlier.

Back on the road again.

2009-09-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

The past week has been a time for settling in and settling down after an unexpected return to the UK. On the 2nd August we heard the sad news that my Mum had passed away. We arranged storage for haRVey and flights home. We had been staying in Mountain Shadows Campground between Radium and Invermere, Rhoda and Joe who were running the campground accommodated our needs at short notice making what was a difficult time much easier for us, for which we were very grateful. haRVey stayed on at the campground and we were able to return to him at the beginning of September. While the Columbia valley is very beautiful I was more than ready for a change of area and after a couple of nights in Radium and a great cup of coffee at Kicking Horse Coffee (local coffee roast house) we headed off towards Kimberley. We had intended to have a look around the town before stopping at the Riverside campground overnight however on arriving at the outskirts of Kimberley we found the whole of the town centre road network dug up for major overhaul. Not just resurfacing, not just one road, but the whole of the town centre and in places excavated to around 18 inches deep. At a stop sign I just had to take a photo but did not realise I had been spotted by the stop/slow board lady (we call them lollypop ladies) who was posing with her lollypop (see web album!). We decided to give the walk in town a miss and went straight to the campground. A quick stop in Cranbrook next day for provisions then overnight in Mount Fernie Provincial Park took us back towards the Rockies all be it the southern Canadian end, they still loomed larger than life above us. The giant truck in Sparwood gave us a quick stop point next morning to take photos especially for Kai (Dad might be interested too!) then on through the Crowsnest Pass which we had expected to be much higher and mountainous than it was. An area grown up around the coal industry, remnants of past excavations had left scars on the mountains and historical landmarks including those of the disasters both underground and above. We pulled into Pincher Creek Veterans Memorial Park campground and thankfully found a shady spot for the night, the afternoon temperatures still reaching the high twenties are enhanced by the engine heat to produce an internal temperature well over thirty degrees, this becomes rather uncomfortable and we are getting a little weary of these high temperatures, however we realise the downside of getting cooler days is the fact that Autumn is just around the corner. With check out time around lunchtime we made best use of our morning by walking into town and visiting the local Kootnai Brown museum where we were able to view reconstructed homes from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, with artefacts relating to families and individuals who had shaped the local history. I found it fascinating that so much local personal history was laid out for anyone to pick up, look at and read. One exhibit, a family house reconstructed with very personal family history contained inside but shared with everyone, what a wonderful way to preserve the past and pass it on for others to enjoy in the future. Waterton Lakes National Park was our next destination and with the last long week end of the summer on the horizon we had hoped to find a site from Thursday over until Monday, the townsite campground was well placed for us to walk and visit various places of interest so we were disappointed to find we could only stay one night due to all the sites being fully booked for the week-end. One day we will learn that long week end equals book ahead! The campground was dotted with deer and the grassy areas were well fertilised by them, luckily the individual sites were gravel and clean. Having set up we felt we had to make the most of what time we had and set off for the lakeside trail and into town, there were deer everywhere, a bit like The New Forest has ponies Waterton has deer! It was also very windy but we continued our walk up to Cameron falls where the water cascades through a narrow passage of rock strata 1.5 billion years old and falls 80ft to the roadside below. Not being able to stay as long as expected we had hurriedly looked for our next stop and my choice was Payne Lake just twenty miles away. The landscape of those miles was typical of that we had seen since leaving the mountains behind, we are in the Prairie’s now, not totally flat, but there are no surprises around the corner, there are no bends in the road just gentle undulations. Payne Lake was located in a shallow valley around a mile and half off the main highway, another feature of the area is that any side roads are gravel but this was a well made gravel road and haRVey did not suffer too badly. The campground was spread around the lake sides and after a little indecision, we set up, side on to the lake in a lovely position to have around a 180 degree view of the water and in the far distance the Rockies. We were just settling in when we had a visitor, Robert was outside when a lady, very out of breath hurriedly appeared at the side of haRVey, followed by her husband they were out walking from their RV which was parked over the other side of the lake and as they began walking back over the dam wall, almost came face to face with a black bear. Our site being the nearest safe haven they quickly made their way across to us also passing on the information to a truck heading towards the camp rangers site to alert him of the occurrence. We could not see the bear; they however were quite shaken by their experience. The Ranger arrived (no Yogi and Booboo jokes please) and drove around for a while not spotting the creature then he suddenly sped across to just behind the back of our site, blasting his truck horn loudly. After a few minutes he came across to let us know that the bear had been eating berries in the bushes across the road but just behind our site! This was not the young bear that had been in the area a few days earlier, they estimated it was a 500lb bear (very big). We still did not see him but hoped he had gone for the duration of our stay at least. The lake was a very tranquil spot, there was a short walk on either side probably no more than half a mile each way, a pair of white pelicans paddled up and down and from time to time flew across the water we also spotted on a telegraph post an Osprey who liked to use the top as a dinner table and seemed to have a good source of food in the lake below. He was far more capable a fisherman than the human variety we observed who try as they might did not seem to catch a great deal other than weed. After a two night stay we pulled out on Sunday morning and drove a very straight seventy five miles to Lethbridge where we are presently parked at the Bridge View Campground just outside town. We have a few things we would like to do here, one being to visit the mile long, 300 ft high, 100yr old trestle bridge but hope to move tomorrow to the site nearer town to enable us to walk to the park and the Japanese gardens. The weather has turned cooler, still warm in the afternoon but not the high heat we had been experiencing and early mornings are cool enough for us to need heat at breakfast time. High winds seem to have bought the seasonal change we knew was not far away and we are looking at our options for the last few days in Canada before we head into the States before the high passes become subject to winter conditions.

Holidays and Birthday!

2009-07-30T19:00:00.000-05:00

The Railroad is as major a feature here as the lakes and mountains. We complain about its noisy presence (I am sure the drivers delight in sounding there horns extra loud around known campgrounds) but have to accept that were it not for the railroad, and the engineers who constructed it in such harsh circumstances, few if any of the towns and roads would be here, and the roads would be far busier with lorries carrying the vast amounts of freight the trains seem to move. On highway 1 between Lake Louise and Golden a viewpoint gives visual access to a series of tunnels which allow the railroad to pass through steep and difficult terrain on its journey from east to west. Known as the Spiral Tunnels the viewing area is a busy place with visitors reading the information boards and trying to orientate themselves with the model of the terrain and the tunnels, working out which route the trains take to pass through the mountains, also hoping that in the time they have available they may see a train loop its way around and confirm their theory on the route. When time is of no importance you can spend as long as you like waiting for the train, and, as we had passed one along the road we actually knew it couldn’t be long before it arrived in view. The trains never seem to move very fast and are very long (another bone of contention at night when they are rumbling and bumping past the campground, squeaking around the corners or grinding to a halt) and it was actually about half an hour before, in the trees behind and above us, a loud honking announced the arrival and everyone turned to see the large red engine. It had to turn just less than 360 degrees in a tunnel behind us whilst descending to allow it to go under the rail track it had just passed over, then under the road to our left to cross below and in front of us before disappeared off in the trees to the right to eventually reappear going into the top entrance to the second tunnel visible to us. Five minutes later the front reappeared from the lower entrance whilst at the same time the middle of the train was still entering the top opening and the last few trucks were just passing in front of us. You probably had as much difficulty following that as I did trying to write it! There will be photos, but… it is all quite complicated to work out – unless you are an engineer! Running into Golden the scenery was again quite magnificent, huge mountain ranges stretched out in all directions and a steep down hill brought us to the turning for the main part of town. We found the municipal campground at around 3pm and walking to the office the heat of the afternoon melted us yet again, we were greeted by one of the rangers carrying half a dozen large bags of ice and the comment of ‘this feels real good’ , it was 34 degrees! We were allocated a pull through site and once set up flopped to try and stay cool. The sky was threatening across the valley and sure enough before too long we heard rumbles of thunder, a few spots of rain were all it managed to send for us, even though the thunder clouds rolled across the valley until bedtime, it did however cool the temperature a few degrees. A couple of showers through the night brought a pleasant morning for us to explore Golden which, amongst other things, actually has two decent supermarkets (with sensible everyday prices) and a bank with a Visa ATM. It sounds like we have been out in ‘the wilds’ with no services for weeks, whilst it is probably more like 10 days, and you realise how much we have come to expect these things to be on every corner. With the intention of returning to Golden for the Wednesday Farmers Market we left the town to visit Kimbasket Lake, we had spoken with a very helpful (aren’t they always) lady in the Information centre who had given us great local information and said we would like the lake campground. Around 45 min from Golden we turned off the Highway on to a dirt road which was very amusingly signed along its 5km length to persuade visitors to drive slowly, thus avoiding bumps and dust, we dutifully trundled along at less than 10miles an hour but still created a dust cloud behind us, a truck and fifth wheel coming in the other direction were doing exactly the same thus covering the front of us with dust too. The signs assured us the drive would be worth it and sure enough a picture postcard blue lake emerged at the end of our drive. The lake is the other end of the one we had hoped to reach when in Valemount but had aborted the rough forest road after six miles and half an hour, the mountains we can see are the opposite side of the range which the Columbia Ice field sits on, looks like we have come around in a circle, the vastness of the area is hard to comprehend when you realise that from Valemount to here we have travelled 500 miles. The Campground itself is obviously suffering, like the rest of us, from heat exhaustion and the grass has turned brown and dusty but the view from the terraced pitches, the little beach and the small boat jetty make a very pretty campground which was almost full by the end of the day which once again had reached 30 degrees. (Now writing on Thursday 30th) The heat continues and is now being classed as a heat wave all across BC apart from one small area in the extreme south east of the Province. Wild fires in the Kelowna area have been a problem and the whole Province is on extreme wild fire alert. We are, according to one report under a weather system which is extremely slow moving and will be a while before it changes. We are therefore trying to minimise our late part of the day movements and arrange to be somewhere cool and shady before it gets too hot! We spent another night in the Golden area this time at the Golden Eco Ranch Resort. We had a lovely pull through site overlooking a field and mountains to both sides, the fact that the field was the landing zone for the hand gliding club and the huge mountain to the left was where they took off from and soared around, made for an even more interesting view. Tandem flights were available but neither of us could pluck up enough courage to jump off a high mountain to glide back to a bumpy earth landing! We may have stayed another night but the sites with views were all booked up, this will be a long holiday week-end in BC and with the weather everyone is heading out for the sights and cooler (hopefully) lakes and rivers. Assessing the map we felt Fairmont Hot Springs was a good travelling distance and final destination, calling ahead we discovered most of the bookable sites were taken apart from one at $55 ( we usually pay $15 at Provincial Parks up to $40 for fully serviced private campgrounds) or we could take pot luck on un-serviced first come first served sites. We thought we could manage with pot luck! The highway from Golden follows the Columbia River and the railroad. The pine clad mountains opening out to a wide valley with wetland spreading either side of the river, this is the largest area of wetland in BC. Very little habitation is obvious along this stretch of highway, two or three small places highlighted on the map emerged to be a gathering of a few properties, the land looks like it should be fertile but seems not to be being utilized at present. The last few miles before Radium Hot Springs are blighted by the large advertising hoardings and the town itself looks like it is growing at a rapid pace with apartment blocks either completed or nearing completion on a large area of land in the town. Just along the road is Invermere, lying at the head of Lake Windermere, it is a little smaller but equally advertised. Fairmont in comparison seemed smaller, that is before the Hot Springs Resort which we turned into around 1pm. We took a walk to view the sites available giving us a chance to assess the resort and surroundings. Verdict was – busy – poor access for most of the available sites – the few suitable sites open and in full sun. Back in haRVey we reviewed our books and called a couple of campgrounds to hear they were fully booked for the week end and up to Tuesday, we should have known better. A call to Mountain Shadows RV resort back up the road over 30km proved more successful and we reserved one night and trundled back arriving rather hot at 2.30pm in 28 degrees. The campground however proved to be a well maintained pretty spot with mature trees, well spaced sites with full hook up and the benefit of WI-FI INTERNET. We booked a second night and have a wiggly line behind that just in case we wish to stay longer. As I am writing it is 5.45 pm and we have just started to hear thunder rumbling down the valley, maybe we are going to get some much needed cooling rain after all. Ahh! I also hear the glug of the celebratory glass of red wine (BC grown of course) for Robert’s birthday which we are celebrating today.